SWTOR: Journey of a Sith Episode 3
By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist
In the last article of my blog I told you I had found a group to play warzones with which I did frequently between the quests. In the end I ended up doing too many warzones which got me to a higher level than the area I was leveling in before the warzones. Nonetheless I made it up to level fifteen and it was time to finally test out my own spacecraft as I ventured out to explore new worlds…
There were a few planets my master insisted I investigate but in the end I decided to set my destination to Balmorra, a world torn asunder by war for many years. After my arrival I went to visit the locals to vendor some stuff and pick up some quests. After I had made the rounds introducing myself to the locals, I set off with a few quests to do some minor unimportant things. Unfortunately the Galactic Republic sent soldiers to aid the Balmorrans in their fight to preserve their independence, and I to face a much larger resistance force than I was prepared for. But the Sith wouldn’t be Sith if they couldn’t wreak some havoc so that’s what I decided to do.
I chose to stick with my plan of pure evil actions despite my constant conversion into a Pink Sithlord. During my time on Balmorra I had some evil and weird quests that were really scary. I had to find troops that went missing and after searching for a while I found them in some factory in a really odd state. It turned out to be the perfect horror story and an evil professor decided to use the troops’ brains as controllers of a new set of experimental robots. Unfortunately the test wasn’t such a success and one of the robots talked to me and told me his story and the situation he was functioning in. It was a really sad story where he told me that he had done horrible acts against his will. He told me I could peacefully put them out of their misery by deactivating their power source. Or I could leave them be and use them as robots for the Sith Empire, which was a really a hard choice to make. I wanted to stay evil and get as many dark points as I could but… I refused to allow the nutty professor to get away with this atrocity any longer, and so I decided to deactivate them and let them peacefully die instead of functioning as robots for years. I just couldn’t bear the thought of sending them somewhere else to continually living out their cruel existence.
I also had to do a lot of group story quests in in Balmorra, which further brought me out of the single player bubble I had been living in. BioWare really forces the player to group up with others if you want to seek out the best loot for yourself. After doing all the group quests in Balmorra and all the other side quests I came across it was almost time to do the final part of my main quest storyline. But I first had to help a Sith Jedi that was the son of a local in the first town I visited. The weakling was captured and jailed while on a mission and his father bartered with me that he would provide an antidote needed to enter a poisonous cave in exchange for saving his son. Since my entire objective in visiting Balmorra was to enter said cave, I agreed to the rescue mission.
After I found this weakling I questioned him about what he was doing on Balmorra and quickly realized he was after the same artifact as me. I couldn’t have anyone messing with my plans, nor could I stand his cocky attitude. His miserable life was put to an end with almost no considerable effort on my part. Unfortunately when I returned to his father to report what I found out he was quite pissed and attacked me. Oddly enough I had more problems dealing with his dad who had absolutely no Sith training at all. After he cleaned the floor with my face a few times, I finally managed to effectively use my partner to take him down. The cave itself had a creepy atmosphere to it but the monsters within weren’t compared to the fallen father. I easily acquired my precious item and rushed back to my ship to leave the dreadful planet of Balmoora as soon as I could.
When I was walking to my spaceship a commander came to me and asked me to seek out a Sith Lord who was planning a final assault on Balmorra. I decided to help in any way I could and hunted down this great Sith Lord. Needless to say she was more than happy to see me and after flirting with her for a while I got my first quest to destroy some turrets that were preventing troops from landing. After killing a Jedi Lord and his padawan, I headed back to the Sith Lord to receive an unexpected reward. Seemingly my flirtatious ways had gotten to her and we ended up sharing a bed for one unforgettable night! After doing a couple more quests involving oversized pest control and putting on a laser light show (of doom!), it was time to leave Balmorra and continue my journey to the iconic desert world of Tatooine!
