Sacred: Descent

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

Apparently killing a man makes him friendlier in this game, as Shaddar went on to explain what exactly was going on. Apparently some powerful wizard demon lord guy named Anducar was opening up these portals to begin his invasion of the realm, and for some reason Anducar also had Vilya hostage (as opposed to her being killed earlier). I don't think to question how Shaddar knows this, but he does ask that I clear the demon scum from his tower as that is the site of another gate.

How I'm feeling at this point.

One quick Subkari and Sakkara demon fight later (with the Sakkara fought in the same room I defeated Shaddar), Shaddar says that I will need the "Gem of Light" to defeat Anducar, and that item is with Hell's Blacksmith Neophystis just as the ghost of Prince Valor shows up again just to urge me to save Vilya once more. Really tempted to use an "undeath death" potion on that fool.

Anyway, after fully loading up on potions again I begin my descent from the mountain. My fricking LONG descent from the mountain, fighting through more shadow demons and the fast little ones and past cerebopod land into a dark cave which only has more of the same waiting for me. I can't really blitz through it so it is slow and methodical at this point, unlocking the four locks scattered around the place while trying to conserve as many potions as I can. Once that is done I descend even further and find what I suppose are the gates of hell, open and waiting for me to enter.

Sacred: Volcano Island

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

Upon arrival at the Volcano Island we were greeted by ex-captain Vernon and a whole slew of his undead crew. After dispatching them he begged for his undead life, asking me to find three pieces of a necklace to... I zoned out at that point. I don't fricking negotiate with the undead - much less undead that just tried to kill me. After smashing his face into dust I proceeded into the volcano itself where the rather pleasant undead were replaced by Mohkva and those irritating Shadow Demons.

That's what ye get for refusin ta parley!

Fortunately it was a small underground zone and as expected the pirates turned on me since the demon was actually based in their treasure chamber. After killing them all I proceeded in to face yet another Sakkara demon. I'm beginning to wonder why I needed to create that gem to beat the first one if they seem to be so common now. Anyway with it dead I hop into the warp gate it is guarding and land right beside the Subkari demon on the other side. Good thing I brought a lot of potions!

With the gate shut I found myself now trapped in a cave full of shadow demons and had to navigate my way out, slowly. The Mohkva's here have taken to riding the giant bugs from before so now they are twice as annoying. Great. Eventually I find stairs out and onto a high walkway above the forest which turns out to be the home of the dryads. Huzzah! Safety! Well no, of course the dryads are also hostile. *face palm*

Sacred: Cursed Forest

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

With Vilya freed the ghost of Prince Valor showed up again, saying there were more portals to be closed. He then asked if Vilya should accompany me or he should keep her safe. Wait... if you can do that you damn ghost then what the hell did you need me for!? I tell him to keep the girl safe out of spite so that he can make himself useful, then using a portal which takes me back to the mine entrance run back through all the bugs to get to Purgatori.

There I was told that one of their members had been taken captive, and that he might know where this next gate is. Sure enough he had been caught by the Mohkva in the nearby forest maze. I freed him just fine, but we found ourselves trapped in the forest by the magic of the evil Nuk-Nuk (goblin zombie guys). The only option was to kill the Nuk-Nuk leader which proved to be a most challenging task since his ranged attacks were almost one hit KO's. It required a bit of arcade skills and a fair number of potions to get the hang of it.

Speaking of spooky forests, I think Aokigahara classifies as one.

Unfortunately the captive guy didn't do so well, but with his dying breath told me the next portal was in the woods nearby. I decided to go for it immediately, rushing past the many snake men along the forest path when I suddenly came upon - Vilya? Damnit Valor, you are a complete failure - even in death! Anyway, the Baroness brought her bow to help out a little and I must admit it did prove useful to defeat the next Subkari demon we encountered. We needed to duck into the shanty huts while doing so to avoid its AOE attacks but eventually downed the bastard. At this point I was out of healing potions.

Sacred: Holy Hell

[Part of the Sacred Journey.]

Took a much needed detour to a massive walled city called Purgatori to take a breather from running from all the giant bugs. I also decided to help out the residents there with killing undead goblin creatures and ghouls, dealing with a demon who wasn't a demon, and baking cookies. Once that was done I set out again to find the mines, stopping only to aid a woman being chased by a swarm of giant wasps. Just to give you an idea of how tough the foes here were I really needed to use my BFG to stand a chance.

Finally I reached the mine and it was filled with shadow demons and demon worshipping Mohkva people. While the worshippers weren't much of an issue, those demons were crazy strong - came in groups of 6-8 and all of them could paralyze me which meant running past was not an option and fighting without the BFG was a risky gamble. This made traversing this place a frigging long nightmare.

At least the second floor was home exclusively to flaming spiders (how does that work?) which made it really quick, but the last floor again had the demons that needed to be slowly ground through. Eventually I came to the kidnapper demon, a strong Subkari type who didn't have the path finding issues of his predecessor. Still, it was a doable fight and eventually I was victorious. It seemed to be guarding a gate though which needed both ends shut so I stepped through and found another Sakkara demon!

Did you miss me?

Yup, another boss fight right away and this time with no geometry to hide behind. Fortunately it wasn't as strong as the last one and I still had enough healing potions to just power through it. Once it fell I returned to the underworld where the now freed Vilya was waiting. If only that was the end of it!