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There's a LOT going on in this update, as I'm trying to get through (most of) the optional Maadoran stuff as quick as possible. Apologies if it's a bit disjointed.
As Julius explores the slums, he comes across... someone who wants something. Julius decides he can't live in fear of every NPC and engages.
Julius doesn't know if he likes Basser knifing people and dumping them in the local water supply.
It wouldn't be a classic-style CRPG if you couldn't go down a well at some point.
Anyway I won't post the whole thing but the well is a sort of mini choose your own adventure. You pick which way to go and eventually your stats determine if you drown or not, with plenty of warning if you are.
Julius does find the man Basser knifed, and also the ruby the man apparently swallowed. All kinds of insane shit goes down in the Maadoran slums. Julius also finds the guy who drowned trying to loot the tunnels, but is too weak to dislodge the loot bag from the corpse.
You conveniently find this chamber when you're on the brink of drowning.
It's immediately apparent the chamber doesn't look like anywhere else Julius has seen so far in his adventures.
Doorways to nowhere and magic lamps. Gaelius was right, the magi must have been crazy.
There's plenty of loot still in here, and this strange strong box. It doesn't look like the chests Julius has looted so far, but if it's got a keyhole then a 40 Thief can get into it.
EZ. Julius has actually encountered these power tubes before, he used one to overload the machines back in the mines. The mask is a different story, he'll have to ask someone who knows about ancient artifacts about it.
The shit Julius found is worth way more than 100 imperial bux, but you get word of honor for forking over the cash anyway.
You find an armed group a bit further down. Julius swaggers up to them, surely safe in 40 Thieves territory.
Apparently they're extorting travelers to the Abyss? Even more important is the minor meltdown Julius is experiencing at being rebuffed after namedropping the 40 Thieves. In 40 Thieves territory! How the hell is this being tolerated?! Someone has to step up and protect #brand
As he stumbles away in shock, Julius thinks he hears a familiar voice. A beautiful, oddly persuasive, if distressed voice....
MILTY!!!!!!!!!
Julius counter name-drops like a pro. At least the world hasn't gone completely insane.
You skip a pretty rough fight this way while still being able to progress the Milty story. The 40 Thieves always fight dirty, with this encounter featuring one of their signature crossbowmen, a guy with a poisoned weapon, and one of earliest enemies who will use a net against YOU. The Milty quest line is combat character-focused, and this fight doesn't disappoint from that aspect.
But, but I thought things were going to be big....?
There's no way this isn't on the up and up. I mean.... that smile!
Mercifully you get a chance to take a break and prepare for once. There's a merchant over in the temple district of the slums (aka 40 Thieves HQ) I want to get to first.
Back in the slums:
Julius is pleased there are still normal people that react like this at the mere mention of the 40 Thieves.
Mehrab is the guy from earlier who told Julius to fuck off if you aren't big on names.
Julius doesn't know if he likes Bassar allowing rival operations setting up shop and laughing at innocent 40 Thieves.
Look what happens when you don't come down on this shit instantly. They get uppity. That's why you have to protect #brand
This fucker in the wolf hat kicks off the fight by running up and slicing Julius' leg to the bone. Fuck. That's what happens when you have 0 defenses.
Whatever dipshit, try that shit again with a concussion.
Here you see the power of bombs in team fights, allowing your allies to walk up to defenseless enemies and pound them (further) into the ground.
Rest of the fight goes easy with 2 blitzed down instantly, Julius just has fun tossing acid at the enemies (small guaranteed damage + melts armor so allies hit harder) while his bros do the heavy lifting.
Julius feels much more at ease after successfully defending #brand
Julius finally gets to the temple district where, of course, someone makes him stop what he's doing to talk. They loaded up Maadoran with too many of these encounters.
Like Clemens says, the 40 Thieves have basically set up a little parallel society here. Levir holds court in the domed temple that dominates the square, and everyone else lives in his shadow.
Zeb the trader makes the whole thing explicit.
You may be wondering why would-be emperor Gaelius tolerates a section of his city lost to lawlessness, ruled by upstart thieves who hold themselves out as lords. You can find out why the hard way, in a different story line.
Zeb's the best trader of finished alchemy goods in the game. Characters who haven't invested in alchemy can come here and buy pretty good poison, bombs, and napalm. Actual alchemists can also buy some rarer alchemy ingredients.
Julius finally heads back to the merchant's quarter where Milty is waiting for him. You can see the domed temple the merchant's call their own home in this shot. The merchants and thieves are even headquartered on directly opposite parts of the map. This is all super deep, man.
Julius steals from the stalls he's capable of stealing from while he's in the area. I like what you can steal from the cape seller's stall. Capes.
Julius also gets his stat damage healed. There's actually a good reason to keep coming to this healer and not the one in the 40 Thieves City.
Alright it feels like it took forever but Julius is finally ready for Milty's bullshit. You can see Julius has slapped poison and a crafting stone onto the Arbiter, giving it higher base/max damage and a damage over time effect.
Well when you put it like that of course I'll kill this old man for you, Milty.
I'll even kill his children too.
This fight is meant to be a joke. None of these people are even wearing armor, and they're basically civilians. A combat character can just clean them up in a few turns, their only challenge being the ethical one of murdering what are obviously innocent people for a scumbag like Milty. Basically this is a nice breather after doing the really hard fight with the 40 Thieves.
Then there's how the fight is if you're a noncombat character.
You have to get creative and dodge around to make sure you fight one son at a time and the old man doesn't have a line on you, because while a combat character can just shrug off their feeble blows, a weak non-combat character is going to get torn apart by the sons' custom steel swords and the old man's crossbow. You can't let the sons double team you while the father shoots you down, you'll die every time. Full disclosure: I had to do this fight twice, because the first time I managed to get trapped in one of the doorways between the two sons like an idiot, and they pounded Julius down.
I could have bombed my way through, but those bombs are valuable. Since they all have shit for defenses, the absurd accuracy bonus from the Arbiter is good enough to hack them down. Doesn't this mean AoD combat is impossible after all and I'm a goddamnn liar??? No, this is a combat-focused, optional quest line and I'm trying to do it as someone who has put zero (0) damn points into combat, of course it's going to be hard.
2000+ imperial fun bux is a LOT of money. But was it worth killing an innocent old man and his children and accidentally elevating *Lord* Milty to the nobility to boot?
....
Look at Milty. New Lord in his manor, surrounded by bloodied diapermen. He's already so regal, so noble, so... beautiful.
You can find the local loremaster, Abukar, next door. He can point you in the next direction for the map quest if you can't/won't go to the other guy for some reason, but he also has a lot of optional stuff going on.
Void dwellers huh. More wacky nonsense.
I mean, you just burned all the scrolls? What kind of shitty loremaster are you?
Might as well see if there's anything left there from this idiot's arson spree.
Anyway the rest of his dialogue isn't really interesting so lets just skip to the fun stuff: identifying items
Remember the orb Julius stole from the merchant in the opening vignette? Probably worthless. What are the odds of finding whatever this orb fits into?
Huh, the strange mask is some sort of gas mask.
Pollutes? With what? It's just a weird jelly fish thing.
Whatever, everyone is so antsy about these fairy tales.
There's a carpet seller next door. Everyone needs a carpet, right?
If only I had a penny for every time I walked into a carpet store and the carpet man asked me to steal an invaluable gem.....
Gem's over in the noble district where Gaelius' palace is.
This is almost literally an "are you awake and paying attention" test since you can already see Gaelius whenever you want since he wants you to find the temple for him instead of Antidas.
Julius doesn't know if he likes Bassar cutting him down in front of his 40 Thieves colleagues.
Other characters can get the gem here with a body count check or by just killing everyone, it's interesting that you aren't allowed to (... directly) betray your guild as a 40 Thief when you can betray it in other ways.
Like by saying "fuck Bassar" and going to get that gem the silent way.
Julius has enough crit strike to ice the guard but he's probably a fellow thief and Julius isn't THAT mad at Bassar. He opts to just stay silent.
Get fucking smoked, Bassar.
Hey, where have I seen an item description like this before...? Must be imagining things.
There's another person begging for help nearby outside Gaelius' palace.
I'm running out of patience so lets get to the short of this. This dude got screwed out of his home by some people after a treasure hunting expedition for magic armor went south. Lets go help him back.
This is another multi-stage quest that can't be completed until you get to the next act, but the armor is worth the wait.
You never hear from him again.
Almost done! Remember Julius agreed to deliver a package that suspiciously looks like a bomb?
Combining drinking and debt collecting under one roof seems like a uniquely slums thing to do.
Easiest +6 sp of my life. I wonder what kind of moron would actually agree to deliver an obvious bomb? Probably some kind of brute.
I will leave you with a preview of the Abyss. Will Julius solve its secrets in the next update???? (not if it's as long as this one, this was rough)
The lightning is actually animated and zaps in different places, I think it's the only area in the whole game that has an effect like that.