#now estryd is trying to learn how to be a warlock from wyll

[tuxedo-rabbit]

The game treats a Dark Urge warlock like they remember who their magic comes from, but I think it's way funnier for Estryd if she doesn't even remember she can do magic until that first fight.

And for the longest time she just assumes it's like this innate ability she has because she can't remember anything except her name. Then Gale mentions offhandedly that she's a warlock (because based on his intro conversation about Wyll he can just?? Tell??? based on how people do their spells?) and Estryd is extremely confused and worried because, oh great, now there's another weird supernatural being in the mix.

Also the concept of knowing you made a pact with something but you're not sure who, and you're not sure what you had to give them in exchange? Love that.

[tuxedo-rabbit]

Estryd Playthrough part 1

I want to talk a little bit about my Estryd playthrough so far, spoilers for Dark Urge will be discussed

Playing an Amnesiac in D&D is always fun. It gives you time to figure out who this character is exactly, because they don't know either.

At first, I was really leaning in to the dark urges with Estryd, you get prompts every once in a while to think violent things, a couple prompts to do violent things, but really, in the very beginning of the game there isn't a whole lot about it that seems too terribly irredeemable. And the big thing is you can also just choose to ignore the prompts, it's not so much an urge as an option.

So, Estryd was a little off-put by these darker thoughts, but altogether she was more bothered by the fact that she couldn't remember who she was and that she suddenly had magic powers and a tadpole in her head. She only mentioned these violent urges to Lae'zel, and only after Lae'zel described the symptoms of ceremorphosis and Estryd realized that the two may not be related after all.

Things Estryd learned about herself as she collected her party and explored the tiefling camp:

She has violent urges

She's a Warlock, but she doesn't know who her patron is and if they're related to her dark urges

She's got a good amount of knowledge when it comes to the arcane and history

She really likes books

She knows things about plants and alchemy

She's good at convincing people to do what she wants, whether that be through lying, intimidating, or simply persuading. She's best at intimidation.

It was all fun and games until it wasn't.

Estryd met Alfira the bard, and initially, refused to help her. The song was bad and Alfira's sweet peronality got on Estryd's nerves. The only reason she went back and helped is because she thought it would be funny to piss off some nearby squirrels who hated the music (Estryd can be a bit of an ass at times, I mean she is a Dark Urge character after all).

This is when it started to feel like the dark urges may be a separate entity from Estryd.

See, when you refuse the narrator implies you are disgusted by Alfira's too-sweet personality. But when you choose to help, the phrasing changes ever so slightly, to imply that something within you, different from the part of you that chose to help Alfira, is disgusted at your own too-sweet behavior. I can't remember the exact phrasing, but it's the first time the urge is described as not coming from your own psyche but something else within you instead.

After helping Alfira, when the party takes a long rest, Alfira joins your camp. I don't know what happens when you are not playing a dark urge character, probably fun things. What happened with Estryd is that she woke up covered in blood with Alfira's corpse at her feet.

I cannot describe how completely unprepared I was for this. There had been no consequences thus far, and now suddenly you feel dangerous. Estryd was horrified. She didn't even try to hide the body (the game gives you that option though), she just waited for everyone to wake up so they could decide whether or not to kill her.

The companion reactions were interesting.

Gale and Lae'zel were squarely in the "You're dangerous and completely at fault" camp,

Shadowheart was the same except with a slight "but you clearly feel guilty and that says something"

Wyll was 100% in denial that it was Estryd. The man truly thought someone else broke into camp and framed her. Like, so sweet my dude, but no. it was her.

And my favorite, Astarion, Mr. "I'm not even bothered but you really should have hidden the body better"

Also you can ask Withers to resurrect her and he will bluntly tell you "No :)"

Love these guys so much. (No Karlach because she was not recruited yet.)

This was a game changer. How do you move forward after discovering you can literally wake up to find out you've killed a potential companion? Estryd was no longer neutral about the situation. She vowed to never let this happen again. She would find a way to stop them whatever caused these dark urges, or die before she let it overtake her.

She also kept Alfira's lute as a reminder, and I had her multiclass as bard for rp flavor. It's maybe a bit...macabre....for Estryd to keep the lute of the girl she murdered and to start studying how to be a bard to honor her memory, but idk, i like it for this character.

I think I'm going to end this here because it's gotten very long, but I want to record more of Estryd's journey later. I'm currently in the Underdark with her and unlocked a specific memory after the game let me do something that felt very D&D-esque. Loving the Dark Urge so far, what a way to tell the player this origin is serious.