WilloftheWest

"Depression is a myth; tidy your room. Also, I've been clinically depressed for my whole adult life and I shamble from one crisis to another."

I learned all too quickly to never go all in on Isengard attacking Rohan. Despite all laws of probability, my opponent has a 100% chance of having both ent cards and a companion near Fangorn forest.

Trash take. Bae’zel is a top tier romance.

That's capitalism and it's obsession with ever-increasing profits for you. Often times a video game company sees the most layoffs the year after a major release. Cutting expenditure such as employee salaries simulates profit.

Well therein lies the answer: not everyone is into it. I have to admit that it's odd considering Ed Greenwood's very meticulous (and often problematic) coverage of sex and sexual positivity in the Forgotten Realms lore, but poly isn't everyone's thing. Maybe I'll be proven wrong in the future but my understanding, and current consensus among my very progressive crowd, is that poly is not on the same level as sexuality or gender representation. BG3 needs ace/aro representation first.

Spoilers for Act 3 stuff. Prewarning because spoiler tags don't work on some mobile apps.

Part V is titled "A Nightmare and a Cataclysm". It concerns Dr Willett's investigation of the Pawtuxet bungalow and a horrifying revelation.

It is now clear to Willett and Mr Ward that there is a conspiracy of people who at least believe themselves to be necromancers from the 17th century, and who supposedly can recover the memories of ancient bodies from their "essential saltes". Willett and Mr Ward ready for an investigation to discover how deep into this conspiracy young Charles Ward has fallen.

In the bungalow they find a trapdoor leading to the secret laboratory of Ward/Curwen. The stench rising from this cellar is so unbearable that Mr Ward swoons and must be escorted away. Willett desires answers and so covers his mouth and descends.

Willett finds himself in a large vaulted cellar, surrounded by the overpowering stench and an ever-present howling that sounds as if it is coming from the ground. He wanders deeper until he comes across two carved pillars each bearing incantations evoking Yog-Sothoth. They appear nigh identical reverses of one another. Willett recognises one incantation as that overheard by Mrs Ward on that infamous Good Friday. He finds himself repeating the incantation under his breath.

Wandering ever deeper, he comes across an arrangement of pillars that draws to mind the image of Stonehenge. In the centre is a disturbingly carven and blood drenched altar. About this time he believes he can hear thumping coming from below.

Inspecting the floor, he finds hatches in the stone floor. Opening one he is horrified to see some "incomplete" body screaming and attempting to jump to escape. Willett is so shocked that he drops his flashlight, which the creature begins to eat. Willett then escapes in silence back to the bungalow.

Resupplying himself with light and steeling himself, Willett descends again and delves even deeper. He finally arrives at the laboratory of Ward/Curwen. lining the walls are several jars of powders, one set labelled "custodes" or guards, and the other labelled "materia" or materials. These names cause Willett to recall certain phrases from old letters and journals, bringing new disturbing meanings to them. He sees another door, bearing the sign of Koth above it, and recalls a discussion with his friend Randolph Carter. Willett passes through the door.

Inside, Willett is shocked to see a cup of powder and various tools of torture lining the wall. He is so shocked that he finds himself absently repeating one of the incantations. He sees the powder shifting and begin to take form, then passes out. He awakes in the bungalow in a bed. In his pocket is a note written in latin, roughly translated to "Curwen must be killed. The body must be dissolved in aqua fortis, nor must anything be retained. Keep silence as best you are able."

Willett and Ward go to the asylum confront Charles Ward once more. Willett reveals the horrors he found underneath the bungalow, only for Ward to take on a mocking and flippant tone. He mocks Willett further saying "had you known the words to bring up that which I had out in the cup, you had not been here to tell me this."

Willett now has the upper hand. He says that he did know the words and uttered them. He and Mr Ward leave Charles shocked. Willett hurries to the Ward home and investigates a hunch. He draws glasses and a beard on a photograph of Charles and realises that it looks very similar to Dr Allen. Other than one very early encounter, no one has seen Dr Allen and Charles Ward together.

The evening paper of the next day reveals yet more disturbances in the graveyard. No grave was disturbed this time. An unused plot had been disturbed by a trowel, the would-be gravedigger scared away by the watchman.

Mr Ward receives a letter from Willett, describing that Charles will "escape" from the asylum that night. That must remain their story. Once enough time has passed, he should erect a tombstone to Charles next to Mr Ward's father's grave, for that will be where he truly lies.

Willett returns to the asylum undercover. He confronts "Ward", saying that he found the body of Charles stowed away in the Ward home. The ashes of the body have been buried in the cemetery near a family plot. He knows of Curwen's sorcery to reach through time and compel a descendant to find and raise him. The infuriated and now revealed Joseph Curwen attempts to cast the same spell, only to be stopped by Willett speaking the reverse incantation, which will return Curwen to ash. Certain that the raised creature will take care of Curwen's associates, Willett's job is finally done.

Here we finally see the Dream Cycle mention. It seems that everyone in New England knows each other and just talks about dreams all the time. Dr Willett speaks to Randolph Carter of our previous tale, The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath. Recall how Carter snuck through the city of the gugs and climbed the tower bearing the sign of Koth. Remember how a curse was placed such that the Gugs may not return to the overland of the Dreamlands. This gives us some clue as to the purpose of the sign of Koth placed in the secret laboratory.

Part IV of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is titled "A Mutation and a Madness". It concerns the apparent rapid decline of the sanity of the eponymous Ward and his eventual institutionalisation.

Following the Good Friday evocation which disturbed the entire household, Ward becomes more active. He has developed a large appetite, makes frequent excursions to the old house of Curwen, and takes frequent walks along the river banks of Pawtuxet. The rituals briefly start up again but are promptly stopped by the elder Mr Ward.

Quite concerning to Ward's mother in particular is his apparent talking to himself in different voices. No others enter his laboratory so surely he must be talking to himself. One night while the butler is locking up, Ward gives him a stern and uncharacteristic stare that causes him to resign the next day.

The next evening, Ward grabs the evening paper and "loses" a section. Our protagonist Dr Willett travels to the office of the paper and looks up the missing pages. On these pages are two stories of interest: the vandalism of the grave of Ezra Weeden (who was responsible for revealing Curwen's necromancy), and the baying of dogs at 3am in the area of Pawtuxet where Ward frequents. Around this time there are frequent nighttime "vampire" attacks which alienists later attribute to Ward, though the family physician Dr Willett denies these allegations.

Ward's mother takes ill due to adverse effects related to Ward's distressing behaviour. She departs for a recuperative holiday and Ward promptly becomes more active. He seeks certain property in Pawtuxet and begins hanging out with a bespectacled and bearded Dr Allen and a portuguese man named Gomes. He moves his operations completely to Pawtuxet and often takes week long trips. Around this time it is noted that he constantly carries a foul smell with him.

Ward making illicit orders of cadavers to his new bungalow. He explains this away as him believing that he was a scientific researcher making honest purchases, and gives an address of the "dodgy trader" which does not come to fruition. Shortly after he sends a desperate letter to Dr Willett, begging for intervention. He also instructs Dr Willett in the postscript to shoot Dr Allen on sight and to dissolve the body in acid. Dr Willett attends the intervention only to find that Ward never attends.

Willett journeys to the bungalow to confront Ward. Ward now appears very ill and states that he was merely experiencing anxiety concerning the new frontiers he was crossing in his research. Willett notes that he speaks in a hoarse whisper and uses archaic speech. It's clear to Willett that Ward is saying anything to get Willett out of the door.

The local banks contact Ward about apparently forged cheques that he has issued. Ward explains the poorly forged signature by stating that he has become frail and has trouble holding a pen. The elder Mr Ward as well as Willett and a team of other doctors stage an impromptu medical intervention at the bungalow and promptly institutionalise Ward. During the medical examination, Willett discovers a scar above the eye which Ward never had, but Curwen had. Ward is also missing his telltale olive birthmark and instead has a black splotch. Notably, Curwen bore a black splotch which contemporaries called a "devil's mark".

Searching the bungalow, they find mail forwarded to Dr Allen. The letters address him as C or J.C. and the senders of the letters call themselves H. and Simon O. (Hutchinson and Simon Orne were Salem contemporaries to Joseph Curwen). The letters speak of a trade of ancient bodies that hold many secrets when questioned. Shockingly, one question instructs to kill "the boy" if he proves too squeamish for their business.

At this point I was briefly stumped. My guess from last week was that Curwen was somehow possessing Ward. However, letters from Curwen's collaborators address this Dr Allen as Curwen. They speak on how "the boy" was timid when receiving instruction in Roumania. Notably, Ward spent some time studying in Roumania. Evidently this trio seeks harm to Ward if he doesn't step in line with their necromantic research.

A notable mention in this part is how Simon O. signs off his letter. He writes "Yogg-Sothoth Neblod Zin". This is in fact the first written mention of Yog-Sothoth, who will later become known as some manner of patron to wizards.

The Witcher 2, though it’s more of an exploit.

If you get the sword from the Lady of the Lake in the previous game, you start the prologue of TW2 with two silver swords, one being the Lady of the Lake sword. Unequip the Lady of the Lake sword so you don’t lose it to the dragon.

You now have a mid-tier silver sword that is good for half the game. You also don’t need to find a new silver sword at the start of the game.

Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Inspired the STALKER video games.

At some point in the 20th century, aliens esentially fired some rockets filled with garbage at the earth. The fallout of these rockets created several “exclusion zones” around earth. The book chiefly follows speculators who risk crossing military cordons in order to recover and sell salvaged tech.

It’s also beefing up some Tactician mode encounters. I’ll have to replay.

Either I have brain rot or have become really jaded to the republican anti-trans agenda (probably both). I fell for the title for about a second.