Treasures of the Savage Frontier, Chapter 10: They Are All Kept Equal, By Hatchet, Axe, and Sword

After the ship they were aboard was attacked and sank, our party finds themselves fortuitously washing ashore on the island they were headed to, at Farr Windward. Or, it could be considered non-fortuitous, as Farr Windward is a colony meant to hold the insane, and those otherwise not fit to be in regular society.

Farr Windward comes from the established Forgotten Realms lore. I think it's a very cool concept; it's an insane asylum in a fantasy world. That's not something I can recall being done before. I think it's obvious the designer of Treasures was also taken with the idea, as Farr Windward is the most developed side quest I found, and arguably the only really interesting part of the game.

This is the picture that greets the party as they emerge from the island's tunnels; a not so subtle hint that this isn't your typical village.

As the party arrives, they are swept along in a raucous parade. They soon find out that this celebration is actually a funeral procession. This is presented as strange, which to most people it might by. I honestly hope people are celebrating at my funeral or wake, but ya know, maybe I belong in Farr Windward too.

The colony had many unique items for sale; mostly different types of their biggest export, "farrberjiks". These included farrberjiks, farrberjik lined robes, fuzzy farrberjiks, and farrberjik lined boots. As they were all quite expensive, I couldn't resist looking in the clue book to see if any of them were actually useful. It turned out that the farrberjik lined boots acted as boots of striding and springing, which allowed the user to jump in combat, which worked like a dimension door. I thought they were going to be very useful for my thief to get behind opponents, but unfortunately I didn't end up using them that much.

My favorite items were the "certificates of normalcy", not wanting to appear to be queer, I of course picked these up immediately.

The party was approached by an interesting fellow who introduced himself as Ougo the Strange. He noted the party's normalcy, perhaps it was our certificates. He seemed harmless enough, so was added to the party.

Ougo gives hints like this. Here he is saying the walls have "ears", meaning that there is a secret door leading to spies.

This one took me a second, 10 Gil to the first to decode what Ougo is saying.

With Ougo's help, the party discovers that the guards of Farr Windward are also spying on the inhabitants; keeping detailed files on their every move. It would seem Farr Windward is not just an asylum for the insane, but also an internment camp for the politically inconvenient.

After discovering the spies, I couldn't find anything else to do, so left Farr Windward. Ougo would not go with us, so I felt there was probably something more to do in the town. I checked the cluebook, because I didn't want to miss anything here. It turned out I had missed a secret door (Once again, this is how every dungeon in this game works: find NPC, fight enemies behind secret doors). 

Behind this second door, the party finds a man who is about to be branded with the distinctive red circle that marks Farr Windward's inhabitants. Anyone marked with this brand is not allowed to leave the colony. Ougo grabs it excitedly, and leads the party back to the house of the man whose death was initially being celebrated as they arrived. It turns out, his death was a ruse.

Ougo is apparently an excellent living statue. Haalbok covers him in white paint, and this convinces the guards at the gates that he is in fact carved from wood. 

The party then makes their way to the other side of the island, through long, dark tunnels. Since this is Treasures of the Savage Frontier, we can't have a section that is perfectly polished, so the tunnels have an insane encounter rate. I feel like it's a bug, one of the many things QA should have caught, in my opinion. I was fighting very tough encounters every few steps.

Being the heroes of Ascore bearing a gift for the leader of Orlumber, the party is granted audience. Then Ougo springs to life!

  

The man yells "But... I'm normal!" 

Ougo replies "I also feel I am normal."

Ougo suggests that the brand be declared to have no meaning, and then the problem will be solved. The ruler of Orlumber relents, to save himself.

This is all presented in a somewhat righteous fashion; letting the free-thinkers free in a sense. I personally have my qualms about releasing the certifiably insane back in to the public, but hey, its just a game. The point of not persecuting people simply for thinking out-of-the-box is done well.

Altogether, I did really enjoy Farr Windward. Like I said, it is arguably the best part of the game, the only thing that comes close is the end game, but I'll get to that later. The unfortunate part here is that it's a side quest, easily missed if the party simply decides to leave the island.

Truly, now everyone is "normal."

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