Hey folx and welcome! This blog is currently dedicated primarily to Baldur's Gate 3 content, both reblogging other's work and posting my writing related to my OC, Miss Fortune, and Astarion. You can also find me on insta, same handle @missfortunetherogue - I mostly post bg3 memes and screenshots there.
About me
Primarily keeping myself out of this but I can share a little. While Miss Fortune isn't a self-insert character you can still call me Miss Fortune (or Rogue) if you wish.
✨ Non-binary (they/them pronouns), queer/demisexual
✨ Favorite bands: Sleep Token, Lord of the Lost, Motionless in White
✨ Other favorite video games (BG3 obvs takes top spot): Persona 5, Okami, Skyrim, Stardew Valley
✨ Other interests: making chainmail, veggie gardening, mythology and folklore (esp. Japanese folktales and yokai), gluten free baking
More favorites in this post
My writing
My main fic currently is The Embrace of Love and Death, which will have three parts (one for each act of the game). Following that, I have plans for a post-canon story (untitled) following Miss Fortune and Astarion - it'll be a spy/assassin's guild kind of story where the rogues get to keep being cute, sneaky, and stabby. I also have several short rests which are flash fiction stories showing in-between moments or backstory glimpses.
The Embrace of Love and Death (link goes to tag)
Part 1: Reluctance (complete)
Part 2: Rediscovery - (ongoing - 4 chapters published)
Part 3: Reclamation - TBD
Short rests (Miss Fortune POV unless otherwise stated):
All Tied Up and Nowhere to Go (Tumblr) (AO3)
Let Me Help You with That! (Tumblr) (AO3)
Unpacking the Poison - Astarion POV (Tumblr) (AO3)
Wake Up, Darling! Part 1 - Astarion POV (Tumblr) (AO3)
Wake Up, Darling! Part 2 - Astarion POV (Tumblr) (AO3)
Wake Up, Darling! Part 3 - Astarion POV (Tumblr) (AO3)
Thank you @gortashsrighthand for the tag, I loved the Disney versions of your OCs, and I had so much fun with it 🤗
Ellith as Hades (Hercules)🔥
Sassy, over-dramatic and theatrical, quick to anger but also positively manipulative, sly and revengeful... and rather funny? Yep, those two assholes could be one and the same, or at least, best buddies.
(also, they both like dead people)
And now I'm realising that this character might have unconsciously inspired me for Ellith 🤔😅
No pressure tag if you want to show the moot the Disney version(s) of your OC(s): @theya-art @optimisticgrey @missfortunetherogue @unovafarm @spillingteanotpermitted @starlit-serpent @scoldingdarjeeling @lilhumanoid @echoechowhiskey @michanvalentine @izumiphoenix @grlmmjow @wasted-sam @cursed-nyxan @bhaal-battle-beer-bard @mogruith @lucretiouswept @archduchessgortash @ejoym @yennefer-of-vengerbergs @liubovricci
Thank you for the tag, @rdekarios. It really was amazing to see how much progress you’ve made, but you’ve always been so talented. 💚
I started playing on console, before Photomode or mods, so my shots were pretty limited, in the beginning. But I still had fun with it. 💚
I did okay when I started playing on PC. Nothing spectacular, but I was still having fun. 💚
Eventually I figured out how to hotsample and that helped a lot.
My first try with Photomode was… abysmal. 😂 I didn’t really think I would use it much at all.
But I’ve gotten better with it and use it quite a lot now. 💚
I still don’t really think I’m even half as good as the people in the VP community, but I try my best and I’ve learned a lot. And I have fun with it, which is what matters most in the grand scheme of things. 💚
No pressure tags: @dramatiquechipmunk, @yennefer-of-vengerbergs, @unovafarm, @adrielmancy 💚
Was (uno-reverse) tagged by @emmyandthetieflings and @optimisticgrey! Thank you! Your pieces were lovely!
Additional gentle tags for @scoldingdarjeeling, @litsenn, @lilhumanoid, @bladesingerlily, @chaushaus, @ranger-jahen and @lolthwoven!
Below the cut, something from a Lae'zel and Imrae story I have had in planning for quite a while now. Because their ride-or-die friendship is very important to me.
Working title is "The Grey of Ashes".
Something was off in camp tonight.
Ever since they had entered the Underdark, Lae'zel had made it a habit to keep track of each and every of her allies, such was her task as deputy in this strange yet familiar place.
One of the few things in her life that had not changed.
Hshar'lak.
The word burned in her mind and soul like red-hot steel, and she sought a distraction from the pain it brought by patrolling the cavern their leader had chosen for their war camp.
He had chosen well. Limited entrances, fresh water, edible mushrooms, and a decent amount of the magical radiation called “faezress”, which, according to their guide and leader Imrae, would protect them from divination magic.
It seemed to put the vampire Astarion at ease, which meant that he was less of nuisance than when agitated. Despite his whinging about being parted from the sun, he still feared his master and found comfort in the thought that he would not find him here by magical means. Right this moment, he was playing with a dagger by his tent, tossing the blade “for fun”.
He sent her an annoyed glance when he noticed her presence, to which she continued her round.
Nearby, Shadowheart was watering her herbs, trying to keep them alive in this place without sunlight, but at least the plants were quiet about it. The same could be said of the half-elf, as Lae'zel had expected incessant gloating by her about the failed attempt to purify themselves at the crèche, but she had abandoned her efforts after two comments.
Wyll and Gale were sitting together with Karlach, who was roasting little morsels of food in her burning hot hands, as their leader had forbidden making campfires as they had held it on the surface, much to half the band's dismay.
The tiefling offered Lae'zel a mushroom that Imrae had confirmed as edible, yet the other two had gagged at, but a githyanki was not as picky as these istik. Chewing it down, she nodded in approval. The mushroom's subtle taste and chewy consistency reminded her of the roasted stalks of infinity vine back on K'liir.
The druid Halsin was whittling, the canine Scratch was resting by his feet, and the k'chaki Volo was writing into a book, same as the corpse Withers. Normal behaviour for all of them.
When she reached the spot Imrae had chosen as his workspace, a rock serving as their map table and his desk, she noticed what was off.
Each other evening, he had been humming while studying his manuscripts after his trance, but tonight, the only sound coming from him the soft tap of his finger on parchment as he was staring out into the vastness visible from the small opening in their hideout, where the soft glow of the sussur tree in the distance illuminated the larger cavern.
Were the averse effects of the plant still bothering the mage? No. They were too far away, and none of the other magic users in camp had complained.
Was he in pain after the battle with his kin who had lived there in company of monsters called hook horrors? She could not recall a moment in which he had been struck. Her and Shadowheart had drawn their foes into close combat as usual, splitting the herd for an easy victory, while Imrae and Astarion had backed them up with arrows and crossbow bolts. They had played it safe, for the sussur tree interrupted magic, even the soothing kind cast by the Sharran.
No, Imrae was simply deep in contemplation, she told herself. He was strong. He was stone while she was steel. A good combination. A fine alliance.
An alliance she desperately needed.
Shoving down that degrading thought, Lae'zel returned to her tent to sharpen her blades. They would explore more tomorrow to find their way to the exit towards Moonrise Towers that Imrae knew about, held by Clan Bitterroot. Grey dwarves.
They would be no match for Lae'zel of Crèche K'liir. The only reason her name would be unknown in the Underdark would be the lack of survivors of their battle.
She was useful, well-trained in combat in the close spaces of tunnels.
She was useful. She still had purpose.
Even though her eyes betrayed her in this darkness.
Even though tunnels were familiar, these were once again alien.
Even though her mere presence invited pursuers.
She stopped her thoughts and her sharpening before she could ruin the blade. Perhaps this was her cue to get some rest.
Settling on the furs by her tent, she stared at the cavern ceiling. Without the weather on the surface of Faerûn bothering their operation, she could rest however she wanted. The view reminded her of K'liir, too.
She quickly closed her eyes.
Sleep did not find her.
Not even after it had become deadly quiet in camp.
When she felt movement beside her and the qua-nith psionic detector being placed into her hand, she opened her eyes to see the white glint of Imrae's in the darkness, the dim light in the cavern catching in them.
“Speak. What is this?” Lae'zel asked, sending him a stare of disappointment.
“There is something I need to do. I will be back before you know it.”
Lae'zel sensed sorrow, but no lie in his words. “Alone? Chk. Your rules were clear. Nobody goes alone.”
“I- Yes. I did say that.” Imrae's gaze fell to the side, and he took a deep breath before he dared to look at her again, his mien more open than before. “Very well. Will you guard me, Lae'zel?”
I'm loving this new trend of people going to zoos and participating in animal enrichment. We use to observe large exotic animals for our entertainment, but the fact is that we are now trying to make ourselves equally as entertaining for them. It's interactive, completely parpicipatory and I would argue that eventually someone's gonna come up with something new enough that it expland ethologists understanding about how some animals think, problem solve, communicate and feel and I think its fantastic.
Thank you @carnivaley for the tag! 😘💜 I have so many tags I’ve been working on but y’all keep tagging me in these and I’m such a sucker for them! 😅 I promise I’m not ignoring you guys!
Ellie as Merida
Red hair, independent, refuses to let others define her, fiercely defends those she loves? No-brainer. Brave is my second-favorite Disney movie, so I had to include her somewhere! 🏹
Aoife as Megara
Back last October I had already made Gale and Aoife Hercules and Megara (you can see them here - the first one above is part of that set). So why not bing them back? Hercules is my favorite Disney movie, and this is making me want to do an entire set!
Cecilia as Rapunzel
Again, another no-brainer. Cecilia just gives off Rapunzel vibes, and oh my god Wyll as Flynn/Eugene?? 🫠
Not sure and can’t remember off the top of my head who has done it, so, very gently tagging: @optimisticgrey @bladesingerlily @saylofwaterdeep @dr4gonwriter @gortashsrighthand @cursed-nyxan @bhaal-battle-beer-bard @fangedgrace @adrielmancy @deianestormborn @rdekarios @purpleasters-inseptember @lucretiouswept @ele-millennial-weirdo @scoldingdarjeeling @thecampjuicebox @babydinosaur930 @wasteful-sam @missfortunetherogue @starlightweave @faeriiefire 💜💜
This is *not* a rant about how other people should write their BG3 fics. I think the great sandbox that the game has given fic writers is beautiful, and I love the whole goddamn kaleidoscope that it has been written through.
But my feelings, as a person who has read a large amount (but definitely not all!) of the lore of the Forgotten Realms, is that this is a dying, post-apocolyptic world.
Magic won't suddenly solve big problems in Faerun, because most of the magic is gone. The gods had to restrict it. Because so many horrifying things happened (the apocolypses - YES MULTIPLE - aforementioned.)
For all that powerful artifacts still exist, the average person in the Sword Coast thinks of them as mythical.
Wizards are not common. Not really. Someone who can cast a cantrip is probably as common as people in America with a bachelor's degree. That is, common in certain groups, rare in others. Less common than it seems, overall.
But a wizard? Someone like Gale, even the weakened version with the orb and the tadpole we meet in Act 1, is like meeting a billionaire. They exist, sure, you've heard of them. But you've probably never met one in person. No one you know has probably ever met them in person.
There is more desperation in Faerun than magic.
Every five to ten years a major city is destroyed, or almost destroyed. Beings of unimaginable power threaten and the gods are real but can't be bothered to get it together and stop this nightmare.
When I think of what it is like to really live in Faerun, I imagine there are far more warlocks than we think there are.
Wyll is not as unusual as he should be, because good people who want to help aren't going to see many better options than making bargains with powerful beings hoping to gain the power to keep their loved ones safe for one more world-ending event.
The Elves are slowly dying out. Like a sports team, their numbers keep being retired, and the rules set by Corellon mean they can't make new ones. Cazador alone took a big chunk of the running with his taste for Elves. Once turned undead, their soul is anaethema, unable to be reborn or return to Arvandor.
Plagues ravage the land as often as invasions.
From the descriptions we get, the average person cannot afford magical healing. And there really is no non-magical healing system available. In a world with healing potions, people die from infected splinters.
Life is HARD. Most people are scraping by. Violence is rampant because the whole world, essentially, is in a resource war. Over magic.
Faerun should feel less like a high magic romp, in my opinion, and more like Mad Max.
The takeaway is interesting, and I agree it definitely isn't just a high magic romp. But I'll admit reading this I actually thought we were heading toward a different conclusion. Because as an older Millennial, I have already seen so many would-be apocalypses in my lifetime. The generations older than me have seen many more.
So rather than Mad Max I figured it was like... basically us but with (apparently dwindling) magic instead of being driven by technology. Which, at least to me, is equally compelling. (Although it definitely, I think, could be a tipping point toward a Mad Max style of mess, and certainly what stage we're at could depend on exactly where in Faerun you're standing at the time.)
And we do actually see glimpses of that in BG3. Most of the NPCs, named or otherwise, simply cannot do what our adventuring party can do. We have a whole crowd in the street absolutely DAZZLED by the group of people doing flashy parlour trick magic out in front of Sorcerous Sundries, which serves as a subtle indicator that this isn't something most people see on a day to day basis. There's a whole refugee crisis and panic because this giant mystical SOMETHING is happening that is beyond what the average person is used to dealing with. So yeah I feel like it's something I'd love to take into account in my own writing. I'm semi new to the Forgotten Realms (been watching actual play sessions since before BG3 but most of them have been a lot of homebrew so don't know which lore lines up with canon) so I'm delightedly devouring other people's writeups on this stuff that puts it all together so I don't have to chase across 500 wikis trying to catch up on decades of lore. 😂
OK, continuing the conversation cause I love this!
I guess when I got to Mad Max, I'm not thinking like - it already is the Mad Max world but rather it's the world that has all the components to end up there in a couple hundred years if things continue as they are.
Eshra was not surprised about Astarion trying to bite her, nor was she mad at him for drinking her dry. She did not try to stop him to begin with
Eshra has quite... Peculiar definitions of intimacy. Being nigh indestructible (plus the screwed upbringing), her affections are very intence. The fact that Astarion chose her for this was perceived as an act of trust. As in "he was desperate and believed I would not harm him for it". And it spiked her curiosity and attraction towards him.
Thank you @missfortunetherogue @wild-surge @cinder-rellish181 @elceewunjo and @archduchessgortash for the tags 💛
No pressure tag: @theya-art @unovafarm @quinthebard @bloodless-sandpiper @riddlerosehearts @mogruith @the-starflower @izumiphoenix @michanvalentine @wasteful-sam @starlit-serpent @spillingteanotpermitted @lilhumanoid @echoechowhiskey
Ellith as a Lamia (cw: snakes, cannibalism and sex)
The legend of the Lamiae is based on the Greek myth of Lamia: a woman seduced by Zeus and punished by Hera who took her children – Lamia became insane with grief and started to devour other people’s children. She was then turned into a horrible creature.
The lamiae are described as some sort of nightly creatures with a tremendous sexual drive, and who feed on the men they seduce (as you can see, they’re also connected to succubi and therefore, to Lilith). Unsurprisingly, lamiae are often described with reptile characteristics.
There are several versions of the folklore, which evolved through the years and civilisations, but we can pin-point at least two recurring elements:
A lamia is a ‘child-devourer”
A lamia is a cannibalistic seductress
Which, obviously, is perfectly fitting for Ellith (even more if you read my little thing about Ishtar/Inanna)
Always hissing.
An ethereal, whistling but nonetheless enchanting voice haunting the marshes.
She sneaks through the bushes and ferns, always haunting the dreams of those who dare think about the darkest side of ecstasy.
The swaying of her hips follows the rhythm of her breath, each step a call for death, each heartbeat a call for a feast.
Crimson curls cascading down a soft but thick skin, half hiding the scales on her backside.
Pray not for the poor souls who harkened her call and never came back from this catabasis. Her poison tongue delivered the sinners to the hells they were seeking. Lost in the lustful liquor of her intoxicating kiss, entangled in the vines of her toxic limbs, drunk on the smell of her venomous sex. They reached for the darkest side of love and shall never return.
Her fangs will tear at their flesh, forever feasting on their blood on the altar of her own lust.
There shall be no salvation.
Their sexes she shall keep to satisfy her wretched needs, her hunger and savage tongue. Their seeds she shall save, to mix with her wine and to infuse her foul potions.
Hush, children! Keep quiet or else she shall find you.
And if her lullabies catch your ears, run. Do not follow the honeyed voice of the snake. If she appears in your dreams, do not play with her. Do not laugh with her, or else your innocent soul shall be hers.
If she finds you, wake up.
If she hears you laugh, scream.
Do not walk the night without a prayer.
The Lamia is waiting for your loss, waiting for you to answer her sickly sweet calling.
She does not forbid. She does not forget.
She's famished for your flesh, your blood and soul. And she hunts. Always hissing. Always swaying.
Tag: interpret your OC as a deity of your choice that fits your OC. Pick any pantheon or mythology.
Thank you for the tags, @unovafarm, @missfortunetherogue and @litsenn! Your entries were wonderful!
Gentle tags for @burnt-by-marigolds, @the-red-drow, @emmy-and-the-tieflings, @goosebuermps, @elceewunjo and @scoldingdarjeeling!
Imrae as Hermes
Hermes was my immediate thought which I discarded because of his heavy association with flight, but I returned to the choice after re-reading his portfolio.
The Olympian god of herds and flocks, travellers and hospitality, roads and trade, thievery and cunning, heralds and diplomacy, language and writing, athletic contests and gymnasiums, astronomy and astrology.
Imrae is a traveller, as well as a guide and a sheperd for others in the Underdark. He studies languages. He protects Astarion when he tried to steal blood in the night. He favours diplomacy, but is also a trickster when it suits him. He plays the lyre, an instrument said to have been created by Hermes.
I constantly joke that insomnia switches off my amygdala, and with it every last shred of self-criticism. Which means I can actually enjoy writing and share snippets without immediately wanting to crawl into a hole
So… I'm trying to finish this Outsiders' Welcome chapter while the magic lasts
Thank you for the tags @gortashsrighthand, @missfortunetherogue, @kt-catt, @tynithia! Even during the quieter stretches, I absolutely love seeing and reading your little snippets 💛
The woman's name, or the name she was using, did not matter. What mattered was the cut of her: spare, watchful, Memnonite by birth and Zhent by trade, with that thrift of motion the Black Network drilled into its people in place of a conscience. Rugan had known her once, in the easy way of two people who had worked the same filthy waters without ever quite sharing a boat.
She was not one of the ones he had sold. That was the whole of the warmth between them, and it was enough to do business on, and not one degree more. After all, she kept such a man where she could see him; nor was he, gently put, someone whose motives inspired confidence. Betray an entire crew of his own to save his skin and then, a season later, stroll back into the one organisation on the Sword Coast with the best documented reasons to want him dead, smiling as he asked after southbound routes.
Whether this was for the simple love of a smuggler's wage, or for cover, or for the long slow settling of some private account whose bottom line only Rugan would ever read - that she did not know, and was not interested in insulting herself by guessing. She just told him when.
No-pressure tags for @mellybaggins, @optimisticgrey, @c-e-p5315, @wasteful-sam, @funniestbitchinfaerun, @graysparrowao3, @unovafarm, @spillingteanotpermitted and anyone who wants to join :3
I was tagged by @missfortunetherogue , @cinder-rellish181 , @theendofanerror , @unovafarm , @fireflyeyes , @dynamicducks , @litsenn and @thesanguinesonnet <3
So I wrote some Aradin and Octavia today, so let's go.
"More infernal interference?"
Octavia's hands were slightly shaking as she held an almost golden mask in her hands, turning it over to inspect it. Wyll looked at her like he knew what she was talking about, because ofcourse he understood her.
"Merregons and a hellsboar were here, still active. Something must still be interested in this place, do you know anything?" he had asked.
It wasn't that he was interested in their conversation, they were just standing close to where he had decided to sit before training. It wasn't like he was feeling some way about how Wyll could understand some of the things she said.
"This wasn't just that, this thing that destroyed this place. It might linger here if that's the case," she had started to fidget with the mask in her hand. Something inside of him wanted to reach out, wanted to hold her hands still. Only because it annoyed him, there was no other explanation.
Gentle tags to @carnivaley , @ele-millennial-weirdo , @ghost-of-a-dream-girl , @archduchessgortash , @lucretiouswept , @bladesingerlily , @deianestormborn , @lolthwoven , @asorceresswrites , @doomedlamb , @wasteful-sam , @dapperpossum , @graysparrowao3 and a uno reverse to the babes who tagged me.
After browsing some legends, I find that Mara doesn't especially fit most of them that I found, except perhaps that of an Archfey.
I can't possibly do her justice in VP (as I play on PS5), but Mara could only be the ruler of the Unseelie Court, the Queen of Air and Darkness. But how would she achieve such a lofty title, you may ask?
By the bloodiest of paths, of course: a duel.
As night-black coils split the flesh of the last monarch's physical form open like a rotted melon, she dissolved into air and made a hasty retreat. Unfortunately, she could not go far. Invisible webs caught her, compressing her within an airtight darkness that was not her domain, for it was not true darkness.
Its blackness was not black. Were she to observe each individual thread, she would see all colors, soaked and blended together, twisted into incomprehensible knots that could not be unbound without the capacity to see and move across multiple dimensions simultaneously.
A capacity she did not possess.
Slowly, the sphere collapsed in on her. She tried to tear through, screeching in agony as every touch consumed the very particles of her being. Tiny, crackling explosions ricochetted through her, shattering covalent bonds, stealing electrons and eating their charge. A shriek of pure hopelessness rattled through her as she understood the inevitability of the reaction.
She could not stop it. She had been unmade.
The interior of the vile sphere vibrated, waves of sound stirring her broken pieces and flooding them with her challenger's music.
“Submit, and I will make it stop,” Mara offered, her tone as soft and inviting as true love's caress.
