The Candlekeep Annex: RPed Baldur’s Gate No and Low Reload Adventures

[Alesia_BH]

Aurora, Elven Beast Master: Windspear Hills

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Apologies for the pause in updates, everyone. Since my reaction times are abysmal these days, I decided to try a fighting game, Street Fighter 6. It's my first non-RPG, non-strategy game, and I've been having fun with it. If you'd like to beat me up, I'm DeloresDelRuby in the Battle Hub. I play Lily.


Let's get back to Baldur's Gate. We opened the session by finishing up the ranger stronghold quest line. I loathe fighting the trash mobs in Firkraag's Pleasure Palace, and I figured Cerebus, with his immunity to non-magical weapons, would provide an amusing way of defeating them.

Aurora pre-buffed for Umar using her renewables and a Potion of Stone Form. We held back our magical ammo until Umar tossed a Malison, threatening our potion supply. Time for a Dart of Stunning. The bears got the kill.

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Onto the Windspear Hills. Enhanced with RoACII, Aurora's AC was too low for the monster mash paladins. Gnasher + Shield of Harmony + Helm of the Noble + Bracers of AC 3 + studded leather continues to rock the party.

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Speaking of Gnasher, it's death to clerics. Shuts them down cold. DoT without a save is rough on casters without skins.

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As per usual, I opened the Ruhk Transmuter battle by weaponizing the kamikaze kobolds. David is wise to this move now so Ruhk heads north as his kobold charge south. Had I thought about it, I would have used Cerebus and his II, stealthing him in and using him as a homing beacon for the kobolds. Next time. Wolves and bears drew out Ruhk's Abjuration stuff.

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Ruhk's Mirror Images were an annoyance, so I decided to try out Moon Dog Sight. No dice. For all its fancy properties, Moon Dog Sight is an L3, which seriously limits its usefulness. I was hoping it was L5, like Oracle, and might sneak in on a rhakshasa through the same door as Breach.

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Ruhk still had no answer for Cerebus and his immunity to normal weapons. After peeling Ruhk's skins at range, Aurora swooped in with Gnasher, shutting down his casting and nixing him soon after.

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Against the golems, Mr. Efreeti did yeoman service, drawing those cursed wounds blows. Speaking of cursed wounds, if anyone has ideas for those Spellhold clay golems, I'm all ears. I'd really like Gessen but a cursed wound prior to Irenicus is a death sentence. I'm going to have to pass unless someone thinks of something.

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Heading on to the chapel key, we found Firky's pet undead. I suggested that Azuredge might be helpful here but Aurora was all:

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Have it your way, Aurora. We'll slip through under pro undead.

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Against Tazok and friends, Aurora opted for a division of labor. Cerebus took on the non-magical weapons wielders, while Mr Efreeti and the menagerie dropped Chieftain DigDag.

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Tazok himself fell to Gnasher. A satisfying win.

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Fighting in a confined area, Conster is fond of Incendiary Cloud. That's an interesting idea, but it is easily turned against him. After drawing out Death Spell with her animals, Aurora, dropped the fire damage immune Mr. Efreeti atop Conster. Still Hidden in Shadows, since summoning Mr. Efreeti doesn't break stealth, Aurora then snuck off to a corner, where she observed, awaiting a window between ProMWs. Once that window appeared, we broke stealth with a dispelling arrow. How's that Incendiary Cloud working out for you, Conster?

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Thought so...

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I'm not sure what's next for Aurora, but I'm leaning towards the Planar Sphere. I'm still not looking forward to fighting vampires, what with Aurora being stubborn and all.

Cheers,

A.

 

[JustKneller]

Onto the Windspear Hills. Enhanced with RoACII, Aurora's AC was too low for the monster mash paladins.

That part of the game makes me especially sad in that

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Ajantis

is one of the paladins you kill.

 

[Alesia_BH]

That part of the game makes me especially sad in that

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Ajantis

is one of the paladins you kill.

Thanks for that! I had no idea!

 

[JustKneller]

Every single time, I try to find a way to end that encounter non-violently (hold person and whatnot). But I don't think the quest even advances unless you do kill them.

 

[Trouveur]

Every single time, I try to find a way to end that encounter non-violently (hold person and whatnot). But I don't think the quest even advances unless you do kill them.

I'm afraid the only way to prevent his death is to install a mod.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Aurora, Elven Beast Master: The Planar Sphere



Aurora would like to dedicate this post to all the people who think her animals are useless. They're not- not at all. Animals for metal armaments isn't always a terrible trade. In the Planar Sphere it was a clear win.

Let's start with a proposition. Summons are good. Really good. Please illustrate, Mr. Efreeti.

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And while none of Aurora's animals are as powerful as Mr. Efreeti, there are a lot of them, and sometime quantity trumps quality. Aurora's animals are a threat because there are so many of them. They can exhaust enemies, sometimes powerful ones.

Aurora opened her battle with the hungry, hungry hailings by punking the throwaway warriors. She then sent her animals in, starting with Animal Summing I to draw out Death Spell.

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With Death Spell cleared, Aurora brought her big guns, the bears. They were dispatched before long, but they killed Entu first. The psionics are off the field.

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Kayardi countered with sword spiders. Aurora replied with Cerebus, and his immunity to normal weapons.

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Cerebus prevailed, but Mogadish and Kayardi brought yet more summons. And while Mogadish's skeleton warriors were a threat, Aurora negated them by leveraging Kayardi's low level monsters, turning them into a wall. Sling bullets finished Mogadish, with the aid of Cerebus. Only Kayardi and Togan remain.

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By now Kayardi lacked the fire power to handle Cerebus, let alone Aurora, too.

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Aurora got the kill with the Crimson Dart.

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She then left the rest to Cerebus. This battle was waged with summons, and Aurora prevailed. All hail the Beastmaster.

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The game plan for Necre and Taibela was the same: draw out Death Spell with Animal Summoning I, and then send in the menagerie. Our bears took out the warriors, proving their worth again.

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Cerebus took over when the bears fell, allowing Aurora to settle in for a ranged fight, which she ultimately won.

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The animals may not have killed Lavok directly, but they exhausted his book, setting up Aurora for the win. Here we see the opening: Aurora's beasts versus Lavok's Wilting. Wilting wins, ofc, but that's one less spell that Aurora will need to deal with. Trading a L3 for an L8 is a win.

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In this edition of SCS mages summon heavily. Lavok is no exception, preferring skeleton warriors, like the necromancer he is.

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After the skellies were dispatched, Aurora faced her most harrowing moment of the run, when her DUHM expired at the exact right moment to bring her HP total close to the Symbol Death range. Note, too, that Aurora was peeling skins with her bow, ignoring Lavok's sword spider. A well timed nip could have easily taken Aurora into the danger zone.

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With his last gambit foiled, Lavok, now low on spells, settled in to a range fight, just as Aurora hoped. Aurora won with Tuigan.

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We left the animals out of the tanar'ri hunt, instead using Mr. Efreeti to run distraction. RoAC II + Shield of Harmony + Resist Fire handled the defense. The sling got the kill.

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The Tolgerias fight opened with an oddity. Tolgerias initiated dialogue whilst Aurora was casting Animal Summoning I. This disrupted the spell and sent Aurora into an eternal casting animation. Strangely enough, this ended up working to Aurora's advantage, causing Tolgerias's summons to charge ahead, separating themselves from Tolgerias. Once the summons were dispatched, Tolgerias and his mage companion had no hope. Here come the bears.

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The generic mage falls.

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Against mages, Aurora doesn't pre-buff with RoAC II. Instead she reserves it for late battle ranged fights. Tolgerias is on the ropes now.

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Dispel those MIs, Cerebus.

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Another villain defeated by mountain bears. Keep your metal weapons. Aurora will take her furry paws.

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Just clean up now. Protection from Cold (scrolls) + Potion of Cold Resistance + Protection from Fire handled the elemental rooms. A few Darts of Stunning reigned in the irksome noble efreeti.

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Finally, Gnasher and Destroyer of the Hills cleared the golems. Fun quest. Aurora used the full range of her abilities, and her animals figured prominently.

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Now approaching L15, Aurora is almost ready for Bodhi and Spellhold. The next few sessions will be a challenge. Hopefully our beast master is up to the task.

Cheers,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Aurora, Elven Beast Master: Thaxll'ssillyia

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As ranger protector of the Umar Hills, Aurora felt a moral obligation to purge Thaxll'ssillyia from the Temple Ruins. And as player protector of Aurora, I, Alesia_BH, felt an obligation to keep our beast master away from Bodhi's lair. For once Aurora and I were in agreement, if for different reasons. Thaxll'ssillyia must fall.

Thaxll'ssillyia had little hope in this fight. Boots of Speed + Amulet of Power render him helpless. Still, Aurora took nothing for granted, deploying her potions and approaching Thaxxy like the worthy foe he is.

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It didn't take me long to realize that I had made a minor inventory management error in this fight. Now brandishing Everard, I expected Aurora to hit Thaxxy with ease. I did not, however, take the time to do the math. Had I done so I would have realized that Aurora's Bracers of AC3 should have been swapped out for the Bracers of Archery. I never intended to allow Aurora to fight in melee, and if I did, AC3 certainly wouldn't cut it. We'd be rocking a Potion of Defense. The Bracers of AC3 are useless in either case, while the Bracers of Archery would have enhanced Plan A. Instead we went with THACO buff potions, using a Potion of Mind Focusing and a Potion of Power, along with a strength potion, a Potion of Frost Giant Strength from the Anvil of the Right.

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Thaxxy's most interesting move was Malison ->Chromatic Orb, but by now Aurora can make that save, even without a Potion of Stone Form or RoAC II. With the Helm of Defense equipped, along with her standard Guard's Ring + Claw combo, Aurora's save v spells is currently 1. Her next save improvement will come at level 17, and that will be an important one. It will allow Aurora to make a -4 with a Potion of Stone Form and a -6 with a Potion of Invulnerability. Until then, Aurora's precious Potion of Magic Shielding supply will continue to be at risk.

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In retrospect, it was kind of silly of me to be stingy with the +2 bullets while splurging on potions.

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As the fight wound down, Thaxxy started vanishing. I had hoped summons would keep him visible, but he was packing Death Spell.

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A second batch of animals fared better, but I didn't exactly love seeing those winter wolf ice breaths flying at Thaxxy. Losing those scale would be a bummer. Unenchanted studded leather will remain Aurora's go to, but the Shadow Dragon Armor is an important situational use item.

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Thaxxy falls. Our beast master's first dragon kill. Rejoice.

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I'm not sure what's next. I was leaning towards Bodhi's Lair, but the Unseeing Eye is an option now that Aurora can save against beholder rays without buffs.

Cheers,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Aurora, Elven Beast Master: The Unseeing Eye

By show of hands, how many of you remember Ashanti the Beast Master? In my minds eye I see a tentative hand from Serg, and aside from that a sea of blank stares. That's ok. You can be forgiven for not remembering, or never knowing, a failed character of mine from ten years ago.

Calling Ashanti a failed character may not be accurate, depending on your perspective. She made it to this point in the adventure, taking on all comers, only to be killed by me. How you, ask? By forgeting to return the Rift Device. Her animals were furious and all I could say was:

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For whatever reason I decided to continue Ashanti. She did well for herself in off thread play, completing SCS Watcher's Keep, including Demogorgon, and ultimately defeating Melissan, albeit with a couple reloads. In truth, then, Ashanti was not a failed character. I just failed as a player. I wasn't about to let it happen again: not here, not now, at least.

After a brief, bordering on non-existent internal debate, we slipped by the first beholder crew under stealth. No regrets here. Aurora is a stealth expert, she might as well act like it.

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With that encounter artfully evaded, there are but two others worthy of note here: The Unseeing Eye and Gaal. We'll skip forward to those.

Earlier I said that the Unseeing Eye quest would be safe, because Aurora can make her saves against beholder rays without buffs. That wasn't accurate. Aurora's save v death is currently 2, leaving her susceptible to Death Ray. Removing the Claw would fix that problem, but it would also open a larger hole on the spell side. Aurora would need to remain buffed in this fight, and that would require some trickery.

Prior to combat, Aurora dropped some summons, and pre-buffed with RoAC II and DUHM. Aurora will remain safe if and only if she keeps her RoAC II in place. Potions were skipped deliberately in the hope of evading Anti Magic Ray. We also minimized contact time, and left multiple targets on the field

Here we see the arrival of the Unseeing Eye and the activation of the Rift Device.

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The Unseeing Eye chained Improved Mantle, creating an opening for Everard. Aurora fired away, only to be thwarted by a cagey Absolute Immunity cast. There's nothing we can do now- not with a clouded aura. Time to race for the shadows. Hold the line, my furry companions.

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Safely hidden in shadows, Aurora prepped her coup de gras. We have two Potions of Firebreath left. Now is the time to use them.

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Down goes the Unseeing Eye- just in time, too, since we're in Power Word: Stun territory.

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Gaal put up a surprisingly good fight this time. His potion buffed warriors dispatched the menagerie with ease, and his spells were dangerous enough to keep Aurora on the defensive. Here we see Aurora countering a Poison cast with a Potion of Stone Form. Aurora had opened with pre-buffs only to see them dispelled.

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In the end Mr. Efreeti got the kill. Gaal did, however, make his mark on the healing potion supply, bring us down to nine from twelve. Kudos to him for that.

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Looks like I can't avoid Bodhi any longer.

Cheers,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Aurora, Elven Beast Master: Bodhi's Lair

Truths are easily forgotten when they conflict with consensus belief. That's how the human mind works. We're influenced by our peers, whether we like it or not. The truths others hold dear become our truths, even when we know them to be false.

Aurora's truth is that metal weapons are overrated. And since she hangs out with animals, she never forgets. I agree with Aurora, but since I hang out on Baldur's Gate forums I sometimes do forget. I thought Bodhi's Lair would be difficult, since Aurora can't use Azuredge or the Mace of Disruption. How foolish of me. I should have known a stick would do.

Before entering the lair, we paid Pai'Na a visit. Does anyone know the song Life in a Northern Town by Dream Academy? I always think of that here. Hey, Pai'Na, Na! Anyhoo, Cerebus took point here, while Aurora handled disruption duty. An Arrow of Cold got the kill.

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The plan in Bodhi's Lair was simple. Find the vampires. Beat them with a stick. That's it. Destroyer of the Hills + RoAC II + Amulet of Power + Shield of Harmony + Call of the Wild handled defense. Gnasher is a decent vamp killer, as it turns out. The lingering piercing DoT makes bat form evasion less effective.

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Cerebus led the way against the ghouls, since he's immune to their weapons. Cerebeus is kind of awesome in SoA.

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By now a division of labor had emerged. Against vamps, Cerebus disappeared, and let Aurora take over. Against all others, contrariwise. The fledgling vamps here met Gnasher, while Cerebus stood watch.

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Just warders now. Cerebus takes over while Aurora observes from the shadows.

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I wasn't in the mood to tangle with Tanova, so we passed by under stealth. We started Lassal off with a nice crit. Soon after he flipped to bat form and raced for Tanova. Smart move.

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Ok. Not so smart. He went right passed her, where he could be punked in isolation.

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Shortly after the Bodhi fight began, I started to regret leaving Tanova alive. A bug in Cerebus's Moon Dog Howl sent a winter wolf running. He went straight to Tanova and activated her.

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Stay focused, team. We've got this. Don't worry about Tanova. If she comes, we'll deal with it.

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Protected by her wall of animals, Aurora fired away with Everard.

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See you in Spellhold, Bodhi. Aurora will be there soon.

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Cheers,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Aurora, Elven Beast Master: Brynnlaw

Let's talk about balance. The above screenshot was taken in the Asylum. Aurora is, as you can see, at level 16, still 400k XP or so away from HLA land. Had it not been for the 75% nerf to XP from kills, she'd have multiple HLAs by now. Is Aurora still over-leveled? Arguably, but with her elven saves, intersected with the narrow margin of safety inherent to solo play, the balancing feel very nearly exactly right at this point. I wouldn't want her to be much weaker heading into the Irenicus fight. Irenicus will have HLAs, after all. At the same time, the flow of the narrative suggests that Aurora should be weaker than Irenicus in this encounter- substantially weaker. Happily, she is. So far, this setup gets a thumbs up. Tallie saves get a thumbs up, too. Prior to my break, I played tall peeps almost exclusively. I'm inclined to go back to that. Tallie saves have affected this adventures even more that the XP nerf.

Onto combat. The Brynnlaw vampire ambush is optional, since you can just stealth to the Vulgar Monkey, take a nap, and let the sun sort things out. That was my plan, but Aurora was all:

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I've given up on arguing with her so she got her way.

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The first two fell quickly, but when Valen vanished for a second time, she felt like more trouble than she was worth. Enjoy the sunrise, Valen. We'll be sleeping in.

Aurora and I both expected the pirate ambush to be a cake walk. It was, at first, with the animals holding the line.

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But then the pirate mage cast Haste, and suddenly the pirates were like:

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The animals were chunked in record time, forcing Aurora into melee.

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Aurora acquitted herself well, but when her HP reached the half way mark, we decided to defer the better warrior. Meet the final boss, pirates: Cerebus.

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Who's a good dog? Yous a good dog!

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For real, Cerebus is a good dog. Really good.

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In the Galvena fight Aurora brought the full menagerie. Vadek's Teleport Field held off the onslaught at first.

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But once the field dissipated, the bears took over.

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Vadek fought back with an invisible stalker, but he, too, was no match for the animals, now aided by Mr. Efreeti.

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Speaking of Mr. Efreeti, he got the kill on Vadek with a nicely timed Flame Strike. All Aurora did in this fight was peel some skins with the Crimson Dart.

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I haven't been attacking blue circled enemies in this run, since it doesn't suit Aurora, but on two occasions Mr. Efreeti launched a Flame Strike before an enemy's buffs fired. The first time, in the Planar Prison, led to an instakill. Perth took heavy damage but thankfully survived. As for Perth, he opened with a Symbol, Stun Chain. We had a couple of options for foiling this: a Potion of Freedom or a Potion of Invulnerability. Since it was early in the fight, and summons could be forth coming, we went with a Potion of Invulnerability.

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Our Potion of Invulnerability elicited a Remove cast. That was followed by Power Word: Blind. Since meleeing high level mages is out of the question, Aurora used her stealth. The Cloak of Non-Detection handled Divination risk.

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Once the PW:B wore off, Perth went Alteration. Aurora countered with RoAC II.

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Shrewdly, Perth went with True Sight and a second Symbol, Stun. By now we're deep enough in the book to know that summons aren't in the cards, allowing us to counter this Symbol, Stun with a Potion of Freedom. (NW: As a reminder, this only works because Free Action Protects Against Stun in my install, as it did in the original adventure.)

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Time to finish this. Arrow of Dispelling.

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Dart of Wounding.

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Fin. We're off to Spellhold, wardstone in tow.

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Cheers,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Aurora, Elven Beast Master: Spellhold

Apologies for the pause in updates, everyone. I got carried away with learning a new game, Street Fighter 6. I'm new to the genre, so I'm terrible, but the learning process has been fun, if bruising.

Anyhoo, Aurora is alive and well. In fact, her updates are now substantially behind her progress. She's been going places, even if I haven't been posting. Can't keep a good beast master down and all.

Right! So where were we? Spellhold. Let's get to it.

I never know what to expect of Spellhold. Sometimes Jon is a pushover, other times he's a beast. Amara and Alia ate popcorn while the inmates handled him. Astrid, in contrast, had the fight of her life. Aurora, at level 16, would be in deep if Mighty Jon showed up. All I could do is hope for Mousey Jon.

Since Eventar's Gift protects against stun in my install, it's a must have. We took on the tome monsters ASAP. Aurora handled the lesser beasts but outsourced the beholder fight to Mr. Efreeti and the menagerie. A cave bear got the kill.

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Cerebus led the charge from the tome to the lich. None of these blokes have +2 weapons, so Cererbus was invincible. Aurora's heavy use of Cerbus has been goofy fun, but it has also served a practical purpose. Aurora's healing potion supply was super abundant at this phase of the adventure so she needed to conserve. Cerebus helped out with that.

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I have nothing against the Spellhold lich encounter, but when I get here I'm usually not in the mood for a mage fight. Aurora used Pro Undead, like her recent predecessors. No regrets.

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Dace fell to Blackblood, while Cerebus handled the summoned dire wolves. Cerebus is back because we rested to remove our Pro Undead. The Dace encounter doesn't work under Pro Undead.

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While Aurora has been chugging along, the adventure has gotten more challenging for her. Aurora's AC has remained constant throughout SoA, but her enemies' THACOs have improved. She now gets hit routinely. The healing potion supply is becoming a constraint. We spend a lot of time regenerating while waiting in the shadows these days. I don't love it.

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Do any of you remember how I was agonizing over the Gessen string? How I didn't think Aurora could retrieve it safely, because of Cursed Wounds? I even made an open call for ideas, hoping someone would come up with something. Anyone want to guess what the answer was? I'll give you a hint.

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Yeah: Animals. The most obvious answer imaginable. I can't believe I missed it. Cave bears and mountain bears do crushing damage at +2 and +3 respectively. Mr. Efreeti and Simmy Aurora helped out too. Despite all my agonizing this turned out to be risk free and a breeze.

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For whatever reason Bodhi and her vampiric assistants spawned in at a distance from each other. No complaints here. This let Aurora score some extra XP, which she desperately needs. The XP nerf has done wonders for balancing, but Aurora is in danger of being underpowered heading into the SoA endgame.

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I was super-anxious heading into the fight with Spellhold Jon, since Astrid's fight here was an utter nightmare. Happily, Aurora lucked out and got the Mousy Jon she desperately needed. The inmates did most of the work here. Aurora confined herself to flicking darts.

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Our beast master rolls on. The Underdark awaits.

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Cheers,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Aurora, Elven Beast Master: The City of Caverns

I logged into Instagram for the first time in ages and I've decided that the current male obsession with big butts is a sign of the endtimes. No really.

Human mating preferences are not entirely arbitrary. They are influenced by underlying mating considerations. Males seek mates with maximum fertility and minimum cuckoldry risk. In terms of physical forms there is an associated trade off. Additional adipose tissue is correlated with fertility and likelihood of carrying an offspring to term. Simultaneously, adipose tissue can obscure a pre-existing pregnancy, increasing cuckoldry risk . That is why adipose tissue in the abdomen is considered unattractive, while adipose tissue suspended above the abdomen, or hung below it, is attractive. It's all about the male ur fear of caring for another's offspring.

The optimum ratio of adipose tissue to svelteness varies as a function of food insecurity. When food security is low, additional adipose tissue is desired, even if it may entail additional cuckoldry risk. When food security is high, in contrast, it makes sense to emphasize cuckoldry risk mitigation, since offspring are likely to be carried to term in any case. That is why ancient fertility goddesses are rotund, renaissance beauties are curvaceous, and modern sex symbols are comparatively slim. It is also why the preferred form varies across cultures as a function of GDP per capita and GINI index.

Within a culture, across time, adipose tissue deposits become more desirable as food insecurity increases. It's not a coincidence that the "Big Bank" trend arose during Covid, and it's not a surprise that the frequency of dump trucks has tracked inflation. Brings new meaning to Marie Antoinette's quip, "Let them eat cake." Don't you think?

And so if you, like Sir Mix-a-Lot, enjoy big butts, then we're all doomed. I can not lie.

What was the point of all this? I wanted to make the City of Caverns post interesting and if you're angling for interesting it's hard to go wrong with butts or the apocalypse. I figured I'd earn, like, a double word score for intersecting the two.

Anyhoo, here's a dead ettin.

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And here's an almost dead Aurora. In retrospect I went about this wrong. Since the Kuo-Toan paralytic bolts terrify me, I instinctively equipped The Reflex in the CoC. That was a poor decision. The Reflex nudged the Kuo-Toans into melee where they could target Aurora's weakness. It would have been smarter to equip Saving Grace, quaff a Potion of Defense, and roll with the BG1 suite of missile weapon AC enhancers. Once again we spent a lot of time hidden in shadows regenerating. Have I mentioned that I don't love this?

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Even Cerebus couldn't hang in this company. Drat. We could have stealthed through, I guess, but Aurora is hungry for experience.

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Mr Efreeti killed the Spectator.

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Since we have no use for the metal edged Wave Blade, we sided with the prince. And since the king has HLAs in my install, we left the combat to the menagerie and the rebels. No sense in risking a Potion of Invulnerability to a Sahuagin Power Attack.

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The Underdark is next.

Cheers,

A.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Wow I guess none of us will ever need to be afraid of posting off-topic content again . I like to think that humanity has evolved further than simple biological programming...

I'm a bit sad that you killed the Spectator, I like him so much and your stats would have allowed to solve it, or do I misremember and it was Wis 18 required, not 16?
That was a close call for Aurora with the priestess and the rebels, congrats on outsmarting death there. I'm curious how she'll fare in the Underdark, good luck!

 

[Alesia_BH]

Wow I guess none of us will ever need to be afraid of posting off-topic content again . I like to think that humanity has evolved further than simple biological programming...

Lol. Thank you for your perspective. As Einstein said, beyond genius is simplicity. We'll never evolve beyond simple biological programs because simple programs are the best programs, to the extent that they work.

Where there is variation across evolutionary space and time with respect to optimal strategies, phenotypic plasticity can evolve, with intelligence being one example. When optimal solutions are relatively stable across contexts, selection will favor simple programs. They're less costly, metabolically speaking, and they're less likely to misfire. Some aspects of mate selection are relatively consistent across time and space.

Moving back to BG, I honestly don't know how to solve the Specator interaction non-violently. I remember doing it many years ago, but I've forgotten. I've tried each time since my return from break, but failed. Don't tell me! I intend to keep trying, lol

Cheers,

A.

 

[m7600]

I wanted to make the City of Caverns post interesting and if you're angling for interesting it's hard to go wrong with butts or the apocalypse. I figured I'd earn, like, a double word score for intersecting the two.

So, if there's a correlation between the apocalypse and butt size, and if Charname might start the apocalypse due to the whole Lord of Murder thing, does that mean that Charname has a big butt?

On a more serious note, would you like to start a thread for discussing these and other biological topics, @Alesia_BH? Most of my work is in philosophy of biology, and I'd be interesting in picking your brain on these topics. I'm sympathetic to evolutionary explanations of human behavior, but (no pun intended) I'm somewhat suspicious of the idea that butt size correlates with reproductive fitness. It might be the case that butt size has to do more with the ability to maintain a bipedal walking stance instead of reproduction. Oddly enough, human beings (both male and female) have bigger butts relative to their body size than any other vertebrate. On the other hand, one might argue that the sexualization of big butts is no different than the sexualization of, say, feet. It might be just a kink, rather than a secondary sexual trait hardwired by evolution. Plus, you don't have to be a heterosexual male to find big butts titillating. Lesbians and bisexual women arguably like them just as much as straight males. And, one might also argue that the number of straight women who like to have a big butt is more or less equivalent to the number of trans women that also want to have a big butt. I fail to see what would be the evolutionary explanation of these cases.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Lol. Sure. We can discuss this stuff in another thread.

For the record, my comments were first and foremost a joke, and secondarily a speculative hypothesis. There are data with respect to variation in mate preferences as a function of food security, but my inference that big banks are a sign of the endtimes was just me being a goofball.

I'll note, though, that the hypothesis is well formed and I'd suggest that none of the observations you've made imperil it. Of course, some of the non-adaptive hypotheses you mentioned are viable, too. The conversation would get interesting if we could come up with means of discerning between them.

Anyhoo, feel free to start a thread in the Off-Topic forum.

Cheers,

A.

 

[Borco]

@Alesia_BH First of all, big congratulations to Astrid for reaching and eventually succeeding at the Throne. I respect your decision to withhold her from the Hall of Heroes, even though from my perspective the merits of the case here are similar to that of whether flying people over to Mars with a publicly subsidised space programme is less of an achievement than if done privately . Anyway, thanks for such an entertaining and memorable run - my "How to be a divine caster for dummies" textbook just got a bit bigger!

Turning the page to today's news, let's hear it for Aurora! BG beastmasters get 10/10 style points in my world, so I'm definitely in the fanclub here (even though I admit I'm still struggling with understanding her Norwegian counterpart's music production on Spotify and elsewhere). Sorry to hear about Roger though - I confirm to have observed the same behaviour/broken script as well in the past when chasing various mobs around the sewers.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Thanks, Borco!

At Beamdog I wouldn't have withheld Astrid from the Hall, since her run meets the standards established there, imo. Here I'd like hall entry to be subject to peer review. I'm cool with how it all worked out. At the same time, I'm glad you appreciated the run, and I thank you for your comments. Hopefully we'll see one of your characters in the Hall soon

And thanks for your feedback on Roger. The current behavior is suspicious. The best test would be to see how he responds to the sea troll. If he sides with the sea troll against the PC, then the script should clearly be changed.

As for the musician Aurora, my favorite artists of the 70's, 80's and 90's are Joni Mitchel, Kate Bush and Bjork, respectively. You can probably guess how I feel about Aurora, lol. Running With the Wolves is my personal favorite. It encapsulates how I feel about my long distance hikes and backcountry ultras.



Plus she's hilarious. Covering Boney M's Rasputin and turning it into a folk song? How can you not love it? Even if she'd just done that she'd be one of my favorite people, lol

 

[Borco]

As for the musician Aurora, my favorite artists of the 70's, 80's and 90's are Joni Mitchel, Kate Bush and Bjork, respectively. You can probably guess how I feel about Aurora, lol. Running With the Wolves is my personal favorite. It encapsulates how I feel about my long distance hikes and backcountry ultras.

Running with the Wolves Moon Dogs, isn't that just the perfect theme song for Aurora the Beastmaster?

And don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't find the music and her whole persona intriguing, as it does have all the right elements, I just can't seems to "click" with it somehow. But I admit the Rasputin threw me off guard, haha!

Anyway, that's a great solo female triumvirate right there - I like all of them very much, even though to me it's always going to be Rickie Lee Jones that takes the crown .

 

[Alesia_BH]

Noted! You might appreciate Aurora more if you knew the writings of the Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess. Arne Naess was a classically trained philosopher, best known for founding the deep ecology movement. He was a serious thinker and activist, but he was also celebrated for his whimsical, playful nature. Naess died in 2009, when Aurora was 13. Shortly before Naess's death, a Norwegian survey asked young people (pre-teen to twenty) who they would most like to talk to. An overwhelming majority said Arne Naess. Naess's influence runs deep in Aurora's song writing, and in her persona. Once you know of Naess's work and personality, the influence is unmistakable. Some of her wildly eccentric actions and thoughts start to make sense through this lens.

Self-Realization Beyond the Human: Arne Næss and Norwegian Deep Ecology

This is part of our special feature, Rethinking the Human in a Multispecies World. At

www.europenowjournal.org

Essays by Arne Naess - Open Air Philosophy

Intellectual, mountaineer, and activist Arne Naess (1912–2009) is regarded as the father of “deep ecology.” He held that all life has intrinsic value, independent of human needs.

openairphilosophy.org