Adventuring in Gransys

I didn't expect to come up with another post quite so quickly. But after talking about adventures in other games, I thought I would share one of my latest.

Since getting Dragon's Dogma on Friday, I've been running across Gransys (that's the game world) having all sorts of fun over the weekend. So far, I've had my heart eaten by a dragon, became the Arisen, rescued my childhood friend, killed bats and wolves and eaten their meat, recruited a band of followers (aka pawns), and gotten my arse kicked by bandits and monsters bigger and tougher than me.

So sit down, make yourself comfortable, for I've a tale to tell.

Upon reaching the capital, I made my way to the pawn guild, where the guild master, Barnaby, asked me to head down into the tombs beneath the guild to find out the source of strange happenstances down there. Nodding to my main pawn, Triska, and followed by my two current pawns, we bravely headed down, following a ramp which spiralled down around the edge of a big, central chamber. Chancing to peer over the edge, I could see that the bottom was a long way down: long enough that the fall would mean certain death. Stepping back as I really didn't feel like taking that tumble, we continued on our way down.

It wasn't long before we met our first enemies.

Undead warriors burst from the ground, and skeletons formed themselve from the bones scattered on the floor. They were hard to kill, until out wizard enchanted our weapons with fire. In the end, we emerged triumphant, and I shared an exultant grin with Triska. It didn't last. For a while, I was lulled into a false sense of security. Now we had the measure of our foe, the undead didn't seem that bad. But, halfway down, we came across an ogre.

The ogre towered above us, a squat, muscular form, perhaps three or four times our size. Not as big as a cyclops, but still big. As one we attacked it, only to find our weapons did little damage. It's skin was dark and tough like leather. Hearing the fear in Triska's voice mirroring my own, upon realising this foe was perhaps too much, I was suddenly knocked back thirty feet by a mad swing of the ogre's arm, almost killing me. Picking myself up, I ordered my pawns to disengage, and we fled. It wasn't fear, I told myself, but prudence. We would come back once we were more seasoned. I didn't stop running until I reached fresh air.

Some time later, and many hours of adventuring later, we returned. The ogre and the mystery of what lay at the bottom of the chamber kept plaguing me, so after having fought our way across Gransys, and buying better equipment, as well as bringing two new pawns to accompany Triska and I, we returned to the chamber.

This time, the undead were easily overcome, and we soon came to the ogre. Having fought several cyclops, I applied a similar strategy, leaping onto the beast's back to hack away at the back of its skull, whilst my pawns danced about attacking it, and keeping it busy. Our attackes were working. It was hard, and slow, but we were killing it.

But the beast was flailing about, and I didn't notice that our fight was coming precariously close to the edge of the ramp. And then, inevitably, staggering under our blows, the ogre took another step. Only this time open air met its foot.

I had time to mutter, 'Oh shit,' as the beast plummeted over the edge taking me, clinging to its back, with it. I thought I was going to die. When we hit the bottom, the ogre crumpled beneath me, taking the brunt of the impact as it died. Bewildered at finding myself still alive, I stumbled off the corpse as my pawns raced down to me. Triska reached me first.

'Are you alright, Master?' she asked.

I nodded in response, brushing dust off my clothes. My legs were still shaking.Turning, I surveyed the chamber - our destination. There were pillars arranged in a circle around an indentation which glowed with an eery purple light. Stepping over to it, I examined the light. It was unnerving. Suddenly, snake-like monsters rose up from the floor. They were terrifying red, scaly things. Things that didn't die when we killed them. they were too much for us.

We ran again. But this time, I think were were wholly justified.