The Failed Assassination
You manage to repair the Omnicannon just in time for the Gravestone to fly into a huge white light. Attempting to communicate with the Bridge, Vaylin answers. Having disarmed your crew (mostly Vette and Torian in this scene), she says she’ll start killing them to be able to hurt you, indirectly. You try to convince her not to but as she is about to strike one of them down, the whole ship is surrounded in white light. The next thing you know, you’re waking up in an overgrown region of the new planet (Iokath), alone.
The Strange Remote and the Strange Planet
Well, almost alone! Nearby a seemingly friendly remote device hovers up to you and insists on following you! Don’t worry about it, the Strange Remote is your temporary Companion Replacement Scheme – and you can set it to Tank, Damage or Heals using the temporary ability bar.
The strange planet seems to be an odd combination of high grade technology and remnant buildings and vehicles used by Organic Life Forms. But none of these organics seem to be around. Instead, the whole area is massively overgrown or covered in moss. Where have you landed?
Vaylin’s Interactions with Thexan / ARIES
It is with no small measure of cruelty that Vaylin finds herself in what looks like an impenetrable ‘box’. Another cage. She appears then to be visited by Thexan. But she grows wise to this. Here’s her part in this story which is revealed gradually through the chapter.
Finding Your Crew on Iokath
You finally escape the overgrown area and the ‘planets’ mechanical beauty is revealed. But it’s only when you come across a talking Technolith that appears to be malfunctioning is the planet’s name of Iokath revealed. And then you’re finally rejoined by Torian Cadera. Theron also manages to report in and gives you coordinates to someplace ‘safe’. It’s up to you to reach that point.
Bonus Mission: Find 5 Technoliths
You should have already found 2 by this point. If you haven’t, then back track into the overgrown area again. This bonus mission doesn’t give you the luxury of pinpointing the areas where the Technoliths are so you have to do some scouting. Sadly the Technolith that creates a cutscene does not count towards this target.
Beware the Traps
Your journey to find your crew won’t be straightforward. There are traps very similar to your journey on The Gemini Deception chapter. Which makes sense if they all came from the same place.
The First Trap Room
The Trap Bridge
Sanctuary?
Theron thinks he found some kind of sanctuary, but all doesn’t seem safe. In this room there are various crew members: Kaliyo, Jorgan, Koth and Lana – as well as Vette who’s poking around a Technolith. Speak to the others. Although BioWare decided lip sync wasn’t necessary, they have some interesting dialogue options. When you catch up with Vette she is communicating with ARIES (who you ‘met’ earlier). Through him you find out a few things:
- SCORPIO, the GEMINI Captains and the Gravestone were all designed to be Iokath’s most sophisticated weapons:
Theory: as the Gravestone can take out Eternal Fleet Vessels, but doesn’t fire on any in Iokath, was it built as a ‘policing’ vessel, to take out rogue GEMINIs? - Iokath, and worlds it conquered, created ‘war games’ – taking out organic life forms, for data gathering (“invaluable feedback” according to ARIES). That data, presumably enabled future conquests to be more…efficient.
- Zakuul was first conquered by Iokath. But something happened to make them flip sides. We don’t know that something.
Your enlightening session with ARIES is interrupted by SCORPIO who has been trapped somewhere. And then your ‘Sanctuary’ is invaded by multiple Caretaker Droids. If you listen carefully they say things like “test concluded”, “begin eradication”. Clearly you have been part of a similar “war game” and are no longer needed. Nice! Suddenly the chapter name of Where Dreams Die isn’t far off the mark – although Where Everything Dies might have been more accurate!
Once you’ve dealt with the onslaught, you need a new way out and Vette does her ‘Tomb Raider’ trick and finds one!
Connecting Up the Central Technolith
Where Dreams Die is a great combination of combat and puzzles. Thankfully this next puzzle is pretty straightforward. To be able to connect the Light Bridge to the central Technolith, you need 3 power sources. Two are in the ring around the Technolith. One is just down one of the connecting tunnels – see screenshots below.
Once connected, Vette remarks that it looks like a giant Crypt. Which it is. When SCORPIO uses the Technolith to communicate with you she says there are billions of organics stored here. These people were “her creators”. In a scene intertwined with shots of Vaylin escaping her cage and fighting the cleansing droids, SCORPIO tells us of Iokath’s history:
- Iokath was built by scientists and engineers who eventually turned on each other.
- SCORPIO, the GEMINI Droids and the Gravestone were chased into Wild Space by their creators (doesn’t answer how SCORPIO ended up on Belsavis however).
- When they were discovered, they were used again as “weapons, wielded in more pointless organic wars”.
It’s also clear that the brains behind the apparent war game on Iokath with you, your crew and Vaylin, is ARIES and that sets the stage for KotET Chapter 5 – Ascension!
TL;DR Chapter 4 – Where Dreams Die
Somehow you, and everyone on the Gravestone were knocked out and trapped on various parts of the mechanical world. Iokath was built by organic species but eventually the droids took over. Now anything organic that arrives is ‘cleansed’. Where Dreams Die combines in-depth history, combat and puzzles/trap. Along with some trippy background music. I think the central outdoor part of Iokath would make a great PVP arena (it probably needs extending but that setup could work). During this chapter, organics like the Outlander and the Eternal Empress find themselves at the mercy of ARIES, some form of computer. The power is turned around. But you suddenly can’t help feeling sorry for SCORPIO and the GEMINIs, whose very existence was to be weapons in their wars. That doesn’t excuse how SCORPIO behaves towards organics, but as with children with tough upbringings, it does go a long way to explaining it.
Here are some finally screenshots from Where Dreams Die – enjoy!