The Black Death is a medieval survival game, where you start out from nothing and try to make something of yourself. Maybe you’ll become a knight and rule your lands from your castle…or maybe you’ll fall off a hill to your death wearing nothing but rags!
We caught up with noted peasant Dirk Bigge as he arrived in the diseased and unforgiving lands of The Black Death, and he told us about his day.
Hour 1
I’ve woken on a beach, my back aches and my clothes are torn. Nothing new there then. Creaking slowly I rise to my feet and head along the shore, maybe someone’ll be able to explain what happened to me and how I got here.
Trees appear as I turn the corner of the cliffs that jut out onto the barren beach. I see the treeline and amongst them, a swinging body.
I fear this will be an unfriendly land.
Hour 2
I have naught in my possession other than a torch, the clothes on my back, and some awful parsnips I have managed to forage from the side of the road.
A clash of metal startles me as I rest for a moment. I hide behind the nearest tree and peer out as two knights, armoured in full plate, smash together in a cacophony of violence.
The blood that erupts from one as the sword enters him takes my breath away. I hold my hand over my mouth as I try not to whimper, to cry. I’m a child of the city, I’ve never seen death like this before.
I sneak away, my hands deep in the rich fecund mud.
This is definitely an unfriendly land.
Hour 5
I’ve regained my composure and climbed a large hill away from the steel clad monsters which lurk behind me. I’ve managed to gather a few pieces of cotton and I’ll try to make some clothing out of it.
I fail, and the cotton disappears from my hands in a puff of smoke.
What a strange land I have found myself in.
Hour 9
I have spent the last 2 hours crouched on top of a freezing hill while the wind whipped around me, causing my tattered rags to flutter like a flag of poverty. I’ve been watching a castle, a small wooden motte and bailey castle that broods in the nearby valley, like a spider lurking threateningly at the bottom of a gutter.
I have seen nobody move there, no life at all. Building my nerve, I believe I will approach. I can’t stay up here anymore, I need shelter. I need warmth.
Hour 10
I am shaken by what I’ve found in the castle.
Bodies lie on the floor of each building, there’s no life at all within its palisades. Only death lives here, flies fill the air as I approach and the stench of death lies heavy as a miasma upon the land.
I managed to hold my nose and my nerve long enough to approach a likely looking corpse and strip it of possessions, taking a simple knife from his side.
Sneaking away, I notice a rasp in my lungs. Odd.
Hour 12
My lungs burn.
I have made my way with shaking legs towards a grand bridge I can see hunched over a nearby river. Maybe there I can find people, find a cure for this burning that fills my body, that wracks me with coughs every time I draw air.
I scratch at my skin and feel it peel away, buboes are forming on my face and I can feel myself falling apart.
I fear the Black Death has found me.
Hour 14
I have reached the bridge, but no safety awaits me there.
The cough has now become all encompassing and I can barely move, my skin burns, my insides burn, pustules cover my body.
I found water in a puddle and in my haste and to quench my thirst I drank deeply of it, its bitter flavour and filth causing endless tides of nausea that filled me to overflowing.
I must carry on, I must reach someone who can help.
Hour ??
I am alone. Night is coming.
Cold and torpor fills me. I fall to the ground. I need to rest.
I dreamed of a future, I dreamed of finally owning a house, of starting a business.
Now I only dream that the pain will end.
No-one can help me now. I will just close my eyes for a second. To rest. To sleep.
As my eyes close…I hope I will dream again.
…
The Black Death is available in Early Access now.
