The Age of Decadence: Journey Through the Ruins of Zamedi
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Iron Tower Studio's Vince D. Weller was gracious enough to give us a brief tour through a strange tower within the ruins of Zamedi - one of many locales we'll be venturing through during Age of Decadence. This article provides us with a good look at the game's ever-improving visuals and gives us a better idea of the different approaches we can take during dialogue. Onward...I promised GameBanshee some screens awhile ago, but looking at screens is not the most exciting way to kill 15 minutes, so I'll entertain you with some stories and help you understand what the hell you're looking at and why.
Welcome to the ruins of Zamedi. It used to be a large city, but that was before it was hit by three 1D4+1 magic missiles in a row during a decade-long war. So, nothing survived but this tower. It's rumored that such towers had wondrous machines that channeled power from other planes and used it in many different and creative ways, including but not limited to raising protective shields when under attacks.
The tower's machines didn't fail, but the hellfire unleashed by the enemy's magi consumed the city and the army defending it. House Aurelian claimed the tower after the war and being weary of what they couldn't understand and control, sealed it to make sure that the knowledge and the power contained within would die there.
Originally, the only way to get inside was by joining House Aurelian and serving it faithfully. However, even though the tower is not a mandatory location (it's one of the ways to find out something else), I dislike when games tell me that there is only one way of doing something, so we tweaked it, adding two more ways to acquire the "key" either by stealth (insane amount of different checks in text adventure mode - only a master thief can pull it off) or combat (that's a purely hypothetical option because no dude is THAT bad).
That's the "key". Well, at least that's one of the functions of the artifact. It's not really a key, but it interferes with certain processes, disrupting them. It does other things too, but I'll let you discover them them on your own.
Finally, you're inside. How very industrial revolution-y. Anyway, there are 5 levels here, but we'll show you only two levels: the main floor (you're looking at it) and the lower level. The lower level is infested by spiders and rats, so beware!
You take a step and run into a demon! From the underworld! Oh my!
