The Sword Coast

The Sword Coast

After a brief voyage you arrive on a new shore -- the Sword Coast -- and Captain Steelbeard suggests that the "shitbirds" up in the tower may have information that will help you proceed!  This bit of dialogue flags the quests Talk to the Pirates at the Tower and Help Against Crow, as well as causes Patty to rejoin your party!

As you make your way to the tower it pays to remember that you are also still able to search for and collect resources, empty chests, and all of the other actions of opportunity, and you should be doing those things.  On the beach there are cargo boxes that when you pick one up signal that it is 1 of 10 of these -- more on that in a bit.  There is a chest nearby to empty, and another chest further along.  Just because your party now includes Steelbeard and Patty does not mean you can not or should not scrounge for resources, so it would be an idea to do that along the beach prior to heading up the path to the tower, right?

In the brush on the beach you will find some Turkey to get meat from as well as a new beast called a Firebird from which you get chicken meat from as well, but that take a bit more killing than a Turkey!  On the beach you find a message in a bottle that you can open and read -- a plea for help it seems.

Near the waterfall at the far end of the beach is a cave inside of which in addition to large Cave Bats for you to kill there is scattered gold coins and gold nuggets as well as a sword and bowl near the bones of an old pirate, gold nuggets on the floor of the cave, and a seam of gold that you can mine here as well for more gold nuggets!  hey, free money!  Sweet!

Exploring the Temple near the Beach and encountering Natives!

-- The Native Temple --

At the other end of the beach you encounter a large native temple that impresses Patty -- and this is your first introduction to the other faction and their Voodoo powers -- bearing in mind that soon you are going to have to make a choice with respect to your faction.  If you head inside of this temple you will be attacked by the natives inside, who have blades, spears, and throwing weapons (they may have blow guns for all I know).

Inside if you follow the left path you arrive at an alter similar to the one that we raided for Pete's Treasure -- and if you place the Idol you got there on this one, it opens a secret door (and you get attacked by another native) and, inside the secret room, there is some loot to be had including another Idol, a plate, some Jade, some statues, that sort of thing.  On the opposite side of the temple is another alter that has an Idol on it -- if you take that you will cause the entrance to the room to close and another door to open, and inside the next room there is a Rituals book that tells a brief story and flags the quest for the Legendary Item The Bottle of Memories.  To get back out you will need to replace the Idol on the alter.

Bear in mind that the temple has a bunch of mushrooms in it that count as Provisions, and you would be wise to collect those :)

As you exit the Temple head right and up the hill and a bit left to find a Level 20 locked Chest -- you should have advanced your picking to at least that level, so go ahead and open that to score some gold and torches!

Once you are satisfied that you have collected everything that there is to be collected down here, you have cleared out the gold in the cave, and explored the temple to the extent that you are going to explore it, head towards the path to the right from where you landed when you first arrived.  When you reach the start of the path up the hill STOP.  Save your game, preferably to the first save slot (or at least  a save slot you will remember not to save to again and remember that this is your revert save) because   in just a bit you will reach the point where you have to choose your faction -- this save will be your revert point for after you finish the game and you want to come back and play out the other faction's missions, quests, and story!

Picking your first Chest Lock - Mind Like Water

-- After You Save Your Game --

Now that you have your revert save made, head up the path and you will trigger the CS in which you encounter the pirates at the tower, and the story gets added to -- these are Crow's men...  As you might expect they are not pleased to see you and, what is more, their orders are simple -- kill any strangers who happen along!  The battle begins with Steelbeard taking on the two pirates while you and Patty take on a native each.  Bear in mind that battle with spear-wielding natives is a bit different than your previous battles with swordsman and other melee type weapons -- when you hold down the parry (Left Trigger) the game will automatically cause your character to duck under swings of the spear (though really since a spear is a poking weapon and it should be safe to presume that natives would be aware of that as well as highly skilled with that weapon, you have to wonder why they are swinging it in the first place?) which will keep you from taking damage.

Attack when there are openings, and do not forget that you have a pistol mates -- a lead ball in the face is a great way to end a fight quickly!  With your native down, help Patty with hers if she needs it and then focus on the final pirate, and once they are all dead be sure to loot their fallen weapons and bodies -- the natives can have gold nuggets on them (bonus!).

Head over to the tower and have a look around to find that the Captain has decided this is a great spot for a local camp.  He finds some rum and then you run through a conversation with him to advance the story -- and this is the point we have been working towards, where we have to decide which faction to join.  It may not seem like that is the decision you are making, but it is.

After carefully weighing the options I decided to go with the Native Faction first rather than the Inquisition, and I have a logical reason for that.  First, it is going to have more quests, and a deeper story line, and second, the Inquisition side is sort of the fast-track to resolving the story, and as we are not looking for a fast track, well, the Natives just make more sense.  So I chose the Natives, and as a consequence of that, the guide will now diverge in that direction.  If you decide you would rather do the Inquisition Faction first, skip ahead to that part of the guide, otherwise if you are doing the Native Faction then just keep going from here!