This is a Karlach/Tav pairing, based on my most recent playthrough of BG3.

Not to flex or anything but I did beat the game on HONOR MODE.

Lowers sunglasses

Impressed?

The intention of this story is to have some chapters recapping the actual game, with some creative liberties, and then the continue the story of the pair in Avernus, after they journey there together at the end of the game.

I don't know how much overlap there is in readers of this game and readers of Fallout fanfiction, but if anyone has read Fallout New Vegas: Sheason's Story, that's kind of the vibe I'm going for. As Avernus is not super talked about in the game itself, I will be drawing a lot of information from the actual DnD text about it.

All the cold and sleepless nights

Running out of ways to fight

I Know there's a morning light in my reach

If I keep buying time.

Buying Time - Lily Fitts

It had been a supremely strange week for the tiefling.

The madness she was used to, but the Blood War followed a pattern, one she had learned long ago. She'd been a quick learner. She had to be. Fight, kill, withdraw, re-strategize, return. Then, once you return, every plan that had been made goes immediately to shit in the face of the sheer mayhem of demons, fight, kill, repeat. A break in that cycle had been unexpected.

A human, the one they called the Blade of the Frontiers, had begun pursuing her with a single-minded determination that would have impressed Karlach if it didn't piss her off so much. She had used the appearance of the mind flayer ship to escape aboard as a stowaway.

Well, she thought, somewhat begrudgingly, "stowaway" until she was found by a mind flayer and unceremoniously dumped in a pod. There, she was given an unwanted hitchhiker behind her eyeball. In the midst of her abduction, she had seen the Blade was captured as well.

Yet she doubted that would keep him off her tail for long. As dense as the Blade seemed for thinking she was evil, he was utterly convinced she needed to be stopped and Karlach doubted anything, including something as inconvenient as enslavement or ceremorphosis, would stop him from trying to kill her.

"Yeah, well, get in line," she muttered, as she wrapped a bandage around her forearm.

Zariel had sent a few teams of bastards to fetch her, with varying degrees of success. The latest batch was a trio of pricks parading themselves around as paladins of Tyr.

Karlach snorted. Tyrrans. As if.

These three only served one master, and Karlach had no intention of returning to Zariel's grasp.

Karlach finished wrapping her wound, and winced as she pulled it tight around the gash. Fake paladins or not, Anders knew his way around that greatsword of his, and between the ranger peppering Karlach with arrows, and the sorcerer spinning magic around Karlach's limbs, the fight had been much too close for comfort.

As she realized how narrowly she had avoided the ending of her all-too-short vacation from the hells, her heart-engine pounded with fear. She didn't want to return. She had forgotten how good fresh air smelled, how sweet river water was, how beautiful the stars were. Her fear quickly evolved into anger, as rage began to build in her chest. She stared at her hands as they began to shake, and imagined them again covered in the blood of the hells. How it would feel if she was caught and dragged back to Zariel like a runaway dog.

Karlach guessed that Zariel would continue Karlach's transition from mortal to machine. She'd probably move on to her legs. Zariel had remarked on more than one occasion how it would improve Karlach's prowess if she could leap higher and run faster. Karlach had always managed to convince her not to go through with further surgery, but Zariel would almost certainly do it now, if only out of spite.

The thought of that damned mechanic 'improving' her again only added to the bubbling fury that was rising from her engine. She felt the flames begin to spurt out of the vents on her arms and shoulders, licking her skin and scorching the ground around her. She breathed deep, ready to yell, to vent, to release. Her rage felt like it might explode from her chest.

"You're on fire," a voice said, with a simple nonchalance.

Karlach nearly fell backwards, it was so casual, so out of nowhere. The flames on her skin died instantly, searing the afterimage of their light into her eyes as she tried to blink them away. She scrambled back, reaching for her battleaxe and lifting the familiar heft. The paladins must have snuck up on her while she was distracted.

Stupid. She chided herself. You knew they were close and hunting you.

As Karlach's vision cleared, she saw an unfamiliar trio. These weren't the paladins, she recognized instantly, but she remained wary. Karlach doubted Zariel was only sending one group out at a time.

"Are you all right?" It was the leader of the group, based on their position at the front and center. A broad-shouldered human man with a thin-bladed sword on his hip that looked like a drow weapon. He leaned on a longbow, appearing as casual as anyone.

"Me?" Karlach growled. "Never better." She paused. She recognized this man. She had seen him before. "Well fuck me. It's you. From the Nautiloid." He inclined his head and made a small gesture of acknowledgement. "Please tell me I found you before those so-called paladins of Tyr did."

The man glanced to his companions. To his left was a pale elf with red eyes. On the elf's back was a small hunting bow, and he held two short swords. The elf appeared to be attempting to look casual, but his eyes never strayed from the head of Karlach's axe. To the leader's right was a gith woman, adorned in an ostentatious silver armor with an alien design. She appeared cautious and taut, like a cat facing down an unknown rival. In her hands was a greatsword that ran with fire, almost like Karlach herself.

"I don't remember you from the ship. Where were you?" he asked. His voice seemed casual, but Karlach detected a hint of caution.

"Now that's a story. And I'll tell it to you, but truth be told, we shouldn't stay here too long. See these paladins—" Her mind was pierced by a dagger of ice. She dropped her axe, the pain in her mind making her double over. Squinting through the pain, she saw the man clutching at his head too, while his companions seemed concerned but unaffected.

The thoughts that had just been running through Karlach's mind—fire, blood, heat, so much heat, the Blood War, Zariel, won't go back-spilled across the knife in her mind and into the thoughts of the strange man. In turn, she felt his mind—Taken from the city, the tadpole, the hells, goblins, druids, no cure, no cure, no cure. She also saw herself, a flaming red tiefling, scorched and angry and…scared.

As quickly as it had begun, the connection ended.

The man wrenched himself back, staggering a pace away, leaning heavily on his bow. Then he stood, and again looked to Karlach, but she was still reeling from everything she had seen.

"What was that?" She said, pain making her voice sharper than she intended. It was unlike anything she had ever felt. It felt invasive to view another person's thoughts like that.

"It was the tadpole in our heads," he said, with some chagrin. "It. . . connects us." His tone had lost much of the caution it had held previously.

"Well, that's mighty convenient," she said. "From that peek I got inside your head, you've made some inroads trying to get this thing sorted. But alas, no joy." She dropped her axe against her pack and gave a small wave. "I'm Karlach, and you are…?"

"I'm Tav," the man said, and he picked up his weapon, relieving the bow of his weight, and replacing it on his back. He gestured at the two with him. "These are some of my companions, fellow infected." Tav turned to the two of them and jerked his head in Karlach's direction.

"Astarion. A pleasure, I'm sure," said the pale elf, his voice almost a purr.

The gith woman made a tch sound and looked away muttering something that didn't sound like the common tongue.

"And this," said Tav, gesturing to the woman "Is Lae'zel. Don't take it personally. She doesn't like anyone, she just dislikes me less than the others."

The woman made a hmph but did not contradict Tav's words. Tav made a small, indulgent smile and rolled his eyes at Karlach, like they were sharing a joke.

Karlach had been concerned about how she would confront the problems she was facing. Maybe these three could help. It had only been a couple of days since the Nautiloid crashed and so far, Karlach had only found bodies from the impact. Yet these survivors were tough enough to survive, and based on what Karlach had seen in Tav's mind, they were capable too.

"Well met, soldier. Now that we're old pals, how would you feel about helping me kill some evil bastards?"

Karlach quickly outlined her predicament: her enslavement in the blood war, the infernal engine in her chest, her escape, and now the mark on her head. Tav listened intently, but he seemed slightly amused. Karlach was off balance. In her experience in the hells, when someone found something funny and you didn't know what it was, that was usually a bad sign. She pressed on, however. She had seen inside his mind, and what brief glimpses she had gotten led her to think she could trust this man.

She finished explaining the situation and ended with almost a plea. "There's a lot of them, and just the one of me."

Without ceremony, Tav turned and pulled a greatsword off his back. Karlach hadn't seen it, hidden as it had been hidden behind his bulk. She took a small step backwards, again preparing to fight, but the man didn't draw the blade. Instead, Tav stepped forward and held the sheathed sword out to Karlach hilt first.

Cautiously, she reached out and grasped the sword. When she held it securely, Tav stepped back again. Karlach guessed her guardedness was apparent, because he made a face at his companions she didn't quite understand, and they both appeared to relax, however slightly.

Karlach unsheathed the sword halfway and saw the rune of protection on the flat of the blade. It took her a moment, but she recognized this as the greatsword Anders had wielded. She frowned,, and looked at Tav blankly, who gestured at the building on the cliff.

"He wasn't a very good liar," he said, with some dry amusement coloring his voice.

The small elf coughed lightly. "The bodies in the basement helped."

Tav made a flippant gesture with his hand, waving away the comment. "Yes, well. That doesn't sound as interesting." The banter made Karlach smile, but it also caused an old pain to flare up in her chest, the smile slipping off her face as quickly as it came. She ached with the yearning to belong. She shook her head, returning to the conversation. Tav didn't appear to notice as he turned his head towards the elf—What had he called him? Astarion—"Besides, we both thought Anders seemed like a dick." The elf inclined his head slightly in agreement.

Tav turned back to Karlach, his face growing serious again. "False Tyrrans aside, I do know of someone else who is hunting you, a man named Wyll. Stone eye, scars on his cheek and neck, warlock. Sound familiar?"

"Ugh, thought I lost the Blade of Frontiers on the mind flayer ship." Karlach groaned. "Well, if it isn't obvious by now, he's wrong about me." She looked at the trio earnestly. "I'll prove it to him if he stops swinging that sword around long enough to listen to sense. Besides, I owe you for getting Anders off my back. We can team up, evict this parasite, and take Faerûn by the short hairs."

Tav paused as he considered her. Karlach hoped the mental picture she had gotten about him was accurate. He seemed to be a good judge of character, seeing as how he had seen through Anders and hadn't attacked her immediately. He looked again to his companions with an upraised eyebrow.

The gith sniffed haughtily. "A warrior with her experience? You would be a fool to refuse her."

"She's almost as scary as you, Lae'zel" Astarion quipped. "So naturally she gets my vote."

Tav looked thoughtful as he considered their words. "Well, you'd better come with us." he said, after a moment, "You clearly know how to handle yourself in a fight, if you spent 10 years in the Blood War, and I'm sure I can keep Wyll from attacking long enough for you to / so you can explain the situation."

There was another stirring in Karlach's chest as she slid the sheath of the sword over her head and on to her back, but this time, it felt good. Like a block of ice she had built around her heart beginning to melt just a little. "Wheeeyyy! Now we're talking." Karlach felt lighter than she had in years. "Phew. I'm getting all het up. Let's make tracks."

Thanks for reading the first chapter of my new story! Hope you enjoyed it. Please let me know if there is anything you want to see in a future chapter and I'll see what I can do.

Just for the record, Karlach really does say the word 'het' in the game. I double checked.

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