Gothic 2: Week 3 · 1:06am Oct 19th, 2015

Day 15:

My first order of business is to swim out to the small piece of land by the harbor of Khorinis. There are lizards there, and they are absolute bastards. Even so, I manage to take them down. Very slowly, admittedly. I find a cave in the island with some treasure chests inside, but they are guarded by a spike trap. I leave them for now-I doubt anyone else will take whatever’s in there anytime soon.

As I leave, I notice another island in the distance. I swim there and meet a man who is apparently a famous pirate-not that I have any idea who he is. He’s apparently connected to the disppearing people, and points me to a bandit hideout by Onar’s Farm. The bandit leader is Dexter-a vile man from the colony who wanted me to steal a valuable manuscript from the Sect Camp. I could have sworn I butchered him alongside Gomez and Raven, but apparently he is still alive for whatever reason.

The pirate briefly mistakes me for Baltram, meaning the merchant may have been doing some shady deals.

As I return to the mainland, I find a small door. The rusted key from Attile fits perfectly, and I make it into the sewers. After fighting some giant rats, I meet a few people. The Thieves’ Guild.

I am given a choice. Join them, or they will kill me. I choose the former, and am given a task to steal a ring from Constantino the Alchemist. They also offer to teach me pickpocketing-a tempting offer, considering how little gold I seem to be finding. I decline to learn for now, however.

I leave, debating with myself whether to help them or turn them in to Lord Andre. I don’t find myself particularly inclined to join the Militia, but I also don’t necessarily approve of such blatant thievery. I decide to leave that decision for another day and talk to Vatras.

On my way through the town, I spot Baltram at his stand in the market. I confront him about dealing with pirates, to which he responds by claiming he’s unable to earn a living otherwise. I offer to help him with his trade dealings, but I find myself yet unsure whether I will help him or turn him in to Lord Andre.

Vatras offers to purchase some of the stone tablets I’m carrying with me. Seeing as I have no purpose for them, I agree, and I earn some valuable potions in return.

I talk to Constantino the Alchemist. He wanted me to collect some plants for him, all of which I picked up during my adventures yesterday. Now, I have the approval of Constantino the Alchemist, Thorben the Carpenter, Matteo the Merchant, and Bospen the Bowyer. That’s enough to be given an apprenticeship. As I have yet to slay the orc for Harad (such a task is beyond my abilities), and because there is a smith at Onar’s Farm who offered to teach me smithing as well, I choose to join Constantino. Now, I am a citiizen of the town, and may enter the upper quarter.

My job for him is to collect plants, including mushrooms. As it turns out, I have quite a few mushrooms on me from simply exploring and picking up plants, and he gives me an absolutely insane amount of gold, totalling to around two thousand. With such an exorbitant amount of gold now earned, I retreat back to my corner and sleep soundly for the night.

Day 16:

I spend some time exploring the upper quarter, but I find nothing interesting and nothing is accomplished.

Day 17:

Once again, I explore. Once again, I find nothing, and nothing is accomplished.

Day 18:

This time, I find something. It’s not much, but I meet a merchant named Fernando who sells swords. I recall seeing a few bandits using swords with the letter F engraved on them, and one of them I even picked up and haven’t sold yet. I confront him about it, and find that he does indeed do trade with bandits, but only because all other business dried up and they threatened to kill him if he didn’t cooperate. I agree not to inform the militia, but only if he forks over 200 gold and a nice-looking ring he has. He agrees.

I then head over to the Landowner’s Farm once more. I see Greg along the way, and tell him about Dexter. Indeed, he is the man Greg is looking for.

When I reach the Landowner’s Farm, I ask Torlof if I’ve convinced enough people of me. Clearing the test they gave me sent me over the edge, and I go meet with Lee. Lee sends me to Onar, the Landowner, and before long I work for the Mercenaries. My first task is to meet with the paladins and bring them a letter of peace-Lee says he knows Lord Hagen, and thinks he’ll read it and listen considering the dire position his army is in.

Once again, I sleep soundly, hoping he’s right.

Day 19:

My first order of business is to go to Khorinis and talk to Lord Hagen. I rush into the upper quarter and go into his offices, on the grounds of having a peace treaty from the mercenaries. Lord Hagen tells me he knew Lee years ago, and is willing to pardon him, but not his men. When I explain that I need the Eye of Innos, Hagen refuses, saying he won’t hand it over without proof that there truly is an army of evil gathering in the Valley of Mines. He gives me a key to open the door in the barricade the paladins put up to prevent people from entering the valley, and tells me that if I find proof the Eye is mine.

While there, I finally come to a decision about the Thieves’ Guild and what I should do. I walk up to Lord Andre and inform him of their whereabouts. When I check the sewers a few hours later, all that’s there to see are the guild members’ corpses.

I go talk to the pirate on the small island, get the bottles of wine in return for whatever items were in Baltram’s sack, and hand over the wine. I earn my pay, but Baltram refuses to trade with me since I’m a Mercenary. However, if I bring him ten hams and ten bottles of wine, we can resume trading. I don’t have those items on me, but I promise I’ll bring them back.

When I start moving towards the Valley of Mines, I find a discarded orc weapon. Whether it was always there, I cannot say, but I return to Khorinis and give it to the blacksmith. He’s thankful, but seems a bit disappointed I signed up with Constantino instead of him.

I run back to Onar’s Farm to inform Lee of the news. He’s upset, to be certain, and sends me out to talk to Torlof. Torlof says Sekob the farmer hasn’t paid his dues for the land in weeks, and I am to get fifty gold from him by tomorrow. I run to Sekob’s farm and tell him to fork it over. When he refuses, saying he doesn’t have the money, I take my axe and attack him-not enough to kill him, but enough to leave a wound. Even then, he doesn’t give me the money until I threaten to finish him off.

I return to Torlof with sixty gold. I keep the rest for myself. Having completed my assignment, Lee gives me the option to buy stronger Mercenary Armor. I give him the gold and walk out in garb far superior to what I had before. While I’m there, I go to the local smith and start relearning how to smith swords. He tells me that if I can find five pieces of magic ore, he can help me learn to craft incredibly powerful Magic Ore Weapons.

With that done, it’s time to head into the Valley of Mines. To get there, I need to sneak around some orcs, which doesn’t prove to be difficult.

What I find, however, sends a shiver down my spine.

I thought I remembered every path, every tree. I’d been in the colony long enough to memorize every detail. I’m there again, and it feels good, but also… it’s not right. The green grass is now covered in a silvery sheen, and instead of rain falling it is snow. I am back again, yet I feel more lost than ever.

Even the Old Camp looks wrong. I do know that the Old Camp used to look much nicer than it does now. From the distance, it appears to be… burned out?

Before the fall of the barrier, I did teleport inside and butcher the leaders, but there were plenty others who had far greater leadership skills who easily could have taken their place and made it better, not worse. What could have happened to cause this?

Then I remember. Dragons.

I’ve almost forgotten about them. I’ve become embroiled in so many things-the rebellion, Dexter, becoming a citizen- that I lost sight of my true purpose here-to save Khorinis, and maybe all Myrtana, from what is truly threatening it.

I meet a man who asks me to go into the Old Camp and talk to someone, although he keeps referring only to its centerpoint, the castle. The Camp is surrounded by dozens of orcs, though, and he says the only way in is to sneak around the back and run, hoping you can outrun them.

I start inching my way around, trying to get to the other side of the Old Camp. However, hours pass as I keep taking small detours to avoid orcs, stop for a few minutes to take down some Lurkers, or encounter another person. I even meet Grimes, another man I remember from before the barrier fell.

Eventually, though, the sun sets. I leave a trail of dead lurkers behind me as I trudge to a leather tent someone left and never came back for. It takes but a few minutes to fall asleep.

Day 20:

I kill more monsters. It’s strange to be here, in the colony. I see myriad changes-goblins out on the prowl when before they mostly stayed in caves, field raiders when none roamed the colony before, far more snappers and dragonsnappers… and orcs. Orcs everywhere. I have no choice but to hide from them as I explore, occasionally finding an area I know I’ve been to before but that is now barely recognizable.

However, after a tough field with field raiders and lizards, I come across a cave. I enter, only to see a man in red with black hair warming his hands by the fire.

I’d know that face anywhere. The first friend I ever made when I was thrown into the colony. Diego.

We talk, we laugh, we share a bit of meat over the fire. Diego sounds a bit... different than I recall, but he’s still the same man as before. Apparently, after he was thrown in jail for talking about dragons in front of Lothar, he was sent back to the Valley of Mines to collect ore as a scraper. However, snappers attacked his group and now he’s in the cave to stay safe from the monsters that abound. He tells me to get into the castle.

I continue around until I see what looks like a potential opening. I creep forward, hoping the orcs won’t see me. It’s then that I realize why they discuss the castle, and not the Old Camp.

The castle is all that’s left.

An orc sees me and grunts, attracting the attention of his allies. I run through them, dodging swords and fireballs, before tumbling into a massive trench the orcs have dug. They chase me around for a while, but eventually I find a hollowed out pillar and duck inside, where I hide until all of them return to their posts.

Just outside the pillar, I see collapsed beams of wood-all that remains of the marketplace, I surmise.. I clamber up a diagonal one and manage to hoist myself up over the wall. I’m inside the castle-for now.

After a discussion with a guard who says he nearly shot me, I look around. It’s familiar, but not overly so. Everything looks almost the same, but just a bit wrong as well. I talk with the paladins, buy some new items for myself, and give the storemaster a few rations of meat to help them stave off starvation a bit longer. I also learn that Gorn is being held in the dungeons as well-the same dungeons I rescued the blacksmith from after I fought the leaders of the Old Camp before the fall of the barrier. I broke someone out of there once, true, but I’m not at all certain I’ll be able to do it again-especially if I don’t want to kill any of the paladins.

Eventually, I spot Garond, the leader of the expedition. He’s sitting in the chair in the throne room. When I recall that it is the very same chair Gomez sat in when I drove Uriziel through his heart, I shudder. We talk for a bit. He is willing to give me the evidence I need to bring back to Lord Hagen, but only if I help him in return. I need to find out what happened the three teams that went out to find additional magic ore and how much ore they’ve found. Additionally, I’ll be given 500 gold if I help. Garond gives me a map with the locations of the mining camps marked down.

Thankfully, the first two teams I am already aware of-the one Diego was formerly part of, which found four chests of ore, and the one Grimes is working in currently, with another four. That leaves only the third camp.

Before I go, however, I have to check one room. I head up the stairs and look inside-no, she’s not there. Damn… Where could you be, Velaya?

I head out, running past the orcs once more. Using the map Garond gave me, I find it without much issue. The third paladin leader is there, but he won’t tell me how much ore they’ve found until I help him take care of some snappers. I run out, my new weapon in hand, and fight them off.

As I do, I pass by a destroyed bridge over a river. I stop for a moment, looking at the view across. I can’t see much, but I know that this is the bridge that led to the orc village. The orc village guarding the Temple of the Sleeper. The orc village I had to cut my way through in order to reach the temple and destroy the barrier. I wonder whether my actions caused them to start battling in earnest, leaving the area of the barrier once known as the orc lands and taking over the whole of the valley of mines. Was that… my fault? It’s not a pleasing thought, but it runs through my mind over and over as I finish off the last few snappers.

I return to the paladin, learning of their meager two chests of ore and earning 100 gold from them. As I leave to return to the castle, another paladin stops me, giving me a ring and telling me to hand it to someone in the castle.

When I get there, panting from having to run past the orcs a second time, the sun is beginning to set. I give the ring to the man it is meant for, tell Garond the news, and make one final stop-the Fire Mages’ Study.

I’ve been in there only once, when I teleported in to kill Gomez. Inside, I find the journal of the Fire Mage Corristo, from just a few days before Gomez’ men killed him. I shudder, and can only bear to read one page.

Downstairs is a much nicer surprise-Milten, the apprentice fire mage and another of the few great friends I had in the colony. We talk for a bit, but before long the conversation shifts to Gorn. Milten tells me that if I pay Garond a sum of gold, he can go free.

Returning to Garond, I find that Gorn will only be allowed to leave if I pay 1000 gold. It’s a fucking fortune, but it’s worth every coin. I run to the dungeons, inform the guard, take the key, and let my friend free. Now we are almost all accounted for-Diego, Milten, Gorn, myself… yet Lester is nowhere to be found.

With such a wonderful goal accomplished, I have but one thing left to do-I talk to the local blacksmith and learn a bit more about forging. Now I can create swords greater than any I have ever been able to make before, although I have yet to quite master the creation of two-handed weapons, which are my blades of choice.

With that done, I fall asleep in a quiet corner. I have done well today.

Day 21:

Something is wrong. I know this the instant I wake, although I am not sure why.

Immediately, I head out-past the orcs, out of the Valley of Mines. I’m close to getting the Eye of Innos, and hopefully doing so will halt the feeling of unease I have.

Of course, something goes wrong. As I head through the pass back onto the main land, I am stopped by a man in black and red. His face is concealed. He mutters… something… something about how I have displeased his master and that I must pay. Then, he attacks. He is the most brutal foe I have faced in ages, throwing massive fireballs that scorch my skin. I find myself taking cover behind rocks for just a brief break from the heat, before running out and attacking again. Eventually, he falls, and I am free to continue onward with the threat eliminated.

Yet when I do… in the distance… I see another. Another man in black and red, almost assuredly as strong as the first. I look and see the paladins guarding the gate to the Valley of Mines are both dead. A chill runs down my spine.

Thankfully, I am stopped by Lester. Indeed, I now know we are all safe-Lester, Gorn, Milten, Diego… it’s wonderful… yet I cannot shake the feeling of dread… Lester tells me that something has gone horribly wrong, and that I must see Xardas. Hegives me a rune that will teleport me to his castle. I use it and talk with Xardas.

He confirms what I have feared-the men are the servants of Beliar. They are the Seekers, and their goal is to seek out the man who is searching for the Eye of Innos. They are looking for me. All I can do is run to Lord Hagen, show him the proof, and take the Eye. Maybe then I’ll stand a fighting chance.

As I run to Khorinis, I spot Cavalorn fighting ...wargs? Here? They are advancing further and further out from the forests, the bastards. I help him take them down, although I feel as though I almost lose my life in the process. I tell Cavalorn at last that his letter made it to Vatras.

I continue onwards, but I find myself taking several detours. In the distance, I spot the Seekers. Damn it, I hoped for there to only be a sparse few of them, but even on this short walk, I see two.

When I make it to Khorinis, I see Diego. He’s dressed in the clothes of a merchant, and he asks me to find a purse of gold coins back in the Valley of Mines so that he can bribe the guards to let him into the upper quarter. I agree.

I am injured, so I return to my corner to rest, but… something is wrong. I cannot rest. The instant I close my eyes horrid images fly across my mind. I feel… angry and scared at the same time.

Sarah is gone. In her place is Canthar. None of the other merchants will talk with me. I go up to him, and he says they’ll only trade with me if I give him 500 gold pieces. The fucking-

I run out. I spot a house. I dash inside, glancing to see who is around. Only one person can see me-Gritta, the whoring pig. Nobody else can see me.

I knock her to the ground. I make sure I kill her slowly-she deserves to suffer.

Indeed, seeing the puddle of blood around her corpse makes me feel a deal better. I leave the house and give Canthar his gold.

With that done, I talk to Vatras. I tell him of the bizarre images when I closed my eyes, and he tells me the last thing I expected-when I fought the Seeker, I became possessed. I need to go to the Moanastery to cure it.

Before I leave, though, I talk to Lord Hagen. He gives me a letter to let me into the Moanastery, a rune to help me Teleport back to Khorinis, and also informs me that Bennett, the smith at the Landowner’s Farm, has been arrested for murder-murdering Lothar, the paladin who greeted me back when I first spotted the city a few weeks ago.

I doubt he’s truly guilty, but the paladins have a witness. I talk with the witness and interrogate him. He holds firm, but when I threaten to tell the mercenaries what he’s done he panics, shoves his diary at me, and runs off. His diary notes that a man in a black hood-a Seeker- gave him twenty thousand gold in return for him pretending to have seen the murder. I present this to Lord Hagen and the smith is freed.

I waste no time running to the Moanastery. Along the way, I see… more Seekers. It’s unnerving, seeing so many of them now, all of them after one thing-me.

When I make it to the moanestery, the man now guarding the entrance is none other than Milten. I show him the letter and am permitted inside.

The leader of the fire mages gives me a potion to cure my possession, which I drink immediately. My mind clears, and I almost feel sorry for what I did to Gritta.

The fire mages see the letter telling them to give me the Eye of Innos, but they cannot. It has been stolen, by a novice named Pedro. Where he is now, they do not know. Damn it! Damn it!

They do, however, ask me to help them with a potion-dealer in Khorinis. They also give me a rune to teleport to them. Using the Khorinis rune Lord Hagen gave me, I teleport to the city and find the merchant. He refuses to come along, so I hit him a few times until he agrees.

The mages give me a few coins in return for my help. With this done, I find myself in a truly terrible situation.

I am no longer possessed, but the situation is still dire. I need to find the Eye of Innos by finding Pedro, but I’ve no clue where he is and it’s going to be hard to search every corner of the world with these damned Seekers everywhere. I need to get stronger-hopefully I have enough time to do so before Beliar sends his dragons to hunt me down.

I head to the Landowner’s Farm. As I go, I talk with Bengar, the farmer. He agrees at last to let Balthasar on his pastures, and also tells me he needs new guardsmen for his farm. He mentions Wolf… I shall tell him.

When I make it to the farm, I talk to Wolf and tell him of the job opening. He’s excited and heads over to check it out. I also spot Bennett, the smith. He’s thankful for me saving him-so thankful, he gives me a reward. Apparently, after hearing the rumors of dragons, he started creating a new set of armor he calls Dragon Hunter Armor. He’s only made one set so far, and he gives it to me.

It looks amazing. It’s incredibly light. It’s incredibly hard to the touch. I feel unstoppable. I go out and challenge Bullco to a fight immediately, and win. When Torlof asks me to take care of the few nearest Seekers, I almost think I could go out and do it right then...

Almost. But not quite.

Lee asks me to find the Judge in Khorinis, work for him until I get some incriminating evidence, and have him arrested. He says he’ll pay well, so I agree.

I find a corner and close my eyes, pleased to see no images this time. I am still nervous-the Seekers are on the hunt, and I can’t go out and fight them without becoming a deal stronger, Dragon Hunter Armor or not. Even so, all things considered, things are going well. All that’s left right now is deciding how to get stronger.

Maybe I’ll see if I can join the Ring of Water…

The stats:

Level: 14

Strength: 74

Dexterity: 16

Mana: 10

Magic level: 0

HP: 208

Weapons: Staff Mace (70), Crossbow (90)

Armor: Light Dragon Hunter Armor (Weapon def. 100, projectile def. 100, fire def. 50, magic def. 25)

Amulet: Amulet of Ore Skin (Weapon def. 8, projectile def. 8, fire def. 8, magic def. 8)

Rings: Ring of Iron Skin (Weapo def. 3), Ring of Force (Strength 3)

Belt: Belt of Strength (Strength 10)

Gold: 1243

1-handed skill: 18%*

2-handed skill: 47%

Bow skill: 10%

Crossbow skill: 10%

Saves: 709

* I did not put any points here. This is most likely a minor glitch due to differences between Gothic II and Gothic II: Night of the Raven (the expansion pack, which I am playing). This stat may raise a bit more in the future due to the same glitch, but it’s unimportant and may be freely disregarded.

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