twisty on 27/3/2005 at 11:50

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A few disintegrates works a treat on those bastards. Just be prepared to run for it after each attempt though.

Gingerbread Man on 27/3/2005 at 19:43

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Lich got pwned after I strapped that Shield on and just kept poking him with my Sword of Bashing or whatever it's called... The one that deals out +10 or something. Sword of Force? The shield ruined pretty much all of the paralyse attacks, and it was just a case of getting a staircase between us when the lightning started, steering clear of the poison clouds and the zombie, and doing the old "rush in, stab, rush out" routine. Took a while, but once the shield was on it was easy.

If the lower crypt puzzles are the "Spin the discs, place the rocks" ones, then that didn't even slow me down. After Bob said HAY I SEEN THOSE SIGNS ON TEH FLOR, I kinda knew what was what. Quick jaunt back upstairs to write down where they were in relation to the map, then it took me two goes because I put them all on the inner side rather than the outer side. The fact that there WAS an inner side made it obvious how to do the rest of it.

That lich bit, though... That was another very cool moment.

See, after sinking the zombie and dispatching the mummy with a really underhanded series of NHI VISO runrunrunrunrunWHACK! runrunrunrun hide NHI VISO runrunrunrunrunWHACK! attacks, I went around pushing lids of sarcophagi. Stuff, bones, corpse EEEEE ZOMBIE, killkillkill, hay what? This one don't push over.

Too heavy, the weak-muscled Bob Wobbles says (incidentally, Am Shaegar has got to be one of the greatest fantasy names I've run across... I just call him Bob out of habit) and I tried pickaxing / spelling / dropping rocks on it. No dice. I let it be.

Comes to finishing Ghosty's Riddles and then a thing start yelling in a Scary Voice at me. Boy, that wasn't something I was all that happy with. Mummies were tough enough.

Anyway, I came out of the southern upper rooms, and from the top of the stair into the large cathedral-room I peer peer looking for baddies. Nothing. Hrhm. Wait. Oh, hell.

The lid of that sarcophagus is on the floor.

Oh bloody hell.

:D

That was another little slice of Way Cool.

On the way to Snake Woman Land I got pretty good at murdering ratties. I kinda wish I wasn't seeing everything in PINKVISION, but hey. I'll probably wander it back with a torch later, but I just hate getting lost. It's easier to navigate with pinkvision on.

Temple of Illusions what? The only one that frustrated me was the Pull Six Lever thing, especially frustrating because that bloody idol turned out to be fake after all that. And I brute forced it. There is probably a way to figure out the sequence without brute forcing, but I wasn't really in the mood.

Then, when those two statue snakeys tried to bite I, I had a chance to show them what Unreal is all about. Wasn't difficult in the LEAST to position one between me and the other, and she got herself fried by friendly fire. Really quickly, too, I might add. I was glad I wasn't in the way of whatever she got pasted with.

As for lockpicking / pickpocketing... Well, I just suck. Maybe later, and I'll revisit a lot of places and just steal things. Trouble is that the merchants are running out of chest space, since I have two bags now and I just collect everything I can find and sell it back when I can.

So I've got a pocket full of Krahoz and Zohark now, I accidentally found some rat caves (incredible plants and really cool hanging corpses... I love the atmosphere in this game. Even the crypts -- which are usually done to death and hard to make fresh -- were realistic and spooky) where I could practice the art of Rat Extermination while simultaneously increasing the size of my SUPER ASSASSIN DAGGAR COLLECTION.

I forget what I'm to do next... There are still deep levels of crypt to explore, the rat caves, and the Earth Gobbos to kill. And I want to see if I can rob the bank in Arx. Mainly because I'm sick of that horrid woman going on about how rich and powerful Gary is.

Gingerbread Man on 28/3/2005 at 08:04

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Erm.

So, I ... uh.

See, I accidentally killed the entire population of the city of Arx.

BUT I HAVE AN EXCUSE

Okay, so... I was in the jeweller's shop, right? Pawning a load of lovely loot. I'd just sold Miguel about a dozen ratman daggers after a stint down in the weird caves, then I wandered over to Shany's mum's place and unloaded a whole whack of mushrooms, ferns, flowers, etc. And cheese. For some reason my bag has loads of cheese in it at all times. I don't remember taking cheese from the pockets of my defeated foes, but somehow I am a veritable Cheese Shop. Except I have cheese.

Anyway.

After I'd sold some stuff to the jewellerman, I thought "While I remember, let's queue up a spell or three so that I can have them ready when I go see what's deeper in the crypts..."

Long story short, I forgot to hold Shift as well as Ctrl, and I accidentally let off a Chaos spell in the jeweller's shop.

AAM MEGA MORTE whoops.

Perhaps no one noticed, I thought to myself. And I peeked out of the shop to see if anyone had seen the 15' radius sphere of utter destruction I'd just unleashed in there.

Everything seemed cool.

Just as I was heading over to Miguel's (I'd forgotten to get him to repair my shield... it's getting a bit tatty around the edges, what with the ratties constantly trying to bite it) I feel a rather sharp sensation in my leg. That sodding fisherman / old guy / hobo / whatever the hell he is stuck me with a DAGGER. Not only that, there was a guard right there, and he decided to join in.

Well, I wasn't having THAT, was I? Here I am, Am Shaegar, Guardian of the Noden. I've got the sodding Krahoz and Zohark in my pocket, I am friend to all the trolls. I solved Orbiplanax' murder, I got the trolls back to work, I got the bloody Shield of the Elder out from under a lich. I am NOT going out because some homeless git saw me accidentally incinerate a jeweller during the course of a perfectly legal transaction.

But I figured safe is safe, and I made sure to draw the hobo and the guard down the alley somewhat. I guess I figured if no one saw me kill them everything'd be cool. I could just tell people that some scary-ass Ylside beamed in, murdered the guard and the homeless guy, and beamed out. I will tell them that the jeweller was dead when I showed up.

But remember I'd just been in Shany's mum's place before the jeweller, right? Kinda left the door open. Straight line of sight from where she's standing to where I'm casually eviscerating a bum and one of Arx' finest. Dammit.

So after I ran her down and stabbed her a few times with my poisony rat-blade, Bob gets a case of the wobbles and I lose her over the bridge. Well... I lost her UNDER the bridge. At least I went under the bridge and she ran over it like you're supposed to do with bridges. But still I figured things might be okay. I was essentially hiding at this point. And she's poisoned. Perhaps she'll die before she can get another guard's attention. Maybe the closest she'll come to fingering her killer will be a little *glurk* noise. Could have been anyone, right? Ylsides. I'm telling you it was Ylsides. They were giggling and listening to rap music and I think one of them made a gang sign, officer.

I clamber back up out of the stream to see what's going on, just as what's going on is Carlos trying to hit me with a sword.

Now, I didn't want to kill Carlos. He seemed like a nice guy. Always pretty helpful, gave me the key to the Crypts for crying out loud. But I figured I was in too deep to back out now, so I stabbed him a lot until he fell over.

By this point it was clear that I was going to have to kill everyone. Starting with that annoying woman that Gary was going to marry.

Funny how things kinda get away from you, isn't it? I mean, an honest mistake like letting off a Chaos spell in the jeweller's shop one minute -- next thing I know I'm standing over the bodies of every man and woman who lives in the city.

Well, that's not true.

Gary is still holed up in his bank, but I'm going to get him. Oh yes, I'm going to get him. Sanctimonious little prick with his riches and his power and his fancy clothes. I'm going to find a way into that bank and stick my rat-dagger in his eye. And then I'm going to steal all his gold.

(Yes, I have a save before that ill-timed Chaos spell... I'll be going back to it, but first I want to see what happens)




oooo, also, a more serious thing:
You know that snakewoman with the note about meeting in the Crystal Caves? Well, I went down there and there's another snakewoman lurking around in there. No one came to meet her (I waited like twenty minutes) so I wondered if it was ME she was supposed to meet. She got all bitchy when I talked to her, so I had to kill her.

Was that important? Have I broken something by not allowing this meeting to take place? That would suck because I'm not sure I have a decent save close to that position.

(edit: nevermind, I found the other batty snakewoman. Plus now I have dragon bones and eggs... You get good at casting MEGA VITAE on the run fighting a dragon, don't you?)

Gingerbread Man on 29/3/2005 at 05:27

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Goddamned bald-headed exploding bastards!

WTF TOUGH

I was going to be CLEVER, right? Run through Akbaa's temple with my Invisible Pants, strafe the Ylside, touch the rock, simple comme bonjour.

SIMPLE COMME NOTHING.

Hey, guess what I forgot? NO MAGICS IN THAT BRIDGE ROOM.

Oh, but hey guess what the bald-heads forgot?

NO MAGICS IN THAT BRIDGE ROOM
:D

Not only that, but they seem to have zero traction in those boots. So they can't be Fastypants on me, and they keep falling in the bones :D

Didn't take me long to figure out how to keep getting a couple of cheap shots in, back up over the bridge, watch them fall, lather / rinse / repeat. Lured three of them down that way, now I have three shiny Ylside swords.

I'm a bit mad they blowed up, I could have liked some armour as a trophy. I'm still wearing stank-leather (although my pants are all shiny and make me hard to see)

Backstabbed a priest, crushed the stone, and went back to claim my prize.

EXCEPT WTF YLSIDES

And this time no bridge :(

So I ran away to think harder. I guess I could find a way to teleport into the throne room, but the castle's probably crawling with baldheads. And Obligatory Dying Guardsman said the King was captured anyway, so I'm not sure what beaming into the throneroom would do me. Besides, I have to tell him about Mr One-Eye who killed his wife. Erm... Although I'm not sure what I'm going to tell him. Give him One-Eye's key, I guess... Let him sort it out.

EXCEPT HE'S GONE AND GOT HIMSELF CAPTURED, HASN'T HE?
Silly bastard.

So at the moment I'm lurking in the tunnel between the Outpost and Arx, wondering how in hell I'm going to sneaksie past the Ylside. And what's worse, I WANT TO KILL SOME OF THEM.

See, I have Object Knowledge 49. And I am going to need about 1900 XP before my next level when I can bump up to Object Knowledge 50 so I can a) Make an Invisibility Ring like I've been trying to for the past several hours and b) possibly use Chicken Man's Sword. (I've got a STR of 13, as well... bah bah BAH ALWAYS ONE SHORT)

So I'm after getting my Level on. But wouldn't you know it, I have two immediate choices: Try to cap a bunch of baldheads without benefit of No Magic Zone / Bridge gag, or go back down to the bottom of the crypt to lift Poxsellis' helmet and then get my ass handed to me by a PAIR of lichs.

I'm pretty sure that, unless I want to go killing all the trolls, I've pretty much run out of enemies. I haven't found any areas where the bad guys respawn (I was kinda hoping the ratties did, mainly because I love it down there in the Mushrooms), and unless I'm going to get XP for using the Dwarf Machines -- now that I have the Koltktlklktlktkklk dust from the meteor -- I'm a bit SOL for my next level.

I don't see how I'm going to fight Ylsides in the open streets... They'll gang up on me, and Bob goes from Wobbles to full-on hilarious if I try a Speed spell. And it wouldn't last long enough, anyway.

I'm fairly confident I can get around the castle sneakily. I found a couple of secret passages while I was investigating Orbiplanax' murder and hopefully I'll be able to find them again easily. But still, I'd like the XP.

PigLick on 29/3/2005 at 16:17

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stop playing games, and start making love godammit!