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Psyche: Update 40

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[Another post that will possibly feature spoilers for a new mod. This time its Crucible by Morpheus562. If you may be playing that mod soon, you may want to skip after the line of astrix]

We returned to Amkethran, we quickly saw the guards were on high alert. We could all guess who they meant to fight. It would be nice to just slip into the fortress with no additional body count. So we skirted the edge of town, until we saw a clear line for the tavern. Thinking that might be a good place for information we went there and avoided attention. Inside, three mercenaries attacked us, but they were put down quickly. I asked the owner if he knew anyway, or knew anyone who knew a way into the fortress.
Looking at the dead mercenaries, he suggested a married couple in town had been also been looking for a way in. He told us where to go, and requested we finish our business quickly.
The couple in question had been planning on killing Balthazar, I suggested we were better qualified. They agreed, and gave us the key.
Entry from there involved little drama.

Balthazar hasn’t there been enough killing? We both even want peace, an end to this whole silly Bhaal thing. I would happily let you go, but surely you know, if you start something here you’re not the one who will be walking out of here.

Balthazar was beyond reason. It seems as we come to the end of this, we’re encountering more fanatics. Balthazar has made plain its Melissan who has manipulated this whole thing, created “The Five”. We learned more on return to the Solar back in my pocket plane. Melissan was a priestess of Bhaal, once charged with restoring the dead god when his essence had been harvested from all his children. But she was faithless, what a shock right? The clergy of a twisted and evil dead god is more interested in gaining his power for themselves than in restoring him.

Having concluded our lessens, it was time to close my personal plane down and proceed to “The Throne of Bhaal” and settle things with Melissan.

*****

This turned out to be a little more involved than expected. Melissan’s treason had started a sort of civil war in Bhaal’s old domain. And our encounter with Melissan was now blocked in several ways.

We encountered warriors led by Mayithra, who identified herself as a servant of Amelyssan the Blackhearted. She escaped, but left a force for us to contend with. Crossing the Abyss is no easy thing, several types of indigenous life forms are dangerous and invariably hostile.

To proceed further, we ultimately had to bargain with an old foe. In spite of my blood, my soul protests every moment spent here. All of us feel that way. I’m leaning heavily on Diomedes here, he is wiser than I, and we do not want to make any bad mistakes in a desire to just get home.
We did encounter Mayithra again with another body of warriors. This time she did not escape.

After a series of battles we wound up at a gate to Bhaal’s Palace. We would need items from two nearby towers to enter the sealed Palace gate.

Like no giant spider we’d seen before!
I would rather not kill you, I don’t even know what you are! But if you oppose me you *will* loose.

I’m not under any illusions about anyone in the Abyss being “nice”. But why do they all want to die? I suppose you should just know a guy called “Belchaad the Juggernaut” will be difficult. This is all tearing me apart.

Mental health break…

Entering Bhaal’s Palace involved more fighting. But then an interesting surprise. A civil chat, with Ao. Now I’m really wishing I’d brought that autograph book!

Ao insisted he could not interfere in my coming fight with Amelyssan. But he did plainly spell out, the winner would control the fate of all remaining Bhaal essence.

I thanked him for being so gracious with me, I drew surprising strength from this reminder of common decency.

And then it was on to the main event.

Amelyssan please, I’d rather not kill you. But if you choose to fight I will.

*****

I would say I was pretty impressed with the quality of Crucible. The maps are beautiful and high resolution, several unique and interesting new beasties to fight. And a story that makes perfect sense, even presenting a bit more information pertinent to the final series of fights. Very worthy addition to the Saga. As always, I play exclusively on Core.

Another Bhaalspawn Saga comes to an end. Psyche and her team survived all the final battles without a loss. What cosmic choice will Psyche make with the heavy load of Bhaal’s essence wholly on her slim shoulders?

Check in tomorrow for the epilogue and final post of “Psyche and Diomedes”.

2 responses to “Psyche: Update 40”

  1. Zeno Avatar
    Zeno

    I really like the Balthazar image. I played with some mod – I don’t remember which – which allowed you to talk it out peacefully with Balthazar. Basically you swore that you would give up the divine power when the last of the other Bhaalspawn were defeated, and if he believes you he kills himself so that he eliminates himself from the list. Liked that better than being forced to fight him when we share goals if not methods.

    The “mental health break” came out really well too, as did the Amelyssan pic. That’s a great render of her, and does a fantastic job representing how she looked in my head.

    I’m not even sure what the actual Amelyssan fight looks like, since I played with Ascension (never again) and that turned it into a massively irritating fight against first Bohdi, Irenicus, and several random Dark Solar helpers immediately followed by re-fighting all the other Bhaalspawn at once. Just way too much cheese required to be enjoyable.

    I suspect I know what choice Psyche will make… but it’ll be fun all the same.

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    1. atcDave Avatar
      atcDave

      I think talking Balthazar down is part of Ascension. I used that once many years ago, and like you, never again. It is a shame, I would like to talk our way to an understanding. And it is funny how doing this “journal” style, I’m much more aware of the role playing aspects. And Psyche would have really preferred to talk him down! Of course I really played up her fatigue with all the fighting and killing in this chapter. That sort of mirrors my own feelings, I’m always a little tired of things by this point.

      I did have fun with some of the size differences here, Psyche is well aware of her own power at this point, even if foes tower over her.

      I liked the mental health break too! After doing the render, I wasn’t quite sure I had an ideal place for it in the write up. But after Balthazar, and then a bloody rampage across the Abyss, it seems pretty right.

      I was also pleased with Amelyssan, kind of bonkers looking!
      I don’t think Ascension changes the look of the fight much. It does add a lot more characters to some of the fights though. In the original, I’d say any one of those final fights isn’t that hard. Its just that there’s seven of them with no opportunity to rest. So its a big deal for resource management more than anything. Some of the beasties Mel summons are pretty tough, but its one of those where the fight ends once you defeat Mel (each time). As long as you don’t foolishly waste spells you’ll need, I think its easier than the final Irenicus fights (or Final Seal at Watcher’s Keep).

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