Darkest Dungeon: Battered and Broken

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

With the manor cleansed all that was left was to break through the army of brigands surrounding the hamlet lured by the promise of easy riches. I knew what they pinned their hopes on that damned 16 pound cannon which claimed the lives of yet more of our number. Blunder Buss, Quark, Zermu Terlu, Techno Viking, Gigal, Yarnheim and that dark elf Valaria, each of them slaughtered by the oncoming foe.

Then the gods heard our cries of help!

Ultimately it was Yuria, her Paleshade, Skrmischa and Dr. Vahlen who managed to reach the dreadful weapon and in a marathon of a fight filled with suppression techniques, destroyed it and all the entire battalion of brigand scum that accompanied it. With the way now clear, most of our number are taking advantage to leave this accursed place. Not I though, I am too old and weary - there is nothing left for me to see. That might sound ironic coming from a blind man, but I think I shall stay on as the new care taker of this place. As they say, to fight the abyss, one must know it.

-Corynx

Wizardry Online: Ghost Town

[Part of the journals from Wizardry Online!]

Apart from the Succubus, giant suits of loitering armor, oversized tarantulas, demon imps and ambient classical music in a minor scale it was a band of overly strong werewolves that ultimately prevented us from getting past the magical barriers within the House of Savage Lust. We did reach the library though, and from it we learned the location of some sort of experimental zone built by a mad dwarf named Azarm. Thanam decided to continue to try find a way past the magic barriers in the estate while I returned to Port Illfalo to resupply.

The town was even emptier than when we left it, with all the adventurers having evacuated due to the Armageddon threat. Even the Lost Souls board had a record of zero souls lost for the month, a number I had never seen before since our arrival. Being one of the few remaining people the arcane minister Zermu Terlu was quick to issue out a Dimento medal to assist with supplies in exchange for trying to stop the rumored "end". I also stopped by one of the still functioning guild agencies and found a note from Quark - that he and a handful of the remaining Porkul Pickers and their allies like Raven Daydream, Maco Meng, and Helga had packed up to try their luck on distant shores. They must have packed in a hurry since there was still equipment in the guild armory, some of which I decided to take for myself.

One of the priests at the local temple urged me to find his wand as he seemed to think it would help in our overall goal so I found myself heading back to the dreaded Temple of Oblivion and after poking around in places no sane man should I gained access to a secret lair inhabited by gargoyles! Fortunately I got the drop on them and managed to take them on one at a time, recovering with Dimento camps when needed. After the difficult combat I managed to retrieve and return the wand to the priest... alas all it seemed to do was cure his own speech impediment. Time is running out and I am unsure of what to do, but I know I cannot simply abandon these people to whatever horrible fate is about to pass.

I take heart knowing that if it is an end by gargoyles, I can take a few of them with me.

 

-Caanon

Wizardry Online: Lost Souls

[Part of the journals from Wizardry Online!]

Soon after sending our last report a strange wizard appeared in town offering people to strengthen their spirit via the Trials of Isic, an otherworldly realm heavily focused on combat. Thanam and I went in and though we could only defeat the first tier of challenges upon our exit we found that we had been gone for months! The once bustling streets are now very empty, and Quark no longer runs the Porkul Union for reasons unknown. There is also talk of some upcoming cataclysm in the Ministry of Magic but we have other things to worry about first.

Selenka is one of the missing and her cartography project hasn't progressed much at all. While the Adventurer's Guild as well as Zermu Terlu don't know of her whereabouts, the knave Arahawi suggested that she might have gone into the House of Savage Lust deeper in the mainland. From the rumours it is exactly as it sounds, being inhabited by Succubi (among other things). With no other leads the elf and I are going to investigate.

Maybe they'll make a movie about it! :P

-Caanon

Old Sewers: New Trials

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

While Selenka has been working hard on her cartography project, the big guy and I got a mission from Zermu Terlu to take out something called Abadon within the Old Sewers. More importantly, the beauty in black was reportedly sighted down there giving Caanon all the more reason to charge in to find her and her posse. Turns out the "Old Sewers" ARE the Caligrase Sewers, just with more paths opened up thanks to another survey team. Gone are the zombies and bandits; instead now we have a Blue Feather cult training grounds, the Balboa family - a demihuman group of refugees, and deeper in cursed coins and terrible insects.

Unfortunately now the path further in is blocked by some giant imp, the possessed and deformed body of a baby sacrificed by the Blue Feather cultists no doubt. Caanon is not quite sure how we'll get past that thing as of yet.

Back at Illfalo Port, a wizard from the Ministry of Magic has found an unstable portal to some testing grounds of their own. I went in with three porkul-pickers: Quark Wolind, Macu Meng and Raven Daydream to face the challenge rooms of ever increasing difficulty. Unfortunately we only got half way (I think) through the whole thing but it was still a good boost to both soul and gold funds. Lastly it seems Winter2 Silence has been busy causing chaos in town. It seems even other criminals are wary of her since she hunts everyone outside the Temple of Oblivion - it sounds like she's almost unstoppable. Makes me wonder how many other high powered individuals exist that I just haven't heard about.

As an aside, found something quite interesting in the town library too.

I'm as surprised as these two!

-Thanam

Wizardry Online: Cartography Project

Since the maps in Wizardry Online are more than a bit lacking in detail I thought I'd try manually draw out each floor to help other adventurers better plan and prepare their forays into hostile territory. The scale is not exact and I'm sure there are errors or things I've missed somewhere so please advise me when you find them so I can fix them up!

Also, I'm more than happy to put up maps done by other people here to try collate them all into one place. If you have a map you want included please let me know. Alternatively if you want to read about my experiences in game you can do so at A Touch of Wizardry.

Completed Maps:
Caligrase Sewers
Kaoka Parrej Ruins
Deltis Keep
Trials of Fantasy [incomplete]
Golden Dragon Ruins First Floor
Golden Dragon Ruins Second Floor
Chikor Castle (thanks to Quark for helping with this one!)

Donated Maps:
Descension Ruins First Floor by Dremlock

Since I'm not active on Wizardry Online at the moment I thought I'd put up map kits containing the base maps and icons I've used in the above if anyone wants to continue the cartography work. Please feel free to use the below.

Map Kits:
Caligrase Sewer Base
Kaoka Parrej Base
Deltis Keep Base
Golden Dragon Ruins Floor 1 Base
Golden Dragon Ruins Floor 2 Base
Chikor Castle Base
Trials of Fantasy Base
Icons Base

Dangerous Assistance

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

Good news - I finally got past the watchman last night and retrieved the soul gem from the Temple of Oblivion, but I must admit it wasn't through my doing at all. I finally gave in to Thanam's suggestion of using a magic ring I received for free from a girl (Aika Lakuza) handing them out in town a few weeks back. When worn the ring lets you communicate with everyone else wearing one, and the amount of chatter I was hearing at the start was enough to go crazy. Still, I asked for help while in the depths of the temple with Quark and his human mage friend Westy and to my surprise someone offered to help - a dangerous (ooc: level 30 O.O) female criminal thief called Winter2 Silence. I was a bit wary of her arrival since I heard from the chatter that she liked to kill people after she helped them.

Fortunately this was not the case as she had a personal rule about not murdering in the temple. I don't exactly know how she handled the watchman, but basically she told us to stay out of her way. A few minutes later she called us in, standing over death's corpse.

He didn't look happy at all.

With the barrier down it was easy to take the soul gem we came in here for. Winter2 was amiable enough as she sat and recovered in preparation to face some forsaken priest elsewhere in the temple. Probably don't want to run into her again outside this place though. Selenka on the other hand did meet a super friendly criminal porkul lass called Cheeky Loli a few days ago at Chikor Castle. She's the first criminal status adventurer I don't think we'd mind meeting up with again.

Speaking of Selenka she's also had a crazy (and dangerous) idea of mapping out each dungeon in detail for new adventurers. Given the 37 deaths last month and the lower number of adventurers in town lately this is probably a good idea. I ran it by Quark and he agreed it had some merit so we'll get that cartography project started shortly and let you know how it goes.

-Caanon

Watching the Wall of Death

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

Been a very monotonous set of weeks since our last report. I'm taking a break from immolating these pesky venom beetles at the Aria Reservoir right now but I don't seem to be gaining any ground. The same is true for Mr. Caanon and Quark who advanced into the deepest parts of the Temple of Oblivion and are seemingly blocked by one final barrier before being able to retrieve the soul gem itself. Guarding it however are powerful spirits and the embodiment of death itself, better known here as "the Watchman". Overpowered by this horrible foe they've been training up again with the cursed coins deeper in Aria. Thanam has also taken up a more direct combat approach and is training with them having multi-classed to a fighter role as well while still keeping some of his thief skills making him a bit more versatile than old white hair. ;P

Lastly I came across this amusing graph made by the other veteran members at the adventurer's guild, and so far it seems accurate.

Wish I had better news (or simply more news) but for now all we can do is carry on and train up until we can defeat that Watchman waiting in Oblivion.

-Selenka

Training to face Oblivion

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

With Dwark looking into further leads to chase down the "mysterious four", we received a quest from the elf priestess Caladre to recover a soul gem from a nearby underground shrine called "the Temple of Oblivion". The crumbling, claustrophobic tunnels are littered with traps and are home to powerful spirits, zombies, demonic imps and conjurers who are (despite our newly upgraded gear) too dangerous to deal with. Even more annoying is that like the Golden Dragon Ruins, this place has barriers blocked by riddles that can only be solved by exploring each passage for historic slates.

Despite that I managed to get Caanon and Quark past the first barrier and they made it all the way to the second floor by luring each guardian spirit (in each barrier) one by one. The zombies are comparatively the safest to deal with as thier slow gait still makes them easy spear fodder and the majority of the paths are linear.

Still, they've come across a chamber with "light spirits" which are too strong to push past so they returned to town to train up a bit first. Fortunately Caladre isn't in a hurry for that gem, so Quark and Caanon have been hunting the cursed coins back at Aria, as well as more Bullspawn (with the porkul thief Arsenic and elf mage Helga) to gain the strength needed to face the horrors still awaiting them in the temple. Selenka has also finished helping Mighty Dog at Deltis Keep and is now assisting the remainder of the cavalry unit at the Aria entryway, while I've continued culling the numbers of Zule back at the Golden Dragon Ruins. It is worth noting that our masked "friend" Arahawi was also in the Temple sometime before us as he took the soul lantern of a spirit there. Tried questioning him on the matter but he seems content on just giving out free tarot card readings in town while avoiding questions.

If only we could train like Stephen Amell!

-Thanam

As an OOC note: The multiclassing system sounds really interesting here. Quark switched from priest to mage and back (having gained skills/levels between each switch) and it looks like you can bring a number of skills from your previous profession over to your new one. Even better you can "grandfather" skills by bringing skills further down the skill tree back to the original class saving you points from any skills you didn't use higher up but previously needed to unlock. Powerplaying sounds like a key mechanic here, the only draw back is each time you change you require 7 class stones of the relevant class which only drop from monsters in... the Temple of Oblivion. :P

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

Entrance to the Aria Reservoir

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

Prime Minister Zermu Terlu gave us another task this week, to eliminate the bullspawn demons that dwell in the deeper parts of the Aria Reservoir. Apparently the place had long ago been sealed up, and only recently been reopened by an entire cavalry unit to help the ministry's survey team do their job. I am upset to report that Mr. Caanon and Thanam both said it was too dangerous for me to go so I remained in Illfalo Port while they went ahead. I wonder if it's because the souls lost sign board now says 75 for last month, whereas the month before it was zero?

Anyway, I decided to help out Mighty Dog back at Dimento Keep - fighting off rival gangs and the wizards that reside in the deeper parts.I was somewhat surprised when Thanam snuck up on me there later (I almost shot him with magic, thinking he was a rogue! Technically I was right). Apparently Mr. Caanon had made it through the first floor of the reservoir with his friend Quark and two other fighters. According to his description it was broken up into three major areas.

Market Entrance
Plagued by giant flies that the remaining cavalry forces keep at bay, the first barrier required a simple ticket bought from a machine at the end of the right hand hall, something Thanam said was easy for him to get. Past the barrier guarded only by a rotting nobleman and some flies, was the empty market which is guarded by cursed coins and by clouds of deadly poison elementals, and is where Quark and his team of fighters: Nyenya (human) and Porkul "Porky" were met.

Dark Horse Circuit
The next barrier was right beside a broken horse statue which the team had to first repair, requiring only a horn (it was a unicorn statue apparently) but also lot of running through dark places and from many creatures. The barrier itself was defended by a large group of knights, probably soldiers from the cavalry unit that had been corrupted be the cursed coins. Fortunately their team was strong enough to defeat them all.

Drain Section
According to Thanam the final part was another long sewer filled mainly with slimes with a final barrier that needed another ticket from a nearby machine. Only this time it cost Kraken Coins (1 for porkuls, 2 for everyone else)! Good thing Mr. Caanon brought spares as some of his allies were short. The guardian itself was a giant slime, nearly as big as the chamber it was in. Mr. Caanon nearly died fighting it, but the team managed to push past it to the second floor.

As dangerous as it is hideous.

Apparently Mr. Caanon then sent Thanam back to check on me! Seriously, I have half a mind to go in there and bop him on the head myself!!! >.<

-Selenka

Haunting Chikor Castle

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

With Selenka taking magic classes as the Ministry of Arcanum (she certainly seems to spend lots of time there lately), Caanon got us a job from a scholarly appraiser at the bustling market to track down his friend, a mage who was last seen headed towards Chikor Castle, so named because of a heroic dog that once lived there apparently. Now the castle is home only to the undead, and has three main areas of interest. For a change the traps in this place are easily detected.

Western Dungeon:
Turning left from the entry leads to stairs down into a large zombie infested hall. Fortunately Caanon met up with Quark and Vladut again along with Lydovey, a fair elven mage, to tackle the massive horde while I shadowed from a distance. A safer path to traverse the hall is to take the ladders up to the higher walkways which lead to relative safety. Alas I was too far to warn them about the pit trap at the first dark angel statue (activated by donating items to the ghost of Lord Midnight at the entry).

Caanon reported that they had fallen into a small dungeon surrounded by fast zombies. Having been injured I stayed with him while the rest of the party moved on. Past the gate, and a knight statue was another ghost who Caanon aided and she provided the key to the higher level of the castle.

Forge Level:
Accessible by turning right from the entry hall, this area contained more zombies and a large pack of kobolds. Since it was easier to sneak past, I was the one traversing this area most - mainly to contact the dwarf spirit here who held the key to the final statue which held a chamber with more zombies and a doom sentinel.

Looked a lot like those creeps in the Shalebridge Cradle.

Top Floors:
Past the forge level are stairs up to the quarters themselves which Caanon reported was guarded by an ambush of kobolds in a tight hallway. Many more zombies, butchers and statues lurked in the maze up there and it was here that we found the mage we were looking for. He had been turned into a scavenger zombie... Once we retrieved his remains Caanon focused on going up past the many poison traps until the very top of the castle which is ultimately where we found what the dwarf spirit back at the forge wanted.

After collecting the reward we met up with our absentee mage and went shopping with our now substatial funds (much to Caanon's displeasure)! It was time to get new equipment though, and he wasn't complaining so much once he had his full bronze plate armor on.

-Thanam

Trials at the Golden Dragon Ruins

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

Sel was contacted by a masked aristocrat calling himself Arahawi today and we were tasked with retrieving the Fir Elin jewel for him from the Golden Dragon Ruins, an outdoor trap-filled labyrinth of teleporters inhabited by goblin-like gargoyles, troll-like zules, foul smelling ogre things and worst of all large earth elementals that have remarkable range with their fists. Furthermore, both floors are stacked with riddles pertaining to the rather gruesome fate of Lin Lian. The answers are littered within stone tablets in the ruins themselves but most were a pain to remember, let alone get to (good thing we have a sneaky elf). Also Sel remembered a song sung by the bard back in town which helped in some parts.

Most of the barricades were held by denizens of the ruins, and some by groups of stone knight statues. Using the many broken pillars I could fight them a few at a time but one barricade, held by five earth elementals was almost unpassable. Fortunately with enough training they too broke before me and deeper within the mapless zone I met a porkul priest named Quark, Jaina a thief, and Vladut an elven warrior. We decided to team up to reach the end of the place, defeating a powerful purple hued zombie on the way.

Giant Frogs like eating Porkuls.

Due to the arrival of another murderous mage (pk) called Smackman our group was broken not long after and I had to proceed to the final section with Vladut. Fortunately the giant frog that was guarding the jewel itself was not so dangerous, despite being very tough. After it fell to our blades we returned to Illfalo Port and Sel gave Arahawi what he wanted, completing the contract. On a side note I am getting concerned for her. Something is wrong with the mana in this region, despite the supposed mana drain, as evidenced by the blood thirsty mages we've seen. Will keep an eye on her and will get Thanam to do the same.

-Caanon