The Age of Decadence: Journey Through the Ruins of Zamedi

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!

You’d have to be really, really good at killing things to pick the assisted suicide option (#2), so let’s go with 1.

Great treasure? Oh boy! Where do I sign up? Wait a second, my favourite skill just kicked in, suggesting that the demon thing may not be of the honest variety of otherwordly creatures. I find that hard to believe, of course, and I’m sure that the demon will be able to clear my concerns…

I’m speechless. If I didn’t have any Streetwise skills, I wouldn’t suspect a thing, thinking only of doing whatever’s required of me and running back to claim my treasure.

Well, now that I have every reason to suspect that this lying piece of stone crap is not a true gentleman, I should be careful and not hand him the ring blindly. Not until I know what it does, why the demon wants it, and why he can’t get it himself. For all I know it may not even be a ring but some kind of dual flux rotary actuator, if you believe in such nonsense, of course

In case you actually wanted to know the answer to “what the hell are you?”.

The demon statue thingy. It wasn’t glowing before.

The fabled lower level! Ok, there are no rats and spiders here. I lied because I wanted you to like me. There are quite a few items of interest here. Rings, many documents (require different skills and abilities to understand them: Intelligence, Lore, Crafting, etc), and even spare parts. You never know. You may even find a damaged tower, buried under sands, and knowing how to activate it may come in handy.

Anyway, thanks for your interest and support. We’ll be more than happy to see you on our forums.