Disney Princex Tav Finds True Love
Aug. 15th, 2023 11:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrNot with a bear. Though I did think about it.
My image settings got reset after a crash, so before I go save my computer here's a pretty screenshot that shows how Tav's figure looks more feminine in some outfits but how they also tend to loom over people while talking (right now I'm wearing whatever has the best stats).
Masterpost
While I'm posting screenshots, here's a closeup as extra spoiler buffer. These are not the tattoos I intended to get, they're a bit too Dragon Age Elf, I think I screwed up while experimenting in the character creator, but they're pretty enough and I am headcanoning that Tav had a miscommunication with the tattoo artist.
Tav has persuaded a squirrel to stop biting their foot, and helped a bard write a song, which she then sang. I am very happy I chose ranger (edit: lol). Then they saved a child from some harpies and had a long rest at camp, where Asterion and Shadowheart were a little flirty. Tav wasn't really into it, but we'll see how things go.
Turns out the first main area involves a conflict between a bunch of druids about to do a shady "everyone else fuck off" protection spell and the about-to-be-evicted teifling refugees taking refuge in the druid's grove from the evil goblins. And since Tav is a druid and a tiefling I've had lots of chances to have opinions! Tav's opinion is mostly that Everyone Should Be Friends, they have had mixed success persuading the druids of this but they have managed to de-escalate several near-murders. It all feels very much like the werewolves vs elves thing in Dragon Age Origins, I even have to go to a Mysterious Temple and find the Leader Who Can Persuade Everyone To Be Less Murderous. But that's fine! Nothing wrong with some classic fantasy tropes.
(I somehow wrote all the above without realising druid is not the same as ranger)
The game seems to be very much leaning into "tieflings are perfectly nice and people should stop treating them as evil by nature" while not remotely subverting "goblins are evil by nature", which is signalled by goblins having a Slovenly Tribal aesthetic and lower class accents. Ah well.
Afaict something happened to (some? all?) tieflings to cause there to be so many refugees, Tav has referenced this as part of calls for Tiefling Solidarity, so they know what's up, but I don't.
I keep wanting to switch between he, she and they for Tav but a consistent "they" is less confusing in text so I'll aim for that.
I met another companion: Wyll, a heroic figure who saves some adventurers, teaches the tiefling children to fight, and tells inspiring stories about how he got into being so heroic after saving a small boy and realising he Just Likes Helping People.
But I know just enough about D&D to be side eyeing the fact he's a warlock with skills reliant on the eldritch powers given by his Dark Patron. Plus his aggressively Wholesome dialogue just screams "Hiding Something".
Shadowheart is also clearly hiding something, she has a mysterious artefact and has some sort of painful curse mark on her hand. But she is more straightforward about it, saying it's none of your business and changing the subject. She has this whole Brittle No Nonsense Ice Queen vibe.
And Astarion is hiding something too, though I knew that going in, both because I'd heard he's a vampire and also because like...the very first thing he did was try to trick and then murder me.
So I'm just going to assume all the companions are Hiding Something.
The brain worm plot is getting interesting! I didn't mention it, but there's a cool thing where it gives you slight telepathic insight into the thoughts of other brainwormed people, which is both enjoyably weird and a fun way to quickly introduce characters. There's also occasionally dialogue options from the worm which Tav avoids taking.
You eventually find a healer, who says a bunch of brain wormed people have been showing up lately, none of them turning into mindflayers but many of them gathering at the Weird Abandoned Temple. You have to persuade her not to euthanise you all and she made Tav promise to commit suicide if they feel the transformation starting. Fun!
A captured goblin from the temple says their new goddess The Absolute is poised to strike.
On the way to the temple you meet two siblings whose brother is dying after a battle. They realise you have a brain worm and are all "Hooray! You are also a True Soul, like our brother! Do you have orders for us? :)"
Tav wasn't willing to be all YES I DO, MINIONS but carefully probed them for more information and they said the Absolute is going to take over the world, with the Chosen in charge, True Souls (people with brainworms) as their mouthpieces, and the rest happy minions. Their current orders are to find survivors of the crash. I had the option to let them go or convince them Tav is their new boss, but decided to instead have Tav admit to being such a survivor which led to a fight and they died. The brain worm from the now dead brother tried to merge with Tav's worm, and when Tav successfully resisted it squirmed away faster than I could catch it. I'M SURE IT WILL ALL BE FINE.
And then goblins killed us all and I looked up a guide lol.
Thanks to the guide I've been doing a bunch of stuff I missed. Turns out Lae'zel and Gale were right near Astarion, on different branches of the road, and there's an optional battle to recruit Withers, a weird talking corpse with a mysterious past who will respec your skills for a fee.
After some minor battles I had a long rest at camp which Tav woke from to find Astarion ABOUT TO DRINK FROM THEIR NECK!! There's the option to freak out and try to kill him but Tav let him drink some blood when he explained he's a nice vampire and just needs a little blood. It was not overtly sexual but there was definitely a Vibe. There's a saving throw to get him to stop which you can apparently fail and have him accidentally kill you lol. But it all went fine, Astarion was very grateful and now has a "happy" buff while Tav has a "blood loss" debuff. He can drink from people in battle which also makes him Happy.
Astarion said the worm gave him the ability to go into sunlight etc, which he hasn't been able to do for two hundred years. I really like this "the worms are 'helping' us but for some horrible purpose" thing.
Gale is nice enough so far, a cheerfully avuncular middle aged wizard, he has a sort of "chill manly history professor" vibe. I haven't seen signs of his Deep Secrets but assume he has some!
Lae'zel's further dialogue has been very Proud Evil Warrior Race which I find very off putting so I haven't talked to her much or done her optional side quest.
I've been putting it off but I really gotta have another go at these goblins and continue the plot.
OK I DID IT. As I said my other post, I got lost and ended up not even re-encountering the sidequest that got me killed last time.
You go to the goblin camp and since they are also Minions Of The Absolute they accept your authority thanks to the brain worm, and you are invited to a party they're having after a successful raid on some humans. It was...an experience? They are so cheerfully evil, gloating about how much they enjoy murdering and looting, children delighting in torture, a woman enjoying a bard prisoner's music and saying she'll keep him around until she gets hungry...
Multiple goblins demand you humiliate yourself or they'll kill you, so Tav smeared poop on their face and kissed some guy's feet because sure, whatever. Afterwards it turns out you have introduced multiple watching goblins to the concept of foot kink, which they are awkwardly processing in a very gobliny way. At first I tried licking the guy's foot to see what would happen, it was funny but he gets angry and his friends all try to kill you, which is boring, so I reloaded.
You meet a priest in a high tower reading a book about goblins by an anthropologist-y bard who he describes as "an interesting bloke", it's all Fantasy Racist stuff about how they're stupid and primitive.
And then you find Halsin, the head druid, who is trapped in the dungeon in bear form being taunted by goblin children, and you free him by MURDERING THE GOBLIN CHILDREN. He says he'll help you with your brain worms if you murder the head goblins, saying "nature will take care of the rest of the parasites".
This would all probably bother me less if I hadn't recently read some stuff about how Tolkein's orcs draw on 19th century ideas about Primitive Inferior Races with sloping foreheads, brown skin, and slanted eyes...
But I killed them cos that was the plot, so what can you do.
There is the option to side with the goblins but that would involve murdering all the refugees, so. At one point I screwed up and ended up having to fight the whole camp which was distressing beyond the fact I was impossibly outnumbered, but I managed to replay from an earlier save and avoid all that so in my head the ones I didn't pick off while rescuing prisoners and assassinating their leaders are off having fun in the forest discovering foot kink and being slightly less evil. You meet an imprisoned worshipper of the original goblin god they worshipped before the Absolute, sounds like it was just a different asshole who treated them as mindless minions.
I don't entirely blame the developers, afaict that's Just How D&D Goblins Are, but I have seen other D&D stuff put more effort into avoiding the worst implications, and I am glad to be past that part of the plot (not knowing what will come next...).
I am, however, enjoying the overall plot!
The brain worms give little telepathic insights into other True Souls, including some of the goblins, and I've gotten shadowed looks at the Chosen giving out orders, who seem to be three demigod type figures. The only reason our group weren't mind-controlled into obeying the Chosen and Absolute too was because of a mysterious artefact Shadowheart has with her and refuses to explain, not sure how that plays out if she's not in your party.
At various points Tav has the opportunity to use the brain worm's Authority to make minions of other True Souls obey, but the one time I did it the narrator says they felt themself "lose something they'd never get back", it feels very Corruption Arc. Just having the narrator say "You have Authority" when I meet a minion feels effectively creepy. The narrator is generally pretty great, she has a dry knowing tone as she gives little asides about history etc. I wonder if she's the Absolute!
The main plot progresses via major quests and when you sleep, which you generally do just before/after big battles to heal.
Lae'zel attempts to murder you in your sleep, saying she feels the worms turning, and Tav had to persuade her they were all just tired after a long day.
Gale carefully talks around a condition he has where it turns out he needs to eat magical items every now and then? Luckily I had one in my pack while I tried to figure out if I had a use for it, and since then I've been keeping any I pick up as loot. I've been vaguely spoiled for him being a werewolf or something? Since I don't take him with me onto the road much our relationship hasn't progressed far.
Tav had a weird dream where a pretty bearded dwarf woman shows up and says she is protecting me from the worm as part of some broader attempt to Save The World, but we should work together by using the worm's power and absorbing other worms. This sounded Shady As Hell so I am Not Doing That, but the other companions got the same dream and I let Astarion eat a spare worm from killing a goblin True Soul. He asked nicely and he's already kinda evil, it's fine.
After defeating the goblin leaders we go back to camp with the druid leader Halsin to stop his evil second in command Elf Margaret Thatcher from doing the shady ritual and leaving the refugees to die.
The guide I read gave some advice on uncovering some evil plot of hers but it didn't look straightforward and I decided to leave it for another playthrough.
And then you wish the refugees well as they prepare to leave for Baldur's gate on their own terms without having to worry about goblins, and there is a big party!
A big party where EVERYONE WANTS TO HAVE SEX WITH YOU.
Specifically, Halsin, who I'm pretty sure is bear sex dude!
He was vague about his interest, and Buff Older Elf is not really my type even asides from Tav not being entirely the one night stand type, so instead I told him to go have fun with everyone else which he was cool with.
The tiefling NPCs are just hanging out having a good time, which was cute to see after they were all so worried. But every time I went to talk to one of the companions they had VERY OVERT sex conversations, either hitting on Tav or explicitly NOT hitting on them, which worked fine individually but did break my immersion a bit in aggregate.
I didn't think Astarion liked Tav that much since he keeps disapproving every time they're selfless and trusting, but I guess they won him over by letting him drink blood from the people we fight (he said he'd never drunk a sentient beings blood before Tav and it is REALLY tasty, and his 'we're going to kill them anyway' logic was pretty compelling. Also I guess I gave him that worm. Tav is too much of a pushover to be able to handle Astarion is what I'm saying)
I was going to turn him down but then there was the chance to have Tav say "Say please" with a charisma check, which was too tempting. He did say please, which was pretty charming, so Tav said "maybe". I don't see them working out long term but he'd be fun with the right character, he has this snarky dissolute queer charmer trying to protect a secretly slightly squishy heart vibe I'm into, like a cross between Zevran and Dorian. His backstory is that he isn't a full vampire, he is in thrall to the vampire who turned him, and was a slave to a vampire family until he was "lost". So I'm guessing they'll show up and use their control over him and we get to kill them so he's free, which sounds fun.
Lae'zel went on this angry rant about how Tav will have to be CONSUMED WITH REGRET about the MIND BLOWING SEX they COULD be having if Tav PAID HER ANY RESPECT, then stormed off to apparently have fun with someone else. Which was surreal since I hadn't realised this was the "everyone discusses sex with Tav" party yet and Tav's reaction was mostly "You were into me? Uh...have fun with other people I guess??"
Gale good-naturedly said he likes Tav ok but they're not close enough for sex, which is how Tav feels too.
I somehow missed Wyll, but imagine he'll hit on Tav since he's a big fan of all the people saving they do. Which will be a little awkward because Tav has already given their heart...to Shadowheart.
Ahhh, Shadowheart. She's like a cross between Leliana and Morrigan and I am Into It.
She has a very brittle vibe, she's coldly aloof and snooty with a veneer of passive aggressive politeness, but a little kindness from Tav made her warm up pretty quickly, and she appreciated that they didn't push her to explain her secrets until she was ready. She has a sort of shaky tone like she's constantly holding herself back from complete collapse beneath a thin shell of composure.
Her most obvious secret is the Mysterious Artefact, which she doesn't seem to understand much more than we do.
A secret that didn't come out until later is who she's a cleric for: the Dark Goddess Shar. Who I had never heard of, so I initially had no reservations about being all "Of course I'm ok with your religious beliefs", but the more Shadowheart explains the more I see why people generally have Issues with Shar, and the more I want to save Shadowheart from her.
Shadowheart is a member of an order of like...Shar Nuns, she's always dreamed of becoming a Justiciar, dispensing violent justice for Shar to prepare for the day Shar covers the world in beautiful darkness. Yay! But the mother superior said she wasn't ready. Shadowheart was sent on a mission (to get the artefact?) and chose to have most of her memory wiped so she couldn't betray Shar. She also has a thing with her hand which sometimes consumes her in excruciating pain from Shar. She doesn't know why, but says she can bear it knowing Shar must have a good reason.
She says she doesn't generally get close to people but feels a connection to Tav, and I want to SAVE HER FROM HER CULT and give her HUGS. I saved last night just after agreeing to "share a bottle of wine" with her alone, after the party, so we'll see how that goes. It feels a bit early for sex but as long as the relationship progresses emotionally after this it's fine. I'm going to watch the first sex scene to seeher boobs what they're like but suspect I'll find it squicky and make sex more fade to black going forward. 3d rendered sex scenes are difficult to make not uncanny valley and off-putting. Though if they just blur out the genitals or something that would be even more uncanny valley haha.
Not a fan of her being fantasy racist against Lae'zel but at least she wasn't fantasy racist against tieflings!
AWWWW I just finished the party.
I realised I'd missed Withers, too, I was a bit worried HE'D hit on me but he just mentioned he can recruit "other souls who have been trapped by the fight against the Absolute" eg NPCs with useful battle skills the companions might not have.
When Tav tracked down Wyll they just had a nice conversation, Tav had the opportunity to hit on him but didn't take it.
The post-party date with Shadowheart was very sweet, they hung out and Tav told a story from their past (which the game didn't show, a cute way of letting the backstory be whatever you want it to be) and they sat chatting until dawn. Then there was the opportunity to look into her eyes and they kiss and that's it. Cute!
And it makes sense for Astarion and Lae'zel to consider sex sooner, given their characters.
The next morning the plot continues!
It seems that other than those of us wormed on the ship, True Souls generally get wormed at a place called Moonrise Towers, so we'll be going there next along with Halsin. There was some talk about who will take over from him while he's gone which made me feel like my choices might lead to things going better or worse for the druids, but I guess we'll see.
There's two routes to Moonrise Towers: one overland, which is easy at first but then passes through cursed Shadowlands which turn you evil, and one underground which avoids the shadowlands but passes through an abandoned Shar Justificar settlement. Shadowheart perked up at that, so, guess that's my decision made! I am sure it will be a fun trip where we bond and I learn more about her lovely culture.
Tav is all "Go to Moonrise Towers, kill whoever is in charge of the worms, be free, done!" which is absolutely not going to be what happens. But before that I'm going to explore this area for a while, there's sidequests to track down an evil demon Wyll is chasing and a creche of Githyanki (who live in...rocks in space??) for Lae'zel, and I just want to explore more in general before I leave.
And that seems like a good place to stop for now!
EDIT: Since I ended up uploading someone else's Shadowheart pic in a later post, here she is:
My image settings got reset after a crash, so before I go save my computer here's a pretty screenshot that shows how Tav's figure looks more feminine in some outfits but how they also tend to loom over people while talking (right now I'm wearing whatever has the best stats).
Masterpost
While I'm posting screenshots, here's a closeup as extra spoiler buffer. These are not the tattoos I intended to get, they're a bit too Dragon Age Elf, I think I screwed up while experimenting in the character creator, but they're pretty enough and I am headcanoning that Tav had a miscommunication with the tattoo artist.
Tav has persuaded a squirrel to stop biting their foot, and helped a bard write a song, which she then sang. I am very happy I chose ranger (edit: lol). Then they saved a child from some harpies and had a long rest at camp, where Asterion and Shadowheart were a little flirty. Tav wasn't really into it, but we'll see how things go.
Turns out the first main area involves a conflict between a bunch of druids about to do a shady "everyone else fuck off" protection spell and the about-to-be-evicted teifling refugees taking refuge in the druid's grove from the evil goblins. And since Tav is a druid and a tiefling I've had lots of chances to have opinions! Tav's opinion is mostly that Everyone Should Be Friends, they have had mixed success persuading the druids of this but they have managed to de-escalate several near-murders. It all feels very much like the werewolves vs elves thing in Dragon Age Origins, I even have to go to a Mysterious Temple and find the Leader Who Can Persuade Everyone To Be Less Murderous. But that's fine! Nothing wrong with some classic fantasy tropes.
(I somehow wrote all the above without realising druid is not the same as ranger)
The game seems to be very much leaning into "tieflings are perfectly nice and people should stop treating them as evil by nature" while not remotely subverting "goblins are evil by nature", which is signalled by goblins having a Slovenly Tribal aesthetic and lower class accents. Ah well.
Afaict something happened to (some? all?) tieflings to cause there to be so many refugees, Tav has referenced this as part of calls for Tiefling Solidarity, so they know what's up, but I don't.
I keep wanting to switch between he, she and they for Tav but a consistent "they" is less confusing in text so I'll aim for that.
I met another companion: Wyll, a heroic figure who saves some adventurers, teaches the tiefling children to fight, and tells inspiring stories about how he got into being so heroic after saving a small boy and realising he Just Likes Helping People.
But I know just enough about D&D to be side eyeing the fact he's a warlock with skills reliant on the eldritch powers given by his Dark Patron. Plus his aggressively Wholesome dialogue just screams "Hiding Something".
Shadowheart is also clearly hiding something, she has a mysterious artefact and has some sort of painful curse mark on her hand. But she is more straightforward about it, saying it's none of your business and changing the subject. She has this whole Brittle No Nonsense Ice Queen vibe.
And Astarion is hiding something too, though I knew that going in, both because I'd heard he's a vampire and also because like...the very first thing he did was try to trick and then murder me.
So I'm just going to assume all the companions are Hiding Something.
The brain worm plot is getting interesting! I didn't mention it, but there's a cool thing where it gives you slight telepathic insight into the thoughts of other brainwormed people, which is both enjoyably weird and a fun way to quickly introduce characters. There's also occasionally dialogue options from the worm which Tav avoids taking.
You eventually find a healer, who says a bunch of brain wormed people have been showing up lately, none of them turning into mindflayers but many of them gathering at the Weird Abandoned Temple. You have to persuade her not to euthanise you all and she made Tav promise to commit suicide if they feel the transformation starting. Fun!
A captured goblin from the temple says their new goddess The Absolute is poised to strike.
On the way to the temple you meet two siblings whose brother is dying after a battle. They realise you have a brain worm and are all "Hooray! You are also a True Soul, like our brother! Do you have orders for us? :)"
Tav wasn't willing to be all YES I DO, MINIONS but carefully probed them for more information and they said the Absolute is going to take over the world, with the Chosen in charge, True Souls (people with brainworms) as their mouthpieces, and the rest happy minions. Their current orders are to find survivors of the crash. I had the option to let them go or convince them Tav is their new boss, but decided to instead have Tav admit to being such a survivor which led to a fight and they died. The brain worm from the now dead brother tried to merge with Tav's worm, and when Tav successfully resisted it squirmed away faster than I could catch it. I'M SURE IT WILL ALL BE FINE.
And then goblins killed us all and I looked up a guide lol.
Thanks to the guide I've been doing a bunch of stuff I missed. Turns out Lae'zel and Gale were right near Astarion, on different branches of the road, and there's an optional battle to recruit Withers, a weird talking corpse with a mysterious past who will respec your skills for a fee.
After some minor battles I had a long rest at camp which Tav woke from to find Astarion ABOUT TO DRINK FROM THEIR NECK!! There's the option to freak out and try to kill him but Tav let him drink some blood when he explained he's a nice vampire and just needs a little blood. It was not overtly sexual but there was definitely a Vibe. There's a saving throw to get him to stop which you can apparently fail and have him accidentally kill you lol. But it all went fine, Astarion was very grateful and now has a "happy" buff while Tav has a "blood loss" debuff. He can drink from people in battle which also makes him Happy.
Astarion said the worm gave him the ability to go into sunlight etc, which he hasn't been able to do for two hundred years. I really like this "the worms are 'helping' us but for some horrible purpose" thing.
Gale is nice enough so far, a cheerfully avuncular middle aged wizard, he has a sort of "chill manly history professor" vibe. I haven't seen signs of his Deep Secrets but assume he has some!
Lae'zel's further dialogue has been very Proud Evil Warrior Race which I find very off putting so I haven't talked to her much or done her optional side quest.
I've been putting it off but I really gotta have another go at these goblins and continue the plot.
OK I DID IT. As I said my other post, I got lost and ended up not even re-encountering the sidequest that got me killed last time.
You go to the goblin camp and since they are also Minions Of The Absolute they accept your authority thanks to the brain worm, and you are invited to a party they're having after a successful raid on some humans. It was...an experience? They are so cheerfully evil, gloating about how much they enjoy murdering and looting, children delighting in torture, a woman enjoying a bard prisoner's music and saying she'll keep him around until she gets hungry...
Multiple goblins demand you humiliate yourself or they'll kill you, so Tav smeared poop on their face and kissed some guy's feet because sure, whatever. Afterwards it turns out you have introduced multiple watching goblins to the concept of foot kink, which they are awkwardly processing in a very gobliny way. At first I tried licking the guy's foot to see what would happen, it was funny but he gets angry and his friends all try to kill you, which is boring, so I reloaded.
You meet a priest in a high tower reading a book about goblins by an anthropologist-y bard who he describes as "an interesting bloke", it's all Fantasy Racist stuff about how they're stupid and primitive.
And then you find Halsin, the head druid, who is trapped in the dungeon in bear form being taunted by goblin children, and you free him by MURDERING THE GOBLIN CHILDREN. He says he'll help you with your brain worms if you murder the head goblins, saying "nature will take care of the rest of the parasites".
This would all probably bother me less if I hadn't recently read some stuff about how Tolkein's orcs draw on 19th century ideas about Primitive Inferior Races with sloping foreheads, brown skin, and slanted eyes...
But I killed them cos that was the plot, so what can you do.
There is the option to side with the goblins but that would involve murdering all the refugees, so. At one point I screwed up and ended up having to fight the whole camp which was distressing beyond the fact I was impossibly outnumbered, but I managed to replay from an earlier save and avoid all that so in my head the ones I didn't pick off while rescuing prisoners and assassinating their leaders are off having fun in the forest discovering foot kink and being slightly less evil. You meet an imprisoned worshipper of the original goblin god they worshipped before the Absolute, sounds like it was just a different asshole who treated them as mindless minions.
I don't entirely blame the developers, afaict that's Just How D&D Goblins Are, but I have seen other D&D stuff put more effort into avoiding the worst implications, and I am glad to be past that part of the plot (not knowing what will come next...).
I am, however, enjoying the overall plot!
The brain worms give little telepathic insights into other True Souls, including some of the goblins, and I've gotten shadowed looks at the Chosen giving out orders, who seem to be three demigod type figures. The only reason our group weren't mind-controlled into obeying the Chosen and Absolute too was because of a mysterious artefact Shadowheart has with her and refuses to explain, not sure how that plays out if she's not in your party.
At various points Tav has the opportunity to use the brain worm's Authority to make minions of other True Souls obey, but the one time I did it the narrator says they felt themself "lose something they'd never get back", it feels very Corruption Arc. Just having the narrator say "You have Authority" when I meet a minion feels effectively creepy. The narrator is generally pretty great, she has a dry knowing tone as she gives little asides about history etc. I wonder if she's the Absolute!
The main plot progresses via major quests and when you sleep, which you generally do just before/after big battles to heal.
Lae'zel attempts to murder you in your sleep, saying she feels the worms turning, and Tav had to persuade her they were all just tired after a long day.
Gale carefully talks around a condition he has where it turns out he needs to eat magical items every now and then? Luckily I had one in my pack while I tried to figure out if I had a use for it, and since then I've been keeping any I pick up as loot. I've been vaguely spoiled for him being a werewolf or something? Since I don't take him with me onto the road much our relationship hasn't progressed far.
Tav had a weird dream where a pretty bearded dwarf woman shows up and says she is protecting me from the worm as part of some broader attempt to Save The World, but we should work together by using the worm's power and absorbing other worms. This sounded Shady As Hell so I am Not Doing That, but the other companions got the same dream and I let Astarion eat a spare worm from killing a goblin True Soul. He asked nicely and he's already kinda evil, it's fine.
After defeating the goblin leaders we go back to camp with the druid leader Halsin to stop his evil second in command Elf Margaret Thatcher from doing the shady ritual and leaving the refugees to die.
The guide I read gave some advice on uncovering some evil plot of hers but it didn't look straightforward and I decided to leave it for another playthrough.
And then you wish the refugees well as they prepare to leave for Baldur's gate on their own terms without having to worry about goblins, and there is a big party!
A big party where EVERYONE WANTS TO HAVE SEX WITH YOU.
Specifically, Halsin, who I'm pretty sure is bear sex dude!
He was vague about his interest, and Buff Older Elf is not really my type even asides from Tav not being entirely the one night stand type, so instead I told him to go have fun with everyone else which he was cool with.
The tiefling NPCs are just hanging out having a good time, which was cute to see after they were all so worried. But every time I went to talk to one of the companions they had VERY OVERT sex conversations, either hitting on Tav or explicitly NOT hitting on them, which worked fine individually but did break my immersion a bit in aggregate.
I didn't think Astarion liked Tav that much since he keeps disapproving every time they're selfless and trusting, but I guess they won him over by letting him drink blood from the people we fight (he said he'd never drunk a sentient beings blood before Tav and it is REALLY tasty, and his 'we're going to kill them anyway' logic was pretty compelling. Also I guess I gave him that worm. Tav is too much of a pushover to be able to handle Astarion is what I'm saying)
I was going to turn him down but then there was the chance to have Tav say "Say please" with a charisma check, which was too tempting. He did say please, which was pretty charming, so Tav said "maybe". I don't see them working out long term but he'd be fun with the right character, he has this snarky dissolute queer charmer trying to protect a secretly slightly squishy heart vibe I'm into, like a cross between Zevran and Dorian. His backstory is that he isn't a full vampire, he is in thrall to the vampire who turned him, and was a slave to a vampire family until he was "lost". So I'm guessing they'll show up and use their control over him and we get to kill them so he's free, which sounds fun.
Lae'zel went on this angry rant about how Tav will have to be CONSUMED WITH REGRET about the MIND BLOWING SEX they COULD be having if Tav PAID HER ANY RESPECT, then stormed off to apparently have fun with someone else. Which was surreal since I hadn't realised this was the "everyone discusses sex with Tav" party yet and Tav's reaction was mostly "You were into me? Uh...have fun with other people I guess??"
Gale good-naturedly said he likes Tav ok but they're not close enough for sex, which is how Tav feels too.
I somehow missed Wyll, but imagine he'll hit on Tav since he's a big fan of all the people saving they do. Which will be a little awkward because Tav has already given their heart...to Shadowheart.
Ahhh, Shadowheart. She's like a cross between Leliana and Morrigan and I am Into It.
She has a very brittle vibe, she's coldly aloof and snooty with a veneer of passive aggressive politeness, but a little kindness from Tav made her warm up pretty quickly, and she appreciated that they didn't push her to explain her secrets until she was ready. She has a sort of shaky tone like she's constantly holding herself back from complete collapse beneath a thin shell of composure.
Her most obvious secret is the Mysterious Artefact, which she doesn't seem to understand much more than we do.
A secret that didn't come out until later is who she's a cleric for: the Dark Goddess Shar. Who I had never heard of, so I initially had no reservations about being all "Of course I'm ok with your religious beliefs", but the more Shadowheart explains the more I see why people generally have Issues with Shar, and the more I want to save Shadowheart from her.
Shadowheart is a member of an order of like...Shar Nuns, she's always dreamed of becoming a Justiciar, dispensing violent justice for Shar to prepare for the day Shar covers the world in beautiful darkness. Yay! But the mother superior said she wasn't ready. Shadowheart was sent on a mission (to get the artefact?) and chose to have most of her memory wiped so she couldn't betray Shar. She also has a thing with her hand which sometimes consumes her in excruciating pain from Shar. She doesn't know why, but says she can bear it knowing Shar must have a good reason.
She says she doesn't generally get close to people but feels a connection to Tav, and I want to SAVE HER FROM HER CULT and give her HUGS. I saved last night just after agreeing to "share a bottle of wine" with her alone, after the party, so we'll see how that goes. It feels a bit early for sex but as long as the relationship progresses emotionally after this it's fine. I'm going to watch the first sex scene to see
Not a fan of her being fantasy racist against Lae'zel but at least she wasn't fantasy racist against tieflings!
AWWWW I just finished the party.
I realised I'd missed Withers, too, I was a bit worried HE'D hit on me but he just mentioned he can recruit "other souls who have been trapped by the fight against the Absolute" eg NPCs with useful battle skills the companions might not have.
When Tav tracked down Wyll they just had a nice conversation, Tav had the opportunity to hit on him but didn't take it.
The post-party date with Shadowheart was very sweet, they hung out and Tav told a story from their past (which the game didn't show, a cute way of letting the backstory be whatever you want it to be) and they sat chatting until dawn. Then there was the opportunity to look into her eyes and they kiss and that's it. Cute!
And it makes sense for Astarion and Lae'zel to consider sex sooner, given their characters.
The next morning the plot continues!
It seems that other than those of us wormed on the ship, True Souls generally get wormed at a place called Moonrise Towers, so we'll be going there next along with Halsin. There was some talk about who will take over from him while he's gone which made me feel like my choices might lead to things going better or worse for the druids, but I guess we'll see.
There's two routes to Moonrise Towers: one overland, which is easy at first but then passes through cursed Shadowlands which turn you evil, and one underground which avoids the shadowlands but passes through an abandoned Shar Justificar settlement. Shadowheart perked up at that, so, guess that's my decision made! I am sure it will be a fun trip where we bond and I learn more about her lovely culture.
Tav is all "Go to Moonrise Towers, kill whoever is in charge of the worms, be free, done!" which is absolutely not going to be what happens. But before that I'm going to explore this area for a while, there's sidequests to track down an evil demon Wyll is chasing and a creche of Githyanki (who live in...rocks in space??) for Lae'zel, and I just want to explore more in general before I leave.
And that seems like a good place to stop for now!
EDIT: Since I ended up uploading someone else's Shadowheart pic in a later post, here she is:
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Date: 2023-08-15 05:06 am (UTC)Tav has persuaded a squirrel to stop biting their footTav's opinion is mostly that Everyone Should Be Friends, they have had mixed success persuading the druids of this but they have managed to de-escalate several near-murders
OH TAV.
so Tav smeared poop on their face and kissed some guy's feet because sure, whatever.
...and I thought the bear sex was the wild bit. xD
Also, Shadowheart sounds delightful!
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Date: 2023-08-15 06:23 am (UTC)She IS delightful, though I just met the final female love interest who is also delightful in a whole other way. Welp, I was going to replay anyway!
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Date: 2023-08-15 07:05 am (UTC)This bit:
Tav had a weird dream where a pretty bearded dwarf woman shows up
made me think... didn't you design two characters at the beginning, your PC and a dwarf woman? Was the dream character the one you designed? I have no particular knowledge of the game plot, it just seems like that is where another customized character might show up. (Also maybe I doubt that the game designers would have deliberately made a plot-relevant bearded dwarf woman, but you mentioned you made one. Maybe I underestimate them; I didn't expect a nonbinary PC option, but I'm delighted there is one!)
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Date: 2023-08-15 08:48 am (UTC)Ooh...hmm, I don't remember exactly what she looked like, maybe??? Although I set the gender as non-binary (I was thinking of her as a woman but thought I might as well) and I think people referred to this character as a woman. Hmmmmm. It would make sense if this spirit plucked the appearance from my mind, though. I guess I can check with someone else and see!
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Date: 2023-08-15 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-19 11:58 am (UTC)I think I just misremembered what gender was used (or what gender I set). I'm amused that, having forgotten I designed the character, I was impressed by the game's character design ;)
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Date: 2023-08-15 04:33 pm (UTC)So um. Um. I just. And now I'm killing everyone inside as well. But slower, because this is getting out of control. I suspect I'm going to become A Supreme Goblin Annihilator and I can't see me leaving this city for like three days because of it x.x
*cries but also skalfjsadf wheee*
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Date: 2023-08-19 11:57 am (UTC)Yeah I feel a little bad that I didn't kill those slavers, tbh.