Pain over Mask of the Betrayer

For those of you who don't want details of Mask of the Betrayer revealed to you then do not read this entry:

I feel loss. After journeying from level 1 to level 20 with several special friends I had hoped to continue a long relationship with them. Sure, the ending of Neverwinter Nights 2 was sad… the roof collapsed… everyone presumed dead – but I still had HOPE! That hope was destroyed upon playing the expansion.

They're dead. They are dead. Yeah, I know. Ammon lives… Khelgar lives… Neeshka, maybe? Sand, maybe? Grobnar – GONE. My love interest, Cassivir, broke his back, DEAD. Others, M.I.A – presumed dead. 40 some hours of game play causes you to get attached to people. It wasn't even their fight, it was my fight.

My survivor's guilt has really got a stranglehold at the moment.

I would have preferred their company to the new batch of NPCs I was forced to journey with in MOTB. Just because you go epic doesn't mean you have to lose all fun. The few bits of humor actually came from mention of the original NPCs. My character is going through a difficult time, fatally cursed, and she's not given her trusty support group?! No one understands her pain; she's got to waste game time to explain past history! At least in BG2 you've got friends from the first game who are there at your side to help you through your journey of self discovery and possible self loathing, imagine if Minsc and Boo had not been there? Nothing here. I had to start from scratch and that wasn't fair, that's stressful. And at the end, sure, the originals are mentioned again, briefly, but we get no movies with them! They don't talk to us; there is no emotional reunion with my character's foster father. So unsatisfying.

I want to send out some love to my former companions since my in game character seemed to airbrush them from her memory! Sand, you were my favorite, thanks for the wit and proving me innocent at my murder trial. Shandra, thank you for bleeding to death in order to free the demons and devils so we could defeat Ammon and ultimately have him replace you. Grobnar, thanks for the songs, thanks for your spunk, the Wendersnaven, thanks for building that golem. Bishop, thanks for your cruel honesty; sometimes we all have to make hard decisions. Zhaeve, thanks for being a good listener and knowing so much. Elanee, you were pretty dull but I thank you for being so because it balanced out the party. Neeshka, you were so much more than a tiefling – you were a rogue too. Khelgar, thanks for your loyalty, thanks for being the stereotypical dwarf we all come to expect. Qara, what can I say except I actually forgot to mention you in here the first time I wrote it. Ammon, thanks for hastening Shandra's death, it made the moment more poignant. Cassivir, thank you for being chivalrous and hopefully a good lay for my character, Gann in MOTB wasn't as dear to me as you – even though my character married him; he caught me on the rebound.

All the best my friends. All the best.