Avadon, the Corruption 5: Fighting and Fighting and Fighting and . . . Finished?

I finished. Plenty of great fun right up to the endgame, which frankly, sucked. But first:

Once again I was having too much fun playing to blog about it. Had to do all the little quests to satisfy my co-fighters. Each one has a little problem to solve, but we have to go find them and solve it in order to keep them friendly and happy.

Along the way I returned to Monitor Base D in the Corruption, and attacked the Wind Demon that was occupying it. With two tinkermages, giving me four towers, and my shaman to heal us up, after a bit of trouble with tactics I managed to defeat the guy pretty easily. Didn't get a "medal" in the game for it, however, because I did it on normal difficulty, and the game won't reward you with a medal unless you kill him on the "hard" setting.

The big quest was going to the Corruption Core and the fight with Miranda, one of the major villains. Miranda rebelled against Redbeard in the first game and caused all the chaos we're fighting in this game. We met her earlier a couple of times, but this time it's the showdown. The trouble with the Core is that if you step off the smooth walkways you engender nasty enemies. Plus, once you kill Miranda (a little trick is involved that I had to look on the forum for, but I should have been able to figure it out with my Spiderweb experience, drat me) you have to leave the Core post haste, or you get swarmed. Of course, you can always have just one character run out, leaving the rest to get killed. They come back once you hit the peace button.

So that was a nice challenge, and fun. But then we get to the actual endgame.

First, we have to go fight Dheless in  one of his temples again. This time he has abundant cronies who are pretty tough. It ain't easy to get through 'em, and finally I decided to just avoid a few fights. Once done with that, you get this screen:

There's only one place to go. So we go there, and we find . . .

Endlessly spawning enemies. First, we can get into a nice supply dump. I couldn't access all of the goodies available, because you need lockpicks and I didn't have enough to get into a chest that no doubt held some really nice stuff. Then it's out and into the fighting.

The first fight is fine. We can win it. However, once we proceed across the map we trigger those spawning enemies. Plus, there are more enemies in your way as you try to get to the fort. If you get through those you find four (4) flame throwing turrets blocking your access over the bridge. 

The forum gave good advice. Get a character with teleporting abilities, load up with regeneration potions, and "bunny hop" across the map. 

So, I went back to a save game that I had in Avadon, and chose a different party. I left my sorcerer with his great robe and wand, and took my shaman because I needed the healing ability. Then I gave my character the teleport scarab and also chose the shadow walker, who can teleport automatically. I fought my way through the temple yet again--good tough fights. Also got through that first section of the outside area that you have to traverse to get to the fort.

But then I ran into the spawning area. Used the teleport ability to get my character and the shadow walker across. One of them got stuck in a fight, but the other did manage to leap over the bridge with the turrets. Whew!

But. 

It turns out that more spawning enemies come from the north. At last I just gulped down speed potions and ran to the fort. I made it! Now I'm ready for the final showdown that will end the game. I've saved up nine precious circle of fire scrolls, because these games always end with a final, tough battle that you eventually can win, right? I've got battle elixirs. I've got three assault crystals. I've got wands. I've got speed elixirs. I am READY for that final battle!

Nope. Those spawning enemies were the final fight. You get to recruit all six of your buddies. I took time to make sure they were all well equipped, although I wasn't able to change any scarabs because I wasn't at Avadon. I gulped down some "water" available in the area that replenished my vitality. Everybody was at full strength. We go in to see Redbeard. We make choices (I decided to be loyal this time).

Redbeard says we're going back to Avadon. So I hoped I'd have chance to fix the scarabs before the fight.

But there was no fight. Once you click the green check button to end the dialogue, the game goes into the explanation of what happened. No final fight. No scarabs. No circle of fire scrolls. The game is over.

Sheesh. 

Well, it was a fantastic game up to that point. The endgame was nothing but frustration followed by disappointment. Did Jeff get tired? Did he get pushed over a deadline? And why the spawning enemies anyway? That just isn't Spiderweb's style. Normally, when you kill an enemy, it stays dead. You can get spawns, but there's always a source to destroy and stop the spawning. 

So instead of five stars, I'm docking one just because of the endgame. Great game, up to that point.

I did have fun most of the time though!

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Avadon, The Corruption 4: THAT was PHUN!!!

Played all day yesterday! W00T! Did two epic dungeon crawls that kicked it!

First up was "Troezen's Treasure," an abandoned tinkermage workshop with all kinds of nasties inside just waiting to eat me. This may be the best dungeon crawl I've ever done. It has three different layers. First, you get in and confront constructs that keep generating. The more generated the tougher they become, so it's necessary to take 'em down as quickly as possible, um, except you don't know that until you get to the end. We wind around and get to the back of the workshop, destroy all the constructs, and then we're safe. However, we can't open the gate into the rest of the workshop. We make a drawing of it and take that back to the lady who gave us the quest, a tinkermage in Troezen. She takes her time in figuring it out, and won't figure it out until we've gained more levels. So we get on with the rest of the game.

At last we're sent back to Troezen, and at last she's figured it out. She gives us instructions, and we return to the workshop. We open the gate! Now we've got more baddies to fight and they're not really all that bad, but once we get 'em all slaughtered we find yet another gate we can't open. Back to the lady tinkermage and she can't figure this one out, but remembers that there's another way in. So off we go, slaughtering altered goo bats and various ghasts until we get to a window that allows us to see the gate mechanism from the other side. Take that back to the tinkermage and she solves it. Now we can get in to the inner workshop, with all the goodies.

But, first we have to get by a couple of really tough constructs that drop mines. That one defeated me the first time until I wised up and set up my towers right at the doorway so they couldn't get by. I've got two tinkermages in this battle: my main character and the other tinkermage that nobody likes, and that turned out to be a great choice. Was able to fire away at the constructs with my sorcerer taking no damage at all, and finally got through to the inner sanctum and the final, nasty battle.

I had to take a look at the forum for advice on this one. There are three "tinkermage constructs," each in a little alcove. These all set up their own hostile towers that shoot at you. Apparently you only have to kill one tinkermage construct to win the battle, but they're not all vulnerable at the same time. A little wisp circles one of them, changing all the time. When the wisp is circling around one of them, that one is vulnerable. Also, in the center of the room, more constructs are formed that eventually are going to attack you.

First, I set up with the south tinkermage construct, but got killed pretty quickly. Then I took the forum's advice and entered battle mode before going into the room, because the room doesn't become hostile until all three of our characters are inside. This time I chose the north alcove, because you're sheltered from the other two alcoves and their hostile towers there. Ran in one at a time, set up four towers, two for each of my tinkermages, then had my sorcerer run in and join me. 

How I did it!

Got killed again on the first try, but that was only because I neglected the center constructs for too long, and they shambled forward and slaughtered me fairly quickly. However, it clearly was a smart option, so I did it again. Summoned creatures with my summoning wands and used an assault crystal to get everybody charged up. This time I hid behind my towers, except for my sorcerer, who mostly stood back against the wall. When my tinkermage construct was invulnerable, I just shot at the constructs forming in the center of the room. They actually go down fairly easily if you keep hammering them. Whenever my tinkermage construct turned vulnerable, I whacked away at her, this time not forgetting the center constructs. It took awhile, but I had set up not only suppression, ice and razorblade towers, but a healing pylon too. 

So I got out of it with a nice win and not even too much damaged. 

Really, I think that was the best dungeon crawl I've ever done.

The second one turned out to be another solo effort for my main character, although I think I could have avoided that. We go to another of those temples looking for the bad guy Dheless, and this time we find him. We also find a truly powerful Tawon goddess, however and she sends us downstairs to hung Dheless, because he make her mad. She sends our two companions away, however, so we're on our own.

Now, I think I could have avoided most of that by just going downstairs with my whole party before I encountered the goddess. I might have a saved game that would let me check that out, but I'm not sure. Anyhoo, you have to slaughter ghasts and ghosts and rats, but these come at you mostly one at a time with the occasional twosome. Not too difficult to dispatch, as we heal up every time we go into peace mode after a fight. There are some decent goodies to loot, and thanks to the junk bag there's no limit to what we can carry. (Although my inventory was completely clogged at the end, because I found some good weapons and armor that I didn't want to sell--fortunately, as you'll see!)

Got to a room where I had to fight Tawon soldiers, but these came at you one at a time, and I had my towers to suppress them and heal me. I didn't bother with shooting towers because I could whack away at 'em on my own. Got all those guys and used up a buncha lock picks to get into sealed areas and get some better goodies. Finally went upstairs, where I had to avoid a construct that patrolled the halls just as in Avernum 6, so I knew how to do that. Fought a buncha ghosts there and took down a buncha hostile towers--easy for a tinkermage with some tool use.

Another upstairs level, and this one had internals to fight. Needed my suppression and healing towers for those, but it went easily after that. Then we get to a "test area" where you have to prove your worth to the goddess. But hey, I'm a tinkermage, so I can set up my towers and the bad guys will whack those instead of me while I shoot and whack them. Wasn't difficult at all and I came out of it almost unscathed. Then I got a really nice sword from a treasure chest as a reward, as well as a key to the final tower, where you find Dheless. Won't say what happened there.

But back I go to Avadon to find that my sorcerer has disappeared. This happens in the Avadon games--each of your characters will have some kind of crisis and you have to go rescue them. That would be fine, except that my sorcerer disappeared with all the good gear on him! Luckily I had scored some good stuff, and I had a good breastplate for my blademaster, as well as a buncha other stuff I hadn't sold yet. She had her own good weapon, so I gave the new sword to the tinkermage that had gone with me on the last mission, as he was already tricked out with the good armor. I only had to buy a helmet for her--I had necklaces and boots and gloves and what all for her. She won't be as strong as before, but she won't be vulnerable.

So now I can start gathering my wandering characters. I've got two to find, as I didn't go after the first one earlier. Will do that before I start any more major quests.

Whew! That was major PHUN! Two great dungeon crawls! Took me all day, but I earned it!

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Avadon, The Corruption 3: Got 'Em!

Wasn't going to play any more last night, but I started watching a DVD  movie that wasn't very good, so I went back to the game. Either I'm much stronger now (well, yeah), or the titans were tweaked here, because I was able to take 'em on and slaughter them without much difficulty. 

First, I snuck by them completely to reconnoiter the rebel fort. Did that and reported back to the base camp, where Commander Odil led us on a major raid of the camp. With my towers (really, I'm routinely using just the suppression tower and the ice sprayer), and with the help of the Avadon troops, which included a sorcerer to keep us hasted and healed, I was able to get those baddies too, although I did lose my shaman and blademaster. But I survived long enough for the troop to win the fight, so it was OK. Got some nice loot, then had to go underground to fight the rebel leader.

The underground fights were much better, i.e, tougher. First I encountered a nasty sorcerer, but I left him and got their smithy instead. Fortunately he had a couple of magic anvils, so I was able to enhance some new equipment and clean out the inventory a bit. He and his construct were tough, but with my towers I was able to get 'em.

Then I went back to the sorcerer. Darn, he was on four spaced-apart platforms and kept leaping from one to another. Therefore my suppression tower could only get him sporadically. He left "infernals" in his place when he leaped, but those were actually pretty easy. I just kept following him around and finally got my party together on one platform. Eventually he'd leap right into my clutches, get hit by my suppression tower and nicely slowed, and I was able to whack away at him. Mostly I had to hit him with projectiles, but eventually those wore him down until he expired. 

It seems the rebels were getting serious magical help from somebody major. The plot thickens.

Next I had to face the rebel leader in her stonehenge-like circle. Jeff used a longstanding Spiderweb tactic there by making her invulnerable when she summoned ghosts. I know that tactic. You have to kill the ghosts and then she'll be vulnerable again. This time you only had to kill two ghosts to get her, and the ghosts were pretty weak, so it didn't take much. Again, kept hacking away at her with projectiles until she took her dirtnap. 

After that I went hunting for loot and was extremely disappointed that I couldn't find any magic switches. I've got the game hacked (with advice from the forum) to make the switches easily visible, and I swear, there weren't any there. Darn.

I did get some nifty gauntlets from her and a few other nice magical things, but the sorcerer only dropped a black oak staff and I've already got one better than that. Well, it'll sell well.

Traipsed around to see if I could get anything else from the area before I left, and indeed, found some lizards, including a couple of basilisks--these don't kill you as they did in Avernum, where you needed a character carrying a crystal shield to get 'em, but only stun you for a few rounds. So again, the game is made easier for newer players. I also found a nice nest of titans with a good boss and a shaman. That ought to have been tough, but I was lucky (or smart) enough to place my towers right where the bulk of the enemies would be, and my towers pretty much took care of 'em as I stood back and hurled projectiles at 'em. Fun.

Back to Avadon, and got some good cash for all the stuff in my junk bag. Finally getting some cash to spend. I can go back and get some more blessings from the hedge witch up in the Tawon area, or maybe buy another house! (why?) Or I could get some furniture for Skyrise Farm!

Also went back to the Corruption before taking on the new major quest, as I've got a few minor quests in that area and because I finally acquired two drake skins. There's a tailor in Monitor Base C who makes good stuff from drake skins, so I got a nice suit for my shaman that will help him make wolves. I'm using the "call aid" function from time to time, but not nearly enough. Really, with these towers and the call aid function, we can have a goodly number of fighters on our side, so it's silly not to use 'em.

However, I got so caught up in the game again (yay!) that I finally looked up and saw that it was 1:30. Oops. Hauled myself off to bed, but not before realizing that I hadn't swapped out all the equipment on my allies. Really, that is getting to be tedious and is my only real complaint against the game.

So I'll probably do more today! Fun!

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