Lytha on 28/11/2004 at 18:27

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I restarted the game as another thief-mage (even less STR and CON this time, and I am not going to waste any points with close combat, sixth sense, or defense this time), and I think I already have an answer to my first question.

You see, I visited the dragon as early as possible this time. With my first levitate scroll & the weird "floating up"-effect when you get attacked by, for instance, a rat. The dragon had not much to say then, but "wah, puny human, aren't you freezing your butt off here?" and "do not even touch one of my eggs", so I left. Leaving was a bit troublesome, because I would drop down dead (thanks to my lousy CON), if I didn't care. But the rune "communication" helped.

Well.

I am now before the first visit to the temple of Akbaa, and entertaining myself by doing other things first. :)

For instance, the snakewoman was quite surprised to see me there "Here already?" - "Will you let me pass?" - "Nope". I am a bit scared of the ratmen (thanks to CON=6 & extremely low poison resistance), so I doubt that I will go down even deeper... though a nice (for me unusuable, thanks to STR = 6) mithril sabre might be cool.

But I went to the dragon again, and I got a very nice reward in form of a cutscene. She told me some meta-information with a good deal of irony. ;)

Here it is:
- As a guardian, I was (brainwashed) by the Noden, so that I might say words which I would not normally chose. (right, I noticed that already. If it was just me, I would just rob them all blind and leave through the front door.)
- As a guardian, I have a gift of foresight. This allows me to survive situations which would kill me otherwise. (right in two parts even. First: When I die, I load my last save. So, I survive situations which would normally kill me. Second: It might explain the Alia-cutscene. Whatever might have happened there, he just quickloaded.)


I asked about the connection between Arx and TTLG, because TTLG, Daniel, Saam and Tels got mentioned in the credits. This perplexes me a bit.



The one-eyed murderer:
[spoiler]Try the bar, upper floor, and look at everyone. He's missing the left eye, did not bother to aquire an eye patch and talks with the voice of Steven Russell.
However, he might be missing when you go there, as he wanders off for a while (I think the object gets replaced, because I picked his pockets right at the start: only gold and a set of tools; then he was gone for a while; and when he returned, he had a key and some more gold with him. The key opens the last locked door in Arx, and you need the documents from in there. I suppose you aren't really meant to nick the key from his pocket though, as I had the documents even before the Queen had assigned the quest to me... and the walkthrough mentioned a more difficult way which involved a mug of beer.)[/spoiler]


Did you notice that the Jeweler is quite a few times not in his shop, and that you can just grab all the stuff from his chests then - and sell it back to him next time you meet him in the shop? Of course, you need the key for the shop from him; but with invisibility, that shouldn't be a problem.

So far, he wasn't in the shop:
- after I got assigned the quest to deliver the message to Pog, king of trolls
- just after I failed to destroy the meteor with my hands (first attempt)

I think he will also not be in the shop when the Ylsides invaded the town... at least, I broke into the general shop of Maria then last time and stole all her items. (And sold them back to her next time I met her.)

Shop robbery does not work in the blacksmith's shop though. You're charged money there, with or without the smith in there.

There are also a few occasions when Gary isn't in the bank. However, I think you need stealth at 70 to nick the interesting keys (for the bank and for his house) from him. Or perhaps he didn't have them with him when I picked his pockets in the earlier attempts (1st he was at home, then he was asleep in his bed, then he walked around in town.)

Lytha on 29/11/2004 at 17:44

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The one-eyed murderer wandered off again this time. I think he was gone as soon as I had failed to destroy the meteor. When I last saw him, he still had the inventory items from the start (or rather, the empty inventory, as I had stolen his gold and the set of tools.)

He reappeared as soon as I had destroyed the meteor with these two rings - and he had now the key in his pocket. I suppose the new one is a clone of the previous object, because you will get a new cutscene with him (as soon as you are assigned to the quest) and his behaviour changed. :)

I am doing my best to betray the rebels at the moment by trying to give the rebels' key to various people. Nothing happens when I attempt to give the key to the king, but something is supposed to happen if I give it to the main snakewoman... he keeps telling me "not now" though, so far.

raetsel on 5/12/2004 at 10:38

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just as an aside... Stephen Russell was in charge of voice stuff (half the reason i played it to begin with) :)
although, they spelled his name as Steven


@chewaka: no, i don't think you can go outside those doors for any side quests or anything

Rolander on 22/12/2004 at 16:33

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Bummer, I stopped checking the Forums at about the time when Lytha starting playing thief in Arx ...

I played a sneaking Mage recently in Arx (ignored techie skills, but pushed up my stealth and casting into the 90s). Never used the bow, instead I melee and fireball when things get hairy/against tough guys.

The most fun part was when I wandered into the Mushroom Forest territory with high stealth (base 90 plus mods from stealth helm, stealth leggings and assassin dagger; when I hit past 100 stealth, I found my footstep stop chinking away and become muffled). Made two melee backstabs against the Ratmen .. woo hoo!

Oh yeah, I robbed Gary's bank too ... but I never found the stealth chest armour(Lytha, could you put a a pic of your 'black ops' Guardian?)

High level casting nets me a fireball that kills Ylsides in one hit. But because my strength and constitution were low, I couldn't melee the final boss without getting killed fast. Instead, I shifted tactics and used another spell to even the score. I also had problems fighting off the two Liches simultaneously in the King's tomb. (Single liches can be handled quickly by spamming fireballs, but I didn't have enough mana to take both down, or maybe they were beefed up). Trying to sneak away (even with total of 100 stealth) didn't work; they seemed to have a 'homing beacon' planted on me, and would walk slowly but surely towards my position ...

Lytha on 28/12/2004 at 12:46

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Hi Rolander,

the stealth body armor is in the wardrobe of Alia's room, rebel camp. You might need to bless yourself when you are going to pick that lock - but Alia does not mind that you steal it.