Completed Let's play Realms of Arkania: Star Trail HD - Part 71: Phex Temple 15 - WTF Ending

[Helly]

How did you survive without a hunter before?
Nevill The french sniper brigade will get you one day!

 

[Eriador]

FFS those random encounters are ridiculous. I had to fight 8 orcs and goblins and during the course of the battle, they got reinforcements THREE TIMES, consisting of 4 goblin archers.

 

[Nevill]

Spoiler

Is this a genuine surprise I hear from the narrator?

And damn, I didn't realize the maps were that huge!

I had to fight 8 orcs and goblins and during the course of the battle, they got reinforcements THREE TIMES, consisting of 4 goblin archers.

But you do get the proportionate increase in XP for the encounter, right? Or is it negligible compared to the headache?

 

[RK47]

see ya Reinhardt

You start just 50 XP shy of level 6, which is enough to almost max out your important skills, or rather get them to a high enough level that most of your attempts to increase them fail, so there's not that much difference between level 6 and level 12 other then Life Energy. And it's enough to max out your attack with your chosen weapon, if you forgo parry.

And t's not like you actually gain levels fast in this game, Boreale JUST NOW reached level 7, despite being in the party since the beginning.

This sounds pretty retarded.

Welcome to Nu-Age Gaming

 

[Azira]

We already have a Silvan Elf in our active party, since we are 1 update behind. You can choose something else or stick with the Silvan Elf and I'll add you to the list :D

Not terribly inventive here, and not picky. Once the time comes for a new volounteer to step up, you can just slap my name on whatever catches your fancy.

 

[Eriador]

Spoiler

Is this a genuine surprise I hear from the narrator?

And damn, I didn't realize the maps were that huge!

I had to fight 8 orcs and goblins and during the course of the battle, they got reinforcements THREE TIMES, consisting of 4 goblin archers.

But you do get the proportionate increase in XP for the encounter, right? Or is it negligible compared to the headache?

The narrator always seems surprised whenever we succeed in curing someone. Almost like he hopes we'll fail. Jerk!

The swamps are indeed huge. If we didn't have a map, it'd totally be possible to get lost in them.

You do get XP from combat based on the number of enemies, but you only get significant XP from combat if you defeat enemies you didn't fight before. So, winning a fight with the 5 orcs for the first time would give you 50 XP, while winning against 5 orcs the second time would give you 5.

As for that encounter, I decided to flee after they got their second reinforcements (not as much because we couldn't take them, but because I wasn't about to spend another 10 minutes on that fight) and before I managed to do that, they got their third. But there were only encounters like that in the swamp. Most of them were fine. I just hope it won't become a norm later on.

Autocombat doesn't solve it, because the AI loves spamming Ignifaxius with Nevill and that's not what he's good at...

 

[Eriador]

Part 32: Swamps 3 - Wizard Tower Text Adventure

Spoiler

Alright, I think I know where she is. Surely, it's that hut with the well- erm, fountain and garden.

Ok, so they also knew something about Star Trail. Did not expect that.

We can look around, but despite apparently being populated by lizardmen, the whole village is deserted and the only thing of note inside is a well- erm, fountain, where we can replenish our water supplies.

Also, we can walk through the door of one house and find it empty. Creepy. It's like in some horror movie. What if those lizardmen don't exist? What if this whole village is deserted and we are just slowly going insane from Swamp Fever? Hmmm....

Anyway, let's teleport to that witch.

"Are you a witch?"

"None of your beeswax. Why have you come to me?"

"We are looking for a missing man from Lowangen."

The crone silently laughs to herself. "I can help you, no question there. But I won't do it for free. What's the phrase again? You rub my back; I rub yours. So, you listen good:"

Alright, seems obvious where we need to go. We teleport to the sunken chest and return to that wizard tower.

This time, Nevill plays the smart one. I wonder what arcane rituals is he gonna use to investigate the door-

Nevill picks up a long branch from the ground and pushes against the door. But nothing happens except that the door is slowly swinging inwards. "Oh. This Mage feels quite safe here on the island, or nobody is living in the tower anymore." You carefully enter the tower.

Oh, the classic 10ft pole trick.

There is a stone staircase leading up and down the tower wall. There is only a long wooden table in the room, with a chair on each side. The room is empty otherwise, and a high-mounted window provides for sparse light. You suddenly hear sounds from below. You carefully walk down the stairs.

The large cellar is illuminated by four fireplaces, which are standing on platforms. It is very warm down here, almost hot. There is a simple, massive stone throne on the opposite side of the stairs. A man with a fine red robe was sitting it; Clearly a Mage, who is now angrily looking at you.

This could be somewhat interesting if we could actually enter the tower and didn't have to just stare at the door the whole time. Maybe atleast a picture?

"You dare to enter my tower?"

"Sabrina must have sent you. She has always been keen on my crystal ball."

"But if she thinks she has found someone capable of withstanding my might, she is sadly mistaken!"

"I shall summon an assistant to teach you the meaning of the word fear."

"I see no one here worthy."

"It is escaping my control...No...! Praios help me!!!"

"Proclaim your supplication with the appropriate humility then, for someone here shall become the target of my divine wrath."

"Destruction to the intruders!"

Well, Understanding seems like the most peaceful and humble option, so let's go with that.

"Well countered, puny one."

"Death to the enemies of Hesinde. You are her messenger and my servant!"

Well, Life I guess.

"You appear to choose your words with great knowledge!"

Not really, as I have no idea what exactly are we supposed to do here. Maybe I'm just dumb.

"Will you destroy the scum!"

...benevolence, I guess? Succor could also work, but I don't know if the game would accept that.

"Calling me is not everything! Control is power! No one makes that mistake twice!"

Dead Reinhardt gained a level, wooohooo!

We find the crystal ball, some alchemy recipes and a this rapier.

...couldn't you atleast add some fire effects or something?

 

[Darth Roxor]

maybe it burnt out from the inside

 

[Eriador]

Then add smoke effects.

 

[Darth Roxor]

But there are no windows from which the smoke could escape!

 

[Eriador]

The door keeps opening and closing, so it could go out of the door.

 

[Nevill]

Ah, break into a house, loot it, then burn it down with the owner. Classic adventurers.

 

[Eriador]

Part 33: Swamps 4 - Ban the Witch!

Spoiler

Well, seems Sabrina the Elderly Witch suddenly hates us.

The following screenshots are the most interesting from about 20 or so attempts to 3-man this.

The witch starts the fight with her broom already summoned (it despawns after about 5 rounds, so it's actually a summon) and 4 other companions. Like that cuddly giant bear over there, that hugs people twice per round and frequently knocks them down, which prevents them from moving (they can still act, just not move).

Helly performs another classic 360noscope headshot on the bear, yet even that's not enough to finish it off. Even his LEET SKILLZ can't PWN this bear.

That Grim Wolf also has atleast over 50 Life Energy. The giant bug and the spider go down in a couple of hits, as does the witch if you focus her, but these two give the dwarves from hell a run for their money.

The spider sometimes manages to poison someone, which instantly makes them faint (so they fall unconcious), but it only happened like 2 times.

Also, the bear frequently does this to whatever it attacks. It knocks them down (but there's no actual "knocked down" animation, they are still standing with a status debuff).

"Straps and shackles surround you and force you into my ban!"

(The witch uses the same casting dialogue as female player characters, so this old lady has the voice of a young, 20-something woman.)

Turns out, this witch has the power to ban people from the server, wielding the powers of an admin. She bans Helly, who promptly ragequits and calls the witch a H4XX0R!

(That spell prevents the target from moving AND doing anything and it lasts for the whole battle or until someone casts Break Domination on the target, so it's like Paralyse, except better in every way)

I try to oneshot the witch with Ignifaxius, but turns out, she's immune to fire. That makes sense, since witches have the Protection from Fire spell, but she didn't cast that, so either she comes with it already active, or they just made her immune to fire to symbolize that.

Seems burning witches at the stake isn't very effective in Aventuria.

Boreale is also knocked down by that bear. Helly whines on the forums and tries to get that witch banned, but it turns out she seduced all of the other admins with her vile magic, so she's unbannable and free to use cheats, hacks and aimbots as much as she wants.

We perservere in spite of that, yet the witch manages to ban even Boreale, who has Superstition 1.

In this battle, Boreale got a crit against the bear!

Yet the witch is relentless and keeps banning everyone, even Nevill falls prey to her vile hacking skills.

In this picture, Boreale oneshots a spider.

Nevill tries to cast Horriphobus on the witch to scare her and make her flee, but the Witch's admin powers are too strong and he fails every time.

(He always seems to roll very badly on Horriphobus. He did succeed in casting the spell once, but then he didn't roll high enough to make the witch flee)

The witch calls her crows to devour Nevill. They are very effective against him. Then she bans him.

Nevill is fed up with this and flames the bear, who responds with love, hugs him and knocks him down.

Boreale and Helly both do decent damage.

But even they can't overcome the bear's dancing powers.

Also, Boreale should be lying down on the ground, dying, but his model glitches out and as such he is still standing there even at negative Life Energy.

Nevill gets bit by the spider, who poisons him and faints.

Again...

This time, Nevill manages to Paralyse the witch. It lasts only 2 turns though, so by the time he Paralyses the bear, the witch is free once more.

PARALYS PARALINE! BE STIFF AS STONE!

HEADSHOT!

PARALISIS!

...yet even that's not enough.

FULMINICTUS!

Nevill starts a flamewar. IGNIFAXIUS!

AND ANOTHER IGNIFAXIUS! Damn, that bear is tough.

After we failed this attempt, the game crashed, probably under the strain of all that saving and loading I did.

We still can't leave through this exit, as the shadows of horrible things involving Azira still loom over this place.

Helly got the Swamp Fever.

NEVILL!

See? Even the game calls him a bad healer! Helly agrees and threatens to kick that noob from the group if he keeps screwing up like this!

Well, he does redeem himself, so he stays in the group... this time.

Hmm, wonder what he saw...

Anyway, we went to Sibra to find Helly's friend Grimgravy, the only server admin who wasn't seduced by the vile powers of that witch. Helly tells him about that H4XX0R and Grimgravy agrees to ban all of those horrible trolls that keep harassing us.

Elves can also use these 3 songs, which cost AE. Song of Songs raises the success chance of elven songs, Song of Peace prevents random encounters on rest and Song of Spells boosts all casting rolls for the elf.

Grimgravy is terrible at this however, as I forgot about them and didn't raise his Play Instrument skill .

Anyway, we battle the witch and her posse once again. One of her cute furry hacker friends oneshots Nevill, most likely by using hacks. After witnessing this blatant cheating, Grimgravy promptly bans the witch!

And everyone else!

Well, that the swamp witch has a permaban on life, we can loot the schack and find lots of potions and some alchemy ingredients.

Helly also saves Nevill's life, even though he is a noob and a killstealer. He is useful to teleport us around.

Well, nothing at all about Agdan, so this was just a waste of time.

Also, Boreale can't read.

 

[Helly]

So we were saved from the witch by a HAXXOR BANNER MOD???!!!

 

[Eriador]

I guess you could say that, but then again, the witch used HAX too, Grimgravy's banhammer was just stronger. Or rather, he had higher initiative.

 

[Nevill]

Just what is the banhammer? You mentioned the elves have 3 songs, but none of the effects look like they are applicable in this fight.

 

[Eriador]

The Chain and Manacle spell you can see described in Grimgravy's introduction screen.

The human spellcasters always say "Straps and shackles surround you and force you into my ban." when casting it, while the elves say some elven gibberish, but I guess it means the same thing.

Nevill can also cast it, but I ignored it till now, so he still has it only at 0.

Seriously, that spell is beyond awesome. And maybe a little broken.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Also, Boreale can't read.

 

[Eriador]

Part 34: Swamps 5 - Finding Agdan

Spoiler

Well, turns out fighting that witch was a bit pointless. We don't learn anything about Agdan and the lizardmen don't have anything more to say, so all that's left is to explore the swamp some more and hope we find something interesting.

Near one of the exits, we find this cart.

It has a lot of cash, food and water in addition to bows and arrows.

We haven't really explored the northwest part of the map yet, so let's go there. We have a few random encounters on the way, but nothing major.

The most interesting one was against a group of swamp rantzies. This time, only two showed up, so we've defeated them easily. Also, turns out that if you critically succeed on a parry roll, you gain an additional parry attempt for the round, as Boreale demonstrated.

Also this goblin battle. Grimgravy bans some of them, Nevill casts Horriphobus and Boreale with Helly take care of the others.

I hate when this happens, as they appear at the edge of the map and a lot of times, they are archers who can snipe you just fine from their position, provided their vision isn't blocked by something. But there appear to be no range penalties. I guess the battlefields aren't big enough for that.

Well, Helly has no problems sniping them either.

Yay, loot! Onward!

Whenever the game keeps asking us if we are sure, something terrible is gonna happen. Well, sounds like fun!

Wonder what will happen this time?

We are fighting these Bog Bodies, which are basically zombies. The Surprised by Ambush effect gives us a massive penalty to initiative, basically ensuring that they will go first.

Turns out, even these bog bodies can be banned with the domination spell Chain and Manacle, even though they should be undead.

Boreale has no trouble hacking these "zombies" to pieces.

Turns out you can Paralyse the Bog Bodies too, even though the undead dwarves from hell were immune to it. Maybe they don't count as undead?

Anyway, the battle is over pretty quickly, 3-4 rounds tops.

Surely, there's treasure to be had!

Just some shovels, lumberjack axes and an alchemy recipe we already had.

The lumberjack axes do better damage then Boreale's axe, but have horrible attack and parry ratings.

Sadly, it's not magical and Morkar already has the best mundane two-hander in the game in Rondra Kris. Well, atleast it's unbreakable?

Yeah, doesn't surprise me one bit.

I love how the narrator is constantly surprised whenever we actually succeed at curing disease. Really, it's like he thinks we are a bunch of losers or something.

In the northwest part of the map, we find this bush.

Nevill and Grimgravy have a conversation together, that only tells us to explore further. Obviously, we are going to return here.

Walking along, we get the worst random encounter ever.

There's a whole bunch of orcs and goblins in the upper part of the battlefield, 8 enemies total. Half of them are archers who keep shooting at us, so Grimgravy bans two archers, while Nevill casts Horriphobus on the other two, Boreale and Helly take care of the melee guys.

As soon as we are almost finished with this battle, they get reinforcements. Two archers and two warriors. The warriors are fine, but it's a pain in the ass to get to those archers on the edge of the battlefield, who have no problems hitting you from across the map. They deal low damage, but still, it's annoying.

Then they get MORE reinforcements and I'm like, screw this, I'm out.

Turns out it was the right decision, as a couple turns later, they get EVEN MORE REINFORCEMENTS!

Yeah, this isn't worth it, even if we could hope to beat them, it would take too much time and I don't have the patience for some random trash mobs at this point.

Of course, Boreale's instinct and danger sense suck, so he gets bitten by a poisonous snake for the brief moment he leads the swamp expedition.

I try Treat Poison, but whenever I click on Boreale, nothing happens, no message like "you need an X herb to cure this". Either I'm missing something or there's some bug here.

So I just have him drink the antidote we found in the witch hut. I could also use the Clarum Purum spell, but that's a waste of AE.

There's already a swamp rantzy model in the game for combat purposes, so why not make a slightly larger version of it and put it in the gameworld? It would add a lot to this encounter and make the swamp feel less "empty".

Anyway, we use a net to catch it.

We take it with us.

I swear, this swamp rantzy icon reminds me of something. Risen, maybe? It kinda looks like a recolored monkey.

We teleport to the bush with the rantzy, per the instructions from that document we've found.

I didn't really improve those spells, as there's really no point. They succeed often enough even with no spell increases invested and there's not many magic items in the game.

It takes a couple of tries, but eventually, Nevill succeeds in casting that spell. If you fail, you can either try to pick a random plant or try again.

Suddenly, the rantzy you are carrying gives a single loud howl and then goes all slack.

Well, it seems we've got the right plant. Now we need to use this scroll from that sunken chest.

If he were a bit better nourished and somewhat cleaner, the description you got of Dragenfeld in Lowangen would fit him. The man opens his eyes for a moment before dropping off again into a deep feverish unconsciousness.

He joins us as an NPC companion, but for now, he is unconcious and barely has any Life Energy. So we have to heal him to make sure he doesn't die-

HEAL HIM NEVILL! DON'T SCREW THIS UP!

Thankfully, he does manage to cast that healing spell. Turns out, you can actually heal Traumatic Fever without visiting an NPC healer, but you need 4 different plants, 2 of which seem to be pretty rare, to even try. Makes sense to me, as presumably those healers are using *something* to heal it and I doubt they are all mages.

Anyway, we are missing a one-berry, so we have to leave the swamp and go gather some herbs.

Yeah, I sure hope so. This was the worst part of the game, seriously...

 

[Darth Roxor]

swamps are typically tied with sewers for worst levels in games, so it only goes to show

 

[Eriador]

Part 35: Babysitting Agdan

Spoiler

Come on Helly, stop whining! You are way too hardcore for that!

Even while practically on his deathbed, Agdan still finds the time to provide some well-meaning advice to Boreale. Aww, he likes him!

Yes, Helly actually succeeded at curing the disease that was his fault in the first place. To be fair, he is a very competent healer most of the time, so we'll let it slide just this once.

I give Agdan Nevill's shirt and those pants we found in the chest so that he doesn't catch Dullskull. Nevill's walked around shirtless for so long that he's used to it by now.

Helly got the swamp fever. Well, that's unfortunate, but nothing we can't fix. Grimgravy will just take the lead until he recovers-

The hell is with this place, as soon as I've walked in, everyone is suddenly starting to get sick. This place should be quarantined.

Of course, Agdan doesn't just have Dullskull, but Swamp Fever too. Guess all that time spent as a swamp rantzy didn't do much good for his health...

Don't worry, uncle Grimgravy will take care of both of these babies.

Dullskull for now, so that it doesn't develop into Blue Wheeze. Swamp Fever can wait for a bit.

Grimgravy is actually a pretty good healer. Of course, we need to wait a bit before we can cure Agdan's swamp fever too.

So let's just restore some of his LE while we are at it.

And in the morning, we finally get rid of his swamp fever.

I guess he saw glimpses of those horrible events in the swamps involving Azira's identity crisis. We shall never know what happened there and maybe that's for the best, as Agdan here is already scarred for life.

Grimgravy is pretty good at this!

This is Arsingen. The only things of note it has is a well- sorry, fountain, an inn with horrible food and a herb shop with ridiculously expensive herbs. Seriously, 1 Tarnel for 2 Ducats? Find someone else to rip-off, lady!

Of course, boots are a very rare commodity and we are fortunate that we have 3 whole pairs of them (Boreale stole his from dead Reinhardt the Witcher). So these two will just have to deal.

That's good to know...

During rest, we are attacked by some bandits and we have to make sure to protect Agdan, as we can't control him and he has the annoying tendency to charge straight at the enemies and attempt to punch them (yet fail miserably).

Fortunatelly, both of the attacks that target Agdan miss and afterwards, the Robbers are easily dealt with.

No thanks, we have enough food to feed an army and I really don't want to save Agdan from trying to wrestle some lions.

Well great, maybe not lions, but now we have something else for Agdan Jenkins to "fight".

NO AGDAN, THOSE ORCS ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS, THEY DON'T WANNA HUG YOU, BUT KILL YOU!

Uncle Grimgravy bans the orc before it can harm our protégé.

Not that it helps much...

Aww, look at poor Agdan, surrounded by those awful bullies who keep picking on him, with no chance of escape .

But don't worry, Agdan! We'll save you! Uncle Helly will PWN them, uncle Boreale will beat them up, uncle Grimgravy will ban them and uncle Nevill will scare them away with Horriphobus!

NO AGDAN, DON'T CHASE AFTER THOSE FLEEING ORCS, THEY DON'T WANNA PLAY!

Goddamn, this is like babysitting a 4-year-old. Tbh, I think an average 4-year-old would actually be smarter then Agdan.

Here's Nevill's spells. For skills, he has high Arcane Lore, Alchemy (no set, since the orcs stole both of them), the three Treat X skills and Willpower. After that fight with the orcs, he advanced to level 7.

Here's Helly. He's easily the best survival expert we've ever had and he actually does great damage with his bow.

Here's Grimgravy, he is mostly a spellcaster and back-up healer/survival expert.

And here's Boreale, who's halfway to level 8.

Aventurian... maybe the hivemind has been defeated?

Guess not...

Finally! Next time, we get vazha and Morkar back.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Classic escort quest

 

[Eriador]

We don't actually have to bring him back alive, but it's nice to do that regardless.

 

[Eriador]

Part 36: The Heroes Lowangen Deserves! (but not the ones it needs)

Spoiler

We enter Lowangen through the secret passage.

The guards fetch your two companions, and you welcome each other heartily. "From now on, the way to the ruins shall always be open for you," Eolan says. "Keep the key, there is more than one of them."

Let's go to Lowangen.

After all, we still have our civic duty to fulfill.

Let's examine those announcements.

Announcement: "To the Citizens and Inhabitants of Lowangen! Let it be known that a state of emergency has been officially declared for the duration. The situation warrants no further explanation. The state of emergency leads to the following regulations: According to the treaty of the Svellt League, fugitives are to be housed as kindly as possible. Therefore, all inns are hereby ordered to provide lodgings for a set fee of 5 Bits per night and per person. Anyone offering private accommodation to fugitives may charge a set fee of 2 Bits per night and per person."

"Anyone owning a weapon not used for the protection of their person is hereby ordered to turn said weapon in for appropriate restitution at the guard house at Eydal Bridge within the week to provide adequate armaments for the town guards. Ownership of more than a single weapon for personal protection is prohibited. Ownership of unauthorized weaponry will be punished with a fine or, in extreme cases, with a jail sentence."

"The squandering, destruction or misuse of food for any purpose other than nutritional needs is prohibited. Storage of food is allowed within limits, said limits being the amount necessary to survive for one week. All food stores beyond the limit are to surrender their stock to the magistracy within the week for the feeding of the needy. Violations of this order will in all cases be punished with a jail sentence."

I guess the Codex Party is guilty of this one, as I had to delete 40 supply packs to gain room for more loot. Ooops!

Announcement: "To the citizens and inhabitants of Lowangen! Let the following be known: Whosoever will help the town of Lowangen in her fight against the siege forces beyond the normal call of duty shall be rewarded by a grant of citizenship for life and beyond for all his or her descendants in perpetuity. In particular, the town has need of weapons and food."

Yes, that's just what we want!

We wait until morning and then visit the magistracy.

Yes, we urgently need to get rid of some worthless junk, thank you!

Weapons for Lowangen!

In total, we've donated 6 knives, 7 shortbows and 9 sabres. I'm sure they can find some use for them. We could sell them, but ever since they got rid of handel abschließen, it's just not the same anymore.

She looks very excited!

We are citizens of Lowangen now! They can't deport us anymore, yay!

Maybe we'll even get wellfare, we are certainly poor enough to need it.

We do indeed get wellfare, a whole 30 Ducats! Nice!

See? We are true heroes now! Surely, all of those weapons we've donated will end the siege once and for all!

Tbh. maybe we should've donated Grimgravy instead, to ban all of those orcs for stealing and spawn-camping.

 

[Eriador]

Hey guys, you know how I said that the swamp was the worst part of the game?

Right now, I miss it...

Seriously...