My Sexy Skill Has Increased! Let's Play A Dance with Rogues

I have a Vostro 1510, inherited from my brother. No idea on the price, but I'd guess it is from around 08' or so? I can't run Minecraft on anything more than tiny. But then again... Minecraft.

Mmkay, thanks for your help, guys.

Looking at the specs, you should be fine as far as CPU and RAM. GPU, I dunno, integrated video chips are scary. Worth a shot, presuming you're not going to have to spend an exorbitant amount of money to get a copy of the game.

My graphic card is... surprisingly nice. It allows me to play quite a bit of games that I thought were out of my league, unless they are too badly done and require more than it is reasonable for them to.

Goddamned Minecraft.

Okay, I'll get my hands on the game if I can and then I'll just type in a godmode cheat and squint if I see cobwebs. Best plan is best.

I've already done that a couple times. Some of these difficulty spikes are absurd, and there's no indication whether I'm tackling something above my level or the designer is just a sadist*

*The module's non-combat content indicates the latter, of course. Well, not just a sadist, but still.

I got super frustrated with combat the first time I played. But having played through Part 1 about 3 1/2 times now, I can safely say that in most cases, if you can't win a fight, it means you're doing something wrong. (In the cases where this is not true, you can probably have sex to avoid the fight, or just sneak around it.) Mostly you have to remember to make good use of your potions, traps, scrolls, and limited use items; use hit and run tactics; and make sure you take the feats Dodge, Mobility, and Spring Attack as soon as possible to avoid taking damage from attacks of opportunity when you're trying to run away.

Also, you should definitely install the henchman AI portion of this mod to prevent your followers from doing stupid things (but DO NOT install the enemy AI portions, as it messes with ADWR's scripts very badly).

ALSO FUCK PART 2.
JUST SAYING.

fuckin balrogs fuckin swarming me had to cheat to kill them all and revive everyone, then had to save + reload because using debugmode makes the module run the risk of not functioning properly fuckin balrogs

This has been my experience with Vico as of now, and I am almost done with the game:

"AUGH WHAT NO WHAT"
"why are you such an asshole i don't understand"
"i am going to piss on your grave"
"oh. well you said sorry and you aren't being a cunt as much now so i guess i can kind of be a little less unha-"
"NOPE."
"NNNOPE."
"aww a nice mom- NOPE
"NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE"


It's like this son of a bitch can't fucking decide if he wants to be nice or a little shithead
My character is scared and so he hugs her. Aww, how sweet. And then he jokes and says the zombies are gonna rape her and pats her butt.

doing it for the extra events
extra events
i'm almost done i can do this

YOU SEE, GUYS?

YOU SEE WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO MAKE ME DO???

it would be amusing in the "watch the masses squirm (more than they already are)" way, if anything.

That, and this is Broken Forum, where suffering is (for the most part) just another form of amusement.

All my not-contagiously-sick hugs for you, Mul. :'(

And for Nerys, if she ends up having to go through... that, for the audience's sake.

Is it wrong that whenever someone mentions something awful, I kinda laugh now? I think I'm incapable of taking this mod seriously. Because really: horny dogs? Zombie rape?

Or maybe ADWR just broke my brain. And I'm not even playing it.

Guuuuuuuurrrrlllll just wait.
just wait.

We head out of town.



We're deep in the woods when they suddenly attack.





"Please don't blame yourself. Who could have known that they're cold-blooded murderers."

"Well, they paid the price. Dearly. But we're not a single step closer to getting home."

We follow the road to a dead end, then turn back and follow another one.



The road is full of wolves. I remember Anden said that it was unusual for wild creatures to be so close to the road. They must be starving out here, in the dead of winter.

After a few hours' travel, we come across a small cottage.



"Okay. Hold it right there."

"Is that the way you welcome travelers into your home?"

"Just bein' careful." He eyes us briefly. "Whores, huh? From the Ice Princess, I take it."

"We're travelers."

"Too bad. I might have even looked you up. What do you want?"

"We're headed for the Pass of the Raven. Is this the right way?"

"Yeah, I guess. But you won't get anywhere. Snow's over fifteen feet deep already. And it's the dragons' season. They come out once the mountains are deserted by mankind. Who's to say what a hungry one might think should it spot such a delicious bite like you two."

We press on anyway. Dragons are a myth, right?

"We fight them, and if we're lucky we kill them."

"Most likely he was just saying that to scare us."

"What do you know about dragons, Pia?"





"I wouldn't mind finding a large treasure."

"Me either. But... The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that the people who've made up those stories have seen creatures like the ice wyrm we've fought, and turned them into dragons. I mean, an ice wyrm is a dangerous thing, but in the end it's just a giant serpent. And nothing magical about it." She looks at me. "Ice wyrms or not, I won't allow anybody to lay hands on you. I'd rather die, if necessary."

"Nobody's going to die, Pia."

Especially not for me.

We trudge through the snow for a few more hours, further up into the mountains.





"That definitely was no ice wyrm!"



"It's probably best if we stay under the trees while we're up here. That way we cannot be attacked from above."



Dragons. I never would have thought... Even if we can find a way over the pass, I'm not sure we could survive out here for much longer. Maybe we should just head back. We can wait out the winter in town. I don't want to abandon Betancuria, the Family... I just don't see what else we can do right now.

There's a cave nearby, sheltered from the snow, where we can rest for a few hours.



After we clear out the inhabitants, that is.

At closer glance, it's clear that this was an abandoned mine. We start exploring.



There's a body in rusted, old armor. It must have been here for a while.



The bodies of his companions are still there, too, once we clear away the rock.

You need explosives to do this. Explosives are great, in that they make big fiery explosions and let you get through blocked tunnels. They're awful in that your companions are always TOO STUPID TO MOVE OUT OF THE WAY.

One of the corpses is clutching a metal rod. I can tell it's magical, but nothing beyond that. Pia examines it for me.



"Holy shit! Are you sure?"

"Yes! We should take good care of this rod. Imagine what we could do with it!" She giggles. "Oh my. That sounded kind of naughty."

The tunnel leads to a large room.



"Looks like that dragon is long dead. I know I should be glad that it's not a danger to us anymore, but somehow, I can't help but feel disappointed. I mean, this is just a pile of bones... No treasure either. No damsel in distress. Nothing."

"Let's not forget that there's another dragon out there, and that one seemed pretty much alive."

"I'd like to go back to the city. It's getting a bit cold up here."

We rest for the night, then travel back to Ravenstown. There's no sign of the dragon, or of a way home.

There's not much to explore around town. A few shops, the Ice Princess, a small graveyard. An old mill, locked up for the winter.



We hide as soon as we hear voices.



That's Claile and Terek, from Ravenstower! I suddenly remember the note I found at the Ice Princess, about a rendezvous at the Mill. I guess that was them.

"Truth be told, I'm still worried because of Lady Dana..."

"He'll take care of her. Soon. But we must be careful. People might get suspicious if Dana and your husband have accidents just after the old Baron died. You're already the Baronesse."

"Only in name, for as long as my husband remains alive."

"I'll take care of him. Trust me. I already got the old Baron for you, didn't I?"

They plan to bring Pia and me back to the castle, to blame the other murders on us. We'd never get out of that alive. We need to do something, warn someone...

"We should go back to the castle."

"I wish there was another way but the one through the crypt."

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I hope you got your money back from the corpseguides.

...If that wand gets used up on who I think the plot's gonna make you use it on I will shit so many bricks. Caron's probably past revival anyhow, but still. Damn. What an emotional kick in the teeth.

I was wondering about that too. They didn't spend it all that quickly, did they?

Also, I probably should have mentioned it earlier but I'm glad that god moding wizard bounty hunter is dead. He was annoying me with his tendency to show up out of nowhere and capture you whenever he felt like it. I'm surprised he didn't use the same spell when you actually fought him (Or maybe he did but it had a shorter duration). Of course, he had to inconvenience you one last time by sending you to the middle of nowhere...

They actually never take it, since I agreed to pay them when we get over the pass. But I actually had about 50,000 gold at that point, plus that much again in equipment I hadn't sold, so it wouldn't have been a big deal. This is around the point of the game where you go from scrounging for money to becoming richer than most small countries, even if you pump hundreds of thousands of gold into armor upgrades for your whole party over the course of Part 2.

We manage to convince the guard that we're not thieves. He lets us in to "pay our respects."



There's a secret door that leads us to where the Baron is entombed.





I try to open the door to the castle, but it's magically warded. Only a Ravenstower can open it.

And I have just the thing for that. Damn it.



I eye him warily. The Rod of Resurrection worked, I think. I've never seen anyone raised from the dead before.

"Careful please, Riona. Maybe he doesn't understand where he is, or who we are."

"You... I know you! You..." He studies me, though his eyes seem to have trouble focusing. "You're the bard's friend!"

"I'm here, too."

"Where am I? What happened?

"You died."

The Baron shakes his head.

"It's all such a blur... I remember dying, yet I live... Are you a cleric? Did Terek hire you to heal me?"

"It was him who killed you in your bedroom, probably by means of a nasty spell."



"Dana would never allow that!"

"They intend to kill Dana as well. With the help of Castias."

"I must hear what Terek and Claile have to say about this. Right away. And you'll accompany me."

"Only because you've asked so nicely."

The Baron says he'll help us get home if we can get to the bottom of this thing with Terek. I don't entirely trust him, but at least he owes us a great debt. I don't think he'll try to take advantage of us anymore.

And then I realized that I forgot to loot the other coffins before the Baron joined my party. I tried doing it afterwards, but then he called me a cunt and threatened to cut my hands off, so I reloaded in case getting on his bad side messed something up later on. I hope there wasn't anything good in there.

I'll also note that this quest line is poorly designed and poorly railroaded. It's easy to do things in the wrong order, in which case the quest becomes "find the Baron's tomb, then wander around in the wilderness until you just happen to accidentally find the plot-critical quest item you need to open the plot-critical, arbitrarily locked door."

The Baron opens the door for us. There's a body right there on the floor.









"Welcome back to the living, Lady Dana."

"What in the name of the Gods happened here?"

"It was Castias... He said he had important news about your death, and that he wanted to show me something... He attacked me from behind..." She gasps at Baron Ravenstower. "M'lord! Your'e alive!"

"Thanks to them, we both are." The Baron points at Pia and me.

"We owe you a great deal, then."



"So that is why Castias..." She slowly shakes her head.

"We must confront him at once!"

"We'd best be prepared for battle... Can you fight, M'lord?"

"I'll be fine. How about you?"

"Do not worry about me, please."

"Alright. I'm curious what these traitors will do now that we have returned from the dead."

I never thought I'd truly have to fight a dragon. Thank goodness we had a dragon on our side, too, or I might not have survived to tell the tale.

Although I hope Pia would have raised me, now that we can do that sort of thing.

I am SO MAD I did not get any good screenshots of this battle, you have no idea. It's super tough and chaotic and looks pretty cool from overhead and there are TWO DRAGONS, I mean, come on! That's the last time I pay attention to Not Dying.*

* This is not true in the slightest.



"I don't think I want to be caught between two quarreling dragons ever again."

"As much as I hate killing people... I think it is a good thing that Terek is dead."

"This should put an end to his and Claile's scheming."

"Yes. I'd say the Baron owes us TWO biiiiig favors now."



"You have done the Barony a great service. Both of you."

"It, uhm, was our pleasure to help." Pia eyes the dragon warily.

"I always suspected Claile wasn't true to her husband. Poor Timin." She sadly shakes her head. "I still cannot believe Castias would take part in this conspiracy..."

"It has not been a good day. For all of us."

"Yet we live. We are fortunate that these girls were sent to us."

"That may be so, but I haven't forgotten what has happened in my bedroom."



Oh, thank goodness. We need to get out of here, before the Baron gets any other ideas.

"Yes, I thought that flight would never end."

Not that it isn't the best way to travel. Just seeing how tiny the land looks from high up in the air, it felt... powerful. Like I'm in charge of a kingdom again.



"Pia!"

"Seriously, I am very, very grateful for what you've done for me, Riona." She smiles. "Well, let's go and visit Alfons. I'm sure he's been missing us."

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Is it bad that I've played through these sections so much, I've memorized how the story goes?
I think it's bad.

I think it's bad because this section is bad. Other than the dragon fight; that's pretty awesome once you figure out how not to die. (It took two playthroughs for me to realize you can recruit the guards hanging around outside to join your party.)

Why have you played through this section in particular so much, though?

No, I mean I've played the entire game up to Orc Camp a bunch of times.
I have a save file for every romance route, you see. And I have to keep them all up with each other because I don't want to slog through the whole game, beat it, then load up another file, go through the same like six chapters, beat the game, etc. I like to keep all of my files close in story. C:

OIC. Yeah, I don't have the patience for that. Closest I got was using DebugMode to change romance variables and see if Anden's romance was worth bothering (spoilers: probably not).

(SPOILERS: it's not he's a little poop butt.)

Ah, that reminds me. I'm level 7 and if I'm able to locate another +12 thieves' tool I'll be able to liberate a modest sum of money, not exceeding 45,000 pieces of gold. Suggestions for worthwhile expenditures? I have a +2 longsword, but all my other gear is unremarkable.

Go to the Betancuria Academy and get some rods, wands, and scrolls. Most of your good gear you'll find instead of buy, so I wouldn't worry too much about that. Although, if you don't find one, buy a weapon with some kind of sleep, stun, or fear effect (check out the guy in the hideout and the guy who sells exotic weapons in Western Betancuria).

So, in case you guys were curious about that armor you find in the brothel...

"It's quite the story. I have to thank Riona. I owe her my life." Pia tells him what happened at the Academy, at Castle Ravenstower and after Baron Ravenstower's death.

"Wow, you two are really amazing!"

Alfons doesn't even look grumpy. That's definitely new.

"Well, take some off and rest. But Riona, Nathan wants to see you. He's been worried as well."



"Sure, sounds like a nice idea."

"But before we're off, I have something for you. A gift for rescuing me."



More regeneration is always good.

"Hello Anden."

Of course I wouldn't forget. It's good to see him again. I introduce him to Pia and tell her how we met.



Pia, you are the last person in this game with the right to make fun of someone else for getting captured and needing rescuing. Also I am not romancing you, so stop acting jealous.

"And who would you be, Miss Pompous?"

"This is Pia. She's a friend of mine."



"Careful, Pia."

She winks. Anden blushes and averts his gaze. He turns back to me.

"I... I have been looking for you... Truth be told, I wanted to see you again. You're pretty hard to find, you know that?"

"I was away for a while..."

"After all you've done for me, I could at least invite you for a nice meal. Both of you, of course."







Oh, no...

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Thank gawd. That would have the most awkward date ever.

So what you're saying is that I should have more than zero (0) points in Use Magic Device. Oops.

No wonder you're dying.

I hear fighting upstairs. Master Nathan and the others -- I hope they're all right...



Not if I have anything to say about it.





"We have to tell Alfons immediately."

"Shouldn't we try to get up to Master Nathan's room to see if we can help?"



We escape through the trap door to the sewers and head back to the hideout. Before we can tell Alfons what happened, he goes off in a rage.



"You do know that rangers uphold the law and all?"

I was going to ask if he's confusing rangers with paladins, but then I remembered Christano. I think it's just safe to say that alignment in ADWR doesn't follow D&D rules.



"Let's kill him and be done with it. He's going to turn us over to the Dhorn!"



"Uhm, you don't have to do that, Anden..."

Besides, we had something kind of important to tell Alfons, and...

"Woman, you may not have honor, but I do. And I will defend Lady Riona until my dying breath."

"I'm going to throw up. Besides, what ranger gets captured in a FOREST???"

"I think it was fate to meet Lady Riona this way."

Okay, that's very nice, Anden, but we really...

"Fate? Or merely incompetence?"

DAMN IT, YOU GUYS.

This is your preview of the party dialogue for the rest of Part 1. It's basically everyone standing around insulting each other until they've successfully sucked all sense of urgency out of the plot.

"Could we stop this please?!"

Alfons makes Anden swear not to betray us. I believe he won't. Anden's a good man.

"So what is it, Riona?"

"The Bear Pit..."

"They've killed everyone, Alfons!"

"This cannot be true! I'm going to check myself immediately!"

"Stay here, Cat. I trust her."



"Your... friend seems to be a most interesting person, Lady Riona."

"You think so?"

"He's a criminal."

"Does that bother you, Anden?"

"I would have to report him under normal circumstances."

"To the Dhorn? You saw yourself how evil they are."

"These happenings are most disturbing. We rangers are sworn to uphold the law, but how can I do that after what I've seen at the Bear Pit?"

"Aren't you sworn to defend the weak?"

"That we are, M'lady. And that is what I will do. And I shall accompany you and protect you from harm."

That's not what I meant. I think.

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