I have arrived at castle Vebeaux and spoke to the duke immediately. It seems that the peace negotiations are close to completion. Several envoys will soon arrive from Holklanda and Monitor Shigaz has asked for me specifically to help secure the castle and stop any potential assassins. There’s some work being done under the castle. Some new halls are being dug and Shigaz feels that this would be the most likely direction an attack could come from.

I went down there immediately, and promptly got attacked by cultist assassins. I disposed of them and found Shigaz in the next room. He was mortally wounded and, in his delirium, thought I was working with the assassins. He attacked me, so I was forced to defend. I incapacitated him quickly and tried to heal him from his previous wounds, but it was too late. Before he died, he said the duke sent him down here. There’s something suspicious going on. I went through the passages and soon emerged outside the castle, in the woods. The duke’s men were already after me.

I fled through the forest and soon encountered a helping Holklandan who directed me to an escape route. After some fighting, and some dodging, the route led me to a brigand encampment. However, they were not hostile. In fact, they seemed to expect me. Their leader, Minaka, said the rogue Hand, Gavin, told them to expect me. He is here, in the camp, and he want’s to talk to me. I obliged.

I hate getting myself surrounded, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.

Gavin told me he was betrayed by the duke, just as I was. Publicly, the duke works on forging a peace agreement with Holklanda. Privately, however, he is working for the Tavon empire. Gavin uncovered this and was framed because of it. Avadon has failed to prove his innocence or to even show concern for him, so he became a brigand. As for me, I need to somehow get to the pylon and return. He has an idea how, but first I need to help him. I need to kill a hunter that’s become a threat for them. He is to the south.

I went there and realized the hunter is a she. Tender Melisande, to be precise. The same animal tender who gave me several tasks at the castle. I told her the truth about the duke, but she didn’t care. By her own words, Avadon’s time is past. It has become weak and corrupt and the duke has a better path. I said I agree with the statement about Avadon, and she was surprised, but also told me her orders are clear. I guess there was no way out of that battle. She and her beasts were tough, but they posed no threat.

I reported this to Gavin and he decided to help me. I need to clear the way to the east, off the main road, and look for a hidden passage. He will wait for me there. I went as he instructed and soon met the Wayfarer again. No job this time, only questions he needs answers for. He asked me where my loyalties lie, how I feel about Avadon and if I would be willing to have Redbeard “replaced”. I would prefer to just leave, but the mark that makes me a Hand cannot be removed and it also means I cannot run away. The only option is to overthrow Redbeard. Before he left, he gave me advice. I should spare the duke. It will mean a lot in the future. With that, he was gone and I continued. After some fighting, I met up with Gavin, and soon we were at the castle.

Sadly, Gavin soon fell to a trap, so I was forced to continue alone. I fought for a long time, moving back and forth between possible routes of escape, defeating the duke’s lackeys, until I finally reached his inner chambers. He pleaded for his life, explaining his motivations, appealing to reason, and he finally succeeded. I let him go. In the end, he was just trying to protect his people. It’s Redbeard that needs to go down. The duke fled, the way to the pylon was open. Time to kill Redbeard.

As I arrived to Dhorl Stead, I was greeted by militia. They hate their lord, they know he has done wrong, but still they want to defend him and their home. Sadly, I was forced to fight them. I fought my way to the gates of Oghrym’Tor and soon met the Wayfahrer. He didn’t have any task for me this time, he only asked if I feel regret for what is happening. I admitted I do and he left.

Oghrym’Tor was devoid of any guards or soldiers. I’ve reached the throne room, and Carsta’Arl was there, waiting for me. He tried to justify what he had the wizard do, and ended up escaping thanks to some powers the wizard granted him. I went in the only open direction and soon encountered and fought his wife, Antja.

After she was defeated, a new passage opened. I fought through the rooms of the fort for a long time and eventually reached Carsta again. He was waiting for me in the center of the fort. This was definitely a hard battle, but eventually, he fell. He dropped an excellent sword and shield, so my blademaster will be switching to those again.

I won, but it was a bittersweet victory. On one hand, Carsta and his wizard did horrible thing, but on the other, it is a shame that the people of Dhorl Stead got caught in the crossfire. I don’t think this Pact will last for long, and I’m starting to think I will be its downfall. I reported the events to Miranda and she sent me to Redbeard for my next mission.

I find using the same title constantly a bit lame, so I decided to try and mix it up a bit. Let me know what you prefer.

So, last time I wrote, I just returned from the bandit hideout victorious and was about to return to the castle. I didn’t clear the entire hideout, because I was alone. I’ll probably return later, once I finish my report, with my entire party. The duke was very pleased with the results. As for my other missions, I gave the drake egg to the castle caretaker and got a Titansteel Girdle for it. I also brought the news of the incantor’s return to the castle mage and she gave me a nice breastplate with a big strength bonus. I think my blademaster will be using it. As for the rogue Hand, sadly, I had to report I did not find him.

When the area has a geometrical shape, it usually means something’s up.

I returned to Avadon to report in and, as expected, Shima Treespear was on his way through the portal. He has stuff to deal with and he wouldn’t take no for an answer. I guess I’ll have to go after him next. I offered to come with him immediately, but he wouldn’t accept it. He did say he would leave some papers in his quarters, though.

I spoke to Redbeard, and he was pleased, but he immediately sent me to speak to Miranda for my next mission. Whatever it is, I will go after Shima first. Miranda said I need to return to Oghrym’Tor and deal with the leader, Carsta’Arl. It seems they have found evidence that he was the one supplying the, now not so rogue wizard. As I said, Shima is on the top of my priority list, so I gathered my party and returned to Beraza Woods.

I went to the location Shima mentioned in his papers and, as promised, It was infested by ogre’s. I destroyed one of their camps and killed their chieftain, but got nothing really of note, other than a nice staff for my shaman. Once that was done, I continued north and soon found Harua Honored Forge waiting for me in the middle of a ravine. He was not alone. Two of his men brought Shima, hands bound behind his back, towards me. He tried to murder Harua in his sleep. Even though he had every right, he didn’t punish Shima by killing him, claiming he, unlike others, is able to rise above clan disputes.

They warned us not to follow and then left Shima with me. He was conflicted. The Honored Forge are well respected by Redbeard and loyal servants to Avadon, but they have killed his family. He cannot let that go unpunished. I decided to help him. He joined my group and we moved on.

The direct route was trapped so we went to find another way in. There were several passages leading in the general direction, but only one of them wasn’t a dead end. Eventually, we reached a well supplied Holklandan camp. This is extremely odd, since there would be no need to have such a camp in this location, unless it is for military purposes. The Holklandans might not be as devoted to the peace treaty as I thought. After a lengthy battle, we finally reached Harua. He had something to say, so I decided to give him a chance to speak.

He admitted that his clan destroyed Shima’s, but he also said that they did not act alone. Avadon was fully supporting this action and even sent several Hand’s and Eyes to help. He offered me a reward if I let him escape because “it is better for the Pact”, but I think I’m done with this pact. He didn’t give us much of a fight. Shima’s vendetta was over.

I returned to Avadon and then took the portal to Khemeria. My mission awaits.

This is my second post today, so be sure to check out the first, not to miss anything.

It was time for my mission again. I met up with Shigaz in the woods and he gave me some information. We are to find where the bandits reside and destroy them. I asked him to wait while I scout ahead, simply because I can then move at my own pace and not worry about something or someone killing him. As soon as I walked a bit to the north, the Wayfarer aproached me again. I seem to have encountered a bug, though. I destroyed the titan paper’s, but the only conversation option I had was one that said I didn’t. Either I missed something about the quest, or this is a bug. He offered me another task, though. The merchant I helped before now want’s his competition completely removed, so she asked me to lie to the authorities and have him accused of some random crime. This doesn’t really appeal to me, so I refused, but the quest is available to me anyway. He didn’t seem dissapointed by the refusal, though. He seemed more surprised that I still have a conscience.

I’ve stumbled into a camp of surly woodsmen, or at least that’s how the game describes them. They weren’t very talkative and seemed completely unimpressed by the fact that they met a Hand of Avadon. I’m guessing they will be important later, but for now, I moved on.

The woodsmen seemed very suspicious.

The next thing on my path was a crumpled old tower. I started exploring it and clearing the spiders it was infested with. There was also a humanoid presence I kept encountering during the exploration. It seemed non hostile, but it kept running away, floor after floor. On the third floor, I’ve finally cornered him and his invisibility wore off. It was a frightened mage named Herenus. He fled from the Tavon Empire to hide here, but his tower defenses backfired, causing the infestation. I got nothing else out of him, so I guess he will be important later.

I left the tower and kept exploring. To the southeast, I’ve found an abandoned camp where I cleared some rats out of an old building. This got me some leather and other minor loot, bot nothing of importance. There was another tower, this one still under construction, very near the abandoned camp. The owner was Incanter Maron, the mage I was supposed to find and request to return to the castle. He was trilled that he is allowed to return and thanked me for the news. With this, I  finished exploring the outlying regions of the woods and moved inwards. In one of the clearings in the central area, I’ve found Orian, the spy woodsman I’ve met before. Since the authorities asked me to kill him, I did just that. Well, actually, I offered him a chance to leave first, but he refused.

With the region clear, It was time to return to Shigaz and take him with me. He led me almost straight to the camp of those surly woodsmen. Well, it turns out they aren’t woodsmen at all. He offered them more than they would earn if they return to the castle for questioning, and they attacked. It was easy to deal with them, so they weren’t the ones we were looking for. We continued. Shigaz led me through most of the areas I explored until we finally reached the rocky part in the southwest, where he found a hidden passage. Shigaz was ready to get in, bot only with me. My companions needed to stay behind.

As soon as I was alone with him, I asked Shigaz why he only allowed me to follow. He said he finds my companions and their intentions suspicious. All of them are of questionable loyalty and strange origin, but somehow, they have all gathered around me. We started going through the caves, fighting bandits on the way. Pretty soon, we were forced to trigger an obvious trap and Shigaz was injured to the point of not being able to fight. I was forced to continue alone.

After a while of sneaking around and exploring passages, I’ve encountered another shadowwalker, Harua of the Honored Forge. He was on a mission of his own and offered me some advice on how to continue. On a cavern near him, I’ve found an old, withered drake. It attacked thinking I was gonna steal his egg. Once he was dealt with, I took the egg, remembering the castle beast keeper needs one.

Thanks to the key I got from Harua, I managed to enter the bandit fort and, after some fighting, I’ve found their leader. His name was Audric, and he was a cultist of, the way he called it, the Deep Earth. He didn’t give much information and instead almost immediately attacked me. I killed him and the goons he summoned with ease. I took his very nice staff and equipped it immediately. With him out of the way, the bandit attacks will probably stop, so my mission was complete. I returned to Shigaz and met Harua again. He was administering first aid to Shiguz. Before we left, Shiguz warned me that the my shadowwalker companion might have an issue with Harua, since their clans are feuding, so I should be careful in approaching that. I left the caves and returned to the castle.

Now that I had everyone back together, I decided to put my main mission on hold and clear some of the old quests I missed. First I cleared the stacks in the upper tower of Avadon of the undead, as requested by the librarian. She then asked me to go recover a book from that wizard who created the shadow beast. While I was at his tower, I also tried and successfully killed Beloch the Scourge. For this feat, I got a nice halberd and a charm which increases my magic damage just by being in my bags. Sadly, I have no one to use the halberd, so It will have to sit in my pack. In one of the closets near the book, I also found another charm that increases my lockpick and unlock charm skills by 1, which is also very, very nice.

Most of my uncompleted quests are in the Kva lands, so I went there next. Of course, I returned the book to the librarian first, which got me some coin and a nice scarab which provides battle frenzy to the user. The first thing I did in Kva was to get the blue ore that blacksmith in Goldcrag asked me for. Most of it was found in Jhereth Depths. While I was there, I also tried to confront the new dragon that moved in. Zhethron asked me to find out what her intentions are, but when I ask, she attacks me, so I’m guessing the only way to finish that quest is to actually kill her. Well, I tried again, and I failed again. She is much, much tougher than the demon I just killed.

I gave the blue ore to the smith and he asked me to recover a ceremonial titan weapon for him. I’m guessing there must be one of those in the titan stronghold, so I went there. I also enchanted the halberd I got from the demon with +1 to strength and decided to try it out on my blademaster. As expected, a club was in the keep. I retrieved for the smith and he gave me a corrupted broadsword as a reward. The sword increases my strength greatly, but reduces my intellect and dexterity. I have better items than that, so I won’t be using it, but at least the quest is cleared. Next up was Zhethron’s Aerie where I had a book to steal.

I wasn’t sure how to do it, since the book get’s removed from my bags by magical defenses as soon as I try to leave the library, but after careful searching, I’ve managed to find a hidden passage leading to the lower caves on the west wall of the library. From there, I could easily find the path back up and out of the Aerie. Before I left, I remembered I never opened the chests with gifts Zhethron gave me for helping him several times, so I did that to. Well, I tried at least, but all of the new chests were still locked, so I guess I didn’t get any gifts yet. I gave the book to the mage living west of Goldcrag, and got a nice spear for my troubles, but the halberd I got from the demon was nicer, so I guess this one will also be collecting dust somewhere.

These types of structures seem minor, but usually, it’s actually a tower of some sort.

With this, I’ve completed all of the quests I could for now, and it was time to go back to my current mission.