Periodial Sunday
Mar. 8th, 2026 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickYes, as documented in my update to yesterday's now-completed entry, it appears part of the reason I failed to complete my write-ups in time yesterday was because my period was nigh -- it showed up around 11 AM this morning, the bastard. >( Fortunately I heeded my body's warning signals last night and put a pad in, meaning there was no ruining of clothes, but still -- bleeh. I hate this time of the month and how it fucks up my brain, I seriously do. *shakehead* At least it'll be all over with by NEXT weekend...
Anyway. Between dealing with the red curse and spending a not-inconsiderable amount of today finishing off my recounting of yesterday's activities, I ended up having a relatively lazy Sunday, only accomplishing a couple of things of note:
Baldur’s Gate III: Welp – because I was all period-y today, and because I really wanted to get that special extra moment with Gale that I missed when I did his special “channeling the Weave together” cutscene yesterday, I went back into BG3 this afternoon and – after confirming that I did not have any other quicksaves available from before I’d done the cutscene (just one from after) – replayed yesterday’s session from Smiler and company raiding the harpy next to the morning after the Weave channeling. And while it went mostly the same as yesterday’s write-up, there were a few little fun differences and extras:
A) First, when I sent everyone over to the Harpy Nest to raid it, there was two bones in there with the rest of the treasure, not just one! XD Not that Smiler picked up either, granted… But yeah, they were able to grab all the same stuff they got yesterday, notes and journals and jewelry and snacks – and this time, I had Smiler equip the Ring of Colour Spray after picking it up so they’d have the spell ready to use next time there was close-quarters trouble. Might as well!
B) Second, while I was able to trigger both the “how would you punish someone who had wronged you, Lae’zel?” banter between Shadowheart and Lae’zel, and the “Have you heard of a vampire named Cazador, Wyll?” banter between Astarion, Wyll, and Gale, it took a bit more walking around than before to get them to start chatting. Though I suspect this was just the result of me being overly cautious about missing out on the conversations, as both triggered in roughly the same spots as they did before – it just took me longer to get to said spots because I was moving more slowly and wandering around the general area more in an attempt to encourage them to talk (especially Astarion, Wyll, and Gale). At least while I was doing so, I was also able to confirm that the developers actually took the time to animate the characters’ mouths moving when they chatted to each other like this – despite the fact that, when you’re actually in the world and not part of a cutscene, you’re mostly going to be seeing your party from a bird’s-eye overhead view unless you take the time to zoom in. And even then, you’re not going to get THAT close. *shakehead* Really did not expect that attention to detail! Gotta say you did a good job there, Larian.
C) Third, when I sent everyone back to the Wilderness Camp after triggering all the party banter, I had Smiler do all their alchemy stuff again – except, this time, after making their Feather Fall potion (which they still only got one of), I decided to have them make some Oil of Accuracy (which is a coating you can put on your weapon to get +2 to all attack rolls for ten turns in combat with that weapon) as well! Mostly because they had the ingredients and I thought it might be a nice gift for Wyll. :) So they combined their Ashes Of Daggerroot and Salts Of Rogue’s Morsel in the Alchemy screen –
AND PASSED THE MEDICINE CHECK! :D Which meant they got a bonus Oil of Accuracy! Hooray, it finally happened! The mod was worth it! XD So now maybe I’ll have Smiler give one to Wyll, and perhaps one to someone else! Maybe Lae’zel? We’ll see…
D) Fourth, when I ended the day and sent Smiler over to Gale to repeat the “channeling the Weave” cutscene:
I. I discovered that you can actually see Gale looking at his little projection of Mystra’s head in the camp before triggering the cutscene – he’s standing staring at it right outside his tent:
I wasn’t really paying attention to anything but the little “!” over his head before, so that was a neat detail to catch! Again, Larian, must give you credit.
II. Smiler ended up absolutely smashing the Insight roll to get Gale to open up about why he was looking at a conjured bust of Mystra AND the Dexterity (Performance) check to imitate Gale’s magical gesture in this version of the scene, getting a nat 20 on both! :D Though, hilariously, they did a bit worse on the incantation roll this time, getting a 5 on the initial roll that improved to 10 with their bonuses. But as the DC to beat was only 5, they still fully succeeded in adding their little flourishes to everything Gale did. :p Granted, I’m not sure if the in-game animations bore Smiler’s excellent dice rolls out:
They really do look like they’re just catching a bug there, don’t they? I may have accused Gale’s gesture of looking a bit goofy yesterday, but Smiler’s is definitely the more awkward of the two. XD But we’ll cut them a break – according to my own backstory, they’re actually still quite new to being a spellcaster.
III. And, of course, this time around, when the Narrator said “The Weave connects you. The moment feels intimate,” I had Smiler choose to hold onto the moment, as it was a good night for intimacy, prompting her to then reveal, “You realize the Weave is making you one. You have but to imagine your desire, and Gale will know it” –
And giving Smiler a few options of scenes to pick from! Some of course being quite romantic – kissing Gale, or going on a nice walk with him hand-in-hand – and some being, uh, anything but – kicking him in the gut or putting his head on a spike. O.O I, uh, guess those ones are for the “evil” players. The sole “platonic friends” one, though, was actually a perfect fit for Smiler – “Picture a hearty meal with Gale, food and friendship flowing between you.” :) That is exactly the kind of thing they’d want to do with a bestie. Though I’m very sorry to say that this didn’t actually affect the end of the cutscene – the Weave still dissolved, and the night still felt cold and lonesome afterward. Aw. :( Maybe only the Galemancers get a nicer end to the cutscene! (Or maybe not, as the page on Gale’s romance indicates that, since he’s still pining over his lost goddess ex, he’s kind of awkward when the subject of romance with the player character comes up during this scene…)
E) Fifth, after completing the cutscene, saying a quick “hi” to Wyll to see if he had anything new to say (he did not), trimming the party, and heading to bed, I swear I heard someone snoring during the brief cutscene that plays showing the four “main” party members sleeping by the fire. XD Don’t know who it was, but it was pretty amusing!
F) And sixth, after getting up the next morning, restoring the party to its full size, and redoing the “didn’t know it was so easy to cast magic” conversation with Gale (because I couldn’t skip that), I briefly went into Party Inventory Mode and had Smiler send the Polished Dagger they found near some of the bones of the harpies’ victims to Astarion, and had him equip it. Because why shouldn’t he get a shiny shiny dagger to go with his fancy Needle Of The Outlaw Rogue? :p I debated sending the Nature’s Snare staff Astarion was carrying back over to Smiler, since I’ve been debating if they should start using a quarterstaff as their main weapon, but decided against it – I’m not sure that one is really SMILER. I’ll wait until I find the staff that one of my equipment mods was supposed to have put in the world that helps boost (among other thing) Psychic damage.
And I left off pretty much right where I left off yesterday, with the morning castings having been completed and everyone ready to hit the road again! Next time, we play properly, and get Smiler and company on the path to meeting Karlach! Got a lot of cutscenes with her to catch up on, I’m sure! As a parting gift, have another smiling Smiler in the middle of Gale teaching them magic:
They are cute. :)
Workout: Welp – Jon did not have the latest episode of his F:NV YOLO Remastered series up in time for my workout, nor did he upload it during the “grace period” I gave him at the very beginning by watching a very short video I spotted in my Recommendeds. So today’s session saw me instead pedal my way through:
A) The entirety of “OK Go - Upside Down & Inside Out BTS - How We Did It” by OK Go! The “grace period” video, this was five-and-a-half minutes of two members of the band, Damien Kulash and Tim Nordwind, along with the director, Trish Sie, talking about how they made the iconic “zero gravity” music video for their song “Upside Down & Inside Out!” Basically, the video was filmed in a special plane that did regular parabolas up and down on its flight path, resulting in 20 seconds of double gravity as they went up, 27 seconds of zero gravity as they went over the hump, then 20 seconds of double gravity again as they came back down. In order to fit all the music video stuff into the little bits of zero gravity time that they had, they chopped up the song into 21-second chunks, then slowed the playback about 28% to take up the full 27 seconds. Every time they came up to a zero-gravity section in their flight, the pilot would give a signal, relayed through their cosmonaut trainer (as this was all being done in Moscow), to the sound guy, and he would turn the music on, and they’d do the right chunk of the routine for the song. Then they’d sit down and wait the four-to-five minutes to do the next section. Once everything was filmed and everyone was happy, the video was then sped up and all the “waiting” bits chopped out to give the illusion of a single-shot routine. It was apparently pretty grueling – the band members had to be trained out of automatically trying to “swim” in zero G, and the crew kept throwing up because they didn’t want to wear the anti-nausea patches the band members were wearing – but everyone was pretty happy that they managed to get it done and produce a cool video. Given that “Upside Down & Inside Out” is both one of my favorite songs AND one of my favorite music videos from the band, I’m glad they managed to get it done too.
B) And the first 28 minutes of “Baldur's Gate 3 Cast play D&D #2 | High Rollers Presents: Shadows of Athkatla!” Because if I couldn’t have The Adventures Of P. D. Shoot in “Dead Money,” I could at least have The Adventures Of The BG3 Companions in “The City Of Coin!” (I guess this officially makes this a BG3 weekend!) After the requisite ad for the game, everyone reintroducing themselves, and a recap of what happened last episode, the two-shot resumed with the companions exploring Athkatla for the source of the horrible dark magic that was trying to take over poor Tav’s mind and body, and featured:
I. Astarion and Karlach arriving at the docks district (which was quite massive, cut off from the rest of the city by big stone walls, and featured not only the usual masses of ships and traders going about their business loading and unloading and moving wares, but also a good amount of high-class housing – who knew that the docks would be the place to live?) – just in time to see a dwarven teenage girl in a purple cloak parkouring across the nearby rooftops, keeping one step ahead of the city guards that were chasing her. Unfortunately, as she attempted to make good her escape, she ended up misstepping and crashing to the ground, twisting her ankle and leaving her easy pickings for the guards. She got up and hobbled around, asking for help as the locals did their best to ignore her, not wanting trouble –
But luckily for her, Astarion saw her and was like “opportunity to get on a local thief’s good side!” He thus caught Karlach’s eye and indicated through some exaggerated gestures that she should take the thief and help her hide, then prepared to go intercept the guards, shooting the thief a quick message in Thieves’ Cant sign language to “go with my friend, she can help” as he passed. The thief replied in sign that “I don’t trust you, but I don’t have any choice either” – Astarion shot her a cheeky “good luck” middle finger, and she returned it before limping toward Karlach. Astarion thus swanned toward the incoming guards, putting on a show of being noble and thus above any mere city watchmen. Mark the DM gave Neil (Astarion’s player/voice actor) the choice of rolling Deception or Performance to sell being a noble, or Acrobatics to pull off bumping into them while making it look like they bumped into him – Neil went with Acrobatics, as Astarion had a nice high bonus for that (+5) –
AND, for good measure, enhanced it by using the Minor Illusion cantrip granted to him by being a High Elf to create an illusionary seagull named Jim to swoop down on them. Mark agreed this would definitely make the guards duck (he lives in Bristol, he KNOWS seagulls will just suddenly come at you), and told Neil to roll with Advantage –
And cue Neil getting a dirty 20! He and the guards thus collided, and the female half of the pair nearly told him off until she saw how Astarion was dressed and holding himself and thought “ooooh shit.” XD Astarion promptly started making a fuss about how his fancy clothes were from NEVERWINTER and were NEARLY IRREPLACEABLE – the male guard hastily apologized to him and explained they’d been chasing a thief. Astarion was like “what thief?” and gestured around –
Causing Mark to rewind time slightly to when Karlach was approached by the thief and asked what the plan was. Having had a look around the dock for potential hiding places for the kid, Karlach decided she did not want to stuff the poor girl into a smell basket that had previously held very oily eels and instead ripped the top off a nearby crate so the girl could hop inside. Fortunately it was filled with soft silks, so the girl was very easily able to scramble in, and Karlach slammed down the lid and sat herself upon it just as the guards looked over, doing various possibly-too-innocent-looking poses. XD Fortunately, the guards were pretty flustered after bumping into Astarion and didn’t see anything suspicious about this. Astarion detained them a moment more by pretending to write down their names and badge numbers and warning them not to bump into him again, then finally let them go so they could get about their business. Mark then flipped POVs to –
II. Gale and Wyll talking at the city gates (Gale just having stealthily cast Detect Magic down an alleyway to see if he could sense the evil magic anywhere – no dice, but he had ten minutes to work with; Wyll having just read through Volo’s guide to the city and found some actually-useful information about the three major powers in charge), and Wyll telling Gale that, according to the guide, they probably wanted to start by talking to the Cowled Wizards. This required them to go over the grand bridge that spanned the river running through the middle of the city, so they headed through the River District and, after paying a toll, onto the bridge –
Where they discovered a grand temple to the goddess of beauty and love, Sune, and what looked like some sort of festival going on outside. Getting closer revealed it was a bunch of people getting their hair cut and having their makeup done, apparently in honor of it being the Day Of The Adoring Eye. One of the priestesses of the temple, a lovely elven woman in a flowing gown, approached them and asked if they’d like to partake of the temple’s services, as everything was free today in honor of the holiday, or if she could help them in any other way –
And Wyll politely asked if she could maybe point them in the direction of the Cowled Wizards. Causing the woman to blanch, but she did tell him that the Cowled Wizards made their home in the government district...but that they’d shut the doors to all visitors, so Wyll was unlikely to see any of them. She asked if the matter was important, and Wyll confirmed it was, adding that he had money if that would help get him any more information –
Causing Gale to be like “Uh, hold on a minute, Wyll, let’s not go STRAIGHT into open bribery…” His player Tim’s initial intention was to be like “let me see if I can do some magic to help encourage her to share more info” (Devora, Lae’zel’s player, noted that Tim had LOADS of spell cards, and everyone started joking about how Tim wanted to USE them damn it XD), but then he remembered he still had Detect Magic active and asked if he was getting anything from that. And Mark confirmed he was, saying that he could tell that there were enchantments and illusion spells all over the temple, and all over the people working there, including the priestess they were currently talking to. Basically, it seemed everyone was more or less glamoured to look as perfect as possible (though Mark did stress there were a wide variety of body types on display, as well as multiple genders). So Gale’s interjection became more about getting Wyll to back off because things weren’t quite as they seemed, and that something wasn’t right. As it turned out, though, the priestess was fine with sharing what she knew, no bribe required – basically, the Cowled Wizards had shut their doors about a week ago, coinciding with a rash of abductions and disappearances throughout the city. The temple itself had lost a priestess! People were trying to get the Wizards to look for the lost, but they insisted they were very busy with some experiments…
And then the priestess turned to Gale and asked what was that about things not being right? Gale, thinking quickly, claimed that he’d been talking about his hair, and that he really needed a trim – “just the split ends,” he assured the woman when she was like, “Oh, you can’t want to cut such a gorgeous mane!” He promptly tried to sweet-talk her into thinking he wanted the temple’s services – “You do YOUR magic!” – and Mark called for a Deception skill check. Though with Advantage, because he loved that line. XD Gale’s best roll was a 14, and Mark had the priestess make an Insight check in response…
Aaand she fluffed it so bad she was immediately taken in. XD In fact, she decided that Gale, with his lovely hair and regal bearing, deserved to be a VIP and said she’d be personally happy to attend to his needs – giving him a nice rinse, a facial scrub, all of that. Gale kindly made sure that the rather confused Wyll was a part of that deal, and she led them inside to get a lovely spa treatment! With the option of talking to the other attendants to get more information for their mission, if they so chose.
And that’s where I left it, with Gale and Wyll getting the full spa experience (Gale: “We did very well in coming this way”), and Mark preparing to move the camera to Shadowheart and Lae’zel going through The Bhaalspawn Experience (Abbreviated) with Bing Bong! We’ll pick up with that tomorrow –
And as for P. D. Shoot, we’ll catch up with the latest episode of her antics at the end of the week. Because I finally spotted the next F:NV YOLO Remastered episode in the recommended videos this evening – and it proved to be an hour long, meaning I had no chance of watching it tonight. Especially not given my period’s brain foggery. Better to wait and give it a proper shot later!
Other: Answered a couple of nice comments I got on “The Van Dort Vacancy” yesterday – it’s always encouraging to get some on the Valicer In The Dark stuff! Especially when the commenter says they’re really eager for the next bit, and I can tell them that the next chapter should be coming out by the end of the week (even if it isn’t the heist one that they were hoping for, but the one just BEFORE that XD).
Yeaaaah, far from my most productive day, but -- fuck it, on my period, feeling generally kinda blah about the world. Getting that extra Oil Of Accuracy and confirming Smiler's "besties" status with Gale made me happy, damn it -- as did watching the BG3 players continue their D&D shenanigans. And answering those comments. And now I'm going to go to bed. Hopefully tomorrow will be a decent day -- keep your fingers crossed! Night all!
Anyway. Between dealing with the red curse and spending a not-inconsiderable amount of today finishing off my recounting of yesterday's activities, I ended up having a relatively lazy Sunday, only accomplishing a couple of things of note:
Baldur’s Gate III: Welp – because I was all period-y today, and because I really wanted to get that special extra moment with Gale that I missed when I did his special “channeling the Weave together” cutscene yesterday, I went back into BG3 this afternoon and – after confirming that I did not have any other quicksaves available from before I’d done the cutscene (just one from after) – replayed yesterday’s session from Smiler and company raiding the harpy next to the morning after the Weave channeling. And while it went mostly the same as yesterday’s write-up, there were a few little fun differences and extras:
A) First, when I sent everyone over to the Harpy Nest to raid it, there was two bones in there with the rest of the treasure, not just one! XD Not that Smiler picked up either, granted… But yeah, they were able to grab all the same stuff they got yesterday, notes and journals and jewelry and snacks – and this time, I had Smiler equip the Ring of Colour Spray after picking it up so they’d have the spell ready to use next time there was close-quarters trouble. Might as well!
B) Second, while I was able to trigger both the “how would you punish someone who had wronged you, Lae’zel?” banter between Shadowheart and Lae’zel, and the “Have you heard of a vampire named Cazador, Wyll?” banter between Astarion, Wyll, and Gale, it took a bit more walking around than before to get them to start chatting. Though I suspect this was just the result of me being overly cautious about missing out on the conversations, as both triggered in roughly the same spots as they did before – it just took me longer to get to said spots because I was moving more slowly and wandering around the general area more in an attempt to encourage them to talk (especially Astarion, Wyll, and Gale). At least while I was doing so, I was also able to confirm that the developers actually took the time to animate the characters’ mouths moving when they chatted to each other like this – despite the fact that, when you’re actually in the world and not part of a cutscene, you’re mostly going to be seeing your party from a bird’s-eye overhead view unless you take the time to zoom in. And even then, you’re not going to get THAT close. *shakehead* Really did not expect that attention to detail! Gotta say you did a good job there, Larian.
C) Third, when I sent everyone back to the Wilderness Camp after triggering all the party banter, I had Smiler do all their alchemy stuff again – except, this time, after making their Feather Fall potion (which they still only got one of), I decided to have them make some Oil of Accuracy (which is a coating you can put on your weapon to get +2 to all attack rolls for ten turns in combat with that weapon) as well! Mostly because they had the ingredients and I thought it might be a nice gift for Wyll. :) So they combined their Ashes Of Daggerroot and Salts Of Rogue’s Morsel in the Alchemy screen –
AND PASSED THE MEDICINE CHECK! :D Which meant they got a bonus Oil of Accuracy! Hooray, it finally happened! The mod was worth it! XD So now maybe I’ll have Smiler give one to Wyll, and perhaps one to someone else! Maybe Lae’zel? We’ll see…
D) Fourth, when I ended the day and sent Smiler over to Gale to repeat the “channeling the Weave” cutscene:
I. I discovered that you can actually see Gale looking at his little projection of Mystra’s head in the camp before triggering the cutscene – he’s standing staring at it right outside his tent:
I wasn’t really paying attention to anything but the little “!” over his head before, so that was a neat detail to catch! Again, Larian, must give you credit.
II. Smiler ended up absolutely smashing the Insight roll to get Gale to open up about why he was looking at a conjured bust of Mystra AND the Dexterity (Performance) check to imitate Gale’s magical gesture in this version of the scene, getting a nat 20 on both! :D Though, hilariously, they did a bit worse on the incantation roll this time, getting a 5 on the initial roll that improved to 10 with their bonuses. But as the DC to beat was only 5, they still fully succeeded in adding their little flourishes to everything Gale did. :p Granted, I’m not sure if the in-game animations bore Smiler’s excellent dice rolls out:
They really do look like they’re just catching a bug there, don’t they? I may have accused Gale’s gesture of looking a bit goofy yesterday, but Smiler’s is definitely the more awkward of the two. XD But we’ll cut them a break – according to my own backstory, they’re actually still quite new to being a spellcaster.
III. And, of course, this time around, when the Narrator said “The Weave connects you. The moment feels intimate,” I had Smiler choose to hold onto the moment, as it was a good night for intimacy, prompting her to then reveal, “You realize the Weave is making you one. You have but to imagine your desire, and Gale will know it” –
And giving Smiler a few options of scenes to pick from! Some of course being quite romantic – kissing Gale, or going on a nice walk with him hand-in-hand – and some being, uh, anything but – kicking him in the gut or putting his head on a spike. O.O I, uh, guess those ones are for the “evil” players. The sole “platonic friends” one, though, was actually a perfect fit for Smiler – “Picture a hearty meal with Gale, food and friendship flowing between you.” :) That is exactly the kind of thing they’d want to do with a bestie. Though I’m very sorry to say that this didn’t actually affect the end of the cutscene – the Weave still dissolved, and the night still felt cold and lonesome afterward. Aw. :( Maybe only the Galemancers get a nicer end to the cutscene! (Or maybe not, as the page on Gale’s romance indicates that, since he’s still pining over his lost goddess ex, he’s kind of awkward when the subject of romance with the player character comes up during this scene…)
E) Fifth, after completing the cutscene, saying a quick “hi” to Wyll to see if he had anything new to say (he did not), trimming the party, and heading to bed, I swear I heard someone snoring during the brief cutscene that plays showing the four “main” party members sleeping by the fire. XD Don’t know who it was, but it was pretty amusing!
F) And sixth, after getting up the next morning, restoring the party to its full size, and redoing the “didn’t know it was so easy to cast magic” conversation with Gale (because I couldn’t skip that), I briefly went into Party Inventory Mode and had Smiler send the Polished Dagger they found near some of the bones of the harpies’ victims to Astarion, and had him equip it. Because why shouldn’t he get a shiny shiny dagger to go with his fancy Needle Of The Outlaw Rogue? :p I debated sending the Nature’s Snare staff Astarion was carrying back over to Smiler, since I’ve been debating if they should start using a quarterstaff as their main weapon, but decided against it – I’m not sure that one is really SMILER. I’ll wait until I find the staff that one of my equipment mods was supposed to have put in the world that helps boost (among other thing) Psychic damage.
And I left off pretty much right where I left off yesterday, with the morning castings having been completed and everyone ready to hit the road again! Next time, we play properly, and get Smiler and company on the path to meeting Karlach! Got a lot of cutscenes with her to catch up on, I’m sure! As a parting gift, have another smiling Smiler in the middle of Gale teaching them magic:
They are cute. :)
Workout: Welp – Jon did not have the latest episode of his F:NV YOLO Remastered series up in time for my workout, nor did he upload it during the “grace period” I gave him at the very beginning by watching a very short video I spotted in my Recommendeds. So today’s session saw me instead pedal my way through:
A) The entirety of “OK Go - Upside Down & Inside Out BTS - How We Did It” by OK Go! The “grace period” video, this was five-and-a-half minutes of two members of the band, Damien Kulash and Tim Nordwind, along with the director, Trish Sie, talking about how they made the iconic “zero gravity” music video for their song “Upside Down & Inside Out!” Basically, the video was filmed in a special plane that did regular parabolas up and down on its flight path, resulting in 20 seconds of double gravity as they went up, 27 seconds of zero gravity as they went over the hump, then 20 seconds of double gravity again as they came back down. In order to fit all the music video stuff into the little bits of zero gravity time that they had, they chopped up the song into 21-second chunks, then slowed the playback about 28% to take up the full 27 seconds. Every time they came up to a zero-gravity section in their flight, the pilot would give a signal, relayed through their cosmonaut trainer (as this was all being done in Moscow), to the sound guy, and he would turn the music on, and they’d do the right chunk of the routine for the song. Then they’d sit down and wait the four-to-five minutes to do the next section. Once everything was filmed and everyone was happy, the video was then sped up and all the “waiting” bits chopped out to give the illusion of a single-shot routine. It was apparently pretty grueling – the band members had to be trained out of automatically trying to “swim” in zero G, and the crew kept throwing up because they didn’t want to wear the anti-nausea patches the band members were wearing – but everyone was pretty happy that they managed to get it done and produce a cool video. Given that “Upside Down & Inside Out” is both one of my favorite songs AND one of my favorite music videos from the band, I’m glad they managed to get it done too.
B) And the first 28 minutes of “Baldur's Gate 3 Cast play D&D #2 | High Rollers Presents: Shadows of Athkatla!” Because if I couldn’t have The Adventures Of P. D. Shoot in “Dead Money,” I could at least have The Adventures Of The BG3 Companions in “The City Of Coin!” (I guess this officially makes this a BG3 weekend!) After the requisite ad for the game, everyone reintroducing themselves, and a recap of what happened last episode, the two-shot resumed with the companions exploring Athkatla for the source of the horrible dark magic that was trying to take over poor Tav’s mind and body, and featured:
I. Astarion and Karlach arriving at the docks district (which was quite massive, cut off from the rest of the city by big stone walls, and featured not only the usual masses of ships and traders going about their business loading and unloading and moving wares, but also a good amount of high-class housing – who knew that the docks would be the place to live?) – just in time to see a dwarven teenage girl in a purple cloak parkouring across the nearby rooftops, keeping one step ahead of the city guards that were chasing her. Unfortunately, as she attempted to make good her escape, she ended up misstepping and crashing to the ground, twisting her ankle and leaving her easy pickings for the guards. She got up and hobbled around, asking for help as the locals did their best to ignore her, not wanting trouble –
But luckily for her, Astarion saw her and was like “opportunity to get on a local thief’s good side!” He thus caught Karlach’s eye and indicated through some exaggerated gestures that she should take the thief and help her hide, then prepared to go intercept the guards, shooting the thief a quick message in Thieves’ Cant sign language to “go with my friend, she can help” as he passed. The thief replied in sign that “I don’t trust you, but I don’t have any choice either” – Astarion shot her a cheeky “good luck” middle finger, and she returned it before limping toward Karlach. Astarion thus swanned toward the incoming guards, putting on a show of being noble and thus above any mere city watchmen. Mark the DM gave Neil (Astarion’s player/voice actor) the choice of rolling Deception or Performance to sell being a noble, or Acrobatics to pull off bumping into them while making it look like they bumped into him – Neil went with Acrobatics, as Astarion had a nice high bonus for that (+5) –
AND, for good measure, enhanced it by using the Minor Illusion cantrip granted to him by being a High Elf to create an illusionary seagull named Jim to swoop down on them. Mark agreed this would definitely make the guards duck (he lives in Bristol, he KNOWS seagulls will just suddenly come at you), and told Neil to roll with Advantage –
And cue Neil getting a dirty 20! He and the guards thus collided, and the female half of the pair nearly told him off until she saw how Astarion was dressed and holding himself and thought “ooooh shit.” XD Astarion promptly started making a fuss about how his fancy clothes were from NEVERWINTER and were NEARLY IRREPLACEABLE – the male guard hastily apologized to him and explained they’d been chasing a thief. Astarion was like “what thief?” and gestured around –
Causing Mark to rewind time slightly to when Karlach was approached by the thief and asked what the plan was. Having had a look around the dock for potential hiding places for the kid, Karlach decided she did not want to stuff the poor girl into a smell basket that had previously held very oily eels and instead ripped the top off a nearby crate so the girl could hop inside. Fortunately it was filled with soft silks, so the girl was very easily able to scramble in, and Karlach slammed down the lid and sat herself upon it just as the guards looked over, doing various possibly-too-innocent-looking poses. XD Fortunately, the guards were pretty flustered after bumping into Astarion and didn’t see anything suspicious about this. Astarion detained them a moment more by pretending to write down their names and badge numbers and warning them not to bump into him again, then finally let them go so they could get about their business. Mark then flipped POVs to –
II. Gale and Wyll talking at the city gates (Gale just having stealthily cast Detect Magic down an alleyway to see if he could sense the evil magic anywhere – no dice, but he had ten minutes to work with; Wyll having just read through Volo’s guide to the city and found some actually-useful information about the three major powers in charge), and Wyll telling Gale that, according to the guide, they probably wanted to start by talking to the Cowled Wizards. This required them to go over the grand bridge that spanned the river running through the middle of the city, so they headed through the River District and, after paying a toll, onto the bridge –
Where they discovered a grand temple to the goddess of beauty and love, Sune, and what looked like some sort of festival going on outside. Getting closer revealed it was a bunch of people getting their hair cut and having their makeup done, apparently in honor of it being the Day Of The Adoring Eye. One of the priestesses of the temple, a lovely elven woman in a flowing gown, approached them and asked if they’d like to partake of the temple’s services, as everything was free today in honor of the holiday, or if she could help them in any other way –
And Wyll politely asked if she could maybe point them in the direction of the Cowled Wizards. Causing the woman to blanch, but she did tell him that the Cowled Wizards made their home in the government district...but that they’d shut the doors to all visitors, so Wyll was unlikely to see any of them. She asked if the matter was important, and Wyll confirmed it was, adding that he had money if that would help get him any more information –
Causing Gale to be like “Uh, hold on a minute, Wyll, let’s not go STRAIGHT into open bribery…” His player Tim’s initial intention was to be like “let me see if I can do some magic to help encourage her to share more info” (Devora, Lae’zel’s player, noted that Tim had LOADS of spell cards, and everyone started joking about how Tim wanted to USE them damn it XD), but then he remembered he still had Detect Magic active and asked if he was getting anything from that. And Mark confirmed he was, saying that he could tell that there were enchantments and illusion spells all over the temple, and all over the people working there, including the priestess they were currently talking to. Basically, it seemed everyone was more or less glamoured to look as perfect as possible (though Mark did stress there were a wide variety of body types on display, as well as multiple genders). So Gale’s interjection became more about getting Wyll to back off because things weren’t quite as they seemed, and that something wasn’t right. As it turned out, though, the priestess was fine with sharing what she knew, no bribe required – basically, the Cowled Wizards had shut their doors about a week ago, coinciding with a rash of abductions and disappearances throughout the city. The temple itself had lost a priestess! People were trying to get the Wizards to look for the lost, but they insisted they were very busy with some experiments…
And then the priestess turned to Gale and asked what was that about things not being right? Gale, thinking quickly, claimed that he’d been talking about his hair, and that he really needed a trim – “just the split ends,” he assured the woman when she was like, “Oh, you can’t want to cut such a gorgeous mane!” He promptly tried to sweet-talk her into thinking he wanted the temple’s services – “You do YOUR magic!” – and Mark called for a Deception skill check. Though with Advantage, because he loved that line. XD Gale’s best roll was a 14, and Mark had the priestess make an Insight check in response…
Aaand she fluffed it so bad she was immediately taken in. XD In fact, she decided that Gale, with his lovely hair and regal bearing, deserved to be a VIP and said she’d be personally happy to attend to his needs – giving him a nice rinse, a facial scrub, all of that. Gale kindly made sure that the rather confused Wyll was a part of that deal, and she led them inside to get a lovely spa treatment! With the option of talking to the other attendants to get more information for their mission, if they so chose.
And that’s where I left it, with Gale and Wyll getting the full spa experience (Gale: “We did very well in coming this way”), and Mark preparing to move the camera to Shadowheart and Lae’zel going through The Bhaalspawn Experience (Abbreviated) with Bing Bong! We’ll pick up with that tomorrow –
And as for P. D. Shoot, we’ll catch up with the latest episode of her antics at the end of the week. Because I finally spotted the next F:NV YOLO Remastered episode in the recommended videos this evening – and it proved to be an hour long, meaning I had no chance of watching it tonight. Especially not given my period’s brain foggery. Better to wait and give it a proper shot later!
Other: Answered a couple of nice comments I got on “The Van Dort Vacancy” yesterday – it’s always encouraging to get some on the Valicer In The Dark stuff! Especially when the commenter says they’re really eager for the next bit, and I can tell them that the next chapter should be coming out by the end of the week (even if it isn’t the heist one that they were hoping for, but the one just BEFORE that XD).
Yeaaaah, far from my most productive day, but -- fuck it, on my period, feeling generally kinda blah about the world. Getting that extra Oil Of Accuracy and confirming Smiler's "besties" status with Gale made me happy, damn it -- as did watching the BG3 players continue their D&D shenanigans. And answering those comments. And now I'm going to go to bed. Hopefully tomorrow will be a decent day -- keep your fingers crossed! Night all!
