BG3: A delicious vampire pretzel
Sep. 12th, 2023 06:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrMasterpost
Up to just after the big party in Act 1.
Since I followed a guide to find evidence of Kagha being aligned with the Evil Radical Environmentalist Shadow Druids, I got to confront and then kill her! Astarion even approved :D The Shadow Druids apparently hate all sentient life but were especially anti-tiefling racist >:( Also it turns out the unfriendly rats hanging around Kagha are Shadow Druids in disguise, which will be funny to know in other playthroughs.
I was a little bit of a jerk to Alfira just because I couldn't imagine Stav caring about her song, but I still felt a little horrified just seeing the "smash her lute" option. I am too weak for all the really evil options in this game.
It was interesting wandering around the druid camp getting people's reactions to Kagha being dead, a lot of the druids clearly would have preferred to go down the xenophobic isolationist path but are too passive to do anything about it with her gone, so just mutter pissily about Stav "meddling". No wonder Halsin left these assholes behind the moment he had an excuse. But it feels a lot more believable than everyone going "Thanks for saving us from our bad leader we had no idea had such unfortunate politics!"
I went to the goblin camp and had a moderately different experience thanks to Stav being such a different person to Tav: instead of endearing themself to the goblin guards by putting poop on their face, Stav just cheerfully lied about having an appointment, and instead of kissing the foot of the goblin bully Crusher, Stav made Crusher kiss their foot.
There was an amazing moment after passing the first intimidate check, I took a screenshot:
![Stav looks down their nose at the goblin Crusher, who is actually a little taller, so Stav has to tilt their head back a lot. Crusher: Errgh... look, mate. Just piss off. You're not welcome 'ere. 1. Not so high and mighty, after all. ยป 2. [BARBARIAN] [INTIMIDATION] FOOT. KISS. NOW! 3. [ILLITHID] [WISDOM] You will obey me. Kneel. 4. Leave.](https://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/file/334521.jpg "bg3 stav foot")
Look at Stav's fantastic expression. I chose the first option, to which Crusher unwisely responded by attempting to kill Stav. There was a brief battle during which all of Crusher's goblin friends ran away after being hit once, and Crusher gave up after a few hits and begged to yield.
Astarion said something like "Yield? Since when was that an option? Gut the little weasel."
So on the one hand Stav doesn't like killing an enemy who is attempting to surrender, on the other I do like getting Astarion's approval, and Crusher clearly deserved a good gutting. Luckily there was the option to just demand he kiss Tav's foot then let him go, which was that rare perfect balance of asshole and basic human decency to get everyone's approval. Gale said "And let this be a lesson to you young man!" in such a dad voice.
On the whole I avoided talking to too many goblins, because I both find them unpleasant and feel bad murdering people I've talked to.
I found the owlbear cub, which was being chased for sport around the camp. It implied the only way to rescue it is to murder the whole camp, turns out there's the option to buy it but I found out too late. See, while I knew I'd have to kill at least a fair proportion of the goblins at some point, I was planning on looking around a bit first, buy some stuff from the Very Unethical Traders and maybe talk to the Evil Path minion Minthara, and then start killing. But then I stumbled across a scene I totally missed last time...
A hobgoblin True Soul is attempting to wow an audience of goblins by resurrecting a mindflayer that the Absolute thinks may know the location of Shadowheart's mysterious artifact (the prism that *cough cough spoiler spoiler*) At first I was just curious to watch what was happening, until the narrator pointed out that the mindflayer might recognise Stav. So Stav interrupted the ritual and killed everyone in the room, which made every goblin in the camp want to kill them. Oh well, I was going to kill them eventually anyway! And I had cheats this time.
(Last time I had aggro-ed the camp before I entered that room, so they just tried to kill me the moment I entered the room. I did wonder why there was a mindflayer corpse in front of a stage)
It was still cool encountering the scene organically. And while I didn't get to talk to Minthara I did at least notice which enemy she was before I killed her.
I carefully knocked out the goblin children non-lethally when I rescued Halsin, which means if I ever go in that room again they'll presumably wake up and attack again but I don't think I'll have any cause to. Afaict thus far this has been a zero child murder playthrough, go me! I even left the adult goblins an their pet wargs in that room alive, so they can all live together now that everyone else is dead. It's fine.
Well except that when I went back out into the main goblin camp I killed a whooole lot of goblins, some of whom may have been children. But I didn't hunt down the ones I remember being around the corner, so maybe they're ok. Hopefully that's enough dead for the owlbear chick to show up, I guess I'll see.
Kagha being dead didn't change a lot about how things play out once Halsin gets back to the druids, but I'm happier knowing she won't be around to cause trouble once he's gone.
Gale: Urgh. My mysterious condition... I need a magical item...
Stav: Getting real sick of you eating all my loot, Gale >:(
Gale: I'm sorry... but I'll die...
Stav: Fine. Eat these shoes, I wasn't using them anyway.
Gale: Thank you!! ...oh no it's not working. I guess it's time I told you all... I have a magic orb in my chest which will explode unless I can calm it :( I'll understand if you're angry. If you prefer, I can leave and never trouble you again... ;_;
Stav: Hells yeah I'm angry! What would happen if I did kick you out?
Gale: Away from the artifact, I'd start turning into a mindflayer. So I'd take myself into the Underdark and kill myself, trying make sure noone innocent was hurt by the resulting explosion.
Stav: Huh, that's pretty dark. What do you think, guys?
Lae'zel: THE REAL THREAT WAS AMONGST US ALL ALONG. KILL IT.
Astarion: How is this a question? Tell the walking bomb to leave!
Stav: Valid points. But hmm... I guess I'll let you stay for now. You better kill yourself if it comes down to it though!
Gale: Thank you, friends, you are so good to me ;_;
Gale.
The post-goblin-defeat party played out much the same as before, except Shadowheart was just vaguely friendly instead of flirty and Gale was the reverse. Shadowheart feeling surprised that she's happy to have saved a bunch of refugees was still pretty endearing. I briefly thought about making a quicksave to see Gale's romance scene but I felt too bad at the idea of leading him on. Have some standards, Gale, your ex was a goddess, you can do better than someone who is only begrudingly willing to do the bare minimum so you don't die.
Lae'zel complained that Tav had looked REALLY HOT killing all those goblins and she would QUITE HAVE LIKED TO HAVE SEX but it's FINE she will find SOMEONE ELSE. Sorry Lae'zel! I hear Gale is free and feeling lonely! (In a conversation on anghraine's post my brain presented me with the idea of Gale/Lae'zel and they would be so completely wrong for each other it's sort of compelling)
And when Astarion got flirty, Stav flirted back. While still covered in goblin blood but Astarion is probably into that.
I spent the sex scene a bit distracted by the height and size difference, Astarion towering over Stav before bending down to kiss them was a Lot. But then Astarion picked Stav up to make out against a tree which was a cute solution, overall the scene was well choreographed and cut to try and avoid any awkward visuals.
Knowing from my other playthrough and elsewhere that Astarion has sexual trauma and trouble with sexual boundaries made it a bit bittersweet. He was superficially into it but emotionally distant.
And then we went down into the Underdark! I actually did the puzzle in the goblin camp this time, I killed everyone too soon to actually get the relevant clues so I looked up a guide but luckily the game didn't care that Stav "just happened" to find the entrance. There's been a few times where Stav got to mention being from the Underdark, and that backstory has worked well with me finding it all a lot less confusing and difficult on my second playthrough.
It's funny seeing all the stuff about Shar and Selune and remembering that Stav has no idea Shadowheart worships Shar. I'm curious to know when that will come out.
I was curious about heights so took some screenshots:
Just as I was uploading this I remembered you get a more objective comparison in the Party Information screen. But I can't be bothered doing that now, and this way you get to see Tav's cool tail and how Stav's ponytail glints green in sunlight.
But yeah, not sure if I'll romance Halsin in this playthrough but if I do I hope his back is up to all the bending. Gnome!PC/bear!Halsin would be sure something, though I'm probably too squeamish to go for it myself.
And now, to go rescue some gnomes! Stav isn't always super excited about rescuing people but enslaved deep gnomes are definitely getting rescued and not left to die because the party wants a nap, Tav.
While I'm here, I found this video of someone choosing the Act 1 evil options amusing:
OH ALSO. I solved the mystery of the misgendered dream visitor! This time I made him a cis dude and Gale still referred to the visitor in his dream as "she" (noone else used gendered terms). So I guess they appeared to him as a woman, which is an interesting character choice, even if the fact it's a character choice and not a bug etc is a bit opaque on a first playthrough.
Up to just after the big party in Act 1.
Since I followed a guide to find evidence of Kagha being aligned with the Evil Radical Environmentalist Shadow Druids, I got to confront and then kill her! Astarion even approved :D The Shadow Druids apparently hate all sentient life but were especially anti-tiefling racist >:( Also it turns out the unfriendly rats hanging around Kagha are Shadow Druids in disguise, which will be funny to know in other playthroughs.
I was a little bit of a jerk to Alfira just because I couldn't imagine Stav caring about her song, but I still felt a little horrified just seeing the "smash her lute" option. I am too weak for all the really evil options in this game.
It was interesting wandering around the druid camp getting people's reactions to Kagha being dead, a lot of the druids clearly would have preferred to go down the xenophobic isolationist path but are too passive to do anything about it with her gone, so just mutter pissily about Stav "meddling". No wonder Halsin left these assholes behind the moment he had an excuse. But it feels a lot more believable than everyone going "Thanks for saving us from our bad leader we had no idea had such unfortunate politics!"
I went to the goblin camp and had a moderately different experience thanks to Stav being such a different person to Tav: instead of endearing themself to the goblin guards by putting poop on their face, Stav just cheerfully lied about having an appointment, and instead of kissing the foot of the goblin bully Crusher, Stav made Crusher kiss their foot.
There was an amazing moment after passing the first intimidate check, I took a screenshot:
Look at Stav's fantastic expression. I chose the first option, to which Crusher unwisely responded by attempting to kill Stav. There was a brief battle during which all of Crusher's goblin friends ran away after being hit once, and Crusher gave up after a few hits and begged to yield.
Astarion said something like "Yield? Since when was that an option? Gut the little weasel."
So on the one hand Stav doesn't like killing an enemy who is attempting to surrender, on the other I do like getting Astarion's approval, and Crusher clearly deserved a good gutting. Luckily there was the option to just demand he kiss Tav's foot then let him go, which was that rare perfect balance of asshole and basic human decency to get everyone's approval. Gale said "And let this be a lesson to you young man!" in such a dad voice.
On the whole I avoided talking to too many goblins, because I both find them unpleasant and feel bad murdering people I've talked to.
I found the owlbear cub, which was being chased for sport around the camp. It implied the only way to rescue it is to murder the whole camp, turns out there's the option to buy it but I found out too late. See, while I knew I'd have to kill at least a fair proportion of the goblins at some point, I was planning on looking around a bit first, buy some stuff from the Very Unethical Traders and maybe talk to the Evil Path minion Minthara, and then start killing. But then I stumbled across a scene I totally missed last time...
A hobgoblin True Soul is attempting to wow an audience of goblins by resurrecting a mindflayer that the Absolute thinks may know the location of Shadowheart's mysterious artifact (the prism that *cough cough spoiler spoiler*) At first I was just curious to watch what was happening, until the narrator pointed out that the mindflayer might recognise Stav. So Stav interrupted the ritual and killed everyone in the room, which made every goblin in the camp want to kill them. Oh well, I was going to kill them eventually anyway! And I had cheats this time.
(Last time I had aggro-ed the camp before I entered that room, so they just tried to kill me the moment I entered the room. I did wonder why there was a mindflayer corpse in front of a stage)
It was still cool encountering the scene organically. And while I didn't get to talk to Minthara I did at least notice which enemy she was before I killed her.
I carefully knocked out the goblin children non-lethally when I rescued Halsin, which means if I ever go in that room again they'll presumably wake up and attack again but I don't think I'll have any cause to. Afaict thus far this has been a zero child murder playthrough, go me! I even left the adult goblins an their pet wargs in that room alive, so they can all live together now that everyone else is dead. It's fine.
Well except that when I went back out into the main goblin camp I killed a whooole lot of goblins, some of whom may have been children. But I didn't hunt down the ones I remember being around the corner, so maybe they're ok. Hopefully that's enough dead for the owlbear chick to show up, I guess I'll see.
Kagha being dead didn't change a lot about how things play out once Halsin gets back to the druids, but I'm happier knowing she won't be around to cause trouble once he's gone.
Gale: Urgh. My mysterious condition... I need a magical item...
Stav: Getting real sick of you eating all my loot, Gale >:(
Gale: I'm sorry... but I'll die...
Stav: Fine. Eat these shoes, I wasn't using them anyway.
Gale: Thank you!! ...oh no it's not working. I guess it's time I told you all... I have a magic orb in my chest which will explode unless I can calm it :( I'll understand if you're angry. If you prefer, I can leave and never trouble you again... ;_;
Stav: Hells yeah I'm angry! What would happen if I did kick you out?
Gale: Away from the artifact, I'd start turning into a mindflayer. So I'd take myself into the Underdark and kill myself, trying make sure noone innocent was hurt by the resulting explosion.
Stav: Huh, that's pretty dark. What do you think, guys?
Lae'zel: THE REAL THREAT WAS AMONGST US ALL ALONG. KILL IT.
Astarion: How is this a question? Tell the walking bomb to leave!
Stav: Valid points. But hmm... I guess I'll let you stay for now. You better kill yourself if it comes down to it though!
Gale: Thank you, friends, you are so good to me ;_;
Gale.
The post-goblin-defeat party played out much the same as before, except Shadowheart was just vaguely friendly instead of flirty and Gale was the reverse. Shadowheart feeling surprised that she's happy to have saved a bunch of refugees was still pretty endearing. I briefly thought about making a quicksave to see Gale's romance scene but I felt too bad at the idea of leading him on. Have some standards, Gale, your ex was a goddess, you can do better than someone who is only begrudingly willing to do the bare minimum so you don't die.
Lae'zel complained that Tav had looked REALLY HOT killing all those goblins and she would QUITE HAVE LIKED TO HAVE SEX but it's FINE she will find SOMEONE ELSE. Sorry Lae'zel! I hear Gale is free and feeling lonely! (In a conversation on anghraine's post my brain presented me with the idea of Gale/Lae'zel and they would be so completely wrong for each other it's sort of compelling)
And when Astarion got flirty, Stav flirted back. While still covered in goblin blood but Astarion is probably into that.
I spent the sex scene a bit distracted by the height and size difference, Astarion towering over Stav before bending down to kiss them was a Lot. But then Astarion picked Stav up to make out against a tree which was a cute solution, overall the scene was well choreographed and cut to try and avoid any awkward visuals.
Knowing from my other playthrough and elsewhere that Astarion has sexual trauma and trouble with sexual boundaries made it a bit bittersweet. He was superficially into it but emotionally distant.
And then we went down into the Underdark! I actually did the puzzle in the goblin camp this time, I killed everyone too soon to actually get the relevant clues so I looked up a guide but luckily the game didn't care that Stav "just happened" to find the entrance. There's been a few times where Stav got to mention being from the Underdark, and that backstory has worked well with me finding it all a lot less confusing and difficult on my second playthrough.
It's funny seeing all the stuff about Shar and Selune and remembering that Stav has no idea Shadowheart worships Shar. I'm curious to know when that will come out.
I was curious about heights so took some screenshots:
Just as I was uploading this I remembered you get a more objective comparison in the Party Information screen. But I can't be bothered doing that now, and this way you get to see Tav's cool tail and how Stav's ponytail glints green in sunlight.
But yeah, not sure if I'll romance Halsin in this playthrough but if I do I hope his back is up to all the bending. Gnome!PC/bear!Halsin would be sure something, though I'm probably too squeamish to go for it myself.
And now, to go rescue some gnomes! Stav isn't always super excited about rescuing people but enslaved deep gnomes are definitely getting rescued and not left to die because the party wants a nap, Tav.
While I'm here, I found this video of someone choosing the Act 1 evil options amusing:
OH ALSO. I solved the mystery of the misgendered dream visitor! This time I made him a cis dude and Gale still referred to the visitor in his dream as "she" (noone else used gendered terms). So I guess they appeared to him as a woman, which is an interesting character choice, even if the fact it's a character choice and not a bug etc is a bit opaque on a first playthrough.
