I resumed doing the pirate’s errand in Fable 2 tonight, and of course it was a trick and I wound up sacrificing a bit of my age. It looks like this is a point of no return before the end though, so I started doing side quests again.

I popped into the Collector’s Edition dungeon, but it wasn’t too special. Just a long trip through it to get a weapon weaker than the one I already had. There was a fun little diversion to beat up an undead pirate and steal his loot. A “priest” from the Temple Of Benevolent Yokels (seriously) tricked me into stealing some stuff, I rescued an adventurer for his overbearing grandmother, took out a fortress of bandits hired to assassinate me, bought Garth’s tower and did the strange “nightmare” quest associated with it, and rescued Max and Sam from yet another escapade of theirs.

And now I’m in the middle of helping some pathetic loner resurrect Lady Gray, from the first Fable, even though she’s been dead for hundreds of years. I can’t remember if I was the one who killed her or not…

I worked some more on collecting keys and smashing gargoyles in Fable 2 tonight, and I think I’ve got most of them except for the ones in areas I haven’t reached or areas blocked-off until later.

There wasn’t much else to do, so I finally headed off to find the third hero, a pirate in the town of Bloodstone, and I had to go through the new area of Wraithmarsh to get there. I encountered Banshees there for the first time, but they weren’t too tough; their only gimmick is that you have to kill their summoned pets before you can damage the banshee herself. I reached the town, and the hero turned out to be an arrogant ass who wants me to do a suspiciously easy favour for him before he’ll help me.

Some other sidequests back in the previous regions also opened up once I reached there, including areas I’ll be able to find more keys and gargoyles in, but those will wait until after I finish dealing with this guy.

Before heading off to the spire in Fable 2 tonight, I took advantage of a little tip and did some trading in master weapons for a while. You can make a lot of money that way if you can find a good sale and another shop that buys high, and before long I had enough to buy most of the shops in Bowerstone. I now pull in over 7000 gold every 5 minutes, instead of the previous 400-ish.

After that detour it was time for the spire, which actually turned out to be mostly a series of morality tests. I resisted, causing me to lose xp but retain my good standing, and it then ended with a series of fights, hobbled by having a weaker weapon and only a few potions instead of my usual equipment.

Upon returning from the spire, 10 years had passed and a lot of things had changed: my daughter had grown up, some areas had expanded and Westcliff was completely different, and some new quests were available. I did a bunch of the side quests, including one where a cross-dresser tried to get me eaten by Hobbes, and next time I’ll pick up on the main quest again. From what I’ve heard, I’m fairly close to the end now.

Today’s time in Fable 2 was just more preparation for the attack on the Spire. I explored some areas more throughly, finding more chests, dig spots, and gargoyles, and did some grinding for cash by doing bounties and freeing slaves and such.

I also saved the Temple of Light and donated a bunch of gold to it, which got me a gold axe that was better than my previous weapon. And then I finally got married and had a kid. I picked a rather plain, straightforward woman, but it seems like she’s a secret nympho, as I’m getting alerts every couple of days that she wants me back home for sex…

And then at the last second I found a Master Katana weapon that I could afford. It only has two augment slots instead of three, but those seem to be extremely rare and there was a 50% off sale on this one, so it could be ages before I see a better deal. I just need to get a decent ranged weapon upgrade, and I think I’ll have done pretty much what I need to before taking on the Spire.

Resuming the main story in Fable 2, I headed off to rescue Garth, the second hero, which involved winning an arena fight in order to infiltrate my way into the enemy’s camp. Just like in the first game…

Along the way I encountered balverines for the first time in this one, and oddly enough they seem to be a bit easier than the bandits I’ve usually been running into, perhaps because they don’t usually attack in big groups. I also finally realized that I could shoot the mouthy gargoyle heads I’ve noticed in various spots. There’s apparently 50 of them scattered around the world, though I’m not sure what the reward for smashing all of them is yet.

I made it to the Crucible and accidentally triggered it by being too close to the door, and it automatically saved at that point so I couldn’t just reload, so I was pretty much forced through it unprepared. Fortunately it wasn’t too bad, though I had to use a handful of healing potions. I put Force Push to good use as an AE attack and wound up upgrading it to level 4 since it was so useful.

Next up I’ll be off to the Spire to rescue Garth, but Theresa and Hammer are strongly hinting that this will be a point of no return for a while, so I’d better do all the other sidequests I can first. I need more money anyway, since I need a good 40k+ gold for the master weapons, and I have nowhere near that. I bought some really nice augments, but I need a good master-level weapon to put them in as well. My dog is also up to level 5 treasure hunting, so I should revisit all the old areas anyway.

I continued my policy of ignoring the main quest in Fable 2 in order to wander around Bowerstone some more, buying a few more shops, and getting some books that taught me more expressions and the dog how to find treasure and fight better. I also bought a set of better weapons, so I’m not using the Halo energy sword anymore. Armour doesn’t really do anything though, so I can still stick with the Master Chief suit a while yet.

Then it was off to Oakfield, where I saw the first real combat along the way, and it’s pretty easy so far. A lot of button mashing, making sure to switch between targets so they don’t block or gang up on me too much. Once I got there I helped out with a few quests until I could escort the first hero, a rather stout young woman named Hammer, and recruited her afterward.

A bunch of new areas had been discovered, so I wandered around and did side quests in them for a while, and now I’m out to rescue the second hero, who has been captured by Lucien and is being kept in some floating spire thing.

Well, just after complaining about it I suddenly got my Limited Edition code email for Fable 2, so I guess I can squeeze it in after all. I really do want to get to Fallout 3, but this should be a relatively quick one as well.

So far it’s a lot like the original Fable, just with a dog that helps you find treasure. They’ve also gone for a much gritter, realistic feel to the world, whereas the original was very cartoony. You start out losing your sister, growing up, discovering your destiny, etc… Some woman named Teresa is acting as my mentor, and now I have to find these three other Heroes in order to stop this Lucien guy from resurrecting an ancient power. The usual.

So far I’m mostly just exploring, as there’s a fair bit of treasure to find in the nooks and crannies of the maps. I’m in a town called Bowerstone, and some bard is following me around and trying to find inspiration. Two new features in this one are the ability to own your own businesses that generate money for you, and to work at a job like blacksmithing to make money that way as well, by playing a little minigame.

I took advantage of the blacksmithing job to get up to a four-star rating in it and used the money earned there to buy up a handful of stalls around the town market. They give me 81 gold every five minutes, even when the game isn’t playing, so when I start it up again tomorrow I should have earned a fair bit…

And with the bonus equipment from the LE code, I’m now dressed up in the Halo-ish armour, carrying the energy sword weapon, and have the title of Master Chief.