My Sexy Skill Has Increased! Let's Play A Dance with Rogues

Well, that's one way to resolve a love triangle.

I hug her back. I'm so glad to see she's alive!

"Who's this female?"

"A DARK ELF!!!" She gasps at Rizzen.

"Boo!"

OK, that got a chuckle out of me.

"What's he doing here, Riona?"

"He'll accompany us for now. I'll tell you later. It's a bit of a story. Are you alright?"

"Oh, yes, I'm fine." She does a pirouette. "See? Everything still in place!"

Same old Pia.

Rugnar isn't happy to hear that Tiff is dead. I think he understands, though. He's been down here in this unforgiving place longer than we have. (With the exception of Rizzen, of course.) I even persuade him to let Pia free. He expects to make back the money trading with us, I'm sure, but I'm glad to get rid of some of this extra loot. I doubt we'll find another friendly merchant in the Underdark.

We retrieve Pia's equipment, and I try to fill her in on what happened in Maeralssin.

Her eyes narrow dangerously when she learns about Rizzen.

"So this female is indeed one of your companions?" He raises an eyebrow at Pia, studying her briefly.

"Yes she is, and a dear friend as well."

He eyes Pia from head to toe.

She's still mostly naked, not yet in her armor. I blush, feeling suddenly self-conscious for her. Pia doesn't seem to care. She stands up straight with her hands on her hips.

"I hope you like what you see?"

He shrugs. "You're a little pale for my taste. I hope you know how to handle a sword."

"I hate to break this endearing conversation, but... If what you told me is right we should hurry and get away from that dark elven city as fast as we can."

"The way to the surface will lead us back to Maeralssin. Be prepared for battle."

We rest by Rugnar's fire before we head back out. It's the safest place we'll find for who knows how long. Pia's as cheerful as ever. If the dwarf forced her into his bed, she doesn't want to talk about it, and I don't push the subject. But even as she laughs, she watches Rizzen suspiciously, and he returns her gaze with a smile.

Bran cuddles up to me until the others fall asleep.

He gently turns my head to face him. His eyes study me for a few moments, and he gently brushes back my hair.

"Bran, do you want to...?"

"Yes... Very much."

"I'm so glad to be here with you..."

He kisses me tenderly and whispers in my ear.

"I think I really love you, Riona... I knew you were special the moment I saw you, and now, after getting to know you... After seeing your dedication, your loyalty, your gentle being... I don't think there's any other place in the world I'd rather be at than by your side." He tenderly presses me against his chest while he kisses my neck, my cheeks, my lips... "I very much want to love you, my sweet little Riona..."

"Bran? What if I get pregnant?"

He smiles and raises an eyebrow. "What then?"

"You know what I mean..."

"Well, in that case we should look for a place to stay for a while. Maybe a nice small hut somewhere in the woods, by a lake?" He smiles and wraps his arms around me. "You don't have a child overnight. Let's talk about it when it comes to that."

Would it really be so bad? Hiding away somewhere, never to face the Dhorn again? Giving up on returning to Betancuria and taking back my throne? Maybe once we rescue Master Nathan and the others, I can just settle down with Bran somewhere and have a normal life.

I can't think about it now. I just lay entwined with Bran and try to sleep.

Rizzen gives me a knowing look when we wake, and Pia giggles. I don't care.

We follow Rizzen down the tunnels until we reach a locked door.



There was a battle here.



"What's behind this gate?"

"The tunnels eventually leading to the surface."

We search for the key and run into another ambush.





"I can feel the love, yes."

"You think Ulviirerd's clan will be after us as well?"

"Possibly. Hunting slaves who try to escape is a big sport among my people."

I don't know how long ago it was that I lost track of the days. Rizzen keeps saying it's not much farther, but it feels like we'll never get out.





"Is that an unusual thing?"

"They wouldn't have dared coming here not so long ago. This band was clearly looking for trouble."

"Well, we stopped that."

"Yes. We did my people another favor, it seems."





"Goblins!" Rizzen's voice is thick with contempt.

"They were easily frightened. Even more than usual."

"They likely made an acquaintance with some, let's say, not so pleasant things. Undead haunting this structure."



Nothing too tough for us.

There are more goblins near the exit, and what looks to be a whole tribe of orcs. I remember how the orcs used underground tunnels to sneak into Westwood, and wonder if they've been finding shortcuts through the Underdark. Their sense of direction is certainly better than mine.

The exit doesn't lead to the surface, as I'd hoped, but into more tunnels.



"I do not like this passage. Not at all. It's the perfect spot for an ambush."

"He's right. This looks sort of like one of the narrow, dark alleys in Betancuria."

"Okay, we'll keep an eye open."

Rizzen nods at Bran. "For a surfacer, you've got a keen sense of tactics."

"Gee I feel honored."

"Now don't you two start kissing each other."





"I was expecting mother would send Talice, but a whole squadron? I feel honored."

"Your sister was evil. I'm glad she's dead."

Evil alignment points! Whatever.

"Don't say that, little slave girl. Hate does not become you."

"Are you alright, little Riona?"

"I just want to be gone from this cruel place."

"We'll make it. Together. I promise." He hugs me softly. "These dark elves know how to fight. They remind me of a savage tribe that used to trouble my clan, never engaging in an open fight but always lying in ambush."

"What happened to them?"

"In the end we made peace with them. They're probably still living in the Mountains."

"I don't think the dark elves will make peace with us."

"Right. And if they've hurt Norah..." He clenches his fist.

next update

I took another Rogue level and got a special Rogue feat:



Hooray!

I've tried to speed things up a bit, but once you escape from Maeralssin the game slows to a crawl. You're running around in endless tunnels to the point where it stops being atmospheric and just starts being annoying. The game would have benefited a lot from cutting out a huge chunk of the middle section where you're forced to just wander around in real-time, and instead letting you go from Maeralssin -> get equipment -> rescue Bran & Pia -> Talice ambush with some more fast-travel options between tunnels.

There is a "bonus" fight I didn't show where you can sneak into a Lich's tomb, kill him, and grab a whole bunch of high-level scrolls. I mean, in theory you can kill him, I guess. In practice, I died like six times, so I gave up.

Bran x Rizzen OTP.

This is a terrible idea and you know it.

Yup.

Now Pia x Rizzen on the other hand :D

We'll get to that. Oh God.

So this game ends up a match-maker for everyone you turned down?
Like how Anden x Norah was totally canon, and now Pia x Rizzen, and even my favorite OTP, Vico's Head x The Princess' Dagger.

"Daylight! Riona! I think we are getting close to an exit!"

We emerge in a forest, and I pause for a moment to let the rain wash over my face. It's still dark -- early morning, maybe -- and I can hardly wait to see the sunrise.

Bran lets out a heavy sigh. "Norah... I wish she was here with us..."

I squeeze his hand. "Bran... If you wish to go back and search for her..."

He looks up at me, straight into my eyes.

"I'll come with you. We can try to free my friends once we have found her."

I feel like I should want to pull the words back, should feel guilty. But it's the right thing to do. It's been so long; who can say if Master Nathan and the others are even alive anymore? Norah -- she might still have a chance.

He shakes his head. "Your friends are in great danger, and the longer we wait... Also, I don't know if Norah's still alive... And worse, I have no idea where to start looking for her."

"I didn't find a trace of her so far... Not even parts of her equipment."

He nods slowly. "It means that she may have escaped, right?"

"Wouldn't she be looking for us, in that case?"

"She knows where we are headed. Perhaps we can leave a message for her in the nearest city."

He nods. "So let's go and find out where we are!"



"And you think this is more beautiful than the Underdark with its glowing stones, its wind swept corridors, its elegant chimneys? Pshaw!"

"Sorry for the interruption. It seems we are lost in these woods. Maybe you could help us out by pointing us in the right direction, good sir?"

"Well at least you've got manners. What's your name, lass?"

"Riona."

He nods. "Well met. My name's Will. Now what did you say, where do you want to go?"

"For a start I'd like to know where I am."

He gives Rizzen a pondering look. "I suppose I don't need to ask where you've coem from, eh?"

"For a surfacer, you're extraordinarily smart."

He shrugs and turns back to me. "You're yet another dark elf, trying to fool me, hm?"

That doesn't make any sense. Why disguise myself and let Rizzen show himself plainly? I wish I did know how to disguise him; it would probably be of some help out here. There aren't many dark elves, and he's bound to attract attention when we need to be stealthy. I should have thought this through more...

"She's human. Trust me." Bran puts his arm around my waist and smiles.



"I assure you, I'm not a dark elf."

"Whatever. In any case, these are the Deepshade Woods. A couple of miles north of the Black Mountains."

The Lake of Sorrow is two more weeks of travel to the north. The nearest city is Moonville.

"Send Sioril my kindest regards when you visit him at Moonville."

"I've never heard of a Sioril."

"Look, lady, I don't care what you dark elves do. It's fine with me if you run away from your home cities and seek refuge at human settlements, as it is fine with me if you kill each other." He shrugs.

There's really no point in arguing. We rest for the night under his roof, and then move on.

next update

Wait... Wait wait waitwaitwait. Those guys were from Dhorne, right?

The place that supposedly hates any kind of sexualisation, or anything to do with sex in general least that's what it seems like?

So, why is one of their female officers wearing armour/an outfit that's so revealing? -.- Because I know for a fact that there were armours, and clothing too, in NWN that covered up your character entirely. <:T

IS THAT ANDEN AND NORAH
WAT

Really...? I, uhh... I completely misunderstood then. Please ignore me. orz
/crying in corner ;~;

I only realized it were them because of Anden's portrait.
They're probably being controlled or something.

But still, when I saw Anden's face I was like
"AKSDGFDKJSFBS WAT".

Shoooooshshshhhhhh *pap*
Don't go cry in the corner~
*pap* shoooooossshhhhhh

AHAHHAHAHAHHAHA
HAHAHAHHAHAH hate to break it to you bu- AHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAH

It's funny you should say that about recognising Anden's portrait. I went back to those screenshots after you'd said that, and was like, "Is that Anden's portrait? It doesn't really look like it to me...
"You know what? I honestly can't remember what his portrait was like. orz"

And so I take it they're not being controlled, then. XD Spies/agents all along, huh? :T Was it all *le gasp* a TARPTRAP?! :OO

/clings ;~;
'Kay, I'll try not to.
/wipes tears, slinks out of corner

WAT

ADWR has its own special clothing/naked bodies hakpak. That armor up there is probably about as modest as the heavier armors get in this game.

Some of them are also revealing on men (e.g. Cata's armor on Anden), but many aren't. For example, the armor Vico's wearing here is the same armor that Akordia is wearing here.

I didn't realize it was him the first time I played. Don't feel bad.

D: Seriously? The fact that that is as modest as they get saddens me. ._. And I realised that the creator had changed things, but-but... Why couldn't she have left actual, y'know, armour? Which is supposed to protect you? ;~;

And that example, I just— what? :T

Some of the lighter armors are definitely more modest. Nebty posted some screencaps a while back of one. But as far as I can recall, the heavy armors follow the rule of being big and bulky on guys but skimpy on ladies.

I can deal with skimpy armor as long as it's magical; I just assume that the enchantment covers all the parts of your body even if the material doesn't.

p.s. the hakpak also makes your boobs bounce when you walk. Did I mention that yet? lol

Yay, decent looking light armour~ :D Though, uhhh, wouldn't the skimpy rule make more sense with the light armour rather than the heavy just imagine how much a heavy, metal bra must pinch/hurt? Unless it's not even metal, and the only armoured bits there were the pauldrons and boots D'X?
On second thoughts, no. I'm not going to put my brain through this process. I'll just hurt it, and it's already late. xD

Hmmm. Yeah, I guess that could be true. I guess enchantment wouldn't really be picky about where it protects/affects...? And that's certainly fair enough - I often find myself thinking the same way when it comes to armour, and trying to balance out the advantage: better armour rating/enchantment with the disadvantage: skimpy as all hell. D:

Oh. O__o Oh no. Seriously? D8 I just— Why would you tell us that? orz
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

SPOILERS FROM HAKUOKI THAT I STILL HAVEN'T FINISHED PLAYING YET.
CONFOUND YOU, MY OWN CURIOSITY! DAMN YOU TO THE SEVEN HELLS.

This game.

It-it's just a gif from the anime... I-I'm sorry... pleasedon'thurtmeT~T xD O___O
No real spoilers for the game... I guess. :I Hmmm... Depends what routes you have/haven't done, and what you know about all the routes.

Basically, It was just Hijikata raging and swearing (like he always does~). :D

I still have to play through most of the routes in Hakuoki... thankfully I finally got a PSP case so I can take it on my bus rides to work without worrying about it getting scratched up in my purse.

Honestly the boobs bouncing thing just makes me laugh. I guess part of me's a 12-year-old boy at heart.

I knooooow it was Hijikata but I didn't knowwwwww he turned into a [redacted] orz
I'm still at the very beginning and am currently gunning for Tail- err Heisuke.
I was trying to woo Sano but failed miserably.

I'm not mad at you or anything *pap*, but you may want to label that spoiler as "SERIOUS SPOILERS FROM HAKUOKI GUISE" or something along those lines.

EDIT: Thank you, Candied Citrus! <3

That didn't even occur to me. I will have to check it out.

Ohmypizza, I am so sorry. orz I just— I hadn't realised that you actually looked. I-I... ;~; Please forgive me~ /sobbing TT~TT
And don't worry - I still refer to him as Tails. XD And then find myself wondering why no one else does when I look at things from the fandom... >.<;
I was kinda like that the first time I romanced Saitou - he was really hard for me to pin down which responses would be the correct ones, at first. D:

And I really am so, so sorry. Seriously, I should just— ugh.
Maybe I should go to bed and stop inflicting my tired self on the internet at ridiculous a.m.

Don't worry! You changed the spoiler tags, s'cool. <3
Tails is just so fitting! (And also easier to remember)
Pffft, Saito is too hardcore for me yet. I'm still a noob at Hakuoki, so I'm going for Heisuke, the one whose affection is so easy to raise that I got it halfway through without even noticing. He is a sweetheart, though~.
Hijikata The Demon Commander will be the last one.

And don't worry, hun~
I'm not mad or anything.
Come here, lemme hug you!

But I can't erase your memories of the spoilers... D'X
Yush, Tails suits Heisuke to a T - it's a perfect nickname for him, actually. ^^ Yesssss~ He's just too adorable~! And Saito was my second, I think...? After Okita (whom I bought the game, and got a PSP at Christmas, for >///~///>), and then I did Tails. <3 I started Sano's route a wee while ago, but I haven't gotten that far in it. And I'm not sure if I'm avoiding Hijikata's route because I think it'll be hard/sad, or because I'm still bitter at the anime for following his route and not Souji's T~T. Or because I want to leave what seems to be the canon route till last. :/

Well... If you say so...
But I'm still really sorry. /hugs ;~;

Ha, I asked for a PSP for my birthday or Christmas solely so I could get the game as a birthday/Christmas present too. And then I did. And now I have no other games for the PSP but that's OK, I have too many games to play as it is...

I was the exact same! >3< I asked for a PSP as a joint present from some of my family, then I bought the game. <3 I know that feeling of having too many games to play, but... I've now got heaps of games for it. orz I caved - there were too many tempting and good games out there (like Ys Seven, Persona 3 Portable, Trails in the Sky)~ XD

look at all those blue things indicating quotes and spoiler tags.
yep, there's a lot of those.
yyyyyep.