I’m not sure if I’m just having a hard time remembering, but it feels like I haven’t advanced the story by much in Gothic today. Maybe my memory comes back to me as I write this, so let’s see.

I Found the Exiled Orc Shaman

Xardas told me to look for the orc shaman in a castle ruin to the east, but I somehow heard west, so I went in the wrong direction at first. I checked my journal soon, though, so I didn’t lose a lot of time. I actually already visited that castle ruin when I teamed up with Lester. I think I even put a screenshot here somewhere, saying there was nothing there.

The climb to the castle ruin provided some nice vistas. To bad I suck at taking screenshots.

Well, this time, the shaman was there and I had to save it from a bunch of orc temple warriors. He spoke human (or common, or English) poorly, but he was clear enough for me to understand where I’m going next. I need to enter the orc city and find my way underground, where they sealed the Sleeper’s temple. This is the only way to destroy the Sleeper, but I have no chance in getting inside what with a whole city full of orcs being on top of it, so I need a special item, called the ULU-MULU.

The graphical advancement was not kind to the shaman. ULU-MULU it is, then.

Apparently, the ULU-MULU is a mark of honor and/or friendship among the orcs, so holding it would make them not attack me at sight. The shaman said there’s a friend of his he left behind slaving in one of the “human mines” who’s able to make me one. Of course, I needed to figure out which mine it was and then find that friend.

I Decided to Free the Free Camp

At this point, I was kind of stuck, because none of my quests were telling me where to go next. I decided to just go back to the New Camp and check out the mine there, since it was taken over by the Old Camp anyway. I was right to do this, because a group of New Camp mercenaries, with Gorn leading them, was waiting at the path towards the Free Mine. Gorn told me to pay a visit to Wolf before we head out, so that’s what I did. Wolf gave me a job. If I get him enough minecrawler armor plates, he’ll make me a set of armor. That’s pretty much a no-brainer, so I don’t have to say what my response was.

I have a love-hate relationship with Gorn. I love that he can’t be killed and hits hard, but I hate that he’s an idiot.

The idea was that Gorn would be my companion for the mine mission, but with Gothic being the buggy game it is, this didn’t go according to plan. First, I managed to get myself stuck by trying to open a chest at the moment a cut scene with Gorn was about to start. He couldn’t find his way to me, so he just kept running in place and none of my controls would respond. I had to quit the game and reload.

I really started hating the Old Camp guards while in the mine.

On my second try, Gorn just got completely lost, but somehow, as I got to the mine, he just appeared out of nowhere and started the same cut scene. We got rid of the three guards outside and entered the mine. Inside, he immediately went rogue, fell down a level and started fighting random diggers and guards, while I was stuck on top, on my own.

I Got Annoyed

This is where Gothic started to get annoying. The guards love to use their crossbows and fighting ranged enemies in this game plainly sucks. It’s hard to dodge the hits and if you get close, you just get yourself in even a bigger danger, since their shots start suddenly doing way more damage, way more often. There was one particular part where I had to use a ladder to climb down into a room with three crossbow wielding guards ready to “have at me”. It took me several tries before I could even survive the descent, and once I was down, the pain would only just begin.

I Found the Orc Slave

Somehow, I managed to clear most of the mine, even with Gorn out of the picture and finally, I found the orc slave. He needed medicine he lost nearby, so after I found it, he told me what I needed to do. In case anyone googles their way to this article, the orc medicine is in the room with the orc, in a small alcove under the wooden area. You need to jump and climb into it.

The orc slave wanted medicine, which he lost nearby.

The orc told me he needs four items to make the ULU-MULU. I need to get him swampshark teeth, a shadowbeast horn, a fire lizard tongue and some troll skin. I guess that’s what I’ll be doing next time – hunting monsters! I love variety!