To Radiant:
First of all I wanna tell ya I REALLY enjoyed "
A Tale of Two Kingdoms"
. I'm a big old school Sierra fan, (my all time favorite is the QfG series), and this game is better than even some of the original Sierra's titles.
That said, I found myself feeling very strongly about the whole
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×Blossom/Ruadh sidequest. It feels very incomplete to me. So what kind of fairytale ending is, "
now there are two homeless street kids instead of one"
? I think that Ruadh deserves to be in the land to which he belongs and to find his purpose there just as much as "
Blossom"
does. Doesn't sound as "
happily ever after"
to me as what COULD be.
I don't know if it's too late to add things, but I feel compelled enough to write an addition to your sidequest, if not just for fun anyway
.
Hope the following doesn't come across too disjointed, it's straight from my "
writing head"
... brainstorming if you will..
Ok..
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×The Druid and Winemaker should be a couple. They had two sons, the Monk (who's around 27 yrs old now) and a son who "ran away" when he was 12
Their story is:
One morning they noticed their youngest son "wasn't quite himself".
He didn't like anything, they couldn't make him happy no matter what they did, and he was angry.
When he looked at them, his eyes would flash, they perceived to be, with anger.
When he left home that day he never came back.
...That was 10 years ago.
Winemaker should say that sometimes on her way to the monistary to see her oldest son, she thinks she sees the youngest out of the corner of her eye in the direction of the beach, at the age he'd be now, (22) but when she looks full on, nobody is there.
(Should be that they've never met Ruadh, save once as a child, - and know not of him. He's a thief, and adept at
keeping in the shadows.)
Play out/Resolution:
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×Use the rune on Ruadh to find out it burns him, because he is faer folk. (as usual)
Hero uses the self-bored stone and flute at the mushroom ring, meets Blossom & the Sidhe Queen and hears her story..
The Sidhe Queen's story:
She saw a sweet little blond haired boy playing outside among the flowers one day and fell in love with him. Knowing a human wouldn't age in Thierna Na Oge, and she could keep him a little boy forever, she created his changeling double and switched them as he slept in his bed one night. She calls him "
Blossom"
(not his real name). She becomes sorry when the hero confronts her and is willing to let the little boy leave, and will accept Ruadh (now 22 yrs old) back into Thierna Na Oge as her real son. She has to accept the fact that she missed most of his childhood for doing what she did.
P.S.
Why can Blossom invoke the fae queen's name and just leave like that? He has sat there for untold years, miserable, yet could leave whenever he wanted? That makes no sense. Why not this?: He can't pass through the door unless his double opens it for him, since Ruadh was created for him in the first place and they are the same? Same reason the hero can pass thru the door "
he finds himself"
.
Hero then goes to Ruadh's ship, gives the self-bored stone to Ruadh, and tells him about his true home, the boy "
Blossom"
's true name, and how to find the door to Thierna Na Oge.
Cutscene to hero and Ruadh going together to the mushroom ring, Ruadh opening the door, Blossom coming thru the door, the boys meeting for the first time should be a magic moment. Then they talk awhile, Ruadh telling the boy his real name. Ruadh goes thru the door thanking & **giving back self bored stone to hero**, saying goodbye to the boy, and this land for the last time.
Then hero takes "
blossom"
(now known by his real name, whatever that is) home to his parents. Hero makes sure they understand the story of what happened to their son and that the angry young man who ran away wasn't him.
In reality he was the changling by then, understandably unhappy for being so out of place, and Sidhe eyes just flash naturally.
They are just glad to get their son back, but surprised he hasn't aged and are happy they didn't miss out on his childhood.
**(Since the self-bored stone "
must be given, never sold"
it is fitting that you should give it to someone during the course of the game as well. Since you need it back for the princess door, he hands it back to the hero, thanking him for the loan of it, right before crossing into Thierna Na Oge.)
Alternatively, (and possibly better):
What if that particular self-bored stone's purpose all along was to open the door for Ruadh, (..the changling, ..and that's why the Druid had it in the first place.. tho he didn't know why...) and it crumbles after its destiny is fulfilled? (Find some other way to get that princess' door to show up or don't even include 'invisible door'. No offense, that's a dumb puzzle anyway. We were there before, it was the hero's room, fercrynowt! We knew the door was there!
Also, invisible door is sorcerer magic, not faer folk magic!)**
Misc:
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×*Could say the druid is naturally blonde, who's hair has gone white; So the winemaker could have a blonde son, if that were questioned.
*Answers the question of who the monks father is, since we know who is mother is. Had that inkling anyway, or that at least the druid was the boy's main role model.
*As knowledgable about faer folk as the druid is, he fails to see the impact they had on his own life with his own son. just that would be an interesting lesson... Fairytales need a moral
*the karma the druid gets by parting with his self-bored stone comes back to him in an amazing way with this.
Anyway, that's how I would have liked to see the side quest play out. The game was very enjoyable as it was though, and I'm looking forward to playing some of the other titles!
~Melissa~
CeilidhaChaos