Post by Uesugi-dono on Mar 1, 2018 14:34:21 GMT
Now, as tribute, I repost this classic.
Deep in the Stonefang Tunnels
by Uesugi-dono on August 7, 2010
The air down here isn't what you'd expect. Normally mines are damp, rank, chilly places but the air in here is thick with sticky heat. I gaze up at the neighboring column as I cross the open expanse. The light of those infernal salamanders flickers in the misty dark but they are too distant to be of any concern. My attention falls to my feet. Runes are scratched on the floor here, warning of an ambush ahead. I offer a quick prayer of thanks and move forward slowly, alert.
The enemy springs his trap too soon and a large boulder shatters harmlessly on the bridge ahead. The ambusher follows his trap off a ledge above and lands with a thud. I raise my mace in salute as the soulless dregling charges straight ahead, its red-hot blade cocked back for an obvious thrust. I parry it wide and deliver the spiked point of my mace into its filthy abdomen. It doubles over, more from the force of the impact than any perception of pain that it might feel, just as I lift the mace high overhead and bring it down hard. The impact caves in its face and sends gore across the bridge as I step over its ruined corpse and continue on my path.
On the other side of the bridge the presence of thick spider webs and dissected corpses speaks of something far more sinister. Almost subconsciously my hand moves to the holy symbol on my belt as I ready my shield and press onwards. Whatever made these webs is enormous. I scan the ceiling as I creep into another cavern coated in webs. Ahead is a lift device. I turn the crank and the platform lurches as I begin to descend into the fetid mists of the lower mine.
At the bottom the heat is oppressive, a sticky film clings to my body as I approach a mist-shrouded corridor. As I'd seen before in Boletaria the mist is tangible and I am forced to press my way through. Once on the other side, however, the mist behind me coalesces into a solid wall.
I am trapped.
The one-way tunnel ahead is suddenly obscured by a spider of unbelievable size. I steel myself, shield high, as I charge towards this foe, mace lifted behind me. "God give me strength!" I pray as the hideous beast lowers its demonic head and suddenly spits fire at me! The impact on my shield is tremendous and stops me in my tracks as blisters raise on my left arm. Determined, I lower my defense and run fill sprint at the monster. Its head lifts above the tunnel mouth and it shoots something from its abdomen. I bring my shield up but whatever it is it strikes me and envelopes me. It's webbing. The strands are like ropes clinging to my body as I struggle to move forwards. The demon lowers its head, eight devilish eyes burning into me as it once again spits flame at me. I try to bring my shield up but the webs cling fast. In a panic I tug and tug but to no avail. The sticky, tar-like burning substance engulfs my body. The pain is unmeasureable, I can literally feel my flesh sloughing off my bones as my lungs incinerate. My vision melts in white-hot flame and I know that I have died.
Only, I can't die. Not here. Not in Boletaria. My essence reforms in the Nexus yet again. The look on my face is one of grim annoyance as I stomp back towards the archstone yet again.
God, I hate spiders.
On the Ramparts of the Boletarian Palace
by Uesugi-dono on August 16, 2010
I pay the dragon no heed. Has he not done most of my work for me? I sprint past the smoking corpses of dreglings as the mist from my watershield spell trails behind me. I make it to the other side long before the wyrm has a chance to roast me.
I am greeted by several dregling archers. Their attacks are ineffective against my shield as I dash their soulless brains from their heads. I must do so quickly as one of the knights guarding the bridge races towards me. His eyes burn with azure flame, marking him as a minor demon and easily dispatched with a dodge and two swift mace blows. His compatriot, however, used his fellow's dispatch as a chance to get in close. Throwing his shield against mine he knocks me off my guard and thrusts the point of his large sword into my mailed abdomen.
The resulting wound is grevious. I consider backing away but the roar of the dragon wheeling overhead tells me this is not an option. If I could somehow manuver behind him and get him in the wrym's path... My enemy swings and, without thinking, I roll around him. This feint gives me just enough time to pull my holy symbol from my belt and cast my healing miracle. The enemy lunges at me but this time I am ready. Parrying his blade wide I end him; thrusting my mace point into his groin before snuffing out that unholy blue light in his eyes.
I turn and walk across the drawbridge as my foe crumples behind me. Ahead is another mist-shrouded doorway. Steeling my nerve I advance. Rumor has already informed me of the great foe that lies beyond...
It has not, however, informed me that the Tower Knight is so named because he is the height of a castle tower! Nor has it divulged the legion of archers captained by one of those damned, fire-spitting sorcerers that ring the courtyard beyond. Fearlessly I bring my shield up an...
*This narrative is interrupted by me, the actual player, who has now turned the game off before I have the chance to be slaughtered by a Godzilla-sized suit of armor and his merry band of crossbowmen. Forget this whole thing ever happened!*
P.S. Forsooth I am betrayed by my player, yet I shall return... maybe in about 30 soul levels....
What Have I Become?
by Uesugi-dono on August 23, 2010
When I came to this place, through those fetid mists, I came as a priest; a man of God. I came to succeed where so many before me had failed; to liberate the northern Kingdom of Boletaria from the demonic plague that first engulfed it and now threatens the entire world. Trusting in my faith I entered those mists... and died.
I have now been resurrected into my corporeal body on three separate occasions and as a spirit more times than I can recollect. I have no memory of time as it once existed for me, for such measurements are useless in the Nexus. I cannot say how long it has been since the body I was born with died, but I know that I have changed. Once I was devout, one shepherd amongst many leading a flock through evils that none of us had ever dreamed of. At that time I could not imagine violating the rules of my order, no matter what obstacle lay in my path. So strong was my faith.
Today I slew three enemies of note:
The first was the red dragon that preyed upon the palace ramparts. I brought it down with arrows; a weapon forbidden to my order.
Next I killed a mortal; the king's executioner, Miralda. She foolishly sprang an ambush on me, not realizing what I had become. I dispatched her with magic; an abomination in the eyes of God.
Lastly I brought down the Tower Knight. I did not fight as I had been trained. I discarded the armor of my order, I lay down my mace, and I brought the giant lo with an ensorcelled falchion; a bladed weapon that is denied to me by God.
I have become the Terror in the Nexus.
I fear my soul has blackened. I have slain the innocent. No longer do I fear what lay before me. I can recollect the first time I heard that dragon's roar and fled in the opposite direction. A far cry from my latest incarnation that stood upon a tower ledge firing arrows and spells at the wyrm. I remember the first time the executioner chased me across the palace grounds screaming that I was traitor to a king that I owe no allegiance to. She is hardly fearsome when her body is blasted apart by spellcraft and bludgeoned beyond recognition, laying amongst the remains of the dreglings I had slain to get to her. I recall easily the abject horror that swept over me when I first beheld the Tower Knight. Horror I felt none of as I cleared the ramparts of crossbowmen before cutting his feet from beneath him and butchering his head in a single pass. In fact I snorted with derision as I suddenly regarded this fallen behemoth as the single easiest foe I'd yet faced in all of Boletaria.
Perhaps the crestfallen warrior in the Nexus is right. Maybe I have fallen for their trap. As I collect more demon's souls maybe, just maybe, I am becoming a demon myself. The thought alone is disturbing but more frightening than that; I'm not sure that I mind. Perhaps that is why God sent me here. Perhaps I have become the sacrificial lamb that God requires to save the world. The longer I am trapped here the more one addage repeats in my head...
"Thou who gazeth into the Abyss; the Abyss gazeth into Thee as well."
