Pillars of Eternity was a game that I helped kickstart many moons ago. A CRPG made in the vein of old, it appealed to me and I instantly threw money at it. It's one of the few Kickstarters I've backed that actually became something!
I played it a tonne when it was first released. Nearly 45 hours solid before I had to take a break due to the game and mechanics infiltrating my dreams and making it impossible to sleep. You know it's bad when you close the game, go to bed, and you're still focused on strategising your party's attacks and moves and your brain is too alert to just settle down a bit.
Because of that, I never actually finished the game. After a week's break, I was unable to re-immerse myself into my character and continue on where I left off, and so I just let it sit and gather virtual dust over the years. Pillars of Eternity 2 has been out for quite some time, and I own it, but I haven't even opened it because I want to finish the first one first! It is time to rectify this.
I decided to make a Ranger.
She's a wood elf, has a wolf for a pet, and I'm not too sure what her personality will be just yet, how she will handle the events that come, but I guess we'll see as options are presented. I'm not overly focused about making all the "right" decisions. Come what may!
Whilst travelling with a caravan with hopes of starting a new life, Ellu'kha Kael, wood elf of the Living Lands, fell sick with a strange illness she had never before experienced. Odema, the caravan master, shrugged it off and told her to gather some healing berries. She would either die from illness or survive her troubles, but she could at least gather her own damned berries.
Odema made a woman named Calisca accompany her, mostly so if she died they would know where her corpse fell and not have to waste precious time looking for it.
It didn't take long to find the berries and various other resources around the area. There were a couple of corpses lying around that signified possible dangers in the forest, possible banditry, and a camp had been set up recently. No people were near the camp.
Calista was worried. She demanded Ellu'kha hurry up and make her tea so they could get back to their caravan. On the way back they got ambushed by two bandits. Calisca knocked the first one over and began wailing on him with her sword while Ellu'kha and her trusty wolf, Xander, focused the other one. Unable to withstand the bite of a wolf, their enemy fell very quickly and they turned to help Calisca with her foe.
With the two villains vanquished, they raced back to the caravan camp.
There were three enemies in front of the caravan camp. Ellu'kha and her wolf quickly took down the ranged bandit whilst Calisca handled the melee attackers. Once the ranger at the back was dispatched, Ellu'kha and Xander raced to Calisca's defence and quickly defeated the bandits.
People lay fallen upon the blood-stained grass, their limbs removed, their entrails discarded of in a caricature of art. A man, a merchant who had wanted to start a new life in this new region, was the last of their group standing. A bandit behind him held a blade to his throat. The bandit demanded they drop their weapons. Ellu'kha refused. The bandits had already killed the entire camp and would clearly try to kill them too, with or without weapons.
The merchant crumpled to the ground, headless, and the remaining bandits leapt upon the two women and the wolf.
Incensed by seeing the merciless death of the last survivor, Ellu'kha, Calisca and Xander tore the bandits to shreds just as a strange wind whispered across the region. The final bandit smiled, his last action before death took him, as though pleased that the wind had graced him.
A gurgle resounded at their backs as Odema, the caravan master, stirred and spoke through his drowning blood.
"Run."
The wind picked up into wild gusts, lightning struck the ground around their feet, as though the weather itself was pissed that the bandits had died.
Ellu'kha, Calisca and Xander took heed of Odema's command and raced into the ruins then fell to the floor as a boulder crashed against the entrance and trapped them inside. They would have to find another way out.
While exploring the ruins, they found an abandoned camp. That did not bode well. As they crept along the ancient corridors, they kept their eyes pealed for more bandits.
They didn't find any bandits, but they did find a lizard-man who they backed away from. Further up the tunnel was a dead man with a journal. Curious, Ellu'kha read the man's hopes and dreams and discovered he had a blue gem hidden upon his person. She'd take that, thank you very much.
In one of the ancient chambers were long burnt-out braziers.
Not one to ignore her curiosity, Ellu'kha convinced Calista to thrust her torch into the coals of each brazier and set them aflame. Calista was dubious, but did it anyway. There was no immediate effect that they could see, so they continued onwards only to be accosted by gurgling black slimes.
They were gross and oozing black goop all across the floor. They came at them, slowly and gloopily. Calista shrugged, nonchalant as her flaming torch quickly disintegrated them.
Behind a mass of black gloop was a statue. Using the water gathered from the stream earlier, before all went to hell, Ellu'kha washed off goop from the statue and discovered a hole that would perfectly fit the gem she had looted off of that unfortunate corpse just before.
With the gem socketed into place, a secret door flung itself open and belched an army of black slime.
After burning the black slime with a gooey death, Ellu'kha investigated this new, secret chamber and was pleased to discover an urn inside. Not just any urn either, it was filled with treasure. She whipped out a cloak from the innards of the urn and wrapped it about her shoulders. She instantly felt stronger, more capable. It was a fine cloak, indeed.
Leaving the chamber and wandering back towards the centre of the ruins, the little group discovered just what lighting the braziers had done. A path was now evident through the floor and they carefully trod it, not willing to touch a single burning glyph. Surely that would mean certain doom.
After navigating the flaming path, they were set upon by spiders, so many spiders. But with Ellu'kha's new cloak and trusty wolf by her side, Calisca had nothing to fear.
Spider guts and limbs flew every which way and soon a breath of fresh air whispered across their weary faces. A breath of fresh air that brought hope of the outside world along its wintry tendril. With a spring in their step, they followed the hint of fresh air and soon stumbled out of the ruins.
The storm-like winds and lightning of before had disappeared, as though it had never existed at all.
The peace that greeted them did not last.
Hearing voices down below, the little group crept into the bushes and watched, wide-eyed, as what looked like robed cultists surrounded a strange machine. A tall man greeted each one of them by name and then congratulated them on their sacrifice. The machine activated, spun in quick, rapid circles, and sucked the life out of the cultists with great purple beams as the tall man simply left them to their fates.
A blinding light exploded from the machine and Ellu'kha collapsed to the ground.
When she came to, Calisca was dead. It appeared that she, too, had fallen to the ground when the machine exploded but she had the misfortune of banging her head against a rock. Thankfully Xander was still alive. She helped her faithful wolf upright and together they huddled, as one.
She didn't know it yet, but with the events witnessed and machine survived, both she and Xander had emerged stronger than before. Together they would have to find the village they were originally headed to. The people there had to be told that the caravan of new settlers would not be arriving. That she and her wolf were all that was left.
Strange colours flittered about her peripheral vision but she took no heed of them. Ghostly shapes and illusions danced within the colours. She blinked, hard, and willed them away. She probably had a mild concussion.
It was all the more reason to find that village, and quickly.
Until next time! :)
and are from the game: Pillars of Eternity.Posted from Kaelci Games with Exxp : https://kaelci.games/2022/07/12/lets-play-pillars-of-eternity-introduction-and-part-one/