#and after the cutscene shadowheart?? i'm not even sure it was entirely her but it was a woman who without prompt kisses my character 👀 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

loquaciousquark · 5 months

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Got spoiled twice in casual browsing this afternoon, so decided to go ahead and play through the epilogue on my original Tavish save set so I'd at least get the comfort of seeing the big stuff for the first time on my own. (Thanks to @eponymous-rose for keeping me company despite spoilers!)

I am honestly SO HAPPY with 99% of the epilogue! Everything with Wyll, Karlach, Jaheira, Halsin....if I keep going I'm just going to name all the characters but ESPECIALLY WYLL AND KARLACH. Oh my gosh, the hints towards finding a forge in the Hells! Wyll's eye! His armor looks so unbelievably dumb but I guess when you're living hand to mouth in Avernus you make what you can get. I bet it's not as good as that Helldusk armor I had him in, but oh well.

Tara was there! We got to talk to Tara! And tell everyone Astarion & Tavish were dating! And so many people wanted to talk about what we were doing and what we were up to--ahh, I loved it. I will say I cackled like a loon at the idea of Tav giving a lecture at Blackstar Academy or whatever it is and Astarion sitting at Gale's desk kicking up his feet and knocking over all his desk decorations.

Scratch got new animations! Throwing the astral prism as a fetch object was absolutely inspired, and the little animation set where he just sits down and gnaws on it and throw it around--so unbelievably cute. And he sleeps! He sleeps on its side and it's so STINKIN cute! And the owlbear going to live with Shadowheart--I'm cryyyyying, I'm so happy for her and her cottage and her hoard of animals and her million flowers I'm sure are there.

And even the little QoL things like having a chest full of clothes and dye! So thoughtful and nice! I would have killed that halfling for a potion of animal speaking, though - I'll drink one before the Netherbrain next time to make sure it carries over.

The only teensy weensy tiny itty bitty complaint I have is that I wanted to be able to kiss Astarion at this party. Just once! And I wanted him to go out and be merry with everybody! I'll accept that he's feeling skulky and be satisfied immensely with my hugs, but Tavish on the new run hasn't gotten to Moonrise yet, so I'm starving for a lack of kisses here, augh.

I loved every word Withers said. I loved every second/third/fourth round of dialogue for all the companions. Jergal is such a dang bro and he seemed so enthusiastic to get to hang with the fam. Bless!

I do wonder if it's possible to try to kill people at this party - there were certainly enough death-causing implements and scrolls floating around!

And then the END CREDITS?????????????? Raphael ranting about THE CROWN OF KARSUS?????????????? This does explain why Gale made a point of saying it had gone back to Mystra when we most deffo left that sucker in the river, but HELLS-RELATED DLC???? I THOUGHT KARLACH AND WYLL WERE JUST LEAVING THEIR FATES OPEN-ENDED AND THEN ACTUALLY JK WE MIGHT BE GOING THERE??????????????????

Surely this is a promise of upcoming DLC, surely. I have no idea if they intend this to be paid or free (honestly I think it should be paid) but either way I'll throw every dollar I have at them if and when it comes out. How is Raphael alive. How is Mystra going to keep the crown from him. How are we going to get the gang back together. What does Zariel's area look like!! Will we get to go past level 12!! How is Raphael ALIVE!!

I honestly just had the biggest grin on my face the entire time. Every conversation, every hug, every gesture. What a complete delight, and I can't believe we get it for free.

(Sidenote: I was also beyond overjoyed that this patch also fixed the Astarion epilogue, the broken scars cutscene, and apparently the kisses. Again, Tavish hasn't gotten to at-will kisses yet, and I'm DYING.)

(Sidesidenote: I couldn't get any of my first game saves to load after a certain point [turned out to be due to an old mod I'd uninstalled] and troubleshooting that to get the saves to work again was honestly really fun, ahh.)

#quark plays bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 spoilers

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koieio · 2 months

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I think a lot of people who go up for bat for Larian, do not understand what is is Wyll fans are talking about when they talk about his lack of content or needing more focus. They hear, "he lacks content? but look at how many hours he has in this youtube video!" And I'm not sure if they've never actually watched those videos', played with Wyll in their party, both(in fact going through it you see a lot of shit like Character A talking to the PC while Wyll is in the bg. Or Wyll has a single line of dialogue, and the rest is a conversation with someone else entirely.). Whatever the case is.

If you've ever watched those videos you come across 2 things. When Wyll is interacting with characters like Mizora or his father who are integral to his story. The PC is the one doing most of the talking. And 2. Wyll shares a looott of his spotlight with other characters to the point where he gets pushed to the side so another character can stand in the spotlight. Sometimes in his own story/quest missions.

Let's talk about Wyll's Wymway use to be main, now a side-quest since it's what kicked off this latest kerfuffle. Honestly this quest was never about Wyll. This entire quest is more about the Emperor and his backstory than it ever was about Wyll. It ends with you learning more about the Emperor. The Emperor is even the one who gets the special Act 3 cutscene, not Wyll. The only reason it's associated with Wyll is because his father will give him the quest to go find the dragon if he's alive, but Wyll's father will give that quest to the PC regardless of if Wyll is there or not. And if he's not there then Florrick will give it to the PC. So Wyll ties to this quest is paper thin. But maybe there's something Wyll could personally learn from this quest or insight he could dro-no. Wyll has the same lines of dialogue/contribution to this quest as Gale or Astarion has. There's no special cutscene if you bring Wyll(similar to having no Act 1 romance he has no special Act 3 cutscene dedicated to himself either).

This happens a lot when the focus is meant to be on Wyll. Act 1 we're tasked with finding and killing Karlach, but the focus quickly shifts over to Karlach and becomes less about Wyll. Once again he's forced to share the spotlight, and even on the day where he is cursed, the camp is more focused on Karlach's recruitment than they are Wyll's torment(this was kinda gets fixed in patch 4?5? Where the companions finally comment on this, but it's all told to the player and not Wyll himself.)

Mizora first appearance, and Wyll is forced into silence and it's the player character who then interacts with her from then on there. Wyll might quip about how much of an asshole Mizora is from time to time. But when it comes to Mizora. Everything, from negotiating his freedom, to bargaining for better rewards, to the final decision on whether or not you the player want to sell Wyll's soul in exchange for his father information is left up to you. With no input of any sort from Wyll.

"Oh, but the other characters also don't get to make decisions either." This isn't true. Gale and Astarion make their desires very well known to the player. It might not be the "right" course of action, but they make it well known what it is they want to do, and you can choose to either support them or try and talk them into making a different choice entirely. This doesn't happen with Wyll. The choice is always left to the player. Always.

And when you put Wyll next to other companions, this lack of care/quality when it comes to his content becomes all the more apparently. Extra lines of dialogue of Astarion and Durge. Meanwhile still waiting on Duke Ravengard to acknowledge his son's marriage.

They patched in a platonic options to Gale's magic lesson after people made a big fuss about it. It's up in the air if we can politely decline Wyll's mandatory dance invitation without breaking his heart in the process or leading him on.

You get to comfort Shadowheart after her parents death. Meanwhile, I still believe Wyll's Act 3 romance is bugged for body type 4s.

They patched in an entire ending for Karlach going to Avernus after people complained about her ending. Meanwhile still no Act 1 romance for Wyll. Hell, you can even miss his Act 1 kiss if you flirt with too many people before talking to him at the party.

7 months, 6 patches and $60+ since release and we still can't get something a simple a single romantic greeting correctly fixed. I think at that point people have the right to start making "demands" of Larian. Like sorry not sorry, if that's what bother you the most. That people are tired of being patient and promptly ignored. But it seems like only the squeaky wheels in this fandom get listened to, so do as the romans do.

#wyll #don't even play this game anymore but felt like chiming in #preparing for dragon dogma #Wyll issues are a writing problem that can't be fixed with tossing more kisses at you #didn't even get into my issues with his epilogue and how he gets overshadowed by karlach again #This man can't have anything to himself #can't even get a hug

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victorluvsalice · 3 months

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AU Thursday: Valicer In The Dark Vs Baldur's Gate III

Okay, so, yesterday I happened to mention that I'd gotten into Baldur's Gate III -- and that a certain Crime Trio of mine (based on an entirely different RPG, I might add), had decided to lay claim to it as a potential AU of their OWN AU. No, I don't know why I'm like this either. *sigh* Anyway, there's not really that much to it at this point in time -- while I have spoiled myself on the story (and seen a bunch of cutscenes thanks to my friend @gaydragonwizards), I haven't actually played that much of the game itself and thus don't know exactly how the trio would react to EVERY quest and NPC in the game. I do know some basics, though:

-->The AU starts with the Nautiloid happening to pop into the Valicer In The Dark universe by mistake while navigating -- the mind flayers decide they may as well abduct some people while they're here, and unfortunately Victor, Alice, and Smiler, walking the streets of Six Towers, are in range of the tentacles and taken aboard to be infected

-->Smiler wakes up in the canonical pod and finds their way to Us, saving them and immediately bonding with the little intellect devourer ("I'm a they/them too!"); Alice wakes up in a different pod nearby and is the first to meet Lae'zel, and helps her fight the imps; and Victor wakes up in the same room as Shadowheart, and is working on freeing her when the others arrive -- they get her out, get to the helm, and manage to fight their way to the transponder and connect the nerves

-->If you're wondering about potential language barriers, one of the good things about the tadpoles randomly connecting your mind to other people's is that it allows you to pick up Common super fast -- I basically see them getting a bit of an "information dump" on a few key things about the reality they're currently in during the initial connections

-->Also, in the process of freeing Shadowheart, the group find that woman in the other room and mess with her console, accidentally causing her to change -- a creepy moment made even creepier by Victor's Ghost Mind ability letting him briefly see the woman's soul escape...and then burn up as she transforms into a mind flayer. We will come back to this later

-->After the crash landing, Victor, Alice, and Smiler are very confused when they wake up to see a blue sky...and then, after waking up Shadowheart and being told, essentially, "it's blue because it's sunny?" are utterly GOBSMACKED to find themselves in a world with an ACTUAL SUN. Though shock and delight quickly turn to "oh wow, this is actually a lot hotter than we're used to, we need to find lighter clothes fast" XD

-->From there, they pick up the rest of the companions and work their way through the main plot, hoping to both find a way to get the damn tadpoles out of their heads and get home (because as nice as a world with a sun is, it's not Duskwall, and Smiler in particular would like to see their parents again plz)

-->Naturally, being pretty good-hearted people, they do the nice versions of the quests and help people out as much as possible -- though, also being a group of Shadows who nick things and sabotage schemes for their living, I can see them offering tips to the gang of tiefling children thieves and scam artists to help them in their chosen path. XD Also, Alice probably has to be talked out of killing Kagha right then and there when she threatens Arabella, and I'm not sure the snake survives THAT little encounter. Alice has a thing about people threatening children, as you might expect!

-->I foresee a lot of confusion on both sides about how different Duskwall and the Shattered Isles are from Faerun -- not just the sun thing, but also Victor having access to an entirely different form of magic (Gale in particular is like "wtf is this??? This is not Weave???"); the group not knowing what horses or cows are (both animals are extinct in their world) and having to be introduced to them -- while, on the flip side, being perfectly cool with eating rat; and the trio being briefly like "well, it's horrible what happened to that poor woman on the Nautiloid, but at least her ghost won't be slowly going insane and trying to feast on the life essence of the living" and the others being like "what." Leading to Victor, Alice, and Smiler learning that this world has an afterlife and being like D: as it dawns on them that the total destruction of the soul is not an accepted way to keep the world from being riddled from ghosts here. (The others are once again like "what the FUCK is wrong with your reality?")

-->Smiler spends a good portion of the early game looking for Us, before finally accepting sadly that the intellect devourer probably didn't survive the crash...and then they get to the mind flayer colony under Moonrise in Act Two and "Friend! You found the helm!" :D They are beyond happy to see Us and won't hear a word said against them from the other companions (who are naturally BAFFLED as to why Smiler wants an intellect devourer as a pet) -- and Us, for their part, is entirely loyal to their friend Smiler and all THEIR friends, because the kindness Smiler showed to them on the Nautiloid caused them to bond more closely with them than the rest of the hive :) Victor and Alice warm up to the little thing pretty quick, while the others...well, they get used to having a brain wandering around pretending to be a kitty. XD

-->Part of me would like Shar to somehow be responsible for the Shattered Isles no longer having a sun...and thus be real annoyed that people are still living in that world eight hundred and forty-seven years later (as Alice puts it, "you brought the darkness, and we just lit it back up again")

-->And in the "overpowered nonsense that wouldn't make it into any actual story stuff but is fun to think about," I enjoy pondering the possibility of the trio, when faced with the Avatar of Myrkul, using Victor's Whisper ghost-fighting stuff on it -- and successfully forcing it into a spirit bottle. I imagine the other companions would be like "how the FUCK did you bottle part of a GOD?!" while Myrkul would be just "...guess it beats dying again." Oh, and Withers finds it hilarious in his droll way. XD Bonus points for talking to Myrkul about what the damn plan with the Absolute even gets him, Myrkul realizing that he's somehow been had by the Netherbrain, and switching sides against his former compatriots because, yeah, this mind flayer invasion does NOT benefit him in any way, wtf.

-->Or, if you would like DIFFERENT godly intervention, I did have an idea where Mar-Mal is also able to access Faerun through the blessing they gave Smiler, and uses its influence to protect Smiler from the tadpole instead of Smiler having to rely on the Dream Visitor and the artifact. They task Smiler with spreading their influence and getting worshipers so Mar-Mal can do more on this plane, and Smiler happily talks up their god to anyone who will listen (also sharing what samples they have left of their Joy Serum). And fortunately for them, people are willing to throw at least a few prayers the way of a god of pure happiness...meaning that during the endgame, when it's time to fight the Netherbrain, Mar-Mal's gotten just enough power to come into Faerun, filling the sky with spiral clouds as they manifest. The gang still has to fight the Netherbrain, but it's easier as the Netherbrain is, um, a bit distracted trying to not be mindwarped by Mar-Mal! XD And once the threat is defeated, Mar-Mal is able to open up a temporary portal to bring Victor, Alice, and Smiler home. With the implication that they could get back eventually...like, say, in six months to catch up. :p

Whew -- bit more than I expected here! I don't know if anything is actually going to come from this -- I mean, I definitely have to get the REGULAR Valicer In The Dark stuff done first -- but it's fun to think about as I play the game. And it has inspired me to make a few not-incorrect quotes/shitposty scenes...

#valicer in the dark au #baldur's gate 3 #vitd bg3 #yeah my brain is -- weird #I think we can all accept this now #I just like the idea of the trio ending up in this bizarre new world and needing to adapt #and confusing the hell out of the locals in the process XD #might be some meta fun to be had with the fact that D&D and Blades In The Dark play VERY differently too #Alice utterly ignores turn order while fighting because that's not really a thing in BITD #Victor of course has totally different magic #and Smiler is being charming and having loads more success with a bigger dice pool XD #and yes they have a special bond with Us #if only because I developed a special bond with Us after seeing them for the first time in YouTube videos #what can I say the brain is cute and I love them #and now Smiler loves them too #best brain kitty #queued

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mrcrowblargs · 7 months

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Finished Astarion's personal quest and whoof. I need to lie down. It was so good. I wanna give him such a big hug. But I suppose asking for a kiss works.

Spoilers under the cut, but I will leave a protip: if you bring the Daylight spell into the big boss fight, DO NOT cast it as a sphere! Cast it on a weapon and stow the weapon after the fight. It'll save you some trouble.

So I definitely overprepared going into the Szarr Palace. I already had respecced Gale as a Knowledge Cleric and Shadowheart as a War Cleric so I brought them both along because of course you're going to encounter undead vampires in a fucking vampire den. I think entering the palace was supposed to feel a little too easy since Cazador wanted Astarion there anyway. But they wrecked everything.

Astarion, you are a fucking rogue... why are you running in for an unarmed attack... AND GETTING CAPTURED I was not happy about losing him for the first round but luckily getting Aylin out of drama meant I knew exactly what to do for Astarion.

The fight didn't go too badly, I cast Daylight smack in the middle of the area because I didn't want to fry the suspended spawn. But then the cutscenes after felt... abrupt and lacking. And I didn't get Cazador's staff needed to free the prisoners. Looked it up online and turned out having Daylight present makes the spawn flee as soon as they are freed oops. So I had to redo the fight.

And honestly, I was glad I redid it. It was a little more chaotic but the double cleric team worked GREAT. Turns out the spawn aren't affected by daylight while suspended so I was able to cover more of the field instead of giving Cazador corners to hide in. 2x Spirit Guardians to clear out the GODDAMN BATS. 2x Spiritual Weapon to camp on the ritual spots and deny Cazador his boons. Honestly having two clerics is just great. Casting the Heroic Feast or whatever beforehand was also a great move.

And best of all? Astarion got the finishing blow on Cazador with an absolutely epic sneak attack.

Admittedly struggled with dialogue options because the previous issue meant reloading and fucking around a lot and uh, accidentally letting Astarion ascend oops, but after doing things the right way I hit the sweet spot for dialogue and got him to stand down the ritual of his own accord instead of like "stop him" or "I won't help."

All of Astarion's acting is phenomenal??? like??? his VOICE his EXPRESSIONS just god there's so much here. really felt this howl.

Chose to free the spawn. 7000 predators suddenly released into the Underdark is sure to cause some ecological issues BUT it was so good seeing Astarion stand up for them and give them the chance to be saved and free. The chance he should have had long ago. Break that cycle, babey.

Oh man that whole post I made connecting the mirror scene to the entire person Astarion was being just gone, forgotten was so on the nose. AND FEY YOU WERE RIGHT He's gonna make himself his own person. Free. Even if that means living in the shadows... Aldrich will always be with him. And their githyanki child because I still have that egg hanging in my inventory and I don't think it's safe with any of the quest parties involved. Just gotta uh. beat the game and hope I can have that epilogue. I'm still nervous about having undergone partial ceremorphosis but uhhhhh maybe Astarion won't mind tentacles?

Astarion finally answers, "You're not a victim, not a target, so then... what are you?" I have another act 2 comic script sitting aside that touched on this and I kinda really wanna do it now haha. It's satisfying when things you speculate about a character fall into place.

but also, maybe a sillier doodle comic, of an earlier moment (after the spawn ambush you at night) when you can tell Astarion "if you open up and care about others, they will care about you" and he's like "no one cares, not like you do" and then like 10ft away is Karlach who is like I LOVE MY BITEY FRIEND I'LL TEAR DOWN THE WHOLE PALACE IF THEY TAKE HIM!!! And her reaction after just enforcing that. All the party gossip of being proud of Astarion was so nice.

Next I gotta rescue Lae'zel from Orin and hope that she's still alive because uuhhh it's been a few long rests oops. She's got all the anti-shapeshifter gear from Emperor's old pad it's cool it's fine she's probably already turned orin to mincemeat.

I intended to play all day today but i think I'm gonna leave off here. Digest. Bask in that I rehabilitated and socialised the feral kitten I plucked out of the gutter so long ago.

#crowbar plays bg3 #aldiirn bg3

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