Wyrmlord
Arcane
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2008
- Messages
- 28,886
So having found whatever we wanted to find in the Cavall Run, we leave the place and move on.
Moving further down south, we happen to come across a town called Pranker's Stone.
One wonders why it is called so, until we find a shining rock somewhere in the middle of the town.
On touching the stone, we only find that all the keys with us disappear, hence this Pranker's Stone. Heaven's knows why people even built a town around an artifact meant to rob others or whom it is supposed to serve, but we just reload and avoid this damn stone and move on.
Now we find ourselves right near the riverside town of Romney.
The moment we try to enter the place, a regally dressed merchant called Mitchel Waylander stops us. He tells us that all the guilds in the town have been fighting about, and it has been as disaster for all commerce going on inside it.
Nonetheless, it's time to go in, and see the town for ourselves.
On entering one of the more bureaucratic buildings, we see a fight going on between all the guilders of the town. Locklear makes an uncalled for comment and the party is shown out of the place.
A certain very interesting thing is found in the local tavern. It is run by a boy working in complete slave labour by a tavernkeep who has left the place for the southern town of Silden. Locklear orders him to shut down the place, and tell his master that he is trouble.
It is again time to resume the southward journey, and there is just the brief stop in the town of Sloop, where a rather disturbing discovery has just been made. If you remember, a note on the road between the earlier western towns of Yabon and Loriel hints that Nighthawks are assisting the moredhel. A Nighthawk medallion just happens to be found at a local pawnshop, alerting everyone that this eastern part of the map is a Nighthawk territory. If anything grave ever happens here as a threat to the Kingdom, Nighthawks will certainly be responsible.
So knowing that there is a Guild War going on and that there are Nighthawks in the very territory where these events are going on, it keeps us just a little more enlightened about all the surfacing conspiracies in the lands, and we continue onwards. All the same a brief stop is made at a fortune teller's place.
The fortune teller has been in a rather demented state recently. The family is grieving under the loss of the daughter, and they don't want things to be aggravated for them. Nonetheless, the fortune teller tells us that in the future, we will be assisted by a man who looks like a boy. Locklear doesn't accept it, and instantly a screaming banshee runs out of the teller's body.
Once the creature is killed, the teller decides to give us the real future, that on our paths, we will come across a duplicitious man who is remarked by a particular scent. We have just received a nice hint for something we may see later in the game.
And now, we finally are the southeasternmost city of Silden. It is a coastal town, inviting all the manner of foreigners to the Kingdom, such as Keshian cannibals with sharpened teeth and the usual Quegian pirates.
A ship in this town can ferry us to an island temple, and we think it is worth a visit. There, a priestess tells us that we have earned the favour of her god, because we put the spirits of the sea at rest. We presume it refers to the young girl of the fortune teller, and for now, we thank her and move on.
Anyway, now that the southwardly journey is done, it comes back down to the western journey to Krondor. On the way, there is something remarkable.
Do you guys still remember Rhuargh the dragon, from Mac Mordain Cadal?
A place commemorating a statue of a dragon is just there near Malac's Cross. Time for a visit!
Watch out for what we are now going to see, because it is something that will eventually end up shedding light on everything we see in this game.
This is truly a landmine of information. First of all, Gorath is being used for some purpose that he is himself unaware of, and it would in itself cause harm to the Kingdom to bring him in as a turncoat with useful information, not that we have a choice anyway.
Also, the dragon has now again clearly mentioned that the moredhel are using teleportation to cross into the kingdom, another driving proof of Tsurani assistance and conspiracy against the kingdom.
Again, we also receive mention of Valheru. According to this Oracle, the Valheru once enslaved every elf, dragon, human, and dwarf in the land. Quite possibly, it may have been these bellicose Valheru who may have destroyed the civilization of this ancient man himself.
But one secretive thing, which still baffles anyone who has played this game several times over, is that there is some pain hidden in Gorath. We don't know what it is or from where it comes from, but to conquer this pain will allow him to achieve his destiny.
Another thing, which is confirmed by notes from earlier in the game, is this talk of the Six, the magicians assisting the moredhel. These are enigmatic people, and probably a faction of their own, with no direct affiliation to either the moredhel or the Tsurani.
Lastly, it seems Rhuargh was possessed by the spirit of a creature of an ancient race which had the powers of foresight. Apparently, the elven warlord Tomas assisted in transferring the spirit of this ancient man into a dragon. It means that wherever this Tomas is, he must have had a connection with the last of this ancient race.
Anyway, time to see the town of Malac's Cross itself.
The first place to go, as usual is the tavern, and the first person to talk to is the tavernkeeper.
So apparently, there is a new Abbaye who is quickly gaining in reputation in Malac's Cross as a teacher for magicians. And yet, outside of the usual nobles learning magic, somehow recently, thieves and other foul men have started learning magic and cause a mess around the town. One wonders why he is consenting to teach such people in the first place.
Also, the suitor to Count Corvalis' daughter, Du Sandou was here in Malac's Cross. Not knowing what business he was here for, he certainly seems to be a huge chess expert, and knows even rules that were only otherwise known by a bookish brat who read it from an obscure section of a book nobody knows. Certainly, this Navon is an extremely clever fellow.
On talking to an old lady in the tavern, we hear of bizzare and mysterious occurences near Sethanon. The woman does not trust Gorath to hear any of it, so she certainly thinks that the moredhel are involved, showing further case for extreme moredhel interest in Sethanon, and something abnormal starting to materialize there.
That gives us good reason to try to check out Sethanon itself.
There seems to be an entrance to a certain subterranean area here, but it is so badly choked with rotting corpses, it would not be worth digging through them.
Anyway, it is just time to go westwards, and finally reach just short of Krondor.
But before going to Krondor, it is worth checking out Eggley and Tanneurs. On the road, we meet a historian who tells us certain disturbing things about Sethanon. During the battle there, there was this massive explosion in the sky as if the very world was being torn apart in order to make room for another one. This is something spoken in relation to the Valheru themselves, and now one suspects that in the old battles between the moredhel and the Kingdom, a dangerous third-party may just have been ready to tear both of them apart.
On our way to Eggley, something catches Gorath's eye. Elves seem to have been walking around the place and turned back.
Further north lies the deserted town of Eggley.
Only the lone tavernkeeper of the place remains. His name is familiar; the very Devon that Isaac from near Hawk's Hollow told us of. He speaks of the fact that Isaac was accompanied by a few moredhel, and was suspiciously clever at anticipating moves. Which is funny, considering it is the exact thing Isaac accused Devon of. Also, there seems to be a handy lockpicker called Abuk, a fellow Quegian that Devon knows of, who is better than any lockpicker ever known. Most of all, during a Festival to Killian, a chief man of the rite was murdered by the man to whom he was in debt, and hence no one had come back to town out of fear of bad luck.
It seems like there is a mindreader among the moredhel or someone who can send messages across minds who is at work here. Locklear himself had suspicions of it on seeing how quickly the moredhel managed to move themselves up in advance of them.
Again, moving out of the town, we notice tracks somewhere that indicate the same earlier suspicions.
As odd as is the conspicuous chest and note found here:
Attack before the settlement of Tanneurs? We just came from Tanneurs! Is this a plant or are the moredhels just tardy?
Anyway, moving up much north, we find a Temple of Killian, which is relevant to the fact that Killian is the god worshipped by the people of Eggley.
Some crazed Quegian pirates tried to attack us.
We go inside and speak to the priestess. She is upset about what happened at Eggley, and has now decided to stop the Festival. She also wants us to bring the man who commited the murder there. Also, the pirates outside suffer from Quegian fever, which has been spreading near the adjacent countryside for a while.
Going back down to Tanneurs, we try to find the murderer.
So we end up finding him inside the tavern, and tell him that one of his debtors is in the Temple Of Killian. He takes the bluff.
We go back to the Temple Of Killian, and see what happened of the man there.
Anyway, another odd note is found, signed by a man named Narab, that soldiers are to be moved in to Tanneurs. It still does not make sense. There was not a single moredhel near Tanneurs. None.
Are these bluffs? All the same, way back at Highcastle, we predicted that the moredhel would try to ambush us near the north of Krondor. Is that where they want to persuade us to go? Well, we are not going to be stopped; we can just find the ambush and kill them. At this point, we are far too well equipped and can easily outlast any early game encounter.
So anyway, our objective now is to go on and move down the lower part of the south road to Krondor anyway.
Farmer stops us on way. Tells us big storm is coming. Says he'll give us a barn to stay in, and we pay him a few sovereigns. We refuse.
We decide to check out the magnificent plateau temple of Sarth and meet with the abbot. This is a place of large vaults and libraries.
...and also caves!
Albeit a modest one with nothing special in particular.
Incidentally, we meet a priest on the way who tells us there is no storm going on at all, and that there seems to be mind messages being sent across, with the image of Gorath in them!
So now we see what is going on. The moredhel bluffed us to come down the south road, decided to ambush us at a barn, and have been sending mind messages about Gorath to capture him. If they can send mind messages, they don't need spynotes lying around conspicuously near hills. Apparently, they even decided to humour their mind reading skills for a poker game between Isaac and Devon, messing around with both.
But we are smarter than them. They don't even know that they don't know what they don't know!
Well, we found the barn itself.
Time to see what happens.
GORATH LYWCHAN CHOI NEKKAD SEDU DELEKHAN! BAKA'AL ELEDHEL!
So Narab, the magician himself just appeared, and he mentioned the eledhel. The eledhel are the original elves, that actually do live in trees. Unlike their more bearded, ripped with muscles, and tall counterparts in the Northlands. Apparently, he is accusing Gorath of having to do something with the Eledhel. Could he have betrayed the moredhel to the eledhel?
Anyway, Narab is dead now.
He was even carrying a note.
R00fles.
Anyway, there was a temple nearby, and all the mindreading and mind-messaging had really fractured those poor priestesses. They are all okay now.
Now that all is said and done, we finally reach Krondor.
WHAT WE HAVE GATHERED SO FAR:
- A Guild War is going on in Romney, and it has disrupted trade there.
- Nighthawks are in the region around Sloop.
- Rhuargh the dragon is currently possessed by an ancient oracle who is the last of his race.
- Delekhan will strike the Kingdom without crossing the boundary between the Northlands and the Kingdom.
- Gorath struggles with a pain underneath him.
- Gorath is affiliated with the eledhel.
- Gorath's capture will only inadvertantly fool the Kingdom, and cause great problems.
- Sethanon has hints of Valheru attempts at encroachment, and people report disturbing sights
- The Abbey at Malac's Cross is training thieves as magicians.
