Kinda Gloomy Saturday
Mar. 7th, 2026 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickWeatherwise anyway -- it was pretty cloudy all day, and we don't think that it got quite as warm as they said it was going to get. Though it definitely got warm enough for some of the snow to melt -- the patio looked pretty wet when I glimpsed it when Dad went outside to make sure the garage's back door was locked. Slowly but surely getting evidence that this snow is going to go away! My parents ended up spending most of their day on the couch watching their shows, while I spent mine working on my tumblrs, playing Baldur's Gate III, and watching some stuff on YouTube --
All of which I will have to tell you about tomorrow as it is so late and I just cannot finish all my write-ups in time. Especially since it's Spring Forward day and thus it's about to be 3 AM, not 2 AM... *sigh* This is what I get for playing BG3 AND watching a longer-than-usual CaFae Latte compilation video in the same day. Anyway, watch this space for the full write-up of what I did today tomorrow. Night for now, and remember to set your clocks ahead!
EDIT 3/8/2026: Welp, as it turned out, part of the problem was ALSO the fact that I was just about to get my period -- fucker showed up late this morning. >( Fortunately I listened to my body's warning signals and had a pad in when it did, but -- ugh. I may possibly elaborate on that more in today's actual entry -- in the meantime, here's the write-up of the things I did yesterday:
Tumblr: Had a pretty decent day over on the old tumbls –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – I am pleased to report that I managed to update two of my drafts over here today –
A) I properly wrote up the “Victor, Alice, Smiler, and the rest of the party encounter Mirkon being lured by the harpies in the Secluded Cove – and after seeing the harpy music charming Alice and Smiler and starting to affect the others, Victor gets mad and uses one of his own Duskwallian spells to open up a portal to the Void Sea over the rock the harpies are hiding on, leading to three of them getting snatched by a leviathan and the fourth deciding to cut her losses and flee” scene in my latest “VITD Meets BG3 Not-Incorrect Quotes/Shitposts Collection” post, complete with Victor screaming after the fleeing harpy “YEAH, SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT!!!” and Gale trying to ask Wyll if that was Hadar, only for Wyll to go “FUCK NO.” XD Honestly, this post is pretty close to done, I think – I just need to edit all the scenes in it now and do some proper tags for it! …and then maybe start a FOURTH post of scenes like this, because I really want to do a scene of Victor, Alice, and Smiler delightedly eating rat to SOMEONE’S surprise in the game, but this particular post is getting a little long. XD
B) And I worked a bit on the “Valicer Eats God” post where I’m trying to turn my OT3 into muppety menaces from the RPG Eat God! I didn’t make a huge amount of progress, but I did:
I. Decide that Victor’s third Trait, to go with the already-selected “Fast Feet” and “Sticky Steps” should be either “Dexterous Digits” or “Lanky Limbs” – though I’m leaning toward the latter, as “Dexterous Digits” allows those who have it to pull off all sorts of sleight-of-hand stuff, and I don’t think that’s really Victor-ish, whereas “Lanky Limbs” just gives him a hell of a lot of reach, and Victor IS quite lanky! (I did also briefly consider “Aquatic Aspect” to cover the fact that he’s the son of fish merchants, but quickly discarded it – being associated with fish is more his PARENTS’ thing than his, and I still want to do a kind of mothman look for him)
II. Come up with an Expression (a short sentence on how the Trait informs her personality) for Alice’s “Menacing Missiles” Trait (which allows her to file natural projectiles at people – I’m thinking an organic version of her Cards from the first game): “Most problems go away if you pepper them with enough projectiles (aka throw enough shit at them).” XD I mean, you can’t say she’s wrong, especially when it comes to the problems she faces in her games!
III. Also come up with an Expression for Smiler’s “Vile Venom” Trait (which allows them to inject people with a hallucinogenic substance – Joy Serum, natch): “If I can make people feel happy with one jab, why shouldn't I?” Feels in-keeping with a Smiler who’s based a little more on the ride’s actual themeing than most of my others!
So that’s good – I would like to get this post sorted sooner rather than later!
Valice Multiverse – And over here, I actually had an anon ask to answer! From, uh, yesterday, but I forgot to check this account last night because nothing has been happening on it for just about two weeks, soooo… *shrug* Anyway, the ask was a fake news report talking about how a woman was arrested after “breaking into a home to eat cereal and pet the homeowner's dog.” She was caught at the kitchen table chowing down on Fruity Pebbles, and admitted to consuming marijuana before the incident. XD I had Londerland Bloodlines!Alice reply that she could totally believe the woman had had weed before committing that crime, yes...but that it was also nice to have a relatively wholesome crime on the news for a change, as it was normally a lot more depressing. A sentiment that both Victor and myself (in the tags) totally agreed with. *sigh* I’d kill for more silly, relatively-harmless stuff like that in the news...
Baldur’s Gate III: Well, after a week of watching the people behind the Origin companions play their first-ever game of proper D&D (and poor Theo Solomon learning the dice hate him almost as much as Larian seems to hate his character), it was only natural that I’d return to the realm of Faerûn this Saturday to have some more adventures with Tav Smiler and their companions! Today’s session consisted mainly of the gang searching the harpy hangout for goodies, followed by Smiler having a very interesting experience with Gale back at camp – let me tell you all about it:
A) I picked things up at the little beach of the Sheltered Cove, with Smiler and company having just saved Mirkon from a terrible fate by slaughtering the harpies luring him to his doom. And as the tiefling kid was officially out of danger, and Gale was officially out of “hi you’re gaining approval with me at a staggering rate” stories, it was officially time to loot the bodies! I thus had the gang search the corpse of each harpy, looking for goodies –
And ending up sorely disappointed. >( True, the harpy right next to Smiler on the beach had 28 gold on her, which wasn’t bad, but the one that Astarion killed up on the ledge overlooking the water had naught but a bone on her person (which Smiler didn’t take because we already had a couple of bones taking up space in the camp chest), and the one in the water and the one lying on the lower ledges of the big pointy rock island they’d called their own both had absolutely nothing. >( Like, Smiler and friends did all that back and forth, climbing up and down twisted roots and wading through nearly-waist-deep water, for no benefit! Or, at least, that’s what I thought –
Until I spotted a wooden chest lying near the water’s edge on the opposite side of the big pointy rock island. I had the group approach it cautiously, just in case it was trapped, but fortunately it proved to be completely benign, and provided them with the following:
I. 30 XP as they approached it for – unknown reasons. O.o Like, seriously, no clue why the gang got a bunch of XP there – possibly it was the game having a Johnny-come-lately moment and suddenly giving me some location discovery XP? Or there’s some other trigger that dumps XP on you for finding that chest...I mean, I’m not complaining, I’m TRYING to get everyone up to Level 4, but still. Just odd.
II. 60 gold pieces – hooray, the gang’s personal stash continues to grow! Their ability to buy things is restored! XD
III. And the “Hat of the Siren’s Call” – a fancy cap from my big old “extra equipment” mod by GraphicFade that grants the wearer the Sonic Blast cantrip! Which is a custom cantrip where you release a cone of sound that inflicts thunder damage on enemies and – if they fail their Constitution saving throws – pushes them three meters away from you. Potentially useful!
So yeah, that was a halfway decent reward for fighting all those harpies. *nods* Thank you chest – and GraphicFade, of course. :P
B) However, I wasn’t quite done looting yet – after all, Mirkon had mentioned before running off that the reason he came over here was to raid the harpies’ nest. And since he hadn’t managed to get into it, I figured Smiler and company could try their luck! I thus had the group wander around the general area a bit, making their way onto a little rocky sandbar behind the big pointy rock island (hoping for a random passive Survival check to pop up indicating more hidden treasure chests to find – no dice, though (quite literally, given a die icon appears above your character’s head when those happen)), then used the camera to explore the higher bits of the nearby landscape. I didn’t immediately see anything EXPLICITLY nest-like –
But I did spot a little area just off the ledge above the one with the dead harpy on the nearby cliffs with three piles of bones on it that I felt might be, at a stretch, called a “harpy nest.” There was also an additional pile of bones on the top of the little pointy rock island, next to some shredded cloth. And as they were all searchable, I figured Smiler and company ought to have a poke through them and see if they found anything good! As the pointy rock island was closer, I had them start there, sending them back around to the front and then up all the various jutting ledges until they reached the pile of skulls and femurs and whatnot at the top, just below the main point –
Where they discovered a single dagger, tucked into the pile. Eh – well, it’s another weapon to give to Dammon to earn his good favor, I suppose! Smiler stowed it in their inventory, then lead the charge back down the spire of rock, through the water over to the twisty root ladder that led up to the ledge with the dead harpy, then up another twisty root ladder to the ledge above. One crossing of a makeshift bridge later, they were found themselves at the second bone pile area, where they scoured through the remains to find:
I. A single lootable bone in the first pile (game, I don’t want bones, I don’t have a Scratch yet I can feed them too)
II. Nothing in the second pile
III. And a candle in the third pile – I had Smiler take that because you never know when you might need a candle. (Apparently they’re good for rapidly applying fire damage to a weapon!)
There was also a “polished dagger” lying on the ground in between all the bones – picking it up revealed that it was specifically a dagger that had belonged to one of the racist druids, as it had an image of a stag (the “logo” of the Emerald Enclave) stamped upon its leather grip. Well, can’t say I’m that sorry one of them got eaten! Don’t know yet if the dagger will go to Dammon (again, more weapons = more favor) or Astarion (who might like that it’s shinier than his standard dagger). We’ll see what happens!
C) Fortunately, one candle and one dagger isn’t all that the trip over to the bone piles revealed – because, as I turned the camera, I spotted the actual harpy nest on a spire of rock nearby! A big old bird’s nest, unsurprisingly – accented with giant bony spikes, because harpies. :p A little investigation with my camera revealed that it was off to the left of the twisty-turny cliff path the gang were on, near the little sandbar they’d been exploring before, next to another, smaller spire of rock that looked like it was close enough for an enterprising bardlock to jump from. I thus sent my group back over to the sandbar, and tried to have them climb onto said neighboring spire –
Only for the game to tell me “hey, they can’t go there.” Which didn’t seem right, because it very much looked like they could walk around there, and of course I was reasonably sure the group was supposed to be able to access the harpy nest! Fortunately, I figured out the riddle quickly – they couldn’t walk there, but they should as hell could jump there. Smiler thus lead the charge, jumping from the sandbar onto the base of the spire, then clambering up to the top. Faced with another long and high jump, I made a quicksave (just in case things went terribly wrong), then selected the “jump” action and looked to see if Smiler could make it onto the nest spire –
And they could! Though they could only make it onto the little ledge just below where the nest rested. They thus leapt over, followed by a couple of their companions, and I directed them to climb onto the top to raid the nest –
Only to be told again “they can’t go there!” For a moment, I was stymied, wondering if Smiler was going to fall at the very last hurdle (as I vaguely remembered something I’d read on the wiki about needing a character with 12 Strength to actually reach the nest, when Smiler only has 10 – though, based on the fact that Smiler made it over to the spire without issue in the first place, I don’t think the author was taking into account if your character was affected by Longstrider) –
And then I tried the jump action again, and it turned out that they could totally jump up there, no problem. XD Sure, the ledge is apparently too tall to CLIMB, but it’s no match for someone who never skips leg day! XD Anyway, I had Smiler leap up there, followed by most of their friends – save Wyll, who had to stay on the lower ledge simply because there was no more room up top –
And with a “Let’s see what the harpies were hoarding,” they raided the nest! Which, surprisingly, didn’t actually contain any gold. O.o Poor Mirkon, he risked his life for something that wasn’t even there! But there were some interesting items tucked into the branches and bone spikes:
I. A note titled “I’m Sorry,” wet with what looked like tears – later examination revealed it to be a letter from someone named Edmund to his love Miriam, where he apologized for not writing for so long, gave her the good news that “Maggie Two-Fingers” should no longer be bothering her, as he’d paid whatever debt he had to her in full (apologizing again, as “she should never have got your name in the first place”), then broke the bad news that he wasn’t coming home for a good long while yet, as he’d gotten the money from a mercenary group as payment up front for helping them with some jobs in Icewind Dale. Because they’d needed a warlock, and, well – “I took the deal the cambion offered. I'm not going to say I had no choice, because that would be a lie. But I don't regret it. I'm a new man. I feel strong for the first time in my life. Aside from being awoken in the middle of the night by the smell of sulphur (he likes to drop by to 'see how everything is going') I have no complaints.” (Yeah, uh, wait until the cambion starts asking you for more stuff until you say that, Edmund!) The letter ended with him telling Miriam that he didn’t blame her if she didn’t write back, or told him she didn’t want him to come back at all, and that he loved her and he wanted her to be happy, even if it wasn’t with him. *sniff* Awwww. I hate these sad letters between star-crossed lovers. :( Hopefully it wasn’t Miriam or Edmund who got eaten by the harpies!
II. An “Inscrutable Journal” which smelled of rotting vegetation and was so soaked in blood that only a few scraps of a couple of loose pages were still readable – later examination revealed the scraps told a bit of the story of an adventurer who apparently met with a truly terrible fate while adventuring. One chunk read “...We've followed Musharib's instructions so far, but something feels odd. We've encountered no creatures along the way. Only alien noises from all directions. Sleep evades us, and the muck on my boots has hardened into a permanent feature. Hopefully, we find…” while another described the adventurer’s hair starting to fall out, and another talked about hearing the laughter of a mysterious villain and the droning of the “Omuans” in some sort of tomb, with the adventurer wondering if the villain WAS the tomb because he seemed to speak from all around. And the final entry? “[On the last legible page is a crudely drawn charcoal outline of a Bearded Devil's face, its mouth agape in a silent scream.]” *shudder* Yeah, not pleasant stuff. But then again, this journal is potentially a reference to a pretty nasty D&D adventure, The Tomb of Annihilation, where a lich was using an artifact called the Soulmonger to kill loads of people and sacrifice their souls to power up a horrible fleshy abomination to wreak havoc, so...makes sense that it wouldn’t be nice!
III. A Ring of Color Spray, which naturally grants the Color Spray spell (which allows casters to blind their enemies with flashing colored lights, giving them Disadvantage on attack rolls and shortening the range of all attacks to 3 meters) – I’m undecided on whether or not Smiler should keep this or give it to Gale as a snack, because the spell seems very them, but it has VERY shitty range (5 meters)...I suppose they could wear it in their other “ring” slot for now and I can decide when Gale gets a craving!
IV. A malachite gem (yay, more gemstones for bartering/selling for cash)
V. A supply pack (free food, om nom nom)
VI. And a single bone, which Smiler left because we need to stop collecting damn bones!
Yeah – I’d say that was worth the party making their way up there! :)
D) With the nest successfully raided, it was time for Smiler and company to make their way back to whence they had come – mostly because I’d been told by my friend Squid that I should be long resting a bit more often to see more of the cutscenes that trigger in camp at night, and I didn’t want the gang’s “respawn back into the world” point to be atop a narrow spire of rock next to a harpy’s nest. XD So I had them jump and clamber and wade their way back toward the beach (with a quick detour to check out another bit of flat rock sticking out of the water on the other side of said beach – nothing interesting there, sadly), then head back up the path until they were basically back at the little entrance arch to the Sacred Pool of the druids. And, as they headed up that path, Smiler’s companions got a little chatty – specifically:
I. Shadowheart asked Lae’zel how she would punish someone who’d wronged her – Lae’zel asked “Wronged me how?” and Shadowheart breezily threw out “Oh, say, murder. Or theft.” Lae’zel, a true githyanki, replied, “Killing is good – it culls the weak. But theft would be paid for painfully, a thousand times over.” Shadowheart commented, “Hmmm. Good to know,” while I giggled because, well, there’s a reason she’s asking this, and it has to do with a certain spiky artefact in her possession…the truth about that’s gonna come out eventually, Shadowheart!
II. And Astarion, immediately afterward, asked Wyll if he’d ever heard of a vampire named Cazador. Wyll admitted, “Doesn’t ring a bell. Why?” causing Gale to fill him in – “He’s patriarch of the Szarr family. Nasty fellow, if the histories are accurate.” Astarion murmured, “I imagine they are,” and I winced, because, well, there’s a reason Astarion is asking this, and it has to do with his incredibly fucked-up life before tadpole infection. *pats him* Don’t worry, Astarion – Smiler may not fuck you, but they will DEFINITELY be doing your personal quest and taking care of that asshole!
:) I love these moments – they’re one of the biggest reasons I play with a mod that lets me run around with an expanded party. I don’t want to miss out on any of the companion banter! They all have such fun things to say to each other!
E) Anyway – once everyone was done chatting, I had Smiler head down one side path near the top of the cliffs to see if there was anything interesting down there – no, just a nice view – then bring everyone back to camp so they could prepare to end the day! Though not before they did a little of their favorite activity – alchemy! They’d picked up a bunch of ingredients over the last few play sessions, after all, and I wanted them to make use of them. Accordingly, I had them concoct a “Suspension of Bullywug Trumpet” (using the mushrooms they’d gathered in the Enclave Library), a “Salts of Mugwort,” and (after poking in their alchemy pouch and making sure they’d gotten everything) a “Sublimate of Autumn Crocus.” That last proved to be the primary ingredient in a Potion of Feather Fall, a very handy drink that allows the drinker to temporarily become Immune to falling damage by slowing their rate of falling a lot. I thought it might be useful to have such a potion on-hand for emergencies, so – after confirming Gale and Shadowheart, our other primary spellcasters, didn’t have the spell that grants the effect in their spellbooks – I had Smiler whip up a bottle with the “Sublimate of Autumn Crocus” and an “Essence of Acorn Truffle” (since they very much did NOT need the latter for a Potion of Animal Speaking, thanks to their special amulet). Sadly, though, they once again failed the passive Medicine check necessary to make a double batch. *sigh* ONE of these days they’ll actually pass that check and I’ll get two bottles of something! I hope, anyway!
F) Having once again indulged in their favorite hobby (and failed to justify me downloading that mod that gave them the “Experimental Alchemy” feat), Smiler then headed to the campfire and chose to end the day to see what their companions wanted to chat about that night. To my surprise, though, upon initially loading into the “evening” version of the camp, I didn’t see any exclamation points – indicating “hey, talk to me and you’ll get a cutscene” – over anyone’s heads. Which struck me as very odd, as Smiler had one over their head, and that meant “hey, at least one of your companions has a special cutscene waiting for you!” I thus panned around the camp, checking on all the companions to see who Smiler needed to talk to –
And found an exclamation mark over Gale! Aha – well, he was the only one left out of the round of convos last time the group long rested – made sense that he might want to talk to Smiler now! Smiler thus went over to Gale to see what was up –
And, as the cutscene started, stumbled across Gale conjuring an image of Mystra, goddess of magic, in his hand, with a look on his face that could only be described as “sadly pining:”
Smiler, curious as to what that was all about, announced their presence with the Bardic “Ah, Mystra. The matron of magic herself. An ambitious desire indeed, to hold her in your hands.” Gale started and quickly banished the image, turning to face Smiler with an embarrassed “Oh! My, you startled me. I...I was miles away.” Smiler, leaning into the Bard options, inquired as to why Gale had been conjuring the face of the goddess –
And Gale, looking shifty, claimed, “No special reason, really. I was just...practicing an incantation.” Smiler did not buy this in the slightest, insisting, “There’s more to it than that. You were contemplating her in a way I can hardly fathom” –
And, fortunately, passed the associated DC 5 Insight check with a healthy 12, causing Gale to helplessly go, “What can I say? She’s...She’s Mystra,” before continuing with, “I can’t quite describe it, the need I sometimes feel to see her – to draw the filaments of fantasy into existence. No sculpture or painting could ever do her justice, only the fabric that she herself is and embodies: the Weave. Mystra is all magic. And as far as I’m concerned, she is all creation.” And before any of you go, “...that’s a little creepy, is Gale Mystra’s stalker or something” – no, he’s actually her lovelorn ex. And if anything, she was the more toxic one in the relationship. But we’ll get into that later… For now, Smiler responded to all that with “I didn’t realize the depths of your devotion,” causing Gale to explain that magic was his life and that “I’ve been in touch with the Weave for as long as I can remember. There’s nothing like it. It’s like music, poetry, physical beauty all rolled into one and given expression through the senses.” Then, remembering Smiler was a spellcaster themselves, he asked if it was the same for them –
And cue me being a little sad that there wasn’t a Warlock-specific option in the dialogue box for Smiler’s reply! The wiki suggests there should have been one, but I sure as heck didn’t see it, and the dialogue box didn’t look like it scrolled, so… Maybe it was overridden by the Bard dialogue option I did see, as that is the class Smiler more recently took a level in. Which, okay, I get how that could happen, but it still annoys me a little. *shakehead* Anyway, I had Smiler pick the Bard option because it was the only special option they had, causing them to declare, “Magic is music, poetry, and beauty. Though I suspect you and I perform it differently.” Gale allowed that was fair enough, saying that “in the end we’re still playing the same composition” –
Then offered to show Smiler exactly what he’d meant before by having them reach into the Weave with him. Smiler, curious, agreed, and Gale told them to follow his lead before performing an arcane gesture that – if I’m honest, looked a little silly. XD Like, he held his hands out before him and “clapped” them together with fingers bent like he was imitating a dinosaur or something. XD It conjured a little ball of glowing light, though, and Gale prompted Smiler to imitate it. Smiler, a consummate performer, chose to imitate it with a little flourish, prompting a DC 5 Dexterity (Performance) check (instead of the regular Charisma (Performance) one) –
And, well, it’s a good thing Smiler has a +2 proficiency bonus in Performance, because they rolled a 3. XD But the bonus brought the result up to a 5, and “meets it beats it” in D&D, so they were able to copy the gesture in all its ridiculousness with their own little extra flourish. The Narrator commented that “you feel something strange – like a kind word and a kind touch at the same time. It’s warm and comforting,” while I took the opportunity to get a good shot of a smiling Smiler for once –
They honestly look a touch smug here to me, but they probably earned it, making that check by the skin of their teeth. XD Gale praised them for doing well, then asked them to repeat after him the incantation “Ah-Thran Mystra-Ryl Kantrach-Ao.” Smiler of course had to “belt the words with a little flourish on Ao,” and fortunately this time the DC 5 check was for a normal Charisma (Performance) check. Meaning they smashed the roll with an 18 altogether. XD The reward for getting this one right was, according to the Narrator, “Ah yes: the scent of rosewater and a sense of wellbeing. A sliver of Weave that tastes sweet on the tongue.” Nice! Gale praised them again, then asked them to “picture in your mind the concept of harmony. As true as you can.” And while I was briefly tempted by the option “Recall a memory of early youth, a happy family moment” – the fact that it specified early youth ended up tripping me up, because Smiler, uh, did not have any harmony in their early youth. Living with that asshole Kelman in The Sanctuary, remember? So instead I went with the Bard option, “Harmony comes easily to you. Allow it to wash over your mind and magic” –
And just like that, the pair were surrounded by a gently-glowing purple circle of weave, with the Narrator commenting how Smiler could sense “the unmistakable presence of Mystra, the Lady of Mysteries,” followed by “something like the anticipation of a kiss, then the pleasure of being cloaked in peace. You are safe. You are nestled in the cup of Mystra’s hand.” Though, given the way Smiler was staring at Gale during all this, I think they felt like they were nestled in the cup of Gale’s hand instead:
Gale, seeing their success, cheerfully informed Smiler that “You did it. You’re channeling the Weave. How does it feel?” Smiler cheerfully responded, “Effortless. You’re a wonderful teacher” while I took the opportunity to get another shot of Smiler smiling:
(Seriously, the opportunity to get such nice screenshots is in surprisingly short supply! Smiler’s smiles in regular gameplay are often way too fleeting for me to press the screenshot button in time. Doesn’t help that I actually don’t like their open-mouthed smiles because, well, obviously I couldn’t give them the buck teeth they have in Sims 4, so they don’t look quite right when they open their mouth. Meeeh.)
Anyway – yes, Smiler praised Gale’s prowess as a teacher, to which Gale responded, “I know,” because he’s Gale and he does have a bit of a problem with his ego sometimes. XD The two continued to gaze at each other as the Narrator informed Smiler, “The Weave connects you. The moment feels intimate” –
Aaand that’s when I decided it was time to end things, as Gale is not one of Smiler’s romance targets (I’m planning on having them get in a threesome with Wyll and Karlach with the help of my polyamory mod), and I didn’t want to give him the wrong impression, as this is first scene where you can officially start a flirtation. Smiler thus decided this was “A satisfying end to a wondrous experience. It’s time to let go” and released their connection, causing the Weave to evaporate –
And leaving the night feeling “suddenly cold and lonesome,” as per the Narrator. Aw. :( Gale rather sadly noted, “There it goes. How easily things slip away from us, no matter how hard they were in the obtaining,” before heading back to his tent proper and telling Smiler, “Good night. I enjoyed sharing a moment of magic with you.” :( Causing me to feel a little bad and wish I could send Smiler to give him a hug. It’s okay, Gale – Smiler still likes you! They’re just planning on pursing a relationship with someone else! Two someones else, in fact, and since I know you’re written pretty damn monogamous… Yeah.
G) With the scene with Gale completed, I had Smiler quickly double-check that there was nothing to talk about with any of the other companions by speaking to Wyll (who greeted them with, “The goblins still infest the roads. As long as their leaders live, Zevlor’s people are trapped” – yes, I know, Wyll, but we gotta pick up Karlach first before doing plot stuff!) – then, after confirming there were no special dialogue options or anything with him, trimmed the party down to the required four for long resting, used a supply pack to provide everyone with dinner (as it was easier than trying to add up the individual food items they had sitting in their inventory), and hit the bedroll. Everyone slept peacefully with no additional cutscene nonsense, and in the morning Smiler restored Lae’zel and Wyll to the party –
And then went to chat with Gale, because, well, they had shared a pretty intimate experience last night, even if no flirting went down, and I was hoping there might be a special post-cutscene chat waiting. Gale greeted them with, “Go ahead, I’m listening” –
And, to my delight, there was a new special dialogue option waiting for Smiler regarding what had happened last night – specifically, “I never realized it was so easy to cast magic.” :D I promptly had them tell Gale that –
Only for Gale to gently shoot them down with, “I assure you it is not.” He hastened to add that they’d done well the previously evening with all the various components – somatic, verbal, focus on the inner self to let Mystra in – “But I was still your conduit. To perform such a feat alone requires much and arduous study.” And I was just about to be like “all right, Gale, we get it, wizards are Just Better” –
When he added, “Of course, as a warlock, your patron endows you with many such powers otherwise unattainable. I do hope you cherish that gift.” Which – maybe it was because I was PMSing so bad yesterday, but that just got me RIGHT in the feels. It just – it felt good to have Gale acknowledge Smiler’s base spellcasting class, and so positively too! Especially after I was so annoyed about the fact that I couldn’t remind him that Smiler was a warlock earlier when he was talking about warlocks after Wyll’s recruitment and referred to them as too keen to listen to the devil on their shoulder. *nods* Okay, Gale – you might not be Smiler’s romance option, but you can definitely be their bestie. :)
Speaking of which, Smiler was aware that bestie was going to need magical artefacts soon, so they let him know they had one he might be interested in (actually, we have a few now, but I am much more willing to give up that Ring of Color Spray to Gale’s appetites than the Amulet of Lost Voices) – Gale informed them that “Your enterprising approach to my problem is most encouraging, but it is a delicate process to keep my condition stable. I do not yet need to consume an item, but keep it close by. IT will not be too much longer.” AKA “Thanks, but I’m good for now – I’ll let you know when I need it.” Smiler accepted that and left Gale to his own devices –
And the playsession ended with me going through The Morning Castings for everyone (Smiler applying False Life to themselves and activating their amulet’s Speak With Animals spell; Wyll applying False Life to himself and binding his rapier as his Pact Weapon; and Gale running around the camp casting Longstrider on himself and everyone else). *nods* A satisfying session indeed –
Well, mostly. Because, me being me, I looked up some stuff on the wiki while writing all this up – specifically, the article on Gale’s romance to confirm that the “channeling the Weave” scene is where you can start flirting with him. And I discovered something – namely, if you hold onto the moment for a bit longer, the cutscene continues with you imagining a scene with yourself and Gale in it, which he sees too. And while you’re offered a chance to imagine some romantic options (a kiss or a walk hand-in-hand)…
The write-up on the scene indicates there’s PLATONIC options too. Which gives me a TERRIBLE urge to go and redo that damn cutscene because now I want to see what platonic besties niceness Smiler and Gale might be able to share! Maybe then the moment wouldn’t end with the night feeling so cold and lonesome afterward. But I’m pretty sure my last save before the ending-the-session save was right before the gang went for the Harpy nest...then again, that wouldn’t be THAT much to replay...we’ll see what happens!
YouTube: I’m happy to report that I was able to fit in two videos this evening instead of just the one (though, given I’m posting all this the following day, maybe I should have just focused on one):
A) “7 Times The Real Ending Was Hidden in DLC: Commenter Edition” by OXBox! Andy, Jane, and Mike talking about more of those times where the real ending to a video game’s story was hidden in downloadable content – or, in the case of the last entry, Fable, which was released before DLCs were really a thing, an entirely new version of the game you had to buy – as per the comments on their last video! Examples included:
I. Thought Dead Rising 4 ended with Frank sacrificing himself to the zombie horde to make sure his friends Brad and Vick got out of Willamette in time? Nope – as per the “Frank Rising” DLC, he ended up turned into a sort of super-zombie with special powers, managed to regain some control of his faculties with the help of science, got cured and returned to being a human, escaped the town, and then – depending on how many wasps you collected during the whole thing – either retired from the public eye and had nightmares about being a zombie for the rest of his life, or wrote a best-selling book about his time as a zombie and helped expose the government’s involvement in the zombification incident.
II. Thought Fable ended with with a big boss fight against the fully-human Jack of Blades? Nope – as per the enhanced edition Fable: The Lost Chapters, that was only round one, and to truly stop his reign of terror, the Hero had to fight him again, this time with Jack in the form of a dragon! And then take his mask and either consign it to the lava...or claim it himself and become a worse villain than Jack ever was…
III. Thought Dragon Age: Inquistion ended with Solas firmly on your side in sealing the breaches in the Veil separating the regular world and the spirit world? Nope – as per the “Trespasser DLC,” he’s actually the avatar of the elven god of BETRAYAL, and was hoping to rip the Veil fully asunder – at least, until his initial plan to give his magical orb to the big bad of the main game went wrong. Thus justifying Jane’s decision to have him live in the library and never come out on missions because she hates his stupid bald head. XD
Bottom line? You can never truly trust a game to end satisfyingly if the company behind it thinks they can make more money by hiding it in the DLC and forcing you to pay a few extra bucks for it. Because capitalism. *serious nod*
B) And “CaFae Latte Season 84 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi! Which featured more Adventures In Opposing ICE by the CaFae Latte regulars, including:
I. Oscar on aerial ICE-watching duty, reporting in to Andy about how the truck he was tailing had just stopped for gas at a station with a “DON’T TREAD ON ME” sign in the window (after being refused service at an earlier station) and letting him know the coordinates so David and Asif could add it to their “places to boycott” list. Which, as he noted, was pretty close to CaFae Latte...he then continued following the truck as it made its way toward the very street CaFae was on (wondering if they were going after the Mexican restaurant across the way again) –
Only to be told off by a seraph ICE agent also in the skies, telling him to get out of their airspace, he was interfering with an investigation. Cue Oscar blowing the hell out of his whistle and getting into a little bit of a scrap with the guy, then phoning Bob to let her know ICE was coming –
While the ICE seraph tried to shoot him in the back! D: Fortunately he missed because Oscar’s friends loaded him up with good luck charms, but fucking hell, poor Oscar!
II. ICE showing up at the CaFae right after JC wondered if they’d be joining the protesters or serving them hot drinks (causing Bob to get a VERY evil little smile as she realized they were specifically coming for them) – JC locked the front door and told Drek to lock the back while pretending not to be able to hear the ICE agent outside, and Drek replied he’d already done that and was calling Cyrus in case they needed him. The ICE asshole insisted they had to look for illegals and, upon seeing Bob, said that there was no way she, as a fairy, had been born in this country –
And cue JC informing the guy that “she was naturalized long before you were dribbling down your Dad’s thigh.” Provoking a snort from Drek, an “ew, gross!” from the ICE asshole, and a “Jennifer. Charles.” from Bob. XD The ICE agents then called in a battering ram to knock the door down – JC was briefly concerned, but Bob assured them that the glass was bulletproof and the locks industrial AND magical, so there was no way ICE was getting in. JC then noted that she was making a call from a phone that wasn’t her own, and she explained that it was a burner she intended to destroy right afterward –
Before it was revealed that the guy on the other end was David. Bob requested he send the list of ICE agents he and Asif had been compiling to the throwaway e-mail she’d given him – he warned her it wasn’t complete, but she said that was fine, and he sent it over. She thanked him and asked him to give her best to Lisa the ER nurse, confirming that the good luck charm she’d given her was still working – David assured her it was, she hadn’t seen hide nor hair of ICE despite all the hospital shifts, and lightly scolded Bob on taking care of her own safety. An amused Bob ended the skit by hanging up, leading into…
III. Erik showing up to join the crowd outside the CaFae because he’d heard the whistles and wanted to help – Patrick, back out in his uniform with Janine and Vet Grampa was initially pissed to see him, but Janine gently reminded him, “Enemy of our enemy, puppy,” and he calmed down enough to explain that ICE was attacking the CaFae, but their defenses were holding. Erik asked where the heck Rethu was, but as it turned out, they’d been patrolling and protecting people against ICE in another city two hours away, and even by dragon wing, it would take them a bit of time to get back. Vet Grampa then mused that this whole thing was probably retaliation for them helping protect the Mexican restaurant across the way, to which Erik replied “No bet.”
The action then swapped to the interior of the CaFae, where JC (who, as per the annotations, VERY DEFINITELY saw Erik wave at them, but deliberately did not respond) was calling their sister Kelly and letting her know what was going on – Kelly offered to call Cyrus since she’d practically already paid him, but JC let her know that Drek was already on it. ...and then asked what the heck she’d meant by that – turned out, she’d been using her OnlyFans account to fundraise, by offering people who sent her proof they’d donated $10 to Cyrus’s office or other anti-ICE organizations a photo of herself ($50 got them a video). She’d gotten $5K donated so far, so obviously it was working! JC then noticed Bob getting ready to do something and quickly ended the call, which turned out to be the correct course of action as Bob warned them as she put on a very fancy necklace that she was going to do some powerful magic and they’d better stand back –
Before magically amplifying her voice to let the ICE agents outside know that, thanks to the lovely efforts of some anonymous hackers, she had the full names of several hundred ICE agents. And proceeding to curse them with the inability to cause physical or physiological harm except in self defense, and ill luck, ill health, and ill fortune all their days until such time as they redeemed themselves. Cue her listing off a bunch of names (both fake and real, because apparently C. M. is NOT fucking around) while the ICE agents outside protested that was illegal – but according to Janine, magic was totally legal, and Vet Grampa argued that this probably fell under 2nd Amendment rights anyway. Short ended with the agents looking quite dejected and JC VERY smug.
IV. Some time later, Patrick confirming that the last of the ICE agents were gone from the general, and Bob admitting to JC that she was probably going to have to go home early because she was so drained after cursing all those ICE agents. JC asked her why she didn’t do such a thing earlier when ICE first showed up, or when they murdered Renee good, and Bob explained that they simply didn’t have the names then (David and Asif had needed months to compile that first list), adding that she was sure all the ones she’d just cursed would soon be replaced by new federal agents, and how, powerful as she was, she could not do this every week, she’d be far too exhausted. JC made a frustrated noise, unable to help themselves –
Causing Bob – who, as we might remember, is an experienced war general – giving a long speech about how this was a war of attrition, and they had to use their resources carefully and not throw away the war to win one battle. And how that their only chance to win was to become “unsustainable” – basically, too much of a drain on the current administration’s resources to keep bothering with, when they had other things elsewhere that they needed to deal with. As she put it, this fight was a battle between ICE trying to break the will of the Minnesotan people to resist, and the Minnesotan people trying to break ICE’s will to conquer – and it was going to be a long, slow, ugly process that would result in many losses on their side. But they had to keep pushing back and fighting so that, in the long run, they could win – which meant that they had to conserve their energy and not be as exhausted as she was right now. JC seemed to reluctantly accept that –
And then their phone rang, and they answered it to discover it was Oscar – and he was in jail?! Which, uh, nobody had expected...
V. Patrick going to see Oscar in jail and make sure he was okay – Oscar asked about the “ruckus,” and then, after being assured the CaFae was fine, assured Patrick he just had a bit of a bruise on his knuckles, with the officer keeping an eye on him saying that he really needed to work on his form. Cyrus then showed up, told Oscar to keep quiet, and announced himself as Oscar’s lawyer, asking what he’d been charged with –
Cue the cop saying “officially, assaulting a police officer.” Causing Cyrus to bluescreen and be like “...Oscar? THAT Oscar?” As it turned out, what had happened was that Oscar had ended up flying to the station with the seraph ICE asshole (who unfortunately was ALSO in the station and trying to get the officer to hand Oscar over) and tried to get sanctuary by turning himself in for interfering with an ICE investigation. Only for the officer to inform him that wasn’t a crime and no he didn’t – he’d seen the whole thing and all Oscar had done was blow his whistle.
So Oscar punched the officer so the officer would have a crime to arrest him for. Cyrus’s face during this recounting was a delight, as was Oscar’s embarrassed “I panicked.” XD The seraph ICE agent again tried to get the officer to hand Oscar over, stating that it would help save on paperwork and he knew that he should do the right thing, only for the officer to inform the asshole that he had “protect and serve” written on his badge and that he intended to do just that, even if he never expected to have to protect someone from their own government. The ICE agent tried to insist that was illegal in some way, but Patrick told him, in essence, “No, you have no leg to stand on, get out.” Annoyed, the seraph ICE guy finally left…
Causing Patrick to note, “If was him, I’d hover overhead to watch to see if and when Oscar left the station.” Fortunately, as per the officer, the prosecutor had already thought of that, and while he had no intention of actually pressing charges, they had set up an arraignment for 10 AM tomorrow morning. Cyrus confirmed with Oscar that he was fine staying the night in jail (Oscar: “This place has four walls, a roof, and central heating – I’ve been much worse off”), and the officer called to a colleague, Brown, to get the paperwork –
Only for Brown, a potential demon officer, to turn out to be an ICE sympathizer, who complained about the original officer refusing to press charges and said “if people would just get out of the way and let ICE do their jobs…” The frustrated officer said that he did not have enough coffee in him for that argument, and Cyrus promised to bring him some caffeine and snacks when he brought some for Oscar the next morning. The officer was like “thanks, never thought I’d be GLAD to see a defense attorney” –
And then Patrick sadly had to ruin the bonding moment by getting a call and then telling Cyrus that his clients the Castillo family, the owners of the haunted hotel Jacaranda, were under siege. Because that is just how this season was going. Cut to –
VI. A pair of ICE agents – one in silver shades, one wearing a lower-face-mask – trying to get into the Jacaranda, only finding all the doors locked. A third one, in goofy star shades showed up, saying he’d gotten their call for backup and brought about 20 guys as requested – Silver and Mask explained that the hotel was filled with “Mexicans” and “antifa” and that they needed the help getting inside so they could do their thing. Star asked why they couldn’t plainsclothes it, but Silver explained that the owners kept figuring out who they were and refusing them entry. And then Mask got a call on his phone with a number that was just an eldritch scrawl –
And when he answered it, out came a horrific wailing scream. Star was like “Jesus, why don’t you turn it off?” but Mask explained it WAS off. He and Silver then proceeded to explain that the hotel was rumored to be haunted, and after the shit they’d been through, they were inclined to believe it. Star was dismissive, saying it could be the work of a clever hacker, but Silver and Mask said that didn’t explain stuff like their car tires constantly leaking whenever they showed up here, or ammo and supplies going missing under their noses (or straight out of their pockets). Mask even brought up “the fairy in Bernier” who cursed over 100 guys, and how now so many agents were suffering things like falls resulting in broken bones and losing all the money gambling –
But Star was insistent that “magic is not that powerful” and said they should go find a window to break open, as he had a quota. The trio thus found an empty room and prepared to use a baton on it –
Only for Mask to note that Star’s reflection wasn’t right – it looked like an old “Mexican” guy in a fancy suit. Cue Abuelo lunging out and scaring the crap out of the trio, who fled – then turning to his descendant Beatriz and asking if she got that. “Yup, and it’s definitely going up on YouTube!”
VII. Silver and Mask bitching out Star for his “ghosts aren’t real, magic isn’t that powerful” attitude and Star apologizing, then calling in, of all people, KING HERLA and his Wild Hunt to help them out. Herla was like “I do NOT work for ICE,” but they assured him that they just need his help to get rid of the ghost on the hotel premises –
And then began bitching to him about how the place was owned by “Mexicans” (Herla, coolly: “Guatemalans, its on their website”) and had a Latino staff, who they were pretty sure were mostly illegals. And how the owners had invited all the staff’s families to bunk down in the hotel because it was safer than them staying in the homes (which Mask had to admit was correct – he’d checked out a bunch of houses and apartments under Hispanic names, and they were all empty). And how the church across the street was a real troublemaker, always showing up whenever they tried an assault, even after they raided it themselves one Sunday (Herla, coldly: “You raided. A church. During services.” Mask: “Yeah, that’s when everyone shows up.”). And how the ghost was being mean to them and all they wanted to do was get inside and round up all the Latinos so they could make their quota…
And after all that, Herla calmly told them that the last time he’d seen men like them around, raiding churches and terrorizing those with darker skin than them, they’d been slavers and Klansmen. Followed by him ordering his men to surround the hotel, prevent the ICE assholes from getting inside, and to NOT harm the ghost. XD Like, dudes. How did you THINK that was going to go?!
VIII. And finally, Herla knocking on the door and asking to speak with current matriarch Maria Castillo – Abuelo was initially rather hesitant to let him anywhere near his family, but Herla assured him he came unarmed, and – when confronted about speaking to the ICE agents – reiterating that he considered them modern-day slavers. And, when Maria showed up and regarded him suspiciously, adding that he was a friend of Jonathon and Cyrus. That got him inside –
Where Beatriz immediately began squeeing over having the King Herla and his Wild Hunt around, as she’d done a video about them in the past. XD Herla informed her that he’d heard from Jonathon, who had confirmed there were many storytellers in the family – and one soldier; Maria confirmed that her Juan the Marine had been instrumental in keeping ICE out along with Abuelo. Beatriz then asked if Herla couldn’t use his kingly authority to order ICE to leave, but Herla explained that said authority only extended to his hunters, who had sworn their swords to him – in all other ways, he was only king in name. He then praised the family for holding up so well under siege, and asked where they were getting their food – Maria explained that ICE didn’t watch them 24/7, and that they’d asked the delivery drivers to take their food to the church across the way (if able). Basically, whenever ICE fucked off for a bit, the churchgoers would then deliver their meals, which Herla admitted was smart. He then explained that, unfortunately, he couldn’t stay here forever with his various hunters – they had a very important job hunting down supernatural entities across the state, and on top of that, only two of his people were actually US citizens. Meaning, if the situation escalated, which it was likely to do, he was going to have to prioritize their safety over the Castillos’. Maria assured him that they didn’t expect them to risk their own life and liberty for their sake –
But Herla said that he could offer them the one American-born hunter he had who was also a witch. Mostly because he’d guessed that they’d been using a witch of their own to power up Abuelo’s powers – Maria confirmed that, saying that they’d been arrested and were now God knows were – so now his hunter could take over the duty. And he promised that he wouldn’t recall them unless it was absolutely necessary. Beatriz was extremely excited about getting a hunter witch –
And Maria asked how many hunters Herla had in the area – and when he told her and asked why, said that none of them were leaving with empty bellies. Herla said fine, but they would be paying for the meal. :)
And there we had it! Whew – long compilation, but a good one. I love seeing these characters give ICE shit – though I think my favorite of the lot was the “Oscar In Jail” one, just because of Cyrus’s constant bluescreening over what had happened. XD Though Bob’s wicked little smile as she realized ICE was coming for her and thus she could retaliate was excellent too. I will admit to some confusion, though, as I’d swear I saw popping up in the YouTube Shorts section of my Recommended some shorts Chris did of Erik meeting Oscar at the food shelf – when are those going to be collected? Did I somehow miss that compilation? I guess we’ll find out later…
...yeah, you see why I couldn't do all that last night. Especially with the time shift. *sigh* Anyway, talk to you all this evening, where hopefully I WON'T be staying up half the night doing write-ups...
All of which I will have to tell you about tomorrow as it is so late and I just cannot finish all my write-ups in time. Especially since it's Spring Forward day and thus it's about to be 3 AM, not 2 AM... *sigh* This is what I get for playing BG3 AND watching a longer-than-usual CaFae Latte compilation video in the same day. Anyway, watch this space for the full write-up of what I did today tomorrow. Night for now, and remember to set your clocks ahead!
EDIT 3/8/2026: Welp, as it turned out, part of the problem was ALSO the fact that I was just about to get my period -- fucker showed up late this morning. >( Fortunately I listened to my body's warning signals and had a pad in when it did, but -- ugh. I may possibly elaborate on that more in today's actual entry -- in the meantime, here's the write-up of the things I did yesterday:
Tumblr: Had a pretty decent day over on the old tumbls –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – I am pleased to report that I managed to update two of my drafts over here today –
A) I properly wrote up the “Victor, Alice, Smiler, and the rest of the party encounter Mirkon being lured by the harpies in the Secluded Cove – and after seeing the harpy music charming Alice and Smiler and starting to affect the others, Victor gets mad and uses one of his own Duskwallian spells to open up a portal to the Void Sea over the rock the harpies are hiding on, leading to three of them getting snatched by a leviathan and the fourth deciding to cut her losses and flee” scene in my latest “VITD Meets BG3 Not-Incorrect Quotes/Shitposts Collection” post, complete with Victor screaming after the fleeing harpy “YEAH, SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT!!!” and Gale trying to ask Wyll if that was Hadar, only for Wyll to go “FUCK NO.” XD Honestly, this post is pretty close to done, I think – I just need to edit all the scenes in it now and do some proper tags for it! …and then maybe start a FOURTH post of scenes like this, because I really want to do a scene of Victor, Alice, and Smiler delightedly eating rat to SOMEONE’S surprise in the game, but this particular post is getting a little long. XD
B) And I worked a bit on the “Valicer Eats God” post where I’m trying to turn my OT3 into muppety menaces from the RPG Eat God! I didn’t make a huge amount of progress, but I did:
I. Decide that Victor’s third Trait, to go with the already-selected “Fast Feet” and “Sticky Steps” should be either “Dexterous Digits” or “Lanky Limbs” – though I’m leaning toward the latter, as “Dexterous Digits” allows those who have it to pull off all sorts of sleight-of-hand stuff, and I don’t think that’s really Victor-ish, whereas “Lanky Limbs” just gives him a hell of a lot of reach, and Victor IS quite lanky! (I did also briefly consider “Aquatic Aspect” to cover the fact that he’s the son of fish merchants, but quickly discarded it – being associated with fish is more his PARENTS’ thing than his, and I still want to do a kind of mothman look for him)
II. Come up with an Expression (a short sentence on how the Trait informs her personality) for Alice’s “Menacing Missiles” Trait (which allows her to file natural projectiles at people – I’m thinking an organic version of her Cards from the first game): “Most problems go away if you pepper them with enough projectiles (aka throw enough shit at them).” XD I mean, you can’t say she’s wrong, especially when it comes to the problems she faces in her games!
III. Also come up with an Expression for Smiler’s “Vile Venom” Trait (which allows them to inject people with a hallucinogenic substance – Joy Serum, natch): “If I can make people feel happy with one jab, why shouldn't I?” Feels in-keeping with a Smiler who’s based a little more on the ride’s actual themeing than most of my others!
So that’s good – I would like to get this post sorted sooner rather than later!
Valice Multiverse – And over here, I actually had an anon ask to answer! From, uh, yesterday, but I forgot to check this account last night because nothing has been happening on it for just about two weeks, soooo… *shrug* Anyway, the ask was a fake news report talking about how a woman was arrested after “breaking into a home to eat cereal and pet the homeowner's dog.” She was caught at the kitchen table chowing down on Fruity Pebbles, and admitted to consuming marijuana before the incident. XD I had Londerland Bloodlines!Alice reply that she could totally believe the woman had had weed before committing that crime, yes...but that it was also nice to have a relatively wholesome crime on the news for a change, as it was normally a lot more depressing. A sentiment that both Victor and myself (in the tags) totally agreed with. *sigh* I’d kill for more silly, relatively-harmless stuff like that in the news...
Baldur’s Gate III: Well, after a week of watching the people behind the Origin companions play their first-ever game of proper D&D (and poor Theo Solomon learning the dice hate him almost as much as Larian seems to hate his character), it was only natural that I’d return to the realm of Faerûn this Saturday to have some more adventures with Tav Smiler and their companions! Today’s session consisted mainly of the gang searching the harpy hangout for goodies, followed by Smiler having a very interesting experience with Gale back at camp – let me tell you all about it:
A) I picked things up at the little beach of the Sheltered Cove, with Smiler and company having just saved Mirkon from a terrible fate by slaughtering the harpies luring him to his doom. And as the tiefling kid was officially out of danger, and Gale was officially out of “hi you’re gaining approval with me at a staggering rate” stories, it was officially time to loot the bodies! I thus had the gang search the corpse of each harpy, looking for goodies –
And ending up sorely disappointed. >( True, the harpy right next to Smiler on the beach had 28 gold on her, which wasn’t bad, but the one that Astarion killed up on the ledge overlooking the water had naught but a bone on her person (which Smiler didn’t take because we already had a couple of bones taking up space in the camp chest), and the one in the water and the one lying on the lower ledges of the big pointy rock island they’d called their own both had absolutely nothing. >( Like, Smiler and friends did all that back and forth, climbing up and down twisted roots and wading through nearly-waist-deep water, for no benefit! Or, at least, that’s what I thought –
Until I spotted a wooden chest lying near the water’s edge on the opposite side of the big pointy rock island. I had the group approach it cautiously, just in case it was trapped, but fortunately it proved to be completely benign, and provided them with the following:
I. 30 XP as they approached it for – unknown reasons. O.o Like, seriously, no clue why the gang got a bunch of XP there – possibly it was the game having a Johnny-come-lately moment and suddenly giving me some location discovery XP? Or there’s some other trigger that dumps XP on you for finding that chest...I mean, I’m not complaining, I’m TRYING to get everyone up to Level 4, but still. Just odd.
II. 60 gold pieces – hooray, the gang’s personal stash continues to grow! Their ability to buy things is restored! XD
III. And the “Hat of the Siren’s Call” – a fancy cap from my big old “extra equipment” mod by GraphicFade that grants the wearer the Sonic Blast cantrip! Which is a custom cantrip where you release a cone of sound that inflicts thunder damage on enemies and – if they fail their Constitution saving throws – pushes them three meters away from you. Potentially useful!
So yeah, that was a halfway decent reward for fighting all those harpies. *nods* Thank you chest – and GraphicFade, of course. :P
B) However, I wasn’t quite done looting yet – after all, Mirkon had mentioned before running off that the reason he came over here was to raid the harpies’ nest. And since he hadn’t managed to get into it, I figured Smiler and company could try their luck! I thus had the group wander around the general area a bit, making their way onto a little rocky sandbar behind the big pointy rock island (hoping for a random passive Survival check to pop up indicating more hidden treasure chests to find – no dice, though (quite literally, given a die icon appears above your character’s head when those happen)), then used the camera to explore the higher bits of the nearby landscape. I didn’t immediately see anything EXPLICITLY nest-like –
But I did spot a little area just off the ledge above the one with the dead harpy on the nearby cliffs with three piles of bones on it that I felt might be, at a stretch, called a “harpy nest.” There was also an additional pile of bones on the top of the little pointy rock island, next to some shredded cloth. And as they were all searchable, I figured Smiler and company ought to have a poke through them and see if they found anything good! As the pointy rock island was closer, I had them start there, sending them back around to the front and then up all the various jutting ledges until they reached the pile of skulls and femurs and whatnot at the top, just below the main point –
Where they discovered a single dagger, tucked into the pile. Eh – well, it’s another weapon to give to Dammon to earn his good favor, I suppose! Smiler stowed it in their inventory, then lead the charge back down the spire of rock, through the water over to the twisty root ladder that led up to the ledge with the dead harpy, then up another twisty root ladder to the ledge above. One crossing of a makeshift bridge later, they were found themselves at the second bone pile area, where they scoured through the remains to find:
I. A single lootable bone in the first pile (game, I don’t want bones, I don’t have a Scratch yet I can feed them too)
II. Nothing in the second pile
III. And a candle in the third pile – I had Smiler take that because you never know when you might need a candle. (Apparently they’re good for rapidly applying fire damage to a weapon!)
There was also a “polished dagger” lying on the ground in between all the bones – picking it up revealed that it was specifically a dagger that had belonged to one of the racist druids, as it had an image of a stag (the “logo” of the Emerald Enclave) stamped upon its leather grip. Well, can’t say I’m that sorry one of them got eaten! Don’t know yet if the dagger will go to Dammon (again, more weapons = more favor) or Astarion (who might like that it’s shinier than his standard dagger). We’ll see what happens!
C) Fortunately, one candle and one dagger isn’t all that the trip over to the bone piles revealed – because, as I turned the camera, I spotted the actual harpy nest on a spire of rock nearby! A big old bird’s nest, unsurprisingly – accented with giant bony spikes, because harpies. :p A little investigation with my camera revealed that it was off to the left of the twisty-turny cliff path the gang were on, near the little sandbar they’d been exploring before, next to another, smaller spire of rock that looked like it was close enough for an enterprising bardlock to jump from. I thus sent my group back over to the sandbar, and tried to have them climb onto said neighboring spire –
Only for the game to tell me “hey, they can’t go there.” Which didn’t seem right, because it very much looked like they could walk around there, and of course I was reasonably sure the group was supposed to be able to access the harpy nest! Fortunately, I figured out the riddle quickly – they couldn’t walk there, but they should as hell could jump there. Smiler thus lead the charge, jumping from the sandbar onto the base of the spire, then clambering up to the top. Faced with another long and high jump, I made a quicksave (just in case things went terribly wrong), then selected the “jump” action and looked to see if Smiler could make it onto the nest spire –
And they could! Though they could only make it onto the little ledge just below where the nest rested. They thus leapt over, followed by a couple of their companions, and I directed them to climb onto the top to raid the nest –
Only to be told again “they can’t go there!” For a moment, I was stymied, wondering if Smiler was going to fall at the very last hurdle (as I vaguely remembered something I’d read on the wiki about needing a character with 12 Strength to actually reach the nest, when Smiler only has 10 – though, based on the fact that Smiler made it over to the spire without issue in the first place, I don’t think the author was taking into account if your character was affected by Longstrider) –
And then I tried the jump action again, and it turned out that they could totally jump up there, no problem. XD Sure, the ledge is apparently too tall to CLIMB, but it’s no match for someone who never skips leg day! XD Anyway, I had Smiler leap up there, followed by most of their friends – save Wyll, who had to stay on the lower ledge simply because there was no more room up top –
And with a “Let’s see what the harpies were hoarding,” they raided the nest! Which, surprisingly, didn’t actually contain any gold. O.o Poor Mirkon, he risked his life for something that wasn’t even there! But there were some interesting items tucked into the branches and bone spikes:
I. A note titled “I’m Sorry,” wet with what looked like tears – later examination revealed it to be a letter from someone named Edmund to his love Miriam, where he apologized for not writing for so long, gave her the good news that “Maggie Two-Fingers” should no longer be bothering her, as he’d paid whatever debt he had to her in full (apologizing again, as “she should never have got your name in the first place”), then broke the bad news that he wasn’t coming home for a good long while yet, as he’d gotten the money from a mercenary group as payment up front for helping them with some jobs in Icewind Dale. Because they’d needed a warlock, and, well – “I took the deal the cambion offered. I'm not going to say I had no choice, because that would be a lie. But I don't regret it. I'm a new man. I feel strong for the first time in my life. Aside from being awoken in the middle of the night by the smell of sulphur (he likes to drop by to 'see how everything is going') I have no complaints.” (Yeah, uh, wait until the cambion starts asking you for more stuff until you say that, Edmund!) The letter ended with him telling Miriam that he didn’t blame her if she didn’t write back, or told him she didn’t want him to come back at all, and that he loved her and he wanted her to be happy, even if it wasn’t with him. *sniff* Awwww. I hate these sad letters between star-crossed lovers. :( Hopefully it wasn’t Miriam or Edmund who got eaten by the harpies!
II. An “Inscrutable Journal” which smelled of rotting vegetation and was so soaked in blood that only a few scraps of a couple of loose pages were still readable – later examination revealed the scraps told a bit of the story of an adventurer who apparently met with a truly terrible fate while adventuring. One chunk read “...We've followed Musharib's instructions so far, but something feels odd. We've encountered no creatures along the way. Only alien noises from all directions. Sleep evades us, and the muck on my boots has hardened into a permanent feature. Hopefully, we find…” while another described the adventurer’s hair starting to fall out, and another talked about hearing the laughter of a mysterious villain and the droning of the “Omuans” in some sort of tomb, with the adventurer wondering if the villain WAS the tomb because he seemed to speak from all around. And the final entry? “[On the last legible page is a crudely drawn charcoal outline of a Bearded Devil's face, its mouth agape in a silent scream.]” *shudder* Yeah, not pleasant stuff. But then again, this journal is potentially a reference to a pretty nasty D&D adventure, The Tomb of Annihilation, where a lich was using an artifact called the Soulmonger to kill loads of people and sacrifice their souls to power up a horrible fleshy abomination to wreak havoc, so...makes sense that it wouldn’t be nice!
III. A Ring of Color Spray, which naturally grants the Color Spray spell (which allows casters to blind their enemies with flashing colored lights, giving them Disadvantage on attack rolls and shortening the range of all attacks to 3 meters) – I’m undecided on whether or not Smiler should keep this or give it to Gale as a snack, because the spell seems very them, but it has VERY shitty range (5 meters)...I suppose they could wear it in their other “ring” slot for now and I can decide when Gale gets a craving!
IV. A malachite gem (yay, more gemstones for bartering/selling for cash)
V. A supply pack (free food, om nom nom)
VI. And a single bone, which Smiler left because we need to stop collecting damn bones!
Yeah – I’d say that was worth the party making their way up there! :)
D) With the nest successfully raided, it was time for Smiler and company to make their way back to whence they had come – mostly because I’d been told by my friend Squid that I should be long resting a bit more often to see more of the cutscenes that trigger in camp at night, and I didn’t want the gang’s “respawn back into the world” point to be atop a narrow spire of rock next to a harpy’s nest. XD So I had them jump and clamber and wade their way back toward the beach (with a quick detour to check out another bit of flat rock sticking out of the water on the other side of said beach – nothing interesting there, sadly), then head back up the path until they were basically back at the little entrance arch to the Sacred Pool of the druids. And, as they headed up that path, Smiler’s companions got a little chatty – specifically:
I. Shadowheart asked Lae’zel how she would punish someone who’d wronged her – Lae’zel asked “Wronged me how?” and Shadowheart breezily threw out “Oh, say, murder. Or theft.” Lae’zel, a true githyanki, replied, “Killing is good – it culls the weak. But theft would be paid for painfully, a thousand times over.” Shadowheart commented, “Hmmm. Good to know,” while I giggled because, well, there’s a reason she’s asking this, and it has to do with a certain spiky artefact in her possession…the truth about that’s gonna come out eventually, Shadowheart!
II. And Astarion, immediately afterward, asked Wyll if he’d ever heard of a vampire named Cazador. Wyll admitted, “Doesn’t ring a bell. Why?” causing Gale to fill him in – “He’s patriarch of the Szarr family. Nasty fellow, if the histories are accurate.” Astarion murmured, “I imagine they are,” and I winced, because, well, there’s a reason Astarion is asking this, and it has to do with his incredibly fucked-up life before tadpole infection. *pats him* Don’t worry, Astarion – Smiler may not fuck you, but they will DEFINITELY be doing your personal quest and taking care of that asshole!
:) I love these moments – they’re one of the biggest reasons I play with a mod that lets me run around with an expanded party. I don’t want to miss out on any of the companion banter! They all have such fun things to say to each other!
E) Anyway – once everyone was done chatting, I had Smiler head down one side path near the top of the cliffs to see if there was anything interesting down there – no, just a nice view – then bring everyone back to camp so they could prepare to end the day! Though not before they did a little of their favorite activity – alchemy! They’d picked up a bunch of ingredients over the last few play sessions, after all, and I wanted them to make use of them. Accordingly, I had them concoct a “Suspension of Bullywug Trumpet” (using the mushrooms they’d gathered in the Enclave Library), a “Salts of Mugwort,” and (after poking in their alchemy pouch and making sure they’d gotten everything) a “Sublimate of Autumn Crocus.” That last proved to be the primary ingredient in a Potion of Feather Fall, a very handy drink that allows the drinker to temporarily become Immune to falling damage by slowing their rate of falling a lot. I thought it might be useful to have such a potion on-hand for emergencies, so – after confirming Gale and Shadowheart, our other primary spellcasters, didn’t have the spell that grants the effect in their spellbooks – I had Smiler whip up a bottle with the “Sublimate of Autumn Crocus” and an “Essence of Acorn Truffle” (since they very much did NOT need the latter for a Potion of Animal Speaking, thanks to their special amulet). Sadly, though, they once again failed the passive Medicine check necessary to make a double batch. *sigh* ONE of these days they’ll actually pass that check and I’ll get two bottles of something! I hope, anyway!
F) Having once again indulged in their favorite hobby (and failed to justify me downloading that mod that gave them the “Experimental Alchemy” feat), Smiler then headed to the campfire and chose to end the day to see what their companions wanted to chat about that night. To my surprise, though, upon initially loading into the “evening” version of the camp, I didn’t see any exclamation points – indicating “hey, talk to me and you’ll get a cutscene” – over anyone’s heads. Which struck me as very odd, as Smiler had one over their head, and that meant “hey, at least one of your companions has a special cutscene waiting for you!” I thus panned around the camp, checking on all the companions to see who Smiler needed to talk to –
And found an exclamation mark over Gale! Aha – well, he was the only one left out of the round of convos last time the group long rested – made sense that he might want to talk to Smiler now! Smiler thus went over to Gale to see what was up –
And, as the cutscene started, stumbled across Gale conjuring an image of Mystra, goddess of magic, in his hand, with a look on his face that could only be described as “sadly pining:”
Smiler, curious as to what that was all about, announced their presence with the Bardic “Ah, Mystra. The matron of magic herself. An ambitious desire indeed, to hold her in your hands.” Gale started and quickly banished the image, turning to face Smiler with an embarrassed “Oh! My, you startled me. I...I was miles away.” Smiler, leaning into the Bard options, inquired as to why Gale had been conjuring the face of the goddess –
And Gale, looking shifty, claimed, “No special reason, really. I was just...practicing an incantation.” Smiler did not buy this in the slightest, insisting, “There’s more to it than that. You were contemplating her in a way I can hardly fathom” –
And, fortunately, passed the associated DC 5 Insight check with a healthy 12, causing Gale to helplessly go, “What can I say? She’s...She’s Mystra,” before continuing with, “I can’t quite describe it, the need I sometimes feel to see her – to draw the filaments of fantasy into existence. No sculpture or painting could ever do her justice, only the fabric that she herself is and embodies: the Weave. Mystra is all magic. And as far as I’m concerned, she is all creation.” And before any of you go, “...that’s a little creepy, is Gale Mystra’s stalker or something” – no, he’s actually her lovelorn ex. And if anything, she was the more toxic one in the relationship. But we’ll get into that later… For now, Smiler responded to all that with “I didn’t realize the depths of your devotion,” causing Gale to explain that magic was his life and that “I’ve been in touch with the Weave for as long as I can remember. There’s nothing like it. It’s like music, poetry, physical beauty all rolled into one and given expression through the senses.” Then, remembering Smiler was a spellcaster themselves, he asked if it was the same for them –
And cue me being a little sad that there wasn’t a Warlock-specific option in the dialogue box for Smiler’s reply! The wiki suggests there should have been one, but I sure as heck didn’t see it, and the dialogue box didn’t look like it scrolled, so… Maybe it was overridden by the Bard dialogue option I did see, as that is the class Smiler more recently took a level in. Which, okay, I get how that could happen, but it still annoys me a little. *shakehead* Anyway, I had Smiler pick the Bard option because it was the only special option they had, causing them to declare, “Magic is music, poetry, and beauty. Though I suspect you and I perform it differently.” Gale allowed that was fair enough, saying that “in the end we’re still playing the same composition” –
Then offered to show Smiler exactly what he’d meant before by having them reach into the Weave with him. Smiler, curious, agreed, and Gale told them to follow his lead before performing an arcane gesture that – if I’m honest, looked a little silly. XD Like, he held his hands out before him and “clapped” them together with fingers bent like he was imitating a dinosaur or something. XD It conjured a little ball of glowing light, though, and Gale prompted Smiler to imitate it. Smiler, a consummate performer, chose to imitate it with a little flourish, prompting a DC 5 Dexterity (Performance) check (instead of the regular Charisma (Performance) one) –
And, well, it’s a good thing Smiler has a +2 proficiency bonus in Performance, because they rolled a 3. XD But the bonus brought the result up to a 5, and “meets it beats it” in D&D, so they were able to copy the gesture in all its ridiculousness with their own little extra flourish. The Narrator commented that “you feel something strange – like a kind word and a kind touch at the same time. It’s warm and comforting,” while I took the opportunity to get a good shot of a smiling Smiler for once –
They honestly look a touch smug here to me, but they probably earned it, making that check by the skin of their teeth. XD Gale praised them for doing well, then asked them to repeat after him the incantation “Ah-Thran Mystra-Ryl Kantrach-Ao.” Smiler of course had to “belt the words with a little flourish on Ao,” and fortunately this time the DC 5 check was for a normal Charisma (Performance) check. Meaning they smashed the roll with an 18 altogether. XD The reward for getting this one right was, according to the Narrator, “Ah yes: the scent of rosewater and a sense of wellbeing. A sliver of Weave that tastes sweet on the tongue.” Nice! Gale praised them again, then asked them to “picture in your mind the concept of harmony. As true as you can.” And while I was briefly tempted by the option “Recall a memory of early youth, a happy family moment” – the fact that it specified early youth ended up tripping me up, because Smiler, uh, did not have any harmony in their early youth. Living with that asshole Kelman in The Sanctuary, remember? So instead I went with the Bard option, “Harmony comes easily to you. Allow it to wash over your mind and magic” –
And just like that, the pair were surrounded by a gently-glowing purple circle of weave, with the Narrator commenting how Smiler could sense “the unmistakable presence of Mystra, the Lady of Mysteries,” followed by “something like the anticipation of a kiss, then the pleasure of being cloaked in peace. You are safe. You are nestled in the cup of Mystra’s hand.” Though, given the way Smiler was staring at Gale during all this, I think they felt like they were nestled in the cup of Gale’s hand instead:
Gale, seeing their success, cheerfully informed Smiler that “You did it. You’re channeling the Weave. How does it feel?” Smiler cheerfully responded, “Effortless. You’re a wonderful teacher” while I took the opportunity to get another shot of Smiler smiling:
(Seriously, the opportunity to get such nice screenshots is in surprisingly short supply! Smiler’s smiles in regular gameplay are often way too fleeting for me to press the screenshot button in time. Doesn’t help that I actually don’t like their open-mouthed smiles because, well, obviously I couldn’t give them the buck teeth they have in Sims 4, so they don’t look quite right when they open their mouth. Meeeh.)
Anyway – yes, Smiler praised Gale’s prowess as a teacher, to which Gale responded, “I know,” because he’s Gale and he does have a bit of a problem with his ego sometimes. XD The two continued to gaze at each other as the Narrator informed Smiler, “The Weave connects you. The moment feels intimate” –
Aaand that’s when I decided it was time to end things, as Gale is not one of Smiler’s romance targets (I’m planning on having them get in a threesome with Wyll and Karlach with the help of my polyamory mod), and I didn’t want to give him the wrong impression, as this is first scene where you can officially start a flirtation. Smiler thus decided this was “A satisfying end to a wondrous experience. It’s time to let go” and released their connection, causing the Weave to evaporate –
And leaving the night feeling “suddenly cold and lonesome,” as per the Narrator. Aw. :( Gale rather sadly noted, “There it goes. How easily things slip away from us, no matter how hard they were in the obtaining,” before heading back to his tent proper and telling Smiler, “Good night. I enjoyed sharing a moment of magic with you.” :( Causing me to feel a little bad and wish I could send Smiler to give him a hug. It’s okay, Gale – Smiler still likes you! They’re just planning on pursing a relationship with someone else! Two someones else, in fact, and since I know you’re written pretty damn monogamous… Yeah.
G) With the scene with Gale completed, I had Smiler quickly double-check that there was nothing to talk about with any of the other companions by speaking to Wyll (who greeted them with, “The goblins still infest the roads. As long as their leaders live, Zevlor’s people are trapped” – yes, I know, Wyll, but we gotta pick up Karlach first before doing plot stuff!) – then, after confirming there were no special dialogue options or anything with him, trimmed the party down to the required four for long resting, used a supply pack to provide everyone with dinner (as it was easier than trying to add up the individual food items they had sitting in their inventory), and hit the bedroll. Everyone slept peacefully with no additional cutscene nonsense, and in the morning Smiler restored Lae’zel and Wyll to the party –
And then went to chat with Gale, because, well, they had shared a pretty intimate experience last night, even if no flirting went down, and I was hoping there might be a special post-cutscene chat waiting. Gale greeted them with, “Go ahead, I’m listening” –
And, to my delight, there was a new special dialogue option waiting for Smiler regarding what had happened last night – specifically, “I never realized it was so easy to cast magic.” :D I promptly had them tell Gale that –
Only for Gale to gently shoot them down with, “I assure you it is not.” He hastened to add that they’d done well the previously evening with all the various components – somatic, verbal, focus on the inner self to let Mystra in – “But I was still your conduit. To perform such a feat alone requires much and arduous study.” And I was just about to be like “all right, Gale, we get it, wizards are Just Better” –
When he added, “Of course, as a warlock, your patron endows you with many such powers otherwise unattainable. I do hope you cherish that gift.” Which – maybe it was because I was PMSing so bad yesterday, but that just got me RIGHT in the feels. It just – it felt good to have Gale acknowledge Smiler’s base spellcasting class, and so positively too! Especially after I was so annoyed about the fact that I couldn’t remind him that Smiler was a warlock earlier when he was talking about warlocks after Wyll’s recruitment and referred to them as too keen to listen to the devil on their shoulder. *nods* Okay, Gale – you might not be Smiler’s romance option, but you can definitely be their bestie. :)
Speaking of which, Smiler was aware that bestie was going to need magical artefacts soon, so they let him know they had one he might be interested in (actually, we have a few now, but I am much more willing to give up that Ring of Color Spray to Gale’s appetites than the Amulet of Lost Voices) – Gale informed them that “Your enterprising approach to my problem is most encouraging, but it is a delicate process to keep my condition stable. I do not yet need to consume an item, but keep it close by. IT will not be too much longer.” AKA “Thanks, but I’m good for now – I’ll let you know when I need it.” Smiler accepted that and left Gale to his own devices –
And the playsession ended with me going through The Morning Castings for everyone (Smiler applying False Life to themselves and activating their amulet’s Speak With Animals spell; Wyll applying False Life to himself and binding his rapier as his Pact Weapon; and Gale running around the camp casting Longstrider on himself and everyone else). *nods* A satisfying session indeed –
Well, mostly. Because, me being me, I looked up some stuff on the wiki while writing all this up – specifically, the article on Gale’s romance to confirm that the “channeling the Weave” scene is where you can start flirting with him. And I discovered something – namely, if you hold onto the moment for a bit longer, the cutscene continues with you imagining a scene with yourself and Gale in it, which he sees too. And while you’re offered a chance to imagine some romantic options (a kiss or a walk hand-in-hand)…
The write-up on the scene indicates there’s PLATONIC options too. Which gives me a TERRIBLE urge to go and redo that damn cutscene because now I want to see what platonic besties niceness Smiler and Gale might be able to share! Maybe then the moment wouldn’t end with the night feeling so cold and lonesome afterward. But I’m pretty sure my last save before the ending-the-session save was right before the gang went for the Harpy nest...then again, that wouldn’t be THAT much to replay...we’ll see what happens!
YouTube: I’m happy to report that I was able to fit in two videos this evening instead of just the one (though, given I’m posting all this the following day, maybe I should have just focused on one):
A) “7 Times The Real Ending Was Hidden in DLC: Commenter Edition” by OXBox! Andy, Jane, and Mike talking about more of those times where the real ending to a video game’s story was hidden in downloadable content – or, in the case of the last entry, Fable, which was released before DLCs were really a thing, an entirely new version of the game you had to buy – as per the comments on their last video! Examples included:
I. Thought Dead Rising 4 ended with Frank sacrificing himself to the zombie horde to make sure his friends Brad and Vick got out of Willamette in time? Nope – as per the “Frank Rising” DLC, he ended up turned into a sort of super-zombie with special powers, managed to regain some control of his faculties with the help of science, got cured and returned to being a human, escaped the town, and then – depending on how many wasps you collected during the whole thing – either retired from the public eye and had nightmares about being a zombie for the rest of his life, or wrote a best-selling book about his time as a zombie and helped expose the government’s involvement in the zombification incident.
II. Thought Fable ended with with a big boss fight against the fully-human Jack of Blades? Nope – as per the enhanced edition Fable: The Lost Chapters, that was only round one, and to truly stop his reign of terror, the Hero had to fight him again, this time with Jack in the form of a dragon! And then take his mask and either consign it to the lava...or claim it himself and become a worse villain than Jack ever was…
III. Thought Dragon Age: Inquistion ended with Solas firmly on your side in sealing the breaches in the Veil separating the regular world and the spirit world? Nope – as per the “Trespasser DLC,” he’s actually the avatar of the elven god of BETRAYAL, and was hoping to rip the Veil fully asunder – at least, until his initial plan to give his magical orb to the big bad of the main game went wrong. Thus justifying Jane’s decision to have him live in the library and never come out on missions because she hates his stupid bald head. XD
Bottom line? You can never truly trust a game to end satisfyingly if the company behind it thinks they can make more money by hiding it in the DLC and forcing you to pay a few extra bucks for it. Because capitalism. *serious nod*
B) And “CaFae Latte Season 84 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi! Which featured more Adventures In Opposing ICE by the CaFae Latte regulars, including:
I. Oscar on aerial ICE-watching duty, reporting in to Andy about how the truck he was tailing had just stopped for gas at a station with a “DON’T TREAD ON ME” sign in the window (after being refused service at an earlier station) and letting him know the coordinates so David and Asif could add it to their “places to boycott” list. Which, as he noted, was pretty close to CaFae Latte...he then continued following the truck as it made its way toward the very street CaFae was on (wondering if they were going after the Mexican restaurant across the way again) –
Only to be told off by a seraph ICE agent also in the skies, telling him to get out of their airspace, he was interfering with an investigation. Cue Oscar blowing the hell out of his whistle and getting into a little bit of a scrap with the guy, then phoning Bob to let her know ICE was coming –
While the ICE seraph tried to shoot him in the back! D: Fortunately he missed because Oscar’s friends loaded him up with good luck charms, but fucking hell, poor Oscar!
II. ICE showing up at the CaFae right after JC wondered if they’d be joining the protesters or serving them hot drinks (causing Bob to get a VERY evil little smile as she realized they were specifically coming for them) – JC locked the front door and told Drek to lock the back while pretending not to be able to hear the ICE agent outside, and Drek replied he’d already done that and was calling Cyrus in case they needed him. The ICE asshole insisted they had to look for illegals and, upon seeing Bob, said that there was no way she, as a fairy, had been born in this country –
And cue JC informing the guy that “she was naturalized long before you were dribbling down your Dad’s thigh.” Provoking a snort from Drek, an “ew, gross!” from the ICE asshole, and a “Jennifer. Charles.” from Bob. XD The ICE agents then called in a battering ram to knock the door down – JC was briefly concerned, but Bob assured them that the glass was bulletproof and the locks industrial AND magical, so there was no way ICE was getting in. JC then noted that she was making a call from a phone that wasn’t her own, and she explained that it was a burner she intended to destroy right afterward –
Before it was revealed that the guy on the other end was David. Bob requested he send the list of ICE agents he and Asif had been compiling to the throwaway e-mail she’d given him – he warned her it wasn’t complete, but she said that was fine, and he sent it over. She thanked him and asked him to give her best to Lisa the ER nurse, confirming that the good luck charm she’d given her was still working – David assured her it was, she hadn’t seen hide nor hair of ICE despite all the hospital shifts, and lightly scolded Bob on taking care of her own safety. An amused Bob ended the skit by hanging up, leading into…
III. Erik showing up to join the crowd outside the CaFae because he’d heard the whistles and wanted to help – Patrick, back out in his uniform with Janine and Vet Grampa was initially pissed to see him, but Janine gently reminded him, “Enemy of our enemy, puppy,” and he calmed down enough to explain that ICE was attacking the CaFae, but their defenses were holding. Erik asked where the heck Rethu was, but as it turned out, they’d been patrolling and protecting people against ICE in another city two hours away, and even by dragon wing, it would take them a bit of time to get back. Vet Grampa then mused that this whole thing was probably retaliation for them helping protect the Mexican restaurant across the way, to which Erik replied “No bet.”
The action then swapped to the interior of the CaFae, where JC (who, as per the annotations, VERY DEFINITELY saw Erik wave at them, but deliberately did not respond) was calling their sister Kelly and letting her know what was going on – Kelly offered to call Cyrus since she’d practically already paid him, but JC let her know that Drek was already on it. ...and then asked what the heck she’d meant by that – turned out, she’d been using her OnlyFans account to fundraise, by offering people who sent her proof they’d donated $10 to Cyrus’s office or other anti-ICE organizations a photo of herself ($50 got them a video). She’d gotten $5K donated so far, so obviously it was working! JC then noticed Bob getting ready to do something and quickly ended the call, which turned out to be the correct course of action as Bob warned them as she put on a very fancy necklace that she was going to do some powerful magic and they’d better stand back –
Before magically amplifying her voice to let the ICE agents outside know that, thanks to the lovely efforts of some anonymous hackers, she had the full names of several hundred ICE agents. And proceeding to curse them with the inability to cause physical or physiological harm except in self defense, and ill luck, ill health, and ill fortune all their days until such time as they redeemed themselves. Cue her listing off a bunch of names (both fake and real, because apparently C. M. is NOT fucking around) while the ICE agents outside protested that was illegal – but according to Janine, magic was totally legal, and Vet Grampa argued that this probably fell under 2nd Amendment rights anyway. Short ended with the agents looking quite dejected and JC VERY smug.
IV. Some time later, Patrick confirming that the last of the ICE agents were gone from the general, and Bob admitting to JC that she was probably going to have to go home early because she was so drained after cursing all those ICE agents. JC asked her why she didn’t do such a thing earlier when ICE first showed up, or when they murdered Renee good, and Bob explained that they simply didn’t have the names then (David and Asif had needed months to compile that first list), adding that she was sure all the ones she’d just cursed would soon be replaced by new federal agents, and how, powerful as she was, she could not do this every week, she’d be far too exhausted. JC made a frustrated noise, unable to help themselves –
Causing Bob – who, as we might remember, is an experienced war general – giving a long speech about how this was a war of attrition, and they had to use their resources carefully and not throw away the war to win one battle. And how that their only chance to win was to become “unsustainable” – basically, too much of a drain on the current administration’s resources to keep bothering with, when they had other things elsewhere that they needed to deal with. As she put it, this fight was a battle between ICE trying to break the will of the Minnesotan people to resist, and the Minnesotan people trying to break ICE’s will to conquer – and it was going to be a long, slow, ugly process that would result in many losses on their side. But they had to keep pushing back and fighting so that, in the long run, they could win – which meant that they had to conserve their energy and not be as exhausted as she was right now. JC seemed to reluctantly accept that –
And then their phone rang, and they answered it to discover it was Oscar – and he was in jail?! Which, uh, nobody had expected...
V. Patrick going to see Oscar in jail and make sure he was okay – Oscar asked about the “ruckus,” and then, after being assured the CaFae was fine, assured Patrick he just had a bit of a bruise on his knuckles, with the officer keeping an eye on him saying that he really needed to work on his form. Cyrus then showed up, told Oscar to keep quiet, and announced himself as Oscar’s lawyer, asking what he’d been charged with –
Cue the cop saying “officially, assaulting a police officer.” Causing Cyrus to bluescreen and be like “...Oscar? THAT Oscar?” As it turned out, what had happened was that Oscar had ended up flying to the station with the seraph ICE asshole (who unfortunately was ALSO in the station and trying to get the officer to hand Oscar over) and tried to get sanctuary by turning himself in for interfering with an ICE investigation. Only for the officer to inform him that wasn’t a crime and no he didn’t – he’d seen the whole thing and all Oscar had done was blow his whistle.
So Oscar punched the officer so the officer would have a crime to arrest him for. Cyrus’s face during this recounting was a delight, as was Oscar’s embarrassed “I panicked.” XD The seraph ICE agent again tried to get the officer to hand Oscar over, stating that it would help save on paperwork and he knew that he should do the right thing, only for the officer to inform the asshole that he had “protect and serve” written on his badge and that he intended to do just that, even if he never expected to have to protect someone from their own government. The ICE agent tried to insist that was illegal in some way, but Patrick told him, in essence, “No, you have no leg to stand on, get out.” Annoyed, the seraph ICE guy finally left…
Causing Patrick to note, “If was him, I’d hover overhead to watch to see if and when Oscar left the station.” Fortunately, as per the officer, the prosecutor had already thought of that, and while he had no intention of actually pressing charges, they had set up an arraignment for 10 AM tomorrow morning. Cyrus confirmed with Oscar that he was fine staying the night in jail (Oscar: “This place has four walls, a roof, and central heating – I’ve been much worse off”), and the officer called to a colleague, Brown, to get the paperwork –
Only for Brown, a potential demon officer, to turn out to be an ICE sympathizer, who complained about the original officer refusing to press charges and said “if people would just get out of the way and let ICE do their jobs…” The frustrated officer said that he did not have enough coffee in him for that argument, and Cyrus promised to bring him some caffeine and snacks when he brought some for Oscar the next morning. The officer was like “thanks, never thought I’d be GLAD to see a defense attorney” –
And then Patrick sadly had to ruin the bonding moment by getting a call and then telling Cyrus that his clients the Castillo family, the owners of the haunted hotel Jacaranda, were under siege. Because that is just how this season was going. Cut to –
VI. A pair of ICE agents – one in silver shades, one wearing a lower-face-mask – trying to get into the Jacaranda, only finding all the doors locked. A third one, in goofy star shades showed up, saying he’d gotten their call for backup and brought about 20 guys as requested – Silver and Mask explained that the hotel was filled with “Mexicans” and “antifa” and that they needed the help getting inside so they could do their thing. Star asked why they couldn’t plainsclothes it, but Silver explained that the owners kept figuring out who they were and refusing them entry. And then Mask got a call on his phone with a number that was just an eldritch scrawl –
And when he answered it, out came a horrific wailing scream. Star was like “Jesus, why don’t you turn it off?” but Mask explained it WAS off. He and Silver then proceeded to explain that the hotel was rumored to be haunted, and after the shit they’d been through, they were inclined to believe it. Star was dismissive, saying it could be the work of a clever hacker, but Silver and Mask said that didn’t explain stuff like their car tires constantly leaking whenever they showed up here, or ammo and supplies going missing under their noses (or straight out of their pockets). Mask even brought up “the fairy in Bernier” who cursed over 100 guys, and how now so many agents were suffering things like falls resulting in broken bones and losing all the money gambling –
But Star was insistent that “magic is not that powerful” and said they should go find a window to break open, as he had a quota. The trio thus found an empty room and prepared to use a baton on it –
Only for Mask to note that Star’s reflection wasn’t right – it looked like an old “Mexican” guy in a fancy suit. Cue Abuelo lunging out and scaring the crap out of the trio, who fled – then turning to his descendant Beatriz and asking if she got that. “Yup, and it’s definitely going up on YouTube!”
VII. Silver and Mask bitching out Star for his “ghosts aren’t real, magic isn’t that powerful” attitude and Star apologizing, then calling in, of all people, KING HERLA and his Wild Hunt to help them out. Herla was like “I do NOT work for ICE,” but they assured him that they just need his help to get rid of the ghost on the hotel premises –
And then began bitching to him about how the place was owned by “Mexicans” (Herla, coolly: “Guatemalans, its on their website”) and had a Latino staff, who they were pretty sure were mostly illegals. And how the owners had invited all the staff’s families to bunk down in the hotel because it was safer than them staying in the homes (which Mask had to admit was correct – he’d checked out a bunch of houses and apartments under Hispanic names, and they were all empty). And how the church across the street was a real troublemaker, always showing up whenever they tried an assault, even after they raided it themselves one Sunday (Herla, coldly: “You raided. A church. During services.” Mask: “Yeah, that’s when everyone shows up.”). And how the ghost was being mean to them and all they wanted to do was get inside and round up all the Latinos so they could make their quota…
And after all that, Herla calmly told them that the last time he’d seen men like them around, raiding churches and terrorizing those with darker skin than them, they’d been slavers and Klansmen. Followed by him ordering his men to surround the hotel, prevent the ICE assholes from getting inside, and to NOT harm the ghost. XD Like, dudes. How did you THINK that was going to go?!
VIII. And finally, Herla knocking on the door and asking to speak with current matriarch Maria Castillo – Abuelo was initially rather hesitant to let him anywhere near his family, but Herla assured him he came unarmed, and – when confronted about speaking to the ICE agents – reiterating that he considered them modern-day slavers. And, when Maria showed up and regarded him suspiciously, adding that he was a friend of Jonathon and Cyrus. That got him inside –
Where Beatriz immediately began squeeing over having the King Herla and his Wild Hunt around, as she’d done a video about them in the past. XD Herla informed her that he’d heard from Jonathon, who had confirmed there were many storytellers in the family – and one soldier; Maria confirmed that her Juan the Marine had been instrumental in keeping ICE out along with Abuelo. Beatriz then asked if Herla couldn’t use his kingly authority to order ICE to leave, but Herla explained that said authority only extended to his hunters, who had sworn their swords to him – in all other ways, he was only king in name. He then praised the family for holding up so well under siege, and asked where they were getting their food – Maria explained that ICE didn’t watch them 24/7, and that they’d asked the delivery drivers to take their food to the church across the way (if able). Basically, whenever ICE fucked off for a bit, the churchgoers would then deliver their meals, which Herla admitted was smart. He then explained that, unfortunately, he couldn’t stay here forever with his various hunters – they had a very important job hunting down supernatural entities across the state, and on top of that, only two of his people were actually US citizens. Meaning, if the situation escalated, which it was likely to do, he was going to have to prioritize their safety over the Castillos’. Maria assured him that they didn’t expect them to risk their own life and liberty for their sake –
But Herla said that he could offer them the one American-born hunter he had who was also a witch. Mostly because he’d guessed that they’d been using a witch of their own to power up Abuelo’s powers – Maria confirmed that, saying that they’d been arrested and were now God knows were – so now his hunter could take over the duty. And he promised that he wouldn’t recall them unless it was absolutely necessary. Beatriz was extremely excited about getting a hunter witch –
And Maria asked how many hunters Herla had in the area – and when he told her and asked why, said that none of them were leaving with empty bellies. Herla said fine, but they would be paying for the meal. :)
And there we had it! Whew – long compilation, but a good one. I love seeing these characters give ICE shit – though I think my favorite of the lot was the “Oscar In Jail” one, just because of Cyrus’s constant bluescreening over what had happened. XD Though Bob’s wicked little smile as she realized ICE was coming for her and thus she could retaliate was excellent too. I will admit to some confusion, though, as I’d swear I saw popping up in the YouTube Shorts section of my Recommended some shorts Chris did of Erik meeting Oscar at the food shelf – when are those going to be collected? Did I somehow miss that compilation? I guess we’ll find out later…
...yeah, you see why I couldn't do all that last night. Especially with the time shift. *sigh* Anyway, talk to you all this evening, where hopefully I WON'T be staying up half the night doing write-ups...
no subject
Date: 2026-03-09 03:39 am (UTC)Part one: https://youtube.com/shorts/2k-GQ1a2yhU?si=WfQG6eC-ETTj1wdv
Part two: https://youtube.com/shorts/W29Cc3ITuNc?si=SwBFcy5VEsLAUUSH
Part three: https://youtube.com/shorts/6CXpNDFpuIQ?si=xqDC7qqc5vm7bSdN
Part four: https://youtube.com/shorts/vfet3q5y7_Q?si=AadsYBdmgHr41h3b
I gave the YouTube links instead of the TikTok links since I know you don't have a TT.
no subject
Date: 2026-03-09 03:52 am (UTC)