holoz0r plays Pillars of Eternity, part VIII - The Courtesan and the coins.

We've switched to Roman Numerals for the 8th (VIII) installment of my Pillars of Eternity play through. It's been a while since I last played, and if you recall, I met my untimely demise robbing a nobleman's house. I walk in, I walk out. I don't take anything this time, and instead decide to rest at the local inn.

There, I meet a man who tells me that there is a lady of the night, a courtesan, who he has an ongoing deal with. He sends nobles and well to do types her way, she does the things she does, and she'll take a trinket or too from the client, splitting the profits with him.

It sounds mildly deplorable in terms of behaviour, but if I was a noble and involved with courtesans... I'd probably rather they keep my trinkets and not oust me as a dirty, well, noble.

They're apparently over by the docks, at the local brothel. I explore the docks, taking a significant amount of coin along the way. There's a few quests about a missing child, and one that I ignore completely (potentially) about some trading company. There's nothing (safe) to steal there, so I end up at the Brothel.

There, I pay ONE THOUSAND copper pieces in the name of the quest to see the courtesan related to the quest. That's a lot of coin. I'm told she is upstairs, and I can go see her. I do. We talk. I intimidate her in an effort to get the trinket from her. It doesn't work out well. My entire party dies a slow and miserable death at the hands of two courtesan's guards.

I'm the pride of adventures everywhere as a result of this. I'm so proud of myself, I hit the load button; and instead of trying to fight with the guards or the courtesan again, I choose to pay SIX THOUSAND copper pieces. I get the necklace thing, and I leave, but not after getting what I pay for.

The screen darkens, and there's no sex scene in game. I sigh with satisfaction (probably) as Gherk waddles out of the brothel, coin purse lighter than ever. I head on back to the 'Charred Barrel' and give the medallion to the man. But first, assasins try to kill me. Its unclear who they are working for, but they want me dead. They fail. Maybe they should have been more like the courtesan's guards. They're not.

We have a chat with trinket man, and I give him the object of his desires, meaning that he is no longer a relevant player in the game, or so I think; he offers me a coin purse, and I take it. I get TWO THOUSAND copper pieces. That's a net loss of 5,000 copper pieces for about 900 experience. That's some pretty expensive experience points.

There's one more place I need to 'look' at in the city, and the moment I get there, some guards, called 'Justicars' start to yell at me about some danger. I do what Gherk does best. I intimidate. I get in. Oh. This is why they didn't want me poking about in here. There's skeletons and undead about. Lucky I have a priest with me. I spam blessings and carve a bloody path through most of the undead, until a get to a skeletal wizard. At that, I decide its time to rest after two party members are knocked unconscious.

Camping in a graveyard. I hope I'll live through the night...

The video of this gameplay session is available below: (I'll start doing commentary soon!)