Part 14: Scamps Gone Wild!

Scamps Gone Wild!
Hey, guys! Sorry for the lapse in updating. I've been kinda hooked on Dungeons of Dredmor lately. It was such a good deal...
Upon consulting people from the internet my map, it seem that I'm waaaaaaay more northerly and easterly than I need to be. So you know what that means!

Back across the Ashlands!

Egg mine? Color me intrigued.

Kwama eggs, to be precise.

I don't know what to make of the kwama warrior model. Maybe it's the Elder Scrolls version of Earthworm Jim? He dies all the same, sadly.

This isn't just a bizarre screenshot; this lava geyser looks just about the same in motion. I honestly thought it was a magical thing at first, but it did its job of getting my hopes up.

And then this gal carried out the somber task of dashing those hopes by doing nothing as I stabbed her to death.

Yup, this sur is an egg mine. :rimdowns:

I'm not sure if this is due to enemy scaling or if the Ashlands are just filthy, but I've been running into a lot of blighted monsters. These guys carry diseases that are basically way more debilitating than the ordinary kind, and they need a special treatment. Lizard Wizard's Mage Panacea doesn't cure blight diseases, so I need to be careful.

I was so glad to see the results this level. As I had hoped, using medium armor and a spear has paid off with a big, juicy endurance increase!

I suppose now is as good a time as any to bring up fatigue. As you already know, running, jumping and attacking cost fatigue. What I haven't explained is that being all tuckered out affects performance in a big way, causing Lizard Wizards to fumble their attacks and fail at spellcasting. So you can imagine how strenuous a jog across a huge region can get.

While on my way back to Balmora, I was kinda caught off-guard when I saw enemies had already respawned at this place.

I decided to take a closer look, and sure enough, it's not just random crumbly ruins, but a proper dungeon! I get the feeling the shrine proper is out of my league for now.

I just want to point out that this dwarven spear is ridiculously high-maintenance. I'm definitely going to be using my bound spear more often.

On my way to Maar Gan, I saw this big ol' magic fence. If I know my video games, there's a sweet final boss fight back there!

Unfortunately, a flock of Sequence Racers foiled my attempts to scale the force field.

After fighting about ten more Ashland vagrants, I arrived at Maar Gan.

It was connected to the silt strider network the whole time...

This is the place!

She claims not to be a necromancer. Somehow, I doubt this.

There's no reason not to at this point, so I get on the next bug to Balmora and report back to Ranis. She delivers some shocking news -- there's a Telvanni spy among the mages, and we need to do investigate all of the guild halls in Vvardenfell. To Vivec!

What luck! A shifty-looking fellow already! Prove you're not a spy, douchebag!

He gives us this letter proving his credentials, but there's clearly something off about it.

As long as we're in this guild hall, we pick up a quest. The hag wants us to buy a book about dwarven history for her. We'll check the bookstore in Balmora, I think.

This is awesome and unexpected. Golden Saints have the biggest souls out of any mob in the game. As soon as we get our hands on a grand soul gem, we'll see about putting these guys to use.

So I bought the hag's book. You don't honestly need to see that in action.

Then, we go pick up a potion from another guild hall for her. Lizard Intern, Wage Mage?

Then we steal a book for her. Oh, how thrilling.

Okay, this is more like it. Apparently there's some kind of disturbance at a mage's house in Maar Gan, and we need to investigate.

Yyyyyup. That would qualify as a disturbance all right.

That scamp shat everywhere, man.

Yeah, this is just as good a place to stop as any.