|
I'm looking forward to the next episode.  I'm also curious what the options on the voting will be.
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2015 02:22
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2024 18:29 |
|
|
 I see what you did there.  Actually, has the name of that weapon been mentioned at all yet?TooMuchAbstraction posted:I realize the end of that update could be misleading, so no, we aren't holding another vote just yet. We need to finish mopping up this area by clearing the environs west of Fort Draco. Then we'll vote. Oh no. You're visiting THEM!?!?!?!
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2015 04:59
|
|
|
berryjon posted:
It has been, briefly. It wasn't something Byff found very interesting though, so he didn't write it down, and thus they all forgot. quote:Oh no. What? No, they're not even in this game. You don't run into THEM until Exile 3.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2015 05:05
|
|
|
TooMuchAbstraction posted:What? No, they're not even in this game. You don't run into THEM until Exile 3. They were cut out of the game? But they were in E1, E2 and even E3! What is Vogel doing? Is he denying his players their GIFTS?
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2015 06:14
|
|
|
THEM? It's been so long since I last played one of these games that I don't recall who we're talking about, anyone want to enlighten me?
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2015 07:28
|
|
|
PurpleXVI posted:THEM? It's been so long since I last played one of these games that I don't recall who we're talking about, anyone want to enlighten me? I'll spoiler it, even though they're apparently no longer in the game. West of here are the Aranea, but in the earlier versions of the game, they were also home to the GIFTS (Giant Intelligent Friendly Talking Spiders). The madman mentioned in the conversations reference it. They are all called Spider. They're very huggy. They are an arachnophobe's worst nightmare. And they chatter constantly. I don't know whether to cry or applaud that they're not in Avernum, although others would definitely take one side or the other.  And then they fight Aranea. Which comes as a relative relief.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2015 13:39
|
|
|
JamieTheD posted:I'll spoiler it, even though they're apparently no longer in the game. They are. I have been looking forward to it. They are also in the re-remake of 2.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2015 13:47
|
|
|
Haha. THEM is an acronym for something in E3. I'd forgotten that (though I forget what all the words are.) The non-boat area west of Draco is very similar to previous IIRC. Sadly not sure where I got my copy of A:EftP from, so can't easily poke it/check hintbook for where the lowbie mage tomes are and how much of the skewing is just TMA going certain directions. EDIT : Oh, possibly his last title to use registration codes and his own site/store. Doh.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2015 14:04
|
|
|
Tylana posted:Haha. THEM is an acronym for something in E3. I'd forgotten that (though I forget what all the words are.) Wait, really? poo poo, I was referring to something you find on the Isle of Bigail of E3.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2015 14:37
|
|
|
TooMuchAbstraction posted:Wait, really? poo poo, I was referring to something you find on the Isle of Bigail of E3. Yeah, those. Talking Humongous Enhanced Muckeaters? Or my brain is just making weird connections. Apologies to any readers who find the wink-wink stuff here annoying.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2015 14:54
|
|
|
Whee! Acronym confusion!
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2015 17:04
|
|
|
Update 17: The GIFTS "Three courses of action! Man, I'm spoiled for choice!"  "What are we looking for over here anyway?" "Spiders!" "Oh no." "Come again?" "We've heard several times about friendly spiders around here. I have got to see this." "And the rest of us are along because...?" "Do you really trust him to survive, out on his own?"  "We're on the right trail!"   "Can we not do this? Please?" "Oh ho ho ho, is our little priestess afraid of spiders?" "What? No! No. C'mon, with the stuff I see on a daily basis? No. Of course not." "Uh huh. Want a drink?" "You have no idea. Too bad all our booze is in Fort Draco now." "C'monnnnn, where are they?!"   "Oh my goodness this is amazing! You can talk! Where are the vocal chords? How did you learn language? How big is your brain?" "Uhh..." "You're silly!" "Er, greetings, uh, friend spider. What, ah, what are you working on?" "Destroyed? A tragedy." "Heh. And what mission were you on?" "A limited capacity for memory, but able to form plans and potentially -- man I gotta write this stuff down where is my notebook?" "Hey guys? I gotta go to the lady's room, okay?" "Oh, no you don't. With the way you tormented One-Eye about that dragon? You can stick around and watch Byff interrogate the giant intelligent friendly talking spiders." "Hee hee hee. It's only fair, Elly!" "But hey, I'm not heartless. Been fiddling around with distilled mushroom wine. Want my flask?" "You are a lifesaver." *sip* "Bluh! By the Creator, I can feeling it crawling on my tongue!" "Ha ha ha, oh I am having a good day. Mushroom liquor a little too much for you?" "This isn't liquor! It's what happens to madness when you drive it to drink!" "Wait, that doesn't even --" *chug* "It's amazing!" "Hey, go easy on that stuff..." "Can't hear you, drinking."If you talk to Spider again, you get this text:   "'Scuse me, friend, I was wondering if I could interest you in some spatial reasoning tests..." "Oh, now look, you've frightened it!" "Hmm, perhaps that one's a baby? I wish I knew what their maturation cycle was like!"Incidentally, the spiders also have little bits of text they "say" as you walk around, for example:  Also seen: "You're cute!", "Look! A fly!", "I'm Spider!", and "I hate aranea!"  When rereading, it took me a good five seconds to find the spider in this shot.  "Ah, hello! I was wondering if you could share some information about your diet with us. How many insects do you eat each day?" "Er, nice to meet you. About that diet...?" "Really? I'd love to learn about your mating habits!" "BWA ha ha ha ha ha! Byff, you sly dog! Wanting to study the wildlife up close and personal, eh?" "Whoah wait what? No, no! No no no no no --" "Eeeeeerrr that's nice and all but, uh, but..." "You're still looking for the surface route." "Yeah! This isn't my natural habitat, you know! Probably sicken and die down here real quick." "Love 'em and leave 'em, eh champ? Shameless." "This is deeply unreal." "Man, you wanna see unreal? I can show you unreal. H̅̃̎͒̈́͆e̡y͕̱̿ͧy̆y̒͐͛y̵̰̬͙̩͕̺͓ͯ ̩̋C̣̪̬͇̏ͤ̿r̄̐̅͗e̵ͨͤ͊a̷̭̖̻̰͑ͅt͖͔͍̎ͨͨ̾̽ͮo̪̳̦͡r̒͐͞,͎̈́̇̐ ̺̥̯͖̔ͬ̆͆̽̔l̷̖̖͈̙͇̲ͩ͑̆ḙ̜̬̣͚̼̰͊ͨ̔t̗͖͎͎̿̈́̌̓́̇'̛̅ͪs͌̇̉͑ͬ͛̀ ̼ͤ̏̔̐ͣ͗̃d̼͓͛͌ͯ̚͞ỏ͓̪̱̮̐ ̻̲̣̍̍ͧ͋̎t̻ͥ͘ḧ̘͓̻͇͓̱́͑̚ȉ̍͏s͕͍̞̒ͣͅ ̻͓̠̩̻͚͉͗͂̀̐̇t̛͔͈͍̗̱̽̌ͬ̓ͧĥ̇ͩ̽ͥ͗ͤ͜i̝̰̐̍̔ͬn͎̞̏̎̆g̤͍̏͋̇̾ͬ͜ ̻͙͓̈́̽ͥ̚̕a͚͈̿͐͌͋̎́̑l͉̩̤̤ͪ̆ͣͮ̀͑ͬr̟̓̀e̴͆̆̑̽͊ảͤ̈̽̌̅͞d̝͎͔͔̼ͣ̔̐͋̿ͥ͐͢y̜̯̼͇̖̪͈͆̑ͣ̄̋ͥ̅!̗͔̫̫͔" "Whoa, hey, hey! Let's not go unmaking the world just yet!" "'N why not? S'got giant talking spiders in it! You can't tell me that's right!" "It's beautiful, and amazing! I never dreamed the natural world could create such an unusual creature!" "Nope, don't believe you. Prob'ly invented by some mad wizard somewhere." "Okay, yeah, but I don't see any wizards around now, which means that someone figured out how to make the intelligence and talking breed true, and that's if anything even more amazing! I've got to find their notes!" "As entertaining as all this is, I am morally opposed to any path that results in more creatures like this. I mean, what's next, cockroaches?" "Maybe! Very versatile animal, the common cockroach! Bet I could make it work if I only had the knowhow!" "Right, this is getting too creepy for me --" "Says the lawyer!" "-- so let's just keep moving on, shall we?" "Swear t'the Creator, the new world's gonna be strict'ly arachnid-free." "Really? Then what's going to eat the insects?" "No bugs neither." "Oh dear. Once you've sobered up, Elly, we're going to need to talk about what it takes to make a functioning ecosystem."... "Hey, One-Eye, here's your flask back." "Oh, thanks, I -- it's empty. Elly, what have you done?!"  "Lemme know if you make any more, okay?"...  "Hey, a switch! I wonder if the mechanism still works..." "Well what d'you know, it does." "How disappointing."Another one off in a corner is a bit more fruitful:   He has a pair of Grounded Boots:  Finally, finally, Byff can join the Nifty Boots Club.   "I wonder what caused the ancient builders of this place to put so many switches in?" "Maybe this is how they thought doors should work." "Maybe the spiders know! Excuse me, do you know anything about the original inhabitants of this structure?" "Maybe the spiders built it. You think spiders can't build? Racist." "Fascinating! Is this some kind of mating ritual?" "Always with the mating." "Hey! It's important to know how species procreate! How else are you to ensure they don't die out?" Jeff Vogel sure has the priorities of the average adventuring party straight. I think basically every single friendly NPC that mentions magic has a dialog prompt where you ask them to teach you or to direct you to someone who can. "Oh. Oh dear. And, uh, have you learned any spells yet?" "Wait, you mean the aranea can cast spells? Real ones?" "They'll mess us up? They'll be unmade! At least they have the decency to be hostile! You know where you stand with a hostile giant spellcasting spider!" "In its webs, presumably." "At least it's obeying the natural order of things!" "All else being equal, frankly I'd rather have giant intelligent spiders who don't try to eat us, thanks." "Pardon, sir (lady?) spider, but does anyone around here know how to cast actual spells?"  "Figures. Next!" "Owwww, that is physically painful." "I'm inclined to agree. Whatever you're doing, please stop." "No!" "Yes!"  "Wow, it rhymes and scans! Impressive!" "Please don't encourage them." "Quick! Duck!" "Wait wha --"   "Ow. What was that for?" "I'm beginning to dislike this place." "Firs' sens'bl thing you've said since we got here. C'mon, hit it with your sword!" "Tell you what, when we're done here we'll kill lots of spiders. Lots and lots." "'Bout drat time! Let's get started!" "Ah ah ah! When we're done!" "I'm done. I was done when we arrived." "Yeah, but Byff isn't. Hey Byff, what're you doing?" "They appear to have walled off this passageway..."  "Coordinated effort to defeat a powerful foe! Heck, they're about as smart as the nephilim!" "Oh, now, I wouldn't go that far." "Well okay, maybe not. But they didn't suicidally antagonize the Avernite nation either. So they've got that going for them." "My word, it's taller than Elly!" "So I noticed." "Were you...talking to yourself?" "They even have religion! Oh, this is amazing! Tell us, please, about your Spider Lord!" "Hm, deity worship, not very advanced --" "Hey!" "-- but pretty par for a primitive culture. Well done, spiders! You have an excellent god."I should explain. I don't believe I have even once seen a friendly religion in the Exile/Avernum series (well, outside of the spiders, anyway) that involved worshipping an actual deity or other powerful being. The religions are all more like philosophies or ways of life; temples are locations for people to meditate on the meaning of the relevant religious path. People "worship" such diverse things as luck, fatalism, money, and thinking happy thoughts. I did not make any of those up. Evil religions are free to worship powerful beings, generally demons but the occasional drake or eyebeast gets in on the action too. Naturally this is so you can kill the god after you kill its worshippers. Anyway, back to the spiders!  "So how come you're all named Spider, anyway? How's anyone supposed to tell you apart?" "He sure showed you, One-Eye!" "He sure did, Elly. He sure did."  "Learning to weave webs, are we?" "Wait, the spiders have a regulatory system to make sure their webs are up to snuff?"  "I'm sure it's important to the spiders. They must use webs for all kinds of things!"  "I don't think I'll get used to a spider considering me cute." "Aww, look at you! What's the big news, buddy?" "Well, good luck! Procreation is very important."  "What's this finished mission, then?" We have no reason whatsoever to ask this guy, completely unprompted, about where to learn magic. Why is that even an option? But if we do:   "Honestly, I think Elly's just kind of in shock right now. She'll be fine."  "Ow." "Look on the bright side, it could have bit you." "Did you hear me complaining? I'm not complaining. I'm just in pain, that's all." "Wait, mean people? Like those ones you walled up in back?"  "That doesn't really narrow things down any." Something else to point out here: in the original game, instead of clicking on dialog options, you had a free-text field that you could type prompts into, like "name", "look", "job", etc. All of the spiders here responded to "mission" in various ways, which is why that word keeps cropping up. I bring this up because the big puzzle for this cave was figuring out that you had to ask this next spider, completely unprompted, about "mission" in order to get the local quest.  "Well, you seem a bit more dignified than most." "Squeaky voice kind of spoils the effect though." "Wait, did someone beat me to the punch? You guys know about cockroaches?" "Wait, Byff, you aren't seriously thinking about making intelligent cockroaches?" "He'd better not be!" "Say, we might be able to help you with this aranea problem, if the price is right." "So we've heard. Any more information?" "Wait. Rescue? You guys need help?" "It just occurred to me that you guys might not understand the concept of money. We have to get paid, y'know. And not in insects." "Intriguing." "We have to help them!" "Excellent, then we're agreed." "Hang on, you said when we were done here we'd kill them all! Why not just take the stupid reward?" "No, Elly, I said we'd kill a bunch of spiders, nonspecifically. I meant the aranea." "We can kill everything! It wouldn't take long!" "Elly! We are not killing a miracle of nature!" "Shaddup they're gross and their voices are grating and that one's braiding its leg hairs ugh I can't believe you guys are okay with this!" "Honestly, I've seen worse." "You have not." "You would not believe some of the clients I had to defend. Talking spiders are downright benign." "While y'all were having your crisis of conscience, I found another cubbyhole."  Just some common alchemy herbs. "Okay, it's hard to tell, but I think I've talked to all of the ones that are willing to chat." "So we can leave?" "I guess. Just as soon as I do some sketches. Ooh, and measure their molt skins. And collect some samples. And --" "Okay, you've had your fun. Let's go." "Aww."The spider cave map:  The walled-off section is in the north. It really is hard to keep track of which spiders you've spoken with, since they all look identical and have the same name. You basically just blunder around, staring slack-jawed at the bizarre conversations, until you run into the leader spider to get the quest. Then you emerge, blinking, into the light, and wonder what the hell just happened.  "Oh thank the Word."
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2015 02:46
|
|
|
TooMuchAbstraction posted:
 "Hey, no worry. Everyone knows cockroach bodies are too primitive to support complex rational thought."
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2015 03:45
|
|
|
Pierzak posted:
It worked so much better in E3, where you see the GIFTS, then these guys show up out of nowhere. Foreshadowing like this takes away some of the humor. Oh, and the mention of a Spider God is also a sly reference to a certain optional Superboss from Exile 1 to the west of this location. Is it still in this game, I wonder? berryjon fucked around with this message at 03:58 on Sep 24, 2015 |
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2015 03:53
|
|
|
It's not really out of nowhere, IIRC the GIFTS tell you where to find them. But hey. No big deal. It's not like it was a talking chitrach or something.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2015 03:58
|
|
|
Pierzak posted:But hey. No big deal. It's not like it was a talking chitrach or something.  "Next, you'll be telling me I'll find them on the Surface or something. Oh, Mother-of-Us-All, humor is such a weird state down here. Must be the last of sunlight."
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2015 04:02
|
|
|
berryjon posted:It worked so much better in E3, where you see the GIFTS, then these guys show up out of nowhere. Foreshadowing like this takes away some of the humor. I don't know that a spider talking about cockroaches is really foreshadowing. Now, Byff's dialog about those cockroaches was about as subtle as a brick, covered in sequins, doing the Thriller dance.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2015 04:41
|
|
|
TooMuchAbstraction posted:Now, Byff's dialog about those cockroaches was about as subtle as a brick, covered in sequins, doing the Thriller dance. I must have missed that part.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2015 05:05
|
|
|
Is there any way into the walled-off part? The party seems suspiciously quick to abandon poking around an area full of potential things to kill/loot.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2015 09:24
|
|
|
Presumably the spiders will dismantle the wall upon quest completion. Still, this area is... Uh, there's a really weird mix between gross and cute somewhere in there.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2015 10:11
|
|
|
One of my favourite things about this is how you meet all these slightly shellshocked people before actually getting there. Once you do you can sympathise with their freakouts.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2015 13:45
|
|
|
Nah those guys are jerks, the cute spiders are adorable 
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2015 17:38
|
|
|
Is it ever explained whence comes the gigantism, intelligence, friendliness, and talkitude of the spiders? Or do we just forget it, Jake, it's Avernum? There are more things in heaven and earth and also apparently under the earth.
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2015 05:14
|
|
|
Update 18: Aranea City; Northern Mop-Up "Oh thank the Word." "Good job, Elly. You handled that spider cave better than I thought you would!" "Wait, seriously?" "Heck no. Still, we and the world are still in one piece, and that's what matters, eh? Now let's go kill some spiders." "Music t'my ears. Squish, squish! Ha ha ha." "Uh, I for one vote that our priestess sober herself up." "Oooh, yeah. Wouldn't want to try to cast any spells while you're drunk, Elly." "Bahhhh, fine."  "Uh, why did my shirt just turn into a lizard and run off?" "No worries, I'll get it back."  "My meat stash!" "It belatedly occurs to me that the drunkenness cure is, itself, a spell." "Maybe you'd better just wait for it to wear off naturally then, Elly." "No, no, this is fun! Let's see what other misfires I can cause!" "Aw, geeze, run for it!"...  The aranea lair is pretty much straight west from the Giant Intelligent Friendly Talking Spiders. Amusingly, Byff levels up from the experience of discovering the lair -- you get a little experience every time you find a new location.  "Right, let's squish some bugs!" "Spiders." "S'what I said, innit?" "Ah, hell with it. Charge!"  "Hey, Kane?" "Yeah?" "Don't step in the magic circle." "...I wasn't planning on it, but okay."Kane and One-Eye can't quite one-shot Aranea, but that's okay. "Hey guys, I think I figured something out!" "'N wazzat?" "How to drive myself into a berserk rage!" Remember when I said Byff leveled up? One of his skillpoints went into Bows, and with the Discipline Blade he now has 15 points in basic combat skills.  "WHAAAAAARGH!" Y'know how Final Fantasy has Dualcast, and it's one of the most broken abilities you can get? Byff now has Triplecast. Sure, he can only use it every 5-6 turns, but it's still amazing. As for the Aranea, they know basic magic spells like Daze, Bolt of Fire, and Summon Beast. Daze is of course annoying, but the others are of no real consequence. They also have a fairly nasty poisonous melee, but they rarely get a chance to use it, and at this point they have trouble hitting us. "Hey, Byff, can you show me how to defang these things?" "Er, sure, but be careful. Aranea fangs are fragile." You'd think every aranea would drop a fang, but no. And no, as far as I'm aware they aren't valid alchemical ingredients in this game. That's a holdover from a previous one. On the other hand, aranea do frequently drop various scrolls and the lesser magical wands. Much better than some old teeth. "Hey, what's this rune do?" "No, wait, Elly!"  It just ensnares the entire party, but it wears off quickly. "Found a button."   "Yep, not feeling guilty about this one at all." "Nice change of pace from assaulting slith fishing villages, eh?" "Heads up; another button."  "What on earth...?" "A giant?" "Impossible, the bones are far too thin. I've never seen anything like it before." "Weird clothes, too. And check these out...some kind of throwing weapon?"  "Please, let me take these. Artifacts of a lost civilization must be carefully preserved."The Razordisks are an incredibly minor improvement over One-Eye's iron javelins, and given their irreplaceability they're not worth using anyway.  "Hey, they stuck a scroll in this web!" "Now the real question is, did they write these or steal them?"Some of the webs contain items; in this case, Group Heal and Radiate Ice scrolls.   "Jackpot!" "Bahhhh, spiders. Ỵ͓͈̰̺͔̪͆̃̋ͨ̽̾͗o͔̗̦̅̈̆̀ͅu̗͉̺̜̼͉͚̾̈́ͬ̆͋͒́̚ ̹͐ͯ͑͊̉̽ͤ͌̀h̺͈̞͎͚̦͉̪͑ͯă͈̰̯͚̪̇v̠͚͎̖̜͗ͩͩͫ͌ͮͅe̤̙͇͐ͤ͊ͪͪ ͓̞͚̑ṯ̗̭̘̥̦̋̓̄ͨ̿͗ͫo̰̼̜͍̻̝̟ͨ̿̉́̓ͣ̈́̌ͅö͓̪̱͋ͅ ̟͓̩̹͇͓̞̖̊͂̄̅̇̚m̖͚̪̲̹̺̎ͥͅā͈̣͓̝͓͖̳̆ͪ͂̍n̻ͮ̅y͎̖̪̥͖͈̰ͣͩͧ̿ͭ̊̎̔ͅ ̫̩̫̖̞̖̇̎̏͛̄ͣl̘̬͖͎̼ͯ̄ͤ̾̽ͨe͙̖̹̮̞̼ͣ̅̓̈́ͫͣ͂ͤͭg̺̫͈͈̮͍̰͚͍̔ͫͤͬ̊̃͌̓͗ṣ̼̙̘̠͂̅̅ͥͧͭͨ!̱̯̠͙̃̂͆̑"  "Agh! Watch where you point that thing!"There's two Aranea Watchers here, who are a heck of a lot more durable than standard Aranea. Even after Kane, One-Eye, and Byff all use Adrenaline Rush, they still have nearly half their hitpoints. And then they dazed Kane and One-Eye, of course. And we still can't cure mental afflictions.  "Hey boys, any time you feel like joining the fight, that'd be grand!" "In the name of the law, my head hurts..." "So does mine, you don't see me complaining!" "That's because every time you open your mouth, fireworks come out. Incidentally, could you please stop talking?" "Never!"  "C'mon, how do you read these things..." "Hey, maybe the magic circle will help?"  "That's a negative. Magic circles never help."There's also a Cave Demon and another imp just outside. Scaly Imps can cause slowness with their melee, but they don't hit at all often. Cave Demons of course we have killed before. On the plus side... "Nothing we can read, but I found a wand." "How do you tell a wand from a stick anyway?" "Easy. This end kills you if you touch it." In the remake, this little library had a spell you could learn, I forget which. It's been moved in the reremake, so now there's a boss fight of sorts, but no real reward beyond the wand.  "Ahh, whoops. Think we found the leader. Or else a spider with a penchant for collecting skulls." "Lemme at 'im! I'll tie his legs into knots!"An Aranea, two Aranea Watchers like we just fought, the Aranea Hivemaster, and a Mindless Hiveguard in the back. After our alpha strike is done, though, this is all that's left:  Adrenaline Rush is so, so good, you guys. The only problem is that triple-casting Icy Rain really does a number on Byff's spellpoint supply. The Hivemaster appears to just be an up-statted Watcher that can spew webs, which damage and ensnare. Handy at least for breaking the daze effect that the Watchers like to put on our fighters.  Meanwhile, his Hiveguard is a melee enemy whose job is to give the Hivemaster some time to cast his spells. He might have a strong melee attack, but I wouldn't know as he never landed a hit. "They aren't dying fast enough. Why aren't they dying?! I have got to learn some stronger attack spells." "Ah, the lament of the healer." "I'd be happy to teach you some magic, Elly!" "Byff? Are you really sure you want Elly to have access to more destructive magic?"It'll come eventually, Elly. Never fear. We aren't quite unstoppable gods in this dungeon; Byff gets badly hurt and could easily have died if we didn't slow down a bit to heal him up.  "Oh come on! He summoned a rat! Why couldn't it have been something pleasant?" "Like what?" "I don't know, a tomato?" On his own, the Hivemaster simply can't put out damage fast enough to be a threat. He mostly just inconveniences us with summons and debuff spells, and has a tediously large health pool.  "Ugh, it's getting goop on everything! These things can't even die cleanly!" "Score, more fangs! Don't mind if I do. Incidentally, Elly, you're carrying our fangs." We also get two Group Heal scrolls and a new shield:   That is going on Kane and very possibly never coming off, considering the amount of damage he could do if he got charmed. "Hm, cells. This is some surprisingly tough webbing; my sword's not doing a thing!" "By weight, spider silk is stronger than steel. And this stuff is probably enchanted, too." "Wait, seriously? Why are we all wearing metal armor then?" "Do you want to harvest silk from thousands of spiders to make a single shirt?" "...point taken." "More importantly, how do we get the cells open?" "Step on the magic circles?" "You're kidding." "Couldn't even use doorknobs like civilized people."Fortunately this doesn't actually summon anything, or even get us encased in spiderwebs. One of the cells is empty; the other:  "Wonderful. Can we leave now?" "What, and leave more evil spellcasting spiders behind us? You don't want to kill every last one of them?" "Oh fine, you sweet talker you." "Hang on, found a stash."  Just some crystals, a.k.a. money, and a Battle Crystal, which can be used for a group Regeneration + Spine Shield effect. A.k.a. money. I know I've leaned very heavily on consumables in the past, but some status effects are just not worth bothering with.  "I think this is the last of them!" "Demons. Why does every dungeon we explore have demons in it?" "Because demons are literally everywhere?"Just Scaly Imps, nothing serious. "Wait, literally everywhere? You're not speaking figuratively, are you?" "Demons all over the place. S'fact. They just can't reach us normally because they're, whaddayacallem, planar-ly shifted?" "She's right. No matter where you are, if you open a portal to the demonic plane then one'll come through in seconds. Stands to reason they're basically everywhere over there." "Thanks, now I won't sleep ever again." "I figure all the demon summoning's because it's an easy path to power. All you have to do is clear a path for the demon, and they'll lend their strength to you. Until they stab you in the back of course." "You'd think people would figure that one out eventually." "Hm, robe, used-up magic wand, skeleton. Guess this one didn't remember what demons do until it was too late."There really are some robes and a Wand of the Inferno with 2 charges left. And a kitchen knife.   "Okay, let's go --" "Yes!" "-- and tell the friendly spiders of our success." "No!" "Aww, c'mon! They probably have something nifty locked up back there!" "Bahhhh, fine." "You look a bit steadier on your feet now, Elly." "Nothing like a little battle rage to clear your head!"Before we go, here's the map. The "bookshelves" are in the northwest, the cell with the friendly spider is the other !, and the fight with the Hivemaster is right outside the cells. Otherwise, spiders are all over the place.   "Now, we need to find Spider to get him (her?) to open the passageway..." "Easier said than done. How can you tell one spider from another?" "Found it!" "What? How?" "Honestly, it's like you never learned to recognize the markings on animals in the wild." "No, I didn't!" "Mission accomplished, Spider. Now, about that fee..." "Excellent."  "Cripes, that's a lot of bodies." "Some of them still moving! Heads up!" The Burning Wight can cast an area-of-effect fire spell, but he's not a very good spellcaster, so it doesn't do much damage. This is a short fight, which is good considering Byff's almost tapped dry.  "The party mage died alone in a corner. How sad.  " "He probably was the one that raised those wights. In fact he probably was one of those wights. I'm not feeling sorry for him." "S'okay, I feel better now. Check this belt!" What does Byff need with strength anyway? "Hey, Byff, this look familiar to you?" "Hm, definitely of a set with the ivory brooch we found in Motrax's home. Still don't know what they do yet, though."Other than the brooch, the rest of the bodies have various low-grade equipment on them; nothing interesting.  There's a few special encounters in the area "outside". We can fight a group of aranea for a mummified nephilim who has a Girdle of Nimbleness belt (+1 dexterity), and we can help a group of Avernite soldiers against two aranea and a bunch of giant spiders -- no loot, but it improves our reputation. And there's this:  But that's it for this area. Here's the map:  The aranea city is on the west, with the GIFTS nearly straight east of them and Fort Draco southeast of that. "Let's get rid of these aranea fangs, please. I don't want to be bitten by the remains of a dead spider while I'm digging through my pack for a drink." "Hello, darling! We got rid of some nasty spiders for you!" They're worth 50 gold apiece, which is a pretty decent bounty. There aren't very many aranea in the game, though, so it's hard to capitalize on. The area around Fort Draco has several mines.  "Let's check it out!" "Looking for any gold ore they just happened to leave lying around?" "Well hey, you never know..."  But lest you think all of the mines are pointless...   ...they are. Yep.   "Want to kill some more spiders, Elly?" "Not particularly?" "Too bad. Yoink." Just two more aranea and some giant spiders. The wand is an Oozing Wand (acid AOE), which is no longer really interesting. "Hey, thanks for indulging me on the spiders, everyone. I owe you, Elly." "Aw, it's okay, Byff. I'll cope. With therapy." "Anyway, we should probably check out the river now. There must be something important here." "I agree. Anyone who goes to the effort to hide where you can't reach them on foot? They've gotta be worth checking out." "Or...there could be nothing whatsoever along the river?" "Nah, I don't buy that. Why would there be a river then?"   "See? A bunch of junk!"  "Well, at least it's a change of pace."They're so weak we're given the option to skip the encounter, which means it was just Giant Lizards. The reward is also weak -- 93 coins and some iron greaves, heavy leg armor.  "My word, that's a lot of bone." "Not even the decency to leave any discarded equipment behind." "Hello, what's this? A farmhouse in the middle of the wilderness?"  "The notes! Get the notes!" "Ha! I have the recipe! I can make this!" "All right Byff!" "I just need the ingredients -- heck, we have those already -- a heat source, a silvered cauldron, some graduated flasks and measuring spoons, a distillation rig, a titrator, some very high-quality scales, a thermometer, a syringe, and a magically sound-deadened room." "Ahh, that last one may be difficult to find." "What? But it's absolutely vital! It says here that even minute vibrations can disrupt the superheated solution and make it explode! Violently!" "Would a magically sound-deadened room look like it has a bunch of weird wedge shapes on the walls?" "Yes! Where did you see that?" "The cottage, back room. Completely wrecked though." "No! No no no no no." "drat it! I finally get a chance to practice some alchemy and I can't get the gear I need to do it!" "Take heart, chum. We'll figure something out. Maybe you can adapt the notes, find a workaround." "And meanwhile, we'll keep an eye out for quiet places. They...may be hard to find, though." "Oh well. Back to the slog then, I guess."Off a side-passsage from the cave with the cottage:  "Ho hum, more dead bodies." A Scroll of Return Life, and no, taking it doesn't get us attacked. The spiders already got all they want from these guys.  "Wow. This is a sizable river."  "Wonder where Grahk's buried." "Considering what we've heard of the First Expedition, he probably isn't. Just lying on an old battleground somewhere." "Maybe he got eaten!" "Humans...what would any sane person be doing out here?" "We're out here." "I repeat my question." "Looks like they've set up a mining operation, actually." "Smart boys, those." "Well, let's check the mines out, then!"   The first five of these are pointless, since you can never sell items for more than you paid for them and those crystals have no other use than to be sold. Battle Crystals do Spine Shield + Regeneration for the party, Purging Crystals cast Mass Curing (removing physical ailments from the party) -- and Piercing Crystals cast Dispel Barrier level 1. This would be quite handy, but it's not strong enough for any of the really important barriers in the game. It'll get you past the stuff that guards minor treasure, but I don't think you can complete any quests using just Piercing Crystals, nor get the valuable stuff like new spells or unique equipment. In the original game, though, Piercing Crystals could plausibly be used as a complete replacement for the Dispel Barrier spell. In fact, Exile 3 has a conduct you can undertake where you pledge to never cast magical spells at all (priest spells are still allowed), and it's only possible because making the pledge also grants access to a store that sells Piercing Crystals in unlimited quantities. Of course, we have the spell, and aren't about to piss Byff off by refusing to use his skills, so this is kind of pointless for us. There's one more point of interest along the river as we follow it east towards Formello and past the Nephilim Fort.  "Hm, obsidian. Must be a volcanic vent nearby."   "Wow, someone takes their privacy seriously!"In the original game, you actually had to walk on live magma to make it to this tower -- or find a secret passage and a single tile of non-damaging magma. Not sure which approach I like better; this one is more imposing, frankly, but less interesting game-mechanically.  "Someone takes their defenses seriously. Look at these blast marks!" "Oh, that's just demons exploding when they die. That happens sometimes." "Fascinating! Do you know why?" "Heck no. They're demons. Who cares?" "If we could figure it out, maybe we could replicate it. Explosions are useful!" "Boys."  "Tower of Solberg. Beware the traps. No trespassing." "Trespassers will be poached and/or boiled." "One-Eye? Take point, and keep an eye out." "Hey, this is obviously a wizard's house. I'm not taking the blame for accidentally triggering any magical traps." "How about for disturbing a bunch of hostile lizards?" "Okay, yeah, I'll cop to that one."Three Fire Lizards and a Drake. Fortunately, Fire Lizards are chumps now, because the Drake is pretty nasty; it gets double turns and has a fairly strong fire breath. On its own, it can't hurt us badly though.  "Hm, a dead mage. Hope this isn't Solberg." "Maybe it was one of his enemies!"We get a Ruby and an Ensnaring Wand -- both to be sold. Attack wands are mostly too weak to be worthwhile now that we have proper AOE attack spells. Kane and One-Eye each have a few items for when their normal attacks aren't enough, but that doesn't happen at all often.  "Cosy little tower, this. Reminds me of home...if home were a blasted hellscape." "You had a tower, Byff?" "More a house with ambition, really."  "Hello? We seek audience with Solberg!" "C'mon, help me lift the gate, Kane." "Ha. Like we could defeat a magical security system that easily. C'mon, guys, we'll have to find the password elsewhere." "Bah, phooey." "Back to the ship!" "Boat." "Hang on, we're back at Formello!" "Guess that's it for the northlands then." "Time to move on? To greener, less spider-infested caverns?" "Well, not quite yet. Who wants to visit the hot springs again?" "By the Word I thought you'd never ask." "Ahhhhhhhhh." "So, recommendations on where to go next?" "You know my vote. Tower of the Magi, down south." "Yeah, but we just did two things you wanted to do." "That boat ride hardly counts! It was short!" "You owe me for the spiders, Byff." "Then you owe me for Motrax." "Anyway, much as I'd love to harp on the Castle some more, that talk of the Orb of Thralni intrigues me. That old fogey at Motrax's cave said it was in some waterfall maze west of the sliths." "Ooh! We could go investigate that huge slith fort en route!" "What about you, Kane? Where do you want to go?" "Right now? I just want to soak a bit and forget about the rest of the world. Anyone got a beer?"
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2015 04:29
|
|
|
I think that now is a good time to place bet son what intimate relationships form in the group. My guess: Byff and Kane end up in a passive-aggressive civil partnership. Elly goes out on one date with One-Eye... he makes her pay and then never calls back.
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2015 04:53
|
|
|
Oh! Right, it is voting time! Pretty simple this time: * Do we go west in search of Thralni's Orb? And if we do, do we go fight the sliths even though we haven't been told to yet? I'm pretty sure we have everything we need to be able to complete that dungeon. * Or do we go south to the Tower of the Magi?
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2015 04:58
|
|
|
TooMuchAbstraction posted:* Do we go west in search of Thralni's Orb? And if we do, do we go fight the sliths even though we haven't been told to yet? I'm pretty sure we have everything we need to be able to complete that dungeon. South Also" quote: You know, I really dislike just how much more these guys are in the first Re(re)make. It was so much more interesting when there were just subtle hints, tiny clues in out of the way places that they existed.Something... Alien perhaps?
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2015 06:30
|
|
|
Let's go South, if only to shut Byff up. We've put it off long enough. Plus there's a decent chance we'll learn more about the horrors of teleportation.
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2015 08:26
|
|
|
Go South I'm keen on you exploring that section of the game.
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2015 08:30
|
|
|
Go South if only for the much hinted quality of like stuff available there.
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2015 10:09
|
|
|
Huh. I don't know if Battle Crystals hasting (13 AP) the entire party was an Avernum 6 or a re-remake of 2 thing, but that made them insanely valuable for big fights. One change that find rather terrible about items was having Wisdom Crystals grant XP rather than outright skill points. In Avernum 6, every single Knowledge brew was cause for celebration, as you could probably apply it for the next measurable effectiveness increase right away. Here, they're just another consumable to be hoarded forever, and their application isn't nearly so dramatic.
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2015 11:14
|
|
|
West! Screw logical plot progression, we gotta have some heroic deeds along before we go south, so we can flex our muscles and impress the wizard nerds.
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2015 12:41
|
|
|
Xander77 posted:Huh. I don't know if Battle Crystals hasting (13 AP) the entire party was an Avernum 6 or a re-remake of 2 thing, but that made them insanely valuable for big fights. Battle Crystals in the re-remakes is only a damage shield and regeneration just as TooMuchAbstraction said. I actually find the regeneration effect to be rather useful at times but yeah, nothing like what a haste would be.
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2015 13:08
|
|
|
berryjon posted:
You seem determined to dislike the reremake.  Honestly I think there's all of three instances of these guys in the game? And one of them is the big honking "THIS IS IMPORTANT" one that's in the original game as well. They get more text, but everything in the reremake gets more text, so that's to be expected.Munin posted:Battle Crystals in the re-remakes is only a damage shield and regeneration just as TooMuchAbstraction said. I actually find the regeneration effect to be rather useful at times but yeah, nothing like what a haste would be. Regeneration is quite nice, don't get me wrong. Spine Shield is borderline worthless, though; as far as I can tell it doesn't reduce the damage you take at all, it just causes your attacker to take a pittance of extra damage. It's far more dangerous in the hands of the enemy than it is when your party is the beneficiary. The haste effect comes from Speed Burst scrolls, which we made heavy use of in slith lands. I think there may be a later item that does the party-wide AP bonus for a longer duration, but if so we haven't found it yet.
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2015 17:27
|
|
|
TooMuchAbstraction posted:You seem determined to dislike the reremake. Pardon me while I put on my old-fogy hat for a moment. Yes, I don't like this game. Too much change for the sake of change, where Vogel goes back and tries to do some heavy-handed foreshadowing for when he redoes the next game again. The dumbing down of combat, the thinning out of world-building events, and the (apparent) shrinking of the world to accommodate the new graphics engine just don't sit well with me. I'll still watch the LP. No sense in turning away from good party banter. TooMuchAbstraction posted:Honestly I think there's all of three instances of these guys in the game? And one of them is the big honking "THIS IS IMPORTANT" one that's in the original game as well. It's been a while, but I only remember off the top of my head the two points in the original game - the Alien Blade and the Crypt of Drath as being hints to them. I'll go back through my LP later to hunt down other references. edit - ah yes, that Ghost as well. That's three. Certainly not their equipment just laying around in multiple places for people to find.
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2015 18:47
|
|
|
TooMuchAbstraction posted:Regeneration is quite nice, don't get me wrong. Spine Shield is borderline worthless, though; as far as I can tell it doesn't reduce the damage you take at all, it just causes your attacker to take a pittance of extra damage. It's far more dangerous in the hands of the enemy than it is when your party is the beneficiary. Yup, totally agree. It is one of the spells where the game being balanced around the party having high damage and low health and the enemies the opposite becomes the most glaringly apparent. The effect is essentially identical whether it is used by the party or by enemies and hence whilst it barely deals chip damage to enemies it takes away a significant percentage of PC health.
|
|
#
?
Sep 30, 2015 00:36
|
|
|
Current vote is 4 for south and 1 for west. I'll call the voting this evening, so get those votes in!
|
|
#
?
Sep 30, 2015 18:56
|
|
|
We're off to see the wizards! (south)
|
|
#
?
Sep 30, 2015 20:07
|
|
|
South, I feel bad for Byff. He deserves to wield more true cosmic power
|
|
#
?
Sep 30, 2015 20:42
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2024 18:29 |
|
|
West to make Byff sad.
|
|
#
?
Sep 30, 2015 22:52
|
|
