#also i just finished wylls quest today

[v1ntagie]

Guys

I think I'm about to go finish Laezels quest

And I'm terrified about that

I don't want the game to end 😭😭

[its-jaytothemee]

Could you please write something about a wood elf Druid tav getting a bad fever/sickness after collapsing just as she steps in the door of the elfsong tavern rooms from the horrible miasma of the bhaal temple and a romanced Halsin tends to her and watches over her

Finally had a chance to get this finished! Sorry for the wait, life just got a little hectic but I didn't forget about you :) Thanks for the prompt, this was fun to write!!

Have a fluffy hurt/comfort piece for this fine Monday.

Also posted on AO3 if you prefer

Pairing: Halsin/Tav (f!reader)

Tags: Fluff, hurt/comfort, not NSFW but alludes to sex toward the end.

Word count: 2,641

Baldur’s Gate goes against everything you stand for. Nature, harmony, peace, community. But not even the city itself with its walls of stone and locked doors to prevent helpless refugees from entering could compare to the horror of the Bhaal temple lying in wait beneath it.

At least on the surface you could still breathe the fresh air, listen to the singing birds flying high above the stone walls, hear the breaking of the waves in the harbor. Nature is out of balance in the city yes, but down here? Here in this wretched temple the scale has broken completely. Only death and suffering and a necrotic miasma that seeped its way into every fiber of your being can be found in the God of Murder’s domain.

The battle with Orin the Red had been vicious. You and your companions fought with brutal ferocity to end her reign of blood and carnage in Bhaal’s name. Though as the fight persisted, you noticed a corruption to your magic. The beautiful verdant vines that you would usually call forth to ensnare your enemies had taken on a sickly brown color. When you try to call on the magic granted to you by Silvanus to heal your allies’ wounds, the bright magic flickers at your fingertips before puffing out of existence. A horrible burning sensation seizes your throat for a moment before a dull ache takes its place.

No matter, we’re leaving this accursed temple. I just need some fresh air. The stench of death is simply clouding my mind.

“You okay, soldier?” Karlach kneels on the bloodied floor, clutching the large gash on her arm.

“I…I think so. This rotten temple must be affecting my connection to the Weave.” You respond as the light pricking pain behind your eyes builds to a loud pounding. Given your magic seems to be touchy here in the temple, you opt to give your friend a potion from your bag.

“This should make it manageable until we can get out of this place.” You go to take a step towards the exit, but your head swims and your vision darkens. Luckily, a deep breath steadies your legs and pushes the fatigue from your mind so you can continue your way to the surface.

You never thought you would be so happy to see the streets of Baldur’s Gate. A new appreciation swells within you after your time in the temple. Sure, there’s hardly any trees and the only animals you see running about are the stray cats and dogs or an occasional rat, but at least now you know there’s far worse things.

“Hells…” You press your hand to your temple as the sun pierces your eyes, agitating the already pounding ache you feel behind them.

“Tav?” Wyll looks at you with deep concern. “You don’t look so good, friend.”

His hand extends to touch your forehead, which you now realize is coated in a thin layer of sweat.

“I…I’m fine. I just need to get back and rest is all.” You try to inhale the surface air, desperate to clear the deathly fog still lurking from the Bhaal temple.

Your companions keep a wary eye on you as you all continue your trek through the Lower City. Normally, you’d stop at some of your preferred vendors to sell some of the bits and baubles you’ve picked up on your latest quest. Today though, everyone insists on getting you back to the Elfsong so Halsin can tend to whatever sickness obviously plagues you.

Halsin…

At least the thought of him makes you smile and helps push the pain away for a moment. Your sweet, considerate, strong, bear of an elf. All of a sudden, you feel dizzy again, but not from the incessant ringing in your ears or pounding against your skull.

The familiar sounds and smells of the Elfsong Tavern pull you away from your daydreams. Normally, the smells of wine and stew and bread would make your mouth water, but right now they cause an uneasy churning in your stomach. You gag to keep what little food you’ve eaten today in your body. With some significant help from Karlach, you make your way up the stairs.

Surely they’ve added at least twenty more since we last left?

By the time you’re standing outside the door to your large, rented room, the light layer of sweat coating your skin has drenched your underclothes. You gasp for breath, the taste of death still prevalent on your tongue from your time beneath the city.

The doors open, and you can hear your friends speaking to you, but everything is warbled in your ear. You see Halsin come running up to you, a look of panic spreading across his face.

What’s wrong, my love?

You try to form the words as you feel his arms wrap around your waist, but everything fades to black.

***

“Tav!” Halsin calls out to you, but your unconscious body remains limp in his arms. “What happened?” He looks to the rest of your companions who had accompanied you to the temple of Bhaal.

“I don’t know!” Karlach starts to pace as he picks you up to lay you down on your shared bed. “She almost seemed sick, like they couldn’t breathe properly with the air in the temple.”

“She tried to cast a healing spell on Karlach but couldn’t form the magic. Come to think of it, she seemed to have trouble casting any of her normal spells.” The alarm in Wyll’s voice is evident as your labored breaths slow with each rise and fall of your chest.

He kneels next to the bed to examine you. The ragged breaths that rise from your throat fill him with dread. A quick healing spell closes the small cuts you received but does little else.

“Talk to us, Halsin. What’s wrong with her?” Karlach continues her pacing around the room.

“I’m not sure yet. I need some fresh water and the small drawstring pouch from my bag.” Halsin swallows the anxiety threatening to block his throat. Despite his feelings for you, his years of healing experience take over.

Your breathing slows further, and he notices the pallid color of your lips. The veins in your arms start to take on a necrotic black look The others come to his side with the requested items. He dips a clean cloth into the water before running it over your sweat-slicked forehead.

“The air in the temple must have corrupted something within her. I’ve seen this only one other time.”

After the shadows were unleashed at Moonrise, he dragged one of his peers from the curse only to find they had already started weaving their way into his body. Not enough to fully corrupt them, but it had been enough to nearly kill them.

“I need someone to hold her legs and arms, keep her as still as possible.” Karlach and Shadowheart came running to your side, pinning your limbs down as Halsin started another incantation.

He places his hand over your mouth and concentrates on the deathly fog that had settled in your lungs. Moving his other hand across your chest and up your throat, he works to draw the corruption out of your body. Your legs and arms convulse, you try and thrash and writhe at the pain, but your companions hold you still.

It takes a couple of passes and intense concentration from him, but eventually he’s able to rip the disgusting miasma from your body. The horrid green vapor sits heavy in the air as he pulls it from your throat. Gale puffs it away with a quick spell.

As soon as the corruption leaves your body, you take a few deep, gasping breaths. Once again, you’re able to breathe the air around you. The color returns to your lips and cheeks, and the black color following the veins in your arms begins to slowly retreat. Despite the sickness being purged, you remain unconscious.

“Shouldn’t she be waking up?!” Karlach’s panicked voice bounces off the walls.

“She will soon, her body needs rest.” Halsin assures her as he sits next to you on the bed. He brushes the stray hair from your face as your breathing returns to normal.

The small drawstring pouch beside him was filled with various suspensions and salts for his healing remedies. A few of them get wrapped in the cool, damp cloth he had used earlier before he places it over your eyes.

He continues to assure everyone else that you will recover, allowing them the freedom to run errands in the city. The others start gathering their things so they can continue with the day. But Halsin of course stays at the Elfsong with you.

“I’m right here, my heart. I’ll be here by your side until you wake.” Halsin presses another kiss to your forehead as you rest. He moves down to the floor beside you, holding the hand closest to him until your eyes open again.

***

You startle awake, bolting upright to find yourself in one of the Elfsong beds.

“It’s alright, Tav.” Halsin’s soothing voice slows your heart rate. You look over to see him kneeling at your bedside.

“What…what happened?” Every muscle in your body is sore. A dull pain still burns in your lungs, as if the nasty haze from the temple had to be ripped out of them. Your hands clutch your chest as you try to catch your breath.

“I’m not entirely sure.” Halsin takes one of your hands and gives it a light kiss. “Can you tell me what you remember from your time in the Bhaal temple? The others said you seemed to have trouble with even basic spells.”

You recount the fight in as much detail as you can recall, but your memory is as hazy as the air you remembered breathing. But you can recall the vivid memory of your tainted magic.

Halsin looks lost in thought for a moment, his brow furrows as he considers your words. Absentminded strokes from his fingers along your hand soothe away some of the anxiety clouding your mind.

“I see. Bhaal is considered a harshly opposing source to Silvanus. Perhaps being in that temple disrupted your connection. Dare I say almost corrupted it.”

“If I never feel that suffocating fog again, it will still be too soon.” You throw yourself back onto the mattress.

Halsin smiles before breaking into a soft laugh. “At least it didn’t corrupt your sense of humor, my heart.”

“Would you come sit with me?” You desperately need to feel his arms around you.

“Of course.” He picks you up off the bed so he can sit on the soft mattress and nestle you in his lap. You lean into him, resting your head on his chest.

His large arms wrap around your shoulders easily as he pulls you close. The faint scent of herbs and fresh tilled dirt cling to the leather shirt he wears. Years of his time spent in nature weave into every fiber of his being. Warmth and affection seep from every one of his pores as he cradles you in his lap.

“Where are the others? Are they alright?” You ask as one hand moves up to stroke the hair tumbling down your back.

“They’re fine, Tav. They’ve gone out to do some trading so you can rest.”

“Thank you for staying with me.” You turn your face further into his chest as he presses a kiss onto your head.

“As if I would let anyone else watch over your recovery.”

You sit there together in comfortable silence as you have so many times before. As he holds you tight against him, he mutters a few more healing spells, taking away the soreness plaguing your body and the pain in your lungs. Each gentle kiss along your forehead and cheeks drives away the fear that had been gripping you since the temple. Despite the relief you feel, a troubling thought crosses your mind.

“You said the temple could have corrupted my magic. Do you…” You trail off for a moment. Halsin gives you an encouraging squeeze. “Do you think it’s permanent?”

The thought brings tears to your eyes and causes a shiver to run down your body.

“Only one way to find out.” He loosens his grip on your shoulders so you can use your arms freely.

With a deep breath, you draw on your power to conjure a small patch of vines on the floor. In the temple, they had appeared as brown, decaying branches, void of life and color. But now they had returned to their supple, green tendrils. Tiny white flowers adorn the vines as they curl into a content pile.

“No harm done. They’re lovely as ever.” Halsin whispers against your temple. You let out a sigh of relief.

Whatever disruption Bhaal’s unnatural sanctuary had caused was now nothing but a memory. You say a silent prayer of thanks to Silvanus for restoring your connection, for keeping you close to his vitalizing influence. Now that the issue of your magic is handled, another thought crosses your mind. One that brings a playful smile to your lips and a blush to your cheeks.

“You know, if the others are going to be out for a while, we could take advantage of the empty room.”

“Oh? And do you think you’re feeling well enough for such an activity already?” The mischievous gleam in his eye causes your heart to skip a beat. You turn so you can straddle yourself over his legs and look at him head on.

“I guess that decision would be up to my wise healer.” You lean forward to plant a tender, lingering kiss on his lips. His arms snake around your waist to pull you closer.

“I don’t see the harm, so long as he’s gentle with you.” He breathes the words into your ear, the feeling is hot on your already flushed skin.

“I make no promises for myself, though.” You try to kiss him again, but he grabs you by the hips and flips you over so he can hover over you on the bed. The movement startles a yelp out of you, but quickly turns into an eager giggle.

“Oh, but I must insist you relax.” His tone shifts to an excited growl as his approving eyes take in every detail of your face.

“Healer’s orders.”

You laugh and do as you’re told. After all, how could you resist those eyes? You find yourself relaxing into his loving, familiar embrace, and soft kisses, stealing these last few moments to yourselves before your companions return. Before returning to the responsibility of saving Baldur’s Gate, and all of Faerûn along with it.

[suntiger745]

Finished Baldur's Gate 3 today. Something I've not done with many narrative games, instead getting caught up in making new characters. I've not finished Skyrim (or Morrowind), nor Dragon Age Origins. I completed Oblivion once, The Mass Effect trilogy once and Fallout 3 once, Fallout 4 three times. Dragon Age Inquisition twice. I still have like 40+ Tavs so I have plenty of playthroughs to do if I feel like it.

Anyway, BG3. It was really good y'all. :) In some ways I benefited from not completing it before now. I got the option to send Karlach to Avernus with Wyll, and I got the post-adventure gathering that Withers put together, for my first playthrough.

I've seen some posts about the % of players who have completed the games vs started it, or gotten off the Nautiloid, or finished Act 1. I took some screenshots of them, but at the same time I'm not sure how accurate they are. I know for Elder Scrolls/Fallout games I play with mods and never cared about the achievements, so they are always disabled for me and not part of the statistics. I imagine it's the same with a not insignificant number of BG3 players as well. (I plan to mod BG3 as well, I just wanted to make a Tav playthrough and a Durge playthrough before I start in on the mods.)

I also don't know if the stats on the achievements are updated every time you open Steam/look at them. Is the 50,7% of players who have completed Act1 from august 28th when i got it, or from february 3rd when I looked at it today?

Also, the numbers of allies who showed up to help in the final fight, as well as all the letters you get in the little camp get-together, were both really cool moments. The allies coming together to help you was a real cool and emotional payoff for all the quests you've done and people you have helped during them game.

The letters were less awesome but in many ways more touching. Especially hearing that Arabella is a student of Elminster, Alfira has a successful bard school, thanks to Lakrissa saving up her waitress wages and buying a house for her. Barcus, leading the Ironhand gnomes and making peace with the Gondians, doing great work in the rebuilding (and saying that 'it's not a big deal really'), Jaheira's kids doing great work in the city with Jaheira herself being alternatively proud and worried about them.

Halsin being a father figure to a gaggle of kids in the cleansed lands around Moonrise Towers and Orpheus and Lae'zel meeting with the gith'zerai leader to form an alliance it also both cool and sweet.

Also, Scratch and Anji playing fetch with the now inert Astral Prism. XD

Props to Larian for sneaking in a post credits scene too. Seems Jergal is not happy at all with how the Dead Three has conducted business in the Domains he once held sway over.

[antiqua-lugar]

no but really, gale offering such a solid relationship with old married vibes is like one of my favourite things about his romance. once you get to act 3 and do his personal quest (which imho is meant to be done pretty early anyway) you are just. settled. everyone is Going Through It and Tav and Gale are just in the background like once we finish all of this we are going to Waterdeep to sleep for a week. should we buy something for your mom. we saved Shadowheart's parents! should we stop by the market I don't think we should feed them random sausages we found in a barrel for their first family dinner. yeah honey I'll come to bed in a bit I gotta feed Astarion today and I think he had a nightmare. babe we gotta save wyll's dad tomorrow can you learn these three scrolls real quick. also you'll never guess what mizora just said. like lae'zel's biggest concern about your relationship is that gale talks in his sleep.

[lunarreverb]

Today’s adventures in the land of Faerûn! (Spoilers!)

I finished Shadowheart’s quest. Tbh I was not at all expecting her parents to be alive. Sharran schemes for emotional twists sure are weirdly elaborate, but tbf they worked. Poor sweet Shadowheart, I got misty eyed!

(I wanted laugh that her original name was basically fantasy Jennifer but then I felt bad again when she mentioned she didn’t even know how to spell it. Hhhgh.)

I also killed Gortash just now and listened to Karlach’s lament and now I’m actually sobbing. Karlach!! I’m sorry!!! Nooooo!

I am mildly concerned about the ratio of tragedy porn to happy ending I’m heading toward. Either way it’ll be an incredible story, but, mmmmm. I already spoiled myself on the choice between the Emperor and Orpheus (to decide if a trip to the House of Hope for the hammer was worthwhile), and based on what I read it seems like I already have to choose between keeping Lae’zel and uhhhh, some or all of us not becoming mindflayers? Which is a hell of a situation to put me in? I love Lae’zel but fuck. Goddamn. I’ve worked too hard for my little tiefling and co. to get tentacles now.

I also found out after the fact that the only happy ending for Karlach depends on Wyll keeping his shitty pact with Mizora?? I recommended he end his pact on the reasoning of, y’know, there was no telling what awful thing Mizora was going to tell him to do next. I realize he’s big into self-sacrifice, but it felt weird to tell him “subject yourself to the unpredictable whims of this devil even more, you aren’t sacrificing yourself hard enough already.” Argh!

I suppose I can’t expect to get everything I want (a perfectly happy resolution for every companion). My wishful thinking idea for what I’d like to do for the ending (which I’m definitely inferring will not be possible) would be to control the elder brain, but just to command it to keep the tadpoles stable/neutralized. Nobody becomes a squid, I don’t become a power-thirsty tyrant, and Astarion could keep enjoying the sunlight. We’d all be vaguely uneasy about the huge dangerous brain chained up in the basement but also my Tav is a sage and she kinda wants to study it!

That kind of resolution would be entirely too convenient though, and I’m sure it won’t be allowed because the option to control the brain seems to only be brought up in the context of becoming a supervillain with it, so. And I guess it kind of follows that there aren’t a lot of ‘middle-road’ choices because that tells a less powerful story? I guess?

It feels like the choices are just gonna get harder. And sure! They feel meaningful! But, I wonder if I’m gonna be able to go through the story again knowing I can’t save them all? (Probably)

[wardenmages]

I finished Baldurs Gate 3 and I need about 3-5 business days to recover before I hop back into Elissa's playthrough. oh my god. I cried so much. my mom is trying to talk to me about this documentary on tv and I'm like "yeah that's great" while actively weeping

SO under the cut to help people avoid spoilers. my playthrough took nearly 120 hours and I didn't even finish everything in every act. this has spoilers for like, the entire main quest line of act 3 since I did a lot of the main items today lol

HHHHHHHH it was very difficult to make the decision to make Orpheus a mind flayer. I was going to have Alet do it but backpedaled immediately because I just could not imagine them leaving Astarion alone like that. I had to pause and pace around for a long time. I knew I didn't want to side with the emperor but Man

I literally played through killing Orin and Gortash today, saving the guild, a bunch of other smaller quest items, and wrapping up the Orphic Hammer stuff once I had Lae'zel back. So like. It's been a lot all in one day.

I had Karlach with me while I killed Gortash and her breakdown afterwards was so painful, I was already so upset at that point. then afterwards I go talk to Astarion and

Astarion and Karlach understand each other so well and love each other so much it makes me want to eat drywall. I just. think about after killing Cazador w/o doing the ritual, Karlach telling Astarion how fucking proud she is of him, how happy she is that he's free. and then this happens and he can't even return the sentiment, because there is no other way out for Karlach. there barely was for him - he's free, but he knows that freedom comes with a heavy price he hates that he has to pay. I just. want to squeeze them both so hard. lovingly.

At one point I looked up if you could become a mind flayer and then turn back into a humanoid and saw people saying that at the end Astarion could die from getting caught out in the sun and I literally spent the whole final quest panicking because he was literally in my party 100% of the game and I was scared he'd die because of it, but he was fine. I think the game was trying to half-joke about it but I was so emotionally raw at that point I literally minimized the game because I panicked so hard lol

I'm a little bummed there was no scene about where Shadowheart, Halsin, Minsc, and Jaheira were going after the dust settled. I also kind of wish there was something like the classic Dragon Age "put all the companions in a space so you can say goodbye to them individually" thing, I didn't realize once you find the boat to the brain you wouldn't be able to change your party or even talk to most of the companions again (besides Halsin and Jaheira, at least for me). I just expected there to be more between killing Gortash and setting off for the brain, I guess? or something at the end like the act 1 tiefling party where they wait until night so Astarion can join them and the player gets closure with everyone. I like the few bits of closure we get it would just be nice I guess?? idk

Alet and Astarion are off an another adventure though, going to try and find a way for him to walk in the sun again, because while Alet is more than happy in the dark with him the rest of their lives, they know he's not happy with it, and they will do Literally Anything to make him happy again, and that last conversation between them made me gay. also it was funny in that whole last section you can say "this might be the last time we ever kiss" and he says "well then let's make it a good one" and they have the quickest most chaste kiss I've ever seen, it was shorter than the one you can do at the camp, it was genuinely so funny like Neither of you have any clue what you're doing and I appreciate the effort

Karlach ended up going back to Avernus with Wyll. I'm sad the scene only has Karlach talking, but I get why it's like that, so not that disappointed. But. I'm so happy for them. They love each other so much and have such a deep connection, neither of them will ever be alone again. as soon as they figure out if it's even safe or not ("is the thing lighting up the hells actually the sun") Alet and Astarion are going to visit them and Hope

ANYWAY I need to take a break from the game so I don't explode, probably going to write some more fic about Alet and Astarion, and then I will attempt to jump into a second playthrough without romancing Astarion which feels Genuinely Wrong, why would I even play the game without my favorite weird little guy hanging out asking for hugs :(

[givemeallyourpenny]

Today’s run of balders gate made very sad actually. Finishing Asterion, Shadowheart, and Karlach’s quests in one sitting was pretty rough.

But at the same time I’m incredibly hyped to be nearing the finale. Just Wylls quest to finish (also Laezel’s but I accidentally skipped the middle already so I’ll save it for next time).

[showyoumyfavoriteobsession]

Finished* act 2 a little by surprise today

*by which I mean beat Ketheric. Act 2 is probably my least favorite (not saying much, there's still a lot to like), so I was prioritizing the story stuff, but I didn't really realize/remember that freeing Aylin basically cuts off your chance to explore Moonrise Towers at all. I did a much more thorough job exploring the rest of the map than I had last time and found several areas and enemies I had never seen, but completely missed out on infiltrating Moonrise prior to the Ketheric fight. I think there's some amount of exploring there that I can do before moving on to Baldur's Gate; I also did make a save before actually starting the battle with Ketheric, so if I *really* want to I can roll back to there and do some exploring before redoing the battle. (I probably won't but. nice to have the option.)

Biggest changes from my first run were:

Prioritizing Thaniel/lifting the shadow curse. I was curious if you could actually lift it significantly earlier in the act; it seems like the answer to that is "not really." Ketheric's dead and the curse is still there - seems likely that it only triggers when you're on your way out. I did find and fight Oliver well before waking up Art Cullagh, which changed the progression a little bit, but not significantly (you still have to fight him again to reunite him with Thaniel). The most notable change from that quest was having Halsin join me for good much earlier, and I played a good chunk of act 2 with him in my party (sorry Wyll :( ) - last time he didn't sign on until I was basically in act 3, by which point I wasn't going to switch him into my well-established party. I'm enjoying running with him (he's a good combat healer), but so far he seems to have an odd dearth of general world dialogue. Hard to tell if it's a bug or not, but I wasn't getting a voice line at all when I clicked on his portrait or switched to him in battle.

Found Zevlor! I found the rest of the tieflings last time but never found Zevlor; this time was the opposite way around (since I didn't really get to explore Moonrise). I like Zevlor and think he's a cool character, but saving the rest of the tieflings as well is the main reason I'm considering reloading that save.

Speedran the Gauntlet of Shar as much as I could. I really wanted to free Aylin (she's a powerful ally, plus impossible to pass up the top-tier lesbian love story), but man that quest is long. It's felt a bit clunky both times I've done it now - getting through the Gauntlet is basically required to beat Ketheric as far as I can tell, but there’s not much of a hook to pay attention to it without Shadowheart in your party.

Found the third Thorm sibling (the bartender) and defeated him without fighting him, and helped He Who Was with his whole... thing. Again, wild how I just missed some huge fuckin chunks of the map last time around.

Also had my lovely mushy Astarion romance scene where he admits he's catching feelings and shares a little more about his relationship Issues. It's a little surprising how much more extra depth and content there is to the character you're romancing - I wish you could get a little more of that with characters you're equally close with but not romancing. (Lae'zel's approval rating is almost as high as Astarion's but it feels like she's not opening up at all.)

GOD okay I have to stop it's nearly 1am on a work night this game is Doing things to me

[herbertwest]

In today's BG3 adventures, I'm gonna put stuff under a readmore since I'm getting into pretty serious spoiler territory (I'm in Act II now).

I wrapped up everything I felt like doing in the Underdark and above ground. I skipped the adamantine quests because even though it would have been useful, it was just too much to do.

The MOST IMPORTANT THING I did in this section was recruiting Scratch the dog to my camp.

AND HE BECAME BEST FRIENDS WITH THE BABY OWLBEAR!!! AAAA!!!! I pet them both at the same time and got an achievement.

I ended up actually going to the Arcane Tower, which ended up being fun once I got past the turrets.

Then on to the shadowlands! I can't say I'm loving them so far, and I can't figure out how to use my magic items (I want to cast Light using a ring but ????). Luckily I do have some torches, but they're not super convenient.

Anyway, I made it to the Last Light Inn, managed to skip EVERY sidequest, and started the fight to save Isobel (I don't have the heart to side with the other guy, though I'm curious about what would happen). Luckily, I failed a bunch so when I play tomorrow I'm going to do some side quests before I attempt the fight again. I'm thinking about switching up my party composition a bit so I can deal more damage (a reminder that my party is me (bard), Gale, Wyll, and Astarion, and only I am suited for close-quarters combat, and also the only source of healing). I'm thinking of bringing in Karlach for a while instead of Gale, and maybe Lae'zel even though I don't like her very much instead of Wyll just so I can finish off Bird Guy more quickly.

If it's worthwhile NOT to fight Bird Guy and to let him take Isobel, I'd love to hear about that.

While I was in an earlier part of the Shadowlands, Gale revealed that he desired my character carnally, which is very funny and also I feel bad because my character is loyal to Astarion. That does not stop my character from being a tremendous flirt though.

[soldiermom1973]

Didn't get too much done today. Finished the Shadow Druid quest and recruited Karlach. That's about it. I called it quits early because I was falling asleep in my chair. I'm not a high enough level yet to want to take on the people chasing Karlach (really struggled on that one with Archie). I think I have Lump's War Horn, so that'll help. I'm also right at the edge of where the gnoll/Zhentarim fight is, too, so that'll help as well. I ended this session at camp - I'll take a long rest, wait for Mizora to show up and give Wyll his horns, then do a few more things. I still have to get to the goblin camp, but that'll probably be a couple more weeks (I'm currently only playing on Mondays).

I am picking up more/different ambient conversations - stuff between Wyll and Astarion is sometimes funny, sometimes frustrating (I hate how snide Wyll gets with the pale elf sometimes). I'm still impressed at how respectful Lae'zel and Gale are with each other.

I've also noticed that party banter seems to be location triggered, like it was in DA Origins, which is nice because if I want to see what everyone has to say to each other, I can just run back and forth between 2 points & listen to them talk. I hated in Inquisition that party talk seemed more on a timer or something because, damn it, there was some good stuff I never heard because I didn't want to wait.

Charlie's Run (BG3)

Ok, so the TL/DR for this is I started another run with a character named Archie. I was not having fun. At all. I realized I was expecting too much of myself, being the completionist that i am. While grumbling my way through Faerûn, I restarted my original Tav so I could acquire cross save files for my Dear Friend @emmavakarian-theirin I was playing both characters for about a week & realized I couldn't keep that up, so I decided to give the OG tav another run, then go back & finish Archie later.

This is the same character I initially posted about several months ago. I didn't name her then, but since I'm taking this a bit more seriously (from a creative/RP point of view), she needed a name. I settled on Charlie - short for Charlemagne or something stupid like that. She hates her name & much prefers Charlie. She and Archie are sisters. In case you've forgotten what she looks like, here...

She's a half-high elf sorcerer with Draconic blood. She is Very Tall. She will be romancing Gale. I'm planning on using what I learned the first time around & with my Archie run to take care of other things (for instance, I haven't killed Lae'zel and don't really plan to. I want to give her that egg.)

So, let's see.... I'm still fairly early in the game, so I don't have Karlach yet, so Wyll is horn-free. I've talked to Auntie Ethel and am making my way toward her home as well as heading to the swamp to take care of the Shadow Druid thing. I talked to the owl-bear and left the cave with both of us intact. I've found Scratch. I am currently in the Blighted Village and am about to get Shovel/Basket. I will not be making the mistake of not doing the convo to keep them as a permanent summon.

I'll tag this stuff as Charlie BG3, so you can filter out my nonsense if you like. Otherwise, enjoy the ride. Again.

[motheatenscarf]

Fucked around and did some side quests today in Baldur’s Gate, further impressions of the game so far, this is pure stream of consciousness.

I could talk about how much I love the combat forever but I know nobody gives a shit about that so I’ll move onto things people DO like, but I will just say I’m super excited for when this game gets multiplayer mode.

Holy shit these cutscenes are buggy lol.

There are many tiefling children and I would die for every last fucking one of them.

In true Aashi fashion, she has been pretty headstrong about “I will help you after I have finished my main goal,” which here is getting rid of the mindflayer parasite. (We cut through a spooky mysterious woods in Goblin Squad once when we were hunting down her nemesis [a wizard, of course] and the DM put SO MANY mysteries in there for us to investigate and Aashi insisted we investigate NONE of them, that is not a problem for us, we have a wizard to kill)

Which, unfortunately, I think makes her a bit too reluctant a hero for Wyll to really vibe with her so I’m BIG SAD that they’re not friends yet. She’s helping, she’s just not promising people she can get results! She’s ONE WOMAN with a longbow and a -1 to Charisma, there’s NOT MUCH she can do, she’s giving you a professional fucking estimate of her capabilities for the services requested. But apparently “We’ll see,” and “I’ll give it a shot,” are too soft a commitment for Wyll’s liking. Also threatening a druid that you will BURN HER HOUSE DOWN if she doesn’t give you an antidote after tricking you into taking poison when you ASKED HER FOR HELP, is bad form, APPARENTLY.