#watcher Anlaf

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Deadfire, day 10.

It’s a little odd to hear Edér in the DLCs occasionally address the Watcher as “Watcher”. I don’t remember him doing that much if at all before.

I don’t know why I didn’t get the quest to fetch the Titan’s Heart at the same time as all the others, but I guess I’m taking an extra trip back to Neketaka. Well, if there’s any way to get the thing without being caught stealing and having to murder everyone in Wakoyo’s office, this is the playthrough to discover it.

Answer: I thought there wasn’t and I would just have to get murdering, but then I stole the thing and didn’t get caught? Huh. I’ll take it!

Either rogues are ridiculously powerful or I’m getting less bad at the combat in this game, because so far the fights I was afraid of and kicked down the difficulty for have been hilariously, “maybe I ought to try them on Relaxed next time” easy. Mind, I’ll probably regret all my life choices if I actually do that.

So, stick around to level up people’s soulbound gear a bit more? Yeah, I think so. Nice of the game to make all the arena fights repeatable.

This is the first playthrough where I bothered using traps, so I only just now got the achievement for using five of them. Which is the last one I’m ever likely to get, looking at what’s left.

Either Edér is impervious to just about everything or I’m picking the wrong fights, because his shield needs him to get hit with afflictions to level up, and it’s not going very quickly.

All right, Anlaf and Konstanten are done with their pieces, and Edér will have plenty more opportunities. Time to pack it in and get started on The Forgotten Sanctum.

If you heard a faint squeeing noise just now, that was me.

Sadly for me, with a Watcher with no support abilities, I can’t bring both Rekke and Aloth along; one of them will have to cede their spot to a healer. So which will it be? Neither is the star of the DLC, but they both got a lot of love from it; Aloth got a lot of attention in the early and mid-game but hasn’t been in the party for a while now, whereas I just had Rekke along for much of BoW and all of SSS, but that was the first time I actually used him. You know what, I think I’ll keep Rekke, and our new and improved ranged-weapon-using Xoti can be the healer. I don’t think I’ve ever brought her along for TFS—even Oriol tore himself from her side to get Rekke, Fassina, and Aloth into the party.

Grinning all through Tayn’s introductory conversation, as usual. I like Tayn. He’s the same kind of fuckup I am, just slightly less of one.

Oh gods, the drug trip. Edér and Rekke’s lines are classic, but I do wish Fassina had something to say for herself there.

I’d say Tayn and Edér need to be friends, but no, they absolutely do not need to be friends. There’s no way that ends well for Eora.

Is...oh no. Xoti? Are you starting a screaming argument with Edér? Is that what this is?

Oh. No, this isn’t a screaming argument, this is something entirely different. Xoti, you said you were over him. Was that a lie to try and get Anlaf into your bunk, or did you get over him and then get un-over him? (There’s a pun in here somewhere about getting under him, but the whole point of this exchange is that she hasn’t and wants to.)

You know, 27-year-old Xoti calling 37-year-old Edér “a little old” is an absolutely valid opinion, but my experience and the norms of my ethnic community right on up to my mother’s generation leave me eyebrowing a bit. (Disclosure: I’m 36 myself, which may or may not be influencing my view of this.)

I’m just going to sit here and have feelings about the presence of the “Hands off. Edér’s mine.” option, though Anlaf certainly won’t be taking that one. (Clelia and Eiheune never got this conversation, but even if they had, that wouldn’t have been their reaction—Clelia would’ve whistled for the rest of the OT4 to witness the possible new addition to the polycule, and Eiheune would’ve shrugged and been like, that’s between you two, I’ll talk to him about it later.)

I’m very bad at portraying romance, yes. But I’m far worse at portraying monogamy.

The “Have you shown him your...charms?” option? No. No, don’t. She’ll actually go and do it. Possibly right here in front of two archmages, three imps, the rest of the party, and a bunch of mysterious tentacles.

Xoti’s story about trying to catch him half-asleep and then get him drunk into the bargain to lower his resistance = XOTI NO. Her getting a couple of approval bumps from Edér for telling it in a jokey way is just the icing on the fucked-up cake here.

And you know, I gave her enough time with Maia that they started throwing up romance banters, so I officially wash my hands of Xoti’s love life.

Anyway. I was heading to the Archives before I got sidetracked, right? Right.

...no, I apparently do not have a sufficiently ridiculous Mechanics score to pick the lock without dispelling the illusion first.

I’ve got some feelings about the note from Galven Regd about how everything we know about the War of Black Trees is a lie.

And some very different feelings about the manual for the flesh construct controller. If there’s one part of this series that’s ripe for kinkshaming, it’s this DLC. :D

I’m letting Rekke knock over all the book piles, because he seems to find it funniest out of everyone in the party. You’re welcome, kiddo.

I’m going to pronounce “Llengrath” with initial /ɬ/ and no one can stop me.

Oh, the mycelium in the Central Stacks. “The fungus shivers at your blow. Possibly in pleasure.” Yep, kinkshaming time.

The only inconvenient thing about giving Xoti a ranged weapon is that she hangs back too far from the front lines for her Circle of Protection to cover the melee squad. Protecting Fassina is better than nothing, but still.

Do you really think I’m not going to lick the runes when given the opportunity?

Sure, Rekke, go ahead and lick them too if you want.

So, Xoti, that Waidwen’s a cutie, isn’t he? The sort you might write erotic fiction about if you were that way inclined? You, uh, wouldn’t know anything about this book here, would you?

I can’t read “A True and Accurate Account of the Ten’s Final Stand” without having it in the back of my mind that Edér was 17 when the Godhammer went off. Seventeen! Imagining him as a skinny kid with only one-third of a clue what he’s doing, becoming Divine King of the Dyrwood or whatever the fuck and going to his death on that bridge...yeesh, it’s painful enough to think about Waidwen, who was at least a grown man when it all went down.

Oh, hello, fungus Llengrath. Ahem. It’s rude to stare, you know. Even if the eyeball falls off and rolls away afterwards.

Fyonlecg, I do enjoy listening to your VA, but you’re being very tedious right now. You and your creepy remote-controlled worm body.

The archmages’ opining on the Hand Occult falls squarely into Does This Remind You Of Anything territory, heh.

I love hearing Concelhaut complaining about everything. And you can’t do a godsdamned thing about any of it, you horrible old skull.

And I’m just going to sit here and have a metric fuckton of feelings about Bekarna, while I’m at it.

And there’ll be more fun stuff in the morning, it’s rather late.

#pillars of eternity #deadfire #watcher Anlaf

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Deadfire, day 7.

Oof, those nāgas. And when it’s not those nāgas, it’s those traps. I had to reload a couple of times, most notably after Serafen died. Properly, four-injuries-in-one-fight died. Ciphers are squishy, I’ve learned that quite well, but damn.

Wow, the rathun sure are friendly to a fire godlike Watcher.

After all this time, I still can’t not laugh when Tekēhu makes his “What a glorious hole” crack.

Talking Jadaferlas down is one of my unbreakable habits. I’m not even sure why, considering that across my various playthroughs I’ve killed both scarier dragons and ones with better arguments for letting them live. I guess because talking her down is so easy and has no negative consequences whatsoever, so I’ve never had to fight her, which would’ve reinforced that the option was there?

This is the first time I’ve brought Pallegina to Ashen Maw, as far as I can remember, and her habit of roasting unspeakably powerful entities that could squash her like a bug is as delightful as ever.

The conversation with Eothas about why the Watcher has accomplished great things, whether because they’re just inherently more capable or because of the situations their life has put them in...gnrf. The latter would be the obvious answer if a. the “strong soul” thing weren’t canonically true and b. there weren’t the whole extra meta-level of the Watcher being the protagonist and having a player behind them, and then I get to thinking about all of it, and, well, gnrf.

Xoti got an approval bump from Pallegina. That’ll be a red-letter day in everyone’s diary.

Why yes, I do have a whole bunch of feelings about Eothas telling Edér to take care of the Watcher, thank you for noticing.

I think Aeldys’ speculation about the afterlife merits another “gnrf”. Just one of those things.

Woedica, your “I <3 eugenics” speech isn’t exactly endearing you to me right now. No, that it’s magical eugenics doesn’t help.

I’ve gotten the second teleportation quest, and my regulars are all level 20, so I think it’s time to take some of the more neglected babies on a jaunt around the Neketaka hinterlands. Right now that means Rekke (level 16, I hope to all the gods I can give him some attention in the DLCs), Fassina (level 15, I’ll be needing her for you know what), and Xoti (already level 20, but I need a specialized healer with this lot, and Pallegina’s tankiness is unnecessary with Rekke to hide behind).

Yes, I’ve left it extremely late this time. I usually don’t eliminate quite so much of the mapping and bounty hunting before Ashen Maw, and sometimes I’ll make the rounds on foot when I get the bounty for Nomu rather than wait for Flaune to send me out there.

Ooh, hello there, Animancer’s Energy Blade. Yes, Anlaf would love a lightsaber to wield alongside Marux Amanth.

I normally make sure I have Pallegina along for Castol’s performance review, but you know what, I’m curious, I think I’ll dive in with the party I have.

Wait, which archmage is meant to be in attendance? Duc Remasi cuts Nirro off before he can say the name, and while there’s a person in a robe standing off to the left, I can’t pick out anything except their hair color (brown, I think).

Well, that’s done, Castol is safe. Unless he tries to come for me on the way to Ukaizo. We’ll see.

“I hear the Huana hate few things more than a food stealer.” Heh, yes, I’ve been to Tikawara.

Oh, hey, I got the box of, er, “beans”. Still no visits from any archmages on dragonback, though.

So Clelia actually saw Furrante hanged, but she didn’t go back to Fort Deadlight to finish the quest, because she wasn’t about to throw in with the Príncipi no matter who was leading them, and she got the epilogue slides for Furrante still being alive and in charge. We’ll see if I can get his death to register this time.

Looking at the Darcozzi oath, I see we have another Vailian name for a god—”Dicenas fiaces” in the Vailian text has got to correspond to “Magran’s flames” in the translation. Elsewhere we see that -s seems to be the possessive suffix, among other functions, so that’s Dicena for the Vailian name of Magran.

And I think this is the part where I turn down the difficulty and start doing the real fun stuff. First up, Splintered Reef, since I’m over here buying a certain ship upgrade anyway.

The additional challenge of Easy/Relaxed difficulty can be fun, but sometimes you just want stuff to die already. And that’s what Story mode is for. :D

Eh, the fuck happened here? Fassina, is there something you’d like to tell your casità?

...nope, I did not mean to disembark in Port Maje with Maia in the party. Nope. Maia, get back on the ship.

The reason I was in Port Maje in the first place was to buy that beautiful, beautiful bow. But who’s going to use it? No one who uses a ranged weapon and doesn’t already have their good one is going to be spending much time in the party. Maybe I can give it to Xoti. It won’t kill either of us to have her switch away from her sickle and lantern. I don’t think. And depending on who else is in the party, she could move from the melee squad to the ranged one. It’d be a way to give Rekke more attention, for one, if the fifth spot goes to someone like Aloth, Fassina, or Tekēhu who mostly does crowd control.

What’s that? My playstyle and taste in companions is tailored to Watchers with good support capabilities, playing a rogue was always going to be a trial, and I must be positively itching to rerun one of my favorites by now? You don’t say.

And now, we go after Concelhaut, because I very nearly forgot about him.

Bweeheehee, Concelhaut is so angry. :D Go on, Edér, needle him some more.

Yeah, his VO is so much funnier here. Something about all those trilled /r/s combined with the sheer indignation in his voice. And the hamminess. There’s hardly a piece of virtual scenery without bite marks in it by the end of the conversation with him.

The sheer speed with which Concelhaut was defeated only adds to the hilarity. I may be somewhat overleveled for this quest.

Oh, and the killing blow? Came from Ishiza this time. Never mind the farmhand, Concelhaut, this time you got taken down by an animal.

Hello, Tayn, and hello again, Llengrath. We’ll talk more later.

And I think Nemnok is up next, because I’m pretty sure I’m down to just that, DLCs, megabosses, and the endgame. And I’d like to get that last blackwood log to finally give my ship its good hull. But I’ll have to actually go after him in the morning, because it’s late.

#pillars of eternity #deadfire #watcher Anlaf

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Deadfire, day 4.

Re Maia: I mean, if I could do Durance’s quest, I can certainly do hers, but I’m not sure it makes a huge amount of sense in-character, insofar as “in-character” is even a thing this go-round. Anlaf currently knows Atsura as “the creepy guy who warns about environmental devastation from mining luminous adra in one breath and then tells me to cause that devastation in the next when it suits his political and economic goals”, so he probably won’t want to hear a thing from someone who freely admits to working for the guy.

So, I’ll skip it for now, and if I have a fit of remorse later, I can always come back.

Hall of the Unseen, go. Let’s see if I can get the last door to unlock before losing what’s left of my sanity.

Ooh, a proper walkthrough! Very nice, what’s left of my sanity thanks you, whoever put that on the wiki. Wasn’t there during my last playthrough, back in November.

Of course Tekēhu is the first one to proposition Anlaf. Of course he is. (No, Tekēhu. Another time. Well, probably not, I already let one baby romance you, and I’m....not naturally inclined toward playing the sort of character who could actually make you happy. I love you dearly, but my curiosity is satisfied.)

Conversation fired directly on the heels of turning in the findings from Motare o Kōzi to Aruihi, as usual. I realize that it’s because the stages of his romance are plot-gated, and my regular playstyle racks up approval with him so fast that they fire as soon as the plot gates are passed, but still, it makes it look like dealing with the Kahanga royals makes him horny. Which will continue to be my headcanon for the foreseeable—he’s exactly the sort to develop crushes on both Onekaza and Aruihi.

Modwyr’s soul has been harvested and the sword given back to a grateful Yngfrith. Goodbye, sword friend.

Aeldys has been befriended. Anlaf might help her get rid of Furrante, in the end. Dude’s a bit of a wang, and Anlaf is just the sort of Watcher who a. would hate his ass and b. would be inclined to do something about it.

Oh, Xoti. Another time.

There’s something hilarious about having the “I thought you were interested in Edér?” chat when the big man is standing a couple of feet away. I can only imagine that he’s trying his level best to focus on something else and not hear what they’re saying.

There’s a free spot in the party—besides Edér, Xoti, and Maia, who need to be there for various reasons, who else do I bring to Hasongo? Hm, I think I’ll drag Aloth along. Let’s do this.

And now that Hasongo is done, probably time I made the rounds and actually talked to my companions, right?

Taking care of the lighthouse got me Maia’s +1 conversation before we’d had her introductory one, whoops.

Thank you for finally giving me your quest, Aloth.

Ah, there goes Edér’s +2 conversation—wow, he really likes that “mostly lunatics in robes” crack. It felt so strange not getting it until so late. I was starting to worry. (The fact that just after Hasongo, barely into the mid-game, is “so late” for this tells you everything that needs telling about my regular playstyle.)

I didn’t even realize it’d been long enough for Rekke to learn Aedyran! Right, it’s cute time.

Pallegina’s +1 conversation is firing on the back of that? What did I even say?

Maia, stop being mean to Serafen.

So, uh, I probably ought to actually do Poko Kohara at some point, whoops. Let’s put in in Neketaka and bang out the rest of Edér’s quest first, though.

OK, that’s done, and yeah, if I want to see a different ending for Edér, I’m going to have to deliberately throw his quest, aren’t I? Another time. With a Watcher who has really good in-character reasons not to make the arguments available to them.

On to Poko Kohara. Hey, it’s the Engwithan ruin song! *whistles along*

Anahāru pronounces “Ngati” as [ŋ̍gati], and I just bouncyclapped at the correct point of articulation and lack of an epenthetic vowel. I...may be something of a nerd.

And that’s done. More fun in the morning. Proper morning, it’s just after 3 AM right now.

#pillars of eternity #deadfire #watcher Anlaf

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Deadfire, day 11.

I just noticed that the room with the flesh construct controller is labeled “Flesh Management”. Because of course we had to go for maximum creepy with everything here, right?

Giving the flesh construct controller a prostate massage is one of the highlights of the series.

Oh, hello, Giftwrapper. Here you go, Edér, an adorable spider friend.

“Maybe they are not so smelly after all.” Why thank you, Sissak, that’s one of the best compliments I’ve gotten this whole playthrough!

“You have seen what cannot be unseen!” Some of the shit that goes on in this place? Damn right I have.

I am deeply amused at Edér’s protective outburst at Anlaf sticking his arm down the screamy thing being followed by Fassina nonchalantly saying, “Better you than me.”

Maybe one day I’ll run a Watcher who uses Llengrath’s spell here rather than Tayn’s—I can think of one or two who should have if not for their player’s weakness—but this one’s Team Tayn all the way.

All right, the moment of truth: Is Retina going to hatch this time? At least now I know to reload if it doesn’t.

*sigh* Nope, reload time. Let me try something—maybe it’s going into the Scriptorium afterwards and getting sucked into Tayn and Llengrath’s argument that’s fucking things up?

You know, throughout this DLC in particular, Edér and Rekke have very similar reactions to most things, controlling for their differing experiences and speech patterns. Killing the Memory Hoarder is a striking exception, though—contrast Rekke’s “Why would god let this happen?” with Edér’s “Reminds me of a wedding I went to once.”

Xoti, I realize you want the big man to like you, but you don’t have to loudly agree with everything he says.

Anyway. Back to the Collections to finish mopping up and see if the little abomination actually hatches this time.

It didn’t hatch until I got back to the Temple of Revelations lobby, but it finally did! I’m so glad to not be deprived of tiny hugs this time.

I never took a proper look at the description of Whispers from the Depths before. “Sometimes, it tickles.”

“Now I have two friends, and I feel richer than ever.” Oh no, more Bekarna feelings.

The History of Eora series contains some creepy information from the beginning, but it takes a turn for the far, far creepier when it starts covering the future.

For reasons I can’t really go into here, Volume XVI: The End of the Gods makes me smile and eyebrow a little. ““Who’s there?” the voice of nothing asked, and it was answered by no one.”

Well, Fyonlecg’s hinting that other civilizations did something similar to Engwith, or worked with them beyond the ones we know of, is certainly quite a sequel hook.

I think I’ll put the body back to sleep this time. I like the ending it gets, and it seems a reasonable thing to do.

Well, I was going to put it back to sleep, but apparently I killed it instead? I suppose that’ll have to do.

It’s very sweet how friendly and optimistic Tayn still is even if you kill the body. One day I’ll see if that still holds if you went Team Llengrath all the way and killed the prisoners in the Collections.

Tayn, Bekarna, go on, give each other a hug. You both need it.

It’s a thing people do when they’re carrying a lot of pain around and haven’t been supported in dealing with it that they get really mad when someone else looks like upstaging them, whether with their own pain or with their achievements. Tayn’s jealous outburst, and Bekarna having to talk him down by appealing to his ego before he’s willing to support her, is...yeah, I super get it. But I hope they can stay friends now that they’ve gotten that out of the way.

If someone’s going in cold, I can definitely see them finding out that Magran doesn’t want the three shards put together, doing it to spite her because of all the problems she’s caused throughout the series (you’re not the boss of me, fire mom!), and realizing too late that they played into Woedica’s hands instead.

Anyway. Without a last faction quest to do, I think it’s Ukaizo time. My regular endgame party is Edér, Xoti, Tekēhu, and Rekke, and there’s nothing going on in this playthrough that would make me want to change that up.

So I didn’t have to fight any of the factions in the channel, but on the other hand, oh shit, Guardian. I was really not expecting to meet this thing—I freed Scyorielaphas like I usually do, and he normally takes care of it. Well, let’s take advantage and explore his dialogue tree.

“Where would you even stab something like that?” Well, Edér, I suppose you, Rekke, and Anlaf can figure that out on the fly.

Well, that wasn’t bad at all, but I’m glad I had Story mode on to fight the Guardian for the first time.

Oh, babies. I wish I could hug all of you, but I’ll settle for claiming my Rekke hug. (And if any of you think the hug isn’t the main reason he’s part of my standard Ukaizo party, you don’t know me very well.)

Tekēhu atop Ondra’s Spire. You know the bit I’m talking about. Which is the main reason he’s part of my standard Ukaizo party.

(To round out the rest of it for the newbies, Edér is simply undroppable, and I figure Xoti will want to talk to her god. If I have to start dropping people because of faction alliances or romances or whatever, Xoti goes first, then Rekke, but it does make me sad.)

Looks like my adventures here won’t be completely rival-free; here’s the hazanui come to bother me one last time. I’m glad it’s her, I would’ve been sad to make poor Tekēhu fight his queen again or to have to turn on Aeldys after building such a good working relationship. Or even to have to fight Castol. It’s Castol if the VTC comes after you, right?

I’m a little sad that Karū didn’t bring Atsura with her, I would’ve loved to give him a good stabbing.

Tekēhu landed the killing blow on the hazanui. Good work, fishboy, I hope you enjoyed that.

“All but three hold gargantuan skeletons”—we’ve seen Abydon’s body, we just dealt with Wael’s, I guess the third one is meant to be Galawain’s hidden somewhere on Kazuwari? Erūke said something about the huge skeleton in the part of the Beyond linked to the statue being Galawain’s, but it wasn’t made particularly clear that the remains of his body in the Here were nearby. It does make sense, though.

Oh, Waidwen. Quick, come get a spirit hug while the camera’s back is turned.

I love that the sidekicks have Grand Promenade conversations now, but I wish they could’ve gotten chats with Eothas as well. I imagine Rekke’s would’ve been quite intriguing.

Making my usual last request of Eothas, a haven for the lost souls, since I don’t have reason to do much else.

Ha, I thought so. The narrator pronounces “Ofecchia” as /oˈfε.ki.ə/, about what I’d expect, so Wakoyo’s /ɑ.fə.ˈtʃi.nə/ is clearly a mispronunciation in-universe. My theory that he’s doing it deliberately because it’s a Vailian name and fuck the Vailians still stands.

Yeah, I don’t love the epilogue for the solo ending. But it’s nice to have had the experience this once.

Other than the Gullet becoming a second home for the Príncipi, I’ve gotten most of my usual endings. Including the Dawnstars collectively taking up sickles and lanterns and becoming Harvesters, while Xoti lays hers aside to become what a proper Dawnstar was before this. Clearly a memo got missed somewhere.

Come on, Hafjórn, I told you to leave that stupid iceberg. This “squat in the temple and become reclusive and fanatical about keeping everyone else out” business doesn’t look like leaving to me.

Welp, time for me to take a bow and then find something else to occupy my days with. Whew, that was fun.

#pillars of eternity #deadfire #watcher Anlaf

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Deadfire, day 8.

Can’t believe I didn’t think of this last night—you know who’s going to be needing a nice ranged weapon pretty soon? Konstanten. He might be a melee character for most of the game if I use him at all, but as a single-class chanter, he’s too squishy to allow near the front lines in Seeker Slayer Survivor, where the combat is Super-Duper Really Not Kidding, We’re Serious Here. Especially if he’s my only healer, which he will be if I go into that DLC with my usual party (which is my usual party for a reason, I’d be sad if I missed out on their interactions). Here, Konstanten, one Essence Interrupter for you. Xoti can use something else if I want to push her back from the front lines—I’ve got a glut of unique pistols and a few bows she could use.

Nemnok! Nemnok! Nemnok!

Is it DLC time? I think it may be DLC time. :D To Harbingers’ Watch! Diving in with a party of Edér/Aloth/Xoti/Pallegina for Getting That Fucking Dragon Dead purposes, though we all know that’ll change soon enough, what with how Beast of Winter is basically Swapping Your Party Members Around A Whole Lot: The DLC.

BoW will forever be distinctive among this series’ DLCs for the way it starts out so funny and then gets (and stays) so serious after the fight with the Messenger. (Well, mostly. There are still some funny bits with the Harbingers after that fight, but they’re thinner on the ground, and the humor is much more morbid.)

Which in this case, was over with hilariously quickly—Aloth hit her with one Meteor Shower, and she was down before he could fire off a second spell. Which would’ve been Ninagauth’s Freezing Pillar if I hadn’t been micromanaging him, because the AI a) loves the absolute piss out of that spell for some reason and b) doesn’t understand what cold immunity is.

Well, Vatnir has been acquired. I think I’ll swap him in for Xoti, because I enjoy regretting all my life choices, and I’ve still got Pallegina to do my healing.

He’s also been loaded up with regeneration items, because I do not look forward to trying to keep him upright with no points in Athletics, which means no access to Second Wind.

Aloth, we’ve been over this, please stop trying to whack enemies with the heavy end of your scepter, it never goes well. Especially with high-level enemies like the ones here. Also, could you just excise Ninagauth’s Freezing Pillar from your repertoire for the rest of this DLC? Your abiding boner for that spell is doing no one any good right now.

*sigh* Shut your hole, Rymrgand. Or Anlaf will shut your hole for you, in more ways than one.

Rynhaedr makes an offhand mention of the Glamfellen chucking “objects or individuals that...persisted beyond their value to the clans” into the Vytmádh. So. Someone’s enough of an asshole, you just yeet them into the creepy freezing portal to feed them to Rymrgand? Is that how it works?

That thing where you don’t have enough Perception or whatever to properly detect a trap, so even though you get the disarm cursor when you mouse over it, you can’t actually do anything except step around it or set it off? Yeah, I don’t love that.

And now, The Bridge Ablaze. Xoti will want to see Waidwen, and...you know what? Rekke and Konstanten could both use some attention. (And I have no idea how Konstanten is level 20 despite never having been in the active party for a quest or battle, when babies I’ve actually used from time to time like Fassina and Rekke are lagging behind.)

The game seems to be unclear on how big Konstanten should be. As I swap his equipment in and out, sometimes he’s dwarf-sized, sometimes he’s scaled up to human height. And it looks like that’s in the game itself, too, not just the inventory screen.

Konstanten throwing dragons at enemies is just wonderful, it really is.

Right, this is the portion of the evening where I lie down and pull my pile of Waidwen feelngs over me like a blanket. That weighs enough to crush me. But the pain is so warm!

I’m bringing our favorite dead Readceran to see Eothas, as usual. (I almost typed “our favorite Readceran” before realizing that was, ah, debatable.)

And the rest will have to wait for morning, as it’s getting late and we slept like crap last night.

#pillars of eternity #deadfire #watcher Anlaf

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Deadfire, day 3.

Still having emotions about Xoti’s line, “Self-loathing is a blight on the soul, Adaryc. Don’t make your journey through Hel darker than it has to be.” And how he reacts to it, and what we know from the previous game about his history with depression, and...just a lot of emotions.

Modwyr may be a distant second in the Soulbound Sword I Have A Whole Bunch Of Emotions About stakes, but I’ve never run a Watcher who didn’t wield her and do her quest.

Edér, you’re only petting the talking sword if she agrees to it. And it doesn’t look like she will. (Though apparently she’ll be happy enough to ogle you later.)

The giant cave grub is down (second try, level 8 party), and Edér has his good saber. I might complain that a companion getting their good kit so early in the game is kind of boring if Min’s Fortune weren’t such a very, very good saber.

Tekēhu is at +2 approval of Anlaf already? Or more specifically, got there sometime yesterday when he promised to get Aruihi to let the black market continue? Goodness, that was quick.

“Nothing like a homecoming to make a girl remember her roots. Even if they are dried up and half-dead.” Yeah, I feel you, Xoti.

I usually push Tekēhu towards leadership, because he does turn out to be good at it, but a) I think Anlaf might like the ending the Huana get without him better, and b) some recent conversations about the Gifted Kid Burnout Experience™ have brought up some feelings I have about the word “potential”. The whole concept behind it, too, sure, but the word itself makes me want to get violent.

So, who’s doing their best Arkemyr impression this time? I think it’s Serafen’s turn.

There’s something beautiful about having enough points in Mechanics to completely clean Arkemyr out. He deserves it.

And I think I’m going to put that very nice armor on Tekēhu. He can show off his chest again after this is all over.

Wait, what?! I’m pretty sure I pushed Xoti consistently towards giving up the souls. Yeah, no, it’s reload time.

There we go. You’re welcome, Xoti.

And with all that taken care of, it’s time to go sailing.

Aloth, sweetheart, your scepter is not a melee weapon, please stop that.

Yeah, Serafen definitely comes off as an aro person who’s never been told that that’s a thing they can be.

Well, that trip through the Hungry Shoals could’ve gone better. Let’s take a minute to commend Eld Engrim’s soul to Magran.

Ooh, there’s Blightheart, Maia will have her good gun as soon as I get done here and head back to the ship to give it to her.

It says something that that’s her good gun rather than the one she gets from her quest.

Apparently this is the playthrough for doing islands for the mapping quests out of order—I still need to talk to Sanza about the Port Maje neighborhood, but I’ve already done one island for the Tikawara quest and one for the Burning Shoals.

Are you sure about the three red skulls rating on the collapsed coal mine? Because the forgotten catacomb didn’t have that, and that was way more difficult.

Ooh, my first Crookspur ship this playthrough, let’s do a murder!

Hello, Rekke. It’s good to see you.

And this time, I’m going to remember to kit you out right away so we don’t have a repeat of that incident. Sorry about that.

Ha, I discovered Poko Kohara by accident while trying to find the next island for the Tikawara mapping quest. I haven’t even been to Tikawara proper. I suppose I’ll be back later.

Well, now that I’ve landed in Tikawara, I’ve got a decision to make: do Maia’s quest or no? Right now it’s a solid “maybe”. I can have a good think about it as I explore the hinterlands.

Aww, lagufaeth babies. Took me a couple of tries to get Himuihi to agree to let them go, though. Huh, I’ve never failed that conversation before, I didn’t even know there were wrong choices.

And I’ll have to decide on Maia’s quest and then head for Poko Kohara in the morning, as it’s really gotten very late.

#pillars of eternity #deadfire #watcher Anlaf

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Deadfire, days 1-2.

My computer decided to be horribly mean and crash before I could post last night’s update. Good thing there wasn’t that much.

Anyway. I’d gotten as far as reuniting Team Gilded Vale (almost like old times, less the substitution of Xoti for Durance), picking up Serafen, and making it to Neketaka before packing it in for the night.

Beggar Wifruth hunted me down on the way north, and while it took two tries to defeat him, that’s still the quickest I’ve ever gotten a Príncipi flag—normally I have to wait for the one from Dereo. I could’ve diverted and done Fort Deadlight before Neketaka if I wanted, but no, I want to get my ship repaired and my skills up a bit first.

It feels incredibly weird to not be racking up approval with Edér left and right, but the one thing I remember from my original ideas about Anlaf’s characterization is that he’s a taciturn sort, not given to the snarking that would normally make that happen.

Mind you, I couldn’t resist complimenting Sanza on his dog knowing it’d make the big man happy, and indeed his +1 approval conversation fired on the spot. I do have limits.

Ah, the joys of playing a rogue, where you can just arrive in Neketaka, duck into the luminous adra mill, and steal all their crates of the stuff on a whim. :D And also a dog, because why not?

I owe myself a rerun/expy of one of my fun Watchers after this, I think. Maybe Eiheune, who I think has turned out to be the best mix of self-indulgence and meaty character stuff so far.

Beautiful. Got Cotta in one try, without anyone picking up an injury. There have been times I didn’t manage that in Story mode.

Ah, hello, Tawenu. Now here’s someone Anlaf can get behind.

Random headcanon: Foundation as we know it would clearly not be a thing for aumaua, but nothing says they don’t use makeup to accentuate their streaks.

Nothing like coming out of Tekēhu’s recruitment conversation with Aloth already offended by his existence.

And it’s not just Xoti who has to be kept away from Tekēhu during that conversation with Gyntel at the Wild Mare, as I just found out the hard way. That’s got to be the quickest I’ve ever had a companion reach -2 approval of anyone. Dear, fussy old Aloth.

Yep, still playing through Adaryc’s cameo with a huge grin on my face after all this time.

“So, his appearance has renewed your faith as well!” Adaryc, dearest love, I think you’re leaping to a conclusion there that isn’t terribly well-supported for any of the Watchers I’ve run. There are two Eothasians in this party, neither of them is Anlaf, and both of them are judging you, for different reasons. (Xoti may not think she’s judging, but she sure is quick to offer helpful advice.)

“I would know if he has a plan for...Readceras.” That wasn’t the first thing you wanted to say, was it? Bless you, Adaryc. The gods taking a personal interest in you isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Anlaf could give you details if you want.

I may still have not decided on Anlaf’s surname, but no, random Vailians in Queen’s Berth, it is most certainly not mes Rèi. Hear that Aedyran accent on him?

With Pallegina in the party, that’s all of the big seven recruited (plus a couple of sidekicks). Now to start her quest, as well as all that Valera/Bardatto business. And collect the rest of the babies.

I usually go the Dawnstars/crown route with the food shortage, but the Príncipi route isn’t bad either.

And I’ll have to see a giant cave grub about a mosaic in the morning, it’s late.

#pillars of eternity #deadfire #watcher Anlaf

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Deadfire, day 9.

Still having a big ol’ pile of messy feelings about The Bridge Ablaze. In addition to the obvious ones (for the newbies, those are “I love this bit more than any part of this game not in The Forgotten Sanctum, and it even gives most of TFS a run for its money“ and “where is my option to hug Waidwen”), I feel like a lot of thought was put into what it means for Eothas to have these different aspects to give us the [Echo Eothas]/[Echo Gaun]/[Echo the Dawnstars] options.

Anyway. On to the Drowned Kingdom, with my usual party of Edér/Aloth/Tekēhu/Rekke (gotta get that language discussion in).

“Yes, a puzzle! Let me try!” Rekke, dear love, I only wish I could let you take point on this, trying to get around this place drives me up the wall.

Something’s gone weird again, a fifth soul fragment appeared in one of the pools, and I’m having the conversation with it that I’m supposed to be having with the repaired Wingauro inside the Sunken Crown.

I was going to noodle around a bit more and see if I could get to that last bit in the northwest, but I probably ought to stop and get out of here before the glitching gets worse. The quest is done, Wingauro’s aid is secured, let me just go and beat up that dragon and count my blessings.

Well, that was downright pleasant. One round of boons from Naxiva and Wingauro, one Meteor Shower from Aloth, one heal for the melee squad, and no one picked up any injuries until Anlaf’s ill-advised attempt to rip Neriscyrlas’ phylactery out of her chest by hand.

And that was with the same party from the Drowned Kingdom, rather than going back to swap in a specialized healer. Not half bad!

Anlaf would like Woedica to know that she can go do something uncomfortable. Did she really expect him to have any time for her or her worldview?

To Kazuwari, then—why stop at Rymrgand and Woedica when we can piss off Galawain (and eventually Wael) into the bargain?

There’s our dragon-riding green friend! I was getting worried.

Standard party for Seeker Slayer Survivor (Edér/Rekke/Konstanten/Fassina) in place. Let’s do this. I mean, Konstanten isn’t my only source of healing. Anlaf has the Gaun’s Pledge ring, and Edér has some gloves that let him use Lay On Hands once per encounter. We’ll be fine, right? :D

Right, yes, everyone in this party needs a hug.

Whew, that part’s over. Injuries were picked up among the melee squad, but the Tyrant of Decay went down in one try.

Between Konstanten’s summons and the Essence Interrupter commandeering dead enemies, I’m having a grand old time here. :D

I went poking around the Classical Nahuatl section of Wiktionary a while back because Reasons, and now I can’t un-know that “pipiltin” means “children”. Yes, plural. Or “nobles”, if we want to be charitable.

Correcting him on whether Eothas’ backside is more “burning” or “glowing” is too funny to ever not do.

The bit with the knife. You know the one. Hnrrrrrrng.

Which face? The Surviving Face is next up in the cycle (I’ve done both the others twice), so...eh, why not?

See, I know how to traverse the Kōhatekana Expanse now, so getting through it is a simple matter of following the signs. And nothing will ever compare to the first time I visited, with Clelia, who got horribly lost and had Rekke get stolen by spiders. I don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved when playing these games as the moment I got him back. (Aside from the “holy shit, you can lose companions?!” factor, it may have been pure headcanon, but he was part of the OT4.)

Fassina, I understand that you love Ninagauth’s Freezing Pillar just as much as Aloth, but standing in your own freezing pillar while it’s still active because you want to get closer to the remaining enemies is really not terribly smart.

...oh dear, Marux Amanth was Aexica’s? That explains a thing or two.

“[Sigh.] You feel slightly better.”

You can, in fact, pet the boar. This makes me very happy.

You cannot, however, pet the bear, unless you’re playing a ranger. Sadface.

Heh, nice, there’s a non-helmet equivalent of the Champion’s Helm for godlikes.

Oh, right, the other spelling/pronunciation thing that I’m less than happy with: The h in Maori “wh”, patently the inspiration for the use of it in Huana, isn’t decoration. I’m willing to let this slide because merging a sound written “wh” into /w/ is a feature of American English, but it would’ve made me so happy if they’d gone for literally anything else.

While I’m here, macrons are called that because they make the sound long. Ahem.

I thought that was King Wingauro putting in another appearance. Good to have it confirmed.

I don’t feel like forcing Muātu to stay this time, so sure, Whehami, let��s fight it out.

And now, in between picking up Crucible artifacts around Neketaka, a break to steal everything in the Dark Cupboard that isn’t nailed down. Because I can.

And I’ll have to finish mopping up the optional fights in the morning, because it’s quite late, and I’ve been up since 4:00...yesterday morning, at this point. Wish me luck with staying asleep tonight!

#pillars of eternity #deadfire #watcher Anlaf

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Pillars of Eternity, day 3.

Whew, got through the mausoleum fight eventually, after clearing out the tower and Valtas Manor and getting the party to level 7. The only one to come out of the experience intact was Aloth, weirdly enough.

Huh, so that’s how you deal with the lighthouse banshee peacefully. Bit of a procedure.

There’s something ironic about a fire godlike running around in the Jack of Wide Waters, and that light cyan is certainly not a terribly flattering color on him, but it’s an improvement over Anlaf’s fine leather armor in every way, so here we are.

Oh, right, about time I got Aloth his good scepter. Enjoy, kiddo.

Right, before I got sidetracked I was going to progress Sagani’s quest and then head for Dyrford. Which means surviving Searing Falls first. This may take a bit.

...that got hairy fast. I think I’ll wait on clearing the rest of Pearlwood Bluff, it was all I could do to get to the trace of Persoq’s soul without getting curb-stomped by those lurkers and mênpŵgras.

Fyrga, you’ve now had a fire godlike slay a drake for you and bring you a piece of the Godhammer. Any further issues are between you and Magran.

Well, time for Grieving Mother to do some Grieving Mothering, I suppose.

A level 8 party for going after the Skaenites is a beautiful, beautiful thing. I even still have camping supplies left!

Oh, look, Cliaban Rîlag. Apparently it’s time for pain.

It will never not be hilarious that you can exit the ruins at Cliaban Rîlag, come face to face with the Glanfathan defenders, nope right back in, and come out the other exit, and they won’t come after you.

So. When a fire godlike is very low on endurance, they do a respectable amount of fire damage to anyone attacking them. Or using an ability on them. Including a healing ability. Including themselves using a healing ability. Which is how Anlaf just tried to use Wound Binding to fix that little “down to 4 health” problem and ended up maimed. *facepalm*

Since Grieving Mother comes to you with a crossbow, and I have a strong association between ciphers and the crossbow family going back to Clelia, I usually have her as an arbalestier. But this time I gave her a unique hunting bow I picked up somewhere, and oh my, it really is refreshing to have her attacking more than twice a minute.

Whew, Kana’s quest is done, poor guy. The big fight on the way to the stairs got hairy for a while there, but I’m now at the point where Edér is sufficiently indestructible to carry me through a fight like this. Because that really is the limiting factor, isn’t it?

And since I just learned the hard way that I don’t have enough Mechanics to do the thing on level 9 of the Endless Paths, more in the morning.

#pillars of eternity #watcher Anlaf

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Pillars of Eternity, day 4.

I probably ought to go pay Raedric a visit before I completely forget.

Tits out for Berath, everyone!

Something feels very nice about letting Edér take down Raedric himself. He’s the one who had to live in Gilded Vale under his rule, after all.

Is that...me giving Durance attention? Maybe giving his quest an honest go? Mmmmmmaybe.

Hello, monsters of Pearlwood Bluff. I’m back for revenge.

Revenge took a few tries and wasn’t easy, but it has now been had. Eat it, big group in the middle.

I’m getting close to the point where I would normally set Aloth aside and start giving the others some attention, but honestly? When it came time to send him on that stronghold assignment, I didn’t really want to. He was just starting to come into his own.

And that’s Defiance Bay on fire. Now let’s go hit up the Endless Paths and then knock out some bounties, that round of enchanting killed my cash reserves.

Oh yeah, that’s the stuff. Normally I have to wait on level 9 and come back with Devil of Caroc to get the thing out of the place, but this time I’m the rogue with the silly amount of points in Mechanics. :D

Lle a Rhemen opened up while I wasn’t looking? Huh. Let’s take a look inside, then. With Hiravias in the party, because I was originally going to go straight to Twin Elms, and because I have no common sense.

Oh, look, the second Durance vision. That means I can leave him home for a while, since I’m nowhere near ready for Council of Stars.

Hm. I’ve never killed Nridek, not even with my meaner Watchers who maybe “should” have. I’m curious. Though that is a lot of spiders.

...dammit, I’m too much of a soft touch. Maybe if I rerun Oriol or Aegen one day.

Finally made it to Twin Elms, though getting through Elmshore took a few tries. And what’s in Twin Elms? A whole lot of quests I probably don’t want to be doing with a level 10 party, for one.

And Hiravias’ quest, which has now been banged out. I pushed him towards Wael again, but I still let him pick a fight with Scâthden, because that guy just needs a beating so badly.

Right, in between knocking out bounties, before I go get Kana his good gun, I should go look in on Raedric again. And make sure he stays dead this time.

And speaking of a certain pirate captain with a certain gun, he’s been gotten now. Kana looks appropriately grateful. More will have to wait for the morning.

#pillars of eternity #watcher Anlaf

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Deadfire, day 6.

So, uh, that Aloth/Xoti banter where Xoti says she sleeps better when the Watcher’s around and Aloth gets flustered and responds with “Does it suddenly feel warm in here to you?”...was that meant to be a romance banter? For what romance? Because, uh, goodness me.

Excellent, looks like I’ve got enough money to get Anlaf his good ship, a junk that I’m naming the Thunderbolt.

And since I’ve got all four versions of the Crookspur quest, let’s...well, head for Ori o Koīki to bang out Aloth’s quest and talk to the Wahaki, and then go murder some slavers in the face.

Right, I should swap Tekēhu back into the party so we can embarrass him in front of his ex, like we did in Tikawara. That’s important.

Well, I got a couple of approval bumps with Aloth from Ori o Koīki, which is an improvement from my usual 0. Not enough to get him to +2, though.

OK, now we can do some murdering. So far this playthrough I’ve treated Xoti as nearly undroppable, but there’s no reason Pallegina and Tekēhu between them can’t do her job. And we can round things out with Serafen, who’s also been a bit neglected lately. Remember, babies, only murder slavers, not each other.

I tend to be very assiduous about pumping my Watchers’ Mechanics scores, along with those of their most-used companions, because I get twitchy about being locked out of important places because I didn’t put enough points into that. Anlaf has 14 Mechanics with the resting bonus from the Wild Mare and the party assist from this bunch. I...think that may be enough.

Ooh, I’ve never successfully talked the Wahaki captives into going home before.

That was some good murdering. Though I’ll thank Tekēhu to stop picking up injuries.

Kana! It’s good to see you, and it’s good to see you happy.

The fampyr cave, since it’s on the way to Ori o Koīki and I’m doing mapping quest islands out of order, took several tries, including one where Anlaf actually died, but oh, it was delicious to finally get it right and kill all the fampyrs without anyone picking up an injury.

*sigh* That’s what I get for drinking from the bog witch pool, isn’t it? Better luck next time, I suppose.

Eoten crotch sand is the worst sand, amirite?

I’ll finish up the last of the mapping quests and then head for Ashen Maw in the morning—my regulars are all level 19, and I’ve run out of anything else to do.

#pillars of eternity #deadfire #watcher Anlaf

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Deadfire, day 5.

Looking at everyone’s skill loadout, I think it’s time for me to bring Maia on the bathhouse spying quest for the first time. This ought to be good.

Sadly for me, that still wasn’t enough Diplomacy points to get Quarno to talk, and Maia didn’t have anything to say for herself. Welp.

To the Watershapers’ Guild, then. I think I’ve picked a party with enough Metaphysics between them to do the thing.

Thing done. You’re welcome, Scyorielaphas. And Onekaza.

And apparently we’re taking a trip to Sayuka before we take our newfound knowledge about Yseyr and Rivan to Dunnage. Welp. Get over here, Serafen.

For a second there I was afraid I didn’t have enough information to do Serafen’s quest right, but, no apparently getting Castol’s quest to talk to Furrante is enough? Or something?

Aww, thanks for the hat, Serafen. Even if Anlaf can’t wear it.

Hey, Edér, want a hat? It’s a pretty nice hat.

I don’t love killing the bog druids, but the one time I killed Okaya instead I hated myself even more, so...

“Can you make him target who he poops on? ‘Cause I got someone in mind.” Does that someone perhaps have tentacles for hair, Xoti? Because I know you’re not much enamored of our resident watershaper.

...I mean, Cignath Mór is right here, may as well do it. Come on, Aloth, I’ll be needing your wall spells.

Kraken bagged in one try, though a lot of injuries were picked up. Oof.

Oh, that’s where Dorudugan is, not the other place I was avoiding (I think that one might be Hauani o Whe). Game, how the entire tap-dancing fuck does a megaboss only rate one skull?

In conclusion, nope nope nope nope nope nope nope. Off to the sandswept ruins, which are only mundanely annoying.

Godsdammit babies no don’t step on—*headdesk*

I’ve been getting very little use out of Rekke this playthrough, because the last thing this party needs is another melee character who doesn’t contribute support or crowd control abilities. Which makes me very sad, for reasons of Rekke is adorable and I like him. Time to take him out to mop up some bounties.

And more in the morning, it’s late.

#pillars of eternity #deadfire #watcher Anlaf

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Pillars of Eternity, day 2.

More early installment weirdness: Berath (and Wael) being referred to as “he”.

Well, let’s go see a man about a soul.

Ah, today’s first reminder that I am very, very bad at handling squishy melee characters. Mainly because my approach to melee is “just throw them at the thing and let them hack at it”, which rather assumes a tanking rather than DPS role. Which in turn assumes the tankiness to successfully fill a tanking role. Which the squishy melee DPS classes like barbarian, monk, and rogue don’t really have.

Nothing says “you are spectacularly underleveled for basically everything, also you have a vacant spot in the party, you enormous ass” like barely surviving—”people getting maimed and/or carrying multiple injuries and even indestructible Edér’s health bar getting into the flashing red” kind of barely surviving—level 3 of the Endless Paths. I won’t be banging out Kana’s quest anytime soon, that’s for damn sure.

To which end, fox mom has been acquired, and the party is now full. And no longer all-male. (5 out of 11 companions are women, but they range from “met late in Act 1″ like Sagani here to “tucked away in a DLC best avoided until the late mid-game at least.”)

Sure, Itumaak isn’t nearly the same as having a second tank—I eagerly await the arrival of Pallegina—but anything that expands the melee squad and takes some of the pressure off Anlaf is welcome right now.

OK, trying to pass by Stormwall Gorge to hit up Dyrford was an extremely bad idea. Defiance Bay it is. (And babies, you can start throwing up some banter whenever you feel like it, thanks.)

I have a decision to make, don’t I—which ending do I angle for with Edér? Thinking over Anlaf’s complicated relationship with the family that took his birth as proof of their righteousness but was awful enough that his sibling’s rebellion happened and he joined it, and then that all that was the Magranite church, which has taken the Eothasians as their enemy, and all of it basically adds up to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I usually default to the mayor ending/pushing him away from religion, and especially in this first conversation, where it’s the Magranites we’re snarking about, yes, it feels right to give the “yeah, fuck them and fuck their goddess; you don’t tell me what to do, fire mom” answer. Especially after putting up with Durance for several weeks.

OK, I’m starting to get stronghold quests, I need to pick up Pallegina and Grieving Mother, like, yesterday. I don’t know if I’m up to surviving Stormwall Gorge yet, but Pallegina isn’t far, let’s go look in on her.

OK, we all knew about Kana’s banter with Maneha where he points out the woman with “hips like a church bell”. But I didn’t remember his interjection in the Salty Mast about wanting to “chat up the guard with the wide hips”. Well, we know what Kana’s type is now.

Decision time again: Crucible Knights or House Doemenel? That’s going to affect whether I want to piss off the Doemenels here. Affiliation with the Crucible Knights comes in handy in the White March once, I think, and...yeah, it makes sense for this character. Crucible Knights it is, let’s piss off some Doemenels.

Wait, no, first I get them to lower their prices for Maea, then I start pissing them off.

Huh, is it just me or is Edér’s accent closer to General American here than it is in Deadfire? I feel like he has more of a drawl there.

Thinking: Is Anlaf aroace, or is he just so used to dissociating while people do what they need to do with him that becoming sexually active was/would be an extremely bad idea? I’m going to leave this underspecified for now.

And Pallegina has been acquired, which means I’m blessedly free of Durance for the time being.

More in the morning, now that I’ve learned my lesson about trying to clear out the mausoleum in Heritage Hill with a level 6 party.

#pillars of eternity #watcher Anlaf

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Pillars of Eternity, day 9.

Concelhaut makes no mention of Maura or Tayn when listing off his rival archmages, heh.

Yeah, I definitely like his VO in Deadfire better.

OK, Maura comes up later (pronounced like Maureen without the diminutive suffix, more early installment weirdness), I guess the original idea was that she was long-dead?

And Concelhaut is down. Edér’s sheer indestructibility and pocket full of figurines were a big part of making that happen, as usual, but Kana with his inexhaustible well of summons and revives has been the surprise MVP of this playthrough, and so it was again here. You’re a good team, boys, keep doing the thing. (Pallegina and her sword finally took him down with the Destroy Vessels effect, but by then we nearly had him anyway.)

I’m sure we’re meant to think deeply about the ethical question of rewriting Benno’s personality to make him not an abusive shit anymore. But the fantasy of that being a thing that can be done is so pretty that I’m never in the mood for ethical questions when I get that quest, I always just let the spirits do it.

There was one try where I almost had them! Llengrath was dead, one of the dragons was Near Death, and the other was down to Badly Injured. So close!

But killing her was clearly not happening, and it took me a few tries to find the right choices to talk her down, hence the multiple doomed attempts at fighting her. But it’s done, we’re friends now.

So apparently the Unlabored Blade does become a truly excellent piece of kit when fully leveled. But it has six levels to the typical soulbound piece’s four, and until you get there, it gets steadily worse until you’re trying to do 1500 damage with one of the worst weapons in the game. Clearly the next time I feel the need to use it, I need to commit to leveling it right away.

So, that’s just about it, all that’s left to do is head for Burial Isle. So who goes in my final party? Edér, Aloth, Kana, and Pallegina are all undroppable for various reasons, but who gets the free spot? I think the only ones I haven’t done yet are Durance (on a stronghold quest at the moment) and Devil of Caroc. Let’s bring Devil along, I’m curious to see how she sasses Thaos.

Ah, the main plot doing the thing with the stuff again. Welp.

So, uh, the two statues in Sun-in-Shadow count as vessels. We all remember what St. Ydwen’s Redeemer does to vessels, right? *cackle*

Devil of Caroc got in the killing blow on Thaos. Good for her, I’m sure she really enjoyed it. She sassed him pretty good before the fight, too.

And that’s that. Got most of my usual endings. I wasn’t specifically angling for adventurer Kana, but I certainly don’t mind it. On to Deadfire!

#pillars of eternity #watcher Anlaf

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Pillars of Eternity, day 8.

I tried to talk Od Nua down, I genuinely did. But he didn’t want to hear it, so enjoy oblivion, your majesty. Do better next incarnation.

And we know what that means, right? Adra dragon time. Hopefully this will go less badly than it did with her alpine counterpart. I don’t think she’s immune to Wall of Force, the one spell that’s foundational to my ability to fight dragons on any difficulty above Story, right?

Got her. Though it did take a few tries, a couple of those scrolls, and thank fuck for Kana’s reviving invocation.

And while we’re here, it’s time I banged out the Battle of Yenwood Field before I forget again.

Eat it, Gathbin.

If the erl and the marshal don’t say anything about the Readcerans and ogres in Anlaf’s army, then no one else has to know, right? :D

And now to the abbey.

Maneha is keeping her memory. Sorry, old girl. I get it, I do, I definitely have days when I wish the Giftbearers were real and I could hand them half my life, but you’ll just have to deal with your memories the old-fashioned way, like the rest of us.

The Low Tide have been drowned. You’re welcome, Maneha. I hope you’re happy. Edér isn’t half wrong with his comment about how “it’s hard to feel like we did right.”

Huh, I’ve never had this conversation with Kaoto before. Poor Maneha, she sounds so betrayed.

Deryan’s VA does the absolute most with every line he delivers, it’s so endearing.

Well, let’s go smash some Eyeless. Pallegina, get your sword ready, I want to hear that thunder crack sound effect early and often.

I keep intending to make sure I call on all three allies in Cayron’s Scar for emotional reasons, but, uh, whoops. I did use the cannons once, at least.

See, this is why I always bring Zahua here if I can. Makes things easier.

Testing result: Iverra’s Diving Hemet will be detected if it’s in the stash, not just in a party member’s inventory.

Next on the shopping list, Concelhaut. This ought to be fun.

I’ve got Anlaf wielding the Unlabored Blade for shits and giggles. It’d level up faster if he used it by itself, but can I bear to have him put down Steadfast? No, I can most certainly not. Look, I have emotions about that thing.

Anyway, I’ll have to finish that up in the morning, as it’s gotten late. Let’s see if I can get the rest of this game done.

#pillars of eternity #watcher Anlaf

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Pillars of Eternity, day 1.

Preserving for posterity that this is a fire godlike rogue I’m playing. Having a Resolve of 10 is going to suck ass—I remember damned well how Aegen’s playthrough went, and it involved a lot of facepalming—but a Perception of 15, easily boosted with gear and resting bonuses, can cover a multitude of sins.

I look forward to taking my fire baby to Ashen Maw, of course, but now I’m really getting ahead of myself.

No romance, solo ending, or at least that’s tentatively my plan. I’ve never actually done either of those things before, so with this run I’ll have bagged the set (unless you want to count Aeldys’ Príncipi and Alvari’s VTC separately, as I haven’t done those either).

Easy mode, of course. The point of this exercise is to keep me occupied for twelve hours a day in quarantine, and Story mode will mean I plow through the whole series in a week and a half, maybe less. And I’m going to be here for longer than that. I can kick it down to Story for the last quarter of Deadfire like I did with Eiheune, that worked really well.

The only countries of origin I haven’t done yet are Aedyr and the White That Wends, both of which...there’s a reason I haven’t used them yet. I think I’ll go for Aedyr, mostly for the clothes.

Which then helps with naming him. I think I’ll call him Anlaf. Surname still pending, my usual source isn’t turning up anything good.

Between Aegen, Alix, Avasis, Anlaf, and my upcoming Inquisitor Anchoret, the more astute among you may have noticed a pattern. I’ve had to restrain myself from using even more A names than that—just ask my upcoming Warden Isaura, who was originally going to be Ailith (my Jedi Exile’s name, but why lament that I “wasted” a name I liked on a game like KotOR 2 when I could just reuse it? well, I can still do that later).

The temptation to copy the “royal relative who followed a sibling into exile after backing their ill-fated coup/rebellion” backstory from a Silmarillion character I’m fond of is strong. Dissident it is, at least as a placeholder for now.

In that case, the sibling obviously didn’t make it, either being executed or being one of the nameless travelers who die in the attack on the caravan. I’ll have to think about that one.

The one snippet of personality I had in mind for him was “had a Not Fun upbringing where he was punished for existing too openly, so he makes a game out of being so silent and invisible that everyone forgets he’s there” So...weaponized middle child syndrome? :D

Does that sound odd for a fire godlike in a majority Magranite country? I may know something about the “everyone loves what you represent but you yourself are an inconvenience” life.

Ah, yes, the “relearn all the controls because my muscle memory is 100% Dragon Age right now” part of the evening. *sigh*

Team Gilded Vale has been acquired. It’s nice to have them all together.

Wirtan mocks the Eothasian belief in “rebirth” like reincarnation isn’t a demonstrable fact of life in Eora and one of the fundamental underpinnings of Engwithanism in general. Ah, early installment weirdness.

I think this massively underleveled, healer-less party managing to kill a troll without anyone getting knocked out deserves a celebration. Sadly, said celebration will have to involve recruiting Durance.

Yes, anyone can wield anything in Pillars, it’s great, but A+ realism that the only companion to come to you with a war bow, i.e., longbow, is Edér, a hulking farmhand who could rip you in half with his neck.

Speaking of whom, Edér now has his larder door. He looked so strange without it.

Ah, hello, Kolsc. Anlaf getting involved in a rebellion again? Just like being back home!

And Kana has been acquired. Filling out the party will have to wait for the morning, as it’s gotten late.

#pillars of eternity #watcher Anlaf