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I wonder if Patrus is why I have such a soft spot for performatively grumpy old men. He's just the best
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Nov 25, 2021 21:44
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Patrus  Also you are banging these updates out like a loving champion George Rouncewell fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Nov 26, 2021 |
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Nov 26, 2021 18:39
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quote:This is low comedy and I'm here for it.
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Nov 30, 2021 00:37
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He makes the same scream (iirc) as when you fall down a pit and its such a great noise.
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Nov 30, 2021 08:21
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Update 27: The Return of Locklear, Part 1  Check it out, Locky's back! And we've got another new friend! Let's rush over and check out their cool gear and skills and-   I forgot Locky got a free Greatsword and Patrus started with a Lightning Staff, but otherwise goddamn this is a downgrade from Gorath and Owyn. Also the non-useful gear at least still serves as a store of value since James starts with the sad remnants of the party's treasury at the end of chapter 3. On the bright side, Patrus starts with a decent selection of spells. While he lacks proper asskickers like Skin of the Dragon, Grief of 1000 Nights and River Song, he at least still has Evil Seek, so he can tear holes in enemy formations pretty well. Locklear has also gotten a few stat upgrades to help him keep up with James' two chapters' worth of upgrades, so the party's main weaknesses right now are garbage armor for Patrus, a super shortage of rations and restoratives, and no one but James having Weed Walkers. This latter thing is a really big deal since it means that when we were previously scoring ambush on nine out of ten battles, we're now getting ambush on maybe one out of three.  We spawn a short distance south of Northwarden and our first objective is to get up there, and in this chapter, more than any previous, we're limited in where we can go. We can't go south to the Kenting Rush zone, and we can't farther west than Dencamp, not even far enough past the town to reach the Temple of Tith between it and Wolfram, which sucks since this means we don't get a chance to bless anything good we pick up in this chapter.   Oh and did I mention that the path to either Northwarden or Dencamp involve numerous battles? There are only three between us and Northwarden, so we'll be heading there first rather than over to resupply at Dencamp.  Also almost every battle in this chapter involves enemy mages, and often two or three of them, rather than merely one, which makes the consequences of losing surprise even worse. For instance...   These assholes drop Grief on Patrus and then Hocho's Haven on two of the goblins to make them that much harder to take down. Thankfully the goblin sucks so much that he doesn't manage to take down Patrus before the fight is over.  While these enemies carry very few misc. items and generally poor armor(though there are a few suits of Euliliko and Dragon Plate, no Grey Tower Plate), they have much better swords than usual. Generally Goblin Stickers, Rapiers and Swords of Kinnur, with a few Two-Handed Broadswords on the lower end of the scale. This means that the non-mage enemies are a lot more threatening, too, if they get to act before we can put them down. Also almost every weapon they have is blessed or has a temporary effect like poison or icing on them. If you were religiously following a guide you could probably ameliorate their damage some by knowing what they were going to bring, but if you were religiously following a guide they'd probably also advise you to load James up with two suits of Dragon Plate and two extra pairs of Weed Walkers before coming this far.     This first walk can also very easily get perilous if James doesn't arrive loaded down with rations/restoratives since you won't have a chance to load up again until either Northwarden or Dencamp. You could raid some of the local chests and bushes but, er, I kind of already did that four chapters ago which I'm now realizing has some drawbacks.  This fight would be super easy if the party won surprise, one Evil Seek on the Ogres and this would be over before it finished bouncing, instead...  Patrus gets intercepted by an Ogre and James eats a new and colourful spell we haven't seen before: Drain Strength. For the duration of the battle, it reduces the target's Strength by a number and raises the caster's Strength by that same number. We've had no way to get a hold of it so far, and we won't for a while yet, and it's also rather niche since there are few enemies that live long enough for their drained strength to be relevant, plus your casters don't just have low base strength, their staves also do less base damage than swords, so using drain strength to make them tougher is usually not worth it.  Then they paralyze James and drain his strength again while Locklear is frantically trying to disentangle Patrus from his new buddy.    Thankfully it happens just in time, and a single Evil Seek clears the battlefield.  Haven't you boys ever played an RPG before? You're meant to keep the baddies off the wizard. Not our fault you keep spawning in the wrong spot.For whatever reason, while Owyn always spawned in the middle of the formation, Patrus spawns off to the right almost every time, which almost guarantees that at least one melee enemy will bail right for him.    The last ambush on the way to Northwarden. I get lucky and score surprise on this one, which trivializes it slightly. Even winning ambush only guarantees the first move, meaning that in many, if not most cases, at least one enemy will get to move before Patrus(it seems to go by order of character Speed).    Thankfully the ogres are slow in this battle, allowing James and Locklear to threaten the Moredhel spellcasters and giving Patrus the chance to blast the entire enemy formation to ashes with a single Evil Seek starting on an ogre.    Something worth noting here, which I completely missed, because I am an absolute moron, are the contents of Northwarden's store.  You open the first page here, and see nothing but high-tier swords and armor. When you do that, you think: "ah, this is a smithy." And assume that like all other smithies in the game, it contains only armor and weapons. But in fact this one also contains antivenom, rations, rope and restoratives. I miss this and assume that I need to get all the way to Dencamp before I can buy rations, this unintentionally made the game much harder for myself as I could barely rest at all. In the meantime!   What of Duke Martin? I know he was visiting here. He already is in the field with my rangers. I want you two to work with him to find ways to slow down or stop the oncoming enemy companies. Our scouts have estimated the moredhel have fielded about fifteen hundred men. You have three hundred men here and a castle! It's far more than you need to stop that many soldiers. If there are Nighthawks that have infiltrated my troops, we will likely lose more than field captains before this is all over. We have to assume for the moment that the moredhel know something that we don't. If we can stop even half their number, I imagine we can diffuse whatever plan it is they have. So, any questions before you begin?[DUKE MARTIN] Where can we find Duke Martin? Is he in the castle somewhere? I asked him to stay relatively close to the castle so my guards could find him in the instance of an emergency. You will have to search for him yourself. While you are at it, perhaps you can also find what has become of our minstrel, Tamney. He may have quit the castle. Minstrels are not noted for their staying power through great battles. It will work against the morale of the men should he remain absent. I want you to find him and use whatever means you have at your disposal to bring him back here, even if you bring him back in chains and rucksack tied over his head. With the battle coming close to hand, I want nothing to divide the men.So you might wonder, who the hell is Duke Martin? That requires looping back slightly in the timeline. At the start of Magician: Apprentice, the main characters are Pug, Tomas, Arutha and Martin. Arutha and Martin, along with Caroline and Lyam, are sons of the Duke of Crydee and in line to eventually inherit the throne(Lyam ends up being the King at the end of Magician: Master, Arutha in charge of Krondor, Caroline as the Duchess of Salador). Martin becomes the Duke of Crydee. What's special about Martin is that he was the bastard son of the former Duke of Crydee, never officially acknowledged until near the end of Magician: Master, and thus rather than being a pampered noble heir, spent most of his time out in the woods hanging out with elves and being Crydee's huntmaster. During Darkness at Sethanon, he accompanied Arutha, Jimmy and the other goons to Armengar, where he ended up getting involved with one of the Armengarian commanders, Brianna, who eventually became his wife and the Duchess of Crydee, since she was more or less the only woman in Midkemia happy to both marry him and let him run around still playing with elves and going on stupid adventures all over the place. This is unique to the game, though, in the book Martin never heads up to Northwarden. Anyway, let's go meet him!   BaK posted:They were not alone.  Fine, when I last saw him. He's outside of the Dimwood with a small force, waiting for my messengers to reach him. What are you doing so far from Crydee anyway? Briana have you hunting rabbits for the ducal stew? No, but soon we four will be hunting far larger game than that. Seems this small wrinkle developing in the Northlands is about to become a Kingdom problem if what Locklear told me was correct. I'm just glad to have you two here to lend a hand. Is King Lyam going to join the party? Doubtful. This engagement isn't serious enough to warrant bringing the King into it and he's got his hands full enough with the Keshian Empire. Seems one of our Kingdom ships accidentally mistook one of her Empress' Imperial frigates as a pirate ship and sunk it with all hands on board. Naturally, Lord Hazra-Khan is having a conniption. We'll have to fight out Northwarden's battle on our own. What can Locklear and I do? I have most of Baron Gabot's rangers out checking up on the movements of the enemy, so I'll need you three to give me a hand with various missions. I hope you three are in the mood for a bit of running about...[CROSSBOWS] Prince Arutha has told me on several occasions you're about the finest archer he knows. Arutha also used to tell his sister Carline that his father was going to rope her to the mainmast of Krondor's Glory so the Quegians could have target practice when they passed her in the harbor. Doesn't mean it was true. And I wasn't Jimmy the Hand. You're being modest, Duke. So I might be handy with a bow, why the interest? I was hoping you could give Locky and I a few pointers. We both could stand to learn a little about how to use the crossbow more effectively. Well, as the moredhel don't seem to be charging down our throats this very minute, I suppose I might be able to teach you a little bit...BaK posted:Martin sighted his crossbow and fired. Two things of note here is that, firstly, this provides another ten points of Accuracy: Crossbow to James and Locklear(or 15 if the skill is tagged), which is very nice since it's free. The second thing is that Martin is called Martin Longbow for a reason, dude never canonically uses a crossbow, always a longbow. Him as a crossbow teacher seems a bit off. [BARON GABOT] So... Baron Gabot told us we were to report to you until the siege begins. Where do you want us? I was just planning a little fun. Patrus, how's your moredhel? Which 'un you talkin' about, Duke? The one I gots under my bed or the one what makes me breakfast in the morning? Amazing. Jimmy, is it just me or does Patrus remind you of a certain Admiral we both know? I think he and Amos Trask would either love each other or hang one another from a gibbet. I think the Duke meant, how well do you speak moredhel, Patrus? I knew perfect well what he was a'sayin' you court rat. I can read it, but don't ask me to pronounce any that dog-howlin' yewhaw. You won't have to for what I have in mind. There are some boxes near here that have moredhel plates on them. I want you to crack the codes on them. I imagine those boxes will have supplies of rations for the moredhel once they begin the siege, but I doubt they'll suspect we've tampered with them. If there are any rations, find a way to poison them, then replace them in the boxes. Come back and find me once you're done.Amos Trask is the admiral of the king's fleets, also a former pirate who got recruited into the conflict during the Riftwar when Arutha saved him from Tsurani that ambushed his ship while he loitered too close to the coast. He's mostly notable for A) being almost impossible to kill(dude gets a major wound of some sort in almost every book he's in) and B) refusing to ever take any situation particularly seriously and never really respecting authority, not even the royals even when he's working for them.  So, we now have the task of poisoning the Moredhel rations we stole back in chapter 1 from several coded chests west of Northwarden. Before we do that, though, I have to fight my way through like... four ambushes on the way to Dencamp, with barely any rations, a single stack of herbal packs and two stacks of restoratives from James' inventory. I frankly thought I was going to have to cheat to make it.   Of course I get two battles in before some prick moredhel knocks a poisoned quarrel into Patrus, and it would consume all my restoratives to un-poison him, since while I have herbal packs, I don't have enough rations to actually rest it out. Patrus is just going to have to be dying for a while.    And now, of course, one of these ogre fucks has a poisoned sword! And Locklear's poisoned now, too!  Y'gonna join us, James? You don't want to be the odd one out. I'll pass, I'm happier not dying from silverthorn. Spoilsport.    Five battles, no resting. And now this.  I'm so lucky, Patrus has just enough health left for a full-power Evil Seek which knocks down or damages the enemies enough that James(and to a lesser extent Locklear) can clear the rest of the formation.    Even when I finally reach Dencamp, there's still a loving fight there. Goddamn.  We're absolutely taking a week's break here while we heal. Agreed.  The local store, despite being called the Grumbling Magician, has no spells that I want to purchase for Patrus, but what it has is restoratives, anti-venom, herbal packs and other necessary supplies. The team also stops by the tavern to stock up on tons of rations. In any case, we have a couple of options for poisoning the non-existent moredhel rations back in those coded chests. We can either buy actual rations and toss Coltari Poison on them(it can be found in a couple of places up here, or bought at Northwarden), we can find poisoned rations on a few of the enemies we've killed or...    South of Northwarden, almost as far south as you can go before James starts complaining that you should turn back, there are a couple of bushes full of poisoned rations. Not a lot, but we only need one for each chest.   We already cracked these chests in chapter 1, so I'm not showing off their puzzles, but I do want to show off that, obviously, since no one in this chapter reads Moredhel(yes, I know Patrus said he does, we'll get there. ), they read as gibberish to everyone. If we want to gently caress with a code chest with a party not featuring Gorath, Patrus has to cast a spell unique to him, Union, which briefly allows him to read Moredhel.Anyway! Now that we've committed yet another war crime, let's get back to Martin.   [POISONING] We've poisoned the food in all the moredhel lockchests we could find. There weren't many of them out there. You probably found the majority of them, so I wouldn't worry about it. I have something else I need you to do... There was a minstrel that the Baron employed here at Northwarden by the name of Tamney. When we got word that the moredhel were beginning to move down from Raglam to Northwarden Pass, he picked up all his things and disappeared in the middle of the night. The baron is insistent he brought back. The Baron mentioned this Tamney to us as well, but why is it so imperative he come back? Surely, the men might feel a little betrayed, but if their morale is that shaky... The Baron sent word a short while ago that a Nighthawk was discovered within the confines of the castle this morning and there is evidence there may be others. Naturally word has spread and the men are edgy about the whole matter. It doesn't help matters Tamney was never administered an oath of loyalty. And it's possible he was connected with the Nighthawks. I understand. Find him and get him back to Northwarden if you can, but don't let him know you're suspicious. He might bolt... One of Gabot's scouts has told me there may be goblin activity in the north, so hurry back when you're finished. I may need your help.Alright, after war crimes, we need to ensure that civilians don't get to stay out of the fight. Now, theoretically finding Tamney might be difficult, but literally the only town we can reach is Dencamp, and Tamney can't have reached somewhere we can't drag him back, so off to Dencamp we go.   There's nothing new in the town itself, but there is this barn on the outskirts where the barn door sticks and requires a character with 30 Strength to open. Our best at the moment is Locklear's 26, so this means he gets to chug some Fadamor's Formula to strongthen him up and open the door. This can be bought at the Grumbling Magician in Dencamp if you're not already carrying a full supply of combat drugs. BaK posted:Locklear pushed on the door of the barn, but it refused to budge.  ...come after ya! Pah! I shoulda' known it. You come a prancin' into Northwarden with that little twanging box of yours and you sing a blue streak about honor and glory, but when it comes down to it, you ain't got the picture. Instead you got's this yella streak - ya never stand and eyeball your problems face ta face, ya let other folks run you around. One day somebody's gonna run your life right off a cliff. I'm the one telling me to leave Northwarden. Me. That's Tamney the Minstrel's decision, not someone else's. I'm making the decision to live. The moredhel done run you off an they ain't even got here yet. They done a better job on you than any duke or baron you crossed swords with before. I'd not be in a castle with a coward like you anyway. That isn't fair. I'm a minstrel! What good would I be...I don't know how to use a sword, I don't know how to heal wounds or direct a battle...I'd just be in the way. What good would I be? I'm just...one...insignificant...man. Not so insignificant, Tamney. Before I went to serve in Krondor, my father used to advise me: When you have earned your title, make sure your minstrel is well paid. I hadn't a clue what that meant until I saw the battles at Armengar and Highcastle and Sethanon and others since. When men sit and listen to songs about great battles, they remember men like themselves have faced terrible dangers and emerged alive and that gives them hope. Sometimes that's the only thing that an army needs. But why do they all have to depend on me? Why did fate arrange it that I was the minstrel who happened to be at Northwarden? We aren't going to force you to go, Tamney. It's your life, your decision. If you choose to leave...that's your own business. Could I request a favor of you before I make a final decision? Anything, if it will set your feet back on the road to Northwarden. There is a cave not too far from here that is known as the Diviner's Halls. Within, there are several small stones - called pattern stones by geomancers - which can foretell a man's future. If you return with one, I will make my decision. Geomancy! Shoulda figured you'd go in for that hozum-pozum... Just another way for somethin else to make your hard decisions for you! Quiet, Patrus. We will see what we can do, Tamney.I feel like if Locklear wasn't along, Patrus would just whap Tamney with a Fetters of Rime, truss him up and have some peasants haul him over to Northwarden whether he wanted it or not. Since Locklear is along, however, Tamney gets the easy treatment.    We've already visited the Diviner's Halls way back in chapter 1 when we first came up here, where it was a reasonably profitable and unchallenging venture. The main change is that now it's received a few new enemy spawns and a new chest has spawned in here as well.    The new spawns are kind of baffling. Like, to even get here you have to fight your way through several six-enemy squads packed full of spellcasters, and now they toss just a couple of ogres at you? Admittedly ogres with loving poisoned swords, but still just a couple of ogres.    BaK posted:For a moment Owyn was beguiled by the patterns on the strange stones. Hues of red and ochre interlocked in an intricate web of fault lines and ridges, pooled together in shallow depressions; so complex were the shapes he could easily see why priests insisted they conveyed secret messages from the gods. The new chest at the end contains the desired geomancy stones as well as a single emerald, which is nice enough, I suppose. All the gear we're stripping off the dead enemies outside makes up far more value than this, but I shall never look a gift high-quality gemstone in its non-existent mouth.    Did you go to the Diviner's Halls? Did you bring back a pattern stone? Don't get yourself into a tiz, Tamney. We got your silly rocks... Now you walkin' back to Northwarden or are we draggin' you? I will walk back myself after...I've studied the rock. Tell Baron Gabot that I will be there soon. I think he will be rather more relieved than you might imagine. Oh? And why is that? Before I was off from the castle, I had it in mind I wasn't to leave until I had at least made some provisions that I could survive. Even assuming I slipped out of the castle without notice, there was still the issue of how I would pay my way until I reached a safe haven. So, after a bit of investigation, I found the treasury. It was being guarded by a fellow by the name of Corbi, a fellow whose tryst with a certain girl by the name of Thea I have had the vicarious pleasure of orchestrating over the past several months. Once I had convinced him that she was awaiting him, it was a simple matter of slipping inside and grabbing up a pouch. Not as if the Baron's missed a few golden sovereigns. I think he's involved with other things at the moment... Exactly as I was thinking, but it seems that what I picked up in the dark was worth rather more than a few dozen sovereigns. Several hundreds more... Once I realized what I'd done, I became terrified of going back. I could see why, but when the Baron told us to come and get you, he made no mention of missing money. It's entirely possible that no one has noticed the missing funds as yet. You can take them back to him. I can't. Even if I return them, the Baron will be aware that Corbi left his post open for me to plunder. Though I can't say I've behaved much like a friend to him, I don't wish to betray him twice with the same crime... Actually, I have something of an admission to make. He is the reason why I asked you to retrieve the geomancy stones for me. They aren't worth much, even to a gem's dealer, but they can be used to make an attractive stone for a wedding band. For Corbi. Of course. So you've been considering returning all this time, but you wanted to wait until you could cover all possibilities... All but one. I was wondering if you would take the pouch of diamonds and hold on to it until after the battle was over. This way, no one gets hurt and we can all do what we need to do. Tell him you took them off a dead Nighthawk or something. When you go back to the castle, its a possibility they will search you since your behavior has been a little odd. I'll take the diamonds, but I'll worry about how I will tell him later. My only concern is that you return immediately. We have other things we need to be doing for Duke Martin. Done. I'll see you all back at the castle. Don't be too happy about this, Tamney. You and I will have a big score to settle on later. Don't let yourself get killed getting back there.So, this is where you get the chance to softlock yourself in chapter 5. Sell those diamonds you got from Tamney, they're worth almost 4k gold if you hock them at the Grumbling Magician and then, and this is the important part, do not indulge your impulses and kit out the team in, say, Dragon Plate. Keep the loving money. Also while keeping it, chuckle about how funny it is that James just stole a small fortune from the government he's ostensibly loyal to. Like he had a choice, I woulda turned him into a lizard if he handed those back.Now, while we're flush with cash, it's time to pop back to Martin for our next mission. I'm honestly a bit disappointed they handled it this linearly, it would've been better if like... they just gave you free run of the region and had Martin hand out hints, then depending on how much you did to weaken the moredhel, it would vary what sort of final fight you got for the chapter, whether it was wall-to-wall goblins and wizards or just a couple of starving, poisoned moredhel.    It also feels a bit silly that Martin's greeting is the same no matter what stage of the chapter you're on. He could at least have escalated his worries slightly. [GOBLINS] I'm beginning to get wistful for the days when we were running the billets in Krondor for Master deLacy. I haven't had this much exercise in a long time... So, where are these goblins you told us about? What about Tamney? Did you find him? Yes, though it took a little extra work to get him heading back to Northwarden. He promised dutifully he would return and I believe he will. We had a long talk... I can see now why Arutha values you so much. I personally wouldn't have believed it possible. But, as things stand, we still have a long row to hoe, as they say. A goblin company of archers has already moved into the pass and is trying to entrench itself there. If they get a foothold, they may be impossible to root out once the moredhel roll in. We need to find out what their deployment is going to be when the battle begins. Okay, so we grab their leader and give him the hot poker treatment in the dungeon under Northwarden. Tell us where to find him and he's yours. No good. As soon as they discover he's missing, they'll change their tactics. No, what I need is the big plan and I'll be willing to bet that it's still in Raglam. How many scouts has the Baron lent you? I have about twenty men out at the moment. Why? Then you won't miss the three of us much. We're going to Raglam and we'll find a way to get that plan for you. You plan to march through a company of goblin archers to the city where the moredhel are massing, walk right up to leader of the enemy and say, "Excuse me, may I just borrow your warplans, please?" As I recall, I snuck the future Duke of Crydee, Prince and Princess, and the Admiral of the Western Fleet out of Krondor while it was under siege of Jocko Radburn and Guy du Bas-Tyra. I think I can snatch a silly piece of paper. I think if Prince Arutha didn't want to make you the Duke of Krondor some day, he would probably have you killed as a madman. All right then, get me that paper but be careful. I'll be waiting for you...I haven't commented much on the "canonicity" of this chapter so far, but that's because everything up to this point has been non-canon. James and Locklear run into Patrus while out on patrol and then wander off into this quest more or less on their own initiative.   The road northwards towards Raglam is absolutely flooded with goblins(in the book they're trolls and Patrus is already up here, he gets away from the Moredhel force when they have a falling out with the trolls who cut their Moredhel commanders to pieces), and there isn't even an option to fight them. Let's say we approach them, though... BaK posted:A band of goblins milled in the roadway. This is why you need to keep at least 2k gold from selling those diamonds by the time you get this far, in the book James just has Locklear hand over his own gold pouch to the goblins(because if that was enough, he wouldn't want to hand over his own either, Locklear is very salty about this and Patrus very amused by it), but this super owns. Like, I hate to repeat myself, but this game is so much better at humanizing the "monsters" than Feist's actual books ever were. I love the idea that the goblins aren't murderous psychopaths, they just want to get paid. If James pays up, then hell yeah, they'll fight for James. They don't really have an ideological stake or genetic evil at play in this conflict. Though I do feel like it would have been better if there was an option to fight them and that paying them off came with some other benefit(like maybe they neutralized some nearby Moredhel spawns or made a final battle easier or something.). But for the time this was made, the concept of getting around enemies without killing them was honestly still kind of wild.   BaK posted:The wind howled.   Welcome to that little tongue of the Northlands above Northwarden that Gorath and Owyn couldn't get to, for the simple reason that it would complicate the timeline all to hell and back since chapters 4 and 5 are technically happening at roughly the same time(in the book it hops back and forth between the two rather than having them as two clearly segregated chapters). As soon as we arrive, we can also see that Delekhan's troops have gotten busy building siege towers, and if we go poke at one of them...   They're full of mostly-outdated gear, though I can upgrade Locklear to an elven crossbow. It would've been nice if they were full of more consumables instead, but I suppose from a verisimillitude perspective this is also perfectly fitting. Also if nothing else I can pick up all Delekhan's expensive crossbows and turn them into gold that I can then trade for combat drugs, like a genius.    The encounters up here are also a bit odd in that they're actually easier, right near Delekhan's nearest army headquarters, than they are on the Kingdom side of the border. These blue giants are the same as the giants Owyn and Gorath met, except that being Rime Giants, they take double damage from Flamecast... a spell that Patrus can't acquire unless you buy a scroll in Chapters 1, 2 or 3, haul it up to Northwarden, and then leave it in one of the chests there. I also don't believe Owyn and Gorath ever have any way of meeting a Rime Giant.    Until you reach Raglam, there's nothing along the road, no bushes, no hidden chests, no mounds of dirt, no corpses, except for the lootable siege engines.  This fight also almost goes very poorly.  I fail to get ambush and then Patrus gets mobbed, at which point the Witch Hags start letting loose with magic before James or Locklear can disrupt them.    Two max-power Flamecasts(one of which thankfully turns into friendly fire), and Locklear paralyzed by Grief. The splash damage from the second Flamecast, which sadly slams dead-on into James, kills the last Moredhel Warrior near Patrus, allowing him to bust out an Evil Seek right at the most important possible time.   Seeing which way the wind blows, the last Moredhel Warrior turns to flee, but James puts a quarrel into his spine, making good use of Duke Martin's archery lessons.   Just before we reach Raglam, there's an interesting contraption in the trees off to the road... and of course it's guarded by a magic trap.  Once again, they're trying to trick you. Pushing up a transparent crystal to blast the zap poles will open you up to fire from the Blaster on the right. So instead shove up the non-transparent crystal, then walk around it on the right side so it shields you from the leftwards Blaster, while the zap poles intercept any fireballs from the rightmost Blaster.  Nice catapult, wonder what the crew have to say about it. BaK posted:The design was standard.  Perhaps, but it's of no use to them now unless someone fixed it in order to lob stones at Raglam. Now, that's peculiar now that you mention it. Tell me Locky, if you were just going to leave something like this lying around in a field, even if you didn't have it working, would you leave it pointed at your home? What are you getting at? The only reason this thing won't function is because one of the torsion gears is broken, not something all that complicated to fix. Now suppose the gear didn't break of its own accord. Gorath told me that many of the moredhel clans had reservations about fighting under the old battle colors of Murmandamus. Now if you were one of those clans and wanted a backup plan in case you wanted to back out of the strike, it would simply be a matter of installing a replacement gear... ...and pulling the release lever! It even has a payload in the basket! Of course, assuming we could find the part ourselves, we could stir up some trouble. Maybe find a way to get to the plans Duke Martin needs in the confusion. Perhaps, but we'll need to find a replacement catapult part first. I doubt there is one lying about here somewhere, but let's check around...BaK posted:They searched the area for half an hour, hoping to discover a replacement part for the broken gear. When it didn't materialize, they picked up their packs and prepared to leave. In the book, the trolls early on are a hint that there's some discord in the moredhel forces around Raglam, but this confirms it. Everyone loving hates the local commander as a gibbering incompetent, and the crew just decides to set off the catapult then and there (it's not missing any parts and the engineers are passed out drunk near it) to trigger some infighting that they can make use of, ripping some stones through the roof of a nearby inn. Here, however, we have to head into Raglam first(or, I guess we don't need to, but it's funnier if we do).
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Nov 30, 2021 17:22
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Update 28: The Return of Locklear, Part 2   Welcome to Raglam, it's got two unique houses, a tavern and a crossbow trader that we'll want to take a poke at. Let's hit up the houses first. BaK posted:Locklear hesitated before the door. The commander in the book is still Kroldech, but in the book his only reputation is for being "not fit to command fleas on a dog." No mention of any particular cruelty and in fact he's portrayed as kind of a wimp and coward. Next to Kroldech's house... BaK posted:A strange old elf answered the door. If you want to get some info out of the engineer, you need to play badly(i.e. have a terrible Barding skill). Now, there's no way to intentionally use your skills poorly, but perhaps there's a way we can lower them? Let's think it over at the tavern. BaK posted:James approached the moredhel tavern.  Some of the locals here also have some unique convos. BaK posted:James approached a moredhel. Now, time for what we're really here for.  Getting the party absolutely, utterly and completely shitfaced drunk on Quegan Brandy.  All three of them are boozed to gently caress just to make sure the game doesn't use the highest Barding skill in the party or something like that and one of the others turns out to accidentally be too competent. BaK posted:A strange old elf answered the door. I don't actually think anything prevents you from otherwise finding the gear, and the chest it's in is right out in the poen, but we may as well make some friends while we're here. Oh and let's have a look at that archery store before we set out, shall we?  Aside from this store, there are only two Bessy Maulers in the game, one on an enemy and one in a chest somewhere. BaK posted:The crossbow type had become legendary since the end of the Riftwar. Replicated from a model discovered in the Northlands, the draw was impossible to set barehanded and required a lever called a goatsfoot be used to span its deadly draw. Fortunately, the crossbow had the device attached. It's canonically used by the humans living in Armengar until Darkness At Sethanon, where it's a model of crossbow so huge that it needs to be mounted on a stand to be usable at all. No one's able to just haul it up to their shoulder and fire it, and it's largely intended for dropping huge creatures like wyverns and giants, since it would be absurd overkill if used against even an armoured human or humanoid. It has the highest damage modifier of any crossbow in the game, almost twice the modifier of the Tsurani Heavy Crossbow(+40, compared to the Mauler's +75), but also the worst accuracy modifier in the game. If you've picked up all the lessons you can, though, and maybe stockpiled a bit of Truesight Tea, it can make James and Locklear very scary at range, which can sometimes save the day if they can't otherwise reach a mage or a fleeing enemy that you want to loot. Since I'm already stocked up well on consumables and won't get a chance to buy more expensive stuff like blesses, James and Locklear both get Bessy Maulers just for the niche situations where I end up needing them.    A short walk out the far end of Raglam and the party encounters the last battle of the region(though not the last of the chapter.).  It just isn't even worth mentioning. These dickheads get run over in seconds.     Also, in case anyone was wondering, attempting to pass that bridge in the other direction also gets us stopped by Mr. No Fun Allowed here.   BaK posted:In ways the part resembled the gears used in crossbows, but where he associated the moving parts of hand-held weapons with precision, the catapult's axle gear was a monstrosity, its tempered iron spokes radiating out from a flat circular plate thicker than ten swords stacked one atop another. From the description it feels like the gear should've had a sprite the size of that loving bag of grain we liberated back in Chapter 2. Time to go play with siege weapons.  BaK posted:Locklear took a deep breath. We're rewarded with a loud THWONG sound but nothing else obviously happens. Maybe we should go check on Kroldech.  BaK posted:The door was ajar. In the book, a huge boulder just smashes through the roof and kills everyone inside except for Kroldech, whom they find cowering under a desk. Locklear snaps him out of it(James starts a fire and Locklear points at the fire and goes "you gotta escape, chief! we need your great leaderly wisdom!") and escorts him out, after which James and Patrus root through the Moredhel battle plans, which Patrus memorizes with magic. They then gather them all up and deliver them to Kroldech outside, since they don't want the Moredhel drawing up new plans that they then don't know about. Also while Locklear and James are taking the credit for rescuing Kroldech, Patrus steals a bunch of horses for them to ride south on. Patrus rules. The Sword of Lims-Kragma we got, which is now James', is also the best sword in the game you're expected to get. It's about 30% up on the Greatsword in terms of base damage, same accuracy and is a human-affinity sword rather than an elf-affinity sword. I think that with a tier 3 bless, the Greatsword still comes out as slightly more accurate in James and Locklear's hands, but the bless doesn't provide any damage boost. There are also only three of these in the game, they can never be purchased and this is the first one that can be acquired. BaK posted:A shiver ran down James's spine. Though the weight and play of the sword were as he expected, there was a darkness about the blade that unsettled him. No matter how he turned it, light refused to reflect off its highly polished surface. James is now an agent of Lims-Kragma. Sweet. Now let's get the hell outta this frozen dump before someone realizes we just poisoned their commander and stole his stuff.    In the book, returning through the goblins requires James to also give up his money to bribe them, which greatly amuses both Locklear and Patrus. Thankfully in the game they've gotten all the bribes they need already.   [PLANS] We got the plans for you, Martin. Too bad you didn't come with us though, we had quite a bit of fun. Won't be much time for that very soon. My gut instinct tells me they'll begin the assault in the next few days. Before we go back to the castle, there's something I would like you three to check out for me. I got this mysterious note from someone that said a company of moredhel illusionists have slipped behind Northwarden. I thought Patrus would know how best to deal with them... Just like those pointy eared lily munchers to go stealin' my ideas! Baron Gabot had me workin' on somethin' like that but I never could get the kinks out... I knew my tongue was itchin' for some reason... But if we run across them, I got sumthin' that'll fix their hindquarters in a bat's fart! Whoever wrote the note doesn't specify where they are supposed to be located, so if you three would just take a swing southwest and see what you can find. Once you're done, come back and we'll all head to the castle together.And here's the last objective of the chapter: go beat up a bunch of wizards. I'm sure it'll be a cinch.     Their location is, as far as I know, never hinted at, but if you explore around the woods southwest of Dencamp, near the chapter border, earlier than this, you might get an odd message on approaching a house in the woods. BaK posted:Locklear felt a stinging poke. Which isn't just descriptive but actually eats 5 stamina/health off everyone in the party every time it happens. If you come here, now, though...   BaK posted:Patrus stopped. This thrusts you straight into a battle that you may not be prepared for and which can absolutely own you. For anyone playing along or just considering playing, you definitely want to save before this fight because it's one of the ones that can go the south most easily in the entire game.  Because, you know, every single enemy is a loving wizard. Three of them know Grief of 1000 Nights, which is the real scary part, which means that a bad roll on their AI tables instantly kills you. One of them is a dud who only knows Gift of Sung and Skin of the Dragon, neither of which I've ever seen AI casters bust out even if they're on their spell lists. So what do these fine piss-coloured fellas start out lobbing at us?   Predictably they start out by dropping a Grief on Patrus, son of a bitch. I then rush James forward to interrupt three of them from casting anything, which is just enough movement that he can't also attack the one immediately ahead. Still, limiting the amount of wizardly bullshit being shat out is priority number one.   Patrus eats a Mind Melt and a Skyfire but stays on his feet.    Patrus gets hit by an Unfortunate Flux and then stabbed by one of the enemy mages, dropping him, while James eats a Skyfire. At this point it's roughly even as I've flattened two mages and they've flattened one of us, so both teams are down by 1/3rd of their power.   It's looking like an easy win when all of a sudden the last surviving Moredhel remembers he knows Grief and sticks Locklear with it. Now it's completely down to James to save the day.  Which he does by plugging the last mage with his new Bessy Mauler hard enough to take off one of his arms at the shoulder.  Then there's the cleanup, six delicious loot-filled corpses for James to rifle through while Locklear pours Patrus full of Restoratives. Trying to recover from the Near-Death condition, even with healing herbs, without a temple and without restoratives, would literally take 50+ rest periods. So instead I just feed him drugs and remind myself to stock up on more at the Grumbling Magician afterwards. Now, are these guys carrying anything nice?  Mostly nothing of note, but they do have a rare item, an Infinity Pool. BaK posted:A pervasive feeling of malice radiated from the pendant. Within its depths bloody points of light pulsed, swarming from one side of the glass to the other as anything brushed against its featureless surface. They're super rare, only two are findable in the game outside of shops, and when used they allow the caster to cast a damaging spell with +50% damage, for when you really need a fight to be over right now with no bullshit. While stopping by Dencamp to pick up some fresh Restoratives, I also buy another rare item for Patrus.  BaK posted:Slightly larger than the balled fist of a grown man, the hunk of reddish chalcedony was free of marks except for the obvious letter inscribed on its smooth face. In legend such stones were said to possess the power to summon a rusalki lover, though Owyn gave little credence to the claim. There are only two of these findable in the game, and one store that sells them, this one. They work like casting River Song, and I figure it's a nice backup for Patrus if he gets rushed by enemies round one or really needs to disrupt some mages but can't count on, say, Evil Seek, knocking them out as effectively as sending them scuttling away from a ghost would. Now, back to Martin...   [NORTHWARDEN] Scratch one group of moredhel magicians. We found them, Duke... Good. I want you three to hurry ahead to the castle. They've already turned back an irritation assault today and I think the Baron can use your help right now. I need to find out what has happened to one of our scouts that's gone missing. I'll be along as soon as I can.Returning to Northwarden and entering the Baron's chambers now ends the chapter, so make sure to do any buying and selling you need to do before then, because after this, raking up gear upgrades for these goons won't be an easy task.    BaK posted:The portcullis creaked. Reasonably true to the book, except in the book James, Locklear and Patrus are stuck in Northwarden for close to a week while they wait for Arutha to arrive. There, Patrus busts out the "canon" version of Killian's Rage, which is a lightning storm crossed with an earthquake that wipes the Moredhel assaulters off the fortress walls at a critical point. This time, however...   The face this guy makes is funny to me. BaK posted:The moredhel thrashed.   Delekhan would think me impolite if I didn't attend his little party. How are the men? Very bad. Of the original garrison of four hundred and fifteen men, two hundred twenty seven are dead, thirty five are mortally wounded, and the rest are afflicted with dysentery or are too exhausted to wield a sword. Your arrival came none too soon. No discourtesy intended, Prince, but why did you wait so long in coming? We made all haste, nearly to the point of calamity! Your well-meaning messengers bumped into trouble and nearly didn't win themselves free. Consequently we didn't receive your word until it was nearly too late for us to respond. We were greatly fortunate to arrive as soon as we did. The moredhel are in retreat? What few of them remain. By the accounts of my scouts, they think there may have been up to at least six companies in the hills. About that. Since they didn't have the decency to attack all at once, we couldn't tell. If our trackers are to be believed, four of those companies slipped out a week ago while the other two kept your forces pinned down. The rest apparently turned southwest. Sounds like they mean to strike at Highcastle. Undoubtedly. Since the moredhel leader has mimicked many of the moves that his predecessor Murmandamus made, it stands to reason he may make many of the same mistakes. As a precaution, I split my forces and diverted half of them to Highcastle. As soon as we are finished cleaning up here, I will take the rest of our companies to engage him there. Oh poo poo, title drop. Kind of. Sort of. BaK posted:Pug concentrated on the storm.     A Tsurani poet. I believe he was House Omechan... House Minwanabi, reign of the fifty third Light of Heaven... Is there something you need to see me about Makala? I am...busy. Busy? You have been behaving like a needra bull with a burr in his bit! I came to ask what has Pug of Stardock so distracted that he cannot find time to meet with his associate magicians? Has his reputation so inflated that a member of the Tsurani Assembly is no longer worthy of his attention? I am sorry. Perhaps you are right, I've just been very preoccupied. I find myself obsessed with this storm. All week I've felt it building over the Bitter Sea and all the while I have suspected there is more to it than is immediately perceptible. It doesn't feel natural. Have you seen its like? I have seen its match in destruction. As I recall, you created far more havoc in Tsuranuanni when you disrupted my Emperor's Imperial Games. Several city blocks destroyed, countless lives lost, the War lord cast down in dishonor... I had a feeling you didn't summon a rift-door to chastise me about my lack of attention. What is this about, Makala? Your loyalties, Pug. While you claim loyalty to the Empire, you live your life under the influence of a Midkemian King and took to wife a Thuril highlander. Your judgement is suspect! From the day I left the Empire, my judgement and my loyalties ceased to be the concern of the Assembly of Magicians. I do what I see is best for all concerned. I see. Then, is any act justifiable to that end? If it serves the common good, yes. Even if it violates an individual's rights? What do you wish for me to say, Makala?! You lead me as if I were one of your needra cows but I am in no mood for games. State your business. Very well. Your daughter Gamina has blossomed into a remarkable young woman. She is beautiful, gracious and an honor to your house. Unfortunately, she is also a girl with remarkable powers. Your love for your daughter has led you into a grievous miscarriage of your duties! Why have you let her live? My estimation of a person's magical talents is not determined by their sex, Makala, and I refuse to murder my child to appease a barbaric tenet of the Assembly! They have no authority in Midkemia! In this instance, I believe they will choose to ignore the geography. At this juncture, the Assembly is troubled - surrounded by anti-traditionalists who embrace your Midkemian values, led in large part by Mara of the Acoma. Open defiance by you as our most notable member could weaken our position within the Empire and that is something we cannot afford! We would be forced to make you publicly comply. Although I am equally wary of female abomination, I have no desire to see your daughter dead. I have acted on your behalf and placed her in exile until such a time we can agree upon her ultimate fate... Why didn’t you consult me? Where have you sent her?! Seek her if you wish, but it will avail you little. Your further interference will likely ensure that the Assembly will carry out its order of death. They will be unable to kill her, however, if they cannot find her. It would be to your advantage to leave her be. I will not content myself to sit here while the Assembly banters about the value of my daughter's life! I shall find her and then you tell your brethren to expect my visit! You embark on a dangerous road but it is yours to take. Farewell then, Pug...  This conversation is also relatively true to the book with a few exceptions. It's worded somewhat differently, Pug just writes a note rather than blasting a loving Angelfire fire.gif on to his wall and Makala presents him with a teleporter device which will take him to/near Gamina, but which will only remain active for one minute after Makala leaves, forcing Pug to dash off after doing no more than writing said note. After this, we get a scene transition...    The Book of Macros... What do you think the message means? I thought for a while that he intended for us to contact the magician named Macros, but it would be a feat impossible for even Pug to accomplish. Macros left Midkemia long ago and all he left behind were his writings... And presumably this Book of Macros would be among the books he left behind... Perhaps, but I cannot be certain. The library that Macros left on Sorcerer's Isle was vast and it took us the better part of a year to move the bulk of it to the Academy at Stardock. Since that time, some of the volumes have been lent out to various scribes so that they can be cataloged and transcribed. Then the book could be anywhere---a new approach. Before he disappeared, did you note anything unusual that he may have said or done? As I said earlier he had seemed agitated for some long time, but yes, there was something. About a month ago we were walking in the gardens outside of the palace, just the two of us enjoying the day when he suddenly halted us near a sewer grate. When I asked him what was wrong, he said, "Not all of the sheep are in our fold." Sheep? Forgive me, Lady, but your husband seems to have an infuriating penchant for the cryptic... Not ordinarily, no, only when things are on his mind. But come, I must head towards Stardock and look for evidence of this Book of Macros there. Where shall you two go? We go below into the sewers under Krondor, Owyn, good Lady. I believe we shepherds have an errant flock of sheep to find. ...going into the sewers was stupid. Oh well, you wanna blow up some thieves and assassins while we're here? I'm sure Pug can take care of himself for a few weeks while we hack some idiots into pieces.
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Nov 30, 2021 17:23
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PurpleXVI posted:Nighthawk treachery had silenced their cannons and too many men had fallen in four days of heavy fighting.
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Nov 30, 2021 18:03
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Rogue AI Goddess posted:Does Northwarden actually have cannons at that point? I thought it was still ballista/trebuchet kind of era. Oh, right! I wanted to comment on this. It's a throwaway bit in the book, but Gabot mentions that they're working on cannons, that it's still in the early R&D stage. In the game I feel like it's someone misreading the setting, and then Feist or whoever ghostwrote it for him decided to run with it. I'm not sure if cannons make an appearance in later books, but as far as I'm aware and can google up, they do not.
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Nov 30, 2021 19:12
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quote:so this means he gets to chug some Fadamor's Formula to strongthen him up and open the door. I assume this is meant to be strengthen.
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Nov 30, 2021 20:05
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Cooked Auto posted:I assume this is meant to be strengthen. I mean it was, but I kind of like strongthen now that I read it. It's going to stay now.
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Nov 30, 2021 20:15
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There is Betrayal, so we go to Krondor.
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Nov 30, 2021 20:54
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I saw "Book of Macros" and the first thing my addled brain visualized was a bunch of lolcat nonsense. Also that last chapter felt incredibly short?
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Nov 30, 2021 21:32
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PurpleXVI posted:I mean it was, but I kind of like strongthen now that I read it. It's going to stay now. That is fair.
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Nov 30, 2021 21:41
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kw0134 posted:Also that last chapter felt incredibly short? Chapter 5 is absolutely the shortest chapter in the game, so that's entirely correct. It took me 90 minutes to blaze through it, even with my accidentally making things tougher on myself and some of the nastiest fights the game has thrown at me so far.
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Nov 30, 2021 22:02
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Chapter 5, notably, has basically no sidequests and is just 'go do this thing, then this thing'. I kinda suspect it's one reason Patrus feels a bit weak, aside from his poor Speed. The old man is introduced in a chapter with basically no options for turbo-powering him.
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Nov 30, 2021 22:22
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Patrus always struck me as a character who is way too underpowered. He has horrible stats - the worst speed in the game, casting accuracy which is far worse than Owyn’s given how many boosts Owyn gets, garbage defense, and low health/stamina. Then you add in that like half the spells in the game are (normally) unavailable unless you abuse the quirky item shops or chests. He’s not totally useless because Evil Seek is Evil Seek is great but they definitely removed all the normal shenanigans so going from Owyn to Patrus ends up feeling like a huge step down.
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Nov 30, 2021 22:32
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Yeah I can't imagine doing chapter 5 without selling at least a few good spells to the shops for patrus to pick up. I mean you can, its just kind of a pain in the rear end. Also how did James end up so broke? Did you buy gems for Owyn and Gorath with the party stash?
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Dec 1, 2021 06:01
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I believe they did, it was somewhere in that update also while Martin Longbow may be canonically longbow man, I find it entirely believable he'd dunk on every nerd with a crossbow if required
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Dec 1, 2021 07:13
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Guildenstern Mother posted:Also how did James end up so broke? Did you buy gems for Owyn and Gorath with the party stash? Yep! Gems for Owyn and Gorath to bring into the Northlands, an extra suit of dragon plate that ended up going to Locklear, a spare blessed Greatsword because I didn't remember that Locklear got a free(unblessed) one at the start of the chapter, and a Lightning Staff for Patrus because I thought he just started with the normal wooden stick. I absolutely went too hard on splitting the money in favour of Owyn and Gorath, though.
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Dec 1, 2021 09:29
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Apropos of nothing, I really dislike how this game lists your money in [X] s (sovereigns?) and [Y] r (royals?), but then lists everything for sale as [X] gold and [Y] silver. I had this game as a kid and I always thought that my [X] s were silvers, and therefore everything was orders of magnitude more expensive than I could afford.
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Dec 1, 2021 21:09
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PurpleXVI posted:Yep! Gems for Owyn and Gorath to bring into the Northlands, an extra suit of dragon plate that ended up going to Locklear, a spare blessed Greatsword because I didn't remember that Locklear got a free(unblessed) one at the start of the chapter, and a Lightning Staff for Patrus because I thought he just started with the normal wooden stick. I always split hard for James and Co. Owyn and Gorath are all kitted out and off to the lands of ice snow and restorative bushes, whereas James has to deal with the Locklear and Patrus situation, which I tend to make even more expensive by selling a bunch of spells to the shop up there so Patrus can have some decent spells.
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Dec 1, 2021 22:46
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I think the first time I played this game I got caught out by both the Chapter 2 and Chapter 5 cast splits, so it bit me in 2 but on the other hand James was fully ready to roll over 5. also it's hard to overstate how extremely good that sword of lims-kragma is. It's not always the most obvious but a very reliable, hard-hitting sword is just really nice when you really need to keep a chain of one hit kills going to scrape enemies off your evil seek caster
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Dec 2, 2021 00:01
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Schwartzcough posted:Apropos of nothing, I really dislike how this game lists your money in [X] s (sovereigns?) and [Y] r (royals?), but then lists everything for sale as [X] gold and [Y] silver. I had this game as a kid and I always thought that my [X] s were silvers, and therefore everything was orders of magnitude more expensive than I could afford. How did I never notice this
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Dec 2, 2021 00:04
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Schwartzcough posted:Apropos of nothing, I really dislike how this game lists your money in [X] s (sovereigns?) and [Y] r (royals?), but then lists everything for sale as [X] gold and [Y] silver. I had this game as a kid and I always thought that my [X] s were silvers, and therefore everything was orders of magnitude more expensive than I could afford. (Gold) soverseigns and (silver) royals are consistent with the setting, but I agree that for anyone who doesn't know the setting it is loving annoying. Not keeping it consistent on both ends of the transaction is proper odd no matter how one slices it, though. JustJeff88 fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Dec 2, 2021 |
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Dec 2, 2021 01:48
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Guildenstern Mother posted:I always split hard for James and Co. Owyn and Gorath are all kitted out and off to the lands of ice snow and restorative bushes, whereas James has to deal with the Locklear and Patrus situation, which I tend to make even more expensive by selling a bunch of spells to the shop up there so Patrus can have some decent spells. Oh, yeah, see, part of the issue was that I remembered the gold got taken away from Owyn and Gorath, what I forgot was that James kept it. I thought it just got erased. So once again I increased the difficulty of chapter 5 for myself because I'm a moron.
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Dec 2, 2021 02:20
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lol well that'll happen. At least you didn't get punked by Those loving Magicians. So many reloads....
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Dec 2, 2021 02:53
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I found those magicians to be the single hardest unavoidable encounter in the entire game.
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Dec 2, 2021 19:22
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They sure loving are! I think the barn fight with Nago in chap 1 is second place but there's so many ways the AI can just roll in a way that you're hosed without even getting to take a turn.
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Dec 2, 2021 22:04
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It's impossible to find Macros the Black! Literally one of the plots of one of the books released a few years after.
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Dec 2, 2021 22:47
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algebra testes posted:It's impossible to find Macros the Black! Literally part of the plot of the book preceding the game. Tomas and Pug need to find Macros the Black to scupper Murmandamus 2's evil plot. And they do manage to find him, too!
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Dec 3, 2021 00:09
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Well it's impossible for Katala at least.
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Dec 3, 2021 00:17
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I'm reasonably sure that the blessing does affect weapon damage. At least, various tips suggest not blessing a certain sword for that very reason. Your team gets healed at the start of every new chapter, so as long as you manage to drag two near-corpses into the castle, there's no need to waste supplies on healing (why yes, this fight did kick my rear end a few times). The one time I really invest into grinding is raising poor Patrus' defense stat. Go into a dungeon, fight some enemies, drop one to near 0 health (the one time that the Assessment skill comes in handy), then park Patrus in front of him and defend for a few dozen terms (having tagged Defense first). The dungeon part is because enemies underground never flee due to low health.
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Dec 3, 2021 00:30
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Update 29: A Missing Pug, Part 1 So here we are, in the sewers again. And I'm forced to ask: Why? They fixed the front door of the palace, we could just have gone out that way. If he's down here, we solve the problem in half a day. If he isn't down here, we only lose half a day. Considering some of the "mysteries" so far, I wouldn't be surprised if he was down here.Frankly I think the only reason that Chapter 6 instantly boots you into the Krondor Sewers is that otherwise there's no drat way you'd ever stumble into the new content they've put down here.    Assuming you either have a map of the sewers or explored it decently well on your first visit, you'd almost certainly go to the far southeast corner, and then west to the entrance. If you do, however... BaK posted:They were not alone.  Above, from the palace. From Krondor. From above? Then you are one of Pug's students? He sent you down to help us? No. I don't understand. Why are you here? We believe that Duke Pug knows of magicians who are living in the sewers under Krondor and we need to speak to them about something. Would you know anything about them? I have no time for this. I have something that I have to find and the Mockers are making a thorough search of the sewers. If they find me, I'll be floating in the harbor at dawn. The Mockers may be looking for you, but they aren't looking for us. If we find what you're looking for, we might be able to prevent your death. In exchange you answer a few questions for us and in half an hour you can be on the road to Sarth or Malac's Cross or wherever you want to go... How do I know you won't have the Thieves' Guild lying in wait for me? You don't, but as you've said, without our help you're already as good as dead. As I see it, at least we can give you an option that doesn't end in a grave. Let's help each other - tell me what you're looking for... A bronze statue, I believe it's called the Idol of Lassur. The Crawler heard a legend from a Keshian years ago about this object - it's the initial reason that he started looking for magicians to aid him - and it's reputed to endow its owner with the power over health. The legend has it that the idol was aboard a ship that went down near Krondor, but the Crawler believes that it made it to dry land and was eventually buried here when this city was Keshian. And if we bring you this statue, you will tell us what we need to know? My word. Anything you need to know.Man I don't even know where to start explaining how this deviates from the book. I think the easiest thing is to just let this entire little subplot play out, and then explain how it is in the book, because everything else is literally just the same names and not a single recognizable motive, actor or object. Suffice to say that in the book "Kat" is only mentioned, but never met, and the Idol of Lassur doesn't exist at all. Once again, though, you won't have a drat clue where to go next because you probably explored all of this level of the sewers, and nothing new has appeared here, but a second, formerly-inaccessible, level of the sewers has now opened up. So probably you wander back past the entrance towards it if you have a map or just if you're sweeping the place systematically...   BaK posted:A figure moved in the tunnel.  I'm not sure if it's an accident or to accent how threatening he's meant to be, but one of the game's combat themes plays when Limm confronts the party here. Please, if you could just answer a few questions for us then we will be out of here. Questions?! Only thing as concerns me is getting the mess from the storm taken care of and getting us all back on our collective feet. Ordinarily we don't objects to a storm nows and then - cleans the smell out if you know what I mean. But this storm, it did us a piece all right. Water come in from the seas and washed a score of us into the ocean, destroyed our headquarters and ruined our plan to take care of a little local problem. And we almost had him. Him? Who did you almost have? The Crawler, that's who, not that it concerns you anyway. Once he had the Upright Man out of his way, I guess he decided that it was time to come round and claim his prize. We had other ideas course. We had a handy little trap all baited for him, one such like he couldn't refuse. Would have had him scurrying back to the Sunset Isles or wherever else in the seven lower hells he came from. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate with our little plan. Are any of your Mockers magicians? No, at least none that admits it freely. Sooner cut a magician's throat than let him among us, but if truth be known we would have welcomed one this past few months. Some of the Crawler's men are magic types. Are they? Any of them left down here? Who's to say? We're still picking through our own dead, much less worried about which of them were still here. Large portions of the sewers are collapsed. There's even word that when a portion of the sea wall collapsed, it opened a new stairwell to a lower level of the sewers.[IDOL OF LASSUR] What do you know about an object called the Idol of Lassur? Some sort of kid story, it'n it? About a whizit or other what gives you the power over the Goddess of Death, or some such silliness. Why would anyone be looking for it in Krondor? Part of the story, as I remember it. It was supposed to have been hidden away in some deep and secret part of the sewers by this Keshian, what? Something like that. But it's not real, I can guarantee that. If it'd existed, the Mockers would have found it by now.[LOCKED DOOR] I've heard there's a portcullis down here that none of the Mockers can open. Can't pick it, can't break the lock. Is it true? Might be. Might be pigs can fly, who's to say? Why you interested? You're no son of the sewers. How did you hear about it, anyaways? Let's just say I'm a friend of the family. I was just wondering if anyone ever found a key for it. Isn't no key I know of, least not one a body's snitched about. If you want my opinion, there's nobody what can get the eternity gate opened. Impossible.[ITEMS] Have you taken anything off the men who are posing as Mockers? They're not much for carrying treasure, but yeah, I've found a few nice bits. Tumbled a corpse I found near the seagate just this morning... If the price is right, I might be interested in buying the booty from you. That so? Well then, my price is a hundred gold. A hundred gold? You said they don't carry anything of any value. Seems it's of value to you and I say it's worth a hundred sovereigns if it's worth a pence. Deal? I think we've learned enough for the time being. Surprised your head hasn't popped open, all the knowledge you've got up there. Have to be a right genius. Goodbye, Limm. Try not to steal anything that you can't carry.I think that the "locked door" keyword is your only hint that something previously closed is now accessible. Paying Limm's price for the items gives you a full stack of Restoratives, a couple of torches and a unique note. Unless you really want to read the note, it's only worth taking advantage of if you're really short on Restoratives. BaK posted:I am uninterested in your difficulties with the Guild of Thieves under Krondor. It was your responsibility to deal with them and your special training should give you more than an adequate advantage over those common thieves. You are to locate the Amulet of the Upright Man and the Idol of Lassur and load them aboard the Night Crawler immediately! We have pressing business with our serpentine clients in the Sunset Isles and I don't believe they will be patient while I tell them about the incompetence of my hirelings! This is also more direct contact with the Crawler than is in the entirety of the book.    BaK posted:Owyn sniffed the air.  So I want to preface this by saying that I have no loving clue what they were thinking with the lower level of the sewers. Despite only being accessible in chapter 6, the only treasure of note down here aside from the one you start right in front of is a single pair of Weed Walkers which I can't imagine you wouldn't have kitted Gorath and Owyn out with roughly five chapters earlier. In any case let's kick these idiots in the dick and take their sewer loot.   Gorath and Owyn are overpowered enough for several of the fights in this chapter that I start having Owyn beat enemies to death with his staff to train up his Melee Accuracy, Strength and Defense.  The chest itself is trapped but both does negligible damage and is trivially disarmed if you cast Scent of Sarig before messing with it, which you really should do before interacting with any chest if you're playing this blind or with minimal hints. Inside are...  A Sword of Lims-Kragma that will be an excellent upgrade for Gorath for exactly this update(okay and a good chunk of the next one, but still) and the Idol of Lassur. BaK posted:The votive idol rested in his hand like a squat, sexless gnome. Rationally Owyn knew it would take no great effort to crush the leering ivory figurine; he would merely have to close his hand. But somehow he felt as if their roles were reversed, as if he were the fragile thing in the statuette's tiny palm. So what this does, if we choose to keep it, is that it has an infinite amount of uses that instantly kill an enemy, but at the cost of reducing all the bearer's skills by 20 while it's in their inventory. I mean, from a pure power perspective, Owyn just being able to snuff out an enemy every turn of combat, no ifs or buts(as far as I'm aware no enemies are immune to it), is probably superior to several of his actual spells since most of them also just take one enemy out of the fight per turn(excepts made for Evil Seek, occasionally Flamecast splash damage and two spells we haven't seen yet), and if you can just want enemies dead to make them dead, you don't really need to be accurate about it. However, it's objectively boring if I don't occasionally get my rear end kicked, so we're actually going to return this to Kat and get some lore.   Aren't you concerned that the Crawler will abuse the Idol? With it he might kill hundreds of people, the Prince or maybe even the King. Are you sure you want to give it to him? I'm counting on his using it. You see, he didn't learn everything there is to know about the Idol. The Idol of Lassur does give its owner the power over life, but none on Midkemia can be its true owner - Lassur is it's owner and that is but another Isalani name for Lims-Kragma, the Goddess of Death. For any else that lay claim to it, they die within the month. I thought you worked for the Crawler! No one works for the Crawler. What men surround him do so out of fear or debt, but none for loyalties' sake! I intend to put his plans to ruin, but we don't have time to talk about that. To the matter of our deal. What do you need to know? Who leads the Crawler's magicians? I'm not certain, but I believe it's the Abbot Graves in Malac's Cross. He was known as an exceptional scribe once, and he was trusted with books coming from Stardock until Pug discovered what was happening. So the Abbot would have been trusted with transcribing books on magic? All sorts of books. He's the one that found out the Idol of Lassur's true nature and relayed the information to me. I think you've told me what I needed to know. Thank you and I hope you...I wish you well... It always boils down to lesser evils, doesn't it. Perhaps some day our choices won't be so grim.Goodbye boy, and good luck to you as well.The "dead in a month"-thing isn't borne out mechanically, by the way, so we can haul the Idol around for as long as we like with no ill consequences. Still, now it's Kat's and soon the Crawler's. Let's hope that an evil villain won't use a month of being able to wish his enemies dead to cause any sort of chaos. That would certainly be awful. Also now we have a clue for a sideplot completely unrelated to the main plot of this chapter. Said sideplot is going to be Owyn and Gorath heading off to Malac's Cross and kicking Abbot Graves in the junk so hard that his eardrums burst.    Since Owyn and Gorath are already rolling in dough again, however, there's no reason to wear out the soles of their shoes. Let's ride in style.  quote:The acolyte stopped. Guess Graves knew we were coming and decided to slow us down. No matter, the Temple of Lims-Kragma is just up the way and we can drop by and visit the Oracle of Aal at the same time.     Or, you know, we could, if her neck of the woods wasn't crawling with Pantathians!   So, to recap, Panthatians are, to the last, warrior-mages, meaning that any encounter with a large number of them has as much potential to go south right away as the six-spellweaver fight near the end of Chapter 5. They also tend to be much sturdier, where Moredhel of any kind cap out just below 80 health, Pantathians tend to run around 120 like an Ogre, but unlike Ogres don't have any spell weaknesses that nuke them down easily. Both of these pricks, for instance, both know Grief, Skin and a grab bag of offensive spells. We desperately need to win surprise in every fight. One of them has almost 140 total health.   One of them eats a Fetters of Rime(I later find out that Grief works on them, too, but Fetters has the advantage of also adding a bit of damage and Owyn hits 19 out of 20 casts at this point, even at extreme range), but the other one is a slippery bastard. They're got a drat high movement rate and Gorath, being a bit slow block of beef, often has trouble keeping up with them, meaning I need to toss Owyn into the fray, too, to keep it from casting spells. I could also just have frozen it, too, but I try to not just overly rely on one type of solving everything.  A foregone conclusion when it's just two of them, thankfully.    [SWORD] There is a weapon we have learned of which may be of aid to us in our quests. Where may it be found? The Guarda Revanche is hidden away in a place where elves and moredhel fear to tread, a place that is ancient and was once home to those known as the Valheru.[BOOK OF MACROS] There is a book we need to find. It is called the Book of Macros. How may we find it? You chase phantoms, for the book you name does not exist, though the spirit of it burns brightly. I don't understand. You mean what we are looking for is alive? Go you to the Abbey of Ishap at Sarth and find the knowledge held within the vaults. Your answers lie there.[PUG] Where has Pug gone to? What does the Book of Macros have to do with it? Pug has been betrayed by one he believed to be a friend. Even now, he wanders a distant world in search of his daughter, Gamina, but he will not find her. In his search, he will reawaken forces sleeping since the Valheru waged their wars across the universe. The Book of Macros will be that instrument by which you are able to save him. But how can I be of any help? If he can't protect himself, there is little Gorath and I can do. Where he falters, you will grow strong. The way has been prepared for you.Everything the Oracle tells us is technically true but also largely useless except that we should head to Sarth, which we could really have done (almost) right off the bat. In any case, now let's get back on the road towards Malac's Cross.     Previously the road between the Temple of Lims-Kragma and Malac's Cross was very quiet, and it still is. As long as we stick to the main east/west road, we won't run into any trouble, but as soon as we take the turn-off for Malac's Cross...    First another duo of Pantathians, then a trio, which is much worse since it means we're less likely to take them all out before they can act and cast spells at us. Two of them are packing Grief and Fetters of Rime, while the third is packing Despair Thy Eyes and Fetters of Rime.   Owyn freezes one with his own Fetters, Gorath engages the second, and the third manages to absurdly thread the needle of missing his own Fetters projectile right between Owyn and Gorath without hitting either. Insane stroke of luck for me. Losing Gorath would've probably not lost me the fight since he already whacked one, taking it down too far in HP to (probably) do much more casting, while Owyn would certainly have time to freeze the one that froze Gorath.  Like so. Note the one he whacked has gone into retreat mode but doesn't get a chance to escape before he plugs it with a bolt then uses the survivor for target practice.  So you clear them out and behind them is yet another Pantathian encounter, and while it's hard to see on the overworld, this one is actually five of them. Let's, uh, let's see how it goes, shall we?  So on the bright side, the hills to the party's left means the Pantathians can't maneuver much, this both means that they can't run away much but ALSO that Gorath will almost always be able to "threaten" multiple of them at once. I consider what my options are here, and decide to start off by dropping Skin of the Dragon on Gorath, something that at first glance seems to be like a good idea.   Last spell I get off in the fight since the Pantathians then blast Owyn to ash and freeze him. Still, if Gorath can clear the encounter, I can easily heal him up.   Nothing scratches him, he flattens snake after snake, and then advances on the last one, where I learn something unfortunate.  Skin of the Dragon does not immunize you against Grief of 1000 Nights. Instant fight over. Time to try this again. This time I start out by freezing a Pantathian instead. A better move might've been dropping a Rusalki right in the middle of the formation to threaten three of them instead, but for now, taking out one is good. They then absolutely pile on Gorath.   Since they don't kill him, though, I have him chug down almost a full stack of Restoratives to fix him up, while Owyn keeps the freeze party going.  Ice to meet you, snakes. Also Gorath of course has Naptha on his sword for doubling his damage, meaning he hands out about 110 damage on average per hit. This is kind of a necessary ingredient of the fight, because without that, enemies hit would still have enough health left to cast spells, as it is, the 100+ damage hits tend to leave them too wounded to cast, even if they're still alive.   Also turns out that Grief of 1000 Nights works on the Pantathians, too. I'm still wondering what the logic was behind who is affected by that spell and who isn't. I can see it not working on the Nighthawks since they're supposed to be conscience-less killers, but then it still works on the Black Slayers, who are just zombie Nighthawks. And yet it also works on the Pantathians, who are supposed to be the canonically utterly heartless servants of an ancient race of murderous demigods. In any case, this gets them all frozen or dead, so now Owyn can take a breather while Gorath cleans up, and this finally clears the path to Malac's Cross.    Aside from a few misc. items, the main rewards for this fight are a 100% Ruby which represents a nice amount of money still, and a Horn of Algon-Kokoon, which makes for only the second non-shop place it can be found in the game(and the only shop is the one in Dencamp which we can no longer access, plus it costs almost 1300 gold to buy!).  After selling off some stuff, I decide to hit up Ivan Skald's tavern for some replacement rations and he immediately rushes over to say hi(I'm not sure why, but every time I enter the inn, he immediately starts a conversation with the party, I feel like this is unintended but I'm not sure if it's a v1.02 thing or a GOG thing or what).  How have we merited bravery, barkeep? Haven't you heard the stories? Why there's snake people about, roaming the streets stealing babes from their mother's arms and giving sheep the blue heaves. Stole the gambols right off old nursemaid Finch's house and plugged up the gutters at the Abbaye Ishap. You don't seem to have had any difficulties. Ah, no. I wouldn't! I lives here and don't have to tread the roads. Can't just close up shop when some pratting student elects to rumble the locals. So you think this is all part of a prank? Come off it, lad! Snakes that looks like people and runnin about stealing chickens? If it's not a joke then I'm a gwali's uncle! Course it's a prank! What 'ja take me for, an old buggering gaffer? Now, what can I do for you two?We should've lugged a dead Pantathian or two into town just to gently caress with Ivan, it feels like. Now, let's have a talk with Graves. I'm sure he'll be eager to see us.  Why would Pantathians be interested in attacking the Abbaye Ishap and why would they blame you for it? The citizens are terrified, fleeing the city for fear of their lives. They blame you, abbot. Please...I don't know why they would make these...accusations...I'm not responsible, I will not be responsible. If you're thinking of fleeing the city, I wouldn't advise it. We've been told that some of the townspeople intend to make you a present to the Pantathians as a prisoner. The Pantathians don't take prisoners! They kill once they make their minds up on a target! It would be murder! It seems that the Pantathians are willing to do worse than that to Malac's Cross if you aren't turned over to them. Why don't you tell me why they're here? Perhaps we can help you if you help us. Greed. They're here because a certain spineless brother of the Abbaye Ishap looked up and said I am meant for greater things than this. He was unscrupulous, unflinching, dedicated to a singular selfish cause. With as little conscience as a man has when swatting a fly, he arranged that his abbot should be caught with a sum of money that was discovered missing from the brotherhood's coffers. Naturally, the brother then assumed the abbot's place. You. But you weren't able to keep the secret, were you? Someone discovered your deception. My plan was seamless, as perfect as the most perfect pearl but somehow he found out. So we struck an arrangement. The Crawler agreed to silence so long as I contacted Pug and arranged for a magical tutor to be sent periodically to Malac's Cross. The tutors never knew that not all of the men they trained were nobles and things went relatively well for four years...then Pug discovered the truth from one of the Crawler's men in Krondor. Pug withdrew his tutors, stripped us of our books and left me incapable of fulfilling the details of my secret deal. So the Crawler made a new demand. Since I could no longer train his rogues, I was to uncover a certain magical relic for him or forfeit my life. I refused, and his Pantathian masters were not pleased. I responded with a few of the boys that Pug's adviser had taught magic, nobles, but apparently they were overmatched. The relic the Crawler wanted, was it a book by any chance? I will say no more. The time is come that I made arrangements for my escape from Malac's Cross and you two may be my only hope. Find Mitchel Waylander and tell him what has happened. And tell him I don't want anyone else hurt. Once he has made his arrangements, return here and tell me what I must do. What? We can't help a criminal escape justice! The men and women of Malac's Cross aren't at all concerned about the criminality of my acts, boy. They know nothing of them. All they know is that the Pantathians have asked for my skin and they will do anything they can to protect themselves, even if it means turning over an innocent man. That is the justice they believe in. If you can still find me guilty after your deliberations, then don't bother coming back.Once again, absolutely nothing about this is canon. So what actually happens in the book is that Gorath and Locklear, after leaving Arutha, come out of the south side of the Dimwood and arrive at Malac's Cross. They ask Abbot Graves for help and learn that assassins have tried to kill him several times lately, thus he's pretty twitchy. They then tell him he's got nothing to worry about as the leader of the Nighthawks is dead, and he blurts out: "Navon is dead?!" And they realize he knows more about the conspiracy than he was letting on. In the book version, Kat, in Krondor, is a Mocker and also his half-his-age girlfriend(seriously, Feist, knock it off) for a while, but he left that behind after he left the Mockers to become an Ishapian abbot. Navon found out about his past and blackmailed him, threatening to kill Kat if Graves didn't... I actually forget what Graves actually does for him in the book, just pass him info, I think. But now Navon is dead, Graves offers to come to Krondor with Gorath and Owyn so he can find Kat, and he'll provide horses and money during the trip. He's also planning to leave the order without warning when he arrives there. After this he passes out of the story, but re-appears in both Assassins and Tear of the Gods. For now, though, we're left heading farther north, to Sloop.
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Dec 3, 2021 04:28
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Update 30: A Missing Pug, Part 2  The Vaults of Sarth are, of course, replete with scribes. Brother Marc could help us there. Also, I've heard Abbot Graves at Malac's Cross is well known for such knowledge.It's funny that you can go on much weirder-rear end side paths with zero suggestion or advice or hints that there's any reason to go there, and yet this one time, where there's actually someone asking us to go these places... we're actually asked to push off in the sternest terms possible. In any case... we make it almost all the way to Silden before there's anything new.   You said you were a teacher. Would you be interested in teaching us how to pick locks? Abuk is always interested in making money. I propose a price of seventy sovereigns. Is this offer acceptable to you?[YES] I've spent seventy sovereigns on less interesting subjects. Teach us. You must open yourself to new things. This is the first learning. Without this opening you will not be complete. Opening yourself is like opening a lock. If you can not open, then the lock may not open. You should understand that there is no difference between yourself and the lock that you pick. All these things I will demonstrate with a test lock that I carry with me. Now I want you to observe. You cover your cantrip poorly. Though I very nearly missed it. Can-trip? This is a word that Abuk does not know. Perhaps you will teach me. Just now, as you were demonstrating with the lock, I noticed that you motioned only very slightly with your right hand - a casting gesture. What sort of spell did you just effect? You observe keenly, but I am not of the magician's breed. I know nothing of cajunlo and yet I have this...ability... I may take a seed of knowledge and plant it in the fertile soil of another man's mind. I have done as requested, however, I have taught you something of the art of picking locks and our deal is still as valid. Agreed, but a bit of advice if you want to keep your secret hidden. Make sure that your students keep their eyes on the lock. Perhaps you should arrange it so that sparks flew from it or you had it painted in a shiny color. I know that many of the trickers who pose as magicians use that to keep people from seeing what they are doing. We both learn in this exchange. Your advice is appreciated young magician. My thanks. Travel to the sun on cool sands. Our paths may one day cross again, Abuk. Until then...This boost is only five points of lockpicking or so, but there are a couple of points where having decent lockpicking on Gorath and Owyn helps. Frankly, a smart move if you didn't already loot everything lootable with James would be to pick up one or maybe even two Amulets of the Upright Man since they can spare you some pain in a few places. No real surprise to anyone that Owyn knows some tricks about bilking people of their money. We continue north along the river road, though, which has gotten repopulated with a few hostile rogue and Quegian groups.     I'm a bit sad that the Krondor site doesn't seem to have all these battle start messages logged anywhere, as there are a few novel and unique ones. None of these fights are all that interesting in the actual fight part, however. None of them are dropping unique things we don't already have, there's some good stuff, like Dragon Plate and high-tier swords, but at this point none of it represents an upgrade or anything new. Still, it could represent a decent amount of extra funds if you're not starting Chapter 6 with a lot of money.     We're going to be tracking blood on to Mitchell's carpets. Good. It'll make the point that he shouldn't give us the runaround. We've come from Malac's Cross. Abbot Graves sent us. What about? The townspeople in Malac's Cross are calling for his head. He said that we should come and ask you for help. He's gambling quite a bit that I would help him, of all people. If I hadn't accepted his connections to the Crawler and the Guild of the Romney, the guild war might never have started...blast him. Deep down I know he was trying to help us, but the trouble he caused... Do you think they will truly attempt to kill him? I can't be convinced, but the Abbot seemed convinced. He's wise enough to know... All right, then. I will give you a note to give to the Abbot. There is a Glazer's Guild office in Malac's Cross and they should be able to help him out, but I'm calling in the last of my favors. I'll probably lose the guild, but this is for a friend... I'm sure he will appreciate it. Thank you, Mitchel.Now, we could just head back down to Malac's Cross buuuuuut, as we leave Sloop out the eastwards road...   Prince Arutha seemed to think that finding this Pug was of importance. It is important, but at the same time, we aren't far from there and I need to find out if Ugyne and my uncle are all right. Why would they not be? We were captured by moredhel who had penetrated into the Kingdom as far south as Cavall Keep. Since they took us, how can I be certain they didn't ride into Cavall Keep and burn it all to the ground? May be Navon du Sandau's Nighthawk friends didn't appreciate their little ring being broken up and decided to take it out on the local count. I've been thinking about it since we escaped from Sar-Sargoth and it's something I just need to know. I don't wish to sound indifferent to the fate of your kin, but I think there are rather more important issues to concentrate on. If the Kingdom falls to Delekhan and his supporters, I can guarantee your relatives will find their deaths early. I will go wherever you lead, Owyn, but I think you should think with your head rather than your heart.I have no idea why Gorath is so willing to let Owyn take the lead here, but whatever, it's our hint that we should keep going north!    Once we get north of Romney there are no more rogues and Quegians, but once we pass Prank's Stone and the Temple of Banath, we start seeing Moredhel on the roads.   I still really want to know what the loving lore is behind Evil Seek that makes it not hit human rogues, of all things, but still target everything from dogs to trolls otherwise. I guess they weren't good boys.  The one that's interesting is when we reach Cavall Keep again. Around where we found the Count's "please gently caress Navon up, Kahooli"-note, there's a Moredhel ambush that's actually worth paying attention to. Not because of the fight itself, because it just contains a couple of Moredhel and their dogs, RIP to the dogs. But because of what they drop.   BaK posted:Your orders are to penetrate into the Kingdom and disrupt activities within to allow our invisible magicians to the south of Northwarden in time to organize their efforts. If you should become trapped behind Kingdom lines, head south and wait it out in the barn we have secured for our spies. So this is hilarious, I can only imagine this is the note that Martin somehow got a hold of that warned him of the invisible magicians. This means that Gorath and Owyn warned Arutha, headed south to Krondor, east to Silden, north through Romney, got this note, and then got it to Martin, all before Arutha got from the Dimwood to Northwarden with his troops. I cannot even parse this timeline. Anyway, to avoid a collapse of causality itself, I suppose we should make sure he actually receives this and then not think too much about it.   As we approach Kenting Rush, these mercenaries yell at us from across the town. The following dialogue pops up before we're even in view of their sprites.  BaK posted:ROGUE: What d'ya think you're staring at, lad? Answer me! There are actually nine different dialogues you can get for this, some where Owyn is cowed, some where Gorath talks back to them, etc. I do like this one, too. BaK posted:ROGUE: What d'ya think you're staring at, lad? Answer me! No matter the exchange, though, they pick a fight with the party and get hacked up because they're three weak Rogues who really should not be picking this loving fight with us.    Our next goal is this inn. First we talk to the guy on the left side of the room... BaK posted:Owyn tapped the fellow on the shoulder. Afterwards, we'll talk to the innkeeper. BaK posted:Owyn motioned to the man. This can be completed with any cask of ale, but there are really only three places to acquire them. There's one on a body in the Dimwood, they can be bought in Loriel and lastly there's the illusion valley to the east of Kenting Rush which we found because I know it's there, which isn't the intended way to find it. Let's say we don't know about it and just poke around Kenting Rush...   Turns out Ugyne's up here, too! What are you doing out of Cavall Keep? We came up when some of Prince Arutha's men passed through Cavall Keep. They said there is a battle about to happen and there were going to be troops mustering here with the Lady Boswich. Is that true? Are we really going to war with the moredhel again? I don't know how much I am allowed to say, but there is a very good possibility of it. Actually, Gorath and I are supposed to be looking for a magician named Pug from Stardock, but with the war going on here... I wanted to make sure that you and your father were all right. Why wouldn't we be? It's not as if the fighting will get this far south...will it? No...it's just that... There are several things we will need to talk about when things have calmed down. I'm just glad that you're safe. I was concerned that something might have happened to you. You're getting to be as silly as I am. So...what have you been eating? You're as thin as a bone. Is there anything I can do for you two?[ALCOHOL] Some of the tavern owners here are concerned that if the men don't get some alcohol soon, there may be a riot. As I recall, your father had quite a stock of foreign wines once... That was a long time ago, before... Can we not talk about this now? I have a terrible headache and I'm doing the best I can to try and help out Lorna with the children. Ordinarily I wouldn't push the issue, but it seems to be a crisis at the moment. The fight at Northwarden might pale in comparison to what may happen around here if we don't get a few of these men drunk. You'll need to find father and ask him. He might be able to speak to Lady Boswich on your behalf. I know that she used to send us wines from her secret reserves.[HER FATHER] Where is your father? I'm surprised he isn't trying to command this muster himself. I don't know...we've had a parting of the ways. I don't know when I will see him again. I think he may be with Lady Boswich in the mustering area, but I'm not sure. I don't think I'm very sure of anything anymore... Why? What's wrong? I don't know who to trust anymore. I don't know who's telling the truth and who's lying to me. Do you remember when my brother was killed in the wine cellar accident all those years ago? Yes...Ugyne, I... He didn't die, Owyn. Father found out Neville was a bastard and so he arranged for the accident, but it didn't kill Neville. And then Neville was found by some bad men and they were going to ransom him but Neville knew father wouldn't pay. Then he found a way to use his spyglass against them and...Owyn, he came back as one of my suitors! I hadn't seen him since I was a little girl and he had changed so much. How could I have recognized him? He called himself Navon and I thought...I thought...I don't know... Shhhhhh. You're babbling, cousin. Maybe you can explain all of this to me sometime after you've calmed down a bit. I think you need some rest.The house we walked past to get to the Prelate's House in Chapter 3 is Lady Boswich's house, and normally unapproachable in Chapter 6 because of her guards, but if we've talked to Ugyne first we can get there. We care about the barn rather than the house itself, though.  BaK posted:A man intercepted them. If we don't have the quest, he just tells us to push off and Gorath drags Owyn off before he can start hurling Flamecasts. Inside the barn... BaK posted:Guards escorted them inside. I like Lady Boswich, she should feature in more stories. She reminds me a bit of Lady Brock from Joe Abercrombie's latest books. Also, the guide insists that there's a hint somewhere that Patrus set up her illusion for her, which would seem totally in character, but I can't seem to find it. A more pressing problem, however, is... the booze is gone. There are triggers for the game emptying containers left around if they don't contain specific quest items or, especially, notes. Since I opened them back in Chapter 3, apparently the game saw fit to just empty every loving last of them! No huge loss to us, though. Obviously, we miss out on the reward and dialogue if we returned to Lurough in the tavern: BaK posted:The bartender shook his head. The sword we'd get would be another Sword of Lims-Kragma, which is a bit odd considering how easily we can acquire one right at the start of the chapter. Now, the PRO GAMER MOVE is that you can actually leave this one in a place that James and Locklear can access in the next chapter they appear in, but it's not necessary. James and Locklear are already pretty tough fighters, and Patrus has the spells which are needed to get through his next appearance. In any case, back to Malac's Cross. I warp to the Temple of Lims-Kragma from the Temple of Kahooli, which is the closest we can get to the Chapter 5 area in Chapter 6.    He has a plan that he believes will work. He sent along the details. Tactics, tactics, tactics, always tactics. A justified end to my life as an abbot, I suppose. The priest brought down by the pawn. The circle closes. It's not too late to do the right thing, abbot. You have a chance to strike back at the Crawler. You can tell me how to get the relic so that he doesn't gain it. Tell me how to get the Book of Macros. Book of Macros? I've never heard of it. I transcribed quite a few of the books that came from his library when he left Midkemia, but I believe I would have remembered reading a book by that title. I know very little about that magician except for what is written in Pug's or Tomas' historical commentaries on the Riftwar with the Tsurani. No, the Crawler was after a magical sword that was reputedly lost near Malac's Cross in the dim past. Personally, I don't believe the Guarda Revanche is anything but a myth. You just mentioned someone named Tomas. Who is that? Hmph? Tomas? He's Warleader of the Elves in Elvandar and Consort to Queen Aglaranna. He was very close to Pug as I understand it and I believe he also spent some little time with Macros. Perhaps he may know about your Book of Macros. It's a lead. Thin, but a lead. Thank you, abbot. I think we have a book to find. Perhaps we will meet again under happier circumstances... Unlikely, unless you set your feet on the road to Kesh. I imagine that's where I go next. Goodbye and farewell. Kesh is it? Good luck.There's no tangible reward to this except thta we get pointed to Elvandar and a reminder about the Guarda Revanche(it also opens up the Malac's Cross teleporter again, but we're out of any good reasons to ever return to Malac's Cross anyway, so the only real effect is that we can leave quicker. ). We're still not where we can acquire it, but we definitely want to acquire it. Of course, we first need to go back to Krondor because there's something I skipped over when we were there earlier. Not because I couldn't do it earlier, but because it's neater to do it this way.
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Dec 3, 2021 04:35
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Update 31: A Missing Pug, Part 3   Turns out Nivek's sobered up enough that he's capable of using language again. I' m sorry to interrupt your hangover, sir, but it's very important that we speak to you. Have you seen or spoken to Pug of Stardock in the past few days? He's disappeared from the palace and we' re trying to find out where he might have gone or done before he left. It could be that he and I dressed in the Princess Anita's finest gowns and danced with skeletons on the docks, but I don't remember a single detail of this last evening. I had a bit too much drink, I believe...and I'm regretting it with great acuity at this moment. Surely you might remember the events when you entered the bar? Nothing. Not a moment...mind's as blank as a slate...I don't even remember where it is I mislaid my keys. Maybe if you found your keys, you'll recall last night's events. That is a respectable theory, young friend, but as I am in no condition to move I cannot test your hypothesis... Tell me what they look like. If we run across them, we will bring them back to you and maybe then you'll remember. Not much to distinguish it from other keys...It has my name etched up on it...that is all... good luck. Take care of yourself, old friend.Now, we walk out of Krondor...    BaK posted:Cast in brass, the key type was unfamiliar though it's size suggested it was made to open a door rather than a chest. On the reverse side was a royal seal, over which were inscribed three lines of script: Prop. of Nivek; Lrd. Mnst. of Fincs., Wstrn. Rlm; Krndr. Good thing a corpse literally right outside the gates of Krondor had the key and we didn't need to undertake some sort of quest for it. Let's hop back to Nivek with it. If you mean, have we found your key, the answer is yes. I have it here in my pack, but...it might be advisable for you to consult a solicitor for advice. A solicitor? Why? Where were my keys? We found them on a dead man. He was just outside of Krondor. It looked as though the side of his head had been bashed in with a large, blunt weapon. Was he an enemy of yours? If you're suggesting that in my stupor I killed someone, you've lost your senses. I'm not violent when I'm drunk, and in fact I tend to fall unconscious after even a few tankards of ale... I am starting to recall a few things about my...episode...shall we call it? I remember a man who came into the Rainbow Parrot and offered me a drink and then it seems I followed him somewhere...outside of town, perhaps? Where you killed him. No, where he...he offered me more to drink...and then he took me someplace else, or did his friend take me there? And then...after that, everything's still a blank... So these strangers got you drunk and stole your key. Does your house key open any other locks other than your house? Yes, it opens the locks to my correspondent's office in Eggley. The Prince had my keys made especially so I could have access to any of the Kingdom treasury offices. Mind if we borrow this key for a while? I want to test a theory. Be my guest. Anything to help my own cause. I'd really like to get this cleared up. We'll do what we can. Thanks.I wonder if Owyn's going to ever enlighten us about this theory. Mostly whether I can enrich myself with the official key of a Minister of Finance.Off to Eggley! The roads nearby have gotten repopulated with a few more rogues at some point, but once again nothing of big interest.    Nicely enough, having sorted out the Stranger quest back in chapter... did we do it in 1 or 2? I think we did it in 2. Anyway, having sorted the quest, the town's actually gotten re-populated!  It's pretty good stuff. The inn is repopulated and we can knock on a few doors. BaK posted:Gorath stood motionless, waiting for a response. Seconds later a large, amply endowed woman came to the door, holding a small child on one hip. The last one is the shop-looking structure in town, which is Stellan's office, all it contains is a single note, sadly for Owyn's dreams of personal enrichment. BaK posted:The mines of the Mac Bourgalan Dok are hereby deeded to Mejakaar Blackpatch and all wealth therein ... A section of the caverns were sealed by a special door which may only be opened with this map, a magical spell having been put upon it ... You may recall Naddur from the Mac Mordain Cadal saying that Mac Bourgalan Dok was the ancient dwarven name for the caverns underneath Sarth, and we've had a few folks, including Owyn, mention that the scribes at Sarth might also have some interesting information for us regarding the Book of Macros, and since Sarth is on the way up to Elvandar in any case, may as well drop by.   Like the rest of the region, the coast road has gotten repopulated to avoid the trip being boring. The only encounter that particularly stuck in my mind was the one nearest to Krondor, though, simply for the sheer volume of enemies in it.  I think seven enemies at once may be the biggest fight in the game. Looking around, I could only find three other 7-enemy fights on the Krondor site, and barely any 6-enemy fights. Still, nothing greatly noteworthy about them. Mages are the things that make battles spicy at this point, little else does it.  He gets the dogs and then the freeze and then Gorath hacks his buddies to mincemeat.    A trio of scorpions have also parked themselves outside the Temple of Sung, a speedbump that Gorath and Owyn hardly notice.    Six rogues are also hanging out outside of Brother Marc's field being annoying. Of note is that one of them is packing Flaming Quarrels, which are super-inaccurate but also do a hell of a lot of damage. Thankfully dragon plate and the archer having a trashy crossbow means that Owyn hardly feels it.   No thanks for clearing the bandits out of your fields, huh? So much for gratitude. Why didn't anyone treat the fever before it became serious? None of us knew he was infected until this morning. When he woke this morning he reported to the brotherhood's herbalist that he was experiencing dizziness. It's one of the early signs of the fever, but I wouldn't be overly concerned. Quegian Fever is rarely fatal to adults. It's not the fever's primary effects that concern me. As Keeper of the Gates, Brother Dominic is the greatest wielder of the magical arts among us. Should he begin to hallucinate, he may lose his capacity to discern between real and imagined threats. He might view other members of the brotherhood as enemies or perhaps he will see a threat in the outside world. We know from Pug of Stardock that things of this nature can occur when magicians fall ill... No one can break his fever? I am sure the herbalist will do what he can, but our best hope resides in Brother Dominic's iron will. Until such time his fever breaks, the Abbey of Ishap at Sarth will be a fearfully dangerous place and I would advise against going any closer. Was there something you needed from the Abbey?[MINE] My grandfather used to tell me stories about the chambers beneath Sarth that he said were once part of a rich dwarven mine. He called it the Mac Boogalan...Borgu... The Mac Bourgalan Dok I believe it was called, yes. At one time it was quite an impressive emerald mine. He suggested that there still might be tunnels that connect with those directly beneath the Abbey. If you have any of the old dwarven maps or deeds, we might be able to get in through the old mine. Unfortunately, those maps are not in the hands of the Brothers of Sarth at the moment. We gave it over to the assistant tax collector who lives in Eggley, a fellow named Stellan. I understand that there was some confusion in regards to how much the Abbey could be taxed because of it's connection to those old mines. If you speak to him, I am sure he could show you those documents. At least it sounds like a way we may be able to re-enter the abbey![MACROS] Do you know anything about a Book of Macros? Of Macros, no. About Macros, I know we have a few of them in the Vaults, most concerning the legends about the Villa Beata while he was living on Sorcerer's Isle. We might also have a few things by him in there, but I couldn't be certain without checking.I'm certain there won't be any problems getting into Sarth.  Oh hey let's just walk up to the front door and- BaK posted:Light blinded Owyn. So now we use the ENTER on the left side of the screen that takes us to the mines under Sarth. BaK posted:Trees whipped at their faces.   It's the same mine textures as the Mac Mordain Cadal, but a much simpler layout. There's a more or less straight line through, with three rooms connected, two of which have chests in them that we care to poke at.   So this first one, as you may be able to tell from the Scent of Sarig rune at the top of the screen, is trapped! Now, it's not hard to disarm, 22 skill, but it's 140 damage, 140 damage, if you don't have Scent of Sarig up. So clearly, with that sort of threat, it's gotta contain something real cool, right?  This game sometimes. There's also a code chest in the same room.  WALNUT All it contains is a shell and some +Spell Accuracy potions.    The last chest in the cave is behind a 90-difficulty door that can also be opened with a Virtue Key. There's no way you have James at 90 skill yet, at least not without multiple Amulets of the Upright Man, if you bring him here in Chapter 2, and unless you want to actually pay for one (lol) the only place I'm sure you can get a Virtue Key for free earlier than Chapter 3 is Prank's Stone on the far side of the gameworld. Still, you might've taken that route down to Krondor if you were really loving around. What's the reward for dealing with that kind of bother, though?  TRADE MARES The chest contains a Sword of Kinnur and a Grey Tower Plate, both at 100% durability. We skipped over the Sword of Kinnur for everyone because of the route we took, but if you took the long, circuitous route and skipped the Dimwood, then it would still likely be an upgrade for James, Gorath or Locklear, depending on who you're bringing along, and unless you're paying out the nose for it at Highcastle/Northwarden, you're unlikely to start packing everyone with Dragon Plate until Chapters 4 and 5, so the Grey Tower Plate will still be a noteworthy upgrade.   It only takes a couple of minutes to blaze through the mines and get this far, with the only enemies along the way being a couple of giant spiders and scorpions. Despite wild animals showing up as threats a couple of times in the books, I don't think giant insects or arachnids ever do. BaK posted:Owyn disappeared up the stairs. He returned a minute later, a look of grim determination evident on his face... The reward is a Dorcas' Treaty on the Animation of Objects, a +spell accuracy training book, and three 100% Emeralds which is a fat chunk of cash, though by the time you're here in chapter 6 you're probably well set for most resources and gear.  This also gives us a chance to root through the library for stuff. There are several interactible locations among the shelves, each producing huge amounts of lore dumps. BaK posted:Owyn studied the shelf. While many of the titles on the shelf were either too faded to be read or printed in foreign tongues, most of the subject matter seemed to be related to magic. So, technically this path gets us the hint to gently caress off to Elvandar, too, but otherwise none of the reading provides any skill boosts or other advantages.  That's for next time, though, now we're finally (almost) out of optional content, only the most treasureful of sidequests still lies before us. And hopefully it's true that it's been unbugged so it won't accidentally make battles unwinnable in the latest patch.
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Dec 3, 2021 04:47
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quote:And hopefully it's true that it's been unbugged so it won't accidentally make battles unwinnable in the latest patch. Wait what? That's awful, did it make enemies not take damage past a certain point or something?
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Dec 3, 2021 06:06
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Guildenstern Mother posted:Wait what? That's awful, did it make enemies not take damage past a certain point or something? It's a ridiculously powerful weapon first off, like, completely absurd in the ways it lets you hack enemies up even without abusing The Well(which I promise to only abuse slightly for the sake of an example). But! In version 1.01, said weapon also came default with a level 3 bless, which apparently did something to its damage calculations so that against certain enemies it wouldn't do no damage, but instead it did negative damage and increased enemy health. Their 1.02 fix was to leave it by default unblessed, which should have unbroken it.
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Dec 3, 2021 07:03
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Oh right the sword bug. I thought you meant just a general 'as you're playing through' bug. Glad to see you did the ale quest, I've never actually done it before, and had no idea there was all that dialogue up at Cavell's Keep.
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Dec 3, 2021 07:13
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I'm absolutely confident that enemies can cast spells even if said spell requires more hitpoints than they currently have, killing themselves in the process. I suppose the AI may be less eager to cast spells in that case, but that sounds more complex than the way the game generally handles things.
Xander77 fucked around with this message at 15:54 on Dec 4, 2021 |
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Dec 3, 2021 19:41
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Xander77 posted:I'm absolutely confident that enemies can cast spells even if said they require more hitpoints than they currently have, killing themselves in the process. I suppose the AI may be less eager to cast spells in that case, but that sounds more complex than the way the game generally handles things. Personally I've never seen this behavior, but that may also be because when they're low enough in health that casting a full-power spell(and the AI only ever seems to cast spells at full power and, let's be frank, you should be doing the same) would kill them, they're almost guaranteed to also be low enough in health that they switch into "get me the gently caress out of here"-mode and start legging it.
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Dec 3, 2021 19:47
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