Part 39: Temple Catacombs
Music - "Force Within"
Download (Thanks to Grawl)
Chapter 34 - Temple Catacombs
A strange creature attacked Mort and D.K. at the bottom of the stairs. After a minor amount of difficulty - during which they discovered that D.K.'s new axe was completely ineffective - they dispatched it.
"About the Game" posted:
These strange Shadow Creatures will show up regularly for the rest of the game. The catacombs are infested with them. Where the creatures came from, and what they are doing in the sealed ruins is a mystery. They do Shadow damage and are immune to it.
Also, this is the exact point when I realized that I didn't have enough fucking points into Agility, because I could NOT hit these assholes without pumping up more points. Agility is THE stat to focus on in this game.
Entering a large chamber caused an apparition to appear.
Never attack an unarmed creature…"About the Game" posted:
Raan is the Goddess of War, Wisdom, and Honour. This is the test of War.
What the… what are humans doing down here?
I think it's some kind of test! Don't hurt the ones who aren't carrying a weapon. They all seem intent on killing us! They'll hurt themselves trying to punch through that thick armor you're wearing. Just ignore them.
With some unusually careful attacks, the armed humans were all killed without Mort and D.K. harming one of the unarmed ones.
You understood the lesson.All the humans, both alive and dead, vanished.
Powerful illusion. I think there will be more tests ahead. We should follow the rules. Following rules isn't usually my thing, human. But I agree in this case!About the Game posted:
While it is hard to keep all the unarmed humans alive, it also isn't required, you can fail and still proceed. Raan merely complains about it, then says that "she sees your heart and knows you understand the lesson".
There were still more shadow creatures to dispatch.
"About the Game" posted:
The sixth and final battlefields key of the act is on the first level. You need to flip a bunch of switches in order to unlock rooms, eventually opening the southeastern one, but it's not hard, especially with insect swarm traps in front of the doors.
Don't take anything that does not belong to you… That seems simple enough…"About the Game" posted:
This is the test of Honour.
Look at all that gold! Don't touch it, don't go near it, don't even think about it. Bah!Mort and D.K. carefully skirted around the heap of gold and exited through the southern door.
You understood the lesson.The treasure vanished.
"About the Game" posted:
You can take anything else on this level except the treasure.
If you try and take the treasure…
Raan chastises you, but forgives you, and then you get dumped into a pit and need to find your way out. I actually couldn't find the ladder back up, but I didn't care to re-explore everywhere, so there may or may not actually be a way up.
Wisdom is the key… choose one way… but choose wisely…
I say we choose the gold key! Of course you do… Ummm… Metal, I guess.
I told you that you should have listened to me! Maybe you were right. Sorry."About the Game" posted:
I guess this is the test of Wisdom, but this doesn't really fit. It isn't a rule, it's a reward (even if you failed the previous two tests), and it's a crappy reward, too! Larian really had major problems handing out items as rewards in this game, because they are without fail, terrible if you've been doing the least bit of shopping.
Wood Chest
This isn't even the most powerful default magic weapon by this point!
Stone Chest
You should have better weapons than this by now, too!
Gold Chest
This is more like it. It's the only worthwhile reward, so I took this instead of what I claimed I took.
Mort and D.K. continued descending deeper into the catacombs.
No Goddess? I wonder why not? This armor looks important…VIDEO: BOSS - The Black Bishop
Mort and D.K. heard running footsteps from the direction they came. In rushed the Black Bishop.
So here you are… I had hoped I would find you before you reached the inner sanctuary… Why were you looking for us? I had a *most* interesting talk with Samuel… He contacted me telepathically and told me a few things about you… Servant of the Light! … Did you really think you could come down here and help this primitive Goddess overpower the Lord of Chaos? Yes. And you are helping him, Death Knight? You're a disgrace to your kind! Let's finish this old codger! Your usefulness has expired, Black Bishop! You think you can beat me because you're in your prime and I'm old and helpless? Well guess again, my friends!!!
He cast a spell and Mort and D.K. were enveloped by a blinding, choking pink fog.
I can't move! I can't see!
When the fog cleared, D.K. still couldn't move, but now Mort knew where to place some traps.
Good riddance! Nice job, human!
I really had hoped he would not interfere. I hate losing loyal followers. Hmmm… he dropped something…
This armor we picked up - it's not really armor, it's just decorative. Tossed!"About the game" posted:
I think that maybe they had a new guy do this level and never had anyone check on the work, because there is incredibly poor use of triggers in this level, even though triggers had been used properly for the same effects in other places. This armor is only used to trigger the Bishop. Why they didn't use an invisible floor trigger is beyond me.
Alsom the Bishop is less of a pushover than he seems. He has 800+ HP, but Insect Swarm is just too powerful.
Find the three symbols of my domain and present them to me, mortal… Great. You know how much I *love* scavenger hunts, don't you, human?There were three exits. Mort chose the eastern room first.
I am the face of WAR… look into my eyes of terror and destruction… fill your souls with sorrow and despair… and prepare for absolute oblivion! *yawn* Look, is this going to take long? It's been a busy day, and I don't have all day to listen to you yammer on. RAAAAARRR!!!!
Well, that wasn't too bad.Mort and D.K. then went to the western room.
I'm not sure I like the looks of this.
They materialized in a new area, with a group of Evil Flying Eyes attacking them at once. After they were dispatched, Mort and D.K. took the time to look around more closely.
Those symbols on the wall look important.
What a strange symbol. It seems to be stuck to the wall. And they're on every wall… Oh, no…The place was unfortunately rather large, and the Flying Eyes didn't make the process of examining each and every symbol any easier.
This isn't a test of wisdom! This is a test of persistence! I guess persistence is a part of wisdom… It's not like we could give up and go back if we wanted to, human! It's solve this or starve to death in here. Good point.
Hey… the last part of the book… I think now I understand the Raanaar language enough to be able to read anything they've written, and I might be able to understand their spoken language as well. It's possible that might come in handy, human.
This symbol seems to be loose.Mort wrenched it loose form the wall.
Nice! Maybe there are some other wall decorations around here we can pinch! Alright, alright. You don't have to get *sarcastic* about it.
They were immediately sucked up by a teleporter and deposited back in the teleporter room. They returned toe the central room and took the southern door, the last one remaining.
The southern door is locked. Um, west, I guess."About the Game" posted:
Due to some really glaring oversight, the southern door is NOT in fact locked. The proper way to proceed is to go east or west. Going south advances the main plot in a somewhat glitchy way. I did this the first time I played, and when I was recording the LP. There's no warning that you need to go east or west first instead.
They took the stairs down to the final level. It was much smaller and only had one room, directly under the locked door above.
There was a statue of Raan in the room. Mort approached it.
You've been in this world for only a short period of time, mortal, but your actions are already remarkable. … You've slaughtered many foul demons and removed fragments of the Chaos Crystal from Nemesis. … You've killed the imp traitor… the one who was responsible for destroying the barrier protecting my world… You've killed the black servant of the Chaos Lord who was desecrating my temple… you've shown your honorable nature by these deeds. Raan is pleased.The statue fell silent, and a rune materialized.
Now maybe we can finally bring this to an end! Yeah. Soon, now… oh, so soon…
Ho, boy… This whole section is like a cross between Bug Report and They Just Didn't Care.
1) The first test, "Do not kill an unarmed man" is annoying because it considers you to fail if any of the unarmed men die before all of the armed men do. This is especially annoying because there are three groups in the catacombs - Unarmed Men, Armed Men, and Shadow Creatures, all of whom are hostile to you AND each other. Take off all your ranged weapons, and set both the Paladin and Death Knight to normal mode (not aggressive) so they won't accidentally kill one of the unarmed men. But there's more: You need to PREVENT the unarmed men from being killed, which means you need to run around and find anyone attacking them and kill them before the unarmed men die. But it's not that bad because there is no penalty for failure.
2) The second test is also bugged in that if you turn around and head back the way you came, it considers that you passed, even if you never see the treasure in question at all.
3) The Black Bishop fight is really strange, because it's triggered not by walking over a trigger, but by picking up the Catacombs Armor. The Catacombs Armor is completely useless and not needed for anything at all except that picking it up triggers the fight. I don't know why the designers forgot that they had used triggers for cutscenes in literally dozens of places before this.
4) D.K. is voiced by a different voice actor for ONLY the lines inside the "Wisdom Rune" maze. I'm glad they didn't use that voice for the rest of the game, it's pretty bad.
5) But that isn't the biggest bug of all… that happens in the next update. And it is really, really easy to trigger accidentally. I did that my first time through, an accidentally again when recording this update. It's because a door is by default, unlocked. That door really, really should be locked until you have collected all the runes.