The Once and Future Champion (Baldur's Gate 3/Dragon Age)

[TyricGaias]

We have faith in you cliff!

 

[DIT_grue]

Spoiler: Suggestions

I was familiar with the name from Jaheira's tales of her old adventures. 'Minsc the Mad Rashemaar' was one of the old heroes of Baldur's Gate just like Jaheira had been, an instrumental part of the defeat of Sarevok the Bhaalspawn and the cult of Bhaal over a century ago. Jaheira had been oddly silent about his fate after that, and I hadn't pressed, but his presence here was inexplicable. He was human, not half-even like Jaheira, and still clearly in the prime of life. What, did we have three impossible resurrections after a century now, just like Ketheric and Isobel had been?

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half-elven

Minsc's trail was easy enough to follow up to the lower level of the bank, both because the guards could tell us which way he'd gone and because there was only one real path to follow. We then diverged from the route we'd taken to head out the back door in the cellar, which led out onto the private dock the Counting House had in Grey Harbor. Minsc was on his knees at the foot of the pier, despairingly calling out to someone we couldn't see.

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This mostly makes sense, but might be a little clearer if you added a bit more, e.g. taken inwards to ... Having tried a few variants, I think I can now see why you'd go for shorter when clearer is so stubbornly difficult!

The attempt on Nine-Fingers had apparently been the signal to start, because as soon as they'd kicked in her office door every Zhentarim in the Guildhall had appaerntly drawn weapons and gone on the attack. Jaheira's mutterings about Zhentarim treachery had proven all too true. Since they'd been the hired security in the first place they already had teams of men strategically positioned to control all the access points to the Guildhall and have clear fields of fire across most of the trading floor and the tavern pit. Very few of Nine-Fingers' thieves were cowards but they weren't all trained warriors either, and they'd been split up and relaxing all over their own home base. The Zhentarim surprise attack would have momentum-

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apparently

"RALLY TO ME, BOYS!" her confident voice shook the rafters. "PUSH 'EM DOWN TO ME! IF yOU BLACK NETWORK FUCKS WANT ME THEN I'M STANDING RIGHT HERE! SO YOU BASTARDS JUST COME ON DOWN AND TAKE YOUR SHOT IF YOU THINK YOU'VE GOT THE STONES!"

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YOU

 

[LeonT]

At this point I suspect Boo is a Hamster that Wild Shaped into a Miniature Giant Space Hamster. Probably.

Also Shadowheart is adorable.

 

[Mr.Nobody]

Boo is Boo.

Just think of it like that and it'll all make sense.

Forever.

 

[Matrix Dragon]

Also Shadowheart is adorable.

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The Official Mod Animated short crossed my dash again earlier today, and I will remind you all of the most relevant part of it in regards to this fic.

BUNNY.

 

[cliffc999]

Apparently if you play as origin Lae'zel and romance Shadowheart, then go off to the astral to fight in Orpheus' war of liberation at the end of the game, your Selunite gf goes a little stir-crazy sitting around her farm cabin waiting for you to get back from your overseas deployment.

"Four dogs, eight cats, nine chickens, four sheep, a milk cow named Daphne, a squirrel who's far too clever for her own good, and a wolf cub I found orphaned in some woods."

That last is particularly hilarious because part of Shadowheart's Shar brainwashing was a crippling phobia of wolves (her father is a werewolf, and her brainwashers apparently thought that would be funny). They couldn't even get that part to stick right. *g*

My own Tav romanced Shadowheart and at the epilogue party I met the grown-up owlbear, and invited him back to stay with us. Then I realized I hadn't asked my partner about re-adopting an adult owlbear first. The dialogue option when I went over and told her about it had her gushing about how she'd wanted to invite him back home after the battle against the Absolute but he'd wandered off before she had a chance to ask. *g*

 

[BigBad]

I got that same list from Shadowheart after romancing her with my Tav. She's just an animal girlie.

To this day, I don't know why Minsc is a Ranger. Well, I get it sort of, because he has an animal companion, but he's almost the perfect Barbarian. He's a massively strong berserker with a low Int and Wis. Aragorn, this man is not.

 

[cliffc999]

Minsc dates back to a previous edition of D&D where the barbarian did not really exist as a PC class, so wilderness warriors were rangers.

 

[Faralis]

There is also the ( quite ancient ) lore that there was always a ranger with the witch ( which were the de facto rulers of that nation ), to protect her. I forgot what country was that, in any case... I suppose he was selected for his bravery, because surely it wasn't his WIS...

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Rashemen

 

[Lucid Lunacy]

Firstly, WHOOHOO! Glad to see you writing again Cliff! I have an irrepressible grin on my face right now! Secondly, how did I miss this fic existing for months?! Gah.

While I only played Origins myself, I know enough of the other two, and I know at least enough of BG3, if not D&D in general to follow along. More importantly, I know you know both settings very well. I am stoked for a fic from you with this crossover! (Though I lament the impetus that caused it. Fuck Veilguard.)

 

[2 Hot Crown Subdues the Sinful]

Shadowheart is like so real.

 

[Velk]

Found a little something in my feed that should help wet some appetites while we wait for the next chapter.

Companions Reactions to Drow Companion's Pregnancy

Just a bit of cut content.

 

[Domino]

To this day, I don't know why Minsc is a Ranger. Well, I get it sort of, because he has an animal companion, but he's almost the perfect Barbarian. He's a massively strong berserker with a low Int and Wis. Aragorn, this man is not.

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As cliff said, there wasn't a barbarian class in the original version of the game he first appeared in (kits weren't a thing until BG2 and animal companions weren't a thing in those games either) - he was a ranger with the special ability to enter a berserk rage 1/day, which was actually super useful because even without the ability to control him, a +2 Damage/THAC0 bonus was a very nice buff at the low levels the game took place in - just make sure that he's in the middle of a bunch of enemies, because he turns into a walking chainsaw who automatically targets the closest being every round for two turns. Between his Berserk and his naturally high physical stats and morale, he's one of the best front line warriors in the original game for a non-evil run.

 

[wellis]

How different would the old Baldur Gate games have been if they had been made during the d20/3.5 era like say Temple of Elemental Evil was? Like would the mechanical changes between 2e & 3e have really changed up the games in gameplay or lore?

 

[Lucid Lunacy]

The fucking second Raphael showed up I started hearing his damn theme song in my head. It got stuck in my head off and on for two hours. I tried to take a break from the story to dislodge it, but I'd be doing something and fifteen minutes later in my head: "Lives, all mortal lives, expire..."

As if I didn't already want to punch him in his smug, prick face.

 

[LeonT]

The Official Mod Animated short crossed my dash again earlier today, and I will remind you all of the most relevant part of it in regards to this fic.

BUNNY.

Click to shrink...

>Get animals
>Learn Enlarge/Reduce
>Show Shadowheart big animals tiny and tiny animals big
>???
>Profit

 

[cliffc999]

"The Steel Watch." Nine-Fingers said disgustedly. We'd been in conference in her office for almost half an hour, getting an in-depth briefing on the state of affairs in town and trying to brainstorm our next moves. Mol had actually tried to ride our coat-tails in here but had been immediately caught out and ejected, but was still waiting outside the office.

"An army of giant steel war golems that obeys Gortash's every command." I acknowledged. "So that was his 'miracle victory' against the armies of the Absolute. Between that and his control of Grand Duke Ravengard, it's no wonder that he's getting himself 'elected' as Archduke."

"Not to mention that the Council of Four has basically gone tits-up anyway." Nine-Fingers snorted. "Ravengard was decoyed out of town for most of the run-up to this and you just told me he got a tadpole stuffed in his head on the way back. Vanthampur got taken out as backlash of her own dealing with devils earlier and the whole Absolute crisis kicked off before the Peers could select her replacement. Portyr's a weathervane who's never taken a controversial position in his life and is scared shitless of Gortash anyway, and now Stelmane's dead. The quorum's temporarily down to just the two of them, so with Ravengard nominating it and Portyr seconding it the Council had no problem passing the motion that would dissolve the Council and hand executive power over Baldur's Gate to our lovely new Archduke.'

"I'm new to Baldur's Gate, so I'm a little behind." I asked. "Duke isn't a hereditary position?"

"Yes and no." Nine-Fingers said. "If you made it that high then you're automatically a patriar if you weren't already. And generally you've got to either die without kids or else really screw up to not have the election of your heir to your Ducal seat be basically a done deal. But you're not a Duke unless you're sitting on the Council of Four and with one exception, you're not on the Council unless you're elected by the Peers to fill the vacancy."

"That one exemption is to rise up through the ranks of the Flaming Fist and become Marshal - by tradition, one of the four Council seats is always held by the Marshal. That's how Father made it that high in the first place." Wyll contributed.

"Still can't believe the Grand Duke's son went and grew horns." Nine-Fingers shook her head wonderingly. "That's even weirder than him sitting in my office having a civil conversation."

"Strange bedfellows, and you haven't even been the strangest." Wyll said equably.

"Back to the golems." Karlach said. "How exactly are we dealing with an entire army of fifteen-foot-tall war machines that can punch through castle walls and have all got swords taller than I am and use bloody ballistas as crossbows?"

"First thought that comes to mind? By not fighting them." I immediately replied.

"That's how we've been doing it so far, as well as taking advantage of the fact that they can't go through tight spaces or inside buildings." Nine-Fingers agreed. "But even so, they've still been a frightful pain in the arse. Nothing that big has any right being that fast, but those bastards can run down anything short of a galloping horse on the straightaway. And while their hearing is only average, they see everything. Even being invisible doesn't work, we've tried. And worst of all - if you get tagged by one Steel Watcher, they all know who you are. Instantly. I lost a whole crew finding that one out."

"You're saying that they're all magically networked?" Gale raised an eyebrow. "That violates everything I know about golem animation. There's a harsh upper limit on how many instructions they can keep in mind at once, and using conditional statements harshes that limit even further! And I've never heard of a mechanism that could think!"

"How much thinking does it take to just call out a warning? Guard dogs can do that." Karlach asked.

"Let's imagine that you're walking through Basilisk Gate and suddenly the Steel Watcher there recognizes you as the notorious Karlach." Gale lectured. "It immediately broadcasts a signal to all nearby Steel Watchers and gives chase, while any nearby Steel Watchers move to cut you off. Do you have any idea how logically complex a process this is? First off, the Steel Watcher in question has to transmit your description, and even if it's something as relatively simple as 'the six-and-a-half-foot-tall red tiefling lady with one broken horn' that's still four separate variables a Steel Watcher has to test against every single person in its line of sight before deciding if any one of those people is their target or not. Assuming that Steel Watcher identifies you, it then has to determine how far away you are in what direction from it, add that to its own current location that it has to constantly keep track of, and then every other Steel Watcher on the network has to use that position fix to decide if you're close enough to be worth bothering with at all, mentally plot you relative to the street layout of Baldur's Gate, determine your probable route from that, and then calculate an intercept course-"

"We begin to understand the scope of the problem, thank you." Lae'zel quietly shut down the building flood of erudition.

"So we're expected to believe that Gortash has somehow built a calculating machine inconceivably more complex than any previously known, and is doing so cheaply enough that he can put them in disposable war machines and patrol the entire city with them." Shadowheart said. "If true, that would be an achievement of magical artifice so profound that it would make both Elminster and the High Priest of Gond weep in envy. Which of course begs the obvious question; if Gortash has supposedly been that superhumanly intelligent all along, then why would he ever need to ally with the other Chosen?"

"He's always been a clever dick, but nobody's that clever." Karlach agreed. "You're right, he's got to be cheating somehow. But how?"

"Well if he could only do it after helping found the Cult of the Absolute, then that logically suggests he needed them to pull it off. Except Ketheric's genius was for warfare, not artifice, and while we don't know much about Orin so far we haven't caught any of her doppelganger assassins using anything more complex than knives and swords." I thought out loud. "So who does that leave?"

"The elder brain." Lae'zel's eyes opened. "That must be the missing factor here. For as long as it is the slave of the Chosen then if the elder brain were commanded to share ghaik secrets, it would have to obey."

"And we saw brains in jars in the laboratory of that illithid colony under Moonrise." Gale remembered. "Plus, of course, the fact that mind flayers have long since perfected the art of making constructs with near-human-equivalent intelligence for even the most menial servant purposes, by starting with humanoid brains for parts. The intellect devourers."

"We'll need to figure out a way to test this theory. If they really are using illithid technology, then our tadpoles might be able to affect them." I shrugged. "Or it might get us shot in the face for trying, which is why working out a testing method will take a bit of thought."

"We are definitely not going to get a shot at Gortash until we figure out how to strip him of his mechanical army." Shadowheart agreed. "Which means disrupting this network somehow. Do we have any idea of where these things are manufactured or how?"

"Haven't got the slightest clue as to how." Nine-Fingers said. "Where is easy, though - the Steel Watch Foundry just north of the temple of Umberlee, down on the west side of the docks. Good luck actually getting in there, though - whole place is sealed off. The foundry's working round-the-clock shifts, but outside of raw materials entering and finished Steel Watchers leaving, the gates never open. The workforce must live on-site."

"Have you had people watching the place for very long?" I asked her. I was already having a strong suspicion as to what was going on here... but then again, I was from Thedas. Certain things were legal there, particularly in Tevinter, that I had already learned were not legal in most places on Faerun.

"Only recently. Why d'you ask?" Nine-Fingers replied.

"I once owned a half-interest in a mine." I said. "And even though the workforce lived on-site, I still had to let them come back to the city for at least a few days every month - to see their families, to actually have a place to spend their pay, all of it. And that was miners, not skilled artisans. If Gortash is keeping them in the foundry constantly, with no time off, then they're working under duress - if not outright slavery."

"Well, we already know Gortash doesn't mind enslaving people, don't we?" Karlach fumed quietly. "He sold me for a slave, after all."

"Which, if true, means that not only do new Steel Watchers stop being made - or old ones being repaired - if we can liberate the workforce, but that some of the very same people who'd know the most about how they work and how to sabotage them are ripe for recruitment." I thought out loud.

"If that's true then Gortash already knows that." Karlach said. "You'd better believe he's made it as hard as possible, and will be ready to jump full-force on anybody who even starts to stick their nose in there."

"So if we're not solving that problem right away, then what problem are we solving first?" Nine-Fingers asked.

"Orin has to be the priority target, not Gortash." Jaheira said. "For as long as the Bhaal cult and its doppelgangers are in play, we can't be entirely certain of anything else we're doing."

"Actually, I think we just found the doppelganger detector that we've been looking for." I realized. "Even if it is absurd."

"To what are you referring?" Jaheira asked me, puzzled.

"The hamster." I sighed. "We just saw that they had to separate Boo from Minsc to have any hope of their fake Jaheira scheme actually working." Minsc didn't react to our statement because he'd already left the room to go prowl around the guildhall looking for... we weren't quite sure... but we were sure he hadn't gone very far this time.

"I like this plan! This is a great plan!" Nine-Fingers said immediately.

"You are just saying that because it gets him to spend more time with me and not with you!" Jaheira rounded on her frustratedly.

"Still doesn't mean he's wrong." Nine-Fingers replied smugly.

"As insane as it sounds, you actually do have a chance to rebuild your network - or at least save the lives of some of your Harpers." I reminded Jaheira. "Now that you have a hope of telling which are which."

"You can also do a valuable field test of whether or not our proposed doppelganger detector actually works." Gale contributed. "If I brew one of those Detect Thought potions before you go, you can test those people yourself and then see if Boo catches the same ones you do."

"So it looks like I will be spending a bit of time doing legwork all over town, then." Jaheira agreed. "Even if the absurd idea of trusting our security to a hamster does not pan out, Minsc is at least more than enough to watch my back. You will presumably be trying to find Orin in the meantime?"

"I agree with you about making Orin the first priority. In addition to everything you said, taking Orin out first won't make Gortash any harder to find or reach than he already is. A newly ascended ruler in a siege situation is about as close to a stationary target as any ruler is." I agreed. "Even if Gortash finds out we're coming for him, where can he go? He can and will stay in a secure headquarters, but he can't keep ruling the city while hiding like a fugitive. Orin, on the other hand, is going to be difficult enough to find even if she doesn't know we're coming. If we take out Gortash first she could potentially vanish so hard that we'll never find her."

"Even with the target hopefully unalerted, you're still trying to track down a bunch of shapeshifting murderers who are hiding out gods only know where. How are you going to do that?" Nine-Fingers thought out loud.

"By following the murders." I replied. "Have there been any unusual ones in town other than Duke Stelmane's?"

---

There had been several other ritualistic killings in town recently, if none of them as publicly high-profile as Duke Stelmane's, so the team dispersed into pairs of people to discreetly check out as many of the crime scenes as possible. Meanwhile, Gale and I were off on another high-priority errand... complete with a certain teenaged tiefling tagalong, who still was stubbornly sticking to us like glue and who we couldn't quite use physical force to make her leave.

"Mol, are you really this determined to be an adventurer?" I sighed wearily as we trode through the early morning streets of Baldur's Gate towards our destination.

"Pffft!" she snorted. "No way! I'm this determined to make it in the Guild, and you are a rare, time-limited opportunity that I'm grabbing with both hands!"

"You do realize that the plan for today is to just walk into the shop and buy the book?" Gale said tolerantly.

"Yes, but that doesn't matter." Mol explained patiently. "Sure, if it turns out that they don't want to sell it to you then we'll have to do some irregular shelf-reading, but even if this is a milk run I've still gotten what I want."

"Nine-Fingers' curiosity." I realized. "She was already wondering why you'd tried to tag along after us into her office, but the fact that we actually accepted your offer to come with us proves that we actually do know you. Which means that as soon as we get back she's going to drag you into her office and pump you for all the information she can get on her new allies."

"Exactly!" Mol smirked. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to talk you guys up only from your best side."

"And we will thank you fulsomely for that service. But what do you get out of it?" Gale asked.

"Recognition." I answered for Mol. "Normally a teenaged prospect just trying to negotiate a franchise arrangement for her gang of kids in a refugee camp would be lucky to get five minutes' with one of Nine-Fingers' lieutenants, and the Guildmaster wouldn't even know they existed until after they'd been in the Guild for several years. Except somebody is scheming herself some significant face-to-face time with Nine-Fingers in her very first week in the Guild, which gives her every chance to make a good first impression."

"And in this business if you can look good enough, then you're most of the way to being good enough." Mol agreed. "Even if Nine-Fingers doesn't gift me anything directly - and she probably wouldn't, that's one tough lady and I'd be an idiot to try the suck-up approach on her - the simple fact that I got called in and noticed means my potential competition in the Guild will wonder exactly what I've got going on and walk a little softer around me. And other newbies looking for a crew to join might think I'm the crew boss they like. Plus, it helps keeps my kids safe... nobody's going to mess with my franchise if they think I've got a direct 'in' to the boss' office."

"Don't start picking the furniture for your new office just yet." I said amusedly. "If you want to be sitting in Nine-Fingers' chair, that's going to be a decades-long project."

"Not the least because I'd be an idiot if I waited for anything other than old age to do the job for me." Mol nodded vigorously. "Did you see the way she just jumped right down into that pit and start laying out those Zhents left and right? I thought I was tough, but damn."

"I could still wish you weren't so much in love with the thief's life, but if you have to make those kinds of choices then I'm much happier that you're choosing someone like Nine-Fingers as your mentor rather than Raphael." I conceded.

"Don't even mention that guy." Mol griped. "I hate reminders of when I goofed."

"So do I." I admitted. "But it's still important to remind yourself about your larger mistakes from time to time. Most importantly, because it helps keep you from making them again. And that having been said, you also deserve recognition for what you did right." I continued approvingly. "You had a clear escape route, but you weren't using it because those servants were unarmed and the Zhents were coming at them. You protected other people at the risk of your own life, simply because it was the right thing to do. And that's as heroic as anything I've done."

"... they were kids." Mol said embarassedly. "I mean, they were younger than even me! I'm not one to stick my neck out for other people... usually... but-" she shrugged. "Everybody else in there could take care of themselves, but the orphans they had in there earning coppers by sweeping the floor and carrying stuff? Nobody was taking care of them. Just like all of my kids in the camp had lost the people who were taking care of them." She sighed. "I still can't believe I was ever thinking about just ditching them all after I signed that contract and got a shot at the big time."

"What was Raphael even selling you?" Gale asked.

"Well, after I got stuck in that tube he was selling a way out." Mol admitted. "But even before that he was offering me warlock powers like Wyll. And my missing eye back." She tapped her eyepatch. "And helping me become Guildmaster in Baldur's Gate."

"Well, we already got you out of the tube and as far as becoming Guildmaster one day, you'll have to do that on your own." I replied tolerantly. "But If you still want that eye fixed then I think Isobel's actually powerful enough to do it. Do you want me to ask her for you?"

"Isn't she back at Moonrise- wait, is that who the new priestess moving around the refugee camp in Rivington is?" Mol's eye opened wide. "How did I miss that?"

"Hair dye and a change of clothes from her formal Selunite robes." Gale answered. "But if it's any consolation, you didn't recognize Aylin as the large woman following her around because they were using a magical disguise."

"You guys are slick." Mol said admiringly.

Sorcerous Sundries was one of the most impressive-looking shops I'd ever seen, either on Thedas or here. There were several apprentice wizards out in the plaza making a flashy light show with cantrips, apparently as a promotion for the shop. The doorman was a magically animated suit of armor and as we approached it was being yelled at by a very familiar person.

"Either let me back in or bring Lorroakan out here, you tin lump!" Aradin was yelling.

"Well met." I called to him. "So the wizard who originally gave you that contract to find the Nightsong - he lives here?" I asked him.

"Hawke!" he recognized me. "No, stuffy bastard lives in that floating tower up there." He pointed at a distant part of the skyline, where a large wizard's tower was just visible as it levitated high in the air above the Upper City. "Also owns this magic shop, though, which is why I'm here. Bastard owes me at least some gold for the attempt we made at findin' the Nightsong, especially seein' as how he 'forgot' to warn us about the army of goblins. Here, did you have any luck findin' it?"

"The Nightsong wasn't an artifact, but a person." I replied flatly. "If you'd fulfilled that contract you'd have been selling someone into slavery."

"So the bastard was cheating me twice." Aradin swore. "First he doesn't warn us about the level of opposition we're heading into, and even if we'd beaten it we'd still have been underpaid. Kidnapping costs extra." He narrowed his eyes at me. "And if you're here to deliver the Nightsong, then that means you should have plenty of gold left over even after you slip us a cut as repayment for our original tip-off."

"I'm not here to deliver the Nightsong, Aradin." I said to him disgustedly. "And is that really your only answer to hearing that you were in a contract to sell someone to a wizard to be harvested for their life essence? To complain that he wasn't paying you enough?"

"Mate, I'm a sellsword." Aradin replied callously. "I kill people for money. I don't get tangled up in causes or morality, I just concentrate on who's payin' and who they want me to fight. Keeps it simple, and keeps me alive and flush."

I shook my head at him. "If that's all you can care about then fine, I'll keep it simple for you. The Nightsong is a friend of mine and partnered with another friend of mine. As well as being an immortal aasimar that has celestial connections you wouldn't believe even if I told you. You don't want to fight those odds. And you really don't want to fight me."

"... got it." Aradin said after a long pause. "Right then. Time to blow this dump and see my crew can find better work down the coast somewhere. This whole thing's been a bust."

"Thanks for the drink." I said to him coldly as he stalked away.

"Eugh." Mol wrinkled her nose. "I do crime for a living and I'm still less awful than that guy."

"I don't think he used to be that guy either." I said sadly. "But if you do what he does for long enough, then you don't notice when you become that guy. You just look up one day and there you are, even if you can't figure out how you got there."

"If I want lectures, I'll talk to the priestess." Mol griped mildly. "Come on, let's go get your magic book."

The ground floor of Sorcerous Sundries was even more absurdly lavish than the exterior. It was a giant sales floor with an upper balcony level that overlooked the main floor, with magical items that would have cost a chestful of gold just lying out in display cases like so many loaves of bread in a bakery. Granted that the display cases were magically locked unbreakable glass and guarded by bound elementals and animated suits of armor hovering menacingly at strategic spots all around the floor, this was still more magic then I'd ever imagined seeing in one place. It made the 'Wonders of Thedas' magical emporium in Denerim look like the general store in Lothering.

"I don't see any books, though." Gale muttered with not even a backward glance at the various rings, wands, and other trinkets all showcased on the sales floor. "Wait a moment, there's a familiar face!"

"Rolan!" I called out. Sure enough, the same tiefling wizard that I'd briefly encountered at both the Grove and at Last Light Inn, the one who I'd argued with about his siblings being captured and taken to Moonrise Towers, was standing behind the main counter of the store. "What are you doing here?"

"I work here, obviously." he replied in his typically arrogant voice. "I'd told you that I was heading to Baldur's Gate to accept an offer to apprentice under a master wizard, remember?"

"Ah, so it was Lorroakan you were speaking of." Gale said knowingly. "Wait... are you injured?"

I looked at him more closely and sure enough, he had faint traces of a black eye. "You were attacked on the way here? I thought the road from Moonrise Towers had largely been clear after the Shadow Curse was broken."

"No- no, it was just a foolish accident." Rolan denied hastily. "How can I help you?"

"Rare Netherese tomes." Gale asked. "Are there any in stock?"

"Scrolls and tomes are in the keeping of Tolna, our librarian." Rolan answered formally. "Second floor."

"Thank you." I said politely, and we headed on up. However, despite our best negotiations Tolna was adamant that the Netherese 'special collection' was not for sale. We wouldn't even have gotten her to admit that it existed if she hadn't succumbed to the temptation to brag about just how impressive the shop's collection of rare tomes really was.

"We need that book." Gale insisted. "Determining the exact nature and limits of the Crown of Netheril will be invaluable to our quest, and likely guarantee our failure if we don't know them sufficiently!"

"Then Plan B it is. Mol, do you think-?" I began, only to be cut off by her holding up a small metal key.

"Already picked her pocket while you two were talking to her." Mol smirked. "At the rate she was going, I didn't need to be told that we were on plan B."

"Right." I agreed. "But before we go in there, let's talk to our hopefully inside man."

"Look, I can't help you." Rolan said nervously. "If Master Lorroakan-"

"We're not here just to satisfy my curiosity." Gale said urgently. "The Absolute is using the Crown of Karsus. We need at least some of Karsus' notes to have any chance of evolving a countermeasure."

"I haven't the foggiest notion of what you're talking about." he said loudly, while gently pushing on my forearm as if to force me away. "I have a great deal of work waiting for me on my desk even after I'm done here, so if you please I simply must return to my duties."

"Thank you." I answered him, and we headed back upstairs.

"So much for that." Mol muttered. "Not that I can blame a man for not wanting to lose a sweet job, but-"

"He slipped me this." I discreetly showed her the key Rolan had discreetly stuck into my shirt cuff when he'd grabbed my arm. "Is it the same as the one you got?"

"Nope." Mol said expertly. "This must be for a different room. And since there's only two doors up here and he didn't work in where the key was for, let's try the one that's not the librarian's office."

As it turned out the key was for Rolan's room, a small and neat chamber containing his bunk, a small wizard's workbench, and a shelf full of spellbooks and reference materials. I briefly wondered where his siblings Cal and Lia were staying, because there was only one bunk in here. Since Rolan had made sure to mention his desk to us we started looking there first, and one of the first things we found was a slip of paper mixed in with the study materials on his desktop.

FROM THE HAND OF RAMAZITH:

What glimpse of magic's true import might Silverhand proffer?
Take the promised hand and watch Abjuration cross its palm,
For you too shall need protection from the purge of Silver's fires.
Only through its flames will Karsus's path be fit to follow.

"Karsus!" Gale said. "This must be related to what we're after."

"Yeah, but what's it mean?" Mol said confusedly. "Is that some kind of magic spell?"

"No, it's almost certainly a mnemonic." Gale replied.

"Something you make up to help jog your memory when you need to memorize a list of things exactly." I explained further. "The three key words appear to be Silverhand, Abjuration, and Silver..."

"The Silverhand sisters were, or in several cases are, all legends well-known to any advanced worker of the Art. But none of them were abjuration specialists." Gale nodded. "So this is a puzzle key of some type."

"Well, if we've got the key then let's go find the lock." Mol said. "And quickly - she's going to notice her office key is gone sometime."

Waiting until Tolna was engaged with another customer and none of the patrolling guards had line of sight to her office was simple enough, and since we had the key we could simply open the door, step through, and close it again in just a few seconds. Her office also turned out to be her quarters, just like Rolan's room was simultaneously his sleeping chamber and his private workspace, but it was disappointingly free of locked bookcases or sealed chests or any other place she'd be keeping high-value tomes.

"Hold on." Gale said. "It simply has to be here somewhere - there's no third floor to Sorcerous Sundries, and no basement either that I know of. Which means it's not visible to the naked eye..." He cast a simple magic-detecting ritual. "Hmm. Some traces of a conjuration enchantment there, and... ah, linked to that book there." He reached out and touched one perfectly ordinary-looking volume on one of the shelves, and a magic portal suddenly opened up adjacent to Tolna's desk. "And there we have it."

The portal brought all three of us into an elaborate underground vault, with several alcoves spaced around the circular portal chamber each containing a chest.

"Right, now don't touch anything." I said firmly. "No matter how shiny it looks. For one, we're here for one book only and that because we need it to stop the Absolute from destroying... everything. That's as far as my conscience stretches today. And for another and much more practical reason, this place is almost certainly up to its gizzard in magical alarms and traps."

"Awwww!" Mol whined. "But can you imagine just how much some of this stuff would go for?"

"Where exactly do you plan to fence it?" I asked her practically. "No matter how valuable the artifact if you can't actually get paid for it then it's functionally worthless... and there's really only one magic shop in Baldur's Gate that can afford to buy high-ticket items like these. And we're standing in it."

"Eugh." Mol facepalmed. "I'm looking right at the biggest pile of loot I've ever seen, and I don't dare to take a single piece of it. I must've signed that devil's contract after all, because I'm in hell right now!"

"I'll keep looking for magical traps. Your job is to spot and defuse the non-magical." Gale said. "And we really can't afford to miss one - Lorroakan has a vast collection of magical items and creatures that he inherited from the late archmage Ramazith, and as we saw upstairs he's been generously using them to augment the security on the store."

"Get my mind back on the job, got it." Mol said professionally. "And am I glad that I only sold Hawke's girlfriend my second-best set of tools."

There were two types of trap dungeons. The first type was where nobody was expected to get in or out alive, such as the one Corypheus had originally been buried in. And the second type was what we were standing in now - a secure space where the owner would need regular, hassle-free access to his treasures and the traps were intended only for thieves. Which was much easier to deal with than the first type, because very few people wanted a security setup that required them to go through a long, elaborate procedure every time they wanted to touch something. So while we had no doubt that the security systems in Lorroakan's vault would incinerate us as soon as we put a foot wrong, there would still be a clear route through here if we knew where to step - we just had to find it.

"This system must have been intended largely to stop non-magical thieves." Gale said after we'd found and defused the first few traps in the first several chambers. "If you know the magic-detecting ritual it doesn't take you very long to figure out how the deactivation switches are being concealed, and then all you need is a simple See Invisibility dweomer."

"Yeah, but don't forget the non-magical pressure plates I've been steering you two around." Mol contributed. "One foot wrong and something would have blown it off."

"You've also gotten us through the locks in very good time." I acknowledged. "Right, and now we've got a circular chamber with doors at each compass point labelled... a-ha, are these famous wizard names?"

"Indeed they are." Gale said. "Ramazith... Elminster... Karsus... that must be sucker bait, because right here we have Silverhand. Good thing Rolan gave us that tip-off."

The Silverhand door led us to another round chamber whose doors were labelled for various schools of magic. We stepped around the pressure plates that Mol found, used the deactivation switches that Gale could see, and followed the labeled doors in the order we were given. Behind the final 'Silver' door was a switch that unsealed the 'Karsus' door in the first chamber, and inside we found a simple room full of bookshelves. Sitting all by itself on one shelf was the book Gale sought.

"The Annals of Karsus." he said wonderingly as he hefted the tome. "The preamble to a civilization's downfall, committed to parchment by the very hand that wrought its destruction. And the truth of the Crown... I hope. All that stands between us and enlightenment is -"

"We're not reading the book in here." I cut off our enraptured scholar firmly. "You're sure that's the right one?"

Gale quickly flipped open the front cover and read the first page of the introduction anyway, before nodding his head.

"Right then. Mol, what's the single most important part of any job?" I asked her.

"The getaway." she smirked. "You're sure you didn't use to be in the same line of work I am?"

"I had interesting friends." was my only answer.

Fortunately for us, the only tense part of the getaway was making sure Tolna's office wasn't occupied when we came back out of the portal. Sending Mol ahead to scout under an invisibility spell took care of that chore. Then it was just a simple matter of closing the portal again, leaving Tolna's office key in her desk drawer so that she'd simply think she'd forgotten to lock her office or reclaim her key earlier this morning, and quietly walking out of the shop.

"Good job, Mol. Without you to handle all those locks and at least half of those traps, we'd still be stuck in there - or worse." I handed her the pouch of gold coins we'd agreed upon as a fair payment for her time. "Head on back to the Guildhall and check in with Nine-Fingers. Gale and I will be heading back to the safehouse."

"Been a pleasure working with you, Hawke." Mol nodded. "And thanks again for the opportunity."

The 'safehouse' in question was a natural cavern underneath Jaheira's house, that she'd tunneled into and had enlarged over the years as a useful way of keeping her more discreet life separate from her family life. As Jaheira's children had temporarily moved out of the house to go set up in Rivington, that left the whole place open for us. I noted that none of the others had returned from their own errands yet, so Gale and I were alone when he finally had a chance to tear open the book he'd been itching to read, and he dove right into its pages and didn't come out.

I was busy cooking lunch when I heard Gale's first verbal acknowledgement of the hour. "Unbelievable!"

"Did you find what we were looking for?"

"Oh, I found much more than that." he said ecstatically. "This is no mere journal. It contains the original plans for the Crown's construction! His designs for godhood!"

"His designs for obliterating himself and the Netherese Empire with him, you mean." I firmly replied.

"Not exactly." Gale demurred. "It was not the Crown that sealed Karsus' fate, it was what he did with it. Attempting to usurp control of the Weave from Mystryl was his fatal mistake. Had he simply chosen to ascend directly-" Gale calmed himself down and continued more evenly. "To answer your original question, the Crown and the Netherstones were originally one construct. The stones were sundered from the Crown at the moment of Karsus' downfall. It was not originally intended in the Crown's design that the wearer of the Crown be enslavable by whoever held the Stones, although with these schematics I can certainly see how the effect came about in the sundering."

"Meaning that if we get all three Netherstones, we will know how to use them." I breathed out in relief. "That book will tell you."

"Ohhh yes." Gale nodded. "But there's far more in here than that. The spells and invocations detailed in these notes... the schematics... if I had the Crown of Karsus and all three Netherstones, I could reforge it! Restore it to its full, original glory!"

"To what end?" I asked mildly.

"To every end you could imagine, and a thousand more beyond!" Gale said eagerly.

"Remember when we first met Orpheus, and what you said then that had me saying we needed to talk later?" I said wearily. "I think it's later."

"I am not Karsus, and I certainly do not intend to destroy Faerun or attempt to murder the goddess of magic." Gale insisted. "But this is a unique opportunity, and what kind of wizard would I be if I didn't at least logically consider it before rejecting it?"

"All right. First logical question - as you yourself just said, power is a means to an end. So if you hypothetically achieved this power, what would be your ends? What would you do with it?" I asked.

"To free mankind from doctrine and dogma and blind, uncaring-!" Gale shook his head angrily. "The power of the gods in mortal hands - it would be wielded with a perspective they've long since lost. We'd be confined only by the limits of our imaginations. And this would be a blessing the gods would never deign to grant us, no matter how much we worshipped and adored them."

"First off, I'm very gratified that your first instinct was to say 'we'." I acknowledged Gale. "And also that you didn't even consider simply not telling me what was really in the book and just reforging the Crown on your own once we'd defeated the Absolute, which you easily could have. Those things speak very well of you."

"Thank you." Gale said. "You have all become my dearest friends, and you in particular are the man who did more than any other to save my life. Of course I would welcome you along with me on this divine journey."

"And thank you for your consideration." I nodded back to him. "But that having all been said? Gale, I think it's a terrible idea and a journey none of us would want to go on, as only ruin and disappointment lies at the end of it."

"Given the prior example of Karsus, that's not an unreasonable thought for you to have at this juncture." Gale agreed. "But I assure you, the hard part has already been done for me and is all contained in these notes and calculations. Reforging the Crown will be at least an order of magnitude less complicated than creating it in the first place. And, again, I already know - every archmage in Faerun knows - what Karsus did wrong, which makes avoiding a repeat of his error relatively simple."

"That's not what I meant." I replied. "You just said that you want to use the power of a god to more directly aid mortals on the Prime. Except that this is something that ascended gods are explicitly forbidden from doing. You were there just as I was when Dame Aylin explained Ao's new prohibitions to us, the ones he put in place after the Sundering."

"How certain are you that she knew-?" Gale began.

"Given that her mother is the goddess Selune, I would venture to say that her knowledge of the heavenly realms and its inhabitants is a bit in excess of ours." I interrupted him firmly.

"Damn." Gale lowered his head despondently. "I hadn't- I suppose I was subconsciously assuming that the same rules would be in play that Karsus was operating under. Or even the ones that I would have been operating under as a younger man - the Sundering was barely a decade ago, after all. But now even that window has been closed, it would seem."

"And even if there was a way past that difficulty, the problem also remains that at least one deity - one far older, more experienced, and more powerful deity - would violently object to any such attempt, and even if she was forbidden from directly striking at your mortal self the instant you ascended to be no longer mortal...?" I trailed off.

"All right, all right, it's logistically impractical in the extreme." Gale conceded frustratedly. "I get it! I just- aggh!" he got up and began to uncharacteristically pace around. "It's just so... infuriating! Over and over I see marvelous opportunities, and over and over they're snatched away from me before I even get a chance to explore them!"

"You're not talking about the Crown right now." I said understandingly. "You're talking about how upset you are at how Mystra treated you."

"So what if I am?" Gale rounded me on angrily.

"What do you want me to say? That I think you were treated entirely unfairly? Because yes, I agree that you were. Or that her power over you is such that it doesn't matter if she's wrong or not, you're stuck with it anyway? Because you are! Or that I would almost certainly be so infuriated if I were stuck in your position that they'd have to chain me up to keep me from biting people? I probably would be!" I sighed. "Gale, your situation isn't fair, and the fact that you don't have the power to change that is even less fair. But I don't think the Crown would give you the power to change that situation either, even if you could survive ascending to deityhood with it. Whether it's possible for you and Mystra to ever reconcile - as lovers, as friends, even just as distant sovereign and mostly-loyal subject - is a question that will be settled both in your heart and hers, and no amount of divine power can change either.. except possibly for the worse."

"You're right." Gale said glumly as he sat back down. "It's just- even in the best-case scenario of we defeat the Absolute, the threat of the Crown of Karsus is rendered safe for all time, Mystra gets everything she wants and I don't even have to blow myself up, and then the orb is somehow removed and I'm free to live the rest of my natural life-" He sighed. "As an archmage. As a practitioner of the Weave. As a man whose calling, whose beloved profession, will still be inextricably tied up with and a part of the ex-lover he can't help feeling just a tad bitter about."

"Gods, that would be like breaking up with someone and then having to continue interacting with them every day at your workplace." I commiserated.

"With them as the owner of that workplace." Gale agreed glumly. "Before Mystra came to me, magic was a wonder. After I knew her, it was a joy. Right now, it's just a tool, something that I need to continue using simply to survive. But when our quest ends, and we go back to our lives... what will magic be to me then? Still just a tool? An unpleasant duty I continue with only because a man needs to practice a trade to eat? A constant reminder of old hurts and lost loves?" He sighed. "I don't know. But I'll never be able to relate to the Weave - to practicing magic - in the same way ever again, and I doubt my new way of relating to it will be anywhere near as joyful as my old one was. I suppose that's why the dream of Karsus was so tempting. If I'd succeeded at it, then I'd never have had to face that dilemma."

"I already know there's no point in suggesting to a wizard that he give up the practice of magic." I acknowledged. "Magic isn't just something that wizards do, it's part of what wizards are. It's a piece of you, that helps define you."

"Until you mortally offend your goddess with a mistake and permanently earn a measure of her spite." Gale agreed. "At which point an inextricable part of who you are gets all tangled up with baggage that you'd really rather not carry."

"We all have things that we can never take back and never change, and that bring us melancholy when we think back on them." I said. "But if we don't let that embitter us - ruin us - sometimes we can find new lives on the other side of loss. Ones that contain new joys that we could never imagine ourselves having."

"Like you did." Gale acknowledged gently. "I've seen how happy you are... and how incredibly happy she is, especially when compared to the shadow-haunted young woman we first met. I'm flattered that you'd wish for me to find something similar."

"They say that the best revenge is living well." I advised him.

"As opposed to living down to your ex-lover's originally unfair accusations of you." Gale agreed. "Well... as unlikely as your suggested prospect seems for me right now, the possibility is at least something to look forward to. Certainly more likely than my finding a way to continue the practice of magic without the Weave and also without repeating Karsus' folly."

"Then I'm glad I could help." I replied.

"Hawke? Jaheira? Is anyone down there?" Wyll's voice interrupted us.

"You're back!" I said, turning to where Wyll and Shadowheart were coming down the ladder from upstairs. After we did an immediate identity check of each other without tadpoles, I continued "What's wrong?" Because judging by their facial expressions, we had a very big problem somewhere.

"Nothing went wrong with our errand." Shadowheart rushed to reassure me. "We spoke to the people we needed to speak to and have several new lines of investigation to pursue. The problem is-"

"There was a public announcement in the evening broadsheet. Councilor Florrick's been arrested." Wyll said darkly. "Turned in for alleged treasonous conspiracy.. by my own father, no less!"

"Damn. I guess she wasn't subtle enough to keep Gortash from catching on after all." I sighed.

"Either that or he simply isn't taking any chances with someone noticing something wrong with the Grand Duke and wasn't able to get a tadpole in her." Shadowheart reasoned. "In any event, she's in Wyrm's Rock prison right now... and her trial is scheduled for tomorrow."

"And we already know that it will be a show trial with only one possible verdict - and for treason, that verdict will be carried out immediately after the trial." Wyll said. "If we don't break her out of there tonight, she's dead."

"... I hate rush jobs." I swore.

---

It was traditional to do jailbreaks in the dead of night, which is precisely why we'd chosen only a couple hours after dinner as the time to make our approach. Nine-Fingers didn't have anyone inside the staff of the prison at present - Gortash had been doing some vigorous housecleaning there as preparation for his transition to Archduke. She did reluctantly part with a secret that the Guild had known about for a while, however - the existence of an undiscovered, unrepaired crack in the foundation of Wyrm's Rock that would let someone access the dungeon level from outside the castle. It required a bit of rock-climbing to get to, but if you knew exactly where to look and could avoid getting spotted by anyone off the walls, you could simply scramble up the sides of the island from the beach and enter a cave that would eventually put you up against a crumbling stone wall that led into a storeroom. From there you could go through the prison kitchen and have free run of the floor, provided that you didn't get spotted by one of the patrolling guards.

"Light security." Shadowheart noted quietly as we observed the main hall from the cracked-open kitchen door. "You'd think they'd be expecting a last-minute rescue." It was just her, me, Wyll, and Gale on this one - we'd left for the Guildhall before most of the others had made it back to Jaheira's hideout, and for a prison break job like this we needed a small stealthy team anyway.

"The main bottleneck's probably on the floor above, where the stairs from the dungeon level enter the barracks." Wyll reasoned. "A more logical place to put it, if they don't know about this route."

"Let's hope they don't." I agreed. "Right, the guards on the entrance stairway are much too far away to hear anything if we're reasonably quiet, likewise whichever men they have stationed down at the central checkpoint. But that one roving patrol swings by this wing far too often for us to just nip in, get her cell door open, and get her out. Gale, got that Sleep spell ready?"

"Ready and waiting." he acknowledged.

"Right. Hit him on his next closest approach, and we'll drag him in here." I ordered, and soon enough it was done.

"Nine-Fingers' contact said she was in this wing." I said worriedly as we checked cell after cell and found them empty. "Don't tell me they moved-"

"Councilor Florrick!" Wyll's voice reached us. "It's me, Wyll! Are you all right?"

We all arrived at the cell he was looking into to be greeted by the sight of Duke Ravengard's chief advisor, mutely staring back at us without expression.

"Did they tadpole her too?" Gale asked, before doing a brief push with his own tadpole. "No... there's no response there..."

We all jumped in shock as Councilor Florrick deliberately slammed her fist against the inside of the cell door. An incongruous clang rang out, as if her bare fist were somehow as unyielding as an armored gauntlet, and then she quickly thumped twice more and two more clangs rang out. The sounds of rushing footsteps filled the hallway as whatever reinforcements she'd just summoned all ran to her aid.

"Orin." I growled disgustedly, as the realization dawned on all of us that whoever this woman was, she was not Wyll's old friend.

"Wrong." replied an amused male voice with Councilor Florrick's lips. A voice that sounded damnably familiar- not that I had time to ponder the question as the sound of rushing guards drew nearer. "But that was a very good guess."

"Step away from the cell door!" a harsh woman's voice interrupted us. We turned to see at least two squads of grim-faced soldiers filling the hallway behind us. Most of them were Flaming Fist, but prominent in their lead were several armored knights whose heraldry bore the clenched-fist logo of Bane. "Move back down the corridor!"

"You can keep your weapons." the disguised man in the cell continued reassuringly. "They just want you to be a little further away from me with them before they let me out of here."

Given that at least half those guards had crossbows levelled at us right now, and that several of them appeared to be priests of Bane in addition, we decided that running was a bad idea - especially given that the only thing we could do is lead them back to our escape route, and then we'd be pinned outside the castle on a very narrow stretch of rock with a long, unpleasant climb down. One that would be impossible to do while under fire from an alerted fortress-

One of the guards unlocked the cell door and 'Councilor Florrick' stepped out, turning to face us from where 'she' stood safely flanked and surrounded by all her men. Then the Disguise Self spell he'd been using dropped and we were confronted instead by a smiling young man in his early thirties, dressed in an elaborate gold-and-black robe of state and with an engaging yet somehow slightly greasy manner, wearing a golden metal gauntlet in which a Netherstone was prominently mounted. "You have my most heartfelt thanks for staging your rescue attempt so early in the evening. I'd been afraid that I'd have to sit in that cold and unpleasant cell for most of the night!"

We all groaned inwardly in recognition. After all, we'd seen him once before underneath Moonrise Towers.

"Well met, Saer Hawke." Lord Gortash continued effusively. "I've heard so very much about you of late. And I'm positively delighted that we could finally meet."

---

Author's Note: Mol finally got herself promoted to guest party member after all, when I remembered that you can't get through the Sorcerous Sundries vault without either a dedicated rogue or else a willingness to facetank a lot of pain... and Hawke hates that plan.

If people are wondering why I am giving comparatively so much face time to a minor NPC, it's because of two reasons that overlap with each other. The first reason is that Mol is actually kinda a horrible person in the game - she starts out morally ambiguous as the fagin of a pack of orphaned urchins, but it's arguable that she's doing as much to take care of them as she is to lead them into a life of crime. But then in act two she canonically gets abducted, pacts with Raphael to get out of it, and immediately leaps into full thug life in act 3 without once looking back at the kids she was leading, all of whom are still plaintively waiting for her to come back and hoping that she's all right. Even if you destroy Mol's contract in the House of Hope and kill Raphael, she's not grateful to be freed - she's just upset with you at ruining her shot at the big time. He played her, hooked her, landed her, and will soon enough gut her like a fish.

And that ties into the second reason - not only was I happy to non-canon butterfly that away, it was a useful microcosm of how Hawke is helping the people around him be better people just by being who he is. So in this time track Mol ends up solidly on the path of Chaotic Good instead - still a thief, still never going to stop flying her metaphorical pirate flag, but able to do things like have unselfish impulses, care about others, and moderate her villainy. As well as understanding that only idiots ever sniff the brimstone. And so, the character arc she had running through this fic instead. But, that's basically wrapped up now, so, on with the show.

Aradin, meanwhile, exists to show that Hawke can't always save everyone. I was actually shocked to find out what a piece of crap he is in the game - I mean, he was a rough-edged mercenary, I wasn't expecting paladin shit, but if you don't intimidate or deceive him outside of Sorcerous Sundries then the man simply won't stop coming after the Nightsong even after knowing that he'll be selling an angel into slavery. Even if it means attacking your camp in the middle of the night to try and kill the party and kidnap Dame Aylin. (And then they die like flies, of course, but the point is, the guy's a thug.) I didn't even know that could happen, largely because I'd always successfully made the dialogue check.

Gale and Hawke really are becoming best friends, yes. And with Hawke to talk to, Gale is understanding why he really wanted the power of a god - and that it's less about fixing the world or even loving his own ambition, and more about going "I'll show you!" to the ex. But hey, having finally figured it out, he can start working on that.

And yes, Lord Gortash sleazes his way back into the plot. After all, he really wanted to talk to the party, but they were being so stubborn about not being found. What was a man to do, except take extraordinary measures?

 

[TyricGaias]

Ugh, this guy

 

[Matrix Dragon]

I do love your reasoning for including Mol, and the way her arc has gone. And including a perfect example of how she would have gone with the adventurer.

 

[Mizu]

I forgot Mol wasn't somewhat decent thanks to your characterisation this fanfic, I confess, so good job.

As for Gortash pretending to be a prisoner the gang try to rescue, that's quite clever. Not like he had a chance to chat with the party calmly, unlike canon.

 

[LeonT]

Ah yes. Gortash.

The man who can't even grow a decent beard.

 

[Matrix Dragon]

You know, I just remembered an interesting detail. Gortash wouldn't know that the Emperor is dead, and would likely believe he's still scheming. Hawke and co might be able to use this...

 

[DIT_grue]

Spoiler: Suggestions

"So we're expected to believe that Gortash has somehow built a calculating machine inconceivably more complex than any more previously known, and is doing so cheaply enough that he can put them in disposable war machines and patrol the entire city with them." Shadowheart said. "If true, that would be an achievement of magical artifice so profound that it would make both Elminster and the High Priest of Gond weep in envy. Which of course begs the obvious question; if Gortash has supposedly been that superhumanly intelligent all along, then why would he ever need to ally with the other Chosen?"

Click to shrink...

Delete this word?

"You're back!" I said, turning to where Wyll and Shadowheart were coming down the ladder from upstairs. After we did an immediate identity check of each other withour tadpoles, I continued "What's wrong?" Because going by their facial expressions, something had direly screwed up somewhere.

Click to shrink...

with our
continued,
These don't usually match - perhaps something was?

 

[heralding_bubble]

Ah, Gale, I'd suggest changing worlds but you'd have to relearn again/adapt to how magic works wherever you go.
Since iirc he's not a Chosen of Mystra and so can't, for positives or negatives, call on the Weave/Mystra to do their magic outside of Realmspace.

 

[cliffc999]

As there have never been rules about Realms mages having difficulty using magic when plane travelling to alternate Primes, I don't think that would be a problem.

 

[Simonbob]

As there have never been rules about Realms mages having difficulty using magic when plane travelling to alternate Primes, I don't think that would be a problem.

Click to shrink...

Spelljammer had rules for other places, but they limited divine magic, as I recall. I think Wizards were the same everywhere.

 

[Lucid Lunacy]

If it helps, try to imagine the entire salt planetoid that Shar just got fisted up the ass with.

Click to shrink...

Okay, first, that is some interesting (and hilarious) phrasing. Second, I can't decide who'd be worse, comparing between Shar and the Ebon Dragon.

 

[LordofBones]

How different would the old Baldur Gate games have been if they had been made during the d20/3.5 era like say Temple of Elemental Evil was? Like would the mechanical changes between 2e & 3e have really changed up the games in gameplay or lore?

Click to shrink...

Eddy's extra spell slots would have likely come from taking the Focused Specialist ACF and he'd have taken levels in Red Wizard.

Viccy would either have been a pureclass cleric or PRCed out into Nightcloak.

Minsc is a Runescarred Berserker.

That's just off the top of my head, but Irenicus would basically be unstoppable as a 30th level wizard.

 

[wellis]

Spelljammer had rules for other places, but they limited divine magic, as I recall. I think Wizards were the same everywhere.

Click to shrink...

Hell even when Elminster, Mordenkainen, their apprentices, and Dalamar were in Greenwood's home in Canada, on Earth, they were able to cast spells fine.

I understand that 2e tried to have various sources of magical energy for arcane casters to tap into for magic, but even then it seemed big magic users in the core D&D worlds had no real issues doing magic in other worlds (even ones like Earth).

Which makes me suspect wizards can easily cast spells in general when they learn to adjust for where the source of magic is from, because all the spells are kind of basically shared.

Okay, first, that is some interesting (and hilarious) phrasing. Second, I can't decide who'd be worse, comparing between Shar and the Ebon Dragon.

Click to shrink...

Shar is probably worse because at least with TED, his 3rd Circle Souls hate him and probably would be more sympathetic to PCs.