Now that we are into week 3, another couple of buildings open up and these are the primary ones used to develop the adventurers as they level up. Left to right we have...
The Guild, which allows the purchase and improvement of skills. Here you can see Reynald's options - he can't level anything up (as he is only level 1), but we could purchase the first level of the three he didn't start with. It's quite expensive though, at 1000 each (you can see in the bottom-left that we have 12185 total at the moment. The upgrade trees are Instructor Mastery which unlocks the different levels of skills and Training Regimen, which reduces the costs of buying them.
And the Blacksmith, responsible for upgrading weapons and armour. Similar rules apply, which means that we can't take advantage of this building yet (with nobody at level 2). The upgrade trees are Weaponsmith, which unlocks different levels of weapons, Armoursmithing, which does the same for armour, and Furnace, which reduces the cost of both.
On the plus side, we now have the Deed to upgrade the Stagecoach network so, from now on, we'll get four new adventurers per week. We can't afford to also upgrade the Barracks, which stops us from taking on all three of the new recruits from this week, but we can trade in some heirlooms for a different type. The exchange rate is atrocious, but given that we have lots of spare Crests (for the moment), we can make a trade and get the Barracks as well. That way we can take on all the new recruits. Introducing...
Dave Jones the Houndmaster (jumping the queue a little as he specifically requested the class)
Neil the Man-at-Arms
And Dave Leach the Leper.
Before going on the next adventure, however, I send Dave Jones to the Guild to learn a new skill - his Blackjack skill isn't terribly appealing, given that it requires him to be near the front and I'd prefer to keep him at the back. Hound's Harry, a skill that can make all opponents bleed is much more tempting.
However, we know that Bleeding attacks aren't great to take into the Ruins, with all of the undead. So we are going to explore the Weald instead - the woods surrounding the hamlet are full of dangerous creatures and bandits, most of which are vulnerable to bleeding.
This time we are looking for room battles, and we start in the middle of a run. We'll head west first, as that leaves less back-tracking. Scouting opportunities are even more helpful on this particular adventure type, as you can save a lot of time ignoring corridors that don't have room combats in them.
Old Trees have a chance of causing Blight, but this can be removed with antivenom. Sadly, I'm a cheapskate and didn't bring any. Still, it's a relatively small chance, so probably worth the risk - and I get two Deeds and a torch from it.
Our first battle is against two Rabid Gnashers and a Cultist. We surprise them and get to go first. Cultists are still a primary danger because of their stress attack.
Dave Jones gets to go first. Sadly, I forgot to equip the new skill I bought for him (but I can fix that between combats). His other options are Hound's Rush (which causes bleeding to a single target and does additional damage against Beasts and those that are marked), Target Whistle (which does no damage, but does mark a target and reduce their protection significantly) and Guard Ally (which gives a pretty big boost to a target's protection). In this case, we want rid of that Cultist, so Hound's Rush is the way to go.
He takes about half of his health in damage, but resists the bleeding. Marianne is up next and a Sacrificial Stab can reach the Cultist, probably finishing him off.
Success!
Next action goes to Neil. Men-at-Arms are very defensive and his skills are Crush (a nice default attack), Rampart (which does less damage but has a decent chance of stunning and knocking an enemy back), Defender (which increases his protection and allows him to intercept attacks on an ally) and Bolster (which improves everybody's dodge and protection). We probably don't need to do anything too complicated to deal with two Gnashers, so a basic Crush is probably the way to go.
Sadly, it dodged, so we move onto Dave Leach.
Lepers hit and hit hard. They are also quite self-sufficient. His current skills are Chop (which is the basic attack against either of the front two enemies), Hew (which hits both of the front two enemies, but with a little less damage), Withstand (which heals some of the Leper's stress and improves his protection) and Solemnity (which heals him a little and buffs his resistances). I'd prefer to finish one Gnasher than hurt both, so I'll go with a Chop.
Which is successful and leads to a swift conclusion to the battle.
Thankfully, there is a battle at the end of the corridor so this wasn't wasted effort. However, it is against Ectoplasms, which are really annoying enemies who can replicate themselves if you don't kill them quickly enough. They also surprise us, which throws us out of our ideal order. Dave Leach, in position 3, has nothing he can currently do so will spend actions advancing.
Liberal use of stuns and bleeds helps, but not enough to stop a fourth one being created.
This could be going better...
But we are eventually successful and are able to claim the treasure from the chest. Time to turn round...
This should be fairly straight-forward at least. These creatures can potentially be dangerous, as they cause Blight a lot, but they have very few hit points so, given they are surprised, I'm hoping to finish them before they can act.
Success, but clearly more battles to be found.
Sadly, Neil's Necromania means that he can't help but investigate the corpse we've found, and he gets Blighted by it.
The carcass of something unpleasant allows me to restock our food supplies when it is treated with medicinal herbs.
The various mushroom beasts can be irritating with lots of stunning, marking and blighting effects.
We don't shower ourselves in glory, but do win through. Part of the loot from the monsters is a key to open the chest (not that we needed it!).
Hopefully a fairly routine fight, but the Fungal Scratchers have high Protection, meaning that they take reduced damage and Bleed/Blight is a far better way to kill them. That means it takes time though.
We ignore the Troubling Effigy - without Holy Water, there is far too much chance of something bad happening.
These guys again...
But they are the final obstacle to victory. We could continue, but knowing there are no more room battles, doesn't mean there isn't anything else, and I'd rather get out whilst we can.
Reasonably lucrative and new traits of The Yips for Marianne (reduces accuracy - not a good result at all!) and Stout for Dave Jones (improves healing skills whilst camping).
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