I don't mind the bandits and undead, they are just something to get past to see the sights. In a game like this, I am a tourist, wanting to see it all, inside and out.
- So I meet up with Jespar in Duneville.
Look at that poor bastard. Like his world is ending.
- The music is, as ever, on point. Arabian Nights-esque violin and some kind of wind instrument, like wind across the sands, a mournful piano creeping in… and here and there, a strain of pure, slithering menace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXF5Pg6 ... uGiATi_tYY
- So I head out into the desert with Jespar at my heels… and immediately get distracted by a ruin called Old Ishmartep.
That resolution to ignore the side stuff and finish the main quests lasted long.
- The Tomb Guardians inside are using the models of Skyrim’s mid-level Falmer: needle teeth, nonexistent nose, pointed ears, near-blind pink eyes, blue-green veins shining through translucent skin. Loincloth, greaves, gauntlets, the multi-eyed masks. Creepy as shit, in a phrase.
It’s a much different feel than exploring a Falmer-infested ruin, though. Fighting the Falmer always felt like putting down some piteous creatures. Fighting the Tomb Guardians feel like fighting a small army.
Part of it’s the lighting;
The tomb isn’t well-lit exactly but there are cracks in the walls here and there letting in natural light. There are lit fire braziers. No bioluminescent green glowing fungus to be found.
Part of it’s in the fighting itself;
Falmer tend to chitinous equipment and armor and domesticate chaurus bugs; the Tomb Guardians are dressed in simple cloth, but well-equipped with silver-steel swords, shields of bone and bows of wood and horn. It’s not like hideous pus beetle animal husbandry would be easy, probably! But fighting with well-forged swords and shields makes the Tomb Guardians feel more civilized.
- Most of it is in the wordless storytelling you get from exploring the tomb, though.
You can find bags of gunpowder. Mining equipment. Maps.
I don’t know if Old Ishmartep wants to conquer the surface world the way the Falmer do, but they already feel like they’ll have a better shot at it than the Falmer.
There’s a zone in the dungeon called the Nest, and I figure, “Oh, here’s the spider section.” There’s usually a spider section. Agnod, ancient crashed spaceship, had a spider section.
Well, not exactly; this zone involves the Tomb Guardians fighting off an encroaching sand spider nest. Within a minute the spiders are dead and the Tomb Guardians haven’t lost a fighter.
I have to murder spiders all the time too, they get everywhere! It feels like we have so much in common!
- After completing the simple fetch quest to unlock the door to his ornate tomb, Ishmartep himself emerges from his coffin in beams of light, a shriveled king complete with a golden crown upon his head.
Given the way he one-shotted my ice elemental, I assume he’s probably at the level of one of the Lost One Lords, but popping the timestop power and double power attacking him a couple times meant I didn’t have to find out.
That power is honestly the most ridiculous so far; I leveled twice in this dusty dungeon, and put both points into taking it to Level 3 (12 seconds, Dio Brando ain’t shit in comparison)
- Well, a quick teleport back to Duneville to sell an armory’s worth of silver-steel later:
Surmak Saltblow looks ridiculous with his mouth hanging open, you’d think no one had ever jumped up on his counter to talk to him before.
Actually, he just tends to leave his gob open in general, giving him this constant look of gormless surprise, it’s kind of funny.
It’s also pretty nice that everything in Duneville (except the jail) is in one zone, so you can hear the bard from the tavern as you shop.
Anyway, that over with, I can get back on the road to Jespar’s meetup with his sister.
- The old Dal’Varek estate is in the midst of an oasis in the desert, more of a jungle biome than anything. Not what I was expecting.
Aside from being attacked by panthers and lions, I also have to fight some Marauder-type bandits. One of them steps up the usual Enderalean insult game by calling me a ‘fucking bitch.’
Welp.
Jespar also has this line when he watches me tear the soul out of a bandit and eat it to refresh myself. His reaction is:
“Who needs potions when he knows Entropy?”
Jespar’s good people. I mean, for an undead ghost-summoning swordswoman such as myself. It’s probably for the best that the game doesn’t have Calia react to the Entropy thing, although that would be pretty interesting in its own way.
- Jespar and Adila’s meetup spot is in their old kids’ hidey-hole, which turns out to be an abandoned shadowsteel mine.
Well, ‘abandoned.’
Miners moved in at some point, and were then massacred by Lost Ones when the, you know, Red Madness and everything happened.
Jespar’s childhood hideout was built on top of a mine, which was built on top of a crypt.
Welcome to Enderal.
- In fairness, it looks totally sweet, and I'd want to explore it if I were some stupid kid, too.
- So the plan is for Jespar to take the lift down to meet her, and I’m going to have to fight my way through the crypt to come out in the bushes and spy on them.
I’m not even surprised.
Gives me a chance to try out the new Za Warudo power, and wow. Timestop, where have you been all my life?
It was pretty neat when the Lost Ones heard me walking around, opened the door and waltzed out of the crypt and into the mine area. But otherwise the crypt is surprisingly small and easy to get through, which I appreciate.
- Anyway! Adila has a new victim – because of course she was the one murderin’ dudes, nobody except Jespar believed otherwise for a second – and this one’s a little special. One of the guys who killed their parents and burned their house to the ground.
Now, I’m not entirely sure if that means he’s from the Relata – the mob – or one of the corrupt judges that Jespar’s dad tried to bring down, or what. It doesn’t really matter in the end, I guess. He’s just a prop in this tale of sibling… whatever.
He tries to talk her down for a few minutes, while I wonder when exactly I’m supposed to pop out of the bushes and shank her in the back.
- Jespar tries to get her to give him the Stone and then leave free, but anyone who’s ever seen Gollum and that ring knows that wasn’t going to end well, either.
Adila summons up a blast of flame that sets both the victim and Jespar on fire.
Welp.
Adila’s pretty good, but she’s no… well, me.
The Takeaway:
It’s kind of shocking, how quickly that was over. Constantine's death I saw coming, with the chanting in elder tongues and madman ramblings; Jespar's I didn't. Which I guess is the point, right? Jespar isn’t a Capital Letter Emissary, he’s just a guy. And when you play with fire, when you involve yourself in big events… sometimes you get burnt. Luck runs out.
I don’t think there was any way to avoid that; that would be a pretty enormous story beat going completely differently if I could walk up and shank Adila in the back while they were talking.
But I think it says something that I kind of want to reload and try it anyway.
Look at that poor bastard. Like his world is ending.
- The music is, as ever, on point. Arabian Nights-esque violin and some kind of wind instrument, like wind across the sands, a mournful piano creeping in… and here and there, a strain of pure, slithering menace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXF5Pg6 ... uGiATi_tYY
- So I head out into the desert with Jespar at my heels… and immediately get distracted by a ruin called Old Ishmartep.
That resolution to ignore the side stuff and finish the main quests lasted long.
- The Tomb Guardians inside are using the models of Skyrim’s mid-level Falmer: needle teeth, nonexistent nose, pointed ears, near-blind pink eyes, blue-green veins shining through translucent skin. Loincloth, greaves, gauntlets, the multi-eyed masks. Creepy as shit, in a phrase.
It’s a much different feel than exploring a Falmer-infested ruin, though. Fighting the Falmer always felt like putting down some piteous creatures. Fighting the Tomb Guardians feel like fighting a small army.
Part of it’s the lighting;
The tomb isn’t well-lit exactly but there are cracks in the walls here and there letting in natural light. There are lit fire braziers. No bioluminescent green glowing fungus to be found.
Part of it’s in the fighting itself;
Falmer tend to chitinous equipment and armor and domesticate chaurus bugs; the Tomb Guardians are dressed in simple cloth, but well-equipped with silver-steel swords, shields of bone and bows of wood and horn. It’s not like hideous pus beetle animal husbandry would be easy, probably! But fighting with well-forged swords and shields makes the Tomb Guardians feel more civilized.
- Most of it is in the wordless storytelling you get from exploring the tomb, though.
You can find bags of gunpowder. Mining equipment. Maps.
I don’t know if Old Ishmartep wants to conquer the surface world the way the Falmer do, but they already feel like they’ll have a better shot at it than the Falmer.
There’s a zone in the dungeon called the Nest, and I figure, “Oh, here’s the spider section.” There’s usually a spider section. Agnod, ancient crashed spaceship, had a spider section.
Well, not exactly; this zone involves the Tomb Guardians fighting off an encroaching sand spider nest. Within a minute the spiders are dead and the Tomb Guardians haven’t lost a fighter.
I have to murder spiders all the time too, they get everywhere! It feels like we have so much in common!
- After completing the simple fetch quest to unlock the door to his ornate tomb, Ishmartep himself emerges from his coffin in beams of light, a shriveled king complete with a golden crown upon his head.
Given the way he one-shotted my ice elemental, I assume he’s probably at the level of one of the Lost One Lords, but popping the timestop power and double power attacking him a couple times meant I didn’t have to find out.
That power is honestly the most ridiculous so far; I leveled twice in this dusty dungeon, and put both points into taking it to Level 3 (12 seconds, Dio Brando ain’t shit in comparison)
- Well, a quick teleport back to Duneville to sell an armory’s worth of silver-steel later:
Surmak Saltblow looks ridiculous with his mouth hanging open, you’d think no one had ever jumped up on his counter to talk to him before.
Actually, he just tends to leave his gob open in general, giving him this constant look of gormless surprise, it’s kind of funny.
It’s also pretty nice that everything in Duneville (except the jail) is in one zone, so you can hear the bard from the tavern as you shop.
Anyway, that over with, I can get back on the road to Jespar’s meetup with his sister.
- The old Dal’Varek estate is in the midst of an oasis in the desert, more of a jungle biome than anything. Not what I was expecting.
Aside from being attacked by panthers and lions, I also have to fight some Marauder-type bandits. One of them steps up the usual Enderalean insult game by calling me a ‘fucking bitch.’
Welp.
Jespar also has this line when he watches me tear the soul out of a bandit and eat it to refresh myself. His reaction is:
“Who needs potions when he knows Entropy?”
Jespar’s good people. I mean, for an undead ghost-summoning swordswoman such as myself. It’s probably for the best that the game doesn’t have Calia react to the Entropy thing, although that would be pretty interesting in its own way.
- Jespar and Adila’s meetup spot is in their old kids’ hidey-hole, which turns out to be an abandoned shadowsteel mine.
Well, ‘abandoned.’
Miners moved in at some point, and were then massacred by Lost Ones when the, you know, Red Madness and everything happened.
Jespar’s childhood hideout was built on top of a mine, which was built on top of a crypt.
Welcome to Enderal.
- In fairness, it looks totally sweet, and I'd want to explore it if I were some stupid kid, too.
- So the plan is for Jespar to take the lift down to meet her, and I’m going to have to fight my way through the crypt to come out in the bushes and spy on them.
I’m not even surprised.
Gives me a chance to try out the new Za Warudo power, and wow. Timestop, where have you been all my life?
It was pretty neat when the Lost Ones heard me walking around, opened the door and waltzed out of the crypt and into the mine area. But otherwise the crypt is surprisingly small and easy to get through, which I appreciate.
- Anyway! Adila has a new victim – because of course she was the one murderin’ dudes, nobody except Jespar believed otherwise for a second – and this one’s a little special. One of the guys who killed their parents and burned their house to the ground.
Now, I’m not entirely sure if that means he’s from the Relata – the mob – or one of the corrupt judges that Jespar’s dad tried to bring down, or what. It doesn’t really matter in the end, I guess. He’s just a prop in this tale of sibling… whatever.
He tries to talk her down for a few minutes, while I wonder when exactly I’m supposed to pop out of the bushes and shank her in the back.
- Jespar tries to get her to give him the Stone and then leave free, but anyone who’s ever seen Gollum and that ring knows that wasn’t going to end well, either.
Adila summons up a blast of flame that sets both the victim and Jespar on fire.
Welp.
Adila’s pretty good, but she’s no… well, me.
The Takeaway:
It’s kind of shocking, how quickly that was over. Constantine's death I saw coming, with the chanting in elder tongues and madman ramblings; Jespar's I didn't. Which I guess is the point, right? Jespar isn’t a Capital Letter Emissary, he’s just a guy. And when you play with fire, when you involve yourself in big events… sometimes you get burnt. Luck runs out.
I don’t think there was any way to avoid that; that would be a pretty enormous story beat going completely differently if I could walk up and shank Adila in the back while they were talking.
But I think it says something that I kind of want to reload and try it anyway.
Thank you for another episode!
Don't bother reloading. Simply load the game and walk away from where his body lies and towards the exit. Things will answer themselves.
Don't bother reloading. Simply load the game and walk away from where his body lies and towards the exit. Things will answer themselves.
Thanks dyslexicfaser!
Actually, that was exactly what I did - reload and tried it again. But as Ragnarok said, let the story play itself out, you are an observer to this harrowing scene.
Actually, that was exactly what I did - reload and tried it again. But as Ragnarok said, let the story play itself out, you are an observer to this harrowing scene.
Well, a quick teleport back to Duneville to sell an armory’s worth of silver-steel later:
- On the way out, the torch flames turn blue and who should appear?
Not a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer.
I suppose it’s possible for her to sound more like a devil looking to strike a deal, but I’m not sure how.
- Now, the Veiled Woman is here to lay some facts on us in the way of all Oracle-type supporting characters, but trying to figure out what exactly she’s copping to is tricky.
Presumably part of that is, you know, fifth-dimensional being trying to talk down to a third-dimensional hairless ape. But also she just sounds suspicious as a fox trying to explain why she’s in this particular henhouse, but it’s okay, she’s on your side.
So I’m going to put on my critical reading glasses and examine every word.
- First off, she recognizes that maybe I’m a little peeved about that whole ‘getting Sirius and I discovered as stowaways, tied to a big rock, and dumped overboard’ thing from the start of the game.
She claims this was necessary, because of course.
She tells a tale where we made it to Enderal only to be found creeping overboard in the dead of night, only to be caught and killed in hopes of a promotion to Petty Officer First Class or whatever. That’s what would have happened without her interference, she said.
That could be true. Those of us without extra-dimensional future-senses can’t exactly check one way or the other.
But how exactly was getting us murdered faster any better? Why did it need to happen that way? Did I need to doubt my own survival (dumped overboard rather than stabbed through the head) to get this undead Prophetess thing to work? Is it something to do with the tower I found myself washed up on the shore next to? Is there someone or something with their eye on Enderal, and the little life-death switcheroo had to happen in open waters?
Give me something to work with here, lady.
- Aside from killing me (and, to be fair, bringing me back as a sword-swinging, magic-slinging badass... that still dies to the occasional snow wolf), of course, there’s also the bit I just learned:
That the Veiled Woman killed Dal’Galar and took Calia to that village she murdered like a chess player setting up her pieces on the board.
I appreciate that the game lets me call her out on it; presumably that’s why one of my readers suggested I do Calia’s quest first.
Her response is pretty interesting. “You claim I took part in the death of the grieving man… But was that really me, I wonder? Or only a splinter of what I really am? I have many forms, Prophetess…”
Now, aside from being a pretty piss-poor excuse (Was it really me that shot you, or should you really be angry at my right hand? Hmm? Think about it), this suggests that maybe all of the pieces here, at least on the Emissary side of things, have their own Veiled Woman? And this one is mine.
- There’s also some talk about the Cycle threatening all parallel realities, what she calls ‘branches’ of reality, of which this is only one. But that doesn’t really hit home; I mean, I have enough trouble looking after this branch. Those other branches’ Prophetesses can pull their own weight, thanks. The slackers.
- One particularly noteworthy line is, when asked if she is one of the High Ones, that “High Ones, humanity, the Emissaries, ... are all just pieces of the same game.”
It’s said in a tone that suggests the Veiled Woman is above it all. A player, not a piece of the game.
I imagine she’s trying to suggest she’s the player on ‘our’ side, but frankly for all I know she could be playing this game against herself.
- But she “doesn’t like being seen as a destroyer … Which is why I will wipe away my debt, which was never there to begin with.”
Boom! Jespar, back to life.
So apparently for every two people she has killed, she can be talked into bringing one back! Or maybe I hurt her feelings?
So she refuses to take credit for that other Veiled Woman that killed Dal’Galar, but on a whim she decided to make good on it anyway. Pure whimsy.
- Hey Jespar, you doing okay buddy?
He’s fine.
He asks after his sister first thing, and… yyyyeah, I killed her really dead.
So Jespar gets his alone time, while I head back to Duneville and sell off all his sister’s worldly possessions. Her robe is pretty sweet-looking, with a design like a hand grabbed the red tabard bit and charred an imprint into it.
I give it even odds whether that will turn out to be important – the sign of the High Ones or something – or just something to give a little flair to her character model. Of course, I sold it away immediately.
The Takeaway:
As quickly and senselessly as Jespar died, the man’s back in the saddle. I wonder if he got superpowers from it like me and Calia did? We could be like, the Three Amigos! Sounds better than ‘those three freaks’, anyway.
So that makes two Black Stones accounted for. A quest popped up to track down Calia, and I’m thinking I’ll do that before turning these stones in to Arantheal, in case she wants to try using it to heal her demon after all.
I mean, it’d probably be a terrible idea and result in horrible consequences for everyone involved, but everybody’s free to make their own mistakes. I know I make enough of them, starting from coming to Enderal in the first place on down through things like getting sucker punched and trapped in a rapidly-flooding Agnod, down to today when I let Jespar go up like a Roman candle.
Not a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer.
I suppose it’s possible for her to sound more like a devil looking to strike a deal, but I’m not sure how.
- Now, the Veiled Woman is here to lay some facts on us in the way of all Oracle-type supporting characters, but trying to figure out what exactly she’s copping to is tricky.
Presumably part of that is, you know, fifth-dimensional being trying to talk down to a third-dimensional hairless ape. But also she just sounds suspicious as a fox trying to explain why she’s in this particular henhouse, but it’s okay, she’s on your side.
So I’m going to put on my critical reading glasses and examine every word.
- First off, she recognizes that maybe I’m a little peeved about that whole ‘getting Sirius and I discovered as stowaways, tied to a big rock, and dumped overboard’ thing from the start of the game.
She claims this was necessary, because of course.
She tells a tale where we made it to Enderal only to be found creeping overboard in the dead of night, only to be caught and killed in hopes of a promotion to Petty Officer First Class or whatever. That’s what would have happened without her interference, she said.
That could be true. Those of us without extra-dimensional future-senses can’t exactly check one way or the other.
But how exactly was getting us murdered faster any better? Why did it need to happen that way? Did I need to doubt my own survival (dumped overboard rather than stabbed through the head) to get this undead Prophetess thing to work? Is it something to do with the tower I found myself washed up on the shore next to? Is there someone or something with their eye on Enderal, and the little life-death switcheroo had to happen in open waters?
Give me something to work with here, lady.
- Aside from killing me (and, to be fair, bringing me back as a sword-swinging, magic-slinging badass... that still dies to the occasional snow wolf), of course, there’s also the bit I just learned:
That the Veiled Woman killed Dal’Galar and took Calia to that village she murdered like a chess player setting up her pieces on the board.
I appreciate that the game lets me call her out on it; presumably that’s why one of my readers suggested I do Calia’s quest first.
Her response is pretty interesting. “You claim I took part in the death of the grieving man… But was that really me, I wonder? Or only a splinter of what I really am? I have many forms, Prophetess…”
Now, aside from being a pretty piss-poor excuse (Was it really me that shot you, or should you really be angry at my right hand? Hmm? Think about it), this suggests that maybe all of the pieces here, at least on the Emissary side of things, have their own Veiled Woman? And this one is mine.
- There’s also some talk about the Cycle threatening all parallel realities, what she calls ‘branches’ of reality, of which this is only one. But that doesn’t really hit home; I mean, I have enough trouble looking after this branch. Those other branches’ Prophetesses can pull their own weight, thanks. The slackers.
- One particularly noteworthy line is, when asked if she is one of the High Ones, that “High Ones, humanity, the Emissaries, ... are all just pieces of the same game.”
It’s said in a tone that suggests the Veiled Woman is above it all. A player, not a piece of the game.
I imagine she’s trying to suggest she’s the player on ‘our’ side, but frankly for all I know she could be playing this game against herself.
- But she “doesn’t like being seen as a destroyer … Which is why I will wipe away my debt, which was never there to begin with.”
Boom! Jespar, back to life.
So apparently for every two people she has killed, she can be talked into bringing one back! Or maybe I hurt her feelings?
So she refuses to take credit for that other Veiled Woman that killed Dal’Galar, but on a whim she decided to make good on it anyway. Pure whimsy.
- Hey Jespar, you doing okay buddy?
He’s fine.
He asks after his sister first thing, and… yyyyeah, I killed her really dead.
So Jespar gets his alone time, while I head back to Duneville and sell off all his sister’s worldly possessions. Her robe is pretty sweet-looking, with a design like a hand grabbed the red tabard bit and charred an imprint into it.
I give it even odds whether that will turn out to be important – the sign of the High Ones or something – or just something to give a little flair to her character model. Of course, I sold it away immediately.
The Takeaway:
As quickly and senselessly as Jespar died, the man’s back in the saddle. I wonder if he got superpowers from it like me and Calia did? We could be like, the Three Amigos! Sounds better than ‘those three freaks’, anyway.
So that makes two Black Stones accounted for. A quest popped up to track down Calia, and I’m thinking I’ll do that before turning these stones in to Arantheal, in case she wants to try using it to heal her demon after all.
I mean, it’d probably be a terrible idea and result in horrible consequences for everyone involved, but everybody’s free to make their own mistakes. I know I make enough of them, starting from coming to Enderal in the first place on down through things like getting sucker punched and trapped in a rapidly-flooding Agnod, down to today when I let Jespar go up like a Roman candle.
for the sake of curiosity would you prefer to romance calia or jespar? both are up for grabs regardless of gender and quite personally regardless of what gender i play as i always went for calia............... either way the "romance" quest will trigger a decent while after you get the 3rd black stone which mind you is the creepiest of the bunch i must say
19.01.2018 05:59draneiwow2 wrote: for the sake of curiosity would you prefer to romance calia or jespar? both are up for grabs regardless of gender and quite personally regardless of what gender i play as i always went for calia............... either way the "romance" quest will trigger a decent while after you get the 3rd black stone which mind you is the creepiest of the bunch i must say
Calia's cute, but kind of a doom n' gloom type of girl.
I am embarrassed by your "impressions," by how much I missed by not thinking deeply about some of the dialogue such as your analysis of the veiled woman's remarks. There are so many little details you discuss (and some larger ones as well) that I just glossed over -- do quest, sell, boost stats, do next quest, etc. I feel like you could turn this into a PhD dissertation! (Or maybe a black & yellow "Enderal for Dummies.")
Or like "swords don't kill people, people kill people" to misquote the NRA.
(Was it really me that shot you, or should you really be angry at my right hand? Hmm? Think about it)
Jespar is back from the dead. But are you, Prophetess? 
19.01.2018 06:27dyslexicfaser wrote: I'm inclined to say 'Jespar' if he doesn't let this thing with his sister entirely bring down his snark. The kind of life my Prophetess lives, I need someone who can laugh off finding their own waterlogged corpse.
Calia's cute, but kind of a doom n' gloom type of girl.
19.01.2018 09:21badgesareus wrote: I am embarrassed by your "impressions," by how much I missed by not thinking deeply about some of the dialogue such as your analysis of the veiled woman's remarks. There are so many little details you discuss (and some larger ones as well) that I just glossed over -- do quest, sell, boost stats, do next quest, etc. I feel like you could turn this into a PhD dissertation! (Or maybe a black & yellow "Enderal for Dummies.")
19.01.2018 06:27dyslexicfaser wrote: Calia's cute, but kind of a doom n' gloom type of girl.
First off, sorry for the wait. I’ve been doing a Final Fantasy XIV quest over on anonkun and that’s been eating a lot of my free time these last couple weeks. Anyhow, onward!
- Heading back to Ark, I’m struck by the absolute beauty in some of these loading screens. It looks like something out of the Thomas Kinkade gallery. They must have an artist on staff that does this, right?
I’m not sure I buy Enderal being less prejudiced against anyone or anything, though. Was this loading screen painted by the Enderal chamber of commerce? Trying to get those tourism dollars?
- The plan is to go track down my poor heartbroken companions while they pour out their hearts to me, and in exchange I will complete quests and gain XP. But that can wait a minute while I check in with my magic connection.
Absorption VI and Soil Elemental II are straight up upgrades to what I’ve been rolling with (16 -> 24 damage/healing and level 36 ice elemental -> level 43 soil elemental, respectively).
Paralyze II is starting to sound worthwhile: paralyzing an enemy mook for 6 seconds? I’ll give that a try, sure. With my luck it won’t work on giants or liches or whatever crazy stuff I’ll have to fight next, but whatever.
Also, I went ahead and bought a house in the noble quarter. No real reason not to pay 4500 gold pennies for something like that when you have 37,000 of them sitting in the bank.
- Now appropriately equipped, I track down Calia first.
I find her beating a straw dummy to death with her fists. I have never seen one humanoid that actually tries to punch people with bare knuckles except for that one crazy fight-picking drunk in the foreign quarter, but who am I to get in the way of stress relief?
Oh yeah. I am that guy.
Well I’m sorry for getting in the way of her training, but at least Calia’s voice actress is getting in a good workout. Usually whoever they’ve got voicing her has two modes: stalwart determination and quiet ‘everything sucks but I don’t want to talk about it.’ But she’s got a vibrato going on that would do justice to some of Jespar’s best ‘I’m on the edge of tears but am too manly to not pretend I don’t care’ work.
- The content is pretty standard for her, just dialed up to 11. You know, ‘I don’t need your pity’ followed immediately by ‘I’m a monster!’
There’s this bit where she calls me caring about her the biggest joke since Starfall, and sure, it’s sad and all, empathy right, but all I can think is: What the heck is Starfall?
Is it when the Lightborn died?
Is it when Agnod crashed?
Or were there actual meteor showers at some point?
- I tune back in about the time she lets me know that the time I got cutscene-defeated in Old Dothulgrad she only barely kept herself from doing stuff to my paralyzed corpse.
I am allowed to ask ‘What were you going to do?’ but I decide not to do that. It seems pretty clear from context when she talks about what her ‘impulses’ were when she’s talking about the blood on my face and how helpless I was.
I dunno, maybe her demon was trying to convince her to hold me in her arms and never let me go, but I’m kind of doubting it.
Calia, channelling her inner undead teenager, also bursts out with ‘I never asked to be brought back from the dead!’ which, yeah, join the club.
- So there’s Calia, heartbroken, doubting herself, considering removing herself from all civilized company to keep people safe from herself. I kind of get the idea that her last quest is going to involve facing her demon and coming to terms with it.
And I’m probably going to have to hold her hand through it. Eesh.
- Since I’m already in the Sun Temple, I swing by and hand off the Black Stones to our favorite fop, Archmagister Lexil.
Pretty standard stuff here, too: flashes of light when the Black Stones are plugged into the machine, beams of light illuminating the gyroscope eternally spinning in the center, yadda yadda.
One interesting tidbit, the Prophetess just lies to Lexil’s face as a matter of course about Calia’s true involvement in events; Lexil has this line about ‘I wonder where that poor girl got off to’ or something like that.
High five, me.
- Lexil also uses the phrase, ‘half a chicken doesn’t make a cake.’ What.
I mean, obviously from context it’s taken to mean the job is only half done, but… generally my cakes do not involve chicken at any point.
I’m not sure if this is a weird mistranslation from his Aeterna side of the family, or from the original German. Like, should it be pies maybe? Like a meat pie?
I have no idea.
- Oh, and I was somewhat worried by that black smoke coming off the machine there, but it turns out there’s a torch contraption on the other side of the platform giving off that smoke.
Whew.
- Anyway, time to track down Jespar. The first place is, of course, the Dancing Nomad tavern where I suspect he’s rented out a room long-term. I ask the bartender.
Yes, that sounds like him, have you seen him?
- It turns out that not only was Jespar drowning his sorrows, he already left with the intention to do some bar hopping.
Time to check every bar in the city, including several I wasn’t even aware existed.
- On the way I actually bother to check South Ark in depth for the first time, since my minimap is pointing that way. It turns out to be a false lead and it’s actually leading me into the Undercity, but South Ark is pretty nice.
The museum.
I learn that apparently these glowing crystals I've been noticing just grow around the ruins, even when the ruins are transported as a museum exhibit. That’s pretty rad.
Also there’s an exhibit talking about 'energy concentrators', artifacts of the highest order that turn memories and experiences into energy (I wonder if the crystals are a similar phenomenon?) but to draw it out you need some heretofore unknown gewgaw.
Assuming that’ll be important to our ancient relic beacon tower thing at some point, I go ahead and steal it preemptively.
- There’s also a very extensive art gallery (/house) whose owner gives me a sidequest for later to go check in on her mom in Dark Valley, which sounds just lovely this time of year.
And finally, a brewery that is way too attractively set up to merely house one unnamed laborer.
- In any case, off to find Jespar. There’s a couple of misses, before I find my way to the deepest possible tavern in the underbelly of Undercity. Red curtains and lanterns abound, as do prostitutes with extremely unlikely perfectly sculpted (and oiled) abs for a place as poor as Undercity. There’s probably a better metaphor for Jespar literally hitting rock bottom than this place, but none immediately occur to me.
I do find Jespar here, and he looks right at home.
Jespar has abs that won’t lose to any of these prostitutes that never miss gym day, that’s nice to know.
You can’t really tell from the picture, but Jespar’s foot is resting on a wine bottle and three shallow bowls of glimmerdust litter the ground.
- I kind of love that the prostitute calling herself ‘Leandra, Queen of the Desert’ actually laughs in response to one of Jespar’s jokes, and it’s subtitled as ‘(Artificial laughter).’
- So after I tell the prostitutes to take a hike, me and Jespar have it out.
If Calia was trying to convince herself to cut and run, then Jespar is trying to convince himself he doesn't care.
Because he's a bad man that betrays and runs away from all his commitments, right? He saw his sister withdrawing from the world into their father’s law books and didn't confront her, because it was easier. He left his first girlfriend to the mercy of bandits rather than try to save her, because he was afraid. He assures me that there are many more stories like those two, where he failed to live up to any kind of heroic self image.
I really like the red lighting here, shining on Jespar’s face with his shadow cast like a hulking monster on the wall behind him. I wonder if I can score some red lanterns for my new house?
They’d be great for all my tortured, half-naked lounging needs.
Obviously I’m falling behind the curve on that.
- Jespar and Calia are both trying to convince me that they'll kill me one of these days, which is a little bit funny. I mean, we’re all dead men here.
You know, I don't think I've actually told anyone about my own lichdom. Kind of a dick move now that Calia and Jespar have joined me on the other side and could probably do with a little (in)human understanding, but I get it. The zombie apocalypse is not the best time to come out of the Lich closet.
- Jespar peaces out by way of teleport scroll (still half-naked; the Ark Marketplace is going to get a treat).
I steal his glimmerdust on the way out.
Filthy habit, he should thank me.
The Takeaway:
Whoever does the writing for Enderal knows their way around a leitmotif. Obviously I’m a silent rock who feels no pain or worry about being an undead monster clothed in the flesh of man! My MPD mind-buddy Axion was totally off-base when he claimed I was some kind of whinging coward out of my depth, naturally. But now I can point at my pals and go, ‘Wow, they are not handling this well at all.”
And these poor bastards have to save the world? Hopefully this is just the nadir that will build us back up into the world-saving badasses we always knew we could be, like this is the third act of a Disney film.
But I’m not holding my breath.
- Heading back to Ark, I’m struck by the absolute beauty in some of these loading screens. It looks like something out of the Thomas Kinkade gallery. They must have an artist on staff that does this, right?
I’m not sure I buy Enderal being less prejudiced against anyone or anything, though. Was this loading screen painted by the Enderal chamber of commerce? Trying to get those tourism dollars?
- The plan is to go track down my poor heartbroken companions while they pour out their hearts to me, and in exchange I will complete quests and gain XP. But that can wait a minute while I check in with my magic connection.
Absorption VI and Soil Elemental II are straight up upgrades to what I’ve been rolling with (16 -> 24 damage/healing and level 36 ice elemental -> level 43 soil elemental, respectively).
Paralyze II is starting to sound worthwhile: paralyzing an enemy mook for 6 seconds? I’ll give that a try, sure. With my luck it won’t work on giants or liches or whatever crazy stuff I’ll have to fight next, but whatever.
Also, I went ahead and bought a house in the noble quarter. No real reason not to pay 4500 gold pennies for something like that when you have 37,000 of them sitting in the bank.
- Now appropriately equipped, I track down Calia first.
I find her beating a straw dummy to death with her fists. I have never seen one humanoid that actually tries to punch people with bare knuckles except for that one crazy fight-picking drunk in the foreign quarter, but who am I to get in the way of stress relief?
Oh yeah. I am that guy.
Well I’m sorry for getting in the way of her training, but at least Calia’s voice actress is getting in a good workout. Usually whoever they’ve got voicing her has two modes: stalwart determination and quiet ‘everything sucks but I don’t want to talk about it.’ But she’s got a vibrato going on that would do justice to some of Jespar’s best ‘I’m on the edge of tears but am too manly to not pretend I don’t care’ work.
- The content is pretty standard for her, just dialed up to 11. You know, ‘I don’t need your pity’ followed immediately by ‘I’m a monster!’
There’s this bit where she calls me caring about her the biggest joke since Starfall, and sure, it’s sad and all, empathy right, but all I can think is: What the heck is Starfall?
Is it when the Lightborn died?
Is it when Agnod crashed?
Or were there actual meteor showers at some point?
- I tune back in about the time she lets me know that the time I got cutscene-defeated in Old Dothulgrad she only barely kept herself from doing stuff to my paralyzed corpse.
I am allowed to ask ‘What were you going to do?’ but I decide not to do that. It seems pretty clear from context when she talks about what her ‘impulses’ were when she’s talking about the blood on my face and how helpless I was.
I dunno, maybe her demon was trying to convince her to hold me in her arms and never let me go, but I’m kind of doubting it.
Calia, channelling her inner undead teenager, also bursts out with ‘I never asked to be brought back from the dead!’ which, yeah, join the club.
- So there’s Calia, heartbroken, doubting herself, considering removing herself from all civilized company to keep people safe from herself. I kind of get the idea that her last quest is going to involve facing her demon and coming to terms with it.
And I’m probably going to have to hold her hand through it. Eesh.
- Since I’m already in the Sun Temple, I swing by and hand off the Black Stones to our favorite fop, Archmagister Lexil.
Pretty standard stuff here, too: flashes of light when the Black Stones are plugged into the machine, beams of light illuminating the gyroscope eternally spinning in the center, yadda yadda.
One interesting tidbit, the Prophetess just lies to Lexil’s face as a matter of course about Calia’s true involvement in events; Lexil has this line about ‘I wonder where that poor girl got off to’ or something like that.
High five, me.
- Lexil also uses the phrase, ‘half a chicken doesn’t make a cake.’ What.
I mean, obviously from context it’s taken to mean the job is only half done, but… generally my cakes do not involve chicken at any point.
I’m not sure if this is a weird mistranslation from his Aeterna side of the family, or from the original German. Like, should it be pies maybe? Like a meat pie?
I have no idea.
- Oh, and I was somewhat worried by that black smoke coming off the machine there, but it turns out there’s a torch contraption on the other side of the platform giving off that smoke.
Whew.
- Anyway, time to track down Jespar. The first place is, of course, the Dancing Nomad tavern where I suspect he’s rented out a room long-term. I ask the bartender.
Yes, that sounds like him, have you seen him?
- It turns out that not only was Jespar drowning his sorrows, he already left with the intention to do some bar hopping.
Time to check every bar in the city, including several I wasn’t even aware existed.
- On the way I actually bother to check South Ark in depth for the first time, since my minimap is pointing that way. It turns out to be a false lead and it’s actually leading me into the Undercity, but South Ark is pretty nice.
The museum.
I learn that apparently these glowing crystals I've been noticing just grow around the ruins, even when the ruins are transported as a museum exhibit. That’s pretty rad.
Also there’s an exhibit talking about 'energy concentrators', artifacts of the highest order that turn memories and experiences into energy (I wonder if the crystals are a similar phenomenon?) but to draw it out you need some heretofore unknown gewgaw.
Assuming that’ll be important to our ancient relic beacon tower thing at some point, I go ahead and steal it preemptively.
- There’s also a very extensive art gallery (/house) whose owner gives me a sidequest for later to go check in on her mom in Dark Valley, which sounds just lovely this time of year.
And finally, a brewery that is way too attractively set up to merely house one unnamed laborer.
- In any case, off to find Jespar. There’s a couple of misses, before I find my way to the deepest possible tavern in the underbelly of Undercity. Red curtains and lanterns abound, as do prostitutes with extremely unlikely perfectly sculpted (and oiled) abs for a place as poor as Undercity. There’s probably a better metaphor for Jespar literally hitting rock bottom than this place, but none immediately occur to me.
I do find Jespar here, and he looks right at home.
Jespar has abs that won’t lose to any of these prostitutes that never miss gym day, that’s nice to know.
You can’t really tell from the picture, but Jespar’s foot is resting on a wine bottle and three shallow bowls of glimmerdust litter the ground.
- I kind of love that the prostitute calling herself ‘Leandra, Queen of the Desert’ actually laughs in response to one of Jespar’s jokes, and it’s subtitled as ‘(Artificial laughter).’
- So after I tell the prostitutes to take a hike, me and Jespar have it out.
If Calia was trying to convince herself to cut and run, then Jespar is trying to convince himself he doesn't care.
Because he's a bad man that betrays and runs away from all his commitments, right? He saw his sister withdrawing from the world into their father’s law books and didn't confront her, because it was easier. He left his first girlfriend to the mercy of bandits rather than try to save her, because he was afraid. He assures me that there are many more stories like those two, where he failed to live up to any kind of heroic self image.
I really like the red lighting here, shining on Jespar’s face with his shadow cast like a hulking monster on the wall behind him. I wonder if I can score some red lanterns for my new house?
They’d be great for all my tortured, half-naked lounging needs.
Obviously I’m falling behind the curve on that.
- Jespar and Calia are both trying to convince me that they'll kill me one of these days, which is a little bit funny. I mean, we’re all dead men here.
You know, I don't think I've actually told anyone about my own lichdom. Kind of a dick move now that Calia and Jespar have joined me on the other side and could probably do with a little (in)human understanding, but I get it. The zombie apocalypse is not the best time to come out of the Lich closet.
- Jespar peaces out by way of teleport scroll (still half-naked; the Ark Marketplace is going to get a treat).
I steal his glimmerdust on the way out.
Filthy habit, he should thank me.
The Takeaway:
Whoever does the writing for Enderal knows their way around a leitmotif. Obviously I’m a silent rock who feels no pain or worry about being an undead monster clothed in the flesh of man! My MPD mind-buddy Axion was totally off-base when he claimed I was some kind of whinging coward out of my depth, naturally. But now I can point at my pals and go, ‘Wow, they are not handling this well at all.”
And these poor bastards have to save the world? Hopefully this is just the nadir that will build us back up into the world-saving badasses we always knew we could be, like this is the third act of a Disney film.
But I’m not holding my breath.
That's ok on the wait, at least you didn't forget about us lonely souls here.
08.02.2018 04:21dyslexicfaser wrote: - Lexil also uses the phrase, ‘half a chicken doesn’t make a cake.’ What.
I mean, obviously from context it’s taken to mean the job is only half done, but… generally my cakes do not involve chicken at any point.
I’m not sure if this is a weird mistranslation from his Aeterna side of the family, or from the original German. Like, should it be pies maybe? Like a meat pie?
I have no idea.
Lexil does that in german too, they're apparently called malaphors (the more you know)
Well, time to go 3 for 3 on Black Stones! But first, some things I learned from loading screens today:
- The ‘Black Guardian’ lives in the deepest depths of the Undercity. I thought I’d gotten as deep in there as one could go, but apparently not! After all, everyone knows that ancient legends of dubious origin are as good as gold, especially if they come from the mouths of cloaked old men in taverns.
- The Starfall that Calia mentioned last time? Turns out it’s a meteorite impact that split the continent of ‘Pangora’ in year 0. So when she says she’s the biggest joke since Starfall? That’s all of recorded history. Just making sure we’re all on the same page regarding her level of self-loathing.
- I knew that the dead are incinerated in Enderal, but it appears that it’s a whole production. During the ‘Last Journey’, the deceased are taken to a special place in their lives to attend one last sunset there. The body is then cremated and its ashes spread over that location.
Wonderful world-building, although it makes you wonder… so like, the local church or midwife’s residence probably just have to deal with having their front stoop covered in ashes semi-regularly?
- “Beautiful and proud, the ruler of the Undercity. Her sinful womb bore fruit and horror grew along.” - Song of the Vatyr
I am pretty glad the tavern bards don’t sing that one.
So, allowing for artistic license… the Vatyr are mutants or something? Born from humans? Really puts a creepy spin on the Undercity orphanage being covered in Vatyr. Enderal is really just a deep, dark hole with no bottom, isn’t it?
- Okay, so the last Black Stone is in the possession of a noble’s bastard son, shipped away so that he wouldn’t shame the Dal’Geyss name. Naturally, my map marker is pointing to the very easternmost tip of the continent, across the mountains, at the end of the Powder Desert, well past Jespar’s family home.
Saddle up.
- There’s actually a fair amount of difficult side nonsense on the way.
There’s another ancient ruin, Old Askamahn. I feel like there was a quest about this place from the smuggler town in Powder Desert, something about a man heading off to steal the riches out from under the Order’s nose and inviting his friend to catch up? (I stole the key he left behind, natch).
I’ll swing back by and do this one if I remember, but right now it’s mostly noticeable for me being attacked outside it by two lions, two black panthers, and an actual gorilla called ‘Old Tyarge’ that knocks me off Whirlwind’s back with one swing. Considering that you can’t ride with summoned weapons, this puts me in the thick of it while unarmed, which is not a fun place to be.
That thief power that stops time is still the best thing that ever happened to me; it’s got a long cooldown but it’s basically (now that I’ve upgraded it twice) two or three free kills in any big fight.
- Beyond that is a place called the Powder Mine.
The fort topside is peopled by bandits and a lot of dead guards, which is always fun to see. I mean, not that I’m a sadist or anything, but I appreciate that some of these valuable mines weren’t taken without a fight, you know?
At first I thought what I was seeing was the Nehrimese taking over a mine only to then be murdered right back by bandits and wild mages, but the heraldry is wrong. Griffin standing upright, not phoenix.
My second thought is, did I already come by here and murder everyone? But no, I'm definitely not the culprit here, because they still have all their clothes.
I’m not sure who these poor schlubs are; the only city in the Powder Desert is Duneville, guarded by those Watchdog guys in black leather.
- I figured it wouldn’t be too tough to poke my head in for a minute (I was wrong), mines are usually much smaller than those old ruins (also wrong).
The air is hazy and wavery, like heat mirages in the desert. Probably not terribly good for living people, but I appear to be fine.
Looks like this is where sulfur and whatnot is turned into blackpowder, which means that yes, the bandits also control the continent’s major source of blackpowder.
The bandits are at least half made up of mages, including an Oorbaya summoner and a couple of guys with fireball staffs. I dunno how staffs work exactly, but as far as I can tell there’s basically no wind-up casting with them. A mage with a fireball staff will simply explode you repeatedly until you are dead or his staff runs out of energy. The constant explosions serve as their own kind of smokescreen, which makes those guys a bitch to actually find and stab in the midst of all the fire.
There’s a box full of ‘confiscated scrolls’ of fireball which presumably are meant to be used at the big throw-down at the deepest levels (there’s an oily multi-colored substance all over the place that usually catches on fire when fire spells/arrows are used on it), but honestly I’m kind of afraid of blowing us all to kingdom come so I just wade in and stab people until I win.
On the way out, I notice that there’s a lot of people in nice robes called ‘Scientists’, bloody and dead at their desks.
It’s not like this is news by now, but it’s nice to see the Skyrim-like wordless storytelling tradition is alive and well. I do wish there was some writing explaining who these guys work for, though! I did spot one corpse wearing Order novitiate red, though, so probably affiliated with the Order somehow.
- The next setpiece appears to be a village of gorillas! Gorilla-like things called Tyargs, anyway.
The buildings are of a unique adobe-like design, rounded and bright yellow stone.
The gorillas appear to be willing to live and let live as I ride through, though, so what the hey. I ride on.
Immediately afterwards, however, control is taken away from me and the Prophetess decides she has had quite enough of riding and dismounts.
Things get wavy like it’s time for a Future Vision, but instead I just hit the floor like the tail end of a 6 hour marathon drinking session.
- The ground behind us has been the subject of a sudden and inexplicable rockfall.
There’s a ‘sudden, sharp pain’ if you try to use a teleport scroll.
All right, Enderal. Show me whatever weird-ass thing you’ve got up your sleeve.
- I actually meet a fellow human being, which is already promising. ‘The Guardian’ suggests that at night the Bonerippers (remember them? Man-sized lizardfolk? From all the way back in the Kor side-quest!) come out of their caves, and if I don’t want to meet them I should take shelter inside.
My character rightfully points out that, as a heavily-armed woman with a skull for a helmet (Skaragg armor being what it is), wielding two ghostly sabers and trailed by a lightning-wreathed elemental like a faithful hound, perhaps just letting me inside is a little careless?
Look, self, there’s no point in being self-aware now. Ark and Duneville let you in without a peep, and my night would not be improved any by having to fight off more bonerippers.
Anyway, the Guardian is of the opinion that “trust has to start somewhere”, and I applaud his determination to keep my bones inside where they belong.
As he throws the switch, he mentions they’re living very well after some boy found a silver vein. Now that sounds plot-relevant. How much do you want to bet that’s the one I’m here for?
- Silvergrove is looking very nice. It’s got its own little oasis biome, with watermills and ruins and things (most with locked doors).
Several buildings in town are also locked. Not entirely sure if that’s to give the appearance of an expansive area without needing to work on the particulars, or if something else is going on.
- Okay, so tinfoil hat time.
First thing you run into when you get to town? You meet a little girl who says, unprompted, ‘Ryneus has the greatest father in the world! I’m really jealous!’
At the general store? The owner gossips, ‘Have you heard? Ryneus’s father patched up a weird sphere his boy found in the old ruin.’ and after a short conversation his girl pal concludes with, ‘By the righteous path, thank goodness I live here instead of that stinkhole of a city, Ark!’
At the tavern? The innkeeper tells the founding myth of Silvergrove: a rich family moved out to the end of the world, and were blessed with a brilliant young son, Sunaeri. You know how it is in myths, where the myth hero can talk at 6 months and wrestle bears by the time he’s 3 and all that? That’s this kid.
So due to a rockslide or something, the couple found themselves starving. When the parents were emaciated and dying, for they gave all their remaining food to their son Sunaeri, Sunaeri cried, begged the gods for help, and from his tears sprung flowers and greenery and the oasis as it is today. And with a smile on his lips, Sunaeri died.
The last data point: the innkeeper, when asked why her place is named the Silent Moon’s Inn? She can’t remember. Blurry, like a dream. She blames the brandy, of course.
- So. It occurs to me that, if Dal’Geyss ever told me his son’s name, I don’t remember it. But I wonder, if he’d told me before I left, would it be Ryneus… or Sunaeri?
This little town seems to revolve around this boy and his father. The little girl who tells everyone she meets how jealous she is about Ryneus’s father. The boy finding a silver lode and making the town rich as Croesus. The father being able to fix up a piece of Starling tech.
How special! How… main character of him. And what would a boy who is sent away as the shame of his noble father want, more than anything?
Fame. Money. Specialness. A father who makes all the little boys and girls jealous, instead of that cock Dal’Geyss.
One possibility.
- Consider the myth. The rockfall that cut them off from the world, just as the Prophetess has been cut off.
Dal’Geyss’s mistress died of sickness, emaciated and weary just like the parents in the story, managing to send him away with the Black Stone as a little bit of rebellion before she died. A boy who, lost, despairing, alone… wept an oasis into being. A lost child, what better time and place for the High Ones’ influence to creep in?
-The tavernkeeper who doesn’t remember her own history. If someone sprung fully-formed from a young boy’s tears to populate an old building named the Silent Moon’s Inn… she wouldn’t know where the name came from, would she?
The woman at the general store talking about 'that stinking hole, Ark' sure seemed deeply anti-Ark, which might be nothing... but it would also be just what some poor kid sent away from the capital to live in disgrace would think about the place he was forced out of. 'I didn't want to live in your shitty town anyway, dad!'
Guess I’ll find out next time.
The Takeaway:
Very promising start, and at this point I have full confidence SureAI is going to deliver something fun. The sidequests can be hit and miss, but Enderal really does shine best when the claws come out and it’s time once again to fuck with your head.
- The ‘Black Guardian’ lives in the deepest depths of the Undercity. I thought I’d gotten as deep in there as one could go, but apparently not! After all, everyone knows that ancient legends of dubious origin are as good as gold, especially if they come from the mouths of cloaked old men in taverns.
- The Starfall that Calia mentioned last time? Turns out it’s a meteorite impact that split the continent of ‘Pangora’ in year 0. So when she says she’s the biggest joke since Starfall? That’s all of recorded history. Just making sure we’re all on the same page regarding her level of self-loathing.
- I knew that the dead are incinerated in Enderal, but it appears that it’s a whole production. During the ‘Last Journey’, the deceased are taken to a special place in their lives to attend one last sunset there. The body is then cremated and its ashes spread over that location.
Wonderful world-building, although it makes you wonder… so like, the local church or midwife’s residence probably just have to deal with having their front stoop covered in ashes semi-regularly?
- “Beautiful and proud, the ruler of the Undercity. Her sinful womb bore fruit and horror grew along.” - Song of the Vatyr
I am pretty glad the tavern bards don’t sing that one.
So, allowing for artistic license… the Vatyr are mutants or something? Born from humans? Really puts a creepy spin on the Undercity orphanage being covered in Vatyr. Enderal is really just a deep, dark hole with no bottom, isn’t it?
- Okay, so the last Black Stone is in the possession of a noble’s bastard son, shipped away so that he wouldn’t shame the Dal’Geyss name. Naturally, my map marker is pointing to the very easternmost tip of the continent, across the mountains, at the end of the Powder Desert, well past Jespar’s family home.
Saddle up.
- There’s actually a fair amount of difficult side nonsense on the way.
There’s another ancient ruin, Old Askamahn. I feel like there was a quest about this place from the smuggler town in Powder Desert, something about a man heading off to steal the riches out from under the Order’s nose and inviting his friend to catch up? (I stole the key he left behind, natch).
I’ll swing back by and do this one if I remember, but right now it’s mostly noticeable for me being attacked outside it by two lions, two black panthers, and an actual gorilla called ‘Old Tyarge’ that knocks me off Whirlwind’s back with one swing. Considering that you can’t ride with summoned weapons, this puts me in the thick of it while unarmed, which is not a fun place to be.
That thief power that stops time is still the best thing that ever happened to me; it’s got a long cooldown but it’s basically (now that I’ve upgraded it twice) two or three free kills in any big fight.
- Beyond that is a place called the Powder Mine.
The fort topside is peopled by bandits and a lot of dead guards, which is always fun to see. I mean, not that I’m a sadist or anything, but I appreciate that some of these valuable mines weren’t taken without a fight, you know?
At first I thought what I was seeing was the Nehrimese taking over a mine only to then be murdered right back by bandits and wild mages, but the heraldry is wrong. Griffin standing upright, not phoenix.
My second thought is, did I already come by here and murder everyone? But no, I'm definitely not the culprit here, because they still have all their clothes.
I’m not sure who these poor schlubs are; the only city in the Powder Desert is Duneville, guarded by those Watchdog guys in black leather.
- I figured it wouldn’t be too tough to poke my head in for a minute (I was wrong), mines are usually much smaller than those old ruins (also wrong).
The air is hazy and wavery, like heat mirages in the desert. Probably not terribly good for living people, but I appear to be fine.
Looks like this is where sulfur and whatnot is turned into blackpowder, which means that yes, the bandits also control the continent’s major source of blackpowder.
The bandits are at least half made up of mages, including an Oorbaya summoner and a couple of guys with fireball staffs. I dunno how staffs work exactly, but as far as I can tell there’s basically no wind-up casting with them. A mage with a fireball staff will simply explode you repeatedly until you are dead or his staff runs out of energy. The constant explosions serve as their own kind of smokescreen, which makes those guys a bitch to actually find and stab in the midst of all the fire.
There’s a box full of ‘confiscated scrolls’ of fireball which presumably are meant to be used at the big throw-down at the deepest levels (there’s an oily multi-colored substance all over the place that usually catches on fire when fire spells/arrows are used on it), but honestly I’m kind of afraid of blowing us all to kingdom come so I just wade in and stab people until I win.
On the way out, I notice that there’s a lot of people in nice robes called ‘Scientists’, bloody and dead at their desks.
It’s not like this is news by now, but it’s nice to see the Skyrim-like wordless storytelling tradition is alive and well. I do wish there was some writing explaining who these guys work for, though! I did spot one corpse wearing Order novitiate red, though, so probably affiliated with the Order somehow.
- The next setpiece appears to be a village of gorillas! Gorilla-like things called Tyargs, anyway.
The buildings are of a unique adobe-like design, rounded and bright yellow stone.
The gorillas appear to be willing to live and let live as I ride through, though, so what the hey. I ride on.
Immediately afterwards, however, control is taken away from me and the Prophetess decides she has had quite enough of riding and dismounts.
Things get wavy like it’s time for a Future Vision, but instead I just hit the floor like the tail end of a 6 hour marathon drinking session.
- The ground behind us has been the subject of a sudden and inexplicable rockfall.
There’s a ‘sudden, sharp pain’ if you try to use a teleport scroll.
All right, Enderal. Show me whatever weird-ass thing you’ve got up your sleeve.
- I actually meet a fellow human being, which is already promising. ‘The Guardian’ suggests that at night the Bonerippers (remember them? Man-sized lizardfolk? From all the way back in the Kor side-quest!) come out of their caves, and if I don’t want to meet them I should take shelter inside.
My character rightfully points out that, as a heavily-armed woman with a skull for a helmet (Skaragg armor being what it is), wielding two ghostly sabers and trailed by a lightning-wreathed elemental like a faithful hound, perhaps just letting me inside is a little careless?
Look, self, there’s no point in being self-aware now. Ark and Duneville let you in without a peep, and my night would not be improved any by having to fight off more bonerippers.
Anyway, the Guardian is of the opinion that “trust has to start somewhere”, and I applaud his determination to keep my bones inside where they belong.
As he throws the switch, he mentions they’re living very well after some boy found a silver vein. Now that sounds plot-relevant. How much do you want to bet that’s the one I’m here for?
- Silvergrove is looking very nice. It’s got its own little oasis biome, with watermills and ruins and things (most with locked doors).
Several buildings in town are also locked. Not entirely sure if that’s to give the appearance of an expansive area without needing to work on the particulars, or if something else is going on.
- Okay, so tinfoil hat time.
First thing you run into when you get to town? You meet a little girl who says, unprompted, ‘Ryneus has the greatest father in the world! I’m really jealous!’
At the general store? The owner gossips, ‘Have you heard? Ryneus’s father patched up a weird sphere his boy found in the old ruin.’ and after a short conversation his girl pal concludes with, ‘By the righteous path, thank goodness I live here instead of that stinkhole of a city, Ark!’
At the tavern? The innkeeper tells the founding myth of Silvergrove: a rich family moved out to the end of the world, and were blessed with a brilliant young son, Sunaeri. You know how it is in myths, where the myth hero can talk at 6 months and wrestle bears by the time he’s 3 and all that? That’s this kid.
So due to a rockslide or something, the couple found themselves starving. When the parents were emaciated and dying, for they gave all their remaining food to their son Sunaeri, Sunaeri cried, begged the gods for help, and from his tears sprung flowers and greenery and the oasis as it is today. And with a smile on his lips, Sunaeri died.
The last data point: the innkeeper, when asked why her place is named the Silent Moon’s Inn? She can’t remember. Blurry, like a dream. She blames the brandy, of course.
- So. It occurs to me that, if Dal’Geyss ever told me his son’s name, I don’t remember it. But I wonder, if he’d told me before I left, would it be Ryneus… or Sunaeri?
This little town seems to revolve around this boy and his father. The little girl who tells everyone she meets how jealous she is about Ryneus’s father. The boy finding a silver lode and making the town rich as Croesus. The father being able to fix up a piece of Starling tech.
How special! How… main character of him. And what would a boy who is sent away as the shame of his noble father want, more than anything?
Fame. Money. Specialness. A father who makes all the little boys and girls jealous, instead of that cock Dal’Geyss.
One possibility.
- Consider the myth. The rockfall that cut them off from the world, just as the Prophetess has been cut off.
Dal’Geyss’s mistress died of sickness, emaciated and weary just like the parents in the story, managing to send him away with the Black Stone as a little bit of rebellion before she died. A boy who, lost, despairing, alone… wept an oasis into being. A lost child, what better time and place for the High Ones’ influence to creep in?
-The tavernkeeper who doesn’t remember her own history. If someone sprung fully-formed from a young boy’s tears to populate an old building named the Silent Moon’s Inn… she wouldn’t know where the name came from, would she?
The woman at the general store talking about 'that stinking hole, Ark' sure seemed deeply anti-Ark, which might be nothing... but it would also be just what some poor kid sent away from the capital to live in disgrace would think about the place he was forced out of. 'I didn't want to live in your shitty town anyway, dad!'
Guess I’ll find out next time.
The Takeaway:
Very promising start, and at this point I have full confidence SureAI is going to deliver something fun. The sidequests can be hit and miss, but Enderal really does shine best when the claws come out and it’s time once again to fuck with your head.
Thank you and keep the episodes coming!
I can't wait to read of your progress.
Oh and by the way:
Oh yes they do! 
Also, one of the great aspects of Enderal is that the folk tales and songs do not necessarily tell the truth of what they are about... they tell a certain point of view.
I can't wait to read of your progress.
Oh and by the way:
26.02.2018 03:12dyslexicfaser wrote: “Beautiful and proud, the ruler of the Undercity. Her sinful womb bore fruit and horror grew along.” - Song of the Vatyr
I am pretty glad the tavern bards don’t sing that one.
Also, one of the great aspects of Enderal is that the folk tales and songs do not necessarily tell the truth of what they are about... they tell a certain point of view.
Glad to see you back!
You're on the same page but as Zorg said, you can do something about that.
Hahahaha. Of all of the mines in all of Enderal, this was the ONE mine you cannot nor should not poke your head into. Man, this was a tough one for me on Iron Path.
You got all of that out of just wandering around Silvergrove?!?!? I guess I really was too dumb to have followed clues to the story - was initially too busy trying to stay alive.
This one does but remember what I said about having to deal with some minor, annoying little quests. Get through those and then...
26.02.2018 03:12dyslexicfaser wrote: her level of self-loathing.
- I figured it wouldn’t be too tough to poke my head in for a minute (I was wrong), mines are usually much smaller than those old ruins (also wrong).
One possibility.
- Consider the myth. The rockfall that cut them off from the world, just as the Prophetess has been cut off.
Dal’Geyss’s mistress died of sickness, emaciated and weary just like the parents in the story, managing to send him away with the Black Stone as a little bit of rebellion before she died. A boy who, lost, despairing, alone… wept an oasis into being. A lost child, what better time and place for the High Ones’ influence to creep in?
-The tavernkeeper who doesn’t remember her own history. If someone sprung fully-formed from a young boy’s tears to populate an old building named the Silent Moon’s Inn… she wouldn’t know where the name came from, would she?
The woman at the general store talking about 'that stinking hole, Ark' sure seemed deeply anti-Ark, which might be nothing... but it would also be just what some poor kid sent away from the capital to live in disgrace would think about the place he was forced out of. 'I didn't want to live in your shitty town anyway, dad!'
it’s time once again to fuck with your head.
27.02.2018 02:52Buccaneer wrote: Glad to see you back!
Hahahaha. Of all of the mines in all of Enderal, this was the ONE mine you cannot nor should not poke your head into. Man, this was a tough one for me on Iron Path.
You got all of that out of just wandering around Silvergrove?!?!? I guess I really was too dumb to have followed clues to the story - was initially too busy trying to stay alive.
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