Blog

Before we continue the story, some reminders:

• This is Baldur’s Gate 3 fanfic (though perhaps it’s better described as an annotated screenshot album).
• The screenshots are from my 8th playthrough of the game.
• Angela the Arctic Druid is a hireling, not a “Tav.” It may help to know her back story.
• I’ll dance around spoilers as much as I can. But I’ll let neither a spoiler nor the truth get in the way of the story. You have been warned!

The Druid Angela never knew that defeating a Demon Lord involved so many forms to fill out. Who would have thought that the Trail of Evil was a paper trail?

Enough. Paperwork later. Fighting now.

Or maybe fighting later. The goal is to defeat the Slayer. But to get to her, first they had to wrest a key from the Assassin Lord. To get to him, they had to visit a graveyard.

At least a breadcrumb trail is better than a paper trail.

At the graveyard, there’s a woman selling flowers. Druid Angela didn’t need any, but she bought out the flower-seller’s stock. Why not be kind?

Karlach viewed the graves of her parents. She wondered what the afterlife was like.

As a hireling, Druid Angela had spent enough time in the Fugue Plane to answer that question. But she still wasn’t talking to Karlach.

Defeating the Assassin Lord was almost too easy. For a moment, she indulged her pride and sat in his Throne of Power, with some of the minions acknowledging her victory.

She rescued the latest prisoner of the Assassin Lord just in the nick of time.

He was grateful. Druid Angela appreciated that. Hirelings didn’t often get gratitude.

Except… dammit! The hollyphant was talking to Wyll, not her!

No matter. She had rescued a prisoner of the Assassin Lord. Now she followed the trail to rescue a prisoner of the Slayer.

She stood outside the door of the temple. It was not a pleasant place to be.

The best way to defeat the Slayer was to talk to her old victims. It was time to cast Speak With Dead.

Some corpses don’t talk.

Others do, especially if their murderers embedded them in a grotesque display.

This battle was more complex. Angela started it in Panther form, to take the Slayer by surprise.

Finally it came down to just Druid Angela and the Slayer. Once again, Angela is the one who strikes the final blow.

The Slayer’s prisoner was Lae’zel. To Druid Angela’s surprise, Lae’zel is grateful, and thanks Angela directly. For once, Wyll doesn’t get all the credit!

The Slayer wore a suit made from the skin of her victims. This was not useful to Druid Angela, so she gave it to her friend Karma. After all, Karma always has its victims.

After the fighting and the thanks comes the drinks. At the Elfsong Tavern, Druid Angela was invited to compete in the Laff Riot.

She gave it a try.

The audience was great.

She even managed to get a chuckle out of Minthara.

She was the winner! Another rare bit of affirmation.

Next in the pub crawl was the Blushing Mermaid. Was Captain Grisly hitting on her?

Then Druid Angela made a rare tactical error: She went to bed.

Of course, if you get hammered at night, you have a hangover in the morning.

Her head was pounding, but duty doesn’t waver. The next battle was to defeat the Evil Swamp Witch. Once again, Druid Angela struck the final blow.

Some tasks are bigger than others. There may be some who’d say rescuing Volo the Bard was a small thing. He was grateful she’d made the effort.

It was time to take on the Tyrant Warlord. The first step was to free the Warlord’s prisoners. Only one or two key prisoners needed to be freed, but Druid Angela refused to abandon the battle until every prisoner had escaped.

One those prisoners was the Duke. He was effusive in his thanks.

Whether as noble as a Duke, or as humble as a Bard, folks respected Druid Angela. They even asked her for life advice.

She brought food to the hungry and hope to the hopeless.

The people of Baldur’s Gate deserved better. It was time to continue the fight.

The next step was to destroy the metal fortress of the Tyrant Warlord. It was guarded by giant mechanical guardians. Though she was burning with Roiling Hellfire and suffering from Electrocution, she forced herself to go on. Yet again, she struck the final blow against the last guardian.

She came to the central machine that was the source of the Tyrant Warlord’s power.

How much explosive would it take to destroy the thing? She used too much, just to see what would happen. Then she decided not to wait to find out.

Remember, Wyll, she doesn’t have to run faster than Halsin. She just has to run faster than you.

KABOOM!

Not only did one of the Deep Gnomes thank her…

…he called her friend. That’s what makes it all worthwhile.