<Tales of Lore> is a damn dense game.

Now, I know old Gav promised you kids more information, and a speedy level-up build. But these is so much to research here I’m having to take my time.

First off- the senses mechanics in this are virtually overwhelming. I love and hate them. My little spider-wyrm occultist, Gabriella spawned in a dark fortune teller’s tent, mid-prophecy. Swirling lights, rumbling echo noises, even made me think of the smells and texture. That’s our first scene and the world doesn’t get less intense from there.
If you’re a casual gamer, or sensitive, tone down your headset’s settings a few notches.

I made Gabriella a drider body-type, so balance felt weird too, and incredibly the game wrangled me into a tutorial with it. Tent-cord broke when I was bustling out the market place, and angry merchant gave me the load-down on using web to repair and upgrade his tent. Didn’t stop being angry though.

See, there’s a Reputation Score in ToL, based on Species, actions, karma, fame, and so on. Our freaky Drake-Drider-Spectre hybrid nets us -2 Rep, but Inquisitor boosts it back up to -1. Even so, plenty of weird looks and dramatic NPC glares, which were not helped by how short my character is. Both impressive, and unsettling.

Lastly, Occultist equipment is thematic, not incredibly useful. Fortune methods, weird implements, you can snag them all, but no Coin- your wealth is in jewellery, so you need to sell it to get proper Coin. Best hold onto it until you get a positive Reputation.

Those basics tackled, onto what we’re here for- GHOST HUNTING!

First, and nearest Occultist quest was perfect- an Abandoned Graveyard, haunted by a wailing spirit. One on one is ideal for our build at level 1, so I staked it out, wove a few Ghostsilk webs in preparation, and lurked with my starter dagger and my fangs ready. Soon enough, spooky wailing shows up, white figure wanders through, launch a couple of slashes and try to hogtie the nasty.

He busted out before I could bite. Kicked me off right in the ribs, and damn do the pain receptors work. Surprised me so much that it took me a second to register that he’d torn free of our anti-ghost webs, cursed me in a country accent, and was bleeding red.

Yeah, they scooby-doo’d my ass. Old Groundskeeper Joe was covering himself in flour or some such and creeping for… some reason. Point is, while a thug might be a balanced encounter for most classes in this game, our anti-ghost set up didn’t do nothing against him.

Inquisitor did though. Judgement is a solid ability, and seems to improve the later in combat you use it. Vengeful judgement after he kicked me, meant my next stabs dealt nearly double damage, and he surrendered quick enough.

Now, obviously, being a professional, I accepted his surrender for that EXP, then went and found and killed him later after the quest for the rest of the combat EXP. Not much, the quest was pretty well coded which I love and hate, and he had a club for round two, which I just hate. Nearly did me in if I hadn’t thought to Bite myself (ouch) and get a little Regeneration going.

That’s a pretty good first session all told. Got hints to an actual undead dungeon, so going to log out, grab a break and update this soon enough.

Where’s the log out button?

Hold on, writing this on an interior document….

>LOG OUT

Where is it?


—

---

Gabriella Adrakne
Sex: Female Height: 5’6”
Species: GhostWeaver_Drake
Background: Occultist
Class: Inquisitor_Exorcist_1

Species Perks:
<GhostSilk_Webs 1>
<Draining_Venom 1>
<Rejuvenating_Bite 1>

Class Abilities:
<Ethereal_Vision 1>
<Ghost_Touch 2>
<Judgement 1>

Passive Features:
<Keen_Taste 1> <Venom_Resistance 3> <Necrotic_Resistance 1> <Web_Weaver 1>

Strength: 12 Dexterity: 13 Constitution: 16 Intelligence: 12 Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 16
Health: 16/26 Mana: 3/25
Luck: 1/2 Reputation: -1

---

Part 2 of an indirect TF story, based on my "Tales of Lore" quirk, a Virtual Reality MMORPG that often changes it's players.

Part 1: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/52666510/
Part 3: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/52692217/