[x] If it worked once, it'll keep working. Stay close and keep taking pot-shots.
(Up close and personal: 65 + 5 = 70)
It seems like staying close is going to be the best option, judging by how he's acting. You're proven correct when Gundyr leaps forward once again to try and skewer you with his halberd, which you narrowly dodge. The halberd instead smashes into the wall where you were a moment ago, throwing up a thick cloud of dust, ash and powderized stone. With the visibility reduced from all the junk in the air, you're free to get a good, clean hit on him finally.
(Swing & Stab: 50 + 5 = 55)
Or so you'd hoped. However, Gundyr tears his halberd out of the wall that he impaled it into, the force clearing the area of any particles still floating around in the air. Seeing you rushing him again, he raise his left hand to try and grab you. However, you're too close for him to be able to do so, and instead he merely blocks your thrust with his hand, the sword going clean through, all the way up to the hilt.
Despite the sudden new addition to his palm, Gundyr's hand is still large enough that he's able to grab onto your own hand, which is still gripping the hilt of your sword. You struggle, trying to pull the blade out, or to simply force the blade downward through the rest of his hand and into his arm, but his sheer strength prevents you from moving the blade, let alone your body, an inch. Gundyr, now having grabbed a hold of you, idly raises you up above him, swings and releases, sending you flying towards the edge of the cliff
(Sticking the landing: 75 + 5 = 80)
Without losing a moment you have another sword in hand, which you thrust into the ground to help slow you down. You're able to decelerate enough that you Gundyr lets out a grunt of pain as he pulls your sword out of his hand. Compared to him, your sword looks more like a knife than anything. As you rush back in, you throw a four swords at Gundyr, one of which he smashes apart with his halberd, two of which miss, but the last lands in Gundyr's leg, setting the hulking warrior off balance. You take the opportunity to charge back in at him another blade at the ready.
(Barring the Abyss: 40)
Blood continues to drip down out of Gundyr's many wounds. The arena is now practically coated in the stuff, to the point where you're not sure how he's even still standing, let alone alive. Suddenly, Gundyr begins spasming, his body convulsing in a painful manner. As he does, the black tentacles on his back begin spewing out what looks to be tar, or some other viscous substance, all around them. They begin to grow in size, swallowing the armored man's upper body within an instant. A white arm shoots out of the mess, spraying more of the thick slime all around. The tentacles, now more like fleshy orbs, continue to grow, finally fusing together into one large abomination, which resembles a black snake head with glowing red eyes.
(Avoiding the Splash: 14 - 5 Fighting Close = 9)
Which you're right below. You aren't able to do much before you're soaked from head to toe in the muck.
You get ready to rush back in whe-
wait what
what's happening
where are you
what is going on the last thing you remember was burning alive after kyoko killed herself for you
wheresmadokawhydoeseverythinghurtwhycan'tyougohomewhereremomanddadwhydidhitomibetrayyourtrustyouthoughtshewasyourfriendyoudiedandnowwhatwhyareyouherenothingmakessenseanymore
(Abyssal Overflow Resistance Roll: 10)
(Rage of the Abyss: 92 + 5 = 97)
It's like you just woke up from a dream where nothing made sense, and you had been going along with it because dream logic
always makes sense, except it wasn't a dream. It was actually happening, and now the dream logic's fallen apart in front of you as the mental barrier finally breaks and everything spills out. Tears fill your eyes, as the realization of just what is actually happening finally hits you. You barely notice the scream of rage that bursts out of your lungs as you charge the mound of black ooze that was once a hulking armored warrior named Gundyr. You practically smash into him, your sword piercing through his chest. The goo-snake tries to smash you into the ground with it's sheer size, but you're able to easily avoid it's clumsy movement. Instead you stab another blade through Gundyr's body, this time through his pelvis, into one of his hips. You see the effect this has as Gundyr and the goo-snake come crashing down to the ground, unable to support the combined weight anymore after the leg gives out, leaving Gundyr pinned beneath the beast. Despite this, the snake isn't going down that easily, and hisses at you before moving to take a bite out of your face.
(Wrath of the Deep: 100 + 5 = 105)
It never gets close to touching you. You hack and slash away at the blob, avoiding or otherwise simply ignoring all the strikes that Gundyr and the snake try to hit you back with. You've already turned off your sense of pain, what's a little more going to do to you? You hack and slash until the sword you're using begins to crack, only to leave it impaled and spawn another and continue on without losing a beat. Piece by piece, the
thing that spawned from Gundyr's body is torn apart. He... it tries to resist, flailing around and screeching, but you show it no mercy as more and more swords are shoved into the thing's body. The ground, once coated with the red sheen of Gundyr's blood, is now practically dyed black with viscous ichor that both pools in all the various cracks and holes in the stone, and floats atop the water's surface. There's so much of the goop that it begins to leak off the side of the cliff, falling who knows where down below. By this point you're coated in the vile substance as you each swing of your blade causes more to spray out.
You don't even register the screams and cries that leave you as you mindlessly hack away, ripping the beast apart. The creature thrashes around violently, spraying more of its lifeblood as it desperately tries to get you off of it, but you show no respite. The monster smashes itself against the ground, trying to flatten you with its sheer mass, but by this point you've already moved on to a different part of it, and its violent flailing achieves nothing more than a cry of desperation. A moment of clarity has you find yourself back at the body of Gundyr, having cut your way all the way through. Even now, Gundyr's body refuses to give in, and an arm slowly reaches for you. With a quick slice, the arm hits the ground and is quickly knocked away by the rampaging monster that emerged from Gundyr's body.
Slowly, the serpent loses its strength, its speed slowing and its strength fading. It still makes some halfhearted attempts to resist, but it soon is unable to lift itself off the ground, simply hissing at you as you continue your work. Finally with a loud screech the serpent ceases its struggling entirely, and the corpse, or rather the sliced pile of meat falls still. That doesn't stop you from continuing to tear away at the cadaver, drenching yourself further in whatever fluid passes for blood for the creature.
(Calming Embers: 62)
You feel a heat appear inside your chest all of a sudden. It quickly spreads throughout your body. You suddenly feel exhausted, to the point where your eyes feel so heavy that you can't keep them open for a moment longer. You stumble around for a moment, trying to figure out what's going on, but it proves to be too much, and you find yourself collapsing into the peaceful embrace of sleep. The last thing you hear is a pair of heavy footsteps approaching you before you're out completely.
Author's Note: Well, uh, that happened. Follow up post will come tomorrow.
I remember now what the problem with using dice in quests is. If you hadn't failed the resistance roll that hard, you wouldn't have been forced to make an extra attack, but then you ended up obliterating Gundyr with a 92 and a nat 100 crit, meaning you won the fight. I did not expect the dice to be anywhere near that level of bipolar. Then again, I've followed enough quests by now that I should've remembered that the dice are
always like this. Being on the receiving end of this feels weird.
Treat Abyssal Corruption as you would Grief in any other PMMM quest, as it functions quite similarly (the only real mechanical difference is that you can receive modifiers to your current level of corruption through outside means, although these will rare.). After all, what is Grief but one's Want denied? For to be human is to be cursed, as the curse of Life is the curse of Want.
