Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous Review - The Spider, The Succubus, and The Saint of Redemption

free potential see through [Music] welcome back everyone today we'll be taking a review of Pathfinder wrath the righteous and gamer not originally planned to cover but after it devoured 100 hours of my time in one week I feel I have to make videos the only way to re-establish control over my life honestly I could stop the video there the fact that I sent that much time into it is both the biggest recommendation for and advisement against it I could give so what is a Pathfinder anyway in setting they're someone of a cross between the Freemasons and the East India Trading Company in game just who you speak to for respecting characters in real life that's a bit more of a complicated question if you're the kind of person watching my videos then they'll age you likely already have played in some or at least have a passing knowledge of tabletop RPGs but on the off chance some background back in 1974 there was a man by the name of Ernest gygax who despite having their name indicative of an Interstellar warlord made a little game called Dungeons and Dragons also Dave Anderson but no one remembers him this is a big hit for a relatively Niche hobby at the time selling over 4 000 units in its first year or so they would release revisions and additions over the next few years such as a d and d and a full-on second edition people really liked it and it sold well helped somewhat by the Streisand Effect from 1980s Christian model panics however by 1997 they were nearly bankrupt and ended up being bought out by Wizards the coast known for Magic the Gathering they created the Third Edition which centered the game around the now familiar D20 system we know today people loved it and it made a ton of money then in 2008 fourth edition was released and everyone hated it it nearly killed the franchise and so much like the aforementioned Christians a Schism was formed except instead of Martin Luther nailing his big list of why Catholicism is cringe on Wittenberg Castle it was paizo publishing putting out a competing ttrpg system based on Third Edition which of the coast would eventually fix their mistakes by putting out DND 5th edition in 2014 which won back a lot of fans and was all around a huge success partially thanks to nerd culture started to become extremely trendy at the time but by that time Pathfinder had already had half a decade to establish itself so the two would now compete alongside of each other personally I'm not a huge fan of 5th edition it simplified things more than I'd like and its current direction appears somewhere between controversial and Confused to outright mismanagement and self-sabotage I know it's not DND related but actually what the [ __ ] are you doing Wizards then again they have just announced the eradication of the half hours so they might be moving in the right direction to win me back so is Pathfinder basically just D and D 3.5 yeah pretty much in 2018 Pathfinder King maker would be released a fully digital campaign utilizing the Pathfinder system it was developed by owlcat Studios and once several months had passed for all the bugs to be ironed out from the nearly Bethesda tier launch it was a pretty good game in 2021 they would release a second game Wrath of the righteous this had a similarly buggy launch but playing it in 2023 I'm happy to report that I didn't encounter anything game breaking a few minor animation lock-ups incorrect icons and questionable hitboxes did have the Escape key stop bringing up the menu which could have been critical as you need that for saving but luckily there's an icon on the UI for it when you start a new game you'll probably notice that the damage is set to only 80 for you and your party don't don't change this I've played enough ttrpgs to know that most DMS want you if not necessarily to perish entirely at least to suffer in this case your DM is code written four years ago in Cyprus it does not understand Mercy this adjustment however does not affect the single most difficult of any ttrpg character creation this will be who you are for the next hundred or so hours so best to make sure you're happy with it once again custom portraits are Mac as well as my favorite voice pack I see our entrails please race variety is pretty good you have your standard dwarves humans elves and half breeds of the latter slightly less common but still fantasy Staples of halflings half Orcs and half a second together my goddamn psych gnomes on the slightly less common side you have the damper overet and furries finally there's those whose Bloodlines extend into the extra planar either from seducing Angels or getting Genghis Khan by demons that being the ASMR and tieflings respectively like I consider tiefling but they're mostly played by the sort of people who wear be gay do crime t-shirts so I went with Asimov as the wings granted by the Angelic bloodline are probably the best representation of myself I could get in this there is an almost overwhelming choice of classes 25 at a simple count but these will usually have at least six subclasses each and you can still just take the Base Class meaning the count is over 175 even before you get into Prestige or multi-classing theoretically you can take one level in 20 different classes at which point the possibilities are better described using this than words but that kind of hot mess probably wouldn't get very far but no matter if you want to hit people with lumps of Steel High Velocity Twigs or the unmatched power of the sun that's something that has you covered for spellcasters these fall under two main archetypes Wizard and sorcerer the difference is that Wizards draw their ability to cast from study and intelligence where a sorcerer is just kind of wing it think of it like musicians the wizard understands musical Theory and knows that the fifth harmonic chord will resonate with the third of the opposing minor scale it's also from the other hand read half the blurb on the back of the textbook got bored just started jamming until they gained an intrinsic knowledge of what sounds good the result is that Wizards have to prepare each of their spells ahead of time while Sorcerers can cast any combination of what they know spontaneously up to a daily maximum this would seem to make sorcerer's straight up better and and kind of agree but Wizards do get higher level spells faster and the ability to steal other people's homework by copying spells from any Scrolls you find I play a blood rager which following on from our musical analogy would be the equivalent of blasting the shittiest free EDM Baseline you could find doing a rail of muscles and then just smashing rocks together until your neighbor's phone and Noise once you have your class and race you still need to pick your background bloodline Feats which God you venerate or none appearance alignment of note gods and some classes for that matter are alignment specific so for example playing Paladin locks you to lawful good meaning you can't select a worship as modius if you don't want to play with these restrictions there are mods to address this once you're done you get dropped half dead into a city square and healed by the local Dragon her name isn't worth remembering as it would take long to say than she's actually a round for you I should retake my true form and engulf this square with my ice breath to win your trust here you can immediately notice one of the biggest improvements from the first game that being that you can actually rotate the camera bringing us up to par with Fireware from 2002. there's also a lot of small improvements on the graphical and UI side tidying up and streamlining the interface and such like incidentally most of the major improvements over the first game are actually in what they've removed namely no more house at the Edge of Time no more darvin's Quest and no more Lindsay genuinely not sure which of those I'm happiest to see God two of those Dimensions do get a spiritual successor but they're a lot better this time graphically the game looks pretty good with the exception of portraits and some storybook sections everything is 3D which looks good from a distance and in motion but it doesn't quite hold up to close scrutiny the character models are a bit potato-year especially the non-human races The Upside is that all gear and most items are dynamically modeled onto your character and you'll not be looking up close at them very often anyway animation also tends towards the basic and combat this is fine but a lot of out of combat encounters still use the same set of stock animations get used to seeing this punch used for nearly everything alignment system has also been improved dialogue options are rarely restricted based on your alignment in fact I'm not sure I saw a single one instead you can take any option and those that shift your alignment will display its evil or lawful tag the only options locked will be the ones for the Mystic pass and these have far greater effects foreign surprisingly enough your level 1 PC isn't able to stand up to the main villain or for that matter that most subtle and unexpected of killers uneven Paving [Music] once you wake up you're at the bottom of a pit and convenient party member material is standing around right for the meat shielding there's sealer Paladin by the grace of Iowa an excellent tank with good healing and support capacity to boost anivia I'm a nevia terabade of the eagle watch who is not actually recruitable whose singular purpose is to perform trickery checks I hope you appreciate this these are for disarming traps and picking locks once you have a fuller party you can split the skills that you want trained across each member as appropriate as with the exception of a few story segments when making a check out of combat the highest skilled companion is used this does extend to creatures meaning the best companion for climbing a ladder might well be the horse perception is somewhat of an exception to this as it is rolled for by all characters automatically so for spotting extra loot in Hidden areas it's worth raising this on as many characters as possible if you have the spare skill points again this includes the horse foreign systems you run into the mongrels who fill you in on the plot around 100 years ago a powerful Mage named varilu volish performed some magical foxy Bugsy resulting in a giant scene in the earth that demons pour out of known as the world wound the surrounding kingdoms have been launching Crusades to retake this ever since all of which failed miserably the Mongols of the descendants of the First Crusade now mutated by exposure to the Abyssal plane leaking into glorion yet two who join your party when do AG who's part Cat part spider and the mongol's best hunter she respects strength above all and has a pawnshop for kinky sex then you have Lan who is half lizard specifically the left half he is also there I guess the Mongols believe it is their Destiny to once again rise to the surface to save the uplanders and complete the Crusade their ancestors failed they're in this cave specifically to find a relic the sword of an Angel who fought the demons all that time ago you find it and then proceed to eat it you will now start to see what appear to be skill checks when performing dialogue these will say something like requires Angel Mystic path this is a complete lie they in fact unlock the relevant Mystic Parts it's best to pick as many of these auctions as possible when you see them as it won't be for a few more levels till you actually need to pick which path to follow I'll get more into the Mystic path as they come up but just know that there's not really a bad choice for them the levels in them are separate from class levels meaning you effectively can end the game level 30 rather than just 20. either way you progress with the caves till the mongrel Village I'd advise heeding window egg's advice unless you want to miss out on some of the Mythic paths and be saddled with land for the next 50 hours once that's done she'll help you get into the shield maze where the cultists are hiding out I get the Cannabis higher-ups have more to worry about with the demons on the border but it still amazes me they've managed to miss the entire civilization of mutants living below their city as well as the Baphomet cult that has made themselves so at home that they've not only Built a Subterranean base but tiled carpeted and are halfway through installing high-speed Broadband in the thing if you take window egg's advice then she'll help you slip in and then you can start murder hoboing like the best of all now's a good time to talk about combat if you're familiar with the first game or crpgs in general it's nothing too out there you can use both turn base like it's an actual tabletop game or switch to real time with pause if you want things to go faster real time also isn't fully real time each character has a timer equivalent to a turn before they can take action so you don't end up with the machine gun arches of some of our crpgs if you want to cast a spell you select the Target and once it's your turn the spell will resolve the exception to this is movement in real time everyone moves at once this is great for melee Fighters and less good for their backlines battlecasters you can switch at any point so you absolutely can use real time to close a gap then switch to turn base to take actions like normal just remember to set your spell casters to hold position otherwise they will charge a battle rock with a stick and get mulched rather than just standing at the back cutting power would come like they're supposed to there is a third type as well which I'll refer to as sneaky bastard while out of combat you don't have the same turn timers so simultaneous casting is possible just depending on animation length this makes buffing for fights a lot less tedious but if you still find it two monotonous there is a mod that lets you bind all your cast into a single button the other upshot is that if enemies have not seen you yet you can obliterate some of them before the fight even starts the count is flat-footed for the purpose of armor class 2 so if you have two arches with double shot you can stick four arrows through his memories of childhood before he even has a chance to reconsider its poor Life Choices of facing north for melee archers you can mostly just click on the Batman and have your dudes wail on him for magic this needs to be selected from your skill bar some will activate just from a single click but most will need a Target selected this can be either a single Target line or AOE for lines and aoes these will snap to a personal creature but if you hold down the control key you can free aim this instead hit more just remember that hitboxes can be weird if you see the white dashed circle around something that means it will hit them what counts as obscuring line of sight also varies sometimes solid walls are more of just suggestions and other times a Lamppost will render a cultist simply immaterial kinesthetically the fights are great the Spells cause the screen to shake and half of it is obscured by particles the sound effects are also appropriately powerful and Rays considered Ragdoll flying across the room gives the proper feeling that you can obliterate someone with mind bullets just for looking at you wrong archery is a bit more anemic at least until you create they're not just dead they're pacing across half the room there are Feats that make the steel damage to all surrounding enemies which yeah biological nail bomb probably wouldn't be the safest thing to stand around combat can become a bit tedious at times with some of the higher AC enemies when it essentially just becomes six people repeatedly missing every attack and just fishing for Nat twenties but this only happened a couple of times for me and there's usually a much better way of dealing with such enemies overall I quite enjoy playing the encounters but that does come with a caveat most ttrpg players can be put on a spectrum between two ideals there are role players and role players a role player is someone that really enjoys getting into the character that you've created how they interact with the world and its fluff talking to NPCs often trying to resolve things through peaceful or unconventional means a role player on the other hand wants to smack things devising builds that synergize skills together to deal more damage rolling the dice and seeing the big combat numbers often care less about the fluff and take a greater interest in the crunch in the wild it's easy to spot which one someone is a role player will be far more likely to have written a 10-page backstory or attend lapse whereas a role player probably plays BattleTech these are extremes of course but people often fall towards one side personally I tend towards role player and as such the game caters to me quite well if you tend towards role player there is still plenty here to get stuck into but you may find the fighting a bit more tedious man if you're only listening to that last section you're probably very confused right now there is of course more than just fighting in dungeons there are often other quests to follow or puzzles to solve this usually consist of an extra NPC to talk to or object to find or a code to be figured out and by figured out I mean tapping out to a guide to look up the solution once you make it the end of The Shield maze you find a demon trying to feed blood to a set of missing Mongols you get the option to give into demon rage here which unlocks the demon Mystic path again this doesn't lock you out from any other path but not doing so will lock you out from certain paths once you beat the demons land shows back up and you figure out more of what's going on window AG used to work for the demons and would help lure out the mongrels to serve them however she switched sides after seeing you as more powerful the wiki describes her as a cruel arrogant and bloodthirsty narcissist that never spares any sympathy for those in need seeing them as weak who don't deserve to live Lan says he's going to go tell Mumsy on what you did and you can pick which one to side with and I know what you're gonna say but hear me out I can fix her or maybe make it worse I'm not fixed on alignment yet Lan then runs off don't worry we'll deal with him later now you can finally return to the surface the battle on the surface rages on but their strength is flagging yet it will all be in vain if no one Rises up to turn the tide as expected it's in poor shape the Great Dragon got disarmed this headed instantly so your average Guardsman with a spear isn't going to be faring much better you meet up with irabeth the captain of the guard and girlfriend of anevia she'll lead you to the current base of the city's Defenders this serves as Center of operations and safe place to rest outside of dungeons rusting in a safe place is also the only way to remove critical wounds a note on death when you're reduced below zero HP you fall unconscious if you go to Greater negative HP than your Constitution score you get a death door debuff and your portrait gets made with ketchup if this happens again before you remove the debuff the character is killed why did you have a decent supply of materials and a high level Caster you can just Resurrect The Dead there and then hell some higher level spells don't even have a material component they even Buffs allies even if you don't have a Healer you can just pay a cleric to do it when you go back to town this only applies to Mortals extra planar Abominations such as Horses resurrect just from sleeping much like in real life death is really more of an inconvenience now you can explore the city more this is done on a map screen and burns time to travel around it's still more of a tutorial but gives you a lot more freedom to check out side quests and pick up more companions I found my best spellcasters here you have Ember an elf child that was burnt at the stake for being a witch despite this having left her orphaned and missing a few fingers she holds no ill-will to anyone a witch is basically a sorcerer that also uses hexes they bothi in ember's case she's a Charisma Caster that is friends with the crow who taught her how to shoot lasers most of your party will Grumble about including a child I must have misheard this girl join our party with a surprising exception of wendo act who instantly recognizes that she's actually hiding immense power and thus respects her greatly she isn't what she seems what she would have us believe she is I say child she's an elf so she's actually well over a hundred just hasn't fully matured yet her child is innocence and Pure Heart may be her greatest asset fully believing that anyone can be redeemed and asking anyone she comes across to embrace the good in them and change themselves this includes cultists wenduag and literal demons half the time it even works too and if not then well she's not above atomizing them there's also nenio a mad scientist wizard researching an encyclopedia who also has the ability to selectively forget any information she deems not important such as your name or her fursona she also practices less of what I would call moral relativism and more moral total absence as she will simply do whatever provides interesting experiments ethics review never heard of it Shady doctor offering demon organ transplants sign me the hell up the two of them provide the perfect two-pronged assault for pissing off every major demon you encounter as Emma will immediately try and reconcile their tainted soul and nenio will pester them with hyper-specific questions about extra planar Transportation magic use this as a convenient distraction for window acted but an arrow between their eyes make sure to examine the knife in the Market Square to pick up the aonistic path and have the church sing along for the izata once you're ready you can march on the Craig Garrison if you didn't have side quests you can bring a full beat Squad along to help fight and even put some enemies to sleep there's a convenient skill to combo off that here you meet Milagro a lilitu whose manipulation of a dwarf calls the fall of Dresden speaking of he's here too and portrays you just like he did back in Dresden despite their reputation as the great destroyers of cities they kind of just become Team Rocket that's right failing at everything in front of you and then blasting off again this is also where you finally unlock your first step on your Mystic path Mystic levels are not acquired through XP and are instead gained at specific points in the story most of these will each require their own quest lines to achieve and some may not actually be available until much later just remember that picking a new one will replace the benefits of any previous ones you have then you can head to the pub to celebrate hell you did such a good job the queen herself crowns unite commander of the fifth crusade hopefully you'll do a better job than all the others you're now free to explore the world and chase tail as you see fit you get a canful of soldiers as your base camp and a couple of advisors one an annoying halfling and Lindsay function named neura as well as a cleric and follower of the goddess of beauty he's one of the romance options if you play as a male character speaking of the romance options are much improved over the first game kingmaker at base had a total of four and only two of those were available to both sexes meaning you really only had three those two were also in an open relationship so it was only a matter of time before you had to deal with the drama from that falling apart there were a couple extra in DLC but for the base game the options really weren't that great it's kind of went for most of the characters as well I could only remember four out of the six in my kingmaker party from memory and the names of less than half of that this time your options are a lot better to start with there's seven with three being gender specific meaning five for females and six for males the best options are available to both though looking up a guide is still recommended as there can be a few steps that aren't particularly obvious like camping in a very specific location or not being too gentle in the bedroom that's one of adventuring you also now have to take care of managing The Crusade this is done by playing Heroes of mine magic yes this is a major mechanic being introduced tens of hours into the game it's a crpg what do you expect I've not played any Heroes games and all my polish friends are currently busy so I can't say how it Stacks up to the originals but your units do get blocked by small mole Hills or Pebbles and the best way to go about combat is a preemptive thermobaric strike which I've been told is how my magic 5 worked you get units each week from your home base but these suck ass and will die in droves to help this you can appoint a general these buffer units within have special abilities of their own and can recover a set amount of units after a fight these come in two types Wizard and not wizard I've only ever taken wizard I didn't need to take anything but wizard not when I can delete two-thirds of the enemy force with a single Fireball before the first turn has even taken place generals also level up giving them extra abilities and Buffs greater infirmary size and a greater stack limit for your army as far as I can tell there is not a limit for the number within a stack just the amount of different Stacks so better to recruit the best you can afford peasants with sharpened sticks will die in their hundreds to a single demon but if you agree to help rescue the helmites you can recruit them as mercenaries each week the more expensive than regular units but they can actually take a hit and dish one out too their leader will also join as your companion he's kind of a prick though the wounded he doesn't actually have the strength to wear his own armor and is by God a gnome he's lawful neutral so a right stickler for doing things by the book and talks a lot of [ __ ] for someone who's planting height with your army you now have to clear out various demon armies and forts to progress the story your main party can sneak around the armies but they're still blocked by the forts your actual armies aren't quite as low profile so we'll have to carve a path to reach the thoughts the game lets you create multiple armies each with their own units generals and movement points but I found making a single death stack worked a lot better if that all sounds like a ball like you can just set it to automatic this will give you a number of days before each Fort Falls but also lock you out to the secret ending I will not be going over the secret ending as the guide of how to achieve it alone could be someone's University thesis I also prefer to go through games fairly blind and there was no chance I was meeting the required conditions on the first playthrough I might go back and do it at some point but I don't have another 100 hours to spare right now going to get more into spoilers here but this will be a bit different from my usual warning I will only be going through my playthrough there's plenty of characters I didn't meet places and quests I didn't explore and the aforementioned secret ending is also an RPG so I'll all depend on the choices you make and doubly so for your Mystic path playing as the sentient swarm of flesh-eating wasps is probably going to be a bit different from the righteous Angel playthrough but nonetheless spoilers for window X romance as well as Ember and the normal ending skip to here for the conclusion Okay the reason kanabrous was able to exist so close to the world wound was because of a set of magical rocks known as the ward Stones when Locus mcsife attacked he ripped this up and hurled into the great Garrison the reason he was able to do this is the demons had secretly been weakening this for years a turncoat demon had led the priests of desert know and they had tried to fix it but were stopped by the local guard in the great Garrison two further things can be learned firstly that the waterstones worked by having hundreds of angels Souls imprisoned in them using their holy power to repel the demons second that the demons had worked out a way to turn these into wmds how you disarm the demon dirty bomb depends on your Mystic path and you'll be granted your first level in Mystic power you could then mow your way through the demons with ease although the traitor dwarf simp prevents you from finishing off the lily too once appointed head of the fifth crusade the commander set out for Dresden a fought deep in Demon territory that was once the prized position of the Crusaders the road was not long but it was an arduous one by the halfway point Scouts started to stop returning back more of them were sent after and they were eventually found at least what was left of Them Bones picked clean and bleaching in the Sun from a canyon below a faint buzzing could be heard slowly picking up in volume like a thousand Tiny Wings beating the cacophony quickly getting louder the sky darkening as clouds Drew in the roar now coming from all around and the scouts realized too late but it was no cloud in the sky the sun was being blocked out by the Swarm and the Swarm was hungry the few Scouts that made it back relayed the rough position of the basketball's Nest volunteers were then selected to distract the Swarm to allow the commander to run a surgical strike at the nest irabeth would lead the distraction effort hugging her wife and promising that she'd return Atop The Ridge the flooding of Steel against Shield quickly got its attention while down in the valley the commander made haste every moment dallied meant more soldiers devoured by the flesh-eating insects before long she stood before the festival Queen it didn't even put up much of a fight with the hive mind destroyed the vesque balls fell into disarray allowing the distractional division to become full-on Pest Control the commander kept a sample of the queen who knows when it could come in handy a few days later the commander camped out with her companions in the Hills While most slept peacefully wendellwag approached the commander complaining of being cold a rare admission of weakness from the usually proud Mongrel Warrior or perhaps the little cat wanted to play ah [Music] an hour or so of time and one Divine Miracle of somehow not waking the rest of the party later the two sat in post-coital Bliss in her exposed States the commander could fully examine wenduax body a network of scars running across it that rivaled the world wound itself but the warrior wore them proudly the long gash on her arm from where aware rat bit down would not let go until she'd smashed its nut to The Rock the scratches along her arms from scrapping and the Lash marks across her back from well something else with war all around moments of comfort can be rare neither the commander nor her fighter were unexperienced with the matter maybe it was just a one-off to relax but maybe somewhere in the mongol's cold heart there was a spark of warmth days more trudged by is the Army and the commander reach closer to Dresden and before long its great walls could be seen upon the Horizon the commander spent long hours toiling to the night organizing the Crusaders plans the candles burnt low when anivia burst into the Commander's tent a look of horror upon her face the camp was under assault from the skies the commander grabbed her weapons and headed out with window act the mongrel never far from her mistress around them the camp burned gargoyles dive from The Dark Knight carrying off any Crusaders they could get their claws into quickly the commander made her way through the camp regrouping with any companions not already carried off and slaying any fiends that crossed their path Camilla and Sila were close by but as they fought their way forward they were just not quite in time to stop arabeth being carried off Nora was suspiciously fine and given the amount of Alchemist fire she'd been chucking around might have burnt more of the camp than the Gargoyles the commander considered for a moment that maybe she should have sent her on the vescoval's distraction party once the initial attack had been repelled the commander could take stock Ember and nenio were nowhere to be found regular was also missing for the commander reckoned he could handle himself fine I never was in a panic her wife who had returned safely from fighting a horde of vesicles without a scratch was now gone the commander put her fears at ease that she could they would mount a rescue immediately neuro conveniently knew where they had been taken the Lost Chapel was atop a small hill at its base nenio stood waiting excited to tell the commander about all new weaknesses of their foe she'd discovered before escaping its grasp presumably by talking it to death a little further up the trail Ember crouched in the snow giving Aid to all those she could after having escaped her own kidnapper presumably from asking it nicely the commander fought up the hill passing regular and the hell nights to reach the chapel itself within its deconsecrated walls the Gauls were trying to turn the captured soldiers pardons with their Divine protection were able to ward off the infection however once the ghouls found this out a much worse fate was laid out for them this time the party arrived just in time able to rescue irabeth though the paladins once Ironclad resolve had been buckled in the courtyard behind a great demon sat playing with the newly converted ghouls like Tin Soldiers well how do you like my soldiers playing soldiers how old are you eight Milagro and Stanton watch from above as the commander approached the demon shied and goaded them relishing new prey it's my breakfast but failed to account for the Mythic power serving through the commander and was quickly put in his place Team Rocket then blast off again with the way cleared all that remained was to launch a direct attack on Dresden itself the main goal was to retrieve the sword of Valor sadly it was just some tarte's banner and not an actual sword however it did prevent demons from teleporting if we can reach it the battle should turn in our favor a plan needs to be made there's a few ways to go in neuro suspects there is a secret passage in the dungeon but I don't trust the opinion of anyone below 5-5 at this point regular will take a side route to take out the artillery while the commander storms the front gate with irabeth to inspire the troops from there carving a path up the side where the defenses are weaker allowing sappers to come in and break down the gates there is one way however to increase the Crusader's Chance by deploying the bioweapon gathered from The Vessel Queen the Swarm can be called down to Devour the demons thus weakening their ranks all it would take is a couple of volunteers the plan went off without a hitch so for the one hitch of the giant demon in the main square but he was quickly failed by the time the arrival of the Dwarven assassin inside the dungeon the demons had imprisoned one of their own a succubus named arushalay imprisoned as she was the one that had been telling the priests of desna about the sabotage of the war zones deep within the Citadel there stood another prisoner yariel somehow alive since the first crusade yeah yeah cool where's the sword caught by with the power of the sword in hand demons could no longer teleport away but that wouldn't stop them from trying their best to take out any Crusader in Arm's Reach the commander Cuts them down in short order carving a path to the top of the Citadel there she found stranton Milagro and even neuro waiting panicked and scared no longer able to flee like before sweetie let's go why are you so slow not going anywhere don't you feel it she's got that damn rag with her I can't teleport she's going to kill us you got that right stubborn Act for a heap of rocks take your befelled ruins you can make soup out of this [ __ ] for all I care I've had enough War hey there's an entire Army out there and are you gonna stop her no okay but a certain traitorous halfling is still about in actuality she's been working for the demons all along that's what happens to cowards get it together you maggots and we'll destroy them Burning Down the camp luring the basketballs all was her doing she talks a big game putting on a brave face and trying to make out that she has no issue with dying but the Terror at her rapidly approaching mortality is obvious and I've been waiting two games for this opportunity nothing will take the fun out of killing you apparently she's also a skinwalker with the Citadel taken the sword of Valor can be raised once more above the city but in doing so The Relic reacted to the Commander's Mythic power no longer a banner of ioma day but of the commander herself the commander also [ __ ] had a dragon her name is AVU the Havoc Dragon she can't do much right now other than sit around being cute but she does fill in the law the length of a dragon's name is proportional to their age so when you later run across a dragon named yeah I'm not even gonna try that you now have greater context she also allows the Commander's party to reach a size of 19 out of six with the capture and repopulating of Dresden you now have a permanent base of operations to conduct The Crusade from this brings back a lot of Kingdom management mechanics from kingmaker various NPCs will come and visit you in the throne room and Crusade white projects can be researched you'll also get to make the decisions on which path to pursue and what to build in Dresden however this time it pretty much just affects the units you receive for the Might and Magic battles the effect of the choice is shown up front so it can be worth ignoring your companion advice to get the units you want no dice rolls either this time extra options are just available if you have the corresponding Mystic path or companion Dresden also has a wide array of merchants to offload all the vendor trash you've been piling up now that you're no longer homeless you can settle in grab some drinks and get to know your Crusaders better if you pass a high enough diplomacy check anivia will reveal she was born male and irabeth ended up selling her sword for the relevant potion honestly I'm surprised this isn't more common in the setting the going rate for a non-magical even Masterwork sword isn't exactly High also turning someone into a dog is a fifth level spell and that's a far greater departure of biology I know I'd certainly try seeing how the other half lives for what amounts to the price of three onions and a wedge of cheese back to our story once the victory celebrations are finished the commander takes talk in addition to a horde of strange new demons with unknown Powers remnants of the festivals still linger and there was also that dragon that had been eating the scouts But First with her increase in Mystic power several magical creatures had started to gather within the city wishing for an audience with and to swear allegiance to the commander they were a ragtag lord including Priests of desna Cavalry sculptors and a strange man with the suspicious name of early sunset in her dreams the commander had also seen a location and a kind voice asking for her help upon arriving the commander was greeted by the demon turncoach had freed from the prisons of Drazen she carried a symbol of desna the god of Dreams cautiously the party asked her to swear upon it and without a second thought she did So Satisfied the commander agreed to help her the succubus helped the commander fight her way through to retrieve a relic of old the bell of Mercy whose very rigging drives demons scurrying back to their holes but this did not even seem to make the succubus flinch once the fighting was done she walked to the commander speaking to her with none of the Pomp and disdain of most demons she revealed her name as arushalay and the story of her making for she was once no different to any other succubus of the Abyss traveling to the material plane to seduce and feast upon Mortals however her last meal would leave her shaken for her prey was no less than a high priest of desna when a succubus feeds off a mortal they absorb them into themselves and as the priests Lay Dying her a conscious mind reached out dreaming of her goddess arushalay while subsuming this was carried with her final thoughts right to desna herself a deity of that magnitude could have rendered her asunder without a second thought for defiling her priest in such a way but when Destra looked upon the demon her eyes were that of pity rather than righteous anger she asks why she had done this the words resonated within the succubus's soul the demon ideals Came Crashing Down around arushalay like a shattered pane of glass and the succubus awoke with a start the priests will limp in her arms something had changed within her Casting aside what she was before her life would now be devoted to desna to writing the wrongs from her life up until this point even if that was a ditch she could never repay she could good nonetheless make a difference in the lives of everyone from now on as she finished recounting Mr Commander she gestured to a grave that of the very Priestess of her story who she had buried and sworn upon the commander didn't need to hear more and welcomed her with open arms behind her a sparkle could be glanced in the corner of ember's black eyes that which she'd always hoped for has just proved true in front of her the Redemption of that which was once nothing but evil for if one demon can turn good then in time maybe all can all it took was for them to make the choice to do so of note arushalay also has a ridiculous stat line with a point by equivalent of over 65 and is also pre-trained and trickery so Camilla's sole purpose in the party has now been supplanted when back in Dresden a new fire burned in Ember not the harsh Flames that had scorched her body but a gentle one of Hope talking to anyone that wished to listen and praying directly to the demon Lords themselves her singular tiny voice calling out to them to find the good inside themselves if they could even hear her she did not know but it would not stop her from trying from hoping from believing in the good in all of them windwag also wished to speak with the commander she had long promised the commander an invincible Army of mongrels and the time had come to make good on a promise the commander agreed to accompany her back to cannabras she seemed almost anxious about something making their way back to the shield maze she barely spoke finally breaking the silence to speak to their tribe's leader in her absence Lan had returned taking the demon-strengthened mongrels with him to somewhere hidden in the Labyrinthian caves wendo AG knew instantly her smile snaking back across her face she knew where he'd be it was a place they both knew well where they'd used to sneak off to where she'd made him a man all those many moons ago true to her instincts land sat in the cave doing his best to remove the Demon's work from the mongrels he immediately Rose to block wendowag anger visible in the otherwise Zen monk demanding that wendoak fight him one-on-one a simple right of combat to prove who was true the fight was not long where the land was overconfident that he could beat the one who trained him or that he already knew he stood no chance with a bow made in a cave against the best the fifth crusade could afford would be lost to time sinking into the cave like the red stream that ran from his once more unmoving body window AG returned to the former Chief of her tribe it was clear she had now surpassed him this was her tribe now and as had been destined for those long decades in darkness she would now lead them to the surface against the demons who were their creation they emerged from the caves stepping out for Dresden when Greg marched at the head with her mistress never once looking back upon their return Dresden was an uproar many lay dead in the square and Ember was missing taken by a huge force of mathemat cultists that had snuck disguised into the city those listening to her sermons had fought valiantly to protect her but sadly there were just too many and in the time for the guard to arrive they had disappeared into the hills the commanders set out immediately following the Tracks Of The cultists arushalay Lending an invaluable hand her expertise in Espionage familiar with how they had hidden their Retreat her face showing genuine concern for the elf girl she'd met no longer than a fortnight earlier before long the party caught up with the cultists at a shrine to Baphomet hope filled the party as they heard the elf's voice coming from up the trail the party listened closely as they quietly but swiftly approached Embers prayers to Baphomet had in fact been heard over and over enough for the Demon Lord to send spies off the irritating mortal however after the fifth set of these did not return from their Recon missions a strike group was gathered the mission went awry or upon reaching Dresden all the spies they had sent had not been killed like they'd expected but instead stood around the witch enthralled at her words already having turned their back on Baphomet missed speeches from the girl were losing the Manpower in that moment the Strikeforce knew that she could not be allowed to remain they had to act now and bring the girl back to be sacrificed to their dark Lord the party rounded the corner to where Ember lay on the sacrificial altar they could hear the cultists already infighting with the demons around them for their hearts had already been swayed by her words in the short time taken to reach their base the demons were less on board and in a moment descended upon the Troublesome elf the cultists moved to protect her a futile effort against the greater demons had it not been for the Commander's arrival quickly dispatching them after the dust settled they stood around some begged for mercy some resigned themselves ready for their execution and so I'm just asked to hear one last time from Ember and Connor pondered before her train of thought was broken by Ember standing a little shaky but confident nonetheless between her and them begging the commander to spare them that they didn't know what they're doing and that what they did proved that they could change for the better the kind of thought for a moment taking in all that happened there was truth in the girl's words but she could not let them walk free she would bring them back to Dresden where they would be thrown into the prison but not executed Ember would also have free access to it she could provide her sermons wherever she saw fit if that was to those held in the dungeon then they should count themselves blessed the walking saint of redemption saw the best in them if not out on Crusade with a commander or the small amount of time she allowed herself to sleep that is where Ember would be found beseeching any it had listened to find the good in themselves days passed Dragon Slain and more creatures flocked to the Commander's free Crusaders that now welcomed the likes of trents and mimics into their ranks together with a conventional army they began pushing the demons further and further back upon an expedition into yet more missing Scouts the commander journeyed to a strange Village demons seemed to walk around openly the town's folk seeming none the wiser no beyond that the commander appeared a monster to them searching deeper into the village all the stones meant to ward off the demons had quietly been destroyed and replaced with Fakes finally after spooking The Village Chief the commander let him run leading the party directly to the cause of all this madness a demon named jerabeth it mocked the commander telling her that if she dispels the illusion the villagers will realize that they've been harboring demons and the supposed demons they've driven from the village and killed have in fact been their kin the commander didn't even consider it having seen firsthand that human hearts are not so weak as demons would like to think the truth would not be easy but it would be better than bringing further harm under illusion sadly the demon ran before it could be finished off but it left something important behind the keys to its home the commander returned to Dresden to prepare for the assault on the ivory sanctum suddenly irabeth ran in with an urgent update for the commander a drunken brawl had Broken Out In The Tavern and in the resulting fight when do I had killed two people the kind of dropped everything she was doing and headed straight for the tavern with arabeth window AG stood shouting seemingly drunk over the two corpses seemingly no one of note but they would have still mattered to someone wendouag boasts and shides but almost appears to be hiding something something more than just a brawl that got out of hand the commander nodded to irabeth she'd handle window AG personally within the Commander's Chambers wendouac stood before her mistress all impressions of alcoholic impairment seeming to have already evaporated the cat coyly inquired as to her punishment the commander didn't answer her question instead telling the mongrel to kneel before her and again with Force when not heated next would come discipline of a kind once finished when do I examined the bruises and marks left on her by the commander she smiled up at her enjoying the sight of them as a reminder of the passions that had just passed she opened her mouth as if to say something but the commander spoke first asking what the real reason behind the killing was as feral as when to act like to portray herself she knew better than to kill without reason and had the grace to know the limits of what would do a human in there had to be something more to it when do Ag relented and opened up properly to the commander for the first time it had not just been any old brawl they'd come seeking a fight taunting jeering asserting that the commander was weak and just bringing in any wild beast not only insulting her kin but going further as to call the commander a heretic for such actions implying she was merely just an attempted usurper of the Queen's power their words were more than just provocative they boarded on treasonous in sentencing them to death wenderag was almost in line with the laws of governance yet the commander still would have been in her right to have sentenced the mongrel to death in The Tavern when dwark had taken a big risk one that relied on trusting another completely and an Uplander at that something even if only small had started to change within her the next day the commander and crew set out for the ivory sanctum arriving by the end of the week and with key in hand granted entry within its walls two sets of demons were calling the place home or they did not appear to be happy about either other one being there jerebeth chose that moment to make her presence known again despite the commander having promised to kill it last they had spoke it offered a deal read the other demons from its home and its followers would assist with the spring cleaning not one to look a gift horse in the mouth the commander accepted regardless if the Commando had anything to say about it jerabeth still would not leave the place alive they made Swift progress slicing their way into the belly of the sanctum as they crossed a bridge in the caves deep beneath demons poured from either side trapping the party the commander gripped her glaive tightly arushalayan window act notched arrows Ember and nanio began to mutter the starts of spells then in a flash of Holy Light the hand of the inheritor second of ioma day herself descended upon the bridge in the name of ioma day I say to you fiends Flee for you find no mercy here Forge onward to your enemy champion and have no fear the Warriors of heaven will keep the monsters from your back Commander smile to herself a license to be thick and fast today and who was she to complain thanking the angel they plowed on after cutting through their half of the demon horde the Demon's Master stood before her an evil creature nay swarm of creatures in the shape of a man a swarm that warped spells and swords seemed to pass straight through his barely corporeal form but nonetheless in time he fell like any other the notes he left behind gave important information to the source of the strange Demon's power the nahindrian crystals and where they were coming from Dresden or rather portals deep beneath the commander and cohort knew what must be done and they sped for home only stopping for the inevitable betrayal from jerebeth now that her maze had been cleared out it was no skin off the Commander's back saving her the trouble of double crossing the demon herself back in Dresden the commander convened with the hand of the inheritor now knowing the location of the nihindrian crystals he urged the commander to summon the queen and use her armies to storm a place descending into the bowels of Dresden and clearing them out room by room but the commander had a better idea she did not need some Queen's help she had her own Army in the free Crusaders meanwhile the Queen's forces would take weeks to arrive the three Crusaders were ready to go now [ __ ] the queen rest what you can tonight is his our turn to run rampant in the Demon's home wow at dusk the Seal of the Catacombs was broken and the Commander's forces descended upon them she was flanked on the right by mimics and treyants divine angels and paladins on the other and within her hands wielded the soulshare a powerful Relic that used the death it inflicted to summon demons under the Commander's yoke against the army of four planes the unprepared Defenders never stood a chance even their strongest fell before the commander and her allies that day carrying at the back they found Milagro somehow still alive how many defeats was this now you could see it plastered across her eyeless face now stained with the brand from her Lord as punishment for repeated failures the commander considered smiting the demon upon the spot but at this point she just wasn't a threat anymore so for a final time valillo 2 fled Into the Night but no good deed goes unpunished Queen gelfry herself rushed into the room having used teleportation magic of her Court to reach the action as quickly as possible she gave little more than a Curt acknowledgment of the Commander's Victory before attacking her verbally it would seem I missed out on all the fun for reinforcements or guidance from me finding any and all defects to pick at I I cannot but notice your strange choice of companions for murderous succubus and to take the demon with you to the front lines where one well-timed stab in the back could put a tragic end to our entire Crusader calls it is unthinkably reckless value and stopping to consider her actions Selah stepped out of line in front the lawful good Paladin who had dedicated her life to defeating demons stood speaking out against her own Queen to defend a succubus with all due respect my lady arushalay has herself to be a full and reliable cop she'd follow the path for defending the good and the innocent her whole life and while she could have never imagined the day that that would entail taking the side of a demon in the moment not a single shred of Doubt clouded her mind for what she knew was right but bravely for us and we both want to see the demons defeated is there any reason to reproach the commander for accepting her into our party thank you I can't believe you really said that an almost imperceptible snarl flashed across the Queen's face before she regained her composure and continued her attack pivoting to anything else she could think of shaming the commander for attacking the demons without her support for the use of vesicaphores for defiling iomeday's Banner the final accusation being rebutted by no less than I owe a day's Herald himself my righteous sister you are entitled to make such a decision but please reconsider whether this is the right one even the words of her God's angel were not enough to change the old woman's heart no argument she presented was anything other than excuse her mind had already been made avarice at this upstart Commander burned her to a core she stripped the now X commander of all rank I am full to remove you mommed of the announcing that she Queen galfrey would now lead the Crusade herself she ordered the X Commander at her party to walk through the portal into the Demon's world to sort it out from their side an obvious suicide mission but who is this now rankless girl to stand up against the decree of a queen when do AG looked over as if asking the same question that was coursing through the mind of her mistress the queen had come alone ahead of her Army the party the free Crusaders they answered not to the queen but the commander the gelato hag didn't realize just how vulnerable she was right now she gripped soulshare tightly till her Knuckles turned white The Crusade came first turn to face the raft and within its swirling depths shimmered the reflection of herself of all she had strived for or she'd achieved the hard-fought battles and enduring hardships the new friends and lovers flashing like half-remembered fragments of a dream even now slipping away into its Inky Darkness with her companions gathered around she took one last look back before stepping into her exile [Music] [Music] this was not over

Channel: Devalk

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Keywords: devalk, pathfinder, pathfinder wrath of the righteous, pathfinder review, pathfinder wrath of the righteous review, pathfinder wotr, wort guide, crpg

Id: UKCJHRkfiS8

Length: 50min 58sec (3058 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 09 2023