Primislas

Somehow, no matter how I responded to his theft, the answer was coming from Iselmyr. One of them was to the tune of "I'll take care of him/that". It felt appropriate (again, he's worried his personal info will be exposed for all the world to see, she acts on his behalf) even though it left my head scratching - hasn't he just decided to take control of his life, like just just now? Maybe a dialogue scripting error. And exactly, he's an anxious risk-averse person prone to stressing out. Yet he decides to throw his lot with the Leaden Key: can't be an easy decision and an easy path. And do their goals really coalesce? During the Duc's hearing he was urging for more control of the practice, not a complete ban. And the slides say his goal becomes guarding the secrets of the gods. (I'll screenshot it when I get the chance, seeing how it appears to be such a rare outcome. ) We can speculate that it was due to his anxiety over living in a godless world of uncertainty, and why not stand by the gods - manmade or not they are real things with all the attributes of deities. Be it as it may, still I feel it's a veeeery long stretch from trying to take matters into his own hands and outgrow Iselmyr. To me this outcome felt totally out of the blue as I was watching the slides in bewilderment. "Don't let others dictate you what you should do and learn to face your fears" somehow turns into "I will dominate all of you because it is right"? Certainly didn't see that coming at the time. (:

It should be pretty similar to the "send souls to Woedica" option I guess. So they need to change / voice-over only ~4 slides I think. And cut out slides for dead companions too I guess.

Gratzische. Does the "No Rest" include resting in the inns? Did you roll a pacifist priest or just rushed through content?

It happens after prayer to a certain group of gods. The one that involves a certain goddess I believe.

Depends on your perspective. Time and time again the plot offers you the choice over who should be in control of a person's mind, body, destiny. Was GM in the right trying to manipulate parents? Just to be consistent it felt appropriate to stop these subjugations of Aloth's will by a different entity. Aloth, suspicious as he was about animancy, seemed geniunely remorseful confessing his past with the Leaden Key, and abhorred by what he discovered about them. Whereas Iselmyr repeatedly got him into trouble, being a needlessly confrontational thief, cheater and liar. It's one thing when your alter ego defends you when you're a child horrified of your parents. But come on now, Aloth is an adult. He figured out why Iselmyr awakened. He can reflect, make the right conclusions and grow as a character making her redundant. Like real adult people do. Instead he opted for a second 180 turn on his Leaden Key affiliation in a matter of days because reasons.

I've found no topics dedicated to his path after the ending, and it feels surprising. So here goes. My Aloth decided to don the robes of Thaos (literally his exact robes stripped from a smoldering corpse) and start his long journey on safeguarding the divine secret. Which I found a bit bewildering. Was it just me? (Considering no one else is obsessing about it.) What are his alternative endings? For the record, I convinced him to dominate his alter ego, accepted his apology and invited him to be my equal rather than making a new master out of myself. Where did it go wrong? How am I not to kill/expell him every time he confesses from now on?

But guess what. Berath is speculating (or actively trying to manipulate you). Just like all the other gods do. Berath claims souls can (and have to be) returned to the cycle. SIX other gods say they are too broken for it, so they either have to be disintegrated or sacrificed. Out of curiosity I loaded the save and restored the souls. The slides said nothing of "broken semi-feral" children, furthermore the souls that found no bodies to return to, returned to the cycle through the increased birthrate of twins in a year that became known as "the Year of Hylea's Splendor". So... yeah, Hylea was right. She's your actual benevolent/passionate choice, whereas Berath is rational/stoic I guess.

Taking any entrance to that part of the keep in fact. I discovered it by entering from courtyard.

Somehow I'm not surprised. I still have chills every time I speak with GM - I can't imagine playing the game without her in my party. Can't you? Have you completed her quest? Because I found her approach somewhat offputting. I couldn't imagine playing without her because of Mind Blades and Blind though.

Well then don't harvest them. My Stronghold vendor from one of the shops usually maintains a healthy supply of Vithrack lobes.

But you don't die. The slides actually talk about PC using the alternative path up to the surface and making it out eventually after days of wondering.

Ah, but if you're unsure about the state of the souls, why waste them on Rymrgand's realm? From what I've seen and heard, it doesn't really sound like wintery-happiness. Rather the grinding machine of the final death. So sacrifice them as Abydon and Magran beckon, use them to some good. There was a fascinating speculation in a nearby thread about Eothas. What if he too was captured by the soul machines. All in all Wael's option feels as a rebellion against gods and the cycle, but what if by doing this you were releasing Eothas back to space (maybe empowering him with all the other souls in the process)? Although if Eothas was indeed captured, every option gets a very interesting new angle.

Rymrgand, yes. I've been breaking my brain over the appropriate forum to post minor suggestions (including this) though. I'm also bewildered to hear Stronghold guards calling me "stranger" (what do you want, stranger? or something to that extent).

She acts according to her personality and ideals she's supposed to represent. As a mother-figure she can't deal with the grief of having hollowborn children. And she has some nice lines: great sorrow has to be followed with great joy, balance demands it. Ever the artist, our Hylea. It's not supposed to be "the good" decision, even though it feels as if a knee-jerk "that sounds great!". In the spirit of the game, our knee-jerk well-intentioned reaction immediately gets a reality check, with Berath being extremely convincing and persuasively eloquent dissuading PC from this route. But I have to say that Abydon was just as convincing, with Wael's offer being an interesting rebellious option. It's Rymrgand who made little sense to me. I guess sending souls to him would've strengthened him? But what's in it for Eora or at least for me? And, well, Woedica... what an astonishing way for authors to trample on justice, law, order and retribution that only the people role-playing selfish jerks would even consider restoring her rule. "Hey, guys! What if we make the goddess of Justice and Retribution the Big Bad?" In retrospect it's a deliciously twisted meal.

Is it possible that you missed an attack on stronghold? Auto-resolved attacks can destroy buildings. If so, it is logged in your stronghold events list.

Oh, there's more to it? I have to admit I found it hard following his ramblings and reasoning at times and by the end I just wanted to finally resolve his quest before going after Thaos, but the only option I've had in the dialogue was "I think Magran was working with Woedica against Eothas". So... was there more to this? Are Magran's role and motives actually plainly revealed anywhere or left up for speculation just as Eothas? And while we're at it, why would Skaen suggest to the player to install Woedica as the ultimate big brother master? Theres more to what? Yes - there is more to Magran and the Godhammer. She was definitively not working with Woedica against Eothas. It's more that Eothas's avatar was overstepping his bounds by a great deal, and stepping into the territory of war (Magrans territory). Durance only got half a soul left, and there are two ways you can interpret this. <snip> As for Skaen. He is the Quiet Slave, the god of secret hatred, resentment, and violent rebellion. He stands to be second in power should Woedica get her souls as she wants. These gods all act according to their aspects. Where the other gods stand to loose should Woedica succeed he has many followers to gain. Meh, somehow somewhere my dialogues left only "Magran conspired with Woedica" option available, which left me scratching my head: "She's what now? Where did that come from? And I've just convinced Durance of this? [in Sagani's voice] What? What just happened!? " I should probably go back and re-read that conversation. And definitely should've given Skaen more thought, from this angle his peculiar behaviour makes perfect sense. Oh, the finer subtleties we might miss when rushing towards the end.

You have to progress further with the main story. You'll understand when you can go further down in the Endless Paths.

I had the quest for the Sky Dragon, so that can't be it. I had to lie to Adra too though (I guess she should be hostile upon your return after betrayal to get the Scale-Breaker ability, but as long as she's not, it felt wrong not to give her the Godhammer treatment ).

It happens when you click on the "scroll up/scroll down" arrows once I believe. I used to be haunted by it in my stronghold menu until I figured out how to stop it - just click the arrow once and it should stop.

Oh, there's more to it? I have to admit I found it hard following his ramblings and reasoning at times and by the end I just wanted to finally resolve his quest before going after Thaos, but the only option I've had in the dialogue was "I think Magran was working with Woedica against Eothas". So... was there more to this? Are Magran's role and motives actually plainly revealed anywhere or left up for speculation just as Eothas? And while we're at it, why would Skaen suggest to the player to install Woedica as the ultimate big brother master?

I'd concede that the whole "you should be worried for your fate" thing was too underplayed and I never felt any urgency because of it. Was dreaming of pillars during rests supposed to be disturbing? It's not. I actually quite enjoyed those visuals and ambience. However, the setting and the rest of the plot kept me moving forward, I found the intrigue gripping till the very end. "Ridiculous" as the cult might be, their goal remains a mystery for a long time. It is mid-Act 3 where you might think "okay, the big bad [plot] is revealed" and still there's a nice twist waiting. Not to mention all the other mysteries already listed in the thread, including the grand adventure to meet the Master Below, and most of companion quests. As far as the writing goes, personally I thoroughly enjoyed the vagueness of consequences of your actions and words. I've been touting for Shadowrun Dragonfall as a great experience lately, yet PoE surpassed it making me seriously dwell on decisions and even dialogue choices time and time again. I'm pretty sure that the ending slides depicting the world we created would surprise anyone a few times. I also enjoyed the absence of feel-good resolution options every so often. (E.g. The first companion quests I completed felt fairly depressing.) And the ending itself has no clearcut "these are the good ones" options. It was adult, immersive, inviting to ruminate. Overall an excellent setting for role-playing characters. Edit: Oh, as far as special powers are concerned, at least it is quickly established that you aren't a "chosen one"-tier being as Watchers and soul awakenings are relatively common, not some mythical creatures or events heralded by falling stars or whatnot. So there's that, my "here we go again" frustration was quickly brushed away by these considerations.

So having completed the game it appears I'm missing several Steam achievements I feel I should've obtained unless I'm missing something. However according to Steam global stats [virtually] no one else has them, so probably not just me. I've searched this forum for "achievements" (albeit briefly) and found only the Stronghold mentioned, so here they are: * All Upgrades in Stronghold, mentioned multiple times * Explorer (Visit Every Map) - 0% achieved it. Could "every map" actually mean "every location" (there can be multiple "discovered X" areas within a single map) with one or two tucked away somewhere? 0% global status rings alarm bells though (I like to imagine that I've been fairly thorough) * Kill All the Dragons - 0.1% global accomplishment rate. Somebody must've done it? So... I've slain the red one guarding the Godhammer shard, the blue one at Hylea's temple, the Master Below. Is there another dragon hidden somewhere?

The only comfort is that Mother's Mind Blades are ridiculously powerful, so much by the time she's done dispensing all 4 of them everything usually lies dead. Inb4 nerfhammer. But by Rymrgand's hide the time I spent banging my head against the monitor trying to figure out what am I doing wrong and what happened to focus gain... #Gief1.03

Just heard Durance talking to Sagani as if the search for Persoq was still on. ("And if you return empty-handed?" - "I never return empty-handed".) Whereas it had been completed some time ago.

My only concern is that yes it does indeed feel empty. We build a forum for heated debates worth 4 prestige points, yet it's always empty. A state of the art library that overawes Kana, yet there're no scholars studying there. Who's tending to the botanical garden? A single monk in this big prestigious chapel? No guards training at that ground? Etc, etc. Just populate it with more people, add more life and movement. Passing caravans and drifters etc. Otherwise I like it. A good money sink that adds a nice sense of pace to the game, being built ever so slowly as you adventure around. Every so often I have to return there to fend off attacks, adventures keep my extra companions on par with my experience, bounties are great challenges, free stat bonuses from resting. What's not to like? And given that I haven't followed development too closely, isn't the whole master-below-labyrinth tied to the stronghold as part of the KS stronghold reward tier? Haven't finished it yet, so not sure if it's related to the story in any way. But even if it's not, it's yet another mystery and one more adventure related to the Watcher, should he choose to inherit the keep.