Oh, I know, right? I was amazed (and pretty pissed) when it didn't. Anyway... *********************************** Swiftly, Belle explored the last few nooks and crannies of her dungeon floor, soon confident her map was complete. Bravely, she stepped up to the stairs downward and muttered a small prayer. Not twenty steps into the sargophagus-lined mausoleum she found herself in, she was beset by a pack of wild Diggles! During the fight, she watched their strange biomechanical noses twirl in a delightfully unnatural fashion, and her mind started to work through the concept of mechanical life. She realized that mechanical life, unlike biological life, had the fundamental trait of repurposeability. A lesson she was sure would serve her dearly in the future. 'Twasn't long before Inconsequentia stuck her meddling ivory fingers in to Belle's adventure pie. (Not like that, you pervert.) While on her way to find the eyeball shrine and defeat the Sobering Parties, Belle came across a room full of bookshelves, and shook her had sadly at the immense technological power that had obviously been lost to her people for generations because of this savage lich. A few minor skirmishes later, Belle was so caught up in her calculations of what exactly it would take to build herself a cleansuit to keep the disgusting death-smell off of her that she nearly tripped over a massive magical anvil -- another shrine to that wonderful god of enchantening! He blessed her again, apparently by filling her sword with destructive nanobots. As Miss Zenwhistles continued to seek out the Eyeball Shrine and ponder these tiny miraculous machines that now lived in her blade, she began to get hungry. She'd been through a lot of fights. Busting out her trusty ingot press, she tossed some bread and cheese into it and grilled herself up a sandwich. Eating it made her thirsty, but she didn't want to get drunk just yet, so she sought out a fountain. When she had drained it, she found a cute little torc at the bottom! Wearing it made her feel a bit more physically competent, so she thought she'd keep it. Soon thereafter, Belle came across her first example of mechanical life -- an Unfriendly AI whose goal in life seemed to be to understand organic life, primarily by vivisecting it. As she tore the thing apart (the nanobots didn't seem to have any problem consuming metal as well as flesh), she salvaged her first piece of scrap metal, proud of herself for her own foresight. She also got exactly the bit she needed to complete her cleansuit design, and set about building it. Inspired by her own creativity, Belle wondered if she couldn't make something useful out of the other metal scraps she had in her pack. After a few moments of pacing back and forth and talking herself into a creative frenzy, Belle went to down, creating for herself a beautiful sliver-runed shield, a steel cuirass that would keep those horrible monsters from leering at her cleavage, and a pair of winged aluminum boots, for maximum lightness-on-her-feet. Quite pleased with the results, she resumed her explorations, much more secure in her ability to deal with the monsters she knew lie ahead. (Bah, apparently I took that before I Runed up her Skjolder. Pretend it's all silvery.) A long bit of exploration and little excitement later, Belle vanquished a gaggle of Zombys only to stumble into a room with a mysterious book and lever. She read the book carefully. It said only "Dwarven Express Post", with each word on a separate page. How bizarre. Shrugging, she pulled the lever, and watched in amazement as the floor parted and three strange-looking, giggling metal chests rose up out of the ground. She knew at once that opening them was going to be a dangerous affair, but she also knew that she couldn't leave such potential evil laying around for the next adventurer to find and die upon. The first chest produced a strange wooden blade that felt completely out of place in Belle's hand. The second chest produced the opposite -- a beautifully tinkered three-pronged blade that Belle knew instantly was going to be her weapon of choice for some time to come. Laying her Wakizashi gently aside and murmuring to the nanobots that she still liked them, and could they just be friends?, Belle took up her new blade with the fervor of a warrior-tink, and turned brusquely to the last box. She knew it wasn't going to be good -- and she was right. And invisible beast came at her, roaring it's name: "I AM FWCRAJAF, THE NAILS OF WORMS!" it cried. "Nails of worms? But worms don't have..." It was too late. Her spinning blade had already eviscerated the dastardly foe. "Damn," Belle said to no one, "I LIKE THIS!"
The very next door saw Belle beset by a horde of scythe-wielding undead backed up by a squareish mass of glowing jelly that called itself the Portent of Defenestration. They all died quick and painful deaths. Before she ever found the Sobering Parties, the Goddess of Sidequests came to her again with yet another new job: This one came to pass much more efficiently, and this particular Thrusty demon was much easier for Belle to defeat. No clockwork bombs, no fancy tricks -- just pure unadulterated swordplay. Funny, the belt Inconsequentia gave her looked exactly like her current belt, only more magical. Belle decided maybe the Godess was getting more accurate in her reward-giving. This might be worth keeping up on, after all. Finally, half a dungeon floor later, she stumbled upon the Eyeball Shrine and immediately took to splattering the Sobering Parties back into the alternate dimension they had come from: Her reward was again useful and functional. Perhaps Inconsequentia was an ally after all? Belle couldn't accept in her mind that the gods of this place were as chaotic as they seemed. They must have SOME sort of agenda, she mused. Her musings were cut short rather painfully. "WHAT IN THE BLUE HELL IS THAT?!!?!?!??!11/?1/1/oneoneone" Belle screamed. But as if of it's own accord, her new blade lept into her hand. A fortunate bridge just behind her, Belle retreated to keep the flow of monsters to a minimum (but only after launching a few large bottles of acid into the fray.) Before long, she realized her constant Kiai-ing was starting to scare some of the denizens just a little, and she decided to play up the scary card. A lot. Finally, after a massive drawn-out battle (in which she practiced her new Scary Face until it worked like a charm), Belle had cleaned out the entire pen of malevolence, and found laying on the ground in the very middle a battle-scarred trophy that she knew she'd get some good use out of. Exhausted from her melee, Belle slumped into a corner and pulled our her Game Boy Advance. Final Fantasy Tactics -- that would help her relax. For now...
Well, unfortunately, for no apparent reason, my Bell Znwhislz save now crashes the game whenever I try to load it. That sucks. I suppose that's the end of this particular adventure. Time to try again with a sneaky character.
Just for the record this is a great read, loved it and hope they new one gets out soon. By the way, I'm having an issue with multiple skill mods. It seems like when I use multiple skills from different mods they crash my game. Would this be a problem with the mods conflicting or perhaps they were outdated? It doesn't crash on game start either. It crashes after I pick my skills and name and try to begin. It's very annoying and I would appreciate it if any of you could help me.
Having the same issue after I installed the wind magic and trickster mods, had to delete them to get past character creation.
Go to the Bugs section and mention specifically what kind of comptuer you're using, what mods you tried to use, and exactly when the crash happened. The devs are working on a big new patch, maybe you can get that problem fixed as part of it.
I love the series.. and after reading the whole thread, I realize I would love to see an LP with a similar style (if anyone could point out one on Dredmor {or another rogue like} it would be appreciated). Also, the best named monster I have seen so far was "Zork, the son of God!" ^^
