Student of Trinity

No, that book is in a jar outside the contraband vault. The contents of the box are as I described in my first post.

Collecting a lot of energy resistance items will help too; you can get enough that the damage drops to next to nothing. Failing that, combat mode is definitely the key. It not only greatly slows your rate of getting damaged, compared to how fast you can cover ground, but allows you to heal yourself. The energy damage gets worse the farther in you go, though, and those Specter Sages are not wimps, either. It's a dangerous area, if you go the whole way, but you need the Black Crystal Powder for the All-Protector, and the crystals you can pluck off the spires are worth a mint. They get so heavy, though, that encumbrance will make the combat mode trick ineffective, and you may have to wait until you've collected a lot energy resistance before gathering them all.

Just the one, in the Crystal Caverns, guarded by the Drayk Wyx. With high enough Leadership you can bully him into just giving it to you. Otherwise you have to fight him and his shades.

Yeah, the other is in that Barzite lab area in the far west, north of Rising. (Not the Radiant College, the lab that's deserted except for its Drakon custodian.) I once found a perfect Glaahk scale dropped by that Ur-Glaahk in the Glaahk-infested zone on the road to Rising. I couldn't reproduce it after trying many times, even after cranking my Luck very high for the experiment, so I think it must have been a very small chance.

A Shaper from Stonespire once tried To make a Rotghroth, but it died. It was so tall and thin, And the vat it was in Was either too short or too wide. Sure, to us this sounds totally lame, but imagine how Shapers would love it: "It died because the vat was too wide! Ha ha ha! Wait 'till we tell this one to Agatha!"

Evolving the Vlish a lot was certainly the key in G1. In G2, I seem to remember trying that and being disappointed; they never compared well with Gazers. They competed not too badly with Glaahks, but on the other hand a pack of Glaahks was deadly in G2 -- I cleared Outer Gazak-Uss with five of them, I think (or maybe it was Ur-Glaahks by that point). Mass Energized, they just swarmed everything and stunned it silly, then gradually chewed it down. But I expect Vlish will be okay in G3 if they're supported strongly with -- and against! -- mental effects.

In G1 this probably worked great; I remember Terror Vlishes being extremely strong there. I'm pretty sure they were paralyzing Ur-Glaahks with terror in the Inner Crypt. In G3 it might indeed be pretty darn tough -- though Dominating spawners and creators might help a lot.

The SPCS will surely be after you now. Though of course you will just Dominate them.

Are Ripostes allowed?

The Reviving Crystal is really nice on a weapon, especially when you have 10 or more AP. It cuts right down on all those pesky little healings you have to do. As an experiment I also put a Reviving Crystal on my Crystalline Shroud, knowing I'd be replacing it before too long with the Emerald Chestguard anyway. No discernible effect from it so far. Steel spines are also getting quite good; I have two on now, but I'll be adding more. Somehow Parry seems to be kicking in now; it appears to affect some monsters more than others. Anyway, just hitting Gull at level 30, with Alwan my only companion since Harmony, and everything is fine. Having Missile Weapons on 10 seems to be plenty: one shot from a Jewelled Wand slew all six ghost/specter things in Phasia's metalworks. A couple of Swarm Crystals took the heat of very nicely when a crew of Servile Defenders were standing off and shooting at me as I duked it out with three Battle Alphas. A Madness Gem charmed and dazed ALL the servile cultists in that first cultist area on Gull. But I'm definitely a melee Guardian, and it's working out fine so far. Alwan is only occasionally handy, to finish something off. A lot of the time I just send him to stand in a safe corner, because he is much more fragile than me even though his Endurance is maxed out. Essentially I am paying an XP tax to be able to read Alwan's dialog lines.

I thought Faizah was the daughter! I have to apologize to Kyna too, if she's still around, for confusing her and DV. I think 'rogue creation' not infrequently when my three-year-old daughter runs amok ...

My apologies to DV for the gender error, which I have amended in my last post. I thought I remembered an old exchange in the Geneforge forum, before G2 came out, in which one member referred to herself as the 'rogue creation (daughter)' of another, and (as I recalled) mentioned the other as her mother. (Since I have a small daughter myself now, the 'rogue creation' line kind of stuck with me.) I further had the impression that DV was one of these people; obviously I was wrong. It's the cosmic rays, they've had too long to work on my DNA. At the end of the day I'll vote for the Agent as the most overpowered class every time. At least until the end of the day, though, I'd like to argue the other side, because I don't think the difference is really as big as it seems. Agents kill enemies quickly, and never get a scratch themselves. (That's because if they get hit at all they die, and you reload; but if you have the patience to play cautiously, there's no reason to get hit.) Guardians do take longer to hack the enemy down, and take a lot of damage in the process. But is this really a sound measure of relative power? The Guardian gets the job done every bit as much as the Agent does, and (assuming sound tactics all round) the final outcome isn't any more uncertain. Guardians are made to take a lot of damage: they've got the Health, so they may as well use it. Agents really only have (and only need) one tactic, which consists of a triple nested loop: 1) cast Speed and enter combat mode, 2) advance to contact, 3) blast and retreat. Just repeat each level of loop until victory. G3 has ramped up the resistances of monsters to different damage types, so Agents do have to figure out which blast to cast on which enemies. But that's it. (And if that much thought is too much, just go with Searer, or even Firebolt, and the worst you'll be is victorious a bit slower than you could have been.) Guardians take more thought -- and I'm not even talking about Guardians that make creations. Constant War Blessing and Protection are algorithmic, but other than that you're constantly weighing whether to close to melee, retreat to re-buff, flip a crystal, pop a pod, switch your sword for a wand, heal Alwan, or try a Daze (at least in the early game). Your reconnaissance really matters, because you have to figure out how to avoid getting swarmed. You're having to decide in each zone whether this one is worth burning off a couple of potions to get Essence Armor, or enough Essence for an Augmentation or two, or a short burst of Speed when it counts. And you're even having to decide, back in town, what gear to carry -- you're strong enough that you have a lot of luggage to choose, and you actually need stuff, so you have to choose carefully. Once again, though, does this really mean Guardians are weaker? In their more complicated way, they get the job done just as well. They are, I'm beginning to think, more fun to play. Or maybe they're good to play on your third time through, as I am now, when you already know the plot and the major item locations, and need some more challenge. I'm really getting to like the G3 Guardians, and I don't want to hear them dissed too bad! What I haven't yet gotten to work is the Guardian shaping. My creations are always at negative pressure.

Guardians aren't nearly as bad as they've been made out to be; just don't put so much into Parry to start with, and I think you'll be fine. Parry is nowhere near the gamebreaker it was in G2, but it isn't actually such a bad skill; I may even start putting more points into it soon. It just isn't at all worth sacrificing your other initial abilities in order to start the game with huge Parry. I seem to have lived down that initial error at last, and I'm now rolling comfortably through Dhonal's Isle, after some very rough patches on Harmony. My melee attack is effective enough that the wands and crystals are piling up in Fort Wilton. I'm even starting to get some noticeable payoff from my high Parry skill -- somehow it has crept up to 22%, at least against clawbugs. I'm pretty sure now that the more traditional melee Guardian is a fine alternative to Delicious Vlish's 'Hunter' version. His basic point that missiles and wands are important for Guardians in G3 certainly remains true, though: you can't afford to ignore Missile Weapons, and you will want to use missiles quite frequently, as any kind of Guardian. Dexterity may even be worthy of attention for a change (though I'm not sure I could get it high enough to start seeing enemies miss me a lot, without trashing my currently effective melee balance).

The levels reached in G3 are definitely lower than in G2. My Shaper finished at 37, my singleton Agent at 41 (just shy of 42). It's interesting to note the small difference between those levels: even though my Shaper shared experience with five other party members for most of the game, and my Agent never shared a single point, they only wound up four levels different. And at high levels, that translates into no more than a couple of skill points. On the other hand, the smallness of this gap is somewhat illusory. The singleton was ahead by what translated into several skill points, and a few levels of damage, throughout the game. And the game is closely enough balanced to your character's advancing power, that even a modest edge like that translates into a significant difference in play. (Do your attacks kill the enemy, or only almost kill it?) The bottom line is that it won't kill you to drag along a couple of buddies, but it is worth making sure that they're pulling their weight. If they're not, you should realize that they're not really going to get any better unless you do something to upgrade them. They will gain levels automatically if they survive, but the game will keep getting harder as you progress, and they will always be dead wood in context. A buffing item or some evolution will be needed, or you'd better absorb them and make something better. Alwan and Greta do more or less keep pace with you, if you keep them around, if you remember to keep pumping their abilities as they gain levels, and if you pay for their upgrades on Dhonal and Gull.

That's where I got 'em -- there is a deranged gazer in a cell in Chadwick Prison.

Thanks! I guess I'd forgotten that. By now I'm suspecting that I was wrong in thinking Solidified Flame could be found earlier, in Maker's End for instance. Or are there actually three Solidified Flames as well?

The Puresteel Soulblade is dropped by one of the Shambling Rotbeasts in the north-center of Monastery Caves. I did get some Gazer Skin Boots, but I'm not sure where ... Maybe Omen Eye, in Maker's End?

Or as an added challenge you can try to keep a pumped-up Ornk alive through the Monastery Caves ...

A little further along on Dhonal's Island, and I think my Sulla is going to be okay as a melee Guardian. Well, actually his Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity are all around 8, and his Melee Weapons, Missile Weapons, Quick Action and Parry are all around 10. While his Mech is decent everything else is pretty minimal. So his wands and crystals are quite effective, and his Shaped Lances at least whittle things down a bit. But with frequent second swings from QA, and a good blade courtesy of Lord Rahul, his best damage is definitely from melee. Sulla hasn't made a Thahd or anything else since Harmony. In fact he has been having a lot of trouble keeping Alwan alive, and has been finishing a lot of fights on his own. I think Sulla would work fine as a singleton, but I want to keep Alwan around for companionship. The point of Alwan's sudden jump in mortality is that Sulla has had a sudden jump in proficiency, and it was definitely stealing Rahul's gear that got him going. Since then it has kind of snowballed: he has gotten a lot of experience from clearing tough areas alone, and beating Spharon let him forge the Crystalline Shroud, and begin applying the game-breaking speed tactics that Agents thrive on.

Okay, so perhaps you can actually answer my question: what quest?

Checking the scripts shows that it is possible to find a 'woven crystal spool' that will be 'useful to somebody' in that box (the one in the Main Army Camp contraband vault). This appears as a special item, not an inventory item. To get this message and item you need to have flag (50,10) set to 1. You can do that with the cheat code "sdf 50 10 1". But I haven't been able to find anything in any of the scripts (using grep) that sets that flag, or even anything else in the game that mentions that flag at all. This would seem to be a bug.

Ha! Thanks very much. But now where on earth is the Unmelting Ice? I'm sure it's on Dhonal's Isle somewhere ...

Hey, he told me to be resourceful and scrounge stuff. I'm just following orders. If he didn't want me to take this stuff, he shouldn't have left it just lying around behind a bunch of elite guards and battle betas, two locked doors, two Ur-Glaahks and a text box. I'm putting it to better use than he was, anyway. "I proclaim first of all my complete innocence, and secondly the absence of criminal intent."

The XP for shutting off all the sprayers is well worth it, but you don't have to put any skill points into Mechanics to get it. Just use the items Contra mentioned, or if they're not enough, come back after you've pumped your Mech with the items from the Clockwork Maze. Then put the skill points you earn for your antacid activity to good use in some other skill.

In the main army camp, in the locked room full of contraband in the NE corner, there is a blue shaper box containing junk that seems useless. If you open it all you get is a text box that tells you that. Is there a quest involving that box? If so, how do you get it?