springacres

Or take Alcander along when you're chasing Chabon through the dungeons and listen to his commentary.

Have to admit that Avadon was my first Spiderweb game. Also bought Avernum and Geneforge after that.But I have to admit that only Geneforge 5 starts to get bearable for me from these older games.

Avernum Escape from the Pit was one of the best CRPG experiences I had yet.

Mine too. I prefer its more linear style of playing to A:EftP, myself, but to each his/her own. I also have demos for several of the Geneforge and Avernum games, but the older graphics make them a bit tough for me to play just because they're not as visually engaging.

That's actually not Zhossa's lair, it's someone else's and is the location for a side quest later on.

I'm on Mavericks and having no issues whatsoever.

It's Craftmaster Nicodemus, creator of useless junk (in Avadon 1) and malfunctioning turrets. Of course that's what they would do. And then every Eye, Hand, and servant in Avadon would hoist you on their shoulders and parade you around.

 

Dikiyoba.

And Alcander would be leading the parade and being genuinely cheerful/less pissed off for once.

There are places where if you admit to doing things to Callan and Redbeard, they mention that you will be punished for the actions for Dedrick and Yoshiria's quests, but the punishments are postponed for now in order to deal with Dheless. They do mind, but right now isn't the time to deal with it when Avadon needs even Hands of questionable loyalty.

I wasn't aware of that, but in this game I still struggled with reporting anything to Callan and Redbeard. In the end, I only told Callan about Khalida's and Yannick's issues because my character was worried about them and felt that SOME explanation was required. By the time he got around to talking to Redbeard about Dedrick, he had already joined the Wyldrylm rebellion and didn't mind telling a bald-faced lie to keep his fellow Hand out of trouble. And it never crossed his mind to rat out Alcander or Yoshiria.

Also, a lot of boss and sub-boss encounters require you to initiate combat by talking to the enemy in question beforehand. This is an excellent time to summon turrets and use any buffs you want to. This goes for shaman summons and wands of calling as well, and is pretty much required if you want to do well with summoning characters on the higher difficulty levels.

Agreed, but be careful of timing. Summoned allies and blessings only last a couple turns, and moving too far counts as taking a turn whether you're in combat or not, so I'd suggest keeping that in mind. (I personally prefer to wait till the start of combat and risk taking damage for a turn or two... but that's just me.)

Yeah, I realized today that one thing I really like about Avadon 2 is the game giving your character a little bit of backstory before s/he actually gets to the Black Fortress.

I'm also starting to revise my opinion of Alcander. He gets a little more fun as the game progresses. I'm now torn between wanting to sock him and wanting to laugh at his angry bluster.

...Then again, I did bring him along for the final Miranda fight.

You should be able to center the screen on the PC by double clicking his/her icon on the left hand side of the screen, but other than that I'm not aware of a way to follow the player per se.

I think it was the moral complexity issue that really drew me into Avadon 1. Avadon 2 has it in spades - when my character has to make a decision that affects the storyline, it's often the case that none of the choices are particularly good. (Khalida's and Dedrick's quests come to mind.)

I also really like having NPCs as party members. I wish there were more chances to talk to them when they were in your party (as opposed to just waiting till they were back in Avadon, or having dialogue pop up at pre-ordained points as you're crossing the landscape), but that's just me wanting to deepen the bonds between my character and the other Hands. And as a girl gamer who plays both male and female characters, I love having options for female blademasters/shadowwalkers and male sorcerers/shamans!

I was a little surprised and disappointed by the mechanics of the tinkermage class, however. A (semi)wizard/sorcerer type that can't carry wands and can only cast spells to summon inanimate objects, that wasn't even mentioned in the first game? (Granted, in the first game we never went to Dharam and I don't recall any Dharamite NPCs, but still.) I do agree, however, that it's nice to have something outside of the usual RPG character montage to play around with, and I may yet develop a tinker character.

The biggest issue I've had so far was with Redbeard. Every playthrough of Avadon 1, my characters tried to kill him. I knew that wouldn't be canon for Avadon 2, but they felt they had no option but to try to replace him anyway. And yet, I was still disappointed to find him still alive and still Keeper. Then I got to thinking... hmm, those memory lapses and that tired demeanor... maybe he WAS dead and someone resurrected him, but the spell went awry or made it so his Chuck Norris potion was less effective?

I know, I know, flimsy rationalization, but it was the only explanation I could come up with that both made sense of his death in Avadon 1 (if one chose to play it that way) and his reappearance here.

I just got through this last night with my blademaster (on casual, I like laid back gaming). I can't remember exactly how I did it, but the green potions (rejuvenation? renewal? whatever they're called), a wand of corruption or two, a wand of calling, battle frenzy, berserker slash and sharpshooter spray are a blademaster's best friends.

Basically, stock up on AoE wands and scrolls, and if you're not playing a shaman or tinkermage you will for sure want a wand of calling. (You might want one even if you are playing one of those classes... extra summoned companions never hurt anyone except your enemies.)

Ah, thanks for the info.

I got the quest from the commander to locate the smugglers' tunnels, but the only one I can find (in the house with the angry farmers on the east edge of the Beraza Woods) doesn't help me complete the quest. Where else should I look? (Using Avadon v1.0.3 purchased from Mac Game Store, don't know if that makes a difference)

Hanvar's Council is in Avadon. If I remember correctly you should be able to find it fairly early on, too.

Hanvar's Council is in the Avadon dungeons. You should be able to find it on your first quest actually.

If you're talking after the third time at Castle Vebeaux?

This frustrated me too, a little bit, but then I realized it's also possible that the other areas simply weren't having problems they couldn't deal with themselves, or they were having issues and Redbeard simply couldn't be bothered to send Hands to deal with them. Or their problems were brought to the attention of other Hearts, who sent other Hands to deal with them.

A lot of things are possible, really, but I have to agree with the OP that I hope we'll be able to explore a lot more in the next installment. I'd love to visit the Tawon Empire, the Wyldrylm, or even see more of The Kva, Holklanda and Kellemderiel.

Yeah, realized that after the next time I talked to Callan

I was able to find enough even without the ogres' lair (not having thought to check the pillars while I was in the eastern part, which would of course have helped greatly.) I think there were two in the abandoned mine, two in Neray's lair, and one in the western part of the ogres' tunnels if I recall correctly. But it is possible to finish this even without access to the blocked-off eastern part.

I forget what the reward is or what the quest is called, but there should be a third quest from Hand Callan involving clearing out the maddened hellhounds from the upper holding cells (the stairway across the hall from Miranda's office leads there).