Gorth

Kids these days, they just don’t make them how they used to I blame video games and watching too much anime

A few more island to go on treasure islands (unless it flips over again and presents me with a third map full of islands?)... making that today's goal for me. After that, there is only missions left, that takes place in Iz. So, off to Iz after that. I can almost hear the lead bard from some Abyssal Rock band belting out "Gorth save the Queen!"

Meanwhile, Inside the Box, Schrodinger’s Cat Plans Its Revenge…

I finally completed The Secret of Creation (I think that was its name), after finding the last puzzle pieces in The Laughing Cave. That was a bit... anticlimactic? Gained another level to cumulative level 38 (20 barbarian and 18 warrior). On normal difficulty, most needs for tactics or thought has gone out the window. The last fight in The Laughing Cave actually downed 3 of my team members, bit Gorth would just merrily hack away at the two bosses, doing between 75 and 150hp damage with each swing of Finnean (and that's a lot of swings at this point at this level)

Didn't something like that happen in Italy after Berlusconi's corruption scandals reach the point beyond salvaging, even by his 95% media dominance? Iirc, the parliament appoint an unaffiliated technocrat to try to salvage the economy for the short term. Somebody without a past (or a political future) who just happened to understand basic economics, so he got shoved into the seat for a while (while the old political parties were plotting on how to get back into power once the economy looked just a little better)

I remember when living back in Denmark, where they started charging you for water. Technically they are not allowed to charge you for drinking water (covered by some kind of human rights convention), but it was easier to measure the water going in to a household when it came to taxing the sewage (which is what the charge really was for). Looking at compressors and airbrushes at the moment. Planning on getting both before I start painting my Alpha Legion for upcoming games of Horus Heresy I'm also going to need some kind of either Airbrush booth or a well ventilated workspace, as the paints are not all water based Edit: Currently looking at Iwata stuff for the first two https://www.hobbytools.com.au/Iwata-IS975-Power-Jet-Pro-Compressor?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8sOSmeCi-wIVZYNLBR1ncw1JEAQYASABEgJQKvD_BwE https://www.metrohobbies.com.au/products/iwata-hp-cs-eclipse-gravity-feed-airbrush?currency=AUD&variant=32622631419989&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google Shopping&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImYv-ouCi-wIVxg0rCh3z5AkcEAQYAiABEgJqcPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

"Luckily" we have our own mess down here to not worry too much about US politics. At least after Scott from Marketing got kicked out. Doesn't mean there aren't headlines of course, but they usually fall into one of two categories, either elections or school shootings. Todays ABC news frontpage has two articles about the mid term elections in the US. Beaten by covid related info (Queensland, my state, recommends wearing face masks again from tomorrow as the Omicron variant is sweeping through the country in a new wave), drug scandals in sports and Chinese antics (including covid in China) and the disproportionate number of Aboriginal deaths in police custody (because racism is alive and well in Australia)

Fries... I've yet to meet a bird that could resist fries. Next time, do a stop at the cheapest junk food joint you can find and get some fries. The more fatty and salty, the better. It works on ducks, pigeons, pelicans, seagulls, crows, kookaburras, magpies, c0ckatiels, c0ckatoos, rosellas, galahs and lorikeets (the ones I remember from top of my head coming after me for my fries)

I think it was supposed to be neither. Just a bit informative. A current affair is the kind of tv show that just tells about lesser known stuff happening in society if I understood it correctly (since I very rarely watch TV)

The latest Honest Government Ads... this one is really only of domestic, Australian interest as it's a broadside fired at the West Australia government Edit: More domestic Australian stuff... now that we got the right wing government under Morrison (where everything, including parts of Australia were sale) ousted and have a new leftie government, it's time to boost the size of the Australian military and maybe rattle a few sables at geopolitical threats

I saw a five minute clip of "Rings of Power". I want those 5 minutes of my life back so I can spend it on something more interesting (that had to be the most cringe worthy dialogue I've ever sat through)

You could argue they are actually fighting like a 500bc army at times... when generals lead from the front and peasants were expendable.

@Zoraptor you could choose to become a legend and forsake the power that was handed to you... currently level 37 and rising (capped at level 40 iirc). I guess it's capped at 20 for the mythic paths as a counterweight to the mythic benefits you gain along with the story progression?

Ah yes, guarded hearth. At first I had no idea why some build guide for Sosiel recommended impossible domain community. Until I tried guarded hearth (because Gromnir brought up the name of that ability at some point when I felt like banging my head against a wall because enemy had turned into an immovable obstacle)... Since I'm not going to do secret ending (can't do that when doing legend), I decided to just drop Enigma (and Nenio as she seemed enamoured of the place and refused to leave it) and move on. Not that many other places to go other than Iz now. Working my way towards cumulative level 38. Most encounters at this point are trivial (mind you, only "normal" difficulty, I'm sure that's a different experience on higher difficulties). I might just finish off treasure islands, as I'm two thirds through the second overland map, island 4 or 5 in the second batch of islands. After doing the islands, I may or may not decide to go back and say hello to Nenio, if she's still around at Enigma. Edit: Completed Ember's personal quest (leaving just Nenio) and went to a Baphoment shrine. A special guest appearance by my favourite hot demon chick Noticula made for some rather amusing conversations. Having a soft spot for Ember for various reasons, I picked to (good) dialogue choices. Trying to strike an overall balance between good and evil to stay chaotic neutral.

If "Blue Monday" had been released 50 years earlier...

At lower levels, I found snowball to be the most effective offensive spell. Forget fire spells and the wimpy missile. Snowball ignores the recipients magic resistance MR something I learned to prioritize my spell selections after. At least until Ember got elemental affinity fire, focus on evocation (and conjuration eventually) and greater spell penetration (plus its mythic variant). Nenio focusing on illusion and enchantment spells. But snowball will always have a special place in my spellbooks

I went through the process of respeccing my barbarian at Hilor's sickbed, so I removed both the 1 level of vivisectionist and the 15 levels of bard I had ended up with. Now 20 levels barbarian (mad dog... it just seemed so apt) and 17 levels of warrior (of course, writing this now, I can't remember of it was bloodrager or instinctual warrior). Also replaced my triceratops with a wolf. Dropping str and armour, focusing on fast movement and some dex (I put in a point of int to get 3, to make some feats available because that's what the tooltip told me)

Sad that I even think such a mod necessary, but I'm fairly sure it will be part of my next run! (that or drop Nenio in a lava pit somewhere)

One of the few places I hadn't visited yet was the jail... not the one in Drezen, but the one Baphomet calls "home". Generally easy going (fight wise). Hated the puzzles, but once you could see the number sequences, it wasn't too bad. Just incredibly obnoxious. I don't know if I did the following in the right order or if it could have been done differently:

There are some people (I'll not mention names) you wouldn't even need to pay to jump to the conclusion that the protests in Portland were organized by some world spanning antifa plot

I believe Finland is very much a Nordic country, not only in a geographical sense, but a cultural and societal way. I.e. "The Nordic Model". Which is privately owned and run companies with government run services (financed through taxes). Personal tax tends to be a lot higher than corporate tax btw, to encourage the growth of businesses. That being said, labour laws and regulations tends to be handled between unions and employers (the latter also have an organisation to bolster their combined bargaining power as employers). Only if voluntary agreements fail, does the government step in and enforce work place regulations (at least that was my experience 20+ years ago).

In hindsight I should probably have kept my trickster (that means a full trickster run some day). But legend was the plan from the outset. I have no idea how far I still have to go in the current game, but I imagine in my next game I'll try something squishier than my barbarian (even if adding 15 levels of bard was not the best option to "bulk" up my barbarian ). Maybe a necromancer turned lich or a druid turned angel or something crazy like that. Interesting ideas and concepts being more important than beating the game on high difficulty settings for me... Yes, wimp I am Edit: A similar phenomenon to when I play Kill Team or Horus Heresy. Winning isn't the sole objective as much as an interesting fight with lots of narrative in it.

Putting on the moderator cap: I'm not going to bother pruning this thread, but it's time to lay off the personal attacks. That goes for everybody involved. Yes, 'everybody' implies more than two people... edit: Yes, censorship can be alive an well if required. Doesn't take an autocrat to do...

Same thing here. They have become investment objects instead of bonds or gold bars. People with either spare cash or good bank connections buy up homes in numbers, driving up rent and prices, making owning your own home unachievable for more and more "normal" working families with normal day jobs.