Going north won 4:3, so we'll first go to stop the global warming in Eisgard.
We arrive at the hillstead without incident.
The event starts immediately as we enter. We must see the lost menvolk home without delay!
'Go meet this ghost' is a god HP check, 'seek the lost folk' is god wits + HP, sending the wolf checks her HP.
Not trusting the god's 5 HP at all, I send the wolf into the blizzard.
come roll the dice, take a spin on the wheel
DAS RITE
Two souls for (almost) free is a good enough deal. Too bad that the day of delay made us run out of food.
And due to the loss of sheep, food here is very pricey indeed. I'll hunt for it afterwards instead.
Next stop: Karringar. I also picked up a churl to fill out the party, seeing as we're going to the bog next.
Nothing but not-quite-dead heathen gods in grim and frostbitten hills as far as the eye can see.
The golden maid calls me.
I let Hilda lead the way up because that apparently doesn't entail any checks.
Zomg!
Do not heed this fiend!
This is what called me!
I opt to hear her out. We should always give everyone a free chance to speak up.
You should never have listened, and dare not do this.
Two hundredweight of gold is no light load.
So... technically speaking, this ancient goddess of evil is indirectly responsible for our getting kicked out of Skyhold, since the gods are afflicted by her curse to be total morons.
But does that mean we're still afflicted as well? Is this like Nupraptor's madness all over again?
All I know is that Norse Jesus is not going to take a deal with any devil, especially not against his own volk. And if we're truly under her curse of greed, then that free gold is enticing indeed
Heh heh heh
You chose the better path.
This short detour almost recouped us the cost of the jarl's karl. Not too shabby.
Let's see what the stinking depths of HRAEDHOLM have to offer.
Along the way, we are ambushed by foes most foul!
There's a lot of them, but they don't look like much.
When it's the central wight's turn to attack, suddenly its arm starts glowing green.
Ah, balls, it's poisonous
Then this one attacked by Gudleif suddenly starts screaming.
Calling more of its kin to its side!
IT'S THE FREAKING VIETCONG
SHELLS! SHELLS IN THE NIGHT!
Fortunately they die really fast. Just two whacks with the churl's club are enough to bring the weaker ones down.
And soon we're free to continue. Only the poisonous wight faced by the god was any tougher.
Pest control, as always, yields us nothing.
Here we are, men. I can't see the warband for the fart clouds.
Ick. Let's proceed.
Love the artwork on this one.
Obviously we let the monsters fight for our amusement. Nothing good can come from helping some vile undead.
Putting this fight up on pay-per-view should yield me some souls.
That was to be expected, but at least the wights softened them up a little.
This shouldn't be too hard... but there's some nuance.
If you look closely at the god's sprite, you'll see some black bits. This was a shadowy effect that spread over his body, to show that Oraekja's Folly has decided to kick us in the nuts. Any damage taken by the god will now be significantly increased instead of lowered.
OF is a gambler's item. When it works, it works wonders. But when it betrays you, things can go ugly.
Fortunately these draugs aren't much, so we can whack them despite the setback.
Gudleif and Ilsa can take them on well enough.
The big draug still hits like a truck though, and Gudleif loses two hp blips in one attack.
I couldn't prevent the big draug from attacking twice, which is a bummer, because Gudleif is now close to dying.
Keep on moving'
Yeah, this is going to be easy shit.
Note the god's HP went down by one. Poison can sting you even when moving through dungeons, which is nasty.
Not much to show here.
We got plonked once by each outlaw, but that's all.
I decide to get the god up to speed with Healing Hands.
r u shittin me
There will be no fleeing from this fight.
Looking over our party, this is not a fight we can easily win. Even if these are just 6 scrublord outlaws, Ilsa, Gudleif and Ornolf are much too wounded to take them on. And something tells me they are
not just scrublords.
Come to think of it, 20 gold is a fair price for passage. And surely it will allow these men to abandon their lives of crime and become good citizens. And also this was Karringar's ill-gotten gold anyway.
Gudleif and Hilda are disgusted by our slack-jawed wimpiness, and their morale went down by 1.
Let's just move on and never speak of this again.
FFS
First thought: this may or may not end up ugly.
Second thought: Oraekja's Folly decided to betray us again. This will be ugly.
If we were at full HP, this would only leave us battered. But now, someone's gonna die.
Predictably, Ornolf hits the dirt.
Meanwhile, the shade woodsman whacked the god for 1.5 HP due to OF's curse.
Njal takes down the woodsman damaged by Ilsa.
And with Hilda's support, the god can finish off the other one.
Here, I decided to skip the wolf's turn in hopes the shade fighter would attack the god.
Obviously it did not...
I wanted to have the god help Ilsa and Njal, because that would have smacked the shade down for sure.
However, the game decided to bug out and prevent me from attacking that shade. I could only attack the one engaged by Hilda and Gudleif...
IT'S A BETA BRO
Here goes nothing.
Yep, the wolf goes down. Fuck.
And then Njal banishes the final shade. Fuck.
Fuck.
The wolf is too good to leave behind, especially when we don't have an S-tier party, so I raise her for the bargain price of another max HP point...
And I figure I might just as well heal Gudleif with HH.
Moving on...
At least it's not more mortal wombat.
'Follow them' shows no check, which is mighty suspicious. I opt to evade these wisps instead.
ring-a-ding-a-ding, baby.
Note the 'woodcraft' check. This is a derived stat based on wits. We don't have anything that can boost it anyway.
Two days down the drain...
And that's actually 10 food down, not 5, for the two days spent on wandering.
At least there's only that fabled witch left now
Kill her, or let us leave at once.
*Growl*
'Make her swear' and 'bid her come' are god wits checks. The other options come with no apparent checks.
What shall it be?