Eschalon: Book Two – 1. A While Later

I started in a small cottage where I was living since the events of Book One. Due to lack of any real action, I have lost most of my skills. I got some water from the well, filled my water skin and got my equipment. When I opened the front door, a message was waiting for me. The message was written by a man named Darun and it said he was waiting for me at Wayfarer’s Jolly in Eastwillow. It sounded urgent so I decided to make my way there.

Eschalon: Book Two, Player's Home

While the style remains the same, the graphics definitely received a polish in Book Two.

The first building in Eastwillow was the smithy. I spoke to Keebo, the blacksmith and asked if he has any work for me while I’m there. He said a woman named Brelinda asked him to make her a valuable sword, but never paid for it. Since it’s been a year now, he asked me to simply retrieve the sword. Brelinda’s house was to the south. She told me that Keebo was late in making the sword and almost missed the Constable’s birthday entirely. Since the sword was the birthday present, this puts things in a new perspective. I’m not entirely convinced Keebo shouldn’t be paid, but it definitely isn’t as black and white as I thought.

Darus was at the inn as expected. He told me that he was someone from my past, from before I wiped my memory and much earlier than the events of the War for Thearmore. It seems that the goblins weren’t the ones responsible for the invasion, but were actually controlled by a general who now controls the taurax. They have recaptured the Crux of Ages and their vast army is now sweeping across the land. They are looking for the three remaining Crux and will stop at nothing in order to acquire them. Darus and I are actually members of an ancient guild called Crius Vindica and our sole task is to prevent the Crux from ever being reunited. Before he could tell me anything else, an arrow flew through the window and killed him where he was standing. I took the arrow that killed him, in the hope of finding his killer at one point, and I also took a strange looking glass. I reported the murder to the innkeeper and asked him about the looking glass, but he couldn’t tell me anything.

Eschalon: Book Two, Character Screen

The character screen also received a facelift, as well as an upgrade of options.

I proceeded to talk to everyone in town. A girl named Wendy asked me to look for her brother, somewhere to the east and ask if she could live with him for a while. The local priest asked me to help with one of his apprentices who started acting strange and disappeared recently. He said I should check the well behind the church. The well had a ladder leading into the depths below so I climbed down into a cave. The cave led to a series of catacombs which I tried to fully explore, but it was not easy without having any points in cartography skill. I finally managed to find Julian but he was completely mad. He kept talking about “Four Stars” and “The One” and, even though I tried my best to calm him down, attacked me, so I had to kill him.

After using the key to get his possessions (he won’t need them), I came back to town and told the priest about what happened. I then went back to the blacksmith to ask him about the arrow and aside from telling me it’s a pretty good arrow, he didn’t know much. The magick shopkeeper, however, said that the shop owner, her uncle, should know more about the looking glass. She said he lives in a house by a lake to the west so that’s where I will be going next. Right now, I saved my game and decided to take a break.

After loading the game back up today, I started to explore for a bit and, since it got dark soon, I did a bit of thieving. I mean, Richard (the character) is a thief. In Brelinda’s house, I’ve found some suspicious papers showing that the Constable was making some strange withdrawals. I also tried to go to his house to steal the sword back, but by then, it was day again so I couldn’t do it. Instead, I went east and pretty soon got to a farm the owner of which is getting attacked by giant dragonflies. He asked me to find their nest and destroy it, so I went looking for it. I killed a few, but it was dark again and I was low on health so I traveled back to Easthollow. I saved my game again and stopped playing.