Come to know fear as I have! Let's Play Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

Near the Spell Scroll is a Sabre, which Max takes because he's starting to suspect that this mansion is far more dangerous than was initially believed.

I'm not sure where this sword fits on the Gladius-Ram Dao scale of awesomeness. I'd rate it between the Two-Edged Sword and the Gladius, since it's got longer range than the Gladius, but doesn't seem to do as much damage as the Two-Edged Sword. Max's finishing move is pretty awesome though.



On the other wall, Max finds a second Flintlock Pistol. This is a bit more optional than the Sabre. It's completely possible to fight with a single Pistol, but if you use two, "akimbo" style as the game says, you can fire two shots before having to reload, but reloading takes twice as long. Me, I prefer the akimbo style, because I'm not crazy enough to try reloading the Flintlock Pistol in a fight anyway when I can finish enemies off with the Sabre.



The last thing in the study is the Tome of Eternal Darkness. Unlike Anthony and Karim, Maximillian just finds it hidden in the study. Strange.



Karim's scenes are added to the flashbacks as well. I'm super impressed with how well I manage screenshotting the later parts of the flashback. Those things go crazy fast and I'm bound to muck it up later on when we have like nine characters to a flashback.



As soon as Max picks up the Tome, a Horror appears right in the middle of the main foyer. The thunderous quaking of the creature landing warns Max that his servants might be in danger!

A letter falls out of the Tome as Max picks it up, though. He expertly catches it as it falls, and gives it a quick glance before hurrying to the foyer.



Before Max can get to the Horror, however, one of his servants attacks him as he exits the fireplace! Panicked by the Horror's rumbling footsteps and the insidious nature of the mansion, he swings back at the servant with his sabre...



...only to see a bonethief burst forth from the servant's body! Maximillian decapitates it, and then does what any physician would do when confronted with a creature of such a strange biology...



He performs an autopsy on it.

This is the first autopsy most players will conduct in the game. It's just a brief scene of Max kneeling to inspect the creature, saying something like "Simply fascinating!", after which the game will add that creature's name to the autopsy list.



Like so.

I'll put up the autopsies in the next update, for reasons.



You can still finish off creatures after you've performed an autopsy. I'd think that the autopsy itself would restore sanity normally, but Max's finishing move of a slash followed by a kick is awesome, so I'm not complaining.



There's no benefit to preventing the other servants from dying, but they're far enough out of the Horror's way that they aren't at any risk. Still, Max is determined to ensure that the massive creature dies before anyone is harmed.



The Flintlock Pistols, as mentioned before, do pretty hefty damage, but Max isn't the best close-range fighter due to his low stamina. Still, we get the job done without too much difficulty, and claim the Redgormor rune the beast held.



Angled views are awesome!

Redgormor (Area) is, hands down, the most versatile rune in the game. I think it serves as a component for four different spells. The problem is, only two of these spells are any use. One of them, Reveal Invisible, is completely useless, one is only situationally useful, and the other two are tricky to use effectively. Still, they got a lot of versatility out of this rune, so that's something.



And we get the Reveal Invisible spell. We will use it exactly once in this chapter.



Rereading Aaron's latest letter, Max figures out to examine the stained glass window with a bit more care.

Hidden to the side, he finds an envelope sealed with red wax and a Chattur'gha rune. The envelope is heavy, as if something metallic is inside.



Max decides against opening the envelope on the spot.



After slaying the bonethief, Max opens the envelope, which contains the fourth letter by Aaron Roivas and a Basement Key.

Given that the envelope bears the rune of Chattur'gha, we can assume that Aaron Roivas was a cultist of Chattur'gha, which is about the worst thing you can be when Ulyaoth is nearing his entry into our world. What's weird, though, is that Maximillian can open the envelope safely, despite having only just recently heard of Chattur'gha. What might've protected him?



When we head back into the main foyer to look for the basement, things look a bit... off-color.



In one of the side alcoves, we find a Horror, whose color can't be told easily, bearing a Xel'lotath rune. This is the big clue towards it's alignment: this is also a Xel'lotath Horror, which drains sanity when it hits, and whose energy bolt mixes up your directions for a while after it hits.



Max slays the beast and claims the Xel'lotath rune for himself, but he has no time to perform the autopsy, as he flashes back to the doorway just before he entered the main foyer. Was that a sanity effect?



Either way, the Xel'lotath rune stays with us, so we can now cast spells with it. I assign the Xel'lotath version of Enchant Item to replace the Ulyaoth version.

As mentioned with the Recover spell, the three alignments not only affect each other, but also affect the parameters of your character. Chattur'gha spells usually deal with health, Ulyaoth ones with magick, and Xel'lotath ones with sanity. For the most part, though, you can usually get away with using the last alignment you get.



Maximillian heads down a second time to look for the basement and gets punched in the back of the head by a maid. He is all too familiar with the maid's ability to dodge bullets, so he fights her off with the sabre.



How many of these bonethieves lurk among his servants? How long have they been spying on him?



Rather than a door, the end of the hallway bears only a triangle like that upon the Circle of Power, with an Ulyaoth rune in the center. You need a Xel'lotath aligned Reveal Invisible spell to get past this. The other alignments aren't strong enough.



So we cast it!

...Yeah.



The basement door that was hidden here shows itself, and Max unlocks it and enters.



At the bottom of the basement are two Ulyaoth zombies. I forgot to enchant my weapons to Xel'lotath here, but it's not terribly important right now.



The leftmost zombie contains a bonethief as well. If you don't use Xel'lotath Recover spells to fix up your sanity, you're bound to play on empty after enough of these guys. Not that I'm complaining.



The room contains a few odds and ends, such as a Codex for the Bankorok (Protect) rune, and a Spell Scroll.

Damage Field is the sort of spell most players will ignore initially, but later players will find invaluable. Upon being cast, the runes from the spell remain stationary, and anyone that isn't the caster will be damaged and knocked back if they try to cross. The field will persist through quite a few attacks, making it a good way to create a safe place to cast spells without getting hit. If you have really good timing, you can use it to trap creatures, making them easy pickings. There's only a few instances where this is really viable, though.



Looks like we found the pump that was missing it's handle. Maximillian puts it into place and drains the well, revealing a ladder leading into a passage further in. Max climbs down...



But unfortunately, the door out is locked. This is quite a cramped space, so he elects to head back out.



The ladder's gone? But we just climbed down it!



No! Let us out!!



THIS ISN'T REALLY HAPPENING!! no I didn't forget to screenshot the room a second time and you can't prove otherwise

This is another fixed sanity effect. We appeared to be stuck in some kind of dark, cramped jail cell. Weird, none of the other fixed sanity effects were quite as detailed as that...



Heading down the ladder for real, we find the sole colorless zombie in the chapter. The autopsy reveals this as a Mantorok zombie. Intriguing.



The zombie was also carrying the Bankorok rune.

Bankorok is undoubtedly a very useful rune, used in two powerful defensive spells. The first is the Damage Field spell, previously discussed (and just now unlocked).



And despite not having a Spell Scroll for the second, we're going to unlock it right now.

As mentioned before, Eternal Darkness allows you to cast any spell that you have the runes and Circle of Power for. This includes spells you haven't identified with Spell Scrolls, using runes you don't have matching Codices for. Max's chapter is the first one you can exploit this feature in to get spells before they'd normally be available.



First, we unlock Spell 9.

The biggest clue towards finding spells like this is that every spell needs one alignment rune, one "verb" rune, and one "noun" rune. In this case, our verb is "Project", or Antorbok, which is used in the Enchant Item spell, and our noun is "Area", or Redgormor. Project-Area unlocks the Magickal Attack spell, which lets us emit waves of energy over a wide area, doing slight damage to enemies all around. It's good, but it doesn't do much damage, so you're usually better off enchanting firearms for a ranged attack.



Next, we unlock Spell 7, using the Bankorok (Protect) and Santak (Self) runes. It should be pretty easy to infer what this spell does. I make a novice mistake and assign the Xel'lotath version of this spell to Quick Spell. What's the mistake here, you ask? Well, remember earlier, when I said that the various alignments affect your different parameters? This goes for the Shield spell as well. All shields block enemy attacks, and they work better against the proper enemies. However, they also block damage to other parameters as well, meaning that Ulyaoth shields block magick damage, and Xel'lotath shields block sanity damage. This means that enemies can destroy your Xel'lotath shield just by looking at it. Booooooo.

So next chapter, I'm going to assign the Ulyaoth version of the Shield spell to Quick Spell instead. It won't be quite as effective, but you have to break some omelettes to make some eggs, y'know?



Now that our magickal mad science is done, Maximillian moves on. Two things here to note: one being the Bankorok barrier to ensure we don't miss that rune, and the other being the illuminated scene overlooked by the balcony.



Amazingly, a massive city appears to have been built in a colossal cavern below the Roivas estate! The entire scene is bathed in an unearthly light, and Max finds himself wondering just what inhabitants may dwell in this city that no man has ever seen.



Max moves down the stairs towards the city's entrance to investigate, Xel'lotath-aligned pistols at the ready.

I don't think enchanted ranged weapons make a sound when fired, which is a shame, because the ethereal whispers of a Xel'lotath weapon being swung would sound pretty awesome for pistols.



Before Max can react, a translucent squid-like being appears behind him!

To make matters worse, not only can this Guardian cast spells, as demonstrated here with an industrial-strength Damage Field preventing our retreat, but it can turn immaterial and travel through space at will.



Max realizes that this city must belong to those cosmic monstrosities that seem hellbent on ending his life, and steels himself for the confrontation.



The Guardian is the boss fight for this chapter, and it's the first enemy you face that can cast spells. Here, it's using a Magickal Attack to respond to Max's volley of shots. If you give it any time to itself, the Guardian will throw out Shields, Damage Fields, and Magickal Attacks with impunity, and the capability to teleport and to summon zombies to aid it only makes it more annoying.



However, it's nowhere near as durable as a Horror, so if you act fast and strike hard, they're not too tough to handle.



Cutscene: Insanity Prevails

Max knows when he's outmatched. That fight alone was tricky to manage, and if he tries to take on their entire city alone, he's doomed to fail.



Max heads back to the mansion to plan his offensive and to enlist any assistance he can against the oncoming darkness.




In a dank, fly-infested place...



Rats pick at the body parts of the inhabitants of the asylum...



Including Dr. Maximillian Roivas himself.



Despite doing all he could to get help, the state of Rhode Island, fearing for his sanity, paid no heed to his warnings and locked him away in an asylum.



If the encounter with the minions of Ulyaoth wasn't enough to drive Max insane, being trapped in this hellish place, knowing of the world's impending demise, and unable to find any who will listen? That would be enough to drive anyone over the edge.



Now we know where that voice from the intro came from.



Next Time: Indiana Jones and the Corpse God

Max's autopsies are fantastic. I wish there were a way to autopsy some of the creatures from later chapters which don't appear in Chapter 5.

Yeah, that tweaked my inner X-Com player. I was expecting someone else to be able to do it, or Alex to somehow acquire the ability, but no dice.

Update later today, when I stop trying to fight red Horrors at close range with no magick.

Man we have crazy nutjobs casting spells, an entire city of superheroes and villains, and sundry other things going on. Don't judge us.

After Alex finishes reading Max's chapter, she sees the autopsies he wrote down are recorded here as well, alongside his notes on each creature.

This is probably the third thing that really sticks out for most players. Once you clear Max's chapter, each autopsy you found will have him comment on them. This happens after he gets put in the asylum, I believe, although it could be before. I missed the Trapper in his chapter, but if you enter the dining room after the Horror shows up, you can find it there. I'll screenshot the ones I have, and link to the autopsies in video form because the commentary really makes it worth it.

Autopsy Commentary: Part 1
Autopsy Commentary: Part 2













Wandering the house while reading these scrawled notes, Alex finds herself before that dresser lacking a keyhole. She decides to try that spell for seeing the invisible, and when she does so...



An ornate keyhole appears on the dresser! Alex wastes no time in unlocking the dresser.



What a find! Both a Revolver and the next Chapter Page, entitled "A Journey into Darkness".

To be perfectly honest, the Revolver is pretty useless. Barely any oomph to it. Like the Chakrams, this would probably be delegated to picking off Trappers, in the event that Alex ever has to face them, and truth be told, it's looking more and more likely now...



Pious communes with Ulyaoth once more, saying that they have found the heart of Mantorok and will quickly procure it.



Ulyaoth warns Pious that Mantorok can still influence the world of mortals, even in death.



Pious admits that he has failed in the past, but they have confirmed that the heart had never left the temple of Mantorok, and now that it has been located once again, they will retrieve it without fail.

Alex heads back to the study to read this new Chapter Page and to learn more about this plot that threatens both her family and the world.



Cutscene: A Journey into Darkness



Here are our star players for this one. We've got our obvious Indiana Jones clone, Dr. Edwin Lindsey...



And the elderly Paul Augustine. Now, if this game didn't recycle similar names so often already, you'd probably suspect something around here.

And you'd be right. Augustine puts a pistol to Lindsey's head, grinning evilly.



Before Augustine can pull the trigger, though, Lindsey turns and knocks the old man down with a punch, then bolts for cover!



The two exchange shots briefly...



But even a direct hit only causes Augustine to flinch somewhat.



Like all good antagonists, Augustine offers Lindsey a chance to give himself up in exchange for not making his death all the more excruciating.



Like all good protagonists, Lindsey turns down this offer.



Surprising no one, Augustine is actually Pious himself, who opens a stone door in the temple to call forth...



An Ulyaoth Gatekeeper.

There aren't any autopsies available for Gatekeepers, and you'll only find them in the color of the ancient Pious chose in your game, as with Guardians.



Like the Bishop, Gatekeepers will move gradually towards you while draining your sanity bit by bit with their gaze. Their massive wings will shield any frontal attack while they're closed, and that bladed tail will paralyze you if it hits. They usually take advantage of that paralysis by summoning a zombie. The only difference between colors is the usual health/magick/sanity damage bit, and the color of zombie they summon.

So how is Edwin Lindsey going to deal with this? He doesn't have the Tome of Eternal Darkness either, which makes magick impossible.



However, Lindsey not only has the stats of Maximillian, but he also has none of the weight problems, and a load of equipment that rivals Karim's one-man armory. The Gatekeeper can be taken down if you strike quickly when it opens its wings to strike you with its tail, or if you attack it from behind, and Lindsey can do both easily to take it down.

Lindsey starts with a Kukri, an Automatic Pistol, a Shotgun, ammo for both guns, a Torch, and an Archaeologist's Brush. Which seems sort of excessive (and maybe that's why the government didn't let him in?) but as far as gameplay goes, this is pretty awesome.

The Kukri is our Gladius clone of the day, and in chapters pre-Maximillian, this would've been great, but here, Lindsey starts with two firearms to get him through the level.

This should be your main weapon for most of the chapter. A body shot against most zombies will drop them instantly if the weapon is enchanted, and even if it isn't, it still packs a kick. I like to use this on the other Gatekeepers in the chapter as well, playing a sort of game of keep-away. As a bonus, rounds from the pistol will usually pierce through one target to hit a second one behind it. The pistol itself holds 8 shots, and Lindsey starts with 56 more. However, the ancient Cambodian people didn't have any compatible firearms, so this is all the ammo you get for the chapter for the pistol.

If you don't think the Automatic Pistol will do enough damage to your enemy, you can always go with a shotgun. This packs a tremendous amount of power, enough to drop Horrors in two shots when enchanted, and all without putting yourself in range of their claws. It's a bit slower to fire, though, and the reload time takes longer, as is the norm for shotguns in video games. The shotgun holds 7 shells, and Edwin carries 37 more with him, but as with the pistol, that's all you get for the chapter.

The Torch is the same as it has been in every other chapter and there's no need to discuss it.

This last item is primarily so the player remembers that Lindsey is an archaeologist, as opposed to a commando. It does let you brush away dust and the like from various relics that would otherwise be hidden, but you can't do so if enemies are nearby, since they'd disturb your delicate work.



The finishing move for firearms is exactly the same for every character, and it wastes ammo, so it's usually a good idea to switch to your melee weapon to finish off enemies. Lindsey's finishing move is identical to Anthony's with the Scramasax, which fits Lindsey's character a lot more.



Well, this tile sure is dusty. Let's put our finely-tuned archaeological skills to work!



We're about to make a major historical discovery, I can feel it!



Oh. A plain bronze bracelet. That image underneath it looks fairly neat, though. And familiar.



Same deal for this statue over here.

Eternal Darkness makes a big point of having you go through the same few levels over various time periods. The areas do change gradually over time. In Ellia's time, this temple was well-lit and sturdy, but in Lindsey's time, it's starting to crumble and many later corridors will be a lot darker. This is probably for the best, though, since the locations in question carry heavy relevance for the plots of the Ancients, and they don't always get resolved due to your characters usually dying or going insane or the like. Suffice it to say that from here on out, we'll be exploring the same locations as characters before us.

The solution to get out of this room is the same as before, too: give the statue a Bronze piece of jewelry. Flecks of bronze are all over the statue already, implying that it was more heavily decorated before tomb raiders got to it.



As soon as Lindsey tries to leave, we get recalled to the hall of the Tome.



Karim and Maximillian's statues now adorn the area as well.



Maximillian's scenes are appended to the flashbacks from the Tome as well.

After casting a few spells, he moves into the next room.



The currently active spell you see on Lindsey there, with the swirling blue motes? That's the Shield spell mentioned earlier. I will be abusing the everloving crap out of this spell in this chapter, and probably every other chapter, but this one specifically. Oh, and there's an Ulyaoth zombie punching a Mantorok zombie in the head.




The different characters will view the same things differently from each other. As an archaeologist, Lindsey finds it important to attribute meaning to the various designs about him, and also to marvel at how those candles are still lit after all this time.



The trapped corridors might've had their ceilings collapsed, but they're still as trapped as ever. There's a Trapper about halfway through, which Lindsey shoots.



Also partway through, a Metal Bracelet can be found on a small pedestal. Unlike the Bronze Bracelet, this is less of jewelry and more of a chunk of metal that can be worn on the wrist. In other words, absolutely useless.

We steal it anyway because we know a guy that knows a guy.



Further down, Lindsey spies something obscured by an ancient cobweb. He gets to work with his brush and reveals...



A codex for the Tier (Summon) rune. You don't get this until the very end of the chapter, so I'm going to talk about it now. Tier covers nearly as many spells as Redgormor, but of these, only one is really useful outside of a Reveal Invisible sort of sense, that being a powerful regenerative spell. The other ones should be simple enough to guess from the verb. They are almost completely useless outside of some incredibly silly tactics.



JESUS CHRIST ITS A HORROR GET IN THE CAR

...oh wait. This one is sealed away from us by a Damage Field. On the upside, this means it doesn't try to murder us, but on the downside, it seems to be guarding something, and we can't reach it until we can remove the Damage Field.



So Lindsey opts instead to loot the display just to the Horror's right for the Bronze Necklace.



Giving this necklace to the goddess statue out front opens up the opposite door, allowing us to progress further. It also opens the door back by the Horror, but we don't need that just yet. It'll make a useful shortcut later, though.



In this room, we find a Naga statue watching over a Silver Bracelet. Lindsey takes this, but when he does...

The exits to the room seal off, and a strange acidic smell begins emanating from the Naga statue! Thinking quickly, Lindsey attempts to disarm the trap the only way he can think of...



He puts the junk bracelet on the naga's pedestal, assuming it to be rigged by means of a pressure plate.



It works! Archaeology for the win!



Another trapped corridor, this one with a Mantorok zombie.

Honestly, a lot of Lindsey's chapter can be boiled down to "this is a corridor full of traps" or "this is an Indiana Jones reference". It's pretty dull.



Under some more cobwebs, we find the Codex for the Nethlek (Dispel) rune.

This rune is the most useless in the game. It's used for exactly one spell, and that one spell is almost as situational as Reveal Invisible that it makes one wonder why they didn't just find some other way to use these runes that didn't make them so arbitrary.



Lindsey walks in on a horde of Ulyaoth zombies, but he's prepared, with his enchanted pistol!



The Nethlek rune is ours!



RUN FOR IT!



In the next corridor with traps and a zombie, Lindsey finds yet another cobweb-covered prize.



This being the Spell Scroll for Dispel Magick.

Dispel Magick will cancel out any spell of a weaker alignment and of equal or lesser power (read: rune count). This makes it good for quickly removing Damage Fields that enemies set up, but most of the time, this is just another "blue keycard" spell.



Lindsey also finds another goddess statue in this hall. He gives it the Silver Bracelet, but nothing happens. Presumably, this one also requires a Necklace.



Now that we can Dispel Magick, we can remove the Damage Field, and sequentially, the Horror it contains, from our path.



This...



...is my BOOMSTICK!

Notice that our Shields are gone, despite us blowing off the Horror's arm before it got close enough to give us a dirty look. The Xel'lotath aligned Dispel Magick spell not only destroyed the Ulyaoth Damage Field, but also our Ulyaoth Shield. Be very careful when using Dispel Magick.



Lindsey's reward for blowing off a Horror's arm with a shotgun fueled by the power of insanity is a Silver Bracelet.

He returns to the statue to set the Necklace on there, and in doing so, opens a hidden entrance to the rest of the temple. Sure beats a trapdoor, if you ask me.



Now, if I was smart, I would've equipped a Torch in this room. But enemies helpfully light up when you aim at them with anything, so there's little risk in being ambushed if you're properly paranoid. Hooray!



Further on ahead, we get ourselves a mystery rune! We could use this to create new spells if we were so inclined...



And despite it being utterly pointless, I deign to do just that, creating spell 12, also known as Bind.

Bind will turn a creature that you cast this spell on against its allies briefly. Problem being, this version of the spell only works on bonethieves, and if you have time to be casting anything while fighting bonethieves, you're better off doing Damage Field or Shield or some other spell. But it's open to me, so I make that spell because I can do just that.



Lindsey gets too close to the Gatekeeper on the stairs and gets paralyzed for his efforts. As you can see here, the Gatekeeper is now summoning a zombie. As such, it's usually a good idea to focus on avoiding the Gatekeeper's attacks.



Further on down, the way ahead is sealed off by a barrier corresponding to that rune we picked up.



Okay, now for the part of the level where there's really long corridors with really strong traps! You can go either left or right from the entrance here. I opt to go to Lindsey's right because I can actually see that way.



Man, check out those blade traps! Those are the kind of things that could kill a deep elf with one swipe.

They do hurt more than the blade traps of Ellia's chapter, but unlike Ellia, Lindsey has access to magick, particularly the Shield spell, meaning he's got much better odds of success if he just runs through like a madman.



The next room has both a Chattur'gha Horror and a Damage Field aligned to Chattur'gha. We ignore the bigger threat in the room in favor of casting Dispel Magick. This is never a good idea.



It does solve one third of a puzzle outside, true...



But neglecting to gear ourselves for a fight with the Horror gets Lindsey killed.



...Whoops.

Alex takes a moment to check back. Did she just misread that section?



Yes. Yes she did.



Off in the opposite end of the room from the Horror's cooling body, the very-much-not-dead Lindsey finds another amazing archaeological discovery.



A necklace so encrusted with dirt and filth that it's impossible to tell what it originally was.

Every one of the four corner rooms on this floor here has a panel that can be pressed into the wall. I have not found any sort of evidence that clarifies exactly what this does, so I usually just ignore them, but I can't help but wonder if they actually do something and I just haven't found out.



Hey you guys guess what it's another corridor full of traps.



Ah, but this one's different! One of the traps is the new poison trap. When triggered, the entire floor will flood with poison that gradually damages you. It can't hurt you if you're Shielded, but it will damage your shield gradually. It's not a big problem unless you're already low on health.



The next room has two Xel'lotath zombies, and another Damage Field, this one aligned to Xel'lotath.



We dispel it (this time actually showing off the Dispel Magick spell in action) and break another third of that magickal barrier, then move on.



In the middle of the next trap-filled corridor with zombies, we find another goddess statue. Lindsey checks for signs of metal, and finds flecks of Gold, but his current necklace could be anything, so he'll need a way to clean off that dirt.



Here's the last of those three Damage Fields. Presumably, the barrier is in the fourth trap-filled corridor with zombies.



In this room, though, there's just a basin filled with a liquid that smells positively foul. Lindsey gets an idea, and puts the necklace in the basin.



A nearby button floods the basin with the acid, and when it drains away...



Nice! It was a Gold Necklace all along!

We still need a bracelet, though.



Partway through the fourth trap-filled corridor with zombies, we find the rock wall that was previously locked off by the magickal barrier. Unfortunately, it's still mostly blocked off. If Lindsey cut off his arms, legs, and head, he could fit through, but that would be foolhardy.



The next room doesn't have a Damage Field, but it does have a statue keeping a silent watch over another statue holding the gold Bracelet. Lindsey can't risk prying it loose, lest it become damaged. However, he does spy a pressure plate to the far side.



When he steps on it, the guard turns away from the statue holding the bracelet...



And the statue relinquishes its stony grip! Lindsey moves quickly off of the pressure plate and snatches the gold bracelet!



Lindsey returns the jewelry to the statue, causing a door to open behind him. He enters through it, and...

The spirit of Edward Roivas visits Alex, reading this story, once again.



Apparently, they were pretty close together. Inspector Legrasse did say that Alex was the only living relative of Edward Roivas, and Alex confirms that here by clarifying that yes, her parents are dead.



Edward is pretty blunt about it.



And he's acting really creepily possessive of her, too.



Lindsey does not know what to make of this scene at all.



Look, ma! Two zombies with one shot!



Uh-oh. Xel'lotath horror ahead!



Oh good. More trapped corridors. Not very many zombies in these ones, though.



Huh, where have we seen this room layout before? Granted, we never saw one with a giant burning stone face...



Taking out the zombies, we find another cobweb-covered prize...



That being the Codex for the Aretak (Creature) rune.



Across the back wall, there's a mural of the ancient Khmer people praising their fertility god. Lindsey can't recognize the god at all, though.



The next trapped corridor is dark, and you're expected to use the Torch again to proceed, but I like to navigate using the light from unearthly magicks.



Wow, that's a lot of zombies. Let's try something new on them, shall we?



Magickal Attack! It doesn't do very much damage and it takes a while to cast, but it does hit all of them from a distance and magick can be replenished where bullets can't be, so that's something.

The mural here shows the fertility god blessing the Khmer people with crops and such in exchange for their worship. Interesting.



Partway through the next trapped corridor, Lindsey spies a trapdoor exit. This is the spot where Ellia fell through in her chapter, which is good, because it means this chapter is coming to a close (and thank goodness).



I'm in such a hurry to get this chapter over that I only notice the Tier rune once I run down the Xel'lotath zombie that had it.



Which means it's time for the first of the game's two major hidden items. First step: get spell 6. We get a spell scroll for this later, but I'm impatient and get it early here. I'll explain what it does when we get there, for reasons.



To ease travel, I also get spell 11, Magick Pool.

Magick Pool will gradually regenerate the parameter the Ancient in question is aligned to. This goes for Ulyaoth as well, meaning that if you want to be able to cast lots of spells, this actually helps you out somewhat. Chattur'gha's variant is still the best, however, for one simple reason: in addition to restoring health, it also prevents your characters from getting tired due to running or swinging weapons. This makes it great for traversing large areas, and that's exactly what we're doing here.



The mural in this room shows the same scene of Pious casting down the fertility god Mantorok, but while Ellia just thought he was a skeletal demon, Lindsey, having seen Pious with his own eyes, identifies him immediately.



Magick Pool is indicated when active by the Ancient's rune hovering over your head.



Once we return to the wall that was previously sealed off by the tripartite barrier, Lindsey casts spell 6...



Also known as Summon Trapper.

Summoning spells in this game are mechanically interesting, but their utility is fairly limited. Once summoned, you control the creature, and can make it attack or move through areas as you desire. Controlling a summoned creature gradually drains sanity, but you're protected by a Damage Field while doing so. If you run out of sanity or give up control of the creature, it becomes hostile and your Damage Field disappears. Summon Trapper is the first, and arguably the most useful, of the three summons spells. Trappers kill themselves when they use their ability, barely drain sanity, can telprot away massive foes, and can also get you to the Trapper Dimension any time you like. Fair warning: anything you send to the Trapper Dimension will be waiting for you should you enter yourself.



The most important part, though, is that they're small enough to get through tight spaces like this.



Here's why I summoned an Ulyaoth Trapper. The creatures you summon will be treated as allies by creatures of its alignment, as normal, meaning you can freely walk by these Horrors without them frying you. If we were using any other variant, they'd be attacking us.



What's this button do?



Out near Lindsey, a hidden panel in the wall slides away to reveal a purple rune. Lindsey destroys the Trapper and claims the rune...



WHOA! Lindsey gets ready to shotgun this Horror...



No! Did my Gamecube get unplugged again!? But I haven't saved in ages! And I'd just finished getting there!

THIS ISN'T REALLY HAPPENING!!

On occasion, some of the sanity effects in this game, rather than affecting your character, decide to bypass the fourth wall completely in favor of screwing with the player. This effect, where it looks like your TV screen gets shut off for no discernible reason, is an example of one. Unfortunately, it doesn't translate quite as well to screenshots.



In any event, Lindsey dispatches the two Horrors and goes to check the area that the Trapper went to earlier. Another cobweb covers the corner, so he dusts it away...



Revealing the Codex for our newly acquired Mantorok rune.

Now, I'm willing to bet that you've started noticing a Rock-Paper-Scissors dynamic between the three main ancients here. Chattur'gha, as rock, beats Xel'lotath, as scissors, which beats Ulyaoth, as paper, and so forth. Mantorok, in this setup, is Dynamite. The gameplay role of the Mantorok rune is to completely obsolete the other three. Not only is a Mantorok spell treated as strongly as possible regarding other Ancients, but it tends to carry other effects depending on the spell you assign it for.

• A Mantorok Enchanted item, in addition to growling when swung, will deal continual damage to whatever it hits.
• Mantorok Recover spells heal both health and sanity.
• Reveal Invisible, rather than showing what was invisible, instead turns the caster invisible.
• Damage Fields, like Enchant Item, deal continual damage to whatever gets hit by them.
• Mantorok cannot be used as the focus for summoning spells. You'll notice that only Mantorok zombies have shown up, no bonethieves or Horrors? Mantorok is too weak to create anything more than zombies, and even then, he won't have enough power to lend summoners to create their own.
• Shields will counterattack enemies that hit you.
• Magickal Attacks do continual damage as well.
• Magick Pools gradually restore all three parameters as well as preventing fatigue.
• Binding spells, in addition to forcing another creature to fight for you, shields them as well.

I will not be using the Mantorok rune in regular gameplay for two reasons. First and most obviously, Mantorok completely destroys any challenge the game has to offer. Second, I am a Rock Paper Scissors fanatic, and as such, the concept of Dynamite is anathema to me.



I will show off what the spells do in more detail if you want, though. Here's Lindsey with his Kukri aligned to Mantorok. Also, Mantorok only ever speaks directly to the player through his spells, where his voice is a rasping whisper. Not exactly what you'd attribute to a Nyarlathotep lookalike.



All the way back by the murals, we find ourselves in a familiar trapped corridor.



The room beyond, once cleaned out of zombies, holds the spell scroll for Summon Trapper.



At the final mural, Lindsey discovers that he must be in the temple that once belonged to Mantorok, and which is now its tomb.



Before long, we're facing the Dead God itself.



Cutscene: In the Hands of Kali

Unfortunately, Pious seems to have trailed us here.



This is not what I would be saying in this situation. I would be saying something more like "no dontkillmeijustwanttogohome".



Either way, though, he's determined to see us dead.



Mantorok, on the other hand...



Even weakened though he is, he manages to vaporize both Gatekeepers and send Pious to his knees with a single burst of energy.



Pious flees, swearing that he will be victorious, and Mantorok, confident that he won't be returning, opens the back room for Lindsey.



Cutscene: Daughter of Light

In this back room...

A corpse wearing tattered, yet familiar, clothing, speaks without words in a voice we already know.



Ellia tells Lindsey that she hid from the minions of Ulyaoth within the temple, dead yet alive due to Mantorok's essence, keeping it safe from evil.



She instructs Lindsey to take the heart, without touching it, to the Gathering of Light, and the image of the Roivas estate appears in his mind's eye.



Ellia jerks into motion...



And calls forth the heart for Lindsey, releasing her bindings to this world.



Lindsey makes it to Rhode Island with the heart in hand...



And hands it to Edward Roivas, walking away from his situation very much alive, and not dead or insane, as with every character we've played up to this point.

...Yep. Definitely not dead.



Edward takes the heart...



And hides it within the Mansion.



Meanwhile...



The planets continue their orbit...

Next Time: Perhaps the same could be said of all religions...

I don't know about the "not insane" part. Just look at those haunted eyes!

Mantorok's rune is a pretty big gamebreaker, but at least it's easy to miss if you don't know precisely where to look, or if you're in a hurry to get to the end of the chapter. It's pretty handy for blazing through playthroughs #2 and #3 for the True Ending.

If memory serves, those panels disable the traps in their adjacent hallways for a few seconds.


Man, the fire effects really are the biggest indication that this game started out on the N64.


Telprot, huh?

You'll never believe this in a million years, but that was intentional.



Alex decides to stop reading the book and go for a walk around the mansion. She's starting to let her imagination get the best of her. She considers checking out the library to see if that hidden compartment she read about is there, but she reconsiders because she doesn't know what exactly she'll do if she actually finds the Essence of Mantorok there.



On the second floor, she sees something that makes this decision all the more harrowing: an unmistakeable ghostly image of Dr. Maximillian Roivas turns to stare at her, before turning away and walking into the wall.



Upon examining that wall, Alex notices that it sits sort of misaligned from the rest of the wall. It's about the right size for a door there, too.

If you recall Max's chapter, there was a door here that led to the servant's quarters. but in his time, it was locked, although Max felt an evil presence behind it. So why was that door removed?



Further ahead, the stained glass window that was broken in his time seems to have been replaced. This is one of the newer kinds of stained-glass window, complete with swirling runes and magickal fields of energy.



Alex does not care for stained glass windows.



Once the window is removed, a Chapter Page remains behind, levitating through some means that even Dispel Magick could not handle. It is plainly titled: Heresy!



Cutscene: Black Guardian

Meanwhile, in a dark cathedral...



Pious, with other cultists watching, invokes a mighty summoning spell.



He summons the Black Guardian of Ulyaoth.

As with most enemies beyond Horrors, the Black Guardian changes depending on the Ancient. This particular being is a bit more important to the plot.



The other cultists back away in fear, but Pious barks out clear orders to the behemoth.



As Mantorok's essence has escaped Pious' sight, he is taking no chances with the essence of Xel'lotath, placing it under the watchful eye of one of Ulyaoth's strongest minions.



Cutscene: Heresy!



Paul here dries himself off after arriving in the Cathedral.



He's quickly greeted by the head monk of Amiens Cathedral, and the leader of the Inquisition here. His name is apparently Augustine.

...Yeah.

Paul humbly and quickly makes his case: he only wishes a place to stay the night, and to view the Hand of Jude, apparently a relic the Amiens Cathedral is famed for, before continuing his pilgrimage.



Augustine briefly comments on Paul's bravery and the nature of corruption, remarking that evil can hide away in the most unsuspected places.



Paul makes a comment that surely quiet Amiens could not hold such heresy, but Augustine disagrees. Either way, he slouches off and we're free to play as Paul.

From Paul's chapter onwards, we start playing characters who are not nearly as suited to combat as the ones preceding them. Paul starts with high magick, average sanity, and low health, as well as a Meditation Rod, but no weapons of any sort.

As far as flavor items go, the Meditation Rod is pretty cool, but frankly, it's completely useless outside of that. By this point, Paul will have ready access to the Recover spell. Of course, in a playthrough where you don't use Xel'lotath Recover spells, it has some use, but there's really not enough sanity-damaging enemies to merit using it. On a Xel'lotath playthrough, maybe, but not so much an Ulyaoth one.



In any event, Paul makes his way to the altar to pray before he retires for the night.

If you asked me what chapter of the game is my favorite of this game, I'd probably have trouble deciding on one definitely, but Paul's chapter is up there with the candidates. The setting is clearly defined and there's a lot more character-based storytelling.



As Paul heads towards the altar, the buzzing of flies causes him to turn towards the pews, where he finds the slain body of one of the monks. He quickly calls for the help of the town guards.



As if on cue, Augustine and two other monks turn up on the scene, and immediately ask of Paul what happened here.



Paul tells them that he found the body hidden among the pews, and Augustine questions whether Paul was the murderer or not.



The inquisitor offers Paul some small consolation, but Paul is not sure that he will be found innocent.



Paul is locked in a side room until such time that the Inquisition members come to handle him.



Examining the portraits around the room, Paul finds that an Emerald has been embedded in one of the portraits as a decorative piece for the meditation rod. Desperate, he takes it in the hopes that he can bribe one of the guards with it, but as soon as he does...



Someone enters the room. Paul demands of him if he has come to pass sentence on him.



The gentle-voiced elderly monk states that Paul is in grave danger, and claims he has come to free him from this cathedral, which is now the scene of many strange events. Among these was the murder of Brother Andrew, the monk Paul found. Brother Andrew was killed to silence him about some manner of conspiracy.



Paul asks why he is being told these things, and the Custodian clarifies that he doesn't want to see any more good men die from this heretical conspiracy. He asks Paul to meet him in the Bell Tower to discuss it in more detail, as it's unsafe to talk here.



Waiting a short time after the Custodian leaves, Paul exits the room himself, but is summoned to the hall of the Tome.



Since Lindsey never met his demise from the Darkness and you can't prove otherwise, his statue is not here.

But he was still important in the battle against the darkness, and his scenes are appended to the flashback as well.

At this point in the chapter, we could actually go a few different ways if we so desired. I opt to do just that, because as previously mentioned, Paul is unarmed, and trying to punch a zombie to death is an exercise in futility.



We head back towards the main altar.

Fortunately, the priests of the cathedral are all away, so we don't have to partake in any ridiculous stealth segments. However, the curiously unadorned altar strikes Paul as a bit strange.




Adding to the bizarre state of the area, both the cupboard to the side and the podium before the pews are both locked. In fact, the cupboard doesn't seem to have a way to unlock it at all.



Paul heads down to the cellar of the cathedral.



The meat of the workings for the organ are located down here, but of more interest to us is the Mace near here.



Paul takes the Mace out of fear for his safety against the heresy being uncovered.

I was actually curious about why clerics and priests in fantasy fiction are always depicted as wielding maces when I was younger, so I did a bit of research into it. Turns out that during the Crusades, a lot of the holy warriors had made vows to never shed blood. In an attempt to adhere to the letter of the law, if not the spirit, they carried maces to bludgeon their foes to death without drawing blood. Since fantasy clerics, as with most fantasy archetypes, take inspiration from medieval settings, I assume this trait was usually imported as well. Fascinating stuff!

As far as fighting goes, the Mace is more powerful than your average Gladius, but being heavier, it takes longer to swing. Not too bad a trade-off, though.



Paul also finds crossbow bolts down here, but he has yet to find a crossbow to fire them with. He thinks he hears something growling behind the door near there, so he decides to avoid that area for now.



Paul takes a brief detour into this corridor before heading to the Bell Tower to meet the Custodian.



This room appears to be cramped living quarters. Presumably, this is the room they had prepared for the lodgings of pilgrims like himself.



Paul finds a Book of Reliquaries here. It's currently bookmarked to the point about false reliquaries, including (but not limited to) the Hand of Jude. You'd think that would be enough evidence of suspicious behavior, no? Well, you'd be wrong.



Paul decides that the Custodian must be waiting for him, and so heads to the Bell Tower.



On the way up, however, a Mantorok zombie rises to attack Paul!

If I hadn't gone out of my way for the Mace, I'd have to flee here.



I did get the Mace, though.

This is the usual "flail at their corpse" finishing move. Paul does this pretty slowly with the Mace, so finishing off enemies in combat becomes even riskier.



However, when Paul arrives at the Bell Tower, it's utterly vacant. He's worried about being caught, and he knows the Custodian is supposed to be the only one to ring the bell.

So, naturally, he rings it himself anyway.

Fortunately, the Custodian appears to have been suspecting Paul to do just that to signal his appearance, so he trudges up the stairs to meet with him.



Cutscene: Convo in Bell Tower (this video actually has both this and a later cutscene but I'll link it twice because I feel like it)

The Custodian wastes no time, getting right to the matter at hand.



And since Paul's seen the zombie by now, the nature of the heresy here needs no major explanation.



The Custodian answers Paul's confusion by saying that there is a chance that he could dispel the heresy here by bringing the information about this conspiracy to light. He gives Paul the key to the Old Tower, which has been sealed off since the beginning of the Inquisition.



Paul agrees to help the Custodian in finding out the truth here, and sets off towards the Old Tower.



Around this time, I remember that Paul has a hefty magick meter, so I get a Chattur'gha Magick Pool going. We've got a lot of ground to cover.

Paul's chapter probably has just as much backtracking as Lindsey's or Ellia's, but unlike their chapters, you'll usually be backtracking through very distinct areas, rather than endless trapped hallways. I've heard it said that his is meant to be a very suspenseful chapter, and I don't quite mind the backtracking as much as in those chapters, but maybe that's just the lack of traps.



No sooner do we open the Old Tower, though, than do we see a bonethief attacking another monk!



The bonethief digs into the monk's body through the neck, and before Paul can react, the monk appears to be perfectly normal, save for moving to attack Paul.



After this, Paul heads towards a side room.

Notice the structure here? One of our earlier characters was here.



It appears that Anthony's curse had even more longevity than we first though. He's still moaning Charlemagne's name, but the pain of the curse has driven him completely insane, and he lurches towards Paul to attack with his sword.



The key to this fight is that Anthony, while extremely durable, is slow. The Damage Field spell is extremely effective here, either for protecting yourself or trapping Anthony so you can fire the crossbow which we do not yet have at him. Once a Damage Field is up, you have a safe point where you can exploit Paul's massive magick bar and use your best spells to aid you.



After you knock him down the first time, his curse, as before, will kick in and raise him. Paul takes that opportunity to center a Damage Field on his person, entrapping him.

Normally, Damage Fields block anything that isn't the caster trying to pass by the runes laid down by the spell. However, this works in both directions, so if you manage to time it just right, you can use Damage Fields as cages of a sort, locking a creature in place where they'll thrash at the walls but only damage themselves.



Eventually, Anthony dies for the last time. Paul kneels by his body to pray for his spirit.



Anthony's tale appears in Paul's mind as he does so.

Once the vision ends, Paul claims the Ruby that was stuck in Anthony's eye socket, as well as his Two-Edged Sword.

If Anthony didn't get the Two-Edged Sword, Paul doesn't receive it here, but we did, so he does. The Two-Edged Sword is faster and has better range than the Mace, but in the tight hallways of the cellars, the Mace tends to be better. Honestly, though, either one is a suitable weapon. I opt to stick with the Mace, largely because Paul doesn't get Anthony's cool finishing move with the Two-Edged Sword.



Anyway, we head up the stairs over Anthony's resting place.

There's a bonethief up here, but there's a few other things we want.



The first is this scrap of sheet music. This being a video game, we will have to play the song listed here. It helps that the notes are notated with A, B, X, and Y.



The other is the second diary page from Brother Andrew's diary. Um, whoops. I sorta tackled this area out of order. Oh well!



Also I missed the Shield scroll back where the funeral from Anthony's chapter was held.



Back in the main room of the cathedral, Paul happens upon the organ. We get the opportunity to play the organ here, and we picked up a sheet of music, so let's do that!



If you have played Ocarina of Time, you know how this works.

If you haven't played Ocarina of Time, I can only assume that you are a time traveler reading these archives shortly after the advent of Cruiser Tetron's attack upon the human race. Do not be alarmed. Find a place with running water and the strongest magnets you can, but more importantly, stop reading now because they are following you.



Anyway, playing the organ opens up the cupboard on the other side of the room. Paul claims the five-point Circle of Power within!

Higher grades of Circles of Power allow for stronger spells, but we can't put in just any runes. We need some special rune to fill in the extra two points of the circle. For right now, this circle is pretty useless.



At this point, I got kinda lost and confused over finding diary page 2 before diary page 1. So here's an awesome lightning-timed screenshot with a random Chattur'gha rune floating around.

Actually, no. Normally, the visual effect from Magick Pool is a rune hovering directly over your head. It is possible, given enough room, to outrun the rune. However, if you run too far, the rune will instantly snap back to its spot above your head. As Kishi pointed out with the fire effects, these are several clear indicators that this game started out on the N64. This is one of them.



As it turns out, I completely forgot about the door directly across from the Old Tower.



In here, there's two things of note. The first is the wardrobe, which hides a Podium Key when properly searched. The Podium contains Diary Page 1.



The second is a classic treasure chest. Paul pries it open!



Fancy!

Almost all of the guides I've seen claim that the Crossbow is utter garbage, but I've never thought that. It's about as strong as the Flintlock Pistol, and it takes about the same time to reload. Not the best ranged weapon, mind, but a good complement to a good melee weapon, and Paul has two of those. Unfortunately, crossbow bolts aren't too common.



Also there's a torch by that room but who cares. Paul's chapter isn't even that dark.



Back to the cellar!



You can't see it from the angle here, but this wine cellar has two Trappers. You can hear their chirping, so you can lock on with R and fire to kill them.

As you investigate each barrel here, Paul gives the barrel of wine a hearty thump. However, this barrel sounds hollow when thumped, and you are given the option to turn the spigot to investigate.



A secret passage!



A Chattur'gha Horror! And also a Sapphire within it.



This time, I'm taking the proper precautions beforehand.



My strategy for this fight pretty much involves keeping the Horror close enough that it doesn't fire energy bolts at me, while still far enough away that we can reload safely. Horrors flinch very little unless you remove a body part, making this a risky tactic, but I survive, so all's well that ends well.



The ceiling is bleeding. That's not a good sign.

Something I don't think I've noted yet, but when heavily injured, characters move a lot slower, making it even more important that you keep yourself healed. Paul looks up a spell to do just that...



But just a slight miscalculation in the spell causes it to have disastrous effects! Paul's life is brought to an end through one mistake...



THIS ISN'T REALLY HAPPENING!!

This sanity effect only triggers on casting a spell, but when the spell concludes, rather than the ideal effect, the character explodes from the waist up. Pretty jarring, especially if you're OCD about restoring sanity.



Paul decides that right now might be a good time to pray for his safety, so he gets out his Meditation Rod and does just that.



Once he concludes, he examines the podium behind the Horror. It has three slots, each about the size of the three gems he has.



So he sets the gems in the slots.



This opens up the central stone slab within this mausoleum, revealing a secret passage under it.



This leads to a tight passage full of zombies.

At this point, the areas will be a lot more openly hostile and full of zombies, but as the creatures vanish upon being slain, Paul has no evidence to take back to the Custodian.



Here's a bunch of Ulyaoth zombies, one of them holding the last rune in the game.



POW! HAHA!

The Codex for this rune is at the end of the area, as usual, and this rune is super important so I will talk about it right now. This is the Pargon (Power) rune. If runes could be classified as verbs or nouns, Pargon is an adjective. In order to use spells higher than 3 points in strength, the remaining points must be filled with Pargon runes. So rather than saying "Xel'lotath, make my weapon hit harder", you're going "Xel'lotath, make my weapon hit really really REALLY hard." Kinda dumb, but eh.

Also annoying is that you have to manually set spells in this fashion if you want to upgrade them using New Spell.



However, we discover a new spell when doing this for the Tier and Aretak runes!

Summoning spells are unique in that the creature you summon changes depending on the strength of the spell. The five point version is Summon Zombie. It is almost completely useless, since the only things it can reliably do are fight other zombies and trigger Trappers. I guess you could use it to hit switches or whatever? Don't try using it to fight bonethieves, though, because a zombie cannot shake them off.



Here's me with my new Quick Spells, except instead of Spell 9 down there, I notice and set Shield there instead.



Here's a casting of a five point Enchant Item spell!

Spells with higher point values take more magick and time to cast, but they have stronger effects as a result. Usually, if you need to use a spell in combat, low-power spells are the better choice. If you want to buff your character up, higher versions of spells are better. This is also why Bind and Magickal Attack are pretty much garbage, since you need higher level variants to really do damage, and that means more magick and more opportunities to get hit.



In this room, a Xel'lotath Horror and an Ulyaoth Horror duke it out. Which is to say, the Xel'lotath Horror knocks the Ulyaoth one down with a single blow.



Paul opts to enchant his Two-Edged Sword for the added range here, and successfully kills the Horror. Behind it, however...



A stone effigy of a monk with a slit where its sternum would be. It bears a striking resemblance to the Custodian.



Huh. Xel'lotath zombies. Why are there so many Xel'lotath enemies in this chapter?



This area is littered with all kinds of diabolical diagrams. Paul needs look no further for cold hard evidence as to the heresy within the cathedral.



Paul discovers a hidden passage as well, and he takes it to see if any further evidence can be secured.



This room has a single zombie in it, but it also has two other things.



First, the codex for Pargon.



Second, the final Diary Page, which Paul takes.

Paul couldn't ask for better proof of the heresy of Augustine's group, not to mention his innocence in the murder of Brother Andrew.



Cutscene: Suspicions Confirmed

Back at the Bell Tower, Paul and the Custodian discuss what they have learned.



Paul outlines the facts: the Hand of Jude was a ruse to ensnare and murder pilgrims, perpetrated by the cultists of Ulyaoth, who hid themselves as members of the Inquisition.

The Custodian agrees that as soon as this information is made public, the cult is done for, but he fears that he may not live to see the day. A sacrificial dagger was placed on his pillow, and he knows that the cult is going to silence him next.



Paul takes the dagger to reassure him and leaves.



The Custodian is more right than he knows.



As he fights his way past Ulyaoth beings, Paul considers leaving, but something nags at the back of his mind... wasn't there a statue deep within the church? Didn't it have a slot that would fit this dagger so perfectly? Wouldn't it be interesting if the dagger fit that statue perfectly?



Before he knows it, he's standing before the statue, placing the dagger calmly into the slot. He's jarred from his thoughts by an elderly scream: was that the custodian?!



This also causes a previously hidden door to reveal itself. Paul heads further in to see who that scream was...



His path is barred by a Damage Field, but with a five-point Dispel Magick spell available, it poses no threat.



At the center of this room, over a mist-filled chasm...



The still-warm corpse of the Custodian lies upon a sacrificial altar.



Cutscene: Heresy Revealed

Augustine approaches, congratulating Paul on making it this far.



He also asks what a holy man such as himself thinks when he looks upon the face of true heresy.



Paul expresses his pure disbelief that something so evil would hide in plain sight as members of the holy inquisition, claiming to purge evil while hiding it themselves.



Augustine makes it clear that he doesn't actually care for Paul's opinion, because whatever his answer, he's still going to be tortured into madness.



And he sends two bonethieves after us to achieve this end.

Fun fact: Augustine actually pets the bonethieves as he passes! Interesting touch, that.

Bonethieves, as stressed before, are a big problem when encountered with other enemies, so it comes as no surprise that two bonethieves together is a pretty big threat. However, I manage to kill them without much trouble.



Moving quickly, Paul pursues Augustine to an ornate door, which he casually unlocks and enters.

Carefully following, Paul makes his way to an ornate door. This must be where the rituals of the cult take place. He steels himself to put an end to this heresy for good.



Cutscene: Black Guardian's Lair

To his amazement, rather than a dank basement, the door opens into a subterranean chapel as massive and ornate as the Sistine Chapel, but with the carvings and decorations being of twisted monstrosities as opposed to saints.



As he approaches the end of the chapel, the ground begins to quake...



The Black Guardian bursts forth from the ground mere paces before Paul.



Despite lacking so much as a face, the beast speaks with a tone of incredulity, marveling that someone so feeble and terrified would dare stand against him.



Augustine, who is once again Pious, tells the Black Guardian that he needs only to stand in his presence to cause him true despair.



Paul cowers in fear, trying to think how he can possibly tackle such a monster, but before he can ready his crossbow...



The beast crushes him completely with a single blow.



Next Time: Horror Night: Pillarcraft Story

I thought for a second this level would involve the boss battle that I loathe, but I guess that's the next trip to the cathedral.