All In, Enderal [Travelogue of Skyrim Total Conversion Mod, Enderal]

[SolipsistSerpent]

So far all I've found is a pair of houses in the capital, Ark. Kind of disappointing, really. What if I want to be a crazy lich hermit soothsaying the end of the world, huh SureAI? What then?!

Click to shrink...

My wizard tower in Oblivion was great, but I'm pretty sure that was DLC or something. In Skyrim, besides the townhouses, I had an underground former assassin's lair. I'm pretty sure it came with a vampire butler, too.

That would make lots of sense, except we're using the Black Stones as batteries.

Click to shrink...

Well, that's a lot less inventive than I hoped. Maybe if you're lucky, redirecting the power will stop them from reaching through?

Hey... If you really are undead, suddenly a lot of game mechanics you take for granted take on a new light. For example, your character never needing to eat or sleep (except optionally, to heal).

 

[Guile]

Hey... If you really are undead, suddenly a lot of game mechanics you take for granted take on a new light. For example, your character never needing to eat or sleep (except optionally, to heal).

Click to shrink...

That would have been a good line to use, maybe just as the Prophetess thinking to herself. 'When was the last time I ate? A week ago when I needed to heal those wolf bites?'

 

[iamnuff]

That reminds me of a line from KOTOR II where someone brings up the fact that you've been 'feeding on death' from the moment the game started.
When you really stop to think about it, gaining exp via combat is pretty horrifying.

 

[SolipsistSerpent]

That reminds me of a line from KOTOR II where someone brings up the fact that you've been 'feeding on death' from the moment the game started. When you really stop to think about it, gaining exp via combat is pretty horrifying.

Click to shrink...

That was a pretty good in-game justification for the XP system, yes. KOTOR 2 is a great game, when you're not feeling the unfinished bits.

That would have been a good line to use, maybe just as the Prophetess thinking to herself. 'When was the last time I ate? A week ago when I needed to heal those wolf bites?'

Click to shrink...

It would have been, yes. More fuel for the fire: unlike you, all the NPCs do seem to sleep, if it's like Skyrim.

 

[Guile]

It would have been, yes. More fuel for the fire: unlike you, all the NPCs do seem to sleep, if it's like Skyrim.

Click to shrink...

Sure, and they lock their doors like jerks while they do it, even if poor undead window browsers are still inside. And then you have to sleep in their bed to pass the time, and it's all awkward.

 

[Guile]

- So I meet up with Jespar in Duneville.

Spoiler: look at that poor bastard, like his world is ending

- The music is, as ever, on point. Arabian Nights-esque violin and some kind of wind instrument, like wind across the sands, a mournful piano creeping in… and here and there, a strain of pure, slithering menace.


- So I head out into the desert with Jespar at my heels… and immediately get distracted by a ruin called Old Ishmartep.
That resolution to ignore the side stuff and finish the main quests lasted long.

- The Tomb Guardians inside are using the models of Skyrim's mid-level Falmer: needle teeth, nonexistent nose, pointed ears, near-blind pink eyes, blue-green veins shining through translucent skin. Loincloth, greaves, gauntlets, the multi-eyed masks. Creepy as shit, in a phrase.

Spoiler: still terrifying

It's a much different feel than exploring a Falmer-infested ruin, though. Fighting the Falmer always felt like putting down some piteous creatures. Fighting the Tomb Guardians feels like fighting a small army.
Part of it's the lighting;
The tomb isn't well-lit exactly but there are cracks in the walls here and there letting in natural light. There are lit fire braziers. No bioluminescent green glowing fungus to be found.
Part of it's in the fighting itself;
Falmer tend to chitinous equipment and armor and domesticate chaurus bugs; the Tomb Guardians are dressed in simple cloth, but well-equipped with silver-steel swords, shields of bone and bows of wood and horn. It's not like hideous pus beetle animal husbandry would be easy, probably! But fighting with well-forged swords and shields makes the Tomb Guardians feel more civilized.

- Most of it is in the wordless storytelling you get from exploring the tomb, though.
You can find bags of gunpowder. Mining equipment. Maps.
I don't know if Old Ishmartep wants to conquer the surface world the way the Falmer do, but they already feel like they'll have a better shot at it than the Falmer.
There's a zone in the dungeon called the Nest, and I figure, "Oh, here's the spider section." There's usually a spider section. Agnod, ancient crashed spaceship, had a spider section.
Well, not exactly; this zone involves the Tomb Guardians fighting off an encroaching sand spider nest. Within a minute the spiders are dead and the Tomb Guardians haven't lost a fighter.
I have to murder spiders all the time too, they get everywhere! It feels like we have so much in common!

- After completing the simple fetch quest to unlock the door to his ornate tomb, Ishmartep himself emerges from his coffin in beams of light, a shriveled king complete with a golden crown upon his head.
Given the way he one-shotted my ice elemental, I assume he's probably at the level of one of the Lost One Lords, but popping the timestop power and double power attacking him a couple times meant I didn't have to find out.
That power is honestly the most ridiculous so far; I leveled twice in this dusty dungeon, and put both points into taking it to Level 3 (12 seconds, Dio Brando ain't shit in comparison)

- Well, a quick teleport back to Duneville to sell an armory's worth of silver-steel later:

Spoiler: whuhhhh

Surmak Saltblow looks ridiculous with his mouth hanging open, you'd think no one had ever jumped up on his counter to talk to him before.
Actually, he just tends to leave his gob open in general, giving him this constant look of gormless surprise, it's kind of funny.

It's also pretty nice that everything in Duneville (except the jail) is in one zone, so you can hear the bard from the tavern as you shop.
Anyway, that over with, I can get back on the road to Jespar's meetup with his sister.

- The old Dal'Varek estate is in the midst of an oasis in the desert, more of a jungle biome than anything. Not what I was expecting.
Aside from being attacked by panthers and lions, I also have to fight some Marauder-type bandits. One of them steps up the usual Enderalean insult game by calling me a 'fucking bitch.'
Welp.

Spoiler: enderal's equivalent of a quarter in the swear jar

Jespar also has this line when he watches me tear the soul out of a bandit and eat it to refresh myself. His reaction is:
"Who needs potions when he knows Entropy?"
Jespar's good people. I mean, for an undead ghost-summoning swordswoman such as myself. It's probably for the best that the game doesn't have Calia react to the Entropy thing, although that would be pretty interesting in its own way.

- Jespar and Adila's meetup spot is in their old kids' hidey-hole, which turns out to be an abandoned shadowsteel mine.
Well, 'abandoned.'
Miners moved in at some point, and were then massacred by Lost Ones when the, you know, Red Madness and everything happened.
Jespar's childhood hideout was built on top of a mine, which was built on top of a crypt.
Welcome to Enderal.

- In fairness, it looks totally sweet, and I'd want to explore it if I were some stupid kid, too.

Spoiler

- So the plan is for Jespar to take the lift down to meet her, and I'm going to have to fight my way through the crypt to come out in the bushes and spy on them.
I'm not even surprised.
Gives me a chance to try out the new Za Warudo power, and wow. Timestop, where have you been all my life?

Spoiler: what you guys looking at

It was pretty neat when the Lost Ones heard me walking around, opened the door and waltzed out of the crypt and into the mine area. But otherwise the crypt is surprisingly small and easy to get through, which I appreciate.

- Anyway! Adila has a new victim – because of course she was the one murderin' dudes, nobody except Jespar believed otherwise for a second – and this one's a little special. One of the guys who killed their parents and burned their house to the ground.
Now, I'm not entirely sure if that means he's from the Relata – the mob – or one of the corrupt judges that Jespar's dad tried to bring down, or what. It doesn't really matter in the end, I guess. He's just a prop in this tale of sibling… whatever.
He tries to talk her down for a few minutes, while I wonder when exactly I'm supposed to pop out of the bushes and shank her in the back.

- Jespar tries to get her to give him the Stone and then leave free, but anyone who's ever seen Gollum and that ring knows that wasn't going to end well, either.
Adila summons up a blast of flame that sets both the victim and Jespar on fire.

Spoiler: the red eyes have the same look as Red Madness eyes

Welp.

Spoiler: that's what you get

Adila's pretty good, but she's no… well, me.


The Takeaway:
It's kind of shocking, how quickly that was over. Constantine's death I saw coming, with the chanting in elder tongues and madman ramblings; Jespar's I didn't. Which I guess is the point, right? Jespar isn't a Capital Letter Emissary, he's just a guy. And when you play with fire, when you involve yourself in big events… sometimes you get burnt. Luck runs out.
I don't think there was any way to avoid that; that would be a pretty enormous story beat going completely differently if I could walk up and shank Adila in the back while they were talking.
But I think it says something that I kind of want to reload and try it anyway.

 

[SolipsistSerpent]

t's a much different feel than exploring a Falmer-infested ruin, though. Fighting the Falmer always felt like putting down some piteous creatures. Fighting the Tomb Guardians feel like fighting a small army.Part of it's the lighting;The tomb isn't well-lit exactly but there are cracks in the walls here and there letting in natural light. There are lit fire braziers. No bioluminescent green glowing fungus to be found.Part of it's in the fighting itself;Falmer tend to chitinous equipment and armor and domesticate chaurus bugs; the Tomb Guardians are dressed in simple cloth, but well-equipped with silver-steel swords, shields of bone and bows of wood and horn. It's not like hideous pus beetle animal husbandry would be easy, probably! But fighting with well-forged swords and shields makes the Tomb Guardians feel more civilized.- Most of it is in the wordless storytelling you get from exploring the tomb, though.
You can find bags of gunpowder. Mining equipment. Maps.I don't know if Old Ishmartep wants to conquer the surface world the way the Falmer do, but they already feel like they'll have a better shot at it than the Falmer

Click to shrink...

Ah, but the fleshy aesthetic is one of the best parts of the Falmer. As to why they feel pathetic: It's pretty simple and it doesn't have to do with using insect monsters to supply their gear, exactly It's that you find them in the ruins of civilizations that don't use chitin. All these huge soaring vaults and elevators and so on and none of it matches their aesthetic. They're huddled in tents, freaking tents, inside ruins that include clockwork mechana built by ancient hands out of bronze. If Falmer lived in giant hive structures where everything was made by and out of their pet insects, they'd feel a lot more threatening, but instead you find them huddled in this storehouses of wonders that they don't know how to use.

Timestop is very broken. It makes me want to go back and play a Focus specialist in Jade Empire. But my Chi first, focus second, build was really strong, too, and I liked default character appearance for Chi a little better.

Jespar's childhood hideout was built on top of a mine, which was built on top of a crypt.
Welcome to Enderal.- In fairness, it looks totally sweet, and I'd want to explore it if I were some stupid kid, too.

Click to shrink...

Summing up both Enderal and children perfectly in a couple sentences.

I suspect the only way to avoid this is to not do the quest. I wonder if you're going to have any companions left by the dead? It's kind of like when I realized that literally everyone who helps you in Dark Corners of the Earth meets a terrible fate. And most of them are your fault. So, you know, nice job, hero.

 

[Guile]

- On the way out, the torch flames turn blue and who should appear?
Not a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer.

Spoiler: kinda wanna pull out my torch and see if it still burns red

I suppose it's possible for her to sound more like a devil looking to strike a deal, but I'm not sure how.

- Now, the Veiled Woman is here to lay some facts on us in the way of all Oracle-type supporting characters, but trying to figure out what exactly she's copping to is tricky.
Presumably part of that is, you know, fifth-dimensional being trying to talk down to a third-dimensional hairless ape. But also she just sounds suspicious as a fox trying to explain why she's in this particular henhouse, but it's okay, she's on your side.
So I'm going to put on my critical reading glasses and examine every word.

- First off, she recognizes that maybe I'm a little peeved about that whole 'getting Sirius and I discovered as stowaways, tied to a big rock, and dumped overboard' thing from the start of the game.
She claims this was necessary, because of course.
She tells a tale where we made it to Enderal only to be found creeping overboard in the dead of night, only to be caught and killed in hopes of a promotion to Petty Officer First Class or whatever. That's what would have happened without her interference, she said.
That could be true. Those of us without extra-dimensional future-senses can't exactly check one way or the other.
But how exactly was getting us murdered faster any better? Why did it need to happen that way? Did I need to doubt my own survival (dumped overboard rather than stabbed through the head) to get this undead Prophetess thing to work? Is it something to do with the tower I found myself washed up on the shore next to? Is there someone or something with their eye on Enderal, and the little life-death switcheroo had to happen in open waters?
Give me something to work with here, lady.

- Aside from killing me (and, to be fair, bringing me back as a sword-swinging, magic-slinging badass... that still dies to the occasional snow wolf), of course, there's also the bit I just learned:
That the Veiled Woman killed Dal'Galar and took Calia to that village she murdered like a chess player setting up her pieces on the board.
I appreciate that the game lets me call her out on it; presumably that's why one of my readers suggested I do Calia's quest first.
Her response is pretty interesting. "You claim I took part in the death of the grieving man… But was that really me, I wonder? Or only a splinter of what I really am? I have many forms, Prophetess…"
Now, aside from being a pretty piss-poor excuse (Was it really me that shot you, or should you really be angry at my right hand? Hmm? Think about it), this suggests that maybe all of the pieces here, at least on the Emissary side of things, have their own Veiled Woman? And this one is mine.

- There's also some talk about the Cycle threatening all parallel realities, what she calls 'branches' of reality, of which this is only one. But that doesn't really hit home; I mean, I have enough trouble looking after this branch. Those other branches' Prophetesses can pull their own weight, thanks. The slackers.

- One particularly noteworthy line is, when asked if she is one of the High Ones, that "High Ones, humanity, the Emissaries, ... are all just pieces of the same game."
It's said in a tone that suggests the Veiled Woman is above it all. A player, not a piece of the game.
I imagine she's trying to suggest she's the player on 'our' side, but frankly for all I know she could be playing this game against herself.

- But she "doesn't like being seen as a destroyer … Which is why I will wipe away my debt, which was never there to begin with."

Spoiler: this is the same animation that my 30-second duration Revive Corpse spell has

Boom! Jespar, back to life.
So apparently for every two people she has killed, she can be talked into bringing one back! Or maybe I hurt her feelings?
So she refuses to take credit for that other Veiled Woman that killed Dal'Galar, but on a whim she decided to make good on it anyway. Pure whimsy.

- Hey Jespar, you doing okay buddy?

Spoiler: hey Jespar. Jespar. Buddy. Hey.

He's fine.
He asks after his sister first thing, and… yyyyeah, I killed her really dead.
So Jespar gets his alone time, while I head back to Duneville and sell off all his sister's worldly possessions. Her robe is pretty sweet-looking, with a design like a hand grabbed the red tabard bit and charred an imprint into it.

Spoiler: Bonejudge had style, I'll give her that

I give it even odds whether that will turn out to be important – the sign of the High Ones or something – or just something to give a little flair to her character model. Of course, I sold it away immediately.


The Takeaway:
As quickly and senselessly as Jespar died, the man's back in the saddle. I wonder if he got superpowers from it like me and Calia did? We could be like, the Three Amigos! Sounds better than 'those three freaks', anyway.
So that makes two Black Stones accounted for. A quest popped up to track down Calia, and I'm thinking I'll do that before turning these stones in to Arantheal, in case she wants to try using it to heal her demon after all.
I mean, it'd probably be a terrible idea and result in horrible consequences for everyone involved, but everybody's free to make their own mistakes. I know I make enough of them, starting from coming to Enderal in the first place on down through things like getting sucker punched and trapped in a rapidly-flooding Agnod, down to today when I let Jespar go up like a Roman candle.

 

[SolipsistSerpent]

Wait... Is that... Was Jaspar's sister a member of the Dark Brotherhood? She didn't seem like an Assassin. A murderer, yes, but not an assassin.

Huh. I was not expecting the game to let you revive Jaspar. I'm a little torn on whether or not that's a good thing, narratively.

At least you got some confusing quasi-answers out of the/your Veiled Lady at the end here.

 

[Guile]

Wait... Is that... Was Jaspar's sister a member of the Dark Brotherhood? She didn't seem like an Assassin. A murderer, yes, but not an assassin.

Click to shrink...

Is that the Dark Brotherhood outfit?

I suspect they're just reusing a handy texture, but... well, the 'Bonejudge' was sadistically murdering people... who knows?

Huh. I was not expecting the game to let you revive Jaspar. I'm a little torn on whether or not that's a good thing, narratively.

At least you got some confusing quasi-answers out of the/your Veiled Lady at the end here.

Click to shrink...

You and me both.

It'll depend on how the game treats him going forward, I think. If he gets some kind of superpower-with-drawback after coming back to life that could be potentially interesting and he'll kind of match me and Calia better, thematically. But then it might just be like Calia, where I don't feel any tension because she's basically scarier than anything we're likely to run into. The only thing I'm worried about is getting cutscene defeated and having to be saved by her again.

We'll see.

 

[iamnuff]

So Jespar gets his alone time, while I head back to Duneville and sell off all his sister's worldly possessions. Her robe is pretty sweet-looking, with a design like a hand grabbed the red tabard bit and charred an imprint into it.

Click to shrink...

Looks like the Cultist robe (Mythic dawn from oblivion, they show up in a museum in skyrim and their robes look like that.) with the Dark Brotherhood's 'We Know' handprint stuck on it.
Interesting way for the modders to mix assets to get something new though.

Edit: Unless the vanilla dark brotherhood robes have the same handprint on them.
edit2:
Yeah, they do.

That's a shame, I thought I was onto something there, but it's just a generic Dark Brotherhood robe.
As an aside, it doesn't even look slightly like the mythic dawn robes. I was completely wrong on that one.

 

[SolipsistSerpent]

Like I said, Dark Brotherhood robes.

It's probably nothing, but keep an eye out in case you see that handprint symbol again. If so, it will be a bad sign.

 

[Guile]

First off, sorry for the wait. I've been doing a Final Fantasy XIV quest over on anonkun and that's been eating a lot of my free time these last couple weeks. Anyhow, onward!


- Heading back to Ark, I'm struck by the absolute beauty in some of these loading screens. It looks like something out of the Thomas Kinkade gallery. They must have an artist on staff that does this, right?

Spoiler: its part of his disney collection

I'm not sure I buy Enderal being less prejudiced against anyone or anything, though. Was this loading screen painted by the Enderal chamber of commerce? Trying to get those tourism dollars?

- The plan is to go track down my poor heartbroken companions while they pour out their hearts to me, and in exchange I will complete quests and gain XP. But that can wait a minute while I check in with my magic connection.
Absorption VI and Soil Elemental II are straight up upgrades to what I've been rolling with (16 -> 24 damage/healing and level 36 ice elemental -> level 43 soil elemental, respectively).
Paralyze II is starting to sound worthwhile: paralyzing an enemy mook for 6 seconds? I'll give that a try, sure. With my luck it won't work on giants or liches or whatever crazy stuff I'll have to fight next, but whatever.
Also, I went ahead and bought a house in the noble quarter. No real reason not to pay 4500 gold pennies for something like that when you have 37,000 of them sitting in the bank.

- Now appropriately equipped, I track down Calia first.
I find her beating a straw dummy to death with her fists. I have never seen one humanoid that actually tries to punch people with bare knuckles except for that one crazy fight-picking drunk in the foreign quarter, but who am I to get in the way of stress relief?

Spoiler: I know its been like two weeks, but Jespar had this thing with his sister

Oh yeah. I am that guy.
Well I'm sorry for getting in the way of her training, but at least Calia's voice actress is getting in a good workout. Usually whoever they've got voicing her has two modes: stalwart determination and quiet 'everything sucks but I don't want to talk about it.' But she's got a vibrato going on that would do justice to some of Jespar's best 'I'm on the edge of tears but am too manly to not pretend I don't care' work.

- The content is pretty standard for her, just dialed up to 11. You know, 'I don't need your pity' followed immediately by 'I'm a monster!'
There's this bit where she calls me caring about her the biggest joke since Starfall, and sure, it's sad and all, empathy right, but all I can think is: What the heck is Starfall?
Is it when the Lightborn died?
Is it when Agnod crashed?
Or were there actual meteor showers at some point?

- I tune back in about the time she lets me know that the time I got cutscene-defeated in Old Dothulgrad she only barely kept herself from doing stuff to my paralyzed corpse.
I am allowed to ask 'What were you going to do?' but I decide not to do that. It seems pretty clear from context when she talks about what her 'impulses' were when she's talking about the blood on my face and how helpless I was.
I dunno, maybe her demon was trying to convince her to hold me in her arms and never let me go, but I'm kind of doubting it.
Calia, channelling her inner undead teenager, also bursts out with 'I never asked to be brought back from the dead!' which, yeah, join the club.

- So there's Calia, heartbroken, doubting herself, considering removing herself from all civilized company to keep people safe from herself. I kind of get the idea that her last quest is going to involve facing her demon and coming to terms with it.
And I'm probably going to have to hold her hand through it. Eesh.

- Since I'm already in the Sun Temple, I swing by and hand off the Black Stones to our favorite fop, Archmagister Lexil.
Pretty standard stuff here, too: flashes of light when the Black Stones are plugged into the machine, beams of light illuminating the gyroscope eternally spinning in the center, yadda yadda.
One interesting tidbit, the Prophetess just lies to Lexil's face as a matter of course about Calia's true involvement in events; Lexil has this line about 'I wonder where that poor girl got off to' or something like that.
High five, me.

- Lexil also uses the phrase, 'half a chicken doesn't make a cake.' What.

Spoiler: just. what.

I mean, obviously from context it's taken to mean the job is only half done, but… generally my cakes do not involve chicken at any point.
I'm not sure if this is a weird mistranslation from his Aeterna side of the family, or from the original German. Like, should it be pies maybe? Like a meat pie?
I have no idea.

- Oh, and I was somewhat worried by that black smoke coming off the machine there, but it turns out there's a torch contraption on the other side of the platform giving off that smoke.
Whew.

- Anyway, time to track down Jespar. The first place is, of course, the Dancing Nomad tavern where I suspect he's rented out a room long-term. I ask the bartender.

Spoiler: if I mention the oddly shiny meats, can you ever look at anything else?

Yes, that sounds like him, have you seen him?

- It turns out that not only was Jespar drowning his sorrows, he already left with the intention to do some bar hopping.
Time to check every bar in the city, including several I wasn't even aware existed.

- On the way I actually bother to check South Ark in depth for the first time, since my minimap is pointing that way. It turns out to be a false lead and it's actually leading me into the Undercity, but South Ark is pretty nice.
The museum.

Spoiler: the lost one exhibit looks like its scented blood and is about to pounce

I learn that apparently these glowing crystals I've been noticing just grow around the ruins, even when the ruins are transported as a museum exhibit. That's pretty rad.
Also there's an exhibit talking about energy concentrators, artifacts of the highest order that turn memories and experiences into energy (I wonder if the crystals are a similar phenomenon?) but to draw it out you need some heretofore unknown gewgaw.
Assuming that'll be important to our ancient relic beacon tower thing at some point, I go ahead and steal it preemptively.

- There's also a very extensive art gallery (/house) whose owner gives me a sidequest for later to go check in on her mom in Dark Valley, which sounds just lovely this time of year.
And finally, a brewery that is way too attractively set up to merely house one unnamed laborer.

Spoiler: nice lighting, unnamed Laborer

- In any case, off to find Jespar. There's a couple of misses, before I find my way to the deepest possible tavern in the underbelly of Undercity. Red curtains and lanterns abound, as do prostitutes with extremely unlikely perfectly sculpted (and oiled) abs for a place as poor as Undercity. There's probably a better metaphor for Jespar literally hitting rock bottom than this place, but none immediately occur to me.
I do find Jespar here, and he looks right at home.

Spoiler: nice throne, jespar

Jespar has abs that won't lose to any of these prostitutes that never miss gym day, that's nice to know.
You can't really tell from the picture, but Jespar's foot is resting on a wine bottle and three shallow bowls of glimmerdust litter the ground.

- I kind of love that the prostitute calling herself 'Leandra, Queen of the Desert' actually laughs in response to one of Jespwqqar's jokes, and it's subtitled as '(Artificial laughter).'

- So after I tell the prostitutes to take a hike, me and Jespar have it out.
If Calia was trying to convince herself to cut and run, then Jespar is trying to convince himself he doesn't care.
Because he's a bad man that betrays and runs away from all his commitments, right? He saw his sister withdrawing from the world into their father's law books and didn't confront her, because it was easier. He left his first girlfriend to the mercy of bandits rather than try to save her, because he was afraid. He assures me that there are many more stories like those two, where he failed to live up to any kind of heroic self image.

Spoiler: I want my house to look like an Undercity bordello, please

I really like the red lighting here, shining on Jespar's face with his shadow cast like a hulking monster on the wall behind him. I wonder if I can score some red lanterns for my new house?
They'd be great for all my tortured, half-naked lounging needs.
Obviously I'm falling behind the curve on that.

- Jespar and Calia are both trying to convince me that they'll kill me one of these days, which is a little bit funny. I mean, we're all dead men here.
You know, I don't think I've actually told anyone about my own lichdom. Kind of a dick move now that Calia and Jespar have joined me on the other side and could probably do with a little (in)human understanding, but I get it. The zombie apocalypse is not the best time to come out of the Lich closet.

- Jespar peaces out by way of teleport scroll (still half-naked; the Ark Marketplace is going to get a treat).
I steal his glimmerdust on the way out.
Filthy habit, he should thank me.


The Takeaway:
Whoever does the writing for Enderal knows their way around a leitmotif. Obviously I'm a silent rock who feels no pain or worry about being an undead monster clothed in the flesh of man! My MPD mind-buddy Axion was totally off-base when he claimed I was some kind of whinging coward out of my depth, naturally. But now I can point at my pals and go, 'Wow, they are not handling this well at all."
And these poor bastards have to save the world? Hopefully this is just the nadir that will build us back up into the world-saving badasses we always knew we could be, like this is the third act of a Disney film.
But I'm not holding my breath.

 

[SolipsistSerpent]

[I'm not sure I buy Enderal being less prejudiced against anyone or anything, though. Was this loading screen painted by the Enderal chamber of commerce? Trying to get those tourism dollars?

Click to shrink...

My guess is they're just too busy being racist about everything else to have the energy left over to discriminate against Aeterna

Paralyze II is starting to sound worthwhile: paralyzing an enemy mook for 6 seconds? I'll give that a try, sure. With my luck it won't work on giants or liches or whatever crazy stuff I'll have to fight next, but whatever.

Click to shrink...

Abusing the hell out of paralyze was one of the many tricks my thief-mage employed in Oblivion. It didn't work on everything, but when it worked, it was glorious. I custom made a spell that did 1 second paralyze and minor damage, then I'd just judiciously employ stun lock while my summons hit things.

I tune back in about the time she lets me know that the time I got cutscene-defeated in Old Dothulgrad she only barely kept herself from doing stuff to my paralyzed corpse.
I am allowed to ask 'What were you going to do?' but I decide not to do that. It seems pretty clear from context when she talks about what her 'impulses' were when she's talking about the blood on my face and how helpless I was. I dunno, maybe her demon was trying to convince her to hold me in her arms and never let me go, but I'm kind of doubting it..

Click to shrink...

Because of your choice in sites to post this, I believe someone is obligated to say 'hot'.

Calia, channelling her inner undead teenager, also bursts out with 'I never asked to be brought back from the dead!' which, yeah, join the club.

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Too bad you didn't get a chance to say anything about that commonality.

I'm just going to assume those meats are glazed.

That is a nice museum. I'm guessing they have a real Lost One posing for their display. Also, Dark Valley isn't so bad this time of year, as long as you don't go past it to Scary Town or Double Hell.

Well, I'll say this for Jaspar, when he loses himself in debauchery, he clearly picks the expensive whorehouse/drug den that actually concerns itself with quality. I assume being part of that Order of yours is how he can afford this. Also, he may have just spent his life savings, I'm not sure.

I'm very impressed with the encroaching darkness here. Maybe you'll turn things around, maybe you won't but this is one game where I'm not actually sure.

 

[Guile]

Well, time to go 3 for 3 on Black Stones! But first, some things I learned from loading screens today:

- The 'Black Guardian' lives in the deepest depths of the Undercity. I thought I'd gotten as deep in there as one could go, but apparently not! After all, everyone knows that ancient legends of dubious origin are as good as gold, especially if they come from the mouths of cloaked old men in taverns.
- The Starfall that Calia mentioned last time? Turns out it's a meteorite impact that split the continent of 'Pangora' in year 0. So when she says she's the biggest joke since Starfall? That's all of recorded history. Just making sure we're all on the same page regarding her level of self-loathing.
- I knew that the dead are incinerated in Enderal, but it appears that it's a whole production. During the 'Last Journey', the deceased are taken to a special place in their lives to attend one last sunset there. The body is then cremated and its ashes spread over that location.
Wonderful world-building, although it makes you wonder… so like, the local church or midwife's residence probably just have to deal with having their front stoop covered in ashes semi-regularly?
- "Beautiful and proud, the ruler of the Undercity. Her sinful womb bore fruit and horror grew along." - Song of the Vatyr
I am pretty glad the tavern bards don't sing that one.
So, allowing for artistic license… the Vatyr are mutants or something? Born from humans? Really puts a creepy spin on the Undercity orphanage being covered in Vatyr. Enderal is really just a deep, dark hole with no bottom, isn't it?

- Okay, so the last Black Stone is in the possession of a noble's bastard son, shipped away so that he wouldn't shame the Dal'Geyss name. Naturally, my map marker is pointing to the very easternmost tip of the continent, across the mountains, at the end of the Powder Desert, well past Jespar's family home.
Saddle up.

- There's actually a fair amount of difficult side nonsense on the way.
There's another ancient ruin, Old Askamahn. I feel like there was a quest about this place from the smuggler town in Powder Desert, something about a man heading off to steal the riches out from under the Order's nose and inviting his friend to catch up? (I stole the key he left behind, natch).
I'll swing back by and do this one if I remember, but right now it's mostly noticeable for me being attacked outside it by two lions, two black panthers, and an actual gorilla called 'Old Tyarge' that knocks me off Whirlwind's back with one swing. Considering that you can't ride with summoned weapons, this puts me in the thick of it while unarmed, which is not a fun place to be.
That thief power that stops time is still the best thing that ever happened to me; it's got a long cooldown but it's basically (now that I've upgraded it twice) two or three free kills in any big fight.

- Beyond that is a place called the Powder Mine.
The fort topside is peopled by bandits and a lot of dead guards, which is always fun to see. I mean, not that I'm a sadist or anything, but I appreciate that some of these valuable mines weren't taken without a fight, you know?
At first I thought what I was seeing was the Nehrimese taking over a mine only to then be murdered back by bandits and wild mages, but the heraldry is wrong. Griffin standing upright, not phoenix.

Spoiler: at first I thought maybe I did it, but no, they have all their clothes

I'm not sure who these poor schlubs are; the only city in the Powder Desert is Duneville, guarded by those Watchdog guys in black leather.

- I figured it wouldn't be too tough to poke my head in for a minute (I was wrong), mines are usually much smaller than those old ruins (also wrong).
The air is hazy and wavery, like heat mirages in the desert. Probably not terribly good for living people, but I appear to be fine.
Looks like this is where sulfur and whatnot is turned into blackpowder, which means that yes, the bandits also control the continent's major source of blackpowder.
The bandits are at least half made up of mages, including an Oorbaya summoner and a couple of guys with fireball staffs. I dunno how staffs work exactly, but as far as I can tell there's basically no wind-up casting with them. A mage with a fireball staff will simply explode you repeatedly until you are dead or his staff runs out of energy. The constant explosions serve as their own kind of smokescreen, which makes those guys a bitch to actually find and stab in the midst of all the fire.
There's a box full of 'confiscated scrolls' of fireball which presumably are meant to be used at the big throw-down at the deepest levels (there's an oily multi-colored substance all over the place that usually catches on fire when fire spells/arrows are used on it), but honestly I'm kind of afraid of blowing us all to kingdom come so I just wade in and stab people until I win.
On the way out, I notice that there's a lot of people in nice robes called 'Scientists', bloody and dead at their desks.
It's not like this is news by now, but it's nice to see the Skyrim-like wordless storytelling tradition is alive and well. I do wish there was some writing explaining who these guys work for, though! I did spot one corpse wearing Order novitiate red, though, so probably affiliated with the Order somehow.

- The next setpiece appears to be a village of gorillas! Gorilla-like things called Tyargs, anyway.

Spoiler: is that gorilla contemplating the ennui of existence or is he like 'nice boots'?

The buildings are of a unique adobe-like design, rounded and bright yellow stone.

Spoiler: I guess they could be made of dung, who knows

The gorillas appear to be willing to live and let live as I ride through, though, so what the hey. I ride on.
Immediately afterwards, however, control is taken away from me and the Prophetess decides she has had quite enough of riding and dismounts.
Things get wavy like it's time for a Future Vision, but instead I just hit the floor like the tail end of a 6 hour marathon drinking session.

- The ground behind us has been the subject of a sudden and inexplicable rockfall.
There's a 'sudden, sharp pain' if you try to use a teleport scroll.
All right, Enderal. Show me whatever weird-ass thing you've got up your sleeve.

- I actually meet a fellow human being, which is already promising. 'The Guardian' suggests that at night the Bonerippers (remember them? Man-sized lizardfolk? From all the way back in the Kor side-quest!) come out of their caves, and if I don't want to meet them I should take shelter inside.
My character rightfully points out that, as a heavily-armed woman with a skull for a helmet (Skaragg armor being what it is), wielding two ghostly sabers and trailed by a lightning-wreathed elemental like a faithful hound, perhaps just letting me inside is a little careless?
Look, self, there's no point in being self-aware now. Ark and Duneville let you in without a peep, and my night would not be improved any by having to fight off more bonerippers.
Anyway, the Guardian is of the opinion that "trust has to start somewhere", and I applaud his determination to keep my bones inside where they belong.
As he throws the switch, he mentions they're living very well after some boy found a silver vein. Now that sounds plot-relevant. How much do you want to bet that's the one I'm here for?

- Silvergrove is looking very nice. It's got its own little oasis biome, with watermills and ruins and things (most with locked doors).

Spoiler: 10/10, would Future Vision into again

Several buildings in town are also locked. Not entirely sure if that's to give the appearance of an expansive area without needing to work on the particulars, or if something else is going on.

- Okay, so tinfoil hat time.
First thing you run into when you get to town? You meet a little girl who says, unprompted, 'Ryneus has the greatest father in the world! I'm really jealous!'
At the general store? The owner gossips, 'Have you heard? Ryneus's father patched up a weird sphere his boy found in the old ruin.' and after a short conversation his girl pal concludes with, 'By the righteous path, thank goodness I live here instead of that stinkhole of a city, Ark!'
At the tavern? The innkeeper tells the founding myth of Silvergrove: a rich family moved out to the end of the world, and were blessed with a brilliant young son, Sunaeri. You know how it is in myths, where the myth hero can talk at 6 months and wrestle bears by the time he's 3 and all that? That's this kid.
So due to a rockslide or something, the couple found themselves starving. When the parents were emaciated and dying, for they gave all their remaining food to their son Sunaeri, Sunaeri cried, begged the gods for help, and from his tears sprung flowers and greenery and the oasis as it is today. And with a smile on his lips, Sunaeri died.
The last data point: the innkeeper, when asked why her place is named the Silent Moon's Inn? She can't remember. Blurry, like a dream. She blames the brandy, of course.

- So. It occurs to me that, if Dal'Geyss ever told me his son's name, I don't remember it. But I wonder, if he'd told me before I left, would it be Ryneus… or Sunaeri?
This little town seems to revolve around this boy and his father. The little girl who tells everyone she meets how jealous she is about Ryneus's father. The boy finding a silver lode and making the town rich as Croesus. The father being able to fix up a piece of Starling tech.
How special! How… main character of him. And what would a boy who is sent away as the shame of his noble father want, more than anything?
Fame. Money. Specialness. A father who makes all the little boys and girls jealous, instead of that cock Dal'Geyss.
One possibility.

- Consider the myth. The rockfall that cut them off from the world, just as the Prophetess has been cut off.
Dal'Geyss's mistress died of sickness, emaciated and weary just like the parents in the myth, managing to send him away with the Black Stone as a little bit of rebellion before she died. A boy who, lost, despairing, alone… wept an oasis into being. A lost child, what better time and place for the High Ones' influence to creep in?

-The tavernkeeper who doesn't remember her own history. If someone sprung fully-formed from a young boy's tears to populate an old building named the Silent Moon's Inn… she wouldn't know where the name came from, would she?
The woman at the general store talking about 'that stinking hole, Ark' sure seemed deeply anti-Ark, which might be nothing... but it would also be just what some poor kid sent away from the capital to live in disgrace would think about the place he was forced out of. 'I didn't want to live in your shitty town anyway, dad!'

Guess I'll find out next time.


The Takeaway:
Very promising start, and at this point I have full confidence SureAI is going to deliver something fun. The sidequests can be hit and miss, but Enderal really does shine best when the claws come out and it's time once again to fuck with your head.

 

[SolipsistSerpent]

- I knew that the dead are incinerated in Enderal, but it appears that it's a whole production. During the 'Last Journey', the deceased are taken to a special place in their lives to attend one last sunset there. The body is then cremated and its ashes spread over that location.
Wonderful world-building, although it makes you wonder… so like, the local church or midwife's residence probably just have to deal with having their front stoop covered in ashes semi-regularly?

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Churches, schools, romantic spots frequently used for wedding proposals.... Oh man, I want to see the diners trying to have romantic meals at a popular restaurant while some guy's corpse is propped up in a chair, enjoying the sunset.

So, allowing for artistic license… the Vatyr are mutants or something? Born from humans? Really puts a creepy spin on the Undercity orphanage being covered in Vatyr. Enderal is really just a deep, dark hole with no bottom, isn't it?

Click to shrink...

Interesting. Depends on if they can be born from humans in general or they're a now separate race that all descended from this 'Queen of the Undercity' (Because magic).

Hm... Sounds like you should try to invest in a staff when the opportunity presents itself.

If those ape-people are peaceful, I wonder if you can go to their town and buy stuff from their merchants (though maybe you need to get an item or do a quest first).

I like your theorizing about the town. I also like your acknowledgement that you basically look like you should be leading an army of monsters to sack the town, not being invited in.

 

[Guile]

- Anyhow, time to get this show on the road.
My minimap markers take me to an unassuming (though admittedly beach-front) house. In the front room is a man beating a very fancy toy horse into shape. He seems a nice enough chap, although…

Spoiler: Jespar does not realize the mess of daddy issues he is about to step into

Yeah, I'm not going to call you that. I only call very specific people 'Daddy', and you don't have any kind of glistening six pack or flyaway silver hair, okay?
The Prophetess actually has a very minor freakout over the fact that 'Daddy' looks very much like her daddy. You know, the monster from the dreams who wants her to join him in death.
Which, with a Black Stone involved, who knows what's possible and not? I'm just kind of glad Ryneus's Daddy isn't like the Prophetess's; if Ryneus dreamed Silvergrove into being, it's sure as hell nicer than her usual dreams. … So far.
My first inclination is to assume the 'Daddy' is some kind of standard template the High Ones use for their visions and her dreams are Black Stone related too, but that's kind of reaching.
Just… watch out for sudden spontaneous combustion, Prophetess. And don't ask what's for dinner.

- Ryneus's room is honestly totally awesome. I want, like, all of this shit for my room back in Ark. Captured butterflies fluttering away? Posh pillows and rugs in bright colors? Books and maps spread carelessly over the desk nearby? A wooden rocking horse compatriot of the new fellow being worked on in the front room? There's just so much… stuff, it feels eminently comfortable.

Spoiler: I wish I lived in that room

Totally sweet. This is the room of a main character, no doubt about it.

- We talk for a bit, and I get the feeling that Ryneus isn't cut out for a life of crime.

Spoiler: oh yes, my backstory doesn't hang together, hm? Well, I, don't remember, what is the linear progression of time anyway, really, can we just go look for butterflies?

Ryneus wants to play in exchange for giving me the Stone, natch.
Well, there's this bit where Ryneus's dog grabs a toy and runs off right in the middle of my asking for the Stone, and I have to chase him down.
High One with the furry fetish, is that you?
Well, the dog runs all over town but never does turn into glowing red smoke and talk shit at me, so it's probably fine.

- We get back to talking about the Stone without further incident. Ryneus wants me to grant him three 'wishes', which is Pretentious Kid talk for 'do fun stuff with me.'
Now, I have the option to be a cunt about this and say stuff like 'Ain't nobody got time for that, give me the stone kid, now!' but of course I play nice on the grounds that for all I know, Ryneus could turn me inside out.
So I chase a dog around for a while and show off my bow skills and catch him some butterflies. I go for the optional 'catch all fifteen butterflies' when I could have stopped at 7, on the grounds that if Ryneus turns out to have ultimate power over life and death I should be the best big sister I can be.
It's around the first 'wish' (skeet shooting on the beach) that my suspicion is pretty much borne out: the sun never sets in Silvergrove. It hovers over the horizon in a determined sort of way, giving plenty of light at all times and fantastic sunsets over the beach.
The Guardian said I could stay the night while the Bonerippers prowl outside, but I have all the time in the world.
After all, what kid, given infinite power over all he surveys, would wish for anything as lame as rain or darkness? Let summer reign, and the good times last for-ev-er.

Spoiler: also Silvergrove has some p cool statues

- I wonder, is it just my suspicious mind, or are these two intentionally voice acted poorly?
I mean, it's not the worst voice acting I've ever heard, but this game normally has such tight voice work for its main characters. Then you get these guys who are just so happy and tranquil and taaalk sloowly and enuunciaate their woords.

- Ryneus does have this cute hopping animation while we're talking in his room, though.
Kind of weird when I'm trying to be all 'I need the Stone for world peace' and he's hopping back and forth and stuff, but yeah. Cute.

- So for the third of Ryneus's wishes, he wants me to go to a hidden cave under a waterfall, containing a locked door.
Well, he's either got something cool to show me or he's already plotting where to hide the body, but either way let's get 'er done.

- Turns out he just has a really nice painting of us on the beach backlit by the sunset to show me! It's really nice.
When did he have time to paint this exactly? Stop asking questions, human.

- Ryneus's third wish is for me to stay with him forever.
Which is kind of sweet but also … well, we all know how it goes from here, right?
The world outside is dark and cold, but here in Silvergrove it's always great and everyone's healthy and there's no rain or clouds and I'm tired of being alone, you know?
The Prophetess unfortunately needs everything spelled out for her. Because of course the kid is alone, everybody else is people puppets or something! He lays it all out for me, that playing tag with the townsfolk is like playing tag with himself.
He is himself, but they are also himself. Like that.
He's scared, though. Even a normal little kid can have that nonsensical fear of everyone just… going away, for no reason, and never coming back, and it all being your fault. And most little kids haven't been unwanted, tossed away by a father who never wanted him because he was born malformed.
But then you contrast that understandable, irrational fear with lines like "I never wanted them to be trapped here, but it was the only way to make them love me, you know?"

- The whole backstory comes out now, about a Silvergrove afraid of the malformed youngster dropped on their doorstep.
Endraleans aren't exactly the most understanding of folk, you may have noticed.
The story begins with an old woman dying in front of Ryneus's house. Of people coming in the night and dragging Ryneus out of bed. Of his stepfather trying to fight them off, and getting knifed in the dark.
And of the stone whispering, whispering…
And then things were better! The next morning, his father was alive. Ryneus was normal, just like all the other boys and girls. Everyone was nice to him.
Because it's what he wanted, and in Silvergrove, what Ryneus wants is what happens.
Except with me.
Ryneus can feel the Prophetess's difference. That it feels like part of me is far away (hopefully not trapped in that dream prison with Aixon, but who the fuck knows).

- I still need that stone, though. And of course, there's a hook hidden in the apple. This is Enderal.

Even if removing the stone brought back their free will, the people of Silvergrove haven't eaten real food in years. The stone tells Ryneus that. And Ryneus's body is a product of the stone.
So, Prophetess. How much do you want it?
Enough to end this land of Always Summer? Eh. Into each life some rain, etcetera.
Enough to kill a few dozen people? Sure, I do that before breakfast some days, and most of the villagers don't even have names.
Enough to consign a poor kid to a twisted and painful life as the local version of the Hunchback of Notre Dame?
I look inside my heart of hearts and think, the Order will probably take him in. Bad things happen to good people all the time. C'est la vie.
The connection isn't quite there, the way it is with Jespar and Calia. Ryneus is still just a video game character.

- Silvergrove without the stone is, of course, darker. Overcast and gray.

Spoiler: I like the town sign curving drunkenly

Corpses litter the streets, gray and wrinkled, starved to death in an instant.
There's one sitting on 'Daddy's' favorite bench outside their house.

Spoiler: really young lady, coming home at this hour- shut up, you're not my real dad

Inside the house, there's no sound. No background music. Only a quiet, intermittent cough from the back room.
The house is… less, than it was. No metal toy horse, no warm yellow light from hearth and candlelight, no hammering. I gird my loins and enter.

Spoiler: somebody get this boy a Phantom of the Opera mask, stat

Oh, I think. That's a really good character model.
The warm and welcoming room is lesser, colder, and covered in spiderwebs.
The quiet 'We did it, sister' hits pretty good.
He can't walk. By the time I come back with a horse for us to ride, he's almost gone. One of his last lines is a delirious 'You were right, [Daddy]. Sometimes all you need to do for a wish to come true is to hold on to it long enough.'

Oh, I think. There's the knife. I was waiting for you. Yes, yes, through the ribs and up into the heart, you know the drill by now.


The Takeaway:
This was an interesting quest.
The 'run around town doing little errands for the kid' portion was filler, but I wish it had actually been longer! If I'd had to run down to the tavern for date pies and listen to what's-her-name talk about what things were like when she was young ('I dunno, they were nice I guess, not as nice as since Ryneus came though') and play hide and seek with Ryneus and his little kid friends and actually meet the villagers properly, that would have helped form a connection that SureAI could have used to make it hurt more.
I felt kind of bad for Ryneus having to go back into a monstrous body, but the villagers? I could give a shit.
I was actually kind of worried when the emotional punch in the cave behind the waterfall just… failed to land? Maybe because I'd figured the broad strokes of all this out ahead of time.
Heading back into the village and listening to Ryneus breathe out his last on the bed finally did the trick, and I'm not sure what changed between those two points that got the emotions rolling. The character model curled up on the bed? The house itself being bare of all the fun little kid things fake-Ryneus had? The kid's VA bringing his A-game right at the end?
Not sure, but it did a lot of much-needed heavy-lifting on the emotional side of things that was missing while I was convincing this kid to give up his perfect fake world for a much shittier, crueler, if realer one.

 

[Malorius]

The worst/best parts are still ahead though. Be strong. (And ignore glitches with all your might.)

SureAI were really thorough in reaching all the "Oh, shiiiii" and "Why?!" buttons in their players.

- "Beautiful and proud, the ruler of the Undercity. Her sinful womb bore fruit and horror grew along." - Song of the Vatyr
I am pretty glad the tavern bards don't sing that one.

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...But they do. Pretty regularly too. You can talk to any bard and ask him to do it for you, won't be disappointed. Very nice song, full of sin, disgrace and Enderal's special sort of propaganda against anything not-Path-Abiding.

"You will suffer and die" sort.

 

[SolipsistSerpent]

That is a nice room.

Now, I have the option to be a cunt about this and say stuff like 'Ain't nobody got time for that, give me the stone kid, now!' but of course I play nice on the grounds that for all I know, Ryneus could turn me inside out.

Click to shrink...

True wisdom. If only the Thalmor possessed it when dealing with my character who can turn them inside out.

So I chase a dog around for a while and show off my bow skills and catch him some butterflies. I go for the optional 'catch all fifteen butterflies' when I could have stopped at 7, on the grounds that if Ryneus turns out to have ultimate power over life and death I should be the best big sister I can be.

Click to shrink...

That and there's a good chance taking the stone will end his dream life, so might as well let him enjoy it while he can.

Enough to kill a few dozen people? Sure, I do that before breakfast some days, and most of the villagers don't even have names.

Click to shrink...

Plus, you know, there's a tendency to say fuck 'em, after this:

- The whole backstory comes out now, about a Silvergrove afraid of the malformed youngster dropped on their doorstep.
Endraleans aren't exactly the most understanding of folk, you may have noticed.
The story begins with an old woman dying in front of Ryneus's house. Of people coming in the night and dragging Ryneus out of bed. Of his stepfather trying to fight them off, and getting knifed in the dark.

Click to shrink...

-----------------------------

Heading back into the village and listening to Ryneus breathe out his last on the bed finally did the trick, and I'm not sure what changed between those two points that got the emotions rolling.

Click to shrink...

Well, you were telling yourself you could get him a new life elsewhere and he was placing all his hopes in you and then you failed him at the last there, but he didn't resent you at all and instead was thankful. That's always a gutpunch.

 

[Guile]

True wisdom. If only the Thalmor possessed it when dealing with my character who can turn them inside out.

Click to shrink...

It always bugs me when video game characters feel secure enough to talk shit to my character who has spent the last 10 hours killing thousands of soldiers/demons/gods/whatever with every weapon known to man. And even the rare game that let's me kill them for their disrespect feels hollow, because you might be able to kill them but you can't make them learn their lesson.

Well, you were telling yourself you could get him a new life elsewhere and he was placing all his hopes in you and then you failed him at the last there, but he didn't resent you at all and instead was thankful. That's always a gutpunch.

Click to shrink...

And everyone who has already played the game thinks it's cute that I haven't even gotten to the REAL gut-punches yet. Woo boy.

 

[Malorius]

Have you thought about searching for Myths and Legends? I encountered 2, but actually killed only one. They are supposed to be a peak of the game's creepiness, so that may be worth the effort.

 

[iamnuff]

It always bugs me when video game characters feel secure enough to talk shit to my character who has spent the last 10 hours killing thousands of soldiers/demons/gods/whatever with every weapon known to man. And even the rare game that let's me kill them for their disrespect feels hollow, because you might be able to kill them but you can't make them learn their lesson.

And everyone who has already played the game thinks it's cute that I haven't even gotten to the REAL gut-punches yet. Woo boy.

Click to shrink...

Not enough games let you roll to intimidate.

 

[Guile]

Have you thought about searching for Myths and Legends? I encountered 2, but actually killed only one. They are supposed to be a peak of the game's creepiness, so that may be worth the effort.

Click to shrink...

I dunno, maybe towards the end if I'm bored. Is there a point where you should finish up all side quest content before the big finale?

 

[Malorius]

You will be informed and it won't be subtle. Like, "Welp, we are all going to die now, you should probably go finish all your earthly deeds before it's too late!"

The only quest with time limit is finding the bird eggs, iirc. The one with a half-crazy Starling before the gates of Arc. It disappears because plot.

 

[SolipsistSerpent]

It always bugs me when video game characters feel secure enough to talk shit to my character who has spent the last 10 hours killing thousands of soldiers/demons/gods/whatever with every weapon known to man. And even the rare game that let's me kill them for their disrespect feels hollow, because you might be able to kill them but you can't make them learn their lesson.

Click to shrink...

That is one of the better aspects of the Fallout Games. You can kill almost anyone, any time. It might screw up the progression of some quest or another, but who cares? Admittedly, the ability to send them running in terror instead popping up more often might have also been nice.

 

[iamnuff]

That is one of the better aspects of the Fallout Games. You can kill almost anyone, any time. It might screw up the progression of some quest or another, but who cares? Admittedly, the ability to send them running in terror instead popping up more often might have also been nice.

Click to shrink...

There is an intimidation perk, but it's criminally underused.

 

[Guile]

There is an intimidation perk, but it's criminally underused.

Click to shrink...

You can kind of see why though. Writing a whole new conversation tree or a shortcut or something that only works for people that pick a certain perk is probably hard to justify.

Maybe if everyone got one of just a few perks: intimidation, scientist, black widow, or young at heart, like that. Fewer perks means you can do more with each one, or so I imagine.

 

[iamnuff]

You can kind of see why though. Writing a whole new conversation tree or a shortcut or something that only works for people that pick a certain perk is probably hard to justify.

Maybe if everyone got one of just a few perks: intimidation, scientist, black widow, or young at heart, like that. If your perks means you can do more with each one, or so I imagine.

Click to shrink...

New-Vegas did a really interesting thing with challenge perks that you gain by doing things.
It'd have been interesting to tie more useful perks into those, instead of the paltry stat-boosts you actually got from them.

For example, if I've got 'Lord Death of Murder Mountain' from killing 700 enemies, then i'm probably not someone you want to fuck with.

Likewise, I'd have the gun-damage perks be the same as the ones you get from doing X-amount of cumulative damage with Y-type weapons.
So if you've been shooting a lot of people with rifles, you get better at rifles. If you've killed a bunch of things with explosives, you get better at using explosives.

 

[Guile]

New-Vegas did a really interesting thing with challenge perks that you gain by doing things.
It'd have been interesting to tie more useful perks into those, instead of the paltry stat-boosts you actually got from them.

For example, if I've got 'Lord Death of Murder Mountain' from killing 700 enemies, then i'm probably not someone you want to fuck with.

Likewise, I'd have the gun-damage perks be the same as the ones you get from doing X-amount of cumulative damage with Y-type weapons.
So if you've been shooting a lot of people with rifles, you get better at rifles. If you've killed a bunch of things with explosives, you get better at using explosives.

Click to shrink...

That's logical, although then you may end up with the Skyrim thing where the Dragonborn is constantly casting spells while going about his day, to get better.

 

[iamnuff]

That's logical, although then you may end up with the Skyrim thing where the Dragonborn is constantly casting spells while going about his day, to get better.

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That's skill-grinding. It doesn't really work with stuff like 'deal 100,000 damage with X weapon' because friendly npcs tend to react when you stab them.
'X number of enemies killed' is another one that you can't really practice on yourself (unlike casting barkskin over and over again for alteration levels)

I guess you could spam healing spells or items on yourself, but it should be simple enough to make the counter 'points of damage healed' rather than 'healing items/skills used' so it only works if you're actually wounded to start with.

Honestly, if you want to deliberately wound yourself by drinking poison or standing in a camp-fire so that you can heal yourself to get better at healing, then you should probably be allowed to.
Hell, toss in a bonus perk for having taken so much cumulative damage too. If you're willing to do shit like that to yourself in-game, then you deserve Toughness Rank IV, or whatever.

IIRC NV had a challenge perk for using weapon-mods. You could use that to unlock the levels of Gun-Nut or something. Repairing weapons often could unlock Jury-Rigging.

You'd just need to make sure that you don't allow the player to add and remove the same upgrade over and over to pad their numbers.
That's just basic anti-exploit stuff though.