Edgwyn

You need a gray pass and you need to have a boat and explore the waterfall warrens.  In them you will find the Halls of Chaos which has two levels.  There are NorthEast and SouthWest defense controls that you need to activate at different times to open gates that lead to stairs down to the lower level.  There are also controls where you need to put objects in boxes to activate.  The objects can be found scattered around the upper level.  Both the upper and lower levels are divided into four separate areas that you have to use the various gates and stairs to access.  The chaos codes themselves are in a chest in the southeast section of the lower level.

20 hours ago, Shut Your Eyes and said:

I just found a way to do it via the search function:

 

http://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/index.php?/search/?type=core_members

 

The display is sort of heinous, unfortunately, so you're probably better off using the search function to narrow it down.

Thank you. I don't do it often, but I do like to periodically look at the list.  The sort by function gives several options to arrange the, admittedly long, search results.

There are a limited set of colors to use that provide good contrast without seeming glaring and the red, blue and green colors that are being used are pretty good.  Once a topic has enough posts, green appears more than the red and blue do.  The scheme simply uses the basic RGB colors.  

Of course red, white and blue give you the USA, UK, Russia and French flags in addition to probably 25% or more of all the nations in the world (thanks to the UK).

I just switched to spiderlicious just to make things a little different.  I will probably switch back to default in a week or so.  There is a lot of wasted space in default, but I prefer it to the C&C, because it seems prettier to me.

Also, it seems harder with the new software to ignore posts in certain topics (I happen to not be interested in GF).  I figured it out, but it was harder.  Also, the ability to see the list of members seems to have gone away as well.

If you are talking about Neray the smuggler, this is just a side quest and you should be able to continue playing the game without completing this.

The stairs down are only reachable by boat and are in the very HW corner of the 2nd level.

The deeps is the 3rd level. From what I remember, you have to use a boat on the second level to get to the stairs down on the third level. The triangle are scattered all over, including three in one place on the 3rd level.

That is too much work for me. I tend to put more points in tool use/lock picking early to that I can open everything. I also wish that there was a better way of highlighting places that I "have" to go back to because of lock level or lack of other token.

I make sure that I have seen every square, but I do not move through every square.

It is supposed to, and I have the impression that it does, but I am not sure how much it has been tested.

The reference to "in the beginning" is that mages have the option of getting a trait that allows them to wear more armor and still cast spells. No matter what, your mage will always be able to cast spells of any level as long as their total penalty is no greater than -5%. As you increase your abilities, there are ways to increase this in increments of 5% so that you can cast spells despite wearing armor of -30%.

Do you have arcane lore of 10 or higher?

No, there is not anything that shows your party's total TU or AL.

The immunities are granted by the presence of the summons, so you may need to destroy some of the summonsed creatures (hold down shift key to see what they grant immunity to). You definitely should have Nathalie with you for this fight because she has so many different types of damage available to her.

Hi,

I,m at level 8 in the Motrax/Formello area. I know it's early. But in the Motrax Cave there are a couple of areas where it says I need "clearance". Is this Magi Clearance? And you mention with careful planning you can get it early (after "demo" area). I don't have a demo so not sure what that means, nor what kind of careful planning I need. My reputation is around 10 I believe and I noticed people have said you need like level 22-25 or so right?

The demo area is in general terms the part of the map that you can get to while the barriers are still up. After you succeed in getting the barriers lowered, you will be able to travel to the castle to get clearance. That said, I believe that doing to right without knowing the game can result in more fights that your party is not yet ready for, so I personally would wait a little bit on getting to the castle.

The chart in this post from Slartibus has what the requirements are for the spell books. http://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/index.php?/topic/21167-a2cs-level-3-spell-arcane-lore-location-list/ It also has recommendations for how much AL you should have at different points in the game. I do not know what you consider spoilers, but here is a link to another chart that added some additional information to the chart linked above including caster level (mage or priest skill level) and cheapest location to buy. http://avernumthemaps.byethost7.com/CS/CS_spells.html

4. AL does not effect which spells you can cast. Your priest and mage skills do that.

Unfortunately, I just looked back at my notes and at Randomizers notes and there is a trainer for AL in A:CS, which makes our advice on splitting up among your party incorrect and you should just split it up among your casters taking a point here and a point there. You will eventually want to get to a total of 11 in AL, if you want to learn all spells at level 3 (which is not necessary) (even then you will need a few points of sage lore and Vahnatai Lore). There is an item at the end game which can make the end game easier that may require a total of 13 AL plus 2 VL, but you can win the game without it.

Cave Lore can be bought in the demo area from Tor.

2. A:CS does not have as many dark areas as other of his games, but it has plenty of light sources just in case

5. There are three levels to each spell. You can get two levels of the spell via training, but to get a third level you need to read a spell book. (Order does not matter, if you do not know a spell and read the spell book for it, you will have the spell at level one then later a trainer can teach you levels two and three) In order to read a spell book you need a varying level of AL. AL 8 will allow you to read most of the books that you encounter early in the game. There are some things that can help enhance your AL and there are a number of spell books that in addition to a certain level in AL, require you to possess one of two different objects to read them.

Since AL is one of the few skills that adds across the party, buying two levels for each of your four characters does get you to AL 8 and avoids eating up skill points. Since there is no reason to have a particularly high level of AL in any one character, the cap at 10 when you have gone to a trainer first will not hurt you.

7. Yes definitely

8. The bump ups are not all that great (generally 15-20%) so there is not a really big need to upgrade them early. As Randomizer said, you will have plenty of money later.

Years ago, after reading about BoA in a magazine I purchased it and played the included scenarios. I found one of the early sites and played three or four scenarios. Proving Grounds was the only one that I remember and I really enjoyed the throwback to Wizardry.

The strategy centra; page includes a link to maps that I created. While they are not a walk through, there are maps of every location in the game with the hidden switches shown. There is also an index of quests and where all of the quest objects are along with many of the other significant items.

Blades of Exile and Blades of Avernum were scenario editor/creators that came with a few scenarios created by Jeff. There used to be an active community that made content for them and there are still a few people who are trying to modernize them. Certainly none of the fan made scenarios are canon, I am not sure about the four that Jeff made.

The Kyass thing is optional

 

or he was altered in an a weird ham-handed attempt to put some foreshadowing in the first game (a la the Star Wars "special edition" rereleases adding Jabba the Hutt into A New Hope), or both.

Kyass is even more optional in A:CS.

Jabba was part of the original story boards for Star Wars Episode IV (I have a copy of a licensed sketch book somewhere in my basement that I purchased in the late 70s or early 80s). He appeared substantially different than he did in Episode VI and I don't know if they actually shot any footage based on the original concept, but if they had they couldn't have used it.

A slight bit of material has been added in the remakes and re-remakes (the first two games have been re-made twice and the third game is in the process of getting its second re-make). The modern versions are also a lot easier to play in terms of running on a modern OS and having more modern RPG things like an automap, journal, junk bag, etc. The only thing that I like better about the original is the six character party instead of four in the current remakes. That said, I would play the modern versions (A:EFTP and A:CS). They still have enough of an old school feel with modern enhancements.

I recently finished David Drake's Book of Elements series. A group of Roman citizens just after the end of the Republic dealing with magical threats. The author's love for that era really shows. The ending wrapped up what needed to be wrapped up while leaving the future of the main characters open enough that he could expand the series if he wants to.