Commander's Codex: Entry 2

[Codex Begin]

It appears that the Citadel provided Codex software decided to redact information it deemed as sensitive.  I'll have to try to figure out a way around this in the future.

For now, I've reached the Citadel, the heart of the Council.  This was my first time stepping on the Citadel.  Captain Anderson introduced me to the System's Alliance's representative, Ambassador Udina.  While I am unaware of the stresses of his job, nor the tedium of Council Bureaucracy, he gives me pause.  I worry that his emotions will negatively impact our upcoming meeting with the council about the events on [REDACTED].  I hope the evidence we have will be enough.  We'll know in a half an hour.

There is so much activity on the Citadel, and I sometimes find myself taking a pause to deal with the sensory overload.  From natural beauty of the fountains and gardens, to the neon nightlife of Flux, there always seems to be something to fit the mood you're in.

The alien species present are so vast and wondrous.  There is much to learn from these different species.  While on Citadel, I plan on learning as much as I can, and work towards being the best representative of Humanity as I can.

Humans are not as alone as we had thought for centuries.  We need to be citizens that the other races can be proud to call neighbor and friend.

[Codex End]

[Codex Begin]

What a farce.  The Council refuses to move on [REDACTED].  Not without more proof.  We have begun looking for more evidence of the connection between [REDACTED].  Citadel Security officer Garrus has offered to assist us with this issue.  For now, we will scour Citadel for any other information we can find.  We have a few leads to follow.  Our first step will be to reach out to a local infobroker to connect with the Shadow Broker.

[Codex End]

{Login . . . John Shepard}
{Biometric Signature: MATCH}
{Rank: Commander}
{Approval Status . . . APPROVED}
{Citadel Security Information Protection Protocol . . . UNINSTALLED}
{Spectre Credential . . . AUTHORIZED}

WELCOME TO SPECTRE

[Codex Begin]

It has been an eventful few days on the Citadel.  Let's start from the beginning.  After working with Garrus to locate the info broker, we found that Saren had betrayed a figure called the Shadow Broker.  He was using a local club owner named Fist to eliminate a Quarian who had some evidence connecting Saren to the Geth. We enlisted the help of the Shadow Broker's Krogan Bounty Hunter, Wrex, to take care of Fist. 

The Quarian, Tali, was the missing piece we needed.  She was carrying a recording that connected Saren to the attack on Eden Prime, the Beacon, and another one of their allies, an Asari named Matriarch Benezia. 

The Council had decided that this was enough, and stripped Saren of his Spectre status.  The continued stubbornness of Udina and Anderson finally paid off, as the Council decided to authorize me to go after Saren, after assigning me to Spectre.

There was no grand ceremony.  No pomp or circumstances.  A brief explanation of my duties, and I was given elevated credentials. Now, me and my squad are able to go after Saren, for the good of the Human colonies, and in the name of justice. 

We left the Citadel on a bittersweet note, as Captain Anderson had passed on command of the Normandy to me.  The Normandy is a great ship, and I'll need it for hunting down Saren, but it'll feel weird not having the captain around.  Tali, Garrus, and Wrex have joined the crew.  They each proved themselves capable during my time on Citadel, and I look forward to working with them. 

For now, I have a decision to make.  I have leads pointing to the colonies on Feros and Noveria, as well as locating the researcher Liara T'Soni.  We've got a long trip ahead of us.  I should rest. 

[Codex End]

Commander's Codex: Entry 1

[Codex Begin]

This is Commander John Shepard, of the Normandy.  During training, we were advised to keep these personal Codex entries, as a record for the the ship, and the Council, in the event of death.  Doctor Chakwas recommends using a personal Codex as a way to cope and manage the stresses of the job.  Don't know if I believe that, but we'll see how it goes.

The Normandy is a good ship.  Good people.  Reckless people, which is something we're going to need to fix, but good people.  I need to keep my eye on Joker and Jenkins.  They've got a little TOO much fire in them, and I fear that it'll make them reckless, and cause them to make a mistake.  You can't want to be a hero.  Playing a hero is how you get killed.  You need to want to survive.  Mission.  Survival. Then valor.

Our mission is to go to [REDACTED] and [REDACTED].  This mission is of the utmost importance, as it could mark a monumental step forward for humanity.  This mission is also serving as a sort of Performance Review by the Council, who have sent the [REDACTED] to oversee the mission from the field.  [REDACTED] seems capable, and any help we can get recovering this relic for the Council is appreciated.  

[Codex End]

[Codex Begin]

Jenkins is dead.  [REDACTED] are invading.  [REDACTED] dead.  Survivor Chief Ashley Williams recruited.  Taking cargo tram to a landing platform to try to recover the [REDACTED], pursuing [REDACTED] killer.  [REDACTED]

[Codex End]

[Codex Begin]

I'm back on the Normandy... I don't know what happened, but I'm alive.  Chief Williams has been reassigned to our crew.  She proved herself a capable soldier and should be an asset to the team.  And... Jenkins. [REDACTED].  I couldn't take time to properly grieve their deaths in the field.  There's no telling what the official record will say for them, but the least I can do is remember them here.

Jenkins - You were the victim of the circumstance.  We were taken by surprise by those synthetic bastards.  Please take some solace in the fact that you didn't see what they did to the other humans of [REDACTED].  That you didn't see them turned into those monstrosities. 

[REDACTED] - Thank you for the work you had done on behalf of the Council, and for assisting us on this mission.  I am sorry we weren't able to capture [REDACTED].

My head still hurts from these weird visions... or wee they dreams?  Full of death and destruction.  What can it all mean?

[Codex End]

[Codex monitored and redacted per Council regulations 24.15.162a.  All confidential information has been redacted by the Codex Core Systems automatically.]

Long Live the Kings (Dark Souls 14)

The Lordvessel is fully lit.  Off collecting side stuff I missed.

Last time I said I was lost, trying to find the last Lord Soul to finish the main quest I was on.  At the prompting of my Dark Souls guides, I made a list of things that I could remember to go explore.  The list at that time was as follows.

1. Explore the path in Darkroot Forest, near the forest guardians that would no longer attack me
2. Explore the Valley of Drakes
3. The gate in New Londo Ruins, by the Curse Clearing Guy
4. The boss room where I originally fought Seath
5. The large jail cell in the Archives

The first didn't lead me anywhere interesting, and the 2nd led me to a giant locked door.  The third turned out to be where I needed to go.  I talked to the curse guy, because I forgot which way I need to go to get to the locked door, and turns out, he had the key for it.  I opened the gate, and drained the water, and was able to progress.

At this time, I'm sitting around Soul Level 78 on my Sorcerer build, still making use of Aural Decoy to gain advantage on random enemy encounters (Sup, Darkwraiths?  Why can't I have your cool shields?).  Then, I reached the boss.  There was only like, 10 attempts at the boss, and around number 8, I got the final strategy cemented in my head.  I also kindled a bonfire in the Undead Parish allowed me to enter the fight with 15 Estus.  The Enchanted Falchion getting a bonus from my 45 intelligence was a huge boon, as I turned this fight into a DPS race, to kill a king before the next one showed up.  By two-handing the weapon, and staying close to the bosses' bodies, I was able to avoid the massive damage from the blades of the weapons, and got them burned down.  This is not how I had been playing the game, and it was a stark contrast to how I had dealt with previous bosses.  As someone who made their entire playstyle around more controlled zoning and engagement of the enemy.  Even with Ornstein and Smaugh, I was able to use the pillars to properly get some distance between the enemies. 

I'm going to need some help, as I don't plan on playing this game again, so I can't test it, but are there any other bosses that required such a drastic change in tactics?  I had tried to do this fight with just magic, but I had several Kings out at once, which then made it impossible to get a spell off.  Is there a boss that forces a two handed tank switch to another tactic, or was this just a fight that can punish casting?  I've heard that the Gargoyles are difficult for melee characters, but I don't know if it forces melee people to change their tactics. 

Between some of the attempts, I decided to go clear out the remaining items in the Archives on my list, and found that they were both reasonably worthwhile.  So hooray, exploration.  After the Kings, I went back to the prison island and picked up some things there.  I now have a lead on another area back in Anor Londo as well.  Basically, I'm in content mop up mode.

I'm almost done with Dark Souls, which is nice.  It'll be nice to close this book and put it on the shelf.  Not out of hate or anything like that, but for one of understanding.  I will have gotten out of it exactly what I was looking for, and I'm glad for that. 

Next time, it'll either be a sidequest mop up post, a DLC thing, or I'll just wait until I finish. 

Status Report (Dark Souls 13)

I have 3 of the Lord Souls now.  The last few streams were incredibly productive. 

Last post, I talked about how the Divine Falchion was dropping the skeletons and keeping them dead.  During my extended time in the Catacombs though, I found that this may not have been the case.  Immediately after I found that the Lightning Spear and the Enchanted Falchion were just as capable of keeping enemies down, I was kind of angry.  I felt like an idiot for hyping this up, using a weaker weapon to keep an enemy down, and here they are, still staying down with my stronger weapon.  I started to second guess I saw when I first entered the catacombs with my Lightning Spear, and maybe, instead of skeletons getting back up, it was just... different skeletons. 

I couldn't pin down what was going on and that frustrated me.  And it frustrated me because I thought I had discovered this neat mechanic, and it turns out that it wasn't true.

Then I got to Nito, and my theory was proved right and now I don't know what to think.  I went through that fight at first with the Enchanted Falchion, got overwhelmed, and then came back on a dumb stupid idiotic theory, and it turned out to work.

I don't know what the hell happened, but I'll take it.

In addition to Nito, I took down the Bed Of Chaos in an incredibly aggravating boss fight, and Seath, which I was able to take down in a few attempts, including one where did a series of dumb things.  These things included: Attempting to circle strafe snipe the highly magic resistant boss, avoiding melee in the safe spots, and slammed 3 straight estus like a sorority girl doing shots during pledge week. 

So now I have 3 o the 4 needed items for the Lord Vessel, and I"m kinda lost.  I need to go exploring, which is where the game is strongest for me.  I can go explore deeper into the forest area, and see what I can find and check the one little groove I found in the middle of the area behind the glowing door, I can go deal with the Hydra, and see if that opens up a new area, or I can just wander some, in the hopes of finding things. 

This game has me spooked though.  Every new area seems to introduce something that makes me react with a firm "Nope!".  This can be a grotesque enemy design, like the clams out in Crystal Cave or the weird pyro mages by Nito, or it can be an enemy placement that frustrates me, like the giant skeletons in the Tomb of the Giants.  The bone pillar enemies on the narrow pathways can fuck right off though.  Gross-ass bone centipede looking shitheads.  Blegh.

So we've made a bunch of progress since last post, which is nice.  Feels like I"m in the home stretch, which is also nice.  I'm almost free.