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Aias: Update 12

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atcDave

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Charity

It seems like these last few days I’ve had not so much to. We faced a range of combat, but mostly melee of the sort that limited my own involvement. First the long trek up to the Gloomfrost Range. If anything could be more frozen and desolate than Icewind Dale, this is it. So bitter cold.

I think all the wolves up here were Winter Wolves, the sort that breath winter right in your face.
And more than a few Yeti.

Also Frost Giants, Snow Trolls, Polar Bear. It was constant combat just to get to the caves we were looking for.

And then the caves were filled with Rhemoraz, those acid spitting glacier dwellers. Ferocious and tough.

As we approached the Seer’s part of the caves we encountered more Ice Golems. Finally, we met the aged shamaness who advised we present Wylfdene with a mirror. That was a little anti-climatic! But she was sure a mirror would upset whatever he had become. A long trek back.

The mirror did upset Wylfdene!

He’d been possessed by the spirit of a Dragon! Apparently the Dragon could not stand the sight of the form she had assumed. This led to a civil war in the barbarian camp. One tribe, the Tribe of the Wyrm, knew exactly what Wylfdene was and attacked us for our sacrilege. The other tribes joined with us against them. This was a large and confusing melee that lasted for quite some time.

I helped Jill spot targets, she was so confused and couldn’t tell the tribes apart. I helped her not to shoot anyone who was fighting with us!

We talked with Hjollder after, he was pretty sure he knew where the Dragon had flown off to, an Isle that years ago had been home to a White Wyrm that terrorized all of Icewind Vale. We needed to see to some business in Lonelywood, so Hjollder said he’d wait a couple days for us. The Barbarians would need several days to get to their boats and sail there, he could spirit walk us there ahead of the others if we got back soon enough.
In Lonelywood we went right to Councilman Thurlow’s home to let him know what all we’d found. We found the Councilman and his wife had been murdered.

*The assassin is right behind me!* Pikwell hissed.

We caught the villain, but he fought to the death. So we remain a little clueless about who ordered this done.
The next day, when leaving the inn we met strangers in town.

There are no wizards in this town, and I can see the darkness in your heart. Everyone here is under our protection, now shove off.

Ila does have a temper! And she seems to consider everyone she meets as “under her protection”. Is that a mom thing? I don’t know, but it led to a big fight. The wizard speaking had several invisible friends, really. Another mage, a dark cleric, thief and a couple warriors. This was a tough fight, and I cast a lot of spells! I think more than I had all week up until this event. These were easily the two toughest mages I’ve ever fought. By the end Ila, Aias and Jinella were all stunned or confused. But Jill, Pikwell and I brought down the two mages at last. Then we did some dispelling and everyone was okay.
But we would need another day before we went off to meet with Hjollder. The next morning we were getting ready to head off, I saw Jill talking with a halfling at a table by himself.

Of course we’ll help you sir, its what we do…

I heard her say those words and there was a flash, not quite as intense as the one that brought us to this world.

4 responses to “Aias: Update 12”

  1. Zeno Avatar
    Zeno

    That’s fun! Pikwell’s look of surprise is great! And that look surprise when Wylfdene’s dragon spirit appears… I don’t know what memory its tickling but that facial expression just *screams* Elmore to me.

    Its amazing how strong and consistent Aias’ look is. Sometimes you just hit upon an archetype that resonates strongly with the AI – so that it holds firm in a variety of scenarios. Other looks sometimes seem held together by duct tape, and come apart at the seams with the slightest change in scenery.

    Hobart certainly looks suitable suspicious. I’ve never run a party that I could see trusting him, he just immediately comes across to me like a telephone call wanting you to wire money to your cousin trapped in India.

    Its irritating how any time I use anything bug-like – spider legs, ant legs, even Crab claws and such – it insists on tossing actual ants, spiders, etc in the pic as well. I end up straining to come up with ways to describe what I want without naming it just to get rid of the extras. I guess its not even just bugs. Every time one of my Druid’s changes forms I get background guests. Even in the current run Falcon’s tattoo keeps summoning birds. Just one of those quirks of the AI.

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    1. atcDave Avatar
      atcDave

      This whole set came out well. The most problematic to do, no shock, was the one with both Charity and Jill. It just did want to keep straight who was doing what.

      Hobart does sort of scream *don’t trust me*. So here I go picking on the group simpleton to step right into his trap!

      BTW, I have recently learned, the OpenArt edit utility is *much* more useful than Microsoft’s. Obviously a little more involved moving a render over to the other engine, but when you have one that’s close it may be worth it to save the render.

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      1. Zeno Avatar
        Zeno

        Multiple characters is a real art. You have to stage it and choose the order extremely carefully – particularly if the characters are similar. Old man and young woman (like Kat and Mardracht) it can pretty easily keep apart – although even there it really wanted to give Kat his elf ears. Two young women like yours is asking for trouble unless you have strong archetypes. Something like <golden sorcerer woman> helps <archer woman> aim at targets.

        What I do is keep in mind that every word influences in some way everything *after* it, and then arrange my terms in <simple char 1> <action> <simple char 2>, <complex char 1> <complex char 2>. And move things around between the first and the second description sets to influence how they bounce of each other. Still difficult, but I can usually juggle around enough to get something worthwhile.

        I’ve been using tools like GIMP for offline editing, just because I’m familiar with them from my day job. I’ll have to take a look at what the OpenArt Editor does. Like you I certainly wasn’t impressed with the Microsoft one.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. atcDave Avatar
        atcDave

        I’ve had some luck with rearranging things, as you say the sequence of description has some impact on how things are rendered. The complexity there was not just the two women, but trying to get some passable barbarians and tents/huts for the background all added to it.

        Because of the complexity of the characters on this team, I’m actually trying to simplify most of my renders. As I’ve gotten better with the characters, well, I’ve gotten a little bolder with the scene. This one was pushing my limits.

        I’m not familiar with GIMP, but OpenArt is pretty simple and powerful. It doesn’t give a lot of “not allowed” responses like Co-Pilot does. I’ve seen some reference to face replacement which I may want in the near future.

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