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.
