#/ blows a kiss to lamia for enabling these brain worms :>

[fatewoven]

// my ideal delusional build up with Gortash in Act 3

Wyrm's Rock is merely a check point where you can find evidence of Banite worship amidst the Flaming Fist, particularly in the higher ranks. You can also find more people imprisoned with reasons such as 'inciting panic/dissent/disturbing the peace' when they simply spoke out against the change in leadership and all the new policies. If you have a Baldurian background, you will also see a childhood friend in the cells who's been in there for weeks for the crime of graffiti.

The Lower City sprawls as usual, but you hear more propaganda from speakers that twist the truth. The newspapers are silenced, forced to print out pretty lies. There's even talk of the Temples being closed as Gortash directs funds to the defense of Baldur's Gate (he simply wants them to worship the Dead Three, mainly Bane, by the time the Absolute plot is done with.)

You continue. You explore and learn more to the city, and on occasion a Steel Watcher will comment (their voice warped, lower, scratchier as if there's a thing in there that's gleefully watching you struggle and run around like a rat) on what you've done as you walk past; they do not say these comments in normal dialogue.

Upper City's gates are closed at first, but you make your way through by earning the favor of a noble opposed to Gortash's rule. They will say another noble family was slaughtered in a single (hello Dark Urge connections, you, the favored hound) and ask you to investigate the plot further. The first steps in the district are met with children wondering about the 'bad' person getting killed, then a crowd of protestors trying to stop the execution. You can help or watch it progress. The crowd watching the display will whisper Gortash's rule brings peace, and you see these people who have never struggled in their lives are desensitized to such gruesome sights. They don't want to see the violence nor the noose closing around their necks.

A disguised Banite cites the crimes, and if you pass a Religion check, you realize he speaks one of Bane's tenants as he tells people to obey, to work together to win this war. (If you are the Dark Urge and disrupted the execution, Gortash will later comment that you would've been the axe that split the neck so gleefully.)

More politics amidst noble houses, rumors to chase down. You can find smugglers carrying orders from Gortash. You can talk to people who believe him the best ruler Baldur's Gate could ever have. Everything is fine. The war will not reach the city's walls because he is here to protect us. If you stop the execution, resistance members will approach you. They are small, outnumbered, but determined to free their city from tyranny's grasp.

The coronation goes on as normal, but there's more emphasis that you are secluded here, stacked up against impossible odds as he smiles at you and offers a deal. Much later, in his study, you can talk to him over a glass of wine and as a servant comes in, tripping on themselves and spilling the food all over, Gortash will calmly address them. Tell them to pick up the knife and mutilate themselves, and they will do so while crying and whimpering in pain as he watches as if bored. Then, with that low, measured voice of his, tells them: There, that's better now. You've learned your lesson haven't you? Another mistake will not be tolerated.

As they leave, another servant comes in soon after to clean the blood from the stone floors. You know it's not the first time they were drenched in red, noting the older stains beneath the carpets.

If you side with him, he will send you out on some quests that will challenge your morals. Whether or not you really want to maintain this alliance with him as a iron-fisted regime takes place over Baldur's Gate. Where is the line drawn when it comes to a city founded by scoundrels and pirates? Where corruption courses from the destitute to the rich?

He will show you how corrupted the nobility are, how they squandered their wealth while the rest of the city suffered. The seeds of sympathy planted as he asks you to take care of them. Ah, but before that, there is a big festival to go to, the royal gardens made into a place of dance and song, and of course, political intrigue. You can dance with him here and discuss what you've found out about him and criticize his methods, and he will calmly address each point, further showing he is a reasonable and rational man who only wants the best for Baldur's Gate.

It's the slow build of dread. The atmosphere of a populace under tyrannical rule where nothing is out of place. There is no laughter in the bars of Upper City. The streets are quiet. Peaceful. There is nothing wrong in our beautiful city. You find out more about his rule, his past, and the horrors he's committed, giving you even more reason to abhor him, or perhaps join him. He brought order, maybe he can make the entire Coast a peaceful land, too.