Another Could Have Been Better Day
Aug. 30th, 2025 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickLike, I'm feeling better now, but I spent most of the day annoyed with how it actually turned out, as you shall see from my write-ups below:
Cleaning: I am sorry to say this did not go particularly smoothly today – not because there was anything particularly difficult about the cleaning itself, but because just after I’d finished dusting all the shelves above my bed and my ceiling fan, and was getting ready to put my new sheets on my mattress, my parents said they were running out to get some new speakers for Dad’s truck (they’d just installed a new radio in it, and said new radio made it very clear they needed new speakers too). And when I lifted my shade a bit to peek out at them heading off –
I saw something crawling on my window. Something that was either a very large ant – or a wasp.
Cue me spending the next twenty-odd minutes gathering my courage to try and get another look at the damn thing under the shade so I could fucking kill it already, terrified that if it was a wasp, I was going to get stung. :( (Not allergic as far as I’m aware – just, I think reasonably, not keen on wasp stings!) Fortunately, I eventually realized I could use my fly swatter to pick up the shade just enough to figure out where the damn thing was on my window without getting too close, then my iPad to mash it through the shade. Took two hits, but I managed to kill it and vacuum it up. But, as you might imagine, the whole experience not only made the whole cleaning experience take longer, it tanked my mood (because I was furious about having to deal with this and convinced it got in from my parents holding the doors open in the house while going in and out), and – yeah. Just not a fun experience to deal with. *sigh* Ironically, I still finished all of my cleaning before lunch – but that’s just because lunch didn’t happen until 2 PM, thanks to the whole “installing a new stereo and speakers in the truck” thing. Good thing I didn’t have much of an appetite for a while after having to murder that bug! (No, I never did definitely confirm what it was – though the fact that the corpse had yellowish legs before I vacuumed it up makes me think “wasp.” Ugh.)
Baldur’s Gate III: As rather befits the morning I had, I had a somewhat unsatisfying playsession of BG3 today – mostly because I ended up having to do the fight against the weakened intellect devourers in the Nautiloid wreckage twice. Why? Well, let me explain:
A) I started off with Smiler and Shadowheart waiting patiently where I’d left them last time, by the big rock outcrop in front of the chunk of the Nautiloid where you first find the intellect devourers. After experimenting a bit with the “spell” to change how the “camp night notification” system works (which either puts an icon on Smiler’s status bar or an exclamation mark above their head to alert them to new camp night scenes – Smiler has neither when, in previous runs, the minute they woke up on the beach an exclamation point appeared above their head, so yaaaay, maybe this mod isn’t working correctly anymore >( ), I had the pair proceed toward the wreckage, looting a dagger off the dead abducted commoner along the path on the way. I’d thought the fight would kick off the moment I went close to the devourers I could see near the entrance into the smashed-up remains –
But instead, the moment Smiler neared (and commented “more of those wretched things!” – as if you weren’t hoping one of them was Us!), the intellect devourers scurried away. I was slightly puzzled, but decided to take the opportunity to loot another nearby abducted commoner corpse – got 28 gold off that one, nice. I then had Smiler and Shadowheart go and, as carefully as possible, check on a dead intellect devourer that got toasted in a nearby patch of fiery ground to see if it had anything on it (sometimes they drop their cerebellums, which you can use in alchemy) – sadly, it did not. They then proceeded a little further into the wreck –
B) And THAT’S when the fight triggered against the three weakened-but-still-pretty-nasty intellect devourers who had previously fled! Followed by what I’d hoped to be a relatively quick battle rapidly devolving into a shitshow...let me take you through it round by round so you can see how it all went wrong:
Round One – Two of the intellect devourers (going forward, ID One and ID Two) used Dash to scurry closer, with ID One getting a little more up close and personal to Smiler than I would have liked (as it had been closer to start). Shadowheart successfully smashed that one with her mace, but failed to shove it farther away so she could escape without provoking an attack of opportunity. The third intellect devourer (ID Three) then also dashed up to Smiler, putting them in a most precarious position. Smiler attempted to use Mind Sliver on ID One, but unfortunately it made its save against the Psychic attack. Smiler then resorted to brute physical force – and WAS able to shove it away a bit! Small win there.
Round Two – ID One ran back into the fray and attempted to claw Shadowheart, but missed, while ID Two Dashed again to get into clawing distance. Shadowheart then proceeded to critically miss a mace attack on ID One, but managed to shove it away. I then had her run toward it to try and get a better position –
Forgetting she was right next to a patch of fiery floor. Cue her setting herself alight and taking a few points of fire damage. *facepalm* ID Three then attempted to claw Smiler, but missed – and Smiler, realizing the danger they were in, decided discretion was the better part of valor, Disengaged, and climbed up the nearest platform to try and get some distance and high ground.
Round Three – Id One managed a successful claw attack on Shadowheart, while ID Two missed when it ran in for a go – which was good, as she was still burning. The fire went out at the beginning of her turn, but it left her with only 6 HP! I promptly had her use a potion of healing to get some health back, then had her Disengage so she could safely run away to a hopefully-better position. ID Three then followed Smiler up to their new vantage point and successfully clawed them – Smiler tried to retaliate with an Id Insinuation attack, but the devourer made its saving throw against the affects. Smiler then tried to shove it off the platform, but no go on that either. Yeaah, things were getting dicey right around then…
Round Four – And they only got dicier as ID One pursued and clawed Shadowheart, while ID Two scurried up to Smiler and clawed them, leaving them at 1 HP! Fortunately, Shadowheart was able to use her mace to kill ID One at last, then used her Healing Word spell to give Smiler a boost by restoring 4 HP. Unfortunately, this was not nearly enough, as ID Three used its turn to successfully claw Smiler, leaving them Downed and fighting for their life!
Round Five – ID Two, seeing no point in attacking the already-dying Smiler, Dashed to Shadowheart as the next viable target. This proved to be a slight mistake, as Shadowheart promptly hit it over the frontal lobe with a Concussive Smash with her mace. She damaged it, but it managed to save against the dazing effects of the special attack, forcing her to very carefully sidestep around it to avoid triggering an attack of opportunity against her. She also sent another Healing Word Smiler’s way, putting them back on their feet with 6 HP, but another claw attack from ID Three sent them right back down into “dying” territory again. Ooof. :(
Round Six – ID Two attempted to attack Shadowheart, but missed – Shadowheart hit with her mace in turn and ran toward Smiler, intending to try and take care of ID Three instead of using her final spell slot on healing Smiler again. ID Three tried to claw her, but missed as well, while Smiler fortunately managed to make their first death saving throw. Hooray – not using Healing Word on them one more time was justified! :P
Round Seven – ID Two ran after Shadowheart, but missed its attack on her – she clobbered it with her mace, but did not quite kill it, and didn’t succeed in shoving it further away…
And then the fight came to a close with ID Three clawing her and downing her as well. Which, at that point, I wasn’t even mad about, as I’d been seriously considering just reloading the save and trying again anyway. *facepalm* That was just embarrassing. I mean, I know it’s been a while since I played BG3, but come on. The very first time I played this game, I defeated those things in nothing flat! What’s happened since then?
C) Anyway – I rewound time by reloading my save, then had Smiler and Shadowheart loot those two dead commoners again (same dagger and 28 gold) before heading into the Nautiloid to trigger the fight! THIS time, staying far away from that fire surface that had fucked over Shadowheart before. My intention was to have Smiler climb into one of the nearby platforms for some high ground advantage, but the initiative roll triggered before I could do that, unfortunately. Still, as you will see, this particular version of the fight went much better for my pair of adventurers –
Round One – ID One and ID Two dashed in again, as they do – however, because Shadowheart was actually further away this time, at the entrance of the wreckage rather than right next to Smiler, she was able to make a ranged attack with her crossbow on ID One, and take 9 HP off it right off the bat, reducing it to a mere 1 HP. Hah! She then ran to the other side of the entrance to the wreckage to keep some distance between her and the enemies. ID Three then dashed in to get nice and close for clawing – only for Smiler to Disengage and flee up the platforms next to them to get some high ground advantage! Because I was not letting them get caught by the IDs again if I could help it!
Round Two – ID One ran over to Shadowheart and attempted to claw her, but missed, while ID Two Dashed again – all the way up to Smiler on their platform! O.O How much movement do these little fuckers get per turn?! Good thing Dash is an action and thus they couldn’t immediately attack… Shadowheart killed ID One with her mace, then began running around toward ID Three to try to get into a good position to attack it. ID Three took advantage of her getting close to claw her –
And then things came back around to Smiler. And I did something that I really should have done in the first version of the fight, but I simply forgot about – had them cast False Life upon themselves! You know, that spell that they took with one of their Eldritch Invocations? Which gives them 7 temporary hit points without using a spell slot? Sure, it took up their action, but I considered it a good investment in allowing them to take a hit! I had them use their bonus action to try and shove ID Two, but unfortunately, they failed – they were, however, able to kite themselves around the intellect devourer a bit and get down onto the lower of the two platforms without triggering an attack of opportunity. Yay.
Round Three – ID Two promptly slashed at Smiler, and False Life proved its worth by absorbing the 6 HP hit! Shadowheart then hit ID Three with a Concussive Smash, and successfully dazed it before running over to Smiler to give them a hand. Unfortunately, being dazed didn’t stop ID Three from being a threat, and the injured devourer managed to follow Shadowheart and claw her, ouch. Smiler tried to use a Piercing Strike with their dagger on ID Two just above them, but sadly missed – weirdly enough, though, they were able to shove the damn thing. They clambered back up onto the higher platform right afterward, wanting that high ground!
Round Four – ID Two clawed Smiler again, removing the last of their False Life hit points (that spell was so worth). Shadowheart smashed ID Three with her mace, took a moment to glug a healing potion, then scrambled up onto the upper platform and behind ID Two. ID Three tried to pursue and claw her, but missed, and Smiler was able to stab and kill it with their knife. They then attempted to shove ID Two again, but missed, and instead joined Shadowheart in hiding behind it.
Round Five – ID Two indulged in its favorite activity of “clawing Smiler” again – Shadowheart responded by hitting it with her mace, then successfully shoving it right off the platform, causing it to take an extra point of bludgeoning damage as it fell to the ground below. I happily had Smiler warm up Gilded Eldritch Blast and fire off a beam to finish the damn thing off once and for all –
Only for them to critically miss. *facepalm* Fucking dice! So instead they glugged a health potion and ran backwards along the platform to put more space between ID Two and them. Because I did not want them to get clawed again!
Round Six ID Two activated Dash and managed to scurry around and clamber back up onto the platform – but, since Dash is an action, that took up its entire turn. Leaving it unable to attack –
And leaving it very vulnerable to Shadowheart, who – after checking her cantrip options – went with the power of a Firebolt to roast it. She then turned to Smiler and said “You fight well. Perhaps our survival isn’t such a distant prospect,” while I just raised an eyebrow at the screen. I don’t think critically missing Eldritch Blast is fighting well, girlie! (But then again, my canon for them is that they’re NOT very good in a fight, so…)
D) With the fight officially over, I had the pair enjoy a short rest to refresh their hit points and weapon actions, then run around looting this particular section of the ship. None of the intellect devourers were nice enough to give up their cerebellums, but they did find:
I. A bottle of Oil Of Accuracy (which gives +2 to any attack rolls using a weapon coated in the stuff) in a Cartilaginous Chest up on a platform
II. A Potion Of Speed and a void bulb on a dead mind flayer next to the chest
III. A silver locket (“For Papa” :( ), 48 gold, a rapier, and a walnut on the abducted nobleman on the floor
IV. And another void bulb on another dead mindflayer on the highest platform above the dead nobleman
Not a bad haul, I suppose – Potions of Speed are always handy, for all that they will make the drinker Lethargic after a couple of turns, and the Oil Of Accuracy should be useful in a future fight. ...and given certain memes, I should probably give it to Shadowheart. :p
And that’s where I left things off, with the pair preparing to pop out the other side of the wreckage. Next time, we’ll see about exploring the area some more and grabbing Astarion and Gale, like I’d hoped to do today before the intellect devourers kicked my ass. *shakehead* Note to self – Smiler can cast False Life at will. Use it liberally. (In fact, it just occurs to me that, since it doesn’t cost a spell slot, and the description openly states it lasts until Long Rest, I could just have them cast it again to have the seven hit points ready for the next fight! Sheesh!)
Writing: Wrote another page on “The Van Dort Vacancy” this evening, which featured:
A) Barnaby happily telling a cruelly-amused Victor and Alice all about how the guests were shit-talking Nell (with lines like ‘she puts on so many airs it’s a wonder she isn’t blown all the way to Tycheros” XD)...and then kinda ruining the bonding moment by talking about how those in trade should know their place; Kasimir was like “don’t you own a shipping company” (another reference to an Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark episode, “To The Depths,” where it was revealed he does indeed – after he used owning one to talk the Chief of Police into letting him into a restricted part of a canal for a score; he genuinely didn’t know if he owned one or not before that XD), with Barnaby explaining “yes, but I don’t run it, that’s the difference”
B) Smiler finally popping that door lock, and Victor leading the way into the opulent vault room, with everyone examining the treasures within (which are only brought out for the most important guests) – as it turns out, the Van Dorts own a solid gold cutlery set, with matching plates and crystal glasses blown by Iruvian glassblowers, and a set of chairs made of gold-plated Dagger Isles wood, with fancy embroidered cushions, that the Everglots were allowed to sit on during wedding negotiations (lucky them)
C) Smiler going over to the far wall and asking Victor what all the metal discs on it were – and Victor explaining that they’re Coins, as in the actual physical currency instead of just the abstract representation of wealth. Cue Smiler and Alice being absolutely flabbergasted (because one Coin represents a whole week’s wages for most people, and here the Van Dorts have AN ENTIRE WALL OF DOZENS OF THEM); Kasimir trying to keep it cool while desperately resisting the urge to go pry some off (Victor warned him that the wall was Nell’s pride and joy, but the man’s heart wants it wants); and Barnaby being quite put out because how dare the Van Dorts be more showy than him, he needs to have a serious talk with his decorator XD
Fun times! I do like making the Van Dorts be ridiculously wealthy and ridiculous in showing off that wealth. :P Next time, Victor opens the safe, and everyone helps themselves to the “petty cash” within! Because fuck the elder Van Dorts. :D
Tumblr: Well, I didn’t get anything done in the “traditional” sense around here (no working on drafts on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), nor answering any asks or threads on Valice Multiverse), but I did get something done related to one of my tumblr blogs – specifically, I copied over the text from my Google Doc explaining all the verses and such on The Valice Multiverse to an Ellipsus document and changed the link to go to THERE instead. Because we don’t like Google and its stupid policies and Ellipsus is right there as a browser-based writing program. ...admittedly I now don’t like Ellipsus because figuring out how to turn a draft of a document into one that could be properly shared with others proved to be more complicated than I thought and thus annoyed me, but this is pretty much the only thing I’m using it for right now, so I think it’s okay. :P
So yeah -- not exactly how I was hoping the day would go. *sigh* Stupid possible wasp (seriously, how the FUCK did it get into my room and under my shade?!)... Anyway, I have managed to stay up too late again, so I'd better get to bed. I have no idea how tomorrow is going to go, but I would like to be able to work on my tumblr drafts on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) and FINALLY finish that Tav!Smiler post; play a video game (I don't know yet if I'll go back to a traditional Fallout Sunday format or do more BG3); do some writing (again, don't know yet if it'll be FO4 Playthrough Progression or "The Van Dort Vacancy"); get in my workout; and watch the latest episode of Jon's F:NV YOLO Remastered run. Because while I'm trying to avoid YouTube as much as possible (why I ripped that new music yesterday), that series gives me joy and I find myself in need of that. Night all!
Cleaning: I am sorry to say this did not go particularly smoothly today – not because there was anything particularly difficult about the cleaning itself, but because just after I’d finished dusting all the shelves above my bed and my ceiling fan, and was getting ready to put my new sheets on my mattress, my parents said they were running out to get some new speakers for Dad’s truck (they’d just installed a new radio in it, and said new radio made it very clear they needed new speakers too). And when I lifted my shade a bit to peek out at them heading off –
I saw something crawling on my window. Something that was either a very large ant – or a wasp.
Cue me spending the next twenty-odd minutes gathering my courage to try and get another look at the damn thing under the shade so I could fucking kill it already, terrified that if it was a wasp, I was going to get stung. :( (Not allergic as far as I’m aware – just, I think reasonably, not keen on wasp stings!) Fortunately, I eventually realized I could use my fly swatter to pick up the shade just enough to figure out where the damn thing was on my window without getting too close, then my iPad to mash it through the shade. Took two hits, but I managed to kill it and vacuum it up. But, as you might imagine, the whole experience not only made the whole cleaning experience take longer, it tanked my mood (because I was furious about having to deal with this and convinced it got in from my parents holding the doors open in the house while going in and out), and – yeah. Just not a fun experience to deal with. *sigh* Ironically, I still finished all of my cleaning before lunch – but that’s just because lunch didn’t happen until 2 PM, thanks to the whole “installing a new stereo and speakers in the truck” thing. Good thing I didn’t have much of an appetite for a while after having to murder that bug! (No, I never did definitely confirm what it was – though the fact that the corpse had yellowish legs before I vacuumed it up makes me think “wasp.” Ugh.)
Baldur’s Gate III: As rather befits the morning I had, I had a somewhat unsatisfying playsession of BG3 today – mostly because I ended up having to do the fight against the weakened intellect devourers in the Nautiloid wreckage twice. Why? Well, let me explain:
A) I started off with Smiler and Shadowheart waiting patiently where I’d left them last time, by the big rock outcrop in front of the chunk of the Nautiloid where you first find the intellect devourers. After experimenting a bit with the “spell” to change how the “camp night notification” system works (which either puts an icon on Smiler’s status bar or an exclamation mark above their head to alert them to new camp night scenes – Smiler has neither when, in previous runs, the minute they woke up on the beach an exclamation point appeared above their head, so yaaaay, maybe this mod isn’t working correctly anymore >( ), I had the pair proceed toward the wreckage, looting a dagger off the dead abducted commoner along the path on the way. I’d thought the fight would kick off the moment I went close to the devourers I could see near the entrance into the smashed-up remains –
But instead, the moment Smiler neared (and commented “more of those wretched things!” – as if you weren’t hoping one of them was Us!), the intellect devourers scurried away. I was slightly puzzled, but decided to take the opportunity to loot another nearby abducted commoner corpse – got 28 gold off that one, nice. I then had Smiler and Shadowheart go and, as carefully as possible, check on a dead intellect devourer that got toasted in a nearby patch of fiery ground to see if it had anything on it (sometimes they drop their cerebellums, which you can use in alchemy) – sadly, it did not. They then proceeded a little further into the wreck –
B) And THAT’S when the fight triggered against the three weakened-but-still-pretty-nasty intellect devourers who had previously fled! Followed by what I’d hoped to be a relatively quick battle rapidly devolving into a shitshow...let me take you through it round by round so you can see how it all went wrong:
Round One – Two of the intellect devourers (going forward, ID One and ID Two) used Dash to scurry closer, with ID One getting a little more up close and personal to Smiler than I would have liked (as it had been closer to start). Shadowheart successfully smashed that one with her mace, but failed to shove it farther away so she could escape without provoking an attack of opportunity. The third intellect devourer (ID Three) then also dashed up to Smiler, putting them in a most precarious position. Smiler attempted to use Mind Sliver on ID One, but unfortunately it made its save against the Psychic attack. Smiler then resorted to brute physical force – and WAS able to shove it away a bit! Small win there.
Round Two – ID One ran back into the fray and attempted to claw Shadowheart, but missed, while ID Two Dashed again to get into clawing distance. Shadowheart then proceeded to critically miss a mace attack on ID One, but managed to shove it away. I then had her run toward it to try and get a better position –
Forgetting she was right next to a patch of fiery floor. Cue her setting herself alight and taking a few points of fire damage. *facepalm* ID Three then attempted to claw Smiler, but missed – and Smiler, realizing the danger they were in, decided discretion was the better part of valor, Disengaged, and climbed up the nearest platform to try and get some distance and high ground.
Round Three – Id One managed a successful claw attack on Shadowheart, while ID Two missed when it ran in for a go – which was good, as she was still burning. The fire went out at the beginning of her turn, but it left her with only 6 HP! I promptly had her use a potion of healing to get some health back, then had her Disengage so she could safely run away to a hopefully-better position. ID Three then followed Smiler up to their new vantage point and successfully clawed them – Smiler tried to retaliate with an Id Insinuation attack, but the devourer made its saving throw against the affects. Smiler then tried to shove it off the platform, but no go on that either. Yeaah, things were getting dicey right around then…
Round Four – And they only got dicier as ID One pursued and clawed Shadowheart, while ID Two scurried up to Smiler and clawed them, leaving them at 1 HP! Fortunately, Shadowheart was able to use her mace to kill ID One at last, then used her Healing Word spell to give Smiler a boost by restoring 4 HP. Unfortunately, this was not nearly enough, as ID Three used its turn to successfully claw Smiler, leaving them Downed and fighting for their life!
Round Five – ID Two, seeing no point in attacking the already-dying Smiler, Dashed to Shadowheart as the next viable target. This proved to be a slight mistake, as Shadowheart promptly hit it over the frontal lobe with a Concussive Smash with her mace. She damaged it, but it managed to save against the dazing effects of the special attack, forcing her to very carefully sidestep around it to avoid triggering an attack of opportunity against her. She also sent another Healing Word Smiler’s way, putting them back on their feet with 6 HP, but another claw attack from ID Three sent them right back down into “dying” territory again. Ooof. :(
Round Six – ID Two attempted to attack Shadowheart, but missed – Shadowheart hit with her mace in turn and ran toward Smiler, intending to try and take care of ID Three instead of using her final spell slot on healing Smiler again. ID Three tried to claw her, but missed as well, while Smiler fortunately managed to make their first death saving throw. Hooray – not using Healing Word on them one more time was justified! :P
Round Seven – ID Two ran after Shadowheart, but missed its attack on her – she clobbered it with her mace, but did not quite kill it, and didn’t succeed in shoving it further away…
And then the fight came to a close with ID Three clawing her and downing her as well. Which, at that point, I wasn’t even mad about, as I’d been seriously considering just reloading the save and trying again anyway. *facepalm* That was just embarrassing. I mean, I know it’s been a while since I played BG3, but come on. The very first time I played this game, I defeated those things in nothing flat! What’s happened since then?
C) Anyway – I rewound time by reloading my save, then had Smiler and Shadowheart loot those two dead commoners again (same dagger and 28 gold) before heading into the Nautiloid to trigger the fight! THIS time, staying far away from that fire surface that had fucked over Shadowheart before. My intention was to have Smiler climb into one of the nearby platforms for some high ground advantage, but the initiative roll triggered before I could do that, unfortunately. Still, as you will see, this particular version of the fight went much better for my pair of adventurers –
Round One – ID One and ID Two dashed in again, as they do – however, because Shadowheart was actually further away this time, at the entrance of the wreckage rather than right next to Smiler, she was able to make a ranged attack with her crossbow on ID One, and take 9 HP off it right off the bat, reducing it to a mere 1 HP. Hah! She then ran to the other side of the entrance to the wreckage to keep some distance between her and the enemies. ID Three then dashed in to get nice and close for clawing – only for Smiler to Disengage and flee up the platforms next to them to get some high ground advantage! Because I was not letting them get caught by the IDs again if I could help it!
Round Two – ID One ran over to Shadowheart and attempted to claw her, but missed, while ID Two Dashed again – all the way up to Smiler on their platform! O.O How much movement do these little fuckers get per turn?! Good thing Dash is an action and thus they couldn’t immediately attack… Shadowheart killed ID One with her mace, then began running around toward ID Three to try to get into a good position to attack it. ID Three took advantage of her getting close to claw her –
And then things came back around to Smiler. And I did something that I really should have done in the first version of the fight, but I simply forgot about – had them cast False Life upon themselves! You know, that spell that they took with one of their Eldritch Invocations? Which gives them 7 temporary hit points without using a spell slot? Sure, it took up their action, but I considered it a good investment in allowing them to take a hit! I had them use their bonus action to try and shove ID Two, but unfortunately, they failed – they were, however, able to kite themselves around the intellect devourer a bit and get down onto the lower of the two platforms without triggering an attack of opportunity. Yay.
Round Three – ID Two promptly slashed at Smiler, and False Life proved its worth by absorbing the 6 HP hit! Shadowheart then hit ID Three with a Concussive Smash, and successfully dazed it before running over to Smiler to give them a hand. Unfortunately, being dazed didn’t stop ID Three from being a threat, and the injured devourer managed to follow Shadowheart and claw her, ouch. Smiler tried to use a Piercing Strike with their dagger on ID Two just above them, but sadly missed – weirdly enough, though, they were able to shove the damn thing. They clambered back up onto the higher platform right afterward, wanting that high ground!
Round Four – ID Two clawed Smiler again, removing the last of their False Life hit points (that spell was so worth). Shadowheart smashed ID Three with her mace, took a moment to glug a healing potion, then scrambled up onto the upper platform and behind ID Two. ID Three tried to pursue and claw her, but missed, and Smiler was able to stab and kill it with their knife. They then attempted to shove ID Two again, but missed, and instead joined Shadowheart in hiding behind it.
Round Five – ID Two indulged in its favorite activity of “clawing Smiler” again – Shadowheart responded by hitting it with her mace, then successfully shoving it right off the platform, causing it to take an extra point of bludgeoning damage as it fell to the ground below. I happily had Smiler warm up Gilded Eldritch Blast and fire off a beam to finish the damn thing off once and for all –
Only for them to critically miss. *facepalm* Fucking dice! So instead they glugged a health potion and ran backwards along the platform to put more space between ID Two and them. Because I did not want them to get clawed again!
Round Six ID Two activated Dash and managed to scurry around and clamber back up onto the platform – but, since Dash is an action, that took up its entire turn. Leaving it unable to attack –
And leaving it very vulnerable to Shadowheart, who – after checking her cantrip options – went with the power of a Firebolt to roast it. She then turned to Smiler and said “You fight well. Perhaps our survival isn’t such a distant prospect,” while I just raised an eyebrow at the screen. I don’t think critically missing Eldritch Blast is fighting well, girlie! (But then again, my canon for them is that they’re NOT very good in a fight, so…)
D) With the fight officially over, I had the pair enjoy a short rest to refresh their hit points and weapon actions, then run around looting this particular section of the ship. None of the intellect devourers were nice enough to give up their cerebellums, but they did find:
I. A bottle of Oil Of Accuracy (which gives +2 to any attack rolls using a weapon coated in the stuff) in a Cartilaginous Chest up on a platform
II. A Potion Of Speed and a void bulb on a dead mind flayer next to the chest
III. A silver locket (“For Papa” :( ), 48 gold, a rapier, and a walnut on the abducted nobleman on the floor
IV. And another void bulb on another dead mindflayer on the highest platform above the dead nobleman
Not a bad haul, I suppose – Potions of Speed are always handy, for all that they will make the drinker Lethargic after a couple of turns, and the Oil Of Accuracy should be useful in a future fight. ...and given certain memes, I should probably give it to Shadowheart. :p
And that’s where I left things off, with the pair preparing to pop out the other side of the wreckage. Next time, we’ll see about exploring the area some more and grabbing Astarion and Gale, like I’d hoped to do today before the intellect devourers kicked my ass. *shakehead* Note to self – Smiler can cast False Life at will. Use it liberally. (In fact, it just occurs to me that, since it doesn’t cost a spell slot, and the description openly states it lasts until Long Rest, I could just have them cast it again to have the seven hit points ready for the next fight! Sheesh!)
Writing: Wrote another page on “The Van Dort Vacancy” this evening, which featured:
A) Barnaby happily telling a cruelly-amused Victor and Alice all about how the guests were shit-talking Nell (with lines like ‘she puts on so many airs it’s a wonder she isn’t blown all the way to Tycheros” XD)...and then kinda ruining the bonding moment by talking about how those in trade should know their place; Kasimir was like “don’t you own a shipping company” (another reference to an Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark episode, “To The Depths,” where it was revealed he does indeed – after he used owning one to talk the Chief of Police into letting him into a restricted part of a canal for a score; he genuinely didn’t know if he owned one or not before that XD), with Barnaby explaining “yes, but I don’t run it, that’s the difference”
B) Smiler finally popping that door lock, and Victor leading the way into the opulent vault room, with everyone examining the treasures within (which are only brought out for the most important guests) – as it turns out, the Van Dorts own a solid gold cutlery set, with matching plates and crystal glasses blown by Iruvian glassblowers, and a set of chairs made of gold-plated Dagger Isles wood, with fancy embroidered cushions, that the Everglots were allowed to sit on during wedding negotiations (lucky them)
C) Smiler going over to the far wall and asking Victor what all the metal discs on it were – and Victor explaining that they’re Coins, as in the actual physical currency instead of just the abstract representation of wealth. Cue Smiler and Alice being absolutely flabbergasted (because one Coin represents a whole week’s wages for most people, and here the Van Dorts have AN ENTIRE WALL OF DOZENS OF THEM); Kasimir trying to keep it cool while desperately resisting the urge to go pry some off (Victor warned him that the wall was Nell’s pride and joy, but the man’s heart wants it wants); and Barnaby being quite put out because how dare the Van Dorts be more showy than him, he needs to have a serious talk with his decorator XD
Fun times! I do like making the Van Dorts be ridiculously wealthy and ridiculous in showing off that wealth. :P Next time, Victor opens the safe, and everyone helps themselves to the “petty cash” within! Because fuck the elder Van Dorts. :D
Tumblr: Well, I didn’t get anything done in the “traditional” sense around here (no working on drafts on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), nor answering any asks or threads on Valice Multiverse), but I did get something done related to one of my tumblr blogs – specifically, I copied over the text from my Google Doc explaining all the verses and such on The Valice Multiverse to an Ellipsus document and changed the link to go to THERE instead. Because we don’t like Google and its stupid policies and Ellipsus is right there as a browser-based writing program. ...admittedly I now don’t like Ellipsus because figuring out how to turn a draft of a document into one that could be properly shared with others proved to be more complicated than I thought and thus annoyed me, but this is pretty much the only thing I’m using it for right now, so I think it’s okay. :P
So yeah -- not exactly how I was hoping the day would go. *sigh* Stupid possible wasp (seriously, how the FUCK did it get into my room and under my shade?!)... Anyway, I have managed to stay up too late again, so I'd better get to bed. I have no idea how tomorrow is going to go, but I would like to be able to work on my tumblr drafts on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) and FINALLY finish that Tav!Smiler post; play a video game (I don't know yet if I'll go back to a traditional Fallout Sunday format or do more BG3); do some writing (again, don't know yet if it'll be FO4 Playthrough Progression or "The Van Dort Vacancy"); get in my workout; and watch the latest episode of Jon's F:NV YOLO Remastered run. Because while I'm trying to avoid YouTube as much as possible (why I ripped that new music yesterday), that series gives me joy and I find myself in need of that. Night all!
