Wildermyth: The Silent Pit

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Despite the main force being defeated at the wall, the Cocks are informed by Lady Kamea that other groups of gorgons have made it through and are specifically targeting libraries. As they go about securing these sites Barbara finds a magical tapestry in one and upon infusing it, opens a temporary portal to the bug realm! They slay the critters and manage to save Sir Igwane from their dimension, who despite being very battered and used agrees to aid them as he is still loyal to Lady Kamea.

At the grand library they slaughter many more gorgons, including a type that makes its allies explode (WTF). Leading this group is the Salt Witch, a massive gorgon who manages to escape the team by casting a spell that forcefully ages Lillo, Macko and Pump into their weakened, geriatric years. Fortunately Barbara realizes that it was a map they were after: a map to the Silent Pit where they can supposedly awaken Cthulhu their deep god.

It falls to Barbara, Iris, Sir Igwane, Macius and Moleleen (Ames' skilled apprentice) to face them there and despite a never ending swarm of tentacle summoning gorgons and the Salt Witch itself the team is never in any real danger as they slowly and calmly fight off all the attackers while destroying the pillars holding up the place. In most cases the pillar stones were used as projectile weapons by the two mystics, Barbara and Moleleen. The team escape the temple collapse, saving the lands once more.

Note: As the "random" events are getting repetitive now that I've seen them numerous times I think that's it for my Wildermyth playthrough.

Wildermyth: Gorgons Return

[Part of the Cursed story line]

As the others are dealing with Vulture bits, Macko and Milly meet the former's estranged mother who convinces them to donate resources for her new business. Soon after the two join Lillo, Macius, and Pump to easily wipe out some bandits before investigating a new batch of petrified people. They soon discover that the gorgons are coming back in big numbers, with even more wildlife going crazy this time including gigantic bears!

After an ambush in the forest where it seems gorgons are common now, Milly's prayers to divine the source of this foe is answered by the turtle god - across the ancient great wall to the West. It also mentions the gorgon's main force hasn't crossed it yet - all these ones are just scouts. In exchange for the information the turtle god transforms Milly into a turtle and takes her away as another of his turtle friends.

With no time to waste her allies race to the wall picking up Iris and Barbara on the way, reaching it just before the gorgons main force arrives. Luckily the catapults are in good working order which obliterates the attackers. The only scary part is when a bogmoor pulls Macko off the wall with its tongue, but he survives the ordeal. In fact he is more hurt when he later discovers his mother never started that business at all, and instead gambled away all he had given her.

Wildermyth: Suicidal Dragon

[Part of the Cursed story line]

With many lands aflame Trynne recruits rookie Lillo to help douse the fires while Levyel and Jainlof's crew seek out the dragon's new lair. During this process Jainlof accidentally frees a frog god who turns him into a frog face and Raine is "cursed" by a lizard priest to have useless baby wings.

Eventually they locate their target at a volcano and fight their way in, past fireball throwing lizard scum to challenge the dragon and its elite guard at the summit. Luckily the silly beast enjoys triggering the free attacks of the party (everyone had some form of auto-overwatch and envenomed weapon except Jainlof) and basically defeats itself!

After murdering the last of the elite guard the remaining lizards withdraw and the team of dragon slayers return as heroes! Unfortunately for Jainlof, he cannot undo the frog god's magic and soon turns into a bogmoor. His axe guard hesitate too much during the transformation which lets him escape into the woods.

Dark Souls II: The Shrine of Amana

Tales from Dark Souls - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

While the castle climb was pretty straight forward, the Shrine of Amana is around ten times more annoying. It's basically a large underground lake with some shallow parts you can walk through and many sudden drops which instantly kill you. There are lizard men who lurk under the water but at times are put to sleep by the song of friendly sirens (who stop singing when you get close to them).

There are also a lot of spell casters that enjoy sniping and halberd guards who pack a punch. After a number of failed forays I decide to counter snipe with my lightning short bow (it was in my pack, actually a lot of things are given you can't sell anything). This made the place much more survivable. I also found a full set of Drake keeper armor, the same type worn by the guys guarding the ugly siren. Since I quite like the cape I decide it will be my new "scout armor", relegating my Havel suit for heavy combat areas.

Gold people are members of the Sunlight Brotherhood!

At one bonfire surrounded by poisonous turtles, I am joined by Felicia the Brave (again) as well as ****LeDore (player) of the Brotherhood of Sunlight. Solaire's group! Not only do they lead me through a particularly nasty section of casters and knock the invader Peculiar Kindular into the watery abyss, the also help me fight a giant armored frog. Way scarier than the cute variety. Like the spider queen this one only takes damage to its face and manages to devour Felicia early in the fight.

That's one creepy frog...

Fortunately ****LeDore's magic is really strong as he basically kills the frog demon, which opens the path deeper into the mountain. Thanks ****LeDore!

Dark Souls II: Gear Shift

Tales from Dark Souls - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

After getting whooped so much I decided it was time to go through the "learning" part of combat again, intentionally fighting the local forest enemies to get a better handle on controls and timing. Didn't bother relearning parry though. I'm quite upset that they changed the timing for that. This time around I'm opting for blocking and backstabbing! The results seem to pay off since I soon find myself in the chamber of the forest boss: the last giant!

Which is incorrect, given how many other giants I'm going to run into later.

Fortunately he's a very straight forward boss. Just avoid his stamping feet with stamina management. While his soul is not one of the "great four", he does drop a key for me which lets me access other parts of the forest ruin, and during my suicide scouting runs (where I just go to pick stuff up) I find this neat bastard sword. It easily outclasses my broadsword in damage and reach so it becomes my new favorite weapon. I go back to Majula to upgrade it a little and notice that the hag merchant is here now. Licia (the evil cleric) too, who offers to "shift" a path using her miracle powers for the low price of 2000 souls.

I figure she might as well since I'd eventually need to go wherever that leads, and it leads to a dark forest full of poison using assassin hollows! Wonderful! As if that's not bad enough, I also get invaded by Forlorn who soundly thrashes me with his great sword. I did manage to defeat a giant frog at the base of a cave though. At least that's something. :P

Dark Souls: Covenant of Hollows

Tales from Dark Souls - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

While farming some giant leeches in the swamp (yes, eww) I revisited a great tree that sat there and thanks to signs left by other players, found two secret passages leading to a drop called the Great Hollow. Because we weren't low enough yet? So I traversed the vertical maze of winding branches (inside the tree), slew more cute froggies, ran passed a colony of shroom people and finally at the very bottom, got out onto beautiful beach with a bonfire at the serene Ash Lake. Man, such a Warriors of the Wind moment.

It's so beautiful down here.

On the opposite bank was a hydra and due to it's close proximity to the bonfire I figured now was the time to learn how to fight it. Getting up close was the simplest - made easier as more and more heads were removed. Still a long fight, but not very difficult now. Hidden further along the shore was an even bigger surprise: a black dragon. Wordlessly he asked that I join his covenant. I said yes! Of course, I found out later that this was a more PvP one. Oops!

I speak only with my mind.

Anyway, the lake was a dead end so I had to climb all the way back up the tree and back up through Blighttown to get back to Firelink Shrine. This journey was getting a lot easier. Laurentius and Griggs, the two I had rescued before, were now here. Griggs offered to teach me magic (but my INT was too low) while Laurentius offered lessons in Pyromancy. Since that school of magic had no requirements, I learned as much as I could!

I also spoke to Petrus to rejoin the Way of the White Covenant (since you can only be a member of one at a time, it deactivated the PvP one) and learned his buddies had come and gone, and he was now quite worried about their fate. Unlike most normal quest givers in other games though, he drops absolutely zero hints on who they were or where they were headed.

Box 2: A Less Super Adventure

Part of my Explorer of Tyria journal - you can find the rest here!

The first time the Super Adventure Box came out I had a total blast doing it. Now that it has returned with World 2, I'm finding it less fun than before - probably for the same reasons echoing throughout the forum. It's good to see that the creator fixed up some places that were causing major headaches after a few days though, and the infinity continue coin is a good gold sink which I happily sunk gems into. Definitely "pay to win" or at least, "pay to win faster" (which I think embodies regular "pay to win" anyway).

After the somewhat irritating level of the Frog King's swamp, players venture forth into the way more irritating rapids (knockback land - toned down), pain cliffs (insta dart death land) and storm top mountains (annoying ice slidey grind land). I went through on infantile mode first with the happy clouds to observe what horrors awaited me, followed my normal mode which was only slightly more troublesome but WAY too long in some bits that seemed designed purely to irritate the player, like having a mini-boss atop a slidey ice hill.  You have to run up and evade his boulders and then whack him. Getting hit knocks you back down the long slope. On paper that's fine. But said mini-boss has so much HP that you'll probably do just that, over and over for 10 minutes. Difficult? No. Annoying? Yes. Fun? What do you think?

At least one of the long maps has a shortcut somewhere, but the irony is you have to clear half that level first to get an item before you can use said shortcut. If you think that's bad, there's a part where you need to purchase an item with 400 baubles to proceed through the level. There's no warning before reaching it, and I didn't find 400 baubles in the zone prior to reaching that point so you'd have to either be lucky or informed before attempting it, otherwise you'll hit a brick wall (frozen, actually) that will curb your fun level like an anvil dropped into the sea.

Lastly comes Tribulation Mode, which exists purely to create rage within the player. One wrong step and you die. Everything is out to kill you. The rocks, the flowers, the floor... everything. Fun in Tribulation Mode is finding the right path instead of grindy mechanics, and it's super cool. Despite my strange liking for this mode though, the very nature of latency is what is stopping me from enjoying it fully. I don't mind dying if I run into traps, but when I jump to the correct spots I expect to survive - and I do... 50% of the time. This is what annoys me most, and probably what will prevent me from completing tribulation. It sure would have stopped me from completing IWBTG. Here's an example of someone else experiencing this pain.

Story wise there's some evil, 4th wall breaking, AI in the box modelled after Moto (ala Tron, the new one) that wants to affect things on the outside. Not much more yet about this, but it's good that it is just more than a simple asuran VR game. My only issue with it is it could mean that the box is permanently destroyed after world 4 where as I'd rather that it became a permanent fixture in Rata Sum after world 4. *shrug* Would be a shame to throw out all this work right? Oh yeah, and Scarlet is still invading in the background randomly but she's mostly insignificant for this arc.

In SAB, you grant the genie's wishes!

My very last concern is in the future of SAB. Could worlds 3 and 4 begin to introduce forced group content, which in my opinion is the worst design in the universe (like the aetherblade dungeon)? And if so, can the infinity continue coin negate it? This is the creator's response to someone who was having problems attempting things solo:

"This is as designed. Dungeons are designed for up to 5 people. If you choose to solo a dungeon you should expect this sort of thing. At least that’s how I look at it. Maybe because SAB doesn’t look like a dungeon there are different expectations? We did clearly communicate when you enter a world that 5 are recommended."

GW2 Dungeons sure. Five player 8-bit games? Unlikely.

Aria Reservoir: the Core of Evil

Part of the journals from Wizardry Online! You can view the rest here!

Seems there's something happening behind the scenes in this kingdom as Quark's team and I encountered a strange party of "evil doers" in the lower core level of the Aria Reservoir. This floor features larger hallways mainly patrolled by more cursed coins, while the main spacious "dance hall" is patrolled by petryfing shadows who are easily enough avoided if you put your mind to it. It is best divided into three sections:

A Tale of Knights Reception:
The first barrier was not far into the second floor at all, held by a riddle of four knights and a foolish king. While I could defeat each knight individually I needed Quark's help to beat them all together. Once out of the way we were allowed entry to the main area.

The Petrifying Dance Floor:
Taking up the largest area on this level, it is pretty easy to navigate if you stick to the walls to avoid the lurkers. Stairs down on either side lead to either spider or frog infested sewers, both of which we ended up harvesting for reagents with Jaina's help (Quark's thief friend). The frogs were more dangerous - definitely evade their poison tounge attack! Also within their lairs were items that needed to be "mirrored" then given to statues in the dance hall itself to access the next area - defended by Shadow Dancer zombies. Despite their name they still very much lacked dexterity and were easy prey for my spear.

Back Area:
Ran into the masked aristocrat Arahawi here and he's very much as untrustworthy as Sel first said. Still he had a potion of magic negation which we required to access the last barrier, but not only was it protected by dark magic but also by four minotaurs! Fortunately Porkul and I could spear them through the door that they were too fat to fit through. Once within the barrier we encountered the strange party I spoke of earlier composed of a patchwork giant, an elven vampire, a masked fencer and the same sorceress from Deltis Keep, who seemed to be their leader.

Apparently they were giving out Beta-keys!

They didn't deem us worth the trouble of fighting though and instead the vampire let loose his "pets" on us - more bullspawn. After the battle the four had fled to parts unknown and we were left to return to town and report in our findings. On a lighter note Quark has made me an honorary member of his currently 7 strong union called the "Porkul-pickers". From those that I've met I think you'll like them, they seem to be Dragonarm material.

-Caanon

Bounty Hunting in the Caligrase Sewers

Part of the journals from Wizardry Online! You can view the rest here!

Received our first task from Dwark the dwarf, guild master in Illfalo Port to hunt down the Black Rose bandits in Caligrase Sewers. There were many other adventurers there upon our arrival, mostly new recruits like ourselves from the looks of it. The area is more or less in four parts, accessible in order.

Zone 1: Entryway
Slow moving zombies and large beetles predominantly lurk here, all of whom are easily avoided. After pressing four buttons the hall opened up allowing further exploration after defeating 5 slow but poisonous zombies.

Zone 2: Dark Halls
Highwaymen and bandits patrol the deeper halls, but again they follow predictable paths and are easy to bypass. Access to the next hall was blocked by a large bug catching chamber. Had to clean it out before being able to progress. Should note Thanam got himself trapped in one of the dark rooms here with a bunch of zombies. Fortunately his traps and knife sorted them out, which seemed to unlock the exit door.

Zone 3: Bridge over Drains
With stronger zombies lurking below and traps on the bridge this was a bit tougher. The high road was ultimately easier to navigate, but I needed to backtrack to search the lower drains for pieces of a lever in the muck. Giant frogs and what looked like a werewolf also lurked down here. Did not want to tangle with that for sure.

Zone 4: End of Circuit
After the bridge was a small kobold camp. Fast moving critters but again easily outrun. Entrance to the Black Rose lair was not far past this but their four man band put up a good fight when all together. Was forced to fight them separately, especially Black Rose herself (?). She looked very much like a man. There was also a beacon to return to town nearby and a path back to the Entryway.

She was quite scary indeed.

With that task complete we returned to town to report in. Not a very profitable run however. I think the elf will have to sleep in the stables tonight.

-Caanon