Sacrificial Bloodlines missing ending? (Act 3 spoilers)

[back_buffer]

Hey all! For my current playthrough I want to save Vela without keeping her. The PoE2 custom legacy creator implies that you can give her away, but guides for this quest don't include that possibility. They cover the various combinations of killing Simoc in combat, killing Simoc with poison, and/or sacrificing Vela. All of them result in her either dying or sleeping in your backpack through the end of the game.

However, there is a note at the bottom of the quest's wiki for end state 30001, "Hide Baby," saying that you gave her to a childless couple in Hearthsong. I've run around Hearthsong a few times, and I can't seem to find them.

Where I am now:

• I spoke to Simoc and told him I wouldn't do his task. He gave me the key to Vela's house anyway.
  
• Lliras came to me at the door and I also told him I wouldn't do his task.
  
• I went to Vela's house and looted everything, including her.
  
• Lliras confronted me when I stepped outside. I told him I wanted to help the child. He attacked, I killed him.

I haven't gone back to Simoc yet because I'm worried that will start a fight and end the quest with state 30003, "Killed Simoc." I also haven't spoken to Bledha or Wrdha.

In case it matters, for the main quest I've been directed to go to Teir Evron but haven't gone there yet.

Has anyone here managed to achieve this goal? If so, what am I missing? Did I do something to cut off the ending I want? Or do I need to get farther along before the couple appears? Maybe this ending wasn't fully implemented or is bugged? Please help!

Thanks! :)

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

According to the Wiki's page history, it's a rather late change to the page. The Wiki author has added internal data extracted from the game. Can't tell whether that path is an enabled option within the game. Perhaps it is, but overdone and hidden too much. Like only turning up if keeping the baby long enough.

Hearthsong district isn't that large. There are only few houses, and prior to taking the baby, as far as I know, there are no interactable named NPCs recognizable as "a childless couple". No couple of NPCs the Watcher would remember as to return to them with the baby. I mean, the Watcher cannot foresee that in another district there will be some stuff involving a baby. So, assuming player has explored Hearthsong district, the Sacrificial Bloodlines quest starts in a different district - and although player is sent back to Hearthsong where to fetch the baby, it would be an odd choice to add and hide a childless couple somewhere at that point, turning one of the quest solutions into a searching mission. Why would the Watcher visit houses again? Or perhaps the childless couple is hanging around outside only during specific times of day/night and after the Watcher is running around with the baby for some time?

[psychotron666]

There's some options in the Poe 2 editor that are impossible to get otherwise. Like the sky dragon escaping after you wounding it.

[back_buffer]

Thanks for the responses :) I did a little more digging.

The strategy guide follows a similar pattern as the wiki. It has a table of endings that includes one where you can give Vela away: "If the child is given to the Glanfathan couple, you'll find the husband in Northweald, hunting to feed the growing family." However, the walkthrough never tells you how to get there. It only provides details for the two main pathways for the quest (sacrifice or poison).

So I started looking through the game's data files.

There is a lot of information surrounding this quest. After a while of searching, I got lucky and found a variable for Vela's status. The comment for one of the states of this variable mentions two NPCs: "Vela's given to Karon and Riden"

Every character that appears in the game has several files related to conversations. One is a flowchart that contains the logic. The other files contain the text we see, localized into different languages.* Karon and Riden seem to be partially implemented in this regard. They each have a logic file for their conversations but they are very bare, as if skeleton files were created so that they could be filled in later. They do not have localized text files at all.

It appears that this was a branch of the quest that wasn't finished. Currently my only path for finishing the quest is to kill Siroc, either with poison or with violence. Afterwards, Vela will just have to chill in my backpack while I deal with Thaos. Personally I find this to be a very irresponsible way to care for a baby, but it's better than the alternatives.

TLDR: You can't give Vela away. It wasn't fully implemented.

*Side note that this is an excellent way to organize things if you make a product that you ever plan on translating, so huge props to the devs :)

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Confirms my theory.

Well, Northweald hasn't been mentioned before related to Vela. No NPCs named Karon and and/or Riden exist in that area - and not in Hearthsong district either. Leaves the very unlikely option that both spawn only if Vela is in inventory. That would be very unlikely because player may have been to that area before, may have "cleared" it already and would not return as to search seemingly random wilderness areas without any reason. Only if one of the parents spawned in Twin Elms and cannot be missed too easily (such as not spawning in an empty house visited before, since searching houses again would be a boring task), that could lead to dialogue and a journal entry telling about the other parent hunting in Northweald.

Sounds like an interesting choice but with a kinda complicated implementation and requirement to somehow give a hint on starting to look for a childless couple in some area.

[back_buffer]

I'm not sure which theory you think this confirms? The only one you've presented is that these NPCs appear after some kind of trigger:

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

Can't tell whether that path is an enabled option within the game. Perhaps it is, but overdone and hidden too much. Like only turning up if keeping the baby long enough.

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

Leaves the very unlikely option that both spawn only if Vela is in inventory.

Just to reiterate, they do not have any dialog. They don't exist in the game, and there is no way to make them appear.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by back_buffer:

I'm not sure which theory you think this confirms?

The theory that it isn't enabled/implemented content in the game, since making it a search for a needle in a haystack type of problem would be a highly questionable choice.

Originally posted by back_buffer:

Just to reiterate, they do not have any dialog. They don't exist in the game, and there is no way to make them appear.

It wasn't me who claimed that a childless couple exists. I've never met a childless couple, less named NPCs I would have returned to specifically with Vela in inventory without prior journal activity.