Darkest Dungeon: We were rewarded with Madness

Reports from Darkest Dungeon - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

The gods smile upon us. Elizabeth, Alvinia and Shaliquor, Dr. Vahlen and the short in stature Skrmischa somehow found the way through the third floor of the dungeon, which had been twisted into living flesh and tissue. Their foes consisted of mammoth, beholder like cysts and horrific antibodies that could teleport them around the massive map. Despite all being near death, and hopelessly lost they still managed to find victory.

It was then my turn in what turned out to be the final floor where Kokabeel, Rocket Man, Sunbro Forever and I faced... the grounds keeper Penultimo? The mad man was in fact the wizard behind all the creatures here, and his mastery of sorcery was impressive but not unstoppable. It was only when he fused himself with the heart of darkness that his true power was revealed - unmaking Rocket Man and Kokabeel from existence before Sunbro and I finally put an end to his horrible life. It is just as well that we fought him now before the creature got stronger or we would not have had any chance.

As it is, he could already do this...

So this is what victory feels like, yet on the faces of those who descended into the Darkest Dungeon I can tell that their minds will be forever haunted by the experience. I imagine the Joining is the only thing that is keeping me sane right now... which is why I can write this. The nightmares are getting stronger though... if I make it out of this place I think it is time for me to take the long walk... the Calling, before it is too late.

-Agdan, Grey Warden

Darkest Dungeon: Destroy. Them. All.

Reports from Darkest Dungeon - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

As Catharina expected the brigands returned to lay siege to the town again at 0800 today, but this time my team composed of Elvis, Gwyndolin, Catharina and myself which was specifically waiting in the wings for this moment surgically removed the terrorist leader and explosives expert Vvulf - using "stunning" uppercuts no less. The many remaining tangos then fled back into the forest where no doubt they will regroup but probably not for sometime.

The brigand leader: slain!

Afterwards, teams sent to the cove and ruins have successfully cleared both locations of hostiles. The "cats", Sunbro Forever, Rocket Man and Catharina took down the final drowned crew - which I'm told was an easy task since the "cats" could resist their magical anchor somehow. They then went on with Dr. Shen, Techno Viking and Lu Lingqi to eliminate the gibbering prophet at the ruins.

Our focus now turns to the so called "Darkest Dungeon". While most of the veterans are gearing up to recon that site, Zermu Terlu has been elected to manage forays against the remaining enemies in the Weald with our latest batch of recruits. Supposedly he has experience in this sort of thing. Honestly, they don't look like much right now, but I'm hoping they prove me wrong.

-Big Mike

Darkest Dungeon: Facing the Abyss

Reports from Darkest Dungeon - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

There's a large source of bacon.

With a final push, the warrens are now clear. Once again, Wilbur was found this time whispering in the ear of a massive creature they call the Swine God. Despite losing Boris Pavlovich and Liadri, Dr. Shen and Rocket Man were able to scrape a victory through a battle of attrition. A second team composed of Yuria, Alvinia and Shalquoir, Party Girl and Lu Lingqi, vanquished the formless flesh while all being at the precipice of death.

Elsewhere we lost Andre who was strangled by a raving madman and Saranthor whose heart was exploded by a cultist witch. Also lost were Zhurong, Maughlin and Masu of the first exploration team sent into the Darkest Dungeon where tentacled priests worship a horrible beast that matches the description of the shambler let loose so long ago. Only Dieannin Avery returned alive, his mind half gone but with a map that might prove useful for the next expedition.

-Catharina

Final Score

Part of my XCOM: Defenders of the Earth series!

And so came to an end the great war, and with it my position as commander due to the politics that followed soon after. Bradford was killed in a fluke base accident after Dr. Vahlen, overjoyed to learn that she herself had the psionic gift, put him inside the containment unit which suddenly activated on its own accord. Big Mike took my position as commander and with Dr. Shen's help began fielding armies of SHIV units across the globe reducing the need of human combatants in the field.

Still, Techno Viking stayed on as a close quarters advisor while Blunder Buss returned to the UK to train more snipers in predicting alien movement. Due to extensive injuries Rocket Man became the first cyborg soldier in the project, often deploying with the SHIV units at crisis zones, this time fighting terrorists, looters and profiteers instead of extra terrestrials. He's now known as Iron Man
.
After discovering her ... relations with pretty much ALL the staff at the XCOM project, Party Girl was given a dishonorable discharge and was headed to Los Angeles to seek employment there. Elvis went with her, retiring from the soldier's life to start up his music career. Alpha also retired. She returned to her home, a little cottage in Germany, where she continues to practice her marksmanship skills. Some say she now hunts werewolves. As for me, well I've got places to go and things to do - and you'll probably read all about it on this blog. ;)

Final Score: 9390 (Classic Mode)
Days: 290
Countries Supporting XCOM: 16
Countries that Left XCOM: 0
Aliens Killed: 451
Soldiers Lost: 39 (1 pilot)

Till the next alien invasion!

Future Combat

Part of my XCOM: Defenders of the Earth series!

Alpha and Buster Downs were sent with "newbies" Elvis, Badass, Party Girl, Rocket Man to handle a small UFO scout ship in some forest in the USA. The Sky Ranger strangely dropped them off on the side this time (guess it didn't want them to escape) putting them in between a heavy floater squad and an elite muton bunch. In the exchange of fire Badass opted to fire a rocket at the mutons instead of taking cover, trusting his life to Buster Downs to put down the last jetpack boy flanking him. Buster missed. The alien did not. Despite the loss of Badass the rest of the team cleared the remaining enemies and entered the ship proper to find another ethereal (they're all over the place now) and one elite guard. They managed to injure both but then the ethereal made the mistake of mind controlling Rocket Man. This panicked the rest of the team (except Alpha) into unloading all their ammo at them - killing them both. Odd way to complete a mission.

The team then traded Alpha for Blunder Buss and filled the remaining slot with our new hover SHIV tank for field testing against a supply barge in Canada. It had the same layout as the previous one but this time the team started off on the side. Though Buster was killed in action through floater fire and finished off by being electrocuted by a drone, the rest of the team defeated the floaters, berserker, sectopod, cyberdisk, elite mutons and ethereal captain with little issue thanks to the tough, highly mobile, and super accurate SHIV unit and its mounted plasma cannon. It couldn't be mind controlled and thanks to its flight capability easily outflanked all enemy defensive positions. I agree with Shen that this is possibly the future of combat as it out performed most of its human counterparts.

It sees you... ALL!

Total Annihilation

Part of my XCOM: Defenders of the Earth series!

Soldiers Lost in the Seventh Month: 4
Campaign Total: 25

The end of a combat heavy month saw me with another grade of "A" and with funding from all but one country (since they didn't have a satellite yet). Soon after a giant alien craft was detected over South America, the one place I didn't yet have a Firestorm (it was in transit). Still, I had my last Raven interceptor and its ace pilot Vince McCool so I sent him out to sortie. He lasted 2 seconds before being annihilated by the heavy weapons on alien craft. With not much else I could do about that I turned my attention to a terror strike in Osaka where I decided to send out a freshly hired squaddie team of Clown Face, Rocket Man, Party Girl, Badass, Elvis and Hot Momma to earn their stripes. This time they had the best gear, all wielding plasma weaponry and in titan suits. What could go wrong?

They landed at a tank factory (wtf?) and annihilated the first group (cyberdisk) they saw while Clown Face busily saved civvies in the AO. Then came a zombie horde with crazy chrysallids and a sectopod. Things got very hairy as Party Girl handled the zombies while Clown Face was alloy-cannoning (turns out it's not that good) sectopods and the rest of the team focused fire on the mecha. It wasn't enough to take down the mechanical horror which then made Hot Momma live up to her name by disintegrating her with its special beam cannon. Her horrible death shriek spurred the team on to eliminate the robot in the next round. Luckily the surviving chrysallids decided to flee/eat other things and left combat only to be replaced by a muton berserker squad.

Why didn't I think of that?

With no more explosives and unlucky shooting the berserker pummeled Clown Face's skull into a fine mist and even punched Elvis (only the second man to survive such a hit - the first being Hitler in an earlier mission) before being taken down. With a few rounds to regroup and reload the remaining mutons and chrysallids were not an issue. 4 out of 18 civilians saved. Mission complete!