Typically Scattered Friday Evening
Jun. 6th, 2025 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickWas juggling multiple conversations before, along with trying to stay caught up on my tumblr dash and working on finishing up all my write-ups. Just another Friday night/Saturday morning in the Victoria household! But now things have calmed down and I can officially do my Update On The Day:
Work – Fairly quiet Friday to end out the week – I did the GL; I looked at the failed credit cards and contacted a few people about failures (successfully rerunning one guy’s card at his request); I updated one pastor’s pledge at the assistant director’s request; I took a couple of credit card gifts and a pledge from people who called in; I cooed over the director’s baby when his mom came in to drop him off with his dad (she had an appointment); I said goodbye to the director, my coworker, and the assistant director as they all left early; I did some puzzles; and I finally said “screw it” and left a little bit early myself because it was Friday and I was alone and nothing was happening. XD I’ve had much worse Fridays! And I appreciated getting to spend most of it in an air-conditioned building because that humidity today – bleeh. It was SUPPOSED to clear out by the afternoon, but the thunderstorms they mentioned never showed up! >( Hopefully tomorrow IS better like they said! It is cooler tonight, so I am desperately hoping...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – final night on the bike this week saw me pedaling through:
A) The end of “D&D But... It's Cluedo | Oxventure!” The big finale of the absolutely redonkulous “playing Clue via D&D” live show featured:
I. Reverend Green (Luke) successfully locating a dagger with Spanish writing on it in the dining room and rushing off to show everyone, which Johnny ended up describing as like someone calling a meeting in the game Among Us XD
II. Colonel Mustard (Mike) being allowed to search the study before being dragged off to the meeting (despite Professor Plum (Andy) being like “we don’t need to see what he finds”) – good thing he was too, as on a nat 20 he immediately discovered the murder weapon – a bloodied candlestick! But no blood on the study floor, as was later established when it became apparent Johnny forgot to tell Mike that in response to the nat 20 XD
III. Everyone presenting their findings, and Ms. Scarlet (Emily) discovering it was a prop knife – she promptly berated Reverend Green for wasting their time, then just as promptly felt bad as he pathetically apologized –
And then even more promptly pulled her revolver and began demanding that the murder confess already. XD Leading to Professor Plum trying to launch a wad of grease from his hair at her hand to get her to drop the gun (guess what spell Andy was trying to cast!), only for her to make her Dex save and coolly catch the gun midair as it spun. Everyone was very impressed. *nods*
IV. Acting-Constable Arthur Beefs, the policeman nominally in charge of this investigation, bodying himself through a window to stop the suspects trying to kill each other and get them back on track (that was NOT happening, Johnny!)
V. Professor Plum deciding to “tear the mask” off Colonel Mustard – one unsuccessful Constitution saving throw later, he’d gotten the man’s Velcro mustache (gasp!)
VI. The climatic vote, including one from the audience via “noisemeter” (aka judging the guilty party from the loudest cheers” – the audience couldn’t decide between Professor Plum and Colonel Mustard, but the assembled suspects were pretty sure it was Mustard –
And they were right! :D Mustard was indeed the murderer, revealing he’d killed Mr. Boddy as the man had intended to reveal that all of his grand military stories were fakes! Which was kind of obvious in retrospect as the man was worse at keeping his battles straight than Professor Plum was at keeping his animes straight, but still! XD Anyway, the whole mess ended with Mustard having a big climatic rant, culminating in the reveal that he hated mustard; Ms. Scarlet shooting him after said confession at Acting-Constable Arthur Beefs’s insistence, with Mustard dying saying that at last he’d seen combat; Reverend Green finding the deed to the house and presenting it to Ms. Scarlet; and everyone refusing to respect Professor Plum. XD
VII. And finally, the post-adventure reveals that the players revealed like 60% of their collective motives for wanting to kill Mr. Boddy, and that Reverend Green was genuinely motivated throughout most of this adventure by being very hungry. XD
Delightfully goofy stuff, as always! I do love watching this group play TTRPGs together. Next week, we start catching up on the Teens In Space miniseries they did with Jasper of Three Black Halfings before the release of Oxventure: Wyrdwood!
B) The entirety of “5 Hidden Failsafes BG3 Devs Made For 0.1% Of Players” by Proxy Gate Tactician! Because I’m still enjoying going through his videos. :) As you might expect from that title, this one was all about him talking about and showing off those hidden failsafes in the game that most players would never even experience – or, if they did, wouldn’t realize it was meant to be a failsafe. Examples included:
I. What happens if you don’t put your ENTIRE party on the boat to Grymforge, then lose the fight with the duergar who pull up beside the boat to demand to know what happened to the original owner (the bodies of the party members who lost the fight wash up on the same shore where you can find the duergar’s bodies if you successfully fight them, and the duergar complete their trip to the shore where any remaining party members wait, allowing them to get past them and use the boat to sail to Grymforge and, hopefully, revive the dead party members)
II. What happens if you kill the people who are supposed to be watching over/entertaining the tiefling children when the tieflings go into “battle-ready” mode protecting the grove from the incoming forces of the Absolute (normally Alfira the bard is entertaining them with the story of the founding of Baldur’s Gate; if she’s dead, one of the kids, Mirkan, is telling them about her near-escape from the harpies; if SHE’S dead as well, the kids are just hanging out and urge you to go back and join the fight – Proxy was particularly shocked by this one because he didn’t think ANY players would bother coming to this location, especially with a fight imminent!)
III. And what happens if certain NPCs who were supposed to give you important information or a quest reward die before they can, either by your hand or another’s (the game usually has a back-up NPC ready to spawn in and give you the reward or the info – though in the case of rescuing the Gondians from the undersea Iron Throne prison, if you kill the one gnome who’s supposed to be a GUARANTEED escapee and thus tell you where to go next to free their families, the NARRATOR will instead step in and summarize another gnome telling you the same thing should you approach them. Given this is an Act 3 quest, I’m guessing they just didn’t have the time to record another NPC saying the lines!)
Neat stuff, as always – Proxy is always very thorough in his investigations into these matters. :) Though I will tell any Embrace Durges who may be reading this NOT to kill the leader of the Bhaal cult, Sarevok, AND both of the “neutral” assassins hanging around the place during the fight with Orin, as you’ll go through all of Sarevok’s backup NPCS like that and thus screw yourself out of a reward to help you with the final boss that way. Just FYI!
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – the trip back to the Van Dort mansion continued tonight, with:
A) Alice pointing out that, fun as talking about future birthday celebrations was, they had to get settled in the here and now first...and then successfully guessing that Smiler already had plans for a big “cleaning day” celebration once she secured her new lodgings in Six Towers XD
B) Victor and Smiler both offering whatever talents they had to the upcoming “cleaning day,” with Smiler being uncharacteristically serious about the dangers of mixing certain chemicals together (this IS their area of expertise, after all) and offering to bring their “Smile Sweeper” (the steampunk roomba they cooked up with Dr. Gladwell), shocking Victor with the reveal that it’s entirely mechanical (they felt it cruel to stick a ghost in such a small Hull!)
C) Alice interrupting Smiler explaining how the Smile Sweeper works (with me working in that punchcard looms are a thing in this world because they’re cool) by asking Victor if that’s his house ahead – and Victor being VERY STARTLED by the sheer amount of carriages outside, saying that it only looks like this if his mother’s throwing a party...
Aaaand yeah, not even Smiler could convincingly say it might be a search party. *grimace* I left it with them making for the front door to try and learn from whoever’s stationed there what’s going on – tomorrow, we meet the Van Dort’s butler, Barry, and see what the Van Dorts have been up to while Victor’s been missing! Pro tip – don’t bet on them searching for their missing son!
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – didn’t have quite enough time after Game Night (Parcheesi – I THOUGHT about suggesting Clue, but Mom picked the game before I could XD) and writing to watch more CaFae Latte, so instead I went with “Busting More Myths in Baldur's Gate 3” by Proxy Gate Tactician! Because I enjoyed the last myth-busting video and wanted to see what other myths he was going to tackle (pre-Patch 3, at any rate). In order, we had:
I. Will long resting too many times in Act I cause the Druids to complete the Rite of Thorns and seal off the grove? – Nope, none of the triggers for sealing off the Emerald Grove have anything to do with long resting! They’re more about killing people you shouldn’t kill or trying to move onto a new area without heeding the warnings (which triggers an automatic long rest, which Proxy thinks is the source of the myth).
II. Will using Disguise Self really help you avoid getting caught while stealing, or using the cantrip “Friends” on traders (which, on higher difficulties, can fail and make people mad at you)? – Nope, at least pre-Patch 3 – you can disguise yourself all you like, but the people you steal from (directly via pickpocketing or indirectly via looting the area) or attempt to make like you better via magic WILL still be annoyed with you and require compensation/apologies. Which doesn’t make much sense, you were DISGUISED, so it makes sense that they patched it in Patch 3 so people will INTERROGATE you, but not immediately declare you the thief!
III. Is Feather Fall the only way to survive a jump into a certain chasm that leads into the Underdark? – Nope, but it IS your best bet for getting down there, given that most OTHER ways of surviving such a huge fall don’t work in this particular instance. Proxy tested a lot of things that should have kept the unlucky jumper alive – having more health than the game said they’d lose if they jumped; using the Misty Step teleport; protecting them with a magical ward, etc. – and of the options he tested, only the Fly spell/ability allowed the PC to get down to the Underdark alive, and only the Blood of Lathander (a mace with a special ability that can revive you after death) allowed them to automatically resurrect after making the deadly jump. Anything other than those two or Feather Fall insta-killed them if they made the jump – and ONLY Feather Fall triggered the right cutscene for discovering the Underdark via that jump. So yeah – there’s technically other ways to get down there, but just use Feather Fall. It’s easier.
IV. Will disarmed enemies re-equip their weapons in combat? – Yup, but depending on the enemy, they won’t be very smart about it! The testing Proxy did against some goblins showed that they’d only pick up and re-equip their weapon if they couldn’t do ANYTHING else that turn (aka, were stuck in a situation with an unreachable enemy). Otherwise, they’d just charge into the fray with their fists. The comments mentioned some other enemy NPCs (like the Paladins of Tyr hunting Karlach) would pick up their weapons much more quickly, though generally not immediately – like at the end of a round of combat or at the start of their next turn or something. So if you disarm an enemy, you SHOULD go get their weapon, but you don’t have to be THAT quick about it.
V. And does using a trap disarm kit or thieves’ tools successfully consume the item? – Nope, and I was VERY confused to see this one as I thought it was common knowledge you only lost them if the attempt failed (with the in-game explanation being they broke, I believe). However, it looks like a lot of people, Proxy included, were confused by the “Used Thieves’ Tools/Trap Disarm Kit” pop-up that appears and thought that meant the stuff went away even if you successfully used it. Fortunately Larian cleared up how they work in the tooltips in Patch 3, so that should prevent all future confusion!
*nods* Good stuff! As previously stated, I do appreciate how thorough Proxy is at testing all these myths – he will not rest until he can be sure that something is busted or confirmed! Makes you feel sure of his conclusions. :)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A – there was nothing going on over on Valice Multiverse, and I didn’t really have anything that needed doing on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler). And even if I had, I was too busy chatting with Nebby to do it, sooo… *shrug* Here we are then!
And there you have it. And now I should seriously consider getting to bed so I'm not up half the night. XD Tomorrow is a Cleaning Saturday (though fortunately just cleaning -- don't have to worry about laundry), with my other goals consisting of getting more written on "The Van Dort Vacancy;" either playing Sims 4 and maybe start working on getting the new Teen Valicer save file ready, OR seeing what I can do with making some PROPER progress on getting Baldur's Gate III with my Bardlock Smiler up and running; and watching some more CaFae Latte. *nods* I would HOPE these are all achievable goals, but we shall see. Night all!
Work – Fairly quiet Friday to end out the week – I did the GL; I looked at the failed credit cards and contacted a few people about failures (successfully rerunning one guy’s card at his request); I updated one pastor’s pledge at the assistant director’s request; I took a couple of credit card gifts and a pledge from people who called in; I cooed over the director’s baby when his mom came in to drop him off with his dad (she had an appointment); I said goodbye to the director, my coworker, and the assistant director as they all left early; I did some puzzles; and I finally said “screw it” and left a little bit early myself because it was Friday and I was alone and nothing was happening. XD I’ve had much worse Fridays! And I appreciated getting to spend most of it in an air-conditioned building because that humidity today – bleeh. It was SUPPOSED to clear out by the afternoon, but the thunderstorms they mentioned never showed up! >( Hopefully tomorrow IS better like they said! It is cooler tonight, so I am desperately hoping...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – final night on the bike this week saw me pedaling through:
A) The end of “D&D But... It's Cluedo | Oxventure!” The big finale of the absolutely redonkulous “playing Clue via D&D” live show featured:
I. Reverend Green (Luke) successfully locating a dagger with Spanish writing on it in the dining room and rushing off to show everyone, which Johnny ended up describing as like someone calling a meeting in the game Among Us XD
II. Colonel Mustard (Mike) being allowed to search the study before being dragged off to the meeting (despite Professor Plum (Andy) being like “we don’t need to see what he finds”) – good thing he was too, as on a nat 20 he immediately discovered the murder weapon – a bloodied candlestick! But no blood on the study floor, as was later established when it became apparent Johnny forgot to tell Mike that in response to the nat 20 XD
III. Everyone presenting their findings, and Ms. Scarlet (Emily) discovering it was a prop knife – she promptly berated Reverend Green for wasting their time, then just as promptly felt bad as he pathetically apologized –
And then even more promptly pulled her revolver and began demanding that the murder confess already. XD Leading to Professor Plum trying to launch a wad of grease from his hair at her hand to get her to drop the gun (guess what spell Andy was trying to cast!), only for her to make her Dex save and coolly catch the gun midair as it spun. Everyone was very impressed. *nods*
IV. Acting-Constable Arthur Beefs, the policeman nominally in charge of this investigation, bodying himself through a window to stop the suspects trying to kill each other and get them back on track (that was NOT happening, Johnny!)
V. Professor Plum deciding to “tear the mask” off Colonel Mustard – one unsuccessful Constitution saving throw later, he’d gotten the man’s Velcro mustache (gasp!)
VI. The climatic vote, including one from the audience via “noisemeter” (aka judging the guilty party from the loudest cheers” – the audience couldn’t decide between Professor Plum and Colonel Mustard, but the assembled suspects were pretty sure it was Mustard –
And they were right! :D Mustard was indeed the murderer, revealing he’d killed Mr. Boddy as the man had intended to reveal that all of his grand military stories were fakes! Which was kind of obvious in retrospect as the man was worse at keeping his battles straight than Professor Plum was at keeping his animes straight, but still! XD Anyway, the whole mess ended with Mustard having a big climatic rant, culminating in the reveal that he hated mustard; Ms. Scarlet shooting him after said confession at Acting-Constable Arthur Beefs’s insistence, with Mustard dying saying that at last he’d seen combat; Reverend Green finding the deed to the house and presenting it to Ms. Scarlet; and everyone refusing to respect Professor Plum. XD
VII. And finally, the post-adventure reveals that the players revealed like 60% of their collective motives for wanting to kill Mr. Boddy, and that Reverend Green was genuinely motivated throughout most of this adventure by being very hungry. XD
Delightfully goofy stuff, as always! I do love watching this group play TTRPGs together. Next week, we start catching up on the Teens In Space miniseries they did with Jasper of Three Black Halfings before the release of Oxventure: Wyrdwood!
B) The entirety of “5 Hidden Failsafes BG3 Devs Made For 0.1% Of Players” by Proxy Gate Tactician! Because I’m still enjoying going through his videos. :) As you might expect from that title, this one was all about him talking about and showing off those hidden failsafes in the game that most players would never even experience – or, if they did, wouldn’t realize it was meant to be a failsafe. Examples included:
I. What happens if you don’t put your ENTIRE party on the boat to Grymforge, then lose the fight with the duergar who pull up beside the boat to demand to know what happened to the original owner (the bodies of the party members who lost the fight wash up on the same shore where you can find the duergar’s bodies if you successfully fight them, and the duergar complete their trip to the shore where any remaining party members wait, allowing them to get past them and use the boat to sail to Grymforge and, hopefully, revive the dead party members)
II. What happens if you kill the people who are supposed to be watching over/entertaining the tiefling children when the tieflings go into “battle-ready” mode protecting the grove from the incoming forces of the Absolute (normally Alfira the bard is entertaining them with the story of the founding of Baldur’s Gate; if she’s dead, one of the kids, Mirkan, is telling them about her near-escape from the harpies; if SHE’S dead as well, the kids are just hanging out and urge you to go back and join the fight – Proxy was particularly shocked by this one because he didn’t think ANY players would bother coming to this location, especially with a fight imminent!)
III. And what happens if certain NPCs who were supposed to give you important information or a quest reward die before they can, either by your hand or another’s (the game usually has a back-up NPC ready to spawn in and give you the reward or the info – though in the case of rescuing the Gondians from the undersea Iron Throne prison, if you kill the one gnome who’s supposed to be a GUARANTEED escapee and thus tell you where to go next to free their families, the NARRATOR will instead step in and summarize another gnome telling you the same thing should you approach them. Given this is an Act 3 quest, I’m guessing they just didn’t have the time to record another NPC saying the lines!)
Neat stuff, as always – Proxy is always very thorough in his investigations into these matters. :) Though I will tell any Embrace Durges who may be reading this NOT to kill the leader of the Bhaal cult, Sarevok, AND both of the “neutral” assassins hanging around the place during the fight with Orin, as you’ll go through all of Sarevok’s backup NPCS like that and thus screw yourself out of a reward to help you with the final boss that way. Just FYI!
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – the trip back to the Van Dort mansion continued tonight, with:
A) Alice pointing out that, fun as talking about future birthday celebrations was, they had to get settled in the here and now first...and then successfully guessing that Smiler already had plans for a big “cleaning day” celebration once she secured her new lodgings in Six Towers XD
B) Victor and Smiler both offering whatever talents they had to the upcoming “cleaning day,” with Smiler being uncharacteristically serious about the dangers of mixing certain chemicals together (this IS their area of expertise, after all) and offering to bring their “Smile Sweeper” (the steampunk roomba they cooked up with Dr. Gladwell), shocking Victor with the reveal that it’s entirely mechanical (they felt it cruel to stick a ghost in such a small Hull!)
C) Alice interrupting Smiler explaining how the Smile Sweeper works (with me working in that punchcard looms are a thing in this world because they’re cool) by asking Victor if that’s his house ahead – and Victor being VERY STARTLED by the sheer amount of carriages outside, saying that it only looks like this if his mother’s throwing a party...
Aaaand yeah, not even Smiler could convincingly say it might be a search party. *grimace* I left it with them making for the front door to try and learn from whoever’s stationed there what’s going on – tomorrow, we meet the Van Dort’s butler, Barry, and see what the Van Dorts have been up to while Victor’s been missing! Pro tip – don’t bet on them searching for their missing son!
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – didn’t have quite enough time after Game Night (Parcheesi – I THOUGHT about suggesting Clue, but Mom picked the game before I could XD) and writing to watch more CaFae Latte, so instead I went with “Busting More Myths in Baldur's Gate 3” by Proxy Gate Tactician! Because I enjoyed the last myth-busting video and wanted to see what other myths he was going to tackle (pre-Patch 3, at any rate). In order, we had:
I. Will long resting too many times in Act I cause the Druids to complete the Rite of Thorns and seal off the grove? – Nope, none of the triggers for sealing off the Emerald Grove have anything to do with long resting! They’re more about killing people you shouldn’t kill or trying to move onto a new area without heeding the warnings (which triggers an automatic long rest, which Proxy thinks is the source of the myth).
II. Will using Disguise Self really help you avoid getting caught while stealing, or using the cantrip “Friends” on traders (which, on higher difficulties, can fail and make people mad at you)? – Nope, at least pre-Patch 3 – you can disguise yourself all you like, but the people you steal from (directly via pickpocketing or indirectly via looting the area) or attempt to make like you better via magic WILL still be annoyed with you and require compensation/apologies. Which doesn’t make much sense, you were DISGUISED, so it makes sense that they patched it in Patch 3 so people will INTERROGATE you, but not immediately declare you the thief!
III. Is Feather Fall the only way to survive a jump into a certain chasm that leads into the Underdark? – Nope, but it IS your best bet for getting down there, given that most OTHER ways of surviving such a huge fall don’t work in this particular instance. Proxy tested a lot of things that should have kept the unlucky jumper alive – having more health than the game said they’d lose if they jumped; using the Misty Step teleport; protecting them with a magical ward, etc. – and of the options he tested, only the Fly spell/ability allowed the PC to get down to the Underdark alive, and only the Blood of Lathander (a mace with a special ability that can revive you after death) allowed them to automatically resurrect after making the deadly jump. Anything other than those two or Feather Fall insta-killed them if they made the jump – and ONLY Feather Fall triggered the right cutscene for discovering the Underdark via that jump. So yeah – there’s technically other ways to get down there, but just use Feather Fall. It’s easier.
IV. Will disarmed enemies re-equip their weapons in combat? – Yup, but depending on the enemy, they won’t be very smart about it! The testing Proxy did against some goblins showed that they’d only pick up and re-equip their weapon if they couldn’t do ANYTHING else that turn (aka, were stuck in a situation with an unreachable enemy). Otherwise, they’d just charge into the fray with their fists. The comments mentioned some other enemy NPCs (like the Paladins of Tyr hunting Karlach) would pick up their weapons much more quickly, though generally not immediately – like at the end of a round of combat or at the start of their next turn or something. So if you disarm an enemy, you SHOULD go get their weapon, but you don’t have to be THAT quick about it.
V. And does using a trap disarm kit or thieves’ tools successfully consume the item? – Nope, and I was VERY confused to see this one as I thought it was common knowledge you only lost them if the attempt failed (with the in-game explanation being they broke, I believe). However, it looks like a lot of people, Proxy included, were confused by the “Used Thieves’ Tools/Trap Disarm Kit” pop-up that appears and thought that meant the stuff went away even if you successfully used it. Fortunately Larian cleared up how they work in the tooltips in Patch 3, so that should prevent all future confusion!
*nods* Good stuff! As previously stated, I do appreciate how thorough Proxy is at testing all these myths – he will not rest until he can be sure that something is busted or confirmed! Makes you feel sure of his conclusions. :)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A – there was nothing going on over on Valice Multiverse, and I didn’t really have anything that needed doing on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler). And even if I had, I was too busy chatting with Nebby to do it, sooo… *shrug* Here we are then!
And there you have it. And now I should seriously consider getting to bed so I'm not up half the night. XD Tomorrow is a Cleaning Saturday (though fortunately just cleaning -- don't have to worry about laundry), with my other goals consisting of getting more written on "The Van Dort Vacancy;" either playing Sims 4 and maybe start working on getting the new Teen Valicer save file ready, OR seeing what I can do with making some PROPER progress on getting Baldur's Gate III with my Bardlock Smiler up and running; and watching some more CaFae Latte. *nods* I would HOPE these are all achievable goals, but we shall see. Night all!
