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Doc Morbid posted:
Those look like some nice fresh corpses. Drag one of them out and it's liver time.
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Jul 10, 2017 01:46
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I like to think Zu waited for us to approach before entering too far ahead of us to follow.
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Jul 10, 2017 02:18
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Glazius posted:I like to think Zu waited for us to approach before entering too far ahead of us to follow.  "I've been here for six loving hours, what the hell is taking them so long!?"edit: Speaking of six hours, that's about how much game we have left at this point (I just finished recording the rest of the game last night). Even though we're only in chapter 3 of 7, the vast majority of the content in Jade Empire is in chapters 1-3. The rest are fairly short and linear, with no sidequests to speak of. DMorbid fucked around with this message at 13:55 on Jul 10, 2017 |
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Jul 10, 2017 11:40
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Really Pants posted:That's no ghost! It's Old Man Fong, the town leatherworker! And he would have gotten away with it too, if not for those meddling spirit monks, and that (kid possessed by the demon) dog.
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Jul 10, 2017 15:04
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Doc Morbid posted:
How does nobody notice him sneaking around in his brightly colored robe?
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Jul 10, 2017 15:23
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Zu doesn't bother with sneaking. The Acolytes see him strolling around nonchalantly and assume he's welcome. Plus you have to slaughter five peasants to access the personnel files, so it's a pain in the rear end to check.
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Jul 10, 2017 15:26
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Doc Morbid posted:
Yeah the way content is stacked up is very strange. It's pretty heavily front loaded. Do you know why that is?
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Jul 10, 2017 16:33
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It's a bit concerning that being a distant father and burying your dad alive seem to be equally bad things both parties need to forgive each other for (and then everyone is happy).
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Jul 10, 2017 16:55
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stone cold posted:Yeah the way content is stacked up is very strange. It's pretty heavily front loaded. Do you know why that is? I'd be interested in Doc's take also but my guess was a combination of the inevitable cuts that happen deep in a development cycle mixed with the accelerating plot pace not lending itself to sidequesting so it was naturally going to streamline anyway. On another note, Doc Morbid posted:
5 seconds later, redeemed. Now I know we all make fun of the bad Closed Fist dialogue but this example always stood out to me as egregiously dumb Open Palm. "I AM KING OF MURDER HELL MOUNTAIN oh wait I just gotta do one nice thing and we're even? this never occurred to me!" One dialogue check is all it took? Ehhhh. They took the time to try and sell the audience on EVIL with the soul-stealing and all, but the conclusion is just nothing.
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Jul 10, 2017 20:33
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Redemption... for one such as me? I think not. My life was spent in greed and vanity and corruption. Even in death I sought to preserve my perfect form. For one whose madness and evil progress even into death? No, there is no hope for me. None at all. And you stand here, mocking me for it.
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Psion posted:I'd be interested in Doc's take also but my guess was a combination of the inevitable cuts that happen deep in a development cycle mixed with the accelerating plot pace not lending itself to sidequesting so it was naturally going to streamline anyway. Psion posted:5 seconds later, redeemed. Now I know we all make fun of the bad Closed Fist dialogue but this example always stood out to me as egregiously dumb Open Palm. "I AM KING OF MURDER HELL MOUNTAIN oh wait I just gotta do one nice thing and we're even? this never occurred to me!" One dialogue check is all it took? Ehhhh. They took the time to try and sell the audience on EVIL with the soul-stealing and all, but the conclusion is just nothing. DMorbid fucked around with this message at 21:03 on Jul 10, 2017 |
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Jul 10, 2017 20:54
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Doc Morbid posted:And yeah, this kind of stuff is pretty common in BioWare games. This particular quest reminded me one of the Sith force ghosts on Korriban in KotOR, where you turn this super-evil ancient Sith Lord to the light side of the Force in about ten seconds. I was thinking of the exact same quest.  As I recall, though, the Sith ghost was pretty despondent and wondering what the point of it all was even before you gave him a light side sermon, which made it marginally more believable. But yeah, this Jade Empire ghost seems to have some kind of profound mood disorder, not unlike some Mass Effect moments. It's particularly noticeable for me because I've been playing Witcher 3 for the first time, and the differences in writing are, uh, very apparent.
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Jul 14, 2017 21:32
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Episode 33: Team Lotus ------  Last time, we finally got around to advancing the main plot after several hours of messing around with sidequests. We've made it to the Lotus Assassin fortress and become a Lotus Acolyte under the seemingly less than stellar tutelage of Master Gang, and now that we've infiltrated the Assassin lair we need to find evidence of Death's Hand's corruption. However, being a lowly Lotus Acolyte means you're utterly expendable and you have to do everything you can to get ahead, so we've already had to deal with some of our fellow acolytes trying to kill us (which didn't end very well for them).  By the way, here is the Open Palm idle animation. It's much less interesting than the writhing shadow tentacles Closed Fist folks have, but that's what we get for being in perfect harmony with nature.   Master Gang told us to meet him down in the central chamber, so let's not make him wait too long. There is one slightly annoying thing about this area that doesn't come across in screenshots, and that is the odd shimmering on the walls. It has something to do with the bloom lighting not quite playing along with the specular effect on the walls, and if you disable the bloom everything looks normal. However, this place loses a lot of its atmosphere if you turn bloom off, so we're not doing that.   Ah, there's Master Gang. Let's go talk to him and find out what our first assignment as a Lotus Acolyte might be.   Turns out that will have to wait a bit, because we've got people being harassed by ghosts.  Or maybe the demonic entity from Evil Dead.    The poor bastard gets his soul taken (or something like that) by the ghost, who decides to go back to the chamber he came from. Not sure why he doesn't try to attack us because we're right there, but maybe he's had his fill of human souls for today.   The old scorpion had one of his followers shatter a spirit shard during training. There are ghosts everywhere! I've lost eight slaves and three acolytes to them. You, new-blood! Get over there and occupy those ghosts until I can get real Lotus Assassins to clean them up. Golem production cannot be delayed by this!  Master Gang clearly doesn't expect us to fare any better against ghosts than that slave back there did, but frankly this is a great opportunity for us to show Gang what we can do. Instead of having to do something horribly evil for our first task, we'll get to use our ghost-busting skills!  We can talk to the various Assassins in this chamber, but they don't have much to say to an acolyte like us.  Let's go take care of that little ghost problem they're having, then. The door we're looking for is the one to our left, on the west wall.  Behind the door is a fight against a handful of generic ghosts and a Ghost Lord. As usual, we'll leave his spectral lordship for last, because he's the one enemy here without any ranged attacks.  Maybe I also should've put down a couple of the ghosts the old-fashioned way instead of going for harmonic combos immediately, because... well, this can apparently happen. Got frozen just as I was trying to do a combo on a petrified enemy.  Aside from that slight mishap, these guys don't pose a problem to us at this point.  This chamber has a bunch of clay golems lining the walls and pillars, and they can get smashed up during the fight with those ghosts. Sadly, we can't pick up a golem arm and use it as a weapon, not that it'd work on ghosts anyway.  The other door in the chamber leads to the soul extractor room, but we can't access that just yet. So, let's just head back to Gang and tell him we got rid of the ghosts.  Recruits are rarely of use before we strip them of their outside identities, but you beg a more... interesting application. Could you be the one I have waited for? Since we're pretending to be training in the ways of the Lotus Assassins, we probably shouldn't try to talk all humble at this point.  I need a favored protege, someone willing to risk everything in my service. I will preserve your intellect, allow your inventive mind to remain, in exchange for two tasks. One is your duty anyway. The other is something to secure your future at the heart of the Assassins. Lotus Acolytes are utterly expendable. You deserve better.Well, that sounds nice and convenient. I bet we won't even have to shave our head or disfigure our face!  Since this is clearly a stroke of luck for us, we'll play along for now and follow Master Gang's orders like a good obedient assistant.  Golems are fueled by the souls of the dead. The recently dead, it turns out, make far more obedient and powerful golems. Especially if brutally killed. We no longer mine the Necropolis for souls that linger near their resting place. We butcher slaves instead, and extract their souls into spirit shards. Tonight we require a shard of exceptional quality for a Jade Golem that will control the latest battalion of golems. You will oversee this in the extraction chamber.Well, that seems a bit unethical, but we'll see how it goes when we get there. Let's see what else Gang wants from us.   Kill Master Shin, my superior.Huh. That escalated quickly. Not really surprising, though. The Lotus Assassins seem like the kind of organization where this sort of thing is a perfectly legit way to advance your career.  You are perceptive. It is a tricky matter and therefore a good test for an otherwise expendable acolyte. Your kind die often in the machinations between masters.Yep, doesn't seem like this kind of stuff is too rare around here.  That whole thing about butchering slaves does seem a bit dodgy and hopefully we'll find some way to avoid that, but killing Master Shin and his silly hat shouldn't be a huge problem. We killed Inquisitor Lim already, and Shin is small time compared to that guy.   That is your task to figure out, acolyte! This is a dangerous place. Find a way for him to have an accident that disgraces him. I, of course, must not be implicated. Talk to my acolytes at their stations in the golem press room and the Soul Extractor. These are dangerous machines, find a sharp corner Shin can crack his temple on.I'm sure we can arrange something fun. Before we do anything else, let's just ask Gang a few things.   I have some questions, Master Gang. Proceed, but do not waste my time. Tell me about Master Shin. You already know enough about him. He is insufferable, concerned only about his own advancement. He sabotages my efforts at every turn. When he is gone, I will ascend in rank, and I will reward acolytes that are loyal to me. Perhaps I will even introduce you to Grand Inquisitor Jia in the heart of the fortress.Now that sounds grand.  I will hear you. What are spirit shards? Are they similar to essence gems? Shards infuse the golems with life. Souls are extracted from the vessel that holds them, whether a corpse or slave, and sealed within a crystal shard. The more recent and brutal the death, the more effective the golem. Our soul extraction process is deliberately painful. Essence gems are trinkets that can focus minimal amounts of chi. There are very few people who can make use of them effectively.Of course the Lotus Assassins had to figure out the most needlessly brutal way possible to power up their golems. Wouldn't be evil enough otherwise.  Anyway, let's learn more about this jade golem we've heard so much about.  Jade Golems are infused with spirit shards made of multiple souls. They are highly ordered servants, and they serve as pacifiers for other golems. One or two golems can be controlled by will alone, but an army requires these jade intermediaries to maintain order. Such numbers are dangerous without a lieutenant. How many golems have been produced? I do not know. Hundreds? More? Many are here, waiting for a Jade Golem to command them. In the end, we will replace the weaklings of the Imperial Army entirely. Imagine it, acolyte. An army of loyal, nearly indestructible golems, dedicated to enforcing the will of the Emperor under Death's Hand. A beautiful sight.Nearly brings a tear to my eye, it does.  You can also seek training from Acolyte Trainer Guang. I am sure you are her superior, but she might have something of use to you.So yes, that'll pretty much be our to-do list for the rest of Chapter 3. Let's get to it.  Lots of scrollstands behind that Assassin lady, but we'll check next door first.  Alright, you keep on keepin' on.  This is the Keeper of the Archive, and as her title suggests she can tell us a little bit about the Assassins. Let's see if there's anything interesting she'll bother to tell an acolyte.     True secrets are held only in the minds of Grand Inquisitor Jia and Death's Hand. I want to ask about what's in the archive. I will answer, within the limits of what someone of your ranking is permitted to know. Recent or old entries? You must give specifics. Tell me about the Lotus Assassin leadership. All you are allowed to know of your masters is that Death's Hand is the will of the Emperor and Grand Inquisitor Jia rules this place for him. Obey their wishes when they are made apparent to you or you will be destroyed. That is all an acolyte needs to understand.Right, so it would seem scrubs like us aren't worthy of learning much of anything.  I almost feel bad for Master Gang.  Well, whatever, let's get the dirt on him. Hit me, Keeper.  His mediocrity is magnified by the successes of Master Shin, an Assassin who arrived at the same time and has catapulted through the ranks. Coincidentally, Master Shin is the one who personally documented many of Gang's failures. There is, of course, nothing strange about this.Obviously not. Even though he's not the most skilled Assassin or instructor, it seems like Master Gang might not be quite as incompetent as he's made out to be and Master Shin has been actively loving him over. I wouldn't be surprised if Shin set up some of those "failures" himself.  You are permitted to know that Death's Hand returned from Dirge as the Emperor's trusted confidant after all others around him proved to be traitors. After defeating the drought, the Emperor was no longer a slave to the natural order of things. He needed utterly loyal disciples to replace, and kill, doubters. The Order of the Lotus was quickly transformed from its weak role under Prince Kin. Death's Hand was the new way, and those who disagreed were destroyed. What was so different in the way you were trained?A whole lot more  would be my assumption. Soon you will have nothing else but your life here. Your role as a Lotus Assassin leaves no room for anything other than loyalty to Death's Hand and the Emperor. No one questioned such a brutal change? All who did were killed... except one who first hid his doubt. On a mission to cleanse a traitor's family, he rejected Death's Hand and turned on his fellows. The bodies were unrecognizable. More have died to him over the years, but few remain who know his face. He was our most skilled, most vicious, and most hated. I think we might already have some idea of that rogue Assassin's identity...  There are few fates worse than being reduced to nothing. Lotus Assassins can belong nowhere else. Service to Death's Hand is your life. So this rogue Assassin escaped punishment? He escaped death, but there is no greater penalty for a Lotus Assassin than to be removed from the sight of Death's Hand and our Emperor. No doubt many of his years have been worse than death. Once you are truly indoctrinated, you will know the hunger to serve that such loyalty brings. Tell me about recent campaigns. Slaves continue to be brought to the fortress from the Wall and unimportant villages that have no voice to object. Our golem force continues to grow. Operations in Tien's Landing have temporarily halted, but we received glorious news that a hated enemy of the Emperor has been delivered to the palace! The accomplices who hid him were butchered, their pitiful village razed. We look forward to a day when all who oppose our masters are dealt with.Well, that's, uh, great news. All hail Death's Hand!  It is unimportant. All that matters is that he was caught. We don't need to know any more than that. It is a glorious validation of all that we do to serve our masters.All right, that's about as much we can get out of her. Well, almost, since there was a dialog option I forgot to pick (the "Assassins need a historian?" one), but never mind. While we're here, let's check out the scrollstands next to the Keeper.   Ah, perfect. The last configuration for Lord Lao's Furnace. The last one we can find just laying around, anyway.   The two scrolls we can read (a couple of them are just for decoration) basically just contain more Lotus Assassin propaganda. Not too surprising, really.  Here's what happens if you try to select Kang in the party menu screen. Guess we've got to go talk to him at some point when we have some downtime.  Good. Great.   Here's the trainer Master Gang mentioned earlier. Let's find out if she has anything fun she can teach us.   So I've heard.  Sure, why not.   The sparring match doesn't exactly last very long.   You, new-blood, you will be the trainer now. When I am promoted, you will train all my acolytes. You! Assist her, if you can even do that.Welp, looks like we accidentally earned ourselves some extra duties.   Whoops, I forgot to be evil this time.   My duties--your duties now--include training Master Shin's personal entourage. In the past, if a trainer was too good, Shin had that trainer killed to keep Gang weak. I think one member of his entourage is a full Lotus Assassin. I have survived by appearing unimportant, and staying out of the fight between Gang and Shin.Hm. If we're going to kill Master Shin, we should probably try to thin out his little entourage first so they're not around to mess things up for us.  You are supposed to train the Attendants in his entourage. Some need it, but if you seem too skilled, your next fight will be against the hidden Lotus Assassin. Besides, it wouldn't weaken Shin for long. I suppose he would be alone and more vulnerable if he had to fight right away, but he will replace them in time. Would there be an outcry if one of Shin's entourage died during training? Accidents happen, and even the attendants in his entourage are just acolytes, and therefore are utterly expendable. There would not be much fuss. However, you would probably find yourself training the hidden Lotus Assassin in the next bout. Any skilled acolytes under Gang are quickly disposed of.Eh, I daresay we can take one Lotus Assassin if/when it comes to that. Any way to speed this stuff up?  Are you mad? Well, it doesn't matter, you must train one at a time. If you seem to be too strong a target, I'm sure they will accommodate your death wish. How did you come to join the Assassins? I showed my ability in the arena, and when I asked, their recruiter agreed. I have only one skill, and this was the best place to exploit it. What ability do you mean?Based on what she said about the arena, we can probably assume what that skill is.  We are all here for one reason, and that includes you. We are killers, plain and simple. There are no Lotus Assassins with hearts of gold.No hearts of gold to be found here, absolutely none. We do have a bit of silver, though, so let's see what Guang has got for sale.  A few gems we don't need, the Ice Shard style we also don't need, and a few techniques. Okay then. Let's take a look at those techniques...  Nothing too exciting here, but we've got plenty of silver so we might as well pick up all of these (Window to the Abyss: Chi +10, Focus -3; Deadened Nerves: Health +10, Chi-3) except Fearsome Visage (Intimidation +3, Charm -1) since we don't really use Intimidation.  The description for Fearsome Visage reveals that loving up your face is in fact something Lotus Assassins might do on purpose to intimidate their enemies. Speaking of which, let's see which member of Master Shin's entourage we'll be "training" first.  She is replacing one of the acolytes who did not return from Tien's Landing. There was no explanation. I assume he was weak and was discarded. You can find her and all of the other Attendants by the doors to the inner chambers. They wait there for when Shin leaves to inspect new slave shipments.All right, great. Making enemies is something that just seems to come naturally to us, so we might as well speed things along a little and get straight to the fighting. Goodbye. If you wish to begin your likely short career as trainer, Attendant Kitan waits with her fellows at the doors to the inner chambers. I'll say this: if you *are* going to try and fight them, hold nothing back. They *will* be trying to kill you.All in all, Guang seems relatively nice for a Lotus acolyte. Well, there was that whole "it's awesome when we kill our enemies and their whole families  " thing, but she's still probably the friendliest person we're going to meet down here. Hello there, folks. I shall be your combat trainer today.    This would be Attendant Kitan, then.   Is that so? I would be more concerned about yourself if I were you. Let's move this fight to the Hall of Induction, so I have room to enjoy this.To the Hall of Induction it is. Let's go.  Okay then, Attendant Kitan, show us your moves.  That's nice, but you can do better. Perhaps we should learn about something known as Harmonic Combinations for today's lesson. Let me demonstrate.  Now, I know I said the power attack of Stone Immortal has terrible range, but it actually has quite decent range and I was being dumb. See, I kept trying to use it against Lost Spirits and Ghost Lords, which of course float a couple inches off the ground, so the attack simply doesn't work on them.  Attendant Kitan is now very familiar with harmonic combos.  I would be very careful if you intend on continuing to train the others. They will not let the death of Kitan go unanswered. Three more to go and Shin is helpless if called to fight. What? That is your plan? I wish you luck, but I'm staying well out of the way. This is going to get really ugly.That's a great plan, is it not? Guang doesn't seem to think so. In any case, she can probably tell us who we're supposed to train next.  Attendant Kai Feng is waiting for you with his remaining fellows at the doors to the inner chambers. I wish you luck. Kai Feng, huh? Not quite Kai Leng, but probably just as big of a chump.   Hey, we were just doing a harmonic combo demonstration. It wasn't our fault she died when she turned into stone and exploded.   Well, time to get the next lesson underway.  Once again, we're heading to the Hall of Induction.  I think we'll continue on the topic of harmonic combos.  Different harmonic combos produce different powerups. You saw Attendant Kitan drop a health orb, which is what you get whenever you finish a combo initiated with Stone Immortal. Now, let's try out Storm Dragon and see what that gives us.   Well, uh, we would see it if that explosion of blood and gore wasn't blocking the view. This combo produces a focus orb.  Yeah, and now Kai Feng is splattered all over the floor and walls, maybe some bits even ended up on the ceiling. So?    Shut up! This fool will pay! You'll see. You'll regret this.All right, you guys want to throw down right now?  Apparently not. I suppose we'll just follow them back down, where an ambush totally isn't going to be waiting for us.  I might have lied about that last bit.   *sigh*   Right, let's get this over with. I don't know why they even bother at this point, having witnessed what happened to the last two people we fought.  These guys like to use the Viper style, so you'll probably end up poisoned for a good chunk of this fight. It's not a huge issue or anything, since we've got a ton of health and chi to work with.  I think this was one of the remaining attendants.  See? Focus powerup. That's the one from the harmonic combo just now. Oh yeah, and Master Shin's entourage and their friends are now very dead.  Master Shin's enemies are probably very impressed with your actions. I can only speculate, of course. He will get his due eventually, don't you worry about that.  Well, we've certainly thinned out the competition by this point.  On the east wall of the main chamber is the door to the golem press room, but we're not going that way just yet.  Instead, we'll be heading to the Soul Extractor room. Next time. ------ DMorbid fucked around with this message at 05:36 on Jul 22, 2017 |
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Jul 22, 2017 03:53
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Okay, so there's nothing left preventing Master Shin from falling down a flight of punches, right?
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Jul 22, 2017 05:32
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Master Gang did say we could use a powerful soul for a special golem, didn't he.
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Jul 22, 2017 06:38
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Commander Keene posted:Okay, so there's nothing left preventing Master Shin from falling down a flight of punches, right? Except for this Golem Press at the top of them. E;fb
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Jul 22, 2017 06:54
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I admit, I quite liked that bit with the the training sequence. Everyone is so sure that you're in such deep trouble, this assassin is going to make an example of you, oh you really did it this time, etc. And he's so overconfident, too. Then you proceed to curb-stomp him with contemptuous ease. It's a great way to make the player feel like a badass. I don't know if it comes across that way in-game or if that's just your presentation, but I wanted to say it was pretty awesome.
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Jul 23, 2017 02:42
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It is kind of weird that nobody believes you legitimately beat anybody, judging by their reactions. Maybe that's another weird quirk of our fighting style?
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Jul 23, 2017 04:02
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From what we've seen so far, suicidal over-confidence seems to be a flaw shared by every Assassin we've ever met. Like, I'm fairly certain that if you put a gold coin at the bottom of a pit and told the Assassin that the Emperor/Death's Hand wanted that coin, they'd dive right off the edge instead of just climbing down.
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Jul 23, 2017 07:32
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They might try to get a lower-ranking Assassin to do it if they felt it was really suicidal, but, yes. That seems accurate to me as well.
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Jul 23, 2017 19:07
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You really can't spell assassin without an extra helping of rear end. Maybe it has something to do with their moronic indoctrination process messing up their self preservation. On one hand it's good that they're not too scared to follow dangerous orders but on the other hand if they all die jumping from a tall tower armed with only their sword they're not being very useful. No wonder they're being replaced by golems. Equally dumb but so much easier to train and replace.
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Jul 23, 2017 19:31
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The golems are supposed to be replacing the Imperial Army (who, frankly, are pretty useless), the Lotus Assassins are still going to do all the important stuff like eliminating traitors and such. To be honest, from what we've seen it really doesn't seem like the Assassins would be very competent at the whole "assassination" thing (somehow I keep flashing back to some of my most ridiculous stealth failures in Assassin's Creed missions).
DMorbid fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Jul 23, 2017 |
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Jul 23, 2017 19:56
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They are the third most competent people you know though (next to yourself and your companions of course.) Normally I'd say there's something there about how the rank and file have grown overconfident by coasting on their reputation yadda yadda but really, this is just how Bioware does evil organizations. I have to keep checking that we're not on Korriban again.
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Jul 23, 2017 21:43
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Glazius posted:It is kind of weird that nobody believes you legitimately beat anybody, judging by their reactions.
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Jul 23, 2017 23:34
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Commander Keene posted:IIRC, people keep saying Wu's fighting style is all about feigning weaknesses/openings that aren't actually there, so maybe it looks like she's just getting super lucky when she fights? Ah, the Jackie Chan school of martial arts
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Jul 23, 2017 23:36
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I think Wu's fighting style involves far less somersaulting over stuff and fewer improvised weapons, though. Jackie Chan totally would have picked up a golem arm in the fight with the ghosts.
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Jul 23, 2017 23:53
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...and a ladder, a bucket, a lamp, the lampshade, a dead acolyte, a bit of the railing... ...and the fight would have spilled out into the graveyard, then the city, then into a flyer, which would have landed back in Tien's Landing... I love Jackie Chan, especially with how ridiculous his action scenes are
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Jul 24, 2017 18:45
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Part of it also is just that, compared to anyone else except our party, these guys are going to mop the floor with them. Remember, you're not only a martial arts prodigy with a ~destiny~, but you've also been fighting your way up the ranks. I imagine that, properly written, you'd see these mooks as basically bandits that had skill and potential, while the actual Inquisitors were deadly "oh i'm sorry is that a knife in your ribs" stealth assassins.
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Jul 26, 2017 03:33
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Just finished reading this thread, must say I've liked it. It's a shame we don't get more games in settings like this as opposed to "generic fantasy Europe", but what you gonna do eh?
I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude.
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Jul 27, 2017 21:36
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Episode 34: Spirit Shard ------ Last time, we were told by our Lotus Assassin Master Gang to help him out with a minor problem he's been having with his rival Master Shin. We had a couple of training sessions with Shin's attendants (all of whom sadly perished in combat-related accidents), so now we need to look into arranging an unfortunate accident for Master Shin himself.  As we make our way towards the Soul Extractor room (where we're meant to create a spirit shard to power the mighty jade golem), Zu emerges from behind a pillar. He absolutely was not there when we came in, but let's not worry about that and instead find out what's on his mind this time.  It wasn't always like this. Fear used to be the primary tactic. Destroy the family of one to ensure the loyalty of all. It caused chaos, uprisings. Close allies turning on each other. Those inclined to betrayal fear it the most. Imagine if you could corrupt the machine and return the chaos of disloyalty the Emperor dreads.Corrupting the jade golem does seem like a solid enough plan, as that would presumably cripple any other golems under its control. I'd say we don't want to be too obvious about sabotaging the Lotus Assassins' efforts here since we are supposed to be infiltrating them, but considering how we've already murdered a couple dozen acolytes and at least one full Assassin and got off scot-free, I don't think they're really paying much attention to us.  No matter your motives, helping the Assassins harms you. If you corrupt the spirit shard, you can move forward while *also* crippling their golems. They seek control. There used to be a chance to disobey, when the order given was too harsh... the victims pointlessly innocent. Now there is only obedience. There is something chaotic enough to disrupt that. In the elevator room to come, descend to the deepest mine, to the oldest graves.  It'd help quite a bit if Zu would just tell us what we're looking for, but we know by now that is not how he rolls. I'm sure we'll find out soon enough what he meant there.   This must be the famed Soul Extractor. Doesn't really look like much from here, but maybe it's more exciting when you actually give it a whirl. There's a Lotus Acolyte manning the extractor, so let's go ask them how this thing works.   But, Master Gang is known for being generous to those who please him. You must be quite exceptional to be allowed into service so... directly.  This device is the Soul Extractor. It has a loftier name, but we are here to glorify Emperor Sun through Death's Hand, not pay tribute to some distant celestial lord. It is mounted on an elevator that reaches deep into the Necropolis. Until recently we excavated bodies to extract spirits that lingered near their graves. The results were... unpredictable. Now we use slaves. Freshly killed spirits make the best golems. The more painful the death, the better. The extractor is not gentle. I'm assuming this is another machine they built using parts stolen from Lord Lao's Furnace, or maybe a device they stole from there and modified for maximum EVIL (at any rate, I doubt Lord Lao would make a machine whose purpose is to rip out a person's soul and turn it into a shard).  I wonder what would happen if, hypothetically speaking, someone was to accidentally blunder into the Soul Extractor.  The golem press is far more dangerous, but I have nothing to do with that ungainly device. I prefer the elegance of ripping slaves apart. I want to ask about the extractor and spirit shards. If you must. It is a simple machine to operate. I'm sure you will come to enjoy the subtle joys of it. How does the extractor function?Even though we apparently can't use the extractor to get rid of Master Shin, we might as well try to find out something more about its inner workings. We're here to gather information, after all.  That shard is implanted in a golem, infusing it with the energy of the deceased soul. Your task is the creation of a new shard for a Jade Golem. Do not delay. Who made the extractor? Death's Hand placed the machine here. It is said the Emperor himself brought pieces of some great celestial furnace back from the heavens. I do not fully understand how it functions, but I am not meant to. I obey, and that is enough. Do corpses still have souls to extract? Spirits that die in trauma can linger near their mortal form. The Empire is soaked in blood; many restless dead haunt the Necropolis. But slaves produce a better result. Only on the prison level. Many of the mines are impassable. The graves were never intended to be stable during excavation. Several have collapsed. Much of the surrounding ground is weak. We do not march too many golems at once. Even that might shake something loose.Alright, that's enought about the extractor for now.  Yes, yes, got it. This acolyte's name, by the way, is Go Rin. She doesn't tell you that, but you can see it on the HUD when you look at her.  The Soul Extractor room also works as an elevator, with the control panel right next to the entrance. We're obviously on the main level now, let's just go through the rest of these in order.   Entering the prison level, we run into this guy. He's the one guarding the slaves, some of whom we can see there behind the bars. We can also see the control lever for the cell door on the wall.  We'll come back here in a bit, but let's move on for now.  That's the plan. Next, we'll hit the near-surface mine level.   The most exciting thing about this level is the jar that immediately respawns when we break it. The Iron Skin Gem adds +3 to Body and negates all damage from traps.  We'll keep that in mind.   At this point, I figured it might be a decent idea to look at Zin Bu's inventory for a change. He updates his wares as we progress through the chapters, and he's got some pretty good stuff in. I end up buying the Golden Tongue here, although to be perfectly honest we don't really need it anymore. The conversation skills are mostly used in sidequests, and we've pretty much completed all the ones this gem would help with.  On the way out, we can smash the jar again to get another Iron Skin Gem. This time, the jar stays destroyed. Now that we are done on this level, we should finally head down to the abandoned deep-level mine Zu mentioned.  That's nice, Go Rin.  The deep-level mine is another dark cavern, as you'd probably expect.  As we make our way further in, we're stopped by a cutscene.  That's Zu speaking, by the way. Sounds like he didn't send us here simply out of the goodness of his heart and this is a test of some kind.     Zeng Sai knows you! Knows your meddling scent! Zeng Sai will destroy you! Destroy it all! This test apparently involves fighting a very large and very angry ghost. Being a spirit enemy, Zeng Sai is vulnerable to magic styles so we'll try a bit of Stone Immortal on him.  Unfortunately, harmonic combos don't work on Zeng Sai, so petrifying him and hitting him with a strong martial attack instead sends him sliding back. Way back.  Zeng Sai mainly attacks with Ice Shard and is more of an annoyance than anything resembling a challenge.  That'll take care of him. Hopefully Zu's happy now.   That was a Horselord? Looked just like one of the big fat convict ghosts we fought back in Tien's Landing.  I gambled that the vengeful spirits of these marauders would sense if you truly are a Spirit Monk. So many people are not what they seem to be. I had to be certain.  Even in life his kind were devoid of restraint. His spirit is pure chaos; a shard made using his ancient corpse will cripple the Jade Golem and those it commands. When you finish your master's other task, present the shard to earn passage to the inner chambers. Inside is the information you need to proceed to the palace. I, however, will not be leaving. That sounded a bit ominous.  This fortress holds many secrets. Some are valuable, some are dangerous, and some are hidden because the dark is where they belong.Cryptic to the bitter end, I guess.  The only object of interest down here is Zeng Sai's coffin. Good old Zeng is still kind of pissed at us, it seems, but that's not going to stop us from taking his corpse and shoving it into the Soul Extractor. I'm sure Go Rin won't suspect a thing when we show up with this ancient skeleton from the bottom of the mine.  I guess Go Rin really doesn't give a poo poo. Well then, Soul Extractor, work your terrible magic and make me a spirit shard!   This contraption looks like something you'd see in Shang Tsung's flesh pits lab in Mortal Kombat.  I can't let this continue! This area is my responsibility! I don't care who you are!Oh, now she's paying attention and wants to fight us for messing up the extractor. Let's try out one of the styles we learned recently and haven't had the opportunity to test yet.  Paralyzing Palm does what it says on the tin. You strike the enemy with a palm blow, and they're paralyzed for a short time. Simple enough.  The strong attack can be used to initiate a harmonic combo. This one works a bit differently from the other combos we've been using.  See, when we land what would normally be the killing blow using the Leaping Tiger strong attack, the opponent doesn't die but instead turns into a stone statue. A proper statue, not the crude lump of rock you'd get with Stone Immortal.  At this point, you can use whatever attack you want to insta-shatter the statue.  We've got our corrupted spirit shard, and Go Rin has been taken care of. Now's the time to go back to the prison area and have a chat with the slaves.     F... forgive me. I saw a new face and hoped there was kindness there. I was mistaken.  Some of the others were captured by pirates and sold. One merely asked why the Imperial Army reports to the Lotus Assassins now. We did nothing to deserve this harsh fate. You must be able to see that. How many slaves have passed through here? Hundreds... thousands... I don't know. All that were here when I arrived are gone. There are scratches on the walls... names of wives, of daughters. What did so many do to deserve such a horrible death? We can hear them scream... one by one. I may try to help you. You... you would do that? Not so loud!  Goodbye. I assumed Wu would mutter that line about helping the prisoners under her breath or something like that, but apparently that wasn't the case. Especially with Silk Fox deciding to announce our intentions as loudly as possible. Oh well, since the guard probably already knows what we're up to, let's just get on with it.  I can't allow these slaves to remain here. You tread dangerous ground, acolyte. Unless you plan to speed their processing in the extractor, you risk being punished for your impudence!  You *demand* it? You are clearly not here as an acolyte! If you want to die for these scrawny dogs, so be it!Hey, he caught on. He's pretty smart for a Lotus Assassin, too bad he dies now.  Hey! Now that's just rude.    One harmonic combination later, the guard has been disposed of and all we need to do now is open the door to the prison to free the slaves. I would assume that at some point in the near future, someone will enter the extractor area and see that we've killed the guards. Or maybe they'll just wonder why there are suddenly these scattered rocks everywhere.  And... open.    I heard someone got away once. I don't know if they made it out of the Necropolis, but it is a chance!I think they figure this out on their own even if you don't inspect the tunnel on the near-surface mine level, so that area is completely optional.   Han Ro and the rest of the prisoners run off and make their bid for freedom. Since we took out Go Rin earlier, they have an open path to the near-surface mines. I don't think you see these guys after this so I don't know if they make it out of the Necropolis, but I would assume they do manage to get out.  Anyway, we're done with the extractor now, and our next order of business is to go show off our shard to Master Gang.  Oh, hello there, fellow Lotus person. Err... I didn't do it.  Never mind, it's just one of those idiot acolytes who picked a fight with us when we first came in.    If his favorite acolyte falls, that will prove it was a mistake to neglect us! We regain our place, and you are gone! We want our place back, and if you have to die for that to happen, that's fine with us!Oh boy, here we go once again. Some people just never learn, do they?   I don't think there will be many acolytes left once we're done with this place.  The inner chambers are not usually accessible to acolytes, but you have proven a valuable ally. You will go far in the Lotus Assassins. I examined the extractor. It could kill Shin, but it leaves no corpse.I don't think that's what Gang's looking for. I believe his exact words were that he wanted there to be a corpse for him to gloat over.  Right, we shall take a look at the golem press then, and hope that is more suitable for Gang's plan.    That's quite an impressive bit of engineering. Of course it is, it was made from Lord Lao's furnace parts after all.  Here's a look at the press itself. It's just produced a golem, although that one's clearly unfinished.  After the golem husk is made, the press operator uses the crane here to lift it out of the press and move it to the other side of the room.  Gotta say, though, that does not look very safe at all.    *CRASH* So much for the golem, and it was nearly curtains for that Lotus Assassin as well. This whole cutscene is obviously trying to tell us something, and it's not being too subtle about it either.   When the Jade Golem is done, have a normal spirit shard made and replace this clay golem. The ranks must be full when the Jade Golem is activated. Distractions are the key to weakness in a target. If you look to the future, Master Gang will have his plans come crashing down on him.Oh hey Zu, long time no see. Zu is clearly suggesting that we should arrange an unfortunate golem-related accident for Master Gang, getting rid of both him and Master Shin. Not a bad idea, although Shin is the priority at the moment.  And just like that, Zu is gone. The nearly flattened Assassin walks right past us and out of the door, so we can't compliment him on that nice dodge back there.  Appropriately enough, the golem press room has several clay golems lining the walls. Unlike their counterparts outside the Soul Extractor room, these guys are obviously active and waiting for someone to power up the jade golem.  Quite impressive, yes.   This corner of the room has a scrollstand and a trapped chest. That scroll is bullshitting us, by the way; strength (or martial skill) does nothing against clay golems and we must use weapons to dispatch them.  We've got another acolyte manning the press. Let's see if he can tell us anything relevant.   I will instruct you on the use of the golem press and crane. Forming the golems is an honored task that elevates us above slaves and mere servants. The press is simple to use. Using this machine, we can create a legion of warrior golems in a day.  This is only one step. Here we create husks, devoid of energy. Each golem needs a spirit shard to move, and a Jade Golem must guide them all. For each shard, a spirit must be reduced to its essence. For a time we used those that lingered near their graves, mining them as if they were silver. No longer. The recently dead make a stronger, more obedient golem, if the death is painful. With a Jade Golem guiding them, legions act as one, utterly obedient. The Extraction Chamber is a far more interesting place to work. The screams over there are music. Here, we have only the creaking of clay. You nearly saw one as you entered, but they are rare. Falling victim to an obvious danger like a dropped golem--or worse, the press--wou|d take a monumental fool. The machines are loud, and you can see the operator from anywhere in the room. A past victim of the press suffered more damage after the incident than during it. Reputations are very important in the Lotus Assassin order. Falling victim to the press would cause a loss in status almost fatal in and of itself.Okay then. We can ask this acolyte more questions about the crane and press and the different golems, but I think we can work things out ourselves from here. Time to head back to Master Gang once more.  Master Shin would be disgraced if killed by the golem press. Hmm... an interesting idea. It has happened before, and the victim was certainly considered a fool for letting it occur, but it is impossible. You may as well try and drop one of the golems on him. He would never be so distracted as to enter the press. We are Lotus *Assassins,* after all. Hm, true enough. I keep forgetting that little fact. Still, who says Master Shin needs to be alive when he enters the golem press?  A possibility, but Shin does not leave the inner chambers often. Only to inspect the new slave shipments arriving in the Hall of Induction. You would have to close a great many eyes to get away with an assassination in the hall and moving the body to the press, but it would certainly send a message. The hall cleared of all witnesses, the press operator distracted, and the slave shipment stopped outside in the Necropolis before it arrives? A daunting list of tasks.We got this. No problem.  Welp, let's get to it then.  First off, we'll just take a look at the quest journal and our new objectives. I think we ought to start by getting rid of the press operator, as that seems simple enough.  I need to relieve you at this post. You must leave the room. Is that so? Why should I step aside for a new-blood acolyte? I have my own position to think about, and I will not be so easily replaced. If you bring an order from Master Gang, I will relent, as he is my master, too. Until then, I am not moving. I see. The ways of the order are mysterious and brutal. If an... opening is created away from witnesses, all of us under him will benefit. I understand. I will tend to the golems that are being readied for the Jade Golem's command. I do not think I will be able to return to this room today. But... a thought occurs to me: If one opening raises us all, two openings will raise us further. If something were to befall the good master.... Just something you might want to ponder.They really want us to kill both of the masters, don't they?  Well, I think we can arrange that, and since we've got the press to ourselves for the rest of the day we can prepare something fun for our dear Master Gang.  [There is an opening in the side that looks like it accepts clay containers of some kind. Other than that, it seems quite simple] [Make a clay golem]  There we go, we've made ourselves a new friend! He looks about as hard-headed as a certain Outlander we know, so we shall name him Roderick.  Now we'll just operate this crane here...    Roderick is now in position, waiting to deliver swift death to anyone dumb enough to walk beneath him. We'll leave him there for now, and go to the Hall of Induction to get rid of the folks hanging around.  First off, we've got Merchant Kia Jong.   Perhaps. They are not often late unless delayed by spirits outside in the Necropolis. Shin makes a point of demanding they be on time. I need this hall cleared. Move to another room. Now why would I want to do that? Moving my wares is a noisy, heavy task, and I do as little as possible to disrupt the workings of this place. I am fine where I am, so leave me be.Oh, goddamn it.  I don't see how.  Bah. Well, I guess we could always pay him... with the silver he just gave us when we sold some of our useless vendor trash to him...   And Silk Fox goes for the seduction. That just might work.  Hey, not bad.  Duly noted. That's Kia Jong and his guys out of the way, now let's go see who else we've got standing around in the hall.  This sorcerer was not here before, nor were his buddies.    I will show Grand Inquisitor Jia that tapping the spirit realm for servants is more efficient. Witness as I effortlessly summon an able minion from the void.Hey, that's what the first Assassin we saw in Two Rivers was doing. The game kind of forgot about the Lotus Assassins being able to summon ghosts to do their bidding, until now at least.  There are hardly any preparations needed, acolyte. They *want* to serve. They tell me so. Golems want nothing. Watch and learn.   I don't think that was supposed to happen.   So of course, we're stuck cleaning up the mess this moron made.   Still, these are just regular Lotus Acolytes who simply happen to be on fire, so they go down just as easily as every other acolyte we've fought in this fortress.  The sorcerer is at least smart enough to run off by himself, so we don't even need to murder him.  Finally, we've got Gi and Soto, the mold masters responsible for maintaining the golem press.  What could cause a machine as sophisticated as the press to break down? You are right to marvel at its stability. It is a machine in balance. Only errors of its operators have damaged it before. Several foolish acolytes were killed for damaging it. It's not so hard to use properly. All you do is work the crane and occasionally add Phoenix Oil to the Material Selector.The what now?  What is Phoenix Oil? Where does it come from? Gang needs to better train his acolytes. You were obviously rushed through the initiation process. Phoenix Oil is a viscous liquid that burns at an incredible temperature. It heats the press to cure the golem husks. If there is too much in the machine, it burns too hot. Too little, and the golems crumble. The merchant brings the oil from the craftsmen of the Golden Delta.Well then, I suppose we'll go ask Kia Jong for some Phoenix Oil. A shitton of Phoenix Oil, to be exact. We're not doing that just yet, though, because we have a slave shipment to intercept.  On the way out, we come across our third Aura of Calm Gem. This one was in a random pile of bones. You know, I am beginning to think the wiki may have been mistaken about this gem being unique to that one sidequest.  It's pretty nice to see some sunlight for a change. The Lotus Assassin fortress is a bit on the drab side, which is of course fitting for such a location but there's only so much brown and grey I can handle.  Err, hello. Fancy meeting you here.   Sorry, we're not taking any more slaves today.     You are mad to test an Assassin! I'll kill you where you stand!  Yeah, about that...    What? Thank you... thank you so much. I knew someone would stop them, someone kind and honest. Be safe. Now go! Spoiler: It won't. Besides, we weren't about to deliver a bunch of slaves to the Lotus Assassins. That's just not our style.   There they go. Since we're outside the fortress for the time being, I think this might be a good spot to return back to the party campsite and ask Kang to take us to Lord Lao's Furnace once more. We got the final configuration for the furnace, after all, so let's go take care of that before we...    As I was saying, we'll take care of that before returning to the fortress, and while we're out here we can also meet with some of the folks we've been helping. Hey, it's Jinlin!  I still think Purveyor Shouji deserved a swift kick to the face and/or balls, but he freed Jinlin and her mom from their debts so things seem to have worked out for them nicely enough.   I thank you once more. I hope the heavens look kindly on you and give you a fate to be proud of.Mad Wen and his daughter are also doing fine, so that's great as well.  Time to hit the Furnace.  We've activated all the machines required for the Configuration of the Rabbit, so let's smack this dragon button and get this over with.    Err... sorry about that, Silk Fox. My bad. What happened there was that I accidentally activated the cauldron instead of the cogs, loving up the configuration and turning our girlfriend into a monkey. Oops.  At least she changes right back and, surprisingly, doesn't want to kill us for that slight blunder. Screwing up these recipes causes all kinds of weird nonsense like this, and I'll be showing it off in a later update.  For now, let's just do this properly. Oh, look, another one of those damage shield gems we don't need.   I'm beginning to think you have learned all of the secrets the furnace has to offer. Oh, not again.   Silk Fox is being awfully casual about this. If Kang explodes, I don't think we're getting out of here anytime soon and that would pose a small problem for our main quest.  Well, there's nothing like mortal danger to jog the memory. Anyone up for a flight to the edge of perception? What are you talking about, Kang? The memories, they are seeping in. I see patterns, schematics, explosions. Lots of explosions. And... and someone seeking rescue. Lord Lao. That's why the furnace is here, why the configurations are spread across the Empire. When it was safe for his tools to be used, it would be safe for him to return. Lord Lao is imprisoned... locked away so his inventions could no longer challenge the works of the heavens. It's an insult to the inventor spirit. We must fly.  I suppose I should be dead, but it's not the first time. Perhaps I've grown resistant to such energetic assault and surprised my assailant with my resilience. Whatever the case, I have a vision of a new wind map. It goes... nowhere, and everywhere. We have to destroy the force holding Lord Lao in check.Kang has exploded so many times he's now immune to explosions. Sure, that works.   We should go now. I do not think the furnace will function again until this is resolved.There you have it. Next time, we'll fly to the edge of perception to rescue Lord Lao, and once we return from that trip it will be time to handle Master Shin. ------
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Aug 11, 2017 22:57
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Meeting Lord Lao is... quite interesting. I can't wait for you to show it off. 
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Aug 11, 2017 23:35
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Doc Morbid posted:Kang has exploded so many times he's now immune to explosions. Sure, that works. It's like poison. You start with very small explosions and build up over time.
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Aug 12, 2017 05:25
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I love the whole Lord Lao sidequest so much. It's so weird and wonderful and completely ridiculous
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Aug 13, 2017 01:18
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I have never seen those other sidequests to screw with the Lotus Assassins. Figured that there was no way to leave the Necropolis after you enter. and you were on rails.
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Aug 13, 2017 01:44
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I can only imagine what that celestial functionary tag-along thinks of us heading to the edge of perception to release a prisoner of Heaven.
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Aug 13, 2017 04:59
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Glazius posted:I can only imagine what that celestial functionary tag-along thinks of us heading to the edge of perception to release a prisoner of Heaven. "....sigh. So much paperwork."
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Aug 13, 2017 07:18
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He's not the one handling your paperwork anymore, so it's not his problem.
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Aug 13, 2017 08:05
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Psion posted:"....sigh. So much paperwork." ".... Never thought I'd be happy to have been demoted. But wow. At least it's not my problem.?
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Aug 13, 2017 16:43
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I do wish Lin Bu would come up more often. There's a couple of times where being able to get his opinion on something would probably be helpful but it never comes up. Granted, getting the opinion of someone Celestial is why you have Chai Ka around.
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Aug 13, 2017 17:11
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Episode 35: The Grand Inquisitor ------ Last time, we made some preparations for our upcoming assassination of Master Shin, but before we get to that there is something else that needs to be taken care of. According to Kang, the great celestial artificer Lord Lao (of Lord Lao's Furnace fame) has been imprisoned by the heavens themselves, and we need to take a flight to "the edge of perception" to set him free. Well then, what are we waiting for?  As dated as some of his concepts are, I look forward to meeting him. Perhaps I can suggest some improvements. Let's go. Prepare yourself. This route is much stranger than any I have seen before. Clearly we are not bound for a terrestrial location. Even though we can take three flyer upgrades into missions, I only take these two for whatever reason. It doesn't really matter, as these two weapons are all we're going to need on this particular trip.  The edge of perception looks remarkably like all other flyer levels, except instead of regular enemies we've got some weird balls of energy flying around...    ...as well as some flyers that also appear to be made entirely out of light. The enemies in this mission are generally a lot easier than those we've seen so far, there are a lot of these guys but they're not that dangerous.  Eventually, we run into a bigger ball of energy. This is presumably the force keeping Lord Lao imprisoned, and it's the first proper boss we fight in one of these flyer sections. Its shots aren't too hard to avoid (on the easy minigame difficulty, anyway), but it does take quite a bit of punishment before going down.  Well, that's why we brought Dragon's Wrath. Look at the size of that explosion, I'm sure Kang approves wholeheartedly.  The main core of the boss is still intact after the super bomb blast, but not for long.   That'll do it. Lord Lao should be free now, wherever he happens to be at the moment.  We're returned back to the campsite, and given another flyer upgrade we will never use.  Yes, we need to discuss what... what was discovered. Yes, well, it seems the entity holding the memories of Lord Lao is vanquished. The great artificer was imprisoned for insulting heavenly works. Unjustly, I might add. He is free. He is... somewhat disoriented by the process. Oh, and there is perhaps something else you should be aware of. Uh, he is me.  Silk Fox doesn't seem to be particularly impressed by this earth-shattering revelation.  I suppose I should have been more concerned with having no memories before the last few decades... or a century. Come to think of it, I guess I'm pretty old. There was always so much to do. It never seemed to matter where I was from. I'm not even sure what I did to earn this fate. I must have stepped a little above myself and angered the Celestial Bureaucracy. In the time before their wrath filtered down, I built the furnace to point back to myself.That'll explain why Kang was immune to explosions, being an immortal celestial artificer tends to help with that kind of thing. However, I don't really know what to think of Kang turning out to be Lord Lao himself. It's supposed to be a big deal, I guess, but my reaction to the reveal has always been along the lines of "Oh, well, okay then.  " Maybe it's because Lord Lao doesn't get any buildup outside the furnace and this particular sidequest. I don't think I'll give them cause. I like it here. So many things to build for so many small problems. All the interesting big scale things are already built. And, I have an interest in seeing your endeavor through to the end. For curiosity, you understand. And I could possibly improve the yield of the furnace. I brought two unspoiled gems from our flight to rescue... ah... "me," in the void. The "Eyes of the Void" or the "Glare of the Jerk that Locked Me Up" or something. Very volatile fuel. With my new understanding of the furnace, you now have a configuration unrivaled, but there is risk. Combined with this fuel it may damage the furnace. So, continue using the furnace as it is, or risk its functions on the most powerful effect it can produce? Well, if I built it, and I guess I did, I'd fix that restriction first. Then why don't you fix it? The rules of inspiration defy such logic. That is why a single flyer is greater than many, and duplicates devalue the whole. The furnace is what it is. I'll make something better, but adjusting this one will require monumental effort. It is not designed for adjustment.Uh, sure, that makes sense.  With the last two configurations in hand, we'll head back to the furnace for one last time.  Since it is the last time we're here, let's screw around for a while and test out random combinations.  There are many different results we can get from doing this. First off, we manage to light ourselves on fire, which oddly does no damage whatsoever.  Then, we accidentally summon an elephant demon. The demons you fight at the furnace seem a bit weaker than the ones in other locations, but if you come here early on and hit random buttons there's still a decent chance to get wrecked. Well then, let's see what's next.   oh my god what the gently caress is that As it turns out, this unholy abomination standing before us is a bull demon. These guys don't gently caress around, so I ended up fighting him in focus mode just in case.  For whatever reason, all enemies you fight at the furnace give 209 EXP.  After taking down the bull demon, we manage to summon a couple of horse demons. There is also a chance for rat demons or spirits to appear here, but I didn't manage to get them to trigger.  We're almost done here, but let's just press this button one more time.    Water wheel/cauldron/chimney + tiger button will cause your character to change gender, much to Silk Fox's delight.  The effect is only temporary, so we won't be spending the rest of the game as  Anyway, now that we've seen all (well, most of) the wacky shenanigans we can get up to with the furnace, it's time to use the contraption one last time.  We can only choose one of these configurations. Sadly, there is no way to find out what they do beforehand, so you either have to look them up or just load your previous save if you're not satisfied with your choice. For the record: the Configuration of the Goat yields the Harmony and Balance technique (+3 to all attributes), and the Configuration of the Rat gives you a technique called Strength of the Bull (+25% bonus to all damage). Neither choice is bad, really, but that +25% damage bonus is going to be more our speed so that is what we're going for.    There we go.   Using the Eyes of the Void causes all the machines at the furnace to stop working and their levers to snap off, so we won't be messing with this thing ever again.  At this point it's just as well, because we've done everything there is to do with the furnace and there is never any reason to come back here even if we don't use the Eyes now. Also, you'd think Kang/Lao would have something to say about his furnace breaking, but he only has his generic dialog at this point. Odd.  Welp, time to make our way back to the Lotus Assassin fortress. Somehow, I managed to actually get through the Necropolis without fighting anything.   As you may remember from last time, we're supposed to clear the Hall of Induction so that we can fight Master Shin without any witnesses. The two mold masters will not leave the place unless the golem press breaks down, and they helpfully told us that adding the wrong amount of Phoenix Oil into the machine tends to do that. They also let us know Kia Jong is giving out the oil quite freely, so let's ask him about it. Kia Jong has relocated to the lower chamber after we persuaded him to leave the Hall of Induction.   Here, take this clay pot, but be careful. This stuff burns much hotter than any other kind of oil. Is there anything eise you need? Now we're cooking with... oil, I guess. Right then, now we'll just head back over to the golem press to shove all of this oil into the machine. That ought to cause a bit of a malfunction.  [It slides neatly into the machine. It does not take long for a malfunction to occur. The machine shuts down] Oh dear. Looks like some idiot got the amount of oil all wrong and caused the machine to fry itself. How careless. We should tell someone about this.   Like I said last time, the tutorial scroll on golems in this room has incorrect information. You can't hurt golems with martial styles, as demonstrated here.  thanks camera, this is very helpful  Okay then, now if we could just get to the mold masters without any further interruptions. Back to the Hall of Induction we go.  The press malfunctioned. Someone used too much Phoenix Oil. What? Which one of you idiots threw off the mixture? Bah, it doesn't matter.Err, yes, very bad. Hopefully the culprit is found soon and receives the appropriate punishment. Yes.  Mold Master Soto sounds so disappointed here that I almost feel bad for messing up the press. Almost.   I love how dickish that other line is.  So much wasted work. If we don't get it fixed, Jia will have us slaughtered. I know, I know. We need to go to the market district and find a smith. Come on. We're wasting time. Perfect. The Hall of Induction is now empty, so now we'll just need Master Shin to show up.  Right on cue. After you've cleared the Hall, Shin appears when you approach the door to the lower chamber.      You thought to make me vulnerable by killing my Attendants and emptying the hall? A miscalculation. I am a favored of Grand Inquisitor Jia! You will die! Unlike everyone else we've fought around here thus far, Master Shin can actually back up his big talk. We've been sleepwalking through the fights for almost the entire game, but that will not last for much longer.  The main problem with Master Shin is the fact he uses Tempest, possibly the most overpowered magic style in the game. The area attack of Tempest will stun you for several seconds, and there is no way out of it if you get hit.  Once we manage to get Shin's health down to 50% or so, these two golems decide to wake up for some reason and join the fight.  Shin also uses Storm Dragon, but that isn't really an issue because enemies can't use it as effectively as we can.  Eventually, Shin goes down, and his golems don't last much longer.  Master Shin now has some... pressing matters to attend to.   Well then, that's Master Shin eliminated. That should make Master Gang happy, not that it's going to make much of a difference.  I came quickly after hearing of his stumble. Perhaps it was the cold of the sanctum that made him careless and dulled his senses. Open the press.  We should honor our fallen comrade, but I am distracted by thoughts of who will take his place. I think the choice is obvious. While Gang is distracted, we should get a move on. Our good friend Roderick the golem is still suspended above the walkway, so if we can just get to the controls in time...   Oops, sorry about that.  Looks like someone else is getting that promotion after all. Farewell, Master Gang, you were a terrible instructor and a complete loving moron. Let's get out of here.  Ah, look who's back.  But you may learn more than she wants to know. I know that I did, many years ago.  Hui in Tien's Landing told you that in response to that act, Master Li's wife was condemned to death. She was with child at the time. This I know for certain. I was there. I was one of the elite ordered to kill Master Li's family.If you've been paying attention to all the dialog from Hui, Zu and various Lotus Assassins, you've probably pieced this together by now.    I could not question the orders. They could not be wrong.  For years I wondered what kind of creature could issue such an order and what I was for following it. It was easier to be a coward than to question the Empire. Now I understand, and I hope I have shown you, as well. They broke a sacred trust. I have returned because of that, even though I know what Death‘s Hand is. My fate is sealed, but one secret must live on. I killed them all, my fellow Assassins. I would not let them finish their mission.The Keeper of the Archive mentioned this too, although she wouldn't name any names. So, if the mission was not finished, then that must mean...  This is something Zu will only tell you if you've completed a series of conversations earlier in chapter 3. If you missed one of those or told Zu to be quiet, he'll only mention that he was one of the Assassins sent after Master Li's family. As for the identity of Li's child... well, all in due time.   Huh. Nice mask.  That is one way to describe what just happened, yes.   You were Gang's acolyte. You deal with this and get me the spirit shard I require. Since your master is dead, you may present it in the ritual. I have the spirit shard now. Bring it to the doors of the inner chamber. Finish whatever business you have in this place. Grand Inquisitor Jia may... alter your duties.This is a good time to drop a hard save, do a bit of last-minute shopping or visit a spirit font or something, because once we go through that door we'll be locked to plot stuff for a while.  You have the spirit shard? Very good, acolyte; you are on the verge of being welcomed into the heart of the fortress. Have you completed all other business? They really want you to be sure you're ready to continue through the door, so they give you one more chance to back out. We're finished all our business, of course, so let's just get on with it.   VIDEO: The Inner Chambers (watch this one)  Meet the mighty jade golem. This is still Zogu talking, by the way, not the golem. Golems don't talk, even the big jade ones (EDIT: No, scratch that, golems can totally talk. The ones guarding the dam controls in Tien's Landing asked for the password and everything).  Now, we must complete the ritual. A score of clay golems stand idle without a focus. This Jade Golem will awaken them all, direct them as one. Looks like we're about to see what our special spirit shard does.   That's probably not normal.   So much for his demands.  Thanks to our corrupted shard, the jade golem is moving in a rather erratic fashion and is obviously messed up pretty seriously.  Meanwhile, the golems all over the fortress wake up as well. With their commanding jade golem corrupted as badly as it is, how are the clay golems going to behave?  Not very well, I'm afraid. At least not from the Lotus Assassins' point of view.  The golems have gone berserk and started smashing up the place, along with anyone who gets in their way. Well, we told Sky we would bring this whole place down, and our golem friends are doing a bang-up job so far.  Finally, the corrupted jade golem comes crashing down as well.  And of course, this whole racket has gotten the attention of Grand Inquisitor Jia, who is obviously not impressed by what's going on in her fortress.   Err... I didn't do it?    And you... hidden in plain sight, like your master. You caught us unsuspecting, but not unprepared. Who are you, to think you could enter our lair so easily?Grand Inquisitor Jia decided to remove her mask for some reason, revealing a rather unpleasant-looking older lady.   That is why Death's Hand stands at the forefront of the Assassins. He draws attention, diverts criticism, while the Emperor solidifies his power.   I'm not sure why the game is now showing us a cutscene of some poor bastard getting dragged to the Soul Extractor while Jia talks, but there it is. I'm not complaining at all, the game just usually doesn't do this kind of thing.  However, what she is saying is kind of troubling for us and especially Silk Fox -- her father, Emperor Sun Hai, is apparently responsible for everything that happens in this fortress. Not Death's Hand, like Silk Fox had assumed.    So who said the Soul Extractor doesn't leave a corpse? Because that's very obviously a corpse (also surprisingly graphic for this game). Of course, Master Gang probably wanted us to leave a body that would somehow still be recognizable as Master Shin, and the extractor basically just leaves behind a skeleton, but we straight-up told him that the extractor leaves no body. Maybe Wu misunderstood what Go Rin was saying.  And that's what a spirit shard actually looks like, I guess.    They've got a lot more jade golems, all right. Including these two right in this very room, and they don't look corrupted to me.   Well... poo poo.  Fantastic. Now we're fighting two jade golems. Executioner Zogu is here as well, but for some reason he seems like the least of our worries at the moment.  Yeah, that vertical double axe swing seems like something we should probably avoid at all costs, judging from what happened to the other Executioner in the cutscene.  The golems don't really care about friendly fire, so Executioner Zogu gets launched across the room when one of the beasts accidentally whacks him with an axe. Surprisingly, that does no damage to him.  Still, we manage to finish him off in style, even though we get hit immediately afterwards. That's not too much damage, though.  Focus mode really helps here, making the golems' attacks easier to dodge and letting us do more damage in short bursts.   Whew! We made it through that all right, but you really want to be careful when engaging these guys.  Oh hell yes.  That is exactly what it looks like. We got a transformation style that lets us turn into one of these big bastards. This is the best transformation style in the game, and trivializes most of the combat especially when upgraded. I won't be using it a whole lot because that would get boring, but when you need a "gently caress this poo poo" button the Jade Golem style has got you covered.   Reading this scroll completes another book set and gives us a new technique (Chi +10).  Welp, can't go back. Guess we'll have to press forward and get to that amulet, then.  That is a very good idea at this time. I'd really rather not grapple with Death's Hand right now.  No spirit fonts or focus shrines in this hallway. At least we're looking pretty good as far as health, chi and focus go.  We have warriors across the Empire, and other Jade Golems that are not corrupted. You have diminished us, but it is not a mortal wound. Death's Hand will be here soon. You will be my gift to him, drawn as you were by your precious amulet. Live or die, the will of the Emperor be done! So, now we're fighting Grand Inquisitor Jia, and she's not exactly a pushover. Hopefully you didn't lose too much health, chi and focus in that fight downstairs. And if you did, hopefully you didn't just save over your only save file (I mean, you should save in different slots anyway, but I'm sure there's someone who didn't), because in that case you may have just made the game borderline unwinnable. Oh, and that dialog from Jia is unskippable, so have fun with that too if you need to attempt this fight several times like I did back in the day.  We have no intention of fighting fair, though. Jia wants a jade golem, so a jade golem she shall receive.  Despite its imposing looks, the jade golem is far from invulnerable in this fight. Jia fights with a sword, and those swings of hers come out quickly so she can do a ton of damage to our lumbering jade beast. You also can't heal while using a transformation style.  That being said... one of our "weak" swings takes off about 25% of Jia's health, so as long as we keep attacking we'll probably win the damage race. Focus mode is a big help here as well.  As usual with transformation styles, the biggest drawback of the Jade Golem style is the chi cost. I put a couple of points into the style to bring it up to the same level as my other transformation styles, but it still has a ravenous appetite for chi and continues to do so for quite some time.  There's the amulet. Finally.  Zu has managed to follow us inside, as well. Doesn't seem like he's going to tell us he's here just yet.  Now we just need to grab the amulet and get the hell out of this dump.  Ah, poo poo. That is not good. That is, in fact, the opposite of good.    We've got the amulet, all right, but Wu has not noticed Death's Hand sneaking up behind her.   Thanks to Zu's warning, she just barely manages to dodge Death's Hand's sword.  But not the kick.   That's one hell of a kick, and Wu is down and out.  Fortunately, Zu still has our back, but we clearly can't withstand the strength of Death's Hand for very long.  I think this is a really cool scene. It's the first time we properly see Death's Hand in action, and he comes across as the loving boogeyman just as he has been built up in dialog throughout the game. I mean, he is obviously just supposed to be Fantasy Chinese Darth Vader, but it still works well.   Zu pushes Wu down the stairwell, just in time to avoid another one of Death's Hand's attacks.   Zu's kick doesn't even faze Death's Hand.   Zu manages to dodge a couple more sword swings, which end up hitting the large pillars next to the walkway.   But even someone as skilled as Zu isn't going to avoid the blade of Death's Hand forever.     Not that he was ever trying to dodge Death's Hand forever. He just needed Death's Hand to take out those two pillars, and that is what happened.     Silk Fox is right. We don't have time to stand here and mourn Zu, because this fortress is about to come down on our heads and getting killed like that would be a terrible way to honor his sacrifice.   Obviously, every Lotus Assassin that is still standing is now hostile to us, so we're going to have to fight our way through. We also got a couple of crappy gems and a Viper scroll (which we can't use because the other Viper scrolls we had were destroyed when we learned Iron Palm) for some reason, but who cares.  The camera is doing a fantastic job once again.  Eventually, we manage to defeat the camera (and the Keeper of the Archive, good riddance) and get to the Hall of Induction.  The Hall has seen better days.   We have to fight a bunch more clay golems, but they're not much of a threat at this point and we just need to keep moving forward.  Eventually, we battle our way through the rubble and reach the exit, leaving the fortress behind for good.  The path crumbles behind us, so there's no going back even if we wanted to. Not that we're finished with these jerks quite yet, of course. Did you expect we wouldn't be fighting the Watcher at some point?   So, this fight. gently caress this fight sideways. The Watcher uses Tempest and keeps spamming the area attack, which... sure, okay, we can handle that without too many issues. That's not why this fight is bullshit.  This fight is bullshit because while the Watcher keeps us locked in place by spamming Tempest, his goons spam Ice Shard to keep us stunlocked.   They just KEEP DOING IT. Watch the video and you'll see just how infuriating this is. There is absolutely nothing I can do to stop these assholes from spamming this crap until their AI decides to do something else for a change.  Eventually they let me do something, by which point almost all of my chi is gone because I had to spend all my time healing.  Spreading these idiots out might be a decent plan. Or maybe not, but that's what I end up doing here anyway.  I wish I had brought Dawn Star for that sweet, sweet chi recovery, but as it is we have to use Spirit Thief instead.  Go to so much hell, Watcher. In hindsight, we probably could've just steamrolled these morons with the Jade Golem style since none of them had weapons, but whatever.   In case you don't recognize the place, we're in the Unfinished Tomb we visited earlier. The last time we were here, we saw the door at the back but couldn't access it, and that was of course the door we used to exit the fortress.    The Necropolis is now absolutely crawling with Lost Spirits (more so than usual) and mummies, but they're nothing we haven't seen before and getting out of the city of the dead isn't a huge ordeal.  Thankfully, the game teleports us right to the campsite so we don't need to do any more backtracking.    My dear little Dawn Star. I'm a princess. People bow to me. That is the way things are. Of course, many things are not as I thought they were, if what we learned from Jia is true.  By the Water Dragon's mercy, they are enslaved until they die... and then trapped within the golems. I have seen the proof... but how can it be true? He has taken our master, killed our friends. What if assaulting the Water Dragon is true, too? He must be stopped. No! I will not believe it! We have to go to the palace and give him the chance to explain. This applies to a lot of things we do, to be honest.   Yeah, we should probably bring that up at this point.  Now you are really stepping beyond the realm of reason. Why would Zu know this? Might as well tell the whole story while we're at it.  Does this change anything? We can tell Master Li and give him hope, but we must rescue him first. Then let's quit talking and go to the palace! I will lead the way. We must be on our guard. Is there another way to reach the palace? The princess doesn't want to see the danger.I wish these two could stop fighting with each other one of these days. It's not really helping anything.  Everyone, be quiet! Are you ready to go? If you have business left in the Imperial City, you'd better finish it. I won't be leaving the palace without an answer.If you haven't finished all the sidequests in the city by now, it's a good idea to do that before you tell Silk Fox you're ready to go to the palace and end chapter 3. After this chapter, the plot kicks into high gear and never really stops for the rest of the game.  We're done here, of course, but before we go we should see if there's any way we can make Silk Fox feel a bit better.  We still have much to talk about, but it will have to wait. I must speak to my father. Forgive me. Let's go to the palace now. Good. My father has much to answer for. I know he will explain everything. And if Death's Hand is there... I'll have some words for him, as well. Kang! Those flags that I gave you, the ones with the royal seals? Mount them on your pile of scrap and let's go! I don't want to waste any more time!  *shakes head* Silk Fox really isn't in the mood for anyone's bullshit right now, even Lord Lao's.  I'm not fighting any more enemy ships anytime soon.    And that wraps up chapter 3. Sorry about the long update, but I really wanted to finish the chapter here. Next time, we'll find out what's going on with the Emperor and hopefully get a satisfactory explanation for this whole "slaughtering slaves en masse to create a golem army" thing, and while we're at it we'll try to rescue Master Li as well. ------ DMorbid fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Aug 18, 2017 |
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Aug 14, 2017 01:51
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I have unfond memories of that stunlocking bullshit to round out the chapter, too. If you know it's coming and you're quick enough you can usually get a kill in before it begins, which helps a lot, but sometimes the game just decides nah, you're not moving. A few other things. For anyone wondering if Doc is overselling Jade Golem style: No. It literally invalidates every other transform we've seen in the game so far by a huge margin. It's not literal invincibility but it is astonishing damage output while your chi lasts. Also I didn't mind the Lao reveal. Kang is a side character; he gets about a side character's worth of development. More than most, honestly. It sort of ties his story up with a bow and ends it, that's okay with me. The game, well, the game doesn't really have time for side stories right about now, so it's good timing in that sense as well. Psion fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Aug 14, 2017 |
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Aug 14, 2017 02:09
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