Forgotten World - 4: Centaurs and Slavers

August awoke late in the morning at the Spearpoint inn. A stiffness assailed his arm muscles, bringing to memory his close fight with the ogre the night before. He regretted collapsing on his bed without stretching properly. Over a breakfast of pan fried ham and spiced potatoes, he mused to himself that he didn't relish heading back out to explore this town, as it seemed to be veritably overflowing with baddies. Such was the life of the adventurer however, he decided, securing his battle axe to his belt. He nodded to the proprietor of the inn, and headed out into the streets.

Bastille has a number of anthropomorphic inhabitants.

August's thoughts echo my own a bit, the exploration and discovery aspect of Forgotten World is certainly it's strongest point. However, the combats are so difficult that it can quickly become a drag. I was excited to see what the town of Spearpoint had to offer, however, I can basically handle one encounter, random or not, before having to head back to the inn. Sometimes two is plausible, but I usually need to use my single fireball and my stinking cloud spells which are fairly essential. I'm sure this stems from the game being designed around the assumption that only the most powerful characters would be adventuring solo. I'm not sure how I feel about this. It seems like there is a very small amount of area to build up your beginning character and still survive, which means you have to grind for hours, days, whatever, to be able to get to "the good stuff". I'm not sure what exactly is at fault here. Either I am playing the game poorly, the folks who played when the game was designed were much more patient, or it's entirely dependent on having adventuring companions. I'm not sure exactly what combination of things is at fault, but I'm willing to keep trying some different things. 

It's notable that people are certainly still playing, based on the status screen that summarizes who is playing currently, and who has recently, but I've only ever actually seen another player on once at the same time as myself! To be fair, some players may have logged on while I was playing and I hadn't noticed... you do have to check by hitting Shift-F2 in game.

The status screen at http://www.forgottenworld.com/WorldStatus.aspx See? I was playing.

It was a fine day August found himself in as he exited the inn, his boots crunching on the packed dirt and gravel. The main street through the tightly packed houses and businesses of Spearpoint was once again conspicuously empty. This was only slightly comforting, as August knew that a horde of thieves and their damned walking trees could be hiding anywhere.

I have fought this random battle SO MANY times...

Continuing my exploration of the town, I did come across one very cool encounter. A centaur is being rangled by gnolls. The centaur fought with me as an ally, shooting arrows at the pesky gnolls and their giant rats. After helping him, the centaur mentions that the gnolls were slavers, hoping to sell him in Tsugaria. The name Tsugaria had come up earlier as well, in a conversation with the Mayor of Spearpoint. He had called the Tsugarians "Pirates-turned-tyrants", and believes them to be responsible for the monsters in Spearpoint.

I wonder if this info about a secret passage beneath a cliff will be handy later.

The remaining encounters in Spearpoint were simply difficult combats, which as you can guess, I was fairly non-plussed about. Getting creamed once and coming up with a new strategy can be fun, but getting smashed three times by a mammoth is not so fun. A mammoth! In a house... with... spies? Then there was a greenhag leading "browlers", who otherwise look like owlbears of D&D fame. Which was kind of cool until I got smashed by them too. These battles seemed winnable, but I need a lot of luck. I don't like depending on luck.

These spies have a trained mammoth! That they keep... in their new house.

I know hags are powerful in D&D, but I found that much less scary than the level-draining wight I originally thought her to be!

No doubt a part of my frustration is due to not having played the game for quite a while, and thus having to  get back in the swing of things. After playing again for a couple hours I started to get more comfortable. I've been experimenting with new spell selections. For some reason I wasn't using enlarge, which seems a pretty big oversight, as the jump from 18(15) to18(97) strength should make a big difference in many battles. Most notably, I just leveled up to 6 as a mage, and was thus able to pick up invisibility, which I have high hopes for.

As for what's next on the blog, I still need to finish up my posts on FFX-2, as I finished the game a fair while ago. I thought I was ready to table FRUA: Neverwinter Nights, but... after playing Forgotten World again I'm getting the itch to continue the side by side comparison, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens!

Although he had to all out flee from both a nasty boiled hag and a wooly mammoth, August considered it a successful day. His heroism in the face of the gnoll slavers to save the centaur were enough for him to sleep tonight, he thought as he pulled up his down covers. As to what craziness tomorrow would hold, he could not predict. 

Sleep tight my friends, and for more of the adventures of our hero, August Star, join me again... for This Bard's Tales!

Play Time to Post: 2h 50m

Total Play Time: 21h 50m