I finished off Act 2 last night and found myself having to make a terrible choice before I could enter the actual city of Baldur’s Gate and set off on the third and final act. I refused to make the choice, and so it was made for me.
Now I’m wondering what to do about it.
Back up a bit. When last we left our heroes(?), we were just about to enter the Shadowfell to find the Nightsong, the secret of Ketheric Thorm’s immortality. Balthazar was right on our heels, and he was pretty happy that we’d finished all those pesky trials that opened his way. Since he needed to bring the Nightsong back to Thorm for safekeeping.
So, we killed Balthazar. Lae’zal’s Misty Step and wide variety of devastating attacks along with Gale’s nukes made short work of him. Shadowheart and Harka, my PC, finished off the rest.
Turns out the Nightsong was a literal captive angel. Shadowheart would need to kill her in order to become a Dark Justiciar, a willing tool of the dark goddess Shar. Instead, she threw away the Spear of the Night and freed the angel and was disowned by her goddess.
Though she still had her powers. The angel told me privately that Shar’s twin and rival, Selune, had taken over, but Shadowheart would have to come to that realization on her own.
The angel — Dame Aylin — takes immediately off to the Moonrise Tower to confront her tormentor and incidentally, the father of her girlfriend, Isobel — and so we follow after.
This is the deal with Isobel, the Selune cleric we failed to save at the Last Light Inn.
A century ago, Ketheric Thorm was a hero of the forces of good in Faerun. His daughter, Isobel, was so favored by Selune that Selune’s daughter — Dame Aylin — and she were in a relationship. All was well until Isobel died. I’m not yet sure how she died, but I imagine Ketheric was the reason.
Devastated, Ketheric made a deal with Myrkul, one of the gods of Death, to resurrect his daughter. In return, he would pledge himself to death. Isobel was resurrected, was horrified at what was done, and spent the next century working against him. Meanwhile, Ketheric’s bond with death and elevation of the cult of Shar brought about the Shadow Curse. Dame Aylin is captured and used as a divine battery to keep Ketheric alive and well. This also didn’t win him any favors with Isobel.
Ketheric finally captures a second angel, cuts off their wings, and grafts them to his lieutenant Marcus. He orders Marcus to return Isobel to him whether she wills it or not. We, the adventurers, don’t put up too much of a fight. Ketheric then uses the power of death and darkness to overwhelm Isobel’s psyche, making her into his willing and obedient servant.
I wonder, if I had saved Isobel, if all this would have gone differently. But in the end, Ketheric and his daughter were dead by our hand, and Dame Aylin was devastated.
However, we have our marching orders. Ketheric was one of three servants of the gods of death. We need to defeat the other two in the city of Baldur’s Gate, where they are leading their undead army.
But, we had one more encounter to clear before we entered the city…
A mysterious portal opened up in our camp, and a trio of Githyanki monks jumped out. Our dream visitor was screaming at us to get to the chopper portal or she would be lost and with it, our protection against the Absolute, whom we had now met.
We did what we needed to do, got to the portal, fought our way down to our dream visitor and found out that she… was really an illithid. He had been a common thief many years ago who had been turned to an illithid and held in thrall to the Absolute for a century. When he, along with many other illithids, were sent out to find Shadowheart’s prism, he was the one who found it — and it returned his free will.
The prism is actually a prison for Orpheus, Gith’s only son, thought dead and replaced by a long series of Vlaakiths, false gods every one. If Orpheus were known to be still alive, it would tear apart Githyanki society. And we can’t free Orpheus, as we contain Illithid tadpoles. Orpheus would kill us all without a thought. And then proceed to tear apart the Githyanki. And then rule the world, yada yada yada.
Anyway. The Emperor has really bought into the whole illithid game. He said he could transfer his consciousness into another body and be just mortal again, but it’s just so much fun having face tentacles! In fact, he thinks I should become an illithid, too — it would be a lot of fun!
So here’s where things took a dark turn. I didn’t immediately reject his offer. So he handed me a new Astral Parasite, that would power up my own tadpole. Once I had it in hand, he tried to force me to eat it. I tried to resist, but I failed a Wisdom roll and swallowed it, becoming half-illithid.
Not only that, every time I talk to my companions, there’s always an option there to get them to try becoming half-illithid too. I’m a dope addict and a dealer now. NICE.
However, the additional available psychic powers are very nice. I do have an earlier save. I could go back and make the opposite choice. I probably am going to refuse the gift this time.
But…. poooowwwwweeeeerrrrrr….
