In Progress Let's chew licorice and kick orc ass in Realms of Arkania - Blade of Destiny SD

[NotAGolfer]

Why SD you ask? Well, I certainly won't touch BoD HD.
I still can't deal with the uncanny looking NPCs (and I mean the ones in the newest version), fugly combat sprites and that horrendous UI that somehow manages to be even worse than the ancient one in the original.
So BoD HD is just not fun for me.

Back to the original, because that's why we're here, right?



LIST OF CONTENTS

1. Let's have a party! (introduction and char gen)
2. Little boxes (exploring Thorwal)
3. Going down (old fortress in Thorwal)
4. Drunken Sailors (sacking Daspota)
5. Déjà Vu (more treasure hunting)
6. Spiderbite (vermin extermination in the wilderness? Why not.)
7. ...

And here's the manual if you want to look up some lore, rules or mechanics related stuff yourself.


Little preface (and rant ... sorry ^^)

I wanted to do this for quite a while but always shied away from it.
Then I saw this and decided to heed his advice and just do eet.
Okay, thats a lie, I dunno why I changed my mind. Anyway, to keep myself motivated I'll play it with only 4 chars and no NPC companions (they don't add anything anyway), at least not when I can avoid it.
And I will choose classes that are commonly disregarded in most playthroughs, namely 1 hunter (not too bad but made redundant by elves), 1 jester (a poor replacement for a rogue) and 2 witches or warlocks (the crappiest caster class there is, 2 of them because one wouldn't be able to cover all bases).
To make up for it I will try to get good starting attributes on char gen and I will of course abuse poison whenever I can afford it. But I won't reload if a pickpocketing failed or a char died in combat. Let's see how this goes.

I'll be playing the English version of the game, but with CD music (can't listen to the other crap, I'm used to CD audio for this).
Which wasn't easy to get running even though I have both the Steam and the GOG version.
First I tried to follow the instructions here but this just led to an ingame error message that there is no CD drive. Seems like you can't just mount an .inst file somehow connected to a folder with ogg files as an iso.
Then I followed basically the same instructions for the Steam version which happens to include a proper iso file for the CD music (the German version does) and then it worked. Now there are some German messages in the game (only general game feedback and not ingame text as it seems) and it says 3.02 which is the German CD version but the game itself is in English and I finally have the CD music. Yay me!
Shame on both Steam and GOG for these English versions though. It's not just the missing CD music but also the lazily set up dosbox config values that are all over the place and either make the game stutter and the textboxes appear only after a mouse movement or have the wrong fullscreen resolution or whatnot. I regret to have bought these crappy versions, even with that price tag.


edit: The CD music workaround created new issues. Am back to midi music now.


Now enough of that rant, volunteers for party characters please step forward.
Keep in mind that I will only use 4 chars out of the 3 classes mentioned (as described above) and that I will always revive a dead char because experience is precious in these games, so there will be no wait list.
I'll try to make the story flow naturally and explain the game mechanics and the reasons for my decisions so this shouldn't get too boring. If there are questions (for example about which skills are implemented properly) then just ask, I think I know quite a bit about this game.

So that's that, now are there any volunteers?
Doctor Sbaitso V_K CryptRat Fowyr Morkar Gord Lady Error Leitz vonAchdorf Scrooge Grimwulf aleph :Flash:

 

[NotAGolfer]

Let's have a party!


Introduction to the game

Blade of Destiny is the first in a series of 3 roleplaying games created in the early to mid 90s by German developer Attic. The games are based on the 3rd edition of The Dark Eye (Das Schwarze Auge), a pen and paper game system very popular amongst German players, much more in fact than D&D. I have to admit though that I never played any kind of PnP game, including DSA. I'm still very nostalgic when it comes to this game since it was my very first CRPG.

The RoA games feature the robust and deep DSA or TDE ruleset, party based gameplay, exploration of dangerous dungeons full of deadly traps, TB combat, a rather detailed simulation of character needs and conditions and most importantly tons of skill checks. Many of those are not of the pass or die variety though, but rather can add up to wearing out your characters on dungeon crawls or remote wilderness explorations.
So the games are quite forgiving and not at all as hardcore as some people might think.

Blade of Destiny and Star Trail also feature a travel mode on the worldmap and respective mechanics for skill checks that help immensely to capture the feeling of a traveling adventuring party, something I've never seen again in any other game for whatever reason.

This is a screenshot of BoD's travel map. This is the Thorwalian region, located in the NW of Aventuria and heavily inspired by historical Viking culture. Thorwalians are skilled seafarers and notorious beer drinkers. Many of them live in small communities called Ottajaskos, each consisting of the crew of one or a few of their longships. Their leaders are called Hetman or Hetwoman (trigger warning: Thorwalians have complete gender equality, so they are not exactly like Vikings) and are elected on a public gathering called Hjalding.

Their lands border a hostile uncharted wilderness full of orcs and other nasty things. But since the treasures of the world are easier accessible by sea they don't really care about what's happening in their backyard anyway.
A huge mistake as we will soon see.

Time for some intro screenshots:

Spoiler

This is the English version so of course this logo will show up first:

Thanks for ... well, adding that retarded XP multiplicator, Sir-Tech.

Attic, a legendary name often whispered in the darkness of the CRPG drought that came after


care for some trippy stuff?:

Every high must end though:

Now for the real intro, pretty and sparingly animated slides with text scrolling through them.

One thing is funny here, the game just toggles through all the previous screens if you pressed Enter or any other key besides Esc. Weird decision ... maybe it's some kind of test to see if you're worthy.

I will add missing text instead of posting the same screen twice in cases where it doesn't all fit on it at the same time.

"Thorwal, city of the ...

... north."
Notice the green orcs? That's a screwup by the freelancing artist they hired for the intro slides. Or simply miscommunication. He just didn't know that TDE orcs are not green.

"Loaded with treasure, the dragon ships ...

... none of which reached Thorwal with their mind intact." (And here I thought they massacred them all... )

... Arkania." WTF is Arkania?! This is Aventuria, you heathens!

... the skalds and bards in all corners of the world..."

*The End* ... well, of the intro slides
I like that intro, it is precise and to the point. Very German if I may say so.
Also the last slide always manages to put me in the mood for some free-roaming adventuring.
The world is my oyster!

Character Generation

Now that we have enough volunteers the journey can finally begin.
But wait, not so fast! First we will be asked which mode we want to play in:

The first option lets us click on stuff so something awesome happens, the second one is the proper way to play it since only here we get to see the talent values and have full control over levelups.
Now we have to decide if we want to use the premade standard party or create our own heroes.
Another easy decision.
Char generation takes a little to get used to and like with all things regarding this game it can be very helpful to consult the manual (or online sources). One thing most people certainly have to look up there are the basic requirements for classes.
You start to create a new char by rolling dice and distributing the results to attributes and weaknesses. When finished you can raise or lower attributes of your choice, and you have to raise or lower 2 points worth of weaknesses for each attribute point. Then you can choose an archetype/class that fits the bill.

attributes and weaknesses from top to bottom:

edit: That's supposed to be (AC), not (AG) of course.

Each skill a char has is linked to 3 of these attributes (or sometimes just 2, but one of them counts as double). Whenever he has to pass a skill check the game will roll a W20 dice for each of the 3 attributes and compare the results to the values of his attributes. For this purpose the respective char skill value gets then added to the sum of the 3 char attributes and if the result is greater than the sum of the rolled values then he passes the skill check. Negative traits or weaknesses are compared to a single W20 throw. If the value for the char weakness is lower than the dice roll then the check is passed.
Of course the game also uses modifiers for many of the skill checks depending on the situation and assumed risk and reward.

Archetypes or classes are the main categories for heroes in the Northland Trilogy, there is no distinction between classes and races. So every dwarf is supposed to be a natural-born miner/dungeon crawler and every rogue is a human. I guess they limited it to these partly predefined archetypes because else the char gen for a full party might take literally hours which would put most players to sleep.

Anyway, if you didn't consult the manual and have no clue what you're doing then you are very likely to see this screen:

Since we looked up the class restrictions we have more luck.
Here's our ragtag band of misfits, ready to find the McGuffin(s) and save the world:

Tigranes, the hunter
Doesn't he look like Robin Hood? He is a true survivor with some unbelievable tricks up his sleeve. For example he never washes himself and therefore works as a natural bandit repellent. The drawback being that he attracts bears instead. His motto is "To survive wilderness, you gotta become wilderness."
What an all around great guy!

Spoiler

Tigranes is born under the sign of Praios, the god of the sun, might and rule, who gives a convenient +1 bonus to courage.
So gods are actually useful on the world of Dere, in fact one of their temple miracles is the only way to resurrect dead party members.

And here are his skill values after the initial raise in char gen:

So he's pretty good in nature and body control skills. Regarding combat I will raise his missile weapon and swords skills mostly. Most of the good magical weapons are swords and who else should wield them if not him.

Next in the gang is our dungeon leader and city guide,

Azira, the she-jester
Wherever she goes she turns heads and men bump into signposts and carriages. She will earn us the big bucks... No, not in the way you think.
You wonder why she is hanging around with such a bunch of hobos and hillbillies?
Well, she grew up in a circus feeding and training the monkeys. Which gave her invaluable insight into human nature for some reason.

Spoiler

She's born under the sign of Tsa, the goddess of life and youth. Which makes her even prettier. Sadly she's sort of a wimp when it comes to combat but that will change over time.

She will specialize in thrown weapons (no, not feces), swords and some social and craftmanship skills, especially locks and everything that earns us money. I screwed up at char gen by not raising haggling first so this is still at the base value.

And now for our two amateur mages warlocks.

Kalin, first member of the world's smallest warlock coven
also herbalist and quack of renown
He often brags that noone ever complained about his treatments. Not sure what to make out of that tbh...

Spoiler

Another faithful servant of Tsa, and while his portrait say otherwise Aventurians actually think he looks fabulous.
Well, different strokes for different folks.

Notice how some of the more popular spells like Dance!, Transversalis Teleport, Terror Power and Paralyze are completely out of reach? And how many of the combat spells and Acceleratus are still a long way off? Not only that, many of the good spells allow just one point raise per level. FFS, these guys should really have spent less time playing Quidditch and more on their magic studies.

He will be our healer for all possible sorts of ailments (except the ones that befall himself), and there is no shortage of those. Spellwise he will cover a wide arsenal of combat-related spells, meaning the ones that are not out of reach for warlocks.

and last but not least

JoKa, the second half of this world's smallest warlock coven
... Warlock coven, is that even a thing? Anyway, he isn't any better than the other shrubbery wielder.
As I mentioned, there is only 1 warlock portrait. But that's not a problem, JoKa is in fact a born Thorwalian who always dreamed of flying around on a broom ... naked. That's the only way he can feel free he says.
Well, he's kind of an oddball really.

Spoiler

This is the ingame inventory screen. Attributes and weaknesses are to the right, LP - life points, AP - astral points (magic), ENC - encumbrance, MP - movement points

self-explanatory I think

JoKa was born under the sign of Travia, goddess of hearth and home. As a result he is gifted with +1 on the heal poison skill...

At the moment his stats don't look much better than Kalin's.

Since he fancies himself as a scholar he will learn lore skills and a collection of special purpose spells on top of some basic combat spells.


It's quite easy to get lost inside char gen btw so I made up my mind about who would cover which role before starting that. And since I had the clearest idea about what the hunter and the jester would have to do I started with them. Afterwards it was much easier to fill the gaps left with the 2 warlocks.

That's all that's worth mentioning about char gen (I think).
Next time after having arrived in Thorwal by ship our heroes will explore the city, purchase the necessary equipment for such a bunch of wimps their survival and try to earn their first XPs.

 

[Kalin]

I'm down, could add me as a warlock.

 

[Azira]

Gimme something big, burly and smashy. Smarts not a priority.

Durrr... Jester then.

 

[Azira]

Also, massive for this being a screenshot LP.

 

[Tigranes]

I'll be the Hunter, then.

 

[NotAGolfer]

Still one warlock or witchy witch for hire.

edit: Nice, now the party is complete. Thanks for letting me be lazy, now I don't need to make up weird Viking names.

Let's see what we got here:

Kalin the warlock
Azira the Jester
Tigranes the hunter
aand
JoKa the backup warlock (just kidding)

One of the gentlemen inclined to be a tranny female char?

 

[JoKa]

If you just need a name I'll glady offer mine for a warlock.

 

[Tigranes]

I volunteer to let Azira be the trannyjester

 

[NotAGolfer]

I volunteer to let Azira be the trannyjester

Great, a jester without balls. What can possibly go wrong ...
Azira I hope you don't mind. Not that I'd care, I can always pull my Trump card and say that "You're fired."

abnaxus
The game doesn't register that there are Thorwalians in the party. There are just no events depending on that, so while this is indeed another subpar character class compared to warriors and dorfs they are still tanks and I think they would make this too easy for my taste, sorry.
But I'll keep it in mind, in case this gets too difficult with the 3 classes I chose (I don't expect it to since there are even solo LPs for this game).

Hey, this lpix Let's play image hoster is great! Will use that from now on.

edit: ... or not, daily upload limit my ass.

 

[Azira]

Naw. I'm fine with exploring my feminine side.

 

[Darth Roxor]

No HD?

 

[NotAGolfer]

I just got reminded by the game that there is just one warlock portrait available.
But then I found a way to hex-edit portraits from other classes in.

Now I think I will choose a class-independent portrait for the second warlock that still looks plausible (so no dorfs for example).
The CD music workaround I found doesn't really work btw (screws up encumbrance and movement points calculations or at least their feedback), so it seems I will have to make do with the midi music.
If anyone here knows how to get the English version working with German version CD audio then please enlighten me.

 

[Scroo]

Ahh I didn't browse codex since the button parade kills my browser and now it's too late to join I guess

 

[CryptRat]

No elf and 2 warlocks, . I am not sure every puzzle is solvable by dancing, though.

 

[NotAGolfer]

The first part covering basic introduction and char gen is finished now.
Tomorrow I'll try to get the first real gameplay chapter online. But no promises, this stuff takes ages.

No elf and 2 warlocks, . I am not sure every puzzle is solvable by dancing, though.

Yeah, sadly this game isn't balanced enough for that.


But at least our heroes can do a proper victory dance in case they succeed!
Except for the hunter, he still has to work on his moves. Will keep that in mind, thx.

 

[Azira]

Looking forward to this LP.

 

[NotAGolfer]

Little Boxes


Exploring Thorwal

So here we are, fresh off the boat and ready for action.
Let's see where "here" actually is...

So 7000 is very large?
Sounds promising though, everything we could wish for.
Will see about that...

Our first steps in town:

Spoiler

First let's visit the nearest temple and thank the gods for that smooth passage. The sea has been calm and there were no pirates and sea monsters, Efferd be praised!
...
Well, there is no Efferd temple in town so this Travia temple over here will do.

That was disappointing.
And why is Tigranes wearing a shirt with the name tag TIGRANE? Was the tailor just lazy? Was the white yarn all gone? ...
Anyway, our heroes are thirsty for adventure so let's see if one of the 7000 people here has to offer a quest worthy our time. And it better be paid well, we have expenses and stuff and we don't plan on doing this for the rest of our lives. But first we need to go shopping, our party came off the boat with not much more than their clothes on. Yes, even JoKa, after a lengthy discussion and threats from the rest of the party to leave him behind should he go aboard naked.

Oh, there is a market in town, how convenient. Let's buy some weapons and armor first.

No time for chit-chat, we are here to do business.
Shit, we are really as poor as church mouses, let's first try to sell something.

A shame that we couldn't sell these worthless shrubberies. More than 30 ducats for both after haggling would have been really helpful.
Let's see what we can buy in return.

More than 4 ducats for a spear! A simple wooden stick with some shoddy steel on top! I repeat my offer, 40 percent discount or no deal.

Suddenly all of the merchants are upset and refuse to do business with us.
Well, their loss.

We need to find another merchant. Let's open our map and see where we are.

Phew, that was close. Seems like Azira is too used to everyone making way for her, she needs to be more careful.

It's really difficult to orientate oneself in this city. Everything is so unfamiliar and it all looks the same. Let's keep checking our compass so we don't run in circles.
...
Oh, look, didn't see that one before:

Nothing of interest?
I wanna loot the place, there has to be something! What about that bottle over there? ...
This is pointless, let's get out of here before a guard patrol shows up.

It's getting dark, let's hit a tavern.

They need heroes? What a coincidence, here we are. I don't exactly like the mortal danger part but immortal glory and good remuneration are exactly what we're looking for. This is easier than expected, we'll gonna be filthy rich in no time!


Someone is approaching our table.

Phew, now I'm glad that we didn't enter that tower.

Never heard of that Marbo, I wonder if he made her up or if she really exists...
The rest is obviously made-up nonsense. Sailors.

Let's get outta here.

The night is still young, let's find another tavern.

I don't think that's a tavern...

Well, then let's go for a walk.
Oh, look, one of those Thorwalian Ottaskins, let's see if we can get a peek inside.

Yikes, what an ugly mug!

Oh, look over there, that tavern is still open. Let's get drunk!

Typical, disinhibited as always.
Shameful display from the Thorwalian warlock btw, to be the first getting drunk from a few rounds of beer.

Spoiler

Day is dawning already, let's find some merchants and visit that Hetman Tronde Torbensson that guy with the big axe talked about earlier.

Umm ... can't we just find the sword and bring it to you? No?
Why do we have to do everything on our own? You're fucking useless, just so you know.
Whatever, we'll do it. But you better don't forget the promised reward!

Isleif Olgardsson in Felsteyn, noted.
Well, at least we get free stuff. Which one of those samey looking buildings is the arsenal again? ...

Hetman Tronde limited our budget to 30 ducats. Cheapskate! We still don't have all the armor and weapons we need.
But now we are short on money again, better do something about that.
Let's put Azira's talents to good use and pickpocket people at the market stands.

Notice how this doesn't have any serious consequences if you're broke anyway? Let's exploit that.

Kalin suddenly stops in front of a market stand, a herbalist to be precise. Sure, a few herbs can't hurt, just in case.

Ouch, that hurt!
But it was fun too, I think I like this culture.

Another piece of paper that lets us enter the armory? We just went there for Praios' sake!

And let's visit another tavern, our heroes are thirsty again.

In return you are invited to another round of beer by some guy ...

What's an Old Ugdalf?
Let's keep that in mind, but now back to Azira who seems to have found some easy prey for her cheating skills amongst the local gamblers.

You go, girl!

Back to the street, let's see if we can find that Old Ugdalf place.

Too much cheese toast.

Still searching for that "Old Ugdalf"...

No, no and no.

Nope and no again.

Who do I have to shag to get a quest marker for this?!

Will do.

Our heroes are tired from all the aimless wandering around the city, tired and hungry. Let's find an inn and get some rest.

Rise and shine for another day in the big city!

Now let's finish our shopping tour.
...
A few hours later our heroes are loaded with everything an adventurer could need... At least our greenhorns believe that. This city indeed has everything we could wish for. Will miss it when we are out in that orc-infested wilderness searching for some stupid McGuffin because that retarded Hetman had a hunch. ^^

Yes, we found another herb merchant. He also sold us poison. Dunno why they sell poison in stores here. Maybe Thorwalians use it to spice up their beer? Weird...

We also found this:

Now let's kick ass ...

Searching for sparring partners:

Spoiler

That brawl back at the market was fun, let's see if we can find someone else to beat up.
We need practice after all.

Those Ottaskin guards back there seemed a bit bored. Why not pay them a visit?

The more time we spend here the more tempting that orc-infested wilderness seems.

There it is:

... or not.

Let's give them a proper thrashing!

Abort mission! I repeat, abort mission!
On top of that they are heavily armed and seem determined to kill us!

Shit, this went all kinds of wrong.

But we are the heroes in this story. We can't let some no-name guards chase us away like dogs!
I've got an idea.

Hehehe.

We should feel guilty but they started it!
...
See, they are attacking us again, we are just defending ourselves.
Payback time.
Let's unleash powerful magic on our foes!

That was ... underwhelming to say the least.
I'll better avoid that useless spell in the future.

One dead, 2 to go.

Another one on the ground and just one left.
But Tigranes hit for measly 4 points of damage.
Seems like the poison on his arrows doesn't work for some reason. He will equip the spear instead.
... Shit, he can't use the spear in melee.
Why can't you use a fucking spear, Tigranes?! What kind of hunter are you?! Just poke the bad guys with the sharp end of the stick, damnit!
No, don't throw it, thrust it! Sigh, too late.

Damn, reinforcements:

Ouch!
We better finish them off fast before they do us the same favor.
...
A few painful (mostly for our warlocks) minutes later the fight is over:

3819 XP and some loot to sell? Seems like the "sparring" paid off.
Now let's leg it before the city guards show up.

JoKa and Kalin are in no good shape. But they both claim to be competent healers so I'm sure they'll manage...

Or not.

We better visit a real healer.

That was more thrilling than it should have been and it's kind of a miracle that we survived. Let's visit a temple and offer a donation to the gods to express our gratitude.

We are truly blessed.

Next time we'll see what's going on in the cellars of that old fortress. We sold the Ottaskin loot and our javelin champ Tigranes got a proper melee weapon that even he is able to use. It's a wooden stick just like the spear, but without the pointy end so he doesn't get confused. Boy does he love his new quarterstaff.
We also bought 2 sets of lockpicks, you never know with those secret passages and cellar doors. Also we want to be the ones deciding which doors we can open, not Master Dramosch.

Poison bottle Counter: 4

(see 2 posts below)

 

[Tigranes]

For example he never washes himself and therefore works as a natural bandit repellent. The drawback being that he attracts bears instead.

Literally first sentence of my current D&D character.

 

[NotAGolfer]

I think I'll add an additional restriction since else I have a feeling that this will become a cakewalk:

I will restrict the stealing or pickpocketing in shops to not trying it again in the same shop for the rest of the day after I get caught.
Else I could easily win every fight with poison and I will try to do as many fights as possible without it.

I still did that Ottaskin guards fight this early because I wanted the XP. One thing you have to know about this game is that it has a quirk that encourages degenerate gameplay: You only get the full XP for each type of enemy the first time you fight them. So if you want to optimize your XP gain then better fight big groups of bandits before you challenge the ones that are alone. Doesn't really make sense, I know. But it's not that big a deal, these games have a rather flat character progression curve and the difference might be just one or 2 levels in RoA 3 anyway.
Also let me introduce a poison counter that keeps track in how many fights I used poisoned weapons.

Poison counter so far: 1
... of 1 fight in total

edit:
Or not. Keeping track of how many fights I won disrupts the flow for me, it's just not fun.
So I'll use a different counter instead, the poison bottle counter, which records how many bottles of toadstool poison I use in the game.

Poison bottle counter so far: 4

And no, I won't count fights. I counted around 15 in the old fortress in Thorwal alone (am done with that, just have to write it up), most of them against just 1 or 2 enemies. For most of those using poison is a waste, so that counter is meaningless anyway.

 

[NotAGolfer]

Going down


Last time on LCLaKOAiRoA-BoD:
After aimlessly wandering around in the city of Thorwal and getting in petty fights with the locals at every corner our heroes finally found a quest worth their attention. Hetman Tronde Torbbenson ... no wait ... Torbennson ... still doesn't sound right but whatever, Hetman Tronde entrusted them with the search for a legendary McGuffin, Hetman Hyggelik's sword Grimring, deep inside orc territory, which in turn they have to use to hack some of those furry bastards to pieces so the others run away in fear thanks to failed superstition checks and mass panic or something like that. Tronde also mentioned that their main army is about to gather in the upper Bodir valley. Seems like time is running out.
The only lead to the whereabouts of the sword Tronde gave us was the name of a descendant of Hyggelik's, Isleif Ollggarrddsson ... yeah, that should do ... who lives in a town named Felsteyn.

But before they go treasure hunting our heroes will investigate the cellars of the old imperial fortress in the city on behalf of some dwarf named "Master" Dramosch, who seemed overly trusting giving away 20 ducats to complete strangers, but no complaints here.

He said that things are disappearing from the cellars, and now one of their students went missing too. Maybe just a nest of rats as always in these kinds of stories, which would mean even more easy money for us.


First we will have to refill our supplies though, we are short on toadstool poison and (potent) magic potions after that ... misunderstanding with the Ottaskin guards.
We are also short on money ... again.


Old Imperial Fortress

Preparations and Old Fortress Level 1:

Spoiler

It's late afternoon, we could visit another tavern, and on that occasion Azira can rip off a few more unsuspecting gambler, hehe.

Too bad, but we were able to make enough money for our shopping tour before they catched us.

Soon afterwards our heroes are fully equipped again. But it's also late and they are not yet fully recovered from their last fight, so they decide to call it a day and search for an inn.

Much to learn you still have, my young warlock apprentice.

Now let's get to that old fortress asap, Master Dramosch is probably wondering where we are and regretting that he gave us that advance.

... Azira can't find the tinderbox to light the torch, it's just too dark in here.

No problem for Kalin though.

Oh, there it is.

And looky what else we have here, nearly forgot it.

Everyone gets their treat, morale is perfect. Let's do this.
Can't wait to see what kind of wonders and exciting relics and artifacts we will find in these old halls.

Wrong turn. We should head back to the entrance and go left at that first intersection...

No! Phex will see it and then we can't bribe him win his favor as easily to do our bidding hear our prayers. 20 ducats aren't worth it.

Ok, then let's unlock that door over there and see what's behind.

Indeed, a well hidden passage to another room. There's something fishy going on h...

A bandit lair! Fortunately our weapons are still coated with poison.

But first our 2 wannabe sorcerers will make themselves useful and cast the only good combat spell they know, lightning.

They stand no chance against our dirty tricks combat prowess.

2394 XP per party member. They have to do something against XP inflation, this can't be a good sign for the ingame economy.
What? It's broken anyway? Okay then, carry on.

I'm sure you can't wait to see the whole distribution of levelup points in all its glory.

Sorry, but you'll have to keep waiting. It's kinda fun (but also very frustrating if the RNG trolls you) for the player, but I don't think it is for the LP reader.

I raised their skills according to the roles I defined in the second post. No surprises and only a few failed attempts. Which doesn't matter really, as long as you don't fail 3 times at the same skill you can try again.
Important snippets:
Everybody was able to raise their danger sense and perception values by one which is invaluable. And they all managed to raise their important weapon skills.
What else?
Well, Azira is a bit better at haggling and her animal training skill now reflects that she grew up training circus monkeys.
Also Tigranes learned his first dance moves.


Now let's see if we can find their stash...

And that's why alcohol is bad for your health, kids.

There were some good mana potions in that chest too btw. Azira was just too fast plundering it.

Now I guess we should explore the rest of this floor.

Waste of time.

Soon after we have explored every last inch of this floor.
Let's head back to the exi...

*fast forward to their return in the dungeon*

Old Fortress, levels 2-4:

Spoiler

Literally the first room on the next level:

Sadly the gold plating of these 2 chests is far far more valuable than their content.
We don't have time to scratch that stuff off though.

And another secret door:

Not so secret anymore.

Now we at least know how these "rats" got in here. How come noone knew about this?


Down the hallway there is another locked door. Azira manages to pick it on the second try. You can see a larger room with a treasure chest in it.

>eat gulmond_

Translation: It raised her strength by 2. Useful because of the raised attack (AT) and parry (PA) values and more movement points per turn. Kalin also put new poison on his broom.

>N_
When you enter the room you first notice the delicious smell coming from a cauldron above a lit fireplace.
Then you see shapes starting to move in the corners.

Ok, I'll stop with the parser stuff, back to normal.

With the poison and Kalin and JoKa blinding half of the bandits like there were no tomorrow this fight is over pretty fast too. They drop a gold necklace and a key amongst other things. The key seems to be completely useless though and doesn't open the nearby chest ... inside we find even more useless stuff.

But we aren't done exploring this level, they have to stash their loot somewhere...

And that's something of value?
Okay, now I am disappoint.

What's behind that door over there?

I decide when our work here is done, thank you.

Let's see if we can open that door.

Another level cleared. And on to the next one.

There is a corridor with two rooms branching off down here.
We should see where that corridor leads us first.

I guess that shovel we brought wasn't "heavy" enough for this purpose.

Let's see how far we get from those rooms back there.

Seems like we can't avoid climbing down that rabbit hole then...

Done. And in one piece, since our heroes are good climbers. But we need to find another way back up.

... Is it normal for skeletons to walk around, holding a rusty sword in their bony hand?
Thought so. Let's fix that.

See, skeleton, these here behave like proper corpses:

This place is kinda depressing, isn't it?
Btw, we found a stairway back up to the level where we climbed down the rabbit hole. We are on the other side of the cave-in we tried to clear without success.

Oh, look, another room full of corpses. Let's pay them a visit.

Ouch!

Still, ouch!

That wall here looks suspicious. And with the trap directly in front of it ...

Clear!
I mean, another level cleared.
Those 6 molotov cocktails bottles of Hylailic Fire are very welcome btw.

Now let's get back to the blue square level we came from.
The further down we go the more unstable these corridors and halls look. We are running into dead ends where the ceiling has collapsed constantly.
Oh, look, something shiny!

Nice, now we aren't trapped down here anymore.
But this is too early, maybe later.

There are more misbehaving skeletons down here.

A wicked strong brew, these molotov cocktails Hylailic Fire bottles.

Now the path seems to be cleared.

Ugh! Oh, and our heroes are not looking too well.
But no worries, that's a case for Kalin and his unmatched healing skills.

Old Fortress levels 4-5, and back to the future surface:

Spoiler

No, we are not retreating again. Azira will have to endure it til we are done exploring this hellhole.
And as long as the pus isn't green it's okay I guess.

See, she's still fit for duty! It's just a scratch.

More naughty skeletons down here:

No, I won't count Hylailic Fire as poison bottles.

Oh look, another locked door...

I think I found the demonic presence that caused all those skeletons to misbehave. Let's put an end to this spook!

That thing was immune to normal weapons. So we sent it back to hell with one of our newly acquired molotov cocktails.
Obviously.

That Heshtot wasn't the cause for the undead skeletons though, as the next room demonstrated clearly:

Well, whatever, I'm still sure we did the world a favor by banishing it.

Our work here is finally done, let's head back to the surface.

Nice dorf. I like dorfs. They stink though.

Now back to Master Dramosch for the 50 ducats he promised.
... What's wrong, Azira? Oh right, I forgot.

I hope, Kalin watched closely what that quack did exactly. This can't go on like that.

Now back to Master Dramosch.

Bye, friend.

Drunk people are always so awkwardly sentimental. Let's get out here before he wants us to become blood brothers.

So, here we are, back among the living. This was enough exploration of dark and dank places full of foul odors and things that want to kill us for a long while, or at least our heroes hope so.

Equipment and stats after another round of shopping and a good night of sleep:

Spoiler

Now maybe we should do what the Hetman asked from us and start searching for that sword.

Tigranes
Azira
JoKa
Kalin

Where do you want to go next?
Hetman Tronde's clue would send us up the Bodir river valley through Tjoila, Angbodirtal to Felsteyn.
But we can also go south along the coast to Efferdun, or east to Breida and further southeast from there.
Or north along the coast to the pirate's nest of Daspota.
And since Thorwal has a big seaport we can also travel by ship of course, maybe to Prem or one of the islands.

Poison bottle counter: 6? I think 6

 

[Tigranes]

Pfft, hunters stopped using melee weapons after 2001, now we just poke arrows in the eyes of our enemies

 

[Mustawd]

Very nice. Tempted to play along.

 

[NotAGolfer]

Pfft, hunters stopped using melee weapons after 2001, now we just poke arrows in the eyes of our enemies

Come on, stop bragging! Your missile weapon skill is still just at 7 so better aim for the belly.

 

[abnaxus]

Demonology spells are awesome if you are going to import into RoA 2+3.

And since Thorwal has a big seaport we can also travel by ship of course, maybe to Prem or one of the islands.

Poison bottle counter: 6? I think 6

I guess you know about the infinite XP exploit in Prem?