Dad's Back In The Hospital
Jan. 27th, 2026 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickChemo will start tomorrow, and continue for the next three days, then he should be home on Saturday, and outpatient treatments will continue a few weeks after that. We'll see what happens. And because Mom still needs my car to get around (and a little because our street was barely fucking plowed and also there's apparently a barrel marking SOMETHING in the road that's blocking it, so that's fun), I will be home tomorrow while she figures out alternate transportation plans. *shakehead* I am very lucky my work and my coworkers are being very understanding about this. And that I have loads of sick time banked up that I can use for this purpose (I mean, SOMEONE'S sick in my family, so...). Don't get me wrong, I'm not THAT eager to get back to work (because, well, work), I just -- I worry that everyone's patience is going to run out at some point. And given everything that's happening, we really need me to have a job and earn money, so... *sigh* Maybe I can swing going back Thursday and Friday, depending on what Mom figures out. Again, we'll see what happens.
Anyway -- had most of the day to myself after Dad went back in the hospital. Here's what I accomplished to keep myself busy:
Dreamwidth: I made sure to answer all of Moose’s DW messages before lunch today, along with her latest comment – thanks again for the well-wishes, Moose. We really do need them. But yeah, wanted to make sure I got that done before more Life Events delayed things more. *nods* All yours, Moose!
Writing: I did another page of edits on Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” after lunch today, covering –
A) Alice unlocking the front doors and being confronted, not by guards, but by a little gray hallway with a pair of double doors at the end and a door off to the side – she was briefly surprised at the lack of security, but then figured they didn’t expect criminals to come swanning in the front. She figured it would still be smarter to go the long way around rather than just waltz onto the main floor, though, and managed to get the side door unlocked with her key ring, finding a staircase and a little corridor on the other side
B) Alice choosing to investigate the corridor first, as the stairs went up and she needed to go down...only to find the only place it led to was the admissions office, which was set up much like Trip’s pawn shop (cheap chair and cheap desk with a cash register behind a window with a slot in it – Alice noted she’d expected the museum to spring for better furniture). She read through the admission prices just for fun, then told Dormy that no, they would not be taking the cash out of the cash register this time, because she had no assurances it was going to a vampire who would use it to fuel her own schemes. And that, if they were smart, they’d have emptied the cash register for the night anyway – Hare noted they hadn’t bothered emptying the trash can under the desk, but Alice was like “still – we’re here for a sarcophagus, not the money”
C) And Alice finding the only other door in the corridor led to a coat closet, and thus letting the Wonderlanders decide whether she braved the museum floor or instead headed upstairs to see if there was anything useful on the upper levels. Hatter, Carpenter, Caterpillar, and Cheshire were all for heading up, so she agreed to mount the stairs, before warning “on your heads be it if I run into a guard” – and then firmly telling the Queen of Hearts that that wasn’t an invitation for her to call her Executioner. The Queen was like “I never get to take off any heads anymore,” to which Alice was like “excuse you, I JUST blew off a woman’s head – it may have been a mercy kill, but it counts!” XD
Good stuff! I left off with Alice heading upstairs, muttering to herself about how, if she’s an example of a relatively sane Malkavian, she dreads to think what’s going on in the brain of a more openly mad one...next time, Alice reaches the upstairs back corridors and gets jumpscared by a dinosaur! As you do.
Baldur’s Gate III: I did indeed return to Faerûn to continue the Adventures Of Bardlock Smiler And Friends today after finishing my writing – and today’s session was pretty much all about the looting! And trust me, they got some good loot – allow me to elaborate:
A) I picked up where I left off last time, with Smiler, friends, and Sazza (the goblin they were helping to jailbreak so she’d put in a good word for them back at her camp, particularly with her “can heal anything” priestess, Gut) in the Underground Passage beneath the Hollow in the Emerald Grove, having just killed the small party of goblins they found down there (which Sazza was okay with because Warrior Gresh and company had said they were only too happy to kill HER for failing the Absolute during the earlier raids). I’d been a little nervous to loot the corpses at the end of the last session, worried it would force Smiler into a cutscene to either revive or finish off the unconscious druid halfling the goblins had been torturing, Findal (because, while I fully intended to help him, I did NOT want to do so with Sazza hanging around – no need for him to know about the jailbreak!) – fortunately, cautiously venturing toward him did not trigger anything of the sort. Thus reassured I could leave him until Sazza was safely on her way, I had Smiler set about looting the fallen! Here’s what they had on them:
Warrior Gresh: The leader of the little band was carrying an Acid Vial (which you can throw at enemies to inflict acid damage on them – pretty sure this is from one of my mods, “Vera The Alchemist,” but it might be from something else), a skull, 4 gold, a greataxe, and the Verdant Ward cloak – a fancy green cloak that adds a +1D4 bonus to any saving throws against spells! Smiler took everything but the skull and equipped the cloak once they were done looting – we’ll dye it the correct colors once everyone heads back to camp!
Tracker Torrack: This fellow was only carrying a handful of rotten chicken eggs and his goblin bow – I had Smiler ignore the stinky eggs and grab the bow to sell later.
Sharp-Eye Gurza: Being the second-toughest goblin in the gang, she too had some decent stuff – two Arrows of Acid, a Rogue’s Morsel mushroom (more alchemy ingredients, yay), 4 gold, and her bow. Smiler happily scooped them all up, though the arrows will probably be passed on to Astarion later, as he’s the one most often using a bow.
Tracker Worm: The last of the group was like Torrack in not carrying much – just a skull, 4 gold, and her bow. Smiler took the latter two items, since they really didn’t need to put any more bones in the camp chest.
*nods* Not bad – good magic item, and some more weapons to sell, yay~
B) Having looted all the bodies that could be looted, it was time for the group to press on – but how they pressed on was the question. For, you see, they had two possible paths to follow – looping up and around the natural staircase to their right, or just climbing up the rocks where they found Worm’s body. They both seemed to lead to the same place – a higher ledge in the cave with a bunch of crates and barrels piled up against the stone wall –
But, well, the staircase had a Guardian Statue of an Eagle right at the top of it, ready to shoot fire from its eyes at intruders, along with a big old oil puddle from a leaking oil barrel nearby. The rocks, meanwhile, had the Rune Of The Eagle that would shut off the killer statue embedded into a natural pillar right at the top of them, and no oil anywhere. *claps hands* Seemed like a no brainer to me! XD So, after taking a moment to admire some of the other, less-deadly statues looming along the far wall of the cave, over the underground river running along the side of the passage (I tried to get a picture, but sadly it didn’t come out very well because of the angle) – and noting that there was a Rune Of The Wolf and a lootable dead body on the lower portion of the little rocky peninsula that jutted out into the water that I figured I should check out later – I had Smiler and company climb up the rocks to stay out of the statue’s way (Lae’zel passing a Perception check to spot the statue as she did, but not making any comment, aw). Once everyone was safely atop the ledge, I then toggled off group mode, switched control to Astarion (who was for some reason standing atop some of the boxes on the ledge – I guess to give the other party members enough room?), then had him hide and carefully sneak up to the Rune Of The Eagle on the pillar. Fortunately, the Guardian Statue never noticed him – don’t know if it was because he was hiding or if he straight-up just wasn’t in range – and he was able to press the rune and deactivate its killer gaze. Yay – we like being safe from murderous fire-flinging trap statues!
C) With that potential mess sorted, I had the gang regroup, then swapped back to Smiler and had them start looting all the crates and barrels to see what was in them. And brother, sisters, and siblings, there was some nice stuff in these containers (barring the two that were empty, of course):
I. In the very first crate, Smiler scored a Scroll of Chromatic Orb (lets you hurl a ball of thunder, lightning, fire, cold, acid, or poison at enemies and – for all except thunder – leave an appropriate surface behind) and a Greater Elixir of Arcane Cultivation (gives the drinker one Level 2 spell slot until they drink another Elixir or have a long rest) – the scroll is fine, but that potion – *chef’s kiss* That’ll be saved for a handy moment! Next big fight, most likely…
II. In the first barrel was a regular old healing potion – nothing particularly exciting, but always good to have.
III. In the second barrel was a Scroll of Colour Spray (lets you blind enemies with flashing colored lights so they have decreased range and miss attacks more often – though it only works at close range) – dunno how useful it’ll be, but it feels like a Smiler spell, so they’ll keep it on hand.
IV. In the third barrel was another healing potion – again, not exciting, but very useful.
V. In the big crate in the middle were a set of thieves’ tools – can always use a few spare ones of those, just in case.
VI. And in the final small crate was a trap disarm kit – can definitely always use more of those!
While Smiler was going through the crates and barrels, however, Gale suddenly succeeded a Perception check and remarked, “A trap. This place is more dangerous than I thought.” Puzzled, I was like “Trap? Where??” and started looking around the area –
And spotted a big old heavy wooden chest in a darkened alcove just past the main pile – I hadn’t noticed it before because I couldn’t see it! It was gleaming now that Gale had noticed it was dangerous, though – and its gleam revealed that it was cuddling up to a pair of oil barrels, next to a wall of loose rocks that looked very much like they could come down upon an unwary looter. “Well – we’ll have to deal with that carefully,” I thought, and had Smiler finish their looting –
D) And then, once I was sure all the crates and barrels had been searched, it was time for Astarion to shine again! I had Smiler hand over the thieves’ tools and trap disarm kit they’d found, then saved, ungrouped everyone, and sent him over to the big heavy chest – fortunately remembering to right-click on it first to disarm it. The game presented me with the die to roll and told me Astarion had to beat a DC of 10 –
But Astarion had so many bonuses from his natural Dexterity, his proficiency and expertise in Sleight Of Hand, his Gloves of Power, and Smiler’s previous Bardic Inspiration, that he was guaranteed a minimum bonus of 9 on the roll, and a maximum bonus of 14 (as having Bardic Inspiration allowed him to add +1D6 to his roll). Basically, unless he rolled a crit 1, he could not fail –
And indeed, he rolled a 7, and his total with bonuses was an 18. Thus was the trap on the chest disarmed, meaning Astarion was in absolutely no danger of exploding! :D He then set about picking the chest open (because of course it was locked as well as being boobytrapped) – the game this time set him a DC of 15, and as he’d used up his Bardic Inspiration, he sadly had fewer bonuses. But he still had +8 to add to the roll, and the party had plenty of inspiration to burn, so I had him give it a go anyway –
Aaand he rolled a nat 20. :D Nice. Astarion thus opened the chest, and claimed the goodies inside – 37 gold, another Scroll of Chromatic Orb (I guess the game figures Wyll having the circlet that lets him cast the spell just isn’t enough), and the Nature’s Snare quarterstaff – a staff that has a chance to “ensnare” enemies for two turns upon every hit, so long as the enemy is not a beast or a plant, preventing them from moving and dealing 1D6 piercing damage per turn. Not the worst thing in the world – perhaps Gale would like it? He doesn’t usually do melee damage, but still…
E) With the big old chest thus safely looted, I had everyone group up again, then swapped control back to Smiler and had them lead everyone past the deactivated Guardian Eagle Statue and up some more natural steps toward a sunlit stone door surrounded by plants. Clicking on that triggered a black loading screen –
And Sazza saying, “Ah, thought I was never gonna get outta there. Good to be free again, gotta say.” *grumbles* I hate when the game starts playing before the visuals start loading – I had that problem with Sims 4, BG3, I don’t need it with you too! Anyway, the game eventually loaded in Smiler and company standing in a pretty bit of the forest around the grove, mid-conversation with Sazza – I had Smiler remind her, “You made me a promise, remember?” as the “no one deserves to be locked up like that” line seemed a touch TOO nice for the circumstances – Smiler’s mainly letting Sazza go to get access to that priestess and learn more about the Absolute, not because they felt THAT sorry for her. Sazza assured them, “Never break a promise unless there’s somefin’ in it for me” (points for honesty) and said “I’ll introduce ya to my whole tribe and put in a good word for ya – see ya at the camp.”
And with that, she ran off, into the woods – and to my annoyance, the quest to free her didn’t actually complete. Seems like you have to meet her in the Goblin Camp first! Meeh...I guess that XP will have to wait for another day! *shakes head at the party* One day, I will get you all to Level 4! (Ironically, Wyll complained shortly thereafter, “Was a time I tussled with hill giants without breaking a sweat. Now, a mere werebear could swat me halfway to Amn,” with Gale responding, “Strange things are happening to us. What festers in our minds may well impel our bodies” – aka, the tadpoles fucked with their levels and now they have to earn them all again. It’s the game’s explanation for why all these supposedly-traveled and talented people are at Level 1 when you meet them. Why YOUR character is at Level 1 is up to you!) Anyway, I figured I might as well explore the immediate area – said area being a giant rock in front of the stone door with a big old fallen tree in front of it – and see if there were any goodies –
And there were! A Rogue’s Morsel mushroom growing beside the big rock, and a backpack containing a healing potion, a grease bottle, and a set of thieves’ tools tucked between it and the fallen tree! Well, I wasn’t going to say no to those! :) I was then briefly tempted to wander farther afield with the group, perhaps see if we could find Karlach or something…
F) But then I thought, “No, I should really go and help Findal, and then finish Smiler’s business with that rat they were talking to.” So back into the Underground Passage the party went, passing by the now-deactivated Guardian Eagle and down the steps to where Findal lay unconscious. I had Smiler interact with him, expecting it to trigger a cutscene –
And it did, just – not the kind I was expecting. It was merely a close-up of the halfling with a few lines from the narrator: “His breaths are shallow, his wounds deep. He doesn’t respond to your voice.” No dialogue box to offer aid or end his life, nothing like that. “I – guess you just use a healing spell on him?” I thought, a little puzzled. “Or maybe toss a healing potion near him...no, I’m not versed with the throwing mechanics in this game yet, I don’t want to accidentally hit and kill him with the bottle.” (Yes, that is in fact a thing that can happen in this game.) “So I guess it’s up to whether I want Smiler or Shadowheart to sacrifice a spell slot to cast Healing Word...let’s do Smiler, just in case this auto-triggers a conversation. I want them to be the one to talk to him.” Smiler thus whipped out their lute and cast the spell on the unconscious druid (since Healing Word is one of their Bard spells) – it was dramatic enough that I got a screenshot:
Cool, huh? (Ignore the weird redness on their and Lae’zel’s legs, all it means is that they’re standing in mud and thus have wet feet.) Anyway, once he’d been healed slightly by the spell, Findal woke up and got to his feet, using one of his own special abilities to regain the rest of his lost hit points. As it turned out, he did not automatically enter into conversation with his rescuer (could have totally had Shadowheart heal him!), so it was up to Smiler to check on him themselves. He thanked them profusely for their help when they did, stating, “I thought I was going to die down here.” Smiler admitted, “I’m surprised the goblins didn’t gut you on sight. Why didn’t they?” – Findal explained they’d been interrogating him about some sort of weapon, adding “I told them – the only weapons here are the ones the foulbloods brought.” Immediately making me kind of regret sparing his life. *shakehead* Stupid racist druids… Anyway, he said that he had to tell the others what had happened, warned Smiler to “step careful – there are traps in these tunnels” (yeah, we know), before thanking them one last time and running off. Granting the party 10 XP for saving him –
And Wyll an extra 20 XP due to rescuing him being one of his inspiration triggers! :D So now he and Lae’zel have each been inspired twice; Astarion, Shadowheart, and Gale have each been inspired once –
And Smiler’s never been inspired at all. *grumbles* I gotta go sell more weapons to Dammon and see if that “trade with a merchant who likes you” inspiration triggers already. Dang “Guild Artisan” background…
G) Anyway – with Findal helped, I decided my next step was going to be trying to figure out how to get onto the little peninsula of rock next to the main path, to see if I could hit that Rune Of The Wolf to turn off the last of the Guardian Statues and loot that dead body at the bottom of it. I thus had Smiler and company run back to where I could see it connect to the main path, right behind the Guardian Bear Statue, looking for a path onto it –
And finding none – just a load of stalagmites blocking the way. In fact, the more I looked, the more there didn’t seem to be any way to get onto the little peninsula at all. “Maybe it’s only available to characters who can learn the Fly spell,” I thought a bit sadly, getting Smiler and company right up to the edge of the main path to look at it –
And then I thought, “...unless maybe you can jump onto it?” Curious, I activated the Jump action for Smiler, and saw that, if they got right up to the edge of the path, over the river, they could juuust about make it onto the little outcropping of rock. I wasn’t sure the entire party would fit on that little bit of stone, though, so – after toggling “Group Hide” on and off to cancel out the Jump action (I wasn’t sure how else to do it!) – I ungrouped everyone and had Smiler jump on their own, hoping to avoid anyone falling into the chasm with the river below. They landed right on the edge of the main outcrop, and two things happened in quick succession:
I. Smiler passed a passive Survival check and discovered a big old dirt mount directly in front of them that could be dug up
II. The Guardian Wolf Statue overlooking the peninsula awakened and began to hurl bolts of fire – but, due to the angle of where it was looking, it kept hitting the side of the rock, not getting anywhere near Smiler.
Well – that was a lucky break! :D I promptly had Smiler start digging up the dirt mound while the statue shot fruitlessly at them, as sort of shown in this screenshot:
Yeah, unfortunately I wasn’t able to catch the Wolf Statue actually shooting any fire, but it still looks pretty dramatic! Anyway, Smiler quickly uncovered a treasure chest, and when they opened that chest –
Oh baby. Oh BABY. That sucker contained 47 gold, a Fire Amber (used in Alchemist’s Fire), two Viridian Crystals (used in stuff like Diluted Oil Of Sharpness), a Daggerroot, a Belladonna, an Elixir of Fire Resistance (very useful under the current circumstances), and the Staff Of The Unyielding Tree, which grants the wielder Writhing Roots (when you strike an enemy with the staff, on a failed Strength save they are held by gnarled roots for two turns, so basically they’re Ensnared) and Bark Of The Ages (gives advantage on Dexterity saving throws when wielded) AND has a +1 Weapon Enchantment (meaning it adds +1 to all Attack and Damage rolls). Basically, this is a GOOD STAFF. :D I quickly had Smiler pocket everything (mostly because the repeated blasts from the Wolf Statue were setting the chest on fire), then leap back over to their friends with their spoils. Because who needs the corpse at the bottom of the rocks when you got all THAT at the top? :D
And so the adventure ended with the party regrouping and tracing their steps back through the original stone door they came through and into the makeshift prison. Next time, we’ll have another look around the place and find a way into the storehouse that rat Smiler was talking with went into! And hopefully be able to deal with the paralyzed tiefling inside – might have to be Shadowheart who talks with her, since she has the spell the woman needs!
Workout: Hopped back on the bike tonight and continued pedaling my way through The Adventures Of Useless Steve in “Fallout: New Vegas - The Worst Courier - Part 3 - Idiot Savant” by Many A True Nerd! Tonight’s chunklet featured:
A) Useless Steve following the Legion patrol he was tagging behind before as they wandered into Camp Searchlight (or, rather, the little recon camp outside the actual, HEAVILY irradiated Camp Searchlight), and watching as the machete-wielding Roman cosplayer idiots were slaughtered by the gun-toting NCR rangers (one guy who was lagging behind then showed up with a gun, but he was still very much outmatched) – Steve cheerfully looted all the corpses afterward, gaining lots of doses of antivenom for the moment he inevitably runs into more giant radscorpions.
B) Useless Steve then skirting around the edges of Camp Searchlight (because, again, HEAVILY irradiated) to the wreckage of Matthews Animal Husbandry Farm, where he was able to pick up a few more goodies, including another Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap to add to his collection, and another Wasteland Survival Guide to pump his Survival skill up another three points! Jon had been expecting crazed starving animals going after Steve, but all the bighorners and brahmin were actually quite chill. Apparently Steve just didn’t set off their animal instincts! Lucky Steve!
C) Useless Steve then returning to Wolfhorn Ranch for the night, before heading to the nearby bridge to trade with the just-spawned-in caravan – including, notably, stocking up on pulse grenades – before hanging back and watching them take on a surprise Legion raiding party – the merchants and their guards put up a good fight and managed to murder a couple of Legionnaires, but ultimately the Legion won. Allowing Steve to steal back all his bottle caps and grab a brahmin steak off the merchant’s corpse to help him truck around all the other goodies he got off the other corpses (as it temporarily boosts your strength without being addictive)! Granted, after looting the Legionnaire corpses and the Bright Brotherhood Follower corpse under the nearby billboard, he had to wash down that steak with some whiskey, which caused him to become addicted to whiskey, but – he tried to find a non-addictive way to carry all his shit!
D) Useless Steve then attempting to take out a Viper gang ambush behind a billboard on the way to Novac – which, uh, took three attempts:
I. The first time, while trying to lead a mole rat over to fight them, he was almost immediately exploded by the grenade rifle one of the Vipers was carrying (because everyone had cocking grenade rifles in this episode, it seemed – to be fair, though, that was exactly why Steve wanted to take out the ambush, in hopes of getting some ammo for his OWN grenade rifle), and then they shot off his head
II. The second time, he tried to lure them around the corner a little more sneaky-like, only for the mole rat who’d been chasing him to leap on him, leading to him getting shot repeatedly before I believe the mole rat took him out
III. And the third time, he attempted to set up some mines at the corner of the billboard, only to be spotted before he could place any, leading to just a straight-up gunfight – fortunately, before this attempt Steve killed the mole rat and swapped to his nice NCR armor, and that plus the Q-35 Matter Modulator managed to keep him alive. Granted, he ended up with a crippled torso and arm – but he also ended up with three 40mm grenades and another grenade rifle he could use to repair his own. Hooray!
E) Useless Steve then switching back to the leather armor (just in case of Legion) before dragging himself into Novac as his steak and whiskey wore off. He promptly proceeded to:
I. Sell a load of items to Cliff Briscoe in the gift shop (lamenting that both Paciencia and That Gun, two of the best weapons in the game, were out of his reach because of the Strength requirements)
II. Invade Ranger Andy’s bungalow and use the “grab and carry somewhere else out of sight” trick (in this case, dragging it into the bathroom) on his Medicine skill book to steal it to boost his own Medicine skill (sorry, Andy, but he really needs the points!)
III. Invade Manny Vargas’s room in the main motel and download the “Khan Hospitality” note off his completely unlocked computer (getting another piece of evidence to present to Swank that his boss was a crooked asshole and learning the Great Khans who helped Benny are apparently heading to Boulder City after being hosted by Manny)
IV. Steal a Locksmith Reader skill magazine out of one of the mailboxes around town (because free magazine, woo)
V. Find Dr. Ada Straus and get her to cure his whiskey addiction and restore his crippled arm and torso for 100 caps total (though given her dialogue, she may not have been the best doctor to visit – apparently Steve got a free tetanus shot after she realized her scalpel was rusty from being left outside XD)
F) Useless Steve then running over to Nelson to show off one of the more fun “low Intelligence” dialogue options with Ranger Milo – the kind that has the person respond to you with a special voice line acknowledging that you said something kinda idiotic. Basically, Milo stopped him from entering Nelson by telling him that the place was under lockdown until they could “dislodge some Legion snakes;” Steve innocently responded, “Snakes are small. Why don’t you just use a gun or whatever to shoot them?” and Nelson went, “You’re one of them ‘special’ folks, ain’t you?” before trying to explain the metaphor to Steve. Jon was very tickled by it all. :p
G) Useless Steve then heading over to Helios One to show off some of the “low Intelligence” dialogue options you could get there, including:
I. Telling Lt. Haggerty on the door, “Need food fill belly. You got food?” getting her to annoyedly reply “I can’t tell whether you’re joking or radiation melted part of your brain, but either way I don’t see a good reason to let you through” (he then slapped on his NCR armor and proceed to sneak in through the side door – which, since he had to pick it open, got him just enough XP to hit Level 6; Jon boosted Speech to 19 and Energy Weapons to 23 (so, with a little apparel boosting, he could use the Q-35 correctly), and took Bloody Mess as his perk for the 5% flat damage increase)
II. After a quick stop in one of the bedrooms to get another Medicine skill book and one of the password holotapes he’d need to do the “That Lucky Old Sun” quest, confronting fake scientist Fantastic and, when he was like “are you replacing me?” telling him “Me take your job because me smarter” –
Causing him to moan, “Ah, shit, man. You’re direct, you’re no-nonsense. How am I supposed to compete with that? I gotta pay these chem bills,” in his own special response to a low-Intelligence character. XD Sadly, Steve then fluffed the check to get some caps out of him – though that wasn’t entirely his fault, as it was a strange Speech check that didn’t have a number attached to it to show how much of the skill you need to pass it. Jon noted there’s a lot of that nonsense around Helios One, and he wasn’t sure if it was a result of the location being created really EARLY or really LATE in the game’s development cycle.
III. Chatting with Ignacio Rivas to start the “Lucky Sun” quest and saying things like “I is scientistic” and “I no hurt nobody” and “Who are Flowers of Pock-lips?” and “Do Flowers and NCR Bear play together?” in response to his lines, showing off how this ONE conversation is done ENTIRELY in Low Intelligence caveman speak for some bizarre reason. Though, sadly, Ignacio did not actually respond to any of them with any sort of “ah, your Intelligence is below 2, isn’t it?” special line – he just plowed on as if Steve was speaking normally. Shame – at least the lines themselves were funny!
H) Useless Steve then starting the “Lucky Sun” quest and using the passwords he’d found to realign the solar panels via the two computers out in the fields – which saw him get himself blown up by the traps guarding the first (mostly because Jon forgot about the frag mine on one side) before he reloaded and smartly blew up the mine before proceeding, then easily kill the dogs guarding the second because they couldn’t actually get through the gap in the sandbags he was standing behind (and despite being marked as NCR, the NCR did not actually care if he killed them – again, this area is weird) – before heading into the main tower to brave the robots inside! Which actually proved not to be too much of a problem, thanks to him having pulse grenades that did an extra 200 damage to them –
The turrets, on the other hand – yeah, those caused some issues for poor Steve. At the point I left off, he’d managed to take down two of them, but was having some real trouble with the third (which Jon had straight-up forgotten existed) – and when he managed to get across the hallway and into a room where he thought he’d have a better shot at sniping it, he walked straight into some mines underneath the desk and blew himself up. XD Whoops. Tomorrow, we’ll finish this episode up with the end of his Helios One adventures, then start the next and see what nonsense Steve gets up to in Part 4!
Tumblr: And I managed to get a little bit done on both my tumblr blogs tonight –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Over here, I quickly queued up a couple of things for the next two days – specifically:
A) The “Rings” comic by ND Stevenson that upright-fool posted (which talks about how ND and his partner have changed over the years – specifically becoming transmascs – and how each partner changed the other’s engagement ring to fit their new hand – it’s much sweeter than it sounds) for Wednesday
B) And some gorgeous medieval fantasy art (including a hunter and their dogs nosing at a rabbit burrow...which, unbeknownst to them, contains a dragon) by sarakipin for Thursday
So that’s good, got a little bit of a buffer there. I’ll figure out Friday and Saturday tomorrow!
Valice Multiverse – And over here, I had a reply thesatiricaldemon made on the ask he sent me the other day (featuring the weird sock commercial) – apparently the ask was adapted from an ad the people behind a web show he likes, “Hunter: The Parenting,” made to promote socks featuring their main character, Kevin, and a shirt based off one another character wears. And the guy in the ad, Mike Dragons-Wrath, was later confirmed to be a Black Spiral Dancer (a corrupted evil werewolf) and high up in Pentex (THE evil company in the Old World of Darkness). I responded, “Ahhhh, I see! XD And oh boy – yeah, okay, maybe Alice SHOULDN'T be ordering clothes from that guy, they're probably all sorts of cursed.” XD I mean, they certainly SOUND like they’d be cursed!
*nods* Not bad, I suppose -- and it's even not as horribly late as it usually is when I finish these write-ups. XD Time for me to get to bed, though -- tomorrow, I should have enough time to play some Fallout: New Vegas and find some XP for Courier Victor; work some more on either "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland" or "The Van Dort Vacancy" (depends on how I feel); and get in another workout and watch some more Useless Steve. I'm HOPING I can add "work on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) tumblr drafts" and "watch one of the videos piling up on FreeTube" to that list, but -- we will see. Depends on how much free time I actually have. *nods* Night all!
Anyway -- had most of the day to myself after Dad went back in the hospital. Here's what I accomplished to keep myself busy:
Dreamwidth: I made sure to answer all of Moose’s DW messages before lunch today, along with her latest comment – thanks again for the well-wishes, Moose. We really do need them. But yeah, wanted to make sure I got that done before more Life Events delayed things more. *nods* All yours, Moose!
Writing: I did another page of edits on Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” after lunch today, covering –
A) Alice unlocking the front doors and being confronted, not by guards, but by a little gray hallway with a pair of double doors at the end and a door off to the side – she was briefly surprised at the lack of security, but then figured they didn’t expect criminals to come swanning in the front. She figured it would still be smarter to go the long way around rather than just waltz onto the main floor, though, and managed to get the side door unlocked with her key ring, finding a staircase and a little corridor on the other side
B) Alice choosing to investigate the corridor first, as the stairs went up and she needed to go down...only to find the only place it led to was the admissions office, which was set up much like Trip’s pawn shop (cheap chair and cheap desk with a cash register behind a window with a slot in it – Alice noted she’d expected the museum to spring for better furniture). She read through the admission prices just for fun, then told Dormy that no, they would not be taking the cash out of the cash register this time, because she had no assurances it was going to a vampire who would use it to fuel her own schemes. And that, if they were smart, they’d have emptied the cash register for the night anyway – Hare noted they hadn’t bothered emptying the trash can under the desk, but Alice was like “still – we’re here for a sarcophagus, not the money”
C) And Alice finding the only other door in the corridor led to a coat closet, and thus letting the Wonderlanders decide whether she braved the museum floor or instead headed upstairs to see if there was anything useful on the upper levels. Hatter, Carpenter, Caterpillar, and Cheshire were all for heading up, so she agreed to mount the stairs, before warning “on your heads be it if I run into a guard” – and then firmly telling the Queen of Hearts that that wasn’t an invitation for her to call her Executioner. The Queen was like “I never get to take off any heads anymore,” to which Alice was like “excuse you, I JUST blew off a woman’s head – it may have been a mercy kill, but it counts!” XD
Good stuff! I left off with Alice heading upstairs, muttering to herself about how, if she’s an example of a relatively sane Malkavian, she dreads to think what’s going on in the brain of a more openly mad one...next time, Alice reaches the upstairs back corridors and gets jumpscared by a dinosaur! As you do.
Baldur’s Gate III: I did indeed return to Faerûn to continue the Adventures Of Bardlock Smiler And Friends today after finishing my writing – and today’s session was pretty much all about the looting! And trust me, they got some good loot – allow me to elaborate:
A) I picked up where I left off last time, with Smiler, friends, and Sazza (the goblin they were helping to jailbreak so she’d put in a good word for them back at her camp, particularly with her “can heal anything” priestess, Gut) in the Underground Passage beneath the Hollow in the Emerald Grove, having just killed the small party of goblins they found down there (which Sazza was okay with because Warrior Gresh and company had said they were only too happy to kill HER for failing the Absolute during the earlier raids). I’d been a little nervous to loot the corpses at the end of the last session, worried it would force Smiler into a cutscene to either revive or finish off the unconscious druid halfling the goblins had been torturing, Findal (because, while I fully intended to help him, I did NOT want to do so with Sazza hanging around – no need for him to know about the jailbreak!) – fortunately, cautiously venturing toward him did not trigger anything of the sort. Thus reassured I could leave him until Sazza was safely on her way, I had Smiler set about looting the fallen! Here’s what they had on them:
Warrior Gresh: The leader of the little band was carrying an Acid Vial (which you can throw at enemies to inflict acid damage on them – pretty sure this is from one of my mods, “Vera The Alchemist,” but it might be from something else), a skull, 4 gold, a greataxe, and the Verdant Ward cloak – a fancy green cloak that adds a +1D4 bonus to any saving throws against spells! Smiler took everything but the skull and equipped the cloak once they were done looting – we’ll dye it the correct colors once everyone heads back to camp!
Tracker Torrack: This fellow was only carrying a handful of rotten chicken eggs and his goblin bow – I had Smiler ignore the stinky eggs and grab the bow to sell later.
Sharp-Eye Gurza: Being the second-toughest goblin in the gang, she too had some decent stuff – two Arrows of Acid, a Rogue’s Morsel mushroom (more alchemy ingredients, yay), 4 gold, and her bow. Smiler happily scooped them all up, though the arrows will probably be passed on to Astarion later, as he’s the one most often using a bow.
Tracker Worm: The last of the group was like Torrack in not carrying much – just a skull, 4 gold, and her bow. Smiler took the latter two items, since they really didn’t need to put any more bones in the camp chest.
*nods* Not bad – good magic item, and some more weapons to sell, yay~
B) Having looted all the bodies that could be looted, it was time for the group to press on – but how they pressed on was the question. For, you see, they had two possible paths to follow – looping up and around the natural staircase to their right, or just climbing up the rocks where they found Worm’s body. They both seemed to lead to the same place – a higher ledge in the cave with a bunch of crates and barrels piled up against the stone wall –
But, well, the staircase had a Guardian Statue of an Eagle right at the top of it, ready to shoot fire from its eyes at intruders, along with a big old oil puddle from a leaking oil barrel nearby. The rocks, meanwhile, had the Rune Of The Eagle that would shut off the killer statue embedded into a natural pillar right at the top of them, and no oil anywhere. *claps hands* Seemed like a no brainer to me! XD So, after taking a moment to admire some of the other, less-deadly statues looming along the far wall of the cave, over the underground river running along the side of the passage (I tried to get a picture, but sadly it didn’t come out very well because of the angle) – and noting that there was a Rune Of The Wolf and a lootable dead body on the lower portion of the little rocky peninsula that jutted out into the water that I figured I should check out later – I had Smiler and company climb up the rocks to stay out of the statue’s way (Lae’zel passing a Perception check to spot the statue as she did, but not making any comment, aw). Once everyone was safely atop the ledge, I then toggled off group mode, switched control to Astarion (who was for some reason standing atop some of the boxes on the ledge – I guess to give the other party members enough room?), then had him hide and carefully sneak up to the Rune Of The Eagle on the pillar. Fortunately, the Guardian Statue never noticed him – don’t know if it was because he was hiding or if he straight-up just wasn’t in range – and he was able to press the rune and deactivate its killer gaze. Yay – we like being safe from murderous fire-flinging trap statues!
C) With that potential mess sorted, I had the gang regroup, then swapped back to Smiler and had them start looting all the crates and barrels to see what was in them. And brother, sisters, and siblings, there was some nice stuff in these containers (barring the two that were empty, of course):
I. In the very first crate, Smiler scored a Scroll of Chromatic Orb (lets you hurl a ball of thunder, lightning, fire, cold, acid, or poison at enemies and – for all except thunder – leave an appropriate surface behind) and a Greater Elixir of Arcane Cultivation (gives the drinker one Level 2 spell slot until they drink another Elixir or have a long rest) – the scroll is fine, but that potion – *chef’s kiss* That’ll be saved for a handy moment! Next big fight, most likely…
II. In the first barrel was a regular old healing potion – nothing particularly exciting, but always good to have.
III. In the second barrel was a Scroll of Colour Spray (lets you blind enemies with flashing colored lights so they have decreased range and miss attacks more often – though it only works at close range) – dunno how useful it’ll be, but it feels like a Smiler spell, so they’ll keep it on hand.
IV. In the third barrel was another healing potion – again, not exciting, but very useful.
V. In the big crate in the middle were a set of thieves’ tools – can always use a few spare ones of those, just in case.
VI. And in the final small crate was a trap disarm kit – can definitely always use more of those!
While Smiler was going through the crates and barrels, however, Gale suddenly succeeded a Perception check and remarked, “A trap. This place is more dangerous than I thought.” Puzzled, I was like “Trap? Where??” and started looking around the area –
And spotted a big old heavy wooden chest in a darkened alcove just past the main pile – I hadn’t noticed it before because I couldn’t see it! It was gleaming now that Gale had noticed it was dangerous, though – and its gleam revealed that it was cuddling up to a pair of oil barrels, next to a wall of loose rocks that looked very much like they could come down upon an unwary looter. “Well – we’ll have to deal with that carefully,” I thought, and had Smiler finish their looting –
D) And then, once I was sure all the crates and barrels had been searched, it was time for Astarion to shine again! I had Smiler hand over the thieves’ tools and trap disarm kit they’d found, then saved, ungrouped everyone, and sent him over to the big heavy chest – fortunately remembering to right-click on it first to disarm it. The game presented me with the die to roll and told me Astarion had to beat a DC of 10 –
But Astarion had so many bonuses from his natural Dexterity, his proficiency and expertise in Sleight Of Hand, his Gloves of Power, and Smiler’s previous Bardic Inspiration, that he was guaranteed a minimum bonus of 9 on the roll, and a maximum bonus of 14 (as having Bardic Inspiration allowed him to add +1D6 to his roll). Basically, unless he rolled a crit 1, he could not fail –
And indeed, he rolled a 7, and his total with bonuses was an 18. Thus was the trap on the chest disarmed, meaning Astarion was in absolutely no danger of exploding! :D He then set about picking the chest open (because of course it was locked as well as being boobytrapped) – the game this time set him a DC of 15, and as he’d used up his Bardic Inspiration, he sadly had fewer bonuses. But he still had +8 to add to the roll, and the party had plenty of inspiration to burn, so I had him give it a go anyway –
Aaand he rolled a nat 20. :D Nice. Astarion thus opened the chest, and claimed the goodies inside – 37 gold, another Scroll of Chromatic Orb (I guess the game figures Wyll having the circlet that lets him cast the spell just isn’t enough), and the Nature’s Snare quarterstaff – a staff that has a chance to “ensnare” enemies for two turns upon every hit, so long as the enemy is not a beast or a plant, preventing them from moving and dealing 1D6 piercing damage per turn. Not the worst thing in the world – perhaps Gale would like it? He doesn’t usually do melee damage, but still…
E) With the big old chest thus safely looted, I had everyone group up again, then swapped control back to Smiler and had them lead everyone past the deactivated Guardian Eagle Statue and up some more natural steps toward a sunlit stone door surrounded by plants. Clicking on that triggered a black loading screen –
And Sazza saying, “Ah, thought I was never gonna get outta there. Good to be free again, gotta say.” *grumbles* I hate when the game starts playing before the visuals start loading – I had that problem with Sims 4, BG3, I don’t need it with you too! Anyway, the game eventually loaded in Smiler and company standing in a pretty bit of the forest around the grove, mid-conversation with Sazza – I had Smiler remind her, “You made me a promise, remember?” as the “no one deserves to be locked up like that” line seemed a touch TOO nice for the circumstances – Smiler’s mainly letting Sazza go to get access to that priestess and learn more about the Absolute, not because they felt THAT sorry for her. Sazza assured them, “Never break a promise unless there’s somefin’ in it for me” (points for honesty) and said “I’ll introduce ya to my whole tribe and put in a good word for ya – see ya at the camp.”
And with that, she ran off, into the woods – and to my annoyance, the quest to free her didn’t actually complete. Seems like you have to meet her in the Goblin Camp first! Meeh...I guess that XP will have to wait for another day! *shakes head at the party* One day, I will get you all to Level 4! (Ironically, Wyll complained shortly thereafter, “Was a time I tussled with hill giants without breaking a sweat. Now, a mere werebear could swat me halfway to Amn,” with Gale responding, “Strange things are happening to us. What festers in our minds may well impel our bodies” – aka, the tadpoles fucked with their levels and now they have to earn them all again. It’s the game’s explanation for why all these supposedly-traveled and talented people are at Level 1 when you meet them. Why YOUR character is at Level 1 is up to you!) Anyway, I figured I might as well explore the immediate area – said area being a giant rock in front of the stone door with a big old fallen tree in front of it – and see if there were any goodies –
And there were! A Rogue’s Morsel mushroom growing beside the big rock, and a backpack containing a healing potion, a grease bottle, and a set of thieves’ tools tucked between it and the fallen tree! Well, I wasn’t going to say no to those! :) I was then briefly tempted to wander farther afield with the group, perhaps see if we could find Karlach or something…
F) But then I thought, “No, I should really go and help Findal, and then finish Smiler’s business with that rat they were talking to.” So back into the Underground Passage the party went, passing by the now-deactivated Guardian Eagle and down the steps to where Findal lay unconscious. I had Smiler interact with him, expecting it to trigger a cutscene –
And it did, just – not the kind I was expecting. It was merely a close-up of the halfling with a few lines from the narrator: “His breaths are shallow, his wounds deep. He doesn’t respond to your voice.” No dialogue box to offer aid or end his life, nothing like that. “I – guess you just use a healing spell on him?” I thought, a little puzzled. “Or maybe toss a healing potion near him...no, I’m not versed with the throwing mechanics in this game yet, I don’t want to accidentally hit and kill him with the bottle.” (Yes, that is in fact a thing that can happen in this game.) “So I guess it’s up to whether I want Smiler or Shadowheart to sacrifice a spell slot to cast Healing Word...let’s do Smiler, just in case this auto-triggers a conversation. I want them to be the one to talk to him.” Smiler thus whipped out their lute and cast the spell on the unconscious druid (since Healing Word is one of their Bard spells) – it was dramatic enough that I got a screenshot:
Cool, huh? (Ignore the weird redness on their and Lae’zel’s legs, all it means is that they’re standing in mud and thus have wet feet.) Anyway, once he’d been healed slightly by the spell, Findal woke up and got to his feet, using one of his own special abilities to regain the rest of his lost hit points. As it turned out, he did not automatically enter into conversation with his rescuer (could have totally had Shadowheart heal him!), so it was up to Smiler to check on him themselves. He thanked them profusely for their help when they did, stating, “I thought I was going to die down here.” Smiler admitted, “I’m surprised the goblins didn’t gut you on sight. Why didn’t they?” – Findal explained they’d been interrogating him about some sort of weapon, adding “I told them – the only weapons here are the ones the foulbloods brought.” Immediately making me kind of regret sparing his life. *shakehead* Stupid racist druids… Anyway, he said that he had to tell the others what had happened, warned Smiler to “step careful – there are traps in these tunnels” (yeah, we know), before thanking them one last time and running off. Granting the party 10 XP for saving him –
And Wyll an extra 20 XP due to rescuing him being one of his inspiration triggers! :D So now he and Lae’zel have each been inspired twice; Astarion, Shadowheart, and Gale have each been inspired once –
And Smiler’s never been inspired at all. *grumbles* I gotta go sell more weapons to Dammon and see if that “trade with a merchant who likes you” inspiration triggers already. Dang “Guild Artisan” background…
G) Anyway – with Findal helped, I decided my next step was going to be trying to figure out how to get onto the little peninsula of rock next to the main path, to see if I could hit that Rune Of The Wolf to turn off the last of the Guardian Statues and loot that dead body at the bottom of it. I thus had Smiler and company run back to where I could see it connect to the main path, right behind the Guardian Bear Statue, looking for a path onto it –
And finding none – just a load of stalagmites blocking the way. In fact, the more I looked, the more there didn’t seem to be any way to get onto the little peninsula at all. “Maybe it’s only available to characters who can learn the Fly spell,” I thought a bit sadly, getting Smiler and company right up to the edge of the main path to look at it –
And then I thought, “...unless maybe you can jump onto it?” Curious, I activated the Jump action for Smiler, and saw that, if they got right up to the edge of the path, over the river, they could juuust about make it onto the little outcropping of rock. I wasn’t sure the entire party would fit on that little bit of stone, though, so – after toggling “Group Hide” on and off to cancel out the Jump action (I wasn’t sure how else to do it!) – I ungrouped everyone and had Smiler jump on their own, hoping to avoid anyone falling into the chasm with the river below. They landed right on the edge of the main outcrop, and two things happened in quick succession:
I. Smiler passed a passive Survival check and discovered a big old dirt mount directly in front of them that could be dug up
II. The Guardian Wolf Statue overlooking the peninsula awakened and began to hurl bolts of fire – but, due to the angle of where it was looking, it kept hitting the side of the rock, not getting anywhere near Smiler.
Well – that was a lucky break! :D I promptly had Smiler start digging up the dirt mound while the statue shot fruitlessly at them, as sort of shown in this screenshot:
Yeah, unfortunately I wasn’t able to catch the Wolf Statue actually shooting any fire, but it still looks pretty dramatic! Anyway, Smiler quickly uncovered a treasure chest, and when they opened that chest –
Oh baby. Oh BABY. That sucker contained 47 gold, a Fire Amber (used in Alchemist’s Fire), two Viridian Crystals (used in stuff like Diluted Oil Of Sharpness), a Daggerroot, a Belladonna, an Elixir of Fire Resistance (very useful under the current circumstances), and the Staff Of The Unyielding Tree, which grants the wielder Writhing Roots (when you strike an enemy with the staff, on a failed Strength save they are held by gnarled roots for two turns, so basically they’re Ensnared) and Bark Of The Ages (gives advantage on Dexterity saving throws when wielded) AND has a +1 Weapon Enchantment (meaning it adds +1 to all Attack and Damage rolls). Basically, this is a GOOD STAFF. :D I quickly had Smiler pocket everything (mostly because the repeated blasts from the Wolf Statue were setting the chest on fire), then leap back over to their friends with their spoils. Because who needs the corpse at the bottom of the rocks when you got all THAT at the top? :D
And so the adventure ended with the party regrouping and tracing their steps back through the original stone door they came through and into the makeshift prison. Next time, we’ll have another look around the place and find a way into the storehouse that rat Smiler was talking with went into! And hopefully be able to deal with the paralyzed tiefling inside – might have to be Shadowheart who talks with her, since she has the spell the woman needs!
Workout: Hopped back on the bike tonight and continued pedaling my way through The Adventures Of Useless Steve in “Fallout: New Vegas - The Worst Courier - Part 3 - Idiot Savant” by Many A True Nerd! Tonight’s chunklet featured:
A) Useless Steve following the Legion patrol he was tagging behind before as they wandered into Camp Searchlight (or, rather, the little recon camp outside the actual, HEAVILY irradiated Camp Searchlight), and watching as the machete-wielding Roman cosplayer idiots were slaughtered by the gun-toting NCR rangers (one guy who was lagging behind then showed up with a gun, but he was still very much outmatched) – Steve cheerfully looted all the corpses afterward, gaining lots of doses of antivenom for the moment he inevitably runs into more giant radscorpions.
B) Useless Steve then skirting around the edges of Camp Searchlight (because, again, HEAVILY irradiated) to the wreckage of Matthews Animal Husbandry Farm, where he was able to pick up a few more goodies, including another Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap to add to his collection, and another Wasteland Survival Guide to pump his Survival skill up another three points! Jon had been expecting crazed starving animals going after Steve, but all the bighorners and brahmin were actually quite chill. Apparently Steve just didn’t set off their animal instincts! Lucky Steve!
C) Useless Steve then returning to Wolfhorn Ranch for the night, before heading to the nearby bridge to trade with the just-spawned-in caravan – including, notably, stocking up on pulse grenades – before hanging back and watching them take on a surprise Legion raiding party – the merchants and their guards put up a good fight and managed to murder a couple of Legionnaires, but ultimately the Legion won. Allowing Steve to steal back all his bottle caps and grab a brahmin steak off the merchant’s corpse to help him truck around all the other goodies he got off the other corpses (as it temporarily boosts your strength without being addictive)! Granted, after looting the Legionnaire corpses and the Bright Brotherhood Follower corpse under the nearby billboard, he had to wash down that steak with some whiskey, which caused him to become addicted to whiskey, but – he tried to find a non-addictive way to carry all his shit!
D) Useless Steve then attempting to take out a Viper gang ambush behind a billboard on the way to Novac – which, uh, took three attempts:
I. The first time, while trying to lead a mole rat over to fight them, he was almost immediately exploded by the grenade rifle one of the Vipers was carrying (because everyone had cocking grenade rifles in this episode, it seemed – to be fair, though, that was exactly why Steve wanted to take out the ambush, in hopes of getting some ammo for his OWN grenade rifle), and then they shot off his head
II. The second time, he tried to lure them around the corner a little more sneaky-like, only for the mole rat who’d been chasing him to leap on him, leading to him getting shot repeatedly before I believe the mole rat took him out
III. And the third time, he attempted to set up some mines at the corner of the billboard, only to be spotted before he could place any, leading to just a straight-up gunfight – fortunately, before this attempt Steve killed the mole rat and swapped to his nice NCR armor, and that plus the Q-35 Matter Modulator managed to keep him alive. Granted, he ended up with a crippled torso and arm – but he also ended up with three 40mm grenades and another grenade rifle he could use to repair his own. Hooray!
E) Useless Steve then switching back to the leather armor (just in case of Legion) before dragging himself into Novac as his steak and whiskey wore off. He promptly proceeded to:
I. Sell a load of items to Cliff Briscoe in the gift shop (lamenting that both Paciencia and That Gun, two of the best weapons in the game, were out of his reach because of the Strength requirements)
II. Invade Ranger Andy’s bungalow and use the “grab and carry somewhere else out of sight” trick (in this case, dragging it into the bathroom) on his Medicine skill book to steal it to boost his own Medicine skill (sorry, Andy, but he really needs the points!)
III. Invade Manny Vargas’s room in the main motel and download the “Khan Hospitality” note off his completely unlocked computer (getting another piece of evidence to present to Swank that his boss was a crooked asshole and learning the Great Khans who helped Benny are apparently heading to Boulder City after being hosted by Manny)
IV. Steal a Locksmith Reader skill magazine out of one of the mailboxes around town (because free magazine, woo)
V. Find Dr. Ada Straus and get her to cure his whiskey addiction and restore his crippled arm and torso for 100 caps total (though given her dialogue, she may not have been the best doctor to visit – apparently Steve got a free tetanus shot after she realized her scalpel was rusty from being left outside XD)
F) Useless Steve then running over to Nelson to show off one of the more fun “low Intelligence” dialogue options with Ranger Milo – the kind that has the person respond to you with a special voice line acknowledging that you said something kinda idiotic. Basically, Milo stopped him from entering Nelson by telling him that the place was under lockdown until they could “dislodge some Legion snakes;” Steve innocently responded, “Snakes are small. Why don’t you just use a gun or whatever to shoot them?” and Nelson went, “You’re one of them ‘special’ folks, ain’t you?” before trying to explain the metaphor to Steve. Jon was very tickled by it all. :p
G) Useless Steve then heading over to Helios One to show off some of the “low Intelligence” dialogue options you could get there, including:
I. Telling Lt. Haggerty on the door, “Need food fill belly. You got food?” getting her to annoyedly reply “I can’t tell whether you’re joking or radiation melted part of your brain, but either way I don’t see a good reason to let you through” (he then slapped on his NCR armor and proceed to sneak in through the side door – which, since he had to pick it open, got him just enough XP to hit Level 6; Jon boosted Speech to 19 and Energy Weapons to 23 (so, with a little apparel boosting, he could use the Q-35 correctly), and took Bloody Mess as his perk for the 5% flat damage increase)
II. After a quick stop in one of the bedrooms to get another Medicine skill book and one of the password holotapes he’d need to do the “That Lucky Old Sun” quest, confronting fake scientist Fantastic and, when he was like “are you replacing me?” telling him “Me take your job because me smarter” –
Causing him to moan, “Ah, shit, man. You’re direct, you’re no-nonsense. How am I supposed to compete with that? I gotta pay these chem bills,” in his own special response to a low-Intelligence character. XD Sadly, Steve then fluffed the check to get some caps out of him – though that wasn’t entirely his fault, as it was a strange Speech check that didn’t have a number attached to it to show how much of the skill you need to pass it. Jon noted there’s a lot of that nonsense around Helios One, and he wasn’t sure if it was a result of the location being created really EARLY or really LATE in the game’s development cycle.
III. Chatting with Ignacio Rivas to start the “Lucky Sun” quest and saying things like “I is scientistic” and “I no hurt nobody” and “Who are Flowers of Pock-lips?” and “Do Flowers and NCR Bear play together?” in response to his lines, showing off how this ONE conversation is done ENTIRELY in Low Intelligence caveman speak for some bizarre reason. Though, sadly, Ignacio did not actually respond to any of them with any sort of “ah, your Intelligence is below 2, isn’t it?” special line – he just plowed on as if Steve was speaking normally. Shame – at least the lines themselves were funny!
H) Useless Steve then starting the “Lucky Sun” quest and using the passwords he’d found to realign the solar panels via the two computers out in the fields – which saw him get himself blown up by the traps guarding the first (mostly because Jon forgot about the frag mine on one side) before he reloaded and smartly blew up the mine before proceeding, then easily kill the dogs guarding the second because they couldn’t actually get through the gap in the sandbags he was standing behind (and despite being marked as NCR, the NCR did not actually care if he killed them – again, this area is weird) – before heading into the main tower to brave the robots inside! Which actually proved not to be too much of a problem, thanks to him having pulse grenades that did an extra 200 damage to them –
The turrets, on the other hand – yeah, those caused some issues for poor Steve. At the point I left off, he’d managed to take down two of them, but was having some real trouble with the third (which Jon had straight-up forgotten existed) – and when he managed to get across the hallway and into a room where he thought he’d have a better shot at sniping it, he walked straight into some mines underneath the desk and blew himself up. XD Whoops. Tomorrow, we’ll finish this episode up with the end of his Helios One adventures, then start the next and see what nonsense Steve gets up to in Part 4!
Tumblr: And I managed to get a little bit done on both my tumblr blogs tonight –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Over here, I quickly queued up a couple of things for the next two days – specifically:
A) The “Rings” comic by ND Stevenson that upright-fool posted (which talks about how ND and his partner have changed over the years – specifically becoming transmascs – and how each partner changed the other’s engagement ring to fit their new hand – it’s much sweeter than it sounds) for Wednesday
B) And some gorgeous medieval fantasy art (including a hunter and their dogs nosing at a rabbit burrow...which, unbeknownst to them, contains a dragon) by sarakipin for Thursday
So that’s good, got a little bit of a buffer there. I’ll figure out Friday and Saturday tomorrow!
Valice Multiverse – And over here, I had a reply thesatiricaldemon made on the ask he sent me the other day (featuring the weird sock commercial) – apparently the ask was adapted from an ad the people behind a web show he likes, “Hunter: The Parenting,” made to promote socks featuring their main character, Kevin, and a shirt based off one another character wears. And the guy in the ad, Mike Dragons-Wrath, was later confirmed to be a Black Spiral Dancer (a corrupted evil werewolf) and high up in Pentex (THE evil company in the Old World of Darkness). I responded, “Ahhhh, I see! XD And oh boy – yeah, okay, maybe Alice SHOULDN'T be ordering clothes from that guy, they're probably all sorts of cursed.” XD I mean, they certainly SOUND like they’d be cursed!
*nods* Not bad, I suppose -- and it's even not as horribly late as it usually is when I finish these write-ups. XD Time for me to get to bed, though -- tomorrow, I should have enough time to play some Fallout: New Vegas and find some XP for Courier Victor; work some more on either "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland" or "The Van Dort Vacancy" (depends on how I feel); and get in another workout and watch some more Useless Steve. I'm HOPING I can add "work on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) tumblr drafts" and "watch one of the videos piling up on FreeTube" to that list, but -- we will see. Depends on how much free time I actually have. *nods* Night all!
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Date: 2026-01-28 01:48 pm (UTC)Good luck, love.
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Date: 2026-01-29 04:50 am (UTC)Thanks, we'll need it!
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Date: 2026-01-29 01:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-29 09:21 pm (UTC)