Planescape: Torment - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Planescape: Torment

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
solomani
Feb 28, 2004 21:01:28 Has anyone ever tried converting the CRPG Planescepe:Torment into a campaign? Or even chunks of it?

I am currently running a Planescape game loosely based on the CRPG and it would be interesting to see if anyone else had done it and how they went.
#2
xanxost_the_slaadi_dup
Feb 28, 2004 21:49:23 Xanxost has never run a game like that, but has definately incorporated many parts of it ino Xanxost games.
In the current game Xanxost is running, one of the players is seeking his lost memories that were stolen from him.

Xanxost has also used the Brothel of Slated Intellectual Lusts, the Baatezu War Machine that the Godsmen were building, Morte, the Smoldering Corpse Bar, and the Lady of Pain rag doll.

But Xanxost has never tried fully converting the game, though it would be interesting.
#3
solomani
Feb 29, 2004 0:07:40 How did it work out? I am currently upto the Ragpicker section in my conversion. So far so good.
#4
zombiegleemax
Feb 29, 2004 3:49:03 The "Flaming Dead Guy Bar and Grill" (among other names), as my players have come to call it, has become a staple location in my games, as has the brothel of Slating Intellectual Lusts.

Actually, I tell my players to consider all the locations in that CRPG cannon, because I like them a lot. I consider most of the items cannon as well, actually. The charms, chocolates, and so forth are too filled with character and theme to ignore.

The overall plotline doesn't seem readily convertible, since it centers around the Nameless One, who in my opinion, ought to be a generally one of a kind character, but the locations, items, and NPC's are all well fleshed out enough that they can easily be used in a regular game. (And, you know, many of them are from the cannon setting books)

I'm not even sure how you could start using the plot of PS:T in a regular game. It's a single-player adventure at heart. It's specifically designed to center around one, and only one character. How do you bring the other charactes in without making them feel like they're NPC's? Really, the game is about one person's atonement, or lack of it. How does that translate to a party? I'm genuinely curious.
#5
solomani
Feb 29, 2004 4:08:59 I changed the story somewhat. The party has been sent back in time to kill a powerful wizard before he becomes powerful and ruins the world (in fact, the wizard in a fit of guilt actually sent them back).

Something goes wrong and they are flung forward in time and eventually find their way to Sigil completly clueless. As the plot unfolds (by interacting with NPCs) they discover they have been there before - in fact many times over. But they keep failing their quest and "Starging over".

Eventually the players will find out they made a deal with Ravel for immoratality to kind of gurantee eventually they would finish their quest. The side affect - amnesia.

What I did is split up the clues that in the CRPG are just for the nameless one amoung the party to include all of them. Any new players of course are not immortal or amnesiacs.

I have the players being immortal but everytime they die they lose 1 INT permanently. If they get to animal INT (3 or less) the game is over for them.

So far so good. Do you guys have any notes written up for the converions?
#6
weenie
Mar 01, 2004 6:03:59
Originally posted by solomani
Do you guys have any notes written up for the converions?

I tried converting bits and pieces a while ago... I can't find the template I used for Morte, but here's the one I used for "Floyd".

Immortal (template)

Can be applied onto any living, intelligent (Int 3+) creature. Creature type becomes "outsider".

AC: natural armor improves by +1 per 5 HD (max +4)

Special Attacks: spell-like abilities (see table below, 1/day each, caster lvl = HD)

#7
factol_rhys_dup
Mar 02, 2004 15:19:47 I don't know about that template, Weenie. It actually seems like pretty much everything that the Nameless One does can either be explained through a lack of normal aging and a special kind of Regeneration that isn't overcome by any kind of energy. Finally, I would handle his return from death differently, especially since that is my favorite part. It would instead say that "any time the Nameless One dies, he returns to life as per a true resurrection spell within 1d6 hours. At the time of the Nameless One's death, one creature, at random, on any plane, will die and return to life as a semi-intelligent Shadow bent on killing its progenitor."

He never lost ability scores from dying. That took a lot longer. I'm not sure how to handle that, because the Nameless One wasn't going to be reduced to a hollow shell for a long time. Years and years. And also, I don't remember what made the Nameless One stop losing his memories. Before, he lost all his memories when he died. But then suddenly something clicked and he started to remember them between lives. Anyone know what happened?
#8
weenie
Mar 03, 2004 0:31:30
Originally posted by Factol Rhys
I don't know about that template, Weenie.

Neither do I, actually. it's just something I stiched together a while ago while under heavy influence of the CRPG.

I don't think there's an effective way to duplicate the loss of memory through game mechanics... I just tried having him lose ability scores since by the core rules, such an old character would probably have all mental stats in the 30ies or so...
#9
zombiegleemax
Mar 05, 2004 20:21:03 Within the last couple days I got done reading the novel "Planescape:Torment" based off of the CRPG. Supposedly after NO dies in an alley, he wakes up in a magical room because Dak'kon found him and took him there..and I guess by him waking up in a magically enhanced room, it changed what happens when he died and now if he dies he just wakes up with whatever memories he had since last time he left the mortuary. Oh..and in the book, Ignus and Vhailor aren't mentioned..nor is the bar where Ignus is burning..and Grace never joins the party..only ones who join up are NO, Annah, Dak'kon, and Morte.
#10
zombiegleemax
Mar 06, 2004 12:14:23 In fact, if I remember correctly, in the book (I read it a long time ago) the reason why the Nameless One suddenly keeps his memories is clearly explained:
An Amnizu, the "Decanter of he Styx" or something, is the devil the Nameless One made the deal in the first place, to fight in the blood war upon his death. Then NO went on to seek immortality, to avoid this fate. He was successful in that, but lost his memories everytime he died. Now, the Amnizu was kinda ****ed, but part of the deal was that he couldN't kill NO himself. Seeing as he'd been doublecrossed, the Amnizu, this "decanter of the Styx" made a potion that he administered to NO at the very begining of the book, in the morgue. In fact the Amnizu was either Bogs or Crepin, I don't recall.

So, the Nameless One now keeping his memories upon death, his quest to retrieve his past, and thus his mortality, had a much higher chance of success, bringing him closer to his death.
The Nameless One's true death = happy Amnizu.

Of course, this could just be my imagination deforming what is actually in the book. I should go and read again the last few chapters.
#11
factol_rhys_dup
Mar 06, 2004 13:40:50 Brun, that makes sense for the book. And I believe the amnizu in question is actually Fjhull Forked-Tongue from the game, according to the novel. He looked like a cornugon in the game, but I think even there he was supposed to be an amnizu. But that's right. But I think in the book, the Nameless One made a deal with the fiend that his soul would belong to him after his death if the baatezu would end an attack on the Nameless One's home town.

But in the game--whose explanation I like more--the Nameless One was originally a depraved, thoroughly corrupt, and deeply evil man. He became immortal in order to save himself from an eternity in the Lower Planes. In the game, Fjhull was connected to the story because he was the fiend who was under an oath by Trias, and so he had to help you, but I don't think he knew you from before.

Could anyone either correct me and affirm that Brun is right, or tell me how--in the game--the Nameless One begins to remember his memories between lives.

:edit: I just remembered something. I think that, at the beginning of Torment, the Nameless One is waking up after his most recent jaunt into the Fortress of Regrets. Could this have something to do with it? Could that proximity with his mortality have sparked some kind of change in his magical immortality?
#12
zombiegleemax
Mar 06, 2004 14:04:56 That's what I assumed.
#13
solomani
Mar 06, 2004 18:01:16 OK I am confused. I thought he made the deal with Ravel and she gave him immortiality, but it was imperfect, thus the memory loss between deaths. I figured that in the game he did in fact lose his memories but this time he was keeping a detailed journal (the quest log) and so this is how he "retained" his memories.

I have only played the game, never read the book.
#14
zombiegleemax
Mar 06, 2004 18:43:37 Hrm. That poses an interesting conundrum, though. If the Nameless One was a deeply evil man who did something really horrible during his "first life," and he then made the deal with Ravel, died, and lost his memories, then how can that first incarnation be "the Good Incarnation?" Seems like it never would have had the chance to repent, which it obviously does in the game.

By the way... "Floyd?" The hell?

-LZ
#15
zombiegleemax
Mar 07, 2004 9:20:14
Originally posted by Merganser86
Hrm. That poses an interesting conundrum, though. If the Nameless One was a deeply evil man who did something really horrible during his "first life," and he then made the deal with Ravel, died, and lost his memories, then how can that first incarnation be "the Good Incarnation?" Seems like it never would have had the chance to repent, which it obviously does in the game.

By the way... "Floyd?" The hell?

-LZ

"Regret can change the nature of a man."

Somehow the "good incarnation" realized the evil he had done, and out of fear or whatever he wanted to redeem himself, he didn't *want* to go to the Blood war.. but there wasn't enough *time*, so he struck a deal with Ravel: Immortality, and thus time to repent...

But, Ravel killed him and he lost his memories, and thus the entire repentance scheme fell apart, since no later incarnation remembered what the heck they were supposed to do.
#16
factol_rhys_dup
Mar 07, 2004 18:37:30 But how did he start to remember his previous deaths before? I know how he got to be immortal, but he always used to lose his memories when he died, and thus every time he was a different incarnation and acted differently. But you pick up the game seemingly right when he begins to remember, and I'm not sure what it is, but I'm convinced it has something to do with the Fortress of Regrets, which might have been the death from which he wakes up on that Mortuary slab.
#17
zombiegleemax
Mar 07, 2004 18:49:53 Hrm. I don't know; it seems very likely, sure, that the Fortress of Regrets had SOMETHING to do with it. However, I think the endgame shows that the "crazed" Incarnation came AFTER the "practical" incarnation (the one that went into the Fortress with Morte, Dak'kon, and Dieonarra); as I recall the crazy one distorted the various clues that the practical one left behind. (There was something else he did that led me to that conclusion, but I forget what it was at the moment...)

On the other hand, since Practical fished Morte out of the Pillar of Skulls, one would think that Morte would have been running around while Crazed was running wild in Sigil, so I'm not truly sure about that.

-LZ
#18
zombiegleemax
Mar 10, 2004 3:01:28 I always assumed that the "practical" and "Mad" incarnations were not any single incarnation but rather amalgamations of several incarnations, there had been several "mad" incarnations, and several "practical" ones...
#19
lina_inverse
Mar 12, 2004 10:03:47 the practical one if definitly a single incarnation,and not too old of one.considering the girl whos name escapes me's father is alive and well and both dakkon and morte knew him.but there were quite a few diffrent people writeing the instructions before the paranoid one destroyed the old journal and morte mentions a few incarnations.....there recent but how recent i dont know.the orginal....regret can change the nature of a man.

and no he wasnt loseing his memories,he says this EXPLICITLY when you speak to the transendent one.i dont know what clicked and stopped his death of the mind,but it did.
#20
zombiegleemax
Mar 12, 2004 10:08:05 Greetings. I've been lurking here for a small while, and I remember how the incarnations and memories work in the game. The good incarnation was indeed evil, but his regret changed him (as per Ravel's question). The paranoid incarnation was the psychotic one who learned the language of the Uyo, and other such things, and killed many in Sigil, eventually becoming mazed by the Lady of Pain. The practical incarnation was a cold, evil incarnation who most recently attacked the Transcendent One with Dak'kon, his slave, Xachariah, the blind archer, Morte, the skull that betrayed a previous incarnation (possibly the paranoid incarnation), and Deionarra, who the practical incarnation betrayed to her death, so he would have a ghostly scout in the fortress of regrets. The Nameless One typically retains memories between deaths, but when the Nameless One goes to the Fortress of Regrets, the Transcendent one destroys his memory before dumping him back in Sigil. As we see throughout the game, the last time, the Transcendent One kills Pharod and Ravel, and it is quite possible the Fhjull and Trias are also killed, thus breaking the only remaining chain through which the Nameless One could find a way into the Fortress of Regrets. The shadows, created when someone dies in place of the Nameless One, also kill the Nameless One to try to erase his memories.
#21
factol_rhys_dup
Mar 12, 2004 16:46:17 That makes sense. And it seems right, according to my recollection. The Nameless One didn't always lose his memories, come to think of it. I guess just when the shadows killed him in the Fortress of Regrets or elsewhere.
#22
zombiegleemax
Mar 24, 2004 14:01:29 I remembered something from the game (it is totally different from the book if i read it correctly):

The practical incarnation figured out that memories get lost between incarnations. Therefore, he set out to 'undo' that loss and was succesful... to a degree. Don't ask me where, but in the game there is a deja vu where you talk to a person who fixed the memory loss problem though some spell or effect or artifact or whatever. The only thing was, the nameless one had to die three more times for it to work. This obviously made the practical one quite mad, and he killed the poor bugger on the spot.

This still leaves a few blanks, but hopefully also sheds some light on this riddle (or at least joggles someone's memories). Anyone remember more?

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 solomani Feb 28, 2004 21:01:28	Has anyone ever tried converting the CRPG Planescepe:Torment into a campaign? Or even chunks of it? I am currently running a Planescape game loosely based on the CRPG and it would be interesting to see if anyone else had done it and how they went.
#2 xanxost_the_slaadi_dup Feb 28, 2004 21:49:23	Xanxost has never run a game like that, but has definately incorporated many parts of it ino Xanxost games. In the current game Xanxost is running, one of the players is seeking his lost memories that were stolen from him. Xanxost has also used the Brothel of Slated Intellectual Lusts, the Baatezu War Machine that the Godsmen were building, Morte, the Smoldering Corpse Bar, and the Lady of Pain rag doll. But Xanxost has never tried fully converting the game, though it would be interesting.
#3 solomani Feb 29, 2004 0:07:40	How did it work out? I am currently upto the Ragpicker section in my conversion. So far so good.
#4 zombiegleemax Feb 29, 2004 3:49:03	The "Flaming Dead Guy Bar and Grill" (among other names), as my players have come to call it, has become a staple location in my games, as has the brothel of Slating Intellectual Lusts. Actually, I tell my players to consider all the locations in that CRPG cannon, because I like them a lot. I consider most of the items cannon as well, actually. The charms, chocolates, and so forth are too filled with character and theme to ignore. The overall plotline doesn't seem readily convertible, since it centers around the Nameless One, who in my opinion, ought to be a generally one of a kind character, but the locations, items, and NPC's are all well fleshed out enough that they can easily be used in a regular game. (And, you know, many of them are from the cannon setting books) I'm not even sure how you could start using the plot of PS:T in a regular game. It's a single-player adventure at heart. It's specifically designed to center around one, and only one character. How do you bring the other charactes in without making them feel like they're NPC's? Really, the game is about one person's atonement, or lack of it. How does that translate to a party? I'm genuinely curious.
#5 solomani Feb 29, 2004 4:08:59	I changed the story somewhat. The party has been sent back in time to kill a powerful wizard before he becomes powerful and ruins the world (in fact, the wizard in a fit of guilt actually sent them back). Something goes wrong and they are flung forward in time and eventually find their way to Sigil completly clueless. As the plot unfolds (by interacting with NPCs) they discover they have been there before - in fact many times over. But they keep failing their quest and "Starging over". Eventually the players will find out they made a deal with Ravel for immoratality to kind of gurantee eventually they would finish their quest. The side affect - amnesia. What I did is split up the clues that in the CRPG are just for the nameless one amoung the party to include all of them. Any new players of course are not immortal or amnesiacs. I have the players being immortal but everytime they die they lose 1 INT permanently. If they get to animal INT (3 or less) the game is over for them. So far so good. Do you guys have any notes written up for the converions?
#6 weenie Mar 01, 2004 6:03:59	Originally posted by solomani Do you guys have any notes written up for the converions? I tried converting bits and pieces a while ago... I can't find the template I used for Morte, but here's the one I used for "Floyd". Immortal (template) Can be applied onto any living, intelligent (Int 3+) creature. Creature type becomes "outsider". AC: natural armor improves by +1 per 5 HD (max +4) Special Attacks: spell-like abilities (see table below, 1/day each, caster lvl = HD)
#7 factol_rhys_dup Mar 02, 2004 15:19:47	I don't know about that template, Weenie. It actually seems like pretty much everything that the Nameless One does can either be explained through a lack of normal aging and a special kind of Regeneration that isn't overcome by any kind of energy. Finally, I would handle his return from death differently, especially since that is my favorite part. It would instead say that "any time the Nameless One dies, he returns to life as per a true resurrection spell within 1d6 hours. At the time of the Nameless One's death, one creature, at random, on any plane, will die and return to life as a semi-intelligent Shadow bent on killing its progenitor." He never lost ability scores from dying. That took a lot longer. I'm not sure how to handle that, because the Nameless One wasn't going to be reduced to a hollow shell for a long time. Years and years. And also, I don't remember what made the Nameless One stop losing his memories. Before, he lost all his memories when he died. But then suddenly something clicked and he started to remember them between lives. Anyone know what happened?
#8 weenie Mar 03, 2004 0:31:30	Originally posted by Factol Rhys I don't know about that template, Weenie. Neither do I, actually. it's just something I stiched together a while ago while under heavy influence of the CRPG. I don't think there's an effective way to duplicate the loss of memory through game mechanics... I just tried having him lose ability scores since by the core rules, such an old character would probably have all mental stats in the 30ies or so...
#9 zombiegleemax Mar 05, 2004 20:21:03	Within the last couple days I got done reading the novel "Planescape:Torment" based off of the CRPG. Supposedly after NO dies in an alley, he wakes up in a magical room because Dak'kon found him and took him there..and I guess by him waking up in a magically enhanced room, it changed what happens when he died and now if he dies he just wakes up with whatever memories he had since last time he left the mortuary. Oh..and in the book, Ignus and Vhailor aren't mentioned..nor is the bar where Ignus is burning..and Grace never joins the party..only ones who join up are NO, Annah, Dak'kon, and Morte.
#10 zombiegleemax Mar 06, 2004 12:14:23	In fact, if I remember correctly, in the book (I read it a long time ago) the reason why the Nameless One suddenly keeps his memories is clearly explained: An Amnizu, the "Decanter of he Styx" or something, is the devil the Nameless One made the deal in the first place, to fight in the blood war upon his death. Then NO went on to seek immortality, to avoid this fate. He was successful in that, but lost his memories everytime he died. Now, the Amnizu was kinda ****ed, but part of the deal was that he couldN't kill NO himself. Seeing as he'd been doublecrossed, the Amnizu, this "decanter of the Styx" made a potion that he administered to NO at the very begining of the book, in the morgue. In fact the Amnizu was either Bogs or Crepin, I don't recall. So, the Nameless One now keeping his memories upon death, his quest to retrieve his past, and thus his mortality, had a much higher chance of success, bringing him closer to his death. The Nameless One's true death = happy Amnizu. Of course, this could just be my imagination deforming what is actually in the book. I should go and read again the last few chapters.
#11 factol_rhys_dup Mar 06, 2004 13:40:50	Brun, that makes sense for the book. And I believe the amnizu in question is actually Fjhull Forked-Tongue from the game, according to the novel. He looked like a cornugon in the game, but I think even there he was supposed to be an amnizu. But that's right. But I think in the book, the Nameless One made a deal with the fiend that his soul would belong to him after his death if the baatezu would end an attack on the Nameless One's home town. But in the game--whose explanation I like more--the Nameless One was originally a depraved, thoroughly corrupt, and deeply evil man. He became immortal in order to save himself from an eternity in the Lower Planes. In the game, Fjhull was connected to the story because he was the fiend who was under an oath by Trias, and so he had to help you, but I don't think he knew you from before. Could anyone either correct me and affirm that Brun is right, or tell me how--in the game--the Nameless One begins to remember his memories between lives. :edit: I just remembered something. I think that, at the beginning of Torment, the Nameless One is waking up after his most recent jaunt into the Fortress of Regrets. Could this have something to do with it? Could that proximity with his mortality have sparked some kind of change in his magical immortality?
#12 zombiegleemax Mar 06, 2004 14:04:56	That's what I assumed.
#13 solomani Mar 06, 2004 18:01:16	OK I am confused. I thought he made the deal with Ravel and she gave him immortiality, but it was imperfect, thus the memory loss between deaths. I figured that in the game he did in fact lose his memories but this time he was keeping a detailed journal (the quest log) and so this is how he "retained" his memories. I have only played the game, never read the book.
#14 zombiegleemax Mar 06, 2004 18:43:37	Hrm. That poses an interesting conundrum, though. If the Nameless One was a deeply evil man who did something really horrible during his "first life," and he then made the deal with Ravel, died, and lost his memories, then how can that first incarnation be "the Good Incarnation?" Seems like it never would have had the chance to repent, which it obviously does in the game. By the way... "Floyd?" The hell? -LZ
#15 zombiegleemax Mar 07, 2004 9:20:14	Originally posted by Merganser86 Hrm. That poses an interesting conundrum, though. If the Nameless One was a deeply evil man who did something really horrible during his "first life," and he then made the deal with Ravel, died, and lost his memories, then how can that first incarnation be "the Good Incarnation?" Seems like it never would have had the chance to repent, which it obviously does in the game. By the way... "Floyd?" The hell? -LZ "Regret can change the nature of a man." Somehow the "good incarnation" realized the evil he had done, and out of fear or whatever he wanted to redeem himself, he didn't want to go to the Blood war.. but there wasn't enough time, so he struck a deal with Ravel: Immortality, and thus time to repent... But, Ravel killed him and he lost his memories, and thus the entire repentance scheme fell apart, since no later incarnation remembered what the heck they were supposed to do.
#16 factol_rhys_dup Mar 07, 2004 18:37:30	But how did he start to remember his previous deaths before? I know how he got to be immortal, but he always used to lose his memories when he died, and thus every time he was a different incarnation and acted differently. But you pick up the game seemingly right when he begins to remember, and I'm not sure what it is, but I'm convinced it has something to do with the Fortress of Regrets, which might have been the death from which he wakes up on that Mortuary slab.
#17 zombiegleemax Mar 07, 2004 18:49:53	Hrm. I don't know; it seems very likely, sure, that the Fortress of Regrets had SOMETHING to do with it. However, I think the endgame shows that the "crazed" Incarnation came AFTER the "practical" incarnation (the one that went into the Fortress with Morte, Dak'kon, and Dieonarra); as I recall the crazy one distorted the various clues that the practical one left behind. (There was something else he did that led me to that conclusion, but I forget what it was at the moment...) On the other hand, since Practical fished Morte out of the Pillar of Skulls, one would think that Morte would have been running around while Crazed was running wild in Sigil, so I'm not truly sure about that. -LZ
#18 zombiegleemax Mar 10, 2004 3:01:28	I always assumed that the "practical" and "Mad" incarnations were not any single incarnation but rather amalgamations of several incarnations, there had been several "mad" incarnations, and several "practical" ones...
#19 lina_inverse Mar 12, 2004 10:03:47	the practical one if definitly a single incarnation,and not too old of one.considering the girl whos name escapes me's father is alive and well and both dakkon and morte knew him.but there were quite a few diffrent people writeing the instructions before the paranoid one destroyed the old journal and morte mentions a few incarnations.....there recent but how recent i dont know.the orginal....regret can change the nature of a man. and no he wasnt loseing his memories,he says this EXPLICITLY when you speak to the transendent one.i dont know what clicked and stopped his death of the mind,but it did.
#20 zombiegleemax Mar 12, 2004 10:08:05	Greetings. I've been lurking here for a small while, and I remember how the incarnations and memories work in the game. The good incarnation was indeed evil, but his regret changed him (as per Ravel's question). The paranoid incarnation was the psychotic one who learned the language of the Uyo, and other such things, and killed many in Sigil, eventually becoming mazed by the Lady of Pain. The practical incarnation was a cold, evil incarnation who most recently attacked the Transcendent One with Dak'kon, his slave, Xachariah, the blind archer, Morte, the skull that betrayed a previous incarnation (possibly the paranoid incarnation), and Deionarra, who the practical incarnation betrayed to her death, so he would have a ghostly scout in the fortress of regrets. The Nameless One typically retains memories between deaths, but when the Nameless One goes to the Fortress of Regrets, the Transcendent one destroys his memory before dumping him back in Sigil. As we see throughout the game, the last time, the Transcendent One kills Pharod and Ravel, and it is quite possible the Fhjull and Trias are also killed, thus breaking the only remaining chain through which the Nameless One could find a way into the Fortress of Regrets. The shadows, created when someone dies in place of the Nameless One, also kill the Nameless One to try to erase his memories.
#21 factol_rhys_dup Mar 12, 2004 16:46:17	That makes sense. And it seems right, according to my recollection. The Nameless One didn't always lose his memories, come to think of it. I guess just when the shadows killed him in the Fortress of Regrets or elsewhere.
#22 zombiegleemax Mar 24, 2004 14:01:29	I remembered something from the game (it is totally different from the book if i read it correctly): The practical incarnation figured out that memories get lost between incarnations. Therefore, he set out to 'undo' that loss and was succesful... to a degree. Don't ask me where, but in the game there is a deja vu where you talk to a person who fixed the memory loss problem though some spell or effect or artifact or whatever. The only thing was, the nameless one had to die three more times for it to work. This obviously made the practical one quite mad, and he killed the poor bugger on the spot. This still leaves a few blanks, but hopefully also sheds some light on this riddle (or at least joggles someone's memories). Anyone remember more?