Let's Sperg Darkest Dungeon Let's Sperg: Part 2 - A Quest of Autism and Lovecraftian Horror

[Varg Did Nothing Wrong]

I am thoroughly entertained reading this. Requesting myself stuck in the game at some point, though as of right now it seems highly doubtful because nobody is fucking dying (which is good).

Really looking forward to more episodes in any case, this shit is enthralling.

 

[Randall Fragg]

What I wish they had done would be to have most or all of the classes appear as collector heads, and Collector would only show up after at least three of your characters had died. The heads he summoned would be the tree most recently dead adventurers. That's what I though was going on first time I fought him, and it would be a really cool thing for them to implement in a later release.
EDIT: Also, please send me in. Don't particularly care who I am.

 

[Jaimas]

I forgot how fun screenshot LPs are. Do you have access to any of the Kickstarter class reskins or just the base content?

I have Musketeers, but I can only use 'em when the game gives me 'em!

 

[Jaimas]

Moving forward, someone asked me once why I suggested to carry two keys. Answer: These fucking things.

Secret Rooms are hidden along corridors; you can find them manually but most of the time will discover them via scouting. Not every mission has any, but if you find them, congrats! They can have any of dozens of treasures. The most common and valuable, however, are Puzzling Trapezohedrons, which are worth 2500 Gold a pop. Rare Trinkets, like this Dismas' Head can also be found. If you don't have a Key to open the box, you don't get any of this good shit; just random treasure box loot. Carry fucking keys.

On that same mission, we ran into these mushroom heads that used the attack Groping Swipe on @BOLDYSPICY!, and I don't think I need to tell you the terrible joke that immediately went through my mind at this point, because it just went through yours as well. Thankfully Boldy avoided it and the team fought on.

@KidKitty's groove: Do not fuck with it.

Back in town, Something hilarious transpires, and Jaimas' God-Fearing Quirk (will only Pray for stress relief) is replaced by Witness (will do anything but Pray for stress relief). Surely unrelated and at the same time, @Cynical doesn't know how to poker face and develops the Bad Gambler trait. Truly this army of ours is a great analogy for the Farms.

A newcomer arrives in the form of @Randal Fragg, who is bad news. Despite his tattered appearance, Fragg is nothing less than the host of a powerful daemon; the results of a failed attempt to use him as a sacrifice. Mortal and fiend are now one, and Fragg exists as a sort of living penance, using his powerful gifts to besiege enemies. Correctly used, he is one of the most powerful characters in the game, but comes with several steep drawbacks: He costs by far the most to level up, and due to his nature, religious characters (thus far, @Ambivalenz, Jaimas, and @Burned Man) will not willingly party up with him. As such, it will be a little bit before Fragg gets proper use.

I'm pleased to announce as well that during a recent adventure, KidKitty got @CasualSeppuku staggeringly drunk, at which point she revealed her own tragic history - once a noble, her asshole husband offed himself over debts. Desperately needing to keep a roof over her head, she became a treasure hunter out of necessity - it's not like the dead were missing the gold. A number of mysteries of Seppuku have been solved as a result, such as where her snuffbox came from and why she has access to so much powerful booze.

Most of the crew is level 2 by now, except for a few holdouts and Fragg, who just joined. This time our party, consisting of Jaimas, @Ravelord, @c-no, and @Cynical, explores the Cove - easily the hardest of the first four dungeons. The enemies here are brutal, and the damage they do is high. They are also mostly Eldritch in creature type. Tons of obstacles lie in wait, and you damned well better carry additional herbs - the traps here apply a debuff that basically does not wear off this side of a ridiculous amount of time, and this is one of the only solutions. Enemies here often appear with support or in big groups, too - be aware.

...But it's not all bad news. These coral growths, if found, can, with herbs, be used to treat a hero. Doing so will permanently remove a negative quirk for free, even if it's become symptomatic! Even more rare, I found three of the damned things on this mission, two of which were in the same hallway! Using these, I was able to remove both Bad Gambler and Fear of Mankind from Cynical, without any cash spent.

These fishmen are deceptively dangerous. Pelagics are tough old bastards; low HP but high damage output and decent armor. Thankfully, Jaimas with gear hits hard enough to one-shot these assholes, and Ravelord can also punch them down pretty quick.

C-No, however, is the bane of their existence, often depleting their health by half or moreof two enemies at once in one round. If he gets the Hater of Eldritch trait, by the time he gets to level 6, he will be obliterating entire force groups.

We're making headway. The local brigands are till a pest but we're doing damned good at slicing our way through 'em.

Even Cynical gets in on this action.

Back in town, Seppuku is done with her treatments and Jaimas is going in to have the Red Plague treated. We advance onwards, hopefully working on leveling up the last of the holdouts.

 

[Solzhenitsyn]

Wow dude, you are storming through this. Colour me impressed.

 

[Jaimas]

Moving along to the Warrens, the only dungeon location I haven't explored yet.

Let's grab Boldy, @CasualSeppuku, @KidKitty, and @Burned Man, and get right on that.

I hate this place. The Warrens are similar to the Cove in that it's mostly very short hallways interspersed with rooms, meaning you tend to blow through them very quickly, but not without consequence: Because of the extremely short hallway lengths, you go through a lot of doors. This means a lot of Hunger checks, which means if the RNG decided to shit on you, you can go in with full rations only to consume all of them by the time you're halfway through, and that's before camping. The only upside: Food also drops like tax-free candy down here, so it almost balances out. There isn't anywhere near as many cool things to take advantage of though like the psychedelic healing coral. It also has the highest disease rate in the game, so expect the Sanitarium's medical staff to be working overtime here. At least they're short.

The Pig-Men of the Warrens are disgusting beasts and the main threat. They are vulnerable to bleeding, but resistant to blight, and almost all of them are annoying as shit because a lot of them wear armor, giving them good defense even at low levels. That little shit in the center is actually the one you should be worried about; this swine will vomit at your party, doing damage, stunning, causing stress, and potentially inducing disease. In essence, the Maggot of the Warrens. Know his habits, hunt down his family.

Even down here, the Bandits just inexplicably exist. Do they fight with the Swine? Are they allies? I never see them working together and their mere presence down here begs so many question. I'd like to think that they're lost, and are just like: "Oh god, not these fuckers again" and act like they just ran into the murderous version of Team Rocket.

Crowd Control, thy name is @BOLDYSPICY!

A later expedition into the Warrens calls upon @Ol'_Slag and @Solzhenitsyn, as well as @Cosmos, to sweep through and check the area out. This team may be a little unbalanced, lacking a tank or heavy armor, but the raw damage output it has makes up for it, and KidKitty is willing to get his mask dirty if it comes to that.

Solzhenitsyn is particularly choice here because the enemies count as Beast, which his pupper does more damage to. Nice.

Later, a team of level 2s, led by @Ravelord and @Cynical, grab @c-no and elect to show @Randall Fragg the ropes. Can the level 0 character rock with the level 2s? Let's see.

By default, the Abomination is notable because you don't choose his skills; he has eight, they're always available, and depending on circumstances, he uses all of them. He is, in essence, two characters in one, and either is worth using by themselves, but using both together is well worth your time. in his basic form, he's mostly a support; his Chains have great reach and are ridiculously reliable stuns, though their damage is low. He has an amazing self-heal that heals both HP and a substantial amount of Stress; the Abomination, uniquely, is one of the only characters who can reliably shed his own stress entirely if he gets afflicted. He also has a potent venom spray that doesn't do damage, but reliably inflicts blight, making him rock solid support. His final ability changes him into demon form; he gets completely different moves and turns from a durable-as-hell supporter into a deadly close-combat bruiser that could go toe-to-toe with most dedicated melee classes. Transforming builds stress (and causes it on your party members), but also heals him slightly, so carefully managed, the Abomination is an amazing asset.

C-No gets shit done.

Not long after this, Randall manages to find a bas-relief; poking it gives him the fucking Warrior of Light trait, so he just went from being kind of OK to being insanely good once this trait is locked in. Congrats, Randall, you just got promoted to being a source of serious hitting power once I can find a group to reliably put you in.

Some people use the sanitarium to shed negative personality traits. Cynical chooses to use psychedelic healing coral.

Back at town, Solz has gotten over his worms, Boldy has taken Caffiene supplements, and Fragg has proven meaty and immediately goes for reinforcement therapy to lock in his new trait while he's still low level.

 

[Jaimas]

Some time later, @BOLDYSPICY!, @Shuu Iwamine, and @Ambivalenz declare that today is a good day to permabulate, and perhaps beat the ever-loving shit out of that crazy guy that keeps screaming about how death stalks us at every turn.

The trio immediately gets together and attempts to drag the others into their carousing and murder. Knowing the trio's penchant for shenannigans and that nothing good can come of this, the bulk of our forces make themselves scarce, at which point Boldy grabs @CasualSeppuku and declares that it is to be a girl's night out, and that some weird crazy guy living in the ruins is going down, son.

The aforementioned crazy fucker is a dude who realized the Ancestor was up to no good and tried to warn everyone. It worked, but only at first, as the Ancestor responded by capturing him and trying to have him killed repeatedly. Remarkably the old fuck proved resistant to such tactics; despite being drowned, stabbed, and hung, he lived. Eventually the Ancestor just showed him what was under the estate and the dude went absolutely nanners. Now we have to kill his ass.

In the ruins themselves, our heroes get their murder on. The Ruins aren't too challenging but this team is actually shockingly good at tearing through this one. Nothing stands in their way, and the only party that would be brutalizing this area harder is one specifically formulated to do so.

There's some good synergy going on here. Boldy works as a frontliner, Seppuku provides the accuracy, Ambivalenz heals, and Shuu leaves residual damage on everything that isn't immune. Also the Brigands are here too because of fucking course they are. It's the same three guys, too - a Bloodletter, Cutthroat, and Fusilier. It might be the drugs talking but I'm pretty sure we killed this exact same group earlier.

According to Shuu, things are all going according to keikaku. The team rests, relaxes, and prepares to advance further into the depths. This is a long one, and there's a lot of ground to cover on this mission. Thankfully it's been going pretty smoothly.

Finally we reach the prophet. This guy is an asshole.

He's different from most bosses in that he sort of gets two turns. Many of the later bosses actually do (rather like a Dragon Quest boss), but this one only sort of does. Instead, he leads off with the "free action" Calamitous Prognostication, which marks a specific avenue for being hit by Rubble of Ruin, a powerful attack, the next round. Boosting Dodge can let you evade the attack, and you can use the likes of the Houndmaster or Man-At-Arms' skills to tank for a teammate, or swap them around to mitigate damage. The main goal here is to kill the prophet; the Pews do nothing but get in the way, and are of an armor type that nothing is strong against and resists all status effects. One might think that the best route is just to kill the prophet, and there is wisdom in that, but if you smash the Pews you can get them as items. Each one is worth quite a bit of money, so this battle often boils down to risk versus reward.

When not calling down structural assaults, the Prophet shows the team how ripping his own eyes out allowed him to join the Illuminoply.

Boldy is unimpressed and fucks him up. A surprisingly short fight later (only six turns), the asshole is dead and nobody even hit Death's Door for once. Ambivalenz did catch the Lurgy, though, which means some downtime for the party Vestal as she recovers.

Boldy, meanwhile, copes in her own way.

 

[Sonic Speed Monkey]

Oh hell yeah, I'm a plague doctor. You have no idea how pleased this makes me. All going according to keikaku.

 

[c-no]

Moving forward, someone asked me once why I suggested to carry two keys. Answer: These fucking things.

Secret Rooms are hidden along corridors; you can find them manually but most of the time will discover them via scouting. Not every mission has any, but if you find them, congrats! They can have any of dozens of treasures. The most common and valuable, however, are Puzzling Trapezohedrons, which are worth 2500 Gold a pop. Rare Trinkets, like this Dismas' Head can also be found. If you don't have a Key to open the box, you don't get any of this good shit; just random treasure box loot. Carry fucking keys.

On that same mission, we ran into these mushroom heads that used the attack Groping Swipe on @BOLDYSPICY!, and I don't think I need to tell you the terrible joke that immediately went through my mind at this point, because it just went through yours as well. Thankfully Boldy avoided it and the team fought on.

@KidKitty's groove: Do not fuck with it.

Back in town, Something hilarious transpires, and Jaimas' God-Fearing Quirk (will only Pray for stress relief) is replaced by Witness (will do anything but Pray for stress relief). Surely unrelated and at the same time, @Cynical doesn't know how to poker face and develops the Bad Gambler trait. Truly this army of ours is a great analogy for the Farms.

A newcomer arrives in the form of @Randal Fragg, who is bad news. Despite his tattered appearance, Fragg is nothing less than the host of a powerful daemon; the results of a failed attempt to use him as a sacrifice. Mortal and fiend are now one, and Fragg exists as a sort of living penance, using his powerful gifts to besiege enemies. Correctly used, he is one of the most powerful characters in the game, but comes with several steep drawbacks: He costs by far the most to level up, and due to his nature, religious characters (thus far, @Ambivalenz, Jaimas, and @Burned Man) will not willingly party up with him. As such, it will be a little bit before Fragg gets proper use.

I'm pleased to announce as well that during a recent adventure, KidKitty got @CasualSeppuku staggeringly drunk, at which point she revealed her own tragic history - once a noble, her asshole husband offed himself over debts. Desperately needing to keep a roof over her head, she became a treasure hunter out of necessity - it's not like the dead were missing the gold. A number of mysteries of Seppuku have been solved as a result, such as where her snuffbox came from and why she has access to so much powerful booze.

Most of the crew is level 2 by now, except for a few holdouts and Fragg, who just joined. This time our party, consisting of Jaimas, @Ravelord, @c-no, and @Cynical, explores the Cove - easily the hardest of the first four dungeons. The enemies here are brutal, and the damage they do is high. They are also mostly Eldritch in creature type. Tons of obstacles lie in wait, and you damned well better carry additional herbs - the traps here apply a debuff that basically does not wear off this side of a ridiculous amount of time, and this is one of the only solutions. Enemies here often appear with support or in big groups, too - be aware.

...But it's not all bad news. These coral growths, if found, can, with herbs, be used to treat a hero. Doing so will permanently remove a negative quirk for free, even if it's become symptomatic! Even more rare, I found three of the damned things on this mission, two of which were in the same hallway! Using these, I was able to remove both Bad Gambler and Fear of Mankind from Cynical, without any cash spent.

These fishmen are deceptively dangerous. Pelagics are tough old bastards; low HP but high damage output and decent armor. Thankfully, Jaimas with gear hits hard enough to one-shot these assholes, and Ravelord can also punch them down pretty quick.

C-No, however, is the bane of their existence, often depleting their health by half or moreof two enemies at once in one round. If he gets the Hater of Eldritch trait, by the time he gets to level 6, he will be obliterating entire force groups.

We're making headway. The local brigands are till a pest but we're doing damned good at slicing our way through 'em.

Even Cynical gets in on this action.

Back in town, Seppuku is done with her treatments and Jaimas is going in to have the Red Plague treated. We advance onwards, hopefully working on leveling up the last of the holdouts.

I like how I got to wreck havok in the cove. Hope I killed a good number of those damn dirty fishmen. Can never trust and admire those deep ones. If things go right, then perhaps I could end up being OP against eldritch monsters but I feel I might just end up meeting my maker and be dead.

 

[Jaimas]

Another boss fight looms - this time, in the Weald.

This hideous creature was once an assosciate of the ancestor - and, it is rumored, @Shuu Iwamine's former mentor. At one point she and the ancestor were close - even lovers - and the two shared many secrets of brewing and creating potions and tinctures. In their drive to gain more power, however, they exploited the land until fungal blooms crept through the weald, gradually diminishing her once-proud intellect and eventually turning her into a ravening, cannibalistic creature that lives to sup upon human meat. The Ancestor abandoned her, and, like so many other problems he caused, we are now the ones who have to put her down.

With Shuu in rehab recovering from Scurvy, it falls upon @Cosmos, @Ravelord, @c-no, and @Solzhenitsyn to move forward and save the day. In this first room, we can already see the kind of crazy reverence going on here; severed right hands drape from the boughs of this tree, candles left around it like a shrine of religious import. She's close.

The Weald actually covers quite a bit more than just the woods around town; it's a sprawling mess of graveyards and mausoleums, tiny half-forgotten estates and things lost to time. One can only guess how long some of these structures have stood, and as the team hacks and shoots their way through the enemy ranks, we are left to wonder just how long this nightmare has been going on.

Once more, at camp, Ravelord tells the others of his tales of derring-do on the battlefield. The old man has much to teach for those who will listen, and he is confident that as bad as things look here, the situation could be infinitely worse. Taking solace from this (and the presence of Solz' friendly doggy), the group sleeps peacefully and prepares for the next morning, as Solz' dog guards the campsite.

Soon after the group runs intYOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS.

I have now run into this trio over a dozen times since I started this run. It never ends well for them and half the time all of them except the Bloodletter die on the first round, but these guys? They think they've got our number. Suffice to say, our old friends Bloodletter, Cutthroat, and Fusilier do about as well this time as they have the previous eleven times. The pricks.

The hag lies ahead and is both an incredibly challenging fight and a very easy one. She has relatively little HP (by boss standards) and isn't all that threatening on her lonesome, but her combat style can utterly fuck up your attempts to fight her in anything resembling an organized fashion, because she constantly fucks up your party order. Let's go over her tactics.

The first action she will always do is to throw someone in her pot. Once there, they will be essentially out of the fight and will take damage for every action taken by everyone, including the hag. You can free the character by killing the pot, but this doesn't break it - it just tips it over and bails the character out. The first thing the hag will do without a character in the pot is to throw another in. She will then spam stress-boosting attacks and weak if party-wide attacks while the character simmers away. She'll also drink some of the soup to heal herself.

The key I've found with this fight is to bring characters that can hit the back lines easily and hard. The Houndmaster, Man-at-Arms, Arbalest, Occultist, Highwayman, and Grave Robber are ideal. Avoid status characters like the Plague Doctor and Antiquarian - you need raw damage and you need to rush the hag down before she can get off additional attacks. Be careful with the Arbalest, by the way - anyone the Hag stuffs in the pot will be dumped unceremoniously on the front line when freed, where several characters aren't so hot.

Eventually we find our mark, and a fortuitous strike by C-No puts the hag down.

Ravelord is unceremoniously dumped out moments later, grateful to no longer be dinner.

Back at town, we learn that several characters have gotten over their issues and @BOLDYSPICY! has developed a drinking problem.

 

[Sonic Speed Monkey]

Former mentor is a fat ugly beastlady AND I come down with scurvy? I'm an edgy tragic backstory character just waiting to happen.

 

[Jaimas]

Former mentor is a fat ugly beastlady AND I come down with scurvy? I'm an edgy tragic backstory character just waiting to happen.

I dunno, part of her seems to have taken it in stride.

 

[Burned Man]

So the Bandits are basically just the Rival Party then. Don't be surprised if you find them in the Darkest Dungeon and have to put aside your differences to team up against the final boss.

 

[Jaimas]

So the Bandits are basically just the Rival Party then. Don't be surprised if you find them in the Darkest Dungeon and have to put aside your differences to team up against the final boss.

I swear to god, watch Boldy or Shuu draw those three idiots in Team Rocket style just for the sake of the gag.

Back to town, it's been a few weeks, and we finally have a new party member - a second Occultist has joined us, this one goodly @Techpriest. Whereas C-No is mostly an offensive unit, Techpriest is pure healing and support, using hexes to hinder enemies and pulling targets of opportunity closer. Good stuff, and a great example of how two characters of the same class can have almost no overlap.

He's immediately assigned to a party consisting of @Burned Man, @CasualSeppuku, and Jaimas to find goodies at the bottom of the ocean. However, before they go, I have to share this screenshot from the mission immediately beforehand:

During the last mission, @BOLDYSPICY! tried to use the psychedelic healing coral.

It only made her less of an alcoholic. She kept Tippler.

Back in the Cove, our new Level 0 Occultist is assigned a trio of Level 2s, and they begin to explore the depths. What will the fi--

Oh dear, sweet lord, no. God, no. Why?

All right, explanation is in order. This is a Shambler's Altar. Using a Torch here will summon arguably the game's hardest optional enemy and you will be locked in to a fight to the death. It's a terrifying abomination, capable of tearing even the heaviest of parties to shreds if they are not careful. Normally, you will never see this monster unless you are stupid enough to shove a torch in.

Unless you are at Zero light. If you are at zero light, you can encounter this fucking thing. it's about 1% chance normally, but increases to 8% in Veteran dungeons and %12 on hard mode. Also if one of your team has Dark Temptation, they might be stupid enough to trigger it without your consent, so be aware.

Look, people, this is like the Armageddon spell in Ultima. Some shit you just gotta do.

So emerging from the warp is this satanic nightmare. Before attempting to fight something like this, be forewarned that this is one of the most difficult enemies in the entire game. It is very easy to lose heroes here and you are almost guaranteed to have at least one resolve check. Do not go into this fight ill-prepared, and better yet, don't go into it at all if you can help it.

Any time he shows up he gains a surprise round. If you summoned him yourself, he'll automatically bring the torchlight to zero and will prevent you from raising it. If you somehow escape from it, congratulations: The very next random encounter will be this guy again. And so on. Until he murders you or you kill him. It's like those fucking Kecleons in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. He will almost always go last, but he will use party-wide attacks including bleed and blight causers. He also shakes your formation up like crazy. The bulk of the threat comes from his two little buddies, who he will summon repeatedly as needed and which get stronger and stronger as they fight and do twelve fucktons of stress damage. The general gist is that you have to pound this guy hard, killing him before he can do too much to you, and clearing away the claws often. We can't do either right now.

...It doesn't stop us.

Defying common sense, logic, and pretty much everything else, the Shambler falls to our team of idiots .

The reason to fight the Shambler is here: When it dies, it can drop the ultra-rare Ancestral trinkets. These are insanely strong and can give massive buffs, but they also increase the stress you take. This one, the Ancestor's bottle, boosts max HP by a walloping 25% and boosts stress by 10%. An awesome tradeoff.

Hilariously, the group did not need a resolve check. Not once. Seppuku came dangerously close but in the end, nobody broke morale. Congratulations, everyone, even when I did something that had the tacit implication that it would get someone killed if I fucked up, nobody died or went insane.

Quoth Burned Man: "Feels good, man."

Back at town, supplies and provisions are half price this week, which is good because we have a shitload of upgrades to buy. Weapon and armor upgrades are vital to increasing your combat potential and without them you're fucked. With this, we're at less of a risk of overspending.

 

[Burned Man]

Feels good, man.
The bigger the beast, the greater the glory.

 

[Techpriest]

I bet my Occultist did nothing useful that entire fight

 

[Jaimas]

I bet my Occultist did nothing useful that entire fight

Repeatedly marked the boss for CasualSeppuku and healed Jaimas back from the brink twice. He actually was pretty shockingly helpful considering he was completely not built for offense and was level zero.

 

[c-no]

I first killed Tyce summoning tentacles (that may of actually violated him) and then I kill a hag with my own shank. Was the Hag ADF or is ADF in the Warrens?

 

[Jaimas]

I first killed Tyce summoning tentacles (that may of actually violated him) and then I kill a hag with my own shank. Was the Hag ADF or is ADF in the Warrens?

The Hag was Greta. ADF lies below, in the Warrens.

 

[Jaimas]

Speaking of the Warrens, due to some bad planning, a few of the bosses have momentarily escaped our wrath. Five in particular, who will be fought as time and personnel allow. But for now we need resources and equipment, so let's send a team of @Ambivalenz, @Shuu Iwamine, Jaimas, and @Ol'_Slag into Veteran Warrens.

Veteran Mode is where things stop being remotely friendly. You enter a brand new realm filled with enemies much stronger than before that hit harder and have higher stats, and if you don't keep pace they're going to murder you. No longer can you afford to dick around; the game is done being polite and you're going to now run into harder beasts than you ever did before. Palette-swapped stronger versions of old enemies, however, are the least of your worries.

New enemies start to appear - none more loathsome than the Ghoul. These are the toughest common encounter you will meet and they're everywhere on Veteran mode. Uniquely they're also one of the only Unholy monsters you can bleed, and they have everything from party-wide devastating stress induces to a ranged stun to a strong melee attack. A high starting protection also means they're a tough nut to crack. for many players, going into Veteran mode is a gigantic difficulty spike because they don't expect how hard things are going to get.

This pig-centaur-knight is the toughest of the Warrens' monsters, packing high defense and a devastating strike if he can actually get to the back row. Fear it. Thankfully he's somewhat inaccurate for a swine, so high dodge characters can often escape unscathed.

Even our favorite trio of morons is back with an upgrade of sorts, switching from Brigands to the tougher Outlaws. Same overall gear and tactics, but they're harder hitting and have new moves now.

Keep your eyes peeled for these little statues in Ruins and Warrens. If you find one, using Holy Water on it allows you to shed negative quirks, same as if you had used Herbs on the Psychedelic Healing Coral.

Later, these Gargoyles provide some tough opposition; they have strong attacks and high defense but almost no speed or HP.

Soonafter, a call comes in. Tyce has returned, and he's stronger than ever.

I entertained a delegation of experts from overseas, eager to plumb the depths of their knowledge and share with them certain techniques and alchemical processes I had to found to yield wondrous and terrifying results. Having learned all I could from my visiting guests, I murdered them as they slept.

We learn more of what created Tyce, and we know his Skeleton Army is growing. We must stop him. This time, however, we have the perfect counter to his nonsense in Jaimas, and we are prepared to plumb the depths of his base.

In recognition of his new level, Jaimas has adopted red armor, to match his teammates, @CasualSeppuku, @Ambivalenz, and @KidKitty. Within the darker, more terrifying ruins, the group has their work cut out for them. One might conceivably think Kidkitty is a liability, since his attacks mostly do bleed, but his ability to buff the party and remove stress is always handy, and not everything down here is undead.

Not everything changes. Jaimas still is fully capable of demolishing these Skellies by shitposting.

At the campsite that night, Kid digs deeper: What motivates a knight like Jaimas to spend his time here, in the most god-forsaken pit in the world? The answer is regret. Once a squire to a great knight, Jaimas left to go to war, only to find that the war came home with him. Not willing to force the horrors he endured on those he loved, and unable to properly leave the battlefield, Jaimas came here, forsaking what he once was. Jaimas is surprisingly strident about it.

Tyce's forces have grown stronger in the depths of the ruins; they are now much harder hitting. Deal with the Crossbowmen quickly, or you will pay the price, especially when they crit. But these fiends do not stop us, and as the group approaches Tyce's lair, the sounds of shitty techno music can be heard even from a great distance. He has grown stronger since the last time he was butchered by the party. Unfortunately, company has come.

Infuriated with the fact that we just his grave rave, Tyce's veteran version of himself takes to the battle.

Make no mistake; this version of Tyce is not to be fucked with. Stronger, party-wide attacks and the much tougher skeletons, paired with almost double his earlier version's health make Tyce a noticably tougher opponent to face. Ultimately the strategy is the same, but you will find your stress building ridiculously fast and his HP just refusing to go down fast enough. This is around where the Marker party really starts to come into its own.

Tyce's melee attacks are also greatly improved; expect big damage, especially if he scores a critical. He can also induce Bleed far more reliably. All in all, this was a much harder fight, and almost pushed the party to the breaking point, but inevitably the group managed to bring this bastard low once more.

Kill this time went to Ambivalenz. Score.