Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen – 2nd Playthrough Babbles Part 4

I’m almost done with the game! I swear! XD (With Ys: Memories of Celceta in queue to be played, I don’t think I’m going to stick around The Everfall or Bitterblack Isle for very long after the main game is done.) As usual, there are spoilers!

• Griffins sure like to avoid me or something. Haven’t spotted any others other than the one near the fields at Gran Soren. >_> I just need one more to complete a damn quest.
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• Duur. Accidentally picked up Nameless Terror after returning from Windbluff Tower. I should have remembered that the guard outside the castle gave it. Oh well. I don’t think I’m going to go out of my way to finish the quest this time.
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• It turns out the Malignance wasn’t that cool after all. Swapping in the Cyclops Sigil made a huge difference in terms of dishing out major damage. Pair it with Arc of Might/Deliverance and wow. I think I took out an ogre in 2 hits. ^^ Indomitable Lash does lots of damage too!
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• I wish I could time Arc of Vengeance properly. Kind of hate how enemies can still knock you back when you’re charging. :V I mean, unlike Arc of Might/Deliverance, you can’t move around. 😦
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• Got closure for Trials and Tribulations. Fournival was found guilty. Mwahaha. I wanted to go laugh at him in prison but he wasn’t there. 😦
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• Gave the Gold Idol to Caxton and he got a glowing pink aura afterward. 😦 Started brandishing the weapon constantly in front of him to reduce the affinity. 😛
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• Picked up an escort quest for Madeleine for the heck of things. Her destination was Bloodwater Beach. I thought it was that beach southeast of Gran Soren but nope! It was in the far west by Conqueror’s Sanctuary. My closest Portcrystal was at Witchwood so I went there and then proceeded to run like hell. Of course I ran straight into a group of bandits. XD Then goblins or something. Basically, I just kept beelining into enemies by accident. ^^ In the end, Madeleine survived her journey so all was well.
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• Since I was around the area, I decided to beat up the golem and the cyclopses. I really wish that I could remember to always go for the discs on the foot and hand first for a golem. =___=
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• Swung by The Shadowfort at some point to pick up Badge of Vows 25 and 26. 26 was easy to spot but 25 was impossible to get with a Warrior. (Or maybe it’s possible?) I went back to Gran Soren and changed my vocation to Mystic Knight so I could levitate around. Totally couldn’t comprehend the instructions at the Wikia about going into the building on the left, doing a running jump and then levitating. It is A HELL OF A LOT EASIER just to climb up to the top of the Station Room and move along the broken walls and then levitate to the spot seen in my crappy screencap below. Anyway, the badge is right across from where the Arisen is standing.

  

• I’m still missing a damnable 3 stars for Gransys knowledge so I went around looking for places I never heard of during my first playthrough. That’s not to say that they didn’t exist until New Game+; I simply never knew they were there. So far, I found 2 — Beast Cave & Nightcall Cravesse. I’m not sure I have any more since I think I discovered all the other locations listed on the Wikia.
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  The Beast Cave was MURDER to locate. It didn’t help that I was doing it during night. ^^ But seriously, people contributing to the Wikia need to be more specific. All it read was that it was north of Prayer Falls. The screenshot of the map did squat to help. It turned out that the cave was located among the many rocks that were scattered in that area.
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• Thankfully, Nightcall Cravesse was easier to find! Simply head north along the river west of the male bandits’ hideout/headquarters. Here’s my party a few feet from its entrance:

  

• I decided to hit up the Ancient Quarry and managed to finish Of Merchants and Monsters even before speaking to Alon. ^^ Man, like the two locations mentioned above, I didn’t know the quarry had additional areas that could be accessed once the Promissory Notes were purchased from Alon! I just did that now so I guess I’ll just wander around some more and come back to check on the progress of the miners.
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• Oh wait. Before I even spoke to Alon, I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to unlock the door in the room where the bandits hung out at. It turns out I just missed the spot with the pressure plate. >_> If it were during a first playthrough, I wouldn’t have had this issue because that part of the map would have still been “shrouded”. XD
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• Bah. Ran into Raven & Hawk from the Nameless Terror quest while trekking back to the capital. Pushovers. Not worth my time!
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• Finally decided to take The Wyrmking Ring quest. Salomet is crazy hard to hit as a Warrior. Every time I was about to attack, he’d teleport away. I had to leave it up to the party members to take him out. 9__9
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• I still haven’t decided who to give the Arisen’s Bond to.