I trust Shaun to pick interesting titles and I'd rather be surprised each month as well. Who else to pick the games than one who has probably played them all? Lead on Dungeon Master!
It's Day 14 and Krötenbändiger is still in Callaheim doing chores for the Guilds. Occasionally he get's killed: The Vampire killed him. The Gangster Kingpin killed him. The Gnoll Shaman killed him. And Electricity killed him, too. Krötenbändiger visited a northern border outpost, talked to a spectre of the late Queen and rented a deposit box at the local bank. All things considering, I think it's fair to call things even! If I only knew how to kill the Vampire, the Gangster Kingpin or the Gnoll Shaman...
Nice journal. Noticed that your action bar doesn't have any potions on it. Would probably help your survival (except for the sheets of lightning guarding the tomb - that'll kill you instantly.)
This made me laugh. There is, indeed, quite a lot of being killed. I've just rebooted an old save because I accidentally allowed my troll yojimbo to get wasted by some orcs.
It ended up not being as bad as I initially thought but that 3rd level can be confusing. I just finished the game with my level 43 mage. I put most of my stat points in intellect and a few in endurance towards the end. My go to spells were Armor of Air, Ice Shield, Fire Blast, Fire Elemental and my favorite Shock Wave. Shaun couldn't have picked two more different RPG's than these first two and I liked the contrast. The biggest difference is how grind heavy FF1 is and I never once had to grind for levels or money in Aralon. As long as you don't over extend yourself, it has a very nice progression. Challenging but not frustratingly so.
I think I'm going to head over to the Final Fantasy play-along thread and give FF2 another go. I like Western RPG's but JRPG's are my first love.
Decided to press my luck against the minotaurs I found while doing the guild quests and I got lucky. Jumped from lv19 to lv29 just from that one adventure. Only thing that sucks is that I'm way over leveled for the rest of the Calhiem stuff now, and it's a bit of a drag wrapping things up.
Finished at level 50 for everything but killing the dragon Shera. Sigh. Always hard to kill. Luckily I had a save planned. Going to stock up on potions and try later.
Things have improved considerably since the last report. The Vampire is dead. The Gangster Kingpin is dead. The Gnome Shaman is dead. All the bullies whose sight, even from afar, had scared Krötenbändiger only some days ago; now he just pities them all. What brought the change about was a trip to a fighting training camp in the Western Desert, run by a group of Minotaurs. During his stay with the helpful Minotaurs Krötenbändiger's experience level increased from 22 to 30! And the local businesses there sell very decent equipment at much more reasonable prices than the main street boutiques in Callaheim. Now it's already Day 20 and the Guild quests are running out. Krötenbändiger needs just to find another Amethyst and venture into the Mansion outside of the city. Then it's up to the far North, the prospect of which scares him a lot because he has already visited the border outpost and knows what fighting equipment is sold there. Too bad he doesn't know what to do with all the poison and toxin vials he has stashed away in his bank vault.
OK, heading into the Shadowspire with my level 45 mage. Will it be enough? Who knows. Have absolutely no idea how far away from the finish I am now, but surely can't be too much longer...
The Guilds of Callaheim have no more need for Krötenbändiger's service. That's way he had to fight as a mercenary in the latest Orc War in the far North to earn more experience. But with the Orcs almost driven into extinction even the army doesn't hire rangers anymore. Reluctantly he resumes his very own quest and tries to find a way into the Temple of Azra. Because of the vast distances he has to travel, he rides a lot, now. But, oh my, Elves clearly are no born riders! A few times he even fell out of the saddle and landed on the ground behind his horse. An experience level of 38 doesn't seem to include riding proficiency. In the evening hours of Day 28 Krötenbändiger noticed a very remarkable sunset with the sun setting in front of a distant mountain range. Magical lands indeed!
Spoiler alert... Eat your heart out, Bioshock - THIS is an ending. That was fun. The length was about right, I reckon. Think I did most of it, though I didn't bother with the Giant's Den. My only side note is that there doesn't seem much point trawling for the best equipment with a mage, when all you do is spam stun and fire spells. Still, enjoyable.
Finally killed that bloody dragon! Said my farewell to father. P.s. Time to start another class now. P.p.s. Didn't post an image of the farewell as the upload kept on failing for some reason.
He has found the Scepter of Hammara and confronted Merificus. As a result Callaheim got back his King. But this is not the end of his journey, it seems. There are still some tasks remaining that Krötenbändiger needs to take care of. Nevertheless, having come that far, he treats himself with one of those fashionable leather helms from one of the boutiques in Callaheim. He always wanted to have one! Maybe, if properly enchanted with one of his Runes, this thing won't just look good on his head but will also offer some protection, he muses. Soon he will be shipping out to the Western lands again, searching for clues about how to defeat Merificus once and for all.
