#uhhh got long sorry i am balancing several beautiful juggling balls in my talented hands

[vaultsixtynine]

more late act 3 stuff. adding "quests" in my brain for the fun of it and massively reorganizing things to hit certain beats i need to hit

a) additional pre-bhaal-temple "quest" (cutscene where you mitigate how bad something is but it will still be Bad) where you are actively aware that [orin]* (more on this in a second) is taking your party member - i want her to be a bit scarier because she's my favorite of the three xoxo. the timing on this is what's frustrating me because i need there to be a chunk of time where anathema is in active despair but astarion finally feels like he has his shit together. so. hmm. before cazador but not by much.

b) pre-facing-cazador Moment...... not sure if this is while you're in the mansion itself (which, btw, i'm assuming she was cut but i really wanted there to be a super fucked up vampire hiding in the attic like a wretched creacher (as many many notes intimated there would be) and i wanted to be able to help her. i'm adding that in my brain also. - anyway, not sure if this is while the spawn are attacking (using them to ferry an object of control? or using one of them as a direct conduit? much to consider) or while you're on the "above-ground" portion of the mansion, but a moment where cazador does pierce astarion's relative immunity to his control (as he does when you're actually facing him) and exerts his will to get a little stab happy on a party member - probably ana bc. gestures. this of course Of Course sets astarion the fuck off, for good reason, and it's not that he shouldn't be angry but he should be careful - cazador is fucking with him. to think that he would silently sit in the basement and merely wait while astarion's creeping down to him is foolish.

hmm now i'm trying to figure out Timeline and i think orin might be the last thing ana deals with before the elder brain (besides getting the orphic hammer because she is also waiting until THEE last moment for that) Because her doing it alone and having people who say "why the fuck did you do that, we are coming to help you" is very critical in my brain and also, again, orin has more stuff going on / is scarier.

so to that end, and also because i need to figure out the timing of her personal quest (needs to happen Before orin but i'm kind of handwave past that point), and BECAUSE HE HAS A WHOLE RAPTURE-ASS PRISON and BELIEVES IN HOLDING HOSTAGES, i think miss gortash becomes frustrated with ana's seeming unwillingness to deal with the bhaalists (and because of Other Factors, this worries him immensely bc he's afraid a pawn has figured out too much for her own good) and does kidnap somebody. but it's still very much framed as a bhaalist kidnapping, sans orin coming to say it in person. she does still come to demand a duel a bit later and is like "lol you fell for that? gortash took your person. i would simply kill them. and i can - since i'm here in your camp, soft and beautiful as silk" and then fucks off immediately in that annoying way she has. to that end, gortash is smart enough to Not take astarion, too aware of his skillset. sorry gale. into the prison cell and a fun little anti-mage collar for you.

that doesn't mean that orin doesn't continue to fuck with her, though. without a hostage, her leverage is exerting the bhaal blood thing to make anathema's life fucking miserable, and she DOES. ana's control is waning, getting so threadbare as to be see through, and the fear of becoming just a husk who could hurt anyone around her at any time is what drives her to seek resolution by herself. because i also think that durge should be a fucking scary scary scary experience if you've been rejecting it by the time you're this deep in act 3. camp isn't safe. sleeping isn't safe. walking around on busy streets isn't safe. nothing and no one is safe from her, and she isn't safe from bhaal.

i have. okay. another post after this one that is way less filled with spoilers and is more about characterization so i'll make it separate