holoz0r Plays Pillars of Eternity - Part XVII - The White March Commences

Its with a certain sense of dread and disdain that I load my save file, and my first task it to scout my journal to see if there are any tasks that I can complete to get some extra strength to push on with the story. This ends up with some wandering around from location to location, with no big progress, so I take a I stab in the dark and decide to expose myself to that map icon, that indicates expansion land, called the The White March.

There's ogres attacking the township, and I help out; battling alongside the civilians and what tiny militia that they have. Eventually, some sort of Ogre leader comes along, and this proves to be a tougher battle than anticipated, however, it is a battle that I can win, which is great news. I can get stronger here, and then head back to main-plot land later. At least, that's my plan.

There's also some white frost wolves that do some AOE and freeze attacks, which makes me think that soon, I might need to consider some sort of more advanced defensive strategies... like maybe upgrading my armor. Before I can think of that, there's some screams from a building, someone is trapped inside.

I manage to rescue them, on account of my might, constitution and survival skills. I actually get a choice of who I save, the male or the female, I save the girl; that's what the people around me were saying that I should do, so I do. These people don't know that I'm evil yet.

Instead, I get invited to the pub, and there, I collect several quests. One is to do with an unwelcome guest at the inn, the other is to retrieve some treasure that was taken by monsters, and the final quest is to steal a rare bottle of wine from the inn itself. I accept all these quests, and the first (and easiest) is to steal the wine. I head on down to the cellar, and ... I get a nice surprise.

There's many, many traps. So many traps, in fact, that disarming them all gets me enough XP to progress an entire level. It is also enough XP to know that the inn-keeper must really want no one touching that rare alcohol.

Going back outside, to the man who requested the wine, he takes several swigs, and starts to feel... funny. It appears the inn-keep has cursed his prized drop.

So, what's the point of having awesome quality wine if it is cursed? I talk to the barkeep; and he tells me that there's an antidote, and I reluctantly agree to go collect the antidote.

I head to the North, where I encounter more ogres and winter wolves, and I fight them all. I'm also starting to collect lockpicks and camping supplies at an alarming rate. The combat is about the right difficulty at this stage, with it being a challenge, but not being impossible. T

he soundtrack for this portion of the game is incredible, and a huge step up in quality from the 'vanilla' content in the game; if indeed this is the expansion, and not just an area called "The White March." (I'm pretty sure its an expansion - it definitely feels more accomplished.)

There's a huge amount of detail in the viscera of my fallen enemies, as I gather the hijacked / stolen / mis-appropriated goods. I make a point of exploring the entire area; and come across a bizarre herd of stags and deer, who attack me on sight. That is a strange occurrence, because these creatures in Pillars of Eternity are normally docile, and relaxed.

Once I'm satisfied that everything in this first area north of the township is dead (but there's still more to explore) I return to town, to sell my loot; rest, and prepare for further explorations. It looks like Thaos will have to wait until I've explored the tundra.