Part 28: Update XXIV - The Same Thing We Do Every Night, Valnar

Update XXIV - The Same Thing We Do Every Night, Valnar



♪ BGM: Bad Night Story - vamp9.mid ♫

So, we're back with a grandpa segment, and Simon seems to have some questions, or at least wants to recap a bit, which I guess can't be a bad thing.

everything correctly so far.
Of course, Simon...
When Elras die, they become Shadow Wraiths. Those are able to take over any kind of host.
Exactly.
They consume souls for their spells. And the Shadow Wraith inside of Asgar has used up all of his powers completely, in order to change the world with a powerful spell. He didn't destroy the world, though, he only shifted it. And now, it looks exactly the way it was during the times when Sir Aaron and Asmos lived. When the stone tablet got destroyed.
Yes, however, the world already looked like that when the stone tablet hadn't even been created yet. Look here...



Now pay attention, there will be a quiz later.







Right, right, up until this point, I get everything.



by Asgar, or rather the Shadow Wraith that was controlling him.
Of course I remember that, Grandpa!
All right, all right. So, the world had shifted now. Continents were moved. Mountains rose from the sea, land got flooded. Basically everything changed in the blink of an eye.
So the Elras wanted to make the world look exactly the way it used to a long time ago?
Yes. Or more specifically, they wanted it to turn back to the way it was during the times when the Elras were still powerful. But the spell of the world shifting wasn't accurate enough, and thus the world shifted into the way it was when the Clan of Holy Warriors had taken the stone fragments in their possession. That was about this time.



But the world, however, now looked like it did back then...



Correct. The Crusade, led by Vincent Weynard, took place roughly 400 years before Valnar's transformation into a vampire. Around here...



like it did at the time when Valnar became a vampire.



You are absolutely correct, Simon.
But that would mean that the world has been shifted during that timeframe, as well.



Therefore, a world shifting must have occurred there, as well.
Oh, I can see that you are really wide awake, and that you are following my story very closely. I'm glad.
So, how did it come to the first world shifting?
Now don't be so impatiend. All in due time. How it came to that is something you're going to find out eventually.
Fine. But what about that guy Jinnai, anyway? He did save Valnar and Alaine, after all. But why?
Well, he, too, has his goals in this story...
Yes, yes, all in due time, right?
Right...
Okay, so the Elras definitely wanted to get back the stone tablet pieces, in order to reassemble them. So they can cast the spell that was written on the tablet.
Yes, that was the goal they were pursuing now.
Couldn't they just take a new stone tablet and write the spell on that one?
No.
No? That's not a satisfying answer, Grandpa!
Hehe, yes, this story, too, is still full of unanswered questions. But you will get the answers for them.
And what kind of spell was that on the stone tablet, anyway?
Who knows, who knows...
Oh, Grandpa! You are unbelievable!
It's best if I just continue the story... well then, Nyria sailed off with the ship, hoping that she will be able to get help for Asmos quick enough. In the meantime, Valnar, Asgar and Alaine were planning their next move...



♪ BGM: Mesdor - cairiel.mid ♫

I guess we won't get past the guards.
Oh, so now this Jinnai is also your lord and master who can command over you however he pleases, Sir Valnar...
Why did we take you with us again!?
Are you trying to start a fight with me!?
Wouldn't be the first time that I'd be cutting your head off!
Stop it! Enough! We have to stick together if we want to accomplish anything! I think Valnar's suggestion is the most reasonable for now. We won't get anywhere by staying here...
Fine. Let's see if your messiah can help us.

And as soon as we've entered Mesdor, we leave it again.



♪ BGM: A Truth Revealed - WraithTouch.mid ♫

Asgar's castle is a fair bit away, so we're going to have to do some trekking to get there.



En route there, we run into some stuff to fight. They don't really pose much of a threat, though. I think the random battles on the overworld are what the "more battles" option we picked at the beginning of the game increases - everything else is left the same. However, that might turn out to be wrong some time down the line.



♪ BGM: Asgar's Castle - blood009.mid ♫

With nothing much happening on the way, we make it back to Asgar's castle. And what does that mean?



More weird e-mails from Marlex!

was always teleported out by the skeletons' mumbo jumbo. On the other hand I was cursed by your awesome developer skills, so that I still had to play through the demo tonight. I now wait in great anticipation for the full version of the game. But now it is half past four and it will be all your fault if I oversleep and possibly miss new years eve. But the game made it all worth it and now I will go to bed and rest in peace. Thanks for your games.
Sadly, I don't even know if I was really responsible for your oversleeping at new years eve

Hello Marlex, I wanted to Ask you where I can get the license for your game Vampires Dawn from or if I even need one. I'm asking because I want to install your game on a school computer, but only my teacher can do that. He needs the license first, though. Please answer me quickly, also please continue to enjoy making games.
I think that, especially in class, you can use VD very well as illustrative material. I believe "Vampires Dawn" should really be a mandatory teaching subject

Hello first of all and thank you for making such a wicked game as vampire Dawn!! i never had more fun at the computer!!! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! anyway i wanted to know if VD2 will also be on a Screenfun CD because downloading it with a 56k modem would take years!!!? Well anyway... i would really like to know what you're doing all day i mean the guy who invented vD must either be some kind of 2.Einstein or something like a superman or so!!
No, I'm plain and simply just a powerful vampire lord, HARHAR! But thanks for the compliment

For reference, the "Screenfun" thing is referring to a German magazine called Bravo Screenfun, which was a gaming magazine that came out from 1997 to 2009. It was a big part of the German RPG Maker Renaissance by having a lot of RPG Maker games on the CDs and later DVDs that came bundled with the magazine - a move which, in retrospect, must have been *really* questionable from a copyright point of view, given how fast and loose RPG Maker games generally play with that whole "copyright infringement" thing. Also, to answer the question of "will VD2 be on a Screenfun CD":



The answer is yes! I still have the disc!



And the autorun still fires up just fine!



And there it is: Vampires Dawn 2, given billing as a "top game". Note that this is the second of two CDs that came with the magazine - the other one had a MotoGP game. ...man, it's been over thirteen years since that CD came out. Well, let's get back to these wonderful e-mails.

Hi I need your help I don't know ifthese codes work if they don't couldyou send me the correct codes thanks
Turn all skeletons into humans: When you are at the graveyrd in Asgar's castle, transform into a wolf, then talk to every grave once and enter the following via keyboard "RHAB LECRAM". You have to do all that before you transform back...
Invincible + spells: In the middle of the game, you have to enter "you little rapper22", then you are invulnerable (God) and you have unlimited blood!!! If you want to unlock all spells, enter "need getto" during the game!!!
2000 kilo silver: During the game, enter "essen"!! (without "")
Unfortunately, you have fallen prey to a hoax. The correct cheat codes are: NOTHING, THEREARENOCHEATS and IFTHEREISNOTHINGTHEREWILLBENOTHING. However, this obviously only applies to Vampires Dawn 1

Oh man, the wonderful times of fake cheat codes. Now all we need is some sort of nude code for Alaine to really top things off. And maybe a code to revive Aysha and have her join your party.

Hi you wrote on your homepage that you need to play through 200 hours in VD2 in order to beat it and you can see xxx pictures...... is that true????
Yes, that is correct. Before you can see Alaine naked, however, you first have to copy an "Access Tool" into the VD2 directory. It's free, though. Yeah, honestly!

Alright, that's enough for now, I don't think we're going to top that for a bit. Let's head back to Jinnai and see what he has to say. Nothing suspicious, I'm sure.



until we got to a town that seemed to have been adjacent to a river. There were too many guards we weren't able to pass by.
Then it seems you were in Mesdor. I thought the hideout of the thieves might be there. There is a large sewer system underneath the town. The thief is probably hiding there.
I wonder how he was able to sneak past the guards.
I'm sure he knows a few secret passages. At any rate, you have to conquer Castle Wharis next. Because the guards in Mesdor belong to the soldiers of Castle Wharis. If you attack the castle, the guards in Mesdor will rush over to help the soldiers in Castle Wharis. Then you can kill them all at once there.
And how are we going to do that?
You should ally yourselves with the mercenaries first. I provided the necessary money. From now on, you will receive constant tax income. The money is stored in this tower on the first floor. You can collect it there. I will now show you how you can conquer other castles. We'll meet on the second floor of the castle...

And then Jinnai just teleports away, as is his wont. Let's see what he's got in store for us.



With the help of this map, you can order your soldiers to attack other castles.



here.

The castle in the middle flashes in a barely noticeable way.

MY castle...
Yes, whatever you say. On the bottom right, you can find the display of the troops on standby. Those are all the unity that are currently not stationed at any castle. I will, however, make sure that every soldier that stays on standby gets stationed here at this castle, so that they're not standing around pointlessly. You should therefore use standby in order to move around your troops between the castles, so that you can distribute your defenses or attack another castle. To do that, first you have to press "Enter" while selecting the castle you want to move your troops from. By doing that, the unit selection menu pops up. By pressing the "left" or "right" key you can select the unit type that you want to move. If you press the "up" or "down" key, you can put the troops on standby, or move them from standby to a castle. So if you wish to attack a castle, you first have to put some of your soldiers on standby, and then move them from standby to the castle you wish to attack. If you wish to leave this screen, just press the "ESC" key. The territories are highlighted in the color of their owners. If you control the castle, then you own the corresponding territory and its capital city, which will then grant you tax income. Your territories are red, the Clan of Holy Warriors controls the yellow territories, and the Elras control the black territories.



And thus, we are dropped into the "grand strategy" part of the game. I bet you didn't expect this! So, a major part of opening up the map for exploration is going to be conquering all the different castles. However, before we can do that, we need an army, so those mercenaries are probably something we should check out in the near future.



In every castle, there is a piece of the stone tablet that you need to get your hands on. You should take Castle Wharis first, so you will be able to look for the thief in Mesdor. Hire mercenaries or transform a few humans into vampires in order to have soldiers to fight and conquer the castles. However, you shouldn't wipe out the city population completely, since every inhabitant can only pay taxes when they're alive, obviously. And make sure you don't lose the castles you conquered to your enemies again. That will only make the population nervous and unsettled, and you will receive less taxes. You can reduce the unrest in the population by helping the citizens with their problems.
But why don't we just attack the cities directly? Then we wouldn't have to fight that many enemies at once.
And thereby instill fright and terror into the population?
Oh, that sounds promising!
But then we would lose the support of the population. A tyranny only leads to riots.
And razing cities to the ground isn't a reasonable solution, either. It's best if you just take over the castles, then the population will pay their taxes. It doesn't matter who they have to give their money, as long as they can live in peace.
Alright, then let's get the castles and with them the stone fragments.
As in every castle of the Clan of Holy Warriors, there is a vault here somewhere, too, where they Clan has hidden a piece of the stone tablet. The entrance to this vault should be inside the small house east from this tower. Look for the entrance there, and get the stone fragment. When we have all the stone fragments, we can finally turn this world back to normal.
Fine, then let's search for the entrance now.

Nah. Marlex has kindly provided recommended levels for the different maps, and the dungeon in this castle has a recommended level of 15. We, as you might remember, are hovering around level 2~3. We would get shredded to tiny, blood-sucking bits down there.

Also take a look around the 4th floor of this tower. I will prepare a few things for you there that will be useful to you!

We will definitely be checking that out as well.



What is it, Ronak?
Please, Master! Can I take care of this? I want to help you! Let me evaluate the conquests!
YOU? Forget it, you can't even clean properly!
PLEASE, MASTER!
You're doing everything wrong anyway, Ronak!
Just let him do it! He can't break anything here anyway.
He can, like this map here for example...
Oh, Asgar. Don't be so strict with him.
How could I ever reject your wishes...
...
All right, Ronak. Then keep us up to date...
THANK YOU, MASTER! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
It's all right. Don't you dare screw something up!
Never, Master!



It's fine, everything's still in one piece. Off we go then...
I will tell Ronak about every relevant occurrence. Now, I am going to take a look and see what the Clan is up to. Perhaps I can find something out. Oh, one more thing. Here you have a Retreat rune tablet. With this, one of you can learn the spell "Retreat", which will allow you to return to this castle, and then back to the place you were when you used the spell originally.
How about some more powerful "rune tablets"? That wouldn't hurt.
Get the runes from the thief in Mesdor and I will explain to you how you can create and use them yourselves!
Rune Tablet: Retreat received!
Your first tax collection will arrive soon. I will position a skeleton in front of the treasury on the first floor of this tower. You can collect your Filar by talking to it. On the first floor of this tower, there is also a Recruitment Room. That's where you can fill your group with the vampires or mercenaries that are stationed at this castle.

And once more, Jinnai just teleports away. He's starting to get annoying with that.



Yeah, right...
The Magic Chamber now contains lots of instructions for all elements of this game!

Alright, so that's our introduction to the world conquering minigame. Next time, we'll take a look at some more RPG Maker stuff, and after that, we'll have even more tutorial stuff dumped on us!