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Hello everyone and welcome back. Let's move on!



There's several encounters with undead in this area. While certain demons can create ghouls, there's also an optional necromancer "boss encounter" nearby. I put "boss encounter" in quotes because the boss music plays.



Here he is now. Let me just zoom in...



Flanked on either side by Baphomet cultists.



To be fair, this is a sizable encounter. Three zombies, four cultists, and a necromancer.

Champions of the Abyss

So enjoy the quite nice boss fight music while we cleave through these jerks.





A couple of updates after I complained about it, toybox stopped being buggy and brought back the "copy every viable scroll to your spellbook" option I had been so dearly missing.



Kiyomi can now cast Cure Moderate Wounds and Resist Energy. As an alchemist (even if she is a grenadier) she can make a potion out of damn near any spell she has copied into her spellbook. Plus she can actually memorize spells to cast.



In a nearby graveyard, we can find a little hint indicating the optional boss fight we just finished. Pretty cool!



And a grave in the graveyard has a new axe for Wendy. It's "only" +1 but that's still a significant upgrade over the regular version she's changing out for it.



I also give Finnean to Zenic for the time being. She'll make good use of him!



Nearby an extremely long cutscene takes over. One where, I shit you not, nothing happens for close to 10 straight seconds. I eventually skipped it. Here's the highlights.



Crusaders attack demon.



Demon farts.



Demon fucks off.



And long story short, the three crusaders who died from the fart are now ghouls.

I really love this game, but some of the animations they steal control to show you go on for way too long. Especially ones where it's just tiny dudes in armor hitting other tiny dudes in armor. Those cutscenes go on for a g e s.



I do really like how they go out of their way to show how the demons are a huge existential threat that the common man has no hope of standing against. It really sets the "everything's fucked" tone of the first act.



As a bonus, we're about halfway done with the map! But nowhere near halfway done with the market square, unfortunately. It's extremely content dense.



This guy is really easy to miss if you're blitzing through. Curl is one of those NPCs we met in the first update. So let's talk to him.

Curl: A short, hooded figure is poking about some bodies lying in the middle of the street. The stranger drags the first body off the road, respectfully props it up against a wall, and places the corpse's hands on its chest. The figure then freezes, as if hesitating, and you see him reach out his hand toward the beautiful gold amulet hanging around the corpse's neck. He jerks his hand back, hesitates, then reaches out again.
You clear your throat loudly. "Hey, who are you and what are you doing here?"
Curl: The stranger almost jumps out of his skin and the hood falls from his head. Under a mop of red curls, a round halfling face looks up at you. "Oh! Phew! I thought you were demons! G-Good day to you, good lady!"
Seelah's eyebrows lift in apparent surprise. "Curl! Is that you?"
Curl: The halfling looks at Seelah and smiles broadly. "Oh, Lady Seelah! You're alive! Goodness me, that's the second bit of good news on an otherwise lousy day!"
"What was the first bit of good news?"
Curl: "Stick around and see for yourself!"

"Do you know this person, Seelah?"
"Meet Rimvi, better known as Curl. He hails from Kenabres, and he fights in the Condemned. He's one of a kind: a rogue with a heart of gold." Seelah smiles, then adds a little more seriously, "Curl, it's probably none of my business, but you should ask yourself if what you were about to do is right."
Curl: The halfling's cheeks flush, and he hides his hands behind his back. "I didn't... I just thought... Oh, it doesn't matter!"

A rogue with a heart of gold is not one of a kind. There's one currently in the party and at least one (Anevia) in the Defender's Heart.

"So what are you doing here? Robbing corpses?"
Curl: "No!" The halfling protests. "Rimvi Curl may be a rogue, but he doesn't loot corpses. I just need to get these poor lads' bodies off the road. My friends and I are on a terribly important mission, and we need to get through."



Right on cue, a horse-drawn cart appears.

He is interrupted by the sound of wheels rolling on the paving stones. A cart drawn by a sad little horse appears from around the corner. A pretty half-elf is driving it, and a young man in knight's armor is walking alongside. Even from a distance, you can see his tanned face and his blue eyes shining brightly.

Curl: The halfling straightens up. "See? A terribly important and very heroic mission! My friends and I are saving a beer cart from the demons."
Elan of the Houndhearts: As he's speaking, the newcomers notice you, and the knight cries out in jubilation. "Seelah! I never thought I'd see you again! I thought you were headed to the main square — the center of the demons' attack..."
Jannah Aldori: The half-elf smiles warmly at Seelah. "Hey, friend! Glad to see you're all right! When we got separated by the crowd at the celebration, I knew right away that something was wrong. And when demons appeared all of a sudden, I realized that was the reason why I'd been so anxious. But I couldn't find you among the dead in the square, so I kept my hopes up, and I was proved right!"
Seelah's face lights up with joy. "So you're the other bit of good news Curl was talking about! You and Jannah are alive!"
Curl: "Actually, by 'good news' I meant that we found the beer cart. Sir Elan and Jannah being alive amounts to a quarter of a bit of good news. Well, maybe half!"

"A beer cart? How about sharing with us, I'm sure we could all do with a drink?"
Jannah: The half-elf winks rakishly. "Certainly! Give me your flask, friend! And if you walk with us to the Defender's Heart, we can have a more thorough sampling of the spoils there." Despite the cheerful tone, she looks at you with anxious hope.

Items Received: Ale

Elan: "Jannah, there's no need. The Heart is very close, and the three of us will be enough to fight off an attack if there is one. Besides, our friend here surely has better things to do. More important things than carrying barrels of beer, I'll wager."
Elan: "By the way, my name is Elan, Sir Elan of the Houndhearts. I'm glad to meet someone who's survived this madness."

"You haven't told me how you know Seelah."
Elan: "I'll save that story till we're all back at the Defender's Heart. You're going back there, aren't you? We'll have a reason to toast our spoils."

I see no option to walk back. We could snitch on Curl for trying to loot corpses, but we've been doing plenty of that - Seelah included - all day. Besides, this is a triumphant reunion of friends. And they have the most important of things to bring to the Defender's Heart: drinks.

"I have to go."
Elan: "So long! We're sure to meet again, either in the city or at the Defender's Heart."
Jannah: "Sure you will! Come to the tavern, we'll celebrate the valiant rescue of this barrel together!"



It's basically a huge coincidence, but we did nonetheless find Jannah! And on top of that, everyone leveled up to boot.



Fuck Forn. He's an asshole.



At level 4, Lisbeth gets Acceleration of Form (Ki-based haste), Dispatchment, Uncanny Dodge, and more Dispatchment. Both have the same tooltip.



This tooltip. Dispatchment, among many other reasons, makes Outflank one of the strongest picks for ninja.



Seelah is now able to remove fatigued with her Lay on Hands ability. She also is now immune to fear effects. And diseases.



Wendy gets throwing axe specialization. Those +1 bonuses quickly add up!



Zenic, like Wendy, takes specialization in her weapon of choice.



Kiyomi can now drink potions at her character level, and she learns a spell to give a dex bonus. It's worth pointing out that if she makes a potion for Cat's Grace, and uses it on someone, it will be used at her character level. I love alchemists.



Ember learns her first Hex - Evil Eye. And she also learns glitterdust.

Glitterdust posted:

A cloud of golden particles covers everyone and everything in the area, causing creatures to become blinded and visibly outlining invisible things for the duration of the spell. All within the area are covered by the dust, which cannot be removed and continues to sparkle until it fades. Each round at the end of their turn blinded creatures may attempt new saving throws to end the blindness effect.

Any creature covered by the dust takes a -40 penalty on Stealth checks.


CC and See Invisible in a single, low level, spell package. Glitterdust is good. Glitterdust is damn good.



Someone, I don't know who, is fearing enemies. Also for some reason a lot of enemies are casting invisibility on themselves. This is gonna be a recurring issue for the remainder of act 1.



We're actually quite near where we started the game. In fact, we've seen this stage before. But at the time it had people standing on it.



Or demons, more accurately. But this is the same area! Amazing what a change of lighting does to a place.





There's a kitty we can adopt over here.



Right now I'm giving it to Liz. As long as we have it summoned, we get the passive bonuses. Lore (Nature) isn't a tagged skill, so we'll give it to someone who can make better use of it eventually.



The basement of a nearby house has something new. I've done this many times, so I know what to do here. But there's a skill challenge on the far end of the floor. If you attempt it, an invisible enemy will blast you with frost damage.



Like these poor fools found out the hard way.



This was upstairs. So if we cast it...



We make a new friend.



Our reward is a decent upgrade for Kiyomi. The rest of the house had some documents you can read at the end of the update.



Here at the back end of town we can find a lonely chapel and...



...something.







...kay. Too little too late Mysterious Blue-Green Light.



Down the hill from the chapel we find a long trail of blood.



"Count Arendae... I have seen him a few times before. From afar. He looked highly... audacious. I confess that he did capture my attention. But that's neither here nor there — we should help him. The gratitude of a rich and influential man can only benefit us."
You have heard about the Arendae family before — this wealthy and noble Mendevian dynasty was almost wiped out by demons more than ten years ago. The last surviving member of the family, the young count Daeran, has an infamous reputation. He is well known for being a rake and a rogue.
"Misfortune continues to dog the House of Arendae, I see."
Servant: The servant cringes. "You're telling me. Everyone tried to talk me out of taking up the position, saying that it can't have just been bad luck that brought tragedy down on the family and almost killed off the line. But I reasoned that since my master was the only one to survive that calamity, that meant he must be blessed by fate and the powers of good! The pay was nothing to sniff at either..." The servant casts his eyes around the street. "...I should've listened to people smarter than me and gone to work somewhere else, preferably far away from Kenabres!"

"Tell me more about what happened."
Servant: "I'll tell you what I can... I was working from dusk till dawn and back to dusk again, serving guests at the count's banquet. When the other servants came to relieve me at my post, I went to sleep. Next thing I know, I wake up and there are demons inside the mansion! I couldn't even reach the count — the monsters had blocked the way! The count's banquet was still going on — he and his guests were in the great hall, and as far as I could tell, the door to the room was sealed and the demons couldn't get in. I'm begging you, hurry! The mansion's doors are sturdily built, the demons will have to work hard to get past them, so you still have time to rescue the people inside!"

"Alright, I'll help. Where is your master's house?"
Servant: "It's not far at all! You're better off entering from the next street over, through the passage I used to get out... Help, I'm begging you — I hate to think what the count will do to me if I don't bring back help!"



Daeran is another someone we met in the intro. He was the guy who called for us to be thrown into "an accommodating ditch." It will be several updates yet before we can get over to him.









...uhhh.



We'll just grab that for a rainy day. These are almost too precious to use, except in fleetingly rare circumstances. Ones that won't come about for most of the game.



Up on the far end of the market square we find a highly magical area. Clicking on it...



The Cosmic Balance

The demon invasion transformed all of Kenabres into one great battlefield, but nowhere in the city suffered as much as this square. This place saw a clash of titans — the demon lord Deskari, leading his hordes from the Abyss, and the dragon Terendelev, the mightiest of the city's defenders, and one of the first to fall. The scene of destruction leaves no doubt as to the battle's outcome. A skilled scout could recreate the course of the battle moment by moment simply by looking at the ruins: from the chimneys torn down by powerful wings in a sharp dive, to the bloody tracks left behind when the demon dragged away the noble reptile's broken body.

But it is no hypothetical scout gazing upon the ruins, it is Lisbeth... And she is not alone.

The shadow of a strange, barely perceptible presence lingers over this place. Like a gaze untethered from any observer, this mysterious force unknown to mortalkind silently assesses, judges, and seeks a better way. In an instant, Lisbeth is vested with this power and looks at the world with its eyes. The past, present, and future stand before her as a unified whole — an unmoving, multifaceted crystal that would be beautiful were it not for the fractures, blemishes, and flecks marring its splendor.

What past does she see?

In the past exists the one who wielded this gaze in life. Although, "the one" and "life" are inapposite terms for aeons, the supernatural embodiments of cosmic balance. Rather than "who" or "what," a better word for these entities is "how." This aeon appeared from outside this world, from the Great Beyond, to put an end to the intermingling of the planes and destroy the Worldwound — the chasm disrupting the order of the multiverse. Alas, the visitor from beyond proved too weak for the battle they came to fight. They even failed to finish casting the spell that would have sent Deskari back to the Abyss. With one swing of his scythe, the demon lord cut the aeon down.

What present does she see?

Ruins, blood, corpses — none of this perturbs the aeon's dispassionate gaze. The living are alive, the dead will be judged by Pharasma — all is as it should be. But the demons circling in the sky or prowling through the streets create a jarring juxtaposition, like splashes of blood-red ink on a restrained pencil sketch. They should not be here. The world of mortals is for mortals, the demons' place is in the demon world. How sublime the world would be if everything in it knew its place!

But even the demons aren't as abhorrent as the sharp-edged, unassuming crystal languishing in the dirt among the bricks and smashed cobblestones. No mortal would notice it, but to the aeon's eyes its mere existence is an outrage against universal laws. If the aeon still existed, they would not stop until the crystal was unmade — but the aeon is gone, and only their gaze remains. Lisbeth picks the crystal up out of the dirt and stows it in her pocket. She is mortal, which means she has the power to decide what to do with it.

Items Received: Purple Stone Knife

What future does she see?

Good and evil, chaos and order — everything is in its lawful place in the multiverse and is no longer trespassing where it does not belong. Nothing is disrupting the smooth and steady current of the River of Souls from life into death and back to life again. The reality, rid of its flaws, is now perfect, and the aeons withdraw to eternally admire its beauty, which will never be threatened again.

After allowing the heroine to view the world through their eyes, the little that remained of the destroyed aeon (is "killed" even appropriate here for an entity that is so removed from life and death as we understand them?) used up its last vestiges of energy. Now they are ready to disperse into nothingness, unless someone decides to preserve the aeon within themselves. Will the heroine take on this power, so that she may again look at the world through another's eyes — or will she allow it to vanish?

[Requires Aeon Mythic Path] Retain the aeon's power within yourself.

The spirit of the aeon dwells out of sight, deep in Lisbeth's soul, like a pair of magical spectacles stowed away until the moment when the heroine once again needs to look at the world through another's eyes.



And just like that, we're turned loose with another mythic possibility in our pocket. We aren't going the route of aeon, unless you guys suddenly change your mind for some reason, but it's good to have the option regardless.

I'm also going to call this update right here because next time we're about to get into some pretty in-depth conversations.

Encyclopedia Golarionnica

Aeons
A Journal About an Experiment
Great Beyond
Pharasma
River of Souls
Stories Told Us by Spirits: The Knight with Harrowed Hands