Eschalon: Bastion Gem

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Caught by surprise, Gevlon succumbed to the fire rather quickly but instead of dying he transformed himself into a humongous giant spider! Rollo responded by drinking his last invisibility potion and setting the entire room on fire... until he ran out of bombs. Even this wasn't enough to finish Gevlon off and so Rollo attacked with his sword in an epic battle in which he finally managed to slay the goblin mage. After looting Gevlon's treasury, Rollo proceeded to use his teleporter into Bastion tower and put the gem back where it belonged.

Almost instantly, the nearby chancellor awoke from his puppet like state and realized what had just happened. He thanked Rollo for his part in restoring his mind, though he did not realize Rollo's part in causing the problem to begin with. With the immediate recall of the army and the death of Gevlon, the remaining goblin forces were crushed into the dirt and shit where they belong.

Possibly also because this guy showed up.

Meanwhile, Rollo is given a decent monetary award and is announced as the saviour of Bastion. Now flooded with fortune and glory, he can only wonder what lies next for him in the future...

Insight: Bring lots of potions (especially healing ones) for this last battle. The boss spider form can paralyze you constantly.

Eschalon: Gramuk!?

[Part of the Cursed story line]

It doesn't take long to find the massive goblin citadel, whose walls are patrolled by numerous minotaurs. With no time to lose Rollo simply charges through the main gate, zig zagging past the entire goblin army stationed there and makes it into the citadel itself where he must then navigate past the guards with sprinting and stealth (via invisibility potions) to unlock the gates to the second floor. More spiders and minotaurs await there, but good use of demon oil keeps them from pursuing (they don't like walking through fire) until he comes face to face with... "Gramuk!?"

"That's what I am known as here," replied the goblin who slowly turned around. "But you know me better as... Gevlon!"

Surprisingly not so well defended up here...

Gevlon! Could it be? An ally from an earlier time! Rollo's memories finally come flooding back. The goblin earned a huge monetary reward for his previous heroism and used it to forge a massive empire, so Rollo and Ragner came to work for him after sinking their own ship by accident, and were tasked with stealing the Bastion gem which they did... but things went sideways because...

"I still don't understand why you thought you could double cross me," Gevlon mused. "With the chancellor under my mind control, I would always be the highest bidder for that gem. Hand it over, and I'll see to it that our arrangement remains in place. You get a ton of gold, which you don't have to share now, AND you get to leave the continent alive. So, what do you say?"

Rollo couldn't believe it. All of this was his fault? All the death and destruction just to serve his own greed? After a minute of introspection, Rollo gave his answer.

He threw an exploding flask at the goblin mage.

Insight: Enemies don't chase across areas. This makes it possible to run "forward".

Eschalon: Trials of Shadowmirk

[Part of the Cursed story line]

After his previous misadventure, Rollo finds a map to Shadowmirk Tower and meets the acolyte Walter on the ground floor who says the headmaster designed this place to test want to be wizards. The pair team up to try reach the top, fighting off a horrible magic eye, crushing giant spiders underneath a portcullis and navigating the necromantic studies chamber where skeletons suddenly come to life. Rollo manages to escape and seal them in, but Walter isn't that lucky - destined to join the undead in their crypt.

Solving more puzzles on his own, Rollo eventually faces and defeats a raptor in "the proving chamber" before finally meeting headmaster Erubor who claims his tower is the last bastion against Gramuk's goblin hordes. Furthermore, he explains that Gramuk is mind controlling the chancellor into sending the continents armies elsewhere - making it easy for the goblins to expand their territory. The only thing that can shield against that is the grand gem Rollo found in the Blackwater bank which must be returned to its place at Bastion tower where it was previously stolen by two thieves.

I suppose the raptors are imported from Chult?

Alas, the only way to access said tower is through the goblin stronghold itself as Gramuk has sealed every other path magically and Erubor is too piss weak to do anything himself. On the plus side, Erubor mentions the stronghold is near a village of giants which rings a bell with Rollo, and so the swordsman arms up to the teeth with as many potions and bombs as he can afford then returns to the magic basement where he teleports back into the warmer climate of goblin territory.

Insight: Haste potions are very useful as they let you do two actions while the enemies only get one.

Eschalon: The Bridges

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The massive castle of Grimhold once served as the bridge across a deep and dark chasm. Unfortunately, the goblins had taken over this too and sealed the gateway. Now really annoyed at these green skinned creatures, Rollo took it upon himself to murder every last one of them within the castle, including their warlord after managing to access the opposite end through the underground maintenance section and reopen the bridge.

Not the safest of bridges ever built...

Finding a good supply of flammable demon oil, Rollo returned to Vela and burned all the goblin archers with it then lured their leader and his pet minotaur into a supply of explosive barrels for one hell of a detonation. With the town cleared, he finally found his brother Ragner - dying from the wounds suffered during his torture. Before expiring, Ragner blames him for the loss of their ship and all their bad luck then tells him to find Erubor of Shadowmirk Tower but fails to actually give directions so Rollo wanders around a bit and finds a strange magic-looking basement.

After fiddling with the alembic he accidentally activates a teleporter and finds himself in a warm, desert region full of acid slugs! He has a small ocean of them chasing him when he encounters a village of giants. Luckily, they are friendly and try to assist him. While very strong in combat, the giants cannot escape the exploding acid each time they kill a slug and ultimately both sides are totally wiped out. Rollo honors the giants by taking whatever valuables they have and teleporting the hell out of there once more.

Insight: Always lure and kill. Blind corners are your friends against archers.

Eschalon: Double Edged

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Having emptied the first lock box, Rollo opens Lilith's next which holds a divine great sword! He takes the magnificent weapon then returns to the city proper, collecting an extra 500 gold coins from Mael for "killing Lilith and recovering her amulet". Rollo then pays the resident Amazon Sonya to master the blade until she can teach him no more. Feeling skilled, he sets off to leave Blackwater only to be confronted again by Mael. Now furious at Rollo's trickery, he lets loose his squads of Barrea mercenaries to finish him off.

The heavily armored swordsmen are certainly more than Rollo can handle so he falls back into the city where the guards and residents come to his aid. It is a blood bath, with only Sonya and two elderly shopkeepers being the survivors of Blackwater. Rollo defeats Mael in combat and the merchant barters information on Rollo's brother, Ragner, in exchange for him letting him go. Rollo agrees, and Mael reveals the goblins at the sinking town of Vela have him before taking his leave. While Rollo keeps his word, Sonya makes sure Mael doesn't get far and executes him after cutting off his legs.

Apparently she has a book? LOL.

With Blackwater now deserted, Sonya escorts the two shopkeeps back to Aridell while Rollo goes to Vela - fighting off many goblins in the town and the surrounds. Unfortunately his swordsmanship is nullified by goblins wearing suicide kegs, as well as goblin archers floating out on rafts. Unable to push deeper into the town he opts to train a bit more first in the wilderness, defeating a boat load of pirates on a beach and a horde of slimes at a marsh before finding a beautiful castle in the middle of the woods...

Insight: The exploding goblins hurt all those around them so if they are going to explode anyway, try get them to hit their friends too - especially other exploding goblins as they chain react.

Eschalon: A Letter to Yourself

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Yup, there are dinosaurs in the woods!

Lucky the raptors are very territorial and don't pursue out of their part of the woods. Soon Rollo arrives at the city of Blackwater, which he pays a 100 gold fee to enter. He looks around for work again and finds a sly looking merchant named Mael who is offering a tidy sum for anyone that kills the druid Lilith and brings him her amulet. Rollo hides the fact that she's already dead, and that he already has her amulet while offering Mael a drink in hopes to get more clues as to what the amulets mean.

Unfortunately Mael only reveals his unfortunate past of being an important merchant leader before having something valuable stolen from him. He pursued the thief by ship but was caught in a storm that crashed him upon this continent with no means to pursue and is now working to rebuilt his wealth. Clearly not getting anything useful, Rollo says he'll consider the offer then leaves to explore the rest of the large city - finding the corpse of a murder victim in one house, lying in a pool of blood that was staining the ransacked mess around him.

By chance, Rollo discovers a torn paper in the garbage that holds a pass phrase for the tavern. Upon using it, the tavern owner takes him through some magic protections and into a large vault below where he asks to see his ID Keys. It turns out, these are the amulets - they aren't magic at all! The crypt amulet opens a lockbox that contains a huge gem and a note from himself saying that this gem is the only thing that can stop the goblin invasion. It goes on to explain that he used a forgetfulness potion on himself so that the goblin leader, Gramuk, won't be able to track him with his uber-mindreading powers. Unfortunately the gem was found by him and his brother Ragner, and if only one of them was reading the note then the other was likely already captured by the goblin forces. Uh oh.

Insight: The well in Blackwater is one of the best healing sources around.

Eschalon: The Runner

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Asking around in Aridell about the necklace gave Rollo a lead. Apparently the druid Lilith who lives in the vast, Tangletree forest, was known to be wise in all matters in regards to mystical amulets so that's where he plots his next course. Before departing, he is also warned about the expanding goblin empire, but that's not enough to stop an adventurer like him. It isn't goblins he runs into though, it is a bunch of brigands demanding a toll fee of 75 gold.

Such a fee is well within his means so Rollo accepts and they let him pass. Or at least, gives him a head start... for soon after a small brigade of bandits is hot on Rollo's tail, hooting and hollering for his blood. He has no choice but to run and happens to reach the bordertown of Darkford whose guards and citizens bravely rush into battle against the oncoming threat. While the brigands are wiped out it is a pyrrhic victory as only two guardsmen (barely) survive the encounter. They pair manage to give directions to Lilith though, and after a few days Rollo finds her hut in the middle of the forest.

Making a bee line for the house.

Alas, she is unwilling to help Rollo without first getting a task out of him: to slay the hive queen wasp who is taking over the woods. The hive queen is very clever though, as before Rollo gets far from Lilith's cottage a swarm of giant wasps attack the pair. The druid kills enough of them before getting stung to death for Rollo to survive. Upon searching her corpse he finds another almost identical triangle amulet which he takes before fleeing the wasp forest into a thicket filled with... raptors!? Cursing his luck, Rollo runs for his life once more.

Insight: Just like in D&D, door ways are good choke points to defend against superior enemy numbers.

Eschalon: Sleepy Ruins

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Rollo awoke in some unfamiliar ruins from what he imagined was a heavy drinking spree, but was even more confused with the lack of empty bottles around as well as a mysterious note left by his sandals mentioning some stranger's tomb. Staggering to his feet, he opted to explore his surroundings which were infested with fanged salamanders that he had to punch out of the way. They, along with the overgrowth of vines on the walls indicated this place was destroyed long ago.

Lizard punching!

Stairs leading down into a dark tunnel complex forced him to make use of the nearby torches which were also handy in warding off the giant bats and fungal slimes that lurked within. A pair of powerful poisonous salamanders served as the "final" enemies here, and were much deadlier than their red skinned counterparts. Luckily a nearby portcullis proved handy in crushing them instantly, netting Rollo some decent, if rusted, plate armor.

Satisfied at having cleared the area, he found a dirt road heading north to the small town of Aridell where he could sell the junk he was carrying and pick up a few odd jobs such as clearing another salamander pit and more giant bats from the local crypt. Remembering the note, he managed to locate the tomb in question and took the odd, triangular amulet within before being chased out by a pair of tough but slow zombies. As far as he was concerned, they were never part of the contract.

Insight: The portcullis "trap" is a fantastic way to instakill many enemies throughout the game.