Let's Play Betrayal At Krondor (COMPLETED)

[Wyrmlord]

Did you find the statue of the goddess of death (i think) in the sewers? In fact did you do the quest for the priestess of the death temple (the one with the Black Slayers)? This game has neat items. I didn't find out the function of the aracnid statue until the third replay and then a "duh" was heard.

Late chapter material iirc.

 

[SCO]

Just so you are aware, my copy of betrayal at Antara has a bug at the very end (it crashes at the last puzzle).

To be honest i think BaK is much superior even if BaA had some neat quests. Do find the awesome loot on the forest before Evendar. And Glamredhel of course.

 

[Annie Mitsoda]

Still completely loving this LP.

Also, weirdly, a few pictures aren't showing up - apparently, Photobucket is being a bitchbucket instead. Quite odd.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Uh yeah, there have been frequent power fluctuations here, and although there are backup power systems, the spontaneous power fluctuations are so strong, they override the UPS, causing the computer to be instantly shut down before they get opened up again.

The pressure of this seems to have ruined my computer, which now has problems starting up, so I wonder if it can be fixed, and if I can continue the LP with less delay.

I wanted this to be the most definite assimiliation of all the encounters, situations, and information that build around the entire plot of Betrayal At Krondor, because Wikipedia only has a vague summary of the story, and the famous HelpWeb for the game is written by a webmaster who himself has trouble understanding the plot("Don't ask me why Navon was in Romney!").

For alot of games with obscure content, like Deus Ex and Planescape: Torment, there still are many people who know of and can easily tell you about rare hidden things in the game, ranging from Lucius DeBeers to the Sounding Stone. I, having played this game thrice before, still get the nagging feeling that I only know a fraction of the plot, as does even the very knowledgeable webmaster of the HelpWeb.

 

[Erebus]

Just so you are aware, my copy of betrayal at Antara has a bug at the very end (it crashes at the last puzzle).

BiA is very buggy. The farther you are in the game, the more often it crashes (the last chapter is pure hell). I believe a patch was released for the english version although I have no idea how efficient it is.

The game has a high probability of crashing during the last puzzle, but it is not always the case. It's a matter of luck. Just save before entering the last room and keep trying until you succeed. I rather like the ending.

 

[Wyrmlord]

We start off by getting out of Krondor sewer's and into a tavern in Krondor. We get the top royal accountant drunk so he can tell us some juicy information.

Ah, so a man named Max Feeber near Sethanon is buying up large amount of property, even though he is a modest farmer of little inheritance. Probably a shady character in connection with the criminal underworld. We'll talk to him whenever we end up meeting him.

Anyway, it is time to go north to meet the good old Brother Marc near Sarth. We inquire about some tactics against Nighthawks and he presents a useful solution.

Going up much much north, we go back to the old cave of Mac Mordain Cadal, hoping that some excavation has cleared off the lower levels.

We again meet Naddur Ban Dok, who tells us that the mines we found under Sarth once used to be dwarven mines

Anyway, going right across the end of this level of the tunnel, we finally find the staircase that leads to the bottom levels.

Down further, we finally meet the troublemaking kobolds and the dwarves who have yet another section blocked off.

Anyway, it's time to go back to LaMut, and talk to Sumani the Tsurani and Dugal the Dwarf. Sumani explains that a fellow we saw in Krondor, Makala IS The Tsurani Great One himself. Hence, we now suspect Makala as a prime moredhel ally and conspirator.

Anyhoo, a little visit down to Highcastle is in order, seeing that they were just in skirmish with the moredhel, and they are the most likely location for a moredhel attack.

Baron Gabot there is not pleased at all to see Gorath, but a far more troubling thing is revealed about the defenses of Highcastle.

Back to what the accountant was telling us. Sethanon, Max Feeber, land being bought, Jared Lycrow, Nia Lycrow, shopkeeper, trying to scare one another, we have a vague picture.

So let's go down there and see it for ourselves.

Well, since we already were told that a local farmer named Max Feeber was doing this little harassment, let's see if there is a farm nearby that we can check.

Ah, there is!

Well, we should just snoop around, and see what the farmer coughs up.

Apparently, he was messing with Jared's corpse around the graveyard and managed to drop his hand somewhere near the house of a guy called Herschel. Let's check up the graveyard.

Yes, he was telling the truth, he robbed the corpse's hand, and was snooping around the graveyard.

Let's see Herschel's house.

This part of game = Total Mindfuck. See what happens when you try talking to Herschel.

Just incredible! He's accusing James of sneaking around his house.

And then, when we go on to the town of Lyton a while later...

Still making no sense. Apparently James was also the one who sold a skeletal hand to a magician, and the one snooping around the house where Jared Lycrow's hand was dropped, and whatnot? This is completely incredible...

Let's go down to Malac's Cross.

Talking to Ivan Skaald and an old lady, we are again in that same situation of "I know you! I have seen you before!" This is virtually Planescape: Torment stuff. James could be The Nameless One himself. Except he is supposed to be Lysle Rigger.

Anyway, we might consider visiting the very famous Abbot Graves, who is secretly training thieves themselves as magicians. Let's see if there is some stuff to talk about with him.

Tickets to a lecture by a prominent tactician? Let's go and see it, then.

All this silliness done, let's see who this Lysle Rigger is once and for all.

We find the barn at Darkmoor.

Here goes nothing.

WHAT WE HAVE GATHERED SO FAR:
- Highcastle is doomed. Its defenses are already compromised and someone already knows how to infiltrate it. When they attack Highcastle, it will not be saved.
- A fellow called the Crawler is trying to off the leader of the Mockers, The Upright Man, and expanding his criminal empire, with the assistance of Abbot Graves who trains his magicians.
- The mines down at Sarth belong to an old dead dwarf, who alone knew how to navigate one of the vaults inside it.
- The Knights of Bas Tyra are the most well trained men in tracking Nighthawks, who very much seem to be around Romney, also the place of the river merchant guilds.
- The Crawler seems to be secretly involved disrupting certain Kingdom affairs for expansion of his empire.

 

[ghostdog]

Quiz:

What the hell is that guy on the right, doing? I'm talking about the long haired , semi naked man with sword.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

It's probably a tranny.

 

[DiverNB]

Lots of information, though I'm a little confused as to what is going on at this point. The nighthawks seem to be causing unrest with the river guilds, thieves in the sewers are getting stronger, and Abbot graves is helping?

Cool, it really makes you question just what's going on in Krondor.

 

[Erebus]

Did I miss something ? How do we know Abbot Graves is training the Crawler's men in sorcery ?

 

[Wyrmlord]

Did I miss something ? How do we know Abbot Graves is training the Crawler's men in sorcery ?

Because it gets confirmed in the later game at Chapter 6 anyway?

Well, you see, Ivan Skaald raises this suspicion because of the ruckus certain mages seem to cause in Malac's Cross; mages who are not of nobility. And Lysle Rigger just said right here:

 

[Wyrmlord]

A very quick mini-update.


As instructed by Lysle Rigger, we tell the information to Limm in the Krondor sewers.

On searching the items found on the Crawler's infiltrators posing as Mockers, we find a note.

It confirms the Crawler's connection to Abbot Graves, his need to infiltrate Krondor, a desire to find The Idol Of Lassur, and his connection with reptilian clientele.

Reptilians?

Anyway, back towards to the road to Romney, and no more mucking about. Since we explored the world extensively in the first Chapter, the game will get quick and linear from this point onwards, and having dug through several revelations early on will leave less to be found out heretofore.

But anyway, we are right on the road towards Silden.

And we meet a fellow that Devonius, the innkeeper of Eggley, told us about - the very clever and dangerous Keshian who could pick locks quite easily.

This sounds like way too much doubletalk to be serious, but the party claims to have learnt something from this. It still makes you wonder whether this man is some sort of fraud. I mean, "I spent five years at the foot of my master Caliphad in the shadow of mount Ashunta learning the art"? What the hell is that?

Anyway, we end up roughing up some hostile folks right on the way into Silden.

And we find a note for the Crawler on them.

You need seals to get into Romney? And apparently, they hid those seals with Max Feeber. Ah, so Feeber really is a part of their criminal gang. I don't know, it's all quite strange. Max Feeber digging out Jared Lycrow's body, conveniently forgetting to put back his severed hand, and conveniently dropping it by Herschel's house, right at the same time Lysle Rigger was looking for a skeletal hand from the graveyard as a part of his plan to infiltrate the Crawler's operations with Graves. It all sounds so set up, or something.

While we are right inside Silden:

we decide to talk to the local innkeep Joftaz.

Apparently, crossing paths with the Crawler has been dangerous business for us.

Anyway, we reach near Romney.

Mitchel Waylander stops us.

Right so, we are here at Romney, again.

And we have to find the Knights Of Bas-Tyra, who are knowledgeable about finding Nighthawks. The Crawler and his men have managed to get into the city before us. The Knights Of Bas-Tyra are certainly capable of defending and taking care of themselves against them anyway, so maybe we'll find the Crawler himself soon.

As we were told, they are stationed in the Black Sheep Tavern in Romney, the place where a child was forced into slave labour by a master who abandons the place to him. Let's go inside and see the men of Bas-Tyra.

To be continued...

 

[Erebus]

I don't think I ever found out why Gorath was seen 6 months before in Romney. But then, I'm starting to think I missed plenty of things about Gorath. It later becomes crystal-clear that he plays an important role in Delekhan's plans, but I don't remember discovering many details about that.

 

[Wyrmlord]

I don't think I ever found out why Gorath was seen 6 months before in Romney. But then, I'm starting to think I missed plenty of things about Gorath. It later becomes crystal-clear that he plays an important role in Delekhan's plans, but I don't think I ever found out what it was.

Spoiler

Gorath was supposed to be an eyewitness to a misleading evidence of having seen Delekhan wearing Murmurandus' snake-shaped helm. This would lead some of the higher Kingdom elite to think that they somehow found it in Sethanon. It was a vital distraction for them so that they would put their attention towards the Pantathians, since Murmurandus was one himself. Hence, none of them would stop to think about Tsurani involvement in the moredhel conspiracy.

That's how much I vaguely remember it.

Also, they must have trusted Gorath to betray them, because he already must have betrayed the moredhel to the eledhel in earlier point of time, as suggested in clues shown quite early in the game, and later on the forest beyond Caldara.

 

[Eldritch]

How does one compose the "adventure" in a crpg? Immerse you in the whole feel of it like nothing else along with its technical design? Few games managed to do that and this one is among the few that did.

It's a book, RPG style.

I always liked the "Book Chapter" progression of the games overall design, it's so goddam classy beyond a lot of the crap people are all over today as the epitome of all things wordy as a crpg. It *is* essentially a book that manages to transcend the limitations of the "choose your adventure" archetype by kicking ass with its design as a crpg. The open ended path, the investigation and gathering lore with a different focus and drive from chapter to chapter is immershun incarnate. They went for a more linear approach in RtK, its chapters more disconnected in the classical sense we're used to from a lot of RPGs IIRC. That one still had a good atmosphere too, thanks to the story and the artistic detail and still managed to be but a gnat, compared to BaK. It's design just wasn't as bold as BaK, it was more chocolate milky compared to that one. I'd still kill for that kind of chocolate milk today though, no arguments there.

 

[Wyrmlord]

BaK = Best Game-Book Ever Made

Of course, it is the only such thing ever attempted.

 

[Eldritch]

Maybe you need the backing of a real writer (olololol) for that along with the motivation. Forgive my manners guise but I would rape for a fantasy RPG Game-Book similar to BaK with the backing of Glenn Cook in the Black Company setting. Read the books and you'll know what you don't know you don't know you know what I know + the natural history of this planet and what comes next.

 

[Darth Roxor]

BaK = Best Game-Book Ever Made

Of course, it is the only such thing ever attempted.

The only thing I'd classify as something similar to this would be PS:T, although its lack of freedom hurts it.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Hey guys, get this topic to the fifth page with a little posting about the game, because the update based on the third chapter is also going to be around 300 screenshots, and is the possibly the best part of the game.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Uhh...okay. I think this LP is friggin' awesome. BaK is a game I've always wanted to play, but the sheer scope of it has been a deterrent the whole time. Thank you for allowing me to "experience" the game in some manner.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Uhh...okay. I think this LP is friggin' awesome. BaK is a game I've always wanted to play, but the sheer scope of it has been a deterrent the whole time. Thank you for allowing me to "experience" the game in some manner.

Erm yeah, just four more posts.

So anyway, this part of the game is going to be the most detailed set of object-clue finding so far. It's a part that deals with extensive investigation.

Beyond this, it will change its pace from being a mystery, to being an old fashioned fast paced fantasy action story, but still quite intriguing, and with yet a few more dots to connect.

 

[Darth Roxor]

posting about the game.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Words. Man, we need words.

Talking, we are talking here, we must talk.

 

[1eyedking]

Err...the writing's quality isn't that good, you know.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Err...the writing's quality isn't that good, you know.

It is passable.