#and astarion's. But im bad at being chaotic enough to get him to like me and i keep accidentally saying stuff he disapproves of

[l3o-lion]

Fellas, is it gay to love the concept/trope of a supernatural hunger for something morally grey or wrong?

The inner conflict of wanting to get rid of the pain, feeling like you're starving, but knowing that to do so you have to cross every line you swore never to cross. Having to push loved ones away for the sake of their safety when all you want is to hold them. Picking between self destruction and survival, right and wrong, when every action is some shade of grey. Being called a monster when the people who trusted you find out who you are, what you have done, and not protesting in response because they're right, aren't they?

[softness-and-shattering]

Todsys baldurs gate adventures, that are still occuring, notably, not in Baldurs Gate.

Im gonna start tagging for spoilers at this point I think. Im gonna use bg3 spoilers as my tag.

So firstly I picked up find familiar to see if a familiar could get into one of these burrow places. Not onky can they not, even the raven has to follow people-walking paths. Ok I get it cant fly across chasms because thats end-of-map territory. But it cant just go up to a higher or lower terrain, it has to find the walking path! Its ridiculous. I need to pick up misty step somehow or dimension door or perhaps teleport. That'll be relevant soon.

So I used feather fall + jump from behind the mill in the blighted village to sneak across to the very north of the goblin camp. I snuck into the temple. And then I decided nah I wanna go find Halsin properly. His quest diamond was right above thr hunter goblin who's cooking dwarf and his poem is about the sword but ok. I run into poor Volo. (I realised later oh one of the source books is volos guide. Forgot to what though. Theres a very similar character with the same name in pokemon, is it arceus, the 'historical' one? Whats up w that?)

Ok hes being held captive. A quick google tells me to advance the Halsin quest I gotta talk to some oakshield guy so I find him, he directs me to the goblin prison called the pits aaand i wasnt in the secret temple before I was in the pits but I wasnt gettinf the quest information becausr Id done it out of order!

I go in I save volo I save Halsin, I meet Minthra and grieve the decision I, an entire bisexual, must make, but Im playing some kind of chaotic good-ish so I gotta kill her. I long rest. I meet the dream guardian. As Laezel almost murders it occurs to me that sleeping in the Absolute power dungeon mightve been a bad move. Idk what exactly triggered the cutscene but Im gonna imagine it was murdering a bitch, one of the absolutes favourites, and then lying down immediately for a cozy nap.

I go into thr fight with Rakshasa Belthazar. Rak Guruk? The guy with the Illithid. And very very early someone pushes my bard into the spider pit. This is where misty step wouldve been GREAT.

Shadowheart keeps missing and the dream voice tells me to try something different. So I shoot down the brazier to make her happy but it does zero damage to anyone.

I closed the doors before going in but that didnt change refreshments I mean....reinfircements lol running in. Eventually theres one spider left and the human guy whos shooting at me from the rafters.

Then as Im prepping Astarion for the climb, this guy with his 5hp falls an entire storey and has thr goddamn audacity to not take and falling damage. So hes at the bottom of the stairs and Astarions a bit above him. I tell Astarion to run up and stab him. Astarion runs for the ladder. Confused, I stop him and direct him to attack again. He climbs partway up the ladder and then sudddnly he's on the ground and the other guy is dead. I have no idea what happened but I did get the outcome I wanted.

This leaves my bard trapped in the spider pit with one spider and waning health. Everyones on around half or less. So its bard, shadowheart, astarion and karlach.

Bard keeps missing the spider and health is critical. Im getting voice lines to make sure I know hes at deaths door.

Now, because the game isnt great at showing different vertical levels directly stacked, and the spider has jumped up some distance, I assume its on a platform where maybe I can jump my way out. So I have karlach jump down to take some hits. Either way I have to get my bard out some non-magical way so maybe everyone joins him down there and we work it out. Regardless we gotta remove the spider threat.

So karlach jumps down. I hear the dice roll sound. Like ten to fifteen enemies roll into initiative. Ive made a critical error. The spider pit is even lower than I thought.

I consider if everyone can get into the pit and far enough away quickly enough I can teleport to camp. I direct karlach to jump into the pit. I am warned this will take 30 health off of her. (Bard lost about 17 being pushed I think. What is goibg on with this layer cake hideout? Nom).

I look at the 30 fall damage. I look at my bard too far away for feather fall to work. I look at my PCs on very little health. I look at the iniative order with fifteen people in it. I consider if I get into the pit anyway, Im not gonna be able to loot anyone.

And I loaded my save. And then I drcided I was done for the day.

I also forgot to specifically prep Shadowhearts spells to discover mid-fight that I only had the melee healing spell and the non-combat one.

Ive also not really been using the poisons and coatings and explosives and such cause I havent really needed to much. And Im loathe to use perishables in a game. Surely they exist to be saved forever for the opportune moment that never comes, right? But I think when I try the fight again Ill load up. Even Mithras wasnt as difficult, theres just so many 10hp pests.

RIP Mithras. Maybe Ill play as evil next time. I just couldnt condemn the grove. The tiefling bard girl on the clifftop was the purest joy Ive felt in this game. I did hope appearing to go along with Minthara would give me oppprtunity to send her in the wrong direction but I didnt find the right dialogue option, if it exists.

I also like the little sad stories sprinkled around. The dead guy on the beach with the letter from his lover about running away to baldurs gate. The half buried elf with the embroidered heart on his shoe. Ouch. My poor heart. I wanna go find all the victims families and make them safe.

Which reminds me I should check the meat I grabbed from the warg pens. It looked like pig but I should check what it says.

Oh I find it hilarious that theres a sausage weapon. Ill end on that note I think.