Hmm...
Maybe I need luck and to try harder.
Did you use just your elemental attacks?

Okay, so, uh, crimany.\|

If the introduction dungeon is consistently causing headaches and frustration, something has gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Revisions to the dungeon in question are underway. Patience is requested.

Edit: I put a rm2k3 pause mark after a sentence, didn't I. Holy mother of God, that's not a good sign.

Lol. I gave you the benefit of the doubt and assumed it was a weird emoticon.
The dungeon was good, I liked the simple puzzles and the interaction with the spirits (dying in Lava is the best game over, ever) but I just couldn't beat the boss at the end. I only gained one level though, so I'm sure I could do it with grinding.

as I discover more and more dislikable things, including several glitches that made crucial areas inaccessible, I would like to reiterate to all game designers:

It is crucial to play through your game and explore everything you've done once if not several times.

Hahah, yeah. You can't really just go placing events without doing a test. And if you're to release a demo or something,
play the whole thing and save at points so that when you find a bug, you can return to the part where the bug is right
away to fix it quickly. Revising and modifying dungeons already made is really er... repetitive so you must have too many
patience...

That's one of the many valuable lessons we learned making Seven Sages...

Some more lore while I make a cleaner demo!

THE NATURE OF A SOUL

A soul is the most important bit of life a mortal has to worry about. The soul is all that remains after the body fails and dies, containing the memories and personality of the person, allowing them to move on to an afterlife or be reincarnated, depending on who they worshiped, their own intense desire, and how they lived. A general rule of thumb is that if you don't want to be punished in reincarnation or damned to torment, don't be an ass in life and try to be nice to others. If you've been an ass and had a genuine change of heart, there's still hope, but those who put on facades of good and continually do evil are in for horrible surprises when they die.

The other thing a mortal must be wary of is avoiding any bargain that asks for your soul. Such bargains almost always result in damnation, barring intervention of powerful divine forces. A god may intervene if the deal was coerced- a demon, for example, threatens to torture a village's children unless the parents forfeit their souls would be paid a visit by very powerful, very angry angels. A mage who sells his soul for quick power is not going to get such divine aid.

These two things paid heed, one has nothing to worry about...

...or at least such was the case.

Vindis, long ago, committed the first instance of an unspeakable punishment- the destruction of a mortal's soul. The punishment had been considered for mortals who cheated death to commit more evil, but never used. Vindis, however, on promotion to godhood (an act that began a rift between the gods of New Gaea and the Multiverse Alliance of gods) tortured to death a young priestess of the New Gaea Goddess of Healing, then destroyed her soul before her deity's very eyes... all for the 'crime' of the priestess in question having healed someone Vindis had wrongly punished while still mortal and a judge.

The heinousness and pettiness of the act was enough to cause multiple gods, some young, some old, to break rank and demand Vindis be punished in such a fashion as well, lest he commit the same act again. The final straw that separated the New Gaea gods from their old associates was the refusal by the chief of Gods, Omni, to do more than give him a stern warning to never do so again without permission.

It is needless to say at this point that if the gods of New Gaeus harbored resentment towards Vindis, especially the goddess of healing Kria and the god of justice Jarep, his recent intrusion onto New Gaea has them in full fury, desperately seeking out his presence for destruction.

However, Vindis cannot simply pick out a mortal for suffering and then annihilation so simply, lest he drop the protections that obscure his location to the other gods. To have souls delivered to him, he bred his own religion, promising corrupt mortals power and prestige if only they would follow his orders.

The process is relatively simple on paper. Vindis singles out small communities and obstructs the divine power that gives clerics and priests the ability to heal and perform miracles in the name of their god. At the same time, he or a Vindis cleric unleashes several catastrophes- plagues, infestations of pests, maybe a summoned demon or two if it's deemed necessary. The plagues continue until a certain breaking point is observed- the populace begins to doubt their god or think they've been abandoned. Then the cleric makes their move, giving the grim news- their old god/goddess has abandoned them like a child abandons a disfavored toy, and the plagues are a result of such neglect. But there's hope! Vindis will not only eradicate all the problems and be your new god, he'll absolve you of all the damning results of your vices and sins! Because hey, you're mortal, and if you feel the urge to do something, it must be natural, right? Just as long as you're not hurting the cleric or the people he/she needs to be comfortable, have fun!

All you have to do is offer up a child to serve as the trashcan for all your mortal flaws... a pariah. Ritually condemn them. Treat them badly- because you're supposed to hate sin, not the sinner. Don't kill them too quickly or they can't hold as much sin. Don't let them near your water or food, they'll contaminate it.

Aside from the alleviation of induced catastrophes, Vindism appeals to weaker individuals who don't like personal responsibility. In fact, in a few cases, no cut off or plagues were necessary- a cleric of Vindis merely mentioned the absolution that came with creating a pariah and the people converted.

It is because of this campaign of conversion that Vindism, like a cancer, is spreading throughout New Gaea... and Vindis' stock of souls grows greater, from every pariah ritually condemned and the willing worshipers who damned them.

tl;dr: Your soul is important. Don't sell it. And when someone starts preaching about Vindis, murder them. You'll be better off.

This sounds interesting, I may try it

Uploaded new patch device and base versions of Pariah's Creed.

Your best bet is to dl whichever version you want- rtp or no rtp- install that, and then use the patcher to update it to working form.

Dang, I need to go at this again.