I begin my journey at a small human settlement (a long two-part divided chamber) and was immediately informed that a human army is on the way, gather your family and any friends you can.. and flee!! I bade goodbye to the Lady of the castle (if you could call it that..) and struck out westward.. I hadn't gone far before a human hammerman and archer appeared, heading east.. Members of the approaching army, perhaps??
I shouted a greeting and was met with angered spitting; these must be the feared humans on the march to the castle.. They seem to have no interest in harming me, so I followed them back east, interested in seeing what may transpire.. Though, nearing the castle, the pair adopted a east-by-northeast trajectory, not coming near the castle at all.. I've been following them quite a while now, interested in their final destination, though thus far the most exciting events have been an elk sighting and crossing a bridge at the same time two wayward farmers did.. I continue to "march" with them, out of curiosity..
The eastward travel continued, through a pleasant field of peacocks and piglets, the only other happening of any import were those of passing through a small but bustling hamlet and passing another small group of soldiers (accompanied by a glassmaker and farmer).. Our journey has come to and end, it seems, though a disturbing one.. My quarry has arrived at the eastern ocean, and as a pair they stand staring out into the blue.. A crab meanders around nearby, but their locked gazes never falter to it or any other motion.. What have they come here for? What would one of the soldiers do if I employed my two-handed sword to the base of their necks?? I shall give them but an hour to make some move, some sign of sane life, before I act insane myself!
Oddly, the hammerman was receptive to conversation (much altered from his earlier use of spittle to display his emotions) and has even agreed to join me on an adventure! This would be great news, if he would only additionally agree to MOVE FROM HIS OCEAN-FACING POSITION! Infuriating! I ask the other soldier what the purpose of their traveling is, and he replied he was heading to Ransackgranite to seek work.. WORK!! Obviously a detailed class on map-reading and navigation would have served much better, the sorry state they find themselves in!
Night is nearing now, and the nearby croaks and chirps of Toads sound curiously like laughter..
I decide to quickly travel from this place in hopes that my same-minded comrade may follow me.. After a long journey southward along the coast night falls, and I am set upon by a singular recruit serving the Mate of the Dark One, a backward-jointed translucent-haired monstrosity with pathetic broken wings.. Against my best judgement I call out a greeting. "I hate you.", cold and gurgling comes the short reply. I have yet to draw blood upon this journey, but now seems to be the time.. I can only hope my meager combat talent will see me through.
More curiosity for this odd, odd day.. I approach within striking range of the twisted bird-monster only to find he is, at the very worst, hatefully neutral concerning his inclination to end my life.. More than that, the beast appears to have trouble staying on its twisted feet, despite any visible injuries.. Being the merciful soul I am I decide that perhaps some warmth may appeal to the hideous bird, so I ignite the grass and create campfires around, and underneath, my new birdy friend. After a time it seems like the creature cares not for the heat or smoke I've so generously provided (nor does the frozen-solid water I carry with me..).. Stranger than that, I cannot seem to find the urge to cough, myself, from breathing the smoke myself and dancing circles around the freakish bird in the fire.. More curiosity for this odd, odd day.. I decide to leave the bird to its warm bed..
After a bit of travel southeast I hit the edge of the river and approach to swim across.. Well, you cannot swim across a river of solid ice, ha! I tentatively walk out onto the surface and find it stable. I head out, ten feet, twenty, thirty, and I begin to marvel; "This is the widest river I've ever seen!", I think.. After a hundred more steps a sinking feeling comes over me, the urge to vomit is strong as I realize I have hundreds and hundreds of feet of deep ocean beneath my feet.. An ocean, frozen solid! How sturdy could this possibly be?! Nearing a state of panic I turn and head (hopefully) towards land, all the way imagining I hear a coarse scraping underneath the ice below me, imagining I glimpse titanic moonlit shadows swirling below the ice..
Adopting a northwest angle I finally find land, though I think a bit of my sanity still laid out there somewhere on the ice.. After uneventful travel I come to the human capital of the realm, Clobberhoisted. Outside the castle a panicked merchant with an injured ankle bursts from a building, followed by a bat-headed humanoid simply called "the boss", who is quickly knocked unconscious by another human from behind. What is going on here?! A local warlord appears, shouting "A battle?! What's going on here?!" just as a local lye maker demonstrates near-Godly power by hurling the bat-creature to the northeast.. It slides by me, its furred skin generating a disturbing sound as it scrapes along the cobblestone. What is going on here!? I begin to wonder if I may have left more of my sanity than I thought out there on that endlessly black frozen ocean..
I near the barely conscious bat-man (*cough*) and ready my sword to end this madness, but in combat I am asked if I really wish to strike a friend.. Do I know this bat-man? Is he truly so evil, then? The lye maker with hyper-powered strength also seems to be neutral as well.. Who is the enemy here? I decide to simply let the drama unfold and lose the potential fame that could be gained by bravely beheading a tattered, tiny, unconscious, bruised, savaged chewed-upon bat-man..
I turn to watch the warlord, who has made it very clear he will show the bat-man no quarter, remove his helmet.. He has the gigantic head of a fish perched upon his humanoid body! Is this truly the capital?! Is this even a human settlement? The lye maker mercilessly ends the bat-man, and I head south trying to track down the fish-headed warlord in hopes of a non-fishy answer, but before I find him I see a deep pool of blood outside a residence.. Opening the door I find another bat-man (this time, a chieftan) beaten unconscious in the middle of a room while some nearby children watched it.. "Must.. be.. losing it..", I think..
I head south and something bursts from an eastern door and quickly heads north into the building with the beaten bat.. Moving back to see what fleeing oddity that was I see an olm-woman chieftess! Who truly rules here, the animal hybrids or the humans?? Now the previously unconscious bat-man is nothing more than a mangled corpse, and the olm chieftess slams a nearby child into a wall, shattering her leg into bits, before fleeing further north into the street.. I try to follow, but the creature exudes such speed!!
I follow the olm north and west through a crumbling alley that dead-ends, and call out a greeting. The olm woman was very well spoken and polite, right up to the moment that a human fishery worker stepped from the shadows while drawing a knife, and then jamming it into the back of her head. The unconscious olm was then violently (and leisurely) choked to death by the fishery worker. "Don't travel at night, lest the bogeymen get you!", he congenially says before walking away. WHAT IS THIS?!
Deciding to head towards the castle now to see what sights are there to behold, the game crashed.. and I hadn't saved in a while.. So sad!
THIS.. IS.. .40.01!!
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Topic: First Impressions .40.01 AND BEYOND! (Read 110437 times)