Treasures of the Savage Frontier, Chapter 9: Savage Love

Amanitas directs us to our next destination, the isle of Mintarn.

There are a number of docks in Treasures. Arriving at the correct one at the appointed time gives the player the option to go to one of the many islands in the game. I'm probably going to sound a like a nit-picker, but honestly all the boats and islands just make me think this game is designed around the idea of "It's the same, but MORE!"

The Company of the Brazen Pennant is a nice call back to the first game, though.

As usual, I spoke with the NPC, then had to search the island for the enemy. In this case, I had to calm "The Tyrant", ruler of Mintarn, and convince him that we were here to help; not to attack on Waterdeep's behalf. The fake Waterdhavians had made landfall and occupied a good portion of his island. I also met Jagaerda, from Gateway, who was a pleasantly more mature conversationalist this time around.

The Tyrant is understandably unhappy that his docks have been taken over.

Exploring Mintarn was a bear. At least one character was knocked unconscious every other battle, and they were routinely getting killed, requiring a trek back to the temple. There were a ton of fire giants, who were hitting for 25-35 damage per hit. I assume this is a bug; I checked the 1st edition Monster Manual (Purchased by pdf from DriveThruRPG), and it lists fire giants as doing 5-30 damage. It's easy to rest in this game, and the temples are free. I'd prefer the combats to be less difficult and have less places to rest, though. I think D&D is at its best as a game of attrition, otherwise the combats are more about luck, because in order to challenge a player who is always at full power, the foes must be of equal power. This makes combats 50/50 at best.

Amusing descriptions did not make the combats any more fun, unfortunately.

I took care of business as usual. After a number of tries, I was able to defeat a Zhentarim first in the Axis of Evil battle, and get the final crystal. I received a magic weapon as a reward, which I gave to Jagaerda as my other characters didn't have much use for it. She wouldn't leave the isles, so I decided to go to Orlumber.

Then things got a bit crazy. All I really wanted to do was get back to home base, rest, and train. However, going back to the mainland would mean leaving Jagaerda behind. Then, as I board the boat, my girlfriend is captured! She gets taken off in a skiff headed North. I can't follow it directly, so I decide to head to Neverwinter and look for her. Upon arriving in Neverwinter I'm immediately searched by guards. They find a planted note (This trope gets VERY tired in the Savage Frontier games, it seemed like I was constantly getting set-up and framed, with nothing I could do about it), and I am taken before Lord Nasher. He decides we are to be sent to Orlumber... All that because I simply wanted to get back to Yartar with its vault and training hall. Normally, open world games are lauded, and generally I agree, but here again is shown the potential pitfall. "I'm just trying to find the Inn," is what I'm naming this trope. That's what I want to say to all the characters who approach me with quests in Elder Scrolls games whenever I enter a new town.

Sometimes this game is too much. To recap, in ten minutes of play time: my girlfriend was captured, I changed course, was then searched and captured by guards for something different, then sent to an island on a ship, which was itself attacked. That's right, the ship I am sent to Orlumber on gets attacked by pirates, and there is a scripted scene where one of my characters grabs the keys to their cell, and they barely escape before the boat sinks. This serves the slight purpose of having the characters arrive on the island as free men and not prisoners, but it still comes off as pointless filler. In fact, I think it would have been more interesting if they had been delivered as prisoners, and the player actually needed to do something to escape.

So, I think this game has issues, I'm sure you're probably picking up on that, dear reader. I completed the game before Christmas, and its hard enough to get myself to write about it, let alone create the fiction accompaniments. I may have to pass on those for the rest of this one.

I'm eagerly awaiting the moment when The CRPG Addict makes it to Treasures, because I want to contrast his opinion with mine. I believe he has much more patience than I, so it will be a good check to see if I'm just being a negative-nancy because this game didn't live up to my expectations.