Just reached Emerald Stair, and what the hell…

okay so, new player, hadn’t really played an rpg in a while, got bored of modding Skyrim to hell, so I picked up avowed on gamepass. First impressions were good, great graphics, good dialogue, some sounds bugs, but overall, great experience. I wandered around dawnshore, picked up and did everything I could before going into emerald stair at level ten. This is not a diss on emerald stair, but holy shit. It’s fucking huge, and those midget fungi dudes piss me the hell off. I saw the walk up to the city and was impressed, then I opened my map, and holy hell I’ve got a lot to go. What was y’all’s “this is gonna take way longer than I expected moment.” Please try and keep spoilers to a minimum! Loving the game so far!