With fortune, we luck out and get two new characters in our retinue;
@Meowthkip and
@A Random join our cause, and team up with
@AnOminous and
@lolwut to bring down the final one of the five bosses that got in our way.
Prying eyes had become a nuisance along the old road, and so I undertook to receive my most curious deliveries by way of marine shipments. A sheltered jetty was accessible by a narrow stone stair off the back of the manor, and a discreet system of pulleys could hoist even the heaviest prizes up the rock face from a securely tied dinghy below.
The Drowned Crew are a contingent of smugglers that used to help the Ancestor acquire his artifacts. Once people got word that the Ancestor was working on some shady shit, and after the Brigands he used to oppress the Hamlet started becoming a hindrance, the Ancestor relied upon teams of mariners to ship in exotic materials, employing them to secure ancient idols, obscure manuscripts, and other, far darker things. This particular crew was his favorite, until they started raising their prices when the Ancestor demanded secrecy. Using the depraved Necromancy harnessed earlier from the experiments that created Tyce, he laid a hex upon their anchor, and when they tried to leave shore, the accursed thing dragged them to the depths - but as he used this necromancy, the crew refused to stay dead.
Whilst it lacks a "true" healer, per se, the combination of Random, Meowthkip, and AnOminous can usually handle basic healing functions (and arguably will suffice until the team levels up further and actually can muster up). AnOminous and Lolwut handle the heavy lifting, and Meowth provides support, buffs, debuffs, and periodically stabs things.
Initial forays go well, with the team quickly securing treasure and additional supplies. Whereas the Weald tends to be long and frustrating, and the Warrens short but brutal, the cove strikes a sort of happy medium; less of a swirling clusterfuck, with the only downside being the omnipresent tough enemies that do lots of damage even on Apprentice.
The Cove has the worst trap in the entire game. These little shells indicate the presence of a tentacled lurker; if you set this fucking thing off, you get a crippling dodge and speed debuff that lasts for around 20 rounds. Only pacing up and down a hallway or munching an herb can get rid of this any quicker. Fuck these.
When I first assembled this team, I had a bit of trouble because of its complete lack of a trapspringer - most of the time, you need a class good with traps - such as a Houndmaster, Highwayman, or Grave Robber - to handle such things, but in practice a Bounty Hunter works almost as well. For once, I'm thankful for my own oversight.
In addition to basic damage, marking, and stun duties, Lolwut doubles as a bleeder, using his grapnel to damage them and inflict bloody wounds from afar. As he levels up, Lolwut will eventually have one of the strongest bleeds in the game in terms of raw damage, with only
@KidKitty's Harvest offering any real competition.
@Shuu Iwamine's Incision has a way lower bleed damage rate, but makes up for it with a higher success rate and much higher initial damage.
AnOminous, meanwhile, is designed to kill Unholy-type creatures - very good for the boss we're fighting, but also good against these drowned zombies. When not actively going after the unholy, he's faster than Jaimas and a bit tougher, but lacks the raw damage output.
Compared to the more balanced loadout of Cynical, Meowthkip carries more debuffs and support moves. Flashpowder lets her dazzle (though not blind) enemies, crippling their accuracy in a big way. While the Antiquarian is by no means a strong class on offense or defense, she's an amazing supporter and here, she earns her stripes.
AnOminous benefits from psychedelic healing coral and now is negative quirk-free.
During a particularly nasty fight, a team of cultist chain-stress Random and cause her to become Fearful, but our team manages to stall and after almost 15 rounds of work while Lolwut and Meowth keep the remaining enemy stunned and off-balance, AnOminous brings her stress to zero and she ceases to be Afflicted. The team heals up, kicks the remaining enemies in the dick, and prepares for the boss fight.
I would make the general argument that this dickhead is the third-hardest boss in the entire game, and for good reason. They're a fucking brutal endurance match, especially for this early in the game. It has low damage, but the stress, constant party shake-ups, debuffs, and bleed that it can inflict, combined with its annoying self-heal can grind most parties down over time. Worse, it's another two-turns boss, so you
know this is going to suck.
The Drowned Crew will start the battle by summoning an Anchorman, and dragging one of your allies to the front row. The Anchorman will immobilize the first hero in line with its anchor and force them to experience the crew's horrible death. While the hero who is tangled in the anchor is free to attack, their stress will increase by five every time an action is taken by
anyone, and the Crew will heal health each time in turn. Stunning the Anchorman can delay it and is a good tactic to open up a window you can pound the crew during.
During the fight, the crew gains a massive defensive buff whenever the anchorman has someone wrapped, so your best bet is to kill the Anchorman when he shows while gradually whittling down these insufferable pirates.
These assholes constantly apply long-lasting debuffs and bleeds that pose far more of a threat to a party than any actual damage the Crew itself can cause. It will also boost stress by asking you to join them in drinking, and apply a nasty debuff that cripples your offense too.
But our team is canny and manages to win, though Random struggles from the sheer volume of bleed stacks she had dumped on her. I'm thankful she's got such a high death resistance because she hit Death's Door
repeatedly during this battle. Still, the hardest of the Apprentice bosses is defeated, and with this, we are no longer quite as struggling with a race against time. Even better, we have our teams starting to build up their gear, and my initial level 5s are now all maxed-out gear-wise, with sets of level 4 weapons, armor, and equipment. If their skills can be boosted sufficiently before the fight itself, we should be able to handle the upcoming event without too much flair, though we're probably going to need additional troops soon enough.
Back at town,
@alex_theman has gone missing and
@Techpriest clearly has some issues he needs to fucking work out.
@Randall Fragg, meanwhile, who went out on a drunken bender, came back with zero issues.
