The exploration of the Gael Serran goes on...
An interesting encounter. This renegade wizard is wanted dead by the fighters guild.
Some raptors join the fray as we fight him.
Even this annoying leprechaun makes a casual appearance. More on him later. In the meantime, we kill the raptors and the wizard.
The party finds this shrine deep in some woods. Finding it is a priests guild quest.
We eventually reach this desert-like area.
These old ruins seem interesting, the creature protecting them is not hostile. Let's talk to it.
As we talk to the sphynx, a pirate, hiding behind it, attacks us !
The pirate has been disposed. Now let's talk. Questions eh ? Well you're a sphynx, it fits. Shoot !
First question is pretty easy. Even the last two lines should be enough to answer it.
See ? Even the sphynx recognizes that it was pretty cheap.
Now some in-game lore. Pretty easy too.
Our team brace themselves for the final question...
More easy in-game lore. The sphynx, satisfied that we actually played the game, vanishes.
We are now free to enter this egyptian looking temple. But we won't. Not right now. We have a couple of things to do before...
THINGS TO DO BEFORE
1) Crab hunting.
The sooner you start doing this... the better.
While cruising the sea, every time we see this sort of message from Kingcomrade (or from Ladonna who has a good "scout" skill), we immediately stop and go for the crab.
It usually is not too far away. The reason we kill crabs, is not because they taste good, but because of this...
...when killed, they can drop shells. As in one in two, or three, will drop a shell. Those shells can be made into useful items over at the city.
First item : the underwater helm.
Second : the underwater breather.
Those two items, make underwater exploration way easier. And we will dive a lot by the end of the game. So every party member needs one of each. Which means killing lots of crabs...
Don't try to hide, we will get you.
2) Dragon killing
Not mandatory, but cool.
Firsts things first, we buff like shit.
Then we fight. Close, so close that the graphical engine is bit confused. But that's the only way to be close enough to hit.
Things are going OK, but he sure has lots of hit points.
This is the only fight in which Volourn's magic is useless. It is based on fire, and the dragon is immune to it. So Volourn acts as a second hand cleric, using heal potions on other party members when needed.
The fight goes on very well. He is in the red now. Almost dead.
A backstab from the assassin kills the mighty dragon. 300K XP ! That's two levels for each party member.
Experience is the only gain in the fight. These piles of treasure are not lootable in any way.
3) Tree chopping
Not mandatory either, but way cool.
Crap ! I feel like shit, this tree is so peaceful...
Yet I remember this bit of conversation...
I try to warn him, to no avail. OK, let's fight !
He sure starts like he means war. His opening spell kick our asses pretty bad.
But then it take ages for him to "recover" and act again. In the meantime we hack away 1/5 of his hit points.
Oh oh. Things are not going well. Two dead, and three badly wounded.
And he summoned help ! While Ladonna and Kingcomrade will rise the dead, Volourn will burn the trees.
Who's bad ?
Better. They are easy to finish now.
Back to Oakenmir. Who doesn't feel so good anymore. You're in the red buddy.
Almost dead.
KC gives him the axe. XP galore ! Five levels for each party member. Still, this was the toughest fight in the game so far. Except the Naga maybe...
The greedy wizards in the guild will be pleased.
4) Genie summoning
We totally forgot about this magical lamp we found, way earlier in the game. But Volourn took notice of it, while identifying stuff in our inventory. Now he won't let us go any further without trying to use it. Ok let's go on the city docks and try it out.
Boys, I'm so gonna rub it, like in the tales...
A genie ! I told you it would work !
He offers you a choice between the six options you see on the left (the seventh : "nothing" grants you just that, nothing). The
weapon is a nice magic sword,
ability grants +1 to all eight stats for the speaker,
power gives the speaker a special unique trait (to hit monsters easier and harder),
armor is an OK magic chainmail,
health grants +25 hp to the speaker and
ward is a real cool amulet. If you try to fight him, he just goes away and curses the attacker with permanent stat decrease. So one might as well choose a gift. You're supposed to get only one choice, but somehow, you can easily get three. So we take the sword, armor and amulet. Then the genie disappears.
Now, we are more than ready to go and face the mysteries of ancient Egypt. Next update. :wink:
Special screenshot of the day : centaurs are not friendly fellows.
But the game was good.
