Pillars of Eternity: Lea Levelled

[Part of the Cursed story line]

After the war the dive team finally reaches and clears out the last floor (15th) beneath Caed Nua, only losing Crazy Lea on the way as she was crushed by a boulder thrown by a deep spriggan. At the base was a powerful dragon who simply wanted to be free but had grown too heavy to fly so they helped it in another way: by beating down a random woman and holding her still while forcing the dragons essence inside her (that is literally in the game). The dragon was most thankful for this gift and the heroes made a powerful ally.

That's a scary looking beast.

Elsewhere, Dulf's squad headed back to the White March to continue chasing the trail of the Leaden Key into a long abandoned and haunted dwarven fortress guarded now only by spirits and automatons. One such machination, the Devil of Carroc, is friendly and self aware enough to join them - helping to disarm the more difficult dangers in the place which had pretty much wiped out their quarry's exploratory team.

At the deepest part of the fortress Dulf finds a legendary forge and decides to reignite it. Unfortunately, this also awakens a new threat in the region.

Insight: Building up Caed Nua offers some good stat boons when you rest there. Said stats (in combination with crafted food and magic gear) let you access those conversation options you wouldn't normally be able to.

Pillars of Eternity: Pallegina Pummelled

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Following the trails of the Leaden Key leads Dulf's team to the icy North of the White March where they are set upon by a wandering group of evil monks who beat Pallegina into a pulp and breaking all her bones! The paladin does not survive these injuries.

Fortunately a friendlier monk named Zahua comes to their aid to defeat these attackers, and in thanks Dulf takes him back to the stronghold so that Arzang can undo the curse on a sword bound to Zahua's hand. In doing so he learns that a neighboring lord is raising an army to claim Caed Nua for himself!

I'm just going to skip over a few other cool encounters in the White March. :P

In response, Dulf attempts to raise his own army by aiding the Crucible Knights at Defiance Bay complete their forge-knight automatons. Alas, these go crazy and slay all the knights at the base. The other two alliance options don't work out either, with the Dozens still refusing to help and the criminal House Doemenel begin wiped out due to an argument during negotiations.

And so Dulf faces the invading army with his small group of allies where he, Aloth, Arzang, and Gerrod spend most of the battle transforming enemies into piglets and then roasting them with fireballs while the others keep the enemy swarm at bay. It is an easy victory, and they celebrate with plenty of bacon afterwards.

Insight: Don't immediately shapeshift with your druids. They have some handy spells they can throw first before getting stuck into melee. Any summoning spells / items are especially good.

Pillars of Eternity: Gezzthemin Gutted

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Back at the Caed Nua stronghold, Gezzthemin has hired new guards to aid in its defense and among them are the familiar faces of Mercy, Crazy Lea, Alias and Arzang. Together with Gerrod they forge into the depths underneath the fortress once more and reach level eight and find a crazed, adra addicted fampyr looking to become king of the level by getting Gezzthemin's team to kill the rest of his kin and in exchange he will let them descend further.

Arzang's suggestion of simply killing this fampyr is outvoted and the squad ends up fighting a handful instead. They turn out to be deadly enemies due to their charms, an effect fully felt when Crazy Lea stabs Gezzthemin in the belly and carves out his insides - killing him. The team eventually slays all the other fampyrs and surprisingly the new "king" keeps his word - offering free passage downwards.

The team instead returns to the surface to rest and resupply, sending a messenger to Dulf's squad with news of their expedition. Upon hearing the news, Symm and Hort return to the stronghold to assist the dive teams while Dulf replenishes his own troop with the paladin Pallegina, werewolf druid Hiravias, and cipher (psychic) known only as the Grieving Mother.

Werewolf form is cool!

Insight: Fampyrs are faster than the other undead. This means if you have enough space to run, you can isolate them from their pawns.

Pillars of Eternity: Kana is Killed

[Part of the Cursed story line]

On the road to the city the party meets a short ranger named Sagani and her pet fox Itumaak who are looking for someone. Dulf offers to help so she comes along as the team makes a detour to scour the nearby areas first. This turns out to be a mistake as the next area is a drake breeding ground and one of the beasts has Kana for a snack!

Enraged, the team go on to hunt all the drakes including their big leader in the nearby flaming cave. Despite clearing everything in there and all the way to the ocean, there is no sign of the person Sagani is looking for so the team returns to the original plan of visiting Defiance Bay, stopping at the weapon vendors stall to purchase rifles and pistols all around.

No doorway? No problem! Narrow terrain works just fine even against "flying" creatures.

A local adventurer's guild called "The Dozens" isn't very helpful in giving out jobs so Dulf and company end up freelancing again, eliminating some drug dealers and cleaning the catacombs of monsters and scum. It turns out beneath the catacombs is the hideout of the Leaden Key! Not willing to spook them, Dulf uses an ingenious disguise to bluff his way in alone and collect intel on the shady group - leaving them none the wiser.

Insight: Firearms are slow to reload but using them as an opening salvo is a great alpha strike before switching out to your usual weapons.

Pillars of Eternity: Durance's Death

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Outside the ruins of Caed Nua the party meets the bard (chanter), Kana, who is interested in the relics below the keep. Knowing people are stronger together Dulf lets him join the party as they rid the courtyard of spirits and the basement of vermin.

They also find a mad man down there who and recognizes Dulf as a "watcher" like he himself is. Alas, this ends in a one sided fight in which the mad man is slain but at least he left a hint regarding a group known as the "Leaden Key" somewhere in the city of Defiance Bay. Since the path there is blocked, Dulf decided to make Caed Nua their new base of operations, calling in Gezzthemin and Gerrod to oversee the reconstruction of the road and the stronghold itself.

Meanwhile, the team explores the vast dungeon underneath the basement finding all sorts of creatures down here such as kobold-kin, ogres and a drake. At level seven Kana finds the tablet he is looking for but is disheartened to find it in tiny pieces. Worse still, a powerful lightning bolt from a wandering elemental hits Durance right in the nuts - killing the pyromaniac.

Doorway combat, a mainstay of RPGs.

A friendly ghost warns Dulf not to proceed further ("because you are too low level dawg") so the team retreats back to the surface just in time for the road to open to allow travel to Defiance Bay.

Insight: When outnumbered (which is almost always), doorways are a great place to setup for battle. Position everyone well then just send one person (usually the tank) to lure baddies back.

Pillars of Eternity: Raederic's Removal

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Having found old allies Hort, Gerrod and Symm Haximus - Gezzthemin's party finds great success in helping out the people of the Gilded Vale, to the point where they ask them to deal with the cruel Lord Raederic. His castle is pretty easy to infiltrate with Hort's athleticism getting the team up the parapet walls, but the wall guards are no joke - forcing the squad to sneak around them.

Luckily the temple priests in the upper floor are less well armored and are easy to murder. Even their high priest contact who has a key to open a shortcut to the throne room is killed when he attempts to make bargains for it.

The priests are no problem, but the temple knights are a different story...

In no time at all, the team stands before Lord Raederic's throne and in a brief but intense battle they slay the lord and his cronies, allowing the rebel forces control of the keep. They return to the Gilded Vale as heroes, where the townsfolk are already taking down the corpses that had been strung up to the central tree.

Having been injured in the fight, Gezzthemin and Gerrod opt to stay behind to recuperate, leaving the team's leadership to Dulf. A crazed, ugly pyromaniac monk named Durance in the tavern recognizes Dulf's new "condition" and speaks of a man who has a similar aura in the ruins of Caed Nua. Without anything better to do, the team decides to head there next with Durance leading the way.

Insight: The fighter's knockdown ability is very handy. Eventually ranger pets get a version of this too!

Pillars of Eternity: Eder's End

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Dulf leant heavily on his staff as he approached the small town of Gilded Vale, whose main landmark was a great dead tree at its center and upon whose branches were hung human corpses. "Folk Lord Raederic didn't like," explained a pipe smoking man who later introduced himself as Eder.

Corpses as ornaments always makes an impression.

Dulf was greatful that the warrior helped him to the tavern to recover with some hot soup. He was only half way through when a pair of elven mages approached his table, one of whom he recognized from his time at the Thayan arena! "Dulf Ebonbeard, I am glad to see you also escaped that mad man," said Gezzthemin with a sly grin.  

It turns out most of the arena group escaped from Baeloth after the warp and now Gezzthemin and his new wizard friend Aloth were doing adventuring work at the local abandoned temple for some coin and invited Dulf and Eder along. "Come on old man, you'll feel better once you've cast a few spells."

Gezzthemin was a poor liar, but Dulf knew that meant the place was dangerous and thus he and Eder agreed to join the task. Sure enough the place was haunted by malevolent spirits and man sized bats which killed Eder. The three wizard party manages to clear the place out though, and gets a lot of coin in the process.

Insight: Arcane Assault is a cheap, fast and semi-spamable (2 per fight * number of wizards) AoE ability that's useful against clusters of weak enemies.