#the need to have my friend minsc my buddy minsc in the party

[eruscreaminginthedistance]

It means so gd much to me to finally get Minsc in the party for a BG1 and 2 reunion with my Dark Urge, my Bhaalspawn there in spirit, but it didn't hit me until recruiting him that I would absolutely break Minsc's heart going down the evil route that I plan to with my Durge and it's given me a whole new anxiety disorder just thinking about it

[blackjackkent]

(tldr: read to end for my new favorite thing to have EVER happened because of RNG in this game, holy shit)

So. Yeah. When Orin said that Bhaal demands a duel, I was thinking the usual situation for "duels" in CRPGs, where it's nominally a duel but you're also allowed to bring your 2-4 closest friends who happen to be in the party with you.

AND BOY WOULD IT BE GREAT IF THAT WAS THE CASE HERE.

This is deeply not what I expected. I was actually low-key kind of excited for the standard Tav fight, because Rakha just hit level 12 and got the Spirit Guardians spell that I sank six levels of bard for, and I was real excited to see if they worked for buzz-sawing through the Sanctuary'd cultists.

No such luck, however. It's just us and Orin.

[slowly and carefully taps the reload button and examines Rakha's spell loadout]

There is actually some good news here too. I'm playing on easy so Orin's hit points aren't particularly terrifying, and far more significantly, she doesn't seem to have the buff from her cultist buddies, meaning she does not have stacks of Unstoppable and we can damage her immediately.

The downside is basically everything else. :P

Everyone else in the party currently has a condition called Duel: Murder's Chosen -

Very ominous. Even switching to any other character makes everyone get Big Mad:

At this point, the fight basically converts to normal, Orin recovers her Unstoppable stacks, the cultists start chanting, etc.

So I guess, ultimately, we could play this the Tav way if we wanted, but that seems counter to the spirit of the thing. XD Let's do this duel.

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POST FIGHT REPORT:

holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit

Y'all know how in tabletop games sometimes the RNG just plays out perfectly to do something never expected that nevertheless makes perfect story sense and feels like a brilliant thematic conclusion to everything that happened previously?

Rakha's fight with Orin started off pretty bog-standard. It's a pretty scary duel, but Rakha has her level 6 spiritual weapon out from the Harper Sacredstriker staff she's wielding, and it's doing a pretty good job of distracting and confusing Orin's AI and running her in and out of the Spirit Guardians that Rakha has up. She also landed a solid hit of Dethrone, "pulling on strands of the Weave" to "shred [Orin's] very essence."

All well and good.

Second round, she casts Misty Step to bring herself close to Orin for Burning Hands, and...

...well...

She wild-magic surged and unlocked Lae'zel's restraints on the altar.

Incredible. In-fucking-credible.

AND she is under our control as, basically, a summon for Rakha.

AND the Bhaalists don't consider this fight interference.

------

Perhaps it is simply random chance. It's happened before, after all - moments when her magic surged wildly out of her control, chaos incarnate to match the chaos in her brain.

But it feels like something more than that at this moment. A desperate reaching through the Weave in this moment of greatest need, her heart pounding with terror as she faces down her dark sibling. Jaheira and Minsc and Minthara and Wyll are beyond her reach, but something in her - mind or magic or something deeper still, some guidance from some force even Bhaal cannot stand against - reaches out and breaks the chains on her closest, oldest friend.

Help. Me.

The bonds break, and with them the enchantment that held Lae'zel unconscious. Her eyes snap open and she is on her feet in an instant, a sudden bursting release of tension and rage to match Rakha's own. For a moment their gazes lock, and Lae'zel blinks with recognition and astonishment and something like joy - and then her face hardens and she moves to stand at Rakha's side, shoulder to shoulder against the beast before them.

Her blade glints in the torchlight like sharpened flame.

[blackjackkent]

One of the things I've been excited about regarding reaching this point in the game is that @astreamofstars informed me that there is Additional Minsc Content which I missed during Hector's playthrough! Specifically, last time I was so excited to follow him and meet Boo that I completely missed that you can see Minsc's little hideout down in the sewers, with his living area and some of his keepsakes. c:

He's actually got kind of a cute little setup here - bed area (complete with a cute little divider), cooking firepit, washtub, dining table. A lot of random chests and boxes and papers lying around. It amused me that the first thing I noticed was that the only thing on the dining table is "Whole Chicken" which feels on-brand.

The washbasin has several soap bars and sponges next to it. I know I'm hung up on the presence of this washbasin but for some reason I am deeply charmed at Minsc living in a sewer with his rodent and nevertheless having an elaborate bathing setup. (Alternate interpretation - he has it because it is His Home and Should Have a Bath but never actually used it. XD )

On a table next to the bed is a book labeled "The Stone Lord's Sketches," which is both adorable and heartbreaking:

Buddy. :( It's okay, you can remember him and have him back now.

The real treasure trove, however, is in the next room, past the wall Minsc smashed through, which has a number of items in what seem to be places of honor on pedestals along the walls.

It seems like someone at Larian forgot to make models for these items, because all of them (with the exception of the "Cracked Wooden Mask" look in-game like inscribed stone tablets. But we can use our imaginations!

All of the characters have commentary on each one if they're the active character to click on them, although Minsc's comment takes precedence if he's in the party even if he's not the active character. I'm going to list out all of them because I like digging through the dialogue files, but obviously Minsc and Jaheira have the most relevant things to say about each.

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Starting with "A Mailed Fist":

Narrator: A mailed fist in the Firecam armor style. RAKHA: Gorgeous mail on that fist. ASTARION: A mailed fist, for all your punching needs. LAE'ZEL: A mailed fist? Brutal indeed, but I prefer weapons with a more elegant profile. GALE: The mailed fist of a paladin of Torm. No doubt many felt the steely grip of its wearer's righteous justice. SHADOWHEART: A mailed fist. There must be a story behind this. WYLL: A mailed fist? Great for a paladin. Not so much for a warlock. KARLACH: Nice mail. HALSIN: A mailed fist. What tale does this have to tell? MINTHARA: A mailed fist - an inelegant but brutal weapon. JAHEIRA: Keldorn Firecam. He tried to teach Minsc much - a happy thing, that paladins are so patient. MINSC: Keldorn Firecam! He spoke much of honor and faith, but he fought like a berserker when it counted.

Keldorn! In this worldstate he traveled with Caden for a little bit and was a good mentor to the young Bhaalspawn for a time - although Caden eventually forced him to stay home and fix his marital problems. XD

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Next, "A Turnip":

Narrator: A humble turnip, preserved by drying. RAKHA: Huh. Dinner? ASTARION: It's - it's a turnip. Just a turnip, for all to see. LAE'ZEL: A turnip. Or is it a swede? Could never tell them apart. GALE: A humble vegetable depicted amongst such adventurous company. That is a turnip for the books. SHADOWHEART: A turnip? Not the most exciting of keepsakes. WYLL: A turnip. That's, er, something all right. KARLACH: All right, explain the turnip. HALSIN: A turnip? Not my favorite of nature's root vegetables, I must admit. MINTHARA: Is this animal, mineral, or fungus? I have not seen its like before. JAHEIRA: Jan Jansen. I admired his respect for growing things. Less so, his disregard for his own ripe smell. MINSC: Jan. A strange little man, but a fine friend. I can forgive him his love of turnips.

LOL. Of the five past companions represented here, Jan is the only one Caden never traveled with. He witnessed the little gnome getting carted off to prison early in the game, promptly decided that was something well worth minding his own business about, and never followed up further.

Also holy shit, that world-class pun from Gale out of nowhere.

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"A Warhammer":

Narrator: A worn but still capable warhammer, sized for a halfling. RAKHA: What a hammer. Looks like it has a history, too. ASTARION: Ah, a warhammer. A beautifully messy weapon. LAE'ZEL: Quite the warhammer. I imagine it's crushed more than a few skulls. GALE: No ordinary warhammer. Carved with the Luiric symbol for the number three. I wonder why. SHADOWHEART: It must take quite some brawn to wield a warhammer like that. WYLL: A warhammer like this cracks your skull, and you won't ever be the same after. KARLACH: Oh, wow. I bet that can do some real damage. HALSIN: An impressive hammer. MINTHARA: This hammer could shatter even the thickest of skulls. JAHEIRA: Mazzy Fentan. A living lesson not to trade tankards with a halfling; they have much less distance to fall. MINSC: Mazzy Fentan. Hah - not even the gods dared deny her when she sought to become a paladin!

Mazzy! Definitely Caden's favorite of the "flex slot" companions he traveled with in BG2. She was a super fierce halfling and wasn't officially a paladin but wanted to be. Nice to hear that maybe she reached that pinnacle in the end. :) (And LOL Jaheira.)

I'm not sure what the significance is of Gale's comment about the number three, and Google is unrevealing.

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"A Pair of Wings":

Narrator: A woodcarving of a pair of wings, like an eagle's but longer somehow. RAKHA: A pair of wings. ASTARION: Some discarded... wings? All right... LAE'ZEL: A pair of wings... GALE: The sylvan pinions of an Avariel. No easy task to capture their hollow delicacy in stone. SHADOWHEART: Wings? Who did these belong to? WYLL: A pair of wings? Hm. KARLACH: Some... wings? HALSIN: A pair of wings? MINTHARA: Wings. Were these plucked from some unfortunate celestial? JAHEIRA: Aerie's wings. She didn't need them, in the end. MINSC: Aerie. A brave avariel, who agreed to be my witch while I needed. She went in search of new wings.

Haha, the whole Act 1 gang is pretty befuddled by this one apparently. (And it seems like there might have been some confusion among the writers about whether they were carved wings or real ones.)

But awwww, yay, Aerie! Jaheira's comment on her is very sweet. :3 In this worldstate, of course, Aerie is safely in Faenya-Dail with her husband Caden and (by this point) several generations worth of descendents. I choose to believe that Minsc is speaking in a poetic metaphor, and the new wings Aerie went in search of were those of her son Quayle. :)

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And finally... the "Cracked Wooden Mask":

Narrator: A cracked wooden mask with female features, in the Rashemi style. RAKHA: Nice mask. What's the story here? ASTARION: A wooden mask. Not bad, but it's seen better days. LAE'ZEL: A wooden mask, perhaps of some cultural significance? GALE: A wychlaran face veil, worn by powerful witches in the Urlingwood wilds of Rashemen. The adornment of a skilled spell-weaver. SHADOWHEART: A wooden mask. Looks old. WYLL: A wooden mask - the sort worn by Rashemen's witches. KARLACH: Nice wooden mask. HALSIN: A wooden mask. For what purpose? MINTHARA: This mask is beautiful. I envy the one who had the authority to wear it. JAHEIRA: Hah. Even the wychlaran's mask could not hide Dynaheir's beauty - nor dull her daggered eyes. MINSC: All over Rashemen, they raised statues to Dynaheir. But this is Minsc's true monument to her - her wychlara mask.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. <3 <3 Dynaheir. <3 Minsc is such a good, loyal boy.

I love that Gale was able to clock the significance of all of these items (except the turnip) on sight. Wyll picks up on this one too which is interesting; wonder if a Rashemi envoy or two came through Wyrm's Rock when he was younger.

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All in all I'm a big feels puddle about all of this. I love that (more or less by chance) these are almost all characters that Caden did indeed hang out with extensively in the past games. And it is very bittersweet to see Minsc, who had the past ripped away from him by force, clinging on to these little remnants of it - particularly pieces of his past witches - with all of his strength.