Many Have Written About How Karlach Throws Astarion, Well… Don't Worry, No Astarions Were Harmed! But

@fandang1 if you want more dragonborns, I also have this girl from my multiplayer run - her name is Coral and I love her.

I made Klearrhishkminal in the game for fun a while ago, so I thought I ought to share her so you could all see why Turmeric was (and still is) so enamored with her. I mean, look at her, she's gorgeous!

She's a pretty important character for someone who's literally been dead the whole time- or at least, I like to think so, I hope that impression comes across. She is the entire reason for Turmeric, well, being called Turmeric for starters.

As a reminder, she is bronze and definitely not brass - if you think you've ever seen me describe her (or Ansur!) as that because they're similar words and I forgot to check and got confused, no you didn't, that never happened. Because then Turmeric's whole character quirk of having a fondness for lightning spells because her last girlfriend had lightning breath wouldn't make sense and nobody would pick up on it! (I do hope some people have picked up on that, it's a subtle little thing, but it's there. (because we carry those we love with us, long after they're gone, after all))

Friend made a joke that needed to be drawn out.

My party has like no charisma, it’s terrible

Apolocheese if this is a question you've already answered, but I was wondering, if Tumeric was a companion in bg3 rather than the player-character, what would her story be like throughout Act 1, 2 & 3? Her personal quests etc? Would it follow the same beats as Graveyards? And how could a Tav influence the outcome? I hope this question makes sense lol - and no pressure to answer!!

(P.s. adore your writing btw, and loving all the new characters popping up in Wings/Talons)

Oh, no bother at all - thank you so much, I very much appreciate the chance to ramble about my disaster girl - and what a long ramble it has become, I'm going to have to add a read more in there.

Turmeric's arc as a companion probably wouldn't really start until Act 2, I think. Before then, she might talk about Klear as the person who got her into being a bard if you had high approval and pushed her a little, but other than that she wouldn't be sharing anything. To compensate for the lack of information in that regard, she'd encourage whoever the player character was to talk about themselves instead (which would probably mean a multiple choice backstory for custom Tavs), which she would hope would also have the rather convenient side effect of getting them to trust her more, if it worked.

That aloof but friendly image would start to break a little in Act 2, especially if you brought her to areas like the House of Healing, or if she was there when you saw Isobel for the first time - giving you a chance to jump in and ask her if there's something wrong. You'd have a few chances at perception/insight and then persuasion checks depending on where you took her too. If you had high approval she might come to you herself in a long rest and tell you she's... familiar with the area, if she thinks sharing her knowledge of the place might help - but I think if you played it right, and missed/failed all of those checks and then played it right, it would be entirely possible to get through the whole game with her without ever learning a single thing about her past.

If you passed those checks, she'd admit her past as a nurse in the House of Healing to you, but she wouldn't go beyond that. Knowing about her past would change her comments around the Shadow-cursed Lands, though- she'd openly talk about what it used it be like there/people she used to know/parts of it she didn't know about/how things have changed.

The conclusion of her Act 2 arc would depend on whether you knew about her past/whether you brought her to final confrontation in Moonrise. If you knew about her past but didn't bring her, she'd just stay back at camp and talk to you about what happened later. If you didn't know and didn't bring her, she'd just turn up by herself anyway because the pressure of keeping it all to herself would drive her to confront Ketheric anyway.

Either way, if she's turned up by herself, or if you chose to bring her along, she'll get kidnapped by Ketheric when he takes Aylin as well (like in More Graves to Dig, but she wouldn't have the prism with her, so they'd just teleport straight there as he normally does with Aylin, no need to complicate things) and what happens in the confrontation in the mindflayer colony will depend on whether you know about her past.

If you know, it's up to you - you do all the talking, and if you manage to talk Ketheric into the pit she'll run away from him and rejoin the group, if you don't and you're just fighting Ketheric, she'll start the fight prone and on a fixed low initiative as Ketheric throws her to the ground and out of the way - he might attack her, but he'll only aim to knock her and not kill her- he still needs her for his little plan, after all.

If you don't know - she'll do the talking, manage to convince Ketheric into the pit, and then immediately let herself get killed by Myrkul.

Unlike the fic, you'd then get a chance from Withers after the fight to go into the fugue plane waiting room and talk to her, if you want to (you can just choose to leave her dead and not bother if you'd rather) - finally having a definite chance to learn about her past even if you failed all the checks before. You get a chance to convince her you want her alive even if she's a bit of a liar, easier depending on how high your approval is with her, and if you succeed she'd promise to tell you the rest of it, and then you get a dramatic cutscene of her coming back to life in your arms like a disney princess that people would use for romantic model swaps all the time.

If you fail to convince her, she'd stay dead, and you'd get a shot of her corpse in the cutscene when you left the shadow-cursed lands - grim if you didn't break the curse, a touch hopeful if you did- flowers blooming around her, new life, that sort of thing.

At the start of Act 3, if she was alive, she'd tell you about the rest of her history- like Exhuming the Past- though probably using the tadpole connection for some visuals so that her just talking wouldn't bore the player to death. You could really easily get her approval from Neutral 0 to Exceptional 100 right here just by accepting her and comforting her at regular intervals, which would help later- I think I'd put it just after killing either Orin or Gortash, whoever you went with first- when you'd get a cutscene with her where you could talk about your player characters plans for the future after you defeat the Absolute, and you'd get your chance to romance her here - yeah, you wouldn't even get a chance to start a romance with her until Act 3 (you could try to flirt before, but she'd laugh it of or deflect and it wouldn't really go anywhere). But, she's polyamorous - so you could romance someone in the meantime if they're chill with polyamory, which would merge very nicely with Halsin's romance if you're otherwise only dating him (undoubtedly leading to some of the horniest party banter you've ever heard between them).

OR, in a way round learning about her past at all - in a cheaty/meta-y/safeguard way - if she was already dead for whatever reason before you went to Moonrise and you only resurrected her with Withers after the fight with Myrkul was over, that part of the quest just wouldn't trigger and you could skip over it without her getting kidnapped, or learning about her past. This would effectively end the quest and skip the rest of her storyline as well (including the chance to romance her), as it would be too late for her to consider talking about her past now, so up until the epilogue all you would really know about her is she's just some bard from Baldur's Gate, which is kinda funny.

Hopefully this answered your question, and thank you again for asking! I hope you'll continue to enjoy my writing in future- knowing people like it makes me very happy, and really motivates me to write more! ^_^

Baldur's Gate 3 x Disco Elysium

okay but Wyll is like. a prodigy, actually. and I want to talk about that more

like he is a folk hero for a reason. it's not just because he's so nice to people. he is also an incredible adventurer.

when you meet him in the Grove, he is on a level with you—but dialogue makes it clear that's because the tadpole fucked with his capabilities. if you have him around and hear his little interparty exchanges and reactive lines, he talks about things he's done as the Blade of Frontiers, and they include wrestling a giant one-on-one, and fighting a dragon. by himself.

he fought a dragon by himself!!

like (spoilers for end of game), even when you fight a dragon in the finale, you're not doing it ALONE. you have 3 other party members and as many allies as you care to summon. WYLL WAS ALONE IN THE WOODS WITH WHATEVER SUPPLIES HE COULD SCRAPE TOGETHER AS A SOLO ADVENTURER. AND HE FOUGHT A DRAGON.

by all accounts, I think it's reasonable to guess that before the tadpole, he was more powerful than the level 12 cap that's built into the game. and sure, he's a warlock drawing power from a bond, but most D&D lore I've encountered build in the idea that warlocks need a certain amount of skill and prowess to handle the power offered to them by their patron—there's a reason warlocks and clerics still level up, rather than just shooting to the top of the ladder. PLUS, he had to know how to use that power effectively.

and then!! (spoilers for epilogue) if he does the Avernus version of his ending, he's become a ranger within the 6 months since you've last seen him. and not like, he took a level or two in ranger and he's working his way up to it. he tells you about devils he's killed that are on par with the dangers y'all faced in your adventures—and he's doing this either with only Karlach for company, or possibly even by himself (??? I've only ever had him go with Karlach, I can't stand it). so. he is ALSO now one of the most powerful RANGERS in the realms. IN 6 MONTHS.

which makes sense! he wouldn't lose all his adventuring knowledge and skills just because the pact is ended! but to master an entirely new discipline, magic and all, in such a short time??

WYLL RAVENGARD HERO OF THE REALMS. WYLL RAVENGARD GENIUS OF ADVENTURE. WYLL RAVENGARD CAN DO ANYTHING HE SETS HIS MIND TO

Me as a fanfic writer

Family portrait 🐺🦉🧠

having an oc you havent drawn / written about publicly yet that only exist as a concept is so funny. i have special access to this limited edition guy from my brain

As gen-AI becomes more normalized (Chappell Roan encouraging it, grifters on the rise, young artists using it), I wanna express how I will never turn to it because it fundamentally bores me to my core. There is no reason for me to want to use gen-AI because I will never want to give up my autonomy in creating art. I never want to become reliant on an inhuman object for expression, least of all if that object is created and controlled by tech companies. I draw not because I want a drawing but because I love the process of drawing. So even in a future where everyone’s accepted it, I’m never gonna sway on this.