Baldur's Gate 3 Honor Mode Week 2: Deep in Act 1
Aster and Varis bust into a druid camp after cleaning up a goblin raid. As it turns out, Zevlor and his merry band of refugee tieflings are at odds with the druids and their followers instead of focusing on their common enemy. Although if the two factions talked it through, they might not need us, so… thanks?
Tieflings vs. the Druids
We head down to discuss “not kicking out the refugees to their death” with Kagha who emanates Assistant to Regional Druid energy. The first time you meet her, of course, she is considering the murder of a small child.
As a supervisor Kagha doesn’t approve any leave requests
In my 10+ years of DMing in-person games of D&D, I don’t remember ever having a villain threaten a child. It feels a little too apropos. Yet, here we are in Act I and we are already facing potential child murder from someone we have to work with. I wonder if she is evil.
With thoughts of our ill-fated Gale, we roll the persuasion check for “Hey, have you ever thought of not killing kids?” and we succeed. “Fine. Whatever,” Kagha mumbles as she lets the kid go. However, she will not relent in closing down the grove: The tieflings must go. But there is a sliver of hope, all the other druids note that Kagha is only acting for the Regional Poly Druid Halsin.
In our first two runs, we solved this puzzle by rescuing Regional Poly Druid Halsin, who then busts Kagha down to druid-private and lets the tieflings stay. It always felt incomplete, like this outcome was fundamentally wrong. Were we missing a piece of the puzzle? Was that truly the only outcome available to the attempted child murderer? So, we did a bit of digging around and sure enough, this time we discovered a secret chest (behind a bookcase) where we found a secret note to Kagha suggesting something nefarious. The note points to a meeting in a swamp near a giant oak tree. What could go wrong?
All the other druids refuse to act, of course. We get a lot of, “Yeah she seems evil, but you expect me to act to save the institution I have devoted my life to? I think not.” They must be Democrats. It's risky behavior for an honor mode run to try something completely different, but tell that to Gale. We are going to investigate and see what dirt we can turn up. Someone’s got to play the hero.
Being shitty and meeting Withers
Most of the week we were running around with Lae’zel and Asterion which allowed us to be slightly more of a shit to people in our conversations. It's refreshing to play without Shadowheart, Wyll, or Karlach disapproving at every medium-sized slight. Maybe this is my villain era.
We can’t untangle the druid/tiefling issue right now, so after harassing the locals [Lae’zel Approves], we went to the nearby ruin for some experience and cash. After killing the tomb robbers, we proceeded to rob the tomb. We removed all the weapons from the undead scribes before we found the secret tomb, so the scary “skeletons rise and attack you” encounter is blunted. Lae’zel aced the only real threat with her handy fire sword.
After dispatching the undead, we meet Withers who appears from his well-appointed coffin. Withers is your local friendly undead who is just here to help. But refuses to explain why. Varis actually passes a religion check where he senses “the power of Jergal” which clearly means something to a Baldur’s Gate historian, but not me. However, Withers refuses to answer any further questions with the energy of an accountant whom you ask to deduct your pet cat expenses.
“No”.
Fair enough, I guess.
This is as close to an answer as we are ever going to get, so Varis takes it in stride.
The Devil You Know.
We leave the ruin, and muck about the countryside killing things and taking their stuff until we meet the game’s true villain, Raphael. As far as villains go, he has great writing.
To Rapheal this is all just a play (Varis looks nervously at ACT 1 in the title). I enjoy that he is pushing up against the fourth wall with his dialogue. He is willing to take your soul in exchange for solving your little tadpole problem. While most villains are easily triggered by a brash dialogue choice, Raphael confidently nods along to your bullshit. “Have fun now, but don’t wait too long…” he muses. His actions are subtle and it’s just nice to see as opposed to a straightforward villain where they are the hammer and everything is a nail. The trick for Raphael is that he is willing to wait for his moment, and you are just a pawn in orchestrating that. Maybe. We’ll have to wait and see.
The voice acting is great too. The actor for Raphael (Andrew Wincott) reads audiobooks, so if you need that sultry voice in your life, you can look at Audible.
Somewhere along the way, we hit Level 3 and Varis was propositioned by Lae’zel. To which Varis responded, “Hey lady, I am married”.
I sense a soul in search of answers
We had some time left, so we sauntered off into the big evil swamp to find dirt on Kargha. The Swamp has (surprise) a glamor spell over it. It's beautiful and idyllic, but strangely filled with chopped-up bodies and “delicious” apples that will poison you. After a fierce battle with wood wodes and mud mephets (where Varis was thinking about running away before it was strictly necessary), we made it to the old oak tree with that super secret note for Kagha. Turns out she is some kind of “shadow druid” who is plotting to take over the druid grove.
We do what any good adventurer would do and head back to lecture Kagha about her religion and, you know, the fact that she ALMOST KILLED A KID. Kagha has a come to Pelor moment and repents her evil ways. This triggers a fight with three shadow druids who were all killed easily because they appeared amongst a huge group of other druids who disliked them. No redemption for them.
The plot moves forward in a way that D&D games do. Where the DM says, you remember that quest to save Halson the Regional Poly Druid I gave you last session? Sidequest victories notwithstanding, you still have to do that one to keep the refugees safe.
Next up, the goblin camp.
The current team is
Varis - Faithful Cleric of Light Level 3
Aster - Cute Rogue Level 3
Lae’zel - Spurned Fighter Level 3
Asterian - Rogue/Bard Level 3
