Ishar 2: Average Human Band

 

Other fantasy world bands: Swords N' Roses, Leatherica, Bronzey Dan, Towncrierhead. I suppose Iron Maiden is all set.

          

I start this session with a return to the inns in the unnamed town on the northwest tip of Irvan's Island. Having lost my first party, I need to grab some more NPCs. As we'll see, the game seems to assume you're going to be doing this a lot. The first Ishar also had NPCs leaving and joining right up to the final act, and it occurs to me that there's nothing special about Zubaran, even. Despite the backstory, with Zubaran being contacted in the cinematic, I don't think he's necessary to win the game. In any event, I love the thought of Zubaran returning to the tavern a day after he left with four companions, announcing that he's looking for four new ones. 

       

After looking over their statistics and thinking about potential conflicts, I take Eliandr the scholar (human), Khalin the magician (elf), Yornh the priest (human), and Karorn the knight-errant (human). As I brought each new character into the party, everyone else voted to accept him, so I felt that was promising. Nonetheless, when I finished, the party morale was 31. When I had Zubaran by himself, it was 100; with the "evil" party, it was 23. I guess Yornh is the one dragging us down. If I try to expel any of the other members, he's the only one who ever votes yes. If I try to expel him, he's the only one who gets more than one yes vote. Regardless, even at 31, no one is bailing in the middle of the night or murdering other party members, so I guess I'm okay for a while.

      

It's nice to begin harmoniously.

       

No one comes with any stuff. Since I intend this party to live, I take them all to the shops and buy them leather armor (there are separate suits of armor for men and women, it turns out), helmets, and short swords. I don't have quite enough money to add wooden shields. It turns out that Eliandr can't use a short sword, so I have to leave her bare-fisted. 

      

I guess the cleavage window should have given it away.

    

Eliandr and Yornh come with "Healing" and "Physic Protection," which address Zubaran's health problem. 

   

Over the next few days, the reality of party life sinks in. This is the sort of game in which the party needs regular food and rest. You can carry food with you, but you cannot rest anywhere but inns, which costs quite a bit of money. You thus have to produce during the day, lest you drain your money without making it back. One night at an inn does not entirely restore lost hit points and magic points, so every once in a while, you have to spend a couple of nights in a row.

      

No, you're supposed to be counting crows.

           

The troglodytes living in the swamp don't seem to drop gold, and they're the only enemies on the island that seem to respawn, so we make it a priority to get out of here. That means defeating the two-bladed troglodyte king, which we do in a long battle in which I have to keep healing Zubaran. Enemies seem to focus on him relentlessly. The creature drops 10,000 gold pieces and a necklace that we cannot equip.

            

Not so tough now, are you?

        

On the far east side of the island, as the tavern rumor indicated, we find a wandering mage. "My rates are 10,000 [gold pieces]," he says. For what? He won't join the party, so it's not that. I leave him for now.

         

Maybe he's just a hyper-confident beggar.

     

Lacking any idea what to do, I waste a little time re-exploring areas, fighting some respawns, and trying in vain to kill those two stone elementals guarding the skull. Eventually, I return to Lord Gordbnoeuf and try giving him the necklace. "Fanfares of triumph!" he exclaims. "Colombine's jewel!" As a reward, he allows us to use the boat in the southwest corner of the island.

        

The happiest day of a boat owner's life is when he gives it away.

      

Boarding the boat allows us to select another island from the map. At this point, we only have one choice: Zach's Island to the southeast. 

   

We arrive to some nice graphics of a harbor and a large city beyond. The game funnels us into a small selection of passages, though, which make the city feel more like a dungeon than a city. There are doors every couple of steps. I guess all doors that lead to places you can actually enter (inns and stores) have signs over them, but naturally I can't rely on that. So traveling the city for me is a long process of constantly turning to try every door.  

           

A pretty harbor from one direction . . .

 

. . . and another.

     

There are as many shops as there are inns, selling potions, food, weapons, armor and, for some reason, various animals: a performing baboon, a mouse, a carnivorous plant (looking like Audrey II), a thieving magpie, and a talking parrot. I make enough money in street battles to afford some wooden shields and a fighting stick for Eliandr, but that's about it.

     

The streets of Zach's Island.

      

We meet enemies somewhat rarely, mostly at intersections and dead-ends. I wish the game named its monsters. They include little jawa-looking things in white cloaks, hooded warriors with scimitars, and what I guess are city guards. Sometimes the guards are hostile and sometimes not. We're able to kill the first two enemies in long battles but not the guards. 

         

The jawas.

     

The city has at least 10 inns, each with a handful of NPCs willing to join the party. Among them, we get even more classes, including spy, beggar, paladin, druid, and dark knight. Among them are, nonsensically, every NPC from the first game, including Morgula the witch (that's another one!).

      

You guys have really come up in the world since the last game.

       

We hear the following tavern tales:

   

• Someone saying his new house is pleasant except for the piercing cries at the neighbor's house every morning at 03:00. This ties in with our prison experience later. 

• Someone planning to meet someone else at the Blue Velvet "for evening session." For some reason, the person has to wear a suit and a necklace, as "the duty officer doesn't have a sense of humor." 

• Someone planning some kind of heist. He's telling an accomplice named "Pogo" to "go in through the back of the shop . . . fill your sack, and bring it back to me." 

• The mayor's daughter has disappeared, the fifth such disappearance since the new commander-in-chief has been in charge. 

        

This is the fifth or sixth contest in which "Dwigdinl" is used.

    

• A man crying over a departed lover named Zeldy. Her last message said that she felt threatened, so she was going away, "and I'm talking that pig of a commander's key with me."

• A guy claiming to be writing a book called Ishar II: Messengers of Doom. 

• Someone planning an expedition. He claims he'll need ropes, ointments, torches, furs, hoods, white mushrooms, potions, and a saw. I've seen some of these items in the game. 

• There's a statue worth seeing in the Elemental Temple of the Air. 

• A guy who wants us to meet him in Four Towers Alley between 02:00 and 04:00. I don't know what alley that is. 

   

A couple of these rumors seem to relate to the quest of the city. We find the oily commander-in-chief's office, and he asks us to bring Zeldy back to him. "I have a surprise for her."

      

The automap of the city.

       

We also find the Elemental Temple of the Air, where the priest tells us about the idol. "Bow before [it]," he exhorts. "His breath revives the spirit and transcends the body." I don't know what that means, but there's no command to "kneel before" anything.

    

Other findings in the city:

    

• A bank, where we're given the option to deposit money.

• A library, where someone is talking about the "complete works of the Silmarils." It teases an Ishar III but doesn't give the subtitle. I also find here a map of Akeer's Island. It appears on my game map, but I don't know if that means I can travel there by boat.

• A street where I couldn't get past a couple of groups of city guards.

• A big dude guarding the way to an area. Couldn't get past him, either.

         

This guy kept me at bay for a while.

       

Unless I missed something, my only options seemed to be grinding for higher levels and better items. This is harder than it might seem. First, only a few areas have enemies that respawn. Second, these enemies are all relatively difficult. A single battle with a couple of scimitar-wielding dudes might take most of my physical strength and magic power. Third, enemies don't reliably drop that much money even when defeated. Some of them don't drop any. Remember, I need to make enough each day to cover a meal and a night at the tavern. But that's what grinding is all about—slow and painful at first, easier and more rewarding as it goes along.

     

This guy in the alley respawns frequently.

      

Eventually, I find a zone near the entrance where some scimitar guys reliably respawn in one area and some jawas (which rarely drop money, alas) respawn near another. I get an audiobook going and set to it, every so often testing myself against the big dude I couldn't defeat earlier. I cross a major hurdle when Khalin gets the "Lightning Bolt" spell, which affects all enemies in front of the party, and both Khalin and Eliandr get the "Paralyze" spell. During the same time, I upgrade from short swords to long swords, then to magic swords for two characters, plus chain mail for everyone who can wear it. When I finish, my characters are all Level 10 or 11.

      

Blasting everyone on the street with, despite the graphic, "Lightning Bolt."

      

"Paralyze" turns out to be the key to defeating the big guy.  Beyond him is the Blue Velvet Club, which is advertising a band called "The Gates." It took me a second, but I chuckled when I got it.

               

When I walk into the Blue Velvet Club, I'm immediately attacked and arrested by a trio of orcish guards. 

         

Notice how the guy stutters.

      

We wake up in a cell with a locked door. Fortunately, Khalin has just gotten the "Unlock" spell, and it opens the door nicely. I don't know whether there's another way out.

       

Fantasy tyrants: You want to magic-proof your jails.

       

A hunchback attacks on our way out of the prison, but we make short work of him. We come out to a courtyard with another door, but it's closed and locked and "Unlock" doesn't work on it. While I'm standing in front of it, it suddenly opens, and there's a mage standing beyond. He kills a couple of my characters with a few powerful blasts. On a reload, I hit him with "Paralyze," which stops him long enough for the melee characters to kill him.

       

I don't even know who you are.

     

It turns out that this door only opens between 01:00 and 03:00, so it's a good thing I happened to be standing there. Beyond the door is a corridor leading to a room with a special encounter. A bunch of priests are sacrificing a girl to "Shandar, High Priest of Chaos." I suspect it's Zeldy. The annoying thing is, I can't seem to do anything about it. The screen is entirely non-interactive, so I can't stop the sacrifice—or, at least, I can't find a way to stop the sacrifice. Maybe I need to buy the baboon and loose him in the room?

      

Seeing a girl being sacrificed to a pagan god and having absolutely no options . . . just what I want from a role-playing game.

           

So after accomplishing nothing here, I go back out and have to wait 22 hours for the door to open again.

       

I spy with my little eye something beginning with "D."

         

There's no obvious way out of the prison, so I resort to testing walls and find an illusory one. Great. I didn't know that was a thing in Ishar. Now I have to test the entire city again. Anyway, it leads me out to a battle with three groups of soldiers. I've had no chance to rest since I was originally arrested, and my physical points and magic points are very low. I manage to defeat them all, though, and head to the nearest tavern for a good night's sleep.

     

Knowing that I can now defeat the groups of guards, I go and attack the ones guarding the bank. When they're all dead, I enter and loot a 100,000 gold-piece fortune. It seems like an evil role-playing choice, but I figure a town loses its right to my good will when it tosses me in prison for no reason. Just ask the guards in Markarth, if you can find any alive. 

        

This will teach them . . . something.

         

Miscellaneous notes:

    

• If there's any way to sell items, I can't figure it out.

• I'm reluctant to spend my money on the best helm and shield that I've found because they're called the Helm of Chaos and Shield of Chaos. Am I reading too much into the name? 

       

The most expensive shop in the game so far.

       

• Enemies have thresholds which they won't cross. If you stand outside the threshold, you can shoot spells (and, I assume, arrows) at them with impunity. I've stayed away from missile weapons because they're expensive and they slow down combat (you need to target each arrow). 

• Wandering NPCs seem completely useless. They all just beg for change and then give you nothing in return. 

      

You have a healthy-looking pouch already.

      

• The game has a cute graphic when you cross certain canals in the city. If you turn and look to the sides while on a bridge, you can see the canals, bridges, and boats stretching off into the distance. 

            

Ah, Venice.

     

At the end of this session I don't really know what I've accomplished here except leveling. Hell, I don't even know what I'm supposed to be accomplishing. All that "Jon the Alchemist" told me was that there was some danger coming, and I needed to flee the fortress. I expected some goal to make itself obvious, but all I've seen are a series of unrelated encounters that add up to nothing. I don't know how to solve the remaining encounters on Zach's Island. 

      

Moving on . . . prematurely.

      

So I'll take hints if you know of anything I've missed. In the meantime, even with my 100,000 gold, I can't afford all the cool equipment on Zach's Island, so I expect I'll be returning to this location frequently. For now, I'm going to move on to see what we find on Akeer's Island. 

      

Time so far: 6 hours