Farcry 3: Bunker Down

[Part of the Diary of a Marked One]

Our next target was a bunker that held information on the whereabouts of the captain, which mostly made for close quarters combat. The major difference here was that our opponents were no longer the red shirt wearing pirates but the armor wearing mercenaries who could really take a few more hits before going down. Fortunately we also got reinforcements (in the form of Juris) and an extra gun hand made quite the difference.

Compared to the last mission this one was more of a humorous cakewalk, including the part where we were just lobbing infinite grenades down on swarms of the mercs (the competitive section) until we got to the end. The last section involved carrying three explosives to various sections of the base while the mercs literally deployed armies of scum on the field to stop us at each point. Though I was downed just prior to the second objective being destroyed, the rest of the team did manage to secure victory regardless and they managed to drag me out of there as everything went kaboom. An interesting feat considering I was in an elevator with a ticking time bomb when I went down.

While recovering I decided to make use of one of the pilfered laptops they took from the location, and began decoding the encrypted files to help us in our goal (using Farcryoutpost.com grid puzzle). I never realized that hacking was quite this fun.

A bit of a brain tease too!

Sacred: DeMordrey

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

Back on track we helped out the folk at Fairies Crossing before crossing the bridge into DeMordrey territory. There were DeMordreyan knights, ronin, wargs, mercenaries, you name it. All of which were hostile to travellers but again, not really much of a threat. As my character enjoys to yell out "No point in fighting, say goodbye and go to hell!". Eventually we made it to the home base of these DeMordreyan troops, Crowsrock Castle which ominously sits atop a tall cliff.

Fortunately the city guards are not hostile, and they let us be about our business within the main purpose of which is to ask their boss, Baron DeMordrey to sent reinforcements to Prince Valor at Wyvern's Pass to fight the orcs. The Baron thinks this is an easy job and gives us his signet ring to take to his Sharuka commander at another outpost further North. I'm beginning to wonder if the Prince is ever going to get his reinforcements at this rate, but to satisfy my own curiousity I take a good look around the DeMordrey stronghold first and find a cave at the back that serves as a barracks and training area for a large force of his guys.

They are ALL hostile. Well, since they're not needed at Wyvern's Pass I decide to use them as training and wipe them out, earning "godlike diamond greaves" in the process and discovering a magic gate at the very back. Stepping through we found ourselves on a small island which is home to DeMordrey's pet DRAGON. If there was a VA line for "holy sh#t" it would have been played now.

Like most dragons, it's better to fight the butt than the face!

Sacred: Detour XP

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

We took a slight detour to reach the villages of Florentin, the nearby Porto Draco and the rather large city right beside of Mascarell. The whole place was plagued by bandits. Indeed I think the bandits outnumbered the townsfolk ten to one in the region, leading me to question where the heck they all stay? Fortunately they were all easy enough to slay, including the rather large portion of hostile Demordreyan troops among their number.

Apart from the expected crime and banditry quests in the region, the bigger problem were the small concentrated zones of undead. We only had to deal with ghosts haunting a mansion (for the new owners) and ghosts haunting a ruined playground (for the kids y'know - those effing ghosts have no manners) but those ghosts had some more, corporeal allies in the forms of zombies and skeletons. In this game you need to kill one of those THREE times unless you have a potion of "undeath death" which makes them explode. Poor Wilbur was getting tossed around like a ragdoll in some of those fights but he's a pretty resilient guy. 

It makes these situations three times worse!

The only other thing of note this session was finding a random group of drow elves in the nearby forests and their pet baby dragons / winged lizard thingies. Flying enemies are annoying. Since we never got a quest to hunt them down I didn't explore in that direction further since the main task was in the opposite direction entirely. Oh, and we found the "Legendary Mace of Hell" in a barrel at one of the taverns. Wilbur was pleased.

Sacred: Bad Odds

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

After arming Wilbur the two of us travelled on through the orc desert to a small stone fort which was where Prince Valor and his men were holed up. Wilbur told the Prince where the orcs were coming from, a place called Wyvern's Pass in the deep sands and the Prince immediately decided that he will go march there with his troops, because he's had enough of these damned orcs. Can't blame him. Valor requested we (Wilbur still tagging along) go ask someone named Count DeMordrey for reinforcements though, as he knows his current force will be outnumbered.

Sounds like an important job, but since it looked like none of the soldiers there were in a hurry to go anywhere I decided to first deliver another letter - this time for a merchant, deeper in the desert at an oasis outpost. The orc patrols were getting scarier and scarier the further we went until my character herself had a voice over line indicating the sheer terror she felt in that region because the MOBs so badly out levelled us.

The same feeling terrorists get when Jack Bauer is in the area.

Still, I made the delivery and did pick up all the quests in that oasis camp. Bad luck if they wanted them done anytime soon though because after a cursory look around, Wilbur and I were high tailing it right back past Valor's fort and Porto Vallum. I noted that the orcs are bad shots with their bows, but they still managed to kill my horse (I failed to evade that volley), a farmer girl NPC I was trying to take back to town, and a herd of stolen cattle. In hindsight it was fortuitous to have so many meat shields with me. Hey, Wilbur survived!

Sacred: The Green Sea

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

There is a serious goblin infestation on the outskirts of town number two which is in between the town of losers and Porto Vallum. This makes my tasks of treasure hunting, finding missing people, and simply giving a man a drink quite a challenge. As usual they are easily dispatched in small numbers but these buggers are literally coming in waves of ten or more, with shamans warping in more reinforcements from the nearby goblin planet (I suppose) every 15 seconds.

They stole our technology, Captain!

It actually takes a bit of scouting before I find a suitable path through the unending green bastards to my destination of Porto Vallum - alas the two random guys who needed an escort there did not make it, being eviscerated by the goblins midway. Been awhile since I've seen a "Quest Failed" message which still lets you continue the game. Oh well, they have no problems now being dead and all so I was left to my own devices to explore this ... outpost really, which sat on the border of an orc infested desert. Great.

Fortunately the orc forces don't have a unit (like the goblin shamans) that can paralyze your movement, which meant I could gallop right past the massive crowds of them to fetch lost medicines, maps and the like and fight specific groups at locations of my choosing. This was way preferrable to the little terrors from the woods before. Anyway, my main objective here (after handing in the letter from the town of losers) was to find Prince Valor's man servant Wilbur who had been kidnapped by the orcs he was spying on. It took a little effort to find the correct orc camp but soon Wilbur was again a free man and had urgent news for the prince.

Sacred: Beginners Zone

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

Since the character creation really comes down to picking one of eight uncustomizable people and all the males either looked silly or had professions I wasn't interested in I chose the most ludicrous of the females - the seraph. Beware her jiggly wrath!

Just with that "armor" she starts with +15% physical protect.

After awaking from a strange nightmare which involves a stupid necromancer losing control of his summoned demon, I found myself in a quaint little town with many people needing my help. It soon becomes apparent that this is the town of losers, as my tasks include finding a lost sister, lost cattle, lost children, lost fishing buddies, lost pay books, lost blacksmiths with lost swords, and to top it off I run into a lost seraphim, being held captive by some random thugs in a cave!

At least the rewards are worth it. In fact it's an interesting reward system, as not only do I get the random XP, gold, and gear, but also I sometimes get skill baubles which increase the potency of one of my many skills. Too bad I usually get ones I don't use though. I also increase my income by getting donations from the townsfolk (by raiding their house cupboards, chests and barrels). They don't complain about it, and neither do I as a "Diamond Sword of the Hero" fell out of someones cabinet.

To better match the picture above I also purchased a horse for a very low one thousand gold coins, which from memory is WAY cheaper than those in TESO. Having finished the tasks here, the guard captain gave me a letter of commendation to bring to Porto Vallum so that I might better serve someone named Prince Valor.

Sacred: Journey Journal

Due to having some internet issues over here I decided to play through a copy of Sacred Gold I have sitting around. It's one of those games that my brothers and I intended to play coop but never got around to it, so now - years later - I've decided to win the damn thing since I don't like leaving boxes of games unwon. Obviously spoilers ahead (if you also intend to play through it) but given its age, its probably ok to just read my adventures through it!

Chapters:
Beginners Zone
The Green Sea
Bad Odds
Detour XP
DeMordrey