On my way back, I got a notification that a group of cutthroat bandits were going to attack my stronghold. It was on my way past, so I made sure to put a stop to that.
This is like the one thing I got annoyed with the stronghold. You cannot possibly expect me to haul ass all the way from one end of the map to defend my house. I mean, yeah, it's doable because fast travel and all that, but from a role-playing perspective, it's silly. I'd rather have a dedicated questline where random people attack me for reasons and - actually, no, that happens but I guess I'll wait for you to cover it.
Either way, it may have been better if the stronghold was in the center of the map, or if it was mobile (like in PoE2).
Seriously, Grieving Mother is my least favourite recruitable party member. For plot reasons, she has no interesting banter with NPCs or other party members (unless you're on the evil path, when it becomes darkly hilarious when no one notices you've used her as a human sacrifice), she has a dreary, mopey personality and her dialogue tree is interminably long and boring. Worse, it contains very little of substance.
Much like religion, I feel much of the Hollowborn Plague wasn't as well thought out. For one, it's a really fucking grim subject that's hard to depict. Some quests aside, that does cover it, and God bless they tried, it's really hard for me to care for babies I cannot physically see. I love babies, I have many nieces and nephews, but with the isometric perspective and not much in the way of voice acting, it's a hard sell.
GM feels like the companion that should have been introduced far earlier on. She should probably be introduced after Eder and Aloth. Not only will the player be more integral to the plight of the Hollowborn, but it also helps since she's a soul wizard that can help a fellow soul wizard class and, if the player isnt a Cipher, well that's where the Watcher powers come in. Lastly, she should also, idk, fucking talk to the other party members.
I appreciate the unique thing the game does with her, I do, but it makes her not very memorable and introduced far too late.
Trygil was furious when Eleni unlocked the door to his backroom, so I had to kill him. Y'know, this could have been very embarrassing if it had turned out that he was innocent…
Fortunately, he wasn't innocent. In the backroom, there was a ladder leading down to a network of tunnels, which is where he took Aelys.
I decided to rest a bit before moving further in.
It turns out that these tunnels are infested with Skaenite cultists. Skaen is 'the Quiet Slave', the god of hatred, resentment and violent rebellion. It seems like that Trygil was one of them and they've kidnapped Aelys as part of a plot to take revenge against Lord Harond for being a member of the hated aristocracy. Now, I'm all for 'sticking it to the man', but the Skaenites take it too far by being psychotically violent, using grotesque blood magic rituals, and doing nothing to prevent 'collateral damage' causing the horrible deaths of innocent bystanders.
Skaenite cults seem like they'd be a natural refuge for escaped slaves, oppressed peasants and other people who have excellent reasons to hate the upper classes, except that they are so utterly, horribly and obviously evil that no sane person would join them. Which I rather think is the point, actually. I'll discuss that in more detail later on.
There were several large groups of cultists and occasionally they did some real damage before going down. In this particular fight, Sagani's fox, Itumaak, was knocked out and concussed. However, since animal companions automatically revive at the end of each combat and can't be killed unless their handler is killed, I don't care very much.
Here, I found a large pool filled with the blood of Skaenite cultists who willingly sacrificed themselves because they believed that their deaths would allow them to get revenge against their former masters. Their souls are bound to the sacrificial pool; even if they wanted to, they wouldn't be able to move on.
My party members seemed rather unnerved by this. Or at least Aloth did. Sensible of him.
At this point, it's possible to sacrifice one of your companions to the blood pool in exchange for a permanent stat boost. Or so I've heard. I've never actually done it because to do so would require me to have a 'Cruel' reputation – and I find it difficult to be cruel, even when I'm roleplaying as a fictional character in a videogame – and so I can only tell you what I've read elsewhere.
Apparently, if I chose to sacrifice one of my party members, my other party members would be horrified to see one of their colleagues suddenly get absorbed by the blood pool, unless I chose to sacrifice Grieving Mother (if I'd bothered to recruit her), in which case they wouldn't even notice.
I continued to explore the underground ruins until I discovered where they were keeping Aelys. Evidently, they'd hooked her up to some kind of animantic machine and done something horrible to her.
The cult leader, Wymund seemed to think that he and Gianni had much in common. After all, Gianni is a former rebel who joined a popular uprising against the decadent aristocracy in Old Vailia, whereas Wymund and his fellow Skaenite cultists kidnapped an innocent young woman and did unspeakable things to her. Hmm. Actually, no… let's be honest, they have nothing in common. Gianni has good reasons to hate the upper classes (or he believes he does, which isn't quite the same thing), so he might do what little he can to oppose them, but he wouldn't deliberately hurt innocent bystanders in the process.
Still, on the other hand…
I knew Lord Nestor was a creepy asshole. And not just because I've played this game before.
Well, that answers a bunch of questions. But it prompts a whole lot more. First and foremost: if Aelys was Lord Nestor's rape victim who was desperate for a chance to escape his clutches, why did he let her go wandering off on her own, thereby enabling the Skaenites to steal her away?
Ah, another example of how the Hollowborn Crisis has caused desperate people to commit terrible crimes! Wait… actually, no. That's stupid and it makes no sense.
As a member of the nobility, Lord Harond was wealthy, powerful and influential. If he was worried about the Hollowborn Crisis, he could had gone on holiday to the Aedyran Empire, let's say – or anywhere else where the Hollowborn Crisis isn't taking place – and his wife's children would have been just fine.
Setting aside my feelings of abhorrence at what's done, let's look at this logically: he's a nobleman from Defiance Bay. If he felt he had no choice but to rape his niece and force her to bear his child, why is he taking her deeper into the Dyrwood? Surely it would have been better to take her aboard a ship to somewhere that wasn't affected by the Hollowborn Crisis, so there'd be the best possible chance of her giving birth to a normal, healthy child?
Something else that makes no sense. Aelys will always hate Lord Nestor for raping her – and there's no way he could ever reveal the truth to the rest of the world, unless he really wants to see how the reigning Duc will punish him – so what does it matter if he is the father of her child? Since he wasn't bothering to keep a close eye on her, how did he plan to stop her from running off and having an abortion? What if she decided to get married later on and cut Lord Nestor's illegitimate child out of the line of succession in favour of her legitimate children? It's as if he imagines she has no agency or free will of her own.
Moreover, judging by some of the things Wymund says, it doesn't seem like Lord Nestor's wife knows what he's been getting up to; no doubt she'd be horrified. But if he'd gone to her and said, "Let's take a holiday in a foreign country where there's no Hollowborn Crisis and while we're there we'll try to have another child – or, failing that, I'll find an impoverished young woman and pay her a large sum of money to give birth to my child – and then I'll pay her even more money to go away and we'll pretend you gave birth to her baby," maybe she'd have been onboard with that. Who knows? Whether or not it would have worked, it seems like it would have been a better plan than raping his niece.
Or maybe I've been looking at this from the wrong angle. Maybe he was just looking for an excuse to rape his niece.
Wymund has turned Aelys into a weapon he will use to murder Lord Nestor and a bunch of other people in a grisly and horrible way, in order to cause terror and set a terrifying example for any other nobleman who might be tempted to do something similar.
I think I prefer Edér's proposed solution.
Fortunately, Gianni Baldassare is a Cipher, capable of wiping away the sickly essence Wymund has implanted in Aelys's mind. It's tiring work, but… as they say, if a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well.
If I'd brought Grieving Mother with me, I could have let her do it instead. If the main character isn't a Cipher, that's pretty much the only way to save Aelys.
Wymund isn't happy about what I just did. It's time for a boss fight.
Ouch. I prefer not to put Gianni in heavy armour, since it slows him down so much, but I have before. And maybe I should again.
At least Aelys had the good sense to stay out of the way.
When I talked to Aelys after the battle, she'd lost her memory and was rather confused. I recommended that she go to the temple at the edge of town, where the priests seemed quite benevolent and should be able to find a way to help her. She said that was good advice.
I looted the bodies and explored the room. In a chest, I found a magic sacrificial dagger and a notebook in which Wymund explained his evil schemes, just in case I wasn't paying attention when I talked to him earlier.
After I'd finished extracting every last ounce of value from the underground ruins, I went back to the Dracogen Inn to confront Lord Nestor Harond. He wasn't pleased when I told him Aelys had escaped his clutches forever.
Would you believe he actually tried to bribe me?
I don't often take 'aggressive' actions, since in this game fighting takes place often enough without my needing to encourage it, but killing Lord Nestor is something I heartily approve of. It's rough justice, but it's not as if he was going to face any other kind of justice. Like they used to say back in the Wild West, "He needed killing."
Was it murder? Did I just murder a defenceless old man? Yes. Yes, I did. But I'm okay with that. Partly because of the crimes he committed and partly because this is a work of fiction.
He was a nobleman of Defiance Bay, so killing him has greatly harmed my reputation with Defiance Bay, even if no one saw me do it. Funny how that works.
It turns out that these tunnels are infested with Skaenite cultists. Skaen is 'the Quiet Slave', the god of hatred, resentment and violent rebellion. It seems like that Trygil was one of them and they've kidnapped Aelys as part of a plot to take revenge against Lord Harond for being a member of the hated aristocracy. Now, I'm all for 'sticking it to the man', but the Skaenites take it too far by being psychotically violent, using grotesque blood magic rituals, and doing nothing to prevent 'collateral damage' causing the horrible deaths of innocent bystanders.
Is he even the lord of this village, or did they just see him come into town and decide to go after him because surely he must have done something wrong? (Which he did, not that they knew)
It might just be possible that Nestor wanted to keep an eye on Aelys to ensure the pregnancy went well. Sending her off elsewhere was likely, and I'm thinking as a GM here, would have the player asking "then what's the point of the dungeon dive and the quest?" It is a bit scruffy of an explanation, but it's not too unbelievable.
Anyway, as I was role-playing a fire godlike goody two shoes Paladin whose name literally means Righteous, I too felt killing him was the right thing to do. It's a shame then that we can't do it By the Book, even if the Book likely would have let him get away with it. My Paladin would very much be that kinda guy, but I'd at least like an option. The reputation hit is a bit annoying though and I feel reputation as a whole hasn't progressed as much as a mechanic in PoE as it was in NV.
Skaen is an interesting god, who probably wouldn't be out of place in Warhammer. Generally, I do like him as a concept even if I think the execution could be better. He's a harsher crueler version of Woedica and I find a vengeful god that slaves and peasant pray too as being deliciously grimdark.
The ability to sacrifice your companion for a stat boost is always welcomed. In Fallout 2, it was selling your companions to slavery. In New Vegas, it's selling your companions to the cannibal casino. Both of these netted money. This is the best version so far IMO.
Is he even the lord of this village, or did they just see him come into town and decide to go after him because surely he must have done something wrong? (Which he did, not that they knew)
"...noble from Defiance Bay. Results were mostly consistent across the other subjects. The challenge is always applying the method to an unwilling participant, but her situation may prove an advantage. If I can bring those memories of her uncle to the forefront, it might render her essence more susceptible to the process."
Anyway, as I was role-playing a fire godlike goody two shoes Paladin whose name literally means Righteous, I too felt killing him was the right thing to do. It's a shame then that we can't do it By the Book, even if the Book likely would have let him get away with it. My Paladin would very much be that kinda guy, but I'd at least like an option. The reputation hit is a bit annoying though and I feel reputation as a whole hasn't progressed as much as a mechanic in PoE as it was in NV.
Skaen is an interesting god, who probably wouldn't be out of place in Warhammer. Generally, I do like him as a concept even if I think the execution could be better. He's a harsher crueler version of Woedica and I find a vengeful god that slaves and peasant pray too as being deliciously grimdark.
By now, I think we've thoroughly spoiled the main twist of this game, which is that the setting's gods are animantic constructs that were created by the ancient Engwithans, so I feel able to share my theory about Skaen. Basically, he's so over-the-top and despicably evil that only the truly desperate and morally bankrupt would worship him, which means that rebelling slaves (or peasants or ill-treated commoners or whatever) would be split between 'crazed worshippers of Skaen' and 'relatively sane, reasonably people who have legitimate grievances against their oppressors'. That sounds like a divide and conquer strategy to me. The ancient Engwithans were slavers and conquerors, so I'm sure that would appeal to them. They'd probably see anything that weakened their victims as a good thing.
The ability to sacrifice your companion for a stat boost is always welcomed. In Fallout 2, it was selling your companions to slavery. In New Vegas, it's selling your companions to the cannibal casino. Both of these netted money. This is the best version so far IMO.
If you're going to do an 'evil playthrough', you want it to be worthwhile. Sacrificing one of your companions to a sentient pool of blood in exchange for a stat boost is rather deliciously evil. (But I'm too much of a goody two-shoes to ever want to do an evil playthrough.)
While searching the Dracogen Inn's upstairs rooms, I found Nyfre. Apparently, she's a thief who stole something from the Doemenals. A couple of updates ago, a gangster named Medreth asked me to find her and lure her out so he could kill her.
I decided to cut out the middle man.
The ensuing fight wasn't too difficult. But I'm amazed that no one downstairs came up to complain about the noise we were making. The Dracogen Inn's discretion must be legendary.
I went back to Medreth. He was grateful that I'd done his job for him and rewarded me with a bag containing 1000 copper pands (or the equivalent in gold and silver coins, I suppose).
Then, I realised I didn't actually know how to reach the Engwithan Ruins that are supposed to be my next destination, so I visited the Berathian temple on the edge of town, where the local priest is supposed to be an expert on such things.
It turns out that Harbinger Beodmar was beaten up by agents of the Leaden Key who were searching for the Engwithan ruins just like me (named Clîaban Rilag). They tortured the information out of him.
Hmm. Considering that the Leaden Key are in possession of a great many buried secrets, which would presumably include the locations of various Engwithan ruins, I'm surprised they weren't able to provide their agents with an accurate map.
Beodmar didn't want to tell me where to find Clîaban Rilag. He is afraid that the Glanfathans who guard the ruins will kill the would-be trespassers and take revenge on Dyrford Village because he told them where to go. Not an unreasonable fear, but I still managed to persuade him.
On the way to Clîaban Rilag, I came to a wilderness area named 'Dyrford Crossing'. The journey took four hours. However, it's possible to reach this area via the underground Skaenite cult hideout in Dyrford Village, which I suspect wouldn't take nearly as much time. Hmm…
I decided to test this theory by having my characters travel from Dyrford Village to Dyrford Crossing via the underground route, starting from the stroke of 'Hour 9' in the morning.
The journey took less than an hour. When I emerged from the tunnel, blinking in the light, I was immediately set upon by a group of xaurips and beetles. Even after I'd killed them, 'Hour 9' still hadn't moved on to 'Hour 10'. I basically shaved three and a half hours off my journey by travelling through a complicated set of underground tunnels instead of overland.
Huh. Seems kind of inconsistent…
Anyway, I wandered around the area, picking flowers and exterminating the local wildlife (wolves, wood beetles and sporelings).
Then, I came across the entrance to a cave filled with giant spiders. Just outside, I came across a skeleton with a Ring of Deflection +9. Yoink!
Since Gianni's Deckhand's Uniform already gives him Deflection +9 and the two won't stack, I gave it to Edér. Now, he's even more of a tank.
Inside the cave, I was attacked by more than a dozen spiders. It was almost a fair fight.
When they were all dead, I continued to explore the cave and found a bunch more spiders, including a gigantic spider queen. That was slightly harder to kill. But not much.
Still, considering that Gianni is still taking more damage than the rest of the party, I'm considering respeccing him to use a reach weapon instead of the rapier and stiletto he's been using until now. Probably a pike. There's a good one I could buy next time I head back to Dyrford Village.
Also, I found an ogre lurking in the back of the cave with a pair of pet bears. His name is Korgrak and it is possible to recruit him as a hireling for the player's stronghold. However, doing so is somewhat detrimental because it's very expensive (100cp per day) and his presence lowers Prestige, although it also raises Security. Lower prestige means you'll get less tax money. (However, by the end of the game, the amount of money you get from tax is so paltry and you gain it so rarely that it's not worth worrying about.)
On the other hand, Korgrak is hiding out in a caved filled with gnawed bones, he's bothered the Dyrwood villagers enough that they've put a price on his head, and he's so easy to provoke into violence that you can do so just by trying to be diplomatic.
Yeah, it ended in a fight, as I knew it would. Afterwards, I was able to loot a pair of Gauntlets of Might +2 from his pile of trophies. And most of my party members gained enough xp to be able to level up, although I plan to hold off on that until the rest of them can level up as well.
Exiting the cave through a different entrance, I found myself at the top of a cliff, unable to get down. I'll need to go back the way I came.
I also found the corpse of a Skaenite cultist, carrying a note giving directions to their hideout and a key that would have been very useful if I'd come here first instead of forcing my way into Trygil's back room.
To the north, I came across the nest from which Hendyna tried to steal a dragon egg. She failed and got badly burnt for it, so she sent me to make a second attempt, promising a fair reward if I succeeded.
However, a group of bandits had the same idea and they're not keen on sharing. Worse than that, they want to rob and murder me and my companions.
Fortunately, they had a few things worth looting from their corpses, including a ridiculous helmet I gave to Sagani.
After that, I sent Edér (because he has the highest Athletics score) to scale the cliff and retrieve the dragon egg. I then had him gently lower it down with a rope, rather than risk breaking it. He was successful in his mission and the dragon egg is now in my stash.
It didn't take long to clear out the rest of the area. There were a few wyrms, pŵgras and forest lurkers, but nothing particularly exciting.
The ensuing fight wasn't too difficult. But I'm amazed that no one downstairs came up to complain about the noise we were making. The Dracogen Inn's discretion must be legendary.
Definitely kept Korgrak as a guard on my first run. Even it lowered prestige, it is mighty funny having this giant at the gates and idiot raids kept coming to attack my place. Though why an ogre would need those gauntlets is anyone's guess.
Definitely kept Korgrak as a guard on my first run. Even it lowered prestige, it is mighty funny having this giant at the gates and idiot raids kept coming to attack my place.
I've done that before. He is quite expensive though, especially considering that he reduces the amount of tax money you're likely to get from the stronghold. Although I suppose it doesn't matter since by the end of the game you'll probably have more money than you can spend.
It's not always Gauntlets of Might +2. There are quite a few different magic items that can be found on that skeleton, thanks to POE1's truly bizarre 'random' loot system, which I recently learned is determined by the in-game day of the month. Which means that if you're determined to get hold of certain very rare and useful items (such as the Gloves of Manipulation, for example), you'll need to visit the areas where they can be found on specific days. And if you miss those days, you might have to wait an entire in-game month to have a chance of finding them again. It's probably the strangest loot generation system I've ever heard of.
When I get to Clîaban Rilag, Edér is quick to remind me that this is where I can continue his personal quest.
I need to find out what happened to Edér's brother, Woden, somehow. Maybe there's a wandering spirit I can talk to. Or some kind of evidence left behind after the battle that took place here during the Saint's War. Fifteen years have passed since then, so I'm not especially hopeful.
I come across a group of Glanfathans standing guard. Apparently, a group of intruders have already entered the ruins and they intend to ambush them when they come out. They've already been waiting a long time.
I tell them that we have the same enemy and suggest an alliance. However, I am unable to persuade them: not only do they adamantly refuse to let me enter the ruins, but they tell me to leave and never come back.
If they see me again, they will attack, which is annoying because it's quite easy to bump into them by accident while exploring the area.
As I continue to explore, I come across a pair of looters who plan to sneak into the ruins. They take offense when they see the Eothasian talisman Edér wears around his neck. And they clearly suffer from suicidal overconfidence because they decide to attack while being outnumbered by more than three-to-one.
While I was looting the looters' camp, I found a piece from a Readceran battle standard, a relic of the battle that took place here so long ago.
If I wasn't a Cipher, I could either get Grieving Mother to examine it or I could travel back to Defiance Bay and ask someone from Dunryd Row to take a look at it. But Gianni is a Cipher, so he can use his psychometric powers to find out more about the history of the Readceran battle standard and the people who've touched it in the past.
Because of the familial connection between them, I'm able to use Edér's soul as a guide while I'm searching for traces of his brother. Along the way, I catch glimpses of a one-room home in Gilded Vale and a path that leads north to a Readceran city, regal and austere in the Aedyre imperial style. There, sitting on a throne, is a man whose head is pure, blinding white. Saint Waidwen himself.
When Woden left Gilded Vale, he claimed he was going to join the Dyrwoodan army and defend his homeland. Despite this, he must have travelled north and joined the Readceran army instead. What was his reason for doing so? There's no way to know. Woden has been dead for more than a decade and this rusted relic carries only a few faint memories of him.
Edér is not happy with this. He demands to know more. Why would his brother betray the Dyrwood? What reason could he have? However, I have no answers to give him.
Well, that's the end of his personal quest. It was a shaggy dog story all along.
I find another entrance to the Engwithan ruins, which means I can avoid the Glanfathan guards. But this requires a difficult jump, which causes Eleni to injure herself. (She now has a Sprained Wrist, giving her a -15 penalty to her Deflection, which will last until I decide to rest again. Since she's a ranged fighter who should always stay out of melee range as much as possible, it shouldn't make much of a difference.)
Inside, I find the crumbling remains of a once-great civilization, partially covered in moss and fungi, infested by trolls, oozes and swamp spores, where a few corrupted druids seem to have sneaked in without any of the Glanfathans noticing. Maybe they got in the same why I did. I'm assuming they're not the agents of the Leaden Key I came here to find.
I decided to rest before descending to the lower levels.
At this point, Edér wants to talk to me. First, he apologizes for his earlier behaviour and hopes that he didn't seem too ungrateful back there on the battlefield. He is disappointed that he didn't get the answers he was looking for and he's wondering if he was fighting for the wrong side during the Saint's War. Still, even if he didn't get the closure he wanted, he seems glad he made the attempt. So it wasn't an entirely wasted journey, I guess.
The lower levels are much more intact and are guarded by animats, as well as blights, phantoms and other spirits.
On one of the wrecked animats, I found an amulet that grants +2 Perception. But I already have a cloak that grants +3 Perception and a bonus to Stealth, so never mind.
Here, in the heart of Clîaban Rilag, there is a machine just like the one I saw in Cilant Lîs, back at the beginning of the game. And, just like then, there are some corpses that have been reduced to ash.
When I touch one of the corpses, I have another vision. It turns out that the Leaden Key have been using these machines all over the Dyrwood. Their purpose is to strip newborn babies of their souls. They are the true cause of the Hollowborn Crisis and why it has continued for so long.
I rather like Edér's reactions, from his initial anger and disappointment to his more accepting response once he had time to process it, feels very natural.
Also ooh twist, does this mean the game is almost over?
I'm sorry but I may have missed it but have you done the Soulbound weapons questline? The one where you have to travel to the tutorial was one of my favs. That's what the end of the post reminds me of.
Eder's brother story feels ... hmm. It feels incomplete. See, PoE1 companions suffer the same issues that New Vegas companions have, in the sense that they basically turn into murderbots under the players' control outside of their questlines (something PoE2 goes out of their way to fix with approvals and disapprovals). I looked up the average playtime of PoE1 and NV and it's about 36 hours vs 28 hours, give or take, not including expansions.
However, NV allows you to have one companion + one ED-E/Rex whereas you have a party of five plus you. So you got a tiny squad of murderhobos with you, going for so long in silence, until their quest kicks in and the game remembers they're supposed to be 'real people'.
I recall doing Segani's quest, going to the spot where her trigger was supposed to be, realising I didn't have her in my party, put her back in, and then her quest triggered. It kinda ruined the immersion for me, even if none of the questlines ruined the characters for me at all. Eder has very little to say post tutorial village until all the way to the end of his questline overall. Part of this is because the game isn't fully voice acted, so you can't have that Red Dead Redemption 2 bit of hanging around in camp and eavesdropping of people chatting with each other.
Not sure where I'm going with this, but I guess I kinda wanna say that, boy, this game needed more companion interactions.
I'm sorry but I may have missed it but have you done the Soulbound weapons questline? The one where you have to travel to the tutorial was one of my favs. That's what the end of the post reminds me of.
Almost all of the soulbound weapons were added to POE1 by the White March expansion packs, which I don't intend to go through in this Let's Play. I've already met Ponamu Bird-Scorned, a merchant who was added by one of the patches, but none of the soulbound weapons he has for sale are much good to my party. So I probably won't be doing any soulbound weapons quests.
See, PoE1 companions suffer the same issues that New Vegas companions have, in the sense that they basically turn into murderbots under the players' control outside of their questlines (something PoE2 goes out of their way to fix with approvals and disapprovals). I looked up the average playtime of PoE1 and NV and it's about 36 hours vs 28 hours, give or take, not including expansions.
However, NV allows you to have one companion + one ED-E/Rex whereas you have a party of five plus you. So you got a tiny squad of murderhobos with you, going for so long in silence, until their quest kicks in and the game remembers they're supposed to be 'real people'.
I recall doing Segani's quest, going to the spot where her trigger was supposed to be, realising I didn't have her in my party, put her back in, and then her quest triggered. It kinda ruined the immersion for me, even if none of the questlines ruined the characters for me at all. Eder has very little to say post tutorial village until all the way to the end of his questline overall. Part of this is because the game isn't fully voice acted, so you can't have that Red Dead Redemption 2 bit of hanging around in camp and eavesdropping of people chatting with each other.
Not sure where I'm going with this, but I guess I kinda wanna say that, boy, this game needed more companion interactions.
I don't mind that since I'm more used to games like Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, in which there are hardly any recruitable party members that have any dialogue beyond the initial meeting with them. By comparison, POE1 has a profusion of companion dialogues, reactions and interactions.
Heya. Sorry it's been a while. I try to update this Let's Play after I've updated my latest fic (which I haven't cross-posted to Sufficient Velocity, but whatever) and it took me nearly two months to do that this time. Anyway, I'll get on with this, shall I?
Last time, Gianni Baldassare discovered that the Leaden Key are behind the Hollowborn Crisis. They've been using ancient animantic devices to steal the souls from newborn babies. They're basically magitek terrorists, intent on causing terrified, grief-stricken people to blame clueless modern-day animancers and burn them at the stake. For a long time, they've been running a secret racket – their leader, Thaos ix Arkannon, knows more about animancy than anyone else in the world – and they don't want anyone else to join in.
After my most recent vision, in which I discovered what the Leaden Key were doing with the ancient Engwithan machine here in Clîaban Rilag, Sagani has finally come to accept that I am in fact a Watcher. Which presumably means that she's been humouring me up until now.
I can get back to the dungeon entrance by swimming through a watery tunnel. It's a shortcut.
Along the way, I find a magic weapon. It's a morningstar, so it's completely useless to me, but I should be able to sell it for a decent amount.
After that, there's no reason for me to stay here, so I'm going to head back to Dyrford Village.
In Dyrford Village, I spoke to Rumbald and gave him the head of the ogre who'd stolen and eaten all of his pigs. He was suitably appreciative; he gave me a blunderbuss, some money and a small pet piglet. Thanks, I guess. Another useless pet for my collection.
Back in Defiance Bay, I headed back to Brackenbury to tell Lady Webb what I'd discovered.
She wants me to attend the animancy hearings in the palace so I can inform the Dyrwood's ruler, Aevar Wolf-Grin, of what the Leaden Key have been doing. Also, this will be my chance to tell everyone whether I think animancy should be banned or not.
The animancy hearings are closed to the general public, but certain powerful groups have been invited to attend: the Crucible Knights, the Doemenals and the Dozens. Lady Webb recommends that I try to get myself invited to the hearings as the guest of one of those groups.
The Crucible Knights like me a lot because of all the work I've done for them, so...
Despite what happened with the forge knights (the robots that went crazy and tried to kill everyone), Commander Clyver still believes that animancy has great potential to be used for good. And he believes that my thoughts are the same as his, so he happily invites me to the animancy hearings, presuming that I will corroborate the Crucible Knights' official stance on the matter.
When I returned to Lady Webb, I asked her to tell me more about her history with Thaos. She admitted that she knew him and fell in love with him when she was a much younger woman. Before long, he had enticed her to become a member of the Leaden Key and use her Cipher powers for their benefit, which she did because she thought it would please him. However, she sensed that Thaos and his underlings were keeping her in the dark, telling lies and hiding the truth from her. Eventually, she'd had enough of this treatment, so she decided to leave the Leaden Key. In a way, she was challenging Thaos, expecting that he would have her hunted down and killed for defying him. But it never happened. He left her alone after that.
In the decades since then, she has devoted a lot of time and effort to finding out as much about him as possible and trying to uncover the secrets he's been hiding. That's one of the reasons why she founded Dunryd Row.
I inform Lady Webb that I've been invited to the animancy hearings as a guest of the Crucible Knights. She seems pleased with me. She tells me to head over the palace as soon as possible, inform Duc Aevar about the real reason for the Hollowborn Crisis, and unite all of the Dyrwood against Thaos.
Apparently, there's a very old bottle of brandy she's been saving for a special occasion. If I hurry back after the hearing, maybe she'll share it with me…
At the Ducal Palace, I'm told to head to a balcony on the second floor, from which I will be able to present my case to Duc Aevar Wolf-Grin.
The Duc's robes are very monk-like, just like all the other robes in this game. Or is that just the fashion here in the Dyrwood?
The Dozens are very much not in favour of animancy, despite the fact that the main reason why many animancers come to the Dyrwood is to study the relics looted from Engwithan ruins by members of the Dozens.
Yeah, I think that's my cue. I don't know if you remember Caedman Azo from earlier in this Let's Play. He was one of the animancers at the Brackenbury Sanitarium: an unpleasant man who was performing unethical experiments, but I have some sympathy for him because his work was sabotaged and he was used as a scapegoat by Thaos and the Leaden Key.
I'm not sure I understand the arguments of either Eadric Morley (the representative from the Dozens) or Duc Aevar Wolf-Grin here. If the incident involving Caedman Azo (in which he thought he'd cured a Hollowborn child, but she was actually being possessed by Thaos, who proceeded to have her kill herself in a gruesome and public manner) is being held up as an example of why animancy is bad, surely it matters that sabotage was going on?
Eadric is a ranting fanatic who's ready to blame animancy for everything bad that's ever happened, but I expected better of Duc Aevar.
I've travelled up and down the country trying to find out the truth of what's been going on. I've been to places most people wouldn't dare to go, searching for answers. Yeah, I've been everywhere, man. And I'm here today to share with you some of the things I've discovered.
I dislike the fact that I have to be so evasive here. It seems to me that the truth would serve much better than pussyfooting around the whole issue, saying things like "There's no proof that animancers were responsible."
If it were up to me, this is what I'd say: "Yes, there were animancers messing around with the ancient Engwithan machine in Heritage Hill. However, they never got as far as learning how to activate it. Instead, someone murdered them while they were asleep and then activated the machine, which caused them to wake up as undead monstrosities. One of them maintained just enough of his sanity to tell me what had happened and try to turn the machine off, although he was in quite an advanced state of deterioration by that point. I was never able to track down the murderer who started it all, but presumably they were trying to make it seem like the animancers were to blame, just like what happened with Caedman Azo."
What happened to Eadric's children was a tragedy, just like all the other tragedies that have happened because of the Hollowborn Crisis. However, his lashing out in a rage helps no one. The Leaden Key have manipulated him and many others like him, turning them into weapons against animancy and the people who dabble in it.
Honestly, I think Thaos has been wasting his time trying to discredit animancy here in the Dyrwood, which was already suspicious of animancy and which most of Eora's other nations see as a backwards and primitive place. In the Vailian Republics, the study of animancy is much more advanced (in the sequel, one of them figures out how to use animancy to teleport). If the Vailians heard about the Hollowborn Crisis and were told that it was because of animancy, they'd probably assume it was because the Dyrwoodans are a bunch of dolts who have no idea how to use animancy correctly; it wouldn't dissuade them from continuing to study animancy, not in the least.
If I were Thaos, I'd have engineered some cataclysmic event, like the mythical sinking of Atlantis, in one of the Vailian Republics, told everyone else that it happened because they'd delved too greedily and too deep in their study of animancy, and then sat back and watched as all the other nations hastened to ban animancy for fear of suffering the same fate. Thaos's actual plan is much too indirect and unlikely to affect the places where the study of animancy is most prominent.
Well, I finally got to say what I've been wanting to say since the beginning of this trial. Shame no one wants to hear it. Not even the representative from the Crucible Knights.
Animancy has great power. A small group of people, the Leaden Key, understand it better than everyone else, which is how they've been able to use the machines of ancient Engwith to steal the souls of unborn children. Today, they're trying to terrorize you into exterminating anyone else who studies animancy, so its power will be theirs alone. Don't you wonder what they will do with its power tomorrow? The only way to protect yourselves is to learn as much about animancy as possible, so you know how to combat it. That's how I was able to shut down the machine in Heritage Hill.
You can certainly see the bones of KOTOR II a bit with the hearing but it's not done as well I'm afraid. Thaos is supposed to be this evil mastermind but he falls short compared to Kreia or Caesar. A shame that while I don't think it's all THAT good, it's probably one of the game's highlights.
You can certainly see the bones of KOTOR II a bit with the hearing but it's not done as well I'm afraid. Thaos is supposed to be this evil mastermind but he falls short compared to Kreia or Caesar.
I honestly hadn't thought about it like that. But I suppose it's like The Victorian keeps saying: Obsidian were praised for the writing in their previous games, so they started to believe their writing was great even when it wasn't.
Contrary to a bunch of other people who've praised Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire for being better than the first game in every way, I actually think the writing is much worse in POE2, even if it's not quite so overwritten. Maybe that's just because I hate the ending so much, but when I tried to replay it recently (in an attempt to get my money's worth out of it), I got about halfway through and felt so bored with it that I just couldn't continue. This was despite the fact that I've played through POE1 at least four times. Yeah, POE1 isn't a great game, which I think we've firmly established by now, but I find it rather comforting, and at least the ending leaves me with the feeling that the main character actually achieved something over the course of the game.
Anyway, part of the problem with the storyline in POE1 is that the disparate parts don't mesh together very well. They wanted the setting to be a fantasy version of post-Revolutionary USA, but without slavery and a few other things that modern audiences would find objectionable, so it's a rough-and-tumble sort of place full of gung-ho freedom-loving types, despite the fact that it still seems to have a hereditary aristocracy. Meanwhile, the main villain, Thaos ix Arkannon is an immortal mastermind with immense power, the leader of a cult that has spread all over the known world, and utterly dedicated to preventing anyone from uncovering the secrets of animancy. It makes no sense for him to dedicate so much time and effort to stamping out animancy in the Dyrwood, which the rest of the world sees as an impoverished, unsophisticated backwater, where the study of animancy was never very well-established or well-funded to begin with.
I think that's a bit too unkind a take on Obsidian. Like, I don't even know how you would 'measure' that. After all, this was just after New Vegas and NV didn't have this vaunted reputation back then like it does today. They probably don't even think they're great writers even back then.
Overall, playing their games like PoE, PoE2, Tyranny, they're still one of the better studios when it comes to writing. They've certainly got stiff competition with the likes of Disco Elysium and BG3, but I wouldn't say they've got bad writing. Middling at times maybe, but not bad. After all, Pentiment is absolutely excellent.
That being said, PoE is not the best written story ever. But I'll give my thoughts at the end of the playthrough.
I think that's a bit too unkind a take on Obsidian. Like, I don't even know how you would 'measure' that. After all, this was just after New Vegas and NV didn't have this vaunted reputation back then like it does today. They probably don't even think they're great writers even back then.
I don't think POE1's writing is irredeemably awful. Otherwise, I wouldn't keep playing it. However, I do think that back then they had a devoted group of fans who kept telling them how great their writing was, and they bought into that hype.
Apparently, there's a very old bottle of brandy she's been saving for a special occasion. If I hurry back after the hearing, maybe she'll share it with me…
Yes, I remember watching a very informative documentary on the internet that began in much the same way. Mind you, I'm still not sure why the woman needed to take all of her clothes off...
Very good. Top anime of the season in my opinion. Beautiful art style, some stunning animation for some fight scenes and a dance, the music is great and the characters and their relationships are top notch. Also, very, very light on the fanservice, which is a surprise with two women as the leads.
Pigs, or more often boards, can become utterly gigantic. There's a guy in china who rides his pig to marker, his feet don't even touch the ground. Suffice to say, there's a reason lots of mythic heroes died by boar.
Yes, I remember watching a very informative documentary on the internet that began in much the same way. Mind you, I'm still not sure why the woman needed to take all of her clothes off...
What WestOrEast said, I would also add its got an incredibly long and lovingly written and drawn manga, as well as a rich and mysterious world and engaging themes that tackling the concepts of time, grief, growth and more. Its never really grim, but has a bitter sweet tinge to it.
