So I’m finally getting around to the Bastion questline in earnest and I have to admit that quest with Ben Howell’s soul was one of the better ones I’ve played.
First off it was interesting to see the Scourge come off as a legitimate threat. I do think Ben’s a little slow on the uptake for not immediately going to at least Defcon 2 when he noticed a dead ghoul in his backyard. Even if those were common in Redridge, which they’re not, one being found a few yards away from where your daughter is playing unsupervised should raise some alarms.
But beyond that nitpick I enjoyed it. It was nice to see how terrifying this world is when you’re just some guy. Without mute transient superheroes hanging out in your tavern you’re actually pretty boned if monsters storm into town.
And as I said I’m just starting Bastion - but I know Bluther lives, and him being nominally a bad guy made me know the Bastion bad guys gotta have some decent points. And I was right because you just yeet Old MacDonald into perdition like you’re tossing out a candy bar wrapper.
“Afterlife machine broke”
“Understandable have a nice eternal damnation in the lake of fire”
This is clearly a catastrophically flawed system that needs reform, if not full blown revolution.
It’s really a well done introduction and has me pretty excited to see what happens next.
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I’m of the mindset that this was the start of the Kyrians realizing what exactly WAS going on with the flow of souls, which raises a couple possibilities:
A) The Kyrians stop bringing souls to Oribos because of this, but the Jailer circumvents this because of his own Mawsworn Kyrian (which is probably why he made them)
B) The Kyrians have to bring souls to Oribos regardless, because leaving them in the Veil would be worse
C) The Kyrians are just doing it because they gotta
Now I have nothing to prove the former two, but… the last one just seems so astronomically and mind-numbingly silly to me, that for my own health I just have to tell myself it’s one of the first two.
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Duskwood is actually pretty good at emphasizing how boned your typical civilians are without a PC around. A single Abomination is an existential threat to an average town that doesn’t have either a player character or a full garrison, and we’ve been swatting them around by the dozens since WotLK.
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Honestly none of those options have good implications. If the Cult of the Damned is still running amok then an influx of angry ghosts is going to be a field day for necromancers. And that might be a better fate than being stuck in Oribos. Sounds like being trapped at an airport for a constantly delayed flight. I hope they at least serve ghost booze there.
True but Stiches seems like an extraordinary Abomination. They vary in intellect vastly and he’s clever enough to be fit for jury duty. That’s not normally saying much but it’s pretty impressive for an abomination.
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Unfortunately it’s this one. They outright acknowledge that souls are going to the Maw and keep doing it anyway because The Path says so. They’re outright empowering their greatest enemy and damning souls to mega hell because they’re zealots. The Jailer should send them a thank you card.
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The Kyrian specifically states that no one in Lakeshire will survive the Scourge attack due to there being no one that can serve as good enough fighters(all the Guards it seems have gone to Stormwind and Goldshire).
Lakeshire is lost as is Darkshire.
Goldshire and Stormwind will soon be the only Cities of the Kingdom of Stormwind standing with Soldiers from the City Guard slowly picking off the Ghouls and Geists rushing into the two Cities over the course of the Expansion!
The Scourge basically just wiped out all unprotected towns and is now going through the meat grinder that is the protected towns!
As for the High Ranking Scourge: They are busy in Icecrown fighting the Argent Crusade being resurrected again and again by the Mawsworn leading them!
Even The Prophet Tharon’ja, Novos the Summoner & Trollgore are present in Icecrown despite being killed in Zul’Drak!
Elder Nadox deep beneath Dragonblight was resurrected by the Mawsworn and taken to Icecrown!
Skadi the Ruthless & Ingvar the Plunderer from Howling Fjord(the furthest place in Northrend from Icecrown) were taken to Icecrown to serve the Mawsworn!
The Scourge Elites & Cult of the Damned are clearly not taking part in the assault on the Faction Cities(too busy trying to crush the Argent Crusade which is well prepared for them) so the Factions can breath a sigh of relief as they grind down the weak Scourge rampaging too close to their most guarded cities!
As for the Mawsworn Army itself: The Covenants will keep them occupied in 9.1.
The Scourge is destined to lose. The cost of victory will be all the unprotected towns on Azeroth!
It’s astounding how many wrong things you can fit in a single comment every time you talk.
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That’s a lot of conjecture based off one glimpse into Redridge we get.
It is nice to see the Scourge are having any effect though. Bit of a wet fart of an event. Though it did portray what would realistically happen to monsters in a world mostly populated by wandering adventurers. Just them getting obliterated by whole camps of people the second they poke their heads out.
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It also seems to support the theory that Morbent Fel and the Embalmer in Duskwood were both affiliated with the Cult of the Damned in some way (in addition to the fact that the former became a Lich and the latter constructed an Abomination, two forms of necromancy pioneered by the Cult of the Damned)
I wonder when the undead in Duskwood got folded into the Scourge.
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Well if you’re going to go career necromancer I think the only real private sector opportunities are with the Cult of the Damned. Knights of the Ebonblade are a bit of a DK jock’s club and the Black Harvest seems to look down on them.
“In today’s challenging economy it’s important for young occultists to diversify their dark magic portfolio”
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I still consider this a giant plot hole. Granted we’re seldom if ever given dialogue options in the game but you’d think, about ten minutes into the Bastion leveling quests when Kleia realizes we’re not a normal soul and we tell her why we came there our character would’ve said “Oh yeah about that…the Arbiter is broken and every soul is getting dumped into the Maw.”
If your character sides with the Kyrian…that times a thousand. “Um Kleia…you DO know where this poor guy is going once you deliver him?” Instead it’s a ‘big shock’ >_>
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True. But there’s been a lot of times I wanted to chime in with basic observations my character should’ve made.
Nobody hires mute psychotic wanderers to be the ideas guy. No they just hinge all future plans on their presumed continued loyalty and success. Because thousand yard stares are considered oaths of eternal loyalty to the many quest givers of the world, I guess.
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Saving Ben howell is my endgame, i dgaf about blanduin or the rest of the cast, saving ben is priority #1 he didnt deserve being yeeted to the maw and eternal damnation.
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It’s astounding how people read through that.
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The level of idiocy needed for them to do this, then turn around in the cinematic and wonder why the Maw and the Jailer are only growing stronger.
The only, only thing they’ve done to slow the Maw is dealing with the Forsworn. Itd make more sense at that point the Kyrians were secretly in league with the Jailer.
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I stopped part of the way through to be honest.
I mean an entrenched and stagnant bureaucracy stubbornly sticking to the status quo even as it causes wanton destruction is one of the more believable things I’ve seen in WoW, tbh.
What amuses me is I figured the revolution would be based around that, and not the mind wipe thing. And I do obviously see the troubling nature of angel re-education camps. But as they’re supposed to be an impartial ferryman I can see the idea behind it. Don’t want a Charon situation where the guy makes you wait for a century if you can’t afford his UberX fee. Uther demonstrates why in his cinematic but I could see that happening all the time. With Kyrian helping or hurting souls that remind them of loved or hated ones, and so on.
But this also shows they’ll stick to their traditions even on topics with no pro argument, and that seems to be spelling the doom for their whole world. So I suspect the Forsworn’s argument will be revisited later.
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She is not omnipotent and could just end up being wrong.
Considering Darkshire of all places managed to survive, I doubt any human town is in danger of being destroyed.
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Then why did the jailer bother with the Mawsworn? I’m confused…
Well in addition to being a whole, no pun intended, wing of his forces they also go beyond the veil to resurrect Scourge Lieutenants and snatch up still very much alive leaders like a seagull snatching up an unguarded sandwich.
Seriously I get that scene with Andy wasn’t supposed to be comedic - but honest to God I’ve seen Bowser have a harder time kidnapping Princess Peach. Just yoinked him.
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