Better Sunday
May. 7th, 2023 11:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickMostly because I neither needed to clean nor wait around to do something with my parents, meaning I could actually do the stuff I wanted to do --
Tumblr: Not AS productive as I would have liked, but I got something done on both my tumblrs – on Victor Luvs Alice, I got the drafts of this week’s four-part Chill Valicer Save update sorted before lunch, then did a dash-and-tags catch-up afterward; on Valice Multiverse, not a lot was going on with asks and threads, so I threw another Valicer Polyship Week story (the second Soulmates AU piece, about everyone’s symbolic dreams) into the queue. Would have liked to have gotten the TEXT of some of the Chill Valicer Save update done today, but at least all the pictures are there and ready to go – and this being a four-parter, it’ll be easier to catch up on Monday and Tuesday. *nods*
Fallout 4: Had a fruitful session in FO4 today – went in with the goal of getting Victor back to Nordhagen to complete that radiant quest, and I succeeded, with only two minor diversions – one good, one sad –
A) Started with Victor having woken up in Bunker Hill early in the morning – I decided he might as well have a look around the place and had him wander around searching for the market area. As I located it behind the big central monument, though, a ghoul in combat armor wandering around caught my eye – one Edward Deegan of the Cabot family! Edward also spotted Victor and said they needed to talk – Victor asked if they knew each other, and Edward said, no, but he’d heard of Victor, and wanted his help with a job. What kind of job was up in the air for the moment – his employer, Jack Cabot, would have to vet Victor first – but he could promise that it would be dangerous, but Victor would be paid fairly. I had Victor say “I live for danger” (you do not XD), and Edward said to stop by the Cabot House whenever he was ready to meet the family and get his assignment. So “Special Delivery” is now in Victor’s quests – we’ll see when I get to that! I’ve been saving Victor’s Alien Blaster for this occasion ever since Pickman. . .
B) Anyway, with that taken care of, I had Victor head up the monument and its many, many steps because I recalled goodies being at the top. And goodies there were – some free ammo, and a copy of “Live and Love” magazine, with a perk of +25% more XP when persuading male characters. Niiiice. :D Good thing Victor’s got that “ultimate Charisma juice” in his inventory! XD
C) With that acquired, Victor headed back down to ground level (carefully – you can find yourself going out one of the “windows” on the side of the monument if you don’t take things easy), where he encountered Meg, a kid drawing on the ground nearby. She offered him a tour for ten caps – he paid her, and she rattled off some basics of where everything in the settlement was without even getting up. XD Little grifter. . . Anyway, Victor then proceeded into the marketplace behind her – most of the shops weren’t manned for whatever reason, but Deb at the “general store” was in place, so I had Victor chat to her and do some bartering. He got an aluminum can, a cake pan, some industrial-strength Abraxo, some duct tape, a gold watch, two microscopes, and two telephones for twelve caps and every bit of roasted mirelurk meat in his inventory. XD Well, he had to do SOMETHING with it! He then headed over to another shop I’d seen out by the main fence, run by a woman named Kay – she turned out to be the settlement’s doctor, so I had Victor sell her a bunch of drugs and get a Rad-X and fifty caps in return. Not bad!
D) After a quick circuit of the settlement to see what else there was (not much, really, but it’s good to familiarize yourself with the place a bit because it’s the site of a major battle later), I figured it was time for Victor and Ada to head out! They left by the main gate, where I had Victor orient himself by his Pip-Boy. I figured the shortest route back to Nordhagen would involve them going by Weatherby Savings & Loan, so I pointed the pair in that direction, heading down the road and then squeezing through a gap between two houses –
E) Where I found myself in front of a house with a couple of dead ghouls outside – and one LIVE Reaver ghoul on the porch, as I discovered when I had Victor loot a corpse and then Ada started firing. The Two-Shot took it out without issue, but as I went to loot it as well, I found that the house was actually a specific location – an “abandoned house,” to be precise. Curious. . . So, after taking a moment with the portable workbench to scrap down some of the spare leather armor Victor had picked up and do a little bit of cooking (dude was over carry capacity again), I had him and Ada head inside. The first level had a couple more dead ghouls and one live one playing dead behind a table (VATS sussed him out right away), while the second had a Reaver at the top of the stairs (Victor wasn’t able to get a good angle in VATS, but a few quick fires with the Two-Shot took it down quick) – along with a holotape. And when I saw the holotape and what it was called, I suddenly knew EXACTLY where I was – the former home of Research Assistant Peters, a woman who’d worked for some sort of drug company, volunteered to be exposed to a massive, lethal dose of radiation to test an anti-rad serum her company was working on. . .only to find that it didn’t work at the level of toxicity she’d reached. The holotapes – one in the kitchen, one on the second level in a wrecked bedroom, and one in the attic – tell her sad story, starting with her initial irradiation, progressing through her test of the serum, and ending with her realizing the serum doesn’t work, she’s going to die, and trying to compose a farewell to her parents. Oh, and you know the worst part?
There’s a Glowing One locked up in the attic. Next to the final holotape. Meaning poor R. A. Peters might not have died after all. *wince*
F) So – yeah. I had Victor take out the ghouls, collect all the glowing fungus growing on the walls, and then unlock the attic door and take out the Glowing One with a sneak attack that killed it instantly. Got all the loot, had what I felt was a rather poorly-timed snack, then headed out into Charlestown again, feeling rather glum. Sorry, R. A. Peters – I can assure you Victor will put you to rest properly in the fanfic version!
G) With that taken care of, it was time to continue on our way to Nordhagen. Victor oriented himself with his Pip-Boy again, then followed it down the street (past a patio with a skeleton and a WHOLE lotta drugs – I guess someone decided to spend the apocalypse having one last good time), to the little anchor plaza area just down the street from the crushed bank. I laid down a save, had Victor and Ada head to the bank, past the broken-down cars, over the bridge –
AND STRAIGHT INTO A BUNCH OF RUST DEVILS WITH A GODDAMN SENTRY BOT. The Two-Shot did its best, and actually got a good chunk of health off said sentry bot, but the sheer firepower of the damn thing, combined with the cars on the bridge exploding all over the damn shop, meant that poor Victor ended up dead fairly quickly.
H) Okay, glad I saved when I did! Let’s take that a little more CAREFULLY, shall we? I had Victor go by the bank again, then drop into sneak mode, and slowly go over the bridge, keeping an eye out for danger. Fortunately, this time he spotted the Rust Devils – camped out in one of the old house shells near the bridge – before they spotted him, and was able to keep out of sight and get away in the opposite direction, around the big old super-radioactive spheres. Did have to shoot one bloodbug who noticed him passing by, and took a little radiation while grabbing the meat, but that’s a lot better than having to fight a sentry bot up close!
I) With THAT sorted, Victor and Ada proceeded around the spheres, over to the bridge just past County Crossing with the Drumlin Diner on the other side, then down the road, past the school, through the playground, past Easy City Downs, along the beach, through the parking lot, and over the second bridge to Nordhagen at a swift sneak, working their way through the fog and fading light to get back to the settlement. The quest-giver settler thanked Victor for his daring rescue, and he reminded her it was all thanks to the Minutemen; she agreed and said they’d decided to join up! Which got Victor 99 caps, a new settlement under his belt, and a bunch of XP, w00! I then proceeded to spend the in-game evening there, trying to find the edges of the building area and scrapping all the junk on the beach behind the little hut they call home until Victor finally got tired. Built him a sleeping bag, plopped it by the front entrance, and slept for a solid eight hours, yay. :p
And so the playsession ended with Victor waking up bright and early the next morning, ready to actually get a proper look at Nordhagen! Next time, probably gonna focus on doing some building to bring the settlement up to “code” (shower and toilet facilities, better water, actual defense, all of that), then – well, have to look at all of my various quests and decide what I want to do about them! I do want to do Jack Cabot’s stuff (not in the least because the final portion gets you the Charisma bobblehead, which is +1 Charisma free, which I do need for the Local Leader perk), but I feel like I should do Ada’s first mission first. . .not to mention at SOME point I have to get back over to Sanctuary to prep for the Glowing Sea! Too easy to become distracted in this game. . .night all!
Writing: It’s Fallout Sunday, so naturally we had to update the FO4 Playthrough Progression with the latest on Victor’s adventures! The fanfic version wasn’t notably different from what actually happened above, save for the settler he rescued accompanying him, Ada, and Alice the whole trip (instead of just teleporting back to the settlement while Victor slept); me putting an actual guy at the top of the Bunker Hill monument (the guard that is implied to usually be there by the chair and smokes you find there), who traded Victor the “Live & Love” perk magazine for that copy of “Taboo Tattoos” Victor found at Rory’s place; and Victor making sure to give the Glowing One in the abandoned house a proper burial just in case it was indeed the unfortunate R. A. Peters. :( Oh, and Victor didn’t need to die to learn to avoid the Rust Devils on the other side of the Weatherby Savings & Loan bridge, because Alice had a psychic vision from Wonderland instead. XD But yes, Victor has met Edward Deegan and learned about the Cabots and a possible job there; cleared out the abandoned house and learned the sad story of Peters; and gotten Dennis safely back to Nordhagen, earning their allegiance to the Minutemen. I think he’ll appreciate a nice “building episode” next time. XD
YouTube: Got my Gray and my Jon watched, and even fit in a few bonus videos this morning –
A) Started early with a few more clips from CablesTwisted from The Smiler Takeover – some shaky camera testing featuring the bearded Grin-Grin the clown telling people that the Fear Test would be beginning soon and being goofy; Dr. Gladwell enforcing a “Smiling Zone” on passing advocates (with the first appearance of a different Agent Joytide! A blond lady in some impressively pink platform boots); Grin-Grin making up songs on the Fear Test stage (possibly inspired by the passing Felix E. Lated), getting suggestions from the audience to make up one about Oblivion, the Smiler, and a cow (about the cow unwisely riding Oblivion when it opened, then getting marmalised by The Smiler when THAT opened; wasn’t half-bad actually); and Grin-Grin stealing some “scientific equipment” (aka some lipstick) from Dr. Gladwell while they were posing for Cables’s camera (and threatening to draw on Gladwell’s face XD). Good times!
B) Then, this evening, we had GrayStillPlays and “Upgrading from NOOB fighter to GOD fighter in Angle Fight 3D!” Angle Fight 3D being a game where you play as a person made of various balls, fighting other people made of various balls (generally some form of ninja, though a few cowboys and Vikings were thrown into the mix too). You had to chose your weapon (from those you unlocked, the random number generator, and the super-weapon you could get by watching a video ad), then manipulate your guy into the right stance to kill your opponent(s) and avoid any obstacles in the way. And the stances they allowed you to pick. . .well, let’s just say Gray had a LOT of fun figuring out the goofiest ways to turn his dude into a pretzel. XD You could levitate, you could twist your entire body backwards to embed it in the floor, you could dislocate all of your joints to hide behind your shield, you could basically become a unicorn. . .and honestly, almost all of these stances worked out beautifully, especially when paired with the longer weapons, like lances and broadswords. A few of the later levels, with more obstacles to dodge or ranged weapons to avoid, gave him a bit of trouble, but generally he found the right way to smash up his guy’s bones to murder all in his path and earn things like a special devil mask skin and fancy-ass swords with strawberry jam smeared on them. XD Just some good silly fun with a good silly game!
C) And finally, we had Jon of Many a True Nerd and “Fallout: Tale of Two Wastelands - Part 28 - You Must Be Kidding,” aka Wanda makes a trip to Little Lamplight to show off some of the interesting things about that little society! (Uh, pun not intended. ^^;) Though Jon had to do a little bit of prepwork first – namely, get a level-up by having Wanda kill a random raider outside Megaton for the experience (69 XP, in fact – nice). That got her up to Level 26, which allowed her to up her skills a bit, including chucking a few points in Barter (a skill that most people ignore, but actually has some applications in Little Lamplight), and more importantly get the “Child At Heart” perk to unlock special dialogue options and interactions with the kids. Because Little Lamplight is a lot more fun if you yourself are seen as one of them. So, after a quick detour into the Yao Guai Tunnels (a good waypoint for getting to Little Lamplight for the first time when fast-traveling, and the location of the remains of a mysterious civilization that was apparently eaten by bears PLUS the Sneak Bobblehead – which in this mod ups damage from sneak attack criticals by 10%, lovely), Jon found the water tower that marked the location of the cave town of children and started showing off what made it special! Like –
I. Something Jon himself didn’t know – if you happen to get to Little Lamplight at the same time as the kids you freed from Paradise Falls (assuming you did that mission BEFORE coming here), you can just walk inside with them when MacCready opens the gate. He even has a special “hey, how’d you get in here” line if you do so! New discovery – we like those! :D
II. The whole deal with Sticky, the kid who celebrating his “officially a mungo” birthday when you walk in, and whom you can escort to Big Town if you so feel like it (or learn where it is if you haven’t visited it yet). Sticky is an interesting character – Evil Jon showed that, if you murder him midway through his farewell ceremony, none of the kids give a shit, because he’s a “mungo,” and thus not actually part of their faction (calling back to the complicated faction politics of Paradise Falls last episode). Regular Jon, meanwhile, delighted in showing off just how deliberately annoying Sticky is when he’s your “escort” companion – you can get into endless loops of “shut up” “no, you shut up” when you talk to him, and he can tell you awful stories that make no sense because they’re randomized – there’s four potential beginnings, middles, and ends, and he will just pick completely randomly from each to put together his stories. Jon loves it all. XD He did eventually deliver Sticky to Big Town (via the medium of fast travel, as this guy WILL get himself killed if you try to walk there the normal way and end up running into trouble), and then delighted in Sticky desperately trying to rationalize the lack of stores and the big old barricades outside as not signs Big Town was, uh, maybe in a little bit of trouble. Hey, Sticky, just be grateful Wanda came and helped these people get giant robot protectors BEFORE she came and collected you, okay?
III. A look at Little Lamplight’s origins, via the medium of finding some holotapes from one of the original kids and one of the original teachers on the field trip that was occurring in the cave system when the bombs dropped. Basically, what happened is that the kids and teachers (plus a couple of parents and some park employees) got trapped in the caves when the bombs hit, and the adults gradually trickled out to look for help. Jason Grant, a ten-year-old, decided to step up and be leader when they didn’t come back, and after their attempt at getting help by banging on the back door of the nearby Vault 87 only yielded one of the vault dwellers telling them that they were already dead, the kids decided they didn’t need adults anymore. Hence, the reason the kids kick anyone old enough to be called a “mungo” (the game is inconsistent about whether the magic age is sixteen or eighteen – my personal theory is it’s eighteen unless the other kids REALLY don’t like you) out – they believe it’s because people change when they become “mungos” and become untrustworthy, which Jon thinks is based on a misunderstanding on the part of the original kids. Namely, they assumed they’d been abandoned, while Jon’s pretty sure the adults WERE actually going for help, they just died before they could find any. (Granted, that doesn’t explain the people in Vault 87, but I actually don’t know what was going ON in Vault 87 yet, so. . .we’ll say for now the kids unfortunately encountered one specific jerk which ruined their opinions on adults.)
IV. A discussion of Little Lamplight’s society, which is surprisingly complex – there’s a lot of kids here, and there’s a lot of systems in place to keep it running. There’s scav teams that go out and get stuff from the outside world (keeping themselves hidden from adults); there’s a school where the older kids teach the younger ones, using scavenged books and with each generation of teachers making notes on the terminals for the next generation; there’s guard duty and food production and all of that. But, notably, the game never clarifies where all these children are coming from. Because, well, obviously, nobody in this society can reproduce. Jon’s personal theory is that Little Lamplight basically serves as a place for Wastelanders who can’t (or maybe won’t) take care of their children to drop them off in a relatively safe place – in fact, you can apparently actually SET THIS UP TO HAPPEN at some point in the game (Jon has promised to show it off in a future episode). It’s grim, but it’s better than some of the alternatives! (The comments also suggested that maybe Big Town residents bring any kids they have back to Little Lamplight, knowing they’ll be safe there – a reasonable assumption to make, I feel!)
V. A look at some of the fun stuff having “Child At Heart” can get you in Little Lamplight! For material rewards, you can get a discount at the local shop, and get the “Wazer Wifle” off poor “Biwwy” with the lisp for free instead of having to pay for it (the gun has bonus limb damage and is a lot better than your standard laser weaponry, but it just can’t stand up to the DLC stuff, poor thing). For just plain cuteness rewards, though, nothing beats discovering that the kids running through the tunnels are playing tag – and since you’re a Child At Heart, they’re willing to tag you into the game. :) Awwww.
VI. The opportunity to bully children! XD Specifically, Jon showed off how you can annoy Princess into not speaking to you (it involves getting the origin of her nickname, Princess, out of Sammy, her fellow gate guard (her entire five-minute term as mayor was her trying to get the others to rename the role to “Princess,” before MacCready walloped her and got the post instead); learning she has a precocious crush on MacCready; and then telling her that MacCready has been spending a lot of time with Lucy, the town doctor (I’ve heard that this is NOT the same Lucy that he mentions as his deceased wife in Fallout 4, but I also think plenty of people ignore that for fanfic purposes)), and MacCready into not speaking with you (basically, you have to rapidly engage him in conversation, then immediately end said conversation – he gets progressively more annoyed until he refuses to engage you at all and banishes you from the town for a day; this also in fact keeps you from progressing in the main quest until he forgives you, as you need the Little Lamplighters’ help to get into Vault 87, which is where the GECK you need is). You can also talk to Knock Knock, the town comedian and storyteller, and help her out with her stories – first by giving her a new punchline to one of her jokes, then by telling her the story of your own adventures (which she will start telling the others once you tell her the ending by completing the game). I’m including this one under the “bully children” heading because Jon deliberately picked the options that made Wanda sound like a mass murderer (which – she is, a bit), which made Knock Knock very very nervous, the poor kid.
VII. And finally, the reason to raise Barter – though he was only able to actually SHOW one of them, as the other wasn’t working. The first, which wasn’t working, was to get better rewards from Zip in exchange for Nuka-Cola (he normally just gives you a single 10mm bullet, but if your barter is above 30, there’s a chance he’ll give you a handful of the exact caliber needed for That Gun – higher levels of barter get even BETTER rewards, like stimpacks and microfusion cells); the second, which was working, was to get a better deal with MacCready on exchanging “strange meat” for cave fungus cubes. Although this one intersects interestingly with the “Child At Heart” perk – okay, so, the deal is that the kids grow cave fungus to eat, and this fungus really likes “strange meat” – aka, human flesh. You provide “strange meat” to Eclair, the chef, and he will give you cave fungus – AFTER you clear it with Mayor MacCready. And depending on your perks and your barter skill, the deal MacCready offers you is either horrible (a cube of cave fungus for every three chunks of “strange meat” – or three doses of Buffout, as Lucy the doctor uses that for medicines – which is a definite loss for you, as three “strange meat” is worth more than one chunk of cave fungus) or pretty good (a cube of cave fungus for every one chunk of “strange meat”). People with “Child at Heart” get the good deal straight away; those without have to rely on their barter skill, and come back and renegotiate their deal as it improves. Jon wasn’t really that interested in the trade (though cave fungus DOES remove rads, so worth getting just for that), but he loved the fact that the barter system on hand was more complex than you might think at first!
And that concluded our trip to Little Lamplight – and set up our next trip in the bargain! Because, you see, there is one good place to get a lot of “strange meat” in Fallout 3, and that is Andale. A cheery little town with cheery little people looking to get their cheery little forks in you. . .though Jon hinted there’s ANOTHER secret hidden underneath the cannibal stuff. I’m looking forward to seeing what THAT is next Sunday!
Workout: Back on the bike tonight, and back to Oxventure: Legacy of Dragons with the penultimate episode, “Ready Lair One!” Cthulhu has returned Prudence to the team now that Mistmire is a crumbling wreck and not really holy ground anymore, and the episode started with Corazon catching Prudence up on what had happened, what they’d learned, and how Egbert had killed two guys with explosives the LAST time he tried to free the dragon, which you THINK would make him more careful with explosives. . . Dob pointed out that none of them had any room to talk when it came to Egbert killing people, and Prudence was honestly more shocked to see Egbert’s spell cards out, like they were all going to be USED. This prompted Dob to say he was going to attempt to cast all of his spells at once, Johnny allowing that, and Dob quickly saying “but not right this MINUTE.” XD You want to save that kind of spell explosion for just the right time! (And he allowed that it really will be ALL of his spells at once when it happens, he’s not going to say “oh, all except this.” Gotta be fair!)
ANYWAY, all of this was happening in the long hall of the keep, where the gang were having lunch with Shattershield while the gold dragon went looking for the frost dragon who laid the eggs (Merilwen had wanted to come along and ride the gold dragon all Neverending Story-like, but after being told it would take too long and she’d miss the whole episode, elected to stay behind; as a consolation prize, Egbert did laps around the table with her on his shoulders for a bit). As previously stated, Mistmire was in bad shape due to the gold dragon no longer being under the citadel to provide heat; this was only exemplified by a paladin bringing in a gaunt petitioner, Richard, who said that at least some people felt like Mistmire was now too unstable to support a population and should be abandoned. Shattershield, however, did not want to give up on Mistmire just yet – yes, anyone who wished to leave would be provided with supplies and directed toward Barrow Springs so they could find work at the quest market, but for anyone who wanted to stay, they had to find a way to provide a new heat source to keep the city warm and habitable! He sent the paladin, Harris, to see what could be salvaged and what couldn’t, while the Oxventurers started bandying around ideas –
Cue Prudence IMMEDIATELY suggesting “fracking.” XD I mean, no better way to show she’s evil, huh? She held onto the idea of abusing fossil fuels (pointing out that’s where they were on the “tech tree”), while Corazon attempted to suggest geothermal energy (saying that they needed to either dig or Stone Shape their way to the “hot orange water”) and Dob got fixated on the fact that Mistmire is coastal and kept suggesting wind and tide energy, despite the fact that they had no way to convert that into warmth. The idea of using a giant magnifying glass and creating a hot spot that everyone could stand in once per day also came up, along with the idea of putting a glass dome over the city and then having everyone take turns once per day to go out the oxygen hole. XD Merilwen, having previously suggested the idea of finding a magical hot stone, finally pointed out that the problem might not be the fact that the dragon’s warmth was powering the city, but that it was IMPRISONED to do so.
Corazon said “so you want a pervert dragon who WANTS to be imprisoned?” causing the entire table to dissolve into laughter. Merilwen eventually got out her ACTUAL idea – turn the cellar into a sort of luxury temporarily lair and set up a SYMBIOTIC relationship with any heat-producing dragons in the area, allowing them to stay in the cellar and come and go as they please. (Whether they got a sexual thrill out of it or not was their business.) Shattershield quite liked this plan, though when the question of where they were going to get some gold and treasures for the dragons to lay on, admitted the keep didn’t have much in the way of liquid assets. Dob promptly said THEY did, and pointed out they could use their fortune in the lake as a “rental hoard!”
And then he remembered, “Oh yeah, currently the only other person who knows where the lake with all the treasure is now is Katie Pearlhead, my jilted ex-fiancee, who may have stolen it all since she’s the queen of thieves.” Johnny said that there was every chance that she HADN’T, and “reminded” Dob that he had a map to the treasure, with the paces to the lake measured out in a combination of Dob and Katie’s strides (done by them tying their legs together) – you know, two-step verification. Cue SOOO much groaning and Johnny wiggling their eyebrows in delight. XD Merilwen pointed out she and Katie were roughly the same height, and that she’d be happy to go with Dob and help him find the hoard (though she’d been planning to go anyway, being, you know, the TREASURER). And so a plan was hatched – Dob and Merilwen would take two stagecoaches to the lake (“two-stage verification,” Corazon joked), while Corazon, Prudence, and Egbert would stay behind to research dragons in the library and see what they needed beyond a rental hoard. (Corazon was annoyed to not be on “Team Casino” this time and started playing poker with himself. XD) Though they did all do some quick research on the possibility of getting a magical hot stone to render this whole exercise moot – turns out that they DO exist, but they’re made by this one wizard with shitty politics who charges a LOT, so, yeah, nobody wanted to support him. So Dob and Merilwen headed out in their coaches while the others started looking for research on dragons – specifically, red dragons, as they produce a lot of heat. Prudence got a natural twenty –
And Egbert got a critical one, prompting Mike to declare that Egbert had gotten red and blue mixed up. XD I left it with Johnny preparing to give Prudence some very useful information on how to set up a lair for a red dragon, and Egbert some very useful information on how to set up a lair for a BLUE dragon. XD We’ll see how this all pans out tomorrow, and if the Oxventurers can set up the perfect temporary dragon lair! For the RIGHT kind of dragon. :p
*nods* Not bad, not bad. . .still wish I could have done more on tumblr, but what can you do. *shrug* Except go to bed because you've got work in the morning. :p Night all!
Tumblr: Not AS productive as I would have liked, but I got something done on both my tumblrs – on Victor Luvs Alice, I got the drafts of this week’s four-part Chill Valicer Save update sorted before lunch, then did a dash-and-tags catch-up afterward; on Valice Multiverse, not a lot was going on with asks and threads, so I threw another Valicer Polyship Week story (the second Soulmates AU piece, about everyone’s symbolic dreams) into the queue. Would have liked to have gotten the TEXT of some of the Chill Valicer Save update done today, but at least all the pictures are there and ready to go – and this being a four-parter, it’ll be easier to catch up on Monday and Tuesday. *nods*
Fallout 4: Had a fruitful session in FO4 today – went in with the goal of getting Victor back to Nordhagen to complete that radiant quest, and I succeeded, with only two minor diversions – one good, one sad –
A) Started with Victor having woken up in Bunker Hill early in the morning – I decided he might as well have a look around the place and had him wander around searching for the market area. As I located it behind the big central monument, though, a ghoul in combat armor wandering around caught my eye – one Edward Deegan of the Cabot family! Edward also spotted Victor and said they needed to talk – Victor asked if they knew each other, and Edward said, no, but he’d heard of Victor, and wanted his help with a job. What kind of job was up in the air for the moment – his employer, Jack Cabot, would have to vet Victor first – but he could promise that it would be dangerous, but Victor would be paid fairly. I had Victor say “I live for danger” (you do not XD), and Edward said to stop by the Cabot House whenever he was ready to meet the family and get his assignment. So “Special Delivery” is now in Victor’s quests – we’ll see when I get to that! I’ve been saving Victor’s Alien Blaster for this occasion ever since Pickman. . .
B) Anyway, with that taken care of, I had Victor head up the monument and its many, many steps because I recalled goodies being at the top. And goodies there were – some free ammo, and a copy of “Live and Love” magazine, with a perk of +25% more XP when persuading male characters. Niiiice. :D Good thing Victor’s got that “ultimate Charisma juice” in his inventory! XD
C) With that acquired, Victor headed back down to ground level (carefully – you can find yourself going out one of the “windows” on the side of the monument if you don’t take things easy), where he encountered Meg, a kid drawing on the ground nearby. She offered him a tour for ten caps – he paid her, and she rattled off some basics of where everything in the settlement was without even getting up. XD Little grifter. . . Anyway, Victor then proceeded into the marketplace behind her – most of the shops weren’t manned for whatever reason, but Deb at the “general store” was in place, so I had Victor chat to her and do some bartering. He got an aluminum can, a cake pan, some industrial-strength Abraxo, some duct tape, a gold watch, two microscopes, and two telephones for twelve caps and every bit of roasted mirelurk meat in his inventory. XD Well, he had to do SOMETHING with it! He then headed over to another shop I’d seen out by the main fence, run by a woman named Kay – she turned out to be the settlement’s doctor, so I had Victor sell her a bunch of drugs and get a Rad-X and fifty caps in return. Not bad!
D) After a quick circuit of the settlement to see what else there was (not much, really, but it’s good to familiarize yourself with the place a bit because it’s the site of a major battle later), I figured it was time for Victor and Ada to head out! They left by the main gate, where I had Victor orient himself by his Pip-Boy. I figured the shortest route back to Nordhagen would involve them going by Weatherby Savings & Loan, so I pointed the pair in that direction, heading down the road and then squeezing through a gap between two houses –
E) Where I found myself in front of a house with a couple of dead ghouls outside – and one LIVE Reaver ghoul on the porch, as I discovered when I had Victor loot a corpse and then Ada started firing. The Two-Shot took it out without issue, but as I went to loot it as well, I found that the house was actually a specific location – an “abandoned house,” to be precise. Curious. . . So, after taking a moment with the portable workbench to scrap down some of the spare leather armor Victor had picked up and do a little bit of cooking (dude was over carry capacity again), I had him and Ada head inside. The first level had a couple more dead ghouls and one live one playing dead behind a table (VATS sussed him out right away), while the second had a Reaver at the top of the stairs (Victor wasn’t able to get a good angle in VATS, but a few quick fires with the Two-Shot took it down quick) – along with a holotape. And when I saw the holotape and what it was called, I suddenly knew EXACTLY where I was – the former home of Research Assistant Peters, a woman who’d worked for some sort of drug company, volunteered to be exposed to a massive, lethal dose of radiation to test an anti-rad serum her company was working on. . .only to find that it didn’t work at the level of toxicity she’d reached. The holotapes – one in the kitchen, one on the second level in a wrecked bedroom, and one in the attic – tell her sad story, starting with her initial irradiation, progressing through her test of the serum, and ending with her realizing the serum doesn’t work, she’s going to die, and trying to compose a farewell to her parents. Oh, and you know the worst part?
There’s a Glowing One locked up in the attic. Next to the final holotape. Meaning poor R. A. Peters might not have died after all. *wince*
F) So – yeah. I had Victor take out the ghouls, collect all the glowing fungus growing on the walls, and then unlock the attic door and take out the Glowing One with a sneak attack that killed it instantly. Got all the loot, had what I felt was a rather poorly-timed snack, then headed out into Charlestown again, feeling rather glum. Sorry, R. A. Peters – I can assure you Victor will put you to rest properly in the fanfic version!
G) With that taken care of, it was time to continue on our way to Nordhagen. Victor oriented himself with his Pip-Boy again, then followed it down the street (past a patio with a skeleton and a WHOLE lotta drugs – I guess someone decided to spend the apocalypse having one last good time), to the little anchor plaza area just down the street from the crushed bank. I laid down a save, had Victor and Ada head to the bank, past the broken-down cars, over the bridge –
AND STRAIGHT INTO A BUNCH OF RUST DEVILS WITH A GODDAMN SENTRY BOT. The Two-Shot did its best, and actually got a good chunk of health off said sentry bot, but the sheer firepower of the damn thing, combined with the cars on the bridge exploding all over the damn shop, meant that poor Victor ended up dead fairly quickly.
H) Okay, glad I saved when I did! Let’s take that a little more CAREFULLY, shall we? I had Victor go by the bank again, then drop into sneak mode, and slowly go over the bridge, keeping an eye out for danger. Fortunately, this time he spotted the Rust Devils – camped out in one of the old house shells near the bridge – before they spotted him, and was able to keep out of sight and get away in the opposite direction, around the big old super-radioactive spheres. Did have to shoot one bloodbug who noticed him passing by, and took a little radiation while grabbing the meat, but that’s a lot better than having to fight a sentry bot up close!
I) With THAT sorted, Victor and Ada proceeded around the spheres, over to the bridge just past County Crossing with the Drumlin Diner on the other side, then down the road, past the school, through the playground, past Easy City Downs, along the beach, through the parking lot, and over the second bridge to Nordhagen at a swift sneak, working their way through the fog and fading light to get back to the settlement. The quest-giver settler thanked Victor for his daring rescue, and he reminded her it was all thanks to the Minutemen; she agreed and said they’d decided to join up! Which got Victor 99 caps, a new settlement under his belt, and a bunch of XP, w00! I then proceeded to spend the in-game evening there, trying to find the edges of the building area and scrapping all the junk on the beach behind the little hut they call home until Victor finally got tired. Built him a sleeping bag, plopped it by the front entrance, and slept for a solid eight hours, yay. :p
And so the playsession ended with Victor waking up bright and early the next morning, ready to actually get a proper look at Nordhagen! Next time, probably gonna focus on doing some building to bring the settlement up to “code” (shower and toilet facilities, better water, actual defense, all of that), then – well, have to look at all of my various quests and decide what I want to do about them! I do want to do Jack Cabot’s stuff (not in the least because the final portion gets you the Charisma bobblehead, which is +1 Charisma free, which I do need for the Local Leader perk), but I feel like I should do Ada’s first mission first. . .not to mention at SOME point I have to get back over to Sanctuary to prep for the Glowing Sea! Too easy to become distracted in this game. . .night all!
Writing: It’s Fallout Sunday, so naturally we had to update the FO4 Playthrough Progression with the latest on Victor’s adventures! The fanfic version wasn’t notably different from what actually happened above, save for the settler he rescued accompanying him, Ada, and Alice the whole trip (instead of just teleporting back to the settlement while Victor slept); me putting an actual guy at the top of the Bunker Hill monument (the guard that is implied to usually be there by the chair and smokes you find there), who traded Victor the “Live & Love” perk magazine for that copy of “Taboo Tattoos” Victor found at Rory’s place; and Victor making sure to give the Glowing One in the abandoned house a proper burial just in case it was indeed the unfortunate R. A. Peters. :( Oh, and Victor didn’t need to die to learn to avoid the Rust Devils on the other side of the Weatherby Savings & Loan bridge, because Alice had a psychic vision from Wonderland instead. XD But yes, Victor has met Edward Deegan and learned about the Cabots and a possible job there; cleared out the abandoned house and learned the sad story of Peters; and gotten Dennis safely back to Nordhagen, earning their allegiance to the Minutemen. I think he’ll appreciate a nice “building episode” next time. XD
YouTube: Got my Gray and my Jon watched, and even fit in a few bonus videos this morning –
A) Started early with a few more clips from CablesTwisted from The Smiler Takeover – some shaky camera testing featuring the bearded Grin-Grin the clown telling people that the Fear Test would be beginning soon and being goofy; Dr. Gladwell enforcing a “Smiling Zone” on passing advocates (with the first appearance of a different Agent Joytide! A blond lady in some impressively pink platform boots); Grin-Grin making up songs on the Fear Test stage (possibly inspired by the passing Felix E. Lated), getting suggestions from the audience to make up one about Oblivion, the Smiler, and a cow (about the cow unwisely riding Oblivion when it opened, then getting marmalised by The Smiler when THAT opened; wasn’t half-bad actually); and Grin-Grin stealing some “scientific equipment” (aka some lipstick) from Dr. Gladwell while they were posing for Cables’s camera (and threatening to draw on Gladwell’s face XD). Good times!
B) Then, this evening, we had GrayStillPlays and “Upgrading from NOOB fighter to GOD fighter in Angle Fight 3D!” Angle Fight 3D being a game where you play as a person made of various balls, fighting other people made of various balls (generally some form of ninja, though a few cowboys and Vikings were thrown into the mix too). You had to chose your weapon (from those you unlocked, the random number generator, and the super-weapon you could get by watching a video ad), then manipulate your guy into the right stance to kill your opponent(s) and avoid any obstacles in the way. And the stances they allowed you to pick. . .well, let’s just say Gray had a LOT of fun figuring out the goofiest ways to turn his dude into a pretzel. XD You could levitate, you could twist your entire body backwards to embed it in the floor, you could dislocate all of your joints to hide behind your shield, you could basically become a unicorn. . .and honestly, almost all of these stances worked out beautifully, especially when paired with the longer weapons, like lances and broadswords. A few of the later levels, with more obstacles to dodge or ranged weapons to avoid, gave him a bit of trouble, but generally he found the right way to smash up his guy’s bones to murder all in his path and earn things like a special devil mask skin and fancy-ass swords with strawberry jam smeared on them. XD Just some good silly fun with a good silly game!
C) And finally, we had Jon of Many a True Nerd and “Fallout: Tale of Two Wastelands - Part 28 - You Must Be Kidding,” aka Wanda makes a trip to Little Lamplight to show off some of the interesting things about that little society! (Uh, pun not intended. ^^;) Though Jon had to do a little bit of prepwork first – namely, get a level-up by having Wanda kill a random raider outside Megaton for the experience (69 XP, in fact – nice). That got her up to Level 26, which allowed her to up her skills a bit, including chucking a few points in Barter (a skill that most people ignore, but actually has some applications in Little Lamplight), and more importantly get the “Child At Heart” perk to unlock special dialogue options and interactions with the kids. Because Little Lamplight is a lot more fun if you yourself are seen as one of them. So, after a quick detour into the Yao Guai Tunnels (a good waypoint for getting to Little Lamplight for the first time when fast-traveling, and the location of the remains of a mysterious civilization that was apparently eaten by bears PLUS the Sneak Bobblehead – which in this mod ups damage from sneak attack criticals by 10%, lovely), Jon found the water tower that marked the location of the cave town of children and started showing off what made it special! Like –
I. Something Jon himself didn’t know – if you happen to get to Little Lamplight at the same time as the kids you freed from Paradise Falls (assuming you did that mission BEFORE coming here), you can just walk inside with them when MacCready opens the gate. He even has a special “hey, how’d you get in here” line if you do so! New discovery – we like those! :D
II. The whole deal with Sticky, the kid who celebrating his “officially a mungo” birthday when you walk in, and whom you can escort to Big Town if you so feel like it (or learn where it is if you haven’t visited it yet). Sticky is an interesting character – Evil Jon showed that, if you murder him midway through his farewell ceremony, none of the kids give a shit, because he’s a “mungo,” and thus not actually part of their faction (calling back to the complicated faction politics of Paradise Falls last episode). Regular Jon, meanwhile, delighted in showing off just how deliberately annoying Sticky is when he’s your “escort” companion – you can get into endless loops of “shut up” “no, you shut up” when you talk to him, and he can tell you awful stories that make no sense because they’re randomized – there’s four potential beginnings, middles, and ends, and he will just pick completely randomly from each to put together his stories. Jon loves it all. XD He did eventually deliver Sticky to Big Town (via the medium of fast travel, as this guy WILL get himself killed if you try to walk there the normal way and end up running into trouble), and then delighted in Sticky desperately trying to rationalize the lack of stores and the big old barricades outside as not signs Big Town was, uh, maybe in a little bit of trouble. Hey, Sticky, just be grateful Wanda came and helped these people get giant robot protectors BEFORE she came and collected you, okay?
III. A look at Little Lamplight’s origins, via the medium of finding some holotapes from one of the original kids and one of the original teachers on the field trip that was occurring in the cave system when the bombs dropped. Basically, what happened is that the kids and teachers (plus a couple of parents and some park employees) got trapped in the caves when the bombs hit, and the adults gradually trickled out to look for help. Jason Grant, a ten-year-old, decided to step up and be leader when they didn’t come back, and after their attempt at getting help by banging on the back door of the nearby Vault 87 only yielded one of the vault dwellers telling them that they were already dead, the kids decided they didn’t need adults anymore. Hence, the reason the kids kick anyone old enough to be called a “mungo” (the game is inconsistent about whether the magic age is sixteen or eighteen – my personal theory is it’s eighteen unless the other kids REALLY don’t like you) out – they believe it’s because people change when they become “mungos” and become untrustworthy, which Jon thinks is based on a misunderstanding on the part of the original kids. Namely, they assumed they’d been abandoned, while Jon’s pretty sure the adults WERE actually going for help, they just died before they could find any. (Granted, that doesn’t explain the people in Vault 87, but I actually don’t know what was going ON in Vault 87 yet, so. . .we’ll say for now the kids unfortunately encountered one specific jerk which ruined their opinions on adults.)
IV. A discussion of Little Lamplight’s society, which is surprisingly complex – there’s a lot of kids here, and there’s a lot of systems in place to keep it running. There’s scav teams that go out and get stuff from the outside world (keeping themselves hidden from adults); there’s a school where the older kids teach the younger ones, using scavenged books and with each generation of teachers making notes on the terminals for the next generation; there’s guard duty and food production and all of that. But, notably, the game never clarifies where all these children are coming from. Because, well, obviously, nobody in this society can reproduce. Jon’s personal theory is that Little Lamplight basically serves as a place for Wastelanders who can’t (or maybe won’t) take care of their children to drop them off in a relatively safe place – in fact, you can apparently actually SET THIS UP TO HAPPEN at some point in the game (Jon has promised to show it off in a future episode). It’s grim, but it’s better than some of the alternatives! (The comments also suggested that maybe Big Town residents bring any kids they have back to Little Lamplight, knowing they’ll be safe there – a reasonable assumption to make, I feel!)
V. A look at some of the fun stuff having “Child At Heart” can get you in Little Lamplight! For material rewards, you can get a discount at the local shop, and get the “Wazer Wifle” off poor “Biwwy” with the lisp for free instead of having to pay for it (the gun has bonus limb damage and is a lot better than your standard laser weaponry, but it just can’t stand up to the DLC stuff, poor thing). For just plain cuteness rewards, though, nothing beats discovering that the kids running through the tunnels are playing tag – and since you’re a Child At Heart, they’re willing to tag you into the game. :) Awwww.
VI. The opportunity to bully children! XD Specifically, Jon showed off how you can annoy Princess into not speaking to you (it involves getting the origin of her nickname, Princess, out of Sammy, her fellow gate guard (her entire five-minute term as mayor was her trying to get the others to rename the role to “Princess,” before MacCready walloped her and got the post instead); learning she has a precocious crush on MacCready; and then telling her that MacCready has been spending a lot of time with Lucy, the town doctor (I’ve heard that this is NOT the same Lucy that he mentions as his deceased wife in Fallout 4, but I also think plenty of people ignore that for fanfic purposes)), and MacCready into not speaking with you (basically, you have to rapidly engage him in conversation, then immediately end said conversation – he gets progressively more annoyed until he refuses to engage you at all and banishes you from the town for a day; this also in fact keeps you from progressing in the main quest until he forgives you, as you need the Little Lamplighters’ help to get into Vault 87, which is where the GECK you need is). You can also talk to Knock Knock, the town comedian and storyteller, and help her out with her stories – first by giving her a new punchline to one of her jokes, then by telling her the story of your own adventures (which she will start telling the others once you tell her the ending by completing the game). I’m including this one under the “bully children” heading because Jon deliberately picked the options that made Wanda sound like a mass murderer (which – she is, a bit), which made Knock Knock very very nervous, the poor kid.
VII. And finally, the reason to raise Barter – though he was only able to actually SHOW one of them, as the other wasn’t working. The first, which wasn’t working, was to get better rewards from Zip in exchange for Nuka-Cola (he normally just gives you a single 10mm bullet, but if your barter is above 30, there’s a chance he’ll give you a handful of the exact caliber needed for That Gun – higher levels of barter get even BETTER rewards, like stimpacks and microfusion cells); the second, which was working, was to get a better deal with MacCready on exchanging “strange meat” for cave fungus cubes. Although this one intersects interestingly with the “Child At Heart” perk – okay, so, the deal is that the kids grow cave fungus to eat, and this fungus really likes “strange meat” – aka, human flesh. You provide “strange meat” to Eclair, the chef, and he will give you cave fungus – AFTER you clear it with Mayor MacCready. And depending on your perks and your barter skill, the deal MacCready offers you is either horrible (a cube of cave fungus for every three chunks of “strange meat” – or three doses of Buffout, as Lucy the doctor uses that for medicines – which is a definite loss for you, as three “strange meat” is worth more than one chunk of cave fungus) or pretty good (a cube of cave fungus for every one chunk of “strange meat”). People with “Child at Heart” get the good deal straight away; those without have to rely on their barter skill, and come back and renegotiate their deal as it improves. Jon wasn’t really that interested in the trade (though cave fungus DOES remove rads, so worth getting just for that), but he loved the fact that the barter system on hand was more complex than you might think at first!
And that concluded our trip to Little Lamplight – and set up our next trip in the bargain! Because, you see, there is one good place to get a lot of “strange meat” in Fallout 3, and that is Andale. A cheery little town with cheery little people looking to get their cheery little forks in you. . .though Jon hinted there’s ANOTHER secret hidden underneath the cannibal stuff. I’m looking forward to seeing what THAT is next Sunday!
Workout: Back on the bike tonight, and back to Oxventure: Legacy of Dragons with the penultimate episode, “Ready Lair One!” Cthulhu has returned Prudence to the team now that Mistmire is a crumbling wreck and not really holy ground anymore, and the episode started with Corazon catching Prudence up on what had happened, what they’d learned, and how Egbert had killed two guys with explosives the LAST time he tried to free the dragon, which you THINK would make him more careful with explosives. . . Dob pointed out that none of them had any room to talk when it came to Egbert killing people, and Prudence was honestly more shocked to see Egbert’s spell cards out, like they were all going to be USED. This prompted Dob to say he was going to attempt to cast all of his spells at once, Johnny allowing that, and Dob quickly saying “but not right this MINUTE.” XD You want to save that kind of spell explosion for just the right time! (And he allowed that it really will be ALL of his spells at once when it happens, he’s not going to say “oh, all except this.” Gotta be fair!)
ANYWAY, all of this was happening in the long hall of the keep, where the gang were having lunch with Shattershield while the gold dragon went looking for the frost dragon who laid the eggs (Merilwen had wanted to come along and ride the gold dragon all Neverending Story-like, but after being told it would take too long and she’d miss the whole episode, elected to stay behind; as a consolation prize, Egbert did laps around the table with her on his shoulders for a bit). As previously stated, Mistmire was in bad shape due to the gold dragon no longer being under the citadel to provide heat; this was only exemplified by a paladin bringing in a gaunt petitioner, Richard, who said that at least some people felt like Mistmire was now too unstable to support a population and should be abandoned. Shattershield, however, did not want to give up on Mistmire just yet – yes, anyone who wished to leave would be provided with supplies and directed toward Barrow Springs so they could find work at the quest market, but for anyone who wanted to stay, they had to find a way to provide a new heat source to keep the city warm and habitable! He sent the paladin, Harris, to see what could be salvaged and what couldn’t, while the Oxventurers started bandying around ideas –
Cue Prudence IMMEDIATELY suggesting “fracking.” XD I mean, no better way to show she’s evil, huh? She held onto the idea of abusing fossil fuels (pointing out that’s where they were on the “tech tree”), while Corazon attempted to suggest geothermal energy (saying that they needed to either dig or Stone Shape their way to the “hot orange water”) and Dob got fixated on the fact that Mistmire is coastal and kept suggesting wind and tide energy, despite the fact that they had no way to convert that into warmth. The idea of using a giant magnifying glass and creating a hot spot that everyone could stand in once per day also came up, along with the idea of putting a glass dome over the city and then having everyone take turns once per day to go out the oxygen hole. XD Merilwen, having previously suggested the idea of finding a magical hot stone, finally pointed out that the problem might not be the fact that the dragon’s warmth was powering the city, but that it was IMPRISONED to do so.
Corazon said “so you want a pervert dragon who WANTS to be imprisoned?” causing the entire table to dissolve into laughter. Merilwen eventually got out her ACTUAL idea – turn the cellar into a sort of luxury temporarily lair and set up a SYMBIOTIC relationship with any heat-producing dragons in the area, allowing them to stay in the cellar and come and go as they please. (Whether they got a sexual thrill out of it or not was their business.) Shattershield quite liked this plan, though when the question of where they were going to get some gold and treasures for the dragons to lay on, admitted the keep didn’t have much in the way of liquid assets. Dob promptly said THEY did, and pointed out they could use their fortune in the lake as a “rental hoard!”
And then he remembered, “Oh yeah, currently the only other person who knows where the lake with all the treasure is now is Katie Pearlhead, my jilted ex-fiancee, who may have stolen it all since she’s the queen of thieves.” Johnny said that there was every chance that she HADN’T, and “reminded” Dob that he had a map to the treasure, with the paces to the lake measured out in a combination of Dob and Katie’s strides (done by them tying their legs together) – you know, two-step verification. Cue SOOO much groaning and Johnny wiggling their eyebrows in delight. XD Merilwen pointed out she and Katie were roughly the same height, and that she’d be happy to go with Dob and help him find the hoard (though she’d been planning to go anyway, being, you know, the TREASURER). And so a plan was hatched – Dob and Merilwen would take two stagecoaches to the lake (“two-stage verification,” Corazon joked), while Corazon, Prudence, and Egbert would stay behind to research dragons in the library and see what they needed beyond a rental hoard. (Corazon was annoyed to not be on “Team Casino” this time and started playing poker with himself. XD) Though they did all do some quick research on the possibility of getting a magical hot stone to render this whole exercise moot – turns out that they DO exist, but they’re made by this one wizard with shitty politics who charges a LOT, so, yeah, nobody wanted to support him. So Dob and Merilwen headed out in their coaches while the others started looking for research on dragons – specifically, red dragons, as they produce a lot of heat. Prudence got a natural twenty –
And Egbert got a critical one, prompting Mike to declare that Egbert had gotten red and blue mixed up. XD I left it with Johnny preparing to give Prudence some very useful information on how to set up a lair for a red dragon, and Egbert some very useful information on how to set up a lair for a BLUE dragon. XD We’ll see how this all pans out tomorrow, and if the Oxventurers can set up the perfect temporary dragon lair! For the RIGHT kind of dragon. :p
*nods* Not bad, not bad. . .still wish I could have done more on tumblr, but what can you do. *shrug* Except go to bed because you've got work in the morning. :p Night all!
