Mysteries like this conspicuous captain's log.
"... we commenced to launch Heavy Fyre at the Enemy from all our Ballistae, with both regular Speare and Hellfyre, the latter of which proved greatly Effective, so that in less than fifteen minutes from the Time we engaged Our Enemy, (Our Enemy of Cleveland?) their Ship was very much Injured, heaving and yawing in Plain Distress. At this time damage taken by the Pax Imperium was minor ..."
"... and gave us an opportunity of pouring in upon their Vessel several Hellfyres, which made Great Havoc amongst the Enemy Crewe and wreaked Grievous Injury to her Hull and Engines ..." According to this the Qantari had airships too, which is pretty disturbing.
"It seems that these crumbling pages are what's left of the captain's log." I would've never guessed!
"Enclosed I have the Honor to forward you a list of Killed and Wounded of the Pax Imperium and also the list of casualties aboard the Enemy Vessel, as well as the List of surviving Crewe and a copy of her Quarter Bill, and Finally a report of our own Damage Received during the Action..."
"... and found aboard her the most unquestionable Evidence (That she isn't the mother! Looks like you should take this to Maurius.) ... obliged therefore to Investigate the matter, I have set Engines to Full Speed ... Upon sighting our Quarry, I made a decision to land Pax Imperium in the midst of the Enemy's forces and Project Shields, allowing our Troops to disembark and Engage th Enemy Infantry..."
"I wish to convey to you the bravery of the Officers and the Crewe under my command during the Recent Action. I assure you that (No Crewe were harmed in the making of this report.) so well directed and so Relentless was the Fyre of Pax Imperium, that in less than three hours the Accursed One sustained Grave Injuries, compelling the remainder of the Qantari Force to Disengage and Flee. You will no doubt hear from many Quarters of the Bravery and Exemplary Conduct of those engaged in this Conflict, and I must again state that these Accounts are in no way Exaggerated ..."
"... to hawl off and Repair our Damages and return again to the Action, not knowing whether the Enemy had survived or not..."
"The rest is indecipherable."
We are now about to use an artifact we've had for a very long time, you should probably know which one by now.
"You're standing in front of the ship's control system - levers, tumblers, gauges, crystal semi-spheres, and half a dozen of small holes in a circular pattern. You don't need a loremaster to figure out that you need to insert something there. A missing part?"
We finally after months of having it, pull out the Jellyfish artefact again. The excitement is palpable.
[
lore success] "You carefully insert the jellyfish artefact into the slot. (The smell of the homeless is intense.) A low humming sound begins nearby, and a row of dim lights appears on the consoles. You give a start as several flickering, ghost-like images leap up from the consoles. One by one the bluish light of the figures turns red. The ship's hull and systems are badly damaged." Not sure we needed floating warlock text to tell us that.
"The weapons array is unsalvageable, but with a little luck and hard work you might get her up in the air one last time."
We prepare the Prayer of Air Elementals mantra to take the ship up into the air.
"Hmm... you don't seem to have this particular mantra in your collection of oddities."
[
lore] "Search your memory. After all, are you not the wisest of men?"
[
success] "We beheld in the sky what appeared to us to be a mass of scarlet clouds resembling the fierce flames of a blazing fire. (Fierce Flaming Fiery Furious Flames) From that mass many blazing missiles flashed, and tremendous roars, like the noise of a thousand drums beaten at once. And from it fell many weapons winged with gold and thousands of thunderbolts, with loud explosions, and many hundreds of fiery wheels. Loud became the uproar of falling horses, slain by these missiles, and of mighty elephants struck by the explosions..."
"It's a rare mantra, dedicated to
ancient flying chariots that were made of blessed iron and gifted with the power of the gods. The mantra contains detailed praying instructions that might persuade the air elementals to pull such a chariot as if they were horses."
"The chariot awaits. Do your thing." I'm glad I have your permission game.
"You put your hands on the controls and conjure the air elementals, commanding them to possess the ship and do your bidding. The air elementals are fickle and might play along only to abandon you in mid-flight, watching your ship plummeting down in delight. To avoid it, you follow the ritual to the letter, warding off the ship against mischief and securing the tethers binding the elementals." Do the elementals even get payed minimum wage? Maybe that's why they're dropping you mid-flight. Union protests and all that.
"Slowly, the ship rises up in the air. You order the elementals to turn it around and pull it forward."
To Ganezzar, aways!
That certainly wasn't rewarding, but it was fun goddammit! There actually are rewards for doing the airship thing, but since both Meru and Gaelius are dead we don't get anything.
At least, we don't get anything until...
"You're standing in front of Marcus Sidonius Fabianus, the Second Acolyte. His guards stand behind him, clearly alarmed by the sight of the ship looming over them."
"What is the meaning of this?" inquires Marcus."
"The ship is my gift to the good people of Ganezzar." Better not scratch it or burn cigarette marks onto the seats! Friggin' zeal hooligans.
"We thank you for your generosity, brother. Maybe the blessing of the Gods be upon you." The blessing of... DEATH! Hahahahah.
*You gain a new insight - 13 skill points gained*
*House Crassus reputation increased*
Now that we've been blessed with death, why not go to Hell?
"Long ago, a hunting party from a desert tribe (Chosen One! The land of
Arroyo Inferiae is dying, you must hurry!) pursued a strange, triple-horned beast into the mountains and discovered a towering metal door, (Was there a sale on towering metal doors? They seem to be everywhere.) set into a stone cliffside. They later revisited the site with wise men and tools for breaking rock. With no idea how to open the door itself, the desert folk chiseled through the stone jamb and inside."
"A great treasure of ancient weapons, magic charms, and precious metals awaited them. While looting the complex another hidden door, this one in the floor, was revealed quite by accident. (It might not be towering, but it is hidden. So it was still on sale like all the other [adjective] doors.) It accessed the lower levels. The shaman decreed that the great treasure was a ruse, a distraction to placate fools. As their tribe was clearly not comprised of fools, it only made sense to send a scouting party to explore further."
"The scouts descended into the blackness
and the blackness descended back. and the others waited."
"Waking from dark dreams of weirdly angled corridors and chambers, of indistinct shapes always at the edge of his vision, the shaman heard a low moaning from the doorway, like a wind from the bowels of the earth." This is why you don't make deals with the Yith.
"The scouting party did not return."
"The shaman was angered and held the hidden folk beneath the mountain responsible for this turn of events. He gathered the strongest among the tribe to form a war party. They prayed and fasted through a long night, making shallow cuts in their flesh, as was the custom, and smearing red clay on their faces. (The hunters took their spears, the cooks took spits, and the rest clubs of fire-wood.) At dawn the war party descended with the shaman's strongest blessings."
"The war party did not return." I'm starting to see a pattern here.
"Giving up on whatever secrets lay buried below the mountain, the tribe set its artisans to carve the ornate facade of a temple into the mountain, a shrine to the brave warriors whose spirits were trapped forever in the underworld." Isn't the whole point of the underworld to trap spirits? I wouldn't want them running around *my* mortal realm.
"For the first and only sacrifice to the temple, they performed a ritual called the Impalement of the Three Suns, passed down from their ancestors at the dawn of the world. The name designated both the three bright red wounds of three stakes in flesh, and the number of sunrises he who was offered could expect to see before enjoying the merciful embrace of death. The shaman protested at length that this ancient tradition did him too much honor, but his modesty was roundly ignored."
We start outside of Hellgate, but there isn't anything to do besides look at the the titular Hellgate more or go inside. The latter sounds more appealing to me.
For the entrance to hell, this room isn't that bad. However, there are horrors unimaginable lurking just beyond it.
"The scrolls are
dying in your hands falling apart in your hands, leaving nothing but fragments. (Unlike an actual corpse, Magi books are not edible.) A list of visitors. Supply requisitions. Reports. Orders."
[
perception] [
lore] Much like Doctor Frankenstein, we are going to be stitching books back together haphazardly. Hope you enjoy your Fadia of Green Trusses chapter in your Triarii Island.
[
success] "It seems the last few months were spent in preparation of an unspecified but important event. The access to the ziggurat was restricted and the facility received a shipment of mechanical units. On the last day all personnel was ordered to abandon the facility and render the port "inoperable"." I'm sure that will never come up again.
Moving on and continuing deeper, we come upon what appears to have been the campsite of some likely dead fool.
Either that or this was the campsite of Esbenus' raiders, somehow I doubt it would've stood untouched for years however.
If that is the camp then this is the elevator of doom and gloom we heard about. The tales of its majesty were more than a little bit exaggerated. At the very least we get to see those ancient House Crassus banners\Order of the Magi banners for our trouble. Hopefully the destination of the elevator is a bit more intriguing.
The first thing we see is "a dead man slumped against the wall. It looks like he crawled here and bled to death from many cuts covering his body. He's clutching a strange metal ball the size of an apple, covered with strange protuberances." that definitely counts as "more intriguing." Intriguing enough that we examine it thoroughly with our lore.
[
success] "It's a magical weapon of the olden days, said to be more powerful than ten
flaming pigs black bombs combined."
"It's covered with rust and one of the protuberances is loose."
Looks like that bit needs to be forcibly extracted.
"Slowly, you pull it out, revealing a long cylinder. The striker spring inside the cylinder is rusty and stuck. You doubt you can fix it on the spot, but you can probably fashion another spring and calibrate it to the best of your abilities."
[
crafting] Why not do it? Let's do it.
[
success] "An hour later you're holding in your hands the new and vastly improved detonator, if vastly improved means that it can go off at any moment. Holding your breath, you insert it back and twist to lock it in place. (Do we also bop it and pull it is the real question.) The rest is simple - push on the detonator to arm the bomb. If it doesn't explode instantly, throw it at the enemy." You would think this would require throwing skill, but like nets and bolas it doesn't, making throwing even less useful.
How about actually seeing what killed him, eh?
"At first glance it appears to be a kind of hideous shrine or statue, a metal spider rearing (This thing is nowhere near as soulless and fetid as a spider, such a statement is silly.) up on its back legs. But taking a few steps forward you see it's a machine, a mechanical construct straight out of some sorcerer's nightmare. (Or loveliest of dreams, but who knows what sorcerers want?) The top half is humanoid, with arms ending in blades, and not the kind used for chopping vegetables. This upper part is perched on four spike-tipped legs, any one of them long enough to run a man through." An efficient design if I've ever seen one.
"Its once polish surface is scarred and dented, (Those abs look pretty shiny to me.) the armor rent is several places, (sic) and it sits somewhat askew. The construct is a veteran of many battles." Being violently polished can give you the same experience as a war veteran I would imagine.
"The head pivots ever so slightly in your direction. It sees you, but makes no move toward the doorway."
Automaton, meet null. Null, meet automaton.
[
success] "You pull out the nullifier and look at the dial. Suddenly, a distant memory (A memory of distant shores?) surfaces in your mind - a drawing from an old tractate written by a demented monk. The monk claimed to be an authority on old world's charms and wards, but his tractate was filled with bizarre images that defied all attempts to understand or decipher them." Was that monk's name Alhazred?
"The drawing in question depicted nightmarish creatures gathering around a magus who was protected by the sun shining down upon him. Instead of the traditional face, the sun had the exact same markings as the dial on the nullifier." Sounds like it could be an album cover.
Rediscovery, rituals, nullification!
"You set the dial to the settings from the drawing and press the buttons, trying to figure out the right sequence. (If this was a lesser game, this would be a point where we do a tedious puzzle.) On the third try, all three buttons sink in, the device vibrates softly and the air around the device shimmers like a heat haze."
"You look at the construct - no reaction. Reluctant to march toward it hoping for the best, you put the device on the marble floor and slide it toward the construct. It stops less than a foot away from it and remains there, doing nothing."
"You curse the monk and his drawing and at that very moment
it all goes black the construct folds it limbs and collapses on top of the nullifier."
You offer yet another sacrifice to Death, who smiles upon you and rewards your dedication by whispering insights into your ear - 1 combat skill point gained*
Doing that counted as a kill, but sabotaging Meru's ritual didn't. What mystery!
"The moment the construct goes down a small man emerges out of hiding. (Qantari! Kill it, kill it for the Gods!) He walks around the dead machine, examining it with childlike curiosity, then looks at you."
"It's dead," the 'man' informs you, like a physician offering his expert medical opinion."
"Who are you?" Someone who has seen some things if his portrait is anything to go on.
"Bentanagbal," says the man, bowing his head. "A loremaster extraordinaire." Almost certainly not as much of a extraordinaire as us, how could he be?
"What are you doing here, Bennie?" Thankfully even the writers of this game don't want to type that out all the time, so meet Bennie.
"I was exploring," says the man, nodding twice. "Our mechanical friend didn't like it and chased me into a maintenance hole. A fascinating mechanism, don't you think?" Maybe, but not as fascinating as the Demons.
"How long have you been here?" Several days at most. Unless Bennie is immune to dehydration.
"Thirty seven days," says the man instantly. "Eight hundred and ninety two hours." He smiles awkwardly and nods again." Seems like I was wrong, oh well, can't win it all.
"How did you survive?" Water and food supplies I would assume.
"Rats. (Only rats? What kind of high hydration content rats are these? Are you a vampire?) It's not ideal," the man grimaces as if not sure he can recommend it to you, "but more than sustainable." He nods again."
"They don't taste as bad as you'd think. Very pungent, like a rabbit. Definitely sustainable." Another nod." Bennie is a eco-friendly vampire. Very sustainable.
"What do you know about this place?"
"This place? I didn't get very far." He shakes his head for emphasis." Good, at least Bennie doesn't have a head shaking twitch.
"Why did you come here in the first place? What do you seek here?"
Your life, Vibius! "A spear," the man says reluctantly. "To reclaim my father's throne." He straightens up, trying to look the son of a man who once sat on a throne."
"What happened to your father?" "
reclaim my father's throne." Vibius, how do things like this confuse you?
"They killed him," says the man, looking down as if ashamed. "My brothers too. They killed everyone but me. (That might explain his portrait's constant 1000 yard stare.) And now I have to find the spear."
"Tell me about
your mother this spear."
"It's called the Divine Spear. It is said that whoever wields it will not be denied. (Vague artefact powers are the strongest.) I need it," he says as if it simply explains everything."
"Where are you from?"
"East," says the man, suddenly tight-lipped. "Months of travel." Feng was also from the East if you've forgotten, although we never learned more than that since we betrayed him.
"So you're going to grab that spear, march back home and demand what's rightfully yours?"
"The man looks down again, then nods. "I have to."
"You don't strike me as a fighting man."
"That's why I need the spear. Nothing can stand against it." A spear which
nothing can stand against. Think about that one for a second, you might understand, or you might not.
"He hesitates, then says, "If you promise to help me find the spear, I'll help you get past these constructs."
"There is more than one?" Why only make one of these bronze weaklings when the Demons take up about the same space and are far more useful?
"A *lot* more," says the man, nodding several times. It's hard to say if he's exaggerating or not." This *is* a command center after all.
"If you know a way to get past them, why did you spend a month eating rats in a maintenance hole?" It was tranquil, full of insights.
"Ah!" says the man, looking smug for a change. "These constructs don't attack each other. Why? Because they know that another construct isn't a threat. How do they know it, you aks? I'll tell you if you agree to find the spear for me."
[
word of honor] "Alright. I'll find that magic spear for you."
"The man smiles like a child promised a toy, (That isn't even a metaphor, that just happened.) then looks at you with suspicion."
"How do I know I can trust you?" Can you not read? Word of honor 2 is on our ID card, you can't miss it.
[
persuasion] "I didn't come here for the spear, so I'll gladly trade it for your help. This place is dangerous and I need an ally I can trust more than I need another weapon."
[
success] "The man stares at you for a moment, looking for any signs of dishonorable intentions, then gives up and nods. He kneels next to the vanquished constructs (There are multiple dead now? Reproduction that speedy is uneasing to say the least.) and goes through his innards in a surprisingly efficient way."
"He pulls out different parts, commenting on their design and praising the ingenuity of the ancients, until he finds what he's looking for. It's a strange-looking, oil-dripping thingamajig (A word that should be used more often in this game.) with loose wires. The man wipes out the grease and oil, ties the wires together, turning it into a handy protection amulet."
"Put it around your neck where they can see it," he says, looking very pleased with himself."
We have just nullified all threat that Hellgate could have posed to us; seems like a good time to explore to me.
There are quite a few rooms here, almost all of them contain nothing however so we just ignore them.
Thankfully, not everything is empty and worthless here. Let the recording viewing commence!
"A tall, eagle-faced man stands very still; only his eyes mover over the broad crystal screen before him. "Are the Sentinels (Better names for guarding automatons exist, worse names exist.) ready to be activated?"
"Almost, Commander," says a younger man, his hands moving feverishly over the controls. In response, a blur of confused images appear and disappear over the console."
"We received new orders this morning," (
Heathens do not appreciate cold salami, mutual destruction necessary. Commander Gaius Gaientius out.) "We have twenty-four hours to evacuate the base."
"What about the lake?" asks the man at the console."
"The base commander makes an unfamiliar gesture. (Why is he holding his two fingers up like that? The ancients were truly a strange people.) "We'll blame it on the Qantari." Sounds like a good Public Relations policy to me, just blame it all on the Qantari.
"The other man gives a low whistle. "And the ziggurat, do we give that up too?"
"The ziggurat they want intact," says the commander with a shrug."
"Then why are we pulling the plug?" asks the Centurion."
"That kind of intelligence is above my station," the Commander says bitterly, "or so I've been told. Someone at the top decided the base has to go dead, so that's what we're doing. The ziggurat is a different sort of animal. (If the plot-twist was that the temple is actually Agathoth's body, this game would be terrible. All things of quality wouldn't matter, just throw it in the trash.) That we preserve for the worst case scenario."
"The subordinate thinks about this for a moment, then asks, "Have you ever met Him?" What does His Imperial Majesty have to do with this? I think he has enough trouble going around without gossip.
"I did, once," nods the commander, his jaw working silently while he chooses his words. "He's supposed to be on our side, but what does something inhuman care for what we want? (That's why you have to Ask Why, it is the whole point!) We just happen to be on his side. For now."
"What do you mean?" The man's hands are in his lap now, the console forgotten."
"He's fighting his own war and we're helping him to win it, not the other way around," says the commander."
"And when the war's over?"
"My guess is that's why they're pulling the plug now, so we don't have to find out the hard way," says the commander."
Seems like the Gods outstayed their welcome if even the Centurion's were having doubts. By the way, if you noticed that small box earlier, all that's in there is a key. I took it since it is required to progress, but it isn't anything interesting.
Something that is interesting is this room, in particular its entrance. Notice those beams? We took damage from them and now have temporary con damage. It used to give permanent HP damage, thankfully the developers realized how asinine that was and now the only real punishment is the minor cost of a trip to the healer. Maybe too forgiving, but we've pretty much won at this point so I'm not too bothered. The (optional) final battle this game gives is more than enough in terms of end-game difficulty.
Of course, that's nice and all, but I'm sure you'd rather actually see the Divine Spear and assorted goodies.
"You trigger a trap and take a bolt to the gut. It's a bad wound and you're already in a bad shape. Time to check out." Seems like they added some traps to this area. It is almost as if there might now be a reason to level up the trap skill! What wonder and amazement.
As for what is in the non-trapped chests, well, it is mostly high-quality ore and whetstones. The main thing of interest is a power tube, which while pointless at this point, is still nice. And as for the Divine Spear...
"If the Divine Spear is really a spear, it is the strangest weapon you've seen. Too thick and heavy, it wasn't made for human hands. Only a giant would be able to hurl this thing at his enemies." You should be able to realize this thing's purpose by now, if not, we'll probably see what it does one day. For now it belongs to Bennie, and to him it goes.
"Did you find it?" asks the man with hope." Hope that bursts out like Hellfyre.
We placate him with the "spear."
"It's ... beautiful," whispers the man, caressing the weapon. (Maybe we should leave these two alone?) "None shall stand before it. None..."
"Before you go, I want to show you something." We whip out the surgical kit.
"Fascinating, absolutely fascinating," mutters the man, examining the instruments with the same childlike curiosity. "I had a dream when I was a child. The great Abu Hassan Ibn Hadad al-Sarabi said that he had a gift for me. He gave me something in my dream but I couldn't remember what it was. Until now." Phantom endowment, absolutely terrifying.
"Can you do it?"
"I had the finest tutors," says the man, nodding excitedly, "and my hands are as steady as ever." He produces dirty, oil-covered hands with bitten fingernails for inspection."
"What about the ritual itself? Are you familiar with it?"
"I've studied the mantras extensively," nods Bennie. "Did you find the machines used in the ritual?"
"I found the ruins of Al-Akia. (Glad that it counts as us going there even though it isn't on our map.) The machines are intact. When can you ward me?"
"Here?" Bennie looks at you with surprise. "I will have to part your flesh, cut these wards into your bones, and then fill them with blue steel. We *need* a proper facility or you'll never survive the procedure." Spumblers: we probably don't have the strength and constitution to survive it anyway.
"I know just the place!" We grab him and march onwards to the Mountain Facility.
"
You step through the portal and wait for Bennie. He arrives a moment later, his eyes wide with wonder."
"My Gods," whispers Bennie when he looks at the giant in the tank. "We must study it!"
"Let's not get sidetracked, Bennie. Remember what we're here for."
"Bennie goes through the lab, scavenging extra tools and medical supplies. The pile of things that might be useful during the surgery grows by the minute, filling you with unease." Especially that grapefruit, nothing good can come of that.
"I'm ready," says Bennie, testing a cranial drill." You poor bastard, Vibius.
"No gain without pain!" At least your enthusiastic for your death.
"Drink this," says Bennie, giving you a small bottle. (Antifreeze? I've heard of that miracle substance, give it to me!) "It's a mandrake extract. It will numb the pain and make you sleepy."
We down it instantly.
"Your awareness returns gradually, bringing in Pain. (You know it is godly because it is capitalized!) It comes in all shapes and colors. (I'm glad that Pain can be equal opportunity too.) Hot-red searing pain, dull, throbbing pain that feels gray, white vision-distorting pain, and your personal favorite, the blinding black pain that makes you feel that the blood vessels in your head are about to explode."
"Master Vibius? Can you hear me?" asks Bennie, looking concerned."
"How long was I out?"
"Three
millenia days," says Bennie. "I thought I lost you. You were burning with fever for the first two days. I kept changing the bandages and praying. Can you stand?"
"Slowly, you get up. The pain becomes unbearable and you almost fall."
"I hate to alarm you, but if we don't perform the ritual soon, you might not make it."
"No breaks in this life, eh?" We slowly stumble all the way to Al-Akia, to finish this, somewhat anyway.
"You walk slowly toward the seven sarcophagi, one of which waits with the lid raised on a metal hinge, like an open maw. Bennie is trembling with excitement as he assists you into the container, reminding you of an overeager priest, ushering an elderly man into his coffin." Oh boy, what great memories we have of this place.
"The interior looks uncomfortable, like the inside of a drain pipe, but as you recline the surface yields and reforms itself (Like a [insert memory foam bed here]) in the shape of your body. One might assume this feature is for the subject's comfort, but after Bennie has secured a bizarrely shaped helmet over your head and strapped your arms and legs into place, you realize that you are unable to shift your position in the slightest. The lid descends without a whisper to enclose you completely and your mind races in preparation of what is to come." Whatever it is, it'll probably kill us.
"The chamber begins to vibrate as the machines beneath hum to life. For a long time there is no other sound or sensation. You begin to suspect that nothing will happen, the equipment has failed. But then you become aware of a presence. You feel like a fisherman seeing an enormous shadow passing beneath your boat. It is probably harmless, a whale perhaps, but perhaps not."
"The narrow tube is gone and you are floating weightless in a warm, rolling sea, the place between worlds. Your only feeling is expectation. Change is imminent, a change as inexplicable as that of a writhing larva to a flying jeweled creature." If only it was as easy and natural as metamorphosis.
"The shadow grows. The ritual of the sarcophagus has distorted the fabric between the worlds, allowing whatever casts the shadow to move closer. The gossamer surface parts as it reaches out for you. The touch is gentle. You are cradled like a colorful bug in the hands of a child. Then the pain comes." Not Pain, just pain.
"You return to darkness of the sarcophagus, the immobility of the restraints. You hear drops of blood, your blood, spatter on the floor. (Is it our blood still?) Time is lost to you in the blackness. Hours or days might have passed, or merely minutes."
"But the shadow is with you still, and no longer without. Slowly, the understanding dawns that something else, some alien entity, shares your mind." Balzaar is back, and he is still lusting for a vessel
"A parallel series of thoughts moves alongside your own. You sense an instruction to your hands, motivated by that other will, but the wards resist the imposter. Next your mouth begins speaking in weird syllables, meaningless to you. You press your lips together and it stops."
[
intelligence] After all we've done to protect this world, why submit now? We retake control over what is rightfully ours.
[
success] "Your primal instinct, the will to survive at all costs, is something the immortal entity cannot understand. With the assistance of the wards and the focus of your intelligence, you are able to push the invader back, leaving it confused and frustrated. You realize that simply defying the Other is not enough. Instead you isolate one of its other directives -it is trying to find a way to communicate with Bennie, to command him to open the container- and dismiss it."
"Your attack takes the entity by surprise. Vying for control of your corporeal form, it continues to hammer against the wards, but does not understand the threat coming from the primitive mind it shares." Hubris will be your downfall you three-hearted fiend!
"Slowly, painfully, you gain ground, forcing it to submit to your will. All at once, the left side of your face goes numb."
[
constitution] "A stroke would be an unfortunate setback." We force our body even further.
[
failure] "Too late! The stress of the struggle within you is too much. Your organs rupture one by one, your brain starts hemorrhaging, (Again? Vibius seems to be a magnet for internal hemorrhaging.) and you who would be a god die shivering, locked already in your tomb, your goal a hairsbreadth out of reach."
"Betrayed by your own body..."
Well, I'm glad we could all experience that. Strange that the mindshield didn't come into play there, but I guess high intelligence takes precedence? I'll probably go through at a later point with a slightly different character build so we can see the god ending. I'd rather not have it be the first ending we get though, that would kinda spoil the other endings. We should get back to reality anyhow, goodbye for now.
And hello for now, welcome back to reality. We give Bennie the spear, but don't get on the Gods magic ride again. With that, Hellgate is finished, so forward and away we go. After getting some treatment for our laserbased injuries, of course.
"
The temple. (The Temple, The Temple, The Temple?) At last, the temple. You stand in awe of what was once a magnificent complex, a sprawling group of structures the size of Teron, dominated at its heart by the Great Ziggurat. Though time has reduced the walls and similar buildings to little more than rubble and dust, the ziggurat has resisted the elements."
"The shifting sands have drifted high on its steps and hungry vines have climbed its surface here and there, but the cracks on its outer shell are superficial. Its presence is like that of a solitary mountain, conveying agelessness and endless patience, seeming content to wait, though for what you do not know." In reality, we do, but imagine a world where we don't know what this place is or its purpose.
We gain 20 friggin' skill points for getting here which I guess makes sense since we can't leave now. We are trapped in the ending's grasp, and it won't let go!
The place is pretty enthralling nevertheless, why would we want to leave? At the very least leave without exploring which is what we're about to do.
Starting with this.
"You see an old man lying upon a bed, awake but ineffably weary. (This semi-sphere is looking into our soul, how uncouth.) His robes are both bloody and singed. A younger man, heavily armored, strides into the chamber, his eyes aflame."
"We beat them back," the younger man declares. "The ziggurat is intact, but the rest of the complex is gone." Pyrrhus will be sympathetic to you if you somehow manage to get the very minimum of support from your victory.
"To turn on our own brothers," croaks the old man. "Has it truly come to this?"
"They know what we did," the younger man replies, ignoring (or perhaps oblivious to) the larger implications of the question. "I don't know how, bu they know. They will never rest until the ritual is reversed. We've cast our lot and there's no going back."
"The old man nods, his lips moving silently as he thinks things through. "How many dead?" he asks finally."
"Thousands," says the younger man. He turns away, his confidence waning for the first time."
"The old man nods again. "Is He safe?" Define safe. I doubt that sleeping beauty appreciates being in the coffin.
"For now. The ziggurat is protected by heavy shields, as heavy as we know to make, but if they bring the machines closer..."
"Reroute all power to the tomb," commands the old man, "for it must not fail. Then take what men we still have and bathe Ganezzar in hellfyre."
"Hellfyre?" The blood drains from the younger man's face. He had been prepared to go far, but not that far."
"I will remind you of the price of failure," the old man says, pausing to spit blood, "the world will be cast in eternal darkness. Remember that!" He closes his eyes again, lying back for what perhaps is the last time." Seems like they failed then. Both Ganezzar is standing, and we are in a eternal darkness of sorts. Maybe it's for the best.
All of the shelves surrounding the semi-sphere are empty, presumably all the valuables were taken to Saross. All the surrounding rooms are just there for flavor, so vertically is the only way to go now.
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Topic: Let's Play The Age of Decadence Part Holiday Spirit: Christmas Special (Read 50591 times)