Part 54: Nericon's Garden
Chapter 39 - Nericon's Garden
Music - "Ominous Warnings"
Download (Thanks to Grawl)
21 Sembten 1218
After a bath and hearty breakfast at the inn outside Verdistis, I passed through Rivertown market on my way to Stormfist Castle to sell some things.










"About the Game" posted:
This quest is one of only a few places where your reputation is important. Another is the Shrine of Good and Evil near Glenborus, and the other is [main quest spoiler] near the end of the game when you have to re-enter Stormfist Castle.
You need a reputation of over 20 to impress Blake, but if you have an invitation to Stormfist Castle, it supersedes the reputation check entirely.
As I followed the road, I remembered that I still had the book Otto had given me sitting heavily at the bottom of my pack.


Otto and his followers were still hanging around the garden.





I unlocked the gate and stepped inside. It was definitely a magical place; I could sense it in the air, even after all these years.





For a place which had been locked for dozens, if not hundreds of years, the grounds were immaculate. There were no signs of treasure, but on the other hand, I hadn't found any of the magical traps Blake had been worried about, either.

I approached some statues, and something most extraordinary happened.











"About the Game" posted:
This is a simple multiple-choice test, but we need to get them all right.
Life is based on one foundation. Name it!
1) Money? Experience? Water?
Life is made of two equal parts. Name them!
2) Good and Evil? Truth and Untruth? Black and White?
There are three paths in life, whose balance is the key to existence. Name them!
3) Good, Neutrality, and Evil? Day, Night, and Dawn? Stupidity, Cleverness, and Naivety?

"About the Game" posted:
This is the third free point in Restoration. There is a fourth free point in the form of a spellbook in the Rivertown Sewers, but it requires Telekinesis Rank 2 to reach.
Otto and his followers had seen the display and they ran up.


I started to leave, but the Nemris followers started following me.





As I was passing by the pond in the center, a frog loudly *ribbit*'ed and hopped towards me.

I crouched down and reached towards it. Then the damn thing glared at me and bit me on the finger.


In anger, I squashed it with a fireball. My new "disciples" ran off, thankfully. But I wasn't concerned about them. As soon as the frog died, the aura of magic in the garden changed slightly.



I hunted down and blasted all the nasty frogs I could find. After each one, the magical aura changed slightly, until finally...

A magical portal appeared towards the top of the garden.

I stepped into it.

I emerged into a small brick room. The air was stale, but tolerable. There was a locked gate, through which I could see many treasure chests. Large, heavy packages were suspiciously stacked in a corner.
I moved the packages aside and found they were trying to conceal a lever. I pulled it and the gate opened with a clank.

In the middle of the floor along one wall was another magical statuette, this one was of a frog. I carefully picked it up and stowed it in my pack. The chests yielded over 6600 gold.

I took the portal back to the surface. Then I hurried to Stormfist Castle. I took off my helmet. If I was going to meet the Duke - even if he was possibly a treacherous snake who sent assassins after my sister and Sir Richard - it would at least be a good idea to give the IMPRESSION of politeness.
"About the Game" posted:
This is one place where you are GUARANTEED to find a statuette. The Frog Statuette is the most useful because as a frog, you move a LOT faster, even when your stamina runs out. The only downsides are that you have low HP and stamina in frog form, but your stamina regenerates quickly. The frog statue is unsurpassed for crossing long stretches on foot quickly.




I handed over the invitation Commander Ralph had given me. The Guard carefully looked it over, and checked another list he had.


I stepped through the archway and entered the anti-magic field surrounding the castle. I was completely cut off. I'd only have my own body to rely on, and unfortunately, it was less than reliable.



Suddenly, there was a distortion in front or me as an imp teleported in!




I rubbed my head. Talking to Imps usually ended up causing a headache.















Stupidly, I took it off my belt.

Zixzax suddenly snatched it from my hand.



The imp twisted the top of the pyramid to the right and the magic sucked him away!


I was alone again. My senses were still crippled, but faintly, I was picking up something. Something I'd sensed before. It was hard to be sure, but through the interference clouding my senses, I thought I sensed something at the edges. A malevolent coldness. The sense of something evil.
I was on my own now, in the castle of a duke who possible sent an assassin after Richard, and who possibly had done something to my sister as well. I was vulnerable without my magic, and now I'd just lost my emergency escape device.



Next Time: Act 3: Stormfist
Next Time: Chapter 40: Life Sentence

Behind the Scenes
This is the end of Act 2. Next update, we start Act 3
BEFORE YOU ENTER STORMFIST CASTLE
For those who are playing along with me, there are some things it's a good idea to do before walking through that gate. I'm not saying anything bad will happen. Just take these as casual suggestions.
- You should probably be around level 20-24 before going in. That's the ideal range. A little bit more or less won't hurt, but you probably don't want to go in at level 11 or so.
- Drop off everything you don't need somewhere else, you'll want to have a fairly light load. But don't completely empty your pack of potions and lockpicks...
- You might want 1 or more points into Repair, or to have an item with +1 repair on it.
- If you're planning to use a one-handed weapon and a shield, you might want to have 5 points into Identify. I put two points in manually, got 1 point from a quest, and 2 points from items to get my 5. If your character plan doesn't include a shield, don't worry about that much.
- I forgot to go around and make sure all the level 11-20 enemies had been cleared off of the map. That was a bunch of experience I forgot to get, and by the time I found them again, I was too high a level and got nothing.
What's fake in this update?
- In the real game, the imp asks you for the pyramid, promising to show you something, and you gullibly hand it over. I decided not to make Jeremiah quite that stupid.
- I added the line about Jeremiah getting irritated that no one is telling him anything because you don't have the conversation option to ask the imp why we're so important, or what the mark means.