I Slept and I Grilled Meat

Last time in Gothic, I just got the third focus stone, meaning I had two more left to find. Before I did that, I stopped by at the Old Camp, so this is where I started now. Before I went anywhere, I had to sleep to heal and I had about 100 pieces of meat to grill. Once that was done, left out of the back gate and turned towards snapper country.

Took me a few minutes to grill all that meat.

I Met Gorn Again

The first stone was in an area I tried to get in before, but got beaten by snappers. This time, the snappers weren’t an issue, so I was looking forward to get there. I got across a bridge, killed a few snappers and then the same thing happened as with the other two focus stones – I met someone. This time, it was Gorn, from the New camp. It looks like the game is strongly hinting that Gorn, Milton and Lester’s friendship is somehow important, because every time I meet one of them, they say stuff like “my friend Lester” or “my good friend Milton”. It’s getting a bit weird.

Gorn is way more useful than Lester or Milton.

This “random person I met” was looking for some spells and treasures in an old monastery where the focus stone just happens to be. First, he led me to the caves bellow it, where we got a key. Then, he allowed me to lead him to the monastery, where the gate was shut and a puzzle was waiting.

I Turned into a Meatbug to Enter the Monastery

The title said it all. In the caves bellow, other than the key, I also found a few “Transform into Meatbug” scrolls. Using one of them again made it obvious how buggy the game is. I couldn’t figure out how to transform back, so as I got through the wall, tried pulling the wheel of the gate while still transformed and I basically got stuck. I couldn’t move, so I had to reload the game. The second time, I managed to figure out the enter key reverses the transformation.

This is what happens when you try interacting with stuff while transformed. You get stuck.

After killing a few more snappers, I climbed a set of cliffs nearby, while Gorn kept killing snappers and giving me free experience. I love the fact that these three companions seem to be invulnerable while they’re following me. Anyway, I climbed to the top and saw a chest on a platform across a chasm, but the chasm was too wide to jump over. The obvious thing to do was to somehow knock down a pillar nearby which was obviously targetable, but I couldn’t figure out how to knock it down. I tried a fireball, I tried hitting it and “using” it, but nothing worked, so I gave up.

I didn’t figure out how to push that pillar over.

I Killed a Shadowbeast

Instead, I went back down and took a different path. I am now positive I can safely kill a shadowbeast! I found one in a corridor. It wasn’t even that strong and it only gave me 400 experience. I guess they aren’t “the most powerful monsters in the game” as I previously said. I mean, even a fire lizard is worth 500 experience, not to mention a bridge troll.

I thought a shadowbeast would be worth more than 400 experience.

The shadowbeast was guarding the room where the focus was stored. I got it and went back outside, where a juvenile troll was waiting for me. I saved my game and crossed my fingers. Luckily, the troll was slow, so I killed him without getting hurt at all and got 1000 experience for it. Then I explored for a bit longer and triggered another bug.

Trolls are slow, so they’re easy to kill as long as you keep swinging.

Gorn and the player character started talking like they’ve just seen the juvenile troll, even though it was dead already. As soon as that conversation was over, they started another one, acting like they’ve just killed the troll. I’ll say it again, Gothic is a buggy game. It’s worth the annoyance, very much so, but it’s a buggy game.

I Thought Diego Died

On the way to the next focus, I stopped by the old camp to spend some of my skill points at Diego’s, but I could find him so I had Thorus increase my dexterity. I was a bit worried that Diego got killed in the orc dog raid, which would suck since he was probably the only truly decent guy at the camp, but I didn’t have time to find it.

Screw you, Diego, you really scared me!

The game apparently has a sense of irony, because Diego was waiting for me at the site of the final focus and the first thing he said to me was something in the lines of “I thought you died!” For a moment, I went stupid and thought it must be scripted, but then I remembered there’s nothing scripted about me leading a pack of orc dogs into the Old Camp.

I Fought an Adult Troll

Diego helped dispose of a huge gang of goblin warriors. I say he helped me, but in truth, I stood there for the most part, while he was sniping them with his bow. At 150 experience each, that was a lot I got for basically free. As soon as the goblins were gone, a troll appeared and this time, it wasn’t juvenile.

SARCASTIC: That was a tough puzzle to figure out!

Since adult trolls are supposed to be invulnerable, I had to figure out how to kill it, so this was basically another puzzle. The puzzles in Gothic are really obvious, though. Right next to me was a human skeleton with a torn page from a journal, a magic potion and a Shrink Monster scroll next to it. Well, if the scroll wasn’t obvious enough, the journal page made it absolutely clear. I used the “Shrink Monster” scroll on the troll and then killed it with a single hit. Boom! 2000 experience, just like that.

With the final focus in my hands, it was time to go back to Saturas.

Diego fixed a wheel mechanism for me and I was able to get to the platform with the focus, where a bunch of harpies were waiting. I led them to Diego, because fighting them on my own was too much of a headache and I had the final focus stone.

I Wasted Time with Thugs

There was an area nearby I wanted to explore before I went to the New Camp to deliver the stones. It was filled with thugs dressed in New Camp uniforms. At first, I wanted to clear the camp, but then I realized how annoying it will be to fight a camp full of bow users, so I just ignored it and used the Teleport scroll Saturas gave me.

I Got a Ton of Experience

It turns out I was supposed to deliver each focus stone individually. Each of the stones advanced the quest further and was worth 3500 experience, with the last one being worth 4000, so I an extra level here and got quite a long way towards the next one.

Four focus stones, 3500 each and 4000 for the last one – 14500 experience in total.

Saturas also sent me to the local alchemist, who gave me a bunch of potions including some which increase my stats permanently. My first thought here was “why did you max your strength, you’re wasting points now?”, but it turns out potions can increase attributes beyond the maximum, so I have 107 strength now. My next thought here was “why didn’t you wait before you max out your dexterity, you just wasted a potion, you idiot”, so I guess I can’t win against myself. Saturas also sent me to Cronus, who gave me 1000 ore as an extra reward. If 1000 ore is just spare change for them, I guess the ore mound they’re sitting on must be huge.

I Need to Convince the Fire Mages to Join

With that out of the way, I got my next mission. Twelve mages created the barrier, so twelve are needed to destroy it, and the water mages don’t have the numbers. I have to convince the fire mages to help out, which is a problem, since they basically have it made. They trade with the outside world and they are in charge of the group who controls the only thing the outside world is interested – ore operations. I’m guessing I’ll have a few quests I’ll need to do once I get to the Old Camp. I’ll save that for another day, though. For today, this was enough.

Last time in Gothic, I was just about to leave the Old Camp with the first focus and the Almanac ready to be delivered to the New Camp. Today, I didn’t waste much time, making my way straight there.

I Got Distracted by Respawning Monsters

Of course, it wasn’t exactly a direct route. As I said previously, monsters respawn in Gothic, so I was basically charging from scavenger to molerat, to a lizard, to a blood fly, to a black goblin, etc., along the way. Black goblin, you ask? Yup! With my new armor and my awesome Sword of Death, black goblins now die in a single hit, without even being able to touch me. I actually cleared a small cave with about a dozen of them along the way to the New Camp, but Fraps failed to load so I won’t be showing you many screenshots today.

I Spoke to Cronus and Saturas

I got to the new camp and a guy who was a friend of Lester from the Brotherhood, told me to talk to Cronos, the water mage walking on top of the shaft with the ore pile. I’m supposed to convince him to let me see Saturas, the water mage leader. I actually thought I’ll be forced to do fetch quests before I’m allowed to see the boss, but it turned out I just had to tell Cronus everything and that would be enough for him to give me the password I needed to enter the inner water mage area.

All this ruin had was one or warrior. I hoped for more.

This was basically a whole extra district of the New Camp with a merchant, some trainers and various other NPCs. The most important one, of course, was Saturas, the water mage leader. I told him what I have and described what happened at the Sect Camp. He told me what he needs to detonate the ore and hopefully, destroy the barrier.

Now, I head this plan at the start of the game and it seemed illogical to me. An explosion that’s able to destroy the barrier is bound to do damage to everything else as well, right? It turns out, the game actually considers this. Saturas tells me that the explosion would be of magical nature, so it would only destroy magical stuff. I still think there’s bound to be some unwanted consequences, but at least it sounds less dangerous than it did at the start. Basically, the ore would be destroyed, the magical items would be destroyed and the barrier would be destroyed.

I Need to Get the Focus Stones

There are five focus stones in total and unlike Y’Berion, Saturas needs all of them. He gave me a map, a scroll to teleport back to the New Camp and told me to go to their alchemist for more help. The alchemist gave me 20 potions and sent me on my way.

I thought jumping in the lake would be worth it, but it wasn’t, at all.

The map was basically the entire prison colony, with a pentagram drawn on top of it. The five corners of the pentagram are the locations of the focus stones. I already had one, so I could safely eliminate that one. It was time to get the other four.

I Teamed up With Milton to Get the Second Focus

The first focus was in that crypt with the undead I died in already earlier in the game. By following the map, I approached the crypt from the other side and stumbled into Milton, the fire mage from the Old Camp. He was also interested in the crypt, but for a different reason. Apparently, there’s an orc repelling talisman in there. We agreed to help each other and he did his part immediately, by giving me a scroll that was supposed to kill the zombie in there. Regular weapons can’t hurt it, so that’s why the scroll was needed.

There’s no story behind this one. It just looked nice.

I got inside the crypt, with Milton following and about 10 seconds later, I was running for my life. The skeletons are easy enough to kill one at a time, but like the goblins, they do love surrounding you, so pretty soon I was swarmed and I was dying. I’m not proud to say this, but I ran off and left Milton in there. Once I was able to recover for a bit, I charged back in and managed to kill a few before running back out. After a couple of these “brave” scenes, all the skeletons were finally dead and Milton was somehow still alive. I readied the spell from the scroll and targeted the zombie. He died in agony.

I got the focus and gave Milton the talisman. I made my way towards the next focus.

I Pillaged an Orc Temple (or Something)

I made a wrong turn while on the way to the next focus, stumbling into a valley with a small pond, several orc statues and two orc warriors guarding the entrance to a temple of sorts. The temple was just one big room, but it had several potions arranged around an altar, as well as three chests I was able to loot. There was ore and arrows inside, as well as several lock picks per chest, so overall, even with the lock picks I broke, I came out ahead.

I corrected my heading by checking the map and started making my way to the next focus again.

I Fought Bloodhounds and Found a Hammer

The second focus was close to the Sect Camp, up the mountain with the huge waterfall. I remembered the place because a few quests ago, when I was still a shadow, I fought and defeated a bloodhound there and shortly after got killed by another one.

This was just a random tower I stumbled into while avoiding tough monsters.

I knew what to expect and I wasn’t wrong. The place was full of bloodhounds, with a few orcs here and there. It was a mountainous region, filled with ruins. I actually found a small room behind a door in one of the ruins. There was a chest inside, with the usual loot (potions, ore) and one unusual item – an orc hammer. This thing did 2 more damage than my Sword of Death, so I decided to try it out.

I was right to do it. A short distance past the room, there was a bridge with a golem on it. I can’t be sure because I haven’t tried it any other way, but I choose to believe the hammer did extra damage to the golem, because I killed it in a few hits and got 500 experience for it.

I Teamed up With Lester to Get the Third Focus

Right after the bridge, Lester of the Brotherhood was waiting for me. He didn’t really explain how he dodged the golem other than “the Brotherhood has it’s ways” or something like that, but he did mention he was there to find some documents that might be useful in the future, provided I destroy the barrier. The documents are supposed to be in the same place the focus is, so we decided to team up.

This time, I had to explore a ruin filled with harpies. I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but Gothic is a buggy game. It crashes a lot and everything feels clunky. This should say something about how good the game actually is, though, since I’m playing it in spite of those flaws.

The look of the bridge tells me I’m not supposed to be here.

In any case, the bugs reared their ugly head here. Harpies are flying enemies and the game doesn’t handle flying well.  They kept flying over me, not being able to reach me, but also stopping me from hitting them because I couldn’t target them from directly below. I ended up spending a lot of time receiving unnecessary hits, running away from the harpies, letting Lester handle them and trying to squeeze in a bow shot or two every now and then. This made me burn through most of my grilled meat supply so I’ll have to find a frying pan as soon as I get to one of the camps.

Somehow, though, I did it. I cleared the ruin, found the documents Lester needed and all I needed to do was to get the focus. The problem was, it was out of my reach, on a platform I couldn’t get to. It was obvious what the game wanted me to do. Lester gave me a Telekinesis scroll and I could easily get to a ledge overlooking the platform with the focus on it. However, I didn’t have enough magic points to actually cast the spell.

For a moment, I actually thought about going back to a camp and investing some points into magic, but then I had a moment of inspiration. I tried to jump from the ledge to the platform, hoping to survive it and I just barely did it. Apparently, there was no need for telekinesis.

At this point, I realized Fraps wasn’t running, so I didn’t take any screenshots in this session. Because of that, you have these generic vistas with nothing on them. From this point on, though, I started taking them again.

I Ended Up in a Place Way above My Level

I had the third focus, but I wanted to explore some more, so I decided to make my way towards a tower in the distance. This was a huge mistake, but it ended up creating a fun situation, so I don’t regret it.

This is the tower I decided to try and get to.

First, I went over a mountain and ran into a Stone Golem. I managed to beat it, but it had way more health than the Bridge Golem I already destroyed. It also gave me 1000 experience, so the increase in difficulty was justified. This is where it ended, though. A few meters away from the stone golem, there was an ice golem. This guy, I couldn’t even touch. It froze me with the first hit and killed me with the second.

Stone golem, meet orc hammer.

I loaded my game and killed the stone golem again, before turning around and heading in a different direction. I wasn’t out of danger yet. This was definitely orc country because the whole region was filled with orc warriors and fighters, biters and a new type of enemies called raptors. The raptors are colorized like biters, but have a different shape and are way stronger, so mistaking them for biters at first was the death of me in the beginning.

Ice golem, meet soon-to-be dead guy.

Eventually, I managed to squeeze between the huge groups of enemies and made my way in the direction of the Old Camp. After a while, I saw something I recognized. It was the gate towards “orc country” near the Old Camp, guarded by two Old Camp guards. I ran for it, and this is when the fun part happened.

I Made a Commotion in the Old Camp

I managed to aggro a pack of orc hounds. It was a huge pack with about 15 hounds in it. I could probably kill a few of them, but there was no way I could kill the entire pack. I ran for the gate and the guards charged in, but the pack just ignored them, staying on top of me. I ended up running towards the camp and I almost reached the main gate before the pack finally gave up the chase.

That’s a lot of puppies.

At this point, I thought “why not”, so I pulled out my bow and took a shot at one of the hounds. The entire pack aggroed again and continued the chase. I lured them all the way into the inner ring of the camp, so in a few seconds, anyone who’s anyone in the camp ended up fighting orc hounds. I probably wasted some experience by doing this, but what happened was absolutely worth it.

I wish I was able to capture the chaos better. It was awesome.

I Maxed Out My Strength

I looted and skinned the bodies and then decided to spend the 20 skill points I had. I tried to invest everything into Strength, but it turns out, 100 points is the maximum you can invest into an attribute. I love being able to max out stuff in RPGs, so this is a plus for me, but it did make me worry a bit. That Ice Golem wasn’t at all hurt by my attacks, so I’m wondering if I’ll at least get some stronger weapons later on, since I won’t be increasing my damage with pure strength any more.

One attribute is now maxed. Next up, dexterity? I’m not sure.

In any case, I got three of the five focus stones now, so I need two more. For now, I saved my game and decided to take a break. Tomorrow, I’ll get the last two stones.

Yesterday in Gothic, I was told that the almanac with instructions on how to use the focus stone was lost to a gang of black goblins. Today, I asked Talos to guide me to the place where he got mugged, even though I already knew where it was.

I Recovered the Almanac from the Black Golbins

He led me to the bridge where I already cleared a small group of goblins. That was a while ago, though, so one of them respawned in the meantime. I killed it and then went inside the cave, where I was killed in seconds last time. This time, it was still quite risky, but I managed to survive long enough to heal between waves of goblins. It’s a small cave, but I must have killed at least twenty of them before I finally got some alone time. I got the almanac, as well as some random treasure and got out, taking Talos back to the Sect Camp.

It’s great that you can read the almanac, but the good stuff is left to the imagination, I guess.

I Witnessed the Attempt to Awaken the Sleeper.

Cor Kalom gave me another reward and told me to go to the courtyard in the evening, where the awakening of the Sleeper will take place. I crashed a random person’s shack and rested until midnight (gotta love sneaking), before going to the temple courtyard.

His quests are worth a lot of experience, but Cor Kalom is getting annoying.

Once there, a video started playing. Y’Berion started the ritual, there was a bunch of lights and everyone had the same vision – an Orc in a cave somewhere. Then, Y’Berion fell unconscious.  Cor Kalom was seriously annoyed by this, but he still gave me my reward. I asked for ore this time and I got 300 of it. Cor Angar, on the other hand, gave me my next mission.

Cor Angar is down to earth, reasonable and far less condescending than Cor Kalom.

He recognized the cave from the vision and from his description, I recognized it to. It’s the cave I stumbled into when I first explored the area around the Sect Camp. It’s on the hill above the large waterfall, with a giant skull as the entrance. I had Talos lead me there, even though I didn’t have to and immediately fought some orc hunters at the entrance.

I Entered the Orc Cemetery

There was a lot of orcs in the cave, which turned out to be a cemetery. There was also a lot of dead templars as well as mummified orcs (again, cemetery). I looted the templars, killed the orcs and pillaged the mummified bodies for items, mostly scrolls, potions and jewelry. Killing the orcs wasn’t the toughest part, but it was still pretty tough. Taking on more than one at a time usually proved fatal, so I used the slow, but effective tactic of luring them one at a time and killing them in the previous room.

Eventually, I got to the point where I met a Baal who survived. Of course, I forgot his name again. He decided to follow me and help me figure out what I needed to do here, but he wasn’t much help. This brings me to the toughest part – figuring out what to do.

I Solved the Puzzle of the Orc Spell Scroll

First, I found half of a scroll in one of the side caves. I gave it to the Ball and he told me it was an orc spell scroll and that I needed to find the other half. Then, I spent about twenty minutes in the room with a large amount of mummies, hoping the scroll would be there. It wasn’t, but I got a lot of valuable items, including some straight up upgrades for my rings and amulet.

Spoiler Alert! This guy goes crazy and tries to kill you.

However, figuring out there are hidden switches around the grave alcoves made me look for those switches in other places to, so I found one in the bottom room of the cemetery. This opened a steel gate and let me in a small room with more random treasure and the other half of the scroll. Combining the two gave me the spell scroll, but it still needed to be translated. The Ball did that part himself, as soon as I got him into the correct room, which was the one I met him in. It was a Teleport spell.

I then moved on and got into the large room where there used to be an orc warrior and a group of scouts or hunters. I used the scroll there, next to what was obviously a hidden door and the spell teleported me to the other side of it. From in there, I could open the door and let the Baal in.

A few rooms after that, I found a skeleton with an awesome sword next to it – The Sword of Death. That was about all I found, though. I equipped the sword and it turns out it was just in time. Not finding anything made the Baal go crazy and attack me. I took him down, but as usual, I didn’t kill him.

I Went Back to the Sect Camp

I returned to the Brotherhood and described what happened to Cor Angar. He was actually extremely understanding so I decided I like him. He said Cor Kalom went rogue and decided to awaken the Sleeper himself, but also asked me to get some healing herbs for Y’Berion. I already had them on me, so I just gave them to him. Unfortunately, it didn’t help and Y’Berion died. He did manage to say one thing before he was gone, though. The Sleeper was not who we think he is and we should not wake him up.

Jumping into the lake seems shorter, but it’s a long swim. Walking around might actually be faster.

This makes Cor Kalom a problem, but it also gives me a new mission. Cor Angar sent me to the New Camp, to try the water mages escape plan. He also instructed me to take the focus and the almanac from Cor Kalom’s laboratory and deliver them to the mages, so I went to the lab and took both of those.

I Got an Armor Upgrade

Before I went to the New Camp, I decided to go to the Old Camp to report to Raven and spend the 20 skill points I had. I used those to increase my Strength by 15 and my Dexterity by 5 and then reported to Raven. This completed one of the quests and allowed me to buy a stronger guard armor, though I still wasn’t able to get the strongest one. In any case, I can now handle fire, weapons and arrows much better.

More quests done means better gear for me.

I Fought at the Arena

With my new gear, I decided to finally take down the strongest arena fighter – the one from the New Camp. He didn’t want to officially fight me, so I just took him down on the spot. He fell in two or three hits and this was worth 200 experience to Scatty. Underwhelming overall, but at least it was out of the way now. Tomorrow, I’ll be going to the New Camp.

I Spoke to Cor Kalom and Got an “Awesome” Reward

Yesterday in Gothic, I have just delivered the first focus to Y’Berion and he asked me to give it to Cor Kalom. Today, I did just that. Cor Kalom happily accepted the focus, giving me a random, measly reward for it, but he said he needs something else to start summoning the Sleeper. I personally didn’t even realize that’s what the focus was for, but it doesn’t really matter. In any case, what he needed was minecrawler secretion, but his only source, minecrawler mandibles, isn’t pure enough. I needed to get to the Old Mine again and figure out if there’s a pure source of the secretion.

Pure secretion then? There’s only one place I know that has any secretion.

Do Monsters Respawn in Gothic?

I made my way there, killing monsters along the way. Since I’ve already thoroughly cleansed the area of monsters, I can now confidently say that monsters do respawn in Gothic. I don’t think all of them do and it takes quite a while for this to happen, but they do respawn. I’m also not sure if it happens after a real time period has passed or after a certain amount of in-game time or in-game days have passed. In any case, if someone wants to, they can grind levels and money in Gothic. It might even be a good idea to kill everything as early as possible, to get more respawns later on. This is something I haven’t been doing, instead waiting to get the gathering skills first, so I could get more money out of my kills.

I Went to Search for the Minecrawler Nest at the Old Mine

I got to the Old Mine and spoke to some of the templars stationed there, as instructed by Cor Kalom. They told me there must be a minecrawler nest somewhere in the mine, so I naturally concluded that’s where I can find a pure sample of the secretion.

I explored the entirety of the mine, searching through abandoned shafts and hidden areas, killing the minecrawlers in there. Now that I had the Shadow Armor, the minecrawlers did very little damage to me. Considering they are worth 130 experience each, it was very rewarding to kill them, so I got two or possibly even three levels in total while in the mine.

In one of the shafts, I also found a weapon upgrade – The Stone Breaker, a one-handed mace. I’m not sure how the game mechanics work. It’s possible that a mice swings a bit slower or even that it has a shorter range than a sword, but I was definitely doing more damage with it, so I decided to keep it. In some of the other areas, I’ve found a ring or two, but nothing of importance.

In one larger area, there was a piece of machinery I couldn’t figure out what to do with. Targeting and using it started an animation of turning a lever, but then it would just stop. I spent a few minutes trying to figure it out, but then I just gave up and went further down the main shaft.

At the bottom, I finally found a closed gate with the same piece of machinery and a guard in front of it. He told me the gate was closed because minecrawlers kept getting through it, no matter how many they kill. I immediately asked him to open it, but he sent me to Ian to get permission. Ian then asked me to get a replacement gear for the machinery in front of the gate, because it broke recently. I gave him one immediately. Apparently, I picked it up at the machine in the abandoned part of the mine without even noticing.

I’m glad I had that Light scroll on me.

I went back down to the guarded gate, telling the guard Ian allowed me to open the gate now. He had one more condition – I needed to get the three templars as backup before opening the gate. Two of them agreed helping without issues and one of them wanted a healing potion before joining in, which I happily gave to him.

I Fought and Killed the Minecrawler Queen

We opened the gate and minecrawlers started pouring in from the darkness. The three templars cleared most of them and I went in, but only after casting a light spell, since the place was almost completely dark. I fought minecrawlers throughout the tunnels and at the end of it, finally found a nest with the queen inside.

The queen was easy to kill. It didn’t more or touch me.

The minecrawler queen had a lot of health but it was easy to kill. It couldn’t move and it wouldn’t hit me, even if I attacked it from close range. I just swung my Stone Breaker for a while until it was dead. I got 2500 experience for it, my quest updated and after that, I picked up a few of the eggs around the queen’s body. The eggs are what Cor Kalom needed as a source of pure secretion.

I Became a Guard

I went back out of the mine and reported in to anyone who seemed in charge along the way. Ian gave me a crate of beef as a reward and Drake, the guard at the entrance, told me Thorus hear about what I did and was asking for me.

This is my new favorite person in the Old Camp. He has the stuff!

Since the Old Camp was along the way to the Sect Camp, I stopped by and Thorus promoted me to the Guard. He sent me to stone, the blacksmith, to get my weapon and uniform. I got the first level guard armor, which was only slightly stronger than the Shadow Armor I was carrying, but it was an improvement and it was free, so I was happy about it. I also got a Guard’s Sword, but it was weaker than the Stone Breaker, so I didn’t equip it. Stone was also selling the next two levels of the guard armor, but I didn’t deserve it yet, so he wouldn’t sell to me.

I Went Back to the Sect Camp

I went back to the Brotherhood Camp and gave the eggs to Cor Kalom. I was able to choose my reward. I decided to go for the weapon, so I got another Stone Breaker. That was disappointing, but I decided to stick with my choice. I have plenty of potions and I don’t think I could have used the magical rune, which was the third choice.

I asked Cor Kalom if he could summon the Sleeper now, but apparently, one more thing is missing. He couldn’t figure out how to use the focus, so he needed an almanac with the instructions. I already had it, or to be more precise, one of his apprentices had it and was supposed to deliver it, but he got mugged by a gang of black goblins.

No relation to the Elder Scrolls or ancient Egypt. Talos is just a novice that got mugged.

He told me where Talos, the apprentice was and he asked me to help him. Based on the description, I knew exactly which gang of black goblins it was, because I already killed a few of them, but I had to speak to Talos before I did anything about it. I went and spoke to him and he agreed to guide me to their lair. He’ll do that tomorrow.

I bought the (Heavy) Shadow Armor

I started out at the Old Camp when I loaded up Gothic today, so I decided to just go ahead and give 1200 ore to Diego for an armor upgrade. Thus, the Shadow Armor replaced my Shadow Dress and further increased my protection. For some reason, the game calls it “Heavy Shadow Armor” in the dialog menu, but not in the inventory. I was also sitting on ten unspent skill points, but I decided to save those for the next level and then spend 20 skill points for the second level sword fighting skill.

The shadow armor was a definite upgrade and I have nothing to spend the money on anyway.

I Tried Out My New Gear

My primary mission was to go to the Sect Camp and figure out what they’re up to, but before I did that, I decided to try my luck and test my new equipment on some stronger monsters. As it turns out, this was well worth it.

I can now kill wolves and lizards with ease and in two hits. Blood flies and anything below that falls in a single hit. I also tried killing a lurker and I can quite easily do it, though there might be some danger if I tackle more than one at a time. The strategy here is similar to the one I had with the lizards before I got the armor upgrade. I need to hit the lurker once, then block one of his attacks and immediately hit it again.

I tried snappers to, but they still do quite a bit of damage. Even though I knew better, I also saved my game and tried attacking a shadow beast. As expected, I still can’t even scratch it. Its health bar literally does not move when I hit it.

I Did Some Questing in the New Camp

I decided to go to the New Camp and take care of that lurker that’s been doing damage to the dam. It turns out that one was slightly stronger than the regular lurkers, but since it was alone, I had no trouble killing it. On the way there, I also tried my luck with a gang of black goblins. I can kill them quickly, but their AI causes them to surround me, so it’s tough fighting them in big packs.

Lefty was a thug who forced me to deliver water to the peasants. Now I’m stronger than Lefty.

While I was at the new camp, I took care of a guy I was told took a hut for himself without asking anyone. The mercenaries didn’t like that so the reward for taking care of him was that I was allowed to use the shack for myself. I also cleared that drug den below the camp, but I didn’t find anything worthwhile in there.

I Got Killed by the Undead

On the way back, I took a turn into an area I didn’t explore yet. The first thing I saw there was a monster that looked like a chained snapper, called a biter. I killed it and got 120 XP for it, but I can’t help thinking it was part of some quest. It definitely looked unique.

I may have killed someone’s pet.

A short distance to the biter, there was also a shrine with a crypt below it. I charged into it and about ten seconds later, I was reloading my game. The crypt had several skeletons and a zombie in it, so I was taken care of like a newbie.

Don’t mind me. I entered the wrong house.

Doing all of that got me an extra level so, with twenty skill points, I went back to the Old Camp to learn the second level one handed weapon skill. I can now swing my sword even faster and can even do a circular attack, though I didn’t quite figure out how to do it yet.

I Spoke to Y’Berion

I made my way to the Brotherhood, killing monsters I missed during my previous visits. Once there, I was told by Lester that Y’Berion wants to see me, which meant I was finally allowed into the temple.  I immediately went to him and got next mission. I also got to Chapter 2! Yup, I was thinking I’m getting close to the end and it turns out I’ve only completed the first chapter of the game. I guess Gothic is longer than I thought, which makes sense, considering there’s plenty of enemies I have no chance against yet.

What they do with women within the barrier is “uncomfortable” but it’s realistic.

My mission was to acquire one of the five focus stones. The focus stones are artifacts used to create the barrier and Y’Berion knows where one of them is. He sent a novice to get it, but the novice didn’t report back yet, so now he’s sending me. By the way, Y’Berion’s accent is not what I expected.

I Went and Got the First Focus

In any case, he gave me a map that I needed to follow to get to the focus stone, so that’s exactly what I did, killing more monsters along the way, mostly wolves, scavengers and blood flies. The missing novice was right where the focus was supposed to be. It turns out, the novice went a bit cuckoo, claiming the Sleeper spoke to him and told him to keep the focus to himself. He attacked me, so I defended myself and took him down. I looted him and took the focus, but I didn’t kill him, so he was able to run away.

Nyras has gone bananas, so I had to take him down, temporarily at least.

Side Note: Fighting NPCs in Gothic

The above might need some explanation. You see, when you fight NPCs in Gothic, defeating them only knocks them unconscious. You then get a short chance to loot their body and take their weapons, but after that, they get back up. That is, they get back up, unless you decide to attack one more time while they’re down. In that case, you actually do a killing blow and that’s it for the NPC.

I took the focus and brought it back to Y’Berion, which got my more experience and another level. I also got an Amulet of Fire Protection as a reward and was told to take the focus to Cor Kalom, the alchemist. That’s what I’ll be doing next time.

I Discovered New Things

One more thing, though. I encountered three new monsters for the first time. There was some sort of beast at the mountains close to the Brotherhood camp I can’t remember the name off. It’s killable, but it does a lot of damage, so I didn’t bother. There’s also a pack of orc hounds in the woods between the Sect Camp and the location of the first focus. Those are probably easier to kill, but since it’s a pack, they aren’t worth the trouble for now.

I’m very interested in that ship, but the fire lizards are too strong.

There’s also a beach close to the focus, with a shipwreck and some fire lizards. They do far too much damage to be worth the trouble right now, and I’m not even sure how to block them. Maybe my new Amulet of Fire Protection will help, but I didn’t get a chance to try it yet.

Today, after a few days of not playing Gothic, I loaded up the game and felt a bit lost for a few moments. A quick look at the title of my latest posting refreshed my memory, though.

The Old Mine

I decided it was time to go to the mine, but I had no idea where that was. That didn’t matter, though, because after about 15 minutes of hunting random monsters, I basically stumbled into the mine. So where is the Old Mine? Probably the easiest way to get to it is to go to where Drax and the other hunter are standing on the way from the beginning of the game and then follow the hill next to the forest until the mine entrance is visible. It really was as simple as that.

The mine is at the base of the hill next to the forest between the Old and the New Camp.

In any case, I got into the mine and started exploring it. It sort of acts like a smaller quest hub, with several NPCs and a few short quests. The quests mostly consisted of tricking guards into leaving areas unguarded so either me or some other digger would be able to steal. This meant I had to bribe people, like and sneak around a bit, but overall it was worth about 300 ore, so I would gladly do it again.

They have an orc slave working the foundry at the bottom of the mine.

I finally got to the bottom and found Ian, who was in charge of the mine. He gave me the list Diego wanted and my “Trial of Faith” was basically over. Before I went back to the Old Camp, though, I decided to take a pit stop at the new camp, to see if there are any monster books to be bought. I bought a book about Blood Flies in the Sect Camp and this added a new, valuable item to the Blood Fly loot list, so I thought it might be a good idea to get more books as early as I can. I didn’t find any, though, so the pit stop was for nothing.

The Shadow

Back at the Old Camp, I spoke to Diego, got a level and was sent to Thorus, who then allowed me to enter the inner ring of the camp. In there, I spoke to a guy named Raven, who led me to Gomez, the leader of the Old Camp.

Gomez is an asshole, but he’s got a cool throne room.

Gomez is an asshole, basically. I actually had a hard time figuring out what to say to him that wouldn’t cause him to rage and kill me. Once I did figure it out (don’t lie, don’t be sassy), I was finally accepted as a Shadow of the Old Camp. I spoke to Raven (or is it Revan?) and he gave me my first official mission – I need to get to the Sect Camp and figure out what the Brotherhood is up to.

I got a nice sword…

Before I did that, I went and spoke to the Fire Mages, to give them the letter I was supposed to deliver. It turns out, the letter was addressed to a mage that went rogue and built a tower in the Orc Lands, so there’s nothing I can do about that. The current leader of the Fire Mages was still pleased, however, so he gave me a Ring of Strength (+5 Str).

…and an even nicer uniform. Ignore the lady.

I also stopped by the local blacksmith and bought an awesome new sword. It’s a Battle Sword and it does 33 base damage, while only requiring 13 strength. Considering I also got a Shadow’s armor with my new title, I will now be kicking major ass!

I can’t wait for tomorrow.

All that monster slaying in my yesterday’s Gothic session got me a level and a half of experience, but I was still a level or so away from getting strong enough to become a full-fledged member of the Old Camp. I figured, other camps are waiting for me to impress them, so why not do it and get the rewards? I don’t have to become a member after I’m done.

Impressing the Brotherhood of the Sect Camp

I went to the Sect Camp first, mostly because I barely explored it the last time I was there. I found it confusing and I was in a hurry, so I skipped it.

I stumbled into this giant skull randomly. There’s a gate in the mouth, but I can’t open it.

This time, I thoroughly explored the entire camp and found out what I needed to do to impress them. The alchemist I need to steal the recipe for Dexter from is also the camp’s boss, pretty much. He wants me to impress at least four Baal’s to be considered for acceptance. The Baal’s are the guru’s I’ve mentioned before and most of them won’t even talk to me right now.

I’m not allowed to enter the sect’s temple yet.

Instead, I spoke with some of the novices and other low ranking members of the sect, until I finally got a quest. One of the novices was supposed to be replaced on the job by another guy, but instead of showing up, he was getting high and sleeping at home. I hit him a couple of times with my sword and this made him show up for work. A guru noticed me doing this, so he spoke to me and gave me a proper mission. I was supposed to get the next shipment of weed from the swamp and deliver it to the alchemist.

Weed Farming

Of course, he wouldn’t tell me where the weed farms are, so I had to scour through the swamp on my own. I found the first farm nearby, which got me 50 of the 100 stalks I needed to deliver. The leader of this small camp said the other farm was on the other side of the swamp, so I naturally misunderstood him completely.

There’s a Baal at the first weed farm, but I’m not sure he’s a real Baal. He definitely smoked too much weed, though.

I thought he meant “the other side of the camp”, so I made a circle around the entire camp, before getting back to the farm and feeling silly. On my second go, I tried going deeper into the swamp, dodging swamp sharks, killing blood flies and avoiding the edge of the barrier, which was dangerously close. I finally found the other farm at the very edge. Before I got there, I saw some random guy get chased and killed by swamp sharks. I can’t deal with these monsters yet, so I wasn’t able to help him, or loot his corpse, for that matter.

They wouldn’t give me their shipment, though. First, they wanted me to kill all the blood flies nearby. While doing this, I managed to nearly get myself killed by jumping into the barrier. I got hit twice, but I managed to stay at near zero health and survive. I got the shipment and delivered it to the alchemist (I really need to start writing down names). While I was there, I also took the opportunity to pick open his chest and steal the recipe for Dexter. He was so distracted with his work, I didn’t even have to steal.

The swamp sharks are to strong for me. This scene did not end well.

I went back to the guru who gave me the quest and he told me I have his vote. He also gave me a sleep spell, which I immediately used to impress another guru, as I was told to do by someone in the camp. All I had to do was to put one of his students to sleep. Being able to use magic was impressive enough for that one.

Recruiting Dusty into the Brotherhood

I had one more guru I knew how to impress, but for that, I needed to go back to the Old Camp. There was a guy named Dusty there, who asked me to check out the Sect Camp and tell him about it, because he was considering defecting there. A guru wanted me to find him more recruits, so this guy was perfect.

This book taught me how to extract stingers from dead blood flies. Of course, I got it after the swamp.

I got back to the Old Camp, spoke to Dusty and also gave the recipe to Dexter. Dusty asked me to escort him to the Sect Camp, but he also needed 100 ore to bribe the guards because they wouldn’t let him leave. I figured 100 ore was worth whatever experience I get from the two quests, so I agreed.

This is me right now. You don’t level a lot in Gothic, but every level matters.

Since I already cleared the route to the Brotherhood, there was no danger for Dusty, so this was an extremely basic escort quest. I finally got him to the Sect Camp (he moves a bit slower than me, so I had to wait) and this got me a total of 750 experience, 250 from Dusty and 500 from the Guru.

Impressing the Old Camp

Three out of the four gurus were impressed now, so I decided it was time to go back to the Old Camp. I got a level, so as soon as I got back, I increased my strength to 41 at Diego’s. I was now confident I can beat at least Kirgo at the arena, so that’s exactly what I did. I got 250 experience for this and according to Diego, I impressed everyone I could at the Old Camp. All that was needed now was Diego’s test of faith. I needed to go to the Old Mine, but I have no idea where it is.

In any case, I won’t be doing that yet. I think I’ll go impress the guys at the New Camp first. I want more experience!

So far in Gothic, I’ve been to the Sect Camp and I’ve been to the New Camp. Neither impressed me. The Sect Camp are a bunch of always high, overly religious types and the New Camp guys are mostly just thugs. I mean, sure, the Old Camp guys are also mostly thugs, but at least they’re thugs with a cool armor. This is why I decided to join them. I wasn’t anywhere near that point, though.

Impressing the Old Camp

I still needed to impress Fingers, Dexter and the arena master whoose name I forgot. Fingers wanted me to learn a thieving skill (I opted for sneaking), so I needed to invest a whole level of skill points into that. Dexter wanted me to obtain a potion recipe from the Sect Camp and the quest log was strongly hinting at me stealing it, so I probably needed sneaking for that as well.

The arena master wanted me to win an arena battle. I tried challenging the New Camp fighter, but I failed miserably. He basically took me down with one swing of his weapon. Then I tried challenging the weakest fighter there, the one from the Old Camp, but he also beat me without any issues. Obviously, I needed one more level’s worth of skill points invested into strength to. This meant I needed two more levels in total, and I was sort of out of the easy quests to solve.

This guy took me down in one swing.

Monster Slaying

I decided to roam through the area between the three camps, killing anything I’m able for a while. My session was mostly spent this way. First, I went towards the new camp, because I remember there being plenty of mole rats and scavengers in the region. At this point, I could kill those with no danger for me. I could also tackle wolves quite easily and even kill lizards, as long as I’m very, very careful.

How to Fight Lizards?

Actually, the lizards gave me a lot of trouble, until I figured out the way to fight them. They love to retreat from being hit, which blocks my damage. The trick is to block their first attack and then quickly swing before they’re able to get away. You can’t block forever, though, because then they just break through the block. Blood flies can be killed in a similar fashion, though I don’t need a lot of strategy with those any more – they’ve become easy enough as it is.

Quite a lot of things died today.

Just as an estimate of how many monsters I killed, when I came back to the Old Camp, I had over a 100 pieces of meat, a bunch of wings and plenty of skins.

Of course, I also stumbled into brand new monsters I had no chance against. Lurkers are extremely rare and I can actually do damage to those, but they kill me in two hits and I barely scratch them, so there’s no point in trying those. I also ran into a couple of snappers (they look like dinosaurs). These guys have a huge aggro range, so it was very annoying trying to get to the weaker monsters around them. They also kill me in a single hit, so I’m not even close to being able to beat them.

This about sums up my encounter with a snapper…

Lastly, I stumbled into one monster I won’t be able to beat in any foreseeable amount of time – the Shadowbeast. These guys are, from what I understand, some of the toughest enemies in the game. There’s one of them in the woods between the Old Camp and the Brotherhood. I tried attacking it just to see if I can scratch it, but I didn’t even get a chance to hit it. Luckily, their aggro range is much smaller compared to the snapper’s, so I managed to clear most of the scavengers, wolves and blood flies around them.

…and a Shadowbeast

All of this took me well over an hour and gained me about a level and a half. I got back to the Old Camp and spoke to Fingers, hoping he’d teach me how to sneak. Apparently, the master thief of the Old Camp can’t do that. Instead, he sent me to Calvalorn, a hunter in a hut on the way to the New Camp, just down the first hill.

See that chest behind Cavalorn? He will teach me how to steal from it.

Cavalorn taught me how to sneak for a cost of 10 skill points. I immediately repaid the favor by sneaking through the back of his shack, looting his chest, taking the key to his storeroom and then looting the store room. This got me a bow, a nice amount of arrows and a bunch of ore and other stuff. Now that I can sneak, I’ll get real rich, real soon.

There’s time for that later, though. For now, I needed to take a break, so that was it for today.

Last time in Gothic, I learned a lot of new skills, got a hunting teacher, practiced sword fighting and then finally visited the Sect camp at the Swamp or, how they call themselves, the Brotherhood.

Thorus and Diego

Now I was back in the Old Camp and I finally had a conversation with, I guess, the highest ranking guard in the outer ring – Thorus. He made the requirements for joining the new camp official. I need to impress several people buy doing favors, getting strong, learning skills, etc. I already impressed a few, but I still have more than enough to do.

Thorus can also be bribed to let me into the inner ring, but it’s not worth the 1000 ore and the missed experience.

Thorus sent me back to Diego, who asked me to go fetch something from the mine, which will give me his recommendation. He was also now willing to increase my Strength and Dexterity, provided I have the skill points. I used the opportunity to increase my Strength by eleven points, all the way up to 21, because this directly increases my damage.

I got some extra are and decided to invest it in my first armor – a pair of digger’s trousers. This increases defense from weapons by 10 (or 15?) and defense from fire by 5, so I can now survive better to.

With these two things, I am now able to dispatch scavengers and mole rats without any issues. I can also kill a wolf if I’m careful and I can get rid of blood flies easily, though they can still kill me if I get swarmed.

Modrag and the New Camp

Thorus also had a favor for me. He wanted me to somehow get rid of Mordrag, who is a member of the new camp. Apparently, he steals their stuff and then sells it back to them, so they can’t have any of that. I went to talk to Mordrag and told him what’s up. He gave me an option. I can try killing him, which won’t end well for me, or I can follow him to the New Camp, to keep my options open.

Mordrag uses a bow, like a lot of members of the New Camp.

Either choice accomplishes my goal, so I chose the latter. The way to the New Camp was much easier than the road to the Brotherhood, with mostly scavengers and goblins along the way. I took note of some landmarks I’ll pay a visit to later, but I didn’t go far from the main road for the most part, because I didn’t have a lot of play time left and I wanted to get there before I’m done.

The New Camp is sitting on top of a dam, next to a lake. They have a mine of their own and a group of mages of their own – the Water Mages. I actually told one of the Water Mages about the letter I have for the leader of the Fire Mages, interested to see if there’s some rivalry, but he simply told me I have the option of joining the New Camp and then getting in contact with the Fire Mages via a regular communication route they have. I guess mages don’t plot against each other in Gothic.

I bought a book of spells, but it only contains descriptions, nothing else.

I explored most of the camp, got some quests, gained a level and learned acrobatics. I even went to their mine to check it out and gave water to the rice farmers. I learned two things. Firstly, their plan is to gather as much ore as they can and then detonate it to destroy the barrier. Secondly, other than the mages, almost everyone else in the new camp is an asshole, especially if they’re in a position of power.

I decided to join the Old Camp

It was night time again, so naturally, I decided now would be a good time to try and find my way back to the Old Camp. This time, I strayed away from the path quite a lot, which got me some experience and loot, but also got me some reloads. The first one happened soon after I left the New Camp. To the left of the primary entrance to the New Camp, there’s a cave with a laboratory and a bunch of people in there. As soon as I got in, I was attacked by one of them. I’m guessing I stumbled into someone’s meth lab or something.

It was morning by the time I got back to the Old Camp.

I moved on along the road to the Old Camp, getting lost several times and even stumbling into the forest I was told not to get in because it was too dangerous. Eventually, I saw the outlines of the Old Camp, albeit from a whole different direction than the one I was supposed to come back from. The net result is the same, so it doesn’t matter. I’m back at the Old Camp, I have a bunch of quests and now I’m free to roam and kill monsters.

First Big Game Crash

My second session of Gothic was relatively short and it was made even shorter by a crash. On my first try, I decided to make a full circle around the old camp, killing scavengers along the way. I was hoping this would get me some experience and, more importantly, meat I can cook and sell. This is exactly what I got, but as I got back to the city and started trading with Dexter, the game crashed, so I lost about 20 minutes of my time.

Scavenging Skills and Sword Fighting

On my next try, I started saving often. This time, I checked my inventory and realized I have quite a bit to sell already. I traded everything I could for ore and then went out of the Old Camp’s front gate to pay Drax for some training. I repeated this cycle of hunting, trading and training several times, until I eventually learned all four of the scavenging skills. I can now extract teeth and claws, skin animals and gather other parts I can sell. I figured this would be the best way to spend early money – to make further accumulation of money easier.

I’m a bad-ass with a sword now, holding it in one hand and all.

I also spent 50 ore to learn the first level of sword fighting. As I said before, the character system of Gothic seems simple, but the way the mechanics work makes it extremely complex and interesting. For instance, learning the first level of sword fighting allows the hero to swing much faster and hold the weapon in one hand. It makes the game easier, but it also creates room for more skillful play. Basically, it synergizes both with the mechanics and the player.

Smithing

I also spent some time trying out smithing. You can buy metal rods from the smith and, through several steps, turn them into crude swords. These can then be sold at a profit of 10 ore per sword, so it’s a valid method of getting money, but overall, I think it’s mostly available in the game for flavor.

This is probably the worst smithing screenshot I could have taken.

To the Sect Camp (The Brotherhood)

Once I did all I could in the Old Camp, at least for the time being, I talked to a Cultist and asked him to take me to his camp in the swamp. This is basically an escort quest, but instead of me trying to keep my escort alive, it’s the other way around. The cultist was much stronger than me, so I basically abused this and used him to kill a bunch of enemies along the way to the Swamp Camp, mostly lizards, but also a wolf and some insects. This, with the added reward of completing the escort, got me close to the next level and placed me in a brand new location I needed to explore.

Baal Something earned about half a level of experience.

The Swamp Camp was definitely a religious place, if you consider smoking weed all day a religious thing. The cultist specialize in picking various smoke-able grasses they then sell to the other people at the prison colony, or even export outside. Each cultist also gets their daily dosage, which got me to a quest where one of them asked me for mine.

A swamp and some religious freaks. Not my cup of tea, but there’s experience and ore in it.

There are also teachers, called gurus, that I can’t talk to, but have to impress in order to join them. As I said, I don’t intend to join this camp, but there’s no reason not to do the quests for the experience and other rewards.

Back to the Old Camp

Once I explored most of the camp, I decided to go back to the old camp. I had to do this by myself this time, so it was a scary trip, especially because it was night time and there was rain. I took a bunch of wrong turns and nearly got killed by a pack of wolves, but eventually, I saw the outlines  f the Old Camp on the horizon. I got in, found the shack assigned to me and used the bed to rest until morning.

Home, sweet home…

In my next session, I’ll work on getting my strength and dexterity up, so I can tackle stronger enemies. I also intend to buy an armor, or get it some other way. My only protection right now is an amulet I got off a corpse (+5 protection from weapons).