Okay but can I just say I’m in love with the parallels that they gave gumlee and petrigof… like the “I’m giving it all up for you after barely any time” LIKE YOU SEE IT RIGHT…
[A fan edit of Gale Dekarios from Baldur's Gate 3 by @/pabspattern from Tiktok. Gale said "I remember once, she took the smallest piece of Weave and made it into– wait. Were you saying—" then he was cut off and the song I'm Autistic (I Don't Get Social Clues) by BJ Conolly start, set to various montage of Gale within the game // End of ID]
[id: two digital art pieces of characters from horizon: forbidden west. the first image has three different drawings featuring aloy, seyka, and beta. aloy is in the oseram artificer outfit with leather armor, bracers, and a leather crop top vest with red cloth; beta is in the nora huntress outfit, with a leather tunic and a light blue bandana around her neck; and seyka is in her usual outfit with a white-and-gray fabric armor and a pink-and-gray scarf. the backgrounds in these pieces are a textured light pink.
the first drawing is an upper body shot of aloy and beta, who are side-by-side, each with an arm slung over the other's shoulder, the sides of their heads touching. aloy has her other hand on her hip and is smiling at beta, though she also looks slightly concerned. beta is ducking her head slightly, her other arm curled into herself as she also smiles, albeit a little anxiously.
the second drawing is of aloy and seyka. aloy is sitting down, her legs outstretched while seyka is laying back against her chest. seyka has an interface open in front of her that she's curiously navigating through, her tongue sticking out. aloy is peering down at her and smiling. they're both slightly blushing.
the final drawing is an upper body shot of aloy and seyka. seyka is grabbing aloy by the shoulders and frantically shaking her, gasping in amazement, her eyes sparkling. aloy looks pretty startled but otherwise isn't fighting against it.
the second image is of a sunwing, a pterosaur-like robot. she is standing, lifting one wing to preen at it. she is simply colored a slightly darker shade than the background. the text reads, "Sunny the Sunwing <3" end id]
H3: Bloodstone Wars (1987) is the weakest in the series. First indication is the fact that it recycles art. The lone interior illustration originally appeared in H2 and the cover is the same Jeff Easley painting that fronts the Battlesystem box set. Like H2, the Battlesystem usage is optional here, but that fact is also far more puzzling as so much of the module is organized around, well, wars. It’s right there in the title.
It is amidst the battles that the regular adventuring takes place, which is essentially a sortie to remove the assassins that are harrying the good guy officers and hampering the war effort. It’s fine, it just seems like not something the player characters should be handling at this point? Because the underlying theme of the adventure is tied to rulership. The barony is now theirs, the people need their protection and leadership. It seems improbable to have the baron go off to deal with a stronghold of assassins.
The other big problem is the Forgotten Realms logo sneakily stuck on the BACK cover. Where the first two volumes were generic, this one has the additional task of retrofitting Bloodstone to fit into the newly developing campaign setting. Honestly, they do it well enough, but it is still another THING everyone has to CONTEND with. But then, maybe that’s the true lesson of leadership. Heavy is the head that wears the crown and all that.