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Quote:
Originally written by Randomizer:
Erika is cursed to die if she ever sees the light of day.
Actually, she dies if the light of day touches her skin. In one of the games, she mentions teleporting books (among other things) from the surface. Unless she teleports things blindly, this can't be done without scrying first, which would've caused her to see the light of day; therefore, if merely seeing the light of day were fatal to her, then scrying the surface would've killed her.
Quote:
I wonder if she ever went top side during the night?
In theory, she probably could've done it, but only on moonless nights, because moonlight is nothing more than reflected sunlight.
Quote:
Originally written by Small Fry:
rentars magic is more powerfull than erika's
No, the opposite is true. Rentar was losing the duel with Erika--quite badly, as I recall--and only won because she caught Erika by surprise. Otherwise, Erika would've decimated her.
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Quote:
Originally written by Excalibur:
I tried to do that once, but I got tired of all the summoned monsters and doing very little damage when I attacked her.
Yeah. The one time I managed it, it took about fourty minutes. I can't remember if I left the SFX and sounds on, though...
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Since Rentar is only one person, she really wasn't at risk of decimation. Obliteration, maybe.

 

—Alorael, who wonders why Erika apparently gave up on breaking her curse. As the most powerful mage in the world, apparently, she really should have been able to work out a way to return to the surface.

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It's one of those riddles. Perhaps it was a curse she knew to be unfixable. Perhaps this was one of the reasons she was so pissed.

 

Or perhaps she claimed to have given up, but the room behind her throne that you can never enter is actually the laboratory where she still kept trying, and trying, and trying, for the past few decades.

 

Depressing.

 

And no, I did not have a crush on Erika back when I played it. She's over a century old anyway. :p

 

Quote:
In theory, she probably could've done it, but only on moonless nights, because moonlight is nothing more than reflected sunlight.
Technicalities don't mean much in fantasy worlds. Moonlight may only be reflected sunlight, but magic and curses usually consider it distinct - in the same way that Fire is an element.
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Quote:
Originally written by Garaged:
—Alorael, who wonders why Erika apparently gave up on breaking her curse. As the most powerful mage in the world, apparently, she really should have been able to work out a way to return to the surface.
Remember, it took several powerful mages to put that curse on her in the first place, so she might have needed some equally powerful mages to remove it (maybe she couldn't do anything herself?). Even in A3, there were more stronger spellcasters above the surface than below, so maybe she didn't have the necessary resources.

What about the Vahnatai? (I just know someone's going to ask me this.) Maybe they were either too preoccupied or indifferent to be much help.
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Quote:
Originally written by The Mystic:
What about the Vahnatai? (I just know someone's going to ask me this.) Maybe they were either too preoccupied or indifferent to be much help.
It makes me wonder why Erika and Rentar didn't get along. They both seem to have pretty similar personalities, what with the disproportionate revenge complex and the general vibe of superiority that both give off.
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I almost made the same post, but then I realized that Erika and Rentar wouldn't get along precisely because they're so similar. They're too independent and even self-centered. I imagine neither one would handle equals or superiors well at all. And Rentar is too much of a human-hater to get along with Erika, who can't even manage to get along with her fellow human beings.

 

—Alorael, who wonders what the world is like with its three premier spellcasters dead. Who gets to rise to the top without Rentar, Garzahd, and Erika around? Maybe some fresh blood?

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Don't forget Rone.

 

I think it would be safe to say that, as of the end of A4, X is the most powerful mage extant -- given the seemingly frail states of Solberg and Rone.

 

There were a number of other second- and third-tier wizards in the earlier games, and it's not hard to imagine one or two of them growing in power and skill significantly. However, they all seem to have died (Mahdavi, Silverio), become demented (Thompson, Vidrain) or disappeared (Enla, Ostoth). The dragons disappeared as well. Pathass is still around, and potentially among the most powerful magic-users, but he isn't a mage.

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X might have been the most powerful from day one. He's just too disconnected from reality to be much of a force for anything but anvils.

 

Aimee is still out there somewhere

 

—Alorael, who has high hopes for Kelner. A reasonably balanced, cautious archmage? It could happen!

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Quote:
Originally written by In omnia paratus.:
X might have been the most powerful from day one. He's just too disconnected from reality to be much of a force for anything but anvils.
He'll probably end up getting himself killed with that anvil spell.

And Aimee should return to the plot. With wherever she went, she should be able to bring back something interesting (and possibly set up a major plot arc).
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Aimee Kilser would be a wonderful surprise -- although given my distaste for the direction the story has gone in post-1996, maybe not.

 

Kelner, I dunno. Kelner seems to have emulated Solberg's caution, but not his magical prowess. Solberg was powerful enough to be Erika and Garzahd's peer on the surface. He was a rare expert in an unusual and demanding field of magic (minddueling). Kelner was powerful enough to be an administrator for years... and years... and years. Yes, he was on the Triad, but he's the only Triad member we never saw ANY magic from. Even Seletine put a bundle of wands together. I mean, sheesh. Sorry excuse for a wizard, Kelner is.

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We don't know Kelner is a powerful wizard, but we also don't know that he isn't. He's clearly not terribly ambitious, but there could be an archmage lurking under the paperwork. Avernum needs a few who aren't magically maintained semi-senile corpses.

 

—Alorael, who noticed that Rone has actually been improving over the course of the series. In A1 he was barely functional. In A2 he was at least clearly conscious. In A4 he's literally got a new lease on life and he makes sense for the first time in decades.

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You can't always count on end-of-game deus ex machina wizardry, though.

 

—Alorael, who is always confused by teleportation in Avernum. Sometimes it seems trivial. Sometimes nobody can teleport out of Avernum without going to inordinate lengths to collect gadgets and locations and such. Is there an anti-teleportation barrier twenty feet below sea level?

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There are various places where they refer to the power comsumption needed to transport large quantities of matter through the planet. For a small party of adventurers they don't need as much. Most of the time you are using the same teleporter so its designed for larger loads.

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Quote:
Originally written by Fifteen Second Delay:
You can't always count on end-of-game deus ex machina wizardry, though.

—Alorael, who is always confused by teleportation in Avernum. Sometimes it seems trivial. Sometimes nobody can teleport out of Avernum without going to inordinate lengths to collect gadgets and locations and such. Is there an anti-teleportation barrier twenty feet below sea level?
I would imagine that you always need special gadgets. In the early days of Exile, there just weren't any. Later, they were around and just not mentioned.
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Quote:
Originally written by upon mars:
Sorry about the imprecison i am talking about A3.
Is there a way to make that alien die? so i can finish the game?
You're not supposed to kill Rentar, and gain nothing from doing so. If you've set all ten beams already, just go to the control panel.
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Quote:
Originally written by Alorael:
Sometimes it seems trivial. Sometimes nobody can teleport out of Avernum without going to inordinate lengths to collect gadgets and locations and such.
I suspect this is why the Erika curse was nessesary. She was probably the only mage in Avernum with the power to just teleport herself out. As for the Exile III ending teleportation, Rentar's fortress, if you think about it, probably wasn't all that far from Blackcrag at all, it may have been right under it. Distance surely factors into how tough the teleportation is.
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That said, the ease with which Ernest, working by himself, can teleport people across half a continent makes you wonder just how deep Exile has to be in order to be unreachable by such means.

 

Maybe teleporting "through" solid rock is harder, though I'm not sure how much "through" applies to teleportation anyway.

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The end of A3 is easy. Rentar's keep is right under Blackcrag and when she blasts a hole to the surface to expose Erika to sunlight the unknown mage in Prazac's employ doesn't even have to do anything fancy. He's got a perfectly good line of sight to the heroic quartet that needs teleportation and their destination in the throneroom!

 

—Alorael, who will conveniently ignore the fact that the same teleportation occurs if you don't have Erika's help and there is therefore no such hole to the surface. If you really want to find flaws in his brilliant hypothesis you'll have to look elsewhere.

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Quote:
Originally written by Thuryl:
Quote:
Originally written by upon mars:
Sorry about the imprecison i am talking about A3.
Is there a way to make that alien die? so i can finish the game?
You're not supposed to kill Rentar, and gain nothing from doing so. If you've set all ten beams already, just go to the control panel.
This was a lot more obvious in Exile 3. There was a big inviting white dot (which you knew always signified something) attracting you over there. Whereas in Avernum 3 there's just an indistinct blue blog with white splodges, which could easily be overlooked.

Edit: Well I meant blob but I'm going to leave the typo as is for comedy value. Rentar's blog, just imagine it! "Decided to get revenge today (again). Think I'll set loose a plague of monsters. It didn't work last time, but maybe if I use shades..."
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