I have emerged onto the surface world! I decided that although there were still a few areas left to conquer in Upper Avernum, I wasn't strong enough yet to do it (hmmm. I may be strong enough now). However, I wanted to solve a major problem. There is a quest to retrieve a Vanahatai statue from the local bandits. Now, I had already completely cleaned out the bandit lair, along with their allies, the goblins. First thing I did, actually. But I couldn't find that statue.
I found a reference to it, so I knew the bandits had the thing. Finally I peeked at the Spiderweb Forum and learned that I am not the only person who missed the little green Vanahatai chest sitting just to the left of the big blue bandit chest in the secret area. I'd been there many times. But, for those who want to avoid frustration, here's the little spoiler:
It's right next to the big blue chest.
So with that finally out of the way, I decided it was time to head out onto the surface world.
We emerge:
What's that green stuff?
I am just having a total blast playing this. I have virtually no memory of playing it a good decade ago, at least, so it's basically a new game for me. But it's Avernum! With humor! I didn't like the Avadon series nearly as well, even though it used the same engine as this and had pretty much the same mechanics. In that game it was hard to tell who were the heroes, if there were any at all. In Avernum, we are the heroes. It's just much more fun to play that way.
And Jeff includes his trademark ironic humor:
The inventory screen with a description of wine. Note the gremlins' attitude.
Church of the Divine Lucre. Yeah, all they are about is money.
It adds so much fun to the game to find these little barbs.
Anyway, I played almost all day yesterday, then started writing this post in the evening, but went back to the game before finishing my writing! This whole area is entirely new to me. Here's a surface town:
Graphics really are better!
I have completed my first major quest on the surface. I destroyed the slime pits, thereby putting an end to the plague of slimes that have been destroying the area.
Plus, I think I made a mistake. In these games we have "job boards" in every major city, where we can accept side quests. I always do all of these. I do every teensy quest that I can find, because I want to experience the entire game, not just win it. However, this time there was a secondary job board with time-sensitive quests. I just grabbed 'em all as I normally do, but I think that was a mistake. How am I going to get to a city in the north when I'm far, far from there? Unless I've already missed the deadline, I'm going to try going by portal. I found a wizard who operates a portal that can take you to various cities. The next job is to see if my target city is one of those. (Thought I had a pic of the job board, but I can't find it.)
And wheee! I'm back in the Tower of Magi to get my reward for slaying the slimes. Turned out to be the Icy Rain spell, which shows you how early I am in this game. Yeah, I've reached level 10, but I'm betting that I'm only about one-tenth done. Great to be back in the real Avernum, but no doubt we won't be able to go outside. We might get to explore the entire Tower, however, which looks good!
It's like old home day!
Well, I'm gonna explore the tower and take the risk that my delivery, if I even can use the wizard's portals, might expire.
I just can't tear myself away from this game! It's really like a brand new Avernum game to me--my fave of faves! Yeah!
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