The Insidious Infiltrator
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| Author | Topic: The Insidious Infiltrator |
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Shaper
Member # 6292
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written Friday, March 23 2007 02:21
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VALETA PURPLE Chapter Three—Part Four C: Drama in the Deep Valeta has become a little weary of shuttling a party of six about while in fight mode. She has left the party tucked away inertly in one of the south rooms and selected herself as actively solo while she runs rampant through the rest of the Grosch Pits. And what have we here? It's one big, ugly, hag-shaped reason why there are so many obnoxious creations infesting the fens up above. Warped Creator, you're going down fast and hard, bee-atch! I promise you this. Val fully buffs and hastes just out of range...  ...then Wracks and Ices this miserable, hideous abomination.  Val throws a little o' everything at this towering trollop: some acid, some Lightning Aura...just for the sheer pleasure in creatively taking this horrific hag off the map. Sure, Val takes a couple hits of the cantakerous Creator's poison spray, but Val's potent Regeneration and buffing shrug it off. Finally, before this spewing spawner can create any Glaahks or Battle Alphas to mildly hassle Val, and before it powers up to its invulnerable state, Val puts it out of its misery with some final doses of Ice.  Val takes pride in her own creation: a puddle of steaming muck left where the Warped Creator previously stood. She also takes the tasty trinket the Warpy one leaves behind. But Val has no time at all to linger in her triumph. Val's friends are in sudden peril when an unexpectedly surviving Pack Null Vlish sinisterly chooses this most vulnerable moment to come out of hiding and enter their room! Before anyone can react, the Vlish dazes and curses and damages a Channeler. The Channeler flees in terror, which likely saves her life.  We thought we'd thoroughly gutted all the occupants of these rooms earlier. Where did this lone Vlish come from? Sneaky, treacherous Vlish! Hiding from a merciful death to vex us thusly now. How careless of us. Val feels the liquid fire of fury and shame surging through her veins. But our cavalier Valeta is a good two or three hasted turns away from reaching her friends, who are quite vulnerable to even this one Vlish and quite unable to fend for themselves. This could end tragically for the party, and after such fluid success up till now. No time to even stop and save in case this goes badly. Val must fly like the wind to save the new friends who have been serving her so well on this dangerous stealth mission. Either this current blitzkrieg campaign of attacking the Spinecore and Creator will stand as is with the successful rescue of her friends, or the whole sequence is going down in flames. Val begins the mad dash back south toward the room containing her party. The party scurry away from the Vlish toward the next room, seeking to meet Val in the middle somewhere. The Vlish follows, attacking again. But the party manages to evade the worst attacks of the rogue Vlish. And now a very angry Valeta has finally caught up to their location. "Get away from her you b—!"  "Didn't you hear?" she bellows, charging straight for the suddenly not so exultant Vlish, "I just blew your ugly Momma to bits all over the floor over there. And now...it's your turn!" The Ice Spray is overkill, but Val finds the resulting cascade of icy Vlish shrapnel all over the walls and floor so very satisfying. Like mother, like daughter: reduced to half-frozen shards of quivering gristle on the floor.  Whew! No way was Val going to let even one of her friends perish. We won't be so careless again. After the requisite high-fiving and excited retelling of each person's story, our party finally moves on. The Grosch Pits are cleared. Now it's time to severely demote the overly-ambitiousy self-named Shaper Monarch. Which I would share with you here in glorious detail and in living color, except the battle went so quickly, that we forgot to take any pictures along the way. The party heads back north to Monarch's Realm and heads east into the main cavern. Val leaves her party safely out of the room where no one is going to get at them (no, really!), and runs up to Monarch's quarters again to pilfer his spare control baton. Not that she even gets a chance to put it to any real use. Val gets buffed and hasted up, and slinks south just into range of Monarch, Wracking and Shackling him before he even engages her in dialog. She gets a couple of nasty Ice Sprays in before he even shifts into fight mode. He flees right toward Val. Who hits him twice again. He flees towards his chambers. Val runs after, getting in one more Icy hit to his backside for good measure as he bolts like the bully-coward he is. Monarch is basically redlined by the time he makes it to his chamber. Val finishes him off in no more than two more turns, standing in the doorway lobbing more ice at him after breaking his baton. She never even sees one summoned creation to contend with. Behold the fearsome aggressive potential of the Insidious Infiltrator. Val rejoins her party.  And after gutting out the rest of Monarch's Realm, they reemerge to the surface, in yet another building. Oops. We've got company.  Val manages to daze all four creations and then leisurely obliterates them one by one, explosively deflating the flatulently Gaseous Rogues, nullifying the existence of the Nullity Rogue, and sending the Fearward Rogue to a fear-filled final reward. Mission accomplished, two actually, all on one extended trek. We come back for the neat piles of loot later. First we have to return to Aziraph and regale the rest of the troops with tales of our exploits over multiple rounds of ale...and we're buying! ... We hope you have enjoyed this little blast from the past. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled programming. NEXT: Back to Burwood with Valeta III (The Blue.) -S- [ Friday, March 23, 2007 05:05: Message edited by: Synergy ] -------------------- A4 Items • A4 Singleton • G4 Items • G4 Forging • G4 Infiltrator • NR Items • The Lonely Celt Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 6292
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written Friday, March 23 2007 02:51
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Oh sure...NOW I find the original text I typed up when the previous tale of the Monarch raid was fresh off the presses. Crikey. For those of you who can't get enough, here is the original telling of the tale with some other details and variant whimsicality of the moment. I'm surprised how well I remembered the details in the previously posted rewriting of the events, considering this took place in mid-December originally. ... VALETA I Chapter Three—Part Four: Reducing A Monarch To A Pauper It is time for schmoozy Valeta to recruit some assistance. We sufficiently inspire two Channelers and three Servile Technicians in the rebel camp to join us on our mission to take out the insane Shaper Monarch. The Channelers contribute...13(?) to Valeta’s Spellcraft. What an odd number. Is that right? Anyway, her total is 22. Let’s see what kind of Ice Spray that delivers. The Techs boost my Mechanics to 30 when I have my extra five points of Mech gear equipped. We scoot through the Northern Fens unmolested due to our high Mech ability enabling us to disable some field projectors. At 30 Mechanics, there is a door top center which still takes 3 Living Tools to open. Getting inside enables us to turn off even more projections and scoot right into the Grosch Ruins. We slip along the northern edge of town, and down the west side along the water. We encounter a Fearwarded Rogue (a nasty artila variant.) 235 cold damge from ice spray settles his hash sufficiently. The power of Spellcraft. The sign in front of the nearby house says “Private Home! Keep Out!” Do you think this will have any chance of dissuading us? We see it as more of an indication of exactly where we need to go. We can’t fight the endless onslaught of creations in the fens to any useful effect, so we want to put a stop to the source. It takes another three Living Tools to get into Monarch’s house. No one’s home, but man, what a messy dude....clothes all over the floor. You can tell he doesn’t have a girlfriend. He does have a stray Create Artila canister here. Hardly seems useful at this stage of the game. Oh look, a trap door. This is the ticket. The much-recycled spooky laboratory music cues us in that we are nearing our destination. The Serviles cue us in to how to get to Khyryk. Oh, look, a pack of Plated Clawbugs and our first Glaahk in the wild. I’m feeling lazy. I only cast Speed and War Blessing and Valeta gets to work. Daze freezes everything unfriendly in its tracks. The first Clawbug takes 251 cold damage. It is, uh, more than enough. 239 cold damage is more than enough to remove the Glaahk in one burst. A fireball at 135 damage is enough to take out another Clawbug for no energy cost at all. Val didn’t even bother to swap into her battle garb. There’s a healing pool here, but the essence pool is empty. Why make it too easy? We round the outside, disarming numerous mines for 9 XP apiece. We could use three more Living Tools to get into Monarch’s private chambers here in the NW corner, but there’s not much point in doing that just yet, and there’s another way in there anyway. We head south and enter the Grosch Pits with no more excitement. The Serviles once again tip me off to where Khyryk might be found. There are many more mines here which require some careful attention and navigating. It is helpful to watch which mine is linked to which trigger. They can fake you out. There is a Difficulty 30 mine here. One gets some nasty surprises if one triggers the Creation pods. Clearing out the parallel passageways of all mines, our party heads south and encounters a suicidal Servile. Now that’s just sad. And now we find Khyryk. We inform him that we intend to find who has the most treasure, kill them, take it, and repeat the process. This does not dissuade him from telling us we may yet see him again up north to discuss the ways of the Trakovites. And he is off before we can stop him. And now we face ambush. Daze only works on one Battle Alpha. The other is unamused and thumps us for 42 points of physical damage, blocking 72. The Searing Artila spits, but misses. Yeah, it looks like once buffed, armor doesn’t really matter a hell of a lot. Val is still in her Infiltrator garb and Tinker Gloves. The artila and Battle Alpha die next turn leaving the dazed one to be dispatched at leisure. Two no-cost fireballs take care of him. Val is the only one fighting, except the occasional wimpy fireball cast by one of the Channelers. Mostly, it’s just good to keep them out of harm’s way. Now we garb our Val back up fully for battle, because our mission can’t possibly get easier from here on in. Ooops, I got too close to Mad Shyviss the drayk nearby, and wound up next to him before getting a chance to make two moves on him first. I take some damage and spend 1.5 turns cursing and slowing him, then adding Spine Shield. Mad Shyviss takes 95 points to my 53 points of physical damage due to Spine Shield and my gloves. A massive overdose of ice finishes him off. Ooh, another level of Acid Shower in that canister he was guarding. Val strikes ahead, Dazing and using fire and ice on the motley packs of roving denizens found in the southern area of the Pits. Ah, another level of Dominate in a canister here. In the SE we find a few more nourishing plants for healing and essence. Sure, I’ll replenish a little essence now. Val, still solo, stumbles upon the Warped Creator. So here is the source of so much of the creation activity up on the surface. We Wrack and Shackle it while it misses throwing its poison at us. We experiment with acid and fire and lightning and ice, and as is so often the case, ice is around twice as effective as anything else. The Warped Creator hits Valeta the second time and we take 45 points of poison damage. About three rounds and the Creator is dead. It would have taken only two if I only used ice on it. The Creator never got its immunity shield up, nor got one creation out at me. The 220 + 17 points of experience gain us a new level to 32. We invest one level of Spellcraft and one level of Mental Magic with our 8 points on hand. Val can finally exit battle/haste mode. She has killed pretty much everything here. Ack! Crisis! While the Channelers and Techs are left down at the bottom of the zone, and Valeta is hacking the remains of the Creator to pieces, a lone Pack Null Vlish happens upon the rest of the party, and they are virtually defenseless. Val, still thankfully hasted, hightails it south in their direction, while they scatter for cover. One Channeler takes two hits and is redlined and terrified when Val shows up to obliterate the offending Vlish before he can deliver a fatal blow. All’s well that ends well, but that will teach us to be so cavalier. We regroup and get about despoiling what we can find. There is a recipe for the Sunstone Belt here in a jar, of all things. We pick up the Quicksilver Chitin the Warped Creator dropped. This is good for one more Action Point. If I can get one more of these Quicksilver items, I will be able to make two attacks per turn unhasted...if I am willing to lighten my armor significantly to do it. Considering the advantages with magic this powerful, methinks we will be going this route of extra AP. Braving a tricky field of projectors, we secure a Submission Baton and a good chunk of change. Note that you can run through the field beams to open the box on the west wall without setting off the projectors, even though you are standing in the beam path. You might be amused by what you find in this sneaky stash. We can’t carry everything we got, so we’re leaving it at the bottom of the ladder going up we find in the center of the zone. Later, when everything is mopped up, we can use exitzone from the area above to hastily relay it all back to market. Poking our head up here could be very dangerous, but I don’t feel like backtracking all that way. We’re gonna risk it...Whoa. I don’t remember these guys being so tough. Two hits from the (...and this is how far I got with the account, but I think now that I actually got killed the first time, when I ran out into the room unprepared, forgetting anything was going to be there.) -S- Because Too Much Is Never Enough. [ Friday, March 23, 2007 05:18: Message edited by: Synergy ] -------------------- A4 Items • A4 Singleton • G4 Items • G4 Forging • G4 Infiltrator • NR Items • The Lonely Celt Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00 |
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His Mighty Tentacle
Member # 627
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written Friday, March 23 2007 05:20
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No more negative Vlishy talk! :mad: -------------------- If I could make just one wish, I would want a tasty vlish. Geneforge IV. Still no tasty vlish. Posts: 1104 | Registered: Tuesday, February 12 2002 08:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 6292
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written Friday, March 23 2007 07:07
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Well, they are very tasty when first toasted with Fireballs. ... VALETA III Chapter Four—Part Five: Trust and Treachery The First Treachery: An Eye for an Eye So, we're back to our current incarnation of V3, who has romped her merry way through all of Burwood already. I have to catch us up with the tales of her exploits in Chapter Four, however, before moving her on into Chapter Five. Here is one more of those stories. As you may or may not recall, Val has cleaned out the Western Morass, at least as far as that is possible. With her just adequately Rebel-friendly reputation gleaned by freeing the prisoners in the Morass, she got the quest in Derenton Freehold from Ossissess to kill the five Shaper Infiltrators, who are out and about in the surrounding lands of Burwood working mischief for the Shapers. Val has also already obtained a quest from Guardian Koerner in the Poryphra Ruins to help these same five Infiltrators. What to do, what to do? Val scratches her head for a moment, torn between the allure of getting more rewards from the eager Rebels and helping out fellow Infiltrators. What's to decide, though? She will do both, even if it renders her an Infiltraitor ultimately. Each side seems too eager to exploit her and too clueless to catch on to what she is up to. Val is running this game with the sole intent of finding out how powerful she can become by any means necessary. Bleak times are coming, and she wants to survive them and have the power to protect her loved ones, should the Unbound be unleashed. This requires exploiting both sides to the fullest extent possible in the meantime. Val sets back out into the cheerfully verdant countryside of Burwood Province to get to the dual task at hand. She's already had some minor dealings with some of the five Infiltrators while carving a path to the Poryphra Ruins, but she has been careful to not help any of them yet outright. Now it's time to lend a helping hand...before finally raising it against them with malicious magic. The hand that feeds them is to be the hand that bleeds them. First she heads to Western Burwood to help 'n' hinder Agent Yngrid. Val runs into a pesky Rogue Wingbolt on the way in, which can be a nasty surprise upon entering this shack, if you aren't expecting it. Val is, however. She has a sixth sense about her, except when she's being colossally careless. It only takes two (or was it one?) bolts of ice to strip its wings clean off.  Val shuts off most of the mines all around Yngrid's workshop in the center, then gets Yngrid to shut off the rest. She frees the trapped refugees in the NW. Yngrid recruits Val to sabotage the Eyebeast's field projectors in the Eye's Road for her nefarious purposes. Val talks Yngrid into surrendering her pirated canisters to us. See how we steer these things toward our own purposes? Valeta feels a pang of remorse for what she is about to do shortly, because Yngrid is a fellow sister and Infiltrator alike. Too bad. In happier times, perhaps these two could have been friends. Except that Agent Yngrid is a bit too conceited for our liking. We scoot up to the Eye's Road and get Eye Aphorelik to open up the central roadway for us. We take a little damage at the north end, running through and triggering the field projector outside the Eye's workshop to get into it conveniently. It's really not so bad when first Augmented and shielded. We sabotage the projectors according to Yngrid's instructions, hightail it outta there, and report back to her. She gives us a lovely Infiltrator’s Charm for our bother. We already have a hella lot o' charm as the demure and disarming Infiltrator we are, but we'll take some more, as it adds to our Leadership and Mechanics. Oh, and now we'll kill Yngrid too for her kindness, thank you very much. It's nothing personal though. She is part of the problem. Yngrid does not see her demise coming. We come at her hasted and smiling, then Wrack and Shackle her without warning. She puts up a feeble struggle with some paltry summons, but within a couple more turns on the receiving end of this Insidious Infiltrator's potent battle magic, Yngrid and her pets have been dutifully obliterated. It was a merciful death. No need to make her suffer unduly.  Now we are free to do whatever we please in the Eye's Road, so we return to hang out in the hut and turn off some more of the Eye's projectors, which really irritates him. Ooh, too bad, we have to defend ourselves now and perforate the pride of this airbag. He gets the first shot in though as the aggressor, even though we are ready for him, when we spot him coming.  No Kill or Lightning Aura for ol' Eye Aphorelik. He's resistant to magical damage, not unlike our Valeta when prepared. So, a bit of Searer and Ice Spray settle his rotundly hide reasonably enough.  The Black Pearl Talisman he drops can give us one point toward Magic Shaping if we wish to work toward making an Eyebeast for the endgame. Now, because we were Shaper-friendly enough to gain access to Shaper Camp Gamma in the fens, and followed through with all the running to and fro like a lackey messenger girl to get the rebels freed up from Camp Gamma, moved to Camp Aziraph, and finally freed to leave the fens entirely, we find that they have settled in for now in the upper NW area of the Eye's Road, and have rebuilt the bridge across the river.  And they are happy to see us again. We pay our old friend Mizhera our respects, and she hospitably offers us some goodies from their storeroom—a precious Golden Crystal, and even more usefully, a Kill canister! Good deeds do bring their reward, even if delayed. Sometimes one need merely be patient to see the Karma come back around...which makes us nervous about potential Bad Karma, now that we think about it. We try not to think about it too much just now.  We like the underdogs, the common folk, the downtrodden, the oppressed in this game. It's everyone else we can't stand. One down, four to go. -S- [ Friday, March 23, 2007 20:12: Message edited by: Synergy ] -------------------- A4 Items • A4 Singleton • G4 Items • G4 Forging • G4 Infiltrator • NR Items • The Lonely Celt Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 6292
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written Friday, March 23 2007 21:35
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VALETA III Chapter Four—Part Five B: An Illusory Interim and Three More Betrayals We remember that every time we kill a Shaper, it makes the others mad at us before we are ready to wash our hands of them. So, before proceeding further, we run back to Guardian Koerner in Poryphra and get him to give us the Help the Infiltrators reminder again, which somehow makes the remaining four Infiltrators friendly toward us again. We'll have to double track to the other four and help them or inform them that we already helped them, then later return again to thoughtfully help them find their way to their celestial Valhalla. First we tell Shaper Krogstad on the Valeya Road that we decimated the Mad Servile camp for him. He gives us a boon of +1 to Major Heal for our trouble. Thanks, creepy hooded dude! We'll be sure to put that to good use to keep ourself nice and healthy when we're kickin' your backside to the moon shortly. We next inform Guardian Kantor in the Valeya Ruins that we have secured the anvil there. Sadly (for him) we will not be giving him much opportunity to put it to use. We secured that for our interests, not his, after all. Now we actually have a couple tasks to do again. First, we return to the Poryphra West Gate where we recently fashioned our mighty Ornk army and made the fields run red with the great Ornk Battle that ensued. Time to head south and help out Shaper Horis with his experimental Kyshakk test. It's not much trouble. We have lots of essence and powerful magic to keep ourselves and Horis well shielded and healed up to endure the ravages of the temperamental Kyshakk Horis creates, then dissolves. Lastly, we need to track down the fifth and final Infiltrator. This would be Guardian Dameron, who we find skulking about on the outskirts of the Cultist Safehouse. He wants us to go take out some of the head honchos of the Cult. With pleasure, my temporary friend. We magic up and go on a gleeful spree of swift and savage destruction. Daze and Ice Spray and Searer are about all that are needed to run about helping Cultists get acquainted personally with their deity. Val supplements her repertoire with the occasional indulgence of Kill or Essence Orbs as evidenced in this sublime moment.  Having gutted the Cultist not-so-Safehouse and having been given messages by both a Drakon from Quessa-Uss to warn us away and a spirit sent from Khyryk to invite us over, we can now get back to the business at hand of liquidating the Five Infiltrators for Ossissess. After informing Dameron of mopping the floor with the Cultist leaders, we quickly send him off to meet his Maker too, because we're really rather keen on that lovely Frozen Blade we see him sporting, while being too cowardly to put it to good use himself. Two down, three to go. Let's head right back to Shaper Horis, shall we? Horis is not so delighted to see us back so soon. He invites some other company to join us in our friendly little exchange. We're good at making new friends though, so we befriend the Kyshakk with our irresistible Charm to keep Horis preoccupied. We watch pet and master exchange magical assaults while we keep casually heaping on the Ice Spray from the doorway. Val and her new friend, the Kyshakk, quickly whittle Horis down together, and Val delivers the final insult.  The short-lived human-creation friendship comes to an end when Val eliminates the threat of finding out what happens when this relationship goes sour, as it was certain to do.  Next, Val saunters over to Valeya to tell the high-strung Guardian Kantor what she really thinks of him. She picks a fight and gets his Battle Beta and Ur-Glaahk goons to all turn on each other. The Force is strong with us here today.  The Glaahks succumb quickly, and Kantor takes some heavy damage as well.  Cowardly Kantor feels it is necessary to call up a witless Rotghroth to come to his aid. The rot and Kantor alike are not immune to our magical assaults.  A bit of Essence Orbs should take care of both of them at once. Yes! Two points!  You might imagine that the frozen Battle Beta did not survive long after this. Now Valeja is no longer friendly toward us—go figure. We'll have to do something about that next, ya think? -S- [ Saturday, March 24, 2007 22:13: Message edited by: Synergy ] -------------------- A4 Items • A4 Singleton • G4 Items • G4 Forging • G4 Infiltrator • NR Items • The Lonely Celt Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 6292
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written Friday, March 23 2007 22:52
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VALETA III Chapter Four—Part Five C: Trust and Treachery Terminated Valeja is in an uproar after the slaughter of Kantor and his goon squad. Val gets busy mopping up all the remaining rogue creations.  She doesn't want anything getting in the way of her access to that anvil. Oops, these four certainly will.  Val gets busy turning Kyshakk against Kyshakk.  The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Val mops up the rest of the city. Too bad about the civvies. We already bought the useful ingredients from the local store, because we won't be buying anything there in the future. Valeja becomes a ghost town. The anvil is all ours. We have future plans for that anvil, but nothing too useful to do with it in the meantime.  There is one Infiltrator left for Val to destroy, and it is the first one she met coming into Burwood: Shaper Krogstad. He gave us some Major Heal. We will give him some major wheal in return.  He can be a bit tough with all those nasty Oozing Worms he summons when threatened. It took Val two or three attempts to get this battle right. The worms can overwhelm her if she is not exacting in her method. First Val Wracks and Shackles ol' Kroggie. She deals him some damage, and he spawns off like six or eight of these annoying, and surprisingly dangerous little worms. It's not that any one of them is so bad, but when you assemble an army of ants like this, one can be in trouble. Val Dazes the worms and runs after Kroggie who generally runs off at this point. Val keeps on his heels and whittles at him. At some point, he summons up another pack of worms which are dazed, perhaps one or two are charmed to help out Val, then bolted to pieces one by one after Krogger has finally croaked.  Lastly, Val has to run back up to deal with the first batch of worms who are just waking up.  The Infiltrators are dead. Long live THE Infiltrator. We collect our reward from Ossissess—a Stasis Shield. This may be more useful later when we have a couple of creations alongside. Ossissess also gives us the task of taking out Shorass the Trakovite Drayk, whom we already met in the Kelekee Bridge. He was guarding a lot of loot that wasn't doing anyone any good rotting there. We take Ossissess up on the request, and decide to relieve Shorass of the burden of his worldly possessions. Of course you realize, this means killing him. Val, who sympathizes mostly with the Trakovites, feels some regret about this unfortunate task.  The +1 AP-granting Quicksilver Chain Shorass drops upon his demise helps ease the sense of loss. It comes, however, with a sacrifice of +2 Spellcraft to use. Combined with another piece of AP-enhancing gear, this could start becoming a more attractive optional piece of gear. Either way, we're holding on to this for now. NEXT: Matala Meets Her Match -S- [ Saturday, March 24, 2007 00:16: Message edited by: Synergy ] -------------------- A4 Items • A4 Singleton • G4 Items • G4 Forging • G4 Infiltrator • NR Items • The Lonely Celt Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 6292
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written Saturday, March 24 2007 00:01
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VALETA III Chapter Four—Part Six: What's This Thing Made Out Of...Rocks? As it turns out, we're itching to use that anvil right away after all. We want Flameweaver Greaves! (Every cool Infiltrator will want a pair of these, after Val is seen sporting them.) This will require the long-anticipated venturing under the Western Morass to Matala's Workshop to acquire the Crystalline Fibers we lack to make the greaves. We've been wondering how this souped-up Val is going to handle the Golem here on Torment. Let's find out, shall we? Val explores the workshop and deactivates the power supplies and destroys the pylons. She returns to pick a fight with the inert Mindless Golem near the entrance. We come at it fully buffed, with Wrack and Shackle being our usual means of introduction.  Very little does much damage to this Mindless Golem. Kill is the best we have. We begin to burn through essence pods. Kill, Kill, Kill! This is actually doing a decent job...almost half of our Kill damage is getting through. We've woken this thing up though. At this point it reveals it is Matala, kept alive in essence in this beast of stone.  Golem Matala bolts to the next room and manages to crank out one Rotghroth before Val whittles her down enough for her to make a bolt for it again. We follow after, ignoring the rot for now, whom I believe Val Dazed and left behind. It reappeared some time later and was quickly dispatched with twin bolts of ice. Meanwhile, Matala runs down and wakes up the big nasty Possessed Drakon in the big room next door. Val can't handle both the Golem and the Drakon all at once, so she lures the Drakon off by itself and closes in on it to avoid its Slowing ranged attack.  The Drakon wasn't so bad, even if it did take us two attempts to settle its hash. Back to Matala, who has run off into the other corner. We need to get in her face too, to keep her from unleashing her Aura of Flames on us. Kill Kill Kill, Refill. Kill Kill Kill, Refill. We continue to see the health line under Matala creeping downwards visibly. Amazing!  Persistence pays off, and finally the Matala monolith succumbs to our onslaught and crumbles noisily into a pile of rubble. This was not nearly as painful as it was using a Servile with wimpier magic and a sword to hammer at her, that's for sure.  The key Matala drops upon her demise gets us in to pick up the Blademaster Charm  and to ingest this irresistible Aura of Cleansing canister to put a fresh sheen back on our green glow.  While we are here, we do not forget to pocket the Crystalline Fibers we came here for. Well now, that wasn't so bad at all. Val rocks (even more than a Golem made of them.) Let's go make some Hot Pants on that Valeja anvil for lovely Valeta as a little reward for all her hard work: Flameweaver Greaves are as hot as hot pants get. These will only serve to make her battle magic more lethal as well as offer +2 Fire Shaping for creating Drakons ultimately. Oh, and we'll affix to our new greaves that Steel Spine we also found in the workshop for increased hurtiness upon anyone foolish enough to rush our lethal lady.  Now we're slaughtering in style. NEXT: Drakonian Measures -S- [ Saturday, March 24, 2007 22:25: Message edited by: Synergy ] -------------------- A4 Items • A4 Singleton • G4 Items • G4 Forging • G4 Infiltrator • NR Items • The Lonely Celt Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 8285
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written Saturday, March 24 2007 19:46
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You are good at this whole story thing. Ever think of writing a book? :) -------------------- A duke is just a duke but you see, I am "The Duke" Posts: 65 | Registered: Saturday, March 10 2007 08:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 6292
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written Saturday, March 24 2007 22:08
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Didn't I mention that I will be publishing the Complete Tales of The Insidious Infiltrator in hardback form upon completion here? I expect you all to buy a sympathy copy. -S- I did work on an increasingly ambitious fantasy novel until my early twenties. I wound up spending more time rewriting it and making it "better" than I did ever getting around to finishing it. I do believe I have at least one book in my future, but it won't be fiction. Thanks for the compliment. -------------------- A4 Items • A4 Singleton • G4 Items • G4 Forging • G4 Infiltrator • NR Items • The Lonely Celt Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 6292
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written Sunday, March 25 2007 19:06
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VALETA III Chapter Four—Part Seven: Quonquering Quessa-Uss We've gotten missions from both Litalia and Alwan to go see what's going on with the Drakons in Quessa-Uss, so I guess we may as well get on with it. Coming in from the north, we bump into Salassar's lackey, Scourge Vossizon. He's just itching for a duel and irritatingly blocks our way. We could turn on our Infiltrator charm and use our formidable Leadership qualities to talk Vossizon down, but what fun would that be? What Vossizon doesn't realize is how much we're itching for a fight with him as well. This will become a recurring and fatal theme with the Drakons, who apparently have a little problem in underestimating the capacities of us lowly humanlings.  All those annoying Drakon Sentinels can't just sit still over by the arena ground if we go there to fight as instructed, but instead waste a lot of our precious time roaming about in circles when we'd rather be hammering Voz into Drakon burgers. So, the first thing Val does is get right on with the duel here at the bridge as the Drakons all cluelessly meander off to the north. Wrack, Shackle, Kill. Comin' atcha, Big Boy. Combat commences with mercifully fewer distractions.  Vozziewozz is not one to trifle with. His slowing ranged attacks are painful, and his worms, like Shaper Krogstad's, can be lethal if permitted to swarm Val. She chooses to Daze them and get on with the business of punishing Vossizon for his insolence. Who's he think he's trying to push around, anyway? We've got more important work to be doing in your stinky Drakon hovel.  We note that Lifecrafters are immune to Voz's attempt to terrorize us. I'm wondering if this means all five classes are immune. Has anyone ever noticed being susceptible to his Fear effect? Val certainly isn't, as she uses some Lightning Aura to finish off the big brute. Timber.  Voz leaves behind a Vampiric Breastplate which we probably won't use, though it has been fun to use in other games. Val will for now stash it at the gates of Derenton Freehold in her pile of loot to which she's a bit too attached to part with presently. Trophies. Her Frozen Blade (thank you Guardian Dameron!) is much more effective at leeching life from her adversaries than the Vampiric gear. Val saunters freely into Quessa-Uss without any further hindrance. Unfortunately, she gets shacked up like a prisoner in the guest quarters until finally she is invited to the first in a series of increasingly perilous—and amusing—Drakon conferences. Finally we meet Ghaldring, the supposed leader of the Drakons, but who seems to be lost in the background behind the influence of the upsurgent Salassar, who clearly has no fondness at all for our presence.  We mock Salassar in our most nonchalant and savage fashion, infuriating him, but giving much amusement to the rest of the assembled Drakon honchos, and especially Ghaldring, as it would appear. From Salassar's reptilian line of questioning, Val is expecting mischief that night as she returns to her quarters to actually sleep for once in this game. Man she is tired! But she is also prepared when a party of Drayks and a rogue Drakon slip into her chambers that night with murderous intent. She makes quick work of them by hanging out and dispatching them from next to the healing and essence pools. At the next conference she accuses Salassar of culpability and is granted visitation to see Greta, who Val knows is being held here somewhere. Greta points us to the laboratories of the Drakons, where some other mischief is afoot. We clobber a few clutches of Drayks guarding the labs no problem and begin to scour the lab for clues...and of course for loot. The labs do not disappoint. There is more to haul out of there ultimately than we can carry in one load. But we also stumble upon the new horrible secret of the Drakons: their terrifying new experiment of the Unbound Creation. It doesn't seem so terrifying to Val, however, when it breaks loose and lunges at her and she decides to carve it into gristle. It's brutal, but we're brutaller than thou (fool!) There is no penalty for killing the Unbound during our window of opportunity. Why wouldn't we? We'd love to stop at least one of these lethal abominations from being loosed upon the earth, as the Drakons might well be inclined to do. We also want the experience points. We haul all our lab goodies out and talk with Greta before attending another wearisome conference with the big, belligerent lizards. After enduring some more of Sal's hollow harranguing and indulging in some more looting of the labs, and finding to our amazement and amusement that no one seems at all upset we slew the Unbound, we finally are given the privilege of challenging the sleazy Salassar to a duel. Yesssss! Val's no dummy though. Before the final meeting leading right into the duel, she fuels up at the essence pool and casts all her buffs and hasting, then runs in fight mode to the conference. By the time the duel commences, she is still all magicked up and ready to clean the clock of this big dolt once and for all. Val even permits Clueless here to bring along a couple pet Drayks to help him out, even though once again she could use her Jedi Mind Tricks™ to shame him out of the cowardly intention. Instead she charms them and uses them against sinister Sal to keep him busy while she puts her new Frozen Blade to some good use, just for kicks. The Drayks don't last long facing the wrath of Sal's truly hideous breath (man, what's this guy EAT, anyway?), but then again, neither will Sal be lasting long.  Val is having fun playing with this big clod, so Sears him, stabs him, and finally does him off with some truly potent Ice. If she didn't want to mess around at all, she could have killed Sal with three strikes of Ice alone.  You know, this Drakonskin Cloak Sal drops would have been a lot more useful earlier in the game before other cloaks became available. I suppose it might be a nice addition for a Servile intent on buiding a stronger defense.  Ghaldring emerges with much amusement at our sport, and he also emerges clearly as the true power lurking within Quessa-Uss, despite previous appearances. We have been pawns in his little game to honorably eliminate his adversary Salassar. We're annoyed, but less so when we take Ghaldring's somber advice to pay the very rapidly-assembled tomb of Salassar our last respects...and find a Perfect Drakon Skin inside. We'll just help ourselves to that, thank you —we've been wanting one of these for a long time now. We also don't complain about the Puresteel Charm which Ghaldring bestows upon us when we bother to ask him for a reward for serving his interests so effectively. Hrrrmph! Least he can do. Val's tired of this place. Let's blow this joint, but we'll tolerate coming back one last time to pick up all that loot from the lab we piled up in our guest quarters. Greta has already hightailed it back to Derenton Freehold in the meantime. NEXT: Chapter Four—It's a Wrap -S- [ Sunday, March 25, 2007 19:48: Message edited by: Synergy ] -------------------- A4 Items • A4 Singleton • G4 Items • G4 Forging • G4 Infiltrator • NR Items • The Lonely Celt Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 6785
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written Sunday, March 25 2007 21:17
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All 5 classes are immune to terror and a few other effects. They are there to affect creations and the occassional recruit. In Quessa-Uss I found that you can demand the money as compensation for a disturbed sleep and then still get to see Greta. I don't remember if I also tried to intimidate them into telling me their secret. Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00 |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Sunday, March 25 2007 22:31
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quote:I tried. Salassar gets (even more) ticked off at you and won't tell you a thing. The conversation ends with you asking to see Greta and being let in no matter what; the only difference is whether you talk Ghaldring into giving you 1000 clams or not. There's probably a Leadership requirement, but I'm too lazy to check the scripts right now. [ Sunday, March 25, 2007 22:32: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 6292
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written Monday, March 26 2007 01:21
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VALETA III Chapter Four—Final Part: Taking Stock  Lost in reverie and anticipation as she meanders casually back toward Derenton Freehold, Valeta fingers the cold Puresteel Charm in her pocket, so recently surrendered from Ghaldring as a reluctant reward for the disposing of Salassar. It looks good amongst her other accumulated trinkets, and she welcomes the boost to Strength it infuses magically into her lithe and lethal body. After all, she has been careful throughout to invest not a point in Strength as the magically purist Valeta III she is determined to remain.  But first, she has a little matter to which to attend in the Valeya ruins. With precious cargo in hand, she strides through the now ghostly streets of the town and makes her way to the anvil out in the building on the little island. The water laps quietly outside, while she fashions a formidable new artifact upon the enchanted anvil. Perfect the Shaped Boots with Tincture of Mandrake and Bile of Demon. Tink tink. Infuse with Salassar's freshly-donated Ur-Drakon Skin and the Deep Focus Orb we stole from Eliza's bunker so long ago. Tink tink. Salassar's timely demise has proven much more providential than to merely sate Val's typically indifferent inclinations toward vengeance. Behold, she now holds in her slightly trembling hands a glistening new pair of Shapemaster Boots!  Oh, the mighty creations she will ultimately shape wearing these. She finally arrives little worse for the wear at Derenton Freehold, and informs Litalia of the treachery and ominous omens that have taken place in Quessa-Uss. Litalia wastes no time in bestowing the capable Valeta with a mission to find Northforge Citadel and assist the Drakons with their dubious project. We'll see about that. Valeta is not necessarily sold on the idea of unleashing the horrors of the Unbound upon the world, as much as she despises the iron-fisted rule of the Shapers. We panic for a moment thinking we've botched up Val's intended reputation sequence, when she first detours to report on Quessa-Uss to General Alwan, and finds that she doesn't yet merit her second reward from Shaper Grim. We know that Shapers will have left Poryphra the next time we choose to return. But only Alwan and Miranda leave Poryphra at this point, giving Val their own new mission to infiltrate Northforge and to look for them in hiding nearby at a future point. Thankfully, the cheerless Shaper Grim remains behind in Poryphra to give us further rewards, as we commit future pro-Shaper deeds. There really is very little else we can do for the rebels in the upcoming Chapter Five, except to wipe out the Shaper camp at Litalia's request. In a disturbingly parallel fashion, Koerner in Poryphra has requested a final favor that we kill Litalia, which effectively means wiping out Derenton Freehold, if Val chooses to go that route. Val will have to decide which way to go with her loyalties ultimately. Valeta will be highly entertained by anyone who wants to make a prediction what she is going to do in this final chapter. Meanwhile, Val's pretty much done everything there is to do in Burwood Province and elsewhere, though she will return to some of the early Shaper zones to whittle down some more worthy opponents with her wickedly improved abilities. The immovable Black Door she noticed in Monarch's Realm still haunts her memory. Val doesn't like it when doors are closed to her, and she felt mysteriously drawn to the sense of foreboding beyond that impenetrable barrier. She has a vague, yet compelling sense that she will be revisiting the great black door before it's all over. She certainly won't hesitate, if anything remotely warrants her return to find out what lies beyond. Here's how Valeta is looking stat-wise right now at the end of Chapter Four.  The above stats are based upon the following gear she currently equips.  Ring of Eye’s Purity (+3 Battle Magic) Frozen Blade Girdle of Genius (+2 Intelligence) Shaper Trueweave Agent Cloak (+1 Battle Magic / +1 Mental Magic / +1 Blessing Magic / +1 Spellcraft) Talisman of Might (+4 Strength) Polychromous Shield Gloves of Savagery (+2 Strength / +2 Melee / +4 Quick Action) Flameweaver Greaves (+2 Battle Magic) Stability Boots (+2 Dexterity) Lucky Charm (+1 Luck) Physician's Charm (+1 Healing Craft) Skein of Wisdom (+1 Intelligence) Gruesome Charm (+2 Intelligence, + 2 Dexterity, -2 Endurance) Mental Focus Charm (3) (+3 Spellcraft) Infiltrator’s Charm (+1 Leadership / +1 Mechanics) Blademaster Charm (+1 Quick Action) Puresteel Charm (+1 Strength) At present Valeta is effectively boosting her Battle Magic by ten through gear alone, when counting both Battle Magic and Spellcraft as magical strength boosters. At some point in Chapter 5, Val will be wanting occasional side-kick creations to help out in key confrontations. The first Infiltrator I ever ran (much less efficiently) was able to fashion Ur-Drakons and an Eyebeast in the end, which I enjoyed immensely. I believe it takes 6 Magic Shaping ability to make an Eyebeast. Valeta has four Magic Shaping ability when she equips her Shapemaster Boots and her Black Talisman necklace (thank you, Gazer Aphorelik.) It takes, surprisingly enough, only a paltry three Shaping ability to fashion any basic fifth tier creation, including a Gazer. It looks like we'd have to invest ten or eleven skill points into Magic Shaping if Val really wants an Eyebeast. On the other hand, we could use those points for another level of Spellcraft. What would you do? Eyebeasts are soooo much fun, but on the other hand, Val wants to demonstrate how wickedly powerful she can become magically. We're open to thoughts and arguments on the matter, but don't wait too long. If we don’t choose to invest the Skill Points in Magic Shaping necessary to shape an Eyebeast, Val can just start using some of those Wands of the Inferno and Torrent Gems she always lugs around but rarely bothers to use. But we will have no trouble shaping a couple of Ur-Drakons in the near future, as soon as we acquire all three levels of Drakon-shaping ability. We already have 7 Fire Shaping ability with a Shaper Robe, Shapemaster Boots, and Volcanic Fetish (or Black Pearl Talisman) equipped. Heck, we've even got 4 levels of Battle Shaping with our gear. We can make War Tralls, but wouldn't that be a waste when we could summon an army of unstoppable and delicious Ornks to our side? We'll never go hungry again, that much is certain. We have Leadership of 12 and Mechanics of 17 on demand with our two pieces each of Infiltrator and Tinker gear along with Dhonal's Band and the Infiltrator Charm. This will go up one level more in each category, when we acquire the Infiltrator Shield in Chapter Five. We could also make the Cloak of the Shadows for a +1 Boost in stats over the Infiltrator Cloak once we've been to the Breeding Pits, which is typically one of the last things done in the game and not very useful to really put to use for Leadership or Mechanics so late in the game. We really don't need any more of either though, and probably could have invested one less level in Leadership earlier and maybe even more than that in Mechanics. I'd have to look back at where certain levels were needed, and where we picked up the enhancing gear, in order to see how much I may have wasted points. Keep in mind that Val doesn't like backtracking a whole lot in the name of absolute skill point efficiency, however. It's also about the satisfaction of feeling strong and capable at each stage, and this means things like not having to backtrack to disarm mines in The Boiling Mudpits two chapters after we first went through. We’re looking at our strategy for where to go soonest. These look especially attractive at the moment: Quicksilver Bulwark (+1 Action Point) — Frostwood Pure Crystal Shard to make the Cloak Of The Shadows (+1 Action Point) — Breeding Pits Essence Charm (+1 Intelligence) — Breeding Pits Quicksilver Sandals (+1 Action Point) — Gesselin Freehold So, Val is contemplating making a beeline path through Khima-Uss, Frostwood, and the Breeding Pits, then up to Gesselin and Northforge, saving as much of the rest of the game for after she can acquire these useful boosters. We will be optimizing magic and action points a bit later on, I do believe. Right now Val is using a lot of gear to boost Strength, when magic could be even higher with alternate gear. NEXT: Chapter Five—The Bar Is Raised...Ante Up! -S- -------------------- A4 Items • A4 Singleton • G4 Items • G4 Forging • G4 Infiltrator • NR Items • The Lonely Celt Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 6292
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written Wednesday, March 28 2007 20:42
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quote:Valeta is not entertained at all. Does no one have predictions? Well, as it happens, Valeta has completed Chapter 5, and therefore this game, so it is all set in stone now. I took a lot of pictures from this chapter and have to figure out how many parts to create to tell the stories. There were some interesting developments, observations, and conclusions I will be sharing about how I built this PC and how I played this game. I'm still curious what anyone who's been following may guess we did and what path we took. You have until however long it takes me to start posting episodes again. -S- -------------------- A4 Items • A4 Singleton • G4 Items • G4 Forging • G4 Infiltrator • NR Items • The Lonely Celt Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 6785
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written Wednesday, March 28 2007 20:57
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I'm guessing that you went pretty much pro-Rebel throught chapter 5. Although I know you can't pass up the Forbidden band that's dropped by Drosstro so there will be a big fight in Khima-Uss. Gressin Freehold you will help out the cryodrayks and kill the drakon messenger. I guess if it moves it's dead in the Grayghost Mountains and just to be sure you'll destroy the pylons. Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 6292
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written Wednesday, March 28 2007 21:58
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Hmmm, interrrresting conjectures. Pylons in the Grayghost Mountains? Do you mean the ones in the Northforge Warrens? -S- -------------------- A4 Items • A4 Singleton • G4 Items • G4 Forging • G4 Infiltrator • NR Items • The Lonely Celt Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 7764
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written Wednesday, March 28 2007 22:06
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Quicksilver gear + Cloak of Shadows = 2 attacks per turn without being hasted!!! Quicksilver gear + Cloak of Shadows + Haste = around 4 attacks per turn!!! :eek: [ Wednesday, March 28, 2007 22:07: Message edited by: Tarrasque ] -------------------- I have a karma of 2!Yay! Posts: 60 | Registered: Monday, December 11 2006 08:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 6292
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written Thursday, March 29 2007 13:21
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VALETA III Chapter Five—Part One: Brrr, Shouldn't I Be Wearing More? Valeta is forming a rough plan of action in her weary mind, as the path leads upwards to the east. Things are looking a bit bleak in the world, not unlike the sparse, frigid terrain she is now entering in the Grayghost Mountains. Valeta has had enough of the Drakons for the moment and decides to divert herself with scouring other promising territory. She completely cleans out the Windswept Farms by picking a fight with the intolerably petulant Thora Eyeball, who will not surrender his precious canisters to us. We will not let this pass—the nerve of some people to refuse us thusly. He scurries off like the coward he is, as his army emerges from its eerie hibernation. Val winds up fighting his unfrozen minions from the doorway of the lonely house, using lots of Daze and Charm to manage the Rots, Drayks, Glaahks, Vlish, and Clawbugs which surge forward in unending waves. And then they all lie still once more. The Windswept Farms are quiet again, and the wind is the only sound remaining, except for the muffled drip drip drip of strange-colored bloods from the tip of Val's blade into the newfallen snow—not that she used her blade much. Now she hunts down the elusive Eye with a heart as cold as the snow into which its bloated corpse noisily thunders, as she sends it plummeting from the sky, putting it forever out of our misery. We failed to photo-document this event, but truly it happened just so. Val takes the dead Eye's key and helps herself to the two canisters she finds on the premises: Create War Trall and Mass Restoration, neither of which she ever puts to use. She pawns off his Charmed Falchion. No one seems to know what good Luck is in this game anyway. We make our own luck. Valeta heads back to Derenton for a brief refresher, then gets on with the inevitable task at hand. She shivers as she approaches the somber Grayghost Gates of the Drakons.  She scurries through the nooks and crannies of this reptile-infested hovel, tolerating the stench just long enough to thieve a canister of Essence Armor past some traps.  As well as putting her Stealth ability to the test slipping unseen to the very back of the Drakon quarters and stealing the last of the Infiltrator gear from a lockbox.  She lingers here no longer than necessary, for her real interest lies to the south. Valeta slips out of the crowded Grayghost Gates into the eerie snow-blanketed Frostwood. The peaceful isolation is soon shattered as it becomes apparent we are not alone here.  Val encounters this motley crew of Kyshakks and Battle Betas and begins to find herself feeling more vulnerable than she has prior in this game. The shift in difficulty from Burwood to Grayghost is noticeable. Several battles in Frostwood take her more than one attempt to accomplish intact. If she does not execute control over skirmishes precisely, she does die. Either that or I was just in a more careless mood during this phase, being too aggressive and not using more Mass Madness for control. Either way, at this point, I was wishing for more Strength for her to wear some better armor. She finds that approaching the denizens of the woods and luring one or two off at once is safer than rushing into a crowd of three Wingbolts and two Betas at once. She's used to being more bold. But there is a time for caution and stealth, and she is built to execute it after all. The toughest fight in Frostwood proves to be Eye Herzfeld, who carries a posse of Rotghroths in tow. It's not that the ol' Eyeball himself is so tough, but managing the rots long enough to get at him too takes some micromanagement. We do have some luck Dazing or even Charming them. In this case, Val recruits a wandering Beta who happened along just in time to help us out.  After two or three play-rounds with the Eye, Val gets medieval on Herzzie's heiny and finally removes him and his rotten retinue from the premises. The other groups of Kyshakks and Wingbolts throughout the wood aren't quite so difficult, as long as Val takes out the peripheral creations first and uses some liberal doses of Mass Madness and Charm to even up the sides a bit more.  Then she turns off the six pylons so she can gain access to the Breeding Pits beyond.  She also helps herself to the much appreciated Mass Madness canister Herzfeld had stashed back in his lair. She finds Sod's Dancing Pants a little less useful, though if you ask me, she really could use some pants in all this snow. Those clanky greaves are drafty!  NEXT: Shopping and Snooping in Khima-Uss -S- [ Thursday, March 29, 2007 18:19: Message edited by: Synergy ] -------------------- A4 Items • A4 Singleton • G4 Items • G4 Forging • G4 Infiltrator • NR Items • The Lonely Celt Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 6785
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written Thursday, March 29 2007 15:43
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quote:In Frostwood's southeast corner there are 6 pylons that can be deactivated with a nearby control so only the one you attack is active to retaliate. So attack them one at a time. I never tried the Northforge Warrens group since they are grouped to nail singel characters. Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00 |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Thursday, March 29 2007 16:39
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quote:I've done it with a singleton melee servile, but it's pretty intensely annoying. On the other hand, they give a fair bit of XP. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 6292
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written Thursday, March 29 2007 17:11
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Happy 8888 posts, Thuryl. 8 is the number of new beginnings in some traditions. That may or may not be relevant at all, but there you go. ... I did not destroy any pylons this game except the ones in Matala's Workshop. They are darned annoying on Torment. I possibly could have gained one more level if I had destroyed all of the ones in the Warren, but not just with the six. I'll finish the post above and it will show what we did there. -S- EDIT: Chapter Five—Part One has been completed above. [ Thursday, March 29, 2007 18:20: Message edited by: Synergy ] -------------------- A4 Items • A4 Singleton • G4 Items • G4 Forging • G4 Infiltrator • NR Items • The Lonely Celt Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 5650
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written Tuesday, April 3 2007 00:17
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What, they're worth XP? I deactivated them all with nothing but a speed boost, and without a scratch on them or me. The only damage I took was from those gooey pools to the south, there collected goods from a corpse who got gooier than me. You know, for an inf, Val makes a lot of noise and leaves a lot of messes... Posts: 42 | Registered: Thursday, March 31 2005 08:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 6292
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written Tuesday, April 3 2007 09:04
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Messes? You mean puddles of blood? There's no one left to complain about the housekeeping. Noise? You mean the throes of imminent demise of the unsuspecting? All is very quiet when she is done with a place. -S- More coming when I get around to composing it again. -------------------- A4 Items • A4 Singleton • G4 Items • G4 Forging • G4 Infiltrator • NR Items • The Lonely Celt Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 6292
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written Tuesday, April 3 2007 11:15
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VALETA III Chapter Five—Part Two: Krimes R-Uss We forgot to mention it last episode, but Valeta picked up something very useful from Eye Herzfeld: this Quicksilver Bulwark, the primary reason Val diverted down to face the perils of Frostwood so soon.  She straps this on immediately and switches out her Shaper Trueweave armor for Shorass' Quicksilver Chain, which also grants +1 Action Point. The loss of two Spellcraft and the low protective value of the chainmail is a regrettable loss, but Val can afford the diminishment to her Spellcraft. The rather slight protective value of the armor is leaving her rather vulnerable at present however. The payoff is that Valeta now finds herself with ten Action Points unhasted in combat—most useful indeed. Val wisely senses that she wants to make a pet Ur-Drakon before venturing into the Breeding Pits nearby. She needs to acquire three levels of Create Drakon in order to do this, so this becomes her next priority. She has more business in Frostwood too...but not just now. For now, it's off to chilly Khima-Uss to do some shopping. As well as some "shopping," if you catch our drift. In Gasspahr’s Shop, Val acquires her first level of Create Drakon for 1500 coins. Leadership lowers the price in this case. Two down, one to go.  Gassphahr also has a Madness Gem and a Torrent Gem, which Val does not hesitate to scoop up, even at these expensive prices. There is a pricey Shaped Fiber Cloak here. Gasspahr is clearly a mercenary, and that's just rude. Val considers teaching the greedy Drayk a lesson, but swallows her flash of rage...for the time being. Sergeant Sabrina in Aziraph Camp Gamma also sells a Shaped Fiber Cloak at this extortive price. Val passes, as she already picked up one cloak free of charge on the South Poryphra Road and bought a second affordably from Leopold in Burwood Road South.  The baker here goes into a rather adorable happy fit when Val produces some Cake upon request. She snagged that back in Southforge Citadel from Delna's room, though she could have picked it up in about five different places. The baker does not complain that the cake is months old. Val thoughtfully scraped the mold off ahead of time. Learned Hartl has some nice loot tucked away behind some traps. There seems to be no way to not set off the mine and get cursed getting in at this trove. The effect is quite temporary however. Big whoop. Methinks Jeffy was poking fun at us with this bit. The Battle Roar canister is another one of those worthless prizes Val never winds up using. No wonder that canister was sitting back here unused. Who'd want it? Probably a Lifecrafter, that's who. Not so useful for someone not toting a horde of critters around, though.  Learned Hartl wants to know what's going on in the secret quarters behind the utterly obnoxious Drakon Drosstro, whom we entirely ignore for now. So, let's go see what's lurking in the laboratory, shall we?  The Experimental Rotghroth Val happens upon is docile at present. Val convinces the Drayk guard that her presence is warranted, another benefit of her adequate Leadership. Val spots an inviting, shiny treasure box in the corner. Attempting to investigate it is certain to annoy the laboratory's special guest however. Our fetid friend is going to have to go, so Val launches a fierce preemptive strike. He's quite a nasty brute nonetheless, and her Quicksilver Chain is not offering her a lot of protection.  The rot does not survive Val's liberally-applied Kills long enough for the Drayk guard to join in the fray, which he readily does if he's around when the rot goes hostile. Val helps herself to an Essence-Infused Skin from the now unguarded lockbox. She could make an Impervious Cape with this, but what's the point? She doesn't want that silly cape. She winds up making it anyway though, because it's profitable enough to sell. Val does find the Demon Bile she also loots to be much more useful. And she is certainly not going to pass up boosting her Essence Orbs another level with the help of the nearby canister. Let's not hear any ill-fated jokes about Val's Essence Orbs, by the way. She won't take kindly to them.  There is a notably unfriendly little trio of Unstable Firebolts Val discovers next. They do not survive to betray her intrusion. Val exits through the door they were evidently attempting to guard.  Val collects her reward from Learned Hartl for reporting on the lab, and hurries on east. Thankfully, he seems to have not noticed that Val already pillaged his pantry. She has more to do here later, but she needs to get to Northforge Citadel soonest. NEXT: Hastier and More Mental -S- [ Tuesday, April 03, 2007 14:03: Message edited by: Synergy ] -------------------- A4 Items • A4 Singleton • G4 Items • G4 Forging • G4 Infiltrator • NR Items • The Lonely Celt Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 6292
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written Tuesday, April 3 2007 13:51
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VALETA III Chapter Five—Part Three: Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! It's freakin' cold everywhere around here. Valeta enters the Gesselin Freehold, home to many an Ice-Drayk, and warms herself by the fire. She meets the leader of this colony, Ssaroyen, who wants Val to settle the hash of some offending Drayk back in Khima-Uss. "It will be a pleasure," Val assures him. Her favor curried with Shorass (whom she slew) is bafflingly sufficient to grant her free passage to Northforge right now, if she wants it. Or was it her high Leadership? Or both? She accepts the privilege, but will also grant Ssaroyen his favors. First, Val wants to pick up some things she came here for, though. Ssaroyen will do Val some favors, whether he realizes it or not. Even though his prices are high, Val wants that Glaahk Eye quite badly. It will enable her to make a fourth Mental Focus Charm. Val forgets that prices will come down (I think?) after doing the two missions for Ssaroyen, but she is impatient, and will be swimming in more loot than she knows what to do with shortly anyway. She buys the Glaahk Eye, the Torrent Gem, the Living Tools, and the Steel Spine...with some irritation. Why are lizards all so greedy?  In Ssaroyen's room next door, Val has no qualms about waiting for the guards to meander off so she can steal the Quicksilver Sandals lying forlornly there, surrounded by straw. Obviously, these primitive reptiles have no clue how to put something so precious to good use. Val feels a flush of anger at the thought, but consoles herself with an awareness of the simple reality that the ignorance of the Drayks enables her tremendous good fortune.  These sandals offer Val yet another precious +1 Action Point. Trembling slightly, Val dusts off and dons these humble, yet invaluable pieces of frostbite-inducing footwear. Perhaps she won't even lose all of her toes if she dares to wear them in the snow and ice. Combined with her other two Quicksilver items...  ...Val now can summon +15 Action Points when hasted! Miss Lethal just got 50% more lethal. Or rather, she would have been, if she hadn't been encumbered wearing all three at this point. Tragically, we later forget, when finally able to be unencumbered again, that she could have three attacks at her disposal. Yes, even the carefully calculating have highly moronic moments. :mad: At this point Val retreats into her cozy and slightly more protective Shaper Trueweave, also recovering her lost Spellcraft points. Sadly, for most of the rest of the game, Val operates on only two pieces of Quicksilver Gear at once instead of three, meaning she gets 10 AP unhasted, but still only two attacks hasted. +15 AP would have greatly facilitated some confrontations, to say the least. And moreover, there is a fourth piece of AP-enhancing gear yet to come. I am tempted to replay Chapter Five utilizing this properly and see what difference it might have made. Take note, peoples! Do not make dumb mistakes like this. Learn from our example. Do as we say, not as we do. Meanwhile, even more importantly, Val finds the second canister of Create Drakon, when she ventures across the bridge to the south. Only one more canister to go. Val can hardly contain her growing excitement. She is craving some lethal company, even if it is cold and reptilian and in the form of a conceited Drakon.  On the way back from the canister, in some Godforsaken corner of the Gesselin Freehold, Val gets careless and lets an inocuous Pulsating Rat take her out with one bite. Wicked, wicked, and lethal little rodent! Good thing this kitty has ninety nine lives. Val makes a quick jaunt back to Khima-Uss to pay Byoress a little visit on Ssaroyen's behalf. He's a twit, so rather than take his blood money now and kill him later, Val just kills him now for Ssaroyen.  She notes, all too fleetingly as she unleashes her lethal fury, that she finds it extremely difficult at this point to hold back her disdain for those who choose to foolishly flip her some attitude or try to take advantage of her. She feels great disgust for so many around her, and she doesn't remember having always felt this way, but her memories before the Geneforge and the many, many canisters have become foggy and distant. Ah, but the canisters—these now fill the memories which offer the warm solace into which Val escapes. Byoress takes a mere three hits of Kill to kill, bringing Valeta up to level 42. Valeta is adding Intelligence now. She needs more essence for the mighty Drakon creation she envisions in her mind. She hurries off briefly to warmer climes to fashion a fourth Mental Focus Charm upon the enchanted anvil in Valeya Ruin.  Val always feels good when making herself magically more powerful. NEXT: Friendly Walls, Unholy Horrors [ Tuesday, April 03, 2007 14:10: Message edited by: Synergy ] -------------------- A4 Items • A4 Singleton • G4 Items • G4 Forging • G4 Infiltrator • NR Items • The Lonely Celt Posts: 2009 | Registered: Monday, September 12 2005 07:00 |