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JustJeff88 posted:One would think that a spell called 'Dragon's Breath' would involve fire in some form, but what do I know? https://vga256.com/krondor/riddtest.html This one is a list of the riddles and their answers, if that's what you're thinking. Otherwise the "map" section shows all of the chests and their solution words in a given zone when you zoom in.
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Oct 28, 2021 09:38
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Xerophyte posted:Your colors are also different from the screenshots I could find on mobygames and elsewhere. I have no idea why that is. If this is the GOG version I suspect it may be doing something weird, since the screenshots on GOG.com seem to likewise be all squashed and saturated. Which video output type you're using in DOSBox can affect this. With "output=overlay", there is a loss of color fidelity, as the conversion from RGB colour space to YUV colour space is lossy.
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Nov 3, 2021 03:06
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Update 18: The Spider and the Sidequest, Part 1 I was gonna start off by saying that this update was gonna be a bit different because it was going to be concerned almost purely with cleaning up new chapter 3 sidequest content and a small amount of chapter 2 sidequest content that I missed(but which is still available in chapter 3), but I realized that was just gonna make this update like... basically every update so far(also despite spending about two hours doing this I still missed some side content, but I'll write that up when I get to where I missed it).  When we last left off, the party had just travelled to Romney, where they expected that Bas-Tyra's soldiers would have some cool clues for them, but whoopsey-doodle, turns out they all happened to get super-murdered, which is a drat shame. Guess the crew now has to pick up where the soldiers left off. First thing they do is to loot the soldiers' corpses for any clues, which is where they come up with the titular Spider and Spyglass. There they are, in the inventory, and they're both kind of handy items! The spider is an infinite-use item that can poison any sword or non-burning, non-enchanted quarrel(actually part of another infinite money trick which involves buying normal quarrels at rock bottom prices, poisoning them so they're worth more and selling them at a store with higher prices. since it's not available till chapter 3, though, which is rather late to break the game, I'm not a big fan of it). Any time you're not applying another modifier to the party's swords, you might as well poison them with the spider. The spyglass, meanwhile, is an infinite-use item that casts Eyes of Ishap any time its used, thus revealing all containers in the party's general area, which includes dirt mounds, corpses or just about anything, really, thus completely obviating the need for any other "see things"-spell and being super handy if you don't already know this game like the inside of your own shoes or have a guide. In any case, that score aside, we actually have a few things to do in Romney before turning out to the rest of the world, first off... we should poke our heads into the local shop.   Note that Grey Tower Plate. It cost 750 gold back in Chapter 2, meaning it's shot up to 600% of its initial price, this is because the Guild War in Romney has finally kicked into full gear and now everything costs assloads here, as they will until we complete a sidequest. The smart money, though, is really on never completing it so you have a town where you can sell gems and equipment at insane markups. Books, staves and magic items are about the only things they won't buy, which means they'll still buy just about anything that's actually worth a lot of money. At this stage, it's not worth abusing since this party is already well set for the rest of the game, but it would be worth it to, say, keep any gems and rubies you find until Chapter 3. Additionally, if we poke our heads inside the room where the Duke is trying to bust heads until everyone stops fighting now... BaK posted:They were shown into a room. Completing this quest will reset Romney's prices to normal, which would be great if it was like... a supply hub you needed to revisit for the rest of the game, or if it had rare gear but... no, it's pretty much entirely shooting yourself in the foot to do so. It does score the party 300 gold and a key that opens a whole... 1 wells(no, really) and 2 doors in the game if they complete the quest. Once that quest's picked up, maybe we should visit the tavern for clues! I mean, just in case this team of exceptional geniuses missed something while rifling through dead people's pockets.   I will concede that for all humans' shortcomings, you really have some efficient janitors.Place cleaned up surprisingly quickly and nicely for having been the location of 30-something grisly axe murders. Anyway, it already has all the usual tavern functions, the murders didn't even keep the loving gamblers away or the patrons who tip you for playing the lute, and the kid in the foreground can be interrogated about what happened.  Why should we want to do that? Because when I broke things, master always told me that someone would come and take me away someplace bad and someplace dark where they would never feed me and I'd never see the light of day. I knew when all those people got killed in here that someone would come for me and take me to the bad place. You don't have anything to be afraid of, Jason. You didn't kill those men. It's not your fault. Master says anybody that stays under our roof is our respont...respono...responsibility and I was here when they were killed! That means it was my fault. Then you saw the murders? No, but they come in and told me to leave or they'd hurt me real bad. They didn't tell me what they were going to do. What did the men who told you to leave look like? They were big and they had birds on their chests, like eagles. And they smelled funny, like sometimes the sailors from Kesh smell like. Like flowers... Hawks on their chests. That at least confirms the Nighthawks' involvement... Do you know any thing about a spider made of silver or a brass spyglass that one of the men that were killed might have carried? It's very important. Think hard... I...I don't know anything about the spider, but I remember that one of the King's Men had a brass tube with little pieces of glass in the ends of it and I could see things that were far away with it. He said that he and one of the other men had brought it back from Silden. Did he say where in Silden he got it? No...just in Silden. Can you think of anything else? Did anyone else come into the Black Sheep before the murderers? A carrying man brought in some wine from the Upside Down Keg for the soldiers. Told me it was sent special, but besides that, I can't think of anything. Thanks, Jason. We may be back later to ask you more questions, so don't go anywhere.Once again I want to point out that the Nighthawks are so drat bad at concealing themselves that even a literal child spots their huge "yo we're assassin mans"-pendants. Oh, and if we come here in chapter 1, Locklear can talk to Jason, too, which, uh, is certainly a conversation. BaK posted:Locklear motioned to the figure across the room. Sadly there's no sidequest where Locklear punches Jason's "employer" until he's vomiting up his own internal organs. Because goddamn, that's pretty grim. At least we get confirmation that Locklear's not a completely bad sort as he seems to at least give a gently caress that Jason is being abused. That's about it for Romney content, though. Jason has provided us with two clues, firstly that they received a suspicious shipment of booze from Sloop and that our fancy new items might have come from Silden. These are valid clues, and the party does pursue them in the book where they pay off slightly more(but only very slightly more) than in the game, but it's entirely possible to skip over them if you're doing some sort of speedrun and just head straight north to the Prank's Stone/Kenting Rush/Cavall Keep area that we've so far mostly been avoiding.   Now, we barely get out of the gate before we run into our first encounter, because chapter 3 is the first big repopulation of the main world map area that showers almost every single zone with new enemies, often...  Nighthawks! Predictably two single Nighthawks go down like chumps, but I wanted to show that there were a few more popping up while we head down to Sloop to check out the brewery that maybe had something to do with all the dead soldiers at the end of Chapter 2.    While we're here we can also harass Mitchell Waylander, but let's hit up the brewery first. BaK posted:James could smell alcohol. If Nighthawks were already delivering the booze, why not just fill it with actual poison? Why fill it with something that makes them drunk and THEN kill them physically risking further discovery? And why the gently caress would this brewery just go along with it? In the book, they work this a bit differently and the Nighthawks send along their own tarweed-filled booze instead. Though, again, why not just poison it.Now, let's go harass Mitchel Waylander. He's not here in chapters 1 or 2 because he's busy hanging around Romney, but in this case we can interact with his house which gets us jumped by several Nighthawks(who have a poor time of it), if we then try to interact with his house again... BaK posted:James knocked cautiously on the door.  I don't know who sent you, but I'm very thankful for your help. Let's just say that anyone on the business end of a Nighthawk sword is of interest to me these days. It's not like them to send multiple assassins unless the target is considered a danger to the guild. But I'm a merchant! I don't know anything about the Guild of Assassins! You wouldn't necessarily have to know anything about them. You might have witnessed something they preferred unseen, perhaps they think you've wronged them in some way. Where were you the night the King's men from Bas-Tyra regiment were assassinated? What?! I hadn't heard... Gods, they were good men! If it hadn't been for them, we never would have broken the Riverpullers' siege at Romney. How did they die? Nighthawks set up on them in the Black Sheep Tavern. Killed every last man. The only thing I found strange was the fact there were few signs of resistance. I was told by the boy who tends the bar a few casks of Keshian Ale were delivered the night before, but the Bas-Tyra men are very disciplined men. Does it seem reasonable to you a detachment of men trailing the Nighthawks would get drunk in the town where they suspect the Guild of Assassins have their headquarters? It does sound a bit odd. It sounded odd to me as well, so I decided the ale had been tainted in some way. I thought if I found the man who sent the ale, I might be on the trail of the Nighthawks. Then I visited the tavern here in town and I discovered something very disturbing. The arrangements for the ale delivery were made here and the keeper was instructed to add a significant amount of tarweed to the mixture, a mixture that while not poisonous, induces the drinker to become excessively thirsty, ensuring that he will continue to drink until quite drunk. But that was not the shocking information. You see, it seems the local chief reeve of a prestigious guild arranged for the delivery of the Ale...Mitchel Waylander! I never made that order! I would have been in Romney when the arrangement was made. I couldn't have made that order! I realize that as well. The Nighthawks have gone to extreme trouble to implicate you and that tells me they want revenge for something. The men that were sent here to kill you would undoubtedly have planted the final evidence on your corpse. So, what could you have done to them? Truly, I don't know... Do you know anything about a silver spider or a brass spyglass? A brass spyglass? Oh dear gods! But that man couldn't have been a Nighthawk... He was so, so regal looking... What did you do to this man? Is the spyglass involved? There is a place north of Romney known as Prank's Stone. When people approach it, they often discover that items on their person disappear. A business partner and I discovered where the disappeared items go to and we sell the items we find. Any way, one night I was drinking in the town of the same name and I saw this man who had a very marvelous brass spyglass. My guild was having difficulties at the time and I was low on cash so I conspired to achieve the spyglass for my own. I had noticed the attention he was paying to a rather fetching barmaid and I arranged that a note was sent to his table telling him to meet her near the Prank's Stone. The spyglass became ours... If the man you snatched the spyglass from learned what happened, I could see how he would want revenge. Where did you sell it? I don't sell the items. My partner does and we split the profits. I don't know anything about him other than the fact that he is a native of Silden. We decided early on that we would share only our booty so that if one of us was caught, the other would be safe. Then it seems we have business in Silden. Lay low. It may be the only thing that keeps you alive, Mitchel. The Nighthawks are not men that should be angered.Now this exchange is extremely different in the book. Similarly, the party is looking for Mitchell and Nighthawks are staking out his house when they arrive, but it turns out that he actually is working with them, or was. Someone came to him with the idea of instigating the guild war in Romney, to profit off it, and Mitchell, being a greedy gently caress, went along with it. By the time he realized they were planning to have several people killed, not just drive up prices and knock over his competitors, it was too late to back out. Thankfully, unlike a lot of fictional characters, book-Mitchell is smart enough to turn himself in rather than dig himself a deeper hole or try to fight two armed men and a wizard. I would also like to point out that here, after barely ten minutes of actual gameplay time, I have already produced a post which is at over 20k characters of text. In any case, this is our first clue pointing northwards, towards Prank's Stone, but we've still got clues to investigate in Silden, so we're gonna keep heading south. We're skipping Arlie Steelsoul's residence until the end of the update, mostly because I misunderstood the triggers needed for ending the Guild War in Romney and thought I could still profit off it later, but whatever, the party's already loaded.    Along the way are some more Nighthawk ambushes, but as they're all two or three Nighthawks, they're mostly irrelevant, and I also clear out the remaining Rusalki fights for the Temple of Eortis quest, which are trivialized by applying Skin of the Dragon to James and Gorath, then powering them up with Steelfire casts so they can clear out all the ghosts before the defensive buffs expire. I agree with the people who prefer Skin of the Dragon as probably the most powerful option in most fights, but it's still not my favourite strat. Sadly, returning to the Temple of Eortis at this point gets barely a line of text acknowledging what the party did. Back in Silden, we now have a reason to go to the tavern.  BaK posted:James motioned to the figure across the room. As the keeper of a tavern, I imagine you get quite a bit of traffic through here, lots of people wanting to buy or sell items that were - shall we say - indiscriminately acquired? Who would I speak to if my interests lay in that direction? I need to find out about the possible purchase of two very special items that might have been picked up here in Silden. I'm looking for whoever might have sold them. If an item is sold in Silden then I am the only man that you should speak to. Any other transactions are done the Silden way. Very well, Joftaz. I need to find out what you may know about either a brass spyglass or a silver spider. I would be willing pay in gold. You will pay, most undoubtedly for that information, but I am not interested in your Kingdom coins. If it were gold I could come up with the sum I want myself. No, what I require is the assistance of a thief. Why do you think I would be of any help? I live in a city of thieves. I have spent my life knowing how to sense them and I know most assuredly that you have a thief's instincts. This is the bargain. I will tell you about the silver spiders that I sell on occasion, and you will find a bag of powder that was stolen by the Crawler. It has most likely been taken to his house near here. The house is locked and I suspect that the pouch will be hidden away in a chest or cabinet or such. Any thief could do that for you. Why would we be especially qualified for this? Because all the thieves in this place - they all are the hands and eyes of the Crawler. To be working for me, that would be death for them. Why? What is it that is in this powder bag? I have made my offer. The information for the pouch. Do we have a deal?[YES] My bump of trouble is telling me that I shouldn't be agreeing to this, but you have a deal, Joftaz. I'll get your pouch. A straight exchange, the information for the item. Consider it a deal then. I will wait for you here in the Anchorhead until you return with the item. We will be back. Do not leave this place.Now, the door on the main Silden screen that previously produced a "nothing to do or see here!"-message, allows the party to interact with it instead... BaK posted:Gorath watched the docks. The "powder" item produced by this quest is a stack of eight of the paralysis powder items that Owyn tosses in the face of overly inquisitive enemy melee fighters, but the smart move is to split the stack so you only leave one of them with James and he can just hand that over, since it's enough to trigger the completion. In the books it is, of course, not magic powder, but instead a large amount of uncut drugs. So, the honorable seigneur from Krondor returns. Have you brought along the pouch I asked you for? It seems that today Banath has smiled on the both of us. I have what you want, and you apparently know what I need to know. The pouch in exchange for the story. That was the deal. I want to hear a story about a silver spider. Heh. Yes, Banath has gifted you most certainly. I wouldn't have thought anyone wily enough to defeat the Crawler, but if the Happy Prankster has given you the knack then I'll happily help you as best I can. Now - the silver spider is a rare item so I remember when I get one and am most assuredly pleased when I can turn a profit from one. They are heartily sought here in the Kingdom. It's been several months since last I sold one. Can you describe the last man who bought one? Oh, aye, I can describe him. Stoop backed, crass, hard bartering fellow. He was wearing a black cloak and a bird - an eagle - was blazed across his chest. You mean a hawk? A golden hawk? I have lived the greater part of my days here in Silden. It might have been a hawk or it could have been a gull. All I know is that I lost a great deal that day between he and the trader named Abuk who brought in some sailor's trinkets he appropriated from Prank's Stone. As for the man with the bird on his chest, the last I heard of him he was asking to purchase a ticket on a ship called the Mocker's Folly bound for Krondor. A Nighthawk bound for Krondor? Where could I find the ship's captain? Krondor, I suspect, though I don't see why that would be important to you. I will decide what is important or unimportant. Now, what about the brass spyglass? Would you know anything about that? As I told you before, sailor's trinkets are common here in Silden. If it is a special glass you covet I would urge you to seek out the trader, Abuk. I could hope only to make five, perhaps ten gold sovereigns from such an item so I decided they were not really worth my time bothering with them. You may find that bothering with silver spiders has cost you more than imagined, Joftaz. If I find that any of the Prince's family have died of poisoning when I return there, you'll have a great deal more to worry about than turning a profit.So, a couple of notes here, now that Joftaz has pointed us towards Abuk(canonically this is the first time the party meets Abuk, in the book). Firstly, in the books, it's less about recovering stolen property, and instead that Joftaz wants James to steal a ton of uncut drugs from two of the Crawler's agents, after which Joftaz then spreads word that the agents themselves sold it for their own profits(rather than the Crawler's profits), so the Crawler will spark an internal war trying to punish them for it. Secondly... someone forgot to look at a map when writing this, you obviously cannot take a ship from Silden to Krondor, as the Kingdom and Bitter seas do not connect(except possibly on a very long east-around-the-world trip). The game attempting to point you towards Krondor with that tip is also a false lead as there is nothing plot-related to do in Krondor at this point. Also, we can now listen to a few extra dialogues from the patrons at Joftaz' tavern. BaK posted:The man scarcely acknowledged them. The only things of note for these fluff conversations is that the first one gets us a small extra stock of Fadamor's Formula and that rumours of the Upright Man's demise don't actually start spreading until the interstitial book between Krondor: The Betrayal and Return to Krondor, Krondor: The Assassins, where it's a minor plot point. Still, this makes a good reason to head west of Silden and interrogate Abuk.   BaK posted:They were not alone.  It appears that you are master of more than locks. What do you know of the Prank's Stone north of Romney? A tongue wags loose in Silden. I see my enterprises may be silenced. I am interested only in a brass spyglass that you sold to Joftaz in Silden. Tell me about it and I will choose to forget about any other thefts you may have participated in. How did you come by it? A year and twenty ago, I bought a box in Silden from a trader. He told me it would bring me great fortune, but I wished only for a strong chest to hold my things and I told him that he would be a fool to sell such a box. We haggled and at last I purchased it for ten sovereigns, a price that the seller seemed positively glad to receive. I too was pleased with the exchange, but began to wonder at the nature of what I had purchased. The chest was possessed of cajunlo. Cajunlo? What does that mean? It was a box of trickery, of magic. Objects would appear in the box, things that I had not placed there. Then one day I met a man from Romney and he told me of the true nature of my chest. When things were lost in a certain place, they came to my box and we could sell those items. We decided of course that we would never tell each other more about ourselves so our business would be safe should one of us fall into harm. And you two would split the profits of whatever appeared in the box. I take it that the brass spyglass was one of the items he arranged for you to find? It was one of many things. The day you got the spyglass, did anything else appear in your box? A few things. I keep the things whose value I do not know, so those items which arrived with the spyglass are still there as well. I believe there was a note whose contents I do not remember. Where was this box? Is it close-by? It lies behind a mountain with two other boxes near Silden and is locked with a special lock. You will have to spell out Thorn so that it may be opened. If you do not understand of what I speak, you shall when you find the box. Thorn? We will remember your kindness. Thank you.Despite this description, anything you lose to Prank's Stone won't pop up in the THORN wordchest. This entire part is also, mind you, absent from the novel. In the novel the team just interrogates Abuk about who he sold the items to and he sends them north to Kenting Rush and Cavall Keep. Now, that would be the reasonable place to head, as it's where our remaining clues, scant as they are, are pointing... but that would be boring, wouldn't it? Let's go see what's happening in the Dimwood. May as well, it seems like Delekhan is happy to wait on whatever detours we take. Your kind are pretty patient, I'll grant you that. Murmandamus happily gave us almost an extra year of grace so he wouldn't just overrun us completely when he invaded.   Surprisingly, the entire section of road west from Silden through Sethanon and to the southernmost entrance to the Dimwood hasn't been repopulated with any encounters at all, unless they were all off-road or I managed to stealth around them, and the party arrives there with minimal hassle aside from running into Lyton's tax men. They get to live, this time.   The Dimwood itself, though, has absolutely gotten repopulated. It's gotten repopulated with a ton of encounters, some of them potentially quite nasty, and with quite a few of them clustered around the entrances so they're unavoidable.  The first one here is no big deal, just a single Witch Hag and two Moredhel Warriors. Since she knows both Skin of the Dragon and Grief of 1000 Nights, she could be a potential threat, but I've so far yet to see an enemy actually cast Skin of the Dragon, so fingers crossed they never will. Owyn tackles her with a Rusalki and she never gets a chance to get off any spells, but she could have easily caused us a good deal of trouble.    Of course, ten paces ahead there's another drat encounter.  This one is somewhat more tricky, in part because you can easily miss that there's a drat Witch Hag hidden behind the tree there at the back of the battlefield. Like her colleague down south she also knows Skin of the Dragon, but instead of Grief she has Fetters of Rime, which is frankly just as bad except that it might miss its target. A rusalki chases the witch hag forwards so that Gorath and James can reach her, while her bodyguards whip out the crossbows and start taking pot shots at the party, though thankfully with terrible accuracy. Crossbow enemies have been somewhat of a novelty so far, generally less annoying than melee or casters, but as the game goes on, more and more of them start bringing poisoned quarrels which are small issues in battles but require healing outside of battles(there are about 110 enemy poisoned quarrel archers in total, but some either have no crossbows or no crossbow skill, probably due to oversights) as well as better crossbows and quarrels that can actually hand out a considerable amount of pain per shot.  In any case, the moredhel go down without too much trouble, though the party does pick up a few dents and scratches. With the local moredhel resting in pieces, we can go poke around something in the south of Dimwood that only activates here in Chapter 3.    BaK posted:A wrinkled hand pulled open the door. Apparently some magical dogshit happened to poor Craig here, you can find one of his friends... somewhere(I later discover that it's Squire Phillip, who's hanging around the western section of the Dimwood in Chapter 3), I forget where exactly, who will corroborate Craig's story in case you suspect it's yet another schizophrenic resident of Midkemia sending you on a wild goose chase.     I feel a bit left out here, why did you two get so worked up when that guy mentioned "a man with a snake-like face"? Pantathians were at the second Murmandamus' side when he led us to ruin at Sethanon, I've no doubt their meddling was why he was able to pull it off. Yes, exactly, what Gorath said and for no other reasons whatsoever.It's for some reason a state secret that no one ever lets Gorath in on that the second Murmandamus was, in fact, a shapeshifted Pantathian. Other stuff like said Pantathian being a servant of the post-Chaos Wars remnant of the Valheru, known to the Tsurani as the Enemy, could make sense to hide. But why hide that Murmandamus 2: Escape to Africa wasn't a Moredhel? Widespread knowledge of that could've helped shortcircuit Delekhan's entire plot of claiming Murmy 2 was still alive. The Pantathians are... yet another of Feist's beloved non-human species who are always evil, though I guess they have slightly more of a reason than so many others, being controlled by an insane Theocracy convinced that their creator, the Valheru Alma-Lodaka, will uplift them to godhood if they somehow manage to bring her back. Apparently in the later novels, the party finds a splinter faction of good snakemen that have an evolved society that the protagonists accidentally completely annihilate. Then, after discovering that Pantathians aren't doomed to pure evil, the protagonists proceed to genocide the remaining Pantathians in the world, complete with heading to their cities and destroying all their creches and eggs after eliminating their military forces. Cool.    Once you're in the isolated southeastern part of the Dimwood, it's super easy to gently caress yourself over by accident if you don't know what you're looking for. See, an invisible line has been drawn across the entire section, which, if you cross it...  There is something...very strange...about this place. For a moment I felt as though a...great force was reaching up through the ground and sapping my strength. I felt something as well. It must be the strange force that Craig spoke of when we spoke to him. Perhaps we should turn back until we can discover the cause.And then if we keep going...  This hits the party with 4% of the Sick condition which will slowly get worse and drain health at a rather rapid clip, in addition, bumping into trigger lines for it again will dump more of the condition on the party. You can clear it away with Healing Herbs, but if you hit the trigger too many times, it may be more than just a single serving of herbs can handle, and it'll be hurting your HP all the while. This means that I promptly head for the encounter that will stop this trigger from killing the party, but I completely miss said encounter while hurrying through the woods and bungle into it as an ambush instead...     Welcome to Pantathians which are absolutely the toughest single enemy faced by the party so far. Like Moredhel Mages and Shades, they're Fighter/Mages, i.e. they actually carry weapons and thus aren't completely nerfed just by walking up to them and glaring at them. Secondly, they have almost double the total HP pool of any given moredhel in the game. Lastly, oof, these three fuckers have some nasty spell lists. Just listing the ones that could give me a headache...
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Nov 3, 2021 21:48
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Update 19: The Spider and the Sidequest, Part 2 Pantathian 1: Despair Thy Eyes, Grief of 1000 Nights, Mind Melt Pantathian 2: Flamecast, Skyfire, Grief of 1000 Nights, Mind Melt Pantathian 3: Despair Thy Eyes, Skyfire, Unfortunate Flux, Fetters of Rime Which means that if two of them decided to start the fight with Grief and the last landed a cast of Fetters, they could shut down the entire party in one round and instantly game-over me. Thankfully it's not that bad. Instead...    Gorath eats a Flux and a Mind Melt(with the Flux rolling mid/low) that slices off about 75% of his total health before the party gets any turns, giving him a chance to chug a dozen vials of restoratives before the next barrage hits. Thankfully, the positioning of the Pantathians means that James can block two of them from casting again, and Owyn can block off the third with a Rusalki.  Luckily on retreat they don't split up and make it difficult to keep them from casting, but instead cluster up in one nice big pile where one single mobile character can ruin their day. It seems like enemy casters, even if they're melee-capable, will usually prioritize moving away so they're free to cast. Shades seem to be the only exception from this so far, though possibly that may be because the game parses their "spell" differently from "real" spellcasting.   From there on, it's just a matter of whittling them down. One Pantathian escapes because James is an incompetent clutz and I'm already missing Locklear, but that's alright since none of them care carrying an important loot, the big deal is finding them and killing them as part of disabling the "gently caress you"-field they've inexplicably erected in this corner of the Dimwood. Before we leave, though, a new chest has spawned in that we gotta poke at.   We can't leave Old Man Craig without his ironjaw traps after all, which seem to be... designed after catapults... despite looking like crossbows? Whatever. Presumably it kills animals good. In any case, having killed the Pantathians, we get a new chunk of text on heading back to the main section of the Dimwood.   What do you think the Pantathians were after, Owyn? Do you think they were rooting around looking for something? With the Pantathians, who can tell? No one in the Kingdom knows exactly what they want, but they seem to get mixed up in nearly everything that's got a bad ending. My guess is that they were trying to channel the strength they were stealing into something else. Maybe they needed power for a spell. I am none to comfortable with the thought of that. I felt their powers when we entered the area, though I didn't know what it was I perceived. At least we have come out of there none the worse for the wear. I imagine that Craig is beyond help. It is a good thing we didn't remain a month, as he did. Well, I don't know about you, but I feel almost normal again. I for one am glad the whole affair is over.A noteworthy part is that this also cures any remaining Sick status, so you don't have to hurry for a temple if you're out of herbal healing packs or restoratives. Now to hop it back to Craig...     There's a small encounter with some moredhel and quegans on the way, but they just get run over by the party without offering any real opposition. As for Craig... BaK posted:James knocked on the door and waited for a reply. So he dropped us a ring that works like the Weedwalkers and the Amulet of the Upright Man in offering a permanent stat bonus while carried, in this case a +15% to Scouting, making the party a lot harder to ambush. What isn't pointed out is that this also opens a store in the north of the Dimwood, the Fife and Laurel, which is otherwise closed in chapters 1, 2 and the start of chapter 3. Nothing indicates that it being closed is related to the Pantathians being around, or that killing them will open it, so I don't quite get it. Still, if you weren't moving into the Dimwood until Chapter 3, it'd be very nice to have an extra place to offload loot as there's a TON of stuff to pick up in here. Since I missed Squire Phillip, here's his updated dialogue for finding him in the Dimwood in Chapter 3. BaK posted:They were not alone. I'm not sure why they refer to the Fife and Laurel as a tavern when it's actually a store. Strange. Anyway, we miss him because the party cuts across to the north side of the Dimwood in a more or less straight line.     Another two Moredhel ambushes await in the north, one is just a mass of warriors, but the other is similar to the one that kicked the party's rear end on the previous visit.  Once again, the main danger is what the RNG decides the Witch Hags cast. One of them has Grief of 1000 Nights, another has Despair Thy Eyes and the last can cast Skin of the Dragon. Thankfully the party scores ambush, and they never get off a single spell. I feel like if anything, it's probably one of the bigger weaknesses of the game, how easily mages are neutralized if you win initiative, yet conversely how utterly they can annihilate you if they win the initiative. I'm pretty sure that what they cast is entirely RNG, though, like there's no real AI to it, it just picks a spell and then picks a target.   These guys go down a lot easier than the first time around.  Now, you might ask, why are we headed up the northern exit of the Dimwood? That's because there's a new encounter up in Wolfram on the Highcastle/Northwarden road. Also because I realize I may as well stop by Highcastle and upgrade everyone to Elven Greatswords, the best type of sword that can be purchased(and then later blessed down in Malac's Cross on the way back). This happens off-screen since showing a shop window isn't very interesting.    This bit can be done in Chapter 2, too, but I forgot about it. For whatever complaints I might have about BaK, I remain impressed by how much stuff they crammed into locations most players were incredibly unlikely to ever go. In any case, a house in Wolfram that previously had no reaction when interacted with now instead has...   A sudden ambush! It's not an exceptionally tough fight, but could be a surprise to an adventurous chapter 2 party depending on how much off-roading they did previously, mostly notable for three out of the five enemies being crossbow-users.   The odd thing is that, after killing them, they leave no corpses behind. Usually this is only the case for ghosts, "endless" battles(i.e. a "go back you moron"-fight that repeats until you go another way or somehow resolve it) or for one rare case we'll see later this update. Let's see what happens if we interact with the house again... BaK posted:James knocked angrily on the door.  We were very nearly killed by your little pets. Not a very hospitable way to welcome friendly visitors. Never mindin' the fact I didn't invite you! But if'n you got hurt, I wasn't meanin' for innocent folk to gets involved. It's just that the only guests I receive these days come from the Northlands... You have friends in the Northlands? Friends? No, not as such. The visitors I receive are never welcome. Goblins mostly, sent from ole Belly Khan to pinch my spellbooks and formulas. They don't much care for me interfering with 'em, working spells and such for Baron Gabot at Northwarden. I was hopin' these illusions I was makin' would be more effective, but 'parently they ain't worth a gnat's spit. Need to work on 'em more. Let me give you somethin' so you can get yourselves fixed up... That won't be necessary. We're fine. Who said anything 'bout you?! Baron gets wind I went 'round inflicting grief on innocent bystanders, I'll be dicing taters with the kitchen boys or singing duets with old mash brain Tamney. You'll find a pouch of two hundred gold in that little chest over in the corner. If'n you go north from here a bit, you'll run across the Temple of Tith. I imagine they can put you to rights again. But a word of advice, you see buglies in fronts of you in the future, insteada' fightin' em, run the other way!True to his word, Patrus hands us 200 gold and sends us on our way. A pretty nice treasure if we came here at the start of chapter 2. For now, though, we're headed back west, to LaMut, because chapter 2 and 3 also open up new content at the bottom of the Mac Mordain Cadal.    Most of the contents haven't respawned, though, so the entire first level is still empty.   But this way down that was hidden in a corner now actually allows us to descend to the second level rather than warning us about a collapse that we can't make it past.     And the locals down here seem eager to get into a fight with us. I'm not entirely sure why, though.  Considering that they're inviting themselves to a three-on-two smackdown where they get their asses kicked. Their gear is a clear upgrade over most of what we've been fighting against so far, though, while they're still wearing standard Kingdom and Elven armor for the most part, they're now regularly armed with two-handed broadswords and Goblin Stickers as opposed to plain broadswords and Lampreys. We don't need the swords, but now they actually sell for enough money to be worth giving a single pass in terms of repairs and then hauling along to a store.    They're also guarding an INCREDIBLY easy-to-miss chest. Like seriously, that could've used a second pass in terms of making it "pop" from its surroundings a bit more, especially considering the contents.  A loving DIAMOND, among other gems. There are only seven of them in the game, and yet they still account for about 20% of the total amount of gold to be earned from gems across the entire game as well. It's a pretty huge haul, you pretty much have to screw up on purpose to render it not worth a ton. In any case, it's only the first of several cool things the game hides down here.    This second group of rogues skulking around in the shadows may in fact have an even better haul.  This mage is yet another one of the many who could choose to cast Grief of 1000 Nights if he won initiative, however, because of the smaller battlefields underground and, as some mentioned, James having exceptionally good movement stats...  Bonk. He does have weirdly low health, though, only 50 points total, which makes this possible. There are a few outliers like that, enemies that for some reason are set to spawn with almost no, or greater-than-normal health pools. Still, this both evens the odds to a 3v3 fight and takes out the one enemy who could really cause us poo poo.   Now, they're not guarding a chest, and three out of the four of them are just carrying the normal upgraded swords that I'd like to sell, but one of them...  Is carrying a loving suit of dragon plate! There's only one armor that's better but... we may as well not even think about it. James gets this one, and it'll keep him nice and safe. It's also going to get itself a level 3 bless on the way back to Romney, seeing as how it's a piece of gear James will be wearing until the end of the game anyway. We could already buy these at Highcastle, but costing about 1500 gold a piece, they're actually one of the pieces of equipment expensive enough to still represent an obstacle to the party's bloated finances. And if you can believe it, we're still not done getting sweet rewards out of the MMC. There's one more down here yet.    So, there's this pit, which we can swing across to proceed deeper(but there's no reason to, as the only routes further on are blocked until later in the game), also note how while in the other types of dungeons, pits have some sort of high-contrast colouring, but here they're easily stumbled into... anyway, This pit, if we approach it, we get some dialogue!  BaK posted:"Bring us... armor... Grey Tower Plate..." croaked the Kobold. With out another word the creature slipped back into the darkness of the pit. Kobolds are mentioned as worshipping the dragon Rhuagh in Magician: Apprentice, and bringing her offerings of food and such, but I don't believe they're ever actually described in any fashion except as being small underground creatures. What this guy wants from us... we're carrying two suits of Grey Tower Plate already, but we're not handing those over since they're blessed and also preventing Gorath and Owyn from getting stabbed, and besides we can get a trash suit for free and the Kobolds don't care about the quality. We pretend we don't have any and then wander back up to the entrance where Naddur is still hanging around, and now has a couple of new keywords. BaK posted:A shadow approached.  We're at a deed 'alt at the moment. We 'ad a section of mine exposed, nearly the entire length to Elvandar when we found another blasted Brak Nurr hole! It was but a wee tyke and we were able to kill it, but that kept us bent in fits for weeks. Alone, 'e was able to collapse several hundred yards o' rock. We've got to make sure that the mine will 'old up to new 'ammering. Another few months and we should be through to Elvandar.[ARMOR] Any idea where we lay our hands on a suit of Grey Tower plate mail? Ah, blast! I'll have those buggers for dinner if they keep this up... You've been talking to those bloddy kobolds, 'aven't you? What did they tell you they want the armor plate mail for? A treasure for Rhuargh? A ransom for a lost kobold princess? They're having you on and at our expense. Ya canna get Grey Tower Plate this side o' the Cadal! How silly of me. I suppose the dwarves have sworn off wearing armor? Daft as drovers...all you Kingdom folk. We dwarves no more live in these mines than your King Lyam lives in the ocean, despite the fact he rules his kingdom from an island! The great majority of our kin live in villages much the same as yours, the only difference being that most of our villages are on the western side of the Grey Towers. There's not much call for a dwarven suit of armor this side of LaMut... Then there's absolutely no way we could find a dwarven suit of armor? I did na' exactly say that, now did I? Ya might go an look at one of the old battlefields. Sometimes bits from the old wars turn up there.[BATTLE SITES] Owyn, how would you like to see a dwarven battleground? I know I would and I'm sure Naddur's just going to burst if he doesn't tell us how to find one. Right, Naddur? If it's one thing a dwarf ne'er forgets, it's ground where kin 'ave spilt their lifeblood. Aye, I can tell ya where ta find a battleground. Tyr-bloddy-Sog. It's whar last your kin and mine crossed swords again' one another and that was a fiercesome battle what would make the battle for Sethanon look like a day at the fair. If you've truly a mind to this, try the west bank of the river right before crossing towards Tyr-Sog. That's whar you'll 'ave your best luck.[PITS] We were trying to find our way below and we ran across a pit we couldn't even see the bottom of. Is there some way of getting around it? The only way around it is over it. Ya'll need a length o' rope before ya can get over the sink shafts. I'd lend you a length of ours, but if you'll pardon the jest, they're all tied up at the moment.[SARTH] I'm surprised we haven't seen many cases of Quegian Fever up this way. They're having problems with it down at the Abbey of Ishap at Sarth. Ach! If you're going to talk about Bourgalan, call it by its name arights, not by that Keshian bark... Sarth was dwarven? Not the abbey itself, no, but the caverns beneath! It was the greatest emerald mine the dwarves ever delved, the Mac Bourgalan Dok. It ran for miles in every direction and part o' the chambers ran right beneath where the Abbey now stands, though I understand those silly priests 'ave stuffed the tunnels to the rafters with books. We'd still own the caverns now, but we made an arrangement with Mejakaar Blackpatch when he moved into the keep that 'ad been built over one of the entrances... And Mejakaar still owns the mine? Aye, if corpses can be said to own anything. 'e's been dead a long while, even as dwarves reckon time. The mines are the property now of the Brothers of Ishap, though I doubt they know how to get from their vaults to the main passages of the mine.You can also talk with Naddur on the way in, but most of these keywords don't pop until you've talked to the kobolds. Now, this activates a trigger so that if we head up past Tyr-Sog, almost to Yabon, where the bridge crosses a small river, we suddenly get a pop-up prompt... BaK posted:A shiny stone caught Gorath’s eye. Being 45% and repairable, it's actually not a poor upgrade in chapter 2 if you haven't been ranging around too much, and might even be worth keeping for a while rather than handing over to the kobolds(though if you haven't been exploring around too much, what the hell are you doing back at the Mac Mordain Cadal in chapter 2 or 3?), though you should absolutely make sure to go pass them a suit before chapter 3 ends, because when you do... BaK posted:"We would have...Grey Tower Plate," croaked the Kobold. "Have you... of what... we speak? Oh, I absolutely love the places travelling with you takes me, squire. Don't you get sarcastic with me, you invited yourself along. Maybe he's serious, maybe he likes drinking weird stagnant water given to him by kobolds.So the practical effect of that it gives all party members a +5 to both Health and Stamina, increasing their total pool by 10. Since no one in the party has a total pool 120-ish, that's still about a 10% increase for everyone. Now we're done playing in the dirt and we can head back to Romney... after a brief detour past Sarth and Krondor, because of course they've been updated as well. Why wouldn't they be?   They've also been updated with fresh encounters for that explorative player.  For instance, these moredhel brought their dogs out for a walk. I actually can't think of when else you encounter them, but ostensibly there are 41 dogs to murder across the game, so maybe we'll get them all! They are, sadly, pretty boring in combat, they work exactly as a moredhel warrior does, just with different attack stats and less armor, which is a bit of a shame.     The trip is uninteresting until the party gets down to Questor's View where we find something actually new...   I think someone left these Nighthawks out in the sun for a while.Welcome to Black Slayers! I forget how much I've mentioned before, but strength-wise they're generally slightly sturdier Nighthawks. Their only main difference gameplay-wise is that if you leave one of them dead for over eight rounds, they pick themselves up again and return to the fight. If there are any Nighthawks in a fight with Black Slayers, they turn into Black Slayers eight rounds after their own death. Also, I've yet to test it, but as an oddity Nighthawks are supposedly immune to Grief of 1000 Nights but Black Slayers are not.   But if you cast Final Rest, they vanish from the battlefield so they can't get back up again. The downside to this, though...   The body's gone! Now what are we supposed to loot?!Thankfully there's no way to softlock yourself or anything with this, and they generally carrying poor equipment and no exceptional loot. It's worth keeping in mind, though, if you really want to completely maximize your loot.   The rest of the way south is mostly unremarkable except for one last Moredhel surprise north of Krondor...  They catch me unaware and this prick starts off by blinding Gorath with Despair Thy Eyes.  Then when James tries to disentangle Owyn, he gets blasted by a full-power Flamecast. I promptly have him chug Restoratives to undo the damage and then...  The fucker just does it again. Thankfully by that point Gorath starts to shake off his blinding. And the mage is so low on health after multiple casts that Owyn just runs up and flattens him with a single whack from his staff, after which the two paralyzed enemies(courtesy of Owyn's dust pouches) get quietly put down.   Coincidentally at this point we're down by Sarth and we can check in on Brother Marc. He doesn't have any new keywords, but he does have a new intro text.  How could you not know? Every five year old boy in Tiburn could recognize the warning signs. In Tiburn perhaps they could, but as I might point out, this is not Tiburn. I thought the Brothers of Ishap at Sarth were supposed to know everything. Perhaps we will someday, Ishap willing, but let me tell you something. When I was about your age, I discovered a miraculous thing about planting. For years I had kept a journal about the things that I had learned as I had scratched in the dirt. One day - shortly after my acceptance into the Brotherhood of Ishap - I was going over some of my notes and I made a miraculous discovery. It would change the way that farmers grew crops forever! I was so excited that I decided I would share this great secret with the world and I padded off to the nearest town with my journal proudly stuck under my arm. Did the farmers use your technique? Oh, yes...and they had been using it for over three hundred years! My humble tricks were childish speculation next to what the farmers already knew. My point is this: if our brethren in Malac's Cross have something that they consider common knowledge, it might remain uncommon knowledge to the rest of us for years because they assume we should already know it. Like any other portable good, Knowledge must be collected and given out. That, my friends, is the primary reason that Sarth exists.I think it's a pretty interesting little story, I like that kind of scene-setting and it's nice to give a bit of character to Marc as someone who's doing his best and has learned to be humble, and also like... I just kind of enjoy it when a setting doesn't paint medieval farmers and peasants as idiots and rubes, but actually recognizes that farming the land successfully requires a hell of a lot of knowledge if you don't want to starve when winter rolls around.   Because we're in Chapter 3, Krondor's Temple of Astalon has opened up, and we can now enter the palace by the front doors(we cannot, in fact, enter the sewers in this chapter because the Mockers are having an important meeting down there, what I missed was Limm telling us about this and offering to sell us Amulets of the Upright Man for 300 gold a pop, which is about a 40-gold saving over the shops that carry them, so eh). What wisdom do the priests of Astalon have for us? BaK posted:The priest motioned for them to follow. As usual, somewhat useless. We can also go hassle Katala: BaK posted:KATALA: James! What she says feels somewhat silly since Pug pretty much always just ran off to other planets, dimensions or whatever without involving her in the past, except for giving her a chance to pout at him like a sitcom housewife. So, let's haul rear end, we still have Arlie Steelsoul to visit south of Sloop before the update is over. He's the owner of that house with the "KEEP OUT!" signs posted near it.   Because I'm lazy and because I have one last thing to do in Malac's Cross this update, I pay to get teleported there, getting everyone's greatswords and James' new Dragon Plate blessed at the same time. What's up in Malac's Cross is that there's a new lecture to attend! I stop by and buy a ticket from Graves, then pop on in. BaK posted:A man took their ticket at the door. Notably, everyone at Highcastle almost loving died during the invasion from Murmandamus 2, since the baron in charge of the castle refused to believe that any number of Moredhel were coming down from the North, and insisted that he would only listen to Lyam, the King, and not Arutha, the Prince of Krondor. He got killed during the initial skirmishes with the advancing Moredhel, and Arutha and the other protagonists promptly evacuated the place for a forced march south to Sethanon. Once again, it merely boosts our useless Assessment skill but dammit, it's there so we're gonna do it.    This bit is actually mildly interesting because it has two solutions and neither's really telegraphed in any way that I can recall. Let's do the most obvious thing and approach Arlie's front door...  The moment we do, Arlie's manservant shows up and tells us to push off. BaK posted:A man shouted to them. So, at this point we can do three things. Firstly, we can just toss some normal rations in the box. Nothing happens if we do. BaK posted:James closed the lid of the chest. This does not open Arlie's front door for us. Secondly, we can toss some poisoned rations in the box. BaK posted:James closed the lid of the chest. This actually gets us in, as Arlie's impressed by what huge assholes we are and opens the door for us. We can either use "normal" poisoned rations or use Coltari poison to create our own. The third option, though, is to simply... walk up to the back door.   'course, Arlie has some mean home security. Still, it's easy enough to solve. See-through crystal to make the right-most blaster blow up a pole, then solid crystal below it so you can move the see-through crystal further left and blow up ANOTHER pole without getting the crystal-pusher blasted, and you're home free. This impresses Arlie with how ballsy we are.BaK posted:The Reeve met them at the door. You get a "Chapel's Rmur N Wepuns" book for it, which boosts weapon and armorsmithing, no matter which option you pick, and now we can go back and report to the Duke in Romney.     BaK posted:The sergeant at arms halted them. Now the prices in Romney are normalized, which is a shame, but at least we're getting paid. Also someone really brought out the thesaurus for this game. "Enfeoffed"? If you tell me you ever heard this word before, I will call you a liar. Now can we get on with stopping Delekhan and saving your peoples and mine? Oh very well, if we must.Next time: We actually work on the main quest.
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Nov 3, 2021 21:50
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I can appreciate how much care was put into this game. Also, dwarves that don't actually live in mines are 
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Nov 3, 2021 23:43
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Regarding brother marc's story, it reminds me of what it turns out is a fairly common occurrence in archeology. So a bunch of archaeologists are doing work in the SW and keep finding knives in the rafters of these houses. Being archeologists they immediately start coming up with all kinds of religious and cultural reasons for why the knives are up there, only to have a random visiting mother take one look at the situation and say "Oh that's smart, the kids can't reach the knives that way".
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Nov 4, 2021 02:10
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1) It's no surprise that this game has never been released in any other languages. Even putting aside, the word-chests, this would be a rough translation job. 2) I have heard the word 'enfeoffed' before, but never seen it written down. I had it entirely wrong in my head. 3) Apparently I don't the inside of my shoe very well. I once found the USB dongle to my wireless headset in an old trainer.
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Nov 4, 2021 02:27
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Guildenstern Mother posted:Regarding brother marc's story, it reminds me of what it turns out is a fairly common occurrence in archeology. So a bunch of archaeologists are doing work in the SW and keep finding knives in the rafters of these houses. Being archeologists they immediately start coming up with all kinds of religious and cultural reasons for why the knives are up there, only to have a random visiting mother take one look at the situation and say "Oh that's smart, the kids can't reach the knives that way". Reminds me of the story with a weird dodecahedron thing that got dug up at some place and archeologists didn't really have a clue what it was, until someone else unrelated realized it was something used for knitting.
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Nov 4, 2021 03:05
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PurpleXVI posted:Also someone really brought out the thesaurus for this game. "Enfeoffed"? If you tell me you ever heard this word before, I will call you a liar. I've heard it before  (because I've played this game before) but I don't remember it whatsoever and for all I know you just made it up as a trick so who really knows?
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Nov 4, 2021 06:34
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Cooked Auto posted:Reminds me of the story with a weird dodecahedron thing that got dug up at some place and archeologists didn't really have a clue what it was, until someone else unrelated realized it was something used for knitting. These ones? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_dodecahedron Oh hey, sure enough it mentions the knitting, if just as a theory (but it's wikipedia, so even if there were knitting clubs saying 'we use those in modern times!' it'd still say just a theory). I don't think it mentioned that last time I looked at the article.
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Nov 4, 2021 06:50
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idhrendur posted:These ones? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_dodecahedron Yeah, those are the ones I Was thinking off.
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Nov 4, 2021 11:11
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idhrendur posted:These ones? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_dodecahedron Obviously the Romans were just gamers and these were novelty dice.
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Nov 4, 2021 12:06
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Earlier in the LP PurpleXVI asked about good times to have item descriptions up - IMO, whenever you're talking about the party picking up new equipment. Whether it's just purchased armor and weapons or a quest reward. It's kinda weird to spend a while talking about an item but not actually showing it.
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Nov 5, 2021 14:25
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Oh dear and i'll say it first one of those black slayers was carrying a dragon plate and there's no such thing in an rpg as too much min/max purple you did this on purpose drat it! That said you're doing a public service LPing this game I got it and finished it from abandonia and then bought it from gog just to scratch that old itch. Game gud, your effort appreiated.
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Nov 5, 2021 19:20
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Xander77 posted:Earlier in the LP PurpleXVI asked about good times to have item descriptions up - IMO, whenever you're talking about the party picking up new equipment. Whether it's just purchased armor and weapons or a quest reward. It's kinda weird to spend a while talking about an item but not actually showing it. This is fair. Perhaps I should phrase it as thus: Are there any item descriptions people would like to see? Because my main reason NOT to show most item descriptions so far is that there are so loving many, and not all of them are particularly interesting(take the powder bag, for instance, it just goes: ""throw in someone's face, lol" -signed, fantasy mcfantasyman". Like, the average update for an hour of playtime, just from transcribing dialogue and my somewhat-sparse additions runs at just under 100k characters. I'll try to be better about showing off the ones for new items from now on, though, if it feels like something missing.
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Nov 5, 2021 19:46
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Update 20: A Mysterious Mystery, Part 1 Now, having spent like an in-game month collecting small amounts of trivia and large amounts of valuables from around the game world, we're actually back on track, heading north from Romney towards the Prank's Stone/Kenting Rush/Cavall Keep region. While Owyn is from farther east, Tiburn, an area that more or less doesn't in any way feature in the books or games at all, he has family in this region and, outside of gameplay utility, is his main reason to feature in the story. Though it's absolutely possible to resolve the whole thing without getting involved with any of his family drama.   We've already seen the first steps of the trip before, the way up to Prank's Stone, but as of Chapter 3's beginning, it's been repopulated with a few Nighthawks.    Three Nighthawks aren't enough of a speedbump to keep the party from reaching Prank's Stone, however, and this time I remember to take a side trip down the one small path in town to see the titular stone.   I'm 99% sure this is one of the gravestone sprites that they just upsized slightly. Anyway, don't touch this, especially don't touch this if you're running patch 1.01 rather than patch 1.02.   On the way out of town, this time during the stretch between Prank's Stone and the Temple of Banath, we run into yet more Nighthawks, and this time there's actually something interesting about the run-in.  Not so much the fight itself, which is once again another curbstomp. If you play BaK for yourself, I encourage you to powergame slightly less than I have, since it takes a lot of the spice out of most of the fights once you have a well-trained party with full gear and a spellbook full of all the absolutely busted spells rather than just the slightly busted spells.   It's interesting because one of these dead idiots is carrying a new item which is one of the more useful misc. items. It's the snot-green potion there. BaK posted:The fluid within the flask was a clotted mass, tinged a phlegmy color that looked neither healthy nor appealing. And if the scent of the cork was anything similar to the actual aroma of the concoction within, he had no desire to open the bottle. Yet, if he were attacked, it might be useful to distract an otherwise troublesome opponent. It's like a slightly worse version of the powder bags. I think it works on a greater variety of enemies, but rather than paralyzing them, it makes them run away. Which is good because it can save your wizard, but bad because it may prevent you from stripping their corpses of anything even slightly valuable. It's also weird that most of the Nighthawks even at this stage are still wearing tier 1 armor and carrying tier 1 swords, when even a party played entirely "straight" with minimal side trips would likely have upgraded one or two tiers of armor and two or three tiers of swords by this point.    Trolls still get the fork. There is absolutely no reasonable point to hacking my way through their piles of meat.  Shortly past the Temple of Banath, we enter a new area of the game we haven't visited before, a large, basically square, "valley" of sorts, since it's hedged in on all sides by the game's repeating geometric hills. Before we enter that, though, there's an important little turn-off to visit. After all, it's canonical to the book that the party goes here as soon as they pass by.   The magic trap is slightly less canonical.  Don't touch the third crystal, shuffle the first one upwards by one step, the second upwards by two steps and then, and this is the part it took me a couple of moments to figure out, move diagonally between the two crystals. For some reason my brain insisted that it reasonably shouldn't be possible, but it absolutely is. The moment we exit the trap and then take another couple of steps forwards, we get a prompt: BaK posted:Off in the distance, a hiss whispered in Gorath's ears.  I honestly really dig the piece of art for this location, you could well convince me it was a slightly crusty-quality actual photo if I didn't pay too much attention to the water. There are two things to interact with here, one is the usual little hidey-hole on most screens that contains a few objects. In this case a Ring of Prandur(light-spell ring), some Rope and a Ring of the Golden Way(+scouting) ring. BaK posted:On many occasions Owyn had seen similar rings used by visiting magicians to cast spells to lighten darkened rooms. While he couldn't be certain by appearances alone the ring he held was of the same purpose, the reference to the god of light and fire in its name seemed a good indicator. I hope everyone will trust me when I say that the description of the rope isn't very interesting. We can also interact with the waterfall...BaK posted:Water cascaded over them. This is a weird location you might not think matters right away. In the novel, Owyn knows about this place(and it's opened without a drat Sierra-rear end puzzle!) because it leads to tunnels below the old Cavall Keep, and he used to play in them with his cousin Ugyne when he was younger, though her dad, Baron Corvallis, didn't want them to and once whipped the poo poo out of them for doing it. At this point in the story, the party just considers it an interesting novelty and pass on, having no reason to go poking around in old tunnels, especially since the keep over it burned down years ago. Gorath comments that Ugyne and Owyn being allowed to play by themselves would never be allowed by the Moredhel, since their children are much too valuable, but that he guesses it's okay for the humans since they'll just pump out another couple if they slip and break their necks. James disagrees with this characterization of humanity. Like the party, we'll be moving on.   The valley is relatively empty of enemies at the moment as several of its encounters, unusually, only spawn for one chapter at a time. Thus we've already missed a bunch of battles with giant spiders that would otherwise have occurred if we came here in Chapter 2. A single path runs up the center of the valley, but actually following it will make you miss most of the valley's content since, unlike much of the rest of the game, people here haven't been kind enough to store all their secret loot a short spit from the roadside. So we'll be doing the sane and normal thing and running around the outer edge of the valley before bothering to exit it to the north towards Cavall Keep.    This is instantly rewarded with a couple of puzzle chests.  CARDS  PEACE One of these chests contains a big score, both a suit of Grey Tower Plate in decent repair and a Clerical Oilcloth(the booster that provides +100% damage for the next battle, it's great, I love it). BaK posted:Even in its advanced state of deterioration, the dwarven armor was worth two suits of standard plate. Reddish brown scales of rust pocked its ancient surface, but its original making had rendered it so lifelike it appeared not like a corrupted metal breastplate but instead a cancerous human torso. I find it somewhat amusing that apparently the Temple of Fighty God just hands out "gently caress some dudes up"-chemicals to all and sundry once a year. It must be like some sort of gory Combat Christmas. Slightly north of these chests we find...  A barn! It's kind of odd in that, sensibly, most other barns in the game are located near fields and usually always some sort of house for people to live in. This one is an undomesticated barn that gives a unique message if interacted with.  Please, James, what are the odds of that? Don't say I didn't warn you, rear end in a top hat. Unsurprisingly, James knows what he's talking about and we get ambushed by six moredhel warriors. Despite just being warriors, this is actually enough to still make them somewhat of a threat since they can both tie up Owyn AND give the warriors a lot of hit points to chop through. Their main weakness is that they're still carrying low-tier gear, so they can't kill us as fast as we can kill them.  To be on the safe side, I still have Owyn drop Skin of the Dragon and Steelfire on both Gorath and James, which raises Gorath up to the point where he can one-shot these chumps with a single wave of his sword, and the party emerges unscathed except for Owyn needing a rest while the others paw through the carnage for loot.  Oh yeah and one of these pricks was using poisoned crossbow bolts and plunked one into Owyn.  A single hit provides enough poisoning that it takes two uses of a healing herbs(waiting for one to run out, then re-using it), to cure it all. considering that a single stack of herbal remedies is 24 uses, that means just a couple of unlucky battles can tap out your entire supplies and force you to use expensive Restorative potions instead. Getting back to the stack of corpses, though...  One of them contains a note that it's worth our time to pick up and read.  Since it points out that we get the Knight's Piece for entering the cave under the waterfall by poking around a well. The reason this is so useful to learn is that wells are otherwise very unrewarding in this game, there's one that contains a single Moredhel Lamprey sword, the full-heal well down by Lyton and a couple that poison you, but otherwise they mostly just give a "the party drinks some water  "-message and nothing else happens, so the average player might well have assumed they're all worthless and started just bypassing them without a note like this. Nice of the devs to give us a hint in... checks the most out-of-the-way part of this region bar one.   There's also a shop hidden in among the trees which trades in some rare-ish commodities.  Being a magic store, it has a few spells that are hard or impossible to find elsewhere. In particular, it contains Bane of the Black Slayers(not available for a while yet anywhere else) and Unfortunate Flux(our only other place to get it is from a chest in the Dimwood that's trapped and which we couldn't handle when we passed through the first time, also with the trap doing an insane 200 points of damage, we couldn't even have tanked it). Bane suffers a bit from Black Slayers not being immune to Grief, though, I wonder if that was a fat-finger on the dev team's part and it was originally meant to be Black Slayers who were immune and Nighthawks who were susceptible? Bane of the Black Slayers is, as the name indicates, a spell for killing Black Slayers and only affects them, no one else. Doing 5 points of damage per point of stamina/health spent, it has the best return in terms of health-for-damage outside of a max-rolling Unfortunate Flux and two other spells we've yet to find. Unfortunate Flux, as mentioned before, is the only spell that does actual random damage, costing 20 health and doing 30 to 130 damage, with no enemies immune to it.    With the east side of the valley checked, I head to the west side, with the only interesting sight along the way being five stumps arranged in a rough pentagon, mostly notable for containing almost 150 gold pieces in pure coinage, which is a rare find. The west side of the valley is slightly more populated, containing a couple of small houses.  This house is odd in that talking to the owner initiatives a conversation that turns off one of the area's combat encounters. BaK posted:A heavyset man answered James's knock. There's an ambush southwesternish of his house, and if you haven't talked to this guy, you just get set upon by five poorly-armed Rogues. On the other hand, if you've talked to this guy about spiders... BaK posted:An arrow hissed by James's head. Corvallis clearly employs some serious assholes for his guards. What a jackass. Though, I think this was an intentional writing choice meant to work together with what feels like a cut sideplot that I'll point out when we get a bit farther.  This farm is actually a shop selling herbal pouches and restoratives. Their prices aren't particularly notable, but it's a nice little place to resupply and I stocked up the party on restoratives while I was here. That's almost the last thing to do in the valley, there's still another couple of encounters and chests to deal with.    First, the encounter which, happily enough, includes a pair of Black Slayers! This fight is actually reasonably scary for a less powerful party since the Slayers and one of the Nighthawks are chunky enough that if you whiff a bunch of hits and have weaker weapons, some of the dead ones might start standing up again. Let's start by testing out our new spell, though.   Weird-rear end projectile, but it does its job and its job is killing Black Slayers loving dead.  I also test it out this battle and yes, it's not just an error on the Krondor site, Grief really DOES work on the Slayers and not on the normal Nighthawks, bizarre. After this, Owyn drops Steelfire on Gorath and James to speed up the chopping since these guys aren't getting one-shot like the last pack.  They don't carry any items of note, and the instant I step over the corpses, I wander right into a trap. Goddamn.  This screenshot isn't right when the trap is done deployed, because Gorath's fat rear end was blocking the view of the nearest blaster. Simple enough solution, though, diagonally shove the transparent crystal in front of the rightmost blaster, then either walk Gorath past the zap poles or just have James slowly bump the solid crystal out of the way until he can walk past them.  And past the trap is another three chests.  SAWS  SHADOW  WAGON Another one somewhat spoiled by being archaic. Who the hell these days knows there's a part of a wagon called the tongue? These chests mostly contain spare change and some starter gear, which is weird, because even if you took the long way around, or came here as soon as possible, you'd have had a dozen changes to get better stuff than what's here. In any case, we've now tapped out this part of the world map and can continue to Cavall Keep.   Cavall Keep is located in a narrow throat between the southern valley and the northern valley(which contains Kenting Rush), with its entrance on the western side. Before going there, though, it's vital that we cling to the right side of the throat and do some snooping in a pair of chests that some silly person has accidentally left lying around.   WALL One is a moredhel wordlock chest containing a basic broadsword, a light crossbow and some more of the absolutely pointless coltari poison. The other, though, isn't even locked...  drat! Someone left a ton of gold just lying around next to a note. Maybe it's payment for an assassin or some other such clandestine thing? BaK posted:To the High Priest of Kahooli, Oh brother. Right, you're related to this guy, aren't you? Yeah, the count's always been somewhat... high-strung. And he hasn't mellowed out with age. We should absolutely go harass him at his home and see if something funny happens.   The town is oddly named seeing as how there explicitly isn't an actual Cavall Keep any longer, and it's actually kind of a plot point in both the book and the game, and in the book it specifically gets renamed to Cavell Village. In any case, the place has the usual amenities: A shop, an inn, a fountain where we can fish up spare change and a couple of NPC homes we can barge into for the purpose of harassing the residents with questions. The shop is nothing of note, but the inn is actually mildly relevant.  The large fellow in the center is the innkeeper who stands out slightly and has a Talk prompt rather than the usual Innkeeper prompt. BaK posted:Owyn's stomach grumbled.  The three of us are fine, but you sound as if you've had better days. Is something bothering you friend? I don't suppose you would be interested in becoming a skully would you lad? I can't honestly say its on my list of ambitions at the moment, no. Having problems with the help? I wouldn't call it problems so much as disappointments. I don't know what to say to the lad. He's a good enough boy, kind, honest, hard-working. But all in all, he doesn't have the faintest idea which end of the pan's the handle. I've tried for weeks to teach him how to cook so the wife and I could take some time off, but when it comes to cooking he's as dense as the Thunderhell. I don't know what else to do. But enough about me. What can Peter do for you?Since we can come here in chapters 1 and 2, too, Peter has different greeting texts for each chapter. In chapter 1 he just gives a very bland greeting, but in chapter 2 he comments that someone tried to poison Count Corvallis not too long ago. In fact, that's why he has a new skully, the old one got taken out by the poison intended for the Count. [LODGING] Do you have a spare room where we could lay down? I could use a nap. Need a bit of a rest, do you? I wish there was something to do for you, but the only room open in the Duck's Head is the scullery... We wouldn't mind sharing with someone... Truly, I would like to help you, but the rooms I do have to let are full up and I don't think my skully would want to share. The room is only just large enough for him to squeeze into and it's a tight fit as it is. With three of you in there, we'd have to stack you like ricks of wood. I'm sorry...[COUNT CORVALIS] Being right across the street from the Count, you must see him quite a bit. Actually, no. The Count is quiet, likes to keep his own company, mostly. He's not one much for drinking with the commoners. His whole family has been much the same way with the exception of his daughter... Does he have any unusual callers at his house? There aren't many that would visit him. Don't get me wrong, he isn't a bad sort but he can be unpleasant at times. About the only people in and out of there are Ugyne's suitors and the men who work for the Count.[NIGHTHAWKS] Have you ever seen any Nighthawks in the area? Ishap forfend! The Guild of Death? I wouldn't let them into my establishment. When one of my patrons comes into the Inn, he comes in breathing and I like them leaving in the same condition - alive. Please tell me you aren't looking to hire one... Hire one? I...might be. There's someone I've been having problems with. Not another word of it, not another word of it! Whatever grievance you have with this man, I don't want to know. If you're looking for a contact, you'll not find one here. If you're looking for a criminal, try the pub in Prank Stone.There are also a couple of keywords that won't pop up until we've met a later NPC, but I'll note them here for now since I'll probably forget them otherwise. [NEVILLE] Did Ugyne ever tell you how it was that Neville died? I was only seven Midsummers when it happened. That was a terrible, terrible day. I thought Ugyne would come apart then, but she has quite a bit of her mother in her, lot of iron. They dug for four days, poor men. Never were able to recover the little tot's body from all the rubble. I still can't imagine what the Count must have been thinking... Uncle? What did he do? I mean, why did he hire that man Sandau to build the wine cellar for them in the first place? He had a bit of a reputation as a drunk as it was, and three times while he was building it the Count discovered him so capped he couldn't even stand up straight to take his thrashing. The Count should have known the cellar would be unstable... I'm sorry, I'm not being fair. Of course, none of us had a way of knowing. The Count wouldn't have purposely had the cellar built shoddy. Why waste his money?[NAVON] : I hear that the Count isn't too thrilled with one of Ugyne's suitors, fellow by the name of Navon Du Sandau. Know anything about him? It's a pity he doesn't like the man. He's perfectly charming, handsome, mannered if you haven't crossed him, but zealous if he thinks you're doing something wrong to someone. He'd be just the cat's whiskers for Ugyne... Any idea where we could find him? He's a businessman, so it may be difficult to track him down. I think he lives in Kenting Rush. You might try asking in the taverns there.The whole interaction is largely canon to the book, except that in the book, Peter was one of the chefs at the old Keep before it burned down. Now, let's go hassle the guy at the lower leftmost house on the Cavall Keep screen. It has an interaction we only get if we bring along the note to an "Isunatus" from the THORN quest down by Silden, the one that Abuk and Mitchell Waylander were using to rob people via Prank's Stone. BaK posted:A sign creaked in the wind. It's not very handy, but it does add another bit of detail to our mystery person, about whom we now know that he regularly visits Silden, smells funny and is absolutely loaded down with coinage. That done, let's go visit Count Corvallis, who differs somewhat from book to game. BaK posted:Signs of recent renovations were everywhere in evidence within what had, until recently, been the Lord Mayor's domicile. The ceiling, once a low and heavy affair, had now been vaulted in imitation of the great palaces of Krondor and Salador. There was no question the Count was spending a fortune.  We have very grave business to attend to and I must speak to you. Whatever you must do, I am quite certain does not involve me! I don't care what the nature of your business is about, Seigneur, I have other concerns. Is that so? Have you concerns above and beyond the Prince of Krondor? If so, I shall make most eager account of them before him when I return. Go on and spell them out so I may take them down. I'm sure Arutha will be fascinated. The Prince you say? Please understand that there are - things - going on that I am not entirely at liberty to discuss. Suffice to say that I have had something of a disag reement with the priests of the Temple of Kahooli in Kenting Rush over a private matter. So, if you may excuse my outburst, I would be happy to be of service to the Prince. What precisely can I do for you?[THE KEEP] Not that I dislike your new house here, but what happened to the Keep? The townhouse is temporary lodging, nephew. We have no intention of staying in Cavall like common folk. As for the Keep, one night three years ago, an inept chamber maid left a lamp unattended by the tapestries which hung on the west wall. You remember them don't you, Owyn? Centuries old, woven by the finest weavers in all the Kingdom. In seconds they went up in flames and they took the rest of the Keep with it. I remember having heard something about a fire, but I hadn't known the Keep had burned to the ground. It's a miracle that you all survived. Were you able to save anything? We saved ourselves, Owyn, the only things of true value that were within the castle. It is regrettable that the girl who was responsible for the blaze was killed, but Ugyne and I both escaped it hale and hearty. I ordered only the stones of the foundation left behind and the tunnel mouth sealed. We progress forward with our lives. Why go to all that trouble? I really would prefer not to speak of this anymore. It brings me great grief and I would prefer to discuss other matters.[FINANCES] There is a moneylender that lives here in town... Isunatus, yes, I know him well. Strange Quegian fellow. Then you have done business with him recently? Why should it concern you? I have paid my taxes to the king. We wish to borrow money and we want to make certain that we deal with a reputable firm. I thought that if you had done any business with him, made any deposits, then perhaps you might know if he was an honest man. Ah. Suspicion in business is a healthy tactic. To answer you, I have had no need to borrow any funds of late and in fact have made several substantial deposits recently. Some of my better placed investments have provided me with comfortable profits, Banath be praised. Isunatus will do well by you.This one is a bit weird, since in the books several characters point out that only actual thieves would ever praise or swear by Banath. But then again, I suppose you could sort nobles and bankers in that drawer. [NAVON] You have a reputation for disliking Navon du Sandau. Anything you would care to share with us? And what makes you believe I have animosity for Ugyne's suitor? Your petition to Kahooli. You asked for Navon to be - how did you put it - driven mad until he is grey with age? Who did you pay to get that note? Do you have spies in the Temple? Nothing so insidious as that, Count. It seems the petition collectors from the Temple of Kahooli have been slow to do their duties this year. We found your note and your tithe. If you tell us why you wish him driven mad, I'll let this little matter slip my mind. Otherwise, I think I can take up the matter with du Sandau. Do what you will, Seigneur. He already knows my feelings for him. I simply wish him gone from my family and his meddling in our affairs... Day and night, he is at Ugyne, asking her questions about the Keep and Cavall Run. How extensive were the tunnels that ran under the great hall? Have they ever been mapped in any great detail? How much money is in my coffers? What are my schedules? With whom do I meet? His questions are endless... I lost a wife in that infernal Keep and I wish the matter put to rest. I never wish to hear another question again about it! Can you understand that, Seigneur? He brings up memories and feelings I wish to leave buried...Once again, there's a bit of dialogue from him that we won't get until we set off a later trigger... [NIGHTHAWKS] I want a direct answer from you Count. Do you have any association with the Guild of Death, yes or no? What nonsense is this?! Why should you even believe it possible? Navon Du Sandau told us you have hired assassins on many occasions. As bodyguards! Who better to hire to watch me than those who have made a profession of stalking others? But I have never employed a member of the Guild of Assassins for any other cause. Those in my employ guard my estates and the persons of myself and my daughter. Nothing else. How did you manage to contact these men? I asked the priests at Kahooli to send the men to me, so I never knew how to contact them directly. After the Keep burned down I asked for more help, but the priests told me the Nighthawks had fallen into disfavor with the Temple and that they could no longer summon them to service.[ASSESSMENT] Weren't you a spotter for the Natalese Rangers when you were younger? I seem to recall you telling stories when I used to visit at the Keep. That was quite a long time ago, indeed. Before you or Ugyne or even Neville had been born. I still have the eye too. I can tell you precisely how much a man is carrying by the way he walks or how good a swordsman he is by the way he pulls it free of the scabbard. Sounds like a useful skill. Any chance you could teach us something about it? Don't be absurd. I spent five years training to be a spotter. You expect for me to teach it all to you in one afternoon? I suppose you're right. I'm already a decent spotter myself. I'll make you a wager though. You teach us anything I don't already know and I'll pay you in gold sovereigns. I'll take your wager, but I'm not one to waste my time. Two hundred sovereigns or it's no deal. Will you take that wager? I'm ready when you are. Then let us go outside where we will have more room...BaK posted:The Count extended his arms. "Which hand do I fight with?" the Count asked. This goes... somewhat according to the book, though in the book it's generally pointed out what a petty and slightly incompetent prick the Baron is. Being associated with the semi-famous Natalese Rangers is a bit of a step outside of that. But it hits the same major strokes: complaining about the keep being burned down, complaining assassins have it out for him(though, obviously, the Kahooli connection is super non-canon and with the Nighthawks being super outlawed to the max, obviously the Count never hires any of them for personal security) and complaining about Navon being a creature of pure chaos and evil, something that Owyn gently ribs him over though the count is too upset to notice it. There's also some special dialogue if you visit him during chapters 1 and 2. BaK posted:CHAPTER 1: Many of the same keywords are active in chapters 1 and 2, though a few have triggers that can't be found until chapter 3 for the most part. Anyway, the Count fits part of our description for the sinister villain of the chapter, in that he's wealthy, but that's about it. On the other hand, he could just not be talking about his travels and have taken a recent shower, maybe Ugyne and Navon can tell us more, let's go scour the area north of Cavall Keep for the two of them.
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Nov 11, 2021 01:55
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Update 21: A Mysterious Mystery, Part 2  Ugyne is supposed to be hanging out just outside of Cavall Keep, but either her trigger is inconsistent or the triggering area is weirdly shaped, because I had to run back and forth like five times to get her to pop up. BaK posted:A girl crossed the fields.  What are you doing wandering around unescorted? Honestly, you astonish me. By your age, most girls have the common sense to realize there are dangerous types wandering around in the open. How's that for an introduction?! You're only four years older than me, Owyn and I don't see that my age has anything to do with it. I just like to come out here to think when I have a problem that won't solve itself otherwise. It also gives me a safe harbor away from father when he's on one of his raging fits. Is he on one at the moment? One of the worst I've ever seen. He's fired the entire kitchen staff, dismissed the guard, thrown out all five of my maids. He's been that way since about dinner time last evening. I tried to ask him what had him so upset, but he would only tell me that he had received some very bad news from a messenger regarding a financial arrangement which he had made. Have any idea what the note said? Who knows? He's always on about conspiracy this, conspiracy that. It's like he's always afraid someone's about to find out some dire secret about the family when there's nothing to hide. It's getting terribly repetitive really... So...you have this frightful look on your face as if there's something you're afraid to speak to me about. What is it?[NEWS] So, when is a suitor going to snatch you up? Are there any that are even in good standing? There are two, neither of whom father likes, but then again he never likes anyone I do. One is Myron, my father's solicitor who lives just outside of Cavall Keep with his daughter Ami. He does have a minor claim to nobility because his brother is an Earl someplace, but father thinks his connections are too tenuous for us to consider. And what about the second suitor? He's a businessman from Kenting Rush named Navon du Sandau. I like him, though he can be a bit intense at times. We like to talk and he is always asking me some point about mythology or another. He doesn't mind a girl who reads.[MURDER] You'll forgive us if we look a little ragged, but we're trying to find out about a murder that took place down in Romney. We've been searching for a little while. Do you think the murderer escaped to Cavall Keep? We're not sure. All we know at the moment is it may have had something to do with a brass spyglass or a silver spider we found near the bodies. I don't suppose the spyglass had a star inscribed on it, did it? I can't recall. Why? Would that be important? For someone who's a part of the family, you certainly don't seem to know much about the family lore... We used to have a spyglass that sat in a glass case in the entry way of the Keep. There was a legend that if a person knew the right things to think, then they could use the spyglass to spy on the minds of others. It was in the family for generations, but it disappeared about the time that Neville was killed in the wine cellar all those years ago. Father accused the workmen of having stolen it. And what things was the person to think to make the spyglass work? I don't know. Neville used to tease me and told me he knew what to think and that he could use it, but he never did. It was only a legend, after all.[UNPLEASANT PAST] Your father says he doesn't like your suitor Navon because he keeps bringing up painful memories about the Keep when he asks about the family legends. The death of your mother, the fire that burned the Keep down... It isn't fair to hold that against Navon. He is interested in our family, in me, and so naturally he has questions about the Keep. Wouldn't you be interested in the history of someone you wish to marry? Wouldn't you want to know them as well as you know your own family? It's not so much the death of my mother that bothers father, though, as does Neville's death all those years ago. But father insists on clinging to a silly coincidence. Coincidence? What's a coincidence? Navon's last name is du Sandau. It's the same last name as the man who constructed father's wine cellar, the one that collapsed. Father's holding it against him that he happens to have the same last name! It's so...ridiculous.[NEVILLE] I don't remember much about how Neville died. It was such a long time ago... You couldn't have known much about it so far off in Tiburn. Mother and father were both in such grief, they didn't want a spectacle made of his death. Neville was down in Cavall Run, sent down by father to get a keg of Quegian Sour from his wine cellar. We had guests that day... Cavall Run? You remember... Underneath the Keep? All those tunnels that seemed to stretch for miles? We never did know for sure how extensive it was. I used to love to take walks down there in the dark, just to think and have some time to myself. It's one of the things I miss most about the Keep, not having the tunnels to play in anymore. When Neville didn't come back from getting the keg, father went down into the Run after him. The wine was served, then the appetizers, then the first course, still father hadn't come back. The second course was served, the third, and then finally father appeared. He told us the tunnel had collapsed and Neville was trapped behind it all. We were never able to dig it out enough to recover the body...[FAMILY LEGENDS] Your father said Navon kept at you about the family legends... He was fascinated by anything that had to do with the Corvalis family. He would ask where the spyglass had come from and how long the Keep had been standing and where the Guarda Revanche went to. We talked about everything.[SWORD] What does the Guarda Revanche have to do with our family history? I thought it was some kind of legend about the days when only the elves lived here. The part of the legend that everybody knows has to do with the elves, but for a time the Guarda Revanche was in our family's possession, or so family legend has it. Upon her fourteenth birthday, the Lady of Cavall Keep was given a special present by her elven servant to give her husband, Lord Corvalis, a sword that would make him great among men. Whereupon she ran to his bedchamber to present him with the great gift, but upon opening the door she was shaken by a great evil. Within her hand, the sword blade began to glow and she screamed as she raised the blade over her head and cleaved her husband's head from off his shoulders. From there, she went from one child's chamber to the next until she had slain all her children by Lord Corvalis and once that was done, she ran mad and was seen in Cavall no more. How charming. You don't have it laying about somewhere do you? Be nice to me or I may give the sword to you! No, the legend goes on to say that it was eventually removed from the family after the episode was repeated by later generations of other branches of our family. A book I have about it tells where it went, but I lent the book to Navon so he could look it over. That's weird. I thought that the Guarda Revanche was only supposed to work on moredhel... It's a legend. No one ever said that a legend has to be consistent!This interaction with Ugyne is also relatively true to the book. After this the party, having received an invitation to dinner from Count Corvalis and desperate to avoid it because he's such an absolute jackass, decides to check out the local area, starting with the entrance to Cavall Run. We, of course, have yet to gain access to Cavall Run behind the waterfall, so we're going to head further north for the time being. There's another large-ish valley surrounding Kenting Rush which is worth checking out.    Once again, it's mostly a forested square with a single long road leading up it, though in this case the road clings to the western side and runs through Kenting Rush, so mostly we'll be poking around the eastern side of the valley at first.   In part because there's a cluster of three delicious chests just around the corner from the entrance to the valley.  SUNSHINE  NOISE  NAME  In addition to piles of money and valuable stones, there are yet more Clerical Oilcloths. BaK posted:From what little he had learned from gems dealers at trading fairs, the emerald had been prepared in a navette cut. Beyond that, he wasn't certain what the actual value of the gem would be until he attempted to sell it.   At the eastern end of the valley is a small cleft containing two locked chests with some rubies and coins in them, as well as a note. BaK posted:To the Priests of Kahooli, You might be tempted to think this little hole is just an easter egg but, in a situation that only occurs twice in the whole game, the mountain range to your east is actually illusionary and can be simply walked through into a small, hidden, C-shaped valley which starts the party at the bottom and has them looping up. Because BaK doesn't handle narrow spaces too well, it's easy to get turned around since sometimes bumping into the hillsides will spin you unexpectedly.    The first thing you bump into will probably be a magical trap.  Notable for featuring a couple of trolls. Sadly they ignore the tuning fork, so they can't be made to flee back into the zap fields, and instead the party has to hack them apart. Oddly enough they never move, though they do retaliate in melee combat.   This frees up a solid and transparent crystal for the purpose of ruining one zap line and blocking one fireball turret, allowing the party to proceed. I'm not sure if you could just gently caress up the zappers with Black Nimbus and then run right through, but I think that enemies on the field prevents you from "completing" a trap and exiting to the world map.  Here's a brief view of the area from above, right now in this shot the party's looking at the bounty for finding this place...  Five! Five! Unlocked chests. Let's see what the big score is here.  BaK posted:His curiosity sufficiently piqued, Owyn popped open the half-gallon cask and inhaled deeply. Immediately his senses reeled as the heady cinnamon-like aroma assaulted him. Keshian Ale! 12 casks of ale and a single ruby. Someone must take their drinking seriously if they're willing to walk all the way out here just to get drunk in peace. Heading out, I grabbed a screenshot to show that the party is actually right in the middle of the hills/mountains when doing this. Just in case anyone doubted me.   We're not done with the valley yet, of course, there are still a couple more chests to poke at before we head over to Kenting Rush itself.  COLTS  COFFIN More gems and gold in these two, but also a suit of Grey Tower Plate, meaning there there's plenty of good reason to come here in chapter 1 to get a huge leg up on the upgrade tree. If you can get to Northwarden, you can get here without any further combat encounters, even.    In fact, the valley only has three combat encounters. One we can't even trigger yet, one you shouldn't ever trigger and the trap we did just a bit ago.  TABLE The other chest is just an unlocked chest containing an emerald, while the Table chest has yet another Ruby and also a Thoughts Like Clouds scroll which, I guess, might be an exciting find if you got here in chapter 1 and had yet to find other ways to disable hostile spellcasters.    Coming from the valley side, we sort of approach Kenting Rush from the back side. The place has plenty of houses to check out, and even two taverns! Before we start engaging with the locals, though, I set course north through the town for the Temple of Kahooli because now, in chapter 3, it actually has content!    BaK posted:They were escorted to the lector's chambers. Unsurprisingly, considering that the whole Kahooli/Nighthawk connection is non-canon, this entire encounter is also non-canon and doesn't happen in the book. We'll be seeing more of this, though, as this is the first way to reveal the leader of the Nighthawks, the more optional of the two, and the one that, as a kid, probably got you stuck in a permanent combat loop unable to figure out what you were doing wrong.  Back in Kenting Rush, we'll go knock on a few doors and see what happens. BaK posted:Locklear hesitated. This encounter, which is free, provides a modest boost to Scouting for the entire party. There's no reason not to pick it up. BaK posted:Owyn rapped on the door with the back of his hand. Other encounters are less profitable and more odd. BaK posted:James was about to knock on the door when suddenly he straightened, and with a broad smile on his face jumped back to survey the entire house. This is one of those conversations that swaps out James and Locklear depending on who's in the party, leading to some oddity as this fits Locklear's characterization so far, but not James'. BaK posted:The hammering inside the house offered a perfect musical counterpoint to James's rapping on the small front door. Presently, a young man sporting a long beard answered the knocks. Ask stupid questions, get stupid answers, James. BaK posted:Pigeons cooed inside the house. Lots of them. Anyway, that's it for the comedy encounters, because as soon as we head down a small side road in Kenting Rush, we meet someone who actually matters.  BaK posted:James sniffed the air. Someone who smells odd, huh?  This may sound a strange question, but a moment ago I thought I smelled spice...jasmine to be exact. Does it grow near here? You have a keen nose. Unfortunately it isn't local. I deal in spices as well as a number of other imported goods. I've just returned from a lengthy trip into Kesh and I am afraid the scent clings a bit to the clothes. But you've only just come up the road. I've been smelling it for some while. I am told the scent carries. There is a bit of a wind today. So...as you are travellers in the area and dealing with the natives can sometimes be difficult, is there any way I can be of some assistance to you?Get ready for a lot of text, because Navon is chatty. [COUNT CORVALIS] What reason would Count Corvalis have to dislike you, Navon? Perhaps he is an over protective father, who is to say? I'm frankly surprised he hasn't hired a band of Nighthawks to have me killed. I ask too many questions for his tastes. You think he has connections to the Guild of Assassins? It's a well-known fact he is surrounded by Nighthawks. They guard his house, his lands, Cavall Keep. When his daughter Ugyne and I have time together, we are always followed by assassins, though they never wear their guild clothing while working for the Count. Why don't any of the local people do anything about it? Surely they object to having the Nighthawks loose in the area. They look the other way. As long as none of them are being killed, it doesn't concern them. I'm sure that's even true in Krondor.[HIS NAME] By any chance, are you any relation to the Sandau who was the workman who built Count Corvalis' wine cellar? None, but unfortunately the Count refuses to believe me. I see conspiracy in his eyes every time I meet him, but I don't know how I can put him at ease about the accident. We would both be all the healthier if he didn't dwell on such an unfortunate coincidence.[THE ACCIDENT] Do you know anything about the accident that killed Neville Corvalis? It was a peculiar accident if I understand the tavernkeeper at the Duck's Head in Cavall Keep. Seems this Sandau fellow was something of a drunkard who had a reputation for building inferior structures. I find it hard to believe the Count would have entrusted the construction to such a man, but surely he couldn't have meant for the wine cellar to collapse? You think the Count intended to have the wine cellar collapse? For what purpose? I've heard the Count suspected his son of something terrible, but... The Count and I have enough bad blood between us. I don't wish to say anything else that may jeopardize my suit with Ugyne. As the things I have related to you are rumor, I would appreciate it if you didn't tell the Count we have spoken on this subject.[KAHOOLI] I'm not familiar with the worshippers of Kahooli. Generally speaking, Banath and Astalon are more popular with the people in Krondor. It's difficult to publicly worship a god dedicated to revenge, almost as hard to worship, I imagine, as the goddess of death. People naturally assume when you begin pilgrimage on a regular basis that you have a score you wish to settle, which, more often than not, is true. They blind themselves to the fact that while Kahooli is sometimes called The Pursuer, he is also known as the Judge of Truth. When you can't get justice anywhere else, people turn to Kahooli. And who did you wish to avenge? Ha, well, myself naturally. It has been some time since I have been to the Temple, however. My problem pretty much solved itself and then I didn't need divine intervention anymore and so... So it's easier to stay away than to pay the tithe. Do you remember any of their codes of piety? The priest mentioned them and I was curious what they were. I tried to forget them...hmm...I can only remember the first one and it had something to do with subjugation of the will if I remember correctly. When you join the Temple, you have to renounce all ties to King and Kingdom. That's why you'll find that there aren't any nobility in the Temple. Of course, when you can command a private army, why bother?Navon also offers the second way to get a leg up on Ivan Skald in Malac's Cross. Considering that you can pick up a couple of emeralds on the way south from here, it's definitely worth doing so if you're coming here in chapter 1 with Locklear. [CHESS] Ivan Skaald in Malac's Cross tells us you are quite a chess player. High praise. He isn't too terrible at it himself. He told us you had a move called Sandau's Retreat. I'd be intrigued to learn it from you. I couldn't just give away a move like that. It's kept me undefeated for several years now. I'd be willing to pay you to learn how. You're after Ivan, aren't you? He won't know what's hit him until you have him. As I recall he always bets an emerald, so I'll let you at least get something from the win... Say 100 gold sovereigns. Deal?[YES] It will be worth it just to see the look on his face. Proceed. Give me a moment to find a few appropriate stones. If you would sketch out a board in the dirt, I will show you the architecture of a grand humiliation.BaK posted:James grinned. Coming here in Chapter 1 of course also gives Navon a slightly different introduction. BaK posted:Locklear was weary. He's away in Chapter 2 for completely innocent reasons doing completely innocent things, of course, so he has no introduction there. Talking to Navon here in chapter 3 is also what triggers the extra dialogue options with Count Corvalis. This entire encounter is also largely non-canon since while the party does meet Navon, they don't do so until after they've visited Cavell Run. For now, though, let's say goodbye to Navon as we've some locals to defraud down the road behind him.    BaK posted:Gorath was about to knock, but his knuckles touched nothing save air as the door swung out of his reach. Sorting out Shoral's game here gives you a free Lightning Staff which, considering that we paid 1200 gold for one, is a pretty nice score! Also, once again, accessible in chapter 1 if Locklear leads the party the longest possible way around. BaK posted:[YES] Both of these are questions you'd really only know the answers to if you read the books, if you gently caress up the answers, though, Owyn's jackassery won't save you... BaK posted:"I'm sorry, my friend. You have failed my test." Shoral waved his hand in the air and muttered an incantation. A blast of unseen energy swept around the room, and one by one gold coins began to appear in the air, dropping noisily into a large glass jar in the corner of the room. Shoral will liberate the party of up to 1000 gold pieces, less only if they have less. For this party it would be a kind of "eh" loss, but for any party coming over the north route, it might well be all they've managed to scrape together by that point, so pretty rude.  Lastly, Kenting Rush has a well... BaK posted:It was an unusual well.  BaK posted:As the stories go, the men gave the keys to these undergarments to none but their closest and most trusted friends. Naturally, the ladies did everything in their power to convince the friends to use their key to remove the uncomfortable things, and many illicit romances were said to have developed. The lock was always replaced before the husband returned home, but after unlocking the device the key was often left with the friend for the next time the husband went away. In the meantime, the secret lovers would sometimes find an abandoned well, put on one of these locks and use the key to hide love notes. The Virtue Key from the Duke of Romney is needed for this, though it's a key you can also find elsewhere. There's a total of 13 of them lying around the gameworld(for a total of three locks! including this one!), not to mention four shops that sell them. BaK posted:"This is a virtue key or I'm a gwali's uncle," James said with a grin, tapping the dorsal shaped head. "Originally these keys were only made for chastity belts, but in the last hundred years or so they've expanded the use of the design. The locks this will open protect very valuable items."  Anyway, considering that we've only met one smelly guy who's got lots of money and does tons of travelling, Navon is the obvious suspect, and we've got two ways of figuring him out. I'll be doing both the canon(Cavall Run) and non-canon(Temple of Kahooli) solutions. I feel like, with Corvalis being such a brusque dickhead and his having hired Nighthawks in the past, he was originally intended as a red herring for players to pursue, but either they ran out of time or they just decided to dump it, because there's no way to really pursue that lead, and additionally Corvallis is missing both travelling and a funny smell. It's kind of a loss that they didn't make it into a proper mystery, since just talking to everyone makes the answer blatantly obvious. Perhaps if there was some option to just call one of them out without solid evidence, perhaps for a tougher fight or a lesser reward, it could have gotten interesting. Join me next time as we get wet and religious.
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Nov 11, 2021 01:56
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The thing about the relative value of elven (and dwarven) children actually cames up in the books several times. Bog-standard fantasy etc etc, but elves and dwarves live a long time yet only have one or two children a century, so every loss in war etc is a big deal. Art imitates life in that humans reproduce rapidly, push everyone out and then act like the wronged party if anyone complains.
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Nov 11, 2021 17:14
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So what happened between Owen and the magician? Was it just that Owen suspected/knew the last question was going to be antrick, so he faked being blind to hope he would ask if Owen could see him, or did he actually do something to Owen that Owen dispelled?
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Nov 12, 2021 13:48
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Randalor posted:So what happened between Owen and the magician? Was it just that Owen suspected/knew the last question was going to be antrick, so he faked being blind to hope he would ask if Owen could see him, or did he actually do something to Owen that Owen dispelled? It's the first. You see other houses warning you that the third question is impossible and Owyn can tell a scam is in the offing anyway so he pulls a 'what's in my pocket' because Owyn's actually a very cunning lad. Owyn and Gorath were absolutely my favorite characters in the game when I was a kid.
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Nov 12, 2021 14:12
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Night10194 posted:It's the first. You see other houses warning you that the third question is impossible and Owyn can tell a scam is in the offing anyway so he pulls a 'what's in my pocket' because Owyn's actually a very cunning lad. I know there's supposed to be a house that warns you, but I couldn't find it in-game and I also failed to find it on the site. It may just have been me being an idiot, though, as I found it this time. BaK posted:They were greeted at the door by a very tired looking woman. "Good day travellers. How can I be of service to you?" The thing is that Owyn pulls it even if he hasn't been warned, though, so it's 50-50 whether he actually sensed an impossible question or whether he just wanted to scam an old wizard. I think I completely missed it last time because it's buried as a sidenote at the bottom of an interaction mostly about other things.
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Nov 12, 2021 14:34
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Remember always that Owyn gained his initial magical instruction after enacting a complex scheme to embezzle the money for his tutoring from his father's accounts.
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Nov 12, 2021 14:40
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Night10194 posted:Remember always that Owyn gained his initial magical instruction after enacting a complex scheme to embezzle the money for his tutoring from his father's accounts. Wouldn't be shocked at all to find out his tutor had a hand in the planning.
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Nov 12, 2021 19:20
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Guildenstern Mother posted:Wouldn't be shocked at all to find out his tutor had a hand in the planning. Considering that his tutor apparently taught him "make light" and "make people go blind" before considering it a done deal, that's probably not too far off the truth. Like who the hell teaches someone still in his... late teens? Early twenties? Some random noble son to make people to blind?
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Nov 12, 2021 23:37
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A cranky old man with illusory goblins guarding his house? Someone like that maybe?
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Nov 13, 2021 02:11
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Just to make sure I read it right, Owyn literally just ran into their camp at night on the road and is now trapped on mr bones wild ride?
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Nov 14, 2021 08:41
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wiegieman posted:Just to make sure I read it right, Owyn literally just ran into their camp at night on the road and is now trapped on mr bones wild ride?
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Nov 14, 2021 09:28
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I just wanted to share a hard-core moment as I just finished rereading Murder in LaMut. It's set well before this game during the war between the Tsurani and the Kingdom. The book is set around three jaded mercenaries, who at one point caught a Tsurani officer who deliberately set fire to a a wood. They stuffed his mouth full of acorns and buried him alive in a shallow grave so that new oaks would grow from his corpse. Blimey
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Nov 14, 2021 20:39
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New captain planet series sounds off the chain
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Nov 14, 2021 20:46
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wiegieman posted:Just to make sure I read it right, Owyn literally just ran into their camp at night on the road and is now trapped on mr bones wild ride? I mean, he kind of invited himself along after Locklear and Gorath wandered into his camp and, in fact, eventually blackmailed the party to be kept on board. His motivations could be: Looting corpses Getting royal favour and connections Staying away from his dad Picking up new types of combat magic that they definitely don't teach at Wizard College. Frankly I don't think it's ever elaborated on, even in the book, now that I come to think of it.
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Nov 14, 2021 21:03
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I think he's just curious and can tell some important poo poo's going down so he wants to help and get involved.
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Nov 14, 2021 21:05
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PurpleXVI posted:I mean, he kind of invited himself along after Locklear and Gorath wandered into his camp and, in fact, eventually blackmailed the party to be kept on board. I think Locklear said he was coming to krondor with them one way or another to keep him from accidentally talking. But sticking around after chapter one was all on Owyn, guess that pressing business in Tiburn wasn't all that pressing.
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Nov 14, 2021 21:10
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Owyn going to Stardock reminds me that my favorite running gag of the series is the Magic Wizard University is useless and basically Liberal Arts College where all the insufferable students argue bullshit and get nothing done.
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Nov 15, 2021 01:27
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Just wanted to say I'm loving the LP (and the post lengths). It's a great trip down my childhood. I don't think I ever beat the game, probably stopped at chapter 4. I'm excited to see what comes next.
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Nov 15, 2021 19:54
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Belial42 posted:Just wanted to say I'm loving the LP (and the post lengths). It's a great trip down my childhood. I don't think I ever beat the game, probably stopped at chapter 4. I'm excited to see what comes next. I can't speak for other LP'ers, but praise and engagement in general are what keep me going, so thank you. 
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Nov 16, 2021 15:18
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Yeah, I'm also following this closely. I started playing Betrayal at Krondor several times, but never finished it. I just always burned out at some point. I think I did reach the forest area in the west though. There is one infinite money bug easily available in Chapter 1. IIRC, there is a plagued house somewhere near one of the temples on the western coast. When you search it, you get some money, but also get plagued. However, you can search the house as often as you want and you get the money each time. So you can just sit there a while, repeatedly searching the house until you get tired of it. Then you run to the temple, get healed and can continue on.
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Nov 16, 2021 18:02
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There's also the item duping method that my kid self was very proud of independently discovering. First, you need at least two stackable items and a place to store them (like, say, LaMut fountain). Then you fill up the stash with all the items that it can hold, then remove one of them. Put one charge/unit of the item you want to duplicate into the stash. Then put one more of that same item into the stash. The game will ask 'how many'. Select the highest amount and the game will spawn that many items out of thin air. Repeat until you are super rich.
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Nov 16, 2021 18:42
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Update 22: Mystery Solved Alright, so last time it was blatantly obvious that Navon was the killer responsible for murdering Bas-Tyra's troops down in Romney, or at least for organizing it. Unfortunately, James doesn't like to murder people on a 99% certainty of guilt, but prefers to save it for when he's 100% sure, so we've still got to collect a bit more evidence.    Thankfully, we've got a lead in that we know someone's loving around in Cavall Run and we collected the Resident Evil-esque chess piece key from the well in Kenting Rush at the end of the last update, so let's try it out. BaK posted:James stood to take a closer look at the mysterious hole, discovering there a chessboard. "Looks like someone was getting ready to play a match, but they were missing a...piece." I think the chess piece is there in chapter 1, too, so if you buy a Virtue Key from a shop somewhere, you could get in here then. I feel like that should do some odd things to the timeline, but it doesn't.   As soon as we step in the door we're confronted by four spiders, which are so weak that even James can one-shot them at this point. It feels a bit like a missed opportunity that their bite doesn't actually poison when they hit, which would have made it some sort of actual choice whether to target them first in the battles where they're mixed with other enemies, or incentivizing spell and crossbow use to keep them at arm's length.     Spiders aside, most of the enemies in here are predictably Nighthawks and Black Slayers. The dungeon is roughly shaped like a square, and I'm taking the longest way around to our actual objective to loot as much stuff as possible before we get there.  Most of the fights in here are pretty forgettable, like this one, easily breezed through, but there's one in here that kicked my rear end, and most of the fights also leave you in front of a puzzle chest to check out.   OCEAN This one's just got a light Tsurani crossbow, a ruby and some restoratives.    For some reason there's a dead rogue in here who's left an empty corpse. Probably some poor guy the Nighthawks dragged in to interrogate or some such.    The main thing in this fight is that this Black Slayer is exceptionally buff and tanks a full-strength Bane, which delays the murdering enough that James gets dogpiled, but with his near-100% Defense rating, the Nighthawks can barely manage to land any hits.   That odd wand is actually a container of "Killian's Root Oil," which is yet another weapon modifier that adds +50% damage. I wish the weapon modifiers were a bit more creative, like maybe an accuracy boost or something, too, rather than just always damage boosts. BaK posted:An emerald colored fluid rippled the length of the flute-necked bottle as Owyn upended it, then righted it once more. A very light oil, it was used by soldiers to temporarily enhance the metallic qualities of their swords and of their armor. Since I'm starting to be overburdened with Clerical Oilcloths, Killian's Root Oil and Alfathain's Icers, this is the point where I begin liberally applying them to the party's weapons constantly until I'm not carrying as many of the drat things any longer.     Probably the biggest weakness of this game is that almost any enemy who isn't a wizard is just "man with sword," even if they're reskinned like scorpions and spiders, and almost every encounter is purely one type of enemy. It means there's very rarely something to think about other than interrupting the enemy mage and preventing enemies from piling on Owyn.  DISPUTE  Again we stumble into a couple of new consumables. The weird wand is a container of "Sarigsbane," with Sarig being the dead god of magic. The effect is that if it's on your armor, anyone hitting you doesn't get the boosts from Clerical Oilclothes and Killian's Root Oil, if they have it. The black potion is Truesight Tea which buffs Crossbow Accuracy by 25 for a battle. BaK posted:A yellow colored ointment, the Sarig's Bane was stored in an odd-looking container; a simple cork cap suspended from the mouth of a glass tube, a large bulb made from stitched sheep gut. Commonly it was applied to armor to counteract the effects of enchanted blades.   Of note is that you can't get to the objective inside Cavall Run without a rope, so this is one of the at minimum two places in the game where not having a rope would prevent you from progressing. Thankfully rope is relatively plentiful, but I could see it being annoying if you had discarded it all as being useless and then had to run around looking for a store containing it(stuff just dropped on the ground tends to vanish unless, and this is an interesting note, a note paper or quest item is left is the same container).    Now here we go, the fight that almost kicked my rear end. Some enemies, despite not being equipped with heftier armor, appear to have a higher basic damage resistance than others, and these Black Slayers are some of them.   The fight starts out simple enough, with Owyn blasting one with a Bane cast and James and Gorath getting on the others.  They're soon whittled down to a single paralyzed Slayer that James and Gorath spend a couple of turns missing because they're idiots who can't hit the broad side of a barn sometimes. And then... You guys hear something weird? Goddammit, I hate having to burn corpses after fights.Now, the smart play, here, would have been to start blasting the dead ones with Final Rest, but I wanted that loot, dammit!   This starts a revolving door of Slayers going down and getting up again since apparently they can get up on the same turn as the last Black Slayer goes down, if the timing is just right for it. It wears down all of James' Stamina and Owyn is forced to chug some potions to stay on his feet, despite the Slayers doing low damage per hit, it eventually adds up and actually cinching a win on this one felt somewhat clutch. Alternately, another, smarter, thing I could have done, would have been to wait for them all to get up, hit them all with Grief, then distribute the damage rather than blazing one down at a time. It's also worth noting that re-rising Black Slayers get up with their full health and stamina.   And then of course none of them are carrying a drat thing worth my time, either.  MUSIC This chest contains more Killian's Root Oil and a blessed Lamprey(tier 2 sword).     This marks the party having looped about halfway down the map and being almost at the two prizes for getting this far.   One room here contains a trapped chest which does not gently caress around, if you come here in Chapter 1, say, with Locklear, it's an 87-difficulty chest that hands out 75 damage if you trigger it. Even with James, if he wasn't carrying an Amulet of the Upright Man, he wouldn't be able to get through it. And for what? A tier 2 crossbow and a blessed tier 1 sword. It feels like a prank.  A room slightly down the corridor contains two coded chests which contain actually interesting things.  BUBBLE  ROPE The first chest just holds some spare change and another medium crossbow, but the second...  Why would someone hide a book in a locked chest... Maybe the title is "My Crimes And How To Arrest Me" Oh, no, this is just the Abbot's Journal, that book Ugyne told us about, remember? Hm, and remember who she loaned it to?While everyone tries to remember that, let's give it a read. BaK posted:A translation of an ancient account of the travels of an abbot from Malac's Cross, the book was filled with stories and notes on mythology. Apparently the abbot had been looking for proof of the existence of a sword known as the Guarda Revanche, a cursed blade which was often associated with the moredhel. Shortly before the end of the journal, he related a curious tale: So there are a couple of interesting things about this book, number one being that it's actually canon the party gets this! In the book, they meet the Count first, then Ugyne, they consider the situation, then go explore Cavall Run(stabbing a few Nighthawks in the process), find the book and return to Peter the Grey's inn. During the night, the party's ambushed by a bunch of Nighthawks, but they're ready for them and cut them to pieces(including Owyn casting Fetters of Rime for the first time). Peter the Grey is somewhat upset about all the corpses he has to remove, but the party bunkers down to wait for Navon, having figured out that he's their prey around this time... The second interesting thing about this book is that it's a Clue towards finding the most busted, in version 1.01 of this game literally busted, weapon in the game.  Across the hall is a room with a single Nighthawk, but as soon as we approach him... BaK posted:A Nighthawk awaited them. For a while in the books more Nighthawks die by stabbing themselves or by using poison rings when they're about to get captured than are actually killed by the protagonists. They really don't like the idea of getting interrogated or brought before a court of justice. In any case, he was guarding a door and a few unlocked chests containing a bit of rope(so you don't paint yourself into a corner using your last rope to get over the pits, presumably) and a single tier 2 Lamprey. The door is, unfortunately, locked with a special key and can't be picked. So for now we have to retreat. There are a couple of chests worth checking on the way out, though.    This one actually has a nastier trap than the previous trapped chest, doing 100 damage rather than 75, but it also has a completely trivial trap difficulty at 45. The main danger here is if you forget to cast Scent of Sarig and thus can't disarm it and get your dumb rear end blown up.  It contains a rare elven crossbow, which is the most accurate type of crossbow(albeit third in damage, the Tsurani Heavy Crossbow and a type we've yet to see beat it out for pure damage), but shots that don't hit do zero damage, so I'd rate accuracy as more important. The odd thing is that it's stored with a completely inferior Medium Crossbow. BaK posted:Applying the same principles used on the famed elven longbows, the crossbow had a composite bow made of wood, bone, and sinew and the tiller was sheathed in parchment. If not elven himself, James guessed the artisan of the crossbow had at least been in close contact with the archers of Elvandar. An interesting thing to note is that crossbows are generally portrayed as more dangerous than swords in the books. Characters survive multiple minor cuts and glancing blows from swords and knives both, but anyone who eats a crossbow bolt gets completely hosed up by a single one, in some cases in rather graphic ways like the bolt almost tearing their arm off, that sort of thing. With the right ammo they do tend to out-damage swords in BaK, too, but it's a lot harder to get practice with them and trainers are rarer than for melee combat, too.    SHOES This one's got a ruby and yet another medium crossbow, we're really drowning in archery supplies. Anyway, that's the last thing of note in here and we can now leave Cavall Run to confront Navon about how the book Ugyne let him borrow ended up in a Nighthawk compound. But first, in another timeline... Investigating crimes? Collecting clues? Waste of time. Let's just go join a cult to get our answers.    Behind the town of Kenting Rush, in the woods north of it, is the Prelate's house. Attempting to approach this without having talked to the head priest of the Temple of Kahooli gets you into a fight with the infinitely respawning guards but, interestingly, the respawners are the same guards who just get given one or two points of health/stamina to put them over zero, meaning they can't hit for poo poo, get put down with a single strike, etc., and you can use them for training if you can win the first fight and have sufficient patience. As a kid who got here in chapter 1 loving around, or later on with worse English skills than I have now and thus failing to properly read dialogue, I got stuck here for ages thinking there had to be a way around them. Now that we actually have talked to the priest, though... BaK posted:There were armed guards in front of the house. Best guards in the world, clearly, since they just take our loving word for it and there's no password or anything. Now let's talk to the Prelate.BaK posted:There were strange markings on the door. James studied the symbols with a questioning eye, then knocked loudly. The man who came to the door introduced himself as Prelate of the Temple of Kahooli. Well, renouncing all my official ties would probably get my killed and also get in the way of me becoming Duke of Krondor one day. And we hardly have a year to wait, Delekhan must be almost ready to move. Mortification of the Flesh isn't going to involve any sort of weird self-flagellation, is it?   No, we're just going to have to miss lunch.So, this non-canonical approach is slightly obfuscated, but the Prelate means the appetite thing very literally. Dump out all your food on the road and rest until the party gains the Starving status. BaK posted:James' stomach rumbled. This is the cue that you've attained the status and now you should go talk to the head priest.  BaK posted:James stumbled. Frankly it's odd that James would have any issue with the worshippers of Kahooli since all he does for the next three novels is hunt down and bring justice to murderers, thieves, child slavers and cultists doing damage to the natural state of the world. But now, let's go see Navon, I'm sure he'll be excited that we're coming back to him again. Also this encounter removes our Starving condition and hands every party member two full stacks of rations, so it's pretty risk-free.     Interestingly, the party doesn't automatically confront him, you can still hassle him about his other keywords until you use either Excommunicate or Sword. Let's try Excommunicate first. On behalf of the Temple of Kahooli, I inform you that you are now excommunicate. They formally have renounced their ties to the Guild of Assassins and will announce the identities of all who belong to it. The Nighthawks are finished, Navon. Despite their request I murder you, I will let you live if you tell me where I can find the moredhel communiques concerning the attack. A lie, Seigneur, and you know it. You'll have my guts for killing those men in Romney whether I tell you or not. Since you first arrived looking for the Nighthawks, I' ve been watching you. For years I've heard tales about Jimmy the Hand from the men who survived your Nighthawk purges in Krondor. They told very impressive tales about you. Now it's time to see if you can match a true Nighthawk in combat.It's frankly the less interesting of the two and doesn't clear up several mysteries, it's also the less canon of the two, so let's try Sword... Ugyne Corvalis told us she loaned you a book about the Guarda Revanche. Might I borrow it back from you? Unfortunately I don't have it on my person. I left it at home. At home. Are you certain you didn't misplace it anywhere? As it is a loan, I keep it in a very safe place where it cannot become damaged. Somewhere like Cavall Run? I have always wondered what the leader of the Nighthawks might be like and now it seems we meet face to face. Interesting conclusion. How do you arrive at it? We found the Abbot's Journal in Cavall Run...after we had a slight run in with a few of your men. You mentioned earlier that you thought that Count Corvalis might have killed his son, but as I recall the body was never found and you have displayed an unerring interest in the Corvalis family. The kind of interest that a son might display in a family from whom he has been separated? Did you kill yourself or was that your father's doing? I believe congratulations are in order. You've accomplished what my father, his men, and the King's detachment from Bas-Tyra were unable to achieve. You are a clever man. Why the Nighthawks, Navon? Or shall I call you Neville? Suppose for a moment a woman bears her husband a strong, attractive, intelligent son. As he grows, he shows every sign that he will make a fine man but somehow different. Suppose then at about age eleven, this boy's father discovers the boy is not in fact his son, but the son of another man - a bastard. Among the common folk it would be no great crime, but supposing the fooled father was noble. That would change things, wouldn't it? What if the real father had gotten the child upon the indiscreet noblesse as a means to gain power? You became a threat to the succession so the Count opted to eliminate you. He locked you in the wine cellar but you found your way into the care of the Nighthawks. Yes. They had come to Cavall to regroup following their rout by Prince Arutha and initially they thought to ransom me. When they realized the Count wouldn't pay for my return, they decided to kill me, but I convinced them I had mental powers. The spyglass? It has been useful on more than one occasion. It gave me control of the Nighthawks, and it also allowed me to predict my father's moves. He believed I was dead of course, but the appearance of Navon du Sandau years later made him nervous. He believed I might know about the scandal and would tell what I know. That wouldn't have been any fun. Far better to torture your murderer than to simply kill him, don't you think? He became most agitated when I torched the family's keep. It was a shame to lose it, but a necessary sacrifice. So you could have control of the caverns underneath the keep. A perfect hiding place for you and your men and an excellent rendezvous with the moredhel with whom you were dealing. The tunnels were extensive and relatively unknown by any outside of the family. Besides, as husband to Ugyne, I would eventually have been it's rightful master. Not that I would have conjugated the marriage, Ishap forbid. She would have died some unpleasant death on our wedding night. Tragedy seems to plague the Corvalis family. Between the family fortune and Delekhan's deposits with Isunatus in Cavall Keep, I could have run the Nighthawks indefinitely. I want the key, Navon. Hand it over. Perhaps you would like to take it from me. Since you first arrived in Romney looking for the Nighthawks, I've been watching you Seigneur James. For years I've heard tales about Jimmy the Hand from the men who survived your Nighthawk purges in Krondor. They told very impressive tales about you. Now it's time to see if you can match a true Nighthawk in combat.BaK posted:Navon ripped off his tunic. Beneath, he wore the familiar uniform of the Guild of Death, a golden hawk emblazoned on a black gambeson. Be ready for anything! Surely he has a swarm of assassins ready to come to his aid! False alarm, he's actually fighting us on his own like a moron rather than running away, Owyn? On it.  Now, by stats, Navon is quite scary, with a solid weapon and high-tier armor but... he's perfectly vulnerable to Fetters of Rime(he resists the damage, oddly enough, but not the paralysis) and the party just walks in there and cuts him down. In the book, they wait at Peter's inn until he shows up, James engages him in a conversation and a chess game, then they reveal that they found the book and thus know who he is. Gorath is waiting outside the door in case Navon tries to flee, so instead it's just James vs Navon in the common room of the inn(Owyn hangs back with the excuse that he doesn't want to throw James off his beat and get him stabbed). Navon and James then duel for a while until James stabs him. The comedy at the end is that Owyn leaves the inn to get help and Gorath decks him by reflex, thinking it's Navon fleeing. Also the background plot is pretty similar. Sandau the stonemason knocks up Corvallis' wife, Corvallis finds out his son Neville is illegitimate, hires the stonemason again and rigs the cellar to collapse on him while he's working, inadvertently burying Neville as well. Neville, however, survives, and escape through Cavall Run, eventually joining up with the Nighthawks and seeking revenge. They then proceed to engineer the burning down of Cavall Keep to hide their base in the Run and to generally terrify the Count so he doesn't have a chance to focus on rebuilding it, but never actually killing or hurting him. Can we get back to what he dropped? I'm dying here. Oh yeah, Navon is a loot pinata. Tier 2(tier 1 of purchasable) armor, tier 3(tier 1 of purchasable) sword, a diamond, tier 1 quarrels, etc. this is a score. Oh and a lore note. Also the key to the locked door in Cavall Run. BaK posted:It was simply the best armor ever made by human hands. An articulated breastplate with a sliding rivet arrangement, an interior quilted arming doublet to soften sharp impacts, slip catches beneath the arm gussets for quick suiting; the breastplate was a marvel both to wear and to look at. Now we can head back to the run and finish this mystery.   Alright, so what was with the spider and the spyglass? Hell if I know. Dibs on keeping them to hock after this is over.   DARKNESS Opening this chest ends the chapter. Worth noting is, because I am a genius, before doing so, I sold all the party's gold for gems, gave James the lightning staff and had Navon's suit of armor and sword tier 3 blessed, then handed them to James, too. For reasons. BaK posted:Spiders scurried out of the opened chest.  BaK posted:An hour later, Owyn yawned expansively, his vision growing dim with each step taken further down the road. Next to him, Gorath trudged without complaint, his eyes fixed on the dusty cow track.   This chapter change is pretty abrupt, frankly. But whuh-oh, guess we're getting captured now! BaK posted:The war drums had begun at dawn.   I see my assistants have been overzealous in their efforts to sedate you! It is proper to tremble when you are addresed by Delekhan, leader of the unified tribes of the Northlands! We found this among your things, Kingdom dog. Tell me where you were going with it! We weren't taking it anywhere. We just picked up everything we could and ran. We needed gold... A lie! The seal that the Nighthawks use for our messages was broken. The new writing at the bottom of the page confirms your guilt. What does Gabot's Folly mean? Who are Arthur and Jimmy the Hand? I really have no idea. Someone else must have beaten us to it and opened the scroll before we got there. We took what we found and left before we got nabbed. Do you want us to cut you in on the booty? What I want is information! Your companion Gorath damns you as certainly as your lie does. Until he betrayed his own, he was second in power only to me. He shall die for his disloyalty. Since you choose to remain silent, I shall have your tongue and feed it to my rats. Have back your message, spy. It will do you little good in your grave. It's important to love what you do. BaK posted:Delekhan stalked away.  Rather than leaving this silent or recording a custom sound for Gorath getting smacked in the face, they play one of the most generic .midi kick drum SFX I've ever heard. BaK posted:It was too much to absorb.  I love how Owyn just STANDS there, still gripping the missing bars like a loving cartoon character. BaK posted:Owyn wasted no time.  And this part is more or less 100% canon if we take the book as canon, except that Delekhan never bothers to show up and interrogate them. He just calls Narab a moron and then has them tossed into the cells to rot. Join me next update as Owyn and Gorath wander around Moredhel territory and maybe commit a war crime or two. Is it gonna be the profitable kind of war crime? Those are my favourite.
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Nov 16, 2021 19:03
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quote:It’s important to love what you do.
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Nov 16, 2021 20:24
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I must confess, having neither played the game for read the novel I was surprised by that plot twist about the lost child.
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Nov 16, 2021 20:31
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