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Somewhat Brain Foggy Sunday
Mar. 9th, 2025 11:41 pmYeah, between the time change screwing up my sleep a bit and my PMS, it wasn't the best Sunday for concentrating, I'm sad to say. :( I hate when my brain gets like this -- it is exceedingly frustrating. But I pushed through and got as much as I could done in the time I had --
Tumblr: Reasonably productive day over here –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Spent the time before lunch on this blog, bulking up my queue with the posts for “Day 11: Home,” “Day 12: Explaining/mapping the polycule,” and “Day 13: The polycule taking care of a child or pet!” So I am now SET in this queue straight through Thursday, yay! Nice not to have to worry about it for a while.
Valice Multiverse – And I came back to this blog in the evening – nothing for the queue, but I did get a message from Toonsisters, apologizing for what happened and saying she gets really forgetful at times and she hates it. I decided I’d been a bit harsh yesterday and sent a message saying sorry I’d gotten THAT angry, but impressed upon her that it was frustrating to have to keep messaging her about this stuff and that there had to be a way for her to remember that she couldn’t just make my characters do stuff when she got an idea. She messaged back saying she’d try making herself a note, and I said “all right, let’s see if we can move past this.” So we’ll see what happens in the future! *shrug*
Baldur’s Gate III: Welp, I couldn’t resist the siren call of popping into my game just long enough to level everybody in my current party up, now that they were all safely in their camp and ALL of them, including poor “lagging behind in XP because they’ve had no Inspiring moments yet” Smiler, had a level-up in hand. Here’s how everybody improved in today’s mini-session –
A) Shadowheart was up first, as I did some research the previous night and knew that her level-up into a Level 3 Cleric would be the simplest:
I. Her HP increased to 24
II. She gained one new Level 1 spell slot and her first two Level 2 spell slots, giving her more spells to use in between long rests
III. And she got three new “always prepared” spells (aka she just always has access to these, unlike her other spells, which must be specifically put into her list of “prepared” spells to use) unique to her domain as a Trickster cleric – “Mirror Image” (which allows her to create three illusory duplicates to confound enemies, the duplicates vanishing as she evades attacks); “Pass Without Trace” (allows her to add a +10 bonus to her and her allies’ Stealth Checks – I’ve seen Merilwen use this in Oxventure, and it is pretty awesome); and – thanks to my various mods – “Naithair’s Mischief” (can enchant all creatures within 6m of a target location to receive various random debilitating conditions at the start of each turn). I am hopeful that last one will prove useful in the next big battle!
IV. I was also given the opportunity to mix up her list of “prepared” spells if I wished – I didn’t take advantage of it on the actual level-up screen, as you can do this whenever so long as you’re not in combat, but after everyone was done, I took another look at what she currently had and removed the “Protection From Poison” level 2 spell she’d picked up, replacing it instead with “Aid,” a spell that allows her to heal her allies (in a 9m radius) and given them extra hit points for the duration of the spell. That seemed rather more useful to the group in their current condition! And I can always swap “Protection From Poison” back in if I need it. :)
B) Smiler ended up being next, as per the game’s decision – as the sole multiclassed character in the group, they got their choice of going up to Level 2 in either Bard or Artificer. I’d always intended to alternate which class I picked each level-up, so I went with Bard, which resulted in:
I. Their HP increasing to 22
II. Them gaining one new Level 1 spell slot
III. Them getting the “Jack Of All Trades” passive ability, which makes them so good at everything that they get half their proficiency bonus (rounded down) added to all skills they’re NOT proficient in, which is pretty cool
IV. Them getting a new magical Bard song – “Song of Rest,” which, when played, revitalizes the party as if they’d had a short rest (basically giving you a third short rest for free, nice). Only usable once per long rest, but still!
V. And them learning one more spell! I had to ponder their options for a little while (as all of Smiler’s Bard spells are “always prepared,” meaning no swapping out – they just know what they know), but – while I was tempted by “Animal Friendship” as thematically appropriate, since Smiler is supposed to be very friendly to all – I had to go with what I felt would be the much more useful “Dissonant Whispers,” which can cause from 3-18 Psychic damage (and still does half damage if the creature makes its save against the spell), Frightens creatures, gives them Disadvantage on both ability checks and attack rolls, and stops them from moving. Like, this spell will be GREAT in fights, and I would argue that it’s still at least a little on-brand – it’s a mind-fuckery spell after all, and the The Smiler coaster is all about messing with your head! (And I took “Mind Sliver” as their High Elf Ancestry cantrip, which isn’t exactly the most pleasant spell in the world either, so… yeah. Psychic damage is kind of their thing!)
C) Next up in the list was Astarion, who became a Level 3 Rogue! And unlike his last, very simple level-up, this one involved some decision-making on my part:
I. His HP increased to 24
II. He got the opportunity to pick a Rogue subclass, to further specialize his type of sneaky-stabbery. The game has him default into being an Arcane Trickster, which gives him the opportunity to use magic along with all his stealthy stuff – and as I do love my characters slinging spells about, I decided to go with it. Besides, given what his backstory is like, I figured he’d like having access to magic to help keep himself safe from certain cruel vampire lords!
III. With subclass chosen, he thus got his new level bonuses – two level 1 spell slots; the opportunity to learn two cantrips (minor spells that you can use whenever); the opportunity to learn three regular spells (though given one of them was under “Expanded,” that third one might have been from my mods); and a special version of the Mage Hand cantrip (the ability is called “Mage Hand Legerdemain,” and it means Astarion’s mage hand is invisible and can do more stuff than the standard one). Nice! :) Of course, this did mean I had to choose some cantrips and spells for him, which is always a bit fraught with indecision for me. But after considering his options and what would best suit him and his personality, I went with the following:
Cantrips – “Blade Ward” (which halves damage from bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing attacks – Astarion does not like the idea of getting hurt, thanks) and “Larloch’s Minor Drain” (causes a small amount of necrotic damage to a foe, extracting their life force, and gives Astarion back half as many hit points as he drained – given he’s a vampire, it felt appropriate!)
Spells – “Sudden Awakening” (which awakens friendly creatures from sleep and helps them up if they’re Prone without expending their movement – given how often I had Astarion helping up Smiler during the bandit fight, I thought he’d appreciate a way to help up knocked-over allies magically :p) and “Disguise Self” (which temporarily turns Astarion into another person (of any gender or race) until he dispels the disguise or long rests – given he’s trying to hide from his abusive vampire sire, this felt like one he’d grab onto with both hands) from the regular list; and “Fog Cloud” (creates a dense fog in an area, blinding those within and heavily obscuring them – felt appropriate for someone who’s always trying to hide from the main action) from the “expanded” list
I think those choices will suit him nicely! Though we’ll definitely have to see how “Fog Cloud” actually works in action, that’s for sure. Hopefully it’s useful!
D) And finally, we had Gale, who – like Shadowheart – got a fairly simple level-up into a Level 3 Wizard –
I. His HP increased to 20
II. He picked up one new Level 1 spell slot and two new Level 2 spell slots
III. And he got the opportunity to learn two new spells! As he’s an “Evocation” Wizard (as per his subclass), I looked for spells that were part of that school of magic, and ended up picking “Scorching Ray” (which allows him to fire off three rays of flame at enemies) and “Melf’s Acid Arrow” (which allows him to fire a green arrow at a target, spraying it AND the ground its standing on in acid, inflicting both immediate damage AND a bit of extra damage at the end of the target’s turn – and even if he misses, it still does half the initial damage). Both excellent spells that should serve him well in combat!
IV. Oh, and like Shadowheart, I was allowed to mess with his “prepared” spell list, so I promptly took out “Grease” and “Witchbolt” and replaced them with the new stuff I’d just picked up. :)
Aaand that was that! Everyone is now leveled up and thus somewhat more ready for the next adventure. :) Next time, though, this group REALLY needs a long rest, so we’re gonna end the day, have a few conversations, and let everyone have a good night’s sleep. They deserve it!
Writing: Not the best day with writing – I’d INTENDED to edit the “Day 14: Confessions” prompt, but I just couldn’t get the damn thing to come together no matter how hard I tried. *sigh* So I switched gears and wrote the rough draft for “Day 16: Outside POV” instead, featuring my Valicer fairy-tales-mash-up AU and two unnamed nobles talking about how Prince Victor of Dort is getting married for the FOURTH time. Because apparently his kingdom allows polygamy in the case of a single heir. They were very confused about the whole thing. XD I did come back to “Confessions” after my workout and gave it another go, but I’m still not happy with the finished product, so I’ll try revising it again tomorrow. Hopefully I can wrestle it into shape then!
YouTube: Had an unusual Sunday Two tonight, as I once again ran out of time to watch everything I wanted to watch – so I decided to prioritize a different video in my Subs than normal:
A) First up, we had that Josh Way video I’ve been trying to watch for the last couple of days – “Ex-Husbands Movie Review!” Josh’s thoughts on this 2023 (yes, seriously, Josh isn’t sure why it’s being released now) indie dramedy about an older dentist in New York whose wife is leaving him after 35 years of marriage, who THEN discovers his parents are getting divorced too. Josh emphasized that this is a very low-key, quiet movie – like, there’s funny parts, but there’s no explicit “bits” or anything, and there’s a lot of scenes that just spend time with the characters with no real pay-off – and that some people will probably consider it really boring. But – he personally liked it. It hit with him, and he found it a perfectly pleasant time at the movies. So yeah – if you’re okay with slow-paced movies without a lot of “punctuation” in them, this might be worth checking out.
B) And second up, we had Jon of Many A True Nerd and “Fallout: London - Part 33 - A Knight On The Town!” The continuing adventures of Lady Aria and Arthur Mountbatten, now back in the “we didn’t talk to the 5th Column, as joining them locks off Camelot” timeline, as they –
I. Traversed the overgrown wastes of Southern London on their way to Camelot! Starting from nearby Kensington park, they found:
a. A really radioactive factory-like building with a door on the roof that couldn’t be interacted with, causing Jon to muse that it must be a location for a later-game quest that only opens up at the right time
b. The old Wandsworth Substation, home to the Bailey family (who weren’t willing to chat)
c. A big old treehouse nearby, home to the Fletcher family (who also weren’t willing to chat, and who slept in piles of straw, so Jon wasn’t particularly impressed with their living conditions)
d. A cannibal camp full of far-from-home Beefeaters, easily taken care of with Scaramanga and Arthur’s flamethrower
e. Chain Home Radar, an old Ministry of Defence building with a big old radar dish on top and both Hooligans and “Raider Radars” (I think they accidentally reversed the words in that description) hanging around inside and out – Aria and Arthur took them out, and discovered both a terminal detailing what the people at this building were doing during the bomb drops (coordinating evacuation and rescue efforts, mainly, and reporting that the RAF managed to take out the other bombs targeting London after the Newham hit), and a Glowing One down a hole in the floor (that, being surrounded by a barrier of rad barrels, Jon theorized had been made out of some innocent captive and kept as a “pet” by the raiders). Also the “Geiger Counter” record in the same room as the Glowing One, natch. No way up onto the actual satellite dish, though, which made Jon sad
f. Wimbledon Park Lake, which caused Jon to go both “hang on, there’s no way this could be Wimbledon, how tightly have you packed Southwest London” and “oh shit, the Wombles are from Wimbledon, GET OUT THE GOOD SHOTGUN IN CASE ONE OF THOSE BASTARDS SHOWS UP”
g. The Wimbledon Tennis Museum and tennis courts – the latter of which proved to be a REALLY BIG settlement that Aria could claim as a home base if she wanted (complete with outdoor AND indoor areas!). The only problem were the ghouls that kept popping up everywhere – Aria got jumpscared TWICE by surprise ferals taking a swing at her. I’m guessing Arthur finally ran out of flamer fuel at some point and couldn’t incinerate them for her!
h. A secret bunker on one side of the Wimbledon Tennis Settlement, which contained some mysterious sciencey stuff (lot of chemistry benches) and a couple of ladybugs – unfortunately, Aria couldn’t get past the master-locked phone terminal controlling the door deeper into the facility, so its mysteries will have to wait until she gets the right perk (or companion – maybe Kiera could open some of these doors…)
i. And the Wandsworth Pindar on the other side of the Wimbledon Tennis Settlement, tucked away in some pipes guarded by a big old “radger,” aka the terror that is a rad badger (as Jon noted, those suckers are mean BEFORE you add radiation). This was apparently an entirely standard pindar, with just a few ghouls inside – Jon was initially suspicious because one of the vents looked like it was blowing in something, and there was no obvious sources of radiation to CREATE ghouls, but after exploring, he found no signs of an evil experiment. Just lots of Radaway and whatnot in the back medical room. Causing him to think “aw, maybe this is where they were trying to treat the people of Newham, only for a few of them to go feral.” *shrug* Good an explanation as any, I guess, though this Pindar is pretty far from the blast zone...
II. Found and entered Camelot! After having a chat with the guy guarding the front door, Lancelot, about what Camelot was all about (freeing people from the Gentry and destroying their institutions) and how they feel about the 5th Column (believe they just want to replace the Gentry in power, not give it to the people), Aria said she was interested in joining and got sent in to talk directly to Arthur himself. She thus headed to where he was (passing through the pleasantly medieval open-air market with its knights and armored horses – Jon was very eager to see if they could be ridden) –
Only to find him overseeing a duel between Thomas Bailey and Jon Fletcher. Apparently, their families have been feuding over a patch of forest land between them that they both lay claim to (the Baileys as carpenters, the Fletchers as hunters), and recently there was a fire that destroyed a chunk of the forest, rendering it useless to both of them. Each family blames the other, and now it had come down to Jon and Thomas battling for their families’ respective honor – despite Arthur clearly wanting them to just break it up and walk away. But they refused, fought, and Jon ended up beheading Thomas. *wince* Oh dear – well, at least Jon was happy that the “Jon” in the fight won? :p
Anyway, once the fight was done, Aria talked to Arthur – who was revealed to apparently actually value his people’s freedom of choice, saying that he only rules by the people’s will and that he doesn’t want to break their trust by overusing his power. For example, he wanted to stop that fight, but both participants insisted, and they went in knowing the rules and consequences, so… Like, who knows if he’s truly legit, but this already puts him ahead of SO many real life politicians. *sigh* Anyway, he was thrilled hear Aria wanted to join up (saying he’d wanted to talk to her ever since the tourney anyway), and set as her initiation task investigating this fire and settling the feud between the Baileys and Fletchers, as they needed both families working together and providing supplies so they could finish Merlin’s trebuchet. Jon was like “I LOVE a good trebuchet, I will HAPPILY help you sir.” XD
III. Investigated the mysterious forest fire and the families involved! Aria first spoke to the Baileys in their station to see what they knew. Patriarch Harold claimed that he’d been listening to his favorite program on the radio and had nearly dozed off in his chair when the smoke woke him, and that he was quite certain that the Fletchers had started the fire, but had no actual proof; son Ryan had no new information – but was walking with a very noticeable limp, which he claimed he’d gotten from an accident with a felled tree; and grandfather Frank said that he’d seen two figures in the woods, but he couldn’t tell who they were because his eyes weren’t that good anymore. With all that in mind, Aria then headed over to the Fletchers to get their side. Which turned out to be just patriarch Edward claiming that he’d been making dinner at the time, and that he was sure the Baileys were responsible (though he did qualify that by saying he knew they were good at heart, just stubborn). Hmmm. With nothing else to go on, Aria then proceeded to the site of the fire itself, where she found two interesting bits of evidence:
a. A burnt tree that revealed that the fire had started on the Fletcher side of the forest, and had spread to the Bailey side
b. And a dried blood trail that led to a power pylon with a medkit on it...indicating someone had gotten hurt during the fire and made their way to the medkit to fix themselves up
And that is when Timothy Bailey showed up and offered to help Aria with her investigation! Aria was willing to hear him out, and he told her that he’d seen a figure dressed up like a Camelot Knight set the fire, then run toward an old shed nearby. Aria thus investigated the shed, and found a partially-shattered lantern (likely the cause of the fire), and an incriminating note from Edward to his brother, telling him to start the fire to “get one over” on the Baileys and stop them from expanding their lumberyard. Jon, upon seeing this, was like “This is a little ‘too’ perfect for my tastes–”
And I was like “same here, Jon – because whoever wrote this MISSPELLED JON FLETCHER’S NAME.” Seriously, there was a neat little meta-clue in there that the letter was a fake – it was addressed to “John” Fletcher, but the subtitles had already shown that that man spelled it “Jon.” I mean, granted, maybe that was just a mistake on the mod creators’ part, but I choose to believe it’s a hint to the player character not to take the letter at face value. :P
Anyway, Aria took it to Edward to see what he thought – he promptly pointed out that the handwriting wasn’t his, that he wouldn’t bother addressing his brother by his full name, and that the phrasing was something he’d never say. Aria was like “yeah, I thought this wasn’t quite right” and promptly went to question Ryan about his injury. He repeated his claim that it was the result of a tree falling on him, but Aria’s sharp Perception caught that it looked like something SHARP had hurt his leg. Caught, Ryan revealed the truth – he and Timmy had snuck out to surprise their brother Thomas at the tavern, only for a radstag to gore his leg. Timmy ran to get bandages to patch him up, and neither of them realized he’d dropped the lantern until the fire actually started. The letter was Timmy’s attempt to frame the Fletchers for the accident, to protect his remaining brother. :( So basically, this was all a tragic misunderstanding. Aria went and reported this all to Arthur, who said he’d have a talk with the boys and their dad Harold, and make sure this was all resolved peacefully, Good – definitely been enough bloodshed between these families for one day!
And so the episode ended with Arthur asking Aria about Smythe and her whole deal, and Aria filling him in on how Smythe is part of the secret Angel organization, her personal history with Angel, and how she’d blown up the tournament because Mr. X told her Smythe would be in the box. Arthur was like “sounds like he was more loyal to Smythe than you thought – but that’s in the past, we need to look toward the future. Speaking of which, I’m promoting you immediately to sergeant, and I need you to talk to Percival about a sneaky strike we have planned on the Tommies.” So next week, we’ll be doing that! :) Jon seems VERY keen on Camelot after all this, I must admit – perhaps his desire to be a knight shooting a cool trebuchet will overpower his desire to work on monstrous science with Angel! We shall see...
Workout: Back on the bike for another week, and back with James Turner’s Tiny Town, starting “Cooking together with Reuben in Tiny Town Challenge! - Part 24!” Yes, it’s time for Reuben’s Grand Finale, which hopefully will not be as full of bugs as Camillo’s was. And Reuben has a pretty specific goal for his final episode (beyond “earn enough money to rework the layout of my house and actually furnish it”) – cook and sell ambrosia, both because it’s a hell of a money maker and it would be cool if he could finish off the Market Magnate aspiration and sell it to a ghost to resurrect them. (We do now have two of them living in Tiny Town thanks to James collecting their graves with Sonny…). And this first chunklet saw him make some pretty decent progress toward this goal:
A) He used the power of the “Morning Sim” and “Night Owl” skill-boosting traits, the “Chef’s Kitchen” and “Homey” lot traits, and the “Gourmet Cooking skill boost” club perk to BLAST through earning Gourmet Cooking Skill, going from zero to maxed in I believe less than a day. Granted, using the club perk meant that he had to do a lot of his cooking during a club gathering, where all his relatives were crowded into his kitchen making their own dishes (usually sugar-free coconut carob cake), meaning half the time Reuben didn’t have the space to cook or had to retreat into his half-finished upstairs bathroom to use the counter there, but still. Worth it!
B) He flipped through a few different food-related aspirations to earn enough points to get a Potion of Youth (necessary for the recipe) – doing as much of Master Chef as he could (as James didn’t intend for him to join the Culinary career, which is necessary to progress it) and dabbling in Master Mixologist (getting a bar for behind his selling table and a couple of barstools for his kitchen (now moved downstairs as everyone was like “it should be next to his pseudo-cafe!”), then pouring a bunch of nectar until he completed the first milestone. And then joining and immediately quitting the Culinary career to help progress the second one. XD). Took him a bit, but he got the necessary points! So once James deems it safe, he’ll get the potion (as he doesn’t want Reuben to drink it early).
C) And he hit up the Magic Realm to see if they had the other ingredients he needed (an angelfish and a death flower – so far, yes on the former, no on the latter) – and then became a spellcaster! Because James was like “I do NOT want to go through this song and dance again, I’ll just make him magical so he can learn Copypasto and just keep copying ambrosias that way.” XD So far, though, he hasn’t actually learned the spell – though he has at least learned the Potion of Plentiful Needs, so he can keep on the grind until it’s available. I left off with him having just picked up the “permanent low hygiene” curse from a failed potion, to James’s annoyance – dude might need to learn Decursify or the Potion of Curse Cleansing before he goes too! XD
And that, along with one food sale (to sell the stuff he made during the Gourmet Cooking speed-learning club meeting) and James complaining about the Reaper’s Rewards event being annoyingly in his face, was the first third of the episode! Tomorrow, we’ll see Reuben continue on his journey, and hopefully get Copypasto before James gets sick of magic again! XD
Aaaand, as usual, I've stayed up too late to write all this up. *sigh* I have GOT to get this wordiness of mine under control...though I suppose the brain fog I had today didn't help. But now I really have to hit the sheets. Night all!
Tumblr: Reasonably productive day over here –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Spent the time before lunch on this blog, bulking up my queue with the posts for “Day 11: Home,” “Day 12: Explaining/mapping the polycule,” and “Day 13: The polycule taking care of a child or pet!” So I am now SET in this queue straight through Thursday, yay! Nice not to have to worry about it for a while.
Valice Multiverse – And I came back to this blog in the evening – nothing for the queue, but I did get a message from Toonsisters, apologizing for what happened and saying she gets really forgetful at times and she hates it. I decided I’d been a bit harsh yesterday and sent a message saying sorry I’d gotten THAT angry, but impressed upon her that it was frustrating to have to keep messaging her about this stuff and that there had to be a way for her to remember that she couldn’t just make my characters do stuff when she got an idea. She messaged back saying she’d try making herself a note, and I said “all right, let’s see if we can move past this.” So we’ll see what happens in the future! *shrug*
Baldur’s Gate III: Welp, I couldn’t resist the siren call of popping into my game just long enough to level everybody in my current party up, now that they were all safely in their camp and ALL of them, including poor “lagging behind in XP because they’ve had no Inspiring moments yet” Smiler, had a level-up in hand. Here’s how everybody improved in today’s mini-session –
A) Shadowheart was up first, as I did some research the previous night and knew that her level-up into a Level 3 Cleric would be the simplest:
I. Her HP increased to 24
II. She gained one new Level 1 spell slot and her first two Level 2 spell slots, giving her more spells to use in between long rests
III. And she got three new “always prepared” spells (aka she just always has access to these, unlike her other spells, which must be specifically put into her list of “prepared” spells to use) unique to her domain as a Trickster cleric – “Mirror Image” (which allows her to create three illusory duplicates to confound enemies, the duplicates vanishing as she evades attacks); “Pass Without Trace” (allows her to add a +10 bonus to her and her allies’ Stealth Checks – I’ve seen Merilwen use this in Oxventure, and it is pretty awesome); and – thanks to my various mods – “Naithair’s Mischief” (can enchant all creatures within 6m of a target location to receive various random debilitating conditions at the start of each turn). I am hopeful that last one will prove useful in the next big battle!
IV. I was also given the opportunity to mix up her list of “prepared” spells if I wished – I didn’t take advantage of it on the actual level-up screen, as you can do this whenever so long as you’re not in combat, but after everyone was done, I took another look at what she currently had and removed the “Protection From Poison” level 2 spell she’d picked up, replacing it instead with “Aid,” a spell that allows her to heal her allies (in a 9m radius) and given them extra hit points for the duration of the spell. That seemed rather more useful to the group in their current condition! And I can always swap “Protection From Poison” back in if I need it. :)
B) Smiler ended up being next, as per the game’s decision – as the sole multiclassed character in the group, they got their choice of going up to Level 2 in either Bard or Artificer. I’d always intended to alternate which class I picked each level-up, so I went with Bard, which resulted in:
I. Their HP increasing to 22
II. Them gaining one new Level 1 spell slot
III. Them getting the “Jack Of All Trades” passive ability, which makes them so good at everything that they get half their proficiency bonus (rounded down) added to all skills they’re NOT proficient in, which is pretty cool
IV. Them getting a new magical Bard song – “Song of Rest,” which, when played, revitalizes the party as if they’d had a short rest (basically giving you a third short rest for free, nice). Only usable once per long rest, but still!
V. And them learning one more spell! I had to ponder their options for a little while (as all of Smiler’s Bard spells are “always prepared,” meaning no swapping out – they just know what they know), but – while I was tempted by “Animal Friendship” as thematically appropriate, since Smiler is supposed to be very friendly to all – I had to go with what I felt would be the much more useful “Dissonant Whispers,” which can cause from 3-18 Psychic damage (and still does half damage if the creature makes its save against the spell), Frightens creatures, gives them Disadvantage on both ability checks and attack rolls, and stops them from moving. Like, this spell will be GREAT in fights, and I would argue that it’s still at least a little on-brand – it’s a mind-fuckery spell after all, and the The Smiler coaster is all about messing with your head! (And I took “Mind Sliver” as their High Elf Ancestry cantrip, which isn’t exactly the most pleasant spell in the world either, so… yeah. Psychic damage is kind of their thing!)
C) Next up in the list was Astarion, who became a Level 3 Rogue! And unlike his last, very simple level-up, this one involved some decision-making on my part:
I. His HP increased to 24
II. He got the opportunity to pick a Rogue subclass, to further specialize his type of sneaky-stabbery. The game has him default into being an Arcane Trickster, which gives him the opportunity to use magic along with all his stealthy stuff – and as I do love my characters slinging spells about, I decided to go with it. Besides, given what his backstory is like, I figured he’d like having access to magic to help keep himself safe from certain cruel vampire lords!
III. With subclass chosen, he thus got his new level bonuses – two level 1 spell slots; the opportunity to learn two cantrips (minor spells that you can use whenever); the opportunity to learn three regular spells (though given one of them was under “Expanded,” that third one might have been from my mods); and a special version of the Mage Hand cantrip (the ability is called “Mage Hand Legerdemain,” and it means Astarion’s mage hand is invisible and can do more stuff than the standard one). Nice! :) Of course, this did mean I had to choose some cantrips and spells for him, which is always a bit fraught with indecision for me. But after considering his options and what would best suit him and his personality, I went with the following:
Cantrips – “Blade Ward” (which halves damage from bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing attacks – Astarion does not like the idea of getting hurt, thanks) and “Larloch’s Minor Drain” (causes a small amount of necrotic damage to a foe, extracting their life force, and gives Astarion back half as many hit points as he drained – given he’s a vampire, it felt appropriate!)
Spells – “Sudden Awakening” (which awakens friendly creatures from sleep and helps them up if they’re Prone without expending their movement – given how often I had Astarion helping up Smiler during the bandit fight, I thought he’d appreciate a way to help up knocked-over allies magically :p) and “Disguise Self” (which temporarily turns Astarion into another person (of any gender or race) until he dispels the disguise or long rests – given he’s trying to hide from his abusive vampire sire, this felt like one he’d grab onto with both hands) from the regular list; and “Fog Cloud” (creates a dense fog in an area, blinding those within and heavily obscuring them – felt appropriate for someone who’s always trying to hide from the main action) from the “expanded” list
I think those choices will suit him nicely! Though we’ll definitely have to see how “Fog Cloud” actually works in action, that’s for sure. Hopefully it’s useful!
D) And finally, we had Gale, who – like Shadowheart – got a fairly simple level-up into a Level 3 Wizard –
I. His HP increased to 20
II. He picked up one new Level 1 spell slot and two new Level 2 spell slots
III. And he got the opportunity to learn two new spells! As he’s an “Evocation” Wizard (as per his subclass), I looked for spells that were part of that school of magic, and ended up picking “Scorching Ray” (which allows him to fire off three rays of flame at enemies) and “Melf’s Acid Arrow” (which allows him to fire a green arrow at a target, spraying it AND the ground its standing on in acid, inflicting both immediate damage AND a bit of extra damage at the end of the target’s turn – and even if he misses, it still does half the initial damage). Both excellent spells that should serve him well in combat!
IV. Oh, and like Shadowheart, I was allowed to mess with his “prepared” spell list, so I promptly took out “Grease” and “Witchbolt” and replaced them with the new stuff I’d just picked up. :)
Aaand that was that! Everyone is now leveled up and thus somewhat more ready for the next adventure. :) Next time, though, this group REALLY needs a long rest, so we’re gonna end the day, have a few conversations, and let everyone have a good night’s sleep. They deserve it!
Writing: Not the best day with writing – I’d INTENDED to edit the “Day 14: Confessions” prompt, but I just couldn’t get the damn thing to come together no matter how hard I tried. *sigh* So I switched gears and wrote the rough draft for “Day 16: Outside POV” instead, featuring my Valicer fairy-tales-mash-up AU and two unnamed nobles talking about how Prince Victor of Dort is getting married for the FOURTH time. Because apparently his kingdom allows polygamy in the case of a single heir. They were very confused about the whole thing. XD I did come back to “Confessions” after my workout and gave it another go, but I’m still not happy with the finished product, so I’ll try revising it again tomorrow. Hopefully I can wrestle it into shape then!
YouTube: Had an unusual Sunday Two tonight, as I once again ran out of time to watch everything I wanted to watch – so I decided to prioritize a different video in my Subs than normal:
A) First up, we had that Josh Way video I’ve been trying to watch for the last couple of days – “Ex-Husbands Movie Review!” Josh’s thoughts on this 2023 (yes, seriously, Josh isn’t sure why it’s being released now) indie dramedy about an older dentist in New York whose wife is leaving him after 35 years of marriage, who THEN discovers his parents are getting divorced too. Josh emphasized that this is a very low-key, quiet movie – like, there’s funny parts, but there’s no explicit “bits” or anything, and there’s a lot of scenes that just spend time with the characters with no real pay-off – and that some people will probably consider it really boring. But – he personally liked it. It hit with him, and he found it a perfectly pleasant time at the movies. So yeah – if you’re okay with slow-paced movies without a lot of “punctuation” in them, this might be worth checking out.
B) And second up, we had Jon of Many A True Nerd and “Fallout: London - Part 33 - A Knight On The Town!” The continuing adventures of Lady Aria and Arthur Mountbatten, now back in the “we didn’t talk to the 5th Column, as joining them locks off Camelot” timeline, as they –
I. Traversed the overgrown wastes of Southern London on their way to Camelot! Starting from nearby Kensington park, they found:
a. A really radioactive factory-like building with a door on the roof that couldn’t be interacted with, causing Jon to muse that it must be a location for a later-game quest that only opens up at the right time
b. The old Wandsworth Substation, home to the Bailey family (who weren’t willing to chat)
c. A big old treehouse nearby, home to the Fletcher family (who also weren’t willing to chat, and who slept in piles of straw, so Jon wasn’t particularly impressed with their living conditions)
d. A cannibal camp full of far-from-home Beefeaters, easily taken care of with Scaramanga and Arthur’s flamethrower
e. Chain Home Radar, an old Ministry of Defence building with a big old radar dish on top and both Hooligans and “Raider Radars” (I think they accidentally reversed the words in that description) hanging around inside and out – Aria and Arthur took them out, and discovered both a terminal detailing what the people at this building were doing during the bomb drops (coordinating evacuation and rescue efforts, mainly, and reporting that the RAF managed to take out the other bombs targeting London after the Newham hit), and a Glowing One down a hole in the floor (that, being surrounded by a barrier of rad barrels, Jon theorized had been made out of some innocent captive and kept as a “pet” by the raiders). Also the “Geiger Counter” record in the same room as the Glowing One, natch. No way up onto the actual satellite dish, though, which made Jon sad
f. Wimbledon Park Lake, which caused Jon to go both “hang on, there’s no way this could be Wimbledon, how tightly have you packed Southwest London” and “oh shit, the Wombles are from Wimbledon, GET OUT THE GOOD SHOTGUN IN CASE ONE OF THOSE BASTARDS SHOWS UP”
g. The Wimbledon Tennis Museum and tennis courts – the latter of which proved to be a REALLY BIG settlement that Aria could claim as a home base if she wanted (complete with outdoor AND indoor areas!). The only problem were the ghouls that kept popping up everywhere – Aria got jumpscared TWICE by surprise ferals taking a swing at her. I’m guessing Arthur finally ran out of flamer fuel at some point and couldn’t incinerate them for her!
h. A secret bunker on one side of the Wimbledon Tennis Settlement, which contained some mysterious sciencey stuff (lot of chemistry benches) and a couple of ladybugs – unfortunately, Aria couldn’t get past the master-locked phone terminal controlling the door deeper into the facility, so its mysteries will have to wait until she gets the right perk (or companion – maybe Kiera could open some of these doors…)
i. And the Wandsworth Pindar on the other side of the Wimbledon Tennis Settlement, tucked away in some pipes guarded by a big old “radger,” aka the terror that is a rad badger (as Jon noted, those suckers are mean BEFORE you add radiation). This was apparently an entirely standard pindar, with just a few ghouls inside – Jon was initially suspicious because one of the vents looked like it was blowing in something, and there was no obvious sources of radiation to CREATE ghouls, but after exploring, he found no signs of an evil experiment. Just lots of Radaway and whatnot in the back medical room. Causing him to think “aw, maybe this is where they were trying to treat the people of Newham, only for a few of them to go feral.” *shrug* Good an explanation as any, I guess, though this Pindar is pretty far from the blast zone...
II. Found and entered Camelot! After having a chat with the guy guarding the front door, Lancelot, about what Camelot was all about (freeing people from the Gentry and destroying their institutions) and how they feel about the 5th Column (believe they just want to replace the Gentry in power, not give it to the people), Aria said she was interested in joining and got sent in to talk directly to Arthur himself. She thus headed to where he was (passing through the pleasantly medieval open-air market with its knights and armored horses – Jon was very eager to see if they could be ridden) –
Only to find him overseeing a duel between Thomas Bailey and Jon Fletcher. Apparently, their families have been feuding over a patch of forest land between them that they both lay claim to (the Baileys as carpenters, the Fletchers as hunters), and recently there was a fire that destroyed a chunk of the forest, rendering it useless to both of them. Each family blames the other, and now it had come down to Jon and Thomas battling for their families’ respective honor – despite Arthur clearly wanting them to just break it up and walk away. But they refused, fought, and Jon ended up beheading Thomas. *wince* Oh dear – well, at least Jon was happy that the “Jon” in the fight won? :p
Anyway, once the fight was done, Aria talked to Arthur – who was revealed to apparently actually value his people’s freedom of choice, saying that he only rules by the people’s will and that he doesn’t want to break their trust by overusing his power. For example, he wanted to stop that fight, but both participants insisted, and they went in knowing the rules and consequences, so… Like, who knows if he’s truly legit, but this already puts him ahead of SO many real life politicians. *sigh* Anyway, he was thrilled hear Aria wanted to join up (saying he’d wanted to talk to her ever since the tourney anyway), and set as her initiation task investigating this fire and settling the feud between the Baileys and Fletchers, as they needed both families working together and providing supplies so they could finish Merlin’s trebuchet. Jon was like “I LOVE a good trebuchet, I will HAPPILY help you sir.” XD
III. Investigated the mysterious forest fire and the families involved! Aria first spoke to the Baileys in their station to see what they knew. Patriarch Harold claimed that he’d been listening to his favorite program on the radio and had nearly dozed off in his chair when the smoke woke him, and that he was quite certain that the Fletchers had started the fire, but had no actual proof; son Ryan had no new information – but was walking with a very noticeable limp, which he claimed he’d gotten from an accident with a felled tree; and grandfather Frank said that he’d seen two figures in the woods, but he couldn’t tell who they were because his eyes weren’t that good anymore. With all that in mind, Aria then headed over to the Fletchers to get their side. Which turned out to be just patriarch Edward claiming that he’d been making dinner at the time, and that he was sure the Baileys were responsible (though he did qualify that by saying he knew they were good at heart, just stubborn). Hmmm. With nothing else to go on, Aria then proceeded to the site of the fire itself, where she found two interesting bits of evidence:
a. A burnt tree that revealed that the fire had started on the Fletcher side of the forest, and had spread to the Bailey side
b. And a dried blood trail that led to a power pylon with a medkit on it...indicating someone had gotten hurt during the fire and made their way to the medkit to fix themselves up
And that is when Timothy Bailey showed up and offered to help Aria with her investigation! Aria was willing to hear him out, and he told her that he’d seen a figure dressed up like a Camelot Knight set the fire, then run toward an old shed nearby. Aria thus investigated the shed, and found a partially-shattered lantern (likely the cause of the fire), and an incriminating note from Edward to his brother, telling him to start the fire to “get one over” on the Baileys and stop them from expanding their lumberyard. Jon, upon seeing this, was like “This is a little ‘too’ perfect for my tastes–”
And I was like “same here, Jon – because whoever wrote this MISSPELLED JON FLETCHER’S NAME.” Seriously, there was a neat little meta-clue in there that the letter was a fake – it was addressed to “John” Fletcher, but the subtitles had already shown that that man spelled it “Jon.” I mean, granted, maybe that was just a mistake on the mod creators’ part, but I choose to believe it’s a hint to the player character not to take the letter at face value. :P
Anyway, Aria took it to Edward to see what he thought – he promptly pointed out that the handwriting wasn’t his, that he wouldn’t bother addressing his brother by his full name, and that the phrasing was something he’d never say. Aria was like “yeah, I thought this wasn’t quite right” and promptly went to question Ryan about his injury. He repeated his claim that it was the result of a tree falling on him, but Aria’s sharp Perception caught that it looked like something SHARP had hurt his leg. Caught, Ryan revealed the truth – he and Timmy had snuck out to surprise their brother Thomas at the tavern, only for a radstag to gore his leg. Timmy ran to get bandages to patch him up, and neither of them realized he’d dropped the lantern until the fire actually started. The letter was Timmy’s attempt to frame the Fletchers for the accident, to protect his remaining brother. :( So basically, this was all a tragic misunderstanding. Aria went and reported this all to Arthur, who said he’d have a talk with the boys and their dad Harold, and make sure this was all resolved peacefully, Good – definitely been enough bloodshed between these families for one day!
And so the episode ended with Arthur asking Aria about Smythe and her whole deal, and Aria filling him in on how Smythe is part of the secret Angel organization, her personal history with Angel, and how she’d blown up the tournament because Mr. X told her Smythe would be in the box. Arthur was like “sounds like he was more loyal to Smythe than you thought – but that’s in the past, we need to look toward the future. Speaking of which, I’m promoting you immediately to sergeant, and I need you to talk to Percival about a sneaky strike we have planned on the Tommies.” So next week, we’ll be doing that! :) Jon seems VERY keen on Camelot after all this, I must admit – perhaps his desire to be a knight shooting a cool trebuchet will overpower his desire to work on monstrous science with Angel! We shall see...
Workout: Back on the bike for another week, and back with James Turner’s Tiny Town, starting “Cooking together with Reuben in Tiny Town Challenge! - Part 24!” Yes, it’s time for Reuben’s Grand Finale, which hopefully will not be as full of bugs as Camillo’s was. And Reuben has a pretty specific goal for his final episode (beyond “earn enough money to rework the layout of my house and actually furnish it”) – cook and sell ambrosia, both because it’s a hell of a money maker and it would be cool if he could finish off the Market Magnate aspiration and sell it to a ghost to resurrect them. (We do now have two of them living in Tiny Town thanks to James collecting their graves with Sonny…). And this first chunklet saw him make some pretty decent progress toward this goal:
A) He used the power of the “Morning Sim” and “Night Owl” skill-boosting traits, the “Chef’s Kitchen” and “Homey” lot traits, and the “Gourmet Cooking skill boost” club perk to BLAST through earning Gourmet Cooking Skill, going from zero to maxed in I believe less than a day. Granted, using the club perk meant that he had to do a lot of his cooking during a club gathering, where all his relatives were crowded into his kitchen making their own dishes (usually sugar-free coconut carob cake), meaning half the time Reuben didn’t have the space to cook or had to retreat into his half-finished upstairs bathroom to use the counter there, but still. Worth it!
B) He flipped through a few different food-related aspirations to earn enough points to get a Potion of Youth (necessary for the recipe) – doing as much of Master Chef as he could (as James didn’t intend for him to join the Culinary career, which is necessary to progress it) and dabbling in Master Mixologist (getting a bar for behind his selling table and a couple of barstools for his kitchen (now moved downstairs as everyone was like “it should be next to his pseudo-cafe!”), then pouring a bunch of nectar until he completed the first milestone. And then joining and immediately quitting the Culinary career to help progress the second one. XD). Took him a bit, but he got the necessary points! So once James deems it safe, he’ll get the potion (as he doesn’t want Reuben to drink it early).
C) And he hit up the Magic Realm to see if they had the other ingredients he needed (an angelfish and a death flower – so far, yes on the former, no on the latter) – and then became a spellcaster! Because James was like “I do NOT want to go through this song and dance again, I’ll just make him magical so he can learn Copypasto and just keep copying ambrosias that way.” XD So far, though, he hasn’t actually learned the spell – though he has at least learned the Potion of Plentiful Needs, so he can keep on the grind until it’s available. I left off with him having just picked up the “permanent low hygiene” curse from a failed potion, to James’s annoyance – dude might need to learn Decursify or the Potion of Curse Cleansing before he goes too! XD
And that, along with one food sale (to sell the stuff he made during the Gourmet Cooking speed-learning club meeting) and James complaining about the Reaper’s Rewards event being annoyingly in his face, was the first third of the episode! Tomorrow, we’ll see Reuben continue on his journey, and hopefully get Copypasto before James gets sick of magic again! XD
Aaaand, as usual, I've stayed up too late to write all this up. *sigh* I have GOT to get this wordiness of mine under control...though I suppose the brain fog I had today didn't help. But now I really have to hit the sheets. Night all!
