#so gale and wyll mean a lot to me because i see a lot of myself in them

[prismalmelonman]

Touching on Gale, Wyll, and Halsin's traumas being a bit undermined in parts of the fandom

So one thing I notice on Twitter is how some people act about the bg3 characters whose abuses were perpetuated by women.

Gale specifically for this reason (but I will touch on others)bbecause I see him dismissed super often as "can't get over his ex".

But Gale's case obviously be has the line of Mystra being like "she was my muse, my teacher, and then my lover" and sure to some that's a red flag in itself (when it comes to adults I don't really give a fuck about teacher/student) but if you view it from not only Gale's own words "ive been connected with the weave for as long as i can remember"

And that doesn't distract from his genuine love of magic of course. And it also doesn't mean that he's actually been in connection with mystra for an amount of time.

However, if you ascend Gale, and he becomes a god, you get a bunch of new little things. Tara reminiscing of course, but you get a letter from Elminster, detailing that Mystra had Elminster scope out Gale when he was eight!

And sure is that pretty cool that he's a prodigy that got the attention of the goddess of magic at that age? Yes. Mystra is, however, known in forgotten Realms lore to seek young young boys who are in tune with magic to make into her chosen. And from context clues, her chosen can be anything from Elminster and Volo, dedicated wizards who try to keep things in check, etc etc. or they're somewhat of playthings to her.

Minsc also has a conversation where me mentions that weave-touched boys in his homeland were hidden away to hone their craft, then suspecting that it was because of Mystra, given Gale's case.

Gale always seems so proud that he got to bed a goddess, and on the surface, hell yeah, that's cool.

Gale continued to have her attention even as he went to Blackstaff Academy, and Mystra eventually did take him on as an apprentice directly to her, later making him her chosen, and sleeping with him.

The reason it bothers me that people dismiss all of Gale's stuff to just "he can't get over his ex" is because that's is like almost textbook grooming? She was in his life from a young age, shaping and moulding him up as he grew up to be her perfect chosen, rewarding him by sleeping with him, and so on. And then of course casting him away when he has his folly with the netherese orb (and to be fair, it very well could have looked like to her that he was trying to seize the power himself and yes the orb does siphon off weave. That is a problem for the mistress of the weave yes).

But she also tells gale to KILL HIMSELF for her forgiveness.

Gale is much more than "unable to be over his ex" this woman was in his life since he was a kid. She's almost all he has ever known. If course it's going to be difficult for him to 1. Say no to her. 2. Get over the fact that he's lost someone that he spent his literal entire life dedicated to. Honestly if asked, I don't even think Gale would acknowledge or really see that what he went through was, in fact, abuse until it was spelled out in front of him. (Which does happen somewhat with the player character pleading to him that killing himself for mystra's forgiveness is actually horrific and that he should in fact be angry for how he was treated)

Similarly, and this one has been discussed a lot, Wyll and Mizora. Wyll was 17 and actively trying to help his people. 17, in a vulnerable state, willing to do anything to help and prove himself. Mizora very clearly took advantage of him, and regards him as a "pet", refers to him being "leashed", and so on. Personally, I do dislike the sexualization of their relationship, because it very much is also grooming (although a different type. Rather than manipulating and shaping his life from the ground up, she takes advantage of a vulnerable and desperate state to manipulate and contract Wyll into doing her bidding. I won't go too deep I to this one because it has been discussed to hell and back. But I did wanna touch on Wyll's situation as well.

Also, Halsin as well, though that has also been discussed in many retrospectives by a very good friend of mine. Halsin's trauma often get dismissed due to his polyamory, open sexual nature, and his own somewhat diminishing/dismissal of it, which honestly I love the representation of, cause for a while I did that with my own trauma. Halsin was a sex slave to a house of Lolth-Sworn drow, a matriarchal society, where the men are generally used as fodder or for breeding, though male Lolth-Sworn drow can be wizards and rise in the ranks if wizardry, but are limited everywhere else. (Minthara mentions that the third male, and every subsequent male child after third are killed for being"useless"). Halsin often referred to them as "hosts" rather than being captors, (though he does touch on that if the Player Character threatens to sell him back into slavery). Again, everything I'd have to say here for Halsin has entirely been discussed top to bottom by a friend, their link is below!!

Anyway, long story short, I dislike it a lot when Gale, Wyll, and Halsin's traumas and abuses get diminished, even if/when the character themself doesn't see or acknowledge the abuse in the same lens that we, the players, do.

[partially-controlled-chaos]

My mother has absolutely fallen in love with Gale and it’s the single funniest thing I’ve seen in a while.

So for some context:

My mom is in her late 60’s and can’t live alone so she lives with me. She enjoys watching video games as an alternative to tv (this woman played the hell out of the PS1 so I’m not surprised). She always gives me her reviews on the games I play and loves some more than others. With that being said…

She hates Baldur’s Gate 3. Hates it. Despises it. “Worst game you’ve played by far.” She doesn’t like fantasy genres and doesn’t like a whole lot of combat. Now admittedly she didn’t start watching the game until Act 2 (health issues) so she missed the entire opening and Act 1 and had NO idea what was going on. I tried explaining as best I could but she didn’t fully understand.

Now she doesn’t like anything remotely spooky so the shadow lands was a nightmare for her to watch. Hated it. Hated the characters.

Astarion was too mean. Didn’t like Wyll’s horns and red eye. Karlach was too loud and didn’t like the horns. Shadowheart was too gloomy. Lae’zel was too creepy looking and mean (still haven’t won her over in Lae’zel). Halsin was “creepy looking” (I don’t get it either). Hadn’t met Jaheria or Minsc yet.

Now admittedly I hardly used Gale in my first play through so she never saw him or knew he existed until Act 3. But the second she saw him? Heart eyes. Put on her glasses to look at him better. Rizzard of Waterdeep got her GOOD.

Loved him to the point where she asked if I’d play it again JUST to romance Gale so I agreed because I was going to romance him at some point anyway. And when I tell you that woman is SMITTEN.

Every day I get home from work and it’s “when are you going to play your game? I want to see Gale.” “Kiss Gale. Do a kiss. There’s different kisses? Do them all I want to see the kisses.” “HE HAS A CAT??”

Very quick to tell me on what romance dialogue options to pick. I have no say in the matter they’re all her choices.

Oh and Mystra? Hates her. Can’t stand her. “Blast Mystra with your fireball thingy.” “Can you kill her? You should kill her.” “Gale better be praising you and not Mystra.”

I mean it’s a complete turn around and this is now her favorite game simply because of Gale Dekarios.

And if you’re curious, here’s her ranking of most to least favorite characters.

Gale (and Tara by extension)

Karlach

Astarion

Wyll (was very upset when I had to reject post dance kiss)

Halsin

Boo (not Minsc, just Boo)

Jaheria

Shadowheart

Lae’zel

Withers (genuinely afraid of him)

[hijackalx]

MALE BG3 CHARACTERS EATING OUT F!READER +18

characters included: gale, astarion, wyll, gortash

FEMALE BG3 CHARACTERS

a/n: HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY YALL!!!! your bg3 pookies have a present for you !!!! (hint: it’s head)

ASTARION

you guys already know i’m a pleasure dom astarion truther 😹😹 at the end of the game he is WHIPPED for you. so he enjoys every minute of giving you head

and he’s so good at it. and he knows he’s good at it

well— he’s good at it as long as he has the patience. sometimes he’d just rather make you finish on his cock and you know how he is when he wants something

ANYWAY……. he’s obsessed with the way you taste. and smell. especially when you’re close to/on your period. will literally BEG you to let him eat you out then

can be a little rough when you’re bleeding though. he gets a bit overexcited 😹😹 sometimes he has to stop and bite your thigh to regulate himself, which honestly hurts worse LMAO

will look you in the eyes while he kisses your clit

he basically never breaks eye contact. eye contact is HUGE for him. he’s mostly watching how you react so he can adjust accordingly, but he also loves how intimate it is

SO much praise if you react the way he wants— “thaaat’s it... that’s my girl”. he loves hearing you whimper his name, he could literally get off to that alone. your voice is as sweet as you taste

secretly loves when you reach out to hold his hand lol. he thinks it’s so cute

also loves having to hold your legs open when you start to squirm/try to close them. your thighs will be so bruised after

when you tell him how good it feels he goes “i know, i know” in the sweetest, faux-sympathy tone. he’s cocky with it lmao

immediately goes “come give me a kiss, darling” after you finish and he hasn’t wiped his face off yet. half of him is doing it to tease you and the other half genuinely wants you to kiss him lol

WYLL

i’m going to be honest i think you’re his first

he’s a little nervous to try it but he’s also SO eager. he’s just worried he’s not going to be good at it lol

he needs a lot of praise and reassurance. he’s constantly watching your expressions to see if you like it, but at the same time he doesn’t really know what to do if you don’t 😹

at first he’ll need some direction but he learns so fast. will start out slow and hesitant but eventually just loses himself in the pussy LMAO

gets rock hard from eating you out. the sounds and faces you make drive him crazy, mostly because he’s so eager to please. LOVES to know when he’s doing good

the type to moan into your pussy. probably because he’s grinding into the bed 😹😹

i think he could probably finish just from eating you out

when he gets more confident, he can be a bit of a tease. sometimes he’ll stop to pepper kisses on your thighs so he can hear you beg for him to keep going

he feels bad making you beg for too long though so he gives in pretty quick lol “anything for you, my love” or “your pleas are so beautiful— how could i say no?”

also i think he’ll eventually try to fuck you with his fingers while he eats you out too. once he gets the hang of balancing both it’s MAGICAL

likes to eat you out while you’re standing. something about having your leg propped over his shoulder while looking up at you from his knees does something to him BAD

he usually doesn’t want to overstim you because it feels mean 😹😹 but he will absolutely keep going if you want him to

GORTASH

i don’t think he really ate pussy before he met you LMAO

he seems like he can be a pretty selfish lover— if there’s nothing in it for him then what’s the point?

BUT……….. there’s something about you…….

he feels a little weird the first time he gets the urge to do it. he sticks his fingers in his mouth to clean them after they were inside you…… and when that creamy taste hits his tongue….. boom……. his third eye opens

he’s not super adept at it to start, but he’s got the spirit 😹😹

he literally eats it like he’s STARVING. i’m talking lickin’ and suckin’ on ANYTHING he can put in his mouth. nothing is safe. clit? assaulted. lips? sucked on. hole? tongue-fucked

even when he’s eating you out it’s like he’s doing it for himself LMAO. he just disappears into his own little world

he DOES love your praise though, so that kind of encourages him to try to work it out of you. he needs to hear you tell him how good it feels or it’ll bruise his ego

reaches up to knead a titty while he’s doing it

LOVES to do a bunch of hungry, flat sweeps with his tongue. will also press and hold it against you like that to get you to grind on it. he wants to see how needy you are

will say nasty shit into your pussy. “you taste so fucking good, baby”, “daddy loves this pretty little pussy of yours”. you can feel every vibration from his voice

will want to spit in your mouth after

GALE

i feel like gale is the greatest pussy eater there is. like he basically has no vices when it comes to eating you out

he’s extremely sensitive and receptive so he always knows what to do. sometimes you don’t even have to say anything. he just figures it out

his FAVORITE position is facesitting. eating pussy is a literal hobby to him

he’s SO good with his tongue. he has such good control of it and uses it to absolutely destroy your clit. his switching between circling and flicking will make you finish embarrassingly fast

will overstimulate you if you let him. he’ll keep making you cum on his tongue until your whole body is shaking

also the way his beard feels against your inner thighs/lips…………… magnificent……

since he’s a thigh man he loves to knead/bite/rub on your thighs too. will legit almost bust when you try to close your legs around his head. it’s that serious 😹😹

LOVES when you grind on his face. will grab you by the hips and encourage you to do it. you using his face to get off is so hot to him

likes to stimulate your g-spot with his fingers while simultaneously sucking on your clit. also gets off to all the lewd, wet sounds he creates while he does this

moans and groans like he’s eating a five star meal LMFAO

talks A LOT but it somehow doesn’t get in the way of what he’s doing. most of it is incoherent mumbling along the lines of “so good, so good”— but other than that he tells you how gorgeous/perfect your pussy is. i’m not joking when i say he worships your pussy

he WILL try to make you squirt. he’s in the splash zone for a reason baby

[blkgirl-writing]

The massive list of SFW and NSFW Gale Dekarios headcanons

Gale of Waterdeep x Reader (Gn! for the most part)

A/N: the more I write Gale, the more in love with him I am. I started this before patch 5 and haven't been able to play it myself, so whoopsies if I just have to make another one of these. Lots of requests included in this one, to be expanded on later!

Gale is the most caring partner in the whole group. Followed by karlach and Wyll

He would much rather do everything for you than anything for him

This means he often over extends himself for you and you have to convince him to let you help him

Quality time and words of affirmation are his main love languages. All he wants is time alone with you, and he will do so much to make that happen

Gale actually sets up his tent to be as comfortable as possible because you don't have your own tent, and he doesn't mind at all if you sleep in his

eventually you basically just sleep in his tent exclusively, platonically at the moment. Sleeping on other sides or with a blanket between you

It isn't until you wake up from a particularly bad nightmare that your accidental touches aren't followed by apologies. Not quite embracing but not flinching away

He held you that night, wrapping his arms around you, his hands were big, soft, and comforting. He didn't speak until you did, who knows how long that was. All he said was "You're safe. It's ok."

────⊱⁜⊰────

He truly believes he doesn’t deserve you and that weighs kind of heavy on him

That shows in his body movements, confidence, still hesitant to be close to you physically in an extremely subtle way

With more flirting, more talking, more late nights close together, but still apart, still a gap in your embrace

Gale is still in touch with his sexuality and sex, but sex is different than love making. And he knew, when he fully let you in, when he’s finally stable and his mind, body, and soul were ready, he’d make love to you

Your first time together was for the most part, pretty talked through. You set your boundaries and safe word pretty fast

He’d stop at some point, pull back and just admire you

Stop is used lightly because he’s definitely still inside you and just very slowly still pumping in and out of you

“You’re absolutely ravishing.”

And he’d give himself fully to you

Gods he’d be all over you after, so touchy, even if not sexual in nature, any tough felt electric

Gale holds your waist more than your hand, it feels more romantic, showing you off to the world as someone that chose him. It’s really sweet, the first time he does it, he hand trembled a bit, he thought he was smooth enough for you not to tell but you could definitely feel it

Don’t get me wrong, he is confident and cocky at times, everyone knows that. But with you somehow, he feels nervous that you deserve more than he could give

Part of your early relationship is making sure he knows he’s wanted and loved and more than anything you could have wished for

────⊱⁜⊰────

Cuddling is always fun because it usually end up with fucking

If you’re the big spoon? He becomes such an angel and snuggles into your touch

If he’s big spoon he’s immediately turned on by everything, you being so close into him, your ass pressed against him, so many beautiful places for him to touch

Always ends in side fucking, just pulling your underwear down just enough to grind his cock on your bare ass

It’s also just convenient and easy if you’re getting busy while the others are sleeping in camp

But many days your time has you weak and just ready for rest, but you're both more horny than tired

that's when mutual masturbation becomes a daily routine, which never really leaves, even when you aren't as tired and have more privacy

he likes you call you his cherished work of art, seeing you spread for him is like a painting

────⊱⁜⊰────

One night in baldurs gate, you stay up into the morning drinking and talking in a bar, they only kicked you out when they literally were an hour last close, keeping it open because you had bought so much

It was literally anything, just talking about everything and nothing at the same time. Past pets, stupid haircuts growing up, embarrassing failures

That was the night everyone else really realized how deeply in love you two were

Like sure there was romance but real true love, with sparks

They absolutely made fun of you when you finally stumbled to your camp and passed out all day crammed into the small one person beds

I like to believe Astarion drew a stick figure version of y’all’s sleeping position to make fun of you when you woke

────⊱⁜⊰────

Once you’ve moved in with him he gets more and more turned on by you every day

You could be doing nothing and he’d grab your thigh and give you such a dirty look of lust

Not even three months in and ya'll have fucked on every surface possible, knocked over many books, and accidentally broke a vase and a bit in the shower

For the most part, your cozy days consist of him reading, and you beside him, feet resting on his lap

If you're a bard, of course he's going to ask you to practice and play around him and while you relax together, his favorite sounds all come from your sweet melodies

if you drink you definitely share a bottle of wine throughout the day

When Gale get's tipsy he just gets lovey and nerdy

telling you about a favorite bit of history or a spell, interrupting himself to compliment you "Gods you're beautiful, have I told you that today, dear?" and "And that's how the stars fell in love with- that top is stunning my love, mind if I take it off?"

cooking is fun yet very stressful unless he has a drink in hand

it's his kitchen and he's not used to company in it, so he often bumps into you or doesn't know where to say something is, so he just ends up getting it for you

I have a feeling this man is super into coffee and the roasts

like he's an absolute snob over it. A whole glass cupboard is dedicated to bags of coffee from where ever he travels

"Just too dark of a roast, it muddies the hazelnut flavor" (yes I believe he's a whole bean light roast lover)

Maybe you get a normal, non-speaking cat for yourself and just to have a bigger family in your home

I'd imagine a very reckless black or ginger cat who tara takes a VERY long time to love

but it's your and Gales cat. It's a thing you own together and love dearly

There's also a self of cards, board games, etc, for your date nights in

Gale legitimately is just as happy if you win than if he, if not more happy for you

He often takes a while to take his turn because he's distracted by you

super sweet but makes games feel much longer

────⊱⁜⊰────

@shyminnie07 @makers-breath @claryvoyantfray @black-sapphic @fapqueen

(Consider supporting me on Ko-fi)

[avocado-writing]

BG3 companions reacting to Tav calling them mommy/daddy?

huehehehehe >:) writing as if you shout it out in the middle of sex without meaning to - minors DNI.

Astarion

Surprised but super into it? Not necessarily because he likes being called daddy but because he can see how much it turns you on.

“Oh? Do you like it when daddy slides his cock into you, darling?”

You go glassy-eyed immediately and he continues to murmur against your skin as he fucks you, aren’t you doing well for daddy? you want to cum around daddy’s cock, hmm?

You do. Harder than you have in weeks.

Afterwards you apologise that you sort of sprung that on him out of nowhere. He smiles and says it was a wonderful little secret for you to share with him.

“You’re never going to let me live this down, are you?” “Absolutely not, darling. Now let daddy give you a kiss. 😌”

Gale

Fucking flabbergasted lmao. Stops mid-thrust

He has never considered himself a “daddy”…

When you see how baffled he is, you clamp your hands over your mouth. You are mortified.

“I am so, so sorry, Gale…” “No, no, love, it’s fine… but maybe… maybe ‘sir’? Not ‘daddy’?”

Your face splits into a devilish smile. “Oh, I can do that… sir.”

His cock hardens even further and he gets to work fucking you again, with gusto…

Karlach

Grins so so so wide

If you try to cover your face in embarrassment, she pulls your hands away so she can make eye contact.

“Aww, you want mummy to take care of you, darling? Make sure you cum?”

All you can do is nod. She fucks you with such vigour that you think you might be about to pass out.

Afterwards she gives you lots of cuddles and checks that you’re okay with how rough she was (you are. A lot.)

Is definitely happy for you to call her that in bed again…

Shadowheart

Is surprised… but interested.

Gives another thrust of her hips, encouraging you to repeat it, letting you be a little writing mess beneath her.

Will keep prompting you. “Call me that again.” “Mummy…” “Again.” “Mummy…!”

Is a bit smug afterwards, when you’re lying there blissed out of your mind from having cum a lot.

“You know, you could have just told me you wanted to use some pet names, rather than letting it slip out in flagrante delicto…”

Laughs when you’re all flustered, using healing magic to soothe any bruises she’s given you. ❤️

Wyll

Another one not super keen on it, and will tell you so.

He just doesn’t find it particularly sexy? He wants sex to be a sweet and intimate thing and well… if you’re going to use names then…

”can you call me your blade? or the blade of frontiers?”

You apologise for springing the ‘daddy’ on him out of nowhere, but when you begin to whisper about him being your 'brave blade' he gets back into it quickly.

Grab onto his horns while telling him to drive his sword home… he’s putty in your hands.

Both have a healthy discussion about what kinks you are and aren’t into the next day. We LOVE a respectful king 👑

Lae’zel

”What? I am not your mother.” “I know Lae’zel, it’s uhh, a sex thing.” “Oh. Why?”

You then have to explain that it’s sort of about respect and domination. A compliment to someone who’s rocked your world.

She smiles enthusiastically and begins to fuck you again properly. Fucks you so hard that your body aches afterwards.

Pillow talk after: “you may call me that again. I enjoy hearing that you know how well I pleasure you.” “Mmm, thank you for that, Lae’zel.” “You are welcome.”

I think it gets brought up in camp because you didn’t realise how loud you shouted it. Your face is on fire for the whole day. Lae’zel just looks pleased with herself.

Halsin

All the blood goes straight to his cock, if that’s even possible when he’s already inside you. He’s harder than he’s ever been in his life before.

He’s been called many things in bed before, but hearing that? From you?

Fucks you with an enthusiasm he didn’t realise he was capable of. You moan and cry out and keep chanting “daddy, daddy, daddy” and he cums so much that it drips out your used little hole all down your legs.

He apologises for his over enthusiasm and checks that you’re alright. You grin and kiss him, and promise to start using that word more…

Minthara

She just smiles, I think, and you know she has you wrapped around her little finger.

She fucks you with what borders on violence, so much force that you actually pass out because you came so hard.

So worth it though.

You wake up in her arms and she’s still grinning, stroking your hair.

”Mummy’s very pleased with you.” This is the only acknowledgment she ever gives of it, but if you bring up the name again in bed, she gives a repeat performance 😌

[alpaca-clouds]

I really find it frustrating how very different in regards to effort the different companion quests in BG3 are.

Like, you have Astarion and Shadowheart who both have those really nice paced out companion quests with a rather good structure in the story, a dungeon for that quest each and this big bombastic finale with stuff that is only connected to their quest and nothing else. They both also - regardless of whether you romance them or not - have quite a few of cut scenes connected to the quest.

Then there are Gale and Lae'zel. Their companion quests are a lot more weaved into the actual main quest which you can see both positive and negative. Positive: They are a lot more related to the plot. Negative: You will do most of the stuff from their quests either way. You can argue that the creché is a dungeon connected to Lae'zel, and you can also make the argument that Laroakan's tower is kinda Gale's dungeon.

Then there is Wyll, who mostly just hangs around during Act 1 and 2 and then has a little tiny bit of quest in Act 3, though the game will very much make sure to push you into the quest even if you have not recruited Wyll or Wyll has left the party. So, yeah, depending how you read it, there are two dungeons that are kinda connected to Wyll (the Iron Throne and then the Ansur dungeon).

And then... there is Karlach. Karlach's quest can be summarized by: "Fight some fake paladins, get one piece of infernal iron, get a second piece of infernal iron, defeat Gortash." The Gortash fight is not even like the two Wyll dungeons, that are not really Wyll exclusive (I mean, technically none of the quests is), that are optional outside of the Wyll questline. No, you will have to confront Gortash in one way or another to finish the game, no matter whether you have Karlach recruited or not.

And it makes it just feel so very... unsatisfying. I think a lot of the problems that people (like me) have with act 3 of the game really are connected to the fact that the endings for the companions outside of Astarion and Shadowheart feel rather, well, as I said: unsatisfying.

I mean, yes, Gale and Lae'zel are connected with the plot, but also their resolution is kinda pushed somehow into this "post-final-boss" scene and hence feels not really as if it actually resolves somethng. Especially as it feels also so very disconnected from basically everything else in the game you do with them.

With Wyll I would even argue that technically the post-Ansur stuff could almost serve as a proper resolution... If the dialogue was not bugged as hell. At least it is for me. And of course it still does not compare at all with the stuff happening with Astarion and Shadowheart.

And then there is Karlach. I just... I am sorry, I hate how the game handels Karlach. Especially because she is such a cool character. But her companion quest gives you less to do than your average side-quest. It is a fucking fetch quest. That's it. And it has no proper resolution. Because in Act 3 there is not even an attempt made to solve her issue. I spoke about that before: I would be totally fine if there was a quest in Act 3 where the player tries to get the engine fixed in the city. BUT THERE ISN'T. It is like: "Well, Dammon does not know anything. Tough luck Karlach. You gotta either die or go back to hell." Meanwhile I am like: "THEN ASK SOMEONE ELSE?" Ask the Ironhand Gnomes, ask the Gondians, ask bloody Gortash, try to make a deal with Raphael. Like, there has to be something, right?

And look, while I would have loved some Halsin content in Act 3, I am fine with the fact that there is not really anything. That is alright. Because really, the entire Act 2 stuff and how Halsin is interwoven with it might very well be the game's highlight for me.

Just as I am fine that Jaheira and Minsc are more like cameos with not that big of a role in Act 3.

(Again, I cannot talk minthy, because I failed to recruit her so far because I do not like to play evil characters.)

But... Yeah. I will not go here and argue that the game is incomplete. It is not. But it still is very frustrating how the game handles the companion quests in this regard, because the companions are the beating heart of the game. And I think the ending of the game would have been more satisfying if the companion quests had been more comparable in quality.

[del0nix-regia]

Since Patch 8 is on the way and there are no hints on Wyll getting any updates by then, I humbly made a semi-comprehensive list of Things They Could Add To Him That Wouldn't Break The Game™

I wish they'd redo the final act of his character quest and I do have a lot of ideas on how they could make something that is actually about him while keeping Ansur's quest its own separate thing, but that is pretty much impossible to happen, and I see a lot of people say there's nothing that can be done since Larian will step back from bg3 after this next patch and it's too little time to add a whole new major quest. So, here's little things that would still add a lot to his story:

Act 1

Fans! He talks so much about being the Blade of Frontiers, and by playable characters' reaction, his name has reached far and wide. You're telling me none of these refugees are giggling because he's staying at the Grove to help them? Not even the little kids that he's literally training? That's like Lady Gaga showing up to give you singing lessons!?

A more extreme transformation if you spare Karlach. It just feels quite silly to me that he's so afraid of the refugees being scared of him when all that differentiates him from your average tiefling is that he has ridges on his face as opposed to just his body (and still, Zevlor has them, so what's the problem exactly?). I know there's a limit to what they could do to his model in a reasonable time frame, but like?? Sharp teeth? Claws? Pointy ears? Tail? Those are things you can easily borrow from a tiefling's model (If life was fair and god loved us all, Wyll would have digitigrade legs and wings, but oh well).

Something of the Duke for you to find in the burning building. Maybe a locket, something sentimental that concretizes in his mind that his father truly was kidnapped, and it can add an extra bit of dialogue if it's an item he remembers from his youth.

An actual, proper romance scene. What do you mean I can only give him a kiss and just let him drink by himself at the corner of the party? Let me sit with him by the beach!!!!

More party banter! I don't know why they got rid of his flirty lines with Lae'zel — I get that it's vestiges of his old rake-ish persona from the beta version, but I think it actually fits quite well with his current characterization. He compliments her eyes so poetically!! That's so Wyll! Also a bit of an early strife with Gale would be funny, considering the whole thing with wizards thinking warlocks took the ‘easy way’ to magic. The sussur blossom dialogue could spark another conversation between them where Gale understands Wyll a bit more (since he never actually wanted infernal powers in the first place), and it'd adds a bit of foreshadowing towards his eventual explanation for his pact in Act 2.

Act 2

Actual autonomy when standing up to Mizora. Why does the PC get to be the one confronting her? Little bits of dialogue before when you first find out about his pact in Act 1 could encourage him to stand up to her when she tells him to rescue a devil in Moonrise Towers. Let Wyll tell her to release him once the mission is complete.

Jaheira and Wyll linkup. Folk heroes that have to endure hearing the most absurd tales being made up about them? Gimme. Immediately.

Small interactions with NPCs in Moonrise Towers, like chiming in if you have him in your party while talking to the prison warden, immediately asking about the Duke's whereabouts.

An actual cutscene when he reveals the context around his pact. We saw Shadowheart and her damn wolf-dad a hundred times over, and it added a lot to her. Simply describing such a key situation in his life with such detail but no visuals is very counterintuitive, and it diminishes the direness of his situation and why he accepted the terms of the pact so willingly.

Some bits of dialogue about his early months of exile after the lore drop. Even with the power of a devil at his side, I doubt a 17-year-old took suddenly living in the wilderness very well at first.

A dialogue regarding Isobel and Ketheric, after you find out she's his daughter. Wyll too had a mother that died too early and a strained relationship with his father, the difference is that Isobel had memories of her mom and no justification for her dad's actions. I think he'd have interesting insight on what she's going through now that she's the last of her family line.

Act 3

Little interactions with key locations, key NPCs, just more for him to react to in general! That's his city, that he hasn't seen in seven years. Let him talk to people, recognize spots he'd go to, retell tales of his childhood misadventures!!

I get that he's a devil now, but having all Flaming Fists he meets immediately just disregarding him is so silly. He has the same damn face, why is no one shocked that Duke Ravengard's son is back after years with a pair of horns on his head and a bunch of weird people by his side?

More about his mother, especially if you save the Duke. Francesca Ravengard I may not know you but I adore you and I'd like to know all about your life, please.

Again, more people recognizing him as the Blade of Frontiers. There has to be at least a single merchant wagon stationed in Rivington that remembers him saving their produce from bandits on the road or something, come on.

Special dialogue while in the House of Hope. Raphael is apparently quite influential in Avernus, I'd like to think he'd have some books and tomes regarding warlock pacts, or even something that might hint to him and Mizora having dealings.

Autonomy!!!!! Let him decide if he wants to sever the pact and risk rescuing his dad on his own or guarantee Ulder's safety and give away his soul forever. I don't say to just take away the ability to sway his opinion at all, but at least make it a persuasion check like you have to do with every. characters'. most. important. decisions.

That's enough of a rant I think. Obviously I'd love for them to actually give his story a well-thought conclusion, but that would have to be made into its own post. Still, I think little bits like these, things that they could realistically add every other patch or so, would add a lot of meat to his character. Wyll has a lot of potential!!! It's just sad that so little is ever done with it.

[daybrightsims]

Alright, they've lived in my brain too long; Time to air out my thoughts about the polyamory in BG3

To give a little context: I am currently ethically non-monogamous with my primary partner of almost 7 years. I am not a monolith of thought when it comes to polyamory/ENM/open relationships. These are my own personal thoughts and feelings. I've also completed the game with Astarion and Halsin romanced. Spoilers ahead, read at your own risk.

TL;DR - I don't share the current opinion of whether or not Astarion is okay with Tav pursuing Halsin and the discourse around his agency and choices in the relationship are bumming me out and frustrating me.

I am getting increasingly frustrated about the conversation about Astarion being polyamorous/okay with Tav being with Halsin in the game, primarily because I think a lot of the "think pieces" are coming from 1) monogamous people who have only ever been monogamous, 2) monogamous people who have been burned/cheated on/forced into polyamory by a partner (I feel for ya'll, that wasn't okay), 3) people who are very VERY protective of Astarion, and 4) people who are blatantly uncomfortable with polyamory. My goal is not to invalidate anyone's experiences, but to share an alternate perspective.

I do think that Astarion is not only okay, but happy with Tav dating Halsin. I glean this from how he responds to being poly with ANY OTHER companion. If you ask him to share with literally anyone else, he will say no and give his reason.

Gale: He doesn’t want to be in a love triangle (which with Gale, it would be).

Lae’zel: He’s uncomfortable and Lae’zel would kill him (also true).

Wyll: He knows Wyll is old fashioned and monogamous.

Karlach: He knows Karlach’s feelings for you are strong and he doesn’t want to stand in the way of that (he even says he’d be cool with an arrangement but knows Karlach will need all of your affection based on what she’s been through).

Shadowheart: He would be cool IF Shadowheart had more experience and ya’ll were together longer. But he knows Shadowheart is fragile in her current state.

Minthara: He REALLY doesn’t like this idea and will dump you immediately.

I did also see that ***SPOILER*** they updated or are updating some of the spawn Astarion language to have issues with your affair with Mizora should you pursue it, and it requires a persuasion/deception role to keep you two together.

Up to this point in your relationship with Astarion, he has become more comfortable voicing his opinions and concerns with you. He is learning to value his autonomy and his non-physical relationships. He will tell you when he doesn’t want to do something. In fact, he’ll break up with you over pushing his boundaries. He is fine with you pursuing the Drow twins and fine with you sleeping with Haarlep, even comforts you when Haarlep uses your form. So when he says he is okay with you pursuing Halsin, he means it. Yes, he voices his insecurity with you that you may be pursuing Halsin because you and he haven’t had sex in a while. But he acknowledges that Halsin has experience in this arrangement and doesn’t pose a threat to your relationship. Plus, if you kiss Halsin in front of him, he’ll say “don’t mind me, I’m just enjoying the show.”

To me, the idea that this is the ONE thing that Astarion doesn't have agency over in an arc of showing he can speak up for himself is you sleeping with Halsin is an idea that takes more agency from Astarion. He is a grown man. A 240 YEAR OLD man. That trauma he's endured does not mean he needs to be babied or coddled because he can't make his own choices. I think that's an unfair assumption to put on him that Halsin and Tav being together is the ONLY thing he can't enforce his boundaries on.

If he didn't want you to be with Halsin, he would say no like every other monogamous character in the game.

If you want a good example of someone saying yes just because they want to keep you, look at Karlach. You can tell she is HEARTBROKEN when you ask her, but she says “I don’t want to lose you”. That is not an enthusiastic participant in a polyamorous relationship. Astarion says “yeah, go for it! Just give me some reassurance”. Polyamory is not immune to insecurity. I've asked for reassurance in my own relationships and so has my primary partner. That’s not unenthusiastic. That’s realistic as shit. If you ask him about the relationship after you finish his questline, he doesn’t need reassurance because you’re having sex again. That’s also super realistic.

Am I sensitive to this as someone who practices ENM? Almost certainly. It's hard to see a lifestyle I live be villainized and claimed to be "forced" onto characters. I was actually really excited that I could pursue both Astarion and Halsin, and that Halsin places so much importance on consent and not misleading your partner. And it sucks SOO much to see one of my favorite characters be reduced to "oh, he's only doing it because he's afraid to lose Tav." It makes me almost feel bad for liking the interactions between them and enjoying to option. Do I think people mean to make me or other poly people feel bad? No.

But it does.

Headcanons are headcanons. I get it. People are absolutely allowed to interpret the poly aspect of BG3 how they want to. People are allowed to feel uncomfy with how it's portrayed and not pursue it. But it still bums a queer ENM Astarion and Halsin lover out.

Now excuse me whilst I live out my Astarion x Halsin x Tav polycule fantasies in the form of fanfiction.

[lovinglokilaufeyson]

In Vino Veritas (In Wine, There is Truth) - A.A.

Pairings: Astarion x Fem!Reader/Tav (Sorceress/Magic User)

Warnings: FLUFF (the sickeningly sweet kind). Angst. Insecure/Jealous!Astarion. Drunk!Astarion. Soft/Clingy!Astarion. Astarion is in his feelings. Love Confessions. BG3 Spoilers (Early Act I). Mutual Pining. Oblivious!Tav. Honestly kind of Sub!Astarion vibes. Not Proofread!

Wordcount: 2,589

Summary: After seeing you bonding with the other companions, Astarion is in deep with his emotions. This leads to him staggering off to a bar in a nearby town, and you go looking for him as you are worried about him. Once you find him, a confession of love spills from his lips unprompted.

A/N: Can vampires even get drunk? I’m not entirely sure, but that’s what this is about. This wasn’t a request, just something I was interested in writing. I haven’t written Astarion in this way before, but I think I like how it turned out. Thank you guys for all the love on my Astarion fics! I appreciate it immensely. Also, two posts in one day is kind of insane for me. Enjoy!

You weren’t always confident in yourself or your abilities. However, your recent adventures with Lae’zel, Astarion, and Gale have boosted your self-esteem. Gale had even approached you one night rambling about the “weave” and how he wanted you to experience it. You were able to conjure it with favorable ease, however you backed away once he had come onto you. Astarion stood in disgust as he watched the scene unravel. Gale was clearly attracted to you, and clearly wanted in your pants at one point or another. Astarion wouldn’t mind being in your pants either, at one point or another.

Secretly, Astarion envied your naivety, your ability to be fairly oblivious to many people’s advances. Heck, you didn’t even notice Gale’s constant passing glances until he was quite literally leaning in to kiss you, impressed by your ability to conjure the weave with little effort. You turned away nearly instantly, at least once you realized.

You were fairly friendly, which led a lot of suitors to believe that you were interested in them. Gale was no different. The wizard felt that you showed great potential, and he was impressed by your magical abilities. Initially, you believed this to be friendly behavior from Gale, but alas, he felt more for you than that. You had a difficult time turning him down, as you did with most. Gale wasn’t a bad guy, he just – wasn’t for you. Astarion had to spend some time alone after watching you and Gale bond. He felt a pain in his chest while watching the scene.

He was glad to find out that you had rejected Gale, which Gale had let him know (unprompted, of course) one night while out by the fire. Gale was working on his magic, Astarion was reading, and you were sleeping dreadfully well after the long day.

Soon after, you, Lae’zel, Astarion and Gale met Wyll on the way to the grove. You had a battle with the goblins and gained a new ally in Wyll. Unfortunately, Astarion had placed himself right in the midst of the conflict, leading him to take quite the beating. So, when Wyll offered to join the party, you felt it was obvious to have Wyll take his place. Lae’zel and Gale were in moderately good shape afterwards. “Fine,” Astarion spoke merely one word, then turned around in a dejected manner, slumping his way away from the group. When he glanced back, he saw Wyll laughing at something you had said, which caused the pain in his chest to worsen.

Astarion had to walk through a nearby town in order to get back to camp, which is where the mistakes began. He spotted a tavern, which looked acceptable – albeit rundown in comparison to the ones he frequented in Baldur’s Gate. The thought of alcohol to tame his present emotions didn’t seem so terrible. I mean, was he really that replaceable to you? If you were honest, the only reason you sent him away was because of how damaged he looked after battle. Part of you wanted to go with him, or at least offer, but he had walked away too quickly for you to even respond. You probably should have gone after him, instead you turned to your new companion in order to get acquainted.

Your mistake was recognized after you got back to camp last night – because where the hell was Astarion? All of his belongings were still around, but he was nowhere to be found. He wasn’t bathing, but perhaps he could be hunting? It seemed fairly abnormal for him to just wander off. It was getting fairly late and Astarion still hadn’t arrived back at camp. You were getting worried.

“Has anyone seen Astarion?” You asked everyone who was still awake. The group shook their heads. You kept telling yourself that he probably just was out hunting. Yet something didn’t feel right.

“I’m worried about him, guys. I sent him back to camp and he’s nowhere to be found.” You commented, with Shadowheart being the first to respond. “It’s Astarion, Tav. It’s not like he’s known to be the most reliable, even in the few days we’ve known him.” Her fondness for you was shining through, and her almost envious tone showed her distain for your anxious thoughts about the pale elf companion.

You decided to backtrack on the path away from camp, the one that Astarion would have taken back, trying to retrace his steps. You hoped that he hadn’t collapsed somewhere, that was absolutely your worst fear. You couldn’t help but worry at the thought of losing Astarion. He had already been through so much - that you were incredibly aware of.

You wandered the dim, moonlit trail, hoping that you would find a sign of him anywhere. You peered through the forest trees, but with little avail. You thought about shouting out to him but thought better of it. You could attract someone – or something, rather, that you’d prefer not to. You decided to keep as quiet as you could.

You crept towards the nearby town. Given that the afternoon had far past, the only open facility was the tavern. It was old, but well-kept given its state. The building itself was made from stone, with a large oak wooden door at its front. It vibrated with livelihood from the activities of indoors. This tavern was likely the sole place in town where folks could go to have a decent time. Through the windows, you spotted various ages and races of people, all joined together in dancing, drinking, chatting, and even singing. You didn’t see Astarion, but you figured that asking surely wouldn’t hurt. Maybe they knew of his whereabouts.

The door creaked open as you entered, revealing the brightly candlelit interior of the tavern. The wood floors were certainly run down, likely from years of wear and tear and dancing upon them. Many eyes fell upon you when you entered. Your footsteps were light, but your presence was different for the townsfolk. You were new. Astarion had felt similarly when he moved into space, but they had become used to his presence by now. Not only that, but he had spent copious amounts of gold on drinks, which was certainly appreciated. You didn’t know that though, not yet.

The townsfolk had accepted your presence within a few moments of entering, with one muttering to another “she’s a pretty one, isn’t she?” before gulping down more beer, then standing up to make a move on you. You were quite oblivious to this situation, moving steadily towards the barkeep, hoping she might be able to tell you of Astarion’s whereabouts, as you moved through the bar and still didn’t take notice of the elf.

“Eh, darlin!” You heard a man grunt at you, but you didn’t want to acknowledge him. The words almost hit your ears in just the right way, the eerie similarity to Astarion’s word choice was uncanny.

As you approached the bar, the barmaid approached you sweetly. She was an older lady with deep raven hair, likely had worked there for a substantial portion of time, perhaps even being the owner of the place. “Hi, dear. What can I get goin’ for you?” She inquired with a courteous smile. “Nothing quite yet for me. I’m looking for my friend, he’s an elf with white hair, he probably would have passed by here several hours ago.”

“Aw! You must be Tav! He wouldn’t stop rambling about you while he was here. I think he slumped over to the bathroom, we tried to sober him up, but he was lookin’ pretty sick.” The barkeep gestured to the doors in the corner, and you nodded. “Thank you. I’ll be back.”

You pushed your way through the patrons in order to place several knocks on the only closed door. “Astarion?” You raised your voice to ensure that he heard you over the music that boasted in the background. You leaned your head against the door, hoping to hear a response from him. You nearly fell as suddenly the door was replaced with air, and a stumbling Astarion approached you. “Darling!” He exclaimed. This new, puppy-like energy contrasted with his always stoic exterior. You went to scold him, about to go off about his selfishness in abandoning camp like that, but before you could, his rambling continued.

“Goodness, you look phenomenal. I can hardly take it.” You looked at him, creases forming on your face as your mind became more puzzled. Astarion was typically a flirty person, but this was different. For some reason, it seemed – sincere?

“Astarion, what are you doing here?”

“Well I got sad, so I decided to have a few – um – drinks.” His words slurred as they exited his lips, which did not promote truth in his sentence. “A few?” He nodded eagerly in response, and you grabbed at the fabric near his shoulder in order to tug him over to the bar. “Do you know how many drinks he’s had?” You asked the barmaid, hoping she could provide some insight. “In the double digits, certainly. Spent most of his time downing drinks and talking about your ‘delectability.’”

She responded as you took a deep breath. Astarion, who was lent up against your shoulder now, and could hardly maintain composure, brought an index finger to usher the woman quiet, pressing it against her lips. “SHHHH.” He spoke loudly, before she removed his finger in a swift motion. Astarion leant towards your ear, whispering “she’s just talking about how it’s more noticeable that I’m in love with you when I’m tipsy.” Your eyes shot open for the first time in hours. You had maintained heavy lids since post battle; however you hadn’t heard anything this shocking in weeks. You couldn’t help the way that your cheeks now sprouted a flushed, pink hue.

“You somehow get even cuter when you blush.” Astarion spoke, and you placed your head in your hands, which Astarion immediately tried to pull away “don’t, please, you’re so pretty.” You almost rolled your eyes, what if this was all some strange dream? Don’t get you wrong, there were many nights that you dreamt of the day that Astarion would approach you in this way, you just – didn’t think it would happen. You finally released your face from your hands and looked at the barmaid. “We’ll be leaving now, thank you.” You grabbed on to Astarion once more, tugging him towards the large oak door at the entrance.

“Someone’s in trouble!” One of the men shouted from across the bar at the scene. “I hope so!” Astarion shouted back, and you tugged him harder.

As the overwhelm was diluted by the calm of the outdoors, and your faces were hit by the cool air, you turned to face him.

“Astarion, what the hells is going on?” Your question was slightly louder than intended, especially since you had to raise your voice to be heard inside of the bar.

Immediately, you were faced with a pout on Astarion’s lips and dilated pupils as he gazed at you. “Please don’t be mad, darling.”

“I just want to know if you’re okay.” You responded, your features softening, which comforted him.

“I just-“ he stammered, having a difficult time finding the words. He looked back to you, seeing how patient you were, and he relaxed, with help from the alcohol that still coursed steadily through him. “you’re perfect.” For the second time tonight, your eyes widened like craters. You were nearly at a loss for words, but as you went to speak, Astarion interrupted you.

“Gods, Tav! Gale is entranced by you, Shadowheart has definitely caught feelings, Lae’zel wants you to give her bruises, and did you see the way that Wyll looked at you today?” He inquired, and you meagerly shook your head. “Not to mention I’m fucking in love with you! And I can’t even show it! I haven’t felt this way, like, ever, with anyone! And I’m fucking terrified, Tav!”

He gesticulated harshly as he spoke, his pent-up energy finally releasing. You moved towards him, holding your arms out, almost as an offering to him. He looked at you with soft eyes, then headed towards you himself, wrapping his arms around your waist, as yours fell across his shoulders. He relaxed into your touch, leaning his face to nuzzle in your neck. “Please don’t let me go.” Astarion pleaded.

“I won’t, Star.” You whispered into his ear, and you could feel him sigh in relief.

“I’m sorry I was jealous and upset.”

“Don’t be sorry for feeling the way you do, Astarion.” These words nearly brought a drunken Astarion to tears, but he was able to focus on the way you felt in his arms instead. You were able to convince him to cease the hug in order to walk back to camp, but he insisted that he needed to have a hand on you at all times to be assured that “you wouldn’t let him go.” So, it ended up with his hand intertwined with yours for the duration of the short journey back, along with him leaning on you to keep steady.

The rest of the companions were awaiting your return to camp and sighed in relief when you arrived. They were slightly surprised to see Astarion lent up against you, with your frame keeping him upright. Shadowheart seemed to roll her eyes in annoyance at the pale elf’s return, but was thankful you were alright, nonetheless. They stayed quiet, as it seemed more like an “ask questions later” type of circumstance. Since they now knew you were safe, they deemed it acceptable to retreat to their own tents for the night.

You teetered Astarion over to his own tent, facing him as he stared at you with puppy dog eyes. “You’ll stay?” He asked, and you looked at him with similar eyes. “Please?” He followed up, and you nodded. “Let’s go to my tent, though. Is that alright?”

“As long as I’m with you.”

You lead Astarion to your – somewhat more put together tent, with a larger bedroll that could fit the both of you situated on the floor. He stared in awe as he admired the colors within, it was actually quite cozy.

You put yourself in bed as normal, while Astarion seemed to stand with a blank look on his face, his eyes traveling from your eyes to the tent, as if this was new to him. “You okay, Astarion?” You asked, and he nodded. “More than okay, actually.” He responded, and you smiled. You reached your arms out, beckoning him towards you “come here, then, sweet boy.” He grinned giddily, nearly diving into your arms.

-

Astarion woke up in the somewhat unfamiliar environment of your tent, with a throbbing headache. However, he realized that he was sprawled across your lap, and decided to be content in the fact that even though he didn’t remember a single thing about last night, he knew that he had wound up in the right place, in the right person’s arms.

You noticed he had woken from the fluttering of his eyelashes on your skin, and you brought your hand to his hair in order to play with it ever so slightly. “Good morning, handsome” you spoke.

“Good morning, darling. What in the hells happened last night?” He responded, turning towards you with a smirk on his face. “Did I get as lucky as I hope I did?” Sober Astarion was back, that was for certain.

[gaysindistress]

Can I request headcanons for Gale, Wyll, Astarion, Halsin, Dammon, Rolan, and Zevlor with shy gn s/o who would go out of their way to help others whenever they can please?

This request is so cute and sweet 🥹 I hope you enjoy it my love💓

Bg3 masterlist

Gale

I think he would be the least surprised that you’re the one who always helps others. After all you did pull this mans from an unstable magic black hole without a second thought. He’d also probably get the most excited because he gets to spend time with you and watch you in your element!

He’d tease you about being shy but in a very gentle way with the most loving shy. Please don’t imagine him smiling down at you whilst brushing back a strand of hair and gazing into your eyes as he tells you how kind hearted you are.

On the flip side he’s going to be stern with you if you take on more than you can handle. He will be canceling all plans and making you stay in bed all day if you wake up worse for wear after neglecting yourself in favor of helping others.

Wyll

Wyll would be the most charmed by your selfishness. He prides himself on being the Blade of the Frontiers, the man who signed a pact to protect his city. It would only be natural for him to be someone who matches his level of generosity.

As for your shyness, he would find it enduring that you’re able to sacrifice everything you have for others but you can’t bring yourself to say hello first. Wyll isn’t shy himself but he’s more on the reserved side especially when he’s not ‘working’.

Say that you helped some kid find their parents again and the kid is excitedly telling them how a hero helped them. The kid is gesturing to you who’s standing back and almost shrinking back into the shadows but Wyll won’t let you. I can see him subtly drawing closer to you and whispering into your ear words of encouragement, telling you that you should accept their praise. He knows how much you hate being the center of attention but he also thinks that your actions deserve to be acknowledged.

Astarion

I’m going back and forth between him being drawn to you for this or being lowkey annoyed about it. A part of me thinks your selfishness would be an attracting factor because you have done so much for him. On the other hand though, astarion has a lot of trauma and might see as a threat to your relationship.

At first he would be very upset if you helped others because he doesn’t understand how you can care for him and others at the same time. He’s so used to kindness being a double edged sword that he can’t see how you’re not that way.

After some time (and therapy) he’d be able to understand that this is just how you are and it doesn’t mean you love him any less. Obviously there are days where this is a struggle for him but overall he’s less threatened by it the longer you’re together.

You bet your ass that this rouge shit head will tease you endlessly about being shy especially if you make him help Dribbles the Clown. He’s out here convincing people that you have the cure to smelly armpits because he thinks it so funny to see your reaction when they ask you about it.

Halsin

you can’t tell me that this Druid doesn’t find your selflessness the most attractive part about you. Not only did you save the grove but you also helped him lift the shadow curse. He refused to put himself above the shadow curse until it was lifted but that entire time he’s P I N I N G over you. When he is able to confess his feelings to you, he’s down bad for you and the shy little smile you have whenever someone thanks you.

Since the request didn’t ask for suggestive hcs, I won’t go into full detail about this one but you’ll get the point. Anytime Halsin sees you doing something kind for a stranger, he’s whispering into your ear that you need to return to camp with a strained voice.

Your shyness isn’t something he even thinks about most of the time. He’s reserved much like Wyll but he’s also an observer. He’d rather be in nature or simply away from people so he’d be the type to ask you if a day at home would be okay rather than going into the city.

Dammon

Dammon radiates blue collar golden retriever energy to me and maybe that’s because he’s a blacksmith or maybe it’s because he’d be making you anything you asked for. You need some iron rods to reengineer your neighbors’ chicken coop so predators quit getting in? He’s on and it’ll be ready by noon. Your dagger is dull because you’ve been too busy helping the older lady across the street to even think about? He’ll wait until you’ve fallen asleep to sharpen it and you’ll find it all shiny in your sheath the next morning.

Out of everyone hes the most concerned about your safety. We know that he’s not the strongest or even a fighter so he’d be worried about you helping people without much hesitation.

Your shyness may also make it harder for you to deny people if they ask for help which only adds to his concern. There may or may not have been a few times where you’ve agreed to lend a hand when you really should be staying home and relaxing.

Rolan

anytime you tried to do something for him prior to your relationship, he took personal offense to it. I honestly don’t think he would be react well to someone like this. I think he would get upset if he noticed you going out of your way to help someone but would also get upset with himself for feeling this way. He wants people to mind their own business however it’s very kind of you to do so selfish even at your own expense.

He might see your shyness as a weakness and think that that is the reason why you’re out ‘doing other people’s dirty work’ as he puts it. At first he might be a little too harsh about it and would unintentionally hurt your feelings but over time he’s come to understand that this is simply who you are.

Secretly he thinks you’re brave for being this way but he’ll probably never tell you outright. He’ll be subtle and try to drop hints by complimenting you or telling others about your good deeds.

Zevlor

*dreamy sighing* the paladin is constantly in awe of your quiet and calming presence. He admires how your shyness doesn’t stop you from being a good person and helping others. Often times he’s congratulating you after all is said and done with a proud smile and kiss to your forehead.

This is also how you met so I think these attributes of yours are among his favorite. Without your willingness to stick your neck out like that, you would’ve never met and he doesn’t want to even think about that.

again since the request didn’t ask for suggestive hcs, I won’t go into full detail. Zevlor is good with words, he was a commander after all but they do fail him from time to time. So when this happens, you will be spending the foreseeable future in your bed being worshipped by this paladin.

[madwomansapologist]

doubt comes in | bg3 companions

Meet Kind!Druid!Tav | More Weirdos | AO3

synopsis: You knew exactly what would welcome you back to camp. The alluring smell of Gale's cooking, the awful noises of Lae'zel working on a sword that don't need to be sharpened, Wyll practicing his dance moves. You clearly weren't expecting to see yourself. Or to be forced into fighting the companions you swore to never harm in order to prove Orin was playing with their minds. [3.4K]

warnings: orin being orin. well, you, actually. "prove who's the real you" trope. i mean imagine the level of anxiety that scenario induces because you want me to act like me? kitten, mommy don't fucking know who she is. bg3 level of violence. a lot of blood. body horror should be a tag? tav suffers slashing damage, but orin suffers psychic damage. angst. happy ending. shadowheart x tav x halsin. companions (lae'zel, astarion, gale, wyll, karlach, jaheira, minsc). camp followers (yenna, scratch, grub). background (orin, gortash, mizora, shar, cazador, silvanus).

Reaching Baldur's Gate didn't made life easier, but Gods did it helped. Danger is near, sometimes closer than a kiss, but this city is still your home. They can try, but no one can take that away from any of you.

Mizora can bargain and dissemble, but no lie coming from her burning lips will ever change the fact Wyll would do anything for this city. He had his first kiss in one of those bars. Gortash is a threat, but did he started counting his days? Karlach is coming for him, and he had it coming. She can still remember the vinegar taste on her mouth after her first spree.

Shar had her time to mess with Shadowheart's memories, to turn goodness into fear and desires into guilty. Shadowheart is learning how to swin. Long ago, before Cazador could even think of looking at him, Astarion walked on those streets. Cazador can see him as a walking corpse if he so desire, something that fell into decay, but Astarion is alive and free forever and evermore.

The world is a freaking mess, but so be it. That won't stop you from living. That won't stop any of you.

"Soldier! Over here," Karlach called for you, up on The Blushing Mermaid's balcony. You dodged the drunkards and ran upstairs to their table. They saved a seat for you. They always do. "What took you so long?"

They're always teasing you for being so controlling with their gold. That was an act of survival, to save for what matters, but now that you reached the city... You're still controlling it, Silvanus knows Astarion would waste it all without noticing, but you can allow your party some luxury from time to time.

You put the bags under the table, careful to not let them see what was inside them. "Just lost track of time," you sat between her and Minsc. "Did I miss much?"

You turned around, looking for a waiter, but a glass was dragged from across the table towards you. Halsin, sitting across from you at the round table, had already ordered your favorite drink. He always knows what you want even before you say it.

Your smile was subtle, the glass already rising to hide your mouth. You didn't use words to thank him, but your foot met his under the table. You dragged it along his leg, a hidden affection. A secret between you two.

"Oh, yes, Boo. Minsc agrees, her smile really seens different," Minsc whispered. Boo moved on his shoulder, sniffing around. "What are you hiding, my gentle friend?"

Perfume of night orchids, clothes fit for a vampire or whatever Astarion means by that, a recently released tome of evocation, instruments to improve weapons, a music box for a dancing hero, owlbear cub plush, new whittling knifes, a book about adventures Jaheira wasn't part of but is still somehow the main character, and stone sculpture of a certain miniature giant space hamster. "Nothing," you answered.

Halsin chuckled. "There is nothing you can't do, my heart. Except by lying, I must add."

"I just bought a few presents," it sounded almost defensive. Alright, maybe you really were a bit too controlling of the gold. Just a bit. "I'll give them after dinner."

Karlach chocked on her beer. "Are you feeling well, soldier? Have anyone forced you to waste your precious gold?"

"There is a hero coming through to help you, my friend," Minsc hit the table with closed fists. Your drink almost fell on your lap. "Tell Minsc who forced you and his boot shall find your wrongdoer!"

Karlach and Minsc tried to see what were in the bags during the walk back to camp, and you protected them with your life. They started a game of guessing what you had bought, never realizing you weren't participating on it.

Halsin took the bags from you, and with his free hand caressed yours. He kissed your knuckles, then your forehead. You melted against his touch. "Is it duck related?"

You chuckled, eyes still closed. "Fuck off, Bear."

Finally at camp, Halsin followed you to your tent .You saw when Wyll walking out of his tent, hair dripping wet, and smiled at him. Karlach and Minsc sat by the bonfire, still arguing about the possibility of receiving an ax as a gift.

You told Halsin to close his eyes so you could hide everything. "Alright, done."

You walked towards the bonfire, but Halsin grabbed your hand and pulled you closer. You linked your arms around his neck, ready to stand on tiptoe. "It's on your black chest, isn't it?"

You sighed, walking away from him. He tried to stop you, but you dodged Halsin easily. "Of course not," you lied. And he could tell.

You used a branch to stir the fire. You had the feeling it would be a cold night. Yenna was near it, stroking Grub's fur, and smiled at you. So young, so innocent. So unfair.

Lae'zel and Jaheira carried pans with food to the large table Gale conjured, and nodded on your direction. "Fifteen minutes, cub," said Jaheira. "Weren't you on watch?"

You denied with a movement of your head. Jaheira isn't the one to get confused with watches, neither are you. After all, you both organized all shifts.

"Are you hungry?" You stroke Yenna's hair, ignoring Grub in order to not scare him away. Kneeled in front of her, you threw the branch far away. Scratch ran to catch it. "I have strawberry and hon..."

"What the fuck is that?!"

You turned to Karlach, your sword suddenly so heavy on your side. She looked perfectly fine. Following her gaze, you understood it.

Shadowheart had her spear on hands, back from first watch to supper. And besides her, with a hand on the half-elf's waist, stood you.

One thing you can't deny Orin: that bitch is creative. You admit, it was smart. Half of the party left with you, half stayed at camp. It was only a matter of chosing the right moment to appear, making sure to say only the right words, and everything would work on her favor.

Smart, until she wasn't anymore. Because instead of aiming your companions quietly without raising doubts, you are back now. She is surrounded by the enemy. Cornered by her own actions.

You smiled to Yenna, her scared eyes shone upon you. "I need you to close your eyes. Can you do that for me?" As she put her tiny hands in front of her face, you raised from the floor. The smile was still there. "Orin."

She was behind you, but you knew Karlach made Nyrulna find a way to her hands. He's not on your vision field, but you promise Silvanus you'll kill yourself right then and there if Minsc and Boo aren't ready to fight and die beside you. The golden light on your periphery in theory could be from anything, but you knew it was Halsin waiting for your command to transform and attack.

The things you couldn't see didn't surprised you. Quite the opposite.

Jaheira's eyes shone, and without hesitation she turned into a fire myrmidion. Wyll, before careless, casted an armor on himself. Lae'zel had her sword on her back, but her movements showed she was nothing but ready.

They were looking at you.

As easy as that you understood. You're always thinking on the great scheme of things, careful about every movement and choice so at the end nothing will stop you from defeating the Absolute, but this isn't a game of Go. Orin didn't proposed a bet, one where all moves matter and any choice could change the final outcome. No. This is as simple as tic-tac-toe. The results depends only on doing the right first movement.

Orin isn't surrounded here.

You are.

Shadowheart hesitated, the spear uncomfortable on her hands, her skin paler. She gazed at you, at that thing, and you could almost see the doubt replacing the new found glow in her eyes.

"You finally decided to show up again," Orin said. She could immitate your voice perfectly. Even the words were something that could've been said by you. "Now we don't need to hunt you down."

You kept on staring at Shadowheart, ignoring her stained words. "Lua, you know who I truly am." You drew your sword, the golden glow illuminating your face within the light of the setting sun. "Fight beside me, my love. Like you have always done."

"Don't fall for her theatrics," replied Orin. If you didn't knew better, even you would fall for her tricks. "She is playing with your mind. Trying to control it like many attempt to before. Don't allow it."

In a quick motion, her spear cut through Orin's torso. Orin, you, stumbled back. You stood in front of Shadowheart, protecting her with your body from the changeling's response.

All Orin did was to add pressure to the cut. "Get away from her!" A necrotic energy came from her fingers, the same you are so used to control. You shouldn't have left your shield on your tent. "My love, she'll only hurt you."

Jaheira aimed at you, lava dripping from her transformed hand, but didn't attack because of how close Shadowheart was of you. Karlach got further away, now with a better view of camp. Minsc had his sword in hands, just as Wyll had a cloud of darkness aiming at him. Lae'zel was in front of Orin, eyes filled with determination.

They moved faster than you wanted to. The board getting new possibilities, and you worst problems to deal with. What strategy can overpower hers?

"On sight, soldier," Karlach screamed from distance. You could picture the spear on her hands, ready to be throw right in Orin's eyes. "One word."

"Ckh. Enough," ordered Lae'zel. "Pull yourself together before I pull you apart."

"That changeling is playing tricks with your mind, Lae'zel," said Shadowheart. Light came from her fingers. "Don't let her fool you."

"I know my leader," was her response. "You should know too, cleric."

"Can't any of you see her true goal?" Your voice echoed through the camp. "She isn't just trying to end me. She could've done this before, we all now she had chances. Orin wants you to fight one another, to break our bonds and divide us. Stay still, stay alert, and she won't have a choice but to end her disguise and attack with her own claws. Patience: that's the only thing she does not have."

With the noise, Gale and Astarion came out of the kitchen. "Who is..." Astarion didn't even had time to finish.

"It's me," you yelled. You had even forgot about them. Just more players for a game that should be won alone. "For Silvanus, I even said goodbye to each and every of you befo..."

You swear you saw a smirk on your duel's face. She fooled you too. "You fucking bitch."

You barely had closed your mouth when red strings of energy passed right beside you. Shadowheart's illuminated fingers were surrounded by darkness now. Gale's work, you knew.

"She is right," Lae'zel's words made you breath easier. It was more than just a smart move, it was a great plan, but Orin won't suceed for a very simple reason: her main goal is to hurt, and yours is to prevent it. Lae'zel stepped closer, her longsword in hands and eyes on Orin. "The wizard shouldn't have aimed at the Shadowheart, neither was she supposed to fight."

A sign of trust coming from her of all people could convince them all. Lae'zel cares, deeply, and wouldn't do something without being sure of it. You glared at the others, hoping Lae'zel's words had calmed them down. And it did. Their eyes were softer towards you. But those weren't the eyes you should've been watching closely.

You didn't saw when she moved. Didn't noticed the smell of danger floating on the air so near you. Didn't heard anything that would've warned you to defend yourself.

But you felt as Lae'zel rip your chest apart.

So much blood. You never would've guessed a mortal vessel could carry so much blood. It stained the silver, dripping from the longsword, splashed her face. It ran down your body, penetrated the ground and its roots, fed the plants..

Red. It was all you could see. All you could think about. Your lungs only had space for it. They burned. Your trembling hands moved towards your ripped belly, your insides staining them, and held the sword. It cut your palms.

"Bloodlust won't solve our problems," someone said. You knew that voice. Was it yours? Lae'zel forced the sword down, then pulled it out of you. "The changeling's is all we need to spill."

You were on your knees. Did you fell? Were you kicked? Are you praying? You must be. You probably were. Who do you pray to? Have you ever prayed before?

Kneeled beside you, a woman talked to you. Her mouth moved, a red liquid dripping from her face and hands. Her touch was warm. She felt like home. Shadowheart. Her eyes reflected a golden light, but they dissapeared so quickly.

"Let me go!" She tried to fight Lae'zel's hold, but the warrior was stronger. "She'll die because of you. She'll die and I will never ever forgive you for that, you damned gith!" The screams turned into cries. "She saved me, let me save her!"

"It's me," the doppelgander said. She held Shadowheart by the cheeks, trying to get her to calm down. "Lua, love, it's me. Just me."

"Get out of me," Shadowheart spat on her face. Lae'zel pushed her away, trying to prevent Shadowheart from doing something she would regret. "Why no one here listen to me?!"

"Stop squirming," Lae'zel hissed. "Look into her eyes. Look and tell me you don't see our leader."

Shadowheart eventually stopped fighting, her body exausted from crying. The changeling was in front of her, you were in front of her. She smelled like you. Talked like you. Felt like you.

"Is that really you?"

"Of course it's me," lied Orin. "Please, look into my eyes. We were together all day. You know I haven't left camp. Please, please, trust me."

Spikes grew, surrounding Orin. She hissed, the ivy twining around her legs and tearing the skin open. Halsin were throw to the ground before he could end the healing spell.

"Halsin!" Shadowheart screamed. She almost escaped Lae'zel's hold. "No!"

"She was with us all day, Halsin," Wyll said as he paralised the druid. "We know it's her. Don't fight back."

That didn't stop Karlach from throwing her spear near the Blade's feet. "You fucking idiot!"

Mizora clapped, enjoying the show.

Jaheira burned Mizora before losing her wild shape. She will come back, she always does, but that never stops Jaheira. At least they will have some moments of respect.

She wandered towards Minsc. He kneeled on the floor, and for a moment she feared something happened to him when she wasn't paying attention.

"She told me not open my eyes," cried Yenna. "I can't open they yet. She told me not to."

"Have you ever seen my miniature giant space hamster?" Yenna didn't react to him. "No, Boo, she nee..."

Jaheira kneeled beside him, her hand resting on his shoulder. "You did well, cub," she forced herself to laugh. "You were so brave. Let's get you and your red cat something to eat, alright?"

A dry sound reached their ears, stopping every and each one of them. You fell to the ground, as firm as an empty sack, whimpers leaving your mouth as you slipped into unconsciousness.

No fighting. No yelling. A quiet end. A peaceful one.

So easy.

Astarion grabbed Gale's shoulders, whispering so the others wouldn't notice. "It smells like her," Astarion swallowed hard. "I know it."

"Are you really sure of that?" Gale watched you, saw all your blood spreading through the ground, and looked into his eyes again. "Because if you're not, if your guess is wrong, then it will be our guts on the ground. Do you really trust your nose that much?"

Astarion gave him a smirk, but Gale could see the fear he was trying to hide. "Will you cover me, darling?"

"What's your plan?"

"Please. If you think I have one, then you don't know me at all."

As the spike dissapeared, Orin held Shadowheart's face again. "Think of everything we faced together. The nautiloid, the grove, the shadows. Wasn't I beside you all this time? Have I ever turned my back on you?"

"No." That Shadowheart knew the answer. "Never."

She looked up to the moon, praying for assistance. When her eyes fell down, she saw the body on the floor. And what surrounded it.

Scratch sad down beside you. He nudged your shoulder with his nose, waiting for you to stop with that game. He didn't like it. It wasn't fun like the others. But as he moved your body, she saw something reflecting the sunset. A flask. Concentrating, Shadowheart saw the contour of something. Of Astarion's body.

Gale had blue rays of light coming out of his eyes.

"Exactly, my love," her cheeks were pinched. The long nails digged on them for so long. "I've never turned on you. Not when you tried to kill Lae'zel. Not when you lied to me again and again. Or when you showed us how low you would go for your goddess. Remember the fear on the Nightsong's eyes? Remember how I pretended not to know all you would do to her if I wasn't there? A cleric who doesn't know where to lay her faith, a torturer so easily deceived, a coward unable to make the right decisions. That's why you never turned on me, right? Because I make the decisions you can't. I carry all the guilty for you. Because it's easier when I control everything. Don't you like it? That you don't need to use your brain when I am around? Wouldn't you give your memories to me if I asked? I know you would. I know you will."

Your head fell. The bone cracking, the skin stretching. They could hear as it moved, as it turned into something else. The shoulders falling, elbows breaking in half, the spine bending until it touches the bloody ground. The last snap, deep and long.

And from a thin cloud of dust, Orin appeared.

"Look at it. Crawnling under my fe..."

Nyrulna wasn't near Wyll, deep on the ground, neither did it came back to Karlach's hands. With accurate aim, the trident pierced Orin's ribs. Her blood joined yours, and the pale body fell where yours once lay.

Taking your time, you walked towards her. Stepping on the changeling's stomach, you ripped the trident from her insides. "I will give you a glorious death," you growled. "I'll make Bhaal wish I was his chosen."

You kneeled beside her, pressing the trident against her neck, then lowered your face until her ear. "I'll make him regret ever settling for you," you whispered.

Her eyes shone. "How... you know," she could barely say anything. "My... sib..."

You squeezed her cheeks, shutting her up. Then you caressed it, getting her skin dirty with your blood. "I know shit about you," you replied. "But I can tell you would never be anyone's first choice."

Orin can believe she escaped, if it's that what she desires. That you were too slow to stop her from teleport to wherever she deemed safe. That you were all bark and no bite. The truth is that she was wrong about you from the start.

You like the hunting.

You dropped Nyrulna to the ground, and threw yourself into Shadowheart's arms. “She lies,” you whispered. "She deceives and hurts and maims. Nothing was true. You're nothing that she said."

Quietly, Shadowheart hugged you. She breathed in your scent, felt your touch, heard your voice. You, you, you. She cried against your body. You.

Looking at the rest of your party, you breathed in. "We need a code," you said. "If we ever get into this sort of situation again, we need to say..."

You bite your lips, trying to think of something. Something you wouldn't use in another situation. Something that would be unique, impossible to confuse the meaning.

"Gold," you chose. "Or the rest of us are allowed to go for the kill."

Lae'zel cleared her throat. "Fair enough."

if you enjoyed, please reblog! i promise it makes a difference ♡

BALDUR’S GATE 3 TAGLIST: @citrusbunnies

@ madwomansapologist.tumblr.

[justporo]

My new bestie, I honestly would love to see you write Father!Astarion 🤤🤤

How would he react to the news? Would he want a little girl or boy? How would he react when they are born, and they look just like him, but pre vamp eyes?

(Vampires can sire babies, with the highest chance after they are fully well fed)

Hello my tadpole bestie and thanks for the request! Astarion as a father really seems to be on people's minds, hm?

I get it, I like it too, but let me put this out there (yeah yeah, I know it's all fictional, but let's be real for a second): I would much rather imagine this when Astarion has done some much needed healing. This man hasn't had autonomy in two centuries and really needs to find himself again and work through trauma - with Tav on his side of course. And children are a huge responsibility - mentally, physically, emotionally, financially - I imagine (I wouldn't know, I'm not a parent...). I'd really wish for him to be ready for something like that.

But the thought is incredibly sweet, so let's go:

Headcanons about Astarion being a father

When Tav tells him she's expecting, he's truly speechless for perhaps the first time in his life; and then he can't sit still: swinging from delusionally happy to overthinking and being worried; but Tav takes his hand and reassures him that they'll be in it together

Has he thought about having kids? Yeah sure, but he'd never thought of it being possible until it happened, although when Cazador forced him and the other spawn to behave like a family he'd sometimes thought about what could've been

He's absolutely overprotective when Tav's pregnant: "Oh no, no, darling, you are not carrying that around, think of the baby!" "Astarion, it's A MUG OF WATER!"

Also he adores her body that is creating such a miracle: "You're glowing, my heart. You are truly a goddess!"

If he was handsy before there are now no moments where his hands aren't on Tav's body and on her belly

When he feels the first movements, he cries, and then Tav cries and then there's just a fountain of happy tears and lots of "I love you"s

He's taking such good care of Tav; especially when she doesn't feel well or when she's exhausted - she'll get all the herbal teas and massages

Birth though is scary - for both of them; but I'm sure he'll have some friends by his side (because think about the adventure troupe waiting with him while he's pacing the room like a panther: Karlach's biting her nails off, Gale's just blabbering to distract himself, Shadowheart is praying for everything to go well, Wyll tries to calm Astarion down (unsuccessfully), Lae'zel is unusually silent with crossed arms hoping everything will be okay, Halsin's keeping the group fed and all because "Nature will make it all right")

Boy or girl? Doesn't matter at all, all that's important is that Tav and the baby are healthy and ready to receive all his love

First time holding his child - he can't even cry because it's such a miracle; "This... this is the best thing I've ever had and created!"

The tears come later when you're alone - just the three of you

He's absolutely a very loving father, caring so much about his kid - and also equally taking on responsibilities and care with Tav

When the kid's eyes become their real colour and it sparks a memory Astarion had long forgotten, he's too stunned to acknowledge what he's seeing: the kid has his eyes - the way they were before he was turned

Later, when the child's already a little bigger he loves to show them stuff, teach them, read to them; also inciting them to go and annoy Mom - which makes Tav want to push him off a cliff but also hug him to death - because who'd have thought it would ever be possible?

Alright alright - I've gotten almost off the rails with this one. Because honestly, there's a lot to imagine there. Also maybe I wasn't prepared for the things that would make me feel (and I don't mean baby fever).

Alright, hope you enjoyed this headcanons, time for me to go to bed!

[madschiavelique]

Hi! So, modding has ruined me and as such I’d like to request the Origin Companions with a Lich Tav / S/O? Like, they did the whole process a while ago and only now with the Tadpole Sitch have they returned from death and have no idea what they’re doing and are far weaker than they expected. Maybe they show the companion a sign of “I love and trust you” by allowing them to (gently) hold their phylactery? Idk, fill how you see fit if you want :]

hi anon!! sorry it took so long but i wanted to make a bit of research for it to be accurate. i hope you'll like it!!

─ . 𝜗𝜚‧ characters : shadowheart, astarion, gale, lae'zel, wyll, karlach

─ . 𝜗𝜚‧ content warning : a bit of angst, but some comfort

─ . 𝜗𝜚‧ words : 1.4k (250~ per characters)

( not proofread, english is not my first language ☆)

─ ‧ shadowheart :

at a first glance, you amazed her as much as terrified her. but it was mostly a terrified respect. because being a lich, aka an undead sorcerer who seeks to transcend death itself is in clear opposition to the cycle of life and death, which is a central theme of most faiths including Shar’s.

she swore you must have followed Shar herself though as, per her words, “the darkness that precedes you would make a fierce soldier in her eyes.”

chances are that Shadowheart will have to put some parts of her faith in question for you, but on the other hand she could simply see your powers as a sort of extension of Shar’s influence.

as time goes by however, she realises a lot of prejudices held against lichs such as being cold and goal driven can be wrong, especially when it comes about you.

she’d be very much interested in hearing you talk about the process of becoming a lich. she admires your patience and devotion so much, a person as old and wise as you has seen more than she ever will and she craves to know more about your life, before becoming a lich and during it.

if you ever allowed her to hold your phylactery, she would never doubt your sincerity ever again. she knows how much this act means for her, for you, for your relationship, and she would not forget it nor lower it for anything in Faerun.

─ ‧ astarion :

when astarion learns about you being a lich at the very beginning of your adventure, it is certain that you and him would bicker about your age.

“how old are you? i didn’t know mummies could have such deplorable fashion styles, but how could it be otherwise considering you’re older than most of Gale’s books“ he said, to which you’d answer “it pains me that i have lived long enough to see idiots like you being born.”

it’s really just a game of bickering at the beginning, especially when you underlined that most liches are more powerful than vampires.

this however brought a spark to him, because if you were indeed more powerful than most vampires, then you would be of great utility in helping him go against his master.

over time of you gaining back your powers and abilities, he found something absolutely breathtaking in your darkness, your devotion, your ambition to outlive anything in your path.

he would see an opportunity to live in eternity by your sides. all other mortals perish eventually, and the knowledge of having you by his sides for all eternity makes him impossibly happy.

you offering him to hold your phylactery would mean the world to him, because he knew that if he had such a thing, he would have gave it to you. it’s an incomparable proof of your trust for him, no one had ever allowed him such an honour and you can be sure he will value it greatly.

─ ‧ gale :

this man is a scholar, and it would be lying to say that apart from being frightened and pretty much offended that you are here, he is extremely curious. 

he obviously has a deep fascination of magic, particularly the forbidden type, and you are a literal gift from the skies to be in his path.

ethical boundaries aside, i don’t think he will be able to shut up. 

you will be bombarded by all types of questions about the whole entire process of becoming a lich, from your years to learning about the Arcane arts to the gathering the rare and powerful components needed for the creation of your phylactery. 

He will not let you rest, he needs answers he’s been pondering on for so long and you’re here with all the answers.

This however raises for him the question of morality and mortality, unless he takes the path of moving from Evocation to Necromancy, in which case one could say he found the perfect pair.

Having gale as your s/o while being a lich is something you didn’t expect, in the sense that being with gale made you feel understood and seen.

If you allow gale to touch your phylactery, he would jump to the ceiling. He would hold it gently and ask about each and every part of it, asking how you got the components, how you assembled it all and how it felt once you had completed the entire process. But most of all, he is extremely aware of what it means and how much of a token of trust and respect it is for you to allow him to handle such a precious object.

─ ‧ lae'zel :

Lae’zel’s first approach would most definitely be one of suspicion. Githyankis and their traditions consider others as weak or unnatural, especially those who use necromancy. Chances are her first thoughts about you gravitate around repulsion, since you alone represent a source of power that is so dishonorable.

She would take quite the time to let herself trust you. There is one thing she cannot deny about you that changes during your adventure : you’re powerful, very powerful. When you start gaining back some of your powers and offer proper almost overwhelming force of will, you’ve owned lae’zel’s respect (no matter of grudgingly she acknowledges you as a worthy potential partner). 

Plus, your immortality is an asset in battle that cannot be circumvented.

In the end, your strong senses of battle and unrelenting determination won her.

When you allowed her to handle your phylactery, she was confused as to what such an artefact was. But when you explained to her that your very remains of life and mortality were in that very object, her heart leaped in her chest. For you to offer your life and allow her to have it in her own hands proved to her that you were more trustworthy than any other allies and lovers.

─ ‧ wyll :

His original reaction to your situation would be disbelief. He’d only ever heard of Lichs in storybooks or tails one would mysteriously count in a tavern. But a real one, in the flesh ? that was a first for him.

The concept of necromancy alone is not one Wyll appreciates much. It defies moralities and mortality to bring back from the dead. He’s worked hard to defeat enemies in the past that used such methods to build armies and soulless soldiers, and he is frightened of having feelings for you when these questions pull to the front of his mind.

But his sense of forgiveness would take over. Along the road to Baldur’s Gate, during your many adventures, he saw how your dedication to getting the team out of a deadly situation was pure and true.

It’s hard for him to deconstruct so many beliefs he’s had on necromancy and lichs in general, but he’s willing to do it for you. He does fear that it will be an imbalance relationship, but he wants to try.

But this thought vanishes from his mind when you allow him to touch your phylactery. He’s heard of such artefacts, of what they hold within, and it undoubtedly makes his heart stammer. He’ll never ever doubt of your love for him, that is for certain.

─ ‧ karlach :

Karlach’s first impression of her s/o being a Lich would not be positive, since being a lich represents the concept of immortality at the cost of the soul, and it could be something she finds repulsive.

Because you had the choice to abandon your mortality, your life, and you took it while she never had a choice on her own mortality.

But when you started travelling together, fighting together, living together, she didn’t find you so bad after all. It felt like you were just one of them, just a person with ambitions and goals.

She realised the lengths at which you were ready to go for your companions, and it owned her trust and admiration.

And when you kept finding infernal iron and stopped anything you were all doing just to go see Dammon as soon as you could to get her heart fixed, she knew she could trust you and appreciate you.

She has her own fears of being with you though, the fatality of her own heart failing her in opposition to your eternity frightened her beyond belief. What will happen if she dies and you go on without her ? She is very much tormented about this question.

But she loves you, and she knows you love her.

When you allow her to touch your phylactery, she would crumble in tears as if you’re offering her a wedding ring. If she could take out her mechanical heart from her chest and give it to you without dying the same way you give her the last piece of life you own in this world, she would.

[optimisticgrey]

You could have done anything. Gone with anyone. Yet you chose me.

Part 3 of 3

personal note: This is for all the redeemed Dark Urges. We never got our Durge night with Halsin and only pathetic attempts of dialogues after rejecting Bhaal. I hope I did us justice.

summary: Bhaal killed you and then everything was black.

content warning: This is dark, bloody and monstrous. It includes torture, major character death and lots of blood.

word count: 2,1k

AO3 Link

You are nothing, adrift in a sea of darkness.

No light. No form. No direction.

There is no up, no down.

Only an endless, quiet void.

And yet, you are aware.

You notice the absence, the emptiness.

Your body is gone, lost somewhere between one breath and no next.

The pain -  the agony that moments ago felt like it would tear you in half - is gone.

Was it only moments ago?

You cannot tell.

It could have been seconds. It could have been centuries.

Time does not exist here. Nothing does.

But your mind remains. You remain.

And as soon as you realize this - truly realize it - the memories come crashing in like a tidal wave.

All at once.

If you had a head, it would ache from the sheer force of it.

If you had a mouth, you’d scream.

The nautiloid.

Lae’zel. Shadowheart.

The tadpole.

Gale. Astarion.

The Grove.

Wyll. Karlach.

Halsin.

The moment his name touches your mind, panic rises.

Halsin.

You did everything for him. To keep him safe. To bring him back.

And now you are here. Alone. Floating in the quiet truth of death.

And you are certain, he is not here with you. And for the first time, you are glad he is not.

Death.

The word echoes, slow and heavy, finally settling in your awareness. A stone sinking in water.

You died.

The temple. Orin. You remember.

You killed her. You killed Orin because she dared to touch Halsin.

And then you died, refusing your father’s claim.

But Orin is dead. You made sure of it.

And Bhaal would not bring her back. Not after such a defeat.

She was weak. Defeated in a duel. He has no use for broken things.

Which means the others can still get Halsin out.

They will get him to safety.

And if you had eyes, tears would spill from them now.

Relief floods through you, deeper than breath, deeper than blood.

They will make it.

They will slay the Netherbrain.

They will see this through.

You have done your part.

You tore a monster from the world and gave your life in defiance of a god to save the one person you love most.

And you would do it again.

For him.

For all of them.

For the family you found in fire and ash and blood.

You do not doubt them. Not for a moment.

They are strong enough. Brave enough. Brilliant enough.

They will continue to fight and end the Neitherbrain.

And in that certainty, peace finds you.

A rare, quiet kind of peace settles in your soul.

Then a voice.

Familiar. Dry.

Withers.

If you had ears, you’d perk at the sound.

He is speaking to you, even now. In death.

And suddenly, you understand.

Jergal. Of course. How could you have missed it?

If you'd made a mistake like that in your youth, you’d have been punished with hours kneeling on splinters for your carelessness.

You listen as he speaks.

Now it begins to dawn on you. His voice, dry and calm, is not here to condemn you.

You listen closely, trying to grasp the strange clarity his words carry in this void.

Jergal, Scribe of the Dead. Seneschal of the End. The one who takes record when all things come undone.

And he speaks of you. Of your defiance, of the stand you took, blade in hand, soaked in blood and pain, daring to defy the God of Murder himself.

You listen. There is little else to do.

And besides, you have no mouth to interrupt anyway.

“Though has defied Bhaal, thy liege and father, and in doing so hast earned a place among champions and heroes.”

You would smile at that, if only you had a mouth.

It was the right choice and, to your own surprise, an easy one.

No hesitation. No regret.

You’d do it again in a heartbeat, if it meant Halsin was safe.

If it meant they were all safe - Gale, Karlach, Astarion, Wyll, Shadowheart… even Lae’zel, in her own stubborn way.

You’d make the same choice a hundred times over, if it meant their lives carried on.

If it meant they got the ending you never asked for but always hoped they’d find.

And that thought, this quiet certainty warms something deep within you.

Even here. Even now.

“I, too, still hold some power, and I invest a portion of it in thee, who hath challenged the gods and now liveth to tell of it. Thy fight is not over, and it is thy fight, for one who can look upon Bhaal and oppose him can survive any crisis.”

You thought death would be your end. Peace, perhaps. Emptiness, certainly. You were content with it. You made your choice freely. You gave everything you had to save them. To keep Halsin safe. To carve a space in the world where they could still breathe, still live.

But now Jergal speaks of balance.

Of how the Dead Three’s design was shattered by your refusal.

How your rejection disrupted something ancient and deeply rooted - an outcome even the Lord of Murder had not foreseen.

You were not just a pawn stepping off the board. You became something else entirely the moment you denied your bloodline. Denied your father.

And in doing so, you stirred interest.

Not just divine attention but consequence.

The balance must be maintained, Jergal says.

One Chosen defies their god, dies to stop his will… but death is not the end, not when it would tilt the scales so wildly. Not when you, of all people, walked willingly into death for the sake of others.

So he has made his choice for you. For your soul.

A return.

Not because he seeks to reward you. Not because of cosmic justice.

But because he decided it.

Because the gods may war and mortals may bleed, but someone must keep the accounts.

And he refuses to close your name, your story.

You drift there, suspended in a formless void, staring into the thought of life again.

Of waking again.

“So rise, Challenger of Gods, and prepare for battle once more. Death will not claim thee whilst I endure.”

Suddenly, you are pulled.

There is no direction, no tether, no hand to grasp. Just force. An overwhelming drag from nowhere and everywhere at once, and you cannot resist it. You would not know how.

And then, pain.

Continue on AO3

[avocado-writing]

Recently started play BG3, only on act 2 right now lol. I found your blog because this shit is my current hyper fixation and I love your writing. I was wondering if you could write how the BG3 cast would react to Tav haveing hanahaki disease.

Love you're writing!

Astarion

Oh, when he notices, he feels an odd lurch in his chest.

You’re in love with someone? Who? It had better be him, he’s put effort into seducing you.

When he works out that he’s the object of your desire he’s over the moon! And then… ah. But it is a disease after all.

A lot of intense emotions flow through him. Of course he loves you, he’d be a fool not to. But can he admit that to you? Open his heart enough to let you in?

He sees you hacking up blood red roses and thinks, gods, if a few simple words are all this will take to solve it, why wouldn’t he?

He sits down next to you as you wipe your mouth, all awkward angles and longing gazes. Not his usual suave self at all. You go to ask him what’s wrong, and he blurts out that he loves you like he’s under duress.

You blink, amazed if slightly mortified by his tone, but then your lips curl into a smile. When you kiss him your mouth tastes of rosewater. Never does another petal pass your lips, and never does Astarion regret his confession.

Gale

When he sees you bringing up Sussur petals, he panics. It’s affecting your magic after all. Slowing your spells and causing lethargy in your casting.

He throws himself into research. Night and day he’s in his books looking for a cure. He rarely sleeps any more. Not until he comes up with a solution for you.

You’re getting worse and he’s being driven mad by it. If he could find out who you love he could help, but he simply has no idea…

Silly wizard has no idea the solution is right under his nose. Always has been. Because of course he loves you too, wants nothing more than to hold you and have you as his.

It takes the rest of the camp pointing it out to him before he realises, and doesn’t know how he could be so dense… but he knows he’s the luckiest man in the world if you love him.

He confesses in the middle of your coughing fit. The petals stop immediately. He would seal the look of adoration you give him into his heart forever.

No more Sussur. No more problems. Just joy.

Wyll

He’s seen this a dozen times in his youth. Time and time again people have perished from their courtly love in a flurry of flowers.

When he sees it happening with you? Oh, he knows immediately what is happening.

Doesn’t believe you’d be in love with him… but then he sees the loving looks you give him, the softness in your eyes. It clicks into place rather quickly.

And when he realises, you best bet he’s making a move to cure you.

An immediate embrace. A kiss where he tastes the petals on your lips. Your eyes are wide, but your throat is clear.

“I love you,” he states, no hesitations, just facts. There will be time for great romance later, but right now he just needs to make sure you’re safe.

When he’s certain your condition is cleared, no more coughing, he embraces you long and lovingly. Tells you what you mean to him. And when you plan your wedding… there will be no flowers.

Karlach

Panics when she finds you coughing petals. She might have been in Avernus for the past decade, but she knows hanahaki when she sees it.

Corners you one night and begs you to tell her who you’ve fallen for. She’ll help you confess!! After all, how could anyone not feel the same about you? Anything is better than this, this purgatory of petals where love is being kept secret.

Your smile is wobbly when you tell her there might be a time span on this person’s love. She thinks, oh, Gale? Because of the orb?

It takes a moment for things to fall into place. The way you look at her. Like she hung the stars.

“Oh, fuck. It’s me isn’t it?”

You go to leave, she grabs you and holds you back. Pulls you into a kiss. Only stops to tell you that she loves you. Goes right back to kissing.

It’s then she decides not to die. To find a way to live with you, even if it means returning to hell. How could she abandon you, when you love her so much?

Lae’zel

She is so utterly confused when you start hacking up petals. Is it a disease? Some sign of weakness? It is certainly nothing that a gith has ever experienced, nor would fall foul of. They are too strong.

Lae’zel mocks you at first, like she mocks everything, but it’s in order to hide how much seeing you suffer hurts her. She is a fool to have affections for someone so weak.

… isn’t she?

One night she corners Gale (quite intimidatingly) and gets him to inform her of your condition. He tells her all about hanahaki, and she says she must find out who you are in love with and get them to return your affections.

Gale blinks. “Lae’zel… it’s you.”

Oh.

It takes her a moment to digest this. She leaves Gale abruptly (“goodbye then?”), finds you, and drags you to privacy.

“I have been told to cure your disease you need a confession of love. This is my confession.”

The petals do not stop as you cough. With a small smile, a little smug, you tell her she has to be more specific. She huffs and you laugh.

She tells you she loves you in every language she knows. It works.

Shadowheart

The most perceptive of the bunch, Shadowheart knows you are in love with her from the moment you cough up Night Orchid petals.

It’s not subtle that you’re sweet on her. But she doesn’t say anything in return - she’s a sharran, after all, and doesn’t know how you fit with her future of being a dark justiciar.

And then… she finds selûne, and it changes. All of it. Especially her view of you. She can open her heart without fear now and she wants to welcome you in it.

She takes you aside one night. Sets up dinner. A bottle of the wine you shared on that first night by the cliff. Takes your hand and tells you she loves you, as easily as if she’s commenting on the weather.

You stop coughing. The petals cease. Your face lights up. She knows she wouldn’t change this for the world.

[bhaal-battle-beer-bard]

✨The Heart Of The Blade✨

𝐵𝓁𝒶𝒹𝑒𝓈 & 𝐻𝒶𝑔𝓈

➹pairing: Wyll x Auntie Ethel rare pair by @aristenfromwarsaw so this one is totally for you 😄😁 "No Wylls were harmed in the writing of this fic" ➹content/tags: Love, Poetry, Fun, Humor, Sarcasm, so much Party Banters and Bashings, Action, Poetry, Misunderstandings ➹summary: Wyll has a new girlfriend with his heart singing love songs and sonnets, but his friends are not happy about it and doing an intervention. A fanfic full of the funniest party banters. Fan of the group bickering on each other? THIS IS IT! Astarion in full Asstarion mode. ACT I timeline ➹feat. Tav Aristen belongs to @aristenfromwarsaw , my Tav Saulus ➹word count: 18, 345➹ao3 ➹prompt: BG32025 APRIL by @tavyliasin

Something was wrong with Wyll.

The group agreed on this.

For days he had been acting somehow strange, not as they knew him. He seemed to hang with his head in the clouds, almost as if dreaming. Furthermore, he often disappeared for hours with flimsy excuses.

Something was wrong with him, only what it was exactly, the strange travel companions could not yet make out.

"And I'm telling you, it's another alien parasite! So, we'll cut his head open and out with it before it infects us all," Lae'zel hissed vehemently.

"It's not and we don't cut anyone up. So put the knife away, Lae'zel," Gale admonished the Githyanki as she grumbled.

"It's pretty obvious that he's in love. You don't have to be a genius to come up with it. But no wonder none of you recognize the signs," Astarion explained, accompanied by a smooth expression on his face that said it was stupid not to recognize this immediately.

"Chk. Because you're such an expert when it comes to love," the warrior of K'liir scoffed ironically, rolling her eyes a little at the smug vampire, who had the audacity to portray the rest of the group as stupid.

"Oh yes, I am," he breathed in his sonorous voice.

"Astarion, I didn't mean love in the physical sense," Lae'zel pulled a contemptuous face in his direction.

"Oooh... well, then...", the white-haired elf shrugged his shoulders in surprise.

She would have loved to show him how she normally reacted to insolence, but she could already see Gale's raised index finger mentally in front of her. And so she would have to break two fingers, not that she would mind.

But as a good Githyanki, she needed neither her muscles nor her sword, and her tongue silenced opponents. Or allies. Or something like allies. The white-haired elf was a questionable companion.

But he probably thought the same about her.

All about her.

"After all, a better suggestion than looking for parasites in his brain just because he sometimes wants time for himself and sighs dreamily," Shadowheart chimed in appropriately and wrinkled her nose contemptuously without looking at Lae'zel, "don't get me wrong, if he turns out to be a danger, then we can still do this slicing thing and I don't think there's time for dreamy sighing, because we have more important things to do. So we should talk to him about the fact that we lack his sword if he gets distracted."

Karlach's voice sounded almost gentle, which seemed like an incarnate intervention of positivity in the pack of accusations and wild theories: "Guys, he's been through a lot lately. The stupid bitch Mizora who figuratively put horns on him..."

"Literally."

"What?!"

"You mean literally not, figuratively speaking, put on horns. Since he really got horns and not the proverbial horns like a horned husband, for example," it was the Wizard of Waterdeep who interrupted the infernal warrior for a short lesson.

"Anyway...", Karlach continued and her blazing eyes gave Gale for a moment an expression that could have ignited him, "...a lot has changed for Wyll and he has to deal with a lot. It's normal that he's acting a bit off and needs time for himself. Give him the time. We won't grow tentacles tomorrow or a goblin will split our heads because of that. I'm here!"

"Why not curious at all, Karlach? Do I hear some disappointment that you are not the beloved, to whom our folk hero sneaks away?" the vampire grinned venomously like a snake into her world.

"Haha, very funny, fangs. What's that supposed to do?!"

"So, what's the plan now?", Lae'zel's dagger flashed in the middle of the group, ready for action and blood, "do we kill him now or...?" "No, we're not going to kill him!" Gale exclaimed vehemently. "Not yet...", Astarion grinned smugly with a sly sideways glance.

Gale's brown beard was rubbed briefly in a displacement activity of his hand's thoughtfulness, as if they could whisper a solution to him: "But otherwise, Shadowheart does have a point..."

"Of course I do."

"We can just talk to him. Calmly, of course, and ask if something is bothering him, or if there is actually someone who is distracting him from our urgent current mission, as a change in his usual pattern of behavior has not gone unnoticed by us. And that without knives and sharp-tongued comments, as we have already noticed."

"If we want to ask him if he has a lover who keeps him from his sword-wielding task - at least his sword-wracking task to help us - and I can guarantee you that it is because a blind man can recognize this from a spectator petrified; then this should certainly not be the single wizard with a cat who has been left behind and who mentions his ex in every second sentence."

"She's not a cat!"

Could her teeth, which pressed on her lower lip, suppress her giggles? Aristen very much hoped so. The blonde elf - storm sorceress as her mark - knew it wasn't appropriate to laugh at the elf's nasty side blow, but unfortunately it was funny. Because he was so astute.

If it really was a crush that drew Wyll away from them, then he would probably take at least one piece of advice from Gale. His success rate did not draw a good balance, at least from what they had heard. And they had only heard Mystra all the time.

"We will certainly find someone whom Wyll confides in. In the end, we can only ask him. After all, it's his business and he doesn't owe us an explanation," the blonde elf interjected to swallow a laugh and possibly saved Astarion from a fireball from Gale.

"Honestly, fangs. When it comes to honest and upright feelings, you only know as well as..."

„… how far it is described in a cheap three-copper novel," Shadowheart finished Karlach's thoughts and managed to sound snippy and disinterested at the same time.

"Do I sense jealousy in your voice, Karlach? Because I don't spend time with it unnecessarily things, but can take care of the real fun?"

The barbarian's hands were a little to slow, as they reached for Astarion's collar, Karlach's clenched fist pointed menacingly in his direction. Blazing. Burning. "Hey you little..."

"Oh and not to forget to put on the list: No one with a short exploding temper should talk to him," Astarion added coquettishly as he ducked away from Karlach, just for Shadowheart standing in front of him in a second.

"I will talk to him!"

If someone needed to be inquisitioned, she was the right person for the job. She would definitely get Wyll talking.

"Maybe we'll let someone talk to him who is more…sensitively, gently and understandingly on the subject of love, Shadowheart," Saulus the Tiefling Bard smiled in her direction, who had seen the questionable enthusiasm of the Sharan flash in her eyes. "Hmm, I am gentle and understanding," the cleric grumbled and grimaced. "May I suggest something?", it was once again Astarion's voice that wafted playfully through the group like a symphony and that probably only he himself never got tired of hearing. At least this thought pierced the ponytailed head of the black-haired woman when the theatrical pitch sounded again and it must have happened to several of them, after all his pointed, mocking comments of the day.

And all this before noon!

"How about our little bard and very own sorceress?"

 "I don't know, Astarion. Shouldn't Wyll come to us voluntarily with it? I mean, I can ask him if you want to, but that's really none of our business. It's not as if he's putting anyone in danger," Aristen answered him slightly uncertainly, and her choice of words and tone of voice harbored a lot of diplomacy and restraint.

"Of course you just ask. And believe me, the business of our Blade couldn't be less of my interest. But if he's the one who makes such a big secret of it, then he's forcing us as a tight-knit group to find out what's going on with our companion, isn't he? You and Saulus simply listen to him and randomly lead him in the right direction. Come on, you are exactly the right ones for the job."

Seductive like a bottle of sparkling wine by candlelight and the sing song of a succubus, the vampire's arms wrapped around the shoulders of Aristen and Saulus, the lips of the pale elf in the middle of the two women played around his fangs with an encouraging smile that should convince them of his proposal.

"You two are good team. Do the rest of our formidable group agree with me, that this is a task for our two lasses, here? I mean they are a good combo, aren't they?"

"Chk, I'm fine. It can't get worse than the wizard or the cleric."

"While I pull the proverbial dagger out of my back Lae'zel – and put the real one away once and for all, we won't need it – I'm happy to leave this task in the empathetic hands of two ladies."

"I didn't know we needed to be a lady for this, but okay. Fine, let our little soldiers do this. And how did you imagine the non-committal squeezing, star?"

Silver curls swayed a little back and forth between the bard and the sorceress, while his ruby eyes sparkled at the two of them and behind his grin Gods knows what happened.

"Astarion?" Saulus repeated his name instead of an answer from his tongue between his pointed fangs. "Pardon me, I was distracted for a hot second," shook the elf's white head, anointed with moon colors in stars, and tore his hunter's gaze away from the two women.

"How about this...", and again the companions put their heads together as if they were a group of conspirators and possibly, they were.

Conspirators against Wyll?

Conspirators against love? It was yet to become apparent.

Maybe Ravengard just had a stomachache – which Karlach objected again and received an exaggerated disapproving shake of the head.

Perhaps a little gossip was much more interesting for some than they gave it. No matter how the sensitivities of the new travel companions were, secrets and gossip, suddenly made it much more exciting and desirable to find out something about it.

….

"I'm sorry that our promised sword lesson is only taking place now. Somehow I've found my mind very busy lately," Wyll Ravengard's tone alone would have been enough to apologize for everything, no matter what he had said about it. The sincere, gentle gaze of his eyes—as unequal as they might be—made any resistance impossible. Resistance was futile.

"Since I've had those devilish horns on my head, I needed some time to myself and didn't want to scare the Tieflings and children in the grove with them."

"Wyll," as dew slid down from a leaf in the morning hour, a soothing smile rolled over the lips of Saulus the Tiefling Bard, "they have all the horns themselves. None of them should be shocked. You're no less of a hero for them, I'm sure."

"It's nice that at least one of us can be sure about this" The sigh from the lip, the throat of the Blade of Frontiers, came deep from his chest, where his heart and his sorrow sat. But despite all the grief, his shoulders and the horns on his head didn't seem so heavy and somehow... light. At least from the outside.

"And if you need time for yourself to get used to it, then that's absolutely fine, Wyll. No one can expect you to welcome Mizora's punishment with open arms. After all, you have always endured all of this very patiently," Aristen said appreciatively.

"Thank you! And my I add, it is nice that we have you joining us. A pleasant surprise. I thought you were more focused on your magic and less interested in the use of weapons."

"I thought it couldn't hurt to watch you and learn something in the process. You never know when the magic will be blocked and you'll be left with nothing but a blade," the words of Aristen the storm sorceress turned as truthfully as the thorn tendrils around the Emerald Grove itself, "furthermore, you are the best person to contact when it comes to combining powerful spells and weapons."

"Well, you won't have to stop at just watching. When I see how extremely good you are with the knife when you help our Gale cook, then you definitely have hidden talents for the sharp blades," Wyll smiled charmingly and each of his two eyes had its own special shine.

"I also focus more on my hand crossbows, but it can't hurt to deepen the handling of the rapier and longsword. And we've seen you so little in the last few days...", furtively like a thief in the night, her flaming tiefling eyes flitted briefly over to the blue of the blonde high elf, "... maybe we can talk a little afterwards. Especially about the things that occupy you as much as you said earlier..."

…

There they are!

Blowing bugles, drums, shaking gates breaks the silence

Chaos breaks loose through tumult - startled crowd running through each other.

This would have been the equivalent of Aristen coming back to the camp and the traveling companions literally rushing towards her, only less violent. This was replaced with much more curiosity.

"She's back!"

"And? What did you find out?"

"He really seems to have grown fond of someone," Aristen answered calmly in the face of the storm of questioning that descended on her, although the pressing voices flowed over her like a roaring wave of the sea.

"Yes, darling, I already know that. Who, who is it? Does he have a girlfriend? Or a boyfriend? Or," Astarion smiled pointedly and the elf face was a mirror for malice and misfortune, as if he were not a bearer of old elven blood, but of old gods' blood and the reincarnation of the god of mischief, list and evil, "a very grotesque something? Oh, that would be wonderful!"

"He didn't say who it was and whether we knew the person." A twitch of narrow shoulders under blond hair, however, stopped his malicious giggles and visibly darkened his face, at least the two red rubies of his eyes wore dark shadows. The porcelain smile and face quickly wore its usual masquerade again.

"So I know just as much as before," the sigh from Astarion's throat was ready for the stage, as was the hand movement he shook out of his wrist, not to mention the rolling of his eyes.

"You are welcome to ask him yourself if you think he will tell you more," Aristen suggested to him honestly and completely calmly. It was obvious that the other elf didn't seem to respond to his theatricality, which didn't stop Astarion from teasing her any further. But he may not have teased at all. Possibly he answered perfectly normally, but his way of emphasizing things made it difficult to interpret them completely objectively.

"No offense, I just thought you'd be more useful, darling."

"In any case," the blonde seemed to overlook his tone and the content that rolled over his tongue, because like a lie that glided over a blade, you never knew what was meant seriously and what wasn't, "Saulus stayed with him and they wanted to write a little poetry for his crush. I thought it would be best that I leave her alone with him. Maybe he will become more talkative."

…

"I don't think she's the kind of person you can impress with poems and songs," Wyll smiled bashfully and scratched his head, a clearly skipping action, he was nervous to talk to someone about his love and apparently relieved at the same time to be able to share it with someone, "but I would like it so much. Simply because my heart and my head don't stop singing when I think of them."

Embarrassed frustration slipped from his throat and the young Ravengard heir shook his heavier head vehemently and buried his face in his hands, which had already had to bear so much responsibility. In truth, they only wanted to write tender words of love.

"Argh! This may all sound so terribly cheesy to you. I'll make a fool of myself."

"A fool is one who is ashamed of his feelings and hides them. So far, they have only ever been your strength, so let them be the difficulty you lead, the armor that strengthens you and the shield at your side. That's why no one can resist serious poetic words, Wyll. No matter how good or how bad, it's all about sincerity," Saulus had spread her lyre and writing paper in front of her and the Warlock. Her words were a testament to her sincerity and possibly also to digression, distraction and short attention span, because she was no longer really interested in eliciting the secret, but she really wanted to write something with Wyll that he could recite to his beloved.

"At the court of Baldur's Gate, my father actually only ever upheld the practical knightly virtues: Justice, insight, strategy and courage. Before and after the introduction to society at court, it was always the most important concern of my father that I get along on my own and know how to behave in difficult situations with reason and above all with the sword. Although I know exactly which cutlery has to be in which place and which dance steps are performed, so as not to bring the Ravengard name into disrepute at a reception and ball, this was certainly less my father's attention than that of the chamberlain, who seemed to have his dear trouble with us."

Bringing the name Ravengard into disrepute.

The expression on Wyll's face, that slowly found its way on it, like a veil in the wind on a gray, rainy morning, was unmistakable. Even less so was the sparkle it stole from his eyes and replaced with something else.

But like a helping hand, The Blade tore himself out of the thoughts of gloom and continued with a returning smile and the soft sound of his voice close to a poem itself: "Nevertheless, the service of high courtly love is also part of the artistry of a knight and should not be neglected. Even if not, I was happy to dedicate myself to it. As a child, I read books that made me dream of adventures. Later stole books from the adults in which they did not let me stick my nose. Until you could read romance novels as you wanted as a really mature young man. Although I don't know if my reading of poetry books has made me a good poet. But I think it's a beautiful art and I would like to express my feelings in words that are more beautiful than just the common language. Because it's like making a picture, singing a song and an expression of liveliness. Impulsive passion and zeal, not only in the heated fight with the sword and sweating bodies."

A mischievous and slightly embarrassed laugh slipped over Wyll's lips, as if he had something to apologize for. Perhaps this was his secret guilty pleasure. In Keeping Secrets, however, Wyll was only semi-good. At least his own. He kept a lot to himself, like the thing with the son of the current Duke of Baldur's Gate and being a Warlock and hunting Karlach because of it, but it didn't take much convincing to get him to spill the tea. The Warlock with his hellish Mistress was quite a wild card because of her. But probably no more than the rest of the group.

"If you tell me what they look like, I can help you find timed rhymes for a sonnet on it."

If Saulus hadn't been so good at such a thing, you would probably have seen the tension at the tip of the horns and its flickering flames in her eyes. Even if she had to refrain from biting her lower lip, because of how much Wyll blocked off revealing any details so far. He shut off.

Tight as a safe.

Astarion might have been the better choice for the job after all, it pierced the bard's thoughts.

Aristen and she had not learned from him what she looked like, nor her name, nor whether they had seen the lady before. But at least they knew that it was a lady and that there was a lady. To destroy Lae'zel's theory of another parasite.

"The appearance is not important. In no respect. It is not the eye that makes me feel secure and close. For her, too, the pure appearance is a superficiality without meaning and she does not attach any importance to its praises. She's not like our Astarion."

It now took a little more self-control and a sharp tooth on her tongue to prevent the disappointment from entering Saulus’ face from chin to the tip of the horn after Wyll's actually so beautiful execution. Then he could look at her as gently as he wanted, for the bard it meant another failure.

Saulus knew that if she continued to dwell on the subject, she would lose credibility. Consequently, she had to leave it at that for the time being.

Astarion might have stopped his "I'm not really interested" casual scam and started shaking and yelling at Wyll, while Lae'zel shone the brightest lantern in his face and didn't stop hissing questions. Pretty hot and bright, isn't it? Are you thirsty? Yes? There's nothing until you spit out what we want to hear! She didn't even want to start acquiring answers from Shadowheart's methods.

Aware of this, Saulus realized that it could have been far worse than their failed attempts. A quite mild relief that nestled around her mind and heart during this realization.

"What have you already written so far? You meant that you had already started a little," Saulus took up the topic again and dissipated espionage thoughts from her head, but rather got involved with the heart's often the Blade of Frontiers.

Another embarrassed smile with a red glow on his cheeks followed from Wyll, which could not have been more endearing and charming as he stroked the back of his head in embarrassment. He seemed at least as insecure as he was excited to communicate, she recognized that in his eyes. Or the one eye that really belonged to him.

The Warlock was rarely known like this. Ravengard wore his heart on his sleeve. He was always honest and shared his thoughts openly. The only thing he did was that he packaged negative thoughts more benevolently and diplomatically, because he was rhetorically adept.

At least as skillful and proficient as with the sword.

Did he get this from his father or did he have himself to thank?

It was at least not surprising that Wyll could easily win over a woman. Saulus didn't understand why it wasn't easy for him to continue the behavior that had brought him there. But as mischievous as he sat in front of her—more the young nobility who stole and read dreamy books than a fearsome warrior—it was probably his heart and what it did to his mind and his tongue as soon as the chemistry in it began to go crazy.

A tadpole wiggling around in that area was for sure not helpful.

But wait! Who knows, maybe it was. A mindflayer wouldn't have such problems. Butterflies in the stomach. And the madness of love in the brain.

Love sickness.

No doctor could help.

Did it help to call a bard?

Certainly not!

Saulus literally heard the nagging voice of the pale Astarion in her head mocking her.

Imagination or was the worm and thus really Astarion wiggling around in her skull and making fun of her?

"Not so much. Or at least I don't know if it's good," Wyll's voice sounded uncertainly and made the bard focus again, snapping her out of her thoughts, "but that's what I really feel."

"And that's good enough and all that matters." "You say. What if she doesn't like it?" "I thought she didn't care about superficialities? And she likes you. So she likes everything you present to her. Little secret: The gesture counts. So let's hear, Ravengard, Blade of Sonnets!"

"Wherever I look, only vanity and sorrow, but the sight of you struck me with force, it struck me down like lightning, directly into my heart", the breast of its sign swelled with pride or is it much more love? This at least made his whole face and eyes, whether stone or not, shine as Wyll loudly recited the poetic words of his heart. "And: Flowers, meadows, fields, trees remind me of you even.

But I don't really know about the middle part and the end. And I should probably still rhyme it correctly, shouldn't I?", words of true doubt or did the Ravengard son hide his light under a bushel without realizing it? Because the bard smiled enthusiastically at him.

"Wyll, that's just right! Everyone wants to hear something so beautiful," the young Warlock exhaled relief at this statement of the bard and joy conjured it up on his lips. Wyll Ravengard was someone who, when he smiled, he smiled with his whole face and yet he seemed so harmonious and calming. In principle, he was in good contrast to the Tiefling bard who was generally there for every prank without asking for long, simply because "YES and OKAY" was more part of her vocabulary than "NO". But even the reason and calmness of one Ravengard had its limits of competence. Apparently, he reached his limits with Tieflings.

So this moment together with parchment and quill was a special one.

And a particularly beautiful one, as Wyll found.

To find beauty even in the storm, in the dangers and the approaching death and catastrophe of its impending ceremorphosis, was an endeavor of his. It was not for nothing that swamp flowers grew. You just had to look.

HEY!

A snap of the Warlock's fingers tore him out of his thoughts, to tell the bard to write them down, and soon the parchment filled with the outpourings of thoughts of Wyll Ravengard. It was an interesting feeling to see her quill swinging through the air in front of him, the tip scraping across the sheet as his words were written down. His words significant enough to be written down. From someone other than himself.

Wyll couldn't help but smile at the sight of his thoughts turning into written words.

He had tried poetry before and to be honest he would like to perform it. Only the opportunity since he had become the Blade of Frontiers was rather small. But perhaps his speech to the Tiefling children was also a kind of poetry to stir up courage and encouragement.

What was a war speech, a battle cry to motivate men before the fight, but poetry? A bloody sonnet of slaughter and glorious honour and victory, if you had calculated correctly and had enough brave, strong men at your side.

But Wyll didn't want to talk about battles and the fight, didn't want to think of it now, and certainly didn't want to write about fights. It was this irrepressible feeling of warmth, security and happiness that he felt. A feeling that took his breath away, robbed him of his senses, made him dizzy, turned his head. He could not equate it with anything but love.

"How about we bring in a little bit of all the changes you've been through. From the son of a duke, to the Blade, to Warlock looking like the devil he serves because he has refused their orders. You've been through a lot lately. That would leave a bigger mark on most people. In the sense of exhaustion. You, on the other hand, grow with every failure and obstacle without calling a heart of bitterness your own. That's remarkable, Wyll."

"Thank you. It means a lot to me that you say this and see it that way. But too much of an honor. I only act according to what I think is right and feel. Everyone has a moment of sadness and weakness. You can indulge in it, but only for a moment. One evening, perhaps. But not anymore. After that, you have to go ahead again and look up. Open your eyes to what you have and what is there. Otherwise, you miss the beautiful moments, otherwise you miss out on what good you can do, otherwise I would have... missed her." Dreamily, the words rolled from his lips, dreamily all his thoughts and his gaze veiled at the memory of her closeness. Attentive Tiefling eyes could observe this more than well and pondered about his words and especially about how he had spoken the words and then suggested: "How about something like this: The honour of heroic deeds must pass away like a fever dream. Can anyone then survive the game of time? What is all this that we consider delicious? What is it worth?"

Horns and poetic minds continued to stick together for a long time, while the quill continued to dance over the parchment, leaving its trail of ink.

…

"Now spit it out: Who is Wyll dating? Why is he so windy? Does he want to get married and leave the group and we finally stop dragging his useless butt with us like the last few days?", the Inquisition, led by Astarion, pulled the bard aside after her return to the camp.

"Don't make a fool of yourself, fangs. Wyll does not leave the group. He wouldn't just let us down."

"Karlach, we know how much you shy away from the truth from your affection for him, but let go of disillusionment and wake up! Only bare facts help here and if Wyll is not a helpful member of this group, then he is just ballast. Regardless of its entertaining other beautiful sides. And I don't mean that bad at all, Karlach. Then you don't have to waste your time anymore and I would not like to see a tall, cheerful and above all strong girl like you, unwillingly troubled", the way the elf leaned towards the fiery barbarian was a theatrical farce, but whose intention could be at least as true as exaggerated, because he sounded too eager for a lie, "I'll get you someone better. Someone hotter – literally if you want. That blacksmith boy! Yes?! What was his name? Dammon? I'll get him for you. Do you want him?"

Aristen, as an almost unanimous reflection of the other companions, drew a face that clearly said: Astarion, no!

Even if there was a suppressed crooked smirk about his crazy nature underneath and no shocking head-shaking of a Gale or epic eye rolling of a Lae'zel. "Soldier, that's really nice of you – at least I think so – but no thanks. It's not about that. When will it finally go into your curly head? Have you forgotten: No touchy. So all I do and care about is my friends like in my F R I E N D S. And would crush everyone's skull coming near them. Their heart and hurting it, counts as well to it. That's why. So get it into your cloudy head, paley. Counts for you as well if you ever get a heavy heart."

"Well, he is probably more than safe from that. By the black lump of stone, filled with iridescent hot air, what he has instead of a heart", Shadowheart's voice a testament of teasing malice disguised under casualness.

"Tze," the elf hissed only halfway over and almost made a grimace in her direction before his nose stretched almost higher than his forehead in the other direction with his arms crossed.

Gale, meanwhile, blinked in disbelief and wondered where he had taken a wrong turn in life to deserve all of this. Sure, he had done a lot wrong, extremely wrong, and he knew exactly what and when. But this...he really didn't deserve that either. He couldn't even sigh anymore about the behavior of his companions. Would he ever have met such people in Waterdeep?

Lae'zel's eyes would eventually get stuck in the back of her head because of all the roles, even if it amused her a little despite her arrogant, annoyed demeanor. Outdoing the others with her wordplay was as much a victory as doing it with their sword, and another victory for the Githyanki race. Clearly superior Githyanki race.

"Did Wyll tell you who he was meeting with?" asked the calm, soft voice of Aristen and glided through the group as if she were the only one with the last bit of logical sense. Not that she thought so, but any outsider would have assessed it that way at that moment. Because Gale seemed to have given up somewhere along the way or was too busy with Mystra or eating magic boots.

Pardon, consuming magical weave.

"Unfortunately, not," the groans of the group slid almost like a tidal wave of disappointment towards the mainland named Saulus, "and I strongly doubt that his brand-new flame is someone we don't know. After all, we've been together all the time since the crash."

"And again, I don't hear anything that is not clear to me from the beginning. So, you were completely useless, to be exact," no one else but Astarion could have said it so bluntly.

"Hey!", she couldn't think of a better defense on the clear insult of the vampire and if you were honest, it wasn't even a defense, but a lot of surprise that was written all over her face. Was it a verbal sneak attack or more totally front? At least it stung.

"No wonder that he didn't trust you any more than he did with Aristen, after all, you haven't been a cornucopia of love ballads so far, but your display of songs is full of mockery songs, drink songs, dirty limericks and questionable renditions of our experiences."

"HEY!" the Tiefling Bard exclaimed, disarmed, her arms outstretched. But angry and offended, her gaze seemed only for a second. The muzzle she pulled with her mouth under her big eyes made her look much more like a sad fawn, or like a small sad baby goat, if you looked at the nature of her rune horns.

"Yeah, nothing against your songs, darling. If you ignore the fact that you had to mention that I got stuck in a spider's web, Wyll and I emerged like real heroes in the fight against the phase spider. Not that I'm even remotely interested in such a thing. Just as little as in Wyll's talk and if it didn't seem much too exhausting to me, then I would take care of it myself, because apparently you have to do it again yourself if it is to work. As always. Because the rest of you are useless, no offense."

Gale was seriously considering activating the orb right now. Then he wouldn't have to endure all this anymore, it would almost be worth the sacrifice. Lae'zel and Shadowheart sparkled down on the elf and it would have driven them crazy how similar they looked. His theatrical hand gesture and raised chin, however, was followed only by himself, because Saulus had turned her Tiefling eyes to the blonde High elf and only shrugged her shoulders, shaking her head:

"Does he think we just sat around and painted each other's nails?"

"I don't know. But sitting around and only taking care of the nails, that's what he knows best," Aristen answered her in an equally calm tone, but her blue eyes couldn't avoid a mischievous sideways glance at Astarion at the clear verbal elbow smack. "HA! Not bad! You filthy, thorny rose," the sneaky, sharp rogue laughed deliciously amused and then looked at his nails definitely delighted and not offended, "thank you for noticing my well-groomed nails. Care requires work. It's nice if it doesn't go down and is rewarded"

"How about we let Saulus finish talking, maybe there would be a few interesting novelties when writing poetry with Wyll," suggested the sorceress with the blond hair and the blue elf eyes.

"Yes, that's what I wanted to say. Definitely more meaningful than listening to useless vampire ramblings," Lae'zel interjected, arms crossed, her eyes hard and rigid, but close to rolling again.

"I don't like to agree with Lae'zel, so I agree with Aristen," Shadowheart coquettishly gave her voice before Gale also said nodding or probably more digressed again: "Just like our new acquaintance Raphael would say: The devil is in the details. A good poem cannot be written in general. This should be done least of all through love. Thus, in the end, Wyll may have revealed details that could lead us to a conclusion as to which person it could be."

"Gale, didn't we want to let our bard darling Saulus talk?" Astarion reminded him after his two rubies had rolled around in his head.

"I don't want to know who he's meeting with, but I know when he'll meet someone tomorrow," Saulus continued emphatically in Astarion's direction, whose curious nose she could have given this information long ago, if he hadn't constantly interrupted her by insulting comments and putting her down how useless she was.

…

After Lae'zel had reminded them again that there were more important things and that their group could do very well without Wyll (and without Shadowheart), they stocked up on supplies after a fight with a few gnolls and tried to find new clues to the whereabouts and the way to the Githyanki crèche in the Grove. Time was pressing, the warrior said outside her world, protector in a prism or not. There was no guarantee of how long this stasis of non-transformation would last. Furthermore, she would have to learn more about the artifact and its inhabitants. But there was usually not much time to think, because as soon as they were on the road, one unplanned event after the other took place. A butterfly effect like a whole swarm. No moths. Or more like a whole giant moth.

"Where's Wyll?", Dammon's – to his chagrin makeshift forge – lured them with new sharpened steel, the repair of their armor and a short update where they should look for infernal iron, and Aristen's blue eyes couldn't see Wyll anywhere far and wide, even before he had started to talk to Karlach about iron again.

"Hang around over at Auntie's again, maybe he needs another healing potion," Shadowheart just shrugged her shoulders and had way bigger eyes for a light chain mail.

The bard's ears literally flashed crackling to the tip and Saulus followed the elven eyes of Aristen, but unlike her, she watched Wyll meticulously buying healing potions.

The heritarian Avernian flames blazed in her eyes as they wandered back and forth between Ethel and the Blade, back and forth... slowly back and forth during their conversation.

They narrowed into slits before the bard tore them open and exclaimed:

"Oh my gods, Wyll likes Auntie Ethel!"

"He doesn't!"

"Yes!"

"Don't talk nonsense."

Astarion leaned back to have a look at the whole thing and after a second of observation, he casually stated: "Oh yes, he does."

Shadowheart had dropped her chainmail. Just like all the attention gradually went in the direction next to Okta's cooking pot to Auntie Ethel's "Lotions & Potions" booth.

"You're right," the Shar disciple nodded after observing Wyll's gestures a little.

"A bold choice," Gale murmured not only into his proverbial beard before clearing his throat to speak up, "how can you judge that by watching them from a distance for a few seconds? That lacks any logic."

"Oh Gale, poor, sad, cold bedded Gale – that you don't see that doesn't surprise me in the least," neither Astarion's hedonistic facial expression paired with feigned pity, nor his stage-like use of his vocal cords with timed emphasis would have been needed to know that the white-haired elf was speaking.

"I'm sorry to have to agree with Astarion, Gale. Shouldn't you be familiar with the fact that there are non-verbal signs of affection that simple minds can't hide," the dark cleric explained to him and Gale grimaced a bit and was about to interject that Shadowheart herself would probably not be better at hiding her affection from others and should stop throwing stones from the high horse. Along with the vampire. Who sat on a whole parade of horses. But a parade of pirates and criminal vagabonds.

"You're right, you can clearly see that he's flirting with her," Saulus interrupted the pompous pictures of comparisons the Wizard wanted to make and so he could only answer to her:

"Saulus, you also believed that when the Zhentarim offered a drink after the rescue out of polite phrases, he was flirting with you."

Shrugging shoulders and a loud "Tze", Gale got the answer, "pff, prove me wrong!"

"Apparently, the old thrush really has more than we thought," Astarion grinned in Ethel's direction and filigree fingers rubbed over his pointy chin, only with difficulty did his grinning lips cover his sharp fangs, "I wouldn't have expected that. Each his own taste of course. But I didn’t expect this taste from him. But who can blame him? I mean years of experience has the fun and dexterity to offer." A twinkle in his sparkling eyes and a clear wave of his hand over his own body made it clear to everyone that he was talking about his own high vampiric age.

"Astarion, stop trying to make this about yourself and shut up," Lae'zel intervened from the background in a firm voice. Calm as always, but with a firmness that she would make him do so if he didn't follow her "suggestion".

"Maybe he's just polite and nice to her. You know what Wyll is like," Aristen interjected, and Karlach's one-and-a-half-horned head nodded in agreement.

"I know that some of us were against the plan to follow Wyll on his date, but now we definitely have to. We know when it is and also roughly where, so all we have to do later is go after him and then we'll know for sure!" the vampire decided.

Democracy was not dead.

Because now everyone wanted to know if it was true, even if it was only to win a bet on who was right or not.

…

"Wherever I look, only vanity and sorrow,but the sight of you struck me with force,it struck me down like lightning,right into my heart.

From noble blood, to outcast by fate's cruel game,

but the pact I made under the night's stars is my burden and nothing else to blame. The Duke's son fell, yet rose with hellish fire,But in your eyes, I found a new desire.

Yet love ignites what hell could never claim,And lights a new path what was once full of blades and scars.Though horns may sprout and shadow veil my face, the sweet name of love upon my tongue arose.

The honour of heroic deeds must pass away like a fever dream.Can anyone then survive the game of time? In this endless stream?What is all this that we consider delicious? What is it worth?"Gold, wealth and honor? Or even love? Because this would be a treasure true.Flowers, meadows, fields, trees remind me of you.And may they always lead me to you."

"Oh you sweet little, petal. You didn't make yourself all the fuzz to write such beauty for your Ethel?"

"You deserve to be courted, like a maiden. Who if not you? You, who always just want to help all people. You, who are only thought of when someone wants something from her. You who see something beautiful in all things and don't judge anyone. I wanted to find a way to express what I feel for you and how I see you."

"I've never heard more beautiful words. Oh, you're really special, my brave Blade. Something very special."

…

"I can hardly understand anything from over here," murmured Aristen the storm sorceress, crouching in the bush that provided cover for the companions, "and I'm barely have any space, make room, Shadowheart."

"I can't go anywhere, we don't have more space because of Saulus' opulent Tiefling ass."

"Thick ass yourself!" Saulus hissed back on the spot.

"Darling voluptuous glutes is a compliment, it was compliment," Astarion's soft voice defended the cleric in a whisper.

"We can't get any closer, or they'll see us," Gale whispered from the crouch, curiosity won about his stiff, bent knees.

"I could cast a hiding spell, then we can dare to get closer and don't have to eavesdrop so much. Because I think I hear your breaths more than what Wyll says," Aristen suggested.

"A sorcerer spell? I'd rather not. This only ends in a beacon that can be seen for miles or in the end we turn into a cloud of fog. If then I take over the magic, no offense, pure security. But anyway, I think it's too late now, she would notice that if we started doing magic here."

"I have to say it's not going the way you promised me," Lae'zel's voice sounded unimpressed from the background.

"Nobody promised you anything and now shush!"

…

"The last days with you were and are very special, my dear Ethel," Wyll's smile over the tea table on the sunny terrace of the teahouse of the sunlit wetlands, was brighter than all the green of nature and the rays of the sun combined.

For a long time he had not worn a smile after his father had disowned him. But he had found it again, every time he could help someone. Nevertheless, shadows had returned over his head, on the missions of Mizora. These orders had nothing to do with heroism or helpful deeds. Again and again, the Blade had dark moments. Moments of loneliness that he couldn't share with anyone. Possibly not wanted to.

Either to be a burden to no one or because he didn't have anyone and didn't trust anyone strong enough in the end?

But since Auntie Ethel had come into his life, he had really gotten to know her, this had changed. He was no longer lonely. This feeling of being able to share everything with her was overwhelming. Love had found its way into his life and had changed so much.

He had changed.

The young Ravengard put his thoughts into words for Ethel, who looked at him patiently with a slightly wrinkled smile.

„… and that's why I don't want this time to end," Wyll ended his remark.

"But don't they call you The Blade of Frontiers, my sweet son? Is not the whole Swoardcoast your domain to protect and not only this wilderness and my little swamp?"

…

"Eww what did she say?! I can't believe it," Astarion suppressed a rattle.

"She didn't talk about her wetlands you pervert!", Shadowheart corrected the thoughts of his silver curly head and gave him a light slap on it.

"Psst, Wyll is talking!"

…

Wyll looked around: The terrace of Auntie Ethel's Teahouse. A refuge in the countryside. In nature. A place of peace and tranquility. No problems, no fights. Just take a deep breath. Take a deep breath.

A reminiscence of everything that meant peace, goodness, balance and hope.

Just as her hand signified hope, and as if he could show and convey his thoughts to her, he seized her hand and looked resolutely into her eyes:

"Staying here with you is a future I can imagine. Because I can't imagine a future in which I'm separated from you."

"You sweet thing! You'd give up your days as a wandering legend just for your Ethel?"

"I've realized that there's nothing I wouldn't do for you. I'd love to live here with you, it's not a price I have to pay or any sacrifice, my beloved. It's just a win. Besides, I don't give up on myself. I am still the protector of this area. Trouble and quarrels always find their way and as we have seen, this area needs more than just a defender."

The ruined villages in the surrounding area, dead Tieflings, goblins and druids were witnesses to Wyll's true words and there might have been one less house on fire if a savior like him had been on patrol.

"Oh my dear petal, I may have built here a little refugium for my own, but believe me: Auntie Ethel is at home everywhere. So, if your path takes you out into the world, I'm happy to be with you on the journey."

…

"It's definitely too tight here, someone is sitting on my tail," Saulus murmured and desperately tried to push the others a little to the side with her shoulders.

"Chk, you would have even brought Karlach with you, who would have set the whole bush on fire," Lae'zel reproached them.

"You can compensate her afterwards because she wasn't allowed to come with you," Shadowheart only came to mind.

"Guys, when you're watching someone from the bushes, you're supposed to keep your mouth shut," Astarion hissed at the others, his furrowed brow a testament to his growing impatience with the others' poor sneaking and hiding skills.

"Someone has experience crouching and eavesdropping from the bushes," Saulus grinned provocatively in his direction, giggling amusedly at her own joke.

A jabbing elbow from the rogue was the response. "How about you shut your little snout?"

But he hadn't expected the bard's knuckles to nudge back. "Shut your sweet little snout!"

"How about you both shut your mouth?!" Gale interrupted the ensuing scuffle.

"Um, guys...what are you doing here?" Wyll's voice, sounding directly in front of their hiding place, not to mention his stature looming over them, sent a flash of electricity through their limbs without the aid of a lightning spell.

Only Astarion wasn't the only one who remained frozen after the shock had made them flinch; he nudged the Tiefling bard forward: "Saulus wanted to see you! About the poem!"

"Um, yeah, exactly...I was worried you might need some musical accompaniment..." She fumbled with the small flute she almost always kept in her belt as a spare, as she approached Wyll, still a bit uncertain.

"She was so worried about whether you were reciting everything correctly and wanted to rush in as a secret souffleuse. Aristen here wanted to accompany her," he pulled the blonde with the pointy ears onto his shoulder, "and I can't let two ladies wander through this wilderness and some wetlands alone. So I had to accompany them, right? Self-evidently."

Astarion's recital left no room for argument. At the end of it, he casually gestured behind him with his thumb: "Yeah, and Gale and the rest just came along without being asked. You know how it is; you just can't get rid of them."

"So mean," the Wizard of Waterdeep pouted. Made up excuse or not, it sounded seriously.

"So," Saulus the bard waved her short flute, "do you need any musical accompaniment?"

"No, but thank you. I've already recited my prose."

Wyll's wandering glance over the entourage of his questionable friends didn't quite reveal whether he believed Astarion's excuse or not. In the end, it wouldn't make any difference anyway, at least not for the remaining companions.

"Did you bring your friends, petal? Why didn't you say so? They can come in for some tea. But it's more polite to knock on the front door, my dears."

"Apparently, your poem has already caught you in an overripe swamp flower. What interesting company, Wyll," Astarion smirked in his usual manner, his elven eyes wandering over Auntie Ethel, who at first continued to smile at him good-naturedly, but her words that followed sounded quite different:

"Someone should really wash your mouth out with a hard soap, young man! Be careful, cheeky remarks always come back to haunt you."

Her voice retained its usual twangy, sing-song quality, but she still hissed her words to Astarion with such emphasis that it sounded a touch like a threat, or rather an ominous promise.

The vampire's pointed face briefly went through a theatrical drama: on the one hand, amusement at her spiteful reply, on the other, natural indignation and malice at her affront, followed by indecision between rising above it or retorting sarcastically. He seemed to be still considering whether it would be a good idea to seriously take on the old eccentric.

"As usual, Astarion misspoke," Gale intervened soothingly, to which the vampire only gave a disapproving, offended hiss, "and we didn't mean to disturb you. So, we'd best be on our way."

Under the watchful eyes of the warlock and Auntie Ethel, the mage practically urged his companions to leave, as some would have gladly accepted the invitation to tea and asked curious questions. But this seemed to him likely to end in total chaos, especially given Astarion's current mood. He was no longer of any use on a diplomatic mission outside of the bushes. Had he said this out loud, Saulus would surely have found something to laugh about again; now Gale simply wanted to get his companions back to camp so they could reflect on the revelations without becoming childish. Because no matter how extraordinary Wyll's decision was, it was his decision, right? Still, none of their business.

Unless he really wanted to leave them...what would be about Mizora? Would she be happy about that decision?

But what happened next could probably be described as a series of unforeseeable events:

On the way back to the camp, they encountered two men looking for their sister because she had gone to the Wetlands to make a deal with a Hag, as revealed in a letter she had left them.

…

"It was clear to all of us that Auntie Ethel was a crone. But a hag HAG. Like in 'I eat children'-hag, that's a bit more intense," said the vampire—the vampire of all people, echoing everyone's thoughts.

But Aristen thought of something else and said: "Maybe she is more of a Rodzanice than a hag."

"Is this some warlock mission he has to do?" Karlach raised her hands and shoulders almost desperately in disbelief, her face a mask of sheer confusion, "it has to be!"

"Should we contact Mizora? Maybe she's behind this," Aristen the high elf sorceress continued explaining, that way they would have certainty about a theoretical warlock mission.

"We're not talking to Mizora!" Karlach practically hissed.

"Meow, Karlach," Astarion laughed, making a scratching paw movement with his hand.

"Shut up Astarion!" the hellish barbarian scolded him unmoved, earning rolling vampire eyes.

"Gods, calm down," he simply sighed, unable to understand why she couldn't laugh at herself. Something Astarion never could, as long as it didn't concern him. But woe betide anyone who did...

"Maybe he just doesn't know," Aristen shrugged.

"I don't know if that makes things better," Astarion murmured, "and shouldn't he have noticed it at their little meetings, since he's already talking about love and writing sonnets for her at night?"

"Before we spend too much time discussing this, we'll go to him, tell him, and most importantly, get him the hell out of there!" Karlach slammed her hand on the table.

"And if there really are any problems, I'll get us out of there in seconds with a portal," Gale assured confidently.

"Well, I don't really want to rely on Gale and a portal, let alone go anywhere near one. No thanks!" Astarion swaggered.

"No offense, Astarion, but put your sarcasm into your little rogue pocket."

His fanged mouth stood open in piqued, offended shock about Gale’s response.

...

"Look, who's back already! Did you miss your Auntie Ethel and your little friend? I already said that you can join us, even if I really appreciate the time, we have for ourselves."

The look Ethel gave Wyll after greeting the abruptly appeared group was definitely affectionate. Teasing glances between two lovers. This triggered completely different feelings in Shadowheart, and she began to make a dry gagging sound.

"I think I'm going to throw up," she choked from the background.

"What's that brat saying back there?!" Ethel hissed dangerously.

"Friends..." The emphatic tone of Wyll's voice suggested the not-so-unusually famous passive-aggressive Ravengard streak, with which they had occasionally met, and which hit you unexpectedly like lightning on the thunderbox. You were completely defenseless and only noticed it when it was already too late. Saulus, in particular, had fallen victim to it many times before. Wyll's latent passive-aggressiveness, not the lightning.

"...it's kind that you seem to be barely able to stand it without me, but you could certainly grant me a little privacy."

"We encountered two men—Demir and Johl—who showed us a letter from their sister Mayrina," Gale of Waterdeep interjected, trying to speed things up before Lae'zel began to unsheathe her greatsword, "and were on their way to save their sister from the fatal deal with a hag regarding her late husband."

To Gale's surprise, he found no surprise in Wyll's reaction; instead, he simply sighed, his eyes expressing the distress of a topic they were already familiar with and could no longer hear. The wizard wasn't the only one who hadn't expected this.

"Yes, Demir and Johl, I've already spoken to them and told them not to take their worries about their troubled sister out on Ethel. She would never do anything to harm the girl. On the contrary, everyone always seeks help from her, which she offers so generously, and then she's condemned as an evil witch because someone wants to profit from her again? That's not right! And why? Because she lives in the forest and knows about potions? I thought we'd overcome such times."

Astarion's raised index finger was silenced, along with his mouth, which was about to make what one could only assume was a snippy comment. Saulus cautiously reached for his finger and quickly shook her head, wide-eyed and with a twisted mouth.

"The girl was here voluntarily because she was so desperately looking for help, but which she simply couldn't find. Oh, there isn't. I told her about possibilities like a staff that might have had some effect, but she didn't really like any of that. I couldn't really help the poor thing either, but to demonize me because I want to help people in need is quite something."

Neither anger nor annoyance graced Auntie Ethel's face; instead, it was the pure sadness that washed over her eyes, the result of many years of experience and life. Sadness and disappointment that hurt her deeply.

"Fortunately, I was there to point out the men's false accusations, and that you're now making the same accusations really disappoints me, friends. I thought you were better people, and if you didn't trust her, then at least you could trust me and my judgment," the warlock's words hit the group with the full force of his disillusionment.

Step, parry, and the blade stroke again! "Ouch," Saulus grimaced, hurt, and practically felt the blade's sting.

The warlock's arm gently wrapped around Ethel's shoulder, pulling her lovingly and protectively toward him, while his left hand faithfully and firmly clasped hers, her gray-haired head leaning against his shoulder.

"I will never allow anyone to treat her like that again. I won't tolerate any ill-regard for Ethel either!"

"Come on!" Astarion practically burst out, his delicate hand pointing pointedly at the lovers. "You don't really believe this farce, do you?! And you can't seriously expect us to buy into any of it!"

"Wyll..." Aristen's composed voice emerged from the background, and her fine figure moved in front of the vampire, "...if you're happy, that's the most important thing, and no one questions it. But there's an illusion in these wetlands, in this teahouse, that's clearly palpable, and we wonder if you've noticed it too. I think that's what Astarion wanted to say."

"I did not..." muttered the smirking vampire, offended, and seemed unwilling to accept any help from the beautiful elf. Apparently, Astarion wanted to be transformed into a pale frog today.

So it came the illusion began to fade, revealing Ethel’s true face:

Not only was her face more of a grotesque grimace, truly sprung from the horror stories of fairy tales designed to frighten children, but her entire figure, apart from two arms and legs, barely resembled that of a humanoid.

A hunchbacked witch.

Literally and in the flesh before them.

Born from the swamps in which they stood, whose mud seemed to practically pump through her veins and whose meshwork covered her somewhat skin-like skin. A macabre green thing, fused with nature, not in a picturesque way, but only in a grotesque way.

It might be superficial to judge them for their appearance, but her wide mouth with its sharp teeth grinned only too maliciously and screamed "child eater."

That's what they saw.

That was what they all saw, all except Wyll Ravengard.

His eyes, red and stone white-grey, rested with gentle love on the face of Auntie Ethel the hag. His hand gently followed the gaze of his kind, loving eyes. It snuggled against the hag's green cheek, and she snuggled joyfully against it.

"They say love is blind. But I've always seen her true face. No illusion could deceive my eyes and my heart, because I see her for what she is. Because she sees me for what I truly am. We don't want to change each other."

"Why would I ever want to change you, my sweet love bug?" her long finger with a claw of a nail booped playfully on Wyll's nose.

"And that is why you are even more beautiful to me in your true form."

"Oh come on!" the silver-haired vampire sighed, whispering dramatically to himself, and rolled his eyes as if they would never tilt back into his skull.

"She showed me people can change. Not every monster is a monster. Like me. Wouldn't I be not a monster to the most, with my devil horns? But not to her. And I was wrong to judge myself so quickly over other creatures. Seeing through her eyes showed me a whole new beauty and love for the world and all of its inhabitants. Not just those who others decide to be worth. Worth of life. Worth of love. She showed me a new kind of love."

It seemed as if it lifted every burden from young Ravengard's heart to finally no longer have to keep it a secret, but to share his love with his friends. Even if they didn't understand him and he had to put their prejudices aside, you could see how much he was living this moment of truth. Finally, no more hiding.

Auntie Ethel and Wyll looked longingly into each other's eyes, as if the moon would miss the stars and as the sea adored the moon from below.

"I have hidden and bent myself long enough through the pact with Mizora. This love should finally belong to me alone. Come here!"

He invited her closer with a knowing look. Wyll's loving hands, which rested on the hag's cheeks, pulled her face toward him as he pursed his lips.

"Eww, gods no!" the companions cried in near unison and turned their faces away, except for one, whose eyes lit up and who leaned forward with his mouth wide open to get a better look at the "show":

Astarion – whose fangs sparkled with excitement in his large grin.

"I have to see this!" he grinned from ear to ear, watching as Wyll tilted his head and closed his eyes to press his lips to the hag's.

"Okay, no! No, this is too perverted even for me!" cried Astarion, as he hastily covered his face with his hands in a panicked frenzy to avoid having to watch the whole thing. The hag's tongue probably wrapped around Wyll's was something even he didn't want to witness.

In the middle of it, however, the two were torn apart, as Karlach's strong hand suddenly shot forward: "Okay, that's enough!"

She grabbed Wyll and pulled him with her: "Go wizard, do your wizard thing! Let's get the fuck out of here!"

"Give me my warlock baby back!"

Ravengard was pulled along by the collar, then landed under Karlach's arm and she jumped with him in a high arc through Gale's portal as if a whole pack of goblins and imps were chasing them at once, until the portal swallowed them and closed behind the group without so much as a "goodbye."

...

"Guys! What's going on?!" Wyll cursed like a scoundrel back at camp, giving his companions a completely stunned look.

But he also received a look of disbelief thrown back at him from the others' faces, only the warlock couldn't understand it at all. For him, the others' behavior was completely out of line and required an apology.

"If you're worried about me, fine. But now it stops being sweet or annoyingly endearing, it's just annoying! I don't know how I can apologize to Ethel for you, or what I should even think of you when you behave like this."

Shadowheart remained unfazed by his tirade and outright outburst, at least not in the context of the young Ravengard, whom one never really saw angry or anything like that. He never raised his voice or lost his temper. He was always the epitome of calm and poise. That he could get so angry was new, but it left the cleric with no choice but to cross her arms and wrinkle her nose: "Wyll, no offense, but you've definitely taken a blow to the head. Be thankful we're trying to help you and we're not leaving you to die as hag food."

"Why can't you still understand?" And his anger turned into haunting despair; he really wanted to convince them and make them understand.

"Can't you see that I've finally found someone who doesn't judge me or take advantage of me? I was raised to serve the greater good: The Gate, the people – only to end up serving a devil. Fitting, isn't it? Because I can, right? To serve as a soldier for others. Father never really asked what I wanted. So, it has come that the devils and demons came and took my soul in a contract. Again, someone just took. My father cast me away without trusting me. Maybe I forgot along the way what I really want for myself, because I always put the needs of others at first place. I don't know if people ever saw me – really saw me – if I didn't help them, if I didn't fight for them. "

The look of his eyes swept through the group, resting on each of them, and their expression easily cast a feeling of shame and disgrace over each of them. The disgrace, the sadness, the feeling of being lost – everything that Wyll felt. Everything that he was revealing to them here.

"And what did I fight against? What was imposed on me. I was no better, and I didn't question what lay behind the appearance. Devilish, demonic appearance. I wasn't better. If you're not like me, then you must be the enemy, because a book once said that all witches are evil, right? Because everything with horns is a devil and devils must be killed, is that so?”

His eyes laid on the two Tieflings.

“She shows me my faults without mocking me or making me feel stupid. No, but simply enriched...happy. Finally understood and settled. I was so lost after Mizora took my humanity, and yet I don't cry for it, because the decision to spare Karlach was the right one. And I would make it again a hundred times in every lifetime. Just as I hope to meet Auntie Ethel again and again."

While Shadowheart remained untouched, Karlach could no longer. If she hadn't been so warm, and if the tears hadn't immediately evaporated as they rolled down her cheeks, she would have cried tears down her cheeks as she lowered her gaze, stricken and moved.

“Wyll, darling, you just sound completely crazy!" Astarion had no problem saying what he thought, and as usual, he believed he was saying what everyone else was thinking.

"I'm starting to care less about what you think! And I'm going back to her, and either you let me through willingly or I'll make room..." The warlock's tone sharpened, and his hand slid dangerously towards his rapier until, out of nowhere, he toppled forward and, lay down on his belly…snoring.

Surprised eyes wandered to Gale, whose hands were still gently wrapping the weave after casting the sleeping spell.

"I think," he cleared his throat briefly, "it's time we persuade him more forcefully to stay here."

"With the greatest pleasure," Astarion, Shadowheart, and Lae'zel grinned simultaneously, looping a rope around his wrists and ankles.

"Maybe not quite so tightly, Lae'zel," Aristen ventured, seeing the Githyanki binding his feet.

"So what do we do now?" Saulus asked, her gaze instinctively going to Gale.

"The Hag clearly put a spell on Wyll. So how do we break it, wizard?" Astarion nodded, chiming in.

"Hag's magic isn't exactly my specification," Gale admitted sheepishly, while his tone also hinted that they should have been aware of that themselves, because it was a fairly obvious, logical fact. At least to him.

"What a miracle. You're usually the expert on all sorts of magic," Aristen muttered, only loud enough for Gale to hear but could have ignored.

Saulus, however, didn't miss it and absolutely not ignored it.

Her eyes widened, and a loud "HA!" echoed from the back where she stood, "Hahahaha woohoo! She's given it to you, Gale!" she cried, laughing loudly. The wizard from Waterdeep had pointed out to the Sorceress Aristen at every opportunity that sorcery wasn't real magic. He deserved the comeback.

Astarion, of all people, uncharacteristically intervened as the voice of reason, saying in a calm voice: "As much as I like to take every opportunity to harp on about the fact, we have a useless wizard with us..."

"Hey!" protested Gale, not missing the insult beneath the apparent rescue. Friends like Astarion didn't need enemies, and Gale, meanwhile, pulled the proverbial knife out of his back.

"...just as much as we should be looking for a solution to this...problem," the vampire continued undeterred, "not that I care where Wyll puts his blade in his free time, but if it prevents him from concentrating on using it in combat, then I do care. Usually, he's always eager to be on the front lines, solving all the monsters and problems. If he doesn't do that, it all falls on us, and we're stuck in this wilderness for longer. That makes it less of a challenge to free him from that witch."

"Maybe he really does like her," Karlach objected.

"Darling, are you blind or stupid? Have you even looked at her? She's a witch! You don't like them! And even if someone in yours or our bard's vivid imagination did..."

"Hey! Why?!" Saulus protested, looking confused at the unnecessary jab. And she couldn't help but notice Gale grinning in her direction. She planned to straighten the elf’s curls later, for the audacity to confuse her with Alfira or—gods forbid—Volo.

"...WYLL doesn't like them. He slaughters every monster," Astarion finished his thought.

"Neither you, fangs," Kalach emphasized, "suddenly not so stupid anymore, eh, smartass?!"

"Gods, can someone explain to her that they're not the same thing," Astarion shrieked, almost desperately.

"Actually, she has a debatable point, Astarion," Gale objected logically, only making him despair even more.

"Well, as long as she's not a goblin, there's a possibility. At least with those, we can be sure he'd never willingly tolerate them," the bard shrugged.

"Really Saulus, this again?" Shadowheart sighed.

"I'm sorry I can't forget the fact, that he wanted to exterminate all goblins, parents and children, but portrayed me as the morally reprehensible one when I didn't immediately offer condolences to the goblin child talking about his dead parents. What bullshit! I mean, he probably killed his parents. Including that we wanted to sneak up on the goblin leaders incognito, and after all our persuasion, the first thing he did was tell the priestess to her face that we should kill her and make her scream. After he ripped me off outside in front of the goblin kid who tried to grab my horns."

"Saulus, I think you're missing the point," Aristen smiled knowingly. But loving and reassuring.

"But..."

"I understand," she gently touched her arm, "just let it go and get over it."

A familiar sigh rippled through the group, and it was Lae'zel who drew attention. Her face, with its barely existent nose, was twisted in annoyance and anger, her sinewy arms crossed. Anyone who knew her, or Githyanki in general, even slightly, knew that she was tired of this sitting around arguing. The warrior could only take pleasure in action. Well-thought-out and planned, with meaning and understanding, yes, but still action!

Either something was done now, or the topic was ended, and she would have known immediately how to end the topic most quickly.

"I think we've wasted enough time on this already. We should have been looking for my crech in the meantime, or have you forgotten that we have tadpoles in our brains? We should be working on that!"

"Lae'zel Fey magic is truly something not to be underestimated. Bewitchment. Classic enchantment magic. A spell twinned with his essence; but it could also be something totally different. A potion, a talisman – too many options," answered Aristen, the sorceress who definitely didn't want to give up on Wyll so easily. If he had been in love, she would have been the first to congratulate him, but before the whole thing, she had witnessed a hundred times more potential and tension between him and Karlach than between him and the strange aunt. The swamp reeked of rotten magic and illusions, the brothers, her sister… something was wrong.

"What in the nine hells?!" Suddenly, something stirred from Wyll's direction, and after the sleep spell had worn off, the warlock began to realize his situation and pull at his bonds. "Untie me immediately!" He cursed and was about to start tossing and turning, but Saulus was already there, saying in a gentle voice, "Hey buddy...", sitting down on the bound Wyll's backside, "It's okay, we'll take care of you."

It took a few moments for him to calm down and stop fidgeting. So he changed his tactics and smiled sheepishly at his companions: "Guys, seriously? That's not necessary, is it? We're all friends, you don't have to tie me up."

"It seemed different earlier," Lae'zel retorted, provocatively sticking her pointed, bony nose at Ravengard, who was lying prone beneath Saulus.

"If you're really worried about me leaving you, that's not a problem! I've spoken to Ethel about it, and she knows we're looking for a solution to be freed from the tadpoles, and she would accompany us on our journey!" he explained, almost too happily, as if that could settle all the disputes.

"Yes, because that was my biggest concern, that Auntie Ethel wouldn't be able to accompany us," sarcasm dripped from Astarion's mouth. The vampire simply couldn't suppress another roll of his eyes. After this day, his and Lae'zel's eyes would hurt so much from rolling them all.

Meanwhile, Aristen had made a decision: "Before we try any spells on Wyll, I suggest we go to the source that can definitely solve this:

Auntie Ethel."

...

Auntie Ethel's lair, thick with illusion, rot, and glowing fungal light. Reeking of hag's magic, especially now that the illusion around her own person was gone.

The sight of her was still a scary one for the group, and they all agreed: Wyll hadn't lost his heart to her, not willingly.

While one half was convinced based on her looks, the other was convinced based on her fake smile.

The air smelled of weavemoss, autumn crocus, and decay. Nevertheless, the party once again entered Ethel's sanctum.

"You all have some guts to show yourselves here again. I hope you came with an excuse and my darling boy in tow!"

"Cut out the dramatics, we know very well you did something to our friend, and we won't leave without you releasing him from your shady love story!”, Shadowheart snapped with a straight back, just like all the others. They weren't in negotiable mood, that much was clear. The time for peace and negotiations was over, at least as far as Lae'zel was concerned, as she wanted to cut the witch in two immediately. But Gale had taught her better that she shouldn't underestimate the monster.

"Release? I don't know what you're talking about, you feisty little brat," Ethel spat, slowly losing her patience. The loving look faded. In fact, her gentle, loving nature was completely replaced without Wyll at her side.

"Love songs don't usually involve domination charms with whips and chains and rotting mushrooms, Ethel. I'd know—I've written both. Or something like that," said Saulus the Tiefling bard, stopping herself before losing the plot; plucked a few strings of her lyre to activate the weave and cast a spell over her two crossbows before swinging the instrument over her shoulder, already reaching for a bolt to notch.

Gale agreed with sharp disdain to further harass the hag and corner her:

"Your hag's magic is all around this place. But layered with something...older. Foul. Ethel, what have you done?"

Auntie Ethel just grinned, viciously, slyly, and not the least bit worried. Her green skin strangely and suspiciously flickering with its scaled texture.

"Oh, don't be so grim, you wet blankets. The precious Wyll came to me on his free will and behalf, that poor misunderstood lonesome dear. All I offered him was love and attention. Something none of you ever gave him."

“Lies,” Lae’zel hissed with a voice full of fury and stepped forward, her blade already raised, “let him go you crone, or I will cut you down before your next lie slithers free.”

“Be careful petal, before you hurt yourself with that sharp thing”, only mockery escaped the grinning mouth of Ethel

“Undo the spell, hag. Or your next kiss will be from lightning,” threatened Aristen the storm sorceress, her eyes already crackling with arcane energy that was slowly beginning to twitch around the tips of her thin fingers.

“Ha! That was a good one, darling!” Astarion laughed at the on point line of the sorceress, briefly breaking his tense fighting pose with the grim look before immediately slipping back into it.

Ethel's cackles turned into a furious roar, and she spit in the direction of the party, that was ready to defend their companion Wyll:

"Fine! Let's end this farce! You want him? You'll have to take him from my dead, cold claws! But I guess it will be more the dead, cold claws of you all, and you will reek and rot as mud in my swamp, like the shite that you are!"

Spells began to fly, and Gale shouted: "Silence her, Shadowheart!"

But too late, before the cleric could cast the silencing dome over the witch, her bizarre skin began to shimmer a strange green again, and suddenly she disappeared, only to reappear in several places at once.

Mirror Images.

"Damn it, where did she go?!" Shadowheart's voice rang out desperately, her hands ready to form the spell.

"Tsk'va, that pathetic cheating coward!"

“Focus on where she stood!”, Saulus’ voice echoed to her friends. Her eyes hadn't left the Hag for a second, so she exactly pointed to the spot where Ethel had been standing a split second ago. “Just cast Silence in that area anyway, Shadowheart, then she won't be able to try any new tricks. She couldn’t get too far. And Gale, cast something flammable into the area; it'll reveal herself to us.”

The College of Swords Bard found new use for her Bardic Inspiration to perform a Slashing Flourish weapon action with her crossbows to keep the mirror images of Ethel on their toes. This flourish maneuver allowed her to aim and shoot with two bolts at once at each crossbow, which whirred through the tension-charged air.

Doubts held the wizard captive as to whether it was such a good idea and whether the bard was standing far enough away. But there was no time for hesitation and arguing. Immediately after the cleric's silencing dome appeared and seemingly nothing happened except that Ethel's mirror images continued to attack her with claws and poison mist, he cast a raining fireball down.

"Ardē!"

With venomous, malicious hisses, the real Ethel became visible, shaking herself at the very edge of the sea of ​​flames that had fallen from the sky at Gale's command. But her screaming, spitting, and arguing were all in vain; she was still within range of Shadowheart's silencing spell, and thus all her evil gurgling remained stuck silent in her throat. At which point she stretched out her spindly fingers and pointed at the cleric.

Two of her mirror images surrounded her, one slashing with claws, the other casting a spell of confusion to force the half-elf to the edge of a cliff and tumble her down.

Aristen used her storm magic to summon a thunderstorm overhead, the lair crackling with primal energy as the lightning struck the copies of Ethel, freeing Shadowheart from their grasp.

Meanwhile, the real Auntie Ethel dashed out of the area of ​​the silence dome to reclaim the power of her own spells, but in doing so, she ran into the open arms — or rather, short swords — of Astarion. The Rogue had used the time to get into position unseen and completely calmly and silently. As calculated, it paid off, and his two blades descended upon her.

It was a hard, dangerous fight.

Gale cast Counterspell against Ethel's Dominate Person to thwart her plan, confuse someone else, or make them fight against their friends.

The Tiefling bard fired precise bolts that burst into magical chords and drilled with sonic damage into her green flesh. Until she staggered and coughed as one of Ethel's foul green clouds burst at her feet, blinding her vision and sending her staggering from the caustic poison.

The air was charged not only with tension, but also with electricity, and Aristen came to Saulus’ aid, using her storm power to swirl the hag's poison and acid aside before her lightning bolts leaped to the malevolent fey creature like an ominous chain of blazing doom.

Lae'zel unleashed her Great Sword, raining down slashing attacks that would strike down giants, supported by a holy flame from the back and Astarion's bone-breaking and flesh-toring arrows that shot from the string of his longbow with deadly precision, as well as brutal power and speed.

"ENOUGH!"

The growling voice of Auntie Ethel roamed through the place, coughing and spitting as she staggered backward.

"You became quiet an inconvenience for me, you little maggots," she shouted with a tongue as evil as her very own soul and heart. No sign of love left.

"Stop it right there. I swear if you kill me, your warlock friend remains bound. My curse is laced into his very soul. But if you let me go, I'll release him. Willingly."

"Who could trust the words of a hag?!", Shadowheart spat at her.

"You have no choice but to believe me," Ethel grinned broadly, her long claws twitching.

"Can that be true?" Lae'zel's ever-serious gaze shot to the wizard of the group for confirmation of Ethel's words about her magic, but the warrior remembered Gale's "failure" with Fey Magic and turned away to the sorceress. "Aristen?"

Disappointment wasn't even a word for what glittered in Gale's brown eyes, as he had already raised his index finger and opened his mouth to offer Lae'zel an explanation. Losing his trust as the group's #1 Magical Consultant hurt his ego even more than the orb in his chest, evident in the slight pout he pulled as he lowered his finger, completely unnoticed by Lae'zel.

"Normally, the spell disappears with the caster. Unless she did something else. A cursed object or something," replied the blonde high elf with blue eyes. “Right, Gale?”

“Yes, right. To kill would end her power, but to risk Wyll’s life as we don’t know the details is a cost to high”, the wizard enthusiastically nodded, happy to share his thoughts. 

"I thought, with your wormy group, it wouldn't hurt to have someone on my side, just to be on the safe side. And I thought you might be useful to me if you continued your work here. So I asked the well-behaved boy to carry a few potion crates for poor Auntie Ethel, and while I was at it, I secretly put a bracelet around his wrist. All you have to do is take it off and burn it along with this powder."

The hag's long fingernails fished out a leathery pouch that looked as ominous as its contents probably were.

"Swear on your foul magic, that this breaks the curse, or I will break every bone in your disgusting body!" the warrior of K'liir continued. She was in her element — action and not reaction.

"100 percent guaranteed effect. More than your swords and blades," the hag grinned. Strangely scheming.

“It better works, because when it doesn't, I will come back and you will pray that we had killed you. Because I will burn down the entire swamp, and that's just the beginning, and now vanish from our sight. Forever!”

Lae'zel roughly grabbed the leather pouch and ripped it roughly from Ethel's hand to take it for herself.

“You are too loud, girl. You have what you wanted, now leave my swamp and kiss my little petal from me one last time.”

...

"Next time, we shoot first and charm later," Saulus stated while entering the camp, counting her remaining bolts of her crossbows.

Aristen nodded in agreement while sighing: "Let's just hope there isn't a next time."

"Oh my darlings, there is always a next time. But I am sure, something like that will NEVER EVER happen again," Astarion grinned at the two pointy-eared ladies.

"You're back!" Karlach cried joyfully when she heard their voices and ran a little towards them. "Please tell me you've accomplished something!"

"To preempt Gale's long story: Yes. We also found that Mayrina girl later and freed her, but that doesn’t help with our Wyll-problem ", Shadowheart chimed in, and the companions gave Karlach a summary while they immediately went to the still-bound Wyll, so as not to waste any time and to break the curse of the hag immediately.

Gale pushed up the warlock's sleeve, revealing a bracelet made of twisted willow branches.

"By Mystra's nose, indeed," breathed the brown-eyed wizard, amazed with the others' breath on his neck.

He broke the cursed thing, smashed it to the ground, sprinkled the nasty, suffocating powder from the leather pouch over it, and after a brief flame from his fingers, the bracelet burst into flames.

The nightmare was over.

Or was it?

All eyes turned to Wyll Ravengard, who was still lying tied up on the ground.

"Wyll... buddy...how are you doing?" Saulus asked, cautiously approaching him, an uncertain smile on her scarred lips.

"Any...feelings?" Astarion dared to ask, emphasizing the word "feelings" as if he'd never said it before in his life.

"What's with all this impertinent questioning? You were with Ethel, right? How is she? Is she okay? Don't hurt her, or I swear..." He started to thrash around again, but was stopped by Saulus, who squatted on him again. "Whoopsie, let's not do that, shall we, Wyll?"

"Chk, the bitch cheated on us!"

"For fuck's sake, I can't believe it."

"Just untie me and let me go to her!"

"It's not you speaking, Wyll. It's her magic. Fight it," Gale pleaded urgently.

"No, I want to listen to my heart!"

"I've had enough!" Astarion grumbled.

"Me too! Stupid istiks!" Lae'zel hissed, truly fed up.

"Great! Now what?!" Saulus sighed, crouching on Wyll.

"We'll go back to the hag and finish this. No one betrays a Githyanki," Lae'zel was determined, perhaps less for Wyll's sake than for revenge, and the thought that Ethel fooled them, lied them in the face.

"Then on to round two!" the bard jumped up from Ravengard, only to see Astarion waving his hands and shaking his silver head wildly.

"Have fun, but without me! You're welcome to do that, but I'm out! I've had enough! This time I'm keeping watch over our love-struck Sword Coast watchdog," and with these words, Astarion plopped down on Wyll's backside, where Saulus had been squatting.

"Ugh," the air was forced from the Warlock's lungs and throat as the Rogue sat down on him, and Wyll wheezed breathlessly: "Astarion, could you sit somewhere else? You're a little heavier than Saulus."

"Well, beauty weighs," the elf laughed, throwing his head back as he bent his hand.

Saulus just turned around with her arms outstretched and shaking her head, before deciding to let it go and not take it as an insult, but simply as a compliment he'd directed at himself, and set off with the others back to the swamp. Meanwhile, they could still hear Astarion's voice:

"And don't be like that, Wyll, I could have sat on your face. Or would you prefer that?"

...

"Look who is once again my guest: The cat dragged in a pile of knuckle-dragging gobshite! But I didn't invite you, you little snots," Ethel shouted as angry as any existence could be, as the party stood again at her door, her face a grimace of disgust. Or even more so than it already was. Wyll would have been enraged by this comparison!

"Save your breath, hag, your lousy hoax has been exposed. Now bring me the real antidote!" Lae'zel wasted no time, the tip of her blade already aimed at Ethel's pointed, bumpy nose. Which only elicited an unsteady twitch of the witch's green, algae-covered eyebrows before she whistled a laugh between her sharp piranha teeth.

"I have no idea what you're babbling about, you naughty little frog brat," she hissed at the warrior of K'liir, her voice practically screeching as her lip trembled in anger. Ethel had had enough of the group. Her hooked nose was fed up, if you will.

"Bracelet gone up in flames; our friend is still head over heels for you; is something clicking? Now just set him free or we'll have to find out how well witches really burn," Karlach intervened, her hand clenching her axe, but it was the licking flames around her hair and the look in her eyes that seemed really threatening.

"Stop bothering me, afterbirth of a worg! I gave you everything to break my curse. So how dare you to show up here again?!"

The growls, the hag's snarls, and the fury with which she spat out the words was a bit frightening, especially the way she began to rear up with her long arms.

"In fact, it didn't work," Gale stepped in, "the deal was to release him."

"And how is that my problem, hm?", Ethel leaned forward and tilted her head grotesquely, looking more like a strange dog at the moment, "if you're too stupid to do something right? Maybe your little warlock lapdog just loves Auntie Ethel so much, ever thought about that? And now...piss off you nasty naughty petals, you will never bother me again! You will never bother anyone again. Bye bye."

A snapping gesture with her screwy clawed fingers and the figure of the hag dissolved before their eyes, just vanished, just for a bunch of snarling Redcaps to appear and surround them.

"Aaah Redcaps!" screamed Saulus in alarm as she flinched and jumped on one leg as if their were spiders on the ground that she definitely didn't want to touch.

...

"And how did it go?"

Astarion's question would only seem like a farce to someone who saw the rest of the group returning to camp:

Shuffling, dejected, shoulders slumped, disheveled, and some with blood spattered on their cheeks.

Equally important was the way he asked:

Well, it was his usual nonchalant, sing-song voice that he had chosen, but considering the faces looking back, his own chosen smug grin spoke volumes.

"Untie him," Gale simply sighed in surrender, pointing to the flat Wyll on which Astarion was still perched, and whose request he hadn't complied with.

"What?!"

"Untie him," the wizard simply repeated, and the elf reluctantly complied, twisting his full lips slightly crookedly, always containing as many sarcastic remarks as they did seemingly insincere compliments.

"What happened then?", he pressed onward to know.

"Ethel said her hag spell had already been broken and that she had kept her word. There's nothing we can do," Aristen explained the situation to him.

"Outrageous! I may be bewitched; I may be under a spell — the spell of love — but I am not cursed!" Wyll shouted, tearing off the last scraps of rope and rubbing his wrists.

"And then she disappeared forever," Shadowheart added, sighing heavily as she sat down on her stool to rest her feet.

Nothing came of that.

"And she's set a horde of Redcaps on us to tear us apart so-"

"WHAT?!" Wyll's cry interrupted Saulus’ lament, "My Ethel is gone?! No!"

The Blade began to run, lips still murmuring words of adoration. The remaining companions followed him, although Astarion and Shadowheart were only reluctantly chasing after him, Aristen involuntarily staying at their level, and Lae'zel cursing that she couldn't believe the speed the power of love gave him, because she should have caught up with him by now.

"Soldier wait!"

But Wyll was unstoppable, which caused Karlach to grab a solid piece of wood as he ran past, "Sorry, soldier," and hurl it into her friend's path from behind.

The wooden stick got caught between his fast-moving feet, the warlock began to stumble, and Karlach grimaced apologetically and pityingly as he fell to his knees.

That was Lae'zel's moment to intervene before he started sprinting again too quickly, but when she grabbed his shoulder, the feeling of almost like being a hunter who had caught their prey, the triumph vanished and as Wyll began to sob.

"Um, Karlach, can you please help," Lae'zel calling her follower over, pulling Ravengard up.

"Wyll, buddy, what's up? We're here for you."

"You aren't! You scared off my girlfriend. And now I wanted to see if she maybe packed her things at her "Lotions & Potions" stall. And you're even trying to stop me from doing that."

Combined with Gale's heavy panting, which was now catching up with the group, and Astarion, who was definitely strolling up in a more than less relaxed manner, the companions now clearly realized that they had walked to the Emerald Grove. So Ravengard had indeed been drawn there.

"Wyll," Karlach refrained from placing her hand on his shoulder, because the charred spot wouldn't help at all now, "Ethel is gone. She also doesn’t sell no more potions at the grove. But remember why she did it. Because she was a hag. And why is she gone now? Because she was an evil hag who only had evil intentions. Evil. Remember? You hate evil! And you more like nice ladies with a heart of gold."

“Or more like a heart of fire,” Astarion whispered in the background, his hand in front of his mouth, grinning as he nudged Aristen and Saulus with his elbow and waggled his eyebrows, causing the bard to once again suppress a laugh, so she huffed a laugh through her nose.

“Shhh,” Aristen gently poked her elbow back to silence him, so as not to disturb Karlach, but with a big fat grin onto her elven lips.

“How can love be bad or evil, Karlach?” responded The Blade, “just as she is not blind. Since I lost my eye, I've seen more than ever. Happiness, joy, understanding. I've stopped judging and started questioning. Where I first saw only an enemy in a hag, I have found love. A happiness that would otherwise have been forever denied to me, out of sheer stubbornness and blindness.”

Even Gale sighed deeply and laid his head with its thick brown hair and the scattered gray strands — now one could guess whether he owed these to time, Mystra or the orb, or perhaps his mom and Tara — in his hand. As beautiful as he would have found a bard's tale in which a warlock falls in love with a hag and they both overcome the forces of good and evil and all prejudices, he still knew that it wasn't true. Wyll and Ethel could have been happy; at first glance, an unlikely couple, but what others thought should never concern you, Gale respected that to the highest degree.

But he had been with the others at the fight at Ethel's lair and she had enchanted the Duke's son, had admitted it. It couldn't be that she had enchanted him for nothing, surely?

That Wyll was already in love with her and she had gone to all the trouble for nothing.

Or...or was she?

Gale trimmed his chin and rubbed his beard. "Why did Wyll have to trigger the butterfly effect by helping Ethel carry the potion crates? Couldn't he have told her to find someone else to do it for her? Then none of this would probably have happened," the wizard sighed, before shaking his head and answering his own question, "but Wyll is too nice for that."

"Yes, that's right, he's too nice for that”, Saulus nodded in true agreement, because no others words could be truer and at least for that thing, they could be sure at the end of this lunatic day. The bard's nodding agreement turned slowly into a perplexed stare, and the smile on Saulus' lips disappeared. Gale's statement had set in motion a thought process that spread burningly in her flaming eyes beneath her horns.

From the outside, little was discernible from the gears that were loudly turning and squeaking inside her brain, only her twitching expressions and furrowed brows.

"Karlach!" the Tiefling suddenly broke out of her trance, almost startling the rest with her abrupt intervention, since they had, of course, continued their conversation when Saulus had mentally checked out. "Punch Wyll in the stomach!"

"What?!" Karlach hissed in disbelief, her face twisting in confusion. "Fuck, no!"

"You have to punch him in the stomach as hard as you can!" the horned bard continued to insist vehemently.

The remaining companions frowned, no less confused, not understanding what she was getting at or what this was all about. What good would knocking Wyll out do now? Or was she so euphoric that she was taking resentful revenge for the incident in the goblin camp?

"I won't punch Wyll," Karlach shook her head in incomprehension without even a second's hesitation. The opposite of this was Lae'zel, who stepped forward boldly, her practiced and steely Githyanki fist already clenched and raised as a monument, a metonymy of determined hardness and pain:

"I'll do it!"

Only a spell of 'time stop' could have later said which came first: Lae'zel's fist burying itself in Wyll's gut with a dull thud, or the wide-eyed looks of the other companions in completely useless attempts to move, to avert the inevitable. Then Ravengard's full breath, which the Githyanki warrior had punched out of him and which, with a pain-filled choking, then caught halfway in his throat.

Wyll coughed and choked under the force of Lae'zel's fist, which probably wanted to pierce his gut. He spat briefly, and there was a clunking sound from the ground.

"Lae'zel!" Gale and Aristen shouted in unison, supporting poor Wyll, who was almost about to fall forward. The groaning sounds he made, far from the Blade of Frontiers, now reminded him more of a zombie, thanks to the Githyanki warrior.

Sparkling ruby ​​eyes watched the proceedings with undeniable glee.

A throwback to Chaos.

"Lae'zel, didn't you want to know why we should hit Wyll?" Karlach raised an eyebrow as she patted the slowly rising Blade on the back reassuringly.

"Chk, what for?" she hissed, unfazed. "Besides, he took it all right and is still standing. Not everyone can say that after taking a blow from a Githyanki."

"Perhaps you could say that a little less maliciously," Astarion's voice intervened, smugly and unhelpfully.

"Yes, as the right person is saying that," Shadowheart's accusatory wit caught him.

A finger raised in the air interrupted the banter:

"Wyll would like to know why he should be punched," he said, groaning.

"I assume it was about that," Astarion's finger, as treacherously as his swirling tongue, pointed to the ground, "whatever landed on the floor with such a nice 'clank' after Wyll spat it out."

However, his attentive silver-curled head with crimson-red eyes that missed nothing was only the second to bend down, observing.

Hazel eyes of Gale were the first to, along with Saulus, examine the object that had been pried out by the blow to the warlock's stomach, somewhat suspiciously.

"By Mystra's waving robe, what is that?!"

"Why don't you let Astarion hold it? I thought sticky fluids are his thing," Shadowheart's snarky comment was almost missed under the nonchalant, casual tone of her voice. But only almost.

"Um, EXCUSE YOU?!" It wasn't even remotely offended, the way Astarion's voice shot up several octaves as his elven face twisted in a completely unelven inelegant way.

If Shadowheart's comment hadn't been so mean, Aristen would have almost laughed at how much Astarion now looked like an exotic shorthair cat, the way he pulled his nose. Instead, she suppressed a laugh and eyed the round thing with the others, which, "thanks" to Lae'zel's blow, was no longer in Wyll. Because apparently, it definitely had no business being there.

"Is that from Auntie Ethel?" she preferred to concentrate on that.

"That looks like one of her talismans to me," Gale agreed with the blond sorceress, nodding, his brow still furrowed in thoughtful analysis.

"One of her evil hag eye boogaloos. That in the stomach of our warlock, and there she has a deviant, head-over-heels puppy. No offense, Wyll," the Wizard of Waterdeep added afterwards.

"So she lied to us?"

"Big surprise: A hag lied! Quite shocking," Astarion did an act of pure sarcasm with tone and face.

"But why poising him with her spells and her charms? That does not make any sense," Shadowheart interjected logically.

"Because she didn't do it on purpose, just as she didn't lie to us. It was all a stupid coincidence, I think," Saulus the bard spoke again. "I think Wyll swallowed the hag talisman by accident. And didn't notice or think about it, because he's just too nice."

"And how the fuck that, lil pup soldier?"

"Gale pointed it out to me: Okta's cooking pot is right next to Auntie Ethel's potion stand. You remember how she offered us her gray porridge to keep us fed? If one of her cursed hag's eye trinkets accidentally fell into the pot and landed right in Wyll's bowl, he'd never complain about how disgusting it tasted or that he'd bitten into something hard and weird. He'd just swallow it and eat it because he's too polite to tell an old cook that the emergency ration she's sharing with us tastes horrible and inedible."

"In the name of Lady Shar, and that's what you thought of?"

"Like I said: It's Gale who thought of it and brought it to my attention," she smiled appreciatively in Gale's direction, "he knew it was Wyll's decency that triggered the butterfly effect. I just brought up the suggestion for boxing."

The Tiefling let out a short laugh, which was reflected in her eyes and almost to the tips of her horns, if that were possible.

"No wonder this whole love spell or curse — however you might call it — was so powerful and effective with this double enchantment. Truly most interesting. Again, no offense, Wyll," Gale analyzed.

"We can be glad he's doing so well after such a double enchantment. I mean, there could have been a danger that this dose of Fey magic would have blown his brains out," Aristen frowned, glad that The Blade of Frontiers had once again proven itself resilient. Another scar? One that wasn't visible?

"How do you feel, Wyll?" Karlach leaned over to the young Ravengard to check the most important things. Did he remember everything? Was it really all over now?

"Gods...What did she — ?" He shook his horned head vigorously "I am fine, Karlach. Only...only ashamed. I remember. All of it. What happened," he shivered, grimacing over his face, "and especially how I behaved towards you. Disgraceful. You were on my side the whole time. Most of you."

"Yes, especially me! Don't forget that!" the rogue grinned broadly from the background, his fangs bared, to emphasize once again that he didn't like Wyll, even though he, like everyone else, had been on board the whole time. His motives notwithstanding. He might fool himself; it had only been out of curiosity. They wouldn't just leave each other behind like that. None of them, for any reason.

"You're back, my friend. Good we have our blade not hanging loosely on our side, only a shell left of their former self. We need you. For everything to come. And we need you as you are for yourself, Wyll. Your words of courage and balance went missing these days," smiled Gale gently and visibly relieved.

"No! Let's see if this is really over," snapped Astarion and he dragged the slightly protesting Wyll into sight of the old Tiefling cook Okta, where he pointed at her out of hearing reach, "now: Would you do her?"

“Astarion, what?!”

“Answer the question!”

“Well NO!”

“Then everything is fine again,” the elf nodded happily and let go of the warlock, who grumbled about the vampire, adjusting his collar, but the Tiefling bard was already grinning her way into Astarion's world and tilting her head toward him.

"Would you do her?" she asked with a voice that suppressed a joking giggling.

"What?" he snapped offended at her.

"Would you do her then? It seemed like you just wanted to make sure you eliminated any competition," she continued, grinning with her Tiefling fangs over both of her pointed, pierced ears.

"Haha, Saulus, you absolute freak, how dare you," Astarion said, jutting his sharp chin in mock offense, before a grin spread across his lips and his ruby-red eyes squinted back at her amusedly, because he actually always found her humorous comments and jokes quite funny.

"Okay, let's just agree that no one finds out about this," Wyll sighed, putting a hand over his face that he buried and wished would never resurface, and he began to shake his head vigorously in shame, "okay?"

"I don't know, Wyll, you said a few things there, maybe you should stick to those insights. They weren't bad, there's still something to be learned from them," Shadowheart suggested him playfully.

"Guys!"

"We won't say anything," the others reassured him.

"I wish I could forget and burn my eyes out," moaned Ravengard, who, as a self-proclaimed monster hunter with a reputation, clearly had problems with everything that happened. He was traveling with a Tiefling - who should have been killed by him due to his pact  - as well as a vampire spawn. He was getting further and further away from a path...which was probably nothing but meaningless words and smoke and mirrors. Because meaning had virtue in what one gave meaning.

"Our dream visitor could erase our memories," Saulus interjected, completely casually.

"What can they do?! How do you know that?!" Astarion practically jumped up, which made the bard blink uncertainly as if she'd said something she shouldn't.

"What did they delete before? Saulus, answer me!" the vampire shook her, while the Tiefling clenched her teeth.

"I am just glad it is over," the warlock continued seriously, skillfully ignoring the nonsensical commotion of the two pointy-eared, sharp-toothed creatures in the background, "it is so that it seems I am always on a leash. It seems I should be used to it."

A deep sigh escaped his lips and the young Duke’s son cast his gaze to the ground.

What did he learn from this story?

"Ah soldier, don't be sad. We keep an eye on you. Everything will be better, I promise," the barbarian smiled, her big, famous, beautiful Karlach smile on him.

"You deserve better, Wyll. Like we all," Gale nodded at him.

"You really do, Wyll," Aristen smiled gently.

Shrugging shoulders lifted beneath white curls: "Look at it this way, now you have experience and great pick-up lines if you really find someone hot."

"Astarion, I think it would be appropriate if you just kept your mouth shut," Gale said in a pleasant tone, yet pleasant. Already speaking Fireball in his mind.

"Gods, you're all sensitive today."

The vampire's snippy tongue and the rest of the banter were interrupted by the familiar scratching sound of a quill on parchment, absorbing ink.

The bard was writing far too eagerly in her little book.

"Um, Saulus, what are you writing?" Wyll asked, slightly alarmed, and suspicious glances slid in her direction.

With a bright, enthusiastic look, she held out her bard's book:

"My latest song: Hag's Love."

➹a/n:  Like so often, what I did is the fault of Agata 😁 My partner in crime 😉 Love ya my darling 😘 She said write a rare pair.  That is what I made out if it 😄

So it is a bit of the March AU prompt as well, because it as an alternative or parallel camp with two Tavs 😉 But I wanted for my Saulus and her Aristen to get to know each other and have a little adventure together 😁

And because they are both there, there is no flirting with Astarion or mentioning who is with him 😉 For the pansexual polygamous Saulus it would be no problem at all to have a relationship as three 😄😂 But the heterosexual monogamous Aristen would to have some loud words to say about that, so nothing will come of it 😆🤣

Did you hear that, Halsin! This especially applies to you! Get out of bushes! No threesomes for you! 😆😆😆

(I don’t now why it is my headcanon that Halsin lurkes in bushes for couples to jump on threesomes 🤣 He brought this upon himself! 😂)

(P.S.: I imagined Aristen coming to the rescue of Saulus when Astarion shook her at the end.)

I said No Wylls war harmed in the writing of this fic…well maybe a little bit 😅 (*looking at Lae’zel*)

P.S.: Sorry to everyone who expected hardcore hot Wyll x Ethel moments 😆🤣