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lizzychanstuffss · 9 months

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Omg maybe Astarion somehow being able to see a reality where he ascended and the dark urge ruled with him

his reaction could be good or bad 🧐 maybe both

BARK BARK BARK you are my first dark urge request so I am excited to write this! Also since I enjoy the idea of some angst with this I am going to say this takes place post-game with a good durge and spawn Astarion :3

Astarion x Redeemed!durge!Tav GN

Spoilers for the entire game. Also, forgive me if the details aren't perfect, I am fairly aware of what happens but for my own sanity I haven't actually seen these endings XD

Requests are still open!

You couldn't sleep, no particular reason this time either, just no matter what you did, tiredness would not take you. Honestly, you considered just taking a walk and seeing if it would tire you out although you didn't want to leave Astarion alone without telling him where you were going. It was something you realized he preferred once you started living together after everything that's happened. It was cute.

So instead of taking a walk you just stared out the window from your shared bedroom of the house you had made your own. The sun was starting to rise already which means that your 'night' was just starting. Converting to a nocturnal schedule was something Astarion actually refused to let you do at first, but considering that if you didn't you would basically never spend any time together he eventually relented. Oddly enough it wasn't a hard switch either you actually preferred to be awake at night then the day. You figured this might have been an old habit from your past life.

Astarion had decided to turn in early for the night, the both of you had a rowdy night of mischief-making and partying and well people congratulating you for saving the entire city basically. It was frankly exhausting and you couldn't blame the vampire for needing an early night. He had been in a trance for a while at this point but when you turned to check on him you noticed his brow was furrowed.

It was such a small thing that almost anyone would miss it but not you, you had a keen eye for the microexpressions his face made when he was having complicated emotions. You didn't always understand what they meant or what was going on in his head but you knew something was off with the man. So you crawled back into bed and debated for a moment about waking him up but decided unless he seemed to be in a panic it was best not to wake him. So instead you just put a gentle hand on his arm and then one in his hair stroking it gently.

After a bit of that he seemed to relax again. Before you noticed his eyes half open gazing at you.

"Oh did I wake you?" you asked him.

"No...well yes but don't apologize....I'm glad you did" turning to face you better he gently took the hand that had been on his shoulder and placed it on his face. The gesture surprised you a little. It's not something you had thought he would do.

"Is something wrong, love?" words sincere, he doesn't speak, at least not until he gathers his thoughts a bit.

"I had a dream, no it was more like a vision." he starts "It was about us...but it wasn't 'us' if that makes sense?" he asked, staring at you with one of his classic wet and pathetic cat looks he was prone to making in moments of vulnerability.

"I think I understand like you saw a version of us from another reality?" He nodded in response to your attempt at describing what he saw. "And what was different about this version of us?"

"Well, I'm not sure what entirely to make of it...it was almost like we were the worst versions of ourselves....we seemed happy but also miserable..." His voice trailed off a bit but he continued speaking before you could say anything in response "You had claimed the Crown for Bhaal, but I was ruling by your side...and I think I went through with the ritual" he seemed confused and shocked by own words but also terrified.

"O-oh" was the only thing you could say in response. Suddenly his want for comfort made utter sense and you couldn't help but comply running your thumb across his cheek. He melted into the touch relaxing a bit more.

The two of you stayed like that more a while. The information was quite a shock to both of your systems, but the both of you were thinking about it just unsure of what to say about such a thing. Then you finally spoke up.

"What did you think of this version of us?"

He sat with your question for a bit.

"I'm...I'm not sure....I know I didn't like it, it felt wrong" He sighs, "What do you think about this version of us?" flipping your own question back on yourself, you take a moment to think about how to answer before speaking.

"Considering that Bhaal wanted me to take the crown for himself and rule the world I can assume he...owned me" as hard as it was to admit you fully knew what taking that crown for yourself meant as it would have never been something you choose on your own. "You said you had ascended in the vision as well?"

He nodded "It was awful, it was as though I was looking as someone possessing my body, there was no ‘me’ anymore just a husk of who I thought I was supposed to be..." tearing up a bit "I was exactly like Cazador" he choked out the words sounding disgusted with himself.

"Hey look at me, that's not you though, that's not either of us" you pressed your forehead to his.

"And it never will be, I won't let it be"

His arms wrapped around you pulling you into him, as he nuzzled his head into the crook of your neck finding comfort in it as you held him. A hand coming up to gently play with the curls in his hair as he lets himself calm down in your embrace, although you also felt his hand stroke up and down your back in a soothing motion you weren't sure if it was for you or for himself but it was a nice gesture either way.

The two of you stayed like that for a while.

#astarion #astarion x tav #astarion romance #dark urge #astarion fanfic #astarion x dark urge #astarion x reader #astarionfics #my writing

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bettsfic · 5 months

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it took 140 hours, but i finally finished my first playthrough of baldur's gate 3. overall i'm insane about it but there are a few things that really pissed me off. my (many) thoughts in no particular order under the cut.

i forced myself to play the full game totally vanilla, no mods even though i'm so bad at games i usually need cheats to make it to the end. not to mention i've hated inventory management in every game i've ever played (except genshin. love u, hyv). but i was patient, and i played on explorer mode, and i savescummed the hell out of it (hence 140 hours). but as SOON as i finished the epilogue, i turned around and installed 30 mods, most of which are QoL things that shouldn't even need to be modded (vertical camera pitch, WASD option, stackable items, sortable inventory, highlight ALL interactable objects).

i decided i wanted to play both a Dark Urge playthrough and an I'm Just Ken playthrough, but after making two new characters and, through my endless youtube diving, accidentally getting spoiled on what i think is the major durge reveal, i decided simply to make Ken the Dark Urge.

every other minute he goes, "Hi! I'm Ken," and then thinks about murder. it's great.

obvs he's going to romance Shadowheart (although i may download the poly mod and romance everyone).

MAJOR SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

here are my Thoughts, in no particular order, because i don't know where else to put them:

i didn't enjoy romancing Astarion as much as i thought i would, because i came to see him less as a romantic interest and ended up identifying with him more than my Tav. that said, i'm very excited to do Astarion's origin playthrough

i ended up enjoying my Halsin romance more, because it was a more traditional slowburn, and Halsin's quest was totally external conflict. on one hand, that made me less interested in him as a character overall; on the other, it was SO SATISFYING to find out he had been Pining for me the whole time. sometimes i just need a little bodice-ripper content, as a treat

obviously i'm also into Astarion/Halsin and Astarion/Halsin/Tav

however the only viable fic idea i have is Astarion/Shadowheart? i blame this fanvid

no, really, what was so different about Early Access that OP got this much Astarion/Shadowheart material? the description in the video says they were disappointed by how their dynamic had changed for full release

okay, time or my biggest beef:

Haarlep pissed me off almost enough to stop playing the game. not in a purity way, but in a "this is just bad writing" way

i mean, your options are to kill him or fuck him. that's not consent. and when you agree to fuck him, you have to roll several checks to keep him from killing you. then he steals your likeness so that whenever he has sex with someone else, you have a spontaneous orgasm

i wanted to dismiss it as dead dove, but the point of dead dove is that 1) it is labeled, and there was no indication whatsoever i was about to walk into this, and 2) dead dove implies the creator is aware that the content is filth for filth's sake. i saw no evidence that that quest was anything more than the sniffing panties buff of D:OS2

the sadist in the goblin camp? that's good filth. you have a little public BDSM demo that you can easily nope out of, and if you finish it you get a permanent buff. your companions have fun things to say. and there's no major quest attached to it, so you can completely walk past it. and the Drow twins were the same. and Mizora. just horny content for players who enjoy that kind of thing, and easily disregarded for players who don't. i don't understand why Haarlep had to be different

like, you're looking around for the hammer. you come across Haarlep, who is bored and wants to have fun with you. maybe he offers the promise of a buff that will help in the coming battle with the Absolute. if your romanced character is in the party, you have a dialogue option to talk to them about it first. maybe in parting, he gives you a hint about where to find the hammer, and it's in a completely different room

but no, you *have* to interact with him to advance the quest, can't talk your way out of it, and it leaves you with a skeevy pseudo-debuff

when i went to look it up, i saw so many forum posts of people being like, hmm this made me really uncomfortable, and (presumably) men responding, it was consensual! you have the option to kill him! and it's frightening that so many people think that way

also when you have a female Tav and you choose a male Haarlep, the animation doesn't change to account for the position. Haarlep straddles you the whole time. and that just made me interpret the scene as a male succubus rape fantasy

and your companions have to WATCH. and they don't intervene or even say anything about it. if you've romanced Astarion and he's in your party, you get one point of disapproval and that's it. like he wouldn't have an Opinion over that kind of coercion? i saw some youtube videos and know that he says something about it much later when you spontaneously orgasm, but that's it

i hope there's something i'm missing, and someone will come into my ask and go "ummm actually" and tell me some important factoid of game development that will make me interpret the scene differently

i ended up resetting and just not doing the House of Hope questline. i didn't bother with the hammer, either. honestly the whole Githyanki plot confused me and i was more invested in my conflict with the Emperor. i ended up siding with him and killing Orpheus so that no one would have to turn into a mindflayer. i was expecting to have to persuade him out of taking the crown himself, but he just noped off for some reason

this is another thing i wonder if i missed. i never understood his motivations or goals beyond "protect you" and "manipulate you." so he's Balduran and he killed his dragon and...what else? to what end? it would have been more satisfying to me if he planned to take the crown for himself but decides not to because of the bond he's forged with you. but maybe i can interpret it that way anyway

yes i fucked the Emperor

but i fucked him in Guardian form

like a COWARD

i was very torn about all the characters' final decisions. in the end, i kept Jenheart and spawn Astarion. i let Wyll and Karlach choose for themselves (and loved their ending together). i couldn't prioritize Gale or Lae'zel this playthrough because i was focused on too many other things, and i got their bad endings (although i ended on good terms with Lae'zel despite killing Orpheus?)

i played as a beast master ranger (i mained a beast master hunter in WoW for years) and i've seen in several places on the internet that it's supposedly the worst subclass, but let me tell you...

the bird companion. nobody is talking about the bird companion. by the end, it has two actions, the ability to blind, and your bird can call in two more birds. you can have a total of FOUR BIRDS

the red dragon in the final battle? couldn't do shit. it spent the entire time blinded by my bird. nearly everyone on the battlefield was dead by the end, but my bird still had over 50% of its HP. the bird is BROKEN

in my I'm Just Ken playthrough, i'm going to multiclass Shadowheart into a raven girl. the birds spoiled me and i can't imagine playing without them now

it's weird to me that there's penis physics but no boob physics. did anyone else notice that? you wiggle the male avatar and the dick moves. you wiggle the female avatar and her boobs are like rocks. even when she's lying down, the boobs stay exactly as they are

listen, i have a lot of complaints. the bugs made the game nearly unplayable for me. i know they're putting out patches fast, but i think it'll still be years before i would recommend this game to someone who is on the fence about playing it. if you're not immediately dropping everything to fuck the hot sad vampire, you might as well wait until the game is cleaner at like hotfix 856

BUT

i've never experienced anything like this game. every decision matters. every character has a story. there are so many potential paths and opportunities that it's literally impossible for the fan wiki to be completely accurate. i cried at least 4 times, and by the end, saying goodbye to Karlach, i was actually sobbing. i'm old enough now to know that these states of immersion into fictional worlds are rarer than they used to be, and i'm so grateful to this game for giving me so many hours of fun and escape

unlike books, movies, and tv, where i get invested and move on and rarely read or watch anything twice, video games are always such a learning curve for me that when i get into a game, i stay there. i have thousands of hours into Genshin and SDV, and i have a feeling BG3 will be the same. this game is so, so flawed, but it's ambitious beyond any narrative i've ever encountered, and i really admire it for that

i would love to find a Discord server for it that's not overwhelmingly huge, just the people writing fic and making art. it's been a long time since i've been involved in a fandom and i really miss it

#bg3

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pigeontheoneandonly · 3 months

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A Happy Feast

So I wrote a BG3 ficlet about my Durge. I'm not tagging it to avoid spoilers, but if you're not expecting some depravity, we're not playing the same game...

AO3 Link

They rolled back into camp near to midday, earlier than expected, but what was expected when a tadpole measured one’s life day by day, anyhow. Nobody felt good about it. But all that could currently be said had been aired, at length, and so they deflected into lesser complaints. Today, it was the menu.

“Not so much as a rabbit track,” Karlach moaned, as she stripped a sapling for tent poles.

Lae’zel was wiping her face with cool stream water. “The pleasures of this realm are few, but I would not regret the opportunity to savor a roast.”

“You’d have better luck roasting a stick,” Gale grumbled. He’d appointed himself keeper of their stores, and knew down to the last dry carrot what they had available to eat. And it wasn’t as bad as all that, at least not today—if one liked eating vegetarian.

“A stick!” Astarion scoffed, and then made to appear hurt at their suspicious looks. “What? I’m as hungry as any, I assure you.”

Nalarin said nothing, herself. Food was…food. A necessity and little more. But these…people hadn’t run. They didn’t know her, true, not know her, but most others she’d met since their little accident had at least a sense about her, so surely her companions here did as well. And yet they let her share their fire, travel with them, drew her into conversations, eventually. Shared their food. Like they wanted her to live, too.

And so Nalarin quietly took up her bow and headed back out into the wood.

Her errand took some time. When she returned, she found the others occupied in their own private tasks following a cold lunch, as had become habit on days that ended early. That suited her. Her task would take some time, with so little experience.

She made the fire away from the camp. No need for our clothes to stink of cooking, Gale had said, the first time she’d watched him. If the intensity of her observation had worried him, he hadn’t said. They were all like that. Willing to ignore a bit of discomfort for the sake of her company. It made an unfamiliar curl of warmth in the pit of her stomach, pleased without quite knowing why. She let that feeling fill her as she fussed over the pots, laboriously scrubbed and chopped and stirred and skewered. It was good to have something to feel and something to do; it emptied her mind entirely.

By the time the food was ready, Nalarin was thoroughly streaked and speckled with various remnants of her efforts. She thought she’d got the doneness of everything right, the turnips and carrots in the ash, the meat on the spit, the greens just lightly wilted. Of the seasoning she was less sure, and the herbs were a certain disaster. But she could eat it and not make a face, and so she declared it suitable and called everyone over for dinner.

Exclamations of surprise made the warm pool in her belly grow. “I hunted,” she explained, when they asked how?!

“If we’d known you were a good tracker, we’d have asked days ago,” Shadowheart declared, plopping down with a loaded plate. “What else are you hiding?”

Nalarin shrugged, but it hadn’t been a serious accusation. More pleased, almost teasing. She drummed her fingertips into the dirt. Too excited, almost, to eat herself.

After a time, a squirrel crept down from a nearby tree and scampered up her shoulder to shelter in a nest of her thick hair. She absently reached up to rub its tiny head. She liked animals; they didn’t make the dreams rise in her, not the way people did, and so it was safe to love them. Self-control with people was so…heavy. Wearying. Not having to fight it… bliss itself.

Afraid! it chittered, crowding into her scalp.

Her strokes grew soothing, her thoughts on all the small traps in the forest, designed to break small bodies but not to kill. The small corpses, pinned into the earth and unmolested by the scavengers, because even animals knew profanity when they smelled it.

As she cupped the creature in the curve of her palm, across the fire Wyll finished a bite and smiled at her. “I didn’t know you could cook.”

“Neither did I.” Wyll made her want to control herself. To draw a knife over flesh and barely cut. He was a monster much like her; one who made what he wished of his monster.

Her eyes narrowed and shifted to Astarion. There was a monster not like her. One who leaned into the monster, one who did not realize or perhaps did not care that it devoured him, inch after inch. One who did not recognize why he could not rid himself of the monster’s hollow feeling. The sort of monster, in fact, who made her think one day hers might pit itself against his.

Of all of them at this dinner, she thought he might realize. But he gave his portion a hard stare, shot her a glance she did not answer, and then returned for another bite. “Wonderful boar,” he declared.

“Really?” Karlach swallowed. “I thought it was rat! They can get quite gamey, you know.”

The tempo of Karlach’s mechanized heart never quite left her sensitive ear. To take it apart, piece by piece, examine its workings closely and their destruction… Little could be sweeter. Except, perhaps, to hear again her braying laugh, feel her solidity at her side along the road.

Maybe they were her friends, too. Nalarin’s memories might be gone, but some deep part of her was immensely certain she’d never had people who were friends.

Her own plate remained empty. The conversation continued, but they were used to her not talking much, and their sated voices swirling around her, contented by her effort, was food enough.

* * *

Much later, after the pots were cleaned, the cookfire doused, and everyone off to bed, Nalarin bent over the stream to wash her face clean of the last of the soot. She often stayed up late. The cool silence of night felt more home than the day.

“It is a very terrible thing thou hadst wrought,” said Withers, startling her into splashing her clothes.

But she straightened, and looked at him directly. “I don’t care for onions. When what we have is onions, Gale disguises them and doesn’t tell me they’re in the food, so I don’t have to think about it. How is what I did different?”

His wizened face regarded her for long moments, as if weighing her sincerity. Her honesty never ceased to surprise him. But in this, she was confident. How could it be different?

“Perhaps not,” he answered at last, shrugging, all bony eloquence. “Still, I wonder—how wouldst thy companions respond, if they but knew they partook in roast dwarf?”

Her mind again saw the little traps and the poor broken bodies she had buried in small graves. “He was a very bad dwarf.”

Withers looked down his nose at her, an impressive feat given he had no nose. “Thou wouldst know.”

Nalarin’s lips curved in the dark. Yes.

She would.

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #fanfiction #the dark urge #durge

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a1t-alt · 4 months

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LONG PERSONAL POST - BG3 AND HOW I PLAY IT (SPOILERS /gen)

Hi okay so I'm fucking insane and I NEED to tell SOMEONE because I'm being bullied to hell (deserved) by my close friends over this- I am an incredibly slow gamer and I’m very particular about how I play. Save scumming? I don’t know what you mean. Romancing literally anyone that isn't Astarion? I'm pretty sure that isn't real but a lie made up by Larian Studios to convince more people to play the game (/j). It's literally the only thing I play ever anymore.. besides Minecraft, but I digress.

I got BG3 in the middle of September (2023) through game share, and started by playing with my brother and his boyfriend with mods! I didn't get to play much of that character, but that's not the point okay. Okay the point is- a few things actually. Let me start with-

My first time playing BG3 was modded. I played MAYBE 3 hours on that character. They were gorgeous and unfortunately they no longer exist. I spent more than half of that time making them. They were a dragonborn and I don't remember for certain? But I Think they were just a Tav, not Durge. Unfortunately their name is also lost to the cosmos :( Here are a couple of the very few pictures I have of them!

I made a few characters at first, let's say like.. 5? Two were Durge, the others Tavs. 3 of those 5 got maybe a maximum of 6 hours each, never made it into the Emerald Grove. I think.. I'm pretty sure all but 1 went through the ruins and got Withers. The 4th one, my main and New Very Cool And Awesome Black Dragonborn Barbarian Durge™ got up to!! I believe it was up to 38 hours? I had done only a few things though! I had taken care of Kagha (no kill, I convinced her to not side with the shadow druids, she didn't hurt Arabella), I had gone through and done pretty much everything in the Emerald Grove? I saved Mirkon, I saved Arabella, I played it up with Volo, I killed the squirrel, I saved the tiefling from being assassinated and got a coin out of it (sick, was completely unintentional, I didn't like her much), bought stuff from the kids and all kinds of other things- you get it. I had gone through the blighted village, went through Waukeen’s Rest (but idk if I saw the Zhentarim with this character), killed the big spider, looted so many things, killed Ethal, revived Mayrina’s husband, found infernal iron, saved Karlach after save scumming her death and getting the fire armour for Wyll but it's okay because she was Fine After- *gasp* I got her engine upgraded once, and the very very last things I did was defeat the gobbo camp then kill Minthara and Dror Ragzlin (and Gut ofc, but I killed her first). I was in the middle of the party with the tieflings! I saved before anything happened, so I didn't see the fun stuff, but uh.. yeah, I ended up resetting my game, deleting all my mods and such to play with my partner. So went the days with my darling Melaqyn :’))) I miss them all of the everyday actually. Unfortunately I can't find any pictures of them :(( so here's some pictures of another of my early dragonborns, Sesaphael (name graciously yoinked from my partner's OC).

After I lost Melaqyn (which if I'm honest, I didn't actually lose them. I just didn't have the mods anymore and really didn't want to corrupt the file) I ended up making a few random characters- by a few I mean.. like 10, but only 2 or 3 survived. I made a couple also for playing with people, which were based on my own characters, so they were a little bit special? I started a game with a DND character I had made a year or two ago, who has the Haunted One background lmao- their name is Skulk- I'd show pictures but I'm really not that proud of how they look anymore >< I kinda floated for a bit in between games- I was playing all the time, but never settling- I was genuinely mourning Melaqyn.

Determined to get back on my feet with a character for real, I made a tiefling, named them “Ammarir”. They were supposed to look a bit like me, sort of like playing myself? Just a Tav though, which I regret to be honest but! There's always more time- I've been playing Ammarir since October 4th! They’re vanilla, so it was nice to not have to worry about corrupting their file. I started playing them slow at first, in between other campaigns, but I did keep coming back to them. Here are some early game pictures!

I was very quickly falling in love with them, and as soon as the mirror got added holy SHIT- I'VE CHANGED THEIR APPEARANCE SO MUCH OVER TIME NOW- Here are a couple early pictures from right after the mirror was introduced!

As I've made progress in the storyline with them, I've been having vitiligo spread slowly over their body- they don't have it here but will in upcoming pictures. I played and played and played and I'd done a ton of completionist type shit with their campaign (futile I know) until I finally got to the same amount of hours. It was insane, I wasn't as far into the game as I was with Melaqyn- I hadn't even made it to the gobbo camp yet. It took me 47 hours to make it there, and I knew this time around that Minthara was a companion. However, I did kill her, and I did keep her body in my camp, and It Is Still in my traveller's chest.

I started getting anxious about playing, about the idea of making progress, of missing anything, of saying something wrong or fighting when I shouldn't have. I didn't want to look anything up because I wanted it to be fun and a surprise.. but I also made myself look things up because I couldn't handle the thought of getting things wrong. I had heard Astarion was hard to romance, so I used a guide for So Many interactions, with him and with him around. He's been a permanent party member (save for when I'm working on the others and have to trade people out for a moment, but even then I usually keep him in the party). Pictures from before the party! (They're taken a small time apart, and I only know because you can't see vitiligo on the first one.)

The prospect of playing the game became so daunting, I ended up spending a lot of time just mucking about and sorting my inventory and collecting items and finding nothingness so I didn't have to move on. I finally got a push from my partner to talk with Zevlor about the party, and we did it! And it was awesome! And Astarion was very pleased with me! Alfira was there! I really liked the party. Even after that though, I didn't really.. move on. I ended up going through the underdark and at ~70 hours, I finished everything down there, everything else in the main Act 1 space, and finally ventured to the crèche. I didn't spend a lot of time there to be honest, jumping back and forth between it and the Emerald Grove to sell things, buy things, the likes. I managed to sneak out the back of the crèche and not fight anyone (except the guys waiting in the room where Vlakith was) so I moved on and got out of there because those guys are tough, and I'm not good at combat lmao. I made a lot of changes between the tiefling party and just after the crèche, so here's a little run down! (Gotta love the zaith'isk)

I've only recently made it into Act 2, early December I think. I've hardly done anything as far as I know. I saved Isobel (reloaded a couple times bc I am NOT hurting Dammon <3), talked to He-Who-Was (I've not done his quest yet but I agreed to), I've taken care of the tollhouse (literally like not even a week ago), spoke with Raphael in the Inn, as well as now just past the House of Healing, I did some dark justiciar stuff with Shart, killed Kar'niss (sadge u-u), saved Arabella again, a couple other things I'm sure and I'm currently going through the House of Healing-

Real quick I want to add- I had a few weeks where I couldn't bring myself to play Ammarir. I didn't (and still don't) know what lies ahead in the story and I just. Couldn't. I decided one night, a week or two ago now, that I want mods again. Mostly just visual stuff, I love the customization in this game, and I wanted a little more freedom. I also discovered the beautiful basket full of equipment mod and I've been very much enjoying the sick as fuck armour B) I didn't want to load up their game at first, since I made them to be! A vanilla campaign! But I thought.. “I'm not having fun and this feels like a chore. We can play with the mods and see how it goes!” And holy SHIT I've been having so much more fun :’)

As of writing this, I'm at 114+ hours on Ammarir's playthrough. I've had the scenes with Gale and Wyll, didn't uhh.. I wasn't interested in Gale (but I'd be lying if I said I didn't go through with it and reload-) but I went through with the kiss with Wyll! Which finally sparked the single neuron that's still alive in Astarion's soiled pants (/a) of a brain to bring up the nature of our relationship. Here's some pictures from some of my most recent gameplay (in order of oldest to newest, over the span of like 9 days).

This all got away from me- I really did just mean to say that I am a very slow player. My brother’s boyfriend has beaten the game, got farther than I am in less than 24 hours which is insane to me. I suppose now at the bottom of this all, I should tell you how many hours I have in the game in total. Mind you, where Ammarir is now, is as far as I've seen the game.

(Everything prior to this text was written on January 21st, 2024. The latter has written on February 12th, 2024)

Having mistakenly left this to simmer a little too long, I now have 431.2 hours in the game. Ammarir is now in early Act 3, with 158+ hours, and boy do I have some things to add since I wrote all of that.

Picking up where I left off, I did most everything in Act 2! I’ve realised that in doing the Last Light Inn quest things early in Act 2, I missed some interactions :( One, I didn’t get to play chess with Mol and Raphael (I actually don’t know what happens in that interaction at all- I haven’t seen it anywhere and I don’t really want to seek it out. I’ll see it eventually). Two, I think I spoke to Rolan at Last Light about his siblings, but I never saw him again after that. I didn’t know I should’ve looked for him until after I did the Nightsong quest. He wasn’t where he was supposed to be, and I had a broken quest which sucks, but it’s okay.

I saved all the tiefs and dwarves from Moonlight Towers- but let me go back a little. I did pretty much every single thing possible in the Shadow Cursed Lands, and! I went back to the Creche and destroyed everyone (bc I’m a loot goblin and I couldn’t leave all those goodies behind ToT). With the Creche cleared out, I sort of just went between the Emerald Grove, Last Light Inn and the Thorm family businesses™ for a handful of reasons.

There were two things in particular that I really wanted to do with Ammarir’s playthrough, which were collecting every single skull and head I could get my hands on, and unlocking every edge of the map, everywhere I went. I’m sure I’ve missed many a head, and some spots on the maps were impossible to get to, but I’ve done my best.

It’s been a minute since I’ve added pictures, and my babe changed a lot through the Shadow Cursed Lands, so here’s a few pics!

By this point I’d finished everything in Moonrise and got myself prepared for Act 3- well sort of. I knew that I was reaching the end of Act 2, but I didn’t know anything about the transition in between? So I was wrapping all of my quests up, trying to find Rolan, looking for anything I could- realising too late that I didn’t and couldn’t bring my brain jars from the Nautiloid into Moonrise with me- after killing Ketherik. But it’s okay, I have them both neatly set aside on another campaign. Anyhow, I saved Dame Aylin, and she and Isobel are in my camp now, happily by one another’s side again. Shart has her snowy hair, and a very pretty white and gold makeup look to match, and I went to the road to Baldur’s Gate.

In camp, I was going through some of the clothes I had picked up- found a pair of pants, that are just.. pants? No shirt? I thought it would be funny if I had Ammarir wear those as camp clothes and uh.. Immediately went into the cutscene to start Act 3 ToT. So I have some pictures of them just.. topless, looking out over the city. I reloaded, changed them into something more comfortable and appropriate, and went through the cutscene again. These are pictures from leaving the Shadow Cursed Lands, entering the Act 3 intro, and the beginning of the scene in the Astral Prism.

I had no idea what to expect!! I didn’t know that Gith came after us at camp, I didn’t know that I had to go into the prism and fight, I didn’t know that I was going to meet The Emperor yet! It had been kind of a long fucking time since the last time I saw my gaurdian, so I genuinely wasn’t sure when it was going to happen. I did figure out that my guardian was The Emperor early on in playing the game- not entirely spoiled for me by stuff online or by friends, but genuinely just.. Finding out that The Emperor exists in the Astral Plane kind of tickled my brain an odd way lmao.

Now, I had been waiting a long, long time for this event- I knew nothing about how it happened, but talking with The Emperor and getting the astral-touched parasite was something I was Very Excited to have happen. I didn’t know it happened at the beginning of Act 3- though I didn’t know when it was going to happen at all, so it’s not saying much to be honest. Like I said, I was waiting for this, and I very graciously accepted this gift. Quite hastily perhaps even- when I started Ammarir’s game, I had no intention of using the Mindflayer abilities At All! But how could I turn down the offer? I’d begun using the abilities rather frequently by the time I entered Act 2, and by the end I was pretty juiced up on worms frankly. Here’s Ammarir after using the parasite!

I wasn’t alone in my venture either, I wanted to share this with my companions- of course- but I wasn’t going to Make Anyone do something they didn’t want to do. I spoke with Astarion first, considering he and Ammarir are together, what he thought. He was heavily against it for himself, and y’know what? Fair! I don’t plan on having him “evolve” at all, not past normal parasites. Gale I spoke to and he wasn’t opposed, but wasn’t for it. I convinced him pretty easy peasy and now he’s joined in on the fun! Skipping to Lae’zel, I did convince her to use the astral-touched parasite as well, and I’m not even a little sorry. She looks fucking awesome, and she’s so powerful TwT Gonna put just a couple pics of them in here, as a treat~ (before And after)

Considering I didn't evolve Astarion and don't plan to, I wasn't planning on posting pictures of him here- and I've reached my image limit, or I would 10000% show him here. Unfortunately though, I can't, but if anyone wants to see him, I'll post some pictures of him and Ammarir separately <3

As of writing this, I’ve not gotten very far into Act 3. In Rivington now- donated to the Flaming Fist for the refugees, spoken to a handful of folks around, was granted access to the circus (but I’ve not gone in yet) and I traded with the shady fucker who trades “antiques”. I’ve also run into Orin! The blacksmith’s shop is really cute, I’m absolutely in love with Exxvikyap 🥺 Seeing all the Baldurians who absentmindedly look up to Gortash is giving me whiplash (I’ve hated the guy since BEFORE I started playing ToT Fuck him).

Anyway, I could go on and on and on forever, but I think.. I think I will finish this off here, for now. If I end up updating this in the future, I’ll be more timely about it- After all, I did just pick up a Durge OC campaign that I’ve been wanting to do for months.

#BG3 #Baldur's Gate 3 #spoilers #BG3 spoilers #Baldur's Gate 3 spoilers #Tav #BG3 Tav #Gale Dekarios #Lae'zel #The Emperor #Astarion #BG3 mods #Was gonna have this peer reviewed but I promised to post it tonight so no beta we die like Alfira #I need therapy #I'm too gay to play this game I'm obsessed ToT /pos #bg3 act 1 spoilers #bg3 act 2 spoilers #bg3 act 3 spoilers

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taliaglitch · 9 months

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23 + 28 + 29 + 35 for aislinn? annnnnnnnnd memento?

very rambly, very long, very under the cut! contains some vague early durge and githyanki créche spoilers

What are your Character's thoughts on the dream visitor? (23)

Aislinn: they think the dream visitor is a real person in some way, and not something conjured up by the tadpole - call it gut feeling, or maybe just wishful thinking. so they trust her, though not enough to stick more tadpoles in their brain (i mean. in-game they do because idk how to live without favourable beginnings and luck of the far realms. but in-universe they wouldn't). they're grateful for her protection and equal parts frustrated & intrigued by all the mystery - the more time passes, the more they're just frustrated. they heed her advice, but not enough to avoid the githyanki créche (which they rapidly come to regret - see the answer to question 35 below)

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Memento: they have no idea what to think of him, and this makes them very very uneasy. they wish he could protect them against their own mind as well as he protects them from the absolute instead of just telling them "you have to resist your violent urges or we're fucked". they're pretty well aware of that already!

there's that same ludonarrative dissonance aislinn has where i invest in the tadpole skill tree despite the fact that the character probably wouldn't, and also i did kind of skip through the scenes with memento's guardian because i'm very impatient to get to the really juicy durge stuff later in the game lol

Did you recruit Scratch the dog? Did you encounter him at all? (28)

this is a yes for both of them! i could not ever live without scratch. aislinn is a big animal person in general (they took beast speech as one of their eldritch invocations, not that i remember to use it) and immediately fell in love, and memento mostly felt sad for him (and thought having a dog around might help them somehow - they do sleep a tiny bit easier when scratch is curled up nearby, at the cost of being perpetually covered in dog fur)

Did you adopt an owlbear? Do you have a name for your child? (29)

another yes for both of them, with much of the same reasons! memento never named him - canonically they haven't really named *themself*, for some reason i've decided memento isn't their in-universe name/nickname (and the same goes for mori) - but aislinn named him... after some figure of legend & myth that i don't know enough about dnd lore to pick. look i don't want to just go with baldur, that feels lazy

Has your Character done anything that they regret in Act 1? (35)

Aislinn: i mean, just all the violence, really. this early on they are extremely unaccustomed to it (to answer a different question on the list: andren, the guy inside the entrance to the temple ruins, was the first person they ever killed), and every fight makes them sick to their stomach, no matter how unavoidable it was or how morally awful their opponents are. to pick something specific: fighting their way out of the githyanki créche was, up to that point, the worst thing they had ever done, and even as they get used to the blood-covered adventuring life, that's a day they'll always look back on in horror. maybe they didn't have any choice in it, but they hate it all the same. and not to mention how rapidly they turned lae'zels life completely upside down! like it is a good thing for her ultimately, but in the moment they really felt like they fucked up.

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Memento: aside from the big thing every poor durge gets... they caused arabella to die. they knew that snake would kill her the moment it struck, and it was looking for any excuse to do so, any sudden movement. they flicked their eyes to the door - they keep telling themself it was unconsciously. she tried to make a run for it. the viper struck. they didn't have it in them to face komira and locke themself, to tell them their daughter died. they saw the parents again at the saved-the-grove party, though, where komira tried to get her vengeance on kagha - they stopped her, and even that they sometimes regret.

they also tortured liam, the goblins' prisoner, and revealed the grove's location to minthara. i'm undecided of how cognizant they were while they were doing this, but they were certainly fully aware of what they had done and it's implications afterwards. they don't make excuses for themself when speaking to zevlor - i did this. if anyone else dies here, it will be my fault. but please let me make up for it. and they did! the raiding party did destroy the gate, but they never made it inside. two of the tiefling defenders (arka, who they didn't stop from killing that goblin prisoner, and asharak, who was teaching the children alongside wyll) died, and of the party memento was the last one standing after a brutal irl-one-hour-long fight (i was level 4, it was very difficult), but the defense was otherwise a success. it never should've happened to begin with, two people dead is two too many, and this + the torture is what they regret, but it also gave them the first real hope they've had in the short weeks of their amnesiac life. hope that they can be more! do better! be a hero! touch people's lives without destroying them in the process! they can't save everyone, maybe they can't even really save themself in the end, but god, they can try. they enter into act 2 just a tiny bit more resolute and confident in themself.

#thank youuuu!!!!#excited to see your answers to the ones i sent over as well 👀#oc: memento #oc: aislinn summersorrow #i should probably get a bg3 tag actually if i'm really putting all my oc stuff here #bg3

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