>>5748264>Also, we hardly ever fought the spirits compared to the normal physical combat encounters, which on a tangential note, made me as a Sage feel pretty unimpactful for most of this quest.This is why Sages were given downtime tools. You were always supposed to be a “support” class, but yeah I wanted another ghost encounter or two.
<span class="mu-s">Unused Content + Encounters</span>
The <span class="mu-s">central forest</span> was always the home of the spirit. Every time you crossed it across the map, you would have had a 1 in 6 chance to stumble across the tracks of the Spirit, letting you know its location early. While you could have fought it at any time, it was always going to be that boss fight you had with it, so it may have been a surprise if the party expected a more benevolent enemy.
There was originally going to be more buildup and LORE around the Hateful Apes, with Twink's lantern being able to used to scare them away (they're scared of the sun), thus by putting on the red filter in the tower he could scare them away from making the ritual circle of dead birds. However I couldn't think of any way to actually convey this information.
If you would have gone down the other path in the <span class="mu-s">Gravenwood</span> you would have encountered the Hag. She would be another combat encounter like the Spiders, but more a focus on magic and curses- including talking to the party member directly. She was going to summon a tree under Scrim if he talked shit (as usual) to force him up into the air and freak him out with his fear of heights, disabling him for the combat, while also slinging curses and spells in the combat encounter that the Sages would have to break. She would also give the party the choice of sacrificing one party member to pass through safely- after which she would eat whoever they left. She would also be revealed to be the Mother of the giant named “Gum Ear”.
If you would gone through the SouthWest Forest early (or investigated the "Gum Ear" thing), you would have met the Giant. The giant is named "Gum Ear" because he sticks his fingers in his mouth, when you encounter him he'd take them out and reveal what he's really been saying is "Come here!" so he can eat you. The giant would always target the smallest party member (so Scrim, then Squire, then Grimbold, etc.) and eat them in one hit if they can't escape its grip (swallows them whole). It's a combat encounter with a dumb giant who cannot be killed, but if you do enough damage to him in one round it would cut off his big toe and he'd cry and run away. The big toe's toenail could then be used to enhance Squire's glaive with a +1 attack bonus; replacing the axe side with a giant toenail. I decided not to force this fight here and skip it because it was unnecessary at the point in the game and without meeting the hag in the Gravenwood, it felt like it wouldn't be a “payoff”.
