Part 26: Things Missed in Upper Exile and Krizsan Province
Update 22B – Things Missed in Upper Exile and Krizsan Province
So, this is the first update where I just go back and point out things I've missed over the course of the actual updates. There's a lot of things, 331 images worth before I start processing. It's also on a different save from the map update, so you'll see lots of black spaces again. Let's get to it.
“Ehhh... I feel like we missed some things in our reports.”
“Like what?”
“Well, I think there's a secret passage over there, but I need to be able to cast Firewalk before we poke over there.” “We should ask Mazumdar about those tomes she's smuggled up. I think we've proved our worth in that regard.”
“Thanks!”
“No, it's like this.”
“Study time!”
“Eh, not that useful in the long run. Who casts Symbiosis anyway?”* * *
“Someone is hurt! We should save them!”
“Or maybe they're already dead?” 
“Don't give me that look!”
“We can figure out if there is anything special about this later.”
“So, why are we up here again?”
“Finding a dead Vahnatai. Possibly the one the Bandits killed for the statue.” “And looting the body apparently.”
“No. We are not going down there!”
“What's the concern? It just comes out here.” 
“Mung Rat. Not good eating.” “Ewww.”
“Giant Lizard.” “Now, that is good eating!”
“Now, how to we get around to the other side?”
“Why would there be a secret passage in the Nephil Chief's room?” “Escape?”
“See? He had a boat back here!”
“AGAGGAGAGAGAGAGA!” “Can't touch us!” “Please don't taunt the locals.”
“Nothing back here.”
“Ah-ha! Here's how we get to those Spiders!”
“After I fireball them out of existence.”
“And more of them.”
“I hope what's in the chest is worth it.”
“Worth it.”
“You know, I was wondering about the kind of person who would hide things behind wolves.” “The ones who have domesticated them.”
“BOLTS!”
“Well, that's all well and good, but this guy's got some serious literary issues.”
“Already dealt with that.”
“Hey, Bandit Treasure! Mine now!”
“Nice haul!”* * *
“Ah, the sun on my face...” “Right until the clouds get in the way and cause a chill.”
“I'm surprised that we never actually went east along the mountain range before.” “Following the water is both logical and natural. After that, we never really had a reason to come this way before.”
“Well, more horns for the man down in Krizsan.”
“Oooohhhhh.... A cave! You know what this means, right?” “There's no other way out!”
“You know, I have no problems with this. North or south?” “NORTH!” “South!” “You're being unusually bloodthirsty, Bronwyn.” “They're disgusting creatures.”
“Hey, I wonder how tough they really are?”
Yeah, not a threat. This cave serves both as an XP generator for the initial forays to the surface, and source of cash from the Horns.
“Wow, that was a slaughter!” “Huh, that's weird.”
“Don't care.” “But the anthropological implications! It's Art!”
“Yes?” “Not you, the concept.”
“How do you know it's not the same thing for me?” “Uh.... You raise a good point. Did your parents ever tell you why you were named that?” “Actually, Art is short for something else. I chose to shorten it when I joined the military.”
“Ah. Making it more masculine, I presume?” “Yep. Didn't stop me from ending up in the Acolyte corps.” “Corpse? You were dead!?!?” “No, you idiot. Corps is spelled differently, and indicates an organized group of people that is multiple divisions in strength. And before you ask, it's a complicated thing.”
“Hrm, is she undead...?” 
“Eh, we'll come back to that in a moment. Let's finish taking care of the outside rings first.”
“BUT THE ANTHROPOLOGY!” “I'm sure we're not killing all of them. Just the ones still dumb enough to be here. By doing this, we make the totality of the herd smarter, thus increasing the intellect that can be used for further art.”
“It doesn't work like that!'”
“Look! Funeral rites!” “Many animals do that to discourage predators. It's not a sign of civilization.”
“Yep, looks like everything. We should drop off our haul at Krizsan.”
“That's a good idea. I've got over three dozen horns on me. I'm running out of places to hold them.”
“I've been picking up the ones you're dropping.” Actually, Matthias has reached his carry limit at that point, and Delilah was taking up the slack.
“Hey, this pass is passable!” “And if our maps are correct, this could be a faster way to get to the Teleporter person. What's his name again..?” “We should check to make sure it's clear first.”
“Not clear.”
“Let's just get this done.”
“Now the pass is clear.”
“Sounds about right. The teleporter person should be to our west.”
If you didn't skip over the Great Map Update, this shows you how close Fort Emergence is to the Teleporter hub. Run east, up through the pass, then west, and you never leave the map zone!
“See!”
And here's the map of his hut, because i forgot to show it off last update. “That's nice, but there are still all sorts of little nooks and crannies in this mountain range we haven't poked our noses into yet.” “My nose is bigger than all yours put together!” “Irrelevant, but I'll let you have that.”
“Like this!” This is to the east of the Unicorn Pass. In the GMU, I accidentally listed this event as 'Giants vs Nephilim', not Ogres.
“CHARGE!” “Hey! That's my line!”
“Neener Neener Neener!”
“I love controlling chokepoints.”
“First real opportunity to test out the gifts of the Anama.” “We're going to have to have a talk about that in the future.” “Why?”
“Nice!” “Thanks!” “Well, the enemy is all dead now.”
“You know, I think we can cross here.” “I know I can!” “You want us to walk across this? Most of the ground is under water!” So, you can, with a certain degree of exploration, cross over between the mainland and many of the islands that surround Valorim. With only a couple of exceptions, which require either the Orb or a dedicated ferry, you can tell where to go by looking for these small islands in the way.
“Except she's right. This one is impassable.” “Don't worry. Once we get my baby back, all will be well.”
“I hate you.” “I love you!” “Still, quite a long way to go.”
“I'm serious, this is a long path.”
“Hey, I know this! It's a Ravage Knife!” “Not that I dont' trust you, but let's wait until we're not on a random dot of land to verify that!”
“Just you wait.”
“But this one goes nowhere!”
“Aww, can't reach these two.”* * *
For the record, this next event is close to the north-west corner of the Krizsan – I've been sweeping along the northern coast from Farpoint to the west, aiming to swing south around the mountain range, then back east.
“Nothing special about this, I think.” “huh.” “Are those lizards?”
“They have the right idea... I should take a nap.” “No.”
“Oh, Fire Lizards.”
“Boring.” Still took enough damage from the fire-breathing to necessitate a rest afterward.
“There's a lot of heat here, and it's coming from under, not above.” “He's right. There's geothermal activity this way.”
“Anyone else worried about this?” “I left worry behind after the Filth Factory. I just assume things are going to get worse.”
“See?”
“WORSE!” “Hey, you won't happen to have been over to the Isle of Bigail recently, have you?”
“Why should I answer you?” “Because I killed Pyrog.”
Like the drake we found in Kuper, except this time there's a lot more open space, and a lot more lizards to act in support. I lost this fight a couple times, let me tell you.
“And stay down!” “I think we can discount this dragon-ling as the source of the problems on Bigail. It was far too stupid.”
“Loot! Happy day!” “Hold on, you mentioned Pyrog?” “Yeah.” “As in the full on Dragon?” “Yeah. Used to live in the Giant's lands, demanding a tithe. Had to kill him ... oh ... ten years ago?” “... You scare me sometimes.” “Only sometimes? I'm sure she instills terror wherever she goes to some degree or another.” “Aww, you're too old to flirt with me, Matthias.”* * *
Hey, I found a secret passage!” North of Pergies
And another case of a three tile secret passage. I'm becoming immune to the surprise of seeing them now.
“Sure, show us what you got.”
Cheap is right. I think I upgraded Sass's Bronze Halberd for an Iron one. I'll have to check later.
“You know, I think this is the strip of land between the two rivers that join up between Emergence and Krizsan.”
“I wonder who built this.”
“We should save harvesting this until we're ready to use them.”
“You know, I think we missed something in that Giant's cave.” “Really now?”
“Something behind the wolf pen?” “Poor things have gone feral since Guhkbar died.”
“Is that wind?”
Spot the difference! No? Well, let me identify it for you.
The Airy Stone is wrong. You see the weight? Normally, that's crushing on anyone short a 20 Strength character with the +25% Carry Weight trait. What happened is that the weight of all the items are integers in 8 bits, from 1 to 256. Except this was supposed to be the only example of an item with a NEGATIVE weight, with a -20! Problem was, weights are not signed integers. You can't toggle a negative on them, so the -20 instead became 236. An item designed to make it easier to carry more things became the worst thing to have in your pack. Oh well, at least it sells for something.
South-east of Delan.
“Oooh!”
“Not how I imagined my afternoon to be going.”
Not a threat. At all.
“Hey, got Unicorn Horns for you.”
“That's 49 of them!” “And that's terrible.” “I think someone made a mistake in there. Maybe multiple.” “Don't care. Got paid. Now, let's check out some of the loot we've been accumulating.”
“Where were you when we were facing Slimes?” “Keep it anyways. Priestly magic hasn't caught up to Acid yet.”
“Toss.”
“Glad that Dragon-ling didn't think to use this.”
“I'll keep this handy.”
“Explains why the Giant died while having it.”* * *
“And why are we back here?” “We rushed through here last time, and I want a second look to see if there is more evidence lying around.”
“I agree that the intact location where the undead wraith was in wait is a good place to start.”
“You know, it's now what we were looking for, but it's still useful none the less.”
“There's a draft here!”
Curious. No evidence of Slimes here at all.”
“And down we go!”
“You mentioned no evidence of Slimes?”
“Nothing now.” Had I come down here before I killed the Alien Slime, there would be one Slime of each color in these four chambers, indicating they were there for examination by whomever built this place.
“Hey, I think we can push through this!”
“shoulda had Delilah buy a dozen Piercing Crystals when we had the chance.” “I agree.”
“Nothing unusual here. In fact, nothing relevant at all.” “Back upstairs then.”
“Nice pool.”
“Careful on this narrow path here. Don't want to fall in.” This entire loop around the water is 'secret passage'. 
“Careful... careful...”
“Safe!”
“Glowing green water never hurt anyone!” “Please tell me you're joking.” “I'm not Joking. I'm Art.” 
And everyone is healed for 20HP.
“I could have sworn all the Slimes died!” I could have sworn this place was toggled as 'abandoned', and thus no more enemies would spawn in!
“And now we have a better idea of where those Slime Zombies come from.” “WHY ARE THEY STILL ALIVE?!?!”
“Who care? LOOT!”
“Lame.”
“Really wishing for those cheap Crystals about now.”
“Hrm, can you feel that?”
“Let's see what we have here...”
“Bah.” Had we come here before killing the Alien Slime, we would have been able to see it through this scrying crystal.* * *
“Now the Slimes are almost gone, it seems like the local wildlife is making a move to restore the normal food chain.” “Food? Where? And why would you put it on a chain?” 
“Still can't get over there. Will need to fly.”
“Oh, this is the Trog pass. We have enough money. We can pay.”
“Or we could clear them out for the benefit of everyone who uses this road.”
“Your logic is sound, yet flawed at the same time.”
“Huh. Don't think I remember those.”
These guys could cast Slow Group and Curse all – but spend a good chunk of their time casting Bless Party, and Summon Host. Speaking of...
More undead.* * *
Headed up for Farport to go to the Isle, when I came across Empire Troops. This is what they had to say:
Their response is different if I took out the Slimes or the Roaches first, and if I hadn't dealt with either, they would attack me on sight! Nice to know that someone is taking their job seriously. Next time? The Isle of Bigail!