spidersilk

Frozen Feet - I don't know if it's "wrong", but I certainly had the same reaction. I'm a little bit reminded of Parker on the TV show Leverage, and the way Eliot keeps saying to her "There's something wrong with you!" Except that Parker is likable-crazy, while Nathalie is just annoying-crazy. Personality-wise, I tend to like Jenell and Sevilin the best. Shima's OK, though he tends to come off as a bit too "Woe is me, for I am noble and long-suffering and everyone hates me", hand-stapled-to-forehead type of thing. Actually, I suppose both the fighter-types are a bit emo, but Shima the more so of the two. Jenell initially comes off as the most mature of the lot - wise and in tune with nature and what not - but then as soon as you take her to Khemeria, she turns into a scary homicidal hothead, which was kind of a a cool, if somewhat jarring, transition. BTW, I think my favourite bit of character dialogue thus far is when Jenell complains about Nathalie running off on her own and generally being an idiot, and you get to say "Didn't you just do the exact same thing?" and she gets all flustered.

There's another aspect to which companions you take out that's worth considering: remember, they're not just "the shaman", "the sorceress", etc. - they're specific characters with specific backstories, and each is from a different country within the Pact. As you go through the different areas, they'll say different things, offer different bits of information or advice, etc. I particularly like to bring along someone who is from whichever land I'm going to, or at least from close to it - they're more likely to have interesting input on what's happening. Mind you, not everything they say is useful, but some of it is. And even when it's not concretely useful, it adds colour to the game. Sometimes a little too much - it can be a special sort of interesting to take along someone who's from a country that's a mortal enemy of wherever you're going. I thought I was going to have to bail Jennell out of jail in Khemeria - she'd seemed to mellow before we went there, and then presto, instant psycho. And having just been through the Beraza Pits with Shima and Nathalie, I now feel like I owe Shima a sincere apology and an entire case of beer to make up for subjecting him to that. Either that or I should be paying his therapy bills or something. (Why, yes, I do tend to over-personalize the NPCs...)

Getting back to the original topic of "Things I wish I could do in Avadon": Having just finished the Beraza Pits quest, the main thing I really, really, really wanted to do, at several points, was have an extra dialogue option along the lines of the following: "Oh, for ****'s sake! What are you people, 8 years old? Grow the **** up already! I'm a Hand of Avadon, not a ****ing daycare worker!" Except with all the expletives spelled out in their full glory. Seriously, I have never wanted to smack a bunch of NPCs upside the head quite so badly as I did for the entire time I was around the Holklandan monitor and the Kellem soldiers. I swear, my three-and-a-half year old son is better behaved than that lot were. Well, all right - approximately as well-behaved, maybe. But he's three and a half. What's their excuse?

I did this one just today... There's no one trick to beating her - she's pretty tough, but you just have to keep trying. It gets a little bit easier once you've killed all the various undead that materialize on the platforms she banishes you to, because then she can't call on as many reinforcements. She can still summon undead one at a time, but not en masse. As others have noted, speed helps, as do various other buffs (blessing crystals, etc.). Also, remember that she's limited the same way you are - her abilities have to recharge after each use. So if she banishes one character, it will be a few turns before she can banish another, during which time you just keep hitting her as hard as you can with your remaining characters. Missile weapons work better than melee - she slows you down if you try to fight her hand to hand. Just keep hammering her with razordisks and spells, but be aware that it will take a while. And if you keep trying and still can't beat her, leave and come back once you've gained a few more levels. My party is mostly around level 16 now, and it was still about the toughest fight I've yet faced.

Ah, OK. I was worried that Shadow Tarkus was back there and I'd just missed some means of entry or something. Thanks!

I'm on the lower cells quest (looking for Shadow Tarkus), and I've made it all the way down to the bottom (the keepers' crypts) without encountering him yet. But on the second-to-bottom level, the Burial Cells, there's a gate whose opening wheel is on the far side. I didn't worry about this when I first passed it, because I assumed there'd be two stairways up on the next level down, or something like that. But there wasn't. I tried looking all around for hidden levers, and went back up to the level above the one with the gate just to see if maybe that one had a second down stairway that I'd missed, but I didn't find one. Anybody know how I can get that gate open? Or is it one of those come-back-for-it-later things?

Ah, OK - thanks. I did indeed end up taking a peek at the script file, and it looks like I didn't miss too much. I guess maybe this conversation was more just a getting-to-know-you thing. BTW, I do like the fact that all the companions have distinct personalities and histories and aren't just skill sets. I actually found myself feeling guilty for not taking Shima out yet (I hadn't because my main character is a shadowalker too). I guess you know the NPCs are really starting to feel "real" to you when you catch yourself feeling guilty for snubbing one!

I just returned from my second trip to Zhethron's realm (the quest with the ogres) to discover Jennell gone, and be assigned to go make peace between Holklanda and Kellemderial (did I spell that right? the name pretty much slips out of my mind when it's not directly in front of me). En route to Jennell's quarters, I ran into Shima, who said he needed to talk to me about something important. But I never got to find out what it was! He said something to the effect that I didn't have to ask him about his past but I should, and I started to, but then it just dropped me back to the default conversation options, with no option to ask him any more about that or what he thought was so important to tell me! I went through the options it gave me several times over, dropped out of the conversation and then started it again, etc., but there was no way to get back to the conversation he'd attempted to start, so I have no idea what it was going to be about! Short of going back to a previous save file and hoping it goes differently this time, is there any way of finding out?

I just did this one, and I have to say, I don't even really care what the reward will be - I liked it just because it was one of the most seriously challenging parts of the game thus far (I'm at level 7 or thereabouts, I think, though most of my characters have gained a couple of levels just during this part, so I could be wrong). Every character got killed - sorry, "knocked unconscious" at least once (some several times), and there were several combats I barely scraped through with the surviving character(s) having barely any health at all. So of course like a complete madwoman I kept going off down random tunnels in search of yet more reptiles of various sorts to get killed by fight... And picked up a lot of cool stuff along the way, not to mention a ton of experience. Also, found a couple more areas down there that I was tempted to explore (one temple full of imps and one wretch raiders' base), but didn't because I thought they might be the subject of later quests. Anyway, for me it was totally worth doing just for the adventure potential. Most of the way through I kept thinking "This is crazy! I am so not ready for this! I'm going to die any moment!" and yet not quite dying, so all in all it was a pretty nice adrenaline high.

I have Titus's key, and I still can't get in. Once you get past the first gate, there are three more - one's impenetrably locked, one gives you nightmares of the dead, and one has a cryptic message about the grove and the hunt that I couldn't make head nor tail of.

Never mind, I figured it out. There was a desk with some papers in what was described as an indecipherable faerie script, so I had the idea of increasing my faerie lore...

Ah, OK - that would explain it!

I'm in the south half of Castle Aethdoc (playing the Celts), and I was advised to go up to Lord Borak's chambers to talk to the herbalist there, but the guards said I needed a special pass from Lord Indigo. I went back and asked him, and he said I'd need to find the one that he gave to the torturer, who was killed by the Romans. But I've searched all through the area with the prison cells & torture equipment repeatedly, and not found anything. Can anyone give me hint as to the whereabouts of this pass?

Apparently you were right - I took another tour around the area, and finally found the way out. It wasn't even a secret door... This is what I get for playing very late at night when I should have been in bed, I suppose.

I'm in the Maze of Thorns, having gone in to see the Widow Queen and then found my way via the teleporting-web-thing into the section with all the aranea and the Nether Arts spell - only now I can't get out! The web-portal that dropped me in here (onto the platform with the chests) seems to have been a one-way trip, and there's no other exit I can find from that section. I've tried walking into every wall that borders on any area outside that section, and not found any hidden doors. Is there any way out of here other than using Word of Recall?

I'm not entirely sure if the ending I got counts as #1 or #4. I did most of Melanchion's quests, but not all - I left the Vahnatai alone, because I hated the idea of attacking people who weren't attacking me, just on the basis they wanted somewhere to live and could conceivably pose a threat in the future. I had already killed the Darkside Loyalists before I ever met Melanchion, and Lord Farrar and the Scourge seemed like they genuinely needed killing. I don't remember the exact wording of the description I got in the end, but I know Starrus remained king, and I think it said he had to cooperate in some manner with Melanchion? Not sure if that counts as "bowing down" or not... In retrospect, I'm kind of wishing I hadn't killed Lord Farrar, so Melanchion couldn't have taken the Abyss. Either that or maybe that I'd killed Melanchion, but I didn't know that was an option at the time. I expect it would be hellishly difficult, but hmmm, I suppose that's what saved games are for... I can't unkill Farrar, unless I go back quite a few saves, but I could restore from my last save and have a go at killing Melanchion. I was, BTW, very gratified to see that the ending I got did NOT include the Vahnatai wiping out Avernum because I'd refused to destroy Tenevra. Makes me think I made the right choice on that front. But I do wish it had offered a third option, apart from "leave them alone for now" and "kill them". Something like "tell them they're welcome to have a colony there if they want to, we really don't care, but let's negotiate a peace treaty and, ooh, maybe you can help us take out that dragon that apparently wants you dead!"

The second painting is upstairs, and it's not in a box or anything, just on the wall. You just need to walk up to it.

If the gate at the end is down (after the part where you kill the ones who stayed to block your way), does that mean I did something wrong? Or is it always down?

Yes, I just discovered that... Should have really explored further out from the tower before posting! I did initially search around the area a bit, but apparently I didn't go far enough. Found it now - thanks!

I hope this isn't a complete stupid question, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to get down to the tunnels under Patrick's Tower. I have at least two quests to do that require going down there, but the only down stairways I've been able to find are the one for the holding cells, and one that's blocked by a metal gate as soon as you get downstairs. I've searched around both areas for buttons and other controls that might open the gate or a secret door or something (and did find one secret door in the holding cells area, but all it got me to was a small room with some crystals in it), but no luck - I can't find a way to get into the tunnels. Any hints, anyone? I must be missing something...

Never mind, found the problem. You have to select "Built-in Output" from the little pop-up menu that says "Properties for" first. I did find, however, that it was already set to 44100.0 kHz. So I change the other settings to the ones shown on this page: http://mactip.blogspot.com/2006/11/my-audio-applications-have-stopped.html - that is, the little menu after the format to 2ch-24 bit and the sliders below to 16.56 - and then it worked. So all is good now. I just thought I'd post what I did in case anyone else has the same problem.

Sorry to reopen such an old thread, but I just tried to play one of the Geneforge games for the first time in a long time, and I got this same error. I came to the forums and found this thread, and found the Audio MIDI Setup program on my Mac, but under Audio Output, it just says "Output is not supported". Is there some kind of additional software I have to install? I know I used to be able to play Geneforge, but that may have been one or two versions of OS X ago... I'm on 10.4.11 right now if that makes a difference. I don't think there's anything unusual about my audio setup - no other program's ever given me this error, and I listen to music all the time with iTunes. Any idea what I might need to do to get things working?

Thank you so much for that map! I'd been round and round and round trying to find a way to that place with the barrier, and it was driving me insane!

Apparently if you've already explored the tunnels before you pick up this particular quest, it doesn't work out so well. I went down the ladder where Kelda told me to, and there was nothing there but a couple of rats. No ambush. When I went back up and talked to her, though, I had the option of saying that she'd led me into an ambush. So that part was OK. With Kolata, though, I went into the Three Tunnels Claim after talking to him and there was nothing and no one there. When I went back and tried talking to both him and Pefko again, there was nothing about an ambush, so I guess I missed out on that one.

I would have to say the very best Avernum line ever was from back in #3: "I love horses. In a healthy, natural way, of course." Years later, that one (and creative variations thereof) is still being repeated by friends of mine, some of whom never even actually played the game.