I decided to go back to the market area to poke around a bit more. I found an old woman who told me a story about me being a jerk to some woman I was traveling with, so I gave her 20 coppers for the trouble. Next I spoke to a ratsie selling man and pumped him for info before trying his rats (why not?). I then found a guy crying for some lost city, and I told him that I would put its name on a tombstone. So I went to the Death-of-Names guy to bury the city's name. Returned to the crying guy and told him. He just left rather anticlimactically. I went to the vermin control office next and asked the guy there about his job, which turned out to be rather boring for the duo... I then opened the box and killed the blobby fiend, which wasn't even all that threatening really. Identified the dagger that I got from it and found out that it was a decent weapon, except it is cursed. Oh well...
Spoiler, providing a little bit of a sense of direction vis a vis your goals of becoming a mage:
Check out Ragpicker Square, northwest of the northwest section of the hive
Why I'm saying spoiling this for you (which is in itself a spoiler for game mechanics):
You can switch fairly painlessly between fighter, thief, and mage once you've unlocked a class once and know who to talk to, but xp is counted separately for each class. If you complete a bunch of quests early on before you've switched off of fighter, that's xp that's forever lost to your mage progression. So the faster you get into your intended class, the more powerful you'll be, especially true for mages
@Cahir huh... Is that so? Well I saved just before opening it... I think I will load that save then and perhaps hang onto the dumb box for longer. Why not?
Went back to Fell, kinda by accident actually because I forgot where I was going... I meant to go to the Smoldering Corpse. In any case I found out that Fell had some new Tattoos based on my accomplishments so far. Interesting! I will have to check him more often! Went to the Smoldering Corpse Bar and because I finally had some jink and decided it was time to do some spending. First I convinced Mochai to pay her tab... by giving her the jink to do it... and then I bought my eyeball back. Got a few memories of the planes restored and gained a proficiency.
At this point I saw @Vokasak's post and decided to chance a look at the spoilers... The info about the XP thing was as I had expected, and feared (which is why I was not hissing at abishai left and right)... Though I don't want to encourage spoilers here, I was strongly considering asking for some hint or direction towards becoming a mage, so no harm done. I will try to poke about at Ragpicker forthwith!
Ok, I found Old Mebbeth rather quickly (not like there was much else there to see) and she set me on a quest to learn the art... She also has free healing and a nice store... How I wish I found this earlier... Off to the market then! The seed merchant was rather useless but perhaps my friend Mourns-For-Trees can help... Ok... Now I have a tree growing on my arm... Great... Returned to the Mebbeth and she had me use my will to make her a picture frame of thorns. I get the feeling this was all just a test. Now she wants me to get her laundry done for her. I get the feeling this is going to be much more than a simple fetch quest and is actually another test of my abilities... Nope, not a test, but a lesson in what happens if you become a magic addict. This Mebbeth certainly seems quite wise... Next up is a cookbook, which I have a feeling is going to wind up as my new spellbook... Wrong again... I must have misread something, as I was to retrieve ink for writing... Anyway, got the ink from a fish sold to me by the nice old lady who told me the story about me being a jerk earlier. After all this I returned to Mebbeth and told her I had figured out what she was teaching me. After this I listened patiently to her dialog and explanations and found that I had now become a level 3 mage (after leveling up)! At last! Now then... Time to really have fun!
I think I should thank @Vokasak for the advice, because I was really planning to save Ragpicker square for the last possible moment... Ugh... That would have been rather disappointing had I actually done so...
On my way back to my stash, where I had all the spell stuff I had found so far I spoke to the "lost" guy again... For some reason, this time I noticed that he was actually just a pickpocket! Perhaps I notice now because my wisdom increased? Anyway, I decided to watch his technique before calling him out, at which point he ran... Until Morte taunted him that is. Mystery solved. (I was *wondering* why he was named "Fleece"...) Went back to my stash and learned what I had there. I also bought what I could from Mebbeth, all except Horror and Blur. After this I ran around and hissed at a few (3) abishai causing both of us to level up. Having done this and rested I decided it was time to test my spells on the thugs... Note to self: watch out for the AoE spells... They tend more toward friendly fire than similar ones in BG... Made quite a few commoners mad at me... including some dabus... Not good... Could upset the Lady... *Tresset hastily reloads while making a semi-circular warding pattern over his chest*
Who am I kidding?! I just became a mage! I can't stop now!
Wandered toward the market and found Ash-Mantle. Turned out to be another pickpocket! Watched him too and gained enough XP for Nameless to reach level 5! Now, where would I look for level 3 spells? Perhaps another visit to Mebbeth? She said something about coming back once I learned more... Nope. That turned out to be a no go...
Went to Smoldering Corpse again and I thought I would try talking to Dak'kon. I let him join me to see if there was a special tattoo I could get for this, but instead I found that he can teach me stuff about Zerth magic! Cool! I was able to get as far as the 4th Circle of Zerthimon before my wisdom failed me... A quick trip to Fell was able to remedy that problem for the moment. In the 5th Circle I was again not wise enough so I got another tattoo in order to pass. The 6th circle required the wisdom +2 tattoo, but with it I had apparently completed the teachings of Zerthimon... Uh... Dak'kon wasn't too thrilled about this, but I guess that quest is over... Or not! I looked at the circle thing again and was able to puzzle out more lessons and this time I taught them to Dak'kon. With another level up that I got after solving the 6th Circle I was able to add another point to my wisdom, making me able to solve the 7th and 8th Circles and teach them to Dak'Kon. After doing this I gained a third level up and added a point to charisma, while my intelligence increased on its own. (The game said this happened due to my "specializaton". I am not sure what that means...)
For those of you keeping track: I am now at level 7 with 53HP, 20 intelligence, 15 wisdom, and 18 charisma, while my other stats are all 9. I now also have a level 4 slot and no level 4 spells... I will have to keep an eye out for them.
Out of all these Circle teachings I have come up with one burning question: Why did I not get Reign of Anger like Dak'kon has? I noticed that solving the 1st Circle did not net me a spell, whereas all the other Circles did... I asked a friend about this and he tells me that I just don't get that spell... Makes me think the original Devs simply forgot to include this spell in this quest. Well... I imagine this is what the console is for.
Rearranged my spells and went to rest at Mabbeth's house. While poking around Ragpicker Square I found some cranium rats... They were actually quite easy to kill. Perhaps using Swarm Curse was overkill? I then found a portal by opening a door... Not sure what the key was, but... It was a trap! Some collector came in and wanted me to pay for the exit key! Well, I am not about to put up with that (plus I have very little jink left now)! Him and his cheap thugs fell quickly to my group. Outside the portal I met Marrow-Fiend... All I will say about that is I have noticed that this game can be *incredibly* gruesome at times... Regardless, I now have a very interesting ring for Nameless to wear. Next I met Nodd, who wants me to find his sister. The name he gave me sounds familiar, but I just can't place it... I then spoke to Yellow-Fingers, the most stubborn and persistent money-grubbing pickpocket I have yet to meet! I reloaded several times to see my options. I finally decided that since he wanted Morte so much I would let Morte handle this. Morte didn't quite agree with being taken from me, so Yellow-Fingers got angry and attacked me. By the way: Are we sure Morte is Chaotic Good? I buy that he is chaotic, but sometimes I wonder about the good bit... Anyway, I collected the measly bounty for the rat tails I got and decided to stop for now. It is nice out and I want to take advantage of this...
Your blind game is..... blind even for us readers. I know what I'll do in any situation, but I don't know what you will do, and that's funny even when you decided not to get Dak'kon and I wanted to shout "You fool!!! Get him and talk to him!!!" But you asked for no spoiler so I had to shout it veeery quietly
Well, I didn't miss out for very long by not taking Dak'kon, at least I don't think so. I went to him almost immediately after becoming a mage. In any case, I don't think I really need him much, but I decided to let him stay for now anyway.
Continuing where I left off, I realized that my many purchases of scrolls and tattoos has left me relatively short on jink. The only thing I really know to do is wander around and fight thugs, so I may try this out for a bit. While wandering I met a githzeri commoner and decided it was time to try out the language skills that Dak'kon taught me... It seemed the commoner was very suspicious of both Dak'kon and I as a result. They discussed things between each other for quite a while before the commoner was finally willing to hear my questions... They were, of course, the same old questions I had been already asking the entire city so I didn't learn a whole lot. Speaking to Dak'kon about this, however, was extremely revealing. I was able to recover a memory about how I saved his life and how he enslaved himself to me. I was apparently quite the jerk back then... I vowed that I would find a way to die so that I could release him, but this did not seem to make him happy. I think I will try reloading and saving that vow for a later day, when I learn more. Wandered around a bit to kill thugs and hiss at abishai until Nameless and Dak'kon leveled up. I then remembered an appointment I had to go to and decided to quit.
Started by leveling up my two characters. Dak'kon gained a fighter level and became more proficient with his sword. For Nameless I put the point into charisma giving him 19 charisma. (I made a mistake earlier when I summarized his current stats. I said he had 19 cha when he really had only 18.) I was advised by @CrevsDaak that the Missile of Patience spell gets more useful with levels, so I decided to test it out and now it does around 13 damage instead of 1. I think I still prefer Reign of Anger for now though... Spent quite a bit of time fighting thugs and hissing at abishai... this gained my team a few levels. During this period, though, I stumbled upon Nodd's sister, Amarysse! I knew I had seen that name before! I told her about Nodd and she gave me 100 coins to deliver to him. I brought word to Nodd and delivered the 100 jink as promised and he was quite happy. Kept running around collecting loot from thugs and abishai until I got back up to about 2000 jink from selling jewelry.
Decided it was time to try out the Alley of Dangerous Angles. Paid some jink to wander around and I spoke to Aola and decided to find out what would happen if I became a follower of his... Well, I got to meet the Lady... and she put me in a maze. Found a craftily concealed journal written by a crazier version of me and it must be a clue... Ahh... It appears that when I go through an archway it teleports me to the opposite side of the maze and it leaves a shimmering portal in the arch I entered... Perhaps if I go back to that arch... On my way there a shadow spawned from somewhere... Not sure where it came from, but it is in a part of the maze where it cannot reach me... Returning to the portal again didn't get me out, but it did put me in the shadow's path. I stunned it with the negative token and killed it with my dagger. Since I could not return to the portal from here I had to go through another arch... Interesting! After killing the shadow I picked a different arch to go through and return to and this seems to have led me to an exit! Perhaps killing the shadow was the key? No matter... Back outside I had to pay the thugs *yet again* for passage and I entered a building where some mages were walking in circles... A guy named Rauk asked me for some rings (which I had already found earlier) so I gave them to him and... They summoned a lim-lim... And it killed them... Uh... Ok... Whatever... At least I got some nice loot! Next I spoke to an odd man named Blackrose who seems to want to test me by having me slay one of the gang leaders depending on my choice of alignment. I guess I will agree to kill the bad guy... May as well talk to Krystall too so I can get free passage through here. Ok... So Krystall now wants Blackrose dead and Blackrose now wants Krystall dead. I think I will side with Krystall on this one... Blackrose seems a bit crazy. After killing Blackrose I got a hefty sum of jink from Krystall as a reward! Cool! Went back to the market area to sell stuff too and now I have about 4500 jink! After running around a bit more Nameless got a level and I decided to quit at this point. Will level him to 9 next time. By the way, the hammer I got in the Lady's maze seems really good, now if only I had someone who could use it...
With Nameless's level up I put another point into wisdom. (Does increasing my intelligence further actually do anything at this point?) Headed back to Fell and spent some time experimenting with combos of Tattoos I could afford. I found that I could afford some really nice ones for Dak'kon and myself for the price of all my jink (would only have 6 jink left if I bought what I wanted). I am for sure going to get the Tattoo of the Art, but there are some others that tempt me as well... Greater Might, Greater Warding, and Accuracy would look very good on Dak'kon. A regular Warding or two would look nice on Nameless. Bloodletting may be decent. I purchased only the Tattoo of the Art, but I was curious as to whether Fell would make a special tattoo for fighters if I switched back... He didn't, but I learned that by speaking with Prophiron I was able to train in a weapon and use the unused proficiency points I had accumulated! He could only teach me so much though... I need to locate a master of some sort... For now I will train with him to be ++ in daggers and switch back to a mage with Dak'kon's help until I find a master. After this... well... I probably went way overboard with thugs and hissing... Gathered enough loot to pay for the Tattoo of the Art that I had just bought from Fell, and my partners gained a few levels... enough so that both their signature weapons became +2... I think I have seen all there is to see of the hive for now. I think my next move will be to advance the plot and pay Pharod a visit.
Continuing once more, I entered a place that appears to be called the trash warrens. A collector accosted me about my presence but I intimidated him with mention of the Lady and he let me pass. I decided to talk with him again because, well, I wanted to see what everyone was carrying... I found out. Exploring further I had several encounters with the thugs living here, most of which were rather uninteresting. I found a portal and entering it led me to a room full of cranium rats which immediately started hurling spells at me. One swarm curse took care of the lot of them however. Was able to persuade my way past Bish, who appears to be guarding the door to Pharod's hideout. Looks like it is actually a whole village down here... Went to Quint's house and found out a little more about this place. Quint also asked me to find something of his. I already found his necklace but I want to find out more before I turn it in. I then spoke to a guy who talks to a rat in his wall. That didn't get me very far. I went to Marta's house next and asked her to dig around in Nameless's body because there was a dialog option for it... Dug everywhere but finally found a ring of +1 AC in my intestines... Great... I also got my intestines... Fun... Outside I met a guy looking for a name and number and a guy looking for a lucky knife. I agreed to help both of them with their problems. I found the girl who took the number and persuaded her to give it back to me by saying that Ku'u Yin was dying without it. I guess I was wrong about that bit because he let me keep the number when I returned it to him. (What does this thing do anyway? "Protection from Chaos" is rather vague... It seems to increase saves vs. death and AC by 2, but I wonder if that only applies to chaotically aligned creatures... Will look it up in NI... Odd... It appears to do just what I said, but for all enemies... Oh kay then...) (By the way, I suspect this Ku'u Yin is a modron. I have heard of these geometric creatures of order before in NWN's HotU. I know there is one that can join my party eventually based on some images I have seen around here, but little more.) I returned to Quint and gave him his necklace back. I also decided to buy the eyeball he had for sale. Now then, it is finally time to meet Pharod.
I seem to have had dealings with Pharod in the past... and he wants me to find some bronze sphere before he will tell me anything. I was able to get him to tell me the source of his bodies, though, by goading his ego for comparing his 'brilliance' to that of a mage. This way I didn't have to give my word about not telling anyone. If I find that I dislike Pharod, the Dusties will certainly hear about this! Entered the catacombs and fought a variety of monsters inside. I also found a face that spoke of a magical bottle of endless pure water that it needed... Sounds like something I could use to wake Ignus up... In any case I think I will take a break for now.
Started by moving into the Crypt of Dismemberment. Seems like the area is heavily trapped or something, not that my thiefless party would know... Going underneath the main room I found a rather gory area with a few rats. I also found an old arm of mine that was magical for some reason. I guess I will have to bring it back to Fell some time... Moved to the Mosaic Crypt next and found a magical hammer inside. Next, in the Shattered Crypt, I found the Punch Daggers of Moorin. I sure hope this isn't the "lucky knife" I was sent for because it looks like quite a nice item and one I would rather keep. Decided to head back to Fell to have this arm looked at... But those idiot guards locked me in! What's more, the slime balls seem to want me to pay to get back out! I ain't gonna put up with this nonsense! Bash the door and kill these idiots! Decided to kill Bish and his goons too while I was at it. Back in the piercing parlor I showed the arm to Fell and he told me I had 4 companions then. The only one I was sure I recognized from Fell's descriptions was Dak'kon. Regardless, the new tattoos I could get as a result of this were not overly useful to me, either being kinda dumb or for thieves. The one I did buy was the one that increased my regeneration rate, in addition to a few others for Dak'kon. I then went to turn in some cranium rat tails for a bounty but the Phineas Lort said he had some creature in his basement that was sent to kill him for his job of hunting rats... I guess I will look into this now (been dying to know what was behind that door anyway...). I was disappointed... Returned to the catacombs and figured out that the ghouls in the Crypt of the Embraced drop random loot and a lot of it tends to be pretty good so I will spend some time reloading there to see what I can get... Will probably stop soon so I will tell you what I got next time.
After a while of killing the ghouls, I found something that definitely got my attention: Force Missiles, a level 4 mage spell. I decided that this would be about as good as it got considering I had no level 4 spells before this point. I know Mebbeth sells a Remove Curse scroll, but that is a spell with very limited use...
Having a friend visit for a couple of days, so my activity may be reduced for now. While demonstrating the game to him I hissed at enough abishai for Nameless to reach level 10. I am thinking I may start to build up his constitution to increase regeneration rate now. It is either that, or wisdom. We shall see...
I entered the Silent Nations and was taken prisoner. I spoke to Soego who had little to say. Next I spoke to Hargrimm who had much to say. Seems there is some tension between the ghouls and the rest of the undead. He doesn't particularly like Soego either. The skeletons seem to be filing into the chapel here for services or something. I found a skeleton merchant that sold me a scroll of Elysium's Tears. Looks like a nice spell... There were several other Skeletons too: A riddling skeleton which had nothing to say to me, and a puzzled skeleton who was puzzling over a riddle. I assume these two know each other. I was able to solve the puzzled skeleton's riddle for him and he seemed to enjoy it. The riddling skeleton did not enjoy this resolution however.
Moving on it seems I found a female undead that Morte actually doesn't care for... Ghouls! Interesting... I cannot seem to understand zombies when they talk... Hmm I wonder if I need a translator or something... Found a doubtful skeleton to whom I suggested to keep living. Not much happened. I found the ghoul that has Uhir's lucky knife, but it wants food in exchange... Oh boy... Returning to tell Soego about the doubtful skeleton he left and I was able to peek at his possessions... He is a spy for the rats!!! Perhaps I can use this to my advantage... As I left it seemed like skeletal services had ended and everyone was going back to work. I followed Soego to the doubting skeleton and nothing really happened. I feel like that was just a way to get him out of the room. Stopping for now.
Continuing, I spoke to Stale Mary and she told me a few interesting things... First she taught me how to speak to the dead, a skill that should come in handy... Then she told me of a secret portal to the Silent King's throne room. After this I spoke to the nameless zombie and agreed to find her name for her (if I can ever get out of here). At this point my friend wanted to watch a movie so I had to stop.
I spoke to Acaste next... She had little of worth to say, only raving about wanting to eat everything... Decided to try the portal to the Silent King next... I did not see this coming... He had left for True Death! It was Hargrimm and Mary who were really in charge of the Silent Nations. I offered to become their king and, uh, I guess that was it... I had won the game by ruling the Silent Nations for all Eternity! YAY! This was a pretty good game, if a bit short. Doing this blind run has been fun! Wellp, see you all around the forum!
Heheheh... I hope none of you really thought I would stop there... Reloaded.
With little else to do I informed Hargrimm of Soego's treachery and he wound up dead. I then spoke to Hargrimm again and asked to see the Silent King. He said I would have to prove my loyalty by removing rat spies (even though I had literally just done this very thing with Soego...). Found some rat spies and killed them. When I told Hargrimm about this he allowed me to leave. I still want to try going through that portal though... When I went through the portal this time there was no cutscene... It almost seemed as though I had already learned the truth by getting permission to leave... Perhaps this is a bug? I will reload to after killing the rats but before asking permission to leave and hop through the portal. Instead of helping these guys by being their king, I just promised to not tell anyone about their secret... Though I do feel sorry for them... Ah well, at least I have permission to leave now... Asked Hargrimm about the bronze sphere and he suggested searching the Drowned Nations. I think I should pay a visit to the rats first though...
Spoke to some of the deaders in the Weeping Stone area. One of them asked me to kill a bunch of vargoulies, which I had apparently done plenty of already, as speaking to it again seemed to close the quest. I found the Gris character I had heard so much about; dead. He mentioned a stash in the village, but I think I may have found it already... I had obtained Uhir's lucky knife from the one ghoul earlier in exchange for the rat tails. Luck bonuses are pretty useful so I kinda want to keep it, but I will see what the reward is first... Just XP? I think I will hang on to it for a while yet... It will help with hurling spells that require an attack roll like Ice Knife and Chromatic Orb. In any case I am a bit tired now so I will either stop or goof off with thugs and hissing.
By the way: @CrevsDaak Told me to save this as a draft until tomorrow so that my joke in the previous post would be more fun. The Lord of Chaos is certainly deviously minded, isn't he?
PS: I found out that killing those absolute morons that keep respawning by the gate to the crypt was slowly changing my alignment to evil... I find this to be rather silly for quite a few reasons and have adjusted a few variables to compensate for this... Will try to ignore them from now on... or ctrl-j past them... I really hate cheating like this on my first run, but this bit with the gate seems quite ill conceived to me, and I am thoroughly unimpressed that I am being penalized for killing morons that attack me for doing their boss's work. It isn't MY fault they are greedy extortionist renegades...
Went back to Marta and found that I had missed something... I had the option of either buying some teeth for Morte or taking some sort of cursed punch dagger from her. I chose to buy the teeth because they were much better. They actually poison enemies! The oddest thing, though, is that they give immunity to poison... I mean... Only Morte can ever use them and he is already immune to poison so, what's the point? At this point I decided to take advantage of the nice day and go for a walk.
Comments
Why I'm saying spoiling this for you (which is in itself a spoiler for game mechanics):
Went back to Fell, kinda by accident actually because I forgot where I was going... I meant to go to the Smoldering Corpse. In any case I found out that Fell had some new Tattoos based on my accomplishments so far. Interesting! I will have to check him more often! Went to the Smoldering Corpse Bar and because I finally had some jink and decided it was time to do some spending. First I convinced Mochai to pay her tab... by giving her the jink to do it... and then I bought my eyeball back. Got a few memories of the planes restored and gained a proficiency.
At this point I saw @Vokasak's post and decided to chance a look at the spoilers... The info about the XP thing was as I had expected, and feared (which is why I was not hissing at abishai left and right)... Though I don't want to encourage spoilers here, I was strongly considering asking for some hint or direction towards becoming a mage, so no harm done. I will try to poke about at Ragpicker forthwith!
I think I should thank @Vokasak for the advice, because I was really planning to save Ragpicker square for the last possible moment... Ugh... That would have been rather disappointing had I actually done so...
On my way back to my stash, where I had all the spell stuff I had found so far I spoke to the "lost" guy again... For some reason, this time I noticed that he was actually just a pickpocket! Perhaps I notice now because my wisdom increased? Anyway, I decided to watch his technique before calling him out, at which point he ran... Until Morte taunted him that is. Mystery solved. (I was *wondering* why he was named "Fleece"...) Went back to my stash and learned what I had there. I also bought what I could from Mebbeth, all except Horror and Blur. After this I ran around and hissed at a few (3) abishai causing both of us to level up. Having done this and rested I decided it was time to test my spells on the thugs... Note to self: watch out for the AoE spells... They tend more toward friendly fire than similar ones in BG... Made quite a few commoners mad at me... including some dabus... Not good... Could upset the Lady... *Tresset hastily reloads while making a semi-circular warding pattern over his chest*
I think that is enough for now...
Wandered toward the market and found Ash-Mantle. Turned out to be another pickpocket! Watched him too and gained enough XP for Nameless to reach level 5! Now, where would I look for level 3 spells? Perhaps another visit to Mebbeth? She said something about coming back once I learned more... Nope. That turned out to be a no go...
Went to Smoldering Corpse again and I thought I would try talking to Dak'kon. I let him join me to see if there was a special tattoo I could get for this, but instead I found that he can teach me stuff about Zerth magic! Cool! I was able to get as far as the 4th Circle of Zerthimon before my wisdom failed me... A quick trip to Fell was able to remedy that problem for the moment. In the 5th Circle I was again not wise enough so I got another tattoo in order to pass. The 6th circle required the wisdom +2 tattoo, but with it I had apparently completed the teachings of Zerthimon... Uh... Dak'kon wasn't too thrilled about this, but I guess that quest is over... Or not! I looked at the circle thing again and was able to puzzle out more lessons and this time I taught them to Dak'kon. With another level up that I got after solving the 6th Circle I was able to add another point to my wisdom, making me able to solve the 7th and 8th Circles and teach them to Dak'Kon. After doing this I gained a third level up and added a point to charisma, while my intelligence increased on its own. (The game said this happened due to my "specializaton". I am not sure what that means...)
For those of you keeping track: I am now at level 7 with 53HP, 20 intelligence, 15 wisdom, and 18 charisma, while my other stats are all 9. I now also have a level 4 slot and no level 4 spells... I will have to keep an eye out for them.
Out of all these Circle teachings I have come up with one burning question: Why did I not get Reign of Anger like Dak'kon has? I noticed that solving the 1st Circle did not net me a spell, whereas all the other Circles did... I asked a friend about this and he tells me that I just don't get that spell... Makes me think the original Devs simply forgot to include this spell in this quest. Well... I imagine this is what the console is for.
Rearranged my spells and went to rest at Mabbeth's house. While poking around Ragpicker Square I found some cranium rats... They were actually quite easy to kill. Perhaps using Swarm Curse was overkill? I then found a portal by opening a door... Not sure what the key was, but... It was a trap! Some collector came in and wanted me to pay for the exit key! Well, I am not about to put up with that (plus I have very little jink left now)! Him and his cheap thugs fell quickly to my group. Outside the portal I met Marrow-Fiend... All I will say about that is I have noticed that this game can be *incredibly* gruesome at times... Regardless, I now have a very interesting ring for Nameless to wear. Next I met Nodd, who wants me to find his sister. The name he gave me sounds familiar, but I just can't place it... I then spoke to Yellow-Fingers, the most stubborn and persistent money-grubbing pickpocket I have yet to meet! I reloaded several times to see my options. I finally decided that since he wanted Morte so much I would let Morte handle this. Morte didn't quite agree with being taken from me, so Yellow-Fingers got angry and attacked me. By the way: Are we sure Morte is Chaotic Good? I buy that he is chaotic, but sometimes I wonder about the good bit... Anyway, I collected the measly bounty for the rat tails I got and decided to stop for now. It is nice out and I want to take advantage of this...
I know what I'll do in any situation, but I don't know what you will do, and that's funny even when you decided not to get Dak'kon and I wanted to shout "You fool!!! Get him and talk to him!!!"
But you asked for no spoiler so I had to shout it veeery quietly
Decided it was time to try out the Alley of Dangerous Angles. Paid some jink to wander around and I spoke to Aola and decided to find out what would happen if I became a follower of his... Well, I got to meet the Lady... and she put me in a maze. Found a craftily concealed journal written by a crazier version of me and it must be a clue... Ahh... It appears that when I go through an archway it teleports me to the opposite side of the maze and it leaves a shimmering portal in the arch I entered... Perhaps if I go back to that arch... On my way there a shadow spawned from somewhere... Not sure where it came from, but it is in a part of the maze where it cannot reach me... Returning to the portal again didn't get me out, but it did put me in the shadow's path. I stunned it with the negative token and killed it with my dagger. Since I could not return to the portal from here I had to go through another arch... Interesting! After killing the shadow I picked a different arch to go through and return to and this seems to have led me to an exit! Perhaps killing the shadow was the key? No matter... Back outside I had to pay the thugs *yet again* for passage and I entered a building where some mages were walking in circles... A guy named Rauk asked me for some rings (which I had already found earlier) so I gave them to him and... They summoned a lim-lim... And it killed them... Uh... Ok... Whatever... At least I got some nice loot! Next I spoke to an odd man named Blackrose who seems to want to test me by having me slay one of the gang leaders depending on my choice of alignment. I guess I will agree to kill the bad guy... May as well talk to Krystall too so I can get free passage through here. Ok... So Krystall now wants Blackrose dead and Blackrose now wants Krystall dead. I think I will side with Krystall on this one... Blackrose seems a bit crazy. After killing Blackrose I got a hefty sum of jink from Krystall as a reward! Cool! Went back to the market area to sell stuff too and now I have about 4500 jink! After running around a bit more Nameless got a level and I decided to quit at this point. Will level him to 9 next time. By the way, the hammer I got in the Lady's maze seems really good, now if only I had someone who could use it...
Thanks to you, I found out a new way (and probably the easiest way) to get to the player's maze!!!
I seem to have had dealings with Pharod in the past... and he wants me to find some bronze sphere before he will tell me anything. I was able to get him to tell me the source of his bodies, though, by goading his ego for comparing his 'brilliance' to that of a mage. This way I didn't have to give my word about not telling anyone. If I find that I dislike Pharod, the Dusties will certainly hear about this! Entered the catacombs and fought a variety of monsters inside. I also found a face that spoke of a magical bottle of endless pure water that it needed... Sounds like something I could use to wake Ignus up... In any case I think I will take a break for now.
Moving on it seems I found a female undead that Morte actually doesn't care for... Ghouls! Interesting... I cannot seem to understand zombies when they talk... Hmm I wonder if I need a translator or something... Found a doubtful skeleton to whom I suggested to keep living. Not much happened. I found the ghoul that has Uhir's lucky knife, but it wants food in exchange... Oh boy... Returning to tell Soego about the doubtful skeleton he left and I was able to peek at his possessions... He is a spy for the rats!!! Perhaps I can use this to my advantage... As I left it seemed like skeletal services had ended and everyone was going back to work. I followed Soego to the doubting skeleton and nothing really happened. I feel like that was just a way to get him out of the room. Stopping for now.
With little else to do I informed Hargrimm of Soego's treachery and he wound up dead. I then spoke to Hargrimm again and asked to see the Silent King. He said I would have to prove my loyalty by removing rat spies (even though I had literally just done this very thing with Soego...). Found some rat spies and killed them. When I told Hargrimm about this he allowed me to leave. I still want to try going through that portal though... When I went through the portal this time there was no cutscene... It almost seemed as though I had already learned the truth by getting permission to leave... Perhaps this is a bug? I will reload to after killing the rats but before asking permission to leave and hop through the portal. Instead of helping these guys by being their king, I just promised to not tell anyone about their secret... Though I do feel sorry for them... Ah well, at least I have permission to leave now... Asked Hargrimm about the bronze sphere and he suggested searching the Drowned Nations. I think I should pay a visit to the rats first though...
Spoke to some of the deaders in the Weeping Stone area. One of them asked me to kill a bunch of vargoulies, which I had apparently done plenty of already, as speaking to it again seemed to close the quest. I found the Gris character I had heard so much about; dead. He mentioned a stash in the village, but I think I may have found it already... I had obtained Uhir's lucky knife from the one ghoul earlier in exchange for the rat tails. Luck bonuses are pretty useful so I kinda want to keep it, but I will see what the reward is first... Just XP? I think I will hang on to it for a while yet... It will help with hurling spells that require an attack roll like Ice Knife and Chromatic Orb. In any case I am a bit tired now so I will either stop or goof off with thugs and hissing.
By the way: @CrevsDaak Told me to save this as a draft until tomorrow so that my joke in the previous post would be more fun. The Lord of Chaos is certainly deviously minded, isn't he?
PS: I found out that killing those absolute morons that keep respawning by the gate to the crypt was slowly changing my alignment to evil... I find this to be rather silly for quite a few reasons and have adjusted a few variables to compensate for this... Will try to ignore them from now on... or ctrl-j past them... I really hate cheating like this on my first run, but this bit with the gate seems quite ill conceived to me, and I am thoroughly unimpressed that I am being penalized for killing morons that attack me for doing their boss's work. It isn't MY fault they are greedy extortionist renegades...
But I'm glad it continues!