Extreme freestyle spelunking! Let's Play Avernum!

Avernum is an RPG created by Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software. Or to be more precise, it's a remake of Vogel's first RPG, Exile: Escape From the Pit. Exile was originally released as shareware waaaay back in the 90's, when America Online was something people still used, and dial-up modems were the norm. Nowadays, indie software is a major part of the gaming scene, but back when shareware was still a word people used, good indie games were a rare commodity indeed.

Exile was one of those good games. It played a lot like Ultima, using an overhead perspective and tile-based movement as the means by which the player explored a large world filled with danger. Players had to manage their food supply to avoid starving, ask NPCs about certain keywords to get information, and defeat countless monsters to achieve the ultimate goal of escaping from the underground prison.


Here is a screenshot from Exile. It's a rather dated game!

Exile was an amazing game for its era, and Spiderweb Software is one of the few shareware developers of the time period who were not only successful, but even managed to make a living developing games! That says a lot about what a quality product Spiderweb makes. However, time passed, as it tends to do, and as we neared the year 2000 it was becoming increasingly obvious that many of the classic game mechanics used in Exile were very outdated. Spiderweb Software needed a game that would appeal to a new set of gaming values, something a bit more streamlined.

Thus, Avernum was born. Most mechanics that might scare newcomers to the RPG genre away were removed or made less imposing, and the game got a significant visual overhaul. You no longer have to worry about starving to death. Spell lists have been trimmed down. Instead of an overhead view reminiscent of Ultima, an isometric perspective is used instead. Rather than use the keyword system of Exile, dialogue trees were implemented (though to be fair, dialogue trees first appeared in Exile III). However, the great story is still there, the freedom and exploration is still there, and the combat is as fun as it ever was.


Here is a screenshot from Avernum. It is less dated, but still dated. It's been ten years, after all!

Avernum is a shining example of how to remake a game in such a way that the most important aspects are left intact while making the game more appealing to a modern audience.

But you aren't here for a history lesson. Let's Play Avernum!



Aw, crap! Okay, fine. Let's Create A Party Of Adventurers First! This is the first screen you see when starting a new game (though the names are different). You have four adventurers that you can customize, altering everything from their skills to their character portraits. For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to stick with the default character portraits.



Here you can see the list of classes available (you are free to develop characters however you like, but the presets give newcomers a good starting point), including a Custom option that allows you to create your own character from scratch. I gave much consideration to how I was going to handle character creation in this LP. Let everyone vote on skills? That could take ages, and not everyone is going to have enough knowledge of the game to make informed decisions. Come up with several different options and let the audience choose their favorites? That would work, but making nonstandard parties generally means ignoring certain skills, possibly missing out on the opportunity to use certain game mechanics.

In the end, I decided to distribute skill points myself without audience input. Sorry guys! But I do have a reason for this decision: I want to show off as much of the content and as many of the game mechanics as possible, and the best way to do that is with a standard fighter/rogue/cleric/mage setup.



This is what happens when you choose to make a custom class. You get 65 skill points to distribute among several different skills and attributes. Notice that you start with 2 Strength, 2 Dexterity, and 3 Endurance by default. This is the absolute minimum those attributes can be for a new character, and the game will not let you go any lower. Skills also become more expensive as you invest in them. Increasing your Strength attribute from 2 to 3 costs 5 points. The next increase costs 6 points. Then 7 points, and so on. Building a character requires striking a balance between specialization and versatility in order to maximize skill point investment.

A quick rundown on what these skills and attributes do:

Attributes

Strength - Allows the character to carry a heavier load, as well as do more damage in combat.
Dexterity - This attribute effects turn order in combat.
Intelligence - Increases spell power and MP.
Endurance - Increases total HP.

Weaponry Skills

Melee Weapons - Increases your chances of hitting an enemy when wielding swords, daggers, and clubs.
Pole Weapons - Increases your chances of hitting an enemy when wielding a polearm.
Bows - Just like the last two skills, but for bows.
Thrown Missiles - Once again, increases your odds of hitting the enemy with the listed weapon type. In this case, that means rocks and darts.
Hardiness - Has a chance to reduce the damage taken by a melee attack by one point for every point in Hardiness you have. That may not sound like much, but it's better than you think.
Defense - Every point in Defense you have increases your chances of avoiding a physical attack by 4%. Not too shabby!
Assassination - Each point in Assassination gives you a chance to critically hit an enemy when making a melee attack. Points in Assassination are more effective when the target is below the character's level, but with enough points invested here you can critically hit pretty much anything. A vital skill for anyone who uses swords or polearms. Does not work with bows.

Magical Skills

Mage Spells - Every arcane spell has a minimum level of Mage Spells skill required to cast it. Also determines a new character's starting spell list.
Priest Spells - Like mages, every cleric spell requires a certain amount of investment in this skill before being able to cast it. Also determines a new character's starting spell list.
Arcane Lore - Helps identify items and read magic runes. This skill isn't checked per character, instead the entire party's total skill is used, so you can spread this skill out to keep skill point costs down.
Potion Making - Increases the odds of successfully brewing a potion. More powerful potions require more of this skill to craft successfully.

Useful Skills

Tool Use - Increases a character's ability to successfully pick locks and disarm traps.
Cave Lore - General wilderness knowledge. Primarily used to allow the party to avoid monster encounters.
First Aid - Allows characters to heal themselves and others with first aid kits. Effectiveness increases with skill point investment.
Luck - Makes things go your way. Has a minor effect on all random dice rolls, and certain encounters can be avoided with enough luck.

Primary attributes can also provide bonuses to skills. For example, every four points of Strength will grant one point of Hardiness. This is useful information when building a character, as it can allow you to squeeze as much power out of your skill points as possible.

One final thing to mention is the series of check boxes on the right hand side of the screen. You'll note that Elite Warrior is checked, and that the character is suffering a -30% XP penalty as a result. These are traits. Positive traits provide bonuses to a character but cause them to level up more slowly (30% more slowly, in this case), and negative traits give characters penalties, but allow them to level up more quickly. Any character can have up to two traits. I'm not going to go into detail with these, because only a few are really worth taking, and my party will only be taking two traits total. I'll explain the traits I do take, but aside from that, these won't be having any impact on the LP. Traits can be fun when trying to challenge yourself, but most of them are not very helpful when simply trying to efficiently finish the game.

Now that you've gone through the character creation basics, how about we actually make the party?



This is our brawler. He has high melee weapon skill, and his attributes are granting him some minor bonuses to other weapon types as well. He has a bit of Cave Lore, but is mostly focused on hitting things in the face. He also has the Elite Warrior trait. This slows his XP gain by 30%, but grants bonuses to accuracy and damage in combat that will increase as he levels up.



Our thief has a decent amount of skill with melee weapons as well, plus significant investment in the Tool Use skill. She's the go-to party member when it's time to pick a lock or disarm a trap, and she can fight well on the front lines. She also has the Nimble Fingers trait, giving her a bonus to disarming traps and picking locks, but reducing the amount of XP she gains by 15%.



The cleric has moderate investment in Priest Spells, plus some skill with Bows so that she has a method of attacking enemies from a distance. Extra points were dumped into Arcane Lore.



Channeling arcane energies, the mage of the group has Mage Spells, Arcane Lore, and Potion Making as his primary skills. That's all he needs, because he's going to be spending most of his time hiding behind the rest of the party, lobbing fireballs at the enemy.



So that's our team of adventurers! Before we get started on our journey beyond the portal, there's only one more thing we need to do... name them! Fighter, Thief, Cleric, and Mage are stupid names, and I know you guys can do better!

I've never heard of this game, so this LP should be interesting. As for names...

Fighter: Felix
Thief: Claire
Cleric: Lydia
Mage: Simon

Yay Avernum! Exile was my first experience with shareware RPGs, but I never made it very far for a number of reasons (not the least of which was the archaic interface). When Avernum was released I fell in love with the world and its lore. Someday I should really try to finish it, especially since I've got all these half-finished dungeon maps I made in Photoshop.

One of the better tricks in Exile was that it came with a savegame editor, which was also shareware-locked, so you could pretty much only alter your gold and food (thus never fearing starvation). (This also prevents you from, say, getting an orb of flight and thereby bypassing the Shareware Chasm).

The Shareware Demon and Shareware Chasm were pretty funny ideas, too.

Parsley
Sage
Rosemary
Thyme

Also, Foglio did the skill portraits?

Is that Phil Foglio art I see? It sure looks like Phil Foglio.

Anyway, the party's names are going to be MASH, TAKE, HEAL, and CAST. In caps, as I have indicated.

Second'd.

Seconding. (Though, MASH, THIF, HEAL, and NUKE would be a tick higher in my estimation)

I can come up with names for generic parties all day long. Watch this:

Orcguy, Trapguy, Healbot, Zapguy
BREAK, TAKE, WAKE, QUAKE
Fightgar, Rogueford, Cleridon, Wiztard
Spades (swords), Clubs (coins), Hearts (cups), Diamonds (wands)
CRUSH THE SURVIVORS, OPEN THE DOOR, HEAL THE WOUNDED, BURN EVERYTHING (though you'd want to change the party order to thief, mage, fighter, cleric)
TANK, DPS1, HEAL, DPS2

Indeed it is! For a game that's very spartan when it comes to fancy graphics and special effects, Phil Foglio art for all the skill and trait descriptions is a real treat.

My personal favorite is the Thrown Missiles skill:

Speaking of spelunking, my favorite moment at PAX last weekend came as I was standing at the Spelunky booth trying out the game. I saw a slightly older gentleman (approximately mid-40s) talking to the booth attendant (Derek Yu wasn't around). Halfway listening, I heard the man say he was excited to see games like Spelunky catching on. "I've been doing this sort of thing since 1995," he said. He mentioned something about creating a series of three games, then another of five, and how he was going back and remaking the first game.

"Excuse me," I asked. "Are you Jeff Vogel?"

He seemed pleasantly surprised to be recognized. We chatted for a few minutes and he thanked me for 1UP's support of his work, I wished him good luck with the Exile remake, and he went along his way so I could die at Spelunky some more.

Best of luck with the Let's Play! And everyone please go buy a copy of Avadon, Vogel's most recent project. He is a good man keeping old-school, open-ended RPGs alive, and he deserves everyone's support.

This is also on Steam, I noticed recently.

I plan to use this LP to help me decide if a Spiderweb Software kind of game is up my alley, because I'm apparently too lazy to play a demo. So no pressure or anything!

I played the hell out of the first Blades of Exile scenario, many years ago. It was great (so many hidden passages, treasures, and enemies!), but... I honestly don't know how I did it. Today, even the second Avernum trilogy gets on my nerves, and I can't bring myself to try the first. Maybe four is just a 'sour spot' for number of characters in this sort of game?

Anyway, I'm glad to see an LP for this game. Now maybe someone will give Nethergate a shot, and I'll be sufficiently caught up on Spiderweb.

And that's why it's getting another makeover late this/early next year.

I've got to tell ya, this sounds like it's going to be my kind of LP... I'd love to offer you some suggestions, but frankly I'm terrible at naming things.

What is a Hedge Wizard? Do they attack things with topiaries?

Assuming "The Nameless One" is indicative of how much space we have to work with (at least 16 characters) I submit:

Hans und Franz
Felonious Drunk
Chastity Goodtouch
The Astrologist

(And if "Chastity Goodtouch" (18 characters) is too long, maybe shorten Chastity to Chaste.)

Something like Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme makes a good quartet of names when they're all mentioned as a group, but I think those names would start to sound kind of inane when talking about the characters as individuals. (Especially if the thief is the one who gets named "Sage". wtf?!?)

Bonus Content / Extra names: "Liquor Navel", "Mystic Ted", "The AMAZING Jim". (Note that that's not a full party, in fact it's thief, mage, and mage, respectively.)

Avadon is indeed super sweet, and I can't say good things about it enough.

I really enjoy how they're keeping Foglio's illustrations in those screenshots (and ditching the rest of the ugly PC-RPG-circa-2000 interface).

Here's some character names shamelessly lifted from Fallout that I thought sounded pretty cool:

-Arcade
-Boone
-Cassidy
-Veronica
-Dashwood
-Argyle

One with a lesser power level or lack of formal learning or non-urban environment. Generally derogatory and used by those who are powerful/city-learned/ivory-tower types. Can imply fuller utilization of natural/plant/earth magic than city-learned wizards.

I don't know, I would rather see characters named

-Coin-op
-Baboone
-Butch
-Jughead
-Bumstead
-Velour

But I guess it's all a matter of taste as to how serious this business of reading about someone else playing a game on the internet is.

I have never played a Spiderweb game, but I think it's super-great that Vogel is still around doing what he loves, and that there is enough of an audience to support him.

I couldn't wait for the LP to start, so I started my own new playthrough! Dashwood and his noble companions will find a way out of this subterranean pit or die trying.

Also, something about this game makes me want to map game world with annotations for special items and encounters. So I'm doing that too!

Here stands our party of brave adventurers, freshly arrived in Avernum! Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme are ready to tackle any challenge Avernum can throw at them, provided those challenges are suitable for level one characters.

A man waits at the bottom of the small hill. Maybe he can help us get our bearings.



Why are you standing here?

"I wait for new arrivals, such as yourselves, and welcome them." He bows. "Welcome to Avernum."

So we're in Avernum? What's Avernum?

"Avernum is what we call this place. In days of old, Avernum was the name of the underworld, where lost souls were sent to be punished. Sort of makes sense." He smiles sadly.

Why are you welcoming us?

"It's my job. I'm here to ease the considerable shock of being cast into the underworld, of course. So. Welcome to the underworld." He pauses to think. "Also, I'm here to say where you can get information about Avernum, and supplies."

Supplies? Someone will give us things?

"To prevent certain problems, new arrivals are sent to Tor to get modest supplies to support themselves until they find work. We've found that doing otherwise results in desperate, dangerous, and violent new citizens."

"This way, you'll have a fair chance. What you do with it when you leave here is your business. Which reminds me, be sure to see Thairl for information."

Can I go back through the portal?

"I wouldn't recommend it. It's not a wise idea. Someone tried an experiment once. It was messy. Ask Acacia about it. She was there."

What a helpful person! Apparently an entire culture has formed down here in Avernum. Thankfully, this underground realm isn't all fanged monstrosities. Let's take a walk around the fort!



Just a few steps to the south, we find a pair of small buildings located on the road leading from the portal. This is probably where we're supposed to get the information and supplies we were told about. Taking a quick look at the sign...



Yep! This is the place, alright! Let's see Tor about getting some equipment, shall we?



Tor is a kind man who generously bestows our party with some food, a Bronze Longsword (which Parsley equips immediately), and a small pouch of coins. Having a proper means of defending themselves and some basic essentials means a lot to the frightened people who arrive in the underworld. Without men like Tor, life in Avernum would be much more difficult.

Parsley raises an eyebrow at the large array of stone weapons kept behind the counter, significantly outnumbering the cheap bronze swords. Tor explains that metal is difficult to come by in Avernum. Skilled workers and blacksmiths are scarce, proper tools scarcer still. With only very minimal mining operations existing, and only a small handful of people capable of making use of the ore found, quality iron and steel is uncommon, and very expensive. Most of Avernum's citizens rely on crude stone or bronze tools to get by.

I always thought this was one of the cooler things about Avernum. In most fantasy RPGs, you start with steel or iron weapons, and quickly start using crazy stuff like mythril or adamantium or whatever other magic metal the game designers can think up. In Avernum, the progression goes from Stone, to Bronze, to Iron, to Steel, to Blessed Steel. There are a few magic weapons as well, but they are very rare... only a handful exist in the game! Avernum is a rough place, and the magic that is common on the surface is hard to come by in the underworld. It's a neat touch, and adds a lot to the atmosphere.

Thanking Tor, the party moves south to the next building, entering without even bothering to look at the sign. If it's right next to Tor's place, it's probably also for the benefit of new arrivals, right?



Inside sits a man in wizard's robes, perfectly clean and pressed despite the dust and grime that covers most of Avernum. Thyme's expression brightens a bit as he realizes Avernum is not devoid of scholars.

Clean and scholarly he may be, but this man is also cranky. A simple query as to his name and job elicits a sharp response. "My name is Thairl. I'm here to help you."

Help us?

Well, every day or so, our benevolent overlords above hurl a few more souls into the hellish cesspit. Then they come to me, and I tell them just how bad things are here." He chuckles dryly. "Normally, I'd be cheery, but today I'm just not in the mood."

"Anyway, I'm here to give information."

You give information?

"Yes. For example, on our lovely neighbors, the Nephilim and the Slithzerikai. Or on nearby towns. Or on your chances for escape. Or on how to get supplies. Or on the local politics."

Ah yes, the Nephilim. A race of humanoid cats that humanity has been feuding with for as long as anyone can remember, the party knows all about them. There are many on the surface. But what the hell are Slithzerikai?

What are the Slithzerikai?

"Lizard men. Only live below ground. Intelligent, powerful fighters, very magically talented. We've been at war with them for years, and lately things have been at a stalemate. They live to the west."

The party asks Thairl who exactly runs things down here. It seems each of the towns of Avernum has a mayor, and these mayors form a council that rules with King Micah in a place called the Great Cave to the south. As adventurers, meeting a king is definitely something to add to the list of Things To Do, though the party is somewhat skeptical that the southern cave is all that great.

Finally, Thairl tells the party about the nearby settlements. The nearest proper town is called Silvar, and it lies to the west. Dunvo is located to the north, and has been under attack by the Nephilim. Thairl implores our adventurers to help Dunvo if possible, as if Dunvo falls, Fort Avernum is next.

As they begin to leave the building, Sage recalls something Thairl said earlier and turns to ask a question:

What are our chances of escaping Avernum?

"No chance. None whatsoever. We all stay down here until monsters hunt us down like dogs."

Well that's unpleasant. Feeling somewhat more depressed, the party exits the building and resumes exploring Fort Avernum.



The party wanders around, locating a few empty rooms, the barracks, and some storage chambers. Sage's eyes light up greedily and a quick inspection of the door is made.



Drat! Sage has no lockpicks, Parsley refuses to risk dislocating his shoulder to break into a simple storage area, and Thyme isn't about to use his mana on something so trivial. It looks like our heroic adventurers won't be robbing Fort Avernum today.



In the corner of the fort lies a small pool. A woman picks mushrooms nearby. She says her name is Diane, wife of Tor. When the party mentions that Tor is the one who gave them supplies, Diane nods.

"Ah, yes. Your arrival allotment. We all go it when we came down here. Otherwise, everyone who arrived in Avernum would be poor and desperate. Then they'd rob people, and end up in the Abyss."

What is the Abyss?

"It's far to the west of here. It's where we send the criminals. Not everyone the Empire sends down is kind. Or sane. Those who can't live with us in peace are sent to the Abyss to live apart from us."

It seems that despite all the innocents sent to Avernum for trivial reasons, some people really are dangerous enough to deserve banishment. The party notices a monument in the corner, near the wall, and has a closer look.



That is an awful lot of people. It would seem that the innocent far outnumber the guilty when it comes to imprisonment in Avernum.

Suddenly he party stops in their tracks. Something isn't quite right here... It's been nagging at them since arriving, but nobody has been able to place their finger on it. "Trees!" exclaims Rosemary. "Why are there trees here?"

Someone standing at the other side of the pool overhears the party, and introduces himself. He is the groundskeeper in charge of maintaining this small mushroom patch, and he explains that the trees are the creation of wizards at the Tower of the Magi, far to the south. Apparently many wizards deemed a political threat have been sent to Avernum over the years, and they have managed to create artificial vegetation with which to enable basic living in the caves. Trees that absorb moisture from the air, capable of rooting themselves in the hard stone of the caves. Altered fungus edible by humans. Were it not for the efforts of these mages, humans would not survive long in Avernum.



The party approaches the only building in town they have not yet examined. The smell of food wafts through the doors. Despite the odd odor caused by the heavy use of fungus as an ingredient, there is undeniably something edible inside. This building is located right next to the main gates... an inn, perhaps?



Not an inn, but a cafeteria is the next best thing! The party chats with a local soldier, and inquires about the insignia on her armor. Apparently it is the official mark of the Avernum army. The people of Avernum have an entire army? It seems that civilization can develop nearly anywhere. Upon discovering her name is Acacia, they ask her about the man who tried to go back through the portal. Apparently he thought that he could alter the portal with a strange blue crystal he possessed. According to Acacia, a few people have claimed to have found magical blue crystals capable of speaking to them, though such incidents have become increasingly rare. The man who tried to alter the portal was chased out of Fort Avernum, though nobody ever found the crystal he possessed. He was last seen in a town called Formello. The party makes a note of this.



There is one more person inside to speak with, and so our adventurers do just that. Her name is Warrick, a new arrival to Avernum much like ourselves. She's looking for a sister of hers named Anastasia who was sent to Avernum years earlier. Sounds like a sidequest to me! We'll have to keep an eye out for anybody named Anastasia we run across in the future.



At last! After all that talking, we're ready to leave Fort Avernum and go on incredible adventures in this strange underground world! But something just isn't right... it doesn't feel like a real RPG yet. There's something missing. Dusting off old Dragon Quest skills, we maneuver the party along the edge of town, down the side of the wall, until we discover...

Giant cave rats! Okay, now it's a real RPG! To battle!

The party enters combat mode. Parsley is up first! Characters in Avernum, both PC and NPC alike, all have 4 AP to use on movement and attacks at the start of every round. Moving one square in any of the 8 directions available costs 1 AP. Attacking with a ranged weapon or a melee attack costs 4 AP, and casting a spell costs 5 AP. You are allowed to make an attack or cast a spell if you have less than 4 or 5 AP with no penalty, it simply consumes whatever AP the character has left and ends their turn. In other words, you can move three squares and still attack or cast a spell.

Parsley managed to strike a Cave Rat for 22 points of damage, and Sage missed pathetically. One nice feature of Avernum is that after attacking or being attacked, the game tells you what chance the attack had of successfully landing. In this case, Parsley and Sage had a 67% and 58% chance to hit. Thyme has more Dexterity than Rosemary, so he's up next. being a mage, he isn't about to waste time with physical attacks, and he goes straight for his spellbook. The spells he currently has access to are:

Firebolt (a): Attacks a single target for moderate fire damage.
Light (b): Illuminates an area for a brief period.
Call Beast (c): Summons a critter to fight for you.
Bind (d): Binds a target with magical webs to hamper their movement.
Haste (e): Increases the speed of an ally, allowing them to act sooner in combat and granting them 2 extra AP per turn for the duration.
Slow (f): Slows an opponent, causing them to act later in a combat round and even reduce the number of turns they get.
Ice Lances: Hits multiple targets for minor cold damage.
Unlock: Attempts to unlock a door.

Thyme briefly considers summoning a rat with Call Beast before deciding that additional rodents are the last thing the party needs right now, and settling on Ice Lances instead.



Zap! It isn't much, but that 6 damage is enough to finish off the rat that Parsley wounded.



The remaining rat tries to run. Parsley and Sage spend all their AP chasing after it. Thyme sighs and casts Firebolt. Like all magic, it strikes unerringly, and the rat suffers serious burns. Before Rosemary can react, the rat lashes out at Parsley, biting him savagely and dealing 7 points of damage... nearly half his HP!

Rosemary is tired of watching Parsley and Sage miss pathetically, run around ineffectively, and get seriously hurt by vermin. She isn't going to let Thyme have all the fun, either. She prepares a spell, of which she knows the following

Healing (a): Heals a single target.
Curing (b): Cleanses poison from a single target.
Battle Rage (c): Gives an ally the Bless effect, improving their chance to hit and the damage they deal.
Shielding (d): Gives an ally the Shield effect, reducing physical damage taken.
Repel Spirit (e): Deals moderate to heavy damage to a single undead target.
Smite (f): Deals mild divine damage to a single living target.

Rosemary could cast Healing and restore Parsley's health, allowing him to finish off the rat on his next turn. Or she could Smite the rat right in its stupid rodent face.



It isn't very powerful, but Smite does just enough damage to finish off the second rat. Victory is ours! The party celebrates its victory over common vermin by rooting around in the same trash pile the rats were just digging through.

If you check the event log, you can see an example of the event log displaying chance to hit... the rat that bit Parsley had a 47% chance of doing so.



So we just wandered into Fort Avernum's trash heap, disturbed some rats who were minding their own business, and murdered them so that we could rummage through the trash ourselves. We're adventurers!

Parsley equips the boots he finds in the trash, increasing his physical damage reduction by 1 at great cost to his personal hygiene.

This is yet another cool thing about Avernum, though... not every secret or hidden area leads to something amazing. In this case, the edge of town is used as a trash pit, so you find rats. You don't get anything important for finding it, but it's there all the same.

Okay, now we can leave Fort Avernum!





Here we are, on the overworld! Er, sort of. This is what passes for "outside" in Avernum. According to the sign, Silvar is to the West, and Dunvo to the north, but we already knew that. Well, we were given some money to buy supplies with, so maybe we should check out Silvar first and buy some equipment?



As you can see on the minimap, Silvar is pretty close to Fort Avernum. An uneventful hike along the main road gets the party there without incident.



Upon arriving in Silvar, the first thing we do is check that building just to the north, on the grounds that it's closer than anything else in town. I wonder who lives there?



Anastasia's Armor? Hey, we found something to spend our money on already! Wait... Anastasia? It couldn't possibly be that easy...



Huh. I guess it really was that easy! the party chats about how incredibly expensive good armor is, and resolves not to buy a damn thing, which is good, because I completely forgot to take a screenshot of Anastasia's store inventory on this trip. You'll just have to wait until next time! Anastasia mentions that her husband, Efram, works as a weaponsmith in the building next door, and that we should ask him about Demonslayer. That sounds like a good idea!



Your wife told me that I should ask you about Demonslayer.

He grins wildly, and slaps his scabbard. "This is Demonslayer." It is an iron greatsword, or impressive aspect. "Well, I haven't really slain any demons with it. It's the best sword in there parts, but it's not the genuine article."

What do you mean? Where is the real sword?

"Well, I don't know too much about it, but once a bunch of adventurers and soldiers came down here. Got killed off to a man and woman. And one of them, someone told me once, had this amazing demon slaying sword. That was a while ago."

He thinks. "Of course, then again, he may just have been jealous of my sword. Guys are like that."

Parsley appreciates the magnificent greatsword, then counts out the meager 200 coins the party was allotted and sighs. He casts a final glance at the imitation Demonslayer as the party leaves the establishment. There's one more building nearby, so why not take a look there, as well?



Erik is a combat trainer. When standing in his store, a "Train" button appears under the character portraits, and pressing that button allows you to purchase skill ranks with any skill points earned by gaining levels (it also costs a small fee). We're level one, so that doesn't help us much right now. This trainer in particular can do something else for us, too!



Exploring our dialogue options allows us to discover that Erik is an excellent trader, and he is willing to teach us the skill... for a price. Skills purchased from a store window like this do not cost skill points, only coins, and each character can learn up to five ranks in the skill this way. Barter will allow the party to buy for less and sell for more. Furthermore, Barter is a skill that is pooled between all party members, making this an excellent skill to invest in early on. We don't have the money to do so right now, but it's something to keep in mind!

It's obvious that we'll need more money to get any shopping done, and the party recalls what Thairl told them... to the north, Dunvo needs help fending off Nephilim raids. Sounds like a good way for fledgling adventurers to make some easy coin! The party decides to ditch Silvar and head to Dunvo right away.

Next Time: The Bandits of Dunvo OR Less Talking, More Fighting!

Off to a pretty good start. Keep up the good work, Feynman!

So four people show up in Avernum and are given one sword to share between them? Does the starter equipment change based on what classes you have in your party or is it the same no matter what?

Your characters all start with a basic stone weapon suited to their skillset, and some low-level armor (Poor Leather for fighter, rogue, and cleric types, robes for mages). The Bronze Longsword is just a bonus Tor hands out.

Though I do like the thought of an entire party of adventurers having to share a single sword.

I discovered a body in the opposite corner of the map. It has more stuff!

Guards killed the rats before I ever left town, thus depriving me of the experience(s).

The maps and everything are twanging rather heavily on my memory strings.

Thugs near the beginning are actually quite tough if you decide to play a solo character.

Does this game have some sort of quest journal in it?