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Kill him.... and no, kill him
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Mar 4, 2022 23:24
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| # ? May 4, 2024 02:36 |
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Help the chicken to his papa, and help the strange man with his tablet. These seem like good and worthwhile tasks to undertake both.
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Mar 4, 2022 23:37
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In what universe would you ever imagine we wouldn't make you drag around an annoyingly squishy chicken?
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Mar 5, 2022 09:59
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Voting patriarchal reunification and get the tablet but don't give it to the shifty elf. There are other source-masters out there, hopefully ones less...death-y.
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Mar 5, 2022 16:55
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Surely nothing could go wrong with either quest? Assist the matricidal chick to find his rooster dad and take Riker's deal but be wary if the tablet is the same one as the one Fane has been after all this time.
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Mar 5, 2022 21:34
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  : Fine. I agree to your terms: I’ll retrieve your stone tablet from the Blackpits, and in exchange, you’ll help me unlock greater potential with my Source powers. : A promise you’d best fulfil. : Ryker bows his head deeply.: Then you’ll have the power you seek – if not the power that trumps it. There will always be one greater, you know. Now please. Don’t let me keep you. As you’ve seen, we voted to trust Ryker – a man that killed the previous groundskeeper, stole her mansion, kidnapped her pets, and turned her guards into meat puppets – and accept his deal to go to the Blackpits, which we were eventually going to do anyway, and retrieve a stone tablet for him. He’ll help us unlock greater heights of Sourcery within ourselves in exchange. This also has the side effect of us being welcome in not only the Stonegarden graveyard, but in his mansion. We still can’t just take anything, not unless we’re sneaky about it, but at least he won’t try to have us kicked out now. Oh, also: we voted to not kill Peeper and to reunite him with his father in Paradise Downs. That’ll be a hot minute until we get to that, so, we have a small chick in our party until then.     The next room, across the foyer, appears to be some kind of lounge, or living room. A bearskin rug in front of a roaring fire, and there’s a dining table that’s filled with fancy plates and dinnerware on the other side of the floor. This room has the back door to the mansion, but most of the room is wide and empty.   Along with some goodies to be had.  The room also has a piano sitting against the nearby wall, with a spirit of a pianist sitting at its chair. : A spirit sits behind the grand piano, her hands moving to and fro along the ivory keys. : O’er black and white my fingers dart, as lost between worlds as I am. This is just a fun little cameo bit that Larian Studios put into Divinity: Original Sin 2. The three options you have correspond with different Divinity games: the first is from Divinity: Original Sin, the second, from Divinity: Dragon Commander, and the third, from Divine Divinity.  : Divinity: Original Sin: Power of Innocence: Divinity: Dragon Commander: Watching The Clouds: Divine Divinity: Title Theme Back in the foyer, we can head on upstairs–  Death permeates me as we speak, so, sounds like a fun time to me! Although, that makes me wonder. If the painting can suddenly talk to me, is there anything else in this room that can? I know the guards can’t.  There’s a stag trophy just underneath the stairwell. It’s listed as owned, but I can’t steal it even if I wanted to: when I mouse over it, my mouse turns into an icon of gears, meaning it’s an interactable and not something that I can pick up.  : A faint breath of chill air brushes the back of your neck. The gentle scrape of a sound… a foot – or a hoof – dragging across a floorboard perhaps. And suddenly, there’s a ghost of an elk standing next to me. : The ghostly stag inclines its antlered head towards you. : For what prize would a foolish poacher discard his life? The answer lies at a halo of wildflowers. Seek it out, and heed the wisdom the poacher would not.This unlocks a new sidequest in our journal. There’s a ‘halo of wildflowers’ somewhere out there that this ghost of a deer wants me to find, and within it, there’s ‘wisdom’ that I should heed. On the one hand, animals are generally pretty dumb, especially deer. But on the other, dead people usually give the best advice in popular media, so, I’ll probably be doing what this deer is telling me to do. Anyway, let’s head upstairs. Onward to death!  This isn’t so bad so far. Although the music fades out, which is never a good sign.   Pretty standard stuff for the upper floor’s hallway. For a mansion, anyway. Even the hallway has bookshelves and a small communal lounge area. There are two doors that lead into adjacent rooms, but both doors are marked as owned – I’m not about to steal a door, but I’m not allowed to open them. However, if they’re already opened, then I’m usually allowed in whatever area it is they’re blocking off. So, simple solution: distract the guard in the funny mask and just have anyone else open the door. They don’t even need to be sneaking. Although this door is locked, so, Sebille still needs to pick it.   This door leads to the master bedroom. It has a dining table with six chairs in eyesight of the room’s bed and washtub, which seems very gauche at best and perhaps a little too inviting at worst.  But it also has a pooch and a kitty! Ryker has a very eloquent fire-breathing salamander on the ground floor, but he can’t be all bad if he has a cat and a dog living together well enough that they aren’t fighting, right?  : If y’think the Master loves you more’n ‘e loves me, then Dot you’re a bigger idiot then y’look. : Master’s the master. Master knows the dog is better than the cat. Master says ‘good dog.’ Does Master say ‘good cat?’ No! No, Master does not. See?: The cat gives the dog a long, languid look of carefully disguised contempt. Then she sighs. And turns to you. : I suppose I could lend my opinion, if you’re asking.: Dogsbody ‘ere thinks that ‘cos the master is grateful for ‘is – meaning the dog’s – mindless devotion, ‘e loves ‘is dog more than ‘e loves ‘is cat. I, on the other ‘and, know fell well that it’s the master’s admiration for my gen’ral bearing, demeanour, and intrinsic greatness wot is most indicative of a state of actual love. ‘e near worships me, ‘e does!: Master loves his dog. Master thinks his cat is cool. Not the same thing.: You’re a moron.: No I’m not, I’m black-brown! This is, in fact, worth a small chunk of experience! What do YOU think? Are you a cat person, or are you a dog person? The reward we get for siding with one of the animals is different but it’s not as imperative as the experience we’d get for picking one or the other. And although picking neither is an option, I’m vetoing it because it satisfies nobody. Personally, I was a dog person up until I got my own cat. Now I’m 50/50.  As I snoop around the master bedroom for more stuff to steal, I notice a diamond sitting underneath the bathtub. An unusual place to hide your valuables, for sure, and not particularly secure – particularly because I’m helping myself. Yoink!  There’s not much else of note in the master bedroom – just a bunch of containers to open and bookshelves to root through in the hopes that Lucky Charm kicks in. Unfortunately, it never does.  There is, however, something unusual.  This is Ryker’s mansion, and this is the master bedroom, so I’d presume that this is his journal. He says something about being ‘sworn’ to someone – someone that he only refers to as He or Him, complete with the capitalized H. Ryker was taken into this person’s covenant, but he regrets it now… and he thinks he’s found a way out. I mean, I’m not about to go up to Ryker and ask him questions about it, but it’s definitely something to keep in the back of my mind. Who would be powerful enough to cow one of Rivellon’s strongest Source Masters so much that they’d keep a journal about how much they want out of the deal?  That’s all with the master bedroom. Across the hallway is the last door to explore in the mansion – the guest bedroom, perhaps?   It, uh… hasn’t been lived in for some time, it seems. Or, given the size of these spider eggs and the health of all the webs, it’s probably being lived in right now. Did anybody else suddenly get a little itchy?  There’s a ghost of a Magister woman standing in the corner, facing away from the room, with her desiccated bones sitting in a pile at her feet. : Before you stands the ghost of an older woman. Clad in flowing Magister’s robes, she peers around the room as if looking for something lost. On seeing you, she brightens and extends an ethereal hand. : I am called–: Your hand passes right through hers. She shrieks, horror animating her face. : You may want to avoid looking at the rest of your… ephemeral state of being, then. : Well, really. I’m quite aware of that. But I am not fully… myself. I keep forgetting things, somehow. It’s hard to hold all the threads together when you’ve fallen apart yourself. : What business could a Magister have all the way out here, in the home of a terrifying Source Master?: (… I suppose that question answers itself.): I… ah, yes… I came from the Blackpits to… to negotiate with Ryker here in his house. We needed to ensure that scoundrel wouldn’t interfere with our plans there. He must have mixed something into the delightful rose tea he served me. And then… then…?: Ahhhh! Next I knew, I was rolled up in webbing as the… his spider sucked the marrow right from my bones and nibbled my limbs off! : The Magisters are an entire army. Why would they feel it necessary to negotiate with one man, Source Master or not?: He’s a master Sourcerer. Everyone knows that. But he’s too powerful to take to the Joy. And besides, he had some business that coincided with Dallis’ interests. Of course, if he were to act up, we could always work on his little ‘vulnerability’ to Fortify… : Yes, the Blackpits. What sort of business do the Magisters have there? So I know to avoid it, of course.: She throws you a haughty glance. In the sharp lines of her face, you see steely determination overtaking the spirit’s distracted manner.: None of your… never mind.Interesting; apparently Ryker is weak to Fortify? That’s highly unusual; Fortify doesn’t have any negative aspects or qualities. Someone that’s Fortified only gets buffs. Well, except that they can’t be Teleported, I guess.   In the corners of each room in the upper floor are hatches that take me down to the ground level. Is this… a thing that old-timey mansions would have had? Trap doors in the corners of rooms for easy access to the upper and lower floors? Even with Fane’s immense strength, these doors are half-buried in sand, and he needs a kick from Clear Minded to open them.  Still no sign of any gigantic, gently caress-off spiders capable of eating whole Magisters….  Lots of blood, though.  Oh, there it is. : The spider spindles right up to you, her long, long legs tickling the sandy floor. A malevolent intelligence gleams forth from eight beady eyes. She opens her mouth, hissing at you. : Don’t you know, my little pepper pot, that it’s ever such bad manners to enter a queen’s boudoir without permission. But… what’s this? Something familiar beats within your heart. A venom promise, a gift from one of my kind.My what? : She shuffles her enormous body closer, looming over you until you are enveloped under her shadow. Venom sizzles to the sand from her fangs as you are pinned in place under all eight of her eyeballs. : Eh. Once was enough.: How rude you are, sugarplum. But I’m not interested in you like that. I’ve already got plenty of babies. : I can summon spiders made of scarier stuff that are bigger than you.: Her fangs drool venom that sizzles on the sand. But there’s no time to think about all that, because raising up on her hind legs, she pounces right at you.  So, we left the fight with the room in… not exactly ideal conditions. Surfaces all wear off over time (except oil, water, and poison), even the cursed ones, but I have a baby chick in my party that’s, well, kind of stupid, and I need it to not die.  He’s okay, folks! Ryker had a… perhaps not a pet, but, more appropriately, a guest, in his guest room, and, well, now he doesn’t. All of the little spiderlings in the fight have arthropod legs and fur for me to loot, which overall isn’t especially worthwhile.   She had a chest filled with gold and assorted liquids…  … her guts had the dead Magister’s missing hand. If that one Magister in the tavern was glad to have her ring back, then this one will probably be relieved to see her hand, even if it’s more than half digested at this point.  And the carcass of the Weaver herself had some goodies, as is typical for a fight with a single main target like the Weaver or any of the Deep-Dwellers. That’s a good medium-sized thunder rune that I’ll hold onto; the axe is one-handed; the spellbook is for Ice Fan, a skill Lohse’s had since Fort Joy; and the gloves, while overall rather meh, are good for Lohse to replace, since she’s been working the Teleporter’s Gloves since we pulled them out of the crocodile’s stomach way back at the start of the game. Although she knows Teleport, she’ll need a spare Memory slot to equip it, and they’re currently all filled up. I’ll have to unequip one of her other skills if I want to use it. Finally, the ring gives +1 Aerothurge and +95 HP. Both of Lohse’s current rings give her +1 Hydrosophist, so, pass.  Pavlonia! I believe I have something that belongs to you.  : I imagine this could be anyone’s hand, but I found it in your… neighbour’s stomach, so, I presume it’s yours.: Is that… it is! My hand!: She stretches out her ghostly arm and wriggles ethereal fingers into the slightly-chewed and more-than-a-little-decomposed hand.: Ah, the threads are coming back together now. You, Sourcerer… you helped me, I should help you.: Stay away from the Blackpits, far away. There are Black Ring there, prisoners! And if my colleagues catch a sniff of your Sourcery there… they’re liable to treat you just the same.: Waving her ghostly hand at you, Pavlonia disappears beyond visibility to meet her fate. Well, staying out of the Blackpits is out of the question for at least two, and possibly three reasons (one of the Source Masters was last seen in the area, according to the Magister list in the barracks), but knowing that the Black Ring, cultists, are there, is new information. So, that’s something to think about when I strut my stuff right on over to the Blackpits like she just told me not to do. Whether or not it’s good advice is neither here nor there: I’m doing it because the story/sidequests need me to! Unfortunately, talking to Ryker after killing the Weaver doesn’t bring up any new topics. He has nothing to say about the fact that you just murdered his, uh, live-in guest occupying half the upper floor.  That’s everything for Ryker’s mansion. It’s time to explore the graveyard – there’s quite a bit to cover. The dead usually have the best stories to tell, and they’re not always at rest, if I’m any indication.   The very first thing we come across is a lizard woman, wearing rather beautiful regalia, wandering the grounds on her own. Her outline says she’s not hostile, so…. : The lizard hums tunelessly – not a melody, exactly, but more of a meandering moan. : That’s an interesting song. I’m no bard, but it sounds related to burial methods for the races of Rivellon.: She looks to your left with one eye, and to your right with the other. : It helps me ‘member. ‘member where the dead go. Sometimes they don’t stay where I put them. That’s okay. : What’s your duty here?: Keeping watch. Tending the graves. : (She seems… not… ‘whole?’) Are you alright, miss–: She flinches as you move closer.: No! No touching!: Her humming fades. The eerie silence lasts for several seconds. : … And you ‘belong’ to Ryker, then? Working here because he deigns you to?: No work. I do it cuz I like it. Don’t cause trouble. Just dig and pluck weeds and shoo the ravens.: She shivers and whispers.: He’s a powerful Sourcerer. Lives here in the garden. Can take the you from you. No brain, just body. My mind isn’t big. But it’s still mine.: She points at her head.: The servants, they got nothing up there. Ryker has it all now.: The ensuing silence lasts for several seconds until she picks up the melody once again and turns away.Cool, and we just agreed to work for the guy. Although, I suppose, if he knows us, then it’d be best if we work with him rather than giving him a reason to not want us to be moving about of our own accord.  This being a graveyard, there’s all kinds of things to interact with: everything from caskets and coffins to tombs and catacombs to graves and monuments. Every single sarcophagus is a new thing for me to crack open and try my luck with Lucky Charm.  There’s an opening in the fence next to Ryker’s front door that leads around the outside of the mansion’s walls.  Ah, these things. We first encountered these highly volatile and explosive plants in the Hollow Marshes just outside Fort Joy; they were surrounding that one ring of talking heads on pikes, if you remember. They’re very dangerous, and these ones are even Cursed. And Ryker, naturally, just has them growing in his garden.  There’s a fancy chest at the end of the gauntlet of dangerous plants, though. I want that. The best person that can make it through the plants and is most likely to survive the trip is probably Prince. He has the most magic armour to tank all that magic damage that the plants would be doing, even if he doesn’t have the most HP. In hindsight, I should have sent in the person with the most air and water resistances, since it’s all air and water damage that he’ll be running through. I could probably have also cast some skills, like Armour of Frost, to give him a larger fighting chance. But I didn’t. Start running, Prince.    He probably would have survived if I had noticed that he was Decaying and I used a bedroll instead of Restoration.   Oh well, it’s not like Resurrection scrolls are difficult to find. They just cost a lot. Did you know that Resurrection was a skill that you could learn in Divinity: Original Sin? It was in a school called Witchcraft, which is like Necromancy, except you play as Source Hunters in that game, and ‘good guys’ aren’t necromancers. It had a cooldown of 30 turns (three minutes), lmao Prince went through all of that for an arrow nobody can use; a scroll of Impalement; and hardly any money at all. But I got it.  Wandering the grounds brings us to the graveyard’s front gate. It’s no indication of how large the graveyard really is, but at least we know which way is forward.   And just on the other side of the door is Tarquin! I may be going from a weird, lying, murderous, brain-sucking piece of poo poo elf to a weird, lying, mischievous necromancer human in need of some conditioner, but God am I happy to finally see one of my fences again.  : Oh, but you do get around, don’t you?: He takes a satisfying sniff and rubs his hands together. His lips stretch into a mischievous smirk.: When it comes to graveyards, I’m a kid in a candy shop. All sorts of goodies and gewgaws for the talking – and a bit of rousing conversation. If you know where to dig, that is. : Stop with the coyness. It’s not a secret to anyone with eyes and some sense that you’re a necromancer.: Coy? Why, I don’t know what you mean! I’m as transparent as the spring sea.: He presses a forefinger against his chin and hums. : Against my better judgement, I will ask: what would be particular enough for your attention?: Well, that’s the gold-plated question, it is. I dare say you’ll enjoy this story.: Somewhere in this graveyard lies an object of tremendous power. Or so the legends say, anyway. Belonged to a family buried near here – the Surreys. I’ve been reading up on them. An ancient clan of eccentrics and oddballs. Fascinating people, truly.: Old Johanna was the last. The poor, poor, poor dear. Had no money, no children – just this incredible heirloom passed down to her through the generations. : You’ve clearly spent much of your limited time reading up on this family and their knick-knacks, and yet you don’t even know what this ‘artifact’ is. If there’s no documentation among all these eccentrics and oddballs, then it’s likely just a legend they made up to give it more value.: His coy grin freezes.: Hours spent on scholarship are never hours wasted.: Tarquin sighs and his lips unfreeze. For a moment, he looks almost… modest. : And yet you have no further information other than ‘it exists.’: I’ve told you everything you need to… er, everything I know. What it is doesn’t matter. What it does… well, if I am right, it will clean up quite an unholy mess. A mess we’re both currently mired in.: He looks toward the graveyard.: Let’s make this easy. I’ll assume you’ve accepted my mission. You’ll assume I give it in good faith. Beautiful.: The Surrey tomb must be somewhere nearby. And whatever that object is in there, I bet it’s… impressive.: I do wish I could wander inside. It would be nice to look up some… old friends. See if they’re in good spirits.: … And why can’t you ‘wander inside?’: Ah. It’s a quandary, you see. I’m not exactly welcome in the Stonegarden. The servants that tend the graves, well… their master – this Ryker fellow – caught me nosing around. So he had them chase me off.: Can’t say why. I’m as gentle as can be! But such is the way of it. Alas, I am stuck sniffing out herbs and fungi on the periphery. Do enjoy yourself in the crypts. For the both of us!Okay, so, Tarquin’s given us a new sidequest: find a tomb labelled Surrey and raid it for some nebulous ‘thing’ that is powerful. He has no idea what it is, but assumes that it’ll be ‘impressive.’ I was going to raid them all anyway, but at least now I’ll be getting some EXP for it. In any case, now that I’m here with one of my fences, I can finally start unloading some of the wares I’ve been holding onto for the past X-amount of updates. Both Tarquin and Gareth wandered off as soon as I landed on Reaper’s Coast and it’s only now that I’ve found one of them.  Unfortunately, I am carrying 18,491 gold worth of wares, and he has 3,650 gold on his person. He’s got some fair equipment on him, but nothing that I’m especially interested in other than his money and a Resurrection scroll to replace the one I just used.  It’s not a big weight off my shoulders (literally), but it’s a bit, and I get everything that I want off of him. It’s still better to trade with fences when you can because they give you such good prices on everything, so, I’ll continue to hold onto my assorted junk until Tarquin’s inventory refreshes (which is on level up, or every in-game hour, whichever happens first).  Exploring the graveyard a bit more….  Some people that are interred here are important enough to get their own crypts, separate from the chaff of the common folk. A set of iron bars are no match for Sebille. And yet most of their coffins are devoid of anything at all, much less a skeleton or any wares for me to pick up.    Eventually, I come across this: a large tower with a massive statue of a praying man at its base. There’s something special here – and not only that, but I also hear voices nearby.   Perhaps this is a dwarven monument. Farimah said that the dwarves are kept ‘ten spans up’ and this is easily the tallest structure in the yard.  The dwarven skeleton helps narrow things down, of course.   Entering the monument, there’s a stairway that takes me to the very top of the tower, which is littered with dwarven skeletons; dwarven spirits; one dwarf that still has all his meat and clothes; and a ton of crows and ravens circling its peak, hoping to find any leftover morsels still clinging to the bones.  : You watch yourself – there’s a voice whispering promises to the dead around here. : I suppose it wouldn’t be unheard of for other celestial apparitions wanting me stopped as much as Amadia wants me to succeed. Who is my assailant? Why would they want me stopped?: You’re Godwoken, ain’t yeh? You’ve a certain something about your aura. Don’t ask me why, but someone out there’s got it in for you and everyone like yeh.Hmm… we’ve known that Godwoken have had hits out on them since Amadia’s Sanctuary. If someone out there wants all Godwoken dead, that rules out Alexander, since he himself is Godwoken. And whoever wants us all dead is apparently capable of not only speaking with the dead, but also having them spread rumours and information among the spirits, if ‘the word is.’ A particularly powerful Sourcerer or Necromancer, maybe? We can probably rule out Ryker since he’d sooner kill us than enlist us. The Magisters? They likely have the resources, but they’re more interested in capturing and brainwashing Sourcerers into Silent Monks. We don’t know anything about the Black Ring’s motives, so, maybe them?  Moving on:  : In a flash you are both of them – brother and sister. Your feminine side is a rebel, rising up against the tyrannical queen. Your masculine side is a royalist, loyal to the monarch he loves.: As the brother you rescue your sister from the pikes of the royal guard. Together you flee across the sea to the melting pot of Driftwood and Reaper’s Cost. But in Driftwood you visit the lizard…: You are the sister and you know that something is wrong. You climb the stairs to rescue your brother – and find him fighting for his life against the dwarves who would rob him.: Both of you die. Beast seemed convinced that the Queen was up to something as well, hence his own rebellion and swashbuckling. What do YOU think? Should these dwarves have remained loyal? Or should they have died fighting for their beliefs? Moving on:  : Watching the birds pick your body clean is almost soothing. At least you know you’re doing some good for a creature. : You say an elf is after your body?: Not mine specifically, but he creeps from grave to sepulcher, taking what he wants. Whatever he wants.: A grim expression passes across her face as she looks out over the graveyard. : (I already know the answer to this, but…) Can you tell me who this elf is?: He lives in the big house by the gate. I ain’t about to wander up and ask for a name, mind you. The less I see of him, the happier I’ll rest.If we needed any more reasons to distrust Ryker, apparently he likes to go around disrupting graves and robbing them whenever he likes. Moving on, there’s one last dwarf spirit to speak with, and his body is still intact. He’s still wearing a full suit of armour and most of his body is still attached to his bones. : The spirit is dressed in tattered ceremonial garb. Eagle feathers tangle in his beard, and bird droppings decorate his robes. He surveys the circling flock with evident satisfaction. : My faithful eagles work still. They know their duty, they need me not. : Are you sure it’s duty that drives your pet, and not hunger? : I’ve never had the displeasure of seeing the flesh being torn away from my body by an animal. How would you describe any feelings or emotions you might be feeling seeing your bird devour your body? Is it painful?: Hurts? My dear boy, no. All I feel is pride. My Featherfall knows just how to slice and just what to chew. He eats to free me, to free this spirit from its earthly ties. With each peck, I am closer to the Hall of Echoes.Most spirits that I’ve spoken to just… leave for the Hall when they feel like it, though.  Awen’s body is still mostly meat, which means Sebille can join the birds in having a bit of a snack. : Biting deep into the rotting flesh, your senses are assailed with the rank odour of meat long past its prime. Your memory wavers and becomes not your own, but the memory of one who led the most solitary of lives.: You see myriad wings flapping, your hand scattering bird seed. You hear the screeching of eagles, the tearing of flesh. All of your life is centered on this place, this pedestal of death. All of your life is dedicated to feeding your eagles the meat of your dearly departed people.Sebille learned Bone Cage for that. She has no points in Necromancy, but if she gets the gear for it, it’s not a bad spell to learn. Although Fortify is better, generally speaking, unless she’s absolutely surrounded by dead bodies. We can talk with Featherfall as well, although this time, I’ll be doing it with Sebille. Perhaps her having eaten the dwarf’s flesh can give her an advantage in the conversation. : The eagle glowers at you balefully with eyes like shiny little buttons. One manicured and be-ribboned claw shoots forth to claim the stringy offal before him. Stretching his neck forward, he peers closely at you. : Pretty eyes. Eyes that see far.Awen and the game both described Featherfall as an eagle, and his model suggests he’s a raven, but his mugshot is clearly of a condor.   : They’re perhaps not as keen as an eagle’s, but I can see far enough that I ought to keep them away from you.: Think I need your eyes? Please. Before me lies a banquet of power, the most splendid feast for all my senses!: Peck, peck, peck. The eagle pecks free some choice lump of gristle from deep within the corpse. He swallows it whole, dark blood dripping from his beak and matting the fluffy feathers at his throat. : I know a lot about masters, Featherfall, and I know a lot about being a master. I am the master know, and you will be travelling with me.: Persuasion Success! I suppose not. : Easily.: You chew it for what seems like forever, yet the texture does not change in your mouth. Tough, yet moist; leathery, yet slippery. As an elf, you are used to eating flesh. But this? This is disgusting. Sometimes, you really wonder about how you make choices in life. Sometimes, like now.: The eagle hops from claw to claw, peering up at you with berserk and birdlike excitement. : Not just the power, Featherfall, but his memories as well. He is a part of me now – and now, I am the master.: A hacking caw breaks free from his ebony beak. Those little button eyes seem to twinkle in the gloom.: Yes! Kidney! Good for courage, good for warrior! You will fight well, now Master’s blood runs within you. Fatherfall is with you! Together, we go together from here!: Featherfall hops eagerly onto your shoulder and digs his claws deep. He pecks your cheek in what could charitably be called an affectionate manner. Blood drips from the wound. At least he didn’t go for your eyes.Boo!  Okay, this game keeps flip-flopping between calling Featherfall a condor and an eagle, so I’m going to split the difference and call him a raven. Sebille has herself a new familiar: Featherfall the raven! He can be summoned just like Salem can: you don’t require any points in Summoning to use him, although if you do have any, then he’ll be appropriately stronger. Featherfall isn’t a particularly powerful creature, having only about as much HP and damage potential as Salem, but he does have strengths in his two unique skills: Peck, which does piercing damage and sets Blind, and Gust, which is a Flying-type move that has 35 PP, 40 power, and 100% accuracy. A decent move for the beginning of the game – Oh, wait, wrong game. Featherfall’s second skill is called Gust and it does do air damage, but its biggest draw is that it will clear all surfaces in a cone away from Featherfall (except cursed surfaces). Some fights can get a little messy, so having a little janitor around to help out when I need it can be a big plus. That, and having another meat sponge to draw aggro from the AI is always nice. Like Salem, Featherfall can also self-teleport by flying. Despite being a bird, he isn’t considered to have the Wings status, and therefore surfaces will affect him if he goes over them. Overall, Featherfall’s not really all that notable of a summon, but he is a new familiar to add to the team, and there’s really no reason to not have more summons, especially if they’re for free like he and Salem are. The only person that still needs a familiar/summon now is Lohse. Between Featherfall, Salem, Peeper, Secretary, and Sir Lora, I’ve got a whole-rear end menagerie following me around where I go now. And that’s not even counting Bones McCoy or Splodey.
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Mar 19, 2022 07:33
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 The Waypoint marks the approximate center of the graveyard, so that’s nice. It’s been a while since I’ve had a new Waypoint to add to the list. But then again, it’s also been a while since I’ve been anywhere other than Driftwood.  Directly in front of the Waypoint is a very simple puzzle: two statues in front of a locked door with no keyhole for Sebille to pick. One statue is facing the wrong way, but can be rotated, and the other statue is facing the right way, but is missing its head.  The missing head probably isn’t too far away; I just need to find it.  Actually, for whatever reason, that reminds me: there’s something in particular that I wanted to buy in Driftwood, and now that I’ve found a Waypoint, I can head there and back without a problem.  Ovis, the trader that deals with Aerothurge, Pyrokinetic, Geomancer, and Polymorph skills, has a really, really powerful wand that I’d like to have called Chamore Doran. It’s only level nine, but the bonuses it’d give to Lohse, including +2 Intelligence, immunity to Sleeping, the Vaporise skill, and an empty slot, are all worth its price tag. After having met up with Tarquin, I have a bit of extra money to throw around. And even though it’s a little weak for my current level, it does air damage and we just got a fat lightning rune to slot into it.  Resuming my traipse through the graveyard: it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that I’d eventually come across a spirit. One that wasn’t attached to one of those husk bodyguards of Ryker’s.  : Keep your wits about you – there’s hardly anything to be upset over now that you’ve passed. : My troubles are not over! I’ve been interred in the wrong part of the drat cemetery, with no care given to lizard burial customs!: The spirit falls silent for a moment, to compose himself. : I suppose I could. If the reward is right.: Bah! I should have known your kind would seek recompense… very well – do as I ask, and you will be rewarded.    The spirit of Vilnx Creeva wants us to move his body – or, what’s left of it. I doubt there’s a whole body in this grave for us to dig up – into the lizard section of the cemetery. Seems like a harmless enough job, provided nobody notices me digging up a grave. Seems like a weird mistake for Farimah to make, though. Even ignoring the fact that she’s a lizard and would probably know what lizards like when they die, she has that whole mnemonic to ‘help her ‘member.’ Maybe Vilnx was buried before her time working here.   Yep, just a leg. Apparently, that’ll be enough for him. Looks mighty tasty, though. What do YOU think? Do we give what’s left of Vilnx a proper burial? Or does Sebille eat his leg?  We’ve been mostly circling the northern and eastern perimeter of the graveyard by now. We’re starting to round down to the southern edge, and we haven’t actually gone any deeper. Most of the place appears to be dedicated to humans and elves – given that Driftwood is primarily humans, that’s not such a surprise. We’ve already found the dwarven tower and we’ve been told a few things about the lizard quarter, which must be deeper in.  As we circle the eastern edge of the cemetery, we find an area that’s been gated off from the rest. The gate isn’t locked and we can enter and leave as we like. There’s a signpost nearby that’ll tell us more, too: : ‘Heroes’ Rest: Memorial to the Saviours of Driftwood, and the first of this region who joined Lucian the Divine. They lie here as comrades forever, eschewing the burial customs of their own people so that they can stand guard even in death.Oh, neat, a quartet of heroes. That sounds familiar, in more ways than one! Didn’t we read a book about this in Siva’s house?    Okay, there are four tombs sitting in the corners of the lot, but the first thing that I notice are two high grounds nearby accessible by ladder. That’s… going to be important, surely.  As a precaution, I move Lohse and Prince onto the highest ground, a scaffolding nearby that appears to be constructing, or doing maintenance, on a nearby memorial, and Sebille onto the next-highest ground in front of the statue overlooking the lot. Last time, I had Lohse and Prince separated during the fight in that Magister’s house with the giant bugs, and while I still won, I should probably keep my squishiest people together so that they can heal each other. Although, if they both die, suddenly I’m out of heals completely. I’m not expecting a lot of resistance or anything – these people are heroes! Right? They should know fellow heroism when they see it, right? I got the Hero tag twice in the last two updates, that should count for something.  : Here rests the Human Hero, Garrick. He served Lucian the Divine with immense skill, and slew the necromancers who preyed upon the dead of Stonegarden Cemetery. The implements of his heroism shall rest at the site of his victory.I can’t open these tombs to raid them, but instead, when I investigate them, the locations of secret treasure are revealed on my map for me to get later. So, naturally, the game wants you to investigate all four so you can get the most treasure possible.  : Here rests the Elven Hero, Halla. He served Lucian the Divine with great vigour, and defended the farmers who feed Reaper’s Coast, against pitiless bandits. The implements of his heroism shall rest at the site of his victory. : Here rests the Dwarven Hero, Bromley. She served Lucian the Divine with honour, and cast out the demons the plagued the great woodlands. The implements of her heroism shall rest at the site of her victory. : Here rests the Lizard Hero, Vydia. She served Lucian the Divine with great dignity, and vanquished the strange beasts that arose from the primordial caverns of Reaper’s Coast. The implements of her heroism shall rest at the site of her victory.Well… I guess I over– : Suddenly, the earth churns and buckles upwards in several places. Something – some things – are trying to rise to the surface… : Godwoken! You must fall; the God King demands it! : You must fall so that we may rise!: Let your blood quench our roots, so we may grow!: The Covenant shall be fulfilled!  Four skeletons burst out of four tombs, each of them decked with weapons and armour. These are the legendary heroes of Driftwood… working on behalf of someone calling themselves the ‘God King.’ Well, it’s four-on-four and three of my guys have the high ground. It won’t be so bad, right?   Understandably, we all have something to say about what just happened. Four legendary heroes burst out of the ground, spouting some nonsense about God Kings and Covenants and how ‘he demands our death.’ That one dwarven spirit on the tower told us that someone wanted us dead. These four weren’t shambling, mindless skeletons acting as puppets – they were coming after us with purpose. We knew that the Lone Wolves were after us, but whoever it is has the power to not only make the dead rise, and not only grant them a third life after second death, but they’re apparently charismatic enough that the undead want to crawl out of their tombs to kill them.   : Most foreboding… when did heroes turn villains? And what is this ‘Covenant’?: They were corrupted somehow. If it could happen to them, it could happen to us. We should be cautious. : Whoever is behind all this will have to try harder if they want to stop us.Well, what’s important is that they’re dead and we’re not. And we not only know the location of all their best tools for victory, but they were all fully dressed and equipped for battle, meaning they must have some good poo poo for me to loot.     The armour has really good numbers compared to what I currently have, but what I have also gives me +1 Warfare and the armour only gives resistances, so, pass. The ring gives +1 Hydrosophist and Summoning and +5 magic armour, so it’d be good on Lohse. While the axe is two-handed, it’s not Hanal Lechet. And that magician’s robe has crazy high defensive stats, but no real bonuses that I’m interested in.  I figure it’d go well on Lohse, though. Her current piece gave her +1 Aerothurge and this new piece gives her +1 Huntsman, which is an awful trade, but the defensive stats are 2 physical armour and 6 magic armour for the old piece, and 3 physical and 10 magic for the new piece, which is a significant upgrade.  That’s that for this update! Next time, we explore Stonegarden Graveyard more thoroughly. The dead have a ton of secrets to hide! As a recap, here are our votes for this update: Are you a dog person, or a cat person? You cannot choose neither or both. Should the dead dwarves have remained loyal to their queen? Or should they have stood up for what they believed in? Do we give Vilnx a proper burial? Or does Sebille eat his remains and gain his power? Let me know in three day’s time! Maple Leaf fucked around with this message at 09:03 on Mar 19, 2022 |
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Mar 19, 2022 07:37
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I'm a 50/50 person and if left to myself would tell the animals that their master loves them both. Since that's not an option... given the presence of Quercus and Salem, I think the party are probably cat people. Prince continues to suffer. Might have to start a death counter for him. He was a dick and a slaver when we first met him but you gotta feel for the guy by this point. I don't remember anything we may or may not have known about the dwarven rebellion, but they're generally bad ideas more often than not. That said, eat the rich. Side with the sister. And hello new species-confused bird friend. Maybe he can nursemaid Peep. We really do have quite the menagerie available now. Our total party: a skeleton, a lizard, two humans, a cat, a squirrel riding a skeletal cat, a probably-condor, a demonic baby chicken, a spider made from bones, a fire slug and an elemental or two. Burn the lizard leg, though I'm sure Sebille could nibble a little bit first without affecting anything.
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Mar 19, 2022 11:01
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The party are cat people, we got to stick by our Salem for this question. And give Vilnx his proper burial, I don't see why not. BraveLittleToaster fucked around with this message at 14:44 on Mar 19, 2022 |
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Mar 19, 2022 13:54
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Dog Loyal Eat it Obviously, it's correct to call our nee friend a Raven since it's so good at imitating other birds. Got to be smart and adaptable like a raven to do that Slaan fucked around with this message at 14:55 on Mar 19, 2022 |
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Mar 19, 2022 14:38
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Cat Loyalty Burn it
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Mar 19, 2022 14:52
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Cat Rebel and Revolt Burn
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Mar 19, 2022 16:40
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Maple Leaf posted:This being a graveyard, there’s all kinds of things to interact with: everything from caskets and coffins to tombs and catacombs to graves and monuments. Every single sarcophagus is a new thing for me to crack open and try my luck with Lucky Charm.  Anyway, Dog, Rebel (we're not going on much information, but this is usually the "right" answer in video games) Burn it
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Mar 21, 2022 04:34
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It's different
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Mar 21, 2022 12:06
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Dog Rebel Burn
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Mar 21, 2022 13:06
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meatbag posted:Dog This seems good to me!
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Mar 22, 2022 00:54
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I love dogs, but drat it, cats are cool too. The dwarves should uphold their oaths and remain loyal. We don't have Beast (  ) to talk us out of it.Give Vilnx a proper burial. Let's not piss off a spirit that did nothing to us for selfish gain.
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Mar 22, 2022 03:30
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 As voted in the thread: we have decided that we are more of a cat person. Fane has Salem, after all, and the only character of ours that had a pet dog – well, a pet canine – died when we hopped between dimensions a dozen updates ago.  : It’s possible that your master highly regards you for your work and devotion, Dot, but that isn’t necessarily affection.: There y’go, Dot. Listen to the nice fellow.: I don’t get it. : It’s one thing for a dog to wear a collar. It differentiates them from the wild dogs that can still be found all over the world. But it’s another to keep their pet locked in a cage in the basement. If your master loved you, he wouldn’t treat you like that.: Dot sniffs at the collar. Recognises it as his own. His ears fold and his head drops. A hangdog expression appears upon his face.: I suppose that makes sense. *Sniff.* I’m all sad now. I think I might have done something wrong. My last master would’ve died for me, I know he would.: I know because he did die for me. *Sniff.*: C’mon Dot, we’ll go kill rats or summat, take your mind off it. ‘ere you are, as a token of my gratitude, there’s a shiny wotsit under the bath upstairs that might be of interest to you. People seem to like that sort of thing. An’ I’m done playin’ wiv’ it. G’bye and g’luck to you.Our reward for siding with Cottontail is information that there was a diamond underneath the tub; something we found already because we have eyes. Well, that, and 7,740 EXP. If you’re curious, the reward for siding with Dot was that he’d tell you that the corners of the rooms lead downstairs, something we also learned last time. The reward for picking an animal was the EXP, not the materials for picking one over the other.  As I head back through the cemetery, I come across the head of the broken statue from the previous update. So that’s good: one more puzzle solved.  Before I go fix the statues, though, I return to the dwarven tower and fulfil the other vote that we had in the thread: we decided to side with the sister and the freedom fighters. This being an RPG, siding against the elite ruling class is usually the correct option to take.  : The sister smiles – she feels vindicated. Her brother still does not agree. The rebellion was a disaster. The rebellion was a mistake – that cost them their lives. I… expected a better resolution than that. They don’t move on to the Hall, nor do I get any sort of reward at all. Bit of a bummer, but oh well; enjoy the flavour.  Back to the grave with the statues: the puzzle is already solved, the statue on the right just needs its head back.    My rewards are a Reactive Armour skillbook – a particularly devastating Geomancer skill when combined with something like Fortify, or Heart of Steel, or both. Could be useful on Sebille: she’s already crazy good at holding down individuals, but a combo like those into Reactive Armour would make her a time bomb that could rinse a crowd – and a ring that, coincidentally, gives +4 Magic Armour and +1 Geomancer. One of Sebille’s current rings gives +3 MA and +1 Hydrosophist, which she isn’t taking advantage of, so, might as well swap it in.    Coming to the north-eastern corner of the cemetery, there’s a small set of stairs leading down to a cliff overlooking a wide chasm. Although it doesn’t look like the view is very good – it’s currently storming in the cemetery, and whatever’s going on down in the gorge doesn’t look very friendly.  I see a lot of fire, in particular, and a house made of straw. A notoriously unfriendly combination. But there’s nothing I can do from way up here.  While investigating the gravestones on the cliff, Fane comes across an upraised mound – and someone is calling out for help, asking to be dug out. Someone’s alive down there! Given that the soil of the grave has been disturbed, it’s probably a more recent grave. (Or maybe the person under there is undead. Also possible.)  : You! Help! I’m down here! : I know what it’s like to be unduly buried alive for aeons. But I also don’t want any tricks, understand? No funny business.: Don’t worry. There’s nothing funny about me. This tombstone doesn’t paint a particularly flattering story of this ‘Crispin’ guy. But for whatever faults he may have, a grave isn’t a place to be when you’re, you know, still alive. (Or undead, as the case might be.)   : The skeleton tries to brush the dirt from his clattering bones, then frowns. The moistest bits are still stuck in his cracks and crevasses. : Thanks! You’re probably looking for a reward, but I haven’t got much. Except, you know, the wisdom of the ages.: He pokes a finger against his ossified head. : This may be a current-age phenomenon, but I don’t think philosophers typically, well, regard themselves as such, or speak with your particular cadence.: Are you questioning my intellect? You think you say more sooth than me, a verified soothsayer?: The skeleton pauses and sighs, then straightens his spine with a clatter.: A soulbond will settle it. A battle of wits. Then the cosmos itself will decide who can better face the truth of our own essence: me, or you. A weak soul may not survive the bond… : A ‘soulbond,’ you called it? That’s a rather… charming name for something that’s apparently supposed to be a contest. What does it entail?: Oh, it’s easy. We link up souls and share our innermost beliefs. Think of it like an innocent little duel. The winner remains comfortable with their personal truths. : You mean to say that one of us could be sent to the Hall of Echoes properly upon failing this ‘innocent little duel?’ : I’m unconvinced you even know what the word ‘philosopher’ means, Crispin. I accept your challenge.: Oh, how fun. Just touch this bone on my ribcage here, right over where my heart would be if, well. You know.: You reach for the rib in question, but nothing feels different – not until you try to pull your finger away, and it remains glued to the bone.Wow, that sounds risky. A hard enough yank and I’d rip the guy’s rib clean off. : Alright, mister Deep Thought. First up: our purpose in life. I say it’s to accumulate knowledge. Pretty great answer, eh? Can you do better than that? : That’s an awfully self-assured answer for a man that has no brains at all. How deep could our thoughts possibly be if all we have are empty bowls for heads?: A chattering shiver passes through the skeleton’s body from toe to head, then back again.: Well… but… hmm. I… um. Let’s just move on to the next question. Tell me, Sammy Smartypants: is there such a thing as free will? : Isn’t it weird how we can talk without voice boxes? Why would the Gods give them to the living, but not to us, if they apparently aren’t necessary at all? What’s up with that?: Oh. Oh Gods, I… I can hardly bear to… alright. Alright. I need to get a hold of myself…: The skeleton hangs his head low, then yanks it upwards again. : Some would say that it’s just wrong that we can move without muscles or ligaments. If you think about it, it’s… it’s just wrong, you know?: You feel the bond break between your finger and the skeleton; you pull your hand quickly back to your side.: NnnnnNNNNNNNNGH! I can’t bear this… this existential agony. What have you… And just like that, Crispin explodes into a pile of bones and some loot. And I get a fat wad of experience for beating him in his contest. In order to beat Crispin, you either need to be undead, like I am, or you need both the Mystic and Scholar tags, which Fane has, so I really couldn’t have lost this ‘fight.’ Alternatively, if you play the game and you are none of those things, the answers to Crispin’s questions can be found in a book elsewhere in Stonegarden – in Ryker’s mansion, I think. I don’t recall finding it, myself. The loot that I get is the Source skillbook Mass Corpse Explosion: a hybrid Necromancer/Pyrokinetic skill that, as the name implies, explodes all corpses in an area and dealing physical damage to anyone living that’s standing on top of them. Similar to how Splodey deals a ton of damage when he bursts, this is actually quite the potent skill… if you can get it lined up properly. Fane’s speccing into Necro/Pyro, so I’ll hold onto this book; it may be useful later.  Heading back into the cemetery, I round out my exploration of the eastern perimeter of the graveyard. Just to the west of this current position are the segmented graves of the four Driftwood heroes that I fought in the previous update. This path is along a raised cliff, heading elsewhere.  Ooh, that looks fancy. : An ancestor tree! Pure grace in an undeserving world. The spirit of the tree may have much to say.Oh, this is the same kind of tree that the Lady Vengeance is made of. When elf Scions, like Saheila, die, their bodies are buried and sprout into ancestor trees: gigantic trees that are technically sapient, still holding the memories of their past lives. I guess this is the elven quarter of the cemetery, then? But if that’s the case, you’d think there would be a whole bunch of ancestor trees, not just one. Maybe only one elf has ever died in Driftwood?  The first thing I see when I enter the quarter are three elven spirits kneeling in front of a blooming flower that’s caked in blood. So, you know, that’s all a good start. : The spirit ignores your presence, busy as it is resisting the pull of another – the ancestor tree, trying to take its Source. All you feel is the spirit’s resistance… and its anger, directed at the Mother Tree that has betrayed it.All three spirits say some variant of that. It’s unusual – elves are a bunch of tree-huggers and the ancestor trees are all generally supposed to be symbols of peace and harmony between the living and nature. The Lady Vengeance is a cool lady that, well, she’d rather still be a tree, but now that she’s a ship, she doesn’t try to, like, hurt us or anything. Well, not ever since we broke Dallis’ control on her. Also: this spirit says that the Mother Tree has ‘betrayed them.’ The Lady Vengeance said something about the Mother Tree ‘demanding loyalty.’ The Magisters bombed one of the elf’s sacred forests with Deathfog before the events of the story; it’s not a stretch to think that things aren’t so peaceful with the Mother Tree after that.  At the back of this platform is an absolutely gigantic tree, filled with twisting branches nearly as wide as a street. This is the ancestor tree, and I can interact with it.  : You are a Scion of the elves. The Mother Tree demands your blood. You do not have a choice – she has a plan and you must serve her with your death. You heed your mother’s wishes and take root.: But then, you hear a voice. A friendly whisper from… beyond. The voice knows you. He understands you. He loves you. He offers you your freedom. And asks but one small service in return.: Grateful, you accept. In an instant you are an elf once more, walking in the world. But your new friend begins to make demands. Small services, then larger, and more often. They cause you pain.: At last he bids you guard your tree. He expects you shall have guests. You shall kill the Godwoken when they come. Then you shall be free.… This is sounding very similar to the Driftwood Heroes from the last update. They died; someone from ‘beyond’ promised them life in exchange for our deaths; they came back with all the strength they had in life to fight us. Which means I should expect–  … nothing at all?  : No such thing as luck: only self-earned success. Or, as in this case, self-earned failure.: Desperation leads to stupidity. Among the stupid anyway.: Elven games. No one cares!drat, Lohse. So, the game is strongly hinted that something should be happening here… but isn’t. I am the Godwoken that this tree, or the elf within it, wants dead, and yet I’m not being attacked. I looked this up, and it’s a bug involving the Permanent Spirit Vision gift bag mod. I’m supposed to cast Spirit Vision to make something happen here, but since it’s always on, I never have the thought to do that. Apparently I just need to cast it again while I’m here, so, I’ll do that next update.   Rounding out to the southeastern corner of the graveyard, I find the spirit of a lizard standing in front of a pool of fire constantly being refreshed by a pair of gigantic lizard-head statues breathing fire every few seconds. I think it’s fair to say that we’ve found the lizard quarter.  : It’s hard not to feel some pride in reptilian engineering. I watched an elf spend hours trying to force his way into a lizard’s chest. Eventually he threw it into the flames, but still it sits there: indestructible.: He did not leave empty-handed, unfortunately. I pity the poor salamander that he dragged back to his ghastly home…A chest that can’t be opened by force, huh. Maybe a bit of persuasion ought to do the trick.  Just gotta teleport the chest out of there and then wait for the flames on it to die off. Xiuh taught Prince a song that, according to him, is the password to get it to open, and it contains the treasures of the previous tenant of the grounds – there’s bound to be some good stuff in there. : The chest before you is covered in old Ancient Empire pictograms. You consider trying to find some lock picks in your bag, but looking at the chest you don’t see any keyhole…: You hear a deep rumbling from inside the chest, and a voice emerges. It hisses and clicks at you in the old tongue – your people’s ancient language. : […]: With a quiet click, the lid of the chest swings open.And I got 3,875 EXP for it, too. Let’s see what Consul Zara was packing.  A fat wad of money; a poison arrow; a Finesse potion; and the good stuff: a Finesse chestpiece with way higher numbers than Sebille’s, but only offers +1 Intelligence and +1 Hydrosophist, so it’d be moving sideways rather than forward, and a Strength-based helmet that gives exactly one more physical armour as well as +1 Strength, Pyro, Summoning, and +2 Hydro. This new helmet is overall significantly better than Fane’s… except Fane’s helmet gives me +1 Wits, which translates as 97% accuracy with his swings. The new helmet gives me no additional Wits, putting me down to 96%. At the time of this recording, I considered that to be the worse trade, given how bloody often my attacks miss. But looking back on it now – hindsight is always 20/20, after all – I’ll probably swap this helmet in. Bones McCoy/Splodey/to a lesser degree, Salem could really benefit from that +1 Summoning, and Fane is speccing slightly into Pyro anyway. There are a few other things to do here in the lizard quarter – namely, we had voted to not eat Vilnx Creeva’s leg and instead honour his request to have his last remaining body part cremated properly, among his kin.  : A cremation pyre… ‘From fire to ash. From ember to flame.’He’s pretty picky about it, though: he wants it directly in front of the statues, just putting it in the fire isn’t enough. : You have done me a great service, friend. Now, the Hall of Echoes beckons…The little sidequest with Vilnx updates twice, giving me a total of 13,525 EXP. A massive amount considering all I did was walk in a straight line from the human quarter to the lizard quarter.  The tangible reward I get is 48 dollars; a large healing potion (which I poison with Zaikk’s Talon so Fane can use it); and I take the undeployed smoke trap.  There are some dead bodies in the fire: one of Ryker’s masked servants, and someone else that the game describes as a ‘shady digger.’ I don’t know the digger’s story, but one of Ryker’s servants being in there is weird enough: they’re puppets without any sense of free will, so one of them purposefully wandering into the fire is a bit weird.   Oh, it was chasing after the digger. For a pair of boots? Ryker says they’re made of dragon bones, so I guess they’d be fairly powerful… Wait, dragon-bone equipment? That sounds familiar.   Taking the long way around the fire, I loot the digger’s corpse. It seems pretty dangerous for a body to be holding some grenades while they’re being cremated. But, yep, he’s got the boots, and yep, they’re a part of the Devourer’s set.  They’re, uh, not great compared to the boots Fane’s wearing right now, but they’re piece two-of-five. I already have the gauntlets – I’m wearing them right now, in fact – that just leaves the helmet, the pants, and the chestpiece.  Someone else is after the Devourer’s set, too. Someone going by K in Arx. The race is a foot! : The boots are resplendent with polished ivory, heavy but well-made, fit for a noble. This exact same thing happened in Braccus’ Tower way back in the Hollow Marches. So I’m guessing I’ll be speaking with whoever is possessing this armour set again. : Dig. Work. Deeper. By the Empress’ order, you have to go deeper. As the memory fades, ghostly flames flicker on the surface of the polished sabatons. : I’ll ask again: to whom am I speaking? : Patience. You must prove yourself worthy of such answers. : Find where the archeologist cut into the earth. I will draw strength from there to speak again.: The voice vanishes, but the bone-deep longing remains. You must dig in the East. You must. A terrible chill pervades the air as the ashen vision fades. Someone new is watching you.To go with picking up the boots, our friend the Chronicler reappears, but he’s joined by someone else: a dwarven spirit. Presumably the guy we just stole these boots from. : The spirit of the dwarf frowns at you, suspicion drawing the lines of his face deep. : I don’t hear any pickaxes! No shovels! Where are me lazy diggers? : I can get right to digging for you, but first, remind me: where was I meant to be digging, again?: Haven’t you seen the excavation site? There’s real treasure there. Bones o’ the beast! The site’s close. It has to be. There’s more stones to break, more earth to turn! We need t’ get there!  This is the end of the lizard quarter: an empty cliff with no graves or markings, just some grass and overgrown weeds. I suppose, if lizards prefer to cremate their kin, they wouldn’t need very much space for their dead anyway. Two dead lizard assassins with their equipment sprawled out across the ground, and one lizard spirit with no body nearby. Perhaps he was cremated recently, then. He doesn’t have a funny face – that’s a lizard’s Intelligence-based helmet. We could stick that on Prince if we manage to find one.  : I won’t get between you two, then. By all means.: The Red Prince address the lizard spirit. He turns out to be a Dreamer, long dead, who speaks archaically and sings in a truly ancient tongue. : Rav Mudom… Anan erchet… Veytou doran…: Like a lullaby, the melody lulls them both to sleep until with a start, the Red Prince wakes once more. : You look like you’re bursting for the opportunity to tell it, so, you have my undivided attention.: A tale too preposterous to be believed, and yet so ultimately, so undeniably true once told. The race of lizards, all of us… we were dragons once! Great, red dragons.We… we met one already. Slaane, the Winter Dragon. Is he somehow different? : Somehow, aeons ago, we withered. We shrank, our wings shrivelled; nevermore to be the majestic creatures we once were. : I presume you have something to do with returning the lizards to their rightful heritage.: I am to be the father of dragons, and she, the Red Princess, is to be the mother. I’ve told you about her, haven’t I? The secret of my soul! All my life I thought she was but a dream within a dream, but she is real. She is here. And I must go to her.That does sound vaguely familiar. I think he mentioned something about her when we escaped Fort Joy and wound up in the Hollow Marshes.  : If step one is to find the Red Princess, and step three is to birth a new generations of dragons, I’m sure you’re excited about step two.: It is a union years in the making. Of course I am eager! But it is her safety that concerns me as well. We mustn’t forget the House of Shadows continues to hunt us. The Dreamer I met only managed to elude them by escaping bodily into the dream realm, never to return.Ah, that explains the dead assassins. Although, you say he escaped ‘bodily?’ I suppose that answers why he’s a spirit with no body, but how would a person, you know, do that? It’s a dream. : Sacrifices are being made in our names, mine and hers, so that we may sire dragons. I intend to prove worthy of these sacrifices.: The Red Prince turns to thank the spirit for its aid. The old soul concludes its melody, and with it, its stay upon this world. Well, alright! New mission objective: get Prince laid. The guy could use a bit of stress relief after, you know, dying so often. He says that the Red Princess is to the north, ‘a walk away,’ although considering you need to walk everywhere on this map, who knows how far away that actually is. Naturally, Prince is all too excited to keep running his mouth about what just happened.  : I assume that was Brahmos the Wanderer that we just spoke with. Can you tell me more about the dream you just shared with him?: Ah, yes. The dream visions…: I’ve been bombarded with a lot of grandiloquent prophecies that an analytical mind like mine is obligated to meet with a certain degree of scepticism. Were it not for the princess.: Like all lizards, I give great credence to dreams, for I know them to flow not from the sleep-hazed mind, but from another plane of existence altogether. Sometimes, in that vast phantasmagorical chaos, two storm-tossed kernels meet and become a constant.: The Red Princess is the secret of my soul. There is no doubt we are meant for one another; meant for dragons. Jesus, remember not to swallow your own tongue with that vocabulary. : A speech like that was appropriately grandiloquent for such an important topic. : I’m no lizard, so I don’t put the same stock as you and yours into dreams, but I’m sure that you’re right. There are no other possibilities.: As if that ever was in doubt.: Now I don’t blame you for being sceptical: it shows a penchant for logic. But logic, dreams and prophecy make for an ill-tasting cocktail indeed.: Bear with me though. I’ll make it taste sweet just yet.Our new mission objective, of getting Prince some action, is going to have to wait. The Red Princess is way off to the north, and we’re busy circling around the graveyard for now. Maple Leaf fucked around with this message at 13:07 on Apr 1, 2022 |
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Apr 1, 2022 03:37
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   This last corner takes me to the southern edge of the Stonegarden graveyard: to my left is the southern cliffs that lead into the ocean, and the only thing north of me is back into the cemetery. We still have the east edge to see, and then we have to fill out the center of the graveyard, so we’re not done yet. It’s… rather gauche for a cemetery to be, you know, hanging skeletons on crucifixes as lawn ornaments along the southern edge of the yard, if you ask me. It’s like they’re trying to deter pirates or something.  This is the southern gate to the cemetery. Tarquin is sitting at the northern gate.  And just down the way is Mari Pruitt’s house. We got into Ryker’s from her basement. Which makes sense: they’re next door neighbours, their basements are connected, it makes sense that I can get from the graveyard to her house just by walking a path down a hill.  Running along the southern edge of the cemetery is a familiar face: it’s the dog that we freed from the abusive beggar back in Driftwood! Although it begs the question how he crossed the river, got passed the Voidwoken attacking Mari, and through the gate. Although maybe the Voidwoken are just interested in humans, possibly. : You recognise the dog from the town square in Driftwood. The wounds from his spoked collar are healing well. : Oh hi! How are you? I’m good! Hey, do you smell that? Smells like the fish place, doesn’t it? Like fish only… worse. ‘kay bye!I’m not sure what this is meant to provide us, other than the fuzzy feel-goods that we helped a poor pooch and he seems to be doing alright now that he’s on his own.  On a small precipice overlooking the cliff is a bench, in front of a puddle of ooze, beside a lone sarcophagus (which is booby trapped), underneath an overgrown tree with roots snaking down the rock face behind us. Whoever’s in that sarcophagus must be important. Maybe the spirit catching a breather can shed some light on who’s in there.  Oh, the Pruitts are all bridgekeepers. A weird family profession, but the house’s apparent age explains the dungeon of a basement Mari had. Maybe Secundia is who’s in the tomb?  : From your tone of voice, you sound like you have quite the story to tell. : Close your eyes and listen…: The spirit’s memories play out before you in darkest black. The sound alone relates the tale. A self-styled archeologist (some would call you a grave-robber), you’ve found the grace of Baran Willmart Hogge IV. Your footsteps crunch light upon the gravel as you approach the tomb. You know that Hogge was avaricious, paranoid, and cruel – and you yourself value the first two of these traits most highly.: You ease your way up to the grave, and run your hand around the lid, searching for a trap – you find nothing. The wind whispers in the trees and the grass rustles quietly. You slide the lid open with a CREAK…: … CLICK…: ‘Uh-oh,’ you think.: BANG! : There are few fates worse. My commiserations.: Commiserations, he says! I knew the risks – if graves you’d open, beware the creak and then the click. Then comes the bang! THEN COMES THE BANG! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!: I have only one regret: I didn’t get the loot. I DIDN’T GET THE LOOT! First came the creak and then the click. Then came the bang! THEN CAME THE BANG! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Okay, so we know that this grave is rigged to explode if it’s opened, and we also know that Dayvus here didn’t get whatever is inside it, meaning it must still be in there. But we also know that the trap is set on a timer: on the count of three, from a creak, then a click, it’ll explode. That’s more than enough time to open it up, press the spacebar, and then haul rear end.  Bonus!  Funny enough, the tomb triggers the trap by hucking a Molotov at you. Not exactly the most elegant solution, but effective nonetheless. We all got away just fine, except Sir Lora, but he’s got a ton of Constitution and magic armour anyway; he’s fine. The loot in the tomb includes some mage boots that give +2 Initiative and +3% Dodging – Prince’s boots give him Uncanny Evasion and a bevy of other buffs, while Lohse’s been rocking some sandals she found back in the Hollow Marshes, so she gets the new shoes – a Polymorph skill called Terrain Transmutation; and a ring that does absolutely nothing except provide 3 magic armour. It’s barely worth holding onto as vendor trash.  Terrain Transmutation: Transfer surfaces and clouds from two areas between each other.A neat skill, but also incredibly gimmicky and niche. I’ll learn it just so I’ll know not to buy it again later, but I’m not going to waste a Memory slot on it.  We’re coming up along the eastern edge of the cemetery now. This is the human quarter of the graveyard.   Ew, gross. When presented with the opportunity to rob a grave, my reward is a rotten leg. Not what I was hoping for. Sebille! Consume the last remaining vestige of Mari’s ancestor! : You were kind and honest, and devoted to your dog. But you came a-knocking here in search of work, and the dog took fancy to the man of the house. Your own dog turned on you, and tore you down.Oh. Something tells me that this isn’t Marjolinea’s leg at all. Dot the dog said that his last master ‘loved him and would die for him;’ it doesn’t sound like Dot would have turned on his last master so viciously like that. Maybe we have another reason to hate Ryker instead. If you’re curious: neither Barin nor Mari have anything to say if you talk to them armed with this knowledge or with the Pruitt rotten leg.  The eastern edge of the cemetery seems like a pretty dangerous place to be: there’s no walls or fencing anywhere to keep a person from tumbling straight down the cliff. And the view isn’t even that great: it’s just a shot of Mari’s house, stained with the blood splatters of crushed Voidwoken. Hopefully the company is at least a little good, although this being a cemetery, my hopes aren’t high.  : A sinner I, and who is not? The sinner lies; that they sin not. A sinner lies. And yet the boneyard’s full of sinners who got their prayers while I did not.I don’t know why I know this, but my favourite commandment – of the Ten Commandments from the Christian faith – is the eighth one: ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.’ In English, it means ‘don’t lie.’ So if you’ve ever told a little fib in your life, well, sucks to be you.  That one’s kinda funny.  More spirits to converse with. They’re kind of a drag to talk to, but I also can’t expect a bunch of dead people to be the life of the party.  : Come on, mistress… hear me, heed me! You’ve always had a glint in your eye for old Zimski… don’t abandon me now…: Zimski mutters to himself as he traces sigils in the dirt. He spies you and a shrewd look brightens his eyes. He stretches out a hand, showing you a solitary coin on his palm. : I don’t have a tail, but I also only have one head. I suppose one head is more than zero tails, though, so, heads.: He flips the coin high in the air. It twinkles beneath the moonlight as it spins down and he claps it to his forearm. It’s tails.: Unlucky. But then, what do I know about luck anymore? All my life I served Lady Luck and see how it ends? In the dirt, just the same as everybody else. : This design looks rather elaborate. What is it meant to be?: (… and how is he doing that? He’s ephemeral.): Her signs, to call her. Oh, Lady Luck always came when I called. For thirty years we roamed Rivellon together; she was my faithful mistress – from card game, to wager, to grift. She was the life of me… yet she wants no dead man. : I’ve spent most of my existence in a hole in the ground. It’s left me a lot of time to appreciate the altruism of righting wrongs in the world so that others may never suffer the same injustices that I had. It’s from acting for them that I derive what meaning I can.: Good enough.: He smiles a foxy smile as he stabs claw-like fingers at your chest. He begins to trave sigils on your flesh. Though you cannot feel his fingers upon your skin, something inside you shifts. You feel a coldness, and a sick longing seeps into your heat.Sigils on my what? Fingers upon my what? Seeps into my what? : He croons incantations as he works, and his voice is like the throwing of a thousand dice inside your brain. Your body is suddenly filled with lust for coin, and craving for more.: Ah, now you feel her touch. Now, Lady Luck sings in your blood as she once did in mine. And now, I feel… nothing.From that whole exchange, we get a single Source Potion: Zimski’s spirit, distilled into a drink that we can consume at any time for an instant hit of Source. It does the same thing as Source Orbs, in that way, although you can’t slot the potion into a rune slot on your equipment. Which, in my opinion, makes it better, because you’re not losing other opportunities upon consuming the potion.  That last monument with Zimski brings us to the back door to Ryker’s mansion. And with that, we’ve finally finished a lap around the cemetery. It took a hot minute, but it’s done! We’re not finished with Stonegarden, though: there are still a few places of interest to cover in the graveyard. We’ve only done a lap around the outside; we still have to explore the interior of the garden.    Oh….   … Kniles the Fletcher was a hosed up kid. Poisoned his sister and stabbed his other sister in her sleep. On top of everything else we know about him.  Rounding into the center-ish of the cemetery, we’re looped back into the human’s quarter, where we’re shown to a second pooch that’s made their home here in the cemetery.  This one, uh, doesn’t look right. : The dog growls and bares it teeth at you in a wide, unsettling grin. You swear you see a worm emerge from its gray-pink gums, then burrow back in. : Okay.: He sniffs. He snarls. : Having become acquainted with both, I’m afraid of neither dogs nor death.: The dog’s growls intensify and transform into a rhythmic rasp that mimics laughter. You swear you see the ground behind him momentarily churn and tremble.: Oh, but the death you think you know is an illusion; those who meet their true end are puppets, and I their puppetmaster. Your bones will dance for me! : If you know so much, then tell me what it is that I apparently seek.: Enough lies. Enough farce. You’ve riled the beast. And the only cure for the affliction… is blood.: The dog raises its head to the stormy sky and howls. The earth beneath you vibrates – a dirge plucked on the strings of a rotting lute.: Necrotic Troll. You are summoned. Crawl through the gate; the earth opens for thee! Well, that was weird. But I suppose it wasn’t any weirder than anything else I’ve fought in this graveyard so far; at least this dog wasn’t ‘sworn’ to anybody. Except maybe whoever Qanna is.  Andres’ spirit still lingers. Which I guess isn’t all that unusual – he is, after all, an unusual pupper. : The dog’s spirit rolls his head around, gawking at the ground and sky as if he’s never seen them before, then locks his eyes on yours. He snarls unconvincingly. : Having become acquainted with both… I can say that, no, you are not. : You offend the Necrohound! When the reckoning comes, you will cower in fear of Anathema. You will bow before the demon blade! : What even am I supposed to be afraid of? What is ‘Anathema’?: Once a demon, now a weapon. We heard its call, and slayed our allies in its name. It is near. With it, we will slay living and undead alike. There will be no mercy!: The canine spirit lifts his head to howl, but can barely manage a whimper. He tucks his tail between his legs, shocked at his own impotence.A demon that’s now a weapon, and it’s nearby… maybe this is what Tarquin is after? It’d be a hell of an heirloom for the Surreys to be holding onto.  Our rewards for this fight aren’t much. The gloves are strength-based and offer +1 Thievery, which is a hard pass. And the EXP wasn’t even that good, especially compared to how much we got just for incinerating a lizard’s leg.    (‘Penury’ means ‘extreme poverty.’)     Interestingly, I can’t dig up most graves, and the few that I can, I need to pass a Wits check. This mound is fresh and visible with no check required, as if it’s asking me to dig it up. Which means it’s probably a trap, but, hell, I’ll fall for it, why not.   … And, normally, when I desecrate a grave, my reward is something much smaller, not a whole casket. I mean, it makes sense that I dig up a casket, but it’s just not what normally happens. Let’s see what Victor Flynn is hiding.  Well… not a body, apparently.  : Faked his own death, did he? That’s one way to avoid debtor’s prison…If Victor were to go through all the trouble to fake his own death to escape his debtors, you’d think he’d go the extra mile and stuff a cadaver in there to throw them off if they dug up his body. And he probably shouldn’t have written a note gloating that he’s still alive.  Our last stop for this update is this crypt. Andres the dog was standing just outside and barking at it when we found him, and beyond this door is a hatch leading underground. Perhaps this is where Anathema is? Or at least Johanna Surrey?  This crypt is… unnervingly quiet. Usually, when you run around the world in Divinity: Original Sin 1 or 2, if there’s no music playing, then there’s at least some ambience, like rushing wind or rustling grass or running water. But there’s absolutely no sound here other than our footsteps and the clinking of our gear when we walk. : So still here. Like the air itself’s been petrified. ‘Petrified’ is apparently the word for it…. : Several flakes of something float to the floor from the petrified body. How long has it been down here? : The petrified body is both hard and brittle, as if it might shatter were it to topple over. : At first, you might think the figure is a simple stone statue, but it bears no chisel marks, no uneven surfaces, no signs of polishing. This is a petrification victim.Okay, so, something down here is petrifying anyone who sticks around for too long. It just means I need to avoid whatever it is that’s doing this to these people. Easy.  Of the victims littering the floor of the tomb, one of them stands out: it’s of a woman with a fire staff across her back. And she still has an HP bar. : The petrified woman cannot speak, but her eyes glow with the fury of the sun.One thing that most of the victims have in common is that they’re standing next to tombs before they became petrified. It’s reasonable to think that the tombs are trapped, or cursed, to turn anyone that opens them to stone. Luckily, I have a few cures to Petrification in my arsenal, so I ought to be fine. The best way to cure it is with Armour of Frost, but Bless will also work, which you’re guaranteed to have at this point in the game.  Let’s see what we’re working with.  An empty grenade (a crafting ingredient); money; wares; and a blank Necromancy skillbook.  And a Petrification curse. Usually, statuses like Frozen or Petrified last only one or two turns, but this one is special: it lasts forever. Up until Lohse cures it for me, anyway.  This is probably a bad idea, I realize, but I should cure this woman of her Petrification as well. Given that Andres was sitting just outside this crypt and was very interested in barking at it, and she’s the only one in here with a health bar, this is probably Qanna, his partner in crime.   : Well, isn’t this rich? Cursed by a coffin and rescued by a random rube. The indignity.: she huffs in annoyance and rolls her eyes. : Y’know, in the modern year, there’s a certain phrase that people say when someone does a favour to someone else. It rhymes with ‘spank few.’: Oh, but do forgive me. Allow me to bow in gratitude. : Come on, you’re not serious, are you?: She locks her eyes with yours and smiles, then unsheathes her weapon and rises from her bow.: Oh honey. So naïve. Anathema is still out there. And I’m not keen on competition, if you get my drift.: A jolt of cursed fire flares from her staff, and you brace yourself for battle.: Bring it. … You know what? I think I’m going to move that Idol of Rebirth of Lohse’s onto Prince. Or maybe I will use that second Idol that I cheesed out of that spider-lady’s pockets and give it to him. The guy clearly needs the help. But then again, a lot of his armour is fairly outdated and I’m only holding onto it for the Summoning bonuses. He got his current chestpiece back in the Hollow Marches, if I remember right. Maybe he just needs a change in wardrobe.  Anathema isn’t here, and I didn’t see the name ‘Surrey’ anywhere, so this probably isn’t the place that Tarquin was looking for. But we won the fight, in the end, so the EXP and loot is the real treasure.  : The longer you gaze, the more your inner Source churns. You are drawn into her. Her mind, her body, her past. They are no longer hers, but yours. You sit at a fire. At your left lies a black dog basking in the warmth. Others huddle behind you: a young elf, a grizzled dwarf, and… a skeleton. An undead. You hold a parchment up to the light and point at it. It is there – there that Anathema can be found.: The sky is dark and the roaring fire is now a sad flicker. The others lie around it in a circle, but you hear no snores. Their chests neither rise nor fall; their eyelids never twitch. You look to your left. The dog’s yellow eyes lock with yours, and the two of you turn from the ring of corpses…: …and you gasp as you are thrust into the present. You take a few deep heaves, then glance at the spirit. Her mouth continues to gabble, but you’re grateful that only silence reaches your eyes.Huh. Andres’ eyes were green, not yellow.  A Raise Bone Widow skillbook; some cash; a ‘shadowed tomb’ key, that sounds exciting; and a note.  Twenty-one is number three, got it. This may not have been the Surrey tomb, but Qanna knew more about it than I did, and the key and the password will probably come in handy when I do find it.  This is a risk, after what Qanna just tried to do, but… I wonder what’ll happen if I un-stone the rest of the petrified victims in the tomb?  Oh. They’re just… not anything, anymore. They must have been down here for a lot longer than Qanna was.  They’re carrying some good crafting materials, though. And they’re worth a fair chunk of money in a pinch.  One quick stop back with Tarquin to restock on Resurrection scrolls, and that’s that for this update. There’s just a few things left to do in Stonegarden before we’re done with the area. No votes this time, unfortunately. Up next: the mystery of the Surreys; a demon trapped within a blade; and, God willing, we fight a big tree! Maple Leaf fucked around with this message at 16:57 on May 6, 2022 |
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Apr 1, 2022 03:41
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Making a dog sad and then murdering another undead dog into impotency. Goons, what have you done?! 
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Apr 1, 2022 12:57
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I like how Andras kept wagging his tail while threatening us and at several points during the fight. No matter what his deal was, a dog is a dog. Also yes, I think Prince definitely needs some new armour. If I wasn't so drat lazy I'd go back and tally up how many times he's keeled over compared to everyone else. You're gonna father some really squishy dragons at this rate, pal.
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Apr 1, 2022 14:50
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I feel like that whole interaction with the Lady Luck guy got... modified or something at some point. The whole conversation is about being lucky, and he changes something IN you, and it makes you feel greedy and then.... you get a Source potion? What? The entire interaction and the reward don't seem to have anything to do with each other. Definitely feels like it should've been some sort of permanent luck boost, with possibly some sort of corresponding downside.
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Apr 2, 2022 04:38
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 And here we are, back on my bullshit. For today’s agenda, we’re looking to finish the Stonegarden graveyard and move on from this little pocket of Reaper’s Coast.  While I have a moment’s peace, I decide to spawn the whole menagerie: Secretary, Salem, and Featherfall. The whole farm can be unwieldy in tight spaces, like towns or Ryker’s mansion, but out in the open like this, there isn’t really a reason not to spawn them all, especially since they don’t have despawn timers in the Divinity: Unleashed mod. Our first order of business is to head to the elven quarter and see if casting Spirit Vision will get that fight to trigger.    That one’s kinda funny.   Here we are. So, according to the wiki, all I have to do is cast Spirit Vision, and…    Quite a lot, all in quick succession!  : I see we have something in common with respect to our… mortal status. : I… decay. But if I serve… I grow again. : This isn’t the first time I’ve come across a kinsman seeking my death in service to an enigmatic ‘Him.’ Who is it that you serve?: He is… my friend. He is… your King. He wants… your decay.He’s my ‘king,’ you say…? This isn’t an easy fight by any standard, but it’s especially difficult because Ghalann, my talking buddy here, has Poison Aura active at all times, meaning every enemy in a radius around him will be given the Poison status. That alone isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker, and it’s actively beneficial for Fane… but it’ll also affect Sir Lora and Peeper, and they’re both too stupid to stay far enough away from him that the aura won’t reach. And the Poison will ignore Sir Lora’s magic armour, too. I need to finish this fight as quickly as possible, and not only is Ghalann a tough enemy by himself, but he also starts the fight with four friends and he can summon more. Winning this fight while keeping both of my mission-critical pets alive was a real struggle.  I’m sure I made that look easy, but that took me several tries across nearly two hours to get right. Sir Lora and especially Peeper are pretty stupid. But hey! Everyone lived! Sir Lora, Peeper, even Prince! I couldn’t ask for a better result. On one of my attempts, I managed to win with everyone still alive, but Peeper ran through some fire to get back to Fane and that cooked him.  Let’s see what was worth all that difficulty. He’d better be holding some good stuff.  An elven shield; hardly any cash; a Spread Your Wings skillbook; an amulet with +1 Finesse, Pyro, and Geo, with +5 magic armour; and a ring with +1 Wits, Huntsman, and Summoning, also with +5 magic armour. It’s all worth a pretty penny, especially the shield, so I got that going for me. The ring isn’t especially useful on anyone – the Wits are more of an ‘eh’ kind of bonus; nobody uses Huntsman; and both of Prince’s rings already give +1 Summoning as well as other, more relevant-to-him buffs. And the amulet would go alright on Sebille, except her current amulet, the Lone Wolf Mark that she lifted off the impostor Baran Levere, gives her +2 Finesse and +1 Lucky Charm, so, I’d prefer that. Overall, the loot is a bit of a wash. Like I said, it’s all good money, at least.  I noticed this was sitting at Ghalann’s feet when the fight began, though. Says here that it’s chest armour?  That’s… quite a lot of bonuses. And those defense numbers are no joke, either. +1 Retribution and +1 Necromancer are buffs that could be better spent on other stats, but I’m not about to both beg and choose when a unique chestpiece this nice falls into my lap. I was saying just last update that Prince could really use some help with his survivability, and as if to answer my prayers, this fine-looking piece of work is just lying there for him to wear. His current chestpiece gives him +2 Summoning, and losing those is going to hurt Secretary and Butler a lot, but my summons aren’t any good to me if my summoner keeps dying. His current piece is level 6, for crying out loud.  Unfortunately, it looks only marginally different, which is a bummer. His old piece had black straps; this one has red straps, blending into his scales. Also, it giving him Bone Cage ought to help, at least a little bit, with his survivability. None of Ghalann’s summons had anything on them, and Lucky Charm doesn’t trigger, so, we’re done here.  Well, almost. All of the spirits on the surface look like they have something they’d like to say, now that I’ve dealt with the source of their anguish.  : You have been a spirit for a very long time indeed. This afterlife has been spent resisting the pull of the ancestor tree that wants your Source… : The tree remains, but the Scion within it has been exorcised. Your afterlife is yours again.: Relief flows through you as realisation grows – you may leave. The spirit slips away.All three of the spirits say something similar, about how they’re being tortured by this ancestor tree and how they hate the Mother Tree, but one of them says something very slightly different:  The Mother Tree, the oldest and largest elven ancestor tree with roots spread so far and wide that she has influence all over the world, grows ‘by the water on an island with no name.’ This is the first time we’ve been given a clue about where the Mother Tree resides. We’ve heard a couple of stories about the Mother Tree by now, and not one of them has been flattering. Once we’re done here on Reaper’s Coast, we might visit this nameless island and see if we can’t convince the oldest, strongest, perhaps-most-evil elf (and that’s saying something when Ryker lives not one minute away) to straighten up and fly right. Anyway! That’s the elven quarter of the cemetery completed. There’s just one final thing to do: locate the Surrey tomb and raid it.  Not far from the tomb we fought Qanna in, just west of the lizard quarter and on the edge of the human quarter, is this great big monument to Phyllen Surrey. He had a crypt built and dedicated to his family, but he himself refused to be buried in it. Which is immediately foreboding.  Just down these steps is the Surrey tomb; the door is labelled as a ‘shadowed tomb door,’ and we picked up a shadowed tomb door key from Qanna, so, this is clearly the place.  We’re all very close to another level up. A good, solid fight ought to be enough for the rest of us to catch up to Sebille.  Fane mentions that the crypt is covered in bones (as most are, I’d imagine), but this is a literal mountain of skulls and ribs. Thousands, if not tens of thousands of skeletons, all piled on high in the corners of the Surrey crypt. Just how many Surreys were there?! As with the tomb Qanna raided, the place is, well, silent as the dead… except there’s the occasional rattle of bones echoing off the walls. Maybe some of them aren’t as dead as they’d lead me to believe.  Doing a bit of cursory exploration, there’s not a whole lot of stuff to find. The room’s pretty bare: even all of the decorative pottery is broken and can’t actually be explored for the chance to trigger Lucky Charm. There’s one button here on the eastern corner…  … and a second here on the western corner. Pressing just one does nothing…    … but pressing one, then the other, opens a door to deeper into the crypt.  In the next room over is a massive tomb, larger than even the ones we found in Braccus Rex’s tower way back when, and that was the final resting place of the most powerful Sourcerer in existence. This is either Phyllen’s tomb, or Johanna’s.  Investigating it with Fane tells me that it’s ‘shut tight.’ If this is a Strength check, Fane can’t pass it, not even with Peace of Mind giving him a fat buff. There’s a proper solution to this puzzle and having big, beefy arms (or… thick bones, I guess?) isn’t it.     Moving on, there’s a third room in this crypt next to the tomb: there are just as many skulls and bones littering the floor, but this is clearly some kind of boiler room or something to that effect – there’s a large, well, boiler sitting in the corner with a number of brass pipes all worming around the corners and edges of the room. And, most obviously, there’s a giant pressure plate directly in the center of the room, begging me to step on it. So, alright, I’ll take that bait:   Standing on the plate shuts and locks the door behind me, and it turns on the boiler: brown steam starts firing from the pipes all throughout the room. Getting off the plate unlocks and opens the door, but shuts off the boiler. Well, step one is pretty simple: there are tons of jars all over the tomb and I could use one to weigh down the pressure plate. Or, failing that, I could use a volunteer. However, it’s not especially obvious what it is I’m meant to do to complete this puzzle. A locked room puzzle, with a switch that turns on a machine but locks the door behind me that requires a volunteer to be separate from the group. Hmm….  I legitimately forgot the solution to this puzzle, and I wasn’t about to look it up. I wander the whole dang crypt three times over, with the pressure plate pressed and without, but nothing was changed at any point. I try having Sebille investigate the tomb to see if her Wits can give me a hint, like it did with Mordus’s basement, but no dice. Eventually, I realize that I don’t have Spirit Vision on since I cast it in the elven quarter, and now’s a good time to turn it on; there’s no threat or cost to using it, and hell, the tomb is filled with dead people. Maybe someone can give me a hint.  Turns out, that was the answer. According to the note that we found on Qanna’s body, the solution to the Surrey tomb involved the numbers 2-1-3. Twenty-one is number three. So let’s pull these levers in that order….     Pulling them absolutely messed up the boiler room, but upon successfully completing the puzzle, the whole room is bathed in holy fire. As a compensation for if you used a volunteer to stand on the plate, since they would have taken a ton of environmental damage and the holy fire would have fixed them right back up.  Completing the puzzle didn’t open the tomb, but it did move it aside to reveal a hatch that leads deeper into the Surrey crypt. Let’s see how many layers down this goes.    Tarquin said that Johanna Surrey died penniless and without an heir, so, he was clearly wrong about at least one of those things. The bottommost floor of the Surrey crypt is decorated mostly with yet more skulls and bones, but now there are twenty-six clay statues overlooking at least six literal piles of gold coins, along with other treasures like fine dinnerplates and goblets and chests filled with who-knows-what.  There’s one more tomb in the center of the room, and standing beside it is the woman of the hour: the spirit of old Johanna Surrey. : Unlike so many other spirits, this one is hardly silent. She clicks and squawks the moment you approach her, like a cornered crow facing down a hungry owl. : (Perhaps she’ll be more amenable if I play along, at least for now.) Here you are, madam.: The spirit takes the invisible cup from you and takes a sip of nonexistent liquid. : I’ve tasted better brews, but from the look of you, the refreshments won’t be improving.: She waits a moment. : Milady, I’ve heard stories of late about an heirloom within the Surrey family. Could you, by chance, tell me more about it?: That old thing? It was passed to me by my father Johannys, and my father’s father Johannys, and my father’s father’s father’s father Johannys. Don’t know what happened to the one in the middle.: Don’t rightfully know what it’s supposed to do. Johannys the Umpteenth brought it back from Bloodmoon Island. I thought it might be good for stirring stew, but the cook gave it back. Said it made her ‘feel funny.’ What that mmmmmm…: …mamtehnem rnekt oood il! : I’ll… er, fetch you another cup of tea – brewed to your specifications, of course – if you can tell me what just, uh, just happened.: What just happened? You mean my display of proper posture and etiquette? The benefits of charm school. I don’t expect you’d qualify.: Alright, I suppose we’re done here, then.: Hurry back. The eyebrows still need plucking.Tarquin said that the Surreys were all a bunch of, well, weirdos. If the family heirloom that they’re holding has some kind of demonic influence within it – which wouldn’t be a stretch, given it came from a place called ‘Bloodmoon Island’ – then it’d explain all the weirdness with them. Anyone that randomly breaks out into demonic chanting for blood would be seen as a bit off-center, for sure.  Let’s crack ‘er open!   : Looks like… the hilt of a blade? Its power is almost overwhelming.: You feel the unusual object’s vast energy before your hand even touches its smooth surface. Upon contact, the semi-transparent artefact shivers and speaks…: You know this language. It is an archaic tongue, spoken only by demons for untold aeons.I know this language that’s only spoken by demons, do I? Hmm. Hmm, I say!  : I don’t often speak with weapons. Is there anything more you can tell me about yourself? : Perhaps you’ll respond to kin language, then: mamtehnem rnekt oood il!: The object speaks once more, and you consider your fortune in understanding its demonic monologue. : I’m demon true, taken to isle of vaults, exorcised from host most dear. The priest – Surrey by name – confined my soul to blade of glass and bone. Then split in twain, when madness boiled his blood. Anathema, I’m called, but only half’s before you. In archives rest the blade. The path is marked; now on to isle embark.: The heirloom is silent once more. The oblong object is crystal-clear and unmarked by marks or chips. It rests snugly in your palm, as if meant to be gripped with a resolute hand.Right, so: one of the Surreys, a priest, found a demon called Anathema; stuck it inside a sword made of glass; split the sword into two; hid the blade in an archive on a place called Bloodmoon Island and kept the hilt for himself, where it drove him, and likely the rest of the Surreys, raving mad. So, naturally, we’ll be taking this object that’s been known to drive people insane and sticking it in our backpack so we can reunite it with its other half. This is a CRPG, after all! No stone left unturned!  Also, finding that first half of Anathema brought the rest of us over to the next level! This puts us at level 12; one more level and we’ll get another Talent. But until then, we just have the usual attribute and combat skill points. Naturally, everyone gets one in Memory. Fane puts his points into Strength and Warfare; Lohse into Intelligence and Aerothurge; Sebille, into Finesse and Scoundrel; and Prince, into Constitution and Summoning (putting him up to 14, with 8 as base and 6 from gear). Hopefully Prince will be able to survive to the end of some fights now.  Uh… Bye.  As soon as I try to leave with Anathema, the clay soldiers standing guard around the tomb come to life. You didn’t think it’d be that easy, did you?   Hey, that armour and that Constitution buff came in clutch for Prince! Well, I mean… he did die, but he made it alive to the end, which is more than Sebille and Lohse can say.  That’s a ton of dead claymation bodies for me to loot. Unfortunately, none of them are carrying anything, but, you know, I still had to check. Lucky Charm, and etc.  Lucky Charm does kick in for one of the chests, though, so that’s a nice bonus. It’s for that Finesse helmet, which gives +1 Wits, Pyro, and Geo – it might go okay on Sebille, I guess, if I can find a replacement for the rest of her gear. I’ve been holding onto some candidates, and I think I’m still just missing some good boots. More interestingly is that trident, though:  Spears are two-handed weapons that require and scale off Finesse instead of Strength (and if you use a spear, your Warfare skills will also scale of Finesse instead). Spears are typically inferior to other two-handed weapons like hammers and swords because you’re trading damage for range, when the whole point to melee weapons are to get into your opponent’s business to mess them up. Even though, historically, the spear is the superior weapon. You’ll note that it does a max of 107 damage at its base, and that’s before things like armour reduction and my own stats. Hanal Lechet, in comparison, does 83 at base max. However, this spear specifically has the Brittle condition, meaning as soon as it’s used once, it’s destroyed. There are a small handful of weapons in Divinity: Original Sin 2 that are one-time use and do an absurd amount of damage for that one time. I think we actually came across a brittle one-handed sword back in Fort Joy, if I remember correctly. If I had a spear user, this trident might be an interesting tool to use with All In or something, except once it’s broken, I’d have to spend two more AP to equip another weapon in a fight.   The rest of the tomb is just money for me to pilfer, which, hey, I’m not going to say no to. Money is always in demand. And that’s that: we’ve finished the Surrey tomb; we’ve gotten the artefact that Tarquin was looking for; and we’re officially done with Stonegarden. There’s just one thing left to do before leaving for good, and that’s to check back in with Tarquin on the way out.  Upon leaving the tomb with Anathema in hand, we all decide that we have something to say about what transpired down there.  : Sounds like a demon with a swollen tongue. Wonder if what’s inside is as pleasant as a demon with a swollen tongue.: Sounds like any other plea for mercy to me: utter nonsense.: It has a nice rhythm to it, doesn’t it? Kind of like a song… beautiful language.drat, Sebille.  One last stretch of tombstones that I missed, for the road:           I feel like that last one might be an Oregon Trail reference.  Tarquin! I found your drat thingamabob.  : ‘Luck’ is putting it generously, but, here.: He places his hand on the artefact, and it drones in the demonic tongue: ‘When as one, I am slayer of sin and the bane of the living. Restore my twin; make me whole.’ The object continues: ‘In archive of old the blade resides. An isle of blood where demons abide.’: It’s true, then. Anathema, within reach. : I wasn’t aware necromancers also dealt in demonology in the modern world, Tarquin.: But of course! I consider it my scholarly duty to know what I can of them. Surely you of all people understand the quest for knowledge…: He breaths a long, lugubrious sigh.: It’s time I levelled with you. This is the hand-grip of the fabled Anathema. A sword capable of annihilating anyone. Even a Divine. Imagine it. Holding in your hand a force that could wipe away sun and shadow. A sword of life and death, miracle and sin. A sword of… atonement. : I met with the spirit of Johanna Surrey. Anathema had driven everyone in the Surrey family to their limits. I wouldn’t define her as… whole. The hilt also spoke to me there, and even once through her.: Fascinating. And it told you exactly where to find it? The histories are wildly incomplete. But now I have a better picture of how Anathema came to be. An exorcised demon, living in a sword of glass. The hilt was brought here by one of the many Surreys. Not surprised – none of them sound too bright. : You make Anathema sound like a weapon on par with Deathfog. No person, mortal or Divine, should wield that sort of power, Tarquin. We should stop while we’re ahead.: You rightfully consider me a scoundrel, but I’d rather you think of me as a… lovable scamp. One that you can rely on. : … *sigh* Fine. You win. I’ll find the blade of Anathema.: Well, well, well. You’ve got spirit to go with those smarts. Bloodmoon Island awaits, my bony friend. It’s a bit of a jaunt, but this gives me time to prepare my workspace. We’ll catch up on the Lady Vengeance, yes?: Tarquin doesn’t wait for an answer. His attentions are already turned elsewhere. Before I let him go, I just levelled up, meaning his wares have been refreshed. I clean him out a second time, including some Resurrection scrolls and a fancy, new, Legendary knife for Sebille.   With that, it’s time to turn away from Stonegarden. The rest of Reapers Coast won’t explore itself. To that end, we have an important vote to make:  Where do we go next? Like before, I’ve colour-coded the map for your ease of reading. White: We are currently here. We’ve explored everything directly to the south and southwest of us. Although the map’s been filled out to the north, east, and southeast, that’s because Divinity: Original Sin 2 is one of those games where the map fills out what you can see, not where you’ve been, and we saw a massive amount of land when we were on top of that dwarven tower in the graveyard. Grey: The red flag is Peeper’s father and the yellow flag is an old, abandoned livewood sawmill – a mill specifically designed to carve up livewood, such as elven ancestor trees. Might be worth paying a visit. Directly to the south (and currently to our west) is a drawbridge that’s being occupied by Paladins. Red: The Red Princess is here, awaiting the Red Prince so they can do the do and get started on bringing in the next age of dragons. Purple: The entire thing is Bloodmoon Island: an island soaked with blood and home to an untold number of demons, including the second half of Anathema. Even reaching the island in our current state would be a small challenge, but it’d be doable. Blue: The Blackpits. Relevant specifically to Fane as the only lead he has to the fate of his race, the Eternals, rests somewhere in this area. However, we recently spoke with the elven necromancer and Source Master, Ryker, to travel here and retrieve a stone tablet for him. In exchange, he’ll help us master our own Source to become stronger. Yellow: Reaper’s Bluffs. When we first landed on Reaper’s Coast, we saw a large Voidwoken abduct a Sourcerer and then fly off in this direction; we also know that the Source Master and dwarven spy Mordus is hiding somewhere in these cliffs. This area has a ton of relevancy to the dwarven uprising subplot that took up half our attention in Driftwood. Where do we go next? Let me know in 72 hours! Maple Leaf fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Apr 9, 2022 |
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Apr 9, 2022 17:12
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Let's go Blue. Always up for more Fane stuff. May as well retrieve an important item for another suspicious character while we're at it. I'm sure Peeper will appreciate seeing the sights too.
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Apr 9, 2022 19:12
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Blue
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Apr 9, 2022 19:40
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Tough one, but I say Grey first - let's drop Peeper off with his daddy so you don't have to spend hours trying to keep his stupid feathery arse alive.
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Apr 9, 2022 20:02
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Grey. I'd say Yellow to take care of the Dwarven (Dwarfen?) politics, but keeping Peeper alive seems like a royal pain in the... skull.
Olive Branch fucked around with this message at 05:36 on Apr 10, 2022 |
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Apr 10, 2022 05:33
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Agreed, Grey. Escort quests should be completed as quickly as possible to minimize suffering. Then Yellow.
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Apr 10, 2022 06:09
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Schwartzcough posted:Agreed, Grey. Escort quests should be completed as quickly as possible to minimize suffering. Then Yellow. Another vote for Grey. I'd like to save you some peeper related suffering.
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Apr 10, 2022 06:41
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Another vote for [Grey]. I never delivered peeper in my play through. I want to see him reunited.
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Apr 10, 2022 16:46
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Grey first, then Blue.
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Apr 10, 2022 17:18
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Grey to Red to finish the escort quest and get Red laid
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Apr 11, 2022 01:19
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One grey please.
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Apr 11, 2022 05:06
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 Our vote was to head north, towards Peeper’s father. If there’s any one thing we all hate, it’s escort missions, especially if the person or thing you’re escorting is stupid and weak and mission-critical. So we’re going to take him to his dad and let it be his problem for now on.   Figure I might as well bring back Secretary while I’m here. Let’s make him fire-type, just because it’s easy to make. Fire is generally the most damaging of all the elements anyway, not counting blood, which does physical damage – a whole wack of physical damage. Maybe I’ll make a blood-type Secretary next time. Sebille’s Flesh Sacrifice makes it really easy to summon blood elements.  As soon as we leave Stonegarden’s boundaries, the sky clears and it’s all sunshine and springtime. As you do for a graveyard, of course.    Just outside the front gate to Stonegarden is a circle of flowers, with the spirit of a deer hunter standing within it. We had heard from the spirit of a stag inside of Ryker’s mansion that we should ‘heed the wisdom the poacher would not,’ and that there was a ‘prize’ here that cost the poacher his life. Well, as we’ve learned, dead people generally give some good advice. And approaching him gives us 5,800 EXP anyway, so, big score there. : The spirit of a poacher stands before you. He begs for mercy – but not from you. He has no eyes for you.: P-please, Master Ryker, it was a mistake! I’d never have killed that deer, not if I knew who it belonged to!Well, the deer is already dead and mounted on Ryker’s wall, so I suppose there’s no risk of me making that same mistake.  Walking on the halo of flowers triggers a Wits check, which Sebille manages to pass. There’s a grave here. Leave no grave undisturbed, as they say! I’m the good guy in this story.   It’s a grave for a dead deer named Chaucer. Presumably, he is, or is related to, the deer that we spoke to in Ryker’s mansion.  I was expecting a bigger reward, honestly, but the deer spirit’s cryptic hint asked ‘what would the poacher prize enough to risk his life,’ and I imagine a stag this big would have either fed him for a month, or have gotten him a month’s wages.  Oh, and apparently the poacher was buried here, too.  That’s a bit more like it. The bow is unique, but it’s also a bow, and I don’t have any bow users, so, it’s vendor trash. The note’s description says it’s been covered in clay, like the same types used in graves.  Ryker is a master Sourcerer, capable of sucking out his victim’s spirits and turning their bodies into meat puppets for his own personal use. I bet I could take him. Digging up the two corpses lists this teeny tiny little sidequest as completed. Our reward was the 5,800 EXP and the bow. Considering the quest was ‘talk to two spirits and dig a hole,’ I guess I can’t complain about the meager offerings.  So, for this update, we’re to go from our current location, just a bit southeast from the center of this map, to the red flag, up in the northwest corner. This walk is not nearly as large as the map might make it out to be: if I beeline straight from here to there, I’d get there in a minute, tops. This section of the map is Paradise Downs: lots of cliffs and ragged terrain, but also pockmarked with dirt roads and whatever farmland the residents could till out of whatever flat terrain the land afforded them. It’d be a shame to not make a few small detours here and there.  For example, here’s a small plot of land that’s been cordoned off to grow wheat. Wouldn’t you just want to stop and enjoy the scenery for a little bit?  You’ll never know what you’ll find! Paradise Downs has a handful of locations of interest by virtue of it just being a huge place, but most of it is empty. But if you’re the type to go off the beaten path to explore a little bit, you’ll be rewarded with goodies more often than not, and it’s not always stuff that’s buried; it could pouches of cash that someone’s hidden away, or it could be a whole-rear end treasure chest. Larian absolutely loves Dungeons & Dragons, and they’re trying to be a fun, rewarding DM. I’m really looking forward to Baldur’s Gate 3 and how they handle that.   Our reward for stopping at this pocket of wheat field is an absolutely gargantuan chest, the same size as the one that Consul Zara hid her lizard relics in.  The reward is not nearly as amazing, but hey, I could always use more potions. I tend to skip them when I go shopping, to my own detriment.   Our road trip takes us north a few more paces, where the road abruptly splits in two. The cobblestone path continues northward, towards our destination, but there’s a small path going west, towards a river that feeds into the ocean.  Looking down the riverside path, there are… four? There are at least three deer, standing in a semicircle around what looks like some kind of stone altar or bench. One of the… creatures looks a bit, uh, less friendly. : Four deer stand in formation near a crumbling altar. Three stags, fawn-coloured and hearty, gaze cloudy-eyed at a great, black skeleton, glowing an eerie green. : Now… : Now.: Now. : That’s not a deer. That’s not a deer at all! That’s a Voidwoken!: The three fawn-coloured stags shake their antlers; the clouds clear from their eyes.: Huh?: What…? Where are we?: Hnr!: YOU! Vermin! Always treading where you are least wanted. Enough. If you don’t interject, the other three deer become Voidwoken themselves, and then it’s an honest four-on-four fight. Which I very much don’t want, because these deer are level 14, and I’m level 12. I would likely get my poo poo pushed in by some deer. And also, I don’t want to hurt deer Although they would have been worth a fair amount of EXP had I won. Maybe a missed opportunity. I’ll be sure to pick fights above my pay grade in the future. This being another four-versus-one, plus Secretary, plus the three deer that I rescued before they turned, this fight lasts only one turn, so I’m not going to bother. It gets off one Battering Ram and then dies to Ruptured Chicken.  The fight ends with Fane and Peeper on fire, as you do.  : Is it… is it really dead? I feel like I’ve got a tumbleweed where my thunker-nut used to be. If you hadn’t come when you did, I might be like that thing. Thank my lucky antler you came when you did! : I don’t mean to fawn, but without you, that thing would’ve… would’ve… well, I don’t know, but I’m glad I didn’t find out. I feel like I could eat a whole bloody cow. I… I don’t feel like myself… : The stag nuzzles you, its soft, downy snout pressed into your side.: Snuggle-friend, thonk ye! *HNR!* On the double! Let’s see what the Voidwoken deer was carrying.   Typical deer loot, but also, a crafting ingredient; an impure jewel that’s worth 95 coins; and, the big one, a Source Orb. Those are always in demand, either as runes, or as instant Source hits, or as a fat chunk of change, worth 1,400 coins a pop, before Attitude/Bartering bonuses.  All of the deer were facing this stone altar before I intervened. I wonder what’s so special about it.    : The air stirs, as though someone had appeared and taken a seat upon the altar. A soft sound wells around you. A gentle hum, like a parent’s. It is comforting – more comforting than most worldly sensations can be to you.: A voice materialises in your mind. ‘I will care for you. I will be your champion. You deserve that much.’: A soothing sensation dips and waves through you, entering you from the air itself. As the feeling fades, you realise you’ve become replete with Source.: ‘It’s not too late. You can still redeem yourself. I am so looking forward to seeing you again, Fane.’ Something about this altar progresses one of my quests, the Eternal Promise. Given that one of the deer was Void-touched and was trying to get the other deer to also become Void-touched, I should probably be wary about voices promising to make things easier for me and giving me unsolicited gifts. It’s not like I was even missing any Source.  Washed up on the riverbank is another treasure chest for me to loot. Don’t mind if I do!  A Molotov, which is nice, but that is one heckin’ chonker of a potion. Speaking of getting more, here’s another one that could heal a small family. Would you believe that this isn’t even the biggest they can get, though?   Back on the cobblestone road and progressing northward. It’s not too much longer before I find some logs that have been neatly sawed. These logs are massive – we’re in the middle of a grove, and the trees we’ve been seeing aren’t one-quarter this thick. We must be getting close to that livewood sawmill that we saw on the map.   The hollowed-out tree stumps can be investigated, and unlike normal woodchips, we can immediately tell that the leftovers have also been tainted by the Void. What hasn’t been Void-touched in this grove lately?  A little further up the road, and… we find him. The rooster of the hour. This is Peeper’s father, who’s perched himself all the way out in the middle of the woods, away from the hens in the coop (which turned out to be the better idea). I wonder who built that chicken coop behind him. Marge was smart enough to read a map; it’s entirely possible that this guy built it himself.  : BE-HO-HO-HERAWKAWRICKA! Behold! It is I! The Magicockerel!: WH-ACKAW!-AT?! What is this?! : Papa? PAPA! : This is, indeed, your son. Big Marge had laid his egg not too long ago.: I’m afraid that she… has passed on. Her dying instruction was to guide Peeper to you.: Marge? Marge! Oh Marge! She was a good sort. I’ll mourn her with my morning c-c-c-AWKAWKAW!: The rooster looks his son over, first with one beady eye, then the other.: He has my eyes. BOCK-BOCK-But I see nothing but the Void lurking behind those pretty peepers. Kill him now or he will ki-ki-ki-CAW-kill us all later! Well. After all of that, of keeping Peeper alive all this time, the Magicockerel’s first and last instruction as Peeper’s biological father is to kill Peeper. On the one hand, that’s messed up. Peeper’s just a baby. We had floated the idea of killing Peeper back when we first got him at Marge’s, and not only did Marge tell us not to, but we voted against killing him as well. On the other, the Magicockerel is kinda right: Peeper is at least half Voidwoken. The first thing he did after being hatched was slaughter his entire coop. We just saw a deer try to indoctrinate three other deer into becoming Void-touched, too. There’s no telling what Peeper might be capable of if we keep him not only alive, but so close to us at all times. Also, he’s a pain in the rear end to keep alive. What do YOU think? Do we kill Peeper? Or do we give him another chance? In the meantime, Peeper will stick with us for the rest of the update.  Just a few feet to the north of the Magicockerel is… something I’ve never seen before. Two elves, on either side of a Magister that’s bleeding out, with what appears to be some kind of alchemist’s table holding a bunch of potions…?  Wait a minute, I know this elf. This is Daeyena; we rescued her from that beached Magister ship all the way back in Fort Joy. Her armour is alive and when we last saw her, she apparently had the power to make fungus sprout inside of people – a grisly way to go no matter which way you slice it. : You recognize Daeyena, the runaway Scion from Fort Joy. Her face looks different – alight with fervour. : We’re not following you! We arrived her in Reaper’s Coast after escaping Fort Joy. That we came across each other way out here is no small miracle! : You… accident? You –: Her face, tight with rage, suddenly slackens. She winces. : You look like you’ve been through a lot lately. Are you well?: I am better. I find another thief – and the armour reveals much.: She gestures at the bound Magister – and freezes, as if listening.: Yes. Yes. Simpler to show them. Come. Watch. Do not touch.: Chm’r doran!  She leads us to the Magister, already beaten and defeated and waiting for death, and casts some kind of poisonous spell… and like everyone on that ship way back when, she explodes in a pile of toxins, and a large, green stem sprouts from her chest. She also kinda fucks up Peeper, who gets caught in the blast, but he lives. : The Magister’s scream bubbles beneath putrid gas – and is cut suddenly short. The corpse rocks gently, as if shifting in sleep – and then splits to release surging vines. The creeps knit silently together to weave a pair of gauntlets. Daeyena tears them free, something close to worship in her eyes. : What I see is a heretical, corrupt facsimile of our ancestor’s magic.: Corrupt? No. Righteous. The Magisters drown our soil in blood. : … You are different. Physically. From when we met in the Joy. The spores are doing something to you.: They elevate me. The spores speak, as Scions speak to the Ancestor Trees. With every piece, they grow clearer – and they show me things. A world where we are not prey, but hunters. A world where… where…: She grasps her head as if trying to clear it.: It is for us to know. Hmm, we didn’t really learn much that was new or useful, at least now with Sebille. Maybe we can learn more with Fane – now that we can choose to speak with our negotiator. : Hush! The ancestor speaks.: She places a hand on her armour, eyes shut as if straining to hear. : Do you know how many pieces yet remaining? You have the chestpiece, and now some gauntlets….: Two. My prisoner says they take one to these Blackpits nearby. The other to Arx. : Is there an endgoal for your armour, aside from simply assembling them?: Not my plans. Its plans – the presence within. It shows me such things. A world where… where…: You… you do not ask. It does not like your questions.Well, alright, then. Now, at least, we know how many more pieces there are to the armour set: just two more, and one of the pieces resides in the Blackpits. Our agenda for that area is filling rather quickly! Daeyena’s friend isn’t much for talking, unfortunately.  Lying on the ground nearby are a pair of flawed contamination spores. I picked up one on the ship back when we first met Daeyena; I suppose it’s no issue to pick up two more. Who knows what they’re good for? I certainly don’t; this is all new territory to me.  We’ve come to see Peeper’s father, and we have another vote on Peeper’s fate to do, but while we’re here, we might as well check out that abandoned livewood sawmill that I mentioned in the previous update, maybe twenty steps to my east. This is where ancestor trees that have been chopped down are processed and turned into logs – there’s a nonzero chance that the lumber that built the Lady Vengeance was processed here.  More Void-touched wood chips to add to the pile. I have no idea what they’re good for, but I’m presuming anything Void-touched is better contained than left out in nature.   Only a few steps onward, and we, well, we find the lumber mill, alright. Although it’s, uh, significantly better fortified than I was expecting. Palisade walls and Frisian horses surround a moderately generous perimeter, with a large outpost for scouts to see all the way from here to Driftwood’s borders. Not there’s much to see other than treetops.   Just south of the opening to the lumber camp is an elven encampment – a particularly small one, barely half the size of the main floor of the Black Bull Tavern. And as soon as I approach, I’m stopped by a pair of elven guards.  : I come as a scholar from another culture, and I would like to witness this ritual.: Persuasion Success! : Enter, then. Keep respect.Passing that persuasion check netted us a cool 5,800 EXP. So, let’s see what all the fuss is about.  Despite approaching with Fane, it’s Sebille, perhaps appropriately, that takes the lead. : Three battle-weary elven warriors make ritual over the body of a fallen comrade, their chanting low and fierce, the pain of their losses manifest in every word. : … Blood to earth.: The tallest, strongest elf, whom you take to be the leader, acknowledges your presence with the tiniest tilt of her head, then turns back to the task in hand. She places the tip of a long-bladed spear on poor dead Sarias’s chest-bone. : Blood to earth. : Blood to earth!: Together you plunge the blade deep into Sarias’s heart, then twist it three times, as is the custom. Blood flows freely to the ground, and Sarias’s heart lies neatly cut in four.: Blood to blood! : Sarias’s memories flood you: A warrior, proud and true, you fight the Lone Wolves at the sawmill for Saheila, your scion, and for the future of all the elves… or all that still remain. But the fight goes ill. : … That’s war.: With the barest blink, Tovah accepts your good wishes, then turns back to the corpse.: Sarias is a warrior, proud and true. Blood to blood. Earth to earth. Wood to wood. Birth to birth. Sarias becomes his tree. May Sarias take root.: The elves pick Sarais’ bloody corpse from the ground. Tovah looks to you…: … then indicates for you to help. Together you send Sarias to his final resting place.Going along with the ritual at all opportunities gets us a fat 11,600 EXP, now that Tovah is comfortable with us.  : His corpse rolls to a stop at the bottom of the pit. The elven leader stands and stares at her fallen comrade. Then she wipes away a tear, and turns away. Participating respectfully with the elven burial custom completes a ‘quest’ that gives us a ton of really solid loot. 108 coins; a medium water rune; an Electric Discharge scroll; an epic wand called The Dag; and our choice between a spear, a warhammer, a Finesse-based chestplate, or some smarty pants. The Dag does a decent amount of damage and offers +1 Intelligence… but Lohse has a water-based wand that we lifted from Radeka way back in Fort Joy that does less damage, but gives +1 Intelligence and +1 Hydrosophist, and it has a slot for a rune. Wands aren’t really meant for hitting people, so, even though Radeka’s Thorn is six levels out of date, I’ll hold onto it. That leaves the goods that we can choose from. Nobody uses a spear; the hammer is one-handed; the pants offer no decent buffs. The armour, on top of being the most expensive, grants +1 Constitution and +1 Warfare, and it has a slot for a rune – it’d actually go really well on Sebille. That extra HP can really help and Warfare is the best way to beef up your raw damage numbers.  After the ritual, Sarias, his body, and his spirit are removed from the scene, and in their place, a giant, ghostly tree has sprouted in Sarias’s grave. That’s his ancestor tree, and while it’s not much to look at just yet, give him a few decades and he’ll be as big as the Lady Vengeance probably was. Speaking of: from the ritual, we learned that Saheila, the blind elf girl that we met in Fort Joy, just a stone’s throw from Griff’s kitchen, is here. She somehow escaped – or, given that she’s being held captive by Lone Wolves, was escorted from – the island and is now trapped here, in the sawmill. I wonder how that must feel. It’d be like being trapped in an old meat locker, except the meat locker was for human meat. There were four other elves involved in that ritual, and they’re all worth talking to for at least one reason: they’re all traders.  : Your injury seems intense. How did it come to you? So that I may avoid it. : At the very least, Sarias has found peace, now that the ritual has been completed. : Yes, your shaman. Can you tell me more about her? : Tovah is our hope. Tovah leads the way.Okay, not a lot of useful information there, but Tovah was clearly okay with us being present for the ritual; there’s nothing stopping us from just talking to her directly. This Treewarden deals with crafting ingredients; Huntsman and Scoundrel skills; and she has lockpicks, repair hammers, and trap disarm kits for sale. I haven’t come across any Waypoints recently, so I may have to bite the bullet and do some unoptimized trading to lighten my load and buy some things, provided she has things I’m interested in.   : I am not an elf, nor am I from this… land. But I am a scholar. Could you tell me more about the ritual you had just performed? : Among my occupations… well. I may have business with the Lone Wolves myself. Why would the Wolves attack Sarias like that? : If you would talk of Lone Wolves, you must talk to Tovah.They’re all pretty tight-lipped about it, I see. This one trades in Hydrosophist and Aerothurge, as well as some decent wizard armour, including a legendary pair of pants.  : How did you come to your injuries? So that I can avoid the same fate. : There’s a certain strength required to keep up the fight, even in the face of something as insidious as Deathfog. You and your people should be commended. : We fight for our lives, as we fight all our lives. We fight the Black Ring on the side of the Divine. But Lucian betrays us. Lucian sends us to our deaths. : Your home is where you are with your people – it’s not the land that you settle on.: Our blood is in the soil, our ancestors in the trees, our memories in the wood. Our homeland is all of us. You cannot understand.Right, wrong thing to say to a lady that just buried her friend and expects him to grow into a tree. The Thorndancer sells Polymorph and Warfare skills, along with every type of weapon and Strength-based armour. She also has a fair amount of epic, and two pieces of legendary, equipment that’s looking kind of tasty.  Before I speak with Tovah, the woman of the hour, I can still speak with Sarias – or, rather, his tree – or, rather, the spirit of what his tree will eventually become. His branches are naked and scraggly; he’s not looking too hot. But I’m sure that’s just the ‘ugly teenager phase’ his spirit is showing me. : The tree-form spirit slowly, oh-so-slowly, becomes aware of you. When he speaks it’s low and slow; he grumbles as if in discomfort or in pain. : Can you give me an answer as to how you died? Preferably without riddles or nuance? Just say it bald-faced? : I would have thought that death would have brought an end to your pain.: (Although, I suppose I ought to know better than most.) : If there were any lessons you could impart from your death, what would they be? : Talk your way inside… talk gently and tell lies… or creep and crawl… There is a way… a secret way inside… hmmph… search and you will find! Fight if you must… but do not dare… to hope to kill them all. Unnnnh. But if you can… please kill them all! Haaaaah-haaaaah-haaaaah!: With a last great creaking groan he returns to the business of securing his roots, and takes his leave of you.I always thought ‘taking your leave’ meant, like, turning around and leaving the conversation yourself. I feel like I would be a bit disrespected if a tree managed to do that. Not even a tree – the spirit of one that doesn’t exist yet. Maple Leaf fucked around with this message at 19:19 on Apr 30, 2022 |
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Apr 30, 2022 13:32
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 There’s one last person to speak with: the leader of this small troupe and the shaman that conducted the ritual. : The tall elf stares into the pit with dry, bloodshot eyes, her face betraying no emotion.: We lose too much. We lose our homes. We lose our safety. We lose each other.: She looks into your eyes, her face set in a fierce frown. : I understand the pain of loss all too well. I’m still trying to learn how it is that I lost what I did.: I do not doubt it. The Void is too close. It pulls us all toward it. If we do not hold fast, we disappear inside it.: You honour us during the ritual. You honour Sarias. You help remember him. You help bury him. But we need help still, or we perish here. Not only these people here, but all of us. : What is it that you need?: It is something of great importance, to me and to my people. Our home forests are gone. The great trees are cut to pieces. The memories inside them… nearly lost. : I have something of a spiritual kinship with elven Scions. They are like libraries, containing the elvish memories as safeguards against the destruction of Ancestor Trees – but they are also seeds that need sprouting first. As a scholar myself, I have a vested interest in seeing the protection of another culture’s knowledge and wisdom.: Yes. There is nothing more important than a Scion. We lose our forests to poachers, to the fog, to the Divine Order. We lose each other to the wars. A Scion is our only hope to survive. To build again.: And this Scion… She. She is –: Her voice catches in her throat.: – she is my daughter. Her name is Saheila. And she is taken from us. That is why we come here. That is why we lose Sarias. To find her. If she is lost, if our Scion is lost, all our people are lost. She is everything.: Her eyes narrow; her fists clench, and her mouth tightens to a thin line. : I am… familiar with the savage mercenaries that go by that name, yes.: Yes – savage is just right. They care for gold – not life. Saheila is taken to Fort Joy – and the wolves steal her from there. But she is strong. She is calm. She sees so much – too much for one so young. : It may interest you to know that I, too, was a prisoner in the Joy up until recently, and I had met a young, blind elf named Saheila while I was there.: You do? You speak to her? Then you understand. You see what a gentle soul she is. You see how kind. : This wouldn’t be my first rescue mission, believe it or not. Any more information you can give – about the sawmill, about the wolves, about Saheila, anything at all – would go a long way to rescuing your daughter.: You honour us.: I fear it is impossible for one of my kind to enter their base. They know we are here; they expect us. She is taken by their leader – a savage man named Roost Anlon. I do not know why. But I know she must return to me. If I lose her… I cannot lose her.: (Roost Anlon, you say.): We plan another assault. We cannot give up. It is better for us all to die than for Saheila to be lost. I only hope perhaps you find her before then. Good luck.Okay, that’s another quest added to the pile: enter the sawmill, find Saheila, and return her to Tovah. But, if you remember way, way back when we first landed on the shores of Reaper’s Coast, Sebille said that one of her targets was nearby: a man that she only knew as Roost. The name Roost is pretty unique; it’s almost certainly the same target. Sebille has a vested interest in seeing this one through as well, and not just because she’s an elf herself. The impostor of Baran Levere was also acting on direct orders from someone named R, and we know that the Lone Wolves are working on a contract to kill Godwoken; while killing Roost is unlikely to void that contract, we’d very likely at least find some evidence as to who Roost is working for if we go in there. So, yeah, we have a bunch of reasons to get into that sawmill. Both Sarias(’s tree spirit) and Tovah had said that elves can’t go in, though, meaning getting Sebille into the camp’s borders would be tricky – except, one, Sarias also said that there was a backdoor into the camp that we could take if we were particularly sneaky, and two, Sebille’s whole job is being a slippery bitch. It shouldn’t be an issue. Tovah sells Geomancer and Pyromancer skills, as well as everything an archer could ask for: bows, crossbows, and ammunition. As well as some pretty good boots….  If I remember right, I think the boots are the last thing I need to swap out Sebille’s outfit. The Captain’s set is really good – it offers a ton of bonuses to some unusual stats for armour, and the Charm Aura can be really useful in a pinch – but the set is, by this point, about six levels old, and the damage numbers they’re guarding against just don’t stack up as well as they used to. I buy the boots. I also buy the legendary wizard’s pants from the Stormchanter, as well as an epic ring and epic helmet from the Thorndancer.  It’s been half the game up to this point, but it’s time Sebille got a change in clothes. The ring gives +1 to Warfare and Necromancer, meaning it was tailor-made for Fane; and the pants give +1 Constitution and Leadership, as well as +95 HP and +3% Dodging, so they go on Lohse (she’s wearing a robe, though, so it doesn’t change her look).  The livewood sawmill is literally across the street from where we just buried Sarias. Which, like, you’d think that was a bad idea – to plant an Ancestor Tree, something that’s incredibly, inextricably important to elven culture and knowledge – not a one minute walk from the place that cuts down and processes Ancestor Trees. It’s looking pretty ‘lived in,’ ‘no solicitors please,’ if you understand me: there are full barrels of cursed oil and poison greeting me as soon as I walk between the palisades. Cursed oil, on top of slowing me, also has a high chance to detonate with every step I take through it.  As if to prove the point, Sir Lora’s AI bugs out and he runs straight forward, right through the cursed oil and sets the whole thing off before eventually voiding out and returning to Fane. He’ll live – Sir Lora has an enormous amount of Constitution and magic armour, way more than anyone else on the team – but that doesn’t give him an excuse to be, you know, an idiot. Good news, though, is that cursed fire, unlike other cursed surfaces, will eventually un-curse itself, and after that, the fire will die on its own. So that’s one obstacle cleared and all it took was a bit of HP off my pet-squirrel-riding-an-undead-cat.  Ahead are two spirits atop two dead bodies. They don’t look like Lone Wolves, and I doubt the mercenaries would leave their dead just littering their front yard… or maybe they might, actually. They’d make for good deterrence. Not good enough since I’m here, clearly. Neither of the spirits offer anything of value to talk about, though: one of an elf that talks not about how he died, but how he lived, and the other accuses me of being a Lone Wolf and wouldn’t listen otherwise. That’s about it.   The west path is cut off by a stack of boxes on top of cursed oil, while the right path is cut off with cursed poison clouds and surfaces, as well as another barrel of oil. It’s all very highly explosive stuff and I’d detonate with a wrong step in either direction.  Using Bless on the oil turns it into regular oil. Still highly combustible, but it won’t explode on its own, so it should be safe to walk over, provided you don’t mind your boots getting a little sticky.  Attempting to move any of the boxes reveals that they were sitting on bear traps that explode as soon as anything is removed from them. So all of that caution led to no major success here. Well, either way, the path forward is clear, at least along the western route.  A quick rain dance and a round of healing fixes us all right up, including Peeper… who survived with 11 HP out of 455 remaining. Close call! His goose was nearly cooked, as they would say.  Onward, the next point of interest are a trio of graves. You’d also think that, if a group of mercenaries were callous enough to leave their own dead out in the open as deterrent to anyone that came looking through their things, they wouldn’t do their dead the courtesy of burying them. Sort of defeats the purpose. But, hey, my grave-diggin’ hands are all warmed up from all the grave-diggin’ I’ve done recently. What’s three more?     That’s not a small amount of money, and the terror grenade can be pretty useful. Not a bad haul here.    This grave was just covering up a well filled with poison. A good dig for Fane, at least.    Oh. Uh, Ermin Kringus, I presume?  : I mean… yes? But I’d have though someone in your… current state would have other concerns on their mind. Or, perhaps, none at all. : Hah! A fair point. But a good imagination can get you far, I tell you! : Is there anything in particular that you can tell me about this sawmill? I may be heading deeper and… I could use some information on its layout. Or its current occupiers.: Sure as Mama Morris died of a toilet spider! Only oversaw the place for dang near fifty years, after all. Now, in my day we were a proper mill turning around half-a-ton of timber by the day. No mean feat for an operation this size, I tell you! : Was it the elves that finally got you? : In that case, is there anything you could tell me about the mill’s current occupants? I’ve heard they’re less than accommodating. : Speaking of livewood: my ship is actually made of livewood. I wonder if it’s possible that the lumber came from this very mill. : Well, yes. Only the Divine Order would commission such a heinous legal crime.: To an elf, maybe. To me, it meant food on the table and enough gold to pay the doctor. Never know when a hat spider’ll getcha. Bye now!This guy knows a lot about deadly spiders. I’ve only met three so far – Bones McCoy, the lady in the tavern, and the queen in Ryker’s mansion – and I’m currently two-for-three in them being pleasant experiences.  Ermin was carrying a Laser Ray scroll and a golden goblet when he died. Not bad pickings.  Further down the labyrinth of traps and deadly surfaces, there are a number of those explosive bulbs that we first found back in the Hollow Marshes, with those talking heads on pikes that begged us not to open the ‘est. Also, appropriately enough, there’s a puddle of cursed poison surrounding some outhouses – probably the only outhouses in the area.  To the east, one of the elves tried their best to make it through, but, uh, couldn’t. Cursed steam, on top of this cloud being electrified, is also swarming with… leeches? They’re too big to be mosquitos. Horse flies, maybe? Whatever the case, walking through cursed steam just isn’t a pleasant experience.  And to the west takes us out of the maze… but there’s a river frog! He looks like a friendly fellow. I’ve spoken with cows and chickens and dogs and cats, and one of my buddies is a lizard, but never a frog yet; my only interaction with frogs so far was that one time with the poisonous and electrified frogs in the cave with Saheila back in Fort Joy. Also, not pictured, but there’s a treasure icon on my minimap near this frog. When I was in Stonegarden, I had learned the location of four different treasures, containing tools belonging to heroes of the past. Maybe this is one of them.  Better to detonate the poison from a distance first, though. There’s a barrel of oil nearby and it’d be better to be safe than sorry, and all that.  Poor thing is level 1, so at least it’s not hostile.  : These g-RIBBIT-guys’ll shoot you through if you get too close! I’m gonna try and slip through the back way, myself. I like a ch-RIBBIT-allenge!This isn’t the first we’ve heard of a back entrance into the sawmill. At the very least, it’s nice to have confirmation that such a thing exists.  Directly north a few paces from the frog is a raised mound; Fane’s Wits are average, and he still passed the check, so it’s probably a ‘you know it or you don’t’ kind of check instead.   Whoa, that’s a big chest. And that’s a fat amount of EXP I got just for digging it up. I guess I should expect three more shots of EXP like that for the other three heroes.  This was the dwarf, Bromley’s, chest. The tools of her victory lied where she made her last stand. And her tools were… a fistful of cash; a ring that does nothing; and some unique gloves that require Finesse and grant +1 Bartering and +1 Lucky Charm. Sebille’s gloves grant +2 to Thievery, so, uhh… no thanks. Overall, a fat amount of cash, but for all the hype, I was expecting some decent equipment. To be fair, the gloves are level 14, and I am level 12; the defensive numbers are slightly better than Sebille’s current gloves. But the bonuses are garbage.  We’re not actually done with the western edge of the sawmill, but first, we might as well finish the maze properly. The cursed electrified steam is primarily caused by one of those blue bulbs constantly putting out the hazard, meaning if we hit it with something, it’ll detonate and stop releasing the cloud. We don’t have an archer to do that for us anymore, but we do have wands, Staff of Magus, and several ranged skills like Ice Fan or Throwing Knives that can help us out.   Where the cursed steam cloud was, there is an elven spirit but no body. Might as well see what she’s up to.  : You are a dancer, a lover, and a jester. But then the Deathfog takes the forest and all you know is gone. The screams of your people echo in your heart. You become a warrior. You die fighting, all play forgotten.A jester turning into a warrior after a tragedy sounds weirdly foretelling to current real-life events.    We’ve reached the end of the maze; all that’s left is to cross this bridge and speak (or ‘speak’) with the guards on the bridge, and we’d be in the livewood sawmill – and into the wolf den.  There’s a little bit more of the maze to explore if I wanted, but there’s not much left to find: some more spirits that don’t tell me anything and more hazards that would kill Peeper in one explosion if he gets ahead of me. At the foot of the bridge is a caravan that has a bunch of lootable bags and a treasure chest; the chest contains a whopping nine bucks, but, not pictured, one of the bags contains another 220; a knockdown arrow; and a love grenade. That’s about it for the sawmill minefield, but we’re not done with this update just yet.  If you take a look at this map: heading north from where we are will take us into the sawmill, for sure. But we’ve been told twice that there’s a back entrance into the mill, and it’s pretty obvious where it is.   If we head west until we touch the lake, we can either cross a large, felled log just north of Bromley’s hidden chest to reach the sawmill, or we can wade across the shallows to come up to the shore on the western side of the mill. Seems pretty silly to me that a group of people with such a vested interest in privacy would booby trap the hell out of the front door, but would neglect the back door entirely. If they even realize they have one. What’s to stop a person from coming into the mill by boat, or, as demonstrated, just walk along the beach? The next update will have us enter the livewood sawmill and confront the Lone Wolves directly. But there are two ways into the mill. What do YOU think? Do we enter the Lone Wolf den through the front door? Or do we sneak in through the back?  There’s a bit more to this update that I wanted to get in, but I didn’t plan out my pathing very well and there’s one event nearby that I’m just gonna shoehorn in. We’re currently south and west of the livewood sawmill. There’s a gigantic lake here; from our current position, Bloodmoon Island is to our west, across the water. However, the lake water isn’t, well… it isn’t. It’s water, but it’s been thoroughly suffused with Deathfog; it seeps from the waters surface in an eerie green mist. It’s totally safe to look at and in fact it’s quite pretty in motion. But it’s also very, very deadly to the touch. Luckily, we were all wearing boots when we waded through the shallows to test if the sawmill could be entered through the back. However, this also means that swimming to Bloodmoon Island is out of the question, in case you considered that.  This poor soul, a fisherman, realized the dangers a bit too late. This skeleton is level 18, holy Jesus.  His backpack contains some beer for the road, and his personal journal. Let’s see what was going through his mind when he decided to fish waist-deep in a lake filled with Deathfog.   There’s that mysterious ‘man’ again. A man in a black house in Arx, if I remember right. This guy probably wasn’t wrong in that any fish caught in the lake would have been tainted by the Void – presumably, they’d have to be, if they were still flesh and able to resist Deathfog – but he also didn’t live long enough to find out.   Heading south along the shoreline brings us back to Daeyena and the Magicockerel, so we’ve made a bit of a loop along this northern sector of the Reaper’s Coast map. Despite the size of the map, a big chunk of the map is mostly empty, filled with forests and lakes that are more about the transit than the substance. So far, Driftwood and Stonegarden have been the exceptions, and they’re very small pockets of map that are very dense with content.  Several steps north of Daeyena is something a bit different, though. When we last spoke with Daeyena, we went east from her. North will take us back to the rear entrance to the sawmill – but it’ll also take us through what Sebille thinks is an elven ‘proving ground.’ Entering the area gives us a big 10,400 EXP shot, so, clearly, elves or not, this is something the game wants us to do.  In the center of this small clearing is a sconce filled with what appears to be spent coal. It’s the only thing we can interact with in this area.  : I participated in an elven burial ritual for an elf named Sarias just moments ago. I’d like to prove myself as a friend of the elves, if possible. : Excellent! What is my task? : You shall learn all that you need to know. Show patience…: Elves know that nature is a finer weapon than even the sharpest blade. The four seasons have served our people well. Four heroes rest before you; wielders of the seasons… Pay homage to their skills, solve their riddle, and prove yourself worthy of elven respect… if you can. : Before I begin… to whom am I speaking?: I am the voice of the fire. My flame bears the will of all elves and lights the way for those who wish to prove their mettle…Talking to a fire, asking who it is, and it responding with “I’m a fire,” is… well, I didn’t know what I expected, really.     Surrounding the sconce are four trees with faces carved into them; each tree is surrounded by natural flora in different seasonal states. The riddle here is to grant each season the offering that they’re after, according to the voice of the flame. For example, ‘spring quenches with bloody rebirth;’ the Hero of Spring wants a blood offering.  There’s a squirrel bouncing around the perimeter of the field. Maybe it has a hint I could use.  : *Squeak!* Nice to have some squeakin’ elves ‘round here again! They always put on such a show at those big ol’ heads. KABOOM! SPLASH! SIZZLE!Maybe not.   The Hero of Spring is the easiest: just spawn a puddle of blood at its base and it’ll be satisfied for the remainder of the puzzle. You can do this with Flesh Sacrifice, or, if you don’t have an elf in your party, just standing someone next to the head and beating them up a bit.  Once one of the heads is satisfied with your offering, it’ll start glowing purple. The goal is to get all four heads to glow purple at the same time – which isn’t as easy as it sounds because they’ll only be satisfied while the offering is available. ‘Winter shudders with ice and snow’ means it wants an offering of ice, which is easy with Ice Fan or Winter Blast, but ice turns to water really fast, and it won’t be satisfied with water. Because blood never leaves or evaporates, once a blood puddle is down, the Hero of Spring is satisfied forever, so that’s one less challenge, at least.  Ice Fan on the Hero of Winter does the trick…  … but Electric Discharge on the Hero of Autumn does not. The solution with that one isn’t lightning, necessarily.  It also isn’t to put down water and electrify that. This puzzle can trip up some players, especially if they’re more used to surfaces than clouds. The puzzle specifically asks for ‘the sky lit aglow.’ The solution to the Hero of Autumn, therefore…   … is to put down an electrified steam cloud by putting down water; igniting it with fire; and then thunderbolting the steam. Then it’s satisfied. The Hero of Summer is the same way: their puzzle asks for ‘air fiery as a hearth,’ meaning it wants a fire cloud – not a smoke cloud. Fire clouds are significantly harder to pull off: I think the only way to do it is to create a poison cloud, and we don’t have a lot of options for poison in the first place. So the Hero of Summer is going to be tricky…  … is what I would say if Laser Ray didn’t put down fire clouds automatically. I just gotta shoot a ray of fire from my hands at it and it’s satisfied. : You have solved the riddle, and shown mastery over the seasons. Now you must face the trial of combat.Yeah, figured that was coming. Four dead heroes of legend, yadda yadda, we’ve been here before. Interestingly, though, it’s Sebille that’s locked in conversation, so she’s forced to stay in the center of the arena. Which means Fane gets to be a sneaky little bastard this time.  There’s a scaffolding next to the arena that’ll act as the only available high ground in the fight. Lohse and Prince put themselves up there and wait – although Secretary doesn’t exactly make their hiding places inconspicuous.  Fane, meanwhile, parks himself beside the Hero of Autumn and hides among the bushes, while Peeper sits there and stares and peeps at him like an idiot. That should be it. Sebille isn’t a tanky character at all, so she’ll have to weather the first round by herself. Hopefully it won’t go too badly.  : The trial of combat has ended – you are victorious. Your prize awaits. Use it wisely, as a true elf.That fight went really well! No deaths; some good moves, if I do say so myself; and against opponents of a higher level. I should really consider using Dominate Mind more often.  Our reward for this fight is a treasure chest, likely filled with goodies… and a massive, still-beating heart placed on the sconce. Do hearts normally have blue veins? The game says that this is a ‘phoenix heart.’ According to the wiki, I’m supposed to eat this as an elf. I guess I’ll do that next update. Again, this heart is still beating; it’s glowing orange; and supposedly it’s from a phoenix. When Fane picks it up, he says it’s ‘boring.’  And the chest contains…!  … The boots are mage boots and they offer +1 Sneaking. Boring.   And that’s that for this update! We’ve gone fairly far north from Stonegarden; we prevented some elks from turning evil; we met Peeper’s dad, who immediately advocated for infanticide; we met a whole whack of elves; and we solved the minefield labyrinth of the Lone Wolves. We did quite a lot, actually! But there’s still one thing left to do: vote on what to do next. Do we follow the Magicockerel’s advice and kill Peeper? Or do we let Peeper live? Do we enter the Lone Wolves’ den from the front door? Or do we try and sneak in through the side? Let me know in 72 hours! Maple Leaf fucked around with this message at 13:37 on Apr 30, 2022 |
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Apr 30, 2022 13:34
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We are now and forever more known as Fane Snuggle-friend. As such, we can't possibly kill Peeper. We can absolutely sneak in the side door, though.
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Apr 30, 2022 14:24
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Peeper is our suicidal but nice friend. Keep him alive And why bother disarming all those traps if we just go in the side? Front door Fane is the lead, not side door Sebille
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Apr 30, 2022 15:24
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keep peep alive and sneak, only because I'm not heartless and was never able to pull off the stealth approach on my playthrough. Dunno 'bout eating that Phoenix Heart, though. I thought it was used in an interaction later (or maybe I'm conflating it with another item).
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Apr 30, 2022 17:44
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Keep Peeper alive, his father's either going to take him anyway or you're carting a baby chicken around some more. And sneak through the side door.
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Apr 30, 2022 18:50
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Kill Peeper Use the back door
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Apr 30, 2022 19:40
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