Curses!

Encouraged by her trusty familiar in the form of a Raven named Fred, Willow tries out the potions she has learned by drinking them. She hasn't tasted them all but the ones that really help her are the Good Fortune, Plentiful Needs and Emotional Stability to name but a few.

Part of a Witches training is also to duel in the Magic Realm, either for knowledge, ingredients or just for the fun of it. Duelling helps with her knowledge of magic, pushing her orange bar up a little further but of course winning is the name of the game. Although Willow has managed to win a few of these duels, gaining magical knowledge in the process, she sometimes loses.

They say you can't have too much of a good thing but unfortunately for Willow, you can.

Even though she is getting stronger, she is not strong enough to cope with all of this power. Taking too many potions and losing a couple of duels in a row can take it's toll and this, in turn, curses our evil witch.

Willow is now stuck with two curses. One for taking too many potions and another for losing too many duels. The former causes her hygiene level to sink to rock bottom where no amount of showering will help at all. Even taking the Plentiful Needs potion will at first push her hygiene up but only for a short time. The stench causes her to “drip” green stinky puddles all over the floor inside and outside of the home. To make matters worse, the latter curse, the Curse of Awkward Embraces, causes her to hug people which is rather embarrassing for her and also for them.

The only way out of this is to learn the recipe for the potion of Curse Cleansing. And to ensure that she doesn't get hexed again, she needs to become more powerful in order to “earn” a few more points to “buy” Spellcaster Perks, namely, Hexproof, so that she never gets cursed again.

Here's a snippet of Part 10 of The Glimmerbrook Witch:

Click here to watch the full episode on my channel on YouTube!

- Minicart

Have the Neighbours Been Gossiping?

 

As stated before, Willow likes to have a party or two. Unfortunately for some Sims, they turn up to the party but never leave. However, are the ones that do get away, gossiping to the neighbours?

Since Willow moved in to Glimmerbrook, half the neighbourhood has disappeared. This, I imagine, would give cause for concern to anyone living in this magical neck of the woods. Questions should be asked and investigations made.

Fortunately for Willow, in The Sims franchise, we do not have the police knocking on the door asking around for these missing Sims. Of course Willow wouldn't be able to place their gravestones in her garden as ornaments and trophies of her shenanigans as the presence of these would give Willow away.

This is probably why one neighbour, who obviously drew the short straw, calls to see Willow to find out what is going on.

As usual, Willow is friendly and invites the poor neighbour in, even offering him freshly made Pufferfish Nigiri.

One would beg the question, how long can this go on for?

Here's a snippet of Part 9 of The Glimmerbrook Witch:

Click here to watch the full episode on my channel on YouTube!

- Minicart

We Got 5 This Time.....

As I mentioned in my previous post, a witch's job is not just to cast spells and brew potions but the garnering of items to create those potions is a must.

In this episode we see Willow continuing her quest for magical items such as crystals, plants and frogs. Experimenting with the cauldron allows her to find new potions and thereby gain more knowledge in her magical endeavours. As she gains more knowledge and experience, she becomes stronger magically.

All of this takes time, energy and a lot of work and as they say, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, or in this case, makes Willow a dull witch. So playtime is a must for busy witches and inviting a few friends and neighbours around for dinner is something that Willow does on a regular basis.

Her speciality is preparing Pufferfish Nigiri for her guests who seem to tuck in quite enthusiastically. Unfortunately for the guests, the quality of the dish is poor but they still eat it. Maybe they don't want to offend the host or maybe they're just stupid. After all, they continue eating even when they see other Sims around them dropping dead all over the kitchen floor.

Here's a snippet of Part 8 of The Glimmerbrook Witch:

Click here to watch the full episode on my channel on YouTube!

- Minicart

Country Cottage

I have been watching a few "stop motion" Sims 4 builds on YouTube and was really impressed with what I saw.  The stop motion style of building is a lot easier to watch than a speed build and extremely artistic.  I didn't realise however the amount of work that is put into them.

I started watching some tutorials, again on YouTube and after "umming" and "erring" for a few weeks, decided to give it a go myself.

With speed builds, you have to video the build as you build it.  However, with stop motion builds, you create the building first then you take it apart piece by piece and as you do so, you take a photo.  As you move from one part of the build to another, you record a video.  Then you piece everything together in your chosen video editor, pictures first (putting in the last picture you took first and ending up with the first last) and then add the videos to where they are supposed to go, remembering to reverse them.  Basically, you are working back to front.  So the last item you take from your build will become the first photo/item in your video, building as you go.

All of this sounds very confusing but once you get started and get your head around it all, it's quite easy but very time consuming.

It took me two weeks to build this little cottage, take the photos and videos and piece it all together to make a stop motion video.  You may or may not be pleased to know that I didn't use any custom content in this build, so that it is more "user friendly", so to speak.

I am very pleased with how the cottage turned out and I think my first go at making this type of video came out pretty good - for a beginner!  I did make a few mistakes on the way but I think I've learned from those.

I really enjoyed building this cottage, even though it took me a long time but I am pleased with the end result.  I will be doing more but of course, this may take a little while.

Here's a small snippet of my stop motion video:

Click here to watch the full video on my YouTube channel!

- Minicart

We Need a Dirt Frog

Willow has learned quite a bit over the last couple of episodes and if you missed parts 4, 5 and 6, you can catch them over on my YouTube Channel.

Once you have learned a spell, you can cast it at any time provided you are not overloaded with charge.  Of course Willow can discharge either by casting another spell or "by accident", which is quite dramatic.  Lightening bolts fly from her whole body electrocuting her and she falls to the ground, blackened by the experience.

Potions are a different matter.  You need ingredients to make potions.  It's all very well learning how to make them but if you don't have the ingredients, you're basically stuffed.

Crystals, plants and insects are used in the creation of these potions and they can be found all over the world.  Of course you can grow your own plants and also buy them, along with crystals, from the shop in the Magic Realm.  Crystals can also be dug up from the little rocks laying around and insects can be caught from Granite Falls.  Fish can be caught by fishing or by buying from the fish stall and frogs can be caught from the little logs in various locations in the world.  There are however many different frogs to be caught and one that Willow needs remains illusive.

She has a striped dirt frog and a spotted dirt frog but in this episode she needs a dirt frog.  Will she find one?

Here is a clip of Episode 7 of The Glimmerbrook Witch:

Click Here to watch the full episode on YouTube!

- Minicart

Inferniate

 Episode 3 of The Glimmerbrook Witch shows how far Willow has come in her magical endeavours.

Fire played an important part of Willow's previous incarnation where she would put the Sim to sleep with a sleep potion and then set them on fire.  Her fascination with fire continues in her present life, especially as she has now learned the spell "inferniate".

This spell does what it says on the jar (or in this case, the spell book).  Of course, as with everything in life, you reap what you sow and this extends to Sims.  

Any spell can backfire and unfortunately for Willow, it does.  However, this lady's not for turning, or should I say, this witch is not for turning because no matter what happens to Willow, albeit through her own deeds, she will not be deterred from her evil ways.

Here is a clip of Episode 3 of The Glimmerbrook Witch:

Click Here to watch the full episode on YouTube!

It's Better than Fruitcake

There are a few new "deaths" that have been added to The Sims 4 over the past few years.  One in particular is rather dramatic which is death by pufferfish.

A certain food dish in the game is Pufferfish Nigiri when if cooked of excellent quality will not harm Sims when eaten.  However, if cooked of poor quality, it can cause a sudden case of death.  If a Sim has high cooking skill then he or she can cook an excellent quality dish. If however, as in Willow Mendip's case, the cooking skill is low then the dish is of poor quality.  In order to learn how to cook this "speciality", a Sim must eat the dish from the Japanese food stall which, I hasten to add, is always of excellent quality.

As in all of The Sims prequels to TS4, when a Sim moves into a new home, the neighbours come to welcome them to the new neighbourhood.  The Sims 4 is no different.  This allows your Sims to meet new people and get acquainted with the kindly neighbours who, in this version of the game, bring "fruit cake" with them.  But, this is not just any fruit cake.  This is gourmet fruit cake.

Willow of course had other ideas.  The gourmet fruit cake tends to leave a nasty taste in the mouth for a few hours so she decided to cook her own speciality - Pufferfish Nigiri.

Here's a little snippet of Part 2 of The Glimmerbrook Witch:

Click here to watch the full episode of It's Better than Fruitcake.

Returning to YouTube

So life seems to have a habit of stopping you from doing the things you really enjoy sometimes.  However, we all get through it and see a light at the end of the tunnel.

That being said, I am really excited to be doing a new Let's Play of The Sims 4 on You Tube.  I have resurrected Willow Mendip (the evil witch) and she is just as evil but perhaps in a different kind of way.  Here is a snippet of my first video:

Click here to watch the full episode on YouTube!

- Minicart (Jules)