Levelling, character development and week 3

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).

Sanity Management and Week 2

Here is another look at our Vestal, Matt - in the top left you can see his sanity gauge - currently all outlined, which indicates stress of 100. Each can also be filled in which shows an increase up to a maximum of 200. At this point, heart attacks become a risk. You can also see that he is still Irrational, and will be until this stress is healed. You can see the various traits in red, which are penalised due to this affliction.

Thankfully, in week 2, we get two new buildings which help to deal with stress.



From left to right these are...


The Tavern, which includes the Bar, Gambling Hall and Brothel. Each allows an adventurer to spend a week in them to reduce their stress. They can be individually upgraded to allow more space, heal more stress, or be cheaper. The Bar is cheaper than the Gambling Hall, which is in turn cheaper than the Brothel, though all costs increase as the level of the hero being treated does.


We also have the Abbey, which includes the Cloister (for meditation), the Transept (for prayer) and the Penance Hall (for flagellation). It works exactly the same way as the Tavern. Also note, however, that the caretaker is currently taking up the Cloister slot - he moves around each week but always takes up a slot somewhere.

We desperately need to reduce the stress on both Derek and Matt. Looking at their character sheets, Derek is a Bad Gambler, which means that he might lose me even more money if sent to gamble, so we'll put him somewhere else. We also see that Matt is a Meditator, which means he gets additional benefits from meditation. Sadly, the caretaker is there, so we'll send him to pray instead. We'll put him in there. Derek can go drinking as it's the cheapest option. A week spent healing his stress will also remove his affliction.


And then time to recruit.


Sadly, we never found the Deed that we wanted for the upgrade, so we are stuck at 3 recruits per week, and in this instance we have another Plague Doctor, another Highwayman and an Occultist (lots of range stuff including some very highly random healing with a chance of causing the healed to Bleed!). Beggars can't be choosers, so we'll grab them all. A warm welcome for our newest recruits.


And onto adventure!


Most regions are still locked, but we do get a choice of adventure this time. The two right hand ones are medium length, but with three newbies in the party, we'll hold off on those. I go for a short one, but it offers 3 deeds as a reward.


Again, we need to explore 90% of rooms, and there is an area in the bottom left where we have a choice of route. We'll probably end up taking it and ignoring the final room in the bottom right.


An opportunity to use my one and only key comes up in the first corridor. I take it, but it's better used than wasted and I don't know that another opportunity will arise. It includes 2 Busts and 1125 gold - well worth it (unless something better comes up which I then miss).


The first battle is fairly straightforward.


The next thing we come across though, is a curio - a stack of books. They are one I tend to avoid, as the chances of a negative result are greater than that for a positive one.


The next battle is our first against four opponents, which allows us to use lots of area effect stuff. It's fairly straightforward, though Reynauld's stress is getting a little high.

The reward includes a trinket - they are special items you can equip on adventurers which give different benefits and problems. This one is exclusive to Houndmasters, but we can take it home for later use.


The suit of armour is also pretty nifty, teaching Reynauld to be a Ruins Adventurer, which means he takes 20% less stress in the Ruins.


Bookshelves are another curio that often does more harm than good.


A lucky scouting opportunity gives us a taste of things to come (and shows that taking the detour allows us to avoid a battle.


The Confession Booth is a welcome sight - using Holy Water with it cures 30 stress, which Reynauld desperately needs.


Another room, another battle.

Each class actually has seven different skills, and each adventurer starts with 4 of them randomly. So, our new recruits have slightly different abilities to our old ones.

Jess has Plague Grenade (inflicting Blight on the back two opponents - fantastic against the Undead), Incision (Bleed, which is good against the Cultists), Battlefield Medicine (a small amount of healing and cures Bleed and Blight) and Disorienting Blast. In this case, a Plague Grenade seems good.


Marianne (our Occultist) has Sacrificial Stab (bonus damage against Eldritch, but needs to be much further forward), Abyssal Artillery (attacks enemies in spots 3 and 4, again with a bonus against Eldritch), Wyrd Reconstruction (which heals 1-10 hit points, but might cause Bleed) and Hands from the Abyss (which Stuns but causes the torch to go out quicker, and has to be used from further forward). Some healing is needed, so Wyrd Reconstruction it is.


Gwen is largely the same as Dismas, but has Point Blank Shot - a very good but situational skill. It does lots of damage, but requires the Highwayman to in the front spot, which rules out a lot of his other skills. It can also only target the front opponent. In this case, we want to get rid of both the Courtier and the Cultist - but we can't target both of them. Courtier is, at least, Blighted, so we'll focus fire on him to try to finish one off.


Which was successful.


The battle ends fairly swiftly after that, with a combination of Marianne's Wyrd Reconstruction and Jess's Battlefield Medicine keeping everybody more or less healthy.


One of the options for Confessionals if you don't have holy water is the removal of a negative trait, so Gwen is no longer Nervous.

Within short order (one more battle where nothing particularly interesting happened), the quest is complete.



And our new traits are announced.

Gwen becomes a Cove Explorer (additional damage in the Cove), Jess becomes Curious and develops Quick Reflexes (bonus speed) and Marianne becomes a Man Slayer (additional damage against humans) and Love Interest (can only recover stress at the Brothel!).


And we get the results of the weekly activities that have been ongoing. Derek is sluggish from drink, which means he has a speed decrease (seems legit).