Part 32: The Other Guys

Music: "Beyond Divinity"
(Click here to download) (thanks to Grawl)



Chapter 27 - The Other Guys


VIDEO: Meet The Raanaar Rebels


What race are you?
We're the Raanaar and the world we're in right now, Nemesis, belongs to us. Even though we may visit other world through our riftrunning skills, this one will always be our home. And you, human, have *not* been invited!
Are you the Raanaar Rebels?
You call us rebels? What an arrogant way of twisting the facts… you've invaded our world, so we should be addressed as defenders or freedom fighters. We won't run, we will fight until the end!
My apologies, I meant no offense. Can you tell me more about the rifts?
So, you've heard about rifts then, human. Our elders can easily open rifts to other world for us to escape from here. And many did. But not all of us. It's not our way to run from danger. Even if the danger seems to be invincible, like the demons you've brought into this world.
So only one of the Elders can open rifts to other worlds?
That is correct, human.
I need to get back to Rivellon, my home world.
So you want to go back? We won't stop you! If you ask me, you shouldn't have come here in the first place.
I'm not responsible for bringing the demons here.
Ha ha ha ha…
It's hard to believe you, human. But we've watched you on your journey, and we know you are being chased by Samuel the Slayer. So maybe what you say is true. But, be very careful, because we will always be watching you… we have eyes everywhere.
What? How long has he been watching us?
How long have you been watching us?
Long enough.

Mort slowly took out the doll of Elder Anlokam from his pack.

This summoning doll is one of your Elders, who is under a curse. Elder Anlokam.
What are you saying? That this toy is our leader? I've trouble believing your story, human. I know you are more than capable of twisting the truth with every word that comes out of your mouth. I know nothing about curses, seek out a mage or a priest.
I need to see one of the elders.
I don't trust you enough to lead you to our elders, human. I don't know enough about your motives. But we'll keep on watching you.

The Raanaar dignaled the rest of his party and turned as if he was going to leave. Mort thought up one more question.

Do you know anything about a strange crystal? It is orange in colour, and it must have been at least as large as my head.
You need to speak to a priest if you want to know more about the crystal. I only know that it was destroyed by you humans. After that, the demons could enter our world.
A pity that they were just as useless to my goal as you people were.




With that, the Raanaar walked off, disappearing behind rocks and trees as if they we never even there to begin with.

Mort and D.K. headed into the so-called Crystal forest. It wasn't a forest, it actually was a large number of huge crystalline structures. A glittering gargoyle emerged from behind a boulder to attack.




What a strange place. I don't think there's anyplace like it on Rivellon.




This must be the cave of the Black Imp.
I wonder why the man called him that.




What ya want with Xanaxil?
Oh.
…
I would like you to remove a curse from another human, please?
Haahahahaaaa! Veeeeery funny. Ya great comedian. Imps no curses 'umans. Ya race already cursed for coming to Nemesis. But this 'uman, he bring crystal shards to ma cave!
What shards?
Pretty, pretty shards, but nasty for wee humans. He came from forest. So go look there. … Then ya find teeeeeerrible curse. No imps, but Crystal Forest curse that 'uman!
Okay, I'll check it out.
Very good, very good.
Who are you?
My name is Xanaxil. I collect body parts. If you find any, bring 'em to me!
Why do you collect body parts?
Just a little hobby of mine!
Do you have anything for trade?
I'm selling these fine leather jacketses!
Hmmm… interesting.




Can you teach me anything, Xanaxil?
Xanaxil knows all about traps! You give gold, you know about traps, too! Stinging insects veeerrry deadly! Hee hee!





Whoever thought a bunch of bugs could be so dangerous!
This trap is most impressive!

Mort and D.K. continued wandering... until they were intercepted by a familiar-looking pair.


VIDEO: The Other Guys


Hah! It worked… you can run but you can't hide, fool…Prepare to die!
Hmmm, that daft mage has some skill after all…

The pair charged Mort and D.K.

Run the other way!
What?
Don't argue, just do it!




The enemy Death Knight stepped right onto the trap Mort had left. The insects swarmed over him, getting between the cracks of his armor. The human realized what was happening a step too late and he was unable to stop before plunging into the swarm himself.




Impressively done, human!
My name is Mort. ... They seemed to be looking for us. More of Samuel's agents, I'm sure. Let's search the bodies.




The human's armor was intact and unstained, thanks to Mort's usage of insects as the method of execution, and there were two papers on the human's body.

Uh-oh… this could be trouble. It seems that they have something of yours, human, and because of that, they can use it to track us.
It's possible, they took everything I had on me when I was captured. We'd better rectify this situation immediately, before any more assassins can find us.
If we can solve that problem, than this other paper here should let us pass without question.
Yep. Give me a hand, and we'll toss these bodies into the lava.




Nearby was a wizard, who attacked them on sight. He tried teleporting around, but that only prolonged his life.

I wonder what his problem was.




We're approaching an army camp by the sound of it. That uniform might come in handy now…
Good idea.





Hold it right there soldier! Show me your papers…
What papers?
How about the ones you just picked up five minutes ago, you idiot?
You don't have them on you, right?
Actually, I do!
Ok, that's better. Now move along!


The camp was smaller than expected, but the noises from the tents suggested many soldiers were taking shelter.

See that man over there? That's General Bram, the one who signed the papers? It might not be a good idea for him to see us together.
But we need to find the thing Samuel's men are tracking us with.
You look around outside, I'll search the tents.




Aaah, another customer, and a new face. I hope you have some gold to spare?
Maybe later.

General Bram spotted Mort wandering around.




Sooo, nothing better to do than strolling around?
Well, …
Silence! Make yourself useful and pay a visit to our local merchant. … I suspect he's been making a bit too much profit for himself lately… see what's behind it! So get going and make him confess. That's an order!
Sir, yessir!

Welcome to my shop. What can I do for you…
The General sent me.
That's fine by me. I've nothing to hide. You can tell your general that. … By the way, I happen to know the executioner of this camp very well… So if you're thinking about sticking your nose into my business, you should know you might lose it… along with the rest of your head on his chopping block!
I get the point.

D.K. emerged from the Merchant's tent. He'd apparently overheard the conversation. He walked up, looking very intimidating.

Welcome… oh, a Death Knight… what can I do for you, Sir?
As I said, The General sent us.
The General sent this Death Knight to me? He must have found out… please don't hurt me. These wretched mercenaries are starving me. I'm just trying to make a coin here to feed my family of six…
You've got six children?
All right, all right - they're cats, but they get hungry as well, you know. Besides, if you let me go, I'll offer you the best trading this side of Nemesis. What do you say?
I haven't found anything which looks out of place yet. Maybe this merchant has seen something.
If you've seen any unusual activity in the game, or a strange or magical item around, Tell me where you saw it, and I'll let you go.
Please! All right, all right… There is a cave in the middle of the camp. No one is allowed inside, but not too long ago, a human and a Death Knight left there and then the camp. Can I go now?
You're on!
Thank goodness. Meet me later on in the Rabbit's cave. It's not far from here…






Ah, finally some results?
Nothing yet. And he left the camp before I could find any proof.
How come, did he smell danger coming?
I think he must have done.
Baah, I still think he's hiding something. I'll have some men track him down later on. I despise traitors!




When no one was looking, Mort and D.K. snuck into the cave.




This must be the place. We'd better search thouroughly.
Alright. I'll put a trap down so anyone coming in will get the last surprise of their life.




These… these are mine… someone very… special gave them to me. I thought I'd lost them forever.
Spare me your life story human. Let's just get out of here.
Of course.

Mort put the gloves in his pack, but then someone teleported in at the entrance.




What do we have here? You must be the spies everyone is looking for!

Unfortunately, because he wasn't moving, the trap didn't go off.

What an opportunity! Now I can use some *real* spells on you…
This might get rough!
All we need to do is get him to move, just a little bit…
That's easy enough.

D.K. charged the mage, who instinctively took a step backwards.






Hey, what were those noises in there? Did his new familiar arrive yet?
I guess so!
All right, I've heard enough. I can't stand it any longer, I'm changing tents tonight!




Mort and D.K. walked calmly out the gate before there was any more trouble.

Once they find that dead mage, they'll know to look for us again.
But they won't be able to track us, and following us on foot will be... challenging. I'll see to that.

Once they were out of sight of the gate guard, Mort laid down a large number of traps.




Would you look at that…




There was quite a battle here!
This must have been one of the supply trains. With a lot of Raanaar AND human bodies. It's hard to be sure who won.
It doesn't matter who won this battle.
What do you mean?
In the long term, the humans won. The Raanaar don't have the numbers left on their homeworld to take these kinds of losses in every battle.
I doubt there's much left, but let's see if there's anything interesting to find.


One of the Raanaar bodies had a note.




This might be interesting… if we knew the language.
Yes. I'll have to try to find the last part of that book.
I can read this, of course. "Honourable Xelanthar - It is imperative that the ambush succeeds. We are in dire need of many of those supplies at our camp. At the same time, it will be to our advantage of these cultists are deprived of their basic provisions. Do your utmost to accomplish this task. I expect no less. I salute you, Anoghtar"

A human body had a note which was much clearer to understand.




Strange cheeses. This might be what the Tibar needs for his vermin curse spell. If the cooks don't have them, they might get stored in the warehouses.
Well, let's try talking to the witch first and asking for her to remove the curse nicely.
I find your relentless optimism quite tiring, human.




A teleporter. Let's go ask the crystal man if he was sick before talking to the imp.






Hey you! We've just gotten some reports to be on the lookout for a human and a traitorous Death Knight who escaped from Samuel's dungeon.
This business again? I'm sick of being confused for that non-believer! Here, read this. It's signed by General Bram himself!
Well, this looks authentic, but…
If you don't believe me, feel free to go talk to the General yourself. I'm sure he won't mind taking the time out from his schedule to correct you.
No, no! I…um… Go on in!
Thank you.




What have you learned? I'm not feeling any different, so I must be still cursed.
I don't think it was the Black Imp who cursed you.
Ask him about the Crystal Forest…
He thinks it might be something to do with the Crystal Forest.
Now that you mention it… humm, you might be right. I did go into the Crystal Forest. … But I can't remember a damn thing about it. I just remember returning from the forest and visiting that imp's cave. … Then I got this fever. I could barely walk. But I pushed myself on… I was so sure that dark, evil0eyed bugger was after me, that I managed to make it all the way back here… Maybe whatever is affecting me is coming from that wretched forest! … Please see what you can find there? You've been very helpful so far… don't let me down now!





The Map




Other Quests available:

I will NOT be doing these as part of the narrative, and probably not even at all until I reach Rank 1 in the temple hierarchy. At that time, I might show off some of these BRIEFLY if there's interest.

The Two Assassins - One assassin wishes to hire us to kill his rival. (multiple outcomes)
The Missing Book - A blind priest of Chaos has misplaced a book and wishes us to retrieve it.
The Book of Twilight - A witch wishes to study a book from an old Raanaar library on Ruins Island (multiple outcomes)
The Lost Artifact - Brother Raze wants an artifact retrieved from a site on Ruins Island
The Missing Monks - A party of monks went missing in the Crystal Forest
Ball in the well - A child lost a ball in a well and wants us to retrieve it from the monster below
The caravan attack - Mutants attacked a caravan of goods. The merchant wants some or all of the shipment back. (multiple outcomes)


Optional Reader Participation

As always if there's anything from this update you want to see in video format, two or three requests and I'll do it.

1) The Raanaar Rebels don't seem inclined to kill us on sight, thankfully. In fact, we can do quests for them! It's completely optional, but these quests are decent enough, and I think you get a bit of backstory as well. Should we do the Raanaar quests as part of the narrative?

2) Thanks to bonuses from items, Mort now has about 330 mana - which is enough to cast some of the Act 3 spells ONCE. Should I do another bonus update to show off the Act 2 and Act 3 magic?


Riddle me this…

I hope you like riddles, and puzzles, because this game has a lot, especially in the last act. These ones are pretty easy, the next set will be posted earlier because they might be hard to get if I don't give you multiple choice answers.

3) A cloud was my mother, the wind is my father, and my children are the fruit of the land.

4) It's all around you.

5) You fear it… but use it… it eats but is never full.

6) You walk upon it… it drinks… but is always thirsty.