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Baldur's Gate II Chapter 2 is the second part of the Shadows of Amn. In this chapter, you will have to collect 20,000gp (later reduced to 15,000) and make an important decision that will decide every action you need to take in Chapter 3.

You will find yourself outside Gaelan Bayle's Home. His nephew, Brus, will direct you to a place where you can find work related to your character's class. You need to raise money to fund the rescue of Imoen. To get this money, you will need to sell, raid, and complete sub-quests.

Throughout this chapter, there are many interesting guild-war encounters that can happen at night in the City Gates, Bridge District, Docks District, Government District, Slums District, and in Waukeen's Promenade. Many encounters have timers and other conditions, so they may take time or the completion of tasks in order to appear. Some scenes portray vampires fighting shadow thieves, and some will attack the party. You will meet the vampires in a certain order: Hareishan, Salia, Del, Parisa and Tanova. When defeated, they usually use their cloud form to escape, and you will meet them again later in the game.

Try to travel between every combination of two districts to trigger all of the travel encounters (usually ambushes), which only occur when leaving a certain district for the first time or when traveling from a specific district to another, and provide you with nice loot for this stage of the game. There also will be some random encounters with only little loot.

Once you have 15,000gp in hand and you're within the streets of Athkatla, a mysterious woman named Valen will appear and will urge you to meet her mistress in the Graveyard District. Right after you finish talking with Valen, Brus will arrive with a message from his uncle Gaelan Bayle, who will sweeten the deal for you to 15,000gp if you meet him.

You now have a choice. You must choose whether to side with the vampires led by Bodhi or the Shadow Thieves led by Aran Linvail. If you give 15,000gp to Bodhi, you will have to attack the Shadow Thieves to get help rescuing Imoen. If you give 15,000gp to Gaelan, you will have to attack the vampires to get help rescuing Imoen. When you have made your choice, go to either Bodhi or Gaelan.

If you go to Gaelan, he will give you a key so that you can get to Aran Linvail in his secret hideout that's accessible from the Shadow Thief Guildhall. If you're a thief, however, Bodhi states that "there may be no honor among thieves, but [she] cannot trust you to abandon your thief brethren". So, your only choice will be to side with the Shadow Thieves to progress the main quest.