Pig Catapult

Used GOG's "repair" function. VoDT still hangs, but it resolved eventually. I have to go through start-of-scenario text/image sections quickly or it will freeze, though. (Which is why I used the compatibility pack in the first place)

I tried to play A Good Beginning, then Cave of No Return, then Valley of Dying Things, and each run was stopped dead the first time an NPC started talking with text above their head. The [spoiler redacted] in A Good Beginning and the Mayor of Sweetgrove in VoDT got a line or two in before the freeze. I'm running Windows 10 with the Windows XP compatibility pack, with the version of the game that's available on GOG. Is there anything I can do?

Eeeeeee I'm hyped to find out more about this setting. The deep masters and geographically-localized magic like the big haunting really intrigue me.

I've just reached the bottom of Conlin's Pit and the narration is as follows, emphasis mine: I'm pretty sure this is a case of authorial muscle memory from decades of writing for the Avernum setting. (Edit: Unless he's trying to contrast the fact that this creature lives underground?)

*internet fist bump* Thank you for the help!

On a fresh inspection of my save files, it turns out TriRodent was correct and I was mistaken. I'd completely missed the interactable wheel in the top floor of the gatehouse and had only noticed the demoltionists by the north thorn wall. This was my bad. I'm very sorry for troubling you and for getting cross at TriRodent.

You misunderstood my post. I know what I'm supposed to be doing. I know that I know what I'm supposed to be doing, because I managed to do it in the southern battalion camp. There were two demolitionist mages standing near the opening to the dungeon before I talked to the general. When I was done talking to the general, there was a screen-shaking explosion, the demolitionists were gone, and the way into the dungeon was open. I was able to enter the Vol Gates. I am posting in the bug thread because, in the east and west camps, the explosion event shook the screen after I finished talking to the generals, the demolitionist mages are gone, and the ways into the dungeons are still closed. There is nothing to exercise my characters' sword arms on, because there is an impenetrable iron gate and a solid wall of thorns between my characters and the places full of things I want them to put swords in.

I've gotten the explosion events for both the West and East Battalions, but the ways aren't actually cleared and I can't proceed. I'm playing the Steam version, if that matters.

I know there's more out there, but these are the ones I found on my singleton run:

I'm throwing together a fake overworld screenshot, as bonus material for a fanfic, and I would like to write something in the location/date field. What font does it use and where can I get it?

When I try to run it in compatibility mode, the program won't even start properly.

Specifically, some scenario-start-scene-setting picture montages cause the window to go white and the program to stop responding while eating up to 50% of my CPU. I know this happens with Backwater Calls and Dilecia, but the ones for the four default scenarios work just fine. Is this at all fixable? I've been having other bugs, too, like the game sometimes crashing without going white during cutscenes where the characters talk by floating over their heads if another program is playing audio, occasional severe lag in large battles while the computer is doing the enemies' turns (It stops, my cursor does the "waiting" animation for several seconds, then the game resumes at the start of my turn, the enemies' turns all handled), and, a couple times, parts of the UI just not responding at all. I'm running Windows 7.

Thanks. I was holding out hope that I could do something like use the lamp of lightness to skip her, kill Vahkos, and then have different dialogue options when I met her on the way back up, since the fact you could skip her like that seemed suspicious.

How do I get access to the rebel base, and, once I do, is it actually possible to save the girl? I can't remember how to get to the base, and I remember failing to rescue her before.

Jeff also seems to like putting in shout-outs to Colossal Cave's maze section. I've run into descriptions along the lines of the "twisty passages all alike" line in several places.