As you likely surmised from the title, this is part two in my Baldur’s Gate 3 Honor Mode story. If you haven’t read part one, you’ll want to do that first. Link to that is right here.
Now, without further ado: let the story continue.
Act 2
After picking up a confused old man named Elminster, Elya’s party traveled to the Shadow-Cursed Lands. Here, the run faced a new challenge: the environment itself. If you brave the darkness without a light, you’ll face a swift and painful end. Luckily, the party had torches, and Shadowheart finally got some love from Shar, so we managed to get through safely.
Shortly after her arrival, Elya crossed paths with a patrol of Harpers. After helping them out of a scrape, our heroine found herself in the comforting glow of the Last Light Inn. Here, she met one of my favorite characters from Baldur’s Gate 1&2: Jaheira. She and Elya became fast friends. At least, after the Head Harper grilled her over tea laced with truth serum.
The party eagerly seized the chance to rest and restock. Karlach took the Infernal Iron we had stashed away to Damon and got her engine fixed. Astarion grilled Raphael for details on the scars Cazador left on his back. Shadowheart spat on a Selunite, Halsin picked up an important clue for breaking the shadow curse, and Wyll, Gale, and Lae’zel… existed.
I spent the time planning out my next moves. My previous Honor Mode run had ended in this act, and I was eager to avoid my past mistakes. After half an hour on the wiki, I had my path laid out. All I needed was the Blessing of Selune and I’d be set.
It’s here that I made the worst mistake of the entire run.
After Isobelle granted the party the necessary buff, Marcus appeared on behalf of Ketheric Thorm to kidnap her. Normally, this fight is perfectly manageable. All you have to do is protect Isobelle and kill some ghouls. Easy.
Unless you don’t prepare. Unless you don’t plan out your defense. Unless you’re just plain unlucky.
Not even a full round into combat, Marcus and his ghouls managed to slay Isobelle. The protections around Last Light fell. Every NPC, from the Harpers to the tiefling refugees, were reduced to shadow-cursed zombies. Only my party and Jaheira managed to survive, fighting through a horde of their fallen allies. All those characters, with their quests and items, gone forever because of one stupid mistake.
This was my lowest point in the entire campaign. Morale was at an all-time low. Not just for the characters in the game, but for me the player. I nearly abandoned the run right there and then. If I had, I doubt I would have started another one.
But after a relaxing session of online co-op with my best buds, I got my shit together and returned to the run. The game wasn’t over yet. I still had a Death God to slay.
With Last Light in ruins, Jaheira took shelter in Elya’s camp to await her chance for vengeance. In dire need of merchants to sell to/ buy from, the party risked a visit to Moonrise. Luckily, Marcus had not broken our cover, so Elya was able to unload her garbage to buy new treasure.
Here, our heroine met the best villain in the game: General Ketheric Thorm. Or I should say she was reunited, for the Lord of Moonrise recognized her. Although Elya did not remember him, she did recognize the woman standing trial: Minthara.
After indulging the Urge to kill some goblins, Elya and the party descended to the dungeons to rescue Moonrise’s prisoners. First up: Minthara. After a rough fight with the torture masters, the party managed to recruit the paladin to their cause. An investment that would pay off in dividends for the rest of the campaign.
Most of act two passed without combat. Elya’s silver tongue proved far deadlier than her blade. She deceived the Keeper of Gold into retiring. Drank the Wretched Distiller to his grave. Tricked the Scalpel of Shar and his nurses to embrace oblivion. Finally, the embers of my confidence were burning hot again.
One of my biggest fears was that I could not complete Halsin’s plotline. Luckily, all I needed to get back on track was the Speak With Dead spell. But I needed to be careful; the two combat encounters tied to this quest are far from easy. Avoiding previous mistakes, I took time to plan my attacks. Mostly by planting explosive barrels all over the place. A few earth-shattering kabooms later and Oliver was restored. Now only one thing prevented the land from healing: Ketheric Thorm.
After wrapping up more side quests, Elya, Shadowheart, and the others made for the Temple of Shar in search of the Nightsong. This had me incredibly nervous; most of the trials are annoying, but some feature some dangerous mechanics that can end a run instantly if you’re not careful. The fight against the shadow duplicates in particular had me on edge. Luckily, my party managed to overcome the trials with nary a feather ruffled.
Elya also talked a devil into killing his friends. And his cat. Then himself. I’m not sure how the Urge felt about that, but I had a hearty laugh over it.
Reaching the bottom of the Gauntlet, the party faced Shadowheart’s final challenge: the Nightsong. Dame Aylin, an aasimar imprisoned to preserve Ketheric Thorm’s immortality. The only thing between them and her: the necromancer Balthazar.
Who died almost immediately. Not gonna lie, I got super lucky with this fight. Elya and Astarion absolutely cleaned his clock, Minthara turned his skull into powder, and Shadowheart evaporated most of his summons with the best Turn Undead I have ever seen.
With the obstacle removed, Shadowheart faced Shar’s final trial: to kill the Nightsong. In doing so, she would become the goddess’ tool forever. Elya tried to persuade her against it, but not even her silver tongue was sharp enough. Luckily, Shadowheart decided on her own not to kill the aasimar. Thus was the Nightsong freed, and Ketheric Thorm made mortal.
But Elya had a trial of her own to face. That night, as the party made camp, her horrible butler appeared with a new command: to murder her partner, Shadowheart, in cold blood. If she failed in resisting the Urge, the party would lose their most valuable cleric, and me my favorite character in the game. It took the last of my inspiration points, but our heroine managed to resist, and the night passed bloodlessly.
The time had come to attack Moonrise Towers. Just one problem: all of my allies were dead. Elya and the party had to face the entire cult of the Absolute with only Jaheira as backup. It was a long and grueling battle, but nothing our heroes couldn’t handle. One long rest later, and Elya sent Ketheric running into the Ilithid Colony with his tail between his legs.
By this point, I was getting really nervous. The Illithid Colony is full of dangerous encounters, all culminating in one of the game’s mightiest bosses: Myrkul, Lord of Bones, God of Death. The same boss which ended my previous Honor Mode attempt. To say I was afraid of this fleshy hellhole would be an understatement.
But I had come too far to back out now. Now was the time to avenge the fallen of Last Light. It was do or die.
Luckily, my party was absolutely bonkers. Minthara landed critical Divine Smites on practically every enemy. My throw-build Karlach (stolen from my good buddy) annihilated dozens of monsters without breaking a sweat. Shadowheart balanced healing and holy magic to trivialize the pre-boss encounters. Whatever gaps there were in support or offense, Elya filled with her sword and musical magic.
While exploring the Colony, the party came across a surprise prisoner: Wyll’s patron devil, Mizora. Freeing her earned us a snazzy rapier that summoned a powerful Cambion, a valuable ally for the boss ahead. But what grabbed Elya’s attention was the pod right next to the devil’s. The pod encrusted with blood.
Her blood. Elya had been here before. A fact cemented by the torture master in the next room. Pretending to be a dullard, our murderous bard tricked the woman into explaining all the horrendous tortures she subjected Elya to. But the question remains: why?
After restoring the party’s resources, it was time to confront Ketheric for the final time. Unfortunately, his boss room was nothing short of a death trap. On one platform stood a Mind Flayer, and on the other, a group of skeletons providing support fire. At the center stood Ketheric, a hypnotized Isobelle at his side. My best hope: an immortal angel bound in the far corner of the room.
But I had a secret weapon: a dog.
Scratch is not generally good in combat. He’s the goodest boy in the world, but his HP is in the single-digits, and his damage is basically non-existent. But he has two abilities that I needed. First: he could drink potions. Second: he can use the Help action. So I gave him a Potion of Invisibility, sent him sneaking across the room, and had him rescue Aylin right away. With his work done, the best boy was sent safely back to camp, and the fight began in earnest.
Phase one of the fight went as well as I could have hoped. Minthara and Aylin kept the Thorms busy, Karlach and Elya took care of the Mind Flayer before it could even take a turn, and Shadowheart’s Spirit Guardians made quick work of the skeletons. My HP was still mostly full, my Spell Slots still in high supply, and my heart racing out of my chest.
Phase two was not so easy. Myrkul has a ton of health, which he can heal by consuming his infinitely respawning minions. All of his attacks deal huge damage, and he can hit anyone anywhere on the map. To top it all off, Honor Mode gives him a deathly aura that prevents anyone from healing if they remain too close. As soon as Dame Aylin went down, she was out of the fight for good.
And here I forgot my explosive barrels.
Karlach and Shadowheart dealt with the skeletons with javelines and Spirit Guardians respectively. Elya did double-duty healing and attacking. The summoned Cambion provided some much needed damage. But Minthara was the true MVP; she went balistic on Myrkul, critical hitting with every Smite she had left. It was a rough battle that left every member of the party on the brink of death. But this time, I conquered the God of Death. Finally, the path to Act 3 was open.
Then something interesting happened. See, in act 2, the Dark Urge is given a unique quest: kill Isobelle. If you don’t do this, you instead get the aformentioned event where you try to kill your partner. Problem is, Isobelle was kidnapped before I got the quest. Hence I got the event with Elya trying to kill Shadowheart. Yet since Last Light was destroyed and Isobelle was killed in the boss fight, the quest was marked as completed.
As such, Elya got a special reward from her father: the Slayer transformation. A horrific beast of claws and fangs, the mere sight of which left Elya’s entire party disgusted and horrified. And a cool reference to Baldur’s Gate 2.
A githyanki attack squad provided the perfect opportunity to test it out. Unfortunately, cool as the Slayer looks, it really isn’t all that effective in actual combat. You do a lot of stabbing and cutting, but not much else. After this test run, I never used it again. It only served as a grim reminder that the Urge was closer to consuming Elya than she had feared.
Act 2 was steeped in disaster, tragedy, and loss. But as the party departed for Baldur’s Gate, they enjoyed at least one victory. With Ketheric dead and Oliver restored, the curse upon the land was lifted. Flowers bloomed, trees flowered, and light shone upon Moonrise once again.
I could only hope the road ahead would be so bright.
To Be Continued…
We’re drawing closer now to the end of our adventure. Alas, the final chapter is not ready for you all just yet. Besides, I’ve already taken up more than enough of your time today.
As always, thank you very much for reading. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did making it. I’ll see you next week for the grand finale.
Until then: stay safe, and keep your Urge on a tight leash.
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