New Year's Resolution

Happy New Year! I thought that for a change I -would- list out stuff I wanted to accomplish this year, and to give you a heads up of what you may be able to expect on this blog in the future! :)

Next year I'd like to:

• Lose 12 kgs. That's just 1 kg per month! Maybe we should all try do this? :P
• Start writing out the guild history, one chapter per 2 months would be good.
• Complete 10 quests for NWO.
• Make a silly game of my own.
• Continue the Today I Smiled series with 2 per month.
• Finish composing another song.

Coming up in January (see here for previous list):

• The Darklands story will be coming to an end / pause (done)
• Review of Chivalry: Medieval Warfare (done)
• Review of Redshirt (done)
• Review of Descent: Journeys in the Dark (done)
• Today I smiled x2 (2/2)
• Top 10 Reasons Why I Stop Playing Games (done)
• Review Brothers: A tale of two sons (done)
• Lose 1 kg. (lost 3kg!)

And sometime in the Future:

• Review of Hearthstone (beta) (done)
• Review Forced (done)
• Review Damned (alpha) (done)
• Review Lost Planet 2 (done)
• Review of Police Precinct (done)
• Diary of a Marked One may continue with Far Cry 3 (done)
• Dead Island Diary may continue with Dead Island: Riptide (done)

Darklands: The Great Monastery

This is part of The Darklands story.

It is an uneventful journey from Hamburg to Lubeck (same city as in Stalker Online I wonder?) and again to Flensburg which is ruled by the King of Denmark himself. Unfortunately all the monks within the walls (of all those cities) have no knowledge they wish to share of St. Thomas the Apostle, which Liore diligently checks to avert any Wild Hunt attacks. This doesn't bother her though as the Wild Hunt hasn't chased them recently, and more importantly because their destination was in sight.

After resting up at Flensburg the team journeyed across a large plain to the Great Monastery, ready to face anything. The exterior simply had a graveyard and two guard houses. Opening the door to the first they are surprised to find a squad of templar knights!

The bad ass kind, like the ones you find in Priest!

These traitors are well trained and well equipped, and the team just scrapes through for a victory with River sustaining heavy,  near death damage. After looting their chamber with Liore finding a strange bone they then come across a second group of templars and having been so weakened from the first fight Syncaine and Doone get knocked out early. Before anyone is killed Liore decides to surrender instead of abandoning her comrades. They are taken prisoner and brought to the dungeons below.

Darklands: To Flensburg

This is part of The Darklands story.

At the city of Paderborn, Liore studied the map on how to get to Flensburg since that's where the lead was to the witches "Great Monastery". For this task she decided to recruit veteran soldiers, men who enjoyed dealing out death and punishment in the name of God. 30 year old "Doone the Red", 25 year old "River Highlaten" and 45 year old "Syncaine Hardcore", a grumpy tough as nails warrior.

They set out North, dispatching of more bandits and giant spiders before running into another Tatzelwurm. The lizard is a mighty opponent but it too falls as Syncaine manages to tear its face in two with his bare hands. A few alchemists try accost them for reagents too, but since the party isn't carrying any they are easily bypassed.

They do get into a bit of strife trying to cross the Elbe river though, with Liore stepping into a peat bog / quicksand by accident. Fortunately the other three manage to pull her out with the loss of minimal equipment. They also lose a day as a storm causes the river to flood, leaving them stranded and soaked on a small rise but not even this can dampen Liore's fury.

That last option is there for A--holes I guess.

Darklands: Graves of Vengeance

This is part of The Darklands story.

Through another horrible blizzard Tobold and Liore make it to their destination and are rewarded by the Medici for their trouble, using the coin to buy gear and to get new members "Lani Yammob", a 25 year old travelling merchant (and thief) and her companion "Grinmir Grudgely" (wrong spelling for Grimnir - apologies!), a hunter/soldier of 35 years. The Medici had also asked the team to take care of a robber knight in the area and they make that their first stop.

Tobold decides to try use the "Be invited in then kill the host" method he heard from the tales of the two that died at Hoxter, and it works on robber knight Hans Behaim. Alas, the "killing" of the robber knight does not go so smoothly without proper gear and Tobold receives a fatal blow before Grinmir and Lani can finish Hans off.

Enraged, Liore then leads the team back to the nearby hamlet of Hoxter (who were obviously in league with the robber knight), against her companions wishes and demanded vengeance for all the dead. She got her wish, eliminating the evil cultists with ease and then burning their village. They then went to the altar where Liore challenged the resident demon to combat.

Pretty close to "Get off my lawn!"

The beast accepted, and swiftly tore Lani and Grinmir into pieces before Liore could cudgel it to death. With a scream of rage, Liore vowed to destroy all these unholy abominations and all those who worshiped them.

Darklands: Running like Mad

This is part of The Darklands story.

While taking refuge Jewel and Vagabond are taken under the care of "Liore Herder" a 30 year old nun and her 40 year old mentor "Tobold the Stout", a soldier turned friar who was interested in studies of the occult witches and hence their interest in the pair that survived the High Sabbat. Upon learning of the prayer books wanted by the Medici he convinces the group to go adventuring once more, easily retrieving the items from a den of giant spiders which killed hermit Wipo by running like mad.

Actually there was a lot of running... from bandits, wolves, boars, the wild hunt. It's very hard to put up a defense without basic adventuring gear - the cons of being poor. It is for this reason that they attempted to get the books back to the person that asked for them so that they could get some coin for their trouble.

Their mistake was trying to spend the night in the hamlet of Hoxter while trying to avoid a blizzard. The satanists there attacked the party in their sleep, and their schulz killed both Vagabond and Jewel while capturing the other two. He and his men left them to hang on a nearby tree but fortunately Liore managed to pull herself up and slip her ropes while they were distracted, saving herself and Tobold from an aspyxiating death.

Turns out evil chanting is handy after all.

Darklands: That was Unexpected

This is part of The Darklands story.

Jewel knew there was only one way to prove that evil sucked and that meant letting the cultists summon up their demon and then challenging it in the name of God. The winged beast accepted and flew right at the team with blinding speed (strangely the minotaur was faster) and though it was tough (HP wise) in a few minutes it lay broken and defeated on the ground as the heroes stood proudly over their defeated foe.

Well, shit.

Unlike the groups that follow the robber knights who flee once their leader is slain, these psycho cultists all attacked and suddenly the team was in combat in the midst all of them, with a high priest and a few witches to boot. The overwhelming numbers saw Jewel, Stubborn and Vagabond knocked out while Belghast was killed and sacrificed to satan.

When the other three awoke, the cultists were gone and they had been stripped of all worldly possessions. Hungry wolf familiars also came after them shortly after forcing them to flee into the swamp. While they eluded the dogs, they ran into a tatzelwurm (speedy lizard creature) that devoured Stubborn whole while Jewel and Vagabond escaped back to Gronnigen, visibly shaken by the experience.

Darklands: The High Sabbat

This is part of The Darklands story.

First stop is the feast preparation area where the cook is preparing some unbaptized babies for everyone to eat and asks for your help. Interestingly there's an option to baptize the kids first -then- cook them but Stubborn instead decides to do the more logical thing and just try convince everyone that eating babies is bad. Most of the crowd agrees and leaves in shame, some taking the babies with them to put into orphanages (or maybe eat them later). The cook is then disappointed that he only has regular food for the feast. No, there was no option to kill him.

Next up was the broom riding crowd where Vagabond totally convinced the them that Harry Potter was bad, so they too left in shame. Belghast tried next at the evil baptism ceremony but those guys were too hardcore in their belief which resulted in a combat that saw all the cultists dead. Jewel also did not have luck at the main altar, being unable to dismantle it before a high priest and two cronies came by, forcing the team to murderize them before anyone noticed.

Things were going well. The team even learned from a fat lady that their Great Monastery was located North West of Flensburg, a point of interest the team would have to visit later on. And then began the main event... at the main altar, a group of cultists were summoning up a demon.

Bring it on!