Betrayal at Krondor: Right Back Where We Started From

This might be the first time in CRPG history that a PC acknowledges he's screwing around instead of doing the main quest.

        

This session begins in Chapter 6. The Moredhel legions have been temporarily defeated, but a new (or perhaps allied) threat has arisen. Magicians from the Tsurani Empire have kidnapped Pug's adopted daughter, Gamina. Pug has gone looking for her, leaving only a cryptic message about the Book of Macros, a master wizard whose actions have shaped the history of the kingdom. The quest to find more information has taken apprentice wizard Owyn and Moredhel expatriate Gorath into the sewers of Krondor, where they learn that a mysterious figure named the Crawler has killed the head of the local thieves' guild. The Crawler is amassing power and has corrupted Abbot Graves in Malac's Cross to be his head magician.

    

Gorath and Owyn tried to follow the lead to Malac's Cross, but they have been kept at bay by groups of Pantathians, evil serpentine spellcasters who have allied with the Moredhel in the past. The key problems are that a) they have devastating spells, including "Fetters of Rime," which freezes my characters, b) there are only two of us, and c) there are five of them. Even on the rare occasion that I can surprise them, I don't get enough actions before they start hurling devastating spells my way. I try a few strategies. They stand up to more than one "Evil Seek," even at full power. "Thoughts Like Clouds" is supposed to confuse spellcasters, but it only works on one at a time. I don't know why I'd cast it over "Fetters of Rime." I think at first that maybe "Unfortunate Flux" is the answer, as it summons spirits, but this isn't a real summoning spell, just one that pelts a single enemy with damage for one round.

      

Confuses one enemy spellcaster.

    

That last spell reminds me that there is something that summons allies, though: that horn that summons hounds. Is it the Horn of Doskar, or is that from Serpent Isle? Either way, I know I've seen it in a shop. My notes show two magic shops, one in Silden and one in Dencamp. Silden is just down the road. I decide to head there and see what they have. 

   

On the way, I figure it won't hurt to see what the Oracle of Aal knows. As usual, Owyn collapses into a heap as the party approaches the dragon statue and ends up talking with her mentally. He has three new dialogue options: "Book of Macros," "Sword," and "Pug." The Oracle is surprisingly helpful. She says that the Book of Macros doesn't exist, but we can find the knowledge we need at the Abbey of Ishap in Sarth; that the Guarda Revanche (a magic sword) is hidden in a place "that is ancient and was once home to those known as the Valheru"; that Pug is wandering a distant world in search of his daughter; that Pug won't find his daughter but will instead "reawaken forces sleeping since the Valheru waged their wars across the universe"; and that the Book of Macros—which doesn't exist—will be the thing that saves him.

      

I feel like "betrayed" ought to be capitalized.

       

We surprisingly find nothing on the way to Silden—I thought the world would be seeded with new encounters. The shop, alas, does not sell anything that will help us, although I use the occasion to refresh herb packs and restoratives. Before heading all the way up to Dencamp, I search my screenshots to at least verify that it has the horn, and it does. It turns out to be called the Horn of Algon-Kokoon. Thinking I'm putting a lot of faith into the extra benefit conveyed by two hounds, I gird up and start the long journey north. (I'm aware I could shorten it by teleporting through the mirrors in the temples, but I don't have a lot of money. I do like this game's approach to fast travel, though; it ought to pinch a bit.)

    

Rogues, rogue mages, and pirates attack us on the road. "Evil Seek" curiously works on pirates but not rogues. We make some money.

       

Gorath has really internalized this mission. I don't think he's even met Pug.

       

As we get further north, Owyn suddenly speaks up and says he wants to go to Cavall Keep to check on his uncle and cousin. Gorath disagrees but says he will go where Owyn leads. I noted last time that Owyn, against common sense, seems to be the leader of this pair. This is more proof.

   

Some Moredhel—ironically, with hounds—harry us south of Cavall Keep. When we reach the keep, we find that Count Corvallis and Ugyne aren't there: they have gone to Kenting Rush to "take charge of affairs for Lady Boswich." We continue north to that city and find Ugyne on the road. She and her father are in the area to join forces with Arutha. After Owyn satisfies himself that she's okay, we move on.

     

I guess we won't be going this way.

       

Unfortunately, the way north from here is choked with mercenaries. No matter how many we beat, they leave no bodies and their visible numbers in the world don't diminish. Owyn is soon knocked out. The game seems to be trying to keep us from getting farther north and thus creating a situation where it would have to explain why we can't reunite with James or Locklear. As we cannot get to Dencamp this way, the only option is to head all the way back south to Silden. This whole trip was largely wasted.

   

Or maybe not. I find the Temple of Kahooli nearby. As expected, the teleporters won't take us to any place north of here (I'm not sure there are any), but I pay 149 sovereigns to zip west to the Temple of Ishap, south of Tyr-Sog. Once there, I went north to Tyr-Sog long enough to confirm that a) the Inclindel is again impassable, and b) Prince Arutha's soldiers refuse to let us go to the east. At least they just tell us that we can't, rather than attacking us in endless waves.

     

Let's hope Delekhan doesn't figure out this trick.

      

Thus, we go west, intending to go through Yabon, LaMut, Zun, and Questor's View before arriving at Sarth to check out the Oracle of Aal's lead. This is territory we explored in the opening minutes of the game. I remember my high school English teacher, Dan Beetz—a man I will remember until the day I die—once saying that sometimes the only way you can tell how much you've changed is to return to a place that hasn't changed. Such reflection is uniquely possible in this game, where the body of the Moredhel that Gorath killed in the opening cinematic is still lying on the ground.

     

Should we bury him?

       

As we walk south—hey, there's the chest whose password was DIE!—we reflect on how far we've come. Once a local rube and a distrusted enemy soldier, now an arch-mage and an unlikely agent of the Prince. The only battles are, oddly, with packs of hounds. (Is this supposed to be irony? We go looking for a device that summons hounds and are in turn attacked by hounds?) We sneak by a couple of battles, which I know because the game tells me the "Stealth" skill has increased.

     

Like so.

       

We have to fight some rogues north of Questor's View, and one of them has a ring called Roric's Seal on him. It has an odd description; I'm not sure whether it's a quest item or magic item.

    

I don't think there's even a "Roric" in the game.

        

Eventually, we come into sight of Sarth. Brother Marc intercepts us on the road and advises us to steer clear of the city, as Brother Dominic has fallen ill with Quegian Fever. The danger is not so much the fever but what the powerful Dominic might do with his magic while affected by the fever. Owyn suggests that we might be able to enter the city through some old mines (I don't know how that helps), but Marc says the maps to the mines are with the tax collector in Eggley. Owyn also asks about books that will teach him a chess move called Abbar's Turn. Marc takes 100 sovereigns, disappears, and returns with a text that gives Owyn the knowledge he's looking for. Maybe this will come in handy in Malac's Cross, where there's a chess master that we've met before. 

        

Why is Borther Marc always wandering around outside? I find that suspicious.

           

The "mines" thing is explained when we try to enter Sarth and find that Dominic has warded all of the doors.

   

Two steps to the east of Sarth, Owyn is knocked out in a battle against seven rogues. He's back on his feet only for a few minutes, after which he's knocked out again in a battle against some giant scorpions. And then again in a battle against six Moredhel and one Moredhel mage. Gorath doesn't survive that one, either. This game is really eager to kick our asses this chapter. On a reload, we end up sneaking by that last battle.

         

"Near Death" is Owyn's default state lately.

        

Before long, we find ourselves where we started, outside Malac's Cross, contemplating five Pentathians. All the sneaking at least seems to have helped; in the next few attempts at the battle, we manage to at least surprise them a couple of times. Reloading and "Evil Seek" finally save the day. I have to cast it three times to kill them. One of them gets away, and both Own and Gorath are down to single digits in health. Nonetheless, we win. 

        

Gorath's been frozen, but Owyn's got this.

      

And of course one of the bastards has a Horn of Algon Kokoon on his corpse. 

        

One for you, game.

       

At last, we make it to Malac's Cross. The city is in a panic from the Pantathian presence. They blame Abbot Graves and are about ready to revolt. After resting a couple of nights at the inn—Ivan Skaald has no interest in talking to us about chess—we visit the temple, where Owyn uses the impending riot to coerce Graves into explaining what's happening. Graves breaks down and admits to getting his position by framing the previous abbot for theft. The Crawler found out about this and used it to blackmail Graves. He had Graves write to Pug and arrange for a magical tutor to be sent periodically to Malac's Cross to teach the sons and daughters of the nobility. In truth, the tutor taught only the Crawler and his minions. When Pug found out about this, he withdrew the tutor, leaving Graves unable to fulfill his bargain with the Crawler. The Crawler then demanded that Graves recover an artifact, probably the Book of Macros. When he refused, the Crawler unleashed the Pantathians (who it sounds like he works for) on the city. 

          

You have to love his defense: "I'm guilty, but the people don't know I'm guilty, so it would be unjust for them to kill me."

         

Graves asks us to find someone named Mitchel Waylander, who can arrange for Graves's flight from the city. Without Graves there, the Pantathians will have no reason to stay. Searching my notes, I find that Waylander is the head of the Glazers' Guild in Romney. The subtitle of this entry is going to have something to do with recursion.

   

As we've already cleared the way, it takes a few days but not much effort to reach Romney. Unfortunately, I can't find any sign of Waylander. We start searching houses in the area. We're just about to give up when we find him in the last house in the town of Sloop, a bit south of Romney. Waylander intimates that the Crawler and Graves were somehow responsible for the guild war in Chapter 2. This game really would benefit from a replay. I have to remind myself to keep a more careful log of clues, allusions, and mysteries in future titles that have a plot this thick.

       

Maybe you could elaborate on that a bit?

       

Waylander gives us a note to take to Graves that will allow him to seek help from the Glazers' Guild in Malac's Cross. Before heading back to the city, we stop in Darkmoor to deliver the ale cask, which we got from Ivan Skaald, to Petrumh (as per a side-quest we got last entry). She rewards us with 16 doses of Fadamor's Formula, which improves combat damage.

   

Back in the city, Graves takes the note. Owyn encourages him to "strike back at the Crawler" by telling us how to get the Book of Macros. Graves says that's not the artifact he was told to retrieve. The Crawler doesn't want the book; he wants the Guarda Revanche. As for the book, Graves can only suggest that we seek Tomas, Pug's companion from their youth, who also had some dealings with Macros. Tomas is a major character in the first two books. The problem is that he is the "warleader of the Elves in Elvandar" (he's not an elf himself, but that's a long story), which is not on the game map, at least not through any road that I can see.

         

The game has a way of randomly emphasizing words.

      

Out of leads on both the Book of Macros and the Guarda Revanche, we turn to the Sarth quest. We head to Eggley, via Sethanon, stopping at Nia's shop to replenish our herbal packs and restoratives. In Eggley, we learn that the tax collector, Stellan, is dead. We manage to break into his old office and find a deed to the Mines of Mac Bourgalan Dok. The deed notes that the caverns are sealed by a magical door which can only be opened with the accompanying map.

   

Great, but where are these caverns? There's a mountain range in between Eggley and Sarth, so we begin circumnavigating the range, looking for openings, all the while being attacked by Moredhel and rogues. We get all the way around the range to Sarth again before we realize that the mines aren't an external entrance, but rather an option on the Sarth menu screen. 

        

That's what we came for.

         

The mines constitute a small map with only three rooms, staffed with giant spiders and scorpions. One room has our first fairy chests for a while, and I can't get the first of them:

    

• "A box beneath a tree, inside some tasty meat. Kept for a month or more, it still tastes just as sweet." There are six letters, but SMOKER isn't an option even if the time frame made sense.

• "Two brothers wanted to race a course, to see which had the slowest horse. Since neither wanted to spur his mare, what must they do to make it fair?" I've heard this one before, and I know the answer, but it takes me a little while to figure out the specific words it wants (TRADE MARES). This just has some armor and a weapon I have no room for.

   

We reach a staircase, and the rest of the mine's navigation is covered by text rather than actual exploration. We emerge in Sarth's library, where the startled priests wonder why they've been trapped for days with no explanation. We explain about Quegian Fever, Dominic, and how his delusions probably caused him to activate the defenses. They begin researching a cure while we begin researching the Book of Macros. Among the books they read is another linking Macros to Thomas, and Owyn suggests that we seek him out in Elvandar. This time, it comes with a more specific suggestion: a passage near LaMut. I then remember that the dungeon we explored back in #@$!* August, Mac Mordain Cadal, had additional levels that were blocked back in Chapter 1. I double check, and this is the very dungeon that Pug and Tomas enter after visiting Elvandar in Magician.

We already cleared this section of road, so we make it to Mac Mordain Cadal unmolested except for one battle with rogues that we must have sneaked by before. In the entryway, the dwarf Naddur Ban Dok meets us and confirms that the dwarves have broken through the blockage that prevented us from exploring further during our earlier visit. He warns that the Elvandar elves are unlikely to welcome Gorath. But we go on anyway.

        

    

I'm getting a bit impatient with this chapter, so I just hug the right wall rather than try to explore everything exhaustively. The first level has surprisingly not been restocked with monsters, let alone treasures, so we reach the second level without incident. The second level has battles, but not tough ones. There are small groups of rogues, I think one rogue mage.

   

After swinging across a pit, we meet a kobold who wants us to bring him a suit of Grey Tower Plate. I think we saw one recently, but I'm not inclined to leave the mines to go find it. 

          

I'm not sure where the dragon comes into it. Is the Gray Tower Plate the bribe?

        

The penultimate battle of the dungeon comes in a large room with three trolls, a gravestone, and a bunch of chests. The gravestone warns us to leave the place, "or your suffering will be a thousand times worse than that of the one now buried beneath this marker." We ignore it and find some good treasure in the chests, suffering no ill consequences that I can see. Lacking a shovel, we do not dig up the grave.

       

As we approach the exit, the ground rumbles, and we're attacked by a stone-golem-like creature called a Brak Nurr. The idea that any single creature can threaten us is amusing. Plus, I think we defeated one of these back in Chapter 1. Although my "Fetters of Rime" misses, Gorath is able to kill it in two rounds.

        

It's almost cute.

        

The dungeon exits into a pretty forest map, which surprises me. I was expecting a menu town for some reason—probably because the main map shows no roads in this area, although I now see that it has a single city, Caldara, the capital of the dwarves in Magician. A dwarf named McCannur Ban Dok greets us as we step forward. He tells us that wyverns sent by Delekhan have attacked the area, setting fires. Tomas has been wounded in a skirmish with the Moredhel.

         

Reasonably nice forest textures.

        

As we enter the forest, Gorath warns Owyn that the elves of Elvandar have placed magics in the forest to prevent Moredhel from crossing, and that they might have more difficulty than they perceive. "I only wanted you to know," Gorath says ominously, "that I have come to consider you a friend." 

   

Most of the houses in the region are abandoned, the businesses closed. A few residents confirm the stories of the wyverns. At the one open shop, we spend a lot of gold on something called a Key of Lineages. 

   

It soon becomes clear that this is going to be a large map, so I reluctantly wrap up, with no idea how much more time remains to this chapter or to this game. There are many things to like about Betrayal at Krondor, but it's starting to wear out its welcome.

    

Time so far: 57 hours

 

The Clathran Menace: Winning Friends and Influencing People

The developers never changed the game title in the setup program.

        

Our holiday break was a good time to get Irene together for another session of Star Saga: Two. Here's how the game progressed.

     

Corin Stoneseeker (Irene) begins on the planet Worzelle, where a war has been waging among factions of the four-armed species for thousands of years. In visits to different parts of the planet, Corin learns that the war had basically driven the Worzellians back to the Stone Age, but that all changed when Vanessa Chang crash landed on the planet after she was shot down by pirates. Her crew held the pirates at bay long enough to fix their ship, blast off, and surprise the pirates in orbit. The Worzellians were so impressed by Chang's technologies and tactics that they created the Safe Zone, a place where the war couldn't touch, for research, study, and the raising of children.

       

Irene's options on Worzelle.

      

Corin visits the Strategists, an organization inhabiting the Safe Zone, which observes and catalogues the War. They balk at the idea of ever ending it. They insist the War is necessary to toughen them up so they'll be ready to face The Enemy—almost certainly the Clathrans.

   

She visits the hospital, where her health is restored to 100%. It was probably already at 100% anyway, but I don't believe the first Star Saga had any individual health status, so that's something new. She also learns about their Advanced Healing Unit and gets a recipe to build one. She'll be able to do it as soon as she has 1 Primordial Soup, 1 Probability Membrane, 1 Fiber, 1 Synthetic Genius, and 1 Tools. The game gives a code to use when she's ready—a good example of a situation when manually entering an action code is necessary, as the game has no idea where she'll be when she finally assembles the items.

      

The instructions for building an Advanced Healing Unit.

      

She also learns that she can buy a Super Space Suit for 1 Warp Core and a Phase Sword for 1 Crystals, 1 Munitions, and 1 Phase Steel. She lacks all of these items, but she's determined to get the Phase Steel before I do.

   

As the game instructed when we started playing, we pretend that Corin has radioed all of this information to M. J. Turner so that he can build the Advanced Healing Unit if he gets the items first, and so he'll know what to expect if he visits Worzelle.

Turner, meanwhile, is on the planet Holoth, where he has recently obtained citizenship by fighting in the arena. The planet is home to two species: the Hadrakians, a tiger/gorilla hybrid not native to the world; and the Holots, a native batlike creature. He makes a big step towards his personal quest to collect intelligence about the Clathrans by visiting the Hadrakian Battle, Inc., a governmental agency in charge of preparing for the inevitable war against the Clathrans. At their offices, he has to decide whether to share his information about the enemy in exchange for theirs, and he does.

       

A somewhat-rare roleplaying choice.

      

The Hadrakians tell Turner about the Clathran Survey Line, something hinted in earlier entries. In an effort to find new species, including humans, the Clathrans have launched an enormous fleet of battleships: "Their industrial capacity to build ships and soldiers is practically beyond belief." This fleet is moving "core to fringe," conquering worlds along the way. Most of the conquered worlds simply continue to exist under Clathran occupation, but for some reason, they're eager to utterly wipe out humanity—something to do with their belief that humans "have no limitations."

     

Looking at the map, I'm not entirely sure what the term "core to fringe" means, but the Hadrakians expect their colonies to fall in a particular order: Adafa, Psorius, Franclair, and Hadrak. So if I can figure out where one of the other colonies is, I can establish the direction. I wonder if the game really is on any kind of time limit (as with Star Control II); I guess we'll find out.

   

A grizzled old Hadrakian tells me my ship's defenses are pathetic and helps me install a Boson Beam. "When you have a few more ship improvements," he says, "Come back to the Battle, Inc. offices and ask for a real mission." The shipyards offer a few options for improvement, including a Ship Shield Generator, Explosion Studs (?), and a Spatial Inverter (??). I'm able to buy the latter for 1 Fiber and 1 Medicine. I note the items necessary for the other improvements and, of course, radio the information to Corin.

        

Something I can afford!

      

I visit a shrine where the Hadrakians pray to their many gods—so many that even the priestess has lost track. She says that occasionally the gods deliver "revelations" to those who pray. These revelations have come more frequently lately. She is skeptical that I'll receive one, being an alien, but I try. A voice belonging to the Goddess of Abundant Scenery says that humans and Hadrakians will have to work together to defeat the Clathrans, and my first stop should be the Academy of Military Arts on Worzelle.

   

Finally, I visit the Holots to learn about their cultures. They believe they once had a more technologically-advanced civilization but are now content to just fly around and exchange crystals from the high mountains for music and art supplies. One of them offers to teach Turner to fly, not believing in any physical limitations: "Flying is a state of mind." I give it a try, and against all odds, it works. My character now has "Flying" as an ability. As in the first game, the acquisition of abilities is the primary means of "character development."

        

Do not try this in real life.

     

When Irene finds out about this, she wants to now visit Holoth. Part of me thinks that's a waste of time, but on the other hand, I also have a reason to swap places with her based on my "revelation." So we spend the next few turns flying to the planets already explored by the other player and receiving the same benefits. On her way to Holoth, Corin is blasted by an alien probe beam from a long distance away. She is also hailed by a random alien who would like to battle her but recognizes her inferior weaponry. He suggests that she visit the planet Dahl. Turner makes contact with a strange red alien who suggests personal combat apparatus can be purchased on Dosia.

     

After a few more turns, Corin has "Flying" and Turner has "Tactics." I guess if I'd been playing solo, Turner would have spent a long time searching for Worzelle, so playing with a companion had the benefits it was meant to have.

      

Corin triumphs in the Hadrakian arena the same way Turner did.

      

Turner has one interaction on Worzelle that is different from Corin's. When Corin explored the Safe Zone, she met the Strategists. Turner instead finds an enormous space ship under construction and gets an option to ask about it. He does, and he learns that the Worzellians are constructing a fleet to fight the Clathrans. Turner proposes an alliance, and the Worzellians agree that if I can get enough other planets on board to pose a real threat, they'll contribute their fleet. Both Irene and I get a message in our subsequent turns that we receive a radio broadcast saying that the Worzellian and Hadrakian fleets will be joining forces against the Clathrans. But who brokered this—Corin or Turner? It's one of the oddities that come from playing a game where both players essentially accomplish the same things separately, and the game isn't quite sophisticated enough to account for it. For instance, when Corin visits the shrine on Holoth, she gets the same skeptical priestess saying that the gods probably won't talk to an alien, despite another human having recently received a revelation in that very shrine. This isn't really a complaint—it would have been a lot to expect the game to do otherwise in 1989—but it does add to the reasons that the game has never felt fundamentally multiplayer for me.

         

It's finally time for us to leave and visit new planets. The way I've oriented the map, we started on the "east" side at Outpost, and I originally went "west" to Holoth while Corin went "south" to Worzelle; we've since swapped. We agree that Irene will start moving "north" and basically explore the galaxy counter-clockwise while I do the opposite. There was some discussion in the last entry as to whether the quotes are necessary. The map actually has titles on both the top and bottom so you can orient it either way, so regardless of whether there really is such a thing as "galactic north" and so forth, the orientation of the map is arbitrary.

       

Moving through the galaxy.

     

Turner blasts off from Worzelle, swings around a hyperspace barrier, and enters a system called Unaria. The main planet is a busy spaceport, but Turner gets distracted by a strange moon that seems to have a hole going through it. As he investigates, he gets caught in some kind of battle between fleets of opposing ships, and a shot from an energy ray blinds him. He receives a telepathic message that he has "angered the gods." The voice continues: "You shall be split in two, and your evil half exiled to the other side of the galaxy. Eliminate the evil. That is your challenge now." When the dust clears, the computer reports that while the planet we now orbit looks a lot like Unaria, we are now completely on the other side of the galaxy, orbiting Dosia.

         

I wasn't here long enough to plant a flag.

      

Turner lands on Dosia and finds a race of "despondent, shapeless, yellow" aliens who are apparently at constant war with the Unarians on the other side of the galaxy, a species that the Dosians loathe for being too happy. The Dosians are so terminally depressed that when Turner tells one of them a joke, her subsequent attempt to laugh nearly kills her. Attending a "war lecture," Turner learns that the Dosians and Unarians used to be one race, but they somehow "invoked the wrath of the gods" and were split into two, each believing that the other had inherited the worst aspects of their personality.

 

The event also split the planet in two, and somehow sent one to the other side of the galaxy, but the worlds remained connected via a Stargate. Unarians and Dosians control access to the gate from their respective ends of the galaxy, charging other races to use it. They're willing to sell me a Stargate Key so that I can use it at my leisure, but I don't have the right trade items. I take off and try flying through the gate without permission (I feel this is in character for the hotshot pilot), an act that gets me put in stasis for two weeks as punishment. When the stasis is lifted, however, I am back on the other side of the galaxy at Unaria.

       

B) was a bad choice.

       

Irene/Corin is meanwhile having her own bizarre adventures. She discovers the planet Margen, a mostly-lifeless rock with a single city under a protected dome. She is surprised to find the city occupied by humans. "This must be the farthest-flung of all the lost colony worlds," she reasons. They turn out to be a strange religious/philosophical sect, everyone called "Brother" regardless of sex. They warn of a dire threat to the human race but will only elaborate if Corin joins the order. Irene chooses to do so. This kicks off a series of very long passages in which Corin is put through a number of philosophical exercises (none requiring input from the player) and ends up with two nebulous abilities, "Kothan" and "Darthan."

          

Corin and some of her abilities.

         

The dire threat is, of course, the Clathrans. The Brotherhood tells Corin that to face this threat, she will need to learn the Path of Intuition, and that her training will continue on the planet Dahl, where she will need to give a code phrase ("I do not know the answer") to enter the temple. In the planet's library, Corin learns about Dual Space, the strange dimension that seems to provide energy for abilities that appear magical, like levitation or telekinesis. Different parts of the universe make it easier or harder to access Dual Space, something the Brotherhood calls the Dual Space Interphase. Brother Dikestra gives Corin an Interphase Variometer, which measures the presence of Dual Space on a scale of 0 to 100; this value shows up in the "Status" window from now on. Finally, Irene gets a code to use to talk to Brother Gries about Dual Space when she's on Dahl.

         

I feel like there's an Arrested Development reference to be made here.

      

Corin blasts off from Margen and lands on the nearby planet of Bloo, a small, overcast world populated by squat, hairy, ugly humanoids engaged in bizarre activities, including pointlessly destroying buildings and engaging in violent wargames at which they seem curiously inept. When they notice her, they grab weapons and charge, calling her "Detestable Inferior Alien Scum." This leads to the following humorous conversation:

• Corin: "I am not!"
• Bluvian: "Oh, you're not? My mistake, then." (They lower their blasters.) "You haven't come to destroy our way of life?"
• Corin: "I haven't."
• Bluvian: "The Clathrans tell us that you will, but I guess that'll be later. You are a human, aren't you."
• Corin (shocked): "Yes."
• Bluvian: "Well, let us know when you want to start destroying our way of life, so that we can wipe you out like the detestable inferior alien scum that you are, maybe. Meanwhile, would you like some lunch?"

    

This all turns out to be the work of the Clathrans, who arrived several centuries ago, enslaved the barely-civilized Bluvians, and seeded the planet with robots to help build the population into soldiers. "The more violent and destructive we are, the better they make things for us," one of them explains. "Every time we wreck a building, they build a nicer one. The more we fight each other, the more food we get."

    

Corin finds the Bluvians curiously pliable, ready to believe anything she says. One of the Bluvians teaches her a secret trick to paralyze opponents in hand-to-hand combat just because she asks, and another takes her to visit the factory where the robots are made despite initial hesitation: "The Clathrans told us never to reveal the factory location to strangers."; "But I'm not a stranger. I am your friend."; "Oh. Well, that's different then. Come, I'll take you."

       

That should come in handy.

        

She attends a "civic lecture" that turns out to be a propaganda speech about how the Clathrans will one day reclaim the galaxy at the behest of their Masters and how the Bluvians will be heroes in this war. She meets a government official named Crugh who expresses doubt that the Clathrans will succeed in conquering the galaxy because they lack "Thmorg," a supposed knowledge that both Bluvians and humans have, although he is unable to define it to Corin's satisfaction ("Thmorg is the understanding that you are superior because you have Thmorg?"). It's played as a joke, but I wonder if there isn't something more there that explains why the Clathrans hate humanity.

    

The planet sells cargo drones, an interface shortcut that basically allows the player to trade with any planet without actually visiting the planet. I didn't use them in the first game, but I can see where they'd be handy here. Unfortunately, she doesn't have the requisite trade goods 

      

I like to throw in the occasional reminder that this game involves a lot of reading.

      

Irene and I wrapped up this session at this point. As with the first game, I'm enjoying the quality of the writing and the imaginative characteristics—both physical and cultural—that the authors ascribe to each race and planet. (At the same time, I have to take heavy doses of mental immunosuppressants to get my brain not to reject most science fiction with aliens as irredeemably goofy.) I'm honestly curious about the mystery of the Clathrans, who their "Masters" are, and why they regard humanity as such a threat. Irene says she feels the same way. At the same time, it's a tough game to play. It doesn't seem worth doing in chunks smaller than a few hours, and sometimes it's hard to find that kind of time for both of us, even during a holiday break. We also have a lot of other computer games, board games, books, puzzles, and television shows vying for our attention.

     

(On the subject of television shows, by the way, I decided to give Ted Lasso a try the other day, and I'm annoyed now that no one told me how good it was. More important, I understand a decent portion of the dialogue thanks to my experience with Soccer Star [1989] a couple of years ago.)

        

I reiterate that—and I know that this contrasts with many other player's experiences—the multiplayer aspect of the game doesn't do a lot for me. Having to hear about Corin's experiences in addition to my own just adds time to an already-long game. Irene and I both expressed that we wish we could play the game asynchronously and maybe just catch up with each other at the end of the week. This is technically possible using the game's ability to suspend a player for a session, but I wonder if that will cause problems with the game's time-based events, assuming that the Clathran Survey Line really is moving across the galaxy.

    

Thus, I don't know what the future will be for Star Saga: Two. I suppose I'll give it a couple of weeks, and if Irene isn't interested in another session during that time, I'll just continue with Turner on my own. I do want to find out how it ends.

   

Time so far: 7 hours

   

Betrayal at Krondor: The Real Betrayal

 

The party learns how to automate things in Excel.

       

This session starts in Chapter V: "When Rivers Run Blood." The Moredhel attack on Northwarden is imminent. James and Locklear have teamed up with Patrus, Baron Gabot's magician, to run a bunch of missions prior to the battle. As this session opens, the three of them are attempting to convince the baron's minstrel, Tamney, to return to the court and help boost morale. Tamney is afraid of death, but he says he'll do it if we recover some Geomancy Stones from the nearby dungeon called Diviner's Halls.

    

This turns out to be the same dungeon that James, Owyn, and Gorath partly explored in Chapter III. It's not very big, and the battles don't seem like they should be very hard, but the game keeps starting Patrus by himself on the right side of the screen. The other two have trouble reaching him to defend him, and Patrus can only move two squares at a time. The consequence is that enemies are constantly moving into Patrus's periphery, preventing him from casting. Because of this, the battles (Moredhel, hounds, ogres) are tougher than they should be, leaving characters constantly wounded and sometimes near death. Fortunately, I bought a ton of herb packs and restoratives during the last session.

         

A battle rages with some "ogres."

     

Perhaps one of the reasons that the enemies seem extra difficult is that they all have buffs on their weapons. I keep finding blessed, poisoned, and otherwise treated weapons on their corpses. I try to load up on them for resale, but I can only carry so much.

    

I encounter the same fairy chests that I wrote about a few weeks ago, but this time I have all the passwords. One of the chests has the Geomancy Stones. 

            

This game is definitely getting a couple of extra points for these item descriptions.

       

We return the stones to Tamney, who in turn says he'll return to Northwarden. "I think [the baron] will be rather more relieved than you might imagine," he says. He goes on to explain that before he fled, he tricked a treasury guard into leaving his post, then slipped into the treasury and snatched a pouch. He just wanted some gold for the road. After he left, he opened the pouch and found that it held precious diamonds worth hundreds of sovereigns each. "I became terrified of going back." Now, Tamney is worried about getting both himself and the treasury guard in trouble. He plans to use the Geomancy Stones to make a wedding band for the guard to give to his sweetheart, and he wants us to return the stones to Gabot without explaining where we got them.

   

We have bigger fish to fry in the meantime. After a quick run to Northwarden to sell our extra gear, replenish our supplies, and buy some Silverthorn Extract to cure poison, we return to Duke Martin. He tells us about the goblins stationed in the pass to the north of Northwarden. He wants us to find their battle plans, but we have to do it without seizing or killing their leader, because if we do that, the enemy will just change the plans. "No, what I need is the big plan and I'll be willing to bet that it's still in Raglam," a Moredhel city just beyond the border. 

    

This is not a million light years from what James actually does.

       

There's no way through the pass without walking right through the goblin horde. As we do, their leader, Gulla, approaches. He offers to not only let us pass but also to switch sides and fight the upcoming battle on behalf of Baron Gabot if we give him 2,000 sovereigns. 

   

In retrospect, the diamonds are clearly meant to supply us with the means to raise that much cash, but I don't like the idea of breaking our promise to return them, so I try to raise the money (I already have about half of it) by looting enemy corpses first. And what do you know—in contrast to every other moment in the game, the enemies I've slain along the road suddenly have no items. I can't even find any dead enemies when I return to Diviner's Halls. Thus, I'm forced to sell the diamonds, although I wonder what happens if you just refuse and attack the goblins. Someone please enlighten me if you know.

       

It also feels like we should have been able to just requisition the funds from Gabot.

       

Gulla tells us to use his name to pass any other goblin patrols. "We will fight for your Baron."

     

We move to a small northern map with an east-west road passing through the Moredhel city of Raglam. There are some battles on the road with Moredhel and giants, plus a few tents and chests to loot. Outside Raglam, we find an abandoned, broken catapult, curiously loaded and pointed at the city. James theorizes that it was left that way by some rogue Moredhel. 

    

Either way, we'll use it.

       

James has the party brazenly waltz into Raglam, pretending to be mercenaries working for Delekhan. No one really questions this. We check out the tavern, sell some crossbows at a shop, and have a weird encounter with a resident who thinks we were sent by "Eron the Minstrel" to play music for him. (Patrus doesn't have Owyn's skill, and we get thrown out of the house.) We cannot get into the residence occupied by the Moredhel leader, Captain Kroldech.

         

Moredhel don't seem like the types to use "ain't."

       

West of the city, we find some chests, one of which has a gear needed to repair the broken catapult. We return to the device and launch a few stones at the city. We then head back to the city and find Kroldech's residence destroyed, Kroldech dead on the floor, the battle plans on his desk. He also has the Sword of Lims-Kragma, which judging by its statistics is the best sword in the game, at least so far.

    

Plans in hand, we return to Martin, who gives us another mission to find six Moredhel illusionists who slipped through our lines and are hiding somewhere in the area. It takes us a while to find them in an abandoned house southeast of Dencamp. They make the mistake of not crowding Patrus during the first round, and Patrus manages to get out a full-strength "Evil Seek," which kills four of them immediately. The other two quickly fall to swords. On their bodies, they have a couple of spell scrolls that go into Patrus's book, plus a device called an Infinity Pool. I'm not sure what it does.

      

Mission accomplished.

       

Duke Martin sends us back to Northwarden, where things are grim. Baron Gabot and three of his captains have been assassinated by Nighthawks (guess we won't be needing to return that last diamond!), and the Moredhel attack is upon us. James takes command of the defense. A series of chapter-ending title cards explains how the defenders fight to the point of exhaustion. All hope seems lost. James is just about to be slain by an enemy warrior . . .

         

Serves you right for that mustache.

     

. . . when the Moredhel takes an arrow to the throat. It was fired by Prince Arutha, who has arrived at the last second, with his army, to save the day.

    

Arutha apologizes for taking so long, explaining how Owyn and Gorath were delayed in bringing him the message. Arutha further relates that while four of six Moredhel companies attacked Northwarden, another two marched southwest towards Highcastle. Half of Arutha's army has gone there, and he intends to march there as soon as the battle for Northwarden is finished.

        

Hey, there was no point at which we "nearly didn't win ourselves free."

        

Thus ends the chapter. Chapter VI, "Betrayal," starts immediately. I can't believe I've managed to avoid spoilers this long. I can't wait to see what the betrayal is.

        

But where is it going to happen?!

       

The chapter opens with the longest title card sequence so far. It begins with Pug in Krondor, using his magic to take some of the strength out of a supernaturally-strong storm that has been beating at the coast.

    

A rift suddenly opens in Pug's tower and the Tsurani Mage, Makala, steps through. A lot of the subsequent dialogue is hard to penetrate if you haven't read the books. Pug, you may recall, is a main character in the original Riftwar trilogy. He starts off as an apprentice mage in Duke Borric's (Arutha's and Martin's father's) court, gets kidnapped and brought to Kelewan as a slave, and accidentally manifests his magical ability. On Kelewan, magicians are called Great Ones, revered and immune to most laws. Pug is trained as a Great One, adopts the name Milamber, and becomes a servant of the Tsurani Empire. But he becomes disgusted at the barbarity of some gladiatorial games, goes nuts, unleashes catastrophic magic on the imperial court, and flees back to Midkemia, leaving the Tsurani Empire in ruin. These actions ultimately lead to the fall of the empire and peace between Midkemia and Kelewan. In Silverthorn, Pug returns to Kelewan and, after some misadventures, establishes an uneasy peace with the new emperor.

         

"Yeah, when you destroyed my capital" -- Makala's actual response.

         

Makala has come to chastise Pug for his neglect of his duties to the Tsurani Empire, and in particular Pug's fostering of magical abilities in his adopted daughter, Gamina. In the Empire, women cannot be magicians, and women with magical abilities are killed. Makala worries that the Empire will be further destabilized if one of their most famous Great Ones openly flaunts convention in this way. "I have acted on your behalf," Makala concludes, "and placed [Gamina] in exile until such a time as we can agree upon her ultimate fate." Pug naturally rails at this betrayal—oh, please tell me that this isn't the betrayal—and demands his daughter, but Makala warns that "your further interference will likely ensure that the Assembly will carry out its order of death."

 

(Makala seems to have been created for this game; I can't find his name in any of the pre-game books. This is slightly confusing because there are any number of canonical Great Ones who could have served in this role.) 

    

I'm not sure this was worth the suspense.

      

Makala heads back to Kelewan. Pug rants for a bit and then disappears, leaving words written in fire on the wall of his room: "THE BOOK OF MACROS." His wife, Katala, later discovers the message and relays it to Owyn and Gorath, Macros refers to an ancient mage who helps Pug's journey in the trilogy and closes the rift that led to the Riftwar in the first place. Pug inherits his island and library at the conclusion of the books. I might be getting some stuff wrong. I honestly can't remember whether Macros is alive or dead. All Katala will say is: "Macros left Midkemia long ago and all he left behind were his writings." She doesn't know which of those books might be the Book of Macros.
    

Katala says that she'll head to Pug's academy at Stardock and look for the book there. But she mentions an odd episode recently in which Pug paused at a sewer grate in Krondor and said, "Not all of the sheep are in our fold." Based on this cryptic clue, Gorath and Owyn decide to search the sewers.

     

You'd hardly know Gorath was a Moredhel anymore.

      

The game finally lets us play for the first time in like half an hour. Owyn and Gorath are this chapter's dynamic duo again, I guess. They begin with all of their equipment from Chapter IV.

      

I explored the sewers at the end of Chapter I, and the automap remains filled in here. Although some enemies have been restocked, the chests remain looted. Accordingly, the sewers do not give us a great reward for the effort, at least not the first level. It's a good five minutes of wandering rooms and hallways before I find anything to do—a battle with four rogues. We surprise them and make quick work of them. 

   

We run into Limm, a member of the Guild of Thieves, who says that the recent storm flooded the sewers, killed a lot of thieves, and destroyed their headquarters. To make it worse, the thieves are dealing with a rival guild, led by someone named the Crawler, who seems to have actually killed the Upright Man, the former leader of the Thieves' Guild and probably James's father. This is a major character, and any fan of the books would be surprised to find him killed off in the game. It adds to the game's gravitas as part of the Riftwar canon. Anyway, Limm offers that "some of the Crawler's men are magic types," and that they're occupying a lower level of the sewer, which became accessible when "a portion of the seawall collapsed."

      

I'm surprised the Upright Man died off-screen.

        

For 100 gold, he sells us some things he took from one of the Crawler's men: some torches, 24 restoratives, and a note from the Crawler that chastises the recipient for not dealing with the Guild of Thieves yet: "You are to locate the Amulet of the Upright Man and the Idol of Lassur and load them aboard the Night Crawler immediately! We have pressing business with our serpentine clients in the Sunset Isles." Limm has heard of the Idol of Lassur: "About a whizit or other what gives you the power over the Goddess of Death or some such silliness."

   

In the southeast corner of the sewers, we run into a woman named Kat who asks if we're disciples of Pug. We say no. It develops that she's an agent of the Crawler, searching the sewers for the Idol of Lassur. She agrees to tell us "anything we want to know" if we bring her the idol. I don't know. While talking to Limm, I immediately started thinking of the Crawler as our enemy, but I guess there's no particular reason that he should be. Still, I don't like the idea of giving a powerful magical artifact to an unknown entity.

           

Nothing says "medieval" like a track suit and a headband.

       

The entrance to the lower level is in the middle of the dungeon, and not on a route that you would find if you just followed one wall, so it takes me a while to locate it. There are a couple of insultingly easy battles with rouges (I honestly don't know whether they're Mockers or the Crawler's men) in the meantime. 

   

The lower level has a lot more action. In order, we find:

    

• A battle with two rogues and a rogue mage. Owyn hits the mage with "Fetters of Rime" in the first round and everything after that is mop-up. They're guarding a chest with a Sword of Lims-Kragma and the Idol of Lassur. I honestly didn't expect to find it in the first room. I'm not sure what it does—it has 8 "uses"—but having it in his inventory lowers all of Gorath's skills by 20 points. So any reservations I have about giving it to Kat are out the window. I don't go back right away, though, so the rest of these encounters are faced with Gorath's reduced statistics.

• A dead body at the end of a corridor with 11 gold and 4 rations.

• A locked door that none of our keys or picks would open.

• A post that says that "transport through these sewers is strictly prohibited," signed by "Swordmaster Corby." 

       

Is this an ancient sign or did Swordmaster Corby erect it after the storm?

       

• Two rogues, two rogue mages.

• Two rogue mages, two Quegian pirates. This one goes poorly. I try to take out both mages with "Flamecast" the first round, and I end up killing neither of them. They get off some powerful spells, and one leaves Owyn so weak that he gets knocked out by a pirate. I have to use up a lot of restoratives to get rid of his "near death" status.

• A locked door that opens to one of the keys we have. Inside the room is just a dead body with some armor and a shell.

• A Quegian pirate with three rogues. No mages, fortunately. What should be an easy battle is rendered moderately difficult by Gorath's diminished abilities. I guess I could just drop the idol during battle. I'll try that next time. Owyn is poisoned but has some anti-venom.

      

This should have been a cakewalk.

       

• At the end of a corridor, a body with three vials of Flame Root Oil (protects armor from frost weapons).

• Across a pit (we have plenty of rope) and behind a locked door, a battle with two Quegian pirates, two rogues, and a rogue mage. Owyn kills the mage and damages the others with a full-powered "Flamecast." They're guarding a locked chest that none of our keys or picks will open. Dropping the idol doesn't help. I hate to leave it because it seems like it's significant.

• Behind a final locked door, a chest with 28 gold pieces and a shell. This is an oddly large room to have so little in it.

   

So unless I missed something behind one locked door or in that locked chest, most of the level was superfluous.

    

I stop by Limm before returning to Kat, but he has nothing new to say. With no other leads, we take the idol to Kat, although Owyn is cautious: "Aren't you concerned that the Crawler will abuse the Idol? With it he might kill hundreds of people, the Prince, or maybe even the King." Kat replies that she's counting on him using it, since what he doesn't know is that anyone who possesses the Idol will die within a month. Apparently, she's only pretending to work for the Crawler: "I intend to put his plans to ruin."

    

Owyn questions her further. She believes the head of the Crawler's magicians is Abbot Graves in Malac's Cross, who Pug kicked out of the Stardock academy. The implication is that he might know something of the Book of Macros. 

        

What did he discover was happening?

       

We exit the sewers and head back to Krondor for supplies. Gorath gets his new sword blessed at the Shrine of Astalon; I'm really not sure how to determine what different temple blessings do.

     

We hit the road for Malac's Cross, which is not far to the east of Krondor. Almost immediately, we find a dead body on the road with a  new type of key called Nivek's Key. I'm tempted to turn around and try it in the sewers, but I decide I can always do it later. 

        

Finally outdoors. I like the mountains in the distance.

         

On the way to Malac's Cross, Owyn makes 62 sovereigns playing the lute at Darkmoor's Rest. East of Darkmoor, we run into an old woman named Petrumh, who alerts us: "You're not thinking of going into Malac's Cross are you?!" She continues that Abbot Graves has betrayed his students and the town is besieged by "snakemen." She's heading to Darkmoor to drink until the problem goes away, but she laments that she left her ale behind in Malac's Cross and wants us to get it for her, as if Darkmoor's Rest doesn't have any ale.

   

We're attacked by two Pantathians (serpent men) just outside the city. They immediately nail us both with "Fetters of Rime" and then spend two rounds dismembering us. The only way to survive this is to get a jump on them, which takes us a couple of reloads and still leaves Owyn in bad shape. And then we have the exact same problem with a group of three. I don't know what the problem is—"Stealth" for both characters is at around 80%—but I fail to surprise them just about every time. 

           

The Pantathians have managed to "Fetter" us both. It's only a matter of time.

       

Finally, on about my fifth reload, I surprise the group—which hardly helps, since they have about 120 hit points. It takes three full-strength "Evil Seek" spells to destroy them, leaving Owyn exhausted and Gorath near-death from the Pantathians' spells. And guess what's beyond them? A battle with five of the bastards. Naturally, we don't make it even one round.

        

Which they do.

       

Miscellaneous notes:

    

• Games and movies really need to learn what "sewers" are. 

     

Not "sewers."

       

• I was challenged for inventory space throughout this session. I left a lot of valuable equipment on rotting corpses. 

• Gorath has plenty of things to apply to his weapons. After just about every battle, I reapplied Silverthorn, Naphtha, or Killian's Root Oil.

     

Gorath's inventory as Chapter 5 began.

       

• While casting a different spell, I happened to notice "Dragon's Breath" in Owyn's spellbook. I acquired it a couple chapters ago and never cast it. It's not an offensive spell. Rather, it creates a fog throughout the area. I assume this is used for sneaking past encounters on the road. It didn't help at all with the Pantathians, though.

       

And it's as annoying to the party as it is to the enemy.

         

• "Evil Seek" failed on me a few times this session. I'm not sure why. I still got a lot of mileage out of "Fetters of Rime."

• A lot of the game text seems to suggest that Owyn is leading the pair.

    

Owyn is "barking" orders to Gorath?

       

• Even this late in the game, it insists on some tortured narration every time we go to loot a dead body.

      

Get over it.

      

I don't like to leave the game with a tough battle unresolved, but I'm going to have to come back to it later with better strategy or some new assets. 

I don't know if Makala's betrayal of Pug is THE betrayal, but let's address what I think is the real betrayal: that in 12 years of commenters telling me how awesome this game was, none of them mentioned that I should set aside time to read the Riftwar books first. Thank the gods I came to that conclusion on my own, or most of this game would be utterly incomprehensible, even with the summaries in the manual. If Makala's actions are the "betrayal," you'd never know it as a player unversed in the intricacies of Pug's history with the Tsurani Empire. Much of the Moredhel story would be pretty impenetrable, too. It's odd to find a game so deeply embedded in the canon of a book series that it could leave players thoroughly confused; the only other examples that come to mind are Circuit's Edge (1990) and The Witcher 3 (2015), although I'm sure commenters will tell me of many more. Commenters will also tell me that they played Betrayal at Krondor without reading the books and didn't have any problem, but I suspect they just have a higher tolerance for being confused than I do.

     

At least Gorath didn't turn out to be a double agent. This entry would have been a lot of swearing and a hasty GIMLET.

     

Time so far: 53 hours