Treasures of the Savage Frontier, Chapter 8: Love is in the Error

Entering the market, the Heroes were overwhelmed with noise. Everywhere they could see were throngs of people. More than a few were browsers, but most were engaged in haggling, making purchases, or conversing with their friends about the ins-and-outs of being a rancher.

Even with the din of so many folk engaged in trade, heated voices could still be heard coming from one end of the market, in a remote stall. Hands on the hilts of their weapons, the party investigated. They found a group of men arguing. When they approached, the argument stopped, and four of the men immediately drew sinister looking knives. As their black cloaks were swept aside, upon one of their forearms was revealed a tatoo... of a purple kraken.

It looked something like this; more kraken tats at the source.

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Next up, Amanitas clues the party in that there is trouble in Longsaddle. I think this is about the time where I really started to feel the game was very repetitive, and got increasingly frustrated. The Longsaddle map followed a pattern that had been established: find the NPC, then fight what feels like the same battles over and over.

Treasures does deserve credit for atmosphere building encounters like this, but in the end there wasn't enough substance in between to satisfy me.

In this case I was fighting Banites, griffons and harpies. There's nothing wrong with griffons and harpies, expect that I'd been fighting loads and loads of them all the way back to Gateway to the Savage Frontier. Here in Longsaddle, the ranches around town are being overrun by men and beasts. You clear one of griffons, then are directed to the next one to clear it of harpies, rinse and repeat a whole bunch of times.

There was a kind of fun moment where you can push past this guard, and find out he is being held by Krakens, bound hand and foot. Which is then tempered by a battle with... the same enemies you've been fighting since getting drugged in Yartar.

...Then it's griffons!

More griffons!

...and harpies, oh my!

After defeating all of the battles, Malchor Harpell, the magic-using leader of Longsaddle appears and lays out the main quest pretty point blank. More Kraken and Zhentarim plots are unfolding, he says, then goes on to say that the autumn Council of Mirabar will be meeting soon in that great northern city. They will vote on whether to support Waterdeep against Luskan. "Only the Heroes of Ascore" can uncover all the plots in time for the Council. Without presenting evidence of the plots, Mirabar will likely vote against helping the Lord's Alliance, which could spell doom for the northern cities. The whole thing sounds a lot more interesting on paper than it ends up being in the game.

Malchor transports in, gives you a five-fingers-to-the-face plot-slap, then transports away. "Malchor out!"

The Tower of Twilight, where it is mentioned above that Malchor is presently occupying, looks like its a side-quest. I explored it a little, but after a battle with a horde spectres decided to skip it. I aint about no level-drainin' undead.

The ground begins to show the signs of approaching winter.

Now is a good time to mention that Treasures adds a new mechanic to expand the Gold Box engine, weather. The fact that "Winter is coming" is alluded to a number of times. After Longsaddle, the game even depicted this by changing the ground to have a frost/snow covered look to it. It was a nice touch.

The game also updates you on whether it is clear, raining, or snowing as you travel. Rain and snow impede movement in battle. On the surface this sounds like a neat addition, but in practice, like much of this game, I think it came out a little half-baked. I think it would have worked if rain and snow also impeded sight and range along with movement; as far as I can tell they do not, though. This means that the already overbalanced magic in the game becomes even more powerful and important. More dependence on magic means more luck based encounters that are determined by saving throws. That is the last thing a Gold Box game needs.

Another new mechanic played a part while I was in Longsaddle, that of romance. A chance to romance an NPC all the way back in 1992? Revolutionary right? On the surface, once again, it seems like a neat addition. Then there's the half-baked part. Once the characters have declared their love, they (according to the clue book) begin to fight better when both are in the party, and less effectively when one of them isn't. That's fine, but if one of them goes down in battle, the partner goes berserk. The bad part of this is that the AI isn't great, so my berserk character would start making very bad decisions that would often lose me battles. This continues the themes of this game, it's neat for the storyline, but overall it's not worth it. The mechanic would been fine with a simple fix, make them "enraged" with a bonus to hit, penalty to AC, and leave control in the hands of the player.

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The Heroes of Ascore were making camp in the woods outside of Longsaddle. It was twilight as tiny white flakes began to descend upon the party. The air had that peculiar crispness and chill that could mean only one thing, "Winter is coming," Chode Hammer observed.

"We've seen plenty of snow already, I'd say it's already here," Aria commented.

As Marcus got their fire started, the others noticed that Augustar and Siulajia were acting a bit peculiar. It was not peculiar that they were arm-and-arm, that was normal, but they were whispering intently and seemed a bit nervous.

The two stood, and Augustar cleared his throat. "Siulajia and I have fallen in love with eachother..." he declared.

Never one for subtleties, August got straight to the point. After the two proclaimed their love for eachother, they promised to fight just as faithfully for the good of the party, if not more so than before. They asked for acceptance. After a moment of silence and glances, around the circle of the firelight, all agreed they would support the two. Hugs and congratulations were had all around, and for a night at least, the threat to the North was forgotten.