After checking over the Green Vales one last time, it was time to move on to the next zone. The Golden Forest.
The Golden Forest looks to be roughly the same size area as the Green Vales, and also has many more quests marked on the map than the Green Vales did. Eager to start shooting her arrows at new enemies in new locations and perhaps find some materials to craft new armour, my character bravely continues upon her journey.
The next Warriors Guild location is in this area and my character quickly introduces herself. I was hoping I'd be able to purchase some new Ranger armour here, but by the looks of things they only sell melee stuff until further along the quest line.
I had to make do with my own gear.
After proving I could handle my grog, they wanted me to take care of yet another Bandit Camp to prove my worth in battle, and so, I did.
It was easier than anything else I've done so far, simply because it turns out the Reputation System in this game is a little bit messed up. Back in the Vales, I was killing a lot of goblins... and each time I killed those goblins, I'd get positive reputation for both Bandits and Warriors.
And so, by the time I came here, even though I wasn't a member of the Bandit faction and was a sworn enemy of them... they considered me a friend because I had gained enough reputation with them via the killing of goblins.
So... I kind of just waltzed into their lair and killed them all. They were marked as friendly so my two companions didn't help, but I was able to take care of them. And because they were marked as friendly, they didn't fight back! 🤣
Easiest quest ever.
With the Bandit Camp taken care of and the recommendation of the Warrior's Guild leader from this region, I proceeded to complete the map. First stop: the zone's village!
Unfortunately it looks as though different zones have different crafting tables and things. So I can't just walk into any village and expect to craft what I want. I can do my leatherworking and arrow-crafting, but I can't do cooking. Which is silly. You'd think every town/village/city would have a cooking area!
When I get into the town there's some sort of hubbub going on. Turns out there's some shifty looking mage who wants to "protect" the town from "orcs" by placing a suspicious "protection crystal" in the centre of the village.
He's not actually nefarious, I don't think, but most of the towns-people seem to be against magic and together... we kill the mage. 🤷♀
With the mage taken care of, I soon discover that there is someone truly nefarious in this village. Cows are being killed, their hearts taken for strange dark rituals, and the culprit is the town vendor.
He wants to turn into a vampire and live an immortal life.
I could simply kill him for his crimes and vampiric desires. But he's a vendor! No, no, these people are important. Even when I went on murdering sprees in Ye Olde Morrowind, I never killed the vendors. So I made him replace the cows and promise to stop. He agreed. Problem solved!
With all matters in the village sorted, it was time to explore the region and investigate all the available quests littered around the forest!
I killed orcs and recovered magical tablets for some wizard, I slayed countless wolves and boars, I murdered a majestic blue deer and was rewarded with a brand new bow with which to slaughter my enemies, and finally... I stumbled into a cave filled with orcs.
Strange deeds were happening in this cave. It looked as though they were magicking up some SUPER ORC!
With my trusty companions by my character's side, they dared to unlock the binds that held this creature bound and soon brought it to its knees. The forest would be safe.
Before I knew it, in far less time than I thought it would take, I completed everything else around the area, created my next tier of gear, and then proceeded towards the main quest. There was only one cave that I could find to explore, one world boss, two events, and apart from the quests that was it. Still quite a few things! But I was expecting to be spending the same amount of time here as I did in the first zone.
Whilst I'm up to this main quest bit, I would also like to note here that the voice acting in this game is god-awful, and the NPC who is escorting me around on these early main missions has the worst voice I've ever heard. I mean, in Enderal there is a companion chick with a really horrible grating voice who over-acts her parts and I hated her voice so badly... this one is much, much worse.
I'm still enjoying the game. But. Turn off the volume when you're in cutscenes. 😬 Eurgh. EURGH.
In the next cutscene I rejoiced! For someone shot the Wench With the Annoying Voice and I thought I would never have to listen to her again.
But alas, she was still alive and was soon healed with various potions. While she was resting, the other member of the Main Story gave me a magic spell to recite and a vague location to head towards.
Turns out I'm still in the Golden Forest and I'm not moving on to the next zone yet! Woo!
Hurrying over to the location -- where Forest and trees meets Desert and sands -- my character places some runes, recites a magic spell, and a burning temple appears before her very eyes.
Apparently it's not meant to be on fire. Apparently someone else must've come here before me. Oh no!
My character and her trusty companions activate the runic symbols on the door and race inside.
There are many stone golems inside (which look almost identical to the one I thought in Craftopia actually 🤣) but there is no treasure and nothing of real interest.
Until we get to the back room...
There is a mass of statues playing out various scenes, and a skeleton wearing a necklace. Being the adventuring thief I am, I take the necklace and go back to the man who sent me here in the first place.
I race back as fast as my horse will allow me.
We see a few cutscenes that I don't particularly want to get into because I'm spoiling enough of the game as is. 😅 Let's just say that it pertains to the vision my character had at the very start of the game and apparently it's going to lead us towards the castle!
The castle is located within the Endless Fields! And that zone looks ginormous. It's the largest zone on the map and I'm hoping its size indicates that I'll be spending a lengthy amount of time there.
Lengthier than that spent in the Golden Forest at least... (it was around 4 hours, okay, it was decent, shush.) 😆
According to the little snippets that show up when in loading screens and things, the Endless Fields is also where I'll be able to build my home. Eeeee! Exciting!
I'm going to have the grandest home in all the land! 😁
Until next time! ✨🏰
All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, 