quest The Trappings of Fate

[petterparker]

1 hour ago, Gasparde said:

Completely stuck in second trial, i can't put embalming tool in cracked wall, tried restart and early save. LE

Spoiler

There are two tools, one works and the other doesn't.

 

[redlord14]

3 hours ago, petterparker said:

  Reveal hidden contents

In my game, I first placed the tool on the wall, then take the lockpicks and took off the gloves(fire and water).
then I just had to interact with the tool on the wall...
So, you may have to go back to a previous save or simply fail the mission to start over.

 

Spoiler

That's exactly what I did. Put tool in cracked wall, then burned mittens off, now yoke is on. It says to "take embalming tool" when looking at it, and "A tool that may be used to cut one's binds or as an improvised lockpick, jammed into the wall to keep it stable," when I click on it.

 

[petterparker]

1 hour ago, redlord14 said:

  Hide contents

That's exactly what I did. Put tool in cracked wall, then burned mittens off, now yoke is on. It says to "take embalming tool" when looking at it, and "A tool that may be used to cut one's binds or as an improvised lockpick, jammed into the wall to keep it stable," when I click on it.

 

Spoiler

Try take new lockpicks..

 

[Allen Harris]

18 hours ago, petterparker said:

  Hide contents

Try take new lockpicks..

 

Ah, that's interesting. I guess since I'd already grabbed some, it never occurred to me you might need those too lol

[Goonorrhea]

Finally finished with part 2. 

Overall, great, creative mod.  Thanks a bunch for this treat. Was particularly surprised when I first played part 1 and encountered mechanics I'd never seen in Skyrim before.

 

The difficulty is good, though part 2 could perhaps use more hints, or a mechanic like part 1's punishing hint-giving orb. There were a few frustrating aspects and some issues I encountered:

 

Spoiler

Issues:

- First time starting part 2, things did not initialize properly. Gargoyles, struggle animations, and other parts of the mod just didn't work. Reloading a save before starting part 2 and trying again fixed this

- The orgasm count variable does not reset when repeating the Trial of the Toy. Not that it matters because this ends up being irrelevant to completing the trial.

- I could not get past the final barrier, not sure why. I was apparently wearing the correct devices, in the end I had to use console to disable it and setstage to 2800 to get Boethia to appear. The shout did not remove all my devices however (but it did work for runic devices in the final battle)

- Some issues with the voicepack (which I know you didn't make) with things like "hrm..." and "mmph" being pronounced "H ar em" and "em em pee H"

 

Design/Balance:

- As people have mentioned before, the orange barriers can be a bit frustrating.  They also become tedious when you have to backtrack and go through them multiple times. I would suggest dispelling them permanently after they have been opened once, or no longer requiring the devices to re-open them.

- Being pulled under and disoriented in the gloomy ruin labyrinth was neat at first, but again this became very frustrating the more I encountered it as I would get stuck in a loop of constantly being moved around and being unable to make progress.  Unless there was some way to prevent this from happening that I didn't know about. If not, perhaps there should be?

- I found it weird that Jorgen and Walker had nothing new to say to you after the bedroom scene.

- I found the final battle very frustrating for a number of reasons:

1) Irkalla was seriously overtuned for my character's level. Part of this could be a me problem; it could be my particular mix of combat mods and additionally for immersion purposes I did not bring my armor/weapons to the basement considering the number of restraints I had to be wearing to get past the barrier. It made no sense to me that Bal would allow me to bring my equipment. Also because I was bugged I'm not sure when Boethia is supposed to appear to you. If this is back upstairs before you go down, then I guess you have a chance to re-equip yourself after dispelling the barrier. If they are supposed to appear in the basement, then perhaps some equipment should be left somewhere in the maze?

2) While Irkalla will stop attacking you once you talk to Bal, her summons will not. I found it near impossible to be in a situation where I am not getting killed while trying to talk to Bal. Had to resort to using a console kill command to put her in a bleedout state. I would suggest lengthening the interval between her dying and being resurrected, or between being resurrected and becoming hostile to give you proper time to diffuse the conflict.

3) I found destroying the pillars to be un-immersive given my equipment (or lack there-of). Perhaps an appropriate tool such as a magic warhammer should be provided. Maybe this could even one final puzzle to find the appropriate tool for the job?

 

[Toopa]

Hello guys, first of all amazing work with the mod. Played part 1 and it was a blast. I'm stuck in part 2 now though because I get an infinite black screen.

 

It happens after

Spoiler

Azura's shrine when Irkalla takes you for some fun. Specifically when changing cell to the living guarters

 

Everything else worked fine so far. Any ideas for workarounds or what the problem is?

 

Spoiler

It loads living quarters fine if I do setstage frayeq2 4 but I'd rather play through the scenes

 

[Frayed]

Since I now have plenty of feedback on the difficulty in The Gordian Bind, I can post a walkthrough to help some folks out and establish a point of reference for how things should be working:

Rather than the video format I did for the A Snare to Loosen walkthrough I opted for just text this time. Less info, but should load better on LL when it's being slow again. Plus it's easier to edit when I make changes to the mod.

[sfdrake]

so being that I happen to REALLY HATE Devious Devices, is the mod worth stomaching DD?

[Frayed]

25 minutes ago, sfdrake said:

so being that I happen to REALLY HATE Devious Devices, is the mod worth stomaching DD?

No, probably not. The two basic assumptions I've made when designing the gameplay of this mod is that the player has at least some interest in puzzles and at least some interest in bondage. I've tried to accommodate different player types and RP decisions for the character, but those two things are the core of the mod. If you actively dislike either, you will probably not enjoy it very much.

 

If you still want to try it for the puzzles and the story, then I'd still recommend leaving it for now until part two is out of beta.

 

 

8 hours ago, Toopa said:

Hello guys, first of all amazing work with the mod. Played part 1 and it was a blast. I'm stuck in part 2 now though because I get an infinite black screen.

 

It happens after

  Reveal hidden contents

Azura's shrine when Irkalla takes you for some fun. Specifically when changing cell to the living guarters

 

Everything else worked fine so far. Any ideas for workarounds or what the problem is?

  Reveal hidden contents

It loads living quarters fine if I do setstage frayeq2 4 but I'd rather play through the scenes

Thanks 🙂 Since I don't recall other people reporting that I'm going to guess for now that it's not necessarily this mod causing it. But I could always be wrong. Are you on LE/SE/AE, and what version of this mod are you using?

 

 

21 hours ago, DerpHermes said:

Finally finished with part 2. 

Overall, great, creative mod.  Thanks a bunch for this treat. Was particularly surprised when I first played part 1 and encountered mechanics I'd never seen in Skyrim before.

 

The difficulty is good, though part 2 could perhaps use more hints, or a mechanic like part 1's punishing hint-giving orb. There were a few frustrating aspects and some issues I encountered:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Issues:

- First time starting part 2, things did not initialize properly. Gargoyles, struggle animations, and other parts of the mod just didn't work. Reloading a save before starting part 2 and trying again fixed this

- The orgasm count variable does not reset when repeating the Trial of the Toy. Not that it matters because this ends up being irrelevant to completing the trial.

- I could not get past the final barrier, not sure why. I was apparently wearing the correct devices, in the end I had to use console to disable it and setstage to 2800 to get Boethia to appear. The shout did not remove all my devices however (but it did work for runic devices in the final battle)

- Some issues with the voicepack (which I know you didn't make) with things like "hrm..." and "mmph" being pronounced "H ar em" and "em em pee H"

 

Design/Balance:

- As people have mentioned before, the orange barriers can be a bit frustrating.  They also become tedious when you have to backtrack and go through them multiple times. I would suggest dispelling them permanently after they have been opened once, or no longer requiring the devices to re-open them.

- Being pulled under and disoriented in the gloomy ruin labyrinth was neat at first, but again this became very frustrating the more I encountered it as I would get stuck in a loop of constantly being moved around and being unable to make progress.  Unless there was some way to prevent this from happening that I didn't know about. If not, perhaps there should be?

- I found it weird that Jorgen and Walker had nothing new to say to you after the bedroom scene.

- I found the final battle very frustrating for a number of reasons:

1) Irkalla was seriously overtuned for my character's level. Part of this could be a me problem; it could be my particular mix of combat mods and additionally for immersion purposes I did not bring my armor/weapons to the basement considering the number of restraints I had to be wearing to get past the barrier. It made no sense to me that Bal would allow me to bring my equipment. Also because I was bugged I'm not sure when Boethia is supposed to appear to you. If this is back upstairs before you go down, then I guess you have a chance to re-equip yourself after dispelling the barrier. If they are supposed to appear in the basement, then perhaps some equipment should be left somewhere in the maze?

2) While Irkalla will stop attacking you once you talk to Bal, her summons will not. I found it near impossible to be in a situation where I am not getting killed while trying to talk to Bal. Had to resort to using a console kill command to put her in a bleedout state. I would suggest lengthening the interval between her dying and being resurrected, or between being resurrected and becoming hostile to give you proper time to diffuse the conflict.

3) I found destroying the pillars to be un-immersive given my equipment (or lack there-of). Perhaps an appropriate tool such as a magic warhammer should be provided. Maybe this could even one final puzzle to find the appropriate tool for the job?

 

Thanks, there's some good points and suggestions in there.

Spoiler

1) Irkalla is definitely tuned for you having your gear at the end 😄 but I do agree that story-wise it doesn't make much sense that you can just take it in with you. Boethiah is currently scripted to appear downstairs there, but actually having her appear upstairs after you dispel the barrier may be better. That way it makes more sense to go down fully equipped, plus players wouldn't be tempted to remove all their devices the hard way before Boethiah gives them the intended easy way out. I might change that next patch.

2) D'oh. I didn't think of the summons. Now those posts about combat not stopping make sense. I'll see if I can fix that.

3) I don't really want to put a puzzle in a section that's supposed to feel like there's time pressure. I do agree that punching a stone pillar with your bare fists and having it fall over might is not very immersive but then again, you're supposed to have weapons there. Though I guess most weapons don't fare much better... I'll give it some thought.

Also, I'll probably end up putting something like the hint orb in The Gordian Bind too. Eventually. After I figure out a) a way to make it fit thematically into the story and b) a proper cost for the hints.

[sfdrake]

bondage doesnt bother me,  I just conisder DD to be a bloat mod and having to remember to set its mcm to work with tawoba doesnt help.

 

Edited April 15, 2024 by sfdrake

[petterparker]

7 hours ago, Frayed said:

but actually having her appear upstairs after you dispel the barrier may be better.

Careful!
Many of us (including myself) had trouble opening the final barrier... in fact, we had to get past it using the console.

 

Spoiler

In my case I used the console command 'tcl', in order to enter the underground and down there I could see Boethia.
If she appeared right after dispelling the barrier, I would have been completely stuck unable to move forward.
I'll take this opportunity to mention that none of the alternate endings worked for me, as Molag just said "I have no comments." I suspect the cause of that error is that I chose to use the real Irkalla Soul Stone instead of the fake one.

 

[Toopa]

10 hours ago, Frayed said:

Thanks 🙂 Since I don't recall other people reporting that I'm going to guess for now that it's not necessarily this mod causing it. But I could always be wrong. Are you on LE/SE/AE, and what version of this mod are you using?

 

I figured it out eventually it was not this mod's fault.

Once again amazing work.

And if someone else hasnt played aelie's games that this mod is influenced by please go and do so

[cerebus300]

I managed to find a post from earlier on in the thread that revealed what to do with mittens. After that everything else fell into place. It definitely is not something that I would have figured out. 

 

Okay, I'm revisiting this lovely mod after quite a while and trying it again, now that there is a part 2. Good thing that my memory is for crap because I remember almost nothing about the various puzzles. Okay, two problems that I'm having or haven't figured out... wait... 3. Also, I tried to go to the walkthrough, but there is no information there... at all. The links don't open anything or reveal any kind of information, so I'm lost. Like really lost here.

 

1. I can't figure out how to get those damned mittens off to save my life. There is nothing in the examination description that leads me to anything that might help. I'm running around doing all kinds of other stuff because there is no clue as to what to do with those stupid mittens. I just don't know and have no idea where to even look. I'm assuming that I need a key of some kind to get them off, and I've worked at getting a few but nothing seems to work.

 

2. Speaking of keys. I got the boots off (still have the mittens on) and it was supposed to drop a key. I can't remember if it is a hound key or fox key. It said it once when the boots came off and I've never seen it again. I went into the main room with a lot of space and took off the boots. It mentioned the key, but then it just isn't anywhere. I've looked all over and there is no fox/hound key. I don't have it in my inventory and it definitely isn't anywhere on the ground anywhere. So, what is up? where am I supposed to find this key that I just "found?"  I'm wondering if it is underneath the boots when they get placed on the ground, but since they become an immovable object, if it happens to fall on the same spot, is it just gone for good and time to go back to a prior save? I've spent way too much time looking for that stupid key. Remember my mittens are still on because of #1.

 

3. Bear key. Okay, I've gotten it, but... ??? I've moved it in front of every locked object that I can find and nothing. It doesn't seem to work on any of the wearable items. So, what is it good for? I know it has some role in all of this, but I can't see any reference to a bear anywhere and it is just a key sitting on the floor at the moment because mittens, see number 1.

Edited April 15, 2024 by cerebus300

[cerebus300]

I have started part two and have already noticed a few bugs that have happened, as I checked the walkthrough, since it seemed that there weren't any barriers to my character. Everything worked with getting off of the cross and getting the rope restraints off. but:

 

Spoiler

I didn't  wind up needing to put on the ebonite restraints to access the door lock. I figured out that it was probably what I needed to do, but then the guy watching me (Jarmen?) came running over to the door, probably as the result of some other mod. I noticed that the red shield over the lock disappeared as he got close to it. So, I just figured that I would try to pick the lock without putting on the gear. It worked. After that there wasn't anything that forced me to stay in the area. I just looted all the ingredients and went wandering around all of the various spaces in a pretty open world exploration. I didn't need to make a potion at all, although I was pretty sure that I was supposed to. At some point, it was so open things didn't seem to be working, so there wasn't much guidance at that point, so I decided to go back to an older save.  Not sure why these things happened, but they did. Just letting you know in case they can be duplicated.

 

[sEEEs]

On 4/5/2024 at 3:52 PM, DerpHermes said:

I had the same issue; it's also been reported elsewhere earlier in the thread. I ended up loading an earlier save and re-starting part 2, and then everything worked correctly. It looks like sometimes the quest just doesn't fully startup properly. Or perhaps there is something that you can do in the first room to bug it out.  Another symptom when it was bugged is that I noticed that the struggle animations for devices from the mod were broken/not playing. I was several hours in before I noticed that this was from a quest-breaking bug, but after restarting I am proceeding through it and everything seems to be working smoothly.

 

I'm having this no-animations bug too (specifically only after the second quest starts). Seems like this is a somewhat widespread thing, there's some other commenters mentioning it (and it seems to cause further issues). Does anyone know how to bypass it, for now? Or, at least, what causes it?

 

EDIT: Does seem like it's an issue with Devious Devices NG; also was the cause of all the other aforementioned bugs and jankiness. 

Edited April 17, 2024 by sEEEs

[ibrahimnote32]

Im having an issue during the second trial of boethia (trial of the prisoner), once i get out of the wooden pole and try to unlock the handcuffs by lockpicking nothing seems to happen after i do the lock and i cant progress the quest any longer

[nork4782]

Here's my (bit lengthy) feedback that I collected as I played through part 2 from start to finish
 

Spoiler

First of all, I want to say that my playthrough had only this mod, SL, DD/DD ng - only the basic basics. I turned off everything else to make sure nothing interfered, and I also played on a brand new low-level character - level 9

The first part was fun, but this second part blows the first one out of the water with the quality and overall fun factor. The overall 'grandiosity' ( story-wise with the involvement of gods/overall noticable effort that went into how the locations look/feel ) of this second part makes it super memorable, definitely one of the most memorable LL mods i've played.

Bugs:
 

Spoiler

• After the quests starts, the collar taking control of you doesn't work at first if you do something you shouldn't. After I willingly put myself on the X-Cross in the initial cell, the collar worked as it should ( with gargoyles etc. ) - looks like the script works but the trigger is broken at first?
• I was able to enter/exit out of Living quarters 2nd floor right after talking to Walker, even though the door is barred. The game even displayed a message "this door is barred" but I was able to enter/exit consistently, even with it being barred
• Staff puzzle did not work. Even double-checked with the creation kit that I was doing the right thing, but doors didn't unlock for me.
• In Trial Of the Toy, after I go inside the pillory, it dissapears and doesn't appear again - I just stand there, scene works as it should though, I was able to complete it successfully
• Boetiah did not appear when I entered the dungeon where the ending takes place. I figured the ending was going a kinda weird way at first, so I looked into CK and found that Boetiah should appear to allow me to remove my devices, so I found the relevant stage to setstage in order to make him appear

Gameplay:
 

Spoiler

• The directions after leaving the alchemy lab for the first time should be clearer. I went straight to Walker and then successfully opened the 2nd alchemy door where the Fork is but I was super frustrated as there was seemingly no way to complete it ( I didn't know that, only realized after I looked at posts and went to do Azura shrine )
• There should be a 'bad ending' if you decide to wake up ( talk to ) Irkalla right after Boetiah frees you after Irkalla put you to sleep ( Or some other way, like making noise by dropping objects? Taking too long? ) - I tried doing this but nothing happened which was dissapointing
• Not sure if this is only a beta/alpha thing, but I miss having the orb which would give you ( in-character ) hints
• There should be more gargoyles and/or there definitely should be a 'bad ending' if you trigger too many of them (5, 10? ) Could certainly be hinted at in-character - for example, Walker - 'Be wary of the Gargoyles, by triggering them, the collar's strength over you increases until it takes complete control'- it's silly that I can just forget about them without any effective drawback ( being forced to get tied up is just a minor annoyance at best tbh, since you have the keys ( shout ) to unlock (mostly) everything right on the spot anyways )
• During the ending fight, the runes that bind are wayyy too quick ( but I suspect that is on purpose ), I had to resort to cheating to kill Irkalla in time before getting (especially) arms and also mouth bound

Things that stood out to me that I'd like to praise:
 

Spoiler

• The hints and mechanic on how to dispell the runes was cool and (mostly) intuitive
• The overall atmosphere/scenery - I can definitely see ALOT of effort went into the levels - scripting and looks-wise
• The collar is a great ( and hot ) way to create urgency in the story
• The way the gods were portrayed ( and Irkalla for that matter ) - all with their (selfish) motives trying to extract something from the PC added to the story in a meaningful way
• Wish the bedroom scenes (optionally, based on dialogue?) could be longer/more expanded ( Bad ending tie-in? )
• The runes at the last fight was a fun suprise ( Here's to wishing that the 'rune bad ending' was expanded by some lengthier scene )

Overall, the second part was super fun for me. Can't wait for the third part?


PS: the LPL reference truly caught me off guard

 

Edited April 17, 2024 by nork4782

[rodgerbrown]

Frayed, you do some outstanding work man. Keep it up.

 

Any chance at a Walker suit bodyslide? 🙂

[ainamtuollaf]

3 hours ago, rodgerbrown said:

Frayed, you do some outstanding work man. Keep it up.

 

Any chance at a Walker suit bodyslide? 🙂

 

There is a "Dwarven cuirass" mod on loverslab that gives you a bodyslide version of Walker's suit.  I don't believe it is devious, though.

 

[ainamtuollaf]

I completed part 2, and oh boy did I enjoy it!  Thank you very much for this fun mod!

 

A few bits of feedback:

Spoiler

 

I agree with basically everything from nork4782's post on the previous page.  I would add that I think further character development of Walker and Jurgin would enhance the mod.  It was unimmersive that for me, Jurgin's dialog options stayed the same throughout the adventure, for example.

 

Like many people, I was not able to get through the final barrier despite my outfit being OK'd by the dremora slave.  I'm not sure why not, but I guess there must be some difference between the criteria used by his vetting of the outfit and the check made at the barrier itself.  When I tcl'd through the barrier, the stage did not advance and Boethia did not appear.

 

I really liked the hints for getting through the orange barriers.  I agree with the earlier poster that it would be better if the barriers stayed open after being opened the first time.  Opening them for the nth time just gets annoying.  I also noticed that some of the barriers would "tighten" your bindings if you had manipulated the locks; I would suggest making every barrier or door that depends on your wearing devices work this way.

 

When getting the sword, I had already grabbed the soulgems early on from either side of the door.  I _think_ this made the puzzle unsolvable... anyway, I could not figure out what to do with the tuning fork once the soul gems were missing.  So I ended up having to tcl through the force fields to grab the sword.

 

Finally, I found the extensive use of the "move an object" mechanic very frustrating.  At least in my copy of skyrim, this mechanic is janky as hell.  The object I am trying to move has a tendency to fly across the room, and is easily lost.  Also, the only way I know to get an object from my inventory to my hand is to drop it first, and in this mod things I dropped had a tendency to disappear entirely.  For example, it took me three reloads to drop the yoke  in such a way that it did not vanish, so I could pick it up and manipulate it.  It would be an improvement, in my mind, if you could come up with some way of using the E key for the interactions, instead of manipulating an object into a hot spot.

 

Again, thank you very much for producing this work of art!  I had a great time playing it.   The level of talent and effort that you put into it really shows.

Edited April 18, 2024 by ainamtuollaf

[rodgerbrown]

6 hours ago, ainamtuollaf said:

 

There is a "Dwarven cuirass" mod on loverslab that gives you a bodyslide version of Walker's suit.  I don't believe it is devious, though.

 

Found it, thanks.

[kapibar]

Hey @Frayed. I've seen you made some significant progress with your mod, which is greatly appreciated (this is still one of the most creative DD mods!). Just playing the second part of the quest (The Gordian Bind) and while I managed to go through the first part without tutorial, this time it's more convoluted. And there are bugs. At the start of the quest, disabling player controls doesn't work. I had to lock myself manually. The furniture does not disappear (again, had to manually escape from the stocks). I figured out the part about the recipe, but I couldn't for the life of me find the 3rd note. And now, the biggest problem - to escape the first door you have to restrain yourself. But you also have to tie your hands, which actually disables ability to use crafting stations. From what I gathered, this is a standard DD Framework function. So - basically - if you don't manipulate the locks beforehand, you're stuck at this point. Dunno if the same is true for DD's on SE, but on LE this is the moment you're screwed. If I may suggest something - you might want to consider changing either the restraint to something that doesn't lock the wrists, or the whole mechanism of solving this part of the quest.

OK, after some time spent researching and replaying, I found that the hand restraints can be removed. But... there's an even bigger problem - the furniture.

After the scene with Dremora, the stocks were unlocked. But the game still recognized my character as locked in the furniture. That's why the stocks appeared in the first scene of Gordian Bind when they shouldn't be there. After that, the cross locked me again. I had to manually re-lock myself and escape once again to be able to use stuff properly. Now I'm going to check if this solved my previous problem - I couldn't use the elevator in the mushroom and was locked from progressing the quest.

Edit on 50% done:
It was quite exhausting, really. Had to look into the topic for clues few times. While finding the door to gloomy ruins was easy, the next part not so intuitive. I had a problem to remove the straitjacket. After 3 failures I figured it needs a key and wasted a lot of time trying to find it. Well, this went nowhere. To figure out what's what, I opened TESVEdit to see how the device works. Compared to the rest of the stuff, this was counterintuitive.

What I liked so far:
- the "sexy" parts with Irkalla, when she interrogates the PC, asks her questions about her disposition and satisfaction. This was nice, there could be more of that TBH. The quest is trying too hard to push you towards "doing stuff", but - if I may suggest something - this change of pace could use some more development. To this part, I also have some comments: it's nice you took into consideration that the player might not be Dragonborn at this stage, so they might not have Unreleting Force handy. I figured this might be important since the mod was not-so-subtle about the fact you can acquire it. Personally, I'd prefer if it was recognized IF the PC is the Dragonborn and the gameplay was changed accordingly. Some players use mods that disable the whole Dragonborn content and I guess they'd be in a bit of a pickle. Also, I know it's probably too much to ask, but won't hurt. I play as a vampire and at this moment, I'm actually @ stage 4 of hunger. There's a lot of food for those who use hunger mods (much appreciated), but nothing for vamps.
- the riddle in the maze was rather nicely planned and pretty intuitive. But the design of the maze is a bit complicated, especially considering the player goes in blind.
- the exterior design - I have mixed feelings about it. Change of scenery from claustrophobic dungeon is nice and all, but it does seem a bit overwhelming at first glance.
- the side characters are cool additions and I applaud your talent, not many modders actually know how to write good, complex characters with a backstory. ToF has that in spades and I wouldn't mind more!
- the scope and the design. Wow. Srsly, wow. Everything is engineered so well you can hardly tell it's a mod in the first place. The player doesn't have this feeling of emptiness or undercooking. Everything is alive, looks amazing and the surrounding is impressively diverse.

What I didn't like:
- some riddles were counterintuitive. I already mentioned the straitjacket, but the same goes for the first time you're put on a cross. Up until this point you were encouraged to be active in your attempts to free yourself. Giving up is not exactly in line with the whole escape theme.
- the placement of alchemy notes is quite awful, especially the 3rd one was giving me a headache.
- the ebonite catsuit part in the maze... Yeah, it took me quite some time to figure that part out. It's a bit too hidden.
- the whispering ground part - finding the shrooms was doable, but positioning yourself and looking to the sky part - not so much. I don't suppose I would figure this out without tips on this topic.

To summarize: I like what I see and I greatly admire your work, effort and planning. Some things could use polishing, especially the riddles, but GOD DAMN is this mod impressive!

Edited April 20, 2024 by kapibar

[mel0669]

Hey, I'm stuck on the second quest, I'm not sure how you're supposed to remove the ebonite gloves. Is there a key to be found or should I keep trying to lockpick it until it works ?

[kapibar]

And it's a wrap. Feedback on the rest of the experience:

- The trials were alright mostly, altough a bit short. I didn't like fighting part, especially without my own equipment. My character isn't a combatant, and there was no other way to go through some of the stuff than with brute force. The trial of prisoner was unnecessarily complicated and I didn't notice any logic behind escaping the straitjacket and the pole other than seeing what works and what doesn't. I felt there was no passion, or grand idea behind this subquest, much inferior to how the first quest was handled TBH.
- I couldn't find Azura's aspect, so I don't really know if the quest gave any clues on how to proceed with the water current. Again, I had to use the walkthrough.
- The pillars riddle was also a bit underwhelming. I solved it on my own, but it wasn't really that obvious.
- Mephala's shrine - this was probably the weakest part. I had to disable every wall in the room because I couldn't find it. To this moment I have no idea what SHOULD be done to proceed.
- The final battle was okay-ish, but in comparison to previous stages, a bit rushed I feel. A lot of questions are left unaswered. Irkalla was obviously sexually attracted to PC, and I think it went a little deeper than that, with her calling Dragonborn her toy. I was expecting some kind of... I dunno, confession maybe? But everything ends with

Spoiler

Dragonborn sparing her life (I assume there were different endings). And that's it. The player could voluntarly play her game, the character was obviously into the whole sexual tension thing, and the whole thing ending on a whimper feels a little undercooked, especially since Irkalla is a well written character. All the stuff she did and now it'll just end with her making amends? I believe she deserved a more developed ending.

Also, I feel the conditions for this mod should be higher than simply hitting a certain level. First of all, there are

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references to being the Dragonborn in the middle of the main questline. For me, this was not the case and it kinda broke the immersion. I haven't even started the main questline and many people avoid it for roleplaying purposes. There are also some - as I mentioned - who use not-the-dragonborn mods. So while everything worked fine (with minor exception of adding shouts) until Irkalla's confession, after that it was the typical "because you are the chosen one" stuff. Daedric appearances are fine IF the player finished questline of deities involved. Otherwise, it seems strange that DB doesn't recognize the Princes and vice versa. So my suggestion is that the requirements for this quest should be starting the Dragonborn questline and finishing quests of Daedric deities, on top of the level requirement.

Sorry if that sounds a bit harsh. Like I said in my previous post, you did an absolutely amazing job. The mod is extremely well crafted and I believe you deserve an honest feedback on the stuff that could be improved. I do hope you'll continue to improve this experience, as it was an amazing ride and I wouldn't mind more of that. Maybe

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an after-quest with redeemed Irkalla who just wants to play bondage games with her crush (?) instead of answering phylosophical questions with Lord of Domination involved?

I'd like that.

Anyway, thank you for all your hard work and this awesome experience. Overall I had a blast. I hope you take my comments as they were intended - as a constructive feedback resulting from a sincere desire to support your work.

Edited April 20, 2024 by kapibar

[Polonium]

5 hours ago, kapibar said:

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- Mephala's shrine - this was probably the weakest part. I had to disable every wall in the room because I couldn't find it. To this moment I have no idea what SHOULD be done to proceed.

 

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When you also remember that Mephala is associated with Spiders and has the epithet "Webspinner", well that's a hint:
If you look around, you see that there are spider webs in the shrine, which in Skyrim are destroyable/burnable and you have a staff that can burn stuff. Once you have done that you should be able to just walk through the wall.

 

Edited April 20, 2024 by Polonium
So many corrections, I can't write good right now