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PurpleXVI posted:
To be a proper scenery-chewing villain you have to master the dramatic flounce, as demonstrated superbly by our buddy Delekhan here. edit: update on the previous page
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Nov 16, 2021 20:38
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I love the gorath/owyn chapters, they're just an absolute delight. You'd think being down a person would slow you down but it never seems to be a problem, and even if it was, you'd barely notice because you go so many weird and cool places with them.
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Nov 16, 2021 20:48
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Oh no! Two moredhel! There's no way Owyn and Gorath could've handled that without getting captured! The chapter ending depended on figuring out a riddle chest? It's a pretty simple one, but that still seems a little surprising. I guess games back then were more of the "figure it out if you want to keep playing" school of design.
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Nov 16, 2021 23:19
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Guildenstern Mother posted:I love the gorath/owyn chapters, they're just an absolute delight. You'd think being down a person would slow you down but it never seems to be a problem, and even if it was, you'd barely notice because you go so many weird and cool places with them. It helps that Gorath and Owyn are the two most powerful characters in the game, in part because they're in more chapters than anyone else and get more EXP.
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Nov 16, 2021 23:56
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Its true. If we were just going off of personality the next companion would be the overwhelming favorite I think. Gorath does have his grumpy charms though.
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Nov 17, 2021 01:02
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PurpleXVI posted:
I see you've figured out why Owyn attaches himself to the plot of this story  Schwartzcough posted:Oh no! Two moredhel! There's no way Owyn and Gorath could've handled that without getting captured! the game has probably thrown dozens at you at this point and you can always brute force it, but yeah they were apparently very proud of the wordchest and were going to make sure you dealt with it ... or else!
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Nov 17, 2021 02:22
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I just wanted to say I have been enjoying this too. Last time I played betrayal was at least 10 years ago, this is bringing back a lot of memories. I was planning to play along, but the fights just got so monotonous I couldn't keep going. I seem to remember this chapter was one of my favorites just because of how different the location and story is for this section.
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Nov 17, 2021 05:52
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Talking about the ease of getting turned around an update or two back - something worth noting is that BaK is one of the few games where you want to move around in mini-map view whenever there aren't enemies around. Otherwise, you'll get confused and turned around a lot. Local early attempts at 3d hills just play bumper cars with your characters.
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Nov 17, 2021 11:26
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Xander77 posted:Talking about the ease of getting turned around an update or two back - something worth noting is that BaK is one of the few games where you want to move around in mini-map view whenever there aren't enemies around. Otherwise, you'll get confused and turned around a lot. Local early attempts at 3d hills just play bumper cars with your characters. Yeah, you can basically only move around on perfectly flat ground(the only elevation changes you can move over otherwise are bridges), so even just the tiniest pixel corner of a hill will turn you around. And I say turn you around because walking into something at a 90-degree angle stops the party, but if you walk into something angled, it'll usually spin the party to follow that angle instead, so if you just nick the corner polygon of a hill, it can easily spin you 90 degrees or more. I don't take many screenshots involving it because the map is even less exciting to look at than the normal environs, but for known areas or areas you're 90% sure are free of enemies, moving around with the map up is the superior option.
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Nov 17, 2021 11:46
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I first played Betrayal at Krondor when it came out in 1993. I wasn't even ten years old, but I thought beating Dragon Warrior made me a role-playing game expert. I never got past Chapter 1. All these years later, I thought the map was gated per chapter with difficult encounters and only now realize that's not the case, I'm just terrible at this game. Anyone who bought this in 1993 certainly got their money's worth. I don't think there was a role-playing game with the same production value, depth, and scope until Baldur's Gate.
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Nov 17, 2021 13:18
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raifield posted:Anyone who bought this in 1993 certainly got their money's worth. I don't think there was a role-playing game with the same production value, depth, and scope until Baldur's Gate. For a bit of context on this, each update I post is between an hour and 90 minutes of gameplay, even for someone like me who knows the game more or less like the back of their hand and has a guide to hand for trivia. So for me, getting this far has been ~15 hours of gameplay, and we're only just starting chapter 4 out of 9. Not all of them are going to be equally long, especially if you know what you're doing, but it should still hint at just how much content this game has.
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Nov 17, 2021 13:56
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PurpleXVI posted:For a bit of context on this, each update I post is between an hour and 90 minutes of gameplay, even for someone like me who knows the game more or less like the back of their hand and has a guide to hand for trivia. So for me, getting this far has been ~15 hours of gameplay, and we're only just starting chapter 4 out of 9. Not all of them are going to be equally long, especially if you know what you're doing, but it should still hint at just how much content this game has. How long would the chapters be if you didn't suffer from "Mainpathphobia" though? Because you've been wandering fairly far from the main path, by all accounts (though it does seem to be because the designers seemed to think "Hey, let's stick a side quest that can only be done in this chapter as far away from the main chapter beats as we can" was a good idea).
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Nov 17, 2021 15:42
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Randalor posted:How long would the chapters be if you didn't suffer from "Mainpathphobia" though? Because you've been wandering fairly far from the main path, by all accounts (though it does seem to be because the designers seemed to think "Hey, let's stick a side quest that can only be done in this chapter as far away from the main chapter beats as we can" was a good idea). The thing is you don't really need to do the sidequests for the most part. Plus, there are some genuinely open-ended chapters like Spider and the Spyglass that are basically designed to have you wandering around to beef you up some while you try to figure out the chapter.
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Nov 17, 2021 15:45
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Randalor posted:How long would the chapters be if you didn't suffer from "Mainpathphobia" though? Because you've been wandering fairly far from the main path, by all accounts (though it does seem to be because the designers seemed to think "Hey, let's stick a side quest that can only be done in this chapter as far away from the main chapter beats as we can" was a good idea). I mean, the thing is that the actual path travelled might be shorter, but it would also be a lot harder. Suddenly I'd be doing a lot more slogging back to temples, more resting, etc.. I'd need to be more of a loot-maniac and making multiple trips back to every battlefield to strip every single pair of boots off the dead for selling and I'd also be locked out of a good number of looty chests because I wouldn't have the skills to bust them open(or wouldn't have the skills to bust them open without killing the party). Even most of Owyn's spells are the result of off-the-path exploration. No Skin of the Dragon, no Grief of 1000 Nights, no River Songetc. he'd be pared down pretty hard to basically just Despair Thy Eyes, Skyfire and Flamecast in terms of spells that are worth casting in combat. Plus the consumables, we'd be down most of those, too, like the Horn of Algon-Kokoon that saved the party when fighting the Shades at Sethanon, the Powder Bags that have saved Owyn's butt numerous times and so on. Plus, what wins the party many of their fights, or at least lets them win them with minimal damage, is having high Stealth for getting surprise on enemies... which they only really got particularly good at once everyone got a pair of Weed Walkers, most of which were also from off-path exploration. Going off the beaten path in chapter 1 is what allows the party to actually skip a lot of hard, time-consuming work in the later chapters. I'm not sure if it would necessarily be much longer not to do it, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't at least still around the same amount of time.
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Nov 17, 2021 15:52
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Both the chest and the shop that provide Skin of the Dragon are on the most direct route to Krondor in Chapter 1. And as noted earlier, as long as you get a cast of SotD off, you win that combat.
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Nov 17, 2021 16:16
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Rogue AI Goddess posted:Both the chest and the shop that provide Skin of the Dragon are on the most direct route to Krondor in Chapter 1. If you take the most direct route to Krondor, you almost certainly won't be able to afford it at Sarth. I'll grant you the chest, though, depends on how main path we're treating "staying on the main path" as. Also, I disagree that one cast of SotD wins you the fight in all cases, because there are Black Slayers, and in a fight with four or five enemies who can resurrect, being able to hand out a lot of hurt and locking down enemies matters a lot more than being able to shrug off their attacks. Secondly, SotD might win you the fight you're in if, say, you drop it on Gorath, but that won't prevent a bunch of rusalki from curbstomping a poorly equipped James and Owyn, setting you back a lot economically as you either spend time resting them up, haul them to a temple or exhaust your supply of Restoratives on them.
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Nov 17, 2021 16:49
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Based on the progress of the LP, I think a direct path game is going to eat a similar amount of time as this except for chapter 1. That was an astounding amount of exploration whereas the direct path from LaMut to Krondor, even with a few minor detours to explore, is nowhere close to the breadth of things you can do. Genuinely a difference of hours there. But 2/3? Pretty similar. like think of it this way - a main path run of Chapter 1, maybe 10% of what we saw. Main path runs of 2/3? Probably 80% the same. Future chapters, we'll get to them when we get to them. Also it feels like there was a genre-wide expectation to explore at least a little bit when BAK was released, so it's not like you were intended to do 0% of the sidequests. If nothing else, you'll want gear and skills to fight the ambushes along the way, which act as a soft check on leveling up.
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Nov 17, 2021 21:54
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Also worth remembering that the biggest source of skill increases is training from NPC’s and books - both of which require going a bit off the straight line path to earn money to afford it. So even if you’re not totally going off the beaten path, a lot of the side detours are very useful. Just checked because I was curious and the speed runs of this game (e.g., doing the bare minimum) are about 3 hours. And this game doesn’t have much in the way of cutscenes or other “dead time” so that’s effectively pure game play. For comparison, BG1 and 2 are each about 30 minutes, while the entire Fallout series was run at GDQ in like 2 and a half (worth watching btw, very entertaining).
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Nov 17, 2021 22:23
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how the gently caress do you play either bg in 30 minutes
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Nov 17, 2021 23:22
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V. Illych L. posted:how the gently caress do you play either bg in 30 minutes I just watched someone beat Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition in 16 minutes via abuse of Offensive Spin, Oil of Speed, and Invisibility scrolls. What seems to make it work is that Baldur's Gate advances the plot based on the player finding plot items, not by killing plot enemies. So the guy just zoomed past everyone, grabbed the plot device, and fled. The few cases where combat was required he cheesed by buying wands of fireballs or frost. His character never swung a weapon at anyone. The final battle was a scroll of magic immunity and three scrolls of Cloudkill. Pretty creative, I think. Incidentally, the speedrun also taught me what the Clairvoyance spell in Baldur's Gate did. Never tried that one, I thought it only detected hidden doors or something.
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Nov 18, 2021 00:25
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raifield posted:Incidentally, the speedrun also taught me what the Clairvoyance spell in Baldur's Gate did. Never tried that one, I thought it only detected hidden doors or something. ...so what does it actually do? I played that game religiously when I was younger and I never knew either.
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Nov 18, 2021 00:55
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I'm an easy mark for games with random, often very modest loot. I can climb a mountain to find a pair of warm socks, two bent coppers, a tin of peas and a confused goat and think that it was a wonderful adventure. (I do like peas) Question: Does this game have, or not, a spell to provide light in dark places? If so, what is it called? If not, forget I asked. Lastly, speedrunners are... curious people. I mean that in every sense of the word.
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Nov 18, 2021 02:53
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JustJeff88 posted:Question: Does this game have, or not, a spell to provide light in dark places? If so, what is it called? If not, forget I asked. It actually has two! Candle Glow for indoors areas and Stardusk for outdoors areas.
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Nov 18, 2021 02:58
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PurpleXVI posted:It actually has two! Candle Glow for indoors areas and Stardusk for outdoors areas. I knew that you had mentioned such, but I looked at a spell list for the game and it didn't mention either. Odd things to miss. Also, it's 3 AM in Denmark. Go to bed, Purple.
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Nov 18, 2021 03:08
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V. Illych L. posted:how the gently caress do you play either bg in 30 minutes raifield posted:I just watched someone beat Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition in 16 minutes via abuse of Offensive Spin, Oil of Speed, and Invisibility scrolls. What seems to make it work is that Baldur's Gate advances the plot based on the player finding plot items, not by killing plot enemies. So the guy just zoomed past everyone, grabbed the plot device, and fled. The few cases where combat was required he cheesed by buying wands of fireballs or frost. His character never swung a weapon at anyone. The final battle was a scroll of magic immunity and three scrolls of Cloudkill. Pretty creative, I think. https://gdqvods.com/game/baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition https://gdqvods.com/game/baldurs-gate-2-enhanced-edition The 2D Fallouts work generally similarly where you basically sprint across the map, avoiding all combat, then just use very specific tactics for the handful of forced fights. The 3D Fallouts tend to rely more on abusing Bethesda's programming. This is all five main series Fallout games (1-4 plus New Vegas) in a combined total of two and a half hours, again being a marathon run so it's got full explanations of what's going on. https://gdqvods.com/game/fallout-anthology
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Nov 18, 2021 03:13
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I recalled the OG Baldur's Gate didn't have any limits on summon monsters so you could cheese the mandatory fights with hordes of dogs and gibblings so enemy mages waste their spells on the summons and then get overwhelmed by sheer numbers once the various defensive spells wore off.
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Nov 18, 2021 04:48
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JustJeff88 posted:I knew that you had mentioned such, but I looked at a spell list for the game and it didn't mention either. Odd things to miss. Someone was wrong about RPG's on the internet, I couldn't let that pass for minor trifles like sleep.
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Nov 18, 2021 11:24
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PurpleXVI posted:...so what does it actually do? I played that game religiously when I was younger and I never knew either. It simply reveals the entire map. The spell only works outside, but scrolls work indoors and underground. The speed-runner used one scroll to reveal the maze underneath the Thieves Guild and rush to the exit.
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Nov 18, 2021 12:56
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Update 23: Do the Crime, Do the Time, Part 1   First question: Is everyone in the Northlands insane? No. Second question: Where's all our stuff?!So, Chapter 4 starts by dropping us in a large square room with all of our gear(keys excepted) and gold missing, but because they're good hosts, Delekhan's murderous hordes have left all of Gorath and Owyn's equipment and backpack contents lying in two convenient chests in the same room... except for the gold, which is gone, hence why I exchanged it all for high-value gems before ending chapter 5. Not that we'll need a lot of gold from here on out, but it's the principle of the thing. You also get some special dialogue if you try to leave without picking up your stuff. BaK posted:Gorath noticed the chests. As expected, we're in the dungeons under Sar-Sargoth, Delekhan's(formerly Murmandamus') fortress and... they're big.  We start in the central purple section and our goal is to reach the "Upper Level"(yes, it has two levels, too!) exit at the end of the blue path. However, two out of the three doors we can exit through are locked! Access to the blue section requires a special unique key which we lack for now and access to the red section requires a Guildis Thorn key(or 40-something Lockpicking which you COULD get at this point by getting the Lockpicking trainer in Hawk's Hollow, the train-everything book and then bringing an Amulet of the Upright Man or two, but not expecting to lose James at the end of Chapter 3, you probably did not think to slap those amulets on someone not him). The green section is unlocked and contains a Guildis Thorn, but it has nothing else of interest and these idiots forgot to take our keys away.    Did I mention the dungeon is heavily guarded at all points and that without Weed Walkers, Gorath and Owyn won't reliably get the drop on enemy groups which can hurt real loving bad since they also tend to carry less rations than surface enemies and thus give you less of a chance to recover if you didn't come here with fully supplied packs like I cleverly did?    The dungeon also has Ogres, which don't exist in canon Midkemia. They're basically just bald dudes with big swords and no armor, but since they at least drop their swords on death, they suck less than trolls. They also have a nifty special feature that will become relevant in a few moments.    Aside from the key needed to escape, this chest, this chest, also contains a vital tool needed to make said escape feasible.  Even with ambush, I need to drop Skin of the Dragon on Gorath and have him chase the Witch Hag around like a Benny Hill skit to prevent her dropping save-or-die bullshit on the team, and Owyn only got that one cast in before the Moredhel warriors started chasing him around.   I miss having Locklear around to distract enemies.  I miss having James around to disarm traps. Help me pick these splinters out of my forehead, would you?Don't even bother casting Scent of Sarig for this chest, it deals a piddling 25 damage and it's unlikely the party actually can disarm it anyway. We want to break it open because it'll help accelerate Owyn being a completely busted magical powerhouse.  Oh and if James was carrying all your rope, get that rope, too, since even on the most direct path out of the dungeon you'll need to hop two or three pits. More if you get lost or do a bit of exploring off to the sides. That spell, though, is Evil Seek, which is an absolutely awesome name for a spell that kills things. Stop blueballing everyone, and also me, and let's go test this thing out.Before we do that, though, it's also worth noting this is finally where enemies take off the kid gloves in terms of gear. Most enemies here are wearing either Elven or Dragon Plate armor and are thus either slightly well-defended or EXTREMELY well-defended, and the main weapons are Goblin Stickers, Two-Handed Swords and Swords of Kinnur. Kingdom Broadswords and Moredhel Lampreys are completely off the menu, and practically every crossbow we see will be a Tsurani Crossbow of some variety. Another chest in the same room is locked and requires either 80(!) Lockpicking or a Guildis Thorn instead. Technically you could softlock yourself here if you get unlucky, test out the Thorn on a special key door and snap it without having a backup, so don't do that.  It contains the special key that opens nine out of ten dungeon doors and is called the Interdictor Key. BaK posted:A skeletal death's head grinned on the key's haft. "An interdictor key," Owyn said, tapping the key against the palm of his hand. "These keys are the only way to open locks that have been blessed by the Death Goddess. I'm not sure I want to find the door this opens." If anyone's playing along at home, this cache is the large room in the upper part of the Red dungeon section. If you want to tap out the rest, though, there are a couple of items to find at the end of the Red corridors to the south.     Time to try out Evil Seek!  It hurls out a big star-shaped projectile like Bane, but only gives you 2 points of damage per point of stamina/health paid out. So why is this still an awesome spell?  Because it chains to any number of targets, ignoring line-of-sight blocks as it does so, each bounce losing 20% damage. It should rapidly be obvious why this outdamages pretty much every damaging spell option we have so far, and it absolutely tears rear end through enemy ranks. The first target hit is almost guaranteed to, if not die, at least be severely wounded and unable to be much of a threat. It also inexplicably does no damage to human Rogues and Rogue Mages, don't ask me why. I guess only everything else, including dogs and spiders, is Evil enought to be Sought.  From here on out, the first move in practically every battle is that Owyn pops a max-cost Evil Seek on any high-value target he sees and then Gorath starts cleaning up. I'll also be spending an Icer, Killian's Root Oil or Clerical Oilcloth before almost every fight since I need Gorath on his A-game in terms of cutting enemies to chunks. These goons are guarding the two interesting chunks of the Red tunnels, one's a chest...   CANE Which contains a couple of crossbows and some much-needed herbal packs. Feel free to imagine why. The other thing the goblins were guarding is just a bit of world fluff.    So Delekhan made a monument to how cool he is. Hugely arrogant, but indeed. And then he hid it in a dark corner of his basement where not even the patrolling goblins would see it. If it was outside, I imagine every passing commoner would pelt it with dung. I'm mostly just saying that it's funny imagining he creeps down here and gushes over his own monument to himself. What a loser.In any case, pathetic self-indulgent monuments aside, we now have the Interdictor key and can proceed to the Blue part of the dungeon. The yellow part contains some loot, but frankly nothing either unique or memorable. If you came here with full supplies, you won't need it, and if you came here with low supplies, you'll just want to crunch the first fight inside as it contains a lot of rations and a free emerald. Instead, we start taking the Blue section loop up to the exit.    So, generally encounters down here are hard-countered by getting surprise and casting Evil Seek at full power, but it generally won't kill all the enemies in one blast.  Which means that even if you leave a carpet of dead enemies, just one of them plunking Owen with a single poisoned bolt can rocket him up to 75% or 90% poison which consumes 1 Herbal Pack per 25% cured(or one Restorative per 5% cured) if you're not carrying around Antivenom. This both drains your healing supplies and, if you use the herbal packs, also your rations real quickly. And I think it's close to 50% of the enemies in this dungeon who're archers(if they're an enemy type who CAN be archers, like goblins and moredhel), and almost all of them are bringing poisoned quarrels. What I'm trying to communicate is that getting out of here consumes close to three weeks' worth of in-game time just because of all the resting involved.     Eventually the encounters start petering out as you head towards the north end of the Blue dungeon section, but towards the final section we come across two coded chests!   TOWEL This one contains a suit of elven armor, some of those scare-enemies-away green goop potions and a spare bowstring. Oddly low level for this point in the game. BaK posted:Struggling with its complicated elven buckles, Owyn tried the breastplate on for size. Too wide for him at the shoulders, he was nonetheless pleased with its clever filigrees and fine fluted scrollwork, patterns designed to be decorative while also denying enemies a even striking plane.   The second one is right on the exit from the lower level of the dungeon.  PRIEST This one's a bit more rewarding, containing a ruby, some Killian's Root Oil and a rare Euliliko Armor(the yellow-and-blue kind we got from Northwarden in Chapter 2). BaK posted:Commissioned by Earl Kasumi for his LaMutian soldiers, the design was an Tsurani improvement over Kingdom armor. Where rigid steel plates had been traditionally riveted, the armorcrafter Euliliko had used instead flexible lengths of horn which would allow the armor to fold without being punctured. Interacting with the staircase also gets us a bit of additional dialogue. BaK posted:Gorath halted at the stairwell.   I'm starting to feel like we could just hang out here and murder all of Delekhan's groupies when they come at us in packs of three or four and give us plenty of time to rest in between each fight.   The upper level of the Sar-Sargoth dungeons is about 1/8th of the size of the lower level Owyn and Gorath started out on, and slows the party down less since there are less crossbow assholes hanging around up here.   ALPHABET Spare coins and a few restoratives.     ECHO A Guilder's Passkey(of which we have like, ten at this point), some spare change and some crossbow repair juice. This clears out the last of the code chests in Sar-Sargoth and we can bail for the exit.    On the way out, though, we run into this battle which can be be cleared by a single Evil Seek. How, you might ask, is such a wonder possible? It's possible because Ogres take double damage from Evil Seek, so if you start out hitting an Ogre, your initial damage is 120 rather than 60, and if it then bounces to, say, a Moredhel Warrior, it's still 120-20%, which is enough to flatten him. The fight also features an oddity in that the third ogre from the left has zero health and stamina when the battle starts and flat zeroes in all skills as a result. I suspect it's an oversight or fat-finger on the developers' part, but any amount of damage will instantly drop him dead. There are a few other enemies in the game like that, with no rhyme or reason to them.   BaK posted:Gorath looked up the narrow stairwell.  (Skirled, really? Put the thesaurus away, Dynamix, you're drunk) Welcome to scenic Sar-Sargoth! It's got a shop where the team instantly drops by to sell all their gems. The exchange of gold, to gems, back to gold again at a poor store wipes out about 70% of the party's liquidity, but without a trick like that, they'd be emerging from Sar-Sargoth with barely 300 gold to their name rather than, as it turns out, about 2200 gold which means finances will be a very minor issue for the rest of the game. There's also a tavern where Owyn still gets tips for playing Kingdom songs(I kind of wish they had a different barding dialogue bit for playing in the Northlands) and... crusty as the image is, you might notice there are some poles with heads on them in the foreground. Let's fiddle with one.  I might just stay up here if it's normal for Moredhel heads to be stuffed full of gems. What's this note say? I feel like I'm going to regret translating this for you...BaK posted:... the use of the stone is ancient, dating since the time of the original Murmandanus. It would appear, however, that a crystal, preferably an emerald, is required in conjunction with Nalar's Rib to properly invoke the Lord of the void ... ...c'mon, c'mon, c'mon. I'm not letting you invoke something called the "Lord of the Void," Owyn. But it sounds dope as hell. ...okay, yes, it does, and it'll probably cause more trouble for Delekhan than for us. Probably.There's also a bit of unique dialogue in the tavern.  BaK posted:The man had the look of a mercenary. I'm starting to feel like Owyn may be going slightly crazed with power and wealth. Let's dip out of Sar-Sargoth before any further trouble pursues the team. Also, regarding the canonicity of this whole thing... basically none. Delekhan doesn't visit them in their cells, though they are freed by magic, after which they just sneak out after looting the corpses of the guards while trying to attract as little attention as possible. In the book there's also an army encamped around Sar-Sargoth, and they hide in the camp.  And the Northlands... actually get a new palette compared to the Kingdom! This is a nice touch. We're now at the northernmost part of the map, Sar-Sargoth. There's a large semi-open plain to our south, while the road curves southwest to Yabon and southeast to Highcastle and Northwarden. Our first objective, though, is to dip slightly east off the road since there's an encounter here which I think you can miss if you just stick to the road, I'm not sure how large the activation zone for it is.  BaK posted:They were not alone.  Something about the poor quality of Liallan's sprite always makes it seem to me like she's got a big underbite of some sort. Maybe it's just me. The book goes to great lengths to describe what a badass she looks like and how tough and confident she seems. In the book she's in a political marriage with Delekhan and is one of the extremely few characters created for Betrayal at Krondor to actually re-appear in later books! You sound imminently pleased at that prospect. Why this charade, Liallan? You can't believe in Delekhan's activities any more than I, and yet you support his cause. You command a respectable tribe and have almost as much power. Almost? Do you forget who engineered your escape from Sar-Sargoth all those months ago? Who do you think directed Delekhan's rats into the snowplains while Obkhar's family scrambled to safety. That was my doing. If not for my help, the Six would surely have crushed your tribes from the Green Heart. Were you responsible for... ...No, I had nothing to do with your escape this time. Whatever you may have done, you have achieved on your own. Your first escape served my purposes, but your continued survival is as nothing to me. It neither threatens or advances my cause. Then you will help me again? I will consider my efforts an investment against the future of the Northlands, Gorath. They will gain me little now, but perhaps at a later day your help may be useful. I will alert my spies to whatever your needs may be. To be honest, I don't believe you will achieve much beyond your own survival, but even that may prove to be my boon.[DELEKHAN] You consort with a monster, Liallan. Tell us a way and we shall murder him in his sleep. Show us a secret passage and we shall drink his blood and buy the moredhel out of their pact of blood. And what shall become of us? Moraeulf will then step into his father's place and use our treachery to light the fires under our pursuers. Delekhan must fight this battle and our kin die with him on foreign soil for futile cause. Only then will the other clans who wait to join him know that we cannot unify under a banner of death. Their failure taught them no lesson after Murmandamus betrayed us in the field and this shall come to no new conclusion! We want the same things, Gorath, though I intend to claim what you fear. I will take the throne of the Nations of the North when Delekhan has fallen to Kingdom blades. I will lead... ...I don't know whether I should laugh or weep at that suggestion, Liallan, but I favor you over his bastard get Moraeulf.Holy poo poo Gorath, that's some loving blood-thirst, LITERALLY! Also, here it's stated more openly that Gorath had the potential to lead the Moredhel as a whole nation rather than scattered tribes. In the book it's more hinted at, but it feels suggested that he was so generally well-regarded for being impartial, neutral and patient that he was a threat to Delekhan's dominion in that others might have favoured him as leader(or his patient advice might have been "don't attack the Kingdom, you morons"). [NALAR'S RIB] There have been few occasions I have had to visit Nalar's Rib. I forget its location. It lies south of here, as the crow flies, a few minutes from the front gates of Sar-Sargoth. I have not been there in a long while.We only get the Nalar's Rib keyword if we read the note hidden inside the severed head outside Sar-Sargoth. [FREEDOM] Again, I must seek help in the Kingdom. Prince Arutha's army must be there to meet Delekhan. It may prove more difficult than you imagine. Delekhan has called for Narab's head. Why should that be? If not for Narab, I would still be loose in the Kingdom... I do not know what fires burn in his mind, but they smoke like madness to me. Narab has called on his clan to surround us, though they can be little threat to us here. The Six will crush them hopelessly, but they can restrict us for a time. The more that Narab plays the fool, the more time it will gain us, though I could wish he were doing it elsewhere. Is there no way past his clan? Not unless you may know how to bring down the dark god's wrath from Nalar's Rib, I can't imagine a way until the Six arrive.Note, it's entirely possible to just smash your way through the Moredhel surrounding Sar-Sargoth, though possibly less so if you came into chapter 4 poorly prepared. Though even a poorly prepared Owyn and Gorath with Evil Seek should be able to handle most of what gets thrown at them. It's also true to the book that Narab, pissed that Delekhan isn't happy he finally did as he's told, calls on his clan to rebel openly against Delekhan which takes some time for Delekhan and the Six to put down. [THE BATTLE] For what goal does Delekhan do this? There can be nothing gained by attacking a single castle on the frontier of the Kingdom. He tells those who rally to him that Murmandamus lives, that he is captive within the Kingdom and that he intends to free him from captivity. None saw him die at Sethanon. And what advantage is there in that for Delekhan? Step aside and let Murmandamus retake his place on the throne? I would easier believe you the mistress of death than Delekhan one who longs for his ancient master. It would seem then there is one among the moredhel who thinks. I too have wondered at what he wishes to gain and I may only conclude he plots to get something from Murmandamus in exchange for freeing him. He had great powers, greater even than the Six who now work for Delekhan. Perhaps he believes he can learn the secrets of our former leader's powers.[THE SIX] Whence did Delekhan's magicians come? They were spoken of in Harlech before first I left the Northlands. Do they advise? And more. They plan great schemes into the night with him, meetings to which even I am no longer privy. They are the ones who recommended the extermination of your tribe. They speak of the low born as if their lives are without value. It is as if they live for the complexities of intrigue. Little else seems to matter to them. When they buy their wine, with what coins do they bargain? None. They carry only gems, rubies of low quality. They toss them about as if they were as common as seeds. They abide in Sar-Sargoth? When they are with Delekhan. At the moment they have gone south with Moraeulf to Harlech. I believe they mean to round up others of your tribe who have been reluctant to join Delekhan's throng.Rubies of low quality... hmmm... reminds me of something, but not sure what. (If it reminds you of something, too, please don't let everyone know, because it's meant to be a big reveal) A thing I missed while I was here is that there's a well-hidden graveyard outside of Sar-Sargoth that can be poked at, though it can't be looted it does have some unique text when approached. BaK posted:Owyn gasped. Looking from one headstone to the next, he was horrified that each bore either his or Gorath's names...   So, let's talk numbers. In the area around Sar-Sargoth there are a whopping 98 enemies scattered through a bit more than a dozen battles, and if we're light on our feet, agile(and read a FAQ), we can reach Nalar's Rib south of the city after bumping into only one or two of those, so let's do that. Our only clue that heading to the Rib is a good idea really is that it's posited as an option at all and that Liallan suggests it might get us through Narab's encirclement of the city.   Additionally, there are a number of chests and other small points of interest scattered throughout the plain between the city and the Rib. Some of them are Locked chests that it would take an Amulet of the Upright Man(or multiple) for these two goons to crack, but most of them are coded. For instance, this nearest one...   PADDLE It contains yet another Emerald, a Glory Hand which I'm absolutely going to ignore and some Restoratives. BaK posted:Although glory hands were greatly coveted by witches of various ilks, Owyn wished only to put the horrid thing down. He poked at the mummified form. Bits of yellowed bone showed through cracks in the blackened flesh, the only certain sign the hand had once be longed to a human. Good instincts, Owyn, don't handle dead bodies unless it's for looting purposes.    I kind of like the Northlands. Chilly, beautiful, full of angry elves trying to kill me. Oh look, here comes another group! This fight almost goes badly since the Moredhel get ambush on Owyn and Gorath.  Ha ha, I'm in danger. Owyn manages to dust two of them while Gorath desperately cleaves his way through the rest, trying to make his way to Owyn, meanwhile that one clever jackass in the back ranks plunks like three bolts into Owyn, all of them, of course, poisoned, meaning that Owyn is slowly melting as the fight goes on.  Yeah, he's, uh, not in a good place. Thankfully Gorath comes through at the last possible moment.    After which the two of them settle down for a nice calm rest in the corpse pile they just created until Owyn's arms and legs work again and he stops bleeding from his eyes.
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Nov 23, 2021 13:48
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Update 24: Do the Crime, Do the Time, Part 2  Finally we reach Nalar's Rib. Yeah, it's that unimposing gravestone-looking rock over on the right, functionally indistinguishable from Prank's Stone, really, but this time the joke isn't on the party if they use it.  And yes, of course there's one last ambush before we get to do so. Assholes.   The answer can only be yes. Why would it ever be anything other than yes? BaK posted:Owyn took an emerald and carried it carefully to the stone slab. When he was still several steps away the gemstone began to feel very warm in his hand, and by the time he reached the slab the stone was crackling and shooting small sparks as from a piece of struck flint. It was all he could do not to drop it in the dust. So that's obviously loving cool, but what actually happened?    Check it out, dead guys. Hm, curious, we haven't passed this way. Judging by the burns... the way his eyeballs have exploded... yeah, the Rib did this. The Rib totally did this. We should've brought more emeralds.So, what the Rib does is... remember those 98 enemies around Sar-Sargoth? It loving kills them all. Stone. loving. Dead. Which totally rules and is an excellent war crime since it kills them without damaging anything they're carrying and thus preventing us from profiting off it. This has basically cleared the road all the way to Caern and we can walk north to rejoin it before heading east.    There are just so many corpses, in fact almost all the way until Caern the goons are tripping over dead bodies full of free stuff(mostly poisoned rations and spare change, for some reason).    It feels like a bit of a shame that they didn't use new house models for the Northlands. But then again, the idea that the Moredhel have any sort of homes other than maybe stick huts and temporary war camps is something that isn't brought up until Betrayal in any case. So we don't really have a great canon idea of how they live and what they live in, except occasionally ancient Valheru fortresses and fortifications(which if I recall right Sar-Sargoth is one of). So what's happening in Caern? Very little, frankly. Most of the homes are abandoned, but the ones that aren't... BaK posted:Gorath knocked on the door, though he was sure no one would answer. Perhaps to everyone's great surprise, the book does not have a scene where Gorath has to literally fend off fangirls with a stick. But the idea of Delekhan stripping the Northlands of people and resources for his mad plan is absolutely in the books. That's all we've got out of Caern, however, and it's time to head down the road towards Raglam and Wyke.    As the road starts to turn south after Caern, there are a few tents off the road to the east which are a hint to head past them into the woods.    THOUGHTS It's not a very worthwhile chest, in terms of loot, just a tier 1 and tier 3 sword which any player would be well past by this point, but it's the principle of the thing, no puzzle left behind.   I didn't know Moredhel got that big. Those aren't Moredhel, they're giants!  They beat us on init and this Witch Hag promptly blasts Gorath with a Fetters of Rime. That sucks. I have Owyn blast her with an Evil Seek to prevent any more shenanigans, but what are the giants going to do?  Thankfully they don't go for Owyn and instead stand there hurling rocks at Gorath while I pop Skin of the Dragon on Owyn and have him scarf down a Fadamor's Formula for +10 Strength for the fight. ... Hey Gorath, don't say anything if I can keep all the loot from now on.  Then he goes to town on those big chunky fucks. When one of them tries to run, he roasts it with a Flamecast before it gets away. Giants are somewhat rare, but a nice bit of variety and, while they have tons of health, are otherwise not too dangerous.    Shortly after we approach the easternmost bridge towards Raglam and... there sure are a lot of dickheads hanging around there. BaK posted:GORATH: Don't be in such a hurry my young friend. Yeah, we're not allowed to exit in this direction towards Raglam and Northwarden for reasons. So we're headed south instead, towards Wyke and Highcastle, we've gotta get out of here before something turns bad. Yeah, the charm of the Northlands kind of passed once all those Moredhel we roasted with Nalar's Rib started decomposing. Kids these days, back in my day we liked the smell of our enemies rotting in the sun.   The blue fella in the middle is another type of Ogre, the Highland Ogre, which is an Ogre spellcaster. If he didn't get annihilated by a single Evil Seek, he would be more dangerous than a Witch Hag on grounds of having close to twice the hit points and thus able to cast twice the spells before needing to take a nap. I think the blue is meant to be like... woad paint? Tattoos? I don't know.    This trap a bit further down the road is actually a bit clever. If you don't think about it, you just rush to shove that crystal up because rods gotta be disabled by blasters... except that's wrong. You need to just go left around the first blaster and up the field. See, an ACTIVE zap line knocks Blaster projectiles out of the air! It's a neat little trick which I totally fell for and Gorath had to eat a Blaster shot to free the two.    So, what's happening down in Wyke? BaK posted:The moredhel who answered Gorath's knock, had a long scar that ran from just above his eye, to an unseen spot under his chin. He greeted them in moredhel. "I am Gralek. Why do you come here?" Gorath asked if they could enter and the moredhel reluctantly agreed. As he lead them into his house, Owyn noticed that he had almost no use of his right leg. Aside from that, there's a single store, and the party can slip further south out of town.   Surprise, though, this road is blocked as well. The Inclindel Gap south of Harlech and Armengar is in fact our only way out of the Northlands.   I'm tired. Are we there yet? No. My feet hurt, can we take a break? No. I'm thirsty, can we stop for a drink? N- actually, we might be in the right area...    Wonder why those guys were guarding a well, maybe we should have asked them before we killed them. They weren't guarding the well.BaK posted:Gorath looked at the small well and couldn't help but remember the day it was built. The hole was no sooner dug than the skies opened up. Rain fell for several straight hours, making the completion of the job a muddy slippery mess. The house is, of course, special. BaK posted:Gorath paused in front of the door.  So wait, they were guarding her? Your husband has at last returned. Husband? How so? Clan leader? By what right? Upon a time you held all those titles with dignity and honor. Around you, the Clan Ardanien was curled like a golden dragon, ready to rise up at your word and crush whatever lay in your path. Where is that dragon now? Why does it sleep? Cullich...is that all you dream of beneath your strange stars? A dead past? What value in all Murmandamus' speeches did we gain but to learn that we are weak? What spirit did we discover in defeat except that we corrupt from within? The time has come to blunt our blades and look to our own, to put down the monsters that we have become. What destiny would you have of the moredhel, Gorath? Should we bend our heads to the earth once more, enslave ourselves to the will of the Eledhel who live in Elvandar much as we trembled beneath the Valheru in black centuries past? Their Queen Aglaranna will not accept us back into the fold as family, but instead as slaves. You've seen our brethren that have returned to them. What are they but gelded bulls in elven servitude? I know not whether they rejoice or weep under their midnight stars, but their children grow to great ages, they trade freely under the Kingdom sun. We must fight for so little as a loaf of bread and kill our cousins lest they steal our kits from their dreaming. It is time we became more than savages. Why have you come here, Gorath? Surely not to debate a love that between us is dead. No...I need your help but for a short time longer and then I will be away and leave you to your own. So much I ask from my former wife. You then may be free to do as you see fit. In the name of one I loved once, I listen and I will do as I can. Speak, Gorath.[SCRYING] We need of you a scrying. What road will lead us to safety? I needn't consult the stars for your answer, for I have looked upon it for days since you left. Delekhan masses on the Kingdom's borders, the banners of the Clans Krieda, Dargelas, and Oeirdu flutter on the fields near Raglam. I would seek no passage south through the Teeth that leads by the Kingdom fortresses of Northwarden or Highcastle; doubtless Narab shall be at their head. Narab has turned on the old wolf. Sar-Sargoth is encircled with his clan. He shall not trouble us. Nonetheless, the armies are gathering and you will find none among them friends. Neither may you pass across the Great Northern Mountains through Moraelin. Moraeulf works with The Six to ensure that none of the former clans of the Green Heart may escape through the fringes of Elvandar. Lims-Kragma feast on his soul! He believes if we cannot run, we will join his accursed march?! Again, your only means of escape lies along the Inclindel. For whatever reason, the Six have allowed the snows to lift. Perhaps they are otherwise occupied focusing their magics.Moraelin is a location of note from Silverthorn, being where the Moredhel conceal the only known Silverthorn cure(more Silverthorn...) to lure Arutha and his companions there for an ambush. Of course, the ambush is foiled largely because Jimmy the Hand is a genius who defeats every trap laid by hundreds-of-years-old experienced moredhel tacticians and planners. [THE SIX] These Six who now serve Delekhan, from what clan do they arise? Perhaps their loyalties may be reversed. They are mighty in their arts, husband, far beyond even my powers. They claim the ancient title of Spellweavers, though they are vastly different from those of our magical cousins in Elvandar. Some suspect they hail of the serpent people, but long it has been since I touched the mind of those folk in the Northlands.Human magic in Midkemia is generally very "pew pew, fireballs" or hedge magic, meanwhile elf magic, whether moredhel or eledhel, is generally incredibly vague, packed in dozens of layers of elven claims that their magic is too mysterious, innate and complex to explain in human terms. What it actually seems to translate into, though, is that the Eledhel can lay down a few magic traps in the woods and the Moredhel can get high off Valheru fumes. In the book Cullich also mentions attempting to scry on the Six and getting knocked on her rear end for several days by the magical backlash when she ran into their defensive spells. [ESCAPE] I thank you for saving our lives. Without your assistance my companion and I would have perished under Delekhan's hand. I would not wish your death, but I am not to thank for your recent escape. Why would you think me a part of it? Magic was involved. While we were captive, someone released us from our bonds. I had assumed you were responsible. Someone else acts in your favor, Gorath. It was not I. I should question who it is and what their motives for doing so would be.[ILLUSION] If we are to slip undetected through the Inclindel, we may require your skills of illusion. One such as you summoned when I first escaped Delekhan's men. You know not what you ask... That spell was great in its fashioning and left of my power nothing for a month! I cannot follow where you go for I believe yours is a coward's path!BaK posted:Owyn fidgeted. Cullich literally gets so tired of Owyn standing around that she blasts his brain with another 15 points of Accuracy: Casting, knocking him up to a full hundred, the first completely maxed skill we come across. [MORAEULF] If we should encounter Moraeulf and The Six, I should like to be better prepared to meet him. There is a spell I crafted once that I may teach the boy. It is an illusion which bends the perceptions of those nearby in such a way that they cannot see you for who you truly are. Instead, you are seen as a resident of the area which you wish to enter. It has been specifically tailored for the town of Harlech, perhaps of use to you when you deal with Moraeulf. If you have 800 silver I may teach it to Owyn, or an equal sum in gold that I might buy the silver I require. You would charge us for this? While I would be within my rights to do so, I require silver because it is needed for the fashioning of the spell. Do you have the coin?[YES] The money is yours. Do what must be done. Very well. Owyn, please come here for a moment. I'm not going to end up unconscious on the floor again, am I? You shall remain on your feet throughout the whole lesson. We shall begin.BaK posted:Time passed. His head swimming with the details of the spell, Owyn repeated the cantrip line by line back to Cullich. When she seemed satisfied he had learned all its details, she nodded her head. "You have learned well," she said. "Go and rest for a few moments." This teaches Owyn the spell "AND THE LIGHT SHALL LIE" which briefly makes him and Gorath appear as generic moredhel. This only functions in one place in the Northlands, where it temporarily allows them to escape several "endless" battles that would otherwise re-occur with every step and boot them back where they started. She can also teach Owyn "Unfortunate Flux" for 300 gold if he doesn't already know it, but he does. BaK posted:ANOTHER SPELL There's no goodbye quote, but in the book they have a final exchange that I rather liked, where Gorath and Cullich declare their marriage formally ended, as they've grown too far apart, after a debate about whether or not its possible for them to live peacefully alongside humans except in situations where those humans are slaves or mercenaries.   We couldn't have stayed the night or something? I think I'm going to lose some toes if we keep going. Hacking off your frostbitten toes would be less awkward than crashing with my ex.   Thankfully, just around the corner from Cullich's, a group of goblins are guarding several cozy tents. Owyn and Gorath evict them and now have a warm and comfy place to stay for the night aaaaaand...  One of the tents has a surprise! It's one of the only three places in the game to acquire Wrath of Killian which is a spell of... dubious use. What it does is establish a "trap square" that deals its damage over and over every round until the battle ends, and anyone standing on the square also can't use crossbows or cast spells. The main problem is that the square is unmarked, so your characters can accidentally walk on to it, too, but if you were lacking better caster-disrupting spells it could be good, or if a particularly beefy enemy is in a fight with another character, a Wrath under their feet might accelerate wearing them down. Still, 19 times out of 20 we will have much better things to cast. I'm not going to move for another 24 hours. I think your ex gave me a concussion. It should throw any surviving pursuers off our scent, when your head stops ringing, we'll make for Harlech and then the Kingdom.Next update: Snow, fumes and LORE.
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Nov 23, 2021 13:49
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There might be contrary accounts in the later books, but all I have read is that when a Moredhel 'returns' to the Eledhel people it's a cause for great rejoicing and very rare... only about once every many decades. After that point, again as far I have read, Moredhel are treated as well as any other Eledhel. In the book Honoured Enemy, a returned Moredhel points out that, while an Eledhel and Moredhel cannot have a child together, a returned Moredhel and a born Eledhel can. At least in the early books, the differences between those two branches of the elven people are rather complicated.
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Nov 23, 2021 19:50
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I can't imagine a more awkward moment with an ex-wife than to saunter into her house after leaving half a dozen corpses on her front lawn. That would invite a few questions instead of a foreign language lesson, but hey, I'm not a Moredhel.
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Nov 23, 2021 19:59
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Flowers don't bloom well in the frozen north, so fresh corpses are used as a substitute.
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Nov 23, 2021 20:05
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raifield posted:I can't imagine a more awkward moment with an ex-wife than to saunter into her house after leaving half a dozen corpses on her front lawn. That would invite a few questions instead of a foreign language lesson, but hey, I'm not a Moredhel. Rogue AI Goddess posted:Flowers don't bloom well in the frozen north, so fresh corpses are used as a substitute. Judging by Cullich's dialogue, she probably prefers the corpses to flowers. I'm not sure if it comes across stronger in the book or in the game, but she's very clear that she's not interested in Gorath if he isn't bringing home a bouquet of skulls and victory every evening. JustJeff88 posted:There might be contrary accounts in the later books, but all I have read is that when a Moredhel 'returns' to the Eledhel people it's a cause for great rejoicing and very rare... only about once every many decades. After that point, again as far I have read, Moredhel are treated as well as any other Eledhel. In the book Honoured Enemy, a returned Moredhel points out that, while an Eledhel and Moredhel cannot have a child together, a returned Moredhel and a born Eledhel can. At least in the early books, the differences between those two branches of the elven people are rather complicated. A cause for great rejoicing among the Eledhel, yes. Though I gotta be honest, though they're clearly the good guys, compared to the Moredhel, they're just wrapped up in so much generic elfy smugness that I can't help but dislike them. The Moredhel feel much more like people because sometimes they're moved by understandable and relatable base emotions and desires, because they have internal politics, friendships and enmities. The elves just more or less seem to be powered by sitting around and jerking off to flowers because Feist wanted them to feel mysterious and advanced compared to humans. When a Moredhel becomes an Eledhel it feels less like a fascist has been redeemed and more like an actual sapient creature has been plugged into a green-tinged Borg collective.
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Nov 23, 2021 20:15
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PurpleXVI posted:Judging by Cullich's dialogue, she probably prefers the corpses to flowers. I'm not sure if it comes across stronger in the book or in the game, but she's very clear that she's not interested in Gorath if he isn't bringing home a bouquet of skulls and victory every evening. Which, to be fair, he's been doing every evening so far. Cullich, give the guy another chance! Gorath would just invoke the Bro rule to continue hanging with Owen though. The boy seems to have grown on him. raifield fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Nov 23, 2021 |
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Nov 23, 2021 20:41
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Sky burial is one thing, but just leaving dead people lying around wherever is just begging for disease and scavengers to constantly invade
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Nov 24, 2021 13:59
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Update 25: Explosion Chest, Explosion City and Explosion Cave, Part 1 When we last left off, Owyn found yet another spell he probably wasn't ever going to cast, and we were ready to take the western road down to the Kingdom and hope there wasn't an army encamped over there, too.    The first section of the trip is still within the blast radius of Nalar's Rib, just in the opposite direction from where we went first, so aside from the sound of scavengers pecking at dead trolls' eyeballs, it's pretty chill.    I'm screenshotting the overhead map here to show off that L-shaped hill to the northwest, because it feels like nine times out of ten, when there's one of those, the developers hid one or more chests on the "inside" of it, so if you're playing this at home and not using a guide, it's worth popping Eyes of Ishap or just sauntering over to take a closer look if you ever notice one of these on the map. Their shape is hard to make out from the first person view, however.   FIRE  EGGS C'mon, you've done that one before, too. Hang on, haven't you actually done that one twice before? In any case, aside from some generic supplies and yet another Glory Hand I'll never use, there's another Wyvern's Egg in this one. We're approaching the part of the game where they could theoretically become useful but... honestly, inventory space is just at way too much of a premium for me to ever consider it.   Past a few more trees we arrive at the road leading south to Harlech and Armengar, which is also where we start seeing living Moredhel again, possibly drawn in to check out what the nuclear explosion on the horizon was.  They should probably have stayed away. This side road is also worth checking out, as it has yet another of the few wells in the game that aren't just full of water.  BaK posted:Standing before the well made Owyn feel very strange, like a thousand eyes were watching him, staring at him, burning into his soul. He shivered uncontrollably.  Some house. BaK posted:Standing in the tent, which lay on the crumbled remains of the magician's house, Owyn felt the same strange feeling of power that he had experienced at the well. Guided by the images that had flashed in his head, and now remained there, burning in his memory, he walked to the northeast corner of the tent and began to dig. Gorath joined him and a few inches under the surface their fingers touched the wooden frame of a small box. Pulling the box from its earthy grave, Owyn looked inside. It's sadly just a scroll of Unfortunate Flux, but if you didn't have it when you started chapter 4 and got here before you met Cullich, it could save you 300 gold, which is a sizable amount if you stay largely on the intended paths.   Somewhere in the area there's also a tent with some dialogue that I overlooked, but since I have a full text dump... here it is! BaK posted:As they approached the tent Owyn could hear the sounds of someone working inside. Abruptly, the sound stopped. Gorath called out a greeting in moredhel and a moment later a small moredhel joined them. I like these little bits that imply Gorath knows a lot of people in the Northlands, or at least that a lot of them know of him and that he's at least mildly famous.   Approaching Harlech, there's a bit of dialogue that's intended to play but which I couldn't manage to trigger, so... BaK posted:GORATH: Before us lies Harlech. We will have to turn to the east and skirt along the mountains. Of course, this will only happen if you don't cast And The Light Shall Lie. One thing that's important to note is that despite it having a two-hour duration or so per cast, that's barely enough time to walk through Harlech, so cast it three or four times, making the durations stack, and then walk into Harlech, which has a few things of note besides Moreaulf's residence. BaK posted:Owyn didn't feel any different. All seemed normal, save the very faint glow that seemed to surround his body. He held up his hand and wiggled his fingers while Gorath watched with bemused interest.  Aside from this guarded house, which contains Moreaulf, there are a couple of other doors we can knock on. BaK posted:A young female moredhel answered Gorath's knock. That second one is also somewhat interesting, anyway, let's go interrupt Moreaulf's day and annoy him. BaK posted:Gorath knocked on the wooden door.  If anyone in this game looks like a random programmer that they made wear a goofy cosplay outfit and some dorky elf ears, it's this guy. Fuckin' look at him. Sar-Sargoth has been besieged. Lord Narab and an unknown number of confidants freed dissidents trapped in the dungeons and fled north. Delekhan requests that you and the remaining members of the Six lend immediate assistance. Madness! I have my troops in position, ready to march and our target is only a week's expedition from here. If we leave now, we will not be in position when the time comes for the final strike! Surely Delekhan doesn't intend to divert us into the snowplains to chase a handful of cowards?! The intentions of your father are unknown to me. I merely bring his message. Further, he requests progress reports on your activities. If he were not my father, I would slit his impertinent throat! What does he wish to know?Moreaulf only has one keyword, so it feels a bit like they originally planned to have more dialogue with him but eventually scrapped it for some reason or another. There's a way to get a second keyword on him, but even then it feels somewhat limited compared to most other characters we've met with keyword-based interaction, and we don't even get this first one unless we've met Cullich, which is an odd thing since we couldn't even get to Moreaulf's house without having met her and learning And The Light Shall Lie. Strange. [THE SIX] Your father has expressed concern that he has been inadequately informed about the activities of the Six. He demands an immediate report. Father knows as well as I how the Six conduct their business! They do not report to me anything beyond complaints their lodgings are too cold and that they do not care for the food! I do not trust their motives. They speak only to their leader and he comes only when it suits him. If it were my decision to make, I would turn them all into the snow and let them freeze. But they are crucial to the attack at Northwarden, are they not? Northwarden is of little importance. It's the goal beyond that concerns me. What shall happen should we have Murmandamus back among our ranks? How would that be possible? Murmandamus is dead. I will answer my father's questions, messenger, but I am not here for your own curiosity.Now that we've gotten this completely useless information out of him, let's skedaddle the gently caress out of here and southwards.    Just south of Harlech, pinned into a hole in the mountains is the only temple in the Northlands section. Very easy to miss, which is a shame considering how easy it is to get poisoned to gently caress and back up here.  The Temple of Guiswa, like the Temple of Ruthia, has one of those "no one wants to talk to these wandering nerds"-messages, which is once again a bit of a shame because of how little we learn about Guiswa in the actual books. The only thing we learn is that he's referred to as the "Red Jawed Hunter" and that his religion involves ritual hunts for humans(and possibly other sapients? who can tell). Without knowing more, it's rather hard to understand why Guiswa is allowed a major temple in Krondor, for instance. Every other god seems to have both a harsh and a benevolent face, so presumably Guiswa would have one as well. In any case, while the prices are exorbitant, they offer level 3 blessings, so I splurge on getting Owyn and Gorath's armors blessed up while we're here. It clears out most of the cash reserves, but they really don't need anything else for now. Also sadly they don't offer teleportation services. That would've been pretty funny if it was an option for extremely rich players to just pay a teleportation surcharge to zoop out of danger.    A bit farther south there's a chest I could not for the life of me find, so I had to make the extremely shameful decision and bust out Eyes of Ishap to detect it, and now you guys get to see what using the spell looks like!  I actually really like what a clear indication it gives you, zero coy or mystic bullshit.   NOOSE The main score here is that this one contains an Elven Crossbow if you've yet to find one for Gorath, which is a great pick and allows him to nail most of his shots when also using Elven Quarrels. Occasionally handy if there's a fleeing or wounded enemy out of walk-up-and-bash range, for instance.    Another thing worth noting is that as you move south of Harlech towards Armengar, the landscape just starts being absolutely covered by bushes containing rations and restoratives, you can apparently collect close to 150 Restoratives in this region, and for context so far in the game I've used maybe 50 in total. So it's a lot, it'd take up a full third of a character's inventory.   A bit further on and a side path leads us to this stump. The stump just contains a bit of gold, but if you're a clever boy you pop Eyes of Ishap and notice a container in the trees behind it, and go to check it out. Then you pop Scent of Sarig and notice it's trapped! "Ah," you think, "clever move, developers! But I trust that any chest here, while I am bereft of a true rogue, would either be disarmable or not instantly annihilate my party with its damage!" and then you open it and die. Because it requires 77 Lockpicking which I think you'd need to lug three Amulets of the Upright Man up here to disarm(there are none to buy or find in the Northlands) and does an absurd 180 damage which is still close to 125% of Gorath's total. It contains scrolls of Nightfingers, Bane of the Black Slayers and Skin of the Dragon, which aren't bad but... yeah, you literally cannot get it without being psychic and obsessive.    Past that, and another couple of goblin ambushes, we finally reach Armengar, which would be reasonably hype to you if you read Darkness At Sethanon and liked it.  So, at the start of Darkness, Arutha fakes his own death so Murmandamus will initiate his plans, approach the Kingdom, and perhaps give Arutha a chance to stab him in the brain and end the madness. This results in him travelling north with Duke Laurie and Martin(a good chunk of the Kingdom's high nobility now out in the field risking their lives), Jimmy, Locklear, Roald and Baru. After a bit of shenanigans, they cross south over the Teeth of the World near the Thunderhell Steppe and the Great Edder Forest(both in this game replaced with Nalar's Rib and a frosty lawn south of Sar-Sargoth), before being captured by the humans of Armengar. The humans of Armengar turn out to be distantly related to Baru Serpentslayer's people and to have, through a series of janky events, adopted Amos Trask and Guy du Bas-Tyra as their leading generals in their constant battle for survival against the Moredhel. Also the city with its unbreachable walls is built on top of a natural spring of Naphtha. Arutha makes peace with Guy after learning more about him and his motivations, and then they withstand a siege for a month or so. At the end of it, Guy reveals that he's been stockpiling the Naphtha for years in preparation for the eventual fall of Armengar, and as everyone sneaks out of a secret back passage, they set fire to years' worth of stockpiled naphtha explosives, annihilating a large chunk of Murmandamus' army and literally blowing most of the city up. The lore is also somewhat weird since it was a Glamredhel city and not a Moredhel city in the books. Also if you're confused what a Glamredhel is, they used to live in the aforementioned Great Edder Forest as a bunch of vicious barbarians. Love the woods, like Eledhel, don't love the Valheru magic like Moredhel, but also have no connection to the Eledhel queen, to Eledhel magic, etc. they were generally implied to once have explicitly chosen not to be magical and instead to focus on technology, which allowed them to build the un-defeatable walls of Sar-Isbandia(and Sar-Sargoth), but then the first Murmandamus drove them from both cities and into the Great Edder(he was killed at Sar-Isbandia). Between Sethanon and Betrayal they travel from the Great Edder to the Green Heart and join the Eledhel, but don't become Eledhel, remaining a people apart.  Aside from a shop and a tavern, Armengar in BaK has this sub-screen where you can collect some free Napththa for weapon-enhancing, but getting greedy and trying to collect it twice will harm Gorath.  We're here at the Giant's Broth for an easily-missed NPC lurking in the background on the right... BaK posted:Gorath motioned to the figure across the room.  I see that you have little wish to keep your head attached to your shoulders, Irmelyn. Your tongue wags and you drool your brains onto the table for all to see. Your drink makes you a fool. What the drink makes me is only of concern to me and the tavern keeper. Leave me be, yellowtail. I suggest you consider advice from one who has suffered Delekhan's wrath and lived to tell the tale. I take it that some acquaintances of yours have been detained by Delekhan's magicians? What of it? Nothing's to be done. The Six have thrown Obkhar to Venutrier and his dogs and tomorrow they'll come round and hurry the lot of us to our deaths. I propose we help one another rather than work against. What could you offer in exchange for Obkhar's release from the naphtha mines? If you can manage that, I can get you half the boy's weight in gold or the equivalent thereof. Obkhar's tribe alone would willing pay such a ransom. Then get you hence and gather those fees and we will see what may be engineered. We will meet you again in this tavern when we have achieved Obkhar's release.Nothing prevents us from just heading south and leaving the Northlands now, but this sidequest is A) canon and B) interesting. Let's roll out.
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Nov 25, 2021 16:05
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Update 25: Explosion Chest, Explosion City and Explosion Cave, Part 2    Heading back north to just before the "gently caress you for existing"-trap chest, we can find this river and follow along it into a narrow crevice that might not at first seem navigable.  Following it, there are a couple of tents, each with their own dialogue attached. BaK posted:The tents were perfectly positioned for an army marching south from Sar-Sargoth toward the garrison at Highcastle. Gorath pulled back the flap and took a look inside the tent. "Owyn, I'll stand watch out here, you go inside and take a look around." Mostly what stands out here is that no, this isn't positioned well for someone heading south to Highcastle. For someone heading south to Yabon, certainly. Anyway, the moment I try to move these two kleptomaniac murderers past this location, Gorath interrupts with some dialogue.  Why are we even doing this? Why don't we simply head south? Obkhar is a name familiar to me and I believe he may serve a purpose with his freedom. Kin to me in irritation, he has pricked Delekhan's ire times enough that we may depend he will avenge himself upon his captor. You're hoping that he's as much a bother to Delekhan as Narab then... So what will we need to do? Venutrier of Lan operates in this locale and is known as a trader of slaves. I will offer you into slavery... You're going to what?! Do not alarm yourself overmuch. Venutrier would have no need of a scrawny young boy in his naphtha caves and will undoubtedly insist I see his operations--- reassurance you will not be ill treated -- and when we have entered the caves, undoubtedly the both of us will be taken captive. This is your brilliant plan? We just got away from Delekhan in Sar-Sargoth and you want to get us taken captive again? We have a way out, however. As you may detect by the stench of this river that runs hard by, the naphtha mixes with it from and underground river which runs through the caves -- it has since the day Guy du Bas-Tyra torched Armengar. I know this because I have had words with others once held captive by Venutrier. Once we are ready to leave, we dive in the underground river and will emerge somewhere downstream. No one has ever died doing this? I have met none that have. Come, we have business to attend to.In the book, Irmelyn is a bit less of an rear end in a top hat and is actually the one who proposes this plan as well as arranges for it to actually function through bribing guards inside the mine. It's also a rare bit of humour from Gorath. Yeah, I'm certain no one who's died from this has come back to complain about it.   Still, we can't have a bridge in BaK without some jackass putting a magical trap on it.  Once again, mostly consists of red herrings. Just nudge the solid crystal over to the left so it blocks that cannon and then skedaddle around it.  On the far side is a veritable forest of chests(containing a shitload of Naphtha and some spare change), but the moment we start to walk towards them, someone interrupts us. BaK posted:A figure lurched from the mines.  But I am very interested in your commerce sir and that is the very reason I sought you out. I wish to sell you the boy. What?!! Pah, pitiful! He bawls like a calf! We'd have to feed him a herd to get enough meat on his bones. He's weak, probably diseased. Doesn't look as if he's eaten in weeks. His looks are deceptive. Singlehandedly he slew my partner with a kitchen knife and he broke my mate's arm. He will grow into an even stronger man. Impressive, but he sounds like trouble. We'd have to fight him every day to keep him from escaping. I'm not getting sold to anybody! A mercenary is of little good if he is easily overcome, don't you think? Break his will and he will be invaluable to you. He looks noble and I don't want bounty hunters sent from the Kingdom in my business. He was a chamber boy of no importance. You'll have no trouble with him. Of no importance?! A hundred fifty sovereigns, take it or leave it. But before we clap hands on this, would you care to view our operations here? An intriguing notion... If it would not trouble you? No trouble at all. My guards will escort you.BaK posted:Moredhel surrounded them. I'm not sure if Owyn is a great actor or if this bit was written without considering that Gorath and Owyn already went over the plan.  Real dark in here, maybe we should light a torch.  Doing that just kills you flat out dead with no warning. Just instantly kicked back to the main menu, gruesome. Also, unlike Narab's men, Venutrier's guards are too stupid to take away the party's swords, crossbows, magic staves and large stashes of medicine/drugs. So obviously I cast Candle Glow instead. This is the one use case for Rings of Prandur except... Owyn starts with Candle Glow, so it's not like you could pick up a few rings instead of spending money on the spell, and it's not like you could get here without him or anything. So ehn. They're still kind of useless.  The enemies in here are no big deal, mostly a few packs of goblins who... still manage to stick Owyn with 100% poison, the absolute pricks. loving goblins. Most of them are unavoidable, but these are especially unavoidable since they're protecting a chest we gotta break into.   BaK posted:Meant to be worn over the nose and mouth, the mask had been stitched together from a refuse heap assortment of dyed cloth, fish bone, wooden slats and discarded spinner's string. It's worth noting that in the book these vapor masks are made from dragon lung tissue which is kind of badass and is a decent explanation for why people in a fantasy society might hunt and kill dragons, if their tissues can substitute for some of the stuff you usually only get in an industrialized society a couple hundred years further down the road. We need these to get out of here.   It's not all goblins down here, though...   Hatchling Wyverns spit out "fireballs" that do about 25 damage per attack, thus a single one is no big deal. Wyvern Eggs are the material component for Thy Master's Will, a spell we won't have for another several chapters, which instantly makes a wyvern gently caress off. They're just not strong enough to warrant that sort of specialty treatment or waste of my inventory space, however.   It's guarding a door that leads to...   An overconfident Witch Hag. This engine doesn't ever seem to dabble in mid-battle reinforcements unless they're summons from spells in any case, so I'm not even sure it's something the game could handle. In any case, she's kind of a trap because she guards some trapped chests in this dungeon. None of them are instant kills or anything, but if you're not obsessively resting up to full after every battle, it could absolutely ruin your day.   You know, none of these guards have been a challenge. Why don't we just kill the guards at the entrance and walk Obkhar out the front door once we find him? ... ... At this point mostly because I'd feel silly going through that entire charade and then not completing it. BaK posted:Gorath halted.  Obkhar is one of the rare actors for this game who manage to pull off looking like not just an intern wearing a funny hat. Not all who live in the Northlands bend to Delekhan's will. Providence would have it that he posted a guard outside my cell who was a close cousin and sympathetic to my situation. He bought time for my escape. So your cousin's head now hangs in your stead... You have a grave responsibility on your shoulders. All the more reason to see an end to Delekhan's reign, Obkhar! He shall pay his blood for mine; for each offense against my kin, I will redouble it against his flesh. I will allow him no quarter, give him no mercy, stay no blow against him for all he has done to our people. I should think you would agree, Obkhar! On the graves of all he has slain, I swear that my cause is yours Gorath! However I may aid you, you need only ask. But all this talk is fruitless. We must first escape this place or there shall be nothing left to avenge. I have been told by some who were taken captive here before that there is a river that runs underground and mixes with the Isbandi river... I have seen it with my own eyes, but the fumes that come from it may rob the strength from a man. On occasion I have seen some of Venutrier's men wearing masks made of bone and cloth... If we three had them, I believe we could make the escape. It is providence then we have already obtained them. Take this one and make good your escape. I see that there are many in the Northlands who will have amends to make once this war of Delekhan's has been halted. In amends I have no interest, Obkhar. I am long past thoughts of the throne in Sar-Sargoth. I dream only of an end to this nightmare. It is a sadness that those who most should lead often wish anything other. But I will not force you to take that which you do not want. You are an honorable creature, Gorath. Small comfort in a world gone mad. Go, Obkhar, and good health. Let us divide and conquer.The encounter is much the same in the books, except that there Gorath and Obkhar have a lot more history, with Obkhar having a large scar that Gorath gave him at some point in the past. They seem to have mostly put that aside, though, casually swearing they'll settle their score one day but not really putting a lot of feeling into it. They're clearly closer to friends than enemies, despite their shared past.   Past Obkhar is this dark chamber full of corpses and, in the distance, some water. Once we approach it(after looting all the corpses within reach, of course)... BaK posted:Owyn felt dizzy. It's assumed that Obkhar slips out behind the party, though I like to think he just saunters out the front door after we butchered all the guards rather than risking his life in an icy, underground river.   Let's hoof it back to Armengar and chat up Irmelyn.    He is as reputable as I have heard of him. It could also be that he wished to save you your life. Save your blade for someone more deserving. I will pay your fee. Two hundred gold and not a royal more of it. Food in our bellies and beds to rest on, an acceptable exchange for a man's life. Our business is at an end, Irmelyn. Good fortune and health to you.If we hadn't already found Cullich, Gorath would also ask about her and Irmelyn would tell him where she was living. Now, in the book... rather than gold, Irmelyn helps smuggle Gorath and Owyn out through the Inclindel Gap, and Cullich lives close to it, and they visit her on the way out. Here, Irmelyn just goes back to getting drunk at Armengar and lets Gorath and Owyn wander south on their own.     BaK posted:Gorath swallowed hard. Now, we have two ways we can do this. We can haul ourselves back up to Harlech, use magic to sneak in and talk to Moreaulf again, and then because he's a moron get the password out of him. Or we can take another step forward and cut these idiots to ribbons.  We get advantage, and they have Ogres, which means Evil Seek wipes out almost the entire formation in one shot.  The survivor gets hit in the spine by a Flamecast while he tries to make good his escape, since an arrow from Gorath wasn't enough to wipe him out. These ogres are actually pretty tough if you don't wipe them out with Evil Seek.   On the far side is another cluster of enemies, and even if you talk your way past the ones on the north side, the ones on the south side will recognize you and start a fight.   They also beat me on ambush which eats into Owyn's powder bag stash as he paralyzes the ones that get up in his face to avoid getting hacked to bits while Gorath lays about him with his sword.   Finally, we've destroyed the last group of enemies between us and escape from the Northlands.   We get a moment to loot the bodies, but as soon as we start moving south... BaK posted:A man approached them.  It is very important that you take us to Prince Arutha. What?! The cold's gotten to you, boy. What makes you think I'm going to take time off from my duties and trot your behind down to Krondor? Prince Arutha isn't in Krondor. He's likely still stationed with his Krondorian Lancers just outside of the Dimwood near Sethanon. We need you to escort us to his camp. Why would he be there? And why would he want to see a boy and a moredhel? The Prince just sent us to spy on them, all right? They'd never suspect a scrawny nineteen year old boy and a moredhel, so...that's why he sent us. We have information about a planned attack on the Kingdom and it's vital we get this information to him. How do I know you're telling the truth? You don't, but if you don't take us and the moredhel overrun Northwarden, do you really think you're going to be able to sleep with yourself? I have to give you one thing. If you're a gambler, you sure don't bid low... Come on, let' s get moving. The Dimwood's hell and back from here and the Prince won't want to be kept waiting. Let's move. Just get us the hell out of here, Lieutenant. The sooner the better.   Very interesting tale, but how do I know a word of it is true? How can I believe that this scroll you have given me is the genuine article and not a forgery trumped up by Delekhan? I was very explicit with you before, Gorath. I refuse to act until I have word from Seigneur James! He told us to give you a message, but it's...odd, sire. What exactly did he say? He said to tell you that there's a party at mother's... ...and a good time will be had by all. Gods, Laurie and Jimmie used that phrase years ago! All's right then! James has just saved the pair of you your necks and me a good portion of grief. Now I must settle down to the matter of finding out what Delekhan is thinking. If this report is correct then the best force he could muster would number at the most two thousand warriors, a pitiful spit in the eye for a castle assault. You believe he has something else in mind. Undoubtedly. As James indicated in his brief note, it would take some spectacular strategy on Delekhan's part to take the castle, and honestly, he has never displayed that kind of wit. We faced him before when he was still a field captain for Murmandamus. Wherever he is going he will no doubt hit fast and run for high ground. Now we have to establish where that high ground is. Shall we accompany you to Northwarden? No. I have a much more important task for you, though I doubt you will find it as exciting. I need you to return to Krondor immediately. Inform Master Magician Pug of the situation. Considering his tactics, I have a feeling Delekhan may have a few surprises in store for us. If that bastard brings anything magical to bear, I want to know what it is and how to counteract it. You leave immediately. BaK posted:James' breath emerged from his lips as a frosty white cloud.    Go way. I'm busy right now agitatin' this here moredhel... Begging your pardon, but I am Seigneur James...and this...and this is...Seigneur Locklear. We have been sent...by the Baron Gabot...to find...you. You are his magical advisor, aren't you? Just Patrus, please. I don't ken to titles much. Glad to meet you. I've just been out trying to get some information about these moredhel. They've been gettin' too close to the castle and it was makin' my tongue itch. Man can't respectably eat thataways. Have you...learned anything about the attack? Only that there's six companies of 'em out creepin' in the woods somewhere, but I don't know exactly where yet. I think they've got their own magicians, too. Magicians?! The Baron will be sorry to hear that, I'll wager. We need to return to the castle. Which way would be quickest?  I'm sure that defending Northwarden will be completely without any snags or problems considering that the call for reinforcements has been delayed for over a month while Gorath and Owyn got kidnapped, spent three weeks in a dungeon, then spent several weeks hanging out with witches, visiting Gorath's fangirls and getting high on mine fumes.
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Nov 25, 2021 16:12
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Sometimes you just gotta hang out with witches.
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Nov 25, 2021 20:48
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Oh, Patrus. So much worse than Owyn mechanically, but quite fun.
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Nov 25, 2021 21:10
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