Part 65: A Circle and a Nice (Cross)Bow
Update 059 – A Circle and A Nice Bow
“Actually, I have a request. On this isle, there is the itinerant Cleric by the name of Judith.”
“I remember her!” “Yes, so do I. What I am looking at is that she was apparently in possession of knowledge regarding the location of a superior crossbow. I don't believe mine is going to see much further use, so a replacement is in order.”
“You know, I'm alright with that. Any objections?”
“Nope.”
“Nor from I.” “Forward march!” “But first, let's get off this island, never to return.”
The first thing we need to do is to find Judith. She is either in Shayder or Hector here on the Isle of Bigail. The problem is finding her. And she can spend a day or so 'in transit', where she is not at either location. Long story short, I had to camp/rest until Day 102 for her to arrive in Shadyer as she is 'in transit' on day 101.
“Ah!”
“Do I know you...? Oh! You're the Exiles!” “Yes. We talked briefly before.” “Well, what brings your attention to me again? The plagues are receding, but there are still occasional Roaches that emerge from the central forests.” “We are glad to hear that. No, we were told that you had some information regarding the location of a certain Artefact.” “Ah! Well, I have it on good authority that the Fury Crossbow is in the Legendary Pit of the Wyrm, far to the Northeast. It's due east of a city called Bremerton.” “Thank you!” Amulet back to Fort Emergence, go North to Earnest's hut, and teleport to Lorelei. While there, I check on Hawke's Manse, but the next event hasn't fired yet, which annoys me.* * *
“Bremerton is on the far side of the Lake from here.” “We'll go... clockwise!” There are large chunks of north-western Valorim I haven't touched yet. I'll be covering them as I go along. But for now, I'm not in 'explore' mode, but rather I'm just hitting up events that I've passed by on the way to these specific locations.
“Hey, we haven't been to these islands yet!” “But there's something over here first!”
Just a plain old Silver Necklace. It's vendor trash at this point.
“Ah, my precious! What would I ever do without you?” “Replace it with a red stone?” 
“Don't worry, my precious. Mommy will never forsake you!” 
“Perhaps we should focus on the enemy first?”
Matthias' spot in the combat formation is missed. “That is also a lot of undead.”
“Nothing we haven't handled before.”
“I see something on the beach there!”
“Someone wanted this. I don't remember who, or where.” “I'm sure someone will remember at some point.” “I'll try!” “Mia, from Malloc.” “We'll get back there eventually, I'm sure.”
“Hold on, I hear those stones again.” “We can take a detour.”
This is like, 10 tiles west of the road leading north from Lorelei. How did I miss this when I came through here the first time?
“Uh oh.”
“Yeah, I think this is going to come back to haunt me.”
“We should stop by the Library. Matthias would have wanted to see it. And so I want to now.” “Agreed.”
“Hey. Um, can I get that access now?”
“Of course. I heard. You have my condolences. Please make sure to clean your fingers before handling the tomes. I have no idea how your skin would react to the parchment.” “Thank you.”
“Nice place.” All five bookshelves on the back wall have something interesting.
“Nothing will ever replace you, my precious!”
“Another reason not to bother with Sage Ivanova's request.”
“Already got, but nice for anyone who hasn't joined the Anama.”* * *
“So, here we are at Bremerton. Time to go East.”
“You know, I did not not expect us to be as far north as Greendale.”
“There's nothing here, no valleys or crevices.”
“But I think ...”
“Yes! We can go around this forest by flying up the river!”
“This looks promising!”
“No other way here but to fly.”
“Not a good sign.”
“The map shows a large pit in the middle.” “And construction. I wonder if there are people home?”
“Or not.”
“A very Imperial identification.” “We should investigate.”
“Yeah, this is going to get ugly really quick.”
“It looks like that wall was dissolved by acid.” “Slimes? This far north?”
“Curious, this rune is active.”
Until you step on the rune in front of the door, the Unlock spell won't work. Nor can you bash or pick its lock.
“Look around – something might be useful.”
“I found this book in the desk.” Always check books.
“Well, that's not ominous at all.” “We haven't punched cultists in the face in ... ever, I think?” “I'm pretty sure, yeah.”
“Hey, there's something behind this wall!”
Utterly without merit, save for the Acid touch. “We should investigate further. Even if the Fury Crossbow is not here, a possible threat like this should not go unresponded to.”
“Uh ... You know, I kinda blew up the research facility making Mutant Giants back in Exile a few years ago. Why are they here now, and since when were they loyal?”
Huge HP, Beatsticks of damage. They're simple, but slow going through.
“Hey! Stop throwing Rocks!” You can actually see one of the rocks being thrown in this screenshot as it leave's the central Mutant Giant's hands.
“And more from the east.”
“Curious effect.” Death Arrows, the Level 7 spell, casts Kill multiple times on different targets. But each casting is at half-strength. Against larger, multi-tile enemies, you can target them multiple times for the damage to add up. Death Arrows is 10SP, Kill is 8. Ni'aurrl can cast five distinct arrows at once at her current level. The efficiency is quite nice!
“This is not pleasant. I feel sickly just looking down there.” “I can hear something moving...”
Oh yeah. Picked this up somewhere because it was a rock that weighed 25 pounds. The Power Geode acts as a Large Energy Potion, restoring 60SP per use. I used it here to refill Ni'aurrl's SP.
“More Mutant Giants.” “I'm going to stay back here for a bit, they think I'm squishy.” “That's because you're not wearing any armor!”
“What is on that pillar?”
“Yep, this is going to be a problem.” “One we solve with Fire?” “I hope so.”
“That looks like it was something being dug toward.”
“But we'll have to go around to get to it, it seems.”
“Oh. Wow. Such a threat.” “Let me try something.”
“Of course they would all resist.”
“Nope, good steel and fire solve these problems so much faster and better.”
“Still not a pleasant pit.”
“Looks like we can get into that hidden chamber through here.”
“This must have been what they were searching for.”
“Maybe the Crossbow is in here?” “That would be nice.”
“Ugh.”
“This place is not one for goodness. Cleansing it would be a boon.” “I agree.” “You know I'm the only one here who can cast the Ritual of Sanctification, right?” “When was the last time you had to, anyway?” “Troglodyte Temple?”
“And this Wyrm worries me.”
“Ugh! It's on me!” “Don't worry, we can heal you!” Acid isn't as dangerous now as it was at the start of the game. I still have four people with Priest spells to keep my HP up.
“And down we go.”
“Large, open. Swampy even. Just like home!”
It's also a Dark Dungeon that auto-kills your lights. Just do what I do, go into Combat mode, cast Major Blessing and work your way around the dungeon carefully.
You'll encounter Mung Slimes, naturally.
“Oh, not you guys again!”
And Dark Wyrms, which are much less of a threat now than when we first encountered them.
“This light will go out in a moment.” “That's alright, I see more Slimes ahead and a Dark Wyrm.” “I wonder if there is some sort of super-Wyrm around to cause the madness seen above?”
I like how everyone has their own little viewing bubble. “Wait for me!”
“Careful, those pools look dangerous.”
“And there's light ahead!”
“Just more Dark Wyrms.”
“Were just more Dark Wyrms.”
“There's that building there...
“Found the Tomb mentioned in the excavation report, but no way in.” “There was that other stuff to the north.”
“This is horrible!”
“And not all of these bodies are ... fresh.” “Evil place.” “Very much so.”
“Here's the way through as shown on the map.” Once again, Magic Map is a godsend. At least this game doesn't do what Exile 2 did with making certain Dungeons unmappable.
“Just stay careful of the marsh water.”
“What sort of tomb would this be, behind a place of sacrifice?”
“One whose doors don't open.”
“Now they do!”
“Sass, if you please?”
“Ah, Spectres in the tombs. At least we can bottle-neck them.”
“And pulling that level reveals this door!” 
“Oh, this is a trap.” “Yeah, look at those floors!” So, this is the gimmick here, and one I kinda like. To advance through this room, you have to step on the white tiles. Except every time you do, the path behind you closes off, and certain tiles ahead of you open up. Step on a Green tile?
Ni'aurrl takes half damage as she has the Ring of Resistance that Bronwyn no longer needs. The path through, from the start, is as such: East, north, north, east, south, east, south, east, east, north, north, east then finally north. Once you've gotten the Fury Crossbow, to get out again, walk south, west, south, west, west, north, west, south, west then south, then out the door.
“Oh, it's beautiful!”
“It's amazing!” Heck yeah, it is. Most powerful ranged weapon in the game. Now I just have to remember to actually USE IT.
“I'm good. Anything else before we leave?” “Yeah. Mark this place down for a good old round of Quickfire when someone can be spared who can cast it.” “Agreed.”* * *
“NEXT!”