A Jaded Life

-Tarrin's gaming vlog -

Today: [Road to Purgatory] - Did I take a wrong turn and end up in Innsmouth?

A wolfman is shown, garbed in leather-armour and a fur-lined, hooded cloak. He sits on a log, next to him sits a grey wolf. He is armed with a long spear, on his back is a bow and on his hip sits a quiver filled with arrows. Around him, tall pines rustle in the wind and everything is covered in snow.

“Hey guys, Tarrin here. As you can see, I'm playing the [Road to Purgatory]-beta once more and I finally figured out how to use the vision-orbs allowing me to create recordings with a changed viewpoint within Road to Purgatory, rather than the normal first-person recordings I had to use before.

So for the first time, lo and behold, the might of Tarrin, the Wolf-Ranger. As my usual viewers know, I play a Wolfman and picked the Ranger-Class. Since the last time, I completed my apprenticeship with Ifurn and was sent on my way as a journeyman, improving my craft on my travels. I chose to go west with my new partner, Arjuk, exploring the lonely forests and the windswept taiga of Beriasa. Arjuk was my given to me as a partner and as you can see he is a grey wolf. It's incredible how smart he truly is, I could not ask for a better partner out here.” the wolfman reaches down, scratching the grey wolf's ears, the wolf rubbing his head against the hand, clearly enjoying the attention.

I uploaded a compilation of the sights in the frozen north but I found something that deserved an extra entry in my vlog. Why don't I show you what I mean, before we explore further?”

With that, the wolfman stands up reaching towards the camera and grabbing something behind the view-point. The view-point shifts and changes to the first-person of the wolfman.

After a short blink, the view clears up and it is devastating. The ranger obviously stands on a slight elevation, and looking down, one can see that in an almost straight line, the trees change, the tall and proud pines giving way to twisted, gnarly shapes, devoid of leaves, devoid of life. The twisted trees stretch into the distance, as far as the eye can see from the limited view of the small hill he is standing on.

Again, the voice is heard, “Now, join me on my first exploration of this strange place.”

With that, the video fades to black for a second, before restarting at a slightly different place.

The forest passes by, as the ranger moves through the terrain, avoiding snowdrifts and branches. Suddenly, the trees change into twisted shapes. “What in the world?!” he gasps. The trees look like nothing he has seen in Mundus before, reminding him of a horror-film.

“Arjuk, heel!” he calls to his partner, checking for a moment that the wolf has heeded the command and is next to him. However the normally fearless animal looks disturbed, fur standing up and the tail is firmly tucked between its legs. In addition, it's growling softly, staring spellbound to the trees in front of them.

“Let's check it out. Looks interesting.” with that, the ranger continues his way, spear at the ready, carefully picking his steps to avoid making any noise at all. The wolf next to him goes quiet, silently padding alongside its master.

Together, they slowly and carefully make their way through the eerily silent forest. After some time, they see movement in the distance, not clearly more a dark shape moving between the trees. The ranger continues his way, now that he has a possible enemy, he can use the trees and the shadows as cover from that enemy. As he gets closer, he checks his partner again, and instead of next to him, the wolf is behind him, clearly unhappy with his path but also not willing to abandon his partner. His fur stands up all over, looking almost comical if not for the knowledge that something must be truly wrong for the proud wolf to act like that. In addition, a sickly sweet smell tickles the rangers nose, making him think of rotting fruits.

They continue forward, toward the point they have seen movement and stumble upon a carcass. It looks like it was a deer once but the mangled form makes the determination hard. Only the head is still halfway intact and it looks sickly and emaciated, as if the deer was gravely ill and malnourished before it's demise. In addition, the carcass is strewn around the trees as if whatever caught it was not that interested in eating and more interested in ripping its prey apart. The strange smell from the carcass adds to the abhorrent scene. The view turns black for a moment and retching is heard.

“By all that's holy, what in the world was that?!” the view returns, showing the sick trees as the ranger circumvents the gory scene and continues his way deeper in this strange place. He realises that there is a slight rise to his left, leading somewhere up, maybe giving him a better view of this strange forest. He follows the rising ground up on a hill, soon arriving at the top and the view opens up to show him a river bend. His eyes see but his mind takes a moment to catch up to the sight.

First, he notices the clear lines, as if there was once a planned structure down by the river. His instinct screams at him not to think about the rest of the sight but the conscious mind ignores the subconscious and parses the sight.

And what a sight it is. In the middle of the formerly ordered and planned area sits a revolting entity, the first association his mind makes is a tumour. Purple-black, almost rotten-looking flesh, with pustules strewn about and covered in a tar-like goo. Tentacles squirm around it, making it clear that, whatever it is, it's responsible for the empty area around it. Nothing but bare earth remains within maybe 30 feet of the entity, everything else was devoured.

As the ranger watches, a bird makes the error to fly too close to the thing and instead of squirming around in confusion, the tentacles take instant action. Only a blur is seen as one of the tentacles snaps up, snacking the bird out of the air and pulling it back. The flesh parts, and a maw becomes visible, filled with huge, sickly looking teeth. The tentacle deposits its snack directly into the gaping maw, which snaps shut, devouring the bird.

Nausea grips the ranger, but before he can be sick again, he turns and a terrible, pressing need makes itself known: Flee, flee from this cursed place, flee and save yourself.

He turns, running away until he sees another dark blur further down the hill. His mind makes the association, whatever moves down there is similar to the being that ripped the deer he saw before to shreds. He tries to meld into the shadow while he readies his bow, knowing that the first strike might be the only advantage he has, if the being spots him. Arjuk crouches next to him, using his pelt and the snow as camouflage.

It doesn't take long for the strange blob-shape to become fully visible. It looks similar to the sludge that covered the Thing and the association makes the ranger almost toss his cookies once more. As he tries to keep his breathing steady, a sharp shriek of recognition sounds out and the blob moves toward the two partners. Not blurrily fast but with a clear and obvious purpose. The ranger nocks and arrow and draws his bow, when more shrieks answer the first one. His fight or flight-reflex instantly switches from fight to flight.

“Crippling shot!” he mutters the activation-phrase of one of his ranger-skills, coating the arrow in unique magic, taught to him by his master, magic to slow down any enemy it hits, no matter the physical reality. As long as the shot hits, his target will move slower for a time. After aiming at the centre of the blob, he lets his arrow fly, watching it as it not only strikes but simply goes through the blob. Another shriek sounds out, this one more angry and pained as the blob slows down but still moves toward the ranger.

“Swift Strides!” he mutters another activation-phrase, this one to increase the movement speed of himself and his partner. As he feels a large chunk of his power leave, fuelling the skill, he switches his bow with his spear, securing it on his back, making sure that he has his spear in hand if he needs to defend himself. After a second or two, the buff has taken full effect and the Ranger and his wolf start their flight.

With long strides, they fly down the hill, past the crippled blob that tries to intercept them but is unable to. They run through the forest, dodging the crippled trees, making sure that they don't fall. Behind them, shrieks ring out, calling for assistance akin to a wolf pack, hunting in concert, harrying their prey while calling for others to cut of the escape. Luckily for the Ranger and his partner, the blobs are slower than a buffed ranger and none is in position to stop them.

After a flight that felt like it took hours to the ranger but in reality only took fifteen minutes, the ranger sees living trees before him. Hale and living trees, a line that hopefully demarcates safety from the insanity behind him. The shrieks had already stopped, not that the ranger had noticed, but after he crossed into the living forest, he slows, listening to his surroundings once more.

No use to escape the horror behind him, just to run into a normal predator out here. Slowly, he moves parallel to the twisted treeline behind him, looking for an elevated place to see more.

After a few minutes, the log seen in the beginning becomes visible and the ranger seats himself.