Part 16: Act One Chapter Thirteen - The Lytha Method

We were on our way to see our new boss, Axle Devrie, in the Merchant Quarter when we ran into these jokers.





Terrible, terrible hair.





Tremmel and his thugs are no match for us.



















Elanee has made the fatal mistake of reminding Neeshka she exists. Now Neeshka is about to blow her fucking top.



What the fuck Neeshka






Neeshka tells us to visit Ophala, the owner of the Moonstone Mask, here in the Merchant Quarter.
There's a third set of thugs that have been cut from the game - Raines, who's a bit intense and threatens to strangle Neeshka with her own tail. Still, I think we've gotten the basic idea about Leldon and Neeshka by now.




The Moonstone Mask is a whorehouse - a classy whorehouse, yes, but the end results are the same. It's very sanitised and clean.

We're not as keen on this sidequest as Neeshka is - the main reason Calliope is doing this is so we don't lead any thugs to Axle's estate. Best to keep our dirty laundry separate.
Ophala and the Moonstone Mask were in NWN1, as well, although obviously it looked a little different back then. Ophala in NWN1 was blonde and fat, whereas here she's thin and dark-haired. Her model is named Sarya, for some reason - not too sure who she was originally supposed to be. Ophala's an official campaign setting character as well: she's a former adventurer, just like Lord Nasher.






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Ten gold? Is that all? Pfft. That's not even enough to buy a loaf of bread.

I'm choosing the Chaotic option here because it's funnier. Sending the girl to the Watch is boring and doesn't really make sense later on.







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Okay, this is Leldon's hideout.

There are no dogs. There are no wards.

There are, however, a ton of fighter/thieves armed with massive greatswords that Sneak Attack you for forty damage a pop.

You've got two ways of doing Leldon's hideout. These Noise Traps alert all the guards to your location.

Setting them off is the 'clumsy' way of doing it. You'll have to fight all the guards in the hideout, plus have another big battle at the end of the quest.

Real Rogues disarm them, then butcher all of Leldon's thugs.

It's tough initially, because we have limited crowd control and these guys hit like bricks. But because Elanee leveled up in the last fight, we can now cast spells like Ice Storm, which does lots of damage to lots of people in a large area.

At the end of the hideout is Leldon's treasure room.

We've got what we came for. Now we sneak out.
Sadly, this (and one other quest) is the only point in the game that you actually need a Rogue. Locks can be Knocked or broken; traps ignored. Sneak Attacks are nice, except when fighting undead, constructs or elementals - and half the time enemies just turn around to negate your flanking manoeuvre anyway.
I know top-down third-person isometric is the preferred format for most RPG players, but it's a format that really hurts the Rogue class. In tabletop D&D, Rogues (or Thieves as they were once known) have a lot more utility. With high Dexterity, they make excellent climbers and acrobats - Thief-Acrobat was in fact a dedicated Thief sub-class in early editions. While a Fighter would have to bash down a door, or a Wizard research some tunneling spell, a Rogue would always be able to climb over walls or gates or sneak in through a window or slip through a crack or something like that.
Unfortunately top-down third-person isometric games just aren't flexible enough to reflect that added utility. Rogues should be able to perform like the Prince in the newer Prince of Persia games, or like Garrett in (of course) the Thief series: using the environment to their advantage. However, they're stuck with Sneak Attacks and locks/traps skills, which in turn limits the character concepts you can have. Almost all Rogues are cutpurses, boxmen, assassins or trap-setters - the criminal (under)class of D&D, if you will. Even concepts like the private-investigator Rogue are ultimately tied to criminal activities.
I just think it's a bit of a shame, is all.












This is the cutscene we get if we successfully infiltrate Leldon's hideout. Normally Leldon would confront us immediately after stealing the coin - now, though, we're getting a showdown in the city park.
At least, that's what's supposed to happen. However, I think the game has broken a key variable and screwed everything up. More details next update!