Part 39: Update 035 The Death of Grah-Hoth
Update 035 The Death of Grah-HothCome on let's go. We don't need to be in this cairn any longer than we have to.
A 'Cairn' is a stone monument, Art. And while you are correct in that they are used as funerary markers, they also act as navigational aids. I recall that certain tribes in the desolate cold wastelands use specialized cairns called Inuksuks.
Way too much information there.
And completely irrelevant.
But she used the wrong word! Now, if she had called it something like a... charnel crypt, I wouldn't have had that issue!
What about a 'barrow'?
Nah, those are artificial hills.
And they were burned by Dragon Fire. That's not a pyre.
All this because I misspoke?
We are simply determining the best word to use. Nothing more. Nothing less.
And it's fun!
A Mausoleum is a place of respect, though....
How about we just call it a pit and be done with it. I mean, it's not like there was anything left to bury properly.
I feel bad about that though.
And how many people have we beaten up to get this far? You know, some of them probably died, besides our best intentions. Did we inter them?
That's enough.
I wasn't aware that we had chosen to wander this far into the swamps.
Whatever is down there, I don't want to know.
But it wants to know us!
And they fled from us. Is this going to be a thing?
I can smell sulphur from the north.
Then let's explore the dank, poisonous marsh some more!
SIGN!
Poor Sign.
Let's go back, and make sure there's no surprises waiting for us.
This...?
I feel powerful magics coming from this place.
A moment to map it out.
It looks like there's a fortification along the passage there. Perhaps this is a secret place?
This place... it's old.
I... how is that possible? Those barriers!
Vahnatai? We've heard that before...
Yes, but they are irrelevant.
Indeed. They are a mystery for another day.
Let's go.
...
Die!
Ooooh!
Meet the Mung Demon. Which, oddly enough, isn't flagged as a Demon, which means Demonslayer doesnt' trigger. They also love to drain SP from people. For that, I hate them.
Oh my...
Is there even a safe passage across?
I should hope so.
This is just the prelude.... For around this corner is...!
A fixed battle where you start slowed and Cursed! But Major Blessing carries the day! Hooray!
Was that supposed to be serious? I'm not really sure any more...
We do seem to be far more effective than we should be.
We get to kill things!
I hate to shatter the victory celebration, but there's a whole lot a magma ahead of us.
SIGNS!
So, they'll put up a fence? That's... awfully polite of them.
I think they mean to impale their victims on those once they have them.
Times like this, I wish the graphics could reflect the description.
No path this way.
Nor this way.
Time to pull out the Orb then.
So we go hopping from same island to safe harbour across this lava field?
So it seems.
[41]
There's something to the North there...
No clue.
And there's something over here too...
Non magical, and thus worthless.
Last jump.
That... doesn't look like much.
Last chance to back out.
Nope.
Hah!
No sense in leaving things unfinished.
Let's go!
...
For our fathers.
Now, here's the thing. You can get this far without the Orb. You can take a very long way around the north side of Exile to get here, and then walk across the lava. But here, at the last, you absolutely need the Orb to get across this last gap. There's no other way.
Hold on, this is starting to get weird.
What do you mean?
Something about this doesn't make sense.
Kinda late to talk about that.
No, no. Hear me out.
Remember that demon to the north of the Shattered Fort? The one who gave us directions?
Yes?
The one who gave us directions, and that I wrote down?
Yes! So, how did that demon know that were were going to come here? It's not like we had released Grah-Hoth yet.
So it knew about this place before hand?
But wasn't this place raised by Grah-Hoth after we released him?
No, I'm pretty sure it was mentioned that he had taken up residence here, not raised it with his mighty magics whole-cloth.
But...
It doesn't matter. Duncan, the directions?
Start here.
Wow! Not burning at all!
Good luck finding this path without burning through a lot of healing!
Well, here we are.
While I appreciate that Grah-Hoth set out guards, I think he overestimates his capacity for battle.
Even I'm not dumb enough to touch this.
There's a corpse in the corner here.
Let's move on.
Seriously? They really expect us to take a long refreshing drink of sludge?
Moving on...
So this is what the Imp meant by when he said that we would be frozen for all eternity.
Is there nothing we can do for these poor souls?
No. Not with the power at our disposal.
Oh no.
And Grah-Hoth is on the other side. There's no where else left for him to hide.
We seriously have to sip of that filth?
Ugh.
It's not much, but that ring of poison resistance is sure helping.
Now for the other side.
Everyone ready?
Yes.
[73]
Watch the VIDEO!
What you're seeing is my third of four attempts. The first was just a practice run. No problems there. The second run, I forgot to set up before hand, and wound up Peregrine and Rook Dusted before I could get a chance to act.
You'll see why I had to make a fourth run shortly.
I.... Legendary....
We did it.
WE DID IT!
I SLEW GRAH-HOTH!
Calm down! Calm down!
She's right. We may have destroyed the beast, but we must still leave this place with our lives.
ooh!
MINE!
And then I had to go back and fight Grah-Hoth again.
Time to go.
The large map, from Erika's Tower north.
The Mysterious Vahnatai Cave
The Fortress of Grah-Hoth