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.

I arrived to Kellemderriel. and spoke to the duke. The peace negotiations have been going well, but they need my military expertise again, this time in dealing with some bandits. They reside in Kellem and regularly raid Holklandia. I am to track them down and “solve” the issue. The duke also thought I should know about a rogue Hand in the woods. He said I probably won’t encounter him, but I should know anyway.

I spoke to Monitor Shigaz and we went on our way. Of course, helping my companion was of highest priority, so I went back to the dragon’s lair first. She wasn’t there, but she left a message. The dragon seems to have fled for the mountains, so she went after him. The only visible landmark upon arrival was a tall tower, so I went straight for it.

Disclaimer: The following paragraph will contain a spoiler which might give you a puzzle solution for this area. If you do not wish to be spoiled, skip it.

The passage up was closed, so I took the stairs down. However, even though I went through several sets of stairs, I wasn’t going anywhere. It looked like I was walking in circles, and I wasn’t able to figure out how to move forward, so I eventually gave up and left the tower. As I was leaving, Sevilin said he heard a screen to the northwest. I rushed there and found a new passage through the cliff side and into the woods.

After fighting lot’s and lots of ogres and wretches, I eventually found Natalie cornered in a place in the woods. I helped her fend of her attackers, but she was already injured. Her hand was scarred by acid, and It didn’t look like any spell will make the scar go away completely. She almost died, but she didn’t want to give up yet. She joined my party and we decided to hunt the drake.

It was obvious the drake was back in the tower, so we returned there. This time, with Nathalie’s help, we broke the illusion and found the way further. There was another riddle a few floors down, but this time, the illusion was easily dispelled. Soon, we reached the bottom, but all that was there was a malevolent spirit. One he was destroyed, though, Nathalia sensed the drake’s presence in the upper levels. Sure enough, he was back in the main hall the whole time, concealed by one of his illusions. The battle was tough, but we won in the end, and I got a nice robe for Nathalia.

Soon after I entered the area of the titan stronghold, the Wayfarer approached me again. This time, he wants me to burn the papers I was ordered to recover for Avadon. These are papers that would provide information about who is behind all of the attacks lately, so this is basically the moment I choose between Avadon and someone unknown. I’m not sure what to do yet, but I’ll have to decide soon. I explored the immediate area and then went to meet up with the unit I’m supposed to lead.

The Titan Stronghold was a huge dungeon.

They were to the south, and they seemed ready, so we started our approach. It wen’t pretty smoothly, with no casualties, and I had plenty of time to explore side passages, killing another arrogant drake in the process. In fact, we even managed to free a few prisoners, who immediately joined the group. It was only at the final battle that one of the warriors died from poisoning. Once the keep was clear, the military unit left and I was ready to investigate the lower levels.

The first thing I saw as I descended was a huge titan holding a twisted iron sword, standing behind a closed gate. It was Chanakk, their chieftain. Again, he was speaking like he’s following someone’s orders, and again he wouldn’t face me immediately. Instead, he sent out another, massive titan against me. He fell without much of a fight. The chieftain was persistent in trying to keep me away, but eventually I caught up with him. I tried to get some information, offered him life in captivity, but I got nowhere. He died after a lengthy fight. The papers I was supposed to bring back or burn were in his private quarters. After some thinking, I burned them. Now we wait and see.

I reported back to the dragon and he was grateful, but his anger didn’t go away. If the Pact fails one more time, his dealings with it will come to an end. All I could do was to return to Avadon. Another message was waiting for me as I got back. This time, it was from Nathalie. She wen’t to Beraza Woods in Holklandia on a personal task. She actually wants to hunt down the drake that escaped us on her own. Of course, I have to go back after her.

I reported to Heart Miranda. She was surprised by the lack of evidence I burned, but it seemed I was in the clear for now. She sent me to talk to Redbeard about my next mission. Lord Gryfyn asked for me personally to return to Holklandia and help further with the peace talks. I guess Holklandia will be my next stop in any case.

When I arrived to Kva, I decided to do some catching up first. I got some minor info around town and it turns out the dragon has issues again, but with actual titans this time. He even got wounded, so he needs my help more than ever. While I was running around, I also did some quick side quests, which got me experience and money, but nothing of note other than that. My companion has left me a note saying he will be looking for his attackers in the White Plains, but before I went there, I had to go and speak to the dragon. He explained how he was attacked and injured and requested my group to lead an army of Avadon to destroy the titans in their stronghold to the south.

Before I went to the White Plains to find my companion, the staff working for the dragon asked me to “evict” some unwelcome residents of the lower caves. Among the many I had to “send away” was a drake who deluded itself into thinking he is the dragon’s equal partner. White Plains it is.

Lots and lots of cacti in the White Plains. And lizards, lizards to. Oh, and brigands, being bad and ambushing people, forgetting cacti have thorns. Some wolves to. Basically, there’s plenty of stuff in the White Plains. Pretty soon I’ve found a small settlement in the south, Called Debptbound Colony, so I decided to ask around there. One of the people there told me what the place was. In her words, holes like this one serve to house people that have far to much debt to pay back. It’s either that, or slavery, according to the Code. In one of the other huts, I’ve found Sevilin. That’s his name! Sevilin!

Outside of Avadon, people tend to live in group housing.

Sevilin tracked Cahil, the brigand who ambushed his party, to this place. He is back with me now, and we will hunt the bastard together. After much “diplomacy”, I’ve finally convinced one of the people living there to tell us where we can find Cahil, or “The Claw” as they call him. I’ve filled up as much of the map as I can and then went after him. We found him pretty soon to, but not before we had to dispose of a reanimated titan. After a brief conversation and the realization who it is that was hunting him, Cahil started babbling about something “we can’t know” and then slipped away from us through a trap door. We went after him, of course.

After traversing a maze of trap doors and hallways, we’ve finally cornered him in his lair, but then he slapped his final card on the desk. A letter of pardon from Redbeard himself. The Claw gave information to Avadon and, in spite of killing several hands and committing other horrible crimes, he was allowed to walk. I chose to ignore it. If Avadon has no honor, then I will not serve it blindly. His archers fell in moments, and he followed shortly after.

I have no idea what this means, but I’m sure it will affect the events to follow. For now, I have a mission for Avadon to do.

My mission is to go back to khemeria to find and kill the wizard responsible for the shadow beast. Of course, it was obvious to me from the last time I was there that Moritz’Kri, the adviser to lord Carsta’Arl was the culprit, but I didn’t have any proof. This time, I knew for sure that a wizard was involved, so I confronted the lord immediately. After realizing there is no way to get out of it, be turned over Moritz’Kri. That is, he allowed me to arrest him, but didn’t want to get involved directly. The wizard attacked me and I managed to defeat him, but he teleported away before I could deliver the final blow. I ended up chasing him all over Oghrym’Tor and finally cornered him in the cellars of his castle wing, but again, he managed to teleport to safety, this time to his tower in Dorla Woods.

On my way there, I was forced to kill the patrol that was assigned to guard his tower. It was obvious they didn’t want to fight, but they were more scared of him than of me. After lots and lots of fighting throughout his tower, I finally found him trying to summon a demon lord – Beloch, the Scourge. The ritual was almost complete, and the demon was almost loose, but for the final part, Moritz’Kri needed a human sacrifice. Foolishly, he tried to use me for that, and this cost him greatly. I defeated him one last time and the demon took him back to his realm. Of course, the demon is pretty much loose now, with only a faint power binding him to the portal and it’s only a matter of time before he’s completely free. Still, he was way to powerful for me to defeat him at that point, so I was forced to retreat. In any case, my mission was over.

On a side note, I encountered the Wayfarer again, but this time he didn’t have any suspicious task for me. He only warned me that this incident will be the beginning of the end for Dhorl Stead. Once the eye of Avadon focuses on something, it rarely looks away before it’s destroyed.

I returned back to Avadon only to find out that my warrior, whose name escapes me again is gone. The ambush that earned him his scar was tormenting him far to much and he decided to go to the White Plains of Kva, find his attacker and deal with him. After talking to my superiors, I realized my next mission is also taking me to Kva, so I guess it’s two for one this time. Kva it is!

So, last time I wrote, I was about to start my mission at castle Vebeaux. The Duke asked me to escort a team of soldiers from both Holklandia and Kellemderiel while they destroy a source of monster infestation in the nearby Beraza Woods. He is hoping that this would bolster the relations between the two regions and ensure a peace agreement.

I had to go here several times during my missions.

I explored the outer part of the woods and completed a few side missions, while at the same time clearing the woods of monsters. I also encountered the suspicious rogue who keeps following me and offering me shifty jobs. This time, he actually offered me something I was willing to do. It seems that the administrator ofcastle Vebeaux is not allowing a merchant safe passage, because he is being bribed by the competition. I talked to the administrator, put some fear into him and this was promptly resolved. The military unit I was supposed to escort was in the second region of the woods. As soon as I got there, I knew it wouldn’t go well. The soldiers simply did not get along and were letting their differences get between them. I tried to calm the situation, but it wasn’t working. When we got to caverns where the troubles were coming from, the commander from Holklandia decided to stay and guard it, while the rest of us got in and cleared it. He simply wasn’t willing to put his life in the hands of the enemy.

I descended with the Kellemderiel soldiers and we soon split up, according to their wishes. They took the direct route, while I was forced to take the longer way around. After some fighting and spelunking, I finally met them again, but it was too late. The source of the monsters was a dragon, this time a master of mind spells and he already got to them. He completely wiped their minds, turning them into slaves that attacked me. I managed to defeat them, but the dragon got away, so I returned to the surface. While he did get away, the source of the infestation was removed for now, so my mission was over. I got back to the castle to report in, and then returned to Avadon.

My next mission is taking me back to Khmeria. I am to find the person responsible for creating the shadow beast and kill him. I should probably also mention that one of the side missions in castle Vebeaux had me expose a spy for the Tavon empire. I’m not sure if this will be important later, but it seemed that it might. One other thing – the caverns and the laboratory where the dragon lived used to belong to a mage named Adranos. This also sounded like important information.

The next mission that Redbeard sent me on was supposed to take me to Kellemderiel, to castle Verbeaux. Gryfyn, the local duke is working hard and forging a peace agreement with the neighboring region of Holklanda, and in order to do this, he needs help with a task. However, before I did all that, I had to take care of Jennel’s problems. When we last went to Khemeria, we encountered a group of Wyldrylm warriors who escaped their lands because of a crime they committed. The crime was justified in a way, and not really a bad thing, but the Pact laws have been broken and they would have been hunted down if they didn’t escape. Jennel decided to go and try to warn them that Avadon now knows where they are and left me a note about it, so I went after her.

The Five Nations of the Midlands Pact

A runner in Dhorl Stead told me where she was, but when I got there, I was attacked by Wyldrylm warriors several times before I could even tell them I come in peace. I finally found a small encampment in the woods, where another group of warriors, this time friendly and led by a guy named Vid was keeping Jennel safe. Jennel told me what happened. The group was led by a shaman named Theresia, who got quite arrogant and angry at Avadon. When Jennel came with the warning, Theresia tried to kill her, but Vid and his men managed to free her and hide in this part of the woods. The other people I killed where just about to assault their encampment.

With Jennel back in my group, I went after Theresia and soon found her encampment. I let her men go, but was forced to kill her. For a moment, it seemed like she would see reason, but in the end she attacked anyway so my hand was forced on the matter. After all of this, I went back to Avadon to take care of some other business and then continued to Kellemderiel for my mission. I met the duke and he explained my mission to me. I am to go with a group of Holklandan soldiers and locate and destroy a source of magically altered monsters who are infesting a local forested area.

As I said, I had to go to Kva again, because the dragon has new issues. Both his lair and the local town are being attacked, by ogres this time. In fact, I helped him fight off an attack while I was there. He said he did some aerial scouting and found the source of the ogres to be somewhere in Jhereth Deeps, an old mining abandoned mining complex. Coincidentally, the captain of the guard unit assigned to him has lost another scouting party in that area.

FIghting this dragon was a bad idea.

I went there, explored it fully, saved the scouting party and found the source of the ogres. A new dragon has moved into the area. this time one that has a frost alignment. From what I can tell, it’s a female, but I’m not certain. After I told it of the ogre issue, it got mad, claiming the ogres acted outside of her knowledge and pointed me in the direction of their lair. I went there, killed the titan that was leading them and met a person named Merula. She was a mage who was giving orders to the titan. She claimed her intentions are not all bad, and that the aim of the people she’s working for was to change things in the Pact and possibly overthrow Redbeard. She asked me to think about all of that and I promised I will. I also offered her a chance to flee, but she wouldn’t take it, so I was forced to kill her.

After all that, I cleared out some of the side quests in the area and returned to Avadon. Soon after I got there, I got a message from my shaman, saying she had to leave on a personal errand. I also got my next mission, this time from Redbeard personally.

As I said, my new mission took me to Khemeria, which is a Farland nation, not part of the Pact. Suffice to say, I was not well received. The surprising thing is, it wasn’t hostility that I encountered, but fear. It seems the Pact isn’t as nice as I’d like to think. I explored Dhorl Stead, which is a settlement built near the portal, and tried gathering some information, but no one would talk to me, saying to go and see their leader. The problem is, when I got to the keep of Oghrym’Tor, where the leader resides, I was not allowed entry.

Spiderweb games usually have rich writing. The game over screen shows Avadon is no exception.

His wizard, whose name escapes me right now (as usual), but starts with M said that he was in charge of talking to me and that the leader couldn’t leave the keep due to some disease epidemic. Of course, this was all very suspicious, but I couldn’t do anything about it, so I went back to town. Luckily, I finally got some good info from a clanless runner that lives on the edge of the village. He told me the beast most often roams around Dorla Woods, so that was where I went next.

I met a shaman in the woods who left the city due to a disagreement with the wizard. She seemed to have shared my mistrust towards him. On a side note, her back room was trapped, so being the explorer that I am, I tried to trigger the trap to see what happens and saw my first game over screen. Other than the trap, the room also contains an Incubus (male version of the Succubus) and a bed, so I’m thinking the shaman has some dirty secrets.

I went deeper into the woods and finally found a ruined village. Everyone other than a single villager fled this village, chased away by the beast. The one remaining person told me there was another settlement over the river, which had it even worse. This led me to believe that the beast’s lair might be near that other settlement. On my way there, I encountered and fought the beast several times, but it would always run away once any real damage was dealt to it. I also encountered a woman called Liese, living in a lone hut. She claims to have trained a lot of soldiers, so I asked her to train me, but she said I have to prove myself somehow first.

I finally reached the other village and found the beast’s lair underneath. After a long battle, I finally defeated it,but then it started acting strangely, like it was trying to talk to me. I only understood a few words – “no hurt”, so I decided to spare it and take it to Avadon for examination. Since the lair was an old wizards laboratory, I had good reasons to believe the beast was artificially made. Before I could do this, though, the wizard from Oghrym’Tor arrived and finished it. He gave me some half-assed explanation as to why he did it and left. In any case, my mission was over and I returned to Avadon.

I reported my success to the Heart and also mentioned all the suspicious behavior I experienced. She said she would look into it and assigned me to my next mission. The dragon in Kva has issues again, this time with ogres, who are also attacking the village. This is where I will be going next.