A Pretty Decent Friday
Aug. 15th, 2025 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickWhich I am glad of, because I needed a decent day after the fun of discovering my car battery was dead yesterday. *nods* Like, it wasn't PERFECT, but it was definitely better than yesterday. Allow me to prove it to you via the medium of the daily write-up:
Work – A very quiet half-day at work to end the week – I did the GL; I ran some reports and looked up some people’s overpayments to figure out how they ended up overpaying; I reversed some one-time gifts that need to be put under the right campaign or applied to a pledge or put under the right campaign AND applied to a pledge; I did some write-offs (and got my assistant director’s help changing the ink cartridge in the copier while trying to copy them, because the old one was definitely going); and I finally trucked my office plants home because the poor things need a repot (the snake plant in particular needs some space as it has produced All The Babies). Nothing particularly exciting, but that is fine with me – I’d rather save my excitement for video gaming. Speaking of which...
Baldur’s Gate III – Hopped back into the world of Faerun today to get my new Warlock (soon to be Bardlock) Smiler through as much of the Nautiloid as I could in just about an hour – here’s how that went:
A) Before getting into the tutorial, I did a little pre-game set-up – specifically:
I. I went ahead and, after a bit of a think, downloaded the “Initiate Feats” mod that gives every class one extra feat at level 2. What can I say, I really want that “Experimental Alchemy” feat for Smiler as early as possible! And I have a plan for the extra feat that my companions will be getting – I’m going to have them all get an Ability Score Improvement! My initial thought was to use it to tweak their stats to match their pre-recruitment ones (as the game changes their stats to match the standard ones for their level when you do ask them to join the party), but looking at the pages for the companions, their pre-recruitment stats are actually worse, so...maybe I’ll just have Gale, Wyll, and Astarion all up Strength to 10 so they’re not such weaklings. :P (As for the ladies – Karlach has a Charisma of 12 pre-recruitment and 10 afterward, so that’s that sorted; Lae’zel is supposed to have an Intelligence of 11, so maybe I’ll up that; and Shadowheart – okay, all her stats are worse pre-recruitment, so I might just make two of her odd-number stats even for proper bonuses. We’ll figure it out when it happens!)
II. After trying and failing to find out if it was a bad idea or not, I updated a couple of mods that indicated they needed updating, figuring “well, I’m only JUST past character creation on this particular save – if something goes wrong, it won’t be hard to get back to where I was” –
And then, when I went to continue my game, Larian went “Hey, we noticed that you added a new mod and that these mods don’t match the versions you started out with! Would you like to downgrade the updated mods or disable the new one? Totally optional, do whatever makes you comfortable.” O.o I – I’m so used to dealing with EA and Bethesda and their “keeping track of your mods and their updates is YOUR business” model that it always throws me when Larian demonstrates they give a shit. XD I actually did downgrade the mods that I updated, just to be on the safe side, but maybe next time I will update them. One of them is the bug-fixing mod, after all… We’ll see!
B) With that sorted, it was back to Smiler’s Nautiloid adventures! As usual, things started with me having Smiler poke around the first room (Smiler commenting “Cursed to put my hands on everything” as I made them look at all the various pods and such XD) – this resulted in:
I. Smiler investigating but pointedly not touching the “nursery” in the center of the room (as I already know from other people’s playthroughs it explodes and damages you if you touch it) – I did this mainly to get the “here’s how you do skill checks” tutorial out of the way, and to set my custom Gilded Obsidian dice as the ones to roll. :D So now Smiler has matching dice for their adventure, yay!
II. Me opening Smiler’s spellbook and going to the “Reactions” tab to make sure the game knew to always ask me before Smiler took a reaction – currently the only thing in there is “Opportunity Attack,” but as Smiler gets spells we’ll want to keep a close eye on that!
III. Smiler investigating the other pods, and me discovering to my horror that a couple of the ruptured ones actually had burnt corpses in them – I never noticed those before! I mean, it makes sense, those must have been the people roasted by the dragon fire right before the jump to Avernus, but damn. D: Sorry for making you look at those, Smiler!
IV. And Smiler picking up some first room goodies – a couple of onyxs off a dead mindflayer and a desk on the upper “balcony,” and 13 gold and a “FED Ration Pack” out of the chest at the very end of the balcony. The FED Ration Pack being a double-size pack of camp supplies (80 instead of 40) added by the “Fade’s Equipment Distribution AIO” mod I have. The description indicated that “Fade’s Equipment Distribution” is a company in-universe, dedicated to “delivering quality supplies to adventures across the realm.” I thought it was very cute! And having a nice healthy pack of camp supplies is never a bad thing – need those for long rests!
C) With the goodies in the first room acquired, Smiler moved onto the second room, where they grabbed a gold piece off a dead goblin on a table and read the nearby rune tablet before heading up to save Us from the skull of Myrnath, the unlucky elf whose brain got turned into an intellect devourer. This happily went well, with Smiler smashing the Investigation check to see why Us was stuck (they were experiencing odema, swelling of the brain) with a 21, then passing the “attempt cerebral extraction” Medicine check with a 12 (just above the DC of 10, yay). As per my other playthroughs, Smiler declined to try and lobotomize Us (which permanently cripples Brain Friend and is to be avoided), then had their usual “getting to know you” chat with their new buddy (why was I forced onto this ship, what was put in my eye, where even are we) before proceeding. No other goodies in the room other than the usual rune slates, sadly, but I did have the pleasure of seeing Us lounging in one of the organic chairs, since I learned recently they can sit in them. :) Fun stuff – glad that I get this all-too-brief moment with Brain Friend before they disappear to the end of Act 2.
D) With Us now at their side, Smiler thus proceeded to the next area and met Lae’zel – who, as usual, greeted them by doing a fantastic flip over their head before threatening to kill them. XD Fortunately, the tadpole link helped her to realize that Smiler was no thrall to the mind flayers, and she instead proposed a team-up to reach the helm and get the hell out of Avernus (pun not originally intended but now very much is :P). Though, before they could get anywhere near the helm, the trio of protagonists had to take down the trio of imps in their way, meaning it was time for me to get familiar with combat again! Fortunately, I didn’t need to get too familiar, as the imps were taken down pretty quickly – Lae’zel cut down two with her sword, while a Gilded Eldritch Blast from Smiler and a claw swipe from Us took out the third. Did take two rounds, but the imps missed all their attacks, so the gang ended the fight with a bunch of experience and no wounds, yay. :P As for the spoils of war, they included:
I. A scimitar, a light crossbow, and a couple of hand axes on the imps – Smiler let Lae’zel take the scimitar, as they weren’t proficient with those types of weapons and she was
II. A void bulb (which sucks things in), a spiked bulb (which makes things bleed), a skull, and a healing potion on a dead mindflayer nearby – we like having things to throw at enemies!
III. Another light crossbow, another healing potion, a simple robe, a shortsword, and a total of 8 gold on all the dead thralls littered around the battle arena – the simple robe is a lower AC than Smiler’s current armor, and the shortsword another weapon they can’t use, but perhaps both shall be good to sell
IV. And me going into the Options menu and lowering the background music and ambient noise as they’d almost drowned out some of Lae’zel’s dialogue in the scene where she confronted Smiler – they’re now both at around 60. Hopefully this will stop the music overpowering people’s voices when things are dramatic!
E) With everything collected (and the music calmed), it was time for the trio to climb the arterial mesh and proceed through the sphincter door into Shadowheart’s room! Smiler quickly checked on the unresponsive cultists, then went to see if they could help the imprisoned Shadowheart (over Lae’zel’s objections) –
And, to my surprise, I discovered a new option in my dialogue box while chatting with her – a Warlock option, to be precise, using Smiler’s knowledge of Arcana to determine the magic keeping her sealed in! I of course had to pick that, and to my delight, Smiler got a dirty 20 on the Arcana check to figure it out, determining that she was sealed in with warding runes that were linked to the console! They thus told her they were going to check that out and went to examine it –
And had another option to inscribe upon it the glyphs they’d sensed from checking out the warding runes! Which caused the console to hum to life – no eldritch rune from the other room needed! :D Smiler then smashed the Arcana check to take a closer look at the console with a nat 20 (learning that it was more like a beating heart than a piece of machinery), before placing a hand on it and willing Shadowheart’s pod to open with the power of their tadpole. For some reason, the clip of the pod opening and Shadowheart falling out didn’t play, but she was freed, and Smiler was able to chat with her and agree to let her join the party. :) That was so neat to find another way to open up the pod and free her – I looked it up on the wiki, and apparently Sorcerers, Wizards, and Warlocks all get access to this check, probably because they’re so well-attuned to magic. I’m just glad Smiler passed – Mar-Mal was generous in sharing information today. :)
And I left things on Smiler looting the backpack near Shadowheart’s pod for an agate and 4 gold – hope those weren’t Shadowheart’s things. XD Next time, the group will fight the cultists (because doing so grants a little XP), and take a poke in the room where you normally find the eldritch rune that powers the console. Because the “tutorial chest” is in there, and I have some dyes and stuff to fetch...plus a woman to accidentally turn into a mind flayer. And oooh, I get to see what Shadowheart’s reaction to that horrific scene is now...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike for the final time this week, pedaling my way through the OXBoxtra lists of the week:
A) “7 ‘Exclusive’ Pre-Order Bonuses that Became Free Anyway” – Ellen and Andy going through those games that offered pre-order bonuses to players willing to fork over the cash to buy the game before it was even released...only to turn around and just give the bonuses to everyone some time later. (Well, except for Darksiders, which just stupidly gave everyone the same pre-order code to unlock their special pre-order weapon, meaning everyone was able to get it the moment someone leaked the code on the internet. XD) Did you pre-order Left 4 Dead 2 to get the baseball bat, which was guaranteed to spawn in safe rooms and was something everyone on the team could pick up? Well, I hope you enjoyed Valve patching the game six months later to not only make the bat available to all players, but to turn it into a regular melee weapon that spawned wherever and could only be picked up by one person! Did you pre-order Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order to grab stuff like the orange blade for the lightsaber and the yellow-and-black paint job for B-D-1? Well, I hope you enjoyed EA releasing all those cosmetic exclusives to everyone just two months after launch! And did you pre-order Infamous: Second Son to get the special “Cole’s Legacy” DLC and Cole’s iconic yellow jacket without having to pay for it like the special edition enthusiasts or the common gamer scrubs? Well, I hope you enjoyed Sony making the DLC free for everyone – eight years later. ...yeah, there’s a consensus in the comments that “if it’s been eight years, you can’t be mad about everyone getting it.” XD
B) And “7 Dystopias That Weren't So Bad Now We Think About It” – Jane, Mike, and Andy talking about those video game dystopias that don’t seem so terrible after seeing how bad reality has gotten! The Forgotten City under Rome from the game of the same name has statues that come to life if anyone sins and turn all the citizens into golden statues, and a time loop that the protagonist is stuck in? Mike just sees a chance to enjoy some pleasant Mediterranean weather, learn Latin, and figure out a way to smuggle out at least one of those golden statues once the time loop ends. Cascadia from Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is owned by a couple of mega-corporations working on medical technology that removes free will? Andy notes that we’re already owned by a couple of mega-corporations in the real world and at least this world has very slick-looking architecture that offers loads of parkour possibilities! The private islands of Tropico can be run as a brutal dictatorship if the player so chooses, full of slums and sadness? “But what about the massive golden statue of the leader?” Jane cries. “Would an oppressed populace actually build that?” ...I mean, yes, Jane, they would, given the oppression and all. XD Bottom line, the horrible societies they’re coming up with in video games are suddenly struggling to keep up with the horrors that we’re all living. Are there any free houses in your banana republic with the giant golden statue, Jane? XD
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – I am pleased to report that I officially wrapped up Chapter 5 this afternoon! With Alice recounting the horrors of Grout’s mansion to Victor, and him being appropriately horrified and sorry for her. Which Alice appreciated so much after feeling like no one was in her corner all night that she went ahead and took Victor’s hand, implicitly giving him touch privileges. :) We love to see it. Anyway, the chapter ended on Alice jokingly asking Victor if he could go get the Ankaran Sarcophagus for her, or at least figure out where the hell it was in the Natural History Museum, and more seriously asking him to stay until daybreak so she didn’t have to go to sleep alone – Victor was more than happy to do the latter. And, as we will see once I start working on Chapter 6, he was only too happy to do the former too. :P But that’s for later – next week is all about cleaning up Chapter 5 one last time and getting it posted!
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – as it was BG3 Friday today, I of course watched another one of Proxy Gate Tactician’s delightful challenge videos: “Can You Beat Baldur's Gate 3 As The Lich King?” A special run where Proxy transplanted Arthas, the Lich King himself, from World of Warcraft to Baldur’s Gate III (with the help of a couple of mods to allow him to have the correct appearance, correct sword (can’t be the Lich King without Frostmourne!), and be able to revive downed enemies as his zombie slaves) to see if he could beat the Netherbrain! The rules were simple – no regular companions, only zombie slaves; no talking to anyone unless the game absolutely FORCED a conversation; and murder everyone in sight to claim every throne in the game as his own! How did that go?
Except for a couple of small missteps, VERY well. Mostly because Arthas made it a point to raise all of his most powerful enemies to join his cause as he slaughtered his way across the acts. Notable highlights of this “all murder all the time” run included:
A) Arthas discovering that the best undead ally to claim at the Emerald Grove wasn’t Kagha, head of the druids (who only had one wild shape!), but instead the Strange Ox, who was able to headbutt and paralyze loads of enemies that would otherwise give Arthas trouble
B) Arthas having his ass handed to him by the spider matriarch under the Blighted Village on his initial attempt to slaughter her and turn her into an undead thrall – fortunately, with a stronger team and a Leeroy Jenkins reference, he was able to kill her and turn her into a chompy poison tank
C) Arthas learning that harpies are very useful to have on one’s side while fighting goblins (as they seemed very vulnerable to her luring song), and claiming Dror Ragzlin’s throne after raising him as an undead slave
D) Arthas mouthing off to Vlaakith when she appeared in astral form before them at the mountain creche, and somehow NOT getting Wished to death (though maybe Proxy just never showed us him reloading after that encounter)
E) Arthas murdering Balthazar, the local mad scientist/mage in the Shadow-Cursed Lands, and forcing him to complete the Gauntlet of Shar legit because Proxy thought it would be wrong to cheese it in this playthrough, and wanted to make Balthazar do the work for once instead of him just swooping in and stealing the hard work of the player
F) Arthas murdering Yurgir and gleefully using him to bomb the shit out of all enemies in his way, including Ketheric Thorm and the avatar of Myrkul – only to get annoyed when Yurgir did NOT appear to help him fend off the githyanki ambush on the Emperor during the long rest afterward (because sometimes the mod summons get yeeted into the outer darkness for a time)
G) Arthas of course attacking the Emperor, and the Emperor thus attacking him and ONLY him back until the last of the githyanki lay dead, causing Arthas to quietly swear vengeance…
H) Yurgir showing back up as Arthas prepared to enter the city, and Arthas gleefully using him to bomb the shit out of EVERYTHING because why not – then mourning his loss when he invaded the House of Hope to kill Raphael and bring him onto the team, causing Yurgir to vanish permanently :(
I) Arthas murdering Cazador and Lorroakan not to add them to his murder team (Saverok of the Bhaal murder tribunal was chosen for that), but simply to claim their rather shitty thrones – and then going to the Iron Throne and sitting on a chair there to make sure the YouTube commenters didn’t get to smugly say “you missed one” XD
J) Arthas discovering that, alone among the Chosen, Gortash can be raised as an undead minion (the game wouldn’t let him claim Ketheric, and Orin melted into goo at the end of her boss battle and couldn’t be raised) – not a particularly GOOD undead minion, mind, but it was the principle of the thing
K) And, of course, after a long slog through many enemies, Arthas ending the run by betraying the Emperor, dominating the Netherbrain, and claiming his final throne as he prepared to lay waste to his remaining enemies and rule over his new dead kingdom. Hooray!
Yeah, it was a pretty brutal run for everyone who wasn’t Arthas. XD Proxy admitted it was probably his favorite run up to that point – must have been very freeing to just be as evil as possible to everyone! Surprised he didn’t go just straight up Dark Urge with the guy – but then again, I guess it would have been pretty hard for a WoW villain to be fathered by Bhaal. :P Looking forward to the next video – and to see if he ever does the “Disney Princess” run he mentioned as a joke after seeing an adorable little undead bunny’s hopping animations. :P
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – nothing for Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) today, but I had an anon ask over on Valice Multiverse – someone claiming, “It’s just like chess. Whoever eats the most pieces without throwing up wins!” (What “it” was was not specified.) XD I queued up a reply from the Cuddlepile Valicer trio, with Alice going “...well, that’s one way to win;” Smiler commenting that this makes them want a chocolate chess set; and Victor wondering if Christopher would be willing to help them with that, as he does like unusual cooking projects. (He probably would, though given I bet there’s chess set molds for chocolate, it wouldn’t be too unusual. Unless they let him doctor up the chocolate with chili peppers or something like that, which – well, I don’t know about Alice or Smiler, but Victor probably has the same tolerance for spice and heat I have, which is none, soooo…) Hopefully people shall find it amusing!
And there we have it! And now I very much have to go to bed -- not only do I have to get up early to do my cleaning, we're also going out tomorrow to get COVID and flu shots, so I gotta be up early enough to do that. *nods* Other plans for the day include video gaming (I'm not sure which one -- Fallout 4 and Baldur's Gate III are both options); writing (FO4 Playthrough Progression stuff if FO4; a write-up on BG3's Smiler if BG3); and watching the latest onlyabidoang video (keeping the Watch Later clear!). We'll see what happens -- night all!
Work – A very quiet half-day at work to end the week – I did the GL; I ran some reports and looked up some people’s overpayments to figure out how they ended up overpaying; I reversed some one-time gifts that need to be put under the right campaign or applied to a pledge or put under the right campaign AND applied to a pledge; I did some write-offs (and got my assistant director’s help changing the ink cartridge in the copier while trying to copy them, because the old one was definitely going); and I finally trucked my office plants home because the poor things need a repot (the snake plant in particular needs some space as it has produced All The Babies). Nothing particularly exciting, but that is fine with me – I’d rather save my excitement for video gaming. Speaking of which...
Baldur’s Gate III – Hopped back into the world of Faerun today to get my new Warlock (soon to be Bardlock) Smiler through as much of the Nautiloid as I could in just about an hour – here’s how that went:
A) Before getting into the tutorial, I did a little pre-game set-up – specifically:
I. I went ahead and, after a bit of a think, downloaded the “Initiate Feats” mod that gives every class one extra feat at level 2. What can I say, I really want that “Experimental Alchemy” feat for Smiler as early as possible! And I have a plan for the extra feat that my companions will be getting – I’m going to have them all get an Ability Score Improvement! My initial thought was to use it to tweak their stats to match their pre-recruitment ones (as the game changes their stats to match the standard ones for their level when you do ask them to join the party), but looking at the pages for the companions, their pre-recruitment stats are actually worse, so...maybe I’ll just have Gale, Wyll, and Astarion all up Strength to 10 so they’re not such weaklings. :P (As for the ladies – Karlach has a Charisma of 12 pre-recruitment and 10 afterward, so that’s that sorted; Lae’zel is supposed to have an Intelligence of 11, so maybe I’ll up that; and Shadowheart – okay, all her stats are worse pre-recruitment, so I might just make two of her odd-number stats even for proper bonuses. We’ll figure it out when it happens!)
II. After trying and failing to find out if it was a bad idea or not, I updated a couple of mods that indicated they needed updating, figuring “well, I’m only JUST past character creation on this particular save – if something goes wrong, it won’t be hard to get back to where I was” –
And then, when I went to continue my game, Larian went “Hey, we noticed that you added a new mod and that these mods don’t match the versions you started out with! Would you like to downgrade the updated mods or disable the new one? Totally optional, do whatever makes you comfortable.” O.o I – I’m so used to dealing with EA and Bethesda and their “keeping track of your mods and their updates is YOUR business” model that it always throws me when Larian demonstrates they give a shit. XD I actually did downgrade the mods that I updated, just to be on the safe side, but maybe next time I will update them. One of them is the bug-fixing mod, after all… We’ll see!
B) With that sorted, it was back to Smiler’s Nautiloid adventures! As usual, things started with me having Smiler poke around the first room (Smiler commenting “Cursed to put my hands on everything” as I made them look at all the various pods and such XD) – this resulted in:
I. Smiler investigating but pointedly not touching the “nursery” in the center of the room (as I already know from other people’s playthroughs it explodes and damages you if you touch it) – I did this mainly to get the “here’s how you do skill checks” tutorial out of the way, and to set my custom Gilded Obsidian dice as the ones to roll. :D So now Smiler has matching dice for their adventure, yay!
II. Me opening Smiler’s spellbook and going to the “Reactions” tab to make sure the game knew to always ask me before Smiler took a reaction – currently the only thing in there is “Opportunity Attack,” but as Smiler gets spells we’ll want to keep a close eye on that!
III. Smiler investigating the other pods, and me discovering to my horror that a couple of the ruptured ones actually had burnt corpses in them – I never noticed those before! I mean, it makes sense, those must have been the people roasted by the dragon fire right before the jump to Avernus, but damn. D: Sorry for making you look at those, Smiler!
IV. And Smiler picking up some first room goodies – a couple of onyxs off a dead mindflayer and a desk on the upper “balcony,” and 13 gold and a “FED Ration Pack” out of the chest at the very end of the balcony. The FED Ration Pack being a double-size pack of camp supplies (80 instead of 40) added by the “Fade’s Equipment Distribution AIO” mod I have. The description indicated that “Fade’s Equipment Distribution” is a company in-universe, dedicated to “delivering quality supplies to adventures across the realm.” I thought it was very cute! And having a nice healthy pack of camp supplies is never a bad thing – need those for long rests!
C) With the goodies in the first room acquired, Smiler moved onto the second room, where they grabbed a gold piece off a dead goblin on a table and read the nearby rune tablet before heading up to save Us from the skull of Myrnath, the unlucky elf whose brain got turned into an intellect devourer. This happily went well, with Smiler smashing the Investigation check to see why Us was stuck (they were experiencing odema, swelling of the brain) with a 21, then passing the “attempt cerebral extraction” Medicine check with a 12 (just above the DC of 10, yay). As per my other playthroughs, Smiler declined to try and lobotomize Us (which permanently cripples Brain Friend and is to be avoided), then had their usual “getting to know you” chat with their new buddy (why was I forced onto this ship, what was put in my eye, where even are we) before proceeding. No other goodies in the room other than the usual rune slates, sadly, but I did have the pleasure of seeing Us lounging in one of the organic chairs, since I learned recently they can sit in them. :) Fun stuff – glad that I get this all-too-brief moment with Brain Friend before they disappear to the end of Act 2.
D) With Us now at their side, Smiler thus proceeded to the next area and met Lae’zel – who, as usual, greeted them by doing a fantastic flip over their head before threatening to kill them. XD Fortunately, the tadpole link helped her to realize that Smiler was no thrall to the mind flayers, and she instead proposed a team-up to reach the helm and get the hell out of Avernus (pun not originally intended but now very much is :P). Though, before they could get anywhere near the helm, the trio of protagonists had to take down the trio of imps in their way, meaning it was time for me to get familiar with combat again! Fortunately, I didn’t need to get too familiar, as the imps were taken down pretty quickly – Lae’zel cut down two with her sword, while a Gilded Eldritch Blast from Smiler and a claw swipe from Us took out the third. Did take two rounds, but the imps missed all their attacks, so the gang ended the fight with a bunch of experience and no wounds, yay. :P As for the spoils of war, they included:
I. A scimitar, a light crossbow, and a couple of hand axes on the imps – Smiler let Lae’zel take the scimitar, as they weren’t proficient with those types of weapons and she was
II. A void bulb (which sucks things in), a spiked bulb (which makes things bleed), a skull, and a healing potion on a dead mindflayer nearby – we like having things to throw at enemies!
III. Another light crossbow, another healing potion, a simple robe, a shortsword, and a total of 8 gold on all the dead thralls littered around the battle arena – the simple robe is a lower AC than Smiler’s current armor, and the shortsword another weapon they can’t use, but perhaps both shall be good to sell
IV. And me going into the Options menu and lowering the background music and ambient noise as they’d almost drowned out some of Lae’zel’s dialogue in the scene where she confronted Smiler – they’re now both at around 60. Hopefully this will stop the music overpowering people’s voices when things are dramatic!
E) With everything collected (and the music calmed), it was time for the trio to climb the arterial mesh and proceed through the sphincter door into Shadowheart’s room! Smiler quickly checked on the unresponsive cultists, then went to see if they could help the imprisoned Shadowheart (over Lae’zel’s objections) –
And, to my surprise, I discovered a new option in my dialogue box while chatting with her – a Warlock option, to be precise, using Smiler’s knowledge of Arcana to determine the magic keeping her sealed in! I of course had to pick that, and to my delight, Smiler got a dirty 20 on the Arcana check to figure it out, determining that she was sealed in with warding runes that were linked to the console! They thus told her they were going to check that out and went to examine it –
And had another option to inscribe upon it the glyphs they’d sensed from checking out the warding runes! Which caused the console to hum to life – no eldritch rune from the other room needed! :D Smiler then smashed the Arcana check to take a closer look at the console with a nat 20 (learning that it was more like a beating heart than a piece of machinery), before placing a hand on it and willing Shadowheart’s pod to open with the power of their tadpole. For some reason, the clip of the pod opening and Shadowheart falling out didn’t play, but she was freed, and Smiler was able to chat with her and agree to let her join the party. :) That was so neat to find another way to open up the pod and free her – I looked it up on the wiki, and apparently Sorcerers, Wizards, and Warlocks all get access to this check, probably because they’re so well-attuned to magic. I’m just glad Smiler passed – Mar-Mal was generous in sharing information today. :)
And I left things on Smiler looting the backpack near Shadowheart’s pod for an agate and 4 gold – hope those weren’t Shadowheart’s things. XD Next time, the group will fight the cultists (because doing so grants a little XP), and take a poke in the room where you normally find the eldritch rune that powers the console. Because the “tutorial chest” is in there, and I have some dyes and stuff to fetch...plus a woman to accidentally turn into a mind flayer. And oooh, I get to see what Shadowheart’s reaction to that horrific scene is now...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike for the final time this week, pedaling my way through the OXBoxtra lists of the week:
A) “7 ‘Exclusive’ Pre-Order Bonuses that Became Free Anyway” – Ellen and Andy going through those games that offered pre-order bonuses to players willing to fork over the cash to buy the game before it was even released...only to turn around and just give the bonuses to everyone some time later. (Well, except for Darksiders, which just stupidly gave everyone the same pre-order code to unlock their special pre-order weapon, meaning everyone was able to get it the moment someone leaked the code on the internet. XD) Did you pre-order Left 4 Dead 2 to get the baseball bat, which was guaranteed to spawn in safe rooms and was something everyone on the team could pick up? Well, I hope you enjoyed Valve patching the game six months later to not only make the bat available to all players, but to turn it into a regular melee weapon that spawned wherever and could only be picked up by one person! Did you pre-order Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order to grab stuff like the orange blade for the lightsaber and the yellow-and-black paint job for B-D-1? Well, I hope you enjoyed EA releasing all those cosmetic exclusives to everyone just two months after launch! And did you pre-order Infamous: Second Son to get the special “Cole’s Legacy” DLC and Cole’s iconic yellow jacket without having to pay for it like the special edition enthusiasts or the common gamer scrubs? Well, I hope you enjoyed Sony making the DLC free for everyone – eight years later. ...yeah, there’s a consensus in the comments that “if it’s been eight years, you can’t be mad about everyone getting it.” XD
B) And “7 Dystopias That Weren't So Bad Now We Think About It” – Jane, Mike, and Andy talking about those video game dystopias that don’t seem so terrible after seeing how bad reality has gotten! The Forgotten City under Rome from the game of the same name has statues that come to life if anyone sins and turn all the citizens into golden statues, and a time loop that the protagonist is stuck in? Mike just sees a chance to enjoy some pleasant Mediterranean weather, learn Latin, and figure out a way to smuggle out at least one of those golden statues once the time loop ends. Cascadia from Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is owned by a couple of mega-corporations working on medical technology that removes free will? Andy notes that we’re already owned by a couple of mega-corporations in the real world and at least this world has very slick-looking architecture that offers loads of parkour possibilities! The private islands of Tropico can be run as a brutal dictatorship if the player so chooses, full of slums and sadness? “But what about the massive golden statue of the leader?” Jane cries. “Would an oppressed populace actually build that?” ...I mean, yes, Jane, they would, given the oppression and all. XD Bottom line, the horrible societies they’re coming up with in video games are suddenly struggling to keep up with the horrors that we’re all living. Are there any free houses in your banana republic with the giant golden statue, Jane? XD
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – I am pleased to report that I officially wrapped up Chapter 5 this afternoon! With Alice recounting the horrors of Grout’s mansion to Victor, and him being appropriately horrified and sorry for her. Which Alice appreciated so much after feeling like no one was in her corner all night that she went ahead and took Victor’s hand, implicitly giving him touch privileges. :) We love to see it. Anyway, the chapter ended on Alice jokingly asking Victor if he could go get the Ankaran Sarcophagus for her, or at least figure out where the hell it was in the Natural History Museum, and more seriously asking him to stay until daybreak so she didn’t have to go to sleep alone – Victor was more than happy to do the latter. And, as we will see once I start working on Chapter 6, he was only too happy to do the former too. :P But that’s for later – next week is all about cleaning up Chapter 5 one last time and getting it posted!
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – as it was BG3 Friday today, I of course watched another one of Proxy Gate Tactician’s delightful challenge videos: “Can You Beat Baldur's Gate 3 As The Lich King?” A special run where Proxy transplanted Arthas, the Lich King himself, from World of Warcraft to Baldur’s Gate III (with the help of a couple of mods to allow him to have the correct appearance, correct sword (can’t be the Lich King without Frostmourne!), and be able to revive downed enemies as his zombie slaves) to see if he could beat the Netherbrain! The rules were simple – no regular companions, only zombie slaves; no talking to anyone unless the game absolutely FORCED a conversation; and murder everyone in sight to claim every throne in the game as his own! How did that go?
Except for a couple of small missteps, VERY well. Mostly because Arthas made it a point to raise all of his most powerful enemies to join his cause as he slaughtered his way across the acts. Notable highlights of this “all murder all the time” run included:
A) Arthas discovering that the best undead ally to claim at the Emerald Grove wasn’t Kagha, head of the druids (who only had one wild shape!), but instead the Strange Ox, who was able to headbutt and paralyze loads of enemies that would otherwise give Arthas trouble
B) Arthas having his ass handed to him by the spider matriarch under the Blighted Village on his initial attempt to slaughter her and turn her into an undead thrall – fortunately, with a stronger team and a Leeroy Jenkins reference, he was able to kill her and turn her into a chompy poison tank
C) Arthas learning that harpies are very useful to have on one’s side while fighting goblins (as they seemed very vulnerable to her luring song), and claiming Dror Ragzlin’s throne after raising him as an undead slave
D) Arthas mouthing off to Vlaakith when she appeared in astral form before them at the mountain creche, and somehow NOT getting Wished to death (though maybe Proxy just never showed us him reloading after that encounter)
E) Arthas murdering Balthazar, the local mad scientist/mage in the Shadow-Cursed Lands, and forcing him to complete the Gauntlet of Shar legit because Proxy thought it would be wrong to cheese it in this playthrough, and wanted to make Balthazar do the work for once instead of him just swooping in and stealing the hard work of the player
F) Arthas murdering Yurgir and gleefully using him to bomb the shit out of all enemies in his way, including Ketheric Thorm and the avatar of Myrkul – only to get annoyed when Yurgir did NOT appear to help him fend off the githyanki ambush on the Emperor during the long rest afterward (because sometimes the mod summons get yeeted into the outer darkness for a time)
G) Arthas of course attacking the Emperor, and the Emperor thus attacking him and ONLY him back until the last of the githyanki lay dead, causing Arthas to quietly swear vengeance…
H) Yurgir showing back up as Arthas prepared to enter the city, and Arthas gleefully using him to bomb the shit out of EVERYTHING because why not – then mourning his loss when he invaded the House of Hope to kill Raphael and bring him onto the team, causing Yurgir to vanish permanently :(
I) Arthas murdering Cazador and Lorroakan not to add them to his murder team (Saverok of the Bhaal murder tribunal was chosen for that), but simply to claim their rather shitty thrones – and then going to the Iron Throne and sitting on a chair there to make sure the YouTube commenters didn’t get to smugly say “you missed one” XD
J) Arthas discovering that, alone among the Chosen, Gortash can be raised as an undead minion (the game wouldn’t let him claim Ketheric, and Orin melted into goo at the end of her boss battle and couldn’t be raised) – not a particularly GOOD undead minion, mind, but it was the principle of the thing
K) And, of course, after a long slog through many enemies, Arthas ending the run by betraying the Emperor, dominating the Netherbrain, and claiming his final throne as he prepared to lay waste to his remaining enemies and rule over his new dead kingdom. Hooray!
Yeah, it was a pretty brutal run for everyone who wasn’t Arthas. XD Proxy admitted it was probably his favorite run up to that point – must have been very freeing to just be as evil as possible to everyone! Surprised he didn’t go just straight up Dark Urge with the guy – but then again, I guess it would have been pretty hard for a WoW villain to be fathered by Bhaal. :P Looking forward to the next video – and to see if he ever does the “Disney Princess” run he mentioned as a joke after seeing an adorable little undead bunny’s hopping animations. :P
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – nothing for Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) today, but I had an anon ask over on Valice Multiverse – someone claiming, “It’s just like chess. Whoever eats the most pieces without throwing up wins!” (What “it” was was not specified.) XD I queued up a reply from the Cuddlepile Valicer trio, with Alice going “...well, that’s one way to win;” Smiler commenting that this makes them want a chocolate chess set; and Victor wondering if Christopher would be willing to help them with that, as he does like unusual cooking projects. (He probably would, though given I bet there’s chess set molds for chocolate, it wouldn’t be too unusual. Unless they let him doctor up the chocolate with chili peppers or something like that, which – well, I don’t know about Alice or Smiler, but Victor probably has the same tolerance for spice and heat I have, which is none, soooo…) Hopefully people shall find it amusing!
And there we have it! And now I very much have to go to bed -- not only do I have to get up early to do my cleaning, we're also going out tomorrow to get COVID and flu shots, so I gotta be up early enough to do that. *nods* Other plans for the day include video gaming (I'm not sure which one -- Fallout 4 and Baldur's Gate III are both options); writing (FO4 Playthrough Progression stuff if FO4; a write-up on BG3's Smiler if BG3); and watching the latest onlyabidoang video (keeping the Watch Later clear!). We'll see what happens -- night all!
