Daemonsgate: Miles to Go Before We Sleep

This session involved a lot of travel.

          

I deleted the temporary announcement, but hopefully you all saw the reason I haven't posted in over a week. I went to a conference and forgot to bring the AC adapter for my laptop. "One of my AC adapters," I should say, as I keep one at home and one at work, given that it weighs about seven pounds. Because I don't have to take it back and forth each day, I got accustomed to never having to pack it at all. The upshot is that I now have a third adapter, which will remain permanently in my suitcase. Now that I own more than $200 in adapters, I'll probably have to ensure that I get another computer that uses them when I'm ready to replace this Alienware monstrosity.

      

This entry may be a little clinical, as I'm reconstructing a session that took place nearly two weeks ago. I'll do my best.

     

Travels this session.

         

An army of demons has come boiling out of the southern nation of Elsopea and has surrounded the free city of Tormis. The captain of the guard of Tormis (my lead character, Gustavus) was charged with sneaking out of the city and finding his way to the city of Atteia, where it is rumored that an Elsopean refugee has arrived. The thinking is apparently that this refugee might know something about the source of the demon horde and how to stop them.

    

We learned that the refugee, Alathon, was being held by the city's dictator, Hellast. Working with a revolutionary group, we infiltrated Hellast's palace and killed him. Alathon told us to meet him in Joruli Point and took off. We determined we could only reach Joruli point via a ferry from Dryleaf. The last session ended with us heading there.

          

From a later point in the game, daemons could be either of those things.

          

We were attacked as soon as we entered, by a party led by an assassin named Flea. "You have troubled my master for too long!" he screamed as he attacked. Thanks to all the buffing we did last session, we made short work of them. On Flea's body, we found his orders, signed by "Warmaster Edric," the same person who had been corresponding with Hellast. Edric told Flea that Gustavus had become "a thorn in the side of our mutual cause" and that he should assassinate both Gustavus and Alathon. Later, we were attacked by someone named Brutus who said that, "Flea was weak and failed in his task. I will not." He was incorrect.

     

As usual, Dryleaf had a lot of interesting-sounding buildings, some of which we could enter, some of which we couldn't, none of which seemed to have anything interesting. We stopped by an herb shop but balked at the costs of the herbs. I guess if I really want to explore herb lore, I'll have a perpetual money sink.

    

That's as much as a suit of armor.

        

An NPC named Hank the Tall praised our killing of Hellast and offered to join the party, but I didn't feel like shuffling items around to kick someone out. Plus, I'd spent all that time training them. Hank ended up chasing us all around town and even outside of town, begging to join the group. That made me more suspicious of him and strengthened my resolve to leave him behind. I can't think of any other game that allows NPCs to transition between towns and wilderness like this, though.

        

Boundaries, dude.

       

The people talked about a leader named Ragnik, who recently departed on a voyage to discover a "western passage to the eastlands." They anticipate that if he's successful, it will greatly improve Dryleaf's economy and status among the civilized kingdoms. They also mentioned rumors that "the mines at Cooltags Rest have been closed due to a huge daemon running free around the deep seams." 

      

We found a ship captain named East who agreed to take us to Joruli Point, but I felt that I had to check out Cooltags Rest first. That seemed like a side quest. Side quests are so important to my conception of a good RPG that I figured I couldn't let a hint of one go without at least investigating.  

     

Does "150 gold" look like interactable text to you?

        

From the game map, we found Cooltags Rest and entered. The town was all set up as if it supported the side quest we'd been given. We found the house of Johan Schultsmonger, the manager of the mine. We found the building that stored mine safety equipment, a warehouse (with a locked door we couldn't open), lots of mine tracks, and NPCs who talked about the mine. We followed the tracks to the locked entrance which did not offer "Pick" and "Unlock" options like most doors. We couldn't find a key or anyone who explicitly asked us to clear out the demon.

       

Maybe there is no side quest. Maybe they've already dealt with it on their own.

         

I figure there's an equal chance of three possibilities:

       

• There was a key somewhere that I didn't find.
• The side quest was never finished.
• This is actually part of the main quest and will become relevant later. 

      

I reloaded from Dryleaf, a bit dispirited, and found Captain East again. There, I ran into another problem. I couldn't figure out how to agree to her price (150 gold pieces) and pay her. It turns out that you have to click the words "150 gold" in the dialogue. There's nothing that indicates that. 

          

A nice cut scene on the high seas.

      

We sailed to Joruli Point, a town of magicians and scholars. It consisted of several small islands bisected by canals and connected by bridges. We learned that sailors had reported that all of the cities of Elsopea have been reduced to smoking ruins and that Tormis isn't expected to hold out more than six months. Dean Juliene, ruler of the city and author of the lore section of the manual, gave us an Enchanted Sword and a Dragon's Eye herb. The description of the Enchanted Sword doesn't mention what the enchantment is, and I don't know how it rates against our existing Elemental Blades.

    

We found Alathon in one of the university buildings. In a series of text screens, he filled us in on the origin of the demon problem: His master, Dorovan, head of the Order of the Eye, was experimenting with dimensional travel, hoping to break the monopoly that the Pilots' Guild had on this form of magic. Agents of the Pilots' Guild sabotaged the experiment, causing Dorovan to accidentally open a Daemonsgate (take a shot!) into "the dimension to which Alkat was banished all those aeons ago."

     

Well, I'm standing in a hallway, the eight individuals who make up my party awkwardly fused into one form.

       

Alkat appears in the extensive lore section of the manual. He was the leader of a group of demonic beings who invaded Hestor from another plane when the land was still ruled by reptilian birds called Kzzir. The demons destroyed the Kzzir, took over the world, and their descendants became the progenitors of the Elsopean Empire. Infighting within the ruling houses led to the creation of an enchanted blade that banished Alkat to another plane. The Elsopean Empire later collapsed and humans, their former slaves, replaced them. Alathon believes that Alkat has returned.

     

Part of Alathon's story.

      

"The only hope for this land is to find a way to close the Daemonsgate," he said. He thinks he can accomplish this if he has his master's notes, "which lie in the smoking ruins of Tan-Eldorith," the old Elsopean capital. "If you journey first to the Pilots' Guild and activate their teleportation device," he offered, "you should be able to get straight in and out of Tan-Eldorith without too much trouble."

    

I didn't know what he meant by the latter point, but I assumed we'd have to reach Tan-Eldorith conventionally first. It was a long way to the south, and we still had the same problem where we got attacked nearly every time we tried to rest. I tried to stop at cities and towns along the way to use their inns, but half the time I couldn't find an inn in the vast cities. Even when I found one, it took me longer than simply trying to rest multiple times in the outdoors.

          

You do not want to get "desperately tired" in this game. Then you can't rest at all because you'll have no energy when you're attacked.

       

The problem with resting outdoors is that you have to do it twice—once to rest most of the party, and a second time to rest the guy who had to take watch the first time. If you want to accomplish anything else in camp (hunting, foraging, training, magic), you might have to add a third cycle. With about a 50/50 chance of getting attacked every time you try, the process gets annoying fast.

        

This is a bad idea. If enemies attack, they'll slaughter us.

       

A lot of the enemies that we met dropped expensive loot, including reagents (blackheart, diamond dust, lightning seed), gems, and weapons called Doomblades; again, I don't know how they compare to the Elemental Blades. 

     

Daemons carry Doomblades, which get their power from the imprisoned souls of other daemons. It's like daemons have no ethics at all.

      

At a stop in Vorsai, where we couldn't find an inn, we wandered into the house of a Ludovic Grueber and found a book that teaches the "Spirit Lore" skill. The manual doesn't mention this skill, but I assume it's the same thing as "Daemonology," which will let us make Doom Blades for ourselves.

             

Arion adds "Spirit Lore" to his list of skills.

      

After a long journey, we finally made it to Tan-Eldorith and started exploring its buildings. We got attacked at almost every turn by parties of daemons, but it's a measure of how much difference my training made that even they weren't much of a threat. I soon got lost in the complicated city, full of walls and guarded gates, and I ended this session having not found Dorovan's notes nor the Pilots' Guild portal that will hopefully hasten our return. I'll cover more on the city next time.

         

Time so far: 19 hours