Gothic [16] – Back Outside

Last time in Gothic, I tried to attack the invulnerable orc with my Troll Fist ax, but the game crashed on me, so I decided to try it next time, as in now.The following happened on May 13th, 2013.

It Didn’t Work

The Troll Fist wasn’t doing any damage to the orc either. On the plus side, it looks like the game bugged out, because the orc was standing there just ignoring me, so it was easy to back off. Gothic is an extremely fun, but also an extremely broken game.

Gothic - Troll Fist

I tried with the Trol Fist, but it didn’t work.

I went back down, because I remembered there were a couple of lava areas I haven’t explored yet. First was a building on an island in the middle of a large lake of lava. I couldn’t get to it, because the bridge was retracted, so I had to go around the ledge surrounding the lake, get inside three buildings, kill the lesser demons inside and trigger the three switches. Once that was done, the bride was accessible, but I had to walk all the way back around to get to it. On the plus side, the temple guards are idiots, so I was able to lure most of them into lava.

Gothic - Bridge over Lava

Once I activated the bridge, I had to run all the way back.

I Got the Strange Sword

The building’s main entrance was very obviously booby trapped. Trying to get through would cause spikes to outright kill me. Thanks to the modern technology of saving games, though, I was able to try this out. What I was supposed to be doing was to look around. To the left, there was a crumbled wall with an accessible window. Getting in through there got me to the fourth shaman, who I easily killed, and the fourth sword.

Gothic - Trap

This is what happens when you ignore the obvious trap.

The fourth sword didn’t have a proper name, like the first three. Instead, it was just called “Strange Sword” and the description said I should ask Xardas about it. At this point, I figured I’ll be meeting Xardas within the temple, but it turned out I was wrong.

Gothic - Strange Sword

I had to use the side entrance to get to the shaman and get the sword.

I explored the last area of the dungeon I knew of – a small and dark tunnel with a bunch of minecrawlers. I found some miscellaneous items in there, as well as a journal, written by, I guess, a human slave condemned to dig out the tunnels of the temple. He said the orcs were afraid of a sword or something, which again hinted at the strange sword.

Gothic - Temple Journal

This is a journal I found in a random nook in the temple.

I Got Stuck Again

At this point, I had no idea where to go. The game told me the fifth orc wasn’t connected to the four shamans I killed, I explored everything I could and I was still missing the fifth sword. I remembered the fifth orc wasn’t attacking me now, so I thought I was maybe supposed to run past him, to the building he was guarding, so I tried that.

Gothic - Xardas

Since I was stuck at the temple, it was back to Xardas.

The building behind him contained several Apocalyptic Templar. These guys hit like a train and I was barely hurting them. It also contained five pedestals, I’m guessing for the five swords I was supposed to bring with me, so that obviously wasn’t the answer.

I tried teleporting to Xardas, but none of my runes worked either.

I decided to bite it and walk outside. A lot of the monsters respawned, so I ended up fighting my way out, but once I got outside, the Teleport Necromancer rune worked and Xardas confirmed I was supposed to see him next.

I Was Back Outside

Xardas told me I should go to his old tower, which sunk into a lake somewhere to the east, to find some magical artifacts which might help me on my quest. In the meantime, he will be trying to figure out how to restore the strange sword, which is actually the legendary sword Uriziel, though drained of its power.

Since I was outside again now, I decided to first go back to the new camp. I spoke to Saturas and saw I could buy the High Mage Robe for 2100 ore, so I did. You probably see where this is going – I already had this robe in my inventory, so that was a waste of money.

Gothic - Robe

2100 ore wasted on an extra robe.

I went and spoke to Wolf to train the second level of the Bow skill, because I was swimming in skill points and I had nothing to spend them on, since my Strength and Dexterity are both maxed now. I had 30 skill points left, so with Uriziel being a two handed sword, I decided to spend them on the first level of that skill at Lee’s.

Tomorrow, I’ll be going to the sunken tower somewhere to the east. I actually think I know where that is.