At the hour of midnight, and under the cover of darkness, I jumped into the Lunar Rift and made my way to the Veiled Swamp and the Tower of the Shuttered Eye. Do ghosts dwell within? What secrets does this tower hold? Is there an afterlife?
With all the stealth of a one-legged, drunken hobo I made my way through the skeletons and to the front door. Like a scared child on Halloween who’s been forced to go to the door of Crazy Old Man Wilson’s house, I kicked my way in and stumbled inside.
Wow, look at the décor! This place is lovely! Except for the giant spiders in the foyer.
When I last made my mad dash to Tour Guide bliss, this place was rather bleak and foreboding. The foreboding still remains, but it’s nowhere near as bleak. It has furniture. Lots of it!
The side rooms have huge place settings with old, spoiled meat and rancid cheese on offer. The walls are lined with bookshelf after bookshelf. And each landing of the stairs as you go up (and down I suppose) offers a lovely place to sit, read, relax and plot your next move against the undead.
Toward the top, the Lich awaits with his ability to see inside your mind, read your deepest, inner most thoughts and squeeze your heart with it’s ethereal hand. But stop my heart he did not. Instead, he got a jolly good stab to the backside and his skeletons minions got a bit of what for as well!
But then, mistakes were made. As I approached the top, still admiring the choice of fabric patterns, I spied a ghost. There it was! Glowing, silently moving. From my extensive knowledge of the paranormal, I immediately classified it a Non-Terminal Repeating Phantasm, or a Class 5 Full Roaming Vapor. And a real nasty one at that.
My first instinct was try and make contact and perhaps ask it about what lies on the other side. But as it tried to steal my soul and drain the life out of me, I realized it wasn’t in the mood for casual conversation. I leaped into action, tripped, fell, chased it across the room and lunged at it again. I wasn’t even denting it! If indeed a ghost can be dented.
Within seconds it had nearly drained all my life. I went with my ever trusted fallback plan and ran down the stairs. Alley Oop must have sensed the danger I was in, or perhaps heard my freakish cries of terror all the way back in Braemar and popped in to save my armor clad bacon. Awfully sporting that.
We went back for another go, but the damage was done and I was in far too weakened a condition to defeat it. It is a most powerful apparition and soon I felt myself crossing over to the other side. I felt myself drift like a cloud and looked down to see my body in a broken heap on the floor. All signs pointed to No.
At the last moment, I was pulled back from the light, hopped back inside my body and figured I should complete my tactic of running. I should have gone straight for the door, but I felt compelled to open yet another side door. I don’t know why, perhaps it was the lure of a steak sandwich. But instead, I was greeted by two more ghosts, which caused me to promptly shut the door and run outside.
But the Tower of the Shuttered Eye is not the only place with paranormal activity. With Alley Oop in the lead, we went over to the Ruins of Ravensmoor. Lurking in the corridors and keeping company with the spiders, more ghosts popped out to get us. But these did not prove to be as powerful as the one at the top of the tower. We were able to dispatch them with great haste and felt confident enough to take on the Lich. He too got stabbed in the boney backside. And in the front. And the side. And most likely in the head a couple of times. I was a fury of miscalculated blade strikes so it’s hard to tell.
Alley Oop also informed me of several combat tactics that might be useful. I will now share those myself as sharing is caring. Unless it’s the flu. Or Consumption. Or Typhoid.
There are some new Earth Magic based skills that increase both your strength and damage resistance. They are innate and are thus good skills for the hapless, sword-wielding combatant.
Also, you can increase your health regeneration rate by eating before combat. They say it’s not good to engage in rigorous activity right after eating, but that is just an old wives tale. If you put food, say a bowl of mutton in the non-combat bar and then click to consume it, a new meter will appear that aides your health. It lasts around 8 minutes and might give you a bit of a competitive edge. I had no idea you could actually eat, I should read the directions more carefully.
A bowl of mutton is the cheapest and is readily available. Of course you can always make your own with the Cooking Station.
Hunting the paranormal proved to be much more dangerous and time consuming than I had originally planned. The hour was late so it was time to unwind with a bit of tanning and leather work. Nothing says relaxation like a well fitting pair of leather pants. For combat!!!
Again, thanks to Alley Oop for showing me around, sharing the knowledge, offering me a bowl of mutton and saving my life. Good show!
Love what they’ve done with the place. The new furnishings are quite lovely!
They even dressed up this lovely room of death. I wonder what the strange, archaic symbols on the banners mean?
Uh oh, looks like someone is taking their decorating queues from the Haunted Chapel in Owl’s Head. Or vice-versa.
A Ghost! I’ve made contact with the other side!
Another ghost… Me.
More ghosts in the side room. They’ll never be able to get me if I close this door!
Aw look, the Lich thinks he can fly!
More brilliant musings about my adventures in New Britannia
- Not a ghost of a chance against the Ghosts in Ravensmoor
- Trouble in Savrenoc
- Ghosts in the Sewers, New and Improved Red Sash Bandits, A Bar under a Hovel and Nestor Gets the Shiv
- Alley Oop takes me on a guided tour of New Britannia – Hidden chests, Haunted Chapels and let’s not forget the helm
- Completing the Grand Tour to get the Plague Doctor Mask in Shroud of the Avatar Release 23
- Shroud of the Avatar Release 12 Grand Tour
- Things that go boom in the night down in Braemar. Explosive Potions do indeed explode.
- A Lethal Wedgie in Chillblain’s Compendium of Pain and Suffering
- Slaying all that moves, Increasing my Production Level and a closer look at the Spectral Mines in Shroud of the Avatar Release 15
- What this place needs is a privy
i hadn’t noticed that low table in the first screenshot. want! (is it bad to take decorating tips from the undead?)
True, the undead have made some mistakes in their time, thus being turned into the undead, but that doesn’t mean they can’t posses a keen eye for style and have some savvy when it comes to decorating. Perhaps instead of bashing them about the neck and shoulders with a heavy blade, we might be able to come to terms and negotiate a good price for it. That is, if the Lich stays out of the talks.
However, if that doesn’t work, I see no problem with stabbing them all in the back and pinching it on the way out.