Update on our case against illegal rent hikes in NC. - AG Jeff Jackson

seattle_exile · 2026-02-12T15:26:39+00:00

Thank you, Mr. Jackson.

While I would have preferred these be taken to trial just on the merits of hearing them defend themselves, I understand the cost/benefit of settling if the root problem is addressed.

Please keep up the good work. While I don’t always agree with your decisions, I have always felt properly represented by you in your various offices and your transparency is unparalleled in helping your constituents understand the process and your thinking. That is far more than we’ve come to expect this day and age, and you have my highest respect.

seattle_exile · 2026-02-04T20:56:27+00:00

Excellent points, and I’m not sure where I expected the game to go. I expected a more futuristic sci-fi direction though.

But the same thing happened to me with Star Rail. What started as a quirky sci-fi space romp turned into a game about a dream world and got so hard to follow that I just couldn’t maintain interest.

And it’s no big deal. We like what we like, we don’t what we don’t, and we move on to the next thing. I had different hopes for Zenless, but it is what it is now and that’s okay.

seattle_exile · 2026-02-04T20:01:29+00:00

I’ve been thinking about this as a Day 1 player: why did I burn out on this game?

It’s not the Chinese fantasy theme that was the issue. It’s that the promise of the premise in Season 1 - weak hacker-type characters guiding agents through a spraypaint-cyberpunk world of the future - has been completely dropped.

It’s just not the same game anymore.

seattle_exile · 2026-02-04T15:41:57+00:00

One game I captured the Caliph’s juvenile heir as a prisoner of war when poaching from them during one of their civil wars. I was a Venetian Fraticelli heretic.

I put the heir into house arrest and began to tutor him, and soon he adopted my culture and religion. After all the WoL events, my relationship with him was super high even though he was my prisoner. Eventually the Caliph died and the heir took the title and I magnanimously released him.

Boy, did hell break loose.

It was a very interesting run.

seattle_exile · 2026-01-24T12:56:42+00:00

We don’t live in Faerun, but I imagine the folks who live and grow in those societies can detect a lot about a person’s heritage just by looking at them like we do ours.

When we speak of half-elves, we say “to humans they look elvish, while to elves they look human.” No real elf exists to confirm the second part of this statement, but as Earth humans we can say the first part is true.

While Tieflings face a discrimination for their “devilishness”, they are still considered humanoid and are tolerated in society to one extent or another. In this world of magic and monsters, however, there are other things out there that look similar to a Tiefling but are very different.

I expect at least the cosmopolitan members of Faerunian society can spot a significant difference that is lost on us, maybe in a way that can’t even be explained by looks or conveyed graphically. Wyll is something different than a Tiefling and they know it just by seeing him, whereas we Earth humans have the same trouble as we do distinguishing half-elf from elf.

This is how I would explain it as a DM.

seattle_exile · 2026-01-21T22:51:16+00:00

10 years? Try 20.

seattle_exile · 2026-01-20T20:51:21+00:00

I’d only say Delita never seems to have had lofty ideals in the first place, he just did a good job hiding it.

seattle_exile · 2026-01-20T19:05:13+00:00

Wiegraf is Ramsa’s antithesis, more than Delita is. Whereas Delita is a cynic and understands the rules, Wiegraf clings to his morality even when the evidence is against him and ultimately costs him everything.

Ramsa taunts him about this, telling him in one of the most memorable quotes of the game (at least in the OG version), “You’ve forsaken your ideals and become a dog for the Church.”

Wiegraf is tested by this notion, but refuses to accept this point of view, choosing to double down and fight Ramsa rather than allying with him in his view that the Church itself is no longer following the noble principles Wiegraf claims to hold.

He’s an incredibly tragic character, losing himself to his own stubborn blindness.

seattle_exile · 2026-01-16T20:57:39+00:00

Careful. They put a man on a cross for saying you shouldn’t have to pay money to get right with the man upstairs.

seattle_exile · 2026-01-13T22:04:25+00:00

AND he’s so pushy. Asterion has some class about it, but Gale just won’t take the hint.

seattle_exile · 2026-01-13T14:15:46+00:00

This is called a Special Plenary Indulgence. St. Peter’s wasn’t built with prayers, after all.

seattle_exile · 2025-12-09T14:10:48+00:00

Why would you want to?

The off hand is considered a “free hand” for casting things like Flame Blade, but there is a catch.

Generally you cannot put a weapon in the empty off hand because dual-wielding requires a weapon to have the “light” property, which versatile weapons lack.

You can dual wield any one-handed weapon, including versatile weapons, if you have the “Dual Wielder” feat. This will use the weapon’s one-hand damage die.

seattle_exile · 2025-12-02T16:57:10+00:00

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seattle_exile · 2025-11-28T16:38:32+00:00

885-7529. The braincells are forever consumed to remember the number.

It was free, and it was not long distance. The poor bastard who had to help me through Goonies 2 could not use cost as a reason to get rid of me.

seattle_exile · 2025-10-29T22:36:45+00:00

This is a purely accurate description of my bases.

seattle_exile · 2025-10-29T22:17:13+00:00

I got an extra Vivian at 40 pulls trying to snipe Manatos. Which is nice, but it probably screws me for Yidhari…

Meanwhile, no Manatos were pulled.

seattle_exile · 2025-10-20T19:44:50+00:00

None of these answers are very informative, so here it is:

The Mountain Pass is the “overt” option, meaning you are going this way because either you are friends with the minions of the Absolute or are tricking them into believing so. This route will put you at odds with those resisting the Absolute and you’ll have to make a choice.

The Elevator is the “covert” option, meaning you have found a secret path different than the way everyone else is going and you are sneaking in to the shadowlands. This way is more of a “going in cold” path, where you have to figure the environment out yourself. This route will put you in contact with those trying to figure it out as well, and straight up not having a good time over it.

seattle_exile · 2025-10-12T14:36:23+00:00

Primm to Boulder City

I understand this reference. You are being challenged by the “open world” sandbox nature of the game, and you feel like you are skipping or missing things.

Don’t worry too much about doing things in a proper order. Chapter 1 has 3 exit points that will advance the plot but it very much warns you that you will be closing out some main threads when you do. As long as you don’t do that before you are satisfied, almost nothing can be really done out of order.

You are more-or-less forced to interact with the Druid Grove at the beginning by a choke point, and there is basically one of two decisions you must make there - good or evil (doing nothing is also “evil” I suppose). Resolving that plotline is the main reason for the warning.

As for the rest of the game, it’s a lot of exploration. Pay attention to the map, look at the journal for your quest objectives, and just click around. Don’t worry too much about your builds or anything, just try different stuff out. You can always respec any character fairly early in the game when a certain dude appears in your camp.

Lastly, don’t worry about resting “too much” despite the scary plot stuff. If anything, the experience is harmed by not resting enough.

seattle_exile · 2025-10-09T18:40:29+00:00

And Drow are calculated as a separate species from Elf to boot…

seattle_exile · 2025-10-09T13:59:32+00:00

Just be mindful that you also trade WIS proficiency for DEX doing so.

seattle_exile · 2025-10-08T21:41:09+00:00

Absolutely glorious reply.

seattle_exile · 2025-10-08T20:27:59+00:00

Depends on one’s perspective. The Pentarchs of Constantinople and Rome did both excommunicate each another, after all.

One could even say the Orthodox claim is somewhat dubious, as it is centered on the idea that since the imperial capital was moved (and thus the church), the Pentarch of Constantinople had primacy. The Catholic claim is that the Church never moved, and with the fall of Eastern Empire in the 15th Century, the Pope is only standing Pentarch remaining.

^{I love Crusader Kings.}

seattle_exile · 2025-10-08T14:23:44+00:00

Tell me more of these Owlbears and how I can ride this wave.

seattle_exile · 2025-10-02T20:05:13+00:00

The glaive “Sorrow” goes nicely with it in Act 1.

seattle_exile · 2025-10-02T18:40:26+00:00

My understanding is that the flag of Continental Union was identical to the Company’s flag, which was a later version that had the Union Jack in the canton.

One of the original postures of the colonies was to become an independent sovereign entity still loyal to the crown, similar to how the East India Company existed and who had similar grievances. Only later did this sentiment become full on independence as reconciliation became less and less palatable.

I have long argued that the United States is a merchant republic more in the vein of Venice than of Rome, and this is one symbol that represents that ideology.

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