Nox Part 23: Loproc Shows Up in a War Zone

Описание: After coming out of the Tomb of Valor, we’re back on the surface in a stone building. I quickly check the two caskets inside and head outside to finally rendezvous with Jandor. Unfortunately, he’s got very bad news—Hecubah’s been busy while we were in the crypt. She had her Ogre allies attack the village of Brin, and it came pretty close to falling. Horvath was able to rally the defenders and save the village, but during the battle he himself was captured by the enemy. This is an unacceptable situation. Horvath’s magic is critical for our war effort against Hecubah, and without him we stand little chance against her forces. Right now we need to head to Brin and clear out any remaining Ogres, but after that our primary objective is to attack the Ogre city of Grok Torr and free Horvath from his imprisonment there.

After finishing our conversation with Jandor, I follow the path north and come across a bridge guarded by human warriors. They’re on our side; they dispatch some attacking enemies as we approach and they’ll help us out if they see us fighting. Any enemies they kill don’t count towards our experience, but they can be quite useful. After talking with them, I cross the bridge and engage our first Ogre enemy. Technically, this is an Ogress, one of many we’ll be battling in this level. Like her male counterpart, she’s a strong melee combatant but is no match for the Slow/Lightning combo. We dispatch her with little trouble, and then I decide to visit a Secret area. I backtrack to a collection of trees and strike a wall, breaking it to reveal a hidden cavern. Unfortunately, this cavern is occupied by a powerful Grizzly, one of the toughest enemies we’ve faced. Grizzlies have absolutely massive health and do heavy damage in melee combat, so we’d normally have serious trouble killing one at this stage of the game. The two soldiers by the bridge, though, can really help us out. I get the Grizzly’s attention and lead it to the soldiers, who keep it pinned down while I blast it with Lightning. It drops surprisingly fast. With our victory over the Grizzly, I happily head into the cavern and collect the loot. It doesn’t seem like there’s much initially—just a little gold and a set of clothes—but breaking a second wall reveals a second part of the cavern. This is guarded by a Spider and Ghost but contains a Sturdy Wizard Helm, so it’s worth coming here. I dispatch the enemies and claim the Helm.

Now that the secret area’s clear, it’s time to get to business and secure Brin. I head back over the bridge and follow the path up to the village. Along the way we encounter a White Wolf—the Ogres have domesticated these Wolves and use them in combat—as well as another Ogress, but they go down to Lightning. We soon come to Brin itself; it’s protected by a wall and a gate, which I go through. After going through a couple of rooms right at the gate, I enter the town square and confirm it’s not secure at all. There are three Ogresses running rampant throughout the square, and they’ve got to be neutralized quickly. Luckily there’s a group of mana obelisks nearby, letting us Lightning them to death without worrying about running out of mana. Once those three are dead, I open a door and discover a fourth one in a garden. Blasting her with Lightning finishes her off and officially clears Brin of enemy presence.

I decide now’s the time to clean my inventory, and head up into the northern part of the village. We find none other than Loproc, the merchant who’s been following us throughout the campaign. He’s set up shop in Brin, and it’s finally time to sell all the weapons and armor we collected in the Tomb of Valor. Moreover, the Ogresses all carry heavy axes that can also be sold here, and I’m eager to make some gold off of those as well. I duly sell all the stuff I’ve collected, then collect the dropped axes around the map and sell those—it takes two trips because they’re extremely heavy and there are quite a few of them. Once I’ve sold everything I want to sell, I browse Loproc’s items and find some excellent merchandise. We’ve accumulated a lot of gold thanks to all the selling, so I decide to splurge a bit. I start by purchasing a Mighty Wooden Staff—“Mighty” is the next quality level up from “Sturdy”—and Mighty Leather Boots. Those two items replace the Sturdy versions currently equipped. I also buy two new spellbooks, learning the spells Protect from Poison and Confusion. After spending some more gold on repairing our damaged equipment, we’re now significantly stronger and I like our chances in the fighting ahead.