BG3: The importance of naps
Aug. 26th, 2023 07:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrNew patch just dropped adding more Shadowheart smooches :D
Masterpost
Wandering around the top floor of the brothel, I came across a room belonging to Gale's gandalf-y wizard friend, which included some tits out leather clothes and many bookshelves full of porn.
How's that for an opening line, haha.
Since the previous room had contained a sex-worker and her mindflayer client, I was wondering what might be in the final brothel-adjacent room, but was not expecting... Raphael, the devil who wanted us to do a deal with him to remove our brainworms (which he, like a lot of people, refers to as tadpoles, but I think that sounds even sillier than 'brainworms')
He finally explained what the actual deal is: he has a hammer which can free Prince Orpheus, and Orpheus can then remove the parasites (though whether he would is an open question) In return for the hammer, Raphael wants the crown being used to control the Absolute/Elder Brain. The crown's history is a sort of mix of the Silmarils and One Ring, created by an arrogant would-be god whose city Netheril fell from the sky in consequence, scattering their advanced relics to the winds. As I recall the magic-devouring orb inside Gale is another relic from Netheril. I'm guessing the crown didn't used to be the size of a building, unless people from Netheril had very large heads.
Raphael says he just wants the crown to create his ideal fascist Devil Utopia in the nine hells, but even Tav doesn't trust him to stop there.
Still, I did have a moment of indecision. I really want to free Orpheus. But Tav thinks giving Raphael that much power would do even more harm than leaving Orpheus as he is, and I think the game will give me a better option in time. It is a genuinely good moral dilemma though!
I decided to take a nap to see if anything interesting would happen, and sure enough it did: we were visited by a SKYSCRAPER TALL VISION OF THE GITHYANKI QUEEN. She demanded that Lae'zel bow and swear to kill the 'traitor' Orpheus, promising to promote Lae'zel to the most honoured group of guards in return.
I had the option to try and persuade Lae'zel, but given that we've barely spoken I decided I was better off reading the queen's mind for incriminating Secrets. Tav doesn't like reading people's minds but this felt justified. AND BOY WAS IT: turns out the queen EATS the minds of the 'honoured' guards to steal their memories and chase after immortality.
Lae'zel gave a fierce speech rejecting the queen and vowing loyalty to Orpheus. Afterwards, she was feeling down about her life being proven a lie, but Tav managed to cheer her up a little. Everyone else in camp admired Lae'zel's grit for standing up to her queen.
At first Lae'zel wanted to take Raphael's deal, but when Tav said "We're going to STEAL the hammer :D" Lae'zel was mollified and grudgingly impressed. I have no idea HOW we're going to steal the hammer, but I'm sure Tav will figure something out.
A sad little refugee girl we had previously been nice to wandered into camp with her cat saying she can't find her mother, asking to stay in return for doing the cooking. Shadowheart immediately popped up to point out that children don't eat much, bless. Tav naturally said yes, hopefully everyone likes her cooking more than the stale bread and rotten cheese Tav has been looting from random crates.
I couldn't get the game to let me talk to the cat, but it knows something about the missing mother, I'm sure.
I realised that Shadowheart's new hairstyle doesn't just have white hair, but also a better fringe! It's growing on me.
The Emperor showed up in Tav's dreams, and reminisced about it's ex-girlfriend, with whom it once basically ruled Baldur's Gate. Tav tried respond in ways which walked the line of "supportive, but not up for tentacle sex".
The Emporer's bedroom eyes:
The edge of this area is the gate to the Lower City, blocked by guards who said that I could only pass if I had an invite to the party for Gortash's coronation as Archduke.
So now we have to get into that party! And I have no idea how. The quest description just says "someone in town might know something useful" but I've talked to everyone in town who looked like they had much to say. So now I have to decide if I can be bothered wandering around more, or if I want to look up a walkthrough.
SWEET. WHILE I WAS THINKING ABOUT IT, A MAJOR PATCH DROPPED :D
I downloaded it and decided to wander around a bit to see if anything interesting happened, and in the process realised I'd missed the ONE building with multiple Clues I needed.
Before that: I forgot to mention earlier that we met a group of Roma-y feeling people who said Astarion had stolen their children for his master Cazador, and he owed it to them to get the children back. At first Astarion said there was no point since the kids would have been eaten by now, but Tav persuaded him to at least look, and if nothing else get revenge. The parents said this wouldn't be enough for them to forgive Astarion but it would be a small step towards redemption for all the horrible things he'd done in 200 years as a vampire minion.
So! In the incredibly obvious building I had somehow previously missed, we bumped into Astarion's "siblings", eg fellow thralls of his former master Cazador. One was smugly telling the other how much he was looking forward to eating people once the ritual was complete and Cazador freed them. Astarion laughed that this guy had always been stupid, then held him in sunlight, burning, until Tav persuaded Astarion to stop. They gave some info on the ritual then ran away.
Tav: I'm glad you let them go :)
Astarion: I am capable of doing the right thing sometimes, you know.
Me: Aww.
Astarion: It's not right for them to die to give power to Cazador. They should die to give power to me.
Tav: You'll really kill your family? :(
Astarion: I'd kill someone's else's family if that was an option!
Further in we found info about a whole bunch of murders that the cult of Baal was getting would-be initiates to do and then blame on the cult of the Absolute. These included the dead priest, the dead clown, and... the dwarf librarian sex worker? Bringing this to the investigator got us an invite into the Lower City to discuss it with another investigator, hooray!
As soon as we passed through the gate, one of Gortash's robots came up and spoke with his voice, inviting us to his coronation. HMM. Exploring further, I bumped into Wyll's devil patron, who said we should definitely go to the coronation and make sure to bring Wyll. HMMMM. And when I walked back out and started going further into the city instead, she teleported in front of Tav to say they REALLY should go to the coronation. HMMMMMMM.
I'm guessing the coronation is an evil soul sucking ritual that kills all the attendees.
I wasn't feeling up for that, so instead went to go have a nap to see if that shook free any patched scenes, specifically one of the missing Shadowheart romance scenes the patch notes said had been fixed.
And lo! In camp, Shadowheart had a little "talk to me" marker, and asked Tav to meet her on the beach after everyone was asleep.
Gale also had a little "talk to me marker". I sighed and went to see if he was going to declare his love again.
But no! He wanted to berate Tav for... signing a contract with Raphael?? That better be a bug with Gale's dialogue and not the game thinking Tav actually did that. Because they very much did not! Tav managed to calm Gale down by saying they lied to Raphael, and promising to take him to a bookshop. He really wants to go to a bookshop, it's cute. I wonder if he has special dialogue if he's in your party when you go to his friend's porn library.
The scene later with Shadowheart was very sweet. She can't swim, and wanted to face her fear of water, and prove to herself she can face fears in general without Shar, by swimming with Tav. Specifically, skinny-dipping, which Tav had no objections to. I was a bit worried that all the genital settings meant the sex scenes would be more visceral than I like but it was pretty tasteful and brief, focussing more on their connection than being sexy. It was a bit disconcerting when Tav's tail moved and their butt had a big transparent gap in it, though (did I mention Tav has a tail? It's really long and cool looking. Also tieflings sure have a lot of ridges everywhere)
Masterpost
Wandering around the top floor of the brothel, I came across a room belonging to Gale's gandalf-y wizard friend, which included some tits out leather clothes and many bookshelves full of porn.
How's that for an opening line, haha.
Since the previous room had contained a sex-worker and her mindflayer client, I was wondering what might be in the final brothel-adjacent room, but was not expecting... Raphael, the devil who wanted us to do a deal with him to remove our brainworms (which he, like a lot of people, refers to as tadpoles, but I think that sounds even sillier than 'brainworms')
He finally explained what the actual deal is: he has a hammer which can free Prince Orpheus, and Orpheus can then remove the parasites (though whether he would is an open question) In return for the hammer, Raphael wants the crown being used to control the Absolute/Elder Brain. The crown's history is a sort of mix of the Silmarils and One Ring, created by an arrogant would-be god whose city Netheril fell from the sky in consequence, scattering their advanced relics to the winds. As I recall the magic-devouring orb inside Gale is another relic from Netheril. I'm guessing the crown didn't used to be the size of a building, unless people from Netheril had very large heads.
Raphael says he just wants the crown to create his ideal fascist Devil Utopia in the nine hells, but even Tav doesn't trust him to stop there.
Still, I did have a moment of indecision. I really want to free Orpheus. But Tav thinks giving Raphael that much power would do even more harm than leaving Orpheus as he is, and I think the game will give me a better option in time. It is a genuinely good moral dilemma though!
I decided to take a nap to see if anything interesting would happen, and sure enough it did: we were visited by a SKYSCRAPER TALL VISION OF THE GITHYANKI QUEEN. She demanded that Lae'zel bow and swear to kill the 'traitor' Orpheus, promising to promote Lae'zel to the most honoured group of guards in return.
I had the option to try and persuade Lae'zel, but given that we've barely spoken I decided I was better off reading the queen's mind for incriminating Secrets. Tav doesn't like reading people's minds but this felt justified. AND BOY WAS IT: turns out the queen EATS the minds of the 'honoured' guards to steal their memories and chase after immortality.
Lae'zel gave a fierce speech rejecting the queen and vowing loyalty to Orpheus. Afterwards, she was feeling down about her life being proven a lie, but Tav managed to cheer her up a little. Everyone else in camp admired Lae'zel's grit for standing up to her queen.
At first Lae'zel wanted to take Raphael's deal, but when Tav said "We're going to STEAL the hammer :D" Lae'zel was mollified and grudgingly impressed. I have no idea HOW we're going to steal the hammer, but I'm sure Tav will figure something out.
A sad little refugee girl we had previously been nice to wandered into camp with her cat saying she can't find her mother, asking to stay in return for doing the cooking. Shadowheart immediately popped up to point out that children don't eat much, bless. Tav naturally said yes, hopefully everyone likes her cooking more than the stale bread and rotten cheese Tav has been looting from random crates.
I couldn't get the game to let me talk to the cat, but it knows something about the missing mother, I'm sure.
I realised that Shadowheart's new hairstyle doesn't just have white hair, but also a better fringe! It's growing on me.
The Emperor showed up in Tav's dreams, and reminisced about it's ex-girlfriend, with whom it once basically ruled Baldur's Gate. Tav tried respond in ways which walked the line of "supportive, but not up for tentacle sex".
The Emporer's bedroom eyes:
The edge of this area is the gate to the Lower City, blocked by guards who said that I could only pass if I had an invite to the party for Gortash's coronation as Archduke.
So now we have to get into that party! And I have no idea how. The quest description just says "someone in town might know something useful" but I've talked to everyone in town who looked like they had much to say. So now I have to decide if I can be bothered wandering around more, or if I want to look up a walkthrough.
SWEET. WHILE I WAS THINKING ABOUT IT, A MAJOR PATCH DROPPED :D
I downloaded it and decided to wander around a bit to see if anything interesting happened, and in the process realised I'd missed the ONE building with multiple Clues I needed.
Before that: I forgot to mention earlier that we met a group of Roma-y feeling people who said Astarion had stolen their children for his master Cazador, and he owed it to them to get the children back. At first Astarion said there was no point since the kids would have been eaten by now, but Tav persuaded him to at least look, and if nothing else get revenge. The parents said this wouldn't be enough for them to forgive Astarion but it would be a small step towards redemption for all the horrible things he'd done in 200 years as a vampire minion.
So! In the incredibly obvious building I had somehow previously missed, we bumped into Astarion's "siblings", eg fellow thralls of his former master Cazador. One was smugly telling the other how much he was looking forward to eating people once the ritual was complete and Cazador freed them. Astarion laughed that this guy had always been stupid, then held him in sunlight, burning, until Tav persuaded Astarion to stop. They gave some info on the ritual then ran away.
Tav: I'm glad you let them go :)
Astarion: I am capable of doing the right thing sometimes, you know.
Me: Aww.
Astarion: It's not right for them to die to give power to Cazador. They should die to give power to me.
Tav: You'll really kill your family? :(
Astarion: I'd kill someone's else's family if that was an option!
Further in we found info about a whole bunch of murders that the cult of Baal was getting would-be initiates to do and then blame on the cult of the Absolute. These included the dead priest, the dead clown, and... the dwarf librarian sex worker? Bringing this to the investigator got us an invite into the Lower City to discuss it with another investigator, hooray!
As soon as we passed through the gate, one of Gortash's robots came up and spoke with his voice, inviting us to his coronation. HMM. Exploring further, I bumped into Wyll's devil patron, who said we should definitely go to the coronation and make sure to bring Wyll. HMMMM. And when I walked back out and started going further into the city instead, she teleported in front of Tav to say they REALLY should go to the coronation. HMMMMMMM.
I'm guessing the coronation is an evil soul sucking ritual that kills all the attendees.
I wasn't feeling up for that, so instead went to go have a nap to see if that shook free any patched scenes, specifically one of the missing Shadowheart romance scenes the patch notes said had been fixed.
And lo! In camp, Shadowheart had a little "talk to me" marker, and asked Tav to meet her on the beach after everyone was asleep.
Gale also had a little "talk to me marker". I sighed and went to see if he was going to declare his love again.
But no! He wanted to berate Tav for... signing a contract with Raphael?? That better be a bug with Gale's dialogue and not the game thinking Tav actually did that. Because they very much did not! Tav managed to calm Gale down by saying they lied to Raphael, and promising to take him to a bookshop. He really wants to go to a bookshop, it's cute. I wonder if he has special dialogue if he's in your party when you go to his friend's porn library.
The scene later with Shadowheart was very sweet. She can't swim, and wanted to face her fear of water, and prove to herself she can face fears in general without Shar, by swimming with Tav. Specifically, skinny-dipping, which Tav had no objections to. I was a bit worried that all the genital settings meant the sex scenes would be more visceral than I like but it was pretty tasteful and brief, focussing more on their connection than being sexy. It was a bit disconcerting when Tav's tail moved and their butt had a big transparent gap in it, though (did I mention Tav has a tail? It's really long and cool looking. Also tieflings sure have a lot of ridges everywhere)
