Part 28: Vengeance, Fire, and Blood.

Update 26: Vengeance, Fire, and Blood.



The rune dropped me on the upper level of the Fire Magicians' tower.



I gave a quick glance to my surroundings. Two guards flanked me and a well dressed man stood before me. He turned upon hearing my noisy entrance and smirked.

"I knew that somebody would try to get at us through the Pentagram!" he said "But, unlike that traitorous smith Stone, we don't need you any more!"

From my time in the Old Camp I'd come to know of Stone as a very talented blacksmith who was solely employed by the Guards. "Where is Stone?" I demanded.

Bartholo only smiled and gestured to his guards. He and the two others attacked.



The Guards were unskilled and Bartholo was clearly not expecting a difficult fight. He was a man of Gomez and because of that he would be shown no mercy.



I rummaged through Bartholo's things. The only thing of use I'd found was a key inscribed with "Store". This was going to be useful later.



I snuck down to the first level of the building and peeked out. The camp was not yet on alert. My fight with Bartholo must not have been heard.

I fumbled around in my pack and brought out my rune of Pyrokinesis. By utilizing its powers I took the closest guard out without alerting them to my presence.



In the confusion I quickly darted across the courtyard and into the black smithy. I turned around and discovered I was followed.




It was Raven, the second in command of the Old Camp, Gomez' right hand man. He violently lunged at me but I froze him in mid swing. I knocked him to the ground and prepared to end him once and for all when I was interrupted by crossbow fire.



Some of the guards had found me it seemed. Just outside the smithy I encountered Cutter and another of Gomez' men. I dealt with them quickly and returned to Raven to finish him off.

He was gone. I looked around in hopes of finding him but he was nowhere to be seen. I shrugged. What harm was there in letting him go? It was Gomez I was after.



I turned my attention to the dead Fire Mages still lying on the ground. It seemed that no one had bothered to even dispose of the bodies. The bodies of Torrez still laid outside. Surprisingly, his packs still bulged with potions. He had not been looted! I took what I could and continued my way toward Gomez' building.



Just out front the Ore Barons' residence I encountered another group of soldiers. I ducked behind the corner to protect from incoming bolts. Between their volleys I would peek out and throw a ball of ice or fire their way.



Not surprisingly, I was victorious. The courtyard was cleared and only two buildings remained to be cleared within the inner walls: The barracks and the residence.



I decided to go for the residence first. The sooner I found Gomez the better. He would surely flee if given the chance.

As I stepped inside the Ore Barons' home I was greeted by one of their own. A finely dressed man named Arto. He lunged at me, attacking in a way that showcased his talent. It wasn't enough, though. Another one of Gomez' men was down.

I took a moment to examine the sword he dropped. It was ornately made and well balanced. I took it.



The residence was a well built place though it clearly had not been maintained. Back when the colony was under military control it likely housed the warden and higher ranking officials.

In the Kitchen I found one of Gomez' women and his private cooks. The cooks fled as soon as I appeared while his slave girl simply continued scrubbing the floor.



I walked through the door to Gomez' chambers and saw him at the far side of the room, still seated upon his throne. I approached.



As I drew closer, Gomez angrily stood up. "How did you get in here?" he demanded. He took a closer look at me. "Hang on! Aren't you the one that fought our men in the Free Mine?"

"Your men had no right to invade it. I just corrected their attack of megalomania." I drew my sword.



"Talking to me, GOMEZ, in that way shows some courage. But it was foolish of you to turn up here like that. I will personally take care that you never get in my way again."



Gomez unstrapped his sword from his back. I swung at him, cutting through his armor and wounding him. He swung his large two hander but I managed to jump back in time.

He charged and we exchanged blows. He managed to get several on me but I got more. He succumbed to his wounds and fell to the ground, no longer able to stand.



I brought my sword over him and then swiftly thrust it through his chest. Gomez would no longer bother the inhabitants of the Colony.



With Gomez dead I had free reign of his residence. I went into his room first and ransacked it.





In his private chambers I discovered some high quality weaponry and rare alchemical potions. I took it all. I was going to have quite a bit of ore when I was done here.

The only other thing of note in this room was one of his slaves taking a bath.



I checked the rest of the rooms on the second floor. The rest contained similar items. Expensive weapons and potions along with ore and the odd stalk of swampweed.

I noticed that the room that was situated on the other end of the hall was connected to another room.



I picked open the door which revealed a hallway leading to yet another locked door. This one opened with the aid of one of the keys I'd found.







I seemed to have unlocked a storage tower of some sort. While there was nothing too useful here I did find the castle's old treasury and a chest that housed Gomez' trophies. I took what was useful and left the building.



When I'd searched Gomez' corpse I came across some more keys. One for the prison and another for the cellar. I decided that I would first investigate this cellar for anything useful before clearing out the last remaining building.



Some ore nuggets led me to the cellar which was situated on the left side of the main building. A ladder took me down to the locked door.



I unlocked the cellar door with a key and stepped inside.



The cellar contained both the residence's supplies and the Old Camp's ore storage.





It seemed that this was a frequent target of thieves. Two sets of bones still littered the rooms. One man appeared to have been shot down in an escape attempt, while the other still laid atop the bags of ore, a sword protruding from between his ribs. I had no means of taking this ore with me and there was little else for me down here. I climbed the ladder and went back to the surface.



I made my way to the barracks, the last building I needed to clear. Another of the Ore barons stood in the barracks' main hall with his back to me. He appeared to be gazing down to the outer ring of the camp, where rioting was beginning to take place.



As I walked in he reached for his sword and turned. He ran at me without saying a word.



Scar fought desperately to maintain his way of life but I proved to be the more skilled fighter. When he fell, I drove my sword through him.

When he was dead, I reached down and picked up his sword. It was similar in design and make to a previous weapon I had used, Berserker's Word, but it was better balanced and had a sharper edge. I took it to replace Arto's weapon.



Now that the inner portion of the camp had been cleared I ventured to the outer ring. Diggers fought amongst themselves while others hid in their homes.



The first thing I noticed as I began to walk the outer path was the corpse of Baal Taran. Baal Taran was an envoy from the Sect Camp who was here distributing swampweed. When Gomez closed the camp, the outsiders must have been the first to die.



I continued walking and came across a body I did not expect to see: Herek. Herek had been one of the men to beat me when I refused Bloodwyn's offer of protection. I could only imagine what had led to his death.

As I looked over the digger's body, I realized that some of the camp's more notable guards were no where to be seen. Thorus, who had guarded the gate to the Castle, as well as Bloodwyn had not made themselves known to me. Whether they were hiding or had fled I could only guess.



The camp's market was noticeably calmer than the rest of the camp. No one ran about here swinging weapons or causing trouble. Some of the camp's shadows had been assembled here. I had no problem with the Shadows though they clearly did not know that. As I drew close they scattered.

On the ground by the campfire was another body. Baal Parvez, who had guided me to the sect camp during my first week here, laid cold on the ground.



The situation at the arena was similar. Kharim, the fighter from the New Camp, and the fighter from the sect camp had been slaughtered as they trained. They must have never expected it.



I suddenly remembered about Stone, who was being held captive in the Castle's prison, and rushed back over to the barracks. The barracks contained the only entrance to the dungeon below.



As I walked down the ramp I saw that they had stationed a guard. It was none other than Bullit, the man who had greeted me when I arrived in the colony.

"You again? I should have drowned you in the lake the moment I set eyes on you!"

I smirked. "I didn't stand a chance back then - now the tables are turned."

Bullit spit at me and drew his blade "You worm! I only hope you don't make it as easy for me as you did the first time!"



I didn't.

Bullit futilely swung at me but was unable to pierce the protections of my enchanted robe. I closed my eyes and extended my fingers out toward him. A ball of flame struck him in the chest and instantly killed him.



I pressed on through the dungeon.



I opened each cell though most contained only bones. I doubted Gomez fed his prisoners very well, if at all.



I eventually found Stone in the second to last cell. I walked toward him and he tensed up.




"What do you want?" He looked at me closer "You don't look like one of Gomez' henchmen?"

I nodded. "You're right. I'm not with Gomez."

"Then how did you get here? Gomez had the key to the dungeons..."

"He gave it to me" I said grinning.

Stone looked at me in disbelief. "Are you trying to tell me YOU'RE the guy that wiped out Gomez?"

"That's me."

"Boy, I never thought you had it in you. But I'm glad the dirty cut-throat finally got what was coming to him. Why are you releasing me?"

"I just heard that you'd been locked away and I thought I'd take the opportunity of getting Gomez out of the way and rescuing you."

"Well, thank you... I'm much obliged to you. Come and see me at the smithy. We can talk there."



I met with Stone when he was back at his forge.

"There you are. I owe you for getting me out of that rat's nest, man! You know, I was thinking: There's not much I can give you, so I'll forge something for you. Maybe a ring or some such thing..."

That sounded good to me, but first I needed to know something. "Why did they lock you in the dungeon?" I asked.

"Gomez - the bastard - claimed I was in cahoots with the fire mages. The only reason he didn't kill me is because I'm the best smith in the whole Old Camp. So he threw me into the rat's nest and only let me out when he needed me to make something for him.



I thought for a few minutes about what I could have Stone do for me. Eventually, I thought of something.

"Can you reinforce this ore armor for me?" I said, handing him the armor I'd found in Xardas' old tower.



He looked it over and nodded. "Sure I can. Hang on a minute" Stone hammered on it and made some small modifications to it and handed it back. I tried it on. It was not noticeably heavier or more bulky, but the protection it offered was even better. I was impressed.



It was now time to leave. There was nothing else I could do here and Xardas should have the formula ready by now. I returned to his tower.

Update 26 supplements: Duel with Gomez Viddler
Quick fight with Bullit Viddler
Rescuing Stone Viddler

The picture you've all been waiting for! for poorly modeled nudity Screenshot

Some other misc notes: The NPCs in the outer ring of the old camp are not actually scripted to go crazy or anything to my knowledge. Something seemed to have happened to mess up the factions (A stray arrow may have hit a digger or maybe something to do with In Extremo) so I just rolled with it.

Scar's sword is also the best 1 hander in the game.