Week 6 doesn't open up any more buildings, but we do (as always) have new recruits. One of these recruits is an Abomination - a class that I would generally steer away from as they have restrictions on who will adventure with them (no holy characters, which rules out Crusaders, Vestals and Lepers). However, in this case, it was suggested that Emma should be one, so I'll upgrade the barracks and bring one along.
As you can see, Abominations are unusual in that they start with all of their skills unlocked. However, one of them allows them to take on the form of a monster. Three of the other skills work in human form, and the other three work in monster form. Changing into a monster stresses out the rest of the party, but changing back human unstresses them (though less than they stressed in the first place).
As I can't bring a Vestal along with me, I also recruit the new Occultist and, to give Dave Heaton a chance to rest, another Houndmaster.
Thanks to the secret room that we found last time, we have quite a lot of money, so can afford to ensure we have the skills we need for this run. Looking at the adventures available...
I decide that exploring the Cove is probably the best idea (it has the best reward available). The party is the three newbies, and Neil (as the least stressed tank).
Whilst they are gone, we'll try to do something about the stress levels of some of the rest of the roster:
And onto adventure!
We are looking to complete all room battles this time round. The map isn't terribly convenient for that, but we should be ok. We'll start north, then try south, and then head west.
North was a good choice - we had to cope with an obstacle, but then found a battle against two Pelagic Groupers and two Pelagic Shamans. As you can probably guess, the two at the back have a stress causing attack, and the two at the front are fairly tough. They are resistant to Bleed (though not as much as undead), but quite vulnerable to Blight.
First to go is Emma - her attacks are Transform (changes her into beast form), Manacles (good chance of stun), Beast's Bile (good chance to Blight the middle two opponents) and Absolution (a self stress and health heal). Given what we're up against, Beast's Bile seems the best choice.
And crits!
The new skills I picked up for Neil is Ripose, which allows him to attack back when he's targeted.
The rest of the battle is fairly predictable.
Heading south, we find a battle in the corridor. The Deep Stinger is a good stunner, and the two Drowned Thralls are bruisers. Sadly, they also cause stress with their basic attack, and have a habit of exploding when they are low on hp left.
We win, but it leaves the party lower on health than I'd like...
The Bas-relief has a strong chance of bestowing a good quirk, so Emma gives it a go and becomes unerring (+10% chance to hit on ranges skills).
Another battle in the southern room. The guy at the front is a Pelagic Guardian. As you can probably guess from the name, he has the ability to guard other enemies.
Time to make the switch! New skills (in this form) are Rake (which doesn't start good, but buffs itself each time it is used), Rage (a basic attack, but with decent crit chance) and Slam (which knocks back and debuffs). Start raking.
Sadly, Emma's stress continues to climb, which makes her paranoid and forces her back into human form.
The battle continues to go fairly badly, and Neil's is at Death's Door (an adventurer can't die from a blow if they have any health remaining - if their health would drop to negative figures, they stop at zero and go to Death's Door instead. This means that the next blow could kill them - though all characters have a Death Blow resistance which kicks in at this point. It also reduces stats. The character can be kept safe with 1 point of healing - but Occultists don't always provide that...).
Joseph also hits Death's Door - things are going poorly... I decide that discretion is the better part of valour and flee the battle.
Ironically, the stress of fleeing, makes Joseph feel Powerful. If that buff had triggered in the fight, I'd probably have kept going, but as it is, I think it's time to call this adventure a failure.
The outcomes of fleeing aren't great, with no experience earned and precious little loot. The quirks aren't great either (Neil gets Lygophobia, which increases stress damage for him when below 25% light, Emma gets Steady which reduces stress damage by 10% (but is still Paranoid until a week is spent stress healing), Joseph becomes Compulsive, which forces certain actions to do with curios and a Cove Adventurer which reduces stress taken in the Cove, and Sarah gets Slow Reflexes which reduces Speed).
All in all, a bit of a disaster of an adventure.
What's more, when we get back, this has happened.
Town events were added in a recent update, and I have no idea what this means. Clicking around, it seems I'm being offered two more Hellions. However, I have a quick look in the Stagecoach for the week and decide not to recruit them. A more interesting option is available, and I only have one slot. It's tempting to get rid of some of the adventurers that just failed in the Cove (from pure cost effectiveness), but let's see how it rides.
And to cap off a bad week, it turns out that Matt lost us 500 gold gambling.
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