#next time im probably going to fold for gale

[solace-saphylos]

The fresh hype and memes is good and all, but I wish Baldur's Gate 3 was an old game with its story mechanic fleshed out in online guides down to the littlest node.

Withers called me bitchless. I've rejected every romance advance I've gotten. I have not pursued anyone. The one I want is Karlach, but I'm in act 2 and she's not made a move despite being able to hug me. Have I been assigned a no romance route by role-playing a shy monk?

If this was a JRPG from 1998 Google would have an answer.

[shardclan]

"You're Hypnosis right? The Grey Witch of Clan Shard?"

The fae looked up from beneath the brim of his hat, and clicked his teeth. "Gods, ya look just like 'im."

He sighed, and flitted up a bamboo stalk to be properly on the level with this obvious member of the Shard dynasty. "What's your business then? Sibling or scion?"

"The scion," she growled.

"Oh. Well, beg pardon your future Shardlyness. Only I note you're far from home an' without an entourage."

"And you're far from home not minding the new spirit, so that makes us both a little suspect doesn't it?" She sat. "Now do you want to play the 'why are you here' game, or do you want to get on with it?"

Hypnosis chuckled, and leaned back against a stiff shoot, making himself comfortable. "A strong-headed one, eh? Fine's fine then, what's bringin' you this far to see the Grey Witch?"

"I need to know how to make a soul produce memories in a body."

Hypnosis didn't flinch. "I presume you're meanin' a body that ain't the souls native home. Well, memory is a finnicky thing, technically it resides in--"

"The brain. Yes, I'm aware. Memory is a function of the brain, the soul doesn't have quite the same thing, but it has an analog. Something purer and frankly better at capturing the essence of being albeit in not-as-fine detail. I've gotten a starsweeper to remember a dragon's memories, but a starsweeper is all energy. It doesn't have to connect memory to a brain in order to recall anything."

"Strong-headed and proud, you." He shrugged. "But smart too. You say you got a starsweeper to recall a dragon's memory? How'd you come to that?"

The scion stared at him, and shifted her jaw thoughtfully before she took a deep breath and told him everything. About how she managed to recall her brother. About how she was even able to recall Maat by using Horizon as a bridge and seeker. The more she talked, the more animated she became until her theories were spilling out of her so fast that any other dragon would have had to tell her to slow down.

But Hypnosis just listened, and when she was done, he set down his staff and looked at her with eyes that seemed to have aged 10 eons. "I want you to heed me, scion of the clan. You're toyin' with things you shouldn't. This all has the feel of Opal’s interference on it. Especially the part where Ascalon came and tipped you off."

"Opal hasn't been in the clan for months. He was banned from the Isles scarcely after I was born. And the coven has already told us that Ascalon, mysterious as she might be, is always in the Isles and has never left it. What could he possibly do?"

"As little as he needs to, but well beyond enough to cause a disaster. And you're not knowin’ ‘im only makes you a simpler pawn."

"I'm nobody's pawn," she hissed. "I'd like to see my father and aunt get some closure before they go. It's a simple goal that I can reach if I just have the science to do it, not some unspeakable criminal act."

"Aye," Hypnosis said, with a hint of grim delight. "I've often thought the same. So say it to me plain, scion of the clan. Tell me you understand that you're snatchin' what belongs to the gods and you're ready to blaspheme if you can have all yer pretty theories proved right. Tell me you're prepared to do what's dark an' risky an' dangerous to get the result."

"The Arcanist has no shortage of children, one would not be missed even if it's blasphemous to think so. I will do whatever it takes." Her eyes flicked, and she added: "Except kill. Torture. Anything like that. I don't want to hurt anyone."

"For sure."

The scion twitched a bit. Hypnosis didn't have the typical fae monotone, because he'd been a snapper once. And it was very obvious to her that he had just tried to stay monotone, but she just barely caught the leer in those two innocent syllables.

"Pain's a useful tool to be fair," he went on. "But if you're creative, you won't need it. I can't abide by it either, so what I use an' what you'll need is--"

He fired a raging gust from his staff just above her head. There was no pain, but the sudden there and gone screech of the wind was like a chorus of gale wolves all howling at once.

The scion was pinned to the spot, fins flared, claws ready, tense as a spring. She was more confused than afraid, but the adrenaline was moving through her either way.

Hypnosis grinned. "--a good shock."

"A shock," the scion said shakily. "A shock, okay. You didn't have to demonstrate."

"Wouldn't want ya to go away thinkin' I meant anythin' electrical." He touched the rim of his hat respectfully. "An' you're the  Shard-to-be, wouldn't be nice of me to go diggin' in your mind for somethin' to give you an emotional shock with."

"You don't strike me as a nice type anyway."

"That an invitation?"

"No." She smoothed herself down. "So the soul needs a shock to mesh with the body and push processable memory into the physical brain, then?"

"In as many words, aye. Of course, it'll also have to be a mighty strong ego to override the existing soul. 'Less you're implyin' you've got a soulless vessel ready."

"That's a detail you don't need to worry about,” said said, rising to her feet and turning away. “Thank you for your time."

"Scion," he called after her. "Warnin' ya once more: Opal don't need to be in the clan to manipulate what goes on. You're better off leavin' this be."

"If you're so worried about it, you should come back soon and advise us instead of hiding."

The scion lifted off and sailed on the currents in a wheel to gain height. It ws not far back to the isles, and she set her mind on what she needed to do next. In truth, she didn't have any idea how to proceed with getting a soulless vessel. Camellia and Heaven would probably be best to ask about that, as the clan's necro- and animancers. But Heaven would never do anything he perceived as taking life, unless he could also give it. And Camellia...took being the Arcane representative very seriously, and was the last dragon the scion wanted involved. She had even suspended study on the exaltation of the last of her siblings so that Camellia could come and bless them and see that her parents and Shard Sliver had made peace with the process.

She would not be able to seek help in clan Shard for this. For this she had to look to the other half of her lineage. The House of Xanna would have answers.

But House Xanna was outside the Starfall Isles. She trusted herself in the wind territory, it was close by, and she could immediately return home. But the further out territories she was worried about encountering Opal.

She was weeks old when he was banished, and Hypnosis was to be heeded on that point: She had no idea what he was capable of.

She was beginning to worry that maybe she should set this aside. Not out of personal desire, but because for all her stubbornness, she wasn't so invested in her research that she was blind to the risk. But time was running out. What good was the research if it didn't reach fruition before Fragment and Sliver and her mother were gone?

As she landed back in Clan Shard territory, her anxieties seemed to fold up and wash away. Something inside her raised an alarm at the suddenness of the calm, but that too faded into a vague memory of being concerned over nothing.

Hadn't her mother said that a different member of the family was in the Isles? Her brother or something. Surely if she was wary of going too far away from the clan, she could safely inquire with him. She could get her answers that way, and continue her research with no worries.

Everything was fine.