BlackDragon

Yeah... that's the main problem, really. More often than not, I know where the door's supposed to be, I just can't find the switch. Especially not if it's on those annoying red-brick walls where they blend in perfectly. Got easier once I got wind of the ol' 'hit U' trick, though.

It's one of the upper level rewards for one of the multi-step end of game quests

 

(if I could figure out how to do the 'spoiler' section I'd let you know exactly - but I can't find it.... sigh. Let me/us know if you really want to know)

Hah, 's cool, I already got it. I just hadn't figured it for one of those, since I knew that the two reward-books for that quest are in the two libraries, not some random fenced-off room in the back of the secretary's office. Hadn't counted on a third 'fakeout' book, y'know?

And don't worry 'bout spoilers on my account. I played the original Exile-series extensively back in the day, so the basic plot is quite, quite familiar to me. (Heck, if Vogel hadn't moved all the secret doors around since, I'd know where they all were, too. )

Hah, I suppose that's ONE way to explain it. But hey, as long as Avernum 3: Ruined World doesn't drop us to a max of 85% accuracy, I suppose I can live with it either way. I mean, heck, if this keeps up, we'll be swinging with 70% accuracy by the time Avernum 6 gets its remake. >_>;

's probably just confirmation-bias in action... but even so, I personally find that the shift from 95% max to 90% max accuracy is kind of annoying. What kind of legendary band of heroes miss their targets 10% of the time? ~_~

Personally, I've found summoning to be worthwhile in drawn-out fights just for the sake of spawning one or two extra targets for the enemies to attack - spreading their fire over 6 targets instead of 4 can make a lot of difference, especially if you're dealing with large numbers of ranged troops. (And of course, using Simulacrum to create a nigh-indestructible meat-shield just means that you'll spend less time replacing them. Bonus!) Of course, none of that necessarily justifies spending points on the 'Summoner' trait... but it's still hardly the MOST useless trait. Lots of competition in that area, after all.

Definitely give your magical notes to the person at Fort Remote. She's the only one who wants them, and not only does she pay well, you'll get an awesome piece of armor for giving her a good bundle.

Anyway, I for one am glad that the 'pick one of three' quests from EftP aren't around anymore. They annoyed me enormously, particularly when one of the requesters was someone I'd already killed, making it impossible to ever 'clear' it from my list. Three quests for black fangs, three fangs to find (though some are easier to get to than others) - that's the way it SHOULD be. (Also, I feel kinda' stupid for giving both of the magic-books in EftP to the people at the Freehold of Kyass, considering what happened to it in Crystal Souls. Should've just handed them over to the Avernites instead, I guess...)

Ahhhh... I would not have guessed that. 's not the most descriptive name in the world. Thanks! Seems like my spell-collection is just about complete, then...

In the tomb of demonslayer, look along the wall in the NW corner.

Ah, I figured it was down there... but if so, the list should be updated. That area requires two, not one, soul to access.

Oh, and one other thing... what and where is this 'Ruined Town' mentioned in the list as the source of the Heal-spell? Some kind of external map-location?

I just want to go on record as saying that the entire Lava Dome quest is by far the silliest thing in the entire game. Yes, sillier than the GIFTS. I can't help but wonder if some Spiritual Herbs were involved in creating it...

Where is the Icy Rain spellbook in Patrick's Tower? I've searched the entire ground-floor, and the basement is only accessible with TWO Crystal Souls...

Yo, dawg, I heard you liked caves, so I... no, no, forget it, that particular meme is better left buried, and possibly pacified with a Ritual of Sanctification. >.<

But yeah, a day/night cycle on the glowing fungus is the most likely explanation for how people roughly keep track of time. It's also entirely possible that many just... don't. In an agrarian society, you really don't have much need to count minutes or hours - at most, you need to keep up with the seasons, of which there are none in this underground cave-system. You'll also notice that, no matter how long you travel, you never really wind up walking into a city in 'night mode' - so it could very well be that, like settlements far north of the polar-circle, they just stopped giving a damn about the time and just sleep when they're sleepy, eat when they're hungry, and work until they're tired.

As for sub-caves being dark, I've noticed that many of the ones that have that problem specifically mention that the luminescent fungus grows thin or disappears entirely in the area, due to some natural or supernatural pollutant making it harder for it to grow in that area. Undead-infested areas (such as the infamous Spiral Cave) in particular makes sense from this perspective - the undead are constantly surrounded by an unnaturally cold aura, and such low temperatures would logically make it difficult or impossible for anything to grow in the area. Hence, darkness. Of course, particularly unholy areas might simply have areas of magical darkness that swallow up whatever light-sources there might be... but that's another can of worms entirely. (How does an area of magical darkness even WORK? Darkness isn't a 'thing', it's an absence of something... gah. It's just a show, I should really just relax... it's just a show, I should really just relax...)

I tried that, with both the gloves and the bars, but he had no reactions. Well, when you talk to him about it, he pretty much says that you're better off just throwing stuff like that out, since nobody has any use for it.

Can't really see how it would be possible to 'uncurse' them, anyway. To the people of Avernum, they seem cursed, sure - but us enlightened future-people know that they're just radioactive, and there's precious little to be done about THAT, except wait a few thousand years for them to go inert.

well, i mean, there might have been other groups of vahnatai back where the sliths originally came from

Right? And we know that communication between the tribes are shoddy - Rentar-Ihrno admits that she only knows for sure that she's the greatest mage in THIS particular tribe, and can only ASSUME that she's the greatest in existence. Considering that the Sliths 'came up' from deeper caves, and that the Vanhatai always live IN deeper caves, it seems quite likely that the Sliths who originally exiled the Avernum-Sliths we all know and love, cohabited with some remote Vahnatai tribe before the last Long Sleep, and picked up a lot of their religious and cultural practices from them.

Oh, good... when I got 3 requests for something I could only get 1 of back in EftP, I figured it was another one of those 'pick one' quests... just like the two spellbooks from EftP. Where are the other two teeth, then? The one I found was exactly where I'd expect one to be - in the northern islands - but there's nothing left of that to explore...

Incidentally, while we're on the subject, how do you get permission to read the book behind the gate in Kelner's office? I still haven't found anyone else to do quests for in the Tower of Magi...

Oh, I really hope you're wrong about that... or that there are multiple drake-teeth to obtain. I just gave the first one I found to the Vahnatai dude, figuring it'd be good for international relations. >_>;

Selling bars of Uranium (and the gauntlets made from same) to merchants I don't like. "Oh, you want me to search the ruins of one of the greatest tragedies of the war for shiny stuff and sell it to you? Suuuure! Here, I found these AWESOME gauntlets, you should try them. Hm? What, you have to forge weapons and gear for the Empire? Tell you what, I'll sell you this wonderous metal - make something really cool from it, will ya? Maybe give it to an imperial commander or mage or something - they'll love it!"

I MAY also accidentally have sold a bar of the stuff to the dude at the Tower of Magi who collects junk... but hey, he's a wizard who deliberately wants to buy weird stuff, so I figure he knows how to handle it.

Also, in a slightly different vein - in both EftP and this one - deliberately NOT robbing any of the dragons, even though I know I can totally take them, just because I think dragons are cool and it's terrible that the empire has hunted them nearly into extinction. Don't worry, dear old Motrax - I could walk through the defenses of your Hoard like they were made out of paper, but I'm not GOING to, because it just wouldn't be nice. (I'll happily steal from PEOPLE, though. They're mostly assholes, anyway.)

Heh, I remember that bit well... I felt UNREASONABLY proud when I figured that out right from the start. "Huh, a row of pools behind a temple... I remember this from Gnass! A ritual of purification, right? Yeah, I know how this is supposed to go..." Look at me, respecting other cultures like a boss!

Come to think of it... the Vahnatai 'ritual of welcoming' or whatnot was very similar - if a tad more complex - wasn't it? I wonder if that hints at some sort of cultural mingling in the dim past. After all, the Sliths are cave-dwelling natives, unlike the human and Nephilim interlopers. Which just makes it more odd that the Vahnatai claim not to have known of the Sliths before this Awakening. On the other hand, one of the Crystal Souls DOES mention that the Vahnatai, due to having long lives, tend to forget a lot of things... hmmmmm.

...this is making more and more sense. Both in the first game and in this one, you can get straight, clear communication from the 'nice' Slith-gods by performing the proper rituals at the shrine in Gnass. Those are the ONLY 'gods' you ever make clear, unambiguous contact with. What if those Slith Gods are actually some kind of slith equivalent of Crystal Souls, inhabiting statues instead of crystals? Call them Granite Souls, maybe. Guiding their people from beyond the veil of death... it fits with their ancestory-worshipping culture. I think I sense a whole new slew of headcanon coming on here... >_>

I JUST did that section... so yeah, I can confirm with fresh memories that the book in the same room is supposed to give you the password for the first gate (the Grey Pass is required for the second one), but I dunno why Triumph couldn't read it. I think I had 15 AL or something, but that's obviously just overkill, so that's not likely to be the reason. I also had less Int and fewer levels of Vahnatai Lore. (There is, indeed, a tablet in the lab you need Vahnatai Lore to decode, but that's just a spell-level booster.)

Maybe it requires one of those odd 'items' you sometimes get, like Vahnatai Magical Knowledge or whatever... not that that would make much sense, seeing as it's an imperial machine.

Oh, and to touch briefly on the original subject, I knew about the book behind the gate in Kelner's office, but there's also a room with three tomes... I gained access to two of them by doing odd jobs around the tower, but the third one (the one furtherest to the right) continues to elude me. What can I have missed?

Isn't there an Arcane Lore teacher somewhere? Since it doesn't matter who has it, you could get a solid 8 points that way. Expensive, of course, but there are always ways to make money.

D'oh! I came by ship, so it never occured to me to check those... >.<

So, I met a dude somewhere - Fort Dranlon, I think - who told me that a shopkeeper friend of his had been forced to flee the assault on Cotra with nothing but the clothes on his back, leaving behind a very valuable pair of Drakeskin Boots. However, he guessed that they were probably still there, since they looked like ordinary, worthless boots to anyone who didn't know exactly what to look for, making them uninteresting to the average looter. I took note of this (as the game, indeed, told me), since I've had trouble finding decent footwear.

Now, however, I'm in Cotra, and I've cleaned the place out... then gone over it twice with a fine-toothed comb. The only nice boots I found were the Gazerskin Sandals in the upper-left corner, which probably weren't what he was talking about, the source taken into consideration. I paid particular attention to anything that looked like it had once been a shop, and there aren't any suspicious black squares that might indicate a hidden room anywhere. Have I missed them somehow? If so, where are they? Or is this just another throwaway line that got exported over from Avernum 2 without the boots themselves tagging along?

Thanks, Lilith. I haven't been to Harston yet - kinda' out-of-the-way, after all - but I have no idea how I missed the innkeeper in Silvar. I've definitely been THERE, any number of times. Heck, isn't that the same place where you could unload a bag of sugar in EftP? >_> Hm. Guess I just didn't ask the right questions of the chap.

Who wants the Bags of Meal and the Bags of Sugar? I've been carrying these things around for ages - it's getting tiresome. Particularly the sugar, which annoyingly doesn't stack.

I'm pretty sure I've been to all of the cities in the game, but I haven't found anyone interested in those.

Oh, and I'm also still carrying a pipe, but I suppose that might be some obscure 'outdoors' encounter, like with the hammer.