Avernum 3-5: House Hunters

Still chugging along in the game! Having finished (mostly) the Troglodyte quest--although I suspect I'll be going back to clean out their castle--I decided to go back to the early areas of the game and look for stuff I missed. Found quite a few. Usually they were barriers that I couldn't dispel at the time but now can, and stones that I couldn't shatter but now can. 

But I also found the Dryad grove, which was a bit tough. After that I drifted up to the north and ran into the Ursag valley and a mine that had been taken over by hostile Sliths. After I did all of that I found the quests for those things, and very easily got the rewards for them. That's always fun.

The dryad in her grove

Confronting the Ursagi

Actually I'm strong enough now that none of these things were very challenging. I've also gone farther north than previously, opening up more of the map. I'm running into hostile giants, and finding that they easily succumb to range spells. 

But the fun part is that in this game, we get to buy a house! It's expensive, but I'd built up quite a large sum so I just bought it. It has a level 3 spell in it, so you have to buy it to get that. I'm also storing my skribbane herb, which is illegal in the area. Dunno how I'm going to get that out again--it'll just take some trials.

Our new luxury home

I still had quite a bit of cash left over after my purchase, so when I ran into a mage in one of the northern towns who had loads of spells to sell, I bought all but one. The good news: yes, after you have found a level 3 spell, but used it to teach you the spell, you can still buy two more levels from teachers. I found Blink for the first time in the Filth Factory, and I was able to buy two levels from the mage.

It's pretty clear that I'm going to have to join the Amana cult for awhile, just to get their priest spells. Also, their high priest apparently is the only one if the game who can remove a Dread Curse, which according to the Spiderweb Forum I will eventually acquire. Think I'll wait until I get it to apply for membership. I'm still looking for the mass healing spell, however. So far I'm doing fine without it, but that's one of the major goals to keep progressing.

I have run into a glitch. Our characters can get "battle disciplines," which allow us some extra power on occasion. My main character was doing very well with them, when I noticed that somehow he has lost a few. I've put in a question on the Forum to find out what might have happened and how to fix it. These games have had battle disciplines for a long time, and I've never lost any before. Weird. (Update: I had changed weapons. The original weapon had lots of added skills.)

But I think it's time to go after the giants, even though I don't have an actual quest for it yet. The quest will turn up, eventually.

Onward!

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