The first time I went with a low persuasion main character, I lost three of my companions. Good thing there are master sourcerors for hire on the ship and I had a lot of gold. This time, I only lost Lohse who's ghost then complained about ME because she chose to split knowing full well she couldn't be divine while carrying the demon (well, unless she wanted a divine demon).

In past games, I wondered what the point was of having mercenaries - this one, I actually use them to replace lost characters.
Now, if that stupid squirrel would quit setting off every trap located anywhere
