Part 29: A Missing Pug, Part 1

Update 29: A Missing Pug, Part 1





So here we are, in the sewers again. And I'm forced to ask: Why? They fixed the front door of the palace, we could just have gone out that way.
If he's down here, we solve the problem in half a day. If he isn't down here, we only lose half a day. Considering some of the "mysteries" so far, I wouldn't be surprised if he was down here.

Frankly I think the only reason that Chapter 6 instantly boots you into the Krondor Sewers is that otherwise there's no damn way you'd ever stumble into the new content they've put down here.





Assuming you either have a map of the sewers or explored it decently well on your first visit, you'd almost certainly go to the far southeast corner, and then west to the entrance. If you do, however...




Above, from the palace. From Krondor.

From above? Then you are one of Pug's students? He sent you down to help us?

No.

I don't understand. Why are you here?

We believe that Duke Pug knows of magicians who are living in the sewers under Krondor and we need to speak to them about something. Would you know anything about them?

I have no time for this. I have something that I have to find and the Mockers are making a thorough search of the sewers. If they find me, I'll be floating in the harbor at dawn.

The Mockers may be looking for you, but they aren't looking for us. If we find what you're looking for, we might be able to prevent your death. In exchange you answer a few questions for us and in half an hour you can be on the road to Sarth or Malac's Cross or wherever you want to go...

How do I know you won't have the Thieves' Guild lying in wait for me?

You don't, but as you've said, without our help you're already as good as dead. As I see it, at least we can give you an option that doesn't end in a grave. Let's help each other - tell me what you're looking for...

A bronze statue, I believe it's called the Idol of Lassur. The Crawler heard a legend from a Keshian years ago about this object - it's the initial reason that he started looking for magicians to aid him - and it's reputed to endow its owner with the power over health. The legend has it that the idol was aboard a ship that went down near Krondor, but the Crawler believes that it made it to dry land and was eventually buried here when this city was Keshian.

And if we bring you this statue, you will tell us what we need to know?

My word. Anything you need to know.

Man I don't even know where to start explaining how this deviates from the book. I think the easiest thing is to just let this entire little subplot play out, and then explain how it is in the book, because everything else is literally just the same names and not a single recognizable motive, actor or object. Suffice to say that in the book "Kat" is only mentioned, but never met, and the Idol of Lassur doesn't exist at all.

Once again, though, you won't have a damn clue where to go next because you probably explored all of this level of the sewers, and nothing new has appeared here, but a second, formerly-inaccessible, level of the sewers has now opened up. So probably you wander back past the entrance towards it if you have a map or just if you're sweeping the place systematically...







I'm not sure if it's an accident or to accent how threatening he's meant to be, but one of the game's combat themes plays when Limm confronts the party here.

Please, if you could just answer a few questions for us then we will be out of here.

Questions?! Only thing as concerns me is getting the mess from the storm taken care of and getting us all back on our collective feet. Ordinarily we don't objects to a storm nows and then - cleans the smell out if you know what I mean. But this storm, it did us a piece all right. Water come in from the seas and washed a score of us into the ocean, destroyed our headquarters and ruined our plan to take care of a little local problem. And we almost had him.

Him? Who did you almost have?

The Crawler, that's who, not that it concerns you anyway. Once he had the Upright Man out of his way, I guess he decided that it was time to come round and claim his prize. We had other ideas course. We had a handy little trap all baited for him, one such like he couldn't refuse. Would have had him scurrying back to the Sunset Isles or wherever else in the seven lower hells he came from. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate with our little plan.

Are any of your Mockers magicians?

No, at least none that admits it freely. Sooner cut a magician's throat than let him among us, but if truth be known we would have welcomed one this past few months. Some of the Crawler's men are magic types.

Are they? Any of them left down here?

Who's to say? We're still picking through our own dead, much less worried about which of them were still here. Large portions of the sewers are collapsed. There's even word that when a portion of the sea wall collapsed, it opened a new stairwell to a lower level of the sewers.

[IDOL OF LASSUR]

What do you know about an object called the Idol of Lassur?

Some sort of kid story, it'n it? About a whizit or other what gives you the power over the Goddess of Death, or some such silliness.

Why would anyone be looking for it in Krondor?

Part of the story, as I remember it. It was supposed to have been hidden away in some deep and secret part of the sewers by this Keshian, what? Something like that. But it's not real, I can guarantee that. If it'd existed, the Mockers would have found it by now.

[LOCKED DOOR]

I've heard there's a portcullis down here that none of the Mockers can open. Can't pick it, can't break the lock. Is it true?

Might be. Might be pigs can fly, who's to say? Why you interested? You're no son of the sewers. How did you hear about it, anyaways?

Let's just say I'm a friend of the family. I was just wondering if anyone ever found a key for it.

Isn't no key I know of, least not one a body's snitched about. If you want my opinion, there's nobody what can get the eternity gate opened. Impossible.

[ITEMS]

Have you taken anything off the men who are posing as Mockers?

They're not much for carrying treasure, but yeah, I've found a few nice bits. Tumbled a corpse I found near the seagate just this morning...

If the price is right, I might be interested in buying the booty from you.

That so? Well then, my price is a hundred gold.

A hundred gold? You said they don't carry anything of any value.

Seems it's of value to you and I say it's worth a hundred sovereigns if it's worth a pence. Deal?

I think we've learned enough for the time being.

Surprised your head hasn't popped open, all the knowledge you've got up there. Have to be a right genius.

Goodbye, Limm. Try not to steal anything that you can't carry.

I think that the "locked door" keyword is your only hint that something previously closed is now accessible.

Paying Limm's price for the items gives you a full stack of Restoratives, a couple of torches and a unique note. Unless you really want to read the note, it's only worth taking advantage of if you're really short on Restoratives.


This is also more direct contact with the Crawler than is in the entirety of the book.








So I want to preface this by saying that I have no fucking clue what they were thinking with the lower level of the sewers. Despite only being accessible in chapter 6, the only treasure of note down here aside from the one you start right in front of is a single pair of Weed Walkers which I can't imagine you wouldn't have kitted Gorath and Owyn out with roughly five chapters earlier.

In any case let's kick these idiots in the dick and take their sewer loot.




Gorath and Owyn are overpowered enough for several of the fights in this chapter that I start having Owyn beat enemies to death with his staff to train up his Melee Accuracy, Strength and Defense.



The chest itself is trapped but both does negligible damage and is trivially disarmed if you cast Scent of Sarig before messing with it, which you really should do before interacting with any chest if you're playing this blind or with minimal hints. Inside are...



A Sword of Lims-Kragma that will be an excellent upgrade for Gorath for exactly this update(okay and a good chunk of the next one, but still) and the Idol of Lassur.


So what this does, if we choose to keep it, is that it has an infinite amount of uses that instantly kill an enemy, but at the cost of reducing all the bearer's skills by 20 while it's in their inventory. I mean, from a pure power perspective, Owyn just being able to snuff out an enemy every turn of combat, no ifs or buts(as far as I'm aware no enemies are immune to it), is probably superior to several of his actual spells since most of them also just take one enemy out of the fight per turn(excepts made for Evil Seek, occasionally Flamecast splash damage and two spells we haven't seen yet), and if you can just want enemies dead to make them dead, you don't really need to be accurate about it.

However, it's objectively boring if I don't occasionally get my ass kicked, so we're actually going to return this to Kat and get some lore.




Aren't you concerned that the Crawler will abuse the Idol? With it he might kill hundreds of people, the Prince or maybe even the King. Are you sure you want to give it to him?

I'm counting on his using it. You see, he didn't learn everything there is to know about the Idol. The Idol of Lassur does give its owner the power over life, but none on Midkemia can be its true owner - Lassur is it's owner and that is but another Isalani name for Lims-Kragma, the Goddess of Death. For any else that lay claim to it, they die within the month.

I thought you worked for the Crawler!

No one works for the Crawler. What men surround him do so out of fear or debt, but none for loyalties' sake! I intend to put his plans to ruin, but we don't have time to talk about that. To the matter of our deal. What do you need to know?

Who leads the Crawler's magicians?

I'm not certain, but I believe it's the Abbot Graves in Malac's Cross. He was known as an exceptional scribe once, and he was trusted with books coming from Stardock until Pug discovered what was happening.

So the Abbot would have been trusted with transcribing books on magic?

All sorts of books. He's the one that found out the Idol of Lassur's true nature and relayed the information to me.

I think you've told me what I needed to know. Thank you and I hope you...I wish you well...

It always boils down to lesser evils, doesn't it. Perhaps some day our choices won't be so grim.

Goodbye boy, and good luck to you as well.

The "dead in a month"-thing isn't borne out mechanically, by the way, so we can haul the Idol around for as long as we like with no ill consequences. Still, now it's Kat's and soon the Crawler's. Let's hope that an evil villain won't use a month of being able to wish his enemies dead to cause any sort of chaos. That would certainly be awful.

Also now we have a clue for a sideplot completely unrelated to the main plot of this chapter. Said sideplot is going to be Owyn and Gorath heading off to Malac's Cross and kicking Abbot Graves in the junk so hard that his eardrums burst.





Since Owyn and Gorath are already rolling in dough again, however, there's no reason to wear out the soles of their shoes. Let's ride in style.




Guess Graves knew we were coming and decided to slow us down. No matter, the Temple of Lims-Kragma is just up the way and we can drop by and visit the Oracle of Aal at the same time.






Or, you know, we could, if her neck of the woods wasn't crawling with Pantathians!




So, to recap, Panthatians are, to the last, warrior-mages, meaning that any encounter with a large number of them has as much potential to go south right away as the six-spellweaver fight near the end of Chapter 5. They also tend to be much sturdier, where Moredhel of any kind cap out just below 80 health, Pantathians tend to run around 120 like an Ogre, but unlike Ogres don't have any spell weaknesses that nuke them down easily.

Both of these pricks, for instance, both know Grief, Skin and a grab bag of offensive spells. We desperately need to win surprise in every fight. One of them has almost 140 total health.




One of them eats a Fetters of Rime(I later find out that Grief works on them, too, but Fetters has the advantage of also adding a bit of damage and Owyn hits 19 out of 20 casts at this point, even at extreme range), but the other one is a slippery bastard. They're got a damn high movement rate and Gorath, being a bit slow block of beef, often has trouble keeping up with them, meaning I need to toss Owyn into the fray, too, to keep it from casting spells. I could also just have frozen it, too, but I try to not just overly rely on one type of solving everything.



A foregone conclusion when it's just two of them, thankfully.





[SWORD]

There is a weapon we have learned of which may be of aid to us in our quests. Where may it be found?

The Guarda Revanche is hidden away in a place where elves and moredhel fear to tread, a place that is ancient and was once home to those known as the Valheru.

[BOOK OF MACROS]

There is a book we need to find. It is called the Book of Macros. How may we find it?

You chase phantoms, for the book you name does not exist, though the spirit of it burns brightly.

I don't understand. You mean what we are looking for is alive?

Go you to the Abbey of Ishap at Sarth and find the knowledge held within the vaults. Your answers lie there.

[PUG]

Where has Pug gone to? What does the Book of Macros have to do with it?

Pug has been betrayed by one he believed to be a friend. Even now, he wanders a distant world in search of his daughter, Gamina, but he will not find her. In his search, he will reawaken forces sleeping since the Valheru waged their wars across the universe. The Book of Macros will be that instrument by which you are able to save him.

But how can I be of any help? If he can't protect himself, there is little Gorath and I can do.

Where he falters, you will grow strong. The way has been prepared for you.

Everything the Oracle tells us is technically true but also largely useless except that we should head to Sarth, which we could really have done (almost) right off the bat. In any case, now let's get back on the road towards Malac's Cross.






Previously the road between the Temple of Lims-Kragma and Malac's Cross was very quiet, and it still is. As long as we stick to the main east/west road, we won't run into any trouble, but as soon as we take the turn-off for Malac's Cross...





First another duo of Pantathians, then a trio, which is much worse since it means we're less likely to take them all out before they can act and cast spells at us. Two of them are packing Grief and Fetters of Rime, while the third is packing Despair Thy Eyes and Fetters of Rime.




Owyn freezes one with his own Fetters, Gorath engages the second, and the third manages to absurdly thread the needle of missing his own Fetters projectile right between Owyn and Gorath without hitting either. Insane stroke of luck for me. Losing Gorath would've probably not lost me the fight since he already whacked one, taking it down too far in HP to (probably) do much more casting, while Owyn would certainly have time to freeze the one that froze Gorath.



Like so. Note the one he whacked has gone into retreat mode but doesn't get a chance to escape before he plugs it with a bolt then uses the survivor for target practice.



So you clear them out and behind them is yet another Pantathian encounter, and while it's hard to see on the overworld, this one is actually five of them. Let's, uh, let's see how it goes, shall we?



So on the bright side, the hills to the party's left means the Pantathians can't maneuver much, this both means that they can't run away much but ALSO that Gorath will almost always be able to "threaten" multiple of them at once. I consider what my options are here, and decide to start off by dropping Skin of the Dragon on Gorath, something that at first glance seems to be like a good idea.




Last spell I get off in the fight since the Pantathians then blast Owyn to ash and freeze him. Still, if Gorath can clear the encounter, I can easily heal him up.




Nothing scratches him, he flattens snake after snake, and then advances on the last one, where I learn something unfortunate.



Skin of the Dragon does not immunize you against Grief of 1000 Nights. Instant fight over. Time to try this again.



This time I start out by freezing a Pantathian instead. A better move might've been dropping a Rusalki right in the middle of the formation to threaten three of them instead, but for now, taking out one is good. They then absolutely pile on Gorath.




Since they don't kill him, though, I have him chug down almost a full stack of Restoratives to fix him up, while Owyn keeps the freeze party going.



Ice to meet you, snakes. Also Gorath of course has Naptha on his sword for doubling his damage, meaning he hands out about 110 damage on average per hit. This is kind of a necessary ingredient of the fight, because without that, enemies hit would still have enough health left to cast spells, as it is, the 100+ damage hits tend to leave them too wounded to cast, even if they're still alive.




Also turns out that Grief of 1000 Nights works on the Pantathians, too. I'm still wondering what the logic was behind who is affected by that spell and who isn't. I can see it not working on the Nighthawks since they're supposed to be conscience-less killers, but then it still works on the Black Slayers, who are just zombie Nighthawks. And yet it also works on the Pantathians, who are supposed to be the canonically utterly heartless servants of an ancient race of murderous demigods.

In any case, this gets them all frozen or dead, so now Owyn can take a breather while Gorath cleans up, and this finally clears the path to Malac's Cross.





Aside from a few misc. items, the main rewards for this fight are a 100% Ruby which represents a nice amount of money still, and a Horn of Algon-Kokoon, which makes for only the second non-shop place it can be found in the game(and the only shop is the one in Dencamp which we can no longer access, plus it costs almost 1300 gold to buy!).



After selling off some stuff, I decide to hit up Ivan Skald's tavern for some replacement rations and he immediately rushes over to say hi(I'm not sure why, but every time I enter the inn, he immediately starts a conversation with the party, I feel like this is unintended but I'm not sure if it's a v1.02 thing or a GOG thing or what).



How have we merited bravery, barkeep?

Haven't you heard the stories? Why there's snake people about, roaming the streets stealing babes from their mother's arms and giving sheep the blue heaves. Stole the gambols right off old nursemaid Finch's house and plugged up the gutters at the Abbaye Ishap.

You don't seem to have had any difficulties.

Ah, no. I wouldn't! I lives here and don't have to tread the roads. Can't just close up shop when some pratting student elects to rumble the locals.

So you think this is all part of a prank?

Come off it, lad! Snakes that looks like people and runnin about stealing chickens? If it's not a joke then I'm a gwali's uncle! Course it's a prank! What 'ja take me for, an old buggering gaffer? Now, what can I do for you two?

We should've lugged a dead Pantathian or two into town just to fuck with Ivan, it feels like. Now, let's have a talk with Graves. I'm sure he'll be eager to see us.





Why would Pantathians be interested in attacking the Abbaye Ishap and why would they blame you for it? The citizens are terrified, fleeing the city for fear of their lives. They blame you, abbot.

Please...I don't know why they would make these...accusations...I'm not responsible, I will not be responsible.

If you're thinking of fleeing the city, I wouldn't advise it. We've been told that some of the townspeople intend to make you a present to the Pantathians as a prisoner.

The Pantathians don't take prisoners! They kill once they make their minds up on a target! It would be murder!

It seems that the Pantathians are willing to do worse than that to Malac's Cross if you aren't turned over to them. Why don't you tell me why they're here? Perhaps we can help you if you help us.

Greed. They're here because a certain spineless brother of the Abbaye Ishap looked up and said I am meant for greater things than this. He was unscrupulous, unflinching, dedicated to a singular selfish cause. With as little conscience as a man has when swatting a fly, he arranged that his abbot should be caught with a sum of money that was discovered missing from the brotherhood's coffers. Naturally, the brother then assumed the abbot's place.

You. But you weren't able to keep the secret, were you? Someone discovered your deception.

My plan was seamless, as perfect as the most perfect pearl but somehow he found out. So we struck an arrangement. The Crawler agreed to silence so long as I contacted Pug and arranged for a magical tutor to be sent periodically to Malac's Cross. The tutors never knew that not all of the men they trained were nobles and things went relatively well for four years...then Pug discovered the truth from one of the Crawler's men in Krondor. Pug withdrew his tutors, stripped us of our books and left me incapable of fulfilling the details of my secret deal. So the Crawler made a new demand. Since I could no longer train his rogues, I was to uncover a certain magical relic for him or forfeit my life. I refused, and his Pantathian masters were not pleased. I responded with a few of the boys that Pug's adviser had taught magic, nobles, but apparently they were overmatched.

The relic the Crawler wanted, was it a book by any chance?

I will say no more. The time is come that I made arrangements for my escape from Malac's Cross and you two may be my only hope. Find Mitchel Waylander and tell him what has happened. And tell him I don't want anyone else hurt. Once he has made his arrangements, return here and tell me what I must do.

What? We can't help a criminal escape justice!

The men and women of Malac's Cross aren't at all concerned about the criminality of my acts, boy. They know nothing of them. All they know is that the Pantathians have asked for my skin and they will do anything they can to protect themselves, even if it means turning over an innocent man. That is the justice they believe in. If you can still find me guilty after your deliberations, then don't bother coming back.

Once again, absolutely nothing about this is canon. So what actually happens in the book is that Gorath and Locklear, after leaving Arutha, come out of the south side of the Dimwood and arrive at Malac's Cross. They ask Abbot Graves for help and learn that assassins have tried to kill him several times lately, thus he's pretty twitchy. They then tell him he's got nothing to worry about as the leader of the Nighthawks is dead, and he blurts out: "Navon is dead?!" And they realize he knows more about the conspiracy than he was letting on.

In the book version, Kat, in Krondor, is a Mocker and also his half-his-age girlfriend(seriously, Feist, knock it off) for a while, but he left that behind after he left the Mockers to become an Ishapian abbot. Navon found out about his past and blackmailed him, threatening to kill Kat if Graves didn't... I actually forget what Graves actually does for him in the book, just pass him info, I think. But now Navon is dead, Graves offers to come to Krondor with Gorath and Owyn so he can find Kat, and he'll provide horses and money during the trip. He's also planning to leave the order without warning when he arrives there. After this he passes out of the story, but re-appears in both Assassins and Tear of the Gods.

For now, though, we're left heading farther north, to Sloop.