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When they left Gortash’s quarters they immediately felt the effects of the now uncontrolled Absolute. The ground shook. And its alien voice roared in their heads. Jasper saw a vision of its lair, deep in the old city ruins in the sewers. They could wait no longer,

They found an old boat tied to an ancient dock, far past the ruins in which Orin and her cult had made their lair.

They eventually discovered an unsettling shore, where they could feel the Overmind’s presence all around. The area was swarming with intellect devourers and other illithid beasts. So Jasper snuck through – magically porting the others to him once he found a safe position. When the Overmind’s presence became so strong that they could barely stand, they knew they had found the place. And then they saw it. Rising from the deeps like a gigantic abomination.

Jasper attempted to confront it and take control using the nether shards they had collected.

But its mind was far too powerful, and he found himself becoming overwhelmed.

As the Overmind rose to begin its assault on the city, the entire cavern began to crumble, The Emperor quickly appeared an pulled them into the safety of the Astral Prism.

Inside the Prism the Emperor insisted that the Overmind had grown far more powerful than he had believed. It was now a Netherbrain – it had fully absorbed the power of the Crown of Karsus and was empowered with Netherese magic. He insisted that only an Illithid mind – similarly empowered with the Nether stones – could counter it and regain control. He demanded that Jasper hand over the stones, so that he could absorb Orpheus’ mind and use Orpheus’ knowledge and the stones’ power to subdue the Netherbrain.

But therein lay the rub. One thing Jasper was sure of at this point. He could *not* trust the Emperor beyond its own self interest. He asked if he or any of the others could be similarly empowered if they agreed to the Emperor’s constant suggestions that they give in to their tadpoles and become Illithid. The Emperor answered, yes… except *not* Jasper. Unlike almost all other known sentients, when Gnomes underwent ceramorphosis they retained their dominant personality. If Jasper were transformed he would gain Illithid form and power, but he would still *not* think like an Illithid.

But to Jasper that was the fundamental problem. Any of them who transformed would no longer be themselves. And to his mind no Illithid could be trusted with the power of a servant Netherbrain and the Crown of Karsus. There remained one alternative. Orpheus. If they freed him, perhaps he with his vast experience fighting the Illithid could give them another option.

But the Emperor was *furious* at that suggestion. Both that Jasper would not trust him, and that Jasper would consider freeing Orpheus – who would certainly consider the Emperor his mortal enemy. But Jasper held firm. The Emperor had lied to them every step of the way. Only begrudgingly revealing the truth when lies no longer served. And with that the Emperor revealed his true colors. He would return to serve the Netherbrain rather than trust Jasper and Orpheus.

So much for his “independence”. So be it.

Lae’zel raised the Orphic hammer and shattered the crystals maintaining Orpheus’ prison. Orpheus fell to the ground, and then slowly rose.

He did not consider himself a “friend”. He could “smell” the taint of the Illithid tadpoles in them all. Nevertheless he agreed that they had a common enemy. But his advice was no different than the Emperor’s. Only an netherese-empowered Illithid could hope to counter the Netherbrain. Jasper sighed and looked over at Gale. There really was only one other option.

Gale still had the power of the Netherese Orb lodged inside him, feeding on ambient magic as Mystra herself kept it sated. By unleashing its full power he could destroy the Netherbrain, and the Crown of Karsus with it. As well as himself. It was the sacrifice Mystra had asked of him from the beginning, and he could no longer hide from its necessity. He nodded back at Jasper. It was the only way to be sure they were not merely exchanging one Overlord for another.

They ported back up to the city, only to find it under siege, as the Netherbrain ported in Nautiloids packed with Illithid invaders.

They located a central area where defenders were gathering, organized by Councilor Florrick Many of their friends and allies from the course of their adventure had come. Nine Fingers Keene and her rogues. The remaining Harpers. Tiefling adventurers. The Barcus’ Ironhand Gnomes. Rolan the Mage. Dame Aylin and Isabella. Duke Ravenguard and his men. Druids of the Grove, and the more adventurous of the Tieflings. Jasper addressed them all, exhorting them to defend the city – and promising that he would “deal with’ the Absolute.

The forces of the Absolute were massing nearby. In order to get close enough to allow Gale to teleport to the Netherbrain they would have to fight way their way through.

Gale was kept busy putting legions of Absolutists to the torch.

Karlach got friendly with any stragglers that got past.

Jaheira contended with the airborne contingent remaining from Moonrise Towers.

And Minsc picked off the largest bruisers for his own brand of playtime.

After that battle was in hand, they left their allies to continue the fight and pushed on – to where Illithids were directly gathering their own ground contingent under the Overbrain’s cover.

In the skies above Kith’rak Voss and his Githyanki dragon-riders fought the Illithid nautiloids.

Lae’zel was only too eager to take the battle directly to the invaders. This was, after all, what she had been training for her entire life.

Jaheira felt a more “personal” touch was in order with these foes.

Wyll exchanged fire with Illithid arcanists.

And Shadowheart prevented them from doing too much damage psychically in return.

Meanwhile, Jasper sought out and dealt with the Emperor himself.

As the battle raged both around them and overhead, Jasper and Gale raced to the nearest tower, dodging aerial bombardment, to find a way to reach the Netherbrain overhead.

When they found a spot from which Gale could safely teleport, they said their farewells. Whatever hubris had led Gale to his predicament, he was now making the ultimate sacrifice to save their world. This would *not* be forgotten.

As soon as he appeared on the surface of the Netherbrain, Gale unleashed the Orb,

The Netherbrain was utterly destroyed as the Netherese magic fed on itself through its Crown, and it crashed into the harbor and sank out of sight.

After that, it was all mopping up. The Illithids could no longer port in reinforcements, and they were no longer tactically in sync. The forces of the Absolute were fragmented and confused. And while the rest of the city celebrated that evening, Jasper and his remaining companions gathered at the docks to remember Gale and his sacrifice.

.

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Author’s Notes:

I spent a long time trying to decide how Jasper would handle the BG3 endgame… and ended up taking a lot of liberties with the way the game itself sets things up. I just didn’t care for some of the artificial constraints on your choices, and the big decision – who you do turn into an illithid to counter the Netherbrain – seems ridiculous. The only remotely trustworthy Illithid in the entire game is Omeluum. And he’s not available as an option. Other than him you are beaten over the head repeatedly with “once you turn its not *you* any more”. So why on earth would you trust *any* of your companions – to say nothing of the likes of Orpheus or the Emperor – with turning into an Illithid with the power of controlling the Netherbrain and/or the Crown of Karsus?

I also didn’t like some of the options for the companion’s Epilogues, but I’ll wrap those up when I do my own Epilogue.

I’m still settling on a favoured balance between the AI tools. SeeDream is better at character consistency, understanding prompts, and suffers far less from content filters. On the other hand, when DALLE gets things right the imagery is just so much more visceral. Especially in action shots. You can get more artistic results with SeeDream if you use text prompts rather than source images – but then you give up some of the consistency and spend more attempts trying to get what you want. Its all tradeoffs.

But the hardest picture in this set – remembering Gale – would have been flat out impossible before actDave introduced me to SeeDream.