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Donkringel
Apr 22, 2008
Check out the 'aze, and Shadow. Current Party fine

I am curious about the maze, I hosed it up in all sorts of interesting and never quite understood it.

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Olive Branch
May 26, 2010

There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance.

Maple Leaf posted:

Where do YOU think we should go? Do we go north and search for Gareth? Do we go south into the shiny cave? Or do we go southeast and tackle Braccus’s la’rinth?

Also, now that we know where our companions go when they’re dismissed, do you want to swap anyone out?

And finally, what do you think is the answer to Deidara’s riddle?

Let me know soon!
Where there is a shiny cave, there is treasure. Check out the shiny cave first!

I think Lohse deserves a turn. Let Ifan sit this round out.

That riddle is no Tolkien. Shadow.

Poil
Mar 17, 2007

Why would a shadow shrink in the afternoon? Wouldn't it grow as the sun gets lower? And why disappear at midnight? Surely it'll be gone from dusk to dawn? :saddowns:

Schwartzcough
Aug 12, 2009

Don't tease the Octopus, kids!

Black Robe posted:

Gareth first, let's get these collars off. Unless that locks us out of being able to explore the other places, I want to check them both out eventually too.

Current party continues to be fine I think.

The riddle is shadow.

Yeah, this. As long as the "current party" swapped Ifan out for Lohse. I thought we did that, but then Ifan showed up to cast healing magic, so I'm not sure.

Olive Branch
May 26, 2010

There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance.

Poil posted:

Why would a shadow shrink in the afternoon? Wouldn't it grow as the sun gets lower? And why disappear at midnight? Surely it'll be gone from dusk to dawn? :saddowns:
I mean, now that you mention it, "Sun" is probably a better answer as it "stands tall" in the sky, "shrinks" as it sets, and is gone at night. The way I saw it was that the shadow would eventually blend into all darkness when night fell, since shadows only exist when there is light.

Schwartzcough
Aug 12, 2009

Don't tease the Octopus, kids!

Poil posted:

Why would a shadow shrink in the afternoon? Wouldn't it grow as the sun gets lower? And why disappear at midnight? Surely it'll be gone from dusk to dawn? :saddowns:

I think "afternoon" means when the sun is overhead. In the evening, the shadows would get long again.

Maple Leaf
Aug 24, 2010

Let'en my post flyen true

Schwartzcough posted:

Yeah, this. As long as the "current party" swapped Ifan out for Lohse. I thought we did that, but then Ifan showed up to cast healing magic, so I'm not sure.

I only swapped her in to identify some equipment for me, and then I swapped her back out.

Slaan
Mar 16, 2009



ASHERAH DEMANDS I FEAST, I VOTE FOR A FEAST OF FLESH
Lohse for Prince

Go to the Shiny Cave and 'aze

GuavaMoment
Aug 13, 2006

YouTube dude
Lohse instead of Ifan, and the 'aze

Olive Branch
May 26, 2010

There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance.

Maple Leaf told me to post this here. From someone on Reddit, the multiplayer experience.

mastersord
Feb 15, 2001

Gold Card Putty Fan Club
Member Since 2017!
Soiled Meat
It was probably already brought up, but we could've went this route: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFmV2WA64tQ

Did they ever patch this?

Maple Leaf
Aug 24, 2010

Let'en my post flyen true
They did not, as I believe it's considered a feature. iirc all the modern speedrunning routes involve Telekinesis abuse like that.

The mod I'm using, Divinity: Unleashed, did patch it out, however, and now Telekinesis cannot lift more than your physical carry capacity.

Maple Leaf
Aug 24, 2010

Let'en my post flyen true
For this next update, we overwhelmingly voted to head north and go to Gareth’s last known whereabouts, but the vote for the party was a bit more split. Some of us wanted to swap either Ifan or Prince out for Lohse, but the majority vote was to keep it as is, so we’re going to be rocking this setup for the time.

But first! While I’m on the topic of ‘things we voted to do,’ there was a third question I had posed to the thread.



There was some confusion over Deidara’s wording of the riddle, but we landed on the consensus that the answer was a person’s shadow.

: Oh! Yes! You are the first one to ever get it right, no kidding! You get a prime discount on our Sourcerous Sundries!

So, that’s good! Now her wares are going to be a bit less expensive.



… wait. This is more expensive. It cost 6,510 coins in the last update and now it costs 6,640. Did I… remove something that gave me additional Bartering? Is the game bugged?

I have no idea how this happened. It’s not a big deal because I wasn’t planning on buying anything from her any time soon, but it’s also kind of a kick in the pants that I answered her riddle correctly and my reward is explicitly the opposite of what she said it’d be.

Well… at least we got it right.



Now, before we get to rescuing Gareth, there’s a handful of things I’d like to do first. Among them is to do a bunch of shopping/pickpocketing, which I’ll get to in a second, but first, as I was writing the last update, I realized that I forgot to have Lohse identify a staff that I happened to pick up a while back. One quick scan later, and this staff is leagues better than what Prince already has – and it has a slot, meaning I can finally take about those runes.

So: occasionally, when you pick up a weapon, any defensive gear, or an amulet, there might be a small, hollowed out white circle on the gear’s icon. That indicates that the gear can hold a rune, and runes can give that gear additional bonuses. Breastplates can even have up to three empty slots for runes towards the end game.

This staff that Prince just got has a rune slot available, and I have a small selection of runes to choose to give it.





I have a fire rune, a masterwork rune, and a poison rune to choose from. What kind of bonuses you get from the rune depends on the rune’s element and in what equipment it’s being slotted into – for example, if I were to slot that fire rune into Prince’s weapon…




His staff does an additional 9% fire damage, adding to its total. Before this rune, the staff did 56-68 fire damage, and now, it does 61-74. You don’t have to slot fire runes into fire weapons: if I slotted in that poison rune, Prince’s staff would do fire damage and an additional 9% damage as poison.

Slots on weapons always do bonus damage and slots on armour always grant resistances to that rune’s element (fire, in this case), but slots on amulets generally do something altogether different: if I put that fire rune into an amulet, it’d grant whoever wears it an additional 3% chance to land a critical hit.

There’s a bevy of customization options that you can give your equipment to better adjust your playstyle, if you have the slots and the runes. Runes are recyclable, too: if you find a better weapon but you want to keep the rune, you can just take it out and use it for something later.

We’re still very early in the game and we’re only finding small runes here and there, but they’ll be getting bigger and better as time goes on, and there’s a rare crafting ingredient that you can use with runes to make them even better than that. Those ingredients are not recyclable, though, so you’ll want to know for sure that that’s what you want before you spend it.

So, there you go: that’s how you work with runes in Divinity: Original Sin 2. They’re powerful trinkets to have and equipment with slots are going to get more and more common as we progress.



On to the shopping: first, I pay a visit to Kalias, my best friend and fence.



He doesn’t have enough money to take all of my wares at once, but I can at least clean him out and get some extra spending money now.



First on my spree is this guy, Kerban. He sells Necromancer and Summoner skillbooks. I help myself to three books and then, after perusing his wares, I take a poison gas trap and every last coin he has – a whopping 1,082. That perfectly maxes out her gold value bar and concludes my business with Kerban.



Next is Samadel, the lizard warrior tending to Han. She sells Pyromancer stuff – good stuff, too. I take every book that she has that Prince doesn’t already know.



Simone, the camp’s cook and stand-in nurse, is sitting in an incredibly awkward spot for me to pickpocket. She’s sitting with her back to a wall and even if she weren’t, she’s being watched on all sides by others, including the patients in her infirmary. She’s essentially impossible to pickpocket.

That’s fine, though. She only sells Hydrosophist stuff, and Lohse isn’t on my team at the moment.



Exter is nexter: he sells Scoundrel and Polymorph, meaning Sebille’s got her pick of the lot. She picks up four books, one Scoundrel and three Polymorph, as well as some armour for Ifan (as a consolation prize, since he didn’t get the epic set Sebille’s wearing) and an icy nailbomb grenade for herself.



Our second-last stop is with Bahara. She sells Wayfarer books. I actually help myself to every single one because I realized that I can just use the ones I need and then sell the rest back to Kalias for more money.



The last one to pickpocket is Gratiana, but she, like Simone, is in an awkward spot that’s being watched. She’s not impossible to pickpocket, but if I were to try…



She gives me a bit of generic sass and her attitude with Sebille specifically goes down. Which is fine; Sebille isn’t the face of my group. But if it goes down far enough, Gratiana will eventually fight me, and I’d, well, I’d rather avoid that, if I can.

The person keeping their eyes on Gratiana’s back is that dwarf that’s tending to Leya. So the obvious solution is to speak to him until he turns away.



And I mean that literally. His model has to literally not be looking in Gratiana’s direction for it to count.

Anyway, now that that’s done with:



Gratiana’s got a few random skillbooks, but she primarily deals with Aerothurge. Although I’m most interested in her gear: she’s got some powerful amulets that can be used once I get these collars off and some really nice rings.



Unfortunately, I steal a ring and a poison potion before she realizes she’s been had, and I have to cut my pickpocketing short. Fane stopped talking to her after he took damage from the blessed water, breaking her focus and allowing her to realize that she’s been victimized. It’s a bit of a bummer, but, what can you do.



Everything that’s bolded in Sebille’s bag is brand new stuff that she’s gotten from her pickpocketing spree. Let’s dole out some ill-gotten gains to my party members and see what we got.

Death Wish: Become immune to healing, but deal additional damage proportionate to the percentage of HP you have missing. For example, a character with 30% HP remaining will deal 70% additional damage. Deals damage to the target over time.

Infect: Infect a target within arm’s reach with a disease that will spread to other characters. Infected targets deal reduced damage and have less Constitution.

Fireball: Hurl a sphere of fire at a target that explodes on impact, leaving down a lake of fire at the detonation site.

Searing Daggers: Throw three daggers made of fire at three targets of your choice, leaving down a surface of fire upon impact.

Spontaneous Combustion: Deal fire damage to an enemy. If that enemy is already on fire, remove the fire and deal additional damage for each turn of duration remaining.

Supernova: The caster explodes, dealing massive fire damage to all targets (including friendlies, and including the caster!) nearby and leaving a fire surface within the radius. Can be blocked by obstacles.

Medusa Head: Transform your hair into snakes, giving you an Ossifying Aura and the Petrifying Image skill. Incompatible with Bull Horns.

Heart Of Steel: Your skin turns to solid steel, giving you a massive bonus to physical armour for one turn.

Spread Your Wings: Sprout wings that allow you to fly to higher or lower ground with ease. Ignore all surfaces and their effects while wings are sprouted. Incompatible with Spider Legs.

Dimensional Bolt: Fire a bolt of… something. Its damage is randomized each time (and can include non-elemental, physical damage). Create a corresponding surface upon impact.

Ricochet: Fire a single arrow at a target that can fork up to two times at other targets.

Sky Shot: Leap into the air before firing an arrow, guaranteeing height advantage bonus damage, regardless of actual elevation differences.

Sawtooth Knife: Deal damage that ignores physical armour. Sets Bleed if the target has no physical armour to begin with.

I also have a spare Impalement skillbook that I got from, um, ‘defeating’ Scapor in the previous update, and I give that to Ifan.



And with an update to Ifan’s wardrobe, we’re finally about ready to progress. We have a dude to find and rescue.

I won’t be able to use every single new skill that I got because I don’t have the memory for them all, even after I’ve been putting at least one point into it for everybody with each level up. The Memory stat is very important! You’ll want to give it some special attention for, like, half the game, at least.



On my way to the fortress up north, I pass by the scene of the fight with the salamanders from the last update – and by pure chance, I come across this upraised mound of dirt that’s significantly camouflaged underneath the blood and poison. My mouse icon flickered to something else as I was moving. That’s very lucky!




Unusually, rather than a treasure chest or a trap, we’re given some equipment instead. A pair of gloves called Second Skin; a ring called Ring Of Intelligence; and a helmet called Mask Of Strength.



Is it time? Is it finally time to retire the bucket?

As entertaining as it’s been to be rocking a bucket for the past twelve hours of gameplay, there’s only so far it can take me before I start to need more armour and bonuses and, uh, less negative-Initiative before I need to swap it out. And that +1 Strength and that rune slot are looking too good to pass up.



It’s finally time for a new look.

That Ring of Intelligence goes well on Prince, predictably granting him +1 Intelligence, and the gloves grant +1 Finesse and +1 Huntsman, meaning it’s go amazingly on Ifan. And they all have slots!

I give Ifan’s gloves the masterwork rune, giving him +9% additional physical armour, and I give Prince’s ring the poison rune, giving him +5% accuracy, which, in theory, should put him up to 100%. We’ll see if he ever misses again (assuming he isn’t affected by other statuses).

Putting poison runes on armour gives that armour additional poison resistance. If you have over 100% resistance to an element, you will instead heal yourself whenever you’re exposed to that element. You’d think that means I should put the poison rune into Fane’s helmet, which would allow him to heal for more whenever he’s poisoned, but he already has 200% resistance to poison thanks to being undead, and the game is hard-coded to not let you go above 200%. So, poison runes on armour that undead are wearing is useless, which at least opens those runes up for others.




A bit of a hike later, and we’re standing in the pinch point that separates the north and the south ends of the Hollow Marshes, a stone’s throw from the fight with the Deep-Dweller. Gareth’s last known location was a short ways north of here.



Oh, that’s kind of sad. And a little foreboding. This bear was probably just minding their own business.

There’s no blood or any visible wounds – I wonder what killed it?



We’re on the fortress wall, just a little bit above the high ground platform in the fight with the Deep-Dweller. You can still see the mess of water and steam and poison from that fight lingering in place.



Eventually, the path splits, going west and north. North takes us to the fortress while the bridge going west has been destroyed. If it weren’t, it’d take us straight to Zaleskar.



The place has been pretty badly run down, but that’s not a huge surprise, considering it’s apparently been around since the days of Braccus Rex and he’s been dead for centuries. That said, though, the door is wide open and I can see fire in the courtyard just ahead, so, that’s not an ideal outlook.



Just ahead are four Magisters, by my count. They’re casually standing around the occasional fire bed and talking about how apparently one Seeker is refusing to lie down and die. Sounds like we have our man.

Better introduce ourselves!



: I’m no Sourcerer. The Magisters that collared me took one look at my beard and got intimidated by it.

: Persuasion Failure!

: You expect me to swallow that? I’ll see you choke on your lies!

That’s okay, I didn’t actually want to win that persuasion check anyway.

Before I start this fight, I get my guys into position. Since Ifan is the one that triggered this conversation, he’s the one that’s locked into place, meaning Fane is free to move somewhere more strategic for his liking.




Fane sticks himself directly behind their tank and one of their rangers – and they’re all just okay with him doing that, since the combat hasn’t technically initiated yet – while Prince takes a more ‘managerial’ position way, way up on one of the fortress’s towers. It gives him massive range, essentially the entire battlefield, while keeping him well out of the fight, and it also keeps him literally above everyone else, which I’m sure he’d enjoy.

Not pictured: Sebille standing elsewhere, on a risen wall on the opposite side of the arena.

That ought to be good enough: let’s get this party started.




: Dancing With The Source
: Crashing The Courtyard

Turn 1

The Knight that Fane wanted to focus down moves first, giving himself Sparkstriker. That’s a useful technique that some people in the thread told me to invest in and I haven’t gotten around to it yet :sweatdrop:

He casts Spontaneous Combustion on Fane, which does bonus damage if the target is already on fire, so it essentially just tickles him. And then he passes his turn – but not before turning around, looking right at Fane’s direction and revealing his hiding spot. That’s kind of a bummer.



Salem’s turn is next, and the Ranger goes right after him – so Sebille takes this opportunity to put him to sleep with some Chloroform.




Prince, likewise, takes the opportunity to fling a Fireball across the entire map, hitting Ranger 2 and the Swordsman with an ICBM.




Salem finally takes his turn, and he uses it to approach Ranger 2 and to claw at her shins. This arena is fairly small and all of the elevated areas are easily accessible, so Salem likely won’t see a lot of utility beyond a bit of scratch damage and a meat shield/distraction.

Ranger 1 goes next, using his turn to wake up.






There’s another high ground spot close enough to Ifan that he can use Tactical Retreat to reach. Unlike what I just said, this spot in particular would be very difficult for anyone to walk to, so it’s a great spot for Ifan to perch on and pluck away at anyone from a distance. However, his field of view is a bit narrow thanks to the wall to his left, and this spot makes it really awkward to Encourage anyone.

Oh well: he casts Impalement on Ranger 1 and the Knight and he calls it a turn. Impalement, like Fossil Strike, puts down oil where it’s cast, and it touched one of the embers lingering on the field, doing extra fire damage to both.




The Swordsman uses Deflecting Barrier and Fortify on himself, putting out the fire that Prince just laid down. An extremely defensive move.




Attendant is going to be awkward to play with: Prince, despite having a highly tactical perch, is nonetheless a fair distance away from the actual conflict. If Attendant moves too far away from him, it’ll go Mad.

All the same, Attendant walks forward a bit, accidentally sets itself on fire, uses Restoration to put it out, and then repositions once more. Hopefully its effective range is just a bit higher.






Ranger 2 uses First Aid on herself to put out her own fire, and then immediately turns and runs through another lakebed of it, immediately undoing her own efforts. I’m playing on the hardest difficulty.

That said, she does use Throw Dust onto Fane, getting dust into his eye sockets and inhibiting his eyesight. That’s actually really annoying, because he’ll have to walk through the fire to hit anyone with his reduced effective range.




Sebille typically doesn’t want the high ground, at least if she isn’t planning on throwing a bottle of Chloroform – she’s a rogue that wants to get in and start inserting knives into places they shouldn’t. She uses Cloak And Dagger to get into the thick of the fight with Fane, and then Tentacle Lash on Ranger 1, forcing him to drop his crossbow.




Prince does what he does best: he buffs and creates other creatures to do the work for him. He gives Fane the Think Fast combo (and Clear Mind actually cures Fane of his Blindness without cancelling Clear Mind, which is a big plus), and then he puts down a fire totem.



Which promptly fires on the Knight. I’m trying to focus down Ranger 1, but whatever, they both need to go eventually.




And finally, Fane hits both the Knight and Ranger 1 with Battle Stomp, knocking them both down and clearing the way for him to approach, before landing a crit on the Knight.




Turn 2

Fane immediately goes next thanks to Clear Mind and thanks to him no longer wearing a bucket that reduces his Initiative. He hits the Knight with Infect – on top of it doing a ton of debuffs and spreading those debuffs to other enemies, it also just hits really goddamn hard, in exchange for costing 3 AP, which is above average.

Fane caps his turn with Whirlwind, hitting both Ranger 1 and the Knight, and even landing a second crit on the Knight. I intended to focus down Ranger 1 first, but the Knight is a hit, maybe two, from death already.





The Knight uses a Cluster Grenade on Sebille, which is basically him summoning a small meteor storm on her. It doesn’t look nearly as impressive as it sounds.

To end his turn, he uses Blitz Attack on the totem and on Sebille, killing the totem and putting Sebille down to roughly half. He’s not going to survive another turn, so as far as last stands go, this one was kinda meh.








Sebille has one of her usual ‘do everything and one-shot somebody’ turns: first, she does in the Knight with a standard swing, and then, after a bit of repositioning, uses Adrenaline and Flesh Sacrifice to have enough AP to use Ruptured Chicken on the Swordsman. Depending on how far the chicken runs, she would have just taken out two different targets in one turn.




Ranger 1 clears Atrophied with First Aid, and then he uses Haste on himself – and does nothing with his freshly-fixed hands. He’s at half his HP and he likely won’t survive another turn either.




The Knight, now a chicken, does what chickens do: they run. It runs straight through the fire and up the nearby steps, putting itself from near-full to less than half with that one jaunt.




Salem gives chase, eager to finish the job and makes two swings at the Swordsman.




Ranger 2 hits Fane with Fossil Strike, which is really annoying because it removes his Haste, as well as Sky Shot. Fane’s down to about half his HP, but he still has Mosquito Swarm and Blood Sucker available.





Ifan helps out with dealing with Ranger 1 by hitting him with Barrage, which shaves off a quarter of his HP in one hit, followed by Fossil Strike, which detonates on the fire surrounding him and happens to get a lucky crit. That’s enough to take him out of the fight, leaving only the Swordsman and Ranger 2.

I’ve been getting very fortunate with the crits this fight! Fossil Strike did 158 HP, which is a huge amount of damage, especially for a novice-level spell, and Ranger 1 had only 155 HP available. Let’s see if I can keep it up.

Attendant’s turn is next – but it’s wandered too far from Prince, and it’s subsequently gone Mad.

Turn 3

Fane leads the charge thanks to Peace of Mind, but he delays. There are no targets near him.





The Swordsman uses Shields Up to protect himself, and then, feeling like a real big man, a big man wearing big man pants, he uses Battering Ram on the housecat. And it doesn’t even do a quarter of Salem’s HP. Salem, the housecat, wearing no armour, and he can’t even kill a housecat in four moves.



Sebille has no AP thanks to Adrenaline, so she nope’s out of there with Chameleon Skin.




Ranger 2 plugs Fane once – he’s starting to get a little low, and I should start thinking about his longevity a bit more – before using First Aid on herself once again to put out the fire she set on herself a few turns ago.





As much fun as it is to taunt the Swordsman and his inability to deal with a cat, Salem’s not going to be doing much damage to him in turn. So he swaps places with Fane and starts making his way back forward, heading towards Ranger 2.



The reason why Prince was considered to not be in the fight is because, with the death of Ranger 1 and his fire totem, the radius of the battle had shrunk enough to exclude him. Meaning he isn’t in the fight anymore, meaning he can perform a free action to get back in.

So he plops down another fire totem. I mean, what did you expect?




Unfortunately for Ifan, because of his positioning, both of his remaining targets are out of his sight, blocked by the wall to his left. He can reposition to put them both back in, but it’ll cost four of his five remaining AP – one entire turn, essentially.



Now that Prince is back in the fight, Attendant is no longer Mad, and I can control it into using Battering Ram plus its long-range attack on Ranger 2.



The brand new totem fires a shot at the Swordsman. He’s still deflecting projectiles, but the totem is immune to fire, so it’s all gravy.




Fane takes his delayed turn now. He is pretty close to death – which means it’s a perfect time to use that brand new skill of his, Death Wish. It buffs Fane’s damage output to be proportionate to how much HP he’s missing, and he’s missing quite a lot.

He uses Mosquito Swarm on the Swordsman, which does do a bit of extra damage, and it makes the Swordsman bleed, but anyone with Death Wish is also immune to healing, which I kinda forgot when I made up this strategy on the fly.





Turn 4

Fane immediately goes next. His fire status does a bit more damage to himself, making Death Wish all the more potent, and he hits the Swordsman once, killing him immediately.

As a result, Fane, Sebille, and Ifan all level up! Prince does not. I’m not certain why; obviously, he missed out on some experience elsewhere in the campaign, and he wasn’t brought up to speed with the rest of the group. Maybe dismissing him and bringing him back on will right himself?

Because of the level up, Fane is immediately healed back to full HP, rendering Death Wish totally pointless. And thanks to getting the kill, he also gets 2 AP back immediately with his Executioner talent, which he spends on hitting Ranger 2 with Battle Stomp and Battering Ram.

There’s only one ranger Magister remaining, and to make things go quicker, we just gang up on her and beat the snot out of her until she falls over.

There is, however, one neat trick that I did that I want to show off:




Ifan gets the finishing blow on Ranger 2, but she’s too close to the wall for him to attack. He could solve this just by climbing down the nearby vines, but there’s a better option.

There’s a broken vase right next to Ranger 2 that’s primarily just meant for aesthetics, but it’s also an interactable object. Ifan snipes it with Ricochet, causing the arrow to bounce back to Ranger 2, sniping her in the neck and taking her out.

You can do similar trick shots with things like totem, summons, and even allies, if you really want and you think the rewards outweigh the risks.



And that’s one more battle done with.

Apparently Gareth is just ahead, and according to some of those Magisters that we just dealt with, he’s being rather stubborn about not dying, meaning we can probably expect to find more Magisters just up ahead. No sense in sitting on those level-up perks, then: we’ll want to go in at our strongest.

There are no civil points or Talents to get with this level-up, unfortunately, but we’re currently at level 7, meaning we’ll be getting new Talents on the next level, so, that’s something to look forward to.

As usual, I put one Attribute point into Memory for everyone. Fane’s other point is in Constitution and his combat point goes into Necromancy. For Ifan, it’s Finesse and Huntsman; and for Sebille, it’s Constitution and Polymorph, and because Polymorph gives her another Attribute point for free, she gets another in Memory.



Generally speaking, the looting among these bodies is fairly slim pickings. I’m not particularly surprised; this wasn’t a particularly tough fight and apparently, the real meat-and-potatoes to the fortress is just up the stairs.



Ranger 2 had some goodies on her, though. Including an ‘unknown body part.’

I’m sure Sebille is feeling a bit peckish.

: You are awash with muddled thoughts. Confusion, anger, sadness, loathing. A shocking absence of joy.

Fun times! Then again, though, I guess I should have assumed that an ‘unknown body part’ probably didn’t come with a fun story.




Just up the stairs and to the west a short ways is… what appears to be a person, stuck on a cross, surrounded by an aura of light.

Is this a…?



It’s a Shrieker, one of the weapons that Braccus Rex had invented and rediscovered by the Magisters. This one in particular is facing away from the fortress, so, in theory, I can sneak close to it without it noticing me.

It’s also completely impervious to any known forms of damage, except something called ‘Source Vampirism.’ I wonder what that even means.



Strewn in front of the Shrieker are a number of dead bodies. There’s no blood and no major signs of a scuffle – even the wagon is largely untouched with its rope coiled neatly around a nearby tree. Whenever the Shrieker kills someone, it doesn’t do it violently.



Approaching without sneaking causes the Shrieker to notice me, and it trains a lightning bolt in my direction. It doesn’t kill people immediately, but if you remain within the Shrieker’s lightning bolt range for too long, you’ll be one-shot, with no chance of defending. As soon as I noticed this bolt, I turned right back around and hightailed it out of there.



There’s a friendly unit just beyond the Shrieker’s line of sight, but there’s no possible way for me to reach her – not from this angle. I’d have to leave the fortress and go around another way.



Back to the mission at hand, of rescuing Gareth, at the northern wing of the fortress is a door obscured by smoke. For all roughly seven of you that regularly watch the uploaded fights, you probably heard the sound of combat asymmetrical to the fight we were in. Well, that’s because there was a group of Magisters trying to take out a single Seeker, just beyond this door.

Maple Leaf fucked around with this message at 10:04 on Jun 23, 2021

Maple Leaf
Aug 24, 2010

Let'en my post flyen true



: Dancing With The Source
: Seek, And Ye Shall Find

Turn 1

And as soon as we approach the door, we’re thrust into battle, without any opportunity to reposition ourselves ahead of time.

Well, that should be fine. Ranger 1 opens the fight with Chloroform on Fane, putting him to sleep, and then using Elemental Arrowheads on a puddle of water at her feet.

Sebille currently isn’t in the fight, and now that Fane’s Initiative is no longer hampered, he actually goes first – and he passes it to wake up, of course.




Ranger 2 uses Glitter Dust, a Huntsman skill that reduces a target’s Evasion by 100%; it removes the target’s ability to turn Invisible (kind of a big deal for Sebille and somewhat for Ifan); and, interestingly, it negates all high- and low-ground bonuses/deficits (except from Sky Shot), so, if Ifan were to climb up the wall to his right, he wouldn’t get the high-ground bonus – but neither would his enemies if they targeted him.

In the base game, Glitter Dust was single-target; in Divinity: Unleashed, it targets everyone in a 3m radius and it lingers for an extra turn.

Ranger 2 also shoots Fane once, and he dodges! Just kidding, it hits him for 59 HP.







Ifan uses Tactical Retreat to jump up to the nearby wall – which is significantly more cost efficient than just walking. If you could jump that high at will, you’d do it all the time, too.

He uses Impalement on the Magister Swordsman and Ranger 2, but the animation fails to load – if I had to guess, it’s because the statue they’re both standing next to got in the way. It nonetheless hits them both with Slowed and Crippled, so, it’s fine.

Finally, he ends his turn with Encourage, getting everyone but Sebille.




The Swordsman very slowly repositions a bit to get a better lobbing angle over the wall, and then throws a Firestorm Grenade at the gang, hitting everyone but Fane.




The Magister Inquisitor buffs herself with Armour of Frost, and then turns around and fires at someone else entirely – she throws an Electric Discharge spell at Gareth, the man of the hour.






Gareth, this ruggedly-handsome man with the immaculate moustache, doesn’t take too kindly to being struck with a lightning bolt like that, and he uses Phoenix Dive to address his assailant directly and respond with Crippling Blow on her shins.

Gareth is only level 7, same as us, but he has over 1,400 HP. For comparison, Fane has 552. In reality, Gareth could probably solo this entire Magister group – no wonder they were having trouble with him.





Prince bestows Think Fast on Fane before repositioning, climbing the ladder like a normal person and taking his perch next to Ifan.







Because of the smoke cloud in the doorway, everyone beyond it (i.e. everyone but Ifan and Prince) will have to walk through it in order to participate in the fight. Sebille does so, and then throws a bottle of Chloroform onto Ranger 1, giving her a taste of her own medicine. She still has one AP to spend, though.

Because of how the game keeps track of distance walked and AP spent, Sebille can walk another few feet without spending any additional AP – so she walks right into the oil puddle that Ifan just put down, igniting it and dealing a ton of extra damage to Ranger 2.

She still has one AP to spend, though, and she uses it to hit Ranger 1 with Backlash. A fairly productive turn for her, and she didn’t even use the AP Boost skills or Ruptured Chicken.




Salem runs right in and continues the fight on Ranger 1, slapping her with his kitty paws. The smoke prevents him from seeing Fane, so Swap Places wouldn’t have done anything.




Finally, Attendant goes last, and it wades its way into the arena before casting Restoration on itself. That one Firestorm Grenade did a huge number on it – it being water, it’s particularly weak to fire, so that one grenade put him well below half, just like that.





Turn 2

Fane steps into the arena as well, and that makes everyone. He uses Shackles Of Pain on the Inquisitor, just in case, before hitting Ranger 1 with Infect.

Ranger 2 goes next, but she’s asleep and spends it waking up.




Sebille tries something different: she uses Medusa Head, causing her hair to turn into snakes, and any enemy within arm’s reach of her will turn to stone after one turn. Currently, that’s only Ranger 1.

Medusa Head costs 3 AP to use, though, which is a real chunk, so Sebille does nothing else.




Ranger 1, perhaps not thinking clearly as she’s about to be turned to stone, uses Reactive Shot on the corner of the arena, affecting only Attendant, Fane, and Salem. She then shoots an arrow at Fane (dealing equal damage to the Inquisitor) before turning into a statue, rendering Reactive Shot completely pointless.




Salem takes a swipe at Ranger 1 again – but she’s made of stone, meaning she gets a 75% reduction to all physical damage she takes. Salem winds up only doing 3 HP worth of damage. And, apparently, he’s infected with whatever disease Fane gave her.

So, he uses Swap Places and just calls it a turn there.




The Swordsman loops around the statue, approaching Sebille from behind – and immediately become Petrifacted (I’m told this isn’t a word, but you know what I mean) from Sebille’s hair snakes.

Figuring that, well, if he’s about to be a statue, he should go all-in on his own defenses, he uses Deflective Barrier. And then the stone overtakes him, adding himself to the garden.




Ifan hits Ranger 2 with Barrage, and one of the arrows manages to crit, and then he uses Fossil Strike on her. Nothin’ fancy.




The Inquisitor is Crippled, so she only has three AP to use. She repositions a bit – I don’t know why, particularly since she takes an AoO for it – and then uses Mosquito Swarm on Gareth. When Gareth used Phoenix Dive next to her, she became Taunted, so she can only attack him until it wears off.




Prince does the usual booster trick by putting down a totem first and then using its presence to bolster the Rallying Cry’s healing, putting Sebille all the way back up to max, just like that.



The totem opens fire on Ranger 2, which ignites the oil – just what I was hoping for.




Gareth uses Ice Shard on the Inquisitor, which puts out her fire and lays down some ice behind her, only to try and set her on fire again with Searing Daggers. It was kind of an eclectic turn and I’m not sure what he was going for.



And to cap off this turn, Attendant hits Ranger 2 once. It’s contributing!




Turn 3

Fane hits Ranger 2 with his big ol’ sword once, followed up with Mosquito Swarm. She’s burning and she’s bleeding, and she’s down to about a sixth of her HP; those two statuses alone won’t kill her, but if she tries to move, an AoO from even Attendant will be enough to close it out.




Smartly, she uses First Aid to try and prolong her life a little bit. Dumbly, she then tries to escape, taking an AoO from Fane, which she survives, and one from Attendant, which kills her. And she would have been running straight into some fire anyway.

Prince levelled up from that kill, so, that’s nice.






When you use a Polymorph spell that changes your body somehow – like, for instance, turning your hair into snakes – you also unlock a temporary skill that corresponds with that new body part. In Medusa Head’s case, you unlock the skill Petrifying Visage, which does medium earth damage in a radius around the caster and it causes Petrifaction on anyone it hits.

So, Sebille uses that. It doesn’t reset the timer on the Swordsman and Ranger 1, but it does hit the Inquisitor, so she’ll be joining the garden pretty soon.

But until then: Sebille hits her with Ruptured Chicken. Just, you know, make sure she has a real bad time about it.

Ranger 1 spends her turn becoming un-petrified.



The fire totem opens fire on the Swordsman, who is still petrified, so it winds up doing very little damage.

And then he becomes un-petrified once his turn comes up.



Salem runs in and hits Ranger 1 twice, for a total of 15 HP. He’s doing his best.




I vainly try and get a good camera angle of the Inquisitor trying to run away as the chicken, only for her to die within four ticks.

Well, what’s important is that she’s dead.



Ifan wants to shoot Ranger 1 because she’s closer to death and the Swordsman still has Deflective Barrier up, but she’s just barely standing in the smoke and out of Ifan’s sight, and both of his Geomancer skills are still on cooldown.

So, instead, he fires two fire arrows, which don’t require a direct hit and instead have an Area of Effect on landing, and he shoots the ground next to her. This has the unfortunate side effect of hitting both Salem and Sebille, and it’s more than enough to kill Salem, but whatever, it’s not like cats only have the one life.



Gareth decides to Man Mode Ranger 2 by running in and hitting her with Crippling Blow, instantly taking her out and just leaving the Swordsman standing.

Now that it’s down to just the one guy, I’ll skip to the end and say that we just gang up on him, as usual.



When the Swordsman’s turn rolls around, he manages to hit both Gareth and Fane with Crippling Blow, but…



As soon as his turn ends, thanks to Sebille’s Medusa Head still being active, he goes right back to being made of stone.



And now that he’s made of stone, even Gareth can only do 18 damage at a time with his regular swings. We’re going to be here for a hot minute and it’s all just us bashing the Swordsman’s stony head in.



However, when it ends, it ends with Gareth using All In to cave the guy’s skull in, ending the fight and netting us a cool 4,200 EXP – 1,200 for the kill and 3,000 for rescuing Gareth.

: Your courage in the face of danger is inspiring, my friend. Lucian guided your blows rightly!

: His eyes travel from your face to your feet, then back again.



: I ‘came to be here’ when the Magisters shipped me off to their summer camp. I decided I didn’t like it, so I left. And yourself?



: If you’re referring to the Sanctuary of Amadia, I actually came from there looking for you.



: If I’m to do that, I first need to know what it was you were doing here. Cornered by two parties of Magisters in this run-down, dilapidated fort – what could have been worth the hassle?

: I came looking for a way off the island. Getting out of here means taking a ship – a Magister ship. And they’re not just going to give one to us out of the goodness of their hearts. I came looking for weapons. Powerful ones. Wicked ones, may Lucian forgive me. Weapons that will clear a path to Dallis’ flagship.

: Gareth looks about, scanning the horizon, then looks back to you. A moment passes.

: I can’t stay. You shouldn’t, either. What did Lucian say? Ah, yes. ‘Evil feasts on the indolent.’ Get yourself to safety, and soon. You’ll always have a place at the Seekers’ table.



And then he runs off, leaving us with some quest rewards. We’re guaranteed a bit of money, a potion, and a water arrow, and we have our choice of gloves, boots, a helmet, or a shield.

None of us use a shield, so the only reason we’d take that is if all of our other equipment is better and the shield would fetch more money on the market. The helmet is arguably better than Fane’s Mask of Strength that he found earlier this very update, but it doesn’t have a slot for a rune.

The boots are for someone specializing in Finesse and give better movement, so it might go well on Sebille. Unfortunately, unless you’re playing with friends, you can’t check your current equipment to know for certain whether your party’s equipment is better than what you’re being offered, so I just have to guess that Ifan and Sebille are wearing lovely boots.



Before I get to looting, I need to bring Salem back from the depths, of course. He’s my cat. I love my cat.



Also, Prince levelled up that fight. I put one point into Memory, natch, and the other into Intelligence, and I put his one combat point into Summoning, making Attendant stronger.



Luckily, Ifan’s boots are pretty bad, so he gets the fancy new ones from the reward.



As far as looting goes, it’s a bit of slim pickings, with the Inquisitor being the load bearer between them, and she only has this much. The Armour of Frost scroll is always nice to have, and I guess we aren’t totally loaded up on rings.

At the time of recording, I totally forgot to have Sebille eat the leg.



A bit further north of the arena is a statue of a knight with a huge shield overlooking the garden we were just in. Gareth was hiding behind this statue, and this statue also serves as a Waypoint, so we can fast travel back here whenever we want.

As for why we would want to do that, I’ll get to that in a hot minute.




The two sarcophagi on either side of the statue can only be opened if you pass a Strength check, which Fane does easily, and one of them has some decent rewards in it. Some money; a ring providing additional Aerothurge; and a Finesse helmet.

Sebille’s actually been going this entire time without a helmet on her head at all, so, she could really use the protection.



Elven equipment looks pretty silly, but not half as silly as lizard magician clothing. Still, it’s protection.




There she is – the Lady Vengeance. The ship the Seekers are hoping to commandeer. It’s nice actually seeing a ship that hasn’t been grounded and rotted to nothing for once.

All we have to do is get to it. In order to get to it, we need to reach a pier on the northern coast of the island. In order to get to the pier, we need to find a way to defeat the Shriekers. And in order to defeat the Shriekers, we need to find weapons that can beat them – weapons that apparently aren’t here.

There’s a bit more to explore here in this fortress, but I’ll save that for a bit later in this update. First, let’s head back to Amadia’s Sanctuary.



There’s Gareth, striding into the place as if nothing had happened at all.



: I did what I could. It was not their time, it seems.

: You have my admiration and my thanks.

So, uh, you gonna mention something about that, or… no? Nothing at all? Okay, wow, cool.



: You come at least! I’d no doubt you’d find your way to us – not after witnessing your bravery.

If I didn’t say I already knew the way… would you not have come with us?



: This is a little pocket of paradise, but it’s hidden within a hellscape of a gods-forsaken quagmire. How did you come to find shelter here, of all places?

: We’d just landed on shore. Minutes later, Dallis sailed in on the Lady Vengeance, screaming like a banshee. We had no hope. Most of us were dead in the blink of an eye.

: She had horrors at her side. Shriekers, they call them. They still protect the harbour, firing pure death at anything that catches their eyes.



: And what’s the plan to take it?

: Well. I had a plan. Gratiana told me of weapons that could counter these Shriekers. Purging Wands that steal Source from its host. I went to that armoury looking for one of these wands, but Alexander’s bootlickers stumbled in first. I found nothing but dust and blood.



: I’m in. Anything that helps me get off this rock.

: I can’t imagine anyone more capable. Lucian truly shines his light on you! See Gratiana. She knows every songbird and blade of grass on this isle. I’d go myself, but she seems, shall we say, dissatisfied with my recent failure.



: We’ll turn the tides, my friend, Divine be praised!

Gareth sells Warfare and Geomancy spellbooks, which is good; nobody else in the sanctuary sold those. But I do not want to pickpocket him – I’ll have multiple opportunities later and he’ll be carrying better stuff by then.

The mood in the camp is noticeably higher now that Gareth’s returned to it.



So I don’t waste any time in going to the one person who could be of most use to me now that she should be in a better state of mind.

: Gareth is back! Gareth is safe!

: She throws her arms around you in a tight embrace.



: It was the least I could do. Gareth being back benefits us all.

: She smiles and hugs you so tightly you think your bones may break.

: What a beautiful day. What a happy day!



: As a matter of fact, my companions and I happen to be wearing some chokers that we’d really rather do without.

: Yes! Of course, of course!

: She extends her arms, reaching towards you with a look of total concentration on her eyes. You feel the collar start to twist – a living, writhing thing fighting for survival. With a scream of tortured metal the collars snap, falling broken from your necks.



: You never know how to appreciate something you take for granted until it’s taken away from you. I’m grateful to have my freedom back, thanks to you.

: And we’re so grateful to have Gareth back. Thanks to you we have hope. Thanks to you we’re going home. The Divine’s blessings upon you, friend.



Finally. We finally have those drat things off our necks. We can finally channel Source again.



In order to channel Source, though, we need to have Source within us to channel. I mentioned this before, but if you look underneath our character’s portraits, you’ll see a little gem-shaped divot that’s been there since the very beginning of the game, but it’s always been empty. Salem and Attendant both have three, and Salem even has one of them filled in.

Those little divots are how much Source you have. We’ve been rocking a solid zero for the entire game up until this point, and one filled in divot equals one point of Source. There are a multitude of Source-based abilities and techniques in the game, and they all require at least one point to use.

Salem greedily sucked up every last drop of the stuff in the swamp. There’s an infinite supply of Source elsewhere in the map and I’ll get to that in a moment, but there’s an easier way to get Source now:




With one of the Larian Gift Bag mods, resting with a bedroll will instantly restore all of your Source. Whenever you need a hit of Source, all you need is to make sure you’re somewhere safe, and you can get it all back, all at once.

This is a huge quality-of-life mod that was added in as a supplemental change to Divinity: Original Sin 2 because the ‘usual’ way of getting Source was a huge pain in the rear end. Like I said, I’ll get to what that is in a moment.

But what’s important is that we now have the ability to channel our own Source! The very lifeblood of the universe flows between our fingertips once more – the Magisters fear it and the Voidwoken yearn for it. And it’s all ours to use once again.

Before I get to our Source skills, we now have empty amulet slots that can finally be put to good use, and I’ve been lugging around a handful of dead weight amulets precisely for this moment.



This one would be great for Fane.



This one would be amazing for Ifan.

I have another locket that gives +1 Finesse and Persuasion with an empty slot to give to Sebille, and finally, Prince gets a ‘simple pendant’ that grants +1 Wits and +10% Poison resistance. Every amulet except Prince’s has a slot for runes, but I don’t have a lot of runes to throw around, so I’ll hold off on those for now.

Finally: what shiny new skills do we have now that we can channel Source?

Time Warp: Fane exclusive. Target any character; after their next turn, immediately take another turn. Effects cooldowns and statuses. Once per combat.

Demonic Stare: The Red Prince exclusive. In the base game, drain a levelled amount of magic armour from a target and add it to your own; in Divinity: Unleashed, do a levelled amount of piercing damage (meaning it ignores armour) and set a new status called Transfixed, which applies debuffs and locks the target in place. This move kind of sucked in the base game and the rework it got in the mod is a huge, positive change.

Summon Ifan’s Soul Wolf: Ifan exclusive. Summon a dire wolf to Ifan’s side as his familiar.

Break The Shackles: Sebille exclusive. Removes Slowed, Crippled, Snap Frozen, Shocked, Suffocating, Atrophy, Diseased, Infectious Diseased, Silence, Plagued, Shackles Of Pain (the only skill in the game that can do this), Ossified, Knocked Down, Stunned, Mad, Charmed, and Terrified. Costs no AP to use. Instantly triggered if Sebille is Mad or Charmed and she has the Source available.

Summon a new familiar, you say?




That’s a big ol’ wolf, all right.



: I have to say, I rather enjoy being on a wolf’s good side. Especially one that large.

: Me too. Best drat friend a man could have.



: How did you two come across each other? I wouldn’t mind a pet like him of my own.

: Ha! Afrit’s no pet. He don’t take kindly to strangers. Afrit’s been howling at my side a long time, now. Good old boy appears anytime I use Source. You should have seen him rampage on the day the Magisters collared me! If you’d seen that, you’d know to keep your fingers as far from his jaws as you could…

He appears whenever you use Source? Wouldn't that mean he’s a…?

Unfortunately, Afrit has a canonical name, meaning we won’t be naming the wolf ourselves. At least Afrit’s a pretty cool name.

He can’t be given infusions from Prince, unfortunately. He has a whopping 4 physical armour and zero magic armour, but he makes up for it in having a ton of Constitution and damage output: he can Howl to Taunt nearby enemies into attacking him, and he has an attack called Maul which does piercing damage and sets Ruptured Tendons for one turn (in the base game, Maul was just called Bite and it did piercing damage, but did not set any statuses).

Being a wolf, Afrit can’t climb vines or ladders; he can’t jump or teleport his master like Salem can; and he doesn’t get any utilities like Attendant. Afrit is purely a tank that deals some halfway decent damage and little else. But hey; I didn’t exactly plan Ifan to have any other summons, so another familiar on the team is always welcome.

While we’re here, Gareth asked us to check in with Gratiana to see what we can do next.

: So, you returned Gareth to his flock? I must say, I never thought to see him again.



: Is there anything more you could do to help them? All we all want is to escape this island, and Gareth seemed convinced that you could.



: We’re all just trying to help each other out here, Gratiana. There’s no need to be distant and helping others wouldn’t go against Amadia’s wishes.

: Persuasion Success!

: Perhaps you are right. Perhaps there is another path. I told the Seeker that the soulforged weapons of Braccus Rex remain hidden in a vault, but the Magisters recovered them before he could.

: Gareth failed to reach the armoury in time, but there is another vault – hidden beyond the Magister’s guile. If you can steal away these weapons, your friends may well stand a chance.



: Thank you for this information. I’ll see what I can do.

: Amadia’s blessings on you! But pray, a moment.



: I’m familiar with Soul Jars and their machinations. I’ll keep an eye out for any that I come across.

: Amadia’s blessings upon your brave soul!

Right on, so we have another objective: find a second vault of Braccus Rex; find the soulforged weapons within it; and bring any we find back to the Seekers, and any Soul Jars we find back to Gratiana.

Before I do any of that, though, there’s one last thing I wanted to touch on, and that’ll wrap up this update.

Back at the ruined fortress where we found Gareth, there’s a fenced off room underneath the Waypoint that we can access.




This is the vault that Gareth had attempted to raid, only to find it empty.

Well… mostly empty. There are a bunch of dead Magisters here. And one dying Magister.



According to his status effects, this man is literally decomposing right before our very eyes.

: In a flickering torchlight you see a Magister lying muttering on the ground. As you approach, he turns with a jerk.



: Not if you don’t give me a reason.

: Shame. A quick end would be a mercy.

: You look at his hand and see that the skin is midnight black. It seems to undulate, as if worms were squirming through his flesh.



: … What put you in a state as sorry as yours?

: He nods towards the bodies of the dead Magisters, twisted in the thorned blood.

: Same as those poor souls. We finished clearing out this blasted room and wanted – *cough* wanted to move on to the next.



: Why would you risk coming here in the first place, if this could happen to you?

: Excavations. Digging out old weapons. More – urgh… more Purging Wands. Enough to turn the tide against Source.



: What did she know? What’s behind that door that she’d sacrifice her men to try and obtain it?

: I don’t know. Something powerful. We thought it might help, but…



: What were her exact words?

: She told us it was old. Told us it was dangerous. Told us it was important…



: It’s not a stretch to say you’re in a bad way. Is there anything I can do? Are you not beyond helping?

: He looks up at you, his eyes staring deep into yours.



: I’ll… do what I can.

: He lowers his eyes to stare at his black, squirming hand.

: Just make it quick…

This poor, decomposing, cursed Magister is asking for us to kill him; he’d rather die by the sword than die by whatever Void curse had befallen him from attempting to go deeper into the vault. What do YOU think? Do we kill Sang?



Dead bodies litter the floor around this switch tucked away in the corner. Dark blood puddles around them with vile worms squirming and slithering through their combined muck.

Aside from a bit of money and some crafting ingredients, they aren’t carrying anything worthwhile. You’d think a bunch of dead guys fresh from raiding the armoury of an insanely powerful king would be carrying something useful, but, nah.



This is the switch that Sang was talking about. It’s kind of hard to see in the dark, let alone a still screenshot, but a purple energy wafts from the lever.

I probably shouldn’t pull it.



Befitting a dusty, damp, dark dungeon of a vault, there’s at least one rat skittering about the strewn, broken crates that previously held the weapons that the Magisters were after. Rats can be a pretty useful font of information – and they could also be totally useless flavour that tells me nothing new.

Let’s roll that dice!



: I am called Fane. And yourself?



: Your domain? This is an awfully large domain for a rat, isn’t it?

: I am no mere rat! I am an assassin of ants and crucifier of crickets. All rodents bow before me. So do lesser beasts. Like humans, for instance.



: That’s quite the title to be bestowed upon anyone from any hierarchy! Could I bother you for some tales of your bravery on the battlefield?

: She waxes on at length regarding her wartime exploits, describes feats no rat you’ve ever seen could actually perform.

Sebille can turn her arm into a tentacle at will. Maybe there’s more to this rat story than there seems.



: That was a wonderful story, Murina. I hope you won’t mind if I share a few of my own.

: To your surprise, the rat listens intently as you recount your time in Fort Joy, and your escape into the Hollow Marshes.

: Oh ho! My friend, you are an adventurer after my own heart! I have heard many stories in my day, but none as exciting as this.



: I mean, you may, but I’d like to know what it is before I agree to it.



: (I suppose, if it were something truly outlandish, there’s nothing keeping me beholden to a rat.) Very well. Ask your favour.

: I want to know more! More! Return to me when you have a chance, and share your adventures. I want to hear about every spell cast and cliffside scaled! Every chest pillaged, and every sword swung!

: But… if you are to return, I need to make sure you remain in one piece. So let me share another morsel of information I’ve picked up on my travels.

: The levers in here are cursed. Best not to touch them until you bless them somehow, lest they infect you with their torment.

: Now hurry back! I can’t wait to hear if your ventures can hold a candle to the other… I mean, to my own!

Well, that’s good to know. There’s a way to counter the curse on the lever and allow it to be safely operated.



There’s a drained wand sitting on the floor near the rat. Gratiana did say before I left that if the wands were to ever run dry, I should show them to her. Maybe this trip to the vault wasn’t as big a waste of time as Gareth said it was?



At the northern corner of the ruins is this gigantic vat filled with liquid Source. You remember those puddles in the swamp, the ones that Salem soaked up every time he touched them? If I were to interact with this giant bottle…



The spigot at its bottom will drop a puddle of Source, and anyone (or anything, in this screenshot’s case) that walks onto it will gain a new Source point.

This is an infinite vial of Source: it’ll never, ever run dry, no matter how much you tap it. You can spend as much Source as you like and you can come back here to get some more to fill you back up.

But that, in itself, is the issue: I have to fast travel back to the dilapidated castle (which is why its Waypoint exists at all); I have to make my way to this vault; and then I have to slowly tap this thing for one puddle at a time to give one point each to every teammate I have. Yeah, it’s infinite Source, but given that, lore-wise, I should be able to channel it straight from the very air around me, it’s slow, bothersome, and inconvenient. And if the game is going to give me infinite Source anyway, then there’s no reason to not install the Bedroll Restores Source mod – even with infinite Source on tap, most players try not to use any because they don’t want the inconvenience of fast-travelling back to some base just to arduously make it all the way back to where they were, which could have been in the middle of a dungeon or an open field or something.

In short, if, for whatever reason, you don’t want to use the officially-included mod that gives you Source on rest, then this is where you’d go for more.

The game wants you to have Source handy so you can use it to cast Bless on the lever. Luckily, the unofficial mod makes that irrelevant anyway, so:






Just like that, by virtue of us being able to channel Source (and by us being hand-chosen by the gods, I guess), we can enter Braccus’ personal armoury, to the one place the Magisters couldn’t touch.



And there’s a great, big obelisk of a shrine dedicated to himself here. Figures that a guy like Braccus would probably have effigies of himself lying around wherever he could.




If I had to guess, this shrine is going to want to sap the Source from me in order to unlock itself. It’d make sense that the Source King would – well, he’d only want his weapons available to himself, but, also, he’d at the very least want to make it so non-Sourcerers couldn’t access them.

: Your power flows from your chest and into your hands, green tendrils of power slithering from your fingertips across the shrine.




: The shrine starts to vibrate and glow, slabs of stone gliding across each other as it begins to open…



Within the shrine is a ‘corrupted’ helmet – likely Braccus’s very own personal helm that he wore into combat.

Way, way back with Withermoore and his Soul Jars, there was a bit involving a statue; Sebille having the highest Wits stat; and finding a set of pants involved in a quest that wasn’t set to begin yet. This helmet is a part of that quest, to find each piece of Braccus’ personal armour set.



Eh, it’s alright, I guess. That +1 Strength is pretty rad and I don’t have any points invested in Leadership, but my Mask of Strength has equal stats, and it has a slot for a rune, whereas Braccus’ helmet doesn’t.

Still, though, this helmet would grant a skill called Purge, and given that its colour scheme is the same as Bless’s, it probably has something to do with Source. And, given the picture and the name, depriving a target of it. Source is the lifeblood of the world and stealing it straight from someone would be akin to sucking the soul right out of them.

Not like that!




That wraps up this update! We’ve rescued Gareth; we’ve finally gotten those drat collars off our necks and regained access to our true potential; and we’ve been given a new direction: to find Braccus’ other vault and see if there are any Purging Wands and/or Soul Jars within it.

We just need to decide where it is we should start looking.

Our votes for today are:

Do we go east and ex’lore the la’rynth?
Do we go southeast and investigate the shiny cave?
Do you want to do neither and keep exploring the island?
Do we kill Sang?


Let me know by midnight EST tomorrow!

Maple Leaf fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Jun 23, 2021

Black Robe
Sep 12, 2017

Generic Magic User


That first fight was extremely noteworthy because I think it's the first time nobody in the party has missed and whiffed an attack. Good job, guys. You've all learned how to actually hit things.

I will also never get tired of Salem kitty-slapping chumps :allears: It's not about the damage, it's about the principle.

Kill Sang. I don't think we're interested in trying to save a Magister, but nobody should die like that. Also I think it's time for shinies.

Slaan
Mar 16, 2009



ASHERAH DEMANDS I FEAST, I VOTE FOR A FEAST OF FLESH
Ooh, shiny cave is shiny

Also, kill Sang no reason not to

ChocolatePancake
Feb 25, 2007
Go east and ex’lore the la’rynth
Kill Sang

I for one am watching and enjoying the combat videos, so thanks for putting those up!

thekeeshman
Feb 21, 2007

Slaan posted:

Ooh, shiny cave is shiny

Also, kill Sang no reason not to

Yep, might as well be kitted out to the fullest before we have to kill too many more things.

Olive Branch
May 26, 2010

There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance.

Get to that 'aze and cave, pronto!

Kill Sang. Nobody really deserves to decompose into a puddle of goo and feel every nerve ending shut down.

GuavaMoment
Aug 13, 2006

YouTube dude
Go east, and buck the trend to try some science and cast bless on Sang to see what happens, and then maybe kill him if he still wants it.

Schwartzcough
Aug 12, 2009

Don't tease the Octopus, kids!
Yeah, try Blessing Sang, followed by plan B of killing Sang. And I guess go ex’lore the la’rynth.

Maple Leaf
Aug 24, 2010

Let'en my post flyen true


We voted, by a narrow margin, to visit the la’yrinth to the direct east of our current location, and to save the shiny cave for second. Which is cool with me! That maze was commissioned by Braccus Rex to protect something, so if the Mad Tyrant himself has something that’s worth protecting beyond the maze, it’s probably worth it to me. Maybe it’s more of those wands?



Before I set out, I buy Crippling Blow from Gareth. It’s a fairly early-level Warfare skill and I really should have had it before now. Prince could get some mileage out of it too if I ever find a second book.



I also head back to Kalias to do a bit of shopping – namely, to offload a bunch of vendor trash and to restock on Resurrection scrolls. I’ve generally been doing pretty good in combat recently but I’m dreadfully low on those, and it’s better to have it and not need it, as you might guess.

Also, I feed Sebille that leg from the previous episode:

: Your grip tightens around the blade’s hilt. You’ve never felt such rage. These… freaks. They are tearing the world apart. They must not live. Rivellon must survive.

Whoever this leg was from, they had a very well-adjusted and considerate attitude towards Sourcerers, clearly.



Before we get to the maze, though, we also voted to kill Magister Sang, but we wanted to see if Bless could cure him of his decomposition first.





The answer is no, it will not. He’s still decomposing, but now he’s all glowy and bright.

Well, we tried!





Unfortunately, there wasn’t really a ‘humane’ way to kill Sang, and his high armour made it tough to chew through him in the space of a few hits. Ifan’s Barrage is currently my most powerful single-hit technique and it still took three of those, plus a few extra bolts and swings from my sword.

He did eventually go down, though. We got ourselves a fat 1,600 EXP for his kill and he got the reprieve from his decomposing that he desperately wanted, so, all’s well that ends well, in the end.

And no, he wasn’t carrying any loot.



One hike back from Amadia’s Sanctuary later, and we’re at the front door to Braccus’ Labyrinth. As the gargoyle said, we can just walk right on in if we’d like – but we need ‘souls’ to progress, and everybody only has one of those.

I’ll be real: I’ve played this game through three times and I’ve redone the first act I don’t know how many times with other players, but I have never honestly gotten a real handle on the labyrinth. It’s not an especially complicated puzzle and there are multiple routes to take through it, but, I don’t know, it just doesn’t click together very well for me and I always struggle to get it done.

As this update is being written post-recording, obviously, I successfully completed it, but it took me twice as long as I feel like it should have. Not that that’ll show in this update; most of that time was spent thinking and meandering.




The first thing that greets us in Braccus’ labyrinth is an open plaza with a bit of rubble and broken pottery, but nothing particularly spooky. Aside from a massive spider web in the corner, I guess. Directly in front of where Fane is standing is a pressure plate.




There are doors to my south, west, and, not pictured, to my east, but they’re all locked.

There’s nothing else in this plaza other than the pressure plate, so, I might as well take the bait.




Nothing. Not a thing happens.




To my east, near one of the locked doors, is an empty pedestal, but…



Every time I step on the plate, a glowing skull appears spontaneously on top of it, and every time I step off, the skull vanishes.

It’s a very simple puzzle that just requires two characters to complete: one person stands on the plate and someone else goes to retrieve the prize. Easy stuff.

I don’t want to run headlong into just collecting the skull, though – this is Braccus Rex we’re talking about. The place is probably riddled with booby traps. I send in Sebille, the character with the highest Wits, and I gingerly watch my step as I go to collect the skull.




And, of course, she immediately triggers a trap, taking a fat fireball to the body and taking 121 fire-based damage.

This is going to be a running theme with this labyrinth: none of the rooms in it are as gentle as they might appear. Thankfully, the pathing on your characters is fairly smart, and once they find a trap or a hazardous surface or whatever, they’ll do everything in their power to avoid it unless they absolutely can’t.



The Crumbling Skulls are the keys to opening the doors in this maze, unlike my earlier guess of it being the Tormented Souls, which are apparently just crafting ingredients.

That’s one room down, but we have only one key and three doors, and I doubt I’ll be able to recycle it.



I decide to head west, and, lo and behold, the skull is destroyed instantly.






The western room contains a torture device – called a ‘rack,’ I think, the one that stretches your arms and legs until they pop off. But it also contains a portal to what is almost certainly Hell on top of a ledge that I can’t access to unless I have a ‘jumping’ skill like Cloak And Dagger or Tactical Retreat.

Which I have, and it’s all well and good, but only Ifan and Sebille would be able to progress, and I’d like to have everyone move forward if I can.



The way out of this room is to the south, and the western wall’s been collapsed, giving me a great view of the beach with the dead salamanders. Naturally, I forget to get a good angle of it to screenshot.



As I investigate whether the cracked wall has anything to do with it and whether I can walk around it or something, I happen to find a hidden switch that, when pressed, conjures a ladder up to the ledge leading to the portal.

Well, that was easy. Someone will still have to stay behind to hold the switch down, but I can just have that be Sebille and then she can use Cloak And Dagger to join everyone else.

Maybe this is what the gargoyle meant when he said it’d take more than one soul to complete the labyrinth – he wasn’t implying that someone needed to die, but rather, you literally need two people to progress. Which is considerably more lame.



Even if my summons can’t climb ladders or whatever, they’ll still follow me if I make enough distance between me and them, provided I’m not in combat.



As I expected, walking through the portal takes me to Hell the ‘Realm of Orobas.’ According to some Googling, Orobas was a Big Deal Dragon Knight from Divinity 2: Ego Draconis. The Divinity series extends well beyond Original Sin and its sequel, but I’m only familiar with those two games.

Anyway, it’s bleak and hot and stuffy in here, and there’s not actually a lot to do anyway.



We’re standing on a rocky platform on top of what is either a live volcano or the molten crust of the Earth. Lava covers the ground beneath us – lava is a hazardous surface that, like Deathfog, will instantly kill anyone it touches, which, unlike Deathfog, includes undead. Being 100%-or-more resistant to fire won’t save you: if you touch lava, that’s it, you die, there’s no defense.



There’s a platform off in the distance that one of my jumpers can reach, along with a still-smoking charred body that’s prime for looting.





A ring with 3 magic armour and +1 Geomancy, and boots that offer +1 Sneaking… but require Strength to wear, meaning they’d only work on Fane, a notoriously not-sneaky boy.

The ring is good for Ifan and fills out his ring slots, and the boots… well, their numbers are double what Fane has now, so, hell, I might as well. The only trade-off is that Fane’s current boots have immunity to slipping thanks to that one crafting lesson from ages ago, and I don’t have any nails to add to this new set.

Also on the little platform was a blank Pyromancy skillbook. Blank books can be combined with scrolls to turn them into skillbooks of whatever the scroll is (provided the types match), so I could learn the skill that the scroll uses and use it forever rather than one-time. But that’s a bit of a waste, I feel: the power that scrolls have is that anyone can use them regardless of stats, but that’s not true with skillbooks. It comes down to what you have and what you’re willing to spend your resources on.



More pressingly, though, is that Sebille can’t make the jump back – although she can jump straight into the lava, if I’d prefer.

This is a consequence of the Divinity: Unleashed mod: because all teleport spells, including self-teleports, have had their range nerfed, Sebille can’t actually complete this ‘puzzle’ and is sentenced to linger forever on her little outcropping, where he friend Charred Corpse met its final resting place.

This isn’t a big deal, though. There are two workarounds: for someone else to use the Teleport skill or scroll, which I have neither of, or to have Sebille fast-travel back to Amadia’s Sanctuary and then make the hike all the way back to the portal in the labyrinth.




Which is what she winds up doing.

Aside from grave robbing, there’s nothing else to do in this chunk of Orobas’ Realm but to head back out of the portal.



When I pop out, though, I’m not where I first entered. I’m on the southern wall, above where the locked iron door is – and there’s a pressure plate on the floor just beside me.




Which, when pressed, reveals another Crumbling Skull on the pedestal underneath a gargoyle head back in the room with the rack.

The ‘intended,’ long-term solution to this puzzle is to have one person stand on the switch that spawns the ladder; have another person go through the portal and stand on the switch up top; and then have the first guy pick up the skull and open the door. That assumes, of course, that you have no teleport skills – with them, you could, in reality, just teleport up to the southern wall from the very beginning and not ever need to enter the Realm of Orobas to begin with.

But, in any case:



: This gargoyle flares it lichenous nostrils as you draw near.

: Master would be impressed.

Braccus would be easy to please, if that’s true. This wasn’t an especially difficult puzzle.



I could use the Crumbling Skull on the iron door leading southward from the rack room, but I’m not certain if it’s necessary; Sebille can just jump back onto the wall and skip it entirely. The door’s really only necessary if you don’t have a single teleport spell available to you.



Just beyond the iron door is a set of vines that lead back up to the wall, meant to connect the bottom floor with the upper one and reunite any souls that were separated from each other in the rack room.





Sebille uses Cloak And Dagger to jump back up, and she climbs down the vines to the other side of the still-locked door. We’ve managed to bypass one of the doors without spending a key, so, that’s nice.

There’s also an elf cadaver hidden in the grass just on the other side of the door.



A fairly significant wad of cash, but nothing else. And there’s a bottle of poisoned wine next to it – at least they probably went out painlessly.




There’s a route around the outer wall of the labyrinth, but it’s blocked off by some rubble, likely from the maze deteriorating over time. My jumpers could bypass this entirely by jumping to the nearby visible ledge, and then jumping to the other side of the rubble – looking ahead, this would have me skip the next room of the puzzle entirely and, with the Crumbling Skull I have, I could reasonably just walk around the outside of the maze and go straight to the end.

Fane could also make this journey by using Salem to do the heavy movements for him, but Prince has absolutely zero methods of advanced movement, and, like I said, I’d rather try and keep my party together if I can. So, cheesing the maze this way doesn’t look like it’s going to be a good option here.



It looks like I’ll be heading into this next room over to try and solve this maze the legitimate way. According to the map, this next room is straight south from the opening plaza at the very start of the maze, meaning I didn’t have to go through the rack room to get here – but, at the very least, the rack room had a decent prize in that ring and those boots.




The next room is a larger area that’s mostly open, but there’s a creature standing on a raised platform that’s on Necrofire, and there’s a puddle of Source in the corner. There’s also a few spots for high ground nearby and there is at least one barrel of oil visible to my immediate left.

So, fight time, probably.

: The gargoyle taps one stony claw upon its plinth as it rasps a message to you.

: Riddle me this, wanderer. How would mighty Braccus douse a man on fire? Ahahahaha!




: Combat Music 1
: No Dogs Allowed

Turn 1

Three skeletal enemies spawn on the battlefield all at once, in a bright plume of fire. They are all ‘Incandescent,’ which, in this case, means they’re all permanently on-fire and they spawn in surfaces of it – any fire damage I do will heal them, but they’re also grossly weak to water.

The first one to move, the Decapitator, casts Impalement on everyone but Sebille, and then Mosquito Swarm on Ifan. The oil from Impalement touches the fire the Decapitator spawned in, causing it to ignite, and now everyone is Crippled, Slowed, and on fire. Despite that, our HP is generally okay, except for Attendant, who is suddenly at half, and Salem, who is suddenly near-death.




Sebille takes a fairly calm turn by her standards: she uses Cloak And Dagger to be a bit more central to the fight, and then she hits the Marksman with Chloroform.

The Marksman goes next, and wakes up.

Fane’s turn is next, but he wants to fight the Scorcher – the enemy wizard – because he has the lowest physical armour. There’s no way for him to both approach and attack, though, so he delays.




The Scorcher uses Haste on himself, and then repositions slightly to use Spontaneous Combustion on Salem, killing him instantly. I was hoping to use him to approach with Fane, which is a bummer. The explosion also does a handful of extra fire damage to everyone else surrounding him.




Prince is going to struggle a little bit in this fight: these enemies will heal off fire damage, meaning all of those fancy fire skills that Prince learned recently are going to go to waste. He uses Think Fast on Fane, followed by Battle Stomp on the Decapitator, which knocks him down, but it also heals him for 25 HP because Prince’s staff deals fire damage.







Ifan retreats to the nearby high ground, where Sebille started, and uses Encourage, hitting everyone – except Fane, who Ifan can’t see because of the stairway’s bannister right beside him, which is funny in a cruel sort of way. And he caps his turn with First Aid, which heals his Bleeding and puts out his fire.

Ifan still has one AP remaining, and he happens to be holding a Rain scroll. Our enemies being weak to water, this seems like the perfect time to use it: he performs a rain dance that puts out the fire on his allies and puts down puddles that I can use to my advantage.




Attendant actually has the potential to be the MVP of this fight: because water and fire are weak to each other, it needs to be careful with taking hits, but at the same time, each strike it deals can do around 100 HP worth of water damage.

Case in point, one Battering Ram and one long-range attack on the Decapitator did 189 HP total, putting the Decapitator down to about three quarters.




Finally, Fane takes his delayed turn by hitting the Scorcher, who, after repositioning, was put in the perfect place to be hit with a Battering Ram. Fane ends his turn with Shackles Of Pain on the Scorcher as well.

At this point, I realize that Afrit, Ifan’s wolf, isn’t in the fight.




Afrit is standing at the door to the room, well outside of the fight’s boundaries, and if I try and command him to bite the Decapitator, I’m told that Afrit ‘can’t reach’ his target. Afrit is such a massive wolf that he can’t fit through the door.

That’s actually a huge pain in the butt! I was hoping to use Afrit this fight to show off some of the numbers he could do, and besides that, the more numbers I have, the better my odds. That’s really annoying, that Afrit can’t just, I don’t know, walk in a straight line rather than try and fit through the door sideways or something.

Whatever. I’ll be able to win the fight without him, it’s just, it would have been really nice.

Moving on:

Turn 2

The Decapitator goes first despite Fane’s improved Initiative with Clear Mind, but… he passes entirely. My guess is that he knows Attendant would get an AoO if he tried to move, and he also doesn’t want to fight Attendant directly for whatever reason.




Fane has six AP to use, and he uses them casting Mosquito Swarm on the Scorcher, followed by two melee hits.

Fane’s sword, Scumkiller, does bonus fire damage, which heals Scorcher very slightly with each hit, but the amount of physical damage Fane is doing makes the trade worth it. However, the fire that the Incandescent enemies are on is apparently infectious: as soon as Fane hit the Scorcher once, he burst into flames himself.



The Marksman hits Sebille with Pin Down, which Cripples her, and then once more with a regular arrow. She’s only taken two hits this fight and she’s hovering around two-thirds of her HP now.





Sebille climbs the vines to put herself on equal footing with the Marksman and then hits him with Tentacle Lash, causing Atrophy. Then, with her one AP remaining, she uses Spread Your Wings to give herself wings – when a character has wings, they ignore the effects of all surfaces when they travel over them, so this lake of fire she’s standing on won’t actually hurt her.

She’s still on fire because I did this in the wrong order, by having her climb the vines before I used Spread Your Wings, but now she can at least walk over it without taking more fire damage per tick.




The Scorcher uses Staff of Magus and Fireball on Fane, which, thanks to Shackles Of Pain, returns 100% of the damage done as Piercing damage.

The Staff of Magus strike did 103 damage to both Fane and the Scorcher, but the Fireball is an AoE spells that also hits himself, causing him to heal back all of the damage the Fireball returned via Shackles Of Pain. The result is that, before healing via Necromancy, Fane took 182 damage while the Scorcher only took 103.




Prince may not be especially effective himself for this fight, but thanks to Ifan’s rain dance, there’s plenty of water for him to summon water totems in, and they’ll be dealing double the damage with every shot they fire.

With the extra ally in the fight, Prince hits Sebille with Rallying Cry, healing her back up to near-max.



The totem fires on the Marksman – a frustrating choice because it suffers a low-ground damage penalty and it has higher magic armour than the Decapitator does. And it missed anyway!



Ifan has five AP thanks to Tactical Retreat giving him Haste, and he uses it to shoot the Scorcher, who has the least amount of physical armour, with Barrage, followed by a regular arrow, totalling 252 damage. The Scorcher’s maximum HP is only 644.

Wayfarers, man, they can really gently caress up a target if you give them the chance. If Ifan had water arrowheads, that would have done an obscene amount of damage.



Attendant ends the round with another volley of water on the Decapitator, followed by a standard strike.





Turn 3

The Decapitator decides to make a move this time: he re-casts Mosquito Swarm on Ifan, then, after repositioning a bit (and taking a nasty AoO from Attendant), he uses Whirlwind, hitting Ifan and Attendant at once. And apparently his axe has a small chance to cause Crippled with each hit, which works on Ifan and replaces his Haste, so that’s annoying.




Fane strikes the Scorcher twice, which is enough to kill him and refund him two AP.

After that, I use my first Source skill: Time Warp on himself. As soon as I click End Turn, Fane will get a second turn immediately.





Fane’s pretty close to death, so, he uses Death Wish on himself, and, armed with four AP, he runs up to the Marksman and hits him once, dealing a massive 108 damage in one swing. That’s 36 more damage than he was doing to the Scorcher, and the Marksman has more physical armour.





Because of his Atrophy, the Marksman can’t attack with his bow, and because the way down is blocked by Sebille and Fane, he can’t try to run from his perch. So, he retreats backward, as far away as he can – taking an AoO from Sebille, who whiffs on her offhand, and one from Fane, who crits and lands a whopping 177 HP strike – before turning around and using Flame Whip, an intermediate Pyromancer skill, on Fane.

Fane’s Comeback Kid kicks in and he survives, but Flame Whip also causes Blinded.




I don’t want to use Ruptured Chicken on the Marksman because it’ll try to run away, and with all of the fire on this platform, it’ll probably wind up healing more damage than Ruptured Tendons will do. So, instead, Sebille sticks with the classics: Backlash followed by Flurry.



The water totem fires at the Marksman again – which shouldn’t have been possible, there’s no way the Marksman is within its line of sight, but whatever – and this time, it lands true.




Prince puts down another water totem, and then uses his Source skill, Demonic Stare, on the Decapitator, which gives him some debuffs, removes all his armour (which is not a listed change in the Divinity: Unleashed mod, but holy poo poo, that’s a huge buff to Demonic Stare), and locks him in place.



The second water totem fires on the Decapitator, and it does 175 damage in one shot, now that Demonic Stare stripped him of all his armour.

What the gently caress, I love Demonic Stare now. That’s practically cheating.




Ifan executes the Decapitator with no trouble, and fires one more bolt on the Marksman. While Ifan and the Marksman are on different elevations, apparently it’s close enough that he doesn’t get the low ground damage penalty, which is nice.



Attendant can’t reach the Marksman with his long-range attack from where he’s standing; it’d cost too much AP to move next to Ifan; and climbing the vines and getting on the firey platform with Fane would be a death sentence. So, it just casts Restoration on itself and calls it a turn.




Turn 4

The Marksman uses a skill called Marksman’s Fang, which is an intermediate Wayfarer skill that does piercing damage to all targets in a straight line. This kills Fane – and Ifan, half a battlefield away.

The Marksman then fires an explosive arrow at his feet, healing himself and dealing extra damage to Sebille. This fight is already over in my favour, but this guy is really drawing it out.



Sebille hits him twice…



… And one of the water totems lands a good shot, killing the Marksman and ending the fight.

All in all, not a bad fight! I lost Fane and Ifan right at the very end to a lucky Marksman’s Fang, so that’s two res scrolls that I need to burn, but hey, I had just bought a handful recently, so, money well spent.

And as far as looting goes: they had a total of 48 gold… and nothing else. Very disappointing.





A round of resurrecting and healing later, and we’re all right as rain.

Except that guy that’s on fire. He’s been complaining about it the entire fight. I suppose I should see what his malfunction is.

: The flames… I cannot quench them… it buuurrns!

Well, he, like the pigs before him, is clearly fine. If he’s been on fire this entire time then he’s not about to die from them any time soon.

Still, that’s not to say I should leave him. It’d be cruel to see a man on fire and not try to put him out – and, at my most materialistic, this is probably a puzzle that will get me a Crumbling Skull when I solve it.

The gargoyle asked me how Braccus Rex would douse a man that’s been put on fire. Braccus, the mad bastard, wouldn’t use plain ol’ water to do it, and I doubt the guy knew how to use the power of the gods to Bless someone. Besides, Ifan’s rain dance didn’t put him out and I don’t have any more rain spells anyway.

Uh… well, blood is roughly ninety-percent water. Maybe that’ll do it?




Sebille jumps onto the platform with the burning skeleton and uses Flesh Sacrifice, which will cause her to bleed. All she has to do is bleed on the guy and that should put out his fire.



I just gotta…



I have to get into a good position, and…



If I can just bleed on him so that the blood puddle…



Maybe if I…



Dousing the man with blood is the intended solution, but the game expects you to know Blood Rain or to have a scroll ready to use. You don’t even need an entire person’s worth of blood to put him out – you just need a little bit, and Flesh Sacrifice will also work.

But, well, positioning in this game is everything. There’s a little dry spot underneath the guy’s right knee and under his left foot; that spot is the ‘center’ of the character’s model and in order for the game to consider him sitting in blood, that spot needs to be wet with it, but his physical model is preventing Sebille from getting any closer.

There’s yet another way to accomplish this, though:




Just have someone with the range to do so whack Sebille hard enough to make her bleed. In the base game, this means hitting her until she runs out of physical armour first, but in Divinity: Unleashed, it just takes one bolt (that happens to crit. “You want her to bleed? You got it!” said Ifan). If you’re playing by yourself and this is the solution you come to, make sure you don’t do the damage with your avatar character, because their attitude towards you will sharply decrease. Whereas here, Sebille couldn’t give two shits that Ifan just fired an arrow clean through her torso.

Anyway, that’s all it took, and now the man’s fire has been doused. But now he’s complaining about something else.

: The fire… it’s left me weak… I won’t last long…

He’s undead, meaning a healing spell won’t help him, and I don’t have any means to put down some poison. He is, however, Cursed, and we have the perfect antidote to that.





: A crime punished by a lifetime in eternal flame must have been quite heinous indeed.

: A dry, rattling laugh rises from the figure’s ancient gullet.



: I, ah, I’m familiar, yes.

: The figure nods grimly.



: Braccus and the people associated with him have given Sourcerers a reputation I don’t think they can recover from. Our people are being collared and shipped to death camps as we speak.



: I’m something of a scholar myself, and I’m on a mission to find some form of countermeasure against Braccus’s weaponry. Where can I find some of this ‘power’?

: The figure’s ruined flesh curls into a scowl.



: (Perhaps a more direct approach is necessary.) What is it you found and where can I find it?

: The figure slowly shakes his head.



: Braccus has been dead and gone for a very, very long time. Whatever threat the man posed directly has faded. If what you’ve learned can be used for the betterment of the world…



: … Fine, I can see this is going nowhere. You’re welcome for your unlife.



: And you as well.

Well, that conversation got us exactly nowhere.



Upon dousing the burning historian, another portal opened up on the platform Ifan had perched himself on for the fight.



It takes us back to the Realm of Orobas – to the same room, in fact, but from a different angle – and sitting on a stone table just beside the portal is another Crumbling Skull. Our reward for solving Braccus’ little riddle.




I can see the three adjacent rooms to the one I’m in. North will take me straight back to the plaza, meaning I’d have gone in a big circle, had burned three keys, and have absolutely nothing to shore for the effort other than less than fifty bucks and some nice boots. East, the higher screenshot, will take me to another trapped room with a pair of oil slicks; a ghostly door; and a visible pressure plate. And south, the lower screenshot, will take me to a corridor outside of the maze that appears to have no visible trappings or challenges, but it still has a locked door at its end – and no challenges means no keys.



The corridor looks too innocent. If there’s no visible way for me to progress through it, then there’s no reason for me to enter it – I’d just be tossing away one of my valuable keys. So I might as well take the eastern door.



The pressure plate is between the two oil puddles, slightly more towards Fane. There are no doubt traps hidden all over the room, but as long as I go slowly and I don’t trip any of them, the place should be harmless.




Standing on the plate, rather than spawn a ladder or a Crumbling Skull, instead opens up the ghostly apparitional door. Someone will have to stand on the plate while someone else progresses onward.




Like the plaza room, if I were to step on that trap plate, I’d probably explode. And with the oil on the ground, it’d hurt quite a lot.

There’s a hatch that leads elsewhere on the northern edge of the room, though. I wonder where this will take me? Maybe there’s another method to getting a Crumbling Skull?





Okay, it just takes me to the other side of the northern wall. Still, more maze to explore.



This exact spot is directly east of the plaza, meaning if I had went this way at the maze’s entrance, I would have wound up here. There are no visible traps or pressure plates, so I doubt I’d be able to find another Crumbling Skull here, but that hatch I just took goes both ways, so it wouldn’t be a loss.




There’s a raised platform here that gives me a good look at the nearby beach – and it appears frozen over. That’s interesting. Going by the Hollow Marshes, you’d think this place is a tropical paradise, but the sandy beach just a stone’s throw from the maze has turned into an arctic waste.



There’s a collapsed wall here that I can see through, but I can’t climb over the rubble to reach the other side. I could have one of my jumpers come here to get across – but, thanks to the raised platform nearby and thanks to Salem’s ability to jump really well, he can reach across the gap just fine.







All of that to get over here, and there’s a whole lot of nothing at all.



Except this rat. Rats can be useful for information.



: ‘Can’t help yourself?’ What do you mean by that?



: Most people would consider that a virtue, you know.

: All the time? Absolutely all the time? It’s hell on dirt, mate. Try making friends when you can’t lie to them. Try having a lover for anything longer than an hour. ‘Do I look good? I stepped in something, do I smell? Did you like that apple I found you?’ And what do I say? ‘You look terrible. You stink. Your apple was rotten.’



: And how did you come across this… predicament? And be sure to tell the truth. I can’t help you if you aren’t honest with me.

: I’ll tell you everything I know!

: The rat gives you an eager look. Then wavers…



: Do you know how I could help you? I’m certainly drawing blanks.

: Yes! I think you can, yes!



: You want me to strike you with magic? You are very small; won’t that kill you?



: … Perhaps you can make due by not saying anything at all, sometimes.



: Alright, fine. Try and stay still.

: Oh thank you! Thank you thank you thank you! You’re not as mean as you look stupid!

: It closes its eyes, steels itself for what’s coming.

Well, the only non-Necromancy magic that Fane knows is Bless, so…






: Do you think it worked?

: No, it didn’t!

: The rat gives you a mischievous look… holds it for a long moment, then…

: HAHA! See! It totally worked! I can lie again!

: With a new bounce in its tail, the rat wanders away.

: Bye, handsome. See?! I can lie! This is the best day of my life!

: That was me telling the truth, by the way. Because now you don’t know! I’m in charge of my own destiny again!

Ah.

I should have asked what was in it for me. Silly me for trusting in the altruism of a rat that wanted nothing more than to lie.

Maple Leaf
Aug 24, 2010

Let'en my post flyen true


I could just as easily have Salem teleport me back to the hatch and I can start this section of the maze over from the room with the oil spills, but it shouldn’t be necessary: the room Fane is in is directly adjacent to the room the oil spills are connected to, so if I solve one puzzle, I should be able to solve them both.

The rooms in these puzzles are designed for two people to complete, and there are still three in the rest of my party, so…





Sebille is currently zero and two for immediately stepping in traps that she finds. And she’s supposed to be the quick one.




Prince standing on that one pressure plate opened up both of this room’s phantasmal doors, meaning I didn’t even need to solve two puzzles: Fane is good to leave right here and now.



There’s a pedestal for another Crumbling Skull to spawn on, right next to another torture device: this one is called the Iron Chair and it’s essentially just a wooden chair with nails driven through it.

Maybe the pedestal wants a blood offering before it gives me the skull?



Wow, Sebille did not hesitate to sit in that chair.

She takes 51 damage once roughly every second. After the chair sucks down half her HP and with no skull to show for it, this is probably not the solution.




Oh, there’s a pressure plate next to this oil barrel. Right. The one thing that’s worked every other time so far, besides the burning historian.



Standing on the plate has a Crumbling Skull spawn on the southern edge of the room. Ifan picks it up, and that’s one more puzzle solved.

There is no locked door on the eastern side of this room, but there is one on the southern side of the room with the oil slicks. This will lead me beyond the gate in the grassy corridor south of the room with the burning historian.



Unfortunately, I’m a bit, well, clumsy, with my repositioning as I try to get the team back together in one room –



– causing Attendant to perish in the fires of the trap when it tries to move back into place near the door. Interestingly, Prince isn’t made Despondent by it; I guess it’s a combat-only status.



And with that door… I’m pretty sure that’s the end of the maze. We’ve navigated the entire thing and made it to the other side.

I’m pretty sure I could have handled this maze a little more succinctly if I had a better handle on what to do in it, but like I said, I never really got a strong grip on its layout.




There’s a stairway that leads up to a tower at the end of the maze, and in it… something that Braccus wanted to protect. This isn’t the vault that Gratiana told us to find, but there’s nonetheless something important in here.



This… is the exact same statue as the one on the beach, the very first waypoint we found when we washed ashore. It’s a statue of Braccus Rex himself, and I can interact with it. Maybe it’s another waypoint?

: Stern eyes in a sterner face stare into your very soul. Under the inescapable gaze, you begin to shiver uncontrollably.



: I’m not here to cause any trouble.

: Do not doubt my power. I merely wish you gone! You are gone! BEGONE!



I’ve been teleported back to the entrance of the maze.

Well… that’s a little annoying, but it’s hardly an issue. I just have to take the same path through it a second time and all of the doors have been unlocked.



One jaunt through the maze a second time, and here I am at the entrance to the tower once more.

But before I go through with entering it and seeing what’s inside the tower, I want to take a look around its perimeter first. It looks like there’s still a fair amount of things to find.



Around the southeastern corner of the tower is the corpse of a wizard named Jimfred. He looks like he has a not-too-shabby staff on his back and he’s wearing a chain-link skirt for armour, but naturally, I can’t just pilfer those right off him.



He has another Crumbling Skull on him, though, to keep unlocking doors in the maze.



As it happens, there’s one literally right beside me. Jimfred was that close.



Aw man :(



This door leads off the cliff that the maze and the tower have been built on entirely, down onto the beach below. This isn’t close to the frozen beach I saw before, but it’s still worth exploring; even the dunes near Braccus’ maze could hold something valuable from Braccus himself.






Just across this bit of water is the shiny cave that we had found a few updates ago. We had done all of that to walk about twenty paces – but that twenty paces would have been through water, and that’s just not acceptable. Our boots would get soggy!

We had spotted that chest resting against the cliff back then as well; now, we can finally check out what’s inside it.



A handful of cash, vendor trash, and a vitality potion. Nice.

As I remember it, when we were across the way, we had a friend of ours tell us that we absolutely needed to head in this direction, but we couldn’t cross the water to get here. Now that we’re here, let’s see what else he wants to tell us.




Keep heading south, according to it. But… there’s nothing in that direction, is there?



Oh, this is new!



I’ve never seen this before! There’s a chest sitting in some kind of enchanted circle, protected by a dome of dark energy. This wasn’t in the base game – I’ve never seen the skeletal arm before this playthrough either, and they both must be connected to one of those armour-gathering sidequests.



: The symbols will curse anyone that dares near. This chest cannot open unless the magic is dispelled.



: These are the dissonant notes of a curse. If you wish to open the chest, the barrier must be destroyed first.



This place is a big, open area with two different high grounds nearby. It’s pretty safe to say that there’s going to be a confrontation here.



I don’t have Attendant with me, and while I can stand in the water near the beach and that’ll make me wet as if I were standing in a puddle, I can’t summon it in there to make it a water element.

So, let’s try something new:




Now Attendant is an earth-type: it takes regular damage from fire and water, and it deals and takes double damage from air. It knows Fossil Strike instead of Restoration and it’s immune to oil, so it can sprint right through the stuff without slowing down.

This does mean that I’m out of a healer until I can re-summon it in water, though.



Ifan, Sebille, and Prince all take the nearby high grounds, getting into position for the fight that’s probably about to happen.

All that’s left is for me to figure out this puzzle. I can’t open the chest until the spell has been, well, dispelled.



Putting the arm on the ring does nothing, other than confirm that this is, indeed, what it wanted me to find from the beginning. I didn’t think it would but I figured it was worth a try.

It’s a bit reckless, but maybe if I touched the stones?

: An unseen force tears at your shoulder. It yanks harder and harder, trying to rip the arm out of its socket. Your mouth tastes like salt and ash. Dark energy surges across your body, eager to punish your greed.

Well, now I’m Cursed for three turns, so, that’s not it. A quick Bless fixes me up, though.

Maybe if I strike the chest?



Zero damage done.

Maybe… if I strike the stones?



The game doesn’t register that I struck anything at all.

Hmm. I was Cursed when I tried to touch it. Maybe if I Bless the chest?



The chest isn’t seen as an object I can target with Bless because of the barrier, but I can target the stones with it. What if I try that?




: The lid flies open with a metallic squeal. A one-armed skeleton clad in a pristine coat unfolds himself from inside the chest.

I know it’s a bit hard to see in this screenshot, but he’s missing his left arm.

: He rolls his neck, aligning spine and skull in a long, crackling chorus.



: I presume this is yours.

: Aye.



And with that, his model now has his left arm back.

: Ah. Much better.



: I dare you.

: Persuasion Success!

: Mmm. Here before the first face I’ve seen in centuries, am I. It might do to make an ally.



: (This is perhaps a bit hasty with a man that just threatened me, but on the other hand, it’s better to make friends than enemies, as he just said.) I am called Fane.

: A show of trust, the exchange of names. Take it kindly, do I.

: Go, must I. As must you.



: What do you intend to do? Remain as you are forever?

: Bones fare well at sea. Neither shipwreck nor shark can threaten them.

That… sounds wrong.

: Now – fair horizons to you. For your sake, may we never meet again.




And just like that, he vanishes in a whirlwind, off to somewhere else. I learned very little from that exchange.



Maybe there’s something worth salvaging from his chest?



An old diary with a pirate’s logo on its front cover.


High and hale waves take us.
High and hale waves take us.

A set of armour that could Charm a person? And I’d get to dress up as a pirate? Sounds like a sweet deal to me! I just need to find them.

Sech was wearing the chestpiece, but there’s still the hat and the boots, according to his log. There isn’t much information here on where he’s hidden them, but there is info on his ship, which waits ‘in the old cove.’ The word ‘the’ stands out to me there – how many coves have I found that have an old ship in them? None spring to mind, let alone any that have a ‘barb-tongued door.’

This is exciting! One more quest to add to the pile to find a set of rare, magical armour.



So much for preparing for a fight, though. That’s fine with me; maybe I can find a way to pilfer the chestpiece off Sech later without damaging it. Not that that’s a thing.



There’s a wall built into the cliff around the backside of Braccus’ tower with an open door. Maybe this was another way down?



It was booby-trapped. Fane, Lora, and Salem all took a hefty amount of fire damaging just for walking through it. Nothing a nap can’t fix, though.



Scaling the cliff, I find another corpse, and some gloves that don’t have anything special about them, making them vendor trash. Maybe the corpse is holding another Crumbling Skull?



Nah, but this isn’t a bad haul, either. Grenades have a ton of uses in a fight.



Another one. How about you?



Hey, alright.



With that, we’ve made a full circuit around the tower at the end of the maze.

But there’s still one more thing to do before we enter the tower proper: directly across from the statue of Braccus, a piece of the maze has crumbled apart, revealing another section to the place.



This leads to the back entrance to the final room of the maze: it was directly east of the room with the Crumbling Skull that was used to open the previous locked door, the one with the Iron Chair in it.



This final room doesn’t contain any traps, other than a poison cloud that Fane can easily ignore, but it does hold an ornate chest that’s half-buried. Bigger chests like those usually hold better stuff in them.





Hell yeah. A ton of money; an air resistance potion; a bear trap; a nice dagger that gives +1 to Dual Wielding, meaning it’d probably be real good on Sebille; a one-handed sword; and an unidentified epic-level spear.

The sword and the spear will be great vendor trash, so this was a pretty choice haul. And that dagger has a slot for a rune in it, too! I replaces Abstinence, one of the other daggers that I had gotten from Kniles way back when.

Okay! With all of that said and done, we’ve finally completed the maze for real. The only thing left is to enter this tower.



: The stony gaze of the gargoyle pins you to the spot as it spreads its wings before you.

: You. You have earned your reward.



Holy poo poo, on top of completing the maze and earning 4,200 EXP, we also have our choice between a warrior’s set of gloves, wizard’s sandals, a wayfarers’s helmet, and a ring – and they’re all Epic-level loot. And we also get a water rune and an epic-level staff for Prince.

Wow. That was not a small reward for completing the maze.



Okay, this staff kind of does everything. +1 Intelligence for Prince, one of my wizards. It does poison damage, meaning I could hit Fane with it to heal him. Striking a water or blood surface will turn it to poison. It has a 20% chance to set Silenced. It restores 14% of the damage it does back to Prince. And it has a slot. And it does more damage than Scumkiller (although to be fair, Scumkiller is starting to show its age).

Wow wow.

Of the four options available to me, I take the ring: it gives +2 Warfare and as we’ve learned from the effortposts earlier in the thread, it’s always better to stack up on Warfare if you can, so this would be a big help on Fane. I also slip the water rune into Prince’s new staff, but in retrospect, I’m probably going to take the venom rune out of his ring and put that into the staff instead – that way, it’ll do more poison damage, and thus, it’ll heal Fane for more.

So anyway, what’s inside this tower?



: Impish Pocket Realm

Pretty standard so far. A ladder leading directly into an obscenely large door with a pile of skulls stacked up beside it. Also, this song is one of my personal favourites in the game.



Sweet, another rune. Those are going to be in high demand for some time.

The massive door is locked, which is no surprise, so there’s no way forward from here. But I can hear voices nearby; are there people still here, in Braccus’ tower? I thought this place was long-since abandoned.



Just a small ways east from the ladder entrance are a trio of skeletons, sitting at a table… playing cards. It looks like a dwarf, a human, and a lizard, and they’re all wizards, based on their staffs.

: Got any fives?

: Our fives are naught but dust. They crumbled to nothing centuries before.

: *sigh* You can just so ‘go fish’, you know…



: Here, did I ever tell you of the time I cursed that court eun–

: -court eunich to speak only truth and he admitted pleading Braccus’ mistress? Yes, you did.

: Ah. How about the time Braccus asked me to cast–

: The Danse Macabre. Yes, I recall.

: And the time I travelled to–

: Yes.

: But what about–

: Yes.

: And–

: Please shut up.



: Do you ever wonder if your lizard empire still stands?

: I need not wonder. The Empire abides, never straying from its course. It is eternal as we. Verily I say, lizards speak as I do, and my great house – the House of Trade – rules still. I don’t doubt that fortunes wax and wane, but the Empire remains unchanging.

… Prince never mentioned a ‘House of Trade.’ There’s Law, War, and Dreams, and the fabled Shadow, but according to him, there is no ‘House of Trade.’ These guys have been down here for a very, very long time.

: As you enter the room you see three skeletons sitting around a table, cards in hand. They creak and turn to stare at you.

: Another cadaver? Clearly we were not the only ones to suffer Braccus’s wrath.

: The more your skull clacks, the less sense you make, Rask. Use your sight – he’s drenched in Source.

: Aye, and sportin’ a face with more gems than you’ve mites. Braccus’d see us made emperors before he locks away a prize like that.



: The state of your clothes; the holes in your skulls… you three must have been down here for hundreds of years.

: Aye, sounds about right. It’s more than a moon’s cycle and just shy of an aeon for sure, but I ain’t been keeping track.

: The human undead leans in, studying you suspiciously.

: You’re not one of Braccus’s brood? You’re not Gratiana’s pet? Then why do you disturb us?

: The creature yearns for our secrets! Did I not say that word would spread of our genius?



: I won’t deny a modicum of curiosity, certainly. To whom am I speaking?



: Now that you mention it, I may have heard of the name ‘Rask’ in some leaflet I read many… uh… some time ago.

: You see? Even the gibbering humans have heard of me! They know that no other weapon could stand against mine.

: *sigh* Truly, Rask, your brilliance knows no bounds. Perhaps this century your genius mind will come up with a way to escape?



: Perhaps a forgone question, but, why did Braccus have you lot create weapons for him?

: More than mere weapons. Traps, purging wands, war wagons – every tool Braccus needed to bend the world to his will.

: And the torture chambers! Braccus loved them beauties. Not quite as much as Gratiana did, mind. You should’ve seen her face when she landed us in ‘em…



: … Where can I find these Soul Jars of yours?

: In a place not even the dead could invade! The traps which surround it are of a cunning not seen in a thousand years, and–

: By the horns of Balberith, you design ONE reasonable trap and won’t shut up about it for centuries!

: And thine were better? Couldst thou have brought forth such cunning use of light?

: Mine did not constantly disintegrate the labourers building them.



: It’s a wonder you three haven’t ripped the heads clean off each other’s necks by now! If all three of you were as smart as you boast, you would have escaped with a bit of teamwork by now.

: We have spent centuries trying to escape this tower, but our power was too weak. There was no hope of freedom.



: You just said you didn’t have the strength to what is, ostensibly, climb a ladder. I’m not afraid to do worse to you than what Braccus did if you keep up that sort of tone.

: Persuasion Success!

: Worse than this? Can such a thing be true?

: Thou art fortunate: when I still wore scales I would have cut you down without a thought. But time brings perspective. And perspective brings mercy. You are permitted to live, magus.



: Not that I need your ‘permission’ to leave, but I prefer a civilized resolution to a violent one, so, you have my word.

: Trusting a pup to do a hound’s work? It seems foolish, but very well; mark the location thus. And do not disappoint us.

They put a flag on the map that leads to the shiny cave just at the foot of the cliff we’re inside right now – the same place that Gratiana told us to go.

Speaking of. Apparently they know something about Gratiana that I don’t.



: Can you tell me more about Braccus Rex? What was he doing on this island?

: This island was a research facility. A safe place for him to research, and for us to test his weapons.

: You didn’t never see him without a book in his hand. Always reading about some ancient race. He weren’t the sharin’ kind, but he found something good in there.

: The results of his research allowed us to recreate purging wands based on an ancient design he found. Much of our research was built off what that which went before.



: You mentioned someone named ‘Gratiana.’ I’m… unfamiliar with this person. Who was she?

: The skeleton turns and spits – producing a glob of dust that wafts slowly to the ground.

: Braccus’s whore. And more besides. She helped his rise to power, feeding him the Source of the innocent as she went.

: She were a canny lass, no question. Treacherous and deceitful – she could lie better than any.



: Before I leave, what more can you tell me about the location of your Soul Jars?

: They’d be in the treasure vault. It’s hidden better than most – tucked away on a beach west o’ here.

: The entrance was one of mine! A beautiful little thing if I say so myself. It’s built into the cliffs of this fort, but you’ll uncover it if your gaze is keen.

: The entrance is crude. Hidden in a vile little cove, it requires no intellect – merely chance. A ‘puzzle’ only to imbeciles. My devices are much more elegant.

… And there you have it. According to these three mages, Gratiana was Braccus’s personal concubine – and she rather enjoyed her work in making him into the tyrant that he was. According to Rask, she slew kids, families, entire towns, all in the name of Braccus Rex.

She also wants us to find those Soul Jars in Braccus’s vault.

I won’t ask you now what we do with the jars once we find them – I’ll save that for when we actually do. Rest assured, though, that there’s quite a bit more to Gratiana than she’s letting on.



Our next destination is that shiny cave that we had found some time ago. It’s time to raid Braccus’s treasure vault.

But before we do: do we want to swap anyone out of our party?

Let me know by noon EST tomorrow!

Black Robe
Sep 12, 2017

Generic Magic User


Maple Leaf posted:

At this point, I realize that Afrit, Ifan’s wolf, isn’t in the fight.




Afrit is standing at the door to the room, well outside of the fight’s boundaries, and if I try and command him to bite the Decapitator, I’m told that Afrit ‘can’t reach’ his target. Afrit is such a massive wolf that he can’t fit through the door.

That’s actually a huge pain in the butt! I was hoping to use Afrit this fight to show off some of the numbers he could do, and besides that, the more numbers I have, the better my odds. That’s really annoying, that Afrit can’t just, I don’t know, walk in a straight line rather than try and fit through the door sideways or something.

Whatever. I’ll be able to win the fight without him, it’s just, it would have been really nice.

Damnit, who invited Moon Moon?

Anyway, while we side-eye Gratiana a lot, our current party is still doing just fine I think.

Donkringel
Apr 22, 2008
This is the first time I ever found out that info about gratiana!

GuavaMoment
Aug 13, 2006

YouTube dude
Ifan out, Lohse in.

Donkringel posted:

This is the first time I ever found out that info about gratiana!

Yeah me too, I thought you had to fight all of those undead.

Olive Branch
May 26, 2010

There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance.

I'll take a different tack and say we shuffle the party a bit. Red Prince and Sebille out, Beast and Lohse in.

Meeting the pirate captain could have also led to a couple of different outcomes. You could have brawled with his lackeys if you failed the persuasion, or traded his soul jar, which you'll find later, for his coat, had you found it before freeing him.

thekeeshman
Feb 21, 2007

GuavaMoment posted:

Ifan out, Lohse in.

Seems like it would be good to have a proper healer.

ChocolatePancake
Feb 25, 2007

GuavaMoment posted:

Ifan out, Lohse in.

I agree with this.

Guildenstern Mother
Mar 31, 2010

Why walk when you can ride?
Ditch the prince and bring Lohse

buddychrist10
Nov 4, 2009

Obtuse.....even hokey.
Swap Sebille for Lohse.

Jadecore
Mar 10, 2018

They say money can't buy happiness, but it sure does help.
Swap Ifan for Lohse.

Schwartzcough
Aug 12, 2009

Don't tease the Octopus, kids!

GuavaMoment posted:

Ifan out, Lohse in.

I'm probably too late to vote, but yeah, this.

Boy, was keeping people alive in perpetual torment just a hobby of ol' Braccus? We're tripping over these people left and right.

TitanG
May 10, 2015

Schwartzcough posted:

I'm probably too late to vote, but yeah, this.

Boy, was keeping people alive in perpetual torment just a hobby of ol' Braccus? We're tripping over these people left and right.

Survivorship bias really, you don't get to see the people who got caned or summarily executed.

Maple Leaf
Aug 24, 2010

Let'en my post flyen true
To begin this update, I had asked in the previous one which characters, if any, we should swap out, and at the time of the deadline, we had agreed that we wanted Lohse in, but we didn’t agree on who to swap out – it was a one-way tie for all three of our friends.

So I did something that I thought would mix things up a little and I chose to swap out Sebille.

: If we have different paths to take, you and I, so be it.

I know that she’s probably our best player, with skills like Ruptured Chicken and Chloroform and Adrenaline/Flesh Sacrifice, but she’s also the only character that’s been in the party since the moment we had options, and I thought that mixing it up a little bit by giving her a breather would make for more interesting gameplay. We can always just swap her back in in two update’s time.

At the same time, most of the votes actually came in a few days after the deadline for the vote, and I had already recorded this update by the time they started coming in. I try and set the deadlines for twenty-four hours after I post the update because, quite frankly, I love this game and I can’t wait to get back to playing it. But my updates are also incredibly long and it probably takes a bit longer than that for people to find the time to read through them at all. So, the lesson I’m taking from this is that I should extend the vote deadlines by a couple of days to give people the time to catch up and parse what we’ve done in the update.

Anyway! Sebille is out and Lohse is in.




As soon as Lohse rejoins the team, she gets all of the experience we’ve accrued at once, which pushes her over the edge for a level up. I put one point into Memory and Intelligence, and one point into Hydrosophist. Honestly, being a magician, it’s tempting to put both of her points into Memory – she and Prince are going to need them the absolute most.

Lohse hasn’t been with us for some time, meaning she has some catching up to do with respect to skills and equipment. I’ve been lugging around a handful of Aerothurge skillbooks for a while, and I finally have the chance to hand them off to Lohse, which will ease the burden on my shopping spree a little. She can also identify that epic spear that I found in the previous update, which will make for some good cash. And finally, she needs to talk with Leya to have her collar removed.



Gartiana sells a little bit of every skill, but she specializes in Aerothurge, which will help pad Lohse’s skill set. She currently has two rings equipped that each give her +1 Aerothurge, and one of the rings that Gratiana sells offers +1 Hydrosophist, which is a tough call.

Among the skillbooks that I buy is Teleportation – Lohse doesn’t actually natively know that skill and she still needs to learn it via a book. Her gloves are antiquated and have lower stats than I’m comfortable with, so this is a thing that needs to happen, and it might as well happen now.



I bite the bullet and take the ring, as well as a pair of sandals that offer greater Initiative and have slightly better stats than what she has now.



Simone offers a handful of Hydrosophist skillbooks, but Lohse doesn’t have a ton of Memory lying around, so I just take Soothing Cold and Ice Fan and call my trip with her done.

Next, I stop to talk with Gareth. He sells Warfare and Geomancer stuff – I’m currently about as loaded on Warfare as I can be, but Ifan has a few points in Geomancy and he still has a bit of Memory to spare.



I’m starting to run a little low on cash, but I still have a trip to Kalias to make, so I’m not too concerned. I buy Fortify and Meld Metal from Gareth – Fortify (and its companion spell Armour Of Frost) are staple defensive spells not just for their schools, but for the whole game, and frankly, it’s both impressive and bull-headed that I managed to do as well as I have without Fortify being easily accessible.



I run back to Kalias to sell my wares, make a ton of money, and lighten my load a bit.




Then I run back to Zaleskar to buy that really nice water staff, Commander Of The Tides, as well as a plain helmet that offers no buffs but some decent stats. He still has that two-handed axe as well, Sundering Cleaver, that I’d like to have, but I can only afford either the staff or the axe, and Lohse needs more stuff than Fane does.

Commander Of The Tides gives Lohse access to a Source skill, Arcane Stitch. It fully revitalizes a target and removes Frozen, Stunned, Petrified, Plague, Suffocating, Poisoned, Burning, Necrofire(!!), Terrified, Silenced, Taunted, and Mad. In the base game, it also fully restores the target’s magic armour. It’s essentially a reset button that fully revitalizes a not-undead target, and it was buffed in Divinity: Unleashed by reducing its AP cost by one.

Finally, I set about doing something I should have done a while ago:



We had learned how to craft skillbooks together as far back as just before the fight with Orivand. The resulting book still costs one Memory, but requires one point in the two schools it focuses on in order to use it.

The rule of thumb for crafting skillbooks together is: one book in the ‘physical’ schools – Warfare, Huntsman, Polymorph, Scoundrel, and Necromancy – and one book in the ‘magical’ schools – Aerothurge, Hydrosophist, Geomancy, Pryokinetic, and Summoning. You need one book from each group in order to mix them together, meaning this combination of Warfare and Necromancy…



… won’t work. If Fane wants to dip into the exciting world of hybrid skills, he’ll need to put at least one point into something else. Maybe I’ll put a point into Pyrokinetic on his next level up for that Sparking Swings skill I was told to get. Lohse and Sebille would be unable to learn hybrid schools without speccing into something else as well for the same reason.

Ifan, though:




Taking any Huntsman book and combining it with any Geomancy book creates the hybrid spell Throw Dust, which is a nice thing to have: it sharply reduces the target’s accuracy, so we can see them whiff some attacks for a change.

He’s maxed out on Memory, though, so I’ll have to sacrifice one of his current skills to use it. I opt to toss Fossil Strike, since it does the same thing as Impalement, but worse.



This is the range for Throw Dust, at even elevation. Ifan can throw a fistful of pocket sand as far as he can throw a giant, oily boulder.





Finally, although Prince isn’t a physical fighter, I figure I might as well give him Sparking Swings. He can also learn Fire Infusion for Attendant to turn it into a fire-type summon whenever he wants, although the Infusion skills are kind of made moot (until much later) since summoning Attendant on a fire surface does the same thing.

Okay! That’s 1,245 words of update so far, and the shopping spree is finally done. Let’s take a look at what we’ve got:

Ice Fan: Throw three icicles at enemies within eyesight, giving them the Chilled status and laying down an icy surface on their landing.

Soothing Cold: Increase all nearby allies’ magic armour by a scaled amount.

Meld Metal: Increase all nearby allies’ physical armour by a scaled amount.

Blinding Radiance: Cause your body to emit a brilliant light, Blinding all nearby foes while its active and doing scaled Air damage on cast.

Dazzling Bolt: Summon down a lightning bolt from the heavens, dealing Air damage to enemies within a small radius. Essentially an objective upgrade from Electric Discharge, which is weaker; can only target one enemy; and can be obstructed by walls, height differences, etc.

Favourable Wind: Project an aura of Favourable Wind around the caster, improving the movement speed of all nearby allies, allowing them to move farther for less AP.

Shocking Touch: Do a high level of Air damage to a single target within arm’s length and give them the Stunned status.

Teleportation: Throw a person or object within eyesight of the caster and deal physical damage upon their landing to the target as well as any person or object the target lands on.

Uncanny Evasion: Give one target an additional 50% chance to evade any strike (Ninety percent in the base game).

Throw Dust: Throw a cloud of dust at a target area, dealing scaled Earth damage and Blinding all targets within it. Clears non-cursed clouds and surfaces.

Sparking Swings: Give yourself the Sparking Swings status, which causing sparks of fire to fly from your weapon each time you deal damage with it that deals bonus damage to the target as well as any targets nearby.

Maddening Song: Lohse exclusive. Sing a song that causes all susceptible targets within the target area to become Mad and attack the nearest target, friend or foe.

With all of that out of the way, we’re ready to begin spelunking that very shiny cave that we had spotted a few updates ago.



And Lohse gets a wardrobe upgrade. She, like Sebille, had been without a helmet this entire time, and this is what a mage’s helmet looks like on her: long, braided hair extensions with jewelry covering her face. She’s got a real Bog Witch vibe going on and I dig it.



On the way, I resummon Afrit, who had despawned in the fight with the skeletons in the maze when Ifan died.



And we’re finally back. We had first found this cave a handful of updates ago; it’s time to finally see what’s inside it.



So far, so good. Nothing too out of the ordinary just yet.

Well, except, the opening to the cave was on the dry beach, whereas we’re currently standing in a stream. With the water flowing away from the ocean.

But besides that.



Some old, rotten architecture leading into an area that feels… a bit ‘lived in’ for a cave that’s supposed to be hidden from the eyes of the world for all eternity, given the flattened, comparatively-clean floor and the lit torch. Save for Gratiana, I guess, who always knew about this place but couldn’t enter it to search for the Soul Jars because ???



Just a bit ahead is a giant archway beckoning us forward, but the way’s blocked by a magical barrier that’s impossible to penetrate from this side. At least we know we’re in the right place.



Approaching the mystical door, and this gentleman appears from the ether to great us.




: I’ve sentenced grander men than you to the gallows for less, spectre. I suggest you change your tone if you want to keep whatever dust still clings to your bones.

: Oh, how totally precious! You think you scare me!



: I did my part by warning you.

: You’re embarrassing yourself. Leave, before you hurt yourself, too.

This exchange doesn’t result in a fight, but you can still club this Trompdoy character over the head if you want to start it anyway.



There isn’t much that we can do in this area. The path forward is blocked by that magical barrier and this area with Trompdoy has nothing particular about it. Just a handful of crates.

I mean, I might as well check them out.



: Ha! Here today, gone tomorrow. Life’s a dream, isn’t it?

So, yeah, none of these crates have anything in them, and opening them will cause the character peeking in to become instantly frozen. Luckily, status effects only last a short while, so Fane can just wait this one out.



Yeah, a whole lot of nothin’.

What did that one lizard wizard, Rask, say in the tower? That his traps involved ‘an ingenious use of light,’ somehow?




These crates are perched rather specifically near the flowing river going through this cavern, and I can clearly see to the other shore, where there’s another crate and another lit torch. I wonder if they weren’t meant to try and deter me from….




Ah, a bridge made of light that only appears when I step on it. Maybe that’s all that Rask meant. It’s not all that different from the entrance made of light as well – in that case, maybe it was the human mage’s doing?



In any case, there’s nothing stopping me from progressing across the bridge to the other side.

And as soon as I do, the game auto-saves, so, that’s a sign that Trompdoy isn’t going to appreciate my flippant disregard for his flippancy.



There’s a handful of high grounds surrounding a recessed valley, and the ground between them is wet. Lots of opportunities to surround an unwary band that walks straight forward without taking heed of their surroundings.



To the south is a pathway leading behind the high ground, with a set of climbable vines that will take me straight up there without having to walk through the valley in the center.




As well as a pair of crates, one of which even has stuff in it. We’ve been dry on lockpicks for a while, so this is nice to have.



To the north of the entrance is the highest of high grounds, but there’s no way to reach it without walking through the center valley.




Not unless you can Jump Good, anyway. Ifan puts himself way up top – a fun position for the archer to be, naturally – and goes into stealth mode.



Lohse and Prince, meanwhile, take the southern high ground, leaving Fane to take the valley and trigger the trap –



– but, as I move my mages into position, they accidentally trigger it themselves. Trompdoy appears in the center of the field, just beneath a craggy outcropping in the middle of the valley, and he’s dressed to impress with a full suit of scale armour.

: Didn’t I tell you to leave? Wasn’t I clear that you’re not WELCOME here? You can’t teach a fool anything…

Well, Prince is locked into place, but that’s not so bad; he has the second-highest ground, and that’s a pretty okay position to be in.



I try and move Lohse onto the outcropping above Trompdoy, to split the party up and make it impossible to crowd-control them, but…




: Combat Music 2
: Trompdoy The Trickster

Turn 1

Trompdoy wasn’t a big fan of me trying to circumvent his trap like that, and the fight initiates without my input.

There are three Trompdoys in this fight: a Ranger, a Fighter, and a Mage. The Fighter is the one I was just talking with; the Ranger is beside Prince (meaning he doesn’t have the highest ground), and the Mage is beside Ifan. The Ranger goes first, opening with Reactive Shot, followed by Sky Shot on Prince.




Afrit goes next… and the dumb wolf got himself stuck on a tiny ridge that’s maybe knee-height. There’s a little ramp that connects to the rest of the cliff – Ifan jumped to where Afrit is, and he took that ramp down to the cliff – but Afrit is too wide for that little ramp.

Honestly, this is pretty bananas. Afrit just can’t catch a break. It’s a human’s world, clearly.

That said, Afrit can still use Wolf Howl on the Mage, which Taunts him, meaning the Mage can only target Afrit. If he tries to attack anyone else, he has a 0% chance to hit.




Thankfully, the Mage is kind enough to climb that little ramp himself and put him in Afrit’s effective range, so he’ll at least get in a few bites next turn.

After repositioning, the Mage, rather than try to attack anyone, instead performs a rain dance.




Lohse uses Uncanny Evasion on Prince, giving him an additional 50% chance to dodge every single attack for one turn (and 20% increased movement speed, but he’s smack dab in the middle of Reactive Shot), before using Dazzling Bolt on the Fighter. He’s standing on a puddle of water, so if he wants to move, it’s going to hurt even more.




He does anyway, repositioning next to Lohse and hitting both her and Prince with Battering Ram (which hits Prince, which, come on).

Fane’s turn is next, but he’s not near anyone: they’re all on higher ground than him and it’s take too long to move closer, so he delays.






That’s what Salem is for: he jumps up next to the Ranger and swaps places with Fane, instantly giving him the high ground. After that, Salem repositions at the base of the cliff with Ifan, looking to jump up there and help Afrit with the Mage.


Prince only has three AP, and even with Sparking Swings, attacking Trompdoy with Prince is a bad idea because Trompdoy is undead and Prince’s staff does hella poison damage. He only has three AP anyway thanks to Battering Ram, so, he just casts Think Fast on Fane and calls it a turn.




Attendant, now an earth-elemental, uses Fossil Strike on the Fighter, followed by a Battering Ram of its own. The Fighter is good and controlled and won’t be able to do much of anything next turn.




Ifan uses Tactical Retreat again to move closer to Afrit – not a necessary reposition, but Tactical Retreat gives the user Haste, so, he wants that.

After that, he just plugs the Mage once.




And to end the turn, Fane hits the Ranger with Battle Stomp, plus a regular strike.




Turn 2

Fane goes first thanks to Think Fast, and he immediately uses Time Warp on himself. He’s gonna try and gently caress up this Ranger and badly as possible.

He ends ‘this’ turn by hitting the Ranger once…



… and then he hits the Ranger three more times. He doesn’t have any big, hard-hitting Warfare moves (other than All In, but that’s not an efficient way to spend an even-number amount of AP), so, whacking him a bunch is the play. It puts the Ranger down to about a third of his HP remaining, which isn’t bad for the second turn.




Scumkiller managed to set the Ranger on fire, so he fires a freezing arrow at Fane, knowing the splashback would hit himself for a bit of extra damage, but it’d also put out his fire. A bit of a give-and-take move.

He then uses Glitter Dust on Fane, but because of its area-of-effect buff in Divinity: Unleashed, it also hits himself, meaning Fane now has 100% chance to hit the Ranger and an increased critical hit chance.




Afrit finally gets to do something! Each bite Afrit does has a high chance of causing Bleeding, but Trompdoy has no blood to bleed. Not a big deal: Afrit’s jaws are still plenty strong and he bites for 68 damage, which is about as strong as Ifan (not counting the piercing damage from Shadow’s Eye, and assuming level ground).

Afrit can also Maul a target, which also has the Bleeding chance, and it sets Ruptured Tendons, which still effects undead just as well, despite not even having tendons.







The Mage tries to run – taking an AoO from Afrit and an enormous amount of damage from his broken ankles, but not enough to take him out, unfortunately.

He turns around and uses Electric Discharge on Ifan, Stunning him; Global Cooling on the water that he put down from the last turn’s rain dance, Chilling both Ifan and Afrit; and finally, he uses Staff of Magus on Ifan, which does physical damage, which I did not know staffs could do.

Ifan’s a little hosed up, but the Mage is only one arrow from death, so, it’s nbd.




Lohse hits the Fighter with Electric Discharge and then she uses Restoration on Prince, healing him for a fat 80 HP. It’s nice having a dedicated healer that can pull those numbers again.





The Fighter worms his way towards Lohse, taking an AoO from Prince (which heals him :doh:) and Attendant, and then breaking her knees with Crippling Blow.





As planned, Salem jumps onto the cliff with Ifan and Afrit and makes a swipe at the Mage.




Prince uses my new favourite move, Demonic Stare, on the Fighter – perhaps an awkward time to use it, since he’s standing within arm’s reach of Lohse and Attendant, but removing all of his armour was the more important goal. After, he summons a totem on the oil.

I would have liked to use Fireball or Dragon’s Breath or something, but they’re all standing uncomfortably close to the oil puddle, so, this was the safer move.



Naturally, the totem, when presented with a target that has zero armour, opts to fire on the Ranger, the target that has armour. Although, I suppose the Ranger has significantly less HP and the totem figured that it’d be more prudent to try and finish him off.




Attendant hits the Fighter twice, once with his long-range attack and once with its claws.





Ifan takes out the Mage with one arrow – and that kill puts Afrit and Salem outside of the fight’s range, removing them from combat. That’s fine, it would have cost them dozens of AP to be of any use against the Ranger and Fighter, and the fight’s nearly over anyway.

Case in point: one more arrow takes out the Ranger, leaving only the Fighter standing.




Turn 3

Fane approaches the Fighter with Battering Ram and, one lucky critical hit later, ends the fight.



Each of those targets were apparitions – ghosts and spectres, not Trompdoy himself. Thus, on their death, they leave no corpse behind, meaning there’s nothing for me to loot.



Except for this chest that mysteriously appeared in the center of the valley.

This… isn’t how this game works. You don’t get chests upon defeating enemies in Divinity: Original Sin 1 or 2; your rewards come from picking the bodies of your enemies clean. Knowing Trompdoy, this is clearly another trap.

I mean, I’m going to go for it, but I just want to make it clear, I’m doing it because I want to despite knowing that I’m about to get got.





: That was even easier than I thought. Poor idiot. Feeling empty-headed, are we? I’d ask if you were born yesterday, but you’re clearly a little older than that!

Well. I’m not leaving any stone unturned, at least. I don’t know what he’s even laughing at; that barely even registered on my HP.



According to my minimap, there’s a hidden path just beyond this overgrowth. This isn’t the first time the games tried to hide hidden passageways behind some shrubbery.




Yep, easy. The opening leads to a pathway that’s doused in more water; it’s a thin, one-way road that will ultimately lead us back to the valley with Trompdoy, but apparently something back here is worth hiding.



And protecting. I don’t have any disarm toolkits handy, but Ifan is just as good: stand a clear distance away and fire an arrow onto the trap, and it’ll detonate.




Setting them off electrifies the water, hitting everyone on our team except Salem and Lohse. I wasn’t expecting that. You gotta keep in mind that traps can essentially be anything, not just physical or fire damage. Nothing a bedroll can’t fix, of course.



A short way from those traps is another treasure chest, this one surrounded by lit candles. It looks a little too inviting, but… well, even if it is or isn’t a trap, I’m going to open it regardless, just like the last one. And I doubt Trompdoy would go through the effort and waste the resources for another empty chest.



Eh, not the haul I was expecting, but stuff is stuff. The mage sandals aren’t any good for anyone, they’re too low-level and they don’t provide any bonuses, but cash is always nice and the Haste scroll could come in handy.



Although I can see that this offshoot just loops back to the main path, I opt to backtrack the way I came. I don’t know if there are more booby traps ahead and better the Hell that I know, and all that.



A short distance ahead and the path forks, one path going west and the other going east. The east path looks like it might progress deeper into Braccus’ vault, given the architecture, while west looks like it goes deeper into the cave.

Might as well bum around west.



It leads me to this pretty crystal stalagmite with a narrow path winding around the pool it’s growing out of. And at the end of that path:




Considering I did nothing to earn this, I can’t complain.



There’s no door to whatever this next section of Braccus’ vault is, so I’m free to just wander right on in.



A ‘Mysterious Room,’ according to the room’s banner. Although the flooring is showing a little wear and tear, the place is fairly posh: lots of nice furniture; art and decorations hang off the walls; lit sconces and carved marble pillars; and the centerpiece of a statue of a man holding a sword and a shield. It’s not the same statue as the one at the tower that sent me back to the beginning of the maze, so maybe this one is friendlier.



Normally I’m not that much of a pack rat, but after that most recent shopping spree for new equipment for Lohse, I’m officially poor as dirt, so I pick the place clean of any art or valuables hanging off the walls.



Another weirdly-specific painting of a guy. This one’s name is Wulfric. If these are photos of the developers, Larian Studios is based in Belgium, which is around where the name Wulfric would be from.



There are six doors around the perimeter of this room, including the one that I entered from. It’s trying to give you the choice of taking a door and progressing through the maze…



… but even without the minimap, I can see that some of these doors lead straight into nothing. This one leads directly into a stone wall.

I guess it’s possible that the fake doors could lead into hollowed-out closets or hallways that take me elsewhere, but knowing Trompdoy and his penchant for freezing me or blowing me up for making ‘wrong’ decisions, I’m supposing those odds aren’t in my favour.

Might as well open one of them anyway.



Yeah, didn’t think so.



There are, however, two doors that definitely are not fake. It breaks kayfabe a bit, being able to see over the walls like this, but one of the doors leads to treasure and the other leads to what appears to be a chasm.

This being a CRPG, I probably want the chasm.



After looting the place, I figure it’s about time to see what this statue is about.



: Perhaps I could, if you’d give me some directions.

: I cannot help you. I only give the questions – I do not answer them.



: Yes. Unfortunately.

: Judge him with a forgiving heart. Fate has been unkind to him.



: I should hope that my being here at all would imply that I do, yes.

: Listen closely and make your attempt:



A pretty simple riddle, where the definitions of a ‘CUR’ correspond with the definitions of ‘BRACCUS’ – namely, that he’s ‘very awful, rotten.’

: Either you’re very good at guessing or the slightest bit clever. Let’s find out for certain…

: Listen closely and make your attempt:



This one’s even easier because each letter in SOURCE correspond with a different word, and each option opens with a different answer. Since the letter C means ‘hex,’ the answer could only be 2.

: Perhaps you’re not totally incapable after all. Or maybe Trompdoy told you the answers, is that it? Is he hoping you’ll…



: I know you don’t appreciate answering questions, but I was wondering if, well, you’d do it anyway.



: What had Trompdoy done to earn Braccus’ personal disfavour?

: Braccus Rex has charged him, tried him, convicted and punished him. I know not the crime, but he has been sentenced to remain in this vault for all time, and to prevent others from entering.



: I’ve seen what the people aboveground refer to as the ‘cure’ for Source. What do you – and Braccus – mean when you also call it a cure?

: Braccus Rex discovered a way; this he researched here, upon this isle. He could remove the Source from any creature or individual. I saw the staffs he used myself. They were most impressive.

Well, that didn’t tell me much, other than the Purging Wands were whole staffs instead of wands back in the day. And Trompdoy was tried of some kind of crime and was sentenced to spend all eternity in this cave, being snarky and annoying to anyone that dare enter it. Although the statue wants me to be nicer to him, but, well, I’m just going by what he gives me.



I’m given 2,950 EXP for answering the riddle, and one of the doors – the one leading to the chasm – open up at the rear of the room. But I still want to go through that other door that leads to the treasure.



No explosions and no instantly freezing me solid, so, this is a good start.



I have two options: on my right is a ‘worn-out chest,’ and on my left is a ‘well-worn chest.’ Other than their names, there’s nothing telling them apart and there’s no way to know if one is better than the other.

Uh… I guess I’m take the worn-out chest? It’s not like it’s going to make a huge difference.



I have chosen… poorly.

Well, odds are fifty-fifty that the well-worn chest is also a bomb, so:



A targe and a bunch of money. I’ll take it!



Time to move on, through the door that opened when I answered the statue’s riddles.



As soon as I pass through the door, the game autosaves, which tells me that there’s a fight coming up.

The way forward has been broken and dismantled, but in this dungeon, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything: light can be used to make bridges and there’s no reason for me to assume that that isn’t the case here.




The platforms up ahead don’t look especially open, though. It’s tough to tell what’s a floor and what’s empty space, and there are walls cutting off my vision of the whole of the battlefield. I feel like I’m being funneled into the worst position I could be put into. And on top of that, who’s to say that there aren’t walls made of light, too?



I cross the bridge without incident…

Maple Leaf fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Jul 15, 2021

Maple Leaf
Aug 24, 2010

Let'en my post flyen true


: Combat Music 2
: Rematch With Trompdoy

Turn 1

… when I’m suddenly confronted with four more copies of Trompdoy: a Ranger, two Fighters, and a Mage. Interestingly, the Mage is permanently Cursed, which leads me to believe that that one is important somehow.

The Mage opens the fight with Electric Discharge on Ifan, and then passes, saving the rest of his AP.

Afrit actually goes next, but he’s in the back of the group and he has no long-range attack and no self-teleport skills. To be fair, everyone would have a hard time getting out from behind the pack, not just Afrit and his massive body, so, he delays.

And since he can’t reach the Mage that just struck Ifan, that tells me that there are no light bridges in that direction.




The Ranger uses Glitter Dust on the entire group, which is a big problem for me because it increases crit chance.

Case in point: the Ranger then uses Pin Down on Fane, which breaks his ankles and crits.

Fane’s turn is next, but he delays. He feels so naked without Think Fast.




Fighter 1 uses a Razzle Dazzle grenade – a flashbang – on the team, Blinding them all, which is going to be an issue for Ifan in particular. He then uses Blitz Attack on Prince and Attendant, which puts him behind my party – and within Afrit’s biting distance.






Lohse has quite the productive turn, using four skills for one AP each: Soothing Cold on everyone; Encourage on everyone; Favourable Wind on everyone; and Uncanny Evasion on Prince, since he’s being threatened by Fighter 1.




Fighter 2 adds to the mess with a Thunderbolt grenade, which hits everyone and Shocks them all (and Stuns Ifan, since he was already shocked from the Electric Discharge), followed by a Bouncing Shield on Ifan and Lohse, which crits Lohse.

Us being huddled so close together is going to be a death sentence: even if I’m getting some decent buffs from things like Soothing Cold and Encourage, I’ll also be crowd-controlled until I can hardly put one foot in front of the other. I need to split up, and quick.

Luckily, it’s seven-versus-four, and now I get to have a bunch of uninterrupted turns.




Prince gives Fane the Think Fast combo and he puts down a totem on the electrified blood at Ifan’s feet. It’s making things more crowded, sure, but Prince also only has AoE skills and his staff does poison damage, which would heal Trompdoy, so.



The air totem turns and fires a lightning bolt at the Mage – who, upon taking damage, doesn’t turn into a light-based apparition. This must be the real Trompdoy I’m fighting.






Salem is Blind and therefore can’t see Fane to swap places with him, so, instead, he gets up to Fighter 2 and kitty-slaps him in the ankles.




Attendant hurls a boulder at Fighter 1 and whiffs, but the oil put down at least slows him. It follows up with a Battering Ram, which lands true, so Fighter 1 is being successfully contained in turn.




Being Blind, Ifan can’t use Tactical Retreat to reposition. He could use First Aid to clear himself of it, but I want to hold onto that for a hot second, and he only has three AP to use anyway.

So, he coats his arrowheads in the electrified blood and plugs Fighter 1 once.



Fane has an equally boring turn and just hits Fighter 2 twice.



And Afrit… still can’t hit Fighter 1 because Attendant using Battering Ram put it in the only place Afrit could have stood.

Still, he can use Howl to Taunt him, controlling him even further. If Afrit can’t approach him, he’ll just force him to approach Afrit.

Turn 2

Fane is first, but he delays.




The Mage uses Staff of Magus on Ifan, which, again, does physical damage, before turning to run deeper into the broken maze.

Afrit is next, but Fighter 1 hasn’t had a chance to move, so he delays.



The Ranger shoots Fane twice. That could have been a much uglier turn, but I’ll take it.




Lohse doesn’t have a ton of options available to her – she needs to be able to see for most of her best skills, and others are AoE skills that can target her friends. She casts Restoration on Ifan, who’s been bullied a little bit, and she hits Fighter 1 with Winter Blast, making him Chilled and reducing his mobility even further.



Fighter 1, hilariously, attacks Prince, which does gently caress all, and then he passes. He’d rather flail and accomplish nothing than give Afrit the satisfaction.

Which is kind of annoying, actually. I want Afrit to start biting him, goddamn it.



And to add insult to injury, the air totem fires at Fighter 1 and whiffs!




Fighter 2 hits Lohse with Crippling Blow and Tentacle Lash – both of them devastating statuses, but Lohse doesn’t need to move nor does she need her staff to be effective.




Prince puts down another air totem, and then, with the boosted numbers, he uses Rallying Cry on Lohse, instantly putting her back to max HP (but not healing any of her statuses).



At least this air totem made a good shot on Fighter 1.



Salem is still blind, but Fighter 2 is Knocked Down, so his accuracy is still over 100%. He hits Fighter 2 with two kitty swipes.



Attendant does likewise to Fighter 1.






Ifan decides that he’s had enough of being only halfway useful in this fight: he uses First Aid on himself, followed by Tactical Retreat to put himself on the ridge next to the Ranger. And with his new height advantage, he uses Pin Down on Fighter 2 to blow out his knees.

Afrit is next, but everyone continues to be in his way and he continues to be a large, wide wolf, so he’s forced to skip his turn entirely. At least he’ll have a ton of AP.




Finally, Fane takes his delayed turn, and he uses Time Warp on himself, followed by four regular swings of his sword, Scumkiller. In the space of ‘two’ turns, Fighter 2 is brought down to one quarter of his HP.




Turn 3

Followed by one more sword swing and one Battering Ram, putting him halfway between Fighter 2 and Ifan. The idea is to try and cut off the Mage as he runs around the back of the fight and meet him halfway.






And it works – but the Mage also has a pretty hefty turn.

He uses Electric Discharge on Ifan; he uses Global Cooling on Ifan and Fane; and he uses Nether Swap on Ifan and Lohse, forcing them to switch places.

That’s kinda annoying, but most offensive magic gets high-ground bonuses too, and Lohse knows Teleport and can now see the entire battlefield. It could have been much worse.

Afrit is next, and once again, he delays.




The Ranger, suddenly feeling rather exposed with an enemy on his platform, opts to run away and take a hidden light bridge to the north so he can still have the high ground while he shoots Fane twice.




Lohse makes use of her new positional advantage by Teleporting the Ranger on top of the Mage, and then using Electric Discharge on the Ranger. They’ve both had their turns; if I can put down a surface or something, they’d be easy to control.






Fighter 1 makes a pretty drat smart move here.

First, he uses Fortify on himself, giving himself a ton of physical armour. Then he repositions – taking an AoO from Attendant, slipping on the ice, and opening himself up to Afrit, finally – but then he uses a skill called Reactive Armour.

Reactive Armour deals 25% of the caster’s physical armour as physical damage to everyone in a radius around the caster, including themselves. Because he used Fortify, his physical armour was sky high, and Reactive Armour wound up doing over 110 damage to everyone around him: Prince, Attendant, Afrit, and the two air totems. That’s a big, beefy, AoE skill.



In contrast, Fighter 2 throws his shield at Lohse and decides that that’s good enough for the day.




Prince puts down a new totem to replace the two that broke, and he uses Staff of Magus on Fane, healing him for 61 (and dealing 1 damage to himself because Fane has Retribution, which returns a small amount of damage back to the damage dealer).



The new ait totem fires on Fighter 1, which lands, but it also electrifies Prince’s blood from the Reactive Armour, which shocks Prince and Attendant.



Fighter 2 has only 40 HP left, but unfortunately, that’s too much for Salem to land the killing blow, unless he lands two crits (spoiler: he does not). It’s dangerous to leave him alive, so I’m not going to play with my food just so the cat can have the glory kill.




Attendant hits Fighter 1 with its long-ranged attack and with Whirlwind. I had considered using Fossil Strike, but that would oil up the ground beneath him, therefore making it harder for Afrit to bite him.




Ifan uses Encoruage and gets everyone, including Lohse, and then he uses Barrage on Fighter 1.

Ifan’s arrows as still covered in electrified water, and one of those three arrows managed to crit, so a shitload of big numbers instantly popped up above Fighter 1’s model. That one move by itself did 136 damage total and put Fighter 1 down to just 6 HP. Fighter 2 only has 17 remaining as well.




Afrit closes the round by biting Fighter 1 – the first attack he made all fight – and killing the apparition. Which cleared the way for him to approach Fighter 2 and bite him as well, also removing him from the fight.

This technically means that Afrit is far and away the MVP because his actions-to-kills ratio is enormous.

To be totally fair to Afrit, that second bite only had a 61% chance of succeeding. Afrit is still Blinded, despite all this time.



Turn 4

The Mage uses Staff of Magus on Lohse, then gets tired.




Fane uses Battle Stomp on the Ranger and the Mage, followed by Mosquito Swarm on the Ranger, mostly to give himself a bit of extra HP.




The Ranger returns the favour by using Pin Down on Fane, followed by Glitter Dust on the cat. It’s technically a smart move because it hits Fane, Salem, and Afrit, but the implication is that the Ranger just really, really loving hates Salem.




Lohse uses Dazzling Bolt on both the remaining targets, followed by Uncanny Evasion on herself, since the Mage seems to have it out for her in particular.

Afrit is next, but Salem and Fane are in the way, so he delays.






But that’s an easy fix: Salem is next, and he moves next to the Ranger; Swaps Places with Fane; and then moves out of the way, clearing the path for Afrit to charge forward.

The air totem is next, but there are no targets within its eyesight.




This fight is coming to a close soon. Prince moves forward and hits the Mage, the real Trompdoy, with Demonic Stare, ensuring that he’s going to stand nice and still for what’s coming up next.





Attendant moves up beside Prince and hits the Ranger and the Mage with Fossil Strike, forcing the Ranger to be less mobile while it happens, too.





Ifan heals Attendant with First Aid, then strikes both of the Trompdoys with Ricochet.




Afrit takes his delayed turn by running up to the Ranger and biting him once, and that caps the round.






Turn 5

Oh.

Trompdoy, realizing that things are starting to go south, summons three more copies of himself. Another Ranger; a Rogue; and another Mage, this one using wands instead of a staff. The second Mage is right beside himself; the Ranger is on the northern light bridge; and the Rogue spawned way, way in the back, where my team first entered the fight.

After that, Trompdoy uses Electric Discharge and Staff of Magus on Lohse, but both of them whiff thanks to Uncanny Evasion (although Electric Discharge still electrified the blood she’s standing on).




Afrit bites Ranger 1 once, then Howls, Taunting Ranger 1 and both of the Mages.



Ranger 1 takes one step… and then passes. With Knocked Down, Slowed, and Taunted, he must be overwhelmed on what options are and aren’t available to him.




Fane uses Whirlwind to hit Ranger 1 and the two Mages. It takes out Ranger 1, which refunds him two AP, and he spends all four of them wailing on Mage 1 while his armour is down.




Lohse, with her high ground advantage, uses Electric Discharge on Mage 1 and whiffs entirely, which is neat.

She then uses Blinding Radiance – the game doesn’t factor in height differences for an attack like Blinding Radiance, so it considers her close enough to hit both of the Mages with the one attack and Blinding them both.



The air totem way back at the entrance of the fight fires on the Rogue, but whiffs. My totems have not been doing great this fight.




Prince uses Think Fast on Fane, followed by Rallying Cry on himself to keep himself in the running. He’s nearly surrounded and he’s going to need the juice.

Salem delays.




Attendant hits Mage 1 with its long-ranged attack, then, rather than try and get into the fight, it turns around and places itself near Ifan to stare down the Rogue with him.

Over the course of this LP, Ifan and Attendant have been at each other’s backs way more often than Prince and Attendant have.




But as welcome as the gesture is, it doesn’t matter: Ifan hits Mage 1, the real Trompdoy, with Sky Shot and a normal arrow, and that’s enough to bring him down. And as soon as Trompdoy dies, the other targets all vanish as well. This fight has ended.

I’m awarded 3,375 XP for making considerable progress into Braccus’ vault (which includes killing Trompdoy), as well as another 3,600 XP for each of the three remaining apparitions, so I’m not forced to slowly kill every target to min-max my XP gains.



Another way you can tell that this was the real Trompdoy is that he left behind a corpse for me to loot; every other enemy in this vault so far vanished upon their defeat, keeping me from looting them.

This guy was the sole guardian of Braccus Rex’s personal treasure vault. Surely he’s got some good stuff on him.



Wow, drat.

A one-handed, unique hatchet that apparently had some sentimental value to Trompdoy; 107 cold, hard coins; a small flame rune; a two-handed axe that’s overall slightly worse than Scumkiller, so I won’t be swapping out; some Strength-based gloves that give +1 Telekinesis, but are tied in armour stats with my current gloves, so I won’t be swapping out; a Blinding Radiance skillbook; an amulet with a rune slot that gives +1 Wits and Hydrosophist, which would be really good on Lohse; and…



Braccus’s personal ring, with his sister’s name etched on its band. Its armour value is lower than the rings I have on Fane now, but with +1 Intelligence and Constitution, Fane probably wouldn’t mind wearing it.

Except that it permanently sets Cursed. Which is probably why Trompdoy was Cursed that whole fight.

: As you pick up the ring, you feel a cold, dark pain shoot up through the bones of your arm. Your mind itches…

: You don’t hear, but feel a whisper in the cavity that functions as your ear. It tells you to slip the ring onto your finger…

Seems legit to me.



Fane doesn’t have skin or muscles; it’s a wonder he could get the ring to stay on his finger at all.

Despite what you might think from a statement like this, you can freely remove Braccus’ ring, but…



Your character remains permanently Cursed regardless. I’ve been tainted by the scourge that is Braccus Rex and his villainy, and nothing can ever undo it.

Well, except for that one thing that explicitly undoes curses.




: Get off me, and stay off!

You can, of course, put the ring back on, if you wanted, but every time you do, you’ll need to Bless yourself to remove its effects.

So, even with the extra Constitution and Intelligence, it’s not really worth holding onto the ring by itself. If I want to take advantage of the fabled ring of Braccus Rex, I’ll need something else to go with it.




At the end of the battlefield is a flight of stairs with a lit torch at its top, beckoning me to go deeper. The architecture is just as dilapidated as the rest of the vault so far, excluding that one room – maybe that room was Trompdoy’s personal quarters? It was pretty well kept.



It’s a straightforward path deeper into the vault, and it’s not long until–



Braccus Rex’s personal vault. Filled with literal piles of gleaming gold coins; treasure chests filled with fabled gear and enchanted weapons; and no less than six Soul Jars. A gold coin is a gold coin, but a person is the most valuable treasure of all, apparently.

I’ll loot the place before I get to dealing with the Soul Jars.



Good news: you can, in fact, pillage the gold piles for every coin that they have. Bad news: it’s less than you think.



That one massive pile of coin, which clearly has several thousand coins in it, in actuality, contains only 124.

Well, at least there are multiple piles of 124 coins for me to loot. I’m broke after that last shopping spree so every coin is a welcome one in my purse.



There are two ‘traditional’ treasure chests in the vault that are free for me to pick clean.



Money; an earth rune; that grey ball is a type of mushroom and is therefore a crafting ingredient; a one-handed club; and a new, epic-level crossbow.



That’s… not an easy call to make.

Shadow’s Eye does considerably more damage with its Piercing bonus; it has an additional 5% crit chance; it offers a whopping 25% more accuracy, putting Ifan up to 120% total, meaning he should never miss a shot outside of status effects; and it gives him Chameleon Skin.

This new crossbow, Repulser, gives +1 Finesse; it has a 20% chance to set Atrophy with each shot; and it has a slot.

In terms of sheer numbers, Shadow’s Eye is still the better option, but that +1 Finesse and that open slot would bridge the gap a lot closer than you think. And that chance to set Atrophy is pretty important, too.

I… guess I’ll stick with Shadow’s Eye for now. Chameleon Skin has saved Ifan’s rear end at least twice now, and that massive accuracy buff is kind of important with how often my guys tend to whiff.



: Look at that wand! It hums with inner Source…

Hey, it’s the thing I’ve been sent in here to find! With this, we’ll be able to purge the Source from any target, just as the Magisters had been doing to the Sourcerers in Fort Joy. We’ll be able to use this to get past the Shriekers on the northern port, and from there, we’ll be able to steal the Lady Vengeance!



Sitting in one of the burning fire pits is a chest piece – the Heart of the Tyrant. This is the third piece of Braccus’s personal armour set; we currently also have the helmet and the pants. That just leaves the gloves and the grieves and that ought to be every piece.



Finally, the second chest sitting in the corner of the vault has considerably less exciting contents: a single flame rune.

That’s cool with me; more runes equals more better.

Now that the room has been picked clean, there’s the sticky matter of these six Soul Jars, and what to do with them.



These three jars are for the three necromancers we found in Braccus’s tower in the previous update. Let’s start with Tamsyn, the human.



: You see, or rather you feel, a far-off land. Frozen breath hangs in the air, pine needles brush your cheeks, and in your arms you can feel a weight. A body. Dead, but you have hope…

: Your vision swims. You’re older, but perhaps not wiser. You march at the head of a shambling host, the enemies of Braccus Rex melting before you.

: The scene twists again. Now Braccus stands before you, a beautiful woman at his side. You lash out in treasonous rage, but cold arms bind you. You’re sealed away in a tower. Your screams fill the darkness.

Someone important to Tamsyn had died, but she knew that death wasn’t as permanent in her world as we think it is. She found her way to Braccus Rex – and, at some point, starting using necromancy to raise an army of the dead for him.

I feel like this story ‘yadda yadda yadda’s’ over most of the important parts, but what we know is that Tamsyn was a high-ranking member of Braccus’s army before she was locked away in that tower. We don’t know why she attacked Braccus, but odds are good that he started it.



Naturally, we all have something to say about what we just saw.



: They may have been a necromancer, but they did not feel evil. Misguided, perhaps.

: Anyone who marches at the head of an undead host deserves whatever punishment they get.

: One must wonder how many more lives they took. Hoy much misery the scum caused.

Alright, we’re totally split down the middle on how we feel about Tamsyn.



Rask, the lizard engineer, is next.



: The pictograms spin to life, and you’re dragged into a dream. You see the lizards of the Ancient Empire, turning their backs on you. Casting you out into the wilderness. As you roam, the human apes turn away from you – all but one. One smiles. One opens his arms. One says he’ll take you home. Braccus Rex.

: He promises power, for a price. He picks off your golden scales, one by one, stripping you down to the bone. He promised you a crown, but all you got were shackles.

: You try to fight, try to reclaim what’s yours, but a woman takes you by the hand and leads you to a tower. ‘He promised he’d take me home,’ you cry. ‘You are home,’ she smiles as she seals the door. ‘This is where you belong.’



Rask was cast out from his home, the Ancient Empire, likely because of his necromantic practices. He was ‘rescued’ by Braccus Rex, who promised him power and a way back home – but instead, Braccus literally skinned Rask alive, one scale at a time, before locking him up in that tower.




: I can’t help but sympathise with him. He just wanted to go home.

: No amount of loneliness excuses wickedness. He helped a monster for selfish reasons.

: *spits* What he did shames his people.

Okay, once again, we’re fifty-fifty on giving these guys a bit of leniency. Let’s try Gwick, the dwarf. Although I doubt our opinions will suddenly align.




: With a jerk, your mind is pulled to a scene in a tavern. You see a dwarf in the centre of the room, joking as all around roar with laughter. All bar the zombies, who are slavishly serving food and drink.

: The door opens and a tall, beautiful woman stalks into the room. She’s flanked by heavily armed guards. You can’t make out her words, but see the fear in the dwarf’s eyes.

: The dwarf mutters a word and the undead lurch towards the intruder, but are cut down like wheat. The dwarf tries to run, pushing her ‘friends’ into the woman’s path, but is grabbed before she can escape. As she’s dragged away to a tower, you hear her cursing Braccus Rex and his ‘whore.’ Even when she’s thrown inside and the door sealed, you can still hear her shouts.



Gwick… isn’t quite as sympathetic, going by this story. No dead loved ones; no exiles just wanting to go home. She used her necromancy to raise a bunch of zombies so she can hold a party without doing any of the legwork to host it, and then Braccus Rex had her thrown into a tower because… I don’t know, he doesn’t like freelance necromancers?




: She must have been acting against Braccus Rex for him to have come for her like that.

: Keeping the dead as slaves? What a disgusting display! She deserves every punishment she got.

: Being locked in a tower was more kindness than any necromancer deserves.

I mean, there’s a lot of this story that we’re missing.

Next up is one Soul Jar that I’m personally rather interested in.




: When you touch the glass, your vision wavers. You emerge on the prow of a fine ship. Your armour pulses with enchantment, dominating those who draw near. Your flag flies for Braccus Rex, a tyrant who traded for your soul. With his power, your flesh and blood is no longer relevant.



: In the end, greed masters you. You seek out the tyrant’s vault to retrieve your soul, but Braccus is ready with a trap. Thus imprisoned, you can only dream about what is out of reach: your soul, and that alluring armour.

: The vision shatters as the soul squirms away from you, curling up in the bottom of the jar.



Sech Zapor was Braccus’s slaver, who used his enchanted armour to dominate the minds of the slaves he captured before bringing them back to Braccus. He had traded his soul for this power, but in the end, he decided that he’d really rather have it back – and it ended with him being locked in that chest for all eternity. Until I got him out.

Unlike with the other necromancers, the party doesn’t have anything to say about Sech.

There are two Soul Jars remaining, and the next one coming up is one I’m sure we’re all most intrigued by.



: The jar before may have looked opulent once, but no longer. Now it’s covered in grime, its paint chipped away, and its jewels long stolen.



: As soon as you touch the jar’s cracked surface, you see a vision of splendour. Silks, fine food, and decadent lechery. But underneath it all lies bone and blood.

: The vision shifts. You see burning villages. Slaughtered women and children. You see her, Purging Wand in hand, standing amongst it all. She throws her head back and laughter echoes in your skull.

: A shadow falls across her and you see a large, weeping face. She reaches out as if to comfort, but Braccus drags her back. You see her fall into the mire of the swamp, trapped.



Everything that Tamsyn, Rask, and Gwick told us was true. Gratiana was Braccus Rex’s concubine and, apparently, his right-hand woman who gleefully slaughtered whole villages for their Source.

But at the very end, Gratiana found the sanctuary of Amadia – the ‘large, weeping face’ was the statue that we had communed with that turned the pool into Blessed water. That meeting fractured Gratiana’s will and got her to start reconsidering what she was doing, but as soon as she displayed weakness, Braccus stole her soul and cast her into the swamp.




: Gratiana’s life was selfish and hedonistic. No mercy.

: Whatever a person may have done in life, they can always be redeemed.

: However her life began, it ended well. No-one should be damned because of their youth.

Wow, a total 180 on our attitudes towards necromancers.

I’ll start asking the tough questions about morality and redemption in a moment. There’s one more Soul Jar left to investigate.



: The jar before you glows with a blue light. Its appearance flickers and changes; it is at once a brightly-coloured motley and then a deep grey.



: With a jerk, your mind is pulled to a beautiful palace court. It’s filled with cheers, but you can feel the fear dripping from the walls. You see a jester prance in the court. He casts illusions, playing to his master’s cruelty by picking on the weakest in the room. He lives for the laughter and applause.

: The scene spines. A new face. A new fool to make his master laugh. ‘Don’t worry,’ he’s told, ‘you’ll always have your place.’

: The door closes and you see the illusionist in the dark of this dungeon. He’s alone, surrounded by gold and deathly silence.



Trompdoy was an illusionist jester in Braccus’s court that played to his master’s whims by targeting the weakest person in the room. He was no necromancer, he was no architect, and he was no military general.

One day, Braccus found a better jester and repurposed Trompdoy into being the guardian of his vault. That’s it. That’s what happened to Trompdoy. No treason; no crimes committed; no perceived slights against his master. Braccus just got bored of him.




: I must say, entertaining despots isn’t anywhere near as bad as what most people in that court did.

: He might have had good reasons to associate with the tyrant. We don’t know his life – he should be given peace.

: He should be allowed to rest – whatever his sins, he’s been punished more than enough.

Wow, the one and only time we’re all in agreement.




: I did. You didn’t make it easy, Trompdoy.

: I’m – I’m sorry.

: He trembles and seems to shudder with a quiet sob.

: I’m cursed, you know. Bloody Braccus bound me here to protect his vault. He has my soul in that jar just there, and I can’t leave without it.



: What was your crime in life?

: I don’t rightly know. This was the Source King’s way. Befriend you, then destroy you. I was a fool to expect I’d be an exception.



I’ll let you decide his fate, but I’ll get to that in a moment.



Around the bend at the back of the vault is the shimmering blue door that we had seen at the beginning of the dungeon. We’ve taken the long way to the other side.





With a flip of this lever, the door is dispelled, and we’re free to come and go through the front door as we please, so we don’t have to take the long way back around.



Heading in the opposite direction from the dispelled door is a raised, artisanal statue that’s had its head chopped off – or perhaps it was never made with a head to begin with.

: The deity’s head and hands are missing, severed as if by a sword. You can’t tell if this was meant to be symbolic somehow, or a mere act of vandalism.

Remember that statue at the end of the fight with the Voidwoken Deepdweller, and how interacting with it had us meet God? This is another opportunity to do that, if you missed it the first time.

Which Lohse did. The keen-eyed of you might have noticed that she doesn’t know Bless. If I have Lohse interact with this statue, then she’ll meet with one of the Seven and learn Bless – but who would she meet? Fane is Amadia’s chosen and Ifan was chosen by Rhalic. That’s mages and humans both accounted for, leaving nobody left for Lohse.

Well, might as well have her find out.



: As you take in its chiselled details, you have a vision. The statue comes to life and embraces you awkwardly with its broken arms. Unable to resist, you’re flown away into an endless dark.



Lohse is put to sleep for three turns (about eighteen seconds)… but because she isn’t the avatar character, I don’t get to see who – or what – she meets at the other side of the vision.



When she wakes up, she’s granted the Bless skill, and she’s right as rain and good to go. Unfortunately, Bless costs Memory to equip, and she’s a bit short on that at the moment.



: Got a minute?



: It wasn’t too long ago that I had met with one of the gods in the Hall of Echoes, as bizarre and outlandish as it may sound.

: One of the gods? Really? Well, look at you go.

Did… did you not?



: Lohse… I value your company too much to lie to you. I met with Amadia, and she told me that you weren’t to be trusted. You, specifically.

: One of the gods said that?

Did… did you not meet with Amadia?

: Lohse huffs on her fingernails and buffs them on her tunic, smirking.



: Come on, Lohse. One of the Seven themselves told me to stay away from you. Tell me what you really think about that.

: I think I’ll call my next song She Who Struck Fear in the Gods.



: I will not. I’ll need a better reason than the word of Amadia herself for me to abandon you.

: Her face cracks into a mischievous smile. She capers around you, bouncing from one foot to the next, chanting.

: You like me, you like me, you really, really like me!

: She stops suddenly, goes rigid, then relaxes, smiles broadly, and leans over to whisper in your ear.

: Psst! I like you too.



And that wraps up this update.

We were asked to find a Purging Wand in Braccus’s vault, which we did, and we also happened to find six different Soul Jars. One for each of the undead necromancers in Braccus’s tower; one for Sech Zapor, the pirate slaver; one for Trompdoy, the jester-turned-treasure-vault-guardian; and, most importantly, one for Gratiana, the custodian for Amadia’s sanctuary, the host of the Seekers… and formerly one of Braccus Rex’s most powerful, brutal, and cold-hearted agents.

Tamsyn, Rask, and Gwick asked us to destroy their Soul Jars so that they’d finally see peace and release from the tower they’ve been locked in for who knows how many lifetimes, now. We could likewise do the same with Trompdoy and Sech. But Gratiana not only asked us to bring hers back to her, but she specifically said to bring her any Soul Jars that we might find in the vault.


This comes down to whether you personally believe that a person can be redeemed after a lifetime of sin. Gratiana was cast away from Braccus because she faltered in the face of Amadia: as soon as she found that weeping statue, she had a change of heart and dedicated herself to the teachings of Amadia. Among those teachings is ‘forgiveness’.

It also comes down to personal accountability. We had promised the necromancers that we would destroy their Soul Jars so that they could finally die. But if Gratiana is telling the honest-to-God truth, she could give them the thing they want more: to escape that tower and to live their lives again. Remember, Tamsyn and Rask went to Braccus for help and he took advantage of them (I still got nothing for Gwick). Trompdoy and Sech could likewise be free from the curses Braccus had set upon them if we bring their Soul Jars to Gratiana. Although I'm sure the three necromancers might get a case of whiplash if they learn that Gratiana was the one that rescued them.

But there’s the possibility that she’s lying, or that she’s weak-willed. That as soon as she sees those Soul Jars, she becomes tempted to return to her earlier, debauched methods of sucking the Source from helpless targets to make herself stronger. Or that she was just waiting all this time for someone dumb enough to bring her, at the minimum, her own Soul Jar.

For as long as we’ve known her, Gratiana has been nothing but accommodating towards not just us, but the Seekers. The vilest she got with us was when we started to catch on to the fact that she’s undead, which, to be fair, is kind of an important secret to keep. She seemed genuinely eager to help us once Amadia blessed the pool of water in her sanctuary. There’s reason to believe that she’s truly trying to atone for what she’s done – but the fact remains that Gratiana was, at one point, the second-most evil person walking this world, and there’s an argument to be made that people don’t change.

What do YOU think?

Do we destroy Tamsyn’s Soul Jar? Do we return it to Gratiana? Or do we absorb her soul for ourselves?
Do we destroy Rasks’s Soul Jar? Do we return it to Gratiana? Or do we absorb his soul for ourselves?
Do we destroy Gwick’s Soul Jar? Do we return it to Gratiana? Or do we absorb her soul for ourselves?
Do we destroy Sech Zapor’s Soul Jar? Do we return it to Gratiana? Or do we absorb his soul for ourselves?
Do we destroy Trompdoy’s Soul Jar? Do we return it to Gratiana? Or do we absorb his soul for ourselves?
Do we destroy Gratiana’s Soul Jar? Do we return it to her? Or do we absorb her soul for ourselves?


Like I said before, I’ll give the thread more time to vote, especially for something like this. 72 hours ought to be enough.

Maple Leaf fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Jul 15, 2021

Olive Branch
May 26, 2010

There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance.

Keep the three necromancers' Soul Jars to return/destroy them in front of them.
Keep Sech Zapor's Soul Jar for now. I bet it will come in handy if we come across him again with that good armor of his.
Destroy Trompdoy's Soul Jar. Release him from his torment.
Return Gratiana's Soul Jar to her. If she tries anything funny, slap her down.

Black Robe
Sep 12, 2017

Generic Magic User


Maple Leaf posted:

Afrit goes next… and the dumb wolf got himself stuck on a tiny ridge that’s maybe knee-height. There’s a little ramp that connects to the rest of the cliff – Ifan jumped to where Afrit is, and he took that ramp down to the cliff – but Afrit is too wide for that little ramp.

Honestly, this is pretty bananas. Afrit just can’t catch a break. It’s a human’s world, clearly.

:doh: Afrit really is Moon Moon.

As for the jars, I don't want to act without more information. Can we hold onto them for now and ask Gratiana why she wants them, without handing them over until she answers? If so, do that. If not, eh, I'm abstaining from this one because I really don't know which way I'd go if I were playing.

Donkringel
Apr 22, 2008
Okay seriously, WUT?

I've played through this section three times and I don't recall Gratiana's soul jar at all. Was this quest added in a later updated? I did buy this game when it came out, when Spider's were murder machines and the opening tutorial wasn't included yet (I guess it was pre-definitive edition?)

That being said BRING ALL THE SOUL JARS TO GRATIANA EXCEPT FOR SECHS.

One, I want to see what happens. Two if forgiveness really can be obtained I want to see it happen. And finally if Gratiana just absorbs all those souls and becomes turbo-bitch, I want to see the fight, the EXP and the loot you get from it, consequences be damned.

If that happens change the thread title to "Nothing more Divine than feeding souls to a damned Concubine! Divinity Original Sin 2!"

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thekeeshman
Feb 21, 2007

Olive Branch posted:

Keep the three necromancers' Soul Jars to return/destroy them in front of them.
Keep Sech Zapor's Soul Jar for now. I bet it will come in handy if we come across him again with that good armor of his.
Destroy Trompdoy's Soul Jar. Release him from his torment.
Return Gratiana's Soul Jar to her. If she tries anything funny, slap her down.

This sounds good to me

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