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wingedquill · 11 months

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notes on survival (a preview)

so i blacked out and wrote like 4K words of a new fic concept. I don't think I'll be posting it on ao3 until it's entirely done (really do not need another currently-updating WIP) but wanted to share the first little bit on here with y'all (CW: kidnapping, violence against children) ---

Here’s how it starts, for Steve:

He’s ten.

He’s riding his bike. It’s a bit late in the day, but not that late, not nearly his curfew. The sun is still high in the sky, and he can hear kids shrieking with laughter a few streets over. They’d invited him to play with them, but he’d turned them down cause he wanted to check on the tadpoles he’d found in the pond last weekend.

He gets to a stop sign. A car pulls up next to him: old, gray, forgettable. The windows are down, but it’s summer. It’s normal. He wouldn’t have thought twice about it.

A bang. A scream.

“Help!” a voice shouts from the trunk. “Someone help!”

The driver looks over. Makes direct eye contact with Steve.

He knows, even as he starts pedaling, that he’s not gonna be fast enough.

***

Steve can’t really remember a time when he’d been un-messed-up. Not clearly, at least. He has the vague, stretched-summer memories of baking cookies with his mom, of somersaulting off the diving board at the public pool and getting yelled at by a lifeguard, of hiding in the woods simply because it was the best way to avoid his chores.

They’re nice memories, he thinks. Part of him wants to put them in a box and never touch them again. But they’re nice.

He’s good at pretending they’re all he’s made of.

But now he’s here. Walking through the woods. He’s not avoiding his chores but he’s also not hiding, and that’s probably the only reason why he’s not vomiting into the underbrush. Nancy’s hand is cold in his, and it’s enough of an anchor.

He’s not alone.

“Will!” he yells, his lungs burning with the force of the yell. “Will!”

He wonders if he got a search party like this.

***

They’re bumping down a road that’s more potholes than asphalt. The other boy won’t stop hyperventilating.

“I’m sorry,” he sobs. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, if I hadn’t—”

“It’s okay,” Steve says, because that’s what you’re supposed to do when someone apologizes. You’re supposed to accept it.

He doesn’t even know what the boy is apologizing for, not really. He isn’t a kidnapper. He hadn’t tied Steve up and stuffed him in the trunk. He had only screamed for help. That’s what you’re supposed to do.

“I’m Steve,” he says. It’s important that the other boy knows his name. Vitally so. The man who took them isn’t gonna care, and he needs one person here who cares about him.

The other boy sniffles against Steve’s shirt.

“Ed,” he chokes. “I’m Ed.”

***

He’s cold. He’s tired. He’s gasping for air and his sides are on fire.

Second verse, same as the first.

“We gotta get your shirt off,” Robin’s telling him. “We need to, Steve, your dirty, lake-gunk sweater is embedded in those wounds, I don’t want you getting a massive infection on top of rabies. That’s like, for sure definite dead.”

He drags himself out of the hunting shack and into the Upside Down. Eddie and Nancy are huddled together by a fallen tree, Nancy giving him a quick rundown of how the hivemind works. Neither of them are looking.

“I can’t,” he chokes anyway. “They’ll see–they’ll know.”

Cross your heart and hope to die.

She bites her lip. She looks like his mom had, when she’d told him he wouldn’t be seeing Ed again. Like she’s cutting off one of his limbs to save the rest of him.

“Steve, they won’t care,” she lies.

He shakes his head.

“I’ll chance the infection,” he says. “I mean it Robin.”

She closes her eyes. Scoots around to the other side of him, putting herself between him and Eddie-and-Nancy.

“I’ll dress the wounds quick,” she says. “And give you my overshirt. That okay?”

He takes a deep breath. Hunches in on himself. He’s always been a bit too good at making himself unseen. A bit better than he would like.

“Okay,” he agrees.

***

“They’re looking for us,” he whispers.

He tucks his face into Ed’s shoulder, wishes they could hug. A hug would make this better, he thinks, if he could just get his arms around to the front. If he could just hug, and be hugged, he’d wake up. They’d both wake up.

They’d both be at home in their beds. They’d be safe. Mom would make him hot chocolate like she always does after nightmares, and he’d check to see if the robin’s eggs outside his window had hatched, and he’d be okay.

“Yeah,” Ed whispers back. “Yeah, they are.”

Around them, the car’s engine roars.

#steddie #stranger things #my writing #my fic #oh noooooo i wonder who ed could be #for those of you who remember me from my star trek days: no u don't

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karniss-bg3 · 7 months

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Now this is just a pure theory but I'm wondering what you think of it. It was actually what you wrote that helped me think about this. There is a book in General Thorm's room called Attractive Drow Exiles. And it talks about the plan used to drag in unwilling Drow members by using a man (presumably a Drow) called Xilvre (sounds like Silver) to go down and stir up some trouble. He was described as very loyal but annoyingly enthusiastic. If this was Kar'niss before he was changed, it does answer a lot of questions. The book says he was probably killed, but the book was written before the event took place. It would make more sense that the Drow would punish Xilvre by changing him into a Drider for going against his kind and Lolth. And it shattered his mind in the process. And when he came back, they gave him the task with the lantern.

This is an interesting point you bring up. I was first alerted to the existence of that book by an anonymous ask and @novarex who made a post about it here. After I read it I asked myself "Who was Xilvre?". I didn't delve into it deeper than that at the time but this could be a lead.

The first thing to note is this book lists Xilvre as "True Soul 113". The definition of a True Soul according to the wiki is as follows:

True Souls are Followers of the Absolute who have been infected with an Illithid tadpole that grants them psionic powers similar to the player. They serve as commanding members of the Absolute's army. True Souls almost always have a Mind Flayer Parasite Specimen that can be looted from their bodies if killed.

When Kar'niss dies he doesn't have a parasite on his body that can be looted, nor is there evidence that he is in charge of any army within Moonrise. He acts as a guide but beyond that he follows commands more than I'd say he gives them. On the list of True Souls in Act 2, Kar'niss isn't listed as being one. When he first meets the player he does acknowledge that they are a True Soul, but he never suggests that he is one also, or that they have common ground in that regard.

The counter argument I'd make is the definition of True Soul says "almost always" when it comes to mind flayer parasites that can be looted. This leaves room for doubt that even though he doesn't have a parasite the player can take, it doesn't mean he is without one as a whole. Furthermore, certain dialogue trees and failed DC checks insinuate that Kar'niss can tap into and read the players mind, suggesting some sort of psionic link; Thus, a tadpole being present.

This leaves his status a bit open ended. If Kar'niss is Xilvre, perhaps he was titled as a True Soul to start. The drow captured him for being a heretic and turned him into a drider. When he slinked back to Moonrise he was demoted as a True Soul and given the job as a guide as his transformation made his mind too broken to be useful. He or someone else changed his name and he started life anew.

The one glaring issue I see is that if the drow, or Lolth, discovered that one of their own was planning to not only turn against the spider queen but also sabotage their very way of life, I don't think he would've gotten off as easy as he did. Betrayal of that magnitude would be a death sentence and it's likely why Ketheric foresaw Xilvre's demise. I can't imagine if Lolth saw a threat to her domain she wouldn't lash out to the fullest against any who supported the notion. Driders are made as a result of failure, weakness or displeasure. What Xilvre was tasked to do dwarfs all three. Xilvre would make an excellent example to those who turned against Lolth and no doubt his end would've been a messy one. There is a chance he could've been spared but it'd be an unusual mercy.

What I think could be more likely is that Kar'niss was part of the warband lured out by Xilvre's antics. Driders are known to work with and fight alongside other drow despite how thin the trust can be. He was ambushed alongside the others and dragged in to become part of the Absolute's forces. Either that or he overheard what Xilvre had done or said and curiosity led him out of the Underdark in search of a new Goddess to follow, perhaps a cure for his affliction.

It's all good theorycrafting fun. There is some overlap between Kar'niss and Xilvre. Even the name sounds like something that could fit Kar'niss with the pronunciation of "silver". That and the description of being a "tedious enthusiast" does describe Kar'niss fairly well, at least how we know him now. It'd be quite the plot twist if true!

Thanks for the ask!

#baldur's gate 3 #kar'niss #drider #bg3 #karniss #baldurs gate 3 #answered #drow #Lolth #True Soul #theorycrafting #Xilvre #Attracting Drow Exiles #Act 2

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tadpolejourney · 2 months

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Day 14

Another short day of travel.

My dream visitor decided to grace me with his presence again last night. Praising me for eating tadpoles and dividing my camp in half after we'd finally started to build a workable group rapport. At least Lae'zel and Shadowheart are unironically on the same side. Otherwise there would have been guaranteed bloodshed.

I ask who it is (I really need to start saying it, not he, this is not a person), and it says it's an adventurer just like me. Obvious lie. My parasite is unusual and can't be removed, and in fact any attempt to remove it will kill me. Maybe it just doesn't want me to seek a cure. It says it is infected and wants to be free of the tadpole just like me. That is unsubstantiated. It claims it doesn't know what the source of the tadpole's magic is, even though it is also claiming to be so uniquely powerful it can protect my magical tadpole from transforming. Now we have contradictions and overwhelmingly more questions than answers, a manipulative tactic also known as flooding. Then it tells me that actually it stole the power from someone and they want it back. Now it's just admitted to being a fucking villain and lying to my face, which means it thinks I am unintelligent. I can come up with counterarguments and reasons to distrust for every single thing this entity says. I have zero tangible truths, and I have no substantial evidence that anything it says is true. Other than my companions and I still being alive and not mindflayers or under the Absolute's influence (which is where the dilemma truly lies). There's something off about how it talks. Not only is it not a real person, it lacks human emotion entirely. It's treating me like I'm stupid. I don't trust it. At all. But I'm definitely not letting it know that. That's the only card I have right now, feigning naivety. It's my most worn out card because it's my best played. As long as I still have that card in play, even if it is my only card, I've always been fine in the end. I will share my thoughts with my companions though. They have a right to know my suspicions and the reasons for them. Plus I really value their perspectives on things. They all have such distinct ontologies.

With doubts about the guardian I'm also having doubts about the tadpoles I consumed. Maybe I really will lose parts of myself that I'll never get back, even if I manage to be cured. Maybe that made me too illithid and now I can't be cured at all. Maybe it will make me illithid soon or eventually. If so, I've doomed Astarion and Gale as well. Fuck.

Gale needs another artifact. I went to check the chest for all our spares, and they were gone. Astarion sold them because he 'thought Gale was better'. Just when I was starting to think better of him too. Un-fucking-believable. As it stands I would have to take something off a companion or myself. I told Gale that was unacceptable, and I needed him to hang in there just for today. He emphasized he can't wait much longer. We'll procure one tomorrow, easily. He can stay in camp and rest for once if need be.

<<< Day 13 | Index | Day 15 >>>

#pure headcanon because of course I saved items for my dear wizard #also astarion would #I needed to do lots of long rests in a row for story content after the goblin camp and this is my attempt to make that more interesting #baldur's gate tav #bg3 tav #baldur's gate oc #baldurs gate tav #baldur's gate iii #bg3 spoilers #bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate #bg3 astarion #bg3 gale

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brownstonearmy · 3 years

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2021-08-08: Out In The Styx (Part 2)

Wednesday September 16 (morning)

On the following day, the party is dutifully patrolling all manner of subterranean tunnel looking for the source of the Stupid Juice (tm) that is afflicting the town's water supply. Q, going as Daffodil today, is leading the way through the crisscrossing tunnels until they come to an underground pond that is likely near one of the town's major wells.

An orange film covers the surface of the water. This seems like it could be a potential source of the stupid juice, so purification is in order. But what's the best method to employ for this situation? The Towel of McClane is the obvious answer; but there is some discussion among the party members about how to avoid a drought situation if the Towel gets too deep into the water supply.

Daffodil dons some leather gloves and carefully dredges the Towel in its slow-acting dormant state across the filmy surface of the water. The muck seems to be absorbed, so Lucky takes over with Mage Hand to clear up the spots of where Daffodil can't reach. Crystal clear water is visible once again after the film is absorbed to whatever plane of existence the Towel sends liquid to.

There's one thing that looks a little unusual in the water, though. Big tadpoles are swimming around. Big tadpoles the size of a human fist. Big tadpoles suffering from a case of "Big Ugly." Daffodil doesn't recognize them as native species, so it's time to snag a few specimens for research and identification purposes. Maybe Robin can make sense of what kind of creatures these are?

Lucky's empty jam jars once again come to the rescue! Daffodil scoops up a few of them, one per jar, though the last tadpole bites Daffodil as it was hauled up from the water. Lucky can tell that the wound probably won't result in a curse and that infection could be prevented by decent first aid.

Wet flipper-flapper footsteps sounds on the ground elsewhere down the tunnel as Daffodil's bandage is applied. The footsteps are coming from the route the party used to reach this chamber. Time to skedaddle, but where? Certainly not the way they came in, so the party presses onward until they get to a fork in the tunnels. They opt to traverse a rough-hewn recently-excavated passage.

Some distance down the passage, it's clear that this passage is hastily constructed and unstable. Also lending a sense of dread to the scene is the presence of a crushed corpse of an OIS member stuck to one of the walls of the tunnel. It appears the cause of death was by crushing, and the fatal incident most likely happened 2-4 days ago.

Lucky investigates the body and realizes that the corpse is held to the wall by Sovereign Glue. Whatever crushed the body apparently crushed a container of the magical adhesive and got the poor sap stuck to the wall in death. Forever. In the monk's robes, though, Lucky spots an uncrushed vial of Sovereign Glue which she pockets with Mage Hand lest there be traps. One can never be too safe in a suspicious tunnel, you see.

The casting of Mage Hand triggers a wild magic surge where leaves sprout from Lucky's hands and arms. "We need to leaf soon," she says as more plant-based puns also sprout in her vocabulary. Unfortunately, leaving (leafing?) the area means the group comes face-to-face/door with another unpleasant sight: the mystical outhouse!

Although the outhouse appears stationary at the moment, the party gives the structure wide berth. Slightly behind the outhouse on the ceiling of the chamber that the party shares with this arcane outhouse is a dark tunnel that appears to be leading straight up. The tunnel is too high off for party to climb up directly, so everyone stands on each other's shoulders to escape upwards to (hopefully) the surface.

The wet plap-plap of flipper feet reach the ears of the party, and Lucky immediately turns the party invisible as a safety measure. A man-sized blue frog monstrosity with an empty barrel on its back marches straight into the outhouse. There's a sound of something getting sucked through a tube and then a few moments of silence before a different-looking red frog monstrosity holding a full burlap sack of something comes out of the outhouse and heads down the tunnel (and away from the party).

Lucky knows these creatures are not of this plane, but is uncertain as to what exactly they are. She's heard that creatures like this are chaotic, unpredictable, and generally unpleasant to be around. And there's only enough room in this campaign for one batch of chaotic characters, so the party needs to deal with this threat to their chaos supremacy.

Naturally, the most effective way to out-chaos this creature is by casting a high-level Chaos Bolt. The red frog goes down after getting hit by a boatload of psychic damage, but the spell bounces to the outhouse and buffets it with a considerable amount of force damage before exploding outward and showering the walls of the chamber with acid damage.

The acid causes one of the walls of the chamber to crumble away, revealing the colossal silhouette of a fully-grown rock worm burrowing its way through a new tunnel. In response to all of the damage to the outhouse, it activates and starts trying to suck the party inside it like a vacuum cleaner or the toilets on the International Space Station. Spleenifer almost gets consumed, but Lucky's wild magic surge has now manifested some sturdy roots that have prevented Spleenifer from falling prey to a terrible suction-based fate within the outhouse.

Lucky continues her climb upward to and finds a landing of sorts about twenty feet into the tunnel. From the limited light available to her, she's able to see some small cult-y relics containing messages written in Infernal script. Nothing to see here, just regular tunnel stuff! Lucky tosses a rope down to her invisible comrades and helps everyone reach the landing (though Spleenifer's ascent probably resulted in at least one hernia for the other characters).

Judgmental Spleenifer has a more pointed opinion of the relics. They appear to be from a long-disbanded cult that pledged devotion to one of the lords of the Nine Hells, specifically the one who guarded secret knowledge in the frozen wastes of the layer of Cania. Generally cults like this meet in secret and the relics are there to indicate the presence of a nearby site of worship, though it's clear no cult has met in this area for a loooooong while.

Spleenifer ain't got no time to deal with disbanded cults, so the party continues their treacherous ascent toward what they hope is a passage to the surface. While Lucky leads the way up, a raspy voice whispers into the darkness: "Hello?"

In the natural world, many creatures attempt to appear larger and more intimidating when faced with uncertain or potentially threatening situations. That's one potential theory as to why Lucky used prestidigitation to amplify her voice and speak in wizardly riddles. "We come from the past and from behind, let us escape!"

The particular phrasing of this riddle did not sit well with the voice. "No demon! I will not let you escape!"

Oops.

But there's still a little bit of opportunity for negotiation between the party and the voice, and the party is able to avoid a potential combat encounter. Lucky still speaks in loud and cryptic riddles so the voice will think that's just how Lucky is (instead of being a social faux pas).

The voice introduces himself as Brother Kani, who is a member of the Order of Immaculate Shadow. He's been trying to climb to the surface for what he believes is about a day, but his legs have are broken and his strength is starting to give out. He needs assistance quick. The tunnel that everyone is in does indeed go to the surface, but the exit to the surface has been sealed by the OIS camp to prevent non-OIS people from falling down the hole.

It is soon decided that the most practical way to solve the sealed tunnel and broken legs problem at the same time is to polymorph Kani into a honey badger. But the act of casting a spell will cause Lucky's companions to suddenly become visible, and so naturally Lucky explains this to Kani in the form of another riddle: "This spell will mend your legs for a spell, and give you two more as well."

Kani becomes a honey badger and burrows his way out as Daffodil and Spleenifer suddenly pop into view. Since honey badgers are smaller than the smallest member of the party, Lucky still needs to enlarge the hole to the surface. With Shape Water, Lucky crafts a little bit of water into something resembling a saw that can widen the hole to the surface.

Once the party emerges into the sunlight, everyone is immediately surrounded by wary warrior monks from OIS. Daffodil convinces everyone that honey badgers are definitely native to this area. The monks as a matter of security protocol cast Dispel Magic on the party, which has the added effect of reversing the polymorph spell on Brother Kani.

Kani is clearly exhausted and badly injured, but he manages to relay some important information to the assembled OIS members (and also the eavesdropping party members) before passing out. Several other monks were on a mission with Kani, but they were all killed underground.

It turns out that OIS had already seen someone they believed to be Brother Kani come back from the mission underground and immediately head into town. Only now does everyone realize that one of the frog things from underground was impersonating Kani and convincing the town to fall victim to the toxins in the water.

This is where the adventure concludes for the evening, but stay tuned next time for the ribbit-ing account of the hunt for shape-changing man-frog!

#Dungeons and Dragons #shits and giggles #adventure log #slaad #outhouse #fishdavidson

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