Riva: Round Two

[Part of the Darklands of Arkania Story.]

While in town to buy missile weapons (after fleeing from the tower) the team recruit the barbarianess Mama Cori and warrior Talarian Design to fill out the roster, dropping what's left of Allison and Dalian with the Temple of Ben Kingsley. Since no replacement for Thorgrim (NPC party slot only) is found, his corpse continues to be dragged around which is kinda strange in that it helps carry things.

Anyway, now armed properly the team returns to the tower and with Mama Cori acting as "winch person" (staying behind to operate the lift: the politically correct verion) they return to the slab that blocked their return on level 2 which happens to be easily openable from the entry side. It simply closes again when the party passes through - trapping them again. If that was designed to piss people off, it's doing a good job.

They find the gnoll making mage and his new gnolls right where they left him. This time everyone focuses fire on him first, and Cooper manages to land an arrow right into the mage's face: killing him instantly. The rest of his creations are easily dealt with afterwards, and it turns out they were guarding the next stairs up.

You look familiar...

There on level four, a familiar wizard awaited. Toranor!? AGAIN? This time he also summoned ghouls to the fight, and cast terror spells which sent all the party fleeing. All but Cooper, who got knocked out by ghouls (continuing his running gag with them), and Talarian who ended up soloing the entire encounter and with 4 hit points left - somehow won! Not bad for a first day on the job.

Riva: Suspiciously Familiar

[Part of the Darklands of Arkania Story.]

Now is a good time to mention that while finally, every NPC has a unique face in Riva, there are quite a few, "familiar" ones lurking about.

Isey also pointed out that the elf king was David Bowie!

Anyway, after selling all that laboratory junk to Meg Ryan, the party is accosted by a woman in distress claiming her husband was murdered! She takes the team into her home and detective Thorgrim discovers that the elf victim had all his blood drained from his body, with two puncture marks on his neck. At the same time, Allison locates a secret passage behind a bookshelf leading into the sewers but before they can explore it the local guards come shortly after and kick the team out of their investigation.

That's ok though as there are many sewer entrances readily available from the street. The thought of going into an enclosed space frightens Thorgrim though, and he leaves the party. REALLY? A claustrophobic dwarf!? Anyway... In the very dark and smelly tunnels the team bumps into the local "rat catcher" who is herds a swarm of rats past them and further in they find an ugly looking critter that no doubt is a vampire, probably the same one that murdered the poor elf.

Wolfy doesn't agree with this line of thinking and instead befriends the creature, a woman named Mandara - inviting her to join the party.

Awkward.

Stonehearst Asylum

Really pales compared to Arkham Asylum. :P

In this thriller, a young doctor arrives at an isolated asylum in hopes to take up residency. It's not long before he discovers that not all is as it seems. The setting is pretty cool, the patients are nice and crazy, and while there are some decent actors here (nice to see Kate Beckinsale again, though I preferred her as a leather clad vamp :P) I found the main "hero" to be a bit weak. Especially against Ben Kingsley's character who actually steals the show for me.

We're all a little bit crazy!

While the intrigue did keep me interested, the story kinda falls apart at the end which is a pity. Also, if you watch this expecting a horror story you will be very disappointed. If anything it's closer to a love story. It's an interesting enough flick to watch, as long as you don't expect anything great from it. All up I give it two and a half inmates out of five and isn't something that really inspires a second viewing.