Temple Sewers - Unknown
They neglected to tell me that when I found the artifact, Barilzar's ring, it would be on Barilzar himself. When I saw his undead form coming toward me out of the shadows I froze and felt fear well up inside me. The apparition was coming right towards me, and I hadn't prepared for a fight. The sewers are so dark I can barely see my hand in front of my face, so I never saw him until it was too late to retreat. I'd carry a torch, but that would just make me a target for every evil thing down here.
I waited and held my breath, hoping that the spirit would turn and give me the chance to retreat. But it didn't, and when I knew it had spotted me I rose to charge it. I was in mid-thrust when everything went black. It was already very dark in this particular crypt passage, but when I say everything went black I mean I could see nothing. Not even the edge of my helmet by my eyes.
In a panic I swung wildly, and managed to hit absolutely nothing. Nothing but damp air in front of me. It took me a moment to realize I couldn't move either. My legs were like massive lead bars, locked into the ground. I was blinded and unable to move, and it was the most helpless I've ever felt.
And then I felt the life leaving me. Through some perverse magic the ancient spirit was draining my life away, bit by bit. Luckily I still had the use of my hands, and was able to take a health potion to fight back against the dark spell.
And then suddenly my sight returned and my legs came back to me and I was standing right in front of the foul creature, his rotting breath making my stomach turn. The sudden sight of him startled me, but I recovered from my shock and drew my sword back and charged at him. And once again my world went black.
I panicked a bit again, but for a different reason this time. The first time I simply had no idea what was happening. I didn't realize a powerful spell had been cast on me. But this second time, my fear was less about the affliction and more about how long this fiend could keep it up. In this condition I was unable to attack him, and although I had a healthy supply of potions, they wouldn't keep me alive indefinitely. His other dark magic was ensuring that.
My sight came back, and once again I could move. But just as before, my eyes were shut and my legs immobilized before I could do anything. And then I heard the sound of a very large sword being drawn .. the metal on metal echoing in the dank passage. I wanted to scream out, my frustration and fear taking over me. I stabbed wildly into the darkness, hitting nothing. But I heard the unmistakable sound of another sword slicing through the air, and it slammed into my right shoulder. I nearly dropped my sword from the power of the blow. Just in time I recovered, and found a health potion to save me from the next blow that crashed into me.
This was truly a dire situation. I've been in fights where I was immobilized, but not being able to see was a very scary feeling. The only blessing was that I was not entirely paralyzed, which allowed me to continue drinking health potions. But at this rate I was going to run out in fairly short order. Each blow from the massive sword was taking an incredible toll on me.
Finally my eyes returned to me again, and Barilzar stood directly in front of me. I drew back a deep strike, and let it fly. The strike was so hard it knocked the foulness to the ground, and I set about to hacking at it with much haste. My strikes were true and quick, and I did a great deal of damage in the time I had. When he rose to face me again I could tell he was weak, so I prepared and unleashed another power attack and it struck him to the ground .. permanently.
I was breathing heavily, not just from effort, but from the severity of the situation I had been in. If my first attack hadn't grounded the ancient spirit, I might have never prevailed in the fight. And now that I have the cursed ring I need to have some words with Fedris.