Let's Play Pillars of Eternity [21] - The Endless Paths

The Endless Paths of Od Nua is the name of a dungeon in Pillars of Eternity. It is located underneath Caed Nua, the player's stronghold. The Endless Paths of Od Nua is a huge 15 level dungeon, with its own narrative separate from the main storyline of Pillars of Eternity.

Although the player only needs to explore the first level in order to complete the main story of Pillars of Eternity, the dungeon is there to be explored at the player's option. Last episode of Let's Play Pillars of Eternity, we cleared out all of the first level after talking to the old mad Watcher Maerwald, which was the only part of the dungeon relevant to the main storyline. The dungeon does contain a lot of bonus gameplay, though, along with its own story. Some floors even feature their own quests with unique plot lines of their own to give the all the combat and dungeon-crawling gameplay a bit more meaning. It's not unusual for this kind of mega dungeon to be featured in Pillars of Eternity, as it was included in both Baldur's Gate games, which were predecessors to Pillars of Eternity's real time with pause RPG style of gameplay.

This episode of Let's Play Pillars of Eternity is not solely about that gameplay, or even The Endless Paths of Od Nua. In fact, much of it features dialogue with our companion characters that are following us on this journey. After major plot points are revealed in Pillars of Eternity, some NPC companions can be spoke with for their comments. They give their own perspectives and opinions on what happened, which can help to develop them as characters and advance their personal narratives and quests if they have one. As such, it's a good idea to talk to them when the speech bubble icon appears on their portrait as an indicator. So we do a llittle of that this video.

We also discover that we are now the master of the fortress of Caed Nua, being the only Watcher left around after killing Maerwald. This makes it our stronghold. A base of operations where we can store unused followers and other things. I suppose it's meant to add a strategic layer of gameplay, but I feel like Pillars of Eternity is not really that kind of game. It's more about adventure and exploration, in my book.

If you're afraid that this episode is all talking and character interaction and back story and explanation and no real gameplay, or combat, then don't be. There's a solid chunk of gameplay, when we venture into the second level of The Endless Paths of Od Nua. Wile we don't manage to explore all of it in this video, we do encounter some combat with Xaurips, Wurms, and pretty much nothing else. So the encounter design leaves a little to be desired in Pillars of Eternity, but I've already mentioned that and its effects on the combat gameplay before. Wurms, by the way, are little dragons. More accurately, it is the first stage of a dragon's life cycle. From a gameplay standpoint, at the levels we're at in this video, they're very annoying as the fire breath deals a lot of damage and the Xaurips tend to rush forward, which means the Wurms are safe until we can slay their little lizardmen allies.

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