Part 19: A Madame and A Mine
Chapter 12 – A Madame and A Mine
Sosostra
Red Ore Mine
Creature
Video: Fighting our way
(Dragon Initiate Yara) The mine should be on the other side of this natural bridge.
I finally remembered to wear my helmet. I know it might not be popular, and I’ll try to remember to take it off in non-combat situations, but I am wearing a helmet. I remembered after getting killed on my first attempt at this bridge.
When Yara reached the middle of the bridge, some goblins sprung out from hiding, both in front of her and from behind.
(Talana) Walked right into that one, didn’t we? I can probably handle it… probably.
Yes, I just punched two people with one swing.
Damn it, Ghost! The Ghost is only helpful if you keep it up to date. A Level 1 Ghost won't be of any use at all when you're fighting Level 12 enemies.
Yara finished exterminating the goblins and continued on her way.
But it was not peaceful for long.
Who are you?
In Ego Draconis one of the reasons the game was much harder was that it was nearly impossible to dodge projectiles, they moved too fast. To ensure that you got hit, arrows homed in on you. It’s still not EASY to dodge projectiles in this game, but it’s reasonable to do if you’re paying attention.
That armour! He’s Black Ring! What are they doing here? After all these years, Damian is ready. The Black Ring is starting to move.
The only thing standing in the way of Black Ring domination is a weak Dragon initiate who can’t even take flight yet.There were quite a few Black Ring in the woods. It took Yara a few minutes to clear them away.
The tombstone is adorned by a necklace-shaped bas-relief above which the name Penelope is carved. What’s that over there? Looks like a campfire.
(Madame Sosostra) Madame Sosostra bids you welcome, Dragon Slayer and Dragon Knight.Our new secret is not going to be as secret as we hoped. Some people like her will spot our identity.1. I’m a Slayer, not a betrayer
2. How do you know about that?
The thread voted for only tell those who already know, so we won’t take the first option (deny), or the second option (openly admit), and we’ll go with the third:
I think I smell a witch. So do many who do not understand my powers. It is why I reside here, away from the ignorant. I am a clairvoyant, and for a modest fee I will gladly read you your fortune. 
(-100 XP) Your future lies in your palm, not in my head. I would like you to read my fortune. I thought you said you feared running out of money? Obviously she’s the real deal. Certainly. For the right price, that is. Here you go. (-50 gold) Very well. Let us look at what the future holds… I see a white creature, small and fair. Follow it, but disturb it not, and it will lead you to great treasure. Hmmm… by the way, do you know if there’s a mine nearby? Just over that hill, Dragon Knight. Bye for now, Madame. May fortune smile upon you.
This is Buad’s storage. What is the password? The password is “Illuminatus.” Be welcome in your storage, Buad. There’s only about three rooms in there. There’s random loot. I heard that there’s a chance that one of the containers has an alchemy formula which could be of any potency up to Level 10, but I didn’t find one. So far I’m not having good luck finding formulas.Video: Red Ore Mine
This looks like it could be the mine, but it’s too quiet. Something is wrong. Hello? Anyone here? I’m a Dragon Slayer, here to help!
(Kagar) Uhhh… S…Slayer… Over here… Ahhh…
Aaah… I… I’m dying… We’re playing a nice person, not a complete asshole, so we’ll go with the second option.1. What happened here?
3. And I’m on a quest. We are just stating the obvious, aren’t we?
Let me heal you! I… I couldn’t be saved now if I bathed in Aleroth’s Source. I was ripped apart. Ooooh… We were all ripped apart. (-100 XP) Though I walk in the Vale of Echoes, I shall not fear. We… we were digging a new mineshaft. But then those beasts came from nowhere… biting and tearing. Fangs of lions… claws of bears… eyes of devils… They’re in there… in the darkness… Uhhh…..
Cheerful… Well… I guess I’m going in anyway.
To clarify, this is not the same mine as the one the miners in the Black Boar were talking about. Their mine is on the other side of the valley.
What the hell is that?
It’s … stitched together! Is this one of Naberius’s creations?
Three more… for a total of four, the number Naberius said were released.
One of the creatures dropped a strange item as it died: a crystal, carved into the shape of a human skull.
Maybe Naberius will know more about this.Yara picked up some loose chunks of Red Ore and headed back to Dreavan.
A white creature, small and fair…Yara followed the rabbit to the west, near where one of the streams poured down into the valley.
That’s 50 gold worth of potions, at least. And those legs are “Fresh”, which means they’re Quality 9, the second highest quality possible.
(Drevan) Ah. Come to pay be another visit, have you? You ask and I deliver: fresh red ore as requested. Just the thing! Well done indeed, Slayer. Come, we’ll get my precious started immediately! Impressive machinery this Drevan has! Make use of it while you can. Reaching Lord Lovis shan’t be easy. "The Quest for Red Ore" complete! Quest Reward: 1200 XP, 300 Gold. Bonus Chosen: 600 XP. Level up! Now we can take advantage of Drevan’s enchanting machinery to add our own enchantments to our items… except that I don’t really have any formulas, and precious few ingredients. I’m not confident enough in the stuff I have that I want to use up the few enchantment components I’ve gathered. I’ll go see Naberius now.I’ve just reached level 10. I’ve done the usual upgrade to my attributes.
What’s important though is that at level 10 the Tier 4 skills unlock.
Battle Rage
Rank increased to 3, Damage bonus 20->30%
Mana Leech
Leech Chance: 80% -> 92%
Mana Drained: 10% -> 34%
A very useful skill for melee fighters. Even at the first rank, it has an 81% chance to draining 12% of the damage done and adding it to your mana, so you only need one point. This only works with melee attacks, but it does work with most special attacks.
Life Leech
Chance of Leech: 10% -> 34%
HP Drained: 7 -> 32%
This passive skill lets your hits in melee replenish your own life. It doesn’t work with ranged or magical attacks. The chance for leeching is only 10%, and it doesn’t replenish much at first, but this skill is worth investing in. Leech is the only ability which is an instant heal. During combat, a successful Life Leech will show up as green numbers. I’ll probably max this one out.
Evade
Evade Chance: 10% -> 50%
This passive skill gives you a chance to evade melee attacks. At first level it’s a 10% chance, but it goes up at 2% per point after that (except for the 15th point, which increases the evade chance to 50%). It’s only really worthwhile to put in that one point for the 10% evade chance. Maybe later (like level 40+), if I have a lot of free points I’ll max it out.
Old Skills
Current Skills
Video: Creature
(Naberius) Greetings, Slayer! I tracked your creatures down to a cave where I found an interesting item: a Crystal Skull. A Crystal Skull? That’s amazing. I thought they were a fairy tale. The ones I’ve seen were all forgeries. But if it is the real deal, then no wonder why my creatures were drawn to it. Legend has it that’s how the first necromancers commended their undead. This is why I couldn’t control my creations. But now that we have the skull, nothing stops us anymore! We shall release a creature and you shall be it’s master. Whenever you’re ready, Slayer! Tell me how this creature business works. It’s easy, really. Now that you have your Crystal Skull you can use it to summon your creature to the Battlefield. When your foes lay slain, you can collect their limbs to enhance the basic creature I prepared here. My laboratory is always open to you. You can combine the parts you find, but it will take quite some travelling to find the types of species that are suitable. Here in Broken Valley I think the goblins make for the most likely candidate. I’d like to work on my creature. With pleasure! "Vigor Mortis" complete! Quest Reward: 1200 XP, 300 Gold. Bonus Chosen: 600 XP. You control the creature with the crystal skull, I you with yours. Wait, what? Hahaha! Just joking! That wasn’t funny. No, not funny at all. If I could command you, though, we’d head for Lord Lovis without delay.
Sosostra
Red Ore Mine
Creature
The Map
Okay, so I haven’t actually charmed or enchanted an item in this update, but I will soon.
The History of Rivellon in Sonnets, Volume 1
Madame Sosostra bids you welcome, Dragon Slayer and Dragon Knight. I’m a Slayer, not a betrayer You lie, young warrior. To me and perhaps still to yourself. Madame Sosostra bids you welcome, Dragon Slayer and Dragon Knight. How do you know about that? It’s not that difficult when you have a gift like mine.Madame Sosostra, the fortune teller was named after after 'Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyant' from T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land"
Game Mechanics: Using your Creature
Your creature is a very useful tool in your arsenal. It’s mostly just good as a tank and a distraction, it’s not as good at actually killing enemies. But as a tank it is very good. Larian took the lessons from the useless Summoning Dolls from Beyond Divinity, and the Creature in this game is excellent. It stays at the same level you do, and it has a much higher health pool than you do, and it goes up substantially each level.
Body Parts Quality
Level 1: Rotten
Level 2: Infested
Level 3: Damaged
Level 4: Slightly damaged
Level 5: Preserved
Level 6: Well-preserved
Level 7: Clean
Level 8: Clean-cut
Level 9: Fresh
Level 10: Perfect
I found Fresh legs in that rabbit chest, which is pretty impressive, that’s the second-highest quality in the game. Unfortunately all body parts of a given source and quality are identical, there are no additional modifiers. It would have been more interesting if they had additional magical modifiers, but they don’t.
It costs half your maximum mana to summon it, but there is no time limit on this summon. Mana Efficiency DOES work to reduce the cost of the summoning. The creature follows you until it dies (it remains in the same condition if you save and load). The only consequence to the death of the creature is that you need to wait 60 seconds before you can summon it again.
The creature is NOT affected by the Priest skill Summon Mastery. Any kills made by the creature give you full experience.
In Ego Draconis, the creature had an animation which played when it wasn’t doing anything. It could lift its leg and piss. This was amusing exactly once. If you had it summoned during a conversation, you could hear the thing pissing all the damn time. It was enough to slowly drive you insane. One of the changes made to DKS was that it no longer pisses, and I do not miss it at all.
Travel back to Broken Valley village after finishing Vigor Mortis, and the guards notice.
(Joris) You tamed Naberius' creations, didn't you? Maybe now those beasts will stop running amok in the valley.That seems to be a slightly mild reaction to a massacre accidentally caused by the local necromancer.
How many of you misread the chapter title as “A Madame and a Mime?”
Previous Vote
Characterization: So, while we’re Dragon Slayer in appearance, we are on the path to being a Dragon Knight now. How does Yara feel about this?
a) Openly Embrace = 5
b) Deny = 3
c) Accept, but Hide = 7
Reader Participation
1. I can choose one item or another:
a) A +1 to Wisdom bracelet. I use these to put on before turning in quests to gain extra experience. There will probably be more of these to be found later on, but I can swap this one out for a piece of gear which is useful in combat more easily.
b) A +1 to Unarmed bracelet. There is no other piece of gear which gives a bonus point to Unarmed, and it will let me have Unarmed Level 5 before I could unlock it at level 14. However, I would need to wear this constantly for the bonus, and I could find a much better bracelet at any time.
c) Whatever.
2. What kind of creature should I have?
a) Warrior (Rush Attack, Fatality)
b) Ranger (Fireball)
c) Mage (Magic Missile, Magic Blast)