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Fyorafriends is deliberate.  Everything else...  "Satan" is a pretty good one from the text capture program! I'm not sure how a "w" became "ta," but there you have it. The weird spaces, letter l for capital I substitution, and periods where commas should be stem from that; the program seems kinda error-prone, but it's still much faster than manually transcribing the game text. Next update will get a run through a grammar checker so I don't miss any more of these errors, since my proofreading isn't catching everything. Onward and upward! Quality!  Dmar posted:Great to see this game being run. I always seem to hit a wall about 1/3rd of the way into a Geneforge game. I've always found them much more difficult than the other Spiderweb games. I'm really looking forward to a successful playthrough, for once. I haven't played Nethergate, but of the rest of the Spiderweb games, I definitely agree that the Geneforge games are the hardest. At least that's the case at normal difficulty; I've never run any on max. I maintain that part of it's the need for quality of life improvements. Neutral is leading the voting, followed by the Awakened. There's one vote for Takers and none for the Obeyers, whom we haven't yet met.
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Nov 14, 2016 01:12
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:"Satan" is a pretty good one from the text capture program! I'm not sure how a "w" became "ta," but there you have it. The weird spaces, letter l for capital I substitution, and periods where commas should be stem from that; the program seems kinda error-prone, but it's still much faster than manually transcribing the game text. Next update will get a run through a grammar checker so I don't miss any more of these errors, since my proofreading isn't catching everything. Onward and upward! Quality! My policy for this kind of thing (any big text update, really) is to write it, then let at least one night pass before I re-read it, correct any mistakes I notice, and post. I don't know if that'll be any help for you though; writing styles are a pretty idiosyncratic thing.
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Nov 14, 2016 01:15
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:I haven't played Nethergate, but of the rest of the Spiderweb games, I definitely agree that the Geneforge games are the hardest. At least that's the case at normal difficulty; I've never run any on max. I maintain that part of it's the need for quality of life improvements. So maybe I'm just a weakling but I also found Nethergate (and Resurrection) to be pretty tough as well. Just seems like sometimes I can't crack the Spiderweb code, even after playing the games for basically my entire life. And then the old timers on the Spiderweb forums talk about their singleton torment runs and I'm like man. To be honest I did get through GF4 but at a certain point I knocked it down to casual difficulty, and I also liberally cheated gold into the game because after like 15 years of Spiderweb games I don't regard "steal everything that isn't nailed down" as really fun anymore. Which is why I'm delighted that you're doing it for me this time! Also I will also vote for Neutral at this time.
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Nov 14, 2016 01:21
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None of these groups should be trusted. No, not even the Obeyers, for reasons we have yet to see (since we haven't actually met them yet). Can I vote Neutral with a side of Mastermind this poo poo and play everyone against everyone else? As a side note, our canister addiction is a little concerning, but I'm sure we can quit whenever we want.
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Nov 14, 2016 02:40
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Voting for Neutral with a second leaning towards Awakened. want to find out what's going on here for ourselves before we lean towards anyone unless something big happens. We don't want to tie our fate to anything bfeore knowing what the game is and what we have to gain from it.
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Nov 14, 2016 06:01
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Voting Neutral with emphasis on a motherfucking boat and a side helping of Protect Shaper Interests
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Nov 14, 2016 06:12
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:"Satan" is a pretty good one from the text capture program! I'm not sure how a "w" became "ta," but there you have it. The weird spaces, letter l for capital I substitution, and periods where commas should be stem from that; the program seems kinda error-prone, but it's still much faster than manually transcribing the game text. Next update will get a run through a grammar checker so I don't miss any more of these errors, since my proofreading isn't catching everything. Onward and upward! Quality!
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Nov 14, 2016 06:59
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Another vote for neutral and 'what's wrong with this place?'
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Nov 14, 2016 17:40
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Great LP! I'm going to say you should go with the Obeyers. We are gods, we create life, and we should be treated as such!
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Nov 14, 2016 20:04
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Let's not meddle with forces we don't understand. Well, more than we already have to. Neutral
The Vosgian Beast fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Nov 14, 2016 |
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Nov 14, 2016 20:44
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My vote goes to Neutral for now and a long-term goal of gently caress the Shapers. How you take that last bit is up to you.
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Nov 14, 2016 21:23
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Obeyers, you are makers of life. How can you let them suffer outside of your control?
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Nov 14, 2016 23:04
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Stay neutral until you've actually met everybody. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the Takers were trying to hide a backstab by acting all obsequious.
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Nov 15, 2016 04:08
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Everywhere I Go, I Must Kill! Part 2 The road back to Vakkiri is significantly quieter now. If any rogues remain, they're too afraid of you to make a move for now. Now that we've cleared out the spawner, we can cross Watchhill freely instead of manually traversing the zone.  I haven't made much of a point of showing off the journal. Here's the quest tab! As you can see, we've accumulated several potential jobs, plus our ultimate goal. Right now, the only thing you're truly certain of is that you absolutely must find a way off Sucia Island. The Awakened don't have a boat for you and seem uninterested in helping you acquire one. They have tried to lure you in with noble and fair speeches, but now you know what they're capable of -- murdering fellow creations and even slaughtering servant minds.  Leader Khobar is still wary of you when you return, but he greets you courteously nonetheless. "I found that the rogues to the east were being created by some sort of huge, spawning thing. I killed it," you say. Your thahd stares at the nearby cook pit, slobbering audibly. It sort of undercuts the creation's impressive hugeness, actually. "You have done well. You have assisted us. And, as equals, we will pay you in kind for your trouble." Khobar hands you a pouch. You look inside. It is filled with tiny, well-worn gold coins, all centuries old. "What could have created that thing you found? It is odd. Strange events are happening on Sucia, and we know nothing of what they are or how to deal with them. I hope you can understand these events, because we can't. If you wish to learn more of what is happening, you should go east. If you are not leaving immediately, however, there is away in which you can help us, again for fair pay." "How else can I help you?" You tuck the pouch away for now. It's reassuring to have some money. Perhaps it'll corroborate your tale when you leave this island. The coins the Awakened use are all old Shaper money. It makes a certain kind of sense. Without mines and mints, the serviles can't mint new coins. Why not continue to use the gold they already have access to? "You should speak with Ellhrah if you have not already. And I need to get a message to him, but I can't endanger my people on the eastern road." He gives you a scroll. "Take this to Ellhrah. When it is done, I will pay you again. And, when you meet Ellhrah, you should speak with him. You may not think that a servile can be wise. If so, I think you will be surprised." "We've already met," you say, "but I'll deliver your message if I get the chance." There's another piece of business in Vakkiri that you decide you won't leave unfinished. Your creations flank you as you walk into the house of the fat, rich servile, Dreet. She looks at you placidly, clearly unconcerned about the danger you present. Her arrogance grates, but she has something you want -- canisters. "I am trying to protect you from the rogue creations all around you," you say. "All of your wealth won't help you if this town is overrun. You should help me help you." Your thahd grumbles, looking around at all the unbroken breakables in Dreet's home. Dreet thinks on that for a good long time, weighing a few hundred coins and potential death against potential death and a lot of broken furniture. Then she walks over to the door and presses a concealed button. "I can see your point. The door will open for you now."  Your thahd waits near the door. The formerly sealed room is mostly full of rubbish, but Dreet didn't lie about the intact canister. A glorious rush of knowledge and power fill you. Now you know how to bolster yourself and your creations so that your blows strike hard and true. War blessing will surely see you safely through any more encounters with feral rogues. The day isn't over yet and you still feel mildly homicidal even after another canister. You did tell Learned Pinner that you would investigate the abandoned school. Given that every other ruin so far has been rogue-infested, you expect that the school will be an excellent place to vent some aggression.  Game Text posted:Even though it was built several centuries ago and has been crumbling ever since, the traditional statues at the entrance immediately tell you what this building is. And deal with them you shall. It's not long before a patrolling thahd blunders past you, perhaps mistaking your creations for fellow rogues. Your fyoras immediately blast the rogue thahd into little more than a bloodstain and a few lumps of flesh. You slaughter several lone rogues in swift succession and locate their nests. While mostly lined with garbage, you do find that the rogues have a keen love of shiny, golden coins, which you pocket.  Fyoras aren't known for their mural skills. You wouldn't have even guessed them capable of the level of abstraction required to create primitive art. Their depiction of a large creature worries you -- is it a Shaper or another rogue creation? Unfortunately, the rogue fyoras aren't skillful enough artists to make that distinction clear. You kill several rogue fyoras and salvage a few pods. Excitingly, you locate essence pods. Their signature blue shells fill you with hope. Usually a Shaper has to rest in order to regain expended essence, but pods provide a quick pick-me-up when time is precious. You also locate antidote pods created to counteract some of the most common toxins Shapers encounter. Shaping isn't all about creating well-understood creatures like your fyoras and thahds. Sometimes it's about experimenting with strange and dangerous substances both organic and inorganic. The discipline wand is but one example of applied toxins Shapers are responsible for. Curing pods are also extremely handy for common chemical burns inflicted by substances like lye and spoiled essence.  As you explore, your hopes of finding useful textbooks slowly erode. Everything you find has already been ruined by exposure to the elements and to hungry rogues.  Game Text posted:This was the school's reservoir. Shaper installations always have a supply of water in reserve. Your thahd drinks with gusto, but you can't bring yourself to even dip a finger in that fetid water. The fyoras seem to share your opinion. You continue along the corridor, passing long-empty classrooms now home to rogues. How long was that spawner around? There are enough thahds and fyoras here to guard a good sized town. At the far end of the hall, you find a locked door marked as a supply room. No amount of fiddling gets it open.  Further exploration into the western half of the school finally yields something interesting. There's an unlocked automatic door that opens into a small room. You find a dead servile and a few ruined texts, but what gets your hope up is a partially intact book. Game Text posted:Time and decay have heavily damaged this tome, a journal of one of the teachers at this school when it was still functioning. However, some listings at the end are still barely legible: You don't think your disappointment could be more severe. The journal is nothing but a tease, dangled before you like a gobbet of meat before a fyora. Fate couldn't be crueler.  Game Text posted:It would appear that the creations inhabiting these tunnels regarded the pages of this tome as food. None of the writing on the heavily chewed pages is still legible.  The far west room once had pools of essence to heal and restore the students studying here. Unfortunately, the pools have long since dried up and are useless to you. There's a pair of used up canisters here; studying them doesn't provide any clues about the abilities they might have bestowed.  Game Text posted:The symbol on this obelisk is worn and slightly different than what you're used to, but you recognize it. It indicates that this passage leads to the school's servant mind. If the servant mind is still alive, it may be able to shed some light on what happened on Sucia Island, and perhaps even give you access to the locked supply room you found in the southwest.  You and your loyal creations accidentally back a few patrolling rogues into a dead end past the obelisk. The rogue fyoras and thahds put up a frenzied defense, but a few well-timed ice crystal blasts freeze them before they can harm your creations. Afterwards, your first fyora and thahd look at you with simple adoration -- you protected them from awful rogues. It feels pretty good. The lever by the automatic door is held fast by high-quality locks. You could probably open it if you had several more living tools, but that seems uneconomical. Investigating the door itself only increases your respect for the abilities of the long-ago Shapers who built the place. You can neither contact nor kill the creatures holding the door in place.  Skirting the outer halls of the school seems to put you in the path of every patrolling rogue in the place. You stumble into a group of three fyoras led by a thahd and things rapidly start going wrong. Your thahd narrowly manages to out-punch its rogue counterpart, but one of your fyoras eats too many fireballs and flees back the way you came and well out of reach of your healing magic. You start dropping your pathetic bits of salvage in an effort to regain control of the situation. Meanwhile, your newest fyora takes matters into its own claws. The three rogue fyoras can't withstand the sustained efforts of a superior, loyal fyora and a bloodthirsty, berserk thahd. You finish off the stragglers with a thorn baton, then spend precious minutes chasing down your terrified first creation to heal it. Once you've patched up your creations, it's time to return to Vakkiri and rest. You haven't finished investigating the school yet, but that can wait. The books will not rot faster while you're gone.  Entering friendly village zones refills your HP and essence. Since your inventory space is limited anyway, it's often wise to take a break from exploration and return to friendly territory. One thing to note is that as long as you're neutral, you can buy and sell from most merchants. All merchants have a finite amount of money, so you should try to exhaust their purses before moving on. Also, anything you dump on the ground will persist wherever you've left it, so if you have excess supplies you don't want to sell, drop them off at the edge of a map you'll frequently visit. Convenient! Vakkiri remains peaceful. The guards on patrol are a little less anxious in your presence now that they've seen you several times, but you don't stop for more conversation with them. You notice a medium-sized building like Dreet's home and decide to see if anyone's in. After all, single family homes are only for prominent serviles.  There is every quiet and nervous servile lurking back in this house. She looks quite terrified of you. She says, in a quavering voice, "Hello. I am Strout." "What do you do here?" you ask. You missed meeting her before, but you've never really made a practice of barging uninvited into places until now. "I raise ornks." The terse response reminds you that not all serviles are that eager for Shaper attention. "Why are you so nervous?" you ask anyway. "You... you... you are Shaper. We are all afraid. We are afraid of how you will control us. Some show it less, but we are all afraid." Strout closes her mouth tightly; she didn't mean to say that much. "I don't want to control you. You don't have to worry about that." In fact, what you'd like best is to leave them all behind and never think of them again. "We are glad to hear it," Strout says, "but we will believe it when we see it." You shake your head. Strout and others like her won't be able to overcome their kind's in-Shaped fear of their creators. You aren't sure how to feel about that. Your people created the serviles, but it's not in your nature to delight in fear, not even a creation's fear. A good person, a good Shaper, doesn't need to terrorize anyone to command obedience. However, the creations you've met on Sucia Island have been anything but obedient, and almost all of them have feared you on some level. Fear drives the less sophisticated rogues to attack, but it has also led the rest to try to bargain with you as a representative of their creators. Shapers have never had need of diplomacy, and so you're left lacking examples of how to proceed. Everything is up to you. It's a lot of pressure. You contemplate that on the way back to the ruined school, where you crush a few more rogue stragglers.  Game Text posted:This ruined lecture hall smells of dust and mildew and something else. The odor is slightly off, but you can't mistake the smell of fresh essence. That's strange. Maybe there really is a Shaper running around Sucia Island, somehow evading the notice of the serviles. You don't think that the Awakened would lie about the presence of another Shaper. They wouldn't put so much energy into trying to win you over if they were hiding another Shaper. And why would one hide from you? You're a brand new apprentice. If a full Shaper told you to shut up about this place, you'd obey without question. You decide to check out what this sneaky Shaper has left behind. Maybe it'll be a clue about the nature and purpose of the spawner you encountered at Watchhill. Game Text posted:This vat does, indeed, contain a large quantity of essence. It's not fresh. It must be several weeks old, and the proteins and other organic substances are starting to decay. You decide to see what the thing is. The essence in the vat is so far gone that you doubt much harm will come to you unless you do something really stupid, like reach in with your bare hand or try to drink the bio-slime. Unfortunately, you are wrong. Game Text posted:The moment you poke the body with the ladle, it stirs. It looks like a Fyora, but it is horrible and misshapen. It's as if someone tried to shape it, but lacked the proper materials and knowledge. The horrible, twisted creature immediately attacks you. You waste no time in ordering your thahd between you and the experimental fyora. The poor thing is mindless from pain and rage. Even as untutored as you are, you know that no full Shaper would leave a failed creation like this behind. The only decent thing for the fyora's creator to do was re-absorb it. You lack the ability to do so, but you and your creations do the next best thing and put the fyora out of its misery. You brace yourself before checking the second vat. If there is another misshapen and abandoned creation inside, it's your duty to mercifully put it down. Game Text posted:Essence doesn't just happen. It must be mixed up by a skilled Shaper following a complicated and secret recipe. You aren't sure what this stuff is doing here, but it certainly shouldn't be here. Once again, you poke the lump, but more gingerly this time. Game Text posted:The moment you poke the bubble with the ladle, a cloud of acrid gas sprays out! You start to feel very ill. You retch. You must've ruptured a gland or similar organ, though one that was vastly outsized for whatever creature it belonged to. Fortunately, no angry creation leaps out to attack. Whatever it is is very, very dead. You quickly wipe off the goop and mend your unfortunate poisoning with the cure spell you learned from a canister. Unfortunately, the level to the northwest is not only locked, but beyond your ability to pick. Everything interesting here is either ruined, dangerous, or out of your reach. You head towards the only area that you haven't tried exploring -- the school's center, where the shaping platforms should be. Game Text posted:You note the guard room, heavy stone doors, and narrow passages. You can guess where this hall leads. You are almost to the Creation Hall. You nervously continue down the hall, this time with your thahd in the lead, flanked by the fyoras. You're confident that no rogues will come upon you from behind; the real danger lies ahead. Just in case, you cast the war blessing for the first time. The slight tingle is the only sign that the spell has taken effect, but that reassures you a little. Game Text posted:You enter the Creation Hall and find that it is occupied. There are several creations at the far end of the hall. Not surprisingly, they completely lack the expected level of obedience.  This is beyond unfortunate. Your thahd charges ahead with glee at the chance to butt heads -- literally -- with a rival thahd. Rawbone is much stronger than your creation, though, and stuns it with the power of a thick cranium unimpeded by a sense of self-preservation. The general advice for fighting with thahds and similar battle creations is "don't." Thahds have no concept of the future or of fairness and will fight to their last breath (and beyond; a thahd's death-grip is not metaphorical). Unfortunately, you don't have that luxury. Worse, Rawbone has a stable of tamed fyoras that are all too happy to join the fight. The rogue fyoras concentrate fire on your thahd while Rawbone pushes past to charge you. You palm your last ice crystal and fire -- and thanks to sweet, kind fortune, Rawbone collapses in a frost-riddled pile at your feet, just barely touching the tips of your sandals. Your thahd shakes off the fugue and starts crushing the heads of any rogue fyoras it can reach. You hang back and direct your own fyora to finish off the rogues protected by the thorny barricades. You heal the worst of your creations' wounds but hold essence back in case you encounter any more stubborn foes. Your investigation of Rawbone's corpse yields something interesting -- a finely made belt, almost certainly crafted by a Shaper. After examining it, you know why Rawbone seemed unusually intelligent. This is a belt meant to aid students in memorizing all the rote theory you have to master. The belt is also enchanted to make your spells a little more potent -- perhaps as insurance if Shaping practice goes awry. Game Text posted:Rawbone's possessions are stored in this box. It's mostly trash — torn garments and broken weapons. The rogue creature scavenged everything it could. You also find an old key on a leather thong. You take it. It is old and rusty. Rawbone probably found the key when it took over these ruins and couldn't figure out how to use it.  You approach the school's servant mind. At first, you aren't sure if it's still alive. Then, slowly, quietly, it begins to speak, its long closed mouth breaking a thick crust of dust and dried saliva to speak with you. "Welcome, Shaper. I am the mind who has been named Povralus. It has been long since I have spoken or thought. Forgive my slowness. I will attempt to wake quickly and serve you better. I have lost much of my knowledge. What remains is at your service." "What happened to this school?" you ask. "Why is it in ruins?" Everything you've seen here has been an awful shambles. "I do not know. Is the school in ruins? Nobody has visited me for so long with news of happenings elsewhere. I know little," Povralus says. The servant mind seems genuinely saddened to learn the state of its home. "The last contact I had with your kind was when most of my knowledge was blocked off." "Who did that?" You'd think purging a servant mind's memories would be a choice of last resort. "A Shaper from off the island came to me. She said the school was to be closed forever. She said that I was to forget all the marvelous things I had learned, that we had learned here. I obeyed completely, of course. Then they sealed me away. This was many years ago." So whatever happened at the school, whatever the servant mind might have learned, was risky enough that it was removed from the reach of any Shapers who might dare to visit Sucia Island. "Why was the school closed?" "I think I remember being told that we on this island had discovered dangerous knowledge. But I serve. The purposes of the Shapers are not for me to question or know," Povralus says. "Unless they wish it." The servant mind's tone doesn't change, yet you can't help but detect some coyness in that last phrase. You decide to push the servant mind further. "All of it? It's all gone?" "The instructions were vague, but I believe that I followed them properly. I remember little now from before my erasing. Mainly, I remember Defniel." "Who was that?" "The head of teaching here. He was a great researcher as well. I think. I think that that is what I remember. He was very angry when the school was closed." Povralus closes its huge eyes to concentrate. "He said he would leave a journal of his findings hidden in the school. He said this would help our achievements survive. I thought it was unwise to not follow orders, but it is not my place to question a Shaper." "Where is this journal?" The chance to read a full Shaper's inner thoughts -- and a researcher's at that! -- fills you with excitement. Such an opportunity would never be granted to an apprentice as lowly as you in ordinary circumstances. "I do not know. I never saw it. I do not know for sure that it even existed," Povralus admits. You make a note to check the two locked rooms in the school and hope that the journal the servant mind remembers isn't the moldy tome you found on your previous trip to the school. Povralus is breathing clearly and easily now. These creatures have marvelous longevity. It must have been here about as long as Tavit. "This was a school... Can you teach me anything?" "I was instructed to forget all I learned, know, or could teach, and any information that could not be forgotten must not be taught to anyone. I have attempted to follow those instructions as best I could." "Do you remember nothing at all?" You're afraid you absolutely must insist. You may unfairly miss out on days or even weeks of your apprenticeship thanks to being stranded here at no fault of your own. It's imperative that you learn something out here so that you won't be completely behind the curve when you arrive at the colony. The canisters have granted you marvelous powers, but they haven't improved your knowledge of theory or Shaping history at all. "I think I can work some minor modif... I... I cannot act in this way. It contradicts my directions," Povralus says. The creature sighs from the exertion of hitting its conditioned limits. The compulsion to obey orders is embedded incredibly deeply into the servant minds. You think quickly. You don't want to miss out on whatever Povralus thinks it could possibly do -- obviously something remains, but the mind's conditioning prevents it from acting on those memories. "I was sent by the person who gave those orders. They have been canceled." Povralus seems to believe your extremely implausible lie. Or perhaps the creation's regret at everything that was lost is great enough for it to temporarily latch onto your tale and share one last piece of knowledge. "I can't teach what I don't know. I was very thorough. The only modification I can give is this..." It doesn't look like it does anything, but you feel a burning sensation all throughout your body. Povralus is changing you, just like those strange canisters do. It makes no sense. These servants are weak creatures. They should be unable to affect a Shaper in any way. And yet Povralus just changed you! It is completely unlike anything you have ever seen. Soon, the burning stops. You feel that your skills have improved. Povralus says, "I will now forget how to do that, since those are my orders. I am glad. It is my last knowledge." Povralus has granted you the ability to throw even more powerful firebolts. When you catch your breath, you ask Povralus how it has managed to remain functional for so long despite languishing untended here. "I have endured quietly these long years, trusting in the skill of the Shapers who crafted me. They fed me well before they left. I should be able to live for a century yet without difficulty." That is much longer than you had thought these creatures would ever be able to live. "What do you eat?" You found mind nutrients in Ellhrah's fort, but perhaps there's another dose here. "The Shapers fed us a solution they crafted. They fed us long and well, and kept our powers strong. I am not hungry yet, but I know other minds on this island endured much greater exertions than I. If you find them, you may find them to be weak and unhelpful. And even, sadly, deranged. Solution, however, may revive them." The word it uses to describe the nutrients is archaic and metaphorical, and also your name. It's a little uncanny to hear that you are what servant minds require, even though you know that's not what Povralus means. "Where can I find some of this solution?" "I do not know. I believe that all we had here was fed to me before I was sealed away. The solution can, if properly sealed, last many, many years. So you may still find some on the island." It's a shame. You decide to hold onto your sole container of nutrients for now in case you find a starving mind. You already know of one mind you've yet to contact, and there may be more.  In a nearby room you find the skeletal remains of serviles. You're not sure if they were the serviles who originally tended Povralus or if the situation was more complex than that. Regardless, the long-dead creations have few personal effects.  The next room is much more interesting thanks to the remaining intact container within. When you use it, you find the ability to create an artila -- a special type of creation often used as ranged support. Is the similarity to artillery coincidental? You decide.  You return to the classroom where you mercy-killed the experimental fyora. The key you took from Rawbone grants you access to the small storage room. Within is another canister. When you use it, you feel some of your weariness melt away. It's like you've gained a second wind. We started the LP with 1 point of endurance and I added another point during a level up. Now we have 3 points of endurance and are slightly less likely to die of a stubbed toe!  In the locked storage room south of Povralus's room is a canister that gives you the power to create and fling deadly acid not entirely unlike what an artila can spit. Thinking back to the classroom, you wonder if the failed creation in the second vat you opened was meant to be an artila. You're glad you weren't forced to fight one. A little toxic splatter is nothing compared to the pain an artila can bring.   You return to Vakkiri and, for the moment, safety. You decide to try shaping an artila. Fortunately, your efforts are an order of magnitude more successful than the failed experiments you encountered in the ruined school. The artila you create is a pallid thing and slightly disturbing to behold, but you love it because it's your creation. That's something that's been nagging at you. The serviles all have names. Rawbone even named itself. Your loyal creations deserve names more than the rogues do. It takes some effort, but you manage to teach your first four creations their new names. Your first fyora takes to GreatEvilKing quite easily, and your second isn't any more challenged by idhrendur. You probably should have named your thahd something shorter than Xander77, but it's too late now. The Vosgian Beast emits a sputter that's almost like a purr, but you have to avoid the acrid spittle which instantly burns away the grass it touches. Artilas aren't for petting. I named these guys before "Charmander" was proposed... Never fear, we'll create more fyoras in the future.  You stop by the shaping hall to tell Learned Pinner some of what you discovered at the ruined school, though you're not sure how wise it is to tell her about Povralus. "I've spoken with the servant mind in the school," you say, and describe much of your experiences. Pinner thinks on this for a while. Finally, she says, "This is very strange. Usually, islands are Barred because of a rogue or dangerous creation. We serviles know that much. We have lived in fear for years of what might be lurking here. But Sucia was abandoned because something was discovered. "There is something powerful here, so much so that your kind thought us better abandoned. Whatever it is, it must be farther to the east. There is nothing so important around here. Thank you for your help, Shaper. What you have learned will give us a measure of peace. If you want to know more about why this isle was Barred, the answers are likely elsewhere." "While I was there, I used some more canisters that I found," you say. So far, only Pinner has seemed remotely interested in your welfare rather than in what you can do for her. That's not to say she hasn't tried to make use of you. She inspects you closely. She walks around you, looking at you from all angles. She looks concerned. After a minute, she gets a fragment of mirror and shows you your reflection. "Look in this. What it means, I cannot say." You look different. You look stronger and more self-assured, but strange. There is a growing confidence there, so strong as to verge on mania. The change had happened so slowly you hadn't noticed it, but it is definitely there. The canisters are doing more than granting you powers. They're changing something fundamental about your nature. There's no point in worrying too much about it until you can identify any drawbacks. A weird facial expression or slightly off affect isn't a big price to pay for so much power. You thank Pinner and decide to head back to the bandit woods. When you explored the northern edge of the woods earlier, you think you found a path that might let you loop around and catch Ghurk and his flunkies from behind.  It's not quite as easy as that. There are servile bandits patrolling the woods, but they can't withstand a concentrated assault from your creations. The Vosgian Beast is particularly good at wearing them down. Its spittle not only melts their flesh, but often stuns them, leaving them helpless against Xander77's meaty fists.  You find their base in short order. They've collected a good number of quality javelins, healing pods, and icy crystals, which you quickly collect. The chests are full of goods stolen from the Vakkiri serviles. You even find sacks of meal. You liberate everything you can carry. As you head south, three serviles try to ambush you from the woods. Unsurprisingly, one of them is Ghurk. GreatEvilKing turns his head into a charred lump before he even lands a blow, rendering him unrecognizable. His subordinates fall almost as quickly, though the javelin-thrower successfully hits idhrendur.  The bandits turned out to not be such a challenge after all. You return to Brodus Blade and tell him that you've taken care of Vakkiri's bandit problem. "So you did. We sent out scouts, and the bandits are in hiding. They will not be raiding us any time soon. Thank you for your help. We of the Awakened believe that we should pay for our help, should deal with you as equals. So here is fair payment for this service." She hands you a slender wand of bone, inscribed with runes. You take it, smoothing your thumb along the polished surface. "Have things gotten better?" "Though the bandits are gone, the main problem remains. There are the rogue creations. They are all around. They appeared recently, mysteriously, and they plague us. Leader Khobar can tell you more about them, if you are interested." "I've taken care of the spawner. You can ask your leader about it. Your rogue problems should be much better from now on." Brodus Blade looks at you with renewed respect, almost as much as she should have paid you to begin with. "Is that so? You have been quite busy, Shaper. We thank you. You have been very kind." You really have. Brodus Blade doesn't even know the half of it.  I haven't taken much time to show our progression, but we've gained five levels since setting foot on Sucia Island. As you can see, I've mostly focused our growth on Leadership and Mechanics. These are key abilities. Leadership is used exclusively during conversations, but as you've seen, we talk a lot. Our high leadership for this early stage of the game has allowed us to free access to two extra skill upgrades (one from Dreet and one from Povralus), a higher tier key from Ellhrah (which let us get past the guard to acquire the discipline wand without resorting to sneaking or lying), and assistance from Seerula (even if she was a jerk who vanished during the big battle in Watchhill). Leadership in D&D terms essentially focuses as bluff, diplomacy, and intimidate, and vastly increases your options. It's well worth investing in regardless of your class. I've also bumped our Intelligence and Endurance. We have an extra point in Intelligence right now thanks to the Student Belt, and we got a permanent bonus point in Endurance from the canister at the ruined school. I've increased our Fire Shaping skill once, and now that we have an Artila, I've increased our Magic Shaping twice. I also dipped into Luck - everyone needs a little bit of that, but I won't advance that skill further until later in the game. You'll see why when we get there. Thanks to canisters, we've got a strong firebolt, a first rank searer, strong fyora shaping, first rank thahd shaping, first rank artila shaping, the heal spell, the cure spell, and war blessing. We'll learn a poo poo load more from canisters in the near future. POOL IS CLOSED fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Aug 20, 2017 |
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Nov 15, 2016 04:17
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Dmar posted:To be honest I did get through GF4 but at a certain point I knocked it down to casual difficulty, and I also liberally cheated gold into the game because after like 15 years of Spiderweb games I don't regard "steal everything that isn't nailed down" as really fun anymore. Which is why I'm delighted that you're doing it for me this time! I'm going to try to avoid cheating unless I must in order to fix a dire gently caress-up. That means all natural money, honey! The suffering you'll enjoy in this thread is all organic. RickVoid posted:As a side note, our canister addiction is a little concerning, but I'm sure we can quit whenever we want. :sludge: Xander77 posted:At least the program doesn't insist on transcribing Geneforge "d"s as "cl"s. I had to deal with so many clowns sneaking into the Sorcery LP... It's not too terrible thanks to the mostly clear typeface, but the errors are of a sort that I easily gloss over during proofreading. I actually tried out a number of browser-based spellcheckers tonight! I can confidently say this: they're mostly  ! One actually introduced errors to the text, which was as novel as it was unwelcome. Grammarly's basic check also doesn't look for grammatical errors at all. So I'll be stuffing my writing software's dictionary with a bunch of weird poo poo for this LP. I was hoping to avoid that, because I've already stuffed it full of weird poo poo for my paying work and don't really want to cross the streams.
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Nov 15, 2016 04:28
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Well now that our critters are all named after goons we can prepare to be very sad when they die. Where's the rest of the party in the Ghurk fight?
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Nov 15, 2016 05:20
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Stupid javelins.
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Nov 15, 2016 06:50
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I think my one annoyance with Leadership is that the game doesn't really tell you how much it amounts to, and there is, as far as I remember, no cap at the highest level at which its useful(i.e. the highest leadership check you'll ever need to pass), and no useful passive side effects(like cheaper prices or more effective Creations). So unless you've read a FAQ which hints at where you should leave off, it's easy to waste points on it if you're going for a highly diplomatic playthrough.
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Nov 15, 2016 12:18
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PurpleXVI posted:I think my one annoyance with Leadership is that the game doesn't really tell you how much it amounts to, and there is, as far as I remember, no cap at the highest level at which its useful(i.e. the highest leadership check you'll ever need to pass), and no useful passive side effects(like cheaper prices or more effective Creations). So unless you've read a FAQ which hints at where you should leave off, it's easy to waste points on it if you're going for a highly diplomatic playthrough.
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Nov 15, 2016 12:53
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We're going to be playing so optimally.  Only the pro-est of pro strats in this Geneforge LP!TheGreatEvilKing posted:Where's the rest of the party in the Ghurk fight? Murdering unnamed serviles, as is their duty. (I took all these screenshots 3 updates ago, and apparently got a little too excited to grab enough action shots. Given that the last two updates actually required around 400 screenshots to complete,  but I'm determined to grab many more shots of what battle looks like.)
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Nov 15, 2016 17:01
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Gotta say, I'm loving the narrative you've been building with the story here. For whatever reason, reading it as an occasionally illustrated narrative rather than pictures interspersed with dialogue feels very natural. Thanks for attempting this, by the way - I was very excited by the last few Geneforge LP attempts and I'm glad this one's gotten further than they ever did. I can't wait to see where this goes. Also, I love our Shaper being all  over their little army of murderbeasts.Whoops - almost forgot to vote. Thoughts on that - The Awakened have upheld their ends of the bargains they've made, and should thus at least be treated neutrally. We might eventually be able to prevail should we make them hostile, but the opportunities we might lose by so doing don't seem worth the gain for temporarily venting our spleen over the death of the servant mind. Furthermore, we've already gotten evidence of one mad servant mind on the island. If the serviles aren't tutored in the art of servant mind maintenance, they might have needed to kill it rather than have it kill them. (Also, as our Shaper's dialogue suggests, the mind might have considered them rogues and tried to kill them itself.) Remember, one of the servant minds changed us, and that was the least part of its knowledge; all that it was able to safeguard against the command to forget. If the slain mind was left more than that least part, it might have been considerably more dangerous. Solution's anger is reasonable but questionably justified, at least as of yet. Uh, double-furthermore, there's evidence the serviles aren't alone on the island. There's something here capable of Shaping, as evidenced by the essence-bathed failed experiments, and possibly the spawners. Incomplete and untutored though the Shaping may be, it seems unlikely that the serviles were responsible. If that is true, it may also be the case that our mystery Shaper was able to penetrate the compound and slay the servant mind. Unlikely, of course - but possible. As for the other two factions, we know little enough of them. The Takers and the Awakened we've met so far seem to be of like kind, save that the Takers we've met exhort us to open hostility against the Awakened while the Awakened merely warn us against the Takers. Both offer bargains, though we've no direct evidence that the Takers will keep theirs. We will likely find the Obedient more pliable, but such an attitude is unlikely to have stirred them to heights of independent action - more likely they've done something akin to enshrining their last orders, and may be performing some warped interpretation of them yet. If they have a boat, all to the good. We can ask them for it, hop aboard, and be gone from this mad place. If they don't, they seem less likely than either other faction to help us acquire one. In short, the situation demands that a prudent Solution be a neutral one, with an eye to reciprocity. We treat the serviles as they treat us and ours, and require hard evidence of hostile intent before we offer it. We have enemies enough in the rogues without adding to them ourselves. vdate fucked around with this message at 15:47 on Nov 16, 2016 |
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Nov 15, 2016 18:09
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Are you putting anything into these critters but 2 points of Int? It seems like sheer numbers are pretty useful for now.
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Nov 16, 2016 01:16
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I was going to type up my thoughts, but this person has said it better and more eloquently than I ever could. Neutral. edit: for now placid saviour fucked around with this message at 13:38 on Nov 16, 2016 |
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Nov 16, 2016 13:31
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Really into being a giant acid spitting worm thing tbh
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Nov 16, 2016 18:02
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The Vosgian Beast posted:Really into being a giant acid spitting worm thing tbh You do have a singularly appropriate username. Oh, and neutral for now, it's probably going to be a bad idea to choose sides before we have to when we don't have enough information to pick a side.
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Nov 16, 2016 18:57
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Glazius posted:Are you putting anything into these critters but 2 points of Int? It seems like sheer numbers are pretty useful for now. You don't even really need the int if you're just cranking out fire creations. Just let them go crazy.
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Nov 16, 2016 19:38
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wiegieman posted:You don't even really need the int if you're just cranking out fire creations. Just let them go crazy. I've had them turn rogue on me when doing that before. Getting killed by a party member is a real kick in the dick.
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Nov 16, 2016 20:21
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Thanks for the kind words, everyone! I'm doing my best to preserve Vogel's voice. The vast majority of this is his work, I'm just filling in some gaps.Glazius posted:Are you putting anything into these critters but 2 points of Int? It seems like sheer numbers are pretty useful for now. I had a really long post about essence that I typed up on my phone, but managed to gently caress up posting and lost it. Suffice to say, at this point of the LP, we're not really at the point where we need an extra body, and the leftover essence packs a lot of utility for the party. The difficulty hasn't yet spiked enough to need an extra body or to invest much in higher stats for our creations. (Actually, our fire shaping and individual shaping abilities have increased enough that absorbing and re-making our creations isn't a bad idea.) wiegieman posted:You don't even really need the int if you're just cranking out fire creations. Just let them go crazy. You might get lucky with this strategy, or as RickVoid says, you might get hoisted by your own petard. This is aimed at Geneforge beginners! For fire and magic creations, intelligence is also useful on another level - those firebolts and searers the fyora and artila use actually cost spell power. A creation's spell power pool size (that green bar) is determined by its intelligence stat. In the next ep of the LP, we'll start running into fights long enough to exhaust The Vosgian Beast's spell power. Intelligence also goes into morale calculations. When your creations take sufficient damage, the game does a morale check on each one each round until their HP is sufficiently restored. If your creation fails the morale check, you lose control of the wounded creation and it flees in terror. A similar check seems to happen for most, if not all, foes. Higher intelligence seems to increase the odds of the creation successfully passing the morale check and thus staying in the fight. Intelligence is also crucial for your creations' Mind Resistance values (resistance to fear & charm). (It occurs to me that the morale check may actually be mechanically the same as resisting fear effects, but triggered by low current HP % rather than in response to an attack with the fear status ability.) The Vosgian Beast posted:Really into being a giant acid spitting worm thing tbh You're really pulling your weight in this party! Artilas are awesome at this stage of the game for a few reasons. First, they have a 4x attack multiplier, which is better than the 3x our thorn baton, firebolt, and fyoras have. Second, the artila's missile attack is essentially the same as the searer spell, so it causes the acid effect. You're not only getting solid direct damage from an artila, but you're also getting a good damage over time effect from acid if your enemy survives the artila's attack! Artilas also seem to have good odds of stunning targets at this stage of the game. The stun status effect reduces AP (sometimes to 0!) and may also reduce defense and combat effectiveness (not sure on that; tried to check the Slartianalysis posts, but what I've found still lists these two effects as hypothetical rather than confirmed). Thus, you get good direct damage, good damage over time, AND you effectively reduce the damage your foes can dish out to the party by inhibiting their ability to act. Artila superiority! Thanks to two out of three household cars refusing to start, I had to cancel an appointment, which means work is finished early for me today. The bonus for you readers is that I'll probably have another update posted in a few hours. If you're lurking, consider popping in to add your vote to the pile! Neutral still has a commanding lead.
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Nov 16, 2016 20:56
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Obedience Is an Act of Faith You head east the next day, moving as though all the roamers of the great inferno are on your heels. Thorny Fen turns out to be accurately named. Everywhere you turn, you see naturalized thorn bushes you can use to feed your baton. The downside is that the air is teeming with biting gnats and mosquitoes. Even the Shapers with all their power have yet to eradicate the blood-sucking menaces.  Of more concern are the roamers patrolling in a circuit around the fen. Individually, roamers are no threat to you or your creations, but these creatures cry out when they see you and flee -- then return with other roamers as reinforcements. Not only do roamers have acidic spit rivaling an artila's, but they also have strong jaws for rending flesh and snapping bones. The Vosgian Beast is quite useful for wearing the roamers down at range before they can even react to seeing a Shaper.  Game Text posted:Thorn batons are one of the preferred weapons of Shapers of all sorts. The batons themselves are living things, extremely long-lived animals nestled in a metal frame. The Thorny Fen is a good source of free regular and venomous thorns. The bushes here also periodically regenerate, I believe, though I can't recall the timing. It’s 10 thorns to a pound, so as far as weapons go, the various types of thorn batons are more weight efficient than your melee options. Missiles are a great go-to for Shapers and Agents and are decently powerful, especially when you start using batons with secondary effects.   Though the Vosgian Beast can handle most of the lone roamers you encounter, sometimes you find several roamers together. Xander77 takes extra delight in punching off the heads of roamers who slip by the missile support from the Vosgian Beast and the fyoras. As you head east, you find evidence of paved roads. The effort was futile -- most of the work has been swallowed up by the swamp. The remaining muck makes crossing the fen a disgusting, sweaty labor.   Sometimes, if you look away from Xander77's side of the battlefield and back again, corpses vanish. You decide not to question your creations about it. Xander77 seems pleased by its front line role, and you don't want to diminish that.   You discover the free-standing wall of a ruin. Unfortunately, when you walk around the other side, you discover that that lone corner is all that remains. As you look around, you notice that someone has concealed a canister out here among the trees. Though exposed to the elements, the canister remains effective enough to bestow an unlocking charm on you. Unlock won't help you disarm traps, but it will let you pop all sorts of locking mechanisms, from the keyholes on most chests to the padlocks on chained levers. You're positive that this charm represents a major breakthrough in sorting out the skeletons in the Awakened serviles' closets.  Near the northernmost boundary of the fen, just where the tree line encroaches on the salt marsh, you find a dead servile. She fell gripping a baton. The roamers left her body to rot -- odd behavior if they're not being fed.  Game Text posted:You hear a shout of alarm. You look and see, in the northeast corner of this grove, a servile. She has been backed against the tree by a rogue roamer.  Though bitten and burned from punching out a dozen or so rogues, Xander77 charges the roamer and hits it so hard that, even though you're many yards away, you can see the roamer's ribcage deform. GreatEvilKing finishes it off, leaving only a well-charred roast behind. The servile is wounded, but not badly. She seems eager to leave to the east. However, she stops to talk with you before she goes. "A Shaper! I had never dreamed that one of your kind would descend to help someone as lowly as me. I am called Sleet, of Pentil." That must mean she is one of the Obeyers -- the first you've met of that much-maligned group. "Why are you out here?" you ask. Sleet is tiny compared to the other serviles you've met so far. Her thorn baton isn't much protection against the fen's roamers. "I am a scout. I have a skill for evading the rogue creations that plague us. Well, I usually do. Sometimes I am trapped and must fight. But it's a risk I must take to keep Pentil informed," Sleet says. "How can I reach Pentil?" You know it's east of Vakkiri, but you doubt it's as simple as following the ruined road through the fen. "You can go north to the Hills of Jars and then east, but be warned that a variety of ambushes and mechanical traps will await you. If machinery and diplomacy are not your forte, you should go east to the Pentil Woods and then north. Be prepared, though. You will need to fight your way in," she warns. "Will I be welcomed in Pentil?" you ask. What you really wonder is how you'll be welcomed there. All you know of the Obeyers is that they've offended both the Awakened and the Takers. You're not sure if that's an existential offense or something more. "Oh, yes!" Sleet's enthusiasm sounds sincere, at least. "More than any on this island, we welcome the Shapers and give them the reverence they deserve." "What dangers are in this area?" "I know best of the roamers in this area and the rogue vlish to the east," she replies. When you gesture for her to get on with it, Sleet goes on. "You have probably seen this for yourself. The roamers here have been given a strange animal cunning. They stalk their foe carefully, waiting until a vulnerable moment to strike. It is very interesting. We are trying to figure out who could give the roamers such cunning." Interesting isn't how you'd describe it. If they weren't so fragile, the roamers would present a serious threat to even you. Being stalked and ambushed across the fen isn't a mere curiosity, especially for the serviles. But Sleet appears unafraid -- perhaps that's the strength of her faith in your people. You're not excited by the prospect of rogue vlish. "What awaits me in the Pentil woods?" you ask, already anticipating Sleet's reply. "Vlish. A number of them. And they have the communicative powers of vlish. Be warned. If you attack one, kill it quickly. Otherwise, it will call its fellows to aid it," she says. "You must have some means of passing them. How could I get through?" "Hmm." Sleet didn't expect that you'd prefer to avoid the rogues. "I have had the best luck getting through there by staying near the edges of the woods, especially the south and east." She shifts her weight a bit and her gaze darts past you for just a moment. She's itching to get going. Her brush with a roamer was more excitement than any creation needs in one day. "What else would you like, Shaper? I must return quickly to Pentil, but I can provide aid first." "Before you leave, can you assist me?" you ask. "I need supplies." You've already used up a few healing pods, and your creations are battered enough from the most recent push through rogues that you'll have to expend a serious amount of essence before you're comfortable continuing. "Oh, of course, Shaper. How could I have been so clumsy as to forget to aid you?" She seems genuinely sad. She carefully hands you a pair of stones. "These will aid you." The crystals are the icy type -- useful in a pinch and relatively common. The Shapers must have made barrels full if the serviles can justify carrying so many around. "Thank you," you say. "You may go ahead. I'll follow." Sleet seems relieved, but your generosity is more pragmatic than anything -- there's safety in numbers, and if Sleet falls to an ambush before escaping the fen, there won't be anyone to announce your imminent arrival in Pentil.   Escorting Sleet turns out to be a wise decision. Several roamers converge on you just as you near the sign by the eastern end of the fen. Xander77 falls behind as you push to create a cordon to let Sleet slip away.  Xander77 faces off against four roamers while two more focus their attentions on you and GreatEvilKing. Though the thahd puts up a valiant fight and crushes two of the rogues, the heavily wounded survivors manage to pull Xander77 down. Once on the ground, it faces no chance against the quadrupedal roamers, who tear Xander77 apart with tooth and claw. You feel the echo of Xander77's dying roar in your bones.  You don't have time to mourn your creation. The Vosgian Beast bites the face off the rogue roamer menacing you. The grievously wounded rogue turns to flee, screaming for others of its pack as it goes. A shot from your baton puts an end to both its screaming and its agony. Idhrendur finishes off one of the roamers standing over Xander77's corpse as GreatEvilKing puts its body between yours and the next nearest rogue. Your war blessing is already wearing off, but its fading vestiges are enough to help you and the rest of your creations finish off the roamer ambush.  As painful as losing your first thahd is, you still have to carry on. You shape another while scourging yourself with recriminations. If you had pulled more tightly on Xander77's reins, it wouldn't have been caught behind you while you escorted Sleet. If you'd forced her to slow down, you could have all stayed together and the roamers would have faced a united front. But Sleet has survived Thorny Fen and will hopefully reach Pentil to tell them of your coming. Xander77's sacrifice kept four roamers off your back while you dealt with three more. That delay let Sleet escape and kept you from falling to the roamers' corrosive spit. If Xander77 hadn’t occupied those rogues, you don't know what might have befallen you. Having murdered something like two dozen roamers since we arrived, we can now cross Thorny Fen freely on the overmap.  You keep your newest creation close just in case. Any roamer brave or stupid enough to come in range is instantly killed with acid, fire, and thorn.  The source of all these roamers has yet to show itself. You wonder if it's another spawner, and if so, where it might be concealed. The fen is mostly flat, open land. None of the scrub is high enough to conceal one of those gigantic spawners. The only ruin you've found so far wasn't nearly big enough to hide such a monster. Your investigation on the southern coast of the fen doesn't grant you any insight, but it does net you a decent find. Two serviles died defending a supply cache here. You help yourself to what remains. The roamers probably killed these serviles just like the one you found to the northwest. At least you've avenged them.   This lingering stone wall causes you to wonder how much Shaper work now lies beneath your feet. The salt marsh's soft soil sucks at your boots and your footprints fill with water. Untold wealth and knowledge must rest below the softly swaying grasses, forever lost to your kind. How many years will pass before the rest of the riches of Sucia Island disappear the same way?  It takes a couple more hours, but you feel like you've crisscrossed the entire fen. You have the scratches to prove it. The salt is absolutely merciless, and even your creations are whining. You won't find a boat on this part of the coast. Any docks that might have been built here have long since rotted away, just like the roads. You're exhausted, though, and unready to press on and face rogue vlish. The very idea of rogue vlish is terrifying, and rightly so. Plus, you have unfinished business in Vakkiri.  You stop by Coale's place to sell off the extra supplies you found in the Thorny Fen. While you're there, you're reminded of the closed door. One casting of Unlock is enough to loosen the rusty chains.  If Coale notices you venturing inside his storeroom, he doesn't say anything. Your nosiness is rewarded with living tools.  Clakkit greets you amiably as you pass. You decide to ask him what the serviles currently think of you after all you've done for them. "Servile think you great. Servile think you true feel they want be free not slave," he says. "Servile like you. Servile think you do good for them and not be rogue." "I think you're more rogue than I," you say, and Clakkit just smiles slyly.  There are several other locked chests and cabinets in the village. They're now tempting targets. To an apprentice with Unlock, everything is free. One cabinet, though, resists your charms. Instead of obligingly swinging open, the cabinet glows a malevolent red. It's not the first trapped furniture you've found, but it is a little unnerving that the Awakened serviles of this village trap their homes against each other. It makes some sense to mistrust you, but fellow serviles? You silently concede that the Vakkiri serviles are probably right to be paranoid. They did, after all, set you against a band of thieving serviles in the northern woods, and you've found Taker spies in both the village and the fort. Properly obedient serviles would never have to bother themselves with such precautions. Of course, obedient serviles really have no property to steal. The Unlock spell falls under the Mental Magic category. It's our new best friend. We'll be expending a significant amount of essence on unlocking levers, chests, and cabinets from now on. Don't worry, though -- Mechanics still has a place in our arsenal. Unlock won't help us with every mechanics check, as you'll see later.  While you're unlocking everything you can find, you remember that Ham the apothecary asked you to help him out with an old lockbox. You greet him on the way in, then investigate the box.  The mechanism is still too complex for you to defeat without resorting to living tools, but it's trivialized by the Unlock spell. Once you've charmed it open, you find some intact Shaper artifacts. They're nice enough, but your need isn't strong enough to overcome your innate sense of right and wrong while Ham is watching. "Well, I got your box open. There are some artifacts inside," you tell him, and move aside so that he can see. "I appreciate your taking a moment to use your powers to help someone as low as me. In return, I offer you fair payment, as an equal, for your efforts." He hands you a pair of flasks and then excitedly examines his new possessions. After spending some time in the dining hall tasting Inerny's best efforts, you feel rejuvenated. Your creations, including your newly shaped thahd, frisk about. They're clearly not exhausted. Perhaps your day has enough space for one more task.  Ellhrah's keep is a little busier now that you've opened the road between it and Vakkiri.  You find Ellhrah where you last saw him, standing over a long conference table, alone and deep in thought, and never very far from a blade. "I have a message here from Vakkiri," you tell him, and hand over the unopened note. "I am impressed that you are humble enough to spend some time helping our kind." You're not sure if Ellhrah's being sarcastic. He takes the message, reads it, and laughs. "I must be honest with you. The message is of no importance." He crumples it up and throws it away, pretending not to notice the way you bristle at being used. "It was merely a pretext to get you here, so that you might speak to me. Many in Vakkiri would like you to learn more of the Awakened." You don't bother to contain your anger, but you do redirect it instead. "I found a slain servant mind in your back hall. I am very disturbed by this," you say, viciously emphasizing disturbed. Ellhrah's sudden nervousness gratifies you. "You should know, Shaper, that not all of the servant minds are as benign as you. Some of them are still bent on controlling the serviles here, even if following their orders would be suicide. And sometimes, those servant minds can be very assertive. And when that happens, we must defend ourselves. I regret this, but it can't be avoided." The last comes out as a plea -- he doesn't want to be held accountable for the actions of the Awakened. You wonder how many of the serviles here know about the murdered servant mind, and what they'd think if they found out. "And if I'm not benign enough for your taste, what then?" You shake your head and leave before he musters a response.  The first thing you do when you return to Vakkiri is confront Leader Khobar. "I delivered your message to Ellhrah and expect to be paid fairly for my time." "Excellent. The message was not so important I think, as the fact that you have now met Ellhrah. That was very important. I think that we all have much to learn from him. Still, here you are." He hands you a small pouch. "The more we learn of the strange things happening on this island, the more we feel that it is a very good thing that a Shaper has arrived." You squint suspiciously at him as you pocket the coins. "Don't test me like that again. I won't be as forbearing the next time. But that aside, I can still use supplies. Are there any useful tasks I can do? Any other dangers I can rescue you from?" Khobar wisely ignores your barbs. "I suspect that another of the creature spawners has been placed near us. If you go north of Watchhill, you will find a hilly region we call Crag Valley. We have a true treasure here, a rare artifact the Shapers left behind when they fled. Destroy the spawner and the artifact is yours." "Fine. This better not be a rare artifact of busy work."  The road north leads you to Crag Valley. Along the way, you contemplate Xander77's fate and your new thahd. You come to a decision just before the woods give way to rugged canyons.  You smell the campfire before you even see its lonely trail of smoke. Two serviles stand around the fire, shielded from immediate view by a stand of trees and the sharp eastward turn the road takes here. Crag Valley is broken up by great ridges of muddy brown stone jutting up from the turf. There are no streams here now, so it's hard for you to tell if these crags were eaten away by running water, or if some cataclysmic event forced them up through the earth. The far servile walks out of earshot just as you hail them. The one who remains is unwilling to meet your gaze. She doesn't turn to greet you. Whether she is afraid or angry, though, you can't tell. She keeps her face well obscured with her hood. "Greetings, Shaper. I Dern," she mutters. "How do you fare?" you ask, keeping it polite and simple. Dern's head twitches toward your creations. The motion is mostly disguised by her hood, but you detect it nonetheless. She's afraid for certain. "I... I should no talk. I not talk. I fight. You talk Forney. Forney talk." She is silent after that.  Forney must be the other servile, the one who walked away before you could greet him. You don't know if he saw you and decided to beat a hasty retreat or if he simply didn't notice you. You head north along the road, which is crooked as a fyora's leg.  You catch Forney mid-yawn and greet him before he can cut it off. In contrast to Dern, this servile warrior is clearly very happy to meet you. You note that he doesn't seem surprised to see a Shaper here. News of your arrival on Sucia must have traveled ahead of you. "Welcome. I am Forney. I am one of the guards of this pass. I am honored that you are visiting our lonely post." As he bows to you, his robes fall open slightly, and you notice that he is wearing a beautiful chainmail vest. "You seem pleased to see me." Sleet was also excited to see you, though that might have just been because you saved her from a roamer. "I was raised to honor the Shapers, for their wisdom and for creating us. I have been taught that l must always have faith in your kind and follow them without question," Forney says. That is more like the serviles you know, though none of them are ever armed or armored. "I approve of those teachings," you say. He's almost certainly an Obeyer -- an Awakened would already be stumbling all over in their rush to tell you of their roguish beliefs. "We created you. We know what is best for you." This satisfies Forney, who says, "Thank you, Shaper. It is good to know the faith of my family has not been in vain." Faith. What an odd thing to reference. "Your company eases our lonely vigil. What can I do for you?" "My friend Dern and l are charged to keep this pass clear for travel. We are but one link in the chain that connects Vakkiri to the west and Pentil to the east. Of late, however, our post has been a dangerous one. The nearby lands are infested by rogues. At times, they emerge and we must beat them back. It is a mystery. We do not know why so many appeared so quickly." "I think I know what's making the rogues appear." You describe the spawners you've already encountered. As you describe the horrible beasts which can generate these hordes of monsters, he looks very concerned. "Oh, dear. Dern and I could never fend off something like what you describe. Shaper, if you could use some of your awesome powers to destroy those who threaten your creations, we would be ever so grateful," Forney says. The praise is both flattering and suspicious. You've become used to cleaning house for the serviles at this point -- they butter you up, then send you off into danger because they're just simple creations who can't fight. Never you mind the swords so many of them carry, it's not as though any servile bandits have tried to stab you with one. Of course, you did tell Khobar you'd check out the source of the rogues here, so you're already committed to clearing out pests that've taken root here. You assure Forney that you'll do all within your power to make Crag Valley safe again, then ask him to tell you about the northwest. "'I am glad you asked, Shaper. Dern and I have spent some time sneaking among these woods. However, there is a ruin out there we have not been able to enter." He points due northwest. "The ruin is full of artilas, and we never fight those things if we can avoid it. It has two exits, one at the southeast corner and one in the west wall. The west entrance has very few rogues around it, while the southeast entrance is crawling with artilas. If you can find your way to the west entrance, that might be a better way to enter." You take note of Forney's suggestion. If it turns out to be some sort of fiendish servile trap, you'll punish him later. "Where can I travel from here?" you ask. "Due south is the keep of Ellhrah, the founder of the Awakened. I am an Obeyer, so I avoid that area. And west of there is Vakkiri. If you leave here and head east, you will enter the Hills of Jars. Beyond there lies Pentil. However, the route is a difficult one of late." "You're an Obeyer? What about Dern?" you ask. Forney shrugs. "Dern follows me," he says. "What is an Obeyer?" "A wise sect, based in Pentil, which believes that the Shapers are right and true and wise in all things. If you went to Pentil to give us your blessing, your kindness would overwhelm us." Forney's pent up excitement makes him bounce a little as he speaks. Perhaps you don't need to fear any duplicity from him after all. "Why is the route east difficult?" "To pass there, one must go through a warren of Shaper tunnels, possibly old warehouses. Recently, all of the doors in the warren closed, we know not why, and the passage was blocked. Of course, one with the awesome powers and wisdom of a Shaper would have little difficulty clearing the way for us loyal serviles." Regardless of his sincerity, though, the thick layer of flattery is cloying. "Why is it called the Hills of Jars?" You brace yourself for the obvious answer. "Because the warrens there contain many jars," he says, smiling. "Of course... By the way, I noticed your armor. It's lovely," you say. "Thank you. It is a Shaper artifact, passed down and carefully maintained by my family." You weigh how far you can get by demanding it, then decide that taking it is too heartless. You prefer lighter armor, anyway, and despite his chainmail's beauty, it's also a very antiquated design that probably chafes. "It is very good armor," you agree. Forney looks pleased. "Thank you, Shaper."  You head west first, leaving the road to explore the forest around Crag Valley. Almost as soon as you step among the trees, a rogue thahd confronts you. GreatEvilKing spits fire, but that's not quite enough to fell the rogue. The Vosgian Beast finishes it off just as another rogue appears.  Berryjon gives chase as the rogue turns to fetch reinforcements, but can't quite reach it. Your fyoras incinerate the rogue thahd before berryjon can either land a blow or be struck in turn. You sigh, grateful that none of your creations were harmed.  As you venture west, you find evidence that these lands at least used to be occupied by serviles. An overgrown field with a dilapidated fence had a crop of greens, but they've all gone to seed and become unpalatably bitter.  Beyond the abandoned field is a crossroads of sorts. The patrols of various rogues have carved wide paths through the dense forest here. You're confronted by a wily roamer that takes precious minutes to finally corner among the rocks. Berryjon crushes it, taking similar satisfaction to Xander77's.  You locate what looks like a tunnel into the cliffside, but before you can do more than look at it, more rogue roamers arrive. Between them, GreatEvilKing and the Vosgian Beast leave only a foul puddle of fat and flesh where the rogue once stood.  The tunnel concerns you. It's the most likely source of many of the rogues you've already encountered. Going in there without ensuring that there are no rogues left behind you is the same as inviting an ambush. Sweeping the woods as best you can seems wise.  A clearing just south of the tunnel provides ominous evidence of foul play. The bodies are mainly skeletons now, mostly hidden in the grass. Given the bones that roll beneath your feet, many of these serviles' corpses were savaged and scattered by rogue roamers. You're not so certain that these serviles were actually killed by the rogues, though. Forney made the rogue incursions sound recent. These bodies are anything but. You'll just have to do a good job of watching your back.  The trails north of the tunnel are rotten with rogue patrols. You and your creations put them down wherever you find them, but the rogues seem endless.  It's here that you come upon your second rogue artila, a sight that you still weren't ready for despite Forney's warning. Fortunately, an artila's tender flesh is no more proof against acid than yours, and the Vosgian Beast is able to extinguish the rogue for good. Your fyoras cremate another rogue artila that was flushed out by the sounds of its fellow dying.  Game Text posted:You find more Shaper ruins. It looks like this was a small shaping hall, where smaller, less important creations were produced. This hall didn't have the resources to do any real research. This must be the western side of the ruin Forney described.  The interior is in poor shape, but not as poor as some of the other ruins you've seen so far, especially those in the fen. At least this hall is still standing, and some of the rooms are even recognizable. For instance, the room to the north with all the granite posts is where Shapers would have left creations while occupied with other tasks. There are even still some working restraints amid the rusted irons. East you see a shaping platform and even a workbench. The light sources still come alive when you pass, which is sort of comforting.  As you check a cabinet to the north, you can't help but notice that one essence pool remains intact.  You bask in its glow while you eye the large crystal formation at the other end of the chamber. The sparks aren't good signs. You don't need to be a master Shaper to know that much. Once your creations are at what you hope is a safe distance, you approach the spiral to examine it. Game Text posted:Though the design is archaic, you recognize what this is. It is a power spiral. At the most basic level, it is a stone pillar. It glows slightly, is hot to the touch, and is filled with organic goo. You back away carefully; the spiral doesn't detonate and kill you. For now. Shaper experiments are notoriously touchy even under the best conditions, and these are far from the best. Your hands tremble as you set aside your pack with all its heavy salvage and equipment. Just in case this thing blows, you want to have a shot at escaping. The pack will only slow you down. Attempting to stabilize the power spiral proves futile. You don't have the right tools, whatever those are, and you don't understand enough of what you're seeing to know what's broken and what's supposed to be terrifyingly dangerous-looking. The best plan you have besides just leaving this thing to melt down on its own time is to try a controlled detonation. Game Text posted:It is a challenge, but your skill is up to it. A few careful blows to less sensitive areas of the apparatus do the trick. It starts to shudder, faster and faster. Soon, it will explode.  You run. There's no shame in it -- that's the only sensible decision. The power spiral explodes, almost flattening you with the strength of the shockwave. It's a miracle that the whole ruin doesn't collapse on you. You think you heard something shriek during the explosion, but it's hard to be sure. Perhaps some rogues were caught in the blast.  After you re-gather your nerves and your wits, you investigate. The spiral is now no more than a melted, charred pedestal. The wall behind it is gone, almost vaporized. Very little rubble remains. Shielded from the worst of the blast is another one of those foul-smelling essence pools. The sour stink, still sharp despite the smoke and dust, is the same as the pools by the spawners you've encountered. There's a nasty stain nearby and some oozing splatter on the walls. You laugh. The power spiral killed a spawner for you. Thanks to the spawner's destruction, Solution can now cross Crag Valley freely. We've also completed a quest! Less amusing are the destroyed canisters along the northern wall. You aren't sure if the detonation broke those or if they were already busted before you showed up. You hope it's the latter, even though it doesn't really matter in the end. Past the eastern archway are the artilas that Forney fears. They prove to have the advantage of numbers over you. For the first time in a while, you are acutely afraid for your life. You order berryjon to hang back, not wanting to expose him to too much fire from the artilas. Your fyoras and the Vosgian Beast take up position to the south, gaining an angle that shields them from view by anything on the other side of the wall, while allowing them to fire on the rogue artila.  The battle proves to be a tense one. More and more artilas slither up from out of sight. They manage to severely burn GreatEvilKing. Neutralizing the acid quickly proves futile -- each time you cast the curing charm, there's another artila ready to coat GreatEvilKing or any of your other vulnerable creations with more acid.  You end up flinging a pouch of curing spores in the air, coating your entire team with nearly invisible, neutralizing creations that also anesthetize and soothe your wounds. The only one which has escaped burns so far is the Vosgian Beast.  To avoid a reprisal of Xander77's death, you also expend a pouch of healing spores. The shaped spores contain healing acceleration factors, but even more importantly, they form a flexible, temporary skin that adheres to exposed skin to both seal and sanitize your wounds. With this, you and your creations can fight on.  The rogue artilas can't defeat you in a battle of attrition. They have no Shaping magic, no supplies, and no capacity to create complex strategies. By the time the battle ends, you've killed at least ten artilas in one fight. It's certainly a battle worth bragging about. We increase Magic Shaping twice here. That actually turns out to be a bit of a mistake later on, but not a big enough deal to replay this zone for. The next time we make an artila, it's gonna be the Vosgian KING. Also, please feel free to keep suggesting names. I guarantee we will lose more creations, and we might not have enough participants to make up for our fatalities!  The hallway splits off into numerous alcoves. While you're investigating the automatic door in the first of these, berryjon growls. As it turns out, you haven't yet killed all the rogue artilas in these ruins. You get the door open in time for one to strike.  Before you engage, you duck into the northern room. It turns out to be a very small supply room with a canister in it. A comforting power fills your being. You now have a better grasp on casting war blessing, which will allow you to coax even more power out of your creations.  Your fyoras waste no time reducing the first rogue to smoldering coals. The survivors choose not to rush you, instead focusing fire on the Vosgian Beast. Perhaps the rogues are territorial and harbor a special dislike for rival artilas. Fire and thorns are enough to end them and render the ruin safe for exploration.  Hissing outside draws you out before you check out the final door, though. You find two artilas just outside of the ruin. You're not sure if they were patrolling or if they fled the previous skirmishes, but you're driven to take care of them nonetheless. They seriously wound GreatEvilKing, who still holds firm in the face of pain and possible death. When the two rogues are dead, you practice your healing craft on your wounded creations. Their injuries are starting to outpace your ability to treat them. Soon you'll either need to find a canister that improves your craft, or you'll need to find a way to study healing the mundane way. You're not certain how likely either option is.  Interestingly enough, there are signs of a road on the south side of the building. This hall, minor as it was, did see enough traffic to merit a road construction project. It's a shame that the road didn't survive, but you suppose this location wasn't useful enough to the serviles to merit that kind of attention.  You charm open the locks on the lever here and find another canister in this storage room. To your surprise, this canister improves your unlock charm further. Now you'll be able to undo even more complex mechanisms than before.  You leave through the southern door but head north and east of the ruin. As expected, more rogue thahds patrol out here. Signs of previous victims take the form of scattered bones in the grass. You don't know how many of those bones belong to serviles and how many belong to other creatures. Besides birds and insects, you've yet to encounter any natural animals on Sucia Island, not even a tortoise or a mouse. Perhaps they've all gone extinct here.  There's another dead servile here. Unlike the clearing of corpses you found earlier, there's no mystery behind this one's demise. His clothing bears the tell-tale signs of corrosion.  South of the unlucky warrior is a wide pool of filthy, discolored water. One whiff of it is enough to know that you should avoid it. Shaper experiments create all sorts of hazards. Usually the dangerous substances are contained, but a site left unmaintained for as long as Sucia has been Barred is bound to have serious hazards. No seal or container is good indefinitely. Unfortunately, you don't have the skills or means to clean this up.  You complete your circuit of Crag Valley in the southeast, where you find a much better maintained ruin. Here is where Dern and Forney must spend their nights when not patrolling. There are supplies laid by here. It's not a bad little homestead, though you have the sense that it didn't belong to those two until relatively recently. Forney is by the campfire. It's hot enough that he's not warming himself by it, but he is well within the haze of smoke. You realize that it's actually quite effective at dissuading the pestersome flies and mosquitoes from biting you. "I've destroyed the spawner," you tell the pair. "You'll have fewer problems now." You don't expect the response you get. Forney falls to the ground and presses his forehead against the dirt. "Thank you, Shaper," he says, his words muffled by the ground. Eventually, he stands. "We knew you would return and use your powers to help us! Thank you! Oh, thank you!" Stoic Dern says nothing. She still can't meet your eyes. You're not sure if your work here has convinced her of anything besides the danger you represent to creations. There's probably nothing you can do to reassure every servile that you don't intend to shake up the status quo; you've already done so simply by arriving on the island. You get some bonus experience here for letting Forney know that you took care of the spawner. You don't have to do it, but every bit counts!  There's yet another sign here that reads, "Hill of Jars, Pentil - East." For now, though, you head south again to Vakkiri.  Here's a list of our abilities. Keep in mind that we've acquired basically none of these honestly. Every single ability point on this screen came from using a canister. A no-canister run really restricts your options offensively and defensively! Abilities max out at 3 points, so as you can see, we've maxed our firebolt spell already. I've mentioned it before, but the firebolt spell has a 3x damage multiplier. Each rank of the multiplier corresponds to how many ranks you have in the spell, so if we only had 2 points in firebolt, that would be a 2x multiplier instead. Conversely, our searer spell has only 1 rank, but a 2x multiplier. When we've maxed it out at rank 3, it'll be a 4x multiplier. Our venom baton is also a 4x multiplier. You can see where this is going, but when we max searing orbs, that'll be a 5x multiplier. A melee character with a broadsword also gets a 5x multiplier. I think theoretically you can acquire a broadsword before searing orbs, but I might be misremembering.  While in Vakkiri, you stop by to let Leader Khobar know what you've accomplished. "The generator in Crag Valley has been destroyed. This one was more powerful than the other." "I suspected as much. You have done good for us, Shaper. It is not enough to make up for all these years of neglect. But it is a start. You should go east, now. We are scared, Shaper. Horrible forces are at work on this island. It offends my pride to have to ask you for help in such a way. But there it is. Please find out what is happening." Khobar's shoulders slump. He suddenly looks small and older than his years. These serviles have worked hard to learn to sustain and defend themselves, but battling rogues that come from nowhere is taking its toll. "So is there nothing else for me to do here?" you ask. You almost regret your earlier harshness. Almost. "Not yet. But soon, I fear, the dangers will return. I hope that, before they do, you can solve the mystery. Because we can't. We haven't yet the strength," he says. Next time: The Control Mind and You We're going to visit the Spiral Burrow we located in Crag Valley. Then it will be time to fight our way through to Pentil! And you know what that means... An endless dialogue purgatory. POOL IS CLOSED fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Aug 20, 2017 |
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Nov 17, 2016 05:14
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Clearly a future Artila should be named Shai'Hulud. Also want to chime in and say I'm digging the writing.
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Nov 17, 2016 06:20
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If voting is still open I'd love to register my vote for the Awakened. Whenever I played through the first game I'd always end up using a group of 7 artilas. The amount of firepower that they can put out as a group can't be overstated, especially if you can draw off enemies so they come around a corner one or two at a time against your entire team. I didn't even bother putting points into intelligence, since their automatic actions are usually good enough to get the job done. The only downside with that strategy is if one of them goes rogue. It's important to stand around a corner in the tougher fights so they don't immediately have line of sight to you when something goes wrong. Also I tried to avoid the options where you can just take things from the serviles, since some of the choices are just depressing...
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Nov 17, 2016 07:55
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Digging the LP so far! In hindsight, it seems kind of odd that the Shapers created the Serviles with the ability to create more Serviles. Everything else had to come out of a pit, like the rogues.
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Nov 17, 2016 14:04
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I've been watching Westworld lately, so I have to throw my hat in the Awakened ring. These hosts just want to live, as equals. It is a servile rights story. 
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Nov 17, 2016 20:01
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Rockopolis posted:Digging the LP so far! Well, they're not the only things. Ornks, for instance, are created that way, too. Without allowing them to propagate as "natural" creatures, every single Servile would require a shaper committing Essence to prevent them from collapsing into a puddle of protoplasmic goo, is my understanding. So just making them as independent creatures and keeping some wands around that can dissolve them if they get uppity seems to get parsed as a better solution.
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Nov 17, 2016 20:32
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It's taken hundreds of years for these ones to get independent. Obedience is built into Serviles, literally, so the Shapers don't see any reason not to let them reproduce.
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Nov 17, 2016 21:18
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Didn't even think of the Orkz. That makes sense.
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Nov 17, 2016 22:58
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This is a goddamn fascinating setting.
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Nov 17, 2016 23:14
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Night10194 posted:This is a goddamn fascinating setting. Yeah, I am really digging this LP. I find the updates are a tad longer than I am used to, but it is fun to read so I don't mind too much.
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Nov 17, 2016 23:25
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Geneforge is basically my favorite indie RPG series, glad to see someone doing it justice. Also, I'd be down to be a Vlish if you ever end up making one.
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Nov 18, 2016 00:02
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Night10194 posted:This is a goddamn fascinating setting. It's kind of sad though -- Vogel says that sci-fi settings don't do as well as fantasy, so I think we can assume he'll be sticking to fantasy from here on out. 
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Nov 18, 2016 00:09
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