Cold Windy Monday

Like, super cold and super windy -- I believe we're under some sort of advisory. And I think at least the wind is supposed to last straight through tomorrow, so -- yay, fun. *grumbles* I am done with winter, thank you February! You can eff off whenever it's most convenient! *sigh* Anyway, let's get through the to-do list for this final day of my long weekend --

Tumblr: Just Victor Luvs Alice to worry about today – and while I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked, I did start a draft of a new post covering the CAS stuff I did on Friday – you know, where I went looking for the new stuff from one of the latest patches and accidentally created Severance AU looks for everyone. It’s not entirely done – I haven’t fully sorted the main text, nor added the image alt text or the tags – but it’s getting there! Probably be able to post it in another week or so!

Baldur’s Gate III: Spent a little more time with Bard/Artificer Smiler and their crew of misfits today, exploring the ruined chapel and accidentally getting them into a bit of a pickle near the end of my session –

A) Picked up right where I left off yesterday, with the gang having just defeated the gang of looters who were in the chapel before them – and having gotten everything they could off the bodies of their dead foes, it was time for the party to see what they could find in the chapel itself! (And, in Gale’s case, get one of his spell slots back, as he has a class feature that allows him to do that once per long rest. Figured I might as well see how it worked, since it meant Gale would have one more non-cantrip spell in him if they ran into trouble!) They didn’t find as many goodies as I would have liked, but they did pick up a few interesting things:

I. In the side room to the right (where Smiler had started retreating during the fight – once they were allowed to stay on their feet for fifteen seconds, of course), they found “The Book of Final Breath,” a book of the last words of various people, sitting in an alcove, and an ancient scroll in a vase with the beginning of a “sealing” ritual on it that was apparently very important to the god who once resided here and their followers. Looking more and more like this chapel was one related to a death god (as if I didn’t already know that because I know this is where you find Withers and he’s almost certainly the former god of death Jergal)!

II. And in the other side room to the left (the one I know better, because that’s the room you fall down into if you happen to tumble through the crumbling ceiling above instead of bluffing your way in the door), they picked up four candles from a chest near the entrance, and a Frumpy Hat, Scruffy Vagabond Clothes, some rags, and a set of Road-Dust Gray Clothes from the worn wardrobe. Also found some more copies of “Death & Divinity” lying around in the various rows and stacks and piles of books within – I guess this book was REALLY required reading for the people who used to worship here? :p

Yeah, not exactly a great haul – but hey, new clothes! Smiler and company now have a couple of options for when they’re bumming around the camp at night. :P

B) With the side rooms sorted, I thus had the gang proceed back out into the hall to try and figure out where to go. Directly ahead was something that looked to be a great library, with a big old statue of a dude in it – and to the right, a mysterious locked door. I had Smiler go and check it out, examining it as a prelude to picking it open –

Except. The menu that opened when I tried to look at it listed any attempt at lockpicking for this door as “impossible.” Puzzled, I had Smiler attempt to use it, only for them to reveal that the door not only didn’t have a lock, it didn’t even have a handle! How curious…

Well, with no way to open that door, I instead had the gang head into the library to see what they could find in there! The gang wandered around the room, lighting the various braziers and candelabra they found to brighten the place up (Smiler, Astarion, and Shadowheart all have darkvision, being either half-elf (Smiler and Shadowheart) or full elf (Astarion), but Gale didn’t, and I too kind of wanted to see what was on my screen a little bit better) and checking out the various rows, stacks, and piles of books. Most of what they found were duplicates, but Smiler was able to pick up one fresh volume from a pile on the floor – “The Curse of the Vampyr,” a treatise from someone warning about how to keep yourself safe from vampires (basically, avoid pale nobles, dark nights, and don’t let anyone but the most trusted people into your home). They eventually worked their way to the back of the room and the mysterious hooded statue there –

Where, while Smiler was trying to unsuccessfully read the writing on the plaque on the front of said statue and checking out the “Chapel Records” book set at the base (a list of the names of people, the gods they served, and how they died), Astarion passed a Perception check and noticed a mysterious skull-shaped lever set into the wall directly behind the statue. So, once they were done with their reading (and stealing one gold, some plates, and a bowl out of the looter’s chest in the area), Smiler went ahead and gave it a pull. It didn’t do anything obvious in the library –

But, heading back out into the hallway revealed that yes, that mystery locked door to the side was now open! The gang headed in cautiously, and found a little room with candles, more busted statues, and another door on the other side. Smiler tried said door after I’d done a bit of saving –

C) And one loading screen later, the quartet found themselves deeper in the ruins, in the Dank Crypt! Specifically, they found themselves in a big central room with pillars, some greenery growing on some rubble in one corner exposed to the sun, and two sets of heavy oak doors on either side of the little central “plaza.” Also some chests and vases to investigate – Smiler was able to pull fifteen gold out of one opulent chest near the entrance; a couple of scrolls of Protection From Good & Evil out of another on the opposite side (keeping one and giving the other to Gale to study later); and a beat-up ruby ring out of a less fancy chest on the other side of the room. There was also a book in an alcove over there – “On Death & Resurrection,” a treatise from someone talking about her studies on death and the value of life – and how, even when you’re a soul looking for your final resting place, you are subject to market forces as Kelemvor, the god in charge of shepherding the dead to their final resting places, weighs up how much belief you gave to which gods. Plus noting that those who are often considered the most “worthy” or “willing when it comes to being resurrected by clerics are also often the wealthiest citizens, who can afford the spell components needed. *shakehead* Even in the Forgotten Realms, even when it comes to cheating death itself, it all comes down to cash, people!

D) Anyway – with goodies got, it was time to check out the doors! The big doors on the left were locked (thought pickable, as I saw in the menu for interacting with them), while the ones on the right were just open. I did a little safety save, then had Smiler open them, revealing a big room full of various sarcophagi within. Curious, I started forward with Smiler at the front of the party –

Only for the game to inform me Smiler had just failed a Perception check. Uh-oh. I promptly had them back off and put Astarion, who was the last one to actually see something suspicious, at the front of the party instead –

And sure enough, he spotted a vent trap in the floor! Well, that might have been nasty. I sent him to disarm it with his kit, and he was able to beat the DC of 10 with a roll of 8 and +7 worth of bonuses (from being dexterous and having good sleight-of-hand skills, being a rogue and all). I kept Astarion at the front of the group as they ventured cautiously into the room, keeping an eye out for more Perception checks – and while he failed one while trying to read the plaque on the front of the sarcophagus in the middle of the room, he did successfully spot two more vent traps in the floor to their right. And successfully disarmed both, with rolls of 15 and 23 with his bonuses respectively. :) I decided, “okay, let’s see if we can clear out any more vent traps on the other side as well” and had everyone cautiously head over to the left side of the central sarcophagus –

Where ALL FOUR OF THEM FAILED A PERCEPTION CHECK. *sigh* “Okay, let’s try and stick to the side I know is safe,” I thought, directing them all back around to the bit of floor with the deactivated vent traps. “And I guess I can check out the sarcophagus in the middle, see what goodies may be inside it. So let’s have Smiler – wait, why are you running around back to the front? I told you to–”

“Why did the game just put me in turn-based mode? What the hell did I – okay, shit, the little tutorial box said that the game will do that to help you deal with traps, EVERYONE GET AWAY FROM THE SARCOPHAGUS!” I thus had everyone run as far from the sarcophagus as they could, with Smiler, Astarion, and Gale heading back to the door while Shadowheart, in an awkward position, headed toward the far wall –

E) Cue FLAMING ARROWS (or some sort of similar flaming blast) shooting out of all the walls! Yeah, turns out there were a whole bunch of gargoyle heads on the walls, and interacting with the sarcophagus had activated them. Fortunately, even Shadowheart was out of the way of the initial blasts (though there were a few explosions happening because there was apparently grease everywhere) and I had a little bit of time to think about what I wanted to do. I quickly had Shadowheart run and join her compatriots, and then – after figuring out where the fire arrows were coming from and what to do about them – had Astarion give one of his trap disarm kits to Gale and then sent him and the wizard to opposite sides of the room to try and disarm the traps they could reach (one on Astarion’s side was, annoyingly, blocked by a pile of rubble atop it). I quickly realized that Gale was NOT the best person to be on trap disarm duty because he had only one bonus to his roll – a +1 from a middlingly-decent Dexterity score – but he managed to disarm his first trap with a lucky roll of 18, while Astarion (after drinking a healing potion because he’d taken a bit of a nasty hit from an explosion triggered by the last volley of arrows – fortunately he’d made his saving throw, so it wasn’t as bad as it COULD have been) easily disarmed HIS first trap with a roll of 21. I had them then each move on to the next one they could reach after the next volley of arrows (which resulted in Gale getting slightly hurt) –

And Gale got a 9 on his next roll, ONE UNDER the needed DC of 10 to disarm the trap. I quickly had him use the group’s inspiration point and roll again – only for him to get a 9 AGAIN. *sigh* Fortunately, the trap didn’t explode or anything – it just let off an extra arrow that didn’t hit anybody. Annoyed, I turned back to Astarion and HIS gargoyle head –

And Astarion ROLLED A CRITICAL ONE. *facepalm* Once again, the trap just let off an extra arrow, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but STILL. I had the others skip their turn so the next volley of arrows would go off, then set about trying again to disarm the heads –

And then discovered, wait, I CAN’T. Because, annoyingly, if you fail to disarm a trap with your trap-disarming kit, the kit BREAKS. And I’d only found the two. *facepalm* I quickly had Astarion and Gale retreat to safety near the door, where Smiler and Shadowheart were hanging out, then took a moment to see if I could DESTROY the heads instead of disarming them. The game indicated that it WOULD let Smiler shoot one with their crossbow, so I gave it a shot –

But then the game informed me “oh yeah, these heads have Greater Toughness, so you have to hit it REALLY HARD for the damage to count.” I looked it up just now, and it turns out you have to do an attack that deals fifty or more damage in one shot to beat something with Greater Toughness. *facepalm* I’m – not sure I have any weapons that can do that – or any spells from Gale or Shadowheart. Crap.

And thus, my playsession ended with me making sure the party all made it safely back to the doorway – then taking everyone out of turn-based mode and watching as the fire arrows just kept whipping back and forth across the room, hitting the sarcophagi and occasionally blowing things up. *grimace* So that room is just permanently exploding now! Next time I play, I guess I get to choose between leaving the exploding room to just keep exploding while I either go long rest or check out the other room; see if I can maybe destroy ONE head if I smack it repeatedly with Gale’s Magic Missile spell; or reload a slightly earlier save and see if I can get the party to maybe notice the problem by NOT failing all the Perception checks. We’ll see what happens!

Writing: Blocked out a bit of time this evening and got two Multiamory March prompts done tonight –

A) The “first date as a polycule” prompt, which was a Modern AU story of the trio hitting the roller rink for their first date as a trio (with Alice and Smiler both helping an unsteady-on-his-feet Victor stay upright as they went around)

B) And the “N+1 Things” prompt, which saw me return to the Medieval Fantasy world I created for the OT3 Week prompt “the knight, the princess, and the dragon are actually all together” (with Victor as the knight, Alice as the princess, and Smiler as the dragon), detailing two times Alice and Smiler told Victor at the end of a “I’m pretending to come up here to fight the dragon but I’m actually indulging in hypnokinky times with you two” visit that he didn’t have to go, and Victor insisted he did – and the third time where he finally decided to stay because he’d finally had enough of leaving the people (well, person and dragon) that he loved

*nods approvingly* Good stuff – little rough around the edges, especially the second one, but I’m making some actual progress here, yay~ Tomorrow, I’ll go back to Brynlee Marie’s gift fic, then Wednesday and Thursday is back to “A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded,” then we’ll see about getting back to these next Friday! Feel like that’s an acceptable schedule.

YouTube: Just the one video this evening in the Subs to watch tonight from GrayStillPlays – “Which plunger car can climb the highest?” Yes, the ridiculous Frankencars were back tonight, with three different plunger cars – a giant truck, a normal-sized Beetle, and a reasonably large sports car – going up against a variety of more normal vehicles to see which one was the best at climbing things! Specifically, which one was the best at conquering increasingly-sheer slopes of ice, concrete, and LEGO blocks; a 90-degree log “wall” (the logs were just floating evenly spaced apart in a particular pattern, there were no actual walls involved) art installation thing that he had to go over the top of to make it to the off-ramp on the other side; a trip around the Maze Bank in downtown, climbing all over it to knock away balloons stuck all over its sides; and an “onion” wall ride consisting of three ever-faster, ever-smaller curved wall sections traveling in a giant loop over the countryside. Of the vehicles on offer, none of the cars with regular tires nor the jumpy arena tank managed to make it past the concrete slope in the first challenge (didn’t have the speed or the grip); the hovering Deluxo managed to make it all the way to the Maze Bank by using its hover mode to grind its way through the first challenge and straight-up cheat the second challenge, but couldn’t fly around the edges of said bank successfully to knock away the balloons; the Plunger Beetle was beaten by the LEGO slope; the Plunger Truck was beaten by the logs –
And the Plunger Sports Car made it to the end! Mostly because unlike the others, it had actual speed to go along with its stickiness and thus could use momentum along with its Spider-Man powers to beat challenges. Granted, beating all the challenges took a few tries (one balloon proved really hard to knock away, and that onion wall ride, man – it was rough), but it got there in the end, and got the win! And then a jump in someone’s pool. XD So yeah, if you want a car that climbs really well, get yourself a sports car and plungerize it!

Workout: Another night on the bike this evening, another night with “Swinging to success in Tiny Town Challenge! - Part 20” by James Turner! And Sonny’s second episode started going really really well in this particular chunklet –

A) In order to get the “Savant” reward trait and earn all skills (including the skills for his beloved instruments) faster, James had Sonny complete the Musical Genius aspiration – which involved temporarily moving in a guy Sonny hired to play his guitar so James could force the dude to keep practicing so Sonny could mentor him for three hours and finish off the final milestone. And then selling his stuff when James found it in the household inventory (though he didn’t keep the money from it). XD Worth it, though, as once that was done, and Sonny had gotten the last few aspiration points needed to get the trait, the combination of “Savant,” the “Great Acoustics” at the MOMA lot, and Sonny’s orange topaz meant that he started just FLYING through his remaining skills. He’s almost maxed out in piano/keyboard AND violin now, and he’s making excellent progress in singing! So soon he’ll be able to write and license songs for pretty much every instrument in the game!

B) Sonny also briefly ventured into the world of yard and street sales after James learned that you could sell the CDs you burn on the Mixmaster table on the various selling tables, spending a day outside the MOMA just hawking his old CDs. He made some OKAY bank, but it really wasn’t much compared to the royalty money he got from licensing songs and publishing music through his label, so James ended up focusing on that a lot more.

C) As for romance, Judith asked Sonny on a date midway through the chunklet, taking him to the bar in Glimmerbrook (which was the EAxis one, so it was extremely sad) to hang out and have a couple of drinks and some caviar crackers while the paparazzi took all the pictures of them. XD But the date was a success, with Judith agreeing to become Sonny’s romantic partner! So they are very much official now – perhaps Sonny’s grand finale will involve a wedding? (Hilariously, though, the day after their date was Love Day, and – despite Sonny suffering some Creative Fog and having to get away from music for a bit anyway – James refused to do anything with the holiday. Even with Judith called up for another date. XD Mean, James!)

D) And as for Sonny’s celebrity status, he’s actually up to the status of B-Lister now from all the public practicing he’s done on the MOMA lot – and the perk that James picked for him allows him to now pull an all-nighter if he must, meaning that his need to sleep has been GREATLY reduced! James appreciates that, as it means more time for practicing instruments, writing songs, and burning mixes. One of his songs was also nominated for an award, and despite James getting caught up in swinging with Reuben, he did make it to the venue in time for the ceremony, accepting a Starlight Accolade for Best Song! ...He accepted it in an almost-entirely-empty room and made his speech to no one, but he DID win! XD

So yeah, between all that and the fact that he’s getting close to $5,000 in royalties every day from all the music he’s been releasing (both traditional songs and mixes for his label), Sonny is doing really good! Seems like he’ll have the required $40K for second-episode house renovations in no time. :) We’ll wrap this up tomorrow, then move onto James building the house’s final form!

Not too bad -- though unfortunately, as you can see, I never did get around to answering Moose's messages. *grimace* Tomorrow, Moose! As it stands right now, I'm heading to bed and hiding underneath the covers away from all this wind. Night all!