Fun fact, I’m at over 16,000 words for the month.  That puts me ahead of my goal, which is a feat I’m proud of.  I made progress this week on the Halls of Falden with Quartes, reaching the floating Hall of Serijo, but also wrote some drop stories, and even a few bits of Baldur’s Gate 3 fan fiction (I finished the game and have been having a hard time wanting to move on).  Those stories have all been pretty Quartes-centric, not unexpected for website where he represent one half of the title.  However, in writing those scenes I’ve found myself often listening to reflective and, if I’m being honest, sad music.  That has helped me be more in touch with my old Fey.  As my oldest character, he is often the easiest for me to slip into and write, but I’ve been pushing him into reflective moments and situations he hasn’t had to deal with before, and so I’ve needed some help. Music has been helpful but there also some spillover into my mood even when I’m not writing.

Quartes, especially his Illithian iteration, is a sad character.  His past creates that for him, and that juxtaposition of his sadness against Keto, and how she gets him to feel more of life again, is probably the thing I enjoy the most about telling their story.  I suppose then it shouldn’t be a shocker that being a bit sad is a requirement, or at least an aid, when writing Quartes.  Having everything he does be underlined by melancholy…well that’s certainly something I can relate to given my struggles with depression.  I’m sure at the end of the day that trait of Quartes, and the hope he found, was one more example of the character helping me explore my life.  The sadness spilling over into my mood even when not writing isn’t…ideal, but at the same time it’s not entirely bad. A book I read years ago called “The Upside to your Dark Side,” was focused on the value of a full range of emotions, to not shy away from the negative ones just because they are uncomfortable. I know a little bit of sadness has helped me reflect on some things and make some recent tweaks that seem to be bearing positive changes in my life (maybe more on those in a future check-in).

I think we have one more part of Across the Halls of Falden.  Quartes has to deal with the Dragon pursuing him and then set foot in the lands that aren’t yet called the Provinces.  After that, we’ll see where the stories take us.

One question for those reading.  Across my play through of Baldur’s Gate 3 I wrote several drop scenes.  I hesitate to post them as they were usually in reaction to some event in the game that I wanted to expand upon and so they lack context if you haven’t played the game (and to an extent if you don’t have my  headcannon covering the older games and some DnD adventurers I ran in the interim).  Still, I could add little context summaries to them and there are some fun moments such as Quartes and Minsc meeting and a scene of Quartes dealing with the loss of a friend.

Let me know either at feywarrior@hotmail.com or in the comments.  If you’re interested in some of my final thoughts on Baldur’s Gate 3, I posted about them on the game’s sub-reddit here.  With all that said, here’s one last photo of the Fey and the Bard as they neared the end of their quest in Faerun.

Go forth and do good things (and also “These boots have seen everything”),

Sean