So, despite the fact that Redbeard pardoned him, I went ahead and slaughtered the slaughterer of my tank's patrol. Good thing, too. Got some of the best armor in the game offa that guy. If I'd followed my usual peaceful instincts, I would have missed that.
Still haven't started the major quest of the day--the Titan Keep. Am cleaning up some of the minor quests. Also, I bought the expensive blessings from the Incantor at the Kellendrian castle. I mean, what else am I gonna spend my money on? She has an expensive "wizard's bow" too, and I'm saving up for that.
But I did manage to find my blademaster, and, moody though he is, I did his quest for him, which resulted in the aforementioned armor.
When you finally find the bad guy who ambushed my guy years ago, he produces a paper showing that Redbeard pardoned him. For once, I didn't go along with it. Hah.
I did do a stupid thing, though. A poor peasant had saved up to pay me for slaughtering some salamanders, but I did it for free.
Sap.
I mean, it violated my philosophy of always stealing everything from the computer people, including the starving peasant computer people.
Sap.
Anyway, I think I'm pretty much ready to start the quest. After doing all that stuff I went back to the Avadon castle and did my housekeeping. I sorted out the good armor and placed it on my d00ds. I enhanced stuff. I sold stuff that's been cluttering up the inventory and that I'm never gonna use (such as good, but lesser amour and weapons).
One thing that I kinda don't like about this game is that you have to go back to the home base to do all of that. In the Avernum games when you found the good stuff, all your guys were there and you could just equip the stuff on the spot.
And plus, I think I've figured out what is a bit less compelling about this game than about the Avenum games. There is no definitive overriding goal for the game, other than just playing and advancing and finishing it. Fun, sure, but what are we doing in this game? OK, there are multiple hints that something somewhere is causing problems for Avadon, and we'll find out what that is sometime, but it's too vague to provide a real goal in the game.
In the Avernum games, you knew what you were fighting. Either it was the Empire trying to wipe us all out, or the Vahnatai were attacking us, or something like that. We had real goals: destroy the Vahanati barriers, find the Orb of Thralni, find Demonslayer--that sort of thing. These quests took up weeks of playtime. Even in Nethergate, you knew what you were doing from the start: get the magical people to the Nethergate if you're playing as the Celts, or stop them if you're playing as the Romans. There was a purpose to everything.
This time we just keep going back to the same three areas with expanded quests. No doubt it'll all come together in the end, but so far I don't see an overall reason to do all of this, other than that we're "Hands" of Avadon and this it's our job. The fact that Avadon is the preeminent, looming, unopposable power in this world actually lessens the game's sense of danger. In Avernum, you knew that you were the lesser power, fighting one that easily could overwhelm you. Even when you played as Empire soldiers in Avernum V, you spent the whole game in an isolated, remote area where you could be beaten.
It just doesn't appear that Avadon could lose.
It's still plenty of fun, but not as compelling. There just isn't enough of a plot, at least in comparison to Jeff's earlier games. I do appreciate, though, that we get to know our individual d00ds in this game. There were teensy hints about Sschah and the others in the Avernum games, but this time they have real personalities. That's a great improvement and certainly does add interest, but it doesn't overcome the lack of a dominating plotline.
Anyhoo, I now know for certain that I'm more than 60% through the game. I looked at the forum, and saw an entry that said when you get the lockpick satchel you're about 60% finished, and I got that early last night.
Also, finally I'm getting some named weapons. The Rod of the Sun, the Ivy-Covered Rod. The Blademaster armor. That kind of thing. Makes your d00ds much more powerful.
And power I will need if I'm going to tackle Redbeard! Also, that blue dragon.
But, it was satisfying to make the right decision last night, and get the goodies.
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