The Problem of the "Kaernk"

[Alardem]

What about the Brute in the sewer that you had to lure away?

I didn't recall that. I never found that as terrifying, likely because by then it was basically a larger version of the Grunt.

By no means the only thing that was "ruined." I think all of the mystery set up in the first third or so was very efficiently dispelled right before the end (though the game had already been going steadily downhill since after the prison segment.)

True, the story begins to fall apart once Agrippa is introduced and you were put on a fetch quest for Orb #2 - which apparently needed tar to be reassembled properly.