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Doopliss posted:One thing that you can miss in an SSLP is that this game is a thing of beauty in motion. Most notably in this case, Thorns have less in common with the Zerg than they do puppies. Someone was mentioning that it's a shame you can't recruit the big red one: you can get them later in the game, they're basically a cheaper, weaker high-level unit.
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Jul 27, 2016 11:07
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Thorns are really adorable.  anilEhilated posted:Someone was mentioning that it's a shame you can't recruit the big red one: you can get them later in the game, they're basically a cheaper, weaker high-level unit.
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Jul 27, 2016 15:40
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Doopliss posted:One thing that you can miss in an SSLP is that this game is a thing of beauty in motion. Most notably in this case, Thorns have less in common with the Zerg than they do puppies. Haha, nice. I've been trying to capture some of the cooler animations with GIFs, but I missed that one. They really are adorable. Unfortunately, the Thorns probably won't be staying in my army for the long haul, they just die so easily that reinforcing them can be a pain. anilEhilated posted:Someone was mentioning that it's a shame you can't recruit the big red one: you can get them later in the game, they're basically a cheaper, weaker high-level unit. I do like them a lot as well (Royal Thorns, that is), since they are one of the stronger ranged units in the game, and have a way better Talent than the junior Thorns do. But as was said, they are hard to get in numbers and they die easily, especially when Fire damage get to be more common (cough, dragons, cough). But I will hopefully show them off for a couple battles at least, if I find enough. One of the nice things about the smaller Leadership cap of the Mage is that I don't need as many troops for a full stack.
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Jul 27, 2016 16:15
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Gully Foyle posted:I do like them a lot as well (Royal Thorns, that is), since they are one of the stronger ranged units in the game, and have a way better Talent than the junior Thorns do. But as was said, they are hard to get in numbers and they die easily, especially when Fire damage get to be more common (cough, dragons, cough). But I will hopefully show them off for a couple battles at least, if I find enough. One of the nice things about the smaller Leadership cap of the Mage is that I don't need as many troops for a full stack. Any stack with a "per battle" summoning ability has value, and it's even more valuable on a ranged attacker. But yes, Royal Thorns are hard to get and keep. I also feel like they have less hitting power than I expect them to.
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Jul 27, 2016 18:20
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Narsham posted:Any stack with a "per battle" summoning ability has value, and it's even more valuable on a ranged attacker. But yes, Royal Thorns are hard to get and keep. I also feel like they have less hitting power than I expect them to.
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Jul 27, 2016 19:06
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The animation quality extends to the overworld too. All of the environments have just a ton of little details that makes the whole thing move when you're around.
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Jul 27, 2016 19:39
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theshim posted:The real issue with Orc troops in Crossworlds is that the player's Orcs start with no Adrenaline, which is normal, but enemy Orcs start with a whole mess, so they can drop all of their nasty abilities immediately. Its been a while since I played it, but I remember ending up with various artifacts that meant my orcs started with a lot of rage. I think I usually had 2nd tier unlocked straight away. As you can imagine, this improved my enjoyment of all orc loadout considerably. 
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Jul 27, 2016 19:58
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Update 7 - Animal Wrangling : Look, Bill Gilbert. To tell you the truth, it is not right for me to ask you again, as you have already helped our village with those terrible plants.Last time on King's Bounty, we helped out the local village with the local plant-life with a cunning combination of diplomacy and Fireballs. But being a town mayor in a fantasy RPG, the Elder has another quest for us.  : What happened? I mean, I've just been standing here, and nothing is on fire, so how much trouble could you have gotten into?: You see... We really don't know what the matter is, but our miller, Bob Bucker, all the sudden has locked himself in the mill. He doesn't want to see or talk to anybody. That would be... well, alright if he wants his privacy. But if he stops the mill, then the whole village will be without flour!: Huh. Well, I'll go to the miller and find out what's happened. Lucky for us, the mill is about five feet away.  Inside the basement, we find a charming fellow.  : Don't come up! Get out of here! Don't look at me!: Oh, Gods of Endoria! What is this!?: Don't you see? I'm the local miller! My name is Bob Baker...: Are you sure? 'Cause the elder literally just said your name was Bucker. I guess the old fool is fairly senile.: It's strange! But you resemble a zombie much more than a miller.: Don't doubt it - I really am the miller... Or perhaps I should say instead - I was him not so long ago... Working the mill is not a cushy job, I can barely make a living. Normally I take on extra work, but to tell you the truth, it was not always honest work. Sometimes I went grave robbing. I was spending nights at the cemetery in Marshan Swamp, searching for valuables in the graves and crypts... It seems like I caught a disease at the cemetery. You can see that for yourself what... happened to me.: Sounds terrible. Maybe I can help you?: I don't know. Maybe mages from the Magic School will be able to do something. Maybe they could help somehow. They are wizards and they must be able to treat strange illnesses!: Yes, the mages might help. I'll go to the Magic School and tell them of your trouble.We go off to find this poor man some help...but not before looting his basement right in front of him of a banner, a might rune, and a crystal. We head to the nearby Magic School. We recruited our Archmages from here, but never really talked to the leader.  Now, there's lots of things we can ask him. But in the interest of flow, I'm going to start putting lore and non-quest related dialogue into the bonus section. : I came at a Zombie's request... : Zombie? What's this!? I once heard of a man like you who thought he speak with the dead, but not being a mage he first had to prepare himself by drinking a couple jugs of wine! You don't seem like a man trained to commune with corpses...: The miller from the village has turned into a zombie. I talked to thim and he sent me to you for advice...: Interesting! By this account, the miller had gone through a sort-of partial transformation into an undead creature, but still preserves some part of his living senses! This is a rare thing indeed, but it's not impossible.: And what could have caused it?: Usually this happens as a result of a curse, probably by wearing some cursed item. The curse gradually blackens the soul of its owner and deadens his flesh... Yes, it must have happened like this. If you brought me the cursed item, I would be able to analyze the structure of the curse, and perhaps create a counter-spell...: The cursed item? Ok, I'll ask the miller if he's come across any strange items.And back to the mill! By the way, this quest is called Trouble at the Mill. While I appreciate the reference, it is also a lot of trouble with this back and forth. : Ugh... Who's there? I feel the warmth of living flesh... A-a-ah... It's you, Bill Gilbert... So have you visited mages? What did the wizards say? Is there any hope for me?: Yes. The mages think that a curse befell you, when you took some enchanted item out of a grave.: Oh! I knew, I knew that something was wrong with that ring! So, it turned out to be cursed... I found a golden ring in a grave. When I tried it on - well, it really hurt! The wound took a long time to heal. And now I remember that it was frm this wound that my flesh began to transform. I gave the ring to the Rotten Hake, the robbers' leader. I give him all my loot, and the sell the stolen things.: Ok, I'll go to him. How can I find him?: In the forest to the north from the capital, there's a robbers' den. The place is not welcoming - the forest is gloomy, and it just feels wrong, like unkind people and animals live there. And in fact this is indeed the case. Rotten Hake and his gang make their living there. I hope he still has the ring, because if he already resold it, I'm in trouble!: Don't worry, miller. I'll find Hake and the things which you sold him. The path to the northern forest appears to be guarded. Bill decides to try the western path.  Snakes... why did it have to be snakes? Actually, Royal Snakes are probably my number one favourite unit to use in the entire game, and I really hope I get to show off why.  Mid-fight, I move my Thorns up to get into close range. They should be safe here, right?  Ugh, nope. The Royal Snakes move up from the back row, and start the next turn with a lunge that kills 6 Thorns.  And the poison claims 2 more over the rest of the battle. Snakes are awesome (but not to fight against).  A nearby stump looks somewhat suspicious.  Aww, just a couple of Slow scrolls. Well, still means money in the end.  The real prize is nearby. Not only do we pick up a floating Mind rune, but this chest...  Bam! 3 more Mind runes pop out of the chest. Keep in mind we get 7-8 runes at level-up, and we just found 4 right here.   And another one is right nearby with these dragonflies. That's 5 Mind runes in as many minutes. Alright, enough distractions. Let's continue deeper into the forest to find this Rotten Hake...wait, do you hear something rustling in the bushes?   Oh poo poo, they've come for revenge! Uhhh, time to think of a clever strategy... Run like hell! It's a good lesson with this game that you will not necessarily be able to take care of everything in an area. This means either come back later or find another way. Looks like Rotten Hake will have to wait for a bit. (I loaded up to see how many Thorns were in this army, and it's over 900. I could kill maybe 60 per turn with Fireballs).  Similarly, we are not equipped to deal with these nearby armored troops.  These troops are set to guard that banner, so they have a short aggro radius. Further, they won't go far from their guard post. This is good, because they won't chase you far before giving up. But you also can't really kite them away from their post to sneak by.  Having to run away twice in a row is doing no good for Bill's confidence. He feels the need to kill rising, and who better than some apparently overzealous guards by the river?  After a couple of turns, we've dealt with most of their ranged units. But the enemy Guardsmen have moved up to striking distance of our Swordsmen.  I decide to protect the Swordsmen with Stoneskin. Stoneskin adds +Defense and +Physical Resist. This makes it ultra-effective on already tanky units like these Swordsmen. It does lower their Initiative though.  Two attacks later, and our Stoned Swords haven't even lost one guy, even with a critical hit against them (although it's a really close thing).  And we get a lossless victory. Of course, a Fireball would have probably worked just as well, but Stoneskin and other buffs get more powerful in proportion to our army, while Fireballs will get more powerful in proportion to our Intellect/Spell Level. This makes Stoneskin much more powerful for Warriors than for Mages.  With our Zombie quest on hold, let's go exploring a new direction. We went to the right at this path before, but now we will explore down the left.  Bears out of nowhere!  More like Wolves out of nowhere! Wolves are one of the most annoying enemies in the early game. Not because of they are dangerous or anything, but because of this:  The Wolf Cry Talent inflicts the Fear status on all human, dwarf, or elf units under Level 3. This means we can't control them, they have a 50% chance to do nothing, and they won't attack units of a higher Level than themselves. If we had all of our army affected by it, I wouldn't be able to cast any spells either, since it would never be my turn. And since Wolves have high Initiative, they will almost always do this before you can act. Always make sure you have at least one unit immune to this effect.  gently caress wolves.   Near this army, we find a scroll of Battle Cry. This Order spell increases Initiative of the target. I find it a relatively useless spell, unless you really need a unit to act before another one. I usually have more important spells to cast. Just off of the path, we find this structure in the woods.   : Do you want to have a look at the animals I sell in the menagerie? Hunters bring unusual animals to me from all the corners of Darion, and other lands as well.: You have a menagerie? You wouldn't happen to know anything about all these bears and wolves wandering nearby, would you?: No, I don't need any unusual animals. Maybe I could help you something?: Oh, I really do need some help. Not long ago a bear escaped from my menagerie, a white bear. He was specially brought from Kordar's snowy woods. Last night he broke his cage and ran away. I think he ran into the Royal Wood, to the north. That's why I need your help - please catch it and bring it back. Can you do it? (Reward: 1100 Gold, 40 Experience).: Sure I will, why not? How should I bring it here, though? He will attack me and I'll have to kill him. As far as I understand, you need him alive...: Of course, alive. I'll give you a special herb called the "Bearka." A bear becomes drunk with its smell and won't attack you - indeed, he'll follow you as if he's on a leash. Bring him back here; I'll prepare a strong cage.: Ok, I'll go and search for your bear. Look, this herb won't do the same to me, will it? I don't want to follow my horse around, as if I was on a leash. Heh, I'm kidding, alright? As he mentioned, the menagerie is an outpost that specializes in selling animals. Currently, we can get Venomous Spiders, Wolves, and Bears.  : Gah! They're everywhere! I think I need to speak to the menagerie about their security measures. Thanks to the Wolf Cry, these Marauders get to a battle chest first since I can't control most of my units.  We also lose a couple more Thorns.  Without a Wolf in sight, we take care of the second group easily.  As we finish off these animals, Bill hears something coming from a nearby boulder.  : I...The stooone...Teeell youuu... Beee so kiiind... Gooo to the Maaagic Schoool... Aaask.. There was a yoooung maaage... Hee diiid not enchaaant me to the eeend... Doooo not waaant to beee an ooordinary stooone... Leeet him fiiinish whaaat waaas beeegun..: Ok, I'll go to the Magic School. It's not far; I'll ask them how to help you.One more sidequest for the pile. Let's deal with the rogue bear first.  Of course, we still want to ransack the countryside as well. By the speaking stone, we find yet another Mind rune, and a magic wishing well.   Welp. Wishing wells can give a wide variety of rewards, from runes to spells to gold to equipment. Of course, you might get unlucky and just get some experience from the lesson. Hint: don't learn the lesson this message says, it's always worth risking a crystal on them.  The Royal Woods the zookeeper directed us towards lies down this path. One more free rune (thankfully a Magic one this time) as well.   This group of Thorns and Peasants falls quickly, and we get the Fear scroll they guarded. Fear is a Chaos spell that is similar to the Wolf Cry. Key difference is that it affects only one target, but can affect any level target. It can be decent for disabling hordes of low level units. If you target a Level 1 stack and you have nothing below Level 2, they can't attack at all (if they aren't immune to it, like Undead are).   This fight is also nothing special, but we do find a scroll of Healing in the battlefield chest. Healing is an Order spell that, well, heals. Only really useful on high Level units. However, it can also be used to damage Undead. At Level 3, Healing also removes Poison, Weakness, or Plague.  At the end of the path, we see a bear that doesn't act like an enemy. I think we found the quest goal. Let's lead it back to the zoo.  It's actually a little annoying to do so. If you get too far away, the bear stops following. If you are too close, the bear will stop to rear up again. Above you can see the bear somehow got confused, turned around, and refused to follow me for a few minutes. Eventually, we wrangle the bear back to the menagerie. : So, have you found my bear? You will recognize him by his white fur. There are no other white bears around here.: Here's your bear. Actually I had to run from him, you know. Put him into the cage quickly, the stronger the cage the better, because it seems to me that your herb has lost its smell.: Certainly, certainly. I've already prepared the cage - one strong enough to hold a dragon. A small one though... But this bear will definitely be unable to break it. Thank you, you've rescued me. Take your reward, Searcher. (Reward: 1100 Gold, 40 Experience): You're welcome, goodbye. Ah, after all that excitement, Bill could use a midnight stroll along the beach.  : Oh! Thunder! It looks like I have guests. What do you come for Bill Gilbert? Here to listen to an old seaman's stories?: Listen, don't you have any errands for me, or perhaps a cup of coffee?: How do you like that! Now he wants some coffee! How can you expect a former seaman, now a mere commoner, to have such a rare foreign beverage? Only the nobles and the rich money-lenders can afford to frink it. As for a job... We've got trouble large and small around here. Maybe there's something you can help us with?: Alright, tell me about your small trouble. I'm not ready for anything too serious yet. I wanted to show off that we can almost always refuse side-quests, usually by being incredibly rude and condescending towards them. But if you aren't doing sidequests, why are you playing an RPG-style game? We agree to go talk to the king.  But you know, we could take care of these fish another way...  Devilfish have decent speed, high initiative, do good damage, and can inflict Fear on targets they bite. On top of that, they are mildly resistant to fire. But...not immune, and so not a threat in these numbers at least.   Unfortunately, we can't complete the quest just by murdering fish by the dozen.  Also inhabiting the beach is a majestic Griffin. Let's kill it.  Griffins are fast, flying units that can retaliate multiple times per round. They have enough defense and hitpoints that my units would get hurt, especially if they are Blessed like this.  So I think some roast Griffin is in order.   Beaches are great places for buried treasure, make sure you hunt carefully. This chest just had some gold. We head to the King to talk about the fishing edict.  : So, did you visit my brother Carl? I mean, you can't have been ignoring my orders and doing anything but, could you?: Uhhh...uhhh, about that...: I came to tell you about an issue with your edict on fishing.: Hmmm. It seems to me that by royal decree we have appointed you Treasure Searcher - not fisherman. Why then are you talking about fishing?: It's not that I myself have a concern regarding fishing. But you see, Your Majesty, your decree has forbidden the catching of certain sea creatures beyond a strictly-defined limit. For this reason, the fishermen cannot fish the "devilfish" - huge fish which are quickly multiplying and overtaking the waters. These fishes are both dangerous and predatory, and your royal fishing waters are falling into chaos.: I see you have a kind heart, and care for our people and the land. That is good, Bill Gilbert. Just so you know, we didn't have such fish in our waters before, oh - well that's something we can discuss later. In any case, we must hire some mages to check what kind of fish this is, and why it has appeared in our waters in such quantity. Meanwhile, you may convey to the fisherman my permission to fish without restrictions, for the next three years!: Thank you, I will go directly - and I am sure the fisherman will be delighted.We also talk to the Magic School: : I saw a strange speaking stone in the forest...: Speaking! And what did it say?: It said that one of the school's students tried to enchant it, to transform it into something unusual. But he didn't entirely succeed, and so the stone is till a common stone.: Didn't succeed? Well, Bill Gilbert, wouldn't you say that a talking stone itself is rather an unusual thing? Well at any rate, in the case of a partial magic transformation, you simply need to finish the conjuration. Then the object - in our case, a stone - will become whatever the original conjuration's author intended it to become.: And do you know how to finish the conjuration?: Interesting... A speaking stone... I'd like to talk to the student who cast such a spell. The school's top minds have wrestled with the conjuration and animation of natural elements for scores of years... Hmm, you might try the universal Zerillon's formula - "ut umus lemo canis"... Maybe it will work.: Thank you, I'll try it.Back down to the stone and beach. : Yooou... Muuust knooow? Hooow to tuuurn into somethiiing but the stooone?: Yes. I know the magic words... "Ut umus lemo canis".  : Ummm...did I just..kill the stone? I mean, it was sentient and all. I'm feeling a bit guilty... : Never mind, worth it!Onward to the beach. : Well met, Bill Gilbert! So, have you talked to the king?: Yes, I've just seen him... Our good King Mark the Wise has lifted the edict, and permits you to fish without restriction, for the next three years!: That's great news, Bill Gilbert! We'll fill our nets with those horrible creatures. From all the village, thank you! (Reward: 960 Gold, 30 Experience): Glad I could be of service. Is there anything else I can help with?: Alright young man, I'll tell you about my trouble. My passion for wine and gambling have got the better of me. You see, I diced away all my money to one of Rotten Hake's cutthroats, Beardless Joe. I even had to give him my fishing tackle. But without the gear, I can't fish, and so my family will soon starve... I've already offered him more than enough money to buy it back, and I'm more than willing to work off my debts. but he just laughs in my face and says he's keeping my fishing tackle as a memento, and won't trade it back to me for any price. Would you help me? Find Beardless Joe, bring him to reason, and return my tackle to me. I will pay you generously for the job. (Reward: 1200 Gold, 60 Experience): Deal, I'll talk to Beardless Joe about your tackle as soon as I find him. Good luck in the meantime.Ignoring the fact of someone who is apparently dead broke having 1200 gold to pay us with, we find our prey right near the local lighthouse.  Beardless...right...  : Who're you? What do you want from me? Get our of here while you're still in one piece!: Give me the tackle, you oaf! Fancy that, he thought he was going to frighten me...: What tackle are you talking about, buddy? I don't know nothing about no tackle...: You've insulted my friend, taking his fishing tackle away from Kitano. And because he's my friend, I'm going to tear your mouth to shreds with his hooks, then pluck out your eyes. You'll be going to sorceresses for the rest of your short, miserable life! (Goddamn Bill, calm down!): Well, now, old chap! Do you really mean to threaten me? You'd better not do that...you know... Otherwise, I can... you know...: Don't try to frighten me, I'm Viscount Bill Gilbert; I won't stand for threats from a petty thief. If you don't want this to play out nice and friendly, we'll do it in a less pleasant way!   Beardless Joe puts up very little fight. We finish off the last of his Robbers with a Smashing Blow from our Swordsman.  We grab the tackle, and presumably carry out our threats to mutilate Joe, because he is never seen again. : Hi Bill Gilbert! I'm still waiting for you to bring me my tackle. I hear Joe planned to visit the lighthouse keeper. You can try to track him down there...: I know, I know. That's exactly where I found him, at the lighthouse. Here's your tackle.: And what about Beardless Joe? I hope he's not going to come bothering me again.: Don't worry about him. He's gone to join his ancestors: See, I didn't torture him as I threatened...just murdered him: Well, it serves him right. I'm just sorry I didn't kill hm myself. I could have caught him coming out of the tavern and beaten him with an oar... Sorry, I must have been daydreaming... what was I talking about? Ah yes, good job Bill Gilbert! Here's your reward! (Reward: 1200 Gold, 60 Experience): We'll have time to talk later. Goodbye! The quest experience pushes us to a new level. Since we chose Leadership last level, it's not on offer now. I go with Intellect, of course.  Here's Bill after leveling up. I go ahead and spend our hordes of runes: I pick up Chaos Magic 1 at last (so we can learn Chaos spells), and I pick up the first level of Glory. Glory 1 gives us +100 Leadership. Not really worth it, but its best to take it early if you want to go further down the Mind tree (which I do). We have enough runes to buy other skills, but I want to save up for Chaos Magic 2. Sorry for the extra long update, but I will be away for the weekend, and I wanted to get through a good chunk of material. Next time on King's Bounty, we will at last continue the King's quest, and visit the neighboring region of Arlania. ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Learning Lore Yet another addition to the bonus section. This section will show off the dialogue and conversations that do lore-building in King's Bounty, to avoid text-dumping in the main updates. Today, we will chat with Elerio about the Magic School and some history. : I'd like to know more about the Magic School.: Darion Magic School was founded by the former mage-lecturer of the Academy, Archmage Goyen Waldi, better known as Waldares the Winged. Together with two of his former students he bought a half-ruined house on the city outskirts and began to teach basic magic to the children there talented enough to learn. Decades passed, and a modest school turned into what you see now - Darion Magic School, where scores of the greatest sorcerers teach young mages who come not only from Darion, but from all across the world. We even have two elves studying here!Here we teach reading and writing, literature and languages, history and philosophy, herbalism, astronomy and, of course, magic. Nearly thirty theoretical and practical courses are available - from spell design to battle magic basics. And starting from this year we introduced a couple of courses that even the central Magic Academy doesn't offer! : What about a lost town? (This seeming non-sequitur is related to a quest he gives us): There is a myth, a legend, of a time long past. At school you must remember studying an epoch known as the Necromancers' Rebellion? As you will recall, all the necromancers were either eliminated or banished to the Land of Death, and all their horrible black towers and towns were burnt to the ground with sacred fire.But there is one town, a legend about a town I should say, which escaped the inquisition and King Vilor's retribution. With the help of a bloody ceremony - bloody as all the other rites of necromancers - the black art mages managed to conceal the entire town from the eyes of their enemies. And so it disappeared as if it had never existed. But we know for sure that the town was neither destroyed nor taken into the other world. At least not taken entirely... In other words, there was once a town and now there's not. But the curious thing remains that sometimes quite strange individuals and other things appear from nowhere and disappear in the same way. Some of our mages are sure that this town still exists and one could even pass into it! And with the help of the Chronicles we wish to learn how necromancers managed to transport the town to... well, there, where it is now. : Why did the Mages quarrel with the Witches Coven?: It's an old story. As a young student, I was preparing my final report before graduation. And I asked a good friend of mine, Chvakha, a young and quite, ah, promising witch for a bit of help. A month later, she had prepared not just a report, but a groundbreaking scientific treatise, with great number of examples and rare specimens. But alas, on the day of the presentation, all these priceless records transformed into a set of stupid and abominable witch's recipes! And to top it all off, a terrible stench arose from out of the papers, which made the whole Council sick, and caused hallucinations! Needless to say, after that, all contact with witches was broken off...Marking the Map  Rotten Hake's is in the cloud covered north-west, where our path was blocked by Thorns galore. The menagerie is off the path to the beach, with the path north of that where we found the bear. The talking stone was west at that intersection instead. And of course, our fishing and murder adventures took us to the beach in the north. Talkin' 'bout Troops Today we will look at some of Endoria's wild forest animals. Bear  Resistances: -10% Fire Critical Hit %: 20 Defense Bonus: 4 Talents  Running: The troop receives additional 2 Action Points to rush to the enemy. Charges: 1.Abilities Critical Attack: Chance to make a Critical Hit is very high. Brutality: When the bear takes damage, his Attack doubles until the end of the turn. Hibernation: The creature can fall asleep from inactivity. Wakes up when it is attacked. While sleeping, the creature can recover its health. Gully's opinion: Bears are solid melee units for the early to mid game. They are fairly sturdy units. Their attack/damage might seem a bit low for their Leadership, but their Abilities help out greatly. High critical chance, and 2x Attack if they've been hit that round makes them far better than it seems, and makes for great retaliation damage. Mobility-wise, the Bear is slow, but the Running talent gives it 4 speed for one turn, allowing it to dash into combat. Watch out for Hibernation though, never end a Bear's turn early, otherwise it will miss its whole next turn. Fighting them: Avoid melee if possible. Ranged units can hurt them, and they have a slight vulnerability to fire. They are also great targets for slow, because they'll be moving 1 hex a turn after their run is used up. Ancient Bear  Resistances: 10% Physical, -10% Fire Critical Hit %: 30 Defense Bonus: 3 Talents RunningAbilities Critical Attack Brutality Hibernation Gully's opinion: It's a Bear, but way better. +1 Initiative, +10 HP, +4 Defense/Attack, +10% Phys resist, and +2 Damage all for just 10 more Leadership. Above all, it gets a whopping 30% Crit rate, tied for highest in the game. They can deal huge amounts of damage with criticals while under the effects of Brutality, and the additional HP/Phys Resist makes them quite beefy indeed. If I use a stack of Bears, it will probably be Ancient Bears. Fighting them: Same as bears, just be more cautious about them getting to attack. Wolf  Resistances: -10% Fire Critical Hit %: 15 Defense Bonus: 1 Talents  Wolf Cry: Makes a long, horrible howl, which makes humans, elves and dwarves of 1-2 level frightened, forcing them to skip the turn with probability of 50%. Charges: 1.Abilities Night Sight: Attack during nighttime and underground combat is increased by 50%. Frenzy: The creature has 20% chance to infect the enemy with "Frenzy" during an attack LP note: Frenzied creatures are removed from control of the player, and will attack the nearest troop friend or foe. Gully's opinion: I've never used Wolves. They have decent attack characteristics and speed, and high initiative. But they are quite fragile, with only 15 HP at 30 Leadership. Swordsmen are more than twice as beefy, as strong on the attack, and same speed, so I prefer them. The Wolf Cry is great when it works, and isn't bad if they have large amounts of Bowmen/Swordsmen or other human troops. Many things are immune to it though. Fighting them: Unless you go first, they will almost certainly use Wolf Cry. Make sure you have at least one unit immune to it. Beyond that, they are very fragile. Spells and ranged attacks will hurt them badly. Spells Seen Stoneskin  Target's skin turns to stone, providing defense and resistance from physical damage, but it reduces target's initiative as well. Crystal Cost: 1 / 2 / 4 Mana Cost: 3 / 5 / 7 Level 1 Defense and Resistance: +20%; Initiative: -1; Duration: 3 turns Level 2: Defense and Resistance: +30%; Initiative: -1; Duration: 4 turns Level 3: Defense and Resistance: +40%; Initiative: -1; Duration: 5 turns Gully's opinion: Fantastic at keeping things alive. The Phys Resist stacks additively with existing Physical Resist (up to 80% maximum), so tough units become nearly uncrackable. Combined with Teleport or Target, you can make the enemy waste lots of attacks on your tank while you hit them with other units. One of the best spells for Warriors. Skills Shown Chaos Magic Magic, Tier 2 This skill allows the hero to learn and upgrade Chaos Magic spells. Prerequisites: Distortion Magic, Concentration  Level 1: Chaos spells can be learned from scrolls. Cost: 2/0/6 Level 2: Chaos spells can be upgraded to level 2. Cost: 4/0/8 Level 3: Chaos spells can be upgraded to level 3. Cost: 6/0/12Gully's opinion: Chaos Magic contains many of the direct damage spells, but also a number of debuffs to weaken enemies. It has a few summoning spells, and also contains the Sacrifice spell which lets you transfer health between units and is one of the only ways to rebuild units that you've run out of recruits for. Chaos Magic is really only useful for Mages, and I tend to only get level 1 for the other classes. Glory Mind, Tier 1 Everyone wants to fight under the banner of the famous hero. This increases the hero's Leadership. Prerequisites: None  Level 1: Leadership +100. Cost: 2/5/0 Level 2: Leadership +250. Cost: 3/6/0 Level 3: Leadership +500. Cost: 4/7/0Gully's opinion: This skill basically sucks. Since its a flat bonus, it quickly gets outclassed by other sources (by the end game, even 500 Leadership might be around 2-3% of your total). However, if you want to go down that branch of the Mind tree, get Level 1 early when it is most effective. I wouldn't get any more unless you are near the end game and have nothing better to spend it on. Items Identified Bearka  Description: A flower with a sharp smell which attracts bears. Type: Quest Info: It's known that bears love to dig up and chew the roots of the Bearka. Its sharp smell and sweet taste intoxicate bears, making them playful and good-natured. Fishing Tackle  Description: It's ordinary fishing tackle. Type: Quest Info: This fishing gear has not been used for a long time.
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Jul 28, 2016 02:01
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I'm glad I'm not alone in my love of Royal Snakes. My first game had a stockpile of 500 or so at the Menagerie. It took me through most of the game. I never found a spawner for them in any of my other games though. 
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Jul 28, 2016 12:03
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Slaan posted:I'm glad I'm not alone in my love of Royal Snakes. My first game had a stockpile of 500 or so at the Menagerie. It took me through most of the game. I never found a spawner for them in any of my other games though. Same here, but my 2nd game for me. Royal snakes are amazing (other snakes are good too though if you have the gear to boost them). Amazing that a freaking snake could be a unit that you could possibly take to end game.
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Jul 28, 2016 12:05
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Slaan posted:I'm glad I'm not alone in my love of Royal Snakes. My first game had a stockpile of 500 or so at the Menagerie. It took me through most of the game. I never found a spawner for them in any of my other games though. Usually (and I'm really hoping this game too) you can get significant numbers of Royal Snakes on offer in a couple of the Marshan Swamp castles, after you do certain quests. There is another place that I believe is a guaranteed spawner, but it doesn't come with the numbers to last the whole game. Part of the fun of this game, though, is that you can't always count on the same units being around in the same quantity (except for most of the Human ones). I'm also going to try to shake up my composition a little more than I usually do, to show off more troop combinations. So I probably will try rotating Royal Snakes out once in awhile even if I have thousands available. In a normal game, though, Royal Snakes stay in my army right through to the end if I can swing the numbers.
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Jul 28, 2016 14:46
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Royal snakes are pretty sweet. Fast, strong and good abilities. Quite a solid unit.  Please show a gif of snakes attacking each other if you have the opportunity. It's great, especially if there's a retaliation strike too.
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Jul 28, 2016 15:17
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One of this game's eccentricities is the ability to use random-rear end quest items for equally random-rear end effects. For example, here's what happens if we were to use those bear-taming herbs we got a while back: This actually increases your max Rage by 2, which is pretty good! Here's what happens if you use that princess doll from the first update.   This game's incredibly stupid Elvish writing is one of my favourite things about it. We'll be seeing a bit more of it if we make it all the way to Dark Side. Doopliss fucked around with this message at 15:53 on Jul 28, 2016 |
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Jul 28, 2016 15:35
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Doopliss posted:One of this game's eccentricities is the ability to use random-rear end quest items for equally random-rear end effects. For example, here's what happens if we were to use those bear-taming herbs we got a while back: Oh wow, I had no idea you could use those at all - tempting to go back to get that +2 Rage (I won't, it's part of the fun). I'll keep an eye out for using Quest items in the future though.
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Jul 28, 2016 16:31
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Ancient bears are amazing, being more than a match for swordsman and in the sequel where you can get morale for animals, a decent melee choice for elves. I like royal snakes but not as much as I like one of the neutrals in the sequel. Gully Foyle posted:Oh wow, I had no idea you could use those at all - tempting to go back to get that +2 Rage (I won't, it's part of the fun). I'll keep an eye out for using Quest items in the future though. Go wild and use all the items you get your hands on. If you don't like the effect well...you did make a save beforehand, right?
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Jul 28, 2016 19:11
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Interacting with quest coupons is pretty fun, yeah.
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Aug 1, 2016 01:15
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Doopliss posted:
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Aug 1, 2016 06:43
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Not much to explain, really - it's just some Swedish Chef-tier quasi-English. Near as I can tell, the joke goes something like: -Ele'cri has a crush on D'sai. Not really any other way to interpret "loverra" given the "smutty" description and the other lines. -Ele'cri confesses their love to D'sai. Or maybe propositions D'sai. I can't get anything out of this line at all on its own. -D'sai shoots Ele'cri down mercilessly. The repeated questions, vaguely-negative "Nori" and exclamation point suggest a "Me? Date you?" kind of format to me. I read it as a really uninspired joke, but frankly that just makes me like it more. As we'll be seeing later, the elves in this setting are kinda dumb. Doopliss fucked around with this message at 14:38 on Aug 1, 2016 |
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Aug 1, 2016 14:31
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Doopliss posted:As we'll be seeing later, the elves in this setting are kinda dumb.
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Aug 1, 2016 16:22
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Argh, you didn't show in Update 5 what happens if you go to the King (after the initial tests) decked out in the Training Sword, the Cart Wheel *and* the Clay Bowl. I love this game probably too much. And seconding the love for Royal Snakes.
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Aug 5, 2016 18:59
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meristem posted:Argh, you didn't show in Update 5 what happens if you go to the King (after the initial tests) decked out in the Training Sword, the Cart Wheel *and* the Clay Bowl. Haha, I didn't know there was something for that. I'll go load an old save and check it out, and put it in the next update as a bonus. It appears there's still a lot in this game to see that I didn't know about at all, so I'm glad people are letting me in on things I missed. Keep it coming! Next update should be up either tonight or tomorrow morning. Sorry for the delay, it's been a busy week.
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Aug 5, 2016 19:27
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Update 8 - Postman Bill and Dragon Dentistry: So, did you visit my brother Carl? You do know I can have you executed for insubordination, right? Last time(s) on King's Bounty, we studiously ignored the King's request for us to deliver a replica Royal seal to his brother Carl. Having cleared out much of the immediate region, Bill has a bit of time to spare for his actual job now. : May I clarify, where exactly can I find Carl?: To the east of Darion, in Arlania. He lives in the observatory at the top of a hill. He doesn't leave his tower, either day or night, as he studies the tractates of the great geographers. It's easy to find him - just gallop along the main road to the bridge which leads north, near the mill. Take the bridge, then bear right just after, and proceed into the hills. You will recognize his tower at once.I wanted to show off the kind of dialogue you get when you have an active quest with a character. If for some reason the quest log isn't good enough, NPCs will give you very specific directions. Considering the small size of the region maps in this game, it's almost an excessive amount of detail. But its there if you need it.  For some odd reason (cough, side-quest, cough), Bill Gilbert feels a real need to talk to this dwarf near the balloon now.  : Yes I'm impressed...So, what is it? It looks like a boat with a balloon attached, but...it seems to be hanging in the air. What kind of magic holds it up? : Eh, by the sound of it, you've never been out of Darion. Otherwise you'd know about dwarven machines! This flying boat is called a "dirigible." It's a dwarven invention for traveling through the air...Pure science and no magic! It's just this balloon that holds it in the air. So you, stranger, would you like to take a ride on such a thing?: My name is Bill Gilbert. But I don't know...it's a bit frightening.: Bill Gilbert? So! You are our royal Treasure Searcher? Wonderful! Me and your predecessor de Virre traveled a lot around the world a long time ago... My name is Tregum... I'm the pilot and service technician of that thing there. Basically, I watch over the dirigible to keep it in good order. Well, Bill Gilbert, I'm glad we've got acquainted. I knew you were my man from the moment I caught sight of you! You see how you got interested in the dirigible!: Look, it seems like it would be nice to fly over the forests and mountains in a thing like that! Maybe some day you will show me what Darion looks like from the dirigible...from above, you know?: Sorry, but that's not going to work out...not right now anyhow. After Kordar and Darion started their war, there's no way to find spare parts. So this aircraft stays in the air only thanks to a prayer and my leather belt, which I used to fix the elevators. Maybe it'll go for a few miles but after that ... Ehh...: Well, I don't want "Ehh" to happen. But don't worry, we will take your machine up sometime, be sure of that!: I can hardly wait! you probably don't understand my excitement - probably you've never flown before. Do you know what it is like to fly in the clouds like a bird?: You know, Tregum, you are the first dwarf that I've met that enjoys the sky so much! But to tell you the truth, in fact, you're the first dwarf I've ever spoken to. Anyway, see you later!One later later : I wanted to ask...maybe I can help you, with spare parts or so? Where can I get them?: Hmm... You want to help... Maybe you can. I think your help might come in handy.: What happened?: Look, here's the thing... One of the last dirigibles that was flying here from Kordar didn't make it. It barely reached the coasts of Arlania when it crashed. I don't know what could have happened to it... Please, find the crashed dirigible and bring me its Black Box. I expect it will be easy to find - it looks like a big black box. It couldn't have been destroyed, that's for sure. (Reward: 2700 Gold, 110 Experience).: Ok, when I get there, I'll certainly find it. Where did you say it had fallen?: It crashed in Arlania, somewhere to the east of here.: Why, what a coincidence that I happened to get this quest when I was on my way to Arlania anyway!: Ok. If I find it, I'll certainly bring you that box.When I normally play these games, I usually just stock up all the quests you can get from the nearby NPCs. In the LP, though, I'm trying to make it a bit more coherent story by mostly keeping sidequest dialogue to the relevant update - as much as I can, at least.  Passing through the glowing curtain that represents the border to Arlania, Bill gets his first glimpse of a new region. His attention is immediately drawn to this magical barrier.  : Magic Range? That sounds right up my alley. Are we talking Fireball target practice? Pin the Tail on the donkey with a Flaming Arrow? Ring toss?: Yes, of course! : It is a special place which adjusts to the magic potential of the testee, and subjects him the attacks of different creatures. One cannot leave the Range until the test is passed. Unless you are a graduate of the Academy, you must pay 5000 gold coins to receive the right to pass the test. After you enter the Range, please remember that it will let you out only after you activate all three altars: Order, Distortion, and Chaos. (Reward: Scroll 'Fit of Energy', 4000 Gold, 2 Magic Runes, 300 Experience): So in other words, I pay money and see if I can live through the test? So no ring toss?: No, that is not all. Anyone who has paid 5000 gold coins can enter, but the Range is designed for testing mages, and if you are not a mage - or don't have magic talent - the Range will try to kill you and your army will have a more difficult time. Please consider this also. [You will lose part of your army, if you are not a mage, or your Intellect is below 15!]: Yes, of course!: Come in, the Range is open to you.: Thank you. The barrier turns green, and we are able to enter...but absolutely should not under any circumstance (not yet). See, even though we are a Mage, the Range is higher-level content. Waiting in the center of the Range is this impossible strength enemy, and we would need to fight it and 3 more armies of similar strength to get out. We would lose, and badly.  Turning away from the Range, we find the castle of the region.  The Castle Netvill is the home of Earl Argus. We'll talk to him later. No new spells for sale, and the Spear, though an improvement over our Training Sword, is not worth the cost for us. Of interest to us, though, are the Ancient Bears for sale. With three other ranged units, our Archmages becoming pretty weak in our army, and we could use a tougher melee unit.  I talked about Ancient Bears last update, but they are slow, tough units with strong melee attack and high critical chance. Ideal to protect our ranged units. So I leave the Archmages chilling in the castle garrison and hire these Bears.  With bears added, Bill takes his army along the south side of this stream.  On this side, we find this stump full of gold, a wishing well, and some bears.  Time for some hot bear-on-bear action.  Bears (and other 2-move units) are the best targets for Ice Arrows and other slow effects. Even with the Running Talent, these Bears are basically stopped, which gives us plenty of time to reach any chests around.   With the bear guard gone, we throw a crystal in the well. This time, we are rewarded with some Haste scrolls.  Nearby is a fine establishment called the Dragon Tooth. Let's take in some refreshments.  : Well, I wouldn't mind having a rest and a little snack. And maybe you have some goods for sale? This inn is a quite the wretched hive of scum and villainy, with a horde of Marauders and Pirates for hire.  Not that we have any moral judgement on all that. We replace our Swordsmen with these Marauders. The Marauders are more offensive-focused than the Swordsmen, giving up some tankiness for an interesting couple of Talents. And there is one Talent that makes these guys good to hire for a little while at least. Beware, though, they do lower the morale of Human units Level 1-2 in your army. Right now, that's not a big deal. : Thank you for the hospitality. Maybe you could even amuse this weary traveler. Tell some story... : Story? Sure, I have one story - and a request at the same time.: Ok, tell me!: I can tell you the history of my tavern, the "Dragon Tooth." The name of the tavern was given by my great-great-grandfather, who managed to get a real dragon tooth. He befriended a dragon named Drahha, and had arranged with him a little trade. My grandpa brought for him some discarded armor, and in exchange for them, Drahha gave him the teeth which he had shed. We kept up the trade for several centuries: old armor in exchange for his discarded teeth.: Good story. What about that request?: Well... The business of the tavern has been slacking off recently, and I have to do something. I've decided to rename the tavern. I want to name it - the "Dragon Fang"! I'm sure this is a great idea, but I can't just rename my tavern. Here inside the tavern, in plain view, we display the real Dragon Tooth. But really it needs to be a fang, if we're to call the tavern the "Fang." Otherwise or visitors won't be impressed. (Reward: 1600 Gold, 77 Experience).: What's the problem? You are friends with the dragon. Ask him for a fang.: No, it's not that easy. A fang is not a regular tooth and armor can't help here. I visited the dragon a long time ago. There were some problems with the tavern. You have to go to the dragon and find out how I can get one of his fangs. What will he want in exchange? Well, that's my request. Will you do it?: To the dragon? With great pleasure. Dealing with dragons is my kind of work. As we leave the inn, we get a chance to see why we got the Marauders.  The Marauders have the Search Talent. This gives them the ability to look through corpses for gold. I have no idea what the formula for the amount found is. In this update, it ranged between 280 and 1500 gold.  The Talent has 2 charges, so it's worthwhile leaving the last few enemies alive while grabbing as much gold as possible.  We might get a couple more casualties because of this, but we also get 3x as much gold from the Marauders as from the victory itself. A cool 1-2K gold extra per battle is pretty nice right now.  We start exploring the nearby side-paths. This one leads up a hill where we can see another obelisk in the distance. Some Bowmen stand in our way.  Not for long though.   Along the path is a scroll-bag. Much like the individual scrolls, except you get multiple copies. Unfortunately, you can never find multiple spells in these. This one had three scrolls of Healing, which will be converted to gold eventually.  The Obelisk describes the nearby Griffin Island. As the obelisk implies, Griffins are intelligent and may prove good allies to have.  Back down near the castle, we can clear out the other side of the stream.  We have our first battle with an Inquisitor. Inquisitors are upgraded priests, replacing their Heal Talent with a Resurrection Talent, and their Bless Talent with a Holy Anger talent. I love using them. But like Priests, they aren't much of a threat as an enemy.  Here we see the offensive Talent of Marauders, the Biting Strike. This lets them strike across a hex, with no retaliation allowed. This is fantastic, as it both increases survivability and offensive range of the unit. They can use this Talent every other turn (one of the reasons Snakes are awesome is because they get this ability, only better).  As the numbers grow, lossless victories become harder to achieve, since we won't always be able to kill their ranged units before they strike.  But Fireballs are still very effective against groups of Bowmen and Thorns.  Exploring further, we find a pond infested with dragonflies.  And wolves, naturally. Another annoyance of the Wolf Cry is that we won't be able to Search for extra gold.  Death to wolves!  In the pond, dragonflies have used the trees to hang their egg sacs from them.  Who wants to carry a giant sac full of insects with them? Bill Gilbert does! Dragonfly Eggs, like the Thorn Sprouts, are creature containers. One guess as to what they hold. These will also likely never get used.    Though disappointed by a stump, Bill manages to find the observatory where Carl is hanging out.  : Hello, Your Highness. Yes, your brother sent me. Don't call me "Your Highness." My name is Carl Leonar, and I'm just an ordinary scientist, though I may have royal blood. I forswore those privileges long ago. So, does my brother afford me what I asked?: His Majesty sent me to deliver this spare Royal Seal. Also, he asked me to inquire what you might need it for... Wonderful! 'Tis a perfect replica. And I understand his concern. You see, I had written to my brother in rather a fit of despair. I have been lonely for a long time, for I had never met a woman worthy enough to inspire my love. But recently, I found a scientific manuscript in which it is argued that there is a microcosm inside the existing world. The fascinating idea was well presented and developed by the author, and confirmed by a number of experiments carried out upon frogs. And no less amazing than the manuscript's deep sense was the handwriting and signature: Martha di Gonda. A woman had written it!: A remarkable woman, surely... Yes! That was what I thought as well! Hardly had I read it, but I understood that only such an intelligent woman could be a worthy wife! Having found out where she lived, I sent her a love letter, indeed a heap of letters, along with a proposal. But I received an answer - that she would marry only a man of royal blood, that this was somehow predestined for her. This is why I wrote to my brother, begging to borrow the Royal Seal. I shall imprint my letters to my love with the royal seal, to mark of my royal ancestry.: Can I help you? With Martha I mean? Your offer is quite timely! Indeed, I think I will need a bit of help...: Of course I'm ready to help. So, what kind of help do you need? As we finish listening to Carl's request for a postman (shouldn't the kingdom hire an actual postman?), we look out over to the nearby valley. A crashed dirigible lays in wreckage. Presumably this is the vessel Tregum told us to find.  The path is guarded. Just some cyclops. 'Slightly stronger' doesn't sound too bad, does it?  Just 2 of them? Aww, this should be a walk in the park...  Wait...that's a lot less damage than usual...I guess their defense is a tad higher than we are used to.  Let's try using the Helplessness spell. This Order spell lowers the defense of the target, in this case by 30%.  OK, that was less than impressive. Helplessness is...kind of lovely? Especially for a mage, it will be a long, long time before you will do less damage with a spell than by lowering their Defense. And there are nearly always better non-direct damage options. By the way, Cyclops have 520 Health. Our units are going to be in for a real struggle here.   The Cyclops attack by chucking huge boulders. And it hurts a ton. That's 4 Bowmen down from a single shot...from 1 cyclops.  They are even resistant to fire, but this is still by far our main way of hurting them.  By the start of the fourth turn, our army is hurting. The Bowmen are nearly gone, and the Marauders, Priests, and Thorns are suffering.  We finally take the first one down to rubble.  By turn 7, our Marauders are nearly extinct.  A combination of Fireballs, Flaming Arrows, and the attacks of our entire army grind the second monster into dust.  This is a Pyrrhic victory at best. A full 75% of the army lies dead, including all of the Bears. If we weren't a mage, we could not have survived this yet. But the path now lies open to the blimp.   Searching the wreckage, we find the mysterious Black Box.  Several thousand gold later, we've refilled our depleted ranks. We still need to find the dragon for it's fang.   Exploring the woods, Bill finds a friendly group of Peasants. Friendly groups (indicated by green orbs on the mini-map) will offer to join you. I don't think I've ever found quality troops this way...usually it is Peasants or something similary useless.  The battle with these guards is unremarkeable except for:  Ouch. One of the downsides to using Thorns is that vulnerability to Fire damage. Now, most normal armies don't have any unless it is a Hero army, but I sort of forgot that these Fire Dragonflies do, you know, Fire damage.  Ouch. It's not that these losses are that expensive, its just annoying to replace.  Near a stump that is hiding some much needed gold, Bill runs into a hostile group of Griffins.  This is a lot more than the 2 we ran into on the beach last update. Well, 3 stacks isn't too bad. Wait, what the...  : Oh god, I think I'm going to be sick... did that Griffin just undergo mitosis?Griffins have the Split Talent, which lets them divide their stack in half once a battle. If I'm the one using the griffins, I rarely do this. Concentration of force is usually the better choice. But the AI will almost always do it (just like it will basically always use the Running Talent immediately).  By the end of the turn, the splitting and speed mean that our army is stuck in quite the...pack? flock? pride? of Griffins (any idea what the collective noun for Griffins would be?). One of the benefits of using Split is that it lets you surround ranged units, and it prevents me from using Fireball without hurting my own guys.  Good thing I've got Flaming Arrow instead.  Whoops, sorry dudes, that Fireball missed, I swear.  One last Flaming Arrow, and the battle is won.  Not the cleanest win, but it does the job.  The Griffin was guarding quite a horde, a total of 7 Magic Crystals (2 inside the chest), and a nearby Mind Rune.  To the south of the Griffins we find the blue dragon that Drin asked us to find.  : Dear Drahha! Let me speak to you! : What? Who is there?: It's me, Bill Gilbert! I came to you at the request of Drin, the owner of a tavern that's named after you.: Drin? Who is Drin? I don't remember him.: Innkeeper Drin. His great-great-grandfather brought you armors in exchange for your teeth.: Hey! I remember! So what do you want? I don't see any more armor than the suit you are wearing. Hey, I know! He's begun to send me food! I can't believe it! And the food is packed in armor.: I'm not food! He wants to ask you for a fang.: Fang? Well that's much more difficult, you see. It's not like a tooth! Teeth come out every 50 years, but fangs are much stronger and come out very rarely. However, your Darin is in luck. Just recently, one of my fangs has begun to ache and has even came loose. If you help me pull it out, I'll give the fang to you. You must strike it hard.: Ok, that's easy.: Ready! When you're ready, shout.: You shout... Ready! Punching dragons in the face, does it get any better than this? Returning to Drin with the Fang: : Well, have you met the dragon?: Yes! Here it is, take the Fang!: Great! Just wonderful! Now, I'll rename my tavern "Dragon Fang" and everything will be ok. Thank you. (Reward: 1600 Gold, 77 Experience): You are welcome! It was a pleasure! Got to punch a dragon right in the face, I'd have done it for free!Back in Greenwort, we return the Black Box (I made sure we can't use it as item, as I was informed we could have for certain other quest items). : Hi, Bill Gilbert. Did you find the fallen dirigible yet?: Yes, I found the debris and your box. Here it is. Do you know what's inside of it? It's so heavy... And it gurgles!: You ask me why it's gurgling? Aviation beer, of course, the best beer in the whole of Endoria! This beer is brewed specially for us pilots, and is packed in strong Black Boxes. We dwarves are not used to flight - it makes us sicker than the sea. But if you drink a glass of beer, the ship is being tossed to one side while you're swaying to another side, the ship is on the left - and you're already leaning to the right. So you don't even notice the tossing. Thank you! (Reward: 2700 Gold, 110 Experience): Beer? Beer? 20 good men gave their lives for that, not to mention those poor bears!: Hmm, you dwarves are strange people... Ok, I'll drop in sometime to share a glass of beer with you.And finally, we return to the King with news of success! : So, did you visit my brother Carl? He asked again, expecting the answer no: Yes, I found your brother, Your Majesty.: Oh, you delivered the seal? Fine then. So what did my learned brother need it for?: Yes, I've given him the copy of the Seal. You see, Your Majesty... Your brother wishes to marry, but his darling will only agree to marry a member of the royal family. So he asked for the seal to make an impression upon his next letter, which is to contain a marriage proposal.: To marry! Carl! Fancy that - finally there's a woman who has won my brother's heart. And here I thought he cared for nothing but science... Excellent news! Thank you most kindly, Bill Gilbert..: Yes, my king, this is really good news.: Hard times for Darion have come, Bill Gilbert. Difficult trials are just ahead. We will need a fierce weapon able of putting enemy armies to flight - and we have one! Go to the Magic Academy in Verlon Forest. Trigius will give you an item which is called the Chest of Rage.: Sounds great. I'll go at once and deliver this chest to you!For once, Bill is not lying. We want to do this quest as early as possible. Next update, we will visit the Magic Academy, and find out what this mysterious secret weapon is.  In the meantime, here is a look at our character. We used some of the gold we earned to buy the Chieftain's Belt from the capital. This Belt gives us +100 Leadership, and gives +5 Attack for Robbers and Pirates (including our Marauders). With that last Mind rune the Griffins were guarding, we also got enough to buy the Learning skill. This skill gives us bonus experience (+10% Experience at Level 1). Very useful to get this early. ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Learning Lore This time, we will see the bonus conversation material for Tregum, the Dragon Drahha, and one Easter egg I missed earlier. Tregum: : Hello, Bill Gilbert. You came to have another look at this fine flying machine? Don't you mind that the balloon is patched all over and the fasteners are rusty; it'll still fly at least ten more years.: I'd like to ask you some questions...: Oh, please ask me, ask me... Cause I'm standing here all alone, no one to talk to, no one to play cards with. I am so bored that I've polished all the iron parts five times.: What's going on with the parts? - Have you already fixed your dejetable?: Hey, you got a vegetable in your helmet? It's a "dirigible." Anyway, what I'm telling you is that at the moment it's impossible to get spare parts. Look, let's play some cards, eh? Anyway, we don't have to play for money - we can play for fillips. But get that vegetable out of your helmet first, eh?: Cards? In the Knight's School, if they caught us gaming, we were made to run fifty laps with a bag of wheat on our shoulders...I don't want to play cards, sorry...: It was only a suggestion. It's your choice whether you want to or not... So, as you wish. Anyway, knight what were you going to ask?: I don't have any more time for talk. See you later, Tregum...Drahha : What else do you want? Do you want me to clean my teeth with your armor?: No, no. I'd like to ask you - why do you live here, not with other dragons?: Well, you see... There are different kinds of dragons: emerald green, black, red. And now look at me: blue ear, blue belly... They say that I'm not like them, I'm a monster. You humans are the same way; you can't stand people different from you. It's much the same with dragons. That's why I had to leave my relatives.: Well... Are there other dragons like you?: I don't know, I've never met one.: Awkward silence ensues.... Well, I have to go! Good luck, blue dragon! As suggested by helpful reader meristem, I missed some unique dialogue that shows up if you leave the tutorial wearing the Training Sword, Clay Bowl, and Cart Wheel. : Reference letters from the Knight's School you say? Ha-ha-ha! You are a better candidate for the position of our court jester... A bowl on your head, and a wheel in your hands! How amusing!: I truly apologize for my ridiculous appearance, Your Majesty. But truly I have come to you from my mentor, Richard. Please read the letter.And the rest of the conversation is as before. Marking the Map  Hey, I finally remembered I can mark the in-game map. Unfortunately, the label is only visible when you mouse-over it. So hopefully the quick-and-dirty labeling I added using IrfanView is decent enough. Talkin' 'bout Troops Today, we will examine the Robber class of units, and a look at the Cyclops that gave us so much trouble. Robber  Resistances: None Critical Hit %: 10 Defense Bonus: 4 Talents  Biting Strike: Strikes the target with a chain across a free cell. Does 2-4 damage, and the enemy cannot retaliate. Reload: 1. Greed: Driven by thirst for loot, the robber can teleport himself to any chest on the battlefield. Charges: 1.Abilities RobberMorale of human troops Level 1-2 is decreased by 1. (Doesn't affect other Robber units.) Gully's opinion: Although they have good attack and damage for their cost, Robbers are fragile and slow. Being stuck at 2 move with no running is molasses. However, Greed is a very good talent that lets you seize chests very easily. But if the chest is close to the enemy, the Robber will take a lot of pain in return. Generally, I'd rather use Marauders. Fighting them: They are fragile, so usually easy to take down. Very vulnerable to slow/freezing as well. Annoying mostly because they steal chests. Marauder  Resistances: None Critical Hit %: 12 Defense Bonus: 6 Talents Biting Strike: Strikes the target with a chain across a free cell. Does 3-6 damage, and the enemy cannot retaliate. Reload: 1. Search: Looks through slain creatures in search of gold. Charges: 2. RunningAbilities Robber Gully's opinion: Great units in the early game. Their attack is high, their defense/HP is not that bad, and they have very high initiative. Their slow speed is offset by both their running Talent, and Biting Strike which lets them reach one hex further. Under the right circumstance, they can hit a unit 5 hexes away. The lack of retaliation on Biting Strike also helps their survivability. The Search talent is great for building up money in the early game. By the mid-game, we won't need money and the morale hit on our Bowman/other human units, and the Marauders lack of tankiness means they will lose usefulness over time. Fighting them: Beware their Biting Strike range. Luckily, the AI always wastes the Running talent. Other than that, similar to fighting Robbers. Cyclops  Resistances: 30% Physical, 60% Poison, 30% Fire Critical Hit %: 10 Defense Bonus: 10 Talents  Stun: Stuns the target, inflicting 60-70 damage. Charges: 1. (Stunned targets miss their turn) Push: Pushes the target away, and inflicts 80-100 damage. Reload: 2.Abilities Archer Sniper: No penalty for Ranged attack (meaning no penalty at any range) Stone: Stone creature animated by magic. It is slow, but is Resistant to Physical, Poison, and Fire Damage. In addition, is Immune to Mind Spells, and to spells of healing and resurrection. No melee penalty Gully's opinion: Cyclops are the strongest archers in the game. Huge damage and attack, they actually do better in melee due to their Talents. They are also supremely tough, with huge Defense and some of the highest Resistances in the game. Their main downside is that they are slow, and will usually act last. Fighting them: They have low hitpoints for their leadership, so if you can bypass the Defense/Resistance, they go down relatively easily. So spells that do Magic damage, and a certain spell on your archers Dragon Arrow go a long way. The other good way is to use certain summons to block them from using a ranged attack while your army plinks away. Spells Seen Helplessness  Decreases an enemy target's defenses. Crystal Cost: 1 / 2 / 4 Mana Cost: 2 / 4 / 6 Level 1: Defense: -30%; Duration: 3 turns Level 2: Defense: -45%; Duration: 4 turns Level 3: Defense: -60%; Duration: 5 turns Gully's opinion: Meh. I've never found a real niche for this. Ideally, it's best used on high Defense targets. Usually better options exist. However, if there is one large stack of tough units (Cyclops, Green/Red Dragons, Giants, etc), this will help your army do a lot more damage, especially at higher levels. Much better in the end game. Skills Shown Learning Mind, Tier 2 A hero is thirsty for knowledge. This skill helps him to learn faster, receiving additional Experience after combat. Prerequisites: Scouting  Level 1: Experience gains increased by 10%. Cost: 1/5/1 Level 2: Experience gains increased by 15%. Cost: 1/6/1 Level 3: Experience gains increased by 20%. Cost: 2/7/2Gully's opinion: 1 Level is good, and more is basically a waste. It helps you get levels faster, but there is more than enough experience to reach the level cap if you are doing all the content. Level 1 gives the biggest impact, and is required for progression down the Mind tree, so it's good to get it nice and early. Items Identified Chieftain's Belt  Description: A wide leather belt with a silver fastener. Effect: +100 Leadership, +5 Attack bonus for Robbers and Pirates Type: Belt Race: Humans Cost: 4200 Info: Very few people dare to put on this belt, for it is a symbol of chieftain's power, and it attracts increased attention from both guards and criminals. Dragonfly Egg  Description: The dragon-like dragonfly is just visible through the translucent eggshell. Type: Used Item Info: The bag-shaped nest contains eggs of little dragonflies. Black Box  Description: A heavy black box. It is locked. Type: Quest Info: This box is locked. According to the dwarves, even a dragon can't bite it through or even scratch the surface of such a box. And it seems to be the truth. After the box dropped from the enormous height, there is not even a dent on it. Dragon Fang  Description: The huge dragon fang, which has yellowed over time. Type: Quest Info: This fang you pulled out of the dragon at the request of the innkeeper. Letter for Martha di Gonda  Description: A letter, closed by the Royal Seal. Type: Quest Info: Carl Leonar sealed his love letter with the Royal Seal, to prove all the seriousness of his intentions. Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Aug 6, 2016 |
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Aug 6, 2016 20:32
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Yeah, losses are mostly bad because it's so annoying to have to run back and hire new troops. Even if you don't take into account that you might run out. Griffins are so annoying, they love to fly as far towards you as they can and then split and the second stack starts with full movement. Freaking jerks.  Cyclops are cool units, not as good as in Heroes of Might and Magic (at least in 4 and later) but still a rock solid choice. Boulder to the face!
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Aug 6, 2016 22:04
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Gully Foyle posted:One later later You've got a typo there. Inquisitors are quite the improvement over priests, their Resurrection talent is completely superior to the Healing of Priests. Unlike the spell Heal, it will restore current health and excess healing will bring back killed units of a stack. 'Quisitors also have Holy Anger which gives you rage, blesses the unit and improves damage against the undead. The tooltip doesn't tell you it acts as Bless and it lasts one turn longer than a Priest's Bless.
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Aug 7, 2016 00:48
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Delacroix posted:You've got a typo there. No they don't. 
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Aug 7, 2016 00:51
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Uff, this low morale irks me. Since you decided to get the Chieftain's Belt, I really hope that this means you also decided to, like, garrison the priests or archers and swap in the pirates instead. Also, you mentioned them earlier, but... wolves. They are, I found, pretty fun to use against low-level human units in the beginning of the game.
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Aug 7, 2016 20:02
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meristem posted:Uff, this low morale irks me. Since you decided to get the Chieftain's Belt, I really hope that this means you also decided to, like, garrison the priests or archers and swap in the pirates instead. The low morale is basically doing nothing right now. Its like -1 Attack/Defense for those two units, and a bit lower Critical Hit %. Compared to the amount of spell damage I can do, it's peanuts. The Marauders won't be staying super-long anyways. I took them to A) get some extra cash so I can play around with more things, and B) shake up my usual army plan. I might take your suggestion on the Pirates, though. That's another unit I think I have never used before.
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Aug 7, 2016 21:07
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So what kind of unit replenishment does an extra 1000 gold of looting buy you?
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Aug 9, 2016 05:07
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Glazius posted:So what kind of unit replenishment does an extra 1000 gold of looting buy you?
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Aug 9, 2016 15:18
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Glazius posted:So what kind of unit replenishment does an extra 1000 gold of looting buy you? From what I've seen units are pretty expensive so losing them can be bad, especially when you realize some of them are limited in number. So what are these magic equipments that you can use after a certain amount of battles, are they used up if you use them or do you keep them afterwards?
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Aug 9, 2016 15:26
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Glazius posted:So what kind of unit replenishment does an extra 1000 gold of looting buy you? 1000 gold isn't much money. It gets you 100 Peasants, or 10 Bowmen/Priests, or maybe 5-6 Ancient Bears? The rough guide is 2 Gold per point of Leadership. So currently, I'd need roughly 1500 Gold per full stack of things, or 7500 for the full army if I lost it all. The thing is that it adds up pretty quickly for this point in the game. Over the course of the last episode, the Marauders probably brought in 8K+ extra, which is enough to cover the cost of buying them, replacing my losses after the Cyclops fight, and buying the Chieftain's belt. As the game goes on, money will quickly become an essentially unlimited resource (at least on Normal difficulty), and you are more restrained by the troop availability than the costs. In my test game (the one I'm playing ahead of the LP), I think I have around 2.5 million gold in the bank. Money never quite becomes useless though, there is one money sink we will find roughly half-way in. Koorisch posted:So what are these magic equipments that you can use after a certain amount of battles, are they used up if you use them or do you keep them afterwards? Depends on the equipment. Generally, you get to keep it after using (especially the big 3 that give 10 runes after 50 victories). Certain other ones change or transform after using them.
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Aug 9, 2016 15:43
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Gully Foyle posted:Depends on the equipment. Generally, you get to keep it after using (especially the big 3 that give 10 runes after 50 victories). Certain other ones change or transform after using them. Well thank god for that, that piece of equipment was one of the three so I'm gonna get that thing ASAP.
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Aug 9, 2016 16:01
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Gully Foyle posted:I might take your suggestion on the Pirates, though. That's another unit I think I have never used before.
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Aug 9, 2016 18:06
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Update 9: You wouldn't like Bill Gilbert when he's angry. The king has asked us to fetch some kind of artifact or weapon from the Magic Academy in nearby Verlon Forest. Before we go there, Bill Gilbert's side-quest radar blips, and we pay a visit to the menagerie owner, who we last saw after luring a bear back to his place. : Hey, young man! Ah good, I'm glad you've come.: Something wrong?: No, nothing, nothing special. I've just received several unusual animals - the miners from Creiston Mines brought them to me. They call them "Evil Beholders." They say there are a lot of these beasts in the dwarven mines. I've seen lot in my life, but this... You must understand me. One thing never leaves me in peace. I can't even sleep at night, trying to find it out; how do they breed? I've examined them this way, that way, and every way, looking all over them, but I still have no idea...: Can't you just ask somebody?: If only there was somebody I could ask. Nobody has heard of them, we don't have these creatures here. Maybe the dwarves know... Anyway, I want you to visit old Archon in Verlon Forest. He's the former owner of a monster circus. When he was young, he showed his beasts all over the Darion, he was said to mate each and all. Visit him, alright? I'll repay your kindness as I can. (Reward: 880 Gold, 50 Experience): I'll have to go to Verlon forest anyway, so why not visit Archon then? I'll ask him if he knows how to breed these Evil Beholders.Yeah, sounds like a great idea to breed something called a loving Evil Beholder. Goddamn it Stephen, when I inevitably have to fight hundreds of these things, I'm so blaming you.  We transit to Verlon Forest, directly south of the castle in Greenwort. Let's head east to start.  The forest seems to have something of a Griffin infestation. We saw how annoying it can be to fight large numbers of Griffins last update.  Fortunately, even though Griffins are present, the numbers are not high. I honestly have no idea how the game chooses the creature that represents the army in adventure mode, but it actually does have an impact on how fast the army will move once it notices you.  Nothing remarkable happens during the fight. But I want to show off more of the art in this game, like the awesome way Bowmen literally just punch the poo poo out of things in melee.   The second group of Griffins comes with wolves. Great.  Sometimes, by accident, the AI does things that seem quite smart. 1) Wolf Cry goes off. 2) My now out-of-control Marauders use their Running Talent immediately to run right next to the hive. 3) The Bowmen freeze my Marauders. With no run left and frozen, my Marauders have been essentially neutralized for the next three turns, and even more, are stuck next to the hive and likely to get stung.  Of course, Fireballs and whatnot take care of them easily at this point. And of course, gently caress wolves.   On the left side of the path, we find a small hut.  : Actually I don't have time to hear stories. Oh, and by the way, my name is Bill Gilbert. : My name is Archon - have you heard of me? Eh, there was a time when everyone knew my name! I had my own circus and I traveled with it all over Darion. I showed people rare animals that didn't exist even in legends.: I know about you from Hall, the menagerie owner. His request has brought me here.: Hall? Well, well. Yes, he is my colleague and an old friend. How is his menagerie? How is my old friend Stephen doing?: His menagerie burned down, the surviving animals have run away and Stephen himself was hit on his head by a burning beam and has now become mentally deranged now.We could have said that the menagerie owner was doing fine. But Bill Gilbert is a real rear end in a top hat sometimes. : Oh my God! And you are saying it so calmly. When did it happen? Have they found out who did this?! And where was the royal guard during all this, I wonder!? I should go immediately to him! Immediately! Where are my glasses?: Calm down, that was just a joke. He is very well - his menagerie is prospering and there are no problems with his health. By the way, he invites you to come visit.: That was a bad joke, young man. I'm old, and a person like me can't easily cope with that much stress! So, you are saying that Hall has sent you? I don't think he sends you just to greet me and invite me to his place. What does he want? I guess he's got another strange creature and doesn't know what to do with it, right?: Something like that. He managed to buy a couple of Evil Beholders. And now he can't calm himself down till he finds out how they breed.: Ha ha, what a laugh. Old Stephen hasn't changed at all. Last time, he decided to confirm whether bear that has been dyed white will stop being afraid of the cold. And one day I had to drag him out of a Bone Dragon's den. He wanted to see how the Bone Dragon eats, and if the food would fall out through his ribs or not, ha ha! And one time he puts a phoenix into a well, just to satisfy his curiosity.: ...well? What happened with the phoenix in a well?: So, can you help me, er, help him?: Well, why not. I'll do what I can. I have some familiarity with those creatures. There is some information about them in my old records. But there are more stories than truth. Through one of those creatures with only its glance once forced an old warrior to cut the throat of his friend - right in front of me. After that I'm ready to believe pretty much any fairy tale. Ah, here it is. Why don't you take it. This is everything I managed to find out about those monsters. If Stephen can not discover what he wants here, then I don't know anyone who would be able to help him.: Thank you.With that, we are given a stack of papers. As certain readers of this LP pointed out, you are able to use some Quest items. In this case, we get a chance to read the notes on Evil Beholder breeding.  Kirhan's notes:  Skolepeya's notes:  Doggit's notes:    Near this hamlet, we come across a spooooky Ghost. First, we clear out the banners for some additional Leadership. But this ghost seems like he has something to say.  : Cursed? Why : Why? I was killed by the present owner of the castle, "Baron" Norge. He had been my adviser a couple of years. But then he betrayed me, poisoned me and took my home, my wife, and my child. Now I, the former owner of the castle, want only one thing - vengeance against the traitor.: Yes, I can understand how you must feel.: Thank you for listening to me, Bill Gilbert. It is good for me to share my problems with someone else.: Yes, it is unjust. Can I help you?: If you kill Baron Norge and occupy the castle, I will be able to rest in peace, and my son, young Farmir, will rule the castle. (Reward: 3400 Gold, 70 Experience): Revenge is a noble deed, I'll try to help you!Despite his words, maybe it'd be best if we spoke to this Baron first, see if there's another side to the story.  The Castle Gefen is the castle in dispute. It has a couple of mildly interesting equipment and spells (such as the headband that gives +1 Intellect). Right now, though, I'm saving up money for something special. We also see that we get access to basically unlimited Swordsmen for the early game here. Let's chat with Gostrim's widow first.  : Thank you. You are so kind.Great chat. But Baron Norge will be far more voluble.  : And what about Gelena? : Yes, I married his widow. Gelena is a wonderful young woman. I was secretly in love with her for a long time, but I could do nothing when Gostrim was alive. I didn't even try... But after the terrible accident, my daybreams grew into real hopes, and to my great joy I managed to persuade her to marry me - to preserve the power of the barony, and protect her lands from intervention... I ask you, is that not just as it should be?: And what about young Farmir, the baron's son. Why didn't he inherit the castle and the lands?!: Farmir?! That youngster?! He doesn't even have a mustache. Look at him! What kind of baron could he be! With those eyes! Gelena's bastard spawn has no business with Gostrims's lands! : ...: Dude, Gelena is right there, maybe try not calling her kid a bastard spawn? Little bit of relationship advice.: Well, then, maybe you know who the father is?: No, Gelena refuses to tell me. But clearly he wasn't a human! Look, I have a different offer for you. Gostrim confuses the minds of the common people in our lands. He fills them with doubt. And for this reason, the people work badly, and they are easily annoyed. Can you kill Gostrim, not for me, but for them? You know as do I that there's no place for the dead in the world of the living.Glbert: Kill Gostrim? Of course. He is just a ghost, after all. And a ghost should be more at home in the land of the dead. : Excellent! As soon as you've done it, let me know. I will pay, fear not, I'm not that kind of person... (Reward: 2300 Gold, 77 Experience): Don't worry, I can handle a ghost.So, we come to the first set of mutually exclusive quests in the game, and the first thread vote since character selection. Vote Time Who should Bill Gilbert side with? Gostrim, the Ghost, who accuses Norge of poisoning him and stealing his lands, wife, and taking power away from his 'son'. Norge, the Baron, who claims Gostrim happened to poison himself, married Gelena, and thinks that mustaches are the determining factor for leadership.  Behind the castle, the path takes us down to a Shrine of Knowledge, but it's guarded by this numerous army of fragile units.  Double damage to plants helps, but Fireballs are starting to weaken a bit as enemy numbers grow. Really looking forward to getting Chaos Magic 2.   The unguarded Shrine of Knowledge awaits.  Our mana reserves get boosted for the first time to 39. So far, mana has not been an issue. But as we get higher level magic skills, mana costs will be increasing significantly.  Our exploration down this side of the map is cut off by Stephen Zwein's army. Peasants may be fragile, but they are dangerous in numbers. We will be back though, with a surprise for them. Let's look elsewhere for the Academy.  Down a side-path, we get a great find inside a stump.  We finally get to replace our Training Sword with something more appropriate. This staff is our first example of an upgradeable item. However, we aren't quite ready yet to do this. The upgrade system is quite interesting, but I'll talk about that in more detail when it comes up. For now, the Pilgrim's Staff will be used anyway for +1 Intellect.  The guarding troop serves as a test-bed for the upgraded damage from the Pilgrim's Staff - went from 190 to 225 for the primary target.    With some fancy animations, our troops finish them off easily. For some reason I found that last priest frame hilarious. Looks like a great dance move.   The third obelisk lies nearby as well. King Fandor started his travels here (there's a ruined castle nearby we will see later).  Another easy fight here for a might rune.  I love finishing battles with the environmental objects.   We passed this Tavern on the way in. It's just a shop, no chatter. I wish there were a few more Griffins to buy.  Those dragonflies in the background act as a light lunch.   The regional capital of Verlon lies here.  Some mildly useful items here that would give us a bit of Defense if we so wished. It also has another huge troop of Marauders available, so I restock while here.  South of the castle we find our goal! Before getting into the plot, let's visit the shop.  Inquisitors! Sweet find here. Inquisitors are basically better than Priests in every possible way other than availability.  And so our priests get dropped off to do their own thing, and we grab these guys while we are here.  By an interesting coincidence, the spell Gift is for sale here too. Gift is an Order spell that reloads and recharges all the Talents of the unit. Inquisitors can use a Resurrection Talent once per battle. You can see where this is going. Inquisitors + Gift is one of those combinations that can be exploited if you are going for a no-loss game. And it is useful if one of your rare troops gets savaged. But you notice we can't buy it, due to limited space.  We can fix that by heading back to Verlon Castle to sell off all duplicate spells/scrolls. Shopping done, let's get down to business at the Academy. Warning: Walls of words ahead! I'd normally put some into the bonus section, but its kind of important stuff, for the game/story.  : I came by order of His Majesty, I am to collect some artifact from you.: You were talking about the purpose of the artifact. : Oh yeah... I was speaking about the ritual that attaches the Chest to its new master. The one who, by the end of the ritual, will be able to understand the force of the artifact and will be able to talk to the spirits captured in this item.: Just give me the damned Chest.: There is no need to shout at me like this. Besides, you are in a physical and emotional state that is optimum for... Here, take the Chest, be careful, and don't let it fall... WATCH OUT!: drat it! Go to hell with your Chest.  : Who is there? : You are the new massster of the Chessst?: I don't understand. What are you talking about? Who are you? I can't see you!: Blood... Your blood ssssprinkles the sssstone of Anger. The unity rite hassss been performed... but wasss not.. completed. You... have completed it... Now you are the new massster of the Chest...: Show yourself, will you?!: Weak... Too weak... You cannot handle thisss power...: You are making me angry! Where are you?: Hey, Bill Gilbert, are you alright? I hope your wound is not very serious. And who were you talking to - there is nobody here except for us.: Don't you hear? There's this strange voice.: Yes? Voices? And what do they tell you? - Something sensible or is it just a murmuring?: They are saying some kind of nonsense about blood, an unfinished ritual and masters of the Chest.: Your blood on the chest...feeling of intense rage... And you were thinking of this artifact for sure, weren't you? Besides, all these strange voices from nowhere. I don't even know whether to congratulate you, young man, or to feel sorry for you. First of all, you haven't gone out of your mind. You are really hearing those voices. And secondly... You have just finished the ritual of unity. Now this artifact and you make one. In other words, you are the master of this chest. But I don't think you wil be glad of it.: I don't get it...: There is nothing to get. We have been bothering over the ritual for four months, and spent a lot of money on all the necessary ingredients. For three days and nights, twelve of our highest mages performed the most complex ceremony of high magic. Only one final detail remained - the person would become a master of the Chest if, being in a condition of extreme rage, he wished for power over the artifact and sprinkled it with his own blood. You asked me to give you the chest very insistently, so fiercely that you tried to snatch it our of my hands... And there was enough blood to complete the rite. Do you understand me?: Yes, it's very clear now. So what next?: I don't know. His Majesty will decide. But we will not be able to repeat the ritual for at least a few years. The voices you've heard are the voices of Rage Spirits. The Chest of Rage was created in order to capture and rule such spirits. I don't know who they are and where they came from, or how they got themselves into the Chest. But like any wizard would, I feel their great power power - and great anger.: So, does it mean that all the power of the Chest belongs to me now?: I doubt it. The Chest is a container, like a jail. Ultimately, it may help you rule these spirits, but unfortunately we don't know that. And it might take several centuries to find the answer. Maybe its previous masters made arrangements with the Chest's residents, or figured out some way to pay them. I don't know. You can ask them yourself if they are talking to you. There was no one able to hear the spirits among those mages who studied the item. We know only that they are locked up in this artifact. There is a theory that they are creatures of other worlds that had been captured by the demons for some purpose, but this is only conjecture.: It means that I am the first owner of the Chest for the last thousand years? And it has been there in the Academy for all these years?: Yes, for all these years, many generations of mages have tried to solve the mystery of this artifact. Where did it come from? What purpose does it serve? How can we control it? And almost all these questions have been left without definite answers. As for its master... I'm not sure that it has ever had what you could call a master. The chronicles of the war for the Fire Bridge do not have any reference of demons using the Chest, which would suggest that they chose not to use it - or maybe they simply could not. Perhaps they were afraid? Or perhaps they even didn't know how. We do not even know who made it, or for what purpose.: I guess I will have to ask the spirits myself. And how can I get rid of the Chest?: That one we do know, and it's a very easy answer: you simply need to die. No, I'm not kidding. This is an artifact-symbiont. How can I explain this to you? It consumes your emotions, steals your anger and rage and accumulates them. This is the way many demonic artifacts work. And now it will function only in your hands, for as long as you may live. And now you cannot do without the CHest - look, it seems as though it has grown into your plam. And you are stroking it without even noticing. Now to show you one more thing, I will take it from you for a second...: One move and you will die!: You see? Soon you will not be able to give it away and you will not let anyone take it out of your hands until you die. It is possible to kill, paralyze you or put you to sleep to take the Chest away, but then it will become useless again. And in the best case scenario, you will lose your mind along with the Chest/ Even after that it is necessary to wait for a long time before a new ritual of unity can be made, to bind the artifact to a new master.: Hmm. Well how do you like this weapon? I can't use it, I can't give it to someone else. Alright, let's see what His Majesty will say. He's named "The Wise" for a reason, after all.TLDR: We are now bound for life to a parasitic chest that feeds on our rage and contains otherworldly monsters. And if its removed, at best we go insane. Yay?  In our Hero screen, the empty lower left is now occupied. Will these Spirits of Rage cooperate with us, now that we are bound together for life?  : (Close the Chest quickly!) : (Leave him alone...) : I'm sorry...(Close the Chest...) : (Close the Chest, and keep out of harm's way...)One nice touch is that unlike the others, Reaper is just called Reaper. So we have the anthropomorphization of death attached to our body. A little worrying.  We will have to leave the riddle of the Chest for another day. Meanwhile, more Griffins attack us as we are hanging around the Magic Academy.  Our new inquisitors come into play. As basically colour swaps of priests, they attack the same way - magic ranged damage, double damage to undead, no melee penalty, etc. One subtle difference is that Inquisitors have +1 Range over Priests. So they get full damage at greater distances, which is pretty useful. The other difference is that as a Level 3 unit, Inquisitors aren't affected by Wolf Cry or by the presence of Robbers.  Of course, the main draw to Inquisitors is their unique Resurrect Talent. This heals a target unit for 7 Health per Inquisitor. Unlike Priests, this healing carries over as the name suggests.  Resurrected units don't count against casualties either, if that's important to you. Inquisitors are pretty good at keeping your forces strong without needing to reinforce. Do note that you can't Resurrect a few things - Plants (like our Thorns) can't be resurrected, nor can Undead units or the Cyclops.  Although we should be returning the Chest to the King, our sidequest radar is blipping down this dark path.  It's a g-g-g-ghost!  Actually, yeah. Its a Ghost. Not that threatening alone. Ghosts can be annoying. But they aren't the dangerous nightmares they were in the original King's Bounty (or in early Heroes of Might and Magic games).  One ghost is not a threat in the slightest, especially to a Mage.  Up the path we find a rickety bridge leading to a dragon-headed castle. Maybe its a bad idea, but let's say hi to the castle owner.  Dragon Castle here sells mostly a variety of low-level animals. The weapon for sale looks like our Training Sword, but its actually called an Ordinary Sword, which is able to be upgraded to a Runic Sword. I will likely come back for it, as the Runic Sword would be quite nice for us right now. : I'm the Royal Teasure Searcher and my name is Bill Gilbert. : Aha, another searcher then. Well just so you know, I have no treasures. There was this fellow named de'Virre, who poked me with his sword and took away everything I had. It would be better to help a poor dragon, if you are a good man. And I will find a way to thank you.: I don't mind earning some money. What kind of help were you talking about?: You see, I used to live in an empty cave, and I loved to burn villages and to hunt people. Just like any other dragon. But one day love changed my life. I stole the young princess Gelena, and we lived together for three wonderful years. We were head over heels in love. I courageously protected my trophy from all different heroes and knights who wanted to set the poor princess free from the evil dragon. That was, until Gostrim came. This weakling didn't kight me like a true knight, but crept in and seduced my fair princess while I was out hunting. He promised her some kind of rubbish and convinced her to sneak away and meet him back at his castle.: The next day, Gelena packed her things and went to this baron, having told me that she couldn't live like this anymore. I promised to change... but she didn't believe a word of it and left me. My feelings couldn't let me stop her, even though I was dying from despair. But I thought it over and decided that my love was worth fighting for. I came to my senses, decided I would help the people instead of hunt them, and even started transporting cargo for the king. All of this enabled me to build a nice castle. I even have hot water and mirrors! I beg you - become my conductor to the world of happiness. Help me to bring back my love!: That's a sad story. I will help you!: The castle of Baron Gostrim is located in the north-east of Verlon Forest. Go there to my beloved Gelena, and talk to her. Tell how much I have sacrificed for her, and how happy we can be together. Here, take this amulet. It's a heart, the heart of the dragon - as hot as the one that beats inside my chest when I think of her. (Reward: 2300 Gold, 91 Experience): Ok, I'll try to persuade her to come back.Well, I guess we know where Gelena's child came from. I really don't know how the biology of that works out, and I really don't want to think about it. We head back to Gefen Castle. Gilbet: I came to you with a message from Dragon Attah. : Have you brought a message from Attah? How is he? I haven't heard from him for a long time.: The dragon asked me to give you his heart as a symbol of his love! He asks you to come back to him. He has built a wonderful and comfortable castle for you, and now you don't have to sleep on the cave floor and wash yourself in the brook.: He has built a castle? And gives me his heart? How nice of him. You know...My life has not been so good without the dragon. My husband was killed and I had to marry his murderer. The only happiness of my life is that my son Farmir was born just after I left the dragon. I miss Attah too. After all, we lived together happily for such a long time. Our son has now grown up; he is an educated person and can protect himself. So, I guess I will return to my dragon.: That's wonderful news! Attah will be so happy.Oddly, Baron Norge doesn't say anything at all about his wife suddenly running off. So much for that love story he spun. Back to the Dragon Castle... : Thank you, Mage. You see, my love, my precious Gelena, has came back to me. I'm so happy. You deserved your reward (Reward: 2300 Gold, 91 Experience): Thank you! Many happy times to both of you. The experience from the quest pushes us to Level 5. This one was a tough choice. Leadership is nice, but +1 Defense will be better than +200 Leadership in the late game. However, I decide to pick up Leadership anyway, as its better for the near future. : Hello, Bill Gilbert. And a big thanks for your help. Is there anything we can do for you?: Hello, Gelena! No, I've just come by to say hello.Gelena just as chatty as ever. To be fair, this is more Bill Gilbert's fault here. We head back to Greenwort to talk to the king about this parasitic chest. First, a quick visit to the menagerie to return the Evil Beholder notes. : So, have you found out anything about the Evil Beholders?: I've visited old Archon. Here, he sent you a pile of manuscripts about these strange animals.: Fine, fine! Finally I'll know the truth, and be able to sleep. Thank you, Bill Gilbert, very much. (Reward: 880 Gold, 50 Experience): By the way, I've looked through these manuscripts. And, uh... I'm not so sure they'll answer your question.: Hmm... What are you talking about? - No, don't tell me. I'll figure it out by myself.: Have fun then. Goodbye!As we head back to the castle over the bridge, the voices speak to us again.  : Master? A new master we have? Time flies, time flows...Irreversibly changes everything around us.: Voices again? Is that you, inside the Chest?: Yes, strange and foolish he seems. But no - he is only young. Filled with sand is his hourglass.: Oh, great Spirit from the Chest! Could you keep silent for a while, I'm already doubting my sanity.: The course of your life is so short, with every moment giving the perception of the new and unknown. May you enjoy it.: (Ignore the voices...)OK, King, you better have a way to deal with this poo poo. : Have you already talked to the mages at the Academy? Time is of the essence!: I've brought you the Chest of Rage, my King!: Give it to me. The mages should have prepared the artifact to serving its new owner. The power enclosed therein must not fall into the wrong hands.: I'm afraid that I cannot do this, my king...: You refuse to submit to your king's will? Bill Gilbert, do you have any idea of the power of my anger? Guards!: My king, you may call your guards, but this will change nothing. You see, the ceremony has already been completed, and as it turns out, I am the new master fo the Chest! A sad accident has changed our plans.: What accident are you talking about? What has happened?: I found the Academy, and requested that the Chest be delivered, as you ordered... (Tell what has happened...): Well... It's probably all for the better. Only time can tell. Maybe you are the man destined to command these creatures. So, our faithful knight. You have already proven that you are ready to serve the crown faithfully. And your talents deserve better use. This time, however, you will have to pass a trial most difficult and dangerous. Do you accept the challenge?: Certainly. I also feel that I might do much more than collecting plugens from robber.: We would accept no other answer, Bill Gilbert! So, Lyaro Island awaits you - and there you will most likely be met by an unknown enemy. If you return victorious, you will be admitted to the most important and secret tasks of the crown. I can already see that I can trust you, but I must be sure you are strong enough to carry out crucial tasks.: We do not know our enemy in this trial, but as a royal Searcher you should not be afraid of the unknown! Lyaro Island appeared not too long ago. First there was a terrible storm and then the new Island appeared in the northern ocean. We sent people there to investigate, but they failed to return. We sent a second expedition, but there's still no news. Go to the island on the dirigible and find out what has happened to our people. And remember, the dirigible will not take you back until your reveal the secret of the island, and eliminate this threat to Darion.: Yes, I can see that this is a difficult situation, but I swear here and now that I will bring the matter to conclusion, or my name's not Viscount Bill Gilbert!: It is good to hear these words, Bill Gilbert. Take 3000 gold coins. You may need them for hiring troops. And visit the Temple of Truth; I think Aron Demion's warriors may be useful in your quest.: Thank you, I will set out as soon as I am prepared.Another day, another quest. No solution to this drat box. With that, we come to the end of the update.  Here's a look at Bill Gilbert. Note that I've finally spent a bunch of that money I was saving up, 24K in fact, on a Banner of Heroism. This Banner gives +300 Leadership and +1 initiative to units Level 1-3 (which is all of our units). With that and the level, our Leadership has jumped up a ton. With the runes we've been stockpiling, Chaos Magic gets upgraded to Level 2, and we pick up the first level in Order Magic. We can now learn all spells in the game. The next goal is to work our way down to Higher Magic. Next update, we will figure out if we can do anything with this Chest of Rage, and clean up the Greenwort region as much as possible. Remember to vote for our Ghostly sidequest outcome. ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Learning Lore Today's episode will cover some additional material from King Mark, including about the Chest, his daughter, and the war with the demons. : This Chest of Rage. Could you tell me more about it?: It is enough for you to know that it is a powerful artifact, created by Demons. It is a weapon capable of putting whole armies to flight - if it is used in the proper way! A thousand years ago, a Chest of Rage was obtained by king Kerus, among other trophies. It stumped the sorcerers, who have been racking their brains over its secret for all these years. But now, as the current president of the Academy assured me, they have succeeded!: Interesting. I hope this weapon will serve Darion well!: I'd like to ask you about your daughter, Princess Amelie.: I don't know if you've heard this - Amelie is my adopted daughter. Sadly, I cannot have children. Even our best mages and doctors have failed to cure me of this plight, whether it be illness or curse. But the royal family must be continued! Even my brother, who has little to do with the politics, understands that much. Besides, my wife and I wanted to have a child - we wanted to care for a child, and I wanted a descendant to whom I could leave the throne. And so I prayed to all the light gods of Endoria. And the gods replied!: They cured you?: No. One day at the door of my bedroom I found a basket, inside of which was a baby. A beautiful child, sent to me by the gods. The guards swore that they didn't close their eyes, and they were completely at a loss to explain how the basket arrived at the door. And when the baby was taken to the Temple to be given a name... The gods themselves spoke to me! They said I was to call the girl Amelie, after the brightest star in the sky, and they predicted a most unusual fate.: You've mentioned the King Kerus. I'd like to know more about him.: The mage Kerus was one of the brightest stars of the Leonar Dynasty. A thousand years ago, when Demons invaded our world, our King Orto Mellis locked himself up in the capital like a coward. There he gathered his army for his own personal defense, leaving the whole country to the mercy of fate. And then he appeared - Kerus, in whose veins flowed the blood of the Leonars. He was a true Battle Mage, and brought with him a small troop of hardened warriors and mages. My ancestor clearly understood that he would not manage to drive all the Demons away with such a small army...: But nevertheless he accomplished the impossible! Kerus's troop attacked the portal of Fire, which connected our world to the Demon's Land. They managed to penetrate into the other world and destroy the portal - and by himself, Mage Kerus killed the Archdemon Baal, the commander of the Demons. Kerus and his warriors went forth to their doom, but they returend with victory and rich trophies, among which there was a Chest. The cowardly King Mellis escaped as soon as he heard of the heroes' victorious return. Kerus Leonar thus became king and so the throne of Darion returned to the Dynasty.: Thus a ruler of Heron, a small land of mages, rose to become the king of all Darion. Heon, Arlania and still more provinces joined Darion, which finally formed the state we know today. Kerus created the Magic Academy of Darion, where he brought the artifacts he took from the Demons, for their examination. As Kerus came to the crown, so began the Golden Age of Darion. It was an age of magic and prosperity, and it lasted almost five hundred years.: I have no more questions; I will disturb Your Majesty no further.Marking the Map  Talkin' 'bout Troops Let's look at our new acquisition. We've also been fighting a lot of Griffins, I think it's time to check them out too. Inquisitor  Resistances: 10% Magic Critical Hit %: 10 Defense Bonus: 4 Talents  Resurrection: Resurrects slain creatures of the selected troop, recovering 7 points of health. Holy Anger: Gives the hero 5-10 points of Rage, blesses the target and provides it with the "Holy Anger" ability. Decreases the combat performance of undead troops. (Note: Holy Anger, in addition to blessing the unit, makes the unit do 150% damage to undead).Abilities Holy Attack Holiness No Melee Penalty Gully's opinion: Fantastic units only hampered by their general poor availability (unless you get the Inquisition skill). Stat-wise, they are essentially double Priests: 2x the Leadership, 2x the Health, 2x the Damage. Attack and Defense are improved by +6. As mentioned, they also have +1 range over priests. They are still not great against non-undead units. But the Resurrect ability is amazing, especially when you are venturing far from reinforcements. Holy Anger is also great, and is great for adding Rage if you need it. Fighting them: Usually easy to fight. They are still pretty fragile, so die easily to range attacks and spells. Further, they like to use their talents instead of attacking. Griffin  Resistances: 10% Physical, 20% Magic Critical Hit %: 12 Defense Bonus: 5 Talents  Separation: The troop is separated into two partsAbilities Flight: Can fly over low obstacles or rough terrain Furious: Always retaliates against enemy attacks Magic Resistance: Gives the creature Magic Resistance ability Gully's opinion: Griffins are great, and will be part of our army at some point guaranteed. They are one of the most mobile units (that aren't Level 5), with 5 Speed, 5 Initiative, and Flight. They are actually pretty tough, too. Interestingly, they are the unit with the highest Health per Leadership in the entire game. That, plus decent Defense and some resistance makes them able to take a hit. Their downside is low Damage for their cost. They are great for bypassing melee units and hitting enemy archers/mages. The Furious ability (unlimited retaliations) is interesting. If you are willing to sacrifice them, Griffins are great to send into a horde of units and get attacked repeatedly. This works better if paired with some spells. Fighting them: Frustrating. The high speed/initiative/flight + Separation means Griffins get into your grill quickly, and love to swarm over archers. But your own melee units can usually out damage them, and spells are good as always. Spells Seen None! Skills Shown Order Magic Magic, Tier 2 This skill allows the hero to learn and upgrade Order Magic spells.  Level 1: Order spells can be learned from scrolls. Cost: 0/2/2 Level 2: Order spells can be upgraded to level 2. Cost: 0/4/4 Level 3: Order spells can be upgraded to level 3. Cost: 0/8/8Gully's opinion: Order Magic is probably my least used magic tree. The school is primarily meant for Paladins, which is my least used class. Containing plenty of buffs and healing, it does have a few damage options, including the strongest Magic damage spell, Lightning. Also present are spells that buff damage versus demons and dragons, some of the toughest enemies in the game. Finally, the Dragon Arrow spell is a personal favourite spell that extends the usefulness of archers dramatically. Items Identified Banner of Heroism  Description: The banner with an attacking griffin depicted on it. Effects: +300 Leadership, +1 to Initiative for all troops of level 1-3 Type: Regalia Race: Humans Cost: 24000 Info: The attacking griffin is a symbol of fearlessness and justice. However, the creator of this banner did not rely upon the symbol only, and had embroidered several runes of fearlessness on the banner as well. Pilgrim's Staff  Description: An ordinary oaken staff. Effects: +1 to Intellect Type: Weapon Race: Humans Cost: 5000 Upgraded To: Druid's Staff Info: A long oak staff. Such staves are often used by travelers on long journeys. Sheets  Desciption: Several sheets, yellowed from time, are covered with different handwriting. You can read them. Type: Quest Info: These papers contain information for the menagerie owner, about the breeding of Evil Beholders. Dragon Heart Amulet  Description: The amulet in the form of a Dragon's Heart. Type: Quest Info: The small amulet, which contains a small copy of a dragon heart. Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 23:10 on Aug 13, 2016 |
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Aug 13, 2016 23:03
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Well... as awesome as having a Ghost-baron would be, and the fact that his story is probably the true one, I have to go with Norge. Why? He is utterly correct that the status of a man's mustache tells all about their leadership ability.
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Aug 14, 2016 00:14
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Help Gostrim Norge sounds like a jerk
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Aug 14, 2016 00:15
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Gostrim is in the right here, it seems.
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Aug 14, 2016 01:11
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I'm gonna vote for burying a beholder's eye and peeing on it. ... I mean, let's Hamlet this bitch up and help Gostrim.
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Aug 14, 2016 02:07
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Just want to say that this LP has got me to buy this. It's on sale at GoG for like 2 dollars and change.
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Aug 14, 2016 04:50
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Gostrim seems like he's in the right, and now that Galena's with the dragon, she should be safe from the fallout. Hell, we're also ennobling a half-dragon in the process, how cool is that?
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Aug 14, 2016 05:57
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