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<blockquote data-quote="Lylandra" data-source="post: 7902049" data-attributes="member: 6816692"><p>Since we left Team Lya in the entrance to Gradiax' hoard and do not plan to let them lot there, we return to the Isla after our delivery of Teraklir. Before we take care of them, we are hailed by a slender danoran buisnessman who's holding the shattered body of a dead gnoll in one hand.</p><p></p><p>“I must admit that I felt quite sad when I killed him. He's been such a nice and loyal fellow.” Fordren says with honest regret, though he makes it sound as if he just had to put his pet puppy to rest. Still, sacrificing Pardo was the only option if he wanted to keep his and Teraklir's secret safe. He then hands Pardo's body to us and leaves without turning back.</p><p></p><p>We then untie Lya and her two bodyguards and heal them up. We then straight up tell her that we got Tinker and brought him to Risur for further questioning while leaving out the other details about the how and where.</p><p></p><p>Lya sighs in response and replies that it seems as if we beat her this time. She asks about the state of the gnoll rebellion and whether we found the culprit behind the attempted coup. We present dead Pardo and Tinker's dragon dupicant and explain that the clever gnoll got Tinker to craft a draconic vessel for his soul. With this appearance, he tricked the gnolls into worshipping him as the returned Gradiax, thus inciting their wills to overthrow the seemingly weak Bruse. By defeating the Minister of Rebellion and revealing the truth to the gnolls, we hope to stop their foolish rebellion though and bring peace to Ber.</p><p></p><p>“Very well then. Seems as if Risur found new best friends in the beastmen. How fitting. I just hope that we'll never have to see each other's faces again.”</p><p></p><p>“Oh, I do hope that we'll meet again. We do not see you as an enemy” Carlyle replies. “And I do hope that you'll one day see the error in blindly supporting everything the Obs want you to do. Though I do wish to ask you for a favor: King Aodhan has stated his wish to talk to one of the Obs' leaders. He'd like to understand the motivation behind your group.”</p><p></p><p>“Huh, quite the strange thing to ask for. But I do know dear Aodhan and I think that this is an honest request. I'll see what I can do, but will give you no promises.”</p><p></p><p>We then bid her farewell and suggest that she, Merton and Rush should leave the Isla immediately as we fear that the volcano might just collapse every minute.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">(Thanks, Gradiax, for the memo)</span></p><p></p><p>We then return to the beran fleet and deliver our evidences to Bruse Cavallo. It doesn't take much longer and the Bruse is able to defeat the rebel fleet who seem to suffer under their lack of leadership. Being victorious, Bruse Cavallo then invites us to join him in his big celebration in Seobriga. We thankfully accept, but mention that we do have to take some time to question Tinker. So please do not start partying during the next few hours, okay?</p><p></p><p>We then teleport back to the RHC HQ where Tinker is being held in an extra secure cell. Unfortunately for us, the poor gnome still seems completely nuts. The only thing that gets him motivated is the prospect of bging able to invent something (no matter what or for whom) and he laments having no tools or other material for his inventions. When we ask him about Borne, he gets starry-eyed and talks minutes about minutia details concerning his construction. He doesn't know jack about the Obs though. Not that he would care much about them either. He doesn't even remembet the names Kasvarina or Alexander Grappa. We also realize that this orb he's carrying with him all the time seems to be precious to him, so we take it from him to see if this can make the gnome more cooperative.</p><p></p><p>Thinker protests heavily, but he has no real say in this. We decide to leave him alone for a while and use the spare time to examine said orb.</p><p></p><p>(Session 39)</p><p></p><p>It takes us a day to figure out that it was actually the orb which drove Tinker to the crazy state he's been in. While trying to examine the thing, we start hearing whispers and decide to handle it carefully. After a while, Carlyle seems to be able to establish a connection to the “Godmind Urn” and as he attunes to it, the object shifts its form completely, turning from a mechanical device to a rather small metallic pin with the risuri coat of arms.</p><p></p><p>Carlyle states that, while he's still hearing these little whispers every now and then, he managed to drive them back to his subconscious. Also, they now center around all things Risur instead of machinery. Auryn promises to keep a close eye on her partner and warn him should his behavior start to shift from normal to obsessive.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">(Being a Spirit Medium, Carlyle was of course able to fully utilize the Urn. He chose Risur as his preferred domain, as he sees himself as a protector of his nation)</span></p><p></p><p>When we return to Tinker, we find that he's kind of cured of his madness. He seems still unhappy that he's imprisoned and very eager to make himself useful. Or so. At least, he wishes to get back into some sort of workshop to start tinkering again. We agree that allowing Tinker to develop gadgets for Risur might be a good idea, as long as he's doing so under strict surveillance.</p><p></p><p>As the beran victory celebrations are still in development (Corta is pretty much a perfectionist), we head back to Citada de Cavallo to talk to Dr. von Recklinghausen about his lost “son” Andrei. We tell the good doctor that Andrei is currently working in the railway construction team of Liss, which is why this could be the perfect opportunity to reunite with him. Von Recklinghausen agrees that his work is basically finished here, but that he'll have to get back to Lynn Kindleton first, whom he had left in Seobriga. He's also quite nervous when it comes to Andrei and we sense that he's afraid of meeting him.</p><p></p><p>We agree that the doctor needs more time thinking about his relationship to his son and offer him to bring him to Seobriga, as we're being invited to the grand celebration by the Bruse. So the doctor says goodbye to the people in Citada de Cavallo and we all teleport to Seobriga. There, we part ways and head to the Bruse's palace.</p><p></p><p>On our way there, we notice a red-scaled kobold in our shadows who appears to be following us. We appear to ignore him, but keep a close eye on the small fellow. When we arrive at the Palace, we ask for an audience with Bruse Cavallo as Carlyle intends to keep his promise to the late Bruse Shantus.</p><p></p><p>To our surprise, we meet the red kobold again, and this time he's treating us with snacks courtesy of the Bruse. Carlyle asks him about his occupation and the kobold replies that he's one of the Bruse's many servants.</p><p></p><p>“Very well. Then would you kindly show me around the wine cellar? I owe the Bruse a favor and don't intend to disappoint him” Carlyle asks the kobold, who seems surprised. Nevertheless, he leads Carlyle down a few stairs into the large storage room. Carlyle takes some time to find the right bottle of wine (Bruse Shantus had been oddly specific) and then turns back to the kobold.</p><p></p><p>“So, would you now tell me who you really are? After all, you're a pretty lousy servant.”</p><p></p><p>“Oh, but I am a servant of the Bruse indeed. El Extrano, at your service. No need to be surprised.”</p><p></p><p>Carlyle raises his brow in return as he really got no reason to be surprised at all. Extrano quickly states that he's the master spy of Ber, which is why he'd like to know more about this wine conspiracy. Carlyle agrees and tells the kobold about his spiritual exchange with Bruse Shantus. He mentions that Shantus had asked him to bring Cavallo a specific bottle of wine, and that's all there is to know. Meanwhile, El Extrano tries his best to not appear surprised himself. He seems to be a nice and competent fellow, but tries really hard to make a good appearance.</p><p></p><p>When Carlyle returns from the cellar, we are called to meet Bruse Cavallo in his office. We see that his desk is buried in paper and the old orc seems glad for the distraction.</p><p></p><p>“I'm beginning to understand why Shantus turned out that way. This is just crazy. Whoever thought that 'bills' and 'double-checkings' were a good idea needs to have his head smashed in”</p><p></p><p>Carlyle explains that this is just the way it had worked back when he was still a wee child 500 years ago and that this sort of bureaucracy probably stems from Crisillyir, so no need for further punishment. He then hands the bottle of wine over to Cavallo and says that Bruse Shantus explicitly asked him to give that one to his old friend as a gift for his new reign. And he had to promise Shatus to make Cavallo drink a glass as well, he adds.</p><p></p><p>“Ha! That bull-head! Remembering stories like that... reminds me of why I liked him so much back in the days.” Cavallo shouts out with an honest laugh. He then tells us about that particular bottle of wine: After uniting Ber and having Roye Bruse taking the lead of the nation, they had received a cartload of wine bottles as gifts and signs of goodwill from all over the world. And as neither of them knew jack about wine, they didn't know how to choose the right bottle for their private celebration. So they decided to toss rings and see where they'd land. And the bottle Carlyle brought up right now was exactly the one Cavallo had 'won' during this game.</p><p></p><p>He then beheads the bottle with his saber (inducing a hard cringe from Carlyle) and fills three glasses.</p><p></p><p>“To Roye and Shantus! To old friends and new! And to the proudest nation this world has ever seen!”</p><p></p><p>“To Ber!” we reply, sip at our glasses and find that the wine is oddly drinkable. Cavallo then explains that he'll probably not stay Bruse for too long as he feels that his daughter Corta is far better suited for all that. We agree that she's a good candidate as well and state our hope that Risur and Ber will stay good friends in the future. We know that we cannot speak for our king, but feel that he wishes to forge a stronger bond to our direct neighbor as well.</p><p></p><p>After the audience, we say goodbye to Bruse Cavallo and head back to the entrance. Carlyle mentions that we should try to meet up with Fordren again as we still got matters to discuss. On our way out, we come across Mr. Pemberton who greets us. Auryn turns to him to thank him again for his help in Sawyer and wish him good luck with the new Bruse. But this time, Pemberton appears to have no knowledge about that episode in Sawyer, so we get that this 'Pemberton' has to be Gradiax again. Pemberton explains briefly that his old rival, Fordren, appears to have left his business in Ber behind, which is why he'd gladly fill in the gap.</p><p></p><p>After leaving the dragon in disguise behind, Auryn asks Carlyle about his business with Fordren.</p><p></p><p>“I'm worried for Nathaniel Vantrys. See, if Fordren is Gradiax, and Cecilia, Nathaniel's betrothed is a Fordren, then who is she? Just another one of his puppets? For once I thought that everything was fine for the young Lord, that he could find true happiness and now her love for him could be nothing more than an act.”</p><p></p><p>Auryn nods as she understands Carlyle's worries. She says that she didn't get any sign of dishonesty from the young woman, but better be safe than sorry. So asking 'Fordren' about his relatives would definitely be a good addition to our to-do list.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">(As this basically finishes the plot of adventure 6, I guess that this is the best place to give my/our feedback from a player's perspective. Keep in mind that we don't know the original material and Tizbiz changed quite a lot in the later parts regarding Gradiax and Teraklir.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">First, we overall enjoyed the adventure by itself. The tasks were pretty much sraightforward in itself (building a railroad and making friends with Cavallo, then unearthing the culprit behind the coup) but still offered some sweet twists and cameos (Recklinghausen's return, the Pact of Boyle, Fordren's true identity). The railroad wasn't really our favourite part, but I already discussed that in a previous post. </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">We really love Ber as a nation. The idea and history of the beran culture is really unusual and cool, most of the oddballs there are likeable and even Shantus' obnoxiousness and 'stupid game' made sense in some way. We really didn't get his motivation behind Lya's challenge towards Cavallo as this basically meant risking a war with Risur, but that's it.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">The dragon revelation - also really cool! Especially due to our connection to Fordren. Tiz told us that it would have been Gradiax/Pemberton himself who'd staged the coup and we guess that he didn't want to reignite Auryn's hatred for the guy. It would have made us put effort to separte him from Teraklir though as Auryn wouldn't have stayed quiet about her relationship to Teraklir's father. </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">Also, Teraklir. That character has such a cool concept! </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">We also deviated a bit from the intended course of the adventure as we really found intended and unintended ways to keep the survival of dragonkind a secret to the world. It made a lot of sense to keep it that way from our character's and King Aodhan's/Harkover Lee's perspective, and it really helped staying on good terms with Ber.</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">Regarding the rest of our criticism... it doesn't apply so much to chapter 6 itself as to the grander scheme of Zeitgeist. Because all in all, the adventure was as impactful to the overall plot as a filler episode. Sure, the dragons being alive was a big reveal, but that's one little detail that didn't really come into play that much. </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">Getting Tinker was basically irrelevant as his "notes on Borne" had no impact at all - we didn't learn anything useful about the Colossus until we found Grappa in adventure 7. I guess he's kind of interesting for steamsuit pilot characters and he got this "technical development" memo, but... err... that would need a proper "tech tree" to be tangible. Like, every X months (or adventures) you can pick a tech that Tinker has finished his reseach upon and tadaa! Innovation! Including the option to specialize on said tech for bigger progress (electricity, propulsion, mech-suits for our army, whatever). I know that getting our hands on Tinker is "optional" as having Lya succeed needs to be a possibility, but that way it felt a bit lackluster. </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">Same thing with the Godmind Urn. The way it is written, the artifact is such a cool (and possibly powerful) tool. I know that there shouldn't be too much emphasis on it as only a Spirit Medium is able to handle it properly, but it never ever got used or even mentioned after adventure 6. I put a lot of effort into trying to figure out what and what not would be possible with the Urn, but unfortunately it got written off as some random +5 skill bonus. </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">This also applies to a lot of future custom artifacts that players can get their hands on in Zeitgeist (the Humble Hook, the Blade of Srasama, the Eye of Yeref, the Arc of Reida to some extend). Only the Arsenal of Dhebisu appears to truly matter at some point of the campaign. As someone who loves to dive deep into the lore and world of a campaign, I'd have loved to see more impact of stuff like that. Especially as I really put a lot of effort into connecting the Living Blade to the overall story of Burning Sky and the Torch played a pivotal role there as well. </span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)"></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">Also, in hinsight, it didn't really matter that we made good friends with the Bruse at all. Adventure 10 & 11 made all berans readily believe the - hardly believeable - Ob lies, going so far as to prepare for a war with Risur. Which made us question why we even put so much effort into forging a friendship with our neighbors. But I guess I'll discuss this in further detail during adventure 10 & 11 <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /> )</span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lylandra, post: 7902049, member: 6816692"] Since we left Team Lya in the entrance to Gradiax' hoard and do not plan to let them lot there, we return to the Isla after our delivery of Teraklir. Before we take care of them, we are hailed by a slender danoran buisnessman who's holding the shattered body of a dead gnoll in one hand. “I must admit that I felt quite sad when I killed him. He's been such a nice and loyal fellow.” Fordren says with honest regret, though he makes it sound as if he just had to put his pet puppy to rest. Still, sacrificing Pardo was the only option if he wanted to keep his and Teraklir's secret safe. He then hands Pardo's body to us and leaves without turning back. We then untie Lya and her two bodyguards and heal them up. We then straight up tell her that we got Tinker and brought him to Risur for further questioning while leaving out the other details about the how and where. Lya sighs in response and replies that it seems as if we beat her this time. She asks about the state of the gnoll rebellion and whether we found the culprit behind the attempted coup. We present dead Pardo and Tinker's dragon dupicant and explain that the clever gnoll got Tinker to craft a draconic vessel for his soul. With this appearance, he tricked the gnolls into worshipping him as the returned Gradiax, thus inciting their wills to overthrow the seemingly weak Bruse. By defeating the Minister of Rebellion and revealing the truth to the gnolls, we hope to stop their foolish rebellion though and bring peace to Ber. “Very well then. Seems as if Risur found new best friends in the beastmen. How fitting. I just hope that we'll never have to see each other's faces again.” “Oh, I do hope that we'll meet again. We do not see you as an enemy” Carlyle replies. “And I do hope that you'll one day see the error in blindly supporting everything the Obs want you to do. Though I do wish to ask you for a favor: King Aodhan has stated his wish to talk to one of the Obs' leaders. He'd like to understand the motivation behind your group.” “Huh, quite the strange thing to ask for. But I do know dear Aodhan and I think that this is an honest request. I'll see what I can do, but will give you no promises.” We then bid her farewell and suggest that she, Merton and Rush should leave the Isla immediately as we fear that the volcano might just collapse every minute. [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)](Thanks, Gradiax, for the memo)[/COLOR] We then return to the beran fleet and deliver our evidences to Bruse Cavallo. It doesn't take much longer and the Bruse is able to defeat the rebel fleet who seem to suffer under their lack of leadership. Being victorious, Bruse Cavallo then invites us to join him in his big celebration in Seobriga. We thankfully accept, but mention that we do have to take some time to question Tinker. So please do not start partying during the next few hours, okay? We then teleport back to the RHC HQ where Tinker is being held in an extra secure cell. Unfortunately for us, the poor gnome still seems completely nuts. The only thing that gets him motivated is the prospect of bging able to invent something (no matter what or for whom) and he laments having no tools or other material for his inventions. When we ask him about Borne, he gets starry-eyed and talks minutes about minutia details concerning his construction. He doesn't know jack about the Obs though. Not that he would care much about them either. He doesn't even remembet the names Kasvarina or Alexander Grappa. We also realize that this orb he's carrying with him all the time seems to be precious to him, so we take it from him to see if this can make the gnome more cooperative. Thinker protests heavily, but he has no real say in this. We decide to leave him alone for a while and use the spare time to examine said orb. (Session 39) It takes us a day to figure out that it was actually the orb which drove Tinker to the crazy state he's been in. While trying to examine the thing, we start hearing whispers and decide to handle it carefully. After a while, Carlyle seems to be able to establish a connection to the “Godmind Urn” and as he attunes to it, the object shifts its form completely, turning from a mechanical device to a rather small metallic pin with the risuri coat of arms. Carlyle states that, while he's still hearing these little whispers every now and then, he managed to drive them back to his subconscious. Also, they now center around all things Risur instead of machinery. Auryn promises to keep a close eye on her partner and warn him should his behavior start to shift from normal to obsessive. [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)](Being a Spirit Medium, Carlyle was of course able to fully utilize the Urn. He chose Risur as his preferred domain, as he sees himself as a protector of his nation)[/COLOR] When we return to Tinker, we find that he's kind of cured of his madness. He seems still unhappy that he's imprisoned and very eager to make himself useful. Or so. At least, he wishes to get back into some sort of workshop to start tinkering again. We agree that allowing Tinker to develop gadgets for Risur might be a good idea, as long as he's doing so under strict surveillance. As the beran victory celebrations are still in development (Corta is pretty much a perfectionist), we head back to Citada de Cavallo to talk to Dr. von Recklinghausen about his lost “son” Andrei. We tell the good doctor that Andrei is currently working in the railway construction team of Liss, which is why this could be the perfect opportunity to reunite with him. Von Recklinghausen agrees that his work is basically finished here, but that he'll have to get back to Lynn Kindleton first, whom he had left in Seobriga. He's also quite nervous when it comes to Andrei and we sense that he's afraid of meeting him. We agree that the doctor needs more time thinking about his relationship to his son and offer him to bring him to Seobriga, as we're being invited to the grand celebration by the Bruse. So the doctor says goodbye to the people in Citada de Cavallo and we all teleport to Seobriga. There, we part ways and head to the Bruse's palace. On our way there, we notice a red-scaled kobold in our shadows who appears to be following us. We appear to ignore him, but keep a close eye on the small fellow. When we arrive at the Palace, we ask for an audience with Bruse Cavallo as Carlyle intends to keep his promise to the late Bruse Shantus. To our surprise, we meet the red kobold again, and this time he's treating us with snacks courtesy of the Bruse. Carlyle asks him about his occupation and the kobold replies that he's one of the Bruse's many servants. “Very well. Then would you kindly show me around the wine cellar? I owe the Bruse a favor and don't intend to disappoint him” Carlyle asks the kobold, who seems surprised. Nevertheless, he leads Carlyle down a few stairs into the large storage room. Carlyle takes some time to find the right bottle of wine (Bruse Shantus had been oddly specific) and then turns back to the kobold. “So, would you now tell me who you really are? After all, you're a pretty lousy servant.” “Oh, but I am a servant of the Bruse indeed. El Extrano, at your service. No need to be surprised.” Carlyle raises his brow in return as he really got no reason to be surprised at all. Extrano quickly states that he's the master spy of Ber, which is why he'd like to know more about this wine conspiracy. Carlyle agrees and tells the kobold about his spiritual exchange with Bruse Shantus. He mentions that Shantus had asked him to bring Cavallo a specific bottle of wine, and that's all there is to know. Meanwhile, El Extrano tries his best to not appear surprised himself. He seems to be a nice and competent fellow, but tries really hard to make a good appearance. When Carlyle returns from the cellar, we are called to meet Bruse Cavallo in his office. We see that his desk is buried in paper and the old orc seems glad for the distraction. “I'm beginning to understand why Shantus turned out that way. This is just crazy. Whoever thought that 'bills' and 'double-checkings' were a good idea needs to have his head smashed in” Carlyle explains that this is just the way it had worked back when he was still a wee child 500 years ago and that this sort of bureaucracy probably stems from Crisillyir, so no need for further punishment. He then hands the bottle of wine over to Cavallo and says that Bruse Shantus explicitly asked him to give that one to his old friend as a gift for his new reign. And he had to promise Shatus to make Cavallo drink a glass as well, he adds. “Ha! That bull-head! Remembering stories like that... reminds me of why I liked him so much back in the days.” Cavallo shouts out with an honest laugh. He then tells us about that particular bottle of wine: After uniting Ber and having Roye Bruse taking the lead of the nation, they had received a cartload of wine bottles as gifts and signs of goodwill from all over the world. And as neither of them knew jack about wine, they didn't know how to choose the right bottle for their private celebration. So they decided to toss rings and see where they'd land. And the bottle Carlyle brought up right now was exactly the one Cavallo had 'won' during this game. He then beheads the bottle with his saber (inducing a hard cringe from Carlyle) and fills three glasses. “To Roye and Shantus! To old friends and new! And to the proudest nation this world has ever seen!” “To Ber!” we reply, sip at our glasses and find that the wine is oddly drinkable. Cavallo then explains that he'll probably not stay Bruse for too long as he feels that his daughter Corta is far better suited for all that. We agree that she's a good candidate as well and state our hope that Risur and Ber will stay good friends in the future. We know that we cannot speak for our king, but feel that he wishes to forge a stronger bond to our direct neighbor as well. After the audience, we say goodbye to Bruse Cavallo and head back to the entrance. Carlyle mentions that we should try to meet up with Fordren again as we still got matters to discuss. On our way out, we come across Mr. Pemberton who greets us. Auryn turns to him to thank him again for his help in Sawyer and wish him good luck with the new Bruse. But this time, Pemberton appears to have no knowledge about that episode in Sawyer, so we get that this 'Pemberton' has to be Gradiax again. Pemberton explains briefly that his old rival, Fordren, appears to have left his business in Ber behind, which is why he'd gladly fill in the gap. After leaving the dragon in disguise behind, Auryn asks Carlyle about his business with Fordren. “I'm worried for Nathaniel Vantrys. See, if Fordren is Gradiax, and Cecilia, Nathaniel's betrothed is a Fordren, then who is she? Just another one of his puppets? For once I thought that everything was fine for the young Lord, that he could find true happiness and now her love for him could be nothing more than an act.” Auryn nods as she understands Carlyle's worries. She says that she didn't get any sign of dishonesty from the young woman, but better be safe than sorry. So asking 'Fordren' about his relatives would definitely be a good addition to our to-do list. [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)](As this basically finishes the plot of adventure 6, I guess that this is the best place to give my/our feedback from a player's perspective. Keep in mind that we don't know the original material and Tizbiz changed quite a lot in the later parts regarding Gradiax and Teraklir. First, we overall enjoyed the adventure by itself. The tasks were pretty much sraightforward in itself (building a railroad and making friends with Cavallo, then unearthing the culprit behind the coup) but still offered some sweet twists and cameos (Recklinghausen's return, the Pact of Boyle, Fordren's true identity). The railroad wasn't really our favourite part, but I already discussed that in a previous post. We really love Ber as a nation. The idea and history of the beran culture is really unusual and cool, most of the oddballs there are likeable and even Shantus' obnoxiousness and 'stupid game' made sense in some way. We really didn't get his motivation behind Lya's challenge towards Cavallo as this basically meant risking a war with Risur, but that's it. The dragon revelation - also really cool! Especially due to our connection to Fordren. Tiz told us that it would have been Gradiax/Pemberton himself who'd staged the coup and we guess that he didn't want to reignite Auryn's hatred for the guy. It would have made us put effort to separte him from Teraklir though as Auryn wouldn't have stayed quiet about her relationship to Teraklir's father. Also, Teraklir. That character has such a cool concept! We also deviated a bit from the intended course of the adventure as we really found intended and unintended ways to keep the survival of dragonkind a secret to the world. It made a lot of sense to keep it that way from our character's and King Aodhan's/Harkover Lee's perspective, and it really helped staying on good terms with Ber. Regarding the rest of our criticism... it doesn't apply so much to chapter 6 itself as to the grander scheme of Zeitgeist. Because all in all, the adventure was as impactful to the overall plot as a filler episode. Sure, the dragons being alive was a big reveal, but that's one little detail that didn't really come into play that much. Getting Tinker was basically irrelevant as his "notes on Borne" had no impact at all - we didn't learn anything useful about the Colossus until we found Grappa in adventure 7. I guess he's kind of interesting for steamsuit pilot characters and he got this "technical development" memo, but... err... that would need a proper "tech tree" to be tangible. Like, every X months (or adventures) you can pick a tech that Tinker has finished his reseach upon and tadaa! Innovation! Including the option to specialize on said tech for bigger progress (electricity, propulsion, mech-suits for our army, whatever). I know that getting our hands on Tinker is "optional" as having Lya succeed needs to be a possibility, but that way it felt a bit lackluster. Same thing with the Godmind Urn. The way it is written, the artifact is such a cool (and possibly powerful) tool. I know that there shouldn't be too much emphasis on it as only a Spirit Medium is able to handle it properly, but it never ever got used or even mentioned after adventure 6. I put a lot of effort into trying to figure out what and what not would be possible with the Urn, but unfortunately it got written off as some random +5 skill bonus. This also applies to a lot of future custom artifacts that players can get their hands on in Zeitgeist (the Humble Hook, the Blade of Srasama, the Eye of Yeref, the Arc of Reida to some extend). Only the Arsenal of Dhebisu appears to truly matter at some point of the campaign. As someone who loves to dive deep into the lore and world of a campaign, I'd have loved to see more impact of stuff like that. Especially as I really put a lot of effort into connecting the Living Blade to the overall story of Burning Sky and the Torch played a pivotal role there as well. Also, in hinsight, it didn't really matter that we made good friends with the Bruse at all. Adventure 10 & 11 made all berans readily believe the - hardly believeable - Ob lies, going so far as to prepare for a war with Risur. Which made us question why we even put so much effort into forging a friendship with our neighbors. But I guess I'll discuss this in further detail during adventure 10 & 11 ;) )[/COLOR] [/QUOTE]
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