Talk:Of Blood, Gold and Holy Light/@comment-24101790-20190601023107

I recently managed to sneak a few hours to myself between class and exams so (after utterly wiping my party in a desperate struggle for gold, trinkets, and baubles in Darkest Dungeon), I figured I'd come back to this story after a year or so and give it a re-read. It was then that realized I never left a comment on it when I first read it, so I'm remedying that now:

I really love this story (which is likely why I came back to it after all this time). I think the story's strongest suits are the frenetic action and the visceral description of the transformation.

I like the flow and description for the combat and how it sets the pace for the story with a quick stylistic staccato. Lines like: "His armor opens up like a nightflower in the morning sunlight, revealing the gory mess of his chest. He tries to breathe, but inhales nothing but blood. With iron resolution the man pushes on, pushing away the mind-numbing pain and the certain death that awaits. In one last hurrah, he swings his mace and parries the beast's deadly blow." do a good job of keeping the action fast and feverish as you push towards the ending.

The transformation scenes are also gory and grotesque in a really visceral way. I love the idea of a werewolf mangling and molting its way out. A lot of stories try to go for the "American Werewolf in London"-style transformation with the knuckles popping and the limbs luxating, but this comes off as a bit of a fresher description than most with its more violent and visceral shift ("The bartender's mouth opens up wider and wider until his jaw dislodges. Dense and foul blood oozes out of his mouth as his neck grows and locks forward. When the blood stops, a gruesome muzzle crawls its way out of his mouth. His face is now just a wrinkled piece of bloody cloth, his eyes turn red before they explode into a grimy mess and the top of his skull cracks open, mushed brain and gore spilling out.").

I'd be remiss if I didn't point out one issue that tripped me up that I just noticed. It's mentioned the party is going to begin their hunt shortly after dawn but the shift to night seems really sudden to me ("A streak of sanguine floats towards the skies, where the moon presides over the unruly aether from its opening in the black clouds.") to the point that I wasn't sure how much time had passed or how long their hunt had been going on. It's a minor complaint, but I figured it was still worth mentioning.

All in all, I really liked this one (enough to type all this out) and am going to check out some of the other entries in the Werewolf contest to see how they all compare. Once more, good work!