radio414

Estellise managed to kill the eye with her second shot. The plan had worked, which meant there was just one more and a whole load of zombies left to go. They also had to deal with the consequences of his actions. Successfully getting the attention of the zombies meant they were now nearly on top of him and Lana. As the one nearest him lunged forward, Chris instinctively dropped back, his magic string at the ready. It unfurled a little, and he saw it still hanging in the air, but he hit his heel in the fog and fell onto his back, and the zombie fell on top of him. For some reason, Chris’ mind went to think of that time he fought Leo outside of the Drooling Dragon, how Chris had ended the fight with a kick to the unmentionables that his opponent had only just avoided. The same trick wouldn’t work on a zombie, Chris thought. A zombie wasn’t about to remove its deadened fingers from their grip around his wrists, trying as hard as it could to pry Chris’ sword arm out of the way of his neck and other fleshy bits. He tried anyway, but it was nothing doing. Maybe if he had boots enchanted for strength instead of speed or even just those sabatons he’d seen knights wearing. That was something he could steal, right? And just get those enchanted instead? What the kick did do, though, was shift the zombie in a way that he could move his off-hand again, and actually pull on the spool. He teleported to the spot he’d left the string, but he hadn’t accounted for position and fell on his back again. At least the ground was soft enough to be just a “hurt” sort of fall instead of anything serious, not that he had time to rate the pain as he scrambled to his feet. The zombie was still pawing at the fog where Chris had been, not knowing what had happened there, and Chris was tempted to give the thing another kick just for good measure. He thought better of it, and instead just ran up and chopped its head off. Chris looked over at Lana who had just finished dealing with her own zombie, then looked at what Lana was looking at. All the remaining zombies were now bearing down on the two. “Oh,” he said. But he tried to calm down. “Uh, hey, that’s just -- one… two… -- what, two each between all four of us? And the eye, which is the most important part, but, you know, progress.”

For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. -1 Timothy 4:8 (NIV) After bidding Rei farewell, Melissa returned to the group. Nobody really noticed her coming back, but she didn’t mind. It gave her more time with her own thoughts for a bit more elaboration on what exactly it was she wanted. She didn’t want to just figure out her limits while in the middle of a fight. There were ways she could find some of them without being in a life-threatening situation (or a simulation of one). Smaller things, sure, but, like, now that she was more used to her sphere of influence, did she need to see where she was spawning an angel or could it be behind a wall? Could she learn to stand in a way that she didn’t fall over when going under? And movement, how long was that going to take to get used to? She could start that right away, but that would mean drawing attention to herself. Well, everyone was moving out, saying goodbye to Aduain and Grigoriy who were splitting off and going their separate ways, but they were still talking amongst themselves. If she was going to do anything, she had to do it now. It was such a childish thing, though. Like, yeah, even if she wasn’t the youngest member of their squad (though in fairness, had anyone even asked?) she certainly felt like it, but that didn’t mean she had the demeanor for it. It was practical, but nobody would be able to understand why. She took one step, then another. It felt normal to walk. It felt normal to just walk alongside everyone else to the nearest ice cream place just a couple blocks away from the arena. But that wasn’t going to get her home, was it? Really, normalcy was just going to shift her perception of home to Prana, and that was another can of worms Melissa didn’t want to open. She didn’t want “Ambrosia” to become just a nebulous goal with an ironically divine name. She didn’t want to forget Gabby or Jun or Elizabeth or anyone else, even if she had somehow managed to make new friends in the meantime. So Melissa stopped walking. It was one more bit of tension added to the pile of all the other things she was trying to manage on Prana, but no matter how she looked at it, she had to do the best with what she had. It meant being more the person everyone expected her to be, but parts of those fictional Melissas weren’t so bad, were they? Melissa the conscript, Melissa the summoner, Melissa the celebrity… The weight on her shoulders was still there, but the realization lightened her load just a little bit, and she turned her next steps into a purposeful skip.

Even in his younger years (and, at the ripe age of twenty-six, those years were certainly far behind him), Brian had never been the type of person to run around on a playground going up and down a four-foot slide for some petty amusement. Now, he just trudged across the mulch lot in the middle of Dagen Park to the asphalt one on the other side, not even paying the jungle gym any mind at all. His hand instinctively reached for a pocket on the inner left side of his coat and came up wanting, cigaretteless. God, he thought, cold turkey was the worst way to go, but he also had to prove to himself the value of his own will. He could stop this if he wanted. Just as he would have stopped going down those stairs a month ago. He could have taken up a different vice. No, perhaps his new vice was whatever this new nonsense was. It certainly would explain why he was enduring the cold such as it was. It wasn’t even raining, which would have given a reason for the miserable weather. Instead, the weather was just miserable of its own accord. Brian jammed his hands back in his pants pockets and shrunk further into his coat. Only just a little bit further. Shiki had directed him to the van like Shiki always had, even if this time it had been somewhere other than just outside his house. Maybe the heat was fixed this time, Brian thought, and he could experience some semblance of sanctuary before committing himself to whatever ineffable task had been given to him, but he wasn’t holding out much hope. The van actually looked worse than how he remembered it, not helped by the fact that it had apparently attracted a loiterer in the meantime. Brian had always assumed the reason Shiki lent him such a shitty mode of transportation was to avoid such attention. If you saw a nearly inoperable car you didn’t really care what was inside it, he figured. Even if it were easier to break into, the contents surely wouldn’t be worth the effort. And yet, as he stepped onto the concrete and shuffled even closer, he could make out someone poking around the van. They had to be the desperate sort, then. His hands balled into fists in his pockets. It wasn’t that he was about to fight some vagrant over something that wasn’t even his to lose, but it put him in the right frame of reference for what he had to do next. “You looking for money or something?” Brian said. “I’m not gonna fund a drug habit or anything but I can buy you something from Taco Bell or whatever I guess.” He pointed at the van. “I am going to need to get into that, though.”

source my psct-fu is out of date since i haven't made a yugioh card in a few years but sometimes you relisten to a banger song and remember that there's a yugioh archetype with a similar name and while you want to make a shitpost but also you want to put some effort into it and make it look nice. that's not just me, right? for the stats i just stole from danger! chupacabra since the effects are similar.

←Previous Post -- Next Post→ Weeks Fifty-Two And Fifty-Three -- The First Champion-Level Dungeon I was going to make a crack at how the title technically isn’t true thanks to last week’s shenanigans, but it actually is true because Wolves At The Door (I got over myself thanks for asking) was a Darkest-Level quest, not a Champion-Level, a distinction that doesn’t actually matter that much outside of experience gained but means you get this rambling sentence instead. Many of these adventurers are still woefully underprepared for this step-up in difficulty, but, like I said last week, the game isn’t giving us much of a choice anymore. I chose The Cove because it was the easiest of these quests on offer in that it was short and of the Scouting type, which meant we’d have to see fewer rooms and, therefore, take fewer fights. I mean, hallway fights in the Cove are spooky, but its Champion enemy is also the least annoying of the four, so it’s a give-and-take there. The party is pretty solid too. Both Paracelsus and Amani are stellar in the Cove, Euryale can both manage The Goliath’s stress problem and stem the bleeding we’re going to experience, and The Goliath, well, he hits things really hard. Because things have to go wrong immediately, we encounter the Champion-level enemy in our very first fight. Meet the Squiffy Ghast, a fiddler who is going to stress out the party to no end. The biggest gimmick when encountering it is its movement. It has two moves, one that shunts it to the enemy’s front line, and one that has it make a full retreat to the back, not only changing what moves can even hit it, but what moves the enemies can do. You’ll notice in this screenshot that it’s also pretty hardy at 53 health. That being said, this fight is fine. I know I was doomsaying things for a second there, but the snails are manageable through a combination of Amani’s ability to pierce their armor and Paracelsus’ ability to inflict a DOT that’s over half of their health. The real annoyance comes in the second fight. Guess who’s back? That’s right, after retreating to the Courtyard for so long you might have forgotten, the Crimson Court is slowly creeping its way back into the main game, and they insist on stressing out The Goliath if it’s the last thing they do. Two instances of Maddening Whine cause his stress to skyrocket, and some ill-timed misses let them get The Thirst off. I didn’t pack any blood, because of course I didn’t, but that’s not a concern in a short dungeon. What’s more a concern is what happens next: Like the Flagellant (and The Sisters, but that’s another Marvin Seo original and not part of an unmodded game), The Thrall only has one outcome when he reaches 100 stress. In some ways, it’s even a positive, in that his damage nearly doubles and he yells things like “NONE ARE SAFE FROM ME!” But he also has one of the most debilitating status effects in the game now: he’s literally berserk. Frequently -- like, fifty percent of the time -- The Goliath is going to smack a random party member for a good chunk of damage. The only blessing here is this doesn’t take up his attack for the round. If I were in a riskier sort of mood, I’d consider sending a berserk Thrall into a dungeon by his lonesome, but that’s for a different save where we could get more than one. What happened next was probably inevitable. Between The Goliath, these new and improved enemies, and Euryale focused more on calming The Goliath back down than actually doing her job healing the rest of the team, both she and Paracelsus get put on Death’s Door, and that’s where I had to call it. If you look at the map, we weren’t scouting very much and still had to clear at least two more rooms. It wasn’t going turn out well no matter how you looked at it, so retreat was the best option left. I didn’t even wait to clear those remaining groupers, I just up and left. Another Cove expedition failed, then. That place truly is cursed. To drown my sorrows I went back to the Veteran-level quests. Thankfully, the game had populated one in the Weald, so completing this one sets up a fight with the Brigand 12-Pounder for next week. This party is pretty synergistic. Yui can get through a Giant’s HP bar ridiculously fast and benefits from Joan’s camping skills, while the rest of the party is a perfectly serviceable mark makeup. See, why can’t the Cove have fights like this? Where everything just dies in one hit and nothing hits for that much damage? I mean, I know the reason, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be wistful about what we’re about to leave behind. Even this isn’t an issue. it’s the most threatening fight the game can throw at this level, but between Joan and ABC doing increased damage to anything Junjeong marks and Yui doing massive damage already, it’s not a problem at all. With a camping log, we can even ignore all the stress damage that crone would otherwise do to us. I’m going to miss this. But! We can only move forwards. The Brigand Pounder will likely level up most of our remaining level fours, and after that, we’re probably going to either start preparing for the Darkest Dungeon or take care of this Curse problem by preparing for the Viscount. Both prospects are equally intimidating. -r ←Previous Post -- Next Post→

red bean milk tea (hot)

One eye down, one to go. No, that was wrong. Being under that red cloud of fear had made Chris forget that he’d spotted another group of zombies and their overseer eye while there, though they were moving to be more clearly in sight now. So two to go, then, and hopefully any remaining zombies would follow in that demise by the end of that. Chris wanted his daggers back. They were obscured by the fog on the ground, though at least he remembered where that zombie had landed. His movement was cautious; he remembered what could be waiting for him even if the fog wasn’t as thick. It was a tenuous position, too, only really secure as long as that one zombie was too distracted by Ziun’s illusion to properly flank him. At the same time, though, that did give him an idea. Once he picked up his daggers, Chris motioned for Estellise to ready her bow again, and for Robin to load up another one of her guns. Then he turned his attention to the zombies. “Hey!” he called out. “Why don’t you all focus on me over here? I’m healthy. I even eat my vegetables sometimes!” Chris omitted the fact that frequently Hector, and the Ellwoods before him, had to force those veggies on him, but the zombies wouldn’t have been able to understand that, and those in earshot that could understand didn’t need to know. As the zombies approached it occurred to Chris that he hadn’t exactly communicated what he’d hoped to happen here. If the eyes were controlling everything, it made sense to target them first, so the zombies had to be drawn out of the way. Of course, if this went wrong, he’d be fighting three, maybe four zombies by his lonesome, so he hoped everyone else was smart enough to pick up on what the real target was. And just in case, he took out his magic string too, in case he had to start running.

←Previous Post -- Next Post→ Vveek Fifty-One -- Vvolves At The Door Flames on the horizon, sulfur in the air -- the vvolves are at the door! Okay, so, like, The Ancestor doesn’t say “vvolves,” he says “wolves” like a normal person. At the same time, I have a mild obsession vvith replacing the letter vv vvith tvvo vs in old-timey text and the boss of this random encounter is, in fact, called “Brigand Vvulf” so can you really blame me if I ham it up a little bit? Anyvvay, do you remember that Shrieker fight vve took sixteen vveeks ago? This is kind of like that except you actually have to complete a level six (6) dungeon to get any revvards and if you don’t, the vvolves destroy part of your hamlet, forcing you to have to upgrade it back up again. Oh, and like all of the base game’s level six quests, if you go into it, realize you’re overvvhelmed, and then retreat, the game kills off a random member of your party, vvith the flavor being that they’re “giving the others more time to escape.” So that’s nice. Vvolves At The Door vvon’t spavvn right avvay, hovvever. It’s not going to vvreck any beginning player’s experience until the game thinks you’re ready for it. It has to be at least vveek forty and you have to have a party vvho can feasibly take on that daunting Darkest-level dungeon; you have to have four Champion level five adventurers chomping at the bit to fight. That being said, it is an inevitable part of the game. Every vveek past vveek forty increases the chances of the event firing. If you don’t vvant to have to keep rebuilding your hamlet, you’re going to have to kill Brigand Vvulf. So, uh, let’s do that. Thar is only level four, sure, but he’s kind of important for mitigating some of Vvulf’s damage, so he has to come vvith. The rest of the party follovvs from that. I’m expecting a lot of bandits, vvhich means a lot of AoE damage, so Junia is our healer, Skaia’s main attack, Collect Bounty, deals bonus damage to humans, vvhich there vvill be a lot of, and he can use it from the third rovv, not to mention his ability to disrupt the enemy backline. vve’re technically under-leveled so stress is going to be a bit of an issue, so LordCovvCovv vvill be managing that vvhile also being a tanky front-liner and secondary healer. The level six dungeons like to play a trick on you vvhere the first fight is significantly easier than all the rest of the fights to lull you into a false sense of security. These are all Novice and Veteran-level enemies, though it does reveal the gimmick of the dungeon -- the fact that they’re together at all is significant. These fights are all going to be against bandits vvith the occasional rabid dog and madman throvvn in for good measure. See, look! It’s our first glimpse at Champion-level enemies. Not that these are too different from vvhat vve’ve seen before, though the Brigand Hunter in the back there inflicts stress damage in addition to the expected buff to his damage vvhich is annoying. At the same time, the plan of Junia keeping the party alive and CovvCovv keeping them of sound mind helps a lot. vve even get a chance to stall a fevv of these fights to keep stress dovvn to manageable levels. Novv, like the Crimson Court and our upcoming runs into the Darkest Dungeon proper, this is a scripted dungeon. Brigand Vvulf is directly north of the starting zone vvith tvvo paths to get there, clockvvise around the circle or counter-clockvvise. I recommend the clockvvise path since there’s a secret door in one of the northvvest tiles that can get you some extra loot if you pack a key. Brigand Vvulf is a mix betvveen the summoning-type bosses (The Siren, The Necromancer, and, fittingly, the Brigand Pounder) and the forecasted threat-type bosses (the Svvine King and the Prophet). At the beginning of every round, he vvill throvv a bomb at the feet of one of your adventurers, and at the end of the round, it explodes for hefty damage. This is vvhy Thar is so important here. Hakima’s guard vvouldn’t buff his dodge enough to reliably get out of the vvay, so instead Thar can buff himself up to three times to take, say, six damage instead of tvventy. Six is much more manageable to our healer. The alternative to all this is to attack the barrel of bombs behind him. If the barrel is destroyed, the active bombs are rendered inert somehovv. That being said, the bombs do fight back -- that “riposte” icon indicates that the bombs vvill literally blovv up in your face if you attack them. In addition, Vvulf’s most common attack not only stuns a random party member and summons a Champion-level brigand, it also respavvns his bomb barrel, so you can see vvhy the Man-at-Arms strategy is so preferred here. The other moves Vvulf has are yelling at the party in a vvay that stresses them out and guarding the enemies he summons. This guard is both annoying to deal vvith -- these are dangerous enemies he’s protecting -- and his biggest failing. Unlike every other guard in the game, this does not buff Vvulf at all, vvhich means not only vvill attacks that could only hit the frontline alvvays have a chance of hitting him vvhen he’s in rank three, vvhere he vvill be for most of the fight, they’ll continue to be at full povver. Anyvvay, the fight progresses for a bit and betvveen the stress of literal actual bombs being throvvn at us and being yelled at by a bandit king, three of our four adventurers cross the 100 Stress threshold. Thar gets masochistic, vvhich, vvhile very funny given the context of his role in the fight, also means that he stresses the rest of the party out vvhenever someone takes damage, vvhich is vvhat puts CovvCovv over the edge, except CovvCovv becomes, vvell I don’t think this lucky roll turned the tide or anything; vve vveren’t about to lose anyone unless Thar started to refuse to be healed, but it certainly helped keep any further problems in check until Thar vvas able to get the killing blovv. Our revvard for all this is the next room dovvn, a trinket vvith the “Ancestral” rarity, something normally reserved only for either killing the Shambler or completing a long Champion-level quest. I don’t think vve’re going to do anything exciting vvith this particular trinket, but vvho knovvs? That’s for future me to decide. Speaking of future me, this fight leveled up the entire party to the maximum level of six, vvhich means the game is populating a vvhole bunch of Champion level dungeons for me even vvith so many level fours left to grind up. vve’ll see hovv vve manage these next time. Hopefully, it vvon’t be anything too grim. Until then, -r ←Previous Post -- Next Post→

Emergency Trap Babs really wished that her power gave her an enhanced ability to multitask. She had so much control over any building she was in, and there were so many ways that control was held in check, the least the universe could give her was the ability to do two things at once. Alas, it seemed like she’d gotten even worse since her powers had manifested. As it stood, even rubbing her stomach and patting her head was almost out of her reach. It wasn’t fair. Worse still was how this was only her third encounter with invaders coming into her building! The first was how she’d manifested her powers to begin with, and the second was when The Zodiac came looking for protection money she didn’t have, sending her all the way across town to The Gibbons’ welcoming fold. When Caesar had set her up out on the outskirts of Scarlet City, she’d found a bit of companionship between Dee’s always-on-the-clock professionalism and Chad’s weird laid-back never-do-anything-right (except for when he did) nature. Both of their tinker powers benefited from her ability to shape things to their specifications, no matter how strange the request. They’d done combat drills, sure, but that was clearly not the same as the real thing. She could sense them, no matter where they were in the warehouse. That, at least, her power afforded her. She could feel every bit of machinery falling apart against the blows of a single woman, or the other woman pilfering whatever food she could find in the kitchen. The man who was with them was a bit harder, what with how the space around him always seemed to reshape itself. It was cheating when other people did it, Babs thought. But there had to be something. There had to be some way to at least hang on until Caesar could send help or… or maybe they could just leave? No, that was wishful thinking. The invaders had already incapacitated Dee and Chad and were clearly willing to tear down the whole building. Babs took a deep breath and sunk further into her bed. There was nothing for it. All she could do was her best. She focused her energy on the girl in the kitchen. Each drawer, each cabinet was an opportunity for something to throw at her. Maybe opening this one triggered a dart trap, or checking the fridge made the light fixture overhead fall down on her. It was quick work, nothing complex, but also she had to move on. Meanwhile, in the workshop, that one was both harder and easier. It was harder without as many nooks and crannies she could hide things in, and easier in that at least she could shut the door again and give herself an enclosed space to work with that way. She could reinforce it too, so it’d be harder to get out, and then, if she tried hard enough, she could shift the walls inwards. The ceiling, too, hopefully ending up giving the woman inside one hell of a squeeze. Stop Coming To My House All in all, it took just over an hour for Caesar to finally buzz his secretary back and let Override and Aeon into his office. It was significantly darker in there than in the reception room, lit mostly by a projector casting several images towards the back wall. In one corner, a flier was making their way westward, their arms outstretched in front of them. In another part of the projection, someone was washing their face and hands. The one next to it was completely dark, as was just under half of the rest of the projection. Caesar was sitting behind his desk, the back of his head blocking some of the projection, not that he seemed to care as he looked up at the other panels. Any actual first impressions, though, were doomed to be severely affected by his aura. Knowledge that it was there helped, of course, but there was still an extra weight on the heroes’ shoulders. “This man is important,” the weight seemed to say. “Listen to him!” “Look at this,” Caesar said with a voice that similarly demanded attention even if it was otherwise completely unremarkable as he gestured to the collage of images. “How am I supposed to deal with this, hm? I’ve got a failed operation in the middle of town I’ve got to pick up the pieces of, I’ve got whatever the fuck is going on out east, and now some ‘heroes’ are knocking on my door insisting the world’s about to end. Any one of these could hold my attention, and all of a sudden I have to deal with three of them, not to mention everything else Gibbons manages in the city.” A man someone attentive would identify as Legion was standing by the projector, operating it with his power, saying nothing. Hellhound was nowhere to be seen. Caesar wheeled around in his chair and put his elbows on his desk. “I’m a bit distracted, you understand. I’m only curious about two things here: How fast I can put this particular encounter out of my mind and what the other two gangs, especially the Moray Clan, have had to say about me.” OOC

full song is 7:26 and didn't want to argue that the white noise credits version is 6:5x (even though it totally is and its a good video) so you get the live version

Tell Me A Story

←Previous Post -- Next Post→ Week Fifty -- The Unstable Flesh I could not store such a prodigious amount of offal, nor could I rid myself of it easily, possessed as it was by unnameable things from outer spheres. When excavations beneath the manor broke through into an ancient network of aqueducts and tunnels, I knew I had found a solution to the problem of disposal. Unfortunately, this is not a particularly exciting fight. Between the way the game generates its boss fights for The Warrens and the fact that the Flesh doesn’t actually scale as well as some of the other bosses in the game, this is an exceedingly quick run with about three fights total. I incur some risk by not taking a primary healer, instead relying on a Plague Doctor (whose healing is just good enough to keep people alive) and a Flagellant (whose healing only works some of the time), but I was saving half of this party from levelling too hard for this exact fight specifically, so it’s hard not to have a little cheese. And it’s not like the Plague Doctor is a bad pick here anyway. Plague Grenade is perfectly reasonable given that it’s twelve blight damage a turn when it connects. Thar the Man-at-Arms is an extra bit of insurance here. His mace is getting pretty hefty, and he can guard anyone that gets close to Death’s Door, tanking further hits if need be. One thing I didn’t pay attention to is that Hakima was still Gluttonous, which means he’s eating for two (Elmer Fudd should get a share, I suppose), so maybe I should have packed more food, but I wasn’t expecting to be here too long. Twenty food is enough for two hunger checks and a full campfire, which turned out to be enough. The one other fight we ran into before the Flesh itself wasn’t even an exciting one with a centaur or a wraith. It was these insects that all died in one hit. It honestly felt like this entire dungeon was one big anticlimax. I told myself that I’d go back and collect loot from a bunch of other curios, but there weren’t even many worth taking. The one treasure chest in the whole dungeon turned out to be trapped. We talked about how we’re taking on this fight last time we did it -- several AoE attacks that all inflict damage over time means the 150 or so health the flesh has gets churned through quickly. I made this fight easier for myself, too, by getting Hakima the ability Hound’s Harry, an attack I normally don’t like but it hits all four of the Flesh’s slots and inflicts a significant amount of bleed, so it was worth the purchase now that we’re rolling in money. It’s not like we can’t go back to his normal skillset later. There aren’t even any more screencaps of this fight. There was no danger. The Flesh just died because it was taking, like, fifty bleed and blight damage a turn and could only heal twelve of it. If I must attribute the kill to someone, Paracelsus was the one who hit it last, so I guess I’d give it to her. Like I said, I wandered around afterwards and took one more fight, but that was just to fill up our bag with loot and wasn’t particularly exciting either. Honestly, I’m fine with all this, even if it makes for a frustratingly short recap, because the alternative is there’s too much to talk about, which means either the game has surprised me or things are going horribly wrong. Either way, someone’s probably not coming back alive. Next week is going to be a tough one, though. I’ll explain more then. -r ←Previous Post -- Next Post→

i wasn't going to call it lewd until they went uwuwu 7.5/10 stillOP suggestion: found a fun song and a fun video 7.5/10