Part 20: A Mysterious Mystery, Part 1
Update 20: A Mysterious Mystery, Part 1
Now, having spent like an in-game month collecting small amounts of trivia and large amounts of valuables from around the game world, we're actually back on track, heading north from Romney towards the Prank's Stone/Kenting Rush/Cavall Keep region. While Owyn is from farther east, Tiburn, an area that more or less doesn't in any way feature in the books or games at all, he has family in this region and, outside of gameplay utility, is his main reason to feature in the story. Though it's absolutely possible to resolve the whole thing without getting involved with any of his family drama.
We've already seen the first steps of the trip before, the way up to Prank's Stone, but as of Chapter 3's beginning, it's been repopulated with a few Nighthawks.
Three Nighthawks aren't enough of a speedbump to keep the party from reaching Prank's Stone, however, and this time I remember to take a side trip down the one small path in town to see the titular stone.
I'm 99% sure this is one of the gravestone sprites that they just upsized slightly. Anyway, don't touch this, especially don't touch this if you're running patch 1.01 rather than patch 1.02.
On the way out of town, this time during the stretch between Prank's Stone and the Temple of Banath, we run into yet more Nighthawks, and this time there's actually something interesting about the run-in.
Not so much the fight itself, which is once again another curbstomp. If you play BaK for yourself, I encourage you to powergame slightly less than I have, since it takes a lot of the spice out of most of the fights once you have a well-trained party with full gear and a spellbook full of all the absolutely busted spells rather than just the slightly busted spells.
It's interesting because one of these dead idiots is carrying a new item which is one of the more useful misc. items. It's the snot-green potion there.
BaK posted:
The fluid within the flask was a clotted mass, tinged a phlegmy color that looked neither healthy nor appealing. And if the scent of the cork was anything similar to the actual aroma of the concoction within, he had no desire to open the bottle. Yet, if he were attacked, it might be useful to distract an otherwise troublesome opponent.
It's like a slightly worse version of the powder bags. I think it works on a greater variety of enemies, but rather than paralyzing them, it makes them run away. Which is good because it can save your wizard, but bad because it may prevent you from stripping their corpses of anything even slightly valuable. It's also weird that most of the Nighthawks even at this stage are still wearing tier 1 armor and carrying tier 1 swords, when even a party played entirely "straight" with minimal side trips would likely have upgraded one or two tiers of armor and two or three tiers of swords by this point.
Trolls still get the fork. There is absolutely no reasonable point to hacking my way through their piles of meat.
Shortly past the Temple of Banath, we enter a new area of the game we haven't visited before, a large, basically square, "valley" of sorts, since it's hedged in on all sides by the game's repeating geometric hills. Before we enter that, though, there's an important little turn-off to visit. After all, it's canonical to the book that the party goes here as soon as they pass by.
The magic trap is slightly less canonical.
Don't touch the third crystal, shuffle the first one upwards by one step, the second upwards by two steps and then, and this is the part it took me a couple of moments to figure out, move diagonally between the two crystals. For some reason my brain insisted that it reasonably shouldn't be possible, but it absolutely is. The moment we exit the trap and then take another couple of steps forwards, we get a prompt:
BaK posted:
Off in the distance, a hiss whispered in Gorath's ears.
"Hmmm," Owyn said. "Think we should investigate further?"
YES:
Leading the way, Owyn turned down the short path, his steps becoming more hurried as the faint hiss grew into a pounding torrent of sound. At last they found themselves standing before a sparkling waterfall.
White lather churned from the waterfall's lip in a burst of sunlit spray, crashed over natural stone tiers into a small pool of pine smelling water. Broad leafed and lush, dark ferns grew up the face of the arroyo like a living carpet. Everywhere there seemed to be life moving and crawling.
I honestly really dig the piece of art for this location, you could well convince me it was a slightly crusty-quality actual photo if I didn't pay too much attention to the water. There are two things to interact with here, one is the usual little hidey-hole on most screens that contains a few objects. In this case a Ring of Prandur(light-spell ring), some Rope and a Ring of the Golden Way(+scouting) ring.
BaK posted:
On many occasions Owyn had seen similar rings used by visiting magicians to cast spells to lighten darkened rooms. While he couldn't be certain by appearances alone the ring he held was of the same purpose, the reference to the god of light and fire in its name seemed a good indicator.
...
The ring was a simple, unadorned band of gold which fit awkwardly on his finger. Worth only a small crafter's fee and the gold used in its forging, the ring was still charming in its own humble way. What mystified him was the peculiar way it warmed when someone moved near him.
I hope everyone will trust me when I say that the description of the rope isn't very interesting.
We can also interact with the waterfall...BaK posted:
Water cascaded over them.
Sloshing through the thundering curtain of water, they flung themselves down on a wet stone slab which lay behind the waterfall. Wet strands of hair dangling before their eyes, they looked around their new surroundings. A door was set into the face of the rock, and on either side an empty iron brazier was bolted to the door's frame. To the right side, there was a small darkened niche.
James stood to take a closer look at the mysterious hole, discovering there a chessboard. "Looks like someone was getting ready to play a match, but they were missing a knight's piece."
This is a weird location you might not think matters right away. In the novel, Owyn knows about this place(and it's opened without a damn Sierra-ass puzzle!) because it leads to tunnels below the old Cavall Keep, and he used to play in them with his cousin Ugyne when he was younger, though her dad, Baron Corvallis, didn't want them to and once whipped the shit out of them for doing it. At this point in the story, the party just considers it an interesting novelty and pass on, having no reason to go poking around in old tunnels, especially since the keep over it burned down years ago. Gorath comments that Ugyne and Owyn being allowed to play by themselves would never be allowed by the Moredhel, since their children are much too valuable, but that he guesses it's okay for the humans since they'll just pump out another couple if they slip and break their necks. James disagrees with this characterization of humanity.
Like the party, we'll be moving on.
The valley is relatively empty of enemies at the moment as several of its encounters, unusually, only spawn for one chapter at a time. Thus we've already missed a bunch of battles with giant spiders that would otherwise have occurred if we came here in Chapter 2.
A single path runs up the center of the valley, but actually following it will make you miss most of the valley's content since, unlike much of the rest of the game, people here haven't been kind enough to store all their secret loot a short spit from the roadside. So we'll be doing the sane and normal thing and running around the outer edge of the valley before bothering to exit it to the north towards Cavall Keep.
This is instantly rewarded with a couple of puzzle chests.
CARDS
PEACE
One of these chests contains a big score, both a suit of Grey Tower Plate in decent repair and a Clerical Oilcloth(the booster that provides +100% damage for the next battle, it's great, I love it).
BaK posted:
Even in its advanced state of deterioration, the dwarven armor was worth two suits of standard plate. Reddish brown scales of rust pocked its ancient surface, but its original making had rendered it so lifelike it appeared not like a corrupted metal breastplate but instead a cancerous human torso.
...
Distributed once a year from the Temple of Tith, oilcloths were often resold by the poor to any who would buy. The oil which was soaked into the fiber had numerous qualities, though it was best known for its magical effects when smeared on edged weapons or on armor.
I find it somewhat amusing that apparently the Temple of Fighty God just hands out "fuck some dudes up"-chemicals to all and sundry once a year. It must be like some sort of gory Combat Christmas.
Slightly north of these chests we find...
A barn! It's kind of odd in that, sensibly, most other barns in the game are located near fields and usually always some sort of house for people to live in. This one is an undomesticated barn that gives a unique message if interacted with.
Please, James, what are the odds of that?
Don't say I didn't warn you, asshole.
Unsurprisingly, James knows what he's talking about and we get ambushed by six moredhel warriors. Despite just being warriors, this is actually enough to still make them somewhat of a threat since they can both tie up Owyn AND give the warriors a lot of hit points to chop through. Their main weakness is that they're still carrying low-tier gear, so they can't kill us as fast as we can kill them.
To be on the safe side, I still have Owyn drop Skin of the Dragon and Steelfire on both Gorath and James, which raises Gorath up to the point where he can one-shot these chumps with a single wave of his sword, and the party emerges unscathed except for Owyn needing a rest while the others paw through the carnage for loot.
Oh yeah and one of these pricks was using poisoned crossbow bolts and plunked one into Owyn.
A single hit provides enough poisoning that it takes two uses of a healing herbs(waiting for one to run out, then re-using it), to cure it all. considering that a single stack of herbal remedies is 24 uses, that means just a couple of unlucky battles can tap out your entire supplies and force you to use expensive Restorative potions instead.
Getting back to the stack of corpses, though...
One of them contains a note that it's worth our time to pick up and read.
Since it points out that we get the Knight's Piece for entering the cave under the waterfall by poking around a well. The reason this is so useful to learn is that wells are otherwise very unrewarding in this game, there's one that contains a single Moredhel Lamprey sword, the full-heal well down by Lyton and a couple that poison you, but otherwise they mostly just give a "the party drinks some water
"-message and nothing else happens, so the average player might well have assumed they're all worthless and started just bypassing them without a note like this. Nice of the devs to give us a hint in... checks the most out-of-the-way part of this region bar one. 
There's also a shop hidden in among the trees which trades in some rare-ish commodities.
Being a magic store, it has a few spells that are hard or impossible to find elsewhere. In particular, it contains Bane of the Black Slayers(not available for a while yet anywhere else) and Unfortunate Flux(our only other place to get it is from a chest in the Dimwood that's trapped and which we couldn't handle when we passed through the first time, also with the trap doing an insane 200 points of damage, we couldn't even have tanked it). Bane suffers a bit from Black Slayers not being immune to Grief, though, I wonder if that was a fat-finger on the dev team's part and it was originally meant to be Black Slayers who were immune and Nighthawks who were susceptible?
Bane of the Black Slayers is, as the name indicates, a spell for killing Black Slayers and only affects them, no one else. Doing 5 points of damage per point of stamina/health spent, it has the best return in terms of health-for-damage outside of a max-rolling Unfortunate Flux and two other spells we've yet to find. Unfortunate Flux, as mentioned before, is the only spell that does actual random damage, costing 20 health and doing 30 to 130 damage, with no enemies immune to it.
With the east side of the valley checked, I head to the west side, with the only interesting sight along the way being five stumps arranged in a rough pentagon, mostly notable for containing almost 150 gold pieces in pure coinage, which is a rare find. The west side of the valley is slightly more populated, containing a couple of small houses.
This house is odd in that talking to the owner initiatives a conversation that turns off one of the area's combat encounters.
BaK posted:
A heavyset man answered James's knock.
Greeting them warmly he invited them into his house. After several minutes of conversation he offered them some fresh water for their pouches, a kindness that was gladly accepted. They were preparing to leave when the man's tone turned serious.
"You gents be careful out there. I've been hearing some strange noises -- wouldn't be surprised if it was the spinners coming out of hibernation."
James looked a little puzzled, "Spinners?"
"Overgrown spiders! Count Corvalis has sent some men to patrol the four virgates to the west, hoping to get to the spiders before they have a chance to get entrenched in the area, but it would be best to keep on the lookout."
There's an ambush southwesternish of his house, and if you haven't talked to this guy, you just get set upon by five poorly-armed Rogues. On the other hand, if you've talked to this guy about spiders...
BaK posted:
An arrow hissed by James's head.
Startled, but having presence enough of mind to react, he halted immediately and held up both hands, hissing for his companions to do likewise. They had come across Count Corvalis' guards.
Moving through the long stemmed grass with a nearly feline litheness, a long limbed soldier halted a few steps away, eyeing them suspiciously. "What business do you have here?" the man said.
"Actually, we came looking for you," James said, still relieved that the crossbow bolt hadn't struck him. "You are one of Count Corvalis' guards aren't you?"
"If I am, what of it?" the man replied.
Jerking his thumb back at the way they had come, James related what the franklin had explained to them about the spiders in the area. "They asked for you to come and help as soon as possible."
Looking back to the other men who waited in the field, the soldier waved to them and instructed a few of them to get someone to go and help out.
"What about us?" James asked.
"Do what you like," the soldier replied. "You lot don't look like poachers anyway. Just don't let us catch you poking around near the ruins of the Keep."
Corvallis clearly employs some serious assholes for his guards. What a jackass. Though, I think this was an intentional writing choice meant to work together with what feels like a cut sideplot that I'll point out when we get a bit farther.
This farm is actually a shop selling herbal pouches and restoratives. Their prices aren't particularly notable, but it's a nice little place to resupply and I stocked up the party on restoratives while I was here. That's almost the last thing to do in the valley, there's still another couple of encounters and chests to deal with.
First, the encounter which, happily enough, includes a pair of Black Slayers! This fight is actually reasonably scary for a less powerful party since the Slayers and one of the Nighthawks are chunky enough that if you whiff a bunch of hits and have weaker weapons, some of the dead ones might start standing up again. Let's start by testing out our new spell, though.
Weird-ass projectile, but it does its job and its job is killing Black Slayers fucking dead.
I also test it out this battle and yes, it's not just an error on the Krondor site, Grief really DOES work on the Slayers and not on the normal Nighthawks, bizarre. After this, Owyn drops Steelfire on Gorath and James to speed up the chopping since these guys aren't getting one-shot like the last pack.
They don't carry any items of note, and the instant I step over the corpses, I wander right into a trap. Goddamn.
This screenshot isn't right when the trap is done deployed, because Gorath's fat ass was blocking the view of the nearest blaster. Simple enough solution, though, diagonally shove the transparent crystal in front of the rightmost blaster, then either walk Gorath past the zap poles or just have James slowly bump the solid crystal out of the way until he can walk past them.
And past the trap is another three chests.
SAWS
SHADOW
WAGON
Another one somewhat spoiled by being archaic. Who the hell these days knows there's a part of a wagon called the tongue?
These chests mostly contain spare change and some starter gear, which is weird, because even if you took the long way around, or came here as soon as possible, you'd have had a dozen changes to get better stuff than what's here. In any case, we've now tapped out this part of the world map and can continue to Cavall Keep.
Cavall Keep is located in a narrow throat between the southern valley and the northern valley(which contains Kenting Rush), with its entrance on the western side. Before going there, though, it's vital that we cling to the right side of the throat and do some snooping in a pair of chests that some silly person has accidentally left lying around.
WALL
One is a moredhel wordlock chest containing a basic broadsword, a light crossbow and some more of the absolutely pointless coltari poison. The other, though, isn't even locked...
Damn! Someone left a ton of gold just lying around next to a note. Maybe it's payment for an assassin or some other such clandestine thing?
BaK posted:
To the High Priest of Kahooli,
I request that Navon Du Sandau be driven mad for his attacks on my person and my family. So my petition ends.
Count Geoffrey Corvalis
Oh brother. Right, you're related to this guy, aren't you? Yeah, the count's always been somewhat... high-strung. And he hasn't mellowed out with age. We should absolutely go harass him at his home and see if something funny happens.
The town is oddly named seeing as how there explicitly isn't an actual Cavall Keep any longer, and it's actually kind of a plot point in both the book and the game, and in the book it specifically gets renamed to Cavell Village. In any case, the place has the usual amenities: A shop, an inn, a fountain where we can fish up spare change and a couple of NPC homes we can barge into for the purpose of harassing the residents with questions. The shop is nothing of note, but the inn is actually mildly relevant.
The large fellow in the center is the innkeeper who stands out slightly and has a Talk prompt rather than the usual Innkeeper prompt.
BaK posted:
Owyn's stomach grumbled.
Waiting until another patron had finished placing his order for a roast hen and a tankard of ale, the seigneur beckoned the tavern keeper away from his other duties, hoping both for information and perhaps a bit to eat.
The three of us are fine, but you sound as if you've had better days. Is something bothering you friend?
I don't suppose you would be interested in becoming a skully would you lad? I can't honestly say its on my list of ambitions at the moment, no. Having problems with the help? I wouldn't call it problems so much as disappointments. I don't know what to say to the lad. He's a good enough boy, kind, honest, hard-working. But all in all, he doesn't have the faintest idea which end of the pan's the handle. I've tried for weeks to teach him how to cook so the wife and I could take some time off, but when it comes to cooking he's as dense as the Thunderhell. I don't know what else to do. But enough about me. What can Peter do for you?Since we can come here in chapters 1 and 2, too, Peter has different greeting texts for each chapter. In chapter 1 he just gives a very bland greeting, but in chapter 2 he comments that someone tried to poison Count Corvallis not too long ago. In fact, that's why he has a new skully, the old one got taken out by the poison intended for the Count.
[LODGING]
Do you have a spare room where we could lay down? I could use a nap. Need a bit of a rest, do you? I wish there was something to do for you, but the only room open in the Duck's Head is the scullery... We wouldn't mind sharing with someone... Truly, I would like to help you, but the rooms I do have to let are full up and I don't think my skully would want to share. The room is only just large enough for him to squeeze into and it's a tight fit as it is. With three of you in there, we'd have to stack you like ricks of wood. I'm sorry...[COUNT CORVALIS]
Being right across the street from the Count, you must see him quite a bit. Actually, no. The Count is quiet, likes to keep his own company, mostly. He's not one much for drinking with the commoners. His whole family has been much the same way with the exception of his daughter... Does he have any unusual callers at his house? There aren't many that would visit him. Don't get me wrong, he isn't a bad sort but he can be unpleasant at times. About the only people in and out of there are Ugyne's suitors and the men who work for the Count.[NIGHTHAWKS]
Have you ever seen any Nighthawks in the area? Ishap forfend! The Guild of Death? I wouldn't let them into my establishment. When one of my patrons comes into the Inn, he comes in breathing and I like them leaving in the same condition - alive. Please tell me you aren't looking to hire one... Hire one? I...might be. There's someone I've been having problems with. Not another word of it, not another word of it! Whatever grievance you have with this man, I don't want to know. If you're looking for a contact, you'll not find one here. If you're looking for a criminal, try the pub in Prank Stone.There are also a couple of keywords that won't pop up until we've met a later NPC, but I'll note them here for now since I'll probably forget them otherwise.
[NEVILLE]
Did Ugyne ever tell you how it was that Neville died? I was only seven Midsummers when it happened. That was a terrible, terrible day. I thought Ugyne would come apart then, but she has quite a bit of her mother in her, lot of iron. They dug for four days, poor men. Never were able to recover the little tot's body from all the rubble. I still can't imagine what the Count must have been thinking... Uncle? What did he do? I mean, why did he hire that man Sandau to build the wine cellar for them in the first place? He had a bit of a reputation as a drunk as it was, and three times while he was building it the Count discovered him so capped he couldn't even stand up straight to take his thrashing. The Count should have known the cellar would be unstable... I'm sorry, I'm not being fair. Of course, none of us had a way of knowing. The Count wouldn't have purposely had the cellar built shoddy. Why waste his money?[NAVON]
: I hear that the Count isn't too thrilled with one of Ugyne's suitors, fellow by the name of Navon Du Sandau. Know anything about him? It's a pity he doesn't like the man. He's perfectly charming, handsome, mannered if you haven't crossed him, but zealous if he thinks you're doing something wrong to someone. He'd be just the cat's whiskers for Ugyne... Any idea where we could find him? He's a businessman, so it may be difficult to track him down. I think he lives in Kenting Rush. You might try asking in the taverns there.The whole interaction is largely canon to the book, except that in the book, Peter was one of the chefs at the old Keep before it burned down. Now, let's go hassle the guy at the lower leftmost house on the Cavall Keep screen. It has an interaction we only get if we bring along the note to an "Isunatus" from the THORN quest down by Silden, the one that Abuk and Mitchell Waylander were using to rob people via Prank's Stone.
BaK posted:
A sign creaked in the wind.
Ten golden coins were portrayed on its face, a sign obvious to anyone familiar with Midkemia s financial institutions.
"It's a moneylender," James said. "Perhaps we should pay them a visit."
...
The door was ajar.
They entered the building and were greeted by a man behind a small counter, "I am the chief lender here. My name is Isunatus. Can I help you?" he inquired.
James brought out the accountant's roll they had discovered in Abuk's magic chest and placed it on the counter. "We were wondering what you might be able to tell us about the details of this note. It has your mark here at the bottom."
"Yes, I see," the man replied. Pushing his eyeglasses down onto the bridge of his nose, he began to examine it carefully, first looking at the top of his note, then glancing down at the bottom with a scowl, then back to the top like a smll child following the actions of a bouncing ball. At last he spoke. "I'm afraid that to make an exact match with our records, I would need a name and a date. It would be impossible for me to sort out otherwise. I wonder why there is no name attached to it..."
"Are you sure there is no other way to make a verification?" James asked.
"Quite sure," Isunatus replied. "Though I can tell you that judging by the size of the deposit, it was definitely a man of high position, either a lord or a merchant with foreign contacts."
James thanked the man as they let themselves out.
It's not very handy, but it does add another bit of detail to our mystery person, about whom we now know that he regularly visits Silden, smells funny and is absolutely loaded down with coinage. That done, let's go visit Count Corvallis, who differs somewhat from book to game.
BaK posted:
Signs of recent renovations were everywhere in evidence within what had, until recently, been the Lord Mayor's domicile. The ceiling, once a low and heavy affair, had now been vaulted in imitation of the great palaces of Krondor and Salador. There was no question the Count was spending a fortune.
James roused the occupants.
The door cracked open with a small squeak, just enough space to allow a pale-eyed girl in a dust caked skirt to peek out at them. She studied them with a doubtful look, hesitant to let the strangers in. "Yes? What is it?"
Stepping around the seigneur, Owyn peered at the girl with a puzzled expression, then brightened. "Miri? It's okay. They may look a little rough, but they're with me."
Without a word, the servant girl stepped out of the way, allowing the three of them to follow her into the foyer of the manor. Excusing herself, she scurried off to fetch her master who was located in the rear apartments.
Following what sounded like a distant argument, a dark haired man swept into the room, a look of annoyance set in his features. Shooting a glance of mild hostility first at Owyn and then the moredhel, he turned on the Seigneur.
We have very grave business to attend to and I must speak to you.
Whatever you must do, I am quite certain does not involve me! I don't care what the nature of your business is about, Seigneur, I have other concerns. Is that so? Have you concerns above and beyond the Prince of Krondor? If so, I shall make most eager account of them before him when I return. Go on and spell them out so I may take them down. I'm sure Arutha will be fascinated. The Prince you say? Please understand that there are - things - going on that I am not entirely at liberty to discuss. Suffice to say that I have had something of a disag reement with the priests of the Temple of Kahooli in Kenting Rush over a private matter. So, if you may excuse my outburst, I would be happy to be of service to the Prince. What precisely can I do for you?[THE KEEP]
Not that I dislike your new house here, but what happened to the Keep? The townhouse is temporary lodging, nephew. We have no intention of staying in Cavall like common folk. As for the Keep, one night three years ago, an inept chamber maid left a lamp unattended by the tapestries which hung on the west wall. You remember them don't you, Owyn? Centuries old, woven by the finest weavers in all the Kingdom. In seconds they went up in flames and they took the rest of the Keep with it. I remember having heard something about a fire, but I hadn't known the Keep had burned to the ground. It's a miracle that you all survived. Were you able to save anything? We saved ourselves, Owyn, the only things of true value that were within the castle. It is regrettable that the girl who was responsible for the blaze was killed, but Ugyne and I both escaped it hale and hearty. I ordered only the stones of the foundation left behind and the tunnel mouth sealed. We progress forward with our lives. Why go to all that trouble? I really would prefer not to speak of this anymore. It brings me great grief and I would prefer to discuss other matters.[FINANCES]
There is a moneylender that lives here in town... Isunatus, yes, I know him well. Strange Quegian fellow. Then you have done business with him recently? Why should it concern you? I have paid my taxes to the king. We wish to borrow money and we want to make certain that we deal with a reputable firm. I thought that if you had done any business with him, made any deposits, then perhaps you might know if he was an honest man. Ah. Suspicion in business is a healthy tactic. To answer you, I have had no need to borrow any funds of late and in fact have made several substantial deposits recently. Some of my better placed investments have provided me with comfortable profits, Banath be praised. Isunatus will do well by you.This one is a bit weird, since in the books several characters point out that only actual thieves would ever praise or swear by Banath. But then again, I suppose you could sort nobles and bankers in that drawer.
[NAVON]
You have a reputation for disliking Navon du Sandau. Anything you would care to share with us? And what makes you believe I have animosity for Ugyne's suitor? Your petition to Kahooli. You asked for Navon to be - how did you put it - driven mad until he is grey with age? Who did you pay to get that note? Do you have spies in the Temple? Nothing so insidious as that, Count. It seems the petition collectors from the Temple of Kahooli have been slow to do their duties this year. We found your note and your tithe. If you tell us why you wish him driven mad, I'll let this little matter slip my mind. Otherwise, I think I can take up the matter with du Sandau. Do what you will, Seigneur. He already knows my feelings for him. I simply wish him gone from my family and his meddling in our affairs... Day and night, he is at Ugyne, asking her questions about the Keep and Cavall Run. How extensive were the tunnels that ran under the great hall? Have they ever been mapped in any great detail? How much money is in my coffers? What are my schedules? With whom do I meet? His questions are endless... I lost a wife in that infernal Keep and I wish the matter put to rest. I never wish to hear another question again about it! Can you understand that, Seigneur? He brings up memories and feelings I wish to leave buried...Once again, there's a bit of dialogue from him that we won't get until we set off a later trigger...
[NIGHTHAWKS]
I want a direct answer from you Count. Do you have any association with the Guild of Death, yes or no? What nonsense is this?! Why should you even believe it possible? Navon Du Sandau told us you have hired assassins on many occasions. As bodyguards! Who better to hire to watch me than those who have made a profession of stalking others? But I have never employed a member of the Guild of Assassins for any other cause. Those in my employ guard my estates and the persons of myself and my daughter. Nothing else. How did you manage to contact these men? I asked the priests at Kahooli to send the men to me, so I never knew how to contact them directly. After the Keep burned down I asked for more help, but the priests told me the Nighthawks had fallen into disfavor with the Temple and that they could no longer summon them to service.[ASSESSMENT]
Weren't you a spotter for the Natalese Rangers when you were younger? I seem to recall you telling stories when I used to visit at the Keep. That was quite a long time ago, indeed. Before you or Ugyne or even Neville had been born. I still have the eye too. I can tell you precisely how much a man is carrying by the way he walks or how good a swordsman he is by the way he pulls it free of the scabbard. Sounds like a useful skill. Any chance you could teach us something about it? Don't be absurd. I spent five years training to be a spotter. You expect for me to teach it all to you in one afternoon? I suppose you're right. I'm already a decent spotter myself. I'll make you a wager though. You teach us anything I don't already know and I'll pay you in gold sovereigns. I'll take your wager, but I'm not one to waste my time. Two hundred sovereigns or it's no deal. Will you take that wager? I'm ready when you are. Then let us go outside where we will have more room...BaK posted:
The Count extended his arms. "Which hand do I fight with?" the Count asked.
James squinted, the distance making an accurate evaluation difficult. For several hours the Count had unabashedly chastised him for his lack of ability at assessing the strength of his enemies.
"My guess is your right hand."
"Good," the Count said. "Why?"
"Your sword is slung on your left hip," James replied flatly. While it was the obvious answer, the Count was unimpressed with his practicality. Noting he was about to be regaled about ignoring subtle clues, he quickly added. "And the callus on the pads of your right thumb and the base of your fingers."
The Count nodded and dropped his hands to his sides. "I've wasted enough time. You've lost the bet, boy. Let's get back inside."
This goes... somewhat according to the book, though in the book it's generally pointed out what a petty and slightly incompetent prick the Baron is. Being associated with the semi-famous Natalese Rangers is a bit of a step outside of that. But it hits the same major strokes: complaining about the keep being burned down, complaining assassins have it out for him(though, obviously, the Kahooli connection is super non-canon and with the Nighthawks being super outlawed to the max, obviously the Count never hires any of them for personal security) and complaining about Navon being a creature of pure chaos and evil, something that Owyn gently ribs him over though the count is too upset to notice it.
There's also some special dialogue if you visit him during chapters 1 and 2.
BaK posted:
CHAPTER 1:
CORVALIS: I have given express instruction that I was not to be disturbed today, but Miri seemed to think your visit might be of some importance.
OWYN: I don't know that it is important, but I would think you would be a bit more receptive to your own kin, uncle.
CORVALIS: Don't presume to lecture me on manners, Owyn. If you were the proper squire your father dubbed you years ago, you would be in Tiburn at your brother Harold's side. Instead, you are allowed to roam wherever you like, without a whit of accountability to anyone. My daughter Ugyne has far more sense of responsibility.
OWYN: You have quite a few opinions for someone who hasn't seen me in three years. Have you always hated me this much?
CORVALIS: It's not a question of hatred, Owyn. But your roaming about the world like you were a jongleur or a mercenary is an embarrassment to the family. How do you ever hope to gain the hand of a duke or an earl's daughter if you continue behaving as you are? How will you learn to rule?
OWYN: What? Sit about all day long and tell quarrelling franklins who owns this bit of land and who owns that? I don't want that. I want to be a magician, like Pug of Stardock.
CORVALIS: And are you going to conjure up your living by doing parlor tricks for King Lyam? Going to make smoke pour out of your ears so you'll have a bit of something to eat in the evenings?
LOCKLEAR: I hate to disrupt your argument Count, but at the moment he is in my service as my squire. I am Seigneur Locklear of Krondor, adviser to Prince Arutha.
CORVALIS: From Krondor? My forgiveness, I hadn't noticed your colors. And I have been standing here conducting a family spat! What can I do for you?
...
CHAPTER 2:
CORVALIS: I haven't time to talk at the moment. Perhaps your father runs his affairs in a more lax manner down in Tiburn, but here in Cavall - we do things properly here. If I am to raise a daughter to be a future princess, then I must see to it that she is well accustomed to the manner of court life.
OWYN: Princess Ugyne? And how do you intend to arrange that? I thought she was engaged to the Baronet Ferone.
CORVALIS: The operative word being was, nephew. I have decided that we should aim higher for her. The Prince of Krondor has two boys, both unmarried and more than eligible for the hand of my fair daughter. I think either would make a fine husband.
JAMES: I agree, but with all due respect, Borric and Erland are only two very rambunctious eleven year olds who still run away from girls. I think the pair of them would be horrified by a proposal at this point, though I imagine Prince Arutha might find the idea appealing.
CORVALIS: I wouldn't suggest they marry as yet, of course. They will need a little time to grow naturally, say two years. Thirteen is a very marriageable age.
JAMES: Ahem. Once I return to Krondor, I'll mention it to Prince Arutha.
CORVALIS: I would be forever in your debt Seigneur. Is there anything I can do for you in return?
Many of the same keywords are active in chapters 1 and 2, though a few have triggers that can't be found until chapter 3 for the most part. Anyway, the Count fits part of our description for the sinister villain of the chapter, in that he's wealthy, but that's about it. On the other hand, he could just not be talking about his travels and have taken a recent shower, maybe Ugyne and Navon can tell us more, let's go scour the area north of Cavall Keep for the two of them.