Sacred: Shaddar

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

With the demon essence trapped in the gem, we returned to Braverock castle and handed it over to the sorceress Shareefa for disposal. Only instead of being a buxom tanned woman she transformed into a pale thin whiny male necromancer with greasy hair: Shaddar! After doing his bad guy spiel about using the gem to attain god hood / more power he snapped his fingers and Prince Valor along with his guardsmen died and turned into zombies who we needed to destroy.

Shaddar then teleported away with a captured Vilya just for good measure. Fortunately a wise wizard who showed up out of nowhere was there to tell us to go rescue the baroness and stop the crazy bastard, otherwise we wouldn't know what to do! :P Getting back to Shaddar's tower was easy since there was that handy way gate right beside it that he forgot to close. This time the basement was set up for a ritual and we had to deal with the handful of Sakkara cultists Shaddar still had with him before facing the man himself.

I made everyone look like a fool!

To his credit, he was completely immune to my BFG (and possibly to all magic) but since my character was mostly specced for physical attacks and still had four knights backing her up he was in all sorts of trouble regardless. Upon his defeat we tossed him down the giant hole nearby and returned to Braverock triumphant. As for the demon gem thingy? I assume I kept it since it is never mentioned again.

Sacred: The Fifth Element

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

We teleported to the distant desert and right into large numbers of Sakkara with undead fighting orcs. Judging from the map we were still a ways off from the tower we wanted to get to so I immediately went for the sprint route, using combat jump on the higher cliff tops to avoid a lot of the fighting and to break through the paralysis tendrils when I could. There were sections where that wasn't an option (either no where to jump or it was on cool down), meaning that we had to fight with some being pretty close affairs. Feeling pretty good that I brought those four knights as backup!

Upon finally reaching the tower we found the friendly ogre Glubba, a previous servant of the idiot Shaddar, who asked us to take him home to the place of his birth. Only I knew just from the description that it was that village where everyone turned into zombies, so I decided to keep him with us. In the basement below there were some demons waiting to be cleared out, and just beyond them we finally found... the fifth element!

It was nowhere near this pretty though.

Using the conveniently nearby way gate it was back to Braverock where I found Shareefa again with Prince Valor who was still camped out three levels down in his enemies excrement. What the HELL has this loser been doing while I've been out playing fetch? Anywho, apparently now that I'm back with four extra knights and an ogre he feels confident in taking down DeMordrey at last, so he, Baroness Vilya and Shareefa join the party for an assault on the main castle itself.

Sacred: Cowardice

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

While doing quests at Braverock I learned of a rebel movement that was supposedly opposing Baron DeMordrey from within the city. I figured if I tracked down this "movement" I'd find Prince Valor and his retinue who I am supposed to deliver this big demon horn to. I am slightly surprised to learn that the Prince is currently hiding in the sewers underneath the city and is obviously the one instigating the rebellion against the traitor DeMordrey (and his numerically superior troops).

Underneath THREE LEVELS of sewer and sewerage to be precise. Just to recap: This supposedly brave guy called "Prince Valor" who is the next rightful ruler of the land is hiding under three levels of his enemies' urine and feces. Not sure if that's a fate worse than death right there but whatever. It seems he and his cohorts enjoy pulling the strings to get his own kinsmen to fight among each other while he hides unseen in the smelly safety of their poo. Is this really the guy meant to be king?

I don't think even he knows for sure.

Anyway, I showed the Prince, Baroness Vilya and Shareefa the demon horn. The sorceress instantly knew it was that of a Sakkara Demon - one of the most powerful beings from the underworld. It can also raise and control the dead and is the reason the orcs are fleeing from the sands. The Prince being the true coward he is, sends Shareefa and myself to handle that problem while he takes care of the rebel movement from the safety of his cave. Shareefa suggests we visit the Seraphim library at Ice Creek Dale to learn how to fight this monster. I agree just to get away from the poorly named loser that is Prince Valor.

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.