Pillars of Eternity 2: Merchants Murdered

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Only the two merchant factions remain as viable allies, and since the Valian Trading Company seem like nicer folk (despite trading in slaves) - the team agree to help them sabotage the Royal Deadfire Company by blowing up their base in Neketaka. This goes pretty smoothly until Ludin is killed by an RDC firing squad. Everyone is brought in for questioning at the palace and Gerrod spills the beans on the Valian plot while somehow maintaining innocence and the ignorant queen believes him.

As such the VTC members are put under arrest while the remaining RDCs are left in shambles, scratching both of as potential allies to get through the deadly ocean. Knowing they now have to go it alone, the crew start hunting down the remaining items they need to upgrade their ship including one piece at an undead haven where Rook is killed by a fampyr trio.

Soon after their old ally, archmage Llengrath, pays them a visit while riding atop her dragon requesting help investigating another island. Sure enough, its full of tentacles and horrible things but these horrible things also fight each other. Gerrod makes the most of that as they explore deeper, eventually finding it is the mysterious beholder-type god Wael asleep down here. Despite Llengrath's warnings, Gerrod makes a deal with Wael - freedom in exchange for destroying the giant statue. Wael agrees - all they need to do is find the target and call for him.

 

All beholders have lazers!

The horrible, gigantic tentacle monster that's full of eyes is then set free into the ocean and Llengrath leaves angrily - knowing full well the chaos such a creature will cause.

Pillars of Eternity 2: Risky Research

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Back at Neketaka from the iceberg, the team attend a meeting at the Royal Palace where it is guessed that the statue's target is somewhere within a section of ocean far too dangerous for any one ship to pass. Instead, they would need to gain favor with one of the factions OR upgrade a vessel to withstand the punishment. The Royalty themselves are already crossed off that list as they hate the squad for freeing the captive dragon their water benders were leeching power from, so Gerrod tries to appeal to the arch mages next by doing research retrieval for the local arch mage Arkemyr.

Doing this work sees the deaths of Yrsa who is impaled by a horned whale at sea, Zefr who is clobbered by staff wielding monk, Maia and Petrus killed by arch lich Concelhaut who had reconstructed himself from their last encounter. What makes it worse is that upon handing the research over, Arkemyr promptly refuses to help. At least his apprentice Fassina joins the team but that's not really the help Gerrod was hoping for.

Really hard to keep these dead.

The next faction are the constantly infighting pirates, but since they are naturally scum Gerrod hires the master thief Garrett to make them squabble even more. As they execute one of their own leaders the team kills all the remaining ones of the pirate's council throwing that entire organization into chaos - crossing another potential ally off the list. Phht. What sort of allies would these scum be anyway?

Pillars of Eternity 2: Death in the Afterlife

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Journeying in Rymrgand's land of the dead is a dangerous task, especially since his servants are still on duty to "make things stop existing". Farcol is the first to have his soul collected and soon after Esme and Sofie are exploded on a firey bridge (it's a strange afterlife). Maneha also gets abducted by more tentacles for eternity this time (what is it with her and tentacles) before the team finally confront the undying dragon.

Gerrod somehow convinces it to go fight Rymrgand for power and it loses badly. Since it brought its phylactery to the fight (to power up or something), Rymrgand destroys it - ending the dragon permanently. The god is not happy that he ended up doing their work and decides all of the team should stay forever. Combat ensues and Dijaam is disintegrated into the White Void while Vatnir and Arzang are both crushed under Rymrgand's hoofs.

It did not go well for the dragon.

Only Gerrod and Iholikan make it to the exit and seal the portal. To make up for their losses a number of end of worlders are recruited: Rook, Ubin, Ludin, Yrsa, Zefr, and Petrus. Gerrod's fellow arena buddy Voghiln is also here and is recruited once he sobers up.

Banner Saga: After the End

[Part of my Banner Saga play through]

Looks like victory to me!

Emerging from the basement, the few survivors of Arberrang are greeted by the warm sunlight of a once again moving sun. After taking in the view, Rook nods to his compatriots to enact "the plan". Aleo stabs Bastion in the back, but the dagger is too weak to kill the dredge who smashes the bard into paste as retaliation. Rook and Petrus take it down while Ludin and Yrsa murder the remaining dredge scum in Rook's revenge plan.

At the same time, Hakon tries a similar surprise attack on Canary, but misses wide and gets a poisoned javelin in the back instead with Scathach and Ro'Ech double mule kicking him on either side of his head to make it explode in a shower of blood. Fasolt manages to club Ro'Ech to death and catch Canary in his big hands - promptly throwing her off the cliff face onto the jagged rocks below to see if she can fly. Scathach runs him through before old Ubin catches the last horse born unaware with a mighty axe swing, beheading him. Then comes the grisly task of turning them into supplies.

The remaining survivors: Ludin, Rook, Ubin, Yrsa, Zefr and Petrus are left to decide if they will try rebuild Arberrang or begin marching elsewhere to see if anyone else survived the end of the world.

Insight: Welp, that was my "try be an idiot and get everyone killed" run through of Banner Saga though in part three I did try to make more sensible decisions when it came to Arberrang's defence and doom timer. I really liked that bit though, and wish they had more of it early on.

Banner Saga: A Bed of Enemies

[Part of my Banner Saga play through]

Much like the old tower, the relationship between the refugees and Ludin's father, King Meinolf, is also collapsing as they found their new leader in governor Rugga - who manages to stab the old king with a poisoned dagger just before getting his allies to attack the walls, desperate to get away from the growing darkness. So many are slain in the conflict that with the King's dying breath, he allows everyone inside the walls. Rook makes sure Rugga isn't one of them, which gains the approval of royal guard Petrus. Nid has the opposite reaction, and takes the first boat out of there to continue fleeing with a number of other cowards. As for Ludin - he's happy to pass all the responsibility to Rook.

One of the best parts of the game.

After a few days of quelling riots, Fasolt (the unkillable) arrives with the dredge army hot on his heels, rallied around a new leader called Ruin who uses a massive black anchor grappling hook to tear at the outer walls of Arberrang. Fasolt and Hakon aren't keen on Oddlief's cowardly plan to weaken Ruin with explosives so that's exactly what Rook opts to do and it works. They then drive a wedge right through the attacking dredge and its old Ubin who finally brings Ruin down, causing the remaining dredge back off and basically weep for they too fear the oncoming darkness.

"Let them rot," Rook decides, but is quickly countered by the arrival of Zefr who somehow survived the tower collapse. The old mender explains that the darkness will warp them into fiercer foes if left out there, so Rook and Oddlief make the bold move of opening the gates and inviting them in - and seeing Oddlief carrying a baby dredge she had kidnapped from the battlefield just earlier encourages them to do so peacefully.

Rugga's loyalists are having none of it though, and are quick to spear Oddlief to death upon returning into the city - causing further rioting and panic. Eventually with the help of a massive dredge guard called Bastion, Rook and Petrus round up all these rebels and burn the lot of them alive as a lesson for the others. That's how good rulers do it.

Insight: At the start of Banner Saga 3, everyone's gained level so make sure to spend all those points when you can! Petrus is especially handy since once per combat he can summon another guardsman into battle! On the Raven's side, you might also get Eirik who can do similar by summoning a bear!

Banner Saga: Split the Party

[Part of my Banner Saga play through]

Trapped between the dredge and a waterfall, Rook, Ludin, Hakon and Bolverk hold off the dredge while Eyvind and Juno construct a floating land bridge for them to flee across. While it works, the chasm is huge and the menders can only maintain part of the bridge at a time resulting in many - mainly the slow, injured, old or unlucky - falling to their deaths (no named characters though).

As a result, when they do get to solid ground once more - Bolverk decides to go his own way with his Ravens and much of the supplies. Mogun tries to stop him but is beheaded for his trouble and seeing this, his twin Hogun retires from axe swinging and returns to being mundane clansman. Rook lets them go and pushes on to Arberrang via the plains where they encounter a trio of injured horseborn (centaurs): Scathach, Ro'Ech and Derdriu. The menders heal them and the trio join Rook's "herd". Hakon doesn't like them which means they must be ok.

"Peekaboo!"

Out of nowhere a massive serpent suddenly appears and swallows Juno but Eyvind tears open its side with lightning to get her out, causing the snake to retreat. Since this monster yet poses a threat to the caravan, Juno, Eyvind and Iver depart to lure it away while urging Rook to make haste to the capital of Arberrang.

Before he can do so, governor Rugga attempts a coup against Rook but fails and gets all his allies killed while he himself runs off to safety. This fight gets the attention of another horseborn herd but luckily they only need to beat down a few of them before their leader, Canary, decides she wants to be part of Rook's herd too. There's not much he can do about it so they just push on until finally they reach the capital which already has scores of refugees outside the walls. Lucky for them, the returning Prince Ludin is the golden ticket which grants them all passage inside the city. Much like the people they lead, Rook and Oddlief celebrate this momentous occasion.

Insight: Horseborn are very fun - they move fast and can move again after a melee attack. Derdriu and Canary also have poisonous javelins which are handy against heavily armored foes. Scathach (the blue painted one) is the best of them mobility wise. As enemies, using spear wielders like Ludin and Trygvvi to bleed them is good since they can't help running around all over the place.

Banner Saga: The Fleet of Boersgard

[Part of my Banner Saga play through]

Having waited for weeks to no avail, Rook finally orders the party to move on - much to Eyvind's disapproval. They eventually reach Boersgard city which is defended by Bolverk the broken-horn varl along with his "Raven" mercenaries who let them in after seeing what Rook's team can do to the dredge (besides, there's only twenty or so of them). Agreeing to flee onward to Arberrang, the Boersgard governor Rugga begins dismantling his own people's homes to build a fleet of ships to escape down river while the fighters are tasked with defending against the dredge, and rioting civilians.

Old Ubin shows up a few days later bringing news about the fall of Einartoft to an immortal giant dredge called Bellower, but he also brings the answer to that problem in the form of Eyvind's master and love interest, Juno - who has delayed from meeting him earlier as she was preparing a magic arrow to take down this cretin. Wanting to play hero, Alette volunteers to take this shot as "she is much better than her father".

Sure enough, Bellower and his dredge army follows close behind - giving no time for the "escape ship" plan to work. While the fighters hold back his army Alette takes the shot and misses, leading to Bellower crushing her to death and chopping off an arm from Iver while Rook retrieves the arrow and tags the monstrous dredge in the back. This weakens him enough for the twins, Hogun and Mogun, to chop him down. Seeing their leader fall, the remaining dredge flee buying enough time to turn the housing of Boersgard into the Boersgard fleet and everyone sets sail down the river.

That's taking twins a bit extreme.

During the voyage Eyvind uses his magic to save Iver's life, while Rook meets other thankful survivors like Aleo the poet and Tryggvi the crazy spear man. For days things seem to go their way, until the river ends in a waterfall and they are forced to dock right into another army of dredge!

Insight: The stupid magic arrow is a new ability you need to select. Would have been handy if there was a tool tip or something to clue me into that.

Banner Saga: A Measure of Quality

[Part of my Banner Saga play through]

The dredge threat extends to the other side of the continent, where Rook, a hunter, and his daughter Alette manage to raise an early alarm to get their small village of Skogr quickly evacuated away from the incoming horde. The caravan includes their old varl friend Iver, a young warrior named Egil, twin axemen Hogun and Mogun, Oddlief the Skogr chieftain's widow (he didn't make it) and Nid, Oddlief's apprentice archer.

Alette, you are a terrible hunter.

Like many other refugees they are denied shelter in the walled city of Frostvellr and so march on, picking up Iver's varl buddy Krumr and the rival warriors Onef and Ekkill as they pass. Since Ekkill looks like a psycho, Rook decides to keep him tied up just in case. Unwilling to get caught out in the open by the dredge forces, Krumr suggests going to the next safest place - the varl city of Einartoft which is protected by a massively long stone bridge to the East where they are allowed entry only thanks to Iver's reputation.

Here they meet the varl King Jorundr as well as the survivors from Hakon and Fasolt's caravans, including Eyvind - the mender Hakon rescued previously. To protect the city, Eyvind wants to destroy the bridge but King Jorundr has none of it - instead calling for a last stand from most of his people - including Fasolt, Ubin and Krumr. Apart from the humans, only varl that are injured, cowardly, and useless like Hakon are ordered to continue on with Rook to try reach Prince Ludin's home of Arberrang.

Upon reaching the lakeside town of Sigrholm, Eyvind asks that the team wait for the arrival of his master and so Rook obliges. As the town is full of thieves, supplies and people go missing daily until there are no more stores on the wagons and no more extra people outside the "hero roster". Onef decides to try take over at this point, killing Egil before being put down by Alette. Ekkill is pleased. Too pleased in fact, so Rook banishes him from the party. Rook knows it's not the number of people that matters. It's the quality.

Insight: Rook's mark prey ability is very handy if you position your allies well, but it also means he's probably moving last. Also it gets less good as your survivors level up.

Dragon's Dogma: Into the West

Adventures of Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Back at Cassardis, we meet the busty merchant Madeline who asks for an escort to the encampment which is easy enough. She even comes along for a short detour in clearing out lizard men from the town well. Once there she parts ways with us and I recruit Rook's replacement, a veteran warrior of infinite battles: Lily. We decide to go exploring to the West, stumbling across a friendly young witch who makes ales and less friendly foes in the form of brigands, goblins, phantoms, ogres who are "excited" by women, a chimera and even a drake!

This game makes a big deal out of hearts.

The drake is extra challenging since it charms Lily mid combat, meaning I have to fight her as well. Fortunately my magic ice sword from Bitterblack Isle deals with her effectively while skirting around the beast. Fortunately knocking her unconscious is enough to break the monster's will over her and it is over powered in a long fight. More difficult however are the phantoms, since our melee weapons go right through them.

It is up to Rose's magic to keep them at bay as the eerie cloud form ghosts (ghosts done well, better than TESO for sure!) take turns "latching" on to us to drain life force. At one point it seems the forest is filled with these bastards but with the dawning of the sun they vanish - which quite literally saves us. Anise, is clearly shaken by the experience so we head back to the encampment to rest.

Dragon's Dogma: Stage One - DEATH!

Adventures of Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Having earned some fame I am allowed (to create) my own bodyguard - who I design as Rose the sorceress (because, wifey!). I also recruit a warrior type lady named Anise and after some quick training exercises with Ser Berne, the sergeant at the encampment, we head back to Cassardis to hand in and complete a handful of other newbie quests (like flower picking). Since it is night time when we arrive, we find a spirit lady named Olra at the docks who asks for our help. I say yes, and we are warped to Bitterblack Isle.

That's not a big black curtain behind us...

This turns out to be an "end game" area but I don't care. We push through the insanely strong greater goblins and run into Death himself, who we have no option but to run from. Rook is too slow and gets beheaded by the reaper's scythe before it vanishes into the shadows. Undaunted, we push on - often having to run past things like giant skeletons, skeleton warlocks, a cockatrice, and gargoyles, until we reach a deep chamber which is the home to a giant floating eye.

This beholder is far too tough so we backtrack out of there for the time being. Fortunately we now have some pretty cool gear, enough XP to reach level 17 and a rather large sum of gold in the bank. :)

Dragon's Dogma: Heart Eater

Adventures of Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

After a strange dream where a knight named Savan hunted down a dragon... I inexplicably awoke in the small, peaceful fishing village of Cassardis which is clearly not part of Tamriel. It was also under attack be the very same dragon from the dream! With heroic instincts kicking in, I grabbed the nearest sword and attacked the beast only to be easily overpowered. It then proceeded to eat my heart. Somehow I still survived this. What!?

Mmm, tasty.

The dragon's voice was now in my head, asking me for a challenge - one I wouldn't decline. Grabbing the nearest rusty sword I headed out only to be stopped by a healer who wanted curative flowers to heal others injured in the attack. Because that's more important than going after the world-threatening dragon. Is this some sort of island in Guild wars? Who knows.

At the town gate I am joined by a magician named Rook who helps me save the traveling merchant Reynard from goblins and brings me to a small outpost called the encampment which is under attack by more goblins and a towering cyclops. With our assistance the monsters are beaten, and I am recognized as an "Arisen", which apparently translates to "someone who has had their heart eaten by the dragon" in this land.

I'm just going to go ahead and blame Sheogorath for this mess. :P