Legacy - God in an Alcove

Written by Morpheus Kitami

Well, I'm glad I got the help I needed...well...help, anyway. Apparently I missed something in what I called the dismembered zombie room. Its also a teleport room. A dismembered zombie teleport room. There's a sentence in the English language.

There's a lot of opening doors in the log.

This beam is reachable now. Forgive me for not thinking that, when pressing forward multiple times did nothing but hurt me. You have to wait until the chains go out of the way. It teleports me...somewhere...to another room exactly the same down to the location of the severed zombie. Really? You have very few chances to impress me game, and you keep disappointing.

The only reason I haven't had to shoot a girl coming out of a TV set is that its 1992

Egyptian-themed...well, we've gone into horror kitchen sink, haven't we? Demons, evil gods, zombies, evil sorcerers, ghosts, serial killers and now mummies. Jesus, at least Elvira was slightly tongue-in-cheek about things...I'm getting off track. Hey, its Carl again...for some reason...

Oh, no, how horrible

This time Carl isn't interested in talking, no, he's just interested in fighting. Against someone with body armor and a M-16. Its a long and tough battle, in which he takes around half a magazine from me and stabs me once. It takes 24 hours, but the end was glorious. He doesn't drop anything, but he is guarding another kind of robe for some reason. I feel cheated.

Horned skull...sure did a good job there boys

Exploring this area starts off...boring. There are no enemies, and more than a few locked doors. I can't exactly unlock the doors, and I don't know what stat governs the Eye's unlocking ability. I do find a horned skull...which is for something. What, I don't know at this point. There's also a pressure pad that does nothing and a note.

The Working Notes

Of Nathan Prentiss

Vol. 2

June, 1962

I and my Acolytes of Doom have completed the Rite of Forbidding. We have left the Mark of Eliphaz in many places within the temple. The Mark is death to all trespassers; while we Acolytes, clad in the likeness of the Mark, may pass safely. We alone know that the Mark acts through the eyes. Its power lies in its very aspect.

Okay...Firstly, I like how Nathan has the imagination of someone who got their first DnD book last week. "Eliaphaz"? Think about that for a few seconds. What's useful is that I have to pick up that robe and wear it. Its not exactly a puzzle now.

At least they look...good, from a certain point of view

At this point all the doors I have left are locked, so now all I have left are using magic to open them, I don't have a key. Takes a few tries, but the door opens. Then pops in a mummy. They're...weird. They hit like a truck and might have a ranged attack, but they seem to not always chase after the player depending on how they're going. They don't eat M-16 ammo like candy though, which is good, I can actually kill them without burning through the magazines.

As if this game wasn't stingy enough...

Then the game decides now its time to start screwing with me. It starts with a crystal, then another M16. Items that are tricks. You pick them up (or examine them as I was) and they disappear. I have no idea if this is just a trick or if the items were really there. If they were, someone better tell me, because one of them was another fungi. If it is a trick, that's a rotten one, considering I found the fungi hours ago. The walls have a bunch of weird graphics that aren't like the ones on previous levels. Here, there are four designs, compared to the relative uniformity of the other floors.

This is the symbol I think, you can't examine it, for some reason

I find another note by Ellen. This is too good to just skim over.

Since I escaped, I have hidden in the temple where Robert will never think of looking for me. He doesn't know that I know the way.

I also know that those things which look most inviting are often most dangerous. And where there is real danger, something inviting may also be found.

They think me mad, but I know more than all of them. I do not face walls.

First of all, there isn't another entrance into the temple, I look everywhere later, I want to know how that painting reappeared. And how Robert didn't notice the smell. Secondly, there are mummies around, how are you going to walk here without looking at walls? You can't just close your eyes. Then shortly after I find another note. When Saiph in Orion is swallowed by darkness, Alberoth will depart. I'm not sure if I want that or not.

There's a safe room here at least

At some point I acquired the spells Obsidian Shard of Annihilation, (attack) Mantle of Endurance (defense) and Malevolent Compression. (debuff, shrinks) I'm not using any of them unless they're actually necessary. There's yet more notes, one written by...a mysterious...writer...Is Carl actually a Winthrop for real? Its about how every 50 years the Golden Torc is returned, a Winthrop dies and a new gate opens. The final gate is going to be open soon. The writer is a Winthrop sneaking around. If it is Carl he is terrible at this stealth stuff.

Obvious trap is obvious

The rest of the unlocked area consists of a bunch of long corridors and a room with some obvious traps in it. You open one up, and an item drops out, in addition to a mummy. Two of them drop .45 clips, but the other drops a museum plaque, Demon Mask. Nice, at least something is looking up here.

Then it gets interesting. There are some six locked doors, three leading to the center, three outside of the center. With the three in the center, its easy for me to assume there's some kind of weird trick going on that will be solved when they're all open. The one that's open has a pressure plate. I can't remember how I opened it, it clearly wasn't through magic. The other three...well, one of them opens, the others don't. At all. I'm once again back to cheating. Remember, its not cheating if you only use it to save yourself the trouble of savescumming to find out where to go next. At least that's what I'm going to tell myself as I rock myself to sleep.

INFINITE POWER

So I crank up my magic really high in order to see where I can go. Two of the doors are unpickable. Trust me, I tried. For a considerable amount of time. One of the others has nothing. The center ones? Well, that's a puzzle that can be solved by walking over all four pressure plates. That opens the center chamber, where there are two touchable bricks and a slot. The bricks open a passageway between sections of the center, each containing an item and a mummy. So there are four rooms with slots, four corridors with a mummy and an item. Its at this point that I realize what the slots might be for. The Chinese Coins are the only answer. This must be where I summon the Karcist. Great.

Oh, no no no no no

Ten minutes later and I have the coins. The heart too, since I think I needed that to summon him. One by one they go in. This is really happening, isn't it? The fourth coin opens a central room, containing five pillars, the four coins I used merely fell down. I...I must have made a mistake somewhere. I clearly must have the key to the doors on the pressure plate rooms...no...no...I don't. Oh...good...good...good...good.

He doesn't look a day over 100

As each coin goes in, the container holding it disappears. Then the Karcist, Elias Winthrop appears. It seems that each of his descendants must be killed for Belthegor to be summoned. I can keep talking, but I'm prepared to die here.

But then the dialog takes a turn. The heart was all I needed to protect myself from the Karcist, and he claims to have been tricked into serving Belthegor. This got interesting. Very, very interesting. If I give him the heart he'll tell me how to kill Belthegor. I think the magician who got trapped on the Ethereal Plane only gave us a spell that might be useful...and you know what? It isn't like I have a save or anything. Although if I didn't, I would absolutely destroy the heart.

Yep, now he looks lame

Turns out Mr. Horrible Governor isn't very trustworthy. Fortunately, with infinite mana he isn't very hard to kill. Doing so gives me enough experience to get two points of willpower, and he drops a note telling me to find a meteorite fragment in the sea temple and take it to the room of skulls. Now, to redo this all legitimately...sigh...that's going to add to the length.

I didn't realize it at first, but the doors show the Kabbalah tree of life

At some point I picked up a boombox, called in-game "Ghettoblaster", I had to fix it, but when I turn it in it changes music tracks. It must be useful for something, but what, is the question. Eventually I manage to do everything legitimately. Doing so reveals that killing him doesn't quite get me enough for 2 (I had to use my previous experience on meditation to get enough mana) but I do get some free mana out of the deal. Nearly finished off my M-16 ammo. But there's a loose end here. One I think can be solved with the remaining ammo.

Uh, hey, did what you wanted. Also, why aren't you dead?

Nothing happens. He doesn't care. He's still here, walking around. I can't interact with him. I'm not going to kill him in case I have a reason to later, but this is some sloppy writing. You go to all the trouble of coding characters, but you don't think that someone might come back to the one that's alive and not running away? I don't know what to say.

WHAT? WHAT?

I had two more ideas on this floor. One, maybe the horned skull did something in the chalice room. It didn't...at least, I think it didn't. At some point I accidentally left click on the statue...which starts talking to me. Talking is a strong word, more like yelling at me. "Take the chalice." Okay, I guess I need to make space...oh, I'll just drag the chalice...and it burns me. Its turned into some weird demon thing. At least that's a problem solved. Oh, sure, new problem, but a new problem is better than no problem and no path forward.

The other idea, remember when I found the pedestal for the Hand of Glory and the horned skull? Well, I'm thinking now that I have it, I can put them there and something will happen. Nothing happened. This isn't going to be ending anytime soon, is it?

Items I have not identified the use of yet: Fungi, Astrolabe, Red Potion, Oil Lantern, Remote Control, Mortar & Pestle, Chainsaw, Horned Skull, Ghettoblaster

Spellbook: Shroud of the Shadow Walker, Agatta's Iron Fist, Belgor's Mental Violation, Elixir of Health, Aura of Mystic Defense, Flames of Desolation, Dimensional Rift, Key of the Shadow Lord, Crimson Mysts of Myamoto, Xython's Guiding Eye, Wind of Destruction, Sight of the Dark Walker, Arcane Tower of Reason, Obsidian Shard of Annihilation, Mantle of Endurance, Malevolent Compression

This Session: 3 hours 00 minutes
Total Time: 34 hours 00 minutes

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There’s a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I haven't made any requests for assistance. Thanks!