Incidentally, I found next release even before reading TMO - during rudimentary catalogs update - so, here is UNAVOIDABLE (*wink, wink*) quote from story of Lone Bughammer, a last Kai Lord in his journey through Sommer' lands, pursuit quest of smashing last Bugs, that once promised to Rise and conquer or lands.

Book of Mangakai, Chapter 6:
In which Lone Bughammer learns true nature of bugs, and from which we learn how to see through their deceiving, to grow even stronger in our never-ending bug-hunting lot in this world.

Note: As evil forces of Bugs that never Die tied to corrupt memory of our legendary Hero, by mocking him inserting blasphemic, false record into script of his adventures, a Kai Ministry of Truth took effort to edit out any dubious entries. Until we manage to print patiently re-write whole book, students are asked to ignore marked sentences and focus on only one Truth record of Bughammer tale.

1. Starting page: If you unequip Sommerswerd, you can't equip it again - message "you can't equip this weapon now" (quote from memory, may differ, but sense is same) appear. As I wanted to hunt for bugs a little longer, I refrained from testing it later in the game, due to fear of being weaponless.

This chapter starts with our Kai master awoken in comfy chambers of his monastery, by strange sounds coming from Sommerswerd holding chamber. After brief look at three young, female Kai adepts, sleeping in his red, comfy, plush bedding ascetic interior of his hermitage, he went to check on his trusty sword. Everything seemed in order - Sommer' was secured in scabbard, and no traces of intrusion were to be found. Hoever, due to urge of using Sommer's glow as torch, to navigate between ale bootles lying all around bedroom his Kai sixth sense, he intuitively tried to unsheathe blade. Grisp of terror frozen him in place, as, after few unsuccessful attempts, he realized that blade has been glued to scabbard, for good. After short search, he found an empty tube of Super Glue empty flask of foul substance, smelling of cyanoacryline decay and rot. The evil Bugs of Helgedad have found him, and thus his three years of pure joy of "teaching" adeptesses of "Kai Disciplines" learning secrets of Mangakai in solitude of rebuild monastery come to and end. He needed to start a perilous journey of Lorestone of Varetta, which seemed to still contain ancient power of "Load from last saved position" intact, allowing him to regain control over his legendary weapon which got quite a reputation amongst female graduates from Kai Monastery.. Thus, our story begins.

2. Starting equipment: Choosing more weapons or backpack items than you can carry, no longer result in failure and "you cannot carry more than 2/8 weapons/backpack items", that forced you to drop something and re-try, in the past. Now, you can take whatever you want, but upon starting actual game, over-load equipment simply vanish Items from backpack that disappear seems to be random - for example, I decided to take some items, tinderbox, and selected 4x special ration as last item - it would result in 9/8 items in backpack. I ended up having all rations, and other items, but no tinderbox (due to meals and other things occupying all of backpack).

After some mysterious incidents with preparing equipment for journey, our Hero could finally start traveling south. Few weeks have passed, 'till he arrived at THIS important inn:

3. Page 230: If we bought Ale for guards and ourselves, it is served for free. Despite cost of 8 crowns stated in text, nothing is deducted from our account.

THIS Inn was worth traveling for so long. After all, it was only such place in Lastland, where they've served beer "Free as in Freedom". If he could only find some adequate, nice-looking matronly company, it would be no worse than actually sitting in that damp, gray dent called Monastery it could result in great progress of his task.

4. Page 172: Text state that meat should cost 2 crowns, alas, 4 are deducted from our pouch. Then, at the same page, there is price for a room - 3 crowns - which turns out to be free, again, as no money is deducted.

After few weeks of constant drinking with guards, and complaining that he is doomed to have some old faggot - bearing suspicious-looking Oak rod - as company resting for a night and saving Noble, old magician from death - not necessary in this order - Bughammer decided to take part in Archery contest. Nice way to check if +3 weaponmastery bonus apply correctly to bows give his Kai techniques some practical use.

5. Page 26: No matter if we win, loose, or there is a draw, all three options are available (so, we can "decide" outcome by choosing whatever we feel fancy, result of "fight" is ignored).

Side note - after winning Silver Oak bow, selection pop-up windows appear without any warnings. I deduced, that I'm supposed to get rid of one of my weapons to make room for Silver Bow. Still, due to lack of any description what were choosing and why - button only state "select" next to our weapons - it wasn't clear, if I'm selecting what I want to keep or get rid of. I suspected the latter, and rightly so, but I suggest labeling this.

It turned out, that innkeeper from THIS Inn was not only man in those lands, whose mind got twisted by dark influence of Bugs. Group of friendly peasant encouraged our hero to take part of shooting skill contest, being a jury at the same time. As obvious lucky outcome, our hero left heavier by the weight of fine Silver Oak Bow

Page 212: After we choose to *not* give away or new bow, we can turn to the next page (last option) without paying him anything.

BTW, not bug in strict sense, but the option to give him 2 special items is *ridiculous*. Considering, that we never got rid of now-useless special things like "Ticket to Port Brax" or "Red pass" or "brass whistle", or... Especially, comparing it to price of 20 crowns as 2nd options, or giving him Silver Bow. I know it's original game mechanic, but trading horse for used ticket and single-use red pass from some distant town is... Immersion breaking, to say at least. BTW, it was exactly the same for bribing Palace guards in Book 5.

After trading his old ticket and out-of-date documents - from some cities thousands of miles to the north - for a healthy, ranger's horse, our hero started to have doubts about his mission. So far, all symptoms of Bugs influence turned out to be very pleasant. On the other hand, "proper" destiny of Lastlands was treating him hard - like, forcing him to change cherish company of muses from Monastery, always willing to hard "work" overnight solitude of Monastery, for Old, troublesome companion, that needed to be rescued time after time with increasing risk, that the old faggot may want to finally express his gratitude in more "direct" way, and that his Suspicious Oak Rod may get involved. Little he knew, that Bugs sensed his weakening will, and prepared to strike will full force.

Page 270: Here comes a really serious thing - during fight with undead spawn, whole fighting systems collapses. While we should suffer mere -2 to Combat for first 2 rounds and -2 endurance every round, in reality, our base Combat skill get reduced to 0 - that is, our resulting CS is only our weapons + special items - penalties. BTW, it was nice nice idea to add "Combat Skill" button to Action Chart, that show details - it really helped in confirming WTF is going on. Indeed, it shows base skill of 0.

Also, Sommerswerd doesn't seem to deal double damage, despite that we're fighting with undead ("undead spawn"). I suggest caution while investigating this one - I did a little research for possible rule changes, but I was only able to find vague mentions of Sommerswerd being nerfed in books 6+ (rightly so, as it was ridiculously over-powered). I wasn't able to find any info, if 2x damage to undeads could get removed (which would be a little strange, considering nature of the sword), but I admit that I don't know reliable source for such informations.

Alas, we wouldn't like to incidentally make game too easy, so it's worth double-checking before fixing.

Last but not least, bonus from (old kai disciplines) Mindblast doesn't seem to work. If we choose Psi-surge, we should be able to decide on using Mindblast instead of Surge for particular fights, but Mindblast should also work stand-alone, yep?

No trace of it, either in Combat Skill breakdown screen, or in actual fights. (weaponskill and friends seems to work fine).
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Obviously, this one turned to be a game-breaking problem - even having quite over-powered hero, I wasn't able to win that fight with 0 base combat skill. It ended funny, with both my hero and Undead spawn dying in same, last round.

While fighting Yet Another Undeads Spawning *****, Lone Bughammer felt a cold, invisible hand of Bug on his throat. It lasted only for a second, but nothing was the same afterwards - terror paralyzed him, as he felt that he doesn't know which end of spear should he aim at enemy. After few minutes of fight, that was such ridiculously resembling masochistic ballet epic, that no words can describe it properly, he decided to toss a crown to decide. Considering, that both sides of Crown contain crown - there is no other value for Crowns than one Crown - result was quite predictable. Kai Master thrust blunt side oh his spear into undead enemy with such force, that zombie's head chopped and flown like a damn Rugby ball. Sadly, sharp, metallic tip turned out to be a poor handle, after all, and now, it was sticking from Bughammer back.

"Game Over" screen: Loading from last saved position doesn't work. It load text from before fight properly, but instead of "Fight" button, we still get a "your mission ends here" (or smth like that), which bring "you're dead" menu again.

Kai Master slowly crawled into courtyard of his monastery. He was dead for at least 10 minutes - he doesn't like it. Everytime he dies, he is cold and blue for at least few hours afterwards. Slowly climbing stairs leading to his bedroom, he hopes that his lovely assistants Saint Nurses of the monastery will put all knowledge they have learned from him during all those nights into good use, bringing life back to his numb body. Or, that they at least get dirty their hands dirty and start trying.
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/Estel