Ari: We've all gotta have a thing. My thing is kissing the sad-faced idiot to the left of me.

This is the face of a man who's like, "I'm going to perform the shit out of this ritual!"

Also, I fucking hate these robes. How are these in the game? My man looks like a sack of potatoes. That is BURLAP. That is a very rough, loose weave. It is mad itchy, like gains AC because no one wants to touch it itchy. It has a cream turtleneck... or worse, a turtleneck dickie?! Bro is rich (thanks to this reddit thread, this is now my headcanon) and powerful af, and they put him in these? Larian truly hates Gale Dekarios. Also, the glasses, which I love, make him look like a dork, but that's on me and I accept it. Fucking nerd. I love him.

These three consistently serve the best expressions. Halsin? Chillin. Astarion (who I ascended in this playthrough for the story)? "So, a new little freak then? That tracks..." Ari? Alarmed and moving backward toward her very powerful wizard boyfriend. Like, "hey babe, please tell me you have Hold Person prepared, just in case..."

Also, I decided to be autistic about the House of Hope. I have pretty annoying pathological demand avoidance, and this comes out pretty hard in video games. So, I decided I wouldn't do this the way it could or should be done. No, I was doing it my way, and if that meant save scumming, I would be save scumming and I did. A lot.

I wanted one thing: not to kill Haarlep. I found out you could not kill them, so I decided I wouldn't. The advice to use Supreme Sneak to break into the safe doesn't work easily. You will come out of stealth if you perform an action while using Supreme Sneak. This led to me shuffling as close as possible, trying to stay out of sight, etc., only to trigger the conversation immediately. Eff that. I had Gale prepare Greater Invisibility, which worked great for me. After this, I grabbed the hammer and the gauntlets and started hauling ass to the prison.

So, me? I'm an idiot. As I've mentioned, I have the unholy alliance of ADHD and autism. This means I get hyperfixated on details and entirely ignore other ones. This came together with me assuming that the bath in Haarlep's room only recovered HP, so the first few times I ran to the prison (especially when I tried after fighting Haarlep), no one had any spells; everyone was just running for their lives. You get to the fight in the prison, and it's a mess. I mention this to my nesting partner, who, bless him, knows this about me and says, "Hey... I think the bath is a free long rest. Test it for me?" Well, well, well... he was right! So, that, along with not doing the Haarlep fight, made that run boring but easy.

OK, so I'm in the prison. The first time I did this, I was stupid. Only Astarion and Ari were in the room when I started the fight and had Astarion try to free Hope. Why? First, I was clearly insane. Secondly, yes, Astarion has Longstrider and moves further, but he is 160 lbs wet and got destroyed. Do you know who moves quickly and has chest hair? Sing it if you know it! It's this guy!

Yes, I know I'm not normal about this man. Luckily, my nesting partner thinks it's hilarious. Also, this is him in some good armor in my artificer run. So much better. This is a man who used to be the archmage of the City of Splendors and possesses a scroll of revivify.

While he doesn't have much better survivability than our lovely Astarion, he does have something Astarion doesn't: many Misty Step casts. Also, I figured this out mid-therapy session, so my therapist got to hear all about how I'd figured out how I was going to smash them crystals. So, giving the hammer to Gale and everyone in the room meant that the enemies were downed before we had the crystals down, even with one of my primary damage dealers doing otherwise occupied.

Went upstairs, cleaned up the hallways, time to fight Raphael. Let's go!

Raph girlies, I get it. Big disappointed parent energy. I have trauma, I understand. Mine just came out as a need for Gomez energy. To each their own...

Firstly, I love that, even angry, Raphael is a diva. He's not going to be distracted by emotions. No, he has a monologue prepared, and by the gods, you will be listening to it. I also forgot that he has his own damn theme song, which had me cracking up trying to finish this fight at 11PM.

That is a great reference to Henry here, especially from a British guy.

So, Yurgir. I did kill him back in Act 2, but I thought, "what the hell, let me try convincing him!" I had three inspiration. First three rolls? Meh. I'm like, "OK. One more. I want one inspiration, just in case..."

It ended up being pointless because dude did fuck all, but I got it. I didn't have to fight him and that means I'm a Good Person.

So, remember I said I cheesed the ritual to get here? Well, it only makes sense that I should cheese the final fight. How, you ask? Well, a bit of luck and a geodesic dome. Thanks to an arcane recovery charge, I cast Globe of Invulnerability twice, leaving Gale, Astarion, Hope and Ari protected. At the same time, Halsin, as an owlbear, called Raphael out, WWE-style.

After that, I destroyed one of the soul towers, and owlbear Halsin could keep Raphael stunlocked until the last turn when he just beat the snot out of him. Everyone else took care of the cambions, who also enjoyed the warm embrace of the geodesic dome far too much for my tastes, but we got it done. Time to go back to the material plane, drop the gloves, and go home to kiss the wizard for a job well done.

Honestly? Best moment:

However, it did sadly die in the fight, which meant it wasn't at the party. I should have known better when I summoned it.

Got plain ol' Gale Dekarios. Yay!

OK! KAT OPINION ALERT!!

This is a weird line. I never liked it because it played a bit, "Well, Tara and my mother are bothering me, so if that's what you want!" Ick. I could be reading too much into it, but I'd rather they had Gale either be *very* into it or not say the Dekarios clan part. He's clearly a romantic and is very in love with Tav. I could see this man buying an engagement ring after the Act 3 romance scene. But this weirdness? I don't like it...

It's really the pause before the "I suppose I am!" That said, my nesting partner doesn't read it the same way. He reads it as awkward, but Gale hasn't been like that with his romance partner since early Act 2. It may be just Galemancer things, or I'm specifically not a fan. I really just don't like it.

Either way, stay horny, you cuties. Also, they got married in the last six months. Like, damn, one of you is great at planning and logistics. Getting a clan together in six months? Sheesh.

Sent her to Avernus with Wyll after sobbing a bit. Here's why...

So, I am multiply disabled, both physically and mentally. Before I was physically disabled, I took weight lifting very seriously. Also, throughout it all, I've tried to remain overwhelmingly positive. It's a character bit about myself that I really enjoy.

So, not entirely surprising, but my nesting partner romanced Karlach. He told me how much she reminded him of me, and I definitely get it. So to see her at the end of the pier, it broke my heart. I was crying, not going to lie. I sent her to Avernus with Wyll, and luckily, you get the bit about them finding a possible solution in the end.

I'll do a full battle report like I usually do next time, but I wanted to do a real 'I DID IT!!' post while it was fresh.

Oh, and last funny thing: Astarion was in bat form when we did the final cut scene. So, yeah, bat with wine on the ground. Don't give that bat anymore. He's done.