Sacred: Home of the Brave?

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

With the demon horn packed away I was to meet Prince Valor and company at Braverock Castle, the capital of this land. On the way we first came upon Bravebury village though, and the elf ranger Galadreel who wanted help in killing some poachers. There were worse threats though in the form of numerous Sakkara cultists wandering about who had stolen books that needed to be recovered and kidnapped people whom I never found. Annoyingly the cultists also have the paralyzation spell which meant no matter how fast Speedy would run, they would catch me.

Galadreel didn't survive to see me defeat the poachers she wanted removed, led by some barbarian guy. I pushed on to Braverock itself next, which turned out to be a sprawling city and currently well in the clutches of Baron DeMordrey who had since installed himself as king. The previous king died recently you see, and his son supposedly died at Wyvern Pass. Guess he was next in line?

There was a lot in and around Braverock, a bunch of escort and fetch quests within the city limits as expected that serve as the unofficial tour and the rest mostly dealing with abusive people. Abusive officers and husbands, DeMordrey arena champions, murderers protected by the DeMordrey law, slavers wanting their slaves returned (I killed the slavers), demons preventing kids from running to safety, and thieves guild scum trying to out people of their gold. I actually sided with the guardsmen on that last one because the thief guy was really just scum.

Even Sarevok needed help!? Not kidding.

Most worryingly is that there was a two floor, sprawling basement underneath one house that the Sakkara cultists used as a place of worship and torture. Killed one of their high priests down there and rescued a whole bunch of missing townspeople in the process.

Sacred: The Dark Side

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

Before accepting Shareefa's quest to talk to some orcs I decided to first assist some of the surviving soldiers with retrieving a missing pet wolf and retrieving a bow from a magic bear dungeon (don't ask). I also chose to help the local elf rangers with an ice elf problem they were having in this region. Sure, there were some demons and blood thirsty giant bears running lose but the ice elves were the issue and that is no joke because when I ran into the first group I got OWNED. This is because all the ice elves come in large groups and all of them wield FRIGGING LIGHT SABERS!

This is not the game you are looking for!

My task was simple, I just had to remove three of their priestesses from the forest but they were guarded by huge clusters of these evil jedi/Sith. This was the first time I had to use the BFG on groups but it was close to the only way I could get past to my targets. The last one had a PAIR of ice dragons defending her too, which made it all that much harder to get to her. Eventually I did though, and boy did I make her pay for being so annoying to get to.

Deep in the woods I also located another friendly orc village but these ones weren't very talkative, just scared because they were low on warriors, new to the region as refugees, and have all these Sith lurking about the woods nearby. Having had enough Star Wars for now I returned to Prince Valor's encampment and accepted Shareefa's envoy task. The orcs she wanted me to question were the ones in Khorad-Nur who were already friendly to me. She even opened a gate for me for fast travel there but I opted not to take it she did so indoors which meant Speedy (the horse) wouldn't be able to accompany me.

Instead I just rode back to Mascarell (past the still warring factions on the street) to use the way gate back to the orc city and had a quick chat to their local shaman who gave me a rather large demon horn. Apparently something big and fiery is on the loose in the south. Something that's raising all the dead.

Sacred: A Speedy Reunion

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

In under five minutes I was at the gateway to Wyvern's Pass thanks to my swift horse which I've decided to name Speedy, and after dealing with the few DeMordreyan douchebags blocking the way I found myself riding through a bustling war zone of undead versus orcs and goblins. This was a similar case in the desert region near Khorad-Nur but the numbers here were quite scary. Much more so if I had to run through this on foot!

In the distant south I finally found what looked like the last stand of Prince Valor's troops, and after getting some water for a dying soldier (I literally had to kill fifty enemies to do this) he decided to let me know the Prince was actually still alive, and that I should head to Mascarell to protect his girlfriend the Baroness Vilya. Not a problem with Speedy.

Is that you Custer?

In no time at all I'm back at Mascarell which so happens to be under siege by DeMordreyan troops just at that moment. For the most part I ignore them and pick up Vilya at her mansion. She knows the Prince is ok, and that we are to rendevouz with him at some nearby elf lodge in the forest. With her changed into her archer attire we proceed through the combat filled streets and eventually fight our way out with the help of some Mascarellian troops and then race through the bandit and drow forest to Valor's encampment where the Prince and Vilya are happily reunited. I leave them to their own devices as I talk to the sorceress Shareefa who openly ponders why the orcs are coming out of the desert. It's like they are running from something.

Sacred: Khorad-Nur

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

With D'Cay defeated I was let into the orc city (which they call "Khorad-Nur") as promised and was surprised to find a whole bunch of friendly orcs within. Alas the "warriors" outside would still attack me but at least there was an exception to the rule. Not only did they also have a way gate to help speed my travel but they had some really nice gear which I purchased, upgrading the pieces from their local smithy to super high quality, and buying out all the healing potions I could.

I eagerly went to help the locals too, doing tasks like retrieving the scroll of Matt Damon(?) from a lich infested ruin, chasing down some murderous, thieving and rebellious ex-slave goblins, and bringing one orc lady's dog (her husband) back alive from a distant sister city to the South - that one was overrun by undead. I also found a burning ruin with lesser fire demons and Sakkara cultists hacking up a dying seraphim. Didn't take any chances there and BFG'ed the lot of them back to hell.

Even orcs like this guy!

My efforts were well rewarded as I returned to Khorad-Nur at level 20, with a "magic saber of light" as loot in my pack (yes, straight from Star Wars complete with the "vrunk" SFX, poor damage though), and best of all - a painted (or undead) fast riding horse that I found near some mines. After being on foot for so long, this speed boost was very welcome and nothing in the region had any hope of catching me while I was mounted atop it. Alas, it was finally time to resume my mission so I stepped through the local way gate back to Porto Vallum and began the ride to Wyvern Pass.

Sacred: Return to the Oasis

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

With no reinforcements coming his way my next task was obviously to go to Prince Valor's aid personally at Wyvern's Pass so I took the nearby way gate to Porto Vallum to begin the long trek on foot there, but first I wanted to complete those tasks I picked up at the not so nearby oasis camp earlier on. Fortunately most of the foes in that part were also no longer hostile so I made good time despite being on foot to the halfway point of the small fort where I first met Prince Valor.

Guess what, he's still there! Perfect. I can warn him about not getting reinforcements... only I can't. He refuses to talk with me. Oh well! Continuing onto the oasis I still find myself out levelled by the orcs and their ogre allies of the region, but now at a more reasonable gap so I go about rescuing stupid settlers and scouts waiting to be recalled (oops, sorry for the long delay) to various degrees of success, as well as solving easy riddles in the desert and assisting in an on site evacuation of civilians from the oasis camp as undead hordes attacked the site.

During my travels I also come across a large orc city protected by big sandstone walls. The gatekeeper is the first orc willing to parley with me, saying that I'd have to make myself a friend to the orcs to gain entry, or to fight him because it's his job. Not willing to slay the first friendly orc I met, I decide to help them with the undead group threatening the city from the Southern dunes comprised of many skeletons, petrifying bone wizards, ghouls and D'Cay the Undead Dragon. It's a challenging fight and I am depleted of all my healing potions by the time I finally put down D'Cay herself. Bruised and battered I returned to the orc city hoping that the nameless gate guard would keep his word.

After I cleared undead that filled up half my screen.

Sacred: BFG

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

One of the skills available to a Seraph is called "BeeEffGee", which summons a large, holy spear that shoots destructive heavenly energy at things. Magic works with different rules to that of conventional weapons in this game. With conventional weapons there is a roll to hit section to see if your opponent parried etc. With magic, if the graphic touches you - you are hit. You take damage. The end. This particular skill puts out a truck load of magic damage, firing a shot (which goes through all enemies) as fast as I can press the mouse button. Takes a while to recharge and a little bit to cast but the effects are impressive.

Guess how I killed DeMordrey's Dragon.

With all the enemies dead (and starting to respawn), Wilbur and I continued on our journey - handling an evil magician in his mansion and a cave full of slavers with captives that were all freed before coming to the small town of Slaters Grave which had its own share of bandit and slaving issues. We were less fortunate in the rescue attempt there as the local Hill Giants were faster than the women we freed.

We then pushed on North and finally reached the Sharuka encampment - the one supposed to reinforce Prince Valor at Wyvern's Pass. Upon showing the Count's signet ring though the Captain revealed that that was in fact, the signal to kill us. At that instant the other guards attacked and slew Wilbur instantly before freezing in terror. Apparently I was a few levels too far above from what they'd normally aggro. This made executing them one by one all the more sweeter.

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!