The Let's Play Archive

The Age of Decadence

by rudecyrus

Part 41: The temple of Thor-Agoth

Part XLI: The temple of Thor-Agoth


Soundtrack: Temple

We made it. We're finally at Agathoth's temple. Once you make it here, there's no going back, so be sure you've finished everything you want to do.







It's impressive, that's for sure.



Nowhere to go but down...



The platform in front of us is an elevator, but let's hold off on that.



Looks like people lived here.



Damn it! No forbidden knowledge here.



Like the other consoles we found, this one needs 8 INT and 10 Lore to utilize.









Bad decisions on top of bad decisions.



Using the elevator brings us down another level.



Hey, I have a suit just like that!



A trio of constructs guard this platform.



Methinks it's a bad idea to touch this at the moment.



Crafting it is.





Hooray! We can remove the plates, but let's hold off.



Opposite the constructs is this door.



AAAAH!





I disagree about "no cognitive damage."



Any option is fine, but let's go with the first one.

: Duty.



Unfortunately, neither option will work for us.



Crap. It's okay, we can figure it out ourselves.





The plates over the elevator have withdrawn. Apparently, the function of that guy is to use this console and nothing else. Talk about an easy job...







A shitty life support system.



This door needs a 7 or 8 in Lockpick to open (I forget), and the lockbox (which is trapped) contains sky metal.



Oh no, it's like the tank in the Abyss...



UGH



The lockbox in this room holds this potion. Seems like a poor trade-off to me.

By the way, there are a pair of locked doors on this floor leading to rooms that are totally empty. Game design!



Alright, time to use the elevator.



We're at the bottom of the ziggurat. The place looks suitably ominous.



Another tablet like the one under Saross.







Let's recap everything we know:

Long ago, the Qantari Servants (their Magi) made contact with the Elder Gods, extradimensional beings of unfathomable power. The Qantari wanted to bring them to our plane of existence but couldn't, so they made a deal with the Magi, who built machines that could capture the "essence" of the Gods in human vessels. The Magi, being the hubristic wizards they were, created wards to control the Gods in their human forms. The Qantari unraveled these bindings -- whether they did so of their own free will or because they were manipulated by the Gods is up for debate. Naturally, the Gods (Balzaar and three others) start nuking everything and the Great War begins. The Magi bring Agathoth to our realm so he can build machines to destroy the Gods. The Old Empire fights the Gods, the Qantari fight the Empire, the Gods fight each other, everything is wrecked, countless people die, land is devastated, all that good stuff. The Magi triumph and try to reverse the ritual so Agathoth can be banished from this plane, but those that worked with him have become enthralled, so a civil war starts, Agathoth gets entombed beneath the ziggurat, Magi are wiped out, centuries pass, history becomes legend, which brings us to the present day.

In short, a fuckup of cosmic proportions.



Opposite the elevator is another one of these weird rooms.





Of course we're going to mess with it.



We could overload the generator and destroy the temple, but even Octavia's 9 Lore and 8 Crafting isn't enough to prevent death. Oh well.

Besides, where's the fun in that?







We have the medical canister full of expired whatever-it-is from the medical facility. We could use it.

We're not going to use it.





The game gives you one last out. We can get on the elevator and tell Gaelius the temple is just a myth and Agathoth stays buried here.

Yes, we're really opening the sarcophagus.



changed my mind close it close it



It's Agathoth himself, ol' squid-face in the flesh. Chitin. Whatever.





: Petty men lording over pitiful city-states.



Oooh, pick me! I'll be your bestest friend forever!

: Use *me*, Lord! I'm your most devoted servant.



Heeeeeeyy!



For ancient, unknowable beings of astronomical power, these Gods have strangely human emotions.

: What do you mean?







I don't like this. Let's backtrack here.



If we're going to fight Agathoth -- because, let's face it, who doesn't want to fight a god? -- we need to weaken him first.



He's not happy.


Soundtrack: Agathoth Combat

Using the canister knocks 25 hp off Agathoth's health, which still leaves him with 100. More importantly, it raises our To-Hit Chance. I'd recommend using the bomb from Hellgate, because it deals a ton of damage. Agathoth uses his first turn to kind of stare in shock like he can't believe you damaged him, so take advantage of that.



After that, all bets are off. Usually, he starts by doing this psychic attack that bypasses your armor and lowers AP. Neurostimulants are super important in this battle.



Then he performs this annoying smack-you-across-the-room attack, so now you have to waste AP to get closer. By the way, even if you have good THC there's a significant chance he'll block your attacks with a psychic shield.



Oh, I neglected to mention there's a time limit. As the fight goes on, Agathoth starts attacking multiple times per turn and your THC plummets. After that, he'll smack you with his tentacles which REALLY hurt and inflict poison.



Prick.

Death Count: 68

I stopped fucking around on the second fight and threw what I had left at him. A few bombs and a shitload of neurostimulants later...



HA! All-powerful god my ass!



Damn right it does.





Hell yes! Finally, our hard work pays off.



Eh, maybe letting the Guardian go free was a bad idea.





Backwards assholes gonna be backwards assholes.



Dial it back a bit, Gaelius.



Most importantly, Feng keeps on being Feng.

And that's the end. There are a number of variations to the slides, but showing them all would take too much time. I encourage you to pick up the game and play it for yourself if you want to see absolutely everything. Arguably, we got the "best" ending -- the land is united once more, the Gods can't interfere and we've secured ourselves an important position in the new empire. Stay tuned, because I plan to finish the other playthroughs so we can see what happens.

Next Time: Always a servant