A Better Sunday, Mostly
Sep. 28th, 2025 11:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickI still woke up earlier than I wanted (had to use the bathroom, then couldn't get back to sleep because my parents were talking very loudly about whether or not to put a laundry chute in the bathroom -- Mom wants one, but Dad was trying to impress upon her that he could wreck the bathroom floor trying to do it, so...), and was fairly grumpy this morning from PMS -- but I got a lot more fun stuff done today, which made me happy:
Tumblr: Well, there was the usual nothing happening over at Valice Multiverse, but I did get a few things done over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) today –
A) First, I went through my tracked tags and dropped the following in my drafts for later:
I. Some fanart of Therese and Jeannette Voerman from VTMB by feyspeaker, showing our two body-sharing twins next to each other, with their respective headshots connected by rough stitches – it was very cool, and very well-done (the eyes of the two ladies especially), so I definitely wanted to save it
II. Some fanart of Vault Boy and Nuka-Girl from Fallout 4 by phoneyotc, showing the two cuddling, Nuka-Girl holding Vault Boy’s head as he looks up at her with heart eyes – I just thought it was weirdly cute! I support this ship featuring mascots of evil Fallout-verse corporations XD
III. And a gifset of Victor running away from Emily after his accidental proposal in Corpse Bride by atomic-chronoscaph, covering him falling down the hill and crashing into that gravestone to Emily catching up with him on the bridge and kissing him – it was a very nicely-done gifset showing off one of my favorite bits in the film, and I never have enough CB stuff to reblog in my drafts, so in it went!
B) And second, I first liked, then (after lunch) straight-up reblogged a post by fricketyfrackingsilly jokingly talking about how a lot of Smiler OCs have the same “bones” when it comes to how they’re designed – lots of trauma, mad scientist, trans or queer in some other way, weird hair, is either brainwashed or brainwashes others, and dating Oblivion. Because, well… XD Specifically, as per the tags I added to the post, my own Smiler:
I. May or may not have lots of trauma – it’s dependent on the AU (for example, Modern AU Smiler is well-adjusted; Valicer In The Dark is – less so)
II. Is an excellent chemist/alchemist, and often dabbles things in robotics or web design
III. Has at least somewhat weird hair with their long purple-tipped bangs
IV. Is a panromantic pansexual nonbinary person
V. Is very good at brainwashing others (their exact methods depend on the AU – and also they’re waaaaay more ethical about it than most other Smilers due to my desire to not see them stabbed by Alice)
VI. And is not currently dating Oblivion because they’re part of the Valicer OT3 and other related polycules, but I could see such a relationship happening in the past (I do have a vague headcanon that Smiler’s fucked pretty much all of their coaster friends, it just never developed into anything romantic)
So yeah – most boxes ticked in some way or another! I guess that makes them a good Smiler OC? XD
Baldur’s Gate III: Yes, I got to play a video game today! In fact, I played for longer than I intended because I got wrapped up in a fight that took some time to finish...but you know what, fuck it, no regrets. I enjoyed myself. *nods* Anyway, let me tell you all about Smiler, Astarion, Gale, and Shadowheart having fun storming thecastle ruined chapel:
A) I started things off with the gang hanging out in the little courtyard, right outside the door into the dining room sort of area that Andorn (one of the merry band raiding the chapel) guards. I had Smiler approach the locked door, which prompted Andorn to ask if they were Gimblebock – Smiler promptly pretended to be the halfling, and – with a little help from their high Charisma and Shadowheart’s Guidance, easily passed the DC 10 to fool poor Andorn into letting them in, Inspiring Astarion (who, thanks to his Charlatan background, is into this sort of thing) in the process. Andorn thus opened the door –
And was very surprised when four people he very much did not know came swarming in! So surprised, in fact, that despite initiating combat with these strangers, he was not allowed to take any actions (regular, bonus, or reaction) during the first round. Here’s how the resultant fight went:
Round One – Astarion started things off by trying to stab Andorn, but missed. He used one of his Cunning Actions to Disengage (which I only realized after the fact he didn’t need to do, but better to get into the habit early), then ran around behind him to get out of his line of sight. Shadowheart then whacked Andorn with her mace for 8 damage, before following Astarion and running behind her foe. Gale then hit the guy with a Ray of Frost (which both does cold damage AND cuts +10 feet off the enemy’s movement for a turn or two) – only did 1 damage, but it was something! He joined the line of people standing behind Andorn before passing things over to Smiler, who tried hitting Andorn with a Mind Sliver – sadly, Andorn managed to save. Smiler then retreated over to the stairs, trying to get into a slightly better position for a Gilded Eldritch Blast for the next round.
Round Two – Astarion, now safely out of Andorn’s cone of vision, used a Cunning Action to Hide, then sneak attacked Andorn, taking him down to a mere 2 HP! Unfortunately, though, he couldn’t get away (trying to retreat would have provoked an attack of opportunity), so I had him sit tight and waited for Andorn to attack him now that he had a turn –
But for some reason, the badly-wounded Andorn instead apparently decided to try and attack Smiler. Maybe in retaliation for the attempt at a really bad psychic headache? However, as he limped toward Smiler by the stairs, he of course had to go past Astarion, Shadowheart, and Gale –
ALL of whom were allowed to make an attack of opportunity against him. Unfortunately, Astarion and Shadowheart both missed their attacks (I expect that from Shadowheart, but Astarion, come on) – fortunately, Gale did not, and took down Andorn with a critical smack over the head with his staff. :D Yay! Smiler then looted the body, and found a Bandit’s Key, a spare bottle, some leather armor, a torch, and a shortsword – most of the stuff went into their inventory, but the torch they kindly handed over to Gale if he needed it, as – being the only full-human in the group – Gale doesn’t have darkvision, poor guy.
B) With Andorn taken care of, it was time to loot the dining room of the ruined chapel of all its most useful goodies (aka, all the stuff that wasn’t a standard cup, plate, or cutting board). Smiler and company thus got their hands on:
I. 13 gold, a cup, plate, and glass chalice out of the “Looter’s Chest” on the nearby dining table, next to the burning fireplace
II. Two Waterdhavian cheese wedges, one Waterdhavian cheese wheel, a bunch of dried sausage links, a supply pack, a carafe of wine, and a carafe of water off the table itself (these looters were eating pretty well, I must say)
III. A couple of milk cans and a mortar and pestle from the side table under some shelves to the right of the dining table (the mortar and pestle will be going into Smiler’s pack as a “personal item,” as that’s definitely something their alchemy-loving ass would have)
IV. Three books from the various stacks and rows piled up on the shelves and table near the mysterious plaque on the far right wall (which looked like it was blocking some sealed-up doors, honestly) that Smiler couldn’t read – “The Unclaimed,” about a Sharran who gave up everything for her goddess...only to be forgotten and unclaimed in the afterlife; “The Curse Of The Vampyr,” talking about how to recognize vampires and how to protect oneself against them (namely, don’t walk on moonless nights, and don’t let anyone you don’t fully trust into your home); and “Death And Divinity: A Godly Guide,” talking about how death is a force too powerful to be contained by any one god (why you have gods of specific deaths and whatnot) and specifically mentioning how Jergal was the one who accounted for each soul as it passed from life to death, until he grew bored basically and let Bhaal, Bane, and Myrkul split up his job (great work there, Withers)
V. A portrait of Fane, an undead skull-headed man and one of the playable characters from one of Larian’s other games, Divinity: Original Sin 2, on the left-hand wall by the main dining table, next to some shelves (only exists in this world because I have the Digital Deluxe Upgrade – too bad I have nowhere to hang it at camp!)
VI. Four candles from a chest under Fane’s portrait (apparently an easy way to apply burning to a weapon, and just useful to have for extra light)
VII. An ink pot in the crate just beside said chest (will go well with Smiler’s quill pen)
VIII. And another carafe of water on the shelf just above the crate
*nods* Not a bad haul, I think! At the very least, the gang will eat well and have plenty of reading material the next time they take a long rest. :P
C) With the room looted, it was time to move on and find the rest of the raiding party to defeat them in combat! I had the gang thus move over to the door at the top of the stairs on the left; confirmed that it could only be opened by the nearby lever (Astarion had no option to lockpick); had Smiler preemptively use False Life on themselves to get their 7 temp hit points before anything kicked off (forward planning!); made a quick autosave, and then had them open the door –
To find Mari the Level 2 Human Rogue! And – only Mari the Level 2 Human Rogue, standing alone in the room just beyond. O.o I was somewhat puzzled but as Mari had immediately spotted the group, there was no time to figure out where the heck the rest of her looting party was. Instead, it was straight into combat –
Which didn’t even last one round. XD Mostly because, once I confirmed that Astarion was out of her direct line of sight (you can see the sight cones if you hit Left Shift, and she was looking off to the side), I was able to have him Cunningly Hide, sneak up to her, Sneak Attack her with his dagger, then sneak back to the door, before following up with a deadly crossbow bolt from Shadowheart. Yay! Makes up for them missing those two Attacks of Opportunity on Andorn before, let me tell you. I let Shadowheart search the body, as she was the one who actually killed Mari –
And then I saw that Mari was carrying a bottle of basic poison, a set of thieves’ tools, a trap disarm kit, 6 gold, a set of leather armor, a dagger, a shortbow, and – most importantly – a set of Uncommon light armor called the “Shadowskin Jerkin” that had 12 AC and a special ability called “Shadow Blend” that gives whoever wears it +1 to AC and +1 on all Stealth checks when obscured (aka in the shadows), and went “actually, Astarion, I think you should loot this corpse.” XD Astarion thus took all the goodies and slapped on his new armor – which actually went pretty well with his Buccaneer’s Boots! :D Gotta dye ‘em both when we get back to camp, of course, but at least now he has a special new fit, yay~
D) However, the defeat of Mari did not answer a very important question – where the hell were the other members of her party? I could very faintly hear their voices in the general area, but I couldn’t figure out where they were coming from. I had Smiler check the room to the left, the one with the beds and various chests that you can fall into if you’re not careful (as I discovered during one of my first playthroughs), but there was nobody in there –
And then I rotated the camera, and noted that the voices got louder the closer to the front of the room I got. “Ah, they must be in the library just beyond this room,” I realized, and sent Smiler to open the door –
And sure enough, there were Barton, Haseid, Cefrey, and Torgga! Who of course noticed the interlopers, yelled at them to “Clear off! We were here first!” and initiated combat! Leading to the protracted battle that kept me playing BG3 longer than intended...here’s why it took so long:
Round One: Things started off poorly with Barton getting to go first – he promptly ran up a bit and lobbed some Alchemist’s Fire at Astarion, who had the bad luck to be standing by one of the explosive barrels in the main room, meaning he got set on fire and took 7 fire damage, ow. I quickly had Astarion get out of the burning area and into a doorway, where he critically missed shooting Barton with his bow. Which, I guess, is understandable, as he was on fire. I had him go into the corner and Cunningly Hide by the side of the door to lick his wounds, and got Shadowheart into position to fire on Barton with her crossbow. She got a crit hit that took off about half his health, which I was very pleased with – I had her retreat back through the doorway, then use her Healing Word spell on Astarion to restore 6 HP (it’s also supposed to remove Burning, but unfortunately it didn’t in this case). Haseid the barbarian then launched a javelin at Smiler, taking off four of their temporary hit points, while Cefrey gave herself some Mage Armor before running ahead a little bit to try and join the fun. Gale tried to use a Ray of Frost on Hasied, but missed, so instead I had him retreat a bit instead – Torgga then tried to hit him with an Ensnaring Strike with her bow, but missed. Smiler then stepped up to the plate, and (having examined Haseid and noted he only had 10 Wisdom), hit him with Tasha’s Hideous Laughter to leave him laughing hysterically on the floor –
Then closed the door separating their foes from them and ran to hide behind Gale. XD I’ve always wanted to do that after seeing a few examples of Proxy doing that in some of their videos! Gotta make the enemies work to get at my party!
Round Two: Barton ran up, opened the door, then proceeded to miss Shadowheart with a Javelin – he then sensed that someone was hiding from him (it’s the burning elf just to the right of you, sir), and cast Sense Hidden Presence on himself – I have no idea if it succeeded or not, as Barton ended up just turning around and running back through the door into the library. O.o Astarion stopped burning after taking another 3 damage, Cunningly Hid again, then snuck up on Barton for a sneak attack –
But, unfortunately, Torgga, having Darkvision, spotted him, so Astarion was left just executing a regular knife attack, darn. :( I decided he could use his special Piercing Strike weapon ability instead, which went off perfectly, leaving Barton with 2 HP and Gaping Wounds to boot. :D He then retreated as Shadowheart advanced to hit Barton with her mace – sadly, she missed, and also had to retreat. Haseid then managed to shake off Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, though it took his entire turn, while Cafrey stayed near the back and hit poor Shadowheart with a Firebolt for 5 damage. This brought things over to Gale, who I thought should Thunderwave at least one of these fools – after a little initial confusion, I finally realized that “oh, you don’t cast this spell on an enemy, you cast it on the floor” and had him send off a wave –
Which managed to throw Barton further into the room and kill him, yay! :D I then had Gale close the door and retreat again. XD Torgga used her turn to Dash forward, open the door, and get to Shadowheart – only to fail to shove her; Smiler then used their turn to examine Torgga, and – seeing she was resistant to mind-altering effects like being Charmed – elected to try and hit her with a Gilded Eldritch Blast. Unfortunately, it missed, and Smiler decided discretion was the better part of valor and moved backward to avoid more danger coming their way. They’re not exactly Constitutionally-blessed, after all!
Round Three: I had Astarion go after Torgga, as she was nice and close – and thanks to Shadowheart being nearby, he was able to use a Reaction to Sneak Attack her despite not meeting the usual requirements! Nice~ This resulted in him doing 10 damage to her –
And a couple points of damage to himself, because the idiot ran across the fiery fire surface to get to her. *facepalm* That’s on you, character AI! Anyway, I had him run to the door and close it to slow down the remaining enemies a tad, then drink a healing potion to heal himself and stop him burning. Shadowheart then killed Torgga with her mace, before running to the back of the room to stand with Smiler –
Aaand then Haseid opened the door, came in, and threw a javelin at the second oil barrel in the room. Which I, for some reason, had parked Smiler right next to. It of course exploded because it was near fire, and poor Smiler started burning, losing not only their remaining 3 temp hit points but also 4 real ones! *facepalm* Yeah, that’s on me, character AI. And while Shadowheart managed to avoid getting exploded by the barrel, Cefrey hit her with Firebolt AGAIN, smacking her for another 7 HP and bringing her total down to 4. *grimace* Gale tried to help by using Ray of Frost on Haseid to slow him down, but critically missed – though he did freeze the blood under Haseid, making it a more treacherous surface, at least! He also couldn’t properly retreat, because all paths to the back of the room now led through a lot of fire. Meh. He did what he could, then handed control to Smiler – who, of course, started THEIR turn drinking a healing potion to cure their burning skin and lost hit points before getting out of the danger zone. They then turned their attention back to Haseid and used their other spell slot to hit him with Id Insinuation, the spell that incapacitates a victim with conflicting desires. Haseid did not make the save to avoid the effect, leaving him frozen in place and Smiler free to retreat further to even safer ground.
Round Four: I chose to have Astarion try to stab Cefrey, as she was the one giving us the most trouble right now with all her Firebolts on Shadowheart (and also I didn’t want to interrupt Id Insinuation on Haseid) – he unfortunately failed, so he used a Cunning Action to Disengage and run behind her to try for a sneak attack next turn. Shadowheart then glugged down a healing potion to keep herself alive before trying to turn things around on Cefrey with a Firebolt of her own – sadly, she missed, so I had her retreat to hang out near Smiler. Haseid managed to shake off Id Insinuation right afterward – but it stopped him from doing anything else on his turn, AND halved his health in the process (taking 12 off his 25 HP), so yay! Even better, Cefrey decided to focus her attention on Astarion on her turn, and managed to miss grabbing him with Shocking Grasp – no more Firebolts on poor Shadowheart! I then had Gale try to Thunderwave Haseid – only to cast the spell in the wrong area, meaning it did nothing (I think the game assumed I was trying to hit Cefrey or something). So instead he ran up to Haseid, managed to successfully shove him, and then retreated back again. XD Whatever works! Smiler ended the round by hitting Haseid with a Gilded Eldritch Blast, reducing him down to 2 HP, which we all appreciated.
Round Five: Astarion once again missed stabbing Cefrey with his Needle of the Outlaw Rogue, so he once again Cunningly Disengaged and ran behind her. Shadowheart killed Haseid with a crossbow bolt. Cefrey managed to miss grabbing Astarion with Shocking Grasp again. Gale managed to get her with Ray of Frost before slipping back out of the danger zone. And Smiler smacked her with a Gilded Eldritch Blast – bringing her down to a single hit point. *sigh* You couldn’t just kill her, buddy?
Round Six: And Astarion finally ended things by critically stabbing Cefrey to death. *shakehead* Could have done THAT sooner too! Ah well.
Yeah – you see why that made me run over my “allotted time,” right? XD But it was a good fight, and the only version of it where nobody in my little party of misfits actually got downed! I think I am finally learning how this game works. :p I ended things with Gale using his Arcane Recovery charge to get one of his spell slots back for later; the party taking their second short rest of the day, putting them all back at full HP; and me going into Gale’s spellbook and making sure Magic Missile was one of his prepared spells, because THAT probably would have made the fight go a lot quicker, that’s for sure! *shakehead* Well, he’s got it ready now...next time, we loot the rest of the chapel and the bodies of the fallen, and figure out how to get down to the basement! Looking forward to what I might find in there. :)
Workout: Hopped back on the bike this evening to get my exercise in and start this week’s movie – Hot Fuzz! Which, if you haven’t seen it, is about a workaholic cop who gets sent to the countryside village of Sandford because he’s making all his colleagues in London look bad with his exceptionalism, and ends up uncovering a sinister (and frankly silly) conspiracy behind the village’s perfect reputation. It’s a fun comedy-action romp that, even after all the bullshit real world cops have done, I still enjoy. (I like to imagine protagonist Nick Angel would have quite a lot to say to those asshole cops, in fact.) I got a little over a half-hour into it tonight, leaving off with Nick (who at the moment is just doing country cop stuff, like meeting with the Neighborhood Watch Alliance, chasing down escaped swans, and arresting shoplifters – though that latter DID involve a fairly epic chase) having finished his latest shift with Danny (the Chief Inspector’s son, who is obsessed with cop movies and the like – Nick has a prickly relationship with him at this point in the film), having earlier caught one of the local amdram performers going 48 in a 30 MPH zone trying to get to a dress rehearsal for the Romeo & Juliet homage he’s starring in – tomorrow, Nick is forced to attend the opening night performance of said homage by his boss (because the guy sent tickets as an apology), and things start getting more interesting – and murdery – from there...
FreeTube Invidious: Yes, while FreeTube remains out of commission, I am pleased to say that a different YouTube front end, the in-browser Invidious, was up and running! Meaning that I was indeed able to watch “Fallout New Vegas: You Only Live Once Remastered - Part 11 - Tread Lightly” by Jon of Many A True Nerd tonight! :D I was quite worried I would miss out – good to know I can pop on Invidious while FreeTube works on its updates! Anyway, the latest adventures of P. D. Shoot, melee courier extraordinaire, involved:
A) Jon taking a moment at the beginning of the video to explain why he boosted P. D.’s Survival skill up to 50 last time (as he forgot to explain then, distracted by perks). What the Survival skill does is modify the expects of all food and drink items in the game, boosting their effects the higher it goes. With most food and drink, that means it boosts the healing qualities, which is useless to P. D. –
But with booze, it boosts the amount of Strength and Charisma you get while drunk (bringing both from +1 to +2), while NOT touching the -1 it takes from Intelligence. So for a few points invested in Survival, P. D. now gets an even bigger benefit from being absolutely drunk off her ass all the time! Jon had to wait for her previous bender to wear off before he could take advantage of it, mind (as the booze she drank a few episodes ago, before the change, was still in play), and it made him realize that he’d overprioritized giving her Strength when initially designing her (especially since he hasn’t even gotten the New Vegas medical clinic implant, or the cool robot spine from Old World Blues) when he could have given her more Agility and Luck instead, but still. Talk about a nice boost for old boozehound P. D.!
B) P. D. heading to Red Rock Canyon to meet up with the Great Khans and help them with their drug-running ways for great rewards! Her method for getting there went like so:
I. First, she hit Camp McCarran and got the Fiend bounty-hunting quest from Major Dhatri, “Three-Card Bounty,” choosing to go after Driver Nephi. Dharti warned her the guy was a tough old S.O.B. and suggested she get some help from Lt. Gorobets and his snipers in Alpha Team, 1st Recon (promising her that, even if they technically made the kill, if P. D. brought him the head, she’d get the bounty). P. D. was only too happy to do that and went and met up with Gorobets and his crew, who were only too happy to help. Once they were all done getting stuck behind the couch, they led the way to Nephi’s headquarters in an old rock-crushing plant near the ruins of South Vegas, escorting P. D. safely over the highway and taking care of a few Fiends in their path with military precision. Though poor Gorobets did step on a land mine on the highway (as per Jon, he has done this every time Jon’s played this mission. Poor guy XD). Anyway, once they were at the right location, the snipers got into position, waiting for P. D. to wander close to Nephi’s base and draw him out using herself as bait…
II. Except, yeah, P. D. wasn’t about to do that – she might get shot! With guns! And while Jon was aware that Nephi’s unique weapon was a golf club (aka something P. D. could actually USE) that did more damage than P. D.’s 9 Iron, it wasn’t actually any better at knocking down people, so – yeah, he was happy to leave it behind. So instead, she abandoned Alpha Team, 1st Recon, waited 15 hours until midnight, then very carefully snuck her way through the nearby desert plain – threading her way between two big rad barrel dumping grounds; looping and weaving her way past the camps of Nephi and the other two Fiends on the bounty list (Violet, who has nasty dogs, and Cook-Cook, who has a favorite brahmin you do NOT mess with); and head for the mountains past the local gas station, making sure to steer very clear of the local fire geckos! Fortunately, she managed to accomplish all this without needing to use up one of her remaining Stealth Boys, and even discovered a new location, Chance’s Map, along the way! Plus, as she was climbing up into the canyon, she finally sobered up from her last bender (which was an in-game WEEK ago), allowing Jon to start planning the next one. XD
III. And finally, once over the hills, P. D. proceeded carefully into the canyon itself, hugging the little mountains on the side to stay clear of the mantis-infested park and other such danger zones. Her destination was a wrecked house near the edge of the canyon, which had a secret cellar that served as the Khans’ armory. And as the Khans accepted her thanks to her work with Jessop and making sure the NCR didn’t kill them, the people down there were willing to trade! They didn’t have any weapons P. D. was interested in, though, so she just sold them a bunch of medicine and ammo in exchange for a pile of caps, then raided their nearby ammo boxes –
Where she found a Stealth Boy. :D Jon was absolutely gleeful, as you might imagine! I’m so happy that he keeps getting lucky and finding more of these. :)
C) P. D. proceeding deeper into Khan territory in the canyon, heading over to the main camp above the fighting arena to steal drugs from the tents above (Turbo, Med-X, and Jet, mainly) before making her way down the narrow side path to the dedicated drug lab area, where she – you guessed it – stole more of the drugs they had sitting around. Along with a radscorpion poison gland, as apparently that will be important later. *shrug* However, her true goal was not to steal the Khans blind, but rather do some legitimate work for them – specifically, complete the quest “Aba Daba Honeymoon” for the drug running couple Jack and Diane! (Yes, I am pretty damn sure it’s a reference to that one song – you may groan now.) Though she had to complete it in a very specific order to make damn sure the quest didn’t break, as Jon warned it’s one of those where things get buggy fast if you do things before you’re “meant” to. And P. D. did not want to miss out on any of the rewards from this quest! So, following the path New Vegas wished for her to take, P. D.:
I. Talked to Diane and asked if she had any work for her – Diane tasked her with going and finding one of her best runners, Anders, who was two days late checking in after heading southeast to try to find a route to Arizona to open up some new markets for the Khans. P. D. thus went to Cottonwood Cove, as that was the most southeasterly location in the game –
Aaand found Anders strung up on a cross, because the Legion is NOT about the chem trade. Fortunately, his cross was very close to the fast travel point, AND far enough away from the main camp that P. D. could let him down without upsetting her new Legion friends. He ran off back to Red Rock, and P. D. fast-traveled back to the drug lab to receive her reward from Diane –
THE RECIPE FOR TURBO. The super-speed drug that Jon believes may be key to keeping P. D. alive! Unfortunately, it’s not exactly feasible for P. D. to make it herself right now, as one of the necessary ingredients is a cazador poison gland, and she ain’t going anywhere NEAR those horrors if she can help it. But Jon indicated that, if things went right in the future, she SHOULD be able to make plenty of this wonder drug for herself. We’ll see what happens!
II. Agreed to deliver some drugs to Don Hostetler, the Khans’ contact in the Crimson Caravan Company, so he could sell them out in the East – P. D. popped over via fast travel, gave Don the slightly-suspicious package, then got out of dodge before anyone saw the illicit handover. XD She also took a moment to swing by the clinic to talk implants with Dr. Usanagi – after seeing what was on offer, she decided to save up for the sub-dermal armor implant that would increase her DT rather than getting anything to boost her Perception or Agility just yet.
III. Agreed to deliver a bunch of Jet and Psycho to Motor Runner – the leader of the Fiends living in Vault 3 in the South Vegas ruins. This one was a little harder than the others because while the Fiends INSIDE the vault were willing to hold their fire if they thought P. D. was a Khan come to give them their drugs, the ones OUTSIDE were apparently ready to fight anyone and anything. Fortunately, P. D. had a plan – fast travel back to the rock-crushing where Alpha Team was eternally waiting for her to be bait to lure out Nephi (and gunning down the occasional fiend who walks too close); wait until night and work her way around to the big double doors into the South Vegas Ruins she passed on her previous trick into Red Rock; put on the Great Khan simple armor Diane loaned her for the trip to make the Fiends think she was a Khan too; then activate one of her Stealth Boys and try to get into and out of Vault 3 all on one “charge.” Did she succeed?
...you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out, as finishing off this write-up now would mean staying up too late on a work night. ^^; I promise I’ll edit this tomorrow with the last bit!
EDIT 9/29/2025: Hi, yes, I’m back with the last bit! So, WAS P. D. able to complete this quest using only a single Stealth Boy?
YES. Unless the disaster at Helios One, this time Jon was able to get his timings right and get P. D. into and out of the danger zone well before time ran out! I think it helped that there weren’t actually that many Fiends wandering around the front of Vault 3 – I counted like three, tops. P. D. was thus easily able to wind her way past them and get into the vault, where – after getting past the Fiend at the front trying to hit her up for Psycho (asking “would your boss like that you’re asking me for freebies?” which made the woman back off REAAAAL quick) – she took a bit of time to wander around, opening some locked doors for the free XP and collecting a Stealth skill book (very important to her build!). She then headed over to Motor Runner (unlocking another door along the way) to give him his Highly Suspicious package of chems and learn what had happened to the original residents of the vault (apparently they just let the Fiends in, no trouble, and the Fiends shrugged and killed them. Motor Runner was most nonchalant about it). She then snagged a Reverse Pulse Cleaner from one of the lockers nearby (just in case she needs it in the future, should she choose to do some work for the Brotherhood of Steel); got briefly lost in the recreation area looking for some bathrooms to loot (found some Fiends playing pool and another door to unlock); located the bathrooms she was looking for and looted their medicine boxes (getting only stimpacks, Rad-X, and purified water, meh); found a storage room and nabbed the Wonderglue from it (because apparently she’d need that soon – girl, you ALWAYS need adhesive in my humble opinion); and finally made it back to the front door, exited in crouch mode, and slipped back around the Khans outside before finally making it back to Outer Vegas and safety. Job cocking done, as Jon put it. :D
IV. Returned to Diane, got 300 caps for her trouble, and was informed that while there were no remaining drug delivery jobs, good old Jack was always looking for new chem recipes, so if P. D. wanted to teach him any… P. D. was like “I most certainly do,” whacked on her Follower’s lab coat to boost her Science up to the correct level, then went and visited the very groovy Jack (who says things like “Groodilicious” every time you finish teaching him a new recipe) to show him how to make Slasher (a blend of – well, Jon thought it was Psycho and Med-X as the drug gives the effects of both (Damage +25%, Damage Resistance +25) but the actual recipe calls for Psycho and STIMPACKS); Party-Time Mentats (Mentats that, like the regular version, boost Perception and Intelligence by +2, but also boost Charisma by +5 instead of the usual +1); and Rocket (basically just “better Jet” – it restores 30 AP instead of just 15). Doing so netted her a bunch of XP for each teaching session; got her some Psycho and Jet from Jack as a thank-you for each new recipe; completed “Aba Daba Honeymoon,” which meant even more XP; taught her the “Khan Trick” special unarmed move (where you use a Power Attack while moving left or right to distract an enemy by throwing dirt in their face – Jon didn’t consider it very impressive as it only results in a momentary stagger and can only be used on humanoids, so…) –
And, after waiting until the next morning, the chance to buy all the drugs she’d just taught Jack because now they spawned in his inventory! And while she wasn’t that interested in Rocket, she was very interested in Party-Time Mentats and Slasher. The former because, combined with her boozehound ways, the Naughty Nightwear, and the Meeting People skill magazine, she could boost her speech up by 30 whole points whenever she wanted; the latter because the Damage Resistance effect stacks with that of Med-X, meaning that she can use both to get a Damage Resistance of 50 whenever she’s in trouble! Meaning, as per Jon, any incoming damage gets immediately halved – before the Damage Threshold (a different stat that just straight-up subtracts a flat number from the damage) kicks in! Basically, with these drugs, she now can pass just about any speech check and severely reduce any damage she might take if she has sufficient warning. Both very important to her particular run and build! And better yet, she doesn’t have to rely on hitting up Jack for the drugs –
Because, so long as she has her labcoat on, she can make them herself at any campfire! Granted, making them required her to pick up two specific fruits – Banana Yucca Fruits for Slasher, and Honey Mesquite Pods for Party-Time Mentats – but P. D. fortunately knew exactly where to find those, leading to her final adventure being:
D) P. D. revealing why she made sure to tag Westside’s entrance in an earlier video by stopping by the town and visiting the local farm to get a bunch of banana yucca fruits and honey mesquite pods! Meaning she was well-stocked for making her new excellent drugs. She also swung by the liquor store to see what they had in stock – and when it proved to be “lots,” bought every bottle of booze she could and basically ended the episode by downing it all in Bender Numero Dos. XD
Fun episode – I am very much enjoying seeing Jon play Fallout: New Vegas properly, instead of with a randomizer mod (though that chaos was hilarious) or just dipping in during what is essentially a Fallout 3 LP (hi Tale of Two Wastelands!).Even if it is making me think a little bit I should be playing F:NV instead of FO4… Next week, though, things may get even more chaotic, as Jon wants to talk about DLCs – specifically, when he wants to start doing them, and what P. D. will have to do to prepare. I am on the edge of my seat!
Other: It was a warm and sunny day today, which meant we all took a trip out to the yard (after spraying it to ward off the worst of the bugs) to play beanbags! And I’m pleased to report that all three of us won a game again – though Dad was the definite champ, winning three games out of five. But Mom and I did all right, and I’ll never complain so long as I get one win. *nods* Final scores were me 2-W-3-2-3; Dad W-3-2-W-W; Mom 3-2-W-3-2. We’ll see how things work out the next time we play!
Whew! And now I absolutely have to go to bed. Night all!
Tumblr: Well, there was the usual nothing happening over at Valice Multiverse, but I did get a few things done over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) today –
A) First, I went through my tracked tags and dropped the following in my drafts for later:
I. Some fanart of Therese and Jeannette Voerman from VTMB by feyspeaker, showing our two body-sharing twins next to each other, with their respective headshots connected by rough stitches – it was very cool, and very well-done (the eyes of the two ladies especially), so I definitely wanted to save it
II. Some fanart of Vault Boy and Nuka-Girl from Fallout 4 by phoneyotc, showing the two cuddling, Nuka-Girl holding Vault Boy’s head as he looks up at her with heart eyes – I just thought it was weirdly cute! I support this ship featuring mascots of evil Fallout-verse corporations XD
III. And a gifset of Victor running away from Emily after his accidental proposal in Corpse Bride by atomic-chronoscaph, covering him falling down the hill and crashing into that gravestone to Emily catching up with him on the bridge and kissing him – it was a very nicely-done gifset showing off one of my favorite bits in the film, and I never have enough CB stuff to reblog in my drafts, so in it went!
B) And second, I first liked, then (after lunch) straight-up reblogged a post by fricketyfrackingsilly jokingly talking about how a lot of Smiler OCs have the same “bones” when it comes to how they’re designed – lots of trauma, mad scientist, trans or queer in some other way, weird hair, is either brainwashed or brainwashes others, and dating Oblivion. Because, well… XD Specifically, as per the tags I added to the post, my own Smiler:
I. May or may not have lots of trauma – it’s dependent on the AU (for example, Modern AU Smiler is well-adjusted; Valicer In The Dark is – less so)
II. Is an excellent chemist/alchemist, and often dabbles things in robotics or web design
III. Has at least somewhat weird hair with their long purple-tipped bangs
IV. Is a panromantic pansexual nonbinary person
V. Is very good at brainwashing others (their exact methods depend on the AU – and also they’re waaaaay more ethical about it than most other Smilers due to my desire to not see them stabbed by Alice)
VI. And is not currently dating Oblivion because they’re part of the Valicer OT3 and other related polycules, but I could see such a relationship happening in the past (I do have a vague headcanon that Smiler’s fucked pretty much all of their coaster friends, it just never developed into anything romantic)
So yeah – most boxes ticked in some way or another! I guess that makes them a good Smiler OC? XD
Baldur’s Gate III: Yes, I got to play a video game today! In fact, I played for longer than I intended because I got wrapped up in a fight that took some time to finish...but you know what, fuck it, no regrets. I enjoyed myself. *nods* Anyway, let me tell you all about Smiler, Astarion, Gale, and Shadowheart having fun storming the
A) I started things off with the gang hanging out in the little courtyard, right outside the door into the dining room sort of area that Andorn (one of the merry band raiding the chapel) guards. I had Smiler approach the locked door, which prompted Andorn to ask if they were Gimblebock – Smiler promptly pretended to be the halfling, and – with a little help from their high Charisma and Shadowheart’s Guidance, easily passed the DC 10 to fool poor Andorn into letting them in, Inspiring Astarion (who, thanks to his Charlatan background, is into this sort of thing) in the process. Andorn thus opened the door –
And was very surprised when four people he very much did not know came swarming in! So surprised, in fact, that despite initiating combat with these strangers, he was not allowed to take any actions (regular, bonus, or reaction) during the first round. Here’s how the resultant fight went:
Round One – Astarion started things off by trying to stab Andorn, but missed. He used one of his Cunning Actions to Disengage (which I only realized after the fact he didn’t need to do, but better to get into the habit early), then ran around behind him to get out of his line of sight. Shadowheart then whacked Andorn with her mace for 8 damage, before following Astarion and running behind her foe. Gale then hit the guy with a Ray of Frost (which both does cold damage AND cuts +10 feet off the enemy’s movement for a turn or two) – only did 1 damage, but it was something! He joined the line of people standing behind Andorn before passing things over to Smiler, who tried hitting Andorn with a Mind Sliver – sadly, Andorn managed to save. Smiler then retreated over to the stairs, trying to get into a slightly better position for a Gilded Eldritch Blast for the next round.
Round Two – Astarion, now safely out of Andorn’s cone of vision, used a Cunning Action to Hide, then sneak attacked Andorn, taking him down to a mere 2 HP! Unfortunately, though, he couldn’t get away (trying to retreat would have provoked an attack of opportunity), so I had him sit tight and waited for Andorn to attack him now that he had a turn –
But for some reason, the badly-wounded Andorn instead apparently decided to try and attack Smiler. Maybe in retaliation for the attempt at a really bad psychic headache? However, as he limped toward Smiler by the stairs, he of course had to go past Astarion, Shadowheart, and Gale –
ALL of whom were allowed to make an attack of opportunity against him. Unfortunately, Astarion and Shadowheart both missed their attacks (I expect that from Shadowheart, but Astarion, come on) – fortunately, Gale did not, and took down Andorn with a critical smack over the head with his staff. :D Yay! Smiler then looted the body, and found a Bandit’s Key, a spare bottle, some leather armor, a torch, and a shortsword – most of the stuff went into their inventory, but the torch they kindly handed over to Gale if he needed it, as – being the only full-human in the group – Gale doesn’t have darkvision, poor guy.
B) With Andorn taken care of, it was time to loot the dining room of the ruined chapel of all its most useful goodies (aka, all the stuff that wasn’t a standard cup, plate, or cutting board). Smiler and company thus got their hands on:
I. 13 gold, a cup, plate, and glass chalice out of the “Looter’s Chest” on the nearby dining table, next to the burning fireplace
II. Two Waterdhavian cheese wedges, one Waterdhavian cheese wheel, a bunch of dried sausage links, a supply pack, a carafe of wine, and a carafe of water off the table itself (these looters were eating pretty well, I must say)
III. A couple of milk cans and a mortar and pestle from the side table under some shelves to the right of the dining table (the mortar and pestle will be going into Smiler’s pack as a “personal item,” as that’s definitely something their alchemy-loving ass would have)
IV. Three books from the various stacks and rows piled up on the shelves and table near the mysterious plaque on the far right wall (which looked like it was blocking some sealed-up doors, honestly) that Smiler couldn’t read – “The Unclaimed,” about a Sharran who gave up everything for her goddess...only to be forgotten and unclaimed in the afterlife; “The Curse Of The Vampyr,” talking about how to recognize vampires and how to protect oneself against them (namely, don’t walk on moonless nights, and don’t let anyone you don’t fully trust into your home); and “Death And Divinity: A Godly Guide,” talking about how death is a force too powerful to be contained by any one god (why you have gods of specific deaths and whatnot) and specifically mentioning how Jergal was the one who accounted for each soul as it passed from life to death, until he grew bored basically and let Bhaal, Bane, and Myrkul split up his job (great work there, Withers)
V. A portrait of Fane, an undead skull-headed man and one of the playable characters from one of Larian’s other games, Divinity: Original Sin 2, on the left-hand wall by the main dining table, next to some shelves (only exists in this world because I have the Digital Deluxe Upgrade – too bad I have nowhere to hang it at camp!)
VI. Four candles from a chest under Fane’s portrait (apparently an easy way to apply burning to a weapon, and just useful to have for extra light)
VII. An ink pot in the crate just beside said chest (will go well with Smiler’s quill pen)
VIII. And another carafe of water on the shelf just above the crate
*nods* Not a bad haul, I think! At the very least, the gang will eat well and have plenty of reading material the next time they take a long rest. :P
C) With the room looted, it was time to move on and find the rest of the raiding party to defeat them in combat! I had the gang thus move over to the door at the top of the stairs on the left; confirmed that it could only be opened by the nearby lever (Astarion had no option to lockpick); had Smiler preemptively use False Life on themselves to get their 7 temp hit points before anything kicked off (forward planning!); made a quick autosave, and then had them open the door –
To find Mari the Level 2 Human Rogue! And – only Mari the Level 2 Human Rogue, standing alone in the room just beyond. O.o I was somewhat puzzled but as Mari had immediately spotted the group, there was no time to figure out where the heck the rest of her looting party was. Instead, it was straight into combat –
Which didn’t even last one round. XD Mostly because, once I confirmed that Astarion was out of her direct line of sight (you can see the sight cones if you hit Left Shift, and she was looking off to the side), I was able to have him Cunningly Hide, sneak up to her, Sneak Attack her with his dagger, then sneak back to the door, before following up with a deadly crossbow bolt from Shadowheart. Yay! Makes up for them missing those two Attacks of Opportunity on Andorn before, let me tell you. I let Shadowheart search the body, as she was the one who actually killed Mari –
And then I saw that Mari was carrying a bottle of basic poison, a set of thieves’ tools, a trap disarm kit, 6 gold, a set of leather armor, a dagger, a shortbow, and – most importantly – a set of Uncommon light armor called the “Shadowskin Jerkin” that had 12 AC and a special ability called “Shadow Blend” that gives whoever wears it +1 to AC and +1 on all Stealth checks when obscured (aka in the shadows), and went “actually, Astarion, I think you should loot this corpse.” XD Astarion thus took all the goodies and slapped on his new armor – which actually went pretty well with his Buccaneer’s Boots! :D Gotta dye ‘em both when we get back to camp, of course, but at least now he has a special new fit, yay~
D) However, the defeat of Mari did not answer a very important question – where the hell were the other members of her party? I could very faintly hear their voices in the general area, but I couldn’t figure out where they were coming from. I had Smiler check the room to the left, the one with the beds and various chests that you can fall into if you’re not careful (as I discovered during one of my first playthroughs), but there was nobody in there –
And then I rotated the camera, and noted that the voices got louder the closer to the front of the room I got. “Ah, they must be in the library just beyond this room,” I realized, and sent Smiler to open the door –
And sure enough, there were Barton, Haseid, Cefrey, and Torgga! Who of course noticed the interlopers, yelled at them to “Clear off! We were here first!” and initiated combat! Leading to the protracted battle that kept me playing BG3 longer than intended...here’s why it took so long:
Round One: Things started off poorly with Barton getting to go first – he promptly ran up a bit and lobbed some Alchemist’s Fire at Astarion, who had the bad luck to be standing by one of the explosive barrels in the main room, meaning he got set on fire and took 7 fire damage, ow. I quickly had Astarion get out of the burning area and into a doorway, where he critically missed shooting Barton with his bow. Which, I guess, is understandable, as he was on fire. I had him go into the corner and Cunningly Hide by the side of the door to lick his wounds, and got Shadowheart into position to fire on Barton with her crossbow. She got a crit hit that took off about half his health, which I was very pleased with – I had her retreat back through the doorway, then use her Healing Word spell on Astarion to restore 6 HP (it’s also supposed to remove Burning, but unfortunately it didn’t in this case). Haseid the barbarian then launched a javelin at Smiler, taking off four of their temporary hit points, while Cefrey gave herself some Mage Armor before running ahead a little bit to try and join the fun. Gale tried to use a Ray of Frost on Hasied, but missed, so instead I had him retreat a bit instead – Torgga then tried to hit him with an Ensnaring Strike with her bow, but missed. Smiler then stepped up to the plate, and (having examined Haseid and noted he only had 10 Wisdom), hit him with Tasha’s Hideous Laughter to leave him laughing hysterically on the floor –
Then closed the door separating their foes from them and ran to hide behind Gale. XD I’ve always wanted to do that after seeing a few examples of Proxy doing that in some of their videos! Gotta make the enemies work to get at my party!
Round Two: Barton ran up, opened the door, then proceeded to miss Shadowheart with a Javelin – he then sensed that someone was hiding from him (it’s the burning elf just to the right of you, sir), and cast Sense Hidden Presence on himself – I have no idea if it succeeded or not, as Barton ended up just turning around and running back through the door into the library. O.o Astarion stopped burning after taking another 3 damage, Cunningly Hid again, then snuck up on Barton for a sneak attack –
But, unfortunately, Torgga, having Darkvision, spotted him, so Astarion was left just executing a regular knife attack, darn. :( I decided he could use his special Piercing Strike weapon ability instead, which went off perfectly, leaving Barton with 2 HP and Gaping Wounds to boot. :D He then retreated as Shadowheart advanced to hit Barton with her mace – sadly, she missed, and also had to retreat. Haseid then managed to shake off Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, though it took his entire turn, while Cafrey stayed near the back and hit poor Shadowheart with a Firebolt for 5 damage. This brought things over to Gale, who I thought should Thunderwave at least one of these fools – after a little initial confusion, I finally realized that “oh, you don’t cast this spell on an enemy, you cast it on the floor” and had him send off a wave –
Which managed to throw Barton further into the room and kill him, yay! :D I then had Gale close the door and retreat again. XD Torgga used her turn to Dash forward, open the door, and get to Shadowheart – only to fail to shove her; Smiler then used their turn to examine Torgga, and – seeing she was resistant to mind-altering effects like being Charmed – elected to try and hit her with a Gilded Eldritch Blast. Unfortunately, it missed, and Smiler decided discretion was the better part of valor and moved backward to avoid more danger coming their way. They’re not exactly Constitutionally-blessed, after all!
Round Three: I had Astarion go after Torgga, as she was nice and close – and thanks to Shadowheart being nearby, he was able to use a Reaction to Sneak Attack her despite not meeting the usual requirements! Nice~ This resulted in him doing 10 damage to her –
And a couple points of damage to himself, because the idiot ran across the fiery fire surface to get to her. *facepalm* That’s on you, character AI! Anyway, I had him run to the door and close it to slow down the remaining enemies a tad, then drink a healing potion to heal himself and stop him burning. Shadowheart then killed Torgga with her mace, before running to the back of the room to stand with Smiler –
Aaand then Haseid opened the door, came in, and threw a javelin at the second oil barrel in the room. Which I, for some reason, had parked Smiler right next to. It of course exploded because it was near fire, and poor Smiler started burning, losing not only their remaining 3 temp hit points but also 4 real ones! *facepalm* Yeah, that’s on me, character AI. And while Shadowheart managed to avoid getting exploded by the barrel, Cefrey hit her with Firebolt AGAIN, smacking her for another 7 HP and bringing her total down to 4. *grimace* Gale tried to help by using Ray of Frost on Haseid to slow him down, but critically missed – though he did freeze the blood under Haseid, making it a more treacherous surface, at least! He also couldn’t properly retreat, because all paths to the back of the room now led through a lot of fire. Meh. He did what he could, then handed control to Smiler – who, of course, started THEIR turn drinking a healing potion to cure their burning skin and lost hit points before getting out of the danger zone. They then turned their attention back to Haseid and used their other spell slot to hit him with Id Insinuation, the spell that incapacitates a victim with conflicting desires. Haseid did not make the save to avoid the effect, leaving him frozen in place and Smiler free to retreat further to even safer ground.
Round Four: I chose to have Astarion try to stab Cefrey, as she was the one giving us the most trouble right now with all her Firebolts on Shadowheart (and also I didn’t want to interrupt Id Insinuation on Haseid) – he unfortunately failed, so he used a Cunning Action to Disengage and run behind her to try for a sneak attack next turn. Shadowheart then glugged down a healing potion to keep herself alive before trying to turn things around on Cefrey with a Firebolt of her own – sadly, she missed, so I had her retreat to hang out near Smiler. Haseid managed to shake off Id Insinuation right afterward – but it stopped him from doing anything else on his turn, AND halved his health in the process (taking 12 off his 25 HP), so yay! Even better, Cefrey decided to focus her attention on Astarion on her turn, and managed to miss grabbing him with Shocking Grasp – no more Firebolts on poor Shadowheart! I then had Gale try to Thunderwave Haseid – only to cast the spell in the wrong area, meaning it did nothing (I think the game assumed I was trying to hit Cefrey or something). So instead he ran up to Haseid, managed to successfully shove him, and then retreated back again. XD Whatever works! Smiler ended the round by hitting Haseid with a Gilded Eldritch Blast, reducing him down to 2 HP, which we all appreciated.
Round Five: Astarion once again missed stabbing Cefrey with his Needle of the Outlaw Rogue, so he once again Cunningly Disengaged and ran behind her. Shadowheart killed Haseid with a crossbow bolt. Cefrey managed to miss grabbing Astarion with Shocking Grasp again. Gale managed to get her with Ray of Frost before slipping back out of the danger zone. And Smiler smacked her with a Gilded Eldritch Blast – bringing her down to a single hit point. *sigh* You couldn’t just kill her, buddy?
Round Six: And Astarion finally ended things by critically stabbing Cefrey to death. *shakehead* Could have done THAT sooner too! Ah well.
Yeah – you see why that made me run over my “allotted time,” right? XD But it was a good fight, and the only version of it where nobody in my little party of misfits actually got downed! I think I am finally learning how this game works. :p I ended things with Gale using his Arcane Recovery charge to get one of his spell slots back for later; the party taking their second short rest of the day, putting them all back at full HP; and me going into Gale’s spellbook and making sure Magic Missile was one of his prepared spells, because THAT probably would have made the fight go a lot quicker, that’s for sure! *shakehead* Well, he’s got it ready now...next time, we loot the rest of the chapel and the bodies of the fallen, and figure out how to get down to the basement! Looking forward to what I might find in there. :)
Workout: Hopped back on the bike this evening to get my exercise in and start this week’s movie – Hot Fuzz! Which, if you haven’t seen it, is about a workaholic cop who gets sent to the countryside village of Sandford because he’s making all his colleagues in London look bad with his exceptionalism, and ends up uncovering a sinister (and frankly silly) conspiracy behind the village’s perfect reputation. It’s a fun comedy-action romp that, even after all the bullshit real world cops have done, I still enjoy. (I like to imagine protagonist Nick Angel would have quite a lot to say to those asshole cops, in fact.) I got a little over a half-hour into it tonight, leaving off with Nick (who at the moment is just doing country cop stuff, like meeting with the Neighborhood Watch Alliance, chasing down escaped swans, and arresting shoplifters – though that latter DID involve a fairly epic chase) having finished his latest shift with Danny (the Chief Inspector’s son, who is obsessed with cop movies and the like – Nick has a prickly relationship with him at this point in the film), having earlier caught one of the local amdram performers going 48 in a 30 MPH zone trying to get to a dress rehearsal for the Romeo & Juliet homage he’s starring in – tomorrow, Nick is forced to attend the opening night performance of said homage by his boss (because the guy sent tickets as an apology), and things start getting more interesting – and murdery – from there...
A) Jon taking a moment at the beginning of the video to explain why he boosted P. D.’s Survival skill up to 50 last time (as he forgot to explain then, distracted by perks). What the Survival skill does is modify the expects of all food and drink items in the game, boosting their effects the higher it goes. With most food and drink, that means it boosts the healing qualities, which is useless to P. D. –
But with booze, it boosts the amount of Strength and Charisma you get while drunk (bringing both from +1 to +2), while NOT touching the -1 it takes from Intelligence. So for a few points invested in Survival, P. D. now gets an even bigger benefit from being absolutely drunk off her ass all the time! Jon had to wait for her previous bender to wear off before he could take advantage of it, mind (as the booze she drank a few episodes ago, before the change, was still in play), and it made him realize that he’d overprioritized giving her Strength when initially designing her (especially since he hasn’t even gotten the New Vegas medical clinic implant, or the cool robot spine from Old World Blues) when he could have given her more Agility and Luck instead, but still. Talk about a nice boost for old boozehound P. D.!
B) P. D. heading to Red Rock Canyon to meet up with the Great Khans and help them with their drug-running ways for great rewards! Her method for getting there went like so:
I. First, she hit Camp McCarran and got the Fiend bounty-hunting quest from Major Dhatri, “Three-Card Bounty,” choosing to go after Driver Nephi. Dharti warned her the guy was a tough old S.O.B. and suggested she get some help from Lt. Gorobets and his snipers in Alpha Team, 1st Recon (promising her that, even if they technically made the kill, if P. D. brought him the head, she’d get the bounty). P. D. was only too happy to do that and went and met up with Gorobets and his crew, who were only too happy to help. Once they were all done getting stuck behind the couch, they led the way to Nephi’s headquarters in an old rock-crushing plant near the ruins of South Vegas, escorting P. D. safely over the highway and taking care of a few Fiends in their path with military precision. Though poor Gorobets did step on a land mine on the highway (as per Jon, he has done this every time Jon’s played this mission. Poor guy XD). Anyway, once they were at the right location, the snipers got into position, waiting for P. D. to wander close to Nephi’s base and draw him out using herself as bait…
II. Except, yeah, P. D. wasn’t about to do that – she might get shot! With guns! And while Jon was aware that Nephi’s unique weapon was a golf club (aka something P. D. could actually USE) that did more damage than P. D.’s 9 Iron, it wasn’t actually any better at knocking down people, so – yeah, he was happy to leave it behind. So instead, she abandoned Alpha Team, 1st Recon, waited 15 hours until midnight, then very carefully snuck her way through the nearby desert plain – threading her way between two big rad barrel dumping grounds; looping and weaving her way past the camps of Nephi and the other two Fiends on the bounty list (Violet, who has nasty dogs, and Cook-Cook, who has a favorite brahmin you do NOT mess with); and head for the mountains past the local gas station, making sure to steer very clear of the local fire geckos! Fortunately, she managed to accomplish all this without needing to use up one of her remaining Stealth Boys, and even discovered a new location, Chance’s Map, along the way! Plus, as she was climbing up into the canyon, she finally sobered up from her last bender (which was an in-game WEEK ago), allowing Jon to start planning the next one. XD
III. And finally, once over the hills, P. D. proceeded carefully into the canyon itself, hugging the little mountains on the side to stay clear of the mantis-infested park and other such danger zones. Her destination was a wrecked house near the edge of the canyon, which had a secret cellar that served as the Khans’ armory. And as the Khans accepted her thanks to her work with Jessop and making sure the NCR didn’t kill them, the people down there were willing to trade! They didn’t have any weapons P. D. was interested in, though, so she just sold them a bunch of medicine and ammo in exchange for a pile of caps, then raided their nearby ammo boxes –
Where she found a Stealth Boy. :D Jon was absolutely gleeful, as you might imagine! I’m so happy that he keeps getting lucky and finding more of these. :)
C) P. D. proceeding deeper into Khan territory in the canyon, heading over to the main camp above the fighting arena to steal drugs from the tents above (Turbo, Med-X, and Jet, mainly) before making her way down the narrow side path to the dedicated drug lab area, where she – you guessed it – stole more of the drugs they had sitting around. Along with a radscorpion poison gland, as apparently that will be important later. *shrug* However, her true goal was not to steal the Khans blind, but rather do some legitimate work for them – specifically, complete the quest “Aba Daba Honeymoon” for the drug running couple Jack and Diane! (Yes, I am pretty damn sure it’s a reference to that one song – you may groan now.) Though she had to complete it in a very specific order to make damn sure the quest didn’t break, as Jon warned it’s one of those where things get buggy fast if you do things before you’re “meant” to. And P. D. did not want to miss out on any of the rewards from this quest! So, following the path New Vegas wished for her to take, P. D.:
I. Talked to Diane and asked if she had any work for her – Diane tasked her with going and finding one of her best runners, Anders, who was two days late checking in after heading southeast to try to find a route to Arizona to open up some new markets for the Khans. P. D. thus went to Cottonwood Cove, as that was the most southeasterly location in the game –
Aaand found Anders strung up on a cross, because the Legion is NOT about the chem trade. Fortunately, his cross was very close to the fast travel point, AND far enough away from the main camp that P. D. could let him down without upsetting her new Legion friends. He ran off back to Red Rock, and P. D. fast-traveled back to the drug lab to receive her reward from Diane –
THE RECIPE FOR TURBO. The super-speed drug that Jon believes may be key to keeping P. D. alive! Unfortunately, it’s not exactly feasible for P. D. to make it herself right now, as one of the necessary ingredients is a cazador poison gland, and she ain’t going anywhere NEAR those horrors if she can help it. But Jon indicated that, if things went right in the future, she SHOULD be able to make plenty of this wonder drug for herself. We’ll see what happens!
II. Agreed to deliver some drugs to Don Hostetler, the Khans’ contact in the Crimson Caravan Company, so he could sell them out in the East – P. D. popped over via fast travel, gave Don the slightly-suspicious package, then got out of dodge before anyone saw the illicit handover. XD She also took a moment to swing by the clinic to talk implants with Dr. Usanagi – after seeing what was on offer, she decided to save up for the sub-dermal armor implant that would increase her DT rather than getting anything to boost her Perception or Agility just yet.
III. Agreed to deliver a bunch of Jet and Psycho to Motor Runner – the leader of the Fiends living in Vault 3 in the South Vegas ruins. This one was a little harder than the others because while the Fiends INSIDE the vault were willing to hold their fire if they thought P. D. was a Khan come to give them their drugs, the ones OUTSIDE were apparently ready to fight anyone and anything. Fortunately, P. D. had a plan – fast travel back to the rock-crushing where Alpha Team was eternally waiting for her to be bait to lure out Nephi (and gunning down the occasional fiend who walks too close); wait until night and work her way around to the big double doors into the South Vegas Ruins she passed on her previous trick into Red Rock; put on the Great Khan simple armor Diane loaned her for the trip to make the Fiends think she was a Khan too; then activate one of her Stealth Boys and try to get into and out of Vault 3 all on one “charge.” Did she succeed?
...you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out, as finishing off this write-up now would mean staying up too late on a work night. ^^; I promise I’ll edit this tomorrow with the last bit!
EDIT 9/29/2025: Hi, yes, I’m back with the last bit! So, WAS P. D. able to complete this quest using only a single Stealth Boy?
YES. Unless the disaster at Helios One, this time Jon was able to get his timings right and get P. D. into and out of the danger zone well before time ran out! I think it helped that there weren’t actually that many Fiends wandering around the front of Vault 3 – I counted like three, tops. P. D. was thus easily able to wind her way past them and get into the vault, where – after getting past the Fiend at the front trying to hit her up for Psycho (asking “would your boss like that you’re asking me for freebies?” which made the woman back off REAAAAL quick) – she took a bit of time to wander around, opening some locked doors for the free XP and collecting a Stealth skill book (very important to her build!). She then headed over to Motor Runner (unlocking another door along the way) to give him his Highly Suspicious package of chems and learn what had happened to the original residents of the vault (apparently they just let the Fiends in, no trouble, and the Fiends shrugged and killed them. Motor Runner was most nonchalant about it). She then snagged a Reverse Pulse Cleaner from one of the lockers nearby (just in case she needs it in the future, should she choose to do some work for the Brotherhood of Steel); got briefly lost in the recreation area looking for some bathrooms to loot (found some Fiends playing pool and another door to unlock); located the bathrooms she was looking for and looted their medicine boxes (getting only stimpacks, Rad-X, and purified water, meh); found a storage room and nabbed the Wonderglue from it (because apparently she’d need that soon – girl, you ALWAYS need adhesive in my humble opinion); and finally made it back to the front door, exited in crouch mode, and slipped back around the Khans outside before finally making it back to Outer Vegas and safety. Job cocking done, as Jon put it. :D
IV. Returned to Diane, got 300 caps for her trouble, and was informed that while there were no remaining drug delivery jobs, good old Jack was always looking for new chem recipes, so if P. D. wanted to teach him any… P. D. was like “I most certainly do,” whacked on her Follower’s lab coat to boost her Science up to the correct level, then went and visited the very groovy Jack (who says things like “Groodilicious” every time you finish teaching him a new recipe) to show him how to make Slasher (a blend of – well, Jon thought it was Psycho and Med-X as the drug gives the effects of both (Damage +25%, Damage Resistance +25) but the actual recipe calls for Psycho and STIMPACKS); Party-Time Mentats (Mentats that, like the regular version, boost Perception and Intelligence by +2, but also boost Charisma by +5 instead of the usual +1); and Rocket (basically just “better Jet” – it restores 30 AP instead of just 15). Doing so netted her a bunch of XP for each teaching session; got her some Psycho and Jet from Jack as a thank-you for each new recipe; completed “Aba Daba Honeymoon,” which meant even more XP; taught her the “Khan Trick” special unarmed move (where you use a Power Attack while moving left or right to distract an enemy by throwing dirt in their face – Jon didn’t consider it very impressive as it only results in a momentary stagger and can only be used on humanoids, so…) –
And, after waiting until the next morning, the chance to buy all the drugs she’d just taught Jack because now they spawned in his inventory! And while she wasn’t that interested in Rocket, she was very interested in Party-Time Mentats and Slasher. The former because, combined with her boozehound ways, the Naughty Nightwear, and the Meeting People skill magazine, she could boost her speech up by 30 whole points whenever she wanted; the latter because the Damage Resistance effect stacks with that of Med-X, meaning that she can use both to get a Damage Resistance of 50 whenever she’s in trouble! Meaning, as per Jon, any incoming damage gets immediately halved – before the Damage Threshold (a different stat that just straight-up subtracts a flat number from the damage) kicks in! Basically, with these drugs, she now can pass just about any speech check and severely reduce any damage she might take if she has sufficient warning. Both very important to her particular run and build! And better yet, she doesn’t have to rely on hitting up Jack for the drugs –
Because, so long as she has her labcoat on, she can make them herself at any campfire! Granted, making them required her to pick up two specific fruits – Banana Yucca Fruits for Slasher, and Honey Mesquite Pods for Party-Time Mentats – but P. D. fortunately knew exactly where to find those, leading to her final adventure being:
D) P. D. revealing why she made sure to tag Westside’s entrance in an earlier video by stopping by the town and visiting the local farm to get a bunch of banana yucca fruits and honey mesquite pods! Meaning she was well-stocked for making her new excellent drugs. She also swung by the liquor store to see what they had in stock – and when it proved to be “lots,” bought every bottle of booze she could and basically ended the episode by downing it all in Bender Numero Dos. XD
Fun episode – I am very much enjoying seeing Jon play Fallout: New Vegas properly, instead of with a randomizer mod (though that chaos was hilarious) or just dipping in during what is essentially a Fallout 3 LP (hi Tale of Two Wastelands!).
Other: It was a warm and sunny day today, which meant we all took a trip out to the yard (after spraying it to ward off the worst of the bugs) to play beanbags! And I’m pleased to report that all three of us won a game again – though Dad was the definite champ, winning three games out of five. But Mom and I did all right, and I’ll never complain so long as I get one win. *nods* Final scores were me 2-W-3-2-3; Dad W-3-2-W-W; Mom 3-2-W-3-2. We’ll see how things work out the next time we play!
Whew! And now I absolutely have to go to bed. Night all!
