#thank you mod for giving us a chance to fight like this

[sakuplumeria]

I may be too fixated on this poll but yeah, I finally look up to Gregor and Limbus Company lmao. There may be spoilers here so beware~

Turns out Limbus Company is an RPG and also a gacha game 👀 We can choose about 13 characters to play with and Gregor is one of them. As we probably noticed, his right hand wasn’t normal. Due to some experiments that was done to him in a young age, he got that mutant cockroach-like arm. Maybe this was what made him look swag? Anyways, he was depicted as an easy going person, unless someone touches the subject on his arms (or the experiment behind it). There was also clips of him going berserk because he couldn’t control his mutant arm, or the sort. I guess this probably is his swagness?

But let’s get back to Louis, shall we? He didn’t have mutated limbs, but he did have scars on his chest and his cheek. Meanwhile Gregor may have those things because he was forced to, Louis got his scars willingly! He did had to go through the surgery for his health, yeah, but he BURNT his own cheek ffs. He might be seen as someone under William’s shadow, but he also shared William’s brain and guts. He was so ready to kill Albert when they first met him) and Sherlock with a butterknife in the train if the need arises. I think someone shared about this before, yeah?

I don’t know if people saw the notes (with the propaganda) before they vote, because tbh yeah Gregor seems swaggier by the picture. Won’t hold me back from giving you guys there clips of Louis in action!

TWO DAYS LEFT!

Glasses Swag Tournament Round 2

Gregor (Limbus Company) vs Louis James Moriarty (Moriarty the Patriot)

Mod comments:

Matchup between the two guys I’ve become attached to through this tournament.

I still don’t know a lot about Gregor but he intrigues me.

I went and watched all of Moriarty the Patriot and am starting the manga. It is very good. Intelligent men are hot and the ending made me cry. Thanks guys. I like Louis a lot, although I wish we saw more of him because he doesn’t do much (at least in the anime). His love for William is really sweet though.

[aziraphales-library]

Hello, Lovely Library! 

I lost a fic a few years ago and have done so many power searches that I wonder if it’s just not there anymore -which would be a shame. Do remember it Oracle? 

Story: A&C are living in Italy in the 1400’s? Az has a very posh and pampered cat that has the name of a pope? or king? maybe. Crowley lives with Master DaVinci? Michelangelo? another burly man and a high maintenance young apprentice. It’s the closest thing to family Crowley has ever known. At one point, after sneaking in to retrieve wine as the apprentice and Master have a fight, he falls asleep on the balcony holding hands with the burly man in the heat of the afternoon. Aziraphale doesn’t come to visit because he wants Crowley to have this all to himself and says he will do his best to make sure Crowley can stay in this situation for as long as possible. He promises 7-8 years at most, but in the end manages to give him like 17. The story ends with Crowley climbing into bed with the naked sleeping Master and the burly man after a visit with Aziraphale. They comment on how cool his skin is and they are glad he is there. Then Crowley asks if they can get a cat. And this all broke my heart in the best of ways. 

Thank you for your time and all that you do for our community. 

2/2: Found fic! You can take me off your list. 1500's Venice, Crowley has a true family, Aziraphale has a cat. It was chapter 6 of God May Not Play Games But These Two Goobers Do by indieninja92  Extraordinary writing from one of my favorite authors. Thanks for existing!

Thanks for coming back to let us know you found it!...

God May Not Play Games But These Two Goobers Do by indieninja92 (M) (WIP)

Beyond the basic necessities for life, there aren't many things that can be found across all human cultures. Games, however, are among them. From guessing games to board games, drinking games and games of chance, this fic follows the development of gaming throughout history as experienced by our favourite pair of idiots in love.

- Mod D

[the-24-7-lawlu-library]

Poll Vote Enemies To Lovers

Hi lovely readers, I wish you all a great weekend <3

The Tides That Bind Us by lululawlawlu (M)

It comes to Luffy in recurring dreams—sometimes as clouded visions, sometimes clear as the tropical waters it supposedly rests in. The minute details are ever-changing as the tides, but one thing is always constant—a red string coiled around his finger. It leads him down into the depths of the ocean, pulls him toward the thrill of discovering the holy grail of sunken ships. What was once the pirate king’s is now waiting for him, so what is he waiting for?

fighting tides and chasing you by aloas (T)

Law drops his hand as he watches Luffy escaping, slipping through Law’s fingers once again. His figure grows smaller as the distance between them gets bigger, and yet Law is far from disappointed. This is only their 19th encounter, and Law knows there will always be a next time.

Through the Night by Sakuya_Serenity_Kira (T)

Law saved him. Law really knew, why he saved Luffy, why he had no choice to do so. And all he wanted was to stay with him. But of course, there was no chance. Only for a few days... he tried to carry his heart.

You wreck my plan, I wreck 'you' by KalonThorn (E)

A game of cat and mouse between two outlaws, where no one knows until the end who the mouse in this is.

The Duelists by KalonThorn (E)

Luffy decides to join the dueling club, where he meets one of the biggest prodigies in Hogwarts' history - Trafalgar D. Water Law. They soon begin to butt heads with each other, trying to up one another not only in spell-casting, but also in pranks and other insane stunts. 

Solar Eclipse by quackquackcey (E)

The story of the Hero and the Villain, and the accidental meeting that changed everything.~

Enchanted Ink and Devil's Helmet by quackquackcey (E)

A normal evening during closing hours of Luffy’s tattoo parlor turns sour, and somehow, two bitter rivals-turned-enemies are roped into a supernatural rollercoaster of a night, in which an old ghost comes to haunt them once again.~

Cats and Dogs, or Rather, Ducks by quackquackcey (M)

A story of how two people, who fight like cats and dogs, realize that perhaps, opposites really do attract. Or something like that.~

I hate you, at least I think I do by Anonymous (T)

Luffy and Law can't stand eachother they never could it was like oil and water till well, things change.

Prison of Deception by Orphan_Account (NR)

Luffy, a captain in the Marines, is tasked with guarding and interrogating the pirate prisoner, Trafalgar Law.

Alice, Alice, Don't You Know? by All_My_Characters_Are_Dead (T)

“You let your secret lesser hellhound eat the hat with your secret griffin feathers inside the lining, and you let your secret fireball brother send your stupid Alice brother with the hound?” Law shouted. “What the fuck, Sabo? How am I supposed to get your feathers out of Sunny and back to you without tipping off your brother?” “I’m sure you’ll think of something. That’s why you’re the best, Law. Better think fast, because I waited until he was five minutes out to call you. Thanks, Law!” There was a beep as Sabo hung up, and Law stared at the phone for five full seconds to process and scream internally instead of externally.

Sweets by Skypiea_Lulu (G)

Law hates his neighbor, he is loud, annoying and obnoxious, the problem is that he has to start socializing with him, but not in the way he expected.

The Alpha, the Omega, and everything in between by N_Moonbreeze (E)

The World Nobles were the only Alphas. The Omegas were their appointed servants, fit only to give up their bodies. The Omegas were to be given away and the non-existent Alphas to hide away. These are the ironclad rules of their world. After meeting one Monkey D. Luffy, Alpha Law ultimately decides that he doesn't actually give a shit about said rules. Until the same man, barely coherent on his operating table, utters one word that throws his whole world out of balance. "...alpha!"

-Mod Raiya

[savelockwoodandco]

It's been a year of campaigning and I can't help but feel despondent about the chances of the show even though I know these things take time. I know I'm not the only one as well. I think it's the fact we don't have any sort of sign from anyone official that any of what we're doing is helping. Any real sign of major progress. Just hints and after a while you begin to wonder if it's just our own confirmation bias. There's no clue if any progress is being made at all. A part of me wonders that they're too afraid to tell us any bad news. Another part of me is still hopeful that no news is good news. Idk. I just wish we had anything concrete, some sort of acknowledgement, that we're not screaming into the void and it's not hopeless still and that we're somewhat closer to getting the show saved now than we were last year. Right now its a struggle to hope and I fear its all the more frustrating that situations like last year's strikes probably ended up causing a lot of internal industry changes we may not even be able to account for or that may be affecting how long this process takes. It feels like we know less now than we did last year. Do you have anything to shed some light on this from a different perspective? And if you're feeling sad yourself, all the hugs from me to you and Twitter Mod 🫂. If you don't have any optimism you don't need to give hope to us too since that's an unfair responsibility to drop on you.

Hi Anon! Thanks for the message and for the hugs for both of us!

It's amazing to think it's been a year of campaigning -- us mods have had so many things happen to us since we started this blog, and we're sure it's the same for many of you.

We were pretty sure we'd start to see a sort of 'settling' effect on the enthusiasm for this campaign as the year mark came, and sure enough here it is! That's not a problem or unexpected -- it's hard to keep up efforts and enthusiasm over a longer stretch of time! Having been in many, many campaigns before (successful and otherwise), we're prepared for the long haul, but we totally understand the sort of despondent feelings that come from time to time, especially as the campaign goes on.

A year, in the scheme of things, is really not that long for a campaign all things considered. It feels incredibly long sometimes, sure, but with all the legalities, scheduling issues, rights issues, and everything else that comes with modern TV, it's a pretty short time frame. The hints, good things, and continued momentum from the fanbase and from those directly involved from the show are always heartening, and happen with regularity -- but can feel like very little sometimes. We always recommend taking breaks when burnout starts, and that holds even more true the longer the campaign stretches.

Ultimately, us mods are still as optimistic as we were when we started this blog almost exactly a year ago. There's no 'set' timeframe for renewal/saving efforts -- it can be two months, it can be two years, it can be even longer. Just look at Julie and the Phantoms, whose rights were just barely released by Netflix -- a long time coming (out of Netflix's own pettiness, to be sure), but that's 3 years after its cancellation. The wheels of TV grind slowly, but they do grind on.

As we stand, with having had multiple events with the cast/crew of Lockwood and Co, with Jonathan Stroud, and with more to come -- as well as the outward support of both Agents Stroud and the love CF has for the show, we see no reason to give up the fight. No news is definitely good news -- if there was no chance, they'd tell us flat-out -- and for the time being we're continuing on with the same fighting spirit and enthusiasm that we've had for a year.

Take breaks, take heart, and keep noticing the little things. We're here for encouragement and support whenever y'all need us!

[yakumtsaki]

Continuing to part 2, part 1 here!

Laksmhi gives us Gallagher Newson and they have 3 bolts! I've been playing the Tinkers because Melody is like 150yo and it'd be too sad to have them outlive their only kid. They both wanted a baby but were a few days from elderhood so I had them foster the Newsons in their giant house! It's such a wholesome household to play, like literally the exact opposite of this one.

Gallagher is super cute and I'd normally consider him for spouse but thanks to Barth's ridic 20 woohoo LTW all we want here is to get our first kiss and bounce. Will we do it???

-NOT IF I HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT🐺

YOU. GTFO RIGHT NOW

-NOT A CHANCE, I'M HERE TO PICK UP MY OLD HOBBY OF COCKBLOCKING🐺

-And we're here to help! -The wolf that is, not our son!

FFS. Despite all this malicious sabotage-

-which at some point included Liz playing catch with the wolf, which Jojo only got him to do after like 30 years-

-this went really well! Not Felina-Meadow tier well, but well for Barth subterranean standards..

..Gallagher even got a crush on him from one little flirt! Cute!

We take our date Downtown to seal the deal, everything is going great-

-Bartholomew is pulling these impressive moves.. and then.. FOR NO DISCERNIBLE REASON..

I CURSE YOU, SHAJAR'S PERSONALITY PANEL. I CURSE YOU TO DAMNATION

-How dare you not accept my flirting! -YOU JUST PUT ME IN A HEADLOCK, FREAK -What's your point!

-Look at these shameless idiots dancing! Gross! I'd have to be like.. 200% drunker than I am right now to even consider it! -You're drunk?? -You're not?? Man if I was a broke orphan I'd be drunk all the time. Which I am. Drunk all the time, I mean, not a broke orphan. -I'm outta here. -WHAT! WHY!

Welp, we still got our first kiss thanks to the automated goodbye kiss thing that I finally have to get the mod that disables it because it pisses me off. But whatever, a win all around!

-Hi, Grandpa >:( -What's wrong, Bartholomew? -I WISH I WAS DEAD

-This is exactly what I was worried about when your mother married into that trash family, look at you.. -What! There's nothing wrong with me! -Nothing? Really?? The correct form is 'I wish I WERE dead'! -WHO CARES -Clearly not your dimwitted, Union-gene inflicted self! -OH THAT'S IT, GET READY TO RUMBLE

-I can't believe Grandpa Ti-Ning beat me up! This is the worst day of my life!

At least you have Jimbo!

-Yes, yes I do.. It'd definitely make me feel better seeing the shock and betrayal in his eyes as I choke him to death.. -Ha, like you can get your tiny hands around my thick-ass neck, pussyboi, I'll bite your entire head off! Now shut up and clean off this manure I've been rolling in, and look at me in the eyes while you do it!! -..I need a drink.

Yes you do, I mean if this is how your life is gonna go you might as well be drunk.

Sandy has found a new dog bestie in Veronica to the point she completely missed work to stay and play with her-

-while iVan is team Wendi!

-𝙸 𝙶𝙴𝚃 𝙸𝚃, 𝚆𝙴𝙽𝙳𝙸; 𝙸 𝚃𝙾𝙾 𝙷𝙰𝚅𝙴 𝙴𝙽𝙶𝙰𝙶𝙴𝙳 𝙸𝙽 𝙰 𝙵𝙾𝚁𝙱𝙸𝙳𝙳𝙴𝙽 𝙸𝙽𝚃𝙴𝚁𝚂𝙿𝙴𝙲𝙸𝙴𝚂 𝙻𝙾𝚅𝙴 𝙰𝙵𝙵𝙰𝙸𝚁;

-𝙵𝚄𝙲𝙺 𝚈𝙾𝚄, 𝚂𝙰𝙽𝙳𝚈, 𝙹𝙸𝙼𝙱𝙾 𝙱𝙴𝙻𝙾𝙽𝙶𝚂 𝚆𝙸𝚃𝙷 𝚆𝙴𝙽𝙳𝚈; -JI̸M̵BO B̴E̶L̴O̶N̴G̸S W̴I̷T̵H V̵E̸R̷O̵N̵IC̷A̶, Y̴O̵U̶ AN̷D̷ YO̵U̵R̵ C̷A̵T AR̸E B̵O̴T̶H PE̴RV̶E̷RT̵S🧟‍♀️

-Forget it, Jim, it's Uniontown.

As I'm intently watching the billionth iVan-Sandy fight the fighting window pops up again-

-and sure enough, THIS BETTE/JOAN SHIT HAS ESCALATED. I 1000% blame Barflina.

Bruh. Not only did Sophie lose-

-but her disloyal hoe wife immediately went to chat with Liz after! SHAJAR FFS

-What! I'm allowed to socialize with whoever I want and I happen to like Liz! It's not because I have some deep-seated resentments toward Sophie or anything!

It's ok, Soph, you'll always have your pets💛

-And my pets will have Eliza's heart for dinner💛

Can't blame you💛

It's officially time to fuck off for college as there's some glitched bill on the lot and we got repo'ed despite not owing anything! Gross!

-HA! I TAKE YOUR POOL LIGHT. I TAKE IT

For a moment I thought you were taking Glitched Butler #7!

You know what, take Shajar while you're here. BITCH FFS

-What!

You've talked more to Liz since she beat up Sophie than you have the entire time you've known her!

-That's a complete coincidence!

Ya well when you get fed to the dogs it'll be a complete coincidence too!

Alright we're outta here, college time for Barflina. Can't say I'm looking forward to it!

-Anything to get me into Meadow's arms and away from Grandma Victoria's batshit ghost!

-THAT URN-SMASHING BRAT IS NOT WINNING THE HEIRSHIP AS LONG AS I LIVE👻

Vic, I don't know how to tell you this, but you are not currently living. Well, I guess you metaphorically ~live through~ Barflina.

-GROSS. I'D RATHER BE DEAD👻

See you at La Fiesta!

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Rachael Lillis, the OG English VA of Misty and Jesse from Pokemon has sadly passed away from cancer. I donated to her go fund me and everything...."See You Again" by Whiz Kalifa REALLY helps you out in times like this. :'(

//You did your part in that case. And I'm really sorry for everyone who was personally affected by this.

//This reminds me of when the same thing happened with Billy Kametz, and how much that shook me, and most of the internet. And you don't know how much sweat I wiped off my brow when I found out that Sam Riegal had recovered from it.

//I don't like talking about heavy shit outside the plot of the blog, but cancer is a merciless force that only causes pain and takes away any form of joy. It destroys the spirit as well as the physical, leaving victims and their loved ones feeling hopeless, irate, and devastated.

//The emotional toll can be much more severe than the physical, depriving people of time, shattering hopes, and instilling a persistent sense of fear and uncertainty.

//One of the most difficult things to go through is witnessing someone else suffer and feeling unable to stop it. Every moment seems like it has been taken, and any chance for calm or normalcy is threatened by the cancerous shadow.

//I have lost many people I love in the past few years, not necessarily from cancer, but from similar diseases that destroyed them. My nan's lungs slowly collapsed, and she was in hospital often, until she finally lost her fight one day, and left this world.

//I don't wish this pain on anybody. Not even people I utterly despise. The pain of losing those you love is so unimaginable, especially when it seems to only happen to the people in this world who are loved.

//It's like the world's way of telling us that being a good person means nothing, and I hate that idea.

//But it's also not true. We need to be good people, because goddammit, that's the only thing saving this race of people from total collapse. I just wish we stopped losing them to soon.

//Rest in Peace, Rachel Lillis. And thank you for giving so many people a wonderful childhood. May you find comfort in the skies you were always blasting off into.

-Mod

[blackjackkent]

As I have done for the last two major patch drops, here's a collection of things that stood out for me in the Patch 7 patch notes! :D

There's quite a lot of them - and this isn't even close to the whole list of changes, so definitely check out the full patch notes here if you're interested.

-----

First of all, the things I'm actively excited about:

Introducing 'Evil Endings': Brand new cinematic endings for the truly villainous playthroughs. (Exciting! I've started pondering what my next BG3 liveblog will be - though I might switch to another game for a while first after Rakha is done - and I am starting to lean towards reworking Alexis, my bard, into an evil-run Minthara-mancer. So... intrigued to see more of this in the future!)

Added our very own Mod Manager, which lets you browse, install, and use mods created by the community. (I don't know details about the existing modding process but the new system seems like it'll be pretty intuitive so - hype!)

You can now start Custom Mode games using Honour Mode mechanics when starting a new playthrough. You'll be able to do this via the 'Ruleset' dropdown. (Neat! I may do this as well on my next liveblog playthrough - not the difficulty changes but just forcing me to stick to my choices with one save.)

The kuo-toa that promised to build you an army will now support you in the final battle. Unless they all died in Act I. (Amazing. I'm unironically in love with this addition.)

The help that the Gondians promised for the final battle will now arrive in the form of a friendly Steel Watcher. Apologies from Zanner Toobin for the delay.

Added a dialogue option asking for a kiss in more paths of Wyll's epilogue dialogue.

A bug that had been preventing Wyll’s romance greeting from triggering has now been fixed, so players in Act III who have a stable, loving, and committed relationship with Wyll will now see his romance greeting triggering correctly.

In Act II, Minthara will now react to you having knocked her out in Act I.

Made the romance scene at night with Wyll in Act III unskippable if it triggers to avoid accidentally skipping it and not being able to finish the romance arc.

To improve her chances of survival, Hope now has a new passive called Last Hope that grants her Death Ward for free when she enters combat.

Fixed a bug causing Dark Urge characters to get renamed after using the Magic Mirror. (This threw me for such a loop when I accidentally did it with Rakha.)

When playing as the Dark Urge, if you invite her, Alfira will now actually join your party as a controllable character if there's room for her in your party setup. Temporarily, of course.

Fixed several issues with the portrait that Oskar gives you. Principally, the image on the portrait will now be that of the active character claiming the reward, regardless of their position on the Party Line. (THANK THE GODS. I'm still not over having so many feels about Hector commissioning a portrait of Karlach to have after she was gone, and Oskar cheerfully handing him a painting of Jaheira to look at instead. XD )

Karlach will now tell you her backstory if you reach the point of no return in the Shadow-Cursed Lands even if you didn't confront the paladins of Tyr.

You can now return Mol's eyepatch to her when you find her in the Guildhall.

Fixed the Monastic Robes stretching into a violent-looking point when you wake up on the beach after falling from the nautiloid. (Thank god - this happened all the time with Hector and it drove me crazy. Hopefully this means it's been fixed in other parts of the game too.)

-----

And then the changes and bug fixes that made me laugh:

If Dror Ragzlin finds himself inside the spider pit [in honor mode], he'll try his best to befriend the spiders residing there with a new spell called Arachnid Compulsion so they can band together to fight the real enemy - you.

Malus Thorm has a new Legendary Action called Grasping Appendage. ( Oh dear. 😬 )

We noticed some of you hiccoughing bubbles, so the action for washing yourself with soap and sponges is now called 'Use' instead of 'Consume'.

You can no longer cheese the Leap of Faith trial at the Gauntlet of Shar by just clicking the final platform and letting your character pathfind their way there. Shar threatened to smite us if we didn't fix this one.

Fixed Minthara's body sometimes turning invisible on the Level Up screen. (We sorta liked the floating-head-and-hands look, but hey.) (Eyyyy, I ran into this in Rakha's run and it made me laugh a lot. XD )

Added a new idle animation for Minsc at camp - Boo may or may not have taught him some tai chi.

Karlach will no longer brush the shaved side of her head.

If you're in holographic form in the epilogue, Wyll won't automatically assume he's talking to Lae'zel.

Companions should now be more sympathetic to Astarion fleeing from the sun.

Fixed several issues (related to resurrecting characters via Withers, restructuring the party at night, and automatic camp night scenes) that would trap you in an eternal slumber, unable to end a Long Rest.

Fixed several occurrences of Wyll still having an exclamation mark above his head when he already told you everything he had to say. 

Minthara does, in fact, now have something to say about Orin after you kill her.

Fixed the fade-to-black after Karlach's scene in Avernus at the end of the game, which would give you a very brief glimpse of Game Developer Land.

Fixed some issues with Long Rest: Loading a save made during a Long Rest could cause a crash and you could sometimes get stuck in a Long Rest forever and ever, amen.

Fixed a blocker related to Orin's dagger, which will now respawn near the altar if you hurled her into a chasm and a cultist picked it up before you did. (Because it's bound to her, it would zip back to her corpse in the chasm, lost forevermore.)

Monks' Clench of the North Wind spell now targets up to 2 characters at Level 9. They just have to clench a little harder.

Priestess Gut will no longer hit herself with her own conditions. Silly gob-gob.

We've suggested to Yurgir that when he's invisible he should take advantage of it and actually try to move around a little so that he's harder to find.

Fixed some technical names showing up for each of Ansur's limbs. Naming them all 'Ansur' was the ansur.

Raphael can no longer steal souls from creatures that narratively don't have souls, such as Undead and Constructs.

Kled doesn't have Dror Ragzlin's Legendary Actions anymore. Dror's not one for sharing.

Fixed how the Chest of the Mundane handles item stacks higher than its maximum. (It should no longer gobble up your enormous coin stack and spit back a measly 21 cups in return.)

Prevented summons and followers like Glut from being able to consume Noblestalk. Yes, your Mage Hand probably ate it. No, we don't know where its mouth is.

When Withers resurrects an avatar, the Dream Guardian will no longer immediately prompt another nearby avatar to loot them for a tadpole. Similarly, dead, dismissed avatars will no longer trigger this same prompt. Some decorum, please.

When multiple characters in the party discover a trap or hidden item, only one will comment on it. We figured you don't need four people telling you to watch out for the same trap at the same time.

You can now swap out party members by speaking to the companion you want to replace even if the one you want to replace them with is Wild-Shaped. What your companion will think of you replacing them with a sheep is another story.

Fixed multiple spots where Perception checks were being made through solid objects.

Elminster should no longer react to crimes that don't affect him. (We distracted him with some Stilton.)

Fixed an issue on multiplayer where Gale would briefly appear to be in his undies for the client if the host has the Donate UI open and Gale is wearing magical robes that he can consume.

Fixed a bug that would let you waltz your way through destructible walls without actually destroying them. (You could attempt to attack the wall and your character would pathfind right through it in search of a comfortable spot from which to take a swing.)

Bald characters with the Wet condition will no longer have darker scalps.

You can no longer loot the underwear of non-recruited companions when you knock them out. (Justice for Minthara's dignity! \o/ )

Fixed a split screen issue where Invisible characters would sometimes not render at all for a second player joining the game. We need them to be invisible, but not that invisible.

Fixed a bug where your party members would very quickly change out of their armour and into their cosy camp clothes when you talked to them after having left the Astral Plane. We don't really blame them for being so desperate to hit the hay.

Fixed an issue where resurrecting a mind-controlled Nightsong would cause enemies to become allied to you.

During the final battle, backup companions being called upon with ally abilities will now appear with some clothes on for the occasion.

You can no longer use the Active Search feature to bypass the booby-trapped display case in Ramazith's Tower and pick up the key inside it. Smarty-pantses.

Improved Lumbar support: Lumbar will now stand still after you paid him to hit him.

Fixed a bug where interacting with the crate full of explosive toys in Rivington could cause you to get stuck in an endless loop of crime dialogues (being interrogated and sent to prison) and/or in combat with temporarily hostile NPCs.

Fixed a bug where dropping or selling certain items looted from the Lower City graveyard could cause NPCs to react as though you'd committed the crime of moving a corpse.

Fixed Cordrane the Recent being able to raise a zombie in Sorcerous Sundries when he shouldn't be able to, like when he's dead or Silenced.

Shadowheart is now more engaged with the flora and fauna at camp. (I don't know what this means but I hope it means she plays with the owlbear and Scratch.)

A camp night scene with Shadowheart will no longer trigger if she's not in the party and, uh, also dead.

Fixed Gale's 'splosion sometimes not showing correctly, meaning you'd get a Game Over without knowing why.

Fixed your player character introducing themselves with the wrong name when talking to Mizora.

Fixed Avatar Lae'zel behaving like a companion at the end of the tutorial and telling you (or telling herself) to hurry.

Kagha will now be imbibing if she's at the tiefling party. (I didn't know Kagha could even COME to the tiefling party. O.O Is this if Halsin's dead? )

Fixed Abdirak's self-flagellation idle animation. (Game dev must be a weird job sometimes. :P )

Ward Magmar and Ward Pistle, the duergar at Grymforge, will now make a snide remark if you're playing a small race.

Shadowheart and Lae'zel will now have new equipment if it was taken during the nautiloid escape and they have travelled sufficiently far to realistically acquire it before getting recruited.

Benryn will no longer follow you to camp or leave with you through a waypoint while you're in the process of escorting him out of the burning building at Waukeen's Rest.

Fixed Korrilla being killable in the goblin camp prison after she kills Priestess Gut. This was causing her to spawn as a corpse later on in Act III.

Fixed a bug where leaving the Shadowfell could resurrect an unrecruited Shadowheart and have her turn up at your camp anyway. She just liked the cut of your jib.

Karlach's death scene no longer ends abruptly when a non-gith player chooses to leave with Lae'zel.

Fixed a bug where, if you promised Cazador to bring Astarion to him and Astarion was in your party, you could go to Astarion at camp and tell him to replace himself in your party.

Zanner Toobin will now trigger the self-destruct sequence correctly instead of suddenly forgetting he was supposed to be in a panic because of the Steel Watcher Titan.

Told Devella to be more patient and wait until the end of the dialogue before she moves on to Basilisk Gate after being saved from Dolor.

Jogged Nine-Fingers' foggy memory - she will now recognise you when you bring Jaheira to her after she asked you to.

Shadowheart no longer sometimes still thinks that Viconia is alive after having killed her. Poor thing.

Wulbren will no longer comment on Toobin's daughter being dead if Toobin is not present.

Gave Sticky Dondo more lines to yell to sell his wares in the Guildhall. (Thank fuck tbh.)

Fixed player characters and the Narrator talking over each other when interacting with Minsc's relics in his hidden chamber. (MINSC HAS A HIDDEN CHAMBER? I have some hunting to do with Rakha lmao.)

You can no longer open the barricaded doors at the Crimson Draughts apothecary from the inside. We forgot barricades are supposed to work both ways.

Yoinked Sceleritas Fel's hat back from Helsik's desk.

You should no longer potentially see the great empty void of Game Developer Land after starting the epilogue.

Added more lines for Jaheira and Minsc to exclaim during the battle with the Stone Lord.

Fixed a bug where it was possible to get stuck in a dialogue with the Emperor about killing Gortash if you clicked on Gortash's corpse with Karlach (which starts a dialogue, after which she leaves the party and goes to camp) while, with another character, you also clicked on Gortash's body and sent his gauntlet to Karlach via the context menu right before her dialogue ended and she left the party. Yep. You can read it again if you want.

If you fail a pickpocket attempt at High Hall, your allies will no longer become hostile towards you. We reminded them that the fate of the world lies in the balance and that you play a pretty big part in it, thief or not.

Fixed Gortash's title potentially reverting back to 'Archduke Nominee' when reloading a savegame after the ceremony.

Wyll will no longer talk about hunting down Mizora when she's, like, right there.

The 'Embrace Your Potential' quest will now close if you choose to squelch the Astral-Touched Tadpole beneath your toes like a sentient little grape.

Jaheira's journal could at times say she had something to talk to you about, but then she wouldn't discuss it. She's a bit less tight-lipped now, so you know what to do in the city.

Someone pulled the ol' switcheroo on the Eldritch Knight and Battle Master subclass icons. We've switchereed them back.

Fixed a bug where examining a character and then examining an item would merge both character and item into a monstrous model in a single Examine window. The character would also be T-posing and naked.

Removed the turrets from the ground floor of Wyrm's Crossing since they weren't supposed to be there in the first place and never worked.

Fixed an unreachable fruit porridge in Wyrm's Rock. Makes you wonder how it got there in the first place.

Moved an unreachable book ('On the Greater Healing Potion') at Last Light. (Unironically this has driven me crazy on every playthrough.)

If Minthara's camp trousers get blood on them, the spatters will now be spread across them more tastefully rather than concentrated between the legs. (Holy shit.)

Kerz, the half-orc hireling, was wearing clothes that didn't fit properly. We found a tailor and everything's looking spiffy now.

Fixed some particularly intense and alarming-looking smoke coming out of the chimney at the Rivington General.

Gave a skirt to the chicken lady who mentions a skirt.

Companions in Wild Shape at camp will no longer perform their idle animations as though they are still humanoid.

Companions in Wild Shape at camp will no longer perform their idle animations as though they are still humanoid.

Fixed the animation for the Crawling Claw's footsteps. (Fingersteps?)

Fixed Brynna's clothes clipping through her arm and revealing her armpit. She informed us she was not, in fact, begging for a tickle.

Fixed the Graceful Cloth and Mighty Cloth looking like crop tops on male halflings.

The magicians outside of Sorcerous Sundries were yelling and casting spells so loudly that it was hard to hear your companions over them if you spoke to them nearby. We've toned this down and cleaned up the mix.

Added death vocals ('uurghghhh's) for dragonborn and half-orc NPCs.

Fixed the name of a decorative pot in the Colony, which was lying about being a cookpot.

Tweaked the spikes on the artefact in the dialogue where it passes from Shadowheart over to you so it doesn't look like it's impaling you.

Fixed your hand clipping into your face while smearing poo on it.

Told Wyll he doesn't need to hold his sword threateningly close to the chest of small races during his recruitment dialogue.

Fixed Mizora's body popping when she comes to pay Wyll a visit at camp. Save the popping and locking for the club.

Fixed Volo's hand clipping into your head while he performs his highly professional and sanitary surgical intervention.

Fixed the Dream Guardian's leg getting all jittery when they kneel down to let you stab them. The facade of stoicism breaks a little when you can see their legs turn to jelly.

Fixed a bug where biting off Crusher's toe and then defeating him in a fist fight would result in a cinematic where the toe was still present. An embarrassing inconsistency in an otherwise realistic chain of events. (I noticed this on Rakha's run and was judging you so hard, Larian. XD )

Fixed Shadowheart sometimes turning her head concerningly far over her shoulder during her recruitment dialogue at the Emerald Grove.

Fixed minor pops when playing as Avatar Shadowheart if the artefact explodes and kills Lae'zel. (This can happen???)

Fixed your character snapping their body backwards and wibbly-wobbling around as though trying to pass beneath a cursed limbo stick in the cutscene where Kar'niss approaches you in the Shadow-Cursed Lands.

Fixed the chalice that you hold when talking to Jaheira at Last Light vibrating suspiciously after you set it down on the table.

Fixed a Reconstituted Duellist's line getting cut off prematurely. He really, really wanted you to hear him finish saying 'come to my inner chambers'.

Dark Urge characters who have not cured themselves of Bhaal's influence or who have embraced Bhaal at the end of the game will no longer appear in Karlach's final scene as though they didn't just stalk off on a mad hunt for blood.

During Gortash's inauguration, Ravengard's head, sword, and legs will no longer leave his body suspended in the air behind him when he walks down the steps. (😱 )

Fixed a cinematic bug where the submersible would approach the Iron Throne and, the moment it arrived, would nope out and appear to reverse back to the surface.

[zee-rambles]

Just wanted to let you know that I admire you providing resources for people to try and save rise still. I also feel like I'm alone at times in putting forth efforts despite everything. :) I often reference your post to spread the word, and every monday on a server I mod is now a SaveRiseMonday, with two things people can do to save Rise. Keep it up, I also won't lose hope!

Thank you!

It’s good to hear that I’m inspiring people. All I know is that I’m so tired of good shows getting cancelled, studios and artists taking risks and not getting rewarded while cash grabs with no passion (like live action Disney remakes) get tons of support. When Dark Crystal: AOR got cancelled, I didn’t try to fight for it. But comparing the two experiences, I know that Rise has more of a fighting chance!

This keeps happening to me. Where I find something I love and it is cancelled, obscure, no ones knows about it, I’m the only one supporting the artist, or (something I find incredibly childish) people judge you for liking it and don’t give it a chance.

Thank you so much for doing your part. Results only matter if we have enough fans, enough people spreading the word. One person cannot do things alone. Humans were meant to support and love each other to get things done (another reason I love Rise so much).

More then anything, I want Rise to come back as it was originally intended. A passion project with the OG cast, director, crew (make sure to always ask for that!). I do have some fears about it being different, and there are a few things I hope will never happen (like introducing shipping in the show. I’ve seen too many shows be ruined by botched romantic subplots and I hope that never happens to Rise), but I keep thinking about what we could have had and all the content that was robbed from us.

Even if Rise doesn’t come back…if you are an artist, support shows that take risks, support animation, shows that try to reinvent things. Don’t gatekeep or lambast something before you try it. Shows that don’t have toxic masculinity. Shows that don’t have romance. Shows that aren’t afraid to have well written, interesting women, and shows where men are allowed to be vulnerable and human. Art is how we grow, how we express ourselves, always try to make something that would inspire people, because lord knows we all need it.

Save Rise of the TMNT

Don’t give up! I believe in all of you! And special thanks to everyone participating in Rise April. Go and support their art @rise-april-art-challenge! Always make sure to support artists that are brave enough to put their work out there. Even if they’re not perfect! We all had to start somewhere.

[r0chrok-blog]

Who is the toxic one?

I was so excited to play BG3. I didn't bother with early access cause I wanted to play it all at release. I downloaded mods for the game the moment the game finished downloading cause I prefer playing RPGs with mods. My main goal was to create a beautiful as hell pretty boy to romance that hot as bloody hell vampire Astarion. I wanted to create a character that would knock his socks off in the beauty department. Astarion was worth it.

Behold! My Durge, such a pretty boy, you wouldn't think he'd need to bang corpses.

I roleplay my Durge as morally grey, leaning on black. He's a dark guy, charismatic, a Shadow Sorcerer (mods) and a Bard. I spent all of Act 1 crafting what type of person he is, why he is making the choices he is making and for the most part, Larian has done a great job of providing the dialogue options and choices for me to do that. Whether I saved the Grove, Raided it, or left them all to rot, I at least felt like I was able to come up with reasons why my Durge would do it. Now I admit, that I created my boy to romance Astarion, but I had no idea what type of character Astarion was and I'm the type to get heavy into roleplaying my character so if the romance didn't happen, then it didn't happen. I'm not going to pick dialogue options just to please a companion nor would I use mods to fake a connection that isn't there, at least not on a serious playthrough.

Lucky for me, Astarion was all over my dark morally grey edgelord. They really did have a connection and I found that my Durge actually fell in love with Astarion to the point of wanting no one else but him.

Even if he felt that Astarion was only using him, picked up on that during the third sex scene (that was just a replay of the first sex scene and picked the cuddle option). Even if Astarion didn't feel the same, my Durge was trading his blood for the shred of intimacy that came with the act. I guess you could say he was prostituting his blood for intimacy. Even false intimacy.

So imagine my surprise when Astarion confesses that he was doing the same, but for protection.

I saw them as two lost souls who always dreamed of finding someone like the other and now that they did, they don't know what to do. They're both learning how to love and they're both terrified of losing the other.

Once again, Larian did a great job of giving me choices here. I didn't want to roleplay as Dr. Phil, knowing all the answers and what's healthy and right. My Durge was not a healthy person. He would question Astarion's attraction to him, and he certainly wouldn't tell Astarion that they shouldn't have sex. This leads to Astarion telling him that he could be so much more. This is something my Durge can believe in. After all, it was always Astarion who seemed to have great insight into my character, he's the one who notices Durge not feeling well, and the one who treated him with kindness after the Bard incident. My Durge also thanks Auntie Ethel for the same thing and its the reason he doesn't bother her when she can't help them with the tadpole.

Durge was ready to accept this new type of relationship with Astarion, something deeper and more meaningful. My Druge is a sexual guy, but sex meant nothing if it wasn't with the man he loved. Cuddling in the tent, talking for all hours of the night, these are the things I pictured my Durge and Astarion doing. Now sharing his blood wasn't for false intimacy, but true, real intimacy between him and his lover.

Astarion gives him the courage to fight to the death against Bhaal. My Durge wanted to live more than anything, and honestly would have just chosen to kneel and serve Bhaal had it not been for Astarion's passionate plea for him to not become Bhaal's mindless puppet.

My Durge wouldn't have been able to face Astarion unless he had a total Victory. So death it was.

When he was brought back, he knew he wasn't suddenly going to be a good little boy. He wasn't redeemed, merely given a second chance to live again, for himself, free of any other influence but his own. Once again, Kudos to Larian for giving me the options to roleplay this out.

Now we come to the infamous Ascension mission. Naturally, my Durge thinks ascension is for the best. He loves Astarion, wants to see him rise above Cazador, take his power for himself, walk proudly in the sun. Those spawn were dead already, they couldn't be released, killing them would be a waste and their souls would just wander the Fugue plains or wherever the faithless go. What did it matter if they were sent to the Hells? My Durge worried about Astarion's mental fortitude when confronted with the past, but once Astarion made it clear that ascension was what he wanted, then my Durge went into goblin mode to give him just that. Ascension meant ultimate freedom, security, and safety for the man he loved.

So far, Larian did a great job here and Astarion's speech after Ascension was breathtaking! Kudos to Neil.

"You hold your breath while I speak..."

I actually was! IRL

Anyway, Everything was fine...well, Act 3 as a whole was leaving much to be desired, but other than that it was fine.

Then comes the long rest and the Astarion conversation.

I take a look at my options and see that everything is most certainly NOT fine.

For some reason, Larian decided to ASSUME DIRECT CONTROL over my Durge and assign motives to him that were not there before. I either ascended Astarion for Vampirism and Sex or I'm a massive fucking bitchass moralizing Karen who suddenly needs Astarion to "Learn a lesson" *Finger Wag*

Everyone keeps saying how Astarion becomes toxic after ascension, but I completely disagree, It's Durge/Tav who becomes the toxic party here. Sure Astarion falls back on Act 1 antics but that doesn't at all compare to the toxicity Durge can bring to the table.

He proves to Astarion that he was just a selfish fuck who wants only pieces of his body, either the blood or the penis.

He's a self righteous gaslighter who dumps the ritual all on Astarion's head.

This time, I have no way to roleplay this garbage, Larian does a total 180 on me, this is NOT the Durge I've spent hundreds of hours crafting, this is now Larian's Durge and now they are going to give him motivations and behaviors, to hell with your roleplay!

Honestly, if Larian was going to take over my character's personality like this, then why couldn't they just give me a voiced protagonist. Cause isn't this type of crap supposed to be what silent protagonists are meant to prevent? It's supposed to give you plenty of options without costing the studio and arm and leg in voice recordings. There are several dialogue options they could have written that all led back to the recorded audio.

"I want to be yours forever."

"I just want you to be safe."

"You gave me the courage to fight and I'm glad I gave you the courage to the do the same."

And let's say you get past the first gauntlet of crap dialogue choices, you're given more if you opt to say yes to becoming a vampire.

Reading his thoughts without his consent.

Then verbally and even physically attacking him.

And over what? His THOUGHTS! Not even words he says to you, but thoughts in his own private head that you choose to pry into.

And what do you get, that he thinks you're better than him. Apparently, that's an insult to people. It's clear that he has low self-esteem issues and the response to confirming those issues is to kick his balls, berate him, compare him to his abuser (With not a ounce of proof), tell him he'll be lonely without you...

Which btw is just abusive insane behavior. It's like telling your ex that if you don't want them then no one else will. Mind you, Durge knows Astarion has issues with thinking he isn't worth anyone loving, so you pretty much play on those fears. When I saw that dialogue option I couldn't help but think of Raphael's line at the start of act 3 if you say he wants your soul in exchange for the hammer.

"My My, you do think highly of yourself."

Granted, I'm complaining about dialogue options I didn't take cause I just started ranting here. But my point, is, which one of them is truly the toxic abusive partner here? Considering that ascended Astarion is punished for dialogue he doesn't say in everyone's playthrough, romances that the player isn't even experiencing.

Like someone telling me that ascended Astarion is abusive because of his romance with Karlach.

You mean this Karlach?

I'm sure that all things considered, she would prefer abusive Astarion to my Durge.

TL;DR Seriously, I didn't think I would write this much. If we're going to judge a character based on dialogue options, whether we take them or experience them or not. The clear winner of the abusive partner awards go to Durge or Tav without a doubt. The sheer amount of shit you can say to Ascended Astarion without him tearing your freaking head off is just crazy. That alone is testament to how much he loves Durge.

So far, I've had multiple playthroughs of this game (some of which I added to my retelling above cause it makes up my overall canon roleplay for my Durge), all romancing Astarion cause I can't stop and yeah I always ascend him. I just have to say, bad form on Larian's part. IMO, I don't need dialogue options to break up with Astarion as a mortal if I speedrun to the end, I need them to write in more varied options post ascension after the first long rest. Don't decide what my character's motives are, don't hijack my freaking character! Fix that Larian!

**I do not hate the devs, they did a great job on this game, I just think that taking over a person's character after 100s of hours of crafting who they are is a mistake. This is a fantasy game, I don't need a lecturing, I do not want to roleplay as a Karen, sex addled freak or user of my romantic partner (against my will). I'm not saying those other options shouldn't exist, but just that it wouldn't hurt to add in one or two more options that aren't hostile, or a user.

[twistmusings]

Happy holidays Mod Azul!! :) May I request Octavinelle and what they do after a fight with their s/o? Thank you and I hope ur having a wonderful break!

How does Octavinelle handle a fight with their s/o?

Note: I kind of also get into how they fight in general. Darker and less chipper than my normal writing so please proceed carefully!

CW: Angst, this operates on the assumption that it was a pretty serious fight, mentions of bad mental health and poor coping (Floyd), mentions of physical abuse (no abuse actually occurs, Floyd just scares himself with the thought in Floyd and Jade's parts), Jade Leech is toxic and manipulative (he ends up in every one of these warnings, no one is surprised), mentions of a breakup (but unconfirmed if it happens or not), they ALL suck at communicating.

Azul Ashengrotto

Azul is incredibly shaken up, but unlike when he was a child, he manages to hold himself together much better than he used to.

Azul is definitely the first one to walk away from the argument-- not everything he used to do is gone. He still has the tendency to go and hide even if it's in a less literal sense. He needs the time to lick his wounds and the the distance to think clearly.

The moment he is alone and he's fully confident that he won't be bothered, he absolutely breaks down. He ugly cries and wallows for at least ten to fifteen minutes, and then once that's out of his system he can actually start thinking about things clearly.

Azul, being the kind of person he is, always chooses his words exceedingly carefully. He has trained himself not to say things that someone can leverage against him. Regardless of the fact that it was an argument, he's doesn't say things he regrets. That means, unfortunately, any painful things that come out during said argument are his whole, honest thoughts.

He needs to be away from the situation to plan. Azul never approaches a situation with anything but utmost caution and consideration. He has probably thought through thousands of scenarios about how to approach them about the argument before he actually does it.

It can make him seem a little cold, honestly, because from their perspective, it must seem like he's very unaffected. That couldn't be further from the case, though, when he steps back he's trying to find a solution or compromise that will be considerate for both of them. That being said, it's not something he discusses with them before he proposes it, so it all depends on the partner whether that escalates their fight or not.

Floyd Leech

Floyd's emotions escalate quickly. The moment they start arguing, his filter drops entirely. He definitely falls a bit into the trap of tossing barbs he knows are low blows, and will regret it later.

Floyd would never do anything to hurt them, but at the same time, he's incredibly afraid that somewhere in him there's the capacity for it. He creates physical distance from them and does not want to be in touching-distance because he scares himself. If his emotions are a mystery to everyone else, they're about a thousand times more confusing to him and the thought that he can't predict himself is something that he worries about. Truthfully, Floyd doesn't give himself enough credit in this regard: he wouldn't ever hurt them intentionally, he doesn't have the capacity to hurt someone he cares about that much.

Floyd himself would admit to being a coward-- the moment he sees an opening to escape the conversation he's leaping at it, even if it ends up making things worse.

He spends the next several hours to several days sulking, just depending on the severity of the fight. He tends to just... avoid, rather than to confront his partner, so the chances of him coming to seek a resolution on his own are nearly zero. If anyone is going to intervene, it's either going to be his partner, his brother, or Azul on his behalf.

Self loathing. A lot of self loathing. He has a certain baseline for kinda hating himself normally, and it sometimes fluctuates one way or the other. After an argument, though? It's off the charts. He upsets himself with some of the things he knows he said to them which makes his mood worse which makes him continue to beat himself up. It's a self-sustaining cycle.

Jade Leech

Jade is probably the worst of the three. Arguing with Jade is pretty rare because he's usually pretty amicable and agreeable so long as things are going in a way that he can see being entertaining and beneficial to him. The moment that switch is flipped, though, Jade is outright brutal.

Where to begin, honestly. He's a nightmare. The moment the tension with his partner snaps and they start arguing with him, they've just secured a ticket to one hell of a guilt trip. Jade loves them, but with the way he knows how precisely which buttons to press to escalate the argument you wouldn't guess it.

Jade knows they aren't stupid, so while he says a lot, he leaves plenty unsaid that they can fill in the gaps of, and when they do it will more than likely make them feel terrible.

Where Azul and Floyd know when to back down, Jade does not. He will stick out the argument until one of two things happen: his partner walks out or he is asked/told to leave. And if they ask him to leave, he's going to make them feel terrible for it. He won't tell them where he's going or even text them after the fact-- it will be entirely up to them to find him first.

Jade really doesn't suffer with sitting in uncomfortable feelings the way that Azul and Floyd do. Sure, he loves them and it sucks to argue, but he's not nearly as uncomfortable in that tense environment as they are. It happened, what's done is done, and now he has to deal with the consequences of his actions. It is what it is, and if that means that his partner breaks things off with him, he understands that's perfectly within their right. He truly wouldn't blame them.

An area where Jade and Floyd are sort of similar and sort of different in one area: they both avoid fights with their partners because they are afraid of hurting them. The big difference is, though, that while Floyd is afraid of hurting them physically, he would never actually be capable of doing it. Jade isn't afraid of hurting them physically, but is deeply aware he can and has hurt them emotionally because it was (at least partially) intentional. It's not a trait he's proud of and he will try to work on it in time, but that's not going to make the actions he does before any more excusable.

Jade kind of traps himself. After the dust has settled and he realizes what he's done, by that point he's pretty certain that he should give them the space they need to parse their emotions and figure out their feelings toward him. However, since he doesn't know how long that will take and he doesn't want to backslide and escalate the argument further accidentally by stepping in too soon, he ends up just waiting for them to come to him first. He also would need his partner, his brother, or Azul to intervene before he would address the situation.

[riddlerosehearts]

this time in my baldur's gate 3 playthrough, i finish wyll's personal quest and have a lot of thoughts about him! which mainly boil down to: larian did him very dirty, and i'm sad about it because i wanted to be able to love his story more. i try to be concious of the way that fandom as a whole is very biased against black characters, and as a lover of fairytales and disney movies i think the fact that wyll is just genuinely good and kind the whole time and is basically like if a disney prince became a warlock is cool! i think that's an awesome concept and larian could've done so much more with him, because i don't believe that characters need to be edgy and morally gray to be interesting and complex! but i feel like the writers themselves were biased against wyll because his story is so lacking in polish and so underwhelming adkjsfghf. i'll just have to choose to seek out fanworks that expand on the potential he had. anyway. rest of my thoughts are below the cut as usual.

the iron throne mission was very nervewracking lol but in a fun way!! it took me multiple tries to get my strategy figured out, and i ended up bringing several elemental summons to help do the fighting and misty step/dimension door scrolls to help everyone get around. thank god omeluum had a spell that could teleport gale out of there, because i was worried he wasn't going to make it and i'd have to try again when i was so close to finally saving all the prisoners. and i did save them all, though again it was a close call with some of them! i just wish i would've been also able to read the notes and such that i saw around.

got jumpscared by the waveservants coming to attack us for siding with redhammer, and then uhhh, redhammer died during the battle and now i feel bad :( i mean, i tried to keep him alive but he did not exactly make it easier by running directly toward the enemies and trying to fight them!

oh well. i'll have to try harder to keep him safe on another playthrough. i think it's a huge shame that you only get that sexy robe if you side with the waveservants though... i need to mod it into my game later. for science.

DAMN DOES ULDER REALLY HAVE TO BE SO MEAN TO WYLL... i mean, okay, i guess i can understand that he didn't have any idea what really happened between wyll and mizora, but i wish he could've had a bit more faith in his son instead of calling him a monster. ugh i just feel so bad for wyll, but i really am glad they finally got a chance to patch things up.

next, i went to the steel watch foundry and had gale take the lead in sneaking our way through the gates with magic... except we got caught by the steel watcher and wyll--who for some reason became the controlled character there even though i definitely had gale selected to cast fog cloud and knock?--lied to it and convinced it that it let us in. after that i got extremely annoyed by the combat lol. the fight on the main floor was really easy, but the one in the basement? i hope you didn't need to save all the gondians, because i tried so many times and ended up just giving up... in the end, only two of them (aside from zanner toobin) had the brain cells to stay up above instead of suicidally misty stepping into the face of every enemy, so those were the only two who survived. why does the AI keep being like this lmao??

there are a lot of hints about what the iron throne even is and how to get there scattered around the foundry, so i'm guessing the story does expect you to come here first! it's fun to explore this area and try to find all the lore tidbits they've scattered around. the steel watchers being controlled by tadpole-infected brains was a total surprise to me and so was being able to actually try and control them yourself. i tried to save the innocent people the watchers were attacking, but my poor low WIS tav just couldn't do it :( i also found... bernard's head?? for some reason, it says "extract", but when i click on that it doesn't do anything. that's really interesting, though--i wish we were able to learn more about lenore.

wulbren is literally such a jackass and does not deserve barcus. i want to yeet him into the ocean. i'm so proud of barcus for standing up for himself, taking over as lead of the ironhands, and telling wulbren to fuck off!!

OH YEAH I FINALLY REMEMBERED to look up a video of the glitched convo about gale's last name. being able to tell him you like gale dekarios better than gale of waterdeep, and the way he responds to that, is soooo rapunzel and eugene coded i'm 🥺🥺🥺 i want to see people make tangled AUs with gale and their tavs now.

i think elenion is reeeeeally skeptical of this whole "staking the future of baldur's gate on a legendary tale" thing and does not believe ansur actually exists, but i suppose he'll seen crazier shit by now so he'll just go with it!

the trials were fun to figure out, and i liked that wyll and gale both had comments on some of them!! wyll offers his help with the trial of justice and comments that he has little experience with lanceboard, and gale gets all excited when you walk up to the lanceboard trial ajksdghdfkjgss he's so cute. he also literally just tells you exactly what to do on that one. thank you gale i love you 💜💜

I GENUINELY WAS NOT WHAT HAPPENED WITH ANSUR THOUGH WHAT!!! i was expecting wyll to get to befriend a dragon and have him as a helper in the final battle but i've gotta admit that was an interesting twist and a fun battle. i'm unsurprised that the emperor is balduran, though, mostly because i've already seen people talk about it, but also they kind of... pretty much say it in the song of balduran?? or at least they heavily hint at it, by including the line "transformed, he fell their thrall". what i am surprised at is ansur x balduran toxic yaoi lmao whaaaat 😭 there's a letter on ansur's body that says "even if i'm not beside you, i will always have been your balduran"... can't believe i'm sad about them now.

augh, the choice of whether or not to encourage wyll to become the grand duke made me feel so torn tbh because like... first of all, i already knew about the blade of avernus ending, and that it's (from what i've heard at least) positioned as his good ending while becoming the duke is positioned as his bad ending akin to everyone else's ascensions, and i know karlach will die if wyll doesn't go to avernus with her. but my character doesn't know any of that! and i genuinely think joining his father to help rebuild the city rather than running around as a vigilante in the hells sounds like a good ending for wyll, as a way for him to do a lot of overall good for others and resolve his issues with his dad by working alongside him? i also think it's what elenion would tell him to do, if only the dialogue options for it weren't all like "think of the power you'll yield!" because they would not fucking say that unless they meant "the power you'll be able to yield to help the people of baldur's gate". man. idk. at least this time, unlike when it came to what to do with his pact, there's an option to trust wyll to make his own choice. so... i chose that. he chose on his own to become the blade of avernus. guess that's that, then.

i'm also just. really underwhelmed by wyll's personal quest in general though ugh 😭 listen i have had wyll in my party for the entire fucking game. his introduction was just so cool that i was instantly drawn to him and never let him leave my party and in my head i roleplayed him and elenion becoming best friends. i love him but his story is just really missing something... the conclusions to shadowheart and astarion's personal quests were so cathartic and made me really emotional but wyll's just Didn't. and i feel like they could've and should've done so much more with it, i mean, he's the son of the grand duke of baldur's gate!!! the game i am playing is called baldur's gate 3!!! i also think it's really weird that he's so torn up about ansur, but not about fucking balduran?? wyll, did you not notice that your hero is the evil mindflayer that lied to all of us and has been causing us trouble for the entire game?? hello?? it just felt like this entire final part of his quest was more about developing the emperor's character than about him. sigh.

i think the ansur stuff could've felt a bit more like it was about wyll if, like, he could ask to be the one to do the trials like how shadowheart can ask you to let her offer her blood at the gauntlet of shar and you get approval from letting her, because then the trials of ansur get to be about him proving his own worthiness as a hero and leader... and if maybe he was automatically selected for the conversation with ansur instead of letting your character do that, and if he had significantly more dialogue and reactivity to all of it.

anyway. going to end this post here, and then it's time to go fuck up gortash and head into the final battle and the epilogue!

[thedragonagelesbian]

I just realized the durge number I did has already been done!! What about 13 instead 😶‍🌫️

<33333333333 (durge asks here!)

13. How does your Dark Urge feel about killing?

Ohhhhhh this is a good one I was hoping someone would ask

It feels bad.

I mean, it feels good, but it feels bad that it feels good. The game is pretty unequivocal about that: the only time durge doesn't feel like a diseased dying dog is when they're killing, which is euphoric by comparison. Cyrus tries to take as little pleasure in it as possible--I think his rage actually helps in that regard, numbing the mental effects of battle as much as the physical ones--but he also knows it's necessary sometimes, and he even finds himself reveling in it if he thinks the target deserves it. Of course, necessity & righteousness do little to ease the guilt that he might be indulging an appetite best left unsated.

Cyrus also has the Amulet of Lost Voices equipped and has a habit of talking to as many people killed by the party as possible. Just to know a little bit about them, their name at the very least. Just to remember, because there are so many other deaths he's forgotten.

ALSO THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME GUSH BECAUSE I LOVE D&D BUILDS I AM SUCH A MECHANICS NERD AND I ADORE EVERYTHING DURGE!CYRUS HAS GOING ON MECHANICALLY & NARRATIVELY

These are his current stats, plus AC 15 & 51 max HP (though he's basically never at max asodijfaf)

(Side note: I edited the Blood Hunter mod to use wisdom instead of intelligence for his class abilities, but I couldn't find where to change the saving throws...)

His build is built around catering to Whisper of the Divine's homebrew aasimar subrace: harbinger. Per the mod description, harbinger aasimar are all about sacrifice, bearing the weight of the world on their shoulders, portending doom... you know, classic Cyrus Hawke stuff, but also very appropriate for the Dark Urge as the harbinger of their father's plan to, you know, kill every living thing.

The subrace's two abilities reflect this accordingly: Mark of the Harbinger (triggers at half health to increase damage but you take half that damage in return, with a substantial auto heal when the effect ends) and Penance of the Sin Eater (bonus action to bamph out wings; nearby enemies have to save or take damage each turn & you deal extra damage to them but also take that damage).

The idea for Cyrus' build, then, is to (a) trigger Mark of the Harbinger as often as possible (b) while increasing his chances of surviving always hovering around/below half health.

Blood Hunter helps with the first goal, since rites and amplified blood maledicts inflict damage, and Order of the Ghost Slayer gives Cyrus an extra blood maledict. He has the Curse of Bloated Agony right now, which deals damage to an enemy for each attack they make. Extra damage to them, extra damage to Cyrus to activate it.

Barbarian helps with both. The extra HP is nice (side note 2: i miss hit dice... give me that d12 PLEASE), while unarmored defense and reckless attack make him a more viable target for enemies. I almost always wait to trigger rage until he's close to or below half health, since I want the full brunt of incoming damage to activate Mark of the Harbinger, and then it really helps to mitigate damage once he starts leaking HP left and right.

The. Less expected consequence of all of these things is that Cyrus' damage output is. Bonkers. If everything has triggered right (and it doesn't always happen; Penance, Rage, and Blood Curses all take bonus actions so it can be tricky to get everything firing when I want it to), his damage is 1d8 slashing + 1d4 radiant (rupturing blade) + 1d4 radiant/lightning (blood hunter rite) + 3 (STR mod) + 2 (dueling fighting style) + 2 (rage) + 3d4 piercing (mark of the harbinger) + 3d4 slashing (Penance of the Sin Eater) + ostensibly 1-7 turns of wrath from bloodguzzler garb. So, you know, between 17 and 52 damage each turn.

And he'll take 4d4 damage in return, but, hey, that's what he's good for, right?

[night-springs]

nellie is so gorgeous!! but also all your ocs are <3 do you have any nellie facts you’re willing to share ?

HSDKFGH THANK YOUUUU!!!! 💕💕 i put a lot of thought into each my ocs looks and aesthetic so that makes me really happy 🥺💕

and OUGH im so glad you asked because im dying to talk about nellie, lets goooo heres a list of her current iteration!!

her mother was an elf and her father was a half orc so she has lil TUSKS/FANGS

her father was a bard and taught her violin

she lived in a remote little village when she was young, which was attacked by a band of mindless undead (nellie doesnt know where they came from, she theorizes maybe someone summoned them nearby and lost control of them). the villagers tried to protect themselves but failed and perished. nellies parents barricaded her into their home, but died themselves trying to protect her

after the remaining undead moved on from the village, nellie broke out of her home to discover the carnage left behind. she didnt know what to do, where to go, or who could help her, so she meticulously dug graves and buried all of the dead, including her parents, all on her own. people showed up to investigate the village a few days later, and found her alone, playing her violin for the deceased among the graves. they took her to baldurs gate, and she wound up at the temple of kelemvor there, which became her home

shes a bard and cleric of kelemvor multiclass (i have modded items to make the build work better than it should LOL) and spent her adult life hunting undead and performing funeral rites all over the place, returning to the temple in baldurs gate in between her travels

mostly hunted mindless undead, but she once came across an isolated and recently turned vampire spawn that was being forced to hunt for her master. at her request, nellie mercy killed her, because there was no other way to escape her masters commands, but nellie never forgot about that spawn. its part of why nellie chooses to trust astarion and give him so many chances despite her experiences with undead (and advantage on insight checks), because she wants to help where she couldnt before. also she eventually falls for him, so. lol. lmfao

shes like, the least religious cleric youd ever meet. considers her devotion to kelemvor as a business arrangement, pretty much. she 100% would throw down with a god if given the opportunity (mystra and vlaakith shes looking at you)

uses her single charge of divine intervention in the fight with cazador, because shes so afraid of either failing astarion or losing him. besides, who better to call for killing an undead vampire than kelemvor?

her romance with astarion actually progresses differently in my headcanon than it does in game: nellie never sleeps with him. he pursues her to manipulate her, but she dances around his advances while still being nice and understanding to him (its infuriating for astarion LOL). in act 2, nellie almost dies to protect astarion in a battle, and that prompts the act 2 confession scene with astarion instead. im very normal about this (lying)

the streak in her hair is her going gray mainly in that spot

AND THATS ALL I CAN THINK OF RN, thank you for attending nellie posting hours and please know that i adore her

[kethsi]

omg, I’m so glad that somebody else sees what Jagex did to Zamorak too — I feel like I’m driving myself crazy getting upset about how bad the retcons are because nobody else seems notice or care! :|

Thank you for showing me I’m not the only one so I can stop gaslighting myself into thinking I’m just being unreasonably bitter… (I totally still am.)

You're absolutely not alone in your realization there. If you feel like you've noticed the whiplash that is character 'progression' in RuneScape, chances are it's absolutely there, and also good on you for keeping your eyes peeled and either doing certain quests back to back or reading dialogue transcripts from time to time. The reason most people either don't notice or don't agree with you is because the mods sitting down in the RS discord lore channels are doing a phenomenal job shrugging and going "Eeeeeh you're wrong, we totally didn't do that" or "Agree to disagree" whenever someone brings up the slightest inconsistencies instead of owning it and committing to being better at consistent writing.

I firmly believe that Jagex as a company as well as any of their lore teams never had a character sheet for any NPC in the game whatsoever. Not having a character's logical end goal written down is acceptable - growth, change and development are great things. The problems start where you can clearly tell they don't have the key traits or values that characters believe in discussed or written down anywhere. Their way of 'developing' characters is giving them 180s from one extreme to the next, while always using 'this is the only way!' as justification, whether it's Kerapac or the young god of the week. They also seem to have a weird liking for showing that their current 'fav' is good by demonizing and vilifying other characters, which is bizarre because you can be a 2/10 writer and still be more than adequate at making your favs likeable without having to go the Jagex route and bash another character to make yours look good (The complete bastardization of EVERYONE to make Saradomin look good in comparison was about as subtle as a Barrelchest in a WG's house). Zamorak specifically is such a baffling case. Going from 'the world is worse with Zaros in it, and if no one will remove him, I will', to having a borderline panic attack on his knees clutching the stone of Jas like a stabilizing support wall while the other gods were grilling him about killing Zaros (which, come on, you KNOW Saradomin totally wanted to do and would've if he could!) before nuking Forinthry partially out of the panic and confusion of being cornered like that, to winning the lower classes of Infernus their freedom because damnit they deserve to fight for their right to live, to perfecting the philosophy of wanting to fight to improve your life to this... uh... defeatist attitude? out of nowhere? Sending Khazard to steal an ancient artifact that could turn the tide of a war currently at a stalemate because we're all doomed and there's no sense trying? What? and destroying it because if he's not achieved victory over the Elder threat himself, none of us deserve to fight? Since when? Has he become Zaros's Legatus Maximus by quitting the moment things didn't go his way in combat? Obviously not. So why turn the one character with burning ambition and a will to live glowing as brightly as a newborn star into this sadsack that has to ruin it for everyone else if he can't get his way? Because you want to build Saradomin up as righteous? Because Armadyl deserves more screentime? Because you want him out of the way for when you bastardize Seren next quest before quickly coming back to grill him again? Clearly someone at Jagex ran out of ideas on who to character-assassinate next. And clearly not enough people have told that person to think it through.

Zamorak's not even the only one it happened to, y'know? Remember Kerapac? You know, Kerapac, who in OoaK is the bright, reasonable, genius scientist gritting his teeth through chronic pain to give a fighting chance to others he believe were affected by the selfishness of gods or fate, while respecting others' agency enough not to force them either way (Remember the whole 'Hey Hannibus, if you wanna sacrifice yourself for a chance and a shot in the dark, go for it, but no pressure either way' thing? I do. I remember. I remember that Kerapac before he got ripped away from us and replaced with a lunatic). Then, 2 quests down the line, he controls the needle and time itself and is an extremist who won't listen to reason whatsoever? What was it he said? 'I'm giving you a chance to say goodbye to your loved ones, be happy and take it?' something along those lines? Dude, you control time itself, you have a shadow anima device to force a non-interaction clause from the elders if you play it correctly, and the best you can give us is "It's my way or the highway and if you want any say or rights, f you", when an amicable solution that would've been preferable is "I'll rewind time for a few weeks while you evacuate everyone through the world gate so I can kill the elders in peace and you can return whenever I'm done fighting them if the planet survives" - Kerapac still gets to be reasonable, WG still gets to refuse because no other world has the biome to accommodate all species and factions on the planet, also putting them so close to eachother will just escalate old conflicts immediately and whatnot... But no. Let's make the enslaved guy battling chronic pain the monster while implying he's a monster specifically because he thinks the eldritch horrors enslaving his species deserve consequences. Why not. Oh wait. I'll tell you why not. Maybe because if you don't have anything new, helpful, or carefully nuanced to say about a heavy subject, you shouldn't touch the heavy subject.

[narcisseart]

Deora looks so pretty! How’d she get to her position as director and what’s the love story between her and Sephiroth?

Eeeeeh these are some good questions! Thanks anon!!!! This might be Long….

Director of Information Communication Technology; she was supposed to be a Turk along with her half brother, but got sick as a child, her brother then made a very serious business deal with his newly widowed boss who lost his daughter that she be taken for guardianship in return he’d be the one to continue his legacy in the Turks (in her canon story it’s only a tiny bit different) Veld then adopted her under his dead name, payed for her university degree, ( or five 👀) she then created the basis of the PHS at university ( mainly cause of Velds story of how it was a damn radio that meant kalm was bombed) this won the university grant for working at shinra in an internship under scarlet, with full funding to create the PHS. Though knowing her family, the president agreed to make her a director if she would complete the PHS for the wutai war, get a mast up in wutai and in midgar first, she would need her own department to just fox the damn things when needed. So after a year of internship under scarlet she became director. Little did the president know, she would then pretty much giveaway the designs for the masts to be free to use for all main cities ( so the PHS wasn’t just used in the war but was used as a mod con for everyone ) under her director ship, she designed the world wide network, security systems of cameras and internet security, and designed the beginning of a new system to enhance soldiers fighting potential through memories and emotions (Digital Mind Wave) but this was only stopped in human testing with a soldier recruit due to her anti shinra activity. She also released a book named ‘Technology of War’ that had anti shinra and anti war material that she hid hard enough to get past censors.

Sephiroth ; Shinra holds a gala every year to celebrate the end of year success; it’s also used for the rich invitees to put in money for certain projects and departments (if the president doesn’t give a shit to give you full funding, be nice to miss Belmont, she may give you some of her dead rich husbands money to give you full funding) Lazard and the President wanted to show off the Soldier first classes in order to show the success of the war, this was before anyone really knew what they looked like as they were around 19 at the time. Deora had just come back from university and was a +1 for veld and looking for prospects for funding for the PHS. She was overlooked by almost everyone there, Sephiroth was swamped but everyone feared him so wanted an excuse for privacy for one moment. He saw a drunk man drop his glass and spill it over her dress and saw his chance, handed her a handkerchief, took her to dry off her dress outside, they talked about how both of them grew up as orphans in shinra, he spoke of his mother, she showed interest, and she not-once was afraid of him and spoke to him like a normal person, which he’s never recognised before in the women around shinra. She noticed his eyes when he looked at her were fully dilated, like a cute excited cat, she then gave him a nick name of sour-puss cause he looked sad and grumpy. He never had a nickname before so he accepted it, they had a brief kiss before having to run back. So she wrote her address on his handkerchief, and gave it back. He then went to visit her in secret once a week, mostly would be for her to make him a big dinner, then share a glass or two of wine (then throw in some intimate time once in a while) then he headed back for curfew. Every week like clockwork. A few things happen, like when she got her scar etc but I won’t go into detail here cause I will probably draw it at some point.

[mistahgrundy]

Please help Rowan

https://www.gofundme.com/f/hp3x4-help-me-not-lose-my-home?member=17624197&sharetype=teams&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer

I know their go fund me looks fully funded but it’s not, that’s the goal that was set back in december and they haven’t updated it. They still need help.

Rowan was kicked from their house in their teens (I’m sorry I’m using they/them because I’m not entirely sure on their pronouns I think it might be he/him but I don’t want to assume) for being queer. They spent some time being homeless and then finally got out of that and went back to school to become a mortician when they got diagnosed with cancer

Since 2020 I’ve been posting in a PMF thread called Passing Time In Chemotherapy: A Diary, which has been equal parts me talking about fighting Stage Four Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and being given two months to live, and equal parts screaming about how horrible the American Healthcare System is and trying to make a case for universal healthcare. Briefly I went into remission and then my cancer returned. I also have Stage 1 breast cancer. These last two weeks I have been in the hospital with a kidney disease likely brought on by my chemotherapy treatments, and a lung disease which I need tests to rule out that it’s lung cancer. The problem is I need $4500 to continue receiving care because I am am several hundred thousands dollars in debt due to my chemotherapy. Each chemo treatment cost me $50k after insurance, which no sane person has, so the debt has built up to the point where I am being held hostage for micropayments in the thousands of dollars range in order to receive life saving treatments. I received mod approval to post a GoFundMe I set up in order to pay just for December healthcare bills. I will either lose treatment or lose my home, and I was recently homeless over a year a few years ago and would not like to repeat the experience. My wife is permanently disabled after her battle with Ovarian Cancer (and needs another $800 down payment foe a surgery but that’s ANOTHER can of worms). Basically, without goon help, I am fucked. I have zero plans for Christmas or any holidays this season because I’m too busy fighting to keep my home and my health. My GFM is nearly halfway funded as it is, and on the off chance that it gets overfunded the excess will go towards my wife’s surgery. Both my GFM page and my PMF thread show I am very transparent with where the money goes and what it’s spent on, so no worries there. You can find my GoFundMe here! I intent to post an update to it this evening to keep everyone up to date with health stuff. If you would rather donate something other than money, which I totally get, I have an Amazon wishlist here which is mostly household things we need and food for the cats. I will happily post pictures of them in the thread. They are very sweet baby who cry if a stranger comes to the apartment and doesn’t pick them up. I’ll try to stay on top of removing items from the wishlist as they get bought. I’m not very good with signing off posts, but if anyone has any questions about Lymphona or chemo or the american healthcare system (or just want to see cat photos!) please feel free to ask and I’ll answer as best I can! Thank you in advance for your generosity and kindness. Bless. Edit 12/10: It was suggested that I throw my Venmo in the OP for those who would rather donate that way! Venmo: @moringottos Paypal (please ignore my deadname it’s a nightmare to change): paypal.me/necromancermoons

This is their update today, May 25 2022:

The minimum payments for my medical bills in arrears (mostly chemo) comes out of my bank account automatically to prevent them from suing me over it. I’ve already used my one (1) free grace period of “please give me a few more days before you take my money” according to the lady on the phone, so I’m left with $0.11 in my bank account with several bills, including rent, looming on the horizon. The electric company has already made it very clear they will not hesitate to cut off my power if I even act like I’m going to be late. What do you even do when faced with this level of “fuck you entirely”? I keep telling myself that people are inherently good, but between this and the news and the man at the insurance company writing me a polite email that says “if you have another cancer, try dying this time”, I’m starting to have a hard time with it.

May 18, 2022 7:32 PM

Due to some concerning test results my oncologist is now pushing for testing for multiple myeloma. MM killed my birth dad. I think I may have sorta blacked out during half of what she said. I asked her if it was usual to have this sort of insane cancerous comorbidity, she said it’s not impossible. The imagining center got back to me FINALLY. They said even though my insurance is up in the air and they usually require payment at time of service, my doctors have been hounding them enough that they will let me have a payment plan for x-rays and scans costs. I’ve had enough biopsies that the MM tests don’t scare me like they would have two years ago. Immediately after my lung biopsy I threw up a ton of blackish blood so I feel inoculated to the trauma. Anyways at this point it feels silly, like my body is throwing this massive temper tantrum that it doesn’t want to be here anymore and it’s like “understandable, but consider: we can’t let capitalism win”. Also god won’t let me die because then I’ll be his problem.

the threads: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3987338&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1 I believe this one isn’t paywalled

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3916924 but this one might be, this is their diary of day to days of discovering the cancer (they went to the hospital for covid originally). warning: this thread might be very upsetting and hard to read if you have hospital or cancer trauma. or even without