Lucentile

Hey, we ended the last session with Bleak Walkers. How about... we beat up some Bleak Walkers? Off to the Woodend Plains to upgrade Kana's armor. There's not much about the Bleak Walker fight, but the bounty at Dyrford Crossing was much harder than the others. It actually required me to do more than bring a balanced team, and bring a specific cheese team. Still, if you're not juggling a huge party and trying to use everyone, even when they're not the best, and instead just using a team that's generally strong, you'll coast through it fine (skip my attempting to force it with the party I wanted to use to smashing it in one go or so with a well-built caster heavy team.) The Mylla quest and the quest to do trade negotiations I somehow missed earlier, so we'll knock those out here. Nothing special about them, except that I specifically tried not to kill the wichts in case we can save all the Hollowborn later. I did dislike that Mylla says the treasure is in the woods, so I thought "Russetwood" instead of assuming she obviously hid it near the cave. So, a bit of time wasted. It's also a shame Galvino didn't get an update, but I guess that makes sense since they're concerned you might kill him in White March 1. The trade deal quest feels like it should be more important than it was, but it seems easily missable. I'd have had her give you the quest in the tavern to talk to the new guy in charge to find out what the delay was or have him start it, so it's less missable. 00:00 Bleak Walkers Are Jerk Paladins 10:55 Return to Stalwart -- Turn Ins and Prep 19:23 Eder and the Devil on Neighbors 20:55 Dyrford Crossing Bounty 01:08:25 Giving Up And Getting Team Broken 01:26:20 Mylla 01:48:35 A Terrible Hiding Place: Saving Mylla 01:55:00 Broodmother Bounty 02:02:03 Return to Mylla and Search for Her Treasure 02:07:30 Whitestone Hollow Fish Man Fight 02:19:40 Return to Stalwart, Prep for White Forge Cannons 02:26:05 To Durgan's Battery 02:34:35 Meeting "Hiravias's Mom" and Mylla's Dad, Exploring White Forge 02:45:26 Let's Go Fight some Skuldraks 02:47:23 Those Aren't Skuldraks! 02:54:08 Return to Stalwart and Checking On Ogres

Some more otter news, mainly, they're jerks: - https://www.foxnews.com/us/succession-actress-crystal-finn-bitten-sea-otter-amid-rare-uptick-attacks - https://www.forbes.com/sites/amandakooser/2023/08/18/when-otters-attack-expert-weighs-in-on-spate-of-incidents/?sh=2c1478fd7d38 After the otter news, we do some White March Bounties, a quest for an earnest young blacksmith and fight some Bleak Walkers. In the fight at Magran's Fork, watch Lelias the Bear just absolutely deleting people with bear swipes. I should use Druids more. I also like looking back on this that Kana dropped his turban eventually, and Durance got his robes back. I'm surprised we were able to take Durance's staff and robes. There's also a brief aside in trying to figure out why my blunderbuss accuracy isn't working correctly. It takes a long period of time, but I still don't know why it sometimes goes away. Really, we accomplish quite a lot here. I'm happy with our progress (again!) 00:00 Animal News, Set Up and Iron and Flame 05:00 Crucible Knight Visit 08:00 Magran's Fork Random Bandits 17:30 Blunderbuss Testing 23:55 To Magran's Shrine 28:38 Finding Things Out for the Ambassador and Turning That Quest In 44:30 Return to Stalwart With The Hammer 58:40 Searing Falls Bounty 01:25:10 Limping Back to Stalwart 01:34:12 Whitestone Hollow Exploration 01:46:40 On the Bleak Walker's Trail 01:51:00 Losing to Fish People 01:57:28 The Blight of Whitestone Hollow 02:05:30 The Random Bandit Of Whitestone Hollow 02:13:40 Did the Bear Set the Trap!? 02:18:20 Variants of the Bleak Walker Showdown 02:38:11 Party Management

Our lack of animal news leads us to finding a new solution: Wolves! Gray Wolves found in California: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-pack-of-endangered-gray-wolves-found-in-california-180982754/ Reptile Con: https://repticon.com/ Ok, back to saving the mines. This is a pretty fun sidequest in a game full of decent. It's fun, even if the ending fight requires the traditional CRPG "cheese the initiation once you know how it works." I'm curious how the Durance questline will end; he's such a jerk I can't imagine it ends well for him. Or us. Or anyone, really, right? 00:00 Re-engage with News and Mines 10:00 Mine Clearing (Spiders and Things) 26:00 Return to Mine 28:19 Nothing Good Comes From Animancy Golems! 44:31 Navigate the Tunnels 45:50 Mind Spiders! Spores! Regular Spiders! 01:23:16 Learning Giant Spore Fight 01:43:43 A New Party 01:56:45 Giant Spore Defeated 02:07:50 "That Was Fun... No One Listens!" 02:20:30 Durance Has Thoughts

Look! Look! There was ANOTHER otter who stole surfboards. Maybe like the orcas, they're sharing knowledge? Who knows! https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/community/cambrian/article278069227.html The Alpine Dragon fight is a nice, straight forward one once you know your anti-dragon tactics. Psychic Backlash? Check. Prayer Against Fear? Check. Massive amount of chain CC and Accuracy Buff/Debuffs? Check. Just completely stomp on that dragon Eder and company. Because Eder is the hero, though not as much as the last one. I'm also not sure why the microphone is so sensitive this time. Honestly, this microphone just does whatever it wants. Really, making that giant pile of mercenaries early on has proven a great investment. Muriel, Ballistadin, Quidain, Lelias the Druid Tank -- pretty much all of them but my barbarian and rogue -- have found niches to save things. Coggins has been super cool too, but once we got Zahua, he was basically replaced. Still, I don't think I'd have had as easy a time with the game without a bunch of people to tag in as specific silver bullets or to double priest. 00:00 Otters and Dragon Killin' Teams 07:20 Alpine Dragon Save and Attempts 08:50 First Attempt 13:30 Second Attempt 30:15 Dragon Looting! 36:00 Return to Stalwart: Picking Up Sidequests and Shopping 01:06:25 Clearing Out Mines A Bit 01:25:00 Closing, No More Alpine Dragon

This was recorded on August 14, so, Happy Birthday to me! And to Clara the Sea Otter shares my birthday! (@KPassionate): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTeF6hulEf8 You can also learn more here: https://www.pdza.org/meet-clara-the-sea-otter/ -- At least, I think that's the same Clara the Sea Otter. What are the odds there are two Clara the Sea Otters? Wait, were you expecting me to start by talking about Raedric and Pillars of Eternity? Sure. Here it is. Raedric once again is one of the high points of the game, even if it feels like a gut punch killing Kolsc like that. Whatever; fighting Raedric is a good time at the start of the game. It's a good time at the close of the game. We then run some bounties. But neither the bounty hunters, bounties or even Raedric are as important as Clara the Sea Otter. Oh, you want more Pillars talk? Berath is a dick raising Raedric to kill everyone. Let's add Baerath with Woedica and Skaen on the pantheon of gods we dislike. You know what we like? Otters. 00:00 Let's Clara the Sea Otter 01:00 Quest and Party Set Up 04:30 Suitably Dramatic Tower Fight 15:00 "One More Level" 31:25 "We're Here to Kill a Pirate" 48:12 "Attack the Slaver" 01:04:25 Double Druid vs. Ranger Bounty 01:15:04 Turn Ins

There's not too much that happens here. We've got some sidequests and bounties, plus a visit to Elmshore. I kind of liked this relatively chill, easy time after beating our head against the dragon. It's a pretty simple time, so kick back, relax and things'll be great. It feels like all of these bounties were easy, which makes sense, since they don't scale. There's still a lot of sidequests left to do in Twin Elms, but we get distracted at the end here by defeating Undead Raedric and returning to Stalwart. So, Twin Elms is on pause for a bit. We also rescued the ambassador for our bird paladin friend. 00:00 Off to Elmshore -- Sagani and the Arches 03:10 Ogre, Ogre, Ogre Matron -- Oh Dear 25:20 Picking Up New Bounties 27:27 An Infamous Chanter -- Songsmith Something Or Other 33:00 A Brief Detour 49:00 High Priest of Eothas Bounty 01:01:00 Troll Bounty 01:10:30 Turn Ins 01:18:20 Return to Elmshore Forest 01:28:15 Exploring Twin Elms 02:00:15 Preparing for and Completing Fampyr Bounty and Turn In 02:16:45 Bird Paladin Saves an Ambassador 02:24:30 Picking Up More Bounties

The difference one rest bonus makes. Anyway, we told the AI art generator to make otters fighting a dragon. It decided the dragon, too, must be an otter. The AI art generator and I are going to get along just fine. Anyway, the important thing here is that Eder is a hero. There's so much CC getting thrown at the dragon to keep it from taking any actions. Any action a dragon takes is a bad action. Bad Dragon, no actions. Let's get to Elmshore, where the entire game now upscales for Act 3. The fights there are pretty interesting, but it's mainly random encounters and recovery. 00:00 Dragon Otter 04:45 Grieving Mother Talk 11:45 First Attempt 20:10 Second Attempt 46:10 Never Doing That Again! Looting 01:06:56 Grieving Mother Choice 01:11:15 Elmshore 01:48:00 Retreat to Caed Nua; Eder Conversation

Animal news first before we get into the wonder that is Pillars of Eternity. First, Friendship 7 (https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/friendship-7s-fourth-orbit) and Otter Attacks (https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/08/13/otters-attack-swimmers-in-sierra-nevada-river-and-lake/). I like our AI otter sci-fi detective. Anyway, we do Act 2 and then suffer against The Master Below. We learn a lot about things here, but the biggest thing we learn is that resting at an inn doesn't trigger Camping Bonuses (I kept looking for ways to buff our Accuracy before learning we had to double rest.) I don't know what a good choice is with animancy. Because, on one hand, yeah. Every instance of it ends in disaster, and probably would even without Leaden Key interference. I think the choice to allow it, but with guard rails and ethics boards. At least, that's what I meant by my answer. Who knows how the game will interpret it. I'm definitely sure that "keep things as is" and "unrestricted chaos" are both bad choices. Guys, maybe I really am Neutral Good. Either or, the riots are to be expected. It is not our fault. I don't even know how we beat the Guardian of Caed Nua after the first failed attempt. I think it got Petrified and AoE spiked out of existence. But, whatever, we won. You can basically stop watching around 03:13:22 -- that's just us learning the Master Below fight. Don't worry. We'll get'em next time. 00:00 Elephants and Space Are cool 02:00 Spreading the Sadness 10:00 Meet Lady Webb 24:30 Crucible Knight Help 32:30 Lady Webb, Again 42:00 The Animancy Hearings 01:00:15 It's Not Our Fault -- Return to Lady Webb 01:10:30 Act 3 Crawl and Aloth Has (Another) Secret 01:19:00 Detour! (Lle a Rhemen) 01:50:00 Leaving Stormwall Gorge 02:03:03 Retreat to Caed Nua (White March 2 Introduction) 02:15:00 The Guardian of Caed Nua 02:22:45 Successful Attempt at Guardian 02:33:30 The Spirit of Od Nua 02:47:30 Clearing to the Master Below 02:55:00 Meeting the Master Below; Dragon Trickery! 03:08:00 Meeting Falanroed, the Dragon Slayer 03:13:22 Repeated Failures

We stumble into a murder mystery involving actors, soul stuff, and a jerk lord. My solution? Wolves. Just kidding, that's just the intro animal story for this adventure (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/11/britain-deer-population-ecological-disaster-wolves-humans-predators). I love what the AI art generated for "wolves dressed as Onion Knights from Final Fantasy III fighting deer." It's beautiful, especially the inexplicable third arm. (Here's the FF3 opening video; we'll see if @jonusfalcon keeps with it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jDtK60GXsU&t=14079s I think this is a pretty great sidequest, and I think this is more what people want from CRPGs. Honestly, the White March Finale followed by this are probably some of the best parts of Pillars. 00:00 Solution: Wolves 03:00 Shopping in Defiance Bay 28:00 Talking to Kurren, Investigating Missing People 54:00 Inexplicable Assassins 56:30 Confronting Lumdalla Again 58:20 The Stage House, Basement and Patron 01:15:00 Turn in to Kurren and Finish Session

I know nothing about New South Wales except this guy hunts with his cat and has pet birds (https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/digital/5j34lwAelJ77a). This makes New South Wales a pretty OK place by me. I did some gear buying and re-equipping and wandering about aimlessly before trying the Alpine Dragon for about 40 minutes of failure, which I didn't bother to record. The Alpine Dragon will require potions, scrolls and effort. A level or two would help for extra Accuracy/Defenses. We returned to the Battery thinking the fights would be similar to the above floors, but we just get absolutely exhausted pushing through copy/paste wraith fights. It's kind of a pain. We shouldn't have brought Brasgan, especially after I talked about not wanting to be so melee heavy. But, mistakes were made. Not a super long video, but otters and ice caves! 00:00 New South Wales and Making a Bad Party 03:00 Barbarian Lady and Devil Talk Crazy 06:30 The Grind Begins 11:25 A Fight 18:00 A Lot of Everything 34:00 A Lot of Everything: Complete 38:25 Globe Trotting Puzzles 43:35 Surprise Copy Paste Fight 49:25 Surrendering to Auto Pause: Devil and Hiravias Talk 52:10 Re-Equipping, Wondering Why Darimare Doesn't Have A Hat

Alright. Here we try to just bully through as much of the early game as we can to try and get slightly above average HP. We pulled it off, but it cost us a lot of money. Good thing money is meaningless by the end game. The biggest blocks with the bosses is that we don't have solid mages. We're up to Hein, which we're going to blast through with a physical approach and then we'll buy some spells to gear up a mage. Honestly, you should probably just use a mage. 00:00 Naming Characters 07:45 Turtle Power 10:30 Classes and Cities 40:00 Sealed Cave 50:20 Djinn 01:12:00 Dragon's Peak 01:17:30 Mini-Us 01:36:05 Rats! 01:50:00 Ship-ploration 02:09:11 Tower of Owen 02:27:08 Dwarves and Horn of Ice 02:55:45 Fire Temple 03:33:15 Fire Classes and More Ship-ploration 03:49:45 To Castle Hein and End Grinding

Poor Hank the Tank (https://www.npr.org/2023/08/07/1192455516/hank-the-tank-bear-lake-tahoe) captured by the government. But, the worst part? The government has ensured us that the bear and her cubs will be returned to the wild once they *regain a fear of humans.* How? How are you doing that government? The entire floor is pretty easy going, especially looking back at on it after getting further in. The wraiths are some of the lamest enemies in an RPG. Spammable CC AoE? Check. Isolation? Check. Annoying Resistances? Check. Just all of the junk shoved into one ever copy/pasted mob. 00:00 Bears and Otters 04:15 Return to Galvino's 09:00 Return to Durgan's Battery 15:00 Next Floor 38:15 Neat Bridge Fight 45:00 Exploration 54:40 Battery Defender Fight 01:00:00 Dial Puzzle 01:11:50 Stupid Wraith Summoning Key 01:22:45 Reloading: No Key 01:24:00 Mine Cart 01:25:50 Treasure, Traps and Ghost Dwarves 01:39:00 Ice Cream Otter!

Let's get back to White March shenanigans and talk a bit about Baldur's Gate 3 and looking forward to Pillars of Eternity. Otter 841's rebellion keeps apace. That's all the pre-game banter. Durgan's Battery is much less frustrating than that one map with all the fish people or the Alpine Dragon, which I still haven't gotten around to fighting. 00:00 Forgetting the Camera 01:30 Awakening a Dwarven Soul 04:00 Exploring Durgan's Battery Exterior and Galvino's Trap Disarming 22:00 Dwarf Spirits and Creepy Door 28:00 In We Go, First Floor Exploration 38:50 A Fight Showing Off Devil of Caroc's Teleportation 43:20 Return to Exploration 52:08 Armswarden Fight 01:05:15 Retreat to Caed Nua, Party Updating and Geyda

Look, Otter 841 remains free. She has an ice cream flavor now (https://www.ksbw.com/article/otter-841-honored-with-ice-cream-flavor/44744742). I really like my ballistae Paladin, and so I think if I ever play Pillars 2, we might make our character a ballistadin. Who knows? Logitech hub, cameras and lights are super annoying. This trip to the Russetwood is pretty eventful! Ogres, werewolves, woodcutters, and more, oh my! For the Giftkeeper's chests, we spent some time going back and teaching Darimare Bulwark from Elements. 00:00 Rebel Otter! 01:05 Leaving Galvino's 08:00 Return to Russetwood/Hamke 18:50 Giftkeeper Chests 32:45 Spotting Greyjaw and Ogre Cave Exterior 01:06:30 Making Peace With Ogres 01:50:27 Ogres Done, Greyjaw 01:53:54 Wolf Cave, Quest and Leveling 02:38:07 Resolving Ondra's Giftkeepers 02:50:15 Return to Durgan's Battery, Fighting Urthal 03:00:15 Metzla Bounty and Turn In 03:26:00 Next Two White March Bounties 03:51:28 Turn In, Clean Up

Guys, cows are on the loose seeking to join the Otter resistance (https://www.fox5dc.com/news/2-escaped-cows-on-the-loose-in-bowie). After that, we spend some time leveling the Devil of Caroc into a dagger and shield damage dealer. In Stalwart we handle the fishery and a few other things. We also deal with the slaver and some visitors to Caed Nua. There's a lot happening here, but the combat portion of the adventure is at the Russetwood Exploration portion. Honestly, I felt like this video went longer, but it is a pretty tight 1.5 hours. 00:00 Cow Story and Devil Leveling 15:00 Stalwart Sidequests/Caed Nua Visitors 46:00 Russetwood Exploration 01:21:10 Leveling Ballista Girl and Return to Stalwart/Galvino

This adventure takes us to uncursing our sword and heading to Galvino. We complete two other sidequests on the way, finding some ore for Ista and finding a missing shipment for a weird lady in the bar. Overall, good for us! We also picked up the Devil of Caroc, who is maybe the first miss, build wise, of the game, and solely because of the mandatory Heavy Armor she wears that gives -40% Attack Speed. We'll figure out what to give her first. 00:00 Back at White March 02:55 Uncursing the Estoc 19:27 Return to White March 21:16 Durgan's Battery Exploration Part 1 (Caves and Shipment) 50:00 Quest Turn Ins 01:03:10 Durgan's Battery Exploration Part 2 (To Galvino's) 01:05:58 Galvino's Laboratory 02:06:55 Recruiting the Devil of Caroc and Talking to Galvino 02:22:01 Retreat to Caed Nua (Equipping and Gearing) 02:29:29 Sick Otter

White March is everything bad about the main campaign thus far, pushed to the limit. There's 5 of the same exact fight copy/pasted one after the other for a side quest. The AI and pathing are worse. The side quests have no sign posting at all, or clue at all to what exactly the consequences might be -- for example, my main character is now stuck with a magic sword in his hands, basically making him infinitely worse, but at least they didn't code it right, so he still is getting his gun bonuses while using it. I want to play the Pillars of Eternity 1 with good, fluid combat I was told about. Not this bug filled, frustrating mess. 00:00 Otter 841 Update 02:05 To Galvino's (Longwatch Falls) 18:44 First Bounty 39:15 Return to Town, Resting and Chatting 55:33 Return to Longwatch Falls 01:00:36 Noping Out From the Alpine Dragon 01:07:20 Spirit Fight and Cursed Sword 01:21:57 Pearls Before AI Bugs 01:53:35 "It's The Exact Same Fight!" -- Everything Wrong With CRPG Copy/Paste 01:56:43 Early Critique of White March 01:59:12 Leveling and Finishing Up

Listen along with me to the House Committee Hearing on “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency.” Honestly, this was kind of amazing. They actually got really good witnesses and not whack jobs, and Congress played nice with each other. Who would have thought that the ALIENS BE REAL, YO, hearing would be the maybe most productive Congressional hearing ever. Here are a whole bunch of links. First, the only government link I could find was this one on YouTube. I tried to find C-SPAN or the like, but this is the best I could find if you want to hear it without commentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ7Dw-739VY&t=171s If you want the Hearing Record (which should be updated in the first week of August 2023), along with some information on the witnesses and supporting documentation, check here: https://www.congress.gov/event/118th-congress/house-event/116282 Now, for a bunch of references! - Information on The Accidental Truth documentary: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26443953/ - 2017 NYT Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/18/insider/secret-pentagon-ufo-program.html - NASA to set up UAP team: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-to-set-up-independent-study-on-unidentified-aerial-phenomena/ - NASA UAP Broadcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQo08JRY0iM&t=3014s - NASA UAP Independent Study Event Telecon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3uXUfgSadU - Bluebook from the National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/research/military/air-force/ufos - Tic-Tac Incident: https://www.history.com/videos/uss-nimitz-tic-tac-ufo-declassified-video - UFO Sightings Locations: https://www.history.com/ufo-sightings-location-map - Mr. Grusch Interview at News Nation: https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/ufo-whistleblower-says-people-were-harmed-over-ufo-coverups/ - 2021 ODNI Report: https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Prelimary-Assessment-UAP-20210625.pdf - Executive Order 13526: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-classified-national-security-information - The Phoenix Lights: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Lights - Unclassified Treaty Mentioned Near The End: https://2009-2017.state.gov/t/isn/4692.htm

Ok, we abandoned Endless Paths Floor 13 to go to White March. We got the Barbarian and Monk story companions, and we picked up all the quests in town after liberating it from some ogres. Liberating Stalwart was fun, but I feel like trying to save both people from the burning building took up more time than I should have let it. But, gosh darn it, we can do things. Also, is this the first time I enchanted something? Feels like a waste, unless we care about these digital people's lives. Time to adventure in the great white north! I actually enjoy this area, but kind of wish that it was a standalone adventure. It has really roughed up the pacing of Pillars, which is already wonky. Zahua ends up a staff reach attacker, with Maneha becoming a Barbarian tank. Remember folks, leave the otters alone! 00:00 Some AI Otter Art 04:20 White March DLC Intro 05:30 Liberating Stalwart Village 42:05 Burning Building, Take 2 52:55 Burning Building, Success 57:20 Meeting and Leveling Zahua 01:16:56 Stalwart Sidequest Stuff 02:02:13 Meeting and Leveling Maneha 02:17:23 Talking With the Mayor

We clear the Sanitarium and climb Heritage Hill. But that's not important. What is important is that I want your Otter 841 fan art. I need it. Please, send it to me. Give me your Otter 841 fan art. Right, anyway. About Pillars 1. Sanitarium and Heritage Hill are fine. Good quests. But, the absolutely atrocious AI and combat system is really starting to show itself here and with Cragholdt. You can see against things below us, we can just attack all. It doesn't even matter the AI doesn't use all our Per Encounter abilities, or even acknowledge cross-class ones. But, the moment we *need* the game to actually use our skills, it is utterly incapable of doing so. It can't manage even knowing it is already in range to cast spells, instead wasting 5-10 seconds getting in to position to cast things we were already in range for. Melee characters will sometimes walk out of engagement only to go back into the same one. Combine this with oppressive, continual CC -- CC you can't save to negate, just save to reduce -- and you have a frustrating combat system that feels unrewarding both when facing a challenge or trash mobs. I want to like Pillars, I really do. But engaging with combat is a huge demotivator. Hopefully I can keep up the energy for the rest of the game. Share your Otter 841 pictures to help motivate me. 00:00 Otter 841 01:30 Sanitarium Quest 08:45 Nothing Ever Goes Right 24:50 Return to Caed Nua 31:30 Heritage Hill Quest 01:01:15 World Tour 01:05:30 Endless Paths 13 01:10:29 Failure

Cragholdt is apparently the end of DLC 1. That's not where we are, so we move ahead with the story, starting by taking Eder to Cliaban Rilag and exploring the area there to learn that the Leaden Key are up to no good. We get an invite back to see an ancient spy lady, but take a detour to the Sanitarium instead with Aloth. Look, nothing good is coming from hanging out at the Sanitarium, but that's where we ended while picking new spells for Darimare. Overall, I think we're over leveled for the story, but under leveled for the DLC. We'll probably finish the Sanitarium and the third part of Act 2, then see if we can tackle the White March DLC 1 up to Cragholdt. I think the story plays better if you do the sidequests in Dyrford before coming back here in Act 2, but I think the game expects you to arrive here now. 00:00 What's Next 04:07 Dyrford Village 12:00 Eder and Entering Cliaban Rilag 23:45 Cliaban Rilag Part 1 48:00 Cliaban Rilag Part B 01:07:42 Cliaban Rilag Part III, Return to Defiance Bay and Re-equipping 01:27:32 Durance Being a Dick, As Usual And Random Assassins 01:36:05 Aloth and the Sanitarium 01:57:20 Darimare Level 11 and Ending for the Night

Turns out, Cragholdt Bluffs is apparently end of DLC 1, so level 14+. So I won't be going back there after all. We've secured our castle, and we need to move things forward. I want to fix our mistake in giving the Crucible Knights the first step in them making soul armors, so we do the follow up quest here. Then, we make our way to the Temple of Woedica and hit a brick wall at Cragholdt Bluffs. It was a pain. I think we're not going to keep pushing there. Still, I feel good that we got stuff done. 00:00 Set Up and Off to Crucible Knights 07:03 Crucible Knights: Dock Visit 15:23 Crucible Knights: Return to the Hall and Defeating Armors 32:12 Moving On: Temple of Woedica 44:22 Exploring Temple of Woedica 01:01:05 Steward of Caed Nua Letter Reading 01:11:35 Cragholdt Bluffs: A Mistake 01:58:15 Retreat to Caed Nua

This session starts with just a little bit of re-equipping to try and make sure we're prepared for mind control shenanigans by having a second set of weapons for it to swap to. We meet with the chancellor, and it's a shame that Captain Emery doesn't decide to join up with us. Real shame. Anyway, we then tackle Floor 13 of the Endless Paths to get enough money to raise an army. After that, we have the next high point of the game: Battle of Yenwood. I will say this though, I wish this was plot gated. I couldn't raise any special troops or whatever was needed to deal with Gathbin's elite troops. We still won, but it feels weird that I think I got too far ahead on the Keep that I missed some possible solutions. Same with the Fampyre and other things in the Endless Paths, where I haven't learned a language, which maybe I should have already. Anyway, we're now out of sidequests and are able to move forward with the main quest! Onward! 00:00 Let's Go 09:10 Charred Barrel and Caed Nua Set Up for Yenwood 23:45 Floor 13 01:29:18 Return to Spider Illithids 01:37:00 To Yenwood 01:40:00 Battle with Gathbin 01:50:20 Victory and Clean Up

Some thoughts from a bad Diablo 4 player on the patch notes. Let me know how wrong I am. A more negative written version (my first drafts are always more negative): https://photowordism.home.blog/2023/07/19/diablo-4-patch-notes-are-a-sign-of-blizzards-failure/ Patch Notes: https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo4/23964909/diablo-iv-patch-notes

We start Floor 11 of the Endless Paths Endless Paths, and at some point get a super goofy Eder with a Diving Helmet. I don't really remember much about this play session, except the annoying opening of trying to beat the mushrooms and disarm the trap, ultimately giving up on disarming the trap. We were joined a bit by @jonusfalcon during the adventure. So many of our problems are solved by tentacles these days. 00:00 Mushroom, Mushroom 15:45 Return to Mushroom 27:00 Floor 12 36:58 Spider Men 48:08 Jerk Spider Man 51:55 Shopping World Tour 01:08:55 Blade of the Endless Paths and Adventurer Update