Enderal: Explosive Finale

[Part of the Cursed story line]

After explaining the situation to Calia we decide to hedge our bets on the best way to save the world. Two of the less damaged Arps, who aren't goblins at all but puppets, are re-awoken using the soul gems of Pahtira (who has been listening to everything from my pack the whole time) and Goliath, both happy to be mobile again.

I tell them that they will be the ones using the escape pods to fly up to Starcity as that is where their knowledge of machines will be best served. Meanwhile Calia will take a shortcut to the Myrad towers to fly across the sea to warn the other countries and give them all the knowledge we gained.

As for me, I would need to destroy the Beacon. After a tearful farewell with Calia, I returned to the Sun Temple with the two Arps following behind. Taranor's forces had broken in, but he along with everyone else who wasn't already dead lay twitching and burning from inside. The Arps get to the escape pods and fly off while I walk up to the Beacon, finding Tealor lying on top of it, still believing he did something good.

There is only one thing to do now...

I wait as long as I can to give Calia time to flee before using the Blind Miner's axe to destroy the Beacon's power source and causing a continent sized explosion. Hah. Dying to save the entire world. If only the matron mother at Ust Natha could see me n... *KABOOM!*

Insight: What a cool game! I've obviously skipped a bunch of stuff and changed a few things to condense the story so I highly recommend experiencing Enderal for yourself! Maybe you'll make different choices than I did? I also didn't even touch a number of their custom skill trees nor did I visit every location on the map.

Enderal: History Repeating

[Part of the Cursed story line]

I don't know how far I've fallen when I come to, but it's nothing a healing potion or two can't fix. Following a single tunnel I come across a massive chamber housing a huge, unfinished and immobile "Goliath" robot. Like that incident with Pahtira, This one is also inhabited by a person - one who has survived countless Cycles in the machine body as the Cleansing (last part) skips non-flesh organisms.

This thing is massive.

It also reveals that what starts the Cleansing is always the same: activating the Beacon without the Numinos! Just as it has happened many times before - it was happening right now. The robot says there are only two choices left for me: to flee back to the Starcity via the escape pods we used prior, or to destroy the Beacon which would limit the destruction from being world wide to just being the continent of Enderal.

As a final request, it asks that I shut him down so that he finally "dies" but too late do I realize this is a trick, as his consciousness begins to swap bodies with my own! Luckily Calia arrives to save me just in time. This angers the Goliath who then uses his own creations: Arps, to try kill us. This does not go well for them or for him, as by the end - he is the one lying broken from an explosion.

Insight: The glowy suicide bomb Arps were killing me instantly if they got into melee, make sure you kill them at range!

Enderal: Top of the List

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The search for Tara leads past a pus beetle hive to an Arp filled ruin where it becomes evident that Tara and her cultist buddies all killed themselves - probably part of the same group that I previously found at their island resort. Esme is obviously unhappy with the find.

The desert knights don't like being disturbed.

As she wants to be left alone I warp back to Ark and find every single guard hostile to me as I am now Ark's most wanted! Fortunately they don't give chase into the Undercity where the few remaining Rhalata, now led by the First Seer, grant me protection for my previous service - even from "Crocco" the previous most wanted man in Ark who had come to take back his "crown". A single Rhalata literally obliterates him and his crew.

For this I decide to help them out by killing the Blind Miner. It turns out he is one of a handful of legendary creatures that have books written about them. The lore for him indicates that a particular totem weakens him so I craft one and find it is super effective. Without his invincibility, he's just another lost one. His one handed axe is a magnificent bonus as it is one of the best weapons I've seen.

Insight: As I found out in this session - it pays to read books!

Enderal: Treomar

[Part of the Cursed story line]

While Pahtira secures the relic, I myrad on near the next quest spot of Fogville - fighting both Lost Ones and Arps (goblinoids) to retrieve more research and mushroom samples that could be used to heal a section of cursed wood, or as a bioweapon.

I opt to think on what to do with it at the Frostcliff tavern where a traveling gypsy named Esme challenges me to a game of Gwent "Battle for Treomar" - a card game involving armies. It goes without saying that I lose spectacularly. Esme eventually asks for my help in searching for her girlfriend who was a passenger on the Morning Dew (what are the odds).

It's like Gwent basic.

She's heard rumor that the ship ran aground near the frozen north of the island and I promise to look into it if I ever head that way. Not right now though, as I want to get back to Ark and hand those shrooms in for destruction. I don't think Enderal can handle any more plagues at this point!

Insight: Meshing works properly in this game and by that I mean you can shoot through a cracks in a wall or through a jail cells if you aim well enough. It also means head shots count - usually scoring as critical hits.