Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General The Afflicted

Introduction

Kaedyn strode along the road. His mind was elsewhere. He had no idea where Tyr was leading him, and he frankly didn't care. He was free of the Church. He was free of the temple leaders who he had discovered were abusing their power. They were hypocrites; all of them. They told others how to be holy, but they were not living the life themselves.

"They didn't like me anyway," he told himself audibly. "Prejudiced, arrogant monsters. That's all they are. They treated me like a slave my whole life while other acolytes were treated like sons and daughters. At least I know Tyr is not that way. You can't blame the god for the behavior of the followers."

"I wonder what Drow are ACTUALLY like," he continued with his monologue. As he said this, he ran his charcoal colored fingers through his dusty blonde hair. He liked to part it down the middle and let his straight locks feather around his pointy ears. "They can't be as bad as people say. I mean, every race has wicked people. You can't tell me humans are any better."

He considered this a moment. He didn't really know much about his heritage. He had been left at the monastery of Tyr by his human father when he was very young. The priests had told him that his father had sprouted off some sort of tale about being the slave of a Drow woman. She had become pregnant by him in secret, and she must have cared about him and Kaedyn both. Apparently, she died helping them escape the Underdark. His father was an adventurer and he didn't want Kaedyn raised in normal society. After all, being Half-Drow would likely mean he'd be horribly rejected by most. He was sure it would be different with the Tyrites.

It wasn't. Kaedyn was always an outcast. Nevertheless, he firmly believed in Tyr and his ways. He believed that by helping others and fighting for justice, he was rising above his circumstances. He would win justice for himself by serving. One day, people would see that just because you were part Drow, or whatever, it didn't mean you were a certain way. "A person CHOOSES their own destiny," he muttered. "Their destiny is not fated to them just because of who their parents were."

A sharp, crackling noise suddenly interrupted his thoughts. Turning back in the direction of the sound, he looked up to see a flying ship descending out of the sky. Massive tentacles stretched out from it. "What in the Hells?" Kaedyn said, utterly stunned into inaction. It looked like a giant squid in the sky, and it was coming in his direction.

All at once, Kaedyn realized that he was in danger. He turned and began to flee. It was now looming over him. It was speeding across the sky so fast. Kaedyn's heart was pounding in his ears as he pumped his legs hard. Then, all at once, one of the tentacles swooped down. He barely caught sight of it just before it struck.

An instant later, he was in some sort of pod. He was trapped. He couldn't move. His mace at his right hip dug into his leg. His shield on his back was wedged tightly between the pod's walls. He struggled to worm his way free. It was no use. Something was gripping his wrists. Then, all at once, a hissing sound filled the chamber, and the sweet embrace of slumber wrapped itself around him.

Not long after this, deep in the Underdark, Vexir crouched in a dark recess as she observed her prey. She was at the bottom of a massive underground chasm filled with stalactites and stalagmites. They were like the massive teeth of a titan predator. Below her position, a group of goblins wound their way along. They had the markings of some new goddess on their shields and armor. Vexir had been sent with a unit of her best warriors by her mother to investigate. Well, that was not entirely true. Vexir had volunteered to go. She wanted to know if this new goddess was a threat to Lloth.

She glanced back at her unit and made a few gestures to indicate that she was about to lead the ambush. They would butcher them, eventually, but first they would keep as many alive as they could for interrogation. Several Drow had reportedly abandoned their faith in the Spider Queen, and this heresy needed to be put down immediately. Lloth would not stand for it. It was Vexir's duty to get to the root of the problem.

But she never got the chance. There was a snapping, crackling sound that thundered through the Underdark. A giant air ship drew everyone's attention. It smashed into several stalactites as it catapulted through the caverns. Boulders rained down on everything below. Instantly, the goblins fled back up the path. Before anyone could react, they were gone.

Vexir stood, as did her unit. They observed the vessel as if a beholder had just turned them to stone. It was coming right for them. In fear, her unit fled a moment later. She could hear them vanishing behind her. She drew her greataxe as if that would somehow help her against the mammoth, living nautiloid. A moment later, a tentacle came for her. She swung at it and then was gone.

"Why did I not run like the others?" she asked herself as unconsciousness took her. She received no answer. How can anyone ever explain why they do what they do during such situations?

Meanwhile, Ryth-Shan crouched at the top of a ridge. He was camouflaged by the bushes and trees around him. Below, a deer was quietly lapping at a gentle brook. The Githyanki Ranger pulled back on the string of his long bow. His turquoise-colored hair was spun into six tight braids that joined together at the base of his skull. These rested over a mostly shaved scalp. Many brown markings dotted his face on either side of his eyes, and he had a few turquoise tattoos on his chin that matched his hair color.

Well, that was not entirely true. It wasn't that the tattoos matched his hair color, per se. The truth was that his eyes were turquoise and he dyed his hair to match his eyes. The tattoos were runes of some sort that meant something to him, and he had them done in the same color because he thought it complemented his appearance rather well.

Not that he was particularly into his appearance. Ryth-Shan cared little what others thought of him. He was used to being alone with the animals in the woods. He cared more about them than people; for the most part. He had been hatched in a secret creche within the Wood of Sharp Teeth. He was only about six when the creche was discovered and utterly laid to waste by ghaik - Mind Flayers. How they had discovered his original home, he did not know, but it mattered little. From that day on, he had been forced to survive in the wilds.

He loosed the string. The deer died with one, clean shot. He was glad. He killed for meat, and he hated when his targets suffered. A few minutes after, he was hunkered over the kill, skinning and carving it with a knife. "Silvanus' blessings upon you," he remarked softly as he did his work. "Thank you for your unwilling sacrifice."

This was interrupted by a crackling explosion. Startled, he jumped to his feet and looked around. "A nautiloid!" he cried a moment later, for he saw it in the sky almost directly above him. He had only seen a ship like it once in his life. It was on the day his creche had been destroyed. "Ghaik!" Then he left his kill to try to find a hiding place somewhere in the woods.

It did him no good. Before he had gone very far, one of the massive tentacles swooped down. Ryth-Shan barely glanced back in time to see it coming at him. He tried to dive and roll away to escape, but it was no good. He was utterly disoriented when he found himself trapped inside a pod. Panic gripped him, but it vanished as a gas rendered him unconscious.