Living with a geas question

[1770olli]

I Took Gladwells geas and now It's compelling me to kill the drake. Does the geas need to be obeyed or can I get around somehow when it orders me.

[Lilith]

The first geas quest must be obeyed. The later ones can be avoided, but only with significant penalties. You shouldn't have signed up if you weren't willing to hold up your end of the bargain.

[1770olli]

Thanks for the info. Think I'll make a brand new game and avoid said geas.

[Emperor Tullegolar]

Aw, come on, put that thing out of its misery. It's the humane thing to do. You can always just avoid the town after doing the deed, though I'm not sure why you would want to do that. Any true Empire soldier would be more than happy to wipe out an enclave of hostile Avernum scum. They are so inconsiderate of their own people that it won't even effect your relations with the other outposts in Avernum, not in the least!

 

In conclusion: the geas can be fun. You will be missing out if you don't take it.

[Rent-an-Ihrno]

is it possible that you sympathize with the darkside loyalists, tullegolar?

 

seriously, why does everybody have such a hard time doing immoral things in games? there's no "innocent" fraction left in avernum, anyway... actually, i kind of miss the feeling from avernum 1-3, where you knew you are on the right side... though the new atmosphere is more realistic, of course.

[madrigan]

Quote:

Originally written by Rent-an-Ihrno:
seriously, why does everybody have such a hard time doing immoral things in games? there's no "innocent" fraction left in avernum, anyway... .

There my be no purely innocent faction, but I don't think it's hard to pick out the Avernites as the good guys. Prazac or no, the Empire is still a vast dictatorship with a history of genocide.

Granting that Avernum is a monarchy, I don't think that the histories of the two nations are comparable. The worst of the Avernites are the residents of Highground, and it's made clear during the game that the Avernite government would not approve of their treatment of new settlers.

I always play the good guys. I always root for the hero. Sometimes I think about playing the other side, but I can't do it. It just doesn't seem right, even in fiction. I have to compromise all the time in real life. In fantasy, I get to always do the right thing.

I appreciate that Jeff's games offer moral and ethical dilemmas, but I still think one can see where the line is, and I know what side of it I'm on.

[Evnissyen]

I'm shocked, Emperor Tullegolar, at your attitude! The Avernites are not scum!

 

Anyhow... Rent-an-Ihrno: Well... It's fun to feel personally involved in the game. I like games with a story, I don't like shoot-em-ups. I kind of like to feel involved in the game and act according to how I would in real life, and treat dilemmas with some attitude of seriousness. You choose to be evil, or you choose to be your self, or you try to find some other route (if the game allows it).

 

The Geneforge series was better, I think, with the questionable virtues and rough edges of certain allegiances. In G3 You had to choose, eventually, between two factions, and both factions were Wrong. G4 offered a 3rd faction, but unfortunately it wasn't too viable a one.

 

Oh, yeah... and as far as cruel towns go... Highground is not really up there, in my opinion. They're only protecting their own interests, if somewhat fanatically. If you want to talk about cruel towns, take Spire in A4 (in the Abyss). There's a town I wouldn't want to live in.

[Rent-an-Ihrno]

yeah, there definately are rougher places than highground in avernum. however, i actually don't see the controversy - when i make a new party, i always decide upon whether to be good or evil, aggressive or cautious, etc. i give my characters an identity, and then stick to it when i play.

 

isn't it one of the fun aspects about games that you can choose to be evil? in real life, i wouldn't kill the drake, of course, and when i decide to play a "good" party, i don't. but wow i mean hell, if you actually can't make yourself breaking your moral values in the virtual, absolutely inexistant world of avernum, then i don't know...

 

same thing with the geas. who cares about the anama or solberg? get gladwells rewards, and then kill him and loot his tower! yaay!

[Evnissyen]

Yay, indeed.

 

I'm pretty much bound to the Gladwell bargain, and I'm not sure yet if I have a choice or not with Coercion Act #3. Plus I have a suspicion as to whom the artifact in question might rightfully belong to, and it's not Landman.

 

I'll end up killing Gladwell, anyway, 'cause he's an s.o.b. who has it coming. I mean: the bastard made me kill that poor drake just so he could make himself a coat?

 

He's gonna die, and soon. His tower's mine, and everything in it. I'll take his skin and make a coat out of it.

 

Maybe there should be an option for creepy revenge stuff like that.

 

(Jeff?)

 

I think Madrigan actually has an interesting point, here: Fantasy stories are pretty generally about Nice vs. Mean, wherein Nice always ends up, unlike in real life, winning. It's escapist, and it's nice to feel that, unlike in real life, you can be heroic and make things right and kill off all the s.o.b.'s. So... yeah, for me, too, I might decide initially to play the Mean one, but I have to be able to rationalize it; otherwise: in practice it just doesn't feel good, and games are supposed to make me feel good. In Geneforge 3 I was able to play for one side and then re-play it for another, because I was able to understand the argument for either side. In the case of A5, though: if I go through the game again I can never play the bidding of Highground in regard the Giants, and I could also never join the DSLs... because neither has provided me a rational argument that allows me to sympathize.

[madrigan]

Quote:

Originally written by Clavicle:

Oh, yeah... and as far as cruel towns go... Highground is not really up there, in my opinion. They're only protecting their own interests, if somewhat fanatically. If you want to talk about cruel towns, take Spire in A4 (in the Abyss). There's a town I wouldn't want to live in.

Yeah, Spire's a rotten place, even putting aside the the affiliation of the "queen." But I see Spire as the product of a legitimate grievance gone out of control -- some individuals who are loners or very eccentric getting pushed out of normal society and forming this new community for self-defense. Of course, Gladwell lived there, and he might be the worst person in A4 or 5.

But the Highgrounders are greedy and malicious. "We got here first!" is not much of a moral principle. If all Avernite settlers took the approach they do in Highground, there would be like a hundred people living there, all within a mile of the original portal.

I'd also nominate Hinkle from A4 to the Lousy Avernites Hall of Fame. I hate that guy. Also that serial killer guy that lived near Bargha.

[Evnissyen]

I've forgotten so much of this stuff from A4. Whatever happened to Gladwell, anyhow? Granted he was crazy, and cast into the Abyss by A4, but I think we're missing a large chunk of Gladwell Narrative between his Bargha days and his Gladwell Tower insanity. He also, somewhere along the line, obviously lost the knack (or will) of socializing. Perhaps he's just been exiled one too many times and therefore he now hates people, even life, but only lingers on to prove himself to those who doubted him... ?

 

I'm psychoanalyzing too much.

 

I remember that the family near Mertis who killed people who refused to marry their daughter was rather disturbing. 3 sons being trained in the family business... of killing their sister's non-suiters.