Wyrmlord
Arcane
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2008
- Messages
- 28,886
Raymond E. Feist wrote a large number of books based on his Midkemia setting, throughout several years. Being an avid computer gamer, he consented to work with the studio Sierra Entertainment, to bring the setting and the style of his fantasy novels to computer games, in an attempt to combine the high adventure of a genuine fantasy novel with the rigourous challenge and interaction of a computer game. Thus came the game Betrayal At Krondor.
At the onset, a series of skirmishes are going on with the tribal barbaric moredhel elves of the Northlands, and the soldiers of the Kingdom are holding them back at the mountain passes. An aristocratic knight manages to capture a turncoat moredhel chieftain, and they both flee away from moredhel forces, bloody and battered. They managed to be taken in by a young wandering nobleman who is self-trained in magic.
This game is the story of all that follows with these three men:
And so starts the game. The moredhel turncoat was just forced to strangle in chains his very own nephew of his very own tribe who came to kill him. His own family has sided with the moredhel king Delekhan over himself.
And the young nobleman is threatened to forcefully come with the men he just aided, because they are not in the mood to trust anyone. They frankly tell him that he is dispensible enough to be killed, if he does not comply.
We have an objective and we now must start charting our travel plan:
The coastal city at the southermost tip at the west is Krondor. The arrow marks where we are. The stated objective is that we have to go to Krondor.
There are many many reasons exactly to NOT do so, and you'll be seeing some of them very soon.
We move a few clicks down, to meet the game's first encounter:
Heads up: This guy is important. There is an actual avatar assigned to him as a specific character. He knows something. Ignore the smalltalk, there will be characters like him and many others, who are not what they seem to be. Most in this game are not. One way or another, he is going to have a pretty good idea of what's going on, perhaps better than you do. We might want to come back to him later.
Just a little further south, we come across a Tsurani outpost.
The Tsurani are the people of the Empire Of Tsuranuanni, a very feudalistic and heirarchical culture, much similiar to ancient Japan. They are famed for their secretive and powerful magics of teleportation, through 'rifts'. This makes them valued among kingdom people. We find out about a recent incident at the place:
Tsurani warriors actually stole a ruby from a Great One? Are they mad? A Great One is a powerful Tsurani magician who is above any Tsurani law. In the Midkemian setting, such people are known to destroy you with their mere thought, and Tsurani are taught to fear them.
There is a bar owned by a former Tsurani warrior nearby in this town. Let's go to him and try to talk to him about this stuff.
But before we talk to the brown skinned Tsurani, the dwarf is interested in conversation with us.
He refers to a cave called Mac Mordain Cadal. Hmmm...we'll remember to go that place. He also mentioned a place called Sethanon, which is clear to see on the map of the game's world far down south, and very much worth visiting. It was the place of a terrible battle.
But first, let's try to work on this matter of rubies and the thieving Tsurani.
Sumani will not dare question his superiors in Tsurani society. There are clearly other reasons for the Tsurani spontaneously closing up all riftgates to the Kingdom. Especially consider that this was ordered by the Assembly of Magicians (of which The Great One himself is a part) under some vague pretext of some petty aristocratic dispute.
The Tsurani are up to something. Their magicians are known to be a scheming and heartless bunch. We'll have to figure out what the hell they are doing. Perhaps inquiring into this matter of thieving by Grey Warriors will help us.
"...learned they may be granted freedom if they can reach the Kingdom. Many die trying."
Let's stop and think about this, guys. Somebody clearly needs these rubies. I reckon that it is a bargaining instrument, by someone brokering a few deals around here. These Grey Warriors, such as Kiefer Alescook, are probably intermediaries for this man.
He pointed us to Loriel. So for now, Loriel is out destination. It is to the east of this outpost. We start heading for it.
On our way to Loriel, however, we find a lone house on the road.
A man with dark inkblotted hands opens the door. Hmmm, how queer...
Wow, so he wants us to find some unidentified box with some unidentified item in return for an unidentified book of some unidentified knowledge.
Keeping an eye out about this guy.
Funny thing, a little north of his house, you find something kinda wierd. It's an isolated workshop.
Let's check in -
No shit. It probably tells us a little something about inkblot man nearby.
NO ONE IN THIS GAME IS TO BE TRUSTED.
For now, I move on. Here's a thing - as you travel, on both sides of the road, you'll find dulating hills and forests. They are ideal places for hiding something. Because if you scout around the place, you tend to find a few things.
Because barely a few miles from the inkblot man's house, I came across a little chest hidden somewhere.
A moredhel chest. With a spy note.
Uh oh.
And then there is another chest further east:
With another spynote:
The moredhel have already moved against us. They already maneuvered themselves far ahead of us, and are there waiting for us at south road to Krondor. And they have already set up dangerous magical traps on those roads.
This is the game giving us a hint: IT WOULD BE SHEER IDIOCY TO TAKE THE SOUTH ROAD TO KRONDOR. IT IS MEANT TO DO NOTHING BUT GET YOU KILLED, AND THE MOREDHEL ARE FAR MORE PREPARED THAN US TO SLAUGHTER US WHEN WE GET THERE.
This pretty much defines a new self-determined objective to the game. Avoid going to Krondor at all costs. It means nothing if we get there as corpses.
Instead, our first aim is to throw off moredhel assassins. If we are to fight them, we will do so on our own terms instead of being caught by them offguard.
Hence:
We shall now disregard the direct road (marked by a blue arrow), and take the longer but more convenient road (marked by two brown arrows) all the way to the north-east, down to south-east, and from there, enter Krondor through the southernmost road.
But for now, our destination is Loriel. We are now one step ahead of the moredhel and have found their plan so that we can start working against it. There is now complete certainty that there was heavy moredhel activity in the region before we came here. In fact, certain things indicate it.
We came across a distressed farmer somewhere here:
who told us about "rackets to the west"
Possibly, the moredhel were negotiating for those explosive traps the inkblotted man was making, possibly experimenting with those traps to see if they work. This man's testimony confirms it.
Anyway, we finally meet Keifer Alescook himself at Loriel.
And he points us to a man called Isaac.
As Sumani was telling us, Isaac is most likely a dangerous man. If he can dare to steal from powerful Tsurani magicians, he is a formidable fellow.
Nonetheless, a little down south from Loriel, we find a lone man on the road.
He seems to be a good old friend of Locklear's...
...whose name happens to be Isaac!
NO ONE IN THIS GAME IS TO BE TRUSTED.
What a disgusting slimy double-talker this Isaac guy is. Locklear is either very tactful or very gullible.
Notice that when you try to talk to him about any mind-reading magician, he evades the question and tells you about a poker player. Also, there is no sword crafter who accepts payment in rubies, in any part of the game's world. That's a ridiculous bluff on his part, and he is trying to play cool and calm.
Nonetheless, we manage to get the ruby from him in return for the favor, and it will be returned to the Tsurani at the outpost.
In the meanwhile, he mentioned a man nicknamed Smokefingers. Just in Hawk's Hollow, the man tries to rob you blind, but Locklear manages to grab him. Apparently, he is a fellow by the name of Lucan. A very clever lockpick. He has made the townsfolk paranoid with his regular thefts, and one old lady keeps herself locked inside out of fear.
At Hawk's Hollow, there is another curious encounter.
Somebody tells us that we should watch out for a man with strange markings on his hands. Could he be talking about inkblot himself?
Anyway, since we are near Hawk's Hollow, we might find this man's chest. Remember the traps at the nearby workshop? I don't think we can be too safe about approaching this chest.
Indeed, the chest was rigged with explosives, which Locklear manages to remove. A couple of thugs were guarding the chest, and on killing them, we find a spynote:
There is a precious gem in that box, nicked from the moredhel. Apparently, this is what the inkblot man wanted, though you wonder why he was intent on grabbing something that the thieves stole from moredhel soldiers.
We go back far north, where we met Philip.
Wow, so it IS inkblot himself. I think we have caught on to something here. We now confront inkblot at his house just up north.
WHAT WE HAVE GATHERED SO FAR:
1. The moredhel were alarmed in advance that the party was coming down south, and placed themselves along the southern road to Krondor.
2. Considering that we found Isaac with a ruby on him, and that a gem stolen from moredhel was there in Lucan's box, we can assume that the moredhel broker for information with some of the locals, and trade precious gems for it. People like Isaac are probably in frequent dealings with the moredhel. Gem thefts have become common because of their leverage in these shady dealings with moredhel.
3. The moredhel, who come from the Northlands, and who can only enter the Kingdom from the mountain passes guarded by Kingdom soldiers, have somehow managed to locate themselves on the south road to Krondor.
4. Teleportation is most likely at play here since the moredhel managed to get so far of us so quickly, and this hints at secret Tsurani assistance to the moredhel.
5. The assassin's guild of Nighthawks has been assisting moredhel.
6. An enigmatic group called the Six is also assisting them.
Anyway, the dwarf mentioned the cave Mac Mordain Cadal. That is a place worth investigating.
We find ourselves there:
TO BE CONTINUED...
At the onset, a series of skirmishes are going on with the tribal barbaric moredhel elves of the Northlands, and the soldiers of the Kingdom are holding them back at the mountain passes. An aristocratic knight manages to capture a turncoat moredhel chieftain, and they both flee away from moredhel forces, bloody and battered. They managed to be taken in by a young wandering nobleman who is self-trained in magic.
This game is the story of all that follows with these three men:
And so starts the game. The moredhel turncoat was just forced to strangle in chains his very own nephew of his very own tribe who came to kill him. His own family has sided with the moredhel king Delekhan over himself.
And the young nobleman is threatened to forcefully come with the men he just aided, because they are not in the mood to trust anyone. They frankly tell him that he is dispensible enough to be killed, if he does not comply.
We have an objective and we now must start charting our travel plan:
The coastal city at the southermost tip at the west is Krondor. The arrow marks where we are. The stated objective is that we have to go to Krondor.
There are many many reasons exactly to NOT do so, and you'll be seeing some of them very soon.
We move a few clicks down, to meet the game's first encounter:
Heads up: This guy is important. There is an actual avatar assigned to him as a specific character. He knows something. Ignore the smalltalk, there will be characters like him and many others, who are not what they seem to be. Most in this game are not. One way or another, he is going to have a pretty good idea of what's going on, perhaps better than you do. We might want to come back to him later.
Just a little further south, we come across a Tsurani outpost.
The Tsurani are the people of the Empire Of Tsuranuanni, a very feudalistic and heirarchical culture, much similiar to ancient Japan. They are famed for their secretive and powerful magics of teleportation, through 'rifts'. This makes them valued among kingdom people. We find out about a recent incident at the place:
Tsurani warriors actually stole a ruby from a Great One? Are they mad? A Great One is a powerful Tsurani magician who is above any Tsurani law. In the Midkemian setting, such people are known to destroy you with their mere thought, and Tsurani are taught to fear them.
There is a bar owned by a former Tsurani warrior nearby in this town. Let's go to him and try to talk to him about this stuff.
But before we talk to the brown skinned Tsurani, the dwarf is interested in conversation with us.
He refers to a cave called Mac Mordain Cadal. Hmmm...we'll remember to go that place. He also mentioned a place called Sethanon, which is clear to see on the map of the game's world far down south, and very much worth visiting. It was the place of a terrible battle.
But first, let's try to work on this matter of rubies and the thieving Tsurani.
Sumani will not dare question his superiors in Tsurani society. There are clearly other reasons for the Tsurani spontaneously closing up all riftgates to the Kingdom. Especially consider that this was ordered by the Assembly of Magicians (of which The Great One himself is a part) under some vague pretext of some petty aristocratic dispute.
The Tsurani are up to something. Their magicians are known to be a scheming and heartless bunch. We'll have to figure out what the hell they are doing. Perhaps inquiring into this matter of thieving by Grey Warriors will help us.
"...learned they may be granted freedom if they can reach the Kingdom. Many die trying."
Let's stop and think about this, guys. Somebody clearly needs these rubies. I reckon that it is a bargaining instrument, by someone brokering a few deals around here. These Grey Warriors, such as Kiefer Alescook, are probably intermediaries for this man.
He pointed us to Loriel. So for now, Loriel is out destination. It is to the east of this outpost. We start heading for it.
On our way to Loriel, however, we find a lone house on the road.
A man with dark inkblotted hands opens the door. Hmmm, how queer...
Wow, so he wants us to find some unidentified box with some unidentified item in return for an unidentified book of some unidentified knowledge.
Keeping an eye out about this guy.
Funny thing, a little north of his house, you find something kinda wierd. It's an isolated workshop.
Let's check in -
No shit. It probably tells us a little something about inkblot man nearby.
NO ONE IN THIS GAME IS TO BE TRUSTED.
For now, I move on. Here's a thing - as you travel, on both sides of the road, you'll find dulating hills and forests. They are ideal places for hiding something. Because if you scout around the place, you tend to find a few things.
Because barely a few miles from the inkblot man's house, I came across a little chest hidden somewhere.
A moredhel chest. With a spy note.
Uh oh.
And then there is another chest further east:
With another spynote:
The moredhel have already moved against us. They already maneuvered themselves far ahead of us, and are there waiting for us at south road to Krondor. And they have already set up dangerous magical traps on those roads.
This is the game giving us a hint: IT WOULD BE SHEER IDIOCY TO TAKE THE SOUTH ROAD TO KRONDOR. IT IS MEANT TO DO NOTHING BUT GET YOU KILLED, AND THE MOREDHEL ARE FAR MORE PREPARED THAN US TO SLAUGHTER US WHEN WE GET THERE.
This pretty much defines a new self-determined objective to the game. Avoid going to Krondor at all costs. It means nothing if we get there as corpses.
Instead, our first aim is to throw off moredhel assassins. If we are to fight them, we will do so on our own terms instead of being caught by them offguard.
Hence:
We shall now disregard the direct road (marked by a blue arrow), and take the longer but more convenient road (marked by two brown arrows) all the way to the north-east, down to south-east, and from there, enter Krondor through the southernmost road.
But for now, our destination is Loriel. We are now one step ahead of the moredhel and have found their plan so that we can start working against it. There is now complete certainty that there was heavy moredhel activity in the region before we came here. In fact, certain things indicate it.
We came across a distressed farmer somewhere here:
who told us about "rackets to the west"
Possibly, the moredhel were negotiating for those explosive traps the inkblotted man was making, possibly experimenting with those traps to see if they work. This man's testimony confirms it.
Anyway, we finally meet Keifer Alescook himself at Loriel.
And he points us to a man called Isaac.
As Sumani was telling us, Isaac is most likely a dangerous man. If he can dare to steal from powerful Tsurani magicians, he is a formidable fellow.
Nonetheless, a little down south from Loriel, we find a lone man on the road.
He seems to be a good old friend of Locklear's...
...whose name happens to be Isaac!
NO ONE IN THIS GAME IS TO BE TRUSTED.
What a disgusting slimy double-talker this Isaac guy is. Locklear is either very tactful or very gullible.
Notice that when you try to talk to him about any mind-reading magician, he evades the question and tells you about a poker player. Also, there is no sword crafter who accepts payment in rubies, in any part of the game's world. That's a ridiculous bluff on his part, and he is trying to play cool and calm.
Nonetheless, we manage to get the ruby from him in return for the favor, and it will be returned to the Tsurani at the outpost.
In the meanwhile, he mentioned a man nicknamed Smokefingers. Just in Hawk's Hollow, the man tries to rob you blind, but Locklear manages to grab him. Apparently, he is a fellow by the name of Lucan. A very clever lockpick. He has made the townsfolk paranoid with his regular thefts, and one old lady keeps herself locked inside out of fear.
At Hawk's Hollow, there is another curious encounter.
Somebody tells us that we should watch out for a man with strange markings on his hands. Could he be talking about inkblot himself?
Anyway, since we are near Hawk's Hollow, we might find this man's chest. Remember the traps at the nearby workshop? I don't think we can be too safe about approaching this chest.
Indeed, the chest was rigged with explosives, which Locklear manages to remove. A couple of thugs were guarding the chest, and on killing them, we find a spynote:
There is a precious gem in that box, nicked from the moredhel. Apparently, this is what the inkblot man wanted, though you wonder why he was intent on grabbing something that the thieves stole from moredhel soldiers.
We go back far north, where we met Philip.
Wow, so it IS inkblot himself. I think we have caught on to something here. We now confront inkblot at his house just up north.
WHAT WE HAVE GATHERED SO FAR:
1. The moredhel were alarmed in advance that the party was coming down south, and placed themselves along the southern road to Krondor.
2. Considering that we found Isaac with a ruby on him, and that a gem stolen from moredhel was there in Lucan's box, we can assume that the moredhel broker for information with some of the locals, and trade precious gems for it. People like Isaac are probably in frequent dealings with the moredhel. Gem thefts have become common because of their leverage in these shady dealings with moredhel.
3. The moredhel, who come from the Northlands, and who can only enter the Kingdom from the mountain passes guarded by Kingdom soldiers, have somehow managed to locate themselves on the south road to Krondor.
4. Teleportation is most likely at play here since the moredhel managed to get so far of us so quickly, and this hints at secret Tsurani assistance to the moredhel.
5. The assassin's guild of Nighthawks has been assisting moredhel.
6. An enigmatic group called the Six is also assisting them.
Anyway, the dwarf mentioned the cave Mac Mordain Cadal. That is a place worth investigating.
We find ourselves there:
TO BE CONTINUED...
