#halsiks

[sanchomps]

shop update is live! invite these bug or crab-like aliens into your home, at your own risk

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[expressilla]

stargazing 💫

[mademoisellegush]

Enver Gortash, né Flymm: a tentative timeline

OR: I try to make sense of whatever the fuck is up with the Dark Urge's oiliest ex-fwb

enver flymm lives with his parents, sally and dravo flymm in the lower city, cobblers for generations, etc. he tinkers a lot, "traps and mechanisms", described as "needy, foolish, wicked, demanding attention, very crafty, smart boy - too smart" "He was always a little monster. Nasty to the core. He would've torn me and Dravo apart with his whining, his demands, the never-ending racket of him!" (note: they note that they made enver feel powerless, and this would have been the inciting incident that made him feel justice= revenge and fear)

the parents owe money to The Guild, the criminal organization that basically ran Baldur's Gate behind the scenes (everyone either owing them money or getting kickback / blackmail from it)

a warlock shows up and offers money for Enver. they sell their son to said warlock.

Enver seems to have changed his name then, either the warlock doing it or him denying the flymm name?

warlock then brings Enver to the House of Hope - I assume Raphael might have been his patron? which would mean raphael wanted enver from the start. Nubaldin, who used to work in the prison of the House of Hope, calls him "a mischievous little blot of a boy, who slipped through his fingers"

at some point during his stay in the prison of the House of Hope, Enver figures out about the Crown of Karsus held in Mephistopheles' vault. he escapes the house of hope

back in faerun's plane, he starts moving against the Guild. There's a report to Nine-Fingers, Guildmaster, of "upstart smuggler Enver Gortash making inroads on the illicit arms trade in the chionthar valley", though states it's more like "annexation", replacing the Knights of the Shield and the Zhentarim. definitely had a grudge to bear against them lol

Notes that seem to be from somwhere in this period of time:

"lavender scented diary of lady wisteria jannath" where hes like. seducing this old pariar for the diamond ring worth more than her mansion.

a letter to franc, a now deceased arms dealer, where hes like being a freak about how "weapons distributions continues like a parent saving their drowning child: swimmingly" and also how he loves "any man willing to birth a little more slithering wet malice into the world"

1482 DR (for sure, from dialogue with Karlach saying it's been ten years), he's selling Karlach (who looked up to and liked him !) to Zariel in order to get the prototype for his Steel Watchers. because i think he can't be satisfied with what he actually has, he wants *everyone* to like him, through being terrified of him and his weapons.

at some point, meets with the Dark Urge and ally together. they steal the crown of karsus with halsik's help. the Absolute hoax is put into motion

they get ketheric and myrkul in on it, after the crown heist, by digging isobel up so she can get necromanced.

Gondians fit here (as the note by Vance Farnol places it)

not too long before the game (at most a year? two?), orin poisons and tadpoles the Dark Urge and goes to Ketheric and Gortash to act as Bhaal's Chosen. Dark Urge becomes a test subject chew toy for Kressa Bonedaughter at Moonrise.

gortash tadpoles his parents "months" before the game, as sally flymm states if you talk to her.

My question: when did Enver Gortash find the Emperor/Balduran and bring him back under the domination of the Elder Brain, as part of taking down the Knights of the Shield? Or when he and the Dark Urge had acquired the Crown? does anyone have a screenshot of the interrogation sequence between those two?

(note: the emperor has a devnote for the emotions the Voice Actor was supposed to express when gortash proposes an alliance thats like. Yeah he's lying but i hate his guts, and you could always betray him first)

[baronofhousespider]

Drumming his thick fingers on the side of his throne, the Spider suddenly looks to his left, only to find the normally occupied space empty.

“Avrok?”

Leaning forward, he looks to his right. Arrha raises his head, confused, looking up at the Baron. Halsiks twitches from his position, but he didn’t turn to look.

“Bah. He must have snuck off somewhere.”

[searsage]

Cry Of The Magpie

When Spider demands his presence in his grimy ether stained office Uldren finds himself less then surprised when the kingpin gleefully announces the familiar warlock purchased him for the night, but quickly finds himself counting his lucky stars that it was simply an older man who sought his audience and not that knight again..

While the strife was slowly starting to suffocate under the weight of the system wide treaty, it was well known there still was a quiet animosity brewing between the awoken and hive, treaty or not, there were many wounds gouged between them, and the blood of wrath would never evaporate in its entirety, even if there were no longer any corpses boasting it's pools.

This silent hate for each other poisoned the lower classes of their societies as well, it didn't help that the hive ritualized pain and not in the gladiatorial way the cabal did... if a hive purchased an awoken prostitute it wasn't simply because they were enamored with the unstable light of their skin..

Thing is awoken were rare especially in...Uldren's predicament, not many could afford him and that made things a lot easier.

Unfortunately Uldren had been rather lucky with his clients, until the last year or so, poll duty had unintentionally landed him as the morbid fixation of a very persistent hive knight.

One who was more than willing to pay Spider for his compliance, while any well rounded establishment would never have accepted these dubious negotiations, knowing full well the malice behind such intentions..

In the eliksni king pin's eyes dirty glimmer still shined...

A shaky hand reaches up to fuss with his streaked hair, attempting to hide the scar marring his face whilst trying not to obscure his vision, Spider warned him only cabal would hold appreciation for such a devaluing scuff of his merchandise...

So he often tried to hide it, and while he didn't explicitly care about the grimy Eliksni's views on his personal image, the scar disturbed him as well, everytime he looked in the mirror it sent a trimmer up his spine, a scarring reminder of what could have happened.

And a promise on the knight's behalf.

He knew they would be back eventually.. It was only a matter of how appealing the offer would be to Spider! No doubt he'd try to wring them for all they had for the trouble they caused on their last visit but..

Eventually greed would win out and He would find himself in that..thing's possession for the night.. A night the awoken feared he might not survive..

"Oh! Valask!" The awoken hummed, startled from his panicked train of thought as a dreg seized him by his shoulders, leaning in to press her sharp mandibles against the raven's temple before releasing a soft tight hiss, the smell of ether fills his nose as it escapes her rebreather.

It was a gesture of comfort, one he sorely needed, and was thankful for but Savek offered him one more comfort, in the form of relieving information before she departs on another raid.

"The warlock does not spill, spider knows not of your failure little magpie, will you try again, to spread your wings..?" Savek inquiries with a tilt of her head.

Her question is met with hesitancy, his sharp yellow drifting to the ground with uncertainty.

"I'm not sure yet..but...I'll let you know when I make up my mind..Hasiks couldn't be there, I... thought I could handle it on my own..things didn't end well.."

"Anrah and Halsiks have acquired their fare, we will not depart without you little magpie, if you cannot accrue the odds, we will salvage it from the fool.."

The vandal hissed, her grip tightening as her mandibles spread to reveal her dominant teeth, but Uldren was quick to quell his friend's rising anger.

"No, I have a plan! I...i just need time to perfect it, okay? Stealing from spider will just get a bounty put on all of our heads, he will come after me, and he'll likely chase you down too if you piss him off...i don't want that for you. it's better to just be a face in the crowd, okay? We will get out of here, I've got this handled okay..?"

Uldren reasoned, his hand drifting down to gently rest on the stump of the vandal's recently docked appendage.

He knew she was afraid, and in reality the awoken knew these words of assurance were little more than a bitter lie to placate the dreg before her fear gave way to something reckless, Uldren had no clue of what he would do, or how he would make up the money to escape the shore.

He needed time but as he selfishly weighed his options others waited on his call with baited breath.

"You lie little magpie, your time runs out, the hive, they have offered again, not for night but for purchase, spider has turned down many offers but only for more, he will relent when offers stop...I've seen them they are not like you. Uldren you will die.."

Savek hissed her tense voice sounding almost shrill in her furious panic, no doubt she was recalling her passage in the trials of sorrow, a brutal trial of life and death and perhaps the winner's salvation from their transgressions against the osmium empire.

Even now the drag wore the scars of her survival engraved in her malnourished chitin.

"I know, and the hell I'll be going anywhere with them, I'll get the money, just don't do anything rash okay..?" Uldren pleaded, guiding the vandal's face to look him in the eyes.

For a moment she leered defiantly, a rebuttal primed on the edge of jagged teeth, but eventually his friend relents, her ether filled gaze drifting off to the side sadly.

"Three days my claws will still, I do not speak for others, but my word is yours, Go, subdue warlock, keep him quiet." Savek sighed deflating as she let go.

"I will, tell Anrah I said good luck!"

"Three days little magpie.."

Uldren watched her leave with narrowed eyes, the facade of false confidence souring into a bitter apprehension, Uldren had little options at the time, and the revelation Savek had revealed to him only made his situation seem so much bleaker...

He could run, but without a fare off this shattered rock, Uldren would eventually be wrangled back by desperate souls looking to cash in on the bounty that would no doubt be placed on his head.

He wasn't keen on entertaining another creep without at least someone else he could trust to ensure things didn't go wayside again..

He's face to face with the door long before he realizes it, his eyes staring blankly into the mite bitten salvaged cork as his mind went rampant with worry, oddly enough he felt strangely self conscious about meeting the older warlock again, even if there first meeting was less than glorious and the awoken looked far less appealing with a bloody nose.

Uldren still felt he owed the man gratitude in the form of a good time, it's not everyday someone has the balls to stop a cabal from smashing your face in.

And even if he was just another patron looking for a body for the night, Uldren felt oddly intrigued by his presence..

He gives a preliminary rap on the door, venting out his anxiety in the form of dragging his fingers against the door's steel frame.

"Ah, yes he's here, you can come in. Are you ready to listen now?" A muffled voice called and Uldren found his eyebrow arching in weary confusion, was someone else in there..?

The awoken hesitated, alarm bells going off in his head, was it a set up..? Things like that didn't occur often...at least not in predominantly eliksni establishments for obvious reasons.

Carefully the awoken opens the door slowly, his gaze quickly flickering about the room, the older man is standing by the far side by the window, but Uldren spares him his attention, dismissing the warlock's presence for a moment in favor of ensuring he was indeed the only patron in the room.

And relievingly a through sweep revealed that the warlock was indeed alone, internally Uldren deflates shutting the door behind him.

"Hello, I-"

Uldren moves to introduce himself, but is immediately greeted with an upheld finger as the warlock turns to him with a phone crooked between his shoulder and neck, and a pinched and slightly agitated expression.

He seemed to be engaged in a hushed but heated conversation with whoever was on the other end...

[telestoapologist]

sunny sees halsiks and scur-v while everyone’s gathering and immediately runs over to give hal a big lift-hug, and gentle forehead bumps to scurv -u- they missed their old crew mates…

[avernusfuries]

"If it's all the same to you, the House of Hope looked just about as empty as Cazador's palace does the last we've been to it. I'm fairly certain that Halsik fellow wouldn't mind terribly letting us through... And with my newfound talents, I can be incredibly persuasive when I want to, my love. Even more so than before." (have an ascended vampire boyfriend making plans with the love of his life after this thing ♡)

Once upon a time, Karlach had learned what it had meant to love him. She understood him in a way that some never could. Not completely. She knew a thing about unwilling servitude, and though both experiences had been entirely different from one another, they had been as equally as brutal. She had wondered, in the aftermath of his ascension, if she would have to learn to love him all over again. A little differently. The fact that he would to Avernus with her with barely a second thought, and stall his power grab on the throat of the city to ensure that she wasn't alone, proved to her that he was still the same man she fell in love with.

Different, but the same. He no longer carried his fear like dead weight on his shoulders, his stalk more proud and a glint in his eye that she imagined he might've had long before the grips of immorality and the shitstorm that came after it had taken it from him. Karlach loved this version of him too. They would be as devoted to one another as two people could truly be, and in Avernus ... Well, that was as rare as teeth on an owl bear or tits on a fish.

A part of her wished that she could thank him properly, and in her own way, she did. She did in the I love yous and the viciousness of battle when she was in the heat of it, when her body took hits meant for him and utilised that pain and turned it into anger. Karlach wouldn't have to worry about her old heart failing her, because there... here she was in her element. He was a quick learner. Would use his newfound powers to strike fear into the hearts of any that crossed the path of the terrible twosome, and fuck, had they fought.

Zariel would hardly grant them a moment's peace, and Karlach and Astarion would be formidable foes for they had the one thing her best soldiers couldn't replicate: a bond and synergy that was more than head-deep, it was webbed and threaded throughout the both of them in a way that no amount of burning, scars, or near-death experiences couldn't kick. Suddenly, very suddenly, the looming threat of the hell didn't seem so bad. Dread was briefly replaced with a girlish sort of excitement that made her tingly all over.

As much as she wanted to give him an easy life, and to love him how he deserved to be loved, it was not in the cards for them. Instead, they had an entire lifetime by each others' sides.

Fuck, they would make such a good team.

She had never put much thought into what would've happened to the House of Hope after they had run it through. It would longer held the same busyness in the absence of Raphael himself ( good riddance, Karlach thought! Fucker got what was coming to him! ). It was a stroke of genius at its finest, and Karlach could have fucking kissed him. Almost did, too, before she caught herself. Karlach let out a small bark of laughter. "Gods, I never even thought about that place. Burnt it out, after that stupid fucking song got stuck in my head."

It was far enough away that Karlach and Astarion would have a moment where they could recoup and recover when the need arised, and with devils enjoying the privacy of their own homes ... It would be exactly what they needed.

"And I know a thing or two about those persuasive talents of yours. Fell victim to them a time or two." A pause. "In a good way, I mean. You're good with your words. If they don't work, I can scare Helsik into giving us the run of the place, don't you worry."

[karekuat]

Squished like a bug

[baronofhousespider]

“Don’t kill him if you can avoid it. Beyond that? I don’t care.” There’s a pause, and then more words, ones that seemed to stick in the old Baron’s throat.

“If you find Porrtia, get her out of there. Halsiks is supposed to be with her, if you can’t find him either, locate Avrok. He has a tracker on his helmet.”

“Peixe! I need to call in a favor. One of my Skiffs has been taken hostage by a pirate crew. I only just now got a distress signal through Crow, I need you to go and see if you can figure out what going on, and keep me updated!”

Peixe will toss a handful of glimmer onto the table.

"On it, Spider!" She starts quickly toward the door, then pauses, and grabs one last swig of her bubble tea before rushing out of the resturaunt.

[sanchomps]

stocked up on these stickers as well :]

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[expressilla]

Guard duty on a peaceful day.

[baronofhousespider]

Spider did not press her further, at least, not in the vein of her own innocence. “Did you see what ship?!”

His voice was strained though he was trying awfully hard to contain it. Without waiting for an answer, he stumbles off, making a quick call.

“Halsiks! You may have a stowaway on your ship.” A pause. “No, no, no, she’s not dangerous, but she may be a nuisance. Dont hurt her, just bring her back in one piece!”

“Skitters! Have you seen Porrtia?”

Skitters glanced up from the thread she'd been weaving into cloth to busy herself.

"Skitters... has... a while ago..."

She was going to lie, cover for Porrtia a little longer, but quickly decided that was a really bad idea.

[sanchomps]

hey, i'm dropping new eliksni themed stuff in my shop on august 5 at 5pm ET! come join their pirate rp

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[sanchomps]

the crew is back for another voyage 🏴‍☠️

Big Restock is ready to set sail tomorrow at 5pm ET!

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[sanchomps]

he plunder my booty til i _____ (fill in the blank!)

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[baronofhousespider]

Skitters might be up to something. she's been getting restless and her attempts to sneak out have been ramping up.

this time, she may be in the vents. if the muffled chittering and cursing is anything to go by. She also might be lost. Who knew navigating a ventilation system could be so confusing? -3v3ryd00r

Halsiks’ eyes weren’t as good as they were a hundred years ago. But they were still sharp enough to notice the dents and scrapes leading into the vents. And he sighs, heavily, tapping on the metal siding. “So, have you rethought your whole existence yet, or do you still need some time to brood?”