We had gotten ourselves all excited about finding a peaceful solution with Balthazar, and that all turned into a lot of frustration. The monk had convinced himself that the taint of Bhaal had to die with us.
I wish, I could have brought my friendly Solar into the discussion, there are clearly other options. And I’m simply not ready to leave Sarah and my friends that way. So it came to blows. In the end, I knew Imoen and I were the last Bhaalspawn.
As the fight against Balthazar came to end, I was overcome for a moment thinking about what all we’d overcome and the new possibility of some peace ahead.
Sarah was there for me as always. She was my most constant companion and partner from the beginning of all of this. I saw a good future in her eyes.
Imoen was lost in thought too. Somehow she’d been fortunate and only had a small portion of the taint. But she was there through it all too, and knew things were winding down in some way.
We were drawn back to my pocket plain for another lessen with the Solar. We learned the Bhaalspawn crisis is over. Except. A priestess remained. The one known as Melissan the Black Hearted had kept a portion of Bhaal’s essence and was now poised to become the new “Lord of Murder”. So a final task remained, to stop Melissan.
We would travel to “The Throne of Bhaal”, where Melissan plotted to take control.
We fought, we won. I don’t feel the need to go back through it all. The fight was long and involved. But after all we’d been through, it didn’t seem too much of challenge. I feel like we left resources untapped. That’s a small thing.
A decision was required from us. From Imoen and I. Actually this was pretty easy. Imoen was allowed to simply give her portion of the taint to me. Gee thanks sis! I returned all of it to the gods, for final destruction.
The Bhaal Saga was over.
Epilogue
We all returned to de’Arnise Keep. This was now Sarah’s and my home. The land was ours. We’d survived our great adventure, and ended up as minor nobles in the nation of Amn. We certainly had friends all across this nation, and beyond.
Our new goals involved making this a safe and prosperous home for ourselves and all of our residents. And keeping in touch with our friends and loved ones.
Wow Jaheira, that looks like it hurts…
Jaheira would not live too close by. The confines of a castle did not suit her. And I think our friendship will always include a lot of grief for her, she lost so much. A future she once hoped for. She did visit on occasion, and we worked together a few more times. But she was never much for the pure social visits, and those remained few and brief.
“Chuck it has been an honor and a privilege to serve with you”
Keldorn was a good man and a steady companion. We saw him whenever we were in the city. Although he did retire from the order, we always felt welcome in his home. He visited with his wife girls on occasion too. An old, dear friend.
Aerie looked so at peace as we reached the end of our journey together.
There’s all sorts of funny stories about Aerie. I think slavers all over the area were now terrified of her name. And no doubt she stayed vigilant for any news of slavers doing business nearby, we helped her shut down several such operations over the years. But mostly, she was happy. We offered her a home as long as she wanted. Which is a funny thing for an Elf, she “visited” with us, for a little over 20 years. Until she met a man she wanted to start her own family with. She was always an agreeable part of our family, and had a particular gift for nannying our kids. I would call her the “fun Aunt” except…
No doubt that title always belonged to Imoen.
All sorts of stories came up about my impish little sister. She became the sort of avenging master thief who was the bane of Thieves’ Guilds all up the Sword Coast. But, as far as I know, she rarely thieved anywhere again. She kept busy with magical research of all sorts, with a lab and quarters at our castle, where she normally was. And a research lab and mage school at the old Planar Sphere in Athkatla. No doubt, she did harass the Cowled Wizards past distraction. Even to say, she pushed them to irrelevance and extinction. They deserved it.
Sarah and I have had a wonderful life together.
Sarah is perfect for the role we find ourselves in, a good leader and commander, strong and decisive, and a gracious hostess.
And a loving wife and mother to our children. She is the great blessing of my life.
*****
This brings another BG run to an end.
I did keep SCS at a low level to the end, it added a few twists from what I’m used to on “Core” setting, but didn’t affect difficulty much.
I have some ideas for future runs, Three (!) have partly written introductions. So unless I get really bored I’m likely to finish that far in the next few months. But I think this is an end for THIS format. I’ve enjoyed the illustrated runs, but its a lot of work. So I expect, I’ll still do an Introduction and Epilogue, with maybe just a couple updates as I go. Unless I come up with something I’m just itching to do visually! So expect the next few runs to be mostly just about my characters and their team.
Coming soon, and IWD run, “Astolpho and the Replacements”!
Comments
Chuck
We had gotten ourselves all excited about finding a peaceful solution with Balthazar, and that all turned into a lot of frustration. The monk had convinced himself that the taint of Bhaal had to die with us.
I wish, I could have brought my friendly Solar into the discussion, there are clearly other options. And I’m simply not ready to leave Sarah and my friends that way. So it came to blows. In the end, I knew Imoen and I were the last Bhaalspawn.
As the fight against Balthazar came to end, I was overcome for a moment thinking about what all we’d overcome and the new possibility of some peace ahead.
Sarah was there for me as always. She was my most constant companion and partner from the beginning of all of this. I saw a good future in her eyes.
Imoen was lost in thought too. Somehow she’d been fortunate and only had a small portion of the taint. But she was there through it all too, and knew things were winding down in some way.
We were drawn back to my pocket plain for another lessen with the Solar. We learned the Bhaalspawn crisis is over. Except. A priestess remained. The one known as Melissan the Black Hearted had kept a portion of Bhaal’s essence and was now poised to become the new “Lord of Murder”. So a final task remained, to stop Melissan.
We would travel to “The Throne of Bhaal”, where Melissan plotted to take control.
We fought, we won. I don’t feel the need to go back through it all. The fight was long and involved. But after all we’d been through, it didn’t seem too much of challenge. I feel like we left resources untapped. That’s a small thing.
A decision was required from us. From Imoen and I. Actually this was pretty easy. Imoen was allowed to simply give her portion of the taint to me. Gee thanks sis! I returned all of it to the gods, for final destruction.
The Bhaal Saga was over.
Epilogue
We all returned to de’Arnise Keep. This was now Sarah’s and my home. The land was ours. We’d survived our great adventure, and ended up as minor nobles in the nation of Amn. We certainly had friends all across this nation, and beyond.
Our new goals involved making this a safe and prosperous home for ourselves and all of our residents. And keeping in touch with our friends and loved ones.
Wow Jaheira, that looks like it hurts…
Jaheira would not live too close by. The confines of a castle did not suit her. And I think our friendship will always include a lot of grief for her, she lost so much. A future she once hoped for. She did visit on occasion, and we worked together a few more times. But she was never much for the pure social visits, and those remained few and brief.
“Chuck it has been an honor and a privilege to serve with you”
Keldorn was a good man and a steady companion. We saw him whenever we were in the city. Although he did retire from the order, we always felt welcome in his home. He visited with his wife girls on occasion too. An old, dear friend.
Aerie looked so at peace as we reached the end of our journey together.
There’s all sorts of funny stories about Aerie. I think slavers all over the area were now terrified of her name. And no doubt she stayed vigilant for any news of slavers doing business nearby, we helped her shut down several such operations over the years. But mostly, she was happy. We offered her a home as long as she wanted. Which is a funny thing for an Elf, she “visited” with us, for a little over 20 years. Until she met a man she wanted to start her own family with. She was always an agreeable part of our family, and had a particular gift for nannying our kids. I would call her the “fun Aunt” except…
No doubt that title always belonged to Imoen.
All sorts of stories came up about my impish little sister. She became the sort of avenging master thief who was the bane of Thieves’ Guilds all up the Sword Coast. But, as far as I know, she rarely thieved anywhere again. She kept busy with magical research of all sorts, with a lab and quarters at our castle, where she normally was. And a research lab and mage school at the old Planar Sphere in Athkatla. No doubt, she did harass the Cowled Wizards past distraction. Even to say, she pushed them to irrelevance and extinction. They deserved it.
Sarah and I have had a wonderful life together.
Sarah is perfect for the role we find ourselves in, a good leader and commander, strong and decisive, and a gracious hostess.
And a loving wife and mother to our children. She is the great blessing of my life.
*****
This brings another BG run to an end.
I did keep SCS at a low level to the end, it added a few twists from what I’m used to on “Core” setting, but didn’t affect difficulty much.
I have some ideas for future runs, Three (!) have partly written introductions. So unless I get really bored I’m likely to finish that far in the next few months. But I think this is an end for THIS format. I’ve enjoyed the illustrated runs, but its a lot of work. So I expect, I’ll still do an Introduction and Epilogue, with maybe just a couple updates as I go. Unless I come up with something I’m just itching to do visually! So expect the next few runs to be mostly just about my characters and their team.
Coming soon, and IWD run, “Astolpho and the Replacements”!