#but mostly I want to be nice to karlach lol

[shiniestcrow]

Sage freezes the first time they come across a mirror after Volo's failed attempt at extracting the parasite.

Really, it could have been much worse all things considered. Sure, they lost their eye but the prosthesis Volo gave them really balanced things out. Their sight isn't even worse for wear. And on top of that, they now don't have to rely on magic or potions to see invisibility. Worth the pain, really.

And yet, that first glance at their face makes them freeze up. They turn to fully face the mirror. Their reflection feels... off. Rationally, they know why. Their eye colour changed. Gone is the extremely pale grey, replaced by a strange mix of blue and green. And that is exactly it, isn't it?

It's gone. Their original eye colour is fully gone, never to be seen again.

Sage closes their eyes and turns away from the mirror. It doesn't matter.

-

That evening, Sage keeps staring into the flames of the campfire, mind returning to the sight of their reflection.

"Hey, you," Karlach startles them out of their thoughts, and Sage can't help but smile at her as she sits down next to them. They note the careful distance she always keeps, just close enough that Sage can feel the heat coming off her without risking any accidental touch.

"Hey," they answer, mildly distracted by the reflections of the fire on her skin.

"Soo," Karlach says, drawing the word out. Sage finally notices the discomfort she is projecting.

They open their mouth, but Karlach is faster: "Are you alright?"

Sage blinks. And then blinks again because their new eye still feels a little strange.

"Sure," they say, shrugging. "Why?"

Karlach leans towards them then, staring at their face. No, at their eyes. "Because of that. You keep blinking, and you looked like you were freaking out a bit when you looked into that mirror earlier today."

Ah. Had they really been that obvious? Sage leans back on their hands, and Karlach gets the hint, immediately moving back too.

"It's fine. Just something to get used to." They smile grimly. "Besides, it was my choice. I knew the risk."

"Yeah, about that. I didn't want to ask and make you uncomfortable before, but why did you let that weird guy poke out your eye?"

Sage snorts and immediately tries to hide it behind their hand. Karlach just smiles at them.

They shrug. "Figured one of us should let him try on the off-chance that he could actually get the parasite out."

Karlach stops smiling. "And it had to be you because...?"

They shrug again. "I could hardly ask any of you to try it. No, I'm the one that wanted to know, so I'm the one that had to do it."

"Not that I'm volunteering him, but maybe Wyll could have tried? Considering that one of his eyes is already fake."

Sage winces. "Uh, best not to interfere with an eye given to you by your patron. Speaking from experience here."

Karlach stares at them for a moment. "You mean..." She points between her own eye and Sage's left one. "That one isn't natural?"

They can't help themself; they laugh. "Oh no, no. That one used to be grey, too. Turned black when I made my pact. It lets my patron properly see what I see, and I can still use it, so it's not really a drawback for me."

"Right," Karlach says.

There is a moment of silence.

Karlach eventually breaks it, sounding somewhat hesitant. "So, your original eye colour was that pale grey, right?"

Sage nods. They're pretty sure they know where Karlach is going with this. They're not happy about it.

"And one of your eyes turned black."

They nod again and look away. Better to stare into the fire than see whatever expression Karlach is making.

"And now the other one was replaced, too."

They don't nod this time, just shrug. "Yep. I'm all out of grey."

Karlach makes an unhappy noise in the back of her throat, and Sage looks up, alarmed.

"Gods, I wish I could hug you right now and smooch that stupid face of yours," Karlach whines, flopping on her back dramatically.

Sage snorts again. They really can't help themself around her. They also have to stop themself from patting her arm patronisingly, no matter how funny it would be in their head.

"It's fine, really," they say instead. "Like I said, I'll get used to it. And it's not like people ever stopped staring at my eyes. First, it was because they were too pale and then because one was black. That part hasn't changed."

"But it's not fair!" Karlach sits up again, pointing a finger at Sage. "You should be able to keep your eye colour of all things!"

"Karlach," Sage smiles softly at her. They have the feeling that her reaction isn't entirely due to what happened to them. "You're very sweet, but keep in mind that this is entirely the result of my own choices. I chose to make my pact and I chose to let Volo poke around the way he did. I could have told him to stop at any point. I didn't. I wanted to see if he would be successful and was willing to accept both pain and consequences. In fact, him having a replacement ready that would still let me see out of it is a very fortunate outcome. It's okay. I'm okay."

Karlach doesn't cry, but she does sniffle quietly. Sage, too, wishes they could hug her.

"I liked the grey," she mumbles, but there is a small smile back on her face. Sage returns it readily.

"I just hope that wasn't the only thing you liked about me. Might make me regret my choices after all."

Karlach laughs and Sage feels warm inside. This is better. Karlach shouldn't be sad. Especially not on their behalf. No, Karlach deserves to be happy. And if Sage can help with that, well, they're determined to do everything in their power to do exactly that.

[meanbossart]

Spicy Asks: The Sequel is here. I'm so, so sorry.

Oh he's a very passive guy, he likes being manhandled around and not having to do much of the work (a bit of a pillow princess one might say). As far as fetishes go, he does have fantasies about group sex and of being roughed up, but I think if put in a situation where he could practice it in a controlled environment he'd be like "EHHHH nevermind actually" and go home very quickly LOL

DU drow would have 100% banged Lae'zel if he hadn't killed her. He couldn't stand her personality but they would have gotten on like two peas in a pod in the sack.

He does find Shadowheart very pretty, but they struck up a friendship so quickly that I don't think he could see her in that way 🤷 but that's still a smash, technically speaking.

Jaheira. Ohhhh Jaheira. As far as general dynamics go she would have been the best choice after Astarion, probably - though there is no way in hell or high heavens that she would have ever let him touch her LOL regardless, DU drow finds her looks and personality to be very attractive.

He's pretty much utterly indifferent to anyone else. Wyll is too idealistic, Gale is Gale, Karlach isn't his type, Halsin gets on his nerves - oh, he WOULD have banged Mizora if he hadn't been heads over heels for Astarion by that point.

The man just likes his femmes I guess LOL

HMMMMMMM yes, but since it's not really a porn fic expect any scenes like that to be in line with what we've had so far, where there's more of a focus on developing character dynamics rather than gratuitousness (I hope I've gotten that across, at least LOL).

LOL, It's ok, it's a ridiculous not-name and I'm so sorry for all the people I have made confused and will continue to confuse because of it.

As for your question, definitely not! I personally like big-bottom/smaller-top scenarios so that's why I focus on it, and I do think character-wise those are the roles they fall into most naturally - but they switch around every so often when the mood strikes and it isn't really a big deal.

Oh are you kidding me? The guy LOVES being cared after in an intimate setting. Being doted on, groomed, checked up on, having his hair played with and clothes fixed up - he doesn't express it outwardly much, but these are all things that make his murderous little heart skip a beat. He was the same way pre-tadpole but it was mostly servants and Sceleritas doing it, so he didn't get much out of the exchange; and Orin didn't entertain this at all, or, if she ever did, it was very, very, very rarely and really just a crumb of intimate affection that he most likely misread anyways.

I'm not sure what to say to this one LOL the penis is full of blood already man I don't think a vampire needs to make it any more tempting to themselves to chomp down.

I wrote a thing about that not too long ago :D ! The answer is complicated but, mostly yes.

Alright you joke, but, if you don't think DU drow hasn't spent a little too long lingering over Astarion's feet and ankles then I got amazing news for you.

I touched on what they generally like on the previous edition of Wine Fuelled Spicy Asks, but as for what they like to do as a couple, it's probably a lot of body worship and some playful denial on both ends. Du drow thinks Astarion is the most elegant and limber thing he's ever seen (and he loves how he smells), and Astarion thinks DU drow's body is an expertly put together murder machine. They have a great time being mutually enamored with each other's (and their own) appearances.

I think they also venture into some blood-play and vapid threats of violence in the future, as a treat, but takes a while for them to trust themselves and each other enough to indulge in that kind of thing.

Needs a little direction, plus you gotta learn to enjoy a bit of teeth and a very slobbery time - also I think he distracts easily, It's nice to have a man who's willing to venture the whole perimeter with his mouth but sometimes you do just want him to stay on the prick. But generally speaking - yes, DU drow gives good head. Fun head, even!

What do you people want from me? Do you want schematics? Diagrams? Do you want me to compare their holes to famous people holes? Do you want me to take out my measuring tape and give you numbers, tell you which kind of produce each of them can fit in there???

One is pink, the other one is brown. One of them just looks normal and the other looks and feels a little like it been around the block a few times. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW.

[cy-cyborg]

I am SO close to finishing Baldur's Gate 3... I think, I've been saying that for the past 20 hours lol, but I really want to gush about Karlach! Once I've actually finished the game I'll probably make a proper post talking about her in a more structured way from a disability standpoint but I just really want to talk about her now lol.

[ID: A gif of Karlach from Baldur's Gate 3, a tall woman with red skin, one black horn, black hair and glowing orange eyes. She is covered in scars and tattoos, her chest glows and she is dancing on the spot in front of a cluttered tent./end ID]

I did not know how much my inner child needed to see someone like her on screen. Strange thing to say about a character from a game that's intro features worms crawling into your eye in hell but its true.

I have massive burn-like scars all over my my lower body, especially my legs, and while I always (mostly) saw the amputations they came with as just a part of me, I had much more negative feelings about those scars, well into my young adulthood, but especially as a teenager. It wasn't helped by the fact that while most folks had the decency to keep their comments about my visible disability... neutral-ish, the comments about my scars ranged from "you should cover those up" to "that's discusting" and young children literally crying at the sight of them. On top of that, every time a character with scars like mine was in the media, they were either the villain, used to teach others a lesson about not being mean or to teach that chatacter a lesson about how beauty is on the inside or how to love their appearance despite thier scars (that they'll be sure to tell you they think are hideous).

But karlach isn't any of those things. She's confident and literally walks around armour that show her scars by default. No one calls her gross or tells her to cover them. Her scars are never brought up as a negative at all, at least that ive seen, they're never something that detracts from her appearance. She never tries to hide them or gets insecure about them. When you romance her, there's no comment about if you're sure you can find "someone with scars like hers" attractive. Characters in the game dont find her attractive in spite of them, they just find her attractive. Full stop. They're just, there. And what's more, the fandom, for the most part, seems to agree. I have seen so many people swooning over her, and they almost never bring the scars up. People don't care, they just think she's hot! (There will always be outliers of course but they seem few and far between in my circles at least lol).

And my God, it's SO refreshing! Don't get me wrong, it's not inherently bad to have chatacters be insecure about things like scars (Wyll has a few moments of insecurity around his, and I think it's done well) but it's so nice for it to not be the central focus for once, or even really a big at all. Especially for a woman character.

I was so convinced as a teenager that no one would find me attractive because of those scars. Scars like Karlach's. I'm older now, I have worked through it all, and any lingering insecurities I had on the subject were shut down when me and my partner got together. But 15/16 year old me desperately needed to see a chatacter like Karlach, and im so happy she exists now!

[elspethdekarios]

OC meme

Thank you @theletteraesc for tagging me in this a while back, and sorry it took me so long to get to it! Tagging @lolthslover @fantasyfictionfables @mumms-the-word @thebitchycloudpainter and literally anyone else who sees this and wants to do it lol

B A S I C S

Full name: Elspeth Vaidelark [now Elspeth Dekarios]

Gender: Female

Sexuality: straight but she can appreciate a pretty lady

Pronouns: she/her

O T H E R

Birthplace: Baldur's Gate, Upper City

Job: healer

Phobias: closed spaces/claustrophobia, spiders (the underdark was not a fun time for her lol)

Guilty pleasures: dropping a shit ton of money on nice clothes

Hobbies: reading, playing music (harp and piano), dancing

M O R A L S

Alignment: chaotic good

Sins: pride

Virtues: charity

T H I S O R T H A T

Introvert / Extrovert

Organized / Disorganized

Close-minded / Open-minded

Calm / Anxious / Restless

Disagreeable / Agreeable / In between

Cautious / Reckless / In between

Patient / Impatient / In between

Outspoken / Reserved / In between

Leader / Follower / Flexible (mostly a loner)

Empathetic / Unempathetic / In between

Optimist / Pessimist / Realist

Traditional / Modern / In between

Hard-working / Lazy

R E L A T I O N S H I P S

OTP: Gale/Elspeth aka Galspeth

Acceptable Ships: none, her and Gale are literally soulmates

OT3: none

Brotp: El and Karlach! They're super close

Notp: El/Astarion. They disagree A LOT and while they do grow to be close friends there is negative chemistry there

B A C K S T O R Y

Elspeth is the youngest of two daughters born to Baron and Baronness Vaidelark of Baldur's Gate. She was always second fiddle to her older sister, Ariadne. The golden child, Ariadne could do no wrong--even when she was bullying Elspeth. El was always the black sheep, and never what her parents wanted her to be.

In her young adult years, she was definitely a party girl. Living on her own, she would go out with friends more nights than not. She was a bit of a socialite, known around the city as the "wild Vaidelark child." Her reputation was sealed when, in a drunken night with friends, she gambled away the family jewels, which she was foolishly wearing around her neck. Thanks to her family's noble status, they were able to track down the necklace and pay a pretty penny to reclaim them, but this was the final straw of their relationship with Elspeth. She was not officially disowned, but their disdain was made clear.

Elspeth avoided her family for several years, but when she started dating Leon, a rising paladin in the City Watch, he convinced her to try to make amends. She did, as best she could, but her parents were still cold and distant as always. Still, they seemed to like Leon and dating him patched up El's tempestuous reputation in the city. Leon had ulterior motives, however, which El only learned about six months after ending their relationship. During her father's birthday party, Ariadne announced her recent engagement.

To Leon.

Furious and desperately wounded, Elspeth ran out of the house and stumbled home as best she could while sobbing. She stopped for a moment to let herself calm down when the nautiloid took her.

(I have a fic about this here!!!)

[mybg3notebook]

I know you have not uploaded in several years and might not even see this, but I wanted to say thank you SO much for your amazing explorations of Gale. He is a very complex and often misunderstood character and I think your meta posts on him hit the mark perfectly. If the spark arises I hope you will return after the full release :) Thank you again for all your wonderful posts! Have a nice day!

Hello!

Thank you very much. I am still around, it's simply work and other games have got my attention, and after playing EA so many times, I am already burnt out to the bones. I am also deeply disappointed with Larian's latest changes.

Hopefully, after release, I will continue with more analysis if the game is worthy of that. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how well these analysis of Gale will hold with the apparent rewrite of his character. If the new description of him ends up being true and it's not a terrible lie to the player, since nothing of that was shown or hinted in EA, these analysis will fall apart. In fact, if he ends up being another boring, overused, cliche wizard who wants power because he wants to be the biggest wizard of Toril :rolling eyes:.... I may lose any interest in him. All what made him interesting and a bit "original" within the context of Forgotten Realms has been erased completely with that new description.

I'm also disappointed with Larian in general, because it's obvious their two fave chars are forced through the player's throat like Liara was in Bioware's case. You don't care about them? It doesn't matter, they will always take priority in conversation and scenes, they will be key in showing another side of the main plot (as it was Fane in DOS2) and the rest of the companions become secondary or forgettable.

And Karlach's final face is a horror. It's a variation of Shadowheart's face, a barby-Karlach, because clearly Larian feeds bro gamers who want yet another doll-faced woman. I find annoying that nobody complained for this change: her first potential face (not the placeholder), with half face burnt and scarred, hard eyes, and a longer and pronounced nose, was the face of a warrior who went to hell and back... now you have the baby-doll face, Red!Shadowheart, almost, lol. It's a bit unsettling. It reminds me when Larian made their big-boobs lizard women in DOS1.

At least they did what I thought it was a must: to truly write Wyll, because that char was inconsistent, lacked of depth in comparison with the rest of the other companions, and was, basically, a future Beast (dos2) in BG3. That's why I didn't even bother to write a general overall analysis of his character. I suspected he had to be written at some point because it's was a cardboard character in there, just there to be your black char token. You know, the black char we add to a game so we look "progressive" but still has bad development as a char or it's simply shallow when compared with the depth of the other chars. Pretty much like Larian does with their lgbt representation too.

Larian's lgbt representation also bothers me. It is mostly hidden in books and lines of text in this world (yes, yes, Astarion is the only char shown and written lgbt openly, but the rest of the world has no lgbt integrated chars, or the few two couples we saw in EA are unhealthy and horrible-the gnome lesbian-or absolutely hidden in one single line that, if you miss it, you can confuse them as brothers -the husband gnomes-). We can have a long discussion about how Larian does playersexual characters that are not any representation of lgbt, because they are not written like bi but hetero, and their "bisexuality" only appears when you romance them (and this was done in DOS2 too, with barely a line or two hidden in Lohse's origin to show some potential, little bi inclination). It's so strong how they write their characters as hetero, that even in several parts of the romances of DOS2 you have descriptions where it shows that the default was clearly "man tall and woman smaller", even when in DOS2 world that may not apply to some hetero couples (elves and lizards). But all this discussion about playersexuality is a long one I'm not even sure the fandom can have at this point. I wish to be wrong and see more lgbt characters naturally integrated to the world, and not reduced to short stories in books or to whom you romance with your Tav. But I doubt it. Larian follows the masses. And Masses care nothing about this. Thank you for the ask, and have a nice day too!

[sarenhale]

Whose your fav from BG3? Haven’t played yet but Vampire Cucumberbatch is my fav so far, so I’m curious lol

Vampire cucumberbatch 😂😂

I really like everyone in BG3 so far, I think they made a great job giving the characters a lot of personality and making them feel unique and interesting in their own way ( a huge jump compared to DOS2, imho! I only really liked Lohse, Ifan and Fane in that game, they were the only ones that felt like they had a personality)

I think if I have to choose one it would probably be Shadowheart, her story seems super interesting and she's the character I want to get to know more the best, and find out what happens to her story. I love her dialogues and interactions and she's the character that's closer to my protagonist right now, which I really like, I love imagining them as becoming close friends during their journey.

Clerics are my favourite class iin D&D by far, and I feel like she really encapsulated all I like about clerics, how interesting and mysterious they can be depending on the divinity they serve, and also I find her personality really refreshing and intriguing. Overall she's definitely my favourite by far.

I also like Halsin, Gale and Karlach- though Lae'zel and Wyll are really nice too, I just know less about their stories right now so I feel less attached to them.

Astarion is probably the only one I kinda don't get the huge rave about, but mostly from a romance standpoint- different strokes for different folks, he just doesn't do it for me romance-wise. I think he's funny and I like his interactions and his voice and how sassy he can be, and his dialogues with the other characters. His story also seem very interesting and I wanna definitely see how the whole vampire lord story ends up.

I love vampires but he just kinda doesn't do it for me- as shallow as this comment can be, I think I don't like him as much (especially romance-wise) because I just find him... funny pasty looking? Kinda ugly? He just looks like Preminger from the barbie movie to me. That's not exactly what I find attractive. Like he just looks HILARIOUS

Maybe if his design was different and more down my taste I could imagine me doing his romance more, but honestly even the way the romance is structured doesn't appeal me. It's just not for me babes

[lenjaminmacbuttons]

im tired of pretending i dont want to do it. im going to draw bg3 babies as steven universe gems. astarion is easily a pearl and karlach is easily a jasper (navel and heart placement, respectively--again, easily). gale is a sapphire (posh, intelligent, soft in manner but plenty capable of kicking your ass from a distance) and shadowheart is an agate (probably either onyx or iris agate? idk quite. but she's good at hitting things and accustomed to using pain to get what she wants.) lae'zel is a nephrite, NOT a quartz--while she's very very Loyal Soldier, she's also dedicated to being a dragon rider, which for the githyanki it seems dragons kind of function like spaceships lol. so, pilot role fits. not to mention the slender build and green-ness. very important.

wyll i have no idea what kind of gem he would be but i do love the idea of mizora semi-corrupting him in lieu of turning him into a devil when he disobeys her. also i definitely feel like she's a lapis lazuli. not just cus she's blue though. but that is a factor. it's mostly cus she's a bitch.

halsin......eludes me. there are exactly zero gems that care about nature, besides our main heroes. the fact that gems don't care about organic life is a Big Thing. maybe he's a rose quartz??? we only met the three actual rose quartzes and they were mostly concerned with just having a good time and being sweet and nice...which i guess are also halsin qualities. But all the Steven powers that would fit well for Halsin aren't actually Rose Quartz stuff, they're Pink Diamond stuff. Kind of.

hmmmmmmmmmm

[lemonsrosesandlavender]

🌪️☔️☃️

(Honey, you got a big storm coming!)

🌪️ Is there a nugget of game lore you want to explore but haven’t yet?

Hmmm! Not much comes to mind, truthfully. I’m a character-first plot person really; I like hearing about other people’s interesting little lore nuggets but most of the time unless it’s deeply connected to a character I don’t feel a strong drive to explore it!

☔️ Do you think about wider DnD canon?

Only when it suits me, ahahah. I pick my favourite chocolates out of that box and ignore the rest 🤣 For instance, I’ve read a bunch of Eilistraee lore for In Service of Magic, but some of it doesn’t fit with being a Queen (hard to run your kingdom if you disappear off on a “run” once EVERY year) or the kind of domme I want Phaere to be. (Eilistraeens are rather allergic to clothes, lol. Phaere, meanwhile, likes to be fully dressed while the court men parade around in very little. I’m ignoring that bit of lore, lol).

Similarly for Elturel. I find reading DnD sourcebooks pretty tedious. We’re going with the FR Wiki summary. Occasionally I find a nice titbit (like having Rolan remark upon the night sky because Elturel had the Companion that made it always light), but mostly I take the broad strokes and then we’re off. It’s funny because I *love* researching IRL stuff like medicine, but I guess because DnD is a load of cobbled together nonsense anyway I don’t feel much desire to research the lore more widely. (I also like making the setting more medieval/renaissance. More distinct from our time, basically.)

Finally, it occurred to me that a lot of DnD lore felt frustrating to me because it’s tuned for fun *games*. Get-out-of-jail passes abound; ways to deal with almost every problem. Ways to do almost anything you want, with DM’s discretion of course. The problem is that outside the tabletop arena, that does not make for satisfying stories. Narratives need consequences and stakes. This is actually why I find a lot of “Karlach should have lived” takes really annoying. “But in tabletop you could have solved it with X, Y and Z!!” well ok, but this is NOT tabletop DnD. The devs told a beautiful story about living when you know you’re about to die, and without real amends made for the things you’ve been through. And Sam Béart acted it beautifully. Fuck the lore, lmao. That story was worth any lore conflict.

(On the flip side, spells have to be discretised and limited in their uses in a way that a non-game system wouldn’t need them to be, and it’s nice to make them more flexible and organic-feeling in a story).

☃️ answered here!

[thenugking]

✨🌊🌸🌿

✨Which is your favourite platonic BG3 dynamic and why?

Hmm. Based on purely in-game stuff, it’s got to be Wyll and Karlach. Enemies to BFFs in like three days. Out of game, I love my Durge Lee with Astarion (they are like when you have two pets or perhaps siblings who sometimes just slap the shit out of each other for no reason before going back to chilling together) and my first Tav, Val, with Shadowheart (bitchy goths who don’t care about people except actually they care So Much). Would love to get around to writing them someday.

Also the dynamic I’m writing between Orin and Ketheric in No Highly Esteemed Deed. This is Ketheric’s emotional support surrogate daughter figure with zero red flags!

For my favourite dynamic not in the game or made up by me��� we’ll get to that in question four!

🌊What moment in the game had the strongest emotional impact on you? 

Karlach’s breakdown after killing Gortash gets me every time. And I was sobbing in my Shadowheart Origin playthrough when I saved her parents. That storyline is so comforting to me, especially when, if you’re not playing as her, it’s Arnell who goes, “Ohh you don’t want to go by your old name anymore, of course we’ll love you for whoever you are now.”

🌸Rec one of your fics and tell us what you like about it!

My series No Highly Esteemed Deed Is Commemorated Here is my baby at the moment. So I’m actually reccing two fics but look I spend half my time thinking about this series and I want some validation. But, uh, warning for incest and every relationship here being at least toxic, if not downright abusive. If you like your doves dead, come and give me some validation, if you’re not into that shit, understandable, have a nice day.

What Is Here Was Dangerous And Repulsive To Us: Gortash and Durge take a nice romantic carriage ride to Moonrise Towers except that lol no they don’t, Orin Is Also Here, and gortash isn’t positive she wants to fuck her sibling but The Vibes Are Fucking Rancid.

Super proud of the slowly building Well This Is Fucking Uncomfortable in this one! And that multiple people have told me “damn how did you make me feel for Gortash here?” He’s still very much a bastard and I loved writing him hating the whole world, but he’s fucking Going Through it.

One of my favourite reviews: EXCUSE ME ORIN> MA’AM. THIS IS A WENDYS

This Place Is Not A Place Of Honour: The multichapter sequel that I’m currently working on! The events between the gang arriving at Moonrise and Orin stabbing my Durge in the brain (and the aftermath of that, if I ever get there). They’re all doing their evil plotting in the background, but it’s mostly focused on the relationships between Durge, Orin, Gortash and Ketheric, and the various ways in which these characters are deeply fucked up.

Like I mentioned, I’m really enjoying writing Orin and Ketheric’s weird fucked up friendship. Ketheric imprints on Orin as his New Daughter Figure after Isobel runs away from him (just because he told her that her wife who he is currently torturing was dead so Isobel should get over her) and that’s going about as well as you’d expect. Ketheric is trying to fix Orin while ignoring most of her underlying issues, Orin’s worrying that she’s going to lose Durge to the Gortash and the Absolute plot, Gortash is determined to Win his relationship with Durge despite the constant red flags, Durge is causing problems on purpose.

Another of my favourite reviews: i went into that scene like "hehe the horrors" and i went out like "OH DEAR GOD THE HORRORS"

🌿Rec someone else’s BG3 fic and tell us what you like about it!

here there be dragons by shadowfell

13 year old Orin ends up the ward of the BG1/2 protagonist and under a geas stopping her from murdering people, and becomes friends with 14 year old Wyll. Two Weird Theatre Kids with no other friends hanging out while Orin puts a lot of effort into drawing Wyll’s thematically appropriate gruesome death. They work so well together and their dynamic fucking delights me. And I love getting to see my two blorbos who fandom often doesn't give the love they deserve fucking shine.

There’s also a multi-chapter sequel of the two of them as adults going through the game plot. It’s still early on, but chapter four got posted last night and that’s my read for this evening, once I’m done killing Orin in my current BG3 game and need to go and read a kinder AU for her.

[landlordevil]

6, 11, and 15 for Eins !!!

HIIII TY EWBIE!!!

6. When did your Tav learn their abilities/ skills?

Eins started the path of a fighter as a teenager, mostly for self defense (they were picked on a lot as a kid so Eins eventually decided to solve the problem with violence lol) but they've been a muscle for hire a few times in early adulthood to pay the bills. The magic they've learned has been a recent, post-tadpole thing so they're still getting the hang of it!! Their weave moment with Gale went terribly. They do not have the range

11. Did your Tav know or know of any of the other characters?

Hehehe yes... Being Baldurian and being roughly the same age as Wyll and Karlach meant that I think they've met but barely remember it. Eins vaguely remembers playing with Wyll as a kid because Wyll was nice to them (they went swimming together!!!), Karlach remembers seeing Eins at the Elfsong a few times, but it would take a lot to jog those memories. But once they DO all remember it's like wow we were all meant to meet again all these years later ;; proof of their never ending, unshakeable warrior's bond. I don't think they ever met Shadowheart- different circles and all that.

As for Astarion... I imagine that after centuries of kidnapping wandering adventurers and the local lower classes that the concept of someone (or multiple someones) whisking someone away into the night has become a bit of a ghost story, if not an open secret. Eins would have been the perfect target (poor, no family in the city, few friends, regular tavern-goer), which becomes a point of contention later on... but the two of them had never officially met until Eins almost got stabbed by him LOL

15. Do they have any sentimental items?

Eins LOVES music (big music enjoyer) so every time they find a music box they pocket it <333 they have a huge collection and find any excuse to take a short rest to listen to some tunes before heading back into battle... they're also sentimental about their Absolute amulet and amulet of Bhaal because it reminds them of times they lied about wanting to join someone's cause only to immediately backstab them TT_TT sentimental about schemes like a true grifter

[clericofkelemvor]

ending thoughts

well almost im getting the last scene with astarion now. mostly ok with what we get at the end ig? i was already ready for it to just not quite live up to the way id built everybody's relationships in my head. absolutely fucking hilarious and sad tho is when astarion started suffering from the sun, ran away clearly panicked, after i had said exactly NOTHING to him the whole post battle which made me sad, amd gale went "suppose thats the last time we'll ever see him, and he'll ever see the sun" SORRY??? IM IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM I SURE HOPE ILL SEE HIM AGAIN MAN (i do but like. the line delivery was hilarious in a horrifying kind of way). also god curtains exist! night exists! the underground exists! what the hell

also i let karlach turn and. big sad.

shadowheart and wyll didnt have much to say, halsin had one line, i dont think jaheira or minsc spoke at all lol. lae'zel got a much better ending tho with like. screen time and nice shots and lines. she's gonna free her people im so proud of her

also i dont like that having gale give the crown back seems to automatically means he's chosen again? i want an option to say get the crown to mystra so she heals u and bc clearly it shouldnt be just lying around, but then leave. he can never truly wash his hands of her bc she's the god of magic but he doesnt have to be her chosen!!

i did like most of it tho up until that very end, the battles were fun enough, altho a lot of the ally dialogue was buggy as fuck. and im like... not reaaaally mad bc like i said i expected it to let me down a little in that way. its hard to end a story! its even harder to end a story that can have so many different ends! so its fine ill headcanon away anyway

edit: ok that last scene with astarion did make me go 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 i love him

[meanbossart]

I've been really enjoying your fic and it got me curious about how your campaign went??? I got the important parts (your Durge denied Bhaal, Shadowheart spared nightsong I think, Astarion obviously didn't ascend) but what else happened? Will we ever see any of the other companions?

Thanks for enjoying the story! I can say with pretty much certainty we won't be seeing any other canonical characters from the game, Jaheira, Minsc and Halsin would have stayed behind in Baldur's Gate, as well as Wyll. My Durge killed Lae'zel early in the game and Karlach also died at the end of my campaign.

Gale's character decided to go after the crown, and while he was the staple fourth member of my party the relationship had always been uh... Tense. This was before they apparently patched out how needy he was, but frankly it made for a really interesting story since i just kind of assumed his character was kind of a creep wearing a nice-guy's face. Also, to be fair, I DID fall for his "wanna see a magic trick" line but that just kindled the fire to my theory that he's actually a fairly manipulative person (and perhaps he's unaware of it). MIND YOU PLEASE that this doesn't mean i don't like his character - honestly i feel like I got a REALLY interesting side of him in my campaign and i wouldnt have it any other way - this was a party composed of the dark urge, Astarion, Shadowheart and GALE and to have us all turn down power and glory only for the goody-two-shoes wizard of the camp to turn kinda evil and power-hungry made for a really satisfying narrative.

... Sorry i ended up rambling about Gale LOL to actually answer the rest of your question, my campaign went like this:

I made a Fighter, champion sub-class, BIG hulking drow because i thought it would be funny. Because i went in blind I started off as a confused homicidal murderer who is a liiiittle weirded out about his urges but he doesnt stress TOO much about it. Is fairly standoffish and distrusting toward all of his companions which made for a weird start. Motivated by gold, killing things, getting this worm out his head and making off-color jokes. Ends up siding with the Tieflings because i also decided that, as a very hedonistic character who thinks we should be lunatics because we want to rather than because a cult is telling us to be, my durge would profoundly hate the absolute. As a male drow he also really hated Minthara so yeah, easy choice there. As mentioned above, I also killed Lae'zel when she tried to murder-suicide everybody.

I wasn't going to fuck anyone, believe it or not, so during the tiefling party i went with Gale because it SEEMED like he just wanted to show me something neat (it ended early because i failed his checks and i guess he can't get hard unless i can cast fireball). Also, at this point even though i made mostly "good" moral choices i *was* still a dick the whole time - despite this, everyone in camp wanted to fuck me BESIDES Astarion, which was so fucking funny and devastating that I decided my Durge would, from that moment on, turn on the charm and the flattery and make it his mission to bang him. So yes, they were manipulating each other. I don't have to explain why that made for a really really fun little dynamic. Also Astarion had to tell me he was a vampire through dialogue instead of biting me and i got to say "yeah duh" which was hysterical.

I finally banged him sometime during the underdark (didn't go to the creche at all) and during Act 2 I followed the same pattern of doing mostly the Good Thing while being arrogant the whole time, I fell into a kind of chaotic-neutral/true-neutral aligment and watched my little homicidal maniac cluelessly stumble his way into a hero's journey. I had also really grown to like Shadowheart at that point after having a really negative first impression of her character and she basically became my durge's best friend. Astarion also grew on me for all the reasons we know and love and he did his confession to me sometime in late act 2. I Never met Araj (though i think i mention her in the fan story only because her interaction is interesting) so I got the dialogue that isn't prompted by her encounter. I also had to "break up" with Gale at this point which boy that sure came as a surprise to me! I also didnt break the shadow curse.

Because I didnt kill isobel (Again, my guy didnt like people telling him what to do or not to do), my little butler guy made me wanna kill Astarion. I SWEAR this happened pretty late in game, maybe even in the first night in baldur's gate which i realize is unusual. Naturally I didnt and I decided that would be the turning point where my Durge decides to not just Go With The Flow of things but actively fight his urge and pursue its root cause. He tried to be more of a good person from that point on which was kind of a clumsy effort lol

He completely antagonized the emperor immediately upon him revealing his true identity, stole the orphic hammer from Raphael's house, betrayed Gortash after setting an "alliance" with him, killed Orin (she kidnapped the orphan and killed her in front of me because i failed the check :| ) stopped Astarion from ascending and helped Shadowheart kill everyone in the house of grief, i let her make her own choice regarding her parents and she decided to kill them. I also encouraged her to not immediately align with the Selunites just because of her past.

I got Astarion the thing that helps him read the necromancy book and i cannot tell you how satifyins it was that, after giving up unspeakable power by killing Cazador, that dude and his little ghoul army basically mauled Orin and her grandad for me practically by themselves while I was down on the floor with 1 health. PROUD OF YOU BUDDY.

Gale spoke to Mystra as well at some point and i swear I NEVER encouraged that guy to take the crown for himself. It was always either "do whatever you want" or "i think thats a shitty idea." At this point my Durge was super sick of him so they had a bit of a crappy relationship which may have something to do with how things turned out.

I betrayed the emperor, released Orpheus and when he asked if any of us wanted to be a mindflayer i went "Fuck No" big time and luckily the guy just did it for me. Chaos ensues, I kill the emperor and the absolute in an epic battle that took me like a whole day. I also killed Orpheus when he asked me to. Karlach died ( :c ) and Gale told me he was gonna fuck off to get the crown. In the final Astarion dialogue I told him we would find a way to get him to walk under the sun again.... AAAAAnd thats it i think? Man this game is huge lmao i swear i wasnt trying to be long-winded.

[gith-egg]

Drik and his Companions (continued from this ask)

Figured if I have more to say I may as well just say it so here we go

Wyll: Drik and Wyll have a mutual crush on each other. It absolutely destroyed me to have to turn Wyll down in the game because they would be soooo cute together and basically perfect for each other EXCEPT for the crucial caveat that Wyll is very strictly monogamous and Drik is just funamentally not. Their friendship was a bit awkward for a bit after figuring this out. They bounced back and are now very dear friends, but there's still a tiny bit of I guess melancholy in both directions regarding what might have been

Lae'zel: She's the first of Drik's own kind that he's met since he was a toddler so that's kind of a big deal for him. He has a lot of conflicted feelings at first - he's really keen to learn about his culture and Lae'zel is keen to share, but she's also prickly, intimidating and unpredictable. He does a lot of sucking up and trying to please her because she has information he wants and that's just his habitual strategy for getting it. In time though they do develop a genuine bond as trusted and respected allies. She still makes sure to remind him daily that he's a pathetic weakling but he's figured out that's Lae'zel speak for "I care about your wellbeing and safety" and probably just responds with a cheeky "love you too" to see how severely it makes her scowl at this point

Astarion: HOO BOY. This one goes under a readmore because there is an essay worth of nonsense here.

So when I started Drik's run - this was my first time playing the game, going in almost blind - my tentative plan was that I was going to romance Astarion. Astarion very quickly made it clear this was not going to happen. For at least the first third of the game they got on each other's nerves SO bad - Drik's general tactic for getting what he wants (other than stealing) is to schmooze and flatter and "make friends" with everyone who isn't immediately hostile to him, which Astarion interpreted as genuine altruism and wrote Drik off as a soft-hearted fool. Which... he actually is, but he got annoyed at Astarion not seeing why he does things the way he does when Astarion has almost the exact same approach himself a lot of the time. Cue a lot of petty bickering.

Then to make matters worse, as they got to actually know each other, Drik quickly developed a great big crush. (Yes, he falls for people left and right - he's spent the past decade in self-imposed isolation other than family visits and he's in his early 20s. It happens lol)

Astarion mostly still thought he was an obnoxious kid and Drik was well aware of that and didn't expect the feelings to be returned. Unfortunately Astarion was also 1. a rude bastard about it and 2. saw fit to try to use him as a juice box anyway, and being a kind of self-loathing barely-adult with a weird crush, Drik obviously let him, and kept letting him. (It's anyone's guess how he even has enough blood to spare any. Thank the gods for rangers being able to self-heal)

He spent a lot of time just letting Astarion do whatever he pleased re: eating tadpoles and reading cursed books and the like, enabling him even - Astarion, effectively, achieved exactly what he was aiming to in manipulating him, and without even having to be nice about it.

Then he got slapped with the consequences when Drik developed such a complex about it that he went to Astarion and tried to apologise for taking advantage of him ("I was letting you feed on me because I was selfishly indulging in the intimacy even though I know you don't see me that way") and, subsequently, Karlach caught wind of the whole affair and had some choice words with him, and a lot of talk was had between the three of them about boundaries and expectations and treating people right.

Somehow, despite all of that, they are now practically inseparable. They still piss each other off all the time and get into stupid petty squabbles. Astarion will absolutely be asked to be best man at Drik's wedding. They would be lowkey lost without each other present in their lives in some capacity. I don't know how this happened or what you would even call their relationship. I love them.