Well, what of the scroll?
Much of the parchment was weathered, but I could make out the important parts of the text. The note makes mention of a meeting spot west of Tripnettle.
So the old Sage knows his words after all? I'd ask that you travel ahead and see if you can't get this Captain Florian to yield to the Chorus. They will strike at first sight of a Chorus gang, but perhaps they will parlay if yours is the face they see.
I know the area, and I suggest we go at once. I'll show you the way - I'm eager to be far from the stench of this camp.
You're offering to come with me? Why?
Because the alternative is what? Living here with these illiterate brutes? My old study is under a river of fire and I've no family to miss me.
Something's amiss. There's a lot of fight in you for an old scholar. Now you're offering to join this expedition.
I've met Sages every bit as cutthroat as hardended gang bosses. They act the part of doddering scribes, but don't let that fool you.
Smart for someone your age to be so mistrusting. But I'm not with the oathbreakers, if that's what you're fishing at. I worked for them under duress, but I've no love for them. I'm not about to pledge to the Chorus, and the Disfavored wouldn't have me. Still, I consider myself a Kyros-fearing vassal of the Overlord's empire all the same.
For as long as I've been a Sage I've been trained to defend myself. We don't spend all our time binding books and sketching wildlife. For centuries we've been in a quiet war with the School of Tides and the School of Wild Wrath. You can't travel alone as much as I do and not know the bronze dance.
The School of Tides - the same school that female oathbreaker Sage came from. Yeah, I think it's safe to take him along.
So you won't be a parchment weight during a fight. Good to know. Fine. If you're so eager, come with me.
Splendid! You won't be disappointed
Larry is the mandatory support mage you'll get. The game does make him optional, but I really don't see any reason to refuse unless you just want to speed run past this.
His low Quickness hampers his spell cool-downs but with high Wits, the nukes and heals will deal higher numbers. I'd probably focus on getting Wits to 19 first before raising his Quickness.
His talent tree is more diverse than Barik and Verse. He has three instead of their two. Which is quite puzzling since being a mage, he actually has more access to active skills in form of spells than those two ever will.
Quill is focused on thrown weapon. I'll skip those talents for later since the first priority is to shape him up into a good Sage. He does start with a throwing ability that interrupts. It can be great to delay hostile casts.
Preservation improves support spells and looks purely defensive. Not a priority in Act 1 IMO.
The Sage tree is way more important that it seems. One point unlocks a melee strike ability that interrupts and spell breaches the target (lowers resistance to magic). It also comes with a cute clause that states if Lantry uses this ability from stealth it will paralyze the target.
A second point in Sage talent tree should be into Loremaster to improve his magic's performance and capability to learn more sigils.
With that done, it's time to butter / threaten our new Sage to get some Loyalty/Fear infused in him.
I'd like to know how you'd wind up in Vendrien's Well.
When the Vellum Citadel was set aflame by Kyros' Edict, I fled as far as my knees would carry me. Every direction seemed a bad idea, but heading to Vendrien's Well seemed the last suicidal option... mind you, I was laboring under the misconception that the Vendrien Guard had surrendered, and the fighting has stopped.
I arrived in the valley three days after they broke their treaty and claimed the citadel. The Vendrien Guard nabbed me and several other sages. The others were very sympathetic to the cause. As for me, I just agreed so as not to get everyone killed. I think defying the Overlord is a really slow and stupid form of suicide.
Tell me about your work with the oathbreakers.
The Vendrien Guard has several noble-born in their ranks, and they know their letters - problem is, they've come from noble houses scattered across the realms - each with their own script. That's where the Sages and I come in - between us, we're familiar enough with all the regional scripts to translate and coordinate.
So you're the designated anime fan-sub group?
Well, yes. But translating is child's play, so I... might have helped out a bit more. The old citadel is a crumbling affair and there's no time for proper construction - seemed a crime not too put my magic to work.
What did you learn of their plans in your time there?
It won't surprise you to know their strategy is largely non-existent. They cling to the hope that their example will inspire others in the Tiers to come to the valley and join the cause. The recent inaction between the Archons has emboldened them - some even think the Archons FEAR the Vendrien Guard - I'm sure they have it quite wrong.
Anything else you can tell me about the oathbreakers and their forces?
They surrendered back in 429 - and while a lot of them were conscripted in the Chorus, three of their leaders, Captain Arri, Matani and Florian, never turned themselves in. Instead, they hid in the valley, gathering what resources they could until they could challenge the local garrison.
How many men do they have?
At highest count, earlier in the year, they numbered over four hundred - their ranks swollen by soldiers of Haven and Azure that survived the war. They are a dying breed, most in the Tiers have finally come to realize that Kyros has already won.
Only 400? I can Understand Dishonored being spread too thin to defend from such a concentrated attack, but the Scarlet Chorus has no excuse.
So you provided military aid to the oathbreakers?
Well, intent matters. You were doing what you needed to survive.
Tell me about your magic.
Oh, I don't much like to brag about things like that.
Not asking you to brag.
My major areas of focus has been Preservation, Concealment and Healing.
Can you teach me anything?
I can show you how to blend your inks-
Magic. I want you to teach me magic.
Hmm. If my School still mattered, I'd maybe be more tight-lipped but... if we're traveling together, you should know how to mend wounds, especially if I'm killed.
I would be honored to learn.
Rummaging through his satchels, Lantry produces a long quill and a crumpled piece of parchment. With seven quick strokes of the quill, he inks a pattern on the page.
We'll start with the first principles. When mending wounds and easing pain, we invoke the magic of the Orphan Midwife, Archon of Rebirth. Now, trace the sigil, following the lines in the order I sketched them.
Ugh, this is like chink calligraphy. What can you tell me about this Archon of Rebirth?
Didn't realize you care about your history. Well the Orphan Midwife was born in 160, bowed to Kyros in 201. They say where she walked, plants would sprout, the sick would grow vigorous, she'd also send most folks into fits of rage and animals into heat - she sounds like quite a riot.
How did you came to learn this Sigil if it's only known to one of Kyros' Archons?
We know her magic by the way of one of her first disciples, who migrated to the tiers in 222 to spread her wisdom - an act that happened to be illegal under Kyros' law. For that and a host of other transgressions, the Orphan Midwife has been imprisoned for over a century, or so the story goes.
Lantry walks me through countless repetitions of the signing the mystic sigil. For hours, I wave my hand in the air to no effect, until at last, I felt the rush of power through my veins.
Thanks, we'll talk more later.
The loyalty bump is enough to unlock Lantry's first combo.
This is a pretty amazing combo. It creates an aura of effect around a party member to debuff and disrupt any hostile effect for 30 seconds. Suppose you have someone paralyzed for 15 seconds, you can just have someone under this aura effect come close to cancel the paralyzing effect. The debuffs are also pretty good.
But Lantry's best contribution is probably his Lore mastery to learn more sigils.
Here we picked up a Sigil of Illusion and learned almost all of the sigil scrolls we have found in our travels.
There's a reason why I saved up the scrolls until I've recruited Lantry. Learning a new scroll boosts the entire party's Lore skill. Learning a scroll when you only have Verse as a companion is a waste of free Lore.
Now we move on to the spell creation.
There's the Core sigil that is the basic attribute of the spell. E.g Life, Fire, Frost, Lightning. Basically if you want to make a healing spell, it involves the Sigil of Life as its core.
Next came Expression - that determines how the primary core is being applied. There's ranged, by touch, aura, as armor, cone radius etc.
The final modding of each spell effect came in the form of Accent sigils. These ranges from increasing a spell damage, duration, range, aoe radius etc.
The more bonus you stack, the higher the Lore requirement is. Therefore it's helpful to train up Lore so Barik can eventually cast some decent self buffs on himself. And since buffing/support spell needs no Accuracy to land, Barik is free to heal himself once you've learned the Sigil of Life.
You can also rename the customized spells if you want. They seem to have drawn most of these things from sandboxes like Skyrim: level up system and spell making. The former is a bit of an ill-fit. While the latter is slightly flawed, but I guess is interesting enough to mess with a for about half an hour or so.
Take for example this basic Sigil of Might.
When you limit its Expression to 'on touch' it's a very simple and low Lore requirement buffing spell.
But if you changed its expression into a 'cone' it increases its Lore requirement by 25 and it creates a different effect.
You can duplicate spells as long as the party members fulfill the Lore criteria.
All of these spells are nice at opening up new options in gameplay. A high lore Barik can suddenly perform insane parries when given Mirror-image or even cast an aura of debuff around himself. But it leads to another issue of the fucking hotbars being overcrowded.
I'm only level 2 and this problem is already apparent. They really failed to address the UI issue.