O_O Thanks for the heads up, I thought it was a scripted event. Well played, Flynn!

I was hoping those lines would catch someone's attention. =)

More adventures coming this weekend. I played a little this morning, but the Weaver had to intervene again and I lost pretty much what little progress I'd made. Whoops!

Flynn

I'll check those spots out. I keep forgetting there's someone on the ship I can barter with. Not certain when my characters will go up again, but perhaps I'll give the Ranger a point in Earth and Jahan a point in Witchcraft then.

Arhu used to have a couple of Summon Fire Elemental books, but those seem to have disappeared also.

Right now, we're about mid-level 4 and I keep running into groups of level 5 monsters. Wouldn't necessarily be a problem except there were eight or nine of them including two mages and two archers. I think the total group was the aforementioned mages and archers, two Enraged Zombies and three Enraged Zombie Boars. It didn't help that the spider and Madora were frozen and Jahan was knocked over in the bloody first round!

So, we'll go at again tonight with the new patch installed. =)

Flynn

Acting on the advice of some patrons of the King Crab (they didn't sound like they were from Cyseal, but sure seemed like they knew the area well) we wandered around Cyseal looking for some skillbooks. Rather than giving it to Jahan, I took it upon myself to learn Summon Spider at the next available opportunity. Being able to have two summons should help Madora stay alive through the coming battles.

We teleported to the harbour and then made our way out on to the beach. Navigating carefully, we reached a battle with several orcs, including a shaman and a couple of rangers. I fired a couple of shots at the shaman and Alyssa summoned her spider, while Jahan and Madora moved into positions to better attack our foes. The gods must have been smiling upon us as one of the opposing rangers fired a flaming arrow directly into an oil field, severely damaging himself, the two orc fighters and the shaman and setting all of them on fire. The rest fell pretty quickly as Jahan electrified the water, stunning the shaman and the rest of the orcs (along with Madora and the spider, but nobody's perfect). Everyone survived the encounter, with Alyssa, Jahan and myself getting a bit stonger in the process.

I elected to learn a bit of Geomancy so I could use my Summon Spider spell. Once we finished gathering the loot, we teleported back to Cyseal so we wouldn't have to navigate the minefield again. Not certain how we made it through the first time considering none of us could see the bloody things. Once rested, healed up and the usual equip/repair/sell/buy routine, we decided to check out the flame field in the forest we'd avoided before. A battle ensued with three flaming chimeras and an undead mage. Alyssa and I both summoned spiders, while Jahan caused a mighty thunderstorm to clear out the flames. Madora moved in next to the spiders and the battle began in earnest.

It took some time, but we prevailed and Madora improved as well. Exploring the area formerly on fire, we found a number of mushrooms, a chest and another doorway. Descending, we found a similar room to the one near the archeologist - the room also had four pillars and four devices. We noticed a small tombstone with the following inscription:

Earth
Water
Air
Fire
In this cell's double, your double shall face your ally.

Returning back to the other pillared room, we found another tombstone with a similar inscription:

Water
Earth
Air
Fire
in this cell's double, your double shall face your ally.

There were rats in both cells I talked to, but neither had much to say beyond how strange it was people would stare at the tombs for hours. We decided not to be like those tourists and instead jotted the inscriptions down in our journal. We've returned to the King Crab for now to ponder the inscriptions and to plan our next move.

Flynn

mini spoiler

If I remember correctly, the pillars in room 1 needs to be touched in the order that can be found in room 2, and vice versa.

Hm. That's what I thought, though when I did that, I think two pillars in the second room had flames on them and the other two didn't. If memory serves, the two lit up were Water and Air - Fire and Earth were not lit.

Flynn

Try having 2-2 characters in each room. (That's how I solved it anyways)

Great idea. I keep forgetting I can split the party that way. Can the two groups be chained, or do I have to control the second group individually?

The group's next goal is to work on the area North of Cyseal. Sounds like at level 5 we should be able to solve some of the side quests in that area. I have looked at IGN's wiki a little, though I'm only using it as a general overview of where to go, and not looking at specific quest information.

Edit: Answered my own question - yes, you can have two separate chained groups. Sweet!

Flynn

I completed it one room at a time; it's actually easier that way.

That's what I'm attempting to do. I think the biggest problem is I'm having a hard time telling which is water and which is air. The symbols aren't exactly clear and seem to be the same color (or a very slight difference in shade).

Still, I'm sure I'll figure out which is which. =)

Flynn

The water symbol looks more like a wave, if that helps any :)

I'm in a slow spot at work, so I was able to figure it out while testing a fix for stuttering graphics on my laptop. I like what happens when you solve the puzzle.

I should have a new update later tonight or tomorrow morning. =)

Flynn

After some pondering and conferring with the patrons of King Crab, we deduced the solution to the pillar rooms. We solved the room beneath the rock pillars first, then went to the second cave. There, we met a creature that looked exactly like Alyssa, but attacked with a bow. After taking it down (six against one - hardly sporting but rare enough we didn't feel too bad about taking advantage of it), we recovered a circular amulet and noticed a wooden door in the floor.

Before going through the door, we quickly solved the pillar puzzle in this room. Then we ventured through the door. Walking down a short corridor, we came to a archway blocked by an energy field. We also saw a pedestal with a circular groove in it. The amulet we recovered from the creature above fit perfectly. We were also able to see over the short dividing wall another corridor with a similar blocked doorway and pedestal arrangement.

Going back to the room beneath the rock pillars, we were attached by something that looked like me, but wielded a sword and shield. Once again, we took advantage of six against one and quickly dispatched it. Among the treasures we found a square amulet and another wooden door appeared. Going through the door, we found ourselves in the adjoining corridor we'd seen previously. The square pendant fit in the impression on the pedestal. Both energy fields and we were able to proceed into a crypt. Four chests held a number of great items. We teleported back to Cyseal and visited the various shops to replenish our supplies.

Venturing out again, we decided to check out the North area. We ran into a large group of undead. We narrowed the odds to six against nine and proceeded to wipe them out. Past the group we found a cave. Deciding to check it out, we found a group of people just inside the entrance. Like us, they had been contracted by the Fabulous Five to destroy Arhu's rogue machine. They were panicked and afraid the machine would kill them. But we'd received the remote from Arhu earlier, so we felt a bit more confident.

The cave opened into a large open chamber with the SparkMaster 5000 and a few undead. I had Arhu's remote and was successful in using it to disable the machine's weapons. The three guys with us rushed the machine while Alyssa and Jahan held back and peppered the undead with spells. Madora and the spiders assisted the three with the SparkMaster. Alyssa, Jahan and I each advanced (level 6). After the battle, the three of them ran back to Cyseal while we pressed on.

We found a back entrance to the cave that opened out on to a sunny area. We found another portal (labeled Cyseal Northwest) and decided to use it to go back to the city for now. Visiting the Legion HQ, we found one of the people we'd helped with the SparkMaster had joined the Legion and was guarding the treasury. We convinced him to let us inside where we mercilessly raided the place, finding a number of great items, including some great armour for Madora and myself and a few skillbooks to share. Yeah, we felt a little guilty raiding the Legion's stores, but decided it was justified as we were actually doing something about the undead, whilst it seems the Legion was more content to guard the town.

We ventured out through the North gate again and this time ran into a dog named Doxy. She said something about us being the heroes she was looking for and led us to an encounter with a number of wolves. We quickly dispatched the wolves, but Doxy ran off before we could talk to her again. We followed the road some more to a small graveyard where we found a few things and a quick battle with an undead. Unfortunately, one of the graves was filled with poison. We teleported back to Cyseal and decided to go back to the King Crab. There, we found the Fabulous Five had taken credit for our defeat of the SparkMaster and took off with the reward. We've made a note to find them and extract the reward from them, and maybe a little interest payment for being lying sacks of bovine dung.

In all, though, it was a grand adventure and we gained quite a bit of experience and some great new equipment and skills. We look forward to the soft beds tonight and more adventures on the morrow.

Flynn

After a night's rest we awoke the next morning refreshed and with renewed vigor. We decided to further investigate the councilor's murder. We began by going to the mortuary and confronting the mortician Roger. He quickly spilled the beans once confronted with the ledger we'd "borrowed" from the examination room and the sheep's corpse we'd dug up from the councilor's grave earlier. And to think Madora had wanted to throw it away. He talked of how several people had paid visits to him before he could examine the body and listed off four suspects - one of which was the Legionnaire captain.

While making our way through the market on the way to talk to the captain about this latest development, we ran into a distraught woman in the marketplace. She was missing her sheep. We told her of our discovery in the cemetery, and she thanked us for finding out what happened. She then ran off to report to the captain before we could offer to escort her.

Talking to the captain, we wisely neglected to inform him that he was listed as a suspect in Jake's murder. Instead, he thanked us for what we'd discovered and rushed off to arrest Roger. We knew he wasn't the murderer as we'd discovered a certain "poem" that pointed the finger squarely at someone else.

Having discovered all we could for the time being (we wanted to see if any other evidence showed up before confronting the other suspect) we decided to finish looking around the Orc beach head. We made our way through the minefield (again somehow avoiding damage) and ran into a group of Orcs, including a rather large Orc.known as Grulbarg the Fearsome. Fortunately, I had some charm arrows which kept the other Orcs rather busy whilst Alyssa and Jahan ignited poison and electrified water.

It was still an intense battle and Madora nearly fell victim to their onslaught, but we carried the day. After gathering the spoils we entered the cave the Orcs were apparently guarding and found another waypoint portal (Black Cove) which we added to our map. Feeling the weight of the day's events, we returned to the King Crab. Tomorrow we shall venture into the cave to see what awaits us inside.

Flynn