Endrosz

Curse of the Azure Bonds: Prologue Pool of Radiance was always intended to be part of a longer narrative (Vol. 1 was in the title), so even without foreseeing the runaway success of PoR, sequels were planned. I'm not sure why (Jim Ward wasn't available? timetable was too tight?), but they took an independent story that was taking place near the Moonsea, and adapted it to be Vol. 2 of the saga. That story is a book by Jeff Grubb and his wife, Kate Novak: Azure Bonds. The book is first in the Finder's Stone trilogy, more or less about a bard with strange powers called Finder Wyvernspur -- an enigmatic, eccentric, powerful figure fitting for a Planescape adventure. I loved the book trilogy, it was great for my teenage self, but the adaptation felt and still feels forced. It gave the game a great band of antagonists, I have to admit that. Curse also ended up being noticeably shorter than PoR, which is big letdown compared to other RPG serieses. Below is the book cover, and it became the box art and the title screen art as well. Center is Alias, the amnesiac fighter with azure bonds on her right arm. Reverent chanting: Boob chain! Boob chain! Boob chain! Boob chain! Boob chain! -- And a face that reminds adult me of a half-drunken hoe waiting for a pickup at a bar. Sorry, artist. The lizardman (saurial) in the background is from another plane, and he communicates with smells. In the books this was an excellent narrative gimmick -- you read the vivid description of a smell Alias is smelling, and try to guess what it means. A minigame of sorts. The smells are consistent, they can be considered a language, and over the course of the full trilogy, you learn the basics of his smell-language. Alias calls him Dragonbait -- 24 years later, I still find this funny. His name is not Dragonbait, obviously, but no one understands saurial, so... Oh, and in AD&D terms Dragonbait is a paladin. He's got Lay on Hands, always accompanied the smell of freshly baked bread. If you take a look at his sword, the blade has a weird, unbalancing shape at the sharp end. There is a story about that, explained in the books, it's not the artist's invention. We'll meet both of them during our adventures. Alias is the "original" bonded person, we receive the same bonds she had. Engine upgrade Heal up your party in PoR: Cast Cure Light Wounds a few times, the only healing spell available. Then go into the Magic/Memorize menu, input Cure Light Wounds x5, then Rest. If the rest is interrupted by monsters, fight them or flee them and then input spells to memorize again. If not, cast spells, repeat until healed. To reduce this chore, a Fix command was added to the encamp menu, which executes this exact same sequence with a single keypress. Since Fix still takes time, you can be attacked by monsters by using it just the same as resting. See, this is how you enhance a game without dumbing it down. The two-part constructed portraits are gone. This is bad, right? Well, since most of your playtime is spent on the tactical screen with icons, it's not really a big deal. In the IE games you see the portaits in exploration/combat view and on the character screen, they're important there. Here, not so much. In place of the old constructed portraits we got much more custom portraits for NPCs and monsters. All in all, it was a good change. Another graphical upgrade is the half-screen cutscene images: these offer more creative freedom than the upper left square. The Dragonlance game trilogy featured a lot more of these cutscene images, but it's nice to have them here, even if just a few. The game has magic shops, which are a very welcome addition. You couldn't even buy +1 arrows or darts in PoR to hit +1 protected mobs, or any spell for scribing, now you can buy some basic magic stuff like Wand of Magic Missile and a few spell scrolls. Character advancement As I've explained in one of the PoR posts, casters have a level cap of 6 in PoR, while fighters go to 8 and rogues to 9. Literally the first thing one does in Curse after importing the characters and starting the game is visiting the training hall. Leveling up cuts the current XP at (next level threshold)-1, which causes the casters to lose about 100 kXP and only able to gain 2 levels instead of 3. It's something you just have to live with. Since the saga is going into epic levels with Pools of Darkness, 100 kXP is not that much. Also fresh, non-imported Curse characters are created with 25 kXP, and we're way, way above that even with the loss. This gives instant access to level 4 spells. That means Cure Serious Wounds (finally!) and Neutralize Poison (finally!) on the cleric side. The mage side isn't as exciting: Fear is meh (I don't want to chase down mobs in the tactical view, it's bad enough when their morale breaks and they run away on their own...), Confusion is extremely dangerous for friendly fire (unlike with Fireball, the risk is not just damage that can be reduced with fire protection), Fumble is okay sometimes against strong mobs; Fire Shield, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Dimension Door, Ice Storm are okay, but not great; Charm Monster is strong, but many mobs are resistant or immune to it (like the drow, one of the common enemies in Curse). No Stoneskin. Yes, the spell list is pretty abysmal compared to Baldur's Gate 2 or even Temple of Elemental Evil. It does have some good stuff, but don't count on Contingencies and Time Stops. On the plus side, enemy mages won't be Stoneskinned, there is that. This is one area, spell variety, where Baldur's Gate 2 just wins the entire universe. Here's how the party looks like after getting rid of one bond (this is where I started writing the Let's Play, and will be catching up to very soon). The levelups in PoR were pretty disheartening; except for Szilva, everyone was rolling really bad. Citrom rolled 1s for two consecutive levelups, for example. But the Con bonus is still there, always, which helps with reducing the effect of spread. The Curse levelups, on the other hand, were just as amazing as the PoR ones were sucky. Eper looks like he's got amazing rolls on a D6 hit die, catching up to Szilva's D8 rolls, but actually he's already level 11, while the others are only level 8, so it's not that good. I won't complain, probability is what it is, it could've been worse, that's for certain. There is one strange thing about Szilva. When I started re-playing PoR to capture the screens, I noticed that he had Cha 14 instead of 16 as rolled iniitally. Now I checked him in Curse, and he has a Cha of 15. I have no idea what's going on with his Charisma... Everyone else has the same stats, I checked them against the level 1 sceenshots.

Humble Store a has lot of nice sales: -- The Bridge 90% off, for less than a dollar. It's a very difficult puzzle game, one of the few games I've been unable to solve on my own. Has a nice art style and a surreal story, too. For this little, just click and buy it. -- Antichamber 90% off, a 3D exploration-puzzle game, reminiscent of Portal. Again, just buy it for this little. -- Valkyria Chronicles 25% off -- Age of Wonders 3 66% off -- Tropico 5 60% off -- M&B Warband 75% off -- Xenonauts 50% off -- The Banner Saga 75% off -- Legend of Grimrock 1 80% off -- Legend of Grimrock 2 35% off and more.

I agree that Heart of Fury was a great feature of IWDs. But it's not a difficulty option, it's New Game+. PotD is a difficulty option, like Insane in the IE games. Playing on Insane didn't have any additional reward in the IE games.

Thanks Enoch, I wasn't sure that anyone is still readingl this besides BruceVC. It takes several hours to play, capture/upload and write a chapter, I'm glad when someone drops a comment. I'm still apprehensive about finishing the later games with one cleric only, so I have a stake in the LP. We'll see.

Pool of Radiance: Epilogue I forgot to show the box art. It's Elmore-style awesomeness. It requires HARD DRIVE OR TWO FLOPPY DRIVES! I mean, who can afford that?!? It worked with a single floppy drive on C-64, I got off easier. I can't say that this was the game that got me into RPGs, because that honor belongs to Bard's Tale 3. However, it was the first RPG that I finished -- I got stuck in BT3 in some fiendishly difficult dungeon with some extra puzzles on the side. There was a Commodore 64 games magazine called "Commodore Világ" (Világ = World, shortened to CoV) which was fond of RPGs, and they regularly published hint batches, partial or full walkthroughs for RPGs. I got much of the info on how to properly gear up and progress in PoR from CoV. Heck, I learned how DnD memorization works by sending a letter to the editors of CoV and asking for an explanation. And I got an answer: I need to rest after selecting which spells to memorize. (True story! The hurdles of playing a pirated game back in the day, without Internet at your fingertips: no manual, no journal. I learned the ins and outs of AD&D later, when I joined the tabletop group in the library.) Looks The graphics of the game still follow the formula set by Wizardry, the "original" graphic RPG: an isometric first person view that can be constructed from smaller bitmap and draw elements, thereby saving a lot on storage space (the truly old games didn't even store bitmaps, they drew lines real-time every time the scenery changed). The savings are obvious by looking at the PoR portraits, used by party members and some NPCs: the upper body and the head are stored separately, and the combination of the two gives you a lot of portraits that are not exactly the same. The looks of the game is par for its age (1988); Dragon Wars, which Interplay published a year later, looks better, but there were other games which came after PoR and looked worse (look in FelipePepe's upcoming free RPG yearbook for examples). All of the above are valid portraits. This game is so socially progressive, it allows you to be any combination of man-woman halves! I didn't mention so far that there is an excellent character icon editor for the tactical view. There is a huge variety of weapons to display, and all the 16-color glory of the C-64 and PC EGA can be applied to 6 different parts from head to legs, twice: one base color, one highlight/shade color. In the picture below, the arms are light green base with dark green shade, the pants cyan base with light blue shade (look at them pixels!!!! it's magnificent, the pixel artsiness!). You can use the icon editor anytime outside of combat, so you can fiddle with looks as much as you want. I matched up the icons of my characters to the portraits and gear as best as I could. Gameplay Gameplay also follows the formula of blobbers (tile-based RPGs), where things only happen if you move a tile. The menus are comfortable, the options are always at the bottom (coherent design), the highlighting of the menu keys made navigating easy (easy by '80s user interface standards...). You can change the speed of text display. The only main gripe I have is that you can't switch between characters after you enter the inventory screen: View -- Items -- Back -- Back -- View -- Items, a total of six keypresses are required to look at a different character's inventory. Other blobbers, like the Bard's Tale engine allowed you to switch in inventory view. The world map was very good for its time, it allowed you to spot some places for afar, but you still needed to search for less obvious places like the nomad camp, which had no world map icon. Combat The big difference from blobbers is the tactical overhead view combat. It's not as good as Temple of Elemental Evil, but it still implements a lot of things from AD&Đ: -- The battle map is created by "magnifying" the adventuring map's tiles . This was a huge change from blobbers where there was no connection between map tiles and combat (except for maybe scripted battles). So if you find an enemy in a dead-end, like the vampire in Valhingen Graveyard, the fight will take place in a dead-end. This is pretty awesome. It's even better with an engine like the Infinity Engine or ToEE, but it was a radical upgrade for an 1988 RPG. -- Conditions like fear, paralysis, disease, etc. -- Area of Effect attacks with templates like in miniature games: Fireball has a radius of 3 tiles, for example. -- Flanking attacks, including backstabs. -- Persistent spells like Stinking Cloud or Fire Wall. -- Environment effects in later games -- Guarding (overwatch) -- Line of sight restriction and maximum ranges for ranged attacks and spells -- Item usage -- And more There is one thing that I couldn't show you with the PC version I've played, and would've needed to install a C-64/Amiga/Atari emulator to take a screenie. On those platforms, if you wait a while in the main menu without pressing a key, a gameplay demo starts which talks a bit about AD&Đ, Phlan, how to play a game like this, etc. and then shows you a demo combat: This screen, the sight of such detailed combat where every unit has its own icon, and even size is taken into account, and there are animations and sound effects for the different attacks like firing a bow or casting a Magic Missile -- this is what caused me to fall in love with Pool of Radiance. Look at that tall ogre, so fearsome with its spear! Look at pretty Diane, the demo-mage, blond hair flowing, wearing a purple dress with white blouse underneath, not a stock icon like in other games, sending off a spell! Nasty orks firing their bows from the rear rank with a twang! THIS IS SO COOL! Challenge After Bard's Tale 3, Pool of Radiance was a welcome downgrade in challenge. In BT3, you are only allowed one save and need to reset the game to load. There is no rest outside of taverns. The Gold Box allows you to save anywhere, multiple saves, and you can at least try to rest anywhere. While the game did feature some mazes like the Sorcerer's Pyramid and difficult dungeons like Valhingen Graveyard, Bard's Tale dungeon design with its spinners, anti-magic, darkness, health-draining, mana-draining, teleporter, pit tiles and all the maddening combinations of these, plus some difficult puzzles as gravy-on-top blows the entirety of Gold Box games out of the cave. Actually, compared to other old-school games, I would call Pool of Radiance "accessible". And I'm sure it's part of the Gold Box's success: it offers challenge, but the dosages are smaller than in truly hardcore, and therefore merciless RPGs. Flavor The main scenario writer, Jim Ward, placed a big emphasis on fleshing out the world with details. There are dozens of small details that I left out of the chapters, for example: -- There is a kitchen in Valjevo Castle, overlooked by a gnoll, where you can free the slaves and talk to them. -- In the wyvern's cave, in one corner there is a dying old kobold. If you give him water, he gives you info on the kobold king. -- Lots and lots of descriptive text. Pool of Radiance, with its distinct Old Phlan blocks and world map locations feels much more "real" than the contemporary dungeon crawls (with notable exceptions like Ultima IV and Wasteland). It's a lovingly hand-crafted tabletop adventure, it's clearly "lived in" by the scenario writers and the players who played the original in tabletop. Later games in the Gold Box series struggled to provide as much detail as the original. --- Next up: Curse of the Azure Bonds, the second part of the Pools saga.

Chapter 12: 'Yards and Recreation Welcome to Valhingen Graveyard. Did you bring warm clothes? It doesn't matter, you won't be needing them very soon. The lightning flash actually happens on screen, lighting up the upper left view unexpectedly for a moment, nice detail. Alright, I'm sorry for spoiling a large part of the suspense, but I want to explain how this place works and why it is difficult and how I prepared for it. To liberate the graveyard from all the evil dead, a number of things must be done under a demanding condition: 0. Clear the entire place in one go, without resting If you leave the graveyard before you finish all of the goals, EVERY scripted encounter respawns. You can't slice up the challenge into smaller parts. Resting is impossible in the graveyard, you're immediately attacked by undead. So it's a single adventuring day. 1. Kill the tower specters The graveyard has "themed" towers: the skeleton tower, the zombie tower, and so on. Each tower has a spectre creating the tower's specific undead, and must be killed. The towers have a large pack of guards from the specific type, needless to say. Stop the recreation! 2. Clear a few special encounters Like a squad of mummies in a crypt. 3. Permanently kill the vampire Because he has a habit of escaping and hiding in his coffin. And all this while surviving the various special abilites of the inhabitants: -- juju zombies are very fast and strong, can easily attack our backline on turn 1 -- ghouls and ghasts paralyze -- wights, specters, wraiths and vampires drain levels (the plural is just figurative for the latter two, thank Lathander) -- mummies frighten the entire party (terrible, just terrible) How are we going to survive? Well, similar to how we won the Tyranthraxus two-part battle, by using up consumables that we hoarded this far. -- We distribute Wands of Magic Missile between party members. Except for Alma, everyone gets one. Great in the following cases: no more spells left or we are conserving spells for later; the target needs a magical weapon to hit so normal darts and sling bullets don't do any damage; we're hemmed in by low-level undead, and the dangerous mob(s) are out of reach for frontline melee. -- We have a total of 3 Wands of Lightning, only usable by mages (Use Magic Device is a great 3ed invention benefiting rogues and bards, no such thing here). Not so great against large mobs that were so numerous in Pool of Radiance so far, but great against strong mobs with a wall behind them for rebounding, and most battles will be fought in closed spaces. -- Eper still carries the Necklace of Missiles. This is the best place to use it. -- Memorization loadout is changed somewhat. Szilva -- Bless for the difficult battles (we will heal with potions, 5 Cure Light Wounds is not much for a 6-8 level party), Cure Disease (to cure mummy rot), Prayer. None of the Gold Box 2nd level cleric spells are of use here. Instead of Spiritual Hammer, which he could theoretically use, Szilva will just swing his Flail +3. Mages -- Magic Missile/Burning Hands (only Citrom knows Magic Missile), Mirror Image, Fireball is still as good as ever. -- We have a few spare scrolls with relevant spells, 2 Fireballs and a Prayer. -- We don't have Potions of Giant Strength or Speed left, used them up at the finale. Since there are many battles here, and the potions expire fast, this isn't a big deal. Enough of the mental efforts! This is a place of ACTION: listen to Hell's song, the moaning of the undead, and let the bodies hit the floor! Random encounters in the Graveyard depend on the area. Near the entrance it's just skellies and meaties. I can't show it to you, but the purple mist in the background is animated, it is swirling over the blue sky and turquoise blue moon and cross and whatnot. It is totally psychedelic, like, shroom-positively. Didn't remember this one, it's fun! Parlay doesn't work, by the way. Y U NO LIS10 2 ME? I'm bringing the happiness and joy of Scientology Hubology! It's almost the same as being undead, so don't hesitate to embrace it! The skeleton tower is the first stop, guarded by, you guessed it... Yes, they're not much of a challenge. But every 20 they roll means damage, and there's no rest here. And we're conserving the Fireballs for the wights. Annoying these fights are, young Jedi. Inside the skeleton tower, a nasty unavoidable trap hits us. Again, the damage isn't terrifying on its own. But here, every single point of HP matters. The re-creator spectre is easy, Magic Missiles from the wands help a lot against the good AC. Two skelly/meatie random encounters later, we get into the juju zombie tomb. We send off a Fireball here, otherwise too much meat dealing too much damage until we chop them up. Ju-ju zombies have good to-hit and damage. Another crypt, another challenge. Citrom: -- Quick, let's jump on the lids to shut them in, then we don't have to fight them! 4 mummies, one of the worst combats in the entire game. At the start of the fight, everyone rolls a save against mummy fear. Fail = paralyzed. I wish they were running away instead! Even that would be better. Two tries = dead party. Third try, only Szilva fails, and he's out of melee reach at the start of combat. We form a line before him, we might win this one. Narancs uses Wand of Lightning and the back wall to hit 2 mummies twice with one spell, but the final tile of the Lightning Bolt's path hits poor Barack. And that's still better than mummy rot, so it's okay. Mummy rot prevents all healing, including magical, until a Cure Disease is cast on the target. They take half damage from all weapons, Magic Missile wands help out. It's great satisfaction when the final mummy crumbles to oblivion. We enter the "high risk" part of the graveyard. The standard random encounter here is led by 4 wights (they always start in melee range, ugh), plus 16 zombies and either 2 juju zombies or 2 ghouls or 1 mummy (by far the worst option, a single one still causes the same deadly fear effect). These are much more dangerous than the early encounters. I need to reload a mummy-enhanced encounter, it's totally FUBAR even before I can do anything. We take a little detour, to the eastern fence, where a tomb is guarded by a mix of undead. They have a message, too: So what? We have fought a bronze dragon possessed by a spirit-general of the evil god Bane! Walk away in shame. (The voices are referring to a Forgotten Realms major event in the past, the Flight of the Dragons.) Paladin corpses have the best loot! Like, Holy Avengers and stuff! You're alone, wraith, and kind of unfitting for a paladin's eternal guard. You're going down. See, this is the wrong type of question. We're not desecrating the body of a great past hero of Phlan, we're preparing ourselves for the future! What good is magical equipment to a corpse, or a wraith, for that matter? Without magical weapons, we would've been unable to damage the wights and other premier undead! It's the right thing to do, looting indiscriminately. The gear here includes a Sling of Seeking +2, great ranged weapon for rogues. Why would a mighty warrior carry a sling, that's a question for historians. As we get back on track, another patrol finds us. The zombie tower plus spectre is not worth an image. The next one, however... In this fight, we use a Fireball scroll, we're still hanging on to memorized spells. The Fireball's optimal target means that Barack (white-red, in the middle) is inside the AoE, and gets friendly-fried again. And she fails the save. Sorry about messing up your hair, Barack. I swear I'm not picking on you, it's the staggered line of the initial party setup that always puts you before the others . Inside the wight tower, another unavoidable environment damage hits us, this time it's broken glass. Eff you, Dungeon Master, why can't I roll some save against it? You're so autocratic! We see the chapel, the final stop in our tour, but there is still one unvisited tomb. 2 specters are guarding it. One reload later (they have a movement rate of 24 tiles, and can run across two screens to attack someone), we are able to send our remaining 2 Fireballs their way (yes, it's worth it), and the entrance is clear. This turns out to be another brave knight's resting place. However, unlike the other one, he carries a VOICE OF REASON! Yes, finally someone understands the plight of adventurers! We must loot anything we find, because the challenges always rise! Ironically, his gear is not better than we already have. Sir Reasonable Ghost, you were undergeared. But we appreciate the gesture. The chapel holds a coffin, and this is where we make use of the Deluxe Vampire Killer Kit we brought. We kind of understand how this works. You put enough garlic and holy water and pointy crosses into someone's bed, and it just becomes too uncomfortable to sleep in! These clerics are always mystifying their rituals, it's quite simple: you IKEA the coffin, and that's that. But where is the vampire himself? Or herself, we're not sexist, female vampires are totally worth the same amount of XP as male vampires. Same value, same respect, same treatment: a quick kill. There is a dilapidated building in the northeast corner. Inside, stairs lead down into a pit. The battle starts out cramped. A small pack of wolves accompanies the vampire, while we pop the cork on the bronze bottle we carried for so long, and Samir Ahwahl the vampire-killer efreet joins the fray on our side. One of the wolves blocks the way for Alma and Szilva to the vampire. Alma kills that wolf, Szilva uses Wand of Magic Missile. Barack, who blocks the way for the efreet (sheesh, these setups...) slashes the vampire. Both mages fire a Magic Missile (Citrom's is not from a wand), the second one brings down our main target. The vampire turns to a vapor cloud, and floats away. Hey, is this what they teach you in business school, to get out of sticky situations? We hurry back to the chapel. Sure enough, the vampire is here, but he's weakened and alone. Sorry for ruining your bed, it's kind of a **** move (If you don't sanctify the coffin first, he comes back at full strength). Two slashes from magic swords, and the prince of the undead is no more. This concludes the long, long night we spent at Valhingen Graveyard. The sun comes up, birds are chirping, and we're walking on the beach towards a happy ending. Nah, we're heading back to New Phlan for the last round of rewards. Oh, we still remember the day when we first stood outside these halls, escorted by the blond Rolf. No more commissions, everyone's just chilling. Reconquista Rejoicing, commence! (One more: I'll write an epilogue-of-sorts, which reflects back on the original game when it came out and how it was to replay it in 2014.)

Inside the maze, there is a building in each corner. The northwestern one is kind of along the way, so we take peek inside. A single mage works inside, sitting by a desk, who introduces himself as Al-hyam Dhazid. After we threaten to kill him: Okay, if you tell us about the inner castle, we'll let you go. Among his research notes, we find detailed info on the Pool of Radiance. It is a singularity which connects the physical realm with the Plane of Fire. The pool itself can be moved if someone's adept at manipulating the Planes. The pool was originally located to the north, somewhere in the Dragonspine Mountains, but according to Dhazid's notes, the Boss likes to have the pool around, so maybe he found a way to move it here? Guess we'll find out soon enough. Dhazid keeps his word, he leaves the Castle for good. We find another error on the hedge maps. Our goal is so close, should we risk crossing it? Third time works flawlessly again, and we enter the north part of the inner castle. Here we are, at last! ... an empty room. Not even trash or broken furniture, nothing. We suspect that there must be some hidden entrance somewhere, and find it soon. Stairs lead up to the next floor behind an illusionary wall. We find ourselves in a small room, where stairs lead down again, to the cellar of the castle. Not where we want to go, but treasure is everywhere, so... The medusa dies quicker than the basilisk did, unable to harm us. Yes, precious Gauntlets and third level spells, we've grown strong. She was like a guard dog in this place, we find a lot of statues. But where are the Boss's quarters? We return to the small room on the second floor, and this time, we find a secret door. Clever routing, leading unsuspecting visitors to the Medusa's lair. The Boss's place is unusually quiet. No alarm is ringing, no traps except for a hidden trapdoor opening to the basement with the now-dead medusa, no guard ambushes. We enter an elegant study, full of books, where another well-dressed wizard is organizing the Boss's plans. He's debriefing a scout, but quickly turns his attention to the armed invaders. Some of us think that this guy, who introduces himself as Genheeris, would be a great asset to the team. He knows everything about the Boss. Others think that a rat like him cannot be trusted and deserves a pest's treatment. The latter position wins. (It's possible to recruit Genheeris for the final battles and he doesn't betray you. But he uses his Wand of Lightning uncaringly, hurting party members with friendly fire. No thanks.) He only has a few bodyguards, we're not hemmed in like in the mass battles. During the combat, Alma takes a swing at Genheeris, then Eper moves to his back and backstabs him for 48 damage (12x4), ending his life. Another freshly looted Gauntlet of Ogre Power pouring out awesomesauce. The only place left is... We fight a full dozen of elite soldiers with strong magical gear. We take a lot of damage in the process (they have decent saves, a combination of training and Rings of Resistance, saving often against both Hold Person and Stinking Cloud). One of our mages goes down in the fight. At the end of the fight (there is a "continue battle" option in the GB games, can be used to prepare for the next part of a multi-part battle), we heal up with potions and the fighters gulp the Potions of Strength and Potions of Speed we found during our adventures. There's no holding back now, it's do or die. Oh ****, his current occupied form is a Bronze Dragon?!? Why wasn't this on the news? We'd take a barbarian champion over a bronze dragon any day! Tyranthraxus asks us to join him, declaring that's he's unstoppable. Nobody wavers, though Eper does fiddle a bit when giving his answer. That drunken bragging about looting a dragon's hoard was so silly, now that he beholds a dragon in actual combat... Magic is ineffective against the innate resistance of the dragon. Eper takes a swing at the dragon's back, missing, and before we could spread out the party more, the dragon breathes fire, and three party members are killed outright. The remaining party members are unable to finish the job. The second time, we are able to spread out the party and the targeted fighter saves successfully against breath weapon. Two turns with seriously buffed up fighters and a successful backstab is enough to fell Tyranthraxus. He was worth.... (hold your breath) .. .. .. .. .. .. 734 XP per party member. Because he didn't carry any magical loot or a lot of gold/gems like the quicklings and the giants. AD&D nonsense to the max. We received 7 times more for a patrol of fire giants. The only thing left to do is to watch the fireworks: What happens next? Find out in the next episode of the Pools Saga, every Saturday afternoon on the Obsidian Oldschool Channel! What happens next is that Bane, who is involved in the creation of the Pool of Radiance, cuts off Tyranthraxus from the pool's power because he's unhappy with T's management efficiency. So many troops wasted, so little result. T goes away like series villains do, fading out of view and vowing to return and exact vengeance upon us. See you next time. We return to New Phlan, where everyone's rejoicing at the victory. We rejoice because we receive monetary rewards worth 45000 XP per member. A mound of gems and jewelry. ... is this the end, where we say our goodbyes? Not yet, faithful readers, for there is one unchecked menace left in Old Phlan: Valhingen Graveyard, where a vampire makes his residence. And that place is actually much more difficult than Valjevo Castle. Hold off on opening the champagnes, we still have work to do!

Chapter 11: We Are the Enemy at the Gates At last, the moment we've been working for so long arrives. Lord Eberhard Urslingen, Head of the Council, a grizzled war veteran asks us to appear before him, and he tasks us with the final Council mission. The first part is securing a bridgehead. By now, we have a lot of money in the form of gems and jewelry. 50000 gold is spent on two Fine Composite Longbows, which use Strength modifiers for attack and damage. Combined with the Gauntlets and 2/turn bow attack rate, now the fighters can dish out a lot of damage from afar if needed. We embark for Stojanow Gate, which is north of Podol Plaza, the monster town. The gate is situated on a land bridge between the peninsula that holds Valjevo Castle and the rest of the city -- a perfect place for a fortification. It stands tall at an impressive 30 feet, with watchtowers rising even higher. We've heard a lot of talk that giant-kin are the mainstay of the Boss's Army. There is a patrol out there, before the gates. Not a safe place, bugsies. After the patrol falls to our attacks, arrows pepper us constantly from the watchtowers. Our ogre-strong fighters bash the gate with a few mighty swings, and the guards rush to stop us. Half dozen ettins, with a lof of HP and multiple attacks per turn, two mages, plus some spare change soldiers. The ettins hurt us badly, but after the fight, the gate is secured and we can rest. In 14 feet long ettin-sized beds, according to the game's description. North of the gate is the first quadrant of the Castle, the southwestern quadrant. We talk nice to them, and they offer local uniforms as disguise. Always be civil to women. It works, the patrols don't bother us. We find a Temple of Bane, this time with human clerics. Szilva: -- Welcome, my children. Come forward and accept the blessing of my magical mace. It won't hurt... long. We find an offering box and two crossed swords at the altar, but on Szilva's advice, don't take anything. Even Eper realized there won't be a lot of money in an offering box, especially compared to the loot and Council rewards we're getting lately. We go over to the southeast quadrant. As we cross this place, we hear someone moan for help. It sounds familiar... A heated debate breaks out, but Cadorna promises two things: one, a password to the inner castle's gate, two, a way through the hedge maze. Oh, so that's what we were seeing on the maps from Kovel Mansion? We decide to spare Cadorna's life, and carry him back to Phlan, where he will be probably executed as a traitor. Thanks for the password and maze instructions, buddy. Next to Cadorna's cell a deep well sits quietly. The only logical thing to do is dive to the bottom of it, because, well, because there must be treasure there! It's a long sword +2 flame-tongue, one of the few unique magic items. We use the password ('rhodia') at the inner gate, and follow the map we have to the inner castle. The map is wrong in one place, and after some debate, we cross the hedge there. The hedge is poisonous, by the way. No one is pricked by the thorns, we cross over safely. As we enter a large room, we find a powerful man with bodyguards, sitting on a throne. Business? We're in the death-dealing business, My Lord, are you buying? We're selling anyway. It turns out that this guy only pretended to be Tyranthraxus. He's an evil spirit, originally merged with a barbarian warrior, who knows what form he wields today. The impostor had incredibly valuable equipment, a long sword +5 and a third Gauntlets of Ogre Power plus other stuff. We try to leave the way we came in, but this time, Szilva receives a contact wound from the poison ivy, and dies quickly in agonizing pain. We hurry back to town. Battling the false Boss guy set off an an alarm throughout the castle, our disguise is now useless. The patrols check on everyone, even fellow soldiers. The patrols consist of hill giants led by a veteran human soldier. This is the correct answer, but one misstep and they're on us. After a visit to Phlan and Szilva's second miraculous recovery and Cadorna's imprisonment by local law enforcement, we continue the walk around the Castle's outer perimeter. The True Boss must be in the other inner castle building, since the south one only had the false Boss (and no secret door, according to our search), but maybe we can find some more clues, help, something before we tackle the hedge maze again. It's a really nasty place. In one building, we surprise a group of resting fire giants. The giants look up to us. Look ma, I'm taller than a giant! Fire giants have a lot of hp, throw boulders that deal a lot of damage, they do the same in melee, and are worth 5+ kXP per patrol. Giants also carry giant loot: The funny thing? Since money has weight in the Gold Box games, we would be unable to carry this home, even if we needed the money... After the fine composite longbows, there's nothing to buy. In the northwestern quadrant, we find an important service building! We mess up the Boss's complicated name when one patrol out of the many asks us for his name, and they attack. Here's how a thrown giant-sized boulder looks like in flight: After the complete outer castle tour is concluded, we enter the hedge maze again.

Hungarian "pálinka" is a strong fruit-based spirit that is usually translated as "brandy". The owner of one of the premier brandy manufacturers, Békési, decided that he will get into making whisky, too, as he's a big fan of Scotch. He was dedicated, did his research, asked coopers to scorch the the inside of barrels to get that special flavor, and so on. 12 years later, on the 30th anniversary of the Békési Brandy Manufacture, this series was released... I'm not a drinker, but a good friend of mine is, and he said that this was the best spirit he drank in his entire life.

^ This. Mind the art style. But I like the idea, too. I'm not opposed to a story mode, it's a small thing to add resource-wise. I have played a number of RPGs which would've been better without the combat, as pure adventure games, and I wished there was a no-combat option (Anachronox, for example).

Bought Shadowrun Returns and SR: Dragonfall at a holiday discount. About halfway into Shadowrun Returns. Like: - Graphics: huge amount of props, lots of environment animation - Art: colorful cyberpunk, good approximation of existing Shadowrun book art - UI: clean, simple - Characters: mostly well written - Combat: engaging, no trash fights - Combat subgames: rigger, decker, summoning Dislike: - Story: rigid, jerky ("you go here next") - Advancement: another system that works great in tabletop, less so on computer - Economy: weird and limiting - Items: pure tier progression, like in MMOs I'm enjoying it, it's great for a single playthrough.

I don't think that's doable. I don't think anyone did that in the IE games, where the equivalent is: no reloads, insane diff (2x damage from enemies), solo. And those games were much more solo-friendly than PoE is. Two out of three, yes. All three, no. But I would be kind of happy to be proven wrong.

I agree with you. If you're doing flat reduction (which is easy to understand and easy to tweak), you have to be really careful that the damage with all the extras applied doesn't make those DT values meaningless. If I can reliably crit every 3-4 attacks for 100 dmg against a DT of 15, damage types, armor types etc. are rendered meaningless.

It's a standard approximation method in mathematics, interval halving, used by Euler to calculate the roots of difficult equations, etc. But I don't think anyone's interested in analytic math within his gaming, so I gave a "common language" explanation.

And who talked about action speed? Adam was talking about damage, and I was responding to him. Less damage per swing, longer combat, that's what I would like to see. Josh's method of strong variable swings is actually pretty good. Don't even dream about having a proper mathematical representation of the entirety of combat. You can compare the value of Dmg% to Accuracy% (Might vs. Perception), yes, that's about how far math will take you. Function tables themselves don't tell you anything about how certain game elements are actually used in the game. I've been balancing a strategy game mod for 3 years in the past, and watching replays was always the most valuable input to make decisions. EDIT: When you buff of nerf something slightly, fine-tuning, tweaking, most players won't adjust their routines, their heuristics and you get "wrong data" out of them. It's as if nothing has happened. Then you tweak it more, and more, and suddenly, players decide to re-route their brain, there is a landslide, the perception changes to the opposite. It's faster to get the boundary data on what is too high and what is too low if you make radical changes first, and then tweak after the boundaries of "this is OP/this sucks" have been revealed.

I hope that Josh uses his advertised radical balancing method -- cut it in half if it's too high, double it if it's too low - so that we can see a significantly slower combat flow. A lot of the abilities only provide a measurable benefit if the combat is long enough.

I think my last physical purchase was an Orange Box from Valve, like, 6 years ago? I embraced the digital age, I always hated boxes, they took up so much space. I spent 6 long years of my life as tenant, sometimes forced to move twice per year, and game boxes were too much of a burden. Another burden is that replacing damaged CDs isn't always possible. My original StarCraft CD got damaged due to heavy usage, and by that time, the company that sold it to me went out of business with no legal successor, and I had to buy a new one. With digital, even if a license-selling company goes out of business, you can count on a new one taking over the customer base (that's value worth paying for), and providing the downloads. Last year I moved, and the books were enough trouble to move. I put all of the game boxes I had in the hall of the building where I lived, free for the taking. Some of the boxes were useless, like the Orange Box or my Guild Wars boxes, because the key inside was already used by me, and the game is unplayable without a key. That was a bit of trolling on my part.

This is a tangential question, as I was thinking about PotD: The adventurers you hire from the Hall, can you level them up from 1 to N-1 ( N=your level), or do they come already leveled to N-1? I'm a sad panda if the latter is true.

I remembered the quest itself, but didn't remember the cleanup animation. It was almost as good as back then.

It is interesting to see that the Witchers so strongly polarize people, often a mix of both extremes WRT different aspects of the games. Which is good for sales, because the worst long-term reaction to a game is forgetting about it. People remember the Witcher, whether they liked it or loathed it. I'm one of the few people who utterly disliked the rhythm-game combat of W1, and liked the action-combat of W2 a little bit more (just a little bit), because there was a better connection between clicks and actions. But otherwise, it drew me in. I still remember the somber music in Vizima, as the rain fell down on the cobbled streets, and people hurried to find shelter. BTW, Geralt isn't an anti-hero, because anti-heroes have "bad" goals, but they have redeeming qualities. Apart from continued work as a monster-hunter, Geralt doesn't really have goals besides regaining his memories. Both games provide additional goals, they draw you into conflicts, but Geralt never, ever has a self-set goal which would qualify him as an anti-hero. Even the third game's main quest is still about the lost memories, the encounter with the Wild Hunt, and finding Yennefer and Ciri. There's nothing "bad" in there.

Possibly, I don't know. I did notice that I missed more often than I should on the sweeps (kobolds are 1/2 HD, you can multi-kill them like minions in 4ed). --- In other news, Wizards of the Coast started to release a stream of content for DnD 5ed, tied into a larger narrative called "Tyranny of Dragons". In this stream there is a new Pool of Radiance-based set of adventures! All of the iconic places around Phlan are featured, from Sokol Keep to the Sorcerer's Pyramid! (A few names have changed a bit, like Mendor's Library is now Mantor's Library). These are meant to be played as demo games at hobby shops, not sold as products. DDEX1-1 Defiance in Phlan by Shawn Merwin – levels 1-4. Five one-hour adventures. Release date 18th August 2014. The Cult of the Dragon has come to Phlan, a lawless refuge on the Moonsea. Now, with no significant authority to stop the cult, other power groups in the Realms – the Harpers, Order of the Gauntlet, Emerald Enclave, Lords’ Alliance, and even the Zhentarim – must unite to stop the cult from fulfilling its dark purpose in the city. Join the fight by participating in any one of five different missions aimed at stopping the cult. DDEX1-2 Secrets of Sokol Keep by Pieter Sleijpen – levels 1-4. Release date 18th August 2014. Decades have passed since Sokol Keep was reclaimed, and a small garrison placed there along with a beacon to help guide ships. Now, that beacon has gone dark, and the garrison has disappeared. In Phlan, rumors circulate that something ancient was discovered in the grounds beneath the keep, dating to before the clerics of Tyr built the small fortress. Uncover the secrets of Sokol Keep! DDEX1-3 Shadow on the Moonsea by Greg Marks – levels 1-4. Release date 18th August 2014. Life on the Moonsea isn’t easy. Bandits, pirates, and cruel lords dominate the land, threatening those who make an honest living there. Now, a new scourge is prowling the waters: A ghost ship has been striking small coastal villages, leaving its victims whispering about the “eye of the dracolich.” Join the adventure and learn the truth behind this threat! DDEX1-4 Dues for the Dead by Steve Winter – levels 1-4. Release date 22nd September 2014. For years, the Most Solemn Order of the Silent Shroud has tended the dead at Valinghen graveyard, providing them a peaceful eternal rest. Now, that rest has been disturbed by a necromancer seeking out a key to re-activate the Pool of Radiance. A four-hour adventure for levels 1-4. DDEX1-5 The Courting of Fire by Jobe Bittman – levels 1-4. Release date 22nd September 2014. An exiled cultist and his kobold minions are spotted searching long-forgotten ruins in the Dragonspire Mountains. Rumors say he looks for a precious gift to give to a fearsome dragon that dwells there. What he hopes to attain with his gift is unknown, but can’t be good for the citizens of Phlan. A four-hour adventure for levels 1-4. DDEX1-6 The Scroll Thief by Daniel Helmick – levels 1-4. Release date 22nd September 2014. Scholars Square is a relatively quiet corner of Phlan, but a series of odd thefts have the headmasters of various schools in the area concerned. The headmasters’ pleas for help have gone unanswered by the Black Fist, and the Lord Sage of Phlan decides to reach out to you and your kind to bring those responsible to justice. A four-hour adventure for levels 1-4. DDEX1-7 Drums in the Marsh by Sterling Hershey – levels 1-4. Release date 20th October 2014. For the past several nights, drums have been heard on the wind, coming from the Twilight Marsh. Each morning, more turn up missing from the nearby farms, leaving only muddy, clawed footprints heading towards the marsh. Can you help the find the lost and bring justice to the abductors? A four-hour adventure for levels 1-4. DDEX1-8 Tales Trees Tell by Thomas Reid – levels 1-4. Release date 20th October 2014. Despite the shaky alliance that exists with the elves of the Quivering Forest, they do not suffer trespass in their realm lightly, especially from common folk from nearby Phlan. A woodworker’s recent blunder into the forest might set off a diplomatic incident. Can you help find him and mollify the aggravated elves? A four-hour adventure for levels 1-4. DDEX1-9 Outlaws of the Iron Route by Will Doyle – levels 1-4. Release date 17th November 2014. The Iron Route, an important trade road east of Phlan, is beset by competing bandits. An exiled Black Fist officer leads his band of mercenaries turned cloaked ruffians, while a mysterious dragonborn sorcerer commands screaming savages from the north. In this war for supremacy over the trade route, the beleaguered merchants are the victims, and Phlan suffers from a lack of important supplies. It’s up to adventurers to strike out and reopen this vital route to the town. A four-hour adventure for levels 1-4. DDEX1-10 Tyranny in Phlan by Greg Marks – levels 5-10. Release date 17th November 2014 The Maimed Virulence has come. The future of the Cinnabar Throne and the lives of the denizens of Phlan are in jeopardy. The Cult of the Dragon rejoices, and the Black Fist is powerless to stop them. How will the factions of the city respond to this threat? Can Phlan be saved this time? Part One of Under Emerald Claws. A four-hour adventure for levels 5-10. DDEX1-11 Dark Pyramid of Sorcerer’s Isle by Claire Hoffman, level 5-10. Duration: 8 hours (2 slots). Premiere: Winter Fantasy. Available: March 2015. Long unoccupied, the pyramid on Sorcerer’s Isle now flows with strange magical energy, warping creatures and the landscape around it. The Cult of the Dragon and Red Wizards of Thay have taken notice, and it’s up to you to keep whatever power dwells there out of their hands. An adventure for 5th-10th level characters. DDEX1-12 Raiders of the Twilight Marsh by Robert Adducci, levels 5-10. Duration 4 hours (1 slot). Premiere: Winter Fantasy. Available: March 2015. A black dragon’s treasure horde has been located in the Twilight Marsh, and within it are secrets that hold interest to the factions. With the dragon marauding over the countryside, the horde is left unguarded. Now is the time to plunder its lair! An adventure for 5th-10th level characters. DDEX1-13 Pool of Radiance Resurgent by Chris Tulach, levels 5-10. Duration 4 hours (1 slot). Premiere: Winter Fantasy. Available: March 2015. Vorgansharax rules Phlan, using the Cult of the Dragon to extend his noxious gaze. But the green dragon seeks far more than control of the beleaguered town – ultimate power is nearly within reach. Will he reactivate the Pool of Radiance and ascend to greater prominence amongst his kind? Part Two of Under Emerald Claws. An adventure for 5th-10th level characters. DDEX1-14 Escape from Phlan by Chris Lindsey, levels 5-10. Duration 4 hours (1 slot). Premiere Gottacon. Available April 2015. Three important citizens of Phlan, who stand against the tyrannical dragon that rules, seek to escape and find refuge across the Moonsea. Can you extricate those that are vital to the factions before it’s too late? An adventure for 5th-10th level characters.

I played "Read the Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Basic Rules free PDF" yesterday. Gameplay: Excellent (feels old-school and modern at the same time, bravo, designers) Length: Good Replayability: Low Art: None UI: Excellent (it even has printer-friendly versions)

Chapter 10: We Are Terrible Guests The mission to rescue House Bivant's heir is pending. And a new one is required of us, taking us even further west. Cadorna calls for us again, this time he wants us to deliver an important diplomatic message to Zhentil Keep. Ummm.... THE Zhentil Keep? Headquarters of the power-hungry and oftentimes evil-acting organization, the Zhentarim? We have a bad feeling about this one. On the surface, this looks like a solid attempt to gain favors with Zhentil Keep. Phlan is still very much in the process of recovery, the neutrality of Zhentarim would be a great reassurance to the Lords of the City to deal with the enemies at hand. But we wouldn't trust a Zhentarim agent with a ball of pocket filth... After we leave the City Hall, an argument breaks out. Narancs: -- That letter. It bugs me. Eper: -- You do recall that we have friends who can deal with a seal? I don't want to walk into hostile territory without knowing what's inside that letter. Alma: -- We would have to pay them this time. A lot. Eper: -- You make a good point. Still, it's our single lives we're putting at stake, while Cadorna just sits on his fat ass here. Alma: -- I'm calling a vote on this one. It is decided that we re-visit our 'friends' in the Textile House area. But all we find is a few corpses... Szilva determines that undead assaulted the hideout from within the tunnels. There were no survivors, and the amount of corpses indicate that a number of them entered the ranks of the undead. There goes the safety plan. We're heading to Zhentil Keep first, because after springing the boy from the slavers' camp, we have to take him home immediately. On the road, we encounter a pack from the Moo-moo Farm. The road has few random encounters, it's more peaceful here than in the east. The commander himself greets us. The guard who gives us the tour sure likes to brag: the walls survived a dragon attack, the ballistas in the large guard towers, six hundred soldiers are stationed here. You idiot, that's classified information. We could have you court martialed for telling us. But we're chill folks, don't worry, we only kill for loot, not stupidity, and your equipment is crap compared to ours. After the tour, we're escorted to our quarters. Szilva: -- In the evening, we'll have to converse with the commander. We have to be careful not to reveal anything important about Phlan, like that foolish tour guide did about this fortress. Let me carry the conversation, engaging in innocent small talk. Talking elegantly is my forte. Eper: -- Talking people out of their money to 'support your church', you mean? It's hard to admit, but you're better at it than me. Alma: -- Enough of that. What Szilva suggests is truly important, and I expect every one of you comply. Eper: -- Bah, if you want the commander distracted during the evening, just sic our secret weapon on him. Alma: -- Secret weapon? Eper: -- *imitates Barack, talking fast and in falsetto* ... during the morning, I always check on the lilies first, because they're so amazing, but then the roses are also magical with the morning dew's little drops sitting on their petals, and while I'm smelling the roses, literally, I'm smelling the roses, haha, that's so funny, right, so then Pixie, my cat walks up to me and rubs his body on my leg, and that is so wonderful, it makes my day start fully energized... Barack: -- You're so mean! So what if I like to chat, all girls like to chat, it's not a sin! Eper: -- See? Secret weapon, honed to perfection. At the dinner, delicious meat and red wine is served. Table talk is initiated. Talking about magic, the commander surprises us by telling the origin story of the Pool of Radiance. Which is rumored to give the Boss the power he wields. A barbarian champion and an evil fire spirit inhabiting the pool have merged together to create a new nemesis, after neither could defeat the other one. Interesting lore. Managing to steer the conversation towards politics (he's a good one, swept aside Barack's inane chatter), he tells us that Lord Eberhard is involved in corruption. You muckraker, we have solid information gathered in the Kovel Mansion that Eberhard is anything but corrupt: he's one of the veteran commanders who fought hard to retake that small part of the city what is now called New Phlan. He would never act against the city he paid for in blood, sweat and gold. Nice try, though. After the feast, we're escorted to our quarters again, and the game gives me two choices: -- Sleep the night. -- Keep a watch. Which is the equivalent of asking: Are you stupid? -- Yes -- No. After midnight, a number of solders sneak into the room. No, we weren't stupid, therefore a battle ensues. And as we start to walk towards the exit, another, then another, then... A total of 6 battles. The seventh one is different: He's got another Gauntlets of Ogre Power on him! It was worth all the trouble, this trip, in retrospect. Now both of our fighters have ogre-power. In this battle, we used exactly half of our Fireball-Stinking Cloud reserves. The previous battles had low-level soldiers, this one had level 2 corporals and level 3 aides with bows, about 40 of them. The final battle is similar, 40-some soldiers, but there is a mage here and a strong fighter. Eper wins initative, and uses a wand of magic missile on the mage. Good start. Then comes Barack... Whomever designed this battle, he did it with closed eyes. Putting the mage on the front line? A strong hit from Barack boosted by the freshly looted Gauntlet (the irony!), and the mage goes down. Next up some enemes, only the corporals, no worries. Then Citrom finishes a Fireball, clears out about 10 enemies and damages another 10. Szilva casts a Hold Person on the Commander, single-target only, to apply a -2 penalty to the saving throw. The commander saves anyway, enjoy your luck while it lasts. The commander comes next, instead of swinging a weapon, he blasts Alma and Eper with a Wand of Lightning. Eper has taken a lot of damage in previous battles, all those crossbow bolts chipped away at his meager health, so he collapses (but doesn't die). Alma feels the pain, too. Narancs begins his own Fireball. The remaining aides fire their bows, doing some damage, but thankfully not hitting Narancs. This fireball has a higher damage roll, enough to kill corporals with even a successful save, it clears out about 15 foes. Only about a dozen foes standing after one turn, I had good initiative rolls. Those level 3 archers in such large numbers, they can easily prevent spellcasting if they win init (and we don't have Protection from Normal Missiles yet, no scrolls had it; should've learned that instead of Haste). The next turn the commander fails the save on the fresh Stinking Cloud, and the resistance is broken. Zhentil Keep, you're all our bitches. But we're generous, we'll just leave you alone. Szilva: -- And now we have proof that Cadorna is a traitor, like I told you before. I've found the letter we brought in the commander's office. That wasn't a diplomatic message, he sent us here to die by the Zhentarim's hand. He's working for the Boss, and getting rid of us was his proof of loyalty. Alma: -- What? This can't be true! He's a Councilman! I could believe that all kinds of wrongs about him, these politicians are no saints, I know, but betraying the city to monsters? What does he hope to gain? Szilva: -- I don't know, but we should be really careful from now on until this is resolved. He might have other plans to get us killed. Citrom: -- A pity, he always threw great parties... The party's morale is boosted by this victory. Surely, dealing with the buccaneers will be a piece a of cake. We are escorted to the merchant's area, where we can rest as long as we want. We walk around the slave pen in the middle, and it doesn't take long... He notices that we're eyeing the boy, and says that he'll sell for a nice price. Alma, in a sudden outburst of anger, punches the merchant, a short fight breaks out. A large, well-armed man comes along, comments that the fighting was amusing , but we shouldn't cause any more trouble. The merchant begs for our apology, we're amused, too. Eper: -- This one's easy. Kill guards, enter pen, grab boy, run outside, escape on the horses. We'll be out of here before they know what hit them. Alma: -- If we cause a large riot, the slaves will try to break free, and the boy could get crushed underfoot. No, we need a more subtle plan. Narancs: -- Umm, my plan is not very subtle, but it'll draw the guards away from the slave pen for a while. There is an animal pen here with a large number of pack animals. We could cause a stampede, use that interlude to grab the boy with no one paying attention. Alma: -- I don't like that either. Still too much risk for the boy. We should get to know this camp very well before we try anything. Walk around, chat, try to act like slave merchants. Behind one of the buildings... That pass might be the ticket we need to find a better plan. We buy it, and enter the captain's house, showing the pass to the guards outside. Alma: -- Excuse us, captain. We need to discuss this among ourselves. Captain: -- Take your time. That boy's not going anywhere soon. *leaves to his room* (in hushed voices) Eper: -- Alma, you're a terrible bargainer. You're too honest, your eyes tell too much. He knows that we want the boy, he knows that he's highborn. The price he set is insane! 40000 gold? You can buy an estate with that! I'm not even sure our gem pouch's content is enough! And we have no guarantee that House Bivant will pay us back... If they really-really wanted their heir back, they would've sent house retainers, not mercenaries like us. Alma: -- Well, there is the other way... I have no objections to killing a slaver. We could grab his key to the slave pen and free the boy without a lot of hassle or paying a single copper. Szilva: -- You are suggesting murdering someone who invited us to be his guests?I hope this is not the start of a trend, I hope you're not changing into someone else, Alma. I supported you as leader of our group because you're not a greedy, bloodthirsty savage, like most adventurers. I'm watching you. Alma: -- ... The captain is a seasoned veteran, who is able to engage us evenly, and call on his cadre of guards. The strange thing, though, that this is all happening inside his big house, and no one comes in from the outside. The captain is very high level (12+), has 110 hit points, and an AC of -6. Hold Persons and Stinking Clouds mow down the fighter pack. OP **** is OP. On his body we find his exceptional gear, plate mail +3, long sword +4, shield +2, 3 potions of extra healing, a ring of protection, wand of magic missile. That armor is the best in the game, BTW. We quickly leave the camp, no one chases us. Back in New Phlan, we carefully approach the City Hall, expecting trouble, and then report our findings. It turns out he fled the city when he heard that we didn't die in Zhentil Keep. This proclamation is music to our ears: Gladly.

@OP: Meh. As others have pointed out, we are part of the marketing force of Obsidian. We market PoE however we care to and able to. Comparing Steam prices... Blackguards, a game with arguably less content than PoE, is selling for 40 euros, that's around 50 bucks. It sold well enough that a new one is already coming out soon. Divinity: Original Sin, a rich RPG, goes for the same 40 euros. Was #1 Steam seller for a while, like 2 weeks. PoE is 42 euro, only a little more than the previous titles. I don't see the problem.