[Let's Play] Blood Sword IV - Doomwalk

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 1:08 pm

Yeah, seems legit.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 1:17 pm

This new ship'd better have free booze onboard!

For days that turn into weeks, the longship bears you relentlessly north. Any player who is wounded can restore his or her Endurance score to normal.

Though you put numerous questions to the figurehead, she seems a creature of little intellect whom Entasius simply placed there as a diversion for passengers. Her conversation is limited to weather prediction and repeated estimations of journey time. At night she sings in a lilting voice - songs in Angate, about bereavement and the faded grandeur of Selentium. The shields along the sides chime magically to give her songs musical accompaniment.

On the deck are blankets, food and other comforts needed for the voyage. As you find the nights getting colder, you fetch thick furs from a locker in the stern.

At last the figurehead announces journey's end: 'Tomorrow we dock at the island of Magister Entasius.'

Godammit!

I'm just going to assume that "comforts needed for the voyage" includes booze. It stands to reason!

You are in a state of eager anticipation all the next day, but it is dusk before the figurehead announces landfall. You strain your eyes to pierce the mist and gathering gloom. A bleak stretch of pebble-strewn shore looms.

'Is this Entasius's island?' you ask. 'It looks like a barren rock.'

'The two are not mutually exclusive,' replies the figurehead. 'You may wade ashore from here.'

You disembark and trudge through the cold sea-water up to the beach. Turning, you find the longship is already moving back away from the island. A bank of fog hides her for a moment, and then she is lost in darkness.

You are standing on the bleak shore of Entasius's island. Tongues of mist drift in off the sea and lick around the barren rocks. You had expected a tower - or even a palace - but from the shoreline there is no sign of any habitation at all.

'You have come to see Entasius,' says a voice.

A woman in elaborate robes is standing on a shelf of rock above you.

'Yes, madam. Who are you?'

'I? I am his servitor. Follow me.' She indicates a path to the ledge where she stands, then leads you to crudely hewn stone steps to a cave mouth. By the light of a candle she is carrying, you make your way along a narrow tunnel that ends in bronze doors. Each door is fashioned with a face in profile, so that when closed they form the symbol of the old Selentine god Janus.

'Janus is the god of journeys - of beginnings and endings. Of thresholds. In view of your quest this has a special significance, do you not agree?' She taps the doors and they swing open, admitting you to a subterranean chamber. The rough walls shimmer in trembling light cast by thousands of candles set in niches and on the tops of stalagmites.

An old, old man sits on a stone block against the far wall of the chamber. Jagged stalactites form an arch above his seat. You could almost believe they were younger than he; in the candlelight his skin looks like wax.

'Entasius,' says the woman.

Entasius's eyes glaze and he seems to speak to himself more than to you. 'I remember distant days of youth, memories kept as in a glass locket. Cordelia was my love, her smile the sole cause of my heart's gladdening. I am chilled to the marrow by the cold of an unending night, and she is the only sun that can warm me. I live less in this world than in my dreams of the next, where she has gone. Sorrow spears my soul - an icy thorn that only her touch can withdraw.' He looks straight into your eyes. 'Descend into hell, then, I beseech - and bring her back to me.'

'This is a high price to pay for your aid. Who can say whether such a thing is possible?'

'Reason tells me it is not, but fie upon Reason for that! Why should Azrael keep her, his drear domain swallowing up her joy and darkening her radiance? I put my faith in Faith itself that she is not lost to me forever.'

'If it is the price you demand,' you say, turning away from his burning gaze, 'so be it. If there is to be any returning from Death's land, it will be with Cordelia or not at all.'

His face twists in the grip of desperate and unguessable emotions. 'Go then. My servitor will show you the way.' The candles around him flicker and burn low. You turn to follow the woman.

Of course, no mega save-the-world epic story is complete without a rescue-the-maiden sidequest inserted somewhere. I'm almost surprise it took 4 books for this to come up.

She takes you by means of another exit from the chamber along a labyrinth of tunnels that lead deep into the heart of the rock. At last you arrive at a cold room of undressed stone. There is one stone slab here for each of you to lie on. It makes you think of a tomb.

An alabaster jar stands in an alcove at one end of the room. The woman pours from it, handing each player a goblet of odourless black liquid. 'Lie down and drink,' she says. 'Then you will go to Death's kingdom.'

With a grimace of distaste you quaff the liquid. The stone presses like ice against your flesh as you lie down. The room becomes darker.

The woman is going out. Do you want to ask her a question? Such as: Why didn't Entasius go himself?; or What was the liquid you drank?; or How will you find your way to Sheol?; or How will you get back again?.

If you have no questions, turn to 471.

Any last words questions before we go to Hell?

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 2:03 pm

I'd ask how a senile wreck such as him expects to renew a meaningful relationship with a woman at most a third his adjusted biological age, but what do I know of romance. How will we get back?

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 2:22 pm

I want to know why he hasn't gone himself.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 3:08 pm

I agree with angel.

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 3:18 pm

I strongly suspect his excuse is that he cheated Death and Death won't let him out, but since our "natural" (man I hate that trope) lifespan hasn't run out yet, we might be able to get away.
(The real reason is he's a big coward. True heroes should rescue their girlfriends in person.)

Shiritai · Post by **Shiritai** » Tue Aug 04, 2015 9:47 pm

I'd bet they don't know how to get back either; at least that's what they're implying. So I'll third angel's choice; we may as well get something amusing out of it.

angelfromanotherpin · Wed Aug 05, 2015 12:20 am

Huh, an earlier clue says that only Entasius can tell us how to get back; maybe we should ask that. But is he really airhead enough to send us on the mission to bring back his squeeze without giving us that intel?

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 12:27 pm

angel's last post wasn't a very clear indication of whether he wants to change his vote. Since there'd be a tie if he does, I'd go with his original question.

You hear her voice fuzzily through the pall of sleep that is settling on you.

'Timor Mortis,' she says. 'He has searched a score of lifetimes for the secret of how to enter Sheol - he already knew the other secret, that of proroguing the journey. Now he is old; as old as the millennium. And like all old people, he must face his own mortality. He fears . . .'

Her words became thunderous and indistinct, drowned out in your ears by your own heartbeats.

Everything goes black.

So...yeah, Starmaker more or less nailed it. He's scared.

You awake, but it still seems that you are dreaming. The room is empty and silent. You wander through the labyrinth of rock, but you cannot find the woman or even the chamber where you met Entasius.

A piercing howl causes you to quicken your step. You see light ahead. You are on the beach, and a terrible storm is raging across the heavens. A deluge of rain envelops you, drowning out all the air. Black clouds hang like titanic warships in the sky, assailing one another with javelins of lightning. The sea seethes like a living thing.

A giant hound raises its head to regard you. No, not a hound - a jackal. Anubis, the guide of the dead. His howl summoned you, and you know that he will take you where you must go.

You smell his wet fur as you take hold of his flanks. His breath almost makes you choke, and his eyes are like dying embers. He strikes out into the sea and you cling to him for dear life.

Life ...?

The dream goes on and on. You forget the sea and the storm, and now feel that you are clutching desperately for Anubis's fur in the middle of a turbulent void. The image of a massive door, closed and bolted, looms before you. Anubis plunges towards it, dragging you with him. Then you cannot see or breathe. Suddenly you know that it is not a dream and, knowing this, you scream in mortal terror as a maelstrom of chaos sucks you inexorably down.

Down into oblivion ...

I always thought part of the point in coming to a wizard for help on entering hell is so that we can go there without going through the experience and sensation of dying.....

And didn't we already gank Anubis on our last adventure?

You wake to find you have been washed ashore on an unearthly strand. The sky above you is grey green, looking like a mausoleum dome. What light there is is feeble and colourless.

Nearby is a ridge of rocks leading up to a pebble beach. Beyond, stark cliffs rise up hundreds of feet. You look to either horizon without seeing a break in the cliffs. On the cliff top you can make out a broken ring of stone, though the only way up to it would seem to be by climbing.

If you climb, turn to 536. If you make your way along the shore, turn to 354.

Welcome to Hell! First stop in the tour: the shore or the cliffs?

angelfromanotherpin · Wed Aug 05, 2015 12:31 pm

The shore.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 1:36 pm

Sure, let's go with that.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 2:25 pm

What you took to be a pebble beach turns out to be strewn instead with hundreds of small grey skulls, like those of cats or rats. Avoiding this area, you walk on the very edge of the beach, where ashen grey sand is lapped by ashen grey water.

Suddenly the ground gives way under you. You are plunged to your thighs in damp sand. Pulling free, you struggle up to the firmer ground of the beach of skulls. You feel sick with horror when you see that your legs are now caked with half-congealed blood. It is not your own blood - you took no wounds, but the ruptured shoreline now shows livid gashes of red where your weight broke through the salt crust.

A skeletal figure claws its way out of the moist sand. Its yellow bones are slick with gore. Bright light burns in the sockets of its skull. You have just time to reach the cliffs and start climbing before it is upon you.

If you do that, turn to 536. If you stand your ground and fight, turn to 346.

Do we want to fight it?

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 5:00 pm

Not especially. Like, I totally think we can take it, but it seems likely to be a rewardless 'get moving' encounter. So let's get moving.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 7:36 pm

Yeah, let's leave Skeletor in the quicksand.

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 8:34 pm

I don't fancy climbing while under attack, but it probably regenerates and we'll still have to. Climb now.

Shiritai · Post by **Shiritai** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 9:25 pm

Yeah, take the high ground.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Thu Aug 06, 2015 1:41 pm

The cliffs are higher than you supposed, and the climb more difficult. Several times your feet slip or your hands close on a crumbling rock, and you almost fall to your death on the bleak shore far below. To your death ... It is an odd thought. What is the fate of those who die in Azrael's land? Oblivion, perhaps. Or something worse. It is a secret you must hope to avoid finding the answer to.

Yes, as suspected, there isn't any reward in killing that skeletal creature.

Eternity could have passed while you were scaling the cliffs. When you finally reach the top, you consider pausing in prayer for a moment. But it would be a futile gesture in this lifeless, forsaken place. The wind brings gusts of decay to your nostrils. Peering up into the cold sky, you see a few rotted squawking things that look horribly like dead gulls, flying jerkily above the cliff tops.

Now you can get a closer look at the stone torus. Presumably built as a full ring, the countless centuries of supporting the weight of its own arch have shattered it into a mere semicircle.

If you feel like a closer look, turn to 223. If you bypass it and head inland, turn to 250.

Investigate?

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Thu Aug 06, 2015 1:48 pm

Investigate.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Thu Aug 06, 2015 3:48 pm

Investigate.

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 1:44 am

Responding to your approach, a flickering light appears between the horns of the semicircle. Almost beyond the range of hearing, you can detect a keening note in the air. The gulls - or whatever they are - give strangled croaks and veer out away from here across the sea.

If the Enchanter is here and wants to cast Prediction, he or she should turn to 315. If not, you can investigate more closely; or forget about the broken torus and head inland.

Does the Enchanter want to try his spell?

Shiritai · Post by **Shiritai** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 2:27 am

Yes! What's the worst that could happen; death?

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 3:18 am

ENCHANTER:

You are pleased to find that your magic works perfectly here in the Afterworld.

[Looking through the curtain of Time, you see yourself locked in combat with a giant monster. It has a horse's head and fights with a crystalline mace. You try to see further. After slaying the giant, it appears that you are led to a valuable treasure ...]

The image fades. You are in the present again - if time can be said to have any meaning here.

If you choose to investigate the broken torus, turn to 163. If you head inland, turn to 250.

Still want to investigate closer?

Shiritai · Post by **Shiritai** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 12:19 pm

I share what I've seen, and vote to investigate.

Darth Rabbitt · Post by **Darth Rabbitt** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 1:53 pm

Investigate. Visions of pretty horsies aren't going to deter the highly trained mind of Pepito Cascadero!

SGamerz · Post by **SGamerz** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 5:03 pm

The glow becomes brighter and brighter. You have to shield your eyes. As it fades, you see a giant figure standing in front of the torus. Seemingly composed of black marble, it has the head and hindquarters of a horse but stands on two legs and has the body of a man. It regards you with its single, unblinking golden eye. In its hands it wields a glass-like mace.

'I am Typhon,' it says. 'You who have come here from the mortal vale now face a dilemma, for you must defeat me to have any hope in your quest. Yet I am unconquerable, and the touch of my mace brings the mightiest to their knees!'

Suddenly, even as you watch, cracks appear throughout Typhon's stone body and he crumbles to dust ...

Hey, that was easy!....

You are just relaxing your guard, wondering what happened to your 'unconquerable' foe, when suddenly he springs up out of the ground right in front of you.

'Learn this lesson quickly,' he says, giving a savage laugh like the booming of a thunderclap: 'nothing is what it seems in Death's realm.'

His mace swings down and slams into the first player with bonecrushing force. This player loses 15 Endurance points (less the usual deduction for armour). If you survive, you must fight him ...

Typhon the Giant

Fighting Prowess: 8 Psychic Ability: 8
Awareness: 6 Damage per blow: 6 Dice+1
Armour Rating: 3
Endurance: 70

If you flee, turn to 178. If you defeat him, turn to 61.

Ouch! The cheap shot hits the Warrior....who fortunately has an Armour Rating of 7, so she still has 31 END left.

Strategies?

Note that this isn't some Automation or brainless magic construct, so even though it's slow enough to be kited, I'll be inclined to rule that it's intelligent enough to counter that (it did just set a trap for us).

Adventure Sheet:

WARRIOR:

NAME: Dame Caecilia Wither-Stoat
RANK: 5th

Battle Order: 1

Fighting Prowess: 12
Psychic Ability: 7
Awareness: 8
Endurance: 31/39
Damage: 2 Dice +4 (+3 from Enchanted Sword)

*Extra Notes: Takes no FP/damage penalty when fighting unarmed, +1 Armour Rating from Potentiation on top of normal armour bonus

Items:
1 Enchanted Sword (+3 Damage)
2 Enchanted Chainmail armour (Armour Rating five)
3 Money pouch (empty)
4 Silver crucifix (with finger-bone of St Ashanax)
5 Iron Bell
6 Bedroll
7 Shielding Charm (+1 AR)
8 Dog-faced Creature's Spear
9 Ointment of Healing (10 Applications, +2D6 END each)
10 Empty slot

TRICKSTER:

NAME: Benedict of the Crimson Spires, Honourable Duelist
RANK: 5th

Battle Order: 2

Fighting Prowess: 8 (+1 from Enchanted Sword)
Psychic Ability: 7
Awareness: 8
Endurance: 31/31
Damage: 2 Dice

Items:
1 Enchanted Sword (+1 FP)
2 Studded Leather Armour (Armour Rating two)
3 Golden Snuffbox
4 Dervish's scroll
5 Gloves
6 Bow
7 Harp
8 Quiver (6 arrows)
9 Fur Cloak
10 Gilt-edged scroll
*11 Screebo the Raven

SAGE:

NAME: "Pepito" Cascadero, Master of the Mystic Way
RANK: 5th

Battle Order: 3

Fighting Prowess: 7
Psychic Ability: 8
Awareness: 7
Endurance: 26/26
Damage: 2 Dice

Items:
1 Quarterstaff
2 Ringmail Armour (Armour Rating two)
3 Seafaring Charts from Hunguk's ship
4 Bedroll
5 Magic Bow (Damage 1 Die+1)
6 Quiver (6 arrows)
7 Skull Amulet
8 Blue Crystal Eyes
9 Money pouch (empty)
10 Silver key to Fatima's garden

ENCHANTER:

NAME: Enchanter Reed, Ninth of the Inverted Tower
RANK: 5th

Battle Order: 4

Fighting Prowess: 1
Psychic Ability: 15 (+1 from Ring of Sorcery)
Awareness: 8
Endurance: 26/26
Damage: 1 Die +2

Items:
1 Brazier
2 Silver armour (Armour Rating two)
3 Bedroll
4 Magical Bread Crust of Infinity
5 Fur Cloak
6 Money pouch (26 gold pieces)
7 Ring of Sorcery (+1 PA)
8 Iron rations (7 days)
9 Amber Tinderbox
10 Empty slot