They rushed back to Moonrise Towers, and found Jaheira and her Harpers, the Flaming Fist, and anybody else able to fight from the Last Light Inn gathering to storm the tower. Jasper briefly conferred with Jaheira on tactics, and they made their plans. They would all participate in storming the main entrance, and then Jaheira would come with them to confront Ketheric while the Harpers secured the rest of the Tower.
The assault was quick and brutal, but the forces of the Absolute were disorganized and overmatched without Ketheric’s leadership.
Searching for Ketheric, they found his private chambers near the top of the tower. Including preserved rooms that had once belonged to his wife Melodia and his daughter Isobel… His wife had written him a dying note asking that he continue honoring Selune in her name and raise their daughter in the faith. Clearly he had taken this request to heart…
At the top of the tower, and there found Ketheric gathering with his elite. “What have you done?!?” he roared, as he could sense his connection to the Nightsong being broken. They immediately found themselves in battle.
Jasper kept Ketheric busy.
Jaheira eliminated his undead priests.
While Karlach engaged his skeletal warriors.
And when the Nightsong flew down and joined in Ketheric found himself overmatched.
And was forced to surrender.
Jasper attempted to get through to Ketheric – reminding him of his wife’s dying wishes and his original path. Jasper thought he was reaching him… but then the Nightsong cut it.
“He’s faking. Stalling. He would rather DIE than surrender his power, wouldn’t you *General*?” Ketheric smiled up at them. “Bow before me, and I may finish you quickly”. Jasper felt pressure as the Absolute attempted to assault his mind. When Ketheric saw this fail, he was furious. “The prism!? *You* had it all this time!? You!?!”
He stood and clenched his fist, and a gigantic tentacle smashed up through the floor, reached high, and grabbed the Nightsong “You must return to your prison, and my daughter must be reborn.”, intoned Ketheric, as the tentacle took he and the Nightsong down into the depths.
They looked at each other, and then stared down at the hole leading to the unknown. “Whoa. That’s a long way down. Think maybe I should jump first?” asked Karlach. Jasper just shrugged. “In for a penny, in for a pound” and took the leap.
Waking up in the bottom they found themselves in an alien, yet familiar, setting. An Illithid colony. Jasper was sure of it. And the presence of the Absolute could be felt more strongly than ever.
Eventually they came upon a room lined with pods. Humanoid-sized pods. And Jasper could sense his tadpole reaching out to them. He knew what he had to do. He found control surface, and used his tadpole to issue the “release” command. A number of tieflings, flaming fists, and Harpers fell out of the pods…. but so did a number of newly turned Mind Flayers!!
Fortunately they were not at the height of their powers, and the captives who had not been turned – groggy as they were – aided in the assault.
With the chaos of battle over, they found that Zevlor – leader of the tieflings was among the captives! He was despondent, saying he had abandoned his people and ran when they were attacked. Jasper tried to convince him that being mentally overwhelmed by True Souls working for the Absolute could happen to anyone, but Zevlor didn’t want to hear it. He considered it a violation of his vows to protect his people. He told Jasper he and the others should head deeper in search of Ketheric, while he would rally the other captives to search for anyone else they could rescue and lead them to safety.
Searching further they came upon the devil that Mizora had asked them to rescue… which turned out to be Mizora herself! She had been captured by the Absolute, and had used a sending to order Wyll to rescue her. She was now trapped in an anti-magic sarcophagus. Given her predicament, Jasper bargained for Wyll’s release in return for her freedom. She readily agreed. Too readily. Once freed she quoted a subsection from his contract – “Should both parties agree to terminate the contract, the subject will be released from service after no less than 6 months.” Then she smiled and faded away.
Sneaking down deeper in the complex, they came upon three figures conferring about “the plan” – one of them being Ketheric. Jasper kept silent so he could listen in. One man, dressed in fine clothes, was criticizing Ketheric for failing to secure the Prism and falling to an interloper. Ketheric responded that he merely retreated to more favorable ground, and would let the bearer of the prism come to him.
Karlach nearly gasped as she recognized the second man. Gortash. Her former benefactor who had sold her to Zariel.
As they continued eavesdropping they caught sight of the third figure, an eerie looking woman in red armor with a propensity for manic laughter. She nearly cackled about opportunities to “Bathe in blood for Bhaal”. They were discussing Ketheric leading his army to assault Baldur’s Gate, and Gortash using his position in the city to play the hero defeating the horde! And at this Jasper realized where this led. He didn’t know the how. He didn’t know the end goal. But there could be no mistaking the signs. He already knew Ketheric was the Chosen of Myrkul. The odd woman clearly served Bhaal. And Gortash, he surmised, was the chosen of Bane. The Dead Three. Plotting together.
Before he could hear more, Gortash ended the conversation. “We have much to do, let us conclude our business.” They each pulled out a glowing stone, held them high, and invoked their patrons. And something out of a nightmare floated up out of the darkness beyond. Something huge. An Elder Brain. A gargantuan Elder Brain. The Absolute was here.
The voice of the Dream Guardian echoed in their minds. “The Netherstones. Torn from the Crown of Karsus itself. That is how they are commanding the Elder Brain. They have enslaved it.”
Before they could even register the ramifications, they were in for another shock. Gortash gestured, and guards brought in a man. Duke Ravengard! Wyll’s father! Lord General of the Flaming Fist. He appeared in a daze, barely aware of where he was. And the Elder Brian held out a huge tentacle to deliver to Gortash… a single tadpole. Which he used to infect the Duke. And there was nothing they could do. Not with this much power gathered before them. The Lord of the Flaming Fist was now enthralled to the Absolute.
Their business apparently concluded, Gortash, the woman, their retinue, and the Duke were teleported – presumably back to Baldur’s Gate. And the Absolute floated away, having been commanded to prepare the Army to march on Baldur’s Gate.
This would be the most weakly defended they would ever find Ketheric – and Jasper knew it was a trap. Ketheric was in a cavernous room containing a large pit from which streamed an unsettling green magic. On a corner ledge he could see the Nightsong trapped in a soul cage. He once again approached hands wide, attempting to reason with the man. He offered that repentance was still possible – that it was not too late to return to the light.
Ketheric looked at him for a long time, then spoke. He said that he had died in the service of Shar, but Myrkul had then made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Become his servant, and Myrkul would not just give him new life… but restore his daughter as well. And he had served the Lord of Death faithfully ever since. “No. It is far too late for me. My Lord calls.” And with that he stepped back and dropped into the pit.
For a moment there was silence, and then an eerie scratching sound came from the pit. Growing louder, and louder until… something huge crawled out. Ketheric’s body had been transformed into an Avatar of Myrkul, angry that his servant had been compromised. And Myrkul began calling the dead to his service.
They sprang into action.
Karlach immediately leapt into action – bounding past the intervening forces to reach the Nightsong and break her free of her imprisonment.
Jaheira was tasked with countering the Necromancers that answered their Lord’s call.
Jasper was kept busy attempting to counter the Bone Lord’s foul magic.
While Shadowheart searched for a weakness in its defenses.
Eventually, with the Nightsong’s aid, they were able to banish the incarnation and send it back to the pit from which it had crawled.
On Ketheric’s now dead body they found one of the three stones used to control the Elder Brain. And they could all hear the voice of the Dream Guardian reminding them that they would need to acquire all three to defeat the Elder Brain and prevent whatever catastrophe the Dead Three were brewing.
They made their way back up to the tower proper, and witnessed a joyful reunion between the Nightsong – introducing herself properly now as “Dame Aylin” – and Isobel (who they now knew was the resurrected daughter of Ketheric). They told Jasper that Ketheric had blamed Aylin for his daughter’s estrangement and death – unable to accept that his own turn to Shar had been what had alienated her. This is in part why he accepted Balthazar’s plan to trap her. Isobel said she mourned the man she had once known, but he had ceased to be that man long, long ago.
Aylin told Shadowheart that her childhood memory of being saved from wolves and adopted by Sharans was a twisted re-telling of the truth. She was the daughter of Selunite druids. She had been going through a coming-of-age rite where she was set loose in the woods at night to find her own way home. The wolves had been her own shapeshifted family watching over her, and the Sharans had attacked them and kidnapped her… What’s more Aylin claimed that her parents were likely still alive – held by the Sharans and used as a link through which they could punish her with pain and manipulate her memories. Shadowheart wasn’t quite ready to switch gears and become a dedicated Selunite, but finding her parents had just become her highest priority. And she knew exactly where to start. Her home temple of Shar in Baldur’s Gate.
Things were rapidly coming to a head now. They needed to reach Baldur’s Gate quickly, and see what could be done to interrupt Gortash’s machinations. They needed to find a way to infiltrate the Temple of Shar. They needed to rescue the Duke. And they weren’t sure where to even start with the presumed Chosen of Bhaal.
But first things first. They had to reach the city far enough ahead of the Army of the Absolute to have enough lead time to intervene. And for that, Jasper needed to had a serious talk with Jaheira, Halsin, and Gale about alternative means of transportation.
Ketheric is always the first of the “big three” you take on in BG3. The others just depend on how you approach things. But I find he also by far the most satisfying. He’s complex – in that he is thoroughly corrupted, but he *knows* it. He has no illusions about what he has become. He just considers it worth the price. And he still has regrets and a sense of who he used to be. Even if he would absolutely make all the same choices again for all the same reasons.
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