Baldur's Gate 3. I haven't even finished the entire campaign yet in normal, balanced mode... yet here I am, opening up the game with a sudden urge to jump into Honour Mode and try my luck at the elusive golden dice.
'Sudden urge,' not 'Dark Urge.' 😅
I feel as though completing Honour Mode as a Dark Urge would be absolute madness. You'd have to get the borrowed, hired companionlings from Withers as you'd have removed all the natural companions. There would be much more fighting, murder, mayhem. It would be much more difficult.
So, meet my Cleric of Eilistraee — Elathara, kind-hearted drow who actively fights Lloth's dark corruption.
How she found her way aboard a mindflayer ship, trapped, helpless with a parasite squirming through her eye and into her brainmeats is a mystery. But, it happened. And now her (hopefully long-lived) story begins.
First things first. As dragons attacked the ship and helped her escape the cocoon that held her bound, she kept her fear at bay and got to work analysing her surroundings, looting what she could, and working out a way to find safety.
She found a cool ring in the first room. Too bad intelligence is worthless to a Cleric.
In the next room a dead man with a living brain lay upon a torturous device. As this is Honour Mode and every advantage is important, my cleric did her best to free the brain from the man and watched as it became it's own brain-creature.
It would fight alongside her as she escaped this awful place.
Soon she found other people to fight alongside her, as well as the brain-creature. Lae'zel, a githyanki warrior, and Shadowheart, another cleric.
Together they and the brain-creature fought their way onto the ship's helm. Demons and imps were attacking, as well as the dragons outside. One of the group needed to get past these creatures in order to reach the transponder that would save their lives.
While Lae'zel, Shadowheart and the brain-creature cleared the path, Elathara dashed towards the transponder and activated it. Just in time, too, as a dragon breathed fire through the helmsroom and brought the ship to crashing point.
The transponder flicked them out of the hellish dimension and back to Faerun, but the damage was done. The ship crashed and burned and a piece of machinery thwacked Elathara in the face and knocked her out of the ship.
Before she met the ground, an unknown force saved her from splattering across the sand and she passed out upon an unknown beach.
Several hours later she awoke, head pounding but intact. She was alive. Her Goddess must have saved her.
The Honour Mode introductory quest was officially completed. Now she must survive Act 1. 😆
After finding Shadowheart, also passed out on the beach, they decided to travel together to find a cure for the horrible parasites in their heads.
Two clerics.
Their first encounter against a couple of the brain-creatures was a wake-up call that Honour Mode was a lot more difficult than Balanced. The brain-creatures seemed to have extra abilities! They were ranged now and almost one-shot my poor Elathara.
Luckily they managed to defeat them. We were going to take proper care now as we progress through the rest of this beach.
They caught up with Astarion, killed a mindflayer before it could attack them, and swept through the beach looking for other survivors who could be their friend.
I think I'd like my party to be Elathara, Lae'zel, Gale and Astarion for the time being. I don't need Shadowheart unless I respec her into not-a-cleric and I'd rather the original companions to retain their original classes. I'm a purist, what can I say? 🤷♀
Elathara continued along the beach and continued picking up other survivors from the ship. People who would become her trusted companions.
Once everyone had been picked up, Elathara led them towards an ancient temple with bandits hanging around outside. It would be wise to use this encounter as a levelling up tool before continuing on with the main campaign.
She cheesed her way past the bandits outside...
Then cheesed her way into the temple itself.
Everything was going swimmingly.
Until Gale failed to put one of the bandits to sleep. That bandit called all the other bandits and ruined my carefully laid out plans to take them out one by one with my own advantage.
After a valiant attempt to salvage the situation, Elathara and friends failed. She was the first to die. Then Gale. Then Lae'Zel... and then finally Astarion met the blade.
Attempt One was over... way too soon.
Am I disheartened? Nope. I thought this death was absolutely hilarious. It's like the failed pancake you cook before you cook all the good pancakes. At least I hope.
I'm diving back in. Maybe not with a Cleric though. I felt pretty useless.
I'll see you again, next time, with hopefully a better encounter that lasts more than 'part one.' xD
Until next time! 🤣
All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, 