Gabrella: Update 13

Jaheira had suggested a few times that she should head back to the recently liberated Druid Grove and assume leadership. I hate to part ways with her, but I finally had to agree it might be a good idea. It could prevent a return of the darkness we just freed it from, and with us preparing to embark on an ocean voyage it seemed like a good idea to leave a close friend near our new castle.
Speaking of, I can think of no better “steward” for the Castle than Nalia herself. She knows how things are done, and she will command a certainly level of instant authority among those working the castle and the land.

That all left us with just a team of four for a big mission. We tracked down our friend Yoshimo easy enough, its always a good idea to have a rogue on staff! One we can trust would be nice…
And we met a paladin, a member of the Order of the Radiant Heart.

*Keldorn would be a good addition to my team.*

And it was time to head off. The Shadowmaster, Aran Linvail, had arranged a ship to take us to Brynnlaw, a small fishing village and port for Spellhold.

*During our days at sea Bull and Keldorn seemed to bond nicely. I’m back to feeling like a pipsqueek among the warriors.*

When we arrived at Brynnlaw it was quickly apparent this town had sunk into lawlessness. Its been taken over by a band of pirates. This may be to our advantage, since our mission is opposed to Amnish authority. Even if that goes contrary to my normal view on such things.

Immediately on disembarking we had a trivial spat with a group of vampires. We set off for an appealing sounding inn called the Vulgar Monkey to find a contact with information about entering Spellhold, locally known as the Assylum.

Skie was a little surprised to encounter an ex of hers named Eldoth. He taunted her cruelly. I can’t say I was sorry when he attempted to capture me with a small group of thugs just outside. I saw Skie put an arrow right through him.

Back inside the inn, we met and promptly saved our contact from an assassin. It seems he’d fallen for a girl in the employ of the local madam.

*We immediately set off and put this right. We rescued the young woman in question and reunited her with her new husband.*

Next we met a girl named Ginia, who had been forced into desperate business by the local pirate lord. We quickly made things right for her, but it put a harsh light on what happens when there is no place for decent people to turn.

*From here we finally made it up to the Assylum. We were greated by a robed man who greeted me by name and offered us a tour. I noticed things were all getting warm and fuzzy as we walked.*

Crud. We’d all been poisoned. Apparently betyrayed by Yoshimo. I was in and out of consciousness for a time, this seems to be Irenicus’ SOP. I was subject to another odd experiment of his. This time I had quite a vision.

*I was forced to battle an avatar of Bhaal, a twisted form of Sarevok. With my sister Imoen, we defeated it.*

Irenicus had taken something from me, and from Imoen. He said it was our souls. And indeed, we are sisters. The last seemed quite unsurprising to me, but skeptical as to what he took. Clearly it was some sort of energy, but otherwise I felt fine?
But I awoke in a dungeon, a cellar of the Assylum. With my sister and our friends, minus the traitor. Imoen was plenty surprised to see Skie with us!
We spent a few hours battling our way clear of Spellhold, and finally stormed Irenicus’ lab. We battled, and scared him off. Leaving us to walk back to Brynnlaw.

We encountered our not too reliable ship captain, who claimed to have some idea where Irenicus was heading. We all set off after him, but the ship was attacked, and dragged underwater by Sahuagin. Fish-folk of a sort. Not too friendly. They demanded we intervene in some sort of local civil war, or be eaten.

*The first part of this involved playing some game with imps. Fortunately, Imoen excells at puzzle solving.*

In the end, we ended the civil war with a bloodbath. We were all agreed there was no better option open to us. I think we killed all the warriors in that little undersea city. I couldn’t stop thinking of the fishermen and fishing villages these monsters had attacked and pillaged.

This all finally led us to the Underdark. This is the stuff of nightmares for all surface dwellers. Our team is, I think, pretty potent at this point. But the Underdark will test us. Aerie is particularly terrified at the prospect.

Fortunately our first meaningful encounter was with a group of Deep Gnome merchants. They were friendly and helpful. Probably mostly because we had money and spent some with them. But it visibly lightened Aerie’s spirits.

They directed us to a Deep gnome village not too far away. They had a problem that was more typical of what we had expected. A mine of theirs had recently gone too deep and awoken something. Imoen hopefully suggested a bear?

Yeah, not a bear. But the Balor was quickly put down, in spite of its fearsome use of stunning and mind control magic. Skie is most surprising to me, she often seems vapid in conversation. But she is steady and true in fight.

Next the Gnomes directed us to the cavern of Adalon, a majestic Silver Dragon. Adalon had indeed heard of Irenicus and his sister. They had recently stolen her eggs and she was furious and helpless over it. She ordered us to retreive what was most precious to her, they’d been taken to the Drow city of Ust Natha. She would disguise us as Drow for the operation. Such dragon magic is renowned for its power.

He never listens to me.

*****

Yes, detaching Jaheira to the Druid Grove is head canon. The game offers no real friendly way to part company with her. But I say we’re all still tight friends, so be it!

I’m mostly pleased with this set, but I have to admit one minor recurring frustration. To me, part of the fun of Gabby is that she’s tiny. I love the little 5’2″ woman being a fearsome mighty warrior. But it seems, whatever height/size commands I use she towers over other women. That has been constant, here it shows up in the Gabby/Ginia render. I envisioned Gabby looking up at this taller, lanky young woman and offering her comfort and confidence (the little lady says “I’ll handle that thug!”). I think the term “warrior” and description of her plate armor forces her to be bigger, at least than other women. Apparently Ginia is 4’11”. Oh well, it was a lovely image otherwise.

2 responses to “Gabrella: Update 13”

Zeno

January 15, 2026

What renderer generated that Asylum pic? The style looks quite different to everything else, but the effect looks really cool!

The laughing drow are fun! I had meant to do animations for Grim’s Gang, but sorting them out while on travel was more headache than it was worth. The magic arrow glinting as it is aimed directly into the camera is a really neat effect. That’s also a pretty good Sahuagin. Very ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon”. Was that MAI-Image 1? I like the image of the avatar of Bhaal as well – always hard to get that to come through as intended.

The motion blur with the shiny swords also came out well. Has an almost “lightsaber-battle” sort of look to it.

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1. atcDave
  
  January 15, 2026
  
  All of these were DALLE-3. The action scenes included “blurred motion”. The asylum was a nightmare image of “Hotel del Salto” on a stormy coast. The face off with Bhaal was serendipity! I was using the same descriptors I had for Saravok (it’s the same avatar in the game), so naturally it came out similar but different.
  hopfully I’ll have a new set up this weekend.
  
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