#i finished shadowhearts personal quest last night and

[soclam]

one of my favorite things about building out victri's characterization has been finding where her line in the sand is. she's very much this "good for goodness' sake" type from the start. she helps the refugees in the grove because they're in need of help. she's here and it's the right thing to do so of course she's going to help them? and if anyone mentions it, she genuinely doesn't believe it to be anything extraordinary. she knows logically that not everyone would risk so much for strangers, but she can't fathom walking away from a situation where she has the power to help. even when her companions are like "hey, we can't save everyone" she just replies "but we can still save someone"

but the flip side of this is her deep thirst for retribution. especially against people who hurt those close to her. someone inflicted this horrible trauma upon this person that has been nothing but a treasured friend since the moment they met. of course she's going to kill as many people as she has to in order to take that power away. she has a personality that inclines her to try and forgive, but killing the people she can't forgive becomes as easy as breathing. just like helping those in need - it becomes a reflex, a non-choice, because she fundamentally can't imagine doing things any differently

[optiwashere]

WIP Wednesday

I was tagged by @askweisswolf! I'll tag @tacticalgrandma @underworldobsessed and @amorficzna to see if they have anything they're working on, and anyone else is welcome to consider me tagging them if they want 💜

I was going to share a sneak peak of the next Blades in the Night chapter, but I'm still tinkering with too much of it. Have this angst bomb instead.

This will probably read as rather depressing, and content warning for the loss of a partner, but I can only say that I would never, ever give these two a downer ending.

For context, this snippet comes from a letter that Shadowheart writes in the middle of the fic. The fic isn't in first person POV. Shadowheart's staying at an inn and something motivates her to write something she's been trying to finish for years.

Wouldn't it be so simple if the solution was adventure? A new quest to undertake, the key to everything resting behind felling some great evil. The call of adventure couldn't stop what happened, but I can't blame you for that even if I'm still heartbroken that it took you so long to tell me what was happening. I can't be upset long. This life was an adventure, our life. Our adventure. Together, we survived the deepest lows and together our highest highs could have lasted forever. Never once did I want for anything. With you, every day was an adventure. Love's great adventure let me live the life I never thought possible, and all because of you. Without you, there would never have been a cottage and we would have never had Buttons, or Jarlaxle — sweet Jarlaxle, you loved him so much, don't you remember? — and I would've never seen Nocturne again. Life hasn't fallen apart, not really. It keeps spinning on and on in this mad way. What I know as my life, what I wanted and what I can't have now, that's gone. All I've left is waking, walking, working, and sleeping. I eat when I remember to do it, and I know you'd be furious with me for forgetting so often. If it makes you happier, I can get to sleep without much trouble. I think part of me wants to sleep, you know? When I sleep, I dream. When I dream, I see your face again.

[stealthnoodle]

I got my cheevo but figured I'd made it this far on my Tactician-with-arbitrary-bonus-rules run, so why not finish the game straddling every class at once?

Raphael didn't pose as much of a problem as I expected (critical success to talk Yurgir into fighting on my side even though I slew his ass in Act 2 always helps), but my pack of clowns all stood on top of the hellfire while I talked to Hope after the battle, and after seeing a bunch of failed saving roles against nothing pop on the side of the screen, I exited dialogue and found them all dead.

Shadowheart babygirl I thought you had the brain cell today

So they were all writhing around with severed souls when I got back to camp, and losing their debtor disguises stripped them all naked and somehow put bugged Jaheira back in her normal camp clothes for the night. Courtesy cut for genitals flopping about:

Wyll has also been bugged ever since his dad died off-screen, in the form of a permanent [!] over his head but no dialogue options except the ones about tadpoles, over and over. His personal quest ends here, I guess. SORRY WYLL (and SORRY KARLACH, since whatever was going on with him prevented him from stepping up to take her to Avernus in the ending 😭😭😭)

In happier news, Minsc looks fucking fantastic in a pink version of the Mutilated Carapace:

So I tied up what loose ends I could and set sail for the endgame. Can't leave camp for good without petrifying Mizora first.

I think it's neat that even though Jaheira is buggy as all hell, she showed up for Minsc's rousing speech, and her Harpers showed up to distract a dragon for me. Suck on that, quest journal.

Had a surprisingly easy go of the final battle, too. Anyway, we've saved the world! Time for me to cry over Karlach and then have a romantic moment with Shadowheart:

Jack of All Trades, Master of Getting One Last Wild Magic Surge During the Epilogue

[swordscleric]

I'm finally through to Act 2 of BG3 having lost all my progress due to a hard-drive error and it's been interesting playing through a game that's a) definitely been discoursed to hell and back and b) is now basically finished?

Like doing a Resist Durge playthrough as opposed to a regular Joe Schmoe is clearly the intended path; I'm having more fun with my Durge Bard than I did with my non-Durge Cleric mainly due to the additional content in the story (although I am a little spoiled on what the Durge is but still no spoilers please). The other thing that's a little frustrating is that I may have messed up some conversations (Shadowheart's love of night orchids comes to mind) and even though I have near max-approval with everybody bar Astarion (and we'll get to him) I feel like I've missed some conversations that I didn't the last time around? And it's a bit annoying that I have to be hyper-aware to that.

Last note about Astarion - I don't care about him. I had the same issue with Lae'zel tbh where both of them prefer greyer/clearly less-good options but Lae'zel's difficulties with Vlaakith and learning the truth about Vlaakith's chosen won me over. Maybe I'll need to put effort into Astarion next time (if I do another run) and he'll win me over but... his cattiness and general spiky exterior has not endeared me to him in the same way that Gale, Wyll and Karlach's openness and charm, or that Shadowheart and Lae'zel's clear conflicts of faith have. He's just a little too mean-spirited for me at the moment - and I know why! Cazador seems like a monster and I understand why he's grasping for the power to kill him (Necromancy of Thay, Raphael, the tadpoles). I think it's a personality clash on my part, but I'm finding it very difficult to care about a man who seems to only see the darkness in people and seeks maximal control over people to avoid getting hurt. I'm sure his personal quest and if his approval with me was higher he'd be more affable and would take the steps to realising that Cazador is the outlier in society and not the norm for people with power (and certainly not something to be emulated/repeated) but it just rubs me up the wrong way in the same way that a lot of terminally-online people do - only seeing harm and hatred in people's hearts and always assuming the worst rather than even attempting to see neutrality and nuance in people.

[seraphfighter]

I finished Shadowheart's personal quest last night and I've been thinking about Aila, who purposely ran away from her parents. How fucked up she would be over seeing Shadowheart with her family.

How, after seeing them all hug and cry, she'd probably sneak away to go cry by herself. Because she feels so fucking guilty. She had a family. They weren't perfect, but family never is. And she abandoned them over some petty grudge, whereas some people don't even have one and want nothing more.

How deep down, she knows her parents would be overjoyed to see her even though she's spent the last 20 years scared of seeing them again. And now, she doesn't know if she'll survive to see them again.

[renlyslittlerose]

Finished BG3 last night! Thoughts and spoilers behind the cut!

When I started the game I had just finished a rewatch of Better Call Saul, and ended up basing my Tav off of Saul and his personality, motivations, etc. At the start she just wanted to survive and come out on top. While not evil or mean, she definitely tried to rig the system in her favour wherever she could in order to survive.

She was selfish, honestly. Though still supportive of her companions and she helped those who needed aid, there was always that lingering sense of "but how does this benefit me?"

In her quest to survive she allowed the Emperor to turn her half illithid, and consumed multiple tadpoles in order to see she got to the finish line. She allowed a strange drow to turn her into a walking fire bomb, and she didn't outright deny any help - even if it meant potentially making a deal with a Devil (or his incubus).

But then we get to the choice between Orpheus and the Emperor - of freeing an unknown and potentially dangerous man, or siding with a damn liar! And that's when shit caught up to her. She realized that this was more than her and her survival, and that she needed to let the chickens come home to roost. She chose to free Orpheus and then became an Illithid herself. She finally made a choice for the greater good, rather than just for herself and what made her happy.

Besides: in for a penny, in for a pound. She was already half illithid, and half her brain was swimming with tadpoles.

We ended up saving the day and saw Orpheus and Lae'Zel off with a smile and a promise to never forget what my Tav had done for them nor their people. Managed to convince Karlach and Wyll to go to Avernus, and convinced Gale to forget about the damn crown.

Later on my Tav broke up with Shadowheart, both realizing that as a mind flayer they wouldn't be able to live much of a life together (when she walked away from Shadowheart her little leather suit was squeeking and I lost my goddamn mind). My Tav wandered Fae'run for a bit, trying to keep her humanity and memories, until the party where she met up with everyone she'd sacrificed so much for.

Other than having a sudden desire to eat Astarion's brain (despite it being 'less wrinkled than most people's), things seemed okay. Not great, not happy, but okay. Gale offered her a teaching position at his side, and Jaheria made her a Harper. But the looming sense of dread is always there - that eventually my Tav will lose herself, and either become a monster as she'd always feared or end her existence before she hurts anyone.

And I like the ending. I like the sacrifice she made. I like how a selfish, inward looking person was able to finally do the right thing and complete an action done out of pure altruism and love. It's bittersweet but fitting.

Overall the game was good! But it needs some polish - especially in Act III. Excited to see if the company can put some extra polish on it and fix things. I'm willing to be patient considering I'm a fan of Cyberpunk 2077 😂

[hellbentbedhead]

Yo back at it again with the Baldur’s Gate character obsession

Meet my Dark Urge

Promise.

She’s not only a baddie but she’s the light of my life.

She’s a modded subrace of tiefling called nightborn, which implies she’s descended from a pact with a night hag.

Again. Like all my runs so far, she’s romancing Astarion. Because I love him.

She’s resisting the urge so far but I do go out my way when I’m playing her to kill more things, mostly goblins so far as I’m still in act one with her. But I do make a point to intimidate my prey into a false sense of security before I attack.

I also have this bit of personal rp lore that I manifest and project onto the game of her dream visitor looking like her mom, even though she doesn’t recognize the face(Just Durge Things✨)

Her mom is also a baddie ngl

Anyway my usual party around this run(I didn’t do this last time cause I was too excited to talk about birdie lol) is Astarion(obvi), Karlach(my beloved), and Shadowheart(Shar’s favorite)

Again if you have any quest about her, my game, my mods, or my run, shoot me an ask or message :)))

spoilers for npc storylines below

With Astarion I Do Not plan on ascending him. Even though I have seen clips of him ascended and he is hot as hell.

With Karlach I am on the road to fixing her infernal engine with Dammon, which I just forgot to do in Birdies run due to trying to get through the story as quickly as possible. And lemme say it’s upsetting to me I gotta wait till act three to get any further with fixing her :((

With Shadowheart I plan on not letting her kill the asimar of Selune lesbian, so she abandons Shar and gets the white hair and stuff. Thats what I did in my last run, even though it took a some save scumming on my part.

Last session I had of playing her I fed Gale and woke up after getting the dream visitor cut scene. I had just finished killing True Soul Gut and wanted to recharge before I killed the three leaders.

Yo

Just realized I’m allowed to talk about my baldurs gate character whenever I want, and I’ve been holding this shit in so-

Meet Birdie,

Gold Dragonborn Druid with a noble background,

She is engaged in a romance with Astarion and is my main play through at the moment.

She’s a very persuasive person and tries her best to avoid combat when she can, but will now bitches down when it comes down to it.

I have a whole backstory in my head for her that the game simply cannot express.

I play the game with mods which help me play this game like a dating sim with combat mechanics lol

If you’d like to ask any questions about her,(or my other runs) please do, my inbox is open

(Keep in mind I am just getting started on the under dark in game so no spoilers)