bushwhacker2k: I'm now in chapter 5, getting lots of people for my new crew.

I invited Torlof and he said I have to open the main gate at the castle in the Valley of Mines. I figured this wasn't a big deal since I already killed every enemy I could find there.

I knocked out the gate guard, looted him, obliviated him and pulled the lever.

After the first 3 times my game crashed from the cutscene I decided to press esc to skip this time and it worked.

Immediately, I hear the sounds of heavy combat. I walk outside to a scene of carnage, with orcs and bodies everywhere.

I drop down and eliminate all the orcs myself, then I walk amongst the corpses of all those who once called me ally or savior.

Checking on Garond and his two advisors, Oric and Parcival, I find that they're still alive but all three are rather miffed at the situation. Parcival even attacks me. Of course, I swiftly knock him flat and take everything he has.

Upon returning to the exterior to once again survey the mass of dead, I stop and think to myself: why did I do this?

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... I then reloaded and decided not to go through with it.

How much do you weigh experience (meaning in-game power) versus storyline and how you actually feel about things?

I knew that I got a nice chunk of experience for dispatching all the orcs and a lot of loot from all the corpses... but I didn't want the castle to fall. It was a nice bastion, a reminder of civilization and survival in a harsh and dangerous land, overrun with the enemy.

Not to mention I was so powerful at this point I really didn't need more experience.