Welcome back to Episode 2 of this Baldur's Gate 3 Let's Play Series. In Episode 1, we were captured by a nautiloid ship and infected with a parasite in our brain, which we learned will ultimately turn us into a mind flayer if we don't do anything about it. We also met several characters as we wandered the material plane after that nautiloid ship crashed, which includes Asterion, Shadowheart, and Gale. Lae'zel is currently back at our camp. These things have stayed. We are currently searching for a way to be cured of this parasite. There are several different ways that we can go about it. We did hear that there's a Healer named Nettie in a camp nearby, so I think we're going to pursue that. But Lae'zel has also said that she could bring us to a Githyanki crash where her people would purify us, whatever that means. So we have a couple of different options here. But we did discover some ruins in Episode 1, but didn't fully explore them. So let's go ahead and head back to the ruins right here and actually go inside this time and see what's going on. I did successfully lockpick this hatchback here, so we're going to go in the backside and avoid the front door because we do know that there are bandits that are interested in these ruins and pillaging them. Well, this should be unlocked right now. The Dank Crypt. We've entered some ruins through an underground cave. There are bound to be some interesting artifacts down here. Starting to get a headache. Right on my feet. This appears to be a Statue of Jergal , the Scribe of the Dead. Let's have a look. I'm scribes, but no sign of a struggle. Go ahead and loot these skeletons and actually take away their weapons too, just in case those skeletons happen to rise up and maybe they won't have any weapons on them. And also sell all of those weapons when we find a vendor. I'll pick up all these, why not? Thank you. Yes. We can learn Burning Hands for 50 gold. All right. Darkness use a light source. But as you guys can see right here, when I enter into I'd mode, we are currently in dim lighting right now, slightly obscured. But if we go ahead and light this brazier, we now have a full sun, a clear area, lightly obscured. Sharacters without dark vision have disadvantage on their attacks against lightly obscured enemies. Go ahead and light this room up. Still alive. Protection from Good and Evil. So I don't think Gale should be able to learn that. No, I have the Magic Touch. Oh, you can. I thought that was like a Divine spell. Okay, let's go ahead and learn it. I might actually have to save some of my gold. I'm not gonna lie. I'm gonna hold back on that right now. As well, necromancy spells are going to be the ones that are cheap for Gale to learn because I'm doing the necromancy subclass. Things have stayed interesting. He's not blood. No, never mind. Don't depress ahead. A change. Oh, that's just begging to be read. I applaud your taste. All right, so when picking up a book, probably want to use Gale for his intelligence and Arcana checks. Let's go ahead and pick up the Book of the Dead Gods. As you wish. Focus. Massive. All right, we can do an Arcana check, search for an Arcane Rune to sabotage, or wizard intelligence knock the lock open with a spell. I don't know about this. All right, I'm using inspiration. I really want to see what's in this book. Come on, Gale, you can do it. As the lock opens, the loose page comes with it. Magic pulses from the parchment. What was once script is now an obliterated scroll. You have a sense these are names, a list, but of what? Okay, and then we have a religion check, examine the book more closely. So close. This game has a ton of replayability though, because I'm going to want to come back and definitely succeed in that. The longer you stare at the dark and decimated words, the more your head aches. There is no meaning to be found here. A scroll of Ray of Enfeeblement. Weaken a foe, they deal half damage with weapon attacks using strength. Okay, well let's go ahead and pick up this book. Not a curiosity, let me try to read it again. The names of dead gods, most of them unfamiliar and unpronounceable, fill the pages of this ancient tome. Several entries on the last page have been stricken through, the final three thoroughly enough to be completely legible. Final three: Dead Three, Bane, Ball. You might guess. We'll pick that up. A soul coin. Strange, incomprehensible whispers emanate from this coin, pervading your mind with rage and despair. These coins can power infernal engines, and infernal engines are these massive war machines that are used in the Blood War, the war between devils and demons. And also, within soul coins, of course, are souls. So let's pick that up, assuming we're gonna get a little scene here. And I found some heavy armor too. Awesome. You know what I have to do before I pick that up? Let me start getting into the habit of using Mage Armor. There we go. Never seen a coin like this before. Most peculiar. It looks like nothing's gonna happen for now, so we'll hang on to that soul coin. Ready and willy. Okay, interesting room. Now I have, of course, played through Early Access a few times, so I do know what's gonna happen right now. We're gonna handle this in a way that makes sense. You take Shadowheart, put her right here. Make my character, we're gonna send him up. Asterion, we're gonna put over here. Get ready for you. And our wizard friend, we'll hide him in the shadows. There is work to do. Now, when you're scouting around, you have a feeling that there could be perception or investigation checks. You may want to consider putting guidance on your character. It's a cantrip that clerics and druids have. It only lasts for 10 turns, but... I failed the religion check, but that's fine. Carry me. Okay, we discovered a button. Let me see if I can pass this religion check real fast. Get us a little bit of lore on the game. Look at that. Jergal , the Scribe of the Dead. This chapel must be ancient. Awesome. Yes, yes, I have a lot on my mind. Um, well, in it. Let's go ahead and go inside this room. For some reason, I received a heal right there. Oh. Okay, let's go. Duffless run. All right, so the good thing about Shadowheart is she's using a mace right now and skeletons. Bludgeoning resistance. Bludgeoning damage against this entity is doubled. Supposed to be bludgeoning vulnerability. Huh, guess I found a little bug here. Let's go ahead and switch to the mace. I can't cast a spell right now because I'm in the silence bubble. I could move out and then cast Bless, but let's just go ahead and attack. Awesome. So our damage was doubled right there. We did six damage plus six equals 12 as the enemy is vulnerable and the skeleton went down. And now we'll go ahead and move outside of the silence bubble. If there's any cover around here, we'll go over here. Sure. Time to push my luck again. Look at my ranger's fantastic movement distance. So let's start off with... Hope I forgot to do... See, I forgot to do Longstrider. I should be doing that after every long rest alongside Mage Armor on Gale. Let's go ahead and cast it. And then we'll go ahead and move. How far we can move? It's pretty crazy. I probably shouldn't move into the open here. I'm gonna do it anyways though. And then we'll cast Hunter's Mark. These skeletons love their silence bubbles, don't they? And here we go, our first use of the Shield spell. And I currently have the reaction set at  Ask,  meaning a pop-up box will pop up and I can use Shield to boost my armor class by five and potentially avoid this Ray of Frost. Let's go ahead and give it a try. Or we cannot use it if I don't want to expend a spell slot. Look how cool that looks. Pause the Ray of Frost. That's amazing. Okay, so let's go ahead and... We'll take care of this guy first. Then I'm going to do a... We'll do a... As I see, I don't know some of these spells that well. Let me go ahead and try Ice Knife. Throw a shard of ice that deals 1d10 piercing damage. It explodes and deals 2d12 cold damage to anyOne nearby on a mess The Shard of Ice Still explodes so let's see what this ice knife spell is about. I think I had this Celesta though, that's pretty awesome. [Music] Okay, so we gotta get out of the silence bubble. Not sure if I can make it out, looks like I just, I'm just gonna make it out. No, you gotta be kidding me, so close. I can't do a spell now. Throw a mace at this guy. Just go ahead and take a crossbow shot. Okay, 55 chance right here. Hunter's Mark, not bad. I can no longer hide as a bonus action, nor can you hide when you're threatened. Can't be threatened, they really, really nerfed hide, which I think is really, really good. Move out of Larry in there, it was so op before, like on every single turn you'd be trying to hide. I'm happy that Larian made it so you don't think about that anymore. So is there any way I can get up my attack percentage here? Let's just take a swing. Bam! Okay, so I did daze the enemy, so I can actually move away further than this guy will be able to get to me because I have pretty far movement. So it's back all the way away. I'll flank, how smart. Little Ray of Frost, movement speed reduced by 10 feet, so that guy is definitely not reaching my Ranger, that's for sure. Actually, it came really, really close. Okay, here we go. Back this guy with a mace. See ya! Wolf is missing a few HP points, but not much. Yeah, we'll get up close and personal with the skeleton. So the skeleton tries to move, we get an opportunity attack, and then of course the skeleton is vulnerable to bludgeoning damage, not resistant despite what the game has told you. I wonder if this is worth the cost. Hey, let's go ahead and actually hit this attack this time. When I level up again, I'm going to take the speak with animals spell for my Ranger, just so you guys know. So I will be talking to plenty of animals on this run. Just note that I have played Early Access several times, and Early Access was an unfinished act one, so a lot of these act 1 encounters, I know them quite well. I'm not a professional at the game by any stretch of imagination, but I should be pretty good at most of these encounters. There's a few really tough ones, so don't judge the difficulty based on what you're watching right now. I'm sure as we get later in act one and get into act two, I'm probably gonna start getting my ass kicked, and I do make mistakes all the time. I'm sure you guys are going to point them out, trust me. A different world when you record yourself and then let thousands of people watch you. Everybody calls out every little mistake, like they wouldn't have made any of those mistakes on their own if they recorded themselves. Okay, so let's go ahead and investigate that room again. A lot of effort to hide one sarcophagus, interesting. But I do remember on my first Early Access run, I wiped on so many combat encounters. I do think the balance difficulty is going to be good for most players. I think it will be challenging. Player Amber alchemical ingredient, combine three of these to calcinate them into ashes. Interesting. The Amulet of lost voices gives us speak with the dead, a level 3 necromancy spell. Let's get on with it. We'll give that to Gale, our Necromancer. All as well that ends. I'm gonna pop a short rest to get some HP back. Well, that can't be good. [Applause] Now I have a question for thee. What is the worth of a single mortal's life? One of my characters must be doing a stealth check in the background. Okay, what is the worth of a single mortal's life? Hmm, so he has spoken. What are you talking about, an Arbiter of certain matters? But that is not important now. Wilt thou answer my question? Ask away. So I ask again, what is the worth of a single mortal life? Hmm, depends on the Mortal. I'm curious by what standards thou shalts judge. Very well, I am satisfied. We have met and I know thy face. We will see each other again at the proper time and place. Farewell. Like a scene was skipped right there. Interesting character named Withers. Very, very interesting. Explore the ruins is complete. The strange figure said he would see us again soon. It was probably the ruins' greatest secret. There is no harm in checking for more valuables. Okay, kind of nice that that Quest log tells us that we found like the main purpose of this area, but there still may be other secrets. We have nothing more to discuss. Continue on my way as if I were not here. I must attend this place after so many years away. We will see each other again soon. After so many years away, you seem very certain of that. How the mechanics of Fate would be difficult to explain to one such as thyself. Regardless, it will occur. Trying to say I'm stupid. I did dump intelligence. I'm kind of angry right there at the end. Goes. Well, he's been sleeping for quite a while. Some objects are unusually strong. You need to deal enough damage at once to actually deal damage to them. That's cool. That's a new mechanic too. Medium toughness. This material is unusually strong. Only a hit that deals at least 22 damage can damage it. I really like that Larian has added things like this. It really gives like individual party members and items much more value to their use, much more significance. Instead of everybody being able to just take down a door. So if I had like a bunch of like one-handed wielders and I didn't have a two-handed weapon here, this will be quite tough to get through. Stayed interesting. This place wasn't built for the living. This little area reminds me of Dos too, underneath Fort Joy. I'll definitely be reading through all of those. I'm actually going to pick up all the books that I come across and then send them to camp. I may read a few of them to you all, but at the same time, I still haven't figured out like what the best style is for a let's play series. I'm very new to the let's play style videos. I'm not sure if that's would be something that I should read all the books or what. There's definitely a few of them that I read in Early Access that are quite important, but I will read. I'm not sure about reading all of them. Okay, so we have a door right here and a door right here. You can use a trap disarm tool kit to neutralize dangerous traps. Easy peasy. We have traps everywhere, so before we hit the button, we should disarm them. Oh my gosh, critical failure. You've rolled a one on the skill check. Minus one. Critically failing at a skill check will mean you'll fail no matter what your ability modifier is. Quick, and I'm out of trap disarm tool kits. So what I'm gonna do, okay, is I'm going to pick up a few of these vases and put them over the traps. It actually looks like oil or grease is all over the ground now. I don't know if I want to pick up all the skulls and bones. We have traps right here too. Been a while since I've been here in Early Access. I wonder, I think the, I think that works what I'm doing right now. What now? A trap. Someone doesn't like visitors. That brings us right back out to the ravaged beach. Path lies before me. Avoid that trap. I can't wait until act two when I run into traps left and right and don't know what to do. Way to go about this too, but I can't exactly remember how the trap goes. Let's just cover up all the vents. Oh, there's a vase right here, silly me. Okay, let's have everybody else back up and hit have five too. What my magic that way. And we're gonna put Asterion in front of the button right here. Yes, take Shadowheart, we're gonna cast resistance. And let's walk up to this here. The text on the plaque is a mystery to you. Oh wow, you actually need a disarm tool kit to get this open now. No way. So I'm gonna have to remember that. Interesting. Okay, so hold on, let me hit the button right here. So that's progress. Okay, so when I get a trap disarm kit, I'm gonna have to come back. No time. Yeah, that was ripe with magic. See what type of loot is in here if it's changed from Early Access. But no, I'm pretty sure this trap actually, if you activate it, you can just turn it off with a button. But I've gotA long road ahead, alright. So we set up for really no reason at all, but when we come back it'll be nice and easy. Watching, hopefully we can find another trap disarm toolkit here in this apple symbols of the Scribe of the Dead Jergal , the element of. Be careful opening up doors and dungeons. This place is falling apart, could have happened by itself. Nice and quiet now. Also, you can't lockpick this door, so let's go ahead and see if we can destroy it. It's gonna make quite the sound though, and you can hear voices on the other side. Laughs. There we go. [Music] Wow, I'm last in the order of turns right now. No. Yeah, Asterion is still hidden. I'm gonna take a sneak attack right now. Okay, and I'm gonna cast bless. Oh my gosh, Larian Studios changed the bless to where you can actually choose individual targets. That is insane. It's so much fun discovering the little changes that Larian has put in the game since early access. So with bless level one, I can bless up to three creatures. Before it was just like an AOE circle and you had to group up friendlies together. It made it really difficult to cast the spell. Now we can choose each of the targets. Let's go ahead and do wolf. [Music] Beautiful. Okay, and then we're gonna back her up a little bit. We'll take Gale. I'm actually out of spell slots, which is fine. Do we have any good scrolls here? Raven feeblement. It'd be cool to try it out. I feel like I want to learn it though. I don't want to waste it. If I get a scroll of a spell that I don't know, I feel like I want to save it. Let's go ahead and do fire bolts. Actually, if we can get a shot at this oil barrel right here, let me move up a little bit. It looks like path is interrupted. Okay, so in that case, how about we go back to shadow? Nope, we'll go back to Gale. And let's... Hmm, I could throw a void bulb and move them out of the way, but throw does cost an action. But do I have any Alchemist fire? Can't believe I haven't picked up any fire oceans. Okay, so in that case, let's just go ahead and do a regular fire bolts. 65 chance and an 80 chance. So much for peace. And if only I had my action right now, I would be able to do a cleave that hits multiple enemies, a special weapon attack called cleave. Yeah, Asterion, I'm going to have you. We have just a bonus action. Foreign. Oh no, they got back up. Okay, all right. Am I still concentrating? I lost concentration. I'm blessed, so this isn't going really that well right now, but that's okay. That is a-okay. Let's go ahead and finish this guy off right here. Or I could recast bless, actually. I wonder if I cast bless and then retreat it into the other room, it would still be held. Let me try that just out of curiosity. One, two, and three. Oh, target's too far. Okay, so let me hold on. We'll cancel that. I'm out of movement too. Hmm, okay, let's do bless again. [Music] Okay, still concentrating on blessed. We'll go into turn-based mode with her. Okay, and we lost. Nope, we lost concentration on blessed. Okay, okay, fair enough. I respect that. Hey, look, we come back in. Now we have an action. Probably cheese that, but I'm not going to. If there's like obvious cheeses, I usually try to stay away from them. It takes away my feeling of accomplishment if I choose something too hard. Okay, so we're doing okay. Go ahead and see if we can finish off suffering right here. Very nice. I should have rested after that last combat encounter so I have spell slots, but that's okay. This guy's a barbarian. Not sure what happened right there. Really miss. Oh, there we go. And I lost concentration on Hunter's Mark. My movement speed reduced by 50 percent. Okay, damn it. His rage actually just saved his life because he took half damage. But not if I do a pommel strike. See ya. At javelins. Leather gloves, we'll pick it all up. Why not, right? Okay, and you know what? I'm gonna go ahead and move right here out of their line of sight. And we'll take a shot at this guy right here. 70 percent. Let's go ahead and use our bonus action to hide. And then we'll take the sneak attack. As you need advantage on your attack. Oh, oh, not quite sure what just happened right there. Must have advantage. I guess I lost my stealth. I could go back into stealth, but now it costs an action. So let's just take a regular shot. And we missed. Back up a little bit. Nice. This actually might be one of the harder angles to come at this encounter from. I mean, we have an oil barrel right here. If we light it on fire, that would change everything. It's just hard to get to from this side of the room. Good. On it. There we go. All right, I'm gonna actually take a health potion. Is all that matters. We're still doing pretty good with health with our Ranger. So let's go ahead and get out there on the front line. Oh, so close. You know what I'm gonna do? I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. We're going to take a potion of speed. Light on my feet. I'm out of spell slots, so I can't do Hunter's Mark anymore. And then I'm going to use Cleave. Swing your weapon in a large arc to attack up to three enemies at once. Okay, let's go ahead and lacerate this guy right here. Get a little bleed effect started on him. I guess I killed him. Wow, just like old times. There we go. Now I got sneak attack to work. Out of spell slots with Shadowheart too, so let's just go ahead and do a regular mace attack. [Music] Foreign. Beautiful, beautiful. And this is actually the last opponent. We'll just get right in his face. Have to keep going. There we go. Picked up a Bandit's key. Go ahead and pop a short rest. Well, some rest is better than not. He's not blood. And then we'll do a little bit of looting. Journey Through the Jungle. That book talks about the land of Chult to the far south of Baldur's Gate. The land of jungles and dinosaurs. Eve's tools. I'm looking for a trap disarm kit. Like we're gonna find one in here so I can go back. Not a problem. Wits and Blades always shop. Minster's not around. Cast guidance before we go into the room. In case we have any perception checks or investigation checks. So that should have actually unlocked the door that I broke through. You know what would have been really cool? Just not necessary. It would have been really cool to keep my three party members in here and then send Asterion around to the front and try to stealth my way through here to find that door key right there, open the door, and then I'd have Asterion attacking from this room and my other party members would have been able to sneak in as well. Foreign. S in this game. You just don't do it that often. Myself, I find it a little bit tedious, but I will do it once in a while. You can dip weapons into your candles. One with the weave. You do not recognize the language on the plaque. Most excellent. Yeah, we'll go ahead and pick up these books. Oop, I marked it. Death and Divinity. The Mortal View. Eyewitness accounts of the ball spawn crisis. Let me go ahead and read this because this is talking about the events in Baldur's Gate 1 and 2. The Guild seal on the inside of the cover belongs to a printmaking collective in Baldur's Gate. Of course, I remember. Knew the second that girl was walking that she'd be troubled. Little thief always in everyone's business. And that ward of Gorion went right along with her. No surprise. A wicked God's blood was running in their veins. This is when you start Baldur's Gate 1. You are a ward of Gorion and your childhood friend Imoen. Both of you guys are both ball spawn. Saravak and his lot are always the first ones that come to mind. You know, this all started with a bit of iron in Nashkel. Everyone thought their weapons would rot out their hands. Back then, I thought the problem was bad trade. Never took the man for a son of ball. You dare speak that name to me. My mistress was turned to ash fighting those forsaken wretches. I curse ball. I curse ironicus. Baldur's Gate 1 antagonist or Saravak was the Baldur's Gate 1 antagonist and Erenicus was the Baldur's Gate 2 antagonist. And I curse you. The five tour tether to pieces. I don't think anyone expected more ball spawns showing up would fix theWar, a pack of them started. Then again, they were all inclined to killing each other. Good riddance. Here's hoping every last one of them has been wiped off the face of Faerun. That is a reference to the Throne of Bhaal expansion for BG2. I'm not authorized to be talking about any murder with someone like you. Take it up at the Sea Tower if you want to argue. But honestly, who cares if a Bhaalspawn got it stuck to them? Their father is the killing type, after all. Several hundred more interviews follow, most of them first. We'll send that to camp. Alright, just double checking that there's no books, no new books in here. First of the vampire, will send that to camp. I think we're good here. I think I missed anything in this room. Really hoping that I find a trap disarm. Cool kid hair. Otherwise, I might have to come all the way back. Shouldn't have wished to live in more interesting times. So if we use my character, we can see better in the dimly lit areas because I have dark vision. Ancient scroll. Though a bloom of mold has leeched the ink for most of the scroll, its beginning is still legible. The ceiling ritual. Our God cares not for petty ritual. There is only the ceiling. It is vital that we observe it with the exacting reverence. On the day of the ceiling, a mixture of bone and ash is consecrated upon the names of the dead. We spread the offering and viewing the ink with the essence of death. Our God, that affects me. Okay, we got some camp clothes here. Just need a trap disarm toolkits and I'll be happy. But it doesn't look like we're gonna be finding one. Can't give up now. I'm gonna sell all that. Is my encumbrance looking at right now? Look at all the loot that I have and I'm only at 150. A very strong character. And we have a bunch of food here, so we're gonna pick all of it up and a supply pack. Unfortunately, you can't just pick it up and send it to camp. But then again, all of our food is going into our camp supply pack. That's okay. Ancient indecipherable text covers the plaque. A dead tongue. Whoever worshiped here must be long gone. And we'll just have to come back when I have a trap disarm tool kit. And I'll probably forget. And that does it for the chapel. So this will be a nice stopping point for episode two part one. And for those of you guys that have time, just stick around a few more seconds and we'll get right into episode two part two. Welcome back for episode two part two. And in part one, we just cleared out the chapel here and we met a very mysterious undead figure named Withers, who said that he will be checking in again on us soon. So we'll have to see what that character is all about. Despite everything, feel my way. Well, let's go ahead and continue to explore the map. What now? Almost level three, so that'll be nice. And finally choose our ranger's subclass and be reunited with our wolf, our wolf named Fern. And I'm wearing this hat because I loved Beast so much from doing the original sin too. Even though it would be better to wear the leather helmets as I get dexterity saving throws plus one. But I care more about Beast than I do dexterity saving throws. I hear shouting up ahead. Not sure what that was about. Give up now? Okay, we discovered the Emerald Grove Waypoint, the ancient sigil circle. Look at the view out here, the Ciaothar River. Okay, so I think I'm gonna go ahead and take a long rest right now, replenish some of our spell slots, or we go investigate what this shouting is all about. How do you feel? Fine, much better than I thought I would given the circumstances. Yes, well, the occasional exchange. It's almost as if we're not infected. I feel good, so strange. Do you remember the voice aboard the ship? What do you mean? After they put that tadpole in my eye, I heard this voice. It was soothing. The voice said I become a beautiful weapon. What do you think that means? Sounds like it had plans for us. Whatever, whatever. Well, I've said my piece. Get some rest. Okay, we'll check in with the other companions. God, the sword is so good. The only bad thing about it is it's pretty much always out and it's always on fire. I wish you could put out the fire and then reignite it. Sounds like you've been learning all about your gruesome future. I have to say, I thought you looked worse. But no, not a tentacle to be seen. I'm hoping it'll stay that way naturally. But I was thinking, what if it doesn't? Of course, first sign of change and I'll have to stop that pretty little heart of yours. I am open to suggestions. Knives, poison, strangulation, whatever you'd prefer. Try it and I'll spill your guts, elf. I'm gonna help myself. Don't be so pig-headed. I'm being practical. How much damage will you cause if you transform? How much blood can you bear to have on your hands? Listen, if I die, I'll take you with me. I do like you, you know. You've got fire. Whatever happens, I'll make the right choice. Sweet dreams, darling. I'm not too concerned with trying to get constant approval from my companions. I'm just going to kind of play it the way that I want and approval will go up and down, up and down. No, never mind. Because when you're meeting new people in real life, you don't quite know them that well. You're not sure about the things that you say to them and how they will react to that. So that's not cool. I think it's realistic for me to not worry too much about only getting approval with certain characters. Okay, well, this is interesting. With a moment. What are you doing indulging in a spot of vanity? Handsome devil, aren't I? I love this guy. Be that as it may, ceremorphosis. What does it make you think of? First and foremost, that damn tadpole. Spot on. Day one, fever and memory loss. Day two, hallucinations and graying skin. Day three, hair loss and blood leaking from all orifices. Need I go on? Day four, excruciating pain as the skeleton and organs reform and reposition. Day five, the host personality has disappeared. Fingers and toes and limbs elongate. I take it you get the picture. I do, but you may as well finish the picture at this point. Day six, flesh around the mouth splits to make way for tentacles. Day seven, a mind flayer is born. This is the annotated version, of course. Well, we should be having a fever by now. Brain, skin, even. Spot on again. Our orifices remain blissfully unbloody. Our heads remain clear and our blood temperature normal. Any expert will agree, this is abnormal. For long live the abnormal, Gale. I'll toast to that. The pragmatic in me, however, sees only the silence before the storm. Something to sleep on. We should get some rest. You know me and Gale are getting along quite well so far. We'll see how long that remains. Okay, let's have a quick chat with Lae'zel and then we're out of here. And for those of you guys that might be new to this genre or this game in general, didn't play Early Access, every time you take a long rest, it's probably a good idea to check in with your companions because they oftentimes will have new scenes for you, they want to discuss the events of the previous day. Our bones should ache, our mouths should bleed, yet we thrive. It is madness. Keep your rest short. Time is not our ally. Yes, ma'am. You do as you're told by Lae'zel, that's for sure. Okay, the hell is this elf doing sneaking off in the night? Um, it's interesting that in the full release when you take a long rest, you wake up at your camp now. In Early Access, you basically wake up at the spot that you left to take the long rest. I like this better though, it makes more sense. Okay, let's go to the Emerald Grove. Hopefully get to level three here shortly so I can pick up that Speak with Animals spell. I haven't really seen any animals running around though. Not yet, but we will. Save those orders. That pack of goblins will be on us any second. What's going on? Goblins are on our tail. Open the gates, hurry! Now you let goblins here? Where is the Druids? Please, there's no time. Hells, open the gates! Shit! Former line!Let's go, provoke the blade. Yes, and suffering sting. Wow, Wyll is so much more of a badass now. I might have to keep willing my party to do a pack to the blade, kind of like a hex blade. Okay, so here we go. Asterion is up first. Let's go ahead and come to the edge. We're gonna hide as a bonus action and then do a sneak attack. Just gonna go ahead and just do it right here on this guy, take care of him first. [Music] [Music] rallied, granted eight temporary hit points by a friendly combatant. Foreign. All right, so let's go ahead and start off with bless and we'll do, you know I don't think she's gonna lose her concentration because I'm going to stay back up on this hill so we'll do blasts with. I'm gonna do it on her anyways, help out with guiding bolts. [Music] Gotta get myself some good AOE spells here soon. [Music] Ah. [Music] [Music] Pawn to cleric four. Okay, one at a time, go ahead and do magic missile. Beautiful, back up a little bit. Wow, Wyll is kicking ass right now. I love how it shows you the conditions on your character, what spells you have active, right here on the left side of the screen. Okay, so I forgot to cast longstrider once again, but I think I'm gonna do it. I should be doing this before combat begins, but that's okay. Awesome, just be on my way. And I also forgot to cast Mage Armor. It's gonna take me a little while to get into the habit. The good thing is that I'm recognizing my mistakes, that's how you get better. [Music] Opportunity attack, and she missed. Aired him with the action surge, he's a fighter. Okay, so who has the most HP here? 26, Heritans got 18 HP. Go ahead and take out his bug bear target. 15 damage, not bad. Whoever attacks him next will have an advantage on their attack. Oh no. Laughs. I don't know if I've ever had a goblin cast grease on me before in this encounter. I gotta be careful. I'm gonna go ahead and not cast Mage Armor because it would take our action. Let's see if I can somehow. [Music] Okay, looks like I can do this. We'll do one right there. [Music] Whoa, beautiful great play though. I really don't want Aaron to die right now. [Applause] Arms of Hadar. But if he does die, it is what it is. It just makes the combat encounters that much more intense. And you know what? I would regret not putting longstrider on my character right after a long rest because I could have ran down here and saved Eridan on my way. [Music] You know what? Who did I have Hunter's Mark on? Oh, what? I just, my bad, long button right there, just spam space bar. I meant to hit Alt. Fuck. Okay, so we're gonna jump out of this grease. Perfect. And then, that took my bonus action, so oh, everything got healed, so we're looking pretty good. [Music] [Music] All right, one damage point short. [Music] Open the gate, the goblins have been murdered. Here's some quick looting here. I gotta get back into using my hotkeys, save a little bit of time here. The gloves of power, on a melee hit, possibly inflict a minus 1d4 penalty to the target's attack rolls and saving throws, and sleight of hand plus one, but you must worship the absolute. Save those. Okay, let's go ahead and level up. We have reached level three, and we'll start with Wolf. Hey, for spells, I'm gonna pick up speak with animals. Open up a ton of quests in this game, and speak with animals is also not based on my wisdom modifier, so it fits my build quite nicely. And for subclasses, we have Beastmaster, Gloomstalker, it's kind of like your roguelike Ranger, and also Hunter, and Hunter is a really good choice, you can dish out a ton of damage, but we have to go with Beastmaster, of course, so I can have my precious Fern by my side. These Masters bind themselves to an animal companion, sharing an intelligent bond that flourishes in and out of combat. Ranger's companion, let's go ahead and summon. We have Wolf, Dire Raven, Spider Orr, and also Bear. The Bear is pretty good and tanky, we have to go with the Wolf for now, and say hello to Fern, he's been by my side for many years. Awesome, okay, let's go ahead and level up Shadowheart, level 3 cleric. [Music] And the classes that have prepared spells, it's so much easier when you level up because you don't really have any pressure to make any choices in terms of spells because you have access to the entire spell list, but we're pretty much good here. We unlocked level two spell slots, which gives us a few new spells. Hold person's really good, protection from poison, warding bond, warden ally that gained resistance to all damage, now plus one to their armor class and saving throws, and lasts until a long rest. It's pretty nice that wasn't in Early Access, let's go ahead and prepare that. We'll get rid of cure wounds for now, and I'll prepare warding bonds. We also have spiritual weapon too, I feel like I want to use that, so let me get rid of inflict wounds, even though inflict wounds is a really good, you know what, I'll get rid of sanctuary for now, it's only temporary, you can switch these spells in between combat encounters when you're playing prepared casters, let's pick up spiritual weapon, summon a floating spectral weapon that attacks your enemies alongside you, and it costs a bonus action. What now? I'll probably end up respecting a few of the companions, not out of their base class, I'll probably switch the subclasses up a little bit. The Arcane trickster is like your Rogue mixed with a wizard, the Assassin Rogue is the one that wasn't in Early Access, then also the thief Rogue, I want to pick assassin, you prefer to deal sublime punishment to a single foe at a time, not in a duel mind, because a duel implies chivalry and you're too busy getting the job done for honor. We get initiative, in combat you have advantage on attack rolls against creatures that haven't taken a turn yet, any successful attack role against a surprise creature is a critical hit, and quick as an alley cat in a rainy dark city, you immediately restore your action and bonus action at the start of combat, give that a try for a little bit. We can't forget our wizard, and let's see what we want here, so we have to choose two spells, although we can learn all of these over time if we can find the scrolls. I definitely need to pick up an AOE spell right now, really really powerful in this game, so I'm going to take cloud of daggers. Chondra cloud is spinning daggers that attack anyone inside. I am a necromancy wizard, we really don't have any good necrotic spells at the moment, I probably should have just taken evocation and then respect into necromancy at level six when we get the undead feature with the animate dead, whatever, it's not that big of a deal, so let's take cloud of daggers and then also pick up Misty Step. We have a little bit of mobility, and let's enter into the Druids' Grove.  There are children here, you fool! We was running for our lives! You let them straight to us, and you let them take the Druid too! Unbelievable!   I've seen much bloodier battles than this. Consider yourselves lucky.   Who the hell are you again?   Show some respect! This man saved your pathetic life!   Well, I didn't ask for any goddamn help!   Please, you were begging me to open the gate, anything to save yourself, you coward!  The human's eye twitches, he's about to blow. Oh! Let's stand back and watch. The armored man collapses unconscious.  Goblins have found us, no doubt the Beast will be back. We need to pack up and leave immediately.   Okay, for once, now that's settled. Thank you for your help out there. I'm Zevlor.   I'm Wolf, well met. I should warn you, visitors are no longer welcome in this Grove. Whatever your business, I'd see to it quickly. The Druids are forcing everyone out. This attack will only strengthen their resolve.   Why are they forcing you out? There have been several attacks by different monsters. The Druids blame us outsiders for drawing them here. Nobody's welcome anymore. They've started a ritual to cut the Grove off from the world outside. We can't stay, but we'll be slaughtered if we leave. We are no fighters.   This ritual, is there no way to convince the Druids to stop it?   I've tried, Kagha, their new first Druid won't even see me. You, though, I know it's not your business but she owes you for saving this place. Perhaps you could persuade her for more time to prepare, if nothing else. Asking for favors this early, Zevlor? I have my own temporal concerns. I need a healer. Goblin got you? The Druid, Halsin, renowned healer, but he didn't make it back from Aaradin's Expedition. If it's not too serious, you could try his Apprentice, Nettie. She's with the other Druids in the Inner Grove. They've withdrawn there to prepare this damn ritual of theirs. Hmm, let's just go ahead and leave. We'll talk to a few more chieflands and try to get to the bottom of this, and then I'll consider helping out Zevlor. First, we gotta see what our buddy Eridan is doing here. First, I damn near die at the hands of goblins, then a fouled block takes his frustrations out on me. I'm done with this hell hole. Harrison's got quite the personality. We call it a t-plane, a foul blood. Let me cast Speak with Animals right now, because I'm sure we're going to encounter some animals here in The Druids Grove. Unfortunately, you can't speak with your own animal companion. And it looks like Larian has named my wolf Lupus. Not Lupus, it's Fern. I don't think we can name our own companion, unless I missed it somewhere. You never let it show, but he was homesick too. Have some respect. This really isn't the time to talk. Yes, you're lucky I don't have Thunder Wave prepared on me right now. Unbelievable. I am fallible. I mean, Tieflings. Hey, look, we got a little squirrel right here. So let's have a little chat. It'll be the first animal that we're speaking to on this run. It's certainly not the last. Get out! Squirrel lunges at your shit and bites it, little bastard. What was that for? You're trespassing. This is my territory. You know what? I kind of respect that. It's like a little mini Lae'zel right here. All right, you win. I'm leaving. Around here again. Nice. I wonder what happens if I walk through this area. I'm a little bit intimidated right now. I'm not gonna lie. Gosh, man, look how beautiful this game is. It's almost surreal to be running around on the Sword Coast in a game of this quality. Oh, oh no, that's not good. Oh, okay. We have a bugbear assassin. Madeira, he's fine. Just take a little nap. All right, let's go ahead and start off with Wolf here. I got a good idea. We don't need this guy's loot. We need his entertainment. Really? It's not going to let me push him off the edge? Seriously? Oh man. Okay, okay, let's just kill this guy. He's not gonna be that hard to kill. And actually, I can pull off sneak attack because a friendly is in melee range of this guy. That didn't help us, did it? Remove them. 14 damage out of the Wolf. It's actually really good. Let's use Spiritual Weapon. So we have Spear, Maul, Albert, Greatsword, Greataxe, and Trident. Let's do the Halberd. Nice, we have a new combatant in Shadowheart. Didn't have an action. Spiritual Weapon took a bonus action, but now that Spiritual Weapon is in the order of turns, I can actually do some damage. Pretty cool. And we can fly with it too. You gotta be kidding me. All right, Asterion is the MVP of that battle. I'll feel that one later. Yeah, let's go check out this dead Tiefling. I keep saying Tiefling now, and you guys will know why, because there's a scene coming up. Tiefling, Tiefling, and another Soul Coin. Looks like it's stealing. He's dead, right? Through the telescope, squint at the distant object, trying to make out further details. It's pretty obvious that it's a dragon. Absolutely unbelievable. Okay, well, good thing that it's a red dragon. I'm done with the telescope. I don't need to look left and right. That was embarrassing. Glad you were here for those goblins. Picked one off yesterday myself. Shot her through the throat. Nice. Should have killed her, but she kept gossiping. Oh, clawing at the arrow. Not nice. Your first kill. Don't worry, it gets easier. That's what Zevlor said too. I hope you're right. I want to help. I just didn't think it would feel like this. My ranger is pretty brutal. All right, let's go ahead and see if we can find Nettie. There's a ton of side quests in this area, but I think for the Let's Play, I gotta focus in a little bit more on the main quests, maybe do the companion quest too, and then for my stream series, we can get into all the nitty-gritty. I think it has to be like that. As much as I want to do every single quest and talk to every character, a Let's Play series would be like 250 hours long. Refugees, adventurers, no one in years, and suddenly we're overwhelmed. Well met, and thank you for beating back those goblins. Most brave of you. Is there anything you need? Act fast if you do. The ritual will be complete before too long. Are you really locking down the Grove? I know it's drastic, but more monsters seem to terrorize this region every day. And what about the people here? We Druids will be safe. As for those that took refuge here, well, may Silvanus guard them as they continue their travels. We just said the region's overrun by monsters. They won't survive by themselves. As I said, it's a drastic measure, but the survival of the Grove is paramount. There just aren't enough supplies to support everyone. Just some bits and bobs I no longer need. Okay, I'm gonna clean out my inventory, but I'm gonna skip the video ahead a little bit. I'll let you guys know if I buy anything. Okay, so I've sold quite a few items, and I'm actually going to pick up the Gloves of Missile Snaring. You can intercept missiles from a ranged weapon attack, reducing their damage by 1d10 plus your dexterity modifier. We're gonna give that a try. And I think I am going to put it actually on my ranger, because that'll add a little bit to our tankiness. Silvanus guides your path. Trying to get a good look at what they look like. Pretty cool. Yes, we'll give that a try. How y'all doing? Else, we can't just leave their kin. I'll not gamble our lives, our futures, on people who are as good as dead. We must leave for Baldur's Gate at once. Can we all just take a moment, please? What's the point in blazing spells if we don't bloody use them? We should stay. These people aren't fighters. We can help. Oh, yell louder. That's fine too. I choose the wilderness over the dangers of a city any day. Stay. What? The dangers of overpriced taverns and muddy streets? I think I'll take that risk. Going anywhere? I'm staying. We're needed here. Suck. Fine. We'll stay. If we survive, it'll make for a good story, I suppose. Thank you, Roland. Lost in thought. How long until Roland? We should have left by now. Instead, we're just sitting here, practically begging to be attacked. Staying is a mistake. And why the rush to leave? You don't understand. My apprenticeship with Laroican begins shortly. I cannot be late. Yes, that Laroican, the greatest wizard in Baldur's Gate. I've heard he's quite the scoundrel. Common gossip, the byproducts of ignorance and jealousy. Few can match him in terms of raw power and talent. Until now, that is. In years to come, you will boast of this meeting, I can assure you. May we meet again in Baldur's Gate, my friend. So, I used Gale for that conversation, and we had that one response that shows that Gale must have heard of Laroican before and thinks that he's a bit of a fraud. Is my feet. I swear that box is gaze. It's following me. Ah, you're addressing me, a humble ox. How quaint. There's something strange about this ox. What is it? Foreign. It's off. This creature isn't what it appears to be. There's more to you than meets the eye. Care to explain? You are incapable. Come on, old chap. I'm a devil for gossip. Awesome. I'll tell you this much. I'm going to Baldur's Gate with or without the rest of these poor salts. No, that's all I have to say. Besides, and I really mean this, moo. Oh, nothing here for you. Okay, let's go introduce ourselves to the Blade of Frontiers, one of the origin characters and possible companions. Go on, give me your best shot. Not bad. Again. I can't do it. I'm not like you. Owe me. I don't need you to be like me. You justHave to buy enough time to run. Come on, I believe in you. You can do this. It's good advice, child. You do well to listen. Hmm, you're on the right path. Go on, now practice what you've learned. Well met, the blade of Frontiers is yours. The man's smile bends downward and his thoughts become yours. You are the blade of Frontiers, racing through the waists of Avernus. Ahead, a diabolical figure, red skin, single curled horn, blazes with flame. Bloodied great ax, help Hell's great fires. You were on the ship. A little bit of audio cut off there. Who is that woman, the one in your thoughts? You saw her there. Advocates diaboli, advocates diaboli. Devil's Advocate, a champion in the blood war between diabolical forces and demons. Her name is Karlach, an archdevil soldier. I've sworn my good eye to kill. I tracked her through the hells to the mind flayer ship, but the damned lithids infected me before I could end her. She's out there now, preying on the innocent. If I don't kill her, she'll leave behind nothing but a trail of corpses. Well, I'm more concerned about the parasite. I suggest we search for a healer together. An excellent suggestion, but your party's full up. Still, when the time comes, call for the blade. I won't belong to answer. Go to my camp. A splendid plan. We'll talk more there. We've picked up another companion named Wyll. Recruited Wyll, a monster hunter known as the blade of Frontiers, is on a mission to kill Karlach, a powerful devil who's a danger to the entire Sword Coast. So we know from character creation that Karlach is also an origin character and a possible companion. There's just so much content available at the Grove. It's pretty crazy. I mean, I could probably come over here and spend like two hours going through all the content that's over here. But for the sake of the let's play, you know, I'll probably run through his side on my way out. But let's push on a little bit. When I do my live streams, I'll definitely delve into all the possible content. I'm not gonna skip much. Stop me. There's so many hidden secrets here, especially right here. Let's go right now. She's a thief, hellspawn, and you will wait for Kagha's judgment. Now get back. Through miraculous, I never switched to my heavy armor. But you know what? It's not going to even make a difference right now because I have 14 Armor class with medium armor. My AC is 15 plus one from dexterity modifier. And then the heavy armor, we have plus one from defense. It doesn't really matter which one I wear right now. We're gonna have to find some better heavy armor. All as well that ends not as bad as it could. Lives are at stake and the cowards only care about their bloody rituals. We need to get Arabella out now. You heard the guards. They're waiting on Kagha to give word. I'd sooner trek through the Nine Hells than trust that snake. I saw what happened. Why are the druids holding your daughter? A rebellious right to steal their idol. The druids lost their damn minds about it. They need it for their precious ritual. Oh, it's all or better yet explode now. Arabella's being judged by a bunch of druids who hate us. It's not right. This grove is like a cauldron about to boil over. I say we check in on the child, make sure she comes to no harm. I'll talk to them. Thank you. They won't give us the time of day. The tea planes have a lot of requests for us, don't they? I bet she's giving them hell. Come again, give him a chance. You get back. What's so special down here? It's forbidden too until Kagha's orders. Well, if it weren't for me, you'd be overrun by goblins. Now I think I'll go where I please. Take back. It's my hand and I'll show you its claws. A moment, Giona. What? Oh, I understand. You. The Parity Kagha wants to see you. Go ahead. Return to rest. Got some druids performing the ritual. And would you look who it is? The one and only Volo. This should be interesting. Few questions, if you please. There's no overstating my interest. Fine, ask your questions, Glory. How would you describe that particular batch of goblins? Size, nature, distinguishing qualities. You search your mind, successfully recalling various details of goblin behavior. Give an exact description. Goblins, word of a rare gem-colored hue, and wielded magic blowguns. And the dragon they had marching in the rear, was it of the brass or silver variety? Love the facial expressions in this game. Dragon? There, there wasn't any dragon, Volo. Witnesses failed to notice the... Last question, then you'll be quite free. Did the attackers rally to the Absolute when they fell upon the gates? Yeah, I don't think so. I was concentrating on not dying, dude. Really? Well, this does complicate things. But then again... Well, never mind. I've interrogated one. It was very camp. She reports they've abandoned their god Maglubiyet in favor of someone called the Absolute. Interesting. I'm on my way to their camp as we speak. I always knew my studies would come to some use. And what brought you to the wilds in the first place? Why, complims, obviously. But someone ought to chronicle these curious events. I'd heard the master of this place, a druid called House, and might be able to point me in the right direction. But he's been quite captured by them already. Ironic, really. An interesting fellow, that's for sure. Has strong ties to Alminster, one of the famous wizards in all of Faerun. This leads up to the squirrel. Definitely don't want to go up there. I'll end up TPK'ing to that squirrel. I thought you were House. The bull prompts his haunches, clenching and unclenching. I'll take that as a compliment. Without sin, promise me a mate. Horny bastard. Okay, we probably want to take a long rest. Release her, because things might get a little bit intense here. Let's get our spell slots back. No time to rest, and we have appeared at a mini camp. And it looks like Mr. Skeleton has showed up as well. It ends. No, it's as bad as it could have. We meet again, as predicted. I shall be here in my camp for whenever thou hast need of my services. Not to be rude, but what are you? There are many answers to that question. None are important. Skeletons aren't supposed to be able to talk, correct? Are you going to explain further? No. You were saying something before. What were you doing beyond mortal realms? There doth exist an amalgamation of spirits akin to thine own, ensnared by the treacherous cult of the Absolute. Failed in its name, they bear great discontentment with their destiny. For a mere pittance of coin, I might summon the worthiest among them to lend aid to thy undertaking. This is the hireling system. All these hirelings be joining me willingly, most willingly, for so their passions run deep. Do you think I can trust these cultists? Always haunts the guilty mind. My services are all that I can properly offer. What thou wilt do with them is for thee to undertake. Okay, let's check out the hireling system. Or any of thy companions perish, I will cleave soul to body once more. I would like to talk about hirelings. Very well. Okay, let's go ahead and recruit one. But maybe if I don't recruit it officially, I'll get my hundred back. I'm not sure. Impossible. Thy party is full. Oh, okay, okay. So let's go over here and I'll shadow heart the blade of Frontiers. Hope Wyll lives up to his name. We'll need all the help we can get. We should journey separately for now. If you... Oh, I forgot about the artifact. I should definitely do that right now. Let's go ahead and pull that out. They're engraved with indecipherable glyphs. Examine it more closely. That's not good. Foreign. The hell is Gale doing behind me? That's creepy. Well, we might as well try to force it open, right? A box that simply refuses to be toyed with. Happens to the best of us. We'll come back to that. Faith, dost thou require? Very well. Okay, here's the hireling system. Looks like we have one hireling for each class in the game. But you can technically respect your companions too, but thematically that might not make sense. The interesting thing is that we can't actually customize their appearance, and I think most people actually wanted to.To be able to create a custom party, I'm surprised that Larian went with the Hiraline system. They didn't give us control over their appearance and name. I wonder what their reasonings for that were. Okay, out of sight out of mind. I just want a little look. Don't touch me. Don't touch me. I mean, my Ranger would never steal. What a story. On a totally different story, no way the guy doesn't have any Resurrection Scrolls on him. Larian definitely changed that up. They knew all of us were pickpocketing for the Resurrection Scrolls. Okay, let's go ahead and get Shadowheart back in our group. Something that company. I wonder if it gave her the artifact back. It didn't. You know, I'm gonna give it to Shadowheart once we got the party back together. I'll do it right now. It won't let me. Okay, and actually, I wonder if the companions have something to say about Wyll joining the camp. So let me have a chat with Astarion first. Sam, we're traveling with a famed blade of Frontiers. I feel safer already. Aria, that's funny. And actually, I might want to have Lae'zel in my group. So, you know, I'm going to dismiss Astarion because there is a side quest with Lae'zel. Yeah, we have to find Zoro, which is part of Lae'zel's quest, and Zoro is in the Grove. So we're gonna get rid of Astarion. Yes, darling. And we're gonna go pick up Lae'zel. I've done a few warlocks in my time. Talented, of course. They're sometimes too eager to listen to the Devils on their shoulders. Comes with the territory, unfortunately. Tell me a bit more about yourself, Gale. Let's see, I hail from Waterdeep, city of splendors. I am a wizard of considerable acclaim and scholar of exceptional accomplishment. I have a cat, a library, and a weakness for a good glass of wine. And if the mood takes me, I'm known to try my hand at poetry. Gale cracks me up, I'm not gonna lie. I don't think you guys can really hear me when I'm chuckling right now because my voice is going away on me, so my chuckle is like nothing but air, and my microphone's not picking it up. But Gale makes me laugh. Don't stop there. You must have many stories to tell about your adventures as an archmage. Archmage, excuse me. Didn't that paint enough of a picture? Okay, I don't think I want to try peering into his mind because I wouldn't appreciate if someone did that to me. But we'll change the subject. The blade of Frontiers, that's your calling. Jesus, well put away the guns. How does the blade of Frontiers end up chasing a devil in the Hells? Karlach fires raged in Baldur's Gate before she escaped to a furnace, as my source told it. She was planning to return one of the archdevils Ariel's own chaos incarnate, a devil with pure fire for a heart. I made my way to Avernus to stop her. She fled from my reach, even climbed aboard the Mind Flayer ship as it screeched through the Hells. I followed in close pursuit. I can't bear to imagine the lives Karlach might be taking, the damage she might be doing. Yeah, and he went through all of that to track down Karlach. Holy cow. Who is the source of yours? A powerful friend with a keen interest in privacy. I'm sworn to say no more. All right, what else is on your mind? I've noticed your stone eye. Did you lose it in battle? A most vicious one, in fact. It's made from pure bloodstone, carved from the Galelan Mountains just north of the Moonsea. A reminder that sometimes blood must be shed and sacrifices must be made. Ah, but that story is reserved for lifetime friends and calmer days. I'm very interested in Wyll's story just because he's been rewritten, and it's very different from Early Access Act One. By all means, what else is on your mind? Tell me, Wyll, how did you become the blade of Frontiers? My father once said,  One does not pursue a champion's life. One merely answers its call.  So it was for me. I was hunting near the Cloakwood when I heard it. A child crying out from a lone farmstead. I found him in the fields, flanked by goblins. His mother's corpse bled into the soil next to him. I don't remember much of the battle, but I remember drying the boy's tears after. Hmm, and he named you the blade of Frontiers? No, but he named me friend, and that meant the world. But what of the others? Children never saved, the cries never heard in the boy's tears. I finally saw the suffering wrought by the villains of the Wild. The Frontiers demanded a blade, and so I heeded. More convincing than Early Access, and before that, Baldur's Gate. Born and raised, the only son of a single father. He wanted one life for me. I chose another. We haven't spoken since I left the city. A classic drama, a staunch father and his rebellious son. Better heard from The Bard's lips than mine. Not suppose you've come across an expert healer in your travels? I've come to know a fair few village clerics, but none with the skill to pull these worms from our heads. From what I understand, there's a healer called Nettie in the Grove. Perhaps she's got the talent. We should pay her a visit. I feel like I want to build a melee warlock out of Wyll. I just don't know exactly how to do it. I'd have to plan ahead a little bit. But I could have Wyll join me right now at a heart. No, we're gonna stick with Lae'zel for that side quest. People have a word for men like the blade of Frontiers. Roughly translated, idealist, do-gooder, or better yet, benevolent burden. His confidence is an asset. His pursuit of valor, not so much. Are you sure a crush is our only path to a cure? Entirely. I was as devoted to my studies as I was to my training. Each crush contains a safest purification device. So I learned from the writings in the Clear Library. The library was the gift from Vlaakith herself that we may gain total understanding. So the Clear Library is up on the Tears of Selune, which are a cluster of asteroids. And the crush, the Githyanki crush that's located on those asteroids, is called Crush Clear, which is where Lae'zel is from. But it's not the same crush that we're looking for right now. Books are fallible, as are those who write them. Not books. Found it is etched into stone. Truth as perfect as the queen who decreed it. Countless scholars roam the Astral Sea and beyond, observing the ways of our lessers, exploring planes so distant. Order tends to chaos and cold fires rage. The planes are ever quaking and their peoples ever shifting. The Githyanki possess an eternity of knowledge, yet we still collect more. Infinities upon infinities. I'd like you to join me. It is done. We have the Fighter's quintessential action surge ability. Immediately gain an extra action to use this turn. The Fighters are a pretty good class to multiclass into, not only for proficiencies, but also for action surge. And we have Battle Master, Eldritch Knight, which is like a wizard mixed with a fighter. Then Champion is the new subclass that we didn't have in Early Access. Battle Masters are pretty awesome, but I'm gonna go with Champion so we can test the subclass out. You approach the complex problems posed by combat with one distinctly effective solution. You hit those problems really quite hard. Improved Critical: Hit the number you need to roll a critical hit while attacking is reduced by one. Rest well, flitting between dreams and nightmares. Maybe break your meditation because you know something is wrong. Or maybe you just get lucky. You gotta be shitting me. Shit. No, no, it's not what it looks like, I swear. I... I wasn't going to hurt you. I... I just needed... Well, blood. There, in the dim firelight, you see him for what he really is. A vampire, a slave to sanguine hunger. Oh, it's tempting to melee attack. How long since you killed someone? Days? Hours? I've never killed anyone. Well, not the food. I feed on animals, whores, dear kobolds, whatever I can get. It's not enough. Not if I have to fight. I feel so weak. If I just have a little blood, I could think clearer, fight better. Please. Strange sensation courses through you, and your companion's mind unfolds. Secrets half-revealed. We're having a lifted wisdom response here, and I'm going to use it because if Astarion's a vampire and he's about to bite my neck, I need to know.Ed to know more. Thank you. I. What's this? What's happening? Something stirs deep within you, hungry and alert. It's taking something you'll never get back. Oh no, this mind opens up, revealing cracked and quivering memories of their heart. You see dark eyes commanding you to feed. You open your mouth and bite down, not into a tender neck, but into the twisting body of a rat, the only thing your master lets you eat. Hmm. Why didn't you tell me you're a vampire? At best, I was sure you'd say no. More likely, you'd ram a steak through my ribs. No. I needed you to trust me. And you can trust me. You tried to bite me. How can I trust you? Because we don't have a choice. Not we're going to save ourselves from these worms. I need you alive. Unique me strong. Please, only be a taste. I swear I'll be well. You'll be fine and everything can go back to normal. Are you mad, historian? No, no, no. Of course, I'm silly of me to even ask. Yeah, I'll go and find something on four legs, tease, I suppose. See you in the morning. I'm gonna let him go for now. You watch him stalk away, slumped, sulking, and ready to kill. Hmm. If I didn't use the elephant tadpole powers to see more about Astoria, there's a good chance I would have stuck a steak through his heart right there. But using those powers have taken something from me that I won't ever get back. So it's going to be interesting to see what that's all about. Oh, missile snaring is actually a reaction. Really cool. And we'll leave it as asked. Sure. Okay, before I forget, let me cast longstrider, mage armor. [Music] And let's return to the Druids Grove. Can't slow down. And this is actually a pretty good time to officially end episode two because we have quite a lot that we still have to do when we go speak to Kagha and Nettie. You will not even see it. Well, thank you all so much for watching and I'll catch you all on episode three.