Titan Quest AAR: Ares - the warrior with passion

Chapter 15 - Like a rat in a maze

2008-04-03T16:14:00.004+01:00

The palace was beautiful. The early sun rays were shining through the gaps in the buildings creating a nice shadow pattern on the ground. It seemed very quiet as if not a single soul was there. I made my way through a couple of stairs when I came across a pack of undead. They were not really a problem and I continued my way through the palace. It was truly a huge place. From one of the platforms I could see most of it and so decided to see where could the sorcerer be hiding and what was the shortest way to that location. I could see a few golem-looking beings walking around the area. Those must’ve been the automatoi. Most were guarding an entrance to the labyrinth of the Minotaur Lord. I guessed that it could be the only place where that mysterious sorcerer went, so began making my way down there. The automatoi of course tried to stop me, but I fought back. Though their armor was exceptionally good, my new axe still managed to tear its way through them. Right next to the entrance I’ve seen a massive automatoi statue. It looked very real and I had a feeling as if it was watching me right in the eyes, but I tried to ignore it and walked up to the entrance of the labyrinth.
Inside the labyrinth I’ve faced many powerful adversaries. First one up was a particular powerful automatoi, who was of silver colour instead of bronze. Unlike others he could spin his torso 360 degrees and his sword was charged with electricity. Some of those spins that he did were so lethal that I was an inch away from being beheaded. Of course he was not immune to the power of Minotaur’s axe that I was using and so after a long fight I broke him to pieces. On the bottom of his foot something was written. It said ‘Cadmus – the Golem King’. I guessed he must’ve been an automatoi leader.
However I might’ve been wrong as I’ve faced another one of those later on. He was of gold colour and instead of electric charge was charged with fire. He also could spin his torso just like Cadmus. His strikes were flaming hot and could even melt through tough armor. I’ve seen him accidentally hit once of his own, so I knew that it could do the same to me and so tried to dodge his every swing at me. After a similarly long fight he went down too. On the bottom of his foot it said ‘Hesperos the Flameforged’.
After fighting off many ordinary gorgons, skeletons and automatoi the next one up was the Minotaur Lord himself. He was guarded by a few minor Minotaurs and a big metal door. Once I’ve entered through it I’ve seen the beast and was astonished to see how huge he was. The axes he was wielding were about the size of me. However he saw the axe I was wielding and got enraged as he must’ve recognized it being his. He took a swing at me. I successfully avoided the hit, but he hit the ground instead causing a powerful quake. He had so much strength and power in him, I bet he could tear down the whole room in seconds. There were a couple of traps in the room too which were shooting shards of ice randomly. I found a good spot to stay away from the shards and fought him there. I kept on battering his legs with the axe and moving around him a lot so to stay in his sight less than half the time. He was really ferocious and was swinging madly all over the place.
At one amazing moment a couple of shards hit him on the back. With this distraction I managed to hit against his fingers with my axe as hard as I could. That chopped them off and he dropped one of his weapons. I could imagine the pain he went through, but I had to kill him as he was a threat and so launched my axe at his throat producing a big cut. He collapsed onto the floor and began bleeding to death.
I wondered how many more powerful enemies I had to face before I met up with this sorcerer. Well to my delight there was none. The Minotaur Lord was the last one and in the next chamber I’ve seen an angry sorcerer. A few minor Minotaurs were with him. They ran in my direction, but I fought them all off. He now had nothing left. It looked like he wanted to lead an army of Minotaurs against humans.
Now that it was only me and him we began a fight till death. He kept on casting bolts of lightning at me. There was no possible way to dodge those, so I just had to endure all the electricity making an impact against my torso and pulsing through my body causing every single muscle to hurt like Hades. All I had with me were my axe and shield. Gladly my shield was wooden and so it could take in and insulate the lightning bolts from his attacks. Thanks to that I managed to come close and personal to him and begin smashing at him with my axe. That seemed to hurt him a lot. He therefore raised a few statues to aid him in combat. The statues were a little bigger than a human size. Each one had a spear. Though the sorcerer tried to use extra units to fight me, it was not a clever move as now I could use these statues for cover. The statues themselves were too slow to even harm me. Avoiding every single lightning bolt now, I managed to make my way behind the sorcerer and to embed my axe in his skull. A very bright light streamed out of the wound and a second later he exploded.
I was glad to have killed the brain behind these ruthless attacks on our cities. It was now time to go back to the ship and go back home.

Chapter 14 - Scent of death

2008-03-29T23:13:00.003Z

As soon as I entered the vault I sensed evil. I could hear many voices in my head. All were screaming or moaning. I slowly began making my way through the dimly lit corridor. It was freaky, especially some really dark corners. I grabbed one of the torches from the wall and let it illuminate the way for me as I moved deeper and deeper into the darkness.
I now went down the stairs. It was darker there, without a torch you wouldn’t see anything. Strange sounds began sounding in my ears. I could hear chains clinging against the floor, I could hear hard footsteps, I could hear metal scrape against the stone walls. Those sounds made me feel inside out.
At one swift illumination of the room I’ve seen dozens of skeletons. Every single one of them spotted me and ran in my direction.
- “Crap!” I shouted and threw the torch towards a group of 5 or so.
The torch set them on fire and then landed on the floor. I quickly drew my Minoan axe out and as the undead were approaching me I was bashing them to pieces. Thanks to the torch and burning skeletons most of the room was illuminated. I made sure no bones were intact, because even with half a body some of them kept on crawling on the floor and grabbing my legs.
Once the job here was done I picked up the torch and moved onto the next room. It was bigger and so I couldn’t see all of it. Suddenly I smelled something weird. It was a very stinging smell, but I couldn’t tell what it was. I waited a little longer and soon saw some ghosts emerge from the darkness. They kept on dissolving into the medium of the air and darkness and a couple of seconds after that I saw a figure. It was a wight.
- “Captain?” I asked.
- “Not anymore!” came a death-defying low voice and here the figure pulled its staff out and cast a snowball at me.
I dodged it successfully and threw the torch at him. He dodged it and torch just landed on the stone floor. There was still enough illumination and so I proceeded with the fight.
I seemed to have remembered another one of amazing tricks a warrior can pull off. It’s a way of showing your triumph to your enemies, but most warriors prefer to call it Battle Standard. It consists of you setting up a battle flag as a mental image and that battle flag is a relic of your victory in battle. By imagining it you stay focused, receive much less damage from enemies and deal much more to them.
Not being new to the concept of battle standard I set up a mental triumph flag in my mind instantly and so the battle went more smoothly than expected. I could dodge creature’s projectiles as if they were moving very slowly and at the same time kept on coming close to him and smacking him with my axe.
I saw defeat in his eyes and he knew it, so at this moment he cast something weird and a bit of smoke appeared all around me. Before I could realise what was happening the smoke had cleared and three ethereal skeletons appeared out of nowhere. They kept on pounding me really hard, but with a single war wind all three returned where they came from.
Captain starting pulling back into the darkness, but I followed him there, grabbed my torch from the floor and charged towards him with all speed. He cast another snowball projectile at me, but I ducked out of it and rammed the torch into his torso. The fire took over him quicker than anything and he began screaming in agony.
- “I’m very sorry.” I said and watched him melt away.
After this incident I decided to go back to the ship. I didn’t have a torch this time and so had to make my way through almost complete darkness. After a little while I made it to the light and came out of the vault. I then came up to the sailors and said:
- “I’m sorry to say but the captain is dead. It looks like I’ll have to take control of the ship.”
I’ve had some experience with controlling a ship before, therefore it was OK. We boarded the ship and took off without any delay.
It took us the rest of the day to get to Crete by ship and once we got there safely we stopped in a small village where I got some sleep for the night. After about 6 hours of sleep I woke up very early in the morning, thanked the people for hospitality and took off to the palace of Knossos. I walked through some hills, fighting off a few nasty harpy hags who tried to bewitch me.
After about an hour’s worth of walking I got to the entrance of the Knossos palace. Knowing the dangers lurking in there I still was more pleased to see it than a paradise.

Bonus chapter 1

2008-03-26T19:47:00.001Z

My name is Cadmus and I am one of head automatoi. We automatoi live happily here in the Knossos palace. Though our king died long time ago we are still happy to stay here and to keep intruders out.
Today we had a strange visitor. He had some kind of Godly scent and had a few beastmen trail after him so many of us decided not to disturb him, not even Talos – our leader. He seemed to be in a rush and headed straight for the Minoan labirynth. I wonder what’s that was all about and whether we’ll be getting any more mysterious visitors. Talos hopes that there will be no humans coming here because he absolutely despises them. Afterall, humans are responsible for most of the wars that happen nowadays. Talos also hates being disturbed while he is sleeping and so he asked Hesperos and myself to take care of any strange activity around the palace. To be honest I didn’t like that mysterious sorcerer and his army of pets. If he dares to come out of the labirynth alive then I am going to raise a whole automatoi army against him, but for now we must guard the entrance to the labirynth.

Chapter 13 - Back home

2008-03-23T22:56:00.003Z

I bravely entered the battle that was happening before the front gates of Athens. There were many satyrs and centaurs there fighting Athenian guards and also a few Spartans were there too. Leonidas seemed to be fighting here too. I was surprised that Spartans came all the way here to fight off monsters for a city they rivalled with.
I was attacked by a big group of satyrs within seconds. I relaxed and let my hammer do the job. It danced through the air following my arm and making stops on every satyr face it came into contact with. I battled a few centaurs too. They seemed to be crack shots and did hit me with a couple of arrows, but nothing that a potion can’t cure.
At the end of the battle Leonidas was glad to see me. There was a smile on his face.
- “You’d make an excellent Spartan.” He said to me, “Too bad you missed most of the battle.”
- “Who attacked Athens?” I asked.
- “The beast army was led by a very mysterious sorcerer. He wasn’t human. None of us really managed to get a good look of him, but he left the battlefield just before you arrived.” Leonidas explained.
We then went inside the city walls. It was nice to see my home city again in one piece. I was glad that the monsters didn’t manage to get inside. At least the most beautiful of the Greek cities should survive the monster attack.
Leonidas led me somewhere. I didn’t ask any questions, I just followed him. We came to a house of a wealthy leader. His name was Kyros.
- “Ares? Is that really you?” Kyros asked.
- “Who are you?” I got puzzled as I didn’t know him.
- “You don’t know me, but I’ve heard a lot about your heroic deeds and the only one who we can count on.” Kyros explained.
- “What happened?” I wondered.
- “We think the sorcerer who led the monsters left to Knossos. We don’t know why, but Knossos palace is full of Minotaurs and I am afraid he is going to try and lead them over here.”
- “Who IS this sorcerer?” I asked out of frustration.
- “We have no idea, but I have a theory that it might be one of the Telchines.” Kyros said.
- “Right. So how do I get to Knossos? It’s all the way on Crete.” I asked.
- “Take my ship. You’ll find it by the docks. I think the captain of the ship is there with it, he never really goes anywhere.”
- “OK. I’ll do that.” I agreed, “Is there enough defence here in Athens in case of another attack?”
- “Yes, so far we have the troopers.” Kyros said, “plus we have Leonidas here with his mighty Spartans.”
With this on mind I left his house and headed towards the Athenian docks. On my way there I heard a mysterious citizen calling me. I turned around and headed towards him.
- “Warrior, are you the one they’re sending to Knossos?”
- “Yes that’s me.” I said, “Why do you ask?”
- “I’ve got something you might find useful. I’ve been in a Minoan labirynth many years ago and have this axe and this cuirass since I’ve been there. The axe belonged to the Minotaur Lord.” He said.
- “Interesting. How much?”
- “1500 for the axe and 1800 for the cuirass.” The mysterious stranger said.
- “Deal.” I gave him the gold pieces and armed myself with new gear.
- “Thank you and may Athena give you strength.” The guy said.
I continued my way to the docks. There was only one ship docked there at that time and three sailors nearby.
- “Hey, I’m Ares. I was sent by Kyros to go to Knossos. Which of you is the captain?” I introduced myself.
- “The captain is not here.” One of the sailors said.
- “Where is he then?” I wondered.
- “He went to check something in that vault.” Another sailor said while pointing at an underground passage not too far away.
I had a feeling that something went wrong and therefore decided to go into the vault and find the captain.

Chapter 12 - The Trio

2008-03-16T17:27:00.004Z

The cave also contained tonnes of statues of people. I got suspicious. Could this be the dwelling of the Gorgon sisters? They are known to be able to turn people into stone with one gaze directly from their eyes. This meant that I couldn’t look at what I was fighting and therefore would be very troublesome.
Finally coming out into a big chamber I spotted three figures far away. Those were definitely the Gorgons. Gladly they couldn’t see me, which meant I had an advantage.
I crept through the dark corners of the chamber, hiding behind the rocks and making absolutely no noise. The sisters were speaking some language I couldn’t understand. All what was left for me now is to find a perfect time to strike. If only I could kill 1 of them before the other two are alerted then that would make the fighting much easier for me, as I knew that one Gorgon by itself is strong enough already, but with 3 I had very little chances.
Slowly but surely making my way behind one of them, I think it was Euryale, I waited till the other two turned away. Taking slow, deep and silent breaths I waited like a panther, masquerading with the darkness and gazing at my prey. Chasing each movement with my eyeballs I suddenly sprung out of my hideout and stabbed a dagger into Euryale’s neck. That proved to be a lethal stab and she went down in an instant.
Medusa and Stheno heard the screams of their sister and turned around just to see a charging warrior approaching with an immense speed. I slashed at Stheno first as she was closer to me. She blocked my strikes with her spear and then attempted to stab me with it. I ducked from the stab and then sliced at her arm which caused her to bleed vile blood all over the floor.
Here Medusa got out her bow and arrows and opened fire. She could shoot really fast. All I could do there is block the shots with my shield, but it was a small shield and so some arrows were getting away. One got even stuck in my helmet. Here I threw the dagger at Medusa and it stabbed directly in her torso. Stheno tried to stick me with her spear again. I quickly got out my sparkling hammer and knocked it out of her hand, to then finally deliver a killing blow to her face.
Medusa wasn’t pleased with both her sisters dead and so attempted to petrify gaze me. I turned my eyes away in time and quickly ran behind one of the stone statues. All that action made me out of breath, so I needed to catch it quickly. After a few seconds I gripped my hammer really tightly and came out of cover. Medusa aimed with her bow at me. I quickly produced a war wind, allowing me to glide through the air with an extreme speed and at the end spin my hammer around, which smacked Medusa in the face. She didn’t even get stunned by that and so continued shooting. I received a couple of arrows in my torso, but that didn’t stop me. I heaved myself into the air, producing an overhead smash with my hammer. The final strike smashed Medusa’s head into pieces.
She was still bleeding from the dagger in her body and all the vile blood was flowing on the ground of the cave, instantly killing any life forms that came into contact with it.
I continued through the cave and soon came to an exit. The road after that was infested with numerous beasts, especially centaurs and also those disgusting ratmen. I battled my way through hordes of them, several times even being absolutely enraged and while ignoring all the pain annihilating masses of them within seconds.
But after so much spillage of blood I was actually approaching my home city of Athens. Unfortunately though I could see a huge war going on in front of its gates. I added a bit of speed to my pace so I could get there quicker and save lives of my fellow citizens.

Chapter 11 - The Lion's den

2008-03-09T22:32:00.003Z

I was welcomed into the Temple of the Great Oracle. She knew I would come and said:
- “Noble warrior, you have finally come.”
- “Yes, I was sent by general Leonidas to find out about the beasts. Why are they so aggressive and want to kill everyone?”
- “To Athens you shall go. Discover your true enemy you shall.” Oracle said out loud.
- “Thanks.” I said.
- “Go, and beware – the road is dangerous, but you will make it for I see a great hero in you.” Oracle added.
Here I left the Temple of Apollo. I bought a few potions from a merchant in Delphi and was ready to set off to Athens. I knew the road would be long, but I also knew that nothing would stop me.
There was a cave not far away from Delphi. I decided to use it as a shortcut rather than going a long way around the mountain. The cave was rather spooky, but I had no fear. It seemed like some strange species of arachnos lived there. They were of green colour. Also there were packs of vicious ratmen living in this cave too. None were particularly challenging of course. One of the arachnos dropped a really fancy hammer which was emitting sparks. I decided to use it as I knew I’d do a lot of damage with it. The cave was long. It was way too long.
At one moment I came across a strange rock. It had lots of magic symbols written all over it and its top was glowing with a golden light. I gently touched it and within a second felt some mysterious energy flow into me. It made my muscles stronger and I could now hold that hammer more easily and wield it much faster too. Knowing this I quickly charged into next few packs of ratmen and killed every single one of them with a single blow. It was truly a magnificent feeling. However after a little while the magic effect of that shrine faded away. I was hoping very much to run into more of those.
Once the cave came to an end I was happy to see the sunlight again. I must’ve been in that cave for at least an hour. However except for sunlight there was nothing else good outside. In fact I wished I could go back into the cave as from top of the hill I could see an absolutely massive satyr war camp. I was trying to figure out a way to go around it, but there wasn’t one so there was no other option than to go down into the lion’s den.
I was trying not to aggravate too many satyrs at once as there was pretty much a whole army of them there. There were even a few massive, fat ones. It took longer to bring them down, but I still received nothing more than just a scratch on my arm. The camp seemed to be really close to a big graveyard and when I reached it I could actually see some satyrs and some undead fighting it out with each other. That made me wonder because if some force is driving them against us, humans, then why would they fight each other. That made me think perhaps two forces were involved in this war. It seemed like the dark age was coming and I feared that Greece or in fact the whole humanity won’t survive it.

After carefully making my way through the battle between satyrs and undead I now reached another cave with some ruins near the entrance. For some reason I found the ruins to be quite beautiful. There were numerous beautiful and almost life-like statues of people. After having one last glimpse at the massive satyr war camp, I continued my journey towards the next cave.

Chapter 10 - Queen mother

2008-03-02T16:11:00.005Z

The people in Ambrossos seemed to be completely frightened. I couldn’t understand why, but they would even run away if I tried to come closer and ask them a few questions. Only a merchant seemed friendly enough and offered some potions and armor for sale. I bought some potions, then took a little rest and once my muscles were less exhausted I exited Ambrossos and continued my gruelling journey to Delphi.
The grounds around Ambrossos were the same as everywhere else I’ve been. Every creature seemed to try and kill me. Soon I could see those horrible looking arachnos again. Gladly there were no deathweavers among them, but still they seemed very aggressive and were fighting back till their last breath.
Soon I understood why that was. I came face to face with their Queen. The Queen arachnos was massive and of bright green colour. She sent a couple of her bodyguards to take me out. They were tougher than ordinary arachnos, but still no challenge for me. I felt like I was remembering my former strength quicker and quicker now.
When arachnos Queen’s bodyguards were defeated she had no choice but to attack me herself. She breathed a horrible cloud of poison right at me. Knowing how deadly it can be I quickly ran out from the vile cloud and attempted to flank her. It was hard as she was pretty agile for such a massive beast.
In addition to that she also managed to momentarily give birth to little spiders that would attack me as soon as they would be born. Knowing they were just amateurs I tried to ignore them most of the time and was trying to stab the Queen as many times as I could. Her exoskeleton was quite tough, but Patroclus’ short blade could penetrate it if I applied enough strength in the stab.
Soon she breathed another cloud of poison at me. I rolled out of the way and then performed a war wind, which killed many of the little spiders and even scarred her face. She got angrier after that. I knew that to control anger is very hard and only very skilled warriors can use it for the good, while others would lose their concentration once they become angry.
I could tell her lack of concentration now as she would miss me a lot often with her strikes and in fact it seemed like I didn’t even need a shield there anymore. I flanked her in no time and managed to perform a few killer stabs that brought her down to the ground for good. Her blood spilled through the land and everywhere it flowed the life there instantly ceased to exist.
Feeling itchy after those poison clouds I drank a potion and it made me feel better. I then grabbed a block of wood, set it on fire and began burning the arachnos nest for if I hadn’t the new pests would hatch very soon. The fire spread through it quickly and once the whole nest was on fire I could proceed to Delphi.
To get there I went through numerous hills and a big swamp full of those grotesque turtles. None of them stopped me of course and after a couple of hours I reached Delphi. It seemed to be under attack by a gang of maenads. I entered the city walls and could see the guards fighting off those maenads. Some maenads felt great threat from me and so attempted to attack me. They however underestimated me and soon many of them were lying on the stone floor face down.
After defeating the whole gang the guards thanked me for the help. Now I needed to go and see the Great Oracle of Delphi.

Chapter 9 - Old friend

2008-02-24T18:07:00.004Z

I reached another bridge and a small army was standing directly on the other side of it. I walked up to one of them and asked what’s going on.
- “We’re here to hold a perimeter. A vicious Cyclops dwells in these lands.” He said.
- “I can help you defeat him.” I said boldly.
- “I don’t think a dozen men can bring that beast down. How are you thinking of killing him?” he got surprised.
- “I won’t stop at anything.” I said, “I will fight till death. Plus I’ve beaten many similar beasts before.”
- “If you say so.” The man agreed.
He then gave a gesture to the rest of his people and all of us marched forwards. So far nothing, but literally a few steps forward and I could feel the ground shake.
- “He’s close.” The guy said.
- “Well, let’s see what he can do.” I said with tonnes of courage and adrenaline running through me.
We stopped. The ground shook more and more with every step the beast made and at one scary moment we saw him emerge from the rocks. He was massive indeed and carried a club the size of a tree.
- “Attack!” The guy whom I’ve spoken to suddenly screamed and all of his army charged towards the Cyclops.
Bad move, I thought to myself. And I was right. The Cyclops screamed at first really loudly, deafening the army and breaking the ranks. This then was followed up by a massive smash with his club against the ground causing a deadly wave to hit the army. That wave killed at least 3 men. The rest of them got closer to the Cyclops and began hitting his feet. A few were at the back shooting at his torso with their arrows.
The Cyclops didn’t seem to feel their attacks at all. He swung a few times, taking out a person per swing and ended it with a powerful foot stomp that finished off the last two of them.
His techniques were not new to me as I fought beasts of this size before. I then boldly ran in his direction. He smashed the ground with his club producing that killer wave again. I rolled to the side and avoided it successfully. Here I reached him and with the deathweaver legtip I scratched his ankle. The poison began to soak into his flesh. Still though I don’t think he even felt that. I didn’t give up and so flanked him quickly and produced more slices on his feet and shins. As he kept on turning around to find me I kept on making my way behind him. It was easy as he was pretty slow and clumsy. At one moment I stabbed the legtip into his Achilles tendon as deep as I could and that caused him to scream from pain and fall on his knees. That was enough for me to jump onto him and to stab the legtip into his only eye. The poison seemed to take effect really quickly and he finally went down for good, producing a huge quake as his body thudded against the ground.
That was quite a battle and I was impressed. However I was also unhappy about a loss of good soldiers. I then descended down a cliff and was in a Halcyon coast. As usual Ichthians and giant turtles dwelt here, but after taking out such a powerful beast as a Cyclops these guys were no trouble at all. I even stumbled onto a big cave and decided to check it out. There were so many of these turtles there that I thought it must’ve been their nest or something. After killing so many of them I managed to peel off the shells from some of them and to combine those shell pieces with my shield which made it much tougher.
While looking through my bag I decided to give that Patroclus’ short sword a try. I thought I was ready enough to use it. Once I entered the next battle I noticed how light the sword was and how easy it was to strike enemy weakspots with it. Once I reached the other end of the coast I was back in the grasslands. I fought off massive packs of satyrs and centaurs with ease.
I was wondering how long I needed to go till I reached Delphi. As I began complaining to myself I met someone whom I haven’t seen in a long time. It was Chiron – a very kind centaur, the one who taught me how to fight.
- “Ares, how am I glad to see you.” Chiron said.
- “Same here.” I said, “How are you old friend? Do you know what’s happening to all these creatures and why are they so aggressive?”
- “I am not sure what it is.” Chiron said, “But some kind of force is controlling them. I felt it too but I managed not to submit to it.”
- “I see, I need to find out what that force is. By the way, where is your bow? I thought you always carried it with you.”
- “Ah, it was stolen from me.” Chiron said sadly.
- “Who stole it?”
- “It was a group of maenads led by a rather cunning maenad priestess. They grabbed my bow and ran into the nearby cave.”
- “That’s it, I am going there to get it back. You helped me once and now it is my turn to return the favour.” I said.
- “Ares, you’re a great friend. I don’t know how else to thank you.”
- “You don’t have to.” I said.
Here I went up to that cave that Chiron was talking about and entered it with no fear. I have to admit maenad defences were poor. They didn’t stand a chance at all and I made my way through that cave very quickly and reached the priestess surrounded by skillful archers. I ran up to each archer and Patroclus’ short blade hacked through each of them incredibly fast. I picked up the bow and felt a surge of power. It was truly a magical bow, but no-one knew how to use it except for Chiron. These filthy maenads seemed to have stolen quite a lot of gold and kept it all in this cave. I robbed them of their resources and exited the cave.
Chiron was very pleased and as a token of his appreciation he blessed me with some strength in combat. It truly worked and I felt stronger and braver now.
After fighting a few more beasts such as other centaurs and boars I reached a village called Ambrossos.

Chapter 8 - Ruins of the Old Eleusis

2007-12-10T21:25:00.000Z

As I exited into the outskirts of Megara I could see what they meant by a vicious attack. Every single house there was broken and burnt. And what the worst of all – the skeletons were still there. I fought them all. I made sure there were no left and at one stage encountered a very smelly, rotten one. He was pretty powerful and his nasty fumes were giving me a headache. At one stage I passed out for a few seconds, just then to realise he was still there and was going to stab me. I got up instantaneously with lots of energy and began smacking him with the leg tip. It wasn’t working that well, but I eventually de-assembled him to bits. I guess I should use the hammer for the skeletons next time.
I then entered a small wood and momentarily spotted that bridge that led to Athens. But it was broken. I wasn’t happy, even though I knew I will be going to Delphi anyway. I walked up to 3 men that were rebuilding it and asked what happened. They said that there was a big battle there and at one moment a huge Cyclops came and smashed the bridge to pieces. I asked him how long ago that was and the guy said a couple of hours ago. This meant that the Cyclops might still be nearby somewhere.
I then continued Northwards through the wood until I reached masses of ruins. I guessed this must’ve been the Old Eleusis. There was a good number of skeletons outside it. I made my way towards the ruins, bashing all the skeletons on the way and finally entering the underground section that seemed to be the main bit. I got my hammer out as I knew there will be mostly skeletons down here.
It consisted of broken down hallways and tonnes of tombs in rooms. I came across one of the princes straight away. That was Polypas, the prince of the blade. He was a red-coloured skeleton and seemed very aggressive. He could swing with his blade very fast and also kept on battering me with his shield. However he went down quickly. I only needed to hit him a few times with the hammer in order to shatter his bones completely.
I then proceeded through the numerous hallways and encountered many different beasts such as ratmen, eurynomi and bats. They seemed to dwell there with the skeletons. I made sure they didn’t stop me and proceeded to the next section of rooms. In there I met the second prince – Menon, prince of the bow. He was of red colour too just like his brother and could shoot arrows from his bow very fast and very accurately. I received a couple of arrows in the torso and one in the leg, before getting close and personal with him and smashing his skull with my hammer.
I drank a couple of potions to relieve the pain and took the arrows out. I waited for a bit to catch my breath and then continued going along the hallways. I now entered the main chamber. It had lots of bats and also some traps. The traps were of various types, some were shooting knives, others fireballs, thirds ice shards. I tried to use pillars for cover and made my way past the traps safely.
At this end of the chamber stood the third brother – Aristeus, prince of the staff. He was red too and as soon as he saw me he began viciously casting various spells. I could barely dodge them all and one of the ice shards even hit me in the face. It felt very cold, but gladly it didn’t knock me out. He also kept on casting a weird cloud of chill. I tried to stay away from those as I didn’t want to freeze to death. Once I got close to him though he couldn’t do much. My hammer smashed him to pieces really well.
Knowing that all 3 princes were defeated I slowly began making my way back through the ruins. It took me a while, but I remembered most of the way anyway so didn’t get lost.
I was now ready to proceed through the forest towards the Halcyon coast that is to the North of it.

Chapter 7 - The Curse of the 3 princes

2007-12-06T00:22:00.000Z

So I successfully descended the bluff and now was at Megara coast. The city of Megara was just on the opposite end of the coast.
As I made my way through this coast I was attacked by groups of Ichthians and giant turtles. Ichthians were strange creatures. They were some sort of aquatic reptiles. While most of them were melee types, there were a few intelligent ones that could cast magic spells and heal their allies. They also had tough scales and so could withstand more damage than satyrs. Giant turtles were even more durable than Ichthians and could take a lot of beating before dying. However they were really slow, making movement speed the most useful thing against them. Of course the leg tip from a fallen deathweaver did an extremely good job with these creatures. It probably would’ve taken me twice as long to fight each of them if not for that powerful poison dripping from the leg tip.
In some rare places I came against a few undead too. While most were skeletons and zombies, I also met a few wraiths of dead sailors. These guys were just the same as zombies really – slow, average strength and average endurance. I didn’t sweat much while bringing them down.
I also remembered another one of warrior’s skills. The professionals like to call it War Wind. It consists of a warrior gliding through the air really fast towards an enemy pack of choice and once there to violently spin 360 degrees. The skill is called war wind because in order to learn it and to be able to perform it you must learn to feel the air around you and to feel one with it. This will help you glide through it with an enormous speed as if you are just a ghost and to stop yourself you produce a violent and rapid spin that can really bleed all the monsters in range.
So I finally reached the Megara gates and entered the lovely city. It was a coastal city and therefore nicely smelled of fish. It was also significantly bigger and busier than Helos and Tegea. I felt like I was getting close to Athens.
Before I could go very far I saw a guy who looked very miserable. I decided to find out why. When I asked him why he was so miserable he began telling me a story about undead attacking them last night. He was saying something about the 3 princes attacking the city and killing many people, including his whole family. He then began rattling on about some curse that the princes would bring to them and how it is the end of the world. I felt bad and so reassured him that I will take care of the situation and everything will be all right.
Then I remembered that I needed to find a man by the name of Timon. I asked a few people of where I could find him and each was giving me various directions.
After a few minutes I came across the man.
- “Welcome to Megara. How can I help you?” he asked.
- “I was sent by Leonidas.” I replied, “He said that you know how to get to Athens and also how to find the Oracle.”
- “Ah, you’re also seeking Oracle’s prophecy about these beasts?” Timon wondered.
- “Yes I do.” I replied, “How can I get there?”
- “Well Athens is pretty much directly across the bridge that’s right outside the other end of Megara. However to go to Delphi and see the Oracle there you’ll need to go through Halcyon coast to village of Ambrossos, across Phocian swamps and you’ll get to Delphi. It’s a long way my friend.”
I wondered there for a second of what I should do. Should I travel to Athens and see how my people are doing? Or should I postpone it and go see the Oracle about the monsters? After a few minutes of careful thought I decided that I should go and see the Oracle in Delphi.
- “All right, I’ll go to Delphi.” I said.
- “Excellent my friend! I wish you best of luck.” Timon said.
I then decided to ask him about the undead:
- “Could you please tell me of what happened last night with undead attacking?”
- “Yes” he sighed, “They do attack us on occasion, but this time it was worse, it was much much worse. The three princes of old Eleusis were with the rest of the pack.”
- “Who are these 3 princes?” I asked, “And what about that curse that they’re meant to bring?”
- “The 3 princes are the 3 undead brothers. Each is a master of a specific form of combat: Polypas – prince of blade, Aristeus – prince of staff and Menon – prince of bow. They once were cursed by the God Apollo to never enter Hades and to walk the Earth. But it was considered to be a legend until yesterday when we actually saw them with our eyes. The curse that you might’ve heard about is that if the 3 princes are truly real and start attacks on cities then it is said there will be a massive apocalypse - an apocalypse where gigantic army of undead will walk over Greece, destroying every city on its path.”
- “So is this true? Personally I’ve fought lots of undead on my way here.” I said.
- “If the legend is true, then we’re all doomed. The Greece is doomed!”
- “I’ll see what I can do with these 3 princes. Maybe I should try to fight them.”
With this thought in mind I travelled to the opposite gates of Megara and exited it towards some farmland.

Chapter 6 - Venomous crawlers

2007-12-03T23:46:00.000Z

As I exited the village into the fields I was attacked by 3 arachnos, i.e. half humans and half spiders. I took them out pretty quickly, but the presence of arachnos told me that they were responsible for the poisoned spring. I knew for sure that those things were pretty venomous. Some types were more venomous than others. The Deathweavers were the most venomous ones to my knowledge, and except for having a lethal poison bite they also could produces masses of poison from their leg tips. Gladly one of the arachnos I took out was a young deathweaver. I ripped a tip of one of his legs very carefully and decided to use it as a weapon.
Beating a few more arachnos as well as ordinary oversized spiders on my way I reached the spring. Next to it I saw a woman figure. I walked up to her. She turned out to be a water nymph, or precisely a naiad of this spring. I asked whether the spiders poisoned the spring and she said yes. I then asked where could I find their nest and she pointed in the direction of a cave nearby the spring.
I quietly crept towards the cave and entered it. Ordinary arachnos were not a big problem. I knew I could take them out in seconds, but I was more worried about meeting deathweavers. I knew for sure that to poison a whole spring there had to be a handful of deathweavers behind it.
As I made my way through the dimly lit cave I took out several packs of oversized spiders and arachnos. The deeper I went into the cave the more fear I had. But fear is useful if you know how to channel it into strength and speed. I could do it a little, but it is mostly the defenders that are masters at doing that.
I finally reached the nest. At first I hid behind one of the large rocks and peeked out in order to count all of the deathweavers that I could see among the huge number of arachnos and spiders that lived there. I knew for sure that the deathweavers are the ones I had to take out first. There seemed to be a reasonable number of them there.
By gaining some strength in my muscles I got up from my position and ran forwards. A few arachnos, including deathweavers have spotted me. The deathweavers began their attack by throwing a few venomous sacks in my direction. I dodged those no problem and proceeded to the melee combat with these venomous crawlers.
Deathweavers also had a relatively poisonous breath and so while coming too close to them I had to hold my breath, because smelling a deathweavers’ breath could make you sick for days.
Stabbing a venomous leg tip into their torsos proved to take them out quickly and that’s what I kept on doing. The first wave was beaten and now the second wave of arachnos approached. Again starting their attack with venomous sacks that I dodged successfully again they all went down.
The third wave contained more deathweavers. I quickly lunged myself into the middle of the battle in order to stab as many of them in little time as possible. I succeeded, but also received a nasty deathweaver leg tip stab in the left arm. Damn that broken crude buckler that didn’t do its job. After I killed them all, it took me a good number of potions to heal the wound. I knew that it would still hurt for a few hours, but I could stand pain, so that was OK.
I then searched through the pieces of armor dropped by the dead deathweavers, picked the best ones and put them on. Soon after I exited the cave and saw that naiad all happy and grateful for my deed. She blessed me with some health and energy and I was ready to go back to Tegea to tell the good news.
Everyone in Tegea was happy, and after getting a snack I decided to take off to Megara. There was a pack of zombies right outside of Tegea’s gates. I took them out with no problems. All that venom from deathweaver’s leg tip didn’t affect the zombies, but it surely did a good job against all the pigs and satyrs that I met on my way. Soon I made it to a small coast. From the bluff on which I was standing I could see the whole coast. Two types of creatures seemed to dwell there: Ichthians and giant turtles. I knew that both of them won’t be a problem as long as I take them out quickly. I began descending the bluff.

Chapter 5 - Troubling questions

2007-11-30T00:34:00.000Z

So I came back and as a proof that I’ve killed Nessus I showed Leonidas’ right hand man the sword that Nessus was using.
- “Ah, Patroclus’ short blade” he said, “It’s a rare thing, keep on to it.”
He then allowed me to talk to Leonidas for no longer than 5 minutes. I went in.
Leonidas stood right outside the largest tent in the camp.
- “What is it?” he asked.
- “I defeated Nessus and I need directions to Athens” I answered.
He was surprised by the fact that a non-spartan managed to kill someone as powerful as Nessus. Therefore he decided to help me:
- “Keep on going North-East towards Megara. My friend Timon would be able to help you from there, but if you go a bit further you should come across a small bridge leading directly to Athens. If you’re on the right way then you should go past a small village called Tegea before reaching Megara. I’ve heard they hit trouble there as well. These monsters are all over the place.”
- “Do you know what happened to all the wild beasts? Why are they so aggressive?” I asked.
- “I don’t quite know.” Leonidas said, “I feel some dark presence. Something is driving these beasts to insanity. Perhaps the Oracle will know. If you really want to know what’s happening then you should travel to Delphi and ask the Oracle there. She seems to know everything as far as I am concerned.”
- “Thank you very much.” I said.
- “Go forth warrior and remember the bravery is not born, it is made.” Leonidas said just before I left the camp.
All of this was too much to take in. I was really confused and all the mysteries were giving me a headache. Who attacked our ship? How did I survive? What is driving all the beasts to insanity? How is Chiron coping with this? How is my home city doing? What does the Oracle know about this? I was angry with all this because I really wanted the answers.
It took me a relative amount of time to travel after I left Spartan camp. I came across a few satyr camps, cleaning them out till no satyr was left alive. I also encountered more skeletons and even a few zombies. I never expected to live till the moment to see the zombies walk the Earth. I wondered if the same force that is driving the beasts crazy is also causing the dead to rise.
Neither the skeletons nor the zombies managed to stop me and my passion. After about quarter of the day of travelling I reached Tegea. I thanked the Gods that I was on the right way. While passing by I remembered that Leonidas said that there was trouble in this village and so I decided to ask people what trouble they had. I came up to a young lad by a fountain. He seemed kinda grim. I asked him what was going on and he said that their water source is poisoned and many people in the village are ill. I was no poison expert and so knew that there is nothing I could do to fix the water, but something inside was telling me that my help was needed. I therefore made a turn towards the main water source of the village in order to investigate the situation.

Chapter 4 - Man vs beast

2007-11-29T00:49:00.000Z

The Spartan camp was not big. I spotted Leonidas there straight away, but it was not possible to get to him through the guards. I spoke to one of them who appeared to be his right hand man. The guy said that Leonidas is a very busy man and in order to speak to him I have to prove myself worthy. I agreed. He then said that there is a huge centaur by the name of Nessus that lives in a Pellana valley that is a great threat and needs to be taken out. Apparently he managed to kill a couple of Spartans earlier. I couldn’t believe that centaurs have gone crazy too. It made me think about what Chiron might’ve been experiencing at that very moment. I set off to Pellana valley without any further thought. It was right outside the camp. As I was exploring the area I came across a few centaurs that tried to kill me. I could see rage in their eyes and the disturbing screams that they were producing just confused me even more. I had no mercy on them and wiped out anyone that got on my way.
At one moment I saw an old Spartan resting his feet. I asked him if he knew where Nessus lived, but he didn’t know. He seemed to be all right resting there with all the monsters running around him. I wish I could be that relaxed, but I unfortunately I had many tasks that needed to be accomplished.
I carried on searching through the valley. Numerous crows and wild boars kept on attacking me together with centaurs, but none of them stopped me. My stone hammer surely broke their bones and pulverised their flesh.
Finally I saw a big group of centaurs ahead of me. Of them one was very big and he had ginger hair instead of the usual black. I assumed that was Nessus. I slowly began walking towards the group. Nessus spotted me and therefore blew in his horn. All of the other centaurs saw me at this moment and decided to attack. This scared me at first and I was gonna run back, but deep inside I knew that I could take them and so proceeded forwards. A couple of them threw nets in my direction. I easily dodged the nets and collided my hammer with the face of the first centaur. I could tell that he didn’t like that. I then began bashing them all. There were so many of them. I received a few bruises and wounds. I quickly gulped a potion in order to stop feeling pain and to allow my wounds to be healed very soon.
Eventually after receiving a few more nasty cuts, I defeated them all. It was now between me and Nessus. He charged at me and we grappled onto each other like a couple of wild beasts that were fighting for a territory. He was using a bizarre looking sword. It was pretty small compared to most other swords that I’ve seen before, but despite the size of the sword, Nessus was still a dangerous opponent. I began running around him and smacking his legs with my hammer. He began screaming from pain. I then jumped onto his back, swung as much as I could and smashed his head to bits with my hammer.
I took a few deep breaths after the fight and then picked up that weird sword that he was using. It looked like it was difficult to wield, so I decided not to use it yet, but to take it with myself just in case.
Now it was time to go back to Spartan camp and to speak to Leonidas’ right hand man.

Chapter 3 - Journey to Sparta

2007-11-26T23:57:00.000Z

On my way to Sparta I encountered a lot of people who needed help. I helped them all of course. Some were attacked or captured by satyrs, others needed help to go past a group of satyrs. All was too easy. I even began remembering more of my skills such as dodging enemy attacks in time, more weapon training and also warrior's greatest skill – ability to onslaught, i.e. to get stronger and more lethal as the battle progresses. The skill itself consists of special energetic charge levels that the warrior enters subconsciously. To learn each charge level required a lot of practice in combat, but it all started coming back to me easily.
The satyrs seemed to be carrying a lot of broken weapons. They surely seemed to be crap at combat, but then there was one huge, fat satyr who was carrying a lovely stone hammer. I obviously took that hammer with me after walloping that satyr to death.
At one moment I even reached a small graveyard, and in there I couldn’t believe my eyes. The skeletons actually rose from their graves. I didn’t want any trouble with them and was preparing to leave but they spotted me and ran towards me. I didn’t do anything wrong to them, but they seemed to be aggravated with something. The new hammer seemed to be doing

a nice work of them. I could hear every bone shatter as I hit them with all my might.
A bit further on in my journey I helped one guy to find his necklace, which was stolen off him by some weird little demons that I’ve never seen before. His reaction of course after I returned it to him was rather insane and my eardrums almost burst.
Then I came across more awakened skeletons. I wonder what caused them all to rise. Something must’ve been wrong as it was thought to be a myth for the dead to ever rise from their graves unless they were cursed by the Gods. I bashed a few more bones and scattered them all over the ruins and carried on.
Spartan camp was just ahead now; I actually could see it behind some of the trees.

Chapter 2 – Burning fields

2007-11-22T23:33:00.000Z

I picked up a torch that was lying on the ground and crossed the bridge to Helos farmland. A couple of satyrs saw me already and acting all hard in front of each other ran up to me in order to strike me down. I bashed each of them a couple of times, sending them to Hades this way. I was surprised that my hits didn’t bring them down instantaneously. I received a brain injury during that accident with our ship and so couldn’t remember much, and even forgot some of the most important principles of melee combat. Looks like I’ll have to start from scratch.
Those thoughts didn’t stop me, and so I picked up a buckler from one of the fallen satyrs and went on. I came up to another group of satyrs: three were archers, and the rest were with torches. I ignored the ones with torches and sped towards the archers. They were shooting at me, but my buckler helped me a lot with blocking their arrows. They were not a problem. I then took out the satyrs with torches and at that moment I felt a Godlike energy flow through me. I felt confident all of a sudden and started remembering some of my weapon training. I went on and took out more satyrs with less trouble.
I finally reached the end of the fields and encountered yet another group of satyrs, only here they had their leader with them. Looks like I interrupted them in a middle of a dinner. Well tough I thought and therefore ran in their direction. They were not happy, in particular the leader. He grabbed his staff and began chanting some spell in order to set me on fire. I pummelled a few satyrs that got on my way and once I reached the leader I began whacking him in the face. He kept on chanting more fire on me, but that didn’t stop me and finally I cracked his hornheaded skull. The rest of the satyrs ran away like little cowards. I threw my torch as hard as I could and managed to take out one of them. I then picked up an axe from one of the fallen satyrs, ransacked through the treasure chest that they had and then headed back to Diomedes.
He was pleased with my deed and therefore gave me some money and said that if I headed along the Laconian woods all the way up to Sparta then General Leonidas would be able to help me there.
I took his word and exited Helos.

Chapter 1 – Only survivor

2007-11-22T23:29:00.000Z

Hello. My name is Ares. Yes I know that it’s the name of God of War, but I’m not him. I was told that my parents named me after him though. I don’t know much about my parents to tell the truth. I was brought up by Chiron – a very kind centaur. He taught me a lot of things, making me very wise and also an extremely powerful warrior.
So it’s been a couple of days ago when we were returning from Egypt back to our home city – Athens. However there’s been an accident. I don’t remember too well what happened, but I remember that something hit our ship with an enormous power causing it to topple over. I passed out then. Today I woke up in a boat. A kind fisherman by the name of Corythus said that he found me lying on a piece of debris and he thought that I was alive and so saved me. We arrived at the village where he lived. It was called Helos. I went to talk to the man in charge. His name was Diomedes. I asked him how to get back to my home city of Athens. He said that he is glad to help me, but only if I help his village. Apparently a large pack of satyrs had attacked them recently and took over their farm fields. Now they cannot go there and so do not have any food. Diomedes said that if I kill all the satyrs on their fields, then he will tell me how to get to Athens and also will give me some gold for the trip. I accepted the challenge.

Introduction

2007-11-22T22:58:00.000Z

Hey, this blog is about my experience of warrior class in my favourite video game Titan Quest: Immortal Throne. Note that I've changed a lot of the storyline in order to keep readers interested with surprises. I will also include a few bonus chapters which will be told by someone else, but once it goes back to a normal chapter then it is told from Ares again. This blog was inspired by the following:

Alek's Kel'Thaus' revenge AAR - http://alekstitanquest.blogspot.com/
Alek's adventures of a lady hero - http://alekstitanquest-ladyhero.blogspot.com/
and of course what got me interested in AARs to start with:
http://www.titanquest.net/forums/spoilers/4026-i-beastman-titan-quest-aar.html

Hope you'll enjoy reading my AAR. I also have a couple of minor ones and those you'll find somewhere among last few pages of the AAR thread in the above link.