Another long update today, though I don't feel that we accomplished much. We started out in Atlantium, and we decided to explore the outside area.
First thing we find is a fountain. Lets drink from it! Bad idea... The water cursed us. I honestly don't know what curse does, but its sounds bad. So we head back into Atlantium and go to the temple.
Oh look another fountain! Blood-like liquid? Sounds tasty! This time we get to choose who drinks it. Swift, you're the fearless knight, you drink it! Oh shi- Swift was eradicated (that doesn't mean some guy crushed his head between his fingers). Eradication is beyond being plain dead. Eradication means something like the body is irreparable, or the body is just plain not there. Raise Dead will revive dead characters. I don't think there is a cure for eradication other than going to the temple. It would cost 75k to cure Swift. Thats a lot of money, and although I have over 100k per character, and even though I don't have much use for money, I decide to have the entire party drink from the fountain and get game over and reload the game.
Third fountain's a charm? In this case, it was, even though the pool's description sounds the worst of all three... This fountain temporarily raised all our stats to 100! I'll have to keep this in mind, as that can help us with harder battles.
It turns out Atlantium is on a small island, and these three fountains are the only thing of interest.
Remembering this sign, we decide to do the arenas.
First up, we do the Arena in Middlegate. Middlegate sells Green Tickets, and we buy a Green Key from a keymaker to go with it. There are three arenas in the world, Middlegate's Arena, Sansobar's Monster Bowl, and the Colosseum in Atlantium. There are 4 colored Tickets and Keys, Green, Yellow, Red, and Black. We're gonna go ahead and deal with the Green ones, for no particular reason, other than thats what Middlegate sells
Our first battle is against...
...really easy enemies! We kill them with no problem. Its not that surprising really, Middlegate is the first city, so it makes sense that the monsters are easy. For winning the battle we get 200 gold. Thats not a lot, but arguably I should have done this in the beginning of the game. The Green Tickets costs 50 gold I think, so its a fairly decent profit in the early parts of the game. Anyway, one Arena down, time to head to the Monster Bowl! We fight equally easy monsters (well, they were a LITTLE harder) and win 500 gold. Alright, we're nearly done! Hopefully the Colosseum will be more challenging. It was, but we still smashed through the monsters since we're 10 levels higher than we should have been, and win an astounding 1500 gold!
Well, now that we got that taken care of, lets go find the Green Bishop! I assume he'll be in the castle near Middlegate, although I think all the castles are more or less equidistant from Middlegate...
Woodhaven sounds foresty, right? And forests are green, too (by this reasoning, Castle Pinehurst would have the same chances of having the Green Bishop). Well, its as good a place to start as any.
King Hoardall lives here. I've never been here, so I didn't really know what to expect. I think I've been teleported to every castle BUT this one.
Thats kind of cute. But let me tell you, this damn fool gets tiresome quickly. While exploring the castle, we occasionally get attacked by the castle guard, and eventually we would leave the castle because we were carrying too much stuff, so we'd sell it all in Middlegate, and come back, and this guy would tell another stupid joke. I'll inundate you all with the ones I saw.
Okay, I get it! I can only take so many iterations of "Orcs are dumb."
This is the gimmick behind the name King Hoardall. He has so much shit, and no where to put it, so you find piles of junk. Common items to find amongst the junk: Rope and Hooks, Large Clubs, Torches, and Cupie Dolls. However, there is one important item to find in a pile of junk: The Black Ticket. As far as I'm aware, you can't buy Black Tickets, and as such I picked up three. Now I just need a Black Key.
Hmm...
Oh hey, look! The Green Bishop was here after all! 13k experience? Not too bad. Especially since this quest is repeatable! I didn't realize it, but I already had a Green Key before I bought the one earlier. I think David was holding it, since I gave David and Ian both the important items to make sure I don't accidentally sell them.
Inside the guard tower are guards. Quite a few of them. There are three groups of guards in each of the four guard towers. They aren't too hard, and they give average experience, and pretty decent loot. They're the main reason I had to go back to Middlegate so often and hear the Fool tell another orc joke.
I'll keep this in mind, although I don't think I've ever really had a quest to worry about...
Probably not a good idea, but we tried anyway! The results were less than satisfactory. Well, maybe Hoardall spends all his money buying shit to hoard? This spot was hard to get to (not really). It was actually a spot that was surrounded by walls, but all the walls were solid, so the only way to get here was to use the Teleport spell. After stealing the treasure, the alarm went up... No one could hurt the stone golem, and even the magic I used didn't do anything. We fled from the battle and reloaded the game.
We found some Radicon! Now we need Fluxers and Capitors, and we'll be on our way to getting a time machine!
Geez, the King is really into Hoarding...
We accept the page difficulty quest! He wants... Padded Armor..? Um, okay... We make a quick pitstop in Middlegate and return to the king with Padded Armor. 160 exp? Pssh, I could have killed your guards for more experience... Well, lets try a Squire's Quest. He wants an Ice Pick. Thund R. has on equipped, and its not particularly that great, so we give it to the king. I think he gave something like 30k exp. Now we're talking. I don't think I tried the Knight's Quest, and I just skipped straight to Lord's Quest. For the Lord's Quest he wants a Valor Sword, and Honor Sword and a Nobility Sword. We have the first two, lets go and try the to get the Nobility Sword.
On our search for the Nobility Sword, we find a peaceful Goblin Village.
Well, if its destined to be destroyed by adventurers, it might as well be us, right? We slaughter a sizable force of goblins, barely even raising a sweat.
Yes. Yes we do. The Sword of Nobility is guarded by four priests. Priests are actually pretty hard. They have some spell that deals quite a bit of damage, and they can cast paralyze, which I already complained about in a previous update. However, we have our enhanced speed gained from the treadmill in the Nomad Rift. We move before any of the priests can, and we kill them all before they even attack. The Noble Sword is ours!
We take it back to the king for a whopping 100k exp! I don't know why, but I didn't check to see if this was repeatable.
Lets try our luck in the dungeon!
The benefits of a racist party! This dungeon is riddled with traps. The traps are odd. You can hit by one, and you barely see any damage, then the next one hits you and you're all almost dead.
I think we're better here for now. I think Pinehurst is the one that I get teleported to quite often, and I usually have to make a quick escape when I'm there...
Eh? Well, whats the worst that can happen if I do bring a Cleric?
Tch, FINE! Similarly, there was a room that said "NO ROBBERS" and it also had a sign. The signs teleport you back to the entrance if I remember right.
We return without the priest and robber, and find an Onyx Effigy in the Cleric room, and a Sapphire Pin in the Robber room. The Onyx Effigy is only usable by clerics, and give 15 Personality. The Sapphire Pin adds 15 Luck and can only be used by Robbers. I don't particularly understand why we couldn't being a cleric into the room that has an item only clerics can use. I guess maybe the King thought that if there is no cleric, the party would have no use for a cleric only item so the party would just ignore it?
On our way back to the castle from Middlegate, another year passes.
Back in the the castle's dungeon we find Ogre Ale. Ogre Ale lowers Personality, but increases Might. This change is permanent. Everyone but David, Jeanne and Sherman drink the Ale, lowering their Personality to low levels, but becoming stronger. The reason David, Jeanne, and Sherman didn't drink the ale is because they all use cleric spells, and Personality affects the power of some such spells. Arguably Sherman and Jeanne rarely cast magic, and could use the might, but I prefer to be safe than sorry.
There is a third floor to Castle Woodhaven, but I think the monsters were pretty strong, so I didn't go down there. So we go to Vulcania's cavern instead.
Last time we were here, we were seriously injured by the lava pits. However, there is a very easy fix so they won't bother us: the levitate spell. Now we just float over the lava without any problems. However, some of the monsters are still pretty damned strong.
I guess there are other things we need to find for the Time Machine...
How many hirelings are there in this game?
Um... okay...?
Nice! Maybe I should start using magic more often. I still have more gems than I know what to do with...
There are way too many disembodied voices in this game.
Since the monsters in the cavern have been pretty hard, lets go towards help first.
Heh, odd seeing a message about Thund R. when he's in the party. I thought he joined us because we impressed him by fighting the monsters in the bar, but maybe its because we ate the Deep Fried Troll Liver, and you know what they say: anybody that like Deep Fried Troll Liver can't be a bad person!
This sounds dangerous. Thankfully I don't know what it means yet!
Right. I'll be sure to look there when I feel like going to some place called the Dead Zone.
I don't think I want Harry Kari in my party. Why would I want someone suicidal in my ranks? We already die enough as it is. I like my party members to have names, so, No Name is out as well. I guess this is the "help" mentioned by that sign?
And thats where we stop for today. Sadly only Swift, Thund R. and Sherman gained levels. Thund R. gained a few levels, and now is the strongest member in the party in regard to HP. However, since he is a hireling, I refuse to let him be the party leader. Sherman and Swift only gained a single level, so Sherman is now even with most of the party, at least until they all level up. Minus Sherman, all the level 15 characters are pretty close to 16. We're running pretty low on food here. I kind of buy food sporadically. Everyone uses one food upon resting, unless they are dead, eradicated, or possible paralyzed. If any character does not have food, that character will not be healed upon resting. You can buy food at bars, and is usually good for 20-40 days. I'll make sure to buy some next time.
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