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Oh I think I see what the writers did. They tacked on a prologue to the games actual supposed opening. They started with some basic amnesia plot where you start at the crone, and then at some point during development decided that it wasn't good enough so they added the whole scullery maid thing as character backstory. Either they figured their plot was awful enough that it needed a direct explanation early on rather than dropping it at some point midway through as a plot twist. Update on previous page. And I have an excuse for using this one. 
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Jun 20, 2022 02:13
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Not pictured: our hero trampling the crone to death, and then trampling her again at the funeral.
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Jun 20, 2022 03:59
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loving hell, that makes the tedious cart ride Skyrim intro well thought out in comparison. A curse of greed is not a bad concept, I'm sure the writing team and dev team in no way runs it into the ground.
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Jun 20, 2022 05:10
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Is the crone meant to be Flemeth? Is that what this is? Do the paper dolls look any good? Because they look like something from the early 2000's. One of the Divinity games, I think.
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Jun 20, 2022 05:53
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So, umm.... why are you showing this off? I honestly don't really understand.
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Jun 20, 2022 07:35
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Keldulas posted:So, umm.... why are you showing this off? It has long been established that GEK is some kind of twisted masochist and enjoys having people watch him suffer through horrible games.
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Jun 20, 2022 07:37
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Stop with the LP shaming
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Jun 20, 2022 08:25
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God I feel like the curse of greed stuff would be really obnoxious and paranoia inducing I'd just be constantly second guessing myself on whether I could accept any quest reward at all
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Jun 20, 2022 09:15
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the writing is atrocious.
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Jun 20, 2022 11:38
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I've got a distinct feeling we've seen nothing yet.
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Jun 20, 2022 11:41
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Is it possible to crack this game open and gently caress with the assets? Because I think this experience would be vastly improved if we replaced our protagonist's model with an actual elephant. The headshot already really helps the dialogue flow better.
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Jun 20, 2022 13:16
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That map (?) with the flaming wreckage of a couple of caravans sort of reminds me of the opening of Arcanum, but at least there the NPC who forces themself into your party has a somewhat intriguing quest for you. This dwarf fellow is bland and of course only cares about your big pay-day as the heir to the That whole crone tutorial part was atrocious.
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Jun 20, 2022 13:44
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I would of been angry if I had bought this game.
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Jun 20, 2022 14:17
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Well, that was some godawful writing, they have to have planned it out at some point, got a plot outline and so on, since to make assets you need to know what assets to make, and even then this prologue feels like three competing prologues have just rammed each other so hard they are stuck together, and none of them are good. Also, drying herbs with a loving candle? What the gently caress?
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Jun 20, 2022 14:44
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Keldulas posted:So, umm.... why are you showing this off? I paid 20 bux for this piece of poo poo and want to get my money's worth. If we can have fun mocking it good enough for me. SIGSEGV posted:Also, drying herbs with a loving candle? What the gently caress? The part of the tutorial I cut out talked in brief about how you should use a lantern because it has infinite fuel and varianle heat levels. I don't even loving know.
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Jun 20, 2022 15:03
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I too, get all my goals in life from the dwarves I suddenly meet upon the road Thank you for your stout and motivational support, road dwarves
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Jun 20, 2022 15:18
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I kinda like the idea of the greed curse, actually. It has some intriguing possibilities, plot-wise and as a mechanic. Depending on to what degree you reject or embrace the curse, you can build in lots of world reactivity. The example that comes to my mind is the Dishonored series, wherein the "high chaos" playstyle (lots of combat, lots of killing, certain decisions) change some elements in later levels versus "low chaos", which tends to be sneaky, non-lethal, etc. Provides another way to interact with the world. Of course, giving what we're working with, we'll be lucky if it's a repackaged Dark Side/Light Side meter from KotOR 1. Extremely lucky, really, because while KotOR's morality system was straightforward to a fault, it was also pretty well polished and consistent. Polish and consistency doesnt, um, really sound like this developer's strong suit.
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Jun 20, 2022 15:30
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Pulse and Blow Damage? What the gently caress do those words have to do with anything? Blow I imagine refers to blunt, sure, but the gently caress is pulse damage? Obviously there's a lot more than that to complain about in this update but this is the thing I noticed and had to say something about.
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Jun 20, 2022 18:56
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Blow is probably blunt. Pulse might be a flavorful, setting deepening damage type that indicates a fundamental force is present as a fundamental force and not just a story word. Of course given the current circumstances, I don't imagine it's done competently, but I could give points for trying.
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Jun 20, 2022 19:00
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:I paid 20 bux for this piece of poo poo and want to get my money's worth. If we can have fun mocking it good enough for me. That makes sense to me. My question basically arose because this is the worst first impression I’ve ever had with a game ever. There is nothing that I consider even slightly good.
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Jun 20, 2022 20:43
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That's harsh, there might be no highs but at least the lows aren't abysmal, like DNF. For now.
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Jun 20, 2022 22:10
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SIGSEGV posted:That's harsh, there might be no highs but at least the lows aren't abysmal, like DNF. Ah, but how does it compare to Pokémon Reborn? 
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Jun 20, 2022 22:27
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I had to check to make sure which terrible pokemon romhack that was.
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Jun 20, 2022 23:49
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Holy gently caress the intro to this game is tedious. I would not have made it through that tutorial, or even half of it before promptly refunding. Gods Speed to you for doing this
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Jun 21, 2022 01:31
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I'd been hoping that the game would at least be non-offensive with regards to racism and sexuality since the ship with good game design, story coherence, and engaging gameplay already burned down with the rest of the port city, but we've now seen racial determinism and EggsAisle caught the bit about "Arousal Effects" as a stat that I missed. I was asking for too much from this game...
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Jun 21, 2022 02:26
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I expect "arousal effects" to be more about things like barbarian rage and whatnot rather than, err, something worthy of a tvtropes page.
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Jun 21, 2022 02:43
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quote:Next time: Deterring sexual harassment with the power of urination Wut
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Jun 21, 2022 04:18
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Slaan posted:Wut Is this running on FATAL rules?
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Jun 21, 2022 05:23
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SIGSEGV posted:I expect "arousal effects" to be more about things like barbarian rage and whatnot rather than, err, something worthy of a tvtropes page. There are some super weird word choices. Was this translated from another language or something?
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Jun 21, 2022 07:13
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some plague rats posted:Was this translated from another language or something? Bet not.
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Jun 21, 2022 07:53
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painedforever posted:Is this running on FATAL rules?  And don't look that up guys, you won't like what you'll find.
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Jun 21, 2022 08:27
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some plague rats posted:There are some super weird word choices. Was this translated from another language or something?
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Jun 21, 2022 09:14
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By popular demand posted:
Sorry. I would've thought that had already entered the internet's consciousness through social osmosis. Yeah, don't look it up.
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Jun 21, 2022 09:22
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so.. wait the gods have made us an elephant to help us avoid the curse of greed because elephants are better at that (because they're elephants) but we could have chosen to be a human at the beginning and presumably we wouldn't have any question about why we're a human then because of course BUT if humans are not as good as elephants at resisting the curse, why would the gods not have basically cursed the birth somehow? if humans ARE as good as elephants at resisting the curse, why would the gods have said that stupid poo poo instead of just sticking to the whole "had to make it impossible for anybody to know your true lineage" reason? yes I know I've thought 1000 times harder about this than the writers did, I still must post e: also yes, I know, this is probably just the same stupid poo poo they came up with to justify being any non-human race, but then WHY are humans a reasonable choice at all??? Ignatius M. Meen fucked around with this message at 12:58 on Jun 21, 2022 |
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Jun 21, 2022 12:37
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If the PC is I dunno, a Snow Elf, did your dad bang a magic snow eldlf waifu instead of an elephant person
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Jun 21, 2022 17:59
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Nissin Cup Nudist posted:If the PC is I dunno, a Snow Elf, did your dad bang a magic snow eldlf waifu instead of an elephant person Yes.
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Jun 21, 2022 18:06
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so everyone else is better than humans at resisting the curse of greed in all the universes where the player chose not to play a human according to the gods. and yet somehow I just know this isn't going to be borne out by the story in any way it's small potatoes compared to many other things but it's still so dumb and it didn't even need to be thrown in.
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Jun 21, 2022 18:39
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the opening sections are not instilling much confidence. could've cut em both, skip to meeting the dwarf and have it start there. so something like: -meeting the dwarf for some (optional) basic exposition -let the player bumble around and feel out the combat system with a fight or two --introduce the crafting system with a healing poultice/potion -dwarf offers to travel with player 'til they reach Isilbright with anything else either coming up on the journey or via mouseover explanation. get an early look at the curse play out over the trip to the city; capping this early chapter off by finding out about the whole divine chosen business shortly after arrival. as it is, looking forward(?) to at least one more intro segment, with several redundant tutorials and questionable handling of The Curse(tm). 
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Jun 22, 2022 01:52
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Unrelated question TheGreatEvilKing, you mentioned you got up to at least Chapter 3 of 5 in the OP. Are you still pushing forward or have you abandoned that run so you don't have to play the game twice, only 1.x times? Alternately, did you actually finish this and know the full horror of what we're diving into?
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Jun 22, 2022 04:23
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The Writers Clearly Have No Idea What They're Doing, Huh? Last time on Black Geyser, we got a whole tutorial sequence for extremely basic poo poo, we met - and killed - some tiny spiders who were infested by GREED, and then the game told us the gods made us for a purpose then refused to tell us what it is until we ran into a motivational dwarf on the road.  The game really wants us to talk to Helghenhar, so we will do that. But first, Helgenhar has his own entire long rear end manual entry, and I know what you all crave in this LP: Long rear end Text Boxes! The Manual posted:Helgenhar comes from a family of renowned Stoneseekers. For some time, he was content with his lot in life and enjoyed time spent with family and clan. But over the years Helgenhar started to notice subtle changes within his home. Dwarves naturally covet beautiful and valuable things, but for most the journey of finding and creating is more rewarding than ownership itself. Over time his clan’s sense of exploration and strong community started to unravel. Greed and suspicion worked it’s way into their hearts. Much of this is bullshit (Helgenhar is chatty as gently caress) but at least he's not those worthless assholes Fidel and Hexogen. Anyway, let's see what he has to say for himself.   : You never told me why you were so interested in visiting the Hall of Records when we met... : Well, as I believe I mentioned before, it's a family matter. A century or more back, my clan split into two separate bloodlines, each with its own strong traditions and beliefs. As you might guess, the bullheaded nature of my kin has made living alongside one another difficult.: Now a new and very rich vein of gemstone has been discovered in the depths of Stundur Hum, and the feud between my brothers and sisters has come near a point where bloodshed will be inevitable.: I heard of a dwarven Keeper working in the Hall of Records, one whose research focuses on the history of the Northern Realm and our kind. Feuds similar to the one dividing my relations have always been common among dwarves. I need to learn from him how such problems were resolved by our ancestors.Wait. I thought the dwarves in this setting weren't greedy (per the manual) but apparently wars over material were common... gently caress it. : All I know about this fellow is his name, Hallbrag. I need to talk to him as soon as we get to the Hall of Records.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
There was speculation in the thread that Helg here was after our money, but no, he just happened to need to go to the Hall of Records for his own reasons and was on the road randomly. I'll give the game this: it's not a bad motivation. The whole setup of randomly finding him on the road is kind of...inept, and it's not gonna get better from here.  We kill these wolves for XP and we can sell their pelts for money.  In case you didn't get that our motivation was to go to the Hall of Records, we get forced into dialog with another Motivation NPC.  : What plague? : How can you not have heard? Have you been living at the bottom of the sea? Deron-Guld declared war on Isilbright a few days back, and has already gained a foothold in the south of the kingdom. Militarily, it was quite the feat!I was going to make a snarky comment about how communications technology is a guy on a horse in this pseudo-medieval land, but then I remember there's a whole not-Hogwarts magic academy that teaches every caster class in the game down the road. I have no loving idea if this is even a reasonable perspective or not. : But then a terrible illness began to rage across the city almost immediately thereafter. Citizens had been taking to their beds several weeks before, but no one thought it was serious. Now they've begun taking to their graves, and in the dozens! : You really seem to know your way around. Do you know anything about the raid by Deron-Guld on the Espen Estate? This happened a few days back.The game completely ignores that Gavin here might be a loving plague carrier as he just left Deron-Guld, but there's an even more basic mistake. Can YOU spot it?  It's something you might not notice as he's listed as "Gavin", but if you're going deep into the text looking for things to analyze uh. Look, I don't have anything insightful to say about this except to notice we are failing at basic loving poo poo. : Yes, I heard something about that, but I was preparing to leave Deron-Guld at the time, and didn't pay much heed. If you're interested, you should try your luck in Isilbright, just ahead.: Show me what you have, Gavin.: With pleasure! He has a bunch of potions I don't care about, so I sell him the extra armor we looted off the dead guys scattered all over the road. Score! TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 To the gates of Isilbright!  There are a bunch of direction commoners hanging around the gate.  Hmmm.  The game immediately forgets about the plague because it's a lazy setup for a Baldur's Gate reference and the guards want to know if we are cool legitimate people. I guess no one is asking about plague symptoms because we look healthy? I don't even know if germ theory is a concept in this setting, but I'd imagine quarantine is. : My name is Inta Rume. I'm heir to the estate of Lord Espen and I've come to claim my birthright. : That's really why I'm here. I feel like there's ONE semi-competent writer on the team who realized how poo poo this was so we get self-sabotaging dialogue like "Rebels are bad", where your character ineptly mouths off. : I witnessed them kill my father with my own eyes.But... how? You were literally in the closet with the doors shut! The Not So Tragic Death of Lord Espen posted:I assume we're exaggerating here? gently caress it. Nothing in this game makes sense.  : Good enough. Go on in.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We're confronted by the three dumbest men alive.   I mean, I could point out these guys are probably next to those two guards at the gate, or that there's a loving giant golem down the street, but let's be honest, we know absolutely no thought was put into this at all then "we need to get the player to Lord Markhem...how could we do this...?" : This looks exactly like a shakedown, and I don't stand for shakedowns. : Brave. Stupid, but brave.It's three unarmored idiots versus two mail-clad warriors, one of whom has a shield and the other who has a sword nearly as tall as one of these morons.  Thefuq? TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 These idiots get one shot by the power of Big Sword.  You might notice from the half-cut off quest marker, but returning this guy's necklace is now the main quest. Sure. Why not. It's great that none of the guards intervened when we literally stained the cobblestones with the blood of an idiot.  I wasn't joking, by the way. This big rear end "war golem" is patrolling the street just down from where these idiots waylaid us. Granted, they're loving stupid idiots screaming about robbing noblemen on the street. It's a wonder they didn't get beat to death by thugs earlier.  I can't emphasize enough that we just decide returning this bracelet is our main quest, even though we're supposed to be trying to access the Hall of Records. Now, a logical game would conclude we're currying favor with Markhem to get his support for our birthright/getting into the Hall, but right now we just kinda awkwardly fixate on this. There's a reason we're going along with this and it's a dumb one.  Statues!  We need to go south to the sketchy criminal graveyard slum thing.  This starts us in a cutscene, where Helgenhar interjects because I assume the intended audience for this game is people too stupid to figure out that the fade to black starts a cutscene.  This random elf runs into us, followed by 3 guys.  Inta goes down.  : And I hope there's a good reason why you're chasing this fellow down a crowded street. Someone might have broken his neck. : Yes, the best of reasons, my good lady: property and law, the two pillars of our civilization which this elf has chosen to piss on. The voice actor for Hamlin delivers his line with the emotion of a teenager reading a math textbook. : No, sir, I do not imply anything. I say outright that you are a thief. I say you came into my shop, the fruit of my several decades as a goldsmith, and filched my property from a display case I had briefly unlocked for the benefit of Lady Gildesby. : And I say that a man should stick to beer or watered wine during the day, and leave hard liquor and whiskey until evening. But we plainly disagree about that as well.Hamlin is my favorite character for all the wrong reasons. It's not that his dialogue is funny because it's well written, it's funny because it's badly acted and idiotic. : Enough. Give him a hard shake, lads. That piece would pay both your wages for a month. I want that ring.I think (although who knows with this game) the intent is that the goldsmith is going over the line by roughing up Hamlin, except I don't even know if insurance is a thing in this setting. I'd imagine that making a piece like this is a huge investment in time and materials, as well as the skill of this guy trained for 10 years and opening a shop. poo poo, if I was this guy I'd probably beat the poo poo out of Hamlin too.   : Nothing.: Check him again! Did you check his boots? Beneath his collar? Check the lining of his sleeves. His kind have a thousand tricks. : There you have it. No ring, no crime. Thus our merchant friend needs to now go into vengeful town. : Unhand this man, you cowards. : Do you want to face him fairly, without your hired thugs?: Hmph. Unbelievable. Come on, you two. We've already wasted half the day on this fool.The goons leave.  : Why is your hand in my pocket? (Shady Dealings)Hamlin is, from what I've seen of him, a massive piece of poo poo.  : Indeed. I always assume that whatever I find in my pockets belongs to me. I will be keeping this.This will not be the last time Hamlin tries to gently caress us. However, because he's the only party member who can find traps until we unlock a certain location, we're stuck with him. He does not have a manual entry, thank Christ. : Uh, of course. It must be delightful to unexpectedly discover such precious things in one's pocket. I myself hope to be so wealthy one day. Sure! You just made us an accessory to robbing that jeweler! This will go swimmingly! : Yes, I like the sound of that.: Fantastic! Let us carry on then!TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
So I need to tell you about the reason Hamlin is my favorite character and it's all because of one combat bark where, upon receiving an attack order he goes "A beer. Would be nice. Thank you." It's just so incoherent that it becomes funny.  Hamlin is of course our thief. You spec him into archery because gently caress going for backstabs in these kinds of games.  We might seriously want to reconsider buttering up this man. Lord Durbat: The facts seem to belie your claims, Lord Markhem. It appears to me that you went all-in on a bluff and now that you've lost the round you're crying out-of-pocket. I've long envied that bracelet of yours; it's the only reason I accepted your wager.  Baflodac. Just say it out loud, it sounds ridiculous. Lord Markhem: Hmm, this is quite the predicament. It seems we're both going to be staying in the Southern Shore for a good, long time.  : I believe this is your bracelet, yes? You may have it back if it is.Lord Markhem: Thank you dearly, my friend. You've done me a great favor today. Excuse me for a moment while I resolve this misunderstanding with Lord Durbat. Lord Markhem: Here you are Durbat, may it bring you much joy. Lord Durbat: Ah, excellent. It is always a pleasure gaming with you, Lord Markhem, especially when I win. Good day.  TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:Lord Markhem: I don't have it!  Of course it's a whorehouse and I really don't want to see how this game treats it. Not sober anyway.  The game has hinted that we can't get into the Hall of Records without some kind of approval, and we could go to Lord Markhem right now, get a letter of recommendation, and go in. But there's a much stupider way that gets us a new party member, so we're going to do that instead.  A recent update added party banter. Wasn't Helg supposed to be shy? He's chatting up Hamlin after knowing him for all of three minutes. : My brethren are famous for their meads, sweetened by fruits and berries. At least, those who still make their homes among the trees.Why does Helgenhar assume Hamlin lives in the loving woods? The guy is a thief who just talked about how he loves cities. What the gently caress is he going to steal in the woods? Isn't this... kind of racist? : It's been many years since I moved to the city. I came to prefer beer to sweet mead.: Ha, well said, my friend! Next time we hit an inn, what say I buy you a proper pint of dwarven ale?Look, I never said Helg was an interesting character. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 These guys are bitching about someone named "Bjalla". I'll spare you one of the NPCs trying to get in another NPC's pants and leave you with them being envious that all these lords want to bone Bjalla.   poo poo's about to get real dumb folks.  These guys have all gone full Weinstein. Never go full Weinstein. Lord Trype: Ah, I would never compare Lady Bjalla's lovely visage to anything so harsh as that. I think the reflection of moonlight on a still pond is more apt.  She's voice acted. It's bad. Lord Fiffin: Let me fan you, milady! Lord Smedrick: I too carry a fan for such occasions. Mine is fashioned from pheasant! Lord Fiffin: Pfah! Dirty, wild creatures are pheasants. My fan is fashioned from peacock feathers! The game almost has something to say about class, but that would require it to form a coherent thought. Lord Trype: Step aside, paupers! My fan is crafted from the feathers of the legendary phoenix. In summer it cools thee, and in winter, warms!  Weirdly Bjalla here is the only character to my knowledge who gets both a first and last name.   For gently caress's sake.   Now, Bjalla does have a manual entry! More Text! posted:Bjalla Adelis is a feldegug spellweaver. She is a member of one of the four feldegug tribes who left the far north. At the onset of puberty, Bjalla was cast out to live among the outsiders of Yerengal. Where others expected failure, Bjalla survived and survived well. Taking in with various people she met in her travels she absorbed knowledge like a sponge, developing unique skills and magical talents. In recent years her discovery and possession of the Third Eye—a legendary gemstone with fabled magical powers—has garnished Bjalla a bit of notoriety across the land. So she's supposed to be a canny survivor with magical powers and needs the PC to bail her out from three horny idiots. Oh well, let's do it in the stupidest way possible.    We can't talk to the idiots so we talk to Bjalla.  : First, I'll mix a small glass of water and wine. Second, deposit it in a man's pocket... (Steal and Plant Item)This raises a lot of questions. How are you fitting a water glass into a pocket? Isn't this a thief skill that we, uh, don't have?  As far as I can tell this always works. Lord Smedrick: Haha! Trype you ninnyhammer, you spilled your drink! Lord Fiffin: He didn't. His drink's right there.      The only thing I've done to these images is resized them and cropped off the edges.   Professor Pee-pee Poopypants and his associates leave the bar in surprisingly good spirits for guys who struck out with a snow elf waifu by seeming to piss themselves.  Bjalla is totally impressed by our immature and idiotic antics. : I am Inta Rume. Glad to be of service. : I can't say that I do. : The usual. Disowned noblewoman, born out of wedlock, trying to reclaim her birthright after watching her father cut down. You know the story.I thought the crone said we were the trueborn... gently caress it.  For a canny survivor Bjalla sure accepts this story at face value. Now, we the player know it's true because it got exposition dumped on us, but no one in the game seems to seriously consider the woman trying to claim a noble estate with no proof whatsoever might be some kind of con artist. : Splendid! I do need the help.Bjalla here is a mage who can cast nearly every spell in the game, including healing spells. She will never be leaving the party.  : Good. I suggest we try the palace first, or the Hall of Records.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:Lord Smedrick: Roses are red, violets are blue, take off your clothes, I'll have sex with you! Alright. Bjalla is a noble so we can rush the Hall of Records and proceed on with... what the hell are we actually trying to do again?  Bjalla is an infamous archmage at level 3. So, funny thing about the game's level system - party members gain levels to match you before you recruit them, but as is common in these lovely RPGs, there's no catchup mechanism. This is why a lot of guides tell you to solo as much as you can.  I'll summarize: Hamlin wants to use magic to steal poo poo. Bjalla does not know any magic to do that. How exciting.  The guards won't let us in without a noble. Helg doesn't count because this dialog was added after the game was released. : Why would I? My kin are respectful and conduct themselves with honor.: But all the gossip and noise is just... unbearable!: Fortunately that's not the way of things below the mountains. Every dwarf has both feet planted firmly on the ground, stone preferably.Because these characters are little more than stock archetypes, the party banter is dull and uninteresting. I'm not even going to summarize this. What am I going to work with here?  : Thank you sir, but this, uh, commoner is actually a friend of mine.: Oh. Really?: Really. : No, not at all. But we do have urgent business in the Hall of Records. May I?: Of course, milady. You and your... friend are free to come and go as you please. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 The game doesn't give the Record Keeper a name, so things get real awkward. : And you, Record Keeper. I know you are a busy man, so I'll get right to it: my friend Inta Rume needs information about a certain nobleman. I know if anyone can help us, it's you. : What is the fate of Lord Espen? : What happened to the Espen estate? : Who claimed the estate after Lord Espen's demise? : I'm a direct descendant of Lord Espen, his daughter in fact. But wait. Remember how even we doubted it when the Crone told us Espen was secretly our father, because we were Rillow? Remember her reply of how the gods made Inta a rillow so that no one would realize we were actually Espen's daughter? Remember how Espen talked about "the Lady Espen" before he died, and she was presumably NOT a rillow? Why does this man blindly believe our story? Why does smarty-pants Bjalla? Bjalla is low-key staking her reputation on this. : Thank you. Can you help me claim my title?The answer is because the writers didn't think this through or coordinate, so we have the equivalent of Robert Anton Wilson's characters realizing they're in a book and that previously inexplicable events are because the authors put them there.  : No. What. How does he know we're not scamming Bjalla? The rear end in a top hat guard at the door was at least smart enough to question it.  Ok, he's at least able to verify it.  : Oh my my my oh my.: Record Keeper, are you ill?Why does she never use his name? It's not like it's verboten - we know Hallbrag's name, and he has the same position.  : What did you find?: What did I find? It's what I did not find that is so vexing - there is no record of Inta Rume's birth at all.: Oh no. Holy poo poo! Right now the Record Keeper has broken the law of confidentiality (he can only discuss this with a blood relative, remember), then he had the good sense to check the records and found... nothing, because we didn't even know about it until an old tutorial lady told us in an infodump. : Imagine how I feel! This raises the question of whether I even exist, since there's no record of the event.They're clearly trying to go for the scene in Attack of the Clones where they tampered with the Jedi Archives, but they don't actually confirm signs of tampering! Inta has absolutely no evidence to back up her claims and the gate guards even called her on it. Bjalla is being dragged into this not because she has proof but because she thought it'd be fun and owed us for getting rid of Piss Weinstein.  Now, a charitable reading would be that he's politely dismissing us because he doesn't want to offend Lady Bjalla, but this dude keeps all the genealogical records that are - per his description - the foundation of the king's power. I don't know why he thinks this proof even exists.  Welp! At least Hamlin got a level. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
We also got 75 world greed for progressing the plot. Apparently at max greed people start murdering each other in the streets, which honestly sounds more interesting than this stack of cliches. Honestly, It wouldn't have been that hard to fix this scene. Either go out and have the Record Keeper discover obvious falsification like a burnt birth record, or have the player character be given some kind of Espen family keepsake by Lord Espen that they always had but no one told them was like, I dunno, Lady Espen's locket or something. Maybe the Record Keeper knew the player character's mom. Give it something, anything, so we don't have this clumsy plot that only works because the writers made it work. Oh well, let's go do Helg's thing.  First, however, we're going to steal some scrolls for Bjalla to learn. We'll talk about the stupid magic system - including the "Oriental" spell school - next update.  We get caught as this dude runs at us, but literally nothing happens and he runs back to his starting position.  Keeper Hallbrag is the guy Helg wanted to see about averting the dwarf civil war. : Greetings Hallbrag, I am Helgenhar of the Stoneseeker clan of Stundur Hum. My people have been troubled recently by a boiling feud, and I've journeyed to the city looking for a way to stop this quarrel before it turns to bloodshed.: As a scholar of dwarven lore, you are of course aware of how stubborn, and sometimes even greedy, our kin can be. Do you know aught of how blood feuds were settled in older times?Keeper Hallbrag: My friend, you have come to the right dwarf! I've devoted my sweat and blood to studying the records of the dwarves of the Northern Realm and adding that precious history to this Hall of Records. I'm already thinking of a couple old tomes I could cite on this topic. But wait! If they have all the dwarf records wouldn't they recognize Helg - gently caress it. : Is that so? What histories are you speaking of, exactly?Keeper Hallbrag: The Ironchin clan were a rowdy and capricious lot, and the Kegrunners almost as bad. I'm happy to recite a bit of their history for ya, if you care to hear it. I've noticed that these kin feuds have become ever more frequent of late. It seems these new generations are more susceptible to greed than any who've come before.  : Let's hear about the Ironchin clan!Keeper Hallbrag: The Ironchin clan were renowned in their time for an unlimited stubbornness, and inflexibility on even the smallest of matters. It came to pass that the clan leader was lost while following a vein of emerald in the depths of a mountain, and his twin sons each vowed to take their father's place. Keeper Hallbrag: The two malcontents stirred up strife among their allies and cousins, and almost brewed up a war, but the clan elder was wise. He counseled single combat to decided the issue, and the lads agreed. Neither son survived the fight, but the rest of the family was spared. A younger brother, one more talented and cunning, succeeded to the clan seat, and the Ironchin have prospered ever since.  : Tell us about the Kegrunners.Keeper Hallbrag: The Kegrunner clan were known everywhere among dwarves for the incredible - nigh bottomless - capacity of their bellies for ale, as well as their excellent breweries. But these noble dwarves fell into turmoil when Ortan Kegrunner, clan leader, decided to marry his son to the daughter of a rival bloodline, the Golden Hammer. Keeper Hallbrag: Ortan's people were ready to revolt against their lord, so deeply did they detest the Golden Hammer. Axes were already being honed and chain mail mended, but Ortan Kegrunner convinced them he had a secret - that peace with their enemies would mean shared security, less work patrolling and more time for smithing and brewing and, importantly, drinking.  But the manual said dwarves weren't gre - gently caress it. Dwarves are literally descended from demons in this setting. I don't even know. : Who's this person we could talk to about more recent events?Keeper Hallbrag: A friend of mine, Fjora, works at the Embassy of the Northern Realm - actually, she is their Chief Consul. She's deeply invested in current events in the Northern Real, and very knowledgeable about the dwarven clans up that way. Keeper Hallbrag: Fjora herself played an important role in brokering peace between Freynagar and Riznagar. You should go have a talk with her. Wise woman.  TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Next time: Dicking around the city. TheGreatEvilKing fucked around with this message at 01:21 on May 23, 2023 |
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Jun 22, 2022 05:51
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: Ha ha, we just robbed LORD MARKHEM! Remember that name, player!
: Durr some people
