So, last time we met what should be the last of the major players in Avernum: The Freehold, The Abyss, and the Scimitars. At this point, the game has more or less fully opened up. Aside from the demon problem that we’re required to deal with, we’ve got our pick on what jobs to take and the party is tough enough that outside of major end game stuff, we should be OK to go pretty much anywhere.

First things first though, we should probably explore  the rest of Bargha. X did want to know about the library, and was willing to teach us some spells if we could tell him about it.Cynthia here is the local sage, and she doesn’t take us asking about how the books got here too well.Mostly, she tells us about the giants to the east, and the dragon Pyrog which we already knew about. She also clues us in on a hidden passage that will let us take the east exit out of town, since as I showed last time it’s walled off.She’ll also tell us a bit about her previous job, which isn’t important to us at all but I love how meta this statement is.The library is the tiny area right behind her. That’s that quest dealt with. There’s not really anything else for us here now. About the only other thing worth mention is the tendency for the locals to refer to the Avernites as voles.Interestingly while there’s no job board here, Bargha has a pillar just like any other town despite the whole double-exlie thing. This is likely to some extent for gameplay convince, as the town is pretty far northeast and there’s no other fast travel spots nearby.Returning to the mage tower, we unlock X as a trainer. We trained some of the spells elsewhere already, but the new ones are nice, plus we can finally train those last two levels of howl of Terror.Looking at the map. I consider going after the empire orb to get the Scimitar quests going. On the way over though, I realize it’s near Drath’s Crypt. Remember him? I had to run away several updates ago? I think it’s about time I had that rematch.The trip down is uneventful. I’ve already cleard out the dungeon, nothing’s respawned, and when I get to Drath, he’s still alone like I left him.Interestingly, the game notes I was here before.Even alone, Drath is nasty, though I find a good trick to deal with him. I have Cordelia dispel some of the barriers, so she and Mycroft can run into the main room away from the fighting. They’re not perfectly safe,  but they can easily throw spells into the fight while most of Drath’s attacks should be aimed away from them.

Another trick I learned is that buffs can counter debuffs. If he slows or weakens the party, instead of casting curing spells, I can cast haste or war blessing to buff myself and remove the debuff at the same time.Eventually he tries to escape. Obviously we’re not going to let him.At this point he starts summoning ghosts into the room. My spell casters cast summoning spells to help hold them back, while I also throw down some damaging spells to quickly clear them out.It’s close, I keep throwing everything I have at him until Finally!He leaves behind a good robe for spell casters, more importantly though…This is what we came down here for. The final part of demon slayer. now we just need to get the sword reforged.I also learn what that creepy book form the last time I was hear did. It’s not the most impressive thing but hey, free 1%.As for reforging the blade? Remember how Fort Draco had a huge anvil? The blacksmith here will do it. For free even, no extra quests or anything like that, he’s just happy to have the job.It’s a good sword too. As you’d expect it does extra damage to demons, but it also gives extra armor and elemental resistances. A good defensive weapon for Aldous.While I’m at it I stop by Silvar to hand in the iron bars and hammers for that quest, now they want tongs and pincers. I’ll keep an eye out.With Demonslayer, our next course of action is obvious: Lets go kill a demon. Namely the one in the Tower of Magi. First we need to go back to SolbergWe ask for the crystal key. Noticing we have demonslayer, he tells us to look for a hidden room in his bedroom.I go the wrong way like an idiot but hey, level 3 smite!We find the portal, and beyond it the key we need.We also get a glimpse of the demon itself.That whole controlling the demon thing isn’t really working out, is it?Heading back to the tower, we poke around a bit, behind a barrier is a book that teaches a level of Haste.What we’re really after is behind a hidden door in the garden however.There’s some caged demons and imps back here.We also find that knife that was mentioned ages ago. it’s not a weapon however, but a special item. We’ll likely find a use for it later.There’s also a demon trapped back here, not the one we’re after though. If I had to guess I’d say he was a sort of test summon before they went after a full-blow Haakai lord. Not that he tells us much. Mostly, he’s just here to brag about how nasty the big guy downstairs is. Past him is the barrier we needed the key for.Behind the barrier? An ambush! fortunately the demon’s aren’t anything we haven’t seen already  It’s an easy enough fight. Amusingly, the Tower of Magi counts as a town for healing purposes. So while it cost a lot to mana to dispel barriers and fight of the demons as we worked our way down here. Recovering from it is as simple as leaving the tower, than turning around to head back inside.Going downstaris we’re not quite done yet. There’s one last fight between us and the demon. Imps can cast some powerful fire spells and I almost lose some of the squishier party members, but they’re fortunately very weak defensively. It’s a quick fight.Sadly I can’t dispel that barrier, it’s level 3. We’ll have to come back for it. More importantly though. Meet  Adze-Haakai.Adze-Haakai is pretty typical as far as demons go. He just wants to rule Avernum with an iron fist, claim everything within it for himself, eat people. You know, demon stuff. He does name drop Grath-Hoth but well, we’ll likely be saying ‘hi’ to him later.

Also in true demon fashion he’s not the least bit threatened by us.At least until a bit after the fighting starts and he suddenly realizes we brought Himslayer along.This fight isn’t too bad once you understand the main gimmick. See that death curse? Adze-Haakai can tag people with that, after a few turns, it basically kills whoever has it. Even Aldous, Who I built to be as tanky as possible, can’t survive it. to make things worse. Curing spells do not remove the curse.

I have the return life spell, which can work in a pinch. but trying to brute force my way through this isn’t going to work, so what do you do?

You see those two circles in the middle of the room, surrounded by pillars?  Like thees text boxes explain. The pillars slowly turn from blue to orange during the fight, then discharge. If you have anyone standing in the circle when they go off. They gain a buff called Enlightened which makes them death curse immune.Fortunately, Adze-Haakai like to fight in melee, so drawing the fight over to the circles isn’t too hard. The catch is that on top of the curses? Adze-Haakai likes to cast annoying mental spells like charm or Howl of Terror which can scatter the party. Sadly, Ward of thoughts only grants so much resistance, and while the priest spell Unshackle Mind can cure charm and terror. There’s on mass version of the spell. I find it’s best to keep Haste up in case Mycroft needs to unshackle multiple people in a hurry.Eventually, we finally defeat the demon, and claim the Onyx Scepter for ourselves. It’s a special item. so that’s another thing we’ll have to find a use for later.We also find some really good armor.With that done. Let’s go check on that other demon. Apparently he’s not really up for bragging at the moment.With that done, We head to Solberg to tell him the good news, and in return? He’s willing to train us in some of the most powerful mage spells in the game for a relatively cheap price.overall, this has been a pretty good update. We got even with Drath, got some great new equipment, got a good trainer for mage spells and we still have Demonslayer, which is great because we’ve still got more demons to deal with, namely at fort remote.Though I’ll likely hold that off a bit longer as I want to get that empire orb dealt with.