Please have mercy with my companions, I kinda like them

[Cromfel]

Here I am, middle of nowhere. Little bit disoriented, traveling with people I barely know. My memory starts to slowly recall the events. Maybe it was not too good of an idea to drink that bottle we found last night, hell, not too worried about it, just feeling a bit dizzy. Here we are, stuck for the night with our caravan, I start to doubt the skills of the caravan leader. Maybe it is the poison messing with my head, not feeling very well. To comfort me the caravan leader hints me that there may be some berries nearby that usually help with such poisoning. better go seek them out, would like to see the morning rise tomorrow rather than my demise. Traveler Calisca joins me to make sure I dont just pass out and get eaten by wolves. How nice of her, after some persuasion, ruffian huh?

 

Finally after some time of roaming around we find the berries, meanwhile having a little chat with Calisca. She seems to be rather nice person after all. A little rough on the edges, but definitely a kind of a women that I could get along with. Not that I am asking her to marry me or anything, just a blink of an eye nice thoughts pass my mind. We briefly talk about our personal history and she mentions her sister in need of help. That being the reason why she is on the journey. Kinda noble to go through this kind of trouble even without clear idea whats going on with her sister. Gut feeling or some  intuition that she has to do whatever it takes to go help her, I rather help her even if it is not a big deal, she has got the right kind of determination.

 

As we speak Calisca remind of the mercenary at the caravan was supposed to get some water while we were searching for the berries. We keep chatting with Calisca and start venturing forth near the river to catch up with this lazy mercenary. Suddenly we find the water pouch and I start to get this uneasy feeling that something is not right. We hear some cracking sound from nearby forest and there he is, our caravan member walking slowly towards us and collapsing just before our eyes with arrow on his back. It is an ambush! Adrenaline rushes through my veins as we take battle stances, crushing through the weakened body of mine from the poisoning. Calisca is my only hope to withstand the assault. Battle rages on and we do survive barely.

 

This is not a good sign...

 

We rush back to the camp to alarm rest of the caravan just to see that we are too late. The attackers have slain most of the travelers with Heodan just about to be decapitated. I briefly see glimpse of the attackers leader being religious somehow with kind of religious signs around his body. I promptly ask him to stop and inquire if this is really what his gods wish him to do. Confused of the misplaced prayer he starts to ramble about will of the gods, giving just the needed distraction for Heodan to slip from his hands. Fight immediately emerges and the attackers charge towards us. We are exhausted of the previous brawl, with Heoden we barely again live to fight another day.

 

Three bodies of ambushers laying on the ground, suddenly as disturbing storm emerges from the air. Almost as if the remnants of life escaping from the attackers was causing all this, the escape of their souls summoning some evil spirits. Coughing on his own blood our caravan leader manages to sprout "RUN!" with his last breath. We realize the severity of situation and start running to take cover from the nearby ruins. Heoden almost collapses as we climb, one of the attackers managed to grasp his feet, with a split second decision I throw my family heirloom sword at the attacker knocking him unconscious giving me opportunity to pull Heoden up the cliff. We all survive and barely escape to the ruins just before the magical storm destroys the entrance.

 

At least I am not alone...

 

I need this kind of friends on the journey. I suppose saving Heoden twice in short period of time, I should have a friend for life. Calisca, I don't know, maybe she appreciates my determination to help those who stick around. I did promise to her that we will go see her sister after all. I suppose we can trust her also to some extend. We start exploring this mysterious ruins.

 

Some kind of puzzle emerges ahead of us, not certain if we should to touch it, we seek around and find a passage through wall. I still had some strength in me to push through the wall, scent of fresh air gives us some encouragement, maybe there is an exit nearby. After clearing the place from foul creatures we finally we see some light and find an entrance that seems to lead outside of the ruins. Maybe we can find some peaceful place outside to settle for camp overnight and to rest a bit.

 

That was too much to hope for. As we walk to the fresh air some strange machine merges before our eyes. Some odd looking cultist are preparing ritual of kind. We really don't want to get involved. We just observe from the doorsteps trying to avoid any contact with the ritual.

 

Then sudden explosion ripples through the air!

 

I fall on the ground and for few seconds become unconcious. WHAT HAPPENED! I see Calisca and Heoden on the ground. Motionless, crippled, dead. Both... Dead... How? Why? I ask myself. How could the gods be so cruel. What is to come of my journey if the gods kill people around me in an blink of an eye. I open the game menu and load from the last autosave. We run again outside and same thing happens. My companions die unexpectedly. Both. Just like that. I did my best to take care of them, now gone. I alt-tabbed to desktop and googled to see if this was inevitable, tried to find if they can be saved and find from Pillars of Eternity Wiki: "Some characters don't join your party permanently, but are available during one quest or a few quests"

 

I cook some coffee, take a deep breath and start exploring around. Puzzled by the fact that my friends were gone. I start heading towards the the nearby village and come across a cave with a connection to the odd visions I have started to see, guarded by a vicious bear. It attacks and tears me into pieces in few seconds as I try to understand the source of haunting visions of mine. As the last breath of my life escapes me I remember my old friends Calisca and Heoden. With them I could have had some possibility to kill the beast! I explain to my brother over TeamSpeak how the gods had taken my dear friends away from me. He assures that I can buy another companion from the Inn on next village and that there is a mage in front of the Inn that I can recruit also. Sounds sufficient, not that I wanted to know what is ahead of me, but circumstances made it reassuring. With those two replacements I could take on this bear and figure out what is going on with my visions.

 

Finally I arrive at the Inn. I go through the backdoor and find the Inn keeper who lets me build companion to my taste. Maybe some Dexterity, Hmmm, elf looks cool, Ranger... There we go. Now I have new companion to replace that dear friend of mine Calisca. I wonder to my self if this new friend of mine is Hollow Born. We head outside of the inn from the main door. There he is an obnoxious mage throwing insults at everyone around being surrounded by angry looking villagers. Dear gods, do I really have to save HIS ass? Then the image of that ferocious bear passes my mind. I intervene on the villagers starting to get brutal on the mage. Brawl ensures and we survived another brutality. This jerk did survive, he is not that bad after all, just a bit annoying. Finally I get my party formed to suitable strength and we can head back to the cave to slay that bear.

 

I start to feel sleepy, maybe I log out and go sleep. I again sob to my brother about loosing my two friends and I log out. Maybe I stop by at Obsidian forums to tell that I absolutely love the game. Brings back so good memories of good old times. I feel like an adventurer again. Thank you!

 

But please gods, have mercy with my companions, I kinda like them

 

Best regards,

Cromfel

[Duchess of Kvetch]

Did you ever kill that infernal bear?

[Cromfel]

Yes, eventually I did kill that darned monster! I had silent moment of 1minute to honor my lost friends the glorious day I did

[Eurician]

Very nice Post. I had similar thoughts when i saw heoden and especially Calisca dead on the Ground.

[Cromfel]

I am not absolutely sure the OOC experience was what developers were hoping for but it just slapped me into face. I wanted to stay in character but it just was so striking I lost the very nice feeling what was built up until that point. I was totally immersed into the world.

[Katarack21]

I do wish there was a way to save Calisca. I really liked her.