#after how many nights of ignoring him I’m always cheering hooting and hollering 🤤🤤🤭🤭

[swordmaid]

im trying to hurry and get to act 2 but the underdark is so big sobs and shri’iia’s time down there is such an important arc for her story bc that’s rlly when the cult indoctrinations starts to fall apart…! and that’s when she fully realised that she’s been abandoned and she’s all alone now and she can’t return to the world she knows anymore. and the underdark is one of the places she’s been wanting to go back to the moment she was dropped off in the surface bc it’s her home…! except it’s not anymore, and she has such a terrible time down there and by the end, she chooses to perform her first selfless paladin feat (freeing the enslaved gnomes), chooses to pursue the oathbreaker path and this new freedom, and leave lolth behind. I also think that’s the last time she’s in the underdark like ever, in her life, bc going back down there is dangerous esp now that she’s forsaken lolth.

but anyway, I want to get to act 2 bc that’s when she actually explores this new freedom and her new oath…! she’s free now and all the consequences are hers to bear but what does that mean exactly? if paladin talents derived from their own self will and belief to their oath, how would that affect her when she isn’t even sure about her new oath yet? and how far would she go for it? I think act 2 shri’iia is in a significantly weaker state than she was before just because her own beliefs aren’t fully realised, and I think that’s when she practices more martial skills (picks up the halberd) since her smites aren’t so powerful and constant. and I like the idea that’s the time when she’s actively choosing to do the more good, selfless deeds - things that she’s been taught to reject and scorn at but now they are things she’s actively trying to do - just bc she’s exploring this new freedom and how it feels to her. and it’s difficult too bc she is so used to having someone or something dictate her every decision, and she’s so used to always seek for their approval, but now she only has to rely on herself - the self that’s lost to her bc in her pursuit of trying to become lolth’s ideal, she’s chosen to forsake her own individuality in favour of accepting to be whatever lolth or her matriarch wanted her to be. but act 2 is definitely a transformative period for shri’iia. I also think that’s the time where she’s learning how to be kinder and to give more grace to people just because she has a better support system now than before, and she’s actually seeing kindness now compared to before where that very concept is nonexistent. there are times where she’ll slip up ofc and she unintentionally hurts someone she cares about, or she does something cruel without even considering how cruel it is, and it’s so important to me that she does make those mistakes and she learns from them. it’s a learning period for her!!!

and if act 2 is about the exploration of her oath then act 3 is about the exploration of her own self…!! and it’s also the part where she turns half illithid and her face turns into something different - she doesn’t have the red eyes of lolth’s children anymore, and she loses the beauty that drows are known to have (and she was once proud of tbh). like act 3 is such an interesting time for her too, it’s def a bit more personal, and in the end it’s either she becomes a more fully realised version of herself or she rejects the whole experience and regresses back to lolth bc she was her home but that’s for another time 🤭🤭🤭