Savage Empire: Closing Thoughts

It's taken me some time to figure out how to pull all my thoughts on Savage Empire in something resemebling a cohesive manner. Some of that probably has to do with the fact my playthrough of the game has been rather... extended, compared to the rest of the series I've played thus far. The game isn't quite as fresh in my head as others when compiling these closing thoughts, especially the early parts of the game. But I think more of it stems from the fact I have very mixed feelings about Savage Empire in general, which is making it a little difficult to figure out how to approach a final post on the topic.

Figuring out where the heck I was - one of my favorite parts of the game

Maybe the best place to start is to say that I did enjoy the game a lot - considerably more than I was expecting to going in. I mentioned in my opening post that "Lost World" type things generally aren't my cup of tea, but even in spite of my lukewarm feelings toward the genre as a whole, I had a wonderful time roaming the valley of Eodon. Especially when I wasn't entirely sure of where I was! The memory of exploring where the teleporters all took me and trying to match that to the features of the game map is still my starkest of Savage Empire, and I honestly don't think I'll be able to replicate that feeling in many other games. Sure, games still come with maps, but I feel like the game worlds they depict are, at least these days, too large to properly capture the level of detail that allows me to pinpoint exactly where I am on it. Savage Empire allowed me to figure out where I was on the map based on geographic features like a particular confluence of rivers or a series of cliffs - all of which were replicated on the map. There was something enriching to me about being able to have that experience with material that wasn't necessarily inside the game itself. I'm hoping I can find similar moments when it comes to Martian Dreams - I know the general layout of Britannia a bit too well to expect the same out of Ultima VII!

Design-wise, I think it's interesting to see how Savage Empire iterated on Ultima VI. As the first entry in the series to re-use the same engine as another, there's a lot to be said on how it took existing material and improved upon it. For example, I think moving the conversation text to where the "game" window is, rather than keeping it where the command input appeared, was a good call. There's no need to be staring at the game world during a conversation, and the larger window helped follow the lengthier conversations a bit better. It was nice to see how other things were improved upon as well - character portraits, for example. The background on each of them changed based on locale and time of day, and even in other circumstances (such as Tuomaxx throwing a skin over the Avatar's head). Talking with Jimmy outside at twilight showed him against a background of a starry sky, while conversing with him in a cave showed him in front of stone. It was a lovely touch that brought a lot of life to the world. So too was the fact each tribe felt distinct - the villages, the character design, every visual aspect of the tribes helped distinguish it from the other tribes in the valley, helping to nail down just how varied they were.

It was nice I could make and use these, but the process was complex.

There was also an increased degree of interactivity with the world itself, it felt like, although part of me feels like it was perhaps too much in some circumstances. While it was nice to see more uses for objects, more ways of combining them, and multiple means of obtaining certain items, I think it might have been a little more than was strictly necessary in some cases. The makeshift rifles and bombs swiftly come to mind - there were so many steps in the process, made a bit more complicated by the limited amount of inventory space available to me, that it felt more like busy work than anything else. I ended up never making a homemade rifle simply on account of that fact. While nice in theory, I think making more complicated interactions between objects didn't work very well in practice.

Then, too, is the fact that the re-use of the engine made some problems even more stark in comparison. Ultima VI let me scroll through inventories, effectively letting me have infinite inventory slots on each individual character, so long as they had the strength to carry it all. Not so in Savage Empire, and I was sorely missing it. Bags and containers because all more precious not just because it helped keep everything organized, but because they effectively expanded the number of items I could carry. This was more a mild nuisance than a serious problem, but it was all the more noticeable because it was clear the engine was capable of handling it in Ultima VI.

The bear. Always the bear.

One other thing stands out to me in terms of mechanics as well, and that's how the game handled character progression. I've seen a few comments elsewhere about how the game feels more like an adventure game with light RPG elements rather than a true RPG. I don't call this a "criticism" because it's not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, but for me personally, it did somewhat hamper my enjoyment of the game. Out of all the characters I took with me on my journey, only Jimmy felt like he ever really got better in terms of leveling and the lack. Most of the other characters were already as far advanced were likely to get over the course of the game without large amounts of dedicated grinding - the Avatar himself included. It never felt like this was a detriment to actually getting anywhere in the game itself, but I found myself missing that sense of my characters improving in their capabilities as the game went on. Even on those occasions when I did get to level up a character (and the rarer occasion when that character was someone other than Jimmy), it felt somewhat lackluster, on account of the fact I never picked anything to improve except strength. I was almost always in need of an increased carrying capacity, and the only way for me to cope with that was with more strength. It all felt rather one-dimensional to me - not that this is unusual territory for Ultima, really, intelligence was useless for practically everybody but the Avatar in Ultima VI for instance, and Ultima II's stat increases were entirely random. I think what stands out to me about Savage Empire in this respect, though, is that it was a choice that didn't really feel like one - sure I could improve dexterity or intelligence, but what point was there to either? (That's another thing,

too - I kept forgetting I even had the option of magic, on account of only one character having the capability, and it wasn't the Avatar.) Strength felt like the absolute right choice every time, and thus I didn't see the need to actually choose one of the three at all. And if I have no reason to choose any option except one, then why give me a choice at all?

In which Sahree sums up the plot.

Since it's my own particular point of interest, and at least part of the point of this blog in the first place, I can't get away from Savage Empire without discussing its story, and I have mixed feelings on that particular subject too. Structurally speaking, it's pretty much the same as the rest of the series up to this: there are a set number of tasks you need to accomplish before you're allowed to enter the endgame, and so long as you accomplish them all, how you go about it doesn't matter. Ultima IV doesn't care if you gather the stones of virtue before achieving Partial Avatarhood in Humility, for instance, so long as it's all done before you dive into the Abyss. Ultima V didn't care when you got the Shard of Falsehood or the Crown of Lord British first, so long as it all happened before you went into Dungeon Doom. Similarly, Savage Empire doesn't care if you help the Disquiqui before the Sakkhra, or the Nahuatla before the Pindiro, so long as you've united all the tribes. And on paper, it's an interesting plot - finding ways to convince each individual tribe to join an alliance, each in their own way, finding a means to meet each tribe on its own terms.

In practice, however... well, it falls into the same problem I have with Mass Effect 2. By making "getting X character to join your team" into not just a significant part of the game's story arc, but the bulk of it, it feels too much like reducing the characters to plot coupons, and that doesn't sit well with me in terms of video games. It's the sort of story I feel works better in a book or movie, and I still can't quite put my finger on why. In whatever medium, it does make the characters in question into a plot device, but somehow that feels more... reductive to me when it happens in a video game. Maybe that's because since I'm actively a part of the story of a video game, it makes me more aware of mechanics and function, and thus easier for my brain to perceive characters used in such a manner as a "mechanic" themselves. Or maybe that's because it feels more like the game is telling me how I'm supposed to think about these people rather than letting me come to my own conclusions, made all the more stark on account of the fact I have a more direct role in the story and the main character as a player of a video game. I don't know - I've mused on it a lot and I still don't have a concrete conclusion.

Even though this made some sense, it felt too easy.

I would have also liked to see a bit more interaction between the tribes. There are some very clear rivalries in the valley, but all the resolution between them happens off screen. It would have been nice, for instance, to see members of other tribes appearing in the villages as you united more of them. Some of the tribal quests felt a bit phoned in, too - one just joins right off, without having to even do anything! I understood the sentiment behind it, as far as the chieftain's motivations went, but even so, it would have felt a bit more fulfilling if she had instead required me to, say, convince half the tribes in the valley to join, just as evidence of my ability or commitment to doing so. Everybody else needed some proof that their needs would be seen to, as is understandable from a leader of a tribe. Why not her, then? I could have done with a little more backstory in a few more places, too. The pacing of a story as open as this is a hard thing to balance when you can't be sure what a player is going to go after when, but having done the Nahuatla quest last, where the bulk of the history of the Valley can be found, a lot of that information was something I would have liked to see hinted at a bit more directly. There were touches of this with the Sakkhra tribe, but practically zilch elsewhere, and I definitely felt its lack when I finally made my way into the underground city of the Kotl and learned just how much went into the background of Eodon and the Myrmidex. Of course, some of these complaints are probably the result of a game world that does feel like it truly breathes, and thus makes minor things like this stand out a little more in contrast - it wasn't a bad story by any means, and those parts of it I enjoyed made me all the more starved for those extra bits of polish.

It's good to see these lessons of virtue framed in a different context.

As far as how the game fits into the story of Ultima as a whole, that's another complicated question. I've heard it said that the game might have received better - indeed, might have been a better game, period - if it didn't try to tie itself to the Ultima series. I can understand the reasoning behind such a statement, and in truth I'm not entirely sure whether I even disagree with it. But I'd like to turn that idea the other way around - would Ultima's story have been better without Savage Empire? I'm inclined to say no. Thematically, this is a chance to see how the Avatar has learned the lessons of virtue Britannia, how he applies them outside the purview of the land that taught these lessons to him. It has the potential to touch upon the idea that the quest of the Avatar really is forever, and the lightly mentioned theme at the end of Ultima V that it's not just Britannia that has a need for an example of virtue. Does Savage Empire accomplish such a thing? I think the case can be made for it, when viewed from the right angle. There aren't really dilemmas of virtue in the same way the Age of Enlightment trilogy presented, but there are moments - the questions during character creation, how the Avatar deals with figures like Darden and Spector, how the player feels in the aftermath, even if there's no direct choice involved. It's not something addressed clearly in the game itself, but I said back during my playthrough of Ultima IV that that particular game is as much the player's story as the Avatar's. In that sense, this is their first chance in the series to explore the lessons of virtue in a context that doesn't necessarily care about those lessons one way or another - is it something that they've taken to heart so well that they hold to them even when they don't see a concrete need to? Maybe it's just me, but I think that, at least from the story of the player, it's an interesting direction to take, and I'm glad the series has something like Savage Empire to do that.

All in all, I think I've come out of this game with a newfound appreciation for it. It's still not going to rank up there with my favorites in the series, I'm not going to be as eager for a reply of it as I am the Age of Enlightenment games. But I think there's something quintessentially Ultima about it. One of the hallmarks of the series, in my mind, is its willingness to experiment, to try new things and go in different directions. It doesn't just take what worked and make more of it - it tries to iterate, find new things that work, ways to improve on what's already working. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but it does, at the very least, end up interesting, and that's part of what's enjoyable about the series for me. And that's exactly what Savage Empire did - it took something that worked, it built on it, it went a different direction, and it tried new things. Some of it I enjoyed, some of it I didn't. And I'm expecting all of that will be improved and experimented on and taken in new directions come Martian Dreams. I have a feeling I'm going to end up seeing Savage Empire the same way I see Ultima II - a transitionary stage, between a spark that served as its source material and the eventual refinement of those ideas to a fine point. There's bound to be some awkward growing pains in the transition - Savage Empire certainly has them. But like Ultima II, despite its flaws, I have a great appreciation for its part in the development of the series as a whole, and an even greater one now that I've played it to completion. Whatever else, I think that's my biggest takeaway, and I'm all the more eager to see how Martian Dreams goes as a result.

Savage Empire: The Bugs in the System

When last I left off, I'd just taken my first steps into the underground domain of the original inhabitants of Eodon Valley, the Kotl. And I'm beginning to sense something of a trend here. First it was Ambrosia in Ultima III, then retrieving the Codex from the Abyss in Ultima IV, which was followed by the Underworld of Ultima V, then the Gargoyle lands of Ultima VI, and now the Kotl city in Savage Empire. The Avatar seems to have a certain fondness for hurling himself headfirst to explore vast, dangerous underground territory in search of something necessary to save the world. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if there was another game down the line that ended up being entirely underground!

...oh right. Ahem. Moving right along!

Ever feel like you might be overlooking something important?

Having descended into the depths of the ancient city proper, my first order of business was to track down Katalkotl. Knowledge is power, after all, and Yunapotli had told me that Katalkotl knew many things about the city I was about to explore. I thought it best to see what I could learn from him before pushing too deep into the city. Consequently, when I came across the teleporters just inside the entrance, I skirted past them, unwilling to fling myself even further into the unknown without arming myself properly. There was a ghostly-looking something near the teleporters, but I figured it for a statue or a weird lantern or something. But I would definitely be coming back to that later.

In the meantime, though, I poked around what remained of the city nearby. And it wasn't long - barely a few steps past the teleporters! - before I was attacked by what residents were left, in the form of robotic dinosaurs. The fights I found myself having in the Kotl city were not particularly numerous, at least in most parts of the city, but the ones I did have were brutal. Spears and arrows and swords and a fire axe were more than able to take down the metallic creatures, but whenever any of them landed a blow, it hurt. So it was with caution that we made our way through the winding corridors of the city, trying to get a feel for its layout and what we might find in its depths.

We did find a good deal of use, too. A lot of bones and corpses, which was... eerie, to say the least, but so too did we find shields, weaponry, and canisters that we quickly gathered and distributed amongst the group, sure they would be of great aid when we finally took the fight to the Myrmidex. And considering the design and nature of the technology of what we were finding, I found myself having vague thoughts of Ultimas I and II, what with all the blasters and light swords and the like. That particular blend of only-vaguely-defined high-tech weaponry coupled with the fact that I was wandering about with a shaman who could bring about a fair few magical effects - it was very reminiscent of those early wanderings of mine, if only in spirit.

Clearly something unpleasant went down here...

It wasn't just items that caught our interest, however. The city itself was full of peculiar sights - a room where the ground was simply dirt rather than the tiled flooring we'd been walking over in the rest of the city, gratings that revealed lava flows beneath it. And that whatcha-ma-call-it back near the entrance of the city, come to think of it. Katalkotl was supposed to be near the entrance, and I'd explored a fair distance in by this point. I headed back the way I'd come to see if I'd missed anything, and lo and behold, there he was - the very thingamabobber I'd dismissed as decor earlier. D'oh!

Reflecting on my latest lesson in humility (it is one of the Virtues of the Avatar, after all, shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, unless it's Smith I suppose), we spent some time chatting with the last of the Kotl. Or, as he explained to us, the memory of him, for that was what he was. It was from this memory that we finally learned the history of the valley proper. The Kotl came from reptilian ancestors, and possessed a large black stone. Eventually their mystics learned how to draw power from the stone, and used it to build a thriving city and the advanced technology we were seeing the remnants of. They had also created the Myrmidex to act as servants for them, when they realized they could not power enough automatons to do what work they wanted them to do - this explained the dirt-filled room I'd come across before, it was likely the old "servant's quarters," so to speak. They had hoped that the industrious nature of the ants they were bred from would make them ideal for the task. Unfortunately for the Kotl, they also took on the warlike tendencies of the ants and rebelled, taking with them the black stone from which the city drew its power. So the Kotl went out to find new servants. These were the ancestors of the tribes that now dotted the Valley of Eodon - it seemed that they too had grown weary of their role as servants at some point, and headed to the surface.

And then the Myrmidex returned. The city fell, and the Kotl were no more, save in what little the Sakkhra remembered of them.

It was a tragic tale, to be sure, though perhaps a situation the Kotl had brought upon themselves. There was little time to reflect upon this, however, for Katalkotl informed us of something else: Spector was currently in the city! After obtaining directions to the generator room (though the Myrmidex still possessed the black stone that served as their power source, the generators could still function off its power even from a distance), we set off in search of the crazed academic, marveling at the giant crystals and taking a moment to mourn at the evident battle sites we passed along the way. I even caught sight of a wisp at one point.

That's a dead robo-dino, by the way, he's not just dreaming of electric meat.

Spector turned out to be holed up in the generator room itself, both himself and the generators protected by the same force field we'd witnessed about him earlier. It took a while to catch sight of him proper, considering that my sight was limited in the underground city and the narrow path over the lava to where he was standing was blocked by a robotic tyrannosaur that I'd just so happened to kill on that path. Once I'd managed to get a grasp on things, the mad doctor and I had ourselves a little chat. He theorized that the moonstones that had brought us all into the Valley in the first place were pieces of the black stone the Myrmidex now held, and that one of the side effects of drawing power from that stone were odd changes in the flow of time. We knew we had to throw a monkey wrench into his plans somehow, but what could we do when both he and the generators that would power his plot were protected by force fields?

Mess with the controls, of course! Those were still within reach, and we soon managed to shut down the power in the city. The glow faded from around Spector, and he found himself in his right mind once more. The automatons froze as they shut down (Yunapotli included, sadly), and the city went dark. There was no chance to reflect on what this meant for the legacy of the Kotl, however, as the shut-off instigated a collapse of the city, and we found ourselves fleeing for our lives as the ground shook (complete with shakes on-screen, a nice touch). We managed to escape just in the nick of time, and as we stopped to catch our collective breath, Spector told us what needed to be done to deal with the Myrmidex threat once and for all. He told us there were too many for a single band to deal with, but with the tribes of the valley united, they could be defeated. Their queen would need to be destroyed, lest she spawn another brood and trouble the Valley all over again. So too would the black stone need to be destroyed - Spector wondered whether it was what was keeping us trapped in the Valley, but regardless, he feared what the Myrmidex might do if they figured out how to tap its power the same way the Kotl had. It was what had driven him mad in the first place - what might it do to the Myrmidex? It was too dangerous to ignore.

But... don't I have an admirable face, too?

Our course clear, we made our way back to Tichticatl to ensure that Huitlipacti the Usurper was properly dealt with. We arrived to find Moctapotl restored to his rightful place as ruler of the Nahuatl, the people having killed Huitlipacti as soon as the glow that protected him had disappeared as a result of our actions in the ancient city. They readily agreed to a unification of the tribes, and were the final tribe in the Valley to do so. It was time to head to Drum Hill and summon them for the last stand against the Myrmidex. There we found a man named Tuomaxx, who made and played the drums there on Drum Hill. To summon all the tribes, he would need a large enough drum to be heard in all corners of the Valley. He would need a hide in order to craft such an instrument. So we headed back to the Kurak village to rest up for the battle ahead and picked one up while we were there, Intanya was more than willing to donate the one in his home for a good cause. Tuomaxx made short work of crafting the drum, and so were the tribes called together to bring the fight to the Myrmidex.

Together, the peoples of Eodon charged the Myrmidex caverns. While the tribes drew the attention of the bulk of the swarms, I readied my own little band of warriors for the coming fight. It fell it us to track down the queen herself, and we armed ourselves with every trick in the book we could think of. The technology we had found in the old city would surely be of great use to us. Aric the Avatar, Aiela, and Dokray were all armed with the black staves we had uncovered there - as well as Jimmy, as I felt he deserved one after how much he'd developed as a warrior in the Valley. They proved extremely effective weapons - they were crushing the Myrmidex at a single blow, and from a distance even! We made short work of the stragglers we came across, traversing the caverns with a mixture of View spells (courtesy of Triolo) and a device picked up from the Kotl city. She chattered and clacked and called for our destruction, we braced ourselves for a fight, and... well, she died just about as quickly as the rest of them, really. Kind of a bit of an anticlimax, but at least it was an easy problem to solve once we'd found her.

For once, the Avatar's actually present for the victory party!

The queen kept the corrupted stone in her own chamber, and after hitting it with everything we had, it shattered, its hold over the Valley broken. And not only had the Myrmidex been defeated, we had accomplished it by helping the tribes to overcome their squabbles with each other. The Valley was truly at peace once more - and so, as it always is for the Avatar once his task is accomplished, it was time to depart. Rafkin stayed behind for further research into the Valley and its peoples, while Fritz, Spector, and good ol' Jimmy joined in for the trip back home.

And boy oh boy, would Jimmy have a story to tell.

~~~

So ended my own adventures in the world of Eodon. And even as I played through this last session,
right up until the end of the game, I found myself smiling at all the detail work. During the conversation with Tuomaxx, for instance, he throws the hide over the Avatar's head in order to admire it - and the little window that normally shows the portrait of the character you're talking to goes black, since you presumably can't see anything with a hide over your head! The entire game is full of these little touches, and it adds so much to its charm.

But I hesitate to say too much on that particular topic, as I still have one more post to lay out my final thoughts on the game. Stay tuned!

Farewell to Eodon

Savage Empire: Courting Trouble

When last I left our intrepid heroes (ages ago - I suppose this really is a valley stuck in time, isn't it?) I was preparing for a trip to Tichticatl, the grand capital city of the Nahuatla. There, I would find a way to restore a king to his rightful place, clinching the support of the most advanced tribe in the valley, and guaranteeing their aid in the efforts against the Myrmidex.

But first, I stopped to talk to a lizard.

See, I ended my last session in the Sakkhra caves, and on my way out, I bumped into one that I had somehow missed talking to in my previous visits to the lizardfolk. Ksssindra was once a warrior, but having aged past her golden years, she now served as a teacher in the tribe. And outside as well, as she eagerly told me of Sakkhra legends and of a city beneath the ground near the great mesa. According to legend, she said, the Sakkhra once lived there, though the city had been since lost. She seemed glad for a listening ear, and after a pleasant exchange, we said our goodbyes and my little band made their way toward the city of Tichticatl.

One of my first tasks that I set myself upon arrival was to track down a few more obsidian swords. The Yolaru had asked me for ten of them to arm their warriors, after all, and I was only carrying a few. Scrounging around on the outskirts of town turned up another one or two, though the area seemed fairly deserted. Wondering where everyone might be, I strolled into the city proper to see what information I could get from the locals - or whether I could even find any locals. The situation in the city might have been more dire than I had first expected.

Imagine my surprise, then, when the first person I spoke to turned out to be Atlipacta, the town weaponcrafter! She excitedly told me of her work and her craft, and was more than willing to show me her wares and offer them in trade for emeralds. She showed me the armor and shields she crafted, while Triolo examined the bows and arrows in her stock. It was her blades, however, that truly drew my eye, passing straight over her knives and instead negotiating for the purchase of her swords. I walked out of her shop a few emeralds lighter, but with four more obsidian swords weighing down our packs - enough to bring my total to eleven, ten for the Yolaru and one spare left over for Aiela to use.

Naturally, I promptly abandoned the city in order to beeline it straight to the Yolaru and give the swords to their chieftain. Hey, those things were heavy and I was in sore need of space in my inventory!

Well that's not suspicious at all.

Packs now significantly lighter, we made our way back to the city, only to stumble upon an allosaurus blocking the way. We made short work of him, Aiela acquitting herself well with her new weapon, then returned to our exploration of Tichticatl proper. We quickly came to realize that this was a city on edge - most of them men we came across decried us as intruders and made to attack. The women were considerably more open, but even they were uneasy. They were more than willing to point us to the weaver and the weaponmaker, should we have need of any of their services, but when it came to the state of things at court, they were decidedly unsettled. Many of them denied even knowing the name of Moctapotl, their proper king. Some further questioning uncovered the fact that Huitlapacti had claimed the throne for his own and decreed that nobody may utter the name of the previous one. The sense of fear in the city was palpable.

Methinks something's rotten, a lot closer than Denmark.

Of course, the best way to get a sense of the state of court was to visit, so after chatting with Paxaptamac for a bit (who told us of flax, and took some feathers off our hands in exchange for emeralds), it was off to the palace. Right away we could tell something was not right in Tichticatl - from a parrot, of all things. There was one flapping about the throne room, repeating things that didn't quite make sense to us out of context. The names Fritz and Spector came up on occasion, as well as mentions of the Kotl city, and plans to conquer the world! Affairs among the Nahuatla were indeed more dire than first glance suggested.

Remembering how much the townsfolk seemed to fear Huitlipacti, I opted for avoiding the man himself and instead talking to his shaman, a man named Zipactriotl. Or more accurately, Johann Spector - he was known to Professor Rafkin, being an archaeologist himself. At one point, at least, as he had currently declared himself shaman, and, as he himself put it, the "savoir of Earth, the bringer of peace and paradise." He spoke of stones like the moonstone, and energy similar to that which came from them in the Myrmidex caves and the Kotl city, and of his grand plans to harness that energy reactivate the Kotl's automatons, use them to get the stone in the Myrmidex caves, and promptly use both to conquer the world itself! Yes, these were dire circumstances indeed. He openly bragged of deposing Moctapotl and disposing of the previous shaman, Oaxtepac, as both of them were in the way of putting his plans into motion. He seemed intent on doing the same to me, as further questions merely provoked him into calling the guards on us!

Yeah, that's sending up half a dozen warning signals.

We scrambled through the palace halls, eventually finding refuge in a room that turned out to be the Queen's own chambers. Fortunately, she seemed to sympathize with us. Tlapatla was the wife of Huitlipacti and cousin to Moctapotl. She was a bit haughty, but told a bit of the strange blue glow that surrounded both the usurper and his mad shaman - Zipactriotl (or rather, Spector) had given him a belt which surrounded him with a glow that protected him with a glow no weapon could pierce, brought back from the hidden city.

Needing allies, I sought out the prison, to see if I could find the previous shaman. Spector had implied that he was merely imprisoned, not dead, and after some effort I did manage to find Oaxtepac. He gave us clues to both the history and the location of the hidden city Tlapatla had mentioned - according to him, the ancestors of the tribes of Eodon were brought to the valley by the denizens of that city to be servants. Eventually, though, their ancestors rebelled, slaying their masters and abandoning the city. Who their captors were, legends could not agree. Some called them spirits, some likened them to the Sakkhra. Whatever the case, it was clear the key to bringing down Huitlipacti and Zipactriotl lay in the city. Supposedly the previous residents, when they abandoned the city, left a key in case they ever decided to come back. To find the city, one needed to find a device on the great mesa, and fit a large gem into it. At a certain hour, the light hitting the gem would reveal the location of the city. This gem had apparently been stolen by the Urali - but Aiela reminded me that Darden had given it to her as a present!

Precisely what I was thinking, Jimmy m'boy.

Oaxtepac told us, however, that there was one more obstacle in our way - a man made of solid gold guarded the entrance to the city, and was currently missing its head. Oaxtepac had found it on a Barrab man, and after telling Spector's assistant Fritz, was now in the possession of the crazed shaman. Fritz himself was driven off by the madness of his former master, but I remembered hearing his name among the Pindiro. Thanking Oaxtepac, we went on our way, only to have another prisoner, bragging of the crimes he had committed, demand we break him out. When we refused, he called for the guards, and once again we were fighting and fleeing for our lives.

A quick sneak back to the palace revealed the golden head in the palace treasury, but we still felt it best to track down Fritz for his side of the story before proceeding further. The Pindiro told us Fritz was currently residing in a cave west of the great lake, so after fending off a few deinonychuses (deinonychi?), we found the man in question. He told us it was his fault that Spector had gone mad, but had tried to make up for it by stealing the crystal brain Spector had taken from the Kotl city. Whatever he may have ended up doing while working for the madman, it was more than evident that that Fritz was doing his best to make amends. So when he offered us the crystal brain to aid us in our effort, we readily accepted.

From there it was off to the Great Mesa, where we placed the gem into its setting (after thanking my lucky stars that I'd thought to save just before I did - I tried to (M)ove it rather than (U)se it at first, which shattered the gem. Reload ahoy!!) At noon, the light refracting off the gem converged on the plain to the north, and heading over there revealed a hidden entrance, right near the teleporter plaza! Descending into the depths, we came across the headless golden statue we were told would likely be there. Reattaching the head, the statue sprang to life, welcoming us to the city of the Kotl, though apologizing for not remembering much. He did remember his name, Yunapotli, and said he would remember more with his brain. We handed over the crystal brain, and in return he told us of devices the Kotl developed to combat the Myrmidex - black staves, canisters full of a gas harmful to the Myrmidex, shields. We would have to keep an eye out for them as we explored the city. He also told us that Katalkotl would know many things about the Kotl and their city. We could find him in the center of the city, he was unable to move from his spot there. After some further discussion, Yunapotli agreed to join with us and opened the door to the city proper.

And so that was where I called it a day - in the same place where I began it, in a sense. I'd started by talking to a Sakkhra about the lost city, and now I was standing in it. All that was left was to explore it - and find a way to deal with the glow about the Nahuatla usurper in the process.

~~~

I just can't resist wordplay.

I have some thoughts about the plot of the game as a result of this update, but I think I'll reserve those for the game's culmination proper. For now I'll just say that an open world can lead to some pacing issues when it comes to game story, and I think that came into play a bit during this session. It's nice to finally get some backstory and a sense of the larger scheme of things, but the fact I waited this long to get to the Nahuatla city meant that I didn't get that particular piece of the plot until much later, and I think it would have helped having it earlier.

That's not to say that I think it's necessarily bad, but-- well. Again, I think that's something to be saved for my eventual wrap-up post.

I did have one other thought while putting this together, though, and that's an inexplicable aversion to calling my merry band of adventurers a "party." I've consciously avoided using the word while composing the narrative of my travels through Britannia and beyond, and I still can't figure out exactly why. At first I thought it was simply a term that sounded too "game-ish" to my ear, and I've made an effort to make these posts, at least the bits describing my gameplay, to feel a bit more story-like. But then I remembered that I've had no hesitation about including things like leveling up, which is very much a game mechanic aspect that I haven't had any compunction about throwing about willy-nilly.

So why this aversion to calling them my party a "party?"

Maybe it's because I feel there's a bit of a disconnect in the term. When used in a game context, it feels somewhat... well, "impersonal" is the word I'm looking for, I think. To me, it describes a group chosen solely for function and capability rather than a proper gang of characters that's developing together. And as I've tried to do the latter more than the former in this series, "party" doesn't feel much like an appropriate word to use. I mean, bare bones as it is at times, I like to think of these guys as proper characters, rather than just what use I can get out of them in a combat situation. And the connotations my brain gives "party" just doesn't fit the image I have of them.

Of course, there's another explanation, and that's simply, "language be weird, yo."

...and I think the fact I just typed that sentence is an indication that it's time to draw this post to a close. If you'll excuse me, I've got an ancient city to explore!

Right under my nose, this whole time!

Savage Empire: Forging Alliances

As if to prove my newfound zeal for the game like I mentioned last post, I spent most of a Saturday evening tearing through the Valley of Eodon - buckle up, don the pith helmets and break out the machetes, we've got a lot of ground to cover this time!

I began the day's adventures just outside the cave Aiela had been held captive in. Though I had fulfilled both her father's request and the demands of my own sense of honor (it is a virtue, after all), I still had business in this part of the valley. Darden had not just disrupted the Kurak way of life, but his own tribe's as well, and the brute's demise brought the Urali no closer to having their idol Fabozz back. I would need all the help I could get to push back against the Myrmidex - I would get a proper sense of that before too much longer - and misfits that the Urali were, antagonistic as they had been under Darden, theirs was still aid I was certain I could use.

At least Fabozz has some nice crystal gardens to tend here.

Wamap had told me Darden had hidden Fabozz away in a cave to the north, so I turned my sights in that direction, Aiela in tow, more than willing to lend a hand in our further exploits. The Urali tribesmen continued to attack us on sight as we pushed back through the village and onward to find Fabozz - I suspect they were either unaware of Darden's demise or else just upset that he perished before he could be convinced (or forced) to bring Fabozz back. Whatever it was they blamed me for, I yet had a duty to do, and while discretion may have been the better part of valor, I did what had to be done, hoping all the while that I wasn't slashing the tribe's numbers down too horrifically. Eventually I made my way to the cavern in the north, which was small but well guarded by Darden's lackeys, who had lost none of their zeal for having lost their leader (if they were even aware of that fact). We fought hard - or rather, Triolo, Jimmy and I did, the other three got stuck around a corner - and found Fabozz stowed away in the rear of the cavern. There was, of course, the question of how to move the statue, but Fabozz provided a clue, uttering only a single word - "Light." Jimmy's camera provided a quick burst of such, and however it happened, it did the trick. Fabozz vanished, and his voice declared us friends of the Urali, allowing us safe passage through their lands. We confirmed his presence back in the village, exchanged a few words with Wamap to solidify the alliance, and went on our way.

We shuffled some weaponry around to account for our new party member, then decided to make a pit stop at the Kurak village, both to take some much needed rest at Intanya's hut and to give Aiela a chance to assure the tribe of her safety. Along the way, she had a chance to reunite with her friend Sahree, and to pass the time, she told us of the gem she carried with her. Apparently Darden had stolen it from the Nahuatla and presented it to her as some sort of token of his love, thinking he could get in her good graces that way. It hadn't worked, of course, but she had kept the gem anyway.

Oh, now you've just piqued my curiosity.

Rested, renewed, and ready for further travels, we navigated the teleportation pads once more to arrive in the southeast of the valley, where the Jukari and Haakur tribes lived. They were the only two tribes I had yet to meet, and so I figured it was high time I did so. The Jukari were closest to the teleporter, so I began with them. It seemed we had come in the middle of something of a shift in leadership - the tribesmen told us their chieftain had recently died as the result of a lava flow. His son Jumu was now acting chief, and speaking with him revealed that the lava flow had caused more trouble than just the death of his father. It had also killed their shaman, and blocked off access to their sacred cave to the east. Inside the cave was a hide that detailed their tribe's history, and retrieving said hide was Jumu's request from us before he would agree to joining an alliance of tribes. To sweeten the deal, he told us of the diamonds and emeralds within the cave, and told us we were welcome to help ourselves to them as reward, if only we would bring the hide back to him. A difficult position for a young man to be in, but Jumu seemed to be handling it as best he could. After assuring Jumu we would do our best to make sure the record of his tribe's history made it back to them - Rafkin seemed to have an idea how to find our way over the lava flow - we departed.

Easy there, Dokray...

We found the Haakur a little further on, and they had little to tell us, on account of most of them barely even being capable of proper speech. They were the most primitive of the tribes we had met in the valley, "Neanderthal" being a rather unflattering but apparently accurate descriptor for them. A few of the tribe were able to hold a decent enough conversation with us, however, most notably their chief Grugorr. In contrast to Jumu, Grugorr was a father who had recently lost his son Krukk, who had gone spider-slaying in a nearby cavern to the south and never came back. If we could do what he could not, kill the spiders and burn their webs, and return with Krukk's shield, Haakur agreed to join the alliance against the Myrmidex. On our way out, Dokray bumped into an old rival of his named Ugyuk, and neither of the two had any love for each other. It nearly broke out into a fight right then and there, but Dokray refrained after I told him this was not the time for it. The two glared daggers at each other as we departed, though.

Having spoken to all of the tribes now, Jimmy and I bent our heads over his notebook and refreshed our memories as to what they all required of us, so we could best form our plan of action. Four of the tribes had already thrown their lot in with the forming alliance - the Kurak for rescuing Aiela, the Urali for defeating Darden and retrieving Fabozz, the Disquiqui for belling the cat-I-mean-T-Rex, and the Pindiro simply because it was the wise thing to do. That left seven still to sway, and two of them could be convinced via feats in the caves in this part of the valley. So after gathering some branches, dunking some cloth strips in tar, and making some makeshift torches, we ventured into the spider caves to find the shield of Grugorr's son Krukk.

Well that looked like it was messy...

The cave was expansive and difficult to traverse due to the webs spun over nearly everything. Both spiders and Myrmidex assaulted us from nearly every turn, and I left most of the fighting to my companions as I occupied myself with burning the webs in the cave, both to make exploration easier and to do a bit of damage to the spiders that way. Beneath them were all sorts of things - we found many, many corpses of villagers, several dead Myrmidex, and even what seemed to be a more modern man, judging from the camera and rifle we found on his body. We found Krukk's shield in a corner, but even more interesting was a hole that we found in another part of the cave, surrounded by dead Myrmidex and dead tribesmen. It seemed a rather good-sized battle had been fought here, which suggested it would be wise to avoid the hole itself. The warriors had all been wielding obsidian swords, so we collected them for later delivery to the Yolaru and returned to the Haakur to give him his son's shield. Satisfied, he thanked us and agreed to the alliance.

Our next task was to find a way over the lava to get to the sacred cave of the Jukari, and at Rafkin's suggestion I made use of the fire extinguisher from the remains of his lab to do so. For some reason or another it worked, and from there it was a fairly simple matter to navigate our way to the cave and find the hide. It was a much smaller cavern and considerably less... occupied... so it wasn't long before we were presenting Jumu with the recorded history of his people, and received in exchange his promise to join the alliance of tribes. (As an aside, yes, it's incredibly silly that the fire extinguisher works to cool lava, but at least despite its nonsensicality the game provides ways of pointing you toward it, whether it's the letter to the editor in the manual or Rafkin in the game itself. Considerably less adventure-game-logic that way, which is always a good thing.)

Obligatory "I can't believe that actually worked" goes here.

With the tribes in the southeast of the valley firmly on the side of a valley-wide alliance, I turned my attentions in the complete opposite direction and turned my sights to the northwest and the Barako. The trek there introduced us to a few new enemies, including a serpent woman and a tiger, but we defended ourselves with alacrity, and before long we'd returned to the ledge where we'd seen the silver backed gorilla that we suspected kidnapped the chieftain's daughter. The question was how to get up there. Some exploration revealed a cave behind a waterfall, but the falls itself was too forceful to allow us to get by it easily. The solution - a makeshift grenade, made by stuffing a few handfuls of gunpowder in a clay pot and sealing it with a tar-soaked strip of cloth. Lighting the fuse and lobbing it at a large boulder atop the cliff shifted the boulder and blocked off the waterfall, making passage easy. A quick jaunt through the cavern brought us to the very ledge the gorilla called home, and a brief fight later, we stepped past the beast and found a girl who introduced herself as Halisa. Grateful for rescue and relieved that the gorilla had been taken care of, she thanked us heartily and gave us a head start for a race back to the village - which she still managed to win, somehow. We had a victory nonetheless, though, as her safe return ensured her mother's support in the forming alliance.

My kingdom for some pruning shears!

After a quick pit stop to heal up once more - and another skirmish with Myrmidex on the teleport hub, which brought about both more complaints about public transit security and a level for Aric (his first since the beginning of the game!) - we directed our attentions toward the plights of the tribes in the southwest. Atop the Great Mesa was supposed to be the plant that the Barrab chieftain wanted in order to heal his son, but here too there was a navigational problem. There was a gap atop the mesa that we had no way of crossing. No way, at least, until we took note of a large tree, and a solid smack with a fire axe soon gave us a way over. Some more wandering later (and even more Myrmidex!), we came across the plant in question. What we hadn't realized was that the gigantic orchid was, in fact, carnivorous. A fierce battle ensued, in which many vines were chopped and many wishes for some weed killer were made, but we eventually came out victorious, and after scooping up the now motionless remains of the Little Shop of Horrors reject, we took it back to Balakai and his son Nakai, who perked up immediately. We rested for a while (Jimmy had gained enough experience for another level), chatting with the pair, and discovered that Topuru wasn't the first Balakai had pulled the mind-in-a-stone trick with. Apparently the Disquiqui Tuomaxx on Drum Hill had been a victim of the stunt as well - although in stark contrast, he'd actually thanked Balakai for doing so! It seemed the whole family had ways of getting the better of others - Nakai told me his sister had done so with Nawl, who'd I'd bumped into just outside the village, and when I asked him about it, he just got scared and scurried off.

"Now begone, before someone drops a house - I mean boulder -
on you, too!"

Then it was back into the area surrounding the Great Mesa to find Thunderer and the fruit trees he was stalking about, and taking care of him was a rather simple matter. We found him prowling about a cliffside with another boulder tilting precariously just on the edge of it. Another makeshift grenade, and *blam* - down it came right on Thunderer's head, and that was another problem solved. Truth be told, the Myrmidex swarm that assaulted us on the way back to the Sakkhra was more of a problem than Thunderer had proved to be. (I ran into a LOT of Myrmidex during this particular session - my notes mark my encounters with increasingly numerous intesifiers, culminating in all caps by about this point - although this last one got Aiela a level, too!) After informing the lizardfolk of the liberation of their little grove from its reptilian tyrant, I called it a good day's work. A full nine of the tribes had pledged their allegiance to an alliance of tribes, leaving just the Yolaru and the Nahuatla. The former wanted swords, the latter wanted their city back, and the one would lead to the other. But it could wait until next time.

~~~

Details are what make or break immersion. I can write a scene about a man's last moments, but it's a lot more difficult to connect with it if I don't take the time to show you his feeble, fumbling attempts to get the picture of his family out of his wallet so he can ensure it's the last thing he sees despite through increasingly unfocused eyes. I can write a proposal, but if you don't see the bride-to-be's quivering lip as she makes several attempts to speak before all the breath rushes out of her in one exultant affirmation, something's going to be lost. It's the old show-don't-tell adage - the tiny, concrete details are what make the illusion of story that much more tangible, more real.

How'd you get here?

That's as true for any form of storytelling, games included, and it was a subject I found on my mind a good deal during this particular foray into Savage Empire, because the game's full of examples of both how effective details can be and how a lack of them can make things fall flat. The bodies strewn about the spider caves added a lot to my perception of the caves themselves - they weren't solely of tribesmen, there were several Myrmidex and even a modern man among them, suggesting that these spiders were, indeed, a serious threat if even the better equipped and stronger foes found themselves entangled within the webs. The sacred cave of the Jukari felt all the more important when I found the totems used in shamanic magic on a table near the hide I'd been sent to retrieve, a reminder that this was a place the shaman came to often, a place that meant something. I even noticed for the first time that the background in the conversation portraits change depending on where (and in some cases when!) the conversation occurs, be it cave or village, day or night or sunset.

Perhaps most stark were the details when it came to the tribes themselves, though. All of them have their own unique aesthetic, and while granted, some of the portraits do feel a bit caricatured at times, the tribes all feel like distinct entities. The Sakkhra caves are full of crystal gardens in contrast to the sparse Haakur caves, which again stand distinct from the stepped mesa the Barrab call home, which feels different from the Jukari by the lava, and so on and so forth. The way the villages are laid out, the fact that each tribe seems to have their preferred weaponry based on what can be found in their huts, even the manner of speech of some tribes (I particularly enjoyed seeing the importance placed on names when it came to the Haakur and Urali, the former only being bestowed upon those who've earned recognition and the latter guarding theirs to avoid another having power over them, which is why it's a big deal when Wamap gives the player his) - there's some real steps taken through the detail work to make each tribe feel like they stand out just a little from the rest, and serves to emphasize the running theme of bringing together a bunch of different tribes together to form a single alliance.

Those totems in the corner there were a nice touch.

Which, on the flip side, only makes the moments where the game falls short in terms of details all the more glaring. While each tribe has a distinct aesthetic, the unique-ness of each falls a bit flat once you realize that most of the tribesmen all have the same dialogue tree. There's a very small handful that actually have anything unique to tell you, and beyond that there isn't much. There's a lot spoken of the inter-tribe rivalries among the valley, but there's little evidence of them beyond words. I've seen complaints of that when it comes to Ultima VI and the threat of the Gargoyles, but at least there, you saw (and potentially fought) them at the shrines and could see the aftermath of one such skirmish via the recovering soldiers in Cove. Here in Savage Empire, there's... not really anything, besides Dokray and Ugyuk's spat, and even that's more of a personal thing than any representation of tension between entire tribes. Consequently, it feels a bit closer to checking things off a list than the game's overarching goal of attempting to unite eleven very disparate tribes who can't stand each other at first.

Not to mention Aiela's father, as far as I could tell, didn't have much to say about the rescue of his daughter, despite the fact Sahree did have some different dialogue with Aiela in the party.

Which hasn't made the game any less enjoyable to play, when it comes down to it, it's just something my sense of narrative has picked up on. And to be fair, I'd probably be paying less attention to the lack of detail in some places if it didn't stand in such contrast to the parts of the game where it is rather effective. That's the give and take you deal with, I suppose.

In any case, time to head into Tichticatl proper, finally! Been looking forward to this.

There are some days where I might feel the same.

Savage Empire: All Over the Map

Y'know, it's been an interesting venture attempting to balance actual play sessions with finding the time to scribble my musings about them. I've had a lot of days lately where I've found myself wanting to have myself a good long session of Savage Empire while simultaneously feeling hesitant to do so because I haven't written up the last one. In fact, this particular post technically covers two sessions, partly because I didn't get much done in the first one and partly because of the aforementioned "but I want to plaaaaay" urge winning out over self-imposed blogging obligations.

Which probably says something about how much I'm enjoying myself when it comes to Savage Empire, but I'll get to that later.

I'll just take a bit of that...

When last I left off, I'd come one step closer to finding out where the Urali tribe made their home, so I could finally rescue Aiela. And by "one step closer," I mean "getting the whole story about how Topuru lost his mind but not really and how I could potentially convince him he got it back so he'll tell me what I need to know." It amuses me how particularly convoluted getting one simple task done can be in RPGs sometimes.

At least this particular step in the venture didn't necessitate gallivanting all over the valley, as the Barrab chieftain had told me I just needed any old blue stone, which I could procure by chipping off a piece of the stones near the Sakkhra caves. Said caves were just a quick jaunt away (relatively speaking), and it wasn't long before I caught sight of one of the big blue rocks atop a cliff. Of course, finding my way up the cliff was another matter entirely, but after some walking about to find a decent ascent, I pulled out a hammer that I'd brought with me from Rafkin's lab and chipped off a piece. I'd bring it to Topuru the next time I was in the neighborhood, but I figured since I was already here, I might as well chat up the tribe and see what they had to say, and what their particular thoughts on an alliance of tribes might be.

Succinctly put.

The Sakkhra turned out to be a tribe of lizardfolk (wasn't that the name of the lizard race in Master of Orion, too? I never actually played it, more of a Civilization guy, so I'm not 100% sure on that), and I managed to get some interesting information about the valley's history from their chief Sysskarr. According to him, the Sakkhra were descendants of the Kotl, the original occupants of the valley who lived in an underground city. They ruled over humans and kept them as pets, and protected themselves with a powerful glow - the same that now protected Zipactriotl, I was told. I imagined I'd find out more about them later. The tribesfolk had made mention of Thunderer, a large lizard that prowled about near a grove of trees that bore medicinal fruit, and Sysskarr confirmed what I suspected - that I would have to do something about him before the Sakkhra would agree to an alliance. Sysskarr also informed me I would need to construct a drum to call the tribes together. That's something I'll have to investigate further the next time I'm in the vicinity of Drum Hill, near the Nahuatla city.

A warrior named Kysstaa (good grief, the names in this game are a bear to keep straight) offered his services to our little group, but we politely turned him down and went on our way. I was in a bit of a hurry to investigate the oddly colored platform near the entrance to the caves, and wound up spending a fair amount of time figuring out the teleportation system I'd stumbled across.

It was, quite frankly, the most fun I'd had in the game yet.

Transit Central needs better exterminators.

I found a certain thrill from plunging into the unknown via a teleporter, having Triolo use a view spell to get an idea of my surroundings, and then comparing that tiny glimpse of nearby geographical features to the official map to pinpoint where I was likely to be. I'm considerably less familiar with Eodon than I am Britannia, which means that I've been consulting the map fairly regularly, but being able to use it in a manner like this was a real treat for a map nerd like me (seriously, I've got a pretty sizable collection of globes, both old and new). And it also had the side-effect of highlighting just how excellently done the Savage Empire map is. The cliffs, rivers, forests and such are all mirrored on the map just as I'd expect them to be, and the location of each teleporter is surrounded by a distinct enough set of features that careful scrutiny of the map is all you need to figure out where you are - stumbling into a patch of lava near a teleporter was enough to tell me I was in the southeast of the valley, near the Jukari, even though I'd never visited them before, because it's the only place on the map where lava shows up. A bend in the river here, a particular series of cliffs there - it's a fabulous "puzzle" of sorts that isn't strictly necessary, but immensely enjoyable all the same, and brought up fond memories of sitting in the backseat with the map during family road trips, serving as my dad's navigator. I felt like an honest-to-goodness adventurer, armed with little more than my wits and a map, trying to get my bearings based on nothing more than what I could see. It was gloriously exhilarating, and I wish it was a moment I was better able to replicate in more modern games.

Jimmy also managed to gain another level during these particular explorations, thanks to another ambush from the Myrmidex (right on the main teleporter hub, no less, Eodon really needs to increase its transit security), and I of course gave him another point in strength. I need all the carrying capacity I can get in this game.

Yeah, that's about what I thought.

One of the teleporters led to a spot near the Barako tribe, which meant an immensely useful shortcut when it came to getting back to Topuru. I hurried back to the island where the mindless man wandered, and upon telling him we'd brought his mind back to him, he practically mauled poor Professor Rafkin to extract the blue stone from the good doctor's pack (which Topuru then proceeded to swallow whole). Convinced that his mind had returned - we were considerably less convinced, but that didn't particularly matter much - Topuru offered some turtle food in gratitude. This was not quite what I was hoping for, though after some prompting Topuru also offered the directions we were looking for. He told us to go northeast of the Nahuatla city where there were caves in the cliffs, and we could find the Urali through the second cave from the north.

That's a lot of dead dinosaurs.

So it was off for some more exploration, meandering along the eastern side of the valley to count the caves and discern which one was the cave we were looking for. We stumbled across a number of dead dinosaurs in a large field of tar pits in the process, which I made a mental note of in case the tar that Jimmy was still carrying proved not to be enough. Boldly we strode into the depths of the caverns that lined the cliffs of Eodon, and promptly blundered into several bears. They proved to be formidable foes as we battled our way through the cavern, and I was rather relieved to step out again on the other side, blinking in the sunlight again. I followed the path laid out, hoping that it would take me to where the Urali called home, only to discover the road blocked by a Tyrannosaurus. Not especially wanting to take one of those head-on, I sought an alternate route.

In doing so, I stumbled across a wisp, which, in its odd manner, explained a bit more about the situation in the valley, or more accurately, the reason why it remained hidden - a strong power source distorting space-time around the valley, a modified moonstone, if I managed to understand the wisp correctly (which is always a task). Further, I was warned that if left unchecked this source could cause permanent distortion and even destruction in the valley. Something for me to be mindful of moving forward.

Flashbacks to my physics classes...

The turtle bait Topuru had given me was bringing a bunch of giant turtles onto the riverbanks, and it occurred to me that perhaps I could use them to get around the dangerous dino blocking my path. Sure enough, the waterways proved fruitful, and we soon found ourselves at the entrance to the Urali village. Their shaman Wamap was there to greet us, telling us of Darden and how he had taken over the tribe by holding Fabozz, the tribe's deity of sorts, captive. He told me that if I killed Darden and rescued Fabozz, he would see to it that the Urali joined the alliance of tribes when the time came.

Fabozz was being held in a cave to the north, but I was here for another purpose as well, and wanted to see that through first. According to the tribesmen (or more accurately, tribeswomen, as they were the only ones to actually talk to me and not attack on sight), she was being held in Darden's stronghold to the south, and apparently disliked him enough to direct me toward a less guarded path to his cave by following the waterfront. The poisoned darts the Urali I fought led me to believe this alternate route might be the wiser choice, so I took the women's advice and soon found myself at Darden's cave.

I love how much the game wants to emphasize how much of
a galoot Darden is. Even the GAME calls him a neanderthal.

There I found a makeshift cage, and Aiela herself within - but it was not left unguarded. With a shout, we pressed forward into the fray, and found her guard... well... wanting. The most difficult part about the fight, frankly, was not accidentally hitting Dokray instead, as his sprite was the same used for the guards! With them taken care of, we broke Aiela out of her prison (and boy did she take that well, considering how long it took me to get here - come to think of it, she's presented as quite the capable warrior in her own right, I'm frankly surprised she didn't just break herself out by this point), only to come face-to-face once more with Darden himself. We were prepared this time, though, and after trading both words and blows, he realized just how unwise it was to face the Avatar head-on. (Okay, so maybe I'm letting humility slide a bit there. Quest of the Avatar is forever and all that.)

With Darden defeated and Aiela now a part of our little band, we stepped out once more, feeling much accomplished in finally achieving a long anticipated task.

~~~

Nyah nyah, can't catch meeeeee!!

I made the assertion way back in Ultima II that every Ultima, and indeed every RPG, has a moment where the game truly opens up and engages, a turning point where what was once a struggle now becomes less of the hassle it once was. I declared the turning point of Ultima II to be the moment where one obtains a ship, but the more complex a game gets, the more difficult it becomes to point to a single, definitive moment where this particular shift happens.

I'm still not entirely sure what caused it, but I felt that shift during this particular session of Savage Empire. Something about the game finally clicked for me, and I'm not certain why. My best guess is that I'm making it past the more talky portions of the game, which is less engaging than other Ultimas out of the fact that most of the tribe NPCs are just cookie-cutter versions of each other without much to add past a general brief 'state of the tribe' speech. Or maybe it was the aforementioned teleporter exploration that did it. Whatever it was, though, I was bound and determined to see Aiela's rescue through to the end before I called this particular session, and not just out of a sense of narrative. I truly enjoyed this bit, and spent far longer on it than I expected to simply because I was having too much fun. The wisp, the turtles, trying to skirt the T-Rex that guarded the village... my inner explorer was on cloud nine. Had a rip-roaring good time and I'm eager to get back into the game to see what more Eodon holds for me.