Exile 3: Ruined World Part #46 - The Concealed Tunnel and the Barrier Cavern

Part 46: The Concealed Tunnel and the Barrier Cavern

Update 040 – The Concealed Tunnel, and the Barrier Cavern

Hello, and welcome back to our 40th update! Give or take an A or B somewhere. Some of you who are reading this in the archives may be wondering why I've chosen to pulverize the Giants, instead of wandering about and doing exploration like normal.

Well, the votes that were cast after the two updates in Lorelei were pretty conclusive. The viewership on Something Aweful wanted Art to deal with the Giants immediately as they were tied into the Troglodytes quest.

In fact, if you want to get down to it, there really are only five Monster Plagues in the game, not six. Because the Troglos and the Giants are resolved the same way, they only count as one. And after this, the next major event isn't set to trigger until day 150, giving me plenty of time to explore to my heart's content.

But, that's enough of that. You're here for the giant-busting, and I've delayed that long enough.

“Large, open spaces, small caverns. This doesn't look like what we're looking for.”

“We do not yet see the whole expanse of it, and there is the possibility that we need to progress farther.”

“I think you're right.”

“Well, at least it's a straight shot to the door.”

“Though I wonder what's in these side passages.”

“What?”

“Hey! I can't break the barrel!”

“And magic isn't working either!”

“HAHAHAHAHAHA”

“What's so funny.”

“I remember this. It's a sort of lock trick. You see this pit here?”

“yeah.”

“You push the barrel there into the pit here, and it leaves the area of the spell. Now, I suspect there are multiple barrels now, we we'll have to find them all and dispose of them.”

“Like this.”

“Right, so find the other ones now.”

“Spread out!”

“Curious. It sank.”

“Yay, I got one!”

“And that should be all of them. Good job getting at the one in the hidden passage, Sass.”

“Yay for me!”

“Let's see if the door is unlocked.”

“What is this?!”

This is the gimmick for this dungeon. Every time you move, the dark-reddish wall moves south one tile, and the brown walls move north. If they run into something, they change colors, then go the opposite direction. It's actually fun! Also, don't get squished.

“That was close.”

“I'm curious if this was meant as a defence against intrusion, or if it is the result of some other process.”

“And once again, scrying makes everything easier.”

“Curious.”

“Imagine if this was a barrel, and not a crate.”

“I want to test something.”

“What?”

“You want to crush a box?”

“No. It seems like the boxes can act as mobile borders for the movement of the walls.”

“How does that work?”

“I don't know yet.”

“Well, no where else to go.”

You know, I could buy the idea of being thrown far, far away into a new location, if I hadn't already Magic Mapped everything and seen that we've never left the same map. Also, the Teleportation special effect. I don't think I've shown it off yet, so here it is!

“More ahead.”

“Yes, but this time, there's treasure!”

“Really?”

“They look like summoning icons.”

“We'll wait for it to pass.”

“I'll keep saying this, but Scrying makes everything easier.”

I really thing something is wrong with the weights of some of these potions.

“I like this game!”

“Thanks.”

“Oh this is only slightly more complicated.”

“Except, if you check the scry, there's hidden rooms to the north and south. I doubt we'll get out before we get into them.”

“How about we deal with these first?”

“Well, this wouldn't be hard, except for the moving walls.”

“I wonder if they're guards because they're insubstantial?”

“Doesn't matter, they burn all the same.”

“Yeah, I can see that. Though their ectoplasm still interferes with the machinery, it seems.”

“We win!”

“There's a lever there...”

“Sass, go ahead.”

“Yay!”

“Well, that was... boring.”

“Still need to find the other way through.”

“You mean the open end to this corridor?”

“Except the entire wall is moving.”

“Not really, these boxes prevent some segments from moving.”

“And we'll need to move the boxes out of the way to get to that other lever.”

“Something out this seems... right?”

“Almost there!”

Much has been said in the history of video games about the 'box puzzle'. Well, I would like to submit for your consideration, the only practical, fun, and reliable Box Puzzle in the history of gaming.

“Ahh! Invisible enemies hiding in the walls!”

There's that too.

“Sass?”

“That should do it. Let's get out of here.”

“That's a long way.”

“Well, there's only so much more distance we can travel. Let's go.”

* * *

“We're here.”

“Small. Just the end of the tunnel.”

“This is the place.”

“Careful, there has to be something here to help defend it.”

“Nice camping spaces.”

“From the south!”

“Huh. A Doomguard.”

“A what now?”

“Alright, here's the plan. Brownyn, Sass and I engage in melee. The rest of you stand back and support with Hastings and Blessings as needed.”

“How is that a plan?”

Oh, Doomguards, how I love thee. They were a late game enemy in Exile 2, but here we get one as the pseudo-boss of this mid-game quest.

Naturally, I chump the damned thing. You see, whenever they get hit, they split into two instances, each with the HP they would have after the hit. And with good armor and 150 HP, that's a lot of copies that can be rolling around.

Now, Assassination and Flaming weapons do extra damage, but don't count as extra hits, while dual wielding does count as two hits for the purposes of how many copies are created. And because of that, Bronwyn is my primary killer here.

And because they are only considered to be level 4 enemies, any party that can take them on will only get 1 XP for each kill.

Thankfully, I've got enough gear and levels that a single layer of Bless is enough to prevent the Doomguards from hitting my squishy casters reliably.

Of course, this all adds up to a slow fight. I had to take a couple breaks because my wrist was starting to hurt, and my mouse isn't gaming-ergonomic.

I also love how the blood splatter on the floor increases with each kill that happens on it. And in this picture, why that potion weighted 70 stone now makes sense, as does all the stupidly high weights of other potions. Each use of a potion weighs 5 stone individually, so a potion with 14 uses weighs in at a colossal 70 stone! Too bad it's a Weak Healing Potion, and doesn't really cover my needs.

Doomguards also drop loot. However, it's an extremely low rate, and most of the time, they'll drop food, assuming they drop anything at all. Even then, any non-food items will most likely suck due to their native low level.

Don't let this screen shot fool you. Those six remaining Doomguards still have some splits left in them.

“LAST ONE!”

“Oh, that was good exercise.”

How good? Well, I forgot to screencap Art's XP before the fight, but here it is after:

We killed over 250 Doomguards here, and that meant that everyone leveled at least twice in the process. Art gained three levels!

“Let us never do that again! Please?”

“Why not? Afraid you'll get some of this oil in your dress?”

“This is...”

“Before you destroy that, may I suggest we get to a safe distance first?”

“Yeah, that seems like a good idea.”

“Oh dear...”

No matter where you are, even in combat mode, everyone takes damage. So I went out, camped, then came back with full HP/SP for the coming event.

“KILL EVERYTHING! THE GREAT ENEMY IS UPON US!”

“SLAY!”

“RUN AWAY!”

“I don't want to get in that fight!”

“And if we poke our heads out, they'll attack us as well as each other!”

One of the things that Exile 3 can do is have multiple hostile forces that are also hostile to each other, rather than just 'us vs them'. In this case, the Giants are hostile to the party as well as the Troglos, while the Troglos are hostile to the Party and the Giants. And as long as I stay out of sight, they'll keep hitting each other.

“We fall back for now. Let them wear themselves out. We've done what we came to do.”

“So we did.”

* * *

“We go and report to Anaximander now?”

“No, we go back to Lorelei first, and check in with the Commander there. Let her know that Giants should be reduced now.”

* * *

I promised I'd do a conversation when I reset a town, and here it is!

A lithe, lethal looking man move smoothly through Dellston, alert for Giants to fight. He turns to look at you. He looks somewhat deranged, at best.

“Hello there. We're glad to see you well. You are?”

“I am Durning!”

“And what do you do here in town?”

“I fight giants!”

“It's nice to see everyone taking fighting giants seriously.”

“Yes!” he says brightly. “I am mighty warrior, of Heaven and Earth Association!”

“The what now?”

“I have mighty kung-fu! I know Flying Fist and Shadow Kick style!”

“what”

“What's more, I can jump straight up twenty feet, with a mighty swooshing noise, if necessary.”

“And you're mighty.”

“I fight with great honor, doing all my own stunts! My Kung-Fu is the greatest of all!”

On one hand, this guy is so out of place, he's hilarious. On the other hand, Vogel, did you really have to include a Wuxia character in your game?

* * *

“We leave the horses in the stable, and we'll teleport around from here.”

“You're back.”

“It's done.”

“So it would seem. But I cannot reward you for that, save to give you my word that you will be recognized for your deeds.”

“From a Dervish, that's a lot.”

“But, about the other mission you asked of us...”

This is actually two separate checks, and two responses put together. You need to ask about the mission multiple times to get your whole reward, but when you run out of rescued prisoners and personal effects, this is what she has to say:

I'm also pretty sure I got all the prisoners, but I still need to make another sweep through for the maps, so I'll check again.