#me casting speak to dead in BG3

[invinciblerodent]

these are the moments when I kinda begin to understand why everyone wants a piece of this dwarf.

sure, there are the normal things, like being kind, respectful, understanding, kinda cute, all that pish, but... yeah, the most attractive thing about him really is that there's probably no foe he wouldn't fell for you, if he likes you even just a little bit. It's objectively stupid the things this boy does with the literal only reason being that he wants to protect people.

in other words the fight in Ramazinth's tower was BITTER, Aylin was absolutely useless and missed like 80% of the shots she took, Jaheira spent most of it as an owlbear because the very FIRST hit almost killed her (tho that turned out to be kinda good strategy, at least she had her spell slots for later), and I literally only realized 100+ hours in that you can just. Chuck healing potions at people, and they work.

Which sounds counterintuitive, with the broken glass and blunt force trauma of it all, but it did save a life, so. I can't complain. It was a real desperation move, and I'm very surprised by it working, but I'm not gonna look this particular gift horse in the mouth.

[velnna]

WARNING FOR POSSIBLE BG3 SPOILERS!

food for thought, and this is my own personal headcannon:

on the forgotten realms wiki (last i checked), driders are described as drow who failed lolth, their punishment being turned into spiders from the waist down. this must hurt incredibly, to be rejected by someone you've been (assumably) taught to worship your whole life.

this brings me to my point: kar'niss.

he's crazed over the "absolute", absolutely adores her, and i like to think that part of this is not only the tadpole's control, but perhaps also an insatiable need to by accepted by a goddess. an authority figure, who won't reject him- since the absolute, supposedly, doesn't discriminate between followers. someone who, in his fractured mind, won't betray him- and to his knowledge, won't turn him into a monster.

and i think this idea is what could make his character really sad and tragic. he just wants an authority figure to love him and see him as someone special, guys. :(

If you cast Speak With Dead on him he literally tells you Lolth cast him out and the Absolute saved him and it breaks my heart 😔

[the-grand-gemini]

Big obsessed with all of the BG3 villains. The themes of the cycle of abuse/trauma in all of the main cast makes me feral over how the villains unfortunately do not/did not get the opportunity to be "saved" by Tav (if doing a good playthrough) and by experiencing the heros journey.

I could talk about Ketheric and Orin, but after reading @bearhugsandshrugs fic it got me deep diving into Gortash's character. It's amazing and everyone should read it especially if you're weak for Tav/Gortash like I am 👀💦

Trigger warning for abuse mentions below the cut.

Let me start with stating this is NOT an Enver Gortash apologist post, he's evil and he's done terrible things. This is just me yelling into the void about character foils.

Childhood abuse:

In game we really only get to know his history through background information that we can scrape together if you search through the city and the House of Hope.

We don't get any details on what exactly Enver went through as a child. We can assume neglect/possible violence from his parents given his mother's words and the fact they sold him. We get to know that he was beaten when living in the House of Hope, but not what other possible horrors he could have experienced there (not including just the trauma of witnessing the other debtors and Hope), what age he was, or for how long (if anyone knows more timeline wise I'd love to know) he lived there before he escaped. We don't know how he escaped either, if he had help or did so on his own.

I'm no child psychologist, but abuse has lasting effects as we can see through all of the main party. Victims of abuse tend to have difficulty moving past certain emotional stages in their life. Aka a person abused in their childhood may have issues maturing emotionally without therapy, etc (again I'm not a psychologist). There is a strong possibility that "Child" Enver is still probably holding the reins emotionally while adult Enver isn't even aware of how his past affects every action and reaction he has at all times.

I can't imagine how living with Raphael during ones formative years being healthy in anyway, but we can definitely see some of the learned behaviours he's picked up from the Cambion. A focus on possing/presentation, a suave persona, torturing/using people for his own gain, a general lack of empathy, deal making, similar attire with devil motifs...

Unhealthy coping mechanisms:

Speaking of attire, Enver's coat not allowing Fear to be cast on him speaks volumes to me. Imagine the absolute horror of moving from one situation of abuse to another much worse one in the hells as a child/teen and probably being in a state of fear/anxiety at all times. Enver wearing a coat that doesn't allow him to feel fear gives me three main thoughts:

1. He is doing everything in his power to avoid that specific emotion and therefore prevents himself from thinking about that period of his life. Meaning he is not confronting his trauma the same way the main party is forced to throughout the game.

2. Narratively does the coat prevent him from feeling any fear at all? Or do we just go with the game mechanic that ensures he cannot be made afraid by the fear spell? If it prevents him from feeling fear at all (which I think is narratively more interesting and you can take this headcanon out of my cold dead hands) how does this effect his every day decisions? Fear prevents risky decisions all the time, it's one of the emotions that actively keeps people alive. Psychopaths usually don't experience fear the same way an average person would. Given his many horrific actions (the Iron Throne being a key example) I wonder how much his forceful removal of fear has done to his perception of rational thought. If you aren't afraid of consequences what's to stop you from doing anything at all? Selling a loyal body guard to the hells, torturing an entire faction of people in order to manufacturer your own personal army, stealing from an immensely powerful devil aka mother fucking MEPHISTOPHELES??? He presents himself as calm and collected in conversation. He appears as if he's the most rational of all three villains when he's really just as awful when we look into what he's actually been up to vs seeing Orin and Ketheric kill people on screen.

3. Where did he get the coat? Did he make it himself or was it a boon from Bane? A promise to a devout worshiper that he would never be made to feel afraid or beneath anyone again?

Another abuser - Bane:

Speaking of Bane... Another user (please tag if anyone can find the original post!) mentioned a line Astarion says where he states that he prayed to all the gods, but none answered. OP wondered if Enver, trapped in the hells and desperate for salvation, called out the same way... only for Bane to be the only god to answer. I'd die to know specifically when he was introduced to Bane and made to be his chosen.

We know Bane is considered an evil god and we even find that if we kill Enver and then use speak with dead that Bane is torturing him in the afterlife for failing him.

Given this abusive relationship is Enver a foil for Gale, a man groomed from a young age by a goddess and left with the consequences when his actions did not meet her expectations?

Is he like Shadowheart, someone who was given no alternative and made to believe they willingly chose their god only to learn they were deceived and never had any other options?

Like Wyll he's cast out by his father (or in his case both parents).

Like Lae'zel he's worshipping a deity with false promises, how can he believe he'll rule the entire world like a god himself when Bane the god of TYRANNY would see no other at the top but himself (Was he secretly planning to use the crown like Gale to usurp Bane or just pandering to us)?

We know he and Karlach are absolutely foils for each other given that he is her abuser and like himself Karlach was forged by her times in the hells only to survive on her own merits.

Those are my thoughts! Would love to know anyone else's on the walking red flag that is Lord Enver Gortash.

If Enver lost his memories like the Dark Urge would he be given a chance to redeem himself through his actions? Could he with his knowledge of infernal engines fix Karlach's heart

Would Enver have ever become Lord Gortash if not for Bane...?

Anyways if anyone wants to yell at me about Enver, Orin, or Ketheric please feel free to do so! I love characters who fell through the cracks because they had no one there to help them only to crawl out themselves and burn the world.

[galesdevoteewife]

BG3 Details!👀

! SPOILERS ! BG3 is well known for its crazy level of details, sharing some that I find interesting and less mentioned! <3

1. Stolen Lockets This small dialog in the grove has a lot of twist! It started as Meli stole Barth's locket and they were arguing about it. (1) Meli'd claimed he stole it because it looked like what his mother used to have and Barth'd gave it to the boy since he felt sorry for him. Then Meli ran off with a devilish chuckle SFX. But, did Meli lie? You could find the same locket on the dead tiefling in front of the trolls.

(2) I only knew this from a YT video. Barth's mother stole the locket from someone else too!

2. Elminster speaks in a different tone if he's alone with Gale, or Gale is PC He has separated dialogs if Gale's alone/PC too. Also here's the audio track for comparison while he was casting Mystra's spell. I'd say he dropped the oh-mighty-wizard energy quite a bit it's funny 😂

3. I want to live 🎵 You can trigger 'I want to live' BGM by standing on the hill behind Astarion's tent at the first camp site, also the corner next to the ladder at Wyrm's lookout.

4. You can poison goblin's booze tub in act 1

All type of poison kills same amount of goblins so don't bother wasting the good ones XD And drow's does not but them to sleep, it would kill too.

5. You can save many last light inn's people If you wipe moonrise tower absolutely clean (except for the roof) before going into Shar's domain, they won't die on the bridge since there's no one for them to fight with. I killed all enemies included the eyes to get this result XD

6. You can't talk to people when you are silenced Duh, but wow!? The rule apply to most npc senarios too! I noticed this because the hag never begged to me until I dispelled the silence spell...!! You can't talk to your companion either, the talking action would be disabled.

7. Orin kills Zevlor if she has nobody to kidnap And left you a fancy painting of herself.

8. The wood log next to Minsc tent is probably Boo's hamster house...! 🐹 It's model's name is BLD_Camp_Boo_A and it does look like a hamster house!!!🐹🏠🥹 SO! CUTE!!!

I swear I was just going back to collect some references for making my tent design kit...😅🤣

[points-of-light-555]

Some in-character thoughts & headcanons about my Durge, Ambicatus. Hopefully, I'll write these into a fic at some point, but I am bad at finishing things, so idk. BG3 Act 1 spoilers ahead.

"My first thought meeting Karlach was... as little as I can remember, I know for certain she's the most beautiful person I've ever met."

"She calls me 'Blue' because of my scales. My heart warms to think Karlach cares enough to give me a pet name."

"I brew most of the potions for the group. If I manage what ingredients we have, I can make sure I always have a potion of animal speaking to talk to Scratch and the Owlbear Cub."

"Since Volo's 'surgical experiment', I've been very self-conscious about the artifical eye he implanted. It's green and looks like a human's, and my own eye is yellow, looking like a dragon's."

"When I found Alfira... I used Withers' Amulet of Lost Voices to cast speak with dead. I wanted to beg her forgiveness. It didn't help. It didn't help at all. That night, I didn't sleep. I just sat with her body and wept."

"Since that day, I've kept the lute Alfira gave me close. I play from time to time. Hoping that, somehow, I can honor her, and atone for what I did to her."

"Astarion frightens me. His embrace of his hunger... I worry about what he'll become in time. And I fear what he wants me to be as his ally."

"I don't remember whether I had siblings, but Shadowheart feels like a younger sister to me. I care for her deeply as a friend and as a comrade-in-arms. I won't judge her belief in Shar, but as we've travelled, I question whether other Sharrans are as pure-of-spirit as Shadowheart."

"Gale's friendship means much to me, but I wonder sometimes whether he sees me as a friend, an ally, or as some monster to be feared - he seemed far readier than the others to condemn me for Alfira's death. Not that I can blame him."

[wellthebardsdead]

Lucy: *an average girl and bg3 fan from our world, picked up by the nautiloid after walking home late from work, now staggering about after escaping the mind flayer pod* oh god- I’m going to throw up- everything’s squishy- whys it so sticky- *slams into the ground as the ship jerks violently* Ow- fuck, *pushes herself up as another jolt sends her flying out through the hole in the wall, her hands gripping onto the cracked organic like material and hard shell for dear life, only to free fall as it cracks and breaks off into a shard in her hand* NO!!! *screams as she rag dolls through the acrid sulphuric air, the first layer of the hells beneath her and fast approaching along with several devils flying towards the ship, one standing out above all else and heading towards her with a malicious bloodthirsty grin and a black warhammer emblazoned with silver motifs surrounding a skull* well this is it- *prepares to get bludgeoned by the devil only for the nautiloid to swing a tendril up and knock the fiend off balance, sending her flying throat first into the shard in Lucy’s grasp, the impact so swift it severed her head from her body leaving it to fall into the hells, without her head* god no no what have I done-

“Youve claimed victory, and her crown. Arch Duchess.”

Lucy: *blinks hearing a deep booming voice fill her skull and body, rattling her very soul as her body is suddenly engulfed with hellfire, changing to that of a lilac skinned cambion* what- *screams as four red arms hook beneath hers, the servants of zariel now at her command as the legions poised to kill her just seconds prior now save her* What’s happening?!

Cambion: your wings your grace! Fly!

Lucy: *feels the weight of her back flex as muscles she previously didn’t have kick into gear, large bat like wings taking flight as the devils let her go, her mind racing trying to catch up with what’s happening but falling behind one objective, don’t let the nautiloid leave without you* fuck! Fuck fuck! *narrowly dodges a red dragon flying by with Githyanki leaping from it to the ship* Don’t kill me I don’t want to fight!! *slams onto the ship and tumbles as her wings disappear* I’m alive- I’m alive- *looks up as Lae’zel drops down over her* I’m dead.

*several hours later*

Lucy: *groans awake in the sand and rolls over, to see the lifeless eyes of Zariel staring back at her* SHIT- *stumbles back to see the decapitated head sitting there beside her like a trophy, carefully placed like someone put it there* … *picks it up, feeling magic spark at her claws* … *casts speak with dead* h-hello? Who are you?

Zariels head: Zariel, former, arch duchess… I failed, Asmodaeus… you will succeed where I failed…

Lucy: I- no no I can’t I didn’t want this. What do you mean I succeeded?

Zariels head: felled. By mortal hands. The blood war unmoving. Elturel lost… my short comings too great… the disappointment too high… he does not deem me worthy of rebirth…

Lucy: rebirth… felled by mortal hands?

Zariels head: you are mortal no longer… my power, my crown, it belongs to you now…

Lucy: No no no!! I just work at a cafe! I’m not a- *drops the head as the spell fades* … a devil… *sighs and stands up, putting the head in a backpack left beside her, along with the everburn blade commander Zhalk so eagerly knelt and presented her with* … *sniffs her armpit and gags as the smell of the hells and nautiloid gunk and goo hit her nose* I’m… in baldurs gate… I’m going to cut my nose off when we reach the goblin camp… *looks ahead to see Shadowheart sprawled out on the sand* …she’s real… lae’zel is real… that means… Oooooh where’s that vampire?!?!

[blackjackkent]

Wandered into another random house near the Mermaid and chatted with this fellow, named Golbraith. He seems a bit... odd.

"He has twice the kills you did at that age. He knows the seven major arteries, the blind spots - everything. That mind flayer is done for."

"What are you talking about?"

"Forgive me, I was speaking to myself, a habit solitude has encouraged. Golbraith Stredivas - mind flayer hunter. My son is tracking one of the beasts as we speak."

Huh. That sounds like... a very, VERY niche specialty to have, and normally I would say it was a bad choice for an area of expertise, but I imagine lately it's suddenly come into quite high demand.

"Mind flayers are dangerous. He should stay away from them."

"You don't know my boy. He's twice the hunter I am, and the best son a man could ask for. I'd be by his side, but an illithid trap left me retired - permanently. My son has taken up the mantle. He fights tooth and nail every single day. I only pray its enough. That *I've* done enough."

Hm. This feels odd; Hector is inclined to say that this man speaks far too cavalierly of hunting and killing illithids, which have been some of the hardest fights they've had in all their adventures thus far, and which have only grown more powerful as the Absolute has grown in strength. But what good would it do to tell this man that his son is likely dead.

[CLERIC] "I can say a prayer for your son's swift return," he says, somewhat unhappily because it feels like a limited gesture under the circumstances.

The old man's face brightens. "Normally I'd refuse - we need sharp minds and sharper blades. But we could use all the help we can get. It is rare to meet someone who doesn't fear mind flayers. You remind me of an old friend - a hero of his time. Here. He gifted me this. Call it thanks for setting me at ease. They won't win, you know. The mind flayers. Not with my son fighting the good fight. And you."

The gift he offers is a shield:

Hee. Abdel Adrian is the canonical name of the BG1/2 protagonist in the novelizations (apparently very bad, but also not really the author's fault - they were rushed). BG3 seems to be running with the idea that Abdel did exist and was well known in the city at the time, but is not the same person as Gorion's Ward.

I got excited for a moment thinking this guy was a friend of Caden's, but this is fun too. Thanks, Mr. Golbraith. I'm gonna go root around in your basement now.

The basement is full of traps that cast Cloudkill, so Golbraith is really not fucking around tbh. Pretty limited actual loot though. Maybe his son took it all with him on the mind flayer hunt. XD

[optiwashere]

Writing Patterns

rules: share the first line of your last ten published works or as many as you are able and see if there are any patterns!

Oh, I love this one. Thank you @mikuchan for tagging me! 💜

1. Spent Cartridges and Scarlet Satin (BG3)

Turning the corner onto the street leading to her office, Shadowheart shrugged the collar of her black trench coat higher up to avoid any wayward eyes fixing on her for too long. Her boots slapped into a puddle, a wave skidding up across the sidewalk. She glanced to either side and peered down the alleyways she passed.

2. All Tied Up (BG3)

Getting herself into this situation had been Shadowheart's plan all along, but there was a vast difference between fantasy and kneeling on wooden floorboards with candle wax melting down her bare leg.

3. Worship at Her Altar (BG3)

Leaves crunched under Aylin's feet as she sped through the copse dimly lit by the half-moon overhead. Like so many nights of her long-distant youth, she ran from fallen log to forgotten footpath with nothing but the wind on her back. Clothes lay abandoned at the edge of the forest, the night demanding nothing but her body. In those old days oft recalled as lonely horrors, there was no Isobel.

4. These Broken Foundations (Malazan)

Tavore Paran walked the neglected streets of Kolanse City, her feet bleeding with each step. The people there, the Kolansii that remained hiding in their homes out of fear of what it meant to have an exhausted host of soldiers resting in the empty buildings dotting the city, paid her no mind. It was what she wanted, she told herself. The silence of all but her footfalls rested easy in her heart. Little else rested easily for her that day as Ganoes and the corpse of his army shambled behind them by a day at most.

5. As We Lay Entwined (BG3)

Shadowheart sat on the lip of a hill overlooking the crescent arc of Baldur's Gate's walls, her elbows slung over her knees as she searched the city streets for signs of life. Pockets of light trawled the city, tiny dots against the darkness, but in all it appeared as dead as the town they left behind in curse-freed Reithwin. Shambling through the night, lifeless.

6. The Line Between (BG3)

"You can't be serious?"

7. Out of the Dark (BG3)

The first touch of light after emerging from the dark is meant to warm the skin. Nocturne recalled reading that in a book on Selûnite philosophy that someone had gifted Shadowheart. It was a dull treatise Nocturne read because Shadowheart called it interesting one day and claimed that she might enjoy it.

8. Tenderly (BG3)

The idea struck Shadowheart at the end of one random, otherwise uneventful day. Lying in the grass in front of their cottage, side-by-side and staring up at the night sky’s glimmering stars and the silvery glow of a full moon, Shadowheart twirled her fingers through a loop of Asheera’s hair free of its braid.

9. Half a Sorrow (BG3)

There lay in Lae'zel's expression a ghost, a familiar cast that Shadowheart recognized.

10. Speak Uncertainly (BG3)

Standing on the battlement of the High Hall's curtain wall, Minthara leaned between the shattered merlons and rested her weight on tired arms. She surveyed the destruction of Baldur's Gate. So much potential lost, so many souls burned away who might have been useful for something more than dragonfire fodder.

Technically, a few fics (like Blades in the Night) come up in my recently published before some of the others I listed here. Those were either multichapters with a first chapter from last year, prompt collections posted elsewhere way before AO3, or zine fics. I skipped over those.

So, I expected there to be way more dialogue openings since I like doing that an awful lot. Instead, there's all these scene setting lines that also work to, I think, set up how the POV begins the fic before they go through whatever arc is within. I'd probably have to dig further back or look at the fic lengths to really break this down. I think it's likely that I do dialogue starts for the shorter fics, but then #9 and #10 are both ficlets. So what do I know?

Also, since I'm back on a writing tear, a lot of these fics are rather close together in terms of publishing date. Not necessarily writing date, though!

The funniest little happenstance for me is #4 and #5 characterizing large groups of people—an army after a pyrrhic victory and a city's population, respectively—as "shambling" corpses. I meant to use those metaphors as a way to show how morbid and defeated the POVs felt, but it's neat that the Malazan fic features such a similar metaphorical launch point to the Shadowheart character study. I wrote the Malazan fic months and months ago. I reworked a lot of it, but I kept the opening paragraphs, I'm pretty sure.

I'll tag @askweisswolf @cylinderarts and anyone else that wants to do this!

[likemosaic]

@sorrowsick : this is an interesting way of thanking me. / zahrosa to bg3-verse chiyo! prompt : baldur's gate 3.

"are you so in need of praise?" chiyo snaps, then grits her teeth to prevent more unwise remarks. her noble protector, bhaal's beloved son, is dead; should someone desire to cut her down, there will be no unholy retribution forthcoming. what are you doing here, bard of the gate? bargaining with an ally you barely know, for a lover who tormented you on his worst days and terrified you on his best? a death that should taste like freedom instead tastes like ashes in her mouth. monster that faust was, she grieves them anyway, like any dog grieves the master who beat them.

chiyo's desperate, and it shows in the way she paces in front of zahrosa. she regrets that she didn't cultivate more allies at court while she had the chance and has ended up here, instead, (poorly) cultivating the favor of a necromancer. or simply a witch; chiyo doesn't claim to understand what happens to the bodies that end up here. only that it was a convenient way to dispose of, well, a significant amount of bodies.

"...i suppose it was stupid to assume someone would have brought you his corpse," she admits, because yes, that would have been too easy. she has to get to faust's private rooms and investigate their death, use a spell to speak with the life that remains in their body. but cutting through the entirety of the cult to get to the personal quarters is impossible, even for her. she needs more. isn't that always the way of it?

"thank you for the information," chiyo says, finally remembering her manners with a dip of her head, "but it's no help. if their body hasn't been brought to you, then i need to get back inside the temple to find it and cast the spell." never mind that she'll need a scroll of it on top of everything, because her magic doesn't extend to necromancy. she swallows, ready to eat some humble pie.

"i am aware you are not...a miracle worker. but there must be something we can exchange."

[mrcrowblargs]

been a little while since I updated my BG3 log and I got lots done aaaa feeling excited and a bit sad that I'm nearing the end. I've really enjoyed this adventure.

After Cazador, took Gale to visit Mystra. Got some big news but I urged him to seek forgiveness and freedom over anything. I like that Gale is on the surface one of the good guys but he can fall into power corrupts as easily as say, Astarion.

On the hunt for the House of Grief I ran into THE WORST FUCKING QUEST EVER OH MY GODDDDDD this haunted ass house handed my ass to me over and over. I hated every inch of it.

Fashion time! It's so late in the game that you find new underwear

got one little tag on my doodle comic like "OP is in denial about the rotting teeth" and im just like I DONT SEE IT HONESTLY??? they just look yellow and like there's a of a snaggletooth.

More plot based stuff under the cut!

Wrapping up Shadowheart's quest was harder than Astarion's by virtue of TWENTY FUCKING ENEMIES I had to restart twice before the first round ended... made liberal use of Hypnotic Pattern. I didn't find it as cathartic an end as Astarion's but there was still definitely like, a release. And I love Shadowheart's last line there.

The reward was great tho. My bard now has 24 CHA baybeeeyyy

time to rescue Lae'zel (she was kidnapped before Cazador) and OH SHIT THATS THE SKULL FROM THE MAIN MENU SCREEN??? AAAA The Baahlists are a bitch and a half with all their murder status effects and I was SO GLAD I respecced Karlach into Barbarian 8 / Thief 4 for that extra cunning action when the "defeat this guy before he casts Power Word Kill at you" fight came up. What a fucking mess that was.

Fighting Orin was easier... I was not expecting her to transform into a big dumb monster honestly! I expected she would be teleporting around or use some shapeshift abiltiy to be all annoying but it was a really straight forward fight.

Oh, aaaaaannnd I did not fight Sarevok, so that was another Weird Ritual to inspire my tav. He's now an unholy assassin and I'm sure Astarion must appreciate the smell of being absolutely soaked in blood. I don't feel too bad about killing Valeria because she seemed like a terrible detective though I did have karlach skip her turns in the fight because I couldn't imagine her being for it. Like it's just pathetic.

Took Astarion to the drow twin courtesans... tbh I appreciate the game showing like, yes he is healing and doing better but some things you just don't get over right away. But I also want to get the spray bottle out like dude!!! don't force yourself!!!

I used a growth elixir on Karlach for the Orin fight which didn't use up that many character resources and the elixir lasted all day so... directly to the House of Hope with Karlarge it was!

Bit of a visual glitch because it reappeared later but it was nice to see Aldrich without the raccoon eyes and veins again. Just went around sitting on things in Raphael's house.

AND THEN UH???? UHH??? This supremely awkward scene with Raphael's personal incubus who looks exactly like him??? I didn't wanna start a fight because I thought Raph himself might show up but I could not pass the fucking Con check afgkdd

"you can have my body but not my soul" AGSFKHDDS???? I'm jelly tho I wish I had these eyes (but more purple) for Aldrich

Reloading and fighting the incubus was absolutely worth it for this Speak With Dead bit. the answer: he bottoms exclusively.

AND THEN THE FIGHT WITH THE BIG DEVIL HIMSELF!!!! I was already amazed when vocals dropped into the fight music BUT THEN HE WAS SIGNING HIS OWN BATTLE MUSIC???? It absolutely slapped. Amazing fight. I had Hope with me and convinced Yurlgirldsbfjs whatever his name is to join which greatly reduced the chaos. The only criticism I have is that it was a big of a slog getting Raphael down from 666 HP. but damn what a great loot payoff!

Getting near the end now. Of outstanding quests I have now, I gotta pass the hammer off to Voss, find/recruit Minsc, see if anything else is in the sewers, then sabotague the Steel Watch factory, infiltrate the Iron Throne, and confront Gortash. Then we'll see how it goes for the finale.

I'm still kinda worried what it will mean for my Tav going partially illithid and also aiming for freeing Orpheus. Seems like freedom really rides on the guy cooperating with us.

[elveny]

Listen. I'm as good as ignoring wonky world building as the next, but having a murder investigation in bg3 (with a whodunnit connected to it) when you find "speak with the dead" at EVERY corner - be it as a spell or a magic item - is just ridiculous.

And please spare me "but actually it isn't that common in Faerun" - no, I have to take the world as it is presented to me ingame. And magic is common as head lice. You don't even have to be a wizard to be able to cast.

[phantomram-b00]

So I had a bg3 dream and I want to talk about just how much of a parallel it is.

(Spoilers for bg3 act 3 and 2)

So, you guys know that scene where Orin kidnapped one of your party members and make a deal w/you? Well I had this dream but extended.

So in game and in this dream, Orin kidnapped Lae’zel and make an offer. Now Eivør (my tav), is not the type to be a pacifist. They made a threat to kill Orin. (This is based on what I choose in game). So as Orin was about to go away (now this is where the dream come in) Eivør. Was. Furious. So she went to punch her (Orin) before they went away only Astarion stopped Eivør for doing so and let Orin go away. There Eivør was atp crying and demanding for him to let go despite their damaged voice[1]; only Astarion then switch from holding onto the arm to then rather carefully in a slow motion hug Eivør. Over time, Eivør while still crying stop yelling and just. Let it go. Accepted the embrace[2]. Still furious as much as ever in the party atp was. But cries in astarion’s shoulder as she reciprocated the hug.

Now as I woke up, I was a bit confused. Why would Astarion do that? I thought maybe this was me accidentally mischaracterizing him in my dream. But then I realize something that happen in game:

Just before this interaction with Orin, the party bumped into Araj. She said that Eivør’s blood caused the explosion and want to discuss more but Eivør was overall more concern over Astarion given his last encounter with her back in act 2. Once Astarion said “it okay, I’ll be fine.” I decided to let Eivør hear Ajar out. That’s when Ajar suggests to make another formula, now this is where Astarion sorta step in again only to say “don’t do it, this formula will only hurt you and…I don’t want to see you get hurt”.

Now this is to mention in act 2, I choose for Eivør to hug Astarion during his confession as well as tell him “I care about you. deeply.” And I believe before going into act 3, he said when talking about Cazador because I choose I believe that “I want to make sure your safe” in which he said something along the lines “I know and I want to protect you too.” (I’m forgetting exactly the line but it was somewhere alone those line)

So now it sorta hit me like a train. I think the reason Astarion hug Eivør in the dream wasn’t perhaps a mischaracterization. I think, Astarion while absolutely trust Eivør, don’t trust people who are going to cast harm on Eivør (I.e Cazador, Araj, etc). So I think the reason he stopped Eivør was because he doesn’t want to risk what could happen to her (Eivør) considering Orin is part of the dead three and is chosen by bhaal, which is the god of murder, and is a shapeshifter. So who to say Orin would just kill Eivør right there and then. Orin already proven to be sadistic and I feel Astarion doesn’t want to risk losing them so stop them from escalating. And I believe the hug is to parallel from the first hug as he never knew he needed that. Needed comfort after many years of enduring so much absue, so much hardship, so much pain. So this was Astarion giving them the same comfort to Eivør after experiencing the worst outcome to ever happen in Baldur gate.

But that’s just me of how I interpret this. If anyone else wants to interpret this, go right on ahead!

[1] at 17, their vocal cord was damage from a event that happen and so while it’s been heal by clerics, they can’t exactly speak high or loud without it hurting so much. I’ll go in depth with their backstory soon.

[2] Eivør is the type to sorta repress their emotions due to the events in their life. Even growing up they try to get better but it’s still a battle which would cause Eivør to have a short-fused.

[fanartfic]

So I had this blurb pop into my head the other day, and I thought how it would be an interesting plot point in a quick fic. So in this BG3 fic our Tav, Meridia, is on a bit of a time constraint.

TW: Blood, puking, eluded loss of a loved one.

Surprise near the end. Enjoy :)

~~__~~__~~__~~__

A Tight Schedule. . .

Part 1

Meridia's body ached all over. She leaned up against a rock to catch her breath. The sky above her began to swirl as the ground rushed up to greet her. She caught herself in time, however, landing on her hands and knees as she felt her stomach churning. Her breakfast was coming back up to greet her.

Great, just another thing to add to the list of terrible things today. After expelling the rest of her stomach contents, she coughed and wiped off her face. Heat from the nearby fire was getting closer to her.

She had to get out of the wreck, and find a healer fast.

~~~~~~

"Meridia, are you alright?"

Meridia felt a warm hand on her back as she wretched next to the stone pillar. She leaned her forehead against it, appreciative of its coolness.

"Sorry, it's a weird thing I have. . . Blood makes me puke." A half-truth. Blood didn't make her squeamish at all, but ever since the crash that coppery scent made her vomit.

It had been around a ten-day since the crash. Since then, she had met up with other survivors. Everyone was so different that it was hard to get along, and for some reason they looked to her, clearly the youngest of them all, for guidance.

She looked up at Wyll, the warlock who had recently joined their group, and tried to smile. "Why do you think I hang back and sling arrows all the time?"

"I just thought you didn't like getting your hands dirty," Wyll teased.

"I get them dirty enough, thank you very much," Meridia said pointedly as she yanked an arrow out of a corpse."

"Will you two please shut up. Lets get a move on before more goblins show up." Astarion sneered across the room.

"I'll just be a moment." Meridia pulled out her waterskin and rinsed out her mouth as she came up to the dead drow that laid on the floor. "I'm going to nab me some armor."

"Where in the hells is the prison in this place?" Gale wondered as he peered at some carvings in the walls.

"I don't know, you could always ask the locals." Meridia pointed at the rats scurrying about.

"Ha ha, very funny.' Gale crossed his arms over his chest. Meridia was young, but she certainly had a sharp tongue on her.

"No, I'm serious." Meridia rolled her eyes and cast speak with animals, a trick she had learned from her father before he had died. She turned to a rat on the floor and asked. "Where are the prisons? I'll give you some cheese?"

A few moments later and the group was trudging up to a large wooden door in a part of the ruined temple that they hadn't explored yet. And a very happy rat had a whole wedge of cheese to himself.

"Can't believe we're taking directions from a rat." Gale muttered under his breath.

"Just get ready." Meridia scolded. "I knew I should have had Lae'Zel come with instead of having her and Shady scouting for that creche."

"If they haven't killed each other by now," Astarion smirked as he pulled out his daggers.

Merida laid her hand on the door and listened for a moment. She held up 2 fingers, then swung it wide open.

Gale was ready with rather thunderous anticipation.

~~~~~~~~~

The bear lumbered slowly towards Meridia after swatting the head off the last goblin. The beast was huge, with scarring above his left eye.

"Free. Finally!" The bear growled. Meridia had cast speak with animals to get directions from the rats. She wasn’t expecting the bear to be so conversational.

There was a burst of golden light, and suddenly there was a man standing where the bear was. One definitely befitting Rath's description. He was huge for an elf, or even a half-orc. He stood easily at almost seven feet tall, with the bulky frame to match.

He flung some goblin blood from his hands onto the floor.

"Pardon the viscera. One should cherish all of nature's blessings, but goblins guts? Heh. That's pretty far down on the list."

Meridia felt positively green about the gills as the nausea swept over her. She almost didn't hear the druid as he continued.

"Not only did you speak with a bear, but you willingly set it free not knowing if it would savage you?" He laughed. "A true friend of nature, or, perhaps, a lunatic."

"At this point. . . Probably lunatic," Meridia covered her mouth with her hand and stumbled towards a nearby bench. The druid, concern written all over his face, was at her side in moments.

"Forgive me, I did not realize you were ill. I am the druid, Halsin." He took Meridia by the shoulders and guided her to the bench.

"Oh, she's not sick. Blood just makes her squirm," Astarion twirled a dagger in his hand as he nonchalantly cleaned the crimson off of it.

Meridia glared at him before introducing herself. "I'm Meridia. The asshole is Astarion, the gentleman is Wyll, and the grumpy one in the corner is Gale."

"We've met," said Wyll, as he shook Halsin's hand. "Good to see you unharmed my friend."

"Glad I was when I saw you in my rescue party," Halsin smiled at Wyll before turning his attention back to Meridia. "That look in your eyes. . . Are you feeling alright?" A warm golden glow emanated from his hand as he surveyed Merida's body. A look of shock, then profound pity washed over him. "Oak Father preserve you, child, you're infected. So that is why you have sought me out."

Meridia found herself zoning out again as Halsin continued and answered questions from the others. She felt so tired she didn't realize she was swaying until she bumped into his shoulder.

"Gods, Mer, you're exhausted!" Wyll rushed over to her to steady her.

"I'll carry her back to the grove where all of you may rest. It's the least I can do." Halsin stood up quickly and, despite Meridia's protest, scooped her up in his arms. "Come to me, little one."

Meridia glared at Wyll for a moment, who merely smiled at her cheekily, before admitting defeat. Halsin picked her up like she was a feather. She felt as if she were being carried to bed by her father again. Without even thinking, she snuggled into his chest, illiciting a short chuckle from him.

As the others began leading the way, Halsin trailed behind them a little. Meridia appreciated the distance from her companions for the time being, even tho she caught Wyll glancing back at them in worry from time to time. Halsin however, appeared to be studying her closely. Meridia found herself growing uncomfortable under his scrutiny. Finally he spoke, quietly, almost at a whisper.

"You're with child, are you not?"

Meridia felt her chest begin to tighten as she looked up at him in a panic. Her heart was pounding, and she could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. Was he going to tell them? Make her stay at camp while everyone else searched for a cure? She couldn't get any words out to refute him, so she did the only thing she could.

She nodded quietly.

"How far?" Halsin continued to probe.

"Seven, no, eight ten-days, give or take." Meridia replied.

"Where is the father?"

"I don’t know. We got separated."

"Silvanus save us," Halsin bit his lip and looked away for a moment, getting himself together again. "I am so sorry, little one."

Merida leaned into his chest, seeking any comfort she could. "Please don't tell the others." she pleaded.

"It is not my place to tell," Halsin reassured her. "But make no mistake, I will be keeping a close eye on both of you.'

Meridia's voice caught in her throat. "The-the baby? They're okay?"

Halsin nodded with a smile. "They are fine. Quite strong, in fact. Like I see their mother is."

Meridia sighed in relief and relaxed into Halsin's comforting hold, then, since she didn't have to hold it together any longer, broke down into tears of relief.

Halsin held her closer, shielding her from the concerned gaze of her companions. This little human, barely into her twenties by the look of it, had already endured so much.

He would help her as much as she would let him.

After a few moments of silent tears Meridia sighed and wiped off her face.

"Gods, I hate crying. I always get a massive headache afterwards." She quipped, sniffing.

"Do you feel like walking?" Halsin asked.

"Sure, I'm getting a little cramped."

Halsin set her gently on her feet, then dug into his pouch. He pulled out a little golden berry that almost looked like it was glowing.

"This will help with the headache." He said, placing it in Meridia's palm. "And perhaps the nausea."

"Oh thank gods." Meridia popped it into her mouth. "Mhmm. Tastes like honey!"

"Better?"

She felt a calming warmth spread through her belly and she breathed a sigh of relief as the pounding in her head and nausea began to fade.

"Lots. I might actually get a full meal in me tonight."

"That would be for the best." Halsin offered her an arm.

Meridia looped her hand through the crook of his elbow. She felt so small compared to him, but in no way did he cause fear from her. Not even when he was in bear form. He walked slowly, matching her pace so that she didn't over exert herself. They walked in silence for a moment before Meridia squeezed his arm.

"Do. . .Can you tell me what I will be facing next?'

Halsin looked down at her. "As far as the unwelcome guest? No. Those have proven an anomaly I can't explain. If you are referring to your little one," he glanced up to make sure the others were out of earshot. They weren't, but they were so busy bickering about something that they weren't paying them any attention. "You will have the sickness for at least another ten-day, maybe more." Halsin checked again that the others weren't listening. "Human pregnancies are usually around 26-28 ten-days. You will begin to show probably on the 12th ten-day. From then, it will be difficult to hide."

"Right, so I have around 4 ten-days to figure this out this whole tadpole business before I have to tell the others." Meridia sighed and rubbed her neck. "Gods that's a tight schedule... Why did this have to happen to me?"

Halsin patted her hand. "You will be alright. I will help you every step of the way."

Merida glanced up at him. "Why tho?"

Halsin seemed taken back at the question. "I want to?' he said questioningly.

Merida shook her head. "But you're an Archdruid of a grove. You can't just drop everything and leave. And we literally met less than an hour ago!"

Halsin rubbed his neck nervously. "Well, I also have reasons to go to Moonrise, and since you're going to have to end up there anyways, I might as well tag along."

"Tag along?" Meridia saw right through him. "You want to get out of the grove, don't you."

Halsin chuckled "guilty as charged," he said. "Truth be told, the politics of the grove have me off balance. I have been pulled away, disconnected from nature. I believe my path lies elsewhere now."

"And it just so happens to be with a ragtag group of vagabonds who barely know each other and might just kill each other before the Absolute turns us into mind-flayers?"

"Nature can be strange in that way."

Merida laughed. "Ha! I guess so."

[raptorix]

When you get in a new video game fandom with enough lore & NPC cast, sometimes you latch onto some minor characters that have *just* enough story to start with, and then you get fixated on creating the rest of their story for funsies.

BG3 has me thinkin' about the Gang of Tiefling Children.

So Act 1 I did my best to endear myself to Mol and her gang. Snuck into her hideout but admired what she was building and paid her some gold to get her set up. Saved Arabella from the Druids. Alas, I did not save the little boy from the harpies! I found them later in Act 1 after they had already gotten the boy. :(

In Act 2, I did what I could to help Mol win her game against Raphael, but also tried to warn her of the consequences of Warlock Pacts. I headcanoned that both Barbie & Wyll sat her down and did their best to explain what can come of a Warlock Pact and her goals of replacing the head of the Thieves' Guild in Baulder's Gate might earn her more enemies.

And then my last time playing I found Arabella outside the House of Healing, looking for her parents. She demonstrated her new druid powers she got from attempting to steal the artifact (The Oakfather likes her.) Sent her to my own camp and then found her parents were killed by the creepers inside the House of Healing. I have plans of recovering their remains now, casting speak with dead on them, and then trying to 'bury' them somewhere nicer.

So now I'm wondering about the rest of the children? One offered me a spellbook he was gonna give to Rolan if he wasn't being a drunken shit. ((Hey kid you keep that and learn some spells.)) The one running the shop has self-taught himself enchanting, and I think the kid has potential to take up Artificing. The non-verbal lookout kid, Doni, could possibly take up being a Barbarian.

We have the makings of a proper adventuring group with Mol's gang!

[mossy-rock-in-a-field]

Today my mother and I started Act III in Baldur’s Gate. I also informed her that a few hundred people on tumblr think she’s neat for playing BG3, and it absolute made her day! She appreciates the love and thanks you all for agreeing that she has wonderful taste in funny wizard men.

Here’s an abridged list of today’s shenanigans:

My mother’s hoarding habit continues. She made me double back through Rivington because I ran past a goblet on the ground near the refugee camp and didn’t pick it up. She still won’t let me sell anything, by the way. Last I checked, there are fourteen cauldrons in the camp stash.

She is getting increasingly concerned about Astarion as we get closer to the Lower City. The way he talks about the Rite of Profane Ascension is really stressing her out and she’s worried she won’t be able to talk him out of it when the time comes. (Astarion’s approval is Exceptional; she really has nothing to worry about, but I haven’t told her that just yet. I know she’ll be pissed if I even vaguely hint at a spoiler.)

She doesn’t fully trust the Emperor because my mom is super ride-or-die for Lae’zel, but she can’t deny his uses at the moment so she didn’t immediately side against him. Seriously, she takes Lae’zel EVERYWHERE. (Taste, honestly.) I’m not sure what she’ll choose when it comes time to choose between Orpheus and the Emperor at the end of the game because you risk Lae’zel leaving your party if you don’t free the prince. Should be interesting.

My mother aced Zethino’s love test with Gale at the circus. I actually disagreed with her first answer because I didn’t think Gale was as “wholesome as an apple,” but my mom stuck to her choice and would like ALL OF YOU TO KNOW that she “knows her sweetie best.” She is very proud. (then Orin showed up and my mom was like “aw shit cmon”)

She was utterly delighted to be polymorphed into a cheese wheel. She then asked me to rob the cheating djinn and abscond with all his treasures, but upon finding out they were all junk, she requested a little arson instead. I chucked some alchemist’s fire and immediately got attacked by the guards. Her only response was, “Oh dear.”

She really wants one of Boney’s custom statues for the camp. When she saw the 5000 gp price tag, she pointed at a nearby building and requested that I rob it for her to get the remaining funds. When I informed her it was a monastery for followers of Ilmater, she said, “Oh. Well, I’m sure they’ve done something wrong recently. Get that money.” We are planning to get the statue soon.

Every time I cast Speak with the Dead, my mother spends at least fifteen minutes agonizing over her choices. She knows she gets a limited number of questions for each corpse, so she REALLY has to think about which ones she wants to ask before Tav says anything. I keep wanting to tell her it’s not that deep, but it’s just so funny to watch her weigh her options like she’ll ruin the game if she chooses the wrong one.

She has figured out how to dismantle traps on her own! I left the controller with her when I went to the kitchen for some lunch, and by the time I got back she had figured out how to highlight a trap and roll to disarm it. And thank god she didn’t mess up because it was Arfur’s basement with all the fucking fireworks. Now every time I find a trap she asks if she can be the one to disarm it.

I might play more with her later in the week if she has the time. I’m so glad everyone is enjoying this as much as we are!

Several weeks ago, my retirement-age mother requested that I play Baldur’s Gate 3 for her because she has trouble with controllers/keyboards and wanted “to see what all the fuss is about with that cute wizard boy.” For context, my mother and I have done this sort of thing in the past with certain RPGs (dragon age, mass effect, etc.), but it’s been a few years since she’s personally requested a game like this. Basically, I control her Tav but let her make all the choices so she can determine how the story plays out without worrying about mechanics. She treats it like a choose-your-own-adventure book.

Anyway, here is a list of some of the things my mother has said and/or chosen to do throughout the course of BG3 in no particular order:

She is (obviously) romancing Gale. She is quite smitten with him and his passion for books and learning; she also thinks he’s polite and qualifies as “relationship material.” She also REALLY likes the things he’s said about his cat so far (my mom is a cat lady), so I know she’s gonna flip shit when we meet Tara in Act III.

She’s playing a normal druid Tav with a generally good alignment. Her favorite spell is Spike Growth because she thinks it’s hilarious whenever enemies walk into the AOE and die. I usually end up having to cast it at least once per battle per her request. Sometimes twice.

Contrary to her alignment, my mother tasks me with robbing every single chest, crate, barrel, and burlap sack we come across; this also includes people and their pockets. The party is always at max carrying capacity. ALWAYS. She doesn’t like selling things because “what if I need them.” The camp stash is in literal shambles. There is no hope of organizing it. She’s got like fifty seven sets of rags and a billion pieces of random silverware.

She MUST talk to every animal and corpse in the game. I think five hours of her total playtime so far (47ish) has been spent speaking to animals as many times as humanly possible. Like, I was thorough in my own playthroughs, but this is on a whole other level.

She did NOT get Volo’s lobotomy, but she did let Auntie Ethel take her eye in hopes of a cure for the tadpole. I did not understand the logic then. I still do not understand it now.

She is far more interested in fashion than equipment stats. Do you have any idea how much gold I’ve had to spend on dyes just to make things match? SO much. Same vibe as that “please someone help me balance my finances my family is starving” tweet but instead of candles it’s thirty thousand fucking bottles of black and furnace red dye.

We broke the prisoners out of Moonrise, but they got on the boat too early and bugged the fight by leaving Astarion and Karlach behind. Wulbren Bongle somehow got stuck in combat mode even after engaging the cutscene on the docks below Last Light; he he kept trying to run ALL THE WAY BACK TO MOONRISE nine fucking meters at a time while I frantically tried to finish the fight with the Warden, otherwise Wulbren would have run straight into the shadow curse. (I would’ve let him go; fuck Wulbren Bongle, all my homies hate Wulbren Bongle. But my mom didn’t know that, and she wanted to keep him safe. So.)

She had me reload a save like eighteen times to save the giant eagles on top of Rosymorn Monastery. Wouldn’t even let me do non-lethal damage just to get past things. I think getting that warhammer for the dawnmaster puzzle took us like an hour and a half alone. (Yes, I know you can use any warhammer, but SHE didn’t.)

She’s started keeping an irl notebook to keep track of her quests between play sessions. She writes down ideas and strategies when she thinks of them during the week, then brings them to her next game session at my house. I think she wrote about three pages on possible approaches to the goblin fortress alone.

She insists that I pet Scratch and the owlbear cub before every single long rest, no exceptions. Sometimes I have to do it multiple times until she is absolutely sure that the animals know exactly how much she loves and cherishes them. She has also commissioned a crocheted owlbear plush from a friend of hers and is very excited.

I’m sure there’s a bunch of stuff I’m forgetting, but those are some fun things I thought of. She’s enjoying the game and is telling all of her retired friends to get it and play it for themselves. She asked me “what is Discord” yesterday and I think my life flashed before my eyes.

anyway shout out to my mom for being neat

[cerisahh]

DEAL WITH A DEMON

pairings — alastor & reader

request — this probably qualifies as a crossover, so if it does and you won't do it just let me know. but on the off chance this is something you like; headcanons for being a warlock in bg3 and your patron is alastor. what unique powers you'd have, how you became a warlock under him, what he has you do, what the terms of your contract are, etc. - @the-mic-drop

tags — mentions of cannibalism, reader is owned by alastor, manhandling, tentacles, reader becomes evil, reader may or may not have killed their companions, open ending

cerisa speaks — writing this was difficult but fun, crossovers are actually more fun then i thought they would be so i'm opening them up after this LOL

・　as a warlock you are bound by a pact to an all-powerful patron, trading your loyalty and devotion for unusual abilities and supernatural powers.

・　the downside? your soul is eternally bound to, and owned by that patron.

・　you had been practicing some spells in a dusty old spell book you had found in an abandoned library. you were no wizard, nor a sorcerer by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn't hurt to have a few basic casts in your back pocket in case you find yourself in a tough situation.

・　how were you meant to know that one of these long forgotten spells would open up a portal to the underworld?

・　alastor being near the other end of the portal could be mistaken for fate or destiny, but it's merely coincidence.

・　he had been on his way to another meeting. it's the third time in a fortnight and he was feeling thoroughly irritated with the lack of competency displayed by his fellow overlords.

・　for a portal to the overworld to open up right in the alleyway he was in? well, who could pass up such an opportunity!

・　you're shocked when he steps through the portal. although the portal creation was accidental, the stench of the hells was unmistakeable. how in the hells (literally) did you manage to summon a fiend?

・　it doesn't take much convincing on alastor's part to get you to sign your soul over to him, you're not aware of how big of a deal it is. poor you. lucky him.

・　the terms of your contract are simple. your immortal soul and servitude for a portion of his hellish powers.

・　everything stays relatively normal after the creation of your pact. alastor only really calls on you if he wants someone dead in the living world, or when the creature he calls 'niffty' wants someone to play with, almost being disembowled by her was... certainly an experience.

・　since you're not from the same planet alastor died on (his inhumane grin faltered when you asked where earth is), he teaches you how to create portals.

・　your newly gained powers include:

・　shadow manipulation. your own natural shadow becomes sentient and can hold mental conversations with you. it's a lot like having a twin that you know the whereabouts of at any given time. and what they're feeling and thinking. it's odd, but now it's an extension of yourself.

・　portal creation. now with just a thought and a destination you can portal to wherever and whomever you wish. the only drawback is you can only create one every ten minutes.

・　spatial warping. an extension of your shadow manipulation. you can materialise and dematerliase into your shadows.

・　object creation. however, this is limited to smaller things. for instance, you could create a castle out of thin air, but not an entire village.

・　after you get abducted by the mindflayers and have escaped the nautiloid, alastor contacts you on your first night at camp.

・　he is FURIOUS. you’ve never seen alastor angry, he’d never gotten mad in front of you. annoyed, yes. mildly aggravated, sure. but this was an entire step up.

・　before you can think any further, you are manhandled by a shadowy tendril and lifted a considerable amount in the air, high enough that you’d surely break a leg if you fell.

・　you learn that alastor had tried to summon you whilst you were indisposed. and if you had known one thing to NOT do whilst binded in a contract with alastor, it would be to ignore him.

・　after informing him of the situation he calms considerably, you’re still elevated off the ground by his magic, but now only at a distance where you would sprain a wrist. small victories!

・　he leaves you after a thinly veiled warning to not disobey him again. it’s unfair, but unfair is what you signed up for when you sold your soul to a demon.

・　as your party progresses further, your commands from alastor get bloodier. when before it was simply killing people (if that could be called simple), and leaving the body for alastor to do with as he sees fits, you were now told to dismember and cook your victims.

・　an upside to this is that your powers grow more powerful with every gruesome kill, alastor is bestowing you with more impressive abilities as a reward for mutilating people.

・　you end up being manipulated by him to try and take control of the mindflayers, because why leave all that power just for someone else to grab!

・　some of your companions stay with you out of false hope that you will change your mind, the ones that left? well, there were complaints that dinner tasted strange for a few nights.

・　you die eventually, after a life of sucking the power out of any being your patron deemed fit for death, cooking up people like venison, and flaying your enemies.

・　eventually, after what felt like an eternity of being in a void, you open your eyes to an outstretched hand and that unnatural smile you had become so accustomed to seeing.

・　"welcome to hell, my dear! how nice of you to finally join us."

© CERISAHH 2024