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The Once and Future Champion (Baldur's Gate 3/Dragon Age) (Complete)

Reader mode
Other minor tweaks:

Chapter 29 - Inserted a few lines of expository dialogue at the start to clarify just how old Orpheus is.

Chapter 36 - Hawke's backstory from his first year in Kirkwall updated as I found out I'd remembered one of the DA2 sidequests wrong, and it was even more morally compromised than I'd thought.
 
This is a great story with an ending that nailed it! great job and thank you for taking us on this Journey of adventure that just might be better then the game (i dont know, havent gotten to play it yet, but the fic makes me want to).
 
cliffc999 said:
no mortal agency can resurrect someone who doesn't want to return.
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That's because they gimped magic in 5e. In 3.5 you could call them (petitioners were outsiders), use enchantments to make them want to return, and then hit them with the Resurrection. Or you could just abduct a petitioner and force them through the ritual of transfiguration to turn them into living beings.

There's also the Zin-Karla spell the Drow use. Drizzt's mother used it to forcibly raise his father into a puppet then sent him to kill Drizzt.
 
Just found and binged this, agree with everyone that it's a great read, and also that playin BG3 is impossible now with all the elegent solutions the Champion pulled.

And that's as someone who never played any Dragon Age games- know a bit about the world through osmosis, but most of this was just enjoying a badass paladin going hard with a tiny bit of ocp spice.
 
Powergoat said:
Just found and binged this, agree with everyone that it's a great read, and also that playin BG3 is impossible now with all the elegent solutions the Champion pulled.
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My main difficulty on further playthrough is that several NPCs, Isobel and Aylin most especially, are just so much... less... in the actual game than in the fanfic versions I massively punched up.

I can live without getting to bait Orin to the surface and then lock her in a resilient sphere with a tacnuke, but not being able to get Isobel to face her father again or prevent Aylin from spending the rest of the game as a musclehead after her one intro scene proves that she actually can talk to people... *sigh*
 
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cliffc999 said:
My main difficulty on further playthrough is that several NPCs, Isobel and Aylin most especially, are just so much... less... in the actual game than in the fanfic versions I massively punched up.

I can live without getting to bait Orin to the surface and then lock her in a resilient sphere with a tacnuke, but not being able to get Isobel to face her father again or prevent Aylin from spending the rest of the game as a musclehead after her one intro scene proves that she actually can talk to people... *sigh*
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Truly a victim of your own success.
 
For some reason, the last couple chapters got lost in my notifications. Excellent ending. Very satisfying. I was consistently amused at how often things become much easier when not confined to video game logic.

Also, congratulations on finishing a fic! I know your muse has been fickle the last few years for a variety of perfectly justified reasons, so it's very cool you got to stick this one out to the end.
 
I say this as a spoiler to BG3 and a complaint to the otherwise amazing game.

I'm pissed there was no option to gank the little redhead shit disguised version of Orin. I had her called as that ginger shit from scene one, plenty of proof, but 'no, the hero couldn't turn away the orphan.' even if I picked the 'leave' option. Even if I attacked. Nothing. Immortal ginger.

Worse, they tried to be so 'clever' about it! Oh no, one in your camp is a traitor! Who could it be?! My brain linked Allies, the heroes of legend, or perhaps Volo?!

What do you think, forced camp follower with the strung out, terrified to talk cat? You are right, I think It's Lae'zel too.

Maybe I just got a bugged version, but that hurt my immersion.
 
TBF, it's not always Yenna. In fact, she's the last one on the list of possibilities. She's there to be a fallback option in case none of your companions are eligible. (Orin will only replace Lae'zel, Halsin, Gale, or Minthara, will not replace a romanced character, and will not replace anyone already active in the party when you reach the spot that triggers the hostage quest, so it's entirely possible to not have any party member eligible at the moment the game engine chooses.). Yenna is there in case of.

Note that the replacement doesn't happen until the quest triggers - the first Yenna you meet as you enter Rivington is a little kid for realsies. So, y'know, don't kill her.
 
cliffc999 said:
TBF, it's not always Yenna. In fact, she's the last one on the list of possibilities. She's there to be a fallback option in case none of your companions are eligible. (Orin will only replace Lae'zel, Halsin, Gale, or Minthara, will not replace a romanced character, and will not replace anyone already active in the party when you reach the spot that triggers the hostage quest, so it's entirely possible to not have any party member eligible at the moment the game engine chooses.). Yenna is there in case of.

Note that the replacement doesn't happen until the quest triggers - the first Yenna you meet as you enter Rivington is a little kid for realsies. So, y'know, don't kill her.
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I mean, yeah. The kid asking for their missing parents and you can give some cash to, that was a kid. But the one who comes up to the camp of armed strangers asking for a place to stay and brings the strung out cat, that was always a changeling, using the position to set up the kidnapping.

Maybe I just read it wrong, but Yenna was always the plant. Then you see the kidnapped party member in the sewer as a taunt, but the kidnapping was facilitated by the being disguised as Yenna.
 
Kencord said:
mean, yeah. The kid asking for their missing parents and you can give some cash to, that was a kid. But the one who comes up to the camp of armed strangers asking for a place to stay and brings the strung out cat, that was always a changeling, using the position to set up the kidnapping.
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No, that's still a genuine kid. In game, the replacement is not made until right before the quest triggers, which is during the reveal scene.

Yes, this means Gortash was not being entirely truthful. Cue my shocked face.
 
cliffc999 said:
No, that's still a genuine kid. In game, the replacement is not made until right before the quest triggers, which is during the reveal scene.

Yes, this means Gortash was not being entirely truthful. Cue my shocked face.
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.....no. No way. Did I just not actually interact with them until after the trigger?

But the kid is so obviously a trap! The squirming hyenas releasing gnolls was more subtle!

Damn you, am I going to have to play though AGAIN just to settle this!?
 
cliffc999 said:
The kid is an orphaned refugee who hasn't eaten in days and you're the first adults who haven't run her off at swordspoint. Of course she'll risk walking up to your camp, she's starving.
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Sure am glad this is a video game and things of this nature don't happen in real life 😀
 
Huh, I just discovered this when I was searching for a half-decent BG3 fic and was completely blindsided how good this is. First note though, you ruined my future runs in BG3 ( I have 500 hours currently ) due to the shit I wish we fucking did. And 2nd, literally everyone has a happy ending on both ends, so yeah, followed, favorited, and bookmarked. Bravo author, you got another reader of your stuff.
 
Was rereading this and it occurred to me that while I had fun sneaking a lot of references into the story, I only explained some of them. So, here's the list... and I still may have missed a couple.

cliffc999 said:
"Avenge us!"
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Trillia's death scene, "Jedi: Fallen Order"

cliffc999 said:
"What's a paladin?" I asked.
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Spoony's review of Ultima IX

cliffc999 said:
Well done, Hawke. You remind me... of me.
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"You would have made a good Dalek." - 'Dalek', 9th Doctor episode

cliffc999 said:
"But-" Lae'zel said. "My life... it was never mine to give. It was hers.
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"It is not my life to give up, Captain. And it never was." - Jem'Hadar Remata'Klan, DS9

cliffc999 said:
"That crown!" Gale gasped wondrously. "I can feel the power radiating from it! If I but had the tongue of a bard, to describe what I'm seeing..."
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"They should have sent a poet." - Dr. Arroway, "Contact"

cliffc999 said:
"Eugh." Shadowheart said as she went through Dolor's pockets. "He actually kept trophies." A small leather wineskin on his person turned out to hold several severed hands - one of them still having a ducal signet ring on its finger.

"Well, it looks like you've caught the killer red-handed." one of the other Flaming Fist joked, and we all groaned.
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CSI: Miami, of course.

cliffc999 said:
"I like you, Hawke. Well... I respect you. Somewhat. So let me tell you what's going to happen. This way you can... prepare yourself." Raphael said smugly.
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Final interrogation scene, 'Lord of War'

cliffc999 said:
"Because it shows in how you fight. Except for the all-too-few times you actually remembered what a parry was you left yourself open with every swing. You fight like someone unafraid of harm - and that's exactly what I've been taking advantage of."
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"That shows in how you fight. You leave yourself open with every swing. You fight like someone unafraid of harm... and this is what you'll take advantage of." - Carmilla's training scene with Vaggie, 'Hazbin Hotel'

cliffc999 said:
"Look at the size of that thing!"
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Wedge Antilles during the first Death Star assault, ANH

cliffc999 said:
"I propose that we test that theory!" Gale mocked it, and we drove in for the kill.
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"I'd like to test that theory." - Giles to evil Willow, in the Buffy season 6 closer
 
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