#oh my god. act 3 rolan my heart goes out to him

[starryjellyfishies]

You would think my favorite character would be any of the companions or any semi-main character but no. It's Rolan, I want to see that man succeed so badly!!!!!

[barbwillbrb]

Waiting on my car to get fixed, so here is more info-dumping about my tavs Rackal and Clairice, along with the slight AU I’m working with:

- The monastery got destroyed. They had the artifact to prevent it from going boom in their inventory. Clairice saw the shiny and yoinked it. Cue prolonged eye contact.

- Rolan joins the crew in Act 2 post Last Light Inn to find the Nightsong, having been convinced no one good is associated in its acquisition and there has to be something fucking wrong with Lorroakan if that’s the case.

- Per my silly Rolan headcanon post, he learns he’s a sorcerer. Specifically a Wild Magic one—it just turns out when you are exceptionally good at suppressing your emotions/dealing with panic attacks on the regular, you can be pretty good at controlling your surges. Who knew!

- That is until the resident know-it-all-wizard, meaning very well, decides to dump that info on him without much precedence. Rolan can only take so many life-altering changes in a week, and sets off a metaphorical bomb in camp that may have burned down two tents (causing Minthara to switch up her hairstyle in the aftermath), turned Scratch blue, and polymorphed Rackal into a sheep.

- The Ketheric Thorm/Myrkul fight poses a moral conflict for Rackal, as he very much understands why Ketheric succumbed to Shar and isn’t sure whether or not he would do the same if the opportunity had presented itself at the wrong time. He is propositioned with the opportunity to bring Meirin back and switch sides, but ultimately chooses not to. I have not decided yet if Ketheric lives in my AU, so that’s still up in the air.

- Clairice’s major turning point is Last Light Inn. During the bulk of Act 1, she isn’t really grasping the scope of the trouble they’re in (although tbh it’s just a coping strategy she’s barely aware of; think blind, “it is what is is and we can’t change it!” type optimism/recklessness). Deep down, I think she really believes that they’ll find some cure in time and that the tadpole thing is really a lot smaller in scope (like okay, there are people popping up with these things according to Halsin/Nettie, but it surely can’t be that many, right? Maybe it just seems like a lot because the Grove is so isolated [don’t ask her what a reasonable number of tadpole infections is]? This has got to be just some weird shit, right?). But then suddenly they’re in the Underdark and all these Twat Souls are here apparently kidnapping genius gnomes who can build bombs, and now there are fucking Gods getting involved?! And then they’re crossing into the Shadow-Cursed Lands and see all the dead tieflings and nothing is okay oh dear god no what was the fucking POINT why do this hero nonsense?! I think what actually makes her kinda snap out of it/get her head back on is 1) Raphael and Mol (something about a devil going after a desperate kid in the middle of a battle torn refuge camp just puts everything into perspective and switches her from “eh, he’s just kinda silly” to “i needed him dead yesterday”) and 2) the assault on the Inn. From there on, she goes from “we are so so fucked” to “GET FUCKED.”

- Without a singular doubt, Clairice hates Raphael. I think they have a pretty interesting dynamic from Act 1-LLI, and even after she sets herself against him she knows to play the long game. Getting into the House of Hope is less about the hammer for her and more about getting Mol’s contract/causing as many problems as possible.

- Clairice and Minthara get together halfway through Act 3, sometime shortly after Clairice’s rescue from Orin.

- Rackal and Rolan also get together in Act 3, and to everyone’s fucking horror they’re worse than Clairice and any of her liaisons.

- Rackal goes to Avernus with Wyll and Karlach, with the trio returning a year later when her heart’s fixed. He keeps in contact with both Rolan and Clairice through sending stones, and returns to Rolan when he’s back.

- Clairice meanwhile is off helping Minthara deal with her bullshit down in Menzoberranzan. She’s causing chaos and having tons of fun.