u/Guilty_Royal_9145

After killing Trias and coming back to Sigil, I was a bit disappointed to find out there isn't much to do there anymore.

I finally found the guy who could help Ingress, but that's about it. In one of my earlier posts, there was a comment about that, which I wanted to reply to. But the user was already deleted, so they wouldn't get a notification. Lots of deleted users, even though these posts aren't that old. What's up with that?

Anyway, I went on to search for the Fortress of Regrets in the Mortuary. I walked through these rooms for around two hours like an idiot until I went to the wiki, where I couldn't find any info about how to find it. So I closed the game and tried again a few days later. Who thought it was a good game mechanic to have these portals completely invisible and without any hints in the game??? I think someone mentioned that Modron follower could scan for them, but I don't have him and it's been a major annoyance on two separate occasions now.

Anyway, when I finally found it, there was some interesting dialogue. At the Fortress of Regrets, meeting Deionarra is an emotional moment, even though I don't fully understand the backstory.

But then – oh my god. Running around trying to avoid the shadows to activate the cannons works a bit until the last one. Around a dozen shadows are blocking the narrow stairs to it. It is impossible to maneuver through. Trying to pull them and move them back from the stairs is equally impossible. So I finally found out there is a difficulty slider that I set to the easiest setting and then tried to pull and fight them one by one to free up the stairs. But even then I fiddled around unsuccesfully with the bullshit combat for around an hour without achieving anything.

At this point I don't have the nerve to continue playing, which is a shame. There were many cool lore moments that I enjoyed greatly. But the last few weeks it's overshadowed by hours of insufferable stumbling around and impossible combat.

And there are many parts of the game where I think I should have seen more. It's most likely a combination of things not being there and me just thinking it would be cool, me missing out on content that's there and quests with different paths that would be nice to revisit in another playthrough.

But sadly I don't have any nerves to go back to this game for the time being.

After finally being able to >!leave Sigil!< (thanks again for the help guys), I feel like the story is progressing at lightning speed now. Unfortunately, I don't find most episodes super enjoyable.

I don't know where I heard it, but "combat is mostly optional" is the biggest bullshit I have heard about this game.

Black-barbed maze

After such a huge buildup, this encounter felt super underwhelming. The maze is just some goo with a few monsters in it. The conversation with >!Ravel wasn't super memorable and always ends in combat. I actually initiated the fight early one time and loaded a previous save because I got a cryptic message about not being able to complete the story or whatever. The reward for a longer conversation was a harder fight. – Ok.!<

Curst, Underground and Prison

Going to this town felt super pointless. I got one quest but found no way to resolve it. So I >!jumped down in the hole in the garbage dump.!<

Underground there are a few neat encounters. I liked >!the smuggler trying to kill you by making you fight the demon!< and the >!hermit!<. But the >!three demons with their two pens of fat beings lacked some explanation. What are they doing there?!<

The prison was zero fun. Just trying to bait enemies with Morte so I can defeat one or two at a time with my whole crew. Sometimes two got lucky hits in and eradicated half of my party. When I accidentally pulled three I got a complete party wipe. Finding and talking to >!Trias was underwhelming!< after the buildup and what was complete bullshit is >!that his powerful weapon is just some ugly fat dude. Like what???!< At least that could be resolved without a fight.

Then I found >!Vhailor!<. What an interesting and UNIQUE character. I like how he talks. I like how he >!hits like a TRUCK!<. Combat certainly got a lot easier after having him join my party. I decided to leave Ignus behind. While I like him, he's not very talkative and I have a feeling he doesn't really get what's going on anyway. He can have fun setting the Prison on fire or something.

Demons and Skulls

The >!big skeleton with the demon living inside it!< is kinda cool. But at this point I feel like I'm rushing from place to place and the places are relatively empty. In the beginning of the game I was in the Hive for days and weeks, talking to dozens of NPCs, going back and forth, discovering new things I had missed, doing quests, etc. Now I'm 10 minutes in a place and there is 1 guy to talk to...

The >!talking skull pile!< was fascinating with all the lore I learned about >!TNO, Morte, Annah, Vhailor!<. Certainly a high point in quite a while. Unfortunately my experience was soured a bit. But let's go step by step. The first time talking to it ended with me >!permanently losing 15HP, which made me reload an earlier save and go through the convo again. Usually I don't do this and like to roll with the consequences of my actions, but tbh combat is already a pain in the ass and I can't deal with having even less HP.!<

The second conversation >!ends with Vhailor turning aggro on me and me killing him. Wow, what a gut punch. But super interesting. Here I resist the urge to reload, because that's an interesting consequence I like to live with. However, back at Baator, I'm unable to find a way back before the demons wipe my party. So I decide to reload again and go through the convo with the skulls again, because I'm convinced I missed something. No luck. Last resort: The wiki. Turns out I had everything I needed, but the portal is just super difficult to find. I mean seriously: Who scours every inch of the map until they stumble upon an invisible portal? I usually enjoy that older video games aren't as dumbed down and hand-holdy as modern ones, but here I would have liked some visual clues at least.!<

Back with the >!skeleton-dwelling demon I am a bit disappointed that nothing new is to be learned. I thought protecting him from the Skulls by not giving away his location would give some sort of "reward", even if it was just new info. But no.!< Well meh. Let's go in the ass>!-portal back to Curst.!<

Back to Chaos

Shit's fucked up, yo! Who would have guessed >!the angel guy is actually super evil? I like the concept of having to reduce Chaos in the embattled city, calming looters, etc. And with Vhailor on my team I can actually partake in combat without having my party wiped all the time. I guess the loads of EXP I'm getting lately also helped. Unfortunately, the place is so crowded that combat is a bit wonky and chaotic.!<

And that's where I left off last time. Even though I haven't enjoyed gameplay as much in the last session or two, I'm still finding (at least large parts of) the story fascinating and am excited to continue.

[Everything that follows is a spoiler, I guess]

I touched the experience stone in the Festhall and talked to Ravel through that. I got the handkerchief with the blood of her daughter from the brothel. I talked to the Advocate and figured out I knew his daughter in a previous life. I got a weird dodecahedron and got the linguist to help me read it. I joined the Godsmen, solved their murder case and got access to the room where they build the weird weapon.

I have no idea how to continue. I think the next step would be entering the maze.

Looking at the Wiki, I think I need to get a portal, which is an item, from the godsmen. For that I need a receipt that I could get from the Advocate (I talked to him already several times. No receipt.) or pickpocket off Nadilin. I pickpocketed him and only got a bit of copper.

Can anyone help me out here? I've already run up and down the map several times, tried to read up on the wiki, but I'm at a loss here...