Disclaimer: No wells were harmed in the making of this Let's Play.
Computer game AI is a funny thing. The attack of the Baa followers was not at all scripted, but just them standing just close enough to detect us as we went to and from the castle...and followed us in.
We quickly retreated out of town, in order to avoid having innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire between us and the followers of Baa. However, our retreat was so fast that most of the Baa-ites gave up the chase...all except one.
Enemies in general usually come in three varieties of the same creature. Each of these varieties has slightly different stats and abilities, resulting in differing levels of difficulty. Naturally, each of them varies in color as well.
The one chasing us is called a Fanatic of Baa. The most health of the three types, but can only melee and is notable for a greenish tint. Oddly enough, all three types look like they are wearing Sikh-style clothing, including the turbans (which, in an example of how you learn something new every day, are called dastars
). Smell the Unfortunate Implications here? I know I do.
Anyway, it's time to put our new bows into action! Combat can be handled in turn-based mode or real-time mode. Turn-based mode prevents you from moving at all or attacking as rapidly, but enemies are limited in movement and attacks too (although they can still move). Real-time...is real time, nothing fancy there. In general, turn-based is better when you are using spells, and real time is better when you are just slugging it out.
We go turn-based, and after a few well shot arrows and well aimed blows, the fanatic dies. We loot his body for gold, and head out to face the rest. Fortunately, they have positioned themselves out of town, so we are able to pick them off with arrows. We loot their bodies too, and then head back to town.
As this shows, bows in general are more than a little broken at this point. Later on they become a little less effective as enemies acquire more ways to deal ranged damage. Still, bow skills are very important at first. As such, we use our horseshoes at this point, one per character, and apply the skill points to Bow skill. To raise a skill, you have to spend a number of skill points equal to the level you are raising it to.
Having done this, we go back to the stables and hire another carriage to return to New Sorpigal. It's another two day journey. Once there, we begin to take a grand tour of the town. The first stop are the houses to the southeast, which grant us membership to two more guilds: Buccaneer's Lair and Blade's End, at 25 gold each.
Next stop are the northeast houses, which have people who can give membership in the Elemental Guild and the Guild of the Self. These are the spellcaster guilds, and cost 100 gold each to join. We need to join these, as they are the best way to get new spells.
However, guild membership is not all that these people offer. Violet Dawson, who grants you Self Guild member status, is concerned that her daughter has gone missing, and she thinks the little girl ended up in the Abandoned Temple of Baa. Buford Allman, the Elemental Guild go-to man, apparently has arachnophobia, since he's complaining about giant spiders that no one else seems to have a problem with. He wants us to kill the queen spider, which can be found...you guessed it, in the Abandoned Temple of Baa.
Now, you may be thinking the game is trying to point us into this Abandoned Temple. This is a bad idea. There is actually an easier dungeon you are intended to do first...but it only has one quest, which we will get to soon.
Directly across from these two guild recruiters / quest givers is the Blade's End guild. The only thing of import it has to teach anyone is to give Eno Leather Armor skill, for 375 gold. Skills be expensive, yo.
By this point, we're able to visit the town hall of New Sorpigal, which is only open from 10 am to 2 pm. We head there and speak with the mayor, Frank Fairchild. Mr. Mayor is worried about the local healer, Sherry, who was kidnapped by the Shadow Guild (a thieves' guild), and taken to their hideout near Castle Ironfist. Guess who he wants to rescue her?
After chatting up Fairchild, we talk to his secretary, Janice (no last name). Mayor's secretaries issue bounty hunts, which require you to kill one of a particular kind of enemy by the end of the month. Sadly, the bounty hunt this month is for one of the most powerful creatures in the game...a Gold Dragon. We are not even able to touch that.
However, Janice does have a more concrete task for us. A local keep called Goblinwatch stands on a hill to the south. Recently, goblins overran the keep, and stole the scroll containing information about the keep's mechanical security system. Janice wants the scroll back. In case you were wondering, this is the starter dungeon that we are supposed to go to first.
Our next stop is the training hall on the west end of town. Here, we pay money to gain levels, provided we have earned enough experience. What's that, you say we haven't earned any experience? Wrong. We got a nice-sized chunk of it from showing the letter to Humphrey. It's enough to allow all of us to go up 2 levels and reach level 3, giving everyone 10 skill points!
The cost of training up one level is equal to 10 gold multiplied by our current level. Also, this gets doubled and then tripled if you upgrade your class. Furthermore, training in game takes time...as in at least a in-game week. Keep an eye on the date, as a lot of stuff in game is fairly time-sensitive.
We use the rest menu to wait until 6 pm, and then hit Buccaneer's Lair, which is only open in the evenings. We pick up Disarm Trap, Merchant, and Identify Item skills, and give them all to Toblerone. The reasoning here is that since he doesn't have to worry about magic skills, he has the skill points to burn.
With that done, we allocate our skill points...or some of them. We're trying to save points for magic skills, so most of the points go there or into armor. The result leaves Cate, Huaryu, and Eno with some points to spare.
Now, we are ready to begin tackling the local goblins, culminating in an assault on Goblinwatch. But that shall be another day...
