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TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe


What is this?

Avernum: Escape from the Pit is the remake of Avernum.

What's Avernum?

Avernum is the remake of Exile.

What's oh shut up already

Right. Exile: Escape from the Pit was the first RPG produced by Spiderweb Software, way back in 1995. It had a lot in common with the early Ultima games: top-down view, large open world, nonlinear structure, action-point-based combat, et cetera. Berryjon already did a fantastic LP of it. Exile 1 did so well that Jeff Vogel (a.k.a. Spiderweb Software) made it into the first game of a trilogy. Exile III in particular is considered a classic of the genre by many.

By the time he finished the trilogy, though, technology had left his games looking decidedly old-fashioned. So he remade them into the Avernum series, which was simply Exile in a different engine, with updated graphics, more fleshed-out writing, and a couple of new sidequests. Then he tacked on a second trilogy, Avernums 4-6, which were okay but didn't achieve the first trilogy's success. Then he made the Geneforge series, which is a completely different setting.

But technology being what it is, nowadays Avernums 1-3 are also looking pretty elderly, so he's remaking them again, without bothering to change the names much so it's extra-confusing. This LP will be of the first game in the re-re-made trilogy: Avernum: Escape from the Pit. It's pretty good! And it's available for PC, Mac, and tablet, so there's a pretty broad range of supported platforms.

That's nice and all, but what's the game about?

I'll let the intro "cutscene" do the explaining for me.













So in short, you've been dumped into a penal colony; have fun!

Sounds awesome, how can I play?

The game has a huge free demo that you can get from Spiderweb Software's website. There's at least several hours' worth of gameplay in there. If you decide you want the rest of the game (and you should), then it's also available on their website, on Steam, on Good Old Games, on the Apple Store (for iOS tablets), etc. The sequel, Avernum 2: Crystal Souls, is also available, and presumably Avernum 3: Ruined World will be out sometime in the next year or two.

How's this going to work?

This is a screenshot LP. Updated the games may be, but they're still oldschool RPGs, so there's really not much in the way of eyecandy here. After the first update, I'll solicit suggestions for party members, who we'll be stuck with for the rest of the game.

And now that that tedious business is done with, let's get started!

Updates

Welcome to Avernum!

Prologue: The Beginnings of Greatness
Bonus Update 1: Character Creation
Update 1: Under Fort Avernum
Update 2: Fort Avernum
Update 3: Forts Duvno and Bandit
Update 4: The Batcave
Update 5: Goblin Caves and Silvar
Update 6: The Obligatory Sewer Level; Cotra

Cats and Lizards

Update 7: The Underground Fort
Update 8: Fort Dranlon and Slith Temple
Update 9: Upper Slith Temple
Update 10: Island Fort, Swamp Town
Update 10, Part 2: Island Fort; Swamp Town
Update 11: Eastern Gallery Mop-Up
Update 12: Formello
Update 13: Formello et al
Update 14: Nephilim Fort

Giant Intelligent Friendly Talking WHAT?

Update 15: Formello Environs; Motrax's Cave
Update 16: Ancient Crypt; Fort Draco
Update 17: The GIFTS
Update 18: Aranea City; Northern Mop-Up

Mages are Morons

Update 19: Mertis
Update 20: The Spiral Pit
Update 21: Tower of the Magi
Update 21, Part 2: Tower of the Magi
Update 22: Solberg's Tower
Update 23: Slith Fortifications; Fort Emerald
Update 24: Crypt of Drath Level 1
Update 25: Crypt of Drath Level 2
Update 26: Crypt of Drath Level 3
Update 27: Adze-Haakai
Update 28: Ogre Caves

Interlude: Learning to Fly

Update 29: Foul Cavern
Update 30: Waterfall Warren and Stagnant Tunnels

The Great Cave

Update 31: Almaria
Update 32: The Castle
Update 33: Avoiding Civilization
Update 34: Shattered Fort and Gnass
Update 35: Blosk
Update 36: Gremlin's Gold
Update 37: Fort Remote
Update 38: Slith Castle
Update 39: Aftermath
Update 40: Patrick's Tower

The Abyss

Update 41: Shattered Fort Part 2; Dharmon
Update 42: Fort Saffron; Bandit Keep
Update 43: Ruined Bandit Lair; Fort Spire
Update 44: The Return of Drath (also, Gremlin Cave)
Update 45: Spire
Update 46: Erika's Tower
Update 47: Ruined Fort
Update 48: Erika Environs, Blocked Tunnel, Sulfur Caverns
Update 49: Lair of Khoth
Update 50: Bargha
Update 51: Giant Castle
Update 51b: Emergency Patch Update
Update 52: Pyrog's Lair

The Second Demon War

Update 53: Skarragath
Update 54: Prison of Grah-Hoth
Update 55: The Burning Reaches
Update 56: Fortress of Grah-Hoth

Update 57: Denouement and Intermission

Up the River

Update 58: Slith Fortress
Update 59: River Headlands
Update 60: Lost Bahssikava
Update 61: Aranea Cave
Update 62: Freehold of Kyass
Update 63: Strange Cave
Update 64: Freeholdin'

Last Steps

Update 65: The Honeycomb; Athron's Cave
Update 66: Northern Waters

Vengeance

Update 67: Preparations
Update 68: The Approach
Update 69: The Royal Spire

One Last Loose End

Update 70: Remote Caves and Pit of the Drake
Update 71: Remote Caves and Tower of Sulfras
Update 72: The Final Gauntlet

Awesome fan stuff!

NullBlack shows us Elly's healing magic in action:


And now that Kane and One-Eye are in on the action, NullBlack shows us how a lawyer's healing spells work!


Being the party healer isn't all fun and games...


...but sometimes you just get to cut loose!


One-Eye's decided that the rest of the party needs some tutoring.


Elly compares notes with Willow from Chokes' Paper Sorceror Let's Play.


And I get taken to task over my loose use of the term "literally". Really, I deserve it. Keep the punishment coming.

TooMuchAbstraction fucked around with this message at 16:10 on Oct 2, 2016

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TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Reserved.

TooMuchAbstraction fucked around with this message at 03:58 on Aug 20, 2015

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Prologue: The Beginnings of Greatness



"Ha, fools! They think they've gotten the better of me by chucking me through some portal? Now that I'm in Avernum they've nothing to worry about? This is only the beginning! Soon the world will know the awesome power of Lagran!"

"You say something?"

"Er, oh, nothing you need worry yourself ab...my god man where are your clothes?"



"Don't need 'em! They were just holding my beautiful muscles back! I don't suppose you have any oil on you?"

"The only light here is from phosphorescent fungi. How on Earth are you so shiny?"

"Phospho-what? Anyone who knows words like that deserves keeping an eye on. Care to join me? I can assure you you will be well rewarded!"

"Ehh, sure, nothing better going on anyway."

"And you, mostly-naked man? I can promise plenty of exercise, and you look like you'd make a magnificient meatsh, er, soldier."

"Not too much cardio, right? And we'd better have plenty of protein. By the way, my name's --"

"Don't know, don't care. Oh hey! A priest! Sir, we could use a man of the cloth on our journeys!"

"...priest, yes...yes, of course, I'm a priest, who's gonna say otherwise? With the blessings and the calling down of god's favors, and not the animating of corpses or the summoning of demons. A priest, that's me! Whaddaya want?"

"Join me on my journey towards greatness! And everything you wish will be yours, in time. You stand in the magnificient presence of Lagran!"

"Sure, why not? Y'all's bodies are in good shape anyway. Nice sinews on that boy there. Good, how'd'you say, raw materials."

"Excellent, then we're all agreed. Come, let's get out of here. Such a humble location clearly has nothing worthwhile!"



"Sirs! A moment of your time!"



"Then again...what are you talking about, man?"



"Nope, I was wrong. Leaving now! Lagran fights for nobody but himself!"



"The gates! Let's go!"



"Don't care, leaving now!"

"Uh, you sure about that? It's free money!"

"After they make you swear an oath of fealty, no doubt. Lagran owes allegiance only to himself!"

"If you say so, boss."



"Ahh, glorious freedom! Friends, remember this day! It is the first day of Year Zero, for henceforth all calendars will measure from the Ascencion of Lagran!"

"On the other hand, the brain on that one might be somewhat damaged..."

"Come, I spy a fortress we can use as our base of operations!"







"Looks like it's seen better days, boss. You sure about this?"

"I've never been more sure of anything in my life!"



"It's just, I don't think we're alone here."

"Of course not, you buffoon! And the bandits here will form the basis for the new Army of Lagran! We need merely find their leader and he shall soon see the wisdom of working under our banner!"



"Ahh! Men, you are being given a glorious opportunity! Join me, and I shall lead you to a new world! A world where the powerful take what is rightfully theirs! We shall found a kingdom! The Kingdom of Lagran!"

"Hey, a wise guy! Funny, I didn't think there were any clowns in the caves. Boys, get 'im!"



"Great going, Lagran. You rear end in a top hat."



"Er, right. No matter, surely you are capable of vanquishing such a small squid of brigands? I'll just...stand over here."



"Hey, watch the skin! What're you trying to do, scar me? Lagran you coward, get back here and help!"

:gibs:



"I'll just be going, then..."

"This is not going well! Healing, I need healing!"

"Oh, well, if you wanted one of those kinds of priests, you should have said. Ingrate."

:gibs:



"Hey boys, what say we settle this over a game of dice? No? Well, fair enough." :gibs:



"Lagran shall rise again! This is only the beginning!"

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Character creation

Right, now that that messy business is behind us, we need some characters!



The game will happily give us a prefabricated party, but what fun is that? We need four new party members. Each should have a name, a graphic, a build, and a backstory. You can choose builds from the list of presets:



or you can do a custom build -- though customization is rather limited as you only have 5 skillpoints to assign. In fact, builds in general are somewhat limited, unfortunately. There's two skill trees: combat and magic.

Combat:



Magic:



The way this works is that you can't invest in a skill unless a linked skill from lower on the tree has more points in it than the skill you want to invest in. For example, if you have only 5 points in Melee Weapons (the bottom-left combat skill), then you can invest at most 5 points into Hardiness (the skill immediately above it). Functionally this serves to prevent you from getting to the better combat skills until you've put in your basic training.

Combat skills, left to right, bottom to top (these illustrations are by Phil Foglio, incidentally, artist for the comic-cum-webcomic Girl Genius):



Basic training with weapon types. Swords are your best DPS option as they're the only weapon type that can be dual-wielded; they're also your best option for tanks since spear users can't use shields and your ranged characters generally want to avoid melee. Spears have decent single-hit damage but pale in comparison to swords (and all the really cool weapons are swords, natch). Bows are handy, though a bit redundant with spellcasting. And throwing is pretty worthless, sadly -- it's ammo-based unlike all the other weapon types, and basically the best you can get is steel javelins, while all the other weapon types have cool enchanted gear with nifty bonuses.

Though, I've beaten this game with a party of 2, so if you can come up with a compelling reason to saddle me with a character who can't pull their weight, have at it.

Battle disciplines are a variety of "spells" that combat characters can use. Using any discipline renders the character fatigued for a few turns, during which time they can't use disciplines. There's one hilariously overpowered discipline that makes the mid/late game a lot easier, so investing in these basic skills is strongly recommended.



Incremental bonuses. Hardiness and Blademaster are both pretty decent; the other two are crippled by being behind ranged skills.



Parry's not great. The damage reduction is significant, but the proc rate is awful -- note that the skill cap on all non-basic skills is 10 points (and you get 2 points per level, and 5 at the start of the game), so at best you'll only ever have a 30% chance of parrying attacks.



Moving before enemies is frankly more helpful for mages than for warriors, but it's still good, and this skill is in front of two other great skills.



Awful awful awful. You still take damage from riposted attacks, and the damage you do to the guy that hit you is pathetic.



Avernum: Escape from the Pit follows the proud tradition of its predecessors in making dual-wielding awesome. Sadly you can't dual-wield polearms, but dual-wielding swords is quite viable and provides a significant damage upgrade...once you have the skill necessary to hit your targets, anyway. I don't know exactly what the damage penalty from dual-wielding is, but whatever it is it should probably be bigger.



Basically the "assassination" skill from previous games. I'm unsure whether this simply makes critical hits more likely, or if it's a separate thing.



"Harmful effects" are random debuffs, like poisoning or making the target less accurate. But this is a ranged skill, ergo it sucks. And yes, they re-used the graphic here.

Magic skills, left to right, bottom to top:



Skill with casting spells. Want to cast spells? Get more of these. The passive effectiveness bonuses are not very large, though, so there's little point in investing once you have the spells you want. Magic spells focus on debuffs and dealing damage, while priest spells focus on buffs and healing. They both have a decent amount of crossover though.

Giving everyone in the party a single point in Priest Spells is a pretty decent idea, as it gives them access to the Light Heal spell (everyone gets spellpoints based on their level and INT score). Letting your warriors top up their own HP a few times during a dungeon crawl can really stretch your priest's resources.



Traps in Avernum will rip your head off, set it on fire, and then summon a demon to eat the charred remains. You want tool use. Being able to pick locks also comes in handy pretty frequently. It's hard to know how much to get, though.



Aside from the damage resistance bonuses (just to poison and acid, sadly), this mostly just grants access to various hidden item caches and respawning alchemical ingredients. There's some nice stuff in those caches, but it's still kind of a boring skill.



Want better spells? Get Spellcraft.



Want to learn better spells? Get Mage Lore. There's almost zero uses for Mage Lore beyond deciphering ancient forbidden tomes found in undead-filled crypts and the like, but that's still pretty important. The mental effect resistance is also very nice, because charm spells suck rear end.



Ehh, pretty marginal frankly. There are very few situations in which you can't just up and walk back to town for a free full heal, which costs nothing more than time and tedium.



Increases all of your resistances slightly, and (as with Cave Lore) has no predecessor skill, so everyone can invest in it. Not a bad idea for your warriors, who otherwise have trouble accumulating magical resistance.



Buried three deep in the magic tree, if you have access to this skill then you almost certainly don't need it, because you're a caster with high INT and thus great magical resistances already. Unfortunate. Warriors would love to have this one.



I believe this actually reduces the costs of your spells by a flat amount scaling with skill investment. As noted, you can always walk back to town if you need to. But later spells can get expensive, so I don't really mind having a few points of this in my casters.

There's also four basic stats: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Endurance. You get 3 points at start, 1 point per level, and the game periodically also gives you a free point in one of the stats (so e.g. a level-50 warrior is going to have an INT of 6 or so whether he likes it or not). Investment in these is pretty simple. Are you a melee character? Put every single point in Strength. Are you a ranged character? Put every single point in Dexterity. Are you a caster? Put every single point in Intelligence. Endurance is pretty pointless as characters get plenty of HP as they level up anyway, and putting points outside of your core competencies just makes you worse at them.

I mean, you can make a hybrid character, but he'll just be mediocre at two things. Hybrids aren't nearly as awesome as they were in the older games. :( Don't let this stop you though; if y'all want a party of red mages I can make it work.

Finally, the character graphics:









Anyway, give me those character ideas! Remember: a name, a graphic, a build, and a backstory. No hard deadline; let's just see how this plays out. And to be clear, Lagran is not joining us. We have plans for him, but they do not include anything resembling happiness.

TooMuchAbstraction fucked around with this message at 04:37 on Aug 26, 2015

Zereth
Jul 9, 2003



I submit Three empty slots. :getin:

Roadie
Jun 30, 2013

Zereth posted:

I submit Three empty slots. :getin:

I will vote this, if it's still possible to get to a substantial amount of the gated content in the game (high level spells of at least one type, hidden artifacts, etc).

From what I remember, the real limiter here is that you don't have four characters' worth of skill points to spread across the miscellaneous stuff like Cave Lore and Arcane Lore you need for some of the hidden things.

Tuxedo Ted
Apr 24, 2007

I've never played the remake. It's too bad hybrids aren't the shortcut to victory anymore, games that punish versatility kinda rankle me. BUT NO MATTER!

Name: Simo
Graphic: Row 1, Column 3.
Build: Archer. Kinda stinks that ranged weapons are kinda bad too, but thems the breaks! The pre-built version is ok I guess, but if you think you have some way to make bow guys suck the least amount with a custom build go for it.
Backstory: Simo wasn't guilty of any particularly heinous crime, just evading conscription into the empire's army. His skills as an archer were widely renowned, so to have someone of his calibur "waste" his talent in any pursuit other than subjugating the enemies of the army was crime enough. But to keep himself alive while being a moderately wanted man, Simo resorted to poaching into protected territory. He was able to slip around without notice for many months before he had the misfortune of unknowingly kill-stealing the choice prey of a nobleman's hunting party. Not to be discouraged, the nobleman shifted the focus of the hunt from game to manhunting, and though it took several exhausting hours Simo was caught in the end. Feeling particularly vindictive and nursing a grudge (he might have been the most skilled archer around if it weren't for Simo), the nobleman used his influence to have the rival bow expert hurled into the portal to Avernum rather than be arrested or pressed into military service.

Simo is proud of his talents and has no love of the empire, but getting exiled to Avernum isn't the worst thing that could have happened to him, in his opinion. Having a whole new world to explore is kinda exciting, and it's nice to be away from the overbearing Empire for a while. The type to take most things in stride, Simo isn't overeager to find a way back to the surface anytime soon. He'd rather stop and smell the roses subterranean mushrooms along the way.

berryjon
May 30, 2011

I have an invasion to go to.
Watching!

However, because I'm running the other LP, I'll take a pass on CharGen.

Ulvirich
Jun 26, 2007

Name: Elly
Graphic: Row 3, Column 1.
Build: Priest. You're probably going to need someone of this sort. :v:
Backstory: Elly was found guilty of preaching heresy in the Empire. Given that her sect was considered charitable however nonetheless heretical, the usual punishment of execution was lightened to life imprisonment, and what's the easiest way for this sort of crime? So off she went, sentenced to Avernum. While she wears the frocks of Faith, she tolerates those who do not heed the Words.

Eager to continue Chanting the Words, Elly wishes to travel with the band of fellow exiles-to-be she was imprisoned with, after all someone needs to watch over them in such trying times, and what better choice is there than a priestess who can invoke the power to heal and protect? She does not care one way or another with the Empire, and is willing to find another flock in the caverns of Avernum.

Sazero
Nov 27, 2014

The classiest crazy bullshit magic Half-Elf, you'll ever meet.


Name:Byff
Build: Hedge Wizard
Background: Experimenting with magic can be a dangerous affair. Only the most experienced and talented of wizards dare to attempt fiddling with power that can easily run out of control.
Byff was neither experienced nor talented. He was kind of an arrogant incompetent idiot to be honest. So it comes to no surprise when he one day turned up cursed. Clothes covering his chest had become an impossibility
to wear, and he soon earned the attention of the public eye. It wouldn't take long for him to stand in front of the portal to Avernus.


What I really want is a beefy mage, because screw stereotypes. :colbert:
But you're pretty much free to build him however you want.

Sazero fucked around with this message at 10:03 on Jul 25, 2015

Roobanguy
May 31, 2011

Name: Handy
Graphic:
Build: Soldier
Backstory: Handy was found guilty of illegal spellcasting, a strange accusation as he is barely literate or magically inclined. He happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time while wearing a similar outfit to that of an actual rebel mage the Empire was chasing after, and was soon arrested. When it came to light that he infact could not cast spells, his captors decided that saving face and not drawing the wrath of their superiors was the more prudent option, and tossed him into Avernum and swept the case under the rug.

Handy was always a jovial kind of guy who'd rather avoid confrontation, and he definitely isn't the sharpest tack in the box, but what he lacks in smarts is made up by his strong arms and his strange attention to detail. Not much gets past his eyes, be it a dent in a bandits breast plate, or a strange brick in a wall.

Roobanguy fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Jul 25, 2015

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer

Name: Wang
Build: Throwing weapons specialist, anything to complement that in order to make it least sucky.
Backstory: Wang isn't a ninja. He isn't even Asian. Culturally misguided parents had left him with a name not uttered in polite society and a wardrobe purchased from a discount pajama store for an inheritance; eager to make his own way in the world, he set out to make a name for himself, ideally one that'd erase the one he's been born with.
Discovering a talent for making sharp things stick to soft things, he embarked on a career of a professional darts player. Sadly, a drunken bet on a versus game in a pub lacking a dart range has left him short an eye - and the other party short a heart. Sentenced to be thrown into Avernum for murder, One-Eyed Wang's biggest concern is still how to conceal his unfortunate epithet... And his newfound lack of depth perception.

anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Jul 25, 2015

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Name: Halima
Graphic:
Build: Maximum face-wrecking pole-based melee.
Backstory:
Thrown into Avernum for declining a dodgy mercenary contract offered by a sketchy official, but knocking the guys front two teeth out probably didnt help much.
Halima is reckless, a loose cannon but drat it she's as good a fighter as you could wish for. Equipped with a strong sense of honour and a stronger sword arm she made a name for herself as a sellsword, taking contracts that are much too underpaid for the job they require. Gets along just fine with people, until they tell her she couldn't possibly do something. Which is mainly why she became a merc, in hindsight.




Good god these character graphics are the most early DnD/PnP game things ever. I was expecting better what with the intro paintings. All of them are standing about so awkwardly.

Especially this one:

This has to be parody or something, wow.

Rigged Death Trap fucked around with this message at 10:12 on Jul 25, 2015

Captain Bravo
Feb 16, 2011

An Emergency Shitpost
has been deployed...

...but experts warn it is
just a drop in the ocean.

anilEhilated posted:

One-Eyed Wang's biggest concern is still how to conceal his unfortunate epithet... And his newfound lack of depth perception.

Voting for this. :allears:

Khanstant
Apr 5, 2007
Byff should definitely be in this. The awkward girl in chainmail should also be in some capacity, that pose is grand!

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Some interesting suggestions so far. Keep 'em coming!

I'm not going to do a solo playthrough, mostly because I just don't feel like I could make it be as interesting as a playthrough with at least two characters. Solo's certainly doable (Spiderweb games have a good history of allowing for solo characters), but it constrains your options significantly. And it makes party banter kiiiiiind of difficult.

Specifically regarding Cave Lore and Arcane Lore: Cave Lore is basically strictly optional anyway. You get some neat stuff from it, but not enough so that it's worth investing in for a solo character unless you're willing to do some seriously tedious grinding of respawning alchemical ingredients. Arcane Lore is trickier, but fortunately there's some ways to reduce the lore requirements specifically for when it comes to learning spells (i.e. about 95% of what Arcane Lore is used for).

ManxomeBromide
Jan 29, 2009

old school
Name: Foul Charles
Graphic: The "ninja" in the lower left with the face mask, or the fellow to his right in rags.
Class: Shaman.

He speaks to the spirits. Nobody else can stand to be in the way of his words. Rumor has it he was hurled into Avernum due to halitosis alone.

ManxomeBromide fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Jul 26, 2015

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!
Looks like they slapped a somewhat newer system on the game, so it's not just a graphical touch-up? Any new content? Or did they just recreate it all for a slightly different skill system?

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

PurpleXVI posted:

Looks like they slapped a somewhat newer system on the game, so it's not just a graphical touch-up? Any new content? Or did they just recreate it all for a slightly different skill system?

It's hard to decide what exactly is new content vs. old content. I'm almost positive that both remakes started with Jeff Vogel writing an import tool to bring all of the content from the previous version of the game into the new engine. But then he goes through and touches up basically everything -- tweaking maps, rewriting and greatly expanding dialog and flavor text, and, for this version especially, reworking boss fights. There's one quest line, including a new location, that is objectively new in the reremake, however, as well as another quest/location that was added in the remake and still exists in this version.

The items, spells, and combat mechanics are also largely new; the game plays completely differently from Exile 1. One non-spoily example: instead of having players cook up potions themselves using an alchemy skill, now instead you bring herbs to town alchemists and they do the cooking for you, taking the leftover ingredients as their payment. So now everyone can participate in alchemy, instead of just the players that feel it's worth investing several levels' worth of skillpoints into a somewhat low-utility skill.

Loxbourne
Apr 6, 2011

Tomorrow, doom!
But now, tea.
Name: Kane Orvat

Graphic:

Build: Rebel, with a dash of whatever this game considers the skills for a party "face" - bluff, fast-talk, etc.

Backstory: Kane is the one thing everyone in Avernum wanted - a defence lawyer. Contrary to popular belief, the Empire has an extensive and historic penal code and a liberal system of rights for the accused. Woe betide you if you actually try claiming any of them, though.

Double woe if you actually win, especially in public or in cases sponsored by powerful people. Kane is ostensibly being sent down for contempt and sedition.

Fortunately for Kane that same code of law has many complex methods of trial by battle, so he actually has a degree of training and mild experience. He's guessing the cutthroats in Avernum won't respect rules of procedure or duelling to first blood though...although it's got to be better than some of that "litigant must fight female midget" or "fight two dogs while suspended upside-down" nonsense.

Kacie
Nov 11, 2010

Imagining a Brave New World
Ramrod XTreme
Voting for Kane - we always need a good defense lawyer!

Submitting:

Malpha - a cranky, bitter mage, who was tossed down into Avernum for having originally suggesting modest improvements to the magical strictures in place in the Empire. Funny enough, wasn't nearly so bitter or cranky prior to being tossed through the portal. Now looking to either get back at the Empire, or really make herself into a power in Avernum - so she can stick it to the Empire.

I'm not sure what the difference is between a Sorcerer and a Shaman, but something focused on magic, the wizardly sort.

Picture - either the woman on the far right of the second row, or the far right of the third row.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Alright, let's call the submission deadline as end of Wednesday. Get those characters in or forever* hold your peace!

* Or until the next fantasy RPG Let's Play.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Update 1: Under Fort Avernum



"So this is it. Welcome to our new home."

"Strange, there's nobody here. I wasn't expecting a reception committee, but surely there would be guards?"

"Well that's disquieting. Surely there's someone alive down here. The entire place can't be a tomb, right?"



"Brr. I just wish they'd let me keep my cloak."

"I'd been meaning to ask about it. Not to put too fine a point on it, but uh...you're a tad underdressed."



"Yeah, believe me this isn't intentional. Long story short, I got a magical curse on me, any cloth just kind of shreds apart. Leather's fine, but you try wearing a leather shirt in high summer, see how you like it."

"Well, then I have some good news for you."



"Allow me to declare "dibs" on your behalf."

"Gee, thanks. I'll pass."



"Or on second thought...cripes that was a cold breeze."



And no, the game literally will not let you proceed until you pick up a mangy old cloak and put it on.

"I can already tell we're going to love it down here."



"People! Civilization! We are not alone! Hallo-oo! Anyone there?"





"Me and my big mouth." :sigh: "Alright, kitties! Hear now the Word! H̽͛͆̔҉͕̮̞å̜̦ͭ̚͘n̵̲̣̬̼̱̦̻ͦ́̾ͩ͞ͅd͚̫͓̖̩̞̫̮̯̏̒ͧ̏ͯ͑̚͘s̼͚̈ͩͨ͡ ̤̼̬͎̪ͨ̃͜͜o̴̘͕͙̯̍̀͑ͩ̕f̷͙̎ͭ̿̎̋̍͞f͎͉̥̹̩͕̅̏̈̓̚̚ͅ!̨̻̻͍͖̄̄͌͂ͅ"





"<Agh! Kill the bitch!>"

"Wow, okay. Don't piss off the lady."

"Admire later, fight now!"

Smite is the basic offensive spell for priests. Hits one target, does decent damage, but it can miss and is a little expensive to be casting every round.



(Shut up, game, she's fine)

"Now, barbarians, fear the might of my magical prowess!"





"<Frank? You okay there Frank?>"

"<Aw crap dude. This has not been a good day.>"

And this is the mage basic attack spell. A lot cheaper, but more enemies resist fire than do energy. Byff's spell does less damage because he's dumber and worse at spells than Elly is.

:black101:

:black101:





"Those who deny the Words shall come to ruin. It is done."

"Ma'am, you just scared the hell out of me. All I ask is that you stay pointed at our enemies."



"In the meantime, we've found some supplies."



"A decent pair of pants! Dibs! I don't have to run around in my pyjamas any more!"

"All yours, mate. Personally I prefer a little more freedom."

"Yes, we've noticed."



"Giant rats? But they won't appreciate how amazing it is when I roast them!"

"Do it anyway, there's good eating on those things."

:stare:



"What? You want I should let good meat go to waste?"



"My word, there's a lot of vermin here. Reminds me of my bar exam."

"You had to fight giant rats to get a law degree?"

"No, I...metaphor, chum, metaphor." :sigh:



"I'm not going to question the hoarding habits of rats. Yoink."

"I'm sure that helmet must be flearidden."

"Then they'll be joining good company. Like I said, yoink."



"Hallo there!"

"Wotcher."



"Weaklings and malcontents? So we aren't the only ones down here?"





"I don't think I like you. Would you care to hear the Words?"

"Whoa whoa whoa slow down. You must have some motive for doing this, locking yourself up with the new arrivals. What do you want with us?"



:jerkbag:

:catstare:

:confused:



"Oh he is so getting a talking to."

"More importantly, he mentioned others down here."

One-off conversations like this one, that can't be repeated, often have various reaction options that all do the same thing. No matter which we picked here, Lagran would have left afterwards.



"And here they are. Hallo, are you all right?"



"Oh dear."



"No, honey, we aren't thugs. How are you all doing? How did you get here?"



"Nice. What'd you do?"



"Diplomacy, my friend. Will these others be all right?"



"Fair enough. I'm guessing you need our help?"



"Normally I would not offer my services for free...but dealing with this bandit serves us all. I'd be happy to help drive him off, and I imagine my compatriots feel similarly."



"Thank you so much for volunteering us. You get to take point."

"Suits me fine."

Friendly conversations like this one, however, can have more ramifications. We could have asked for a reward, but these people are destitute so it couldn't have been significant.



"Seems the kitties are in cahoots with the bandits. Fantastic."



"I don't like your tone, mister! N̥̫̗͍͋̈͗̑̓ͫ̀ͮ͢͞ọ̦ͮ̈́̓̓̉͋̆͐w̶̦̦ͧ̇ͥ̓ ̴͎̦̗͕̟͐ͩ̎͑͛͊̍͘a̴̝̲̹̥̎̾ͫ͞p̸̻̙̳̩͎̤̝͛͆̽͌̄̈́͑̆͌́́o̧͖͇͙̒̽̄͟ĺ̡̘̟̝̭͉̻̼̰̭̐ͥ͒́͐ͦͣ͠o͈͖̻͈̟͍̬̽̌ͬ̕͟͞g̠͍̻̲̻̭̜̏ͯ͌ͮ́͝ͅͅi̼͎̮ͥͫ̈́̈͢z̨͙̲̱̭̓ḛ͔̫̯̠̅̈̀̋̈̋ͫ!̛̫̻̳̝̇̊͑͋͐̌͆̚͢"



"I picked up some javelins back there. Let's see how the ol' throwing arm is doing."



"Ahh, that brings back memories."

Wang is more specialized than any of our other characters so far and thus has great damage (compare to Kane's melee damage)...but he only got 6 javelins.

"Bandits! Fear my massive venomous worm!"





"You keep that thing away from me!"

Call Beast is pretty worthless, summoning an AI-controlled low-level monster. It's too expensive by far for what amounts to a minor distraction.

Shortly thereafter

"I'm guessing these were the "servants" that bandit was referring to. If this is all he can lord over then he can't be much himself. Let's keep moving."



Very subtle, game. Though I guess this is the tutorial.



"Bandit. We've a score to settle with you, I believe."



"Face it, buddy, you've lost. Give up. We'll make it quick."



"Well, let's get this over with."



"You aren't going to be killing anyone, little mister!"



Exactly what it says on the tin. Most damage in this game is from melee, so this spell is invaluable.

"Hey, Mr. Lawyer Man, be a buddy and keep him busy while I snipe his friends out."



"No problem, his aim's awful. Been hitting that skribbane a little hard, there?"

"Shut up! And hold still, drat you!"



"You're all alone! Now s͈̬̤̥͉̗͑̒͗͐̄͂̄ͅẵ̯̹̀͂͊ỳ͍̝̝͖̱̬͓͕̘̉͞͡ ̷̷̙̟͇ͩͫͬ͂̚ͅyͣ́̇҉̯̤͈̫̙̝͈͞͠o̵̯͇͉͗͊ͮͬ̽̾ũ̵͓̻̤̪̪̦̥͝r̵ͦ̇ͨ҉̺͓̭ ̨̋̇ͯ͆͋͗҉͖̺͍̟͍̳̩̰p̵͓͎̫̌̈́̒͜ͅr̬͖͖̝ͩͯ̕͠ã̝ͪ̅͜͞y͖ͦ̔̎̿e͐̈̍͡͏͍̩r̢͔̠̪͉̋̌ͥ̈̋̆ͥ́s̲ͭ̎̅̆̽̉͋͘͝!̝̲̰͌͞"





"Oh god, it smells like a tavern back alley!" :barf:



Stupid plot powers! :argh:



"Well, drat."

"What's the worry? This can't possibly have any ramifications down the road. He's just a bandit."

"Anyway, he's gone, and good riddance. Let's go tell that nice lady that she and the others are free."





Speaking to Brissa here gets us an experience bonus, enough for everyone in the party to level up.

"Cheery lady, isn't she? Well, shall we go as well?"





"My word, that roof is...high."

"Don't fight! We're on your side!"



"And where were you when we first arrived? I thought everyone was dead for a bit there!"



"Sounds like the idiot bandit that tried to take us hostage. I trust you captured him?"



"Ahh, no worries. We kicked his rear end once, we can do it again. By the way, we kicked his rear end."



"Ooh, ominous! But why didn't you stop him?"



"Wait, you people actually check your targets? There goes like 90% of my wrongful death lawsuits."

"...not that I can really object to that."



"I don't plan on staying long. How do we get out of here anyway?"



"Just because you never found a way out doesn't mean it doesn't exist! I'll find it, or my name's not Magus Byff!"



"Anyway, deary, tell us more about yourself! You're the greeter here?"



"Avernum is what we call this place. Countless miles of tunnels, caverns, and icy subterranean rivers. It is your new home."

He smiles sadly.

"In ancient times, Avernum was one of the names for the underworld. It was the place where souls were sent to be judged when their lives were over. Appropriate, yes?"

"So why be the greeter? I can think of more pleasant occupations."

"Not down here you can't."



"Supplies are good. All we have is our clothes and Byff's new cloak."

"...so I see. Incidentally, do you mind standing downwind?"



"And what about this information, then? I have no idea what this place is like. Besides ''not pleasant''."



"And why can't I just stay here? Surely you could use another helping hand!"



"Oh, poo. Well, thanks anyway darling!"



"All right. Now what?"

Sazero
Nov 27, 2014

The classiest crazy bullshit magic Half-Elf, you'll ever meet.
Poor Byff, having to wear nasty old cloaks while summoning giant poisonous worms.
Why he fits right in with the cat people and dark dank caves. :v:

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!
Clearly now that Lagran's out of the way for the time being, we can take over his plot to conquer Avernum and do it before he has a chance to.

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer
Is Nephilim just a fancy name here or does it mean cats are of divine origin?

Cheez
Apr 29, 2013

Someone doesn't like a shitty gimmick I like?

:siren:
TIME FOR ME TO WHINE ABOUT IT!
:siren:
Interestingly enough if you're lucky enough to kill Lagran before he escapes, I believe you don't actually end up with the conversation about him escaping. He's not plot immune to being turned into hamburger.

Pieuvre
Sep 19, 2010

anilEhilated posted:

Is Nephilim just a fancy name here or does it mean cats are of divine origin?

As far as anyone's ever been able to tell, it's just an odd fantasy name choice.

Ulvirich
Jun 26, 2007

Speak the Word, the Foe will fall, the Righteous will not. :catholic: I'm digging the party banter.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

Cheez posted:

Interestingly enough if you're lucky enough to kill Lagran before he escapes, I believe you don't actually end up with the conversation about him escaping. He's not plot immune to being turned into hamburger.

Wait, this is possible? :monocle:

...okay, I just threw up a party of 4 melee beasts playing on Easy, got him to around 60% health (he flees at 50%), and then beat him down in a single round. Yep.



All he drops is a Crude Broadsword and a Gold Ring, though, so you don't miss out on much from letting him flee. Andrew doesn't have much to say about him either, just apologizes for you having to deal with it.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
Even if you start with a melee guy you don't get more than a dagger to swing around?

Kuros
Sep 13, 2010

Oh look, the consequences of my prior actions are finally catching up to me.

Glazius posted:

Even if you start with a melee guy you don't get more than a dagger to swing around?

Hahaha, you think Exile/Avernum is one of those "nice" rpg games.

Kacie
Nov 11, 2010

Imagining a Brave New World
Ramrod XTreme
I love Kane already. Please work in all the lawyer-y things you can!

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
Update 2: Fort Avernum



"All right. Now what?"

"We may as well stick together while we get oriented."

"Fine by me. Now where were those two? Tor and Thairl?"

"No idea. Ask for directions?



"Ma'am, would you direct us to Sage Thairl? We have important business with him!"



"Never mind him, I'm hungry and those mushrooms look delicious."



"drat. Maybe you can cook it out? Fried with butter?"

"Ha. You're definitely a newcomer. I guarantee butter is outside your price range."

"Truly this place is hell. :("

"This size cannot possibly be natural. How...?"



"Ahh, magi! I had heard that powerful mages had been exiled here. We must meet them and compare notes!"

"About what? Your venomous worm problem? Anyway, that'll happen faster if we know where in blazes we are. Ma'am, Sage Thairl?"

"Southwest of the stairs you came up from."

"Thank you, dear!"



"..."

"I am going to get out of here."

"Pardon me, sirs, and madam."



"I'm not interested in a beach house timeshare, sorry."

"Very funny. I'm talking about fighting, which you clearly know how to do."



"We do seem to have some talent in that area, don't we? All right, I'm listening."



"Meet a mayor, do them favors? I've had worse jobs."



"If you want to fight to live, then maybe you should talk to the soldiers in the barracks. I'm sure they'll have plenty of tales to tell."



"Or maybe not."

Generic "filler" NPCs have no dialog beyond a single line in the message log. Previous games would drop you into a dialog screen but have all of the generic characters have the same dialog. The new approach works a lot better.



"Not even anyone in the commander's office. Hmm...



"Strange...I get the feeling that taking these items would be a very bad idea."

"That's because that would be stealing."

"Well, yeah, but more importantly it's because that guard over there can see us."

Nobody can see you? Steal away! On the other hand, if people can see you, then the entire town goes hostile and you suffer a hit to your reputation.

Annoyingly, the reremake series has made theft a lot harder through the simple expedient of preventing you from
closing doors. Still, if we wait a bit...



"All clear! Yoink."

"I can't believe you."

"Would an energy potion make you feel better?"

Energy potions, like the one we just liberated from that desk, restore spellpoints, which are the only practical limitation on how long you can stay out exploring without needing to retreat to town. They are therefore your most important non-renewable resource.



"All right, the sage! Perhaps he knows some spells!"



"Well aren't you a cheerful sort! It can't be all that bad, surely!"





"And they put you in charge of helping newcomers. Is this a punishment detail?"

"If it is, then someone has a subtle sense of humor."

"Well, might as well lay it on us then. What do you have to tell us?"



"Yeah, screw those other items. Where's the way out?"



"Still don't believe you."

He shrugs. "Fine, I don't care."

"These slithzerkai, what are they? I don't suppose by any possible chance they are allies?"



"It figures. Who's leading the war effort?"





"Someone tried to convince us to join the fight. I'm guessing he was talking about the sliths?"

"Oh, there's a lot more to fight than sliths, believe me. If you want to help, there's a couple of places you should check out."



"And that's all I've got. Now go away."

"Well, thank you for your time, sir."



"I'm not gonna go out fighting on an empty stomach. Let's get those supplies."



"Wonderful, lay it on us!"



"..."

"You may want to start dialing down your expectations, friend."

"Surely Avernum can afford better than this! Where'd this food come from anyway?"



"I must admit I wouldn't have expected the Empire to send anything of any value down here. What do they care about us?"

"It's a subject of some speculation among us here at Fort Avernum. If I knew I'd tell you."

"Can we at least get some better weapons? This stone dagger's falling apart!"



"Wait, magic weapons? Like, smiting evil, burning with eternal flame, turning blue in the presence of gremlins?"



"I can't help but feel that whatever else happens, my life isn't going to be peaceful from here on out."

"In that case, good hunting to you."



"Lagran mentioned the Abyss. Some kind of prison, perhaps?"

"Yep. Nasty place, full of criminals. You don't want to go there. Hiya, name's Dunbar."



"Hello Dunbar, my name's Elly. A pleasure to meet you. What do you do here?"



"How on earth are there plants here, anyway? There's no sunlight!"



"Magically-bred plants? And the magic breeds true? Incredible."

"I don't suppose you grow anything for food besides mushrooms?"

"Nope. You'll get sick of them before too long, but they're food, and that's what matters.

"I'm still hung up on the plants. I mean, trees? In a cave?"



"It's unbelievable, that's what it is."



"I have got to meet these mages. I mean, my own talents run towards the more...dynamic end of the spectrum, but I appreciate a good subtle magicking when I see it!"

"Thank you for taking the time to talk to us, dear! Good luck with the gardening!"

"Very kind of you, ma'am."



"Surface Goods Storage. Unauthorized Avernites Keep Out!"

"Ahh, now we're speaking my language."

"The language of the thief, you mean."

"Way I see it, I'm owed a thing or two for being chucked down here."

"May be, but it's not right to steal from your brethren! Steal from the Empire instead, if you must!"

"They're a little out of reach right now. I'm sure you understand."





"Is that...?"



"With the way that woman went on about the price of butter, I can't imagine sugar is cheap! Yoink."



"And if iron were easy to come by, they wouldn't have fobbed us off with some stone knives! Yoink again!"

"I wish you'd stop saying that word."

Unfortunately, the other storage room is locked, and requires our party to have a combined Tool Use skill of at least 5 to open. We have a big fat whopping 0 right now, so we'll have to come back later.



"Oh hey, cows!"



...

"I find your stories of bovine spycraft somewhat dubious."

"Hey, cows are smarter than you think!"

"Nonetheless, I refuse to believe that a herd of trained attack cows dressed in harem outfits were used to assassinate a minotaur lord, because firstly, minotaurs don't exist, and secondly, shut up."

"I dunno, sounds plausible enough to me."

"Let's...just let the poor cows be and move on, shall we?"



"Pardon us, honey, I'm just trying to get these three boys away from a silly argument. How are you doing?"



"Count them? Whatever for?"



"Ahh, the soldiers. Know anything about them?"



"Let me guess: the Slithzerkai?"



"I can't imagine kitties putting up much of a fight."

"Andrew didn't have to try to discourage us; Thairl did a perfectly good job of that himself, I don't mind telling you."



"Oh, he's worried about something? I thought he was just irritable."



"I repeat my prior statement. What possible threat could a bunch of cats be?"



"Anyway, where do you get your supplies from? We only have so much food with us; it'd be good to know where we can get more."



"That's...not as accessible a source as I was hoping for."

"Well, if you need more food, you can head south to Mertis. It's a farming town. Just watch out for the undead."

"Undead."

"Yep. Skeletons, ghouls, ghosts, maybe even a vampire. You know? Animated corpses filled with hatred towards all that lives? Glowing eyes, deathly cold claws, the works?"

"How does this place FUNCTION?" :gonk:

"Going back a bit, why would the Empire ever want to help us? What do they care about us?"



"Can we go now? This is boring."

"Yes, please leave. I really need to finish inventory."

"You heard the lady."

Not shown: me spending a few hundred turns trying to shepherd her out of the room so I can loot it. I think the doorway is blocked to NPCs though because she wouldn't leave. :(



"I was hoping this was a tavern, but I'm not seeing any alcohol."

"Oh no, you don't think there's no booze down here, do you?"

"Have courage, my friend. If mages can make trees that grow in darkness, then they can make alcohol from...something. Lichen? Mushrooms?"

"He's right. You want to get drunk, you can get drunk. We're not animals."



"I see you're still a little tan. Haven't been here long? What'd they do you for?"



"Ahem. Sorry, my friend here let his curiosity get the better of his common sense. Apologies."

"Hmph."

"Have you been here long? Any suggestions on where to go from here?"



"Well, we'll keep an eye out, and let you know if we find her."





"I think that's about all the stalling we can do. So now the big question: are we sticking together from here on out?"

"No offense, because you all seem like decent people...er, for the most part anyway...but if I'm going to travel with you I'd like to know more about you. I mean, we don't even know each others' names!"

"Fair enough. My name is Kane Orvat, Esquire. I am...was a public defender."

"And what's that?"

"A lawyer who defends people against the state."

"Wait, that was an option? Oh well, no wonder you ended up down here. Izzat how you learned to swordfight, too?"

"You'd be surprised at some of the laws on the books. Fighting skill comes in handy more often than you'd think. As I'm sure you can attest to."

"Yeah, yeah. Hey, call me One-Eye. I'm a, uh, gambler, I guess? Mostly made money by betting on dart games."

"And by stealing."

"Oh lay off it, lady! That's just supplemental income; a man's gotta eat, right? Anyway, stealing's not what I'm down here for."

"Whatever for then? Gambling's perfectly legal, as far as I'm aware."

"Yep."

"It's not my fault some dumbass mounted the dartboard on the front door! And that guard had such rotten timing!"

"...and opened the door right into a dart, oh dear. Died, did he?"

"Eventually. I'll say this, the Empire's training is amazing. He chased me around for a good thirty seconds with six inches of sharpened steel sticking out of his face. Managed to gouge out my left eye before finally eating it. Anyway, you don't last long up top if you kill a guard, accident or no. So here I am."

"How pleasant."

"And I suppose you're completely above-board."

"It's hardly my fault that the Empire doesn't tolerate freedom of religion!"

"What are you talking about? There's probably thousands of different faiths in the Empire. Nobody cares!"

"They care about The Way! They want nothing to do with us! But they will learn the error of their ways! We listen to the Words, and we recount them, and when we have found the correct speaking of them, we shall raise the Creator, who shall remake the world, and do it properly this time!"

"Yeah okay, now I'm the one that's uncomfortable. Lady --"

"Elly, if you please."

"Elly, whatever, people have no business trying to resurrect whopping great undead superbeings. There's a reason the Empire killed off all the dragons! Power doesn't care who it tramples, it just kills everyone!"

"Oh don't be silly, none of you will have anything to worry about. You'll be with me, after all, right?"

"I have serious reservations."

"So you're saying you'd rather travel without her magical help?"

"Hey, what about me? You just assume I'm along for the ride?"

"I'm rather assuming you don't want to go traveling, naked and alone, across an unknown hostile wilderness. Or do you have a dead god in your pocket too?"

"Nah. But more seriously, don't you want to hear my sad and tragic backstory?"

"Okay, sure. Shoot."

"Yeah, name's Byff, right? Pleased to meetcha, incidentally. So I was working on these potions one day, right? And I must've put a little too much glowing nettle into this one mix? Because it exploded in my face, yeah? And next thing I know all my clothes have dissolved. And when I went to put on my emergency backup pants, they dissolved too, just a bunch of little bits of thread. Same with my towel, my kitchen towel, my neighbor's laundry...yeah, pretty much everything."

"Anyways, I got arrested for public indecency and theft of laundry, and got thrown down here."

"Truly, a tale for the ages."

"So we're stuck with each other, right? Because frankly I don't see any of us except Kane managing to do any better."

"You do raise an excellent point. What's my motivation for sticking with you three, instead of finding a marginally more sane group to travel with? I'm sure with the way our beloved overlords behave there'll be one coming through within a few days at most."

"Easy answer. You're too curious to see what in blazes we'll do next."

"Ah. Well, there is that."

"So it's settled! Let's go!"

"Sure, but where to?"

"Oh, does it matter? Let's just go!"





"One aimless wandering through monster-infested wilderness coming up!"

"Wait, hang on a second..."




Now that we're done here, here's the maps of Fort Avernum. First, this is the underground, where we started:



The ! marks the stairs up; we started in the bottom-right corner.

Here's Fort Avernum itself:



The stairs down are in the northeast, with Tor and Thairl just southwest of them. Storerooms in the southeast, barracks and the monument in the northwest, and the small "tavern" is the western !

TooMuchAbstraction fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Aug 4, 2015

berryjon
May 30, 2011

I have an invasion to go to.

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

Update 2: Fort Avernum

The First Exile Escape Committee posted:



That's a huge drop. I wonder if Vogel was lowering the population deliberately, or if the Re-Re-Make was counting deaths...?

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!
I remembered getting somewhat hooked on the very, very first original Avernum, prior to any remakes, so I decided to check if they were all up on Steam, and they are! Except for the odd absence of Avernum 3.

Anyone happen to know why it's missing? Because I kind of want to roll through the Avernum series(I never actually played any of them past the first, back when I did) after I clean up Geneforge.

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer
I think (because the man's pretty much inscrutable by now) Vogel didn't get to remaking it yet, apparently he's alternating between series and Avernum 3 is next in the line - and he's trying to replace them on Steam as opposed to adding. So either he's working on the remake right now or it's just a good ol' fuckup.
I believe GOG has all of them, but they're the old versions.

Loving these origin stories, by the way. It's kind of amazing how my submission ended up being the straight man in this group of maniacs.

Tylana
May 5, 2011

Pillbug
Avadon 3 is his current project. The lack of Avernum 3 on steam is a bit odd, haven't seen anything about it. You can buy 1 to 6 and Blades for about $10 off GoG though (the remake, not the re-re-makes.)

Cheez
Apr 29, 2013

Someone doesn't like a shitty gimmick I like?

:siren:
TIME FOR ME TO WHINE ABOUT IT!
:siren:
I don't think the original 3 Avernums were ever on steam. Only the re-remakes have been getting put on them. Avernum 4-6 are already basically in that engine more or less, so they don't really need a face lift. Nothing really odd about it at all.

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Klaus88
Jan 23, 2011

Violence has its own economy, therefore be thoughtful and precise in your investment
No ROUS joke for the giant rats? You fool! You missed one the classic rpg references! :orks:

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