Erebus
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2008
- Messages
- 4,847
If the promise would force you to do something dishonest, then there's no honorable way to deal with the situation and your best choice is to side with the guys who aren't obvious assholes.
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Completed Let's play Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor
- Thread starter Azira
- Start date
If the promise would force you to do something dishonest, then there's no honorable way to deal with the situation and your best choice is to side with the guys who aren't obvious assholes.
I suck, I know. I really should be updating this LP instead of just apologising for sucking, but hey.
My eldest has chicken pox, and this weekend, where I thought I'd have spare time to produce an update was spent sleep-deprived, trying to console an almost constantly crying 2-year old. She's getting better though, and I hope (the key word here is "hope") to produce the next update during this week. That is, unless our youngest, who is doubtless infected by now, turns out to be just as time consuming and attention demanding as his elder sister.
Also, votes are still lacking from CappenVarra and TheGreat0ldOne as to whether we should do as Stantley want us to and rob our allies. My light-side update is almost done when it comes to in-game progress, so I guess I'll show the consequences of the choice once the proper update is posted. That is, if the votes are in.
My eldest has chicken pox, and this weekend, where I thought I'd have spare time to produce an update was spent sleep-deprived, trying to console an almost constantly crying 2-year old. She's getting better though, and I hope (the key word here is "hope") to produce the next update during this week. That is, unless our youngest, who is doubtless infected by now, turns out to be just as time consuming and attention demanding as his elder sister.
Also, votes are still lacking from CappenVarra and TheGreat0ldOne as to whether we should do as Stantley want us to and rob our allies. My light-side update is almost done when it comes to in-game progress, so I guess I'll show the consequences of the choice once the proper update is posted. That is, if the votes are in.
Oh, sorry, thought you were only asking the dark-siders to vote for this update; I vote B - we must honor our allies over scoundrels!
With your vote CappenVarra, there's a majority for B for the lightsiders as well, regardless what TheGreat0ldOne might vote, so I went ahead and have now reached the point where I just need to write comments for all the screenshots. I hope to get the next update up before the week is over. I just hope to be inspired, so the update won't suck too much. 
eklektyk
Erudite
:apreciae...
:apriciaes
:apri
a f#%k it
:circlejerk post for all hard labor on exelent LP:
:apriciaes
:apri
a f#%k it
:circlejerk post for all hard labor on exelent LP:
Again, I've let Real Life take the drivers seat and letting my readers (thank you Eklektyk 
) languish. No more! I shall produce another update forthwith! 
And this concludes our update for this week. Next update the darksiders will be doing some spelunking for shits and giggles, run some errands for the mysterious advisors and generally get close to finishing the plot, but not quite. I plan 4 more updates before this LP is concluded.
Any requests, something you wish explained or explored in greater detail?
to all my readers.
) languish. No more! I shall produce another update forthwith! Last time we saw how the dark side group collected and completed a whole slew of promotion quests, so it should come as no surprise, that our lightsiders have a similar idea. The difference being that our lightsiders will outdistance their darker brethren by virtue of getting slightly easier promotion quests. 
First thing they do is start collecting the quests.
The first two quests are picked up in Harmondale, the archer quest is identical to the darkside one. The monk quest is of the "kill the foozle" variety.
The next two questgivers reside in Erathia. The paladin quest is the polar opposite of the darkside one, here we need to rescue the very same damsel in distress we kidnapped as darksiders, and it's even the darkside quest-giver who holds her hostage.
The thief promotion quest can be completed with stealth, provided the thief is accompanied by a skilled sorcerer... The only stealthy option available in this game is invisibility, but we won't be using that for this quest.
Before I get ahead of myself, I notice it's sunday in the game. This means you can go a special place with the coach service from Harmondale:
The Arena is a way to test your party, but it's also part of one of the lightside promotion quests, so we go there to fight.
We choose the next-highest difficulty, "Knight", as my metagame knowledge tells me this is required for the fighter promotion quest.
Once you pick a difficulty, the party is teleported to the centre of the arena and monsters spawn all around.
The trolls and harpies are melee monsters, the harpies the squishiest of the two. The large trees are rather squishy and unsurprisingly stationary magic shooters. They go down quickly enough to not pose a real threat. The red lion-like things are manticores. The attack from range, but also possess an OK melee attack. Probably the most dangerous of this spawn.
The monsters spawned are dependent on total party level and what difficulty you choose. I got lucky with this group, as it's quite easy. The same group got stuck with wizards in another fight, and those bitches hurt, what with dispelling our buffs and summoning meat-shields (elementals) for themselves.
Anyway, this group is easily dispatched, and we can collect our earnings.
Only one fight per trip, and the monetary reward is poor. Plus, the spawned monsters don't leave behind loot, except if they are of the type that sometimes drops stuff for use in alchemy (harpies drop harpy feathers for instance, I think they're worth about 50g a piece), but seeing as I don't do alchemy in this game, they're of no use to us.
Oh, and you can leave the arena at any point you choose, should the opposition prove to be too much.
After this short jaunt to the arena, our lightsiders continue picking up quests.
The fist three of this bunch are all picked up in the Bracada Desert, and the fourth is in Celeste. The sorcerer quest sees us journey to the Pit. Arguably the most dangerous of the promotion quests lightside, if you count on using invisibility for the archer quest. The ranger quest is interesting, as it has us travelling a bit, but we'll return to that later.
The knight quest is rather straightforward, not much to add. The cleric quest holds a mirror to the darkside quest. We just need to purify an altar this time instead of defiling.
After picking up the eight promotion quest, we explore Celeste a bit, and find the NPC we had to kill for the darkside thief promotion.
No dialogue or anything. Just random commentary. A bit disappointing, I would have liked if she at least hinted that she did something special for the wizards in Bracada, otherwise why was she a target for the necromancers? It is a mystery..
Anyways, better pay a visit to the big hocho now we're here.
Again, deviating from the allowed course will set everyone hostile to us, so that's a Bad Idea. Following the directions is rather straigtforward though, so we quickly make it to the throne room where Gavin Magnus has a task for us.
We went through the walls of mist with the darkside group, so I'll spare you the details.
It's funny with these advisors. They're a suspicious bunch, both those working with the wizards, and those working with the necromancers. We'll get to learn more about them later. For now, we've had an update happen to our history book.
Ayup.
We return to the Bracada Desert, and it seems there's a sidequest for us to pick up there.
Since we're going to The Pit one way or the other, this one's a no-brainer. M: It's also extremely easy, as we will not need to actually enter The Pit itself..
Before we go to Deyja, our party makes a detour to Avlee, first to pick up a certain bow.
We did the invisibility thing again. And don't worry, we will return soon and clear out the place in the next update, once both parties master their light and dark magics respectively.
In another part of Avlee we find the last Temple of Baa.
The Temple of Baa I remembered as somewhat easy. I was in for a nasty surprise. Sure, the priests are rather simple, they're priest of the moon with a different label.
Their dark magic spells can hurt if you encounter the Clerics in large numbers, but aside from that, they are easy enough. This temple also holds the allies of Baa, devils..
The workers are simple enough adversaries, but the warriors and captains both hurt at range and up close both. The captains can also drain all mana with a single hit, and cause instant death. Now, once our cleric is promoted to the final tier and gets to cast grandmastery Protection from Magic, our party will be protected against instant-death attacks. At this point, not so much... It took a bit of running around and careful positioning, but I managed to clear out the devils and reach the head honcho (funny fact, most devils in here can be bypassed, but I chose to kill them for the xp just in case).
He's no more dangerous than the other Clerics of Baa and falls easily enough. He drops this odd looking cloak.
Not really needed when we have Protection from Magic, but then again, our fighter needs neither intellect or personality, so he gets to wear this wooly cloak.
In another part of this temple, we find a note.
We'll run into Xenofex later with both parties. This also points towards the devils being the actual architects behind the religion of Baa. Is this some sort of stab against religion by the developers, that actual Devils think up a religion to mislead the masses? We'll never know.
Here's a map of the place.
1. This is where the high priest resides.
The devils are encountered at the bottom of the "horns" near the entrance. If you take care not to fall down there, you have no need to fight them.
That concludes our business in Avlee for the time being, so we return to Castle Harmondale. Once there, we admire the banners next to the throne room.
The one to the left of the doors is the one we got for the "you win!" update (giving the Trumpet to Judge Grey), the other one is for allying with Bracada.
Just as with the darksiders, choosing a side means upgrades to the castle. The wording of our butler is slightly different however.
He seemed more enthusiastic about the dungeon and torture room with the darkside party.
Other than this though, there are no differences. Which also means we now have the cheapest temple readily available in our very own lobby.
So far we've done what we were told for two of our promotion quests. We still need to run errands for 6 more, and that's not including the druid promotion quest as we've not completed the basic one there yet, by virtue of not having gone to the Evenmorn Islands yet.
Off to the Tularean forest with us. We have a tree to chat to.
Nope. Not that one.
Yes, this looks more likely. As soon as we get close enough to the tree, it starts talking to us.
The mercenary guild in Tatalia. We have our next destination.
Incidentally, this is also the place where you meet Mr Stantley later, so clearing this place before that triggers is a Good Idea for our lightsiders who have a promotion quest here. Else you'd need to wait until you'd done his quest or ignored him long enough for him to get pissed at you and disappear. More on that later.
Inside there are some simple rogues that are low-level melee enemies, then there are bowmen:
Them being ranged attackers should go without saying. Run up to them and whack them quick, and they will not be much of a threat. The last type of enemy however is a tougher nut.
Plenty of hitpoints, hits for a lot of damage, and they can cast self-buffing spells. You're well advised to try and lure them one or two at a time, or try to find an obstacle to stand behind and hope they're too stupid to run around it. The latter worked pretty well several times. M:
In the guild we find a letter from Mr Malwick himself.
Wow. I really feel bad about not doing their bidding now.
In another chest, we find what we came here for.
With that, we can leave this place. Here's the map.
1. Chest with Heart of the Wood
2. Simple trap, neglible threat
Simple layout, few large rooms, not much cover. Some secret doors lead to alcoves where bowmen are posted, making for a good ambush when you enter. Unless you enter while invisible as I did. Due to the swordsmen, this dungeon was the second hardest so far, only the devils making the Temple of Baa harder.
With the odd-looking gem, the Heart of the Wood, in hand, we return to the chatty tree in the Tularean forest.
We won't have to talk with this guy ever again, and I don't even think we can. Good riddance. Incidentally, the trees surrounding him, who were hitherto hostile, have now turned friendly. This just means they don't fire at us anymore. They're only a real threat to a lower level party, so it's not of much consequence.
Now we have some errands to run in Deyja, there's a certain damsel in need of rescue.
This tower is extremely straightforward, but Setag, being a Master of the Sword, is a dangerous opponent. He's fairly lonesome however (I guess that's why he had Alice abducted? ), so taking him down is quite doable.
On the top level of his tower, we find a walled-off cell containing the person we came looking for.
Another useless NPC to lug around. Fortunately they're effectively immortal when in our care, and don't take up any useful space. So we're in no real hurry returning her home. M:
Before we leave the tower, we take the time to loot the late Setag's body.
Life-stealing effects are always nice.
The map of the tower shows how small this dungeon really is.
1. William Setag
2. Alice Hargreaves' cell
Close to William Setag's tower, there is another tower, one which holds our next objective.
I just love the necromancers' sense of style.
Their watchtower is guarded by ghosts 'n goblins, golems, liches and necromancers. I'll not comment further on the ghosts 'n goblins.
These guys sling earth type spells at your party. They can pack a punch, but they are far from the most dangerous opponents here.
The liches are more dangerous. The basic ones not so much. I believe they have only 100hps, so they go down quick. The powerliches pack a heavier punch, and have 180 hitpoints. Luckily for us, the third tier, the Lich King, isn't encountered here. That bastard can cast Dragon Breath and Pain Reflection both. And that hurts like heck!
Speaking of which..
The Queens of the Dead can also cast Dragon Breath and pain reflection, so these bitches need to die ASAP! One cast of Dragon Breath can potentially finish the party from full health at this point, so they're no laughing matter. They also have more hitpoints than a Lich King...
Sometimes though, they just happen to position themselves behind monsters of a different type, and then the engine behaves oddly. There is no friendly fire, but the projectiles cannot pass through monsters of a different type, leading to scenes like this:
That white streak is their basic attack just hanging there, not coming any closer. Same thing works for Dragon Breath, with the exception that that will eventually explode, and if you're too close, you take damage nonetheless. The monsters wont...
And yes, the necromancer is making a "come hither" motion in that last pic.
Anyway, the thing about this watchtower is the switches, elevators and retractable bridges.
There's no puzzle to the switches, but they mark off the dungeon in several parts, making clearing this place out an easier task, as you can do one section after another.
In one corner of the dungeon, we find the counterweight we were looking for, and switch that operates it.
The counterweight will move completely out of sight and continue moving for a time (you can see the chain moving) until it finally comes to a halt. There's an auditory clue to this. Once it has hit the bottom, our task here is done.
So we leave and ponder what we just went through while lookning at this map of the place.
1. The counterweight.
You enter near the small red rectangle. There's a long corridor that leads to an elevator. Taking this up unto a central spire, with 4 retractable bridges going in the 4 main compass directions. Each of those bridges end at a platform with two stories to it. Once all four platforms have been cleared (the southern one holds the counterweight), you jump in, find the secret door, and can exit via another entrance (the large red rectangle). Large, dangerous and entertaining. I love this dungeon for some bizarre reason, even though the Queens of the Dead are quite frustrating to battle.
With the watchtower disabled, it's time to go deeper into enemy territory.
When our darksiders came here, the monsters inside were friendly. Not so much for our lightsiders.
Fortunately for our lightsiders, the monsters are quite easy, apart from the obsidian type of gargoyles that are immune to physical damage. Cast fire aura on your weapons and keep the attack button depressed. The damage they deal is neglible. Unfortunately, so is the damage you deal, as it's only the elemental part.
Of course, I could've burned through a lot of mana, blasting them with elemental spells, but seeing as they're not much of a threat, I chose the conservative method.
Just before leaving the Hall and entering the Pit proper, we loot a chest and find this.
Superstitious peasants.
Anyway, we enter The Pit while invisible, and make straight for the Breeding Zone (well, we detoured by the bar to play a hand of Arcomage first, but you get the point (interesting enough, entering the tavern and playing Arcomage while invisible is totally feasible. I don't know why we weren't accused of cheating, but it didn't even break our invisibility M: )).
For an in-depth description of the Breeding Zone, look to the previous update. Our lightsiders also clear out the place as it's good xp, but this is what they came here for:
That's 6 out of the 8 promotion quests done. It's about time we go to the Evenmorn Islands.
I've also described the two temples on Evenmorn in the darkside update last time, so I'll just skip past them, apart from this:
The brown altar stone tones white, where the reverse was true when we defiled the altar stone as darksiders.
While on the Island, we also clear out the Temple of the Sun, as I know they're a belligerent bunch and will fight anyone, no matter who they've allied with. And the cloak we can get is nice for the boost to light magic skill.
We'll eventually get the third statue to the set and place them all. I don't remember what the reward is, but I hope it's worth it.
After clearing the Islands, we return to Harmondale and find a messenger waiting for us.
Yeah, well, we're not in a particular hurry, so we swing past Erathia first. It occured to me that we've now won an Arcomage game in every tavern in the game, so we can pick up our prize!
The uniques are race-specific, and the chainmail plain sucks, so it's only the helmet and gauntlets that get equipped. The ore can be converted into top-grade equipment at some NPCs here in Erathia, and the 100.000 gold reward is nice enough on its own. Not bad for some playing of cards, eh?
Having picked this up, we travel to Tatalia to see the creep, Stantley.
I'm sorry Mr Stantley, but three out of four lightsiders say we ignore you. The fourth haven't even deigned to voice an opinion, so I guess those goblins and renegade swordsmen will have to do their worst, will they not?
We promptly leave for the Tularean Forest, to pick up the 9th and last promotion quest, now we've visited the altars required for the basic druid promotion.
So we need to return the skull we found in the passageway beneath Stone City to its proper resting place in the dwarven burrows. Easy doings for our current party.
We click the proper tomb and the skull disappears from inventory. To get to the Barrows, we cast a Town Portal to Nighon, entered the tunnels from the other end, went all the way to Stone City and entered the barrows from the overland map. All of this to save food from travelling on foot from the edge of the Harmondale map.
After returning the skull, our lightsiders went to Harmondale and camped in the inn until sunday came. Then they travelled to the Arena to fight a Knight difficulty battle and repeated. Eventually:
As if on cue, when returning from the fifth win in the Arena, this happens:
It seems the attack on Harmondale has begun!
Unfortunately for the attackers, they are incredibly weak when compared to our party.
There's about 10 or 15 of them scattered in Harmondale village itself, and the remaining foes are to be found inside the castle. Until all of the invaders are killed, the doors in town are locked and we can't interact with the NPCs there. Which means we cannot turn in our archer promotion quest until we deal with the swordsmen and goblins, so into the castle we sally!
The golem is actually of use here in the main lobby, and the last goblins and swordsmen are found in a failed escape tunnel dug from one of the cells in the dungeon.
Not much of an invasion, eh? But there you have it. Choice and Consequence. We accepted the wand from the conspicuous man on the starter island, and in return, our very own castle was invaded! Too bad they invasion was so easily repelled, would have been amusing if the repercussions were more harsh.
With this done however, Harmondale is again safe from harm, and we have some promotion quests (and a single side-quest) to turn in:
Phew, wall of images.. Only two rewards here, the bow which cannot be enchanted, so is somewhat meh, and the Divine Intervention spellbook which just saves us the cash of buying it. I don't intend to ever cast the spell as it ages the caster, and if I am in need of that spell, then it's because I messed something up. I plan on not needing to cast it.
The xp rewards though, are substantial, and after turning in all these quests, our stalwart band goes and trains and levels up their skills, followed by me making a detailed travelplan for getting the proper mastery trainings for all their skills.
Here's the final quick reference sheet for our lightsiders in this update.
It should be rather apparent that Mrowak isn't too intimidating in hand to hand combat, while Cappen on the other hand is a monster. Speaking of Cappen.
Mastery of the Armsmaster skill while dualwielding a halberd and sword is scary, especially considering grandmastery of those weapons as well. He'll only get scarier when he finds the grandmaster Armsmaster trainer, but that's for the next update. He's also our main repair man. There's literally nothing he cannot fix. That coupled with his bloated hitpoint pool makes him the partys anchor. I planned on making him even more so, by building up his bodybuilding skill, but I've come to question that plan. Maybe it's better to simply focus on Armsmaster from this point on.. CappenVarra, do you have any preferences?
TheGreat0ldOne masters the dagger, grandly. Mastery of the sword skill potentially lets us hold a sword in the left hand as well, but the grandmaster skill level for daggers improves damage, so daggers on the whole is a better choice here. He can disarm any and all traps, and with no other skills of consequence left for him to build (I have never really bothered with the steal skill, and by now, money is no issue due to our two spellcasters), I've chosen to beef up the Armsmaster skill from here on out, unless TheGreat0ldOne has any preferences?
Erebus, the angry dwarven priest. Grandmastery of all available spellschools. Grandmaster merchant, meaning we buy and sell stuff at value. This makes for infinite money more or less, when coupled with Mrowak's Enchant Item spell. M: Erebus is going to spend just a few more points to get shield to level 7 so he is eligble for master training. From then on I'm not sure. Maybe light magic? Any input, Erebus?
Mrowak, grandmastery of all elemental spellschools and the school of light. Master staff for the occasional stun effect, building his ID monster skill to make resistances visible. Not strictly necessary, but nice. I'm thinking of either fire magic or light magic from this point on. Any input Mrowak?
First thing they do is start collecting the quests.
The first two quests are picked up in Harmondale, the archer quest is identical to the darkside one. The monk quest is of the "kill the foozle" variety.
The next two questgivers reside in Erathia. The paladin quest is the polar opposite of the darkside one, here we need to rescue the very same damsel in distress we kidnapped as darksiders, and it's even the darkside quest-giver who holds her hostage.
The thief promotion quest can be completed with stealth, provided the thief is accompanied by a skilled sorcerer... The only stealthy option available in this game is invisibility, but we won't be using that for this quest.Before I get ahead of myself, I notice it's sunday in the game. This means you can go a special place with the coach service from Harmondale:
The Arena is a way to test your party, but it's also part of one of the lightside promotion quests, so we go there to fight.
We choose the next-highest difficulty, "Knight", as my metagame knowledge tells me this is required for the fighter promotion quest.
Once you pick a difficulty, the party is teleported to the centre of the arena and monsters spawn all around.
The trolls and harpies are melee monsters, the harpies the squishiest of the two. The large trees are rather squishy and unsurprisingly stationary magic shooters. They go down quickly enough to not pose a real threat. The red lion-like things are manticores. The attack from range, but also possess an OK melee attack. Probably the most dangerous of this spawn.
The monsters spawned are dependent on total party level and what difficulty you choose. I got lucky with this group, as it's quite easy. The same group got stuck with wizards in another fight, and those bitches hurt, what with dispelling our buffs and summoning meat-shields (elementals) for themselves.
Anyway, this group is easily dispatched, and we can collect our earnings.
Only one fight per trip, and the monetary reward is poor. Plus, the spawned monsters don't leave behind loot, except if they are of the type that sometimes drops stuff for use in alchemy (harpies drop harpy feathers for instance, I think they're worth about 50g a piece), but seeing as I don't do alchemy in this game, they're of no use to us.
Oh, and you can leave the arena at any point you choose, should the opposition prove to be too much.
After this short jaunt to the arena, our lightsiders continue picking up quests.
The fist three of this bunch are all picked up in the Bracada Desert, and the fourth is in Celeste. The sorcerer quest sees us journey to the Pit. Arguably the most dangerous of the promotion quests lightside, if you count on using invisibility for the archer quest. The ranger quest is interesting, as it has us travelling a bit, but we'll return to that later.
The knight quest is rather straightforward, not much to add. The cleric quest holds a mirror to the darkside quest. We just need to purify an altar this time instead of defiling.
After picking up the eight promotion quest, we explore Celeste a bit, and find the NPC we had to kill for the darkside thief promotion.
No dialogue or anything. Just random commentary. A bit disappointing, I would have liked if she at least hinted that she did something special for the wizards in Bracada, otherwise why was she a target for the necromancers? It is a mystery..
Anyways, better pay a visit to the big hocho now we're here.
Again, deviating from the allowed course will set everyone hostile to us, so that's a Bad Idea. Following the directions is rather straigtforward though, so we quickly make it to the throne room where Gavin Magnus has a task for us.
We went through the walls of mist with the darkside group, so I'll spare you the details.
It's funny with these advisors. They're a suspicious bunch, both those working with the wizards, and those working with the necromancers. We'll get to learn more about them later. For now, we've had an update happen to our history book.
Ayup.
We return to the Bracada Desert, and it seems there's a sidequest for us to pick up there.
Since we're going to The Pit one way or the other, this one's a no-brainer. M: It's also extremely easy, as we will not need to actually enter The Pit itself..
Before we go to Deyja, our party makes a detour to Avlee, first to pick up a certain bow.
We did the invisibility thing again. And don't worry, we will return soon and clear out the place in the next update, once both parties master their light and dark magics respectively.
In another part of Avlee we find the last Temple of Baa.
The Temple of Baa I remembered as somewhat easy. I was in for a nasty surprise. Sure, the priests are rather simple, they're priest of the moon with a different label.
Their dark magic spells can hurt if you encounter the Clerics in large numbers, but aside from that, they are easy enough. This temple also holds the allies of Baa, devils..
The workers are simple enough adversaries, but the warriors and captains both hurt at range and up close both. The captains can also drain all mana with a single hit, and cause instant death. Now, once our cleric is promoted to the final tier and gets to cast grandmastery Protection from Magic, our party will be protected against instant-death attacks. At this point, not so much... It took a bit of running around and careful positioning, but I managed to clear out the devils and reach the head honcho (funny fact, most devils in here can be bypassed, but I chose to kill them for the xp just in case).
He's no more dangerous than the other Clerics of Baa and falls easily enough. He drops this odd looking cloak.
Not really needed when we have Protection from Magic, but then again, our fighter needs neither intellect or personality, so he gets to wear this wooly cloak.
In another part of this temple, we find a note.
We'll run into Xenofex later with both parties. This also points towards the devils being the actual architects behind the religion of Baa. Is this some sort of stab against religion by the developers, that actual Devils think up a religion to mislead the masses? We'll never know.
Here's a map of the place.
1. This is where the high priest resides.
The devils are encountered at the bottom of the "horns" near the entrance. If you take care not to fall down there, you have no need to fight them.
That concludes our business in Avlee for the time being, so we return to Castle Harmondale. Once there, we admire the banners next to the throne room.
The one to the left of the doors is the one we got for the "you win!" update (giving the Trumpet to Judge Grey), the other one is for allying with Bracada.
Just as with the darksiders, choosing a side means upgrades to the castle. The wording of our butler is slightly different however.
He seemed more enthusiastic about the dungeon and torture room with the darkside party.
Other than this though, there are no differences. Which also means we now have the cheapest temple readily available in our very own lobby.
So far we've done what we were told for two of our promotion quests. We still need to run errands for 6 more, and that's not including the druid promotion quest as we've not completed the basic one there yet, by virtue of not having gone to the Evenmorn Islands yet.
Off to the Tularean forest with us. We have a tree to chat to.
Nope. Not that one.
Yes, this looks more likely. As soon as we get close enough to the tree, it starts talking to us.
The mercenary guild in Tatalia. We have our next destination.
Incidentally, this is also the place where you meet Mr Stantley later, so clearing this place before that triggers is a Good Idea for our lightsiders who have a promotion quest here. Else you'd need to wait until you'd done his quest or ignored him long enough for him to get pissed at you and disappear. More on that later.
Inside there are some simple rogues that are low-level melee enemies, then there are bowmen:
Them being ranged attackers should go without saying. Run up to them and whack them quick, and they will not be much of a threat. The last type of enemy however is a tougher nut.
Plenty of hitpoints, hits for a lot of damage, and they can cast self-buffing spells. You're well advised to try and lure them one or two at a time, or try to find an obstacle to stand behind and hope they're too stupid to run around it. The latter worked pretty well several times. M:
In the guild we find a letter from Mr Malwick himself.
Wow. I really feel bad about not doing their bidding now.
In another chest, we find what we came here for.
With that, we can leave this place. Here's the map.
1. Chest with Heart of the Wood
2. Simple trap, neglible threat
Simple layout, few large rooms, not much cover. Some secret doors lead to alcoves where bowmen are posted, making for a good ambush when you enter. Unless you enter while invisible as I did.
Due to the swordsmen, this dungeon was the second hardest so far, only the devils making the Temple of Baa harder. With the odd-looking gem, the Heart of the Wood, in hand, we return to the chatty tree in the Tularean forest.
We won't have to talk with this guy ever again, and I don't even think we can. Good riddance. Incidentally, the trees surrounding him, who were hitherto hostile, have now turned friendly. This just means they don't fire at us anymore. They're only a real threat to a lower level party, so it's not of much consequence.
Now we have some errands to run in Deyja, there's a certain damsel in need of rescue.
This tower is extremely straightforward, but Setag, being a Master of the Sword, is a dangerous opponent. He's fairly lonesome however (I guess that's why he had Alice abducted?
), so taking him down is quite doable.On the top level of his tower, we find a walled-off cell containing the person we came looking for.
Another useless NPC to lug around. Fortunately they're effectively immortal when in our care, and don't take up any useful space. So we're in no real hurry returning her home. M:
Before we leave the tower, we take the time to loot the late Setag's body.
Life-stealing effects are always nice.
The map of the tower shows how small this dungeon really is.
1. William Setag
2. Alice Hargreaves' cell
Close to William Setag's tower, there is another tower, one which holds our next objective.
I just love the necromancers' sense of style.
Their watchtower is guarded by ghosts 'n goblins, golems, liches and necromancers. I'll not comment further on the ghosts 'n goblins.
These guys sling earth type spells at your party. They can pack a punch, but they are far from the most dangerous opponents here.
The liches are more dangerous. The basic ones not so much. I believe they have only 100hps, so they go down quick. The powerliches pack a heavier punch, and have 180 hitpoints. Luckily for us, the third tier, the Lich King, isn't encountered here. That bastard can cast Dragon Breath and Pain Reflection both. And that hurts like heck!
Speaking of which..
The Queens of the Dead can also cast Dragon Breath and pain reflection, so these bitches need to die ASAP! One cast of Dragon Breath can potentially finish the party from full health at this point, so they're no laughing matter. They also have more hitpoints than a Lich King...
Sometimes though, they just happen to position themselves behind monsters of a different type, and then the engine behaves oddly. There is no friendly fire, but the projectiles cannot pass through monsters of a different type, leading to scenes like this:
That white streak is their basic attack just hanging there, not coming any closer. Same thing works for Dragon Breath, with the exception that that will eventually explode, and if you're too close, you take damage nonetheless. The monsters wont...
And yes, the necromancer is making a "come hither" motion in that last pic.
Anyway, the thing about this watchtower is the switches, elevators and retractable bridges.
There's no puzzle to the switches, but they mark off the dungeon in several parts, making clearing this place out an easier task, as you can do one section after another.
In one corner of the dungeon, we find the counterweight we were looking for, and switch that operates it.
The counterweight will move completely out of sight and continue moving for a time (you can see the chain moving) until it finally comes to a halt. There's an auditory clue to this. Once it has hit the bottom, our task here is done.
So we leave and ponder what we just went through while lookning at this map of the place.
1. The counterweight.
You enter near the small red rectangle. There's a long corridor that leads to an elevator. Taking this up unto a central spire, with 4 retractable bridges going in the 4 main compass directions. Each of those bridges end at a platform with two stories to it. Once all four platforms have been cleared (the southern one holds the counterweight), you jump in, find the secret door, and can exit via another entrance (the large red rectangle). Large, dangerous and entertaining. I love this dungeon for some bizarre reason, even though the Queens of the Dead are quite frustrating to battle.
With the watchtower disabled, it's time to go deeper into enemy territory.
When our darksiders came here, the monsters inside were friendly. Not so much for our lightsiders.
Fortunately for our lightsiders, the monsters are quite easy, apart from the obsidian type of gargoyles that are immune to physical damage. Cast fire aura on your weapons and keep the attack button depressed. The damage they deal is neglible. Unfortunately, so is the damage you deal, as it's only the elemental part.
Of course, I could've burned through a lot of mana, blasting them with elemental spells, but seeing as they're not much of a threat, I chose the conservative method.
Just before leaving the Hall and entering the Pit proper, we loot a chest and find this.
Superstitious peasants.
Anyway, we enter The Pit while invisible, and make straight for the Breeding Zone (well, we detoured by the bar to play a hand of Arcomage first, but you get the point (interesting enough, entering the tavern and playing Arcomage while invisible is totally feasible. I don't know why we weren't accused of cheating, but it didn't even break our invisibility M: )).
For an in-depth description of the Breeding Zone, look to the previous update. Our lightsiders also clear out the place as it's good xp, but this is what they came here for:
That's 6 out of the 8 promotion quests done. It's about time we go to the Evenmorn Islands.
I've also described the two temples on Evenmorn in the darkside update last time, so I'll just skip past them, apart from this:
The brown altar stone tones white, where the reverse was true when we defiled the altar stone as darksiders.
While on the Island, we also clear out the Temple of the Sun, as I know they're a belligerent bunch and will fight anyone, no matter who they've allied with. And the cloak we can get is nice for the boost to light magic skill.
We'll eventually get the third statue to the set and place them all. I don't remember what the reward is, but I hope it's worth it.
After clearing the Islands, we return to Harmondale and find a messenger waiting for us.
Yeah, well, we're not in a particular hurry, so we swing past Erathia first. It occured to me that we've now won an Arcomage game in every tavern in the game, so we can pick up our prize!
The uniques are race-specific, and the chainmail plain sucks, so it's only the helmet and gauntlets that get equipped. The ore can be converted into top-grade equipment at some NPCs here in Erathia, and the 100.000 gold reward is nice enough on its own. Not bad for some playing of cards, eh?
Having picked this up, we travel to Tatalia to see the creep, Stantley.
I'm sorry Mr Stantley, but three out of four lightsiders say we ignore you. The fourth haven't even deigned to voice an opinion, so I guess those goblins and renegade swordsmen will have to do their worst, will they not?
We promptly leave for the Tularean Forest, to pick up the 9th and last promotion quest, now we've visited the altars required for the basic druid promotion.
So we need to return the skull we found in the passageway beneath Stone City to its proper resting place in the dwarven burrows. Easy doings for our current party.
We click the proper tomb and the skull disappears from inventory. To get to the Barrows, we cast a Town Portal to Nighon, entered the tunnels from the other end, went all the way to Stone City and entered the barrows from the overland map. All of this to save food from travelling on foot from the edge of the Harmondale map.
After returning the skull, our lightsiders went to Harmondale and camped in the inn until sunday came. Then they travelled to the Arena to fight a Knight difficulty battle and repeated. Eventually:
As if on cue, when returning from the fifth win in the Arena, this happens:
It seems the attack on Harmondale has begun!
Unfortunately for the attackers, they are incredibly weak when compared to our party.
There's about 10 or 15 of them scattered in Harmondale village itself, and the remaining foes are to be found inside the castle. Until all of the invaders are killed, the doors in town are locked and we can't interact with the NPCs there. Which means we cannot turn in our archer promotion quest until we deal with the swordsmen and goblins, so into the castle we sally!
The golem is actually of use here in the main lobby, and the last goblins and swordsmen are found in a failed escape tunnel dug from one of the cells in the dungeon.
Not much of an invasion, eh? But there you have it. Choice and Consequence. We accepted the wand from the conspicuous man on the starter island, and in return, our very own castle was invaded!
Too bad they invasion was so easily repelled, would have been amusing if the repercussions were more harsh.With this done however, Harmondale is again safe from harm, and we have some promotion quests (and a single side-quest) to turn in:
Phew, wall of images.. Only two rewards here, the bow which cannot be enchanted, so is somewhat meh, and the Divine Intervention spellbook which just saves us the cash of buying it. I don't intend to ever cast the spell as it ages the caster, and if I am in need of that spell, then it's because I messed something up. I plan on not needing to cast it.
The xp rewards though, are substantial, and after turning in all these quests, our stalwart band goes and trains and levels up their skills, followed by me making a detailed travelplan for getting the proper mastery trainings for all their skills.
Here's the final quick reference sheet for our lightsiders in this update.
It should be rather apparent that Mrowak isn't too intimidating in hand to hand combat, while Cappen on the other hand is a monster. Speaking of Cappen.
Mastery of the Armsmaster skill while dualwielding a halberd and sword is scary, especially considering grandmastery of those weapons as well. He'll only get scarier when he finds the grandmaster Armsmaster trainer, but that's for the next update.
He's also our main repair man. There's literally nothing he cannot fix. That coupled with his bloated hitpoint pool makes him the partys anchor. I planned on making him even more so, by building up his bodybuilding skill, but I've come to question that plan. Maybe it's better to simply focus on Armsmaster from this point on.. CappenVarra, do you have any preferences?
TheGreat0ldOne masters the dagger, grandly.
Mastery of the sword skill potentially lets us hold a sword in the left hand as well, but the grandmaster skill level for daggers improves damage, so daggers on the whole is a better choice here. He can disarm any and all traps, and with no other skills of consequence left for him to build (I have never really bothered with the steal skill, and by now, money is no issue due to our two spellcasters), I've chosen to beef up the Armsmaster skill from here on out, unless TheGreat0ldOne has any preferences?
Erebus, the angry dwarven priest.
Grandmastery of all available spellschools. Grandmaster merchant, meaning we buy and sell stuff at value. This makes for infinite money more or less, when coupled with Mrowak's Enchant Item spell. M: Erebus is going to spend just a few more points to get shield to level 7 so he is eligble for master training. From then on I'm not sure. Maybe light magic? Any input, Erebus?
Mrowak, grandmastery of all elemental spellschools and the school of light.
Master staff for the occasional stun effect, building his ID monster skill to make resistances visible. Not strictly necessary, but nice. I'm thinking of either fire magic or light magic from this point on. Any input Mrowak?Any requests, something you wish explained or explored in greater detail?
to all my readers.
Erebus
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2008
- Messages
- 4,847
Take your time. The game is more than 12 years old, so there's no hurry.
I hope your child has gotten over chicken pox !
You could also say that the death robots found here and there in M&M games are a stab against science.
Apart from the useless commoners, M&M worlds are mostly full of people/creatures trying to kill you. Almost all organizations have to be evil. And it's rather traditional in CRPGs for evil cults to be the tools of supernatural evil creatures (instead of just power-hungry or something like that).
I rather like the pictures that illustrate the places we get to visit in this game (some of the house interiors are also pretty cool). It's a pity that the Temple of the Sun looks rather pixellated.
It was interesting to see the invasion of Harmondale. I never accepted the wand when I played the game, so it never happened to me.
Erebus, the angry dwarven priest.
Focusing on light magic sounds like a good idea, though improving is obviously going to be more and more costly.
All of those pictures are also animated to some small degree. In most necromancer houses, there's a spooky lighting effect, or a skeleton that gets zapped with electricity, when it comes to dungeon entrances, there might be twigs or branches moving (or skeletal fingers, for the entrance to The Hall of The Pit). Very atmospheric, I probably should have tried to capture that, but my gif-fu is low.
My eldest seems to be over the chicken pox by now.
There are just a few stubborn elements left on one hand, by virtue of the skin being thicker there.[/quote]
lightbane
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2008
- Messages
- 10,559
Fixed. It's hilarious how blunt these games are when representing religion, at best they're a bunch of Not-Christians that unknowningly are worshipping a demon (in most cases literally!), at worst they're actual demons that do the religion thing for the lulz. Then there's Megaten, in which the Lord regularly tries to annihilate humanity because he can (and all of its followers are EVIL, even if they pretend to be otherwise, Devil Survivor's Law ending has the protagonist turning into a Nazi Jesus that enslaves humanity for all eternity, convincing them to be good or suffer the wrath of God).
:D
As for the lightsider Champion, I'd say: definitely Grandmaster Armsmaster, raise Body Building a bit more (to 7?), then you can split between Armsmaster and Body Building as you see fit.
EDIT:
fixdNot really needed when we have Protection from Magic, but then again, our fighter has intellect and personality so high that the penalty barely makes a dent, so he gets to wear this wooly cloak.
and...
eklektyk
Erudite
as always exellent read
Mrowak
Arcane
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2008
- Messages
- 3,952
Great update.
All's fine with me. Investing into Fire and Light Magic is something I normally do. Frankly, with Mage build there isn't that much choice but to invest in magic. Maybe meditation for extra mana, but you seem to be managing ok without it.
Mrowak, grandmastery of all elemental spellschools and the school of light.
All's fine with me. Investing into Fire and Light Magic is something I normally do. Frankly, with Mage build there isn't that much choice but to invest in magic. Maybe meditation for extra mana, but you seem to be managing ok without it.
Great update.
as always exellent read
Thanks.
I don't nuke much so far. Combat usually consists of setting up buffs, then meleeing the shit out of the opposition. There are some scarier mobs where the high-tier spells such as implosion sees use, but mana is a finite supply, where as hitpoints replenish quickly when regenerate is up.
The Meditation skill won't change this by much. Master level meditation skill provides 3 times the skill total to spellpoints. That's for 30 more spellpoints at level 10. That's a single cast of one of the grandmaster elemental spells, such as Incinerate. In my opinion, the skillpoints are better spent on making those spells hit for more damage by focusing on the relevant spellskill.At some point soon though, skillpoints will be abundant, and this point will be moot. M:
Just to let you know: I will not be checking the forum at all for the next days, don't know how long. My father is very seriously ill and I had him admitted to the intensive care unit due to septic shock. I was the first doctor on the scene, and being personally involved does not help matters. There is a high probability of him dieing, he's already had two cardiac arrests and he's in dialysis and sedated, his breathing controlled by a respirator.
This LP and my activity on this forum is on indefinite hold. Once he's either getting better or have died, I intend to return, but I do not know when that will be.
I'm sorry but thought I'd let you guys know why I've disappeared. Many to you all.
Azira
This LP and my activity on this forum is on indefinite hold. Once he's either getting better or have died, I intend to return, but I do not know when that will be.
I'm sorry but thought I'd let you guys know why I've disappeared. Many
to you all.Azira
to you, BRO. Hope everything turns out all right
eklektyk
Erudite
'Dex will be here whenever U need us.
My father died today. There will be all sorts of shit to sort through, physically and emotionally, and not least taking care of my mother. This LP will resume eventually. But whether it'll be quick, as I need a distraction, or it'll be late, as I have more important shit to do, I don't currently know.
In due time folks. In due time.
In due time folks. In due time.
My condolences, Azira-kun.
My condolences.
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