Star Wars KOTOR #4 The Plot is Near.

In the last episode, our heroes Carth and Avren traversed the halls of the Lower City of Taris in their search for the Jedi Knight/Padawan.

Their search is almost over as Gadon Thek, leader of the Hidden Beks, informs them that Bastila has been taken hostage by the Black Vulkars and offers to help them rescue her if they manage to win the annual swoop gang race. Or something like that.

And by "they" i mean Avren, because he's the protagonist and that means he has to do everything.

Before they can do that however, they must recover a little piece of equipment Gadon needs to cheat win the race that has been stolen by the Vulkars. In order to enter the Vulkar's Base they must find Mission Vao, so that she can open the door.

You get all that?

No?

I'll make a list then:

1-Find Mission Vao.
2-Enter Vulkar Base.
3-Find Gadon's thing.
4-Win Race.
5-Get Bastila.
6-???
7-Escape Taris.

...This is actually more simple, why didn't I start with the list?

---

As our heroes step out of the elevator, they find two people waiting.

Carth, as always, has something to say:

->"I know right? This planet keeps getting better and better."

They then proceed to tell us that it costs 5 credits to use the elevator.

When their initial strategy fails, they resort to making me feel bad so that i give them money.

->"I could give you some credits, but I've already done that in an alternate timeline and all it does is give me some good karma, so I wanna see what happens when I don't give you anything."

->"Okay then, now I feel bad."

->"Who are you?"

"My name is Shaleena... you're from the up-world, aren't you? I've... I've never seen it. I was born here in the Undercity. Is it as nice as they say up there?"

Let's be nice this time.

->"The surface is a beautiful place."

" I've never been to the surface, but sometimes I think I can see it in my dreams. The sun, the sky, the stars... it all sounds so... so... so wonderful."

That's... depressing...

->"Who's Rukil?"

"I still like to listen to his tales about the Promised Land, even though I know they're just legends. But it helps to make the Undercity seem less... less dark, somehow."

The Promised Land? What's that?

Jesus, this place is just sad and depressing.

->"I'll... be going now..."

"Oh... okay. Well, if you ever need anything, or if you just feel like talking, come back and see me. I hardly ever get a chance to speak to someone from the up-world."

Let's just... find Mission and get out of here...

Avren and Carth then proceed to look for the village leader, Gendar, in the hopes that he knows where Mission went.

All they had to do was take five steps forward and the man's tent was right in front of them. This place is really small

->"Carth that's rude!"

"Why have you come into this dark and sunless place? Is there something you need of me or my village? I will help you however I can."

They're really driving hard this depressive atmosphere.

->"Tell me about the rakghouls that live down here."

"Aren't we supposed to ask about Miss-"

->"Shhh."

"The rakghouls are monsters, hideous mutations who feast on the flesh of our villagers. Their diseased jaws can infect those they attack, transforming the victim into one of those abominations. We know of no cure for the disease, and for the good of the village we must banish any who become infected, lest they transform and turn on us."

So yes, they're basically zombies but in Star Wars.

->"I'm looking for a Twi'lek named Mission Vao."

"Yes, I have seen this Twi'lek many times, though I have never spoken to her. She and her Wookiee companion often pass through our village on their way to explore the sewers."

Goodie, a sewer level!

->"Which way to the sewers?"

"There are two entrances into the sewers from the Undercity: one to the north-east of our village, the other to the south-east. But the sewers are dangerous, UpWorlder. If you dare to travel those dark tunnels you would be wise to go heavily armed, unless you wish to become a meal for the rakghouls and other foul creatures."

->"Thanks man, I'll be going now"

"As you wish, up-worlder. Should you have need of anything else, come speak to me. I represent the entire village and I will do my best to help you however I can."

Before leaving, we'll check on this Rukil person and see if he can tell us about this promised land thing.

->"Hello there!"

->"Uh..."

->"I'm sorry, what?"

->"Carth honey, you're embarassing me in front of the natives."

"Speak to me, up-worlder! Tell me what fate you unleash upon us – salvation or damnation! Speak, up-worlder – I beg you!"

->"I have no idea of what you're talking about."

"You are uncertain. Bewildered. Perplexed. Understandable, I suppose. Even after a hundred years of life I myself still become confused at times."

" Perhaps I can make things more clear. Some things, at least. My name is Rukil, the oldest Outcast here in the village. Rukil Wrinkle-Skin, the children call me sometimes."

->"Right, Shaleena said something like that."

"Once I was honoured for my wisdom, but over time the villagers fell away from the true path. Eventually there was only a single apprentice who followed me – and now she is gone, too."

->"What happened to your apprentice?"

Naturally, i would refuse. But since Rukil is an old person, and i have a soft spot for them, i'll say yes.

->"Yes."

Alright, now that we're done with the talking let's leave the village and look for Mission.

...

I've just realized how most of the early parts of this game are just "Let's look for X" so that we can "Look for Y".

Before our heroes can continue, they're stopped by a weird guy in the center of town.

"Watch yourself. There's something slimy about this guy. I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him."

Carth, as usual, says stuff about people while they're in hearing distance.

->"Nice, an NPC that sells stuff."

Avren then buys Igear's entire stock of antidotes and proceeds towards the village's exit.

But then...

->"Do we need a cutscene every five minutes?"

->"Seriously people, I can't even go to the bathroom without getting a cutscene about some important plot character or some guy that wants me to make a shady deal"

->"Every single time..."

->"Yeah, we all know where this is going."

_{Pictured here, a Rakghoul in its natural habitat.}

->"Open the gate... We will kill the Rakghouls."

"We will?" Says Carth.

"You would risk your life for a stranger? Heh. You are brave, up-worlder. I will open the gate for you, but you've got to be quick. In a few seconds I must close and lock it again."

"Wait, hold on. You didn't even ask my opinion on this."

->"I'm the main character Carth, that means when I say I'll do something, everyone in the party does."

It's at this part that I quickly regret building Avren like I did, as he proceeds to die 15 times in a row and fail 2 times to save Hendar.

However, thanks to the usage of some drugs buffing items Carth and Avren No.15 are able to defeat the Rakghoul.

"I can't thank you enough for saving me, up-worlder. If I had anything but these rags on my back it would be yours. But we have nothing."

Finally, our heroes are able to leave the village and start the search for Mission.

IMMEDIATELY as I say that, this happens:

->"Oh god not another cutscen- wait no, this one is good."

->"Shush Carth, I'm listening to the plot here."

->"Do you know where they took him?"

Ah yes, the sewers.

->"If I help you get Zaalbar back you have to get me inside the Vulkar base."

"It's a deal – as soon as we get Big Z back, I'll show you a way into that Vulkar base! Now, come on – We have to find Zaalbar before they sell him to slavers – or worse!"

And then she joins our party, hooray!

Now we finally have a full team of three people! That means we can kill stuff better.

The team decides to explore a little bit before rescuing Zaalbar, mainly to get some more experience and actually look for Rukil's apprentice.

They find some mines, and Avren disables them.

Cool people shoot them instead of walking towards them and disabling them manually. But Avren doesn't know how to use a blaster and Carth can't be bothered.

Following the mines our heroes reach what appears to be one of the escape pods from the Spire and a survivor next to it.

->"Uh... are you okay man? Do you need a doctor?"

He then proceeds to mutate into a Rakghoul right in front of the party.

_{Isn't he just beautiful?}

Despite the fact that the party has a new member, we're still destroyed by a single Rakghoul.

Eventually, I remember how to actually play the game and actually succeed. But then we're ambushed by three or four rakghouls and the game crashes.

Just like Warhammer did.

And just like with Warhammer, I didn't save. Yay.

---

I have no idea what is it with my games and crashing lately, it always seems to happen when i have like half an hour or more time without saving. It's making me paranoid, really.

As for Avren and friends, Mission joining doesn't really change things much, at least not right now; aside from having another party member to shoot things while Avren gets hit in the face, but in this part of the game everyone goes for melee combat and that means that the enemy swarms around the party, which means that it's really likely that Mission will get hit in the face with stuff, which means that she'll die a lot because her defense sucks.

She does come with a melee weapon too, but since everyone swarms around the party she'll be hit by two or more guys while blocking the attacks of another. Our best bet right now is to just send Avren right into the heat of things so that he dies first gets all the aggro so that Carth and Mission can do their thing, but only time will tell if this strategy succeeds or fails miserably against the hordes of Rakghouls...

Anywya, let's check back on that list I showed at the beginning.

1-Find Mission Vao.
1.5-Rescue Zaalbar.
2-Enter Vulkar Base.
3-Find Gadon's thing.
4-Win Race.
5-Get Bastila.
6-???
7-Escape Taris.

The list makes this look simple, but i have a feeling every single one of those objectives will just make itself more complicated. Like what we're doing right now with Mission and Zaalbar...

This is going to be a long prologue, isn't it?

As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this and that all of you have a great day. See you next time.