Avernum Escape: 15

(Which does not mean that I think Avernum is toilet paper)

But I've been playing for a good two days now. This is what happens with Avernum games. You get caught up in them and can't stop. I'm sure it's because it's so open-ended. You can wander where and when you will, almost, and there's always that next thing to do, unlike Avadon, which has definite chapters. Some will prefer one, some the other. I like the freedom.


It's dangerous though. It's addicting.


Stupid stuff: I'm so used to having Sschah as my second fighter that I forgot I don't need to have my second fighter doing pole weapons and javelins. There are so many good bows in this game that I finally realized I could switch Marion to bows. So I just junked my javelins or sold the good ones. What took me so long to realize that? 


So! I finally made my way to the Giant lands and conquered them. I found Lost Bahssikava and retrieved the sacred answering stone. By the time I did these things I was a bit too powerful for the enemies involved, so they weren't at all difficult.


I've met with Erika, cleaned out every hostile Slith area I could find, got the Silver Circlet, got the black drake fang, met with Sulfras, slaughtered Pyrog (not that tough, for all his/her arrogance). Got Sss-Thsss and Lord Chuckles yesterday. (I kinda got lucky with Lord Chuckles--I just happened to find where he jumped both times.) After doing the Chasm Drake, the Slith Island Fort and Sss-Thsss weren't all that tough. Sss-Thsss personally does take some time to go down and he did get me once, but all I needed were some armor elixirs and after that he was a piece o' cake.


I also got the Royal Seal from the First Expedition out of the Ruined Fort. That was always my least favorite dungeon--but I waited so long to do it this time that it was a snap. Got the Orb of Thralni--which you can do with no fights, if you want. The fights weren't all that tough though, so I did 'em anyway.


Actually I've found lots of stuff from the First Expedition. I'm wondering when Jeff will do a prequel about it. That easily could make a whole game. He needs to do that, and at least one prequel about the first prisoners sent down to Avernum, when Erika, Solberg and X make the mushrooms and glowing fungi and fight the resident monsters to establish the Avernum civilization. One or two games could come out of that.


I found what I think is a new quest, this guy who's set up a whole town in the giant lands. Also there's an empire agent under Formello who seems to be working in league with King Micah--how's that? Her quests conflict with others, but I'm doing what I can. I killed her at one point, but clearly that was a no-no in the game, so I restored a saved game and brought her back to life.


I finally found the boat to the northern islands and got the Level 3 Dispel Barrier spell. Now I have to revisit almost every dungeon in the game to find level 3 barriers that I need to dispel. I haven't found the Jade Halbred yet, so I'm sure it'll be behind one of those barriers. That might be a good idea anyway, because sometimes you miss stuff. However, I really don't remember having to do that in the original game. Normally when you found a barrier, by the time you had the strength to get to that area, you could dispel it. Yeah, it's always been difficult to get Dispel Barrier in the first place, but damn, you miss stuff when it takes this long. (Truth: it's my own fault. I could have gone after the Giants much earlier than I did, and you can't get to that spell until you defeat them.)


However, I also have all five brooches to get me to Emperor Hawthorne (and back--apparently you can't get back if you don't have all five) and all four parts of the password to get me to the surface. I'll do that quest last, because you really do have the opportunity to end the game there.


I'm trying to clean up all the quests. A few more to do, then I have to get the Onyx Scepter and the Blessed Athame from the Tower of Magi, and then I'll set out to do the three major, game-ending quests.


Which I imagine will take me at least a few more days. I really do need to do things other than play Avernum.


But golly, it's been fun!


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Avernum Escape: 14

I have slaughtered the Chasm Drake and all his reptilian minions!


And it was a great fight. First, I had to get through some truly nasty encounters before I found the lair. Then inside the lair, I had to slaughter more minions, plus some human bandits types who were quite tough.


Fortunately I have acquired just enough strength to do all this. I had to run back to Fort Remote every time I won a fight to replenish my spell energy. Plus, Cordelia was lucky enough to find a "book" that taught Return Life, which I had to do several times. Her healing abilities and Mycroft's awesome attack spells got me through it. 


But I keep forgetting to use the stuff I've acquired. 


And I acquired Smite! So now I can go attack the Giants. However, Aldous has Demonslayer, which means that "Marion" is going to have to be my pole fighter, and I've got her doing dual wielding. It's the first time I've tried that, and I rather like it. Ah well, I guess I'll just have to train Aldous to dual wield, with Demonslayer as one of the swords.


I've managed to get Aldous equipped with major magical swords, gauntlets, and shield. They sparkle in the inventory, a nice effect.


I also cleared out the Goblin Gold lair. I got their gold, but not Lord Chuckles. As he's a separate quest, I'll have to return to the place.


Ah, and I got my boat back. Indeed, the big waterfall has rocks in it, and you can go up it in your boat. I knew that had to be the case, because it's easy to get lost in the waterfall warren, and you can't buy a new boat every time. 


So next, I guess I'll go get Lord Chuckles, then I'm pretty sure I'm strong enough now to do the Slith Island fort, and slaughter Sss-Thsss. I mean, if I can kill the Chasm Drake and all his minions, I can get Sss-Thsss. I still need to find the last level of the Dispel Barrier spell, and I'm guessing it might be there. Gotta be somewhere within my range now, because I'm still finding barriers I can't dispell, and that's going to cause a lot of backtracking.


Plus, it's time to go after the Orb of Thralni in the Waterfall Warren.


I also found the dragon Sulfras, who wants the Onxy Scepter (we know that's in the Castle) and a crown that's somewhere in the Abyss (I'm guessing in Spire's treasure chest).


Oh, and I cleared out the areana lair, too. Got a Dread Curse doing that, so I went to Formello and stole their treasury. That gives you a Dread Curse too. Then I teleported to the Castle and had them removed. Easy peasy.


So, quite a lot done in the game today! Back to books tomorrow though.


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Avernum Escape: 13

Despite a ton of trouble with the teleporters in the Crypt of Drath (it was designed that way, actually), I have found Demonslayer! Hooray! The first of the major object quests is complete. 


OK, yeah, I did read most of the awful Kirkus book. Still have 75 pages to go, which I will do as soon as I post this. However, the book is so bad that I took breaks, during which I did some good things in Avernum.


Cleaned out the ogre site, a quest from the Castle. Once again, it was intended to be done much earlier in the game and I was way too strong for these guys, so it didn't take much time. Ha. I did find a really good halbred weapon that no doubt Jeff meant us to use for awhile, but I have much better stuff equipped already, so I just tossed it into the junk bag. (Gad, I love that junk bag! Gotta start using some of my stuff, though, or junk it, because my inventories are getting crammed.)


After that I got the password for Solberg's hidden tower and went to see him. Conversed with Cheeseball the Cat--another recurring character. I realized where the second Demonslayer part was--some demons in the Nepharim fort still needed slaughtering. Not tough. Got it. I thought I might be able to get through those barriers on the little slith island fort, but nope. However, there I was in my boat, so I went exploring on the lake. Found a couple of really good items in out of the way places--just had to fight some serious baddies to get 'em. Then found that I could take my boat down a waterfall, which took me right outside the Crypt of Drath. However, unless I can get back to the top (I think I can somehow because the area was obviously the end of the waterfall warren) I have left my boat in a fairly inaccessible location, dammit. Well, I'll try to get it back. Now that I have Demonslayer, it would be a good idea to go for the Orb of Thralni, which is another major object quest.


I had to look up the solution on the Spiderweb Forum for the teleporters in the Crypt of Drath. I just kept going around and around, fighting golems and using up my spell energy. One good idea from the forum: drop different kinds of food in the teleporter rooms to identify which one you're in. 


Fortunately after I got through the teleporter puzzle I did check both wall switches, and found some really good buffs for the Drath fight. Really good.


I chose the option to let Drath go rather than kill him. Probably stupid. I could have killed him. I imagine I'll get dinged for that choice in the endgame narrative.


But I have Demonslayer! This takes me to about the middle of the game, I think. I still need the Orb, Smite (to kill giants), and the Onyx Scepter. I have the crystal key that lets me in to kill the Haaki, which is one of the three major quests in the game.


And I'm strong enough now to have a decent chance against most foes. I still don't have the last tier of spells, though, for either Cordelia or Mycroft (I got used to those names in earlier games and I've stuck with them. Cordelia is my priest, and she's third in line, and Mycroft is my mage, in the back of the pack. Thank you Jeff for letting me customize those, even though I'm "customizing" them to the earlier standard issue party roster.)


And now, finish Kirkus for the month! (And, I see that Mikael Nyqvist has a new game out! Amber's Blood. I'll wait for that to show up as an Amazon download, because my sis gave me some Amazon gift cards for Xmas. Thanks Sis!)


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Avernum Escape: 12

And at last I have found the teleporter in the Tower of Magi.


Played for far, far too long today. I opened the game just to look at my quest list, and wound up playing all afternoon and part of the evening.


However, I did lots of stuff! A couple of days ago I cleared out that small Slith fort behind Fort Emerald (where I found another Arcane Cloak buff). Then went to the scree piles hunting ghosties, and found an Empire outpost, and the Crypt of Drath. Can't quite get to Drath yet, although I cleaned out most of the crypt. I need to go back to Motrax to find a marble key.


However, it turns out there's a way into the Abyss from the scree piles, so I went there, scoped out Spire and Bharga and joined the Scimitar, which entailed going back to the Empire outpost and smashing their globe, making me fight some demonic constructs. Tough guys, but I'm tougher now.


I started working on the Gremlin warren, but lost interest as I remember that's quite a maze, and I wasn't in the mood. So I got back in my boat and made my way, finally, to Mertis. Well I should have gone there early. It's intended for a weaker party (and normally I would have gone there instead of to the great cave, but I got caught up in all those Slith forts with that original Arcane Cloak buff I found, so I built up my strength that way. 


Of course, that meant that the Spiral Pit was a piece o' cake. Only thing difficult about it is when you lose your light in the twisty little passages, all alike. But I was much stronger than the baddies there, although the final fight did make me heal once or twice.


So by the time I got to the Tower of Magi I had almost 8,500 coins! That meant I was able to get a whole lotta spells, although I still need the bottom tier of spells for both my spellcasters. But I have advanced the plot considerably, now.


I note that my second fighter has all the battle skills already, while Aldous doesn't yet. She was dying a lot, so I buffed up a buncha her skills, like hardiness and parry, etc. Have to do the same for Aldous now. It helped her lots. She's as tough as he is now--and that's how you get the battle disciplines. Pretty soon I'll have to build a few up for my spellcasters.


So that took way too long but was plenty of fun! Tomorrow I'll just have to spend my my latest (awful) Kirkus book. Just couldn't face the thing today, and when I read a few more chapters in it, yep, it's awful.


So, till whenever! (And I do think this is Jeff's best game yet!)


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Avernum Escape: 11

Spent far too much time on this game today, mostly wandering around the Great Cave. I have visited every town and fort therein, and have collected far, far too many quests.


I did clean out a nasty bandit cave by being clever (I'm usually not terribly clever in these games--I'm an experienced player, but not a good one). I ran into bandits with about three too many mages, and they wiped me out twice. However, this was in a dungeon, so I had a place to hide. Finally I lured just two or three of them out to attack me at a time, and knocked those off before luring some more to come and attack me. Even those were tough. No way could I take them on all at once. 


But once I slaughtered the minions, I was able to take on the leader of the bandits without too much trouble, although she was tough! After that I had to deal with some of those nasty rats, and some slimes that multiply when you kill 'em. Got those on my second try, got a good spell, and had to leave one "book" that says I need to figure out how to read it.


So I'd better remember that's there--along with various barriers I can't yet dispel.


Looked over my spells and realized that I had been selling some collectables. The "fine meal" quest is just for regular meal. The "cheap wine" quest is just for regular wine. In the original game this stuff was labeled as "fine meal" and "cheap wine." Also I have to keep the iron bars. All this stuff fetches better prices from various characters than just selling it in your junk bag. Alas, I've already sold way, way too many bags of meal and iron bars, dammit. Ah well. I'll find lots more. At least they're stackable.


But my goodness, I sure have found lots to do! And in this game the world map has the quest locations marked, unlike in earlier games. Yeah, it does make things easier, but I rather liked the pure adventure of finding the stuff on my own. 'Course, I remember the locations of lots of this stuff anyway.


However, I've just got to slog my way through a rather dull Kirkus book I've got right now, so I doubt I'll do much in the game tomorrow.


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Avernum Escape: 10

So I'm back in the swing of the game! I went to the Castle to start the quests in the great cave. Also, I'm now in Dharmon, and have used the hidden boat to get to the prisoner, and to the demons guarding a very nice treasure hiding in the back of the shops.


Oh, and I learned that not only the Arcane Cloak pool, but other places dispense apparently unending goodies. In the Castle, there's a little chapel that gives you Ward of Elements. I asked on the Spiderweb Forum and found out that those aren't the only places, and they're always available.  Of course, once we get those spells for ourselves we don't need them, but they're a great resource for those of us who are still early in the game.


So I've talked with Good King Micah (how nice to have these folks from the early games alive again!) and got the quest to kill Sssss Thsss in the big Slith Island fort. Haven't found the place yet. Before that, I'll do minor quests in the great cave.


I did manage to kill the basilisks as requested by the mayor of Almaria, although only Mycroft survived to finish the deed. Oddly, he seemed to be mostly immune from them. Although he did lose health, they never stunned him.


Also, I have purchased the first level of lightening spray, which is a really important offensive spell. And I've got the first two levels of Dispel Barrier now, of course, so I'm getting to a level where I might be able to actually do some real damage.


Man, I really appreciate the freedom of Avernum, as opposed to the Avadon approach that sends us into defined areas. It's basically the Avadon engine, but add that freedom to wander where you will, make your own decisions about where to attack next, and this game is much more fun. I realize that the restrictions in Avadon probably make the game much easier for new players by keeping the enemies at a mostly equal level to your team, but I think it's better to be able to try places that we can't beat, then come back and win when we're stronger. I gives you more satisfaction.


So, I guess I'll go fight some bandits next!


Update: Fought some bandits, but mostly I just visited towns and forts. Fort Saffron, Gnass, Blosk and Patrick's Tower, where I managed to cure his wife. Dunno where I got the recipe for Graymold Salve. Must have stumbled on it fairly early on. Found the graymold in the basement at Gnass, just by accident, almost. So that saved some time.


But I have abundant quests now!


Gotta read some Kirkus stuff, though, so it may be a few days before I get back to this excellent game!


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Avernum Escape: 9

I have visited the Apolocapyse upon the Sliths. Lot's of 'em, anyway.


At last I used up my spell energy with no further sources for replenishing it, so I went back to town and lost my arcane cloak. Mycroft was completely out of energy, and he's my major offensive player with his icy rain spell that just devastates the Sliths. Cordelia had a bitsy bit left, but not enough for a good fight. Anyway, Mycroft got killed just before I finally slaughtered the priestess in that damned Slith temple. I did not take the broken piece of sword (that's part of Demonslayer) because it triggers yet another big fight to get out of the temple, and I didn't have Mycroft or enough spell energy for Cordelia to do that.


But wowser! I got a huge amount of stuff done with that arcane cloak! I cleaned out three (count 'em, three) whole Slith forts, plus half of one with a demon. Got the demon too. I have also learned the dispel barrier spell (two levels!), so I can go back to several places and clean out the loot. That spell normally takes you about half the game to get. Avernum 1, and obviously this remake, was more forgiving than the rest of the games.


I only got a couple more of those slith encampments. Those are tough, tough fights, useful for getting stronger, but they don't yield much loot. Anyway, they take up too much spell energy to be worth it when you're using the spell energy as efficiently as possible.


I was able to keep going for so long because I found further energy potions and basins with energy in the Slith forts and temples. I was amazed at how long I was able to go with that arcane cloak. What a fun diversion, and it's still quite early in the game!


I also found all six of the crystals for that cave outside of Cotra, and thereby hangs a tale. We get the sixth crystal from a hungry, elderly drake. However, he needs lots of food, and I didn't have enough the first time. That meant I had to go back to the Nephil fort and their underground fort, which I've already cleaned out, searching for food. But when I was there the first time I had found a buncha books I couldn't read. Coming back with better arcane skills I collected about three advances for the early spells. Also found more loot. So that was well worth it!


And yet, with all the loot I found, I'm already almost broke again. Bought some spells and two levels of dispel barrier (that cost 3,000 coins in itself). I guess the last level will have to be found through my adventuring.


Again, I appreciate the junk bag, introduced in Avadon. This is a truly excellent upgrade. It used to be tough to handle all the stuff we wanted to sell--you had to save before you sold stuff in case you made a mistake and sold something vital. With the junk bag, you just put it all into the bag when you find the loot, then sell it all with one click. Fantastic!


Now that I've got some spell upgrades, and Mycroft is alive again and my spell energy is back up, I just might go back and get that piece of Demonslayer.


But what a great little sojourn with the arcane cloak spell. I made it work for a long, long time.


Update: So I did go back, and got the Demonslayer piece. However, I'm not done with the place yet. There's a barrier that needs a stronger spell to dispel. Must be some really nice loot behind it. It was not only one big fight, which was pretty easy this time even without my arcane cloak, but they stop you with warriors (one of them named, so he's much tougher but he drops some nice loot). I couldn't have made it out of there if I'd tried earlier. So that was worth it!


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