Nethergate Resurrection 11: Ghosthunters

Have been playing for an hour or two the past couple of days. Am progressing! Now I'm quite sure I will finish the game. I'm not quite to the endgame yet, but I'm closing in on it.

First, I did the entire quest to the Roman Fort, but, verdammt, I forgot to get any screenshots of it. Tried to sneak back in to get some, but you can't return to that location either. At least while I was there I managed to slaughter a few isolated Romans and steal their stuff. Didn't venture out into the entire fort, though, because they would have swarmed me.

That done and with the next quest to go to Annwn, the Land of the Dead, I knew I needed a few more spells. The ones I was missing weren't in the higher level, so I consulted my old hint book. I went back to Reptrakos's Lair and found that I had not done a quest for him involving slaying a basilisk. When I was there earlier I didn't have my nifty crystal shield, which protects from petrification (you only need one on the party lead). Did that, and Reptrakos gave me the spell I wanted.

Reptrakos in his glory. He is killable, but it's a tough fight.

I really wanted to get Sylaks Nourishing Bowl, which Reptrakos has in a chest, but you have to either fight him or flee very very quickly to get the thing. I have the create food spell, so I can use that in Annwn (you can't eat any food you find there or you will stay there until you join the other ghosts).

The library is a fountain of knowledge!

Then I went to the library in the Fairie Bazaar for the rest of the spells. Indeed, there they were! My priest now has everything, including all five of the Nether Arts spells. My sorcerer only lacks Ravage Life, but his spirit circle isn't high enough to get it. I thought I wouldn't need it in Annwn anyway (wrong.)

So! On to Annwn, which I remember as probably the toughest area.

Intimidating, yes?

The entrance isn't too imposing:

The way in

The way out is a bit more difficult. There is a resting area close to the entrance, so you can restore your spell points, which seem to become depleted much faster here. Am now about to go to the battlefield area, so I hope I can find another one there somewhere, or find out how to get back to the first one.

But first, after going through most of the bottom area, I found a portal which took me to the second floor (as it were), with nice green grass! 

And there's a castle there, too!

That blue patch is deadly. There's a lot of that stuff all over. You can avoid it by casting "hovering feet," but watch carefully so that the spell doesn't expire before you do.

I've battled a buncha ghosts, and have obtained the ultimate mage robe, which is now on my sorcerer. And it's red! Whee! 

I've got a quest to go and find a shadow key, or to escort a human out of Annwn, or to slay a second drake on the bottom floor (I got the first one already). But I want the key anyway. There's an attractive chest that needs that key, and I don't want to miss it.

So next time I'll be in the battle area! I've made all the energy potions that I have the ingredients for. I'm going to have to remember to use my consumables and free up inventory space for loot. Anyway, if I were ever going to use consumables, this is the place to do it.

So tomorrow I will venture forth into the fray!

Next Entry.

Nethergate Resurrection 10: Storming the Castle

Woo Hoo! Lots done!

First, I did the Burial Glen side quest, which indeed was way too easy. I'm much stronger now than that area requires. Somehow I missed getting a good sword out of it, but it's so clearly intended to be done earlier in the game that I'm pretty sure the sword wouldn't be all that useful to me now.

The Burial Glen. Lots of buildings here.

The final encounter area. Pretty easy this time.

I also hunted all over for a sixth lost soul to complete a quest I'd started long ago. Turned out I had found all the souls, and had only to go turn in the quest! It had an excellent reward too!

The Soul wants his friends.

So! Off I went to Castle Aethdoc. And there I found something that I had not known earlier. It's true that in the Fomorian quest, you can't get back into the area once you've left. I thought that was the only one like that. But no! You can't get back into the hostile area of Castle Aethdoc either. I tried to go back to slaughter everybody and loot the place clean, but once you've left, the gates close and that's it.

It's a whole chapter!

The castle is invisible

Fortunately, I didn't have a difficult time killing the bad guy, and I got the Break Barrier spell. Also, I've got plenty of money now, so I really don't need the cash I could have had. Moral: next time, do what I did with the Fomorians and pile up the loot at the entrance, because you can get back to the friendly side. There were masses of iron chainmail in the place, worth 250 coins each!

Getting the quest

Ya gotta break the barriers!

Buy the Break Barrier spell here!

But it was fun! 

For the next quest, I have to break into the Roman fort, just as I remembered. I have only this quest, then the trip into the Land of the Dead, and then the endgame. So I'm definitely more than halfway done!

Till next time!

Next Entry.

Nethergate Resurrection 9: Aladdin's Lamp

Got lots of really nice playing time yesterday, so I did the newly added side quest of Haroun and his stolen lamp. Whenever Jeff Vogel remakes one of his games he always adds new dungeons and quests. This one turned out to be not as tough as I remembered it from a playthrough years ago, but perhaps I waited until I was stronger to start it this time. 

This cave is a bit southeast of the Hollow Hills, and it leads to a second dungeon near the Gryphon lair. A soldier who has joined the Roman army originally comes from a desert land to the east of Rome and has acquired a magic lamp with a powerful entity living inside it. A Roman named Titus stole the lamp and now has gone all megalomaniac, intending to conquer the world with it. 

Meeting Haroun

We have to explore the original cave and smash tablets that we find. Sometimes smashing them leads to some nifty fights, and finally leading to a three-tiered fight with Titus, who flees once we beat all his summoned monsters, but of course he forgets his key.

From there we trek all the way west, and now that we have the key, we can get into the staging area of the Lamp cave. Celts need the sever seal spell to get into one side (I had the spell, but had to check the Forum to find out that I needed it. For once, Jeff didn't leave a clue about that.) The Roman party gets the other side.

Where to go?

Inside the north area we fight lots of giants, until we beat all of them and get another key that gets us into the highest area of the dungeon, where we find Titus again. Actually I didn't think that fight was all that rough. We get a choice about what to do with the genie.

So! That was fun! Next I think I'll go and tackle the village of the undead that's in the original area. I know you have to be pretty strong to get through there, but I might just be strong enough now.

After that, I'll do Castle Aethdoc. Then I think the next major mission is the in Annwn, the Land of the Dead, and then the endgame. And, I remember a major quest where the Celts sneak into the Roman fort! So I'm guessing that I'm perhaps a little more than halfway through with the game.

Still having major fun!  

Next Entry.

Nethergate Resurrection 8: All Fall Down

Had some time to play so I decided that before I tackle the next major mission: Castle Aethdoc, I'm going to clear up some other stuff. I have plenty, plenty, plenty to do all over the game area.

Earlier I got a mission to fetch some magic stones from the bottom of a mine. The mission requires a special wand to protect your party from falls, and I already have the wand. It was the reward for completing the mission to Raven in the Gryphon cave.

Just by chance I found out how to get into the Roman area, so I thought, hey, I'll go do that. The mission takes place in the goblin mines that is the basic training area for the Roman party. I'm pretty strong now, so I knew it would be a piece of cake.

The Roman Mines

Fighting my way through the mines indeed was pretty darned easy. I had no difficulty with the dragon in the basement, although I confess that I cast Hero of Old on my main fighter. Probably didn't need it. Finding my way down to the drop-off point also was easy, and although the hostile spirits you encounter there are hostile indeed, again, I'm strong enough now to defeat 'em pretty quickly. I did make one mistake and step into the available portal, which transports you back up, before I got the stones, but fortunately the magic falling wand has plenty of charges, so I just used it again.

Now my task is to go back and clean out all the loot from the mine, which is going to take several trips, even though I can use Word of Recall to get me back to Nethergate Village in an instant. Once I've sold all the stuff, I'll go back to the Fairie Bazaar to get my reward for the magical stones. 

Then I think I'll tackle a couple of the new areas for Nethrgate Resurrection. When Jeff re-makes a game he always puts in new dungeons, and I know of a couple that I ought to be ready for now. 

So that's next time!

Next Entry.