Avernum 3 Let's Play!

[Chessrook44]

Time for me to do a Let's Play of Avernum 3, probably my favorite of the two trilogies. And what better way to start it all off than with a two-parter?

 

And if you wish to see the previous LPs, you can check them out here and here!

 

 

 

[Ishad Nha]

A3 feature: "+" items, these are ordinary items that have been given extra power by the addition of a magical ability. Item may or may not be relevant but you never know until you check its information screen...

Read every book you can find, a few will contain spells.

 

You missed two spellbooks in Fort Emergence, they were shown in the walkthrough part of the A3 Manual.

Your Let's Play philosophy seems to be playing it as you do it and not following any walkthroughs.

[Chessrook44]

A3 feature: "+" items, these are ordinary items that have been given extra power by the addition of a magical ability. Item may or may not be relevant but you never know until you check its information screen...

Read every book you can find, a few will contain spells.

 

You missed two spellbooks in Fort Emergence, they were shown in the walkthrough part of the A3 Manual.

Your Let's Play philosophy seems to be playing it as you do it and not following any walkthroughs.

More or less. I do take hints and suggestions as you post them, but since I have a backlog it can take me a couple episodes to get around to it. I tend to avoid walkthroughs unless I'm fully stuck.

 

The way I see it, reactions to things are more interesting if you don't know they're coming.

[Ishad Nha]

Spell prices can vary a lot, I made screengrabs for each spell shop so I could compare prices.

[Chessrook44]

Wow, I did not realize how short this episode was when I made it... anyway, before we head onto the surface, we head into Upper Avernum to see what we can see and to train.

 

 

 

[Ishad Nha]

In the first part of the game you will sometimes find your way blocked by the lack of level 3 exploration spells like Unlock Door and Move Mountains. Ditto lack of any form of Dispel Barrier. Even in fairly basic, low-level dungeons this will be a problem.

When you get the spells you need you will need to go back to the dungeons concerned and clear the obstacles away.

To figure out which dungeons you need to return to, you will need to keep notes or use your Journal to record messages from the dungeons concerned. (Said messages will not be related to lack of spells, they will just be general messages on other topics.)

[Chessrook44]

Well it may be Goblins and Bandits, but at least it's better than killing hordes of rats.

 

 

 

[Ishad Nha]

Ritual of Sanctification is another thing that is not available for some time...

 

In the Character Editor, the Gold limit is 15,000. That is a good as guess as any for the game's coin limit.

You missed a few areas with some minor treasures. Game may be based upon you getting Far Sight fairly soon.

Two spellbooks in Fort Emergence are not immediately accessible, but become so soon enough.

[Chessrook44]

Onwards through Upper Avernum we go, heading back to the place we entered into it!

 

 

 

[Ishad Nha]

I went too close to Erika's Tower fairly soon after the start of the game. Party was too low-level to survive the encounters we hit, said encounters blocked any retreat back to Fort Emergence. I had to use the Character Editor to get safely back to the Fort.

Edited January 1, 2015 by Ishad Nha

[Chessrook44]

Onwards through Upper Avernum we go, to one of the new cities that were made!

 

 

 

[Earth]

be careful when you get ambushed, killing certain group of ambushers makes 1 important town hostile (nothing which cheat won't fix).

[Chessrook44]

Up next, killing a bunch of bugs. A lot of bugs. Holy crap, there's a lot of them... Game over man, game over!

 

 

 

[Chessrook44]

New Formello isn't bad, but I still prefer the original Formello more.

 

 

 

[Chessrook44]

More random explorations in this episode, as we see what we can see.

 

 

 

[Chessrook44]

Ah the Vahnatai. Still as alien as ever.

 

 

 

[Chessrook44]

After many years, we finally set foot back on the surface. But not all is as good as could be hoped...

 

 

 

[Chessrook44]

Avernum spies walking into the middle of an Empire city. This can only end well!

 

 

 

[Earth]

at least your party is getting tanned.

[Chessrook44]

at least your party is getting tanned.

Half of the party, anyway. I doubt that Slith scales or Nephil fur actually tans. Hell I think the only creatures in RL that can get tanned are Humans and Pigs. But I digress.

 

Onwards through the rest of Krizsan City, and then off to make lots of maidens start crying.

 

 

 

[Ishad Nha]

There are four separate versions of Krizsan, each more damaged than the last. You seem to have the second of the four? The last two versions come into being if you take too long to solve the slime plague.

Edited January 9, 2015 by Ishad Nha

[Chessrook44]

There are four separate versions of Krizsan, each more damaged than the last. You seem to have the second of the four? The last two versions come into being if you take too long to solve the slime plague.

 

From a note I saw somewhere, Krizsan has a lot more than four versions. That said, aye I know about the "Doom Timer" as someone once called it, and actually mention it in this episode.

 

Speaking of which... I suppose seeing two cities with the same name is kinda inevitable in a situation like this.

 

 

 

[Ishad Nha]

There are only four versions of Krizsan found in Town.dat, I was able to decrypt it.

 

People keep telling you to go to Shayder, when you get there you will understand why they do this.

[Chessrook44]

Exploring a town, checking out a cave, and finding out precisely why we were maybe not the best choice to send to the surface...

 

 

 

[Chessrook44]

Two towns, one for the sea and one for the earth. Well it's not exactly opposing as the classical elements tend to go, but hey, they tried.

 

 

 

[Chessrook44]

The Slime Bandits. No relation to Harry and Marv.

 

 

 

[Ishad Nha]

I think A3 is based upon you having Far Sight because you can get it at level 2 (legitimately) after only a few minutes of game play, if you know what to do.

You can also gain Move Mountains at level 2 at the same time.

 

• talk to Anaximander get the first surface quest from him: "Anaximander wants you to go out to the surface, explore briefly, and report to him what you have seen. You can get to the surface by leaving Fort Emergence to the north."
  
• do the quest, which only involves a brief trip outside the Fort
  
• report back to him, the quest is completed
  
• go talk to Mazumdar in the SE, she will decide you are important enough to be given the two spells
  
• the two spellbooks are found in a hidden room
  
• to actually learn the spells you will need a score of 6 or more in the spell skill concerned, this means you must use Custom characters not any of the other classes.
  

 

 

Edited January 13, 2015 by Ishad Nha

[Chessrook44]

A bit of exploration of the North Shore of Krizsan in this one.

 

 

 

[Earth]

since you are somewhat near area I again warn you to be careful when you are about to get ambushed.

[Chessrook44]

And further explorations, in what I consider to be Eastern Krizsan.

 

 

 

[Ishad Nha]

You won't get the Ritual of Sanctification for some time. You will happen to learn about it as part of a major mission.

Five level 3 Priest spells are given as part of totally one-shot encounters. Mercifully, three can also be found elsewhere. War Blessing is the problem case. Every PC who wants it should have it before they hit the second one-shot. You will know this is about to happen.

[Chessrook44]

Checking a variety of quickly-completed areas in this episode. Next time... we'll deal with the slimes.

 

 

 

[Ishad Nha]

You missed a few areas with routine treasures, also a level 3 spell.

Gukhbar's Pit, Wolf Pit in Upper Avernum, Below Agate Tower.

[Chessrook44]

IMPORTANT NOTE: My Hard Drive is failing, and I need to get a replacement to fix it. Fortunately my saves and data are backed up, but uploads may be paused until then.

[Ishad Nha]

It is not something you can handle by lesser methods? I defragment my drive on a weekly basis. I also use Easy Cleaner to check for invalid registry entries and unnecessary files.

Once a day, I shut down all programs and Shut Down my computer.

[Lilith]

It is not something you can handle by lesser methods? I defragment my drive on a weekly basis. I also use Easy Cleaner to check for invalid registry entries and unnecessary files.

Once a day, I shut down all programs and Shut Down my computer.

 

with the way modern operating systems and hard drive firmware store data, defragmenting is mostly counterproductive tbh

 

it also can't do anything to fix physical problems with the drive. if the SMART attributes say the drive is in trouble then it's time to get a new one

[Earth]

yea if hdd starts showing errors then better replace it since it can last 1 day or weeks before it breaks completely.

[Chessrook44]

Yeah SMART said the drive was bad before the diskcheck I tried to run even started. Fortunately it held out long enough that I could get a new HD and, using a program recommended to a friend, copied everything onto the new one absolutely perfectly. It's exactly the same... except bigger, once I figure out how to access the extra TB.

 

That said... even though it's late today, have today's episode, where we head on into the Lair of the Slimes.

 

 

 

[Ishad Nha]

Glad to see your computer is working again.

 

In Avernum 1, frequently an impenetrable door had a secret door nearby. You did not get Unlock Doors level 3 for some time. In Avernum 3 this may not hold true, Slime Pits level 1 door is an example of this not being true. In A3 it would be more of a last resort.

[Chessrook44]

And here we have the remainder of the Slime Lair, with the creator of the creatures. In addition, with some time left, we go have a talk with an old familiar face...

 

 

 

[Ishad Nha]

When standing next to Erika, click the Get button.

When out back, make frequent use of the Far Sight spell.

[Chessrook44]

With Erika done, we head back down to Avernum proper, to check out the Tower of Magi and get new spells. Yay!

 

 

 

[Chessrook44]

We check out the rest of the Tower in this episode, and find some strange activities in Upper Avernum...

 

 

 

[Chessrook44]

We investigate the mysterious deaths that happened in Upper Avernum, and then head back to the surface to explore a bit further east because why not.

 

 

 

[Chessrook44]

Well THIS is something I never expected to see on the surface...

 

 

 

[Chessrook44]

The last of the eastern reaches of the Demo are explored in this episode. But soon, we shall head to the other half of the demo.

 

 

 

[Chessrook44]

With the slimes dealt with, we move onwards to the north, to the Isle of Bigail! This is going to be "fun"...

 

 

 

[Ishad Nha]

A couple of side quests featuring undead who turn hostile after dialog with you (and tear your lead PC to pieces). One encounter, I had the lead PC protected by an Invulnerability Elixir before combat. In the other encounter I simply used War Blessing beforehand.

[Chessrook44]

The City of Shayder, home of the Anama and giant cockroaches. Let's see what's going on inside, why don't we?

 

 

 

[Ishad Nha]

Most fights are okay when the front two PCs wear chain mail. A few special fights seem to require the wearing of plate mail so the PCs can survive the mega-damage they receive.