Dragonboy

Chapter 6: Back in Avernum? “Did you just hear anything?” “Thisss is ssstupid, how are we sssupposssed to fight in the dark?” “Who had the bright idea to have a tournament in pitch black tunnels? This is ridiculous! This place is worse than Avernum!” “Agrreed. At least therre therre was glowing li-li-liten?” “You mean lichen.” “Yeah, that stuff.” “Ssspeaking of light, couldn’t you raissse your handsss a little higher Cordelia?” “Hey! This is my fourth light spell! My arms are exhausted! Let’s see you cast a light spell, clod for a lizard!” “Relax, therre may be enemies nearr by.” “Speaking of which, does anyone hearr something?” “Besides for you panicking every four seconds? No.” “Are you surre you don’t hear anything?” “NO!!!” Whew, that does it for introductions! Time to turn up the burner! I make no apologies for my sense of humor.

Chapter 5: I saw a Demon I did! “Demons!” Rufus cried out, as he clung to his spear fearfully. “The celts have sent us to the land of Demons!” “What do we do?!” Lucious stammered. “This must be the valley of death we were told about. We need to find the crown,” Marius, the most levelheaded of the four said. “After the fiasco with the eye and the skull we really need this crown, whatever it is.” “That wasn’t our fault,” Lucious said. “We weren’t the ones who had them stolen from.” “Yeah but Vibius is going to blow his stack if another thing slips out of our hands.” “It wasn’t our fault!” Lucious repeated. “I say the this time we keep the damn thing instead of handing it off.” The other three nodded their heads. “Regardless of that, we’ve better get a move on and get it first,” Maximus said. “I don’t get this ‘Tournament’ thing but I’m sure those damn Celts on not far behind.” “It’s probably some Celt afterlife thing, eternal battle thing,” Lucious said, stroking his chin. “That’s bloody wonderful. Are we going to have to fight through this tournament to get the crown, or what?” “We’re proud Romans soldiers!” Marius said loudly as he banged his breastplate in pride, “We’re not scared of barbaric warriors are we?!” “AYE!” the rest of them resounded as they banged their own breastplates with their right hands. “Let’s move out!”

No no, I'm right. You just don't know it yet. Seriously though, chill people, this is all very hypothetical. There is no more validity to this poll than any other public poll. It either is or isn't, no poll numbers can change this. Weirdly though, the Empire had a massive six point lead way back at the beginning of the poll. I wonder what happened.

Chapter 4: We had him! “We had him!” Korth cried to the open air. “Right there, on the floor!” “Indeed, it happened at a most inopportune time,” Sevilin nodded solemnly. “Right there! Just one more second was all I needed!” Jenell shook her head, “There’s no use in crying over spilt milk.” “Indeed. Perhaps it was for the best,” Sevilin said. Kroth glared at him. “Don’t you get it?! We had Redbeard on his knees. We could’ve toppled him right then and there off his throne. We could’ve been heroes!” He turned away and spoke in a whisper, “I could’ve been Redbeard.” “What?” Sevilin asked as he bent his ear closer. “Nothing,” Kroth spoke hurriedly. “I don’t know what you're complaining about Kroth, this is a grand chance! An interdimensional tournament! A place to test our talents and imagine what the prize will be for winning! Surely something of great magical power!” Nathalie breathed excitedly. “Kroth is not interested in mere power silly girl, he lives for a much more noble purpose,” Jenell said disapprovingly. “Did you call me a silly girl?” Nathalie asked scathingly. “I don’t know, was that what you ears heard silly girl?” Jenell shot back. “This silly girl got enough power to turn you to cinders so you better watch your tongue,” Nathalie snapped with a puffed chest. “Mere words,” Jenell said with a dismissal turn of her head. “You don’t like me, do you?” Nathalie snapped coldly. “No one likes you Nathalie,” Korth said tiredly, suddenly feeling quiet tired. Before Nathalie could reply indignantly, Kroth turned to Shima. “What’s up Shima?” Shima, who had been looking off at the distance mountains, took a moment to respond. “Nothing,” he said as he cast one last glance at the mountains before turning to Kroth. “Then let’s set up camp here. That fight with Redbeard exhausted whatever strength I had and I’m sure it’s the same with the rest of us,” Kroth said as he glanced around. He received a series of nods from everyone. “So let’s set up camp now. We have twenty four hours so no need to rush.” His four companions nodded again and the five set about making camp. A long distance away, hidden in the shadows of the clefts of the mountains four furry creatures stood observing them intently. Blah, writing this chapter was not fun. I don't remember the game well enough to do Jeff's characters justice. Oh well. I sincerely apologize to all Avadon fans for wrecking their favorite characters now and in the future.

It should be pointed out that Erika was kicking her around the block in their one-on-one duel before Rentar cheaped herself the win, so humans can be just as powerful as the Vahnatai or even more. Erika might be the strongest mage period, perhaps barring Garzahd.

_________________________ Chapter 3: Rules, Rules, Rules. “Settled now?” Sss-Sesh hissed at the giggling imp that had brought to this place. “No thanksss to you.” “Where are we?” Lorlei asked, looked around frightened. “Everywhere!” The imp shouted and broke out in a fit of giggles. “Very informative,” Fredrick said sourly. Sss-Anees scowled, “Tell usss where we are or I’ll banisssh you to where you come from.” “You’re in the Tournament of Heroes,” a deep voice said behind them. The Party turned as one. It was a demon, a full-fledged demon not like the little imp that had brought them here. It hadn’t been there a moment ago. It was smiling smugly. “And where is that?” Adras asked for them again. “An interdimensional space, perfectly suited for a grand tournament as this,” the demon said, the smell of sulfur coming strongly from his breath. “And what is this Tournament exactly?” Fredrick asked. “It is a competition for the greatest heroes of space and time, to see who is the greatest group of heroes of them all. We bring together only the finest, you should be honored to be in it.” “Who’s we?” Fredrick drilled the demon. “Who is this really for?” The demon laughed. “This competition is watched by the countless denizens of the dimensions, we make this tournament for their entertainment.” “Entertainment!?” Sss-Anees hissed with disdainful anger. The demon laughed again. “Do you know how much gold and treasure is use on bets for this tournament? You could never see that much in a thousand of your lifetimes!” “Sss-Anees is noonesss entertainment!” The demon just grinned. “What do you care mortal? So what if countless beings watch you? What does that matter when you have a chance of receiving the ultimate reward?!” “Ultimate rreward?” Frrrrr asked curiously. “What’sss this reward you speak of?” Sss-Sesh asked suspiciously. “Now now, we can’t reveal that so soon,” the demon said with a sly grin. “First you must prove yourself by passing the first round.” “The first round?” Lorlei asked. “Of course. This is no mere brawl. You will have to fight in several rounds before you can achieve victory. And there are rules to be followed of course.” “Rulesss?” Sss-Sesh asked. “Yes, there are rules. Scattered around this area are different teams. For the first round you must defeat two different teams in order to advance.” “How many teams are there?” Adras asked. “That’s for me to know and you to find out,” the demon said smugly. “You will have one hour of preparation, then the game will begin. You will have twenty four hours to complete your task. This place is three miles in diameter so you will have to be quick. The end of the boundary is half-a-mile that way,” the demon pointed in a direction. “There is no going past there, though you may try if you wish,” he said with another smug grin. “Sounds easy,” Frrrrr growled. “Also, if you die you will be resurrected only eight hours later.” “Eight hours!” Adras cried. “Well, that’s your fault for being weak and dying,” the demon said without pity. “We have our own healersss that can take care of that,” Sss-Sesh said. “There’s no rule about thossse, are there?” “All the power to you my friends, although if you all die you will indeed be needing our services,” the demon grinned. “Now, that’s all I’m required to tell you so I’ll be off. Prepare yourself, for in one hour the fun begins!” “We’ll be ready alright,” Sss-Sesh hissed as the grinning demon along with the imp that had brought them there simply disappeared without a sound. “We’ll be ready.” ____________________ Comments and feedback welcome. Next Chapter we'll get to see Avadon. I'm going with Avadon 1 which I don't even remember well because I never beat Avadon 2. (Ducks under the barrage of rocks and rotten tomatoes.)

_______________________ Chapter 2: Warriors in Blue. “Are you sure were in the right place?” Antaros repeated. “I”m positive! We were told to walk through the two stones and we walked through to the two stones!” Gaesorix snapped. “Well this doesn’t like the Valley of the Dead to me!” Gaesorix snapped back. “How would you know!” “Do you see any dead men around here!” “Well there’s about to be one!” Gaesorix roared. “There’s no aura of death in this place,” Obalda said in her soft-sung voice. “This is not the place where our ancestors live on.” “Great, but where are we then?!” Antaros demanded. “I do not know, but the spirits know,” Obalda said. “I thought you said we weren’t in Annwn.” Obalda spoke serenely. “The spirits surround us at all times, watching, listening, guiding.” “... You know what, forget it,” Antaros said waving her off. “Viridovix, do you have any idea where we are?” Viridovix, who was kneeling in the grass examining the herbage on the ground, looked up and said, “I’m sorry my friends, the only thing I know is they we are no longer anywhere that I recognize.” “Fantastic. Druids, bloodly fantastic things they are,” Antaros snarled. “I’m going to rip Chief Cartmunus to peices!” Gaesorix spat. “How dare you speak that way about our Chief!” Antaros snarled. “Antaros, he sent us into Annwn willingly! The tribe is close to being driven away by the Romans and he’s sending us to fetch random things! He’s going crazy.” “Don’t you dare speak that way about our Chief!” Antaros snarled threateningly. “Others approach,” Obalda said softly Not paying attention Gaesorix snarled back, “I’ll say what I want!” “Others?” Antaros said. “Who?” “I do not know, but they come this way through the thicket over there,” she said as she pointed into the thickest part of the forest around them. Antaros silenced the other three with a signal and they all gathered behind the trees. It was faint, but unmistakable. A few people were walking toward them and they were getting closer and closer. Soon they began to hear tidbits of conversation. “I still say we go after Hawthorne,” a female voice said. “Are you kidding, we got to the surface,” a light male voice laughed. “We made it. We did the impossible. You want to go throw your life away now?!” “If we don’t get him, he’ll get us,” another male’s voice said. “Besides, that bastard is still throwing innocent people down there.” “A hero of justice are you?” the first male said. “This isn’t about justice,” the woman said. “This is about revenge.” “Pffft, you and Erika. Well, that’s what she wanted too and look where we are now?” Gaesorix snarled as the people speaking came into their view. There were four of them. One man and one woman were armored in polished and gleaming armor and behind them were another man and woman were wearing some odd Druidic robes. “Romans! I knew I heard the sound of them clattering around,” Gaesorix spat. “What are they doing here?!” Antaros growled just as angrily. “They defile our lands and they sent us here!” Gaesorix said through gnashed teeth. He jumped suddenly out from behind his tree. “Romans! Feel the might of the warriors of Britannia!” He cried as he hurled a javelin with all his strength. “What the!” The leading male shouted as the javelin headed right toward him. Mere feet before it struck into his thigh it suddenly began to glow and then stopped in mid-air. “Now now,” a giant red being that looked like a demon, no, that must be a demon, said with a chuckle as he can strolling out from wherever he was hiding. “Don’t be so hasty to start before things begin.” _________________________________

I am absolutely positive there's no way to get past level 50 in any Exile game, period. I banged against that cap enough times. It's only whether Exile I it was 40 or 50 my memory gets a little fuzzy. I vaguely recall being annoyed that the cap was lower in Exile I. Does no one here have a endgame save file? Could someone upload some endgame stat pics? Especially for Exile I.

BTW, I'm not going to stick totally to the rules I posted on the top of this thread in this Fan-Fic. I will be a bit flexible with the narrative so don't take this story as complete digest of the various factors of each Party vs other Partys. I need 4 Gaulish names for four blue painted warriors in the next Chapter if anyone wants to input something, or any names period. They just can't be Jack, Sam, Joe, John or anything like those. Also, a few moments in "How to fake a Gaulish accent 101' would probably help the flavor of the next Chapter.

Curse you Eaintree! Now you got it in my head and I can't stop thinking about it! I just had to write a chapter. In fact, now I got the first three bouncing in my head! I don't think I can take this to the end all by myself, but maybe I can. Or maybe some other spiderwebber will pick up the slack. Either way, here's the first Chapter of the Tournament of Heroes: ____________________ Chapter 1: Farewells “I’ll be missing you guys,” Ardras said as he looked around at his party members as they stood at the crossroads. Beautiful Valorium lay all around them with Blackcrag Fortress looming above. “Don’t be a sssstranger,” Sss-Sesh said, giving the human a clap on the shoulder. “Be sure to come visit me and my brother sometime in Gale,” Lorlei said. “I will, as long as you keep that smile,” Ardras laughed. “You flatterer,” Lorlei said, waving him off with a smile. “I just want to say thanks, we couldn’t have it without you Leader,” Adras said, addressing Sss-Sesh. “Oh, finally, after all thisss time, now you call me Leader?” Sss-Sesh hissed in laughter. “Give him brreak,” Frrrrr said as he fumbled with his hammer. “It’s harrd for humans to learrn who arre their betterrs. “You’re absolutely right Frrrrr,” Fredrick said with a laugh. “Almost as bad as Nephilim.” “Hrrrmm,” Frrrrr grunted with a small smile. “I”ll hope to see you all around sometime,” Adras said. “Even you Sss-Anees.” “Unlikley Human,” Sss-Anees said the always present disdain apparent. “Recklessss as you are, we will doubtlesssly never meet again.” “Heh, right back at you Slith,” Adras said. Suddenly, there was a bang and a cloud of smoke engulfed the group. Coughing, the group stared at the creature that had suddenly appeared in their midst. The dust settled a little and they all realized together what the creature was. “An imp?!” Adras exclaimed as he pointed pointed at the diminutive red creature. “Congratulations!” the imp giggled. “You’ve been privileged to be selected to join the Tournament of Heroes!” “Tournament of Heroesss?” Sss-Sesh asked with suspicion. “Yes, the most exclusive tournament of all!” the imp giggled. “You’ll fight to see who are the greatest Heroes of them all!” “The greatest Heroes?” Fredrick asked skeptically as the imp handed a bright yellow scroll to Adras. “Yes, Heroes from all places and time shall come together to see who is the greatest of them all!” the imp said before breaking out in giggles. “Sounds like a farce,” Fredrick said disdainfully. “Agreed,” Lorlei his sister nodded. “Scamper off you imp!” Adras shouted. “You must join the tournament!” the imp said with another giggle. “We’re not joining your tournament imp and you best be gone before I sssplit you with my halberd!” Sss-Sesh hissed. “Begone with-” “NOOO! Don’t open that!!!” Fredrick shouted as Frrrrr began to open the bright yellow scroll that the imp had given to Adras. He was too late, as Frrrrr rolled open the entire scroll before he could finish. The scroll glowed a bright purple and suddenly there was a crackle sound in the area. “Not again Frrrrr!!!” Sss-Sesh roared! “I warned yo-” and that was as far as he got before the six of them suddenly felt like they were being split into a million pieces. It lasted forever or for only a moment. It was impossible to tell. All they knew was that suddenly they were collapsed on the ground staring up at the sky. A sky that seemed different somehow. “Dammit Frrrrr,” Adras muttered. “Where are we?” he asked as he and the party got up. “Nowhere good,” Sss-Sesh hissed. A man, dressed in a blue cloak stood over them as they got up. The cloak hid his face except for his eyes which seemed to glow a unnatural red. As his side stood a giant, no a half-giant except it kind-of looked like a rock, and a odd squid-like creature that hovered above the ground. The man stared at them as they disentangled themselves to get up. He grunted disapprovingly and turned away, his companion creatures trailing behind him. They watched him go silently for a moment before Frrrrr turned to the others and asked, “Wherre the hell arre we?” __________________ Note: Positive feedback is welcome, negative is not. If someone could help me out with the accent of the characters that would be great. As is, I went with three S's for every S with the Sliths and a extra R for every r with the Nephil and called it a day. Yes yes, I'm racist. I know.

If you keep the chapters short, I wouldn't mind writing a chapter or two.

I must be going senile. I distinctly recall targeting Dark Wyrm's with four Death arrows and doing quadruple the damage in Exile III. I also distinctly recall there being a 40 level cap in Exile 1. Can someone please confirm in-game these two things? I too young to go senile!!! (Goes off flailing his hand around and crying.) (Okay, so it's been like seven years since I played.)

Yeah, it definitely level 50 for Exile II and III and BoE. Still, I'm pretty sure it's only level 40 for the first Exile but it's been awhile since I played so my memory may be playing tricks on me. Also, someone insert a 'it's over 9000' joke here please.

Now that you mention it, I wonder why Jeff decided to skip on helmets in Geneforge.

But you can outrun it, especially when hasted. And while fast, quickfire does at least have some external limit. It only consumes towns and won't spread noticeably beyond, otherwise it would literally consume everything and this is not the case. It'd be a bit of slog to wade through all that quickfire after the battle, but I would think it wouldn't be any worse than walking through a quickfire town in exile itself. Good grief, that thread was a 10 year old me's dream. I love skill dissections, the very thing you do now with the new games, but I didn't have these forums back when I was a kid. I tip off my hat to you, oh wise Slarty, and hope to never Mindduel with you again. I

I like it. The only question I have is how good a Ring of Major Protection works. You think it'll protect against a high-level charm spell from Geneforge or the Avernums? An Agent or Shaper could get three Dominate's off a round and I recall Dominate working pretty well on higher-level creatures that don't have high mental resistance. Aren't rings rated by metals? Gold, silver and bronze? I don't recall a Ring of Major Protection. Or, now that I think about it, rings of protection protecting against effects at all.

I laughed at this one. Good thinking. Geneforge is either toast or runs away. Either way a win for Exile. Not sure why it's a tie with everyone else though. It does pretty low damage in Exile. You could stand in it for hours with healing spells. Also, I think area effect spells would work through it. I forget how Minddduel works actually, but doesn't it work on a spell point basis? Like 15 spell points per spell? Genefoge characters have a lot of spell points so maybe Geneforge could take them down before they die? Also, mindduel would probably work against mental resistance. Does Avatar make your Mindduel 100% effective?

I'm sorry guys. Somehow I managed to erase the poll when I was editing the first post. I must have forgotten to leave my sanity at the door. Please revote. Sorry. On the bright side, you can now vote for Avernum 6 and the original Nethergate if you want. Heh, I'm not sure what you meant by PC vs PC violence but I'm suddenlt reminded of the time that Jeff got complaints for including a demon summoning spell in exile. It's not supposed to be about absolute number crunching, its more about from what we see when we play the games. But you can bet that there'll be some number crunching, hence rule 5. Not sure what you meant by plot logic,

I've played both A6 and AEFTP and in combat they seemed fairly similar. True, the skill system is completed different but the point is how would they differ in a fight and many skills are quite similar between the two and also most spells. I definitely agree there is a distinct difference between the two games, I just didn't think it warranted another option. If anyone else chimes in I'd be glad to add it in. As far as nethergate goes, I've played Resurrection a few times but only played the demo of the original ages ago. Don't remember it that well. Unless it's a radically different system, I think rule 1 suffices. Again, if anyone else chimes in that it is, I would be glad to add it in. Damage is incorrectly displayed? Really? I did not know that. Which games does this apply to? Is the number quantifiable? Geneforge seemed pretty accurate to me, at least the early ones did. As for something of an answer, you could just add up the numbers involved. Jeff's game are pretty simple that way and at least in Geneforge you could add battle magic/spellcraft/and spell cast to get a fairly accurate value of damage involved when you average it out. I use to do it all the time. Or we could just use Normal mode numbers.

There's a recent thread here, The Empire Strikes Back, that pit Spiderweb empires against each other. There's a lot of discussion going on there, a lot of which hinges on some very important unknown factors. It got me thinking. We don't know all the factors about each games respective empires, but we do know our characters powers very well. It was obvious what had to happen next... Who will win the ultimate showdown?! I'm going to set down some basic rules so we can settle this straight. 1: I chose the last game of each series in this competition so we wouldn't quibble on which game we are referring to. I included Avernum 3 because the first trilogy has a completely different engine than the second one. Any game not mentioned is not included so don't go trying to bring proofs for your opinion from other games. 2:The battles between the PCs take place is some sort of other dimension (feel free to write a fan-fic) or whatever random place you want to believe. Simply put, there's no home advantage for any PCs. 3:Along the same lines, everything a PC can do in game via spell effects or something else will work now exactly as it does in the game. 4:The PCs are endgame PCs. All equipment and items that a normal endgame party have at the end of their game are what they have here. (There is a way in Exile 3 and I forget but maybe Avernum 3 also to get infinite knowledge brews and money which means you could have a perfect party, this does not count as that is not an average endgame party. Similarly, the PCs have only the amount of potions and scrolls that an endgame PC would have and not what they theoretically could have.) 5: Damage done is by the attacking PC's system, resistance and dodging by the defending PC's system. (I should also point out that attacking PC's damage is by actual damage not the average in game. For example Kill in G5 does 600 damage but most enemies resist as least some of it so it usually does around 400 so if a G5 PC casts kill on a AEFTP character with 50% resistance it will not do 400 - 50% = 200. It will do 600 - 50% = 300 damage.) 6:If one game's PC can cast or use an effect that is not found in another's PC's game, the defending PC will resist based on whatever sort of status effect comes closest in the defending PC's game. For example, Daze will work no better on an Exile PC than Sleep does and vice-versa. 7: In order than this thread doesn't turn into whoever-goes-first-wins, the PCs, just like it usually is in-game, will have prep time to buff up with spells and potions before the fight. Honestly, when I thought this up, I had no idea who win this. So I'm going to refrain from voting until I hear some opinions, but to open things up I will start off with some points on Exile. First off, Exile has two big cons in this fight; their low health and their low damage compared to the other PCs. An Exile fighter only does about 15-20 damage by himself and 25-30 when blessed. Also, assassination is powerful skill but it really only works on people lower level than you so it probably wouldn't work too well on equal or even higher level PCs. Still, they have a lot of advantages going into this. They have dual-wielding for one, and Major Blessing gives them three attacks per character. I usually have one spear-man and two dual-wielding swordsmen in my party. That's 15 hits per round! Throw in two Curse All's and they could do massive damage. And the mages! We got Avatar for one thing. Slow All, Bless All, and Curse All are powerful when combined. Also each mages can cast three spells a round so with three spellcasters we get 9 spells per round! We also got Kill and Death Arrows which can do a lot of damage plus, of course, Divine Thud and Firestorm. I think Web would a potent spell here, slowing down the fighters. There's also plenty of summoning spells for distraction. As far as items go, I don't remember there being as wide a variety as the other games but we can be sure they'll be packing a few invulnerability potions and some strong energy potions.

In all fairness, running your own business is a huge stress. Especially so for someone in indie gaming. Jeff doesn't really know if Avadon 3, which he'll have to work on for a year without any income from it during the process, will either make money or make him go bankrupt. That's pretty scary for a person to think about as he's embarking a year long process. And, reading between the lines of his posts, Jeff's not that negative. Cynical, yes, but not overly negative.

That is unfair to the Empire. The shapers also were incapable of solving their problems until you come along. They did a terrible job by simply leaving Sucia, they mangled the purification of all forbidden articles twice, allowed the rebels to kick their rearends for months if not years before they kicked into high gear and started really pushing them back in G4. The Shapers were so arrogant they couldn't imagine losing until it hit them in face and they keep on underestimating 'rouges' becuase of it and getting punished for it. I think people over estimating Shapers ability to summon new creations on the fly. Considering that it always takes trip back to town to restore essence, we can assume that it takes a full nights rest to recover to full power. Yes, there are essence pools, but they're slow and the shaper can only begin to create after one his old creations die. Let's make a calculation. We see about a hundred or so shapers in game and we know that they are few in number. I think we can peg the amount of full fledged shapers at about a thousand, maybe closer to two. The Empire has four continents so we can easily imagine an army of a million. Let's say every Shaper can sustain seven high level creations at a time, after all the main character can only do about that much and he kills everyone else. That means you have an army of barely ten thousand versus an army of a freaking million! Spread it out on various fronts, let's say ten, and you have an army of a thousand vs an army of 100.000! The Shapers stand no chance. Add in ,admittedly limited, teleportation for quick assassinations behind the lines in mid-battle and the Shapers go down fast! Edit: Slarty, I agree with you in essence. They're are a lot of variables in war itself and a lack of clarity on the specific capabilities of the two combatants makes it hard to say for sure. I merely postulate that FROM WHAT WE KNOW that the Empire would win. btw, there's only one shaper continent. The sholai have no interest in Shapers' wars as the messenger in G3 says. Second edit: Wow, that first edit as really stupid. What I meant was that, true, we don't know either sides full capabilities or how they would mesh in a fight, but we extrapolate from what we know simple things from the games like, shapers aerial advantage, the Empires greater numbers, Jeff's awesomeness, to figure out who would probably win.

Don't think the Empire's soldiers are anything to laugh at. There's no reason to assume they're any less than the non-shaper warriors on Terrista and we seen plenty of very tough warriors on Terrista capable of taking on higher tier creations. Sure, I wouldn't pit one against a Drakon or gazer or maybe even a wingbolt but the Empire has more than dervishes, archmages, and highpriests to even the odds out in simple skirmishes. For all that the Empire has restrictive laws on magic, they have no end of mages and priests as can been seen from A2. We probably saw more mages and priests in A2 than bona-fide Shapers in the entire Geneforge Saga. While it in of it itself proves nothing, we can extrapolate from it that the Empire probably has a whole lot more magic users than the Shapers have Shapers. Sure, Shapers outmatch Imperial Mages or Priests but they're pretty frail in actual close combat and they're few in number. A loss of a mage to the Empire means a lot less to them than a loss of a Shaper to the Shapers. The Imperial soldiers are extremely tough and they got a crazy amount of numbers. They are also extremely well disciplined. We never see the Shapers leading whole battalions or that they are even capable of making a large amount creations function as well and smoothly as a human would so we can safely assume given equal strength of the respective armies that the Empire will win with superior battefield tactics. In a more strategical sense, they'll know better how to move their armies around to maximize their effect and their armies will be far far larger and numerous. Definitely they'll have to learn early on to have a very strong offensive strategy, otherwise the Shapers will just replenish their forces every skirmish, but that shouldn't take too long to figure out.

Jeff, please bring back the intro and ending cutscenes thing that you did in E3/A3. I loved those. ("And this is... A TREE!" "What's it for?)

Really? I thought it said the line was 'the Empire left.' Nuts. Still, it doesn't really say how they were expelled. It could just mean that they packed up and left of their own initiative when they saw how bad things were getting with Garzad dead and the vahanti joining the Avernumites. And yeah, the change in leadership caused the end of the war. But it was the fact that the new leadership said it wasn't worth the effort that ended the war. Prazac was a great leader and she was the one who forged the peace treaty between Avernum, but she didn't come across to me as a Dove. Had the cost of continuing the war been reasonable, I'm she would've stuck with it to the end.