Uukrul: That Bloody Bat

Part of the Fate of Heroes series - spoilers ahead!

With Thurazz in (slow) pursuit, Balthazarr, Nabirye and Kebiroz rush deeper into the large cavern, fighting past the troglodytes and slaying an evil wizard residing within. That wizard held another adventuring party captive for "experimentation", so the team set them free and were joined by Andraste the war priest, and the mages Helga the short and Duke Edmund the mad who openly stated he wanted to take Uukrul's power as his own.

Before they could even step out of the room, the giant bat that had killed Lazybum in one hit flapped into the room and began shooting poison and plague (out of its ass I imagine, since bats don't really spit). Taking a direct hit to the face, Kebiroz succumbed to the giant bat poop horribly while the rest fled for their lives.

Balthazarr didn't escape unscathed though, as the poop had infected his wounds from the earlier fight. Now "plagued", he began coughing and wheezing and soon the elderly Duke Edmund found himself "plagued" as well! Unfortunately the Duke didn't have the warrior's fortitude and after a few steps died in a fit of wheezing, puking and soiling himself.

That bloody bat then attacked again, but this time Balthazarr manages to hit it critically and slays the flying fiend!

But I just wanted some fruits!

Uukrul: A Lack of Agility

Part of the Fate of Heroes series - spoilers ahead!

Behind a locked grate and up a hole in the ceiling the team encounters a large band of thieves who are very annoying to fight since they are good at evading AND have a habit of stealing gear from the party mid combat. Like Balthazarr's newish sword. From his hand.

The combat screen.

During the skirmish Null25 is knocked down a pit and breaks his neck, which is annoying given all the training he had gained. Still, with the battle won and the thieves trove taken Balthazarr finds his replacement in Ruby the eager novice back at the guild.

Tired of training Balthazarr decides it's time to try cross the massive cavern on that murderous floor beneath the hermit's safe zone. It is an ill omen that the first thing they run into when doing so is a rejuvenated and powered up Thurazz - now an orcish lord, having been granted unholy powers by Uukrul himself!

The squad is no match for Thurazz's new found strength and have to flee deeper into the cavern. Unfortunately Ruby is too slow and is caught by Thurazz's spiked whip. With a massive heave, he flung her back into melee range and exploded her head with swing of his grizzly metal hammer.

Uukrul: Bling is King

Part of the Fate of Heroes series - spoilers ahead!

Training in the upper halls against rodents, dogs, scorpions, giant ants and crabs (yeah, wtf) proves most useful especially as the team finds previously unexplored areas and keys to open a few of the locked grates. As they progress into the hall of orcs, they once again run into Thurazz and his minions - thrice!

The first time they are forced to flee, but on the second it is Thurazz who needs to run as Null25 wounds him severely. The third time they find his base and, despite the orc chieftain's skill with a poisoned dagger, Balthazarr defeats him in close quarters. Nabirye also begins using her healing hand power on enemies, which proves to be effective as an attack - limited only by her own health, since using it for good or ill drains her of life.

Most importantly they finally find the temple district and magic circle which lets Kebiroz and Null25 earn more rings that enable stronger spells (coz bling is king yo). Kebiroz gets her chance to shine by turning the multitudes of undead in the tombs below the temple - forcing many to flee from combat. Her prayers of healing also keep the party alive just long enough to escape the very same tomb as starvation began to set in.

How the heck do they know that?

Balthazarr makes it a point to load up on rations before their next delve, and thanks to the surplus of gold they all get some better equipment to boot.

Uukrul: The First Task

Part of the Fate of Heroes series - spoilers ahead!

While resting at the hermit's zone, the paladin Lazybum and sorceress Sarina who were already resting here join the team, and Sagaris asks them all to retrieve his black rod from the next floor down which he warns is far more dangerous (because apparently increased pressure makes things tough/evil I guess).

The fully powered squad heads down stairs and promptly gets owned. Pluribus is acidified by a rancid mold, Ila gets devoured by a giant spider, Yen Sid fails to turn "the happiest zombies ever" that tear him and Sarina apart and Lazybum gets one shotted by a giant bat who does 90(!) points of damage in a single strike.

So happy!

Balthazarr barely makes it back to Sagaris' safe zone in defeat. Clearly he needs a team with more training so using the super handy nearby teleporter (provided you remember the name of the one you want to warp to) returns to town to assemble a new squad, composed of the war priestess Kebiroz, Nabirye the hunter paladin, and Null25 the pk mage.

The first task is: Training!!!

Sunset Six: Exclusion Zone

[Part of my Sunset Six story.]

We've finally come to the last two tests of Worship which I feel are the worst from an organizational stand point. In the Test of Festivals you must again sacrifice things to gods (seven this time) to make them happy, one at a time. To work out what things exactly you need a partner to perform a quick ritual at a properly prepared altar (eg. Isis requires seven glass torches to be lit nearby while Bastet needs 21 jugs of milk). Satisfying them is a percentage based on the number of players who successfully pleased the same god in the period of one in-game hour before and one in-game hour you did. If the number is less than three you gain NOTHING.

To this end there is a player made Festivals guild in game that holds scheduled festivals every weekend, one god a day sort of thing. Unfortunately due to my timezone and unwillingness to wake up at 4:55 AM to participate, I'm kinda excluded from this but it does look pretty cool.

A festival in full swing. I'm not there. :(

The final test I haven't yet talked about is the Path of the Pilgrim. In it, you must form a troop of seven and march across the land to visit the very far apart holy pilgrim shrines and give tithes to each to gain points. Good time to mention that every time I've been mentioning a number of players for the Worship tests, they are EXACT. You cannot have less or more. It's worse in this test because you need the SAME SEVEN each time you want to gain points. Changing members results in points going back to zero. Each week, the group with the most points passes. Once again, Jeromai from Why I Game has more experience running this test so I invite you to read his post.

Awesome. Now I just need six other people.

With that concludes all the tests I have access to at the moment, and  now it's time to celebrate with a glass of milk!

Clearly KebiRoz spiked it. >.<

Sunset Six: Acrobatic Mechanics

[Part of my Sunset Six story.]

The school of Body has perhaps the easiest initiation task of simply running around and finding 35 different plant species in 20 minutes, but that is followed by one of the most time consuming tests around: the Test of the Acrobat. Basically you are given seven facets of one move and are then sent out into the world to learn and teach from others to master -every move available-. You can only teach moves you have seven facets in, and can only learn one facet of each move from everyone you meet.

That list scrolls a LOT.

It's actually worse than that though, because of a random hidden attribute that each character has - you simply cannot learn from some people and vice versa. Sometimes even those who are master level teachers to you still are unable to teach anything because the particular facet they teach (only 1 of the 7 per move) might be one you already have. The solution?

Acro with everyone!

Similar to that is how the mechanics skill works in game. All the automated machinery can be tuned up to level 7 (making them run faster or produce things more efficiently), but the luck factor of the hidden attribute per person, per machine exists again meaning some things you -can- tune up and others you cannot. The 20 minute cool down after any tune-up attempt also helps prevent "tune spamming".

Whee, the only thing I've been able to tune so far.

A long time player named Lazybum actually told me that for his machines he gets a bunch of eight or so people around to try tune things for two hours. Any machines that don't make it to level 5 he tears down and rebuilds. Contrary to his name, I get the feeling he actually is very productive and has a ton of resources at his disposal.