Extremely Periody FRIDAY
Apr. 3rd, 2026 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickYeah, my period showed up right before I went to bed this morning (around 2 AM -- fortunately it was one of those "polite" ones that didn't actually stain my clothes), so I spent the day battling the usual fogginess and "blahs" that tend to accompany it. Didn't help that my parents ended up coming back from Dad's chemo appointment earlier than I anticipated (meaning I was still in the middle of dressing when Dad started knocking on the back door to be let in -- fortunately all I needed to do was put on a shirt, so I shoved on my pajama top again), which led to us having lunch earlier than expected (Mom brought home some fried chicken from one of the local grocery stores -- which turned out to be REALLY shitty, all dried out and mostly breading), which threw off the entire schedule of my day. *sigh* So, as a result, I didn't work on anything on tumblr, and I didn't watch my OXBox list video. Meh. >( But I did get to the following:
Writing: Got about a page and a half edited on Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” after lunch today, which is really good given I was dealing with the first day of my period today and that generally does shit things to my concentration and whatnot. Today’s edits covered:
A) Alice telling Victor about the whole mess with Pisha – explaining what a Nagaraja even is, how Pisha’s sloppy slaughter of an entire camera crew led to Alice being allowed to deal with her as she wished, and how their fight ended with Pisha accidentally stumbling into her own mystical fire. Victor assured her that she didn’t have to give any details and offered his sympathies for her having to see that, especially given what happened to her last night – Alice replied that she managed to keep her head better this time (possibly because the flames were mystical, because it was regular fire that fucked up her life when she was a child), but that she would indeed like to move on before thinking about all of it too hard triggered another crying breakdown in the shower. Causing Carpenter to note that, if she wanted, she could instead have a crying breakdown on the couch, as he was sure Victor wouldn’t mind helping her through it – Alice informed him that, no, the idea was that she didn’t want to have another breakdown at all. And if she did, she did want it to be in the shower, as it would be easier to clean up...and wouldn’t trigger Victor to realize her tears were blood, causing him to possibly forget himself and start licking her face. ...Even if that was a pretty funny mental image. XD
B) Victor managing to yank Alice out of that brief reverie by letting her know that if she did want to talk, he was here and he’d listen. Alice thanked him, telling him it was really nice to be able to talk to someone about all of this nonsense and not have them try to either judge or psychoanalyze her (or both) – Victor joked that he found her life far too confusing to do either, which got a laugh. :p
C) And Alice then telling Victor about her time in the museum – how there were a lot fewer guards around that she would have expected (and the ones who were around weren’t doing their jobs that well – special mention was made of the guy at the end acting out his action hero fantasies instead of watching the hallways like he was supposed to); how all the cameras he’d noticed on his trip actually weren’t a problem thanks to his blood donation boosting her Obfuscate to the point where was able to fool them as well as human eyes (except when she had to open a door, but still); and how after all that, she’d only found an empty box and Beckett (ready and willing to discuss whether or not there was an Antediluvian in there) when she finally reached where the sarcophagus should have been. Meaning she’d had to go back to LaCroix empty-handed. Victor winced noted that sounded like it had been “fun,” and Alice agreed it had been, especially since she’d been forced to listen to his pontificating about the burdens of leadership when she first arrived. But that fortunately for her, while he’d been upset by the news of the sarcophagus being missing, he’d also immediately come up with a suspect for her to investigate – Gary, primogen of the Nosferatu, who’d found out where the sarcophagus was in the first place. So now her task was to find Gary over in Hollywood and make him talk. Which she allowed could be a bit tricky, given that would involve penetrating into the heart of Nosferatu territory...and dealing with a man who, according to all accounts, did not suffer fools gladly…
And that is where I left off for the day! Pretty solid session, if I do say so myself. Tomorrow, we’ll see if I can wrap this up with Alice inviting Victor to come with her to Hollywood – and her finally discovering what exactly her roommate’s net worth is. XD Should be fun!
Baldur’s Gate III: Well, it took longer than I wanted to actually get into the game – not only did it take me more time than expected to do my LB:DQ editing and write-up on said editing above thanks to period blahs, Larian released what they’re claiming is the final hotfix a few days back, so I had to wait for the game to install the patch when I finally did boot up Steam – but I did eventually spend my afternoon in the wilds of Faerûn with Tav Smiler and friends! And while a not-insignificant part of the playsession was spent trying to solve a problem that actually wasn’t a problem in the end, I did actually make some progress in finding my way to Karlach – and encountered some interesting new characters along the way. Let me tell you all about it –
A) After waiting out the hotfix installation (taking the opportunity to make some backups of my player profile and saved games while it chugged along) and taking a moment after booting up the game to go into the mod manager and update some mods (very important, that), I eventually loaded back into the Hollow, where Smiler and company were hanging out by the secret entrance into Mol’s lair (having just come back out of it after having said hi to Mol again to complete the “Investigate the Beach” quest (where they saved Mirkon from the harpies) last time). Once all the assets had popped back into existence, I took a moment to check where Karlach’s marker was on the map, then had the gang head in that direction – going down the slope past the training area where Guex was beating up the dummy with an axe, past the storehouse where Pandima was now hanging out with fixed legs, around by Dammon’s little blacksmith shop, past where Aradin and his companions were still drinking, and finally stopping by the stone door to Zevlor’s private quarters and the rocky cliff where Zorru the guard was hanging out post-Lae’zel interrogation. I could see on the map that Karlach was further left in that general direction, so I began looking for ways to continue on despite the lack of obvious paths –
And noticed that the area atop the cliff Zorru was standing by seemed to be a visitable space, complete with an NPC – the tiefling Lakrissa – sitting by a campfire near what looked to be a little watch tower of sorts. Naturally, I began looking for ways to get the gang up there. Poking around the cliff face revealed no climbable bits, and when I just tried clicking on the top of the cliff, the game claimed that Smiler couldn’t make it up there –
But when I tried activating Jump, it revealed that Smiler could just about jump up to the top! I thus had them do just that, then walk forward a bit to clear the area so the others could join them. Lae’zel and Shadowheart leapt up moments later without any trouble, and I waited for Gale, Wyll, and Astarion to follow suit…
Only to realize that the boys weren’t going anywhere. Puzzled, I switched control to Astarion for a moment and tried activating the Jump ability with him, thinking that maybe the leap was just a little too fiddly for the AI to handle and needed a human player’s touch –
Nope – it was just straight up too high for him. Because I’d temporarily forgotten that Astarion, Wyll, and Gale all have a Strength of 8 and thus are rather limited in what they can do when it comes to things like jumping. *facepalm* To be fair, this has never been a problem before – every other jump the group has made together must have been just within their range! *shakehead* It’s quite possible these three will be getting either boosts to Strength or the “Athlete” feat (which increases Jump distance by 50%) when everyone hits Level 4 and it’s feat-picking time again.
B) While having half the party stranded at the bottom of the cliff was annoying, I didn’t see why it should stop Smiler, Lae’zel, and Shadowheart from exploring the area – if it was a viable path to Karlach, we just needed to find a way to get the boys up there via another method! Smiler being Smiler, naturally the first thing they did was approach Lakrissa and say hi. Lakrissa greeted them with “Used to think the goblins’d kill us the second we set foot outside. But after hearing what you did at the gate...well, I still think they’ll kill us. But at least we can put up a fight.” XD Charming woman. Smiler was having none of this pessimistic talk and told her, “Not with that attitude. Fight and win!” Lakrissa, not to be denied her doom and gloom, promptly countered, “There’s optimism and then there’s stupid, hun. Plenty of us fell to monsters already. I don’t see the rest of us lasting long out there” –
Then, with a little smirk, added, “But if you’re so sure we will, why not put a little gold on the line?” Smiler was game and told her “it’s a bet,” handing over ten gold as their stake. Lakrissa, pleased, declared, “Excellent! And since I ain’t one to leave a debt unpaid, that means we’re destined to meet in Baldur’s Gate. Looking forward to it.” Smiler is too, Lakrissa – especially since I read up on who you are on the wiki to make sure I had your name right and realized you’re Alfira’s girlfriend! So yeah, we’ll be doing everything in our power to keep you alive so you and she can have your happy ending. :) And so Smiler can win their bet. ;)
C) With that taken care of, I started examining the area, looking for anything of interest/anything that could get the Trio Of Weak Men up onto the top of the cliff. Most of the area was just grass and flowers, with one of those big druid statues of a bird near the far edge of the rock – but I did discover that one of the big rocks to the side was labeled “Cragged Rock” and was apparently interactive. Curious, I officially split the party and had Smiler run over on their own to investigate –
And discovered that by “cragged rock,” the game meant “climbable rock,” as Smiler was able to clamber up the crags on the side to the tippy-top for a look around. This afforded them a gorgeous view of the local scenery, including the waterfall spilling down from above into the river snaking around a little island below, and the rugged-looking trees growing out of the rocks and cliffs all around them – naturally, I had to get a screenshot:
Pretty game is very pretty! :) However, gorgeous as the area was, there wasn’t really anything else to it – certainly no other way of getting the Trio Of Weak Men up to Smiler and the ladies. “I guess we’ll just have to go around through the front and find Karlach that way,” I thought, directing Smiler off their waterfall-gazing perch and back over to where they’d first jumped up. “All right, let’s have you and the ladies jump back down, and then we’ll–”
“...oh shit. The game’s saying you can’t jump back down without landing on your ass and taking damage.”
Yeah, in a surprise turn of events, while Smiler was able to get UP onto the cliffside without any issue, they weren’t able to get back DOWN without taking at least one point of damage and being knocked prone. Which, uh, I didn’t particularly want to inflict on them. O.o What do?
D) Send Wyll on a scouting mission to find a way for the Trio Of Weak Men to get up to where Smiler and the Duo Of Strong Ladies were! Because Wyll is awesome and would probably be the most willing out of the three to do such a thing. I thus swapped control to him and had him follow the normal path up along the side of the cliff, past Arron’s shop at the entrance to the Hollow, over toward the gate, then up the side path to the top of said gate, where the tiefling guard camp and Kanon’s grave were. I had him go right up to the edge of the walkable area, then activated Jump and began testing if there were any rocks he could jump onto to get down or around to where Smiler was. Unfortunately, not only did I not find any that he could safely jump to (they were either inaccessible or would knock him prone and take a few points off HIS HP), when I checked the map to see his position relative to Smiler’s, I realized he was nowhere near as close to our brave party leader’s as I’d thought. >( Distances in video games are confusing!
E) With Wyll now stuck in the tiefling guard camp, I decided to swap control back to Smiler and see if they could scout a path over to Wyll instead. Didn’t matter who reached who, as long as someone was reached! Accordingly, after a brief fade to black, I found myself back on Lakrissa’s little ledge, with Smiler ready and willing to seek adventure. After another look around, I spotted some smooth mossy rocks off to the right side of the opposite cliff face, near the bird statue, that looked like they could be jumped to. I thus sent Smiler over and had them leap across the little crack to the first, then continue along and jump onto the second, which brought them to a nice dirt path running along the side of the cliff. Quite pleased, I had them follow it for a bit, thinking that I’d finally found a way for them to reunite with Wyll, and eventually with the rest of the party –
And then blinked as I heard what sounded like voices. Saying something about “blood” or “death” or the like. Puzzled, I had Smiler pause, then peered around the side of the rocks they were traversing down to where some characters had just loaded in on another section of the path (or possibly a different path that just happened to be nearby) down on the forest floor (as Smiler had technically entered the “Forest” part of the map with all their jumping). It looked to be two humans – “Andrick” and “Bryanna,” as per my hovering over them with the mouse – bent over a third on the ground, talking about how injured he was and asking “Ed” to please stay with them. For just a moment, I was like “what’s going on there?” –
And then I realized, “Oh SHIT – that’s the encounter with the dying True Soul and his two underlings, isn’t it? Where you learn more about the Absolute and possibly get your first tadpole to consume? I don’t want to have Smiler encounter that without the rest of the group around! I want potential reactions and post-encounter chats, damn it! Guess I’ve got to find another way around…okay, what can I see if I move Smiler a bit and swing the camera around...is there any way down to the river? That might let me avoid –
“Wait a second – who the hell is that half-loaded on the island over there? I can’t mouse over them properly, but – they look like they’re glowing, or on fire, or some – THAT’S FUCKING KARLACH, ISN’T IT”
Yuuup – while looking for my alternate route, I discovered my main goal all along – the final Origin companion! Sitting on a little island on the other side of the river below! Not fully loaded in, as previously said, but definitely still visible! Within sight, and possibly reach, of Smiler –
F) But not anybody else. And like hell was I sending Smiler to go see her alone – recruiting Karlach was a group project, damn it. Wyll at least had to be there to advance his companion quest! And when I started flying the camera around, trying to find a way for the party to reunite without accidentally kicking off any encounters, while I could find where Wyll was supposed to be (he wasn’t loaded in), I couldn’t find any way for him to get to Smiler, or for Smiler to get to him. The scenery just wasn’t forgiving enough. “All right,” I decided, having Smiler head back the way they’d come, “let’s just take the L and have them jump down to where they started. If I choose the right spot, it’ll only be -1 HP’s worth of damage – which will come off their False Life hit points anyway – and they can just get right back up from being knocked prone – it’s not like they’re in combat or anything.” I thus directed Smiler back to the edge of the cliff leading into the Hollow, activated Jump, found the perfect -1HP landing spot between Gale and Astarion, and had them leap down –
AND THEY LANDED ABSOLUTELY FINE. NO PRONE, NO BLUDGEONING DAMAGE, NO NOTHING. THE GAME STRAIGHT-UP FUCKING LIED TO ME. D< *shakes fist* Do you know how much time I wasted on that damn little side venture, Larian? That was the better part of my playsession today! Ugh, I swear, video games sometimes… Now thoroughly annoyed, I swapped control to Wyll and had him return to the party, then hit the button to regroup everyone so they’d all rally around their leader again –
Only for Lae’zel and Shadowheart to refuse to jump down from the cliff. Because apparently they thought it was too high up. Grumbling, I swapped control to Lae’zel and had her leap down so she could join the party properly again –
And was utterly confused when she took damage. Two points of bludgeoning, to be precise. O.o So SMILER’S immune to jumping down from a too-high cliff, but LAE’ZEL – who is the strongest one on the team right now, by the by, and thus should be able to jump anywhere she damn where pleases – gets hurt when she does it? Adding to my puzzlement, after seeing her jump, Shadowheart finally jumped down too – and, like Smiler, took absolutely no damage. Meaning whether or not you take any damage from jumping down from this cliff seems to be a result of if the game feels like making you take damage or not. O.o Uh – at least Lae’zel wasn’t knocked prone? *shrug*
...and there's more, but I am SO TIRED, and I have to try and get up a little earlier tomorrow because I have to clean my room. So yeah, rest of the write-up tomorrow! See you then. EDIT 4/4/2026: And here is the rest of the write-up at last --
G) ANYWAY – having finally reunited the party, and having gotten a very good idea of where Karlach actually was (which WAS nice), I swapped control back to Smiler, then had them lead everyone back over to the front gate – or the “Overgrown Portcullis,” as it is officially called. Once the tiefling guards up top had kindly lifted it, the party then proceeded out and to the left, following a slightly-cobbled path in the general direction of where I had seen the partially-loaded Karlach and the Andrick-Bryanna-Ed encounter –
Where they also proceeded to get quite chatty, with three bits of inter-party banter firing off in quick succession! Forcing me to constantly grab my phone and take snaps of the combat log to keep track of it all (as that’s where these particular exchanges live – cutscene dialogue instead has its own special section in the same menus as the quest journal and big map). In order, we had:
I. Lae’zel bitchily telling Shadowheart as they passed through the portcullis, “Your sour face is tiring, Shadowheart. By all means leave, if I am so distasteful,” and Shadowheart snapping back, “I’d rather not turn my back on you, if it’s all the same.” Methinks they didn’t particularly enjoy Smiler forcing them to hang out together near Lakrissa’s camp while they scouted the area for paths to bring the party back together. :p
II. Gale, possibly in an attempt to defuse a potential fight, asking, “Tell me Lae’zel, when you say we might be ‘purified’ at your creche, what does that mean exactly?” and Lae’zel coolly but proudly informing him, “A ghustil will affix the zaith’isk, the purifier, to our heads. Its magic will quell the parasite in an instant.” Sounds good, right? Shame I already know what that machine is ACTUALLY used for…
III. And a curious Wyll asking, “Lae’zel, have you ever done a good deed just for the sake of it?” A slightly-puzzled Lae’zel replied, “I have performed deeds well and efficiently. Is this what you mean?” – Wyll, now awkward, answered, “Not exactly. But you answered my question.” XD Yeah, uh, from what I can tell, githyanki culture does not value being a nice person who does good things like yourself, Wyll! But maybe we can convince Lae’zel over the course of the game that good feels good – we’ll see. :p
All that chatting brought the gang to a rock near a fork in the road that I thought looked rather familiar – a quick bit of scanning the area made me realize that this was in fact the spot where the gang had let Sazza loose after sneaking her out of jail through the secret passageway! (Meaning that, yes, I could have just taken THAT to get to where I was going, but – what’s done is done.) And (with the help of Left ALT) that there was some mugwort for Smiler to pick nearby, nice. Once that was in their inventory, I took a quick gander down both forks in the path – farther left was a dead guy near a puddle of blood, which was intriguing…
H) But straight on, up some natural rock steps, was Andrick, Bryanna, and Ed, and that was the encounter that I wanted to trigger. I thus dropped a quick save, and had Smiler head toward them, with our brave party leader noting “People up ahead. Something’s wrong”:
Aaaand then immediately had to stop because, as it turned out, Gale had something else to say to Lae’zel – namely, “That zaith’isk you mentioned intrigues me. Care to tell me a bit more?” Lae’zel obliged him, informing him that it was “An intricate device, crafted by mlar – our most gifted artisans. I am sworn to say no more.” Honestly, given that she’s actually supposed to be pretty damn young by githyanki standards (fairly recently released from her creche), I think she says that whenever she actually just plain doesn’t know more about something. XD It’s all right, Lae’zel, we won’t hold it against you!
I) Anyway – with that little interruption over with, Smiler continued up the steps toward the little scene of Andrick and Bryanna bent over their fallen companion Ed, just managing to snag another mugwort growing nearby before tripping over the cutscene trigger. Bryanna informed Ed that “You’re a True Soul. You can’t die,” before begging him to stay with them, while Andrick anxiously noted, “I don’t think he’s conscious. Can you hear us, Ed?” Naturally intrigued and concerned, Smiler came forward to see what was going on –
Only for Bryanna to spot them and snap, “You! Not a step closer.” Which was followed by a strange glowing symbol appearing on her face (over her left eye, specifically), which the narrator noted made something within Smiler stir. Smiler chose to ignore this and focus on the hurt man, nothing, “His wounds look deep. I might be able to help.” This triggered a DC 10 Medicine check, which Smiler fortunately passed with the help of their bonuses and a bit of Guidance from Shadowheart – they were thus allowed to examine the hurt Ed (full name Edowin) while Andrick explained that “An owlbear got him deep. If there’s anything you can do…” and Bryanna warned “I’m watching you.” Smiler thus knelt over the squirming and groaning Ed to see what was what –
Only for the man’s eyes to lock with theirs, and Smiler’s tadpole to suddenly start squirming in response. Smiler, realizing this was another infected, held his gaze, and their minds melded, with Edowin providing Smiler with Andrick and Bryanna’s names and revealing they were his siblings (adopted, since they’re both humans and he’s a dwarf) and new recruits to the cult, and thus now Smiler’s to shepherd. Protect them, he thought in Smiler’s direction –
Then gasped out to his siblings, “They are a True Soul. Mind them. They will – they – they…” before dying. Andrick cried “Edowin. Ed! Please!” while Bryanna comforted him with “He’s with the Absolute now” –
Then turned to Smiler, suddenly much more compliant as she noted, “You’re...you’re a True Soul. Edowin, our brother – he was chosen. Like you,” before following up with an almost desperate, “Do you have orders for us? We were reporting to Edowin.” Smiler, realizing this might be a good opportunity to get some help with their search for the missing head druid, told her “I’m looking for the druid Halsin” –
Only for Bryanna to say “I don’t know any druids.” Hmmm. Unfortunate. Smiler decided instead to get some info on the cult and asked them to “Explain this Absolute to me.” A puzzled Andrick responded, “What…? Are you...are you testing us?” which made me worried they’d fucked up and were about to start a fight –
But fortunately, after that initial confusion, Andrick was only too happy to explain the Absolute to Smiler, telling them, “The Absolute is our goddess. She’s going to rip down the old world order, start a new one. Then we’ll be the ones with the power – well, you will firstly, True Soul,” he hastily added. “You don’t need me to explain that.” Bryanna helpfully added, “A True Soul – like you – has been chosen by the Absolute. You speak with Her voice. And when the time comes, the True Souls – you – will rule.” Sounded like a sweet gig, honestly, but considering that Smiler’s “True Soul” status comes from being infected with a mind flayer parasite – yeah, Smiler wasn’t sure how much they trusted that summary! Lae’zel was also quite disdainful of it, snapping, “Bah. I will serve at no ruler’s side but my queen’s.” Yes, yes, Lae’zel, we know you currently worship Vlaakith – we’ll see how long that lasts once we actually reach the creche!
Anyway – Smiler, aware that their cover was a little shaky after that question, went with Andrick’s supposition that they’d been testing the pair and coolly noted, “A crude summary. You have more to learn of our faith, novice.” Bryanna fell over herself to apologize, saying, “I...only repeated what I thought I knew. It seems the Absolute still has a great deal to teach me.” Smiler let that pass and got down to the heart of the matter – “Why are you out here? The wilderness is dangerous.” Bryanna responded, “We know that all too well. But...the Absolute sent us here,” with Andrick adding that “We’re looking for fugitives” –
Specifically, “Survivors from that ship that crashed farther west of here.” Uh-oh. Smiler quickly asked to learn more of the fugitives – and happily, Andrick revealed that “We don’t know what they look like, but anyone who survived that crash is bound to be injured. That’s enough to get us started.” Well, no, no it isn’t, Andrick, not when one of them is a cleric with healing spells and another is an alchemist who can make their own healing potions. :p He then added that “The Absolute wants them found. At any cost,” which was – quite worrying, honestly! Smiler decided that the best thing to do would be to get these two out of there before they either did something stupid avenging their brother or realized that the “True Soul” they were talking to might be one of the fugitives and told them to “Forget the owlbear. You’re still alive – so go.” Andrick was initially reluctant, going, “And just...leave Ed?” –
But fortunately, rationalized the order a moment later, commenting, “I suppose...I suppose he’d want us to go on – find a way to honor his sacrifice.” Bryanna agreed, saying, “May the Absolute guide us,” and the two jogged back off down the path into the wilderness, leaving the party in peace. Yay! Got some more intel on the cult, didn’t have to fight these two grieving brainwashed cultists, AND got another point of approval from Shadowheart from sending them off without fighting the owlbear. *nods* Good haul!
J) Once the pair were out of earshot, Smiler commented, “They spoke of the Absolute – same as that goblin, Sazza. Curious.” Shadowheart agreed, noting, “Looks like the Absolute’s drawing all sorts to become followers. Impressive, in a way” –
And then immediately turned to Wyll and asked him, “Have you wondered what people will say, Wyll? When they find out the monster hunter is becoming a monster.” Sheesh, girl, take a breath before swapping into “party banter” mode, will ya? :p Wyll, not liking her tone, replied, “I’ve faced countless perils and conquered them all. This will be no different.” Shadowheart took this in stride, noting that “I’ve always had a soft spot for the confident ones…”
Before following it up with a cool, “They always disappoint, though.” *rolls eyes* We gotta get you away from Shar’s influence...anyway, Smiler decided to leave their party members to their teasing and arguing and instead loot Edowin’s body to see if he had anything good on him –
But rather than opening Ed’s inventory, this triggered a cutscene – a very disturbing one. As Smiler looked down at the dead dwarf, the narrator informed them that “A strange power resonates within the corpse. It calls to you” –
And moments later, Smiler found their body moving on its own as their parasite started puppeting them, forcing them to magically lift the corpse because, as per the narrator, “there’s something of value here. Something your mind craves”:
Yeah, uh, pretty damn freaky! The parasite inside Edowin insisted to Smiler (as implied by the narration) that there was no need for Edowin’s memories to go to waste – his tadpole had absorbed them all, and by absorbing it in turn, “Its experience could nourish you, strengthen you.” Smiler, however, was not about to go bowing to any mind flayer larvae, either their own or another’s, and fought back, passing a DC 12 Wisdom check to force their mind shut to the parasite’s influence (helped along a bit by Shadowheart’s Guidance again). The denied parasite burst from its old host to escape, and Smiler’s regained control of their body and their mind – “For now,” as the narrator ominously noted. Smiler was very much not happy about the experience, as you might guess:
That is not the face of a happy warlock! :( But at the very least, going through all that got them and their party 30 extra XP, so at least now they’re a tiny bit closer to good old Level 4.
And so the playsession ended with Smiler actually getting to loot Edowin’s body – finding 11 gold, a bottle, two spicy pork sausages, one dried regular pork sausages, two salamis (which can be eaten as camp supplies OR used as a weapon, and I am VERY tempted now to have Smiler use a Salami in their off hand XD), and – very importantly for Smiler, the Shaft of a Broken Spear! Why is this important? Because if Smiler can find the head, they can reforge the damn thing, getting a nifty new weapon and – finally – A DAMN INSPIRATION POINT. *sigh* Guild Artisans get so few good opportunities to gain Inspiration, I swear… Anyway – next time, we may see if we can find and squish that tadpole that skedaddled from Edowin’s head (worth 10 XP if we can) – and then it’s finally on to Karlach! Looking forward to meeting and recruiting her at last!
Workout: My final bike ride of the week saw me pedal my way through two BG3 videos by Toyhouze that appeared in my Recommended feed –
A) “Exclusive Hidden Powers Your Companions Have in Baldur's Gate 3” – a video talking about all the special effects and bonuses that the companion characters have or can acquire during the course of the game! Except Lae’zel, because apparently Lae’zel has no cool abilities unique to her. O.o A few of the more interesting examples:
I. Halsin, the ultra-buff head druid that Smiler will be rescuing eventually, apparently always has “Wild Shape: Cave Bear” prepared even if you respec him and thus make him stop being a Druid. All you have to do to use it is give him the special Shapeshifter Hat (admittedly only available at the end of the game) to get him the “Wild Shape Charges” necessary to actually transform, and he can become a bear even if you’ve made him a Fighter or a Cleric or anything other than a Druid! (And apparently his bear form can benefit from the extra attack bonuses a Fighter gets, so...might be worth considering!)
II. Gale can make a special Shadow Lantern by interacting with a ritual circle in Balthazar the necromancer’s secret room in Act 2, combining a dead pixie (found in the room) with a broken moonlantern (found on Nere back in Grymforge in the Underdark in Act 1, or also in the room) to create a lantern that not only provides protection from the Shadow Curse, but also allows you to summon a nasty Shadow monster to fight for you! Which as you might imagine, is very useful, but also feels very evil. (You can also have Gale destroy the circle, which grants him Mystra’s Benevolence, an advantage on Concentration checks – but that only lasts until the next long rest. Because Mystra is a bit stingy with her gifts, it seems.)
III. Astarion, being a vampire, is actually immune to conditions that don’t affect undead creatures, despite not being openly tagged as one! (Probably to preserve the surprise for the three people who don’t know from cultural osmosis at this point.) For example, in the Ancient Lair (which – I’m not sure where that is, but I suspect it’s in Cazador’s palace) he does NOT get the Spell Rot curse applied to him! How handy that is depends on if he knows any spells or not, but still.
IV. Jaheira can become immune to all curses if you fetch for her the Khalid’s Gift amulet, which is hidden in the basement of her house (or, rather, I think her children’s house). The amulet gifts all who wear it access to a version of the spell Aid (which heals people AND increases their hit point maximum by 10 points temporarily) – but Jaheira alone gets access to its curse-nullifying effects. Why? Well, it was made by her late husband as a gift to her, so – yeah. Everyone else should count themselves lucky they get ANYTHING from that amulet!
V. And Wyll, in keeping with his Blade of Frontiers persona, is proficient with rapiers regardless of his class – no matter what you respec him as, he always can use a rapier and use it well.
Neat stuff – it’s always fun to learn about what makes the characters in these games special!
B) “19 Insanely Cool Tricks You Have to Try in Baldur's Gate 3” – a list of cheesy exploits you can attempt to pull off to get cool abilities and weapons that are either supposed to be temporary or only accessible in the late game! A small sampling:
I. Want to steal the Silver Sword Of The Astral Plane off Kith’rak Voss in Act 1 when you meet him in the mountain pass, rather than wait for him to gift it to you much later in Act 3? Simply send Lae’zel to camp so she can’t muck things up before triggering the encounter, and get yourself a Divination Wizard with a “Portent Die” of 17 (which is a special reaction that allows them to change any failed roll of a companion’s to a 17) and a Ranger who can summon a bear companion, who will have Honeyed Paws – a special ability that allows them to instantly disarm opponents if they make their roll. Send the Divination Wizard and the bear toward the githyanki, but don’t trigger the dialogue – instead, have the bear turn invisible with the help of a potion, then go up to Voss and use Honeyed Paws on him. If successful, he’ll drop the sword, and all the wizard has to do is flee combat while the bear is unsummoned. The sword then can be picked up at one’s leisure. If UNSUCCESSFUL, the Divination Wizard can use their Portent Die to make it a success, and see above. Great way to get Lae’zel an excellent weapon early on!
II. Want permanent Flame Blades or Shadow Blades (summoned magical weapons – the first costing a spell slot and only lasting ten turns normally, the second requiring you to be wearing a special ring and to concentrate on the spell allowing you to use the blade) to give to your party members? Simply hire a hireling, have them summon your blade of choice, then dismiss them before going to Withers to immediately rehire that exact same hireling. The blade will apparently now be in their inventory and be permanent, and can be given to another party member before the whole process is started over. Great if you want some very powerful magical weapons without the risk of them going away!
III. Want to hear the song “I Want To Live” in game, instead of just on the soundtrack? Sent your avatar around the back of Astarion’s tent when you’re in the Wilderness camp of Act 1 and hop up onto a certain rock overlooking it. It’ll start playing and you can listen to it as long as you stand there! Dunno WHY it’s triggered by standing on that particular rock, but… *shrug*
IV. And want to make your enemies vulnerable to psychic damage and give them disadvantage on all mental saving throws (at the cost of giving them advantage on physical checks)? Well, just make sure to pick up the Resonance Stone from the mind flayer colony at the end of Act 2, which inflicts the condition Steeped In Bliss upon anyone close enough to it, making them – as per the tooltip – “more energized and also more mentally compliant.” Just remember, if you and your party are close to it, you will also be affected! (And if you think it’s a requirement for my playthrough for Smiler to get this thing – well, you’d be absolutely correct. Fucking A+ The Smiler vibes from that evil stone. It’s even a nice shade of purple!)
Again, neat stuff – we love a good cheesy trick sometimes. :P
YouTube: While I wasn’t able to watch my OXBox list video, I did manage to watch something right at the start of the day – a YouTube Short that popped up in my Recommendeds: “Warlock’s patron warning not to play games with gods #baldursgate3” by good old SuNStereO! A quick clip showing off how, when a warlock comes across the Blood of Lathander mace (a hidden divine weapon in the monastery that the githyanki have claimed as their creche), they’ll feel their patron’s presence nearby – humming with “unfamiliar anxiety.” And will get a vague warning about how, while taking the god weapon would humiliate the divine (not sure how, admittedly) and be quite satisfying, it would also court “disastrous ruin.” Mostly because, as demonstrated at the end of the clip, if you just yank the mace out of its holder, you set off a giant solar-powered laser superweapon that destroys the monastery, and possibly you. XD Fortunately there is a puzzle nearby you can solve to take it safely if you are so inclined (and you probably should be if you have Shadowheart in the party, as apparently it’s a really good weapon for her (despite Lathander being a sun god and her thing being Shar’s darkness)), but yeah. I love how warlocks get these little nudges from their patrons sometimes, it’s a fun bit of flavor to the class. And syncs well with my own take on Tav!Smiler and Mar-Mal’s relationship, with Mar-Mal watching out for their favorite person. :)
Yeah -- maybe not as productive a day as I was hoping, but -- well, it probably was never going to be as productive as I was hoping, given the whole "red curse" inflicting itself on me. At least I got my writing done -- I am very keen to get Chapter 6 of LB:DQ sorted, let me tell you! And I did have fun with BG3, even if I couldn't finish the write-up all in one go. *sighs* Again -- blame the lack of concentration.
Anyway -- I have to get to bed, I'm extremely tired. Tomorrow is a Cleaning Saturday, which means there's a good chance I will be spending the majority of my day dusting and Swiffering and vacuuming and whatnot. As a result, my current plans are just to complete that, complete my BG3 write-up above (and edit this entry appropriately), see if I can complete my edits on Chapter 6 of LB:DQ, and watch some videos. And make some proper backups, since I really need to do that too. *nods* If I manage to get done with the cleaning a bit earlier than normal, I MAY attempt some video gaming, but I'm not setting that in stone. We'll see what happens -- night all!
Writing: Got about a page and a half edited on Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” after lunch today, which is really good given I was dealing with the first day of my period today and that generally does shit things to my concentration and whatnot. Today’s edits covered:
A) Alice telling Victor about the whole mess with Pisha – explaining what a Nagaraja even is, how Pisha’s sloppy slaughter of an entire camera crew led to Alice being allowed to deal with her as she wished, and how their fight ended with Pisha accidentally stumbling into her own mystical fire. Victor assured her that she didn’t have to give any details and offered his sympathies for her having to see that, especially given what happened to her last night – Alice replied that she managed to keep her head better this time (possibly because the flames were mystical, because it was regular fire that fucked up her life when she was a child), but that she would indeed like to move on before thinking about all of it too hard triggered another crying breakdown in the shower. Causing Carpenter to note that, if she wanted, she could instead have a crying breakdown on the couch, as he was sure Victor wouldn’t mind helping her through it – Alice informed him that, no, the idea was that she didn’t want to have another breakdown at all. And if she did, she did want it to be in the shower, as it would be easier to clean up...and wouldn’t trigger Victor to realize her tears were blood, causing him to possibly forget himself and start licking her face. ...Even if that was a pretty funny mental image. XD
B) Victor managing to yank Alice out of that brief reverie by letting her know that if she did want to talk, he was here and he’d listen. Alice thanked him, telling him it was really nice to be able to talk to someone about all of this nonsense and not have them try to either judge or psychoanalyze her (or both) – Victor joked that he found her life far too confusing to do either, which got a laugh. :p
C) And Alice then telling Victor about her time in the museum – how there were a lot fewer guards around that she would have expected (and the ones who were around weren’t doing their jobs that well – special mention was made of the guy at the end acting out his action hero fantasies instead of watching the hallways like he was supposed to); how all the cameras he’d noticed on his trip actually weren’t a problem thanks to his blood donation boosting her Obfuscate to the point where was able to fool them as well as human eyes (except when she had to open a door, but still); and how after all that, she’d only found an empty box and Beckett (ready and willing to discuss whether or not there was an Antediluvian in there) when she finally reached where the sarcophagus should have been. Meaning she’d had to go back to LaCroix empty-handed. Victor winced noted that sounded like it had been “fun,” and Alice agreed it had been, especially since she’d been forced to listen to his pontificating about the burdens of leadership when she first arrived. But that fortunately for her, while he’d been upset by the news of the sarcophagus being missing, he’d also immediately come up with a suspect for her to investigate – Gary, primogen of the Nosferatu, who’d found out where the sarcophagus was in the first place. So now her task was to find Gary over in Hollywood and make him talk. Which she allowed could be a bit tricky, given that would involve penetrating into the heart of Nosferatu territory...and dealing with a man who, according to all accounts, did not suffer fools gladly…
And that is where I left off for the day! Pretty solid session, if I do say so myself. Tomorrow, we’ll see if I can wrap this up with Alice inviting Victor to come with her to Hollywood – and her finally discovering what exactly her roommate’s net worth is. XD Should be fun!
Baldur’s Gate III: Well, it took longer than I wanted to actually get into the game – not only did it take me more time than expected to do my LB:DQ editing and write-up on said editing above thanks to period blahs, Larian released what they’re claiming is the final hotfix a few days back, so I had to wait for the game to install the patch when I finally did boot up Steam – but I did eventually spend my afternoon in the wilds of Faerûn with Tav Smiler and friends! And while a not-insignificant part of the playsession was spent trying to solve a problem that actually wasn’t a problem in the end, I did actually make some progress in finding my way to Karlach – and encountered some interesting new characters along the way. Let me tell you all about it –
A) After waiting out the hotfix installation (taking the opportunity to make some backups of my player profile and saved games while it chugged along) and taking a moment after booting up the game to go into the mod manager and update some mods (very important, that), I eventually loaded back into the Hollow, where Smiler and company were hanging out by the secret entrance into Mol’s lair (having just come back out of it after having said hi to Mol again to complete the “Investigate the Beach” quest (where they saved Mirkon from the harpies) last time). Once all the assets had popped back into existence, I took a moment to check where Karlach’s marker was on the map, then had the gang head in that direction – going down the slope past the training area where Guex was beating up the dummy with an axe, past the storehouse where Pandima was now hanging out with fixed legs, around by Dammon’s little blacksmith shop, past where Aradin and his companions were still drinking, and finally stopping by the stone door to Zevlor’s private quarters and the rocky cliff where Zorru the guard was hanging out post-Lae’zel interrogation. I could see on the map that Karlach was further left in that general direction, so I began looking for ways to continue on despite the lack of obvious paths –
And noticed that the area atop the cliff Zorru was standing by seemed to be a visitable space, complete with an NPC – the tiefling Lakrissa – sitting by a campfire near what looked to be a little watch tower of sorts. Naturally, I began looking for ways to get the gang up there. Poking around the cliff face revealed no climbable bits, and when I just tried clicking on the top of the cliff, the game claimed that Smiler couldn’t make it up there –
But when I tried activating Jump, it revealed that Smiler could just about jump up to the top! I thus had them do just that, then walk forward a bit to clear the area so the others could join them. Lae’zel and Shadowheart leapt up moments later without any trouble, and I waited for Gale, Wyll, and Astarion to follow suit…
Only to realize that the boys weren’t going anywhere. Puzzled, I switched control to Astarion for a moment and tried activating the Jump ability with him, thinking that maybe the leap was just a little too fiddly for the AI to handle and needed a human player’s touch –
Nope – it was just straight up too high for him. Because I’d temporarily forgotten that Astarion, Wyll, and Gale all have a Strength of 8 and thus are rather limited in what they can do when it comes to things like jumping. *facepalm* To be fair, this has never been a problem before – every other jump the group has made together must have been just within their range! *shakehead* It’s quite possible these three will be getting either boosts to Strength or the “Athlete” feat (which increases Jump distance by 50%) when everyone hits Level 4 and it’s feat-picking time again.
B) While having half the party stranded at the bottom of the cliff was annoying, I didn’t see why it should stop Smiler, Lae’zel, and Shadowheart from exploring the area – if it was a viable path to Karlach, we just needed to find a way to get the boys up there via another method! Smiler being Smiler, naturally the first thing they did was approach Lakrissa and say hi. Lakrissa greeted them with “Used to think the goblins’d kill us the second we set foot outside. But after hearing what you did at the gate...well, I still think they’ll kill us. But at least we can put up a fight.” XD Charming woman. Smiler was having none of this pessimistic talk and told her, “Not with that attitude. Fight and win!” Lakrissa, not to be denied her doom and gloom, promptly countered, “There’s optimism and then there’s stupid, hun. Plenty of us fell to monsters already. I don’t see the rest of us lasting long out there” –
Then, with a little smirk, added, “But if you’re so sure we will, why not put a little gold on the line?” Smiler was game and told her “it’s a bet,” handing over ten gold as their stake. Lakrissa, pleased, declared, “Excellent! And since I ain’t one to leave a debt unpaid, that means we’re destined to meet in Baldur’s Gate. Looking forward to it.” Smiler is too, Lakrissa – especially since I read up on who you are on the wiki to make sure I had your name right and realized you’re Alfira’s girlfriend! So yeah, we’ll be doing everything in our power to keep you alive so you and she can have your happy ending. :) And so Smiler can win their bet. ;)
C) With that taken care of, I started examining the area, looking for anything of interest/anything that could get the Trio Of Weak Men up onto the top of the cliff. Most of the area was just grass and flowers, with one of those big druid statues of a bird near the far edge of the rock – but I did discover that one of the big rocks to the side was labeled “Cragged Rock” and was apparently interactive. Curious, I officially split the party and had Smiler run over on their own to investigate –
And discovered that by “cragged rock,” the game meant “climbable rock,” as Smiler was able to clamber up the crags on the side to the tippy-top for a look around. This afforded them a gorgeous view of the local scenery, including the waterfall spilling down from above into the river snaking around a little island below, and the rugged-looking trees growing out of the rocks and cliffs all around them – naturally, I had to get a screenshot:
Pretty game is very pretty! :) However, gorgeous as the area was, there wasn’t really anything else to it – certainly no other way of getting the Trio Of Weak Men up to Smiler and the ladies. “I guess we’ll just have to go around through the front and find Karlach that way,” I thought, directing Smiler off their waterfall-gazing perch and back over to where they’d first jumped up. “All right, let’s have you and the ladies jump back down, and then we’ll–”
“...oh shit. The game’s saying you can’t jump back down without landing on your ass and taking damage.”
Yeah, in a surprise turn of events, while Smiler was able to get UP onto the cliffside without any issue, they weren’t able to get back DOWN without taking at least one point of damage and being knocked prone. Which, uh, I didn’t particularly want to inflict on them. O.o What do?
D) Send Wyll on a scouting mission to find a way for the Trio Of Weak Men to get up to where Smiler and the Duo Of Strong Ladies were! Because Wyll is awesome and would probably be the most willing out of the three to do such a thing. I thus swapped control to him and had him follow the normal path up along the side of the cliff, past Arron’s shop at the entrance to the Hollow, over toward the gate, then up the side path to the top of said gate, where the tiefling guard camp and Kanon’s grave were. I had him go right up to the edge of the walkable area, then activated Jump and began testing if there were any rocks he could jump onto to get down or around to where Smiler was. Unfortunately, not only did I not find any that he could safely jump to (they were either inaccessible or would knock him prone and take a few points off HIS HP), when I checked the map to see his position relative to Smiler’s, I realized he was nowhere near as close to our brave party leader’s as I’d thought. >( Distances in video games are confusing!
E) With Wyll now stuck in the tiefling guard camp, I decided to swap control back to Smiler and see if they could scout a path over to Wyll instead. Didn’t matter who reached who, as long as someone was reached! Accordingly, after a brief fade to black, I found myself back on Lakrissa’s little ledge, with Smiler ready and willing to seek adventure. After another look around, I spotted some smooth mossy rocks off to the right side of the opposite cliff face, near the bird statue, that looked like they could be jumped to. I thus sent Smiler over and had them leap across the little crack to the first, then continue along and jump onto the second, which brought them to a nice dirt path running along the side of the cliff. Quite pleased, I had them follow it for a bit, thinking that I’d finally found a way for them to reunite with Wyll, and eventually with the rest of the party –
And then blinked as I heard what sounded like voices. Saying something about “blood” or “death” or the like. Puzzled, I had Smiler pause, then peered around the side of the rocks they were traversing down to where some characters had just loaded in on another section of the path (or possibly a different path that just happened to be nearby) down on the forest floor (as Smiler had technically entered the “Forest” part of the map with all their jumping). It looked to be two humans – “Andrick” and “Bryanna,” as per my hovering over them with the mouse – bent over a third on the ground, talking about how injured he was and asking “Ed” to please stay with them. For just a moment, I was like “what’s going on there?” –
And then I realized, “Oh SHIT – that’s the encounter with the dying True Soul and his two underlings, isn’t it? Where you learn more about the Absolute and possibly get your first tadpole to consume? I don’t want to have Smiler encounter that without the rest of the group around! I want potential reactions and post-encounter chats, damn it! Guess I’ve got to find another way around…okay, what can I see if I move Smiler a bit and swing the camera around...is there any way down to the river? That might let me avoid –
“Wait a second – who the hell is that half-loaded on the island over there? I can’t mouse over them properly, but – they look like they’re glowing, or on fire, or some – THAT’S FUCKING KARLACH, ISN’T IT”
Yuuup – while looking for my alternate route, I discovered my main goal all along – the final Origin companion! Sitting on a little island on the other side of the river below! Not fully loaded in, as previously said, but definitely still visible! Within sight, and possibly reach, of Smiler –
F) But not anybody else. And like hell was I sending Smiler to go see her alone – recruiting Karlach was a group project, damn it. Wyll at least had to be there to advance his companion quest! And when I started flying the camera around, trying to find a way for the party to reunite without accidentally kicking off any encounters, while I could find where Wyll was supposed to be (he wasn’t loaded in), I couldn’t find any way for him to get to Smiler, or for Smiler to get to him. The scenery just wasn’t forgiving enough. “All right,” I decided, having Smiler head back the way they’d come, “let’s just take the L and have them jump down to where they started. If I choose the right spot, it’ll only be -1 HP’s worth of damage – which will come off their False Life hit points anyway – and they can just get right back up from being knocked prone – it’s not like they’re in combat or anything.” I thus directed Smiler back to the edge of the cliff leading into the Hollow, activated Jump, found the perfect -1HP landing spot between Gale and Astarion, and had them leap down –
AND THEY LANDED ABSOLUTELY FINE. NO PRONE, NO BLUDGEONING DAMAGE, NO NOTHING. THE GAME STRAIGHT-UP FUCKING LIED TO ME. D< *shakes fist* Do you know how much time I wasted on that damn little side venture, Larian? That was the better part of my playsession today! Ugh, I swear, video games sometimes… Now thoroughly annoyed, I swapped control to Wyll and had him return to the party, then hit the button to regroup everyone so they’d all rally around their leader again –
Only for Lae’zel and Shadowheart to refuse to jump down from the cliff. Because apparently they thought it was too high up. Grumbling, I swapped control to Lae’zel and had her leap down so she could join the party properly again –
And was utterly confused when she took damage. Two points of bludgeoning, to be precise. O.o So SMILER’S immune to jumping down from a too-high cliff, but LAE’ZEL – who is the strongest one on the team right now, by the by, and thus should be able to jump anywhere she damn where pleases – gets hurt when she does it? Adding to my puzzlement, after seeing her jump, Shadowheart finally jumped down too – and, like Smiler, took absolutely no damage. Meaning whether or not you take any damage from jumping down from this cliff seems to be a result of if the game feels like making you take damage or not. O.o Uh – at least Lae’zel wasn’t knocked prone? *shrug*
...and there's more, but I am SO TIRED, and I have to try and get up a little earlier tomorrow because I have to clean my room. So yeah, rest of the write-up tomorrow! See you then. EDIT 4/4/2026: And here is the rest of the write-up at last --
G) ANYWAY – having finally reunited the party, and having gotten a very good idea of where Karlach actually was (which WAS nice), I swapped control back to Smiler, then had them lead everyone back over to the front gate – or the “Overgrown Portcullis,” as it is officially called. Once the tiefling guards up top had kindly lifted it, the party then proceeded out and to the left, following a slightly-cobbled path in the general direction of where I had seen the partially-loaded Karlach and the Andrick-Bryanna-Ed encounter –
Where they also proceeded to get quite chatty, with three bits of inter-party banter firing off in quick succession! Forcing me to constantly grab my phone and take snaps of the combat log to keep track of it all (as that’s where these particular exchanges live – cutscene dialogue instead has its own special section in the same menus as the quest journal and big map). In order, we had:
I. Lae’zel bitchily telling Shadowheart as they passed through the portcullis, “Your sour face is tiring, Shadowheart. By all means leave, if I am so distasteful,” and Shadowheart snapping back, “I’d rather not turn my back on you, if it’s all the same.” Methinks they didn’t particularly enjoy Smiler forcing them to hang out together near Lakrissa’s camp while they scouted the area for paths to bring the party back together. :p
II. Gale, possibly in an attempt to defuse a potential fight, asking, “Tell me Lae’zel, when you say we might be ‘purified’ at your creche, what does that mean exactly?” and Lae’zel coolly but proudly informing him, “A ghustil will affix the zaith’isk, the purifier, to our heads. Its magic will quell the parasite in an instant.” Sounds good, right? Shame I already know what that machine is ACTUALLY used for…
III. And a curious Wyll asking, “Lae’zel, have you ever done a good deed just for the sake of it?” A slightly-puzzled Lae’zel replied, “I have performed deeds well and efficiently. Is this what you mean?” – Wyll, now awkward, answered, “Not exactly. But you answered my question.” XD Yeah, uh, from what I can tell, githyanki culture does not value being a nice person who does good things like yourself, Wyll! But maybe we can convince Lae’zel over the course of the game that good feels good – we’ll see. :p
All that chatting brought the gang to a rock near a fork in the road that I thought looked rather familiar – a quick bit of scanning the area made me realize that this was in fact the spot where the gang had let Sazza loose after sneaking her out of jail through the secret passageway! (Meaning that, yes, I could have just taken THAT to get to where I was going, but – what’s done is done.) And (with the help of Left ALT) that there was some mugwort for Smiler to pick nearby, nice. Once that was in their inventory, I took a quick gander down both forks in the path – farther left was a dead guy near a puddle of blood, which was intriguing…
H) But straight on, up some natural rock steps, was Andrick, Bryanna, and Ed, and that was the encounter that I wanted to trigger. I thus dropped a quick save, and had Smiler head toward them, with our brave party leader noting “People up ahead. Something’s wrong”:
Aaaand then immediately had to stop because, as it turned out, Gale had something else to say to Lae’zel – namely, “That zaith’isk you mentioned intrigues me. Care to tell me a bit more?” Lae’zel obliged him, informing him that it was “An intricate device, crafted by mlar – our most gifted artisans. I am sworn to say no more.” Honestly, given that she’s actually supposed to be pretty damn young by githyanki standards (fairly recently released from her creche), I think she says that whenever she actually just plain doesn’t know more about something. XD It’s all right, Lae’zel, we won’t hold it against you!
I) Anyway – with that little interruption over with, Smiler continued up the steps toward the little scene of Andrick and Bryanna bent over their fallen companion Ed, just managing to snag another mugwort growing nearby before tripping over the cutscene trigger. Bryanna informed Ed that “You’re a True Soul. You can’t die,” before begging him to stay with them, while Andrick anxiously noted, “I don’t think he’s conscious. Can you hear us, Ed?” Naturally intrigued and concerned, Smiler came forward to see what was going on –
Only for Bryanna to spot them and snap, “You! Not a step closer.” Which was followed by a strange glowing symbol appearing on her face (over her left eye, specifically), which the narrator noted made something within Smiler stir. Smiler chose to ignore this and focus on the hurt man, nothing, “His wounds look deep. I might be able to help.” This triggered a DC 10 Medicine check, which Smiler fortunately passed with the help of their bonuses and a bit of Guidance from Shadowheart – they were thus allowed to examine the hurt Ed (full name Edowin) while Andrick explained that “An owlbear got him deep. If there’s anything you can do…” and Bryanna warned “I’m watching you.” Smiler thus knelt over the squirming and groaning Ed to see what was what –
Only for the man’s eyes to lock with theirs, and Smiler’s tadpole to suddenly start squirming in response. Smiler, realizing this was another infected, held his gaze, and their minds melded, with Edowin providing Smiler with Andrick and Bryanna’s names and revealing they were his siblings (adopted, since they’re both humans and he’s a dwarf) and new recruits to the cult, and thus now Smiler’s to shepherd. Protect them, he thought in Smiler’s direction –
Then gasped out to his siblings, “They are a True Soul. Mind them. They will – they – they…” before dying. Andrick cried “Edowin. Ed! Please!” while Bryanna comforted him with “He’s with the Absolute now” –
Then turned to Smiler, suddenly much more compliant as she noted, “You’re...you’re a True Soul. Edowin, our brother – he was chosen. Like you,” before following up with an almost desperate, “Do you have orders for us? We were reporting to Edowin.” Smiler, realizing this might be a good opportunity to get some help with their search for the missing head druid, told her “I’m looking for the druid Halsin” –
Only for Bryanna to say “I don’t know any druids.” Hmmm. Unfortunate. Smiler decided instead to get some info on the cult and asked them to “Explain this Absolute to me.” A puzzled Andrick responded, “What…? Are you...are you testing us?” which made me worried they’d fucked up and were about to start a fight –
But fortunately, after that initial confusion, Andrick was only too happy to explain the Absolute to Smiler, telling them, “The Absolute is our goddess. She’s going to rip down the old world order, start a new one. Then we’ll be the ones with the power – well, you will firstly, True Soul,” he hastily added. “You don’t need me to explain that.” Bryanna helpfully added, “A True Soul – like you – has been chosen by the Absolute. You speak with Her voice. And when the time comes, the True Souls – you – will rule.” Sounded like a sweet gig, honestly, but considering that Smiler’s “True Soul” status comes from being infected with a mind flayer parasite – yeah, Smiler wasn’t sure how much they trusted that summary! Lae’zel was also quite disdainful of it, snapping, “Bah. I will serve at no ruler’s side but my queen’s.” Yes, yes, Lae’zel, we know you currently worship Vlaakith – we’ll see how long that lasts once we actually reach the creche!
Anyway – Smiler, aware that their cover was a little shaky after that question, went with Andrick’s supposition that they’d been testing the pair and coolly noted, “A crude summary. You have more to learn of our faith, novice.” Bryanna fell over herself to apologize, saying, “I...only repeated what I thought I knew. It seems the Absolute still has a great deal to teach me.” Smiler let that pass and got down to the heart of the matter – “Why are you out here? The wilderness is dangerous.” Bryanna responded, “We know that all too well. But...the Absolute sent us here,” with Andrick adding that “We’re looking for fugitives” –
Specifically, “Survivors from that ship that crashed farther west of here.” Uh-oh. Smiler quickly asked to learn more of the fugitives – and happily, Andrick revealed that “We don’t know what they look like, but anyone who survived that crash is bound to be injured. That’s enough to get us started.” Well, no, no it isn’t, Andrick, not when one of them is a cleric with healing spells and another is an alchemist who can make their own healing potions. :p He then added that “The Absolute wants them found. At any cost,” which was – quite worrying, honestly! Smiler decided that the best thing to do would be to get these two out of there before they either did something stupid avenging their brother or realized that the “True Soul” they were talking to might be one of the fugitives and told them to “Forget the owlbear. You’re still alive – so go.” Andrick was initially reluctant, going, “And just...leave Ed?” –
But fortunately, rationalized the order a moment later, commenting, “I suppose...I suppose he’d want us to go on – find a way to honor his sacrifice.” Bryanna agreed, saying, “May the Absolute guide us,” and the two jogged back off down the path into the wilderness, leaving the party in peace. Yay! Got some more intel on the cult, didn’t have to fight these two grieving brainwashed cultists, AND got another point of approval from Shadowheart from sending them off without fighting the owlbear. *nods* Good haul!
J) Once the pair were out of earshot, Smiler commented, “They spoke of the Absolute – same as that goblin, Sazza. Curious.” Shadowheart agreed, noting, “Looks like the Absolute’s drawing all sorts to become followers. Impressive, in a way” –
And then immediately turned to Wyll and asked him, “Have you wondered what people will say, Wyll? When they find out the monster hunter is becoming a monster.” Sheesh, girl, take a breath before swapping into “party banter” mode, will ya? :p Wyll, not liking her tone, replied, “I’ve faced countless perils and conquered them all. This will be no different.” Shadowheart took this in stride, noting that “I’ve always had a soft spot for the confident ones…”
Before following it up with a cool, “They always disappoint, though.” *rolls eyes* We gotta get you away from Shar’s influence...anyway, Smiler decided to leave their party members to their teasing and arguing and instead loot Edowin’s body to see if he had anything good on him –
But rather than opening Ed’s inventory, this triggered a cutscene – a very disturbing one. As Smiler looked down at the dead dwarf, the narrator informed them that “A strange power resonates within the corpse. It calls to you” –
And moments later, Smiler found their body moving on its own as their parasite started puppeting them, forcing them to magically lift the corpse because, as per the narrator, “there’s something of value here. Something your mind craves”:
Yeah, uh, pretty damn freaky! The parasite inside Edowin insisted to Smiler (as implied by the narration) that there was no need for Edowin’s memories to go to waste – his tadpole had absorbed them all, and by absorbing it in turn, “Its experience could nourish you, strengthen you.” Smiler, however, was not about to go bowing to any mind flayer larvae, either their own or another’s, and fought back, passing a DC 12 Wisdom check to force their mind shut to the parasite’s influence (helped along a bit by Shadowheart’s Guidance again). The denied parasite burst from its old host to escape, and Smiler’s regained control of their body and their mind – “For now,” as the narrator ominously noted. Smiler was very much not happy about the experience, as you might guess:
That is not the face of a happy warlock! :( But at the very least, going through all that got them and their party 30 extra XP, so at least now they’re a tiny bit closer to good old Level 4.
And so the playsession ended with Smiler actually getting to loot Edowin’s body – finding 11 gold, a bottle, two spicy pork sausages, one dried regular pork sausages, two salamis (which can be eaten as camp supplies OR used as a weapon, and I am VERY tempted now to have Smiler use a Salami in their off hand XD), and – very importantly for Smiler, the Shaft of a Broken Spear! Why is this important? Because if Smiler can find the head, they can reforge the damn thing, getting a nifty new weapon and – finally – A DAMN INSPIRATION POINT. *sigh* Guild Artisans get so few good opportunities to gain Inspiration, I swear… Anyway – next time, we may see if we can find and squish that tadpole that skedaddled from Edowin’s head (worth 10 XP if we can) – and then it’s finally on to Karlach! Looking forward to meeting and recruiting her at last!
Workout: My final bike ride of the week saw me pedal my way through two BG3 videos by Toyhouze that appeared in my Recommended feed –
A) “Exclusive Hidden Powers Your Companions Have in Baldur's Gate 3” – a video talking about all the special effects and bonuses that the companion characters have or can acquire during the course of the game! Except Lae’zel, because apparently Lae’zel has no cool abilities unique to her. O.o A few of the more interesting examples:
I. Halsin, the ultra-buff head druid that Smiler will be rescuing eventually, apparently always has “Wild Shape: Cave Bear” prepared even if you respec him and thus make him stop being a Druid. All you have to do to use it is give him the special Shapeshifter Hat (admittedly only available at the end of the game) to get him the “Wild Shape Charges” necessary to actually transform, and he can become a bear even if you’ve made him a Fighter or a Cleric or anything other than a Druid! (And apparently his bear form can benefit from the extra attack bonuses a Fighter gets, so...might be worth considering!)
II. Gale can make a special Shadow Lantern by interacting with a ritual circle in Balthazar the necromancer’s secret room in Act 2, combining a dead pixie (found in the room) with a broken moonlantern (found on Nere back in Grymforge in the Underdark in Act 1, or also in the room) to create a lantern that not only provides protection from the Shadow Curse, but also allows you to summon a nasty Shadow monster to fight for you! Which as you might imagine, is very useful, but also feels very evil. (You can also have Gale destroy the circle, which grants him Mystra’s Benevolence, an advantage on Concentration checks – but that only lasts until the next long rest. Because Mystra is a bit stingy with her gifts, it seems.)
III. Astarion, being a vampire, is actually immune to conditions that don’t affect undead creatures, despite not being openly tagged as one! (Probably to preserve the surprise for the three people who don’t know from cultural osmosis at this point.) For example, in the Ancient Lair (which – I’m not sure where that is, but I suspect it’s in Cazador’s palace) he does NOT get the Spell Rot curse applied to him! How handy that is depends on if he knows any spells or not, but still.
IV. Jaheira can become immune to all curses if you fetch for her the Khalid’s Gift amulet, which is hidden in the basement of her house (or, rather, I think her children’s house). The amulet gifts all who wear it access to a version of the spell Aid (which heals people AND increases their hit point maximum by 10 points temporarily) – but Jaheira alone gets access to its curse-nullifying effects. Why? Well, it was made by her late husband as a gift to her, so – yeah. Everyone else should count themselves lucky they get ANYTHING from that amulet!
V. And Wyll, in keeping with his Blade of Frontiers persona, is proficient with rapiers regardless of his class – no matter what you respec him as, he always can use a rapier and use it well.
Neat stuff – it’s always fun to learn about what makes the characters in these games special!
B) “19 Insanely Cool Tricks You Have to Try in Baldur's Gate 3” – a list of cheesy exploits you can attempt to pull off to get cool abilities and weapons that are either supposed to be temporary or only accessible in the late game! A small sampling:
I. Want to steal the Silver Sword Of The Astral Plane off Kith’rak Voss in Act 1 when you meet him in the mountain pass, rather than wait for him to gift it to you much later in Act 3? Simply send Lae’zel to camp so she can’t muck things up before triggering the encounter, and get yourself a Divination Wizard with a “Portent Die” of 17 (which is a special reaction that allows them to change any failed roll of a companion’s to a 17) and a Ranger who can summon a bear companion, who will have Honeyed Paws – a special ability that allows them to instantly disarm opponents if they make their roll. Send the Divination Wizard and the bear toward the githyanki, but don’t trigger the dialogue – instead, have the bear turn invisible with the help of a potion, then go up to Voss and use Honeyed Paws on him. If successful, he’ll drop the sword, and all the wizard has to do is flee combat while the bear is unsummoned. The sword then can be picked up at one’s leisure. If UNSUCCESSFUL, the Divination Wizard can use their Portent Die to make it a success, and see above. Great way to get Lae’zel an excellent weapon early on!
II. Want permanent Flame Blades or Shadow Blades (summoned magical weapons – the first costing a spell slot and only lasting ten turns normally, the second requiring you to be wearing a special ring and to concentrate on the spell allowing you to use the blade) to give to your party members? Simply hire a hireling, have them summon your blade of choice, then dismiss them before going to Withers to immediately rehire that exact same hireling. The blade will apparently now be in their inventory and be permanent, and can be given to another party member before the whole process is started over. Great if you want some very powerful magical weapons without the risk of them going away!
III. Want to hear the song “I Want To Live” in game, instead of just on the soundtrack? Sent your avatar around the back of Astarion’s tent when you’re in the Wilderness camp of Act 1 and hop up onto a certain rock overlooking it. It’ll start playing and you can listen to it as long as you stand there! Dunno WHY it’s triggered by standing on that particular rock, but… *shrug*
IV. And want to make your enemies vulnerable to psychic damage and give them disadvantage on all mental saving throws (at the cost of giving them advantage on physical checks)? Well, just make sure to pick up the Resonance Stone from the mind flayer colony at the end of Act 2, which inflicts the condition Steeped In Bliss upon anyone close enough to it, making them – as per the tooltip – “more energized and also more mentally compliant.” Just remember, if you and your party are close to it, you will also be affected! (And if you think it’s a requirement for my playthrough for Smiler to get this thing – well, you’d be absolutely correct. Fucking A+ The Smiler vibes from that evil stone. It’s even a nice shade of purple!)
Again, neat stuff – we love a good cheesy trick sometimes. :P
YouTube: While I wasn’t able to watch my OXBox list video, I did manage to watch something right at the start of the day – a YouTube Short that popped up in my Recommendeds: “Warlock’s patron warning not to play games with gods #baldursgate3” by good old SuNStereO! A quick clip showing off how, when a warlock comes across the Blood of Lathander mace (a hidden divine weapon in the monastery that the githyanki have claimed as their creche), they’ll feel their patron’s presence nearby – humming with “unfamiliar anxiety.” And will get a vague warning about how, while taking the god weapon would humiliate the divine (not sure how, admittedly) and be quite satisfying, it would also court “disastrous ruin.” Mostly because, as demonstrated at the end of the clip, if you just yank the mace out of its holder, you set off a giant solar-powered laser superweapon that destroys the monastery, and possibly you. XD Fortunately there is a puzzle nearby you can solve to take it safely if you are so inclined (and you probably should be if you have Shadowheart in the party, as apparently it’s a really good weapon for her (despite Lathander being a sun god and her thing being Shar’s darkness)), but yeah. I love how warlocks get these little nudges from their patrons sometimes, it’s a fun bit of flavor to the class. And syncs well with my own take on Tav!Smiler and Mar-Mal’s relationship, with Mar-Mal watching out for their favorite person. :)
Yeah -- maybe not as productive a day as I was hoping, but -- well, it probably was never going to be as productive as I was hoping, given the whole "red curse" inflicting itself on me. At least I got my writing done -- I am very keen to get Chapter 6 of LB:DQ sorted, let me tell you! And I did have fun with BG3, even if I couldn't finish the write-up all in one go. *sighs* Again -- blame the lack of concentration.
Anyway -- I have to get to bed, I'm extremely tired. Tomorrow is a Cleaning Saturday, which means there's a good chance I will be spending the majority of my day dusting and Swiffering and vacuuming and whatnot. As a result, my current plans are just to complete that, complete my BG3 write-up above (and edit this entry appropriately), see if I can complete my edits on Chapter 6 of LB:DQ, and watch some videos. And make some proper backups, since I really need to do that too. *nods* If I manage to get done with the cleaning a bit earlier than normal, I MAY attempt some video gaming, but I'm not setting that in stone. We'll see what happens -- night all!
