Part 14: Haus de Hexe
Does Haus de Hexe even mean anything in german? I found something called Haus der Hexen, and that's as close as I could find.
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I've given up on Christof.
Can I just point out how stupid the Tremere look? What were they thinking with those robes?
After killing the Tremere, we'll bring our attention to this device on the ground.
This door lock that's on the floor requires 3 pieces to open the lock upstairs.
This one.
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There's also the same thing, only flipped, opposite of the lock on the door. I don't know why.
So we'll go through the three doors in the entry hall from left to right.
This kind of feels like a maze, but we soon come to a gate...
...which brings us outside.
And we soon come to a cave.
There's not much about the Gargoyle lair other than we have to fight a bunch of gargoyles. They aren't too difficult.
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If you remember, we first met Erik when we rescued him from Ardan's ritual to turn him into a Gargoyle.
Even in packs, the Gargoyles aren't difficult.
There are a couple Tremere mixed in with the Gargoyles, but other than that, there isn't much to say...
...until we get to a boss.
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Jesus Christ, Christof is like a doll with its pull string broken.
For some strange reason, the game seems to assume that the player has knowledge of who Virstania is. Here's an excerpt from the White Wolf Wiki to give some backstory.
quote:
Throughout the Dark Ages, all new Gargoyles were created by Thaumaturgical rituals enacted by Virstania in Ceoris, the Tremere clan's main chantry, which was located in Transylvania. Virstania, the Mother of Gargoyles, genuinely cared for her creations, and favored them over Kindred and kine alike — even over other members of House and Clan Tremere. During the Anarch Revolt, she led her "children" in a revolt in Ceoris; the Gargoyles slew many Tremere, and Virstania committed diablerie on Ceoris's castellan, Curaferrum. With Ceoris damaged and compromised by the revolt, the clan was forced to move their base of operations (and Tremere's haven) to Etrius' chantry in Vienna. Within a century, Ceoris was entirely abandoned, and by the time of the modern nights nothing but ruins would remain.
Here's some more backstory I found from a blog.
quote:
Virstania was the youngest apprentice in the Tremere order to earn the rank of mage. But because she was so young she was not able to form friendships with the other magi, who saw her more as a curiosity than a colleague. Instead she turned to creating her own companions and made several constructs she kept as pets.
After one of them escaped her lair and caused a stir in the servant girls quarters. Goratrix found the creature and believed Virstania was ripe to aid him in his next project. Virstania was Embraced and after a year of tutoring at Goratrix’s side, she was put to work hatching the first of the Gargoyles. She bathed them in unwavering love and they responded to her as baby chicks to their mother.
When Goratrix was exiled to Paris in 1133, Virstania felt she had lost her only friend. She retreated to a cave near Ceoris and continued her work to perfect the Gargoyle race. As the years passed, Virstania has come to care more for her creations than her fellow Tremere. She hoped to someday make them an independent race of their own, one that both magi and Kindred will fear.
When the Gargoyles finally went rogue, they look Virstania with them to teach them Thaumaturgy and care for their needs.
She also had a trading card in the Vampire: the Eternal Struggle card game.
Boss fight!
Anyway, Virstania isn't too difficult. She's got some powerful spells, but she seems to have almost no resistance to melee damage.
She also has a gargoyle to back her up, but it isn't any different from the other countless gargoyles we've killed to get here.
After grabbing one of the pieces we need for the door lock, we'll use this teleportation thing to get back to the main hall.
One down, two to go.
The Tremere love to cast beckoning and spawn those little frogs.
Every room in the laboratory looks almost identical.
Except this one.
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Well, he doesn't seem to mind Serena at all.
This is an item I found sitting on that apparatus in the room, but it doesn't seem to do anything when activated.
Instead of variety in gameplay, they went for variety in enemy color.
There are a few traps, but they aren't very dangerous.
Christof is going to be the most powerful vampire ever if this keeps up.
The last fight in the laboratory is with two Tremere lords, and it is a fairly difficult fight, due to the powerful spells the Tremere like to cast.
Those gold bars in our quickslot serve no purpose other than we can sell them for money.
I fucking hate this part of the dungeon.
All the fights are really hard. It just seems like the Tremere in the library are a lot more aggressive and cast more powerful spells than the ones in the laboratory and gargoyle lair.
A big reason for the difficulty is that now Tremere Lords are mixed in with the lesser Tremere.
There's fire storm in action.
The linear layout forces us to descend this big staircase.
Let's check out the items on the table after dispersing with these Tremere.
The berserker fang is a pretty good weapon, but the low accuracy causes a lot of misses.
It makes the equipped character look like they're punching the enemy.
We're finally at the bottom of the staircase.
I found this armor in a chest. It's equal with studded leather in every stat, except it gives +10 to faith resistance, which regular studded leather lacks entirely.
The last fight of the library is with three Tremere lords. Very difficult when taking all three head on, but we can draw the Tremere on the left and right to us without alerting the middle Tremere.
Then we'll deal with the middle one.
Time to head back.
Upstairs we go.
As soon as we pick up the journal...
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Maybe there should be a counter for how many times Christof says that.
Then I'll just keep asking you until you go fucking crazy.
But he has a full head of hair!
Uh...
Boss fight!
Gargoyle Erik packs a punch. His direct attacks will kill any character in our party with two or three hits. Fortunately, he goes down fast.
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2nd stage of the boss fight!
Etrius starts off by summoning an elemental, which, as previously demonstrated, is pretty tough.
After taking care of the elemental, he just likes to suck on Wilhem's neck. In other attempts, he liked to cast Call Lightning and other powerful spells, but here, he just had a irresistible attraction to Wilhem. We just need to hit him enough, and he goes down.
Watch Etrius clip the mic.
Here's some backstory after you kicked my ass.
If you don't want to be involved in vampire schemes, stop going out of your way to get involved in them!
Mine certainly doesn't.
Chrisof now has access to Blood Rituals.
One dot in Theft of Vitae, one dot in Heart of Stone, ten points in strength, six points in dexterity, five points in stamina, eleven points in wits.
One dot in Blood Healing, one dot in Potence, two dots in Celerity, one dot in Feral Claws, two dots in Awe, one dot in Dread Gaze, ten points in dexterity, five points in stamina, two points in intelligence.
Serena now has access to Hands of Destruction.
One dot in Fire Storm, one dot in Summon Soul, one dot in Decay, one dot in Acidic Touch, one dot in Blood Healing, one dot in Fortitude, two points in Plague Wind, ten points in dexterity, seven points in stamina.
Time to head back to Prague. Remember that promise we made to Orvus about bringing the journal back? Turns out the designers forgot about that.
Let's take the short way back.
Well, now that Erik is dead, we might have some trouble with the werewolves on the way back to Prague. Stay tuned.