Grimrock

Tawmis heaved a deep breath and took in grains of sand, deep into his lungs. He began coughing and sputtering, breathing in the fresh air. Groggily he looked around to see where he was, and was pleasantly surprised to see that he was still alive. He coughed and choked, his head a hazy mess. He tried to push himself upright but felt his arms quiver under his weight. "I'll just lay here for a minute," he finally said and collapsed again into the sand.

He heard a loud, gruff cough not too far from him and knew that Taren was alive. "You alive over there?" Tawmis called out.

"Indeed," Taren's deep voice replied. "Though," he added after a moment, "with as much pain as I am in, I think I'd much prefer to be among the dead."

"You see Blaz or that Rat?" Tawmis called out.

"My name is Coy," the Ratling replied. "It's not like you don't know that!"

"Oh good," Tawmis muttered, "you survived too."

"As did -tic!- I," Blaz'tik managed to call out.

As the sun began to set on the horizon, Tawmis and the others gathered and used the dry wood from the shattered ship to make a campfire. The night grew cold, the breeze biting into their skin through their soaked clothing. Tawmis turned to Coy, "So, you're from here. What can you tell us about this place?"

"I can tell you that it's a death trap," Coy said. "I didn't get exiled. I left here to survive. And now I am back on this cursed island."

"What happened to the -tic!- rest of the crew?" Blaz'tik wondered.

"If the Master of Nex had his way, they're shark food," Coy replied.

"The Master," Tawmis repeated. "I heard you say something about that just before the ship slammed into the coral reef," Tawmis said, as he tore off a piece of his clothing and wrapped his arm, that had a deep cut from the very coral reef he was speaking of. "What's the deal with that?"

"The Master," Coy replied, "is a mysterious figure who has made this island the death trap that it is."

"What can you tell us about him?" Taren asked.

"Nothing," Coy shrugged. "I literally know nothing about him. Only that he is a powerful mage of some kind. And his hobby is experimenting and creating death traps. He believes that only the strong will survive. In his mind, he thinks this benefits those who shipwreck on this island. He thinks he's making the world a better place by removing the weak."

"So," Tawmis sighed and laid back on the sand, "we escape from Grimrock to land here, on this pleasant island of death?"

"We escaped Grimrock," Taren growled, "we can get through this."

"You don't know this island," Coy said, "our luck is going to run out."

"No prisoner ever escaped Grimrock, but we did," Taren replied.

"I suspect that's exactly why the Master shipwrecked us here, and ensured our survival, and only ours," Coy said. "Because we did escape Grimrock - in the Master's eyes, we are strong. But are we strong enough to survive the island?"

"This Master sounds like a pleasant fellow," Tawmis sighed. "Can't wait to meet him face to face." He paused, and finally added, "So I can run my sword through him."

Sounds hard... But it wouldn't surprise me if it in the end had a really simple solution... However, I admit I have no idea what that could be...
I'm guessing you checked for secret buttons too?
But sometimes, it helps to just take a break from it and continue a few days later. I remember I did that with one game (not Grimrock) and it worked wonders. In the end I was laughing at the simplicity of what I was stuck with...

AnnElfwind wrote:Sounds hard... But it wouldn't surprise me if it in the end had a really simple solution... However, I admit I have no idea what that could be...
I'm guessing you checked for secret buttons too?
But sometimes, it helps to just take a break from it and continue a few days later. I remember I did that with one game (not Grimrock) and it worked wonders. In the end I was laughing at the simplicity of what I was stuck with...

Well I had my wife try it. She pressed the buttons to figure out how they work - and ironically, managed to press them in the right sequence. So I spent 2 hours, she spent 2 minutes.

Well, at least you can now move past that point.
Hopefully, you saved after. And unlike me, the game didn't crash on you.
Because, you see, I was just playing one of the log1 mods and got past a difficult puzzle only for the game to crash afterwards... Annoying... And I only tried to step on a pressure plate... And well, obviously, I didn't save after the above mentioned puzzle...

Tawmis grabbed a shell that sat, perched on the beach sand. He looked around and shattered a portion of it against a large boulder.

“What are you doing?” Coy asked.

“We’ve got no weapons because they sank with the ship,” Tawmis replied. “So I am going to make some weapons.”

“A shell is not going to be much defense against the horrors of this island,” Coy said, sitting back down.

“Neither is sitting there hoping some ship is going to come by and rescue us,” Tawmis retorted. Coy shot Tawmis a foul look.

Taren returned from the waters, holding an assortment of fractured panels of wood that had washed ashore from the sundered remains of the ship. Tawmis took one and began using the shattered shell to sharpen the point of one of them, creating a crude spear.

“You’re more resourceful than I would have given you credit for,” Coy admired. “Though I should have known, considering you managed to survive Grimrock as well.”

Taren chuckled. “You should hear some of the stories we could share,” the gruff minotaur said. “We have been through a lot, he and I. We have been in more predicaments than I can possibly ever hope to recall.” Taren looked over at Tawmis, “He has a habit of either bedding the wrong women, opening his big mouth, or wanting to help someone out, who is clearly in more trouble than they can handle.”

“You sound like a man with mix morals,” Coy said.

“I prefer to say that I am a complex individual,” Tawmis retorted, as he threw one of the panels of wood towards Coy. “Now if you’re doing trying to figure out the person that I am, we could use your help forging some weapons against this,” Tawmis tone changed to mimic Coy’s, “island of death.”

Coy picked up the wood and began carving away at the tip, “I still say this is a useless idea.”

“You’d probably get more done if you talked less,” Tawmis smiled. Tawmis turned to Blaz’tik, “Any luck recalling any of that wild magic you were casting before the explosion of Grimrock?”

“I am afraid not,” Blaz’tik admitted. “It’s as if I can see them there; whispering in my mind – but they have yet to come forward.”

“That’s all right,” Tawmis admitted. In truth, Tawmis was partially relieved that Blaz’tik could not recall all the wild magic. When they had found Blaz’tik, and he had absorbed all the magic of the Undying One into himself; Tawmis saw that the friendly humanoid-insect no longer resided behind those eyes; instead there was something there that craved even more power. It was almost a relief to know that Blaz’tik was back to being his normal, humble, less magical self.

Blaz’tik emerged from a small brush and help up a large sized egg. “Look what I found! There’s a few others here.”

“Something laid those eggs,” Taren noted. “Something fairly large.”

“Turtles,” Coy replied. “The western coast of this island is full of them.”

“Well that means we eat something other than these little crabs,” Tawmis nudged several crabs that had been skittering by his foot. “And now that we sort of have weapons; we start moving into the island itself and see if we can’t find a way off of here.”

I just SO love when Tawmis and Coy bicker! And I know I said that before, but it's true!
So, they got "some" weapons and they got something to eat. That's good, they will not starve.
But I am looking forward to some weird encounter of the crazy kind.
Is it possible they will encounter something friendly? Or will it only be the horrors of the island?
Can't wait for the next one.

AnnElfwind wrote:I just SO love when Tawmis and Coy bicker! And I know I said that before, but it's true!

I do enjoy writing their banter!

AnnElfwind wrote: So, they got "some" weapons and they got something to eat. That's good, they will not starve.
But I am looking forward to some weird encounter of the crazy kind.

That will no doubt be just around the corner!

AnnElfwind wrote: Is it possible they will encounter something friendly? Or will it only be the horrors of the island?
Can't wait for the next one.

Heh - there's not much that's friendly in either game...!

Well... By friendly I ment someone who was trapped on the island too. Something similar to the original group finding Coy.
But maybe they could tame one of the monsters. That would be fun. Even if it's impossible to do something like that inside the game.

AnnElfwind wrote:Well... By friendly I ment someone who was trapped on the island too. Something similar to the original group finding Coy.
But maybe they could tame one of the monsters. That would be fun. Even if it's impossible to do something like that inside the game.

Certainly wouldn't be beyond what I'd do since I take a lot of liberties when I write these stories!

Been awhile since I have written here (or even played LOGII) - admittedly, I got Dragon Age: Inquisition - and that became my addiction for quite a bit. (I obsess with needing to do every quest, side quest, war table mission!) Ironically, when I was writing the first LOG story, I believe Dragon Age: Origins was to blame for my disappearance (and I began writing the story Life Begins With Death - A Dragon Age Story.