First Visit (From Sheol):
You stand before the hole, and listen. Silence. Darkness.
No indication that this is indeed a passage to elsewhere, save for the preternaturally cold wind surging upwards, like a frigid sigh.
You walk closer, becoming more aware with each heavy step that none have ever stood where you have. The shadow beckons. The wind inhales.
It is the breath of a long dead thing, with no soul to hold malice, and no mind to harbor it.
One more step is all it takes. You're tumbling into the deep, senses numb, your pounding heart the only thing reminding you that you yet live.
Your mission was to illuminate these Ruins... but the deeper you fall, the more assured you are that some things are not meant to see the light of day.
-PRISON OF THE IMMORTALS-
[Dark stone prison, age old bloodstains, inhuman howls, ragged breathing, chains, flickering lantern light coming closer...]
Art by Zdzislaw Beksinski
AREA OVERVIEW:
The first thing an Explorer might noticing when entering In Shadow is the overwhelming darkness blanketing the entire Region. So overwhelming, in fact, that Beacons refuse to shine here.
That's right: the entire Region is an incredibly difficult gauntlet with no checkpoints to be found, and Prison of the Immortals is only the beginning.
Explorers must creep their way through a vast, decrepit, labyrinthine prison, and down into a wide expanse. Here, massive chains serve as bridges between wayward stones that sway in an invisible subterranean storm.
Along the way, they must contend with the Immortals who walk the halls, unable to be killed but fully able to kill, powerful Shades, and other threatening foes.
(Difficulty Level: [5] Mortal Danger)
APPEARANCE:
[Decrepit prison, covered in a grey-purple haze. Bloodstains and odd, primitive, experimental equipment. Gives way to rocks held between chains as platforms when descending into the storm.]
BOSS: EMPTY KINGS (Immortal Lords of Yore)
[Enter a throne room, suspended above a desolate surface with mysterious lights on it. Three giant figures step forth, each carrying a weapon, and one carrying a light. The light flicks between them as they begin to move.]
Zdzislaw Beksinski
BOSS OVERVIEW:
[Three pronged attack from the Kings, they share a soul. Whoever has the soul gains extra powers.]
DROPS:
Soul of Kings
A Soul foreign to the shadows, fought over by the Empty Kings.
They were beings like nothing else. The Kings did not own, nor did they need their own Soul, but still they took one from a great sea long ago, one free of identity. Once their wills might have supported themselves, but now they are slaves to the light of the Soul.
Use this shared Soul to gain a large amount of Souls, or else create a unique treasure with its essence.
-BENEATH-
IMMORTAL BESTED
From shadow they came.
And to shadow they return.
[Empty Kings fall, Explorer walks past their collapsed and twitching bodies. A chain-like ladder descends to a dark field of spires, the taller of which have lights at the top, reminscent of the Lighthouses.]
Art by Zdzislaw Beksinski
AREA OVERVIEW:
[Hardest area in the game. Dark, complex, with cliffs and powerful Shades.]
(Difficulty Level: [6] Beyond the Bounds)
APPEARANCE:
[Dark and ethereal, reminscent of an almost unlighted Lighthouse Dock. Storm above, debris hanging ominously.]
BOSS: NONE
A Boss does not dwell in the Beneath.
Connections:
Prison of the Immortals
Black Fathoms
-BLACK FATHOMS-
[A long steep staircase leads below, to a pool of luminous water. Jumping in, gravity reverses for the Explorer as they find themselves walking on the bottom of the ruins, standing below the dark blue abyss.]
Art by Zdzislaw Beksinski
AREA OVERVIEW:
This area is completely devoid of foes and hazards. It simply serves as a final, foreboding approach to the Black Phantasm.
(Difficulty Level: [0] Effortless )
APPEARANCE:
[A large stone expanse, with scattered debris and a repeating circular pattern on the ground, like the Soullight glyphs. Great shadows move on the ground, but nothing above seems to cast them. Deep in the abyss, a massive grey structure can just barely be seen.
MANIFEST BEING: BLACK PHANTASM (Death Manifest)
[A humanoid creature of shadow coalesces from a pool of blackness, resembling the Phantasm in all but light. Exuding a foul essence, it attacks]
Art by Zdzislaw Beksinski
BOSS OVERVIEW:
[The Superboss of Mortal Souls. As difficult as possible, actively dodges attacks.]
DROPS:
Black Soul
A mass of pure blackness. Can it even really be considered a Soul? Those who sleep near it are wracked by fitful dreams.
Those who have never touched the light have no need of shadows. And so when a flash blinds them, they cower in their cages, and their quickly fading shadows drip down. Down and down and down and down and down.
Use this empty shadow of a Soul to gain no Souls, or else create a unique treasure with its essence.
ABOMINATION DESTROYED
Its foul existence has ended.
But the world turns on, unaware...
[Explorer overwhelmed by the experience, collapses in the bottom of the world amidst the Black Phantasm's residue, feeling as though they could sleep now and never wake up, leaving the upper world behind them.]
Connections:
Beneath
