her thoughts were fast, but she was faster (no regrets tho)

Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 Sexyman Poll Round 1

All right. The final battle awaits! Time to put an end to Melissan and her schemes, for once and for all!

Leaving the pocket plane we are immediately deposited into an absolutely wild cutscene. (Video timestamped.)

Oh boy, here we go.

Melissan stands bathed in the green light from which she has emerged, at the center of a series of platforms hanging unmoored in the darkness of the Abyss. Her eyes glow with a madness almost as bright as the glowing towers around them.

Once, perhaps, Caden would have trembled with fear or doubt. But he has endured too much. This has to end here and he refuses to back down from the confrontation.

He grips his sword with both hands and lifts it to point into her face.

She laughs, a cold, high, keening sound like a blade being drawn from its sheath. Magic sparks around her fingertips as she raises them in return.

The battle is joined - but it is a strange one. She summons creature after creature - bone fiends and slayers and every monster of the dark planes - but strikes little herself, seeming almost disinterested as Caden and his friends hurl themselves against her defenses.

As one of the bone fiends crumples into a pile of shards at her feet, she smirks, waves one hand dismissively (and casts a thunderbolt that sends Imoen diving to one side).

There's a flash, and she's gone - her body swallowed up into the flaming tower at the center of the room. Her back arches and she cries out - in ecstasy? Pain? - and the floating platform bucks under their feet, shuddering in tandem with whatever power is flowing into her. Another platform begins to shift into place near them, summoned by the power Melissan is manifesting.

With a roar of fury, Caden crashes through the latest wave of summoned elementals and slashes his sword downwards to blast apart the glowing conduit connecting the two platforms; he is satisfied to hear Melissan scream out in rage and pain as the power feeds back on itself and crashes through the central tower like a lightning bolt.

Like a cork popped from a bottle she re-emerges onto the platform, a fireball blasting outwards from her palms in Caden's direction as she lands.

There is a tremendous, soul-shaking crash, and then time freezes around them for a long, interminable moment, and then a multitude of icy blasts explode in the midst of the group. Caden throws himself sideways, his body partially shielding the nearest of his companions, and the numbing cold sinks through his armor and into his skin and makes his teeth ache and chatter.

Don't stop. Can't stop. Fight!

He struggles to his knees, then his feet, and Melissan gives a low growl of frustration at seeing him still standing.

A horrible, brutal pattern begins to form. Melissan continues, again and again, to disappear into the tower of light, trying to gather more of the essence and power of Bhaal to herself. Each time, a conduit begins to glow, channeling the energy across the platform - and each time Caden's blade strikes it back down.

But each time he moves a little slower, his friends are a little less prompt to follow him. Their strength is waning, and Melissan is gaining more with each pass through the light.

I don't know how much longer we can keep this up...

But bit by bit...some of her support is being cut away. In the end, the conduits are all broken, and all that remains is the tower of light housing all of Bhaal's power, and Melissan, incandescent with rage, standing in front of it and staring down the battered Bhaalspawn and his friends.

They are so tired, all of them. So broken and bloody and bruised. But they remember a thousand battles fought together - the fight against Jon Irenicus, against Caelar Argent, against Sarevok and all the generals of the Five. They remember standing shoulder to shoulder against seemingly insurmountable odds. They remember dying together and being reborn together.

And almost as one...they strike. And in spite of all Melissan's power, all her greed and might...she falls...

You know, I liked Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear.

Caelar Argent makes such a good foil to a good-aligned Gorion's ward: one a heroic child of an unholy bloodline, the other a villainous child of a holy bloodline. One is humble, the other self-righteous.

I also had my suspicions about who the mysterious hooded man was... turns out, I was right.

I just hope my character can in fact clear her name in the sequel.

28th of Nightal, 1368 - Day 160, Hour 6.5

M'Khiin inspired me. She was hanging there, seemingly helpless, but found a way to fight back. Ghostly figures tore the scaly devil to chunks, and while momentarily distracted I came at Belhifet. From somewhere withing me I felt a change. A familiar warmth, yet different somehow. When hammer met devil, silver light flooded the room, originating from my hammer. The impact tore a hole in Belhifet's middle, and cleaved him in half. As the white flames guttered, we turned our attention to the cage beyond our battlefield, and the uncle and niece that spoke with eachother. Caelar had finally got what she wanted. The cage door crumbled at her touch, turning to mist, releasing the tortured man. Aun Argent was gaunt, with sunken eyes peering out from a pallid face. The subject of how to close the circle came up, and Yuze confirmed what Aun informed us: That someone would have to stay behind to close it from this end. Caelar volunteered. No one stopped her, it solved our problem of how to get back, and was a form of justice in a way. I don't have faith that the powers that be, that the mortals who make decisions will be able to use their power responsibly. I do have faith, that I have the power to intercede on behalf of those in need without Helm's help. If it wasn't Helm whose divine light flooded my weapon... whose was it? - Ferrum

i know literally nothing about the bg3 character aylin (?) except for her appearance but she looks JUST like caelar argent. is that on purpose

Iwona the Gorion's Ward: masterpost

Tagged under: #Iwona The Gorion's Ward

Category: Player Character

System: AD&D

Game(s): Baldur's Gate 1, Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn, Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal (pending)

Visuals:

Portrait (Bg1) Pose sketch to the Bg1 portrait

Portrait (BG2)

Age chart up to the end of Bg1 + character description

Comic sketch: adventuring and manners

meme: Meeting with Caelar Argent

Comic: Dump Stats -> Polish version

Comic: Introspection (BG2 endgame dialogue)

Sketchdump: Chapter 10 (Siege of Dragonspear)

Sketch: Boots of Haste

Inktober 2021: The Wizard Warrior

Inktober 2018: Rim

Colored art: Woe (confrontation with Sarevok)

Colored sketch: Iwona playing with Rim

Colored sketch: The campfire (+ the price of the sequence in Spellhold)

Colored sketch: Iwona during the events of BG3 (headcanon/AU)

Pencil sketch: Iwona as Veldrin -> colored version

Ask My OC: Favourite food, the possible turn of events if Iwona wasn't a Bhaalspawn

Meme: A meeting with Drizzt Meme/sketch: Subversive Takes

Text:

Text post: about a Favourite song I associate with her

Text post: why I can't bring myself to draw the confrontation with Sarevok

Text post: a comment about Iwona's class

Text post: Iwona's potential reaction to BG3 events

Textpost/meme/liveblog: Iwona's Bizarre Adventure

Text post: Like mother, like daughter

Caelar Argent (Child of Bhaal)

Caelar Argent (Child of Bhaal)

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Caelar Argent

Replaying Siege of Dragonspear Castle

On a more serious note, the villains in Baldur’s Gate are all pretty wonderful takes on what seem outwardly like fairly standard fantasy genre antagonists.

The big two being Sarevok and Irenicus. Sarveok is the big, bombastic tin can with a big hard on for murder. Whereas Irenicus is the creepy, soft spoken (relatively), evil sorcerer who has more enigmatic and specific seeming plans.

However, the ways they go about their plans and how they are treated for it are quiet different from what one might expect from just their outlook and first impressions. Instead of just killing everyone with brute force and big balls, Sarevok engages in a years long plan of manipulating trade flows and political connections across the land in order to get what he wants. Taking him down is not a case of marching into his evil base and killing him, but rather finding evidence to sully his public image in the eyes of the people. Kicking his ass after then is more just finish business in-between siblings at that point.

Irenicus by contrast, has very simple plans for his fairly elaborate goals. Rip a godly soul out of you and then march into Suldanessellar and a become a treegod. Anyone who gets in the way gets blown up by a swift force missile to the face. There’s not much need for lies and manipulations when you have Geas and an army of iron golems. Taking him down is only a matter of finding him and gutting him on the spot, but him being an archwizard with plenty of spell slots for dimension door, it takes some doing.

But the key here is the way they both start and end. Sarevok was someone who was born into misery and was already carrying a fairly cursed fate in his blood. He was led to embrace that curse by multiple people manipulating and using him for their own motivations. No one but Tamoko and potentially Charname can show him any genuine care and/or love and eventually he can actually take steps toward redemption, late as they are.

Irenicus meanwhile, pretty much dug his own grave. He had what must have been a pretty cushy life beforehand, being an archmage already as well as the lover of the elven queen. But he just couldn’t keep his mitts off of that sweet potential godhood (though I imagine Bodhi wasn’t exactly against it either) which led directly to his exile and de-soulification. And while it’s a pretty horrible punishment no doubt, it’s still pretty lenient considering that he could have literally killed all of his kind. Got to keep his magic powers and everything, not to mention not just getting executed on the spot. So despite this second chance and even another one at the very tail end of his invasion, where his lover one last time just begs him to stop, and he just doesn’t, because he’s just too angry and too evil of a man. Multiple chances of redemption and the genuine enduring love of someone, both of which he pretty much just tramples over.

Man I love Baldur’s Gate.

As for Caelar and Amelyssan, both rather lacking in screentime sadly. There’s still a similar nice contrast present, with Caelar’s plan being pretty much entirely well meaning, but really shortsighted and simple. Whereas Amelyssan’s is veeery longterm and grand in scope, done for purely self serving and vile reasons. Love both their designs also, a bit more down-key compared to the fellas.

Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 Sexyman Poll Round 1 - Information and Matchup List

HOW DOES THIS WORK? At the beginning of each round all contenders are randomized into a list. Why? Because I like randomizing things and it's sexier than brackets. The first poll is going to be 1 day long because I didn't know about the 1 week option but the second round might be longer depending on how this goes. WHAT ABOUT BG3? I want to give the characters from the original two games space to shine and you and I both know the second BG3 is in the mix this turns into an Astarion sweep. Besides I'd kind of like to hold off on doing a BG3 poll until we have the full game. I'M JUST HERE FOR THE QUOTES DAMMIT!

No problem! All sexyman poll-related posts are tagged with both "baldur's gate sexyman poll 2023" and "not a quote" so they can easily be filtered out and you can get back to giggling at incorrect quotes.

Hope y'all have fun with this!

Matchup list is below and you can just scroll down farther to get to the polls - they're right below this post. ROUND 1 MATCHUP LIST:

Kivan vs. Shar-Teel Dosan

Glint Gardnersonson vs. Neera

Sarevok Anchev vs. Mazzy Fentan

Xzar vs. Branwen

Noober vs. Cespenar

Keldorn Firecam vs. Jan Jansen

Dorn Il-Khan vs. Bodhi

Solaufein vs. Jon Irenicus

Anomen Delryn vs. Edwin Odesseiron

M'khiin Grubdoubler vs. Valygar Corthala

Clara vs. Yoshimo

Duke Eltan vs. Amelyssan the Blackhearted

Skie Silvershield vs. Voghiln the Mighty

Nalia De'Arnise vs. Tiax

Saemon Havarian vs. Gaelan Bayle

Quayle vs. Wilson the Bear

Garrick vs. The Spectator

Eldoth Kron vs. Haer'Dalis

Biff the Understudy vs. Alora

Caelar Argent vs. Hexxat

Tamoko vs. Boo

Dynaheir vs. Faldorn

Coran vs. Viconia de Vir

Cernd vs. Phaere

Rasaad yn Bashir vs. Korgan Bloodaxe

Safana vs. Aerie

Imoen vs. Baeloth Barrityl

Xan of Evereska vs. Captain Schael Corwin

Jaheira vs. Kagain

Montaron vs. Raelis Shai

Minsc vs. Ajantis Ilvastarr

Yeslick Orothiar vs. Khalid

Results will be posted tomorrow evening or sometime on Tuesday depending on how busy I am.

On this, their final return to the Temple of Lolth, Caden can feel something different in the air. A humming, a sense of power ready to be released. The city sits on the cusp of being shaken to its core, though it does not know it yet.

But even those planning the coup do not know exactly what cards they hold...

Phaere's eyes are glittering in the dim light, her body almost trembling with anticipation and eagerness, like a racehorse held tight at the starting gate. In a way, perhaps it is good that Caden is without soul at the moment, or else he is sure his dislike of her, of these people, of this place would show all too plainly on his face.

The ritual begins in the inner sanctum of the temple. Though Ardulace is older and more restrained than Phaere, that eager, arrogant greed is apparent in every line of her face too. She feels herself on the edge of greatness and is hurtling towards it, unstoppable, heedless of what waits below.

Caden's skin prickles as the room floods with hellish heat. He remembers another battle, alongside Caelar Argent, facing down the demon Belhifet in the depths of Avernus.

This demon that Ardulace has summoned is no Belhifet. A lesser creature, but still all too powerful, with glowing red eyes and wings that stretch more than six feet across.

Caden and the others hold themselves still as statues, watching the eager movements of the drow eager to receive their new lord.

The demon laughs, and its laughter grows into a bellowing roar that seems to fill the whole room, until it mingles with a high-pitched, piercing scream as flame envelops Ardulace, her body dissolving in the heat until nothing remains but ash.

Caden's stomach clenches, and he finds his teeth chattering as he fights to remain still. Now he remembers yet another flame - the cage in Irenicus's dungeon, the fire creating an all-consuming agony around him without allowing him to die. There is only one mercy here - that the demon does not prolong the suffering; within moments, Ardulace's bones lie smoking on the floor of her temple.

The demon laughs again, a barking noise like a mad dog, and its eyes sweep across the array of mortals standing at its feet.

Phaere's scream, as the flames consume her, seems to pierce to Caden's very heart. And as the demon laughs this time, he is looking not at his victim, but at Caden as well, those tar-pit black eyes seeing deep into him, to the emptiness within him chewed ragged by the struggle against the evil corner of his nature.

Imoen's words emerge flat as Phaere collapses into a scorched heap, but there is triumph in them too, that muted victory that is all she and Caden are capable of feeling. Instantly, instinctively, Jaheira reaches out and strikes Imoen sharply across the shoulder -- but it is too late. The words are out, and with them, Caden's true name.

For a moment, the whole room seems to hold its breath. But the demon is sated by its murders, and smiles almost nonchalantly, settling back on its enormous, monstrous heels.

And it vanishes, leaving the room smelling of burned flesh.

"Time to go," Rasaad mutters. "We all heard that imp. If we do not leave now, we may not have the chance."

"Don't have to tell me twice," Caden answers, and as if with one mind, they all turn and leap for the door.

The Shining Lady

28th of Nightal, 1368 - Day 160, Hour 6

Engulfed in flames my mind was dominated with one thought Is my daughter dead? We were launched head over foot out of the portal, my four companions, myself, and Caelar. Frantically I swung my head around, looking for the deep blue of her shirt. Crumpled, head between her knees, Aurelia looked up at me, and smiled weakly. Then she snapped to attention, wincing. "Caelar!" I spun around, dodging a sword swing from the mighty Aasimaar. My companions sprang to action. Strengthened by a small blue vortex of spirits, M'Kiin dueled Caelar with her glowing sword. Jaheira summoned roots from the ground to slow Caelar down, grasping at her feet and legs with gnarled vines. Yuze shot needles of ice at strategic points, aiming for the neck, and other joints in her armor. Khalid threw himself into the gray, attacking from Caelar's rear. She was becoming overwhelmed, beads of sweat appearing on her gleaming face. She strained herself, but she was keeping up. The 5 v 1 handicap was barely keeping them at a tie. "I will not leave my uncle here! I will save him from Avernus!" Caelar tore free of the vines, and bashed M'Khiin and Khalid away with her shield. The shining lady backed up into a defense stance, and then held her ground. "I thought you were here to save your soldiers?" Aurelia croaked the question from a rock nearer to us than she had started. Having crawled across the hard earth during our battle, she was not noticed. Red dirt covered the front of her leather vest and the knees of her pants. "You're not really here for them?" "I am! I am here to save them, to resurrect them, to ease them of punishment that should of been mine! They died Bhaalspawn, attempting to save my uncle, who was trapped here. As a child, I activated an infernal artifact and was transported to hell, enslaved by a devil. I only stand here now because my uncle took my place. That's why we went back, to save the man who saved me. Now I will correct both our failed initial mission, and save the soldiers who so loyally followed me to their doom." Everyone stood as still as their heavy breathing bodies allowed. Caelar's words hung in the air, her voice an invigorating, commanding tone. Was this part of how she led her crusade, can aasimar influence others? Would Aurelia be able to do this? "You- you brought an army down here to, all to save one man? This all started because you marched an army's worth of soldiers straight into the inferno?"" I huffed, my breath catching up with me. "I owe that man everything! As a proud Argent and loyal niece, I would have, and will do, everything within my power to save my uncle, as well as my loyal troops, who died for our noble cause." "What nobility? You wretched, overpowered child! In your naive ideals you have condemned hundreds to hell, sacrificed them all like sheep to the slaughter. In an act of abject *selfishness*. You disgust me aasimar! Truly it seems, the gods laugh and give the most power to the worst wretches in the land! " "Cretin! I will-" "You will fall to my hammer! If the gods will not administer justice, I will answer the call myself!" I swung and Caelar parried, a massive dent appearing in her shield. She took the impact and shrugged it off, squaring up for a counter attack.

This woman took hits like an ogre! The party ran in to attack, but would not make it before Caelar swung her sword in retaliation, catching my hammer and wrenching it from my hand. In a fluid movement, she pulled my arm behind my back, and put her sword to my neck. "Tell me where Hephernaan went Aurelia! Tell me or your guard here loses his head. Every battle i have spied you in, he has always been by your side. So don't try and tell me the orc isn't important to you." "That way" Aurelia pointed an outstretched finger to a plateau in the near distance. Calear threw me to the ground and sped off in the direction Aurelia pointed, sprinting with all the efficiency and speed of a royal messenger. - Ferrum

Late, but a couple of months ago I finished playing Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear and Caelar Argent left a big impression on me and Jimothy. Mostly a bad one. But I love to hate her.