History VideoGame / SiegeOfAvalon

* InactionSequence: Your health is low? Your healing rate is low? You're out of {{Mana}}? You didn't bring any party members who know healing magic? Stand around and wait for your mana to regenerate, then use it to heal yourself. Then wait more so you have some magic to throw around in battle. And make sure you're in a nice out-of-the-way place, so you don't get attacked. There are no potions of any kind in the game (that you can use, anyway), and only one person (besides your party members) who will use magic to heal you and restore your mana--and he's inside the castle, which you certainly aren't when you need him.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Every NPC in the castle has a name. You can have brief conversations with them. Several dozen are fleshed out into three-dimensional characters with skills, motivations, friends, and sometimes petty rivalries.

* VendorTrash: If you're willing to drag it back to the castle merchants. You'll need to make five trips. Still want to sell that dead guy's worthless armor? And all his buddies' too?

Originally, the game was available for download online: [[EpisodicGame the first chapter was free, the remaining five were not]]. It was later released in an anthology on a CD, which can still be found either online or in some brick-and-mortar stores that don't move their video game inventory very quickly. Based on an original story by R. Van Collins[[note]]the game's mysterious producer of whom nothing else is known[[/note]], ''Siege'' was envisioned as the first part of a trilogy, to be followed by ''Pillars of Avalon''[[note]]a (somewhat) playable demo of which was released online by the original developers in 2002[[/note]] and ''Ashes of Avalon''. However, due to its poor sales and to disagreements with the publisher, Digital Tome disbanded soon after its release, [[StillbornFranchise leaving the story unfinished]]. Some of the devs later came back together as Amazing Games, Ltd. to produce an obscure superhero game ''HeroX'' for the PC. The original game, meanwhile, was [[http://soaos.sourceforge.net/news/NewsPage.shtml released as open source]] in June 2003 (now found on [[https://github.com/CartBlanche/Siege-of-Avalon-Open-Source GitHub]]) at the insistence of project manager James Shiflett. In 2014, former lead programmer Steven Davis posted a [[https://web.archive.org/web/20140903140502/http://www.blackflystudios.com/Siege.html notice]][[note]]it's at the very top of the page, so you have to close the Wayback Machine control panel to see it[[/note]] about discussing an online re-release of ''Siege'', but deleted the page from his site in late 2017, as the discussions apparently fell through. Meanwhile, some German fans have managed to hack the open source code to implement a [[http://soamigos.de/wbb5/forum/index.php?thread/4458-hd-und-fullhd-version-zu-siege-of-avalon-aus-dem-source-code-mit-delphi-4/ HD version]] of the game in absence of an official [[VideoGameRemake remaster]].

Originally, the game was available for download online: [[EpisodicGame the first chapter was free, the remaining five were not]]. It was later released in an anthology on a CD, which can still be found either online or in some brick-and-mortar stores that don't move their video game inventory very quickly. Based on an original story by R. Van Collins[[note]]the game's mysterious producer of whom nothing else is known[[/note]], ''Siege'' was envisioned as the first part of a trilogy, to be followed by ''Pillars of Avalon''[[note]]a (somewhat) playable demo of which was released online by the original developers in 2002[[/note]] and ''Ashes of Avalon''. However, due to its poor sales and to disagreements with the publisher, Digital Tome disbanded soon after its release, [[StillbornFranchise leaving the story unfinished]]. Some of the devs later came back together as Amazing Games, Ltd. to produce an obscure superhero game ''VideoGame/HeroX'' for the PC. The original game, meanwhile, was [[http://soaos.sourceforge.net/news/NewsPage.shtml released as open source]] in June 2003 (now found on [[https://github.com/CartBlanche/Siege-of-Avalon-Open-Source GitHub]]) at the insistence of project manager James Shiflett. In 2014, former lead programmer Steven Davis posted a [[https://web.archive.org/web/20140903140502/http://www.blackflystudios.com/Siege.html notice]][[note]]it's at the very top of the page, so you have to close the Wayback Machine control panel to see it[[/note]] about discussing an online re-release of ''Siege'', but deleted the page from his site in late 2017, as the discussions apparently fell through. Meanwhile, some German fans have managed to hack the open source code to implement a [[http://soamigos.de/wbb5/forum/index.php?thread/4458-hd-und-fullhd-version-zu-siege-of-avalon-aus-dem-source-code-mit-delphi-4/ HD version]] of the game in absence of an official [[VideoGameRemake remaster]]. In April of 2021, the game was officially re-released on Steam and GOG.

Originally, the game was available for download online: [[EpisodicGame the first chapter was free, the remaining five were not]]. It was later released in an anthology on a CD, which can still be found either online or in some brick-and-mortar stores that don't move their video game inventory very quickly. Based on an original story by R. Van Collins[[note]]the game's mysterious producer of whom nothing else is known[[/note]], ''Siege'' was envisioned as the first part of a trilogy, to be followed by ''Pillars of Avalon''[[note]]a (somewhat) playable demo of which was released online by the original developers in 2002[[/note]] and ''Ashes of Avalon''. However, due to its poor sales and to disagreements with the publisher, Digital Tome disbanded soon after its release, [[StillbornFranchise leaving the story unfinished]]. Some of the devs later came back together as Amazing Games, Ltd. to produce an obscure superhero game ''VideoGame/HeroX'' for the PC. The original game, meanwhile, was [[http://soaos.sourceforge.net/news/NewsPage.shtml released as open source]] in June 2003 (now found on [[https://github.com/CartBlanche/Siege-of-Avalon-Open-Source GitHub]]) at the insistence of project manager James Shiflett. In 2014, former lead programmer Steven Davis posted a [[https://web.archive.org/web/20140903140502/http://www.blackflystudios.com/Siege.html notice]][[note]]it's at the very top of the page, so you have to close the Wayback Machine control panel to see it[[/note]] about discussing an online re-release of ''Siege'', but deleted the page from his site in late 2017, as the discussions apparently fell through. Meanwhile, some German fans have managed to hack the open source code to implement a [[http://soamigos.de/wbb5/forum/index.php?thread/4458-hd-und-fullhd-version-zu-siege-of-avalon-aus-dem-source-code-mit-delphi-4/ HD version]] of the game in absence of an official [[VideoGameRemake remaster]].

Originally, the game was available for download online: [[EpisodicGame the first chapter was free, the remaining five were not]]. It was later released in an anthology on a CD, which can still be found either online or in some brick-and-mortar stores that don't move their video game inventory very quickly. Based on an original story by R. Van Collins[[note]]the game's mysterious producer of whom nothing else is known[[/note]], ''Siege'' was envisioned as the first part of a trilogy, to be followed by ''Pillars of Avalon''[[note]]a (somewhat) playable demo of which was released online by the original developers in 2002[[/note]] and ''Ashes of Avalon''. However, due to its poor sales and to disagreements with the publisher, Digital Tome disbanded soon after its release, [[StillbornFranchise leaving the story unfinished]]. Some of the devs later came back together as Amazing Games, Ltd. to produce an obscure superhero game ''VideoGame/HeroX'' for the PC. The original game, meanwhile, was [[http://soaos.sourceforge.net/news/NewsPage.shtml released as open source]] in June 2003 (now found on [[https://github.com/CartBlanche/Siege-of-Avalon-Open-Source GitHub]]) at the insistence of project manager James Shiflett. In 2014, former lead programmer Steven Davis posted a [[https://web.archive.org/web/20140903140502/http://www.blackflystudios.com/Siege.html notice]] about discussing an online re-release of ''Siege'', but deleted the page from his site in late 2017, as the discussions apparently fell through. Meanwhile, some German fans have managed to hack the open source code to implement a [[http://soamigos.de/wbb5/forum/index.php?thread/4458-hd-und-fullhd-version-zu-siege-of-avalon-aus-dem-source-code-mit-delphi-4/ HD version]] of the game in absence of an official [[VideoGameRemake remaster]].

Originally, the game was available for download online: the first chapter was free, the remaining five were not. It was later released in an anthology on a CD, which can still be found either online or in some brick-and-mortar stores that don't move their video game inventory very quickly. Based on an original story by R. Van Collins[[note]]the game's mysterious producer of whom nothing else is known[[/note]], ''Siege'' was envisioned as the first part of a trilogy, to be followed by ''Pillars of Avalon''[[note]]a (somewhat) playable demo of which was released online by the original developers in 2002[[/note]] and ''Ashes of Avalon''. However, due to its poor sales and to disagreements with the publisher, Digital Tome disbanded soon after its release, [[StillbornFranchise leaving the story unfinished]]. Some of the devs later came back together as Amazing Games, Ltd. to produce an obscure superhero game ''VideoGame/HeroX'' for the PC. The original game, meanwhile, was [[http://soaos.sourceforge.net/news/NewsPage.shtml released as open source]] in June 2003 (now found on [[https://github.com/CartBlanche/Siege-of-Avalon-Open-Source GitHub]]) at the insistence of project manager James Shiflett. In 2014, former lead programmer Steven Davis posted a [[https://web.archive.org/web/20140903140502/http://www.blackflystudios.com/Siege.html notice]] about discussing an online re-release of ''Siege'', but deleted the page from his site in late 2017, as the discussions apparently fell through. Meanwhile, some German fans have managed to hack the open source code to implement a [[http://soamigos.de/wbb5/forum/index.php?thread/4458-hd-und-fullhd-version-zu-siege-of-avalon-aus-dem-source-code-mit-delphi-4/ HD version]] of the game in absence of an official [[VideoGameRemake remaster]].

''Siege of Avalon'' was a RolePlayingGame released in 2000, and was also the first and only game developed by Digital Tome. It was published by Global Star Software, a subsidiary of Creator/TakeTwoInteractive which later became 2K Play, and when problems arose between them, Digital Tome disbanded.

Originally, the game was available for download online. The first chapter was free; the other five were not. It was later released in an anthology on a CD, which can still be found either online or in some brick-and-mortar stores that don't move their video game inventory very quickly. A sequel called ''Pillars of Avalon'' was planned, but never produced.

The backdrop of the game is a massive war. The nomadic Sha'Ahoul from the east have been slowly forcing back the defenders of the Seven Kingdoms of Eurale, and the defenders have retreated to their last bastion: the citadel of Avalon.

As the game begins, you have just arrived in Avalon looking for your war hero brother, Corvus, in order to inform him that your father has died and that he is now a lord. After doing so, you join in the defense of the castle. [[FromBadToWorse Everything goes downhill from there.]] War, intrigue, political maneuvering, treason, and the slaughter of countless {{mooks}} later, the siege of the castle is finally broken... by the attacking Sha'Ahoul horde breaching the defenses, leading to a showdown between you and the BigBad, Mithras, in the castle courtyard.

* PettingZooPeople: The aforementioned Lizardmen, and the Naga SnakePeople.

''Siege of Avalon'' was a RolePlayingGame released in 2000, and was also the first and only game developed by Digital Tome. It was published by Global Star Software, a subsidiary of Creator/TakeTwoInteractive which later became 2K Play, and when problems arose between them, Digital Tome disbanded. Originally, the game was available for download online. The first chapter was free; the other five were not. It was later released in an anthology on a CD, which can still be found either online or in some brick-and-mortar stores that don't move their video game inventory very quickly. A sequel called ''Pillars of Avalon'' was planned, but never produced.

''Siege of Avalon'' was the first and only game developed by Digital Tome. It was published by Global Star Software, a subsidiary of Creator/TakeTwoInteractive which later became 2K Play, and when problems arose between them, Digital Tome disbanded. Originally, the game was available for download online. The first chapter was free; the other five were not. It was later released in an anthology on a CD, which can still be found either online or in some brick-and-mortar stores that don't move their video game inventory very quickly. A sequel called ''Pillars of Avalon'' was planned, but never produced.

----

As the game begins, you have just arrived at the castle Avalon looking for your war hero brother, Corvus, in order to inform him that your father has died and that he is now a lord. After doing so, you join in the defense of the castle. [[FromBadToWorse Everything goes downhill from there.]] War, intrigue, political maneuvering, treason, and the slaughter of countless {{mooks}} later, the siege of the castle is finally broken...by the attacking Sha'Ahoul horde breaching the defenses, leading to a showdown between you and the BigBad, Mithras, in the castle courtyard.

* ClassAndLevelSystem: As previously mentioned, there are no levels. However, there are classes: Fighter, Scout, and Mage. It makes absolutely no difference to gameplay which one you pick--each class can use the objects and abilities typically associated with any of the three, or even a mix of them--but each one gets a special quest and PrestigeClass later in the game.

* ElvesVsDwarves: The Elves aren't really friendly with ''anybody'', though they do help the human defenders of Avalon because they know that if Avalon falls, they're next. Dwarves are mentioned in several in-game books as having helped build the Citadel of Avalon, but none show up in-game.

* LastOfHisKind: If you play Fighter, you can get training from the spirit of the last surviving holy knight of the ancient city that was sunk into the ground centuries ago. Otherwise, he won't have much to do with you. His name is Xander.

* TheManyDeathsOfYou: When you die, you get to read a journal entry about how your character's failure to complete whatever quest he was on at the time led to the fall of the castle. There's even one written by the hero, who wakes up in a hospital bed and describes how the enemy have attacked the walls... which cuts off mid-word, with a bloodstain at the bottom of the page. Each of these journal entries has an attached sketch depicting the events.
* TheMole: [[spoiler:General Ovoron,]] until he defects. Later in the game, you can go undercover in the enemy camp and meet a human who has passed himself off as a Sha'Ahoul, who will give you some useful information.

* TwentyBearAsses: Why, exactly, are you sending the newest hero of your castle to collect a bunch of paperwork from a bunch of ObstructiveBureaucrat old guys? Shouldn't he be, you know, ''contributing to the war effort?''

* AnnoyingArrows: They do about the same amount of damage as a sword swing. And considering that the enemies can only attack while they're on the screen, they rarely get off more than two or three before you get close enough to gut them. Then again, Sword Blows Are Also Annoying...unless you're surrounded and being pummeled by several foes at once.

* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: You can take two people with you on most of your missions. Even when those missions involve charging a horde of Sha'Ahoul head on, in order to take back the castle's outer wall during the final battle.

* ArtificialStupidity: The AI in the game is remarkably stupid. Your party members will run into the wall beside the door you just walked through... then run into the wall on the other side of the door before actually going through it. Then again, it ''was'' designed to run on Windows 98....

* CharacterDevelopment: Many characters in the castle get developed into full people. Some of them are likable. Some of them are not so much. Some of them won't respect you until you ''earn'' it. Some of the royals present treat you surprisingly well; others treat you like dirt. But all of them have good reasons for what they do, ''especially'' [[spoiler:the Sha'Ahoul you talk to when you go undercover in their camp]].

** You actually can sneak attack, and, except for the [[BigBad boss]] it is a [[OneHitKill one hit k.o.]] ([[GameBreaker and still, 2 hit k.o for him]]). At low levels of stealth your sneak radius is pretty small and you can only [[BackStab sneak attack with ranged weapons]], but if you put enough points in stealth, you are, for all practical purposes, invisible (except for some scripted enemies who always see you, regardless of your stealth), so, you can just OKHO everyone.

* InactionSequence: Your health is low? Your healing rate is low? You're out of {{Mana}}? You didn't bring any party members who know healing magic? Stand around and wait for your mana to regenerate, then use it to heal yourself. Then wait more so you have some magic to throw around in battle. And make sure you're in a nice sout-of-the-way place, so you don't get attacked. There are no potions of any kind in the game (that you can use, anyway), and only one person (besides your party members) who will use magic to heal you and restore your mana--and he's inside the castle, which you certainly aren't when you need him.

* TheMole: General Ovoron, until he defects. Later in the game, you can go undercover in the enemy camp and meet a human who has passed himself off as a Sha'Ahoul, who will give you some useful information.

* UnusableEnemyEquipment: Averted. If an enemy has an item, you can take it off his corpse. Yes, even the lich's zombie servant's mace [[NightmareFuel made out of human bones]]. And the [[{{Squick}} ogre's loincloth]]. The only items you can't pick up are the clothing that the nonhumans and women are wearing (which you wouldn't be able to use anyway) and the ones on the magically-conjured masses of mindless Sha'Ahoul wariors that start disintegrating as soon as you kill them. And the clothing and shields used by the walking skeletons you fight at one point, but they're rotten anyway.

''Siege of Avalon'' was the first and only game produced by Digital Tome. It was published by Global Star Software, a subsidiary of Creator/TakeTwoInteractive which later became 2K Play, and when problems arose between them, Digital Tome disbanded. Originally, the game was available for download online. The first chapter was free; the other five were not. It was later released in an anthology on a CD, which can still be found either online or in some brick-and-mortar stores that don't move their video game inventory very quickly. A sequel called ''Pillars of Avalon'' was planned, but never produced.

''Siege of Avalon'' was the first and only game produced by Digital Tome. It was published by Global Star Software, which later became 2K Play, and when problems arose between them, Digital Tome disbanded. Originally, the game was available for download online. The first chapter was free; the other five were not. It was later released in an anthology on a CD, which can still be found either online or in some brick-and-mortar stores that don't move their video game inventory very quickly. A sequel called ''Pillars of Avalon'' was planned, but never produced.

''Siege of Avalon'' was the first and only game produced by Digital Tome. It was published by Global Star Software, which later became 2K Play, and when problems arose between them, Digital Tome disbanded. Originally, the game was available for download online. The first chapter was free; the other five were not. It was later released in an anthology on a CD, which can still be found either online or in some brick-and-mortar stores that don't move their video game inventory very quickly. A sequel called the ''Pillars of Avalon'' was planned, but never produced.

'''Tropes present in this work'''

* AdamSmithHatesYourGuts: Supposedly averted, from the way the characters talk about commerce, but really played fairly straight. Yes, steel is more valuable than gold in a castle under siege, but shouldn't the merchants give discounts to the biggest hero in town's younger brother, who has been around for only a few days and already put his brother to shame? (However, with enough skill points in the right place, you can get them to lower their prices...slightly.)
* AllMythsAreTrue: If you go digging through the massive number of books (enough to rival Franchise/TheElderScrolls), you can read about an ancient city that was supposedly blessed by its goddess, which was destroyed when her temple was profaned and she sunk it underground and cursed the inhabitants. Then you can go into the caves under the castle and talk to the horribly mutated, apparently immortal survivors, who have been trapped there for centuries. And even later, you can meet their goddess herself, the [[GuardianOfTheMultiverse Astral Guardian]]. You can even get them changed back, if you bother to follow that (optional) storyline.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: It starts out seeming like this is the case, but when you meet a friendly undead character, Bones (who later converts most of the other undead characters into friendly units), and when you go under cover in the Sha'Ahoul camp and the Sha'Ahoul there start getting some CharacterDevelopment, you begin to realize that this simply isn't the case.
* AmazonBrigade: The Blood Roses who appear in the last chapter.

* ArtificialStupidity: The AI in the game is remarkably stupid. Your party members will run into the wall beside the door you just walked through...then run into the wall on the other side of the door before actually going through it. Then again, it ''was'' designed to run on Windows 98....

* CharacterDevelopment: Many characters in the castle get developed into full people. Some of them are likable. Some of them are not so much. Some of them won't respect you until you ''earn'' it. Some of the royals present treat you surprisingly well; others treat you like dirt. But all of them have good reasons for what they do, [[strike:even]] ''especially'' the Sha'Ahoul you talk to when you go under cover in their camp.

* CursedWithAwesome: The Cave Lurkers are the people who once lived where the castle now stands. When their city was sunk below ground, they were horribly mutated...and apparently made immortal, since some of them claim to be hundreds of years old.
* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: If you attract the attention of the Sha'Ahoul Dreamwalkers before you're supposed to, or the BigBad and his bodyguards, you're in for a world of hurt. And one mission involves killing a traitor, who just happens to be hanging out in the middle of the enemy camp with several of said bodyguards nearby.

* TheEndOrIsIt: The BigBad's body was removed from the battlefield. No one's entirely sure he's actually dead. This may have led into the planned sequel, if it had ever been produced.

* FictionalDocument: Enough to rival Franchise/TheElderScrolls. No, really. And they're the only way to get the backstory of the war in which you're involved.

* [[ItsProbablyNothing It's Probably Nothing]]: Averted. If the Sha'Ahoul guards see you, hear you, or notice that one of their friends is moving, they will not stop chasing you until either you or they are dead.
* KilledOffForReal: Every death is final--both in your party and among the enemies. The only characters BackFromTheDead are a lich, a zombie, and a number of animated skeleton enemies, of which only the lich is not mindless. There's also Bones, but he was specifically stated to have developed his personality after being reanimated as a mindless skeleton thanks to some advanced spells placed on him when he was created.

* TheManyDeathsOfYou: When you die, you get to read a journal entry about how your character's failure to complete whatever quest he was on at the time led to the fall of the castle. Including one written by the hero, who wakes up in a hospital bed and describes how the enemy have attacked the walls...which cuts off mid-word, with a bloodstain at the bottom of the page.
* TheMole: General Ovoron, until he defects. Later in the game, you can go under cover in the enemy camp and meet a human who has passed himself off as a Sha'Ahoul, and who will give you some useful information.
* MoneySpider: Averted and played straight at the same time--the only enemies with money are the ones who have been looting the ruined town for the past few months, but they tend to have gear that you can haul back to the castle and sell to the merchants there...if you can fit it in your GridInventory.

* [[RunDontWalk Run, Don't Walk]]: Your character runs everywhere. When questioned how he can keep it up, he basically says that he's full of energy because his cause is just and pure.

* TalkingIsAFreeAction: Averted--when someone starts talking to you during a battle scene, the battle keeps going in the background (oh, sure, the video may freeze, but the audio makes it clear that fighting is still going on).

* WarpWhistle: You can't actually warp, per se, but within the castle, moving from one area into another will bring up a map of the castle. Clicking on the regions of the castle will bring up a list of areas within those regions, and you can jump from any location in the castle to any other by choosing one. Notably, though, it only works when you would otherwise hit a loading screen anyway, and only within the castle--outside, you have to go everywhere manually.

* ConcealingCustomization: You get to choose your hair color, hairstyle, and whether you have a beard. All the helmets and hoods and most of the hats render this invisible.

* OnlySixHelmets: You get to choose your hair color, hairstyle, and whether you have a beard. All the helmets and hoods and most of the hats render this invisible.

* UnusableEnemyEquipment: Averted ''hard''. If an enemy has an item, you can take it off his corpse. Yes, even the lich's zombie servant's mace [[NightmareFuel made out of human bones]]. And the [[{{Squick}} ogre's loincloth]]. The only items you can't pick up are the clothing that the nonhumans and women are wearing (which you wouldn't be able to use anyway) and the ones on the magically-conjured masses of mindless Sha'Ahoul wariors that start disintegrating as soon as you kill them. And the clothing and shields used by the walking skeletons you fight at one point, but they're rotten anyway.

* MoneySpider: Averted and played straight at the same time--the only enemies with money are the ones who have been looting the ruined town for the past few months, but they tend to have gear that you can haul back to the castle and sell to the merchants there...if you can fit it in your GridInventory.

-->'''Played any good books lately?'''

The ''Siege of Avalon'' was the first and only game produced by Digital Tome. It was published by Global Star Software, which later became 2K Play, and when problems arose between them, Digital Tome disbanded. Originally, the game was available for download online. The first chapter was free; the other five were not. It was later released in an anthology on a CD, which can still be found either online or in some brick-and-mortar stores that don't move their video game inventory very quickly. A sequel called the ''Pillars of Avalon'' was planned, but never produced.

* FridgeLogic: You can ask an undead skeleton to use the Chalice of Life to purify an area of dark magic. He can't use it, or he'll be destroyed. LampshadeHanging ensues:
-->'''Bones:''' It's the Chalice of Life, not the Chalice of Undeath!
* GoddamnBats: The insane cave lurkers that wander the tunnels are not very dangerous, but they're in the area you have to pass through quite a few times, and there are dozens of them. The undead skeletons in the crypt are only slightly more dangerous (except for the ones that use magic), but they're far more numerous. Fortunately they stay dead once you kill them.

----

* AllMythsAreTrue: If you go digging through the massive number of books (enough to rival TheElderScrolls), you can read about an ancient city that was supposedly blessed by its goddess, which was destroyed when her temple was profaned and she sunk it underground and cursed the inhabitants. Then you can go into the caves under the castle and talk to the horribly mutated, apparently immortal survivors, who have been trapped there for centuries. And even later, you can meet their goddess herself, the [[GuardianOfTheMultiverse Astral Guardian]]. You can even get them changed back, if you bother to follow that (optional) storyline.

* FictionalDocument: Enough to rival TheElderScrolls. No, really. And they're the only way to get the backstory of the war in which you're involved.

As the game begins, you have just arrived at the castle Avalon looking for your war hero brother, Corvus, in order to inform him that your father has died and that he is now a lord. After doing so, you join in the defense of the castle. [[ItGotWorse Everything goes downhill from there.]] War, intrigue, political maneuvering, treason, and the slaughter of countless {{mooks}} later, the siege of the castle is finally broken...by the attacking Sha'Ahoul horde breaching the defenses, leading to a showdown between you and the BigBad, Mithras, in the castle courtyard.