Well, some stuff definitely happened since yesterday. I met the dragon, but I had to clear his lair from an invasion of wretches first.It took a while to find and kill all of them, but it was in no way hard. That reminds me, I increased the difficulty level from normal to the next one up (can’t remember what it’s called), but the game is still pretty easy. Only boss battles seem to provide a challenge.

I talked to the dragon and found out that the wretches were a bigger issue than I realized. A large group of them, led by an ogre commander has moved in to some caves to the south and they keep raiding his lair. The soldiers Avadon has assigned for protection simply can’t handle it. I decided to help him with his problem and also promised the local guard captain to look for a lost patrol.

Avadon: Portal/Pylon

Portals are usually in secluded areas such as this one.

I went south and met the patrol almost instantly, but they were a man short. One of the soldiers got captured by the wretches and is held in the dungeons now. The front gate to their caves was to well guarded so I had to find a back entrance which led to the lower levels. It’s there that I met the ogre leader, but it didn’t go as expected. The leader tried to avoid conflict, saying he was promised by someone who’s giving him orders that there will be no danger from Avadon. Now that he learned this isn’t true, he wishes to gather the wretches loyal to him and leave. Since my mission was only to deal with the problem, and the details of how to do it were up to me, I decided to let him go. Still, there was plenty of other wretches not under his control, so I still had some killing to do.

Pretty soon, I’ve found the captured scout and took him with me. He could hold his own, so we traveled in a group of four now. After fighting my way through a pit of wolves and killing a sonic bat, I finally found a way up from the lower levels. I killed a few commanders on the way, opened the front gate and killed the guards, and then found the throne room with the ogre in it. I just stumbled into him talking with a shadowy figure, which wasn’t to happy with the ogre’s attempt to flee. Under a threat of death, the ogre was forced to fight me while the mysterious figure fled. I promptly killed him, returned the scout to his unit and went back to see the dragon. He was fine now, so my main mission for Avadon was done and I was ready to return.

I got my next mission now. I have to go to another province, this time one that isn’t part of the Pact and is located in the Farlands and deal with a monster killing the local populace. I rechecked my gear, bought some new stuff and got rid of my junk, and then I stepped through another portal, which took me to a new land. This is where I stopped. One other thing I should mention is that I can take the other two companions with me now, but I decided to stick to the sorceress and warrior.

I played some more last night and will be off to play right now, so here’s just a quick update.

First of all, the alliance of nations is actually called “The Midlands Pact” or just “The Pact” for short. What I forgot to mention yesterday was that you also get companions in the game, four total, of which you can take two with you on missions at a time. On the first mission, I could only take one of two, but I’ve already met the other two in the fortress, though I have yet to recruit them.

Avadon: Area Transitions

Area transitions occur on visible zones.

My second mission took me to the land of Kva, which is one of the nations in the pack. I was to go to the town of Goldcrag, where I had to do a task for Zhethron, one of the dragons that still live in the world. I went there, explored the town and gathered plenty of information. Then I went to explore the general area and solve a few side quests on the way. Everything optional is explored and cleared now, so I will be going to meet the dragon next. Actually, there is one other optional quest I haven’t solved, but based on the description; it’s in an area I’m not supposed to visit yet, so I will deal with that later. My party is about level 4 now. I decided to build my main character as an offensive mage, and leave the healing and support to my companion sorceress, Nathalie. Note that the names might be slightly wrong, since I suck at remembering them.

I started this one recently, but then I reached my decision.Since it was a pirated copy, it had to go and I was sad. Luckily, it was on a discount at Steam yesterday (might still be, haven’t checked) and I bought it for 3.50€. It was a good investment and it will keep me entertained for a long time. How do I know this? Because it’s made by Spiderweb, and their Exile/Avernum and Nethergate games rock. Their Geneforge series is OK to, but not my cup of tea.

Redbeard of Avadon: The Black Fortress

This is Redbeard

Anyway, I didn’t go too far last time, so I decided to restart the game. It’s a completely new world, but somewhat similar in style to Avernum. I took my time to read all the dialogs, and learn some lore about the world. Apparently, Avadon is this big important fortress that watches over all of the kingdoms in an alliance. This alliance of kingdoms is surrounded from all sides by the nations of the Farlands, if I recall correctly. A guy named Redbeard runs this fortress and commands the Eyes, the Hearts and the Hands. The Eyes are guards and watchmen, the Hearts are commanders and advisors to Redbeard and the Hands are his agents, which he sends on various important missions. The player is one of these Hands and he has just started serving.

Also, from what I understood from a conversation, the position of the fortress “controller” gives Redbeard power and anyone who kills him replaces him on this position. Plenty of people have tried, but no one succeeded.

I decided to play with a Sorceress, the default one, though I can’t remember her name right now. I introduced myself to the staff, learned a bit about the lore and got my first mission – enter the dungeons below the fortress and stop a prisoner escape in progress. I also got a choice of one of two companions – a warrior and another sorceress. I’m playing on normal, so I decided to go crazy and run with to spellcasters. It worked out fine – it was quite easy actually, so I’m considering raising the difficulty level.

I’ve cleared the dungeon, disposed of a few prisoners and returned to the ground level. One of the Hearts sent me to meet Redbeard, which I did (and got a medal for it) and then I was assigned to my second mission – go to another town and do some stuff there. Honestly, I can’t remember right now what my second mission is and that was where I stopped playing, so I will give a better description in my next post.

In any case, Avadon is a nice, fun, old school game, which I think I will greatly enjoy.

The Spire Fortress lies on the path to the Abyss. It was under bandit control so I had to clear those out. I’ve found the emissary from the dragon inside and he said that there is another dragon servant somewhere in the Abyss and he is the one that has the message for me. I also killed a bat demon there.

I went to the Abyss, first did a few side quests in Spire and then went to Baghra. The warlord there has a few screws loose and doesn’t let anyone out of town. Even the farmers can only work on their farms and are forced to sleep in town. I’ve found out from townspeople that he is holding the dragon servant captive somewhere outside of town. I managed to find the prison, free him and kill a bunch of guards on my way out.

Everything else in the Abyss seems a bit too difficult so I brought the message back to the cycle to get deciphered. While this is being done, I got three new missions in northern Avernum, around Silvar and Cotra. This is where I will be going next.

I’ve fully explored the Western Reaches and then went to the Eastern Gallery. On the way through Almaria I solved a few side quests and met a trainer that trains Gymnastics, Melee weapons and some other useful stuff. I think I will use his services a lot.

When I got to the portal, I realized I was assigned to serve under my old commander from the Castle Food Depot. I was supposed to handle the flow of refugees through the portal. It didn’t go well. After letting two refuges through, one of the crystal pylons that held the portal together cracked and demons invaded through it. I was forced to escape and watch my commander die.

I went back to report to the caster and got reassigned to my previous commander who sent me on three different missions in the Eastern Gallery and the Great Cave. I was to solve a hostage crisis in Almaria, help with a situation at the Tower Colony and help with an ogre problem in a new fort inside the Western Reaches. After doing all of these, I got myself promoted and was to serve under a higher ranking officer. He sent me to meet with an envoy of a dragon in the Abyss.

Before doing all of this, I decided to explore the Eastern Gallery some more. I did some quests in Mertis, at the Undead Spiral and explore most of the Honeycomb. Then I went back to the Great Cave and did some of the quests I was too weak for before, including one of the quests for Gladwell and the quest with the Blessed Athame. Gladwell sent me to do another quest, but I don’t think I will. He wants me to break one of the seals that keep the Undead Spiral in check.

Right now, I’m in Fort Safron, getting ready to go to the Abyss. Hopefully, it won’t be too hard.

After doing some minor side quests with what little time I had yesterday, I decided to progress the main quest a bit today. I went to Patrick’s tower, where the archmage Soldberg is trying to develop a strain of mushrooms that would be immune to the plague. After exploring the tower as much as I could, I went to the levels bellow, where the new mushroom strains are being bred. I had to kill a strange fungal creature and release the blight in the area to see if the mushrooms are resistant. This failed, so the solution of the problem will have to be found elsewhere. When I reported this to Soldberg, he mysteriously said that “it’s time”. Time for what, I do not know.
After returning to the castle, the commander had a new mission for me. I was to go past the blockades in Almaria and solve a problem with the Great Portal. I decided not to do this yet, as I still have to help Gnass. Before doing that though, I decided to explore the rest of the Great Cave. I managed to stumble into a lair of giant rats near Patrick’s tower. The magic from the tower caused the rats to mutate so I had to kill their hive queen and stop her from hatching more rats. Yes, hatching. I said the magic caused them to mutate.
Anyways, now I’m off to explore a mine that I bought from a guy near Darnham.
EDIT: The mine will have to wait. There is a ghost in there that, when killed, splits into three vengeful shades and another ghost. I managed to kill him 3 times and he split every time. In addition to that, the shades hit like a train.
After escaping the mine of doom, I decided to go save the son of Gnass’ chieftain. It wasn’t that hard because my party was way overleveled for that area anways. Also, I did a few side quests and explored pretty much the entire area of the Great Cave. All that’s left is the area west of Fort Remote. Anything other than that is still too hard for my party, so after checking the place out, I will go to the Eastern Gallery where the next part of the main quest is.

I’m a big fan of the series, but somehow I missed the release of what is supposed to be the last game. If you played any Avernum game, there is not much to say about it in here. There are no towns this time, and I can’t remember if there were in Avernum V.

Everything is one giant map, with a separate huge map of the various caves and lairs that you visit. This time, a savage tribe of Slithzerikai is threatening the Avernites, and some strange blight is destroying all of their food. People are leaving Avernum and fleeing to the surface. My party is just a group of soldiers whose job is to kill rats under the main food storage for all Avernites.

After investigating a storage breach by goblins and killing their leader, I find out that the Slithzerikai are somehow behind it. This sends me The Castle where I get my main mission. My job is to stabilize the situation in The Great Cave and try to find out as much about the Blight and the Slithzerikai as possible while doing this.

Long story short, I solved a few side quests, learned how to use the portals in various towns so I can travel faster, and resolved a food hoarding situation in one of the major towns. My characters got a few levels, and I already managed to acquire some nice gear, but the game is just starting. I just hope I will get the chance to play it some more before the exams start again.