Uukrul: Orcs and Geezers

Part of the Fate of Heroes series - spoilers ahead!

The next level is full of orcs, most of whom are low level as indicated by the color of their karate belt. Brown orcs are easy, Black orcs are brutal (the squad usually flees when they show up). There's a whole spectrum in between. Alas while exploring one narrow passage they are set upon by an orc led by chieftain, Thurazz!

With nowhere to escape they are cut down one by one until only Sapphire is left standing, she does her best to lure the orcs away from her downed team mates but is unable to defend herself for long. The orc band beat her down and abduct her for whatever nefarious purposes orcs keep in mind.

Balthazarr was surprised to wake up at all, finding that he, Yen Sid and Ila had been dragged somewhere safe by his old friend, Pluribus the wise. The wizened mage told him that many others from the nearby land had ventured into Eriosthe too, for the shared goal of helping to defeat Uukrul, after they all had witnessed visions of Mara.

That's what she looks like by the way.

While getting their bearings, they happened to come across another old fellow in dirty robe - the hermit Balthazarr was sent to find! He introduces himself as Sagaris and ushers the team to his home - a small series of tunnels which are safe from monsters.

Uukrul: Wrong Turn

Part of the Fate of Heroes series - spoilers ahead!

The Krefator!

In their haste to save Anyolina, the team took a wrong turn and suddenly found themselves facing a large acid reptile called Krefator. The beast melted Toothless down into a more consumable puddle as Balthazarr dragged Anyolina out of there and down the correct road. He needn't have bothered for she succumbed to the poison along the way.

Distraught at the loss of his team, Balthazarr gave heavy thought to abandoning to the quest until a vision of Mara encouraged him to carry on and find an old hermit on the lower levels. Something in her words gave him the strength to make it back to the adventurer's guild hall and recruit a new team composed of battle sisters Ila the paladin, Sapphire the mage, and the loner priest Yen Sid.

This squad performs much better (since I looked up the manual and can use spells now), surviving a poison pit thanks to Yen Sid's Sirdhe prayer, defeating Sharruk the giant worm in a literal shit tunnel, and finally catching up to the evil rogue where Balthazarr exacted vengance for the fallen.

Uukrul: Knife Party

Part of the Fate of Heroes series - spoilers ahead!

Apart from numerous, almost indecipherable signs on the wall, the only thing living in this area were stray dogs and giant rats. Angoff and Anyolina quickly learned that their magic and prayers would not work as intended down here (mainly because you need to put in a hard input of what magic phrase to say), so it was back to bashing things physically.

Does that look like it's saying "woof woof" to you?

Behind a closed door they found another person, an evil rogue charging tax for all who wanted to pass by. It was a difficult combat which ended with the man fleeing down a hall. The team pursued him right into... a market place? Finally they had reached the city hub itself, but had no time to take in the sights as they pursued this evil doer right into a trap!

The mob of knife wielding peasants was effective in their task of stabbing Angoff to death, before retreating into the various nearby alleyways. In a stoke of terrible luck, Anyolina was poisoned by a scorpion in the scuffle and with her old gods deaf to her pleas, had to endure the burning poison as Balthazarr and Toothless carried her and rushed back to the town proper.

Uukrul: Welcome to Eriosthe

Part of the Fate of Heroes series - spoilers ahead!

Despite his role in thwarting Molag Bal's schemes, Angoff still found himself shunned by almost everyone at Coldharbour due to his previous crimes as an ex-terrorist leader. Hoping to redeem himself, he asked Meridia for guidance. "To erase your sins, you must destroy someone far more terrible than you," said the daedric prince.

"Deep in the underground city of Eriosthe is a foe who poses so great a threat to the world that Mara, the divine, and her allies failed to subdue. He is known as Uukrul. Defeat him any you will find absolution."

Angoff thanked her and immediately set off on his journey. While Meridia did advise that he not try accomplish this task alone, no one was actually willing to accompany him. Only when he crossed the final desert to the great mountain that held Eriosthe did he find a group who were still very young in their careers as adventurers, and had no knowledge of his past.

Or his strange illness. Yep this is part of creating a character.

For the promise of gold and glory, they joined him in his quest: the not so timid priestess Anyolina, the aged paladin Toothless, and the too-smart to be a fighter Balthazarr. A long passage into the mountain led to a dead end to the untrained eye, but Angoff tapped his staff against the rock wall - causing the magical door to open. The four stepped through and now found themselves in the large, dust covered welcome hall of fabled city.

Fate of Heroes

After a nice break from blogging it's time to start up another story! As usual, some spoilers abound for the games involved and I'm taking a little creative license to link things together. :)

Chapter 1 - Welcome to Eriosthe (The Dark Heart of Uukrul)
Chapter 2 - Knife Party
Chapter 3 - Wrong Turn
Chapter 4 - Orcs and Geezers
Chapter 5 - The First Task
Chapter 6 - Bling is King
Chapter 7 - A Lack of Agility
Chapter 8 - That Bloody Bat
Chapter 9 - What's behind door number... 
Chapter 10 - Earned Respect
Chapter 11 - HOYAMOQ!
Chapter 12 - Speak Foe and Enter
Chapter 13 - Jar of Hearts
Chapter 14 - Pyramid of Torture
Chapter 15 - Snakes and Ladders
Chapter 16 - The Dark Heart
Chapter 17 - Master of Hammer
Chapter 18 - The Beacon
Chapter 19 - Zero Hour (Sheltered)
Chapter 20 - The Fifth Day
Chapter 21 - The Dangers of Generosity
Chapter 22 - Over the Edge
Chapter 23 - Things are Looking Up
Chapter 24 - That Time of the Month
Chapter 25 - Warning Signs
Chapter 26 - Declaration of War
Chapter 27 - Meat Unraided
Chapter 28 - The Battle of Glenchester 
Chapter 29 - Black Vengeance
Chapter 30 - Broken Spear (Battle Brothers)
Chapter 31 - Hunting Hoggart
Chapter 32 - Matters of Morale
Chapter 33 - Spear Wall
Chapter 34 - The Hungry Mountains (Part I)
Chapter 35 - The Hungry Mountains (Part II)
Chapter 36 - The Last Spear
Chapter 37 - A Surprise in the Darkness
Chapter 38 - Professional Killers
Chapter 39 - Filling the Ranks
Chapter 40 - Dogs of War
Chapter 41 - Almost Werewolves
Chapter 42 - Davkul is Coming 
Chapter 43 - Picking a Side
Chapter 44 - For Glory!
Chapter 45 - Supply Line
Chapter 46 - The Toll of War
Chapter 47 - Good Times
Chapter 48 - Relative Peace
Chapter 49 - The Western Wildlands
Chapter 50 - Raiding the Raiders
Chapter 51 - The Nightmare Begins
Chapter 52 - The Siege of Wiesendorf
Chapter 53 - Senior Sergeant
Chapter 54 - Graveless Dead
Chapter 55 - Slightly Winning
Chapter 56 - Piecemeal Bonemeal
Chapter 57 - Back to the Dirt
Chapter 58 - Skinny Brigands
Chapter 59 - Many Masks
Chapter 60 - Deviant Scum
Chapter 61 - The Ruins of Kragenheim
Chapter 62 - The Green Sea
Chapter 63 - Heavy Casualties
Chapter 64 - Warriors to the End
Chapter 65 - Path of Peace
Chapter 66 - Retirement

The Fate of Heroes story has ended for now. Thanks for reading! 

Neverwinter: Sahha

I missed out on (or skipped) the Summer Festival last year, but now it's back along with the Sahha mini-game which translates into an odd 5 vs 5 game of soccer/volleyball. After the non-event which was Lliira's Celebration, due to having no updated rewards and a really poor interaction method anyway, this is quite a step up - though not as good as the Protector's Jubilee or annual Siege of Neverwinter.

I hope the devs find a way to put this permanently in.

The rewards aren't great though for a ten minute match, and it is prone to afk-ers but it still is quite fun. In our alliance there is a guild vs guild sahha contest going on which sounds really fun going so far as to have dedicated goalies and such. The other summer events are still around too - flax griefing collecting, troll killing, pig and chicken herding as well as a water fight which I've not yet tried.

Doubt I will too since when I'm in that zone, I'm just focused on sahha. :P

Photobucket Burn

As you probably have noticed, all the images on my blog are now either broken or an advertisement for Photobucket, which has been my image host since I started in 2011. They've been a decent host over the years, with only a handful of down times that I can remember.

Alas with their decision to monetize their service, and me not willing to pay $400 odd for it, I bid them adieu today with no ill will whatsoever. Thank you for being a great host in the past PB! Now I'll have to look for a new free alternative for posts moving forward.

For those wondering, no - I'm not going to fix all the broken images. I'll just retrieve the ones I like (mostly my own art) and maybe put them in a gallery somewhere. Apart from my photo stories which will really be broken now, the majority of this site has mainly been about the text anyway so I'm not really fussed.

This gives me a good opportunity to start a new chapter, and start fresh in some areas which I've been keen to do for a while now. Thanks for your patience while I slowly segregate everything before this post, to everything coming next. Have a good day all! :)