Xenonauts: Tarantula

[Part of the Xenonauts story]

With the 60 scientists keen on getting their hands on live captives samples, the soldiers are equipped with gas grenades which they use to nab a lizardman grunt at the cost of Ray Santos and Lily Shen as you need to be kinda close to throw said grenades. Alas the grunt knows very little so a second base "Tarantula" is established South America just in time to shoot down an alien corvette!

This one is literally inhabited by bullet resistant terminator robots and odd floating disc drones that kill Commander's old buddy, Central as well as Sherrif Val and Brenda Catatonic. It's only at this point that I realize corpses can be looted for potentially superior firepower! Also, to combat this new metal threat the Xenonauts now deploy a hunter car during away missions. This machine gun mounted killing machine takes the slots of two soldiers but it is well worth it as now the squad just sits tight until the car clears the map while locating the UFO. Pity it can't capture it though.

It's worth the two soldier slots on the drop ship.

The aliens response is to conduct a terror raid at Paramaribo, led by lizardmen who are now joined by reapers (who are basically XCOM Chrysalids) who move quick, kill in melee and turn their kills into impregnated zombies. Once the zombie is killed a new reaper pops out of it. It's a vicious cycle! Thanks to the hunter car (which runs out of ammo) and a good firing line the Xenonauts triumph and even manage to capture a lizardman leader!

Decluttering Day 21: "Hitman" duck.

Dragon's Dogma: Fool's Errand

Adventures of Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

After what happened last time I decide it's best to adventure outside the capital for awhile, and Madeline the busty merchant decides to tag along. She is unlucky as we run into night-time drake with an army of goblins encounter again, and since last time going for the goblins let the drake breath fire on our charge this time I went for the flying wyrm. It was a faster victory, but not fast enough as by the time I turned around Madeline was gone, abducted by the goblins.

Frustrated I decided to head back to Bitterblack Isle and hunt Death, because I found I had a "god arrow" in my pack. It was tough going fighting or running past the stronger foes such as greater goblins, hell hounds, giant saurians, and a dragon with a heart on it's back this time around. We did find the spirit though and the god arrow hurt it bad (and killed everything else in the area) but it wasn't enough to destroy it.

Well, this was a bad idea.

I was foolish enough to pursue the reaper into the sewers where I thought a run and gun tactic would probably work given enough time. A randomly spawning elder ogre ended that idea mid-chase and while managed to kill it, Rose, Lily and Ingvald were all caught by Death's "sleep AoE" lantern. All I could do was grab Rose and sprint out of the way as Death's scythe cleaved the other two in half with a single swing. After getting away I teleported out of there and back to Cassardis.

Dragon's Dogma: The Demon of Indecision

Adventures of Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

I don't suppose you just want to talk?

The city is home to more of those really tough evil mercs, as well as flying strigoi who are fricking tough and have an unbreakable grab attack which depends on a team mate freeing you. Lily almost fell prey to this. The main attraction though was the large demon residing in the grand hall at the end. As the end boss of Bitterblack Isle he has a whole slew of abilities, the scariest of which is one where he banishes people - as he does to Yennefer!

Fortunately we find a new knight ally in the form of Ingvald who is pretty decent as a second tank, but what really kills the demon are a pair of rusty daggers I found, not because of the piss poor damage but because of the slowing debilitation with each strike that connects and as one can imagine, dual wielding daggers usually ends up with a lot of strikes - eventually making the demon move in slow motion. It's pretty epic when we finally slay him.

Turns out he was once Olra's main squeeze, and an arisen to boot - until the dragon offered him a choice which he couldn't decide upon. His uncertainty eventually turned him into a demon, and Olra is pleased that he is now free from his suffering. This doesn't clear the island of monsters though, on the contrary - without the demon around they seem to all have gotten tougher!? Not that it's my problem though - with my task here done we warp back to Gran Soren. I'm now on level 57.

Dragon's Dogma: A Tale of Women

Adventures of Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

With my Port Crystals in place Captain Mercedes joins the team for a brief night patrol of the Shadow Fort, and of course we run into huge trouble in the pitch black forest. An army of goblins assaults us from all directions, combined with a drake from the air. I do my best to keep the goblins off her but she is downed by dragon fire and needs to be returned for medical attention after the combat.

Fortunately our next escort mission, to take the tavern keeper Inez on a short adventure is far more successful since she doesn't opt to go far, or to a very dangerous place. Once she is back to safety I am feeling pretty confident with the strength of the team so we return to Bitterblack Isle and we make our way back to the Bich and his undead dragon. This time Rose is using the same crazy spells it throws at us, Yennefer is whipping it with lightning, and Lily is tanking better since I'm silencing and poisoning the Bich with specially prepared arrows.

That's one p0wn3d bich.

Victory comes at last, and opens another shortcut back to Olra and another route further down which we follow into a flooded keep with stronger phantoms and problematic giant saurians who we need to sprint past, right into really tough evil mercs!? I have to abuse their leash mechanism to kill them. We have another encounter with Death in a sewer but once more outrun the giant spirit. We do have to fight a tough living armor afterwards and destroying that opens a door leading to an ancient city which feels so familiar for some reason.

Dragon's Dogma: Settlements

Adventures of Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

After getting Bich slapped last time, we return to Cassardis where the local chief Adaro joins us to settle a few matters including catching a local thief which is easy, helping Valmiro - a wannabe adventurer who is also a moron, followed by taking out a Saurian nest in the well. I suppose if Valmiro's been drinking lizard pee all this time it might explain his behavior. Anyway, after clearing them out it's off to a bandit fortress to retrieve another slate for the Wyrm hunt investigation.

Adaro is killed by a sniper on the approach, so we reciprocate by murderizing the entire place and looting everything we can. We then take a quick detour to the Shadow Fort which is failing in doing its job of "keeping goblins and other monsters out" since it has fallen to those very same goblins. Fortunately they and their cyclops buddies are no match for the team now, and we force them to flee back into the tunnels they dug under the fort.

Siege weapons are fun!

A quick warp back to Gran Soren (which I'm glad they included because walking is nice, but time consuming) and I am asked by the local bald rich bastard named Fournival for aid in evicting a family who cannot pay the rent in one of his properties. I manage to convince the wife and the boy Pip, by simply out parkouring him - but the husband Jasper is a resilient S.O.B. Lily suggests that we simply purchase the house for them outright which would leave us 80k out of pocket but since I've got millions of gold at this stage I figure why not, just to get another quest out of the way. Needless to say, all parties are happy with the result.

Dragon's Dogma: The Bich

Adventures of Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Since the altar is closer to Cassardis, I decide to trek back there and recruit the towering Nord gal Juliana and take the team back to Bitterblack Isle with Olra's help. We are much stronger this time around so I decide to take on that Cockatrice we ran past previously. Keeping with good D&D, the damn bird has a petrifying breath and Rose and Juliana are stoned midfight just as a huge black boss wolf shows up out of nowhere, because that's a thing here. Randomly spawning bosses.

I manage to cure Rose in time but Juliana is shattered by the big bad wolf before both beasts are laid low. Despite her loss we press on and recruit another ranger deeper in named Monterrey before taking on the giant beholder that stopped us before. Not so this time as we have enough ranged attacks and raw power (from Lily) to take it out. This opens a shortcut back to the surface (ala Dark Souls) and a path deeper into an underground fort with undead.

What made it challenging is our good buddy Death showed up again, meaning the team had to sprint through all the scum to avoid his one hit kill scythe, right into elder ogres and a tough minotaur type thing. Fortunately the spirit vanished at that point and let us handle these tough fights properly. There's also an undead dragon we have to run past later but it doesn't matter since it catches up to us at the next boss fight with its partner, the Lich Bishop - or Bich for short.

This is probably not going to end well...

This floating Bich proves to be way too tough as he summons tornadoes and other BS magics on top of being able to resurrect the dragon at will so once again we have to warp out of there, promising Olra will get that Bich next time.

Dragon's Dogma: Many Heads, All Hungry

Adventures of Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

This is not how I planned my day to start!

It's a good thing I literally sleep in full armor because I awake to the encampment being attacked by a hydra! My team quickly joins the soldiers including Ser Berne and Captain Mercedes in the defense. It takes a bit of doing, but cutting off one head is enough to send the rest squirming back to wherever it came from. Captain Mercedes wants to seize this opportunity to bring the head to Gran Soren as tribute to the Duke, so we set off with the remainder of her troops through a harpy and bandit infested mountain path.

With my squad taking point, we suffer no casualties at all. Upon reaching the capital Ser Mercedes and her company ditch us at the gate so they can claim the fame of the tribute themselves I suppose. Not that I mind. The good Ser Berne decides to stick with us though, which is great - another sword is always welcome. Before checking ou the sights, Lily suggests we visit the Pawn Guild who handle mercs like herself. The manager of that place, Barnaby, asks us to check out the not so convenient dungeon right underneath called the Everfall since "something odd" is going on there.

The huge spiraling pit is filled has a handful of undead, but upon reaching the bottom we clearly wake up some Eldritch entity as spell-casting tentacles with hungry mouths start appearing all over the place. They are killable with a bit of effort but they are endless. Ultimately we have to flee and just seal the door behind us. Anise doesn't make it.

*Nom nom nom!*

Dragon's Dogma: Into the West

Adventures of Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Back at Cassardis, we meet the busty merchant Madeline who asks for an escort to the encampment which is easy enough. She even comes along for a short detour in clearing out lizard men from the town well. Once there she parts ways with us and I recruit Rook's replacement, a veteran warrior of infinite battles: Lily. We decide to go exploring to the West, stumbling across a friendly young witch who makes ales and less friendly foes in the form of brigands, goblins, phantoms, ogres who are "excited" by women, a chimera and even a drake!

This game makes a big deal out of hearts.

The drake is extra challenging since it charms Lily mid combat, meaning I have to fight her as well. Fortunately my magic ice sword from Bitterblack Isle deals with her effectively while skirting around the beast. Fortunately knocking her unconscious is enough to break the monster's will over her and it is over powered in a long fight. More difficult however are the phantoms, since our melee weapons go right through them.

It is up to Rose's magic to keep them at bay as the eerie cloud form ghosts (ghosts done well, better than TESO for sure!) take turns "latching" on to us to drain life force. At one point it seems the forest is filled with these bastards but with the dawning of the sun they vanish - which quite literally saves us. Anise, is clearly shaken by the experience so we head back to the encampment to rest.