Guild Wars 2

Except it was clear Faolain was in the wrong, even Caithe should’ve been able to see that and try to defuse the situation instead of helping slaughter the entire village. What good intention were we going for, taking Wynne back against her will?

After that conversation, Mender Aine arrives from the Omphalos Chamber to inform us that the Pale Tree is conveniently awake for now. We follow her back up.

Pale Tree: “Have you made progress…with it?”

Us: “I believe so. I found the egg, but..”

(But we didn’t make any real progress, thanks to your deceitful Caithe and our plot induced idiocy.)

Pale Tree: “What a relief. You may have just saved Tyria. The struggle is far from over, but if you had failed to find and protect the egg, it would have been over before it begun.”

(Mind explaining how?)

Us: “So…Caithe has the egg in her custody. We’re trying to find her.”

(Seriously, we can’t just say, “yeah, about that…Caithe swiped the egg and ran off, we need you to help us find her”?)

Pale Tree: “Caithe has the egg? Why? You, you’re the one who must care for it. That’s why I gave you the vision. Not Caithe.”

(Me thinks Caithe might be a tad bitter over us being trusted by her mother more.)

Unfortunately, even the Pale Tree doesn’t know where Caithe is taking the egg or why. But she can give us memory seeds that we can use to find memories of Caithe’s past, which will hopefully give us a clue. She gets Aine to give us four of them to use.

So, we left off with Caithe taking the egg and ditching us.

Back to the Grove. We meet up with Marjory there, speaking with a warden. While the Pale Tree’s not dying at least, she is still only conscious for small moments every once in a while. We talk with Marjory and learn that the others are helping prepare the fleet launch, and she’s curious as to how an egg is going to help us beat Mordremoth, which is a good point. She’s still wanting it dead for killing her sister, but all we can do is reassure her that this will work and to trust in us. Sigh.

Still, Marjory’s question regarding the egg is a good point. This thing could grow into a potential asset….after a few thousand years of growing, perhaps. Glint had lasted that long, and yet even she couldn’t best Kralkatorrik, even with help. So….how is the egg of a liberated champion that lost to it’s original master going to help us defeat another dragon who is possibly more powerful?

This is clearly a troll thread.

Looks like we’re gonna have a flashback episode. Sigh…this had better be good to make up for the nonsense of the last one.

Thanks for the feedback, I’m glad my ramblings are at least entertaining for some.

Something else occurred to me as I was playing on an alt…

…while Kas and Jory tell Trehearne about what they learned at the Priory—but to make sure no one but him hears about the dragon egg.

Trehearne’s standing in the planning/command room where Destiny’s Edge is as well, a ways off…but still close enough to where he could overhear the conversation. We can even talk to him too, but we don’t get the option to mention the dragon egg at all. Why not? It would save Kasmeer and Marjory the trouble, since he’s right there anyways! Apparently, that would make too much sense though, seeing as he isn’t acting shady at all, unlike his sister.

This idea is acceptable to me.

What she did before is of little concern to me (though the whole formerly at Disney thing leaves me cautious). What matters is what effect she has on the story now.

maddoctor.2738:

Nilkemia.8507:

Answer: The thread title is a lie. Teragriffs are a step in the wrong direction.

Read the OP as well as the title to learn what the thread is about

Oh, you’re referring to the boss then? While that was interesting at first, it quickly got more annoying than anything else. So….still a step in the wrong direction.

Of course, the title could’ve said Teragriff Boss to be more specific.

So…what now? Talk to my allies? Fine…

Rox : The Master of Peace is dead.

(Wow, really? I’d never have guessed.)

Marjory: I saw Caithe run off with the egg.

(We all saw that! And she shadowsteped away!)

Marjory then implies that Caithe may have gone rogue just like Scarlet and Aerin did. We of course aren’t given an option to discuss that, and the ones we do get try to half-heartedly defend Caithe’s nonsensical actions earlier.

Regardless, we have no way to figure out how to find her or her motives, so it’s time to check up on the Pale Tree, and see if we can get some answers there.

And…that’s it. The episode ends with us still in there, apparently about to take the Master’s body back to his people.

So…this episode was too short, mostly annoying filler, and we accomplished nothing, thanks to Caithe’s sudden shift in character, which was all too predictable even without the flavor text all but spoiling it. The only good thing was the ambiance of the Labyrinth itself, which makes it spooky at first, but quickly is shadowed by how annoying the place is to get through.

The episode should’ve at least ended with us alerting Trehearne to Caithe’s shady behavior, or going to the Pale Tree immediately to check on her, and maybe even get a hint or two at what Caithe might be up to so we could plan our next move. But apparently that was too much to ask for in one episode.

Anyways, once that goes down…

Master of Peace: “Quickly… (cough) Kneel beside me. I have.. (cough) I’m dying.”

“You’re our only hope now. Listen…closely.”

“I have something…I can no longer protect. You must…understand…its importance to Tyria’s future…

(Pssh, you didn’t even protect it that well. We saved you from Aerin, remember?)

Marjory: The egg…

Well, he’s dying, but we’ve saved the egg, right? It’s a good thing no one’s about to betra-

….Of course. Who didn’t see it coming? Even without the text at the start spoiling it, people would’ve at least guessed it might happen, what with how Caithe was acting all that time.

Seriously, “no time to explain”? Bullfrak. You could’ve explained back at camp. You could’ve explained on the way. Even if you couldn’t trust any of the biconics, you could’ve at least explained to us in the maze before we found the others. This is a plot twist just for the sake of one, for cheap shock value. And it makes zero sense. We are given no hints as to what her goal or motivation would be for deceiving the team up to this point. And we don’t even get the option to tell her off and make her stay. She could’ve then trailed us and gotten the egg anyway, but at least we wouldn’t look like complete idiots!

Oh, and by the way, nice job ditching us in the Mordrem maze, Caithe. It’s like she wants us all to get killed.

Well, good news: We found the Master of Peace and the egg, and the Mordrem boss can actually be sneaked around to get to him. However, he’s clearly in bad shape, and unfortunately we can’t just pick him and the egg up and sneak back away, that would make too much sense. So it’s time to fight a powered up Mordrem Troll. Oh, and Caithe isn’t helping to kill it…possibly a bug, but it’s still off…

So, we can apparently trace where the rest of these markings are now, and we get to a skritt hole that we can now crawl though to reach a new area in the map. From there, it’s a little east into the underground.

We meet up with Caithe once more, who says that the others were separated from her by these vines, and that there’s something lurking in the maze. In addition to that, there’s quite the number of Mordrem to get in our way. But we have to get our allies back together before we can get to the end, so on with it. Each ally with us also gets a commander tag for this instance, so we know where they are afterwards.

Marjory is the closest, and she gives the ability to sense the others’ locations.

Rox is next, and she can punch through weak vine walls.

Oh, that predator Caithe mentioned? It’s a legendary respawning Mordrem wolf. Ugh.

Anyways, we get Braham, who is supposed to distract the wolf, though that thing seems to still go for you anyways, unless it’s my toughness causing that.

And at least, we get Kasmeer, who can generate light for us.

With all the team found, the respawning wolf goes away, and we’re free to go to the center.

This boss can divebomb while summoning more of those pull tendrils to try and yank you into it’s attacks, run around the edge of the area while sicking a horde of minigriffs on you, charges, and can use a wide AoE shriek. Quite annoying. Oh, and when the Aspect masters inform you to get close, don’t, because they’re idiots.

After that’s over, the Wind Master is too hurt to keep going, so the Lightning Master plans to take him back to camp, and telling us that the mark is the master’s, meaning that following it will lead us to him. Meanwhile, Caithe questions about the Zephyrites and their master in a shady tone once more. Sigh…she’s going to be the traitor, isn’t she?
Anyways, we have a trail, so might as well follow it.

Well, we’ve arrived just in time for —-oh…well, I’m glad we got to know that Aspect Master before she got killed so pointlessly.

After following an obvious trail, and an even more obvious “mysterious marking”, we begin catching up with the Aspect Masters. As we trail them into a cavern, Caithe questions if they’ll tell us where the Master of Peace was taking the egg. Seeing as they don’t even know where he is, why would they know where he’s taking it?

Anyways, as we go in, tendrils pop up to attack. We also get a cutscene of the Aspect Masters fighting off small Mordrem while a boss watches on…

These particular tendrils are very annoying as well, being able to pull you to them and maintain a stun barrier around them that lasts until they die, along with tiny malformed teragriffs. After killing enough of them, Rox points out a thrasher that wasn’t there before. Killing it lets us move on.

I honestly don’t care right now, I just found it amusing, as I stated. Part of me is curious to whether they intended it or not, but seeing as this bug isn’t seemingly harmful, I’m in no hurry to report it.

See below.

It’s a bit amusing.

As we approach the Biconic gang, they’re talking about the egg….out by the training field in the open…Sigh.

Anyways, we deduce that our best chance of finding the Master of Peace is to find the Aspect Masters that were also out looking for him…okay. Taimi might know where they went, so we have to talk to her, while Kas and Jory tell Trehearne about what they learned at the Priory—but to make sure no one but him hears about the dragon egg.

Anyways, to Taimi, who’s been training with….Bron something or other..Ingotspitter? Ah. She says that the Aspect Masters headed southwest, and that she’ll be learning all she can from Bron, then heading back to Rata Sum once the ships launch. At least she won’t be a liability then.

And now for Caithe, who’s still following us. She’s decided to accompany us to find the Aspect Masters, and mentions Eir staring at some young norn. (Gee, I wonder who.) She notes that three people used to being on floating ships will leave a wide trail on land, and she isn’t concerned about missing the Pact fleet’s flight. She’s acting shadier than usual, but of course we’re not given the option to refuse her. Please don’t have her be the traitor… -_-

“Don’t mind me.” Note that Caithe sounds annoyed/sarcastic when she says it…please don’t tell me she’s going to be the traitor. That would be too stupid.

Canach still hates us, since we treat him like crap because the game gives us no option to be nice to him for a change.

Also, a few NPCs from the Personal Story return, though they aren’t all that noteworthy…most of the cool ones are either dead or not here.

Anyways, we have to tell Destiny’s Edge we’re not going with them…

Zojja : What? You’re 74.3% of our firepower all by yourself!

(Wrong, Zojja. I’m 97.835% of our firepower. Nice estimate though.)

Anyways, we mention the vision, and the dragon egg. After some dialogue, they all agree that letting us go after it is more important right now.

Eir : But Glint never mentioned she had an egg. I would have…

(Like you mentioned your son?….that’s what I thought, Eir. Though to be fair, that’s more the fault of whatever idiot decided Eir Stegalkin needed a son out of nowhere for no reason. Did I mention that was a stupid plot point? Braham could’ve been his own character and been better off for it, and Eir wouldn’t have been tarnished as a character. But oh well…)

Anyways, right after that, Caithe starts following us…please don’t make her the traitor…

Logan of all people sends us a mail, which I find odd. Shouldn’t I be getting one from Trehearne instead, or your race mentor? Although, Rytlock being gone does hamper that…could’ve had Logan contact charr players as well and leave it normally for all the others. Meh. Well, back to Camp Resolve.

The flavor text on the episode selection:

“As the Pact continues its preparations for the fight against Mordremoth, a new opportunity arises. But the search for the Master of Peace ends in tragedy, calling into question the motives of a friend.”

So…the Master of Peace is going to probably die, and someone will apparently betray us.

This whole thing could’ve been avoided if we hadn’t let him run off on his own back at Dry Top…

Sigh.

The trio awake inside a crystalline area, with the Commander separated from Kasmeer and Marjory. As Kas and Jory awake, they realize that they are inside Glint’s lair. They’re nearby, but can’t reach the Commander, so they all agree to move forward until they can reunite.

Along the way the Commander battles against facets of the lair (repurposed Icebrood Colossi) and other gimmicks within as they make their way to Kas and Jory. Along the way they find holo-memories of the Master of Peace being in the lair as well, and see Kasmeer and Marjory in a large room, talking exposition about Glint’s story.

The Commander eventually makes their way to the large room KasJory are in just in time for when the boss attacks. After defeating that, they see one last holo-memory, asking the Master of Peace to protect an egg with his life—clearly one of Glint’s eggs.

When they get back out, Ogden chuckles a bit at their expense, because he’s a granite headed oaf, and then asks what we know now. Apparently the Master of Peace is carrying Glint’s last egg, which has been in stasis all this time. Now they have to go after him…again.

Bosses requiring luck to show up. Bad design. Especially with putting titles requiring fighting them.

Answer: The thread title is a lie. Teragriffs are a step in the wrong direction.

Sors Immani.8429:

I think OP was trying to say he wants more in-depth content as opposed to what we are currently seeing. Echoes was a big step forward, however Tangled Paths is arguably as big of a step backwards. Yes, S1 was buggy, but is clicking through waves and waves of dialogue really better?

Um…yes. Because there’s more to it than just that text, it tends not to be even half as buggy as Season 1’s content, and save for some unskippable cutscenes, it can be skipped or looked at on your choosing once unlocked. Oh, and it’s not only around for 2 weeks then gone forever.

I fail to see how Season 1 was more “in-depth”…and I was there since Flame and Frost.

Eh…no. The last good dungeon they did was Molten Facility, every dungeon after was bad. I’d rather they get a competent dungeon team first.

Constant one hit kills and lackluster rewards? Ouch. No thanks.

It’s possible. Although…that begs a few questions…

- What has she been doing all this time between all this? She’s been out of the pictur since Twilight Arbor’s story mode.
- Why infiltrate the Pact personally? After all this time letting her minions do the job for her, it seems a tad out of character for her to be doing the hands on stuff now.
- Since her only real goal so far has been turning Caithe evil, would she really care enough afterwards to maintain the guise that Caithe was still with them when she probably isn’t?

Apparently we’re going to look into that…we kinda left that hanging.

….While this is also my best guess right now…something’s still off. While she was acting shifty even before that, she was neither talking to herself nor speaking crazily like…Scarlet and Aerin were. Her “No time to explain” line was also delivered normally, implying this isn’t corruption…perhaps.

Still, with the Pale Tree down and possibly dying, perhaps Mordremoth’s either become more subtle with his control, or Caithe was just “better” at hiding the crazy.

And, there is the possibility that this was not actually Caithe, but an imposter. But so far the only two who could pull that off are either Anise or Faolain…and Faolain’s been out of the picture since Twilight Arbor.

That was perfect. +10 if possible.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

The books in the Durmand Priory told us she was corrupted… and yet for some reason we invite her on a top secret mission, let her grab the egg, and just stand there while she runs away with it…

I just… what…

No. Faolain tried to corrupt her in Edge of Destiny with some kind of poison, but was tricked into removing it. Ever since then, she’d shown no signs of being corrupted (aside from her utterly ruthless nature when it came to the Court, but for good reason) And the bad future showed her choosing Nightmare, but that’s been prevented.

While she still could be corrupted, she really shouldn’t be as susceptible to it as she was during the time before killing Zhaitan.

Still, with the Pale Tree down and possibly dying, perhaps Mordremoth is strong enough to corrupt even her at this point…still, aside from the shifty acting, she wasn’t talking to herself or being crazy like Ceara or Aerin were…either Mordremoth’s getting more subtle, or Caithe is “better” at hiding it.

lordkrall.7241:

It is called a cliffhanger I believe. It is quite often used in episodic media.

Doesn’t mean it had to be used here. And, in any case, it’s been done better.

This was just inept.

No thanks. Temporary content, giant zergfests, Scarlet Briar? No. No , no, no. No.

I saw it coming the moment I read the flavor text below the “Start episode” button.

Caithe’s tone in her dialog only set off my alarms even more. There was a clear change in her tone, she was being even more shifty than usual, and since when does she call us “boss”, instead of “Commander”, or whatever phrase she would normally use?

Still, I had hoped it’d be a red herring, or that the traitor would turn out to be someone else, or that Canach had somehow tagged along and taken the egg for Anise, or even having Mordremoth mess with our heads a bit, tricking us into off the Master or something. But nope.

And the worst bit—that’s the end. That is NOT how you do a cliffhanger. The Pale Tree giving us that vision before passing out was a better cliffhanger. It at least made sense, and at the same time left us with hope that she might recover.

Caithe’s betrayal though? I saw it coming, and yet I couldn’t do anything about it!

“Theres no time to explain.”

Really Caithe? You had the whole trip there to explain! You’ve had a year or two to explain!

Is it shocking? Yes. Does it make any sense? Effing no!

So apparently Scarlet was seemingly right about Caithe not being trustworthy, and she’s seemingly turned evil. I’m not sure which one makes me angrier.

And you know we’re gonna want answers to that right away, or at least start looking for answers immediately. Nope, gotta wait two more weeks. Better check on the Pale Tree in two weeks, cause you know, we kinda left the whole “she’s out cold and maybe dying” bit hanging.

Argh. Unfortunately, the painfully obvious betrayal and the shortness of this update have left a sour taste in my mouth, and have possibly ruined the last Destiny’s Edge character I kinda liked.

Too short, and a rather bad (and predictable) cliffhanger ending. I saw it coming, and yet I hoped they wouldn’t do that.

Really? All the Mordrem everywhere, unsoloable defense events/breach events, the Gold/Silver ’Griffs that tend to wipe entire groups (partially due to their overpowered gimmicks and due to players not knowing what to do), the other hostiles that will usually put aside their differences just to kill you, and this place is too easy?

Well, I doubt many others will share that sentiment.

That norn will end up strangled to death by several wild Mawdrey II’s at once.

Should’ve just made them available during that time for certain amounts of shiny wrappers instead of this annoying roundabout lottery.

Eh…on one hand, the Retaliation did make one switch up tactics and try to play smarter, not spam harder. On the other hand…it could get painful to deal with, especially with enough of them to make it last nearly indefinitely.

And don’t get me started on the event Mordrem wolves in Iron Marches that had perma retaliation, and could then buff themselves with regular retaliation on top of that…that was just cheap.

The other big issue is that not all professions have equal access to boon stripping/corruption.

That being said, I find that the “deadly when flanking” ability they have is far worse now, since if they’re close enough, their lunges will still hit behind you despite you facing them. If the Retaliation were to come back, I wouldn’t mind too much..but that deadly flanking damage ability would have to go.

And this is why we can’t have nice things…

And this is why we can’t have nice things. It had to be the TP flippers too. No one else would have a legitimate reason to want this gone.

Killjoy.

/15 loot characters.

Submit to the loot! Mooorrrre!

You’re gonna be so in loot after trying to win all these achievements and these cheap sodding teddy bears!

Tired of all those threads about suggesting nerfs to the loot? Well here’s a thread that suggests otherwise! Let the loot flow! SUBMIT!

#Submittotheloot!

(For more humor—maybe—imagine this being spoken in a Risen norn or Risen asura’s voice.)

This thread again.

This thread again.

The group locates Archivist Ernswort in the basement, who gives instructions on how to get to Stonehealer. After doing all that, the entrance appears by shifting the circle of rows in the middle of the basement…hope the others don’t mind that.

Finally, we get to Stonehealer.

“What took you so long?”

(“Gee, we had to get one half of the cipher from an explorer going from one dangerous loctaion to another, and then I had to get to the right books to open this room, you granite headed oaf! Couldn’t you have just opened this room from the inside?”)

So, the commander talks with him, and he reveals he knows of the vision from the Pale Tree as well, and directs the commander to the hourglass near the group. Upon touching it, everyone except Stonehealer gets warped away…

After that, the Commander receives another mail, this time from Marjory, asking them to help them in their search at the Priory. However, the person they need to talk to is in a very secure spot, and the cipher is only known to two people in halves—one of them being Explorer Campbell.

Gee, it’s a good thing this person was sent into a dangerous situation at Fort Salma alone initially, and then sent out into hostile territory. Huh.

Well, with the cipher half from Explorer Campbell, the Commander heads to the Priory to meet up with Marjory and Kasmeer who have the other half.

After speaking with Magister Makkay, the trio is taken to the place to enter the Special Collections entrance.

This leads to the Durmand Priory Basement, where a statue of Abbadon adorns the end of the entrance hallway.

Further into the Silverwastes, the Commander begins the search. Investigating a Mordrem corpse, they are quickly warned—and greeted by Canach. The corpse is booby trapped with a mine, and the Commander gains the ability to do so with other Mordrem corpses.

The squad (Comm, Canach, and two grunts) manage their way through the passages, utilizing the mines and good timing to sneak past or dispatch the hordes of wolves. They eventually reach Caithe’s squad, which is under attack.

After dealing with that, they proceed onward to a nearby cliff, believing that the Mordrem are up to something near here, what with all the minions patrolling. Caithe and Canach notice a bright glow inside a crevice leading to a cave filled with vines and a giant malevolent looking flower.

They decide to light a flare for the Pact to pick them up, but of course the flare also attracts Mordrem, prompting a fight to survive until the chopper arrives.