C63: Accursed Lanterns and Amygdala's Gentle Embrace
Here on time this time around.
4/25/26
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The Nightmare Frontier is truly a dreary place to be in. The exact same landscape everywhere you see until you actually stumble upon whatever is next.
From the few tidbits of knowledge that I haven't somehow lost. I remember there being a poison swamp here…because of course Miyazaki would do that. Wait, isn't this the biggest swamp in the game too? I remember getting lost a few times as I tried to get all the loot to the point that I can't even remember my original pathing. "Guess ill just play it step by step"
I mutter as I begin my small pathing downwards and immediately finding a hole which I'm pretty sure is a shortcut elevator.
I can see the bottom but im sure it's out of reach of my silver cat reflexes at the present level so I don't go down just yet.
The way forward is quite confusing. It splits into two paths at first with the first path splitting into two more paths…kind of, because both of the two new paths end really shortly, leading to the previous 2nd path that led downwards towards a bunch of enemies.
Naturally to ensure I observe the whole situation, I checked out both dead ends paths and i remembered that the leftmost path was actually a sort of shortcut back from another area further in, or at least some sort of roundabout. Properly dropping off the middle most of path of the three. Taking this quick dead end path only to drop down on a scurrying beast and claim a bolt blood gemstone(2) from it before fighting two silverbeasts.
Taking them down gives me a twin blood stone shard as well as two normal shards.
Walking back, I encounter something that looks like a scurrying beast but much bigger ,the size of a person as it kinda just jumbles in place. I honestly have no memory of this and even thought it was about to release some sort of arcane curse on me. so I killed it first. It gave me more blood shards which I pocket cuz why not.
Continuing on, I cross a stone bridge which has a single messenger with a blue lantern in it's hands.
"Hey there bud, you doing alright?" I squat down and talk to it and it swings the lantern around a bit with a pleasant smile on it's melted baby face. I step away and the swinging stops, just as a hunter axe comes swinging down where I just was.
"Sorry friends. But with my tracking skill being subsumed by my wind manipulation. You're tough out of luck as I can sense pretty much anything that happens a few feet around me."
I explain as I kick out and break the knee of the first who promptly goes falling over into the poison swamp pit below us near the bridge. The second with a hunter cane and pistol tries to attack as well but I just SoP behind him and snap his neck, collecting the lead elixir from his corpse as well as the free metal via his hunter cane and pistol.
I then find another scurrying beast as well as the Fading Lake rune atop a small path on the left side which required a minimal hop to get over to. From here is the poison swamp with a bunch of crawlers, aka the flesh monsters from Dead space that could form other necromorphs from others. Except these ones are made from the excess flesh of the college students that me and Gerald previously killed.
Naturally, they're disgusting, so I choose the other path which leads to a tunnel as well as a crawling silverbeast which looks pretty weird and would certainly be a strange target for the weirdo's that plot 'Any hole is a goal'.
I just kill it and pass by another messenger with a blue shining lantern. It bobs at me but the lantern in it's hands remains unshaken. "You're doing a much better job than the other guy, he was waving it around like crazy" I offhandedly comment like the narc I am. But it just nods as if I just spoke the holy gospel.
I pass by with a trace of confusion on my face as Im trying to figure out where I am when the rock comes shooting towards me.
Oops, not The Rock, Dwayne Johnson, just a naked hobo that throws rocks at people. It only has some friends in the distance. With my speed, I easily move around the various gravestones in the way to slay each both here along with the scurrying beast, getting blood stone shards and more lead elixirs. There is also the second bolt blood gemstone (2) from the previous crawling silverbeast.
Moving along the leftside path in this area, I dodge a few more rocks before finally slaying the last giant rock thrower. There is not much here so i continue on higher before moving through another tunnel, though it's less a tunnel and more a hole in the mountain as it only takes two or three steps to get through normally.
From here the path splits three ways, the first is the middle path which leads back which i nearly take as I hunt down another scurrying beast and activate the shortcut. Then there was the right path which just loops a bit back upwards to another of the giant scurrying beast which I learn what they do.
It's poison spit, thick and yucky so I avoid it and kill it for some more shards but these three are twin shards.
Then there is the final path leading left that takes me across a bridge. From here I have another three path options. A bit leftwards to loop around overhead of the middle which only gives me two blood vials and down leads a very tight path on the right side, overlooking the giant poisonous lake that I abhorrently hate just from seeing. Because if I can see it, I can definitely smell it….very clearly at that. I was already smelling it before but now it's just in my face about it.
The supple caress of my cheek as a poison fume cloud passes by me sends shivers down my spine. I carefully drop down without falling through the miniscule crack and collect the madman's knowledge here before jumping my way back and then passing down to the middle path which let's me sneak up on a giant and visceral his soul out for a hefty 90k echoes. Along the way I get the Counter clockwise metamorphosis rune and the Fading Lake deeper in. I also drop down and collect a frenzy coldblood 9 and thick coldblood 4 amidst a pack of crawlers which I slay with ease as it only takes one hit to do so at my present level.
I then, with some actual effort, jump back up and return to check out the final path. '
A trail of shiny stone demarks the path forward with a single piece of loot in it's obscurity.
"Alright, let's see what you're up to, old friend". I mutter to myself as I collect the coldblood flowerbud which is a rare ritual item. I hear scurrying behind me but don't turn around just yet.
It's only when it is super close that I turn around with a shocked expression on my face, taking up my reiterpallasch and waving it around me.
"Back, begone, foul creature. I shall not fall for your dastardly plans here." The spider with a human head as it's replacement has a shocked expression on his face, even more so when I choose to fully stand up and loom over it.
"Oh hey there bud, almost didn't recognize ya since your so short now. Feeling alright there bud?" I jokingly tease the spider-man, before he jumps on me in a fit of annoyance and wordlessness. As a result, we both go tumbling down but he has his extra legs hold onto the cliffside, leaving me falling alone.
"FUCK YOU PATCHES"
"Ah ha ha ha ha, there ya have it ya mangy bugger, The gift of the godhead cometh and with it, a taste of poison for you. Enjoy old friend" Patches the Spider mocks me since fate favored him in this exchange but ill have my revenge one day.
Getting up and quickly becoming afflicted with slow poison, I wade through the evil waters and kill a few more crawlers before finding a giant scurrying beast and three small ones. I kill them all before they all disappear and then encounter the most feared and dreaded enemy of this game.
No it's not a bloodsucker with it's tendrils down on my face.
Winter Lantern
It spots me almost instantly around the corner I was huddled near and spikes burst out of me in record speed due to Frenzy building up in an instant for me.
"AH FUCKER." I curse as my own blood blinds me, I try to scurry away to take a sedative or heal but it blocks my way So i overkill it and collect a [Cursed blood tempering gemstone] before healing a bit and finding another rune.
The Clear deep sea rune before panic takes over as the second set of frenzy was already procc'ed and rapidly rising up due to my heinously high insight reducing my resistance to frenzy unlike last time I was affected by it.
I try to take the sedative now but I was too slow to chug down the thick mixture and blood explodes from me once more.
[YOU DIED]
"FUUUCCKKK, MY ECHOES!!!!" I had dropped the leftover 200m echoes I still had after my massive shopping spree back where I died. I rush out of the spawn room and up the shortcut left side. Back through the small mountain hole tunnel and past the few goliaths which i quickly kill before jumping down to the swamp water and getting poisoned, I rush past the crawlers, big and small only to SoP and overkill the winter Lantern before it could even process seeing me. Yet that was not enough as I still got the proc but since I was prepared for it this time around, I get out the sedative and chug it down easier now. I then collect my echoes before simply using a bold hunters mark to return.
"WHOOO, fuck….that sucked" I heave a sigh of relief as I feel death feels more painful in my current state but I cant tell for certain since it's not as if I was gauging my deaths from before.
I inspect my status and sure enough, got my echoes back, safe and sound. My heart can stop beating so fast now. I then begin making my way back to my destination. I do so by scaling the shortcut path from the left side that leads me to the lone giant next to where patches kicked me off. I drop down to the cave and travel the path around until I have to drop down to the water.
Now that im here. I calculate my path of actions, with the giant already dead and soul torn, there is one less here but still two remain in the distance. One in the middle of the swamp and another at the very end. Tombstone pillars jut out randomly here so the ground is not perfectly even.
There are also random crawlers of both big and small variety. The big ones can take two hits from me which I feel is a bit of a waste of time since they only give 700 or so echoes each, with the big ones giving only 400 more. Pretty much worthless to me especially since I already used a hunters mark to reset the area.
This means that my best form of action is to ninja spire jump [1] around the different rocks until I get both giants and can properly leave to the next area.
Hop hop hop. One stone, two stone, three stone. And im safe. Sneaky sneaky like as I knock the first giant down from a heavy back attack and then riposte his soul out via [Tremor].
Unfortunately the second spotted me and thus I had to simply dash over and slap him three times to kill. The crawlers are blind as hell and only have short range attacks. So I just ignore them and proceed forward.
The next area is hell again as I spot another Winter Lantern shortly after entering and taking down a Scurrying Beast.
Overwhelming, Shatter echo and thus overkill. Chug down Sedative and I'm good. Don't get anything from this one except the 2,000 blood echoes but I don't care about those. I look in the distance and see a bunch of tombstones knocked over making various paths with a smaller poison lake with crawlers and possibly more lanterns, but don't see any immediately. In the midst of it all I spot a handful more scurrying beasts. I begin to zag and weave through it all until I end up a small handful of echoes richer and plenty of blood stone shards more richer.
I then take down a silverbeast guarding a path leading up which slightly leads away from the tower I could see in front the entrance. I suspected that the shortcut path leading to the very beginning is here and I was right as I spot the green glowing switch and a single hovering boards which I step on to lift me up before stepping on it again to take me back down as I have no business here except to clear the rest of this place.
I prepare myself as I begin to jump between rock and random outcroppings of ground near the walls around the tunnels underneath with the poison swamp lake. Doing so I essentially wall run my way through, kill a sleeping winter lantern that was completely unaware of my presence but also only dropped a bunch of pebbles as if it was a bird in disguise.
Near the end of the tunnel, I got a bunch of cold blood from the crawlers I killed along the way. Though I think the best reward here was the new rune I got as well as the specific high grade coldblood near the actual end. The Great Deep sea rune which was at the very end of the tunnel past a bundle of large crawlers as well as the Kin cold-blood (10) from a side path near the end.
With nothing else here, I take the short way back which is to use a (bold) hunters mark to return to the lantern with all my echoes still intact to return to the lift and actually go to the looming tower which I now had access to from this area.
[Challenge mode activated: Amygdala. Select ranking to challenge boss]
"Hmm, you know what. Im not gonna increase it's rank. I know the echoes would be good for me but I really wanna see how I compared to base game."
[Understood, may the Moon have mercy on their soul]
"Haha, now thats really grim" I laugh in response as I walk past the archway to the tower. At first glance, there is nothing around except the tower but a moment later, a swirl of energy appears at the top from which Amygdala spawns from before jumping down in front of me.
Honestly the arena is so big that the fight is a joke, even in her second phase. From what I remember, she rips off her own arms and uses them as blunt instruments, but the real kicker is that her reach doubles but again, giant arena so it's useless.
As such, when the fight starts and the dumb Kin simply watches me, slowly encroaching. I thought of how to get my revenge for the pain it and the other amygdala near Oedon Chapel had crushed me. I'm about to rush in when the creature slides out it's arms and wraps around me.
I could easily break free but I know something it doesn't. This is not a scripted scene, it cant bring me anywhere I don't want it to. So I shall see it's limits and destroy all it's effort.
It squeezes
…
…
…
"Thats it?" I cant help but voice out in confusion as the pressure is less than half my health bar, with all the debuffs active. A random dog in Central Yharnam could inflict the same amount in two or three hits. Yet it squeezes me as hard as it could but not even pass the halfway mark?
"Might as well let you see what shall be your doom" I can't help but show off a bit as I flex my muscles a bit to loosen it's grip before taking my newly forged weapon out of my inventory.
CLICK. A sword with an extra helping of thick sheath is unveiled to the world. The sword itself when unsheathed is thin, akin to a simple straightsword yet when I resheathe it and click the trigger, half of the sheathe goes with the sword yet this is no simple broadsword.
The thick 6 inch inch wide blade is a combination of multiple ideas, some local, some foreign. Of the local that use this form is ludwigs Holy blade and the Kirkhammer. Both are simple swords that could merge with their sheathes for longer range or with the kirkhammer, an alternate damage type.
Of the foreign, I thought of Jean Arc from RWBY who could fuse his shield into his sword to make a broadsword, thought thats really just the same premise as the local holy blade. The greatest inspiration was actually the 40k universe combined with my thoughts on chain sword from before.
As such the marvel before me is an longsword mounted atop a broadsword shield with saw cleaver blades surrounding the blade of the my heavy sword in a circular motion. Using the mechanism of the Tontritus, I was able to remake a prototype engine through pure bolt that allows the blades to rotate around the blade.
It took many tries as I made different models to make sure it can properly function as the first three form hunter weapon. Straight sword, broadsword, and bolt chainsword.
Click VROOOOM.
I hold the weapon up so that Amygdala could fully take in the blade before I plunge it down into the Kin's hands, tearing off wide chunks as i activate the bolt generator and allow the serrated blades of the dismantled saw cleaver revolve around the broadsword that cuts and tears the flesh apart. The bolt ensures the blades don't retain any leftover chunks on themselves by outright burning the chunks off by overheating the flesh.
Amygdala recoils in pain as an entire third of its health is chunked out even though its hands are not its weak point. I then allow the charge to run out and I dash in with my improvised heavy Saw cleaver as it strikes the head, chunking out more than a third of its max health, leaving it with just the final 1/4th health. Blood spews out from its head and it enters a stunned state and it's open to a visceral strike.
I had just chunked out an entire third of it's health with one blow and now a second free and it's a visceral strike. 'Hell Yea' The best weapons truly are forged by one's own hands.
I stab my hand into its multi eyed bald head, I originally intended to just do a normal visceral but my hand, out of reflex, had gone for the soul. Yet I was able to pull myself back a bit, but not before actually brushing past it and properly sensing how fragile it is.
It's insane how easy it would actually be for me to tear out the soul and immediately shatter it. So i don't see why not and with just a wave, the soul follows me out like a lost puppy finding its owner before I sharply grab onto it and pull it out.
Naturally with the [Tremor] effect of my visceral attack skill. The soul itself begins to shatter upon contact with air. It immediately turns to dust.
'Is the system giving me these challenges just to give it an excuse to reinforce the souls of the bosses here? The basic enemies back in Cathedral Ward put up more of a fight than Amygdala. Heck, even the Silverbeasts along the way here put up more of a fight with their souls and they weren't half as strong as Amygdala.'
I go on a long mental rant as I just see the boss which had previously crushed me with ease even in my current state. It's quite confusing, am I actually that strong or is my new weapon that 'broken'
Regardless the echoes flow into me with all the usual augments, as I didn't do a challenge fight, I got no additional bonuses for any rare or higher modifiers. Instead i got a hefty 2.9m blood echoes along with the Ailing Loran Chalice. I don't think I ever tried this one in my playthrough, so ill have something new to look forward to along with the previous Hintertomb chalice I got.
I turn on the lamp and allow the messengers to drag me away as another moment of my life is left in the dust.
Goodbye Nightmare Frontier, you won't be missed.
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Word Count = 3829
[1] Ninja Spire Jump is a Sly Cooper reference. Originally taught as a technique after beating the first boss in the first game aka the introduction to Mugshots level (Main hub 2 of the game). This technique became a long time staple for the rest of the franchise.
And yes I do remember the exact details as I beat all three games multiple times. I still own my ps2 which works even now, though I don't really play anything there anymore since I haven't had anything new in a long time.
Couldn't beat thieves in time though because of a laggy computer combined with bad emulation settings for ps3. Ech, only forced to stop because tilt controls are mandatory for the dumb paraglider section of the 10k Bc level.