Part 132: Chapter CXXIX - You are not afraid of me, you never was.
Chapter CXXIX - You are not afraid of me, you never was.
We immediately run into this guy as soon as we reach the next level.
Making deals with shapeshifting demons, what can go wrong?
I'm enjoying the shit out of these conversations, they're a bit wordy but it's a nice respite from Sandrah's ramblings.
This conversation was supposed to go on longer but it cut off right after Sarevok interjected, maybe it's because Imoen's not with us? Oh well, it's probably fine.
A nearby imp tells us what to do in this area.
I'm actually not getting into detail when it comes to this area, Jen'lig, Haiass and Pelligram's custom AI scripts made it a very frustrating experience. For some reason I didn't make a screenshot of the ice scepter but I'm sure you get the gist.
Gee, the demon turned on us. Who would've thought?
The key allows us to enter the portal to the next level. The place where the LP almost ended.
This area is a maze, this first area is known as the compass room.
It might be a good idea to follow this guy lest we get lost.
This guy is new, what's his deal?
Yes, this is a part of the Longer Road mod, how can you tell?
Oh, please do elaborate. These conversations are always too short!
So now we're carrying a sick Deva around, and if we don't hurry up he's going to die and we fail the quest. That's a lot of pressure.
For the love of God, Sandrah. Could you please leave this part of the experience alone? I was just starting to enjoy it!
Anyway, time to pursue this madman we saw earlier.
Before we even get the chance to talk to him Sandrah heals him because of course she does.
This guy was so crazy that he managed to grow a beard despite being an elf. Crazy stuff.
We pick up some items here. Not sure what the gloves are good for but we need the scepter to eventually leave this maze. The Water of Serenity is one of the items that the Deva needs.
We also find the poor guy's journal.
No need to interpret it, Sandrah does that for us.
Time to traverse this damn thing. (Again I'm not going to cover every single room, this chapter will be long enough as it is)
Lots of demons and devils fighting each other here.
I wanted to make a mental note of this place but in all the excitement of saving the LP I never got around to it. I guess this mystery will remain unsolved.
Don't want to do business with a goody-two-shoes? Big mistake, pal.
Yuck, I'm sure this'll come in handy though.
It arrives, the bane of my existence.
Talking to this guy immediately leads to a fight, I didn't know what to do so I just wailed on him.
This was obviously the wrong thing to do, forcing me to reload.
What was the solution, though? Considering the Deva's words I figured I should just let the thing have at me for a minute or two after which he'd calm down and let me progress. That didn't work. Then I had the idea of bringing him down to low health forcing him to surrender, maybe I just killed him too quickly the first time around? Nope, that didn't work either.
After doing some digging it became apparent that my game was apparently bugged, and considering the sparse information available online I couldn't find any solution. Longer Road might not be strictly necessary to complete Sandrah Saga but it is still very important to Sandrah's story so I couldn't just skip it. This really did my head in to the point that abandoning the LP crossed my mind on more than one occasion, Iylos had bugged out only a few hours earlier so maybe the wheels had finally come off.
I decided to leave the demon alone for now and continue on ahead while I figured out what the hell to do.
See? I told you the heart would come in handy!
Who's double-crossing who now, huh!?
It's nice to dish it out for a change. The heart is useless to us but it makes for a nice trophy.
Roxanne sucks at staying true to any given character's voice including those of her own creation. I feel like it's especially egregious here though. Can you imagine David Warner voicing these lines?
That last conversation leads to an honest-to-God cinematic(!) but it's so blurry that it's hard to make anything out. I'm assuming that it depicts our battle with Irenicus and Sandrah does everything while we watch from the sidelines but who really knows?
For the love of God, Roxanne. What are you doing to Irenicus!?
I have no idea why these banters fired in quick succession like that but they're really not making my decision on whether not to abandon this thing any easier.
It might be long-winded but it's a breath of fresh air, let me tell you. I regret not checking this mod out sooner, 18-year-old me would've loved it.
We've reached the final area of the mage only to be greeted by this guy.
He's actually a quite pleasant individual. Who will 'volunteer' to play his game? I'm offended that you even need to ask.
That wasn't so bad.
We lost the game but everything worked out in the end. What a great guy.
The scepter is complete now allowing us to leave the area. We also get one of the Deva's items and obtained a clue on how to obtain the final item somewhere along the line...
...
...I guess I'd better figure out how to unfuck this situation.
Turns out the solution was actually quite easy and only involved editing a value using EEKeeper, finding out said solution was another thing entirely but I'm glad I've got it sorted. Looks like the LP can continue and we can all rejoice...
...
...
...Right?
It is entirely possible that this whole situation was not a bug at all and I just suck at this whole thing. That might actually be a more plausible scenario.
Abaia follows us around now but won't go through the portal with us. Again I thought I had somehow fucked things up.
Oh, okay. You can just talk to him and tell him where to go. Great. Nothing left to do but follow him to the compass room.
I think I'm slowly but surely getting through to him and I don't even need to have sex with him. Sandrah's got nothing on me.
Is that a gnoll walking among us...?
Turns out this
Eventually Jen'lig manages to knock him in his ass.
Sandrah manages to finish him off, Abaia's even nice enough to help out!
After the battle we're approached by these imps who hand us our final item we need to help the Deva!
What a lovely place, it even comes with Dryads.
These three are all voiced, they sound especially like you'd expect from a 2000s Baldur's Gate mod. As far as those go this is actually quite a good effort.
I'm actually going to shut up now and let things play out from here.
...That was great, wasn't it?
We even gets some items out of the whole thing!
...I almost forgot Sandrah was here for a minute. Maybe that's why I'm enjoying all these other mods so much.
It's finally time to leave this area. I'm actually going to end things here because otherwise this chapter'll be way too long. The rest of Watcher's Keep will be dealt with next time!
This chapter was a complete and utter nightmare, I can't stress enough how close I was to giving up on the whole thing. Time will tell if the decision to continue will prove to be the right one.