Stalker 2: Swamp

[Part of the Wasted Land story]  

On the hunt for the Clear Sky base I run into Richter again at the Sultansk loner base (and bar) who provides directions to get through the swamp to the distant village but warns about the defenses setup to protect it from outsiders. Sure enough, a number of psi-emitting towers need to be disabled before I can proceed - one guarded by a mutant cat in a dark church!

Even without them the swamp is a hellish place to traverse with all sorts of anomalies, mutants, and hyper radioactive water - but I make it to the ruined and empty village and find the scanner in a basement, but no Faust. Now of course I have to make the trip back and running face to face into a pseudogiant was not on my bingo card. I fight for a bit until it's apparent that I don't have the ammo to take this monster down so I jump a broken bridge and flee through a bubble anomaly field which seems to make it lose interest.

Exhausted, I try to rest up at the nearest ranger station but instead encounter the Sparker faction and their leader Scar, who know I'm on the way to SIRCAA with the device. They don't want to stop me, they just want me to open a door in an underground tunnel while I'm there. Before I can give a proper response, Ward troops arrive and begin a gunfight so I dash out the backdoor to let them sort it out while continuing to jog to the SIRCAA research facility. Good thing I'm loaded up with energy drinks!

Dark Souls III: Laser Angels

Tales from Dark Souls - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Disorientation gives way to a familiar, spiraling landscape of cities crumbling in on each other as an angry black sun looks down. Looks like I'm back here, on the field of flowers where I had once defeated the Soul of Cinder. After shaking loose the cobwebs in my mind and muscles I found a new bonfire, one that leads me to the top of the Dreg Heap and offering one of the best views of the spiraling chaos anyone could ask for.

Something calls me forth, and I begin my descent through the familiar yet different, gravitationally warped locales and while the numerous undead here are quite manageable with funneling tactics I soon encounter a most curious and dangerous adversary - evil angels. These flying laser turrets are the bane of my exploration in this region, especially once I reach the mired swamp that everything seems to be pooling at.

Dodging that is pretty tough.

I meet the amnesiac knight Lapp, on this journey as well as Zoey the desert pyromancer who I best by kicking off a high ledge. Well technically, she actually dodged off and killed herself. It's the ever watchful eyes of the angels that pin me down here for a long time, until I finally find their weakness... hidden cocoon zombies who are individually quite helpless. Killing one insta kills the angel they control so I make it a point to find them and slay them all out of spite.

Dark Souls III: Farron's Keep

Tales from Dark Souls - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Tweedledee and Tweedledum?

Deciding to avoid the Crystal Sage for now, I find another path guarded by two bandits - a club wielder and a sword guy. I manage to kick one down a ladder shaft and follow up with a plunging strike. The second one opts to take the ladder down which makes it easy to hack at him while he is defenseless. Just when I think I'm doing well, I reach the next area - the continuation of the swamp, only this time it is green AND poisonous, meaning it is running time aplenty.

The giant leeches are the least of my worries as I scurry from dry land to dry land, avoiding the poison monkey men and giant swamp things wandering about. A sign near the start indicates that I'm supposed to turn off three flames to open "the door" too, and while the flames turn out to be little candles - of course they are all pretty well guarded. A ladder up leads to a really tall tower and the lair of Farron, the old wolf. He's eternally asleep though, and offers a PvP covenant to protect his swamp from invaders. As if this place wasn't bad enough!

Atop his lair are some gorgeous views, as well as extra items. There's also a huge demon like the one Ser Chubby helped with before, but I leave that one alone. Using that vantage point I can find the flames I missed and put them out too, opening the path to the next area which loops back to the non-poison swamp, and another bonfire within walking distance of the next boss, and Lord of Cinder, the Abyss Watchers.

Sounds like a boring job, watching an Abyss...

Interestingly the path to them is a battle site between the resident poison monkeys and a pair of dark wraiths, meaning easy souls for me and an easier time reaching the boss fog. This doesn't help me in the slightest once I'm inside though, as the dual wielding warriors (yes plural) make short work of me. For added difficulty my graphics card has a really hard time here and increases my "crash out of the game" ratio.

Dark Souls III: Marathon Man

Tales from Dark Souls - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

While at Firelink Shrine I purchase a sewer key being sold by the hag. Makes me wonder if she goes around locking all these doors just to make a profit. Anyway, after slaying the mandatory rats (same ones from before since it's the same sewer) I unlock a side grate and find the nun prisoner Irina, who offers to train miracles in exchange for freedom. Sure! This makes her guard, the gargoyle helm guy named Eygon, a bit annoyed but he suggests he will be an ally as long as I keep Irina safe. Safe like... keeping her locked up somewhere you psycho?

Anyway, the path forward was then to go to the tunnel under the sniper cathedral - guarded by a scary frost knight. Since he was too dangerous I lured him into an adjoining room and just ran past into the nearby forest, which turns out to be the home to a huge flock of wereharpy hollows. Not so bad if you kill them before they grow their wings but when they are "flight-enabled" they are quite annoying. I also put down a madwoman with a giant knife in the area.

Anri and Horace. You never see their faces.

In the bonfire clearing just past that I meet the knights Horace and Anri who apparently are on the same quest I am - to return the Lords of Cinder to their thrones. Good to know I'm not the only one! They offer me to join the Blue Sentinels but I decline, preferring to be protected rather than be the one doing the protecting. They are gone after I rest at the bonfire, so I continue alone into the next area - a swamp. At least it's not poisonous, it's just inhabited by crabs. The small ones are ok, but the giant ones I soon learn to avoid.

I also encounter a lone, sword wielding, Anor Londo Knight in one of the ruins - and knowing my parrying skill (as a player) is long gone I opt to flee to another set of ruins which is home to more hollows, and on the path beyond I find a Crystal Sage. This magic based boss relies on teleportation for movement which leaves him open for a lot of attacks, but once I got him to 50% he began using mirror images too and that proved to be my undoing. Sigh.

That's a pretty big hat. I wonder if this was Grigg's master?

Dark Souls: Queelag and the Lava Giant

Tales from Dark Souls - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

It's not long before I'm drawn to the horribly large spidery looking thing at one edge of the swamp. It's a lair, and judging from the hollows lying on the ground with large egg sacks growing from their bodies, I wasn't going to like what was inside. If you guessed it was a lava spitting drider named Queelag, then you've obviously played this game before. I am joined by Maneater Mildred in this battle, apparently she was very impressed by my thrusting last time and didn't want me thrusting any other females. I am sad to say she got bathed in lava. To be fair, so did I.

Man, I'd hate to see what happens if she farts.

It took a few attempts but eventually the drider is slain and the bell right behind her is rung which prompts a cutscene of a giant opening a familiar looking gate where Ser Chubby is. How I saw this in the spider lair, I have no idea. Deeper in the walls are covered in egg sacs, and one of those egg carrier bastards asks if I've come as a servant. I say no and promptly kill the hideous creature and the maggots which burst forth from his cancerous eggs (eww) since he was blocking the way to another bonfire.

A bonfire right beside another drider! Fortunately this one is peaceful and while I am super tempted to slay her, it's obvious that she is the fire keeper of this flame so I leave her be and follow another tunnel which exits into the Demon Ruins. The place is flooded with lava so there's not much to explore here. That is until I piss off the resident lava giant. Knowing I can't fight him (and survive) I decide to flee. The big guy leaps after me and misses, so I whack at his hand a little and he falls off the edge and ... dies? What?

Oh no, I'm falling into the lava... despite being made of lava... what?

Star Trail: Thalen the Mage

[Part of the Darklands of Arkania Story.]

In one section of the swamp the remaining party members find a strange, docile, swamp rantzy who happens to be wearing the signet ring of the soldier they were originally assigned to find. After checking on google what the hell to do (because it's no where near obvious), Shintar throws a net to capture it (the only time you can do that in the game). She then manages to carry the 500 pound thing in her pack for awhile until Thalen remembers to read the scroll they found at the sorcerer's tower: one about transformation to and from a swamp rantzy!

After performing a quick ritual the rantzy turns back into the soldier Agdan, who Wolfy promptly cures of disease and is nursed back to health at the safety of the lizard village and equipped with spare gear. During this time the lizard chief is thankful that the engulfer is no more and tells the party about Star Trail.

And it makes no sense.

The witch on the other hand is a different bag of crazy, rewarding the party by attacking them! Her wolf is easily put down but the old woman herself proves resilient with all her terror spells that send Wolfy and Shintar running like little girls. She's also proficient enough with her broom to knock out the two soldiers: Cooper and Agdan!

Ungrateful hag!

Ultimately it comes down to Thalen in a wizard vs witch duel, and in an epic moment of awesome, he turns the old hag into stone - winning the combat for the team. They all then raid her house and her herb garden in celebration before returning to Lowangen.

Star Trail: Denizens of the Swamp

[Part of the Darklands of Arkania Story.]

The fight against the gorillas leaves Alice with rabies, something even Aeternus cannot cure, so the team hurries with their search - finding a village of friendly lizardmen, an abandoned cart of supplies, and a witch. The crone wants the adventurers to deal with her nemesis: the sorcerer, who lives in a nearby tower while the lizardmen request aid against a monster they aptly named "the Engulfer" that keeps eating their kin. The team decide to go after that one first.

It's a miniature T-Rex!

The reptile is indeed monstrous, and manages to knock out Cooper and Thalen during the melee. It also devours Aeternus, killing him instantly. Alice manages to land good hits on the beast but ultimately it is Thalen's magic that brings it down. The next stop is the sorcerer's tower in the middle of a lake. Swimming there is pretty brutal damage wise but fortunately there are no adds to be found within. Instead the wizard summons a fire elemental who asks for keywords!?

Size = Power?

This took a while (and a number of reloads because its an insta-death scenario) but eventually the group spoke the correct words the elemental wanted to hear (apparently it watches Trigun, because Vash the Stampede's motto works), and it incinerated the wizard that summoned him before vanishing in a puff of smoke. Pity it didn't help the party return to dry land though, as on the swim back Alice was caught by the current and drowned in the boggy marsh.

Star Trail: Gorillas in the Mist

[Part of the Darklands of Arkania Story.]

Instead of going directly to the swamps to look for the missing soldier, Shintar and Wolfy opted to return all the way to Kvirasim to get reinforcements. The journey is made longer by having to circle around the river they sank the ferry in earlier but at long last they make it back to the starting town and easily gain the services of Thalen Firegoti the mage, Aeternus Sand the druid, Alice Plays the dwarf, and the warrior Cooper Mantly.

The new team.

The team get to flex their muscles on the way back South, slaying orcs and ogres that get in their way and are rewarded by gearing up at the Gashok markets before changing course Westward into the swamp. Aeternus' druidic skills are very handy in hunting game and healing various party members of illnesses on the journey, while Thalen's herb finding skills are leaving a lot to be desired.

Eventually they reach the vile swamp and find it to be inhabited primarily by zombies and swamp rantzies...

Green Gorillas!

Sojourn at Entropia: A Helping Hand

[Part of my Sojourn at Entropia story.]

Having picked up a -lot- of quests in the city, I decided I should try complete a few of them.

So it was time to drive again!

Handy that you can pack up your car into your pocket.

I decided to help an outpost clear up some dinosaur herds for a can of fuel.

Better than nothing I suppose! Also, it seems skills gain through use.

Someone buzzed me in a VTOL while I was doing so.

Inside the outpost there are also these ad spaces which I found pretty cool.

Obviously it costs to advertise too.

Sojourn at Entropia: Taking a Walk

[Part of my Sojourn at Entropia story.]

Growing bored of the dinosaurs at Camp Icarus I decided to go walking, eventually spotting something in the distance to walk towards.

Looks like a building?

Crossing the swamp I found some of these critters.

Don't let the heart fool you. It attacks with lightning! o.o

Medi-ball thingy is handy.

It heals with glowing light!

It's not just a building... it's a city?

And not just any city.

It's Port Atlantis.

One heck of a Detour

My journal through Stalker Soup - a mega mod for Shadows of Chernobyl! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Since I was stuck in the swamp anyway I decided to visit the Clear Sky base. Apart from a multitude of anomalies and a lone sniper in a tall tower, it was a pretty easy march even in the dead of night. The farmstead was guarded by four more Clear Sky dudes and sure enough they had a working teleporter nearby. Unfortunately everytime I used it, the game would eventually crash when exploring or opening the menu at their base so I elected not to use it. Just as well because the place soon came under attack by a group of snorks and two burers!

The jumping freaks killed two of the guys before I could put them all down, and the dwarves managed to slay a third leaving me with one exo-armored ally. Snuck up to a broken roof while he distracted them and managed to injure one with the Saiga. This one turned to attack me and exo-dude managed to shoot him dead while I did the same for the other one about to kill him. That was cool. After looting what was left (he looted heaps) I decided to sleep till morning since wandering in the pitch black was not fun at all. My nap was interrupted by an emission though (typical) so Exo dude and I waited it out in one of the houses. It was dawn when it finished and as soon as we stepped out we were attacked again by three snorks this time with 2 green swamp fleshes. Killed all hostiles and bid farewell to exo-friend who was left to guard the homestead on his own.

He was like this, only in exo armor. :P

Proceeded North East to the next Cordon exit on the map, stopping atop the sniper tower to shoot a pack of dogs who were going to be in the way. Seemed to be safer to go through the water-parts as there were less anomalies but I had to detour around a heavily radiated village. Found an unusable buggy at an abandoned factory as well as a pack of hostile zombie-cats all of whom met some bullets to the face. There was one last village to go through before the exit and this one was inhabited by more bandits, though very stupid ones. After sniping the first two lookouts I assaulted the compound and managed to flank and one-shot kill every single one of them.

Finally I was back in Cordon, though North of the tracks, so after fighting past a few fleshes and some of Colonel Vodka's reinforcements I was back where I began: at the village, scouting out the military base to the South with my binocs. It was then I decided there was going to be no sneaking. I would need to launch a head on attack, so with grenade launcher and plenty of ammo at the ready took aim at their parked tank.

Surprises in the Swamp

My journal through Stalker Soup - a mega mod for Shadows of Chernobyl! You can follow the rest of the story here!

My reward for the defense task was that Fanatic could create a teleport from here to the Army Warehouses in the distant north. The only catch was that I had to bring him a laptop from lab x-18, where I had just come from in the Dark Valley. Yeah, maybe some other time. First I wanted to properly scout out the base to the south. There were many soldiers and they had a tank, as well as chopper support. While navigating terrain to try flank the place I came across a small path that lead to the next area: Swamp. Curious, I followed it and at a nearby ruins found a small squad of four Clear Sky stalkers who apparently control this territory. They asked my help in rescuing one of their dudes from a strong bandit position at a large church, and I agreed. I didn't realize they intended for me to go right now in the dead of night though. The commander stayed behind while his troops forged on ahead into the darkness, so I could do little but follow.

Quickly recognized that there were plant anomalies here that do -severe- bleeding damage and learned to avoid those, then about halfway to our destination gunfire erupts. The guys had run into an Izolm being eaten by something I'd never seen before. It looked like a towering, hairless and very ugly gray monkey. Oh crap, yes I have - I only realized it now as I type that.

It was a librarian from Metro 2033!

The creature ripped 2 of the soldiers into shreds and the third one simply bolted, leaving me to deal with it. Great. :/ Fortunately I was way too awesome and made sure it didn't even touch me as I emptied two clips from the Saiga into the freak. Once it was dead I hoofed it to catch up with soldier #3 only to find his bullet riddled corpse near the church. I took up position at the broken wall near his corpse and engaged the bandits from there and they put up a really good fight despite only being around 8 of them. There were 4 more, the strongest ones in exo armor, napping at the church once I managed to breach it. Had they come out I probably would have been in trouble, but since they didn't it was easy Saiga headshots all around. I rescued the captive once all hostiles were dead and we both made our way back to the first guy who gave me the location of the Clear Sky base. It was again through a teleporter at a distant farm. Geez, don't people just walk anymore?

Decided to try return to the previous mission with the military base in Cordon but when I returned from the swamp I must have gotten lost because I appeared in a mine field, within range of their guns and tank, and as soon as I returned fire they sent their helos to get me. With no choice I backtracked into the Swamp.