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).

For those not familiar, the basic plot of Gothic goes like this:

There’s a prison under a magical barrier with prisoners pretty much free to govern over themselves while in there, but unable to ever get out alive and with an arrangement to mine some special ore in exchange for stuff from the outside. The player is a fresh prisoner, just sent into the prison. Before he got sent inside, he was slipped a letter for the leader of the Fire Mages within the prison and that’s it. No name, not much further plot.

I didn’t get a chance to fix my Windows 8 issue here yet, so you get a crappy screenshot.

I actually like games with an anonymous protagonist, so this works for me, especially if there’s a prophecy to be fulfilled or something like that, the way it is with the Elder Scrolls series.

Meeting Diego

There’s a lot of characters in Gothic and, so I probably won’t remember most of them, but I managed to remember Diego. Diego is a denizen of the Old Camp and his job is to greet fresh prisoners. He basically introduces me to the prison and the inner politics.

The deal is, the prisoners split into three camps. The Old Camp still does the mining and gets most of the sought after outside stuff in exchange for the ore. They are probably the best equipped in there, but they aren’t really interested in changing the status quo. The New Camp has separated from the Old Camp and they’re actively trying to find a way to escape from the prison.

Sorry, still not fixed.

The Swamp Cultists are religious freaks. They found some entity they consider a god and they believe this thing will give them a way out of the prison and also grant them powers or something. I’m not completely sure yet, but I think I’ll either go with the Old or the New Camp when I finally join a faction. Religious freaks really aren’t my cup of tea.

Diego is part of the Old Camp, so his description was obviously biased. He told me who I need to talk to when I get there, pointed me in the direction of some discarded gear and sent me on my way.

I did some exploring around the landing area and found a pickaxe. This is not a very good weapon, even for the first one, but I don’t have a choice, really. From what I understand, the way weapons work in Gothic is that they have a strength requirement, and the more you surpass that requirement, the faster you can swing that weapon, up to a certain point. I might be completely wrong here, but if that’s true, then it’s probably in my best interest to pick a faster weapon instead of always going for the strongest one.

I fixed my issue here, so I could finally enjoy the nice view.

With the pickaxe, I did some more exploring and climbed a nearby cliff. On the top, I found two juvenile scavengers, a couple of mole rats and a goblin. The rats and the scavengers are beginner monsters, so they were easy to kill. The goblins, however, I remember from one of my earlier attempts at this game, so I was pretty scared when I attacked it. Somehow, I managed to kill it with a bit of health remaining, though, so I could freely enjoy the great view from the top of the cliff.

I went back down to the other side of the canyon, picked up a rusty sword, which is a weaker, but a faster weapon, and killed the last mole rat there. On the way to the Old Camp, I also killed a couple of meat bugs and got their meat for later.

First Time at the Old Camp

The Old Camp is arranged into several (two or three, I’m not sure) levels, with only the outer level accessible to me right now. I explored it in a circular fashion, talked to everyone and got all the quests I could.

The Barrier looks great in the night sky. It provides a lot of atmosphere.

One of the people there wanted to buy an ornamental sword from a merchant, but the merchant wouldn’t sell it to him, so I played mediator. Several guards wanted protection money from me, so I picked one and gave him the 10 ore he wanted. I think I need to pay all three to be protected everywhere, though.

There was an arena there to, as well as several people from the Cultist and the New Camp, trading and looking for recruits. The head guy at the arena wanted me to win a match in exchange for his good word with Diego. Several other people also wanted favors in exchange for their recommendation. Getting enough recommendations would make me an official member of the Old Camp, but even though I’m still not sure which side I’ll pick, I’ll do most of the quests anyway, for the experience and the rewards.

Frying scavenger meat over a fire. More atmosphere!

I found a frying pan over a fire and fried all of the meat I picked up from the scavengers and rats I killed. I remember this being very impressive back when Gothic was first released and it still holds its own now. I mean, sure, there’s alchemy in other games, but there’s an actual animation of frying the meat in this one. It’s a nice touch.

With all the exploration and quest solving, I finally got my fist level, so I traded most of my good away for ore and then gave the ore to some New Camp hunters outside, in exchange for them to teach me how to scavenge dead monster parts. I can now extract claws and skin animals. I still have two more to learn, so as soon as I get the money, I’ll come back.

It took me several attempts to clear these guys without dying, bit it made it all the more satisfying.

I also explored the area outside the Old Camp and climbed some cliffs. In one of the caves, I found a dead guard and reported it to another guard inside the camp. This secured me another recommendation. In another cave, on top of a cliff, I found basically a hermit. He used to live at the Old Camp, but then just decided to get away from it all.

I also spent far too much time trying to get down from that cliff. The controls in Gothic really have room for improvement. I kept taking from steps and falling to my death on my way down. I need to say something outright, though. Unlike many, I’m fine with the way Gothic handles combat. I’m OK with those controls. I just think the movement and jumping needs work.

The character screen looks simple, but there’s a lot of complexity hidden in there.

I actually spent a couple of hours doing all of this, so I decided to take a break at this point. There’s a lot to explore in the world of Gothic and I’m looking forward to it. It’s a great game that just happens to be rough around the edges.