holoz0r plays Pillars of Eternity - Part XVIII - The White March Forges On

There's a pun in that title. Can you tell that I'm doing the expansion content now, even though I haven't finished the campaign?

My bag of coin is getting pretty heavy these last few play sessions, but still, I don't want to spend anything. It is time to do some more quests in the frozen wastes. I go speak with a lady called something starting with an R, who tells me of the White Forge, which can smelt some sort of really fancy alloy. It can cut stone in two. Sounds like something I need in my inventory.

Its not as simple as clearing out the forge, to enable its use again; the place, Called Durgan's Battery, has sat, disused, for no one knows exactly how long. Its rumored to have dwarven spirits on the inside that got trapped inside; but that won't concern me at all. Before I go and gain entry, there's a whole bunch of other stuff it seems that I must do.

This gets me West of town, and a I try to save a wolf that has been struck by an arrow. I keep the arrow, in memory of the poor creature. I ignore a message that it has bound itself to a bow that I found earlier, fighting some ice blights. My ignorance is annoying, because its probably the most amazing weapon so far in Pillars of Eternity.

There's an ice troll out this way as well, as well as a large number if ice-troll lackeys. It takes me a while to carve them all down, but the difficulty here feels pretty balanced, not an incredible burden, but challenging enough that I need to start micromanaging my healing and spell casting a little more closely than before.

Well, that is only until my priest, Durance, dies; and my fighter barely escapes, with 3 endurance remaining. I high tail it back to town, returning the ice troll's orb-thing (just.. its heart) and some river reed thingy to the inn-keep to uncurse the guy that I cursed last time, after stealing the inn-keep's wine.

It is only here that I realise the glory of the bow that I found, finally equipping it on Sagani. I meddle around with some equipment changes, and realise that a great deal of my gameplay time is likely devoted to inventory management. The bow, in its glory:

This 'Soul Bind' stuff means that only Sagani can ever use this bow. That's okay by me, I don't think I am going to get another bow user in the party any time soon at all. Its great to see an element of a weapon leveling up alongside its user, it reminds me of Dungeon Siege. I really, really liked those mechanics on some weapons in Dungeon Siege.

I learn more about the culture of these strange northerners, meeting a new party member, and a dwarf, who had some of his items taken by some sort of priesthood. Well, he donated them to the preisthood, but now wants it back. That's my job. I go and have a chat with them, and they tell me that its all gone. I don't believe them, and choose to follow their courier out into the wilderness.

As I leave, I hear them lock the door, so I listen in through the window about their vile scheme of stealing the items, but making it look like they're being sacrificed to the gods, or whatever. At this climactic point, most people would follow the courier. I don't. I go back to my keep, because there's an important emissary there. She pleads for a place to stay, and I give it to her, gaining some prestige for my stronghold while she is a guest.

Now that I've got a little bit more strength under my belt, I start to travel around, doing some bounties. These are pretty challenging, and allow me to revisit some areas from the earlier game, gaining me some sweet sweet XP. It sin't just XP for me, either. I also level up the bow to the next level, increasing its value.

It is quickly becoming a very potent weapon.

That "Sever Binding" option is almost insulting. As if I am ever going to use another weapon with Sagani. I'm already imagining just how powerful the next iteration of the weapon is going to be. I return to the Stronghold, claim my treasures from the bounties I've completed (its a lot of XP!) and fail to level up from this endeavor. I do however, hit a milestone as I sell my loot.

Over 100K coins! At last, I'm rich! It feels strangely unfulfilling, however, as what I seek now is not riches, but power. I want to be powerful enough to progress this damn story line instead of wandering around aimlessly doing menial tasks to become strong enough to fight things that are in my way.

So I try to go to two areas that challenged me before hand. I fail in both of them, and send myself back north, to the White March; to continue exploring the Tundra. I talk my way into some fights with some of the folk out in the tundra, possibly side quest related, but I don't read all of the dialogue. I want something I can fight and defeat.

I find the person who was 'escorting' the goods to be 'offered' to the god, who is apparently at the bottom of a frozen lake. I dive right on in. I want treasure again.

Turns out the chests thrown down the lake are just that, chests, full of stones. The church, priest, acolytes, et al are just one massive guild of thieves. Nice. I can go back and kill them all. First, I explore the rest of the tundra, finding a whole bunch of Ogres guarding a cave. I kill them, camp outside the cave, deciding to delay my return to town.