#ch: tav called larissa

[clericofmystra]

I've never noticed how dirty your face gets if you don't long rest, lol.

[clericofmystra]

Reblogging to chart my descent into Avernus absurdity!

It's not every day that I'm like "wow, self, that was a genius idea of yours" but romancing Gale as a cleric of Mystra? 11/10 concept honestly.

More later!

[clericofmystra]

The Shadowzel ambient dialogue saga continues!

Lae'zel:

[Your sour face is tiring, Shadowheart. By all means leave, if I am so distasteful.]

Shadowheart:

[I'd rather not turn my back on you, if it's all the same.]

It's pretty fun to have Gale and Larissa cheerfully bonding over old books, magical power, being kind, and sharing an unhealthy fixation on Mystra, and meanwhile in the background, Shadowheart and Lae'zel are just *hiss* *snarl* USTUSTUSTUSTUST

[clericofmystra]

Gale is standoffish enough (unusually for him!) towards Astarion that I was curious what their first interaction looks like, if Gale's already along when you meet Astarion and gets the cut scene.

Sure enough:

[clericofmystra]

I'm still absolutely cackling at this exchange between my cleric of Mystra and Gale:

[clericofmystra]

Larissa's generally ethical and kind behavior towards others gets approval the most consistently from Gale and Shadowheart AND YET I suspect Gale's and Shadowheart's moralities are quite different.

At any rate, there's some intraparty tension between them, too:

Gale:

[The road to Baldur's Gate is a long one. Who knows how long it'll take these folks to get there on foot?]

Shadowheart:

[If they make it. They're slow, vulnerable. Half or more will die long before Basilisk Gate.]

Gale:

[Doesn't seem to trouble you a jot.]

Shadowheart:

[What good would it do for me to be troubled? We can't save them all.]

[clericofmystra]

I love clerics, I always used to play them in D&D and similar things, but haven't for a couple of years now—and damn it's nice to live that life again:

[clericofmystra]

I guess my BG3 custom character headcanon could be de-canonized in game, but I doubt it, so here's one for my Tav/Larissa:

She loves magic. She always has. Her parents are both spellcasters (her father a less-obnoxious-than-usual sun elf, her mother a human sorcerer) and she grew up with magic all around her. She's longed to have magical power for as long as she can remember.

...but she's also always been bad at it. Really bad. After years of practice with her father, she managed to learn exactly one(1) cantrip—and while the ability to summon fire felt like a great achievement at the time, she couldn't do anything else no matter how hard she studied, how much she learned, how much she practiced.

But her fascinated study of magic and its lore took on an increasingly spiritual awe, and she developed an intense devotion to Mystra, goddess of magic. She swore herself to Mystra's service and as one of her priests, worked steadily towards greater knowledge, greater understanding of the mysteries of the world, greater preservation of magical lore, and over time, Larissa became one of the sages at her temple.

And she still sucked at magic.

She's personally kind and caring, if a little abrupt, but at heart, she longed to be acknowledged as one of the most devoted, most respected, most learned, most favored of Mystra's priests. Yet her near-total lack of facility with magic made it clear to her that she was not particularly favored.

Still, she continued to faithfully serve her goddess—and a year before the BG3 story begins, Mystra herself appeared to her in a dream and granted Larissa her blessing.

Larissa wasn't sure what that would mean until she woke to light flickering around her hands—and a distant sense of approval and power. She still can't use magic the way her parents can, can't feel the Weave properly: but when she prays, Mystra answers. In her thirty-nine years, Larissa has never felt anything to compare with the sensation of divine power flowing through her, and her devotion to Mystra has never been stronger.

[clericofmystra]

venndaai replied to this post:

Oh wow, Larissa and my Tav should be friends! They’re a half-drow whose father wasn’t able to study magic in the Underdark and put all his hopes on them, but they were always the weakest student at wizard school despite studying really hard, but the tadpole in their head seems to have finally unlocked their wizard potential and they’re not willing to give up that power for anything…

Ooh, they should be friends! I love the idea of these two people trying so hard to get magic to work and having potentially dangerous degrees of aspiration to that kind of power, and being continually frustrated in that desire until suddenly everything changed. The two of them should hang out with Gale and have hubris tea parties :P

I also like the contrast with their differing perspectives on the tadpole!

When Larissa was captured and being eye-horror'd, she assumed she must have offended Mystra somehow (though she has no idea what) and completely lost her favor for something this horrific to happen to Larissa. And then when she escapes her pod, she thinks ... maybe Mystra hasn't completely abandoned her? Possibly? But at heart she doubts it until she sees Shadowheart using cleric spells and is like ... well, there's only way to know, and tries to cast Guiding Bolt at the devil, a spell she's never had occasion to use before.

And it just blasts out and sears this side of the devil's face (mechanically: critically hits for some 30 damage lol) and she's like ... wait, so ... Mystra's still blessing me? Then is this not a punishment ... wait ... I'm so confused????? But in general she is firmly set on getting rid of the parasite and avoiding illithid abilities whenever possible, so I think Larissa-(your)Tav would have a really interesting dynamic, actually!

Very curious now about why Mystra chose Larissa!

I was imagining that it mostly comes down to the sheer intensity and scale of Larissa's awe and devotion despite her personally receiving nothing from Mystra for over a decade. But once Larissa (eventually) catches Mystra's attention, Mystra also approves of Larissa's powerful curiosity about the mysteries of the world, especially magical ones, and dedication to studying them and acquiring/preserving as much knowledge as possible + general drive and aspiration. I think Mystra judges Larissa to be someone who will always appreciate and respect the gift of magic while remaining steadfastly faithful to her, and will make a reliable agent in the world.

Larissa fwiw tries to repress her near-insatiable curiosity and the fervor of her longing for respect and magical power, thinking they're a bit unseemly, but I think a) Mystra is 100% aware of them and b) actually very much approves as long as Larissa stays within the limits of Mystra's instructions and will.

[clericofmystra]

I get this ship, I really do

[clericofmystra]

And after Lae'zel, Astarion wanted to chat with Larissa. Or "chat." Or perhaps actually chat. Hard to say, really.

He was worrying (maybe?) that their adventure together might be ending soon, once they find Halsin, and Larissa, ever oblivious, was like ... well, we can still travel together, I don't see the problem.

Astarion:

[Good! I don't want you to run off just yet.]

His tone was very flirty and he'd posed himself like this:

Larissa was immediately suspicious, I think in part because he dials things up so fast that it is very suspicious, and in part because she's spent at least the last ten years as a temple priestess profoundly fixated on her goddess.

(I don't imagine Larissa's order as celibate, but Astarion-style flirtation is definitely not how they approach their affairs, and in any case, Larissa herself has been celibate and largely disinterested in changing that for a long time. She's friendly enough but a bit distant from the other priests, she's a temple sage, this is just not something that usually happens to her.)

Then Astarion gave her a bunch of compliments about everything she's survived so far. Larissa doesn't have much of a brain to mouth filter, so I figured she'd bluntly say exactly what she thinks:

[I thought you didn't like me.]

Astarion got up (as seductively as possible) and

[Astarion: You have your charms... more than you think.]

Larissa has high wisdom, decently high intelligence, and little personal charm, so at this point I was pretty sure she'd be on red alert. The game agreed!

[Wisdom(Insight) check: The smile on his pretty lips is a touch too composed, a bit too perfect. He may not mean a word he says.]

Larissa is Larissa, so she wasn't subtle:

[Larissa: Watch yourself, Astarion.]

Astarion just sort of pouted (or pretended to?), said she was no fun, told her to sleep tight, and said he was sure he'd see her later.

Well, that was weird.

Even knowing he's a vampire (duh) and has a lot going on, Larissa's just "...?????????" and shares all of Gale's reservations. Gale is one of the only people who didn't have anything particular to say, but I suspect "what the fuck is Astarion's deal, we just had the weirdest conversation" gossip is one of the things they bond over.

[clericofmystra]

I did the whole conversation with Healer Nettie, and got another Mystra-specific option!

Well, I'm sure this can in no way go badly.

[clericofmystra]

The Book of Lost Gods scene is genuinely delightful to me, given that Larissa is a sage, and a knowledge cleric of Mystra—so she's like, ooh, a mysterious book! I'll just ring Mystra up for this one.

Larissa: uh, holy Mystra, can you help me read this thing? It looks really interesting and-

Mystra: ok

[clericofmystra]

I took a long enough break from the dissertation to play a little more BG3, and caught up with Aradin the asshole adventurer, his surviving crew, and the bodies of those who didn't survive.

Larissa:

[(Cleric option) Before you go, I'd like to say a prayer for your crew.]

Aradin, in fairness to him, was understandably wary given the gods* of this world. He just asked what sort of prayer, and Larissa offered a prayer to her goddess, Mystra:

[(Cleric of Mystra option) May their journey onwards be filled with as many wonders as they enjoyed in life.]

And inevitably:

[Gale approves]

Wow, I'm sure this romance could never go wrong in any way.

*I know from other trial runs that the wording of the prayer can differ drastically depending on your deity—I played a bit of a Shadowheart game and her prayer to Shar is comically terrible—but the prayer to Mystra is actually pretty nice IMO.

[clericofmystra]

venndaai replied to this post:

Lmao I SUPPORT YOUR CLERIC

Thank you!!! I'm sure Larissa would appreciate the support, hahaha. I think the other priests saw her as a bit weird and standoffish but very devoted, so okay, and ... she is very devoted. Very, very devoted.

(If she and your Tav were friends, they'd be a fantastic bad decisions duo, lol.)

[clericofmystra]

My knowledge cleric is clearly living her best life!

(aka the party finished exploring the dank crypt, Larissa passed all the checks on the Book of Lost Gods, and we got three inspiration points)