<a href="https://peakd.com/hive-140217/@kaelci/lets-play-baldurs-gate-3-part-seven">Ell'kha and her group had just walked in on a bugbear having relations with an ogre.</a>

It had been a most horrifying event to witness and had soon led to battle with the armorous pair. 

With the fight over, Ellu'kha and her group continued exploring the region before night fell. Once night fell, it would be a time of celebration with the tieflings! She was very muchly looking forward to some celebrations and plentiful wine, yes indeed.

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For now though, with the threat of the armorous beasts gone, they continued exploring the goblin village. Lured to the village outskirts by laughter and screams, they came across a group of goblins jeering at a small person tied to a whirling windmill that spun faster and faster.

The small person — a deep gnome — screamed louder and louder as the goblins cackled malevolently.

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Striding up to the goblins, Ellu'kha demanded they stopped this at once.

The goblins threatened to tie her up there too, until she glared at them and used her parasite to command their obeisance. They fell to their knees, trembling before her, and apologised profusely. Yes. They would stop this at once. Then they fled as fast as their goblin legs could take them.

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Inside the windmill was the mechanism that controlled the braking system and Ellu'kha swiftly activated it just as the windmill blades brought the gnome to the ground.

Racing over to him to see if he was alright, he snapped at her. He supposed she was wanting a reward for this act of kindness. She furrowed her brow; no, she did not. After speaking to him for a while, he offered her thanks and quickly walked away, eager to leave these goblin-infested wilds far behind him.

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As the gnome departed, Gale suddenly fell to his knees and cried out for a magical item to consume. Ellu'kha swiftly retrieved some unused gear from her bag and threw it at him.

After Gale absorbed it into himself, he winced. The magic had barely sated him. He briefly closed his eyes then looked up at Ellu'kha. He had a story he wished to tell her.

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With their parasites communing with one another, Ellu'kha was able to grasp the dialogue with ease. He had been a master of magic, eager to learn all he could, so much so that Mystra, the goddess of magic herself took quite the shine to him.

Not content with the glory of bedding a goddess, he wanted more, and discovered an artifact from the time when magic had been sundered... hoping he could give it to Mystra in an attempt to be allowed past the barriers of mortal magic, but instead, this artefact leapt out at him and latched itself to him. Became a part of him.

Now he needed to feed it magic or it would erupt. He guessed that the eruption would be incomprehensibly massive.

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He said that he understood if Ellu'kha wanted him gone lest he erupted in the middle of their camp. 

Ellu'kha put on a brave smile and bade him to stay. She spoke for all of their companions and they would find a way to thwart this magical menace together.

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As they continued through and past the village, they found themselves on the outskirts of a beautiful-looking glade. Ellu'kha felt strange. As though something wasn't quite right.

Squinting her eyes, she focused her mind and soon the beautiful glade vanished and was replaced with a smelly swamp. It had been an illusion.

Curious.

They walked in and took in their surroundings.

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It was as filthy and mucky a swamp as a swamp could get, with the added decor of blood splatters, poisoned apples, and very sharp bulrushes.

Backpacks and crates surrounded the blood spatters. Old belongings of the long dead. Ellu'kha looted them and found more poisoned apples, but also some non-poisoned camp supplies. She was also quite impressed with a hefty stick of salami. It was solid and sturdy enough to be used as a weapon!


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Further within the swamp, a man stood infront of a ramshackle hut. He looked relatively *normal*, in a place like this, and so Ellu'kha walked over to him and spoke with him.

Apparently he was a monster hunter, but his quarry had gone to ground. He was so desperate to find his quarry that he was stooping to ask for help from the swamp hag. He would pay whatever price asked of him. He needed to find this monster.

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After probing him, Ellu'kha discovered that his prey was none other than Astarion, their resident vampire.

Pretending she didn't know Astarion or the whereabouts of any possible vampires, she and her group walked away. As they left, she muttered beneath her breath, "Let's hope that this doesn't come back to bite me."

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Closer to the ramshackle hut was a well... inside of the well, the pungent odour of decaying flesh assaulted her nostrils. Disgusting.

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Walking into the building, they found an old lady tormenting a young girl. Ellu'kha yelled at the woman to stop, then, with a wave of the woman's hands, the girl vanished in a puff of green smoke and she, the old woman, transformed into a beastly hag the likes of which Ellu'kha had never seen before.

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It grinned wickedly at them then fled through the fireplace.

Ellu'kha wanted to go after the hag and find out what had happened to the young girl, but their day was catching up with them. They would need to return at a later time.

As loathe as she was to leave the defenceless girl at the whim's of this hideous swamp witch, it was time to return to camp and make ready for a night of celebration. They would come back and hope it wouldn't be too late.

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They arrived back at camp at nightfall, and just in time to partake in the celebrations that the tieflings were holding.

An air of merriment fell over the drinking and dancing of the people and enhanced their revelry. Some mages performed shows of magic and wonder while the non-magical people watched and cheered.

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Ellu'kha roamed around the camp and spoke to the attendees. Halsin winked at her and told her to enjoy herself — there were a lot of thirsty people around the camp.

Little did he know how right he was.

She spoke to Gale who enticed her to find him later that evening to embark upon a magical adventure. Then Wyll wanted to share her company, Astarion was jealous that she would rather spend time with Gale than enjoy the pleasure he could offer, and even Lae'zel was offended that Ellu'kha would rather spend the night with Gale rather than herself.

She stuck her nose up into the air and declared that she would spend the night with Wyll, instead.

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Whatever her companions thought she and Gale would be doing — they were completely wrong.

Gale encouraged her to find her connection to the Weave, to the ability to create magic, and helped her form her own conjurations as they both nestled within Mystra's magical illusory embrace.

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They were connected as one, emotionally and magically, but not physically.

There was no need for such things. This moment was more wonderful than she could have imagined.


&nbsp;

<CENTER><h3>Until next time! 😊</h3></CENTER><CENTER><sub>No. No bear sex.</sub></CENTER>

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<CENTER><sub>All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, @kaelci and are from the game: <em>Baldur's Gate 3</em></sub></CENTER>