Is the general premise that the Nautiloid being an absolute controlled vessel, used to voyage around and do missions for them, under doubt? My assumption was that the FYers on the ship know the weapon is there, and only freak out when the ship doesn't make it back to Moonrise. I'll grant a little leeway that Elturel is on the way to Moonrise and that the opening cinematic stop there can be considered consistent with them heading back in a direct path. There's also the fact that SH is under extra security on the ship - which leads to the assumption that they know she has the weapon.
It could speak to a three way conflict where the Shar/SH group, the Gith, and the Nautiloid all taking place prior to the opening cinematic - likely in a battle to control/acquire the weapon at LZ's home. The dead on the ship when Tav is tadpoled are not product of an internal conflict, but the result of that mission.
The Nautiloid came out ahead fromt hat conflict (enough to extract itself) and was then returning back to Moorise. LZ and SH having been acquired in that conflict, thus being tadpoled at the same time as Tav. As the Nautiloid returns back it picks up some more conscripts from Elturel - which could include other MCs like Gale and Wyll (?) - before the pursuit from the Gith sends them into Avernus and Karlach jumps aboard, is presumably subdued and quickly tadpoled also.
That would them put the origins as:
SH - Captured in regard to raid/activity around the artifact.
LZ - Captured in regard to raid/activity around the artifact, but too lowly to know about the artifact itself.
Karlach - Hops aboard in Avernus
Wyll/Astarion/Gale - Either true souls in service to the absolute, whose control was broken during the battle and crash, or captured from Elturel during the opening cinematic. In the case of the former, convenient amnesia of the period in the absolute's service would seem likely.
I've not played much with Gale at all, so I don't know what clues he has, but Wyll is pretty awkward to fit in given his history - the chronology of which makes no clear sense to me still.
Tav also doesn't quite fit in given the generic BG background.
Last edited by lamaros; 14/07/22 03:12 AM.
