holoz0r plays Pillars of Eternity: Part XX (20) - Deconstructing Constructs

Before I leave town to go ore hunting, a man literally jumps out of a barrel of fish. He joins my party, but will never fight for me, I'm happy with the make up of my party. Before I set out, I complete some quests in the township, and snoop around a bit more. I've gotten steadily wealthier, with over 125K coins now, and nothing really major to spend it on.

I mean, with 125,000 coins, what could you really expect to buy in a township that looks like this?

Once I realize I can't just buy the whole town, I leave, finish a quest to the West, and then head off in the direction of Durgan's Battery once more. I'm told on the way that there is ore nearby, inside the cave. I was here quite some time ago, and I've cleared the monsters out of this part of of the world for the most part. It makes finding this special ore very easy to do.

I want to go inside the battery however; but I'm not able to do so, it appears that I need more than tokens to place into the door, and buttons to press. On the way further north, I run into another one of the bounties I need to take care of for the warden of my keep. It is a battle that almost goes down to the wire, with my party heavily wounded in the battle.

I escape with my life, and proceed onwards, in search of a man named Galvino, now that I have found the ore. Apparently, he knows how to get into Durgan's Battery, and that's what I need to do. There's an abandoned house that leads me to lair, and its full of traps. It is also full of a new type of enemy, Constructs! Its time to fight some new types of monsters, and thankfully, these guys go down fairly easily.

Enter the most annoying pathfinding ever, a bottleneck, a trap, and wellplaced enemies. I move onwards regardless, and battle my way through some twisting corridors. There's nothing super-eventful going on in this place for the time being, other than some combat, disarming of traps, and picking up some trophies off the ground.

It is a little unexpected to find the combat ramp up in difficulty, not because of harder monsters, but because of more of them. I get into a few pretty perilous fights, owing to the excellent dungeon design, and the fact that the different formation buttons don't seem to work even though there is enough space for the party to spread out.

Its funny how in Pillars of Eternity, you can make camp underground, in a place where you would surely die of carbon monoxide poisoning due to making a fire, but at the same time, are encouraged to do so, because of the limited space in your inventory for said camping supplies.

After a short 8 hour rest, I get back to exploring and killing various constructs. The enemies in this area have a range of knock back skills, which makes combat seem more visceral, with party members flying across the screen like plastic bags in a breeze. There's some sort of prisoner housed in the basement of the home, which is masquerading as a dungeon - I can hear them calling for help, but choose to ignore them. They were probably calling out for help for the entire 8 hours I was camping.

I press onward, and enjoy some new details in the level, some sort of contraption, presumably, that creates constructs. They fight, pointlessely, to defend the contraption.

There's some cool sound effects as I fight through more of the Constructs down a twisting cave corridor, that seems to only be twisted in a 'S' shape in order to increase the amount of time it takes to travel through the game world. It could be considered clever, interesting game design, suspense building, but it doesn't serve any purpose beyond this.

I fight One more golem, and meet Galvino, and a talking construct that is by his side. He mumbles some words, seeming like a very self-absorbed and jaded individual. It is a boring conversation; and the reason for this is that I am not really all that emotionally invested in the lives of the people back in the village.

Eventually, he tells me that I need a "Cantec" a phrase, a statement of truth in order to get in Durgan's Battery. The only problem is that everyone who knows this thing is dead. That's convenient, I can use my skills as a Watcher to delve into the past lives of someone and 'awaken' them, let them have the dual personality thing going on that tenuously holds together the game's plot.

I exit the basement dungeon golem factory place, and high tail it back to my fortress. There's some sort of attack going on there. I choose to defend the fortress myself, and its a lot more fun that I expected.

I manage to defend the fortress, then go back to Stalwart, to track down the person who once, in a past live was a dwarf, and can tell me how to get into Durgan's Battery. It seems kind of important to get in there and get some really powerful weapons. I've got a device that lets me scan individuals to see if they've got dwarf souls from a past life lurking inside, and I spend far too long wondering around the village checking everyone.

It is a literal needle in a haystack type equation. I go to the pub, and find out that the servant girl who works there also used to (in a past life) be a dwarf of the Durgan Battery. They are awakened, which means that their life is going to be a very interesting and very real case of multiple personality disorder until they die.

They give me the Cantec, and all the details I need to enter the battery. I approach the Battery, and camp at its doorstep.