#[ goblin children are still children … anyway kill the grove ]

[spiderwarden]

anyone mentions their new gameplay.

me in their notes: kill the grove.. Kill the grove... KILL THE GROVE.

[alicelufenia]

Had a couple weeks off due to life, but back with more Tavierra

I go back to the grove and release Sazza, since this will be my last chance.

Due to a bug with the Sit Out mod the game wasn't letting more than Tav and Karlach fight in the Worg Pens. I sorted it out later, it's a common hiccup.

Of course I knock out the goblin children, I'm not a monster.

Halsin flashbangs my drow ass right in the face, then we break the news to him about Kagha.

Does he?

We deal with Halsin's (somewhat) understandable but embarrassing prejudice.

Oh boy and this is the playthrough where I may even be romancing him! Fun first impression :D

At least he admits it may be unfair of him, and that we may "enlighten" him. Well y'see you're gonna love literally the next thing I do then cause-

But first we talk to Ragzlin, and as this is my first time playing a cleric, this scene can play out different by doing the Speak With Dead spell yourself! Not that Tav would need the scroll as she has the forbidden knowledge of Thay (what can I say she got curious)

I go deal with Gut first. I just have the other 3 active party members sneak in through the back entrance to her room, and with a Silence spell up and surrounded by all of us, she doesn't stand a chance.

We split the party into 2 groups. Tav, Astarion, Karlach and Lae'zel head to Minthara's office (and stealthily clear the hallway outside the Worg Pens) while Shadowheart, Gale and Wyll return for Halsin to go kill Ragzlin and the goblins gathered with him.

Bear time. Hopefully not the last time either.

We meet up with Sazza next to Minthara. I had already spoken to her without Sazza, so I was hoping there'd be a change with this scene, but it's the same as if you met her for the first time with Sazza. In my oc lore, Tav uses Sazza as cover for her "scouting" delay to find the grove.

I get Minthara to spare Sazza. I'm hoping to get her achievement this playthrough, otherwise I'll have to wait til the next one.

Haha what, slaughter the grove that's CRAZY, who would do that their first playthrough? Anyway

What follows was an hour and a half of misadventures as I tried to be cute by agreeing to raid the grove, and then as she's walking out, smacking her with a Tasha's Hideous Laughter, hoping to initiate combat with her rolling on the ground with Emma's insane laughter.

The game claimed Tasha's had a 30% chance to work. In reality it felt like 0.01%, as she kept passing the damn save each reload! (it's almost like Paladins are really good with saving throws, no idea how I'd know that) but are you ready for some quality bullshit?

At one point the combat log said she failed the roll, but she didn't actually get affected! It still treated her as if she'd saved successfully! What the hell game!

So in the end I just start the fight without the Tasha's opener, and beat her unconscious with Karlach's massive unarmed attack swings.

The way this works in the lore is that she merely gets dazed, and Tav's confliction over what to do leads to her sparing her, stripping Minthara of her weapons and leading the others to go join Shadowheart and the rest as they're finishing off Ragzlin.

By the time they're done with Ragzlin, they return to see if Minthara is still there, Tav entertaining thoughts of interrogating her, or trying to contact the dream visitor to see if there's anything they can do. But they're too late: Minthara's already snuck away. Karlach is uneasy about this, but Tav, having to improvise now, reassures her the grove won't come to harm.

By the way, look at the changes to the journal! Back in patch 5, this didn't say "defeated", it said "killed", even if you knocked them out.

THIS screenshot is from December! Notice the wording change. I wonder when this happened, I didn't do as extensive testing at patch 6, so I didn't notice.

After reporting to Halsin, Tav makes good on her promise that the grove will be safe. By leading the party through a secret passage in the ceiling back out to the camp where they proceed to KILL EVERY GOBLIN. Can't raid the grove without an army, yeah?

We use every drow's favorite trick, Darkness, to keep ourselves safe from all the ranged attacks and pick them off as they come to us. It's a total slaughter for the goblins.

And now the fate of Crusher in 3 screenshots

Tragic.

By the way, if you ever want to turn Zevlor's gift down cause you're a good person or whatever, you can still trade with him in the same dialogue and just buy the reward off him. Handy tip so you don't miss this unique helmet!

Everyone back at the grove is in a celebratory mood, except Tav doesn't feel at all like celebrating.

I'm gonna say "It was a hell full of blood and ash" was her exact in-character description of the experience.

At the party she's in such a dour mood despite the energy of the participants that she finds herself even chatting up Astarion.

Oh but that's where you're wrong Astarion! We killed a whole LOT more goblins than there were tieflings! Like 5 times as many! *sigh* and now we get to the heart of the matter and why she feels bad.

Must resist. Urge to. Reload. Not this. Run.

So yeah, Tav's drinking, and seeking distraction. And so is Astarion. Hmm. Yeah sure, fuck it.

And she did.

All sarcasm aside, I am able to appreciate the subtleties of Astarion's romance scene. He can't hide his uncomfortable expression when we say we want to lose ourselves in him. "I thought so." HNGGGG but I have a good reason for this, eventually.

The next morning I have a talk with Halsin, deciding we'll head through the mountain pass (I'm not done with Act 1 yet, but I do want to take care of that area first now that the time-sensitive quests are done)

But first, I make a new main save and then proceed to speedrun to Moonrise Towers. I drink a potion of invisibility to sneak Tav past the Death Shepherds and into act 2, then follow Kar'niss all the way to Moonrise, where we find

She's alright folks! :D And yes, I didn't loot her gear, just her weapons like I said. Y'all should know by now I would NEVER put Astarion in her armor, she's keeping all that!

Back to our main save, we continue to the encounter with the Gith at the mountain pass road, and continue onwards to Rosymorn Monastery.

Damn I just think Tavierra looks good in this shot, lookit my baby stare down a dragon!

Next is, *sigh* Lady Esther. I convince her to take the Owlbear egg, and then have Astarion pickpocket her inventory while Tav distracts with her bard playing. The classic pair! She's not usually one for robbing people, but she'll make an exception for racism.

Speaking of racism:

We explore the monastery, and I manage to find enough of the weapons to solve the Dawnmaster puzzle with just a bit of brute forcing it.

We arrive in the Creche, and I beeline it for why we're here so early:

The two pieces of gear Tav needed.

The lore here is that Tav and Astarion find the githyanki stash of plundered treasures from across Faerûn. Tav has little qualms with "liberating" the stolen goods, and once again distracts them while Astarion cleans out their inventory. He does nearly get caught, but he deceives his way out of it and gets away scot-free.

Now in possession of a stolen artifact dedicated to Corellon, Tav's personal quest hits the next step, as she wishes to seek the favor of the father of elves on this journey, a long shot considering he's basically responsible for the ancient dark elves being cursed to become drow. At least she's got several elven companions to consult, and thus while it's not his main deity, she begins discussing religion with Halsin.

One respec later and her build is now online.

Now that the goblin camp is done, my main stressor for this run is past. What was initially a struggle for survival is turning into a pilgrimage for our Chosen of Eilistraee. And soon-to-be Seeker of Corellon. This is definitely going to be a more religious and gods-focused playthrough than my first one. Next time I'll show off the builds for the rest of the companions, as I've done unique things with at least a few of them, and as the party hit level 6 on the way to the Creche, they're now established enough to show off.

[tomurakii]

I kind of hate the whole "evil race" thing that you get in fantasy worlds. Like I know 5e specifically has relaxed the moral alignment chart rules/generally made racial traits less of a thing, but a lot of adaptions of its lore still use those things (like bg3) so I feel it's still a relevant point of discussion.

First of all it seems like there's a fundamental difference between the humanoid races that can be individually good, but come from evil cultures (like Lolth-sworn Drow or Githyanki), and (non-playable) races that are credited as being innately morally evil, like orcs and goblins. Probably just because the player can choose to be a Drow or a Gith, and if they were made exclusively evil like the non-playable races it would restrict gameplay a lot.

There are small moments that touch on this in-game (like the discussion about stealing the githyanki egg, or when you can choose to save Sazza) that seem to imply that the 'correct' option is to say that no race is inherently evil, and yet morally-good characters like Wyll and Halsin are FULL of vitriol for goblins, and when you kill goblin children to save Halsin (despite several companions saying that childhood is a time to be forgiven regarding Arabella) nobody bats an eye. After saving Halsin you can ask him if his grove was worth the bloodshed, implying that it was bad to kill Gut/Dror Ragzlin/Minthara, but none of the companions regard the camp you massacred as having nearly the same importance as the tieflings in the grove. So goblins are evil, and yet Sazza is "a person who doesn't deserve to die" and Githyanki and Drow are morally complex.

I don't think it's interesting to just say all goblins are evil, personally. It's a cop-out so that players can fight a lot of enemies without having to grapple with the moral implications of that. And I honestly don't think bg3 as a whole is completely set on whether they agree with the idea of evil races either, between Omeluum, the Emperor, Sazza, Minthara, and Lae'zel who are all characters of "evil" races that you can protect and sympathise with anyway.

But it's tough to see how characters like Wyll who are meant to be so morally steadfast and good treat Lae'zel completely differently to Sazza, ostensibly just because Lae'zel is romanceable so they have to get along. If Wyll really hates evil races like goblins (which he does. A lot), he would hate Lae'zel, so it feels like just another area where his character (and the broader moral stance of the game) was underdeveloped.

[shimmerbeasts]

I figured out how to solve the Khaevis BG3 verse dilemma without nuking the plot!

So in this revision, the whole kingdom situation still happens ergo Khaevis loses her children to the first king of a kingdom and demands three daughters each generation as a sacrifice in retaliation. Eventually, this kingdom either disappears or relocates into what becomes Baldur's Gate. (I placed Khaevis into a mountain cave in The Wood of Sharp Teeth, which is a forest located near Baldur's Gate).

Several centuries later, Orin somehow gets wind of the fact that there is an ancient hybrid dragon aka a red and black dragon living near Baldur's Gate and has the idea to sacrifice Khaevis to Bhaal. On one side, she would naturally hope this makes Bhaal favour her more, but also, it would basically be a massive flex.

I am not fully sure whether Khaevis is tadpoled in an effort to get her to stay relatively still so Orin get avoid getting killed herself or not. Anyway, the point is as Orin tries to perform the sacrifice, Khaevis manages to break free and escape. However, Orin chooses to steal the dragon's dead daughters in their eggs to get her sacrifice back.

Khaevis during her flight eventually reaches the forests around the Emerald grove and finds shelter in a large cave. In other words, Khaevis would basically replace the owlbear encounters and joins the party by eventually being rescued from the goblin camp and after likely previously been weakened in a fight against them. Khaevis joins them afterwards to journey to Baldur's Gate to rescue her dead daughters, and potentially get the tadpole out of her skull, if she ends up having one.

But yeah, that way, Khaevis can be inserted into the story and not nuke everything. Yes, you are missing the owlbear but instead you get a dragon.

[th-ramblr]

[Baldur's Gate 3] - Squidhawk #30

[Cross-posted on AO3]

The deeper he delved through the shadowlands, the more he found he hated them. Between the plant-like creatures that seemed to pop out of nowhere, the weird, creepy teleporting gremlinoids, and even freakier shadow-children that said they wanted to play ‘hide and seek’ and then summon a freaky ‘family’ of shadow-people and shadow-dogs, he officially hated the damn place.

The fact that the road was littered with the dead didn’t help matters. Of course, he had seen plenty of dead already. Travelers cut down by goblins. Caravans ripped apart by gnolls. Flaming Fist soldiers who had been scorched by Absolute raiders, and others charred by dragonfire.

Many of the dead on this road however were a good many of the Tiefling refugees from the grove, as Rune had pointed out in recognition. So it seemed that despite his previous efforts in taking down the goblins and their leaders, a lot of the hideaways from the grove ended up dead anyway.

Well… that just made him all the more glad he hadn’t done it for them specifically. That his needs and theirs happened to line up was little more than coincidence, as far as he was concerned, their deaths here not even an inconvenience to him.

What was an inconvenience was how confusing it was to navigate these deep, dark woods. Even with the moonlantern, he could only see so far into the murk, though he was glad for the protection it provided. With the lantern and the enhanced parasite in tandem, he was able to breathe a little easier and travel a little farther before fatigue started to set in.

At one point, he tread around what seemed to be an old farm field, with chicken coops and brightly lit by torches that subtly glowed with an unnatural sheen around them. Only a single corpse, fairly fresh, laid in the area, but he could find no sign of what might have killed them.

More importantly, it sat on a cliff near to that bright bubble of... something he had seen in the distance. Some sort of magical field surrounding a large, singular building across a channel of water he had no intentions of crossing directly.

Although the building was further away, he could make out more details about it, while most other areas were heavily shrouded in thick darkness too deep for his eyes to penetrate. If he squinted long enough, he was fairly certain he was able to make out movement, the figures of a few people patrolling around it, though he could make out very little beyond that.

In either case, the abandoned farmstead seemed to be better protected than most areas he had come across so far, save for Moonrise itself, and exhaustion still managed to weigh down on him, bidding him to rest.

He double and triple checked his surroundings for anything worth worrying about, keeping the moonlantern close, and dared to crawl his way inside the chicken coop that hadn’t seen any actual chickens inhabit it in a very long while.

At the very least though, it would keep him from view of any hungry eyes while he slept. Less likely anything would see him and creep up on him while he was alone and unconscious.

At ease or otherwise, it didn’t take him long after curling up in old hay to drift into slumber, passing through a more pleasant darkness before that gave way to increasingly familiar blue, nebulous sky.

“Welcome back,” Rune greeted him lightly, seemingly amused and in good spirits, though which exactly what, Kytes couldn’t tell. “How’re you feeling?”

A few beats of pause. “I’ve been worse, I guess.”

“Well, better than ‘I’ve been better’.”

Kytes huffed. “I’ve been that too.”

Rune chortled a bit. “I imagine so, but it wasn’t your first response, so I’ll take my victories where I can get them.”

Kytes quirked a brow. “Not sure how much of a victory it is.”

“Well…” Rune mused thoughtfully. “We’re making progress. We know where Moonrise is. Who one of the ‘Chosen Three’ are. We have some idea of what the Absolute may be and where it is. We have some idea of where to find this ‘Nightsong’ and that it ties into Ketheric’s seeming immortality. You’ve even started to embrace some of your potential properly now, though I know you still have some reservations. I’d say these are quite a few victories, even if we haven’t yet won the war.”

Another huff. “I guess that’s one way of looking at it.”

“If you’re not a pessimist, certainly,” Rune jested cheekily, cracking a smirk at the pout that Kytes cast his way, amusement once again dancing through his eyes. “Speaking of which, have you considered my offer? Regarding retracing some of your memories.”

One corner of Kytes’ lip curled downward in distaste at the idea. “I don’t think I like the idea of you poking around my head like that. Bad enough these stupid parasites connect me to all these other people that want in.”

Rune chuckled a bit. “I imagine so, though with your parasite enhanced and a bit of practice, perhaps we can remedy that as well…” Ignoring how Kytes’ brow lifted, he continued. “In any case, I don’t offer out of mere curiosity. There is a purpose to it, as I explained before. A way to remedy some of the traumas you’ve been through.”

“Yeah?” Kytes scoffed a little. “And how exactly does that work? Its not like you can go back in time and change anything.”

“I can’t,” Rune agreed carefully. “But its not about changing events. Only the way that they impact you. The way you think about them. Believe me, if it were within my power to change the past, I would. Preventing either of us from being stuck in this horrid situation, for one, but stuck in it we are.” Rune paused as he shifted closer, tentatively reaching out to ghost fingertips across Kytes’ scarred cheek, even if the blond flinched away some. “Unfortunately… frustratingly, there are a lot of things I can’t do for you, so long as I’m stuck in this prison, so I’d like to try and do what things are within my power. Helping you with your memories is just one such thing.”

Kytes watched him carefully out of the corner of his eyes, silent for a good several beats, before breathing out a soft huff.

“So how does this work, exactly?” Another pause. Another breath. A glance away. “You just, what? Read my mind and talk to me about it or something?”

“I had something else in mind…” Rune hummed. “It would be like dreaming, but… well… it’ll be easier to show you than to talk about it. Perhaps we start with a memory that isn’t so heavy and personal… so that if you decide you do wish to reveal those things to me, you know better what to expect first-hand.”

Kytes’ eyes drifted back, studying Rune’s face, though if there was any ill-intent behind the suggestion, he could find no hint of it. For a moment his eyes lowered, considering his options, and re-treading the past.

He had had doubts of Rune all along. He supposed he still did… but he couldn’t entirely argue that his company was all bad, or that Rune had lied to him. At least, as far as he could tell, not about the more serious things. He wasn’t so sure he believed absolutely everything the redhead said to be true, but…

Well, he supposed it might be worth taking a chance, just this once. Maybe -- maybe -- it wouldn’t be so bad.

“So how do we do this?”

Rune smiled at him softly, offering up a hand to tug him a little closer. “Make yourself comfortable and rest. Just as you normally would. Tonight there will be no nightmares. Only dreams.”

Kytes hummed, shifting to lay on his back, resting his head against Rune’s thigh. He flinched a little at first as fingers brushed over his head, pushing his hair away from his face, but soon enough learned to accept the small touches.

No nightmares, huh?

Come to think of it…

The thought didn’t linger long, yawning a bit and quickly drifting back into a proper sleep within his own mind, rather than the space within the Astral Prism…

-------------------------------------

 "I wanna play."

All eyes focused on him, and in his self-consciousness, his hands wrung the bottom hem of his shirt, his lips pursing and head falling a little.

"You?" Their ringleader challenged, a cocky tilt of his head and sway to his steps as he moved a pace or two closer. "You're too slow to keep up with us. Won't be any fun when you're too easy to catch."

His lips pursed thinner, almost disappearing unseen between his teeth.

"I'm getting better," he protested, conviction betrayed by underlying desperation to be believed. He was smaller than the other kids, even some of the ones younger than him. And weaker. And slower. He didn't need to be reminded. He wouldn't let them refuse him just because of that.

Some of the kids sneered. Some of them looked at him with pity. Some just didn't care.

"With those scrawny little legs?" The other boy looked him up and down like sizing him up, and was left wanting. "I doubt it."

One of the other kids went to open their mouth and groan their words, but they stopped short as another voice piped in that he hadn’t heard before.

“What’re you playing?”

Everyone’s eyes shifted towards the top of a fence separating street from alleyway, to the boy perched with his arms crossed over it, the rest of his dangling body out of sight behind the planks of wood.

“We’re playing a game of chase!” the ringleader, Horus, declared. “You want in?”

The new boy tipped his head a bit. “What’re the rules?”

“That’s easy! One person's the chaser, th' rest get a ten count head start. No hidin' in shops, no hidin' in houses, no hidin' inside boxes or barrels, no hidin' inside hay piles, or anything else someone's gotta open up or dig through. And no sewers!" Horus declared. "You get caught, you join the chasers, an' gotta put on the cloth so's everyone else can tell which side you're on, so no cheatin' and hiding your cloth to pretend to be a runner! Everyone's got until the bottom of the sun touches the horizon goin' down. If the chaser catches everyone, then chasers win. If the runners get away til the sun starts going down, runners win."

“Sounds simple enough…” The new face clamored the rest of the way over the fence and dropped down, giving a mighty skyward stretch. He came to stop next to the blond, sizing him up with an up-down glance. His hair was like a bright brand of fire in the sunlight, his skin a light reddish brown interrupted only by a single pink scar over his nose, but his blue eyes were as cool and pale as glacial ice. “What about you? Are you playing?”

“I want to…” he murmured timidly, glancing from the redhead to Horus, who immediately scoffed.

“He’s too small and slow to play. There’s no fun in it. He’ll just get caught right away and then won’t even be fast enough to catch the other runners.”

“I will so!” he protested, tightly clutching the hem of his shirt and blowing up his cheeks.

“You can’t play with us, runt! Get lost!”

He felt tears pricking at his eyes, breath hitching, but more than anything, he was surprised at the words of the redheaded boy next to him.

“So you’re not going to let him play? That’s not very nice. Well, I don’t want to play with a bunch of jerks neither.” The redhead swiveled on his heel, grabbing the blond by his wrist and giving it a small tug as he grinned at him. “Come on! We can go play our own, better game without all these stupid losers.”

Dumbfounded, he put up no resistance to being pulled along, even as the other kids squawked and complained at their backs at being insulted. It wasn’t until they got further away that he finally found his voice.

“...you really want to play with me?”

The redhead tipped his head in question, seeming to genuinely not understand. “Why not?”

At first, he could only grumble an incoherent response, before raising his voice more properly. “…because… I’m small. And slow. And not any fun. That’s what all the other kids say.”

“Eh, don’t worry about them. They’re just a bunch of idiots! I’ll show you that you’re plenty of fun! Well… you’ll show me I guess. Either way, we’re gonna have fun!”

“Doing what?”

“Whatever we want to!” the other boy grinned, grabbing both his hands now and walking backwards. “What do you like to do? We could play our own game of chase! Or maybe run around the woods and climb rocks and trees! Or we could go swimming! Or maybe cause some trouble… So? What’ll it be?”

“...umm…” He wasn’t really sure what to say. No one ever really asked him what he wanted to do. “Maybe you decide?”

“Alright! Then how about we play in the woods? I have these places I like to go. There’s almost never anyone else there, so we have it all to ourselves! And we can do whatever we want and make our own rules and explore!”

“The woods?” He thought about it a few beats, wondering where exactly these ‘woods’ were. “You mean outside the city?”

“Of course, silly!” the redhead beamed, letting go of one hand so he could turn back around and take the lead. “Where else are there woods?”

“I’ve never been outside the city… I don’t think I’m allowed.”

“What, your parents gonna get mad or something?” the other boy scoffed a bit.

“...I… don’t have any parents.”

“Oh.” Just as quickly as the redhead’s voice deadpanned, it picked back up again. “Well, no parents, no rules! Just means even more that we can do whatever we want! And even if there were rules, rules are meant to be broken anyway when there’s fun to be had!”

He wasn’t so certain as the other boy, but the idea of being invited in itself was enough temptation to ignore any reservations he had.

With ease, both of them managed to weave in and out of the crowds in the street, until they eventually left the Gate behind and passed into some of the forest bordering just outside.

The redhead moved ahead of him with utmost confidence in where he was going, dipping along unfamiliar deer trails and breaks in the brush. For as swiftly as the other boy moved, it was never so quickly that he struggled too much to keep up, eyes darting between keeping the other within his sights and placing his feet properly so that he wouldn’t trip on any rocks or tree roots.

Some wild animals scattered in the wake of their travel, mostly songbirds and squirrels that were startled by them. At one point, he spotted a deer that quickly dashed away through the trees. He started thinking of what other animals might be out here. Bears… or wolves.

Suddenly, he stopped, refusing to move forward. Without so much as a glance, the other boy sensed his sudden halt and looked back with a raised brow.

“What’s th’ matter?”

Swallowing thickly, he wrung his shirt nervously as his eyes trailed past into the shade of the trees all around them.

“What if there are wild animals that want to attack us?”

The redhead scoffed a little and rolled his shoulders. “They won’t. There aren’t any here that will, but even if there were, I won’t let ‘em.”

He hummed doubtfully, tipping his head a little and pursing his lips. “But you ain’t big enough t’ fight off a wolf.”

To his surprise, jumping a bit, the redhead threw his head back and laughed aloud. “There’s no wolf in this forest big enough to best me! Or bear. Or anything really. Now come on!” He grinned and grabbed hold of his wrist, tugging him along. “Its not much farther!”

“What’s not much farther?” he squeaked in question, stumbling along at first before finding his matching stride.

“My spot of course! It’s a great spot! You can see the whole city from up there!”

He gave an uncertain hum, but followed anyway. Upon seeing a sheer stretch of vertical rocks and cliffs, his eyes widened in both wonder, and in fear as he realized they were meant to climb them, the redhead dashing along narrow paths and heaving himself up ledges with practiced ease that made it look easy.

Swallowing nervously, he made to follow, his own movements more clumsy and tentative, but he didn’t want to be left behind and he wasn’t sure he knew the way back. Watching the other boy, the redhead seemed entirely fearless and oblivious to the possible dangers, confidently working his way ever upwards. He, however, couldn’t help but cautiously shuffle and cling to whatever he could grab hold of for dear life, picking his way up one slow hold at a time and occasionally glancing down.

Seeing the height below them, his breath caught in his throat for a moment, imagining that that fall would hurt badly and squeezing his eyes shut for a moment.

“Come on, now!” the redhead jeered from above, leaning over the edge of the top. “You can do it!”

“I don’t think I can!” he cried back, unmoving. “I’m scared!”

“Don’t worry, there’s nothin’ to be scared of! You’re almost there! Just keep climbin’!”

“But what if I fall?”

“You won’t! I promise! Just trust me!”

He inhaled a few panicked breaths, trying to calm himself, and nodded doubtfully. His eyes remained closed, a few slower breaths in and out, and kept climbing unsteadily.

“That’s it! You’re almost there!”

He looked up properly, the top of the cliffs only a few more heaves above. Maybe he could do this after all. If he just placed his hand there, and his foot here, and--

His heart leapt into his throat as he felt a loose rock shift underfoot and slip, gasping as his fingertips scraped stone and lost their hold, falling back onto open air. Fear clawed its way so sharp up his throat that he forgot how to scream, closing his eyes as he twisted around trying to find anything to grab onto, finding nothing.

In his minds eye, he saw the rock come rushing up, anticipating the pain and his life blood that would come pouring out of his wounded body.

Instead, he felt all of himself stop abruptly without striking ground, breathing quick and ragged, before his eyes cracked open. Only now did he register a tight, warm grip around his wrist, and dared to look up at the redhead that had snatched his arm to catch him, half-dangling off the cliff himself, but with bright eyes entirely unafraid.

“I promised, didn’t I?” he beamed, grinning. “You won’t fall. I won’t ever let you fall.” He shook his head. “Not ever!”

With impossible ease, the redhead shifted to pull them both back over the top of the cliff to safety, letting the blond lay there a moment and catch his breath.

“See?” the redhead chirped, tilting his head. “You made it!”

“I almost didn’t!” he bemoaned.

“But you still did! Because you trusted me!”

Falling silent, he panted a bit and just looked at the other boy and his upturned, smile-rounded cheeks.

“I guess I did…” Rolling over, he pushed himself to his feet, dusting off dirt and loose grass, and finally gave a proper look at the entirety of the city stretched out beneath them. “Wow… I’ve never seen the city from up here.”

“Its nice, isn’t it?” the redhead beamed, grinning all teeth. “This is our spot now. Our whole kingdom!”

“ ‘don’t think its ours…”

The other boy looked at him dead on, gleeful but entirely serious. “Sure it is! Its ours! And we’re going to look after it from now on, you and me.”

Blinking slowly, he tilted his head a little bit in wonder, trying to figure out what he meant. Before those thoughts could get very far…

“But first--” the redhead booped his nose with one finger, grinning. “You’re it.” With that, he took off running into the trees, laughing, and stopped in their shade when the blond just continued to stand there and gawk. “Well?! Are you gonna chase me or what?”

He stood there another moment, perplexed, before a smile of his own dawned and he darted to give chase, watching the other redheaded boy turn and sprint off ahead of him.

[kimmkitsuragi]

ooh i get it now

no other screenshots today bc astarion looking in the mirror post was more than enough lmao but a lil update as i said

i get my character now i think!! lou is self-serving but not cruel. his concern for himself also extends to his party, because he sees them as his only way of survival. that's why he chooses to co-operete with the others when he can- like sticking with laezel when she's interrogating the tiefling somewhat... harshly lol

but also, he's not cruel to the point where he lets random people die. if it's too out of his way, he might not rush in to save them (like helping tieflings out of the druid grove). if he thinks he will also benefit, he will intervene and help. like halsin for example, the party is on their way to save him. not because lou is a hero who wants to save the grove, but because he thinks halsin will be able to help him. he doesnt care that much about the situation with the druids- but also he wont just let them kill tiefling children when he sees it happening, because that's just cruel*. he just wont go out of his way to escort them out to safety, he thinks he can kill two birds with one stone if he saves halsin anyway. so that's not cruel in his mind

*just realized that this point can also be connected to the fact that he's a drow... druids would kill him in the same situation too. (they even show aggression right away when they see him) so he ofc doesnt trust their judgement that much- especially after seeing that dead drow on nettie's room lol. i also found the underground caves with lolth's cult (? idk the lore that much yet) so i wonder how this will fold out for him. he's not following lolth so im expecting aggression towards him even tho he's a drow too? i havent explored the caves that much yet because i dont wanna die lmaooo

(alsoooo there's his background - noble. so his self-serving qualities make sense too. he's used to getting what he wants anyway.)

he will intervene with the goblin's death penalty, because she has information that he can use. he wont free her tho, doesnt necessarily trust her innocence. and he got the needed info, so he will figure it out himself. you know. things like that.

the only action he regrets doing / doesnt align with this way of thinking was those 2 people and their absolution thing. he wanted to get to the bottom of this "absolution" and the way they call him a "true one", because that would benefit him. but then his words got one of them killed for no reason- he was just trying to deceive them into giving more info and help. so that was a sad situation...

i will try to play him with this consistency from now on! rn i have astarion, laezel, and gale in my party. i feel like we need a healer/supporter in the party tho so im not sure if i will stick with gale :( i like him but might switch back to shadowheart until i get them to level-up. maybe after the level-up, i can reconsider based on their new abilities idk.... i still havent recruited karlach btw lmao im on my way!! feels like i will really like her too !! - btw just remembered my whole party is dumb of ass if i leave gale. that's a concern too tbh lol

astarion is proving to be more than just my favored blorbo tho, he's so good at so many skills i favor and REALLY useful in combat with how i play this game lmao. he basically cleared out all the goblins waiting to ambush us on top of roofs!! i mean gale was a help too, but my ranger and fighter wasnt that fitting for a more discreet way of fighting lol. and that's my fave way of combat so far tbh (obviously it cant be used throughout a boss fight or something lol, just for small things like this) so im keeping him FOREVER tbh he's never leaving the party

anyway i also found one of his victims (it was a boar or something) and lou was like 🤔 wonder what couldve happen to this poor animal 🤔 what do u think astarion 🤔 lol babygirl so bad at lying to me <3 girl u're so good at deception but why were u panicking at that point lmao

also i already posted abt it butttttt laezel was literally like "hi let's have sex" to Lou i meannnn 😭😭 i like u but not so fast damnnn im also eyeing astarion obviously so i said thanks but no lmao astarion on the other hand is not acting like he even likes me 😭😭 i mean he doesnt hate me i see his approval slider thing lmao but in action... at camp last night, he was like hmm u're better than i thought ngl and im not even sure if he means it or just trying to do something else lmaoooo he was also lying seductively while saying it so,,,, what's the truth lol

also gale approves a LOT of my actions i fear he will be the next one to say hey let's fuck lmao. the thing is im making "good" decisions for selfish reasons so he approves the good decisions idk man let's see where this will go

also also, this game has SO MANY things to do damn i keep getting distracted by everything

[lockewrites]

Meeting the Bear

Halsin x F!OC || SFW || 893 words AO3 & FF

The party meets Halsin, and Serilda puts up with her twin’s attitude.

The bear stood eye level with her, watching her with a tilt of its head. Goblin bodies and stench surrounded them, and while the threat of the bear remained, Serilda hoped this bear was actually the person they were searching for. It blinked at her, and she swore she saw its mouth twitch into a smile before it shifted its weight to its hind legs and began to glow. The body morphed into one more sapien, and the light dissipated, revealing a very large, wide-smiled elf.

He shook his hand, flicking away goblin blood and grimacing when something solid hit the ground. 

"Pardon the viscera," the elf said in a warm, deep voice. "One should cherish all of nature's bounty, but goblin guts are quite far down the list."

Serilda let out a nervous chuckle, still in shock at the sight before her: not that the bear had turned into the elf--she’d seen that already in the grove--but that the elf was so… big. He stood over a head taller than her--to meet his eyes required her to crane her neck a tad--and his sheer bulk was nothing short of impressive. And he was admittedly attractive, even with the deep-set scars running across his face.

“You aided a bear without knowing if it would savage you,” he remarked with a laugh, his facial scars moving as his eyes crinkled. “A true friend of nature--or perhaps a lunatic.”

“I believe the lunatic would be my sister,” Serilda said, shooting a glare at Aurella. “I’m so sorry she goaded those children on.”

“Whatever,” Aurella scoffed as she rubbed goblin blood out of her blonde strands. “They were having so much fun. How could you not join in?”

The elf shrugged. “It is easy to fall into the wiles of children.”

“You’re lucky he wasn’t a real bear,” Astarion muttered, nudging Aurella’s arm and smirking. “You deserve to be torn to shreds.”

Aurella returned his smirk. “I’m sure the sight would be one you’d keep in mind when alone in your tent.”

Astarion opened his mouth to retort--or continue their disturbing flirtations if his grin was anything to go by--but Serilda’s groan quieted him. She rubbed her leathered hand against forehead and sighed.

“Either way,” the elf continued, a smile playing on his lips, “I owe thanks. I am the druid Halsin.”

Serilda grinned, “I’d hoped so. We were asked to find you.” She sucked in the corner of her lip, considering spoiling the rescue with grim news. “The druids are about to perform some rite and close off the grove, leaving the Tieflings stranded or killed.”

“What?” his grateful demeanor changed abruptly. He set his hands on his hips and sighed, looking down at the ground. “Kagha. We must return to the grove. I cannot allow this rite to be completed.”

“She thinks she’s saving it.”

“This is my doing,” he admitted. “I foolishly left it vulnerable to this rabble.” His eyes returned to hers, and again, his features shifted. “There’s more, isn’t there?” He stepped forward and leaned down slightly. “That look in your eyes--in all of your eyes--I’ve seen in before. Are you feeling all right?”

“It can wait,” she said, holding up her hand.

“The hell it can,” Aurella said. “There are mindflayer tadpoles in our heads. We need them taken care of!” 

“And what is he supposed to do here?” Serilda asked, turning her head toward her twin. “Slice us open in the middle of a goblin hoard?” 

She turned back to Halsin who was stroking his chin. “It’s spreading then,” he said. “You all suffer from the very blight I came here to investigate. I thought all the afflicted worked together. Clearly, I was wrong.” He paused, his gaze bouncing to each of them before settling back on Serilda. “No visible signs of ceremorphosis. Just like the others. The good news is you still have time.” His eyes turned downcast. “The bad news: I don’t know how much.”

Aurella let out an irritated sigh, drawing an apologetic look from Halsin. Serilda ignored her.

“I will do my best to help you,” he promised, “but, as you said, I’m unable to slice you open in the middle of a goblin hoard.” He smiled as he spoke, but it quickly fell. “There’s work to do--blood to spill. I cannot allow these butchers to threaten my grove. The natural order must be protected.”

Each word spoken seemed to add another inch to his height. Gone was the man who laughed about strangers saving a possibly wild bear; this was a leader of druids, the Master of the Emerald Grove. Serilda could do little but stare, a bit in awe of the authority he demanded just in the shift of voice.

“What can we do?” Serilda asked without a second thought.

“More running around putting ourselves in danger for others, right?” Aurella muttered.

“We came here to kill the gobbos anyway,” Wyll remarked. “It’s good to be the hero every now and then, Aurella.”

Aurella and Serilda rolled their eyes, though for entirely different reasons. Serilda gave Halsin a nod to continue.

“Rare is the beast that survives decapitation,” he replied, his more jovial side returning. “These parasites are nothing without their command. We must eliminate their leaders, and nature will cure itself.”

“Okay,” Serilda replied. “We’ll help.”

He beamed at her. “Thank you.”

[bladekuroda]

DM Tales From the Yawning Portal: The Sunless Citadel part 3

Just as Harbinger defeated the quasit, there was another flux of portal magic. She became replaced with Sovereign. Lazlo and Magnolia returned. After a bit of catching up with what happened while these three were out... elsewhere, they made their way across the pit. Well, most of them. Wisteria and Erky Timbers remained on the eastern side of the spike pit while the rest checked over the locked sarcophagus. After spending some time, they managed to unlatch it. Sovereign and Jennoa worked together to shove off the lid. The heavy stone lid crashed to the floor with a thud. Dust billowed around. And the creature within was revealed....

Inside the sarcophagus was a rather withered and sickly looking troll with some faint elven features. It woke up and turned towards the party. Those who were able to speak draconic attempted to persuade it to stand down and allow them to leave peacefully. However, the dragonpriest had been entombed for over a thousand years, it was very. Very hungry. It did decide to try and bargain. If they left behind Lazlo for it to consume, it will let the others go.

Eventually violence broke out. It seemed as though it would not stay dead initially, but a well placed firebolt kept the troll from regenerating further. They found a plethora of loot within the coffin. Among the treasures was a quill, which Lazlo took and found that it was a weapon known as the Mighty pen. A quill that is basically capable of becoming an ethereal sword. During the battle, Magnolia had used her cypher to summon a mini owlbear. It didn’t help in the fight at all, but it did make friends with Lazlo for the one hour that it was around. And by this, I mean it cried with him.

[Art by @djfox31]

After a quick rest, the group traversed back to the shaft and they descended down towards the Twilight Grove. There at the bottom they encountered some robed gardening skeletons and encountered the twig blights for the very first time. Balsag, a bugbear hunter, came in with his two pet rats shortly after... also with the intent of hunting them and turning them into food.

Lazlo got a rush defeating a twig blight. 

The group moved on, finding several goblins going about their business in a series of rooms. They eventually encountered another bugbear, who was less keen on allowing them to go and seek out Belak. Lazlo cast Tasha’s Hideous Laughter on her with the intent of incapacitating her so they could run... but the rest of the party just killed her anyway while she couldn’t do anything about it. Quibble buried the body and said a few last rites while the others explored a little more.

Eventually they came upon another dragon shrine. A great red dragon shrine was before them with a set of dark tiles in a circle before it. In draconic the runes upon the statue said  “Let the sorcerous power illuminate my spirit.” While they were trying to figure out what this meant, Jennoa spotted a loose tile behind the statue. To her surprise, the shadow of the statue was... well. A living shadow, which  sought to drain all the strength from her body. It didn’t last too long against the group however. That said, she was still a bit shaken by the encounter.

Wisteria ushered her into the next room; a library, to hopefully keep her safe in case the statue blew up while they were trying to figure it out. There, Jennoa and Quibble bonded a bit over a book bound in dragon scales.

After a bit of finagling, Magnolia stepped onto the circle and spoke the rune phrase out loud. Spectral flames engulfed her and gave her a sort of boost.

Reckless Abandon then rested in the ruined library.

When they awoke, refreshed, they continued on wards to try and find Belak and the remaining two human adventurers who had gone missing.

Sovereign broke down a wooden door into Belak’s office of sorts. Wisteria’s librarian needs kicked in and she began to meticulously loot this office of its scrolls and books. In the next room, Grenl had a small group of goblins, awaiting the party. And cue her unexpected but inevitable betrayal of the group.

Grenl was slain, as were two of her lackeys. Lazlo put two to sleep and bound them up pretty good. And then Wisteria triggered a glyph of warding trap on one of the books, nearly killing herself while she was in the office alone. She was quickly healed, thankfully. Magnolia vanished into the ether at this point.

As Reckless Abandon moved on into the actual Twilight Grove, numerous twig blights came out of the wood works and assaulted the party. But they were easily disposed of. Before long, they came across the large blackened and almost skeletal tree among the ruins at the heart of this all. They had now found the Gulthias Tree.

Belak the Outcast stood there waiting, along with Sharwyn Hucrele and Sir Braford. The two young humans had blackened eyes and barklike skin. In typical villain fashion, Belak basically monologued at the group, revealing his plans to unleash the ‘children of Gulthias’ onto the surface world. He decided that he wished to enthrall the party, turning them into his slaves like he had with the two adventurers.

As combat broke out, Sovereign first had to deal with Belak’s pet giant frog. It almost ate her.

[Art by @djfox31]

Sir Braford rushed the group and managed to shatter Quibble’s mace, as well as one of Jennoa’s shortswords with a swing of his longsword, somehow. Sharwyn stayed back, casting spells at the group. As did Belak. At some point, Wisteria had been entangled... and her answer to this was to set herself on fire to try and get free. She then began to tackle all the plant monsters to set them on fire as well.

Seeing that fire was especially effective, Lazlo downed the potion of firebreathing that he had gotten earlier, spitting flames out at the Gulthias tree. It was more than effective for destroying it. While the tree burned, Wisteria climbed to fetch the ruby red apple that grew in its branches.

Meanwhile, Quibble and Soverign managed to corner Belak. With their teamwork, they managed to slay him. Sir Braford had also fallen in battle.

Once Belak had died, Wisteria attempted to forcefeed Sharwyn the apple in an attempt to cure her of... whatever the tree had done to her. Sharwyn yielded to the party but explained that it was too late for her now. With the tree destroyed, she could feel her life force waning away with it. Quibble ate the rest of the apple. It was delicious.

Before retreating further into the caves, Sharwyn relayed final words she wished to send her mother. And that was where we had ended for the night.

The party now has the signet rings they were sent to retrieve. The Gulthias tree was now destroyed, hopefully preventing a spread of twig blights across the lands. Reckless Abandoned had discovered the secrets of the Sunless Citadel. Where will they go from here?