As the below write-up should make clear --
Cleaning: Welp, it proved to be another Saturday where cleaning my room took up more time than expected (even
without having to put my blankets and bathrobe and stuff in the wash) – here’s basically what happened:
A) Got up around 9:30 AM, had my breakfast and played my morning games on my iPad and iPhone, then started changing my sheets and dusting the shelves behind my bed around 10:20 AM
B) Finished the dusting, put the new sheets on, remade my bed, then went to get dressed around 11:20 AM – however, before picking out my outfit for the day, I decided to try on my chosen Halloween costume for the year, my old
Ghostbusters: Answer The Call jumpsuit, to make sure it still fit. Figured it was best to check now rather than later –
And that was absolutely the right call, as it did
not still fit – I could NOT get it up over my hips. Like, I tried, and it was just too narrow. *sigh* So I went and added my sheets to the communal laundry (throwing them into the washer with Mom’s sheets at her direction), then let Mom know the bad news about my costume. After some discussion (and a look at the jumpsuit), she determined that she couldn’t let it out, sadly –
But she
could take the orange stripes off it (meant to be the reflective tape from the actual costumes) and put them on another jumpsuit. So we ended up ordering a new
Ghostbuster jumpsuit (one more akin to the original 1984 movie’s style) from an online Halloween shop! :) That’ll be here on the 22nd – hopefully it fits right and works as a costume! I’m willing to go as something else – I have plenty of costumes in my closet – but after rewatching all three of the GB movies I own, I
was pretty keen on being a ghostbuster, so…
C) After all that, I picked up with the dusting again around noon, and managed to get that all done (and my clothes from the communal laundry put away) right before lunch, a little after 1 PM
D) And finally, after we’d had lunch and washed and dried all the dishes and such, I completed my cleaning by Swiffering the floors and vacuuming my rug, finishing it all up around 2:12 PM
E) ...and then I played some more games on my phone and didn’t actually get on my computer until about 2:30 PM XD
So yeah – you can see why it ate up a good portion of my day! On the plus side, it didn’t eat up quite as much as some Cleaning & Laundry Saturdays do, and I’m glad we discovered and sorted the issue with my costume now, rather than closer to Halloween. Would have been embarrassing to discover that I no longer fit the old jumpsuit the morning of! Now, hopefully, we should be set. *nods* And I don’t have to worry about cleaning for another two weeks, hooray~
Baldur’s Gate III: Welp, after chatting with my friend Squid about BG3 last night (they have recommended I give Astarion like at least five levels in Gloomstalker Ranger to turn in him into a sneak attack powerhouse, and I am happy to take this advice), I decided I was in the mood today to visit Faerun and send Smiler and company on some further adventures...only to instead play through an entire session that was literally just inventory management. XD To be fair, the inventories did very much need to be managed! Here’s what happened:
A) I started out with the party hanging out in the chapel campsite, fresh off their little looting spree from last time – and in the interest of having to spend less time later reorganizing personal inventories and the camp chest, I decided that Smiler should first explore the camp and check every container they could find to pick up any last-minute goodies to either pass out or put away. They accordingly did a circuit of the main room with the big statue, the ruined library room to the left (where Withers hangs out once you recruit him), and the little worship room with the piano to the right (where the actual “Traveler’s Chest” is). Most of the containers they checked didn’t have anything in them, but they did pick up:
I. A Rufflesome Blaggart Hat in a burlap sack at the base of a column in the main room (right in front of Shadowheart’s little camp)
II. Some rags and a rotten carrot from a burlap sack behind Astarion’s little campsite
III. And two bits of mugwort from Shadowheart and Gale’s camps! Which they combined with a previously-obtained sprig to create some Salts of Mugwort and unlock the recipe to create Antidotes (for curing people of poison). Useful!
*nods* Good to know the camp is clear and there aren’t any surprises waiting in any of the containers!
B) Once that was done – and I’d swapped out the quill in Smiler’s Bewildering Adventurer’s Pack with the quill-and-inkpot combo item I’d found earlier, as I previously said I would – I had Smiler play a little tune on the chapel’s piano, then opened up the Party Inventory screen and the Traveler’s Chest inventory, and set to work organizing! I won’t go into TOO excruciating detail, but here’s what I accomplished:
I. I started by putting away most of the spare weapons, armor, clothing, gems, jewelry, torches (I let Gale keep one, since, again, he’s the human of the group and thus the one without darkvision), and junk items of interest into the camp chest and organizing them so they were all in neat rows. I was
hoping that I could stack the various shortswords and such they’d found so they would take up less space in the chest, but no luck – for whatever reason, weapons will NOT share an inventory slot with any duplicates. Bit irritating, that, as they have a LOT of spare shortswords, axes, and daggers! At least I was able to free up a couple of slots by accidentally sticking the two notes that come with the Faerun Colors dye mods back into the main dye container…
II. While doing all this, I looked at what was remaining in Smiler’s inventory and added a few more “personal items” to their Bewildering Adventurer’s Pack – specifically, a clamshell they found on the Ravaged Beach, and a plate and chalice they found in the overgrown ruins’ dining room above. I just figured they WOULD have a plate and cup for eating while on the road – and would probably consider the clamshell a fun little souvenir. :) It’s nice to give them a few items that are “theirs” just for RP purposes!
III. I then swapped over to Shadowheart to have a look at the weapons left in her inventory – specifically, comparing the greatclub she was currently wielding to the morningstar and the flail she’d picked up to see if either of them were better. Turned out the flail had the same damage and “Tenacity” special ability (to inflict 2 bludgeoning damage on a target even if you miss your attack) as the greatclub, but was much lighter
and one-handed, meaning Shadowheart could equip her shield again for some extra AC. So I had her switch the club for the flail, then dropped the greatclub, the morningstar, and her old mace in the camp chest. Along with the Bloodsoaked Armwraps, because I couldn’t see holding onto them for the moment – they’re a Barbarian-focused item, meaning they’re not going to be relevant to anyone’s build until we recruit Karlach!
IV. I then swapped over to Astarion and had him equip a second dagger to use in his off hand, should he want to try dual-wielding at some point in the future! ...Only for the game to immediately warn me that this would cause him to always use his bonus action to try and make an off-hand melee attack unless I toggled his dual-wielding off with the “R” key. Hmmm. well, I’m sticking with him having a dagger on each hip for now – it’s a vibe – but I have made sure that he’s currently only using the one in combat for the moment. I need those bonus triangles for cunning actions!
V. With that, it was back over to Smiler, so they could drop the rags and rotting carrot they’d just found in the camp chest. I then realized they should probably put their books in there, then got distracted by trying to remember if there was a stack-of-books or row-of-books container that I could pick up and have them put in the camp chest to store at least some of these books without taking up too much inventory space…
Then got FURTHER distracted as I realized, “Hey, Smiler hasn’t read a couple of these yet!” XD So I had Smiler take a moment to finish reading all the literature in their possession – specifically, the ancient scroll they found in a vase (which was mostly illegible except for the beginning, which talked about an all-important Sealing Ritual the writer did for their god), and the book “The Mortal View: Eyewitness Accounts of the Bhaalspawn Crisis” (which is a collection of people talking about their various encounters with Bhaalspawn – most of which are apparently references to earlier games in the series, as per the wiki! For example, an angry vampire told the interviewer that his mistress was turned to dust fighting Bhaalspawn, and specifically cursed the name of the main antagonist of
Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn, Jon Irenicus, for helping set up that situation). Very important to keep up on all this stuff – even if it is pretty much all flavor text. :P
VI. After that, I put aside the “putting away the books” question for a moment to do something a little more important – namely, split up Smiler’s stack of six healing potions and give a few to their other friends! Specifically, they sent two to Astarion and one to Gale, so those two would have three potions each. I would have given a potion to Shadowheart as well, but
she’s the one with the best AC AND healing spells, so – I think she’ll be fine with just two. XD You can have the next one we encounter out in the wild, Shadowheart! I also had Smiler split up their stack of nine candles so they could give one each to Astarion and Shadowheart, in case they needed one for anything (apparently putting one out in the world and dipping your weapon in it is a good way to give it burning damage, so…) – Gale didn’t get one as he already has a torch. :p The remaining seven went in the Traveler’s Chest, as Smiler already had a candle of their own in the Bewildering Adventure’s pack. If they need another, they know where to look!
VII. Getting the candles sorted also prompted me to clean up the final bits of clothing in Smiler’s inventory – the Rufflesome Blaggart hat of course went to Astarion (it’s his kind of hat!), while – after trying on the former and deciding Smiler does NOT look good in hats in this game because they completely cover up their hair – the Old Floppy Hat and Casual Sandals got stowed in the Traveler’s Chest. Once I’d done all that, I then swapped back over to Astarion to update his swanky new outfit (because, as you might remember, he’s picked up some lovely sneaky armor and pirate-themed boots during his travels with the party) using the Faerun Colors dye that bears his name. Somehow while doing this, I managed to swap out of Party Inventory mode and just into Astarion’s personal inventory, but I was like “eh, not a big deal” and just ran with it. I was mostly done with needing everybody’s inventories open at the same time anyway!
VIII. With Astarion’s fit all dyed Astarion colors, and his inventory pretty much sorted, I then moved over to Shadowheart to clear out the last random bits and bobs from her inventory! After a moment’s thought, I had her send the Gravetender’s Mark ring over to Gale, as I was pretty sure it would help him more than it would help her – because while they both have a spell that would activate the ring’s effects (Shield of Faith for Shadowheart, Mage Armor for Gale), Shadowheart can also channel Shar’s divinity to make undead flee from her. So – yeah. Probably better Gale gets the ring! XD I also had her try on the leather gloves and fluffy boots still in her inventory – the boots I didn’t like the look of and dropped in the Traveler’s Chest, but the gloves looked nice on her, so I left them on and dyed them in the appropriate Shar-themed colors. *nods* She probably needs some gloves to stop herself getting blisters from her flail anyway!
IX. From there, it was over to Gale, who didn’t really have anything that needed doing in his inventory (as the squishy wizard, he was carrying the least items) – I just wanted to make sure he had the Gravetender’s Mark ring equipped. I then thought, “Hmmm – maybe I should just go ahead and have him cast Mage Armor on himself now, since that’s what activates the ring’s effects...but hang on, is that a ritual spell or not? I thought it was, but – looking at the description, I don’t see the slanted green pentagram that denotes a ritual spell anywhere...you know what, let’s make absolutely sure with the power of quicksave!” So I hit F5, then – after getting the “quicksave successful!” message – had Gale cast the spell –
Aaaand it ate up a spell slot. And given Gale only has two left at the moment – yeah, not 100% sure Mage Armor’s what I want to be using it on. (Though, on the other hand, the party IS going up against skeletons soon…) So I reverted my save to before he cast it. We’ll see what I decide once it comes time to, you know, actually fight the skeletons!
X. And from there, it was back around to Smiler! Who still had a decent amount of shit clogging up their inventory that needed to be taken care of. Ah, the curse of being the main character. :p I started with the magical items they’d picked up – and after pondering what exactly they did for a bit, I had them send the Ring Of The Primal Hunter to Shadowheart (as she’s the one using her crossbow most often right now), but let them go ahead and equip the Circlet of Prismatic Resonance themselves. I don’t know if the Chromatic Orb spell it grants is the MOST Smiler spell in the world, but looking at it on the wiki, the spell
does have a poison variant, and I’m willing to say poison is at least somewhat thematically appropriate for them, so… *shrug* We’ll see if I let them keep it or not! For now, it might just be good as an extra offensive option (well, depending on if it eats up Smiler’s precious spell slots or not…).
Anyway – with that sorted, I popped over to Shadowheart briefly to have her equip her new ring, then went back to Smiler to look for more things I could put away in order to reduce the amount of shit they were carrying – they don’t have a lot of carry capacity, after all! They are not that strong! After going over what was still in their grid, I was like “you know, they probably don’t need to be carrying all this food, why don’t I give it to nice hench Shadowheart to hang onto–”
And then I was like, “Vic. They’re camp supplies. Put them in the camp chest.” XD So I did, creating a whole new row for food and getting Smiler’s carried weight down SIGNIFICANTLY. Nice! I
then remembered the book problem and head into the library room to check all those book containers – sadly, none of the rows could be picked up, so I ended up just chucking all Smiler’s books and letters and whatnot into the camp chest straight. We’ll see if I can find another container for them later! (Or if I just sell them, since there’s no point keeping them around after they’ve been read…)
C) And with that, the session ended, with me getting everyone out of camp and back into the Dank Crypt so, next time, they can continue exploring and finally acquire themselves a Withers! AKA actually, you know,
play the game. XD I leave you on this shot of the quartet getting ready for adventure:

I think they look pretty swanky, don’t you? Though the circlet does look a little weird on Smiler’s forehead – probably the bangs. Ah well. Looking forward to actually DOING things with them next time. XD
FreeTube/Invidious: Welp, FreeTube remains unupdated (come on, guys, it’s been a few weeks now), so it was over to Invidious tonight so I could watch (as per Gigs’s comment to me) the latest video from C. M. Alongi: “CaFae Latte Season 76 - TikTok Compilation!” And oh boy, this one was an
interesting one, featuring:
A) Erik calling his mom from jail and telling her how she should like Lindsey and how he hasn’t tried to contact his dad since Father’s Day, because he’s finally realized fuck that side of the family, before getting interrupted by a guard and brought to his parole hearing (chatting with said guard along the way – apparently said guard had a kid who tried to commit suicide, and got suspended for a while after getting into a fight with a fellow officer who said it was a shame the kid – who is queer – didn’t succeed (the bigot, fortunately, got fired)). He then arrived at the hearing –
To see
Cyrus, in his lawyer coat, there. And when he expressed his confusion, Cyrus explained it was common practice to let the victim of a crime know when the perpetrator was up for parole so they could come and express their point of view on the situation. As you might imagine, given what Erik was in jail for (conspiring to have Cyrus kidnapped and turned into an immortality potion), he was immediately like, “welp, here comes the rejection...”
B) The parole board hearing! Cyrus went first and explained that he didn’t think it was a good idea to let Erik out just yet because, while he believed Erik’s remorse was genuine and he liked to be optimistic about these things, he didn’t think now was the right time to let him loose. After all, Erik was very good at convincing people, and himself, that he had changed before relapsing – and while normally he only risks himself, the kidnapping incident proved he was more than willing to risk others. The board commissioner asked if they knew about Erik’s record when he was hired (yes, but they were hopeful he could change, like JC had) –
And then brought up the fact that Cyrus had killed all the witches who tried to kidnap him. And rudely shut down Cyrus going “yes, but I’m a 300 year old fairy with combat experience, I am not a typical kidnap victim.” And
then his deputy basically asked Erik “did you know what was going to happen to Mr. Johnson” (Erik: “They told me they’d just take blood and bone – I foolishly chose to believe them, even though I should have known better) and “are you sorry” (Erik: “Obviously”) –
And granted parole. Cue Erik and Cyrus staring at each other in baffled shock, and who can blame them.
C) Cyrus discovering Lindsey waiting outside and learning that she was dating Erik (to his annoyed disbelief) – when he asked why she hadn’t told them, she was like “you’re not my keeper” – to which Cyrus replied “I’d LIKE to think I’m your friend – you know what he did to get in here, right?” To which Lindsey replied “Yes, tried to have you kidnapped and turned into an immortality potion – like I was ready to kidnap and torture Bob for fame and fortune.” Cyrus had to give her that. :p Erik showed up shortly after and told her the good news – and while Lindsey was happy, Erik and Cyrus remained completely baffled as to
why Erik had been cut loose only a third of a way through his sentence. Erik suggested jail overcrowding, only for Cyrus to point out there were much better candidates to release than him; Cyrus suggested Lindsey having done something, only for Lindsey to say “yeah, I gave him a good luck and protection charm, but the necklace would have broke if the magic ran out, so I don’t THINK it was me?” Erik settled on “the American justice system is shit and maybe I fell through the cracks,” which the others were fine with. Cyrus then took his leave, telling Erik to stay away from CaFae Latte and everyone in it – Erik called out a final apology, with Cyrus pointing out that it wasn’t just
him that he needed to apologize to. ...Erik then told Lindsey, “I thought for sure he was going to stab me, so – good day.” XD
D) Cyrus reporting on the parole board hearing to JC, Bob, and Rethu, noting how hostile the board commissioner had been to his testimony and admitting after Bob asked that he did have an idea as to why – namely, he was pretty sure someone had been bribed to let Erik out and the hostility was them fishing for a “legit” reason to grant parole. Bob asked if Erik was capable of making such a bribe – JC was like “he’d have to wipe out his savings, but
maybe,” while Cyrus was like “I don’t know, he seemed as confused as I was.” JC pointed out that Erik had
seemed like their friend too –
Aaand Rethu promptly offered to kill him and make it look like an accident. XD Cyrus pointed out that they’d all be at the top of the suspect list and Rethu would be locked up in minutes – they said that the sentence would be nothing to an immortal, but Bob shut down the murder talk by saying she’d like to explore other avenues first. Husniya offered to have her husband Asif instead keep track of Erik’s online activity, just in case he started visiting any weird sites – Bob was all for that, and said that they’d supplement it with Nicole’s divination so they could find out if Erik even BREATHED funny. Cyrus THEN dropped the bombshell that Erik was dating Lindsey –
Aaand cut to Lindsey driving Erik home and telling him all about the actually-good
Alien prequel series that he had to catch up on. XD Because probably C. M. didn’t want to ruin her voice with all the yelling that probably came out of JC after that revelation. XD
E) Erik arriving at home and introducing Lindsey to his mother Hannah – who did not seem
that happy to see her son back, but then again, she’s been dealing with his bullshit for a while. She informed him that the usual deal was in place – he doesn’t pay the bills, he does housework – greeted Lindsey, then asked when his next parole meeting was (next week – and yes, Erik was STILL confused about why he’d been let out early – Lindsey was like “you’ve been so nice and good, maybe they were rewarding you,” prompting Hannah to coldly note that Erik can be charming when he
wants to be), and if the fairy he wronged would be knocking on her door. Erik assured her that the fairies weren’t the revenge types...then noted RETHU was but wouldn’t implicate the others if they did something. XD He also said that Nicole was friends with Lindsey –
Prompting her to reveal that Nicole had texted her to let her know to avoid the CaFae for a while too – ESPECIALLY JC, who naturally wasn’t taking the “dating” revelation well. Erik was like “wait, no, they don’t get to be mad at
you,” but Lindsey was like “they do a little. If it goes on for too long, I’ll talk it out.” (Might have more luck PUNCHING it out with JC in the boxing ring, girl – worked for Husniya!) Talk then turned to what stuff Erik still had from his old apartment (Hannah saying she boxed up what she could, so he should have clothes, but she sold his old TV to pay for the trouble); Lindsey suggesting tricking Erik’s dad into thinking he still owed child support (Hannah: “Wouldn’t work, he only ever came over if he wanted something”) and Erik declaring “Fuck him,” making Lindsey very proud; and Erik asking if they had any Chunky Monkey ice cream – and offering to grab it when Hannah said no, but she was willing to get some given the occasion. He then hiked down to the grocery store while Lindsey started geeking out over Hannah’s Wade figurines –
And cut to Erik preparing to go home with his ice cream...when a voice asked how his boy was. Poor Erik was like “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”
F) And the appearance of Erik’s father, Valefar the half-demon, being all chummy with the kid he abandoned for some bizarre reason. Erik was prepared to just walk away and not even entertain his ass, but then Valefar revealed
he’d been the one to get Erik out of prison, and that was enough to lure Erik into his car for a quick ride. Erik remained understandably hostile to the man as he tried to make small talk, though, and demanded to know why he’d shown up now to spring him and be friends –
And cue Valefar revealing that he was in loooads of fucking debt. Both to the Abyssal version of the IRS, and to various demonic mafias. Erik was like “you got wrapped up with THOSE?” – Valefar responded “glass house, throwing stones.” XD Erik pointed out that his was a very
broke house too, but Valefar explained that he didn’t want money – instead, he wanted Erik’s help getting the materials he needed to get himself back on his feet (as his mother was refusing to bail him out due to the aforementioned demonic mafias nonsense). Specifically, he wanted Erik to get a number of magical items from the Stoughton Street Coven – either by getting Lindsey to give them to him, or by straight-up stealing them. Erik was like “hell no, stop the car and let me out” – Valefar said “you know, I’d compensate you too.” Erik insisted he didn’t want Valefar’s money as he got out –
And then Valefar said “how about immortality?” :O Turns out there’s a golden apple tree on the family estate, meaning it would be
very easy for him to get one for Erik. Erik was like “why didn’t you give me one EARLIER then” – Valefar responded that he hadn’t earned it. And cue the episode ending with Erik just outside the car, looking very thoughtful…
Aaand cue the comments being full of “ERIK NOOOOO.” XD I mean, you can’t blame the people – we all want to see Erik become a better person, right? I am very hopeful, as falling in love with Lindsey seems to have finally gotten some important truths through his head (namely, his father’s side of the family are dicks and he shouldn’t keep seeking their approval/love), but on the other hand, we know what a temptation immortality IS to him...oooh, Season 77 is going to be interesting...
Writing: Welp, I didn’t do nearly as much as I’d like, thanks to the above write-ups taking so long, but I did get a
little bit done on the BG3 Master Doc and the playthrough progression within! Mostly editing a few typos I found while rereading it, and completing the sections where Smiler and Shadowheart leveled up for the first time and looted the ravaged beach (copying over the pertinent information from my regular write-ups). *shrug* Something is always better than nothing! Hopefully I can make some more progress on this later...
Tumblr: Welp, I didn’t get anything done on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), unsurprisingly, but there
was an anon ask waiting for me over on Valice Multiverse tonight – “Do American-Canadian families celebrate thanksgiving twice a year?” Which – that’s a very good question! I had my Cuddlepile!Smiler answer admitting they had no idea...largely because they weren’t sure how Canadians celebrated their Thanksgiving. They’re English, after all! I admitted in the tags that I had no idea what a Canadian Thanksgiving celebration looked like either, then looked it up on Wikipedia – turns out it’s pretty much the same as an American one, complete with a big meal and football. *shrug* The more you know!
...yes, I saw that I'd used "Welp" for two categories while doing the write-up and decided to make it a theme. XD You gotta stay silly! Anyway, that's about it for my Saturday -- time for me to head to bed and hopefully get some decent sleep. Tomorrow's supposed to be stormy and miserable, with high winds and driving rain -- good thing I don't have to go anywhere! Plans so far include working on drafts on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler); playing
Fallout 4 and updating the FO4 Playthrough Progression after; getting in a workout (gotta start
Clue!), and watching the latest from Jon's F:NV YOLO Remastered series. Hopefully these are all achievable goals -- we shall see! Night all!