|
Oh my god, they killed Alex! You bastards! I got a chuckle out of the non-glowing sword. It's a lot more fun than it would be if they just straight up sold you the sword they say they're selling.
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2014 19:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 18, 2024 14:52 |
|
|
Just recorded the next hour of footage, and I can say that after we're through with this hour (should be only one update, it's a bunch of walking around and fighting instead of talking), we'll be going to Rabenstein! I'm sure all of you can't wait, with me hyping that place up so much. It probably won't live up to the hype, but gently caress it, I really like that place.
|
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2014 20:28
|
|
|
Hmm... Rabenstein... *checks meaning of Raben* Ravenstone, eh? Sounds like a cheery place. Not nearly as cheery as Gloomytown, but still. E: VV Well if you do, I won't get either of them. 
Cattail Prophet fucked around with this message at 00:00 on Apr 24, 2014 |
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2014 22:58
|
|
Cattail Prophet posted:Hmm... Rabenstein... It's going to take large amounts of willpower to make neither a Ravenholm nor a Ravenloft reference, I can tell you that, because both are fairly fitting for the poo poo that goes down in there. Oh god I'm hyping again somebody stop me 
|
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2014 23:03
|
|
|
I choose to believe that the town derives part of its name from a common mediterranea tree, called the Steineiche (lit. stone oak), or Quercus ilex. They call it the holm oak in English. We're going to Ravenholm. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2014 23:07
|
|
|
Images made and headshots are sorted out - currently making the GIFs. Update should be done today or tomorrow, depending on my estimation of just how much text is within this hour of gameplay footage.
|
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2014 22:41
|
|
Update X - Go To The Mirror, Tarius! So, last time we got off the hook for murder, saved the town from a murdering monster, and generally kicked rear end. Now, it's time to go from that excitement to the wonderful world of bureaucracy!  Well, not exactly, we're just heading to city hall, now that we're actually able to continue the plot here.  If it isn't Grandy and his gang... well, what do you want? Umm, hello Elwys. We'd like to talk to the mayor. Then go ahead, he just happens to have some time. But don't take too long, understand?  Ah! Greetings! All over the place people have been talking about your adventures! Greetings, mayor, we need a travel permit. We heard you're the person to talk to... Well, young man, that is one of the things I do here. However, there are official channels I have to follow... is there any reputable citizen of Düsterburg that would vouch for you?Hindrance #1 - we need a recommendation first. However, we were clairvoyant and already grabbed one.  Of course, mayor. We've got a recommendation from Chief Tharand Al'Rhun here... Give me that... hm... looks real. But, you know, the chief and I don't exactly see eye to eye... especially when it comes to judging people.Hindrance #2 - getting that recommendation doesn't really help. However, we recently rid the town of a murdering demon, so... But your case is obviously different! You've made a pretty good name for yourself in our town... we could use people like you. I can see where this is going - what do we have to do for the travel permit?Hindrance #3 - it's actually impossible to do this beforehand, so even if you try to prepare, the bureaucracy still catches you off guard. Truly, this game gives us the hard-hitting, timeless social commentary. There's a patient in the nuthouse. His name is Tarius. A strange case - he won't say a word, just composes... yes, you've heard correctly: He writes some sort of music! Anyway, the head of the asylum, Alfons Einbein, told me that this music has strange effects on his surroundings. Duke Wahnfried now wishes that this case is examined in closer detail, and you'll have to start a series of tests! Different living creatures should be subjected to the music to test its effects. I see... and what creatures are we talking about? A human, an animal, and a vampire. What? A vampire? I hope you've got one handy, because I just ran out of vampires yesterday. Save your jokes, Grandy! Obtaining the subjects is your problem. Come back when you're done - your permit will be finished by then. I can't believe it! Now we're working for the duke himself!Well, that's the way it goes. Good that old Deppert is... well, deppert, because he's not in the loop about our whole involvement in this struggle for power, even though Wahnfried should have told him about it. Fun fact: That staircase to the right? You can't go up there. Ever. However, there's still a switch associated with the staircase that allows you to go up there (unused, of course), and there you'd find a terrible map with nothing but bookcases and an NPC you can talk to for a little conversation that goes about like this: "Man, this map sucks!" "Well, that's why you made it inaccessible." "Yeah, and I'm sure there's some people in the community that would have me stoned for that." "You" in this case refers to the game's creator, who also used "Grandy" as his online alias, so basically, that was the developer speaking through Grandy the in-game character. Bizarre little tidbit I assume was left in for the guys like me that dig through these games with the editor. Anyway, off to the sanatorium!   Greetings, dear guests. How can I help you today? Please tell us about your patient, Tarius! Oh, yes, a fascinating case! He was found a few years ago in the haunted house that lies nearby. The gods only know what he saw there, but regardless of what it may have been, he hasn't spoken a word since that day. However, he expresses himself in a different way: Music! After a few smaller compositions he now seems to be working on a larger cycle. This music is something very special. It has different effects on different creatures: For instance, ever since he started composing, his cell is completely free of vermin! How about his relatives? In the beginning, his parents used to visit him, but they died a few years ago. He devoted most of his music either to them or his sister - and that's quite confusing! After the parents died, I started a search for his sister so he doesn't grow totally lonely, but she was nowhere to be found. Even more confusing: Nobody in the entire town can remember that a sister ever existed! We must see Tarius. We're working for the mayor, and he wishes that we test Tarius' compositions. "Working for the mayor"? I can imagine who really is behind that! But my hands are tied. Follow me! I'll bring you downstairs. Johann, we've got to visit Tarius. These people wish to analyze his music on behalf of the mayor. We have no choice but to allow this, but we will be watching over the tests to ensure no harm comes to Tarius. Well, there's a few interesting things here - I see a crossbow, also a target with a bolt right in the bullseye [darts](although he really should be aiming for the triple 20 instead)[/darts]. But let's get going with these tests, now.   Hello, Tarius, my name is Grandy, and these are my friends, Libra and... Umm... doctor? He seems really excited. What's going on?And suddenly, Tarius yelps and runs over to Libra.  Tarius... Liiiibra... Doctor? What's happening? Incredible! He hadn't been speaking for ten years now! Grandy... now I finally understand... Tarius is my brother! Your brother? But how can that be? Grandy, don't you understand? Wahnfried's time manipulations have thrown this town into a chaotic mess filled with contradictions! Dankwart?... It really is you! I thought you were dead! I was basically dead for many years, Alfons, but these young people brought me back into life! Wait, wait, wait... this is too much to take in at once! Dankwart, you and the doctor know each other as well? Of course, Grandy - but that's nothing extraordinary. We studied together in Königsberg. And were good friends from then on until you disappeared twenty years ago. I was almost insulted you didn't recognize me earlier, Alfons. Well, you did stay in the background most of the time, old friend... and after all those years... But I'm afraid there are more pressing matters than our memories, Alfons. This boy... since early childhood he felt that a part of him was missing... his sister Libra. That was the reason why the abandoned house attracted him like a moth to the flame. Through instinct he knew that he would find whatever was missing here! But as he found the ghostly apparition of his sister inside... the two realities rammed into each other and sent him into a deep confusion! Tarius' mind retreated back to the furthest recesses of his self, as to not go completely mad from the chaos of reality! Dankwart, I don't even understand the half of what you're saying! Don't worry about it, doctor. I've been feeling that way for days now... I don't have the time to explain, but the gist is this: The duke used my research to manipulate time! I can imagine that the majority of patients in your care are suffering because of the same reason! But slowly the pieces are coming back together - like this boy that has spoken for the first time in years! I'm feeling strong magical powers coursing through his veins and projecting outside... Miss Libra, can you maybe remember something about these powers? Yes... now I remember. He, Grandy and Lazalantin were planning to assault the duke's fortress! Tarius has had his magical powers flow into his music since childhood... now the three were planning to use that music against the duke as a weapon! He wanted to write a cycle: Four pieces of music that were also powerful spells! Custom-made for their plans! And now we're supposed to research this music for the duke... Oh well, first we need the travel permit. Then we can think about what we're going to do with Tarius. So let's get going with those tests!Right, time for some SCIENCE! We've got three things to test, and we only have the fitting subject for one of those here right now, so let's start with that.  We've got enough test subjects for the test on a human. I suggest that one of us becomes the guinea pig.We can either pick Grandy, Libra or Dankwart here. Libra gets annoyed that we're scared and that nets us 500 XP for Libra alone. Dankwart gets excited because it's been ages since he's done a real experiment and that nets us 500 XP for Dankwart. Picking Grandy nets us 700 XP for each party member, so let's go with him. I can't expect anybody else in our group to take the risk, so let's do this, doctor! Go, Tarius! Play the Dance of the Sun for Grandy!We get a little sound snippet that I really can't place anywhere and Grandy flashes a bit. That's it. And, Grandy? Is everything alright? Whew! That rhythm really gets me going! I want to dance, sing, jump around... Umm... otherwise, nothing notable, no.Insert a reference to House of Pain's "Jump Around" here. Anyway, next up is the test on an animal, and I think I've got an idea where to get one...   Come here little kitty... here, kitty, kitty, kitty...Then he snatches the cat up and all other cats disappear off the map. Watch out, cats - there's a new cat catcher in town!And back to Tarius' room we go.  Now we'll be testing the effects of the music on an animal. We brought this cute little kitty here for that. Alright, doctor! Let's hope we don't hurt the poor kitty! Go, Tarius - play the Dance of the Sun for the cute cat!Once again, weird little tune and flash. And, kitty - are you feeling fine? Great! Then hurry to your friends! Not exactly a lot of results so far - all that's missing is the test with the vampire!Well, I think I've got an idea just where we could get one of those...   Greetings! Can I help you? I hope so, chief. The mayor will only give us a travel permit if we do something for him. But for that we need a vampire... umm... as far as I know, you've got one of those bloodsuckers locked up downstairs... The crazy Asgar, yes... wait a second! I'm not supposed to just let you have that insane bloodsucker, am I, Grandy? I promise we'll bring him back in one piece! He can't do much harm with us around! I have no idea why I'm doing this, but alright. I'll tell the guard downstairs that he can let you have him. But I want him back today! That guy is a danger to the population!  The chief already told me what you're here for. He must have gone insane. Five guards died when we had to catch this guy! Well, but nobody asks me anyway. Let's get him out of his hole, then. Hey, Asgar! You won't believe it, but you've got day parole! Wonderful! That rat blood you're serving here is simply disgusting! And Asgar officially joins our group!  God drat, look at those numbers! I guess that just screams "temporary party member".  His special attacks are a standard array of evil magic, not exactly useful since most of the stuff we're fighting is evil anyway. Still, let's take him for a test drive.  These boneheads will make a good target.  All of his special attacks just have generic black magic animations, no attention to detail here (  and with good reason), and it deals pitiful damage, as expected. The bonehead is still easily dispatched. And then...  BLOOD! BLOOOOD! I'LL DRINK YOUR BLOOD! Go right ahead, Asgar, I don't think he'll be bothered.Generic catch-all ahoy! I don't think these boneheads have blood to suck. Ugh! That blood is filthy! But your blood, on the other hand... Asgar! Please don't look so evil! Come on, get back into line. Hey, please take a step back! And then we need to fight him. This happens if you get into any kind of combat with Asgar, so it's recommended to not gently caress around when he's in your party.  This turned out to be a very bad choice for Asgar, as "Crit your loving face off" Grandy demonstrates.   We messed it up, Grandy! We just killed our test subject! poo poo happens! So much for our travel permit - seems like we have to fight our way through the guards now! Let's go back to the sanatorium first, though. I fear that Tarius isn't safe there.Well, poo poo. That wasn't supposed to happen, so let's use our magic reload function and bring Asgar to the test room safely instead.  Now, let's test the effects of the music on a vampire. Asgar will be taking the role of test subject. What appetizing company! I'm warning you, Asgar! One wrong move and you're dust! Go, Tarius - play the Dance of the Sun again! This time, the animation is more detailed - we'll be seeing it again later. THAT NEARLY TORE MY GUTS OUT! YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT, YOU RAT! DANKWART! LIBRA! WE'VE GOT TO HELP TARIUS! And then the fight happens anyway. He gets his poo poo ruined again.  We'll have to see how we're going to explain that to the chief... At least the impact the music has on vampires is quite impressive. We're done! I see you made plenty notes, Dankwart. Let's bring our report to the mayor, then!Posthaste!  There! We're done! Here's the result of the tests! Let me see... hmm... very interesting! Just like the duke suspected! This Tarius must be disposed of immediately! Do whatever you want - we did our part, and we want to leave now! Of course! Here's your travel permit. A shame you want to leave so soon! Grandy! You're not just going to leave Tarius to his fate, are you? Who do you think I am? We're heading right back to the sanatorium and are getting him out of there!Posthaster!  It's a good thing you dropped by again. I want to talk with you about Tarius. Professor! Wahnfried's lackeys are on their way to capture Tarius and bring him to Castle Düsterburg! I expected as much. Furthermore, I believe that it's best for his recovery that he stays close to his sister. Please, take the boy with you! It's much too dangerous here! Our adventures will certainly be no picnic, either, but I believe that it is Tarius' fate to fight Wahnfried! Thank you for your cooperation, doctor. It's time for us to leave Düsterburg. Tarius, you'll now have to go along with your sister - it's too dangerous here... I know, doctor. I hope I can come visit you after this whole thing is over. Somebody's awfully proficient in talking for not having done so in an entire decade. Mental block or no mental block, not having spoken for ten years should probably have some sort of effect on a person. Holy smokes! He's really progressed in such a short time! I also believe that he will be a great help in your mission. He's an excellent bowman!Well, a crossbowman, but that's semantics, I guess. Farewell, Tarius. We'll meet again, doctor. And with that, we get our true fourth party member after the temporary ones we picked up before. Let's see how good he is...  ...loving hell. I mean, I guess sitting in a cellar doing nothing but composing music isn't exactly great, but come on, level 15? Less than half of Grandy's HP and less than half of Dankwart's MP? Both Dankwart and Libra are squishy mages, you're kind of supposed to be a secondary fighter here, mate.  His equipment is kinda shite as well. The repeating crossbow is good, but that's about it. Look at that 36 defense. Libra and Dankwart both have broken 100 at this point, and they're getting smacked around quite a bit right now. Tarius is going to get carved up like thanksgiving turkey at this rate. Well, let's improve his armor first and see if it helps.  Not a lot. I gave him the best stuff available, and he's only hitting 72. Ignore the heavy crossbow up top, it only gives a +5 compared to the repeating one and only attacks once as opposed to twice with the repeating one, but I only realize that later. However, I have a plan.  This plan requires money, however.  And with a little help from Vitamin Dollar, Tarius gets stuffed with sixty pieces of fruit.  Sadly, there were only three types left, so he turned out a bit lop-sided, but still, at least he's hitting harder than Libra now.  So let's take him out for a spin, shall we? I've kind of been holding off on killing these guys up on the walls, and this is the reason why - while I didn't know, I figured Tarius would be in need of some experience.  The Dance of the Sun is a spell that packs quite a whallop against evil enemies. It better, too, at a cost of 24 MP! That's like three of Dankwart's holy magic attacks, and those deal about the same damage. Also, funky coloring! Don't you just love GIFs?  Here's the repeating crossbow in action. Nowhere near the damages Grandy is dealing, but hey, at least it's better than Libra.  Also, here's the ability we learned at the end of the last update. Basically, it's a "go big or go home" ability - it either hits for massive damage or doesn't hit at all. It also doesn't take the weapons into account, so our magic swords don't help here, which kind of makes this lovely. Still, it doesn't cost anything, so I guess it's worth having around.  After that murder spree, it's time to heal up, because it's time for us to leave this town.   Stop! What is your goal? 1) The duke's castle! 2) Königsberg! 3) To eliminate you!You know what, gently caress it, we can take these guys. Overleveled, magic weapons, we've got this. A splendid idea, I haven't had my dinner yet! Now this is a fight we've got going on. All other fights we had so far were basically mandatory, but this one is optional for the ones that just want to murder more demons or for those that hosed up getting their travel permit (I believe that losing Asgar is the only way to do that, everything else seems to have some sort of failsafe, but I might be wrong). One bonehead's not that tricky. Two isn't all that tough either. Two plus a powerful demon? Now we're starting to get somewhere. However, the party is so pumped up on side quest experience and fruit steroids that I only need to throw out one healing spell. Still, that's one more than I needed for that shapeshifter.  They give a nice amount of XP and cash, so it was worth taking them out anyway - and now we can just walk in and out of town as much as we want! Not that they would have stopped us anyway since we had the permit, but the less paperwork we have to deal with, the better.  Next time, we make our way out to the Rabenstein Marches. And next time is immediately because the originally planned update broke 50K characters again! Yay!
|
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 17:50
|
|
Update XI - It Made Sense At The Time This area is a bunch of trees, a bunch of enemies, and not a lot of interesting landmarks. As such, it's kind of boring to talk about, but let's meander around and find the interesting parts. First off, let's head east.  Stop, Grandy - there seems to be nocturnal vermin ahead!If only your text box wasn't blocking them...  That's better. I see them... 1) Those are monsters! ATTACK! 2) Let's walk over to them. 3) Let's listen to what they're talking about.Listening in is always a good option, it gives you more information, which is what you always want.  I don't know about you, but I don't find this fire to be particularly effective... You speak truly, dear bone warrior... spend an hour looking for wood and now I'm not a lot warmer than before. Calm down - just because you two are already dead and cold doesn't mean that I have to be freezing here. After that storm my fur is completely soaked and I'm freezing like crazy. The werewolf here is actually freezing like a "Schlosshund", which literally comes out to "dog that lives in a castle". That term, however, is only ever used in idioms - "heulen wie ein Schlosshund" means to cry heavily. Here, it's instead used to make a pun - I don't think "frieren wie ein Schlosshund" is an actual idiom, at least I've never heard it used and can't find a reference to it. Then go look for wood yourself next time! Then you'll be warm! Don't be getting cute with me here, bonehead! After all, it's your fault that we can't stop in the inn even in this terrible weather. Don't you start with that again! You insisted that I carry that folder, after all! I thought that you could be trusted with that - I should have known better. Gentlemen, please don't fight. That won't help us in our situation right now. The wanted posters are simply gone. And before we find them again we should avoid any contact with the duke's men...These guys are the Morons. No, really. Internally, in both the game's code and the faceset files, these guys are defined as the "Deppen", which comes out to "morons". Anyway, they seem to have a problem, and we are professional problem solvers, so let's see if we can't help them.   HALT! Who goes there? Show yourself! Hello, my name is Grandy. We're harmless travellers and just wanted to warm ourselves at your fire. Not a chance! Get out of here, this is our fire! Now don't act like you're the boss around here, alright? After all, we all got the firewood together. It's alright, don't fight... may I ask what brings you into this godforsaken area? THAT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS! And now you'd better get out of here fast, or... YOU HAVE REPEATEDLY BEEN ACTING OUT OF YOUR AUTHORITY! AND NOW SHUT YOUR HAIRY MOUTH OR YOU'LL REGRET IT! Pardon my impetuous friend. We will gladly answer your questions... That's nice... 1) Who is your master? 2) Can I help you? 3) ...but you're about to die!Let's help these guys, I'm sure they're going to be grateful. The fact that those wanted posters most likely have our faces on it shouldn't pose a problem at all. You look lost, or rather you look like you lost something... could we help you in some way? That's a very gracious offer, sir. We really could use your help... What's the problem? My rattly colleague here has lost a folder that is very important to us. There were four wanted posters in there that we were supposed to hang up in Düsterburg for Duke Wahnfried. If we can't do that, death is certain... or even something worse... Consider the issue solved, 1) because we'll find the posters! 2) because we're the wanted ones!We really get a lot of opportunities to beat these guys up, but we won't take them. That's quite confident of you. Be assured that we'll reward you well for this...Looks like we found ourselves a quest. This will require us to bop around this forest area quite a bit, so let's get going.  New enemies! Not notable in any way except that they hit harder than others! Still pretty weak, all things considered!  Buried poo poo all over the place! Looks like there's something buried here! Hmm... a ring. I wonder if it's a special ring... Yes, it is. It's a decent little magic power boost for Dankwart. Otherwise, not exactly special.  Now, as we go further north, we trigger a cutscene. Dankwart, you know this area. What's north of here? It's about two hours of walking to Castle Düsterburg. I however do not recommend using the direct path, which is surely well-guarded. What do you suggest? We could go east, which is where Castle Rabenstein lies. The lord of the castle, Sir Roland, was always a loyal follower of mine... maybe he could be an ally in our quest! However, it could also be that the lackeys of the duke got to him first... In that case, a trip to Castle Rabenstein could very well be fatal. Anyway... north of here used to be a fairly well visited inn. East of there there is an exit to an old escape tunnel from the castle somewhere in the forest... I never used it myself, but it should be possible to find the entrance... You're the leader, Grandy! You decide where we go! Your suggestions carry a lot of unpredictable risks with them, Dankwart... I think we'll take a look at all of them and then decide! Very diplomatic of you, the way you try to get out of that tight spot, Grandy... Umm... Libra... I've got a bad feeling about those suggestions that Dankwart made... A bad feeling... I see... I'll try and remember that when I have the time... Don't pick on him like that, mister holier-than-thou! You'd better take the boy seriously, Grandy! He may be young and only recently came to our group, but I feel he has great potential. Yes, I'm sorry... Regardless, we should hurry. The duke surely already knows that his plan failed. CHAPTER III: ON DARK PATHS It seems like we're making decent progress, but the chapters aren't really the same size - they generally get larger from chapter to chapter, with the fifth one being a monster of a chapter that is split up into four subchapters. We're definitely not done with 40% of the game, and we probably haven't even made 25%.  Anyway, more monsters abound. These fuckers can actually poison you, but Dankwart has an anti-status-ailment spell, so it's not that much of an issue.       Going a bit out of order here - there's a bundle of stuff buried all over the place in this area, and it's not all that interesting. We find 6x holy water, an iron helmet, a rabbit pelt, an elixir (full HP/MP heal), 50 bucks (why) and a poisoned longsword (would be useful if we didn't have the two best swords we can get already).  Going back in order, we find the first of the four wanted posters rolling around here (that little brown thing diagonally left up from Grandy's position).  Evil black wolves abound here. Once again, a step up from what we've seen before, but not really interesting or tough.  The second poster is hanging from a tree here. From there we go up and find a tree that has definitely seen better days:  BY THE GODS! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TREE OF THE DENGELBRACKS? This tree was planted generations ago by the first duke of Falkenburg. It's practically the landmark of our family! Many claimed that it has magical powers. And just look what happened to it now! Yes, I see it, Dankwart... well, even trees die some day... NO! The condition of the tree must be related to the current situation... OF COURSE! Dankwart, you old dunderhead, how could you have missed that the entire time? What did you miss, Dankwart... I hope it's nothing that would worsen our current situation? Take a look around, Grandy! Aren't you noticing something? Pardon me, Dankwart, but I can't notice anything special... The forest, Grandy! Trees, bushes, mushrooms, flowers... they all need light to exist, but there's no light here! This old tree is keeping them alive... But there's barely any energy left in it. Should we fail and Wahnfried continues to reign here... ...then this region will turn into a desert within a year!Well, that just raised the stakes.  Walking around a bit more, we find the third poster hanging from another tree.  Going to the north, we find the inn Dankwart mentioned was here, but we don't want to deal with the quest associated with that just yet.  We only peek our heads in and grab the final poster.  1... 2... 3... 4... seems like we found all the wanted posters!Before we leave this general area, though, we start another sidequest...  ...by talking to this fellow here! Eeek! There's a monster standing right in front of me! Calm down, Grandy. That's a Taurus from the Minoan Islands. Those were the guardians of the massive labyrinths under the temple cities on Minos, right, Dankwart?Seems like we've got a direct rip from Greek mythology here, except that Minos is an island instead of a king here. Oh my, Libra! Your brother has incredible powers of comprehension! I just mentioned that story as an aside once. That surely must run in the family, Dankwart!I'm not sure if that was sarcastic in a way or if there's something I'm missing, because it seems a bit egotistical of Libra to basically be saying "yeah, I'm that great too". The way she says it made me think that Dankwart and Tarius would somehow be related, in a "he got that from you" way. Oh well. What's this guy mumbling to himself about? Ohcrapohcrapohcrap... that thing just has to be somewhere... maybe in the other pair of pants... He seems to be looking for something. Aren't you a keen observer of detail, darling. Excuse me, mister... Mister... Oh, pardon me, I didn't notice you. Could you do me a favor? Figured that we're not getting out of here without another thing to do for somebody...Grandy's starting to catch on here. I'm not following, and I apologize if I may have insulted you, sir. Don't worry, he just didn't get a whole lot of sun recently. What's your problem, sir? It's a long and tragic story, if you want to hear it... 1) Go ahead. 2) Boooooring!Story time, yay! My name is Kima, and I'm an aspiring labyrinth manager in a small temple on Minos Beta. I was en route to Sarabia for a diplomatic mission and just wanted to take a shortcut over Königsberg... but then I lost something very important! A gift from my lover and mistress Ariadne. Yeah, no problem. Just tell us which monster took it and we'll chop its head off. We'll be right back! I fear the matter is not that simple. For the present was not gold or any kind of baubles. No, she gave me a lock of her silver hair as security of my faithfulness. Show of hands for whoever's still keeping up with this guy! You must know that her hair is woven out of a mystical thread. If I were to lay my hands on another woman, it would burn away. However, I just lost it and can't bring it back, so the proof of my faithfulness is gone! Got it. You lost the thread and now we're going to look for it, right? Originally I was going to point out how "den Faden verlieren" not only means literally "losing the thread" but also "losing your train of thought", but apparently, "losing the thread" is exactly the same idiom as in German. The more you know, I guess. I certainly didn't know. If you manage to do that, I will give you the greatest treasure I have.If I didn't know already, I'd say that given his priorities when it comes to treasures the reward will probably turn out to be something metaphorical. But no, we're getting an actual reward. It's useless to me and would actually be harmful, but for a regular player it'd be nice. Now, now, Kima. We're usually just voluntary detectives and monster killers. We'll see if we can find your lock. Nearby we run into Great Orcs. Not exactly bigger, just a bit stronger. Still not a real issue. Moving on, let's head north to the direct path to the castle.  Careful, Grandy! Not one step further! There's a barricade ahead! That's a demon lord! One of the most terrifying creatures on this earth! We can't defeat that. Maybe not defeat, but maybe we can talk our way through! Have you considered the possibility that these guys were informed of our potential arrival? Libra is right. We can't risk that. Alright, then we'll retreat and look for a different way. Now, let's get those posters back. And, have you found them yet? Yes, indeed - we managed to find all four wanted posters! Excellent! You have our eternal gratitude. 1) Here they are! 2) First the reward! 3) We're keeping the posters!I gently caress up here because I didn't read far enough into the guide and give them the posters. The third option is just engaging battle because you're on the posters, but the second one is actually the one we'd want, as we then get the vampire guy's sword, a magic sword with evil, life-sucking magic. It's strong, but inherently inferior because of the fact that it's weak against most enemies in the game. However, it fetches a pretty penny when sold - about 10K bucks. Oh well. Alright, you mugs! Enough lazing around! Let's get those posters hung up in Düsterburg! You know, I'm not sure if that was one of my better ideas...Yeah, probably not too smart. Better head back and pick those posters up again.  We find them scattered about the town in fairly obvious places and easily collect all four. Now, let's actually take a look at them, spelling errors relatively intact:  First off is Grandy. He's apparently got greasy hair, he's cros-eyed, he's got a big zit on his face, and his teeth are rotting. This is the leader! The terrible Grändy! He has brown hair and is totally ugly... and dangerous... Rewart: YES! ROTTING TEETH? Oh, come on, Grandy. Out here in the wilderness you just don't get time to brush your teeth - that comes with the job! I think it's pretty cute how the artist managed to nail your slight squint. So the duke has called for a large search for us. Doesn't matter - if all posters look like this, we won't have any problems. Next up is Libra. She died her hair and is wearing makeup because she's ugly. Libra the licentious! Careful: Does magic! Goes into bed with evryone! Slud! Of her! Reward: Violate her! Ah, going for the necrophiliac crowd. I guess since like half of the people interested in helping Wahnfried are already dead in some capacity, that's not that big a surprise. Also surprised at the usage of the word "licentious". That's a big word for the person writing these. These guys are off their head! Don't worry, Libra! We're sticking together! Nobody's going to get to violate you! I'm not talking about that! How could they possibly get the idea that I've got makeup on? We don't even have a mirror with us! Next up is Julie. She's got bad breat and drools. The dok! Shits in the woods! Bites! Rewahd: Eat! They want to eat Julie... I hope they don't break into our house. I mostly hope that she's a bit restrained with her droppings... ...otherwise you'll have a lot to do when we get back home! Finally, we've got Dankwart. He's got ears that stig out, a big schnoz and the beard an rear end in a top hat would have. Dankwart! A mean ubstart! Lies and cheads! Please kil him! Rewahd: Mutch! Is my nose really that big? Your nose has character, Dankwart! Just compare that to Grandy's little nose! Am I a liar, or something? We just found a caricature of Dankwart and I'M the punchline? Well, you are an inviting target...Well, we've got these posters, where to bring them? Let's just give them to Thar, he'll know what to do with them.  Are you insane? You just waltz in here even though there's wanted posters of you all over town? What? I walked all over the town and didn't find a single poster... Oh... umm... well done!That gives us a little XP. Might as well do it. Now, it's almost time to head to Rabenstein, but first...  ...we're stocking up for war. 40 healing potions, 20 MP potions, 10 full heals and 10 revives, we're ready to go.  So let's do this poo poo. We're starting this at the end of this run of footage and totally not in the middle of it because I just happened to activate this cutscene by mistake while bopping around the forest, no sir.  We get a foreboding shot of the castle, which should clue people in that things are probably not all that great up there. So that's Castle Rabenstein... doesn't exactly look inviting... there's no lights in the windows. It seems like the castle is abandoned. We also get the return of the hand-drawn characters, which is also nice. Indeed, Grandy. Well, I've said before that Sir Roland was always a loyal servant of mine... it could very well have been that he resisted the new duke and got a taste of his might. Well... the only way we can find out for sure is if we visit Castle Rabenstein ourselves. And that's exactly what we'll be doing. Next time, we're going to find out what went on in Castle Rabenstein, and you know it's going to be awesome! Well, not you, you don't know, but I know, and that's what counts.
|
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 17:50
|
|
|
Those posters are fantastic. Also if we're less than 25% through the game then I clearly remember far less of this than I thought I did.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 20:18
|
|
|
25%!? Goddamn. That's pretty impressive. I love the expression Grandy has when he gets yet another side-quest 
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 22:11
|
|
|
TheMcD posted:
Poor little NPC. Dog wanted poster is pretty great and Grandy is an inviting target. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 22:19
|
|
|
vilkacis posted:Poor little NPC.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 23:13
|
|
Admiral H. Curtiss posted:Also if we're less than 25% through the game then I clearly remember far less of this than I thought I did. SSNeoman posted:25%!? Goddamn. That's pretty impressive. Well, here's what I've got as far as numbers go: The almighty clock told me I've spent roughly five hours playing this game so far, four hours and 47 minutes to be exact. Now, one hour was spent on the rear end-end of chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3, and another hour has been spent on Castle Rabenstein (yes, I've already got the footage recorded). Assuming five hours and subtracting about one and a half for chapter 3, that leaves us with three and a half for 1 and 2, which I would probably split with one and a half for chapter 1 and two for chapter 2. Estimating that I'm currently about ~60% done with chapter 3 (Rabenstein was the big quest, but there's still a few more that are decently sized), we've got this time make-up: Chapter 1: 1 1/2 hours Chapter 2: 2 hours Chapter 3: 2 1/2 hours Now, I can do some more guesstimating based on FAQ length and memories and arrive at this rough schematic for the future: Chapter 4: ~3 hours Chapter 5, Part 1: ~2-3 hours Chapter 5, Part 2: ~2-3 hours Chapter 5, Part 3: ~2-3 hours Chapter 5, Part 4: ~2 hours That leaves us with 3 1/2 hours for chapters 1 and 2 and ~13-16 hours for the rest, so that means chapters 1 and 2 come out to 18~21% of the playtime. So yeah, we've got a lot of game to still get through.
|
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2014 18:56
|
|
|
I see where Andrew Hussie got his method for dividing his work into chapters from.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2014 19:26
|
|
|
Oh my god, the posters are great! "Bitte abmurgsn", "Assi Bart" 
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2014 21:38
|
|
Update XII - Welcome To Castle Rabenstein, Enjoy Your Stay So, last time, we made it to the gates of Castle Rabenstein. It's pissing like hell, so let's knock at the door and hopefully get out of the rain.   Who goes there? We're travellers from Düsterburg! My name is Grandy... Grandy? Hmm... strange name... but no matter. Seems like you picked some great weather for your little trip, Grandy! Yeah, you're right, sir. Say, couldn't you let us in before we drown out here? I don't know. I don't know any of you, and the niece of our mistress is celebrating her birthday this night. Please, good sir! We'll stay in the stables, or in the haystacks! You won't even notice we're there! I'll try to get permission from my mistress. Meanwhile, you can warm up in the entrance hall. If he has to ask "his mistress", then that means that Sir Roland is no longer the lord of Castle Rabenstein. We better be careful... perhaps the servants of the duke are occupying the castle. Please wait here. I'll be back as soon as I can... But he doesn't get far, as he runs into this priest-looking guy first.  Burger! I've been looking for you everywhere. ... Are the preparations for the ceremony...loving Burger again. Was that really a popular name? First the strangler down in the Düsterburg prison, and now this bloke here. Is it really that hard to think up names, or is this another victim of the name changes I presumed happened at some point?  What are you looking so befuddled for? I'm expecting... These strangers just arrived here, father. They asked for shelter until the storm is over... Oh, now I understand. Well, I think we've still got enough unused beds. Also, Miss Sylvia will be happy to see a few new faces on her birthday. You want to let them take part in the ceremony? Why not... I think we can do without the servants then...The padre then walks over to our group. Welcome to Castle Rabenstein, dear guests. I am Father Priamor. Please excuse that you had to wait... Our chamberlain, Burger, will bring you to your rooms right away... Quite the swanky looking place. I wonder why Libra isn't here - there's four beds, you'd think there would be room. Anyway, there's only one interesting thing in this room right now, and that's the bookshelf.  What titles: "The Passions of the Princess of G.", "Gossip Curiosities of Falkenburg, Issues 1-17", "Dokulbert, Academic and Lover"...wait, what was that last one again? Wait a second... "Conjurations and Abjurations in Supernatural Form". Maybe that could be of some use to Dankwart...I don't know, but I know a way to find out.  Take a look - I found this book. Can you use this? Oh my! You found some real treasure there, Grandy! I've heard of this book a lot, but could never find a copy... I think I'm going to read myself in this one for now. Who knows... maybe this knowledge could be useful to us some day...Neat. Let's see what Tarius thinks of this place.  I'm not feeling well in this castle. The walls are whispering to me, and they're saying that we're in grave danger! The walls are whispering to you? You shouldn't be listening to everybody and everything, Tarius!God damnit, Grandy, didn't we just go over this "not taking Tarius seriously" thing? First this calling a party a "ceremony" business, now Tarius is getting the creeps - this warrants further investigation, so let's go look around the castle a bit.  Now, this castle is pretty loving big, and I can't really get a map together, so please bear with me as I roughly describe where we're going.  To the left and to the top we find this door that actually opens - the majority of doors in this castle don't open.  And inside it we find this fine upstanding fellow. When he speaks, a lot of times there's a sound effect of a spit.  Hey you! What you want here, jackass? Jackass? Don't just keep repeating everything like some stupid parrot! Are you stupid or something to just come waltzing in here? 1) You need a headbutt! 2) I'm already gone! 3) Come on, calm down...Well, we want to figure out more, and I don't think headbutting him is going to endear himself to us. Let's try and calm him down. I just got here and just wanted to look around a bit. I couldn't know you were staying here. Alright then... so, what do you want? 1) Who are you? 2) Are those your empty bottles? 3) What kind of castle is this?Oh boy, time for questions! I'm Karlo and I'm a traveling journeyman, if you know what I mean... You want some of this? I ordered some more, but the servants aren't exactly that fast, mate... Umm... no thanks. I think the servants probably know better where to put all that glass waste... You're asking me, mate... strange folk, I can tell you. I came here about a week ago... just wanted to beg for a few bucks or a warm soup, but they liked me so much they got me this room. I'm getting wine and food till I burst and the bed is soft... I can't complain! Don't you think that's a bit strange? I don't really give a poo poo. These guys are just crazy about me. Tonight's some kind of party, and there I'll get to know the lady of the castle. I guess that's the catch about this whole thing, if I know what I mean... but like I always say: What are pillows for, eh? Umm... yeah, I got it.Well I certainly loving didn't. The hell is this guy talking about? Anyway, we now know there's a bum hanging out in the castle that is getting treated like a lord for some reason. The mysteries keep coming.  Two doors over to the left, we find Libra. Oh man, now there's a party tonight and my clothes are completely drenched. And just look at my hair! But they look the same as usual... Exactly! Ever since we crawled out of that fog I never got the opportunity to style my hair! Umm... yeah, that's really terrible, you're right... Oh, and now you're starting with that too? Very flattering! Instead of standing here and bashing me, you could very well go and get me some dry clothes! Um, yes dear, I'll be right on my way...And we're out of the room again. Gods, is she ever loaded today... Well, that's nothing out of the ordinary, actually...So we've got ourselves another side quest before we can head to the party, we've got to get clothes for Libra. Now where are we going to get those? It's not like we can just waltz up to the lady of the castle and be all "yeah, I need some clothes for my wife, you got some?". Anyway, let's meander around this castle some more.  Going past a few locked doors down a corridor, we find this curiosity. Well, well... it's barely noticeable, but there used to be a passage here...So we've got secret passages as well. Interesting.  Next up, we head up to the second floor from the first floor.  Close by, we find a set of doors that actually opens. Odds are that less than 50% of the doors here open right now, in stark contrast to the regular RPG convention of "every door is open for you to go ahead and loot, and if it's locked, you'll find a key close by and find treasure in there".  And inside, we find this young lady here!  Who are you? I've never seen you here before. Hasn't your chamberlain told you already? My companions and I are going to be guests at your birthday party today. My name is Grandy. Really? That's awfully nice of auntie! Finally, some new faces in Rabenstein! Ever since I came here from Königsberg two months ago, I've always just seen the same faces... Are you looking for something in particular, or are you just wandering around through random rooms? Umm... yeah, actually I'm looking for somebody that could have some fresh clothes for my companion Libra... We were surprised by the storm, now she's completely drenched and doesn't want to show herself at the party in that condition. Well, if that's all, I've got plenty of dresses. Just wait a second!And then she walks to the back of the room and brings back a dress. I hope it'll please your friend. It's my favorite. Then why aren't you wearing it? Auntie wants me to wear this old blue dress. It's family tradition, she says... Can I do something else for you? Let's talk a bit. Gladly! What do you want to talk about? 1) About you. 2) About your aunt. 3) Do you know Sir Roland?Neat, time for more information. Well, there's not a lot to say. I grew up in Königsberg with my parents, quite sheltered... They have a successful business there. Then, two months ago, a messenger from my aunt arrived. He said it was time for me to begin my education to become a sophisticated lady, as tradition mandates... In the beginning, I was quite eager to get out from the stuffy Königsberg and see more of the world... ...but here I have even less contacts than I had before, and the only thing I'm learning is chess when Burger happens to have some time... as you can see, my life hasn't exactly taken any spectacular turns... Don't worry, Sylvia, you're still young, and a lot of things can still happen. My aunt is a real lady. She's been living here ever since I can remember and every once in a while she came to visit us in Königsberg. I've always looked forward to the day she visits so she could teach me how to behave oneself when in sophisticated company. But it's so samey and the constant darkness is really putting a damper on my mood. Furthermore, auntie isn't doing so well... I only rarely see her and the lessons are also called off... Father Priamor currently runs the household, and Burger is his right hand man. That was my aunt's husband. She moved here because of him. However, I never knew him personally. He died when I was barely a year old... Could you tell me something more about him... like his relationship with the duke, or how he died? I really don't know anything else. It was nice talking to you. I'll see you at midnight.So I guess we just really waltzed up to the lady of the castle (well, the heir, at least) and asked her for a dress. Who would have guessed that? I like Sylvia - she's a really pleasant person to deal with, always seems friendly.  After that, we grab some makeup from a drawer. Yes, this is very important, don't question me!  Walking around the second floor some more, we find another walled-up passage. There used to be a door here. Somebody walled it up... there's a suspicious amount of walled-up passages in this castle...The mysteries continue.  Further down the hall we find another open door...  ...but it leads to a completely dark room. Pitch black! It reeks of old books. Seems to be some sort of library. Doesn't matter - it's too dark to read. Further onwards we find a third walled-up passage. And yeah, it gets pretty dark in some parts of this floor, that's not me loving up the screen capture. Anyway, there's nothing else of interest on this floor, so let's head back to Libra and bring her that dress.  And? Did you find something? Umm... here: Lady Sylvia was nice enough to let me borrow some of her stuff. Hey, that's not so bad... Wait a second... I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! YOU IDIOT! THESE ARE AT LEAST TWO SIZES TOO SMALL! But dear... the lady just happens to be a bit more delicate than you... WHAT? Have you gone completely mad? Get out, and don't dare to come back until the party starts!And get out we do. Gods know we don't want an angry Libra on our rear end. Never piss somebody off that can throw fireballs. That's like lesson number one when marrying a spellcaster. I guess we can bring the dress back now.  Grandy! And, did the dress please your friend? I don't know. All I know is that she had a go at me because it was two sizes too small... now she's offended. Such a shame... you went the extra mile and everything... but that's the way we women are sometimes... Also, I just remembered that I still have to freshen up. Could you be so nice to leave me alone for a while? No problem.Well, so much for that "side quest". Time to bop around some more, this castle is still a lot larger than what we've seen so far.  Close to our own room we find this room, and you can already tell there's something a bit off about it.  Would you look at that... a secret passage! How useful! There's two handles on the back of the bookcase so you can push it back to the right position... So we just found some sort of secret underground lair. Now we're really starting to go from "regular castle stuff" to "quite odd". Also, there's another secret passage here. See if you can spot it.  If you spotted that little arrow on that one brick, pat yourself on the back, because you're a hell of a lot more attentive than I am. Wait a moment... if I move this brick to the right... A secret passage within a secret passage... very smart! We've got some alright swank in here. A mithril chainmail, which I already have a set of, a steel helmet, which is a minor upgrade for Grandy, and a war staff, which is a pretty good upgrade for Libra AFAIK.  Moving on, we find some sort of alchemist's laboratory here, but poor old uneducated Grandy can't make heads nor tails of anything in here.  But there is one thing he knows. What's this? There's all sorts of chemicals in here... ...and amongst them some useful potions!We get one elixir, two MP potions and four HP potions. Nice haul, all things considered. Moving on...  Oh my! Now that looks kind of black magic-y to me! Well... I'm not an expert on the matter, anyway.We know somebody that is, though. We'll have to remember to check this out later. The door is locked...  ...and the other exit is walled up. I believe this is the other side to the second walled up entrance we found. Turning around...  ...we find another movable wall here. Aha... I can move the wall to the side here... This leads us to another new hallway on the ground floor.  Going north, then north from there brings us to the balcony...  ...and going north, then west from there brings us to the ball room. Please, have a rest, sir. The rain drenched you and the celebration tonight will certainly last a long time... 1) But I'm not tired... 2) I guess you're right...It obviously doesn't matter what you say here, the guy wants us out. Let's just agree with him for now. Of course, Father Priamor... I didn't want to interrupt your preparations...And we get booted back out to the hallway.  However, we can peek into the room through the windows on the balcony. Not sure if that's actually useful at some point, but whatever.  Over on the other side from the ballroom, we find another hallway that leads to the servants' quarters, so let's see if we can't get some information from them.   Greetings, sir. Are you going to honor us with your presence at the feast tonight? Yes, good lady. Father Priamor invited me and my companions. Us servants were also supposed to be there tonight, but just now Burger told us that we're supposed to go to bed early instead. That's a shame. Did he say why? No, sir. He only said we weren't needed anymore.Huh? So what can Grandy and his group do that the servants were originally slated for, and why are we now doing it when the servants were originally supposed to do it? This is quite confusing. Can you tell me something about this castle and its inhabitants? Pardon me, but we're sworn to secrecy...Hm. And what does the other guy have to say?  Umm... good day, sir. Pardon me, but I have to cook for tonight's feast.Alrighty then. Anybody else we can talk to and not get anything out of?   Sir, these are my private chambers, and I ask of you that you respect that. Pardon me. I was just looking around, I had no idea that you were living here. By the way, my name is Grandy and I'm invited to the party tonight. My name is Fitz von Fatzenheim. I am the first servant of Lady Xynthia, and I am asking you to leave. Alright. See you later, maybe. There is a reading training system over here that has two characters named Fitz and Fatz. I'm almost certain this is just a coincidence, but decided to bring it up anyway.Well, that was a waste of time. So let's do something that isn't a waste of time:  Find more secret passages!  We've got another hallway crawling with rats...  ...to the south we've got a door guarded by soldiers, so we're not loving with that...  ...and to the north we have only a locked door.  A locked door and another one of these secret passages! Hmm... this branching path has to have some purpose... Told you so!Didn't screencap the interior, which was just a little room with a chest, but inside there we find one of the best items in the game - the magic amulet. What does it do? It's an equippable item that HALVES all MP costs for the character that equips it. For somebody like Tarius, whose special attacks eat MP like nobody's business, this is a godsend.  Going back to the non-secret main hallway (the ones where we can enter the ballroom and balcony from), we can find our way back to the main entrance, and with that, we've explored pretty much the entire area.  Now, this entire time, we've basically been scouting the castle for any sort of suspicious things and any kind of information we can get our hands on, since we need to know what's going on here and what happened with Sir Roland. Now, let's talk this over with Dankwart.  Grandy, you're back! And, could you find something that should worry us? I got to know another guest. Quite the strange fellow. I guess he just sits in his room all day and gets shitfaced off of wine. Hmm... does he belong to the family or why is he a guest here? No, that's the strange part: He can't explain himself why exactly he's being allowed to stay here... I got to know Lady Sylvia, the girl that is celebrating her birthday today. Sir Roland has been dead for about twenty years. Lady Xynthia was married to him... Hmm... that must have been past my time... The lady of the castle, Lady Xynthia, is not well. Lady Sylvia barely got to see her in the last few months. I'm not surprised... the corridors here are quite drafty. I myself could feel my gout coming forward... I can't shake the feeling that the people here are hiding something. Some doors were intentionally walled up... Really? I never noticed anything like that in my previous visits to Rabenstein... This entire castle has more holes than a Königsberger cheese. All the walls have a set of secret passages drawing through them. If this castle didn't have any secret passages, then that would be a reason to be concerned. Still, it's good to know where the access points are. I spoke with a servant. As I asked her about the castle and the inhabitants, she didn't want to talk. You can tell a good servant by his discretion! This Father Priamor character has skeletons in his closet. I happened to run into him in the ballroom and he immediately threw me out again! I don't like that guy either, he's got that mean streak in his face that doesn't fit with a servant of the gods. Regardless, we should keep our eyes open. But that shouldn't hinder us from having a bit of fun at tonight's festival. Although I am quite tired... that book you gave me basically stole my sleep away! It's time, Grandy. Let's take Tarius and Libra and make our way to the ballroom.Not so fast - that'll have to wait a bit. I was originally planning to split Rabenstein into two updates, but it seems better to go with three. Check back in for the next part, when we'll get to have some fun at Sylvia's birthday party and then have to deal with the hangover!
|
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2014 21:57
|
|
|
Alright, folks, you've probably already noticed that something is up here. A "ceremony", some mysterious black magic room, a creepy priest... something's not right. However, let's pose the question for you guys again: What is the secret of Castle Rabenstein? Who's involved in what, what's the goal of the whole operation, what's this "ceremony" about? Or did I actually throw out a fake red herring when I said that we'll just be dealing with a hangover and that's actually what happens?
|
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2014 21:59
|
|
|
Sylvia is sacrificing people every year to stay young? We're about due for a Bathory stand-in.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2014 22:11
|
|
wiegieman posted:Sylvia is sacrificing people every year to stay young? We're about due for a Bathory stand-in. ... 
|
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2014 22:16
|
|
|
I think our charming adventurers are the main course in this dinner party. Our arrival saved the servants' life 
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2014 22:16
|
|
|
SSNeoman posted:I think our charming adventurers are the main course in this dinner party. Our arrival saved the servants' life Yeah, that's what I suspect as well, Sylvia's aunt is probably a vampire herself and the education Sylvia is to receive is the induction to Vampirism, Grandy et al are the new main course for after Sylvia has turned.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2014 00:03
|
|
|
Xynthia is a messenger of God, and all the party participants are going to be raptured. People who got into the castle by apparent luck have priority over people who were paid to be there.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2014 10:26
|
|
|
The aunt is probably trying to setup a body stealing ceremony and is planning to use our hero's for sacrifices.
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2014 05:25
|
|
|
Guarstine posted:The aunt is probably trying to setup a body stealing ceremony and is planning to use our hero's for sacrifices. So basically Dante from FMA? Makes sense. She isolated Aurora from the others after all. She even has a purple dress!
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2014 05:28
|
|
|
I'm liking the theories so far, for different reasons. The next update is in the works, and it will answer some questions and probably throw up a whole new batch. Also, cheers to Admiral H. Curtiss and Coolguye for posting about this LP in the recommendation thread - it's great to see people are enjoying this thread so much that they say to themselves "I want others to read this".
|
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2014 08:39
|
|
|
Update XIII - Spooky Priest Parties Are The Best Parties Cause Spooky Priest Parties Don't Stop. Until Everybody's Dead. After the last update, I asked the thread for some predictions as to what exactly would turn out to be the mystery of Rabenstein, and we've got some interesting theories together. Here's what the thread came up with: wiegieman posted:Sylvia is sacrificing people every year to stay young? We're about due for a Bathory stand-in. SSNeoman posted:I think our charming adventurers are the main course in this dinner party. Our arrival saved the servants' life sheep-dodger posted:Yeah, that's what I suspect as well, Sylvia's aunt is probably a vampire herself and the education Sylvia is to receive is the induction to Vampirism, Grandy et al are the new main course for after Sylvia has turned. Mehuyael posted:Xynthia is a messenger of God, and all the party participants are going to be raptured. People who got into the castle by apparent luck have priority over people who were paid to be there. Guarstine posted:The aunt is probably trying to setup a body stealing ceremony and is planning to use our hero's for sacrifices. Now, it's time to see how those theories hold up as the events continue to unfold.  Come on, Tarius, the party will start soon and we don't want to be late. So, last time, we uncovered a few mysterious happenings in Castle Rabenstein that threw up a lot of questions.  We're on our way downstairs. Are you done? DONE? Stupid question: I'm completely drenched from that storm, stink to the high heavens and my hair is all over the place! Umm... actually, I just wanted to know if you're coming down to the party? Of course I am! Do you think I'm just going to sit up here and bore myself to death while you're down there having fun? Alright... let's go. This time, we'll be going down to this mysterious ceremony, maybe that will answer some questions... oh who am I kidding, it'll just throw up even more questions. These segments are auto-controlled, as you can tell by our party being fully displayed as opposed to the party-in-my-pocket style the standard gameplay uses. I guess they don't want you bopping around with Dankwart just yet.  Good to see you managed to make it in time. I just wanted to send up Burger to check on you. Midnight draws closer. We should now all take our seats. We can now talk to everybody here, but all we get is a variation on "sit down already". The one difference is when we try and go to talk to Xynthia.  The lady is very sick. Please do not disturb her. What does she have? This really isn't the right moment to be talking about those things!Alrighty then.  Also, conveniently placed save point. I wonder why we'd need one here. Anyway, we take a seat at the head of the table (as Grandy doesn't want to sit next to the bum), and it's time for the ceremony to begin!  In the life of every human comes the day that his destiny fulfills itself. We have come together here tonight to accompany Lady Sylvia as she follows the call of her destiny! I have known Sylvia since her birth and have seen her grow to become the charming lady we see before us today. She's about to open the door into a new life. A new life with new freedoms, but also new responsibilities.Well, this seems to be about the standard "coming-of-age" ceremony claptrap so far. Every one of us that has gathered here tonight will do their part to open this door for her!Hm, that sounds a bit weird, but I guess we don't know what exactly they have planned. Might be some sort of thing where everybody has to speak out some wishes for the soon-to-be adult or something like that.  Ah, the guards... just as planned. Guards? What's going on here? Where did you leave the prisoners?Prisoners? Guards? Now it's starting to get really odd. And then, suddenly more soldiers come in behind the guards!   What is the meaning of this? Just calm down, folks. Nobody loses their head as long as nobody loses their head. YOU DARE TO INTERRUPT OUR CEREMONY? YOU HAVE NO IDEA OF THE DAMAGE YOU'RE CAUSING! Pardon, padre, but I have my orders from Duke Wahnfried himself! ...and you don't want to go against the duke, do you? No... of course not... but what does the duke want from us? His highness is disappointed in your payment practices. Although he reminded you several times, you did not pay the tithe required of you... THAT IS A LIE! WE HAVE PAID OUR TAXES RIGHT ON TIME FOR YEARS! You can complain to the duke if you want to, but fact remains that I'm under orders to raise the missing taxes! The sum adds up to about 300,000 bucks! 300,000? BUT THAT'S INSANE! WE CAN'T POSSIBLY BRING TOGETHER 300,000... SILENCE! I HAVE ORDERS TO BURN THIS CASTLE TO THE GROUND IF THE MONEY ISN'T PAID!This is starting to get out of hand... ...and then the entire room suddenly darkens and Xynthia lets out a scream!  It is time!He then pushes Sylvia towards Xynthia and Dankwart starts running in our direction.  FATHER PRIAMOR! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? GRANDY! THIS IS OUR CHANCE! LET'S GET OUT OF HERE! AND THEN XYNTHIA'S FACE STARTS MELTING OH GOD  WE GET AN OPTION NOT TO LEG IT HERE BUT WHO THE gently caress WOULD PICK THAT RUN RUN RUN  RUN RUN RUN  RUN RUN RUN  Phew... I think I got away from them! What the hell just happened down there? I didn't even get the half of it - it all happened too fast...Well, let's recap for a second: - We made it to the party, where the padre was waffling on about Sylvia stepping foward into a new part of life. - Suddenly, some blokes jumped in, claiming to be working for Wahnfried, and trying to get a whole bunch of due taxes from them, which the Rabensteiners denied owing. - Then, midnight hit, I guess, poo poo hit the fan, Xynthia's face started melting and some sort of stuff happened on the other side of the table we couldn't really see. - The whole situation completely broke down into combat, Dankwart and Grandy legged it while Libra and Tarius were still sitting in their chairs. Or in short, poo poo just got real. And what happened to the others? Dankwart probably made it out... But Libra and Tarius were stuck in their chairs as if they were made of stone! I hope nothing happened to them... Wonderful! Now I'm alone once again! What can I possibly do against the men of the duke... Get a hold of yourself, Grandy! Dankwart was surely right. If we were all arrested there, our mission would have been over right then and there!Literally - sitting tight is a game over. I fear I can't really help anything down there. Maybe this castle holds more secrets that could help me?You bet your rear end it does, but first...  ...we have something surprisingly mundane to do.  Now that the bum is gone, we can raid his chest. We get lockpicks, stuff to stick up your pipe and smoke and an elixir. Useful, I guess. Now that that's done, the next thing to do is the #1 priority when you split the party and get hosed - un-gently caress yourself and un-split the party. So let's try and see if we can find Dankwart.  Let's take a look around on the top floor, maybe he ended up there.  Well, there's light in here, so that either means he's here or somebody is setting a trap.  Thankfully, it turns out that it indeed is Dankwart. Thank the Gods, it's you! Dankwart! It's a good thing you made it. I ran as fast as my old legs allowed it. Somehow I made it to the stairs and hid here. Well, then I ended up reading a few books here. This castle really has a fascinating history. Did you find something that could help us? Not directly, I fear. But this region is going to be in for a lot of excitement if these old stories I read are true. Even more excitement? Brilliant. What's going to happen? If you want to really understand what I mean, I'll have to start from the beginning. Go right ahead... I have yet to see anybody else up here.Story time! Pay attention here, there will be a quiz later. But seriously, this part will be important at some point. Alright... this castle is very old, you must know, a lot older than Castle Falkenburg! It was built by a man named Malthur... The sources aren't exactly sure about his origin, but it seems clear that he was no average human being. Some believe that he was a son of the Dark God, others believe that he was cursed by the Gods to eternal life and unresting wanderings. However, it seems certain that he built this castle in the middle of nowhere. It must have been some sort of cultist center or something similar. There he preached some sort of perversities and gained hundreds of followers, one of which he took to be his wife! The name of that girl was Lythia and she reigned alongside him for years on Castle Rabenstein. Of course, such a place of evil could not stay undetected for long, so the former emperor of this area decided to do something about this. A large army marched on Rabenstein, but the sight they beheld froze the marrow in their bones! Malthur had the peasants that wouldn't follow him herded together and executed. He then tore their eyes out and impaled them on long stakes! He then had the stakes erected on the battlements of the castle, where the ravens mutilated their dead bodies beyond recognition within days! This sight left no doubt regarding what was going on on Rabenstein, so it was decided to attack without negotiations! However, despite the numeric superiority of the imperial army, there was no ground to be gained by the end of the first day. Every time it seemed as if they could be making progress, Malthur himself appeared on the battlefield! Clad in dark armor and standing head and shoulders above any opponent, he wreaked havoc on the emperor's men! Nobody could stand up to him and the battle seemed to be lost... ...if it wasn't for a young lieutenant that managed to sneak into the castle after dark. He worked his way up to Malthur's chambers but only found his wife! He thought he could take her hostage, but she attacked him with the fury of all hellspawn imaginable! The young man was in for the fight of his life, but he managed to maintain the upper hand and killed the lady of the castle! Just in that moment, the door came crashing open and Malthur stood in the room. The lieutenant thought that would be his end. But as Malthur saw the dead body of Lythia, he went insane and attacked absolutely everything that came into his line of sight. In this complete chaos our young warrior managed to escape. He returned to the battlements and gave the signal to attack! Without Malthur the resistance of the last defenders completely collapsed. The battle was over not a half hour later! The young lieutenant was declared a hero and was given the land as a fiefdom. ...his name was Falk von Dengelbrack! Great! Now I know why you liked that story so much, but that was centuries ago! I'm not done yet, Grandy! Malthur himself had disappeared. But throughout the centuries people have claimed to have seen him. He's still traveling through the lands, restless, still filled with pain! But there is a prophecy that states that he will return in 700 years to reclaim his reign over the area! ...and now take a guess... ...it's been 700 years... Almost exactly to the day! Now that's certainly just wonderful news, but I'm not sure how that is supposed to help us! Not right now, that is correct, but I've always wondered why exactly Wahnfried took over my throne. Don't you see how history is repeating? Just like Malthur 700 years ago, Wahnfried built up a realm of evil! I've got the sneaking suspicion that he's preparing for the return of the dark lord... maybe this knowledge can be of use to us some day! But you're right, this doesn't really help us in our current situation. Could you find something else? We should look to solve the mysteries of this castle so that we can move on as soon as possible!At this point, Grandy could report on his findings, but since I went for Dankwart ASAP (following the guide), he has nothing to say, so Dankwart just rejoins our party and we move on.  As we leave the library, we hear a monster's growl and a bloodcurdling scream. What was that sound?This is code for "watch the gently caress out". For what? You'll see.  Moving on, we find a door that has been nailed shut. Previously, we wouldn't just break down a door like that, but I think that's the least of our worries right now, so we just break it down with the crowbar.  Oh my. Something tells me we were most definitely not supposed to find this. There's nothing particularly interesting in this room beyond the obvious bits - there's a pair of springs in the cupboard in case we missed getting one from Dante and Thorn, but since we already have that one, this is just sale fodder. Now, to the important part in this room:  This book is bound in red leather. There's some initials on it... Three big squiggly "R"s... seems to be a diary! Those are the initials of Sir Roland of Rabenstein! "Ritter Roland von Rabenstein", in case you were wondering about the "three" "R"s. September 17th If I think about how full my heart was but yesterday, the night that Xynthia and I were married. Today, everything is different... since the marriage she has become abrasive and stubborn, not at all like the fun-loving girl she was before. She's avoiding me, she even forbid me access to our bedroom! September 29th I'm a stranger in my own house. This strange priest that Xynthia brought along is acting like he's the lord of this castle. I think I'll have to have a talk with him tonight... September 30th Gods, what have I done for you to punish me like this? Yesterday I made my way to the chambers of that false padre to talk to him about the state of affairs on Rabenstein. As I stood in front of the door, I heard strange sounds that brought me to open the door as quietly as I can... but what did I see on the other side? My own wife, who has refused herself to me ever since our marriage, was tossing and turning on the floor with Priamor, filled with lust, like an animal! Filled with shock I fled from the room without closing the door behind me. October 1st Darkest betrayal from all sides! Today I found myself locked into my own room! What are these adulterers planning? They must have brought the servants onto their side... October 4th Three days without food! My life is coming to an end! They're really planning to starve me to death here! But I... (the blue ink trails off here, then replaced with red) No more ink! Well, at least then my blood will still have one use... I have little to no hope that somebody will find this book. However, if somebody does manage to find it, tell the world that Roland of Rabenstein died as a man of honor - by his own hand and his own sword! And if you follow the path of the Gods, please grant me the satisfaction of bringing Xynthia and her demonic lover to their rightful fate! I'm not sure I can even add anything to this... What a sad end for such a great man! We then make our way towards the staircase and... well look who it is! It's you! Thank the Gods that you could also flee from those fiends! Good to see you, Father Priamor. Maybe you could explain to us what has been happening here? If only I could, sir... I can't explain it either. The lady always paid her taxes! 1) Don't distract from the real issue! 2) Is there any proof? 3) What should we do?So yeah, we're given options to buy into this guy's act, and I guess that if you ran into him before reading the diary (or those prisoners he mentioned) you might believe him to some degree, but no, this guy's lying scum. We don't give a poo poo about your taxes! What happened down in the ball room? Why did your guards show up at midnight? Umm... we wanted to give them a little surprise. These poor guys just guard all day long, so for a change of pace... ...and the prisoners that your guards should bring? Did you want to give them a little surprise too? Very attentive, Grandy... I had completely forgotten about that detail... Well... that's easy to explain... they were supposed to be pardoned because of the occasion...At this point you might be given an option to maybe buy into it, but... Save your lies for the judge! We found the diary of Sir Roland - the legacy of the victim! You let him die of thirst in his own room with your lover Xynthia! You'll pay for that! Don't be so sure of that! The Dark God is on my side!And he legs it downstairs.  However, he doesn't follow a set path and instead meanders randomly, which makes catching up to him rather easy. GIVE IT UP, PRIAMOR! YOU CAN'T RUN FROM ME! So now it's time to give this rear end in a top hat what for, and funnily enough, we can really cream this guy.  Boom, fight over. He's one of the few bosses that is vulnerable to Grandy's solar plexus attack, and gets paralyzed immediately.  He then goes down without ever recovering.  And then after searching his dead body... Hey, he's got a key with him!...we get a bronze key. And I know just where to use it!  This door is the door to Priamor's private chambers. Hmm... the door is locked. Hey... that lock is made of bronze! And I've got this bronze key off of Priamor, that false padre! ...fits perfectly!We walk into the room and suddenly hear another bloodcurdling scream...  THAT WAS CLOSE BY!OH JESUS CHRIST NO BY THE GODS! WHAT IS THAT? *another terrible scream* DANKWART! LOOK AT THE DRESS! IT'S LADY SYLVIA! Oh gently caress, she's certainly seen better days. Holy smokes! Lady Sylvia, what happened to your eyes? *another scream* Oh, right, I see......god damnit, Grandy, this isn't the time to be cracking wise! In fact, it's time to RUN RUN RUN  LET'S GET OUT OF HERE, DANKWART!RUN RUN RUN  Grandy, wait! All this running isn't for my poor old legs! She's not making any attempts to follow us... perhaps she isn't capable of thinking that far! I have to know what happened down there after we fled the ball room! But Dankwart, you know the duke's men are everywhere down there! They can't be everywhere! And perhaps there is a way to get a look into there without just waltzing inside!...well, I think that's a good place to wrap things up for now. So, folks, anybody want to amend those theories? We've certainly still haven't revealed all of the mysteries and solutions!
|
|
|
#
?
May 5, 2014 22:53
|
|
|
I would also like to note, sort of off the record, that UiD was probably the first video game to really expose me to horror at a fairly young age, and as such, Rabenstein had somewhat of an impact on me, to the point where every once in a blue moon, when I'm walking around the pitch-black house, I could swear that I could see monster Sylvia just in the corner of my eye, even to this day. In retrospect, part of the last update reads like a mini-flashback-attack, and it's kind of weirding me out a bit, like some sort of memory subconsciously came flooding back.
|
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2014 00:05
|
|
|
Well... that certainly was a... a thing... that ha-happened...
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2014 03:51
|
|
|
So this time it was a villain I interfering with a minor villain's plans. Grandy had nothing to do with this. He better find Aurora though...
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2014 04:04
|
|
|
So, Xynthia was possessed by the spirit of Malthur's wife, and needed to transfer her essence to Sylvia to continue "living", and the servants and prisoners were to be used as a food source to keep her sane/restore power after the (re)possession. Wanfried wanted to capture Xynthia/Sylvia to use her to try and control the Malthur when he returned. That, or it was Col. Mustard, with the rope, in the Reading Room.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2014 04:43
|
|
|
 This is some top shelf stuff here.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2014 06:52
|
|
|
Is it just me or is the guy who came in talking about taxes a dead ringer for Grandy?
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2014 07:51
|
|
|
Well obviously the duke's henchmen ruined the rapture party. Remember that the true forms of messengers of God can make people go insane (if not die outright). Poor Sylvia was subjected to Xynthia's true form in all its glory and is now totally crazy. And Roland's diary wasn't a diary at all, it was self-fan fiction. He was a weirdo like that. Good job murdering an innocent clergyman.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2014 09:19
|
|
|
Batshit evil without being one-dimensional, a Bathory trope subverted, and there's still more to come?
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2014 11:18
|
|
|
I'm actually really loving this situation. "Oh, we don't have a problem with you trying to drain people of their life force to sustain your immortality, but you didn't pay your Evil Tax lately!"
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2014 11:39
|
|
|
It could be the duke sent him there to get rid of him. "Yeah, head to that castle, they totally didn't pay their taxes. Also be sure to show up at exactly the stroke of midnight. Because reasons."
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2014 03:00
|
|
|
Wahnfried is just that much of an rear end in a top hat. "I know he is my underling but I will mess up his evil ritual just to gently caress with him"
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2014 03:55
|
|
Update XIV - The Malthur Gambit After the events of the last update, the theorizing and discussion continued: SSNeoman posted:So this time it was a villain I interfering with a minor villain's plans. Grandy had nothing to do with this. AltaBrown posted:So, Xynthia was possessed by the spirit of Malthur's wife, and needed to transfer her essence to Sylvia to continue "living", and the servants and prisoners were to be used as a food source to keep her sane/restore power after the (re)possession. Wanfried wanted to capture Xynthia/Sylvia to use her to try and control the Malthur when he returned. Mehuyael posted:Well obviously the duke's henchmen ruined the rapture party. Remember that the true forms of messengers of God can make people go insane (if not die outright). Poor Sylvia was subjected to Xynthia's true form in all its glory and is now totally crazy. Mehuyael posted:I'm actually really loving this situation. Glazius posted:It could be the duke sent him there to get rid of him. SSNeoman posted:Wahnfried is just that much of an rear end in a top hat. "I know he is my underling but I will mess up his evil ritual just to gently caress with him" We seem to be getting closer to the solution, but there's still a few particular nuances that we don't know yet that play a fairly important role in the whole thing.  Our next destination is the ball room to investigate the scene of the... let's call it an "incident".  I have to be careful... those guys are surely still all over the place... We can't just waltz directly into the ball room because of the guards posted...  ...however, we still have that alternative of just looking through the window out on the balcony!  OH SWEET JESUS ON A POLE. BY THE GODS! WHAT HAPPENED HERE? This warrants further examination. Thankfully, we can just waltz in through the left entrance - I guess nobody thought that one was important?  Well, this entire room is a mess, as you can no doubt tell. One guy got his leg torn off, one guy just got flayed heavily and two guys got beheaded violently. One constant: Everybody had their eyes torn out. Furthermore, there's this green poo poo on the throne where Xynthia sat. UGH! WHAT IS THAT DISGUSTING SLIME ON THE CHAIR? Wait a second... there's something stuck in there... a key!Neato. We find a copper key to go along with the bronze key we took off of Priamor - I'm sure that'll be useful at some point. Next, let's take a look back to the entrance. Maybe we can just sneak out and get help from somewhere?  Nope! Oh my! So this is where those guys were hiding! And that's Libra and Tarius over there. So they didn't make it after all! Seems that nobody's paying attention to this entrance for now... maybe I can pick up on something that can help me later. You've been here for a week, Karlo! Didn't you notice anything? Just calm down, boss. They've been acting decent and unsuspicious the entire time. There was no reason to believe... Decent and unsuspicious, eh? When I take a look at you, I can imagine what that means: They got you totally drunk until you were so boozed up you couldn't notice a thing! Hey! Now you're being unfair, Alvaro! After all, I did open the gates so that you could march in here! After you've been twiddling your thumbs for a week! We've been waiting down in the forest for something to happen the entire time! But that's not the important part here... ...the important part is that we lost four men in there! And for that, Karlo, I'm holding you personally responsible! I'm giving you one more chance to make up for your mistakes! Grab some men and look for the people that fled! We're still missing the padre and the chamberlain. And if you find the young warrior or the old guy, bring them here ALIVE. And concerning the lady of the castle... well, I think you know already. Alright, Alvaro! I hope we won't lose even more men because of this! Umm... I can't think of anything to do here at the moment!So we run back to the hallway. These guys are surely not working for the duke. I suspect that they're just regular bandits!Bandits with plate armor and inside men? I don't think so. This smacks of mercenary group to me - however, whoever the guy paying for them is is still unclear. For now, let's look around the castle some more - we should check on the servants and see if they're OK.  Nobody in the kitchen... maybe they're in the cellar?   Oh dear, Matjes! They found us! Pfffahaha. Matjes? Matjes. loving Matjes. For those not in the know, Matjes are a kind of specifically preserved herring, made from particularly young herrings. They're also called "soused herring". It's pretty big in the northern parts of Germany, especially the big seafaring areas - personally, it's not my bag. Who would name their kid that? I hope to God that's a nickname, because otherwise... Thank the Gods, you found us! We saw men in armor running around the castle, so we hid down here! Those guys stormed the ball room during the festivities. They claim to be working for the duke! We however managed to escape and now we're trying to get the situation under control. Furthermore, a terrible creature is wandering through the corridors. You can't stop it and it mauls everything that gets in its way! What should we do, sir? If we're found down here... 1) Flee to the secret passages! 2) Head upstairs! 3) Stay where you are!The secret passages are probably the best place. The mercs don't know about them (probably) and Sylvia's currently too brainless to find them, either. Of course, sir! Why didn't we think of it before, Matjes? The secret passages are the safest place in the world! Many thanks, sir! When this all blows over, I will cook my best menu for you!And off they go. Let's see what Fitzgerald is doing.  You again? And at this time? Have you gone crazy? Don't get all fluffed up, Fitz! I've come to warn you! There are foes in this castle and you'd better hide! How dare you speak to me in this tone! Explain yourself! What is the matter? I don't owe you any kind of explanation! Do whatever you want, you old fool, I just wanted to give you some advice! Umm... pardon me, I just wanted to go to bed, so I was a bit irritated... what happened? A monster is wandering through the hallways and is killing everything it runs into! Furthermore there's a bunch of armed guys claiming to work for the duke that stormed the castle! But that's terrible! What should I do? I'm just an old man that did nothing but faithfully attend to his duties! 1) Flee to the secret passages! 2) Head upstairs! 3) Stay where you are!Same train of thought, same result. Yes... you're right. That's probably the safest place in the castle right now. I'll be on my way immediately! And while he's gone, we can steal all his crap! An elixir and 2500 bucks, not bad at all.  Now, let's take a look around the secret passages ourselves, because Dankwart has a few things he should probably take a look at, and there's probably some new stuff around here to check out too.  The servants holed up down here and seem to be doing fine. Now, what's behind that door that was guarded the last time we came around?  Ah, this must be the cell that contains those prisoners that got an off-hand mention or two previously. Let's get their story. Hello, you two - could you come over here? Who are you? Did you come to bring us to the execution? Bring you to the execution? Nonsense! Why should I? What did you do? Nothing bad, sir. We were in the forest looking for mushrooms when the guards came down and arrested us. They said the mushrooms belonged to Lady Xynthia von Rabenstein and taking them is punishable by death. What nonsense - the death penalty for taking some mushrooms! And that judgment was supposed to be enforced today? Yes, sir. The guards have been making jokes about it all day. My name is Grandy, and I've come to get you out of there! You want to help us? THANK YOU SO MUCH! I thought we'd never get to leave this castle again!Break the door open? 1) Yes 2) No Eh, you know what? I don't think letting these folks out is such a smart idea, what with the whole Sylvia problem still going on. They look like they've been stuck there for a while, they can sit tight a bit longer while we deal with this. There are very strange things going on here. I think that right now there's no safer place for you than here... behind bars. I'll get you out of there as soon as the danger is gone, promise!Now I REALLY hope Sylvia doesn't find her way down here, otherwise we'll have a loving massacre on our hands. Moving on...  We run into Burger in the secret passages as well. Now we pretty much know he's bad news, so odds are that we're going to have to put him down like Priamor. Let's see how it goes... So you managed to get away too. Good to see you! Sorry, but I can't share that pleasure - I want to know what's going on here! What do you mean by that? These... frauds stormed the castle and I'm on the run just like you! Come on, don't be telling lies! I know exactly what's been going on here! You're in cahoots with Father Priamor! What did you do to Lady Sylvia? You ask too many questions! You have to die! Welp. This guy is just pathetic. Basically, take Priamor, take away his black magic, take away about half of his HP, and still keep the crippling weakness to being paralyzed, and you've got Burger. A complete joke. Moving on...  He's got a key!We find a silver key this time. Conveniently enough, the locked door in this same room happens to be the door where the key fits!  We now find ourselves in Burger's room, and it's surprisingly roomy. We've got a few things to find here.  Holy smokes! There's a full set of armor in here!Let's nab that and the other two sets of armor we can find in this room. File it under the same header as the makeup - "this is very important just trust me guys".  Anybody that calls themselves a warrior always has a bunch of medical supplies at home. And of course some healing potions!Four more healing potions for our inventory. We're really making off like a bandit here, and it's not like anybody's going to need them anymore.  But now, here's the real reason we came here. Hmm... seems to be a letter. Oh my, this one's from the duke himself! Dear Lady Xynthia, we've been neighbors for so long now, and still you haven't done me the honor of a visit. With the exception of you making your tithe payments on the mark each year we have no contact at all. That shall change now! For quite some time I've been planning to hold a glittering feast on Castle Düsterburg, to which I will invite my friends from old days and my most loyal servants. I would be delighted if you could be present on the Düsterburg on the 12th of October. Wahnfried Hmm... so here it says that the lady always pays her tithe on time... Another sign that those guys aren't working for the duke!We grab that letter and take it with us - who knows when it'll be useful.  When we leave Burger's room through the other exit, we end up back down here, which makes for an interesting shortcut that bypasses some of the patrolling guards, so we'll keep that in mind.  Moving on, we find that this door is suddenly not quite closed. I wonder what's in there...  NO NO NO NO NO LEAVING NOW ...wait a second, if she's here, then that means...  ...Priamor's room is now empty and we can search it in peace! Alright!  Hello there! That's the same statue as the one in the fireplace room. This guy must be quite popular!Ah yes, the one in the fireplace room which I failed to snatch a picture of because I didn't think it was relevant. Well, it still isn't really relevant, since all you need to know is that there are these statues of this warrior bloke.  Grandy! These books are all about black magic! I can't find a single one that isn't on the index of magical scriptures!Well, if we didn't murder Priamor so thoroughly, we'd have seen him throw some of that black magic around. As it stands, he was a practitioner but never really got to prove it.  Hmm... an old, leather-bound book. 1) Read it? 2) No time!Of course we've got time! These are all sorts of hand-written notes... clearly done by several people. The stuff in the beginning looks like it's several centuries old. Completely incomprehensible scrawlings. Some kinds of alchemistic symbols and other nonsense! Well... towards the end the whole thing gets a bit more comprehensible. The last entries were made just a little while ago! The ink has barely dried! Dankwart, if you could take a look... this seems to fall into your area of expertise. Hmm... this seems to be about all sorts of blasphemous practices. These notes are obviously made to pass on the knowledge of a dark ritual from generation to generation. This is clearly about the art of bringing the spirit of a dead person to possess a living body, so that the spirit can survive for several generations! This is incredibly dark magic - the soul of the target body is completely wiped out in the process! The ritual must take place at midnight and seven human sacrifices must be made to the newly created creature before dawn! By the gods! Until the sacrifices have been made the target body is completely soulless! It mutates to a monster that only has one goal - finding its sacrifices! If the sacrifices are not made until dawn, the body disintegrates and both souls are eradicated! Now I'm getting to the most recent notes... So it will be tonight! Finally! A few new sheep for the slaughter arrived. Don't look like they'll give in to their fate without a fight, but I think the guards will be able to deal with them! May all the demons of hell do their part so that our plans may succeed. Only once in a generation we can find somebody daring enough to take this risk on! I hope I'll prove myself worthy of bringing this to a successful end, especially since this should be the last reincarnation, as long as the prophets are correct! Because then the LORD will return to his home and his wife will welcome him. She, whose soul went from body to body during the years of his wanderings will welcome him on Rabenstein and everybody that served this goal loyally will fill the highest offices in his recreated empire of darkness! Grandy, are you aware what this means? Umm... no... but you're going to tell me now, right? We were witness of such a ritual tonight and we were supposed to belong to the sacrifices, but the ritual was interrupted! There's an insane beast roaming the hallways, only out to find its victims! Umm... then maybe we should get the hell out of here and wait until morning... didn't you say that everything would be over then? Grandy! You forget the situation in Düsterburg! There is no morning here! We have to stop the creature before it kills more people! And how do you suggest we do that? You saw that we don't have the slightest chance against that beast! I know a few old rituals for exorcising evil spirits - however, they're all rather time-consuming. Somebody would have to distract the creature while I prepare... Am I hearing that right? I'm supposed to get my brains bashed in while you're preparing your magic in the back row? I'm sorry, Grandy, but there seems to be no other way! Oh, to hell with it! Let's just get this over with! Up and away, for monsters we will slay! Grandy calls us "auf zur fröhlichen Monsterjagd" here, which I believe is a reference to an old hunting song from the 1700s, "Auf, auf, zum fröhlichen Jagen". Can't really translate that, so I went with a little rhyme. Now that's the Grandy I know and love!We'll take this book with us as well. Might as well.  While meandering through Priamor's room, we find his bed and what I assume was the stuff he read before going to bed. What kind of books are those? I'm already blushing just from reading the titles!Interesting. What's that book on the cupboard? "The Buxom Babes of Düsterburg"... somebody's got quite the raunchy taste!Well, I guess we'll leave it at that. We also find some more potions in the cupboard. Moving on...  ...we've got a bit of stuff to deal with in this part of the secret passages.  Oh my, I certainly didn't expect an alchemist's laboratory here!Dankwart, being a scientist in the medieval sense, has quite a bit of experience on this matter and will be able to give a bit more interesting commentary on the stuff around here, like the oven: A smelting furnace for lead! Apparently somebody's trying to turn lead into gold here!Or the bookcase: A whole bunch of books - I can't even understand the titles! Standard literature for an alchemist. All kinds of stuff I already chewed through while I was studying in Königsberg. Seems like we're dealing with a real beginner here!And the best part of all:  Now what is this supposed to be? Pah! Blasphemy! This thing is called a globe! Some blinded followers of the Dark God preach that the world is a sphere! Certainly has some interesting implications about the theology of this world, but it's sadly just a throwaway gag that is never expanded upon. Next up, that sacrificial room we found earlier. This is a room for cultists of the Dark God! Thought so...The door in this room is locked, but the copper key we found in the ball room fits perfectly, so in we go!  This leads us to another secret passage...  ...with another secret secret room.  This one has three elixirs (neat) and a set of knight's armor (not to be confused with the sets of armor we found in Burger's room. Also, it's worse than the mithril mail we got in Düsterburg. Rubbish).  Walking along the hallway, we find ourselves in another new room, so let's check this one out. That big picture is a good place to start, I presume.  Hmm... looks familiar. That's Lady Sylvia... But this painting is clearly older than 18 years... It could also be Lady Xynthia in her earlier years... the two did look fairly similar... But honestly, this painting seems like it's several centuries old! And that guy back there... looks just like that warrior statue that I saw before! The more I learn about the inhabitants of this castle, the more mysteries I uncover! At this point, we've collected enough facts about the happenings on the castle that Dankwart has an epiphany and finally figured it out. Finally, I just realized what's been going on here, and I'm an old fool for not having figured it out earlier! It would be nice if you shared this knowledge with the others... Grandy, the spirit that's supposed to be sent into Sylvia's body... that's Lythia, the wife of Malthur, the founder of this castle! Priamor and his predecessors have been conducting this inhuman ritual for centuries now! They've already sacrificed dozens of innocent souls for their dark plans! But what is their goal? These disgusting sycophants want to kiss their idol's rear end once he returns... pardon my French, Grandy... So then that's Lythia on that portrait together with her husband! But how can it be that she looks exactly like Lady Sylvia? Dark ritualistic magic, family ties or fate... I do not know. But there's nothing that the priests of the Dark God aren't capable of doing! Grandy, it's our holy duty to destroy this creature before it's too late!Right, so we've pretty much uncovered that part of the story now. The only things left to figure out are "who are those mercenaries and who do they work for" and "what exactly is Wahnfried's involvement in this whole business". Let's see if we can't find the answers to those.  Women's dresses... otherwise, nothing. We grab a dress from here. File it under the same header as the armor and the makeup. We also find some more potions in the drawers. The game is basically shoving stuff down your throat at this point because I suppose they want to give you an out if you need it. Now that we know what to do, I suppose it's about time we faced down with the mercs.  As long as these guys are blocking the exit, we'll never get out of here! 1) Negotiate? 2) Better retreat again.Alright, let's talk. ALVARO! I WANT TO TALK TO YOU! Calm down, people - nobody touches him! You have an advantage over me, sir... you know my name, but I don't know yours... My name is for my friends over there! Now don't start with trite sayings like that! That's not even close to being a sensible basis for a conversation!Seriously, Grandy, you just keep loving these things up. You've got Dankwart with you, just let him do the talking! Alright, my name is Grandy. Now, that's better... now, Grandy, what do you wish to talk with me about? You better do this, Dankwart. You know more about this stuff than I do.God damnit. Now you let him talk? First of all, a question, Alvaro... what exactly happened in the ball room after Grandy and I managed to escape? I'm not quite sure myself and would rather not remember... Lady Xynthia started screaming. I was standing right in front of her and could see her face collapsing incredibly quickly. Then that Burger attacked me and I was distracted for a moment... The terrible stench of rot and decay filled the air, and the next thing I saw was this... priest... He had grabbed the young girl and pressed her against the rotting body of the lady of the castle with all his might! Then, suddenly, Xynthia's arms rose up into the air with an energy I would have never expected from her. Her fingernails had changed into long claws. She shoved them deep into the face of her niece and tore both of her eyes out! Then, suddenly, a jolt went through the young girl's body. She reared up and even seemed to grow! Xynthia's body then completely collapsed in on itself and this disgusting slime spread out over the chair! And then the tragedy truly began. This creature that used to be Lady Sylvia started attacking my men. I could see her tearing one of my strongest men in half like it was nothing! We lost four men that way... and it could have been more, if not... Yes?... This monster wasn't just out to kill everybody that got in its way... it also tore the eyes out of every one of its victims! That gave me some time to regroup and flee with my men. Sadly, both Burger and the priest got away because of that. I'm not surprised! After all, they were the only ones that had an idea what would happen! Dankwart... that thing with the eyes... The eyes are the mirror of the soul, Grandy, and we know that this creature is out to... eat... souls. I've told you everything I know, now it's your turn. We were all witness to a ritual that was supposed to banish Xynthia's spirit into Sylvia's body. However, to truly anchor the spirit in the new body, seven souls must be sacrificed to the Dark God. If you and your men didn't disrupt the ritual, my friends and I surely would have been victims as well. The soul of Xynthia is now wandering the halls, just waiting to find the rest of her sacrifices! The background to this ritual is too complicated and goes too far into the past for it to be explained here and now. With every minute we wait here we lose chances to end this entire thing! I only understand the half of what you're saying, but I'm sure you know what you're talking about. What do you suggest we do now? Grandy, you're the man of action in our group... Let's... 1) ...get the hell out of here! 2) ...search for Sylvia together! 3) ...do this on our own!The less people muck about in the castle, the better. Nothing against you and your men, Alvaro... but the chances that more of your men fall victim to this creature are too high. Please retreat, and my friends and I will try to take out the monster. The less potential victims are here, the better! I'm reluctant to just run away, but you're surely right! But we'll still post guards in the outskirts of the forests so we know who or what leaves this castle. That way we'll have the chance to interfere if you fail. MOVE IT MEN, WE'RE GETTING OUT OF HERE!After that, we pick up Tarius and Libra, and the gang is back together again! Then, we get another opportunity for a little one-on-one chat with Alvaro because we have reason to believe he lied about the taxes.  Say, Alvaro... that thing with the taxes was a lie, right? Who are you really working for? I don't serve any specific person, but the good of Düsterburg. Wahnfried stole that throne, and we made it our task to send him back where he came from! Pardon me, but you rather seem to act like a band of roving bandits. Sadly there's barely any people left here that would fight the good fight. Most of my men are sellswords from all over the world that sell their sword arm to the highest bidder! So I have to bid more than the duke does! I got it, Alvaro. Seems like we're working towards the same goal! I think we'll come back to you when we get the chance. Where can we find you when the time comes? We live in a secluded place in the forest, but don't worry: When the time comes, we'll find YOU. Here's something that could be of use to you - we took this key from one of the guards.And we get the key to the prison cell door. That'll come in handy, I guess. Farewell. I hope we'll see you again.Exit Alvaro. So now we've only got one thing left to do:  And that's deal with Sylvia.  Don't worry! I'm right behind you preparing the ritual! Tremble, you creature of darkness, for you will now step before your Dark Maker! *another terrible scream* Umm... OK, it was just a suggestion... Stop talking and start fighting!So now we've got ourselves a puzzle boss. The solution is rather simple - you just have to survive for 17 rounds, then Dankwart can cast the counter-ritual.  And since we're loving loaded for war and overleveled to poo poo, we can rather easily survive as long as we just block and occasionally heal. There's a few messages during the battle letting you know that you're making progress: Dankwart! How's it going back there? Will it take much longer? Patience, Grandy, I'm still practicing! PRACTICING? Are you crazy? This lady is making mincemeat out of me right now! I don't want to push, but the potions won't last infinitely! Please, Grandy! I have to concentrate on these formulas! DANKWART! Just a bit more patience, I've almost got it!And finally... Alright, Grandy, I'm ready! Step aside! Then we get a flashy explosion, but Sylvia's still standing. Da... Da... DANKWART! She's still alive! IT DIDN'T WORK! Calm down, Grandy! The spell destroyed her magic shield! Now just throw everything you've got at her and she will fall! Sure enough, one measly bolt from Tarius and she's done for.  Was that it? I can't believe it! The monster is dead!After that, we hear a low growl. What's that sound? That, Grandy, seems to be the spirit of Xynthia, on its way to its Dark Maker...Now we only have one more thing left to do before we're really done, and that's deal with those poor prisoners.  And... could you solve the problem? Yes! I think that I'm going to need the key that I got from Alvaro here... Now get going and make sure you can finally leave this castle behind! THANK YOU SO MUCH! WE'LL NEVER FORGET WHAT YOU DID FOR US! And as we leave, we're asked one more time if we really want to go, since we won't be able to come back, but yes, we're done here. The mystery of Castle Rabenstein is solved, but the greater mystery surrounding the supposed return of Malthur still remains.  So to come back to the theories, it seems like we almost got the right solution together, with the early "sacrifices to live forever" suggestion pretty much nailing the basics without having the knowledge to nail it further, but the one point everybody got hung up on is that Alvaro's group wasn't actually working for Wahnfried. I guess with the baby eating and the like it was just too easy to assume that yes, he's that much of a dick. Next time, we'll go over two "what if" scenarios - "what if we completely hosed it up on Rabenstein?" and "what if we want to take the easy way to Castle Düsterburg?".
|
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 01:25
|
|
|
TheMcD posted:
I don't think I've ever seen a game with an old dude quite as awesome as Dankwart.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 06:45
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 18, 2024 14:52 |
|
|
That "eye is the window to the soul" was a nice touch. And hey, Alvaro turned out to be a good(-ish) guy!
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 06:56
|
|