springacres

It was morning in the Contested Lands. The young blademaster stretched, yawned, rolled stiffly off the pile of dried grass and blankets that had served him as a bed, and fumbled into his clothes. A quick meal of last night's leftovers washed down with a mug of herbal tea, and he began to feel almost human again. He stepped outside the abandoned barracks where he and his scouting partner had bivouacked the previous night, blinking and squinting as he strode purposefully towards the outhouse. A few minutes later, he reappeared, washed, refreshed and fully awake. Now he was ready to start the day's work. He drew his longsword from its scabbard, got into a fighting stance, and began. Stroke and counterstroke, thrust and follow-through, attacking, parrying, defending; right hand to left hand to right hand, then two-handed, with ever-increasing speed and fluidity - was he battling invisible enemies, or simply dancing with the sword for his own enjoyment? "Fionn!" The sound of his name broke the blademaster's concentration. He misjudged his footing, tripped, staggered, tried to catch his balance, failed, and sat down hard, facing the woman who had called his name. His sword went spinning out of his hand to land with a muffled thump in a patch of nearby grass. "Damn it, Silke, don't scare me like that when I'm holding a blade!" he sputtered once he'd gotten his breath back. Silke just grinned. "I'm not the one whose warm-up exercises make more noise than a pack of hungry wolves," she reminded her trainee. "Anyway, you'd better get off your rear if we want to get today's patrol started. We're due back at Rockridge Keep tomorrow. I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to hot bathwater and clean clothes. Come on." Fionn couldn't help but smile back as he got to his feet. "Agreed. Clean clothes, a hot bath and not having to eat my own cooking will make a nice change for the better." He bent over to pick up his sword, wiped the blade against his breeches (not that that helped much) and put it back in its scabbard. There would be time to clean it properly later. "Your cooking has improved, I'll say that for you. It doesn't taste like feet marinated in week-old vomit anymore." Silke moved to the door of the barracks and peered inside. "Time to break camp."

And if you have a tinkermage, have him summon an ice/inferno turret and either healing or snare/temporal pylon (switch between all 3 if possible). Group heal scrolls/spells are very helpful too.

This is true, as well, I suppose. However, I would say that it's somewhat debatable who actually started that fight. Sure, Dedrik was the one who actually stepped in and did the killing, but the Kva would/should have known that by building a fort near the border of the Contested Lands and sending armed mercenaries there, that the Wyldrylm wouldn't take such a thing lightly. Besides, there's also the issue of Dedrik's banishment here. He's been away from his homeland and family for who knows how long, and the only way to get that revoked even partially is for him to do this. He may be impulsive and, yes, a bit foolish, but I have a hard time seeing him as an idiot. Out of his depth maybe, but not an idiot.

See, that to me is evidence of how conflicted he is. I see him as willing to accept the idea of killing fellow Pact soldiers in theory, and even perhaps in the heat of battle; but once it's over, the reality of what he's done starts to sink in, and he has to struggle to come to terms with it. ^This. Although my favorite combination so far is Alcander and Dedrik, just for the back-and-forth that goes on between them.

I actually preferred Jenell to Nathalie, myself. Nathalie I thought was the arrogant one; Jenell was more the reserved/thoughtful type from my point of view. (Which admittedly can come across as arrogance, so I can kinda see where people might get the idea that Jenell was arrogant.) Ava2... I will admit to having developed a reluctant liking for Alcander. (My blademaster, on the other hand, thinks he needs a high five to the face with one of his own turrets.) I think my favorite NPC, though, is Dedrik. He comes across as both likable and believably conflicted, and he's obviously willing to listen to differing opinions.

I don't know why, but I somehow thought they worked for the whole party. I'm probably wrong, though.

Oh... my mistake, I just knew it could cleave and assumed the chance had to do with the caster's Dex level... and that all magical attacks could cleave.

Or Redbeard is Dheless in disguise. Although I think Lilith's theory makes more sense.

Yeah, I would prefer if the cap in Avadon were more like the one in A:EftP, where after level 30 you still gain levels but only gain 1 stat point every 5 levels. You can buy houses in Avadon 2 - in fact one of the medals requires owning two of them.

Magical attacks can cleave too, if the caster's Dex is high enough.

^This, especially considering how Redbeard and Mamora deal with those threats they get their hands on. (My Ava1 characters would have preferred death to a fate like Lexrem's, and none of them ever considered letting a companion die in exchange for Redbeard sparing them.)

I honestly wasn't even thinking about the combat issue, but you're right, there was a LOT more combat strategy (and more fights, period) involved in Nathalie's quest than Khalida's. I would almost have preferred it if killing Xenophon had at least turned the city guards hostile. And you're right, more steps would have been nice, too. Even something as simple as a visit to Deep Records to find out what it was Khalida was accused of, or a more detailed outline of what they found during her interrogation, might have helped.

It's true the companion side quests are less elaborate here than they were in Avadon 1. There are more steps to them, but they're not as elaborate in terms of actual gameplay. (It's funny you should mention Nathalie's specifically, I always found hers to be the least interesting/compelling of the four.) I do feel, however, that in this game they tied into the storyline better and helped flesh out the characters of your companions. I think that in the first game, their purpose was to show the player an alternate side of Avadon, one that contrasted with Avadon's presentation of itself as an arbiter of justice, more than to flesh out the characters involved. Khalida's quest is a perfect example. The steps she has to take to learn about her past, the conflict she feels once she's uncovered the reasons behind her "stutters", the panic and indecision when you finally confront Xenophon together... it just made her that much more real of a character to me. And then there's the fact that the only truly "good" decision that COULD have been made in her case would involve time-traveling back five years and kicking the [censored] out of Xenophon the instant his accusations were shown to be false. My blademaster agonized over whether to let the guy live or die, and now that it's over and done with, he still can't quite get past the fact that he killed an old man in his own living quarters. But everyone seems to have a slightly different view of what they liked versus what they didn't like, and why. One of the many things that makes this community so enjoyable.

Presumably, true. But it's still sort of entertaining to imagine that it doesn't. ...Or maybe it's just entertaining for dirty-minded players like me.

I will admit, the romance has kind of left me feeling flat too. Then again, when writing scenes like that, it's probably hard to know exactly how to phrase things so as not to offend players with delicate sensibilities. I disagree with the companion quests being forgettable, but then I seem to be approaching this game from a different angle than a lot of the other players I see commenting on this board. I've approached the series so far by bringing in OCs I've been playing for years, so their motivations and backstories are fairly familiar. I feel playing that way gives me more freedom to explore the world and a greater sense of interactivity with the game itself, which in turn makes the companion quests more memorable. (I'm sure I'm not the only one doing this - for all I know, that's how you approached it too - but it just seems that way.)

Yeah, that's why I suspected they were at best potential allies of Konstina's, rather than officially affiliated.

That still wouldn't be much protection, considering how heavy some of the armor is. 8+ pounds of metal on your legs isn't going to be very comfortable without some serious padding.

This has happened to my party on occasion, too. Either my blademaster would decide some cabinet or other needed a bit of extra inspection, or else Alcander found some interesting bit of tinkermage paraphernalia somewhere that he needed to draw/study/steal... (probably not a coincidence that he usually stayed behind near the exit to the Trapped Lair)

What's odd is that Konstina's rebels don't seem interested in him either - and that even if you join the rebellion, that area stays hostile.

Don't know if this is a glitch or not, but I was able to get the Caught Your Quarry medal even though I joined the rebellion and killed Odil instead of Konstina.

Good point. I think it's because on some level my character believes in respecting the traditions of other cultures even if you happen to be at war with them. Edit: I didn't see a way to cancel the quest, so I ended up completing it. To be fair, this character had started the quest before he was 100% sure about joining the rebellion, and he only found out it was in a rebel encampment after he actually tried it. And the brigands did attack him on sight, without even giving him the chance to explain he was working with Konstina.

In Yannick's case, he seems to me to change alignment after doing his personal quest. That's how.

I'd put Shadow Tarkus in the Lawful Neutral category myself, maybe even Lawful Good - but that depends so much on whether you go loyalist or rebel. Alcander - True Neutral. (although my blademaster insists there must be a special category for people he only trusts as far as he can throw them, or as far as their self-interest lies, whichever is less.) Jenell - True Neutral. Silke/Rainer - hard to say, feels either True Neutral or Neutral Good to me. Dedrik - Neutral Good or True Neutral, but I feel he leans more towards Neutral Good. Yannick - kinda goes from Lawful Good to Chaotic Good. Khalida - Lawful Good. Yoshiria - Hard to say, feels more Lawful Neutral than Lawful Good to me, but she could be either.

Already done both of those; I was just wondering if the Blackwood encampment was allied with Konstina. Sounds like not. (...which doesn't make my blademaster's decision any easier. Slay brigands who also happen to be potential allies and risk word getting out to Konstina, or go back on his word to Ain and risk looking like a coward at best...)