This covers the end part of Shadows of Amn. I did “Call of the Lost Goddess” mod, Watcher’s Keep and then the end game of Suldanesslar and the Abyss. I feel like I’m a little burned out on narratives, but we can still take a look at the team.
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Minsc is still with us! He just hasn’t been away from the Castle for a few weeks. Recently Christopher wanted to explain something about the Roenall’s hostility to Minsc, and decided he would do better talking to Boo. This actually worked quite well.During some down time at the Castle, Aerie chose to do some gardening. Weeding. Jaheira was annoyed with some of things she considered weeds! I love both my friends, but they are so different! Jaheira is tough and fearless. Aerie is sweet and gentle, she’s much easier to just enjoy a good laugh with!Skie is still with us at the castle. She got the archers ready for the big battle with the Roenalls. What a huge help she is. It still makes me happy to see her smiling and not dead!Nalia is still with us too. She seems happy to be doing administrative work at the castle. And Christopher makes her *show us* how to help the less fortunate so we can do so. She says she feels like she is making a big difference now. She’s the one who explained to us how after our big battle with the Roenalls, we are now considered nobles with title to this land. I guess that means the place is ours!I admit, I needed help with what she meant (“nobles with title”? Who talks like that?! Nalia I guess…)When we were escaping the Abyss after rescuing Waukeen, Maretta led a group of demons to attack us. She kept saying really filthy things to us, I warned her I’d have her tongue for that. There were a lot of demons so I faced her alone, she chuckled at a little human girl facing her!I realized after I killed her didn’t really want anything as dirty as her tongue.
[Seriously, my melee types fought on a broad front while the spellcasters kept busy breaching and dispelling. Jill finished against Maretta first, and got a piece of several others. She had 65% of party kills in the last chapter]
On the first level of Watcher’s Keep we performed a ritual that brought a room full of statues to life. It amazes me how powerful the team has grown. And I’m so proud of my little sister! She always was the smart one.Later we stepped onto a floor of a weird magical maze. Christopher healed a coocoo elf man which was our first clue of what a mess this could be. Fortunately, we were up to the challenge.Keldorn stop, we’re all okay, let’s not act too fast!
[At the end of Watcher’s Keep, Keldorn is very hot about the betrayal of the false watch knights. Jill got to show restraint and moderation in dealing with them. It may be she didn’t really understand how deliberately she’d been betrayed, she just will not understand such duplicity]
I like listening to Christopher tell the story of how I battled and destroyed Irenicus in the Abyss.I mostly remember feeling so small, my knees were shaking and my stomach felt like I’d been eating glass. Then he breathed on me, and I remembered how much grief this smelly jerk had caused me and my friends.
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I’ll leave it at that before Jill leads her crew into the story’s last act. This has been a fun run. I feel like I’ve grown close to a couple of characters I never really knew before. And in spite of some reservations heading into this, I really enjoy Jill as a protagonist. She is simple but not really stupid. She deconstructs threats down to how dangerous they are, doesn’t worry about much nuance. If someone is getting hurt she will put a stop to it. And I love that just once, she was wiser than Keldorn. That last video render may be favorite one of her yet.
Those all came out really well. Its still funny how in rendered images Jill’s hair changes the style so much. Minsc, Jaheira, the demons…. it all came out well. Nalia is thinner than I imagine her, but there’s plenty of room for variance in that. In my head she looks like Drew Barrymore. Both demons came out well – particularly the.. succubus? And of course Jill psyching herself up for battle is a great personality showpiece.
it’s funny too because the descriptions don’t change. Jill is always “long purple hair in a pony tail”. No doubt there is some difference between the AIs, DALL-E often goes with a more washed out color. OpenArt is much more stable, and I like it for Jill when it is *just* her in the scene.
The original Nalia art looked strongly like Drew Barrymore. I like getting away from that, many renders I’ve had of her come out plainer and a little soft. But I liked this one, it seemed to fit the mood.
Yeah that’s the succubus, main villain from “Call of the Lost Goddess”.
obviously I was just being a little silly trying to get Jaheira and Aerie in an image again, but wow I was pleased with how they both came out!
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