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Before we conclude the story (here’s parts one and two), 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!

Something had changed. The respect she once received was gone.

Lae’zel, who was thankful when she was rescued, had completely turned around.

Minsc, normally so easy-going, also shooed her away.

Her fellow hirelings would have nothing to do with her.

Even the townsfolk of Baldur’s Gate, whose lives she’d saved, now insulted her.

What was the problem? Was it her? She tried therapy.

Of course, they turned out to be shills for the Cult of the Dark God. Shadowheart came to her rescue.

Did this mean Shadowheart did not share the opinion of the others?

No. It changed nothing.

Time for some symptomatic relief. After that hangover, she didn’t want to visit another bar. Instead, she tried an establishment which offered more professional services. But that got her nothing, save the ultimate insult.

She feebly responded in the only way she could, but it brought no satisfaction.

Doors that had been open to her were now barred.

Perhaps if she proved herself again? What if she took the Test of Balduran? Part of it involved a chess problem.

The spirit of Balduran himself hailed her solution.

Her reward? To have her mind probed and tormented.

This was definitely not what she’d hoped to achieve.

She took to gazing out at the world, looking for an answer.

She wandered aimlessly, her retinue of minions and companions following her.

Alfira had found peace in landscapes. Why couldn’t she?

Finally, at wits end, she thought of someone else whose life she’d saved, someone who had not rejected her.

Naoise turned out to be the only professional at the personal services establishment who knew anything about lay therapy.

Naoise actually asked Druid Angela what she wanted, instead of just ordering her to carry the spare loot.

That was what Druid Angela needed. She tipped Naoise well.

It was time to take the fight to the Tyrant Warlord himself. Still thrumming with Naoise’s rapture, Druid Angela put an end to many of the guards. She let Karlach make the final strike against the Tyrant. After all, in many ways, this was Karlach’s fight.

Afterwards, while Karlach was soliloquizing to Wyll, Angela noticed a gleam coming from the Tyrant’s corpse. She bent down to look.

She picked it up. It was one of the Power Crystals, the keys to defeating the Ultimate Evil!

Druid Angela never knew that a hireling could hold one. She asked Wyll if she could keep it.

Absent-mindedly he answered “No trouble at all.” Then he tossed her all the other Power Crystals he had. He was in the midst of some relationship angst with Karlack and it looked like he didn’t care.

Druid Angela could not believe it. The power to defeat the Ultimate Evil was in her hands.

She carefully took the Stellar Artefact from Wyll’s backpack. If he noticed, he said nothing.

There could be no doubt. She’d struck the final blow against so many creatures. She, a mere hireling, was the one destined to bring down the Ultimate Evil.

It was time. She led the team to the boat that would take them to Evil’s Lair.

She left Wyll and others far behind. She did not want to risk them. This fight was to be hers alone. She only had one minion, her Dryad, for company.

The moment was so intense, she relaxed her discipline and actually spoke!

Druid Angela, the Hero Hireling, raised the Power Crystals into the air…

She was knocked down.

With a cry of “Coming through!” Wyll barreled forward, shoved her to the ground, and seized the Crystals. He tried some kind of mental projection.

She got up, wiping dirt from herself, and glared at him.

Wyll utterly failed against the might of the Ultimate Evil. The idiot! What did he expect to happen? He simply wasn’t prepared for this.

She swallowed her disappointment and took charge again. She gathered every minion. Everyone used every scroll and spell they had. They cast whatever charms and blessings they could. Even Boo was ready.

The team climbed to the battlefield site. Angela made sure that Wyll didn’t plummet to his death. Perhaps he deserved to, but they could settle that later.

Of course there was a dragon. There always was a dragon. But a fire-breathing dragon had no defense against an Arctic Druid. Again, the final blow was hers.

It came down to the final confrontation with the Ultimate Evil. As Fate and Fortune demanded, Angela the Hero Hireling struck the final blow.

There was confusion and tumult. At last things quieted down. Wet and exhausted, Angela climbed out of the sea with the others. And then…

Nothing.

There were congratulations, celebrations, resolutions. She saw none of it.

With a shock, she realized that Withers had unceremoniously dumped her back into the Fugue Plane.

For a long time, how long she could not say, she burned with resentment. She’d fought harder than the rest, overcome the role of “hireling,” had struck the final blows in many battles against all odds.

But she could only hold on to anger for so long, even in the timelessness of the Fugue Plane. She remembered the story of the hirelings, as told by Withers.

She had not fought for glory, though glory she received.

She had done what she truly set out to do. In the words of Withers…

She knew that he was addressing her when he gave a final toast.

Afterword

Hopefully, these three photo essays will get the story of Angela the Arctic Druid, Hero Hireling, out of my system.

As photo essays, my own verdict of my work is… they’re there.

That opinion is shared by the world at large. While I never get many hits on this blog, during the time I’ve published these BG3 posts the number of hits has gone down.

This means that these posts are so boring that even the web robots are avoiding the site!

For every screenshot you see in these essays, I took at least ten more. My original goal was to develop a pool of “meme shots” for use on social media. Why just say “Thank you” when I could post

That convoluted with my headcanon that developed around Druid Angela about mid-way through the playthrough. I wanted to capture every moment when I got Angela doing something that I didn’t know a hireling could do.

I couldn’t get all the shots I wanted. On a PS5, when you take screenshots, the game doesn’t stop. Also, the bottom portion of the screen is blocked out, so I couldn’t see the game’s text.

I may return to photo essays when Larian introduces a photo mode to BG3. Or maybe not. While the composition of many of my photos is not great, that’s not the reason why these essays are nothing special.

At the end, this was less an act of creativity and more a rite of exorcism.

Good-bye, Hero Hireling! May you find peace in the Fugue Plane!