#it's pretty trivial to set up a nodefling from the wilderness camp to the dev room to grab the pixie bell

[alucohc]

for anyone curious:

embracing the shadows is the most straightforward of the bunch but i'd argue that you're actually surviving three rounds of the curse

i ain't afraid of no shadows will not trigger if you or a summon ever receive the moonshielded or pixie blessing conditions, including if it happens during a cutscene and even if you never pick up an actual moonlantern yourself

always a step ahead of the darkness is only obtainable if you never receive the shadow curse condition, not if you don't take damage. which is super fun because the only glitchless* way to get to the nightsong without getting cursed is by using a moonlantern or getting the pixie blessing

*this is called foreshadowing

and of course path least followed stops you from just going straight to moonrise and last light and then getting a moonlantern. it's also bugged to only be obtainable by your player character. i'm pretty sure the trigger is the balthazar dialogue at the top of the shadowfell but i haven't tested what it is if you kill him before entering (or if you do the gauntlet as intended)

alright so then how did i do it? glitches baby

to start you'll want two companions and either a small tav and an elixir of hill giant strength or two elixirs of hill giant strength. you could get away with a small tav and using disguise self on a companion to make them small, but note that you'll be switching the roles of your tav and that companion in the following section

next: enter act two through the mountain pass. kill the goblin for good luck, pick up the nearby barrel, and give a light source to your tav and one of your companions. what we'll be doing is chaining a kidnap with a nodefling. make a safety save here.

kidnap your tav with the companion you did not give a torch to. if you know how to kidnap, you can skip ahead, but for anyone else: they will need at least 16 strength if your tav is small or 20 strength if they're medium. (if your tav has body type 3 or 4, swap in a smaller companion for them). bring you companion as close to you tav as possible. select throw, select your tav, mouse over a valid location, and quickly left click and right click to confirm and cancel the throw.

the timing is a lot faster than you expect: rolling your fingers across your mouse will get you really close to the right rhythm. if you did it right, your tav should be flailing between your companion's knees. if your tav didn't move at all, you were too fast. if your tav teleported to another spot within the throwing range, you were too slow. if your companion picked up your tav and they hovered between the knees for a couple seconds before being thrown, you were way too slow and need to at least double your bpm.

use the second companion to kill the first companion. pick up their body and put it in the barrel. now walk down the slope a little bit until you reach the red grassy bits before the shadow curse boundary. exact position is not super important. put the barrel by your feet.

fling the barrel to the mausoleum entrance. the first step of this is setting your node. again, the positioning is pretty forgiving. adjust the zoom on your camera so that you can see the bubble around last light. now bring your camera as far forward as it will go. you should see a pointy shadow wisp to the left of last light (if you see two, it's the fainter one). you'll be aiming right above that. open your inventory, grab any item, and drag it to that spot. now you'll want to return to your companion and open the barrel. as the opening animation is playing, drag the barrel to a valid location.

the timing is slower than you think. you did it right if the barrel flies away. you were too slow if the barrel opens, but your node is still set. try again. if anything else happens, you were too fast or the position you dragged the barrel to was invalid. either way you have to re-set your node.

once the portrait of your dead companion disappears, quick save and quick load. if your tav becomes shadow cursed on reload, revert to your safety save. otherwise continue through the mausoleum and gauntlet of shar at your leisure.

for your own sanity, you may wish to grab the shadowed battlefield waypoint with your be-torched companion. just make sure to hop around the kar'niss cut scene triggers (aim for the dilapidated shed off to the right of the ambush location and then hop straight down).

otherwise, from here on out, there are no other internal conflicts with the goals.

I FINALLY FUCKING DID IT