#miiiiiiiiiinsc <3

[blackjackkent]

LMAO. Started the fight off and Minsc immediately shouts out to the doppelganger, "JAHEIRA! You have an evil, much uglier twin sister? Minsc does not like this!"

(Matt Mercer is doing tremendously with this character, which comes as no surprise but is still fun to hear. He was clearly SO excited about getting to play him.)

The biggest challenge in this fight is that all four of the good guys are bunched up in the tiny tunnel we came in by, with Karlach in the back and not able to either jump, move, or shoot past Jaheira and Shadowheart, so she lost her opening turn which was pretty annoying.

This is a pretty large fight with some pretty beefy enemies, but extra shoutout goes to the random hyena also hanging out in the enemy roster with only 12 HP and the name "Snicker".

The end of the fight went on FOREVER because the last remaining enemy was on a high ground platform and kept throwing ice knives, which would down Hector, Shadowheart would healing word him back up, and then the entire team would eat shit on the ice surface trying to move to a position where they could shoot the guy. This happened like four times in a row.

But eventually we got there! And Minsc is not dead because (as our kind anon friend reminded us!) we had non-lethal damage on.

He begins to stir as the fight ends; Hector has a brief moment to be impressed by the man's battering-ram resilience.

Narrator: Against the darkness swarming his senses, a single light glows - rage, flaring brighter every moment.

In spite of his considerable wounds, Minsc struggles onto his knees. His breath is rasping heavily in his chest, his eyes wild with fury. Hector can feel the resonance of the tadpole working in the beserker's mind.

"...Killed... her..." Minsc rasps out between his teeth.

Of course, Hector thinks bleakly. He believes his Jaheira is the real one. And he believes we murdered her.

Jaheira - the real one - is at his side in an instant, the druid wildshape flowing off her like water, urgency in every line of her face. "He won't stay down for long!" she snaps. "Tell your illithid to protect him from the elder brain's influence. Quickly!"

"No..." the Emperor whispers in Hector's mind. "This one will not aid our cause. Get rid of him."

Hector scowls. Yet another reminder that he and the Emperor do not share common purpose. This is not about aiding the cause. This is about a friend who needs his help.

Extend your protection to him.

Minsc is beginning to stagger to his feet, a hoarse roar in his throat.

"Don't be foolish," the Emperor insists. There is just a hint of petulance in its mental tone - or perhaps that is Hector's imagination. "He is too unpredictable. He will only be a hindrance to us."

He's Jaheira's friend. Do it.

"No!"

Hector has never heard the Emperor's communications with him to be so deliberate, so stubborn and harsh. Is this because I rejected you? he can't help but wonder, and the thought makes his blood run cold.

"I will not be coerced into protecting him," the mind flayer snarls in his brain. "You do not see what I do - his thoughts, his mind. Pure chaos."

Hector's face must show something of this inner conflict being battled out; Jaheira is watching him intently.

"The mind flayer pours poison in your ear, I think," she snarls, as fierce as the tiger whose form she took only a few moments ago. "Tell it I will tear the Prism from your grasp and throw it in the deepest lava pit I can find! Long after our bones are dust and ash, the walls of its prison will still be burning!"

"Now HELP MY FRIEND!"

"She bluffs," the Emperor responds at once, icily, although Hector thinks he can sense a fractional hesitation. "Surely she would not risk the fate of all for one simple life."

Hector lifts his head, looks at Jaheira steadily for a long moment, and then a dry smile tugs at his lips.

I don't think you want to find out.

He can feel the Emperor recoil inside his mind, a flash of white-hot fury... and then an empty chill. "Fine," it answers harshly. "Have it your way."

Pain stabs through Hector's temple - a pain he has not felt in some time, the sharp pain that accompanied his first meetings with Lae'zel, Shadowheart, and the others back at the nautiloid crash. The pain of the deeper tadpole connection that binds them all, and binds them to the Emperor's protection.

Narrator: His mind unfolds beneath yours, a still lake pulls you down into its depths. Images flash by - battles fought, and friends fallen. His rage grows colder, burrows deeper, as a familiar face crystallizes before you.

"Jaheira..." Minsc groans. His eyes are fixed on Hector, an arrow locked on its target. "You KILLED HER!" He roars the words out, raises a fist to strike, and Hector becomes briefly and acutely aware of just how much bigger this man is than any of them--

"You are being dramatic," Jaheira says with a grin from beside him.

The effect is instantaneous. Minsc goes still except for his head snapping around to look at her.

Narrator: The instant's hesitation is enough. With a sensation of terrible rending, something vast and nameless falls away from his mind.

"There," the Emperor mutters irritably. "It is done."

The huge warrior staggers, putting a hand to his temple. A groan rolls through him like a rumble of thunder... trails off to a soft noise of confusion.

"Jaheira?" he mumbles unsteadily. "I... do not understand."

"Good," she says. Her tone is lighter than Hector has heard it before; all the muscles in her face have relaxed from a tension that he did not realize it's been holding all the time he's known her. "That means you are back to your old ways." She puts a hand gently on his arm and gestures to Hector. "We have a lot to discuss. But first... you have someone to thank."

Narrator: In the sudden silence, your minds merge once more. More memories, sensations, but passing too quickly for you to track. In the same breath, you share everything that happened to you. The nautiloid. The Absolute. The Chosen of the Dead Three.

(A/N: Once again - love the usage of the tadpole as an exposition skip button. XD )

"You." All the rage has dropped out of Minsc's voice, all sign of the darkness of the Stone Lord is gone. He is looking at Hector with frank, openhearted curiosity mixed with regretful pain. "You saved Minsc, while he danced like a mind flayer's meat-puppet. Why?"

Hector smiles slightly, jerks his head to indicate their mutual friend. "Jaheira insisted," he says gently.

"Suggested," Jaheira corrects with a soft chuckle.

Minsc laughs jovially. With the tadpole's influence quieted, it is clear to Hector that the man's natural state is a good nature as big and vigorous as his body. "You do well to heed her," Minsc says brightly. "Jaheira was very wise even *before* she was very old."

He reaches, with a gesture clearly as natural as breathing, towards his shoulder. "There is someone you must meet," he adds excitedly. "He is--" A pause. He hesitates, looks around unsteadily. "He is..."

He begins to paw frantically at the pockets of his armor, his shoulders, even the top of his head.

"Where is he?!"

With an attitude far more frantic than any he displayed in combat, Minsc turns on his heel and darts away without warning, leaving Hector standing with a bemused expression on his face.

#bjk plays baldur's gate 3 #hector carlisle #minsc #miiiiiiiiiinsc <3 #we must go find boo now #and also jaheira you are such a badass and i love you so much