Skribane Sub-plot

[Pyro]

So I've been through the game and found a couple dialogues relating to skribane (sp?) a dry leaf in a box and some crazy ppeps withh green stuff on their face...

 

anyway is there a real subplot to this like you find out whos supplying it or something?

[Dikiyoba]

I haven't finished the game yet, but I think there are a few hints that the Darkside Loyalists are behind it. Dervish Tholmen talked about slipping skribbane (two b's) into the food of the thugs participating in the Howling Depths ambush, for one.

 

Dikiyoba.

[Synergy]

Of course, skribbane itself is not new to Avernum games. You can use and become a skribbane addict in Avernum 3 on the surface world, if you so choose. It seems to act like a combination of speed and opiate at the same time, while looking like something more...herbal.

 

-S-

[Toby-Linn]

I believe the Darkside Loyalists were also supplying it to Avernum people as a way to lower morale and/or damage us in some way.

 

But I for one, didn't find out more about it other than the brief references mentioned by Pyro.

 

And I always stayed clear of it in Avernum 3, other than being a drug mule between the Isle of Bigail and Lorelei.

 

edited to add Avernum 3 reference

[Randomizer]

There is a crazed miner in the Drake Pillars. Tholmen uses it to "inspire" the Avenites he employs in the Howling Depths, and Elmer in the Azure Gallery is running low on his supply that he's been selling to the miners.

 

Consider it part of the local color, green.

[Evnissyen]

Wait a minute, Randomizer, are you suggesting the Irish have something to do with this?

 

If so, I'm about to take umbrage.

 

...Anyhow, drug addiction can also be an effective way of controlling your otherwise possibly not-so-reliable subjects. I'm sure Dorikas hadn't overlooked this aspect.

 

[Randomizer]

No, I wasn't suggesting Irish. Skribbane leaves a green color.

[Dikiyoba]

It's kind of funny that despite crazed skribbane addicts trying to to kill my party on two separate occasions, the PCs still seem to think it's not their problem. Although given the number of times people have tried to kill them, they're probably very good at taking it in stride.

 

Dikiyoba.

[Rowen]

To bad my party couldn't get any skribbane to chew on. I loved that stuff in A3.

[Synergy]

Yeah, I just re-encountered Gormus, in Highground, who attacks you on sight when you open the door to his room in the inn. After dispatching him, you find traces of a green leaf in the jar in his room. Of course, one could make the argument that if four big armed humans, nephils, and sliths burst into your room, while you were chilling in your own room at the inn, you might be inclined to reach for your sword first, and ask questions later. I'm surprised more people don't attack you on sight for nosing around everywhere (as I do) and stealing everything available (as I also do.)

 

-S-

[Evnissyen]

I'm still amazed that I can pick stuff out of people's private stashes and then sell it back to them. Even if they see me do it.

 

[Sleeping Dragon]

Well, you are very heavily armed. Must be intimidating.

[Evnissyen]

But they seem so happy about it, and they never seem to even recognize their own property.

 

Even if they have like 12 endurance and their only method of attack is punching me... they've no qualms about attacking me if I'm brazen enough to steal 4 or 5 things in their (or somebody else's) presence. And yet... if I steal only 2 or 3, or appropriate something in their shop that isn't marked "NY" and then say, "Hi, this is mine; I'd like to sell it to you?", then they're like, "Oh, thank you very much for your business, come again!"

 

[Rowen]

Maybe bring back the days when if you steal and are seen that the people turn hostile on you.

[Alorael at Large]

Maybe set the limit of theft to a certain value rather than a certain number of items. And then maybe flag some items as always triggering hostile response?

 

—Alorael, who thinks in the end maybe the original theft system was ideal (except for kleptomaniacs).

[Evnissyen]

Well, sometimes they've got something marked NY that's so magnetic that you just have to steal it.

 

No, I was suggesting a more realistic dialogue system that would necessitate hours and hours, maybe weeks of exhaustive extra programming. Something to really get Jeff overworked and annoyed because he believes so much, as do I, in verisimilitude.

 

[The Mystic]

I for one have been known to steal anything in the game that can be sold as long as it's not nailed down. For in-game theft, it's only wrong if somebody sees you.

[Synergy]

If there was any sense of a moral issue or actual consequence in the game, theft would be more of a decision. As transparently reduced to basic math as it is, there is absoultely no reason not to steal everything up to the limit to make a town angry or that you can filch out of sight. This bugs me. I think theft should be far less habitual and harder to get away with, perhaps reserved for especially desirable items. And have your thief/Tool Use factor in somehow to the likelihood of your success.

 

It would also make sense to me that even if you thieve out of sight, people will figure out who did it often enough, and it should hit your reputation. If you still had a reputation.

 

-S-

[Randomizer]

I always wanted the merchants to start increasing prices to cover their losses and buying for less. Pretty soon it won't be cost effective to steal unless you really need that item.

[Synergy]

And if you're bad enough, some people would stop talking to you, stop giving you quests, give you smaller rewards, and stop selling to you. If you're really bad, vigilantes in town would ambush you out in the wilderness. Now, this would be great fun.

 

-S-

[Sleeping Dragon]

Hmm, I've never tried stealing anything before. I think in the old Exile games you couldn't get away with it, so it's just become habit. I figure if it's marked as not yours, then you really weren't meant to have it anyway.

[Goldengirl]

It was incredibly easy to steal in the first Trilogy. I stole whatever I wanted, by using the "Use Ability" button after I had put the stuff in my inventory. Worked like a charm. Too bad that Jeff got rid of that from BOA onwards. And I bet he completely erradicates it after he remakes the Avernum Trilogy.

[Dikiyoba]

I steal when no one can see me, but not in front of people. I figure no one know exactly who's taking all their stuff if I do it in secret, plus I want a little wiggle room in case I accidentally grab something marked NY later on.

 

Dikiyoba is just very glad no one else is a thief. Storing items right by the pylons may no longer be the wisest idea once people start using them all the time.

[Evnissyen]

Yeah, Reputation would be cool. And I've always wondered why people don't eventually figure these things out... when they go to look for their stuff, don't they wonder why it's suddenly gone? Shouldn't any of them suspect me?

 

I'd also like to be able to anger random people enough that they would send out bounty hunters for me. In A4 I was hoping that, after talking to that rich girl with the crazy family near Mertis, one of the brothers would come after me. It never happened, of course.

 

I was disappointed.

 

Dikiyoba:

I always find an abandoned room, and/or preferably a chest or box, to keep my stash in, because I have this neurotic idea that, despite the game not being programmed this way, my stuff's going to disappear.

 

It should, if it's not secured this way.

 

[Alorael at Large]

The best, of course, was always pushing a barrel or crate into a room, closing the door, and then stealing all the contents and leaving. No one could ever see that coming!

 

—Alorael, who on the other hand can see how maybe eventually the townsfolk should stop caring. When you're all that stands between civilization and utter destruction by demons/monster plagues/the Empire/crass materialism, you get a little leeway.

[Archaeolagent]

My favorite was casting Fire Barrier to block the line-of-sight of the stubbornly immobile NPCs.

[Evnissyen]

Ugh, I'm glad the days of barrel-pushing have passed. That was tiresome.

 

Barrels are meant to stay put!

 

Although... Alorael does have a point, as far as stealing stuff goes.