[Let's Play] Baldur's Gate 3 - part nine

Ellu'kha and her companions had just celebrated an amazing night of magic, drink, revelry, and merriment.

Everyone had drunk far too much and were thirsty in more ways than the obvious, but Ellu'kha chose to ignore the physical promises of Astarion and Lae'zel and fallen into the magical illusory embrace of Gale and his connection to Mystra and the Weave.

It had been a most illuminating evening.

Now the day had risen and reality swarmed upon them once more. True Souls. The Absolute. Parasitic powers. Evil and madness.

The druid, Halsin, spoke of a place called the Moonrise Towers and how he suspected there could be a cure for the parasite curse there. There were two ways they could go to get to the Towers... one was through the cursed land past the Risen Road, and the other was through the underdark, located beneath the temple of Selune, though it was a secret place that no one had found yet and it could be time consuming.

Ellu'kha piped up and mentioned that they may have found this secret place — to Halsin's surprise — and that would be the way they would go.

Then Wyll interjected and reminded them of his quarry, the devil 'Karlach' who he was hunting. He could not give up his search for her and he could not fail to fulfill his duty in killing her.

Ellu'kha placated him and told him that they would find her, she promised.

Suddenly, a bark in the distance then the white dog, Scratch, raced into camp.

His owner was indeed dead and he had come to take Ellu'kha up on the offer of a safe place to stay. She gave him a pat and a big scratch around the ears. Scratch was most welcome to stay as long as he liked.

Back on the road, Ellu'kha decided to hunt for Wyll's quarry before doing anything else. It seemed like the right thing to do. Wyll led them to the region he believed Karlach to be, and they were soon greeted by broken caravans, bodies torn apart, and fat hyenas bloodied and squirming across the dirt.

Ellu'kha had never seen anything quite like this before. Was this the work of Wyll's devil?

Lowering herself to speak with one of the hyenas, Ellu'kha tried to ask it what was wrong. Instead of answering, the hyena howled in ecstasy and told Ellu'kha to wait, to witness as its flesh transformed into new-flesh.

Ellu'kha didn't much like the sound of that and using her ranger instincts she silenced the beast before it could... transform.

They took down the rest of the hyenas, then followed the broken caravans and blood spatters to a similarly blood-spattered building.

Inside the building two people nurtured their wounds and quickly looked up as the Ellu'kha's group entered.

Apparently a devil had done this to them. A vile, vicious creature who had slaughtered refugees, murdered families, who they had been sent to kill. They were the Paladins of Tyr and the devil needed to die.

Wyll perked up. This devil must be the one whom he sought. Karlach. They would help these Paladins and bring Karlach to justice!

They followed the Paladin's trail down to the river and found a fiery tiefling trying to suppress her flames. This was no devil... and she, too, was infected with a parasite!

Their minds connected and they bore witness to Karlach's version of events. She had been forced to fight in an archdevil's army, but then, when she could escape, she slew every devil she could as she found her way to safety. Now all she wanted was to find her way home. She was no threat.

Apparently the so-called Paladins of Tyr were agents of the archdevil who had been sent to kill her for her brazen escape... they needed to take care of them.

Wyll was astonished. He had been lied to. His quarry was no devil, but a tiefling that had been lied about. He was horrified and saddened with this revelation.

Karlach offered to join up with them, and Ellu'kha happily accepted. Such a great warrior would be welcome by her side, and she, too, had a parasite in her brain... they could search for the cure to this malady together, alongside her entire group made up of survivors of this affliction.

Sending Lae'zel back to camp so that Karlach could accompany them, they barged straight back to the building where the 'Paladins of Tyr' were holed up and confronted them.

They tried to play it all off. That Karlach was a devil. That they just wanted to go home and to please let them leave in peace, they didn't want Karlach to hurt them anymore. But Ellu'kha was a very skilled ranger. Years of honing her senses allowed her to see when people were lying to her and this man was lying.

She accused him of his false tale and his demeanour changed. He was indeed there to kill or capture Karlach for his archdevil mistress, and they would pay for their transgressions.

He was wrong. He and his so-called Paladins were the ones to pay the price.

Once the fight was over they thoroughly investigated the building and looted all the valuables. The cellar was filled with traps — so many traps! — that Ellu'kha felt that surely there would be something of great worth and use down there... but alas. There was not.

They did find a secret room, activated by two of her group sitting on thrones at the same time... but the greatest items of worth in there were silver ingots and a small pile of golden coins. Every coin helped though. They might find a vendor selling amazing gear soon enough.

Leaving the building, they heard the clash of battle in the near distance and hurried over. Two people were under attack by hyenas and gnolls.

Taking to the shadows, Ellu'kha and her group crept closer and ambushed the beasts, taking them by surprise and dispatching them with ease.

When the last gnoll fell, the two people rushed out and thanked them profusely for the rescue. Their entire caravan had been decimated, only they had survived. They needed to get these baubles to the buyer and hopefully none had broken when their caravan had fallen apart.

Ellu'kha and her group offered to escort them to the nearest safe area, but they declined. They could take it from here. Sending a wink, the man informed them that they would be invited to their drinking table, an invite-only drinking table, they were most welcome to join them if they should come past their local tavern.

After accepting the drinking offer and wandering off to loot the corpses of the gnolls, Ellu'kha made a shocking discovery. One of the gnolls had also been infected by a mindflayer parasite.

She consumed it to further grow her strength, just as the dream woman had told her to, and then decided it was a good time for setting up camp.

That night... a devil appeared.

Her name was Mizora and apparently she was Wyll's patron, the source of his warlock powers, and she was most displeased with him. She had tasked him with killing Karlach, and yet, Karlach was standing right there beside him. What was this transgression?

Wyll fought against her. She had told him that he would be hunting devils only. Karlach was a tiefling — not a monster.

For his insolence and disobedience and audacity in questioning her authority, Mizora summoned the fires of the nine hells and encased Wyll in them, scorching him body and soul until...

...he, himself, transformed into a tiefling and the devil vanished.

Rushing over to Wyll to check that he was alright after that encounter. He was, though obviously shaken as to the events that had occurred. He had done what he thought was right, and he had been punished for it.

Ellu'kha asked if there was anyway he could leave the pact and Mizora, that perhaps there was a loophole in his contract, but he did not know. Indeed, Mizora held the contract so he couldn't read it himself and try to glean a loophole if there was one.

Checking in with Karlach after the encounter, she was astonished. Wyll had chosen her life over his. It was such a noble deed. She had thought him a simple mercenary chasing her, but now her opinion had changed. He was a worthy man and she was grateful for his kindness.

They got to talking about her fiery condition and she mentioned that in place of a heart she had an infernal engine in her chest. It needed a tune-up, too, it was starting to act a bit erratically. Apparently there was a tiefling in these parts who knew about these engines and she wouldn't mind finding him before her engine exploded or something.

Before crawling into her bedroll for the night, Ellu'kha checked in on Gale.

He spoke a bit about his life prior, of his pet cat, Tara, a highly intelligent beast who had actually been the one to discover that he needed to consume magical artifacts to deal with his condition. He thought that Tara would like Ellu'kha; they were both kind spirits. That's what he liked about her.

Ellu'kha winked and asked what else he liked about her, which caused Gale to quickly compose himself. He liked a lot about her, but it was best to speak of that at another time, when his condition was less volatile and he was less likely to create a magical explosive disaster within the camp.