Carol Reed Shades of Black 1: Some Good fun

So! Jonathan Boakes released a surprise Halloween mini-game that takes place on Halloween and falls between The Lost Crown and the forthcoming (later this year!!) The Last Crown: Blackenrock. Natch I grabbed it on Steam for less than $5.00.

I got it installed with no problem and accessed the main screen. Thought I was good to go. That was two days ago. But now, when I want to play it on Halloween, it's a mess. It's eating up the disc space I have on my Fusion XP program. So I deleted it, because I can always reload when it's fixed. I also deleted my TWO copies of The Lost Crown, because I've got both of them too. Deleted more stuff that I have online. 

But I had bought this latest Carol Reed game when it came out, and I decided that if I couldn't play the Halloween game on Halloween, then I'd play this instead.

And it was a great choice!  

Of course it's a typical Carol Reed game, but what I like about these games is that while much of the game is pretty easyish, large parts of it require some thinking. And this time the in-game hint system isn't working too well (it's giving me a clue to a puzzle I haven't found yet--UPDATE: this turned out to be my own misunderstanding. The hint system works fine.). Fortunately, there is always the Gameboomers walkthrough. I've had to look at that a few times.

Mostly you get into trouble in these games by missing something. Often the hint system will tell you that, but that doesn't make the thing much easier to find. I traipsed back and forth looking for a bird house that just was not very visible. Finally had to go to the walkthrough to get a hint of where to look for it. At last I found it!

I've kinda zoomed through much of the game. It's pretty good at pointing you in the right direction, giving you a hint of where to go next. Of course, sometimes you have to backtrack. Right now I'm in the murderer's house, poking around, and I'm pretty firmly stuck. I've been playing for much of the day and enjoying myself quite nicely, but it's getting dark now so I think I'll do the rest of it tomorrow.

There are some really lovely shots in this game. Yeah, Nyqvist throws in a few derelict places (I really cannot imagine where he finds this stuff, all of which is photographed), but for the most part this is a really pretty game to look at.

For example:

A Nice View

A Night View from the Treehouse

And we go to various places, such as the Furniture Museum (are these places real??) with it's very impressive "sign":

Yes, it's about chairs

And we meet nice people, such as this nice lady who runs the motel with the underground room:

A very nice Swedish lady

Note that you also will meet another Swedish lady with a rather different agenda. Just sayin'.

And of course, you cannot have a Carol Reed game without Bigge:

He always has a little extra puzzle to solve

Or Jonas:

Not in the garden this time

So far the puzzles have been quite fun. My problem right now is that I'm missing a key somewhere. I will shamelessly go to the WT for that, because I play these games to enjoy them!! I manage to figure out a good 95% of the game. Although I will say that I do look forward to doing one without a hint someday, but not this time.

And I think I know who might be the true culprit in this game. I also think I know where the body might turn up.

But I figure that I'm a good four-fifths finished. I'm gonna watch some Doctor Who tonight, I think, and then I'll finish tomorrow.

After that it's back to Baldur's Gate! But fun with Carol for now!

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Baldur's Gate 38(b): Grinding Ankhegs

So. Because I want to keep the party I've got, and I just dual-classed Imoen into a Mage, I kinda did a baddish thing. Now, Imoen is my thief, and you really have to have a thief in this game. On the last play though I got Corin, whom I really liked, but this time he would take the place of Minsc, and I like Minsc even better (plus, Minsc is a sequel character). So I can't get Corin this time.

The problem is that until Imoen get up to Level SEVEN as a mage, her thief abilities will be inactive. That means I can't do the Cloakwood mines and certainly not Durlag's Tower, because you need trap finding abilities for those areas. (Maybe I could have left her behind at Cloakwood and grabbed Corin for just that area, but darn it, I want Imoen.

So I went back to the Ankheg hole and just ground 'em up until I got Imoen up to Mage Level Five. As an added bonus, I also got my protagonist, Emerald, up to Mage Level Five as well. And I got Ajantis up to Level Six as a fighter, and Viconia up to Level Six as a cleric.

As another little bonus, I got plenty of nice spells from the ankhegs, including another copy of Knock for Imoen! Plus lotsa jewels, which got up nearly 2,000 more coins. You can't sell the Ankheg shells at this point in the game, sadly, so I'll have to save up for Imoen's Magic Robes.

The only problem is that I left Minsc and Jahiera back at the Friendly Arms Inn while I did all this. (I needed Viconia to use her command spell on the ankhegs, and Ajantis disappeared when I tried to remove him from my party so I had to take him along too). Downsizing the party like that allowed me to get experience points much faster. The only problem is that now Minsc and especially Jahiera are a bit behind the rest of the party, but I'm not worried about Minsc, and Jahiera will catch up as we go through the game.

So it maybe was a little bit of cheating, but the game allows it, and darn it, I just want to finish the thing this time. I'm really not a very good player, so it's going to help me enormously to have two advanced mages at this stage.

Now I have to go through all the wilderness areas and get Imoen up to Level Seven so she can get her thief abilities back. After that, things ought to be much easier.

Could just grind ankhegs with the whole party and I will if I find that I have to do it, but let's just play the game again now!

(Off topic update: Jonathan Boakes released a little filler game in the Last Crown series for Halloween on Steam. I got it for less than $5, and I really do want to play that. It shouldn't take too long. It's supposed to take place between the Lost Crown and the next game in the series, the Last Crown: Blackenrock, which I fervently hope will be released before the end of the year, along with Bracken Tor!)

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Baldur's Gate 37(b): Movin' ON!

After an enforced vacation from the game to do massive amounts of Kirkus books and house repair, I have returned to my quest!

(Kinda had to get back to the game before I forgot how to play. Certainly my skills have deteriorated, but I will regain them!)

I did the Nashkell Mines, and found them to be a lead-pipe cinch. Easy peasy.

But Imoen hit Level 6, so it was time to dual class her into a mage. However, once you do that, her thief skills will be frozen for eternity (or at least for the rest of the game--I dunno what happens in the sequel). She has find traps at 100%, which is great. However, at first I thought I had put too much into open locks. She will, after all, have the knock spell to use, and I wanted her to be able to pick pockets too. But I read on a forum that picking pockets isn't all that necessary. True, I have found only one Potion of Master Thievery, but I know there are more to buy in the city of Baldur's Gate. So now she has open locks at 85%, and pick pockets at only 25%.

I was going to wait until she hit level seven, but even with that I could only have got pick pockets up to 50%. I might have gone back to when she was level five and reallocated the points, but that would require even more replay. Worse, she wouldn't get her thief skills back until she hit level eight as a mage, which would take me close to the end of the game.

So I decided to just jump in and dual class her as she is. Open locks 85%, find traps 100%, pick pockets 25%. The stealthy stuff I don't really know how to use anyway.

I'm going to be wandering around the wilderness areas, doing stuff just to get her mage levels up. But also I think I will head back to the Ankheg area with just Imoen, my main character (always "Emerald") and probably Viconia, leaving the others at the Friendly Arms Inn. I'll slay a buncha ankhegs, dividing the experience points between just those three, and that ought to boost Imoen up pretty quickly. I'll try it at first with just Imoen and Emerald, but I think I'm going to need Viconia's command spell, which really helped me last time. I won't be able to sell the ankheg shells, of course. I just need the experience points.

I had another difficulty. When I went to get the reward for my expedition to the Nashkell Mines, I got up to 19 level reputation and Viconia left. Permanently. I went onto some forums to see how to drop a few rep points, but nothing they suggested worked. So I wrote to Heaveron and he agreed that it was just best to kill somebody and drop nine points. I got one back already, but now I'm back at average reputation. I can spend some money in temples to boost it a bit, but I don't want to get it too high. I'm going to run into this problem again, and I really want to keep Viconia.

So I stole some money from a house and killed the guard who tried to arrest me. Big rep drop, but Viconia is content. 

I've got Imoen her sling and some bullets, and a quarterstaff. Not plus-one equipment, but no doubt I'll find some of that eventually. I got her a few spells, and we just had a nice sleep so she could memorize: one. She has one spell. No wizard's ring for her. Hope I find another one somewhere.

But I did dual class her the last time I played, and it was really handy having two mages. Plus now I have a real cleric and a druid. So that's four spellcasters. That's gonna help!

I have plenty more reading to do this week, but I really want to try to play just for a short period every day. I don't want to take off this much time from the game again. I have some other games I'd like to get to, but I really do want actually to finish Baldur's Gate for the first time. I came close the first time! This time will be better.

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Baldur's Gate 36 (b) Chickened Out

Oopsies. OK. I decided on one sleepless night to just play the game. Couldn't sleep (this happens), so I put the time to good use, or so I thought.

I got to the Melicamp the Chicken episode. I remember it from the first time I played, and I did what was required. I carried Melicamp back to High Hedge and slaughtered some skeletons and got a skull. Took that back to the wizard and he worked his spell on Melicamp.

And Melicamp died from it. Whaaaaat?

And I didn't get any reward! Scheiß!

After all that I think I should have had a reward of some kind, but no. Oh well. I went on playing. I did the whole Ankheg episode and got the armor and lotsa points (and I learned something about fighting Ankhegs. If you sleep near where one might be--say, down in the Ankheg cave for example--you will get an Ankheg when you wake up about 95% of the time. Also, the amount of available Ankhegs appears to be unlimited, so there is lots of cash to be made with lots of patience.)

Melicamp in the inventory

Anyhoo, yesterday I decided that I ought to take another good look at the FAQ, which I had not bothered to do during my all-night session. It says to save before the wizard does the spell on Melicamp. It says that sometimes the spell doesn't work, and if it doesn't, you won't get a reward.

It also says that the reward is supposed to be 2000 experience points and another point of reputation! Whaaaat! 

I can't pass up 2000 experience points. So I went back and looked through my saved games. I found a game saved right there in Melicamp's area, and he was still alive. So I could go back and get him!

However, that game was prior to my Ankheg expedition. Emerald was still only a Level 2 fighter and a Level 1 mage (although she was very close to leveling up).

When I left off before, I was at Day 70 in the game.  Going back takes me to Day 41. That's a lotta game time, and a lotta leveling up that I'd throw away just to get that very very good reward.

But hey, ya know what? I'm playing this game for fun, and I'm having fun. So what if I re-do some stuff? Yeah, the Ankheg expedition is tedious if you want to get as much money out of it as possible, but I can do it. Shoot, I spent a whole hour rolling dice trying to get a 92 for my character build when I restarted the game. I can do patience. (I settled for 91, so my patience is not unlimited.)

Plus, I hadn't been following the FAQ. I'm gonna do that now. I realized that I was heading for the Nashkell mines because I had some decent levels on all my characters, finally, but I had left a lotta wilderness areas untouched. The FAQ says to do them before the Mines quest. 

So, I'm going back. I've got my reward, which caused both Emerald and Jaheira to level up. There are points to be earned and money to be made and magical weapons to acquire and more of the game to play that I hadn't done. 

I refuse to chicken out!

UPDATE:  Ha ha! I had an idea, which actually worked, that I could carry six Ankhegs at once on each trip to Beregost. What I did was take Ajantis's and Jaheira's armor off of them and store it in that "container" in the Ankheg cave (where you find the kid's body). As each Ankheg is 100 pounds, that gives Ajantis one, Jaheira one, Emerald two and Minsc two. Of course I have to be careful with two naked fighters, but Beregost is safe, and the journey there only rarely deals up an en-route fight. When that happens I can re-load the automatic save. So! That makes stocking up on Ankhegs (and money) much less time consuming. If I can make ten trips with six Ankhegs each, I ought to be able to afford not only the Ankheg armor for Jaheira, but also the Robes of the Neutral Archmage for Emerald. I dunno if I have that much patience--and perhaps there is a limit on Ankhegs in the game (but I doubt it). Still, I'm gonna try, with a hard save once I've got 20 of 'em, because I know the game allows that many.

Up-Update: And an even better idea: put the Ankheg heads into the "container." That way I don't have to keep taking armor on and off. Just stay there, slaughter Ankhegs, store 'em in the cave, rest over the line in the Friendly Arms area when necessary, rinse, repeat. Once I've got enough heads: get naked and haul 'em in as many trips as it takes to Beregost. Hah! 

Another Update: Just grinding Ankhegs. Got lots stuffed in that container in the cave. Will get lots more. Just go to sleep and they pop up, slaughter 'em, and stuff 'em in the container. When I have enough I'll strip armor off and carry six at once. I'm making lots of money and even leveling up! Also I'm finding spells (including Knock) and cash and gems. Boring though.

Final Update: OK, I've finished grinding my Ankhegs. Not actually sure how many of 'em I got, but I wound up with enough money to order my Ankheg armor for Jaheira and to buy the Robes of the Neutral Archmagi for Emerald. Still have almost 5,000 coins left. Even robbed the smithy. Got two Knock spells out of it, so when I dual class Imoen, she'll get one too. Turned out I could carry seven at once. I stripped Ajantis, Jaheira and Minsc, who could carry three all on his own, with Emerald taking two and Ajantis and Jaheira one each. Killing Ankhegs got to be pretty routine. They rarely even wounded me once I got the drill down (Command spell, then beat 'em with Ajantis, Emerald and Minsc). Several characters leveled up: Imoen is already level five. Also got a buncha jewels, which sold nicely. Even ran into some bandits while naked, but still beat 'em. So now I'm ready to get back on the trail! (Still have to pick up Jaheira's armor, but it's paid for!)

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Baldur's Gate 35 (b): We are a Team!

At last I have my party formed! The tough part was doing Minsc's mission: rescuing Dynaheir (then, sadly, marching her naked into battle and getting rid of her). 

My problem is that I'm doing this as early as I possibly can, and my party is still pretty weak. My protagonist is still Level 1 because she's a multi-class. I'm glad she's a mage, but she only has two spells at the moment, and the second one is only because of the wizard's ring.

So, I had to wipe out the Xvart village because I needed the special items from the cave behind their village. That wasn't too tough. The sleep spell works wonders at this stage in the game (when it doesn't miss the target). I took down the bear very easily with a "command" spell from Viconia.

My major problem was crossing a bridge and dispatching a polar bear, which is a far stronger enemy that I really can handle at the moment. The FAQ said to use the Entangle spell, but Jaheira at first kept missing. Finally I realized I could aim it at the ground and hope the bear would walk into it. Finally it did, but I found that I needed two spells to hold it. Even then it took plenty of time to kill it.

And then I tried to get the Frost boots from the nobleman who gave me the quest to kill the bear. He would only give me 50 coins because even with Ajantis's charisma at 17, it wasn't high enough, apparently (I've been unable to pickpocket the charisma robe in Beregorst--I need to find a potion of master thievery for that and I haven't got one yet). The FAQ said to just kill him, but I did that and my reputation took a five point hit. I wound up at 7, disliked. Traveling on I ran into Laurel (who's supposed to be on our side) who immediately attacked me. All my good characters were complaining loudly, and I think were on the verge of leaving.

So clearly, killing the guy wasn't a good idea. I just went back, did it all again, took the 50 coins and didn't get the Frost boots. I don't recall even having to use them much in my previous game, and there might be more somewhere else. One hopes. I tried knocking the guy out with fists, but that killed him anyway. Couldn't pickpocket them because Imoen's skill isn't high enough. 

After that the quest wasn't all that difficult because of my lovely sleep spell. I got the guys at the bridge with one spell and grabbed the nice item they have. After that it was just using sleep spells on the gnolls. You can sleep in the gnoll stronghold, oddly enough, so I just kept loading up on my sleep spells and finally got through it. Once I found Dynaheir, however, I had already killed all the enemies in the area so I couldn't just march her up the stairs to her demise. I left poor Ajantis, who didn't understand why I disbanded him temporarily, at the stronghold and had to travel to the area to the north to get her dead. 

One nice thing happened. We were in a rainstorm, and she got hit by lightening. Ha ha! Didn't quite kill her though, so I marched her up to a ogre I found by his fire and had her attack him. He did her in quickly enough and I just left the area with my party, went back to the stronghold and picked up Ajantis, and I finally am back in Nashkell.

Next job, the carnival. Then back to Beregorst to get that verdmanten cloak. Then I can clean up the wilderness areas at my leisure and rack up some experience. My protagonist (Emerald, always Emerald) and Minsc are still Level 1. When I get them to Level 2 I'll tackle the Nashkell mines. By then I ought to have Imoen up to 100% find traps skill.

But I now have my party solidly secure. I've got Ajantis, Imoen, Jaheira, Viconia and Minsc, with his hamster. I am enjoying Minsc. 

So now I can get on with the game at whatever pace I choose! Hooray!

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Baldur's Gate 34 (b): Almost Ready

Again, I'm not going to post as often on this playthrough, but I will relate my new start.

I have acquired nearly all of my party. I did the Friendly Arms area and got Jaheira and Khalid, with of course, Xzar and Montaron tagging along. Then I bumped up and grabbed Ajantis, who is now my leader with his 17 Charisma score (this saves lotsa money). I also got Viconia, so now I have an actual cleric.

Along the way Xzar got killed accidentally when I was fighting the Ogre with the piercing belt (I put it on Jaheira, as the FAQ suggests), and I dumped Montaron when I got Viconia. So. Thence down to Beregorst. I got Khalid killed by sending him naked into the spider house. Jaheira only made one comment about it. Then I went ahead and picked up Neera, whom I will dump once I get to Naskill and get Minsc. But it turns out that not only did Neera have her awesome gem bag, which I have appropriated from her (and it has some gems in it--ha ha!), but she had a nice Traveller's Mage Robe too.

I went through a bit of a mystery when I couldn't cast spells at first. I had them scribed and properly memorized, but they were dimmed out. I googled it and learned that I might try "getting naked." So I did, and presto! Now I can cast spells. It was the armor.

Ergo, I needed at least a Traveler's Robe. Now I have one. Heh.

I'll keep the annoying Neera until I get to Naskill, because there are two wilderness areas to traverse on the way, and I'll need her spells. (Or, I might just go to High Hedge, and temporarily pick up Kivan in her place. He's a good fighter, and might be better on the trip to Naskell. Plus, I can buy the sleep spell at High Hedge, which I haven't found yet. I'll need that when we go to rescue Dynahier. I think it works pretty well on goblins. Of course I picked up the Wizard's Ring, which gives me an extra spell per level to cast, and the ring of protection. So nice that we can wear two rings in this game!

With that party I ought to do well. Plus, Jaheira has already leveled up, and Ajantis and Viconia also are at level two. It'll take awhile for me to get there, however, because as a multi-class character I won't gets experience points as quickly. 

But now that I have some "armor," so to speak, I can fight.

So things are going to plan! Tomorrow it's off to High Hedge and Naskell! Recruit Minsc and his hamster, rescue Dynaheir to cement him into the party, and I'm good to go!

Update: I have dumped Neera for Kivan, who will go with us to Naskell. It felt goooooood! (And I stole her stuff. She sniveled. Ha ha!)

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Baldur's Gate 33 (b): Let's Try That Again . . .

So I decided that I needed to start over.

I may yet indeed vanquish the Demon Knight with my original party. However, I see that I started the game over a year ago and was absent from it for long periods. Also, since I found Haeravon's fantastic FAQ I realized that I had a very weak party (well, I didn't have a cleric and I had Neera the Wild Mage). My choice of Neera was very very bad.  She may be the most annoying character ever created, and she isn't even a good mage. Also, I passed up Minsc, who is a sequel character and supposedly provides great entertainment. And Minsc has a hamster, or something.

I've lost the flow of the game by now. People replay this game many times, usually, so there's no harm in starting again.

I will accept Neera when I meet her for just a moment in order to get her gem bag, which is an incredibly useful item. (In fact, that might be a good option for every character I meet. Loot 'em, then kick 'em out.)

I will take Minsc. I will also get a cleric, probably Viconia even though she's evil, because she comes in early and reputedly has good banter with Ajantis. I'll stick with Jahiera, who is a good druid (but not a cleric--turns out that druids are not clerics), and kill off Khalid. I'll also keep Imoen and dual class her when I can. And I probably will take Haeveron's advice and dual class my protagonist into a fighter-mage, eventually. I wish I could get Kagain this time, even though he's evil, because I really liked him, but I don't think there's room. I will certainly get Ajantis because I need his charisma. I think that's pretty much the standard party, with most of them sequel characters.

I'm going to follow the FAQ because I want to suck the marrow out of the game. 

Nice picture! The Friendly Arms Inn

I will not post as much with this playthrough, because the thread is already too long. I'll just jump in here with some updates on how things are going. But I really think starting over is the best idea, as I've been away from the game for so long. 

This is the classic of classic RPGs. This is probably the best video game ever made. It deserves a dedicated playthrough, not just starting and stopping all the time the way I've been doing. I don't mind following the FAQ this time because I've already made lots of my own decisions in the previous playthrough, so I can just simply do things better this time.

And plus, I love the music in this game (especially in the inns), so I will enjoy that again!

And off I go!

Update:  Well isn't that nice! I emailed Haeravon with some questions and he answered quite promptly! Now I think I've got a really good start. I am a half-elf fighter/mage, true neutral this time. I have given myself Identify and Magic Missile as my first two spells (I almost picked Lohroch's Minor Drain, which is good, and/or Sleep, but I can get those soon. The Identify spell saves me money at the start and I'll use that throughout the game.) I rolled a 91 after 45 minutes of trying to get a 92. Pfft. So my Wisdom and Charisma took hits, but I don't need 'em, and I have 18 in everything else. This makes me simply awesome. At Haeravon's advice I don't have any ranged weapons, but with my strength and constitution, I probably don't need that at first. I can get throwing axes maybe.

Up-Update: Ha ha. I read over some of my early entries, and found myself dismissing some of the FAQ's statements. Silly me. I really only glanced at it when I needed it before. Now I'm following its advice, and it is quite excellent.

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