holoz0r plays Pillars of Eternity - Part XIII - KILLING BABY DRAGONS!

I didn't particularly wish to die. Who would have thought that the catacombs below my own keep would be so ... scary? I retreat up the stairs toward daylight, and leave; not even stopping to sell the loot I've attained along the way. I'm running away from that "You have died" screen as fast as I possibly can.

I make the educated guess that I am ready to fight those feral druids that repeated destroyed my party. I manage to do this, just; without any casualty, just some minor wounds. It takes a lot longer than I expect. At least they've got some shiny toys for me to steal. I explore the cliffs, finding that there are many creatures nearby, especially lions. I kill them too, and take all of their pelts. I might use them for... purposes later.

As I explore, I'm thinking about crafting and enhancements, which isn't something that I have yet delved into. I have a massive case of FOMO with regards to the items, and don't want to waste them on poor enhancements. I also meet some sort of druid as I explore. He's eating a dead deer. He joins my cause, and promptly goes to the stronghold. I'm pretty happy with my party's make up.

Nearby, there's some sort of drowned temple that I can't access. It will probably have something to do with some quest that I haven't unlocked yet. I may end up coming back here later, perhaps. For now, I want to make sure that I kill everything on this map, now that I can! I proceed to do so, and there isn't anything super-dooper interesting in the location, so I go off to the local village.

Here, I learn a few things, and obtain a few new quests. Some guy's daughter is missing, I gain a new party member, and there's some shady looking folk upstairs in the inn. There seems to be a new lead on the main quest, and I ignore it; instead deciding to sell all my goodies. I'm getting closer to being proper dapper rich, but there will never be enough coin in the kitty.

The new party member is known as "Grieving Mother", and I reach out to her with my supernatural soul seeing abilities. Her character portrait is creepy, evocative, and a great piece of art work. She has a certain enigma to her, and her class is "Cipher" which is equally enigmatic. I send her to the Stronghold, and think that perhaps, if any of my party members betray me in the long run for my riches, she may be a viable replacement.

I get another quest, to collect some dragon eggs. I remember that there was a few menacing, difficult to defeat drakes nearby, which means that there might be some sort of dragon's nest that I can fight / battle. I'll probably die, but I've been told that I'll be rewarded handsomely for my efforts. I like handsome rewards, so I go off in this direction. before I do, I see a new place on the map, that I explore, and fail at, so let's not talk about that.

Instead let me tell you about several long and protracted fights against baby drakes at the "Searing Falls". I use magic to fight my way though these drakes, and Aloth is forever proving his worth as a companion. Its wonderful. Look at these dead drakes!

There's no eggs lying around on the ground at all, but there is a cave. Dragons like to live in caves... so I enter the cave, and sure enough, it is afire with lava, flame blights, and dragon minions. I carve my way through, taking tiny bits of loot along the way before meeting the inevitable treasure chest of a dragon at the end of the path. The environmental art here is incredible, the best so far in the game.

The dragon I meet is called "Cail the Silent" and he's not silent. We chat, he decides to attack. I attack. A battle ensues. Gherk falls, but my other party members survive. I BEAT THIS THING.

The battle raged for a good five minutes, which suggests that I could probably be stronger and win... quicker. I investigate the corpse of Cail, and disappointingly find no hidden eggs or vast troves of treasure that dragons are meant to have. Durance, the priest man, tells me that part of what the dragon dropped was part of a massive bomb that killed tons of people, presumably in a Game of Thrones style explosive spoiler. I'll stop that sentence there.

There's a few valuable items, but not 10,000 pieces of gold or copper, like I would expect a dragon to be hoarding. Dejected, I leave, heading out to a new place, a Bluff called Pearlwood.

There's a few more dragons here, and a rather large contingent of monsters.

I fight them, inadvertently agitating the presence of some tree-bros, "Forest Lurkers", who are a challenge to fight. The combat is at a level now that's good. I need to use consideration when choosing targets, and then take all the loot. I'm gonna be so rich if this level of loot continues. I stop to take a breather, armoring everyone appropriately.

There's a stone, and a cliff face. I use my robe and wizard hat, I mean, my grappling hook, and descended. There's a scary moment when this happens:

Thankfully, Aloth survives, and we continue, into a cave. What's in the cave? We'll find out, next time!