[LP] Might and Magic 6, the Mandate of Heaven

Why didn't you buy the wizard hat for Latrio or Selias? Even if it doesn't do much, still. Wizard hat!

 

All the shrines are pretty great. Like I said, first visit to the shrine of intellect gives you +10 to everyone in the party. Come back next year, and it's another +3.

We've missed out on this year's Shrine of Might pilgrimage... but that one's a little tough to get to before the first month is up. Next year.

March is the month of Personality.... but the Shrine of Personality is, well, a little out of the way. We may or may not actually be able to get there before the month is over... and the enemy spawns in that region are a bit tough. We'll see, though.

With that said, the wizard hat is something, but at the moment wizard fireballs are a better investment.

 

Re: [LP] Might and Magic 6, Robbing the Robbers.

To start, it seems like I was mistaken! Clearing out those islands is some kind of a quest. I didn't remember because there's no reward for completing it beyond the xp and loot available there already, and the 'quest' topic disappears once you select it.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/6u2mjek7z/2014_02_28_09_34_15_Greenshot.png[/img]

Like so!

As well, this fellow happens to have one of the randomly selected conversation topics that hints really obliquely at a future possible sidequest, and you can hire him on. As a mystic, he buffs your party so that all of your spells are cast as though you had a few more skill levels in them than normal. Pretty good, if you're casters and rely a lot on magic. Not so good for archers and paladins. Completely worthless if, for some hilariously crazy reason, you're running an all-knight party!

For now, though, Banker and Scholar suit us fine unless someone wants to boot out our current hirelings. Or you know, we die, and they screw off on their own. Whichever.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/65ts0gli7/2014_02_28_09_37_21_Greenshot.png[/img]

And with that, the teleporters activate. The one that takes you to the island string, and the one that takes you back, both. We heal up a little before we go looking for the one out, but it's just off of the castle. Keep this type of construction in mind, though, we'll be seeing a couple more of them in the future.

Now, how it's supposed to work is this. You take the one-way teleporter, and then fight through the islands like some sort of limp-wristed gauntlet, and either can't stop or have to back up and cautiously pitch a tent where you could be ambushed at any time if you for any reason need to heal.

Water-walking, or flight, makes a mockery of the whole thing as you can just run right back to the town whenever you feel like it. All tension gone! This whole 'quest' is basically a walk through the park. Particularly with fireballs.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/biimel9en/2014_02_28_09_37_44_Greenshot.png[/img]

One fireball. Multiple enemy casualties. Explosive radius is nice. ... Not so nice if you're caught up in it, of course, so you have to keep distance in mind, unlike most other spells.

In any case, there's not much here beyond weak enemies, a few fruit trees...

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/8cy0odqsf/2014_02_28_09_40_35_Greenshot.png[/img]

... And of course, loot chests. There's a handful sprinkled across these islands. Unfortunately, they tend to be trapped.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/sllea3q3j/2014_02_28_09_40_49_Greenshot.png[/img]

Fortunately, when the trap on this one went off, it was pretty weak. It made up for this, however, by having some unfortunately terrible loot spawned into it. Give and take.

It also gives me an excuse to mention perception. Everyone has it, and so everyone has a small chance to avoid trap damage, or just take less of it. We won't be seeing much complete avoidance at low levels, but you can already see it working on the HP bars there. Everyone was at full when we triggered the trap. Torg, of course, has WALLS OF BEEF to explode through, and so doesn't lower the bar as much, but everyone else has the same amount of HP at the moment. So the damage should have been equally spread out, and would have left them all at the same mark on their bars. Not so! Latrio was unlucky here, but the others managed to save a couple health points.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/70gbmhtcv/2014_02_28_09_46_53_Greenshot.png[/img]

We go, heal up to full, then continue on to the second chest on this string of islands. I try to capture the explosion when it goes off, but unfortunately I'm just a bit slow on the draw. You can see everyone taking the hit, though.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/ufy8rud3z/2014_02_28_09_47_03_Greenshot.png[/img]

... And adding insult to injury, once again, the loot is just terrible. I hold out momentary hope that there might be an enchantment on something, but the scholar reveals that this isn't the case.

Tim gets a fancy new blue cape, but that's all that can really be said for it. There's a bit of gold. Ho hum.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/u4gsf2wnz/2014_02_28_09_58_33_Greenshot.png[/img]

The third and fourth chests are close together in a little campsite, near a cooking pot. Cook pots are pretty good. There's a small chance that you'll fish out a ring or something that got dropped in by accident and sank to the bottom. Most of the time, you'll just get a little food. You like food, though, since it's what lets you heal on your own and travel places by foot.

Near the end of the game, there's a bunch of places you have to travel by foot. Some of the coach-drivers and sailors are pretty ballsy... but there's places even they won't go.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/c328v0s0v/2014_02_28_09_59_25_Greenshot.png[/img]

The chest on the left surprises us, in either being not trapped at all, or being weakly trapped enough that a skill level of one in disarm handles things. Even so, the loot isn't that good. The helmet is barely decent enough to be worn, so Selias puts that on, and the hammer will be kept on hand in case they decide to learn how to use a mace. It will be ditched if just about anything better comes up, though.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/4bliwgnvj/2014_02_28_10_00_01_Greenshot.png[/img]

The one on the right, however, knocks three of our four characters right the fuck out. From full health. Torg is still in the green, despite taking a roughly equal amount of damage! Walls of beef.

This gives me an excuse to talk about unconsciousness. It can be inflicted as a status ailment by some things, but most often simply occurs whenever, for whatever reason, your HP goes down to zero or below. You aren't dead! You're just incapable of making any meaningful actions, and have to be dragged around until someone throws you down in front of a healer, a solid eight hours of safe rest occurs, or enough healing potions get poured down your throat.

You will die if you keep taking damage, however. And it's likely you will take more, and faster, because...

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/rec1vmpcv/2014_02_28_10_01_20_Greenshot.png[/img]

When you get knocked out, there's really good odds that the armor you're wearing will just break. In this case, that's everyone's leather armor, now in need of repair, and not doing anything at all.

Fortunately, as long as you're still moving about with at least one party member conscious, you can still loot whatever set off the trap. It only goes off once, and doesn't automatically reset.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/f0z7opzof/2014_02_28_10_01_27_Greenshot.png[/img]

Unfortunately, looking inside, the contents of chest number four turn out to once again be pretty terrible. These boxes usually have better stuff in them, but it looks like you guys got shafted on the loot spawns this time.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/i93p1rly7/2014_02_28_10_08_00_Greenshot.png[/img]

There's one more chest on these islands, however. Will this be the one to have good stuff?

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/ee0az72sf/2014_02_28_10_08_32_Greenshot.png[/img]

Well... no, not really. Lots of gold, for this level, sure. But that doesn't really make it a good chest. Just not a terrible one. Gold is easy to find.

Better still, it knocks our mages right the fuck out! Again.

With that done, there's not much left to the mist overmap... except for the strange obelisk behind the teleporter back to the main island.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/3sgfn6wgv/2014_02_28_10_15_29_Greenshot.png[/img]

What is this? A puzzle? What does it meeeean?

Well, like I just said, it's a puzzle. Find all the obelisks, and it unlocks a chest somewhere in the world. ... If you can solve the riddle offered by the obelisks to locate it. It's always in the same place, and some of the contents are predetermined (and very nice), but it's not there until after you've earned it legitimately. No sneaking in and looting it without hitting every obelisk first!

With that said, you may notice that I have completely glossed over the enemies!

That's because there's literally nothing to say about them. Allow me to summarize how the combat went, in general, with a single sentence.

"At one point, one Mystic of Baa hit Torgamous with a Mind Blast for two damage."

That single incident aside, every point where the party got hurt? Was by one of the five chests exploding. The loot just seemed like it would be more spectacular to focus on.

But in the end, it wasn't great at all!

Disappointed and disillusioned, I sell off the sackful of junk that was collected and decide that the drops were just bad enough that, this time, I'll go ahead and improve your equipment through the store. Selias is now rocking Enchanted Leather, with a further armor-up enchantment, and our Sorcerors are wearing identical sets of studded leather.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/7dcb6f10f/2014_02_28_10_22_36_Greenshot.png[/img]

And this. I buy this for Latrio. Still not much use, with only a coinflip chance of working at all, but nice to have for the future.

That out of the way, we still have 2000 gold. We'll want to save around five hundred for boat fares, but if there's anything you want from the skill guild, now's the time to mention it. The mage guilds also sell Learning, I think, but that one's a bit pricey at the moment. Little further point in sticking around, since the Silver Helm Outpost is still a little out of reach.

As well, while most of you are 200-300 xp away from a level after that, Selias is more than ready to train up some skill points. Should Selias level now, or wait until everyone else has played a quick catch-up game? Training up a level even once will progress time a few days, but as many people can level in that time as you want, as long as you have the xp and the fees.

With that said, once that's handled, it'll be about time to leave.

There's no real reason to go back to New Sorpigal just yet, so there's really two choices of destination. Castle Ironfist, or Bootleg Bay.

 

Is there any actual reason to wait?

 

Depends. If you're pressed for time, and want to minimize the number of days automatically passing, then you usually want to at least level all four characters at once, if not press ahead and continue to amass xp until you seriously can't handle anything any more, then pick up several levels in one go.

That's mostly if you want to be sure of certain quests. Or if you want to make it to specific shrines, pick up a bounty... or make it to the god damn circus I just remembered. Traveling damn circus. Argh.

On the other hand, if you don't actually care about any of that, then all of this stuff is much easier by the second year when you will almost certainly have transportation spells. And non-druids can just skip the druidic promotion quests.

It doesn't make a huge difference either way, it's just a demonstration that Learning is already pulling you slightly ahead of the rest.

 

[x]I vote for her to Hold steady

 

The whole point of Learning is to level more quickly. Why wouldn't you level if you have the XP and money?

 

It takes time, and if the other party members are close to leveling the effect could just be doubling the amount of time the party spends leveling.

 

Yes. Learning still has you accrue xp faster, but training only checks 'did a level up occur'. If yes, then time progresses. A week, I believe. So if you plan to have the time to hit a lot, or all, of the shrines or something, then it's best to be as efficient as possible with your leveling, or multiple weeks can pass where it would have been just one. It's still only a matter of time-efficiency and party camraderie, since if they aren't training the rest of the team basically has to just sit around and inspect their cuticles the whole time.

I think I'm going to try to hit every shrine from this point. No promises, since even though it's still the start of Feb, so we have almost two months to get there in time, March's shrine of personality is a little annoying.

In any case, it looks like holding off for a few more enemy kills before leveling? Still doesn't answer the important question, do we want to go to Castle Ironfist or Bootleg Bay?

 

Why not the Temple of Baa?

 

[X] Castle Ironfist

The Temple of Baa is hate.

 

It really is.

Went ahead and played it a little off camera to refamiliarize, it really is.

I'll cover it eventually, but it's going to be at a point of roflstomp and fury.

 

... I'm not sure what you're complaining about, I've never had any problems with the Temple?

Especially not when you've got a fireball spell available.

It's mostly just rats. And giant spiders the size of dogs. A few cobras the size of young anacondas....

 

[X]Castle Ironfist.

 

Re: [LP] Might and Magic 6, Castle Ironfist: A tourist's guide.

Then that's decided. We're off to Castle Ironfist, the third of four regions you could call the Beginner's area.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/eomiqijfj/2014_03_02_15_15_54_Greenshot.png[/img]

And fortunately, there's a ship headed in that direction today, so there's no standing about waiting on the dock or buying rooms at the inn until the right ship pulls into the harbor.

The thing you'll want to keep in mind is, much that Lord Albert Newton rules over Mist as the land's foremost Sorceror, Castle Ironfist is where you find Wilbert Humphrey, regent for the crown prince, and the Big Cheese of paladins.

As such, while Mist is a town heavily geared around being of great interest to a starting Sorceror, Castle Ironfist is of note for Paladins.

Our party includes no paladins. But there's some bleed-over for Knights.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/l3ljn6q5b/2014_03_02_15_17_06_Greenshot.png[/img]

The docks set you off in what could be considered the 'slum' district of Ironfist, buildings down near the coast, where most of the peasantry live. The castle proper is up the mountain, and you have to climb a sloping road to pass through a gated wall, the only way in by foot. To get out, of course, you can just jump off any of the cliff sides. I guess that's what you call 'defensible' in these parts?

There's some exploration to be done, but first.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/mwogbibbz/2014_03_02_15_17_31_Greenshot.png[/img]

Off the docks, looking north, we can see that someone's crate has tumbled down the cliff, and the contents go unretrieved.

Unfortunately, when we try to loot it...

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/tbnh86i1r/2014_03_02_15_18_07_Greenshot.png[/img]

.... This happens.

This right here is a demonstration of the traps just plain not being fair. There's some variation, but in my experience, this particular box is almost always trapped, and when it is it's usually heavily damaging.

Just look at all that damage we've eaten. Ridiculous. All the mages pasted in one shot.

Well, in the future, I'll probably not do this, but let's rewind time just a minute.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/mwogbibbz/2014_03_02_15_17_31_Greenshot.png[/img]

There we go. Much better. Of course, it's possible that there was enough Nice Stuff in there to make it worth it, but I didn't even check. Getting three quarters of your party instantly gibbed is no way to start a new region.

Unfortunately, we'll probably start a lot of new regions painfully. Even so. For now, let's just remember that crate as being 'dangerous', and maybe come back later. When we have better disarm, or more HP for it to blow through. Plenty more.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/j2v02ctzz/2014_03_02_15_19_20_Greenshot.png[/img]

A little bit north and a hop across the trickle of water is another box, which frankly leaves me in awe of your loot drops so far. Really guys, this is just wow, but not in a good way. In any case, plus one easily brewed potion and a few gold, I guess.

There's one more thing around the cliffs to look at. But first!

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/wl1wen65b/2014_03_02_15_20_04_Greenshot.png[/img]

The outdoors region of Castle Ironfist contains Followers of Baa, much like Mist, and unfortunately, Blood Suckers, as recurring enemies. Any of the enemies on the map can just... show up, spawning around you as a surprise attack, if you sleep outside. In the case of Blood Suckers... all manner of fun.

For the most part, however, the Suckers spawn in only a small region of the map. Most of it is canvassed by Baa Followers... and these, the new monster type.

Lizard Men come in three forms, including the superior Lizard Archer, who has a slightly better aim and fires burning arrows sometimes, and the Lizard Wizard. All three fire bows, to attack at range, but the Wizard will also cast a skill-level two lightning bolt at you whenever he feels like it. Even better, like the Goblin King, he has some resistances. Not much, but he's slightly more tolerant of Fire, Electricity, Cold, and Poison. With 45 Hp, and a little bit of armor to get in the way of your arrows and swords, the Lizard Wizard is effectively a slightly more dangerous, slightly harder to kill, Mage.

No nasty surprises beyond the Lightning Bolts, though.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/lzmmgdp7j/2014_03_02_15_22_25_Greenshot.png[/img]

A brisk step around the cliffs and a hop over behind a convenient rock formation shows us our next Sword in a Rock.

Unfortunately, this time, Torg proves not quite mighty enough to pull it free, even after chugging a yellow potion, increasing all of their statistics by ten until it wears off. Sad, but in general the stones aren't holding anything really fantastic. I think this one is usually a slightly better two handed sword than the one in their inventory, but it's nothing that can't be ignored for a bit.

There's a better potion that improves stats by twenty, but I don't feel like stopping to brew just at the moment. Instead, we turn around and run all the way back around the cliff to the docks.

Now it's time for a brief exploration of Ironfist town. Not too much to say, though. Throughout both halves of the town are thirteen expert-level trainers, for Chain, Plate, Leather, Shield, Bow, Dagger, Identify, Disarm, Axe, Sword, Bodybuilding, Learning, and Diplomacy, and the Master-level trainer for Spirit magic.

That aside, it also houses not one, but two armor and weapon-smiths each, as well as the initiate guilds of Spirit, Mind, and Body.

As I said, very much oriented around Paladins. All of these are potentially useful to the class.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/4nm9uxvq7/2014_03_02_15_23_30_Greenshot.png[/img]

One of the people we talk to for Mind membership also happens to have a conversation topic regarding the god damn circus. Apparently it's always in Bootleg Bay, a little north of the castle, in December. The actual span of time is a little longer than that, but keep the general frame in mind. It's not just back-ground information, it's going to be important later. Damn it.

Also, we obviously buy membership. BE POPULAR. JOIN MANY GUILDS. The cost for doing so is pretty cheap even at the start of the game, and becomes outright negligible later on, so you're well served in doing so.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/8l9jkcijj/2014_03_02_15_24_21_Greenshot.png[/img]

The armor-smith in the slums doesn't currently have anything worth looking at, but the weapon shop is special. This shop focuses on bows. Lots of bows! So many bows. It doesn't really have anything nice either, though. That one bow is sliiiightly better than the crossbow Torg is carting about, but not much. Since it's not enchanted, and nobody else can use bows at the moment, there's no real urgency to upgrade.

A little to the west, this fellow has a nice little quest for us.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/j9daj6sin/2014_03_02_15_25_15_Greenshot.png[/img]

Brigands have made off with his instrument. It is an ordinary wooden harp, simply stringed. He could probably carve a better one with a whittling knife and enough free time. That said, I suppose it has sentimental value to him or something.

More importantly, he sells membership to Berserker's Fury, and we want in.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/6w0gca2u7/2014_03_02_15_29_17_Greenshot.png[/img]

The guild sells Bow, Shield, Chain, and Repair to anyone who can learn them, but the important note is that Berserker's Fury is the first place that your Paladin, or Knight, can learn the Plate Armor skill. All of the skills, of course, cost 500 gold. .... Well, less ten percent, for having a point in Merchant.

And there's nothing left to do in the lower half of Ironfist Town except pick up Two Horseshoes from by the stables, in a Mysteriously Disappearing Screenshot. Fascinating.

In any case, the path up to the gate is close enough to enemies to draw attention, but we aren't interested in fighting just yet. We will later. For now, just running moves you fast enough that you're in the clear before anything decides to fire an arrow or spell our way. Not always the case.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/agwbvi7dr/2014_03_02_15_31_32_Greenshot.png[/img]

And there it is. Castle Ironfist, with two prominently placed teleporters and little fountains offering temporary stat bonuses out front.

We're going to step inside in just a minute, we've got a certain Letter that the good regent really needs to see, but let's make a few quick stops in the higher city first.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/ai69ox97j/2014_03_02_15_32_21_Greenshot.png[/img]

As mentioned, there are two weapon and armor smiths in town. One above, and one below. The weapon shop in the slums focuses on bows... where, up here, they prioritize the more honorable melee weapon of Swords. That said, the current stock is shit and not worth looking at.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/v3l1gtqsf/2014_03_02_15_34_27_Greenshot.png[/img]

However, the higher armor-smith is, meshing nicely with the guild offering the skill, the first place in the game where you can potentially buy plate metal. It's not that great, yet! But it's still better than anything we're currently wearing. Only Torg can wear Plate, though, and only if they buy the skill.

Moving along....

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/q67gvpotb/2014_03_02_15_35_25_Greenshot.png[/img]

The Alchemy shop actually has something pretty tempting, despite being overpriced. As a helmet, this item works pretty well. And more armor, making it less likely anything will hit you, is always a decent idea. More importantly, however... this one happens to have a pretty nice enchantment.

Regenerating Mana is something I think all of our casters are going to want at some point, one way or another, and there are varying enchantments to get the effect. This is the least of them, offering only Mana regen... which, by itself, is still pretty good! I don't believe that different regen items stack with one another, but I do think that the effect scales with you. It will still take just as long to wait around and fill your mana bar, but the more mana you have the faster it replenishes. Since spells all have a fixed cost, this can get quite nice.

Health and Mana regen are things you want to have on almost everyone, once you can get them. Except, of course, Knights, who have no need for the blue bar.

There's two more important points up here, beyond the guilds of magic. First, is Bishop Inquisitorio, who's screenshot appears to have also evaporated.

Aside from having an excellent name, he sells membership to the spirit guild, and is the Master rank trainer for spirit magic.

But he's a bit tricky.

Unlike most trainers, he doesn't want money. He will train anyone, provided they are already at least expert rank in the magical skill. For free! But there is a catch. Bishop Inquisitorio is a man heavily interested and invested in the state of the clergy. As such, he only offers his Spiritual training and guidance... to High Priests. The final class rank of the Cleric.

Don't worry! You don't actually have to be a cleric to get the training, which should come as a relief to.... selias, the only other clerical caster. You do, however, have to perform the promotion quests. There are other trainers who pull similar stunts for different classes. Master Air magic, for example, is restricted to Archmages, and Bow mastery is only available to those who have pursued archery to its final course.

With that said, there is a little stairway up the back of the castle, which leads to the roof. There are a couple of small rooms up here, with trainers inside, but mostly there is...

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/3vjlvqrj3/2014_03_02_15_37_38_Greenshot.png[/img]

This. The royal Library, with a strangely ominous portrait leaning up against a curious statue.

Well, I'm sure this room will never be relevant.

One more stop before the throne room...

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/ui0nygl3z/2014_03_02_15_42_36_Greenshot.png[/img]

... But in the end, the magic guilds don't really have any must-haves. They offer spells one through seven of each school, containing a lot of buffing and simple cures.

We'll want the cures sooner or later. Most of the buffs, though, we can give or take for now. Particularly the statistical buffs. Some are helpful immediately, Might and Accuracy being first and foremost. Buffing Endurance, Personality, or Intelligence, however... is very situational, and doesn't really have much relevance for immediate combat. If you have regen, then it helps, as it might increase your total bar length a touch. But that aside, they're mainly good for stat checks.

Might, however, can increase melee damage, and Accuracy improves to-hit chances as it rises. These are good. Better, however, are the Bless spell, which raises your hit chance directly, where increasing Accuracy may or may not be helpful when you're already sitting on large numbers...

And this spell, which does the same for your attack damage.

It's still not a must-have, though.

And so we continue to our final destination for the moment.

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Castle Ironfist proper offers two people to talk to. Nicolai Ironfist, the prince and heir to the throne of all enroth... and the important one for our purposes, his honorable regent, lord Wilbert Humphrey.

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Lord Kilburn, you say?

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/5skxe27kv/2014_03_02_15_43_49_Greenshot.png[/img]

Ah, a fetch quest! Excellent.

And one that will get us killed if we try it. Blackshire is not a friendly place at low levels. It's possible to get there, if you pick up the right hireling... but like all council quests, this is best shelved for later. Fortunately, it's really hard to get there by accident... right now, we're theoretically locked in to the starting four areas, as none of the ships or wagons will take us further until we have made it to the 'Adventurer's Bottleneck', Free Haven itself, on our own.

Which can also be cheesed with that same hireling. Otherwise? We're going to have to get there on foot.

We could, also, walk to the Mire of the Damned, if only because it happens to have a land connection to this region.

But.

I mean.

.... We don't really want to go to Mire of the Damned yet. There's nothing there for us at this point but pain. Pain and splash damage causing friendly fire and drawing peasant ire and there are skeletons and ghosts just waltzing right through the village square, do none of you people give a single shit at all?

Mire of the Damned isn't exactly a nice place.

[img width=600 height=450]http://s25.postimg.org/f1n3o6ggv/2014_03_02_15_44_36_Greenshot.png[/img]

Changing the subject, Wilbur Humphrey also offers the traditional Paladin promotion quest of rescuing a Damsel in Distress. Unfortunately, there's a strict criteria here, just killing off monsters nearby a female peasant isn't going to do. It has to be an important damsel.

It's something that we'll pick up along the way, but as we have no paladins, it's not like there's any rush.

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And we step out of the castle with a cool five thousand extra gold in our pocket. One of the situations where, rather than being expected to take pride in doing the right thing, the good guys actually take the practical route of just paying better than the baddies. That's five times as much gold as that Potbello chump forked over, heh.

Tune in next time! As our intrepid band of massacre enthusiasts kill off every last enemy on the east side of the map, then level up.

You thought there would be a vote for what to do? No, not this time.

But don't be sad.

For now, you can make some decisions on What to buy, if anything. I seem to note that Ironfist, unfortunately enough, has no bank, and so every coin we carry with us is at risk. Well, if we die, which isn't too likely. But is always a chance, particularly when opening otherwise unassuming boxes.

In addition, we have two horseshoes. Or rather, four free skill points. Who gets them, and where do the points go? I gave the first set to Torg as a demonstration, and I think I'm going to make sure everyone gets at least two shoes. That still leaves the vote down to any one of our three mages.

 

I think getting the helmet of Mana Regen for Selias is probably a good idea. That way she can cast heal spells during the updates where we're walking around in town, so that it effectively becomes HP regen for the whole party. Then, when the fighting starts, she can toss it to the guy with the Fire Magic so he can cast more fireballs.

 

Yeah, that sounds good. I also want to increase my Merchant skill by two levels, if I can, since we're going to be buying stuff. My Disarm Trap, too, if I can have those horse-shoes.

 

Torg's using a one hander right?

Torg needs to make himself a tank. Get Sheild Training and Some Plate.

But get the Merchant points first.

 

Yeah, I've wanted shield training since we picked up that nice shield a bit back. Mentioned it, assumed it was picked up offscreen during one of the purchasing sprees.

Plate training is something I definitely want, mostly for in case some nice plate stuff drops. No need to buy plate unless the mages already have all their spells and shit.

Also, I have succeeded in my ambition to disarm traps with my face. That was fast and a bit disappointing.

 

There's a plate armor drop...

In the Temple of Baa.

>

 

Alright, Selias gets the horseshoes. Four points isn't enough to bump either of those skills to three, though, so I just put them both to two. It does pay off.

Before anything, we pick up that helmet, because it's time for a quick test.

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We lower Selias' MP a lot healing, then put the helmet on and wait one hour. In game hour, that is. Then we check MP again and... it looks like at this point, the helm recovers about ten mp per in-game hour.

This sounds pretty terrible, and admittedly it isn't spectacular. But even so, a fireball? Costs eight. So that's one extra fireball per hour... and, frankly, one hour in this game goes by pretty quickly. I don't recall exactly how fast, but I have to re-cast wizard eye often. It's still much faster and easier at this level to just chug a mana potion.

We'll take another look in ten or fifteen levels. Around level 20-ish. See how the mana regen looks then.

Then, with one more point in disarm, we check out that box again.

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This time, it opens like a charm. Not as difficult a trap as it could be, then... I have fond memories of this one exploding in my face even with a rank of four. Still, the loot isn't that great.

We sell most of it and pick up things. Shield and Plate for torg, a couple spells from the guilds, Meditation for the casters who don't have it yet, and the ability to cast Mind and Spirit magic for Selias. Spirit because you can't cast those spells without it, mind just because. At that point, we've blown through our money.

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Or will have, though this shot isn't quite there yet. You'll note, there's also diminishing effects with every point in merchant. The first level was getting a ten percent discount from these shops. With two, it's only increased to fifteen. Not bad, but we're hardly breaking the economy.

Time to make more gold. We've got half a map to slaughter through.

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The enemies west of town keep getting our attention. But we're going south first. The area south of town is mostly populated by Followers of Baa.

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Makes sense, since the first Temple of Baa dungeon is located here. I like the way they just went ahead and mounted a goat's head over the door. Giant carnivorous plants are a nice touch. Not exactly what you'd call 'subtle' decorating, of course.

We'll want to go in there later. There's a Quest and everything.

In any case, scattered lizardmen do ding your party hp down a bit, but for the most part this area is a cakewalk.

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The dragoon's caverns are just a skip and a jump east of there, and I like how someone helpfully painted 'Dungeon' across a couple boards in red. In case the human skull just left casually on the ground wasn't enough of a clue, I suppose?

Well, we aren't going in there yet. Instead, we go take a look west across the bay.

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During which the slowly dimming light switches in one quick burst to full nighttime mode.

Now, while we could continue charging about in the night, vision is suddenly pretty restricted and that gets mildly aggravating even with wizard eye going. And while we're looking across the bay, and could follow the shore around in one of the two normal ways to the west side of the map... leaving aside flight or walking on water.... there's nothing really urgent over there for us right now.

Especially when we have to keep re-casting a torch spell to get better looks at things, and don't really have any special spells that make adventuring at night worth it.

So instead.

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Everyone calls it a good days work, collects the gold scattered out of corpse pockets, and gets smashed off their face at the inn. In true adventurer fashion!

A couple of brief notes on things discovered through this. Apparently, Torg is a teetotaler! One flagon of ale, and they're completely out of it. The other mages are kind of lightweights too. Selias, by contrast, I had to buy over twenty drinks, one gold after another, in order to get them drunk so I could take a proper screenshot. Definitely can hold their liquor.

Why get drunk?

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Well, aside from thematic appropriateness, while you often don't want status effects, sometimes you might find them helpful. They usually drain your stats... but sometimes can buff them as well.

Drunkenness isn't a great one to show for that, though. As you can see. It appears that it always, or nearly always, gives a Luck buff... but aside from that is completely random as to whether it decides to raise or lower a given stat. You can't really bet on it doing what you hope. In any case, you can easily sober up by sleeping, though your party might be a little ornery about loud noises when they get up.

Insanity, by contrast, lowers your mana stats but buffs physical ones, like Strength. So insanity, in some ways, is pretty great when applied on a Knight who just plain doesn't need those stats, and can benefit from the buffs it gives. So you might not be in too quick of a hurry to cure that one.

..... Well, as long as you don't mind them murdering the rest of the party, or themselves, when you sleep sometimes!

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West of the town things get a little trickier.

The enemies are still mixed, but the groups are now weighted a little heavier to clusters of Lizardmen. The Baa cultists are fodder, there to distract you... you want to drop the scaly bastards first.

And then the road forks. A path west, up the mountains, and across the bridge north.

North of this little river is where the region stops pulling its punches. The Lizardmen camp is on the other side of the bridge, and every enemy in that area is at least a lizard man. They are all archers, and talented ones.

We go west first.

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At the top of the path, on a cliff side overlooking the lizardman main camp, is a curious hut which contains the Seer.

This cloaked mystic will offer you hints about the main plot-quests you should be doing, though only in a sense of 'You should really get around to this one'. He will also, if you manage to lose an important quest item, return it to you... though I have heard that this sometimes bugs and completely fails. Better to just not lose important things in the first place.

The thing he'll probably be used most for, however, is the unlabeled pilgrimage quests. Every month, he will tell you which shrine to journey to in order to receive your permanent stat increases. He doesn't tell you where the shrine is, though. No, that would be far too helpful. It's the discovery of the unknown which truly enlightens, or whatever explains away why you get so much more out of the first visit than later ones.

I'm going to admit, I'm not one hundred percent clear on whether you have to talk to him in order to get stuff from the shrines or if he's just a helpful in-game addition to the calendar. As you've seen, the Intellect shrine went off fine without even having to know this guy existed.

Well, we'll probably stop back in for our check first anyway.

And now we cross that river.

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Just getting close to the river is grounds for being turned into a feathery pincushion.

Better yet, you will want to know an important tidbit. The maximum effective range of their bows? Just a bit further than the range at which the spells we've been using completely fizzle to nothingness. So once you start getting hit by arrows... and you will be hit more often than not, the Lizard Men are pretty damn accurate.... you can't just set up and start firing fireballs back. You have to charge a little further ahead, to get yourself in range, before you can return fire.

More often than not, this means that you're either going to take a few more arrows, the lizardmen are going to spread out from their initial clusters to where a fireball isn't as effective, or hilariously enough, both.

It's in this region that we have to start switching from full offense to more defensive fighting, because those arrows will cut down a wizard's hp bar very quickly. Selias is switched off to full-time 'keeping everyone alive' duty, and at several points I just have to fall back and get out of infuriated lizard range to catch a breather and properly heal.

As you can see, the Shadow Guild has a little hide-out nearby, protected by the camp. And if you wish, you can walk north to Bootleg Bay, following the road. Much easier to just catch a boat there, though.

The real reward for all of this forced acupuncture is the stew pot, with a few food, and...

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A single chest.

I'm going to admit, I'm taking a huge risk opening it immediately rather than running back to town and healing to full first. But normally, this chest is only as trapped as that other box.

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It works out, though.

Unfortunately, your loot spawns still appear to be consistently terrible. The wand is the only piece of gear really worth mentioning, aside from a single dinged up helmet. The rest is just stuff to quickly pawn and forget.

Well, it could be worse.

And in any case, between the XP from turning in that letter and all the rampant slaughter we've done... everyone has gained enough experience to go up not one, but two levels in a single shot.

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Torg's doing okay. As a Knight, they're still slightly resistant to magic naturally, maybe to make up for never being able to use it. I still haven't picked up Repair for anyone, but they're rocking all the armor skills.

Personally, I would probably pick another weapon and give it a little leveling. Maybe switch off to axe for a new change. The game itself will occasionally recommend you stay versatile and have multiple weapons you're good with, in case your current choppa ain't cuttin' it. With that said, they're really referring mostly to enchanted weapons. It's still good to be passable with a bunch, though. Axe makes up for not being a weapon you can sling in your off hand by directly increasing your damage, as you rank your skill up. Spear increases damage too, and also adds bonus defense. Even, somehow, if you're just holding the stick in one hand.

Alternately, we could go the tanky route, and increase armor skill. All of the armors work the same... they add to AC, and reduce your recovery time. More of both, as you scale up through chain and plate. All of the skill bonuses do the same thing too... they start off giving an extra AC per point, then reduce the recovery for wearing it, and at master completely eliminate the recovery penalties. A master can move in plate mail as easily as if they were wearing nothing at all. The big winner, though, is the shield. It starts off giving one AC extra per skill level, when you have a shield on. At expert, that increases to twice your skill, and at Master it's a solid triple your skill.

If pure Armor Class is what you're looking for, then your best bet is to run with a shield and spear. If you want to do more damage, then mastering sword in order to dual wield is the way to go, but you'll take more hits in turn.

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Selias is looking pretty good at the moment too. Less focus in any given skill, but since there's often diminishing returns for higher skill levels, and focusing on a specific skill over everything else can get expensive rapidly, it's not a bad plan at all.

We're almost full up on their possible magical skills. We'll pick up Fire and Air somewhere along the way. Heck, at some point, everyone's going to have every skill they can learn, after all.

As far as pure convenience goes, at a Disarm rank of four, and with 500 gold, we can make you an expert. Alternately, there's also a Learning trainer here... but their expertise costs a bit more, at a solid 2000.

There's no bad decisions, though.

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Our Robot Ninja Wizard is still rocking the mana helmet at the moment. Doesn't need to be switched around right now or anything.

Personally, I'd bump Air a bit. We don't have any really good spells yet, but you only need to get four ranks in Air for eventual mastery... and honestly speaking, it's nicer to have the wizard eye stick around longer, without having to constantly re-cast it. More points in fire means more fire damage, though, and quicker Mastery. The skill requires a meaty twelve levels put into it to be mastered.

Plenty of good options, though. More Mana is always nice, and at four we can get expertise once we find a trainer again. Or you could pump up Leather, since it's the only armor you're ever gonna get.

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And Latrio is looking fairly decent himself.

To be perfectly honest, without any instruction to the contrary, I'm going to be disregarding other skills and focusing everything into Water until it can be mastered. Master Water is a skill we really kind of want one of our people to have asap, if possible.

Finishing up...

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We happen to leave the facility on a sunday.

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On sundays in Ironfist, the coach company offers a special ride. It's the only way to reach the Arena... a zone which isn't listed on the world map. Once there, we can test our mettle and, assuming we aren't horribly murdered for the cheering throng, receive cash prizes.

It's kind of like the bounty hunts, only less frustrating about timing and more difficult... possibly much more difficult... fights, in an open arena with little to no cover. There are few, if any, tricks you can pull to make things go more smoothly... it's basically just a direct slog-fest.

With that said, the floor is open for skill allocation and a decision on where to go.

Personally, I'm leaning towards going north to Bootleg Bay, and then directly to Free Haven, if only because it's getting close to march and we'll need more open travel if we want to have any hope of getting to the Personality shrine on time. In addition, there's Reasons Torg wants to go to Free Haven, and the Sorcerors wouldn't really mind either.

But there's also a number of Quests we've picked up along the way. They'll wait for us indefinitely, sure, but once done they're money in our pocket and XP towards more mad skillz. Is there a specific Dungeon we've seen so far, that we want to try on for size? I believe we already have quests to fulfil in all of them so far. Unless I'm much mistaken.

Or heck, we could go to the Arena in the next update, and I'll show off the various difficulty settings and results for this level, with the power of saving the game! I wouldn't normally, but the area really is completely optional. No quests, no side quests, nada.

 

spear keep em away get spears.


[x}free haven

 

Add two levels to Disarm Trap, and one to Body Magic. Also, I guess I should have been a bit more clear, but I meant to use the points from the horseshoes, AND the points from the level I had.

 

[X] north to Bootleg Bay, and then directly to Free Haven

Though I would like to see some of those quests we've been skipping over soon.

 

[X] Shield
[X] Spear

 

Personally, I think we should give the Arena a shot. It only comes up once a week, and how often are we going to just happen to be checking the Stables on a Sunday?

 

Odds are about one out of every seven times we check the Stables.

 

You'd be surprised. Also, IIRC, it's only the Castle Ironfist stables- Nowhere else- that goes to the Arena.

Of course, there's nothing saying you can't just take a couple days off before you make a trip to the arena, if you want.

 

Might want to get some more Bow and plate too. Be more Tanky. Improve main Gun and Armor.

 

[X]Fire
[X]Air