It's time to advance onwards and mulch the remaining horrors. A team of
@CasualSeppuku,
@Jan_Hus,
@Ravelord, and
@Optimus Prime is gathered together, and thrown at the weald.
As time wore on, her wild policy of self-experimentation grew intolerable. She quaffed all manner of strange fungi, herbs, and concoctions, intent on gaining some insight into the horror we both knew to be growing beneath us. The change in her was appalling, and no longer able to stomach it, I sent her to live in the weald, where her wildness would be welcomed.
The narrator of Darkest Dungeon is a treat. I've got a bunch of hilarious clips of him from a charity event, including the ever-inexorable"
Praise the Sun!" I'll share some more later, but yeah, this dude has a voice that's like fine wine.
Evil fine wine.
Our team begins marching forward, and heading through the Weald. It's gotten more overgrown since last time we were here, with twisted switchbacks and turns leading all the fuck over the place.
Though he could use more good quirks, Optimus, as things stand, is more-or-less complete. Instead of being designed for raw offense or speed, Optimus is designed to be a tough nut to crack. He has a staggering 20% PROT by default, which means he often takes considerably less damage from enemies than he would otherwise. It makes him way stronger. If he gets Tough and Warrior of Light, he may become the second-most-durable thing we have, after Ravelord himself and maybe
@Burned Man.
The area is hauntingly quiet. By the time I'm a third of the way through, I've only encountered dogs and a small pack of Fungus Zombies working with a Hateful Virago. It's been empty rooms otherwise. I really don't have much to report, because we had empty room after empty room after empty room. What the
fuck happened here? If anyone has an idea, let me know.
What I
can comment on is the fucking Virago. I didn't get screenies of her in action, but she may be the most bastardly enemy in Darkest Dungeon that isn't a boss. To writ: she's got a very powerful marking attack (does decent damage on up to two characters; debuffs their dodge and marks them), so she acts as a tougher version of a Crone. But is that it? God no.
If you kill a monster in her unit, and it leaves a corpse, she will automatically, at the end of the round (unless she's stunned) use "From Death Comes Life," and turn the corpse into the penis-shaped Necrotic Fungus enemy. This enemy does nothing - it has no attacks, it doesn't move, and doesn't have any real defense - but it
completely blocks healing while it's there. Kill the Virago and its summons, or you might be staring at a mission failed screen and four dead heroes before you knew what happened.
Thankfully, they're not too tough compared to the giants, and are priority targets, so we move on.
Again, we've mostly encountered dogs and parasites rather than anything tougher. It's strange.
We get through a fight without any injuries, and Ravelord comments.
You tell 'em, buddy.
More Fungal Zombies get in the way, but Jan Hus is good with his dagger and can easily C-No these bastards. One big issue with the Fungal Scratchers (the mushroom-head Zombies) is that they do shockingly heavy damage reliably, especially to a marked target. They're kind of similar to the Pelagic Fishies with the swords in that regard.
Thankfully, we have a counter to that, and its name is Optimus. Even these fuckers, with all their sturm and drang, have difficulty dealing more than single-digit damage to him, which Optimus can quickly heal up. Good thing, too - we're right near the boss door.
Ravelord is a force to be reckoned with.
Finally, we reach the goal.
The Hag on Champion is exactly the same but she's stronger, tougher, has a more well-armored pot, and fights much more aggressively. This one I expect to be a quick fight; I chose a party specifically designed to hammer this infected psychopath where it hurts.
We lead off with Seppuku hurling knives, and then Jan stabbing her in the face. That shakes her up a bit.
The hag responds by throwing Optimus in the Cooking Pot, exactly as I was hoping. Optimus is strong enough to survive a thorough roasting, and so rather than free him, the rest of the team continues to hammer away.
She can't really do much damage to us, so other than the stress she induces by throwing organs at us from her bag, or tasting her ongoing Optimus stew, this is purely a speed race. It isn't long, however, before Optimus is at Death's Door and unceremoniously dumped from the pot. He's now at the front of the row, at Death's Door, and I fully expect the Hag to go next and kill his ass.
Optimus goes first.
Music.
WHO'S EATING
WHO, BITCH?!
Back in town, we learn that
@Meowthkip has gotten up to her old tricks:
To further show it was her, here she is in the square, showing off her ill-gotten gains in front of the statue.
So apparently, Meowthkip robbed some people and needs to lay low for the week.
Goddamnit.
