Elden Ring: No joy ahead

[Part of my Elden Ring journal]

Feeling more courageous now after adventuring with Blaidd, I return to the well fortified stone bridge in the South and decide to rush it on horseback! Some how this works, and I come across the blind Irina who pleads with me to help her father at Castle Morne where their servants have rioted. I happily comply and ride right into a giant golem shooting missile sized arrows right outside the castle... WTF!?

Shooting right past that and into the castle itself I find the servants to be ugly harpy like things that are mostly too busy to see my crouch walking past them and up to the ramparts where Irina's dad Edgar is. He refuses to go however, because he's too worried the beast servants have made off with the castle's sword? Fine, so I traverse the rest of the castle and kill the boss-servant who wields said sword (aggression is better here) to convince him to finally go to Irina. We both travel to her and find her cleavered remains.

Home run!

While Edgar weeps I try hunt down the murderer by exploring the nearby surrounds but only find a tunnel filled with more servant things that I'm not keen on exploring just yet and a tower guarded by three spirit turtles who I slay to break the magic barrier, but am just rewarded with more treasure I'm not going to use. My bag is actually filling up with gear I can't use now as I'm only putting points into HP or Strength.

Wildermyth: Gorgons Return

[Part of the Cursed story line]

As the others are dealing with Vulture bits, Macko and Milly meet the former's estranged mother who convinces them to donate resources for her new business. Soon after the two join Lillo, Macius, and Pump to easily wipe out some bandits before investigating a new batch of petrified people. They soon discover that the gorgons are coming back in big numbers, with even more wildlife going crazy this time including gigantic bears!

After an ambush in the forest where it seems gorgons are common now, Milly's prayers to divine the source of this foe is answered by the turtle god - across the ancient great wall to the West. It also mentions the gorgon's main force hasn't crossed it yet - all these ones are just scouts. In exchange for the information the turtle god transforms Milly into a turtle and takes her away as another of his turtle friends.

With no time to waste her allies race to the wall picking up Iris and Barbara on the way, reaching it just before the gorgons main force arrives. Luckily the catapults are in good working order which obliterates the attackers. The only scary part is when a bogmoor pulls Macko off the wall with its tongue, but he survives the ordeal. In fact he is more hurt when he later discovers his mother never started that business at all, and instead gambled away all he had given her.

Wildermyth: Inside at Last

[Part of the Cursed story line]

"The Deepking, like most of his kind, probably keeps his treasures on the top floor of the place. Close to his heart...and far from his servants."

The war against the Deepists continues for many months while Garrett scouts a way to the Deepking's underground castle. Baeloth (of all people) joins the fight to aid the heroes, acting as some sort of conduit to for giant bugs that offer their aid in fighting the Deepists (possibly because they want those tunnels the Deepists live in).

Once Garrett makes it back, he assembles a squad consisting of Dranalla, Anythera, Milly and Trynne to assassinate the Deepking. Stealth goes out the window pretty quickly as the team must rush forward through Deepist guards while endless Deepist reinforcements come up their rear. It's a trap!

Luckily they reach the Deepking and his new Deepqueen Krisztian (side note: this game is very LGBTQ+ friendly) who put up a decent fight with all their AoE attacks but are unable to kill anyone before being slain themselves. Being shown the decapitated head of their monarch makes the remaining Deepists flee back into hiding where they continue to get massacred by the giant bugs that follow them there. It isn't long before the bugs decide to try do the same to the surface dwellers.

Wildermyth: Turtling

[Part of the Cursed story line]

With the loss of their fort, the Deepists go on the offensive - now led by priestesses and "fathers" and "mothers" to attack villages all across the land so Nyrissa hires her old acquaintance Garrett and his new squad of Anythera, Martvaer and Dranalla to assist while locals Este and Macius also volunteer to help fight this cult menace. Este in particular is effective at bashing their heads in with her mace.

Eventually the team is invited by the Deepking for a parlay truce in their subterranean tunnels that turns out to be more of a "you're pretty tough. join us to live forever or die now," speech. Krisztian, ironically the first Deepist victim the Cockatrices saved, is moved by this promise of immortality and accepts to join the cult much to the shock of his comrades. While the Deepking leashes and walks away with his new toy, his forces swarm the others who must fight their way to the exit.

Nyrissa's previous method of using plants to block their pursuers path is ineffective as a giant minotaur easily tramples over them and crushes Martvaer underfoot. With escape looking bleak she pleads to the universe for more power... and it answers in the form of a lonely turtle god that offers a trade: the strength for everyone left to make it out safetly in exchange for Nyrissa becoming his new turtle friend. She agrees, they escape, and she is transformed into a turtle before being whisked away.  

Can't tell which one is scarier...

Wildermyth: How deep is your Cult?

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Having been rescued from a Deepist cult cave by Runea and Nyrissa, Krisztian vows revenge and joins the Cockatrices after convincing them of their expanding threat. They also hire the outlander Kaelun to assist during their travels, encountering a few left over evil deadbots in the process. One village even lives happily with them now. Feeling that perhaps those were Misia and Hally's goodbots they are left in peace.

Eventually the party clears a Deepist fort guarded by their stronger minotaur-shifting members, as well as an actual massive minotaur who Nyrissa kills using her plant pull into Krisztian's rapier (teamwork!) but proving that humans are always the worst threat it is a trio of simple brigands unaffiliated with the Deepists that manage to kill Kaelun in a close quarter ambush.  

Wounded from a against a lizardman incursion, Runea contracts an "uncurable" disease which rots her from the inside but she and Krisztian find research that leads them to a rare, one use magical cure all which they get from an easily defeated gorgon. Runea opts to use it on a petrified adventurer nearby though, freeing the mystic Trynne Ocean who agrees to join the Cockatrices as thanks, along with her now same aged daughter Milly. Runea later  succumbs to her illness.