Week 5 and the monster

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.

Quirks, Diseases and Week 4

Our new building this week is the Sanitarium which allows us to remove the negative traits (or quirks) that the adventurers pick up, as well as diseases (which we, thankfully, haven't faced yet). You can also lock in a positive trait to ensure that it doesn't get replaced by anything else, but this is really expensive. The upgrade tracks are Treatment Library (which reduces the costs of removing or reinforcing quirks), Medical Devices (which reduces the cost of treating diseases) and Patient Cells (which opens up more slots for people to be treated.


The only quirk negative enough that I'm willing to shell out at the moment is Marianne's Yips - as you can see, it will cost 1130 gold to remove.


Dave Jones and Jess are also starting to look a little stressed, so they can spend the week in the tavern. Jess is a Gambler and so will only go to the Gambling Hall. We also pick up a couple of new recruits:


At which point, adventure awaits!


A team with a Vestal and a Jester should give us a good chance at surviving a medium adventure, and there is one available in the Weald. So off we go! Before we do though, I buy Matt a new skill (Divine Comfort which is a small full party heal).


Medium length adventures provide some firewood so that you can camp. I also make sure to purchase more food, torches and medicinal herbs (as you can use them for more food in the Weald if you get lucky).


Our quest is, again, to explore 90% of rooms. Now we are on a medium adventure, we can safely ignore two of them and, looking at the map, there are a couple of off-shoots which, unless scouting changes anything, will probably be the ones to be overlooked.


Not a great start...


You must be kidding!


First battle should be fairly straight-forward!


Squire Keen is a Hellion, which is a very aggressive class. Current skills are Wicked Hack (a fairly straight forward attack against spot 1 or 2), Barbaric Yawp! (which stuns the front two enemies, but gives a small damage and dodge debuff to the Hellion), If it Bleeds (which can target spaces 2 or 3 with damage and Bleeding) and Breakthrough (which attacks the front 3 enemies, but gives a debuff to the Hellion that affects damage and dodge). Hoping to finish quickly, we'll try a Breakthrough!


Close but no cigar. Next attack is to Dave Heaton, our Jester. He's primarily useful as a de-stresser, but can also do some fun stuff with status affects. Lots of his skills rely on where he is in the party order, and move him, so he can be hard to use well. His current load-out is Dirk Stab (attacks any of the front 3, but moves him forwards 1), Harvest (which relies on being in space 2 or 3, but attacks both of the enemies in 2 and 3 with Bleeding), Solo (which moves him forwards 3 spaces but hits all enemies with a huge damage and accuracy debuff) and Inspiring Tune (which heals stress and raises resistance to stress in one ally). In this case, Dismas is looking pretty stressed, so an Inspiring Tune it is.


Dismas finishes things off with a Grapeshot Blast.


The next battle will likely prove to be more of an annoyance, but with three people able to inflict Bleeding, we should be ok.


And the basic plan of inflict bleed whenever possible works pretty well.


This is a really quiet dungeon, but a lucky scouting chance reveals a secret room to the west. I had planned not to go that way, but this changes everything!


One secret room can fund a lot of activity!


Let's hope we can take advantage. In this instance, the Cultist isn't the problem he would normally be, as Dave will be able to mitigate him quite well. The ectoplasms might prove annoying though and become primary targets.


They are highly resistant to Bleed, but don't have many hit points so we're able to sort them out before they get to act (and replicate!).


Another battle where Bleed will probably save the day.


This was starting to look bad with stress building faster than I could get rid of it. But sometimes, when an adventurer hits 100 stress, they get a Virtue rather than an Affliction. This will make a difference.


Normally, I'd be tempted to camp after a battle like that, but that would waste Dave's Virtue (which only lasts until you camp or return to the hamlet). Let's press on and hope.


Oh crap.

This guy is the collector - a mini-boss that turns up if the game thinks you are doing too well... To be honest, I'm tempted to cut my losses and run, given that we got the secret room, but with all the bleed we can inflict, we might be ok.


His big trick is summoning friends which are supposed to be the people he's killed. Each corresponds to one of the adventurer classes. The first is a Highwayman, the second a Vestal and the third a Man-at-Arms.


Finally, in round 8, we get to the point where we can mop up the summons (the fourth set!).


Eventually, victory does bring a good prize at least.


And, thankfully, he marked the end of the adventure.


But a good haul earned.


But the new quirks aren't great. Dismas and Matt both develop Deviant Tastes (not allowed in the Brothel), Squire Keen is Tuckered Out (less damage when at less than half health) and a Clutch Hitter (so he gets more crit chance when at less than half health). Dismas also picks up Beast Hater, which means he does more damage to beasts and takes less stress when fighting them.


Sadly, whilst the team were away, Dave Jones has gone on a drunken bender and is nowhere to be found. He'll return... at some point...