Strategies in the translation of the narrative in Pillars of Eternity

The present article is devoted to the translation of the narrative in the RPG game entitled Pillars of Eternity. The narrative of the game comprises texts such as the main story, dialogs, journals, books, poems and item lore. Since these texts are essentially literary in nature, they require a creative and covert approach to translation supplemented by local semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic strategies. The article examines the texts shaping the narrative and the strategies which conspire to achieve the ultimate goal of the narrative: player immersion in the game world.


Introduction
Pillars of Eternity is a classic role-playing game released in 2015 by Paradox Interactive. Like other complex RPG productions, Pillars of Eternity contains an extensive and multifarious narrative. The narrative is composed of in-game texts that pertain to the game lore as opposed to the game mechanics or the game interface (Nawrocka 2019). The character of these texts is diegetic because they are part of the game world (Mangiron and O'Hagan 2013). Their function is expressive since they are essentially literary texts but also informative (Reiss 1971(Reiss /2000 since they are focused on "imparting certain information in a dramatic manner" (Mangiron and O'Hagan 2013: 155).
That being said, the present article seeks to explore the kinds of texts in Pillars of Eternity which shape the narrative and the strategies that were used in their translation as well as how those strategies allow the ultimate goal of the narrative to be achieved, that is, player immersion in the game world.

The characteristics of the narrative
Role-playing games such as Pillars of Eternity rely heavily on "telling a story through character dialogue, in-game cut scenes, and books, notes, or other props found in the game world" (Chandler 2005: 139-140, Mangiron andO'Hagan 2013). In Pillars of Eternity, the narrative encompasses such texts as the main story, dialogs, journals, books, poems and stories behind unique items. From a taxonomic perspective, the narrative comprises three kinds of texts: narrative texts, dialogues and poems.
Narrative texts in games are "literary passages used to engage the player in the game world or to a new level within the game. They contextualize and provide information about the game story, including a backstory" (Mangiron and O'Hagan 2013: 155). They often display formal and literary style and the translator is expected to be fluent in the target language and employ the appropriate register and style (Mangiron and O'Hagan 2013).
The function of dialogs is to "provide information and elicit a certain action by the player" (Mangiron and O'Hagan 2013: 156). Dialogs constitute speech in written form, often displaying a colloquial style. The translator is usually expected to employ a casual register and conversational style (Mangiron and O'Hagan 2013). In RPG games, interactive conversations can follow many different paths and the player usually has a few answer options, which are not easy for the translator to follow unless they are provided with a dialogue tree (Bernal-Merino 2015). Moreover, some dialogs in games can be voiced, in which case lip-synching may be required.
The epitome of literariness in games, poems (if present) constitute flavor texts, which enhance the appeal of the game world. They can take the form of a traditional poem or song, ballad etc. They usually display rhyme and are heavily form-focused. Preserving the poetic form of these texts is more important than their content, which can be loosely translated or, more pertinently, transcreated (Mangiron and O'Hagan 2013).
In the most general terms, the aim of the narrative in games is player immersion in the game world comparable to that of the source game. The global strategy employed in order to meet this goal is target-oriented covert translation (House 1997), in which the appeal of the target text is more important than its correspondence to the source text. The translation is covert in order to create the illusion that the given game has been originally designed for a particular locale. In other words, the text of the game should not "feel" like a translation and should be maximally natural and stylistically adequate. Only by fulfilling these conditions can suspension of disbelief be possible and the game world can achieve credibility.
Additionally, since these texts are literary and were themselves born in a creative process, they invite a creative approach to translation (Nawrocka 2019). An approach of this sort could be treated as a method allowing the translator to reach covertness of the translation and fulfill the expressive-informative function of the narrative. Last, but not least, the covert strategy and creative method can be supplemented by local strategies, which constitute specific purposeful procedures aimed at achieving an attractive and naturally flowing text. Chesterman (1997) proposes that local strategies be divided into semantic, syntactic and pragmatic approaches. These are presented briefly in the tables below.  Changes in the structure of the clause in terms of its constituent phrases.

Sentence structure change
Affects the structure of the sentence-unit (ex. change in main-clause and sub-clause status, change of sub-clause type).

Cohesion change
Affects intra-textual reference, ellipsis, substitution, pronominalization and repetition, the use of connectors.

Level shift
Shift from one level to another (phonology, morphology, syntax and lexis).

Scheme change
Changes in parallelism, repetition, alliteration, metrical rhythm: ST scheme X into TT scheme X ST scheme X into TT scheme Y ST scheme X into TT scheme Table 3 Pragmatic strategies (Chesterman 1997) Cultural filtering Naturalization, domestication or adaptation. SL items, particularly culture-specific items, are translated as cultural or functional equivalents.

Information change
Either the addition of new (non-inferable) information, which is deemed to be relevant to the TT readership, or omission of ST information deemed to be irrelevant.

Interpersonal change
Alteration in the formality level, the degree of emotiveness and involvement, the level of technical lexis and anything that involves a change in the relationship between text/ author and reader.

Illocutionary change
Changes in speech act usually linked with other strategies. Changing the mood of the verb from indicative to imperative (from statement to request).

Coherence change
Coherence changes have to do with the logical arrangement of information in the text at the ideational level.

Partial translation
Any kind of partial translation, such as summary translation, transcription, translation of the sounds only and the like.

Visibility change
Change in the status of authorial presence or to the overt intrusion or foregrounding of the translatorial presence. For example the translator's footnotes.

Transediting
Radical re-editing of badly written original texts. Includes drastic re-ordering, rewriting at a more general level than other strategies. Other pragmatic changes For example layout changes.

The main story
The main story is usually presented through a series of narrative texts and in Pillars of Eternity it is divided into Acts. Such texts are also often accompanied by a short film (cut scene). The text below is the introduction to Pillars of Eternity.
Five wagons grope blindly for the path on a starless night, their master glancing ever upward to the skies for assurance that he is on the right course, a dim lantern his only protection against the encroaching darkness.
But the skies bring no comfort, shining no light, betraying no hint of what they know.
You have taken suddenly ill, sweating and shivering, and one of the other travellers signals for the caravan master to stop on your behalf. He pulls up just in time to avoid plowing into the trunk of a fallen tree that bars the way ahead. You will go no further tonight. ziemię i bogactwo zagranicznym osadnikom, pragnącym rozpocząć nowe życie.
In the text above, the first sentence has been divided into three, which constitutes a sentence structure change. The structure of the English sentence is characteristic for English literary descriptions ("their master glancing…", "a dim lantern his only protection…"), but not for Polish ones. In the Polish version, the description concerns what is happening. There are three subjects and three predicates ("karawana toczy się", "przewodnik zerka", "światło latarni chroni") The division into three sentences seems to be a good solution, allowing the translator to avoid an erroneous syntactic calque.
In the second paragraph there is a transposition. The English sentence uses present participles: "shining", "betraying", which in the Polish version have been rendered using adjectives -"ciemne" (dark) and "niechętne" (unwilling). There is also antonymy. The English "shining no light", which contains a negation, has been rendered in the target text with a single adjective "ciemne".
In the third sentence, one can also observe a typically English syntax -an intrusion "you among them". This sentence has also been divided in the translation, which is a sentence structure change. There is also a change in the subject of the sentence. In the source text, the subject is the caravan, while in the translation it is "you" (ty). It is also worth mentioning that "you" is here translated as "ty" (singular) and elsewhere as "wy" (plural), depending on the context. This procedure is an explicitation, as the source text does not indicate whether a plural or a singular you is meant, but this is done in the translation. This change, however, stems from the difference between the grammar of the Polish and English languages.

Dialogs
In the dialog below, four people are quarrelling near the tavern in Gilded Vale. One of them is Aloth, a character that can join the player's team, and the others are angry townspeople. The player can choose to help Aloth or choose not to interfere. As can be seen below, Pillars of Eternity dialogs contain stage directions, short descriptions of what is happening and descriptions of the speaker's behaviour. The dialogs proper are contained within quotation marks. Another element of dialogs in RPG games are answer options that the player chooses from, thus making a decision that may influence the world of the game.
The woman crosses her arms. "Hoping to soothe our pride with a few Aedyre coppers, eh?" She spits at his feet. "We don't need your coin." 1: "What's going on?" 2: [Say nothing.]
For this reason, dialogs often contain exclamations. In the dialogue above, exclamations can be found in the following expressions: "Hoping to soothe our pride with a few Aedyre coppers, eh?"; "Ooh, a fight!"; "Fye, you're itching for the kindling touch of your sister, ye coxfither." The first one ("eh?") expresses a request for a confirmation and has been translated as "co?". The second one ("Ooh") expresses surprise and has been translated as "Ooo". The third one ("Fye") is an archaic expression stemming from Middle English (yourdictionary.com, "fye"). It means regret or reproach and has been translated using the exclamation "Tfu" imitating the action of spitting in Polish, which seems to be a successful equivalent. There is also the expression "shall we" presenting a suggestion. It has been translated as "dobrze?", which is not a literal translation, but a phrase equally common in spoken language. Ergo, synonymy has been employed.
Dialogs in games, as mentioned above, can also contain nonstandard language varieties. The exclamation "Fye" is just one example. Apart from that, there is the archaic "ye" instead of you ("Fye, you're itching for the kindling touch of your sister, ye coxfither."), "specially" instead of "especially" and "nye" instead of "no" ("We've nye quarrel."). In the translation, there is no equivalent for the pronoun "ye". There is however the expression "kaprawcze". The expression "'specially" has been translated with a standard "zwłaszcza". "We've nye quarrel" has been translated as "Nie ma co się kłócić". Thus, there is a change in register from non-standard into standard language (interpersonal change).
It is also important to note that stylization is sometimes an element of a particular character's idiolect. As can be seen in the example above, it is mainly Aloth who uses non-standard language. The expressions "coxfither" and "barrel licking" are non-standard and they have been rendered creatively as "kaprawcze" and "zafajdane". "Kaprawiec" is defined as talking "with resentment about a person having ill eyes" (sjp.pwn.pl, "kaprawiec"). "Zafajdany" in turn is an informal expression meaning "evoking somebody's resentment or contempt" (sjp.pwn.pl, "zafajdany"). What is visible in the dialog is an effort on the part of the translator to make the utterances display an informal register. While some elements have been standardized, the translator compensates for this elsewhere, for example by using the archaic "napitek" for a drink.
One of the features of informal language is the use of idioms. In the dialog above, there are idiomatic expressions such as: "My treat"," Let's put this matter to rest", "soothe our pride", and "I'm itching for an excuse". Such expressions rarely have a literal rendering. The first has been translated as "Ja stawiam", the second -"Zapomnijmy o tym", the third -"kupić naszą dumę" and the last as "brakuje mi dobrej wymówki". Hence it is visible that the translator aimed at equivalence on a higher level than that of single words (Baker 1992), namely on the level of the whole phrase (clause) and the strategy employed here is paraphrase. There is also an expression "Just goes to show" translated as "widać", which displays distribution change and a unit shift from a phrase into a single word.

The journal
The text below comes from the player's journal. The journal contains summaries of quests and hints concerning further actions. In Pillars of Eternity the journal is divided into Quests, Journal, Cyclopedia and Notes. The Quests section is divided into Main Quests, Quests and Tasks. Below there is a quest called The Long Hunt.
The Long Hunt Sagani, a dwarf from the southern island of Naasitaq, has come to the Dyrwood searching for the reincarnation of Persoq, an elder from her village. She's been journeying for five years now.
The other villagers gave her Persoq's adra figurine, which contains a piece of his soul. She's been using it to track him, but it's gotten harder to pinpoint his location as she's gotten closer. When she learned that I'm a Watcher, she asked for my help.
When Sagani is traveling with me, my unique sensitivities will allow me to see traces of where Persoq -or whoever he is nowhas been.

Travel to the cliffs you saw in the vision.
When I examined the bear statuette, I felt as though I were standing atop cliffs overlooking the water. Persoq -whoever he is now -must be here.
The breeze smelled salty. These cliffs are near the ocean.
In the text above, first of all it is necessary to note that the player character's female gender has been taken into account ("zbadałam", "poczułam się", "jakbym stała", "jestem Widzącą"). This means that the localization project included gender options, a very good practice since otherwise there would be a necessity to "work around" gender (providing a universal translation), which is a considerable hindrance and can negatively impact the naturalness of texts.
The first sentence has been translated literally but the result is grammatically and stylistically acceptable. In the sentence "She's been journeying for five years now" ("Poszukuje go już od pięciu lat") there is a change in the grammatical tense from present perfect into present, which is a phrase structure change. At the same time, this is a typical strategy since the Polish language does not have a present perfect tense. In the translation of "She's been using it to track him" ("Sagani używa jej, by go wytropić") apart from a tense change there is also a change in cohesion since, instead of a pronoun, the Polish version uses the name.
The sentence "Travel to the cliffs you saw in the vision" ("Udaj się na urwiska widziane w wizji") constitutes a hint of what the protagonist should do to complete the quest. Such interposition in journals is typically translated in the imperative, which stems from software localization standards (Microsoft Styleguide 2020).
In the sentence "When Sagani is traveling with me, my unique sensitivities will allow me to see traces of where Persoq -or whoever he is now -has been" ("W towarzystwie Sagani, moje szczególne umiejętności pozwolą mi ujrzeć wskazówki odnośnie miejsca pobytu Persoqa -lub jego obecnego wcielenia") there are two transpositions. The first one is the change from a verb (travelling with me) into a noun (w towarzystwie), and the second is from a verb (has been) into a noun phrase (miejsce pobytu).

Books
Books in RPG games contain texts that enrich the game world. They can describe the history of the world or, for example, the existing factions. Reading such books is optional for the player and is not necessary to complete different quests. 1 If read, however, they can enhance player immersion. The fragment below comes from a book called Crucible Knight.

Development of a Crucible Knight, Part 1: Lower Ranks Value: 16cp
In recent years, the Knights of the Crucible has evolved as a group. No longer concentrating solely on blacksmithing or combat training, they've adjusted their focus to help initiates develop their souls as well as their bodies. From initiation there is a well-defined path to the top of the order.

Squire
When a candidate shows sufficient prowess in blacksmithing (or, recently, at least the drive and potential), he is accepted into the order as a Squire. Once he is part of the order, training begins immediately. Giermek Jeśli kandydat wykazuje wystarczającą sprawność w kowalstwie (a ostatnimi czasy -przynajmniej potencjał i chęci), przyjmowany jest do zakonu w charakterze giermka. Po wstąpieniu natychmiast rozpoczyna szkolenie. Nauczanie podzielono na dwie sekcje -Ciała (sekcja Lorda Marszałka) i Ducha (sekcja Wielkiego Krucylariusza). Na this point in their progression the only uniform the squire is allowed is a simple cloth uniform displaying the Knights' colors.
[…] tym poziomie obowiązującym strojem giermka jest prosta szata w barwach zakonu. […] The fragment "No longer concentrating solely on blacksmithing or combat training, they've adjusted their focus to help initiates develop their souls as well as their bodies" involves a sentence structure change in the translation. In the English version in the first clause there is a present participle ("no longer concentrating"), which makes it a subordinate clause. In the Polish version there is a predicate there ("przestali skupiać się"), which makes it the main clause. In the second clause, the situation is reversed: the English version contains a predicate of the main clause ("they've adjusted"), while the Polish version has a present participle ("zwracając uwagę").
In the translation "Once he is part of the order, training begins immediately" ("Po wstąpieniu natychmiast rozpoczyna szkolenie") there is a transposition into a noun ("wstąpieniu") and a unit shift. Translating "lessons" as "nauczanie" is an example of synonymy. In this sentence in the Polish version there are brackets, which are absent in the original, so a change in the clause structure can be observed. The expression "At this point in their progression" is translated as "Na tym poziomie", which is a paraphrase and simultaneously a distribution change and a unit shift since "poziom" is an equivalent of "point in their progression". In the next part of this sentence "the only uniform the squire is allowed is a simple cloth uniform displaying the Knights' colors" which is translated as "obowiązującym strojem giermka jest prosta szata w barwach zakonu" one can see a phrase structure change from a verb in passive voice ("is allowed") into a participle ("obowiązujący"). In the source text there is also a repetition, which has not been copied into the translation because Polish stylistics do not "like" such repetitions. The removal of the repetition is not only a stylistic procedure but also a cohesion change. The expression "displaying the Knights' colors" has been paraphrased as "w barwach zakonu", where the participle has been replaced with a preposition "w", which is a transposition.

Poems
The poem below comes from one of the quests and is an inscription on a sword called the Grey Sleeper (Szary Śpiący). The poem consists of the main inscription and four further fragments, which appear on it in the progression of the quest of the same title.

The main inscription: "'Tis a traitor's fate to sleep and never rest Whilst knowledge of his deed stays lodged within his breast. But earnest penance heals the sorrowful man And worthy actions stay the executioner's hand."
"Taki już los zdrajcy, że snu spokojnego nie zazna, Póki czyny niecne tkwią mu w sercu, jak drzazga, Jeno żal i pokuta szczera ból ten uśmierzają, Zaś katowski miecz uczynki godne wstrzymają." In the fragment above, no exact end rhymes can be seen in either the English or the Polish versions. The particular verses also have a similar length. There is a metaphor "Whilst knowledge of his deed stays lodged within his breast", where the memory of the deeds is not as much in the mind as in the heart. In the Polish version there is a trope change, since this metaphor is slightly different ("czyny niecne tkwią mu w sercu") and a simile has been added ("jak drzazga"). In the translation there is also an addition of the adjective "niecne", which is an explicitation since the "meanness" of the deeds was inferable in the source text but not directly expressed. In the English version it is penance that heals a "sorrowful man", while in the Polish text the pain is simply healed ("ból ten uśmierzają"). In the English version, the "executioner's hand" is restrained while in the translation it is the executioner's sword. These are examples of paraphrases and information changes in a poem. What is also visible is an effort to achieve natural collocations in the target version, which is in line with the basic principle of covert translation.

Further inscription 1:
"Seek the whirling agent made of copper, adra, stone Awaken first your essence so that you may atone." "Znajdź przyrząd wirujący -z kamienia, adry, miedzi, Na drogę odkupienia wstąpisz, gdy esencję twą wznieci." In this fragment there are also end rhymes. "Whirling agent" has been translated as "przyrząd wirujący", which constitutes synonymy. Adra, a fictional material, has been loaned into the Polish text and inflected in a standard manner. In the translation of the second line there is a change in the order of the elements of the clause (clause structure change). Additionally, in the Polish version a metaphor is added ("droga odkupienia"), suggesting that penance is a way that can be followed as an equivalent for the verb "atone", which is a trope change. The verb "awaken" has been translated as "wznieci", which is also synonymy. In this fragment there are also end rhymes. In the first verse there is a metaphor the "sun-kissed hillocks", in which the sun is compared to a person who is "kissing" the hills. This meta-phor has been omitted and changed into a description in Polish ("pagórek słońcem ogrzany"), which is a trope change into no trope. Moreover, in the Polish version there is just one hill (change of information). In the English version there is a verb "rest beside", while in the translation "look at" ("spójrz na"), which is a loose paraphrase and change of information. "Wasting flesh" translated as "liche truchła" is also a paraphrase. A major change can be observed towards the end of the fragment. "Inspect what dreams you reap" has been loosely translated as "uronisz łezkę tu". "To reap dreams" is a metaphor about treating the collected dreams as a harvest. This metaphor has not been preserved in the translation (no trope) and has been replaced with an idiomatic phrase "uronić łezkę", which constitutes a loose paraphrase and a change of information.

Further inscription 3:
"Fingers of the world, adra strong and whole Kneel before the pillars, bring order to your soul." "Adrowe pałace z głębin, co nic ich nie rozkruszy, Uklęknij przy kolumnach, znajdź ukojenie duszy." In this fragment there are end rhymes as well, which are exact this time. The first verse is very loosely translated. "Fingers of the world" is a metaphor ascribing fingers to the world, which is a personification. This metaphor has been skipped (no trope) and replaced by an expression "adrowe pałace z głębin". The depths ("głębiny") were not present in the source text. The expression "adra strong and whole" has been rendered as "co ich nie rozkruszy", which is also a paraphrase. A translation closer to the original can be found in the second verse. "Uklęknij przy kolumnach" is practically a literal translation of "Kneel before the pillars". "Bring order to your soul" translated as "znajdź ukojenie duszy" is also a paraphrase but not a relatively distant one.

Further inscription 4:
A penance now complete, a burden now a gift; Keep this weapon at your side to remind you of your shrift." Pokuty nadszedł kres, a brzemię darem jest; U boku klingę noś dla przypomnienia otrzymanego rozgrzeszenia." In the last fragment in the Polish version there are double rhymes: internal and end rhymes. The first verse is rendered quite faithfully. In the second verse "weapon" has been replaced with "blade" ("klinga"), which is a metonymy since a blade is part of a weapon. "To remind you" has been translated as "dla przypomnienia", which constitutes a transposition from a verb to a noun. "Shrift" is literally the penance received, while absolution is received for penance. Both nouns are related to confession, which is their hyperonym, but they are not identical. Hence, this is an example of a change from hyponym X into hyponym Y.

Item lore
In RPG games it is common to supplement more powerful unique items with stories. These stories, like the books and poems, enhance the game world and contribute to the game's atmosphere. One such item is the bow called Borresaine.

Borresaine
The dwarven clan of Langmyhr dwelt in the wilds of Naasitaq, hunting game and surviving off of the harsh land. Summers were brief and winters difficult, but the winter of 2562 AI was one of the hardest in the tribe's long history. A mighty

Borresaine
Krasnoludzki klan Langmyhr zamieszkiwał puszcze Naasitaqu, żyjąc z tego, co udało im się złowić. Lata zawsze były krótkie, a zimy surowe, chociaż zima roku 2562 AI była jedną z najcięższych w historii klanu. Nieopodal zaczął snow leopard had established territory nearby, scaring off much of the game near the village, by Fonauton the hunters were returning with little more than rabbits, and the winter freeze was nigh. A dozen of the best hunters stuck out across the tundra, determined to hunt the great cat.
The beast was craftier than they'd planned, and by Iniverno, half of the hunters and most of their hunting foxes had been slain without so much as wounding the leopard. Desperate and furious, one of the hunters crafted a bow from the bones of her slain fox. As her remaining companions looked on, it seemed that all of her rage was channelled into the weapon while she carved and shaped it. Her work completed, she set off and tracked the beast to its lair. Once she'd killed it, she decorated her bow with its teeth as a reminder of the deed and of the long and tragic hunt. Now black with age and use, this bow is nevertheless fierce to behold. It's studded with the teeth of a large cat, and the notches curve in tight spirals. grasować groźny lampart śnieżny, odstraszając okoliczną zwierzynę. W miesiącu Fonauton myśliwi nie byli w stanie upolować nic większego od królika, a nadchodziły zimowe mrozy. Dwunastu najlepszych łowców wyruszyło więc w tundrę, z zadaniem ubicia wielkiego kota.
In the first sentence of the description there is a paraphrase and implicitation. In the translation there is no "hunting game" or "harsh land". There is an expression "żyjąc z tego, co udało im się złowić". The third sentence in the translation has been divided into two, which is a sentence structure change. The expression "much of" related to game has been omitted as has "near" relating to the village. In both of these examples, one can observe an implicitation, since in the translation these pieces of information are left to be inferable. In the following sentence, "stuck out" has been translated as "wyruszyli" which is a synonymy. In the translation of "determined" as "z zadaniem" there is a unit shift from an adjective into a noun phrase. Translating "hunt" as "ubić" can be seen as synonymy where the synonym is archaic.
In the next sentence, "planned" has been rendered as "myśleli" (a paraphrase) to achieve naturalness in the Polish version. In the target version there is again a division into two sentences. The following sentence has an initial adnominal ("Desperate and furious, one of the hunters crafted a bow from the bones of her slain fox"), which is a common stylistic device found in English descriptive texts. Such adnominals are much rarer in the Polish language and their transference into the Polish text may result in an erroneous calque. Moving the subject to the initial position in the sentence is frequently the procedure used to avoid an erroneous calque, as can be observed in this case: "Jedna z łowczyń w desperacji i gniewie wykonała z kości swojego zabitego lisa łuk".
In the following sentence, there is a change from passive voice "all of her rage was channeled into the weapon" into active voice -"cały gniew skupiała w tworzonej przez siebie broni" (phrase structure change). There is also an implicitation here since in the source text there are the expressions "while she carved and shaped it", which in Polish have been rendered merely with "tworzonej przez siebie". Simultaneously, this is hyponymy, since the verbs "carve" and "shape" are methods of "creating".
In a further fragment "Her work completed, she set off and tracked the beast to its lair" there is a change from passive voice into active voice: "Kiedy skończyła" (phrase structure change), as well as a paraphrase and implicitation, since in the Polish version there is no mentioning of tracking the beast. There is only the information that the huntress went to the beast's lair. In the next sentence there is cohesion change, since the English "Once she'd killed it" is translated as "Po zabiciu lamparta". It is also a transposition from the verb "kill" into the noun "zabicie".
In the sentence before the last, an initial adnominal can be found in both the English and Polish versions. This is an example where using the initial adnominal does not result in objectionable translation: "Poczerniały od wieloletniego używania łuk ten nadal stanowi imponujący widok". In this sentence there are also two paraphrases: "with age and use" has been paraphrased as "od wieloletniego używania" and "is nevertheless fierce to behold" as "nadal stanowi imponujący widok". In the last sentence there is a change from active voice ("the notches curve in tight spirals") into a past participle ("zdobiony wyrytymi, ciasnymi spiralami"), which is a phrase structure change.

Conclusion
Not all of Chesterman's strategies were observed in the analysed fragments, but the ones that were identified have clearly been aimed at achieving an appropriate style and good readability in the Polish version of the narrative, which are paramount to its success. The observed semantic strategies encompassed synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, distribution change, paraphrase and trope change. Syntactic strategies such as change of phrase, clause or sentence structure, as well as transposition and unit shift allowed the translators to avoid erroneous syntactic calques. Literal translation was employed whenever the grammar and style of the sentence remained acceptable. There were also changes of cohesion and an example of a loan. The pragmatic strategies observed included explicitness change, information change and interpersonal change.
As far as translating narrative texts in the form of a second or third person narration, the most important goal was achieving a literary style and conveying the main story and backstories in a dramatic manner. As far as dialogs are concerned, the key goal was achieving naturalness and credibility in the characters' utterances through colloquial and non-standard language among other techniques, while stage directions provided additional information about the characters' behaviour. In the poem described in this paper it was necessary to maintain rhyme, poetic character and its tropes such as metaphor and metonymy, even if they were transformed.
All things considered, the local strategies employed by the translators of Pillars of Eternity were aimed at conforming to the norms of the Polish language as well as the expectations of the Polish gamer community. Chesterman calls this motivation a "desire to conform to the expectancy norms of the target-language community" (1997: 113). Gamers expect narratives that do not draw their attention to the text for the wrong reasons (Mangiron and O'Hagan 2013) such as errors of various kinds. They expect immersion and a gripping story. Even though it would seem that the latter is to a large extent dependent on the source game, the game's translation plays a pivotal role in communicating that story to the target players.