Chapter 8 - Ruins of the Old Eleusis

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

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

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.