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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Demetrios1453" data-source="post: 9384355" data-attributes="member: 6801060">Curse of the Azure Bonds (Part 3): Tilverton (Part 2) - Tilverton Completed!As we leave the sage and head south towards the (as yet unvisited) tavern and (previously visited) inn, we overhear yet more rumors from the crowd.[ATTACH=full]369083[/ATTACH]We'll be meeting some of these fanatics in green robes eventually...We reach the tavern...[ATTACH=full]369084[/ATTACH]What an intriguing name! In any case, we enter.[ATTACH=full]369085[/ATTACH]"Punch barkeep" as a choice immediately is pretty funny. That will start a brawl which would allow party members to gain XP if they were just a few points below gaining a level, since, if you don't have GBC, it's a long time before you'll be able to train again. Fortunately for the barkeep, we have GBC and none of the party are near gaining a level, so his face remains intact today. Instead we choose "Have a drink"[ATTACH=full]369086[/ATTACH]Choosing Lemonade makes the barkeep unhappy - he'll serve you and then demand you leave. We choose something more exotic - Dragon's Breath.[ATTACH=full]369087[/ATTACH]After we drink this down, the barkeep speaks up again.[ATTACH=full]369088[/ATTACH]He's not asking for a tip, but asking if we want to hear some tavern rumors. Rumors in these games aren't particularly useful, being incorrect like half of the time, so we decline.[ATTACH=full]369089[/ATTACH]We decide to stay and see who this "special customer" is. The game, however, basically forces us out of the tavern as the customer arrives...[ATTACH=full]369090[/ATTACH]Could this be our mysterious princess?[ATTACH=full]369092[/ATTACH]Yes indeed we do![ATTACH=full]369093[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]369094[/ATTACH]The symbol of the Fire Knives! Not very subtle, are they? But it seems the mysterious woman, possibly the princess, may have been kidnapped! But there aren't any further clues for us here, so we head back to the inn.We investigate the other rooms of the inn, but all are nondescript, barring the one immediately next to the one we awoke in.[ATTACH=full]369095[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]369096[/ATTACH]I'm sure none of his incoherent rambling holds any meaning for our future. (Narrator: "The man's incoherent rambling did indeed hold a lot of meaning for the party's future.")Exploration and everything else done, it's time to get the actual plot of the game going! Basically, just head towards the open areas in the northwestern or southwestern portions of the map, and the action starts. Since it's closer, we head to the southwestern corner, just below the weapons shop.[ATTACH=full]369097[/ATTACH]Yet another overheard tidbit. The Realms had indeed had a Flight of Dragons just a year or two before the time the game is set in.[ATTACH=full]369098[/ATTACH]Still further rumors, complaining about the occupation.We move to the southwestern corner of the map, and are met by some Cormyrian guards, who don't seem to happy for us to be there...[ATTACH=full]369099[/ATTACH](I do have to commend them for having a person of color in the game - with more to come. In 1989, this was not common at all!)We move away, and then move right back. Can't miss seeing the royal carriage![ATTACH=full]369100[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]369101[/ATTACH]Now we get a "you have no choice to attack" plot. Tabletop players would probably not be amused.[ATTACH=full]369102[/ATTACH]If you're confused by the "Oh no! Not again!" comment (and, if you're a Douglas Adams fan, wondering why he's not a bowl of petunias), since this is the first time this has happened in the game, it's because the game assumes you've read the novel Azure Bonds and know who this is and why he's saying that. The person in the carriage is Geogi Wyvernspur, a Cormyrian noble who is notorious for his excellent impersonation of King Azoun's voice. In the novel, this resulted in the exact same situation, where Alias, who had similar bonds on her arm, attacks him after hearing him do the impersonation. Apparently now the King is using him as bait to draw out anyone who might want to attack him![ATTACH=full]369103[/ATTACH]Well, the bait definitely worked, and now we're in trouble for it.[ATTACH=full]369104[/ATTACH]Luckily, even with our now mundane gear, there are only 5 guards, and they don't have much in the way of hit points. And, since once we run a gauntlet of a few attacks there's a place to rest, we can go all out on spells. Granted, as we will see, this will not endear us to either the city of Tilverton or the royal family. But that's in the future - we have angry guards in front of us right now and we have to deal with them however we can. Brother Baltor starts our magical salvo with a tried-and-true method...[ATTACH=full]369105[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]369106[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]369107[/ATTACH]Got all three we were aiming for, meaning this fight will go quickly.[ATTACH=full]369108[/ATTACH]And done.Brother Baltor casts detect magic, but they don't have anything exciting at all. Since we already have a good amount of money left even after giving half of it to the sage, and we won't have anywhere to sell things for a long while, we just leave it behind.[ATTACH=full]369109[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]369110[/ATTACH]Of course the guards focus on the wrong people. But it's likely that being a distraction was our purpose in this scenario.[ATTACH=full]369111[/ATTACH]Dudes, they're dragging the person from the carriage away! Look, over there! But, sadly, they are focused on just us, so another battle starts.With Bragir going early in this battle, time to bring out the artillery...[ATTACH=full]369112[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]369113[/ATTACH]The fireball does 22 points of damage (I messed up on getting a screenshot), and only one guard makes his save.[ATTACH=full]369114[/ATTACH]And he's quickly dispatched.[ATTACH=full]369115[/ATTACH]With that done, time to make a run for it![ATTACH=full]369116[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]369117[/ATTACH]Hint, hint. They aren't subtle about this at all![ATTACH=full]369118[/ATTACH]Do you suppose the game wants us to go to an alley?We move to the alley between the inn and the tavern, where the mysterious woman was kidnapped by the Fire Knives.[ATTACH=full]369119[/ATTACH]I mean, it's really sketchy, but at this point, we don't have much of a choice.[ATTACH=full]369120[/ATTACH]And, with that, we're finished with Tilverton - well, the above-ground portion of it anyway. We won't be allowed back in, so this is the last we'll see of it. Unlike PoR, which gave us a central hub as a base to keep going back to, CotAB will have us moving around a lot more from place to place.Here's the map of Tilverton:[ATTACH=full]369158[/ATTACH]Next time, we'll visit the Tilverton Thieves' Guild, and start our trek through Tilverton's sewers!</blockquote>

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