#the ritual was disrupted before the curse could fully set but There Are Tells

[lathrine]

this is absolutely ancient news, but i DID get my act 3 romance scene with lae'zel before bg3 grew beyond the confines of my meager laptop (at 155hrs play time, did Not finish my first playthrough)

and i DID openly cry, btw, and also i think im legally engaged to lae'zel now

[draumrfold]

Doomvault: Kiss of Death

We’ve stopped to take a rest, finally. I feel very drained of Ki, after BoBo regained some consciousness he managed to construct an illusion that provided shelter for us, a safe place to rest. I do wish it was a bit more spacious, I would like to try and keep a good amount of distance between myself and these people, as to not further intrude on their kindness. Throughout our rest I could hear Maliadin softly chanting prayers, luckily I was able to block him out and focus on my own balance for my meditation. I also am able to fully sleep and fully recover from having my life force sucked from me. I feel within myself my full strength return. 

When we are finally ready to set off again, BoBo informs us part of his soul is missing. His friends don’t even question what needs to be done, so we all set off to perform a ritual of some kind to restore him. Magic isn’t my strong suit, but the idea of being able to spit a soul is fascinating, just as is how one might put a soul back together. So while I’m not thrilled at the idea of spending more time in this place, I am very intrigued to witness this ritual. 

We used what they are calling a “Black Gate” to get to the chamber they needed to perform the ritual in. Using the gate was a sensation I’ve never experienced before, it wasn’t like when I was shifted in the plane tear, this place has so many secrets to learn. In the chamber, we had to wait while BoBo reverse engineered the ritual when he was done he hopped up on to one of the stone slabs in the massive chamber. He held the scroll out to Talrean who looked less than enthusiastic that the burden had fallen to him, but accepts the scroll. BoBo lays back on the stone and enters a trance state, soon into Talrean’s reading of the scroll we can see BoBo astral projected soul floating above him and slowly it drifts down on to his body and re-merges with his body. 

BoBo slowly opens his eyes, and motions for Talrean to step closer, Ashrah also takes a step closer, when suddenly they both let out gasps and retreat- curing BoBo and his noxious gases. BoBo sits up laughing, and joking, all was once more good it appeared. BoBo I am learning is something of a jokester, which while amusing, there is also a time and a place. I am not sure being stuck in a dungeon after dying and putting one's soul back together is that time or place. 

We continue on to the next area, I have lost track of not only time but also how many chambers and hallways we’ve been through. I merely follow the group, somewhere near the back. It seems Maliadin did not find solace last night as he has gone from leading us to being in the back with me, if not trailing behind us. 

While I trained and studied I never really got into the whole worship thing, perhaps that is why I never truly felt at home in the Temple. I’ve tried prayer and worship, for whatever reason it just doesn't seem to click with me, not the way my studies of death have. Maliadin, in my humble opinion, could greatly benefit from meditation, and inner reflection, as I have found all true inner growth will make you feel uncomfortable, disturbed, or scared for a little while, and that’s ok, the feeling will pass. However Maliadin has seemed to give into fear and pain, he lets death have power over him, rather than embracing and accepting it. As long as he does that, he will never be the mighty warrior he projects to be. 

When we come to face our next enemies Maliadin has fallen so far behind us that I of all people have to lead the charge. I’m uncomfortable with this because I still don’t know the extent of these peoples powers, nor do I know if they will have my back. Trust and loyalty is earned, I recognize I must give them a chance, but I am also cautious about it. 

When we enter the chamber a mage casts a poisonous gas over us, through my training, I have become immune to such things, it would appear my comrades have not, however. I know there is a wall of enemies in front of me, so I take a running start and with all my might I rush into one, knocking it backward and causing a disruption to their wall. I manage to get outside of the gas and unleash a series of blows into the foe in front of me. The other enemies circle around me and I find Ashrah next to me, I assume the others have found their way into the room, blocking a path to safety, I do the only thing I can think of that might give me an advantage in this situation. I start a booming chant in a voice that is deeper than what I should be capable of making, this eerie chant strikes fear into most of the enemies around me, as well as Talrean and Sylvanna. This gives me not only me but all of us an advantage that we’re able to defeat everything and release a Dark Elf. I’ve never seen so many different kinds of elves in one setting before. 

In the next chamber have a similar fight and I see a beast so big and ugly, I’m told that it is an Orc. I don’t think we have Orcs on my plane, I’ve never seen or heard of them before and this one looked very fierce. I am told they are not that intelligent of beings so BoBo came up with a very easy way to communicate to it not to attack us. It went well enough, he looked diseased but wished for no help and he went on his way. 

It also occurs to me that we’ve watched every other being we have rescued (that was friendly) drift off through the white doors, without having to open them. I too was rescued, so I go over to a door and cautiously step through the door to the other side, astonished, I step back through. Cursing all the elven sware words I know in dismay. Why does this stuff keep happening to me? First plane shifting now I can walk through doors. Ashrah says she can’t sense any curses, and I can feel my Ki and lifeforce, nothing seems out of place. I then purpose that this would mean I am able to traverse anywhere in the dungeon, which means I could take us right to the phylactery chamber, and save us all some time and energy. Unfortunately, the others explain to me why that wouldn’t work, and I’m a bit disappointed that this weird power cannot be of more use. 

In the final chamber that had a Shrine of binding in it, and after the fighting, we see the creature has become a zombie and put it out of its misery. We also take a short rest here, where BoBo tries to tell me jokes. I don’t really find them amusing, but I appreciate the effort. We (BoBo, Talrean, Sylvanna, and I) end up having a really odd conversation about Humans, then Tea, or rather the lack of tea, and finally the subject of pets, which I actually felt comfortable enough to introduce them to Sly- I really need to find some proper cheese for her, doubt this will be the place for that though- they are all rather astonished I keep a mouse in my pocket. It can’t be that strange. Perhaps pets aren’t as widely accepted on this plane. I’m kinda surprised she was able to plane swap with me as well as she has. I haven’t observed any difference in her behavior. BoBo, upon learning I have a pet, offers me a ring of Animal Influence so I might communicate with Sly. While part of me would love to accept such an amazing gift as to further my research, another, stronger part of me feels it is not practical for me to have such a thing, and I politely decline the ring, at least for now. Maybe I will barrow it later when I have time to record and properly interview Sly, I’ll have to think about it. 

After the conversation and our short rest, I do feel more at peace and in balance with these people. As though our Ki are aligning. Something I never really felt with Maelin and Aura. Perhaps another sign this is the plane I am truly meant to be on, or at least these are people I was meant to meet. Off of one of the last monsters we defeated we find some Bracers of Defense that the group says I can have, I am humbled they would allow me to have anything we find here. 

We continue on through the chambers, and face down more mages, zombies, and yetis, it's very tiring work if I’m honest, but we’ve rested enough that I am able to keep my Ki up, also Maliadin has decided he’s done moping and has caught back up with and is fighting as normal now. I am very glad the pressure is off of me to lead us into battle. I did fine, admittedly, but moving forward it’s probably best for either Galadin or Maliadin to lead us. 

We enter the phylactery chamber, finally, this is what everyone has said is our goal. I am very happy to finally be here. There is no immediate danger from what we see, and start work on entering the small temples, after we get the first one open, we see BoBo be flung out of the temple and into a large pit of a tar-like substance. Which is of course home to monsters, a giant eye emerges from the tar pit after we’ve pulled BoBo out, and unleashes this incredibly painful sound that knocks me unconscious. 

While I lay there unconscious I feel life and death all around me, the flow of Ki in perfect balance, with my mind I reach out and touch the life flow and feel breath come back to my body and my eyes open. I pull myself up with help from my quarterstaff. “Well, that’s fascinating,” I think to myself. 

While I studied the Way of the Long Death I remember reading a story from what I thought at the time was a wack a loon monk who claimed he had mastered death it’s self and was able to feel life forces and the Ki that flowed not only within himself but within others as well. My master thought this guy was really onto something, and so together we would meditate feeling the Ki within us, sensing our life forces and life forces of others but never being able to feel death or to be able to manipulate the Ki of others. This is the first time I’ve been able to sense death, truly feel its power, and the true power of life. The flow of Ki is reinvigorating. I guess that monk wasn’t as crazy as I thought. I will have to review the notes I made on his work later. If only there was a way to let my master know the progress I have made. He would be so excited, I hope one day to at least be able to send a message to him. 

The creature continues to knock me unconscious, and I continue to harness the power of death and I end up running weird circles around the temple, that Talrean has decided to perch on. Weird ass elf. I sprint in, punch and attack, and run back to safety because by this time I’m just assuming I’m going to be knocked out. The next time I awaken it’s to Ashra shoving a health potion into my mouth. I mumble that if she had just waited a moment I would have come to on my own. She shrugs and helps me to my feet. We clear out the rest of the floors of the phylactery chamber without any problems. 

Upon finishing our work a vision appears before us, a crackling human, who is just talking crazy, he opens a portal and pushes us all through. While we are going through the portal I hear from somewhere beside me Talrean cursing him for not rewarding us properly. What an odd time to be concerned with such things. This also means I’ve been plane shifted, yet again. I doubt it to home. I will just have to wait and see where we land. 

[tomeandflickcorner]

OUAT Episode Analysis- Mother’s Little Helper

Wow.  Did A&E really write this one?  I’m impressed.  Why couldn’t they have written like this when they made that awful Wish World two-parter? They even pulled off an impressive plot twist that actually surprised me.  Well done, you two.  Now let’s see if you can keep this up.

So we start off with Emma learning how Gideon abducted Killian and left him stranded in another realm, and is now preventing him from getting back.  And she is LIVID.  She even resorts to using the Force Choke Hold on Gideon.  That’s how far she’s been pushed, people.  Because it’s obvious that’s classified as Dark Magic, something Emma hasn’t used since she was freed from the Dark One’s essence.  But Gideon is all ‘please, you don’t scare me,’ and tells Emma that if she wants Killian back, she really has no other choice but to help him.

The next day, Emma and Snow, who has once again remembered Emma is her daughter, storm into Gold’s shop to let them know what they think of Gideon’s behavior, and are pretty much ‘control your kid, or we’ll control him for you.’ Belle, however, beseeches Emma to give Gideon a chance, stating her belief that there is good in him.  I’m of two minds when it comes to this scene. Yes, Belle is completely in character here, and I fully acknowledge this is her son they’re talking about here. But it is a bit problematic that Belle is essentially saying that Gideon shouldn’t be blamed for his actions because he grew up under the Black Fairy’s abuse.  You know, considering she’s talking to Emma.  It’s not as if Emma’s childhood was all glitz and glamour, after all. Granted her foster families never actively tortured her, but I’ve seen the cigarette burn on her hand.  And I noticed what looked to be a scar above her breast during the Captain Swan movie.   There’s enough evidence to suggest she was physically abused at some point.  I can understand how being tortured as a child can mess you up a bit, but that doesn’t give you permission to run around plotting to kill people.

Regardless, Emma agrees to give Gideon a fair chance and meets with him at the Storybrooke clock tower.  However, she tells him that if he wants her help, she needs some collateral.  Because she hasn’t forgotten that he did try to kill her a few days ago, so she has a right to be cautious around him.  As such, she has him hand over the Ruby Hilt Sword and the spell that’s keeping Killian away.  They end up going to the Sorcerer’s Mansion and begin a ritual that I think was meant to open up a portal to the Black Fairy’s realm so they could overthrow her. Or lift the enchantment keeping Killian away.    It was one of those two options.  But they’re disrupted by the appearance of a giant spider that proceeds to attack Emma and Gideon, with Gideon claiming the spider was sent by the Black Fairy, who figured out what they were doing and was seeking to stop them.

Now this is when the episode really starts throwing you for loops.  While they’re dodging the spider, Gideon actually apologizes to Emma for his actions.  Which is quite a novel concept.  Imagine a villain we just met who apologizes right off the back.  (In contrast, has Regina ever actually apologized to Snow, Charming and Emma for casting the Dark Curse and separating them?  No to mention the rest of Storybrooke, who were just innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire.  And has Rumple apologized to the Nevengers for the stuff he’s pulled on them?)  But right when Emma is trying to find a way out, Gideon pulls a fast one on her, revealing that this was all a trick and he was the one who summoned the spider, with the intention of letting the spider kill Emma.  So, Gideon teleports away, leaving Emma at the mercy of the giant spider. Despite her best efforts at fighting off the spider, Emma, who somehow forgot she could just teleport herself away like Gideon did, ends up cocooned by the spider.  When she loses consciousness because of the spider silk obstructing her airways, Gideon begins a different ritual that would enable the Black Fairy to enter Storybrooke.  Just when the portal to the Dark Realm opens up, however, Gold suddenly arrives at the Sorcerer’s Mansion and drives the spider off, freeing Emma from the cocoon in the process.  (And I think this marks the first time I was actually glad to see Gold doing something on the screen.  Congrats, Rumpy Rumps.  You’ve earned another gold star today.)

Thus begins the second PTA meeting with Emma, Snow, Belle and Gold.  Emma announces that Gideon has just used up his last chance, and the next time they meet, she will show him no mercy.  However, Gold insists that Emma isn’t being fair and whatnot.  In any event, it’s clear that lines are being drawn in the sand over this issue.  

Now, once again, I understand that Gold is concerned for Gideon and doesn’t want to see him die.  But regardless, I still wanted to Gibbs Slap him for accusing Emma and Snow for only seeing things in black and white and acting like Emma is being unreasonable for no longer willing to be lenient with Gideon.  After all, she gave him a chance and offered to help him.  But he responded by double-crossing her.  Emma has every right to want to defend herself against the person who is seeking to kill her.  And, at present, she is completely unaware of the plot twist that’s revealed in the episode flashback.

This episode also shows us how Gideon got to this point.  After the Black Fairy abducted him from Shady Blue’s care, she brought Baby Gideon to her realm, where she keeps stolen children as slaves and mine workers, forcing them to mine for dark fairy dust.  But instead of placing Baby Gideon into the mines, she decides to keep him as a pet of some sort.  During this segment, we also see that moment that Gideon referred to a few episodes ago, when the Black Fairy ‘tested’ Gideon with the opportunity to protect a friend of his.  Seeing this moment was as upsetting as I anticipated it to be, and it shows how nasty and sinister the Black Fairy is.  But I still say Gideon shouldn’t be so hard on himself for this moment.  Again, he was only a kid.  There was nothing he could have done, even if he had tried to interfere.  No child should be made to feel guilty for not standing up to their abuser.  That would be victim blaming, plain and simple.

However, we see that moment ended up breaking Young Gideon, as we then cut to him when he’s full grown.  At this point, he’s become the Black Fairy’s minion flunky, doing her bidding without question.  One day, the Black Fairy summons him to announce he has just turned 28 years old.  She then tells him that someone in the mines has stolen her vault key and tasks him with finding out who is responsible.  When Gideon goes down to the mines to punish the guilty one, he has an unexpected reunion with his childhood friend, the one he couldn’t save as a boy.  The friend in question is revealed to be called Roderick. Thing was, when I saw the episode, I thought they called him Mordred, as in Mordred of Camelot lore.  But I apparently heard wrong.   Anyway, Roderick beseeches Gideon to look inside himself and reacquaint himself with who he used to be before the Black Fairy instilled her programming into him. In the end, Gideon decides to help Roderick, who tells Gideon he heard tales of a brave hero called the Savior, explaining he planned to break into the Black Fairy’s vault in order to obtain a crystal ball that could be used to contact the Savior and ask for her help in saving them.  Because Roderick has found out that the Black Fairy’s reasons for mining dark fairy dust is because she’s planning to cast a terrible curse.  It turns out that the Black Fairy was the one who actually patented the Dark Curse.  But she never managed to perfect it.  Which is what she’s trying to do now with the dark fairy dust.  So if she success, she’ll be able to manufacture a Dark Curse that would make Regina’s curse look like child’s play.  Which is obviously a holocaust of bad.

Unfortunately, when Gideon helps Roderick break into the vault to contact the Savior with the crystal ball, the Black Fairy appears, revealing this was just another trick, and she had set Gideon up to test his loyalty to her.  To punish Gideon for his defiance, she proceeds to turn Roderick into a beetle, killing him before Gideon’s eyes.  To add salt to the wound, she then takes possession of Gideon’s heart, turning him into her Heart Controlled slave.

To this, I applaud A&E. Because I did not see this coming. At all.  And this reveal does complicate matters a bit.  It means that Gideon really isn’t acting on his own accord after all, and there might still be a chance to save him.  Although, this doesn’t mean I find fault with Emma for the ‘no mercy’ stance she’s currently taking with Gideon.  Because she doesn’t know about the Heart Control yet.  With the limited information she has to work with, she is not at fault with not being willing to give Gideon another chance.  Once she does find out about the Heart Control, she’s obviously going to realize that the rules have changed and she’s going to do what she can to free him from the Black Fairy’s control.  But until she discovers that missing piece of the puzzle, she’s only going to know that Gideon is the guy who is actively trying to kill her, kidnapped her True Love, and betrayed her when she offered him her help.  So of course she’s not going to give him another chance.

And to make matters even worse, the ritual Gideon performed to bring the Black Fairy into Storybrooke turned out to be successful.  Even though Gold stopped the spider from killing Emma, she lost consciousness just long enough for it to count, and the Black Fairy was able to slip through the cracks. So, the way things are shaping up, this is going to be quite an epic conclusion to this story arc, which I’m now dubbing the Black Fairy arc. 

 All I can say, is that I’m now wanting to see them find a way to de-age Gideon back to an infant when this is all over, complete with a mind wipe so he won’t remember anything that happened to him after Belle sent him away out of concern for her child’s safety.  Kind of like what they did with August back in S2.  If anyone should get a fresh start, it’s this guy.  Plus, Belle deserves the chance to raise her child in peace.

Meanwhile, in Subplot B, Regina is back in her vault, working on trying to figure out how to break Snowing’s sleeping curse, which she really should have been doing in the last episode, but we’re not going to discuss that can of worms.  Although, it did strike me as a bit irksome that she was talking about cleaning up the messes Evil Queen left and made no mention how she STILL hasn’t returned those hearts to their rightful owners.  Why bother bringing up the fact that she still has her heart collection if they’re not going to bother resolving that issue?  

Anyway, Henry is all ‘you can do it, Regina!  If you can’t do it, no one can!’  Which, again, is odd since Emma was the one who effectively cleaned up after Regina in S1 when she broke the original Dark Curse.  Out of nowhere, Henry suddenly goes into a weird trance-like state and ends up writing out a series of strange symbols that Regina can’t identify.  Wondering what it all means, they end up deciding to question Author Isaac, who has been residing in the psychiatric ward since the end of the Author arc.  Which kind of makes sense, as they sadly can’t ask Merlin and the Apprentice anymore.  Unfortunately, imprisonment hasn’t fixed Author Isaac’s tendency to be annoying, and he says he refuses to talk unless he’s given a car and allowed to leave Storybrooke.  (I guess Regina got rid of the town line barrier spell off screen?)  He also includes tickets to Hamilton among his list of demands, which is a slight anachronism, as that musical premiered in 2015 and the show’s timeline is still in in the late 2013 to early 2014 range. I know Adam tweeted something about how in this version of reality, Hamilton premiered earlier than it did in our world, but that just sounds like a made-up excuse to cover up their slip-up.

Regina eventually agrees to release Author Isaac and give him a car.  Which is something else that bothers me.  I realize everyone else had their hands full with the whole Gideon thing at the moment, and that Regina was concerned with what was going on with Henry, but releasing Author Isaac really wasn’t Regina’s decision to make.  At the very least, she should have discussed things with the rest of the Nevengers with everyone voting on the matter.  I’m just saying, the last time Regina made a decision without getting everyone else’s input first, it was when she decided it was perfectly okay to give Hades a chance and trust him with Zelena and Baby Robyn.  And look how well that turned out.

Regardless, Author Isaac takes his chance to drive away.  But before he does, he informs Regina and Henry that the reason for Henry’s trance was because the story within Henry’s book is nearing the end. Obviously, this means something climatic is about to happen, but it doesn’t quite explain what those weird symbols meant.  Or why anyone should be seriously concerned.  If you remember, there were probably hundreds of blank Storybooks in the Sorcerer’s Mansion.  Even if Henry’s Storybook is about to reach its conclusion, so what?  It just means you start a new story.  Because nothing ever really ends.  

And of course, we get the subplot with Killian, who is just as eager to get back to Emma as she is at getting him home.  He ends up approaching Blackbeard at a tavern somewhere, once again offering to trade the Jolly Roger for another magic bean.  Because Blackbeard managed to get his hands on another magic bean.  Where exactly does he keep finding these magic beans, anyway?  I thought they were supposed to be rare.  Apart from that, it’s interesting that Blackbeard knows that Killian made the original trade for Emma.  Which means that Killian was completely forthright with why he wanted a magic bean the last time. Meaning he didn’t give a bat’s behind if Blackbeard mocked him for losing his head over a woman.  Killian, this is why we love you.  

Getting back to the story, the two pirates begin to play a game of cards, agreeing that the winner gets the spoils.  Ultimately, Blackbeard wins the game, but that’s when Killian proves his craftiness, telling Blackbeard that the Jolly Roger is back in Storybrooke.  And if he wants to get it, he has to use his magic bean to bring them there.  In other words, Killian knew going into that card game that he was going to be returning to Storybrooke either way.  Blackbeard is not pleased by this turn of events, accusing Killian of being deceitful. And Killian is like ‘look who’s talking.  It wasn’t as if that was a fair card game.  No proper deck has 6 aces.’  So Blackbeard has no choice but to use the magic bean to open a portal to Storybrooke. But, because of the blocking spell Gideon set up, the portal doesn’t bring the two men to Storybrooke. Instead, they wind up in a completely different realm, which Killian soon identifies as Neverland (which has apparently stopped being a jungle island in Pan’s absence) when a horde of Lost Boys suddenly appear.

Now, this right here raises a few questions.  As Killian and Blackbeard are trying to get away from the Lost Boy horde, Killian explains that they didn’t bring all the Lost Boys with them when they left Neverland back in S3, and that they allowed the most savage ones to stay behind.  But if that was the case, it once again brings up the question of why they brought Felix back with them.  Felix was Pan’s right hand man/lapdog.  So he was therefore the worst of all the Lost Boys.  Why didn’t they leave him on the island, too? Granted the plot demanded Felix to be in Storybrooke, but from a logic standpoint, it made no sense.

Plot hole aside, Killian and Blackbeard, while running for their lives, come across a conveniently placed rowboat.  But Blackbeard uses an underhanded tactic to commandeer the rowboat for himself, leaving Killian stranded on the island at the mercy of the rampaging Lost Boys.  Question is, where does Blackbeard think he’s going? He’s in a completely different realm, so it’s not like he can just row his way back to the Enchanted Forest. Also, does Neverland even have another landmass apart from the main island? As far as we know, the rest of that world consists of nothing but endless ocean.  So I don’t know where Blackbeard thinks he’s gonna end up. That is, if he can even get past the Neverland mermaids.  Because as memory serves, they weren’t the friendliest bunch.  And I doubt a rowboat is going to offer him much in the way of protection if they plan on attacking him.  Blackbeard’s pretty much a dead man rowing here, I must say.

So, all in all, this was a good solid episode.  And it actually is helping me restore a bit of faith in A&E.  The only thing that bugged me with the episode is how they left Killian’s subplot off with him still running from the Lost Boys.  I know he’s going to make it out alright, so it’s not like it was much of a cliffhanger.   But that just felt like a strange place to place the bookmark.

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