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Pillars of Eternity II: A Dance with Death

Captain Aeldys had done a little digging of her own since learning that Furrante was interested in the Floating Hangman. And what she had uncovered was that the Captain of the Hangman was a woman once known as Lucia Rivan. Little was known of Lucia, save that she had once been a member of the Darcozzi Paladini – the order of Paladins charged with protecting the Valian royal family. It was also rumored that she was looking for something…

While Aeldys’ sources couldn’t tell her much more about Lucia herself, they *also* turned up another lead. After being cast out of the Paladini Lucia had been hunted down and slain by a champion of Berath named Yseyr. And Yseyr was entombed in the catacombs below the Temple of Berath in Neketaka. Sealed in a central tomb with complex wards and multiple guardians… Aeldys was certain that there was a reason beyond “respect for the dead” for Yseyr’s tomb to be sealed so tightly. And she was dead certain that that reason had something to do with Lucia Rivan.

smeared dark fantasy watercolor wide view of a stone terrace in a medieval polynesian city. The entrance to a Mayan temple. Carved stone pillars. Deaths head symbol over the door. Eerie green glowing gas emanates from behind large stone doors. Symbol on door of two eels swallowing each other's tails. A polynesian man in simple black robes beckons to the viewer. He is bald, tall, heavyset, with yellow skin with brown patterns, and sharp ears.

They met with High Priests Kasu in the temple, and he told them that the reasons for Yseyr’s sealing had long since been lost to time. But if they were willing to recover for him a number of holy scrolls lost in the Catacombs while they were there, then he would give them access. He could make no promises for the guardians in the catacombs, and he could tell them nothing about the seals on Yseyr’s Tomb, but he could get them in. So they outfitted themselves in anti-undead gear, and headed in.

They explored the Catacombs carefully, prepared for traps or ambush at every turn.

smeared watercolor luis royo dark fantasy of a short halfling sharpshooter cautiously crouched exploring a tall dark carved mayan hallway,. He is age 30, italian, stout, clean shaven, light stubble, stocky, with short black toussled hair and a round face, wearing a long black coat over black leather armor. He holds up two flintlock pirate pistols. eerie green fog. inky black darkness

Yseyr’s Tomb itself was not difficult to find, but it was guarded by two unknown statues, with arcane wards demanding they be properly named before the Tomb would open.

smeared watercolor luis royo dark fantasy of a huge carved stone door in a mayan chamber. An ethiopian sorceress carefully explores stone statues flanking the structure. She is 45, with brown skin and purple hooded robes. The statues depict death knights standing watch, one holding a mace and the other holding a spear. eerie green fog. inky darkness. steps. green braziers. death motif carvings on door. The statues eyes glow

In the course of exploring the Catacombs looking for answers they were met with luminous Revenants …

smeared watercolor luis royo dark fantasy action in a dark mayan catacomb. motion. rear view. A short halfling sharpshooter dodges firing two glowing blue flintlock pistols at glowing zombies shambling with claws. The halfling is 30, italian, stout, clean shaven, stocky, with short black toussled hair, wearing a black coat over black leather armor. The zombies have evil eyes and shine bright green energy from scars. eerie green mist

Hideous Darghuls….

smeared painterly watercolor dark fantasy action in a dark mayan catacomb. exaggerated motion. rear view. An irish rogue girl summersaults high smacking two glowing maces with red auras into large stumbling ghouls. She is 22, with freckled skin, short reddish bob hair, green eyes, and celtic face tattoos. She wears an armored leather vest over a short-sleeved green shirt and leather pants. The ghouls are lanky and hunched, with teeth and claws. eerie green mist.

Sinister Wraiths…

smeared watercolor luis royo dark fantasy action in a dark mayan catacomb. exaggerated motion. rear view. An alabama cleric woman with a bo staff hurls brilliant white magic disintegrating dark spectres. She is 35, with a plain face, short brown unkempt hair, wearing hippy necklaces and a cloak over leather armor. The spectres are dark ghosts with red eyes and spectral claws, and dissolve into dust. eerie green mist.

And many more. And in the deeper chambers they were assailed by a vertiable army of ancient skeletal warriors.

Finally they were able to uncover the secrets necessary to open the Tomb…. at which point they were confronted by none other than Yseyr himself! It seemed that he had risen long ago as a Death Guard – to enable him to continue protecting his charge. The Engoliero do Espirs – the lost sword of the Valian royal family!

It seems that in life Lucia had been charged with safeguarding the sword, but when the royal palace had been sacked she had run off with it instead of staying to fulfil her oath. Yseyr had tracked her down and slain her to retrieve it. Lucia had been cursed to rise again due to failing her oath, and had sought the sword ever since in the hopes that retrieving it would free her from her curse.

Yseyr was willing to give them the sword, as well as telling them the words of the ancient oath Lucia had sworn upon it. He said that reciting the oath upon the sword on the open seas would draw her to it. He only asked one thing in return. That the sword be used to put Lucia permanently to rest.

They sailed out from Neketaka harbor, found a quiet spot, and Star began the ritual.

A smeared painterly luis royo dark fantasy watercolor at night on the deck of a pirate ship. An alabama druid woman chants magic with her eyes closed as she kneels holding out a long glowing rapier. She is 35, with a plain thin face, short brown unkempt hair, wearing hippy necklaces and a cloak over leather armor. night. The rapier is an antique spanish blade with a basket hilt. It glows with a wispy purple aura.

And sure enough, the Floating Hangman soon appeared in a haze of eerie fog.

A smeared painterly dark fantasy watercolor at sea. Rear view. An irish rogue girl leaning on the railing of a pirate ship stares at a large tattered ghostly galleon appearing in the distant eerie fog. She is 22, with freckled skin, short wild reddish bob hair, green eyes, and celtic face tattoos. She wears a leather armor vest over a short green shirt, leather pants, and boots. night. The galleon glows with an eerie green wispy aura. Thick eerie fog

The tattered ship pulled alongside,and they stepped aboard. Lucia demanded they hand over the sword, and in return Grim demanded she hand over her ship! Lucia grinned, saluted him with her sword, and the battle commenced!

While the others battled Lucia’s undying crew…

smeared dark fantasy watercolor luis royo action aboard a tattered ship. exaggerated motion. side view. An irish rogue girl leaps swinging glowing maces with red auras smashing undead pirates stumbling with cutlasses. She is 22, with freckled skin, short reddish bob hair, green eyes, and celtic face tattoos. She wears an armored leather vest over a short green shirt and pants. The undead wear armor and have green eyes. night. eerie haze.
smeared dark fantasy watercolor luis royo action aboard a tattered ship. exaggerated motion. A short halfling sharpshooter dives shooting glowing blue pistols disintegrating undead pirates brandishing cutlasses. The midget is 30, italian, stout, clean shaven, stocky, with short black toussled hair, wearing a black coat over black leather armor. The undead wear armor and have green eyes. night. eerie haze.
smeared dark fantasy watercolor luis royo action aboard a tattered ship. exaggerated motion. side view. An ethiopian wizard woman elf in a combat crouch hurls magic lightning innundating undead pirates brandishing cutlasses. She is 45, with brown skin, straight black hair, face tattoos, and purple hooded robes. The undead wear pirate armor and have green eyes. night. eerie fog.
smeared watercolor dark fantasy action aboard a tattered ship. exaggerated motion. rear view. An alabama druid woman swinging a bo staff hurls brilliant white magic disintegrating vampire corsairs brandishing cutlasses. She is 35, with a plain face, short brown unkempt hair, wearing hippy necklaces and a cloak over leather armor. The corsairs wear armor, have green eyes, and dissolve into dust. luis royo. night. eerie fog.

While Grim duelled Lucia herself.

And while she was a skilled, strong, and crafty opponent, eventually he caught her somewhere there wasn’t room to dodge. At which point he drew the Engoliero do Espirs and fulfilled his vow. He thrust it deep into Lucia’s prone form, and she withered away in a long sigh. Lucia Rivan was finally dead for good, and the Floating Hangman was now theirs.

They immediately split their crew between the Defiant and the Hangman, and set sail for Dunnage to meet back with Captain Aeldys. The Hangman would require a bit of a refit to be suitable for living crew, and they needed to carefully plan their next steps.

Author’s Notes:

At this point I may again diverge again from the PoE2 story proper. The second DLC is mostly combat tied together with a fig-leaf of a story about a competition for the God Galawain. Its so far out-of-left-field compared to the urgency of the story at this point that I’ll likely skip it altogether. The third DLC, however, ties in a lot better and has the explicit hook of “power to help battle Eothas”. Just have to figure how to massage the transition a bit to make it less jarring (to me).

Rendering-wise, I learned another trick with OpenAI GPT 1.5. I’ve been using DALL-E to pre-render my characters, then feeding them to GPT as reference imagery. But I felt like I had little control over the image style and background that it often selected. I have found that if in addition to providing the character images I *also* provide a separate render of the scene setting – that that does wonders for solidifying the image. I’ll have to experiment a bit more to see if it works better to render the characters against blank or generic backgrounds and then provide the background image separately, or to render the characters against a similar backdrop.



2 responses to “Pillars of Eternity II: A Dance with Death”

  1. atcDave Avatar
    atcDave

    Another fun set.

    The question you ask is interesting, I’ve done it both ways. Often doing one character in the chosen setting, then other characters or objects against a white background for insertion. I haven’t decided if there’s a “best” way to do this? I suppose it comes down to how you might want to use the image in another context? I currently have a collection of character images against landscape and castle type backgrounds, for later manipulation.
    Although if you want to do a video its clearly best to do the setting seperately. I recently failed to do this and had to generate a seperate background later (removing a character), that did not work as well!

    Reply
    1. Zeno Avatar
      Zeno

      After finishing this set I discovered there was an entire undead port town (that didn’t know they were all dead) tied to Lucia that I never even knew about because I hadn’t followed up all the leads earlier. That would’ve been fun to do. Ah well.

      Reply

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