As the name suggests, Tainted Madmen are unfortunate souls driven insane by the arcane disease called the Taint. Even if it does not directly erode their minds, the more extremely mutated of these forsaken are cast out by family and society, which is often enough to start them down a path of madness and desperation.

As enemies in the game, Tainted Madmen are often encountered all around the central regions of the Empire. Living in city gutters, sewers, or caves in the wilderness, they often emerge to waylay passersby.

Hey Vagrus Fans,

while our Fig crowdfunding campaign is in full effect, we've been busy working on one of the gameplay updates: the new deployment features for Companion Combat.

Above you can see the old and the new Deployment UI and probably can easily spot the differences.

What a Great Start!

Just in a few days from launching the public phase of our campaign we have passed two additional milestones: Scouting and Trade Systems.

Thank you so much to all our Backers and supporters on social media! This would not have been possible without you!

So, let's take count of where we are and what comes next.

Next up in our series of posts about character poses and skills is the mighty warrior and gladiator Gor'Goro.

Gor'Goro is not only a heavy-hitting melee character but very tanky as well; someone that any vagrus would gladly employ as muscle for the crew. Although he has no ranged skill, he is far from useless when he gets in the back line, however.

We decided to revitalize an older series of posts that detailed companion skills and displayed some poses for these characters. This time we will take a look at the Dark Elf scout Renkailon in all his grim glory.

First and foremost, Ren was designed as a ranged-melee hybrid character with some really useful support capabilities. His damaging attacks are all Armor Piercing, which helps against armored foes quite a bit. Though Ren is not very sturdy, his high Evade stat allows him to avoid damage effectively.

Foul-mouthed, easy-going, hearty, and chatty, the creature now known as 'Vorax' (meaning 'ravenous' in Imperial) is an undead abomination who can become one of your companions. He woke up one day in this bloated unliving form with no memory whatsoever of who he was or what he had done to deserve this fate. Yet his will is free, unbound to dark magicians (a rarity for undead), so he decided not to worry about it and get about his new 'life' with great enthusiasm.

Have you met the kingpin Skornar in the Prologue? He's quite the colorful sort. Good news is: he'll make his return in the main game as a Companion you can recruit! Ten years older and much grumpier, the warrior has a serious grudge against those who ousted him from Avernum's criminal underworld. Yet his story arc will involve much more than that, with the central theme of coping with growing old - not an easy plight for a warrior and leader such as Skornar.

In the last part of the Combat Guide we took a look at defenses and their importance. This time, we'll delve into effects that involve movement or its restriction in one way or another. 

In the last part of the Combat Guide we took a look at Companion Actions, including moving, Skills, and their combinations. This time, we'll delve into defensive stats and their importance.

In the previous part of our Companion Combat Guide (Part 1: The Basics) we left off at discussing the Leader's role in combat after outlining the basic rules of an engagement. In this part, we'll cover the actions that Companions can take during their turn.