#astarion has been thieving and killing so so so much this run

[bhaalsdeepbat]

I'm playing my struggle to resist Durge on tactician and we stormed Moonrise today. Jaheira apparently doesn't heal at all between Last Light Inn falling and storming Moonrise, so Grandma arrived looking like she had the shit beat out of her and had no higher level spell slots.

Jaheira spent the entire time cowering behind some barrels while maintaining Entangle. She single handedly kept a door effectively locked by the ogre being stuck in it, which let Astarion be the best little killer around. His killing spree in Moonrise will be a tale heard across all or Faerûn.

Astarion, equipped with Daddy's Favorite Bhaalspawn's cloak, took out the three cultists in the back room alone. He kept disappearing between hits with single hit shots. He took out four cultists on the main floor, then snuck up to the rafters and took out two of the archers before he finally got caught and the remaining cultists all rolled initiative. It was so funny.

I can't wait to give him a new bow when we reach Baldur's Gate. The Hellrider Longbow is going to decimate. He's going to be even deadlier I am SALIVATING. He's going to creep right up and shoot them in the face. If they have the luck of surviving that, he'll proceed to rip their throat.

Minthara was also there. She spent a majority of it twiddling her thumbs bc grandma had our choke point...choked.

Shadowheart didn't follow the corruption arc script, so she got to keep her radiant armor and learned some cool Selûnite shit (reclassed to light domain). She was a fucking beast with her divine intervention in the room she was defending alone. She had been the mvp of act 2 (after Astarion solo missioned stealing the Blood of Lathander without blowing the creche, and nailed it), and continues to.

Even if she is really mad at Ashe for killing Isobel.

[justporo]

Hey Poro. I don't recall you ever talking about your Tav. Do you have any posts about them or any cool info you wanna share? (Saw you were open to asks, so I thought I'd drop one hæhæ)

Oh yes, hello! I guess you're right. And that although she's the Tav in most all of my stories (especially my longform fics).

So let me introduce my wonderful girl to you. And yes: her name is indeed just Tav. Don't come for me - I didn't plan for any of this but now here we are. I am just Poro and she is just Tav.

I'm always happy about questions about my girl tho - I do have a background story and all flashed out for her. I just... never talked about it??

Oh, and she's been my profile pic from very early one, I am still in love with the wonderful drawing @azaani-art did of her!

Full Name: Tav (yes, that's it, maybe she takes on Ancunín sometime, eh?) Race: Woodelf Class: Ranger (Urban tracker background) Height: 5'5 Pronouns: She/Her

More about her personality and backstory below the cut!

Personality: She's witty, rebellious, will stab you if the need arises or pickpocket all your gold if you're mean to her. But she still believes that there's ultimately good in the world. A hope that sometimes makes her take stupid and naive risks. And never has she experienced a love like she has with Astarion - and she's sure she'll never will again. Might be it started as a silly crush because she never experienced someone giving her this kind of attention, but now... She'd kill for him and die for him - although she'd very much prefer the first.

Story: Tav was the daughter to a loveless affair of a very high-up wood elf noble, her father, and her high-elf mother from Baldur's Gate. Immediately abandoned by her mother after birth on the steps of a cloister in the city where she spent the first few years of her life. A life where she was treated harshly from the very first steps on she could take. So still being a child, she fled the abuse and started to live on the streets of Baldur's Gate where she not only had to grow up quickly but learn how to be proficient with sleight of hand, stealth and running away as fast as possible when the former two skills weren't enough. She always did what it takes even though it meant making objectively stupid decisions. She's hardened, cold, with a sharp tongue and violent if need be to those she perceives as a threat because you had to be if you didn't want to be taken advantage off as a woman. But this also means she's made herself unapproachable, so never really has she experienced someone giving her attention for anything but her skillset, complimenting her, wooing her. But to those she perceives as her friends or close ones she's a helpless people-pleaser and pushover rising from a desperate desire to not be left alone again; deeply believing she's only worth as much as she can be of use. She joined a band of thieves for which she and her friends she found there took on highbrow heists - until the day Tav was taken and a parasite in her brain but much more a sassy vampire shook her and her beliefs to the core.

A few more funfacts:

the piercings she has, she's done herself (thank the gods she didn't die of an infection

the tattoos she has she had done very young when she felt rebellious after she first found out about her real father - back then she thought it would make her look fierce; now she knows it was a little stupid but they're a part of her now; Astarion likes to let his thumbs run along them and calls her his "little fiend"

her main role during her thieving times was stakeout and keeping an eye on the others from above with her bow - during long and boring stakeout times she picked up drawing as a hobby: she just drew what she saw, so she could keep an eye on stuff but also busy herself

the scar is from her time when she first fled the cloister and joined a group of street kids (all boys) and she was repeatedly forced to show how brave she was; always having to be at least twice as couragous as the others just to make up for her being a girl

she has a definite problem with authorities

and she could probably drink you under the table

she's not good at taking care of herself, so Astarion calls her his street cat - and has to teach her a thing or two about self-care

[bennidraws]

16+17, 28, 44, 64 for both of them <3 ✨

aaah thank you so much, bb!!! ❤️ this got way longer than anticipated IM SORRY IN ADVANCE

16. Which of the companions does your Tav trust most?  17. Which of the companions does your Tav distrust most?

The way I'm thinking about the bg3 story, both Rosio and Lucis were simultaneously completing parts of the quests, adventuring with only half of the companions, never running into each other (maybe at the end.. big avengers assemble moment.. except it's your ex that kinda ruined your life.. a classic), so from the pool of companions Rosio knows very well - Lae'zel, Shadowheart, Astarion, Jaheira and Halsin - he basically trusts Jaheira the most and almost instantly lol. She reminds him too much of his mother 🥲 Halsin is probably right there with her, he's the main voice of reason, Rosio trusts him to not let him and Astarion die during their gremlin shenanigans 😭 He kinda trusts Lae'zel and Shadowheart too, but only after their "fuck our goddesses" phase, he doesn't generally trust people too attached to their gods.

Funnily enough it took him the longest to trust Astarion 💀 Rosio was convinced he was the object of his manipulation basically till the "I love you" moment (and even more funnily enough, Rosio was willingly subjecting himself to that manipulation, being the self sabotaging, masochistic idiot that he is).

If Rosio knew Wyll, he wouldn't buy into his whole good boy hero shtick. He doesn't believe there are this kind-hearted people out there 😔 (But he's absolutely self projecting lol, the whole "how could you turn so kind when people wronged you so... and why I wasn't capable of it")

Lucis, on the other hand, fucking loves Karlach and Wyll. He trusts them with his life, considers them his best friends. Maybe he's a bit naive, but he actually finds their strong moral compasses admirable.

He trusts Gale too, but considering he's his lover, it's a tad more complicated 💀 It means the absolute world for Lucis that Gale would basically move mountains for him, but there's also.. Mystra 💀 That would be the source of his insecurities and a bit of trust issues (which, tbh, is pretty selfish, boy!!!! It's not like you're completely over your ex lmfaooo 😭)

(And if Lucis traveled with Astarion, it wouldn't even be a case of distrust, that would be a wholeass circus-level hatred... They're two peacocks, and in certain ways dangerously similar... Kill bill sirens blasting in the distance... And that's without the current-lover/ex-lover of Rosio dynamic 💀)

28. What is your Tav’s guilty pleasure?

Oh HMMM. The most typical one being food, I'd say. This man would run out of shape so fast if he wasn't leading an active life lmao. But if we're talking more Deep guilty pleasures, then it's being cared for, not having control, getting attention and feeling small (and yes, this is mostly about sex ahjkdajkds). He doesn't get to feel this way often nor does he even usually allow himself all this.. bc Issues and Trauma :)

For Lucis it's probably getting spoiled lol. He hates it about himself tho (being a spoiled kid, getting harshly criticized for it, wanting to be different, really cutting ties with the way he used to be).

But from more serious point of view, you can apply literal Guilty Pleasures to him. Lucis has such bad body autonomy and sex issues that he hasn't been able to have sex sober for like 20 years, he freaks out so bad and it got so mentally draining that it led to an addiction. Which leads to a constant guilt and pretty damaged confidence. (Turns out being a sweetheart of Athkatlan high society for like a decade really corrupts!!)

44. What song best represents your Tav?

WELL THANKS TO YOU AND YOUR BIG BRAIN MUSIC TASTE, ZEAL, Take This Lonely Heart will always be THE Rosio song. Can't believe Nothing but thieves created a song about my oc, so thankful to them, they really didn't have to 🙏

Now cue to Maneskin brainrot, you can apply so much of their songs to Lucis, bc. Medicated, horny, party animal lifestyle. But honorary mention to After Dark bc sad synthwave/retrowave would be so much his style (and it's what imbued thunder/lightning magic into a bardic instrument is for, right ??)

64. What Tarot Card best represents your Tav?

My only knowledge about tarot cards comes from jojo's bizarre adventure (😭) so literally anyone could correct me on this and my 5 minutes long research aaaa.

Tbh probably Death for Rosio (end of a cycle, change, beginning ??) and I think there would be something very poetic about The Lovers

Aaaa The Devil literally fits so well for Lucis' worse past (addiction???) but I think deep down he's The Fool (innocence, but mainly new beginnings, aww)

[quinn-of-aebradore]

Quinn. I’m sorry. Do all the multiples of 3

Finally sitting down to do this, Ash you fucking menace XD

3. Has your character been using their illithid powers?

Rowen has been delving into it a bit! She started out fairly wary of it, but still intrigued (she's a wizard, what more did you expect? XD) but after finally having her first Guardian dream (2/3 goblin leaders killed), she gave in a bit and ate Razlin's tadpole. She's continued to explore it a bit, both out of wizardly curiosity and hubris and a somewhat-conscious desire for power out of fear of continuing to be powerless.

6. Were you able to save everyone when the goblins stormed the gates at the Grove?

I don't think so? As I recall, one of the adventurers and one of the tieflings died.

9. Do you have a favorite member of the Tiefling Refugees? Is it the same as your Character's?

Oh god it's so hard to pick. I love Alfira, and Mol, and Mattis, and Arabella. Rowen is so fond of all of them too. The kids remind her so much of different aspects of herself. She is very protective of Mol and has definitely spent time giving Mattis thieving pointers and Arabella magic lessons. And Alfira is just... if Rowen had to pick a best friend outside the party, it would probably be her. Wish she was a companion.

12. Do you have a favorite member of the Zhentarim? Is it the same as your Character's?

I feel like I missed some interactions with the Zhentarim, I didn't even realize there were significant members of it. Though I am just realizing now that I forgot to go up the elevator in their Underdark storehouse, so that's probably why. Whoops.

15. How did the situation with the Grove, the Tieflings and the Goblins turn out for your Character?

It turned out well! Sided with the Grove and tieflings, of course. With the tieflings present, there was no way for Rowen to be swayed to the side of the goblins, she is fiercely loyal to her people. Had it not been for everything else going on, she probably would've tried to kill Kagha for attempting to imprison Arabella.

18. How did your Character deal with Wyll, Karlach and Mizora?

Recruited Karlach while Wyll was at camp, very frantically tried to diffuse the situation at camp that night. If I recall correctly, I failed the first persuasion check to get Wyll to back down and was very scared about fucking things up. Rowen (and I) were very relieved when Wyll saw the light about Karlach and was pissed at Mizora for it. And then he got tief'ed the next night, which freaked Rowen out pretty badly and made her hatred of devils run even deeper.

21. What are your Character's thoughts on the strange artifact that was in Shadowheart's possession? Did it jump to your pack because you changed her out of your party?

Yes it did! XD I wish there was a cutscene for that, it's very funny XD Rowen was 👀 at the artifact from moment one and that only increased when Shadowheart got cagey about questions regarding it (wizard strikes again). She wants to study it so bad but alas, circumstances are not conducive to that XD

24. Was your illithid tadpole empowered by anything in Act 1? If so, how does your Character feel about that?

I am not sure what this one means so I can going to assume that no, it was not. Unless it means eating more tadpoles, which was answered at the very top XD

27. Who ended up in your Character's most used party?

I didn't get the expanded party mod until Act 2, so disregarding that... I'm going to say Karlach and Astarion for sure. I cannot think of a third, I feel like I rotated everyone else pretty evenly, minus Gale? And Gale was only excluded because two wizards is Dangerous.

30. Do you have other pets as a ranger or in headcanon?

Alas the party pets are limited to Scratch (failed the owlbear medicine check and couldn't reload to retry 🥲). If we look outside Act 1 for a moment though, Rowen probably brings a stray cat or two back to to camp eventually.

33. Has your Character allied with the cult of the Absolute?

Nope! Were Rowen's introduction to them something other than them leading the attack on the Grove, she might've been more persuadable in that direction, but that first impression did them no favors.

36. Did your Character find the Adamantine Forge? Did they use it? What did they make?

Yes! Defeated Grym using the forge hammer (though that was still a fucking process) and made some split armor for Lae'zel which I have only just swapped out for something else in Act 3.

39. What does your Character think of Raphael?

Hates him. Hates him so much, doesn't trust him for anything. Rowen loathes devils for backstory reasons and Raph swooping in to try and get her into a contract as her life got Messy only made her feel validated in that hatred. Encountering him again in Act 2 only made it worse and some choices in Act 3 were very easy for her.

42. Has your Character been to the Underdark from before the events of the adventure?

No, she has not. Rowen's seen a lot, but most of it has been contained to the walls of Baldur's Gate. Scrappy, Guild-raised tiefling kids don't get to see the world, let alone the Underdark.

Alright, there's your 14 questions, Ash XD thank you for sending them, friend <3

BG3 Act 1 Questions

[missizzy]

A Game Novice's Baldur's Gate 3 Log, 6 1/2 hours in: I might just be getting somewhere

(Note: this will definitely contain spoilers for all I've played through, and probably quite a bit of the later stuff I've also seen.)

I spent the week continuing with my Baldur's Gate 3 experiment, even as the dialog sequences ran excruciatingly slow, due to the animation going at half the pace as the audio. I now suspect the problem is my computer's struggling with our internet connection, which it has ever since Comcast insisted on replacing the modem. Which is part the reason we may finally be doing something about that next week, and I may pause playing until such time as we do. But that depends on how long it takes. I'm kind of getting hooked on this game, despite everything.

After last weekend saw Sara Tully, my barbarian Tav, successfully find Gale, and me fail to figure out how to lockpick, I went and looked up how to do the latter. (Of course it was the obvious way I hadn't thought of.) So first thing when I resumed was to take the party back to the big locked door on the beach to try to get through it. Except Astarion failed two checks in a row, resulting the loss of all our thieves tools. Guess I'm not finding out what's behind that door in this run.

After that I looked up Lae'zel's location and went to find her, and once again managed to go the wrong way, hitting the chapel entrance instead. So we ended up killing Gimblebock and the bandits outside, which made me feel a bit too much like a murderhobo, but at least, at long last, I finally got Sara to rage, marker by her box and everything. I have also now equipped her with a looted goblin bow, so she can even do ranged attacks while raging. Also we were able to get another set of thieves tools out of it. I even happily took Astarion up to the chapel door-except that when we heard the other bandits calling out through it, I decided to just walk away.

He did, on the other hand, successfully lockpick us through the trapdoor outside. Which of course led to another fight, one that felt very much like a learning experience about positioning characters in the game and recognizing when they are and aren't in silence AOEs. But I was much less sorry when we made contact with Withers, whom I hadn't known about, though I've since learned he's a camp follower, and I suspect I'll enjoy having him about. Maybe going the wrong way in this game isn't such a bad thing.

Still I was impatient to get back the Emerald Grove, so I scrutinized the maps a little more carefully (another skill I'm still developing) and finally got to Lae'zel, sent her captors on their way by saying I'd deal with her, and then Gale shot frost on the her cage's bottom to get her down. Then I promptly sent her to camp, because the party was full, and Sara as a barbarian is a tank already. Also, reading some meta about how she probably viewed the druids made me not really want to bring her to the Grove. (And since, I've come to think I'd rather not deal with the druids' reactions to her either.)

I suppose I'm not supposed to ask how we even have a camp, when we've been doing nothing except walk around since landing in the area. Or why, when we finally returned to the Grove entrance and went in, we found Aradin and Zevlor right there arguing as if the goblin fight had still happened only moments ago. Though at least Wyll had found time to go further inside and resume his fighting lessons before we recruited him.

I've heard plenty of how Wyll is hard done by and underused by players. I kept him with the party, partly because we were in the place he knew, and also because Shadowheart was low on health and and spell slots, so it was just as well to send her off. But when leveling him up, it was hard not to observe he really has the same spells as Gale, only fewer of them, which I suspect is one of the major problems. On the other hand, I did give him Beast Speech as an invocation, which will probably result in my using him a lot more, since the animal dialog in this game is really fun.

We ended up wandering around most of the hollow, which meant hearing about the Absolute for the first time,-but I'm pretty sure Sara won't believe in the significance of that for a while. I continued to work on trying to figure the map out, even after seeing the marker for Kagha on it, making a full circuit around the sacred pool, having an important conversation with Apikusis and a hilarious one with Volo (was kind of sorry there were no conversation options for Sara to tell him how much he was pissing her off). Then, finally, I found the entrance to take us to Kagha.

By then, the talk with Apikusis has already made clear she was a bad leader, and I happened to already know about her working with the Shadow Druids. But honestly, I'm not sure who they even are, and that's really more distant fantasy novel villainy. Her introduction scene, on the other hand, where she refers to a Tiefling child as "poison" and terrorizes her for doing as young children will sometimes do? That's something that really will hit the player hard. It hit Sara hard, too, and if she hadn't really wanted to see that healer, she definitely would've tried to intimidate her, or might have even outright attacked her to rescue the kid.

Instead, I ended up going with the nature check option of her saying imprisoning little Arabella would disrupt the balance of nature. Maybe not the best choice either, since Sara has -1 on nature, but luckily she rolled high. I immediately decided that Sara was pulling words out of her ass or possibly just trolling, and Kagha was the kind of narrow-minded arrogant that completely failed to realize this. Whether the approving Wyll or Gale realized this, I am not yet certain.

The last thing I've currently done was the conversation with Gale that immediately followed this encounter. I'm pretty sure I'm going to romance him, and one could even count that interaction as flirting, if you really stretch it.

Now, however, I am looking at next facing a scene I've seen played through twice, and heard comments about, and I think may well end with us having to flee the Grove. Which is even more of a problem when I still haven't even talked with Zorru about the possible location of the Githyanki creche yet!

[xaracosmia]

ꕥ — WELCOME TO EXO COSMIA, AUGUST. 🌑

 ꕥ  — OOC INFORMATION;

name / alias: echo age: 26 pronouns: she/they ooc contact: @ech0inhere (twt) other characters in xc: Richard Grayson, Astarion, John Constantine, Scott Summers

 ꕥ  — IC INFORMATION;

name: August age: 30 pronouns: he/him series: Original Series canon point: N/A app triggers: violence, death, murder, depersonalization, existential dread, dystopian themes, experimentation

personality: 

THE GOOD: August’s unique “circumstances” have pretty much eliminated any kind of cowardice he might’ve had. He takes on any situation and challenge completely undaunted, forever unfazed by the risk. As much as he hates to admit it, despite his newfound nihilism, August is still, deep, deep down, a bit of the idealist he started out as. He can be compassionate and even protective, and when push comes to shove, he’ll probably end up doing the right thing. Even if he has to complain about it first.

THE BAD:  A few minutes spent talking to August and it’s no wonder it seems like everything is out to kill him. He’s abrasive, cynical, and peppers his speech with bitter sarcasm. August is rarely, if ever, in a good mood and sits through most conversations as if he’s trying to get them to finish faster. He has very little regard for his own life and will almost always brute force a situation or approach it in a way that feels the most exciting to him.

THE UGLY: Nihilism and existential dread is the name of the game. The hundreds of deaths and revivals August has gone through have begun to permanently affect how he sees himself and the world. He doesn’t always see himself as “real” or his existence having any real meaning or impact in the world around him, and has even begun to treat other people the same.

something your muse struggles with: Constantly on the brink of an existential crisis. Can be extremely apathetic about his own life and the lives of others he doesn’t particularly care about. 

your muse’s greatest strength: Dying so much in so many different situations has made August incredibly adaptable. 

history / background: 

August would like everyone to believe he’s always been a badass bounty hunter. Orphaned at birth, maybe or taken in by a mysterious mentor. Perhaps raised to fight by a faction of assassins or band of thieves. That his real name is in fact “August.” Any cliché tragedy you can think of that isn’t the truth. Because the truth, he feels, is the real tragedy. 

The youngest of two born to two (very much alive) parents in Nework (formerly New York) from the moment he was born, August was dealt… a hand. Not a bad one. Not a good one. Just a mediocre hand. His childhood was mediocre, his adolescence also mediocre and when the time came for the local government to choose the occupation they felt he was best fit for… It was mediocre too. Simply: Delivery Driver. 

Worse still, capitalism and corruption ran rampant in Nework and August found he accumulated a mountain of debt just for existing. He realized that if he didn’t want be a delivery boy for the rest of his life or his parents to work themselves to an early grave he would need to get desperate. Who could blame him for picking up an energy pistol and never looking back? 

Fortunately, capitalism breeds opportunity. The tech industry was always looking for some poor schmuck to test a prototype cybernetic implant or stick a needle in. As far as poor schmucks went, August prided himself on being an exception. However, when he was approached by a conglomerate called Prometheus, a company that offered to pay for both his and his parents’ debt in exchange for running a few tests and “monitoring his vitals” for a few days while he pursued his new career… Well. There was no way he could refuse.

There wasn’t much to monitor. He was killed after accepting his first bounty, a day after leaving Prometheus’ Nework lab. Of course he was. He’d never fired a gun before, never fought off a man twice his size. At that moment, as he closed his eyes for the last time, August anticipated going down in history as the “World’s Worst Bounty Hunter.” He didn’t expect to come back. And to keep coming back. Each death brought him back to the beginning of the day. Some were harder than others. Often, he found himself reliving the same day dozens of times before he finally cracked it. Threats seemed to spawn like wildfire, always respawning when he did. As if nothing had ever happened.

At first, it felt like a game. How long could he last, before dying? How fast could he kill everyone in the room? Trial and error made him a better fighter. More efficient. One day he decided to kill no one. The next day he decided to kill everyone until someone killed him first. Sometimes the same encounter could take close to an hour. Eventually, he could whittle it down to five minutes. But even games end.

Dying, August had come to realize, is more than just painful and traumatizing. It’s boring.

Now, August is a man possessed. Desperate to break the cycle of mundanity by any means necessary, August finds himself scouring a dystopian continent in search of Prometheus, the company he’s confident played a part in his condition. He clears out whole labs and facilities, desperate for answers. And until then… All he can do is keep going. 

powers / abilities: 

AGGRAVATION: Like a 24/7 tank stance. For some uncanny reason, no matter the situation, things just seem to want to kill August the most. In combat, August has a passive aggravating effect that draws both the attention of his opponents and the trajectory of projectiles.

inherent abilities: 

PEAK HUMAN CONDITION: August keeps himself in peak physical condition. (He’s a jock, basically.)

COMBAT TRAINING: August has amassed a significant amount of combat skills. (He’s had plenty of practice)  He’s an expert marksman, hand-to-hand combatant, and has taught himself how to handle most explosives. Trial and error have made him a deadly efficient killer, and it’s generally ill-advised to meet him in close combat.

items / weapons: 

BODY ARMOR: A durable suit of titanium-like material. It comes with a matching helmet that conceals his identity and provides a digital HUD that keeps track of his ammo count. 

ENERGY PISTOL: Shoots bursts of pure concussive force; can be piercing; directly connected to his armor. 

ENERGY SHOTGUN: See above.

COMBAT KNIFE

ENERGY SNIPER RIFLE: See above the above.

starting ability: Aggravation

starting item: Energy Pistol

extra: 

His life is essentially on Nightmare Difficulty

August’s home universe is a cyberpunk/sci-fi dystopia built on the ruins of North America.

Every time he dies a strand of his hair turns gray; naturally he goes through a significant amount of hair dye.

New OC so things might change! dwai!

discord id: infinite#0822

passcode: seriously beyond blessed to have and to process the world's very first jayce league of legends type character. as you could have predicted i am in love