Part 33: The Giant Fort and the Brigand Madhouse
Update 029 – The Giant Fort, the Brigand Madhouse and the Honeycomb
“Alright, we can get off here, and hike back to Fort Draco for recuperation.”
“I think that's a good idea. A lot closer than Duvno, or Silvar.”
“At least we won't have any issues with the wild life.”
“Are you sure you want to go this way? I mean, the Spiders are up here.”
“Dmurr, I am so out of it right now, I will tolerate the giant intelligent friendly talking spiders just long enough to get some peace and quiet.”
“I do not think that is possible.”
“Why?”
“...”
“One moment....”
“Do we really have to do this?”
“I mean, we can always come back later.”
“And there's no proof that they're here anyways.”
“And yet, iz it not the right thing to do?”
“<You are taking her example too far.>”
“<It must be done.>”
“Would you two stop arguing?”
“Indeed, there is more evidence over here that the Gremlin Wives are here.”
“...”
“We can at least, look around?”
“Aaagh!”
“You just had to say that, didn't you?”
“Kai-lyss, Crowd Control!”
The Giant Fort is largely a fornt-ended dungeon in terms of combat. You'll get 80% out of the way here in the entranceway and adjacent rooms.
There's also a Giant Shaman in the area, which is a powerful spell caster. And visually indistinguishable from normal Giants, who throw rocks and hit like bricks.
“We have this side!”
“And we've got this one!”
“A ssztinking cloud?”
“Countered. Now kill!”
“Maybe we bit off a bit more than we can deal with, Sir Ma'am?”
“Oh, keep killing!”
“Protect the Master!”
“What master? The head of the Fort? And do Ogres and Giants mix like this?”
“So it would seem, farmboy.”
“I think the Master is the Chief. Usually lives in the back.”
“Alwaysss in the mozt guarded of posszitions.”
“And ssstill they come.”
“Oh look, Hordlings.”
“You could at least pretend to be surprised.”
“I haven't had a good drink in weeks, Chester. I've given up on some things.”
Summons do disappear after a while, so if you can break contact, then wait them out, you can come out with less problems than before.
“These are too big to be barracks, but too small and not in a position to be nobility rooms.”
“Doez that answer your quezztion?”
“I'm just glad they aren't summoning anything more dangerous.”
“Anyone else feel that heat?”
“Yesss.”
“Don't let them push you into the coals!”
“Good idea!”
“Wow, a proper forge. For a given value of 'proper'.”
“This is worthless.”
As in, worth 10 gold. Don't bother grabbing any.
“This must be the 'Master' that the Ogre Mage was talking about.”
“And there are Barriersss on the other ssside. I only have one Piercing Crysstal, so I would not recommend breaching.”
“Help!”
“One moment, Ma'am!”
“DIE!”
“No.”
“Ssssad.”
“Oh dear.”
I don't want to deal with a Haakai. I really don't. I don't have the spells for it, I don't have the resources for it. The situation goes against me.
“Why store bodies there?”
“Another barrier to keep the Giants away from the Haakai.”
“Did you guys hear that?”
I'm doomed. I had forgotten totally about this. “Monster breaks Barrier”. That means that somewhere on the map, a powerful enemy has broken through a Magic Barrier because I've aggroed them.
It's the Hordelings that are doing this. Not the Haakai.
“Where are these coming from?”
“Barriersss gone.”
“<Explain!>”
“<They are gone!>”
“They are coming in from this way too!”
“This is a trap.”
“Agreed. Don't touch it.”
“We really shouldn't go through here.”
“Ah, the Slayer.”
“That was Karmas, and you know it.”
“Yours was the hand that guided, yours is the weapon. Killing you will bring me much!”
And things started going downhill.
Very.
Downhill.
But at least it gives me an excuse to show off the Game Over screen!
“Probably a good idea.”
“Not a great barrier when I can simply blow down the wall adjacent to it.”
“Did you hear that?”
No....
“Must be my imagination.”
“Who would be stupid enough to use acid-spitting slugs as domestic animals?”
“Aaaaagh!”
“Never mind.”
“I think this wall was re-sealed recently.”
“It would appear that the Giantsz do not want the Gremin Wivesz in attendance.”
“I love this spell!”
“We ssshould... leave.”
“Right behind you.”
“I think running might be a good idea.”
“Don't. You'll only trigger the chase reflex.”
“Nothing of interest here.”
“A trophy room.”
I will identify thisss later.”
“Good haul.”
“Ah, the intruders. Our Master will reward us well for your”
“Was it saying something?”
“Alright, let's get out of here.”
“Halt!”
“Really? You really want to do this?”
“Damn! We'll get the magic user!”
“Or he could have used it as a distraction while he fled.”
“I see zomething.”
“And that's three.”
“That'sss.... a lot.”
The joys of random spawns, water, and entering and leaving a dungeon multiple times.
“HAH! I HAVE A BOAT AND YOU DON'T!”
“WHY DON'T YOU GET CLOSER SO WE CAN GET ONE?”
“Soon... Sooon!”
“Sir Ma'am, are you really starting to act like a villain?”
“No, ssshe'sss juzt promissing foul vengeance. Quite normal.”
“Hey, Catalina!”
“That's not my name.”
“Whatever. Got three. How are things going on your end?”
“200 gold a pop. I could have looted the places for raw materials worth more.”
“It's not like we have a lot of resources.”
“Still, salvage rights are a good thing.”
“And once we figure out how to safely disarm their traps, we'll let you know, you vole.”
“Don't make me punch you.”
“Row, row, row your back, gently back to Silvar!”
“Here goes nothing.”
“Let us never speak of this again.”
“Interesssting. I could experiment with Quickfire here...”
“Oh, I will have dreams of that for ages.”
“In the meanwhile, I have 'identified' that blade from the Giant trophy room.”
“Oh? What do we have?”
“Right. Next time we're on the Gallery Lake, this is just getting tossed overboard.”
“Are you sure that's the right way to deal with that sort of thing, Sir Ma'am?”
“I don't have a convenient pool of magma, so this is the best option.”
“Are we finally going to the Castle now?”
“If you're going through the Honeycomb, yes.”
“Isn't there a better way?”
“Yessss. Sssouth to the Tower, then West.”
“And there's the request to find and deal with the Bandits here.”
“Oh. Right.”
“Thissss iz a maze.”
“That's one of the meanings of the word 'Honeycomb'.”
“I've heard there's a Dragon living in these caves.”
“What? Athron? Yes, he does. Likes his privacy though, so if we swing by there, we'll just stay away.”
“You know a dragon.”
“I am on friendly basis with Motrax. You were there for that, remember?”
“Yet that <Old One> is friendly to all.”
“There are four Dragons in the region of Exile. Motrax, Athron, Sulphras, Khoth.”
“I thought there were five.”
“Pyrog was killed about five years ago.”
“Let me guess. By you?”
“Hold that thought.”
“This is the lair of the Dragon.”
“Yep. And we're leaving.”
“And yes, I was there. I can't remember who delivered the final blow though, if it was Rook or Karmas...”
“Not you?”
“You'd be surprised.”
“You do realize that those bandits are trying to sneak up on us, right?
“And now you had to spoil our fun.”
“They came from this way...”
“A hole.”
“Careful, there are magics here.”
“Thissss. Annoyz me.”
“What.”
“This place....”
“...”
“We need to think about this.”
Alright, here's the thing. The Brigand Madhouse is a total annoyance to get into if you can't figure out the trick. There are four ways into the Madhouse, but only three out. Confused yet? Let me draw you a picture.
The black circle in the middle is the Madhouse proper. The red lines on the edge represent the ingress/egress points.
The North/West passage is straightforward, pun unintended. You enter the dungeon from either of those directions, and you leave out the other. Simple.
If you enter from the south, you leave via the east.
But if you enter from the east, you enter a different segment, on the north side of it and leave out the east on the south side of it as well. This is your first clue about how to get in. The east side is different.
And that 'secret' passage in is part of that east-side passage. It doesn't access the main body of the Madhouse, all it does is form an alternate way from North to south. That's your second thread to pull. If there is an alternate way to go in the one direction, why?
So what you're supposed to do is enter this dungeon from the east, then use the secret passage to skirt around the center of the loop, then walk back north.
Welcome to the Madhouse. The worse is over. Thankfully.
“That is... extreme magic.”
“Agreed. Whoever is backing these bandits knows what they're doing.”
“What if it's that dragon?”
“No, he wants nothing to do with us. He would never do this.”
“It is they who should beware, as they've annoyed me with all this twisty passages.”
“There isz no sstealth here. Thisss leads back outside.”
“Like who is responsible for all this.”
“At least we can pick up some of the pieces of quartz for funding purposes.”
“We're already rich.”
“You have a lot to learn, farmboy!”
“There's a lot of these.”
“I ssense we sshsould take thzese sszide pazzssages.”
“Agreed.”
“We are here.”
I have no idea how the coding for this works, but I went into fight mode just in case of a hostile reception, and I saw... this...
For some reason, entering combat – which normally turns off the map – actually turned it back on while I was fighting. Once I get out of that mode, the map snaps back to being blank. I may be able to exploit this to build a map of the place, but I'm not certain. And I'll probably do it when it comes time to do the Second Great Map Update.
“Intruders! Summon the Leader!”
“At least 'Leader' is less ominous than 'Master'.”
“I want to meet thisss 'Leader' to learn itsz Magicsss.”
“No, you won't.”
“Damn it! Aarth-Tss, you and me focus on the Gazer! Everyone else, DROP THE DEMON!”
Oh that goodness for being in tight confines. If I had to do this in an open room, I would have been swamped. Not pictured was me teasing the enemy pathfinding to allow me to kill the enemies one at a time before the Gazer showed up.
“ghkedghi!”
“RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”
“YOU BETTER!”
“Barracks. And a lever in the corner. Maybe we should rest for a bit?”
“No, we keep going forward.”
“Regretting not having that rest?”
“Shut up.”
“Nice set up.”
“Not so nice reading material.”
“Would not that armor sscease to allow the wall to move?”
“Maybe.”
Minor error caused by throwing the lever removing one piece of wall, and putting a different one into place.
“I believe the Gazer had it's work area to the ssssouth.”
Except I aggro'd the Gazer already, and drew it into the death trap of a tile-wide corridor.
“Ssstores. Stolen?”
“Probably. Come on, there has to be something good here.”
“Thisss will take uss back outside.”
“That's is. Kai-Lyss, when you learn how to do Quickfire.
We practice here.”
“Agreed.”
“Before we report back to Mertis, there's something I want to check out first.”
“What is back this way, Sir Ma'am?”
“I waz unaware of this....”
“Something.”
“And they gave up. Probably to join the war effort.”
“Thisss iz a way to the ssurface?”
“Waz.”
“hrm? Art? What doessz 'XYZZY' mean?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Thoze symbolsss are ssscratched here.”
“Ah. Just someone leaving a message, I think.”
“Leave it?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, hey! I remember this. Apparently some quake opened up a new section of caverns over this way.”
“And they're already occupied.”
“That reminds me of the village that's befallen by sickness.”
“Come on, back to Mertis.”
“Captain, we managed to take out the Gazer supporting the Bandits. Here's how to get into their place...”
She nods and takes some notes. "Well done. I'll pass news of your deed on to the Castle, and it'll count towards you getting a higher clearance."
And that's it. I've done everything I can be expected to do with the resources I have. In order to do more, I'll need to go to the Castle for upgraded Clearance. Which I will do so over the next couple updates.
I miss Major Blessing.