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At the beginning of this year, I decided to start up a Let's Play of this old fantastic game by Dynamix called 'Betrayal at Krondor'. Unfortunately, circumstances beyond my control in late April and early May of 2013 (such as computer meltdowns and family medical emergencies) meant that I had to put the LP on hold for for some time. The first thread has therefore fallen into the abyss of the archives.    I'm back and ready to go. Let's do this thing!  Table of Contents Previous Betrayal at Krondor Thread 'Resolving to Escort Gorath to Krondor in 2013' (Covers Chapter 1 Updates 1 - 16, Requires Archives) Table of Contents Chapter 1 Update 01: Introduction Update 02: Squire Philip, Chests and Baby's First Battle Update 03: Let's talk about the Backstory Update 04: Arrival into LaMut Update 05: Look but don't touch (or alternatively  )Update 06: Mac Mordain Cadall Update 07: Interlude 1: Treasures and Training Update 08: Interlude 2: Ratings and Skills. Also Locklear's Mustache. Update 09: Yabon to Tyr-Sog Update 10: Whereupon the validity of the plan to knock on every door is questioned Update 11: Owyn deals out some fiery death of his own Update 12: It really is lovely this time of year down at Hawk's Hollow Update 13: Reading is good for you! Update 14: Enjoy this mediocre update  Update 15: Just a slight detour Update 16: Death of a Thread Update 17: Rebooting Update 18: Who doesn't love a happy ending? Update 19: It's Krondor, baby, yeah! Update 20: End of Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Update 21: Shadow of the Nighthawks Update 22: Jimmy the Hand is a badass Update 23: Roads just ain't safe anymore Update 24: Don't trust anybody Update 25: Confronting Issac, and a grainy quest Update 26: Earning our merit badges in barn opening Update 27: loving Trolls Update 28: Highcastle Update 29: Wrinkly Old Men Update 30: "Golden Treasure" Update 31: Learn the Lute with Tamney the Minstrel in Just Three Easy Lessons! 75 Sovereigns! Satisfaction Guaranteed! NO REFUNDS! Update 32: More Bread! Update 33: Chests on the Brain Update 34: Cavall Keep Update 35: Exploring the Wilderness Update 36: Frolicing in the Forest Update 37:  Update 38: Come to the Swamp. Get your Fortune told Update 39: Lots of new faces Update 40: Owyn has a seizure Update 41: On Thanksgiving Day we play chess and go to Temple. Update 42: Talking and Stabbing Update 43:  Update 44: 'But first, let's see what's happening back in LaMut...' Update 44: End of Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Update 45: The Spyglass and the Spider Update 46: Pending  First post of the new thread starts here with Update 17! Technically Update 17: Rebooting  That's where we left off. Mostly. The difference is that the pirates were alive before and about to attack us. Guess I played out the combat and subsequently lost the screenshots. Despite the fact that we are told that they looked quite insane, we don't know what at this moment was the problem with them. We'll go into the temple next to them in just a minute, but for the benefit of everybody rejoining here, a slight recap of what has happened thus far. Recap posted:It was some time ago, that Locklear had encountered Gorath, a Moredhel from the North who had information to convey to the Kingdom. Taking Gorath prisoner, Locklear intends to bring him south to Krondor to meet with Prince Arutha. Unfortunately, they are waylaid by Moredhel assassins on the way. At one such stop, they run into a young man named Owyn, who has some limited talent with magic. Owyn bandages Locklear up. Shortly thereafter Gorath straight up murders another assassin who entered into their camp, and Locklear shanghais Owyn into coming with them.  "That's more or less what happened." Rest of Conversation posted:... someday. Our place is in service to both the earth mother and those who worship her. Remember." "It's been five minutes, let's bother the high priestess again." "Well shucks. Guess we might as well go look for the Collector then."Next time: We find The Collector! Snugglecakes fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Apr 20, 2015 |
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Aug 3, 2013 01:27
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Update 18: Who doesn't love a happy ending? We have been charged with finding the Collector and sending him up to the temple of Silban for his "reward". We don't know exactly where to find this guy, but given that his last known location was Eggley, it is reasonable to assume that he is lurking around somewhere near there.  Not too far away from the temple of Silban is this house and barn. Perhaps the occupant can be of assistance? "We can only hope."The door swung open.  "4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42, 4, 8, we're dead, 15, doomed and dead, 16, 23..." "Uh, hello?" "8, 15, I mean. Oh hello, Good day to you fine sirs!" ... the money down, but the man insisted. They thanked him for his kindness and generosity, then they left.  "Locklear, I don't remember the Priestesses telling us to speak with Franklin Hurley, do you?" "Not really, the past few months have been kind of a hazy blur for me. I'm not complaining though, unasked for cash rewards are always welcome." We did a brief search of Eggley but no trace of the Collector there. We head south to the next city, Tanneurs. The best place to look for clues is always a busy inn, anyway. "If by 'clues', you mean ladies, then I agree."  Tom's Tavern is a good place to check. If we hover the mouse over the gentlemen on the left it pops up with a "Talk", which usually indicates that they have some importance. "Sure, but first, let's talk to the fetching young woman on the right."  Conversation with Fetching Lady posted:The woman talked.  "Bloody peasant!"This was just one of the interesting flavor added in when you talk to random people at the bar. Speaking of talking to random people, let's see if we can learn anything about the Collector.   Interesting. Seem The Collector is here at the tavern in the back room. Let's go pay him a visit.  His greed blinds him to asking questions such as "Well, how do you know that?" or "Why are you telling me?", or really doing any kind of research.  Locklear and Co., hoof it all the way back to the temple of Silban to see what happens as result.   The priestess nodded. "I have arranged for a few healing potions to be given to you as well as small sum of gold. You will have them before you leave the temple. I must leave you now to begin dispensing justice on this Collector. Goddess blessing on you." "If he survives? Sounds... intense." "... Let's see if we can talk to her again!"  "Worth a shot. Let's go back to Eggley. Now with the Collector out of the way, things should go back to normal. Right?" Aw, yay!  The Stranger is populated with all manner of shifty people once again. The smell of vomit and spilled beer, ah yes. All is as it should be! "Come in and join the celebration! Welcome to The Stranger!" "What are you celebrating?"  "A new life here in Eggley! You remember I told you that on the night I arrived something very peculiar happened? All the townspeople disappeared, vanished without a trace. When they didn't come back, I decided to stay here and see what happened, maybe take over the tavern ... drat me if they didn't all decide to come back!" "That's good news, isn't it?" "All taken, I think so, though I don't know what the ultimate fate of my tending this tavern will be. Still haven't heard what's become of the tavern keeper, but while I am still here, I suppose I ought to act like one. What can I get you?"Goodbye "Congratulations on Eggley's rebirth, Devon. I hope everything works out here so you can hold on to the tavern." "One way or the other, it's been fun, so I have no regrets however it turns out." "That's good to hear. so long, barkeep!" "Well that was nice, wasn't it? Owyn... are you crying?" "I love a happy ending."  "Yes, everything turned out well for everybody involved." "Except for the Collector." "Everybody we like."Next Time: It's Krondor, baby, yeah! Snugglecakes fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Aug 9, 2013 |
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Aug 3, 2013 02:50
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Psion posted:Now the real acid test is, in the time between then and now have you mastered skill selection? Mastered the what now? Update 19: It's Krondor, baby, yeah!   "It's good to be home. The beautiful sights, the amazing smells." "Oh dear Gods, the horrible smells."  If you recall, last time we were here we were unable go in the front gates because that would be too easy. We were given a hint by the guardsman that Locklear's friend, James, has been missing. James can probably help us get into the palace, so we should look for him. Given what we know, he is probably lurking around underneath the city. Therefore, we must consider going in the alternate way...  Right in through the sewers.  "No, but I'm looking forward to seeing how Gorath handles the stench down here as opposed to topside."   In we go.   "Somehow I was expecting smaller passages, and rivers of sewage to wade through."We don't get too far into Krondor's sewers when we encounter a thief, but not the thief that we are looking for.  "Who goes there?" "And I thought I looked stupid." Locklear is pulling rank here. Let's see if it works...  "Fast with a blade I am. Step any further and I'll do you, I will!" "The only thing you will do my young friend is die an unfortunate death on the point of my sword. I used to spar with Jimmy the Hand and I'm a faster blade than he. Do you still wish to cross me?" "Jimmy the Hand? He's a legend, sire. Next you'll be telling me you've lain with the Empress Lakeisha of Kesh... I'd advise you to be nice like, however cause I got five blokes waiting a little on down to make sure nothing happens to me, see. I don't suppose you've come on behalf of Seigneur James have you?" "Seigneur James? Then you don't... well, perhaps we have." "Alright then, down to tacks. If he didn't send you, you'll be answering to the Upright Man and not me, so I wash my hands of it. Just watch your steps down here, as there's a bit of trouble going on down here. G'day." "Wait... we don't know our way around down here." "I look like a bloody page to you? I've got affairs of me own whats I gots to do..." "Just answer a few questions?" "Right then, so long as you don't ask me anything what might get me in the hots with the Nightmaster. What you want to know?"PICKLOCKS "You wouldn't happen to have an extra set of picklocks laying about, would you?" "Could be I would. That would depend on what you have to offer me, now wouldn't it?" "How about a royal pardon the next time you end up in the hands of the City Guard?" "Oh, that'd be very nice. How about the Prince's palace while you're about it?! I'd have to be cockle-headed and three pence short to buy in on a fib what like you just told. No quicker than you're out the Highway, and you'd have forgotten it in a Mocker minute. You'll have to do better." "How about gold?" "That's the language. Twenty five gold sovereigns. Take it or leave it?"HELL NO "Given my options, I choose to leave it. I could buy a set of picklocks and a week's rations for that price. You'll never be a success as a merchant with prices like that." "Not my ambition. I much prefer it down here if it's all the same to you."GOODBYE "I'll be off now as I've got business with the Upright Man. You'll have to come and tell me some more of your fables about Jimmy the Hand." "Perhaps we will. Thanks for your help."Way to show off your fine diplomatic skills, Locklear. "... Go gently caress yourself."We have an entire sewer to map out. There isn't much to it in Chapter 1 though. Most of the passages loop round and meet up with one another, and the encounters are mostly with your typical groups of rogues.  Nothing to write home about. We rest when we need to, and run out of the sewers to sell surplus gear whenever we start to carry around too much. One thing to note, is that as we travel around the sewers, there will occasionally be grates leading to the palace.  Like so. One problem is that we have a find a certain key that will open the locks.  We have another problem though.  Most of the grates' locks have been tampered with, and nothing will open them. In fact, there is only one entrance to the palace and you have to click on each of the locks to see which one has not been tampered with. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, we still have to find the key. We continue to map out the sewers, and encounter the game's first pit trap.  It isn't too dangerous if you see it coming, and have rope to get across. If you do fall in though...  "You must believe, boy. You must... believe." You die.  Guess we didn't have enough faith. Sorry dad. "Locklear never really believed in the grail. He thought he'd found a prize."As we explore the western part of the sewers, we are suddenly ambushed by a rampaging horde of ninjas!     Actually these are nighthawks, and since they dress in all black, they can be difficult to spot as you wander around or at night. They can be significantly more dangerous then the other enemies that we've encountered so far, but these ones don't cause us too much trouble.   Just as they are hard to spot when they are alive, it is also difficult to find the right bodies to click on after they are dead too. This becomes an issue later on when you end up fighting, oh say, seven or eight of them. Now that we've cleared out this small band of nighthawks, we push on just a little bit farther, and then...      "Not Nighthawks. Impostors. Someone has been trying to convince Prince Arutha that the Guild of Death has reestablished operations here in Krondor and is using the sewers as their hideout, hoping that the Lancers will come down and clean out the place. In doing so, I think whoever is running this game hopes that the Lancers will root out the Mockers while they are at it." "What, take out the Guild of Thieves? Doesn't seem likely from all the things you've told me from your days as a Mocker." "More to the point, we know now a few of the Nighthawks escaped to Romney when we smashed them up after that affair with Princess Anita. They certainly won't dare tread Krondor's streets for a while yet. I'd been tracking around down here trying to find out more when I ran into those fellows... So...why have you come back so soon to Krondor, Locky? I thought you were going to be gone another four months or so." "I've got bad news from the Northlands. Looks like the Dark Brothers are stirring again. They raised Murmandamus' battle standards over Sar-Sargoth and there's a moredhel army gathering to attack the Kingdom. This moredhel used to be one of their clan chieftains, something of a hero during the Riftwar against the Tsurani too. I thought Prince Arutha would be interested in talking to him." "I don't like this, Locky. The moredhel stirring again in the north and someone mimicking the Guild of Death... My bump of trouble says that things are going to get far worse before they get better... I assume since you're down here that you're trying to get into the palace the way I showed you a few years ago?" "Yes... I was thinking I would have to pry off the grate somehow, but if you have the key, it would save me a great deal of trouble." "Still on me. It's all yours. I can find my own way into the palace. I'm going to creep around a while longer down here and see if I can unravel this particular mystery." "Suit yourself. I, for one, am anxious to get out of this hole. Come and get me for breakfast tomorrow after I've spoken to Prince Arutha!"Excellent - We now have got ourselves a brand new key to the palace.  With the rest of the sewers cleared out for the moment, we head back to the only grate that still works, and unlock it...  Next Time: The End of Chapter 1
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Aug 4, 2013 20:19
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Update 20: End of Chapter 1  Finally, after all this time traveling, we get to meet the fabled Prince Arthua.  Who doesn't look anything like you'd expect him to look. Same with Pug.   "That's all I ever wanted."           Next Time: Chapter 2: Shadow of the Nighthawks 
Snugglecakes fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Aug 9, 2013 |
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Aug 4, 2013 20:48
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Chapter 2 Update 21: Shadow of the Nighthawks            "He is leader in name only. However bitter a draught Delekhan may be for your kith and kin to drink, magician, his rule is black poison in the gullets of me and mine. Already he enslaves my cousins and rapes the land." "Bloody his nose, Prince of Krondor. Blunt his swords and the unified tribes will cast him down in wrath. Let him cross your Northern border, however, and ten other clans will join their strength to his and the legacy of Murmandamus will but a spark next to his glory." "Where would you have me send my troops? If indeed he intends a strike against one of our northernmost possessions, which castle shall I garrison for the attack? Highcastle? Ironpass? Northwarden? If I am to fight a war, by my teeth tell me where would you have me fight it!" "Would that I could tell you! Delekhan holds in good confidence only a handful of cowering dogs and, among them, only a few are privy to his war plans. his private councils are restricted to choice individuals, his advisers Narab and Nago, his mistress Liallan, his son Moraeulf and --- Nighthawks!" "He keeps foul company that leader of yours..." "Your highness, if you give me leave, I believe I can find the evidence of Delekhan's intent. i will need someone to accompany me to Romney and supplies for my journey and a small parcel of gold." "Romney? What do you think you can find in a provincial river town in the heart of the Kingdom?" "I aim to catch a bird in flight. of late Delekhan has emptied a good deal of his treasury to revive the service of the Nighthawks. In exchange he has demanded tactical information about Kingdom holdings..." "He's turned the Guild of Assassins into a guild of spies?" "Only for a time. Although the payments have been left in various hidden locales, the messengers were always sent to a rendezvous in Romney. If I go there, I may be able to intercept information concerning a forthcoming attack. Would such evidence suffice?" "Perhaps." "drat me but I don't trust you Gorath. How do I know that this isn't a plot of yours? We can weigh the evidence to our hearts content and your cousins could be slitting the throats of my serfs as we sit dawdling..." "Go to Romney, but you will provide for yourself. if this is part of some secret moredhel scheme, I'll not look the fool before the world. Pug, unroll the map for me..."     "So an attack at Northwarden seems unlikely." "Leaving Highcastle." "Which is a viable alternative, but neither target seems to have an obvious goal. I know you are no field strategist and you hate to become involved in state matters but I should like you to delay your return to your home at Stardock for a while. I feel... ill at ease." "You are not alone in that. I too have sensed something unusual in the air, but I won't ascribe it to anything as dire as magic. More likely we suffer from bad soup." "James will send word to me there." "What of the garrison?" "Now we wait. Gods help Gorath if he betrays us to the moredhel." Control is returned to us at this point. Chapter 1 is done, and now our mission in Chapter 2 is... another escort mission.   Actually it's not so bad. We are saying goodbye to Locklear for a bit, and now have control of James instead, as well as Gorath. (nobody cares about Owyn) Enemies in this chapter start to get a little bit tougher, you'll continue to face the standard fare moredhel and rogues, but now you also have to content with nighthawks, and a few other surprises depending on which way you go. Right now we are inside the palace, and this woman wearing her bathrobe is looking placidly at us. Might as well say hello. It's what Locklear would have done.  "I am glad to see you safe again in Krondor."   "You've just missed him. He and Makala went off to discuss magic someplace and if I know my husband, that means I won't see him for a few days. Even on holiday, he can't seem to take his mind away from the art for long."Typical artists, am I right?  "In many ways, he and the Prince are much alike. Where is Arutha anyway?" "Out with his twins and the Princess Anita. It seems your famed luck is running thin today." "Quite the contrary, for I still have your company. If I may have a moment..." "As much time as you need. What may I do for you?"GAMINA "So, when do I get to meet this stunning daughter of yours? I've heard quite a bit about Gamina, but I've been too busy to make the time to meet her." "I imagine you will see her as soon as I do. She's more than likely trailing Pug and Makala about the palace. Any opportunity to hear her father discuss magic and she's immediately at his side. Then too, it may be she's hiding away from Arutha's twins. She's not quite interested in boys yet."Take that as a hint, James.  MAGIC SUPPLIES "I know that quite a few of the artificers in Stardock have begun exporting their goods from the Academy. Are there any good places to buy magical items near here?" "The most notable one that's close is a little place called Stardock Annex at the Abbey of Ishap at Sarth. officially they have no ties with the Academy, but there's not much we can do to keep them from using the name. There's also a fellow by the name of Dabeh who buys from us, but he lives a long distance from here, out north of Romney if I recall."Lucky for us then that we are going to Romney!  There isn't much else to do in the Palace. There is a room here that we can enter, we can also go back down the sewers or exit out the front way, but as we are trying to be somewhat inconspicuous, we'll not go out the front. Still, let's check out what is in the side room here.   Indeed Locklear does. Everything that he was carrying on him is left behind in Krondor after Chapter 1. we can make good use of this to grab his items either for James to use or for the party to sell later on. Additionally, this side room is always available and useful for dropping things off that you want to keep. As you can tell, we have just James and Locklear in this chapter. (again, nobody cares about Owyn) We also get to keep all the gold from the previous chapter too, and at 1400, we're sitting pretty comfortably right now.  James is kind of 'Meh' overall. His speed is good but that melee score needs improvement. The only place where he really stands out is his lockpicking ability.  We'll get a better sense of the kind of man he is as we continue on in the game though. That's it for now though, next time we'll go back to the sewers and start making our way to Romney.
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Aug 5, 2013 20:53
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Xander77 posted:I have never once had a decent James. I've spared all the possible training for him, I took him on a trip around the world... not only did he never match up to Gorath, but... well, he never matched up to anyone is all I'm saying. Funny that you should say that.  Update 22: Jimmy the Hand is a badass   We head back into Krondor's reeking sewers. I've already mapped out the sewers last chapter, but with the start of a new chapter, more dangerous enemies have spawned and eagerly await us.  Since I know that that James is much better with locks then Locklear, I move the guys on up to an area where there was a chest that I couldn't open before circled in blue. There is also a group of enemies to the north circled in red, which we'll deal with soon enough.  (Can you guess what I am missing in my key inventory above?) As we examine the lock, a message pops up that I've never seen before.  Sheesh! Small wonder I've never seen it before, I've never run out of lockpicks! Here I neglected to have James pick up the ones that Locklear had left behind. Oopsie doodles! We hoof it back to the palace to grab the lockpicks and make it back to open the chest.  Ooh, a new spell! Too bad we don't have a magician who can use it. Having opened the chest, I move to engage the enemies just north of us because I want to try James out and see how well he performs in battle.   Instead of opting to bum rush the magician (Which is what I should have done) James instead fires off a poisoned quarrel at him.  Which hits, doing a good chunk of damage. That the quarrel was poisoned also means that there is a good chance that the magician will be poisoned and will continue to lose health/stamina each turn.  However, the magician decides to ruin my day, and paralyzes Gorath. This is a good reminder not to gently caress around with enemy spellcasters. As I know from the previous chapter, he if decides to do the same kind of spell on James, it's game over for me.  A great thing about James is that he is fast. I rectify my previous mistake by telling James to charge the enemy magician. Gorath is just poo poo out of luck, but he's a tank so he'll absorb a lot of hits from the others before he goes down.  It takes some flailing about the battlefield, but James takes down the magician. The rest of the enemy are focused on attacking Gorath. They continue to hit him too. If Gorath goes down, James will have a hard time taking on all of them by himself.  James takes down one of the remaining enemy. He has two left, one focused on Gorath but now one is focused on him. I'm just waiting for the spell on Gorath to wear off so he can contribute.  The spell doesn't wear off, but it doesn't matter. James takes out the last remaining enemy on his own. Hell, he took out all the enemies on his own.  "They didn't call me 'Jimmy the Hand' for nothing, you know."I am very impressed. Normally James just isn't that great when you first get him. For whatever reason, the James I have in this game is kicking rear end so far.  The magician had this powder bag on him, which makes me suspect that is what he used to paralyze Gorath. This also explains while Gorath was out of commission for the entire battle. The spell that has the same paralyzing effect usually wears off faster. "Mine now, bitches. Yoink!" After resting for a few days, I decide to have the guys get out of the sewers. While I could have avoided the previous encounter, there isn't a way to avoid these guys.   They get the jump on us, and they have not one, but two magicians in their group. I'm starting to get worried. As soon as I can, I have James rush the first magician that is closest to him, which will prevent him from spellcasting. I do have to worry about the magician closer to Gorath though.  Or not! The magician by Gorath didn't cast a spell, instead he wandered a bit closer for some reason, while the one James was chasing after predictably runs away.  Gorath gets in a hit, but not enough to take him down. James assists.  Only for me to be rewarded with another bag of powder thrown into Gorath's face.   Still, just as in the last battle, James is fast enough to chase down the magician and take him out before he tries the same trick again.  The rest of the battle plays out the same as before, only difference is that Gorath recovers at the last second and gets in the final blow against the last remaining enemy in what I assume is a fit of rage after being pepper sprayed twice already. We get close to the exit, and then...  Who could it be?!  Locklear? Prince Arutha? Pug? .... Squire Philip? Oh. It's just Owyn.   "Well, after Seigneur Locklear dumped me off after we got here and told me I could go home, I got bored and decided to check out Krondor. Unfortunately there's nothing much interesting going on here, so I decided I would come back to the palace. I tired to pay Gorath an unexpected visit last night, but discovered that the guards had been doubled with orders that no one could see him. I might have fallen for it if I hadn't heard someone snoring in his cell." "Gorath doesn't snore I take it?" "Not a sound. When I realized that something was in the air I went to find Locklear and discovered that he was mysteriously absent, despite a tray of food delivered to his door just moments after I slipped away. Finally, I came down here and talked to Limm who told me you had been down here earlier this morning. At that point, I realized Arutha meant to slip Gorath out of Krondor for some reason." "Are you sure you're not a thief by profession? you think unnervingly like a Mocker I used to know." "So, are we ready? We should probably get moving. Where are we going anyway?"Oh, Owyn. You are adorable. "You cannot accompany us, Owyn. Our mission is much too important..." "Quiet, moredhel! I'll handle this." "But I could jeopardize your mission! Who knows who might take me captive between here and Tiburn? If I go back to Krondor now, I might accidentally talk to someone. Besides, I'm from the eastern part of the Kingdom. I know the area and I might be able to help." "For better or worse, you seem determined to hitch your fate to catastrophe. But if you want to get yourself killed at a tender young age, who am I to naysay it? I used to pull the same stunts when Arutha wished to pull out of Krondor." "All right then squire, you can come along, but these are the ground rules. One, I am in charge and you do whatever I say without question. Two, under no circumstances do you reveal anything about Gorath or our mission to anyone. If someone asks, we will continue what Seigneur Locklear suggested --- Gorath is an elf. Thirdly, and lastly, you don't wander off on your own. I don't care if you're watering the trees, you ask me first. Is that all clear?" "Absolutely. Whatever you say." "Stop smiling. You're going to earn your keep. I know I'm going to regret this, but let's get moving. We have a long way to go and no time to get there."I'm actually rather happy to have Owyn back. It's good to have a magician on your team to blind the enemy, if nothing else. Or to lob off some fireballs now and then.  We exit the sewer, but instead of leaving town like we are expected to, we head on over to the shops to sell off our excess gear and then over to the tavern to restock on food provisions. Also, we talk to Nivek, who we met very briefly in the previous chapter. Nivek didn't have much to say to Locklear at the time, but here he has quite a bit more to say to James.    A discussion on taxes. Just what we need in video games.  "The ledgers are at a balance, but I daresay my thirst suffers a deficit of catastrophic proportions. Though I handle thousands of sovereigns a day, I fear I haevn't the command of more than a handful of my own use at the moment. I don't suppose you might be in a position..." "What do you say, Owyn? Do we buy a drink for this honorable tax collector or do we allow him to expire of thirst?"Yes No "Operation Slush Fund is a go." "Bartender, a drink for the tax collector! Drink up friend and tell me what you know. you're always a good ear for the happenings in and out of the Kingdom." "Rumors? My goodness me, I'm not the kind to consort with rumormongers. No sire, you should know that. Of course I occasionally hear a few facts that are of interest to people. Accounting is a ... *UHRUP* ... fascinating business you know, all the figures and such..." "Something a little more lively if you please. Stolen cows, cheating wives, dishonest traders --- that sort of thing." "The prurient and the scatological, eh? Hmmm. Well, let me think on it. I believe I heard something last week --- at least I believe it was last week. Maybe it was the week before that. Couldn't have been before that annexation in Malac's Cross ---" "If you please, Nivek. We would like to get out of here before tomorrow." "I... *AHHHP* ... would be most pleased to accommodate you, but seems that my mouth has grown a bit dry. What do you say to buying me another drink?"Yes No "Ahh now. That's much better. What was I saying? Oh yes, about this story. The-re was... *UHRUP* ... this fellow that lives near Sethanon that has filed three new claims on land in the past year. Thr-ee, ya understand that?" "Is there something suspect about his purchases?" "Oh, his selections of land are nice enough. Prime pieces of land matter of fact, but he's without a ... *AAHHHP* ... ti-tle! How'z a person of ignoble birth manage to buy three prime estates? Tell me that!" "What was this fellow's name? Perhaps we should look into it." "What kind of ques---*RUCHH*---question is that now? Ya think I carry my ledger about in my head? I mean you might as well rear end me the name of Prince Arufa's --- Arutha's wife." "You mean to tell me that you can't remember Princess Anita's name?" "No --- what is her name?" "You were telling me about the man near Sethanon. What else do you know about him? Tell me about the man." "Ahhhh... I fink his name was Fibber ... NAH, that's not right, not right at all ... Fleeber ... Monk's finger ... Map's Flipper ... Fever ... FEEBER! Maxie Feeber! Thatsss it! ya know, I'm really, really, getting tired now and maybe I should go home..." "There's still a few things I need to know. Think you can hold out for just a few more minutes?" We are such enablers. Yes No "That hit the --- the ahhh --- What?" "I suppose you mean that your drink hit the mark. Why don't you tell us a little more about this Max Feeber character?" "NAHnahnahnahh... that's bori---*UHRUP*--ng... let's talk about last year. Did ya know that for every cow in Midkemia, we get a golden sovereigns a year alone just for their manure... Did ya know that? BETCHA didn't! An for every duck..." "Max Feeber. I want to know about Max Feeber." "Dokay. Moxie Flipper. Ahm, I know that gee was tryging to buy up some of the propurtee left in Sethanon a few years back from Jared Lycrow but Jared wouldn't sell to no one, so Moxie co--*AHRUP*---cooked up this idea... Sure you don't want to hear about ducks?"I have to admit that I kind of want to know about the ducks. "No. Just tell us about Max. What did he do?" "Ee gots himselk a shovel and dug---*ARRGHA---to try to skeer Jared. Corse jared wasn't skeered of nuthin but it shore fri-teened---*UHRUP*---Nia." "What was he digging up?" "Goin to slep now...Gnite.." "Maybe I could buy you another drink?" "What, you haven run outta mon---mon---money yet? Oh, in that case I'll have nother... if you're buying?"Yes No We are the worst of friends. "Grabeyurd neer Sethnon. Dats whur he wusss diggin. Up---*ERRRRUP*---Frait o gosts n Jer-rud whatnt. Not at ull. Jes Nia. Littl o Nia." "Where do you think he got the funds to buy the land?" "Eee sait that he gots it in na hole! Alz the monkeys...*ARRAH*... moneys in na hole! Jus got go... to get it... Ain't frait no gooset." "What hole are you talking about? Where is he going?" "I tink I go home now..." "One more tankard of ale to keep him going?"Maybe he'll tell us about the ducks? Yes No "Ya nu... Zaa unturducktur key urdn skeywers...trite to sulit tome but... *UHRUP* ... I no crumiminal ... oh gles mr... *AAAGH*. O Ghats! Imna be sich! ha- ho!" "The what? I don't understand." "I sait, mna be SICK!" "Okay, okay. I think I've abused you enough for now. Sleep well, Nivek. I think we know all we need to know."Or DO we?  Let's talk to him again. "*GRRNNMPH!* ... Just let me die, gods!" "Still hung over, Nivek?" "... not so loud ... ohhh please, just leave a poor old soul to die." "Sure you don't want a drink?" "I want you to know that I hate you to the depths of my being right now... the Bitter sea isn't as deep as my loathing for you..." "So I take it you're not in the mood for a talk?" "Go fall off the edge of the world... quitely ... just so long as you don't make any sound doing it. Goodbye, James." "Take care of yourself, old friend." Nothing like alcohol poisoning to lighten the mood. I suppose we 'ought to get going. "Wait! Let's go back to the palace! I finally purchased a proper pair of pants, and I think I left them there!"   Alright, here is the short term plan. While going to Romney is the goal of this chapter, we are first going to run back up to Questor's view to get some melee training done for the party. (specifically with James in mind) Nivek gave us a side quest lead about something fishy that Moxie Flipper is doing near Sethanon, so we might want to consider taking a detour there as well to check it out. Onward to Questor's View!  We don't get too far north before we find a barn. Now as I recall, we paid a fee to Turns out that Locklear & Co., passed straight on past Rowe's barn and did the Eggley quest instead.  This fight can be extremely difficult depending upon when you do it. Playing Chapter 1 without having done any other sidequests or avoiding fights in general makes this the hardest fight of the chapter. Let's Fight Nago!  Nago has amazing speed, and because of that will always goes first. Here he lobbed off a 'Fetters of Rime' Spell at Owyn which takes him out of the fight for now. Still, even if Owyn can't do anything, it still leaves our heavy hitter Gorath and our speed demon James to take Nago down before too much damage can be done.  Nago does something stupid and goes to attack Owyn himself. This mistake on his part provides me a great opportunity for James and Gorath to cut off his line of retreat.  Realizing his tactical error, Nago attempts to retreat, but having to go around James and Gorath doesn't get him far enough away so he can cast another spell. Our heroes give chase and cut him down. Now it is just a matter of clearing up the guys who are left.  Unfortunately, we aren't fast enough to save Owyn who throughout this entire fight has been getting stabbed in the face.  James and Gorath take down the rest without a problem.  Quit being such a dramatic baby, Owyn. Just apply some neosporin and you'll be fine. We drag Owyn to a nearby temple to get some aid.       Turns out that I did this quest backwards. Typically, if you do this in Chapter 1, you are on your way to Krondor and would meet with the Priests at Sung first and then fight Nago. If you do so, the conversation on your return goes a bit differently. Return after Nago's Death posted:Kellan greeted them. There are additional benefits to having completed the Sung quest.  Healing! This would be quite expensive in chapter 1, but we have more then enough to just flat out heal Owyn, so I pay it.  To my knowledge, no other temples in the game will let you pay for healing.  We are going to end this update here, just outside of Sarth. Next update we'll talk to Brother Marc again and also get that melee training done in Questor's view, but the direction we take from there is still in question.  Route A: We go the 'straightforward' way. We would get a chance to investigate Sethanon, but other big cities to visit include Malac's Cross and Silden.  Route B: Taking the Northern scenic view. We'd backtrack and could see how things are going in Zun and other places that we've been to already, but we can also check out Highcastle, Northwarden and Cavall's Keep on our way to Romney as well. Which way should we go? Snugglecakes fucked around with this message at 20:28 on Aug 14, 2013 |
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Aug 9, 2013 22:01
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Psion posted:I thought I posted this? Oh well. Unfortunately googling 'Betrayal at Krondor Crydee Mod' doesn't come up with anything. Too bad. Malac's Cross' music is pretty good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq8yXQEGF68 The city itself is pretty neat to explore as well. Dilb posted:Other temples will cure you of status effects (near-death, poison, and plague being the one's you care about), but won't heal any health or stamina. It ends up being a fair trade off, as general health can be recovered either by sleeping outside or if you spend the night/several nights at an inn to recover perfect health. Temples are more useful for those status effects and for quick travel from one place to another. (assuming you remember to click on the mandalas) PurpleXVI posted:Scenic Route! As much fun as it would be to watch you smash your head against the ghosts at Sethanon, who always gave me some trouble as I recall them, we should focus on doing stupid things the game didn't intend for us to do. It was a nightmare trying to figure it out my first time playing this game as a kid. 
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Aug 12, 2013 03:28
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DerpAlert posted:In the novels it was literally just a bump on the back of Jimmy's head that itched whenever something bad was about to happen. Feist made a great point of always discussing it as a foreshadowing technique. Feist does that all the time with his characters. With Patrus (who is a PC that we see wayyyy later in this game) Feist continually refers to him as having an evil glint / evil smile / evil eyes. Pretty much any opportunity to refer to him as looking evil, he takes it.
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Aug 12, 2013 05:06
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Rockopolis posted:I forget, did you ever show off the cheat chest? Not yet, but I will. Glazius posted:Did Owyn just pick up an antidote to being frozen, or whatever happened to him in that fight? Because seriously, ow. Unless they are poisoned or disease (or near death) the spells cast on characters don't continue after the fights. In the case of the fight with Nago, our buddy Owyn was frozen by Nago's spell and then stabbed several times before almost dying. Normally this requires health potions or several days of resting and using herbs, but in this case, I simply paid the temple of Sung to recover his full health, since that was what one of the quest rewards was.radintorov posted:It's nice to see that the LP was not abandoned, although I only found the new thread today. Thanks for posting this. I read the PM you sent me back in May about this, but hadn't had a chance to listen to the interview. (And at the time I wasn't sure if I would continue the LP) Interesting to see a bit of what was going on behind the scenes and why we didn't get a real proper sequel to BaK. Snugglecakes fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Aug 14, 2013 |
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Aug 14, 2013 14:35
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Update 23: Roads just ain't safe anymore Going the scenic route wins out. Last time we ended things just south of Sarth. Since Brother Marc is a good resource when it comes to information, as well as spells, we'll pop on by to say hello. Maybe we'll somehow be able to give him alcohol poisoning in exchange for quest hooks?  Hammy fists?    "If he has aches at his age then imagine what complaints he shall have at mine! He shall have to be carried everywhere he goes!" "He practices to be the Emperor of Kesh, no doubt." "Guys, I'm standing right here." "So what question will you now pose of Sarth, travelling friends?"MAGIC "Actually, I was hoping you might be able to dig up something on magic, a scroll perhaps." "There was a scroll I was cataloging the other day that might be of interest to you. It was titled as Skyfire I believe. I can go and dig it up for you, for a reasonable finder's fee of 100 sovereigns. Shall I run and find it?"YES PLEASE "Agreed. Should we wait here or..." "Brother Anthony doesn't like to have too many people in the Vaults at the same time. It disturbs those who are cataloging and scribing. I will only be a short while."They waited. When at last it seemed the priest was never going to return, he appeared waddling down the hillside, a beribboned parchment missive stuffed beneath one of his arms. Collecting the money owed him from Owyn, he cheerfully handed over the scroll. NIGHTHAWKS "Would you have anything up in the Abbey about the Guild of Death? As I recall from when I visited your abbey years ago, your collection of books was quite extensive. I wanted to find out how it is that some of them become Black Slayers." "No need to search the vaults. Many of them worship Kahooli, who, occasionally, will grant them a near-deathless state in exchange for total dedication to the god of revenge. It took us a long while to learn the spells that keep a Nighthawk from rising from death." "There is a spell? We thought you had to hack the body up and burn it to bits." "An unpleasant solution, and time consuming. After the Great Rising was over and the moredhel went home, we were able to work with the priests of Lims-Kragma to create a spell to keep a Nighthawk from becoming a Black Slayer or to keep a Black Slayer down once he was slain. If you would like, I can probably dig the spell up in the Vaults. Are you interested? There will be a hundred sovereign fee."OKAY YOU TALKED ME INTO IT, YES! "Considering I may be running into the Guild of Death soon, I think it would be a wise investment." "I will be as quick as possible. Please wait here."They waited. When at last it seemed the priest was never going to return, he appeared waddling down the hillside, a beribboned parchment missive stuffed beneath one of his arms. Collecting the money owed him from James, he cheerfully handed over the scroll. BYE NOW "Seems we at least have a few things to think about. Thank you, Brother Marc." "Always a pleasure to help. Come back and visit me again."  "Perhaps we will. Goodbye!"Couple of spells come from this conversation. We now have Final Rest, which we can use on Black Slayers to make sure that they stay dead. I might never use the spell though, save to demonstrate it. Why is that? Well, the trick with Black Slayers is that when you kill them, they'll stay down for a little while, and then rise again to keep on fighting you. If you are facing a bunch of them (and I'm not sure if you ever face more then three at a time in the game), then it could help to keep them down. If not, then it's a waste of a spell. That, and the ones you cast final rest on disappear, so you miss out on the sweet, sweet loot they sometimes have in hand. The second spell is redundant since I found a copy in the sewers. It is skyfire, and it is pretty good. You can cast it on any enemy wearing or using metal and it summons lightning from the heavens to strike them. Always consistent with damage (an even 40) and will always hit. The downside being that some enemies, such as trolls (  ) don't use metal, so it doesn't hurt them at all. In fact, not too much farther north of Sarth, we encounter trouble.  I feel justified in using skyfire here, since we are outnumbered.  The cost is 12 health/stamina, which isn't too bad. It does add up, so if you continue to spam the spell, Owyn will get weaker and weaker.  The effect is pretty dramatic.   In fact, it is enough to one shot the pirate!  We don't want the others to miss out on horrible burning sensations, so Gorath fires a fire arrow at the pirate standing closest to him.  If this was a normal arrow it probably wouldn't have taken out the enemy, but since this one was on fire, it does just enough to take down the enemy in one shot.  Our heroes mop up the rest of the enemy. No sweat at all.  No other problems as we reach Questor's View.  This is Tad Questor's house. We met him briefly in the first chapter. He offers melee training to our heroes, and while I could have taken him on that offer, I purposefully declined it, as I'd rather James get the benefit of the training over Locklear.    Of course, learning to hit stuff better is always a good way to spend your hard earned murder money. Circle of life, and all that.    I even remembered to tag only the melee skill so that would increase the most for them. As you can see, Gorath is practically a murder machine, and it is only the beginning of the second chapter!  The next stop for us on this scenic journey is LaMut.  Enemies generally don't respawn in the game, so you don't have to pay too much attention if you have to backtrack once you've cleared out an area. However, between chapters new enemies are sometimes placed in. I was traveling in mapmode so I didn't see this assassin at all.  "Hmm.. this nighthawk looks a bit different from the other ones."  "Oh Gods! Kill it with fire!"  "It was dead before! Should I cast the Final Rest spell on it?" "Nah, we can only do that in combat. Not much point in doing it now." "But it could rise up again and attack us!" "We'll be long gone by the time it does."There wasn't much to the Black Slayer fight. If there was more then one of them, perhaps I could have shown off their gimmick, but by themselves, they aren't any different then a Nighthawk, and in a solo fight, once it dies, it remains dead. This particular nighthawk has a little bit of a backstory to it though. If we explore the few houses that are on the coast here, we can learn a bit more about it.   Looks like our fisherman friend was digging where he wasn't supposed to. We get a couple of passwords for nearby chests, but I'm pretty sure that I've already found and looted those two already. Nice that the game rewards you for backtracking and going back to places that you've already been.  Not too far away from the fisherman's house, we can find the grave in question that he dug up.  "Warning: Black Slayer. Do not free. This means you, stupid."     Man. He really wanted to get at that gold. Maybe we better question him again.  Or not. We continue up to Zun, and get ambushed by small groups of moredhel. There isn't much to say about the fights though. James and Gorath hacked most of the enemy, while Owyn used skyfire to burn the rest.     Back in LaMut. We can rest at the inn and restock as needed, but the real benefit to coming back is to check in with the folks that we've already met back in Chapter 1.  Let's start with our favorite bartender.     "All the hours of the day if need be, honorable sire. How may I be of service?" Couple of new options have opened up. While we found Makala's ruby in the previous chapter, we actually saw him for the first time at the end of that same chapter, so let's ask about him. MAKALA "We met a Tsurani in Krondor named Makala. Do you know anything about him?" "He is a Great One of the Assembly of Magicians. Beyond that, I know little as the Great Ones do not communicate with the lesser folk." "Lesser folk?" "Those who are not of the Assembly or those who are not Lords or Ladies of the Tsurani Empire. It would be improper that a person such as I should speak to one of his rank unless he asked a question of me. This is the way of my former people."ROADS "I suspect the graveyard outside of LaMut will fill up faster than the gravedigger can dig holes if the roads become any more treacherous." "It is truer than you might imagine. The roads at night are patrolled now by the LaMutian guard. Any found out after dark will be slain on sight." "No exceptions?" "Dubal told me that he managed to...haggle, is that the word?...past one of the guards, but then again he is especially gifted with words. I, myself, would not wish to rely upon such a skill."HAGGLING "I've always found myself on the short end of the stick when I've tried my hand at haggling. Ask me to charm the dress off a peasant girl, no problem. But when it comes to convincing a merchant to undersell something to me, I'm less than expert." "You were not born knowing how to walk, but you seem to have no difficulty putting one foot in front of another. Anything may be learned so long as you truly wish to learn it." "So who would I speak to about learning how to haggle? Dubal?" "Dubal is Dubal. His talent is a part of him and I doubt he understands his own abilities. There is one who lives in Romney, however, who I think may be of help. He is known as Mitchel Waylander and is the head of a very powerful guild, the Glazer's Guild. I had a very long conversation with him when he wished to buy a few of our Tsurani pots. I think he could teach you something about haggling."GOODBYE "I'm afraid it's time we did something other than sit around soaking up the atmosphere. Things to do." "I am pleased you chose to visit the Blue Wheel Inn. It is my hope you will return again." "I would say it is a definite possibility, assuming we're ever in LaMut again. Goodbye, Sumani."Interesting to note that Sumani is telling us about a character that we will meet once we (eventually) get to Romney, who we can get haggling training from. Could be useful, especially for Owyn, who I always use to haggle down prices in the game. We also have gotten a warning that it is dangerous to travel at night. I don't remember if this is actually the case, but perhaps it is worth trying out. Sumani also mentioned Dubal, so let's talk to him now.     "Most folk enter a room, they looks to the left, to the right, check out the lay of a place then they choose where to go. When you come aprancin' in, you walk straight in as an arrow as if nothing could stand in your way. No one does that that's not stupid or very good with a knife..." "I'm not stupid." "Didna think ya were, but I'd wager a month's salary that you've done some time as a thief." "I suggest you lay a hefty amount on the wager. You'd win. But all that was a long time ago. I'm in the service of the Prince now." "Are ya now? It's a shame almost. There's a new section of the Mac Mordain Cadal that's just been reopened by the workers - there was a terrible collapse there not too long ago ya know - and they say that there's a chamber there just heaped up with treasure." "Why tell me? Why not get the treasure yourself?" "That would be stealin' from meself - it's dwarven treasure after all - Besides I wouldna 'ave the desire to try. If you're no thief, I've nothing to worry in telling you, and if you are - again, I've nothing to worry about. We don' exactly leave treasure just laying about unless its for good reason." "And what reason would that be?" "Let's just say that there are certain things in this world that ya either are or are not supposed to 'ave. If ya were meant to tooch somethin', you will. If not, well then...fate sorts that sort of thing out." "I believe you're right about that, Dubal. A lesson I've learned the hard way."I like how Dubal goads the player on to explore the dwarf caves during the game. Clever way to get somebody else to deal with the monsters that live down there, such as the Brak Noor that we killed the first chapter. We have a big tease now about a chamber heaped up with treasure and that may be hard to ignore. Our last place to stop in at is LaMut's garrison.    Further confirmation of what Sumani told us earlier - moredhel are causing trouble, and it is safe to travel at night. It is also possible that this is also meant to dissuade us from taking the scenic route to Romney, since the northern passage will be swarming with enemy troops... supposedly.
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Aug 27, 2013 05:44
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Sappo569 posted:Will you be moving on to Betrayal At Antara after? I have it, but everytime I try to save the game it crashes. If I can fix that problem then maybe I will. Have to get through this game first! PurpleXVI posted:Does the scenic route include taking a poke at the dwarven mines? Because c'mon, heaped with loot! The most roundabout way to getting to Romney would of course include exploring dwarf mines on the other side of the map! Return to Krondor might be bettered served as a video LP, given the style of the game as opposed to BaK and Antara, so I'd have to learn how to do that.
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Aug 27, 2013 16:33
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Update 24: Don't trust anybody At the end of the last update, we were tempted with promises of gold and jewels by resident LaMutian dwarf, Dubal. "You are saying that there are mounds of gold and piles of jewels just waiting to be snatched up?" "There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls, Doing more murder in this loathsome world, Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell." "... I'm taking that as a yes."  "'ope you've not come for passage through to Elvandar. We've gained some ground and cleared out a new section of about three miles or so, but we've a long way to go. After the Brak Nurr collapsed the passages, we've been a wee bit busy." "Any idea how long a delay we should expect?" "Even with a 'undred dwarves flaying rock until they've bashed their bairns in, it'll take some while. The rock's festooned like a cheese rind and we 'ave to take it slow, else the lot of it'll come down on our 'eads and the whole of it gone to waste. We may get some 'elp though. We've been tapping messages back 'n forth through the rock and our cousins on the other side say that Aglaranna of the elves may be able to lend a hand." "Sounds delicious." "Shaddup you." "I'm surprised we haven't seen many cases of Quegian Fever up this way. They're having problems with it down at the Abbey of Ishap at Sarth." "Ach! If you're going to talk about Bourgalan, call it by its name arights, not by that Keshian bark..." "Sarth was dwarven?" "Not the abbey itself, no, but the caverns beneath! It was the greatest emerald mine the dwarves ever delved, the Mac Bourgalan Dok. It ran for miles in every direction and part o' the chambers ran right beneath where the Abbey now stands, though I understand those silly priests 'ave stuffed the tunnels to the rafters with books. We'd still own the caverns now, but we made an arrangement with Mejakaar Blackpatch when he moved into the keep that 'ad been built over one of the entrances..." "And Mejakaar still owns the mine?" "Aye, if corpses can be said to own anything. 'e's been dead a long while, even as dwarves reckon time. The mines are the property now of the Brothers of Ishap, though I doubt they know how to get from their vaults to the main passages of the mine." "We should leave you to your work, I suppose. Thanks once more for talking with us." "Aye, my pleasure as well, but if you'll excuse me..." "Most certainly. We will be on our way as well."We'll have to tuck that bit of information away for now. If nothing else, it is a hint that Sarth was built over one of the entrances to one of the dwarf mines. This means further exploration. "And emeralds! Don't forget the emeralds!" Fortunately, no enemies respawn in the mine. We head back down towards where we killed Brak in the last chapter and push on past that point. Previously we were refused to go any further by the dwarves.  Now it seems that the way is clear to descend down a level.  Thoughtful of the dwarves to include actual staircases. YES  Of course it would be Owyn who would be the most clumsy of the group. I shouldn't be too hard on him though. James is a legendary thief, and Gorath is a badass killing machine.  A door! I wonder what kind of treasure awaits beyond it?  Just two rogues? Really? "Better shut the door behind us."  Despite fumbling around with the door, we still manage to successfully ambush the rogues.  It is a quick battle. "Grrrr..."Too bad there probably isn't any good loot. All it is broadswords and kingdom armor, never anything new.  Wait... that sword looks different.   It is different! It is also better then our current broadswords, so we have Gorath swap out his and now he holds the Goblin Sticker. "I dub thee, Murdersword!" Turns out they were guarding a treasure chest too! Big things come in small packages right? Let's open it up!  "Oh Gods. I'm having the worst flashback ever." "I don't see what the problem is, let's go ahead and open it."  "Nooooooooooooooooooooo!" "What? It's just a lock. Nothing that 'Jimmy the Hand' can't handle!"   ... You've got to be making GBS threads me.  Legendary thief my rear end.  Maybe there is treasure in this large pile of rocks?   Yeah, anything, even nothing. So far this trip has been a complete waste of time, save for Gorath's new sword. "Murdersword."  What a weird sidequest. Bring them very expensive armor... in return for what exactly? "Still plenty for us to explore down here. Let's go past the kobold pit, and..."  "Well poo poo." That's it. Just one easy combat, a chest that James somehow cannot open, and a goofy fetch quest. Let's get the hell out of here.  Now that we've spoken to the kobolds we do get some additional dialogue options with Naddur upon our exit though. "Any idea where we lay our hands on a suit of Grey Tower plate mail?" "Ah, blast! I'll have those buggers for dinner if they keep this up... You've been talking to those bloddy kobolds, 'aven't you? What did they tell you they want the armor plate mail for? A treasure for Rhuargh? A ransom for a lost kobold princess? They're having you on and at our expense. Ya canna get Grey Tower Plate this side o' the Cadal!" "How silly of me. I suppose the dwarves have sworn off wearing armor?" "Daft as drovers...all you Kingdom folk. We dwarves no more live in these mines than your King Lyam lives in the ocean, despite the fact he rules his kingdom from an island! The great majority of our kin live in villages much the same as yours, the only difference being that most of our villages are on the western side of the Grey Towers. There's not much call for a dwarven suit of armor this side of LaMut..." "Then there's absolutely no way we could find a dwarven suit of armor?" "I did na' exactly say that, now did I? Ya might go an look at one of the old battlefields. Sometimes bits from the old wars turn up there."BATTLE SITES "Owyn, how would you like to see a dwarven battleground? I know I would and I'm sure Naddur's just going to burst if he doesn't tell us how to find one. Right, Naddur?" "If it's one thing a dwarf ne'er forgets, it's ground where kin 'ave spilt their lifeblood. Aye, I can tell ya where ta find a battleground. Tyr-bloddy-Sog. It's whar last your kin and mine crossed swords again' one another and that was a fiercesome battle what would make the battle for Sethanon look like a day at the fair. If you've truly a mind to this, try the west bank of the river right before crossing towards Tyr-Sog. That's whar you'll 'ave your best luck."PITS "We were trying to find our way below and we ran across a pit we couldn't even see the bottom of. Is there some way of getting around it?" "The only way around it is over it. Ya'll need a length o' rope before ya can get over the sink shafts. I'd lend you a length of ours, but if you'll pardon the jest, they're all tied up at the moment." "I'm here all week, ladies and germs. Let me tell ya'll another one, two Brak Nurrs walk into a bar, and..." "...Jesus christ, let's get out of here already." Good thing we are already heading to Tyr-bloddy-Sog. We'll just have to do a more thorough search this time around and see if we can find this dwarf armor... It's getting dark outside, so we better get moving.  Sheesh, big government nanny state, am I right?  Oh, this should be good. Alright James, what is our good reason to be out late at night?  Wait.. what? Did I miss the reason that you provided that so adeptly got us out of trouble? What did you tell them?  "I'm not saying." "Literally. I wasn't programmed to say anything to them."drat you Neal Hallford!
Snugglecakes fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Aug 31, 2013 |
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Aug 29, 2013 15:35
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Sappo569 posted:Goblin Stickler Let's Play Sometimes I make Spelling Mistakes!  (fixed, thanks) Night10194 posted:What I find even more interesting is how they often find ways for the characters to actually justify being far out of their way, or turn the side content into actual small side stories with its own additional characters and situations. It isn't just 'We wandered here for money and power' but 'We wanted to investigate something out this way' or 'we wanted to throw them off our trail and conceal our real destination', etc. It might be kinda flimsy sometimes but I really appreciate the effort. In Chapter 3 it becomes "We wandered here because we have no idea what we are doing". At least, that was how it was when I played the game way back when.
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Aug 31, 2013 15:23
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Update 25: Confronting Issac, and a grainy quest. Before we push on past Tyr-Sog, we rush on down south to see if we can run into our old buddy Issac. If you recall, we found out that he was working with the Moredhel, and that would obviously be of concern to our guys. Now, in the novelization, it is Locklear who confronts Issac and beats him up a little bit too, but here we are going to be having James talk to him, which in my opinion works out a little bit better given the animosity between the two already. So, we'll just pretend that Locklear left James a note. "Yo Jimmy, remember Issac? Turns out he is a dark brotherhood spy. I'd slap him around a little bit myself but I'm going to gently caress off for a few chapters. Can you deal with it for me? XOXO - Locky"    "No matter, as fortune would have it, I have fallen on perhaps better times than you might imagine. I conduct my own business, go about my own affairs without the concern of the state." "Without the concern or in spite of their concern, Isaac? I have heard grim rumors of you..." "If there are rumors of me they are spread by my competitors. I assure you noble Seigneur that I am entirely at the disposal of the Kingdom. How may I be of service to you?" Might as well confront him and get this over with. HIS SPYING "We met your pokiir playing friend in Eggley and he told us a bit about the match he played with you. He told us about the elven friends that came along with you, but as you pointed out before, elves rarely come out of Elvandar and would be very unlikely to be travelling from town to town playing pokiir. Talk, Isaac. Why are you working with the moredhel, Isaac? What are they doing in the Kingdom?" "I don't seem to be the only one keeping company with them, seigneur..." "I'm not in a mood to be trifled with, Isaac. Talk!" "Seeing as how they've seen fit to dismiss me, I can't see it will hurt matters. They're operating out of a barn near Yellow Mule. I found an old farmer there who wasn't particular about who rented his land and harbored loyalty to neither his lord nor to the Prince. A moredhel named Nago moved in there and has been using it as a base of operations to hire Quegian mercenaries." "Makes sense. Mercenaries would be able to move in the Kingdom without being noticed. What are they planning?" "I made it a policy not to know. Knowledge has a tendency to shorten your life, especially when you're working with lunatics. Think what you like, but this was purely a business transaction. They paid me and I made the pick-ups and drop-offs to the moredhel lockchests. That was all I did for them."CHESTS "If you've picked items up from the moredhel lockchests, then you must know how to open them. I want the passwords, Isaac..." "It would be like nailing the lid shut on my own coffin. They're already looking to silence me. They've got assassins combing the mountains." "Give us the passwords and we will try to clear a way south for you." "Why help me? Aren't you afraid I'll turn around and tell the moredhel where you are?" "You've already taken care of that problem yourself. They might invite you down for a friendly chat with the leader who will forgive all, give you a hefty slap on the back, then lop your head off. Kill the spies. It's always the first step in an invasion." "Invasion? Don't be absurd! The Northlands are in a state of civil war. They would be completely incapable of making an organized assault." "Why the efforts to hire the Quegians? Why so many moredhel assassins placed inside the Kingdom? You're smarter than that, Isaac. Just give us the passwords and I see to it that none of this is ever mentioned to the Prince." "Very well. There were...five? No, six of them. I can't remember which goes to which but they were shadow, candle, stranger...no...die, spider, key and...what? Shadow...candle...stranger...spider...key... I'm sorry, but I can't remember the sixth one. I know one of the moredhel had problems remembering the same one and carved the name onto one of the headstones near LaMut."LAST ORDERS "What were your last orders before Nago released you?" "I released myself. I had the feeling I was coming to the end of my usefulness to the moredhel and I made my plans accordingly. When they asked me to pick up a ruby from Keifer Alescook and deliver it to a specific moredhel lockchest, I realized they were planning to take care of two problems at the same time. The moredhel courier would an assassin. They had planned to kill me and, at the same time, erase any evidence to whom the ruby had been delivered."GOODBYE "It's time we were going. I would tell you to take care of yourself Isaac, but you were always quite good at doing that..." "You never allow your grudges to die, do you?" "Grudges have nothing to do with this. I simply know to trust my bump of trouble when someone is trying to fool me. Goodbye, Isaac. I have a suspicion we may meet again." "Hey, James. May the Force be with you." "RAWRGWAWGGR?" "What're you lookin' at? I know what I'm doin'."Yeah I'm sure we won't see Issac again. You know the type, pure mercenary, always thinking of himself. By the time I get back up to Tyr-Sog, I'm almost out of food, so might as well stock up.  "FRESH FRUIT!" Yeah, not going to do that joke again. Not until Miketopus comes out of hiding and restarts his Bards Tale 2 LP.  Eldpoint is our next destination. It is a small city though, so might not be that much there. We'll find out soon. You do know that you've entered a harder zone though, because...   The fights include many more Moredhel than before. We can handle them now, but if this was Chapter 1 where Owyn didn't know squat for spells and we had bad equipment and stats, it would be a much more difficult fight. Here I just toss a Skin of the Dragon spell on Gorath and the rest kind of take cares of itself.  Nothing to worry about. Always nice to leave a trail of bodies behind in your wake. We get in a few more fights, and then...  Really? Squire Phillip? Why is the game making it seem like he is somehow important?  Well screw you too, Phil.  "They keep on trying to run away from us. It's exhausting." "I've narrowly avoided some myself. Fortunately they didn't pay much attention to me. I don't think father would have been too pleased if I'd ended up ransomed." "Did you ever find that chest you were looking for?" "A bit of a disappointment. Soon as I had the lid up, I found it was empty. I should have expected that someone else would get there before me. Likely our bandit friends plundered it."  "Yes, our 'bandit friends' did it."HIGHCASTLE "Should uncle and I head on to the east, we might stop by Highcastle for a while and see the sights." "Not much to look at. It's a typical border town and the only thing of interest there is the castle itself. I understand that Prince Arutha paid for some of the newer fortifications there after the Riftwar, but all in all I wasn't much impressed with it. However, I have to admit they had a nice armory there. They keep some of the prettiest swords I've ever seen in stock."And... that's it. Not very helpful.  He does stop us right outside of a temple, so let's check in there and see what's going on.  The Temple of Dala. We check out the Mandala to add that to our collection.  We are starting to get a good collection of them too. Instant teleport from one part of the map to another will be very useful in the future.     We've picked up a new sidequest. Picking up a bag of grain. But where to begin? It's not like there is somebody just outside of the temple that we could ask about it, is there?    "Because, you know. We are adventure game protagonists." Sounds like a hint to me! Let's get moving!
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Oct 2, 2013 20:39
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Honestly, I would be too embarrassed to let this thread fall into archives and start up a third one. Gotta keep this one going, even if some variation of the LP Curse is after me.
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Oct 2, 2013 21:09
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MagusofStars posted:Good to see this back. I'm assuming you're going to go all the way around to clean out the "short" route through the chapter (Darkmoor, Malac's Cross, etc)? There's at least one quest in that area which is pretty much unique to this chapter with a fairly nice reward. Yup. This chapter requires some farting around down near that area anyway in order to get into Romney later anyway, so we'll be seeing those cities.
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Oct 3, 2013 04:51
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Update 26: Earning our merit badges in barn opening. Last time we hiked down to give Issac a piece of our respective minds for his general douchbaggery, and were given a quest by the Priestess of Dala to retrieve a bag of grain. We also just happened to run into Owyn's friend Squire Philip outside of the temple who gave us a hint that we should talk to Hailey Betencourt who is south of Highcastle about a potential exchange.  It is good to check the overhead map occasionally as you travel because you'll often find areas like this that scream out 'Potential Treasure'. We'll go check this out.  Suspicion confirmed! If there is a trap, then there must be treasure. Right?  I'm not seeing the tesla coils, which makes me nervous. I have our guys move over to the sides just in case they are covering up some part of the trap that I just can't see. But no, this is the extent of the trap here.  Unfortunately, I was lazy and didn't bother to think out how to solve the trap. What I should have done was have Owyn push his block to the right past the one that I had James moving, and then up to block the fireball trap, then they could have gone through. What I did instead was cast Dragon Skin and just walk through the trap. Oh well!  Treasure chests! And riddles!    "Black when bought. Red when used. Grey when thrown away."T H P L E P R K S S G O L T D C E A O Y   Awesome. Now this is the kind of treasure I have in mind, new and better swords!   The Keshian Tapir adds a ridiculous amount of swing damage. I'm really tempted to give it to Gorath, who has the highest strength anyway. It would turn him into a one hit one kill machine. For the moment, it goes to James. As for the Amulet of the Upright man? James already has one... but...  It turns out they stack bonuses. James can now lockpick open just about any chest in the game.  Time for chest number two.  "It is too much for one. Two it is meant for. But it no longer exists, When the two become more."T E I R A E S H O C L T C L C E K S A R L M E Y  Not bad! Crossbows can be sold in most shops and fetch a decent price. We add these to our inventory.  "It never was before. It is not now. Fools wait for it forever."B E L U A E F R I E S D S U S T E T P L T S R R  Meh. More common crossbows to add to the junk pile. Our policy of knocking on every door we cross pays off as we find ourselves a new quest!  A quest to open some lady's barn door!  I.. we.. we really are level 1 adventurers, aren't we?  Amazingly, her barn is actually just behind her house, and not halfway across the map.  James, you are an idiot. You have your choice of either Owyn, scrawny mage to help out... or Gorath, the hulking murdermachine from the northlands, and you go with Owyn?    The puzzle here is actually a stat puzzle. You just need somebody in the party to have 30 strength. Gorath is just one point shy. But I think I have something to give Gorath... the edge.     There we go! Drugs solve everything!  Nothing inside the barn. Let's go back and tell the nice lady we finished the quest.   "You shouldn't have... really. You shouldn't." Some treasure. But at least we've accomplished a heroic deed... right?  Scouring the area a bit more reveals dirt! And something in the dirt!  A free blessed 100% sword? I'll take it! "Yoink!"Time to move on. We are almost to the next village, and I have a bunch of inventory to offload...  Hm, that's a new enemy. It also looks disturbingly familiar.  Uggghh...  Trolls. It had to be loving trolls.  "I hate trolls."
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Oct 10, 2013 20:06
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Update 27: loving Trolls. Last time...   "Trolls." Taking the northern route means that we are skirting along the northlands. This means that trolls are present. They are a real bitch to fight. Unless you have possession of a certain item, or are lucky enough to have Owyn pop off a few defensive spells, they can ruin your day really fast. Fun fact, Owyn's Skyfire spell doesn't work on them because they don't carry metal.  And I can't even get the jump on them.   Oh, only three? That's not so bad. I mean, hey, if I can take out groups of 5+ Moredhel, Rogues, and insane Pirates, surely I can deal with three trolls, right? RIGHT?  "You can. And don't call me Shirley." I've been having all three focus on that one troll. Everybody takes a pounding from the trolls. They hit hard. Even Gorath runs out of stamina and is now rapidly losing health.  Finally we are able to take one of them down. Two more to deal with...  Unfortunately, one of them has been chasing poor Owyn around who is about to collapse from his wounds. Hang in there, little buddy!  But Owyn promptly keels over. Farewell brave hero! "Tell my wife... I said hello..."  Gorath and James are able to hurt the second troll enough for it to run away, but the third and final one bitch slaps Gorath who collapses. "This is the big one! I'm coming Elizabeth!" And so it is down to just James and the Troll. Three guesses as to how the fight ends.  Yeah, we're dead.  "I am dying: it's a beautiful word. Like the long slow sigh of a cello: dying. But the sound of it is the only beautiful thing about it." In that fight I just straight out fought the trolls. They engaged before I could have Owyn fire off any spells. Now, there were a number of ways I could have prepared our heroes to better fight them. I could have perhaps used our magical horn to summon up some allies to help out (and be targets for the trolls), or using the blinding powder to freeze one (or all) of the trolls in their place. I also could have magically enhanced our weapons or armor to give it an extra kick. But really, the secret to handling trolls is this...  The humble tuning fork. The hint is in the description. The ringing noise it makes is already dreadful for humans, just imagine how it would be on animals or perhaps more beastly humanoids, like trolls?  Use it in battle. It makes a 'ting' noise and all the trolls will run away from you.  I'm not sure if there is a more blatant hint elsewhere in the game, or if a NPC outright tells us that using a tuning fork will make trolls run away. Doesn't matter though, means that the fight is over and I don't have to deal with that bullshit. Just as well. Trolls don't carry anything on their corpses, so it is not like I'm missing out on items or gold.  This doesn't make any sense, since I just had our guys stand there and do nothing, but sure, I'll take it. We push on past where the trolls were stationed and head into the village of Eldpoint.   Squire James is clearly not a visionary. We knock on a few other doors while we are in town.    Not a whole lot of information, and the boxes that the woman reference don't hold much of value. However, if you continue to poke around the area, you can discover a few puzzle locks.  Also a trap.  This one is a bit more complicated than previous ones. Let's actually solve it properly this time.  James first moves in front of Owyn, pushing the transparent crystal diagonally, which triggers a fireball trap. The fireball takes out the green telsa coils.  Owyn pulls a similar move, pushing the other crystal diagonally as to trigger the other fireball trap, that takes out the red tesla coils.  From there, he can just walk on through without any problems.  Three puzzle boxes, three riddles!   "Like dogs shouting at the moon, or armor worn by the trees. Like a sharply spoken command, or a tiny vessel upon the seas."E O E N G R A M B L L K S A R B Nothing special inside this box though. A set of blessed kingdom armor, some silver, and a broadsword.  ""You can see it in winter, never in summer. Even though it is as light as a feather, the mightiest moredhel in the North can't hold it for long."T H T H C S P I S R F E B L E A N H A R O L T G This box holds two sets of kingdom armor of low quality and, two broadswords. Final puzzle for this update.  "Every creature in the world has seen it. But to their dying day they'll never see the same one again."T O L I E L I O E Y H O R N R P T S S E T T H T D R Y P R S E L E T A D  This box actually has something worth screenshotting. The goblin sticker will net more money then a broadsword, and magical powders and emeralds always come in handy.  Pushing on ahead, more trolls!  Hahah, yeahhh. gently caress that. Going to use my tuning fork again.   While Northwarden is on our list of places to visit, we want to go to Highcastle first.  But we'll do that next time.
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Oct 16, 2013 20:56
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Update 28: Highcastle Our heroes have finally arrived to  Quite a few places we can go here. There is even a special area in the distance that we can enter.  However it turns out to be a waste of time. Perhaps it will have some utility in the future? Next on the list is to visit    I love that James even admits that we are just loving around at this point. More importantly though, we do have mention of goblins in the area, which might be worth checking out. "If nothing else, we can test out those goblin stickers on them."  Next stop is the armory. Issac had mentioned this place as having some good stuff. Let's see if he was correct.     The best armor in the game, along with some great weapons, and other useful items? Highcastle is awesome.    It is extremely tempting to splurge on some dragon plate armor, which I'd probably give to Owyn to make him less squishy, but I decline to do so at this point. I'm sure we'll be swimming in the armor eventually.  We depart Highcastle, and move north. Maybe we'll run into Goblins, but maybe we'll also be able to go into the Northlands and get even further away from Romney?  More trolls. The tuning fork is my best friend here, since I'm not even going to bother trying to fight them. Knocking on the door of the house right there gives us this outdated information, since we found those chests last time.   "Also thank you for getting rid of those trolls on my doorstep." Walking a bit further north leads us to this discovery! A new enemy, wearing a green shirt and... red pants? Still better than Owyn's flesh colored non-pants.  Confirmation that this is an example of Goblinius Stabbum. Let's get to it.  Having not faced them before, I don't remember if I should be nervous about this fight or not. None of them are spellcasters though, so we have that in our favor.  Standard enemy tactics. Send in teams of two to engage the fighters, and at least one guy to take the magician.  They don't hit very hard, and go down pretty easily to James and Gorath's sword blows. I also just love their death pose too.  If I ever needed a banner to show off what is best in BaK, this would be it. Searching the goblins' bodies, we find a note which is just what the Baron is looking for.   Seems that they are using the trolls to disrupt supplies and are interested in the rumors of the Baron not being able to pay his men's salaries. Sounds like there may be a bribery attempt in order for the enemy to gain access to Highcastle somehow. Let's do the responsible thing and go in the Northlands to give Delekhan a piece of our minds.  Or not. You're no fun anymore, James. We head back to Hightower and give the Baron the note that we found off the dead goblin.    Given his past, I'd say that James knows a few things about taking money that isn't his to give out. Anyway - sidequest is complete and we are a few hundred gold coins richer. Not bad. Next Time: maybe wrapping up some forgotten sidequests, and heading on over to Wolfram to visit. Snugglecakes fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Dec 10, 2013 |
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Dec 10, 2013 03:01
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BgRdMchne posted:It might be better to copy them to the screenshot LP test poster: http://lpix.org/sslptest/ and link them in the OP. That's a good idea. Thank you.
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Dec 10, 2013 03:10
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PurpleXVI posted:Yaaaay, the LP is still going! I'd been pretty unmotivated the past month or so (job hunting woes) but I'm working on turning that around. I blame the holidays.  Schwartzcough posted:"Squiffing"? Is the writing going all Lewis Carroll on us, or were they stumbling up there drunk? Funny how a person can just look over a word. I didn't even notice it until you pointed it out. Apparently it is a real word. "The Scotsman was squiffed when he passed out by the roadside"? Stay classy Merriam-Webster. Snugglecakes fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Dec 10, 2013 |
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Dec 10, 2013 05:37
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Update 29: Wrinkly Old Men. We've finished up at Highcastle for now, and have confirmed that the Goblins have been loving around up north. Still have the immediate Highcastle area to explore though.  We'll check out this house first.  Neat flavor here, but I kind of wish they had expanded on this. Make him a old coot who just rambles on about things that make no sense at all.  "I ever tell you boys about that time I discovered that a cave bear locked up by a kobold was actually a baronet who had been enchanted? I was clever enough to throw a potion of dispel on him that the local healer had given me after I had danced for some fairies in the woods." "Sure you did, grandpa..." Time to head to the next house.   Obviously, this woman is where we will get our bag of grain for the Dala quest, but wherever are we going to find a pair of leather leggings? I just know the game is going to give me a hint to go back in the opposite direction to do yet another fetch quest.  For the moment, we'll continue on to Wolfram. Maybe we'll get a hint about the Leather Leggings at this next house?   Or instead of the hint we could be told where we can find the Leggings! Wait a moment... Giggling girls? Entertaining lonely soldiers with their "music"? Oh my... Of course, their offer means giving up a tuning fork which has been tremendously useful in getting rid of trolls. Fortunately, I happen to have two of them. After dropping the more useful one with 50 or so uses left I give them the tuning fork with about 4 uses left. Let's see just how grateful they are.  Oh, I guess just grateful enough to give us the leggings. Thanks ladies!  Somehow I didn't expect Leather Leggings to mean boots. I thought they'd be more like pants? No matter, time to return them to the other Halfgate and get our Bag O' Grain.   It is massive! Also in lovely condition. I like how the game defaulted in this case to forcing Owyn carry it though.   Okay, time to lug it all the way back to the Temple of Dala.     "Also we could see the boy you forced to carry the grain nearly collapse from exhaustion on the way here. So, that too." Well gee. Who do we pick? Okay, you guys get to vote on this and I'll check back in a month or two and update then. Or I could just pick Owyn so he doesn't get gibbed in battle as often. ... Yeah let's do that.   Sidequest completed, and Owyn has been blessed. Pretty cool.  Wow! His defense shot up to 80! For reference, it was at 53%, so this is a very nice bump up in the defense stat. Leaving Dala, we hoof it back all the way over to where we were. We are just on the outskirts of Wolfram now.  I don't think we've seen a tent yet in the game, so I just want to show it off.   The tent contains, in addition to the dead miner, some gold, spoiled rations and a shovel. We are good with shovels already, so we just pocket the gold and leave.  The party arrives in Wolfram. Our destination for this update. Not too much going on here.   Knocking at the first house grants us this bit of flavor. I suppose if we had skipped Highcastle or were coming from the other direction we would have gotten a hint here that the Baron was somebody that we should speak to.  We can restock our rations at Wolf's Teeth, gamble a bit or have Owyn play the lute.    James gets intimidated by a man who is just as big as Gorath. Not sure why he is so nervous. "GULP!"We head to the next house. Probably going to be nothing.  Or the game could keep us on our toes by making it that we suddenly get attacked out of nowhere!   It goes about as well as you can imagine for the enemy attacking us. The most distressing part is that there aren't any bodies for us to loot! Time to demand some answers!  "Mister Miyagi?"   "You have friends in the Northlands?" "Friends? No, not as such. The visitors I receive are never welcome. Goblins mostly, sent from ole Belly Khan to pinch my spellbooks and formulas. They don't much care for me interfering with 'em, working spells and such for Baron Gabot at Northwarden. I was hopin' these illusions I was makin' would be more effective, but 'parently they ain't worth a gnat's spit. Need to work on 'em more. Let me give you somethin' so you can get yourselves fixed up..." "That won't be necessary. We're fine." "Who said anything 'bout you?! Baron gets wind I went 'round inflicting grief on innocent bystanders, I'll be dicing taters with the kitchen boys or singing duets with old mash brain Tamney. You'll find a pouch of two hundred gold in that little chest over in the corner. If'n you go north from here a bit, you'll run across the Temple of Tith. I imagine they can put you to rights again. But a word of advice, you see buglies in fronts of you in the future, insteada' fightin' em, run the other way!"I'm a little surprised that Owyn didn't jump in here like he did with Brother Marc to beg to be taught some magic. Oh well! I'm happy to accept the compensation of two hundred gold from Patrus.  Patrus had mentioned that there was a temple nearby, so let's check that out.   Our map is starting to fill up now with temple locations. This will be very helpful in future chapters.     Nice to know that the priests are bored and are playing with bone figurines. Also some free redweed brew would have been nice, grinch!  Just north of Patrus' home is Dala's Arms. As mentioned in the thread, if you can't afford the prices at Highcastle, it is certainly worth checking out this place.   Dragon Plate for 625 gold before haggling? That's pretty good. Even if it is 50% quality, some whacking at it with an armorer's hammer by Gorath would boot it up to at least 75%, and the more we'd continue to repair it, the higher it'd get. Right now everybody have Elven armor, so I'm considering bumping everybody up to Euliliko Armor as the next tier. Or we could buy one set of Dragon and two of the Eulilko, though that'd just about wipe out the party treasury. What should we do?  Next destination on our list is Dencamp-On-The-Teeth. See you then! Snugglecakes fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Dec 10, 2013 |
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Dec 10, 2013 16:11
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SpRahl posted:Highcastle is a bit unique in thats its one of the only places you dont ever have to go to or nearby to in the main quest. Oh and Snugglecakes you have been posting the music for this game and I was wondering if you could post Highcastles as its a pretty cool theme. Sure thing. I'll edit the music back in the posts shortly, including Highcastles' theme. Which I'll post here too: Snugglecakes fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Dec 10, 2013 |
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Dec 10, 2013 16:14
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SpRahl posted:Damnit Snugglecakes! You're still having trouble with setting skill priorities Somehow I think I'm going to continue to drive you and everybody else crazy by always forgetting to do that. Guess it really should be my next New Year's Resolution and thread title.In the book, Owyn does explicitly state that Patrus was hired to be his tutor and had taught him some magic. PurpleXVI posted:Honestly, once we're running around in Dragon Plate, we've pretty much spent the money as well as it's ever going to get spent. The best weapons are, as I recall, largely findable at this stage of the game, so really all we'd be left with after that upgrade(aside from picking up the last suits of Dragon Plate in the future) would be spells for Owyn.  I think this image speaks for itself  Anyway, going to play some more in a few minutes and will post the next update in a little bit. I'm thinking that shorter updates posted more often will win out over longer but dragged out updates. Also helps me remember what I'm doing.
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Dec 12, 2013 00:23
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Update 30: "Golden Treasure" We'll hold off on purchasing any new armor until the next update. We are near enough to Wolfram to head on back, and as you'll see in this post, we will be more than able to afford those purchases.  They continued their journey, and while not all homes were of interest to them, there was something about this house that worried the group.    It is horrifying to think of what beastly creatures like trolls would do to women. The distributing thought doesn't decrease in the slightest as they searched the barn that was only feet away from the entrance to the home.    Could this have been the work of trolls as well? The savagery of it was shocking to Owyn, who apart from his most recent travels with Locklear, Gorath and now James had seen little of violence and the grisliness of battle.  Seeing no trolls in the immediate vicinity, the group continued their journey towards Dencamp, but noted that to the southeast was a house nestled between two large hills. Concerned that this house too might be ransacked, they went to investigate.  It was abandoned. Whether it was due to the trolls or not was unknown. Inside was a handful of golden sovereigns, which James scooped up, alongside an old battered shovel, but they had no need of that and left it where it lay collecting dust.  Finally they had reached the next village along this northern route of the kingdom to the village of Dencamp. Officially, Dencamp was known as 'Dencamp-On-The-Teeth'. There had been some speculation that this was because of an desire by village elders to increase tourism within the village itself, but given the proximity of the village to the Northlands, and the threat of trolls, goblins or moredhels attacking, it was doubtful it would have much effect.  Many of the homes were abandoned, but this house had a helpful occupant.   Although Gorath was of the opinion that the easiest way to kill goblins was to stick a sword through their bellies, or to hack off their heads, James thought it would be useful for them to follow up on the group that the red haired man had mentioned.   "I suppose we should go ask the red haired man what the new password is, if he even knows."Unfortunately they would not ever find out. Repeated knocking on the door provided no answer, and peering in the few windows it seemed that the man had left. "Guess we'll have to continue to kill Goblins the old fashioned way then."Apparently whether or not you get the actual password is dependent upon your version of the game. In version 1.01 (the original diskette version), you are allowed to talk to the red haired man again to give you the correct password "Diamonds". The soldiers would then admit the group, tell them about poor Lionel, a Magician who "burned those Goblins' brains out with some spell," but whose spell "didn't work as well on the Troll that killed him.", and give the group the scroll with that spell 'Mind Melt', only available here and efficient against Goblins. In version 1.2 (cd-rom version), you can only visit the red haired man once and get the wrong password and cannot revisit his house again, and thus Mind Melt is not available. Looks like it would have been really good at melting brains. It is a damage spell, cost of 3 Stamina/Health to start with, casting it at a maximum of 15 at a Goblin would cause 90 points of Damage.  The small brown shop was stooped over, and even though Owyn was still a novice in the magical arts, he could tell that this was a magician's shop. Given that Lionel might have been a local magician, perhaps that had something to do with the shop being in Dencamp.  James and Gorath browsed casually through the items, having no real use for most of the items, though Owyn was particularly interested in some of the more exotic items for sale in the shop.    The Scrolls are: Dannon's Delusions Bane of the Black Slayers Nightfingers  Eliaem's Heart allows the user to cast the 'Riversong' spell, which summons a Rusalka to fight with the party until the combat is over. Four Rusalka per combat are allowed.  Glory Hand is needed in order to cast the Nightfingers spell, which is available for sale in this shop as well. Nightfingers allows the caster to steal all items from an enemy's inventory so long as they are not in use. The hand is consumed by the spell once used.  Infinity Pool increases Spell Damage by 50% The downside being that you have to use it before the spell is selected. Still, this could be quite powerful depending on what spell is used, and I can see it helping to take down extremely powerful enemies.While there were many items of interest to Owyn, they tabled purchase of any of them for the moment, deciding that it would be best to rest at the local inn and there discuss what might be of the most use for the group as they continued their journey.  Those assembled inside the tavern looked up as the three of them entered, but quickly resumed their game. While they had their dinner that evening, they nearly had one startling incident with a magician who was also relaxing.    Gorath snorted in contempt, while Owyn suppressed a laugh. "Magicians!"I've never seen this message pop up before. I don't know if it is unique to Dencamp given the Magician's shop here or not, but I love the magician's insult at the end. As was their custom now, Owyn took up the lute and began to play.  Although his performance still contained a few errors, the melody was pleasant and he was rewarded with more then enough money to pay for a room that evening, along with their supper. His progress as a musician had certainly improved since his debut back in LaMut. Leaving the inn the next morning, they continued walking through Dencamp. James admitted he was curious whether they could find the red haired man again, or perhaps somebody else who knew what the password was.   The food was still fresh and preserved well, and so James gratefully accepted the woman's offer. Just north of her house was a barn, which James had been told by the woman was a kind of community barn. Curious about this arrangement, he thought he should take a look and see what was inside.    In some ways, 'Jimmy the Hand' was still very much alive in him.  Leaving Dencamp now, the halted when they saw a dead body lie alongside the road. Gorath surmised that the man had been there for some time now.  Perhaps the man had been an assassin of some sort, if he was carrying this kind of poison? Gorath was not sure, but pocked the poison. At some point in the future it was possible they would have need of it. If nothing else, it could always be sold for coins in certain shops.  As they left Dencamp, James considered their route. Although Northwarden was out of the way on their journey towards Romney, he thought it would be worth visiting the nobility there. They could also be having trouble with trolls, or goblins, and he they could render any assistance then they would certainly try to do so.   A small dirt road led to house, where they could ask for some water. Of more interest was a small entrance to a cave of some sort that Gorath pointed out.     There was no reason to deny her request, given her hospitality. The payment of the fine wooden crossbow was also generous of her. While neither James nor Gorath had need of it, they knew they could sell it at a good price at armory in Northwarden.   As they approached the entrance to the cave, James halted the group. They watched as yet another magical trap sprung up before them.  After taking a minute to look around and discuss how they might disarm and proceed through the trap, the solution became clear. All they had to do was push the transparent crystal forward. This would trigger the fireball trap, that would strike the green pole, disabling the lightning field that it would generate. They could then walk through the posts and be safe.   Not too deep inside the cavern entrance was a door, which was strangely unlocked. Of course, what had promised to be a few minutes took much longer than that.  A rough brick hallway greeted them. This area is called 'Diviner's Hall', though I don't know where that would be referenced in-game. I have no memory of this area at all, but as far as dungeon maps go, it is not very big.  Gorath put out an arm to help Owyn from stumbling into the pit. Owyn gasped and backed away quickly, looking a bit sheepish. He had nearly made the same fatal mistake in the sewers of Krondor. James had plenty of rope, so a way to transverse the pit trap was quickly devised.   They rounded the corner, and Owyn saw a troll. Though to be honest, the smell came before the sight of the creature. Quickly the three planned their attack, took a few steps forward and saw that it was not one trolls, but several that they would be facing.   The trolls did not expect their attack, and James took advantage of this opportunity and the reverberations of the chamber and used the tuning fork to produce a shrill tone that nearly made his own ears bleed. He and the others watched as the trolls howled in agony and attempted their escape from the cavern. As they pursued, they heard the howling suddenly stop. Gorath cautiously edged his way towards the edge of the pit they had recently swung over and thought he could see them at the bottom of the pit, now lifeless. They returned to the chamber where the five trolls had been, but it must have been a sleeping ground for them, as no chests or anything else of value was found there.  As they left and went to continue to explore this strange place, they nearly ran into two more trolls. It was unclear whether they had heard the vibrations of the tuning fork, but given their determination to kill them, it seemed unlikely that they had done so.  Two trolls would be easier to take on then just one, but James saw an opportunity to test one of the magical items they had picked up some time ago. He had his doubts whether it would really work. If nothing else, it would confuse the troll he faced in front of him.   It did work though. The troll was frozen in place, its' hands clawing towards its' eyes in a futile effort to dislodge the ash that had been thrown into them. James quickly joined Gorath in dispatching the remaining troll that had been furiously attacking Owyn. Fortunately, Dala's blessing proved useful as Owyn continued to defend against the savagery of the troll. With one of the beasts down, James, Gorath and Owyn concentrated their attacks on the remaining troll and it was only a minute later before it had died.  Trolls rarely carried anything of value on them, but Owyn noticed a vial of some sort that one of them carried. He passed it to Gorath who confirmed it was Naphtha, which when coated on blades and set aflame would do severe damage to even the most armored opponent.    They were nearing the end of the strange cavern. A simple lock was on one of the doors, and it was a matter of seconds before James had picked it. Three dead bodies lined the room, and Gorath did a quick check of them, finding nothing of interest save for a very peculiar egg. The Wyvern's Egg is required for 'Thy Master's Will' spell, each Egg being good for one casting. According to the online resource, this will push a Wyvern towards the edge of the Combat Grid where it will remain frozen until killed. The Egg is consumed by the spell. Owyn could only assume that the egg was valuable, and insisted they he hold onto it until they could find a use for it.  In the final chamber of the cavern were two chests, each were Moredhel Wordlock Chests. Raising an eyebrow at this strange placement, Gorath translated for the benefit of James and Owyn.  "A carpenter left some wood, Would not take it back. I saw some dust where he left it, But couldn't find his stack.""I don't think I understand the riddle.""I do."Gorath chuckled softly as he moved the letters, solving the puzzle. Wordlock Combination Letters posted:C E O R L I Y  Gorath smiled as he opened the chest, discovering two gems of fairly high quality along with a bundle of rope. He quickly pocketed all three. More gems to sell. You may notice that the party funds are in the 3000s now. This is because I found a cache of gems outside of Highcastle and sold them at the magicians shop for quite a lot of money.  Having solved the first chest, the three stepped over to the second, and James and Owyn listened as Gorath cleared his voice and began to translate for them. "Neck, but no head. Arms, but no hands. Waist, but no legs."Unlike the previous puzzle, which Gorath had understood right away, this one puzzled him and others for a few minutes before Owyn laughed and then whispered something to Gorath. The Moredhel smiled as he put in the solution that Oywn had whispered to him and watched with satisfaction as the chest thumped opened. Wordlock Combination Letters posted:M A O H L L  Another Wyvern's Egg was inside! Owyn carefully put it inside his pack where the other lay. After he had finished his task, he looked up at the others. "This is the end of the cavern, is it not?" "I imagine it is, squire, unless we should find some another hidden passage as we leave. Just as well, this was only to take a few minutes and we've been down here for well over half a day at least. Let us continue on to Northwarden."That ends the update. Next time we continue our exploration and see what is in Northwarden. We do have a large amount of money to spend now, and will have even more once we sell the rubies. There has been some discussion in the thread already about buying new armor, and we can certainly afford to do that now and get Dragon Plate for all three if we so desire. However, we can also buy some new spells at the Grumbling Magician's in Dencamp, along with other magical supplies. What should we buy, if anything? I've tried a new narrative format for this update, and I like it. I am curious in everybody else's feedback though. More narrative? Less? Or is what I've got going on 'OK' for the time being? BONUS UPDATEElsewhere in this thread and the previous one there has been mention of the 'Cheat Chests' that are available in each chapter. Now that we've exited the Diviner's Hall, let us divine up some magical wordlock chests to open! To access the cheat chests, you need to go to the overhead map. Then press Alt, Right Shift, and ~, holding down all three keys for a few seconds. This calls forth a special Moredhel Chest out of thin air.  It is still password protected though.  Each chapter has its own code. Chapter 2's is 9216.   This is Chapter Two's chest contents. A really nice haul. I didn't show off Chapter One's while we were still in it, but here is what is in that box.  Pretty much the same thing, just with the Royal Key of Krondor inside as well. Chapter 1's code is 6478. What if we didn't know the password and canceled out?  You get the usual 'Gorath rubbed his temples' message, but with this one as well congratulating you for not cheating. Good on you for not cheating!
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Dec 12, 2013 03:52
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Thanks for the feedback, everybody. Looks like after this update I'll be heading back to Dencamp to get our guys outfitted with Dragon Plate armor, and pick up some magical items as well. Update 31: Learn the Lute with Tamney the Minstrel in Just Three Easy Lessons! 75 Sovereigns! Satisfaction Guaranteed! NO REFUNDS!  The next stop on their journey was Northwarden, it was here at Baron Gabot resided. Although James wasn't sure what help the Gabot could provide to them, it would be worth it to pay a visit and inspect the castle's defenses for himself.  Looking behind them on the path forking to the right, they could see the path that would lead south to Kenting Rush and Cavell's Keep. They'd be back on this road soon enough. While he was out... 'watering' the bushes, Owyn had noticed three chests.  Sure enough, when they went to investigate, they found they had stumbled into a trap.  A very easy trap as it turned out though. Who designed these things anyway? Gorath pushed the transparent crystal forward and squinted as the fireball exploded on the green poles. James walked through and the trap had been solved. It turned out that all three chests were moredhel wordlock chests. Gorath took a swig out of his waterskin as he went about translating the first of them for the benefit of James and Owyn.  "It doesn't live within a house, Nor does it live without. Most will use it when they come in, And again when they go out.""That's an easy one."Wordlock Combination Letters posted:B O T N  They opened the chest, expecting to find sword, armors, or gems inside. Instead was just food. They had plenty as it was, and so left the food where it was inside the chest.  "This side of a wolfhound has the most hair."Wordlock Combination Letters posted:P L T O R W D This is one of those puzzles that might seem confusing at first, 'whadda mean this side?!' but once you get the answer you just  . More food was inside, as well as restoratives and a rope. Owyn pocketed the restoratives, which were always useful. Actually I almost feel kind of bad, as if there are going to be some very dissapointed Morthdrel boy scouts looking for their rope and food while they go camping out in Northwarden over labor day weekend. On the other hand, free goodies!  "She has tasteful friends, And tasteless enemies. Tears are often on her behalf,Yet never has she broken a heart."This one is probably the most clever of the three in this update. Wordlock Combination Letters posted:K I I E N   More food? What is this, a Dharma Initiative Food Drop? Where are the Apollo bars? EH? EH?!  "NO! NO! NO! This can't be happening! Make a more recent reference at the very least!"Actually the food in these chests relates to a quest we'll see much later on in Chapter Five. I could probably take the food since it isn't like it is unique and could be replaced, but we don't have a need for it right now.  Dead bodies littered the approach to Northwarden. Although they stopped to each each for supplies, they carried scant provisions - usually spoiled food, or a nearly worn out whetstone was the most they could find. James noted grimly that all the bodies were of men from Northwarden.     "Sacrely wide enough for two men to walk abreast, huh? Good thing Owyn is still a boy!" "Bahahah!""I'm just a late bloomer, okay?"    "Meh. Throw it in the money bin." Although it might have been prudent to first stop to meet with the Baron, their supplies were full and it seemed prudent to check out the Northwarden's armory to loosen their load some.     Pretty standard armory for the most part. Like this section of the game world, it also has Dragon Plate Armor in stock. It also has the Sword of Kinnur. All things considered, it is a decent enough sword (Thrust = 25+Strength, Accuracy 15+Skill. Swing = 33+Strength, 0+Skill) but there are far better ones out there.   "I wished to speak to you."... Hurley? Dude, what happened to your voice?Oh wait, I've already made that joke. Well the very portly gentlemen is the Baron. He looks like a nice guy!    "you spit on their graves by bringing a moredhel into my castle! I should hang you from the bailey!"Wow. Apart from, I think Prince Arutha back at the conclusion of Chapter One, Baron Gabot is one of the few people who get actively pissed off at you for bringing Gorath around! "He has cause to be here. Prince Arutha believes this moredhel may have information that can lead us to the Nighthawks...""drat Prince Arutha! He has no conception of what the moredhel are like and the fact that he has taken this moredhel's word proves it. Seigneur Locklear told me the story about this moredhel and I no more believe in his virtue than I believe in Delekhan's strength!""Baron, I have a duty to perform and if in the name of that duty I must offend a Baron then so be it! As I have had cause to come to this place, I need a few answers and I sincerely believe it would benefit the both of us to help one another. If you choose to block me, then I am sure that Prince Arutha would be more than happy to inform King Lyam that one of his subjects has deemed himself above imperial courtesy!" "Seigneur, as a border baron I owe fealty to King Lyam and he alone! What Prince Arutha may or may not do is his own affair. But if by answering your questions I may be shod of you all the more quickly, I am at your disposal! What do you want?"As usual, waving the whole 'You want me to tell the Prince you are being an rear end in a top hat to me, one of his best friends?' works wonders.  Even though Gabot got pissed at us, we are cool enough to want to pitch in and help out. "Who is in charge of your guards here? I would be interested in speaking to him..." "My guards are hard at work. If you wish to speak to the guards, I can arrange for you to walk guard duty, Seigneur. Otherwise, I will not have their schedules disrupted. Shall I have Lieutenant Aaron put you on the night watch?"We can catty and say 'No' to taking a shift on the night watch. "As you don't seem to wish my help, I withdraw the offer." "Duly noted, Seigneur."But what fun is that? "Sounds marvelous. When do I start?""Lieutenant Aaron! I have a new recruit I would like for you to assign..."And thus the game ends, James, Owyn and Gorath become part of Northwarden's Night Watch. Eventually they take their vows as Black Brothers, swearing to the Gods both Old and New that...     "It would have been preferable if you had come when I called. Your guard shifts are utterly inadequate, Baron. Last night, while I was on guard duty, I decided to vary the schedule a bit and see what happened. When I watched the bailey gate when I was to be on the other side of the castle, I noticed a soldier slipping a note to another man who was waiting outside the castle gate. A few minutes later, when I shifted to the opposite side, again I saw another instance of someone attempting to steal a griefmaker from the castle armory. I stopped him, naturally. There were several other instances.""And the note passed through the bailey gate?""Harmless. A love letter from a soldier quartered here named Corbi to a girl named Thea... You've become too regimented here. Your schedules are known outside the castle, very likely made known by a spy working within these very walls. I urge you to take greater precautions and to reevaluate your staff. It could be the downfall of this castle.""I shall...consider it... In the meantime, I ask you accept something as a token of gratitude. There is a suit of Euliliko Armor that I no longer have a need for. You may have it if you wish. It makes no difference to me.""Yoink!""I can also write it off as a business expense come tax day, so, you know."  Not bad as a reward. It is a step up from Elven at least. Northwarden doesn't have an inn or tavern. With no place to go to sleep, or drink, we are getting out of here.   "The Baron wants me?"  Is it just me, or does Tamney look like Brian Posehn? You know, that guy who is on those shows whose face you recognize but you never remember his name?  "The Baron wants me?"That guy. Anyway "When one of the Baron's new recruits asked for musical instruction, I heartily agreed, sacrificing my morning walks to make time for his lessons. We started immediately. I demonstrated for him a simple royal scale - ascending eighth notes, progression from Cabdicant to Acoronant in half steps, Kingdom time. Even after two weeks he couldn't find all the notes. He refuses to practice, he can't tell the difference between a tuned and untuned lute, and he patently refuses to learn how to read minstrel writs. I don't understand why he desired lessons at all.""Perhaps he thought it would be easier.""Everyone does. They believe you simply pick up an instrument and it magically makes sounds of its own accord without so much as a whit of your concentration. Learning music takes discipline, the same as learning how to use a sword.""Perhaps you could give us a lesson sometime.""You're in luck, I'm free just now and I've recently restringed my lute. There is, of course, the matter of a small fee which Baron Gabot imposes for services rendered outside of the garrison compliment. It would be seventy five sovereigns for the lesson. I realize it's a bit steep, but part of the cost covers the price of the practice lute itself. Do you still want the instruction?""I regret that we have obligations elsewhere. Perhaps another time, minstrel." "I'm usually around here, so if you get the money, I'd be more than happy to instruct you. You'll have to forgive me, but I must go and prepare a new rendition of Her Eyes of Honey for the men. They didn't like my last arrangement.""Good luck with the rendition. We'll be back when we can."All of 15 seconds later...   Well gee, when you put it that way!  "We are your obedient pupils, musician. I already know where to find the notes on the lute, but beyond that I'm completely in the dark.""I'm sure of it. You'll find a lute there behind you.""Play all scale the notes from middle C to the G in quarter notes, playing only the coronant notes and then come back down to middle C again.""Good. That is the royal scale. Now I want you to play the same scale but instead of playing E coronant, play the E abdicant. All the rest of the notes are the same.""Exactly. That's the noble's scale. Together, the royal scale and the noble's scale are the basis of most of our music, though we occasionally use the empress or Keshian scale. The empress' scale is played by playing C coronant, D abdicant, E abdicant, progress to F coronant, G coronant, A abdicant, B coronant, and finally C coronant. I know it sounds complicated, but try it.""You may master the lute yet. I want you to repeat the things that I've taught you for an hour every day. Once you can play those comfortably, we can have another lesson... Forgive me, but I have to go and prepare some songs for the Baron Gabot's dinner tomorrow night. Take care and keep practicing with your lute.""We shall. Thanks for the lesson."The dialogue pauses as you click through, and you hear the notes being played on the scale. I don't have the means to reproduce it in here, sadly, but it is a rather nice touch that the designers included with the game. I don't know anything about musical theory, so perhaps somebody else can comment on Tamney's instruction to the party here. That's it for the update today. Tomorrow Gorath notices a dead bird , James hates art  , and I'm pretty sure Owyn has scammed a scammer.  BONUS UPDATE  Bet you thought I was going to forget again, didn't you?
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Dec 12, 2013 21:26
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Anime Reference posted:Assuming "coronant" means natural and "abdicant" means flat, the royal scale is a basic major scale (except only the first five notes for some reason) and the noble scale is a basic minor scale (again, only the first five notes). The empress' scale is C Db Eb F G Ab B C, which is C Phrygian with the b7 replaced with a leading tone -- this probably has a name on page 473 of some dude's Big Book of Scales but I couldn't tell you what it is offhand. Awesome! Thank you! Update 32: More Bread!    It just so happens that we are traveling that direction. Owyn apparently has family in the area as well! Maybe he wasn't lying when he told Locklear that he had pressing business in Tiburn way back in Chapter One and isn't some pantless drifter who knows about magic and healing?   The temple of Kahooli was located right on the main road. Seeing no reason not to stop and get information from the local priests, they decided to enter.   Of course, first they studied the pattern in the Mandela, comparing it to the designs they had seen at other temples across the Kingdom.  Turns out that in the Panthenon of Gods, Kahooli is a Lesser God, but his portfolio is Vengeance. We can't talk to the priests in this chapter, but we'll come back next one and see what, if anything, they have to say to us then.  Kenting Rush was a small but lively town. There were barely more than a dozen shops and inns, surrounded by farms and small estates west of the Dimwood.   Owyn's eyes widen, and involuntarily he grasped the bag where he carried the two wyvern eggs that they had discovered in the chamber just south of Northwarden. Could it be that the spell to command wyverns was close by? They thanked the man and left. As for the next home they visited, it was due more to their rumbling stomachs then anything else.   "Don't just stand there, let's get some fuckin' bread, boys!"  "Wow, check out the legs on the blonde.""BREAD NOW!"Having satisfied their desire for a french loaf, we talk to some of the people hanging around.    "You only had twenty five sovereigns on you? What kind of gambler are you anyway?" "The kind who just lost his next house payment." "Man, you don't have an entertainment fund? This inn sucks." "We had one, we just invested poorly with that man crying over there." "Oh." They spent the night without incident, and left the next day trying not to catch glances with the now destitute gambler.  "I always find it odd to see homes off away from the villages themselves. Let us investigate."  "Wait no, this is just a big misunderstanding!""You hear that? He wants to kill the prelate! Kill him!""I didn't say anything remotely close to that!""What! How dare you, our mothers were saints!" "Rarr!""Gorath, what are you doing?!""Communicating."  "Fair enough."  "Mwha ha ha!"  "No. Nobody stays alive to tell about what happened here." "You're kidding, right? We slaughtered them. The poor fools.""No you didn't!"  "Back for more, eh?!" "NO! Look you stupid bastards, we beat you once, and you are still profusely bleeding. You should go to a temple or something.""Hah! Have at you! Eyaah!" "This is just getting embarrasing." "I don't know. I think we are all better off for having killed them a few times now.""Let's just slowly back away, and pretend this never happened.""Running away, eh? Come back here and take what's coming to you! Ya yellow bastards!"Turns out this is a repeat encounter, where the rogues will continue to respawn infinitely. However, as you've just seen, they do so with zero stamina. Also, their weapons and armor continue to deteriorate in battles, so it becomes a very easy grinding area if we wanted to train our combat or casting skills here. As for the Prelate's House, we can't enter it this chapter, but we'll come back in Chapter Three and see if he has anything to say to us then. "Let's find a place where we don't get immediately assaulted for change."  James is quite the ladies man!   Bahahah! "I'm starting to hate Kenting Rush""I'll knock on the next door. Maybe we'll have better luck." "That was weird. At least I didn't get punched in the loving face.""Maybe we better sit down for a bit so you can recover."  "They got any bread?" "No, just your standard trail rations... and... wait.. is that?" "FRUIT!" "FRUIT!"  "So, no bread?" "It's... inspirational. I MUST PLAY!"   "Let's just get out of here already. I'll knock on the next door."  "I'm up for the challenge. Let's do it!" poo poo... a Lightning Staff? Owyn, you better win this!  "Trust me."  "Hah! That's easy! Answer is yes! What's the next question?" "That wasn't one of the questions, stupid." "Easy as pie. Answer is yes." "You do NOT!"   "What the hell just happened?""WOOP WOOP WOOP!"    Turns out that Owyn managed to score himself a sweet upgrade for a weapon. The Lightning Staff has 30 charges of Skyfire, but even as a general weapon it is much better then his default quarterstaff.   No point in lugging it around either. We dump it in a bag in front of the sorcerer's house as a final 'gently caress You' to the poor guy. "Just a few more houses to go. This is one weird town."   Have I mentioned how much I love the flavor the game puts in?    No reason not to say no...   This gives a nice free boost to the party's scouting ability (between 8 - 12 points) depending on skill selection. That's it for this update. Next time we'll visit finish exploring this area and head on down to Cavall Keep and perhaps meet some of Owyn's family.  BONUS UPDATE: Don't drink the water. Dead bodies litter the roads around Northwarden, but it is also free of enemies to fight. Nearby the the official border betwen the Northlands and the Kingdom, the party found an well, and went to draw some fresh water to drink.   Trusting his senses, Gorath wisely chose not to drink from the well. But what if he had?  "Dear Gods, WHY?"   A sip of that water poisoned Gorath 55%, fortunately we have an antidote on hand!    We play with the competent Gorath though, so this never happened.
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Dec 14, 2013 06:24
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Update 33: Chests on the Brain Last time James got punched in the face, and Owyn jacked a Lightning Staff from an old man. This time we will be heading to Owyn's Uncle's place. First though, we want to explore the wilderness outside of Kenting Rush.  Knowing that there could be Moredhel Spies just waiting for them outside of Kenting Rush, James decided it would be best for them to scour the area. That way they could also see if there were any drop zones in the chests that they could take advantage of. Turned out there was quite a few. Gorath would have a lot of translating to do in the next few days.  Three chests were in the area to the far south of Kenting Rush.  "Never resting, never still. Moving silently, hill to hill. It does not walk, run or trot, All is cool where it is not.""Wordlock Combination Letters posted:T U O R B C T N  The first chest they opened had a Ring of Prandur, Dragon Stone, Fadamor's Formula, and Redweed Brew. While they didn't have any particular need for them at the moment, they took all the items as they could be sold later.  "Passed from father to son, And shared between brothers. Its importance is unquestioned, though it is used more by others.""Wordlock Combination Letters posted:T R S E  They quickly pocketed the coins. There was another Dragon Stone which Owyn took, as well as a Clerical Oilcloth which they also took.  "What goes with a wagon that doesn't benefit the wagon, but the wagon cannot move without?""Wordlock Combination Letters posted:S L E S E  James smiled. They had spent a fortune buying better armor for themselves, as well as some new magical spells for Owyn. After selling these gems, in addition to anything else they found in the area, their party treasury would be easily over a thousand sovereigns once again.  From the edge of the hill, they begin to backtrack back north, heading towards a small house which turned out to be abandoned. They also chose to investigate the barn.   Got my hopes up for nothing.   Just north of the house and barn lay two more chests. The first they checked had no lock on it.  James now laughed. He had expected an old sword, or perhaps a handful of coins. Having more valuable gems to sell was very much unexpected. The second chest had a wordlock on it.  "It stands while others sit. It groans when it is too full. It has four legs, but cannot run.""Wordlock Combination Letters posted:C L A Y S  Owyn tossed the ruby to James while he carefully picked up the scroll. Could it be for a spell that he had not mastered yet? He had to find out.   'Thoughts Like Clouds' confuses Enemy Spellcasters, who will be unable to cast spells for a number of rounds equal to half the cost of the spell. The spellcaster will still be able to move around freely, and attack physically though. Given how fast those fuckers run around sometimes, I can see this being very useful. Might not be quite as useful when we face multiple spellcasters at once though.  They continued to search the wilderness, eventually finding the end point, where their diligence was rewarded with yet another two chests!  "The one who made it, didn't want it. The one who bought it, didn't need it. The one who used it, never saw it.""Wordlock Combination Letters posted:T A F K T E  Gorath took the coins and shut the chest. A few months ago the crossbow and sword would have been worth taking as well, but not anymore.  "What has a mare, That the cow has not?" "Wordlock Combination Letters posted:B I L E T  This time it was Gorath who tossed the ruby to James while he carefully picked up the dwarven armor. He smiled ruefully. Just like the sword and crossbow, this would have been a wonderful find just a few months ago, but now with their dragon plate armor its value was just to be repaired and then sold. Finding this armor reminds me that I never finished the Kobold Quest to find Dwarf Plate, so we are going to finish that one up this update! But first...  There was still one area that they had not cleared out yet.  In a locked chest they found a small amount of gold along with a handwritten note.  Guess there is a pants thief around these parts. Guess we know what happened to Owyn's then. "For the last time, I AM WEARING PANTS!"  "What just happened?"This is a fake wall here. The only way to guess this is to simply run into it face first. The hint being that that there is clearly an area on the other side of it. Why is it fake? What is the point of having it here?   We do stumble into a trap though!  A nasty one too. Trolls in addition to lightning traps and fireballs? Ouch.  First thing we do is have Owyn cast 'Invitation' to the one closest to James. He gets pulled through the lightning trap and is zapped to death.  Tried the same trick with the one by Gorath, but it ends up just moving him one space forward next to Gorath. This is okay though, Gorath just dispatches him the old fashioned way. The only threat left now is the trap itself.  Not so bad though. Gorath pushes the transparent crystal in front of the fireball trap, which explodes upon and deactivates the green lightning trap.  James then pushes the non-transparent crystal in front of the other fireball trap, which blocks it from firing.  He then passes through, and the trap is undone! "What is so valuable here that there was need to set up a trap with trolls as guards, of all things?"  "Oh."     "Surely they wouldn't mind one cask missing..."  Having finished their scouring of the wilderness outside of Kenting Rush, they head back into town to sell off the gems that they had found during their search.     Having sold the gems acquired, the party ventured back to the temple of Kahooli, and there paid for transportation to another temple.   After selling those gems we are back up to about three thousand again, so spending a little less than two hundred to teleport is fine by me.    After leaving the temple, we foot it up to Tyr-Sog. Dubal in LaMut had mentioned that there was an old dwarf battleground there where we could find dwarf plate if we were so inclined.   Sure enough, Gorath finds it. It is in crap condition, but who cares? We are going to be giving it away soon enough.     We don't have to give them the armor, of course. For example, if you were playing a game and that was the armor your characters were actively using, you might not want to give it away until you had found a suitable replacement. This isn't an issue for us, so we say yes.   Magical Kobold Juice!  The reward is pretty decent, an increase of five points to maximum health and maximum stamina for all characters. Every little bit helps! With that sidequest over with, we teleport back over to Kenting Rush and proceed south to Cavall Keep. First, we stop off at a farm for an amusing conversation.     "I said we would like to talk with you for a moment, and perhaps get some fresh water for our pouches." "Huh? You want fishwater for your cows?"No, I said we'd like some FRESH WATER for our POUCHES... and we'd like to TALK to you.""What?""COULD WE COME IN AND SPEAK TO YOU?""What do they want, dear?""THEY SAY THEY WANT TO COME IN AND SLEEP WITH US."They want to see our ducks? We don't have any ducks. Why would --""Uh, never mind. NEVER MIND. SORRY TO HAVE BOTHERED YOU FOLKS."See, now why wasn't this exchange in the book? Just outside of Cavall Keep, they found two more chests. One which wasn't protected by a wordlock, and one which was.  "It goes past gates, but ask no one's leave. It runs clear around castles, without taking a step.""Wordlock Combination Letters posted:S A M T  There was very little of value inside the wordlocked chest though. The other chest was far more interesting...   Seems that somebody has been bothering Owyn's Uncle's family. Could be worth investigating...     And so we shall. Next time!
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Dec 16, 2013 03:45
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PurpleXVI posted:I have to say, I actually really like a lot of the wordchest riddles, aside from a few that require knowledge of the gameworld and one or two I remember as being just utterly obscure, most of them are actually pretty good on their own merits. I don't see why not. Maybe we'll try a fight when everybody is 100% drunk.Psion posted:so uh Snugglecakes, which one is it? I'm late and you guys already figured it out, but yes it was what Schwartzcough had answered. I use the BAK help web as my resource too and it has been spot on for everything so far.
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Dec 18, 2013 06:51
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Update 34: Cavall Keep (CD Soundtrack)  (MIDI Soundtrack)  I rather like Cavall Keep. The Elvander theme song is nice and gentle and sets the theme for the city rather well. I find it all very charming.  First thing to do is go to the inn. Gotta catch up on local gossip, and fail horribly to mack on the ladies present. Only there aren't any here. Must be on Locklear's "Do Not Visit" list. "Actually, I am the reason why there aren't any around anymore. It is kind of a long story, you see, it all started a year ago, when..."Yeah whatever. Let's talk to the patron. "Aw, c'mon. I miss being in the game."  "Welcome to the Duck's Head!"I take it he is an Irishman? "Dook's Head" indeed. "It's just a regional thing, laddie. We all talk like this in Cavall Keep. All the time!" (CD Soundtrack)  (MIDI Soundtrack)    "Ha, no! Except for the attempt to poison the Count's family a few months ago, things have been fairly sleepy around here in Cavall Keep. Farmer folk here tend to keep to themselves and worry about their crops, not each other." "Who do you think tried to poison them?" "If you heard word from the Keep, you'd think no one did. They're a brave lot, all acting almost as if it didn't happen. Wouldn't matter to me if I hadn't of lost my best kitchen boy when he tasted the port. I've got a new boy that works for me, but I miss my old scully. He was a good lad... So... What can I get for you fellows, now that I've talked your ears off?" I find it weird that Peter is just so... casual... in mentioning that there was a murder attempt on the count's family. You'd think that Owyn would have more of a reaction in this scene too, but he doesn't say anything at all. "Sorry, what's that? I'm busy inquiring after fruit." Eh, fair enough. Let's ask Mr. The Grey about that. "So barkeep, what sort of fare do you offer in the Duck's Head?" "Only the best in all the Kingdom! What can Peter interest you in today? A bit of roast chicken with a hunk of cheese? Spitted roast with steamed potato eyes? Or what ho, the house special, a duck baked in a lemons and stuffed with rose peel crumbs! How does that strike you?" "I don't suppose any of those come in servings for the road?" "Oh my goodness, no. We can prepare rations for you at the very reasonable cost of fourteen gold per pack. Shall I have them made?"Saying 'Yes' just takes us allows us to purchase rations and out of the conversation screen. We'll decline. "As good as that sounds at the moment, I think I'm going to have to pass. I just realized I have a few other expenses to attend to first." "I'll let you off the hook, but just so long as you remember the Duck's Head after for a drink and something to eat."We ask after lodging for the evening. "Do you have a spare room where we could lay down? I could use a nap." "Need a bit of a rest, do you? I wish there was something to do for you, but the only room open in the Duck's Head is the scullery..." "We wouldn't mind sharing with someone..." "Truly, I would like to help you, but the rooms I do have to let are full up and I don't think my skully would want to share. The room is only just large enough for him to squeeze into and it's a tight fit as it is. With three of you in there, we'd have to stack you like ricks of wood. I'm sorry..."Now for the more meaty question about Nighthawks. "Have you ever seen any Nighthawks in the area?" "Ishap forfend! The Guild of Death? I wouldn't let them into my establishment. When one of my patrons comes into the Inn, he comes in breathing and I like them leaving in the same condition - alive. Please tell me you aren't looking to hire one..." "Hire one? I...might be. There's someone I've been having problems with." "Not another word of it, not another word of it! Whatever grievance you have with this man, I don't want to know. If you're looking for a contact, you'll not find one here. If you're looking for a criminal, try the pub in Prank Stone."Criminals are to be found in Prank Stone. Gotcha.   "I'm taking it back. I'm taking them all back."We investigate one of the additional entrances in the town.  But nothing interesting there. After all, why would we need the services of moneylenders when we can just get money ourselves by stripping it from the bodies of the slain... Ahem! Anyway, Let's find Owyn's Uncle, shall we? "What is the meaning of this?"Turns out that he is kind of a dick!  (CD Soundtrack)  (MIDI Soundtrack)     "The operative word being was, nephew. I have decided that we should aim higher for her. The Prince of Krondor has two boys, both unmarried and more than eligible for the hand of my fair daughter. I think either would make a fine husband." "I agree, but with all due respect, Borric and Erland are only two very rambunctious eleven year olds who still run away from girls. I think the pair of them would be horrified by a proposal at this point, though I imagine Prince Arutha might find the idea appealing." "I wouldn't suggest they marry as yet, of course. They will need a little time to grow naturally, say two years. Thirteen is a very marriageable age." "Ahem. Once I return to Krondor, I'll mention it to Prince Arutha." "I would be forever in your debt Seigneur. Is there anything I can do for you in return?"Almost slipped into a Crusader Kings II moment there with the talk of betrothals. There are a few things we can talk to the Count about. Since we found that spynote at the end of the last update, we can now confront him about it. "You have a reputation for disliking Navon du Sandau. Anything you would care to share with us?" "And what makes you believe I have animosity for Ugyne's suitor?" "Your petition to Kahooli. You asked for Navon to be - how did you put it - driven mad until he is grey with age?" "Who did you pay to get that note? Do you have spies in the Temple?" "Nothing so insidious as that, Count. It seems the petition collectors from the Temple of Kahooli have been slow to do their duties this year. We found your note and your tithe. If you tell us why you wish him driven mad, I'll let this little matter slip my mind. Otherwise, I think I can take up the matter with du Sandau." "Do what you will, Seigneur. He already knows my feelings for him. I simply wish him gone from my family and his meddling in our affairs... Day and night, he is at Ugyne, asking her questions about the Keep and Cavall Run. How extensive were the tunnels that ran under the great hall? Have they ever been mapped in any great detail? How much money is in my coffers? What are my schedules? With whom do I meet? His questions are endless... I lost a wife in that infernal Keep and I wish the matter put to rest. I never wish to hear another question again about it! Can you understand that, Seigneur? He brings up memories and feelings I wish to leave buried..." Sounds pretty intense. I'm not sure what James' actual reason is for confronting the count with it, but it might make more sense in the next chapter. :shh: We can ask the Count about 'Assessment'. "Weren't you a spotter for the Natalese Rangers when you were younger? I seem to recall you telling stories when I used to visit at the Keep." "That was quite a long time ago, indeed. Before you or Ugyne or even Neville had been born. I still have the eye too. I can tell you precisely how much a man is carrying by the way he walks or how good a swordsman he is by the way he pulls it free of the scabbard." "Sounds like a useful skill. Any chance you could teach us something about it?" "Don't be absurd. I spent five years training to be a spotter. You expect for me to teach it all to you in one afternoon?" "I suppose you're right. I'm already a decent spotter myself. I'll make you a wager though. You teach us anything I don't already know and I'll pay you in gold sovereigns." "I'll take your wager, but I'm not one to waste my time. Two hundred sovereigns or it's no deal. Will you take that wager?"We'll say yes, but if we say no. "I'm a bold gambler at times, but I don't believe I am feeling quite that bold." "It's just as well, for it is a bet that you would have lost."He taunts us about it. Dick. Let's take him up on the offer.     "I lost... wait a minute. I'm not supposed to lose!"But lose we did. Somehow? Maybe somebody else can explain what happened. We've finished up with the Count for now. We can go back and ask Peter about him. "Being right across the street from the Count, you must see him quite a bit." "Actually, no. The Count is quiet, likes to keep his own company, mostly. He's not one much for drinking with the commoners. His whole family has been much the same way with the exception of his daughter..." "Does he have any unusual callers at his house?" "There aren't many that would visit him. Don't get me wrong, he isn't a bad sort but he can be unpleasant at times. About the only people in and out of there are Ugyne's suitors and the men who work for the Count."He doesn't shed any new information for us though. Last stop is the armory.     It has a bit of everything. The most interesting thing being the Grey Tower Plate, which isn't sold in too many places in the game. We'll be continuing our journey onto at this point, but first let's check out how our characters are doing.  James is coming along nicely. His melee score is still a bit weak, but he is pretty solid in battle now. We got a nice boost to our assessment from the Count too. Don't worry, I deselected everything else except for assessment before I got the training.   Owyn is really coming his own now. He should be pretty difficult to hit and the blessed armor should absorb a good chunk of damage when he is targeted.   Gorath is our MVP. Look at those stats! And they will only get better as we continue on in later chapters. You may note that his weapon is not blessed whereas James is. This is only because I ran out of enough money to bless it by the time I bought the Dragon Plate and had that blessed first.BONUS UPDATEIf we had come to Cavall Keep in Chapter One with Locklear, the conversation between Owyn and his Uncle would have gone just a little bit differently. "I have given express instruction that I was not to be disturbed today, but Miri seemed to think your visit might be of some importance." "I don't know that it is important, but I would think you would be a bit more receptive to your own kin, uncle." "Don't presume to lecture me on manners, Owyn. If you were the proper squire your father dubbed you years ago, you would be in Tiburn at your brother Harold's side. Instead, you are allowed to roam wherever you like, without a whit of accountability to anyone. My daughter Ugyne has far more sense of responsibility." "You have quite a few opinions for someone who hasn't seen me in three years. Have you always hated me this much?" "It's not a question of hatred, Owyn. But your roaming about the world like you were a jongleur or a mercenary is an embarrassment to the family. How do you ever hope to gain the hand of a duke or an earl's daughter if you continue behaving as you are? How will you learn to rule?" "What? Sit about all day long and tell quarrelling franklins who owns this bit of land and who owns that? I don't want that. I want to be a magician, like Pug of Stardock." "And are you going to conjure up your living by doing parlor tricks for King Lyam? Going to make smoke pour out of your ears so you'll have a bit of something to eat in the evenings?" "I hate to disrupt your argument Count, but at the moment he is in my service as my squire. I am Seigneur Locklear of Krondor, adviser to Prince Arutha." "From Krondor? My forgiveness, I hadn't noticed your colors. And I have been standing here conducting a family spat! What can I do for you?"The rest of the dialogue options are the same from there on out. I do think it is fascinating to get this peak at the Count's opinion of his nephew in this conversation though, which is that he holds Owyn in very poor regard. We also get a glimpse into a bit more of who Owyn is as well.
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Dec 19, 2013 04:27
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Help web says that he just improves your assessment skill by 10 if not selected, 15 if it was the only one selected. I did in fact only select assessment when I did the training.
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Dec 19, 2013 04:37
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I'm traveling tomorrow and am out next week (like I bet most everybody else is too) so no update likely until 2014! Psion posted:I would appreciate it if you always and forever posted stat screens with random skills selected, but did it all right when it counts. Done. I tend to have him repair everything in my normal games, even armor that I don't even want. I just haven't been doing it as religiously for the LP. He also hasn't been getting hit nearly as often as James or Owyn too. WanderingMinstrel I posted:Bit of a spoiler in your second music track title. BTW- Are we stocking up on weapons for our trip into Romney? It could get rough, we might want to have tons of extra swords and armor just in case. That's a good idea! I'll be sure to grab some mook's weapons and high quality armor before heading into Romney. Ephemeron posted:If the part about unabashed chastisement is of any indication, it took us several hours to get one of Count's questions right. Let's Play Reading Comprehension!Ephemeron posted:Yes, and as far as I recall, there's even a special reward if you do. Oh? What is that?
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Dec 21, 2013 05:38
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Update 35: Exploring the Wilderness We have quite a bit of wilderness to explore the outside of Cavall Keep as we continue to push south towards Romney.   Of course, what kind of adventuring party would we be if we didn't stop in at the occasional inn every now and then?  Looks like this place has seen better days though. Only thing of interest is the lute that is just strangely floating there. We simply restock our provisions, have Owyn perform a jam session and then depart.  It is the well outside of the inn that is more interesting. They saw something shiny and metallic inside, so Gorath gives James rope... and a sword? And James pulls back out a different sword? I don't know if that would be my first approach to figuring out what is in the bottom of a well. I don't know about the rest of you, but the whole setup brings back memories of Kings Quests games to me.  "What Sir James should have done was to take the bucket and crawl down the rope. Just remember to "swim" once you hit the water instead of flailing around like an idiot."  Couple of traps in this area to be wary of. Nothing too difficult, fortunately. "In my adventuring days I had to deal with traps too. That is why it is best to befriend small rodents so they can chew off the ropes once you've been forcibly kidnapped." "Who is this guy?"  Trap is a total tease with those chests off there in the distance.  First step is to safely spread the guys out so we can get a better picture of what we are working with. Time to have Owyn push the transparent crystal.  The fireball hits the electric trap, disabling it and allowing Gorath to push on through. Easy peasy.  Now onto the reward. Puzzle chests!   "We don't need wine, We don't need meat. We have sharp teeth, But cannot eat."Wordlock Combination Letters posted:T I W E  Not bad! A nice little pile of gold sovereigns, and some silver. Could also get another 10 or so gold from selling the crossbow too.  "It can move over water, But cannot fly. It can move under water, But stay quite dry."Wordlock Combination Letters posted:T H T A T W  Nice. A another neat little stack of gold to add to the pile, along with some milk for Owyn's breakfast cereal. "It's magically delicious!"   "Has tongue, But cannot talk. Runs, But cannot walk."Wordlock Combination Letters posted:R A R P E  Unfortunately, the last chest just has a pile of junk in it.   "Your "herbs" huh? Well, if you're selling, I'm buying."   "Oh. It was just normal healing herbal packets?" I do like that they include these little Mom n' Pop stores out in the middle of nowhere. It helps encourage exploration. After exiting shop here, we continue to wander around aimlessly, and then...  I don't think we've seen this message yet. Nice that everybody is all smiles even as they ready to kill each other. "Thieves Honor: Service with a Smile." There isn't really anything about this battle, but I do want to show off a new spell that Owyn recently learned: Dannon's Delusions.   It does what it says. I had Owyn create an illusory version of himself and then placed it on the rogue farthest away in hopes that he'll focus his attacks on it instead of one of the other actual characters. "It is really spot on, Owyn. Down to the soulless look in your eyes." "Uh, Owyn?" "... You were talking to the illusion I just created. Christ, what an rear end in a top hat." In fact, it works better then I thought it would, attracting the attention of two of the enemy instead of just one.  It makes taking care of the other ones much easier.  Eventually the illusion just disappears, or it takes enough damage to be destroyed.  Owyn gets in the final hit with his new staff too. He is really coming around to being a valuable team member.   We stop off here, and I learn that I should knock at somebody's door before checking their barn.  Wow.. So, uh... can spiders actually drool? My google search revealed a tarantula forum posting.  ... Along with a link about spider-man drooling?  I'm guess I'm going to just say yes, spiders can drool, and I don't want to think about it too much.  It's the three of us versus one spider. I'll let you guess how it went.   Would have been helpful a few minutes ago. Way not to notice the rotting spider carcess on your front lawn too. "You mean a spinner, good sir! Thanks for leaving it to decompost in the middle of my petinuas. It's not like I put a lot of effort into maintaining my garden or anything like that." We leave the heavyset man and continue wandering around, eventually coming upon a copse of tree stumps. "Meh. Nothing unusual about that, surely!" "Just a minute, young man! Wood can be very important. One time, before I met my wife, I looked into a tree stump and found some expensive jewelry."  "It isn't expensive jewelry, but I'll take it."Each one of the stumps contains gold. A very nice and unexpected way to rebuild the party treasury!  "Oh, a deserted cabin in the middle of the woods." "Not all cabins in the middle of the woods are bad. One time a wizard named Crispin gave me a magical wand and the services of an helpful owl." "I'm just going to pretend you aren't here."  "Uhhhh....." Want magical scrolls? This place has them in abundance!    Scrolls Available for Sale posted:
Owyn knows quite a few of the spells already, but there are some awesome ones available here like Fetters of Rime. In a playthrough of the game it is certainly worth remembering this place if you are missing out on a spell or two. We'll end the update here. Next time we'll check out a scenic waterfall that we'll certainly never have to come back to, avoid getting hustled by some thieves, and go graverobbing! "Graverobbing, huh? Reminds of the time I killed Dracula. Pull up a chair, and let me tell you all about it. See, I had found his cape while exploring, and then I ate this magical sugar cube so I would be protected against the poisonous brambles next to his castle..."See you next time!
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Jan 7, 2014 05:37
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Hey all. I'm back from the dead. (again).  I've been debating back and forth for a few days whether or not to resurrect this LP, since it seems that every time I get a good pace going, something catastrophically bad happens to my family and I'm forced to leave home for a month at a time or longer. I have decided to continue, and am bumping this thread to prevent it from falling into the abyss of archives and so as to force myself to update. Short Term Goal: I WILL FINISH CHAPTER 2 IDEALLY SOMETIME THIS YEAR! Glazius posted:What's the benefit to those mom-and-pop stores in the middle of nowhere? A place to unload your gear? Do they have anything like a coin limit or will they just buy everything? I don't think merchant shops ever run out of money, the problem is that often they will only take certain kinds of items. So if it is just a 'herbal' shop, then you aren't going to be able to offload weapons or armors that you find laying around. The best places to unload gear are treasure chests, though I prefer to keep items that I would actually want to use again in Locklear's room in Krondor. Geomancing posted:Look out, Owyn! A poooooisonous snake!  "Oooh noo. I'm not going in there!" "God damnit Cedric, I hope you get struck by lightning."Yeah I didn't get the puzzles either and would also do the same thing with doing combinations until I got the right answer. Unless I was playing with my dad or older brothers. PurpleXVI posted:Also Graham was a brilliant addition for this post. "Thanks!" Also... Plot, you say? OAquinas posted:And screw you Graham! Get lost in a desert somewhere.
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Feb 22, 2014 21:08
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Update 36: Frolicing in the Forest "Hey where did you go? Now, did I ever tell you guys about the time that..." "Oh no, he's back! Kill him with fire!" "Kill those spiders too!" "On it!" *Ker-POW!* "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" "Thank Gods.. now where were we?" "Oh yeah, another trap. SIGH." Push the left block diagonally in front of the left fireball trap, and then do the same for right block in front of the right fireball trap.  And then then move the last block in the same method in front of the last remaining trap, and you are home free.   "RUN FOR IT OWYN!" The spiders and the trap we just encountered were along this little side road here, we follow it to see where it will lead.  Just around the riverbend...  To a nice waterfall! Ahhh... How very relaxing.  Of course, we gotta poke around the area for a bit for some goodies!   I think we've seen this before. It increases defense. It goes on Owyn to buff him out even more. Then we check out the waterfall itself, leading to some mirthful splashing around underneath it.  Also we found a chessboard, but it is missing a piece. We are not told why there is a chessboard underneath a waterfall nor does that make the least bit of sense. Anyway, there isn't anything else to do at the waterfall right now so we'll leave here and keep on heading south. "Awww! But Gorath was going to teach me how to identify different species of birds!"NO! Go murder a king or set some trolls on fire or something.  "Fine."I spot another temple on the mini-map so after the party finishes murdering the poo poo out of the trolls, we turn the corner to go check it out but get interrupted by these fuckers.   On the main map you see a few rogues. We are pretty stupid, but not stupid enough to drop our weapons and armor. Besides, the character won't ever get rid of their primary swords if they don't have a secondary ready so we are going to ignore these demands.  It also helps if you remember that Banath is the God of Thieves.  Add another mandala to our collection, and then talk to the priest, which I somehow forgot to screenshot, thank goodness for BaK web! The Lector of the Temple of Banath posted:The hour was sounded. "It's your fault you are stuck in a time loop, so kindly gently caress off already." "How very comforting."We keep on following the river, taking us to just outside of Prank's Stone, where we encounter an old friend.  By that, I mean digging up the graves of the deceased! "... You are starting to worry me, boss."I SAID DIG!  "I feel like this has to offend some God somewhere."This was short one, but it's caught me up with images I already had. See you next time with the results of backbreaking labor! BONUS UPDATE Just a few puzzle chests to tide you over. You find these just before you hit the waterfall north of Prank's Stone.  "Brought to the Table. Cut and Served. Never Eaten""Wordlock Combination Letters posted:S L L A T  Wow! This has some pretty good loot, by which I mean the dwarf plate. Too bad we are already have better armor.  "Widows and Orphans, Parents and Kin. This is disturbed most by riots and war.""Wordlock Combination Letters posted:S I A D E Meh. Just some crossbows that we can sell off for a few bucks. The real prize are the arrows which go nicely with a tsurani crossbow.
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Mar 5, 2014 16:30
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Update 37: Last time we ended the update by digging up the graveyard outside of Prank's Stone. "What a filthy job!" "Could be worse." "How?" "Could be raining."*KA-POW!*  Prank's Stone Dead Folks posted:Marty Hippler - "Beloved by all." Two of the graves have goodies inside, and two have to fight. You can usually tell based on the epithets on the graves which is which. Let's rip open Jason Verchew's final resting place to see what he might have.  Yes, very valuable items. The greatest treasures in all the land.   "A chasity belt? Ugghhh... That's going to chafe my willy!"Now let's defile the late Corey Perlance's grave by seeing what strange item his family decided to bury with him that is somehow tangentially related to the epithet on his grave. "Wot?"Just dig him up already.  Cool. Fire arrows! Last time we got some of these was way back in LaMut.  "And so we lay Corey to rest. Truly a brave man, he put out the fire using his bare buttocks, like a true hero would. We honor his sacrifice with this, a random number of arrows. May they forever burn underground just like Corey would have wanted. Amen!"That's it for the goodies, now for the . The first one, as you might expect, is Lincoln Albervant.  Fortunately we only face one ghost right now, and unlike when we had to fight an angry undead baby back a number of updates ago, this time we have an ace up our sleeve.  By that, I mean Owyn casting Skin of the Dragon on James and Gorath so they are protected against baby spitup that the ghosts fire at them.  It goes pretty quickly after that, nobody gets hurt and we banish a ghost back to hell. The second ghost is Damon Boyersmith.  I employ the same strategy as the first battle and it is easily won. Horray! Onto Prank's Stone!  That's right! Prank's Stone.  With its... crappy shops. At least I can offload the near dozen dragon stones I've been lugging around though.  Prank's Stone! With flying pigs!   And.. confusing gifts and domestic violence?  (according to BaK web she gives James rope. I don't know either.)   Kahooli Priests are at Kenting Rush and are weird. Got it. Let's see what else the town has to offer.    Just lost 25 gold for clicking on a door. Thanks, Obama. "It can't be all bad. This guy seems legit." "Come in, come in! Have I got something to show you."Noooo! Don't go in James!     We didn't have any rubies to convert, but it is just as well. While the process does work, it just turns rubies into low quality 2% diamonds, which are equivalent to an 8% ruby. One last house in Prank's Stone.  And it doesn't tell us anything useful. Now onto the famous stone itself.   I guess I was expecting something bigger. Can... can we touch it?   I don't know. Let's ask  BUT I WANTED TO TOUCH IT! Quick... Owyn.. Gorath isn't looking. MAKE WITH THE TOUCHING!  "Well it doesn't look like we are missing anything... "MY KEYS! MY PRECIOUS PEASANT KEYS! Owyn! That's it, mister! You are GROUNDED!"  Good thing that didn't actually happen, thanks to the power of Bookmark. Let's get the hell out of Prank's Stone! We are soooo close to getting to Romney and finishing up Chapter 2!  Uhh.. guys?    "Uhhhhhh.... No?" "Eeeeeeeeeesssss-No?" Hmmm. I don't like the sound of that. We encounter a trap on the other side of the river that was so easy to solve that I didn't even bother taking a screenshot of it. C'mon, it's Romney, Baby!    Finally. Spent a huge amount of time going the long way around. I'm sure it will be worth it though. C'mon guys, let's stroll on in, and...  WHYYYYYYYYY?!      "Can the townspeople come and go at will?" "We've restricted visitors from the outside, not imprisoned the citizens. Any townsperson can come and go at their leisure." "I assume the same may be said of your guests? May the men of the King's company come out and play? We have business with them." "I would be happy to help you but I'm not entirely certain I would know how to contact them. Tey are hard to get into one place and I'm not sure that I've met their leader. They are a rather untrusting pack of men." "They would have to be. When you're tracking assassins, you have to be craftier and a little less mortal than your prey. So, where would I go to get one of these seals?" "It's not that easy. There's a group near Silden that have been petitioning for membership for some time now. But they're an unruly bunch and can't find anyone to sponsor them." "But if I present a seal you will step aside with no questions asked?" "Well, not with no questions asked, but it would show that someone from the guild was vouching for you." "Enough, reeve. We will come back. In the interim, please deliver a message to the King's men from Bas-Tyra that three men will be here soon to visit with them concerning a nocturnal bird that kills at night. They will understand what the message means.James... we ALL understand what that message means. Well, this is a bunch of bullshit. Maybe he was bluffing, let's try again? "Halt. I can't let you across without a Glazer's..." "...Guild seal, yes, you've told us before. The business I have with the King's men is very important and I can't tolerate further impedance by a group of self-important cattle! Let us pass!" "Present the seal and the town is yours. Until then, sleep in the mud, Seigneur. It suits your manners." "Right now, my "manners" are the only thing separating your skull from my boot. We'll be back."Oh yes.. we'll be back. Then we'll make them pay. We'll make them all pay.  BONUS UPDATE  Just north of the graveyard outside of Prank's Stone are a couple of puzzle chests. Let's puzzle them out together, shall we?  "Names give power. Magic to control. But what is broken, by naming it?"Wordlock Combination Letters posted:T U V E T E D  Nothing special, just a good 50 gold and a dragon stone.  "The language of men, can be mastered. But what Kingdom word is always pronounced wrong?"Wordlock Combination Letters posted:P E R D E  Elf arrows are nice, as are restoratives, but that's about it. See you next time! Where we begin our plan for revenge! 
Snugglecakes fucked around with this message at 18:28 on Mar 6, 2014 |
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Mar 6, 2014 18:24
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Just started a new job this week after nearly a year of horrible unemployment! That said, next game update will probably be on Saturday and on weekends from now on.
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Mar 12, 2014 15:47
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Appreciate it, folks! Good news is that I played a bunch just the other day, so as soon as I organize all those images together, post will be coming up. ETA: Saturday.
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May 2, 2014 01:29
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Psion posted:Hey, next time you run into a trap push the G key to bring up the battle grid so we can all see how the grid trivializes already trivial traps, would you? Sure. I keep on forgetting to bring up the battle grid anyway in normal combat, I'll see if I can remember to do so next time there is an actual trap. Glazius posted:Let me guess, if we came the other way we'd have met someone on the road who gave us a seal? Kind of. If you poke around enough you'll find the right person who'll point you in the direction where you'd get a seal, but it is certainly possible to get all the way to Romney going the 'normal' path, only to find out that you need the seal to get in. Rockopolis posted:I can't remember your policy about the books. Probably because I don't have a policy. I don't mind spoilers, the game is very old and the books are too, so open discussion is fine with me. PurpleXVI posted:Y'know, I think that attempting to promise any specific update dates just curses the endeavor to not update on that day. Psion posted:If you promise it yourself, yeah. But if someone else bets against you updating that day, then you have to succeed to prove them wrong. I don't know why, but I do this all the time.  But I can't update this Saturday because I'm going to be traveling, so I'm going to update now. I guess you win your bet, Psion!
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May 7, 2014 03:03
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Update 38: Come to the Swamp. Get your Fortune told. Last time we had finally made it Romney, only to discover that the merchants there were having some sort of pissy slapfast guildwar, denying us access unless we had a completely arbitrary seal to show that we were neutral in their debate or something like that. Unfortunately, in this game we can't just ignore this or try and sneak into town some other way. No, instead we have to try and get a Glazer's Seal. No point in retracting our steps though, the only place to go is down south. It is there that we can begin our quest for revenge against Mitchel 'Punchable Face' Waylander.  "Of course, there is always time to stop for a drink on the way. We can go in, impress a few of the locals." "Meet a few of the ladies?" "And maybe learn a thing or two."    "Always bring a coil of rope when navigating mines. Check." "We have like, fifteen coils in my bag alone. I don't know why we keep on picking them up." "Mostly because it amuses me to have you carry the heavy things, Owyn."    "Yeah, that guy is a complete fool. We certainly haven't been able to open like a zillon of them thanks to having a companion who knows how to speak Moredhel, right Gorath? "Udeday, utupshay!" "We'll just be going now."Well that was fun. I especially liked the part where James dislocated a guy's arm. Let's go on that small side path and see what is going on over there.   Trying to interact with the house just brings up this message. Who knows what really happened?  But, sneaking around out back nets us a fairy chest!  "They go up white, but come down yellow and white."Wordlock Combination Letters posted:E I T L "Not much of a riddle, is it?" "Who asked you?"   This is a very nice treasure stash. At this point I typically like to give James the Rapier to use, but he and the rest of the party are so ridiciously outfitted right now that it probably isn't even necessary. As for the scroll?  It is one of the better spells. This one lets you damage and freeze your opponent. I don't remember if Owyn had already learned it before or not, but if he hadn't, then he does now. We meander a bit more down the coast, until...  Sloop. A smaller city, where there is not a lot at all going on right now.   James turns down free samples for some unknown reason. "I prefer to get shitfaced in a proper pub. Thank you!" Gorath gets the cat scratch fever. "I hate you so much right now." We learn a little bit of James' fear of public education. "I don't understand the homework."  Guess if you want to buy a house in Sloop it is a buyer's market. Tell your friends. "My friends and kin are all dead now."  Owyn gets nervous when he meets a new friend. "I'm pretty sure that thing is dead. And kind of angry." Bit unusual to have a shade just randomly hanging out in the open like that. Typically they only pop up when we disturb their remains with gravedigging. The fight was over in about 10 seconds, with Gorath and James stabbing it util it vaporized. Best we check up on the inhabitants of the house, I'm sure they'll want to thank us for clearing out the ghost on the front of their stoop!  "We can speak with the dead? Here we've just been stabbing them this entire time. Wait, what's the charge? 50 Gold?" Ohh, I'm so putting that up on Yelp as soon as I get home. Such poor customer service. We continue our trot down south and lo and behold...  Men guarding chests! Could they be fairy chests? We must find out!   "You fight like a dairy farmer!" "How appropriate, you fight like a cow!" "Every enemy I've faced, I've annihilated!" "With your breath, I'm sure they all suffocated." "Okay, I've changed my mind, I want to live!" "Owyn, would you please?" "Hey, that didn't rhyme." To the victors go the spoils, being PUZZLES BOXES!A whole bunch of them too. There are like five chests in this area alone.   "Kingdom fools are born without, a lot of this, there is no doubt." "Woah! Total slam on Kingdom Fools out of nowhere!" "I don't hate fools, I pity them!"Wordlock Combination Letters posted:T R K Y  Nothing special about the treasure. Wouldn't be bad earlier in the chapter, but right now it is just junk to sell off.  "A barrel of rainwater weighs twenty pounds. What must you add to make it weigh fifteen?" "Uh, fools?" "I got no time for the jibba-jabba, Owyn!"Wordlock Combination Letters posted:W E M H I  "Hey, enough money to get our fortune told! Also, a magical scroll." "Aww.." Steelfire isn't that bad, it magically enchants a sword to make it do more blood spattery damage, but I never use it myself. Still, Owyn doesn't know the spell so we have him learn it now while we have the chance. There ends up being a few more boxes in the area too that aren't password protected. However.   "Oh sweet merciful Gods, why me?"   Amazingly, none of them died from the chest explosion. "I would very much appreciate if in the future we can remember to cast that spell that I know. You know, the one that helps prevents disasters such as this from befalling us?"We stagger south further still, looking for aide! Who will assist us?  Looks like an invitation to me. But in interests of respecting privacy, we'll actually keep out for now. That's because there is a certain city that we are getting close to visiting.But, there is a problem.  They are throwing diseased poo poo at us. Guys. I think you know what I want you to do.     Yes. They shall all burn. Muwhaha!  Oh... well, that's not good.  Best thing to do when you've caught the plague is to go into a busy city. Everybody knows that, right? Right! See you next time!
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May 7, 2014 03:03
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