Okay, this time I'd catch their ambush...

I killed the bandits and rummaged through the house, stabbing attacks through the door where my assailants were hiding in order to avoid another knife to my back. I dropped off the roof and walked back up the chalky arched bridge.

+ Blood Drops Gained - 270

+ Blood Drops Recovered - 285

This time I was already prepared, my shield drawn up when the great bird's screech pierced the sky. Just as the condor fell upon me, I battered the buzzard away with my shield. The great bird of prey retreated up into the sky, but I wouldn't fall for the same trick twice.

I turned round to face the slope leading up to the cliff-side wall of the fortress and caught the two oncoming arrows with the skin of my shield. Peering over the bridge I could see my attackers were a pair of slack-jawed skeletons.

Then, just in the nick of time, I turned back to meet my avian opponent's charge with the edge of my blade. I beat the bird back for -145 damage, sending the great black vulture spasming, squawking, and wildly flapping its wings in fear and confusion. I wailed on the writihing creature with a chain of light attacks for -133, -137, -129 damage, and pounded it into a crumpled feathery lump on the ground.

I trained my focus back on the cowardly snipers who fired vollies at me from the safety of their slope perch. I marched my way off the bridge with my shield drawn, deflecting two shots as I began to climb the ramp towards my chittering opponents.

The first skeleton began to walk back and reload its bow in a panic as I closed in, but before he could make good on the attempt I cut him down with a heavy attack -156 and a light attack -131.

As I delivered the coup-de-grace, the other archer managed to hit me in the side for -190 damage, but it wasn't enough to save him, as I pounced across the walkway and struck him with a chain of light attacks. -132, -138, -141, and battered him down the steep cliff-side and into the oubliette below.

+ Blood Drops Gained - 275

The sentries defeated, I climbed up the yawning flight of stone steps that led to the entrance of the great complex. Outside it I found a chest that contained...

+ Item Gained - Obsidian Core

The use drescription read: 'Item used for crafting obsidian weapons.'

The lore description read: 'A clouded, glassy chunk of mountain-flesh which can be worked into all manner of blades if shaped by a master knapper.'

+ Area Discovered - "Hall of Stony Patience"

There was only one small doorway into the great temple that led into a long, narrow gallery, flanked on each end by rows of mummies, who rested on stone platforms, sitting on their knees and wrapped in black woolen cloaks, their hollow sockets gazing out unflinchingly at my passing.

Until one lunged out at me, tearing into me with its long nails and hissing at the profanity of my trespass. -171, -165, -168. I countered its attack with a barrage of frantic pummeling, -140, 138, -130, -141, -134 damage. It took a whole five attacks to smack down the vengeful spirit!

As I continued to cross the hallway I took careful notice to intercept any further attacks. Five rows of mummified sentries down the gallery, I noticed as one of the mummified bundles twitched ever so slightly, but by the time I was ready to meet it, the enemy had already gone aggro.

It managed to tear out at me for -174, -168, but I quickly raised my shield to check its blows and retaliated with a hammering of three heavy attacks with the war-club for -179, -182, -180 damage, leaving the mummy in tatters.

From that point forward I just started striking every resting body preemptively, instantenously cutting down one which lay in wait at the very end of the corridor.

As I inspected each of the mummies for a would-be ambush, I saw that one of the platforms lay bare. Instead of another dead body, an empty set of clothing had been lain out over it.

+ Item Gained - Pilgrim's Turban

LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 9 STRK-PROT: 9.4 SLSH-PROT: 8 THRS-PROT: 8 MAG-PROT: 9 FIR-PROT: 5 LIG-PROT: 7 POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 8 BLD-RES: 9 CUR-RES: 0

+ Item Gained - Pilgrim's Robe

LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 22 STRK-PROT: 26 SLSH-PROT: 22 THRS-PROT: 22 MAG-PROT: 23 FIR-PROT: 14 LIG-PROT: 19 POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 20 BLD-RES: 24 CUR-RES: 0

+ Item Gained - Pilgrim's Wrist Bandages

LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 5 STRK-PROT: 5.9 SLSH-PROT: 5 THRS-PROT: 5 MAG-PROT: 5 FIR-PROT: 3 LIG-PROT: 4 POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 4 BLD-RES: 5 CUR-RES: 0

+ Item Gained - Pilgrim's Loincloth

LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 7 STRK-PROT: 8.25 SLSH-PROT: 8 THRS-PROT: 8 MAG-PROT: 7 FIR-PROT: 4 LIG-PROT: 6 POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 6 BLD-RES: 8 CUR-RES: 0

+ Item Gained - Pilgrim's Sandals

LVL 1 PHYS-PROT: 7 STRK-PROT: 8.25 SLSH-PROT: 7 THRS-PROT: 7 MAG-PROT: 7 FIR-PROT: 4 LIG-PROT: 6 POIS-RES: 0 TOX-RES: 6 BLD-RES: 7 CUR-RES: 0

The lore description for the full set read: 'The trappings of a wanderer who traveled far and wide across the world in dedication to some deity. Supplicants wear the same stylings and funeral rags as a mummy, in order to assume the discipline and stillness of a stony lord while they endure weeks, months, or even years of excruciating bodily ordeals that they might be deemed pure enough to approach the oracle.'

+ Blood Drops Gained - 265

Coming to the end of the long hall of mummies, there was a doorway leading further into the structure.

The entrance led to a great open hall with a monumental domed ceiling, from which beemed down cracks of white sunlight. All across the hall's turbid basalt floors were littered a grizzly forest of skulls, limbs, ribs, and spines.

I stepped out further into the room and heard as ragged scratching echoed across the chamber. The bones littered across the floor began to roll and draw together. Out of the mass of human detritus, a swelling heap of remains congealed against me!

Boss: Will of the Yearning

As the mass approached, I batted it twice for -150 and -171 damage, reducing only a minimal sliver from its visible HP bar. In seconds it overwhelmed me and smothered me down in my weary and unhealed condition, burying me in a rushing tide of corpses of -611 damage.

'All is Lost' bellowed the screen as the flayed man disappeared under the avalanche of bone.

I growled beneath my breath.