Betrayal at Krondor: Prison Break

     

Hey, I'm role-playing a recidivist.

     

Before moving on to Chapter 4, I reloaded and returned to Dabeh's Fanciful Trinkets to buy all the spell scrolls they sold that Owyn didn't already know. These turned out to be Dragon's Breath, Skyfire, The Unseen, Nacre Ciatrix, and Unfortunate Flux. I also restocked restoratives for all party members.

    

On another note, I was reminded by Georges that the spyglass isn't just a plot item; it's something that you can use. It highlights encounters and treasures on the map with red dots, making it faster to find them rather than just bouncing around looking for them. That sure would have come in handy for those two "Right to Roam" entries.

     

Much later, the spyglass helps us avoid enemies on the road.

     

When I was ready, I returned to Cavall Run, opened the Nighthawk chest, learned about the Moredhel plans to attack Northwatch, and transitioned to Chapter 4: "Marked for Death." It begins with a conversation between the Moredhel leader, Delekhan, and his lieutenant, Narab. Narab, who's somehow out of favor with Delekhan, tells his general that he's captured Owyn and Gorath. Expecting praise, he's astonished when Delekhan strikes him and yells at him: "You've wrecked everything, you dog!" Confused, Narab asks about his own life. "It is forfeit!" Delekhan screams.

    

Owyn, meanwhile, awakens in a prison cell to Delekhan's interrogation. He demands to know where we were going with the Moredhel plans and the meaning of the notes James scribbled on them: "What does Gabot's Folly mean? Who are Arthur and Jimmy the Hand?" Owyn bravely plays stupid, pretending to be just a thief. Delekhan commits a classic villain's blunder and gives the note back to Owyn. "It will do you little good in your grave."

     

Another one to add to the evil overlord list.

    

Delekhan then goes and kneels over Gorath's unconscious, beaten body. Owyn hears him whisper something like, "Plans unfulfilled." He strikes Gorath one more time, then strides away, telling Owyn and Gorath to "enjoy your deaths." Meanwhile, Owyn becomes aware of someone working a magic spell in the area--a spell that suddenly causes his cell door to pop open.

    

Wasting no time, Owyn helps Gorath to his feet and the two companions limp to the door of the jail, finding it curiously unlocked and unguarded. The chapter then starts letting me play in one of the dungeon rooms.

   

"I don't get it."

      

Fair warning: If the titular "betrayal" turns out that Gorath was secretly working for Delekhan, I'm going to ragequit the game.

   

Gorath, for all the narration about him being beaten and drugged, isn't in bad shape. He has 69/69 health and 46/74 stamina. Owyn fares about the same. Neither has any equipment except (handily) a single torch, but we find a chest with Gorath's stuff right in front of me. I panic a bit when I can't find Owyn's items--he had the spyglass and most of the food--but I soon find it in another corner of the room. Neither of the chests have any of our (considerable) gold, but two Moredhel lie dead on the floor, and they have a little, along with some lockpicks (James had all of ours).

   

There are exits from the room in all directions. I go east. The door is locked, but Gorath has all the keys that we ended Chapter 3 with, and one of them opens it.

    

We manage to surprise four Moredhel in the next corridor. They go down quickly to a "Flamecast" and Gorath's melee attacks. They have some excellent swords, though not quite as good as Gorath's Griefmaker. Still, if I knew there were a shop nearby, I'd take them for sale. They also have some poisoned and flaming quarrels. Gorath has quite a selection of quarrels (elven, fire, Tsurani, poisoned, poisoned Tsurani) that he'll probably never use. Melee combat is simply too powerful in comparison.

    

From here, following the right wall, we find:

 

• A monument to the location where Delekhan united the clans of the north.

• An attack by two "sentinel ogres." That's a new enemy. They're quite thin and small; they don't look much like "ogres." They stand up to a couple of hits from Gorath, though (Moredhel go down in one), so they're reasonably tough.

      

This is an "ogre"?

      

• Four goblins. Embarrassingly, they kill us. As unwise as it seems to rest in the Moredhel dungeon, I'm probably going to have to rest between battles. I win on a rematch.

• Two corridors that have pits and end in dead ends on the other side of the pits. At least, I think they're dead ends. I click around and try walking through them, but I can't find any secret or illusory doors. I don't even know if the game has secret or illusory doors. Is it just trying to get me to waste rope? 

      

It looks like there could be a t-junction over there, but it's just a dead end.

       

• A fairy chest at the end of a corridor: "Though blind as well, can lead the blind well." I don't get it from the clue alone, but it's only four letters (CANE). It just has 3 herb packs and a couple of crossbows I don't have room for.

• Behind another pit and another locked door (Gorath is able to pick it), three Moredhel warriors and a new enemy--a curiously redundant "witch hag"--guarding a couple of treasure chests. She turns out to be immune to "Flamecast," and she devastates us with some kind of spell that saps our stamina, leaving Owyn unable to cast and Gorath unable to fight, except feebly. On a reload, it turns out she's not immune to "Fetters of Rime." I don't know why, but Gorath's hits don't seem to do much damage to the Moredhel warriors, but we manage to get through it.

• The chest is trapped, and although Owyn senses it, we do not successfully disarm it. It explodes, and we take a bunch of damage. Fortunately, the witch hag had 20 restoratives, so we gulp a bunch down. The chest has some gold, rope, a whetstone, and a spell called "Evil Seek," which Owyn doesn't have.

• Another chest on the far side of the room opens to a Guildis Thorn and contains an Interdictor Key, "the only way to open locks that have been blessed by the Dark Goddess."

   

At this point, we've exhausted all the paths from the original room that led east, so we have to return and go north. We soon meet a single witch hag in a hallway; she blasts Owyn with a spell that halves his health, but she soon falls to Gorath's sword. She has 7 restoratives and 3 herb packs. It's nice of these witch hags to carry the medicines we need to undo their damage. Beyond her, two goblins are guarding a room with a chest containing a Guildis Thorn, a crossbow, and some rope. After that, the northern options are exhausted.

   

We return to the starting room and head west but soon meet a dead-end. This leaves south as the only viable option. Funny how it was the last one; I promise I didn't engineer that. It turns out we need the Interdictor Key to open the door, so we wouldn't have been able to go this way first.

      

Using the new key, which cleverly has a skull on it.

     

The corridor goes to the southern edge of the dungeon and then splits into east and west routes, the former wrapping counter-clockwise along the south wall and then halfway up the east wall; the latter wrapping clockwise south, north, east, and south to almost meet the former. I take the longer western route first, after a long rest.

    

A bit of the dungeon.

    

• Our first encounter is with five Moredhel warriors. I have Owyn try the new "Evil Seek" spell. It takes a minimum of 20 points, but it's pretty awesome. It flies from enemy to enemy like a "Chain Lightning" spell, doing a reduced amount to every new enemy it strikes. This one kills the first two immediately and softens up the rest for Gorath's sword. It does more damage than "Flamecast" and the enemies don't have to be close together. I can't imagine ever casting "Flamecast" again.

• Four Moredhel and a witch hag slaughter us around the next bend. I can't imagine how hard this would have been if we hadn't spent all that time roaming. On a reload, I have to rest for two days and buff to defeat them. 

• A chest with some gold, four more Moredhel warriors.

     

After a long corridor and some dead ends, we come to what looks like the exit. A fairy chest in front of it asks: "This kingdom fool has married many women. Yet he has never been married." That's an obvious one (PRIEST). It's got a suit of Euliliko Armor, which I don't have room for, some Killlian's Root Oil (enhances a weapon for one battle), a ruby, and some Aventurine (fixes bowstrings). 

    

The exit.

    

Rather than leave, I turn around and picked up some things I missed in the other direction, which turns out to be four battles (three goblins; three goblins and a witch hag; three Moredhel and two goblins; three goblins) and a couple of chests with gold and usable items. After the third battle, Owyn fumbles opening a trapped chest and it blows up in our faces, leaving Owyn at near-death. Gorath is able to take care of the final battle himself. I pump Owyn full of herbs and restoratives and make my way back to the exit, resting frequently.

     

This can be tedious.

       

At the exit, the companions steel themselves for the possibility of guards at the top of the stairs. Expecting to find ourselves outdoors, we are dismayed to find another level, and some Moredhel right in front of us. Sighing, I head back downstairs, feed Owyn just about every restorative we have, and rest for two days. Logically, it's absurd that Delekhan didn't find us. But when we emerge again, we're ready to take on the challenges of what turns out to be a much smaller upper level:

     

• Two Moredhel warriors and a witch hag.

• Two Moredhel warriors, a witch hag, and a goblin. For a battle that isn't that tough on paper, it leaves us pretty beat up. They're guarding a fairy chest: "This marvelous thing, though it sounds absurd, contains all our letters, but is only a word." It takes a couple seconds to click (ALPHABET). Money, restoratives, various items.

• Four Moredhel warriors.

    

Yet more bodies lie before us.

     

• Three Moredhel warriors and a sentinel ogre. For not much reason other than I'm trying to use up stuff, I summon a couple of hounds to help me in this one.

• Several locked doors that the Interdictor Key opens. We're getting a lot of use out of that key.

• A room with a fairy chest: "Answers its caller without being asked. Responds in seconds, and speaks all languages with equal ease." I had it after the first sentence (ECHO). Sarig's Bane (counters enchanted blades), a Guilder's Passkey, some royals, a sword.

• A pit appears immediately around a corner, dropping us to our doom, requiring a reload.

• Blocking the exit, a final battle with three sentinel ogres and two Moredhel warriors. I hit them with a full-powered "Evil Seek" and kill four of them immediately. Gorath kills the fifth with a fire arrow. That was a satisfying battle.

        

Okay, this is my new favorite spell.

      

Finally, we come to the stairs and exit into Sar-Sargoth, a menu city with a shop and a tavern. We shrug and give them a try. We exited the dungeon with a respectable 805 sovereigns, and we have over 1,200 once we sell our gems to the shop (Scavenger's Meet). We replenish our herb packs and restoratives. The tavern looks like any human tavern and has only a few generic NPCs and a gambler.

      

Nice for the Moredhel not to notice the human among them.

       

We exit the city with no problem and find ourselves in a frosted land with paths to the east and west. A look at the map shows that either way goes to human lands, west to Tyr-Sog and east to Highcastle or Northwarden. I decide to head east for three reasons; first, if James didn't make it to Northwarden, we can warn them. Second, we can perhaps meet him again and travel to Arutha's camp together. Third, when last I checked, the pass to Tyr-Sog was blocked, whereas James just didn't want to take the passes north of Highcastle and Northwarden. Yeah, I'll miss a bunch of stuff that way, but I already did my roaming. I'm role-playing now.

      

We emerge into a new kind of landscape.

      

No sooner have we stepped on the path from the city than we meet a Moredhel named Liallan. Gorath clearly knows her. Their conversation reveals that she helped Gorath escape to the south at the beginning of the game, but she had nothing to do with our more recent escape from the dungeons. Her motives are otherwise complex and unclear. She won't help Gorath kill Delekhan, but she intends to rule the clans after Delekhan inevitably dies. Narab has fled and Delekhan has put a price on his head. Delekhan has been spreading rumors that Murmandamus (the general from A Darkness at Sethanon is still alive) and Delekhan intends to free him; it's uncertain whether he believes this or even whether it's true. Finally, she mentions that Delekhan's group of mages called The Six have gone to Harlech, which is fortunately in the opposite direction.

    

Damn. Why couldn't she join the party?

      

We run into four Moredhel warriors and then immediately five more. Owyn goes down, and we have to stop for a few days of restoratives, herb packs, and rest. The moment we start moving again, we hit two Moredhel warriors, two sentinel ogres, and a new enemy called a highland ogre (he's just as small as his cousins). That's three battles in the space of as many steps; clearly, we need to get off the road. We bumble into another party of two highland ogres and three sentinel ogres while trying to do so. Highland ogres are capable of spells, as one of them nails Gorath with "Fetters of Rime" in the first round and takes him out of the equation. Owyn is forced to spend all his health on "Evil Seek" to eliminate most of them, then use his lightning staff to kill the remaining two. It's a good moment for him. 

     

Blasting the highland ogre with a lightning staff.

      

We continue on, using the spyglass to avoid enemies, legitimately trying to lie low. In the city of Caern, we find a shop called Oeirdu and Company that sells armorer's hammers and restoratives, both of which we desperately need. We also pay a lot for a book called Acts of Shamata Garrison, which doesn't seem to do anything at all for us. It sounds like it's supposed to increase combat abilities. Maybe we already read it. The other houses in town were mostly empty, or had women and children alone, as the men had gone off to join Delekhan's army.

       

Gorath apparently stops long enough for a tryst with a woman he knows.

      

The path south is mercifully free of encounters for a while. When we do come across an enemy, it's another new one: two "tor giants" led by a witch hag. The giants like to toss boulders across the battlefield, and their accuracy is unnerving. Fortunately, with only three opponents, "Fetters of Rime" does its job.

      

Four enemies is apparently too many for Gorath.

     

Shortly after the battle, the road branches to the south and east, south going to Highcastle via Wyke, east going to Northwarden via Raglam. We head east. But we soon see a mass of soldiers guarding a bridge, and the game won't even let us try to take them on. So we turn south and try the Highcastle route, almost immediately tripping a battle with two Moredhel, a highland ogre, and a witch hag. I take some time to consider my other combat spells.

   

"Skyfire" blasts a single enemy. Since I still have 37 uses of my lighting staff, which does the same thing, it doesn't seem like a good choice. Plus, they have to be carrying metal, and I don't know how you ensure that. "Fetters of Rime," "Evil Seek," and "Flamecast" we're all aware of. "Bane of the Black Slayers" only works on them (supposedly; I forgot about it and never tried it). "Thoughts Like Clouds" confuses enemy spellcasters, but for the stamina cost, I think I'd rather just freeze them. "Unfortunate Flux" summons sprites to assist you; I'll try that eventually. It really is difficult not to just blast out with a maximum "Evil Seek" and just rest between battles, which is what I do here.

   

A tor giant tosses a boulder.

      

We get blasted by a trap I can't solve; we cross a bridge over a frozen river; we pass quickly through the village of Wyke, which just has some empty houses and an armorer. But once again, as we near the border of the Kingdom of the Isles, we see a host of Moredhel too great to attack. Clearly, the game wants us to go all the way back to Sar-Sargoth, take the western road, and ultimately take the Inclindel Pass to Tyr-Sog. I had hoped I could finish Chapter 4 in one entry, but I guess it will be at least one more.

     

Bah. Two castings of "Evil Seek" and we're clear.

     

This was a combat-heavy entry, all the more notable given that the party has become a duo. I like moments of tension like this, but I also like when they swiftly resolve.

Time so far: 46 hours.