🚀 go-pugleaf

# I have killed Deregon(or whatever) in Gashok and got the sword and bow
# from Antherion.  Was this a mistake?  

Technically, it's a catch-22.  The only way to solve the problem is to
kill the leader of the Anathema gang.  This helps the elves (including 
Altherion) who are being harrassed by the gang, but you have to kill 
people to do so.

# Now whenever I try to go back to
# the town where the game started, some people stop me and take me back
# to Goshak.  Should I start over from a previous saved game before I killed
# the guy?

That's right, supposedly the rest of the gang that was left probably
stirred up the town into hunting you down as murderous strangers.  The
only way to get away from these guys and get on with the game is to
fight them and kill more (mostly innocent) people... which, if you
think about it, is a far worse atrocity than the original problem
(killing 17 men).

By the way, I didn't kill Deregorn, I cast Bambaladim (pacify) on him
when I entered his house.  Still, the game just went on as if I had
murdered him (when I tried to go back into his house after getting the
evidence, it said something about getting away from the dead body).

Anyway, I don't actually expect much in the way of plot flexibility
from these sorts of games.  It's just that having to follow a plotline
that forces the characters to slaughter innocent people sort of leaves
a bad taste in my mouth...

Anyway, hope this helps.

Scott