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theresattrpgforthat · 5 months

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TTRPGs for people with dyscalculia?

THEME : Dyscalculia Friendly.

Hello friend, I’m going to first point you to the Math-Lite Chaotic Murder Hobos recommendation post I wrote up a year or two ago.

What I understand about dyscalculia is that in can affect the ability to do mental math, but I'm not sure how much it affects number recognition. I have a few games here that ask you to read the faces on a die, but I don't think any of them expect you to do any addition. I hope you find something fun on this list!

Cats of Catthulu, by Joel Sparks.

CATS OF CATTHULHU is the beloved rules-light roleplaying game in which the players take the part of ordinary cats, secretly defending human civilization from the Chaos Cults of the other animals. All the players have to do is act like cats, while the Cat Herder arranges exciting challenges for them—anything from snacky time to daringly interrupting dire rituals.

In Cats of Catthulhu, the way the story will go is always a mystery. You and your friends play to find out what happens. One person, the Cat Herder, arranges the secrets and situations, and sets the scene, but even they don’t know where the night will end. The players take the role of individual, ordinary cats. All you really need to do is act like a cat.

It might be a bit difficult to get your hands on them, but the original dice for Cats of Catthulhu don’t have any numbers on them; instead, they have sad cats and happy cats. Whenever a cat does something, they roll 2 of these dice. Rolling a Happy Cat is a success; rolling a Sad Cat is a failure. The reasoning behind these dice is: cats can’t do math!

If you can’t get your hands on cat dice, you can use any old d6, and regard 1-2 as Sad Cats and 3-6 as Happy Cats. You’ll also want to get some kind of physical token to use as Treats, which are player currency used to allow free re-rolls. Cats of Catthulhu is great for groups who are mostly getting together to just have a fun time, ready to act silly and get into all kinds of shenanigans.

DUSK, by Gila RPGs.

Equipped with the latest suntech, you are tasked with venturing out into the Dusk, and helping bring a new dawn to humanity. The Dusk does not want you there.

Good luck.

In DUSK, you play as Shards, survivors on the planet Obron after the devastating nova-event that saw your world destroyed. Now you wield powerful technology fueled by pieces of your dead sun, in hopes of surviving another day. DUSK uses the LUMEN 2.0 system, and is a diceless RPG focused on resource management rather than luck or chance.

As a diceless game, DUSK feels a lot different from a number of other diceless games, and I think that’s because of the style of game it’s working off of. LUMEN games are more about strategy than they are about narrative, and in DUSK that’s carried forward in the form of Suntech, items that require energy to power and provide specific advantages.

DUSK is still a relatively new game, but the designer is prolific in the amount of quality work he’s released in the past - and so when he says that there’s more to come, you best believe there’s more to come. If you’d still like to roll dice but you like the idea of the setting in this game, you might want to check out NOVA, which also uses the LUMEN system but gives you dice to roll or LUNA, a game about cultists trying to destroy the moon. Both of these games use pools of d6’s and ask you to look for the highest number, so I don’t think there’s that much math involved.

CASE & SOUL, by Briar Sovereign.

CASE&SOUL is a lightweight tabletop game for telling action-packed stories in the mecha genre. CASE&SOUL is designed for one-shots and short to mid length campaigns. Speed through a lightweight downtime; hire freelancers to pad out your Crew’s skills on missions. Customize your playbooks with SOUL moves, and enjoy a cut-down FITD gameplay with just the essentials for fast and flexible sessions.

Forged in the Dark games use a dice pool, rather than abilities with modifiers. You add dice from various places on your worksheet, and try to roll at least one 4 or higher. Rolling a 4 or 5 is usually a mixed success, and rolling a 6 is a complete success. Personally, I’m a big fan of games that use dice pools, as I’m also not a fan of trying to add up all of those numbers, and having to just look for the single highest dice helps speed up action resolution.

At the same time, Forged in the Dark games can have a lot of moving pieces at once, especially if the GM wants to track a large number of factions, or players want to plan multiple-stage missions. CASE & SOUL advertises itself as a slimmed-down version of these kinds of games, but I can’t tell whether or not that is the case when I look at the character sheets. What intrigues me is the CASE and SOUL tracks; I think your CASE is your Mech, and it receives Harm differently than your SOUL, which is an interesting way to measure how much your mech is (or is not) part of you.

Keyforge: Secrets of the Crucible, by Edge Studio.

In the center of the universe hangs the Crucible, a gigantic artificial world created by the enigmatic Architects and home to countless beings and cultures. Here, impossibly advanced technologies mix with arcane powers to make for a setting unlike any other! Uncovering the secrets of this mysterious world will take all your skills—but the potential rewards are boundless…

Explore this world of boundless opportunity in Secrets of the Crucible, a new sourcebook for the Genesys Roleplaying System set in the KeyForge universe!

You’ll need the Genesys Rulebook for this one, because the main reason I’m recommending Secrets of the Crucible is because of the dice system. Genesys dice don’t use numbers; they use symbols that represent success and failure - and they also have symbols that deepen the nuance of each roll. You can roll advantages or disadvantages that calibrate exactly how much you succeed, as well as triumphs or despairs that give you the same kind of highs and lows as a Nat 20 or a Nat 1 in D&D. This means that each roll tells you so much more about what’s going on around you than just whether you open a door or sweet-talk a guard.

As for the setting, Keyforge is originally a card game published by Fantasy Flight games, about a world called the Crucible, full of secrets that various factions are competing to unlock. It reminds me of the worlds of Magic: the Gathering or League of Legends, with various settings that look very distinct from each-other, and represent different styles of play.

SHIVER, by Parable Games.

WHAT IS SHIVER?

SHIVER is a tabletop roleplaying game that lets players bring their favourite scary movies, spooky tv shows, and horror stories to life. Ever wanted to play through the plot of your favourite film on the tabletop? Or wanted to make sequels, prequels and original stories in the worlds of pop culture you love? SHIVER lets you play that!

SHIVER is setting neutral allowing you to play any story, anytime, and as anyone. Want to play a game of teens in survival mode against a zombie horde? Kids on Bikes who dread exploring a haunted house on Halloween night? Or perhaps a medieval monster hunter looking for a werewolf, vampire or mage? SHIVER can deliver stories and characters for anything from cult pulp classic to Cthulhu fuelled eldritch mystery.

The designer of SHIVER set out with the goal of making games easier for his friends, who had similar struggles with games that had too much math involved. Players roll six-sided and eight-sided dice with various symbols on them, looking for the symbol that represents their character's strengths. The more difficult the task is, the more of the required symbol you need. The game itself is recognized as a class-act horror game, good for everything from pulp-action to gothic fiction to slasher horror. If you don't have the special dice, you can substitute with d6's & d8's, or you can use the free Dice Roller designed for this game.

Tournament Arc, by Biscuit Fund Games.

Are you looking to experience the triumphs and defeats of Space Hyper-Basketball? Need to feel the epic highs and dizzying lows of card games in the post-apocalypse? Want to face the trials and tribulations of the cheese-rolling World Circuit?

Tournament Arc is your very own collaborative sports anime experience, made in the diceless Belonging Outside Belonging engine popularized by games like Dream Askew and Wanderhome. In every thrilling episode, you’ll play the part of the Team as they negotiate the complexities of their daily lives, explore a collaboratively created world, and, most importantly, play the Game.

Tournament Arc is both diceless and GM-less, and is designed to tell stories about teambuilding and competitive sports, although the setting appears to be pretty flexible. The Belonging Outside Belonging game system provides each character type with prompts, and sorts those prompts into different categories. Usually there will be some things you can always do that generate tokens as well as narrative obstacles, and then other things that you can only do when you spend tokens - and as a result, also help characters confront those narrative obstacles. If you have players that like having something tactile to keep in their hands as they play, you might like Tournament Arc.

Warehouse Bitches, by Darling Demon Games.

The Time Worm arrived as it was prophesied just as the crown fell upon his head, and all potentials collapsed into a single haunted citadel, which you call Hex City. You are transgender punks and goths from earth, and in this place your powerful hearts make you witches, daemons, beast-people and arcane architects. We bide our time, smoking and drinking, playing video games and eyeing the crumbling walls of our enemy, The Lord of Olympus.

In Warehouse Bitches, you play as one of the titular warehouse-dwelling trans folk in the hellish Hex City. In this GMless Belonging Outside Belonging game with a unique coin-flip mechanic, you'll wield magic, build allies across the city and fight back against the bastards in subtle ways.

I’ve already explained a bit about how Belonging Outside Belonging works, but Warehouse Bitches adds another layer by using coins as tokens. Using coins, your options are different depending on whether or not the coin is on Heads or Tails. The moves on your character sheet are not just differentiated between Strong and Vulnerable, they’re also differentiated between Heads or Tails, and you must have matching sides of the coins showing in order to be able to use those moves. Characters also have Magic moves, which require the player to flip every coin they currently hold, and reassign those coins based on whatever side they land on.

Warehouse Bitches has only 4 playbooks as it stands now, so a group of 4 players is probably the largest group that can play the book as it stands now. The game is GM-less, but looking at the rules, I think it would be possible to have someone pick up the GM role in order to introduce complications and narrate the actions of various other factions in town. Similar to other BoB games, there are zones that have various elements and details that need to be decided as you play, which will also help provide events and interesting features that keep the game fresh and exciting.

#indie ttrpgs #game recommendations #tabletop games #dnd #asks #indie ttrpg #math-light #math-lite

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toomanythoughts4myhead · 10 months

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Been thinking about modern!Coriolanus Snow (again)

How he probably goes to some old fancy university, which his whole bloodline went to. All of the other posh children he grew up with end up there too, some exceptions (fuckups) didn't manage to do it, but that is less snobby people to have to deal with in Coriolanuses mind.

Coriolanuses great great grandfather started a sort of secret society (cult) in his youth and ever since it has been thriving in secret.

With time it's ways have grown a lot more ...socially acceptable. They do weird cultists shit like 20% of the time and the other is spent getting drunk in private gatherings and parties or blowing mommy and daddies credit cards.

Coriolanus was at the core of the secret societies this century, house of the roses, there is no official name but this one gets thrown around enough that it stuck eventually. Corio enjoyed having the control over the gatherings and all the planning, God knows he was the most capable one there except for Clementia, maybe.

He was also the best actor, best student, in the University. He walked a fine line between sucking up to lectors and any sort of authority figures without loosing his own authority and self-respect.

There was a new money kid, Sejanus Plinth, who his father had pushed into joining the secret society in order to fit in with the fellow rich kids. He wasn't exactly welcomed but his fathers findings of the gatherings sure sweetened the deal.

To Sejanuses horor he had to give a blood oath in a secret passage in the school, a place secretly built in a wall just for this.

What was the blood used for?

Well he had to drink it. Not just his own, though. Part of the acceptance ritual is that everyone gives a drop of blood into a ceremonial bowl, engraved with roses and thorns. The blood would get mixed in with warmed wine and spices and each member will get a sip, starting with the new commer. Most of the people here didn't have to go on the trial because they were accepted simply for their status, only people who had something to prove had gone through with it.

They had wanted to pull Sejanuses leg a bit too, and judging by his paling face and unmoving gaze from the red liquids, they had succeeded.

What they hadn't anticipated, however, is Sejanus running out of the room screaming that they were all animals as he stomped away. Good thing that there was no one in the University right now, right?

Wrong.

Right as Sejauns was turning a corner he almost stomped on you, a journalist major in search of a new headline for the Universities newspaper. And his wide eyes, read stained lips and the blood dripping from one of his hands from a weirdly shaped scar, was defiantly a step in the right direction.

You don't get time to ask him anything as he walks off faster than you can turn around, but the commotion from down the hall catches your attention and you hurry off.

Your footsteps echo off of the marble floor and as you actually get there all you see is a blurr of red robes and golden silverware. The only thing that sticks out before the door???wall shuts closed is a person with a white suit and blond hair.

You start to dig deeper and deeper about this secret society, asking around and looking through all the history of the school. A cultists secret society that was responsible for the murder of three from almost 60 years back catches your attention. You are dealing with something bigger than you thought.

Coriolanus is livid, he hadn't put on his robes for that evening, coming to the meeting fresh off of one of his late lectures. He didn't get to see whi was the mysterious onlooker but he was going to find out and keep their mouth shut.

Your questions about a secret society and search for knowledge are not hidden and eventually reach Coriolanus, who approaches you during one of your late night searches through the University's library.

He startles you as he looked down at where you are hunched iver a very old set of newspapers. His gaze is piercing and calm, his posture doesn't give anything. His bright red burgundy suit and pants seem to contrast nicely woth his pale skin and blond hair. Blond hair!

He smells like roses and so did the place of the meeting, even after it's closing it had left a strong fragrance of white roses and vanilla.

The recognition must be evident in your face as your facial muscles move from confuses to "hallelujah". All the warning you get is a slight crease in his brow as he presses a strongly smelling handkerchief to your nose and mouth and presses it tightly.

"Such a smart girl. Should have known not to poke your nose in places it doesnt belong."

And with that it all fades to black, his piercing blue eyes are the last thing you see.

You wake up in a room, red silk cloth binds you to a chair and you seem to be alone. You try to shake off the drowsiness but your muscles feels like lead and your mind is slow, movements sluggish. This could be the same room, but it could be somewhere else entirely, you have no clue. It's all so lavish and luxurious, in its deep reds complimented by golden chandeliers and golden engravings, there were some old paintings as well, none that you recognize.

The click-clacking of heels on the wooden floor shifts your attention back to the familiar blond figure, creeping towards you like a predator. He is in the same clothes as before, which hopefully meant that you hadn't been in this drugged out state for too long.

He looked as pristine and proper as he always did, but his gaze was unnerving intense, it made your mouth dry with nerves.

"It feels like a real waste to get rid of such a smart girl, a real loss for the academy."

He says calmly as he takes a center place infront of you, looking down at your tied form. The image pleases him.

"You will either keep your mouth shut about this or i will tell all your dirt to whatever authority figure i need to, to make sure you never manage to get into any other learning establishment."

"I dont have any dirt on me."

"Doesnt really matter what you have, it matters what i present you have. So be wise about this, little mouse. Wouldnt want to get caught in a trap by your own doing."

Fuck

He says it so clamly but he can't manage to hide the rising corners of his mouth. He was enjoying this, he liked playing with you and your life. Your whole world depended on his choices, you had no way to stop him or fight him off. Interesting.

You don't much of a choice but to agree, a bit sullen that all your research had gone to hell and that a murderous cult was going around unpunished, but you couldn't risk your education, nit right now at least.

Coriolanus looks like the cat who got the cream, smiling deviously at you. Something in the way he looked at you made alarms go off in your ears. The deranged glint in your eyes meant nothing good. For you, at least.

"I cant let the other members know that an outsider found out about us like this, it would look very bad for my image, as you understand. From now on you have been my girl for a while, but our relationship has been hidden. You will act like you are mine."

He stated simply like demanding a performance like this was simply his birth right. You look at him stunned and not even sure what to say to that. You aren't exactly in a position to argue, even if your tongue is itching to give him a piece of your mind. So you agree.

You will be this cult leaders play-pletend girlfriend so you will keep your education. On paper.

Well you found the drama you were looking for. Now all you had to do was survive.

(Wrote this at 1 am yall, the brainrot was rotting away. Hope ye like it, cuz its not proof read. Sending love and good vibes. Peace.)

#books #coriolanus snow #movies #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #the hunger games #coriolanus x reader #coriolanus x you #manipulation #aesthetic #cult #university #modern au #old money #secret society #power dynamics #cult leader #sejanus plinth #clementia

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raidoesthings · 1 month

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I’d figure I do a mix of an anniversary post and a post to commemorate the release of Unholy Alliance!

So have all these artworks and also talks of the sheep and goat’s cults!

The Red Crown Cult (later named Sanctuary of the Souls)

Formerly a cult made in the name of The One Who Waits, but it gradually set itself apart from its original purpose. The day that the one below betrayed his vessel sealed the deal, and the cult treated Lambert as their leader ever since his defeat. Lambert leads it with a watchful and gentle eye. The former bishops have taken the roles of Lambert’s priests, aiding in helping the cult. Agares, Astaroth, and Bathin have been appointed as rangers of the cult, overseeing the other realms and protecting them from harm. Allocer had chosen to rest on his own, a decision respected, though strangely, he hasn’t been seen since….

The cult has a firm belief in living life to the fullest, therefore murder and sacrifice are prohibited. Any who even attempt to participate in such will be promptly kicked out. Menticide and fights to death are also prohibited. Alcohol can be served from the bar, though it is regulated to prevent brutal fights. Cultists are encouraged to train using weapons and magic to learn to defend themselves, and fighting areas are supervised by those skilled in weaponry.

They believe that sacrificing a life isn’t worth it, but perhaps it isn’t so simple…

Stalkers of the Lotus

During the Crimson Eclipse (events of FDS), the goat set out after breaking free from captivity. He eventually found a few stray Old Faith cultists seeking shelter. Kuole agreed to help them in exchange for their loyalty, and the deal was set. Kuole eventually found a perfect spot for his cult, a clearing in the forest hidden by various untainted trees and bushes. As the lands were returning back to normal, Kuole secretly ventured and gained supplies, along with the occasional new follower or two. The cult grows slowly but steadily.

They heavily believe in sacrifice, however, they do not shed more blood than they need to. Since Kuole’s cult is small, more than one would just be a waste of blood. For the time being, Kuole only has one sacrifice per month. Nothing more, nothing less. The only exception to this rule is dealing with dissenters, as depending on how severe they dissent, they will promptly be sacrificed, and their remains will be repurposed in rituals.

They believe that sacrifices must be made, but perhaps it doesn’t always have to be that way…

(And as a bonus to top it off, have a drawing based on the Pilgrim comic!)

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ljsarts · 6 months

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Here’s a big old infodump on Mari Matilla an AW 2 oc who's little plot and background I kept on adding to for the last month or so till it spiralled into a fully fleshed character-

I briefly mentioned Samy and Mari’s dynamic in this post so this is more focused on Mari as the remaining Matilla sister.

Warning its a long post I've tried to section out but I thought i better post it now or i never will so oops here we go ALSO spoilers for the entirety of AW2 just to cover my bases

Tldr basic info-

Name: Mari Matilla

Nickname/mean rumour name: ‘Mary Shell-y'

(Anglicised her name to Mary if people mispronounce it enough)

Close Relatives:

[Deceased] twin Sister Sam Matilla.

Estranged Mother Francesca Matilla. [Alive]

Stepfather Micheal Matilla. [Annoyingly Alive]

Name: Samy matilla

Nickname: ‘samwich’ a highschool nickname that Samy tried to spread herself that Mari will not let her live down.

Close Relatives: (same as above but was secretly still in contact with their mother Fran)

Died : 2022 spring swimming in cauldron lake.

The duo moved to bright falls in Spring 2019.

Works at the summer general store before the lake is closed off to the public.

Samy Drowns and she moves into the general store basement in 2022. (Year before the nightingale murder and the events of AW2).

Additional oc Outside the Matilla family:-

Name: Satu Barkley

Nickname: Sparky

Works for Biltmore’s Logging camps, mostly delivers the logs but won't skip the opportunity to do some log splitting. Her Hobbies vary from wood carving to hiking and darts. She met and ended up dating Mari after getting set up on a blind date with her via their shared friend Rose Marigold.

Family:-

Recently Mari Lost their twin sister Samy Matilla violently to ‘the cult of the tree’.

Her ‘murder’ happened a year before Saga and Casey arrived to investigate Nightingales murder.

This death in the family leaves her alone in Watery with only the company of their senior dog Charlie, a greying jack Russel with a laziness problem.

Mari makes do with the little family she has left (literally little Charlie is tiny even for his breed she jokes he's shrunk as he's got older)- not having many relatives nearby as a support system considering she ran to bright falls after cutting contact with everyone but her sister in 2019.

Before her Grimm passing the twins had very little other family than distant (both physically and emotionally) aunts and uncles as well as having a mother and stepfather they'd cut contact with for good reason.

The ’murder‘

The grizzly ritualistic murder of Miss Matilla and Mari’s trauma from discovering the gruesome aftermath (only being drawn outside by Charlie howling at the cultists outside) has led to her becoming an elective Mute when encountering about 90% of the town.

Because of the cult's anonymity Mari lacks any kind of mutual trust in the majority of the town growing paranoid that anyone could be a cult member after her too to finish off the whole family.

This paranoia in turn led the non cult members of the town to be suspicious of her being that she somehow didn't hear the murder happening right outside her home at the time (staying for the summer in the general store by the lake).

All they'd heard was that her sister had been murdered right on her doorstep and she'd just slept through the ordeal only waking when it was too late.

The truth being that Mari had been up the last two nights looking for her sister who'd set out to go swimming in the lake despite her protests that those waters were not safe.

See She'd been too swept up on scouring every inch of the woods after finding Sam's bag, shoes and phone sat on the edge of the lake just abandoned that she hadn't called her in missing in town (not daring to leave the woods) . And even after spending the full day searching she didn't trust the police to come looking for her either.

This lack of sleep from searching day and night meant she had passed out on day 3 and slept through the cults ‘murder’ ritual never knowing that her sister was long dead before the cult began attempting to carved her heart out (Samy having been drawn into and drowning in the lake while trying to disprove her sisters worries about her. Samy following a ‘figure’ into the waves).

The town also was not aware that at that time the three of them (Samy, Mari and Charlie) slept in the basement of the old general store, meaning even if Mari had been awake she wouldn't have heard a thing anyways. (This doesn't stop her blaming herself though).

They also didn't know that Mari had stirred that night at the sound of the howling and barking making it out of the general store door rifle in hand a moment too late only seeing deer masked figures fleeing into the woods and the telltale pattern of her sister's dress covering a bloodied and water trodden body splayed out on the picnic bench. She'd rush out not realising she was screaming already and try to shake her sister awake to no avail.

Seeing a body

something there ,

not her sister

not anymore.

The sun would rise by the time she called into the sheriff's office. Hand still wrapped around her sisters, hair wiped off her bloodied face with loving care and blanket pulled over her so she wouldn't get cold.

They'd come within the hour and cordon off the area.

She'd only let go of her sister’s now Ice cold hand when another would grab hers leading her off to the car park in silence.

Mari had been taken to the police station to fill out all the reports and witness forms not really saying a word just in shock. They'd ask if anyone could come collect her and when they received a shake no offer a lift back up to the store to get her things.

Later on she'd be silent still as she begrudgingly brewed coffees for the sheriff and deputies up at the general store while they took the body and photographed the crime scene.

They'd comment on how the heart had been half carved out sliced open shoddily but not removed properly like the other victims and that the noise of the dog howling and the lights of the store turning on must have put off the ‘killers’ assuming someone nearby was watching them (at least that's their running theory).

Aftermath-

Mari gets very intense surrounding the investigation into Samy’s death. She finds out from her autopsy some key facts that don't add up -

Samy's lungs were filled with lake water - logically yes she drowned in the lake so how did she walk up back to the general store where she got murdered.

Her mottled skin and appearance applies more to a body that's been in the water for weeks not mere days at most.

The cult still seemed to have tied down Samy’s body but the marks on the body would coincide with her being alive at the time of the ‘murder’ and pulling against said restraints.

In Mari’s mind she can only comprehend two ideas-

Either one : Samy almost drowned in the lake barely surviving and after being lost in the woods for two days finally struggled back home to the general store getting picked off like a wounded animal .

Or worse, the cult tortured her by waterboarding her in the lake only to grow ‘ bored ’and kill her up by the general store as a threat.

In either of these options one thing remains - guilt Mari feels such a deep gnawing guilt at not running after her sister after Their fight at not checking up on her sooner knowing the lake had a history of drownings.

It had to be her fault , hers and the cults.

The police (well really just the Sheriff since he's the only one who can relate to Mary having hallucinations having his own about shapes in the night) considered making a recommendation to go to the cauldron lake clinic after some pretty horrendous ptsd episodes and bouts of insomnia began occurring more frequently to Mari leading up to deer fest.

These recommendations definitely did not arise because she accidentally punched a newbie cop in the face who mistakenly jumped out at her from a dark corner with a deer fest mask on while trying to prank their coworker).

These episodes are all being triggered by the surrounding deer imagery of all things. Why'd the cult have to pick the town's mascot of all things, why not a wolf or something scary?.

Mari denies the help initially. Partially on lack of trust and partially because in her own words-

‘Im not fucking crazy Breaker alright! I just get spooked by y’all running up on me all the time with this stupid deer fest shit it's every day and it's it's everywhere in town already the festival’s not for another month and a half alright! Why? why are they rushing?’

It takes one pretty rough breakdown and waking up in an open holding cell on a Sunday morning with no recollection of the *last ten hours for her to finally realise yeah getting help might be the best thing for her sanity and safety right now. That or moving out of town forever and that's not an option in her mind.

*Those missing ten hours consisting of her actually getting the courage to shoot at a cult member missing by an inch, fleeing badly on foot , getting caught , kicking screaming and exchanging punches, just to then in a fit of rage screaming at them to go ahead kill her like her sister only to get *bonk* knocked out cause a taken was approaching and they didn't have time to explain to her what actually happened with her sister. A cult member dropping her off at the station steps as a ‘drunk and disorderly’, their fellow cult members in the police station getting her inside and checked over.

Satu the lumberjack picks her up from the station in the morning with coffee , an ice pack for that possibly broken nose and therapy enrollment forms alike in hand.

These outbursts lead to her becoming even more of a social pariah, seemingly an outsider against small town customs .

But In Spite of said episodes she still aims to be polite when she does choose to speak to the townsfolk.

She always pays promptly and tips well in the dinner;

she'll smile back at the townsfolk as she walks by when taking Charlie to the town park to chase pigeons.

When she stocks up She nods along with cashiers gossip trying to remember who's who and waits while they give Charlie all the fuss his old little face can handle. (Which is surprisingly a lot , he loves all the attention).

Most of all when she heads back to the woods she's never late for work.

Not that she could be late considering she works alone as pest control and wildlife management in the acres surrounding the lake.

She only visits town to stock up on supplies every month or so and since Rose in the Dinner is about the only person she’ll hold a full length conversation with in town , her social skills have been lacking as of late. (Not that she has great ones to begin with)

She thinks Rose is ‘weird’ (heavy quotes weird) like she is , changed by all the weirdness in this town.

She’d never admit it but she feels Like something is following rose around too, a darkness that dims the usual sparkle in her eyes sometimes or a daydream on the air she gets lost in.

Not that she'd admit to spending way too much time staring into Roses' silvery eyes though.

But she knows Mr Wake writer extraordinaire is Rose’s ~ one true love~ and she's only a pinch jealous . Though she does love to hear her excited reviews and ratings of - ’the best Casey novel in her opinion , or are we talking about most engaging ?or ooh! the one that the critics like the most? cause that's a controversial pick in my opinion~’.

(Oh and Mari totally didn't get accidently spoiled by Rose about Casey dying in the last book when she’d just decided to start reading them.)

After her sort of one way crush faded a bit and Rose and her became more besties , Rose tried and succeeded to set her up on a blind date with a local lumber worker who Mari had met in the past delivering logs up to the general store - Satu Barkley.

A broad shouldered gentle giant of a lady who Mari sees as way out of her league but who seems to be pine-ing (pun fully intended) just as much as her.

They bond over a shared love of woodwork with Satu carving a little wooden raven to go on Samy's grave and a little wooden wolf for Mari to wear as a necklace Mari immediately swooning.

Satu becoming the second person she feels safe enough around to talk to freely when she comes to visit the lake and deliver logs.

Work-

Work has been weird too lately.

She used to work in the bustling old general store with their sister before the whole park got shut down.

It was a dream I mean sure the summer rush was always hard to stay on top of but the work kept her mind occupied and sharp , it was a challenge and made the quiet evenings afterwards so much more rewarding.

Worth the struggle just to get to see the sunsets and hear the full array of seasonal birdsong , the cool breeze through the woods slightly chilling the skin.

Her sister always the overachiever would spend the summertime working by Maris side part time shopkeep but full time most days ‘idiot supervisor’ (her own words) or rather doctor and emergency first aider. (Spending the rest of the year working in the wellness centre)

Having worked in emergency medicine in a Vancouver hospital before moving to Bright falls to live with her ‘runaway’ sister, Samy knows her way around your miscellaneous woodland injuries handling the splinters to sprained ankles and the more grizzly injuries too with equal measures of care.

Those summer days in the store by her side the lake and the woods felt even

brighter,

warmer,

kinder than usual.

The woods used to be alive with a beating heart of campers and birdwatchers, the odd ‘guided adventure tour’ by the Koskela Brothers too travelling down the trails like veins through the woods.

Now they're just too quiet.

The only harsh sound being the consistent clanging and buzz of the monitoring station in the hill a crude noise cutting through the bird song in the morning

Moving on-wards-

When the general store got shut down the two of them had moved back into an old cabin their aunt owned that they'd inherited after she passed in 2019 , (this inheritance prompted Mari cutting contact and moving).

The cabins Situated just outside the town's borders up in Watery, but the two secretly keep the keys to visit the general store every summer and fish the lake.

Mari couldn’t bear going back to the cabin without her sister ; all her clothes laid out for work tomorrow , all the sticky notes reminders the plants in the window unwatered. That whole cabin just felt like an open unhealed wound .A living tomb dedicated to a woman who'd never step foot in it again.

She'd slept in her truck that night and sold the place to whoever would move in the quickest, this person ironically being Satu who was a little shocked to see Mari just up and leaving.

After she'd gathered all her sister's and her stuff on the back of the pickup truck she'd left for the woods.

And Once she'd found the old store keys and some solid padlocks she'd set out to bunker down in the basement of the abandoned general store. It was the warmest down there and had been least hit by the elements being some old bunker design from way back when the caldera in the lake was more of an active threat.

(Listen please okay , I sleep deprived Luc editing this backstory right now knows that there isn't a basement but I forgot that the first cult encounter happens in the general store and it's inferred they chill out in there too so we're shifting from the og idea of living in the general store to a second location , for story purposes she's hiding out in the fictional basement keeping Charlie entertained with a bunch of tennis balls and chew toys while the cults lurking above like a fox beneath the hunters, she's covered the hatch to the basement with moss and scrap wood it's all good alright… at least for now).

The store itself is broken down in patches, it's overgrown in others and the patches between those two variables aren't looking too good either.

But It's familiar , it's safe enough

If only it wasn't close to where it happened.

She keeps envisioning that day over and over , rushing out to Charlie's howling , seeing shadows scatter into every corner of the woods.

Seeing her.

Trying to perform CPR on someone , something long gone, a bloodied chest and empty eyes. Just a shadow of the bright bubbly sister she'd angrily yelled goodbye to a few days prior.

The blood on her hands grew as cold as the one she clasped.

It's always the same nightmare , the same moment until eventually it's just silent rest .

Maybe she hopes deep down by staying in that dingy building by letting it rot around her bit by bit.

By being in that right place at all times she can stop the cult using the woods for their murders and make them slip up somehow.

That she can be there when she wasn't before awake and watching.

It was a stupid and under-thought out plan but it's all she can think about now , the what ifs that might have saved her sister , that could save another soul eat her alive in the silence like rust through iron slow moving but persistent till the end.

She spends weeks out at night tracking , documenting and trying to hype herself up to take a shot at these cult members. Trying to detach herself from reality by hyping herself up going ‘deer hunting’ never quite having the bravery to pull the trigger once and for all. Hell when she finds an old Halloween mask- a wolf while clearing out boxes for memories she dons that imitating the very cult she's trying to catch out.

Her days, unlike her nights, are monotonously spent culling ‘ diseased ‘ wildlife for the weird company she's found herself working under. They say their pest control and testing wildlife so they can provide treatment and preserve the species in the woods. She doesn't ask questions , the pay is a little too good to be true but it's paid on time and she doesn't have to worry about being late.

This constant prowling of the woods A dedication to surrounding the lake is why she kicks herself when she returns from a monthly supply run to find the area cordoned off with a dead FBI agent there splayed out contorted just like her sister was.

Nicknames-

After a few days of near encounters with the cult she hangs tripwires at the front doors attached to chimes she makes from razor clamshells taken from the lake, the one on the front door additionally bearing the old door's entrance bell in its centre for extra volume.

Gossip, well more a cruel mythos started spreading of a ‘Mari shell-y’ a week after the Chimes went up.

The story goes that when two rangers came to check on the abandoned store after seeing smoke in the forest that they reached for the doors and were ambushed by tripwires of shells wrapping tightly around their arms, the chimes breaking in the process.

That ‘Mari the shell lady , the weirdo in the woods who lost their voice in the lake, had finally gone looney and is collecting shells to fight off the “witch's powers”’.

She persuaded the rangers that she was just lighting a fire to mask her scent, and that she was on the job- tracking some weird wolves in the woods with rabies , emphasising how rabid and uncontrollable these wolves were to the rangers, this task putting them at enough unease to leave promptly with a ‘-good luck with that’.

Interaction/encounter wise within AW2

(Disclaimer I wrote the majority of this stuff while watching a play through of aw2 and was only on the first few chapters of the game so there's some bits that are out of sync with the main plot)

Overarching plotline of Mari like most Bright Falls inhabitants is just a ‘so bad very bad day worst day of their life’ plot. She doesn't influence the progression of the main story and is more just another victim of the horror genre narrative demanding sacrifices barely surviving it's attacks on her ‘Until Dawn style’ (Emily from until dawn my beloved inspiration).

So Mari’s arc Aka ‘Mari will not die in spite of the world trying it's best to axe her’ (wink wink) begins with a nice calm start in the oh deer diner:

After Rose gives her ‘remember me? , weird your back cause…’ speech to Saga and she's gone through both conversation roots, Mari can lightheartedly bantering with Rose at the counter of the oh deer dinner about how-

M- ‘the animals in the park, well around the whole lake are acting weirder than usual lately like really off putting, more aggressive, almost rabid, think it's just the changing of the seasons getting to them?’

R- ‘must be that volcanic ash in the air their studying down there, you should mask up breathing all that dust in all day and night oh and get a little doggy sized mask for Charlie to wear you'd match’

M- ‘we would (she grins) , you worry about me too much though Rose’

R-‘well someone's got to , I mean just look at you’

M-‘hey!, I'll have you know this is my best shirt I ironed it and everything’

R- ‘oh really? So that's why you wear it every time you're in town hmm? S’got to be the fourth time I've seen it this year’

M- ‘you try living in the woods with a senior dog who's always needing carrying I'm sure all your clothes would be finely pressed and smell like daisies’

R- ‘daisies and roses. well, at least I know what to get you for your birthday’

M-’ a new shirt?’

R- ‘shush you'll ruin the surprise’

Mari doesn't really speak to Saga in the dinner but will nod when noticing her and smile genuinely (if a little anxiously) at her if approached before turning back to the counter and the paper sat on it before her. Giving Charlie scritches behind his old scruffy ears, who sits next to her on a pulled across diner chair.

General Store Basement introduction-

Saga and Casey can encounter and interact fully with Mari in a night-time/late evening cycle of exploring around cauldron lake anytime after the first overlap events/ first encounter with the cult occurs.

When returning to the murder site A trail of fresh blood not washed away by the rain can be found and observed leading from bushes nearby to the general store.

Meeting Shelley for the first time she'll be hunkered down in the deepest corner of the general store basement

To get in you'll need A key for the front door that can be found using the flashlight as its hiding spot on a small metal tin is marked by fluorescent paint.

Several shell tripwires can be inspected and disarmed outside the doors and windows, some of the windows are hammered shut shoddily with long nails sticking out of the frames.

Unlocking the front door and delving into the general store again , several objects are disrupted

- a table is shattered, legs strewn apart , several frames off the walls smashed on the ground and a cult mask sits on the floor brandishing some dog sized chew marks.

-Following the trail of blood leads further into the store and to the attached laundromat room where one washing machine has been pushed out of place revealing a hatch concealed below it.

Below the general store in its basement Mari is found on her last tether.

Being guarded by a quietly growling charlie (you know that sort of old dog rumbly growl they have?) And with A shotgun raised shakily she crouches in the farthest corner of the store wide eyed at the intrusion and visibly bleeding. Having been shot in the shoulder , rough gauze is wrapped haphazardly around the wounded area but She looks palpably pale and clammy.

The shotgun is leaning awkwardly against her stiff bracing shoulder twitching much to her dismay and Charlie the jack Russel sits tucked onto her lap.

Saga can de-escalate the situation by showing Mari her badge and introducing herself and Casey, commenting on recognising her from the dinner in town earlier and asking about her dog.

‘She's Charlie , She's harmless, really more talk than bite. Not that she could bite with her old teeth, give her one of these biscuits off the counter and she'll be your best friend’

A dog biscuit can be retrieved and given to Charlie who softens up at the approach.(And yes you can pet the dog)

When Mari finally calms down she'll crumble a little bit from the stress and alot-a bit from the general blood loss.

Saga can then ask her name and ask about the gunshot wound :

Asking about the name triggers her to recognise the last name Matilla as one of the previous victims of the cult commenting on the incident occurring around a year and a month ago and how the victim looked identical to her minus the haircut.

Mari winces at the comparison, combing a hand through her hair she clarifies Samy was, is , her twins sister and almost spitefully asks why they've turned up now of all times to look into the murders,she calms though saying it's atleast better late than never.

Asking about the bullet wound prompts Mari to comment on it not being as bad as it looks,

‘I was just bunkering down for the night getting Charlie her dinner when I got ambushed by this smokey figure? Like not smoking burning like an enveloping aura of sooty air must be the fucking volcanic ash shit from the lake’ , she quietly adds “I haven't been drinking I swear.’ when Casey's eyes fall on the array of cans on the table.

‘The shot though that went clean through and it's missed the brachial plexus see’ ,

holding up her hand she clenches and unclenches her fingers a few times it's weird though there's two of her fingers on this held up hand missing old wounds scarred over.

‘It all still works just hurts like a bitch , missed the subclavian artery too, still made a mess of my good shirt though and Im supposed to wear this to date night tonight :( ’. Mari is scarily calm for someone who's been shot.

Casey comments on the formal medical knowledge Mari seems to possess but rather lacking medical application of the gauze on her shoulder.

She divulges that her sister used to pop quiz her on the parts of the body, the challenge growing along with her growing up from bones to muscle systems to arteries and where they are a great way to pass time on long summer days.

All great fun at the time but in hindsight it would have been better in this case to have been taught how to bandage said body parts.

Casey has some medical training from a previous operational medicine program he gestures for her to approach so he can adjust the gauze and the two agree to answer some questions in exchange for them just double checking that shoulder wound and rewrapping it (concerned by how pale Mari looks).

While Casey's sorting out that shoulder wound Saga can explore this corner of the basement further around where Mari has crumpled down She has several frankensteined together sketches of the cultists faces from memory watching the cultists hiding in the different areas around the lake, noting down details when they'd lift masks to take sips of beers or drunkenly letting them slip off entirely.

Yellow and pink post it notes , receipt paper ripped from the cash register , and lined stationary paper are stuck haphazardly to a corkboard against the wall with whatever Is available .

(Casey's pretty sure there's a few empty pens stabbed into the cork in more than one spot.)

While Saga is looking around Casey can ask about Mari’s hand if it's a ‘New wound? , looks old from the scarring, that from a cult attack too? ‘

She clarifies no an old wound from when she was a kid , an accident with an unsafe bear trap, not that there is a safe bear trap for a child to be left around and supervised by a ‘distracted’ stepfather on a hunting trip.

She changed the subject pretty quickly and apologises for the shell alarms out front. Commenting on the rumours and nicknames around her,

Casey in turn comments on the choice of names saying it's cruel when a nickname sticks , mari sympathises making a guess that having the same name as a fictional character must come with a lot of jokes and jabs.

Casey asks how she can be staying in the general store and not have heard the murder happening right outside.

Saga, equally confused, clarifies their here because of an FBI agent being murdered on the picnic table outside.

Mari stumbles back up to her feet and with some assistance closes the hatch door , the room immediately falling deathly silent of the sounds of the outdoors now locked away.

Didn't hear a thing. I'm afraid it's an old bunker design sturdy as anything but soundproof too.

Mari promises to head into town to get the shoulder looked at and as Saga and Casey head out to explore the cauldron Lake area she can be heard calling up Satu to come and pick her up trying her best to downplay her injury and saying it was an ‘accident’ while cleaning her rifle.

Escalation /second worse encounter:( aka the angst zone of Samy the dead sister returning.)

Her sister was buried in the woods near the lake wanting to be surrounded by the very nature she coveted . Her grave being marked by some small memorial rocks from mirrors peak and carvings of a crow , a bear , a little wooden duck and other trinkets left by visitors. Fresh flowers sit picked from the surrounding area.

Saga can on her travels around bright falls encounter a manuscript page that details a horrifying encounter - an empty grave and a taken soul rising up to lay it's last family member to rest beside her in that woodland tomb.

Of a shadow imbued figure clawing out of the dirt handful by gritty handful and brandishing an axe ripped out of a cedar tree stump, carving its way through the general store's front door like a horror cliche , the shell chimes rattling a final death rattle.

(this next bits a little messily written i won't lie i love all the manuscript pages and the style of writing in the game but i cannot imitate it i do visual art not written so shoutout fanfic and authors this is harddd.)

“Beyond the door , her last remaining protection Mari Matilla , still recovering from her bullet wound burning a hole in her shoulder, is frozen in place staring in wide eyed abject horror at the looming figure on the other side of the splintering wood.

This figure who shares the same face , the same blood now cold no longer pumping through dead veins looms forward through the gash in the door.

A single white eye peers through the crack sunken into it's hollow socket, the creature smiles a sickly grin too wide for it's face.

She swings her axe bringing the door down with it charging through the threshold , with each slamming step Mari snaps out of the ever growing fear in her heart willing herself to just move! as the axe comes slashing down again.

Finally it makes contact, clipping her ankle with a sickening thump. Bone exposed She screams the world all crashing back down around her at once.

‘The light , the basement. The light will keep me safe’ she thinks and so she dives for that sunken room.

Gunshots ring out in the distance , safety , a chance at survival; she knew who it was, the only one brave enough to be out in these woods alone , Saga Anderson, her hero.

she screams again louder than before:

‘SAGA she's Here Help me!’ she just had to hold on a few moments more. Just a few moments longer. The creature a mirror of her lurches forward for the basement door and-”

The rest is scratched out.

The page ends before anything else can occur saga sets off back to the lodge as the day draws to an end.

On the way to cauldron lake she calls Casey and tells him where she's going, chasing after another page by our best selling author friend she's pissed she asks why he'd write something like this into reality.

He tries to explain that he doesn't remember writing this but writing in the escape , writing in that saga is there to save her and that the basement full of lights is the safest place for her to be. That sounds like what he'd write , from what he knows that that is how he can help.

‘its a horror story all of this is I have to stay within the narrative tropes but you can change it's ending it's not written yet there's always a final girl right who barely escapes but not unscathed?’

When she arrives at cauldron lake it's dark the sun's setting , as she approaches down the hill from the parking lot she encounters several taken , gunshots ring out and she hears from the general stores direction screams for help exactly as written she just prays Charlie and Mari have reached the basement , sprinting towards the store.

The sister's warped and ritually sacrificed body has become a taken a hollow hole in her chest, hair slicked to her face and hands bloodied .

((I have two visual ideas for this currently. One is that she sort of floats above the ground like a body floating face down in the water. Or alternatively upright usual axe swinging but her hairs sort of floating behind her and clothes slightly flowing in a current we can't see)).

She has dirt across her arms and under her fingernails having crawled and clawed her way out of the grave. Stumbling back to her place of death hearing Mari whistling as she cooked, her attention drawn and a rage at her own death bubbling up inside her.

She screams out at her in its distorted voice ‘ why weren't you there ? Why did you leave me to die? What sister lets her sister die in the cold in the dark ? Look at me, You wretched bitch look at me!’

When saga arrives to save Mari she can look around and find the shallow grave empty and flooded with lake water, the coffin floating atop and ripped open. Reaching the general store front door is destroyed , Mari surprisingly isn't dead but has barely contained ‘what was samy’ in the basement of the general store. Rattling and slamming can be heard against the basement hatch upon arrival that goes scarily quiet when Mari calls out to saga again.

She's blood splattered and with one arm weakly cuddling Charlie and is pretty sure like 90% her ankles fully broken (saga is more than sure it's broken she's pretty sure it's been slashed by an axe swing and maybe broken too who knows but she's trying not to panic despite being able to see bone) saga quickly sets to scouting around finding something to splint the leg with and something to cover the basement hatch with that's heavy.

Mari's struggling in the sort of blood loss delirium but asks saga (when she brandishes her weapon of choice and flashlight to go head down into the basement with) to please please leave her be,

Mari asks why she's like that why she came back like that,

She confesses quietly that she hopes that whatever has brought her back can purify her if , if they just wait long enough right , keep her in the light? She doesn't know how she knows but she just knows the light will fix her. It's a fact in her mind now the light is safe and she can be safe again.

She has to be right? .

M: ‘I just , I mean , she's talking. She's breathing what she's saying is cruel, sure but it's better than silence. Please don't hurt her, what would you do ? What would you do if Logan came back out of the Lake please just leave her be’

It seems the story has warped Maris memory of events aligning it with Logan drowning too.

Saga sympathises with Maris grief but stands firm on Logan's condition ,with both hands on Maris shoulders reminds her that -

‘Logan isn't dead. Your sister down there? she’ doesn't have a heart ,

theres post mortem autopsy incisions across her chest Mari , the woman she was, your sister , who you cared about so deeply , that you feel so guilty about not being there to save that version of her she is gone and that thing in the basement is just a vessel being puppeted around, a shadow of who she once was . whatever that is now it is not your sister it's a monster , it's dangerous and it will kill you if we don't kill it’

The Frankenstein's monster - part beloved body - park lake darkness, trapped in Mari ‘Shelly's’ basement and wanting revenge upon her misguided ‘creator’- Mari feeling solely responsible for the argument that led to Samy going to the lake.

(Am I forcing this concept too hard? Yeah absolutely, probably but oh well it's fun and stupid too something something seeing the humanity in someone you've lost coming back wrong even if this vision is clouded by your own remorse).

Ultimately Samy ends up breaking out of the basement if Saga approaches and/or leaves the area and Saga has to put her down fighting in the limited space of the general store trying to lead her away from where Mari and Charlie are cornered.

After defeating Samy , Mari will be in tears but gather herself as the trio make a break for the car park , the escape sequence set off by a loud rattling of all the shell chimes outside and a growing dark presence outside warping the scenery. Mari can carry her own flashlight helping to stun enemies and throwing out the odd flare but is slow moving due to the ankle wound and dog on her hip.

(no she will not leave the dog she'd rather die )

(I'm imagining Kind of like the AW1 section where you're getting Barry Wheeler across Anderson's farm - defeat a wave or two of taken and then rush for the exit no cool rock number though but alot of ambient sound - storm , shell wind charms etc).

After getting their leg seen to properly, splinted stitched, wrapped and painkillers prescribed by Doc Nelson and an ambulance called .she gives the excuse some poachers put bear traps up in the woods and that luckily Saga was in the area following a lead and was able to open the trap for her.

He half buys it considering there's a record that Mari lost two fingers as a teen to a bear trap but doesn't ask further questions considering she's been escorted to him by an FBI agent who still has some blood splatter on her coat.

After aftermath:

It takes a few days to overall emotionally recover from the horrors ™. But once she does recover Mari can then be found half the time hiding out in a makeshift room in the ‘employees only’ room in the back of the oh deer diner.

She refuses to stay in a hotel or home saying she's not getting taken out in her sleep after surviving all this. It takes s while for Satu to persuade her to move back to the cabin with her (mari joking they’ve only been together 6 months and already moving in how forward~)

Rose agrees to watch over her when she’s in the diner she can until everything's sorted out.

(And lend her some actually daisy smelling shirts joking she bought the detergent just to prove her wrong)

The reward for getting Mari alive out of the taken onslaught is a charm she offers that reduces the damage you take from axes (thrown or melee) by 50 percent. It's shaped like a little shell and hook.

Eventually Mari starts spending her daytime out of the back room and in a corner booth of the diner. She doesn’t want to be idle so spends some time folding napkins and cleaning cutlery whistling little simplified versions of the chapter songs as the story progresses.

Charlie settles really well into her corner booth of the dinner enjoying pancake scraps from the chef and scratches from the patrons equally.

I think at some point after the events of AW2 when she finds out about everything (the cult, the taken etc) she ends up having a bit of a fighty argument with Ilmo only to falter when finding out his brother's death.

She gets closure from knowing while her sister probably did suffer drowning in the lake she wasn't tortured or aware (as far as she knows) as a taken when the ‘cult’ got her.

Other little details/ miscellaneous plot beats i didn’t know where to put:-

Mari feels like the failure of the family in her eyes. Her golden child sister got her degree worked in a hospital and seemed to have her life together while she just struggled to figure out what she wanted. That's why she feels so bad that Sam died, not her because she feels she wasn't doing enough with her life while Sam had so much more to give. She learns to push through this guilt and live for the both of them by the end.

Mari lost two of her fingers ( pinky and ring) in an accident with a bear trap when she was little. Her stepdad at the time forced the two twins out in the snow to go hunting despite their protests. Mari was a good shot but didn't enjoy the cold. She'd never seen a bear trap before and then suddenly bam no pinky or ring finger. Stepdad freaked out calling for help and scrambling while Sam stayed calm checking on Mari and talking to her to keep her from going into shock. Since that day Sam's always been Maris' hero. And since that day Samys always knew she wanted to be a doctor to help people like her sister in crisis.

While Mari was born before Sam , Sam has always been the ‘ older’ sister of the twins. More mature in nature and in ego.

The day after Sam dies Mari lops half her hair off because she looks too much like her sister. In turn this makes her look just the same as she did when they first moved to bright falls (partially symbolising how she's set herself back in time healing wise by not confronting her grief). It only kind of works so she gets rid of the mirrors in the cabin.

Maris' fatal flaw was her devotion to killing the cult, it drove her to insomnia, dehydration and overall not taking care of herself .

She obsessed over unmasking a group that she'd fallen for the publicity of.

Spending months in total out in the woods at night , a wolf mask worn to conceal her face stalking the cult never brave enough to pull the trigger and take one out but Internalising the same ideology the cult used to detach themself from the rituals (telling herself ‘ it's just deer hunting , their not people just pull the fucking trigger’) even at times almost getting caught after hallucinating her sister by her side taunting her to take the shot.

she thought they were evil and had murdered her sister but she ultimately (by the end of the game/her character arc) ends up being told the truth and convinced to either work with the cult to take down taken (as a parallel to Ilmo losing a sibling but having the community for support) or teaming up with rose as a body disposal guy. (Since The hardest part is hiding the bodies ; D) she laughs about it in hindsight if only she'd known from the start how different things could have been.

#alan wake oc #remedyverse oc #cult of the tree #its an oc infodump babeyyyyy #oc tag: Mari Mattilla #tw gore #tw body horror #long post #alan wake 2 spoilers

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paganwitchisis · 5 months

Text

Unawanted Advances

Rated: E (Explicit)

Word Count: 4,763

Pairing AFAB Female Tav X Spawn! Astarion

Warning - non-consensual groping, groping, smut, a quarter of this piece is smut, murder of an npc, PiV smut, female oral sex, Breeding kink (no kids).

Summary-Set after Cazador was defeated in Act 3. Astarion was in the party walking the streets of Baldur’s Gate when he was groped and propositioned by a stranger. This leads to expected reactions from himself and the group. What becomes of him and the situation? Read and find out! There is smut towards the end. AFAB female Tav x Spawn! Astarion. Tav is not specified for race but is a fighter, so you can imagine your Tav in the place.

AO3 link is Here

RATED 18 PLUS!

Story:

It was supposed to be an easy day, but Tav had decided as they ventured the city that they would fight a hag who was suspected of being behind the disappearance of a little girl. Astarion knew as soon as Tav heard a child was in danger, she would spring to action. Since his confession and declaration of love just a tenday ago, he had been in the party consistently so he knew he would be dragged with. Of course, Astarion secretly agreed with Tav on the importance of the mission. Since his renewal and the events at the graveyard, the couple couldn’t get enough of each other. Their escapades were a bane to their companions and friends, so when a room opened up near by to the companion room, they all agreed Astarion and Tav would get it. Of course, Astarion didn’t mind since the room was large, had a tub, and afforded them privacy.

The battle with the hag was difficult, to say the least, but Astarion and Tav worked wonderfully as a team like they always did. Tav was used to her vampire lover being in her party, as well as Karlach, however their fourth party member was always changing. Depending on who they needed at the time, it could be Wyll, Jaheira or even Shadowheart, but today it was Gale. Tav knew she would need an offensive magic user, so Gale was the obvious pick. The battle took longer than they anticipated as they took out the mushrooms around the room keeping the hag alive. This spent Gale’s spell slots, while Karlach was taking the hag’s blows and distracting her. Tav and Astarion worked on destroying the mushrooms, and Karlach got hit pretty good and was knocked off her feet. Tav and Astarion had only just finished when this happened and their full out assault took place. Thankfully, Tav and Astarion were spared from getting hurt, although they were tired by the time the hag was defeated. Karlach had a broken rib, but Tav had a regular potion of healing she gave to the red tiefling. It didn’t heal much, but it was enough for the rib to mend itself. Gale clung to his staff like a cane and the group finished the mission by mid day. As they meandered through the city to return to camp, covered in blood and completely exhausted, Tav next to Astarion, Gale and Karlach bringing up the rear,

The group made their way through the park-like area where they fought cultists previously and were actively engaging in conversation.

“...What I am trying to say is Netherese should be shared, taught and accepted as…” Gale mused but was swiftly cut off by the pale elf.

“As if the bomb in your chest wasn’t dangerous enough. Let’s just let others have access to that kind of power…” Astarion commented dryly.

“I’ll have you know…” Gale began to reply when Tav interrupted them both. Tav turned to them both as they drew near the gates and replied.

“Boys. I get it, it is hot and we’re exhausted from the fight, but let’s not bicker, please.”

As they exited the gate, Astarion noted a scantly clad woman making their way towards them. Assuming she would pass by, Astarion moved to the side so he was closer to Tav. He didn’t think anything of her clothing choice as it was a hot day, but as she drew near, Astarion had a bad feeling.

He should probably start listening to his body, because he soon found he was right.

“Hey, handsome.” The woman addressed Astarion as she brought her hand to the crux of his legs and grabbed him possessively in his most private of places. “Why not ditch the broad, and see what else I can do with my hands…or other body parts.”

A cold sweat and chill surged through the elf, as he felt like he was reliving his two hundred years of torment. The subtle glances, the forced intimacy and the little discard for him as a person came back to him. He felt the need to run, to fight, to do something. If he had a heart beat, surely it would be beating loud enough a human could hear it, just like if he could throw up, he would.

Astarion was going through a whirlwind of different feelings and emotions as his mind was trapped in the past. It was like he felt every unwanted touch, every kiss and so much more. Astarion began to shake slightly, but before anything more could occur, Tav had grabbed the woman’s wrist, and summoning all her strength, Tav used her other hand to pommel strike the woman in the head.

“He said NO!”

He did? When did he say no?

Astarion was able to think again, albeit he was not okay once her hand was removed. Frozen in place, Astarion watched as Tav barked out orders to Karlach to help her put the woman in the empty house next to them, and for them both to keep watch and not enter. Astarion noticed the house in question was the house with the blue door that Dribbles was found in not long ago. Finally feeling he could move, Astarion felt he had to get off the streets, but they were still far from the Elfsong. Going on his own with the amount of enemies they had would be a fairly bad idea, so Astarion followed Tav inside the house, closing the door behind him.

“Fucking bitch.” Tav cursed as she made her way to the unconscious woman on the floor. Tav knelt down, and ran her arms over the woman’s so she could not fight back before turning her head to expose her throat.

“What…?” Astarion began to say, although it was obvious what Tav was trying to do. Tav was going to let him feed on her.

“The choice is yours, Star, it always is. You have the right to say yes or no whenever you wish, but know that she may have done this to others. She isn't some damn innocent we need to protect. She just sexually assaulted you and kept touching you after you said no. If you want me to ignore her, I will. Otherwise, I am all for you getting your fill. Like you would with bandits.”

Dumbstruck, Astarion had to ask.

“Wait….you’re the most lawful good like person I know. Hells, if a rabbit was in a burning house, you’d jump in to save it, but this you’re okay with?”

“What can I say? You influence me sometimes. Plus, there is nothing good about her. No good person randomly gropes and propositions someone like that.”

Astarion looked at the woman who began to stir to consciousness again. With a groan, she tried to move her arms and found she couldn’t. She was being held down by something strong, it would appear, so imagine her surprise when she looked to the side and saw the woman she made fun of earlier.

The woman looked in front of her and saw the same man she encouraged for a night of fun and began to speak out to the two.

“You’re doing what this bitch wants you to do, I get it. Get her off me and I won’t breathe a word. You still get your fun and you can escape this monster!”

“Monster?” Astarion began to laugh. He wasn’t sure why she was pleading for his help, when from what he gathered, he had somehow told her no already. Of course Astarion didn’t remember doing it, but he also wasn’t in the best state of mind.

“He is doing only what he wants to do, you fucker.” Tav was using very colorful language, something Astarion rarely heard from her mouth outside of intimacy.

“Really? He is just like me. A whore. You think I couldn’t tell? You probably do the same thing I do, fuck em, steal from them and move on to the next mark. I’m guessing you own him since it is too early for most of our profession to work yet” The woman threw out one vile misunderstanding after the next and professed them to be true. Tav was seething as she tightened her hold and yanked the woman’s head to the side.

“He is no whore, you cunt! He is…” Tav spoke but stopped when she felt his gentle touch grace her shoulder. Astarion smiled and then he finally spoke directly to the woman.

“You keep insulting the woman I love, call me a whore and think you’re going to get away with it?” Astarion laughed once more and shook his head. “She taught me I am not a whore. She taught me I can say no and helped me move on from the past, but you? I think I’ll make one of your comments correct. There is a monster in here.”

Tav was going to protest, that he was not a monster but Astarion held his finger up to ask her to wait.

“As she likes to tell me, I am no monster, but right now? I feel like being one.” and with that, Astarion opened his mouth, showed his fangs and before the woman could scream, Astarion sank his teeth into her neck. Tav had clamped a hand over the woman’s mouth in case she cried for help as her lover fed from her. Astarion took everything that was offered and scoffed when Tav released the body of the woman who collapsed lifelessly on the floor.

“I….I need to get out of here.”

“Of course. Here, though.” Tav said and offered him a rag from her pack. It was then that Astarion saw how much blood was still on his mouth.

“Thanks. I guess I am a bit wasteful with blood that isn't your own. Hells, her blood may as well been rat blood judging by the taste” Astarion gave a grimace at the thought, remembering the taste of the blood on his lips as he cleaned himself up to walk the streets once more. Astarion was doing his best to calm himself, but he felt wrong, dirty even. He just knew he needed to go back to the Elfsong.

He felt he needed a bath.

Tav led him back to the Elfsong and told the others to give them some time as Astarion bee-lined for their shared room. Astarion started himself a bath and had stripped his shirt when Tav walked in and placed a bottle of red wine on his side of the bed’s nightstand. Tav was going to give him some privacy and leave when Astarion called out.

“Wait…don’t leave.”

Tav stopped what she was doing and re-locked the door before she turned herself to face him.

“Is everything okay? I was going to let you bathe in peace…I mean, after today, and all…”

“No. Don’t go. I…I honestly want you here. I feel vulnerable, and I know you won't let anything happen“ Astarion mentioned before adding on. “I mean…if you want to help, that is. I…that bitch has me flustered.” Astarion brought one of his hands up to the back of his head and scratched at his scalp nervously.

“If you would have me here or prefer me present, I’ll always stay by your side, Star.” Tav stepped forward and took Astarion’s hand into her own so he would stop plucking at his scalp. “I’ll let you get a bath, I’ll fold our laundry not far away if that is fine. If you want anything else, just let me know.”

Astarion brought her hand to his lips and gently kissed her knuckles as he acknowledged her comment with a shake of the head. Tav set up on the bed and began to fold both her and his clothing. After about ten minutes, Tav was folding the last piece of clothing when she heard a muffled whimper from the tub. Glancing to her lover, she noticed he was vigorously scrubbing himself. Tav got up and off the bed, and as she approached the tub, she noted how red and raw his skin looked, especially to his genitals, as he continued to roughly handle himself. Astarion looked upset, so Tav tenderly placed her hands over his and took the soap and rough sponge from him.

“You’re hurting yourself, honey.”

“I….I feel tainted. I feel like I need to get her touch off me. I’m…I’m just….” Astarion dropped his head further so he would look down at soapy water before Tav used two fingers to tilt his head up towards her.

“She will never touch you again. You’re safe and here with me. Just me. Why don’t we get you out of there and get you a glass of wine?” Tav asked lovingly, but Astarion shook his head no.

“I didn’t wash my hair.”

“Is it okay if I wash your hair for you? I promise not to make weird hairstyles again” Tav said partly because she was worried he would hurt himself further, and partly because she was hoping her joke would crack a smile, which it did, even if it was a small one.

“Please.”

Astarion shifted forward so he could dunk his head under the water briefly. When he came back up, Astarion felt Tav’s fingers thread through his hair and it made him flinch a moment. He felt her retract her hands when Astarion reached out to stop her from pulling away.

“Please, don’t. I can’t stand that someone else touched me without my consent, but it would bother me more to push you away from touching me when you wished. You’re the only person I will share my body with and I find your touch comforting.” Astarion explained to Tav who reached forward once again.

“Can I continue touching your scalp?”

“Darling, you don’t have to ask. I appreciate you did so, but I want nothing to change between us because of her…” Tav smiled lovingly to Astarion’s wish and she began to message his scalp with shampoo. Tav grinned when Astarion moaned under her ministrations. It didn’t take long for her to help him with washing his hair and managing his curls.

Tav took to draining the tub as Astarion slid his underwear on. The summer heat made adding anything else sweltering even with cooling magic in the establishment. Tav removed her clothing, her armor long since been removed previous to washing Astarion’s hair. Tav sauntered to the bed in her underwear only, her breasts exposed since Astarion requested that nothing change between the two. Tav didn’t miss how Astarion’s eye’s tracked her movement as she went to her side of the bed. Tav was going to search for a glass in her pack when Astarion uncorked the bottle and drank from it directly. Astarion offered the bottle to Tav who took a swig in kind before returning it to Astarion.

Astarion corked the wine and although he would have wished to drink more, he felt being drunk on top of his current emotional state would be a bad idea.

Kissing her forehead, the two laid down to get some rest. What transpired over the day left Tav without an appetite but she still forced herself to eat a provisioning staple from her pack while folding the laundry earlier that day. It wasn’t much, but it was substance. Astarion went to pull Tav against his chest when she smiled and spun her finger to tell him to turn around. Astarion turned and faced the other way only to feel Tav’s arms encircle him. It made him feel safe, loved and listened to. He felt like he was home.

Astarion wasn’t sure when he fell into his trance, but he remembered the nightmare vividly. He was being preyed upon and Cazador’s haunting voice echoed beyond his grave. He was chanting out sayings he told him in the past. You are nothing! You’re worthless and will never amount to anything! You are mine. You will never leave me, I am inside of you. The last one especially bothered him, because aside from the obvious context it could mean, it also bothered him because Astarion was concerned just how much of Cazador would be tied to his soul. He remembered telling Tav before killing the vile man that a part of him would always be part of Astarion but Astarion had always wondered how much. During the nightmare, the overlay of comments weren't just enough. Instead there were brief flashes of faces he took to bed, positions he was forced to endure and the damn putrid rat he gave up more often than not in favor of flaying.

Astarion wasn’t aware he was screaming nor woken Tav up until he saw her beautiful face and heard her voice gently begging him to wake up. He felt the warmth of her as she held him, his consciousness coming back to him as he noticed the tears down his face. Astarion reached his hands around her waist and held her tight, sobbing into her breast as his head was cushioned on it. He didn’t care, it was her. He was safe with her, they loved each other, and gods, did he need something to ground him out.

Her. He needed her.

Astarion shimmied north before he kissed and licked his favorite pulse point just below her ear.

“May I?”

He didn’t need to hear an answer when Tav positioned her neck in just the way he preferred so he could suckle from her vein. After one last kiss, Astarion tenderly sank his teeth into her sensitive flesh. His hearing caught the muffled moan and he grinned as he partook of her life essence. Astarion began to drink and moaned at the taste of her. No one would have blood as sweet as her, nor taste like a fine vintage of wine like the woman in his arms. Astarion stopped shortly after he began, knowing how precious the blood was and whom it kept alive. Astarion licked the wounds and sealed them before kissing the bruised flesh once more.

It was then that he smelled it. Her arousal was strong, and after having ingested her blood, Astarion was hard and wanting. Only problem was, he was in pain from his bath earlier and his attempt to rid himself of the taint from the other woman. His cock throbbed in pain as it was engorged with Tav’s crimson life. Flinching, Astarion pulled away to pull his underwear down and off. It was then that Tav saw the problem. He looked to be in pain, so Tav hopped off the bed and retrieved some Balsam ointment and a potion of healing.

As Astarion drank the potion of healing, Tav liberally applied to the ointment to his aching cock. Although it hurt, the cooling gel and her hand motions felt good to his mast. Astarion couldn’t help the drop of natural lubrication on the tip of his length. Astarion saw Tav hungerly look at his manhood, but she made no motion to act on it. Astarion was frustrated. A night or two ago, this wouldn’t have happened. They were attuned to one another. They knew each other's bodies and souls, so why now was she hesitant?

“Can this ointment be used internally?” Astarion asked innocently, although what was swimming in his brain was anything but innocent.

“I believe so. Why?” Tav asked while Astarion gently guided her head to his mast where she licked the liquid eagerly, earning a moan from the vampire before she pulled back confused.

“Because I need you, and I’m tired of my life being ruled by others. I said I am going to live my life the way I want to and I meant it. Fuck everyone else who thinks they can take my autonomy away. I only need you. You make me safe, wanted, but not sexually…well…most times,” Astarion said with a smirk. “But, most of all, I am loved by you and I love you as well. Now, I want to feast on your succulent cunt and make love to you like no other man can.“ Astarion pulled her head tenderly to his face and kissed her fervently and with passion. Astarion easily slipped his tongue inside her mouth and they danced the familiar song that only they knew. Astarion began to pull at her underwear, asking to slip them off. Tav responded by moving her arms to shimmy the material down her legs and she flung the black underwear off to the side. Both were bare to each other at last as Astarion fondled Tav’s breasts. Tav gave a sigh of relief to his actions and laid her head back on the bed. Astarion had a masterful tongue and fingers, something that was used on Tav often, but was it right to be making love to him when he was still compromised?

Astarion picked up on her worry, the tadpoles broadcasting directly to him as her concerns were on the surface level.

“I want to share my body with you. Only you.” Astarion muttered against her flesh as he took her nipple into his mouth.

“Hells, I don’t know if I’ll be able to pull out.” Astarion murmured as he switched to the other nipple.

Tav moaned at the feel of her lover. “Then don’t. Come in me.”

Astarion groaned as his cock grew harder and more rigid. He wasn’t aware that he could get harder but his lover never failed to illicit such reactions from him.

“But…Gale just told us about Dhampirs last week when we….well….pissed them off with our activities. What if you…” Astarion worriedly said.

“I have teas if we decide not to chance having your child but know that if you decide this is what you want, then I am onboard as well.”

“I…It’s embarrassing.” Astarion admitted as he finally kissed his way down to her delicious peach. Astarion began giving small licks to her slit before he used his two fingers to spread her labia apart. “I don’t know about wanting a child, but the thought of you swollen with our progeny, the thought of…for lack of a better term….breeding you. It makes me need you.”

Tav merely smiled and brushed her hands through his soft curls. “I’ll take the teas since we need to think this through but for the time being, imagine you wanted to do that. Breed me and enjoy.”

Astarion smiled and thought to himself a moment. ‘how did I find her?’ before he claimed her lips again.

“Then I’ll breed you. You’re mine.” Astarion growled as he dropped his head between the legs he sat between and took a long lick up the slit with the flat of his tongue. Tav moaned and murmured “I’m yours,” above him as he spread her labia with his fingers and dove in as if his head always belonged there. To Astarion, he loved giving oral to his lover. She tasted almost as good as her blood and after having laid with a thousand souls, saying he was addicted to her taste and that she was the best tasting woman he ever laid with was saying something. To Astarion, he felt he belonged there, nestled between her thighs, as the woman he loved began getting louder the more he suckled and tenderly cared for her bundle of nerves. Astarion would occasionally dip his tongue deep inside her to taste her essence, and it was so delectable that he wrapped his arms around her hips and held her to him. When he delved into her innermost area, his nose would hit her clit, and as engorged as it was, she was panting, gasping and whining above him. Astarion began to include his finger, easily sliding two inside her and grinning at how wet she was. Two became three fingers as he gently stretched her and hit that rough patch just inches inside her, the spot that had her seeing stars.

He knew she was close.

Astarion moved up to her clitoris and went as fast and loving as he could with the tip and flat of his tongue. He pumped his finger inside her, making sure to hit the erogenous areas every pass through. It took mere moments for her world to shatter, the inside of her spasming and contracting with the throb of her clit. Astarion helped her ride it out as he slowed but never stopped until Tav began begging for his hard-on.

“Please, Star, please give me your cock! Make love to me! Fill me!”

“Oh, I plan to, darling. I’m going to coat that pretty cunt of yours. I want to fill you, make you round with my seed.” Astarion knew in the back of his mind that Tav would take teas and so she would not get pregnant, but that didn’t stop him from fantasizing. He would imagine those teas didn’t exist and imagine he was trying to impregnate his lover. Did they need more stability and a few other decisions before thinking of kids? Yeah, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy the fantasy.

“Please, fill me with your child!”

Astarion smirked as he stroked himself a few times before he lined himself up with her entrance.

“I’m going to fuck a baby into you.” Astarion huskily said before he took her lips to his own and thrust his length deep inside her. He bottomed out in one thrust since she was so wet and ready for him. Astarion groaned into a growl as he felt those tight, warm walls surround him. This was home to him. Being buried inside of her was home.

“Only you. Only you can share my body. Gods, I love you, darling.” Astarion almost whimpered against her lips as he set a brutal pace. Astarion knew he wouldn’t last inside of her and began to find his rhythm as he rolled his hips against her own.

“You feel so good.”

“I’m going to make you feel even better.” Astarion encouraged. He took Tav’s right leg and held it by the crook of her knee, holding it up as he slammed into her at an angle. This hit an erogenous zone that made her throw her head back in ecstasy. The only sound, save for panting, moaning and gasping, were the sounds of skin slapping and wet noises. Astarion knew he was nearing his end as he felt the familiar coil low in his belly but he needed Tav to finish too. Astarion took the hand not holding her leg up and began to rub her clit in fast paced circles. Tav began to almost scream in pleasure, and Astarion was sure their friends heard them by now. He didn’t care.

“You’re so good to me.” Astarion grunted in an attempt to hold in a moan.

He felt home, he felt safe, and as soon as Tav hit her precipice, clamping around his engorged cock and spasming against him, it pulled him down with her. Astarion slammed into her to the hilt as thick ropes of his sperm coated her insides just like he promised. There was so much of it that it began to seep out the sides and dribble down the edges where his cock met her entrance. Astarion kissed her again but this time it was slow and sensual. Astarion drank her in and kissed her with everything his heart had to offer.

“How are you feeling?”

“Better,” Astarion replied as he pulled out and began to help her clean up. “Thank you.”

Tav placed her hand on his face so that he would look at her for her next sentence.

“I love you, and you’ll never have to go back to how things were. Nothing will take me away from you, and I’ll make sure you stay free. You’re safe.”

Astarion kissed her briefly again and held her for a moment. He was safe, nestled in the arms of the only one he truly called his family.

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eorzeashan · 1 year

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It's time for more Bride of Jadus headcanons! (i.e. a role I never elaborated on as much as I could've since it was a nickname that didn't carry as much authority as the Hand pre-Intelligence, and Eight hadn't tapped into its esotericism yet).

What is the Bride? Who are they?

Jadus' mysterious consort, alleged wife, and mother to Zhorrid, whom we never see and who is never mentioned once through the game despite the existence of Jadus' daughter. One would find it interesting that such a prominent figure in Darth Jadus' life would have little to no explanation to her conception, and given the Sith Empire's obsession with bloodlines, a daughter with no ties to her birth is hard to fathom-- so it became my headcanon that the public created a myth surrounding Jadus' nonexistent wife from the rumor mill that he had murdered Zhorrid's mother and disposed of her. Given Jadus' frightening reputation, the rumors got out of hand after a manic diplomat fled out of Jadus' compound claiming that he'd seen the bride of Jadus haunting the halls-- a veritable lady in black, weeping inconsolably at the loss of her life at the hand of her beloved, yet married eternally to the dark side which her husband sacrificed her to.

Whether this was a side-effect of exposure to Jadus' potent aura of fear still hasn't been debunked, but the urban myth has taken root in many a Dromund Kaasi citizen. Even those who staunchly disbelieve in ghosts...

Jadus himself has failed to comment, perhaps finding benefit in having little questions about his personal life and creating an extra layer of intimidation without much work.

Association with the new Hand

The conflation of the Bride with Eight began when he committed himself more to Jadus, especially when wearing a veil over his uniform as a sign of trust and a symbol of his loyalty to the Darth, leading some to mockingly call him so because of his similar appearance to a grieving widow covered head-to-toe in black mourning garb.

The mocking turned to respect, and then to fear as the new Hand's achievements grew deadlier by the cycle, as did his reputation, and soon enough began the continuation of the myth of Jadus' Bride-- reincarnated as a spirit of vengeance through a new vessel, returned from the dead to exact her revenge on Jadus' enemies. *It is noted this clashes with the original story that paints Jadus as her murderer, which lead some groups to argue over whether Jadus had her killed or Jadus' enemies did. What many agree on is that the new Hand appeared to play along with her role, down to the very part of being affectionate with the dark lord to the shock of his advisors.

Post-Zakuul Rise to Power

While the Bride remained an urban myth in the days of the Sith Empire, it was only after Jadus' reclusion and the fall of the Eternal Empire when the Bride became a more prominent role than the role of Hand for a Lord who seemed like he would never return.

To the surprise of the Dark Council, the Hand of Jadus had secretly been inside the Alliance the whole time, and it was its steady decline that saw them finally return to the Empire hale and whole. As if not a day had passed, they voiced Jadus' authority to reclaim his holdings and remnant power and promptly set about to maintaining it, though they expressed no desire to politick at the time. Moved by the return of the highest servant to their master, Jadus' remaining cultists resurged and gathered around the Hand, with the cult adopting him as their de facto leader and herald. Outside parties theorize that the cult believes him to actually be the Bride which they've semi-deified, and that his return was a miracle sent by their dark lord to lead them out of these dark times.

The Hand himself made no comment on recent cult activities, though his refusal to confirm or deny involvement furthered suspicions.

Cementation as Cult Figure (aka the part where admin tries to explain more character design development bc they can't draw)

As seen above, Eight wears a short veil that covers his eyes with his operative suit when he relies on the Force bond between him and Jadus to guide him where his physical eyes can't. While this was an effective and simple way to mimic the facelessness of his lord and represent him, more recent times would see his appearance slightly changed.

With the cult now following him and the role as Bride overtaking his role as Hand, an extra cathedral-length train was added to the veil which could be unpinned if needed. The extreme extension of the veil was meant to reflect being eternally wedded to Jadus/the darkside as a bridal veil, while retaining its double-meaning as widower's mourning garb. Though the former Hand expressed its ceremonial ornamentation and editing was a fashionable yet unnecessary gift from the cult, the aesthetic symbolism seemed to drive his cultists into an even greater religious fervour, with even the public calling him more Bride than Hand in present day.

[Admin notes: I tried to find the exact type of veil I was trying to convey but got lost in a myriad of google images. I imagine it's a hybrid between the veil pictured and a really REALLY long mantilla that is embroidered with even more gold and iconography of Jadus himself on the back, but I am not an art person.

Also got more into spooky month with extending the original ghost tale and mixing it with an agent's alias/urban myth, which I think shows how false cover stories and ghost stories can be the same. I've also noticed that most agents have an incredibly weak link to the Sith/darkside/the Force, so Eight's HoJ self is me testing out how much an agent can be involved in those things without being force-sensitive.]

#swtor #jadorre #oc: orradiz #more los espookies month lore #eight: zhorrid i'm ur mom now #zhorrid: get the FUCK out of my HOUSE stop fucking my DAD #I originally wanted to make a halloween themed post but this'll do

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dreamdragoness · 1 month

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With the Unholy Alliance update for Cult of the Lamb out, my brain wanted to add some more to the reversed AU of "Silent Flocks." One showing Lambert and his relationship with Purple Crown Bearer Jhula. In the goat's world, these two met the same way as before, but Lambert was a farmer who hid the Jhula from the Bishops. Jhula would help on the farm in exchange. Over time, the Goat and the Lamb grew close until they fell in love.

When Jhula was discovered, Lambert was planning to propose to her. As the cultist dragged Jhula away, Lambert prayed to the bearer of the Purple Crown to save his beloved. His prayer was answered and Jhula became the prophesied goat. They reunited during her escape and, not wanting to be apart again, fled to the future site of the cult together. Upon completing the temple, Jhula and Lambert married immediately with their small flock witnessing the event.

Even though she is a tough-as-nails leader of the cult, Crown Jhula becomes a snuggly mess when in the arms of her husband. She adores Lambert and would outright murder anyone who would try to harm him. She also begs Lambert to let her resurrect him until she can find a Gold Skull necklace, as her greatest fear is losing him. Lambert, like SF Jhula, began his life in the new cult by managing everything and everyone when Crown Jhula was away. Upon their wedding, he was promoted as her High Priest. As such, he's the only one who can quell Jhula's anger and he secretly enjoys it when Jhula cuddles with him after she returns from a crusade.

The crown, at this point, always rolls its eye at how lovey-dovey the couple is.

--------------------------- COTL: Massive Monster Silent Hill: Konami Jhula: Me

#original character #crossover #cult of the lamb #goat oc #alternate universe #silent hill au #cotl unholy alliance #couple #cute #affection

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limpfisted · 1 year

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if i was to propose a modern au, and im not. it would be based on how to grt away with murder with the emperor as the suspicious hard ass complex cool and bi as hell law 101 professor, the tadfools and tav/durge as law school students who keep MURDERING PEOPLE. on “accident.” horror academia, gothic polyamorous situationships, orin and gortash are the emperor’s teachers aids/paralegals bc i Feel Like Including Them they are my babygirls. the secret history vibes. u understand. i am looking into ur eyes. u understand.

(it could also be NOT a modern au and actually based on dracula/frankenstein/van helsing lore and is set in that time period, and its still a university but more of a MEDICAL SCHOOL—but that for doctors and monster “hunters.” astarion is secretly a vampire, wyll is hellstouched, sh is a demon cultist priestess, lae is a eldritch alien from the stars, etc, etc, still polyamorous. in this au gortash is the more prevalent teacher of human experiments, the emperor is the famous and mysterious benefactor of the university and apaprent van helsing “family representative”, orin is Orin, there is still bisexual polyamorous situationships!)

#wishliat #ooc #thinking thoughts about this

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changeling-fae · 9 months

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Hello! For the not-nice OC ask, hunt, nightmare, and torture? For any OC you wish to talk about 🧐

Thanks, will once again do it for Nym. 💖

Once again putting this below a cut for triggering things: past child abuse, past CSA, drug use, and torture.

hunt: Who or what is your OC hunted by? A person, a feeling, a past mistake? Is your OC able to let their guard down, or are they constantly alert?

Nym is hunted by Orin, the cult, her mother (in a sense), and herself. She is always alert, even when she sleeps.

I headcanon that not only is she a light sleeper, she very rarely ever feels safe enough to put her guard around others while she sleeps. You touch her and she’s already got a knife or her stinger aimed at you. The poor companions have to wake her from a distance if they don’t want to accidentally be shanked. She may have paralyzed one of them accidentally before (sorry Gale).

Years of always living on the edge, because she never knew when was someone would try and take her out, left her with a pretty engrained instinct that it’s kill or be killed.

It takes awhile for Astarion (and Raphael) to be able to touch her while she sleeps without her instantly reacting, it’s pure instinct on her part.

Also she sleeps in a fetal position on her stomach. She’s tight as a ball, as if to protect her vitals and conserve heat (which is what she’s doing).

But Nym never feels safe and she has to worry about losing control of her demonic/bhaalspawn side if she’s not constantly vigilant.

nightmare: What does your OC have nightmares about? How do they deal with their nightmares? Do they tell people, or keep it to themself?

As both a bhaalspawn and just a trauma victim, she has nightmares all the time. Nightmares of her father’s death, of her time imprisoned in the dark after his death, of the people she’s killed, and of dreaming of the people she cares about dying by her hand.

She never tells anyone anything. She’s tighter than a clam and how she deals with her nightmares is by not sleeping, getting high, and/or ONS. After meeting Raphael (about a year before the game) she often visits the DD to play lanceboard with him or just not be alone. Ironically he’s the one person she felt somewhat safe with, he’s still a danger but she knew he had no plans to shank her at least and she could always sense his infernal nature so she didn’t have to worry about him being secretly Orin or a changeling.

torture: Has your OC ever been tortured? Would your OC ever torture someone else?

Oh, many times. First time was when her father died; goblins had cut off her wings in front of him before he broke free and managed to flee with her (but he succumbed to his own wounds). Then when the noble bought her from the debt collector, he kept her in hidden isolation below his estate and sexually abused her before she escaped and murdered him. Once the cult of Bhaal found her (her murders of the noble and his estate is how they found her), they quickly brought her into the fold.

She often had fight other cultists in rituals and was often pitted against Orin and the white dragonborn Durge created by Bhaal (she’s Durge too but her birth was more complicated). Her butler encouraged her rage and taught her how to torture other through various methods, although her abyssal heritage simmering underneath gave her an innate skill in it already.

She and Orin had a temporary truce shortly before the events of the game where they tortured and killed the white dragonborn Durge, but of course Orin eventually gets the jump on her as well. Canonically Orin tortured her and put a tadpole in her, and then Kressa Bonedaughter found her and experimented on her for who knows how long right before the start of the game.

Honestly Nym has been tortured so much in her life that it’s very ineffective on her. Her pain tolerance is obscenely high and it gets to a point mentally for her where she stops caring about the pain and will fight to the death if she has too. I call it “going feral” for her, she’s about as conscious of herself as a rabid animal.

#oc: nym the drow’ri #oc: nymurra auvry’val #bg3 durge #bg3 raphael #ask meme #she’s been through the ringer

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rinwellisathing · 6 months

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Some Sentry Facts:

-Sentry's first family was a Bhaalist couple who abused him and treated him like breeding fodder, they were also his first kill and his first art installation. His second family was the Church of Ilmater after he was found wandering alone, injured, and starving in the Lower City by an old paladin and her trainees. Evagria Ojeda (the paladin) and Father Lorgan worked to raise Sentry with loving kindness, understanding, and respect and he was trained as a paladin, however abuse from his peers kept him angry and bitter inside so that when Evagria died and he first encountered Sceleritas Fel, it was very easy to coax him into murdering the peers who tormented him and returning to the Bhaal Cult, this time as leader and chosen.

-Sentry loves art of all kinds. His specialty is taxidermy sculptures and paintings made with a special blood mixture, but he is talented and curious, so he will test out any medium if given the chance. He always carries a sketch book, charcoals, graphite, and a few other art supplies with him in a satchel no matter where he is going. -His other love is copper dreadfuls, the cheap little stories of horror and wonder you can buy on a street corner for a single copper. He is fascinated with serial killers and the detectives who hunt them, monsters, mad scientists and wizards, and everything else these little books have to offer. In his spare time, he writes his own. -His personality as cult leader tends to be flippant, mercurial, somewhat bratty, and highly theatrical. Everything about Sentry at this time is a defense mechanism to ensure he will never be used the way his first parents tried to use him ever again. He has deep seated trauma and an intense fear of appearing weak and vulnerable. After the tadpole, he is prone to anxiety, deeply haunted, and longing to atone for sins he can't remember.

-Although most of Sentry's trauma centers around breeding, the idea of pregnancy itself doesn't scare him and much like sex in general, he wants to reclaim it in a way. He will never follow Father's orders and breed with fellow cultists and members of his Bhaalist family, but an outsider he is in love with (Gortash and later Halsin) is a completely different story.

-Sentry is a trans man and uses he/him pronouns during the first part of his life, adopting they/them as secondary ones after the tadpole while he tries to figure out who he is again. -Sentry has multiple tattoos, including his last name he got from the adoptive mother he loved tattooed in infernal on his shoulder, the symbol of Ilmater on his chest from the day he took his oath as a paladin, and the hand of Bane on his belly from when he first became pregnant with Gortash's child. -Gortash is Sentry's first love and the one he will never forget fully or get over. After the tadpole, even not remembering his name, Sentry remembers his face and sketches him constantly while at camp. After his death, Sentry seems to move on with his new lovers and his new life, but secretly he is forever searching for a way to rescue him from Bane and bring him back. -Sentry is pansexual and polyamorous, having various different types of relationships with various different traveling companions, friends, and partners. He also has a deep respect and sense of community with sex workers and has many friends and companions at Sharess' Caress as well as some of the city's lesser known brothels. -As a result of his abuse as a child and his subsequent adoption by a genuinely loving family, Sentry after being tadpoled tends to collect parental figures and form deep, intense attachments to any older authority figure who attempts to guide him and shows him kindness. Before the tadpole, it was only Commander Mum (Evagria Ojeda), Father Lorgan, and Ffion Goldgrind, any other authority figure was a threat and he would ridicule and antagonize them, but after being tadpoled, he forms genuine attachments to Zevlor and Jaheira. -The Emperor takes the form of Commander Mum when he appears to Sentry, she is one of the few things he remembers fully after Orin's attack, and he believes she is guiding him in spirit form, trying to save him from these urges and redeem him.

#baldurs gate 3 #baldur's gate 3 #oc #tiefling #durge #dark urge #writing #OC: Sentry Ojeda

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macgyvertape · 1 year

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BG3 Act 2 thoughts and liveblog part 1

Yeah act 2 was the point where I just kept my tablet open so I could write down how my character would roleplay things, and this really stopped just a liveblog. Upon reread, I forgot how many people my character killed through dialogue checks, that weren't hard to pass, during this part of the game. To borrow from D2: "I will take what I need. The words in my throat are the weapon in my fist" really does sum up my character.

I went over the mountain pass first. I demanded the goblin fetch his bone after he did that to the animal, “forcing responsibility” my character is worse than whats in the shadows. Fun that Astarion approves of things like this that play to the Dark Urge but are also about striking against abusers

I wiped out the camp then called Kar’niss with Minthara’s lyre then intimidated him when he questioned me. My character is pretending to go along with the cultists right up until they are acceptable targets for attacks, and I turned on Kar’niss during the harper attack

Was not expecting Mol to show up and vouch for me with Jaheira

I got to hug Karlach, it was so emotional. My D!urge character is definitely fond of Karlach and willing to admit that to herself, likes her enough that making Karlach happy and trying to find a third option to Karlach’s dilemma is an influencing decision factor. She’s leaving it to Karlach to choose between death vs going back to the hells and in the meantime really wants to help Karlach live life to the fullest. She would definitely be happy to sleep with Karlach if she wanted that or help her do whatever hedonistic thing she wanted.

Oh so Wyll’s demon patron showed up, I can’t believe he still says he chose right even after my character pointed out he’s everything he accused Karlach of being. D!urge isn’t emotionally invested in Wyll but Karlach is, so she’ll help.

Ok my character definitely doesn’t trust the Dream Guardian but thinks he’s hot in the new outfit, but is really suspicious he’s secretly a mindflayer

I saw the Stange Ox’s thoughts of murder and let it be, if it wants to run from the dark urges, who am my character to say differently

Of course my character sniffed out the truth serum and didn’t drink the wine. It's very easy making consistent character choices that Astarion keeps approving of. Also of course Astarion approves of talking to the cat, he is one

My character does not play chess, good thing she had Astarion and Gale along and just let them help Mol

My character is obviously not going to help the Absolute since she doesn’t want to be a puppet for his cult, anything he wants she doesn’t want him to have. She felt that Dark Urge to let Isobel get killed then thought how the inn would fall and there goes Karlach’s chances of being helped by Dammon, but there was a moment where she was tempted talking to Isobel until she pushed it back since she doesn’t want the D!urge to rule her.

My character was very flattered that Asatarion said “every step we walk trails blood, killing is an instinct for us. I respect you for that'' especially since Astarion was right there with her doing the killing. My character doesn’t want to turn into a mindflayer but controlling the parasites with Astarion’s plan of a little world domination does sound tempting. Love the idea of him influencing my character into more than just killing the cult

My character is definitely worried about the butler showed up urging her to kill Isobel

This cool looking guy wants justice for murder victims, my character agreed to help for a reward but also out curiosity since she's a murderer will this guy come after me

Love how Lae’zel is inspired by us killing the undead Drider in 1 turn, yep I’m leading our team to be good at killing

Gave Shadowheart her favorite flower, and told her that she’d give me something in time, since we aren’t so close that my character wouldn’t think of this as an exchange

I let Lae’zel beat me in the fight, but turned her down when she asked me to be hers. I assume that ends the fling so I figure its just a messy relationship that my character feels awkward about

My character’s line in the sand is not extorting a child for money to find their parents, liked the “muster some kindness for once”

Also my character loves the Phalar Aluve sword, all it took was some blood in the underdark and I can buff my allies or hurt enemies around me

Of course I killed the undead brewer with his own brew and was D!urge inspired by it, it was peak my character performing as a bard with my feats, faking the drinking to gain confidence and exploiting an enemy for information

My character has also been running around with Gale nonstop since entering the creche especially since the shadowlands are in her view “weird wizard shit” so he’s designated Moonlantern holder, and I like to think this is the point she finally grows fond of him and his sense of humor and his stories.

Astarion’s line about pitying the other six stuck with Cazador and how Cazador tortured him, like my character felt really sympathetic listening to that. Cazador was already in the kill list, now its help Astarion kill him extra painfully

My character was surprised Wyll made a pass and it wasn’t just for casual sex, she thinks if Wyll wants a committed relationship there are a lot more morally compatible companions, like Karlach, than her.

Madeline snitched on people to the Dark Justicars and got them killed in a brutal way and He Who Was wants to torture the souls of murders, seemed the most fitting way was to make her spirit in his body recreate how the people died by stabbing themselves, it seems fair to my character that He Who Was also feels some of the pain if he’s going to be weird about this

My character’s opinion of Shar is dropping with encounters of people like Malus Thorn so she hasn’t been spending much time with Shadowheart.

Raphael showing up and warning me in his dramatic manner about unleashing a pestilence if a creature makes it out of the tomb I open, my character is definitely on high alert. That Astarion will get his scars translated, adds impetus to not mess around. I then thought this would lock me out of things and left for later

My character did enjoy convincing all the Shar nurses to turn on each other or commit suicide. I killed Sister Lidwin for torturing/kiling Arabella’s parents, figured my character would be happy to avenge them. Used the bard actions to be kind when telling Arabella about her parent’s deaths, and Karlach and Astarion approved which re-emphasises is probably some good positive moral reinforcement for my character

Halsin’s portal was defended by prepping the surrounding area in flammable surfaces and throwing a lot of bombs and fire damage spells

Finally unlocked Halsin as a companion, wish I had figured out how to do this earlier. Oh well, that’s for the next playthrough.

My character is thrilled, she’s super attracted by how buff Halsin is but also finds him really charming. He seems open to causal relationships and she’s impressed that someone who doesn’t had a tadpole joining in to help out and hopefully he can defend himself unlike that poor bard.

The one person my character wishes she could ask for money is Rolan for rescuing him from his own idiocy

Initial Moonrise tower team is Astarion, Gale, and Halsin. Its an unbalanced team but figured my character would choose along the lines of people who could infiltrate and lie, and would be open to Astarion’s plan of some light world domination plus Halsin who has unfinished business

My character is worried that the cat says she was there before, and wonders how monstrous she was to deliberately step on a cat’s tale. I chose the option “try to remember what was forgotten” and even though it killed the cat I decided to keep that choice for rp purposes, since my past evils aren’t so lost. Want to amp up my character being worried about the loss of control and what monster they were, as well as the fact she’s done risky stuff in this quest to figure out their past or gain more power.

My character figures whatever monster she might have been the woman mind dominating the knolls to be “better people” is far more fucked up. So of course she influenced the knolls to turn on her, but was surprised and discomforted that they too recognized her

My character gave Araj some of my blood continuing the train of fucking around with sketchy things for power. She spoke up that Astarion was his own person but was like “Astarion why don’t you want to just bite her for this great reward?” since I like to think she’s a little confused on what others will do for power if it isn’t life or death (convincing people about the tadpoles was life or death) and the person hasn’t set firm boundaries. Then when Astarion said he really didn’t want to she was like “don’t do anything you don’t want to”, and when he thanked her, she assumed it was for not trying to persuade him.

Ketheric Thorm immediately got cooler once I heard his voice and recognized it was JK Simmons. Also oh wow its Fezzerk from Blighted Village windmill so many many hours ago

Lol of course my character didn’t speak up for the goblins, it would blow my cover and they were torturing Barcus Wroot when I met them, and they aren’t going free since they serve the Absolute. My D!urge character did “BEG! CHOKE! DIE!” (I originally chose “I will do this with my own hands, it always feels better” and liked it more for the role playing but it gave no Astarion approval)

I sat in Kethric’s throne and Astarion had the funniest dialogue mocking me. Fitting that I then distracted from my mind being searched for loyalty by focusing on my lust for Astarion

Act 2 in the shadowlands has really been my character growing closer to Gale, where she’s moved beyond being fond of him to actually caring for him which makes not feel awkward about how much he really likes her. Especially since she hasn’t been persuading him to like her, and hasn't pushed him to go for the power and ambition or to be less loyal to Mystra. She's just agreed with his ambitions since he has (in her view) a good mix of pragmatism and morals, and she thinks he's a loyal type of person so she doesn't need to watch her back. So she encouraged him to do the pixie necromancy and then thought it would be a good time to bring up he doesn’t have to live by Mystra’s doctrine and has a choice about the orb.

Yeah of course even though it made Karlach feel bad my character stood with her and listened to 3 sad stories in exchange for some demon coins, and then told her I was her real friend and my D!urge character actually meant it. (Actually I’ve never used the demon coins to empower her since I forgot about that mechanic till now and I’ve been resource hoarding).

When Astarion thanked my character back at camp again for not forcing him to bite the Drow she was a bit surprised and of course said she doesn’t want him to do anything he doesn’t want to do. My character mentioned “So why sleep with me? Did you think you'd get something from it?” since of course she recognized he was seducing her back in act 1 before they really knew each other, Astarion responded “Of course I needed protection… and seducing you was easy frankly”. My character genuinely respects him for doing that, manipulating her for his own survival and so she’ll like him considering she regularly uses [persuade] and [intimidate]. Astarion mentions he started to genuinely feel something for her, and she responded that she cares about him; genuinely she likes him the most out of the whole group not just romantically but also in terms of the lengths she would go and the things she would do for him.

Ideally my character could choose all the options of “what do you want to do” and “we can be together without sleeping together for as long as you need” and “open your mind so he sees you care”, but since I can only pick one I figure Astarion knows my character can lie even in their mind so best just talk to him with words.

When Gale wanted to speak privately and was melancholy about his future death my character took every opportunity to say that they would find another way, he didn’t have to die, but didn’t mention anything about how he might kill innocents because she would kill those same innocents herself to keep Gale alive. When she met Gale on the cliffs it was really I think the moment she acknowledged she cares about Gale and him living, that she’s turning down an easy way to destroy the Absolute. When Gale said “I consider myself lucky to call you my friend” my character genuinely meant it when she said the feeling was mutual.

Prisoner rescue team is: Astarion, Gale, and Karlach. Of course I get the “not to worry I have a permit” when I exploit Balthazar not being around to contradict me having his permission

After talking with the Warden my character is definitely worried they used to be an Absolute cultist before she lost her memory

In the tower jail I used Astarion to 1 hit ko the eyes, then killed the Warden in her tower in 1 hit with an exploding barrel, then threw the gnomes his tools so he could escape, and we made it to the boat without the other 2 guards catching up

My character wants Barcus to realize he can do better than Wulbren, that Wulbren doesn’t like him but is happy to use his concern

After 3 reloads because a companion triggered a trap in the gauntlet of Shar i just said fuck this I’m looking up a walkthrough, this is giving me flashbacks to The Fade section in DA:O

Astarion was upset my character started chatting with the demon in Shar’s Gauntlet, then was impressed when D!urge talked the demon into killing all the companions then itself. My character didn’t care about Astarion saying thanks, she just wanted to see if Astarion was happy with the demon's death and say it was a pleasure to kill him

My character of course was going to help Astarion kill Cazador, she was happy to kill him all the way back in act 1. As for the ritual for vampire ascendant she has her doubts; how many souls need to be sacrificed and is there some other catch.

I didn’t realize we weren’t supposed to follow the rats to the bottom area; then Shadowheart and Gale were inspired when the swarm turned back into a dude and my character was inspired by killing more than 5 enemies in a round. So worked out all around

My character killed Balthazar before continuing through the gauntlet. That was a hard fight, where Gale having counterspell and lots of special arrows helped

My character decided since the deception is at a dead end killing Balthazar she might as well break into Kethric’s quarters. She thought the undead dog Squire was adorable, but all of her fears of her past reading about “the handpicked captain not found in the wreckage” are becoming worse

In front of the Nightsong my character had finally hit the breaking point of tolerance towards Shadowheart’s worship of Shar, and she did charm (to pass the 30 roll persuasion) Shadowheart to not go through with killing the Nightsong because otherwise it would have been a bloodbath killing Shadowheart to stop her.

This is the first time my character used charm/friends on a companion

Looking up other ways to do this afterwards, I guess it fits into role playing my character that over the course of being in the shadowlands and seeing the proof Shar just uses and twists people while Shadowheart stayed devoted, it had a big negative effect on my character's trust in Shadowheart and her loyalties. So much so she pushed the issue at the first opportunity and didn't tell Shadowheart “do what you want” like some other companions, and didn't wait for Shadowheart to change her mind. There's too much on the line to keep the Inn's protections and to fight Ketheric

#mac play video games #baldur's gate #bg3 #liveblog

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