More Stressful Sunday
May. 28th, 2023 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickYeah, unfortunately I had a bit of a grumpy morning, thanks to going to bed too late last night (I HAVE to remember to get to bed earlier than 2 AM, otherwise I wake up too groggy), and then having some annoying times in Merge Dragons this morning (simply put, I am SICK of the game making duplicates of stuff I've just merged into existence under special glass orbs that require you to pay gems to open -- I just try to ignore them, but the game made LOADS today from my various mergings, and I accidentally clicked on one and paid the gems to open it before I realized what I'd done (I was trying to click on the flowers NEXT to it to have a dragon harvest them) -- I'm not out any real-life money, but I was pissed). And as usual, it took me much longer than I would have liked to do some of the stuff I wanted to do. . .but I got through the majority of my to-do list --
Tumblr: Well, I’m all caught up on the tracked tags for Victor Luvs Alice (got those done before lunch. . .mostly through virtue of us having a late lunch), and I do have all the pictures for the next Chill Valicer Save update ready to go (seventy in the end, I believe), but that’s about it for tumblr today. I got to Valice Multiverse way too late to actually answer my threads, unfortunately. My time management is a mess and it has GOT to change – though I don’t think being on my period and thus more distracted helped in this instance either. Ugh. . .
Fallout 4: Had a solid hour or so in the Commonwealth, exploring East Boston Prepatory School – I’ve MOSTLY cleared it out, but I don’t think I’ve found the actual boss yet. I did get most of the school cleared, though –
A) Started where I left off, in the “hot date” room with the tuxedo and ironing board and tea set. After doing a bit of looting, I headed out and around, past some office desks and into a big rubble-filled area with staircases leading up which I quickly realized was the school’s front entrance. Not wanting to miss anything, I went back briefly and looped around the first floor, checking out every door and entrance – most of them were either chained from the other side or blocked by rubble, but I did find a spare stimpack in a box with a bunch of blocks spelling out “FINE” under a table near the “hot date” room, and a Vault-Tec lunchbox with a souvenir teddy from Nuka-World under the stairs where I first came in. Goodies! :D
B) With that sorted, I headed up the stairs in the main entrance to the second floor, where I was promptly confronted by a pile of rubble, and some doorways to the left with can chimes in them. I immediately suspected trouble, so I had Victor start sneaking ahead to disable the chimes. Had to immediately stop and do some inventory management with Ada after the first one, but I managed to get the second without issue –
C) And then the raiders spotted Victor and Ada while I was working on the remaining chimes and started coming over THEIR pile of rubble in the hallway beyond the doors to shoot at them and throw molotov cocktails. >.< Fortunately Ada’s laser and the Two-Shot Combat Rifle made pretty short work of them – AND Victor got a level-up to level 35 amid the chaos! I ended up taking Rifleman level 4 for my perk a little bit later – hey, the Two-Shot has served me VERY well, and beefing up its damage can only help. :p But yes, the pair were able to clear the raiders without much issue (Victor was straight-up just able to kill one hiding in a bathroom nearby that seemed oddly reluctant to join the firefight), and Victor found something rather interesting on the corpses – namely, “Blood Contracts.” A contract where the raider in question swore an oath on their blood that their life belonged to the Judge and Jury, on pain of torture and death. Ooookay, this is a pretty nasty raider gang we’ve got in here. . .
D) With the main wave dead, it was time to explore the side rooms – naturally, mostly classrooms, as this IS a school! First one I stepped in, I managed to set off a mine with such force it flung the body I was trying to loot into some chairs – managed to get away before it did too much damage, but I still had to stimpack Victor for a busted arm. *wince* Fortunately after that point I was a little more careful about where I stepped and was able to disarm the remaining frag mines in my way on my journeys. I also found a lot of lunchboxes scattered around – most with pretty simple prizes, like souvenir magnets and spoons, but still! That’s a little extra something I didn’t have before!
E) Anyway, first room was a simple classroom, which led into a science lab – I had Victor pick up all the junk he could carry, then do a little chem-combining at the chemistry bench in the science lab (Buffout and Jet – combined chems take up less space and are worth more when Victor sells them!) before continuing onward, around the raider’s rubble barricade and deeper into the school. Naturally also raided the lockers along the wall (finding, among other things, a pair of 69-ing teddy bears) – but after doing some more inventory management with Ada after going overweight again, I quickly hit her carrying capacity. Hmmm. Worrying. Probably should have taken the third rank of my modded Strong Back perk, honestly. . .next time!
F) Proceeding onward with more realistic ideas about what I could pick up, I had Victor and Ada go left at the junction – this led into a lecture hall of sorts, with a drop-down spot for entering one of the chained-off areas below, plus a nice little closet so Victor could have a touch of privacy while he did a poop. :p Connected to it was a classroom clearly designed for much younger children, with cute chalk drawings on the blackboard and a couple more lunchboxes. :( Rather depressing, honestly, even if Bethesda has made VERY SURE not to include any child skeletons anywhere in here. Victor got what he wanted to grab with his current carry capacity, then headed back out and around to go right down the hall. This led past the main entrance to the classroom and terminated at the upper portion of the busted staircase where Victor and Ada entered – I sent them up to the third floor, where they found a LOT of holes in the floor –
G) And a side room with a couple of raiders and a working terminal. Victor and Ada took out those raiders, then the raider in the linked room beyond, before checking out the terminal. Turned out to be a list of “new recruits” – and the horrific methods used to torture them into signing the blood contract. Stuff like broken fingers and extracting teeth with pliers. *wince* Though apparently one guy was a bit too hardcore for them, enjoying the torture – they ended up just putting him down. The other room was much the same, with more descriptions of how they literally beat people into compliance, and with a bunch of tiny cells scattered around. I ignored the keys so I could pick them all open for the XP – fortunately there was nothing inside any of them. I was expecting some corpses, or other signs of nastiness. But nope, just the one metal bucket. Which, uh, I can imagine a few different uses for. *shiver*
H) Onward and upward – looping through the rooms to avoid the massive gaps in the floor, Victor and Ada found a room that kind of served as a “barracks” (lots of mattresses, a footlocker, and a bucket), and next to that (with one raider that had to be shot), the leader’s “throne room,” complete with fancy chair and steamer trunk hidden behind it. Nothing particularly amazing in there, but Victor’s at least been picking up PLENTY of ammo! Beyond that was a computer lab, where Victor accidentally set off a tripwire trap triggering a laser pistol – the shot didn’t even hit him, but I’d saved so recently (right after getting the steamer trunk) that I just reloaded so he could get the XP from properly disarming the trap instead. Nothing particularly interesting in there except a safe, which Victor cracked open for more ammo and junk.
I) And then – I found a door to the outside? I opened it before realizing it said “Commonwealth.” Turned out to be a door into what SHOULD have been the rest of the school. . .only said rest of school had been basically flattened by a plane. At least, that’s what it looked like as I examined the wreckage. *wince* Yeah, that must have been fun for the students and teachers there on the day. . .
J) However, I was pretty sure I hadn’t cleared the damn school yet – for starters, I did not recall killing any named enemies. So I had Victor and Ada head back inside and keep exploring. Only other room to check out on the third floor was a bathroom, with a cooking station (gross) and a pair of mannequins wearing plastic pumpkin buckets on their head in a stall right next to said cooking station (creepy), so I had Victor and Ada drop back onto the second floor through one of the holes and cut through a gap in the bathroom where that one raider was hiding into what proved to be the auditorium, complete with catwalks. Victor killed the one raider inside, then – after confirming there was no good way inside from below (this was one of the “chained” doors I’d found before) – hopped down over the catwalk railing into the room to take some loot (including more lunchboxes! So many lunchboxes. . .), scrap the laser pistol he’d gotten from the tripwire trap, unchain the door, and finally set up camp at 8:42 PM, as he was tired and currently there were no enemies about.
Aaaand – yeah! I left it with him having woken up shortly before 4 AM, ready to keep looting and exploring! Next time, we’ll see about getting into those other rooms on the first floor with chained doors (I believe I’ve found all the drop-in points), maybe scrap or otherwise find a way to use all the junk he’s carrying (I need level-ups so I can put this shit into guns and armor!), then continue onward to hit the General Atomics factory before heading back toward Sanctuary!
Writing: Another Sunday, another day with the FO4 Playthrough Progression! As has been the case with the last few entries, this one was pretty much the same as what happened above, only with the addition of Alice (who insisted on going ahead and disarming mines after Victor nearly blew himself up again) and some more character beats (like Victor being clearly upset by the destruction of the school, especially when he finds the classrooms for the little kids, and being utterly horrified by the actions of the Judge and his Jury and what they do to new recruits – to the point of making sure to break the locks on the cells when he unlocks them because FUCK letting these assholes pen up anyone else). But yes, they’ve explored much of the school, killed a lot of raiders, discovered the whole “blood contract” thing, and are now prepared to keep going through the school until they find the Judge and kill him because they can’t have that murderous asshole running around the Commonwealth! (Though, uh, a quick look at the Fallout Wiki suggests I might have to leave the area through the FRONT door and then come in again, as those cells Victor unlocked WERE supposed to have people in them, so I suspect maybe certain things haven’t loaded? Also I have to get an Astoundingly Awesome Tales in the computer lab, don’t let me forget.)
YouTube: Got in my usual Sunday Two –
A) Started with GrayStillPlays and “Taking office politics to deadly extremes,” aka Gray plays Become Office Queen! This is another poorly-translated mobile game about being a gawky girl, recently fired from her job, who ends up working for a total hunk (who nearly ran her over earlier) and must make herself over to earn his affections, defeat her in-office rival, make a new office friend, reconnect with her old prom date Andy, help Andy’s make-up business succeed with the help of her boss Rhett (I guess your company does advertising for other companies), and then help Andy get revenge on the man who murdered his mother. ...Yeah, uh, this game takes a VERY SUDDEN left turn when you get to the later levels, where it becomes a whole THING that Andy and Rhett are secretly half-siblings and Andy might inherit the Don-ship of the Sicilian mob and there’s a necklace and bankruptcy and Gray just wanted to play with a cute golden retriever like the game promised, damn it. XD Gray was just like “what is HAPPENING” throughout most of the episode. I dunno, Gray, you’re the one who spent an absurd amount of money on gems to get all the goofiest answers! XD
B) And then it was time for Jon and “Fallout: Tale of Two Wastelands - Part 31 - Ranger Danger!” AKA Jon finally does the “Reilly’s Rangers” quest, both to show off some fun stuff you can find during the quest AND bring closure to Sydney the relic-hunter from last week’s episode, the one who was apparently abandoned by her dad. Here are the highlights from this episode –
I. Getting the quest itself is a bit more complicated than your standard “pick up a quest from an NPC” deal – mostly because Reilly, when you first encounter her, is in a coma (or similar) in Underworld, under the care of the Underworld doctor. Obviously, to get the quest, you have to wake her up. If you have sufficient Medicine skill, you can do it yourself. . .but your attempt actually cripples Reilly’s legs, as seen by the way she limps over to you to ask what happened and how long she was out. If you convince the doctor via speech check to wake her up, she’ll be absolutely fine. Jon likes this little detail showing that, even if you have high Medicine, you’re not going to be as skilled as a properly trained doctor (he feels the skill shows how good you are at first aid and battlefield dressings and whatnot).
II. You can also lock yourself out of the quest early on just by being a dick to Reilly. Respond to any of her requests to help her rangers trapped up on the roof of the Statesman Hotel rudely (like suggesting you might as well shoot yourself in the head right now instead of killing yourself trying to save them), and she’ll go “well fuck you then” and refuse to talk to you any further. She doesn’t care if you’re the protagonist and wanted to use a mean speech option – she doesn’t have time for dickheads. Jon loves it. XD
III. A point AGAINST Reilly, though, is that her directions for getting into the hospital that links to the Statesman hotel through the metro tunnels (allowing you to just straight-up avoid Vernon Square and all its super mutants) aren’t particularly clear, unfortunately. Getting through the metro up to the station you need from the Central hub isn’t difficult at all (it’s actually the reverse of the route you take while leaving the GNR station through the back door), but the “Dry Sewers” she mentions aren’t actually connected to the metro tunnels at all – you have to go up and overland at Dupont Circle until you find the hospital and its maintenance tunnels, and THOSE are the “Dry Sewers.” Jon was utterly baffled as to why they weren’t named something more appropriate either. At any rate, he showed off the underground route as an excellent way to get into the hospital without encountering too many super mutants along the way. . .but then said “screw it, let’s do things the dumb way” and showed off the overground route as well, mostly because Wanda is a super mutant killing machine with her shotgun and That Gun combo. XD
IV. Showing us around Dupont Circle also allowed Jon to indulge in a little nostalgia – one of the locations on the way to the hospital’s “Dry Sewers” is Lady Frumperton’s Fashions, and apparently Jon, on his very first run through Fallout 3, found a pre-War bonnet there that his first character wore for a very good chunk of the game. Awww. :) He also pointed out that it’s just a good place in general to get pre-War clothes if you want or need them for any reason, which is good. He ALSO stopped by the Cinema in Vernon Square during his above-ground adventures to get to the hotel, specifically pointing out the “P. S. I Hate You” movie on the marquee and saying he figures this is a spoof of P. S. I Love You (a heartwarming tale of a man sending his wife pre-written letters from beyond the grave) where the husband keeps telling the wife how much he actually loathed her and he desperately wants to watch it, damn it. XD
V. Anyway – to reach Reilly’s Rangers in their position on top of the Statesman Hotel, you actually have to go through the hospital that links to it (specifically, you have to traverse the remains of their skybridge) – the lower floors of the hotel aren’t connected to the upper ones, thanks to the main elevator having no power (this is important later). Jon did take a moment to clear out the Statesman lobby though, both to try and make his and the Rangers’ escape later easier, and to show off some guest complaints in the lobby terminal. Specifically, the complaints of one Harold J. Worthington III, a dude who kept getting drunk in their lounge, falling while trying to get back to his room, and then blaming it on a faulty ice machine or a bit of carpeting coming up. And then demanding either better room service or more pillows. Apparently the hotel had to give him up to 23 pillows. XD There was also a rather darker one where an escort, Seneca, ended up dying “in the line of duty” with a client thanks to some erotic asphyxiation games gone wrong. *wince* This was to set up finding these exact same names in the HOSPITAL terminals when he went over there to work his way over to the upper floors of the hotel via the skybridge – one of Seneca’s clients came in for a pulled groin muscle (and refused to say how he got it), while Harold visited after the “ice machine” fall, insisted on eight pillows so he could sleep comfortably, and then stole them all when he was discharged the next morning. XD Jon does not know what Harold wanted with all those pillows, and he does not care – he just loves the guy.
VI. Back in the Statesman, on the same floor as the lounge that Harold kept getting in trouble in, was a rather sadder sight, though – a skeleton, curled up on a bed, clutching a holotape reading “From Little Moonbeam’s Father.” Yes, said skeleton was indeed Sydney’s missing father, and the holotape contained a rather heartbreaking message where he explained that he’d left and come here to try and make a deal that would allow them to get out of the little shack they called home – only for the deal to go bad and him and his potential client to shoot each other. Sydney’s dad died there, regretting that there was no way for him to make it through the super mutants outside but knowing that his daughter would be able to take care of herself and assuring her that he loved her. I seriously got the feels, listening to that. :(
VII. Finally, after trekking all the way up to the roof, stopping to loot a fission battery from a broken Protectron, Wanda finally found the rest of Reilly’s Rangers, Butcher, Brick, and Donovan. Brick being Jon’s personal favorite, as she is a lady who named all of her various miniguns “Eugene” and just loves reducing mutants to a fine red mist with them. XD The fission battery was for Donovan, as he needs it to repair the elevator that takes you back down into the lobby – you can try to repair it yourself, but you need a repair of at least 75 to figure it out, so best to let Donovan do it. Once the battery was in place, the gang headed downstairs to the lobby –
Where they found a bunch of respawned super mutants! Yeah, Jon was wondering if pre-clearing the lobby would make the mission easier, but nope, it does not. Ah well – Wanda was able to take out the basics that spawned in pretty easily with her railway rifle and keep everyone alive, good for her. :p
VIII. And with that, it was over to the Rangers’ headquarters to meet back up with Reilly, tell her the good news, and get the reward – a set of Ranger armor or a copy of Eugene! Jon’s opinion was that the Ranger armor was a bit shit (its best quality being that it boosts your Luck, but as Wanda’s Luck is already maxed out. . .), but Eugene was a decent minigun, so he took Eugene. He did mention, however, that there is a way to get both rewards – just let all the Rangers die during the lobby escape and loot them off their corpses. XD Wanda didn’t do that, though, because she is at least nominally a good person. . .
And because she needed Reilly on-sides for something else. Namely, the reason Reilly and her Rangers got into that pickle in the first place was because someone asked them to map the DC ruins. And if you offer to help her out with that job, she will pay you for any new map markers you get on your Pip-Boy. And you can turn in ones you already have when you pick up this “quest.” And Wanda had gotten a LOT of map markers from the DC ruins. Result? Wanda walked away from this quest an official friend of the Rangers and 4,110 caps richer. I think Jon’s found a new source of filthy lucre for his True Neutral Wanderer. XD
IX. And so the episode ended with Wanda heading back to Underworld to find Sydney in the bar, hand over the holotape, give Sydney her closure, and get her special modified SMG in return. And also gain access to Sydney as an ammo shop, as she’d decided to take up her dad’s trade over staying in the relic-hunting business. Nice. XD
Okay, I’m sorry if that’s not the most coherent write-up ever – I wrote a lot of it fairly late and while VERY tired. I HAVE to find a shorter way to sum up the videos I watch, seriously. But it was a fun episode, and I look forward to whatever Jon decides is on the docket for next week (he wasn’t sure himself yet).
Workout: Back on the bike today, and back to the Oxventure proper with the live show “Snow Escape!” Which just so happened to be DMed by Luke because, for whatever reason, Johnny couldn’t make it to the event. Luke started off the adventure in a very pleasant way, having the Oxventurers going down to breakfast in The Minced Pie (two syllables in “Minced”) after spending the night hiding away from a snowstorm at the base of “the frozen peak” (I guess that puts this adventure around the time they defeated the Egbert army up said peak and made plans to sail north after the missing frost dragon in “Legacy of Dragons”). Corazon took a peek at the sausages on offer to see how good they were, while Egbert went looking for the waffle station –
And, thanks to poor rolls, breakfast became a distinct challenge for them, with Egbert unable to find the waffles and Corazon gobbling down “great” sausages, to the point where his next two rolls were at Disadvantage (he has to roll twice and pick the worse result). Andy, trying to clear this, had Corazon attempt to juggle apples next to use up a roll – and rolled a TWO, meaning one apple hit Corazon smack in the nose and put his next two rolls at Disadvantage. XD The girls, meanwhile, were having a great time – Merilwen successfully conning a fellow breakfaster into thinking that she TOTALLY eats fruit and yogurt for breakfast all the time, while Prudence rolled a nat 20 on stealing all the “breakfast grains” and ended up with a sack full of breakfast – right before the proprietor of the place sidled up and asked her to keep an eye out for untrustworthy sorts, as people sometimes try to steal the breakfast, can you believe that? XD He also let them know where Dob was – basically, Dob turned up his nose at the food on offer and went outside in the snow to find his own breakfast. Merilwen said that this is because he takes the word “grub” very literally, and Luke was horrified to realize that was now canon and he could do nothing about it. XD Anyway, the four taking advantage of real breakfast went to their table and began to chow down –
When Corazon noticed two cloaked people nearby, moving counters around on a sheet of paper like they were playing a board game! (AKA he didn’t do great on a Wisdom/Perception roll.) He promptly began loudly asking what they were playing and if he could join in, causing the two to try and hastily hide their plans – however, one was like “actually, maybe we should ask his help with this, he looks roguish.” Corazon promptly turned his chair and his hat around, all “I’m a cool rogue/teacher” style. XD The other Oxventurers wandered over, and the pair introduced themselves as brother and sister Ori and Millie, teenagers from the nearby town. Turns out, what they were doing was trying to plan a heist on the tower of the sorceress Khobess nearby – Khobess hasn’t been seen in some time, and they were hoping to get their hands on some of her many magical items. They had a solid map of the place, but they had a problem – namely, the front door was likely to be locked. They asked Corazon they should just give up due to this obstacle, and Corazon was like “yeah, totally, just give me the paper and I’ll throw it in the bin for you” –
Another roll at Disadvantage, and even these two could tell “Okay, he wants our heist.” Not helped by Corazon trying to sneakily steal their map while they spoke to Prudence about it, only for Millie to spot it sticking out of his pocket. Corazon was very annoyed. After having Prudence consult her memory regarding the sorceress (she’s never heard the name, and suspects that Khobess was mostly just a magical artifact collector with a smidgen of power whose reputation got a bit blown out of proportion by the nearby townsfolk), the gang agreed to help Millie and Ori with their heist, with a 98%-2% split (since there’s many more Oxventurers than siblings). XD Millie and Ori were just happy to get a percent each, and once breakfast was done, led the gang out into the gently-falling snow and up to the tower. The door to said tower was indeed locked (with no one answering Egbert’s exploratory knock) –
And Merilwen, just to show off, Stoneshaped a pretty little arch with druidic symbols on it right next to it. XD A grumpy Corazon insisted on picking the lock on the actual door himself, and managed to finally overcome his Disadvantage by rolling well both times, easily clicking it open. Ori and Millie, meanwhile, had to be reassured Merilwen wasn’t an evil sorceress out to steal their souls, which Merilwen did by turning into her cute cat form. With the kids reassured and multiple entrances created, the gang headed into the tower, which proved to be one of those “bigger on the inside” ones (Merilwen getting inspiration for making a “Who did this” joke), and trekked up the staircase to the room at the top. Merilwen, still as a cat, let Corazon pick open the door, which led onto an abandoned-looking room full of shelves of magical items. Merilwen gingerly stepped inside, and then – when nothing awful happened – let her cat instincts take over, hopped onto a shelf, and started looking for something to knock off. XD She passed up an earring and a knucklewrap in favor of batting at a snow globe for a proper crash –
Cue a brilliant white light, like a fantasy nuke, filling the room – and when it cleared, the gang found themselves standing in a snowy field near a poorly-defined village, with the sky overhead looking like a weirdly-distorted view of the room beyond. Yup, everyone had been sucked into the snow globe, as confirmed by a grumpy fellow who came out of one of the houses to “welcome” them, explaining that the snow globe sucks in whoever touches it and whoever is around at the time (he himself was sucked in when his partner Dwayne touched it, and he hasn’t forgiven him since), and those inside lead a cursed existence where time passes much more quickly inside than outside (for reference, the Oxventurers entering the room was six months of snow globe time). Corazon (despite his own track record with curses) was confident they could break the curse, and Merilwen herself already had a potential solution –
Namely, Moonbeam. Hey, it destroyed a glass ceiling and nearly got them all killed by acid once! (The adventure in the museum where Egbert turned the owner into Seal Gaiman, for reference.) Unfortunately, when she cast it, the result beam of light was ALSO fully encased inside of the snowglobe (Luke described it as being able to see it coming out of the skybox), so Merilwen tried to move it to the side – only (thanks to a joke from Andy) to ravage Dwayne’s house – and Dwayne. Dwayne’s partner was initially gleeful, but then had the feels as he realized his former partner was dead. (Though he didn’t feel sad enough not to take the guy’s rings off his fingers.) This did not dissuade the gang from wanting to try and break the curse, though (as Egbert had previously pointed out, they hadn’t even bothered researching it yet), and their new guide indicated that Khobess herself was in the snowglobe trying to figure it out! Explaining her absence from her own tower. The gang decided to talk to her, trying to hide that they had been there to rob her – only for the guy to go “Yeah, we were all there to ROB her, she’s used to it, just say you’re sorry and you’ll be fine.” XD That’s where I left it off for today – we’ll see how things go for the four Oxventurers and their teenage companions in snow globe land next time!
Other: Another day, another round of beanbags – and at least Mom ended up doing slightly better! I had a good start, but kind of tumbled downward in subsequent rounds, while Dad largely dominated the early game and Mom made good in the later. Final scores were me W-3-2-3-3; Dad 2-W-W-2-2; Mom 3-2-3-W-W. Hey, at least we all won ONCE, so that’s good.
And now I am off to bed so I can try and get some PROPER sleep. Tomorrow, I am going to get some proper tumblr drafts done if it KILLS me. Also play some more Sims 4 and watch SOMETHING from the OXBox RE4 Remake LP. Wish me luck -- night all!
Tumblr: Well, I’m all caught up on the tracked tags for Victor Luvs Alice (got those done before lunch. . .mostly through virtue of us having a late lunch), and I do have all the pictures for the next Chill Valicer Save update ready to go (seventy in the end, I believe), but that’s about it for tumblr today. I got to Valice Multiverse way too late to actually answer my threads, unfortunately. My time management is a mess and it has GOT to change – though I don’t think being on my period and thus more distracted helped in this instance either. Ugh. . .
Fallout 4: Had a solid hour or so in the Commonwealth, exploring East Boston Prepatory School – I’ve MOSTLY cleared it out, but I don’t think I’ve found the actual boss yet. I did get most of the school cleared, though –
A) Started where I left off, in the “hot date” room with the tuxedo and ironing board and tea set. After doing a bit of looting, I headed out and around, past some office desks and into a big rubble-filled area with staircases leading up which I quickly realized was the school’s front entrance. Not wanting to miss anything, I went back briefly and looped around the first floor, checking out every door and entrance – most of them were either chained from the other side or blocked by rubble, but I did find a spare stimpack in a box with a bunch of blocks spelling out “FINE” under a table near the “hot date” room, and a Vault-Tec lunchbox with a souvenir teddy from Nuka-World under the stairs where I first came in. Goodies! :D
B) With that sorted, I headed up the stairs in the main entrance to the second floor, where I was promptly confronted by a pile of rubble, and some doorways to the left with can chimes in them. I immediately suspected trouble, so I had Victor start sneaking ahead to disable the chimes. Had to immediately stop and do some inventory management with Ada after the first one, but I managed to get the second without issue –
C) And then the raiders spotted Victor and Ada while I was working on the remaining chimes and started coming over THEIR pile of rubble in the hallway beyond the doors to shoot at them and throw molotov cocktails. >.< Fortunately Ada’s laser and the Two-Shot Combat Rifle made pretty short work of them – AND Victor got a level-up to level 35 amid the chaos! I ended up taking Rifleman level 4 for my perk a little bit later – hey, the Two-Shot has served me VERY well, and beefing up its damage can only help. :p But yes, the pair were able to clear the raiders without much issue (Victor was straight-up just able to kill one hiding in a bathroom nearby that seemed oddly reluctant to join the firefight), and Victor found something rather interesting on the corpses – namely, “Blood Contracts.” A contract where the raider in question swore an oath on their blood that their life belonged to the Judge and Jury, on pain of torture and death. Ooookay, this is a pretty nasty raider gang we’ve got in here. . .
D) With the main wave dead, it was time to explore the side rooms – naturally, mostly classrooms, as this IS a school! First one I stepped in, I managed to set off a mine with such force it flung the body I was trying to loot into some chairs – managed to get away before it did too much damage, but I still had to stimpack Victor for a busted arm. *wince* Fortunately after that point I was a little more careful about where I stepped and was able to disarm the remaining frag mines in my way on my journeys. I also found a lot of lunchboxes scattered around – most with pretty simple prizes, like souvenir magnets and spoons, but still! That’s a little extra something I didn’t have before!
E) Anyway, first room was a simple classroom, which led into a science lab – I had Victor pick up all the junk he could carry, then do a little chem-combining at the chemistry bench in the science lab (Buffout and Jet – combined chems take up less space and are worth more when Victor sells them!) before continuing onward, around the raider’s rubble barricade and deeper into the school. Naturally also raided the lockers along the wall (finding, among other things, a pair of 69-ing teddy bears) – but after doing some more inventory management with Ada after going overweight again, I quickly hit her carrying capacity. Hmmm. Worrying. Probably should have taken the third rank of my modded Strong Back perk, honestly. . .next time!
F) Proceeding onward with more realistic ideas about what I could pick up, I had Victor and Ada go left at the junction – this led into a lecture hall of sorts, with a drop-down spot for entering one of the chained-off areas below, plus a nice little closet so Victor could have a touch of privacy while he did a poop. :p Connected to it was a classroom clearly designed for much younger children, with cute chalk drawings on the blackboard and a couple more lunchboxes. :( Rather depressing, honestly, even if Bethesda has made VERY SURE not to include any child skeletons anywhere in here. Victor got what he wanted to grab with his current carry capacity, then headed back out and around to go right down the hall. This led past the main entrance to the classroom and terminated at the upper portion of the busted staircase where Victor and Ada entered – I sent them up to the third floor, where they found a LOT of holes in the floor –
G) And a side room with a couple of raiders and a working terminal. Victor and Ada took out those raiders, then the raider in the linked room beyond, before checking out the terminal. Turned out to be a list of “new recruits” – and the horrific methods used to torture them into signing the blood contract. Stuff like broken fingers and extracting teeth with pliers. *wince* Though apparently one guy was a bit too hardcore for them, enjoying the torture – they ended up just putting him down. The other room was much the same, with more descriptions of how they literally beat people into compliance, and with a bunch of tiny cells scattered around. I ignored the keys so I could pick them all open for the XP – fortunately there was nothing inside any of them. I was expecting some corpses, or other signs of nastiness. But nope, just the one metal bucket. Which, uh, I can imagine a few different uses for. *shiver*
H) Onward and upward – looping through the rooms to avoid the massive gaps in the floor, Victor and Ada found a room that kind of served as a “barracks” (lots of mattresses, a footlocker, and a bucket), and next to that (with one raider that had to be shot), the leader’s “throne room,” complete with fancy chair and steamer trunk hidden behind it. Nothing particularly amazing in there, but Victor’s at least been picking up PLENTY of ammo! Beyond that was a computer lab, where Victor accidentally set off a tripwire trap triggering a laser pistol – the shot didn’t even hit him, but I’d saved so recently (right after getting the steamer trunk) that I just reloaded so he could get the XP from properly disarming the trap instead. Nothing particularly interesting in there except a safe, which Victor cracked open for more ammo and junk.
I) And then – I found a door to the outside? I opened it before realizing it said “Commonwealth.” Turned out to be a door into what SHOULD have been the rest of the school. . .only said rest of school had been basically flattened by a plane. At least, that’s what it looked like as I examined the wreckage. *wince* Yeah, that must have been fun for the students and teachers there on the day. . .
J) However, I was pretty sure I hadn’t cleared the damn school yet – for starters, I did not recall killing any named enemies. So I had Victor and Ada head back inside and keep exploring. Only other room to check out on the third floor was a bathroom, with a cooking station (gross) and a pair of mannequins wearing plastic pumpkin buckets on their head in a stall right next to said cooking station (creepy), so I had Victor and Ada drop back onto the second floor through one of the holes and cut through a gap in the bathroom where that one raider was hiding into what proved to be the auditorium, complete with catwalks. Victor killed the one raider inside, then – after confirming there was no good way inside from below (this was one of the “chained” doors I’d found before) – hopped down over the catwalk railing into the room to take some loot (including more lunchboxes! So many lunchboxes. . .), scrap the laser pistol he’d gotten from the tripwire trap, unchain the door, and finally set up camp at 8:42 PM, as he was tired and currently there were no enemies about.
Aaaand – yeah! I left it with him having woken up shortly before 4 AM, ready to keep looting and exploring! Next time, we’ll see about getting into those other rooms on the first floor with chained doors (I believe I’ve found all the drop-in points), maybe scrap or otherwise find a way to use all the junk he’s carrying (I need level-ups so I can put this shit into guns and armor!), then continue onward to hit the General Atomics factory before heading back toward Sanctuary!
Writing: Another Sunday, another day with the FO4 Playthrough Progression! As has been the case with the last few entries, this one was pretty much the same as what happened above, only with the addition of Alice (who insisted on going ahead and disarming mines after Victor nearly blew himself up again) and some more character beats (like Victor being clearly upset by the destruction of the school, especially when he finds the classrooms for the little kids, and being utterly horrified by the actions of the Judge and his Jury and what they do to new recruits – to the point of making sure to break the locks on the cells when he unlocks them because FUCK letting these assholes pen up anyone else). But yes, they’ve explored much of the school, killed a lot of raiders, discovered the whole “blood contract” thing, and are now prepared to keep going through the school until they find the Judge and kill him because they can’t have that murderous asshole running around the Commonwealth! (Though, uh, a quick look at the Fallout Wiki suggests I might have to leave the area through the FRONT door and then come in again, as those cells Victor unlocked WERE supposed to have people in them, so I suspect maybe certain things haven’t loaded? Also I have to get an Astoundingly Awesome Tales in the computer lab, don’t let me forget.)
YouTube: Got in my usual Sunday Two –
A) Started with GrayStillPlays and “Taking office politics to deadly extremes,” aka Gray plays Become Office Queen! This is another poorly-translated mobile game about being a gawky girl, recently fired from her job, who ends up working for a total hunk (who nearly ran her over earlier) and must make herself over to earn his affections, defeat her in-office rival, make a new office friend, reconnect with her old prom date Andy, help Andy’s make-up business succeed with the help of her boss Rhett (I guess your company does advertising for other companies), and then help Andy get revenge on the man who murdered his mother. ...Yeah, uh, this game takes a VERY SUDDEN left turn when you get to the later levels, where it becomes a whole THING that Andy and Rhett are secretly half-siblings and Andy might inherit the Don-ship of the Sicilian mob and there’s a necklace and bankruptcy and Gray just wanted to play with a cute golden retriever like the game promised, damn it. XD Gray was just like “what is HAPPENING” throughout most of the episode. I dunno, Gray, you’re the one who spent an absurd amount of money on gems to get all the goofiest answers! XD
B) And then it was time for Jon and “Fallout: Tale of Two Wastelands - Part 31 - Ranger Danger!” AKA Jon finally does the “Reilly’s Rangers” quest, both to show off some fun stuff you can find during the quest AND bring closure to Sydney the relic-hunter from last week’s episode, the one who was apparently abandoned by her dad. Here are the highlights from this episode –
I. Getting the quest itself is a bit more complicated than your standard “pick up a quest from an NPC” deal – mostly because Reilly, when you first encounter her, is in a coma (or similar) in Underworld, under the care of the Underworld doctor. Obviously, to get the quest, you have to wake her up. If you have sufficient Medicine skill, you can do it yourself. . .but your attempt actually cripples Reilly’s legs, as seen by the way she limps over to you to ask what happened and how long she was out. If you convince the doctor via speech check to wake her up, she’ll be absolutely fine. Jon likes this little detail showing that, even if you have high Medicine, you’re not going to be as skilled as a properly trained doctor (he feels the skill shows how good you are at first aid and battlefield dressings and whatnot).
II. You can also lock yourself out of the quest early on just by being a dick to Reilly. Respond to any of her requests to help her rangers trapped up on the roof of the Statesman Hotel rudely (like suggesting you might as well shoot yourself in the head right now instead of killing yourself trying to save them), and she’ll go “well fuck you then” and refuse to talk to you any further. She doesn’t care if you’re the protagonist and wanted to use a mean speech option – she doesn’t have time for dickheads. Jon loves it. XD
III. A point AGAINST Reilly, though, is that her directions for getting into the hospital that links to the Statesman hotel through the metro tunnels (allowing you to just straight-up avoid Vernon Square and all its super mutants) aren’t particularly clear, unfortunately. Getting through the metro up to the station you need from the Central hub isn’t difficult at all (it’s actually the reverse of the route you take while leaving the GNR station through the back door), but the “Dry Sewers” she mentions aren’t actually connected to the metro tunnels at all – you have to go up and overland at Dupont Circle until you find the hospital and its maintenance tunnels, and THOSE are the “Dry Sewers.” Jon was utterly baffled as to why they weren’t named something more appropriate either. At any rate, he showed off the underground route as an excellent way to get into the hospital without encountering too many super mutants along the way. . .but then said “screw it, let’s do things the dumb way” and showed off the overground route as well, mostly because Wanda is a super mutant killing machine with her shotgun and That Gun combo. XD
IV. Showing us around Dupont Circle also allowed Jon to indulge in a little nostalgia – one of the locations on the way to the hospital’s “Dry Sewers” is Lady Frumperton’s Fashions, and apparently Jon, on his very first run through Fallout 3, found a pre-War bonnet there that his first character wore for a very good chunk of the game. Awww. :) He also pointed out that it’s just a good place in general to get pre-War clothes if you want or need them for any reason, which is good. He ALSO stopped by the Cinema in Vernon Square during his above-ground adventures to get to the hotel, specifically pointing out the “P. S. I Hate You” movie on the marquee and saying he figures this is a spoof of P. S. I Love You (a heartwarming tale of a man sending his wife pre-written letters from beyond the grave) where the husband keeps telling the wife how much he actually loathed her and he desperately wants to watch it, damn it. XD
V. Anyway – to reach Reilly’s Rangers in their position on top of the Statesman Hotel, you actually have to go through the hospital that links to it (specifically, you have to traverse the remains of their skybridge) – the lower floors of the hotel aren’t connected to the upper ones, thanks to the main elevator having no power (this is important later). Jon did take a moment to clear out the Statesman lobby though, both to try and make his and the Rangers’ escape later easier, and to show off some guest complaints in the lobby terminal. Specifically, the complaints of one Harold J. Worthington III, a dude who kept getting drunk in their lounge, falling while trying to get back to his room, and then blaming it on a faulty ice machine or a bit of carpeting coming up. And then demanding either better room service or more pillows. Apparently the hotel had to give him up to 23 pillows. XD There was also a rather darker one where an escort, Seneca, ended up dying “in the line of duty” with a client thanks to some erotic asphyxiation games gone wrong. *wince* This was to set up finding these exact same names in the HOSPITAL terminals when he went over there to work his way over to the upper floors of the hotel via the skybridge – one of Seneca’s clients came in for a pulled groin muscle (and refused to say how he got it), while Harold visited after the “ice machine” fall, insisted on eight pillows so he could sleep comfortably, and then stole them all when he was discharged the next morning. XD Jon does not know what Harold wanted with all those pillows, and he does not care – he just loves the guy.
VI. Back in the Statesman, on the same floor as the lounge that Harold kept getting in trouble in, was a rather sadder sight, though – a skeleton, curled up on a bed, clutching a holotape reading “From Little Moonbeam’s Father.” Yes, said skeleton was indeed Sydney’s missing father, and the holotape contained a rather heartbreaking message where he explained that he’d left and come here to try and make a deal that would allow them to get out of the little shack they called home – only for the deal to go bad and him and his potential client to shoot each other. Sydney’s dad died there, regretting that there was no way for him to make it through the super mutants outside but knowing that his daughter would be able to take care of herself and assuring her that he loved her. I seriously got the feels, listening to that. :(
VII. Finally, after trekking all the way up to the roof, stopping to loot a fission battery from a broken Protectron, Wanda finally found the rest of Reilly’s Rangers, Butcher, Brick, and Donovan. Brick being Jon’s personal favorite, as she is a lady who named all of her various miniguns “Eugene” and just loves reducing mutants to a fine red mist with them. XD The fission battery was for Donovan, as he needs it to repair the elevator that takes you back down into the lobby – you can try to repair it yourself, but you need a repair of at least 75 to figure it out, so best to let Donovan do it. Once the battery was in place, the gang headed downstairs to the lobby –
Where they found a bunch of respawned super mutants! Yeah, Jon was wondering if pre-clearing the lobby would make the mission easier, but nope, it does not. Ah well – Wanda was able to take out the basics that spawned in pretty easily with her railway rifle and keep everyone alive, good for her. :p
VIII. And with that, it was over to the Rangers’ headquarters to meet back up with Reilly, tell her the good news, and get the reward – a set of Ranger armor or a copy of Eugene! Jon’s opinion was that the Ranger armor was a bit shit (its best quality being that it boosts your Luck, but as Wanda’s Luck is already maxed out. . .), but Eugene was a decent minigun, so he took Eugene. He did mention, however, that there is a way to get both rewards – just let all the Rangers die during the lobby escape and loot them off their corpses. XD Wanda didn’t do that, though, because she is at least nominally a good person. . .
And because she needed Reilly on-sides for something else. Namely, the reason Reilly and her Rangers got into that pickle in the first place was because someone asked them to map the DC ruins. And if you offer to help her out with that job, she will pay you for any new map markers you get on your Pip-Boy. And you can turn in ones you already have when you pick up this “quest.” And Wanda had gotten a LOT of map markers from the DC ruins. Result? Wanda walked away from this quest an official friend of the Rangers and 4,110 caps richer. I think Jon’s found a new source of filthy lucre for his True Neutral Wanderer. XD
IX. And so the episode ended with Wanda heading back to Underworld to find Sydney in the bar, hand over the holotape, give Sydney her closure, and get her special modified SMG in return. And also gain access to Sydney as an ammo shop, as she’d decided to take up her dad’s trade over staying in the relic-hunting business. Nice. XD
Okay, I’m sorry if that’s not the most coherent write-up ever – I wrote a lot of it fairly late and while VERY tired. I HAVE to find a shorter way to sum up the videos I watch, seriously. But it was a fun episode, and I look forward to whatever Jon decides is on the docket for next week (he wasn’t sure himself yet).
Workout: Back on the bike today, and back to the Oxventure proper with the live show “Snow Escape!” Which just so happened to be DMed by Luke because, for whatever reason, Johnny couldn’t make it to the event. Luke started off the adventure in a very pleasant way, having the Oxventurers going down to breakfast in The Minced Pie (two syllables in “Minced”) after spending the night hiding away from a snowstorm at the base of “the frozen peak” (I guess that puts this adventure around the time they defeated the Egbert army up said peak and made plans to sail north after the missing frost dragon in “Legacy of Dragons”). Corazon took a peek at the sausages on offer to see how good they were, while Egbert went looking for the waffle station –
And, thanks to poor rolls, breakfast became a distinct challenge for them, with Egbert unable to find the waffles and Corazon gobbling down “great” sausages, to the point where his next two rolls were at Disadvantage (he has to roll twice and pick the worse result). Andy, trying to clear this, had Corazon attempt to juggle apples next to use up a roll – and rolled a TWO, meaning one apple hit Corazon smack in the nose and put his next two rolls at Disadvantage. XD The girls, meanwhile, were having a great time – Merilwen successfully conning a fellow breakfaster into thinking that she TOTALLY eats fruit and yogurt for breakfast all the time, while Prudence rolled a nat 20 on stealing all the “breakfast grains” and ended up with a sack full of breakfast – right before the proprietor of the place sidled up and asked her to keep an eye out for untrustworthy sorts, as people sometimes try to steal the breakfast, can you believe that? XD He also let them know where Dob was – basically, Dob turned up his nose at the food on offer and went outside in the snow to find his own breakfast. Merilwen said that this is because he takes the word “grub” very literally, and Luke was horrified to realize that was now canon and he could do nothing about it. XD Anyway, the four taking advantage of real breakfast went to their table and began to chow down –
When Corazon noticed two cloaked people nearby, moving counters around on a sheet of paper like they were playing a board game! (AKA he didn’t do great on a Wisdom/Perception roll.) He promptly began loudly asking what they were playing and if he could join in, causing the two to try and hastily hide their plans – however, one was like “actually, maybe we should ask his help with this, he looks roguish.” Corazon promptly turned his chair and his hat around, all “I’m a cool rogue/teacher” style. XD The other Oxventurers wandered over, and the pair introduced themselves as brother and sister Ori and Millie, teenagers from the nearby town. Turns out, what they were doing was trying to plan a heist on the tower of the sorceress Khobess nearby – Khobess hasn’t been seen in some time, and they were hoping to get their hands on some of her many magical items. They had a solid map of the place, but they had a problem – namely, the front door was likely to be locked. They asked Corazon they should just give up due to this obstacle, and Corazon was like “yeah, totally, just give me the paper and I’ll throw it in the bin for you” –
Another roll at Disadvantage, and even these two could tell “Okay, he wants our heist.” Not helped by Corazon trying to sneakily steal their map while they spoke to Prudence about it, only for Millie to spot it sticking out of his pocket. Corazon was very annoyed. After having Prudence consult her memory regarding the sorceress (she’s never heard the name, and suspects that Khobess was mostly just a magical artifact collector with a smidgen of power whose reputation got a bit blown out of proportion by the nearby townsfolk), the gang agreed to help Millie and Ori with their heist, with a 98%-2% split (since there’s many more Oxventurers than siblings). XD Millie and Ori were just happy to get a percent each, and once breakfast was done, led the gang out into the gently-falling snow and up to the tower. The door to said tower was indeed locked (with no one answering Egbert’s exploratory knock) –
And Merilwen, just to show off, Stoneshaped a pretty little arch with druidic symbols on it right next to it. XD A grumpy Corazon insisted on picking the lock on the actual door himself, and managed to finally overcome his Disadvantage by rolling well both times, easily clicking it open. Ori and Millie, meanwhile, had to be reassured Merilwen wasn’t an evil sorceress out to steal their souls, which Merilwen did by turning into her cute cat form. With the kids reassured and multiple entrances created, the gang headed into the tower, which proved to be one of those “bigger on the inside” ones (Merilwen getting inspiration for making a “Who did this” joke), and trekked up the staircase to the room at the top. Merilwen, still as a cat, let Corazon pick open the door, which led onto an abandoned-looking room full of shelves of magical items. Merilwen gingerly stepped inside, and then – when nothing awful happened – let her cat instincts take over, hopped onto a shelf, and started looking for something to knock off. XD She passed up an earring and a knucklewrap in favor of batting at a snow globe for a proper crash –
Cue a brilliant white light, like a fantasy nuke, filling the room – and when it cleared, the gang found themselves standing in a snowy field near a poorly-defined village, with the sky overhead looking like a weirdly-distorted view of the room beyond. Yup, everyone had been sucked into the snow globe, as confirmed by a grumpy fellow who came out of one of the houses to “welcome” them, explaining that the snow globe sucks in whoever touches it and whoever is around at the time (he himself was sucked in when his partner Dwayne touched it, and he hasn’t forgiven him since), and those inside lead a cursed existence where time passes much more quickly inside than outside (for reference, the Oxventurers entering the room was six months of snow globe time). Corazon (despite his own track record with curses) was confident they could break the curse, and Merilwen herself already had a potential solution –
Namely, Moonbeam. Hey, it destroyed a glass ceiling and nearly got them all killed by acid once! (The adventure in the museum where Egbert turned the owner into Seal Gaiman, for reference.) Unfortunately, when she cast it, the result beam of light was ALSO fully encased inside of the snowglobe (Luke described it as being able to see it coming out of the skybox), so Merilwen tried to move it to the side – only (thanks to a joke from Andy) to ravage Dwayne’s house – and Dwayne. Dwayne’s partner was initially gleeful, but then had the feels as he realized his former partner was dead. (Though he didn’t feel sad enough not to take the guy’s rings off his fingers.) This did not dissuade the gang from wanting to try and break the curse, though (as Egbert had previously pointed out, they hadn’t even bothered researching it yet), and their new guide indicated that Khobess herself was in the snowglobe trying to figure it out! Explaining her absence from her own tower. The gang decided to talk to her, trying to hide that they had been there to rob her – only for the guy to go “Yeah, we were all there to ROB her, she’s used to it, just say you’re sorry and you’ll be fine.” XD That’s where I left it off for today – we’ll see how things go for the four Oxventurers and their teenage companions in snow globe land next time!
Other: Another day, another round of beanbags – and at least Mom ended up doing slightly better! I had a good start, but kind of tumbled downward in subsequent rounds, while Dad largely dominated the early game and Mom made good in the later. Final scores were me W-3-2-3-3; Dad 2-W-W-2-2; Mom 3-2-3-W-W. Hey, at least we all won ONCE, so that’s good.
And now I am off to bed so I can try and get some PROPER sleep. Tomorrow, I am going to get some proper tumblr drafts done if it KILLS me. Also play some more Sims 4 and watch SOMETHING from the OXBox RE4 Remake LP. Wish me luck -- night all!
