Endgame

So, Quest 135. Your quests are always have the best sets, and the best photography, and it is always a pleasure to look at them. Your monster designs here outclassed those in 93, and I thought those were awesome - Farfarello is up there with my favorite designed enemy/NPC in the game, Syrma and Zaniah looked great. The torched forest scene was incredible as well, and the shot of the belltower and the titan is also pretty remarkable. And the battles were well designed, I think. Where I disagree with you is that they breezed through them. They all had fairly high risks of failure. The Void Eater could remove heroes from battle for good. Rastban had a move that would kill most of the heroes if they couldn't take him down in 5 rounds, the Titan was a tougher form of an already tough threshold monster (this time as Battle 3 and an entire entourage) and Farfarello was decently challening. The battles were among your best, and they were well paced and balanced for a story quest like this, but I hardly think the party breezed through them. There was so, so much that could go wrong - Ironically, what did go wrong was unrelated to the battles themselves. One of the quest's best points - the Baba Interludes - was also one of its biggest flaws. The readers loved seeing it, but it was not told in anyway to the heroes. And there was so much more story in a couple of interludes than there were on the actual hero's side of things. Ultimately, the majority of the story was not something the heroes were told or could even interact it. Zaniah and Syrma were good, but they and Rastaban were pretty mcuh the only NPCs and story they got in three months of questing. I think that your computer issues had a big hand in hurting the pacing, but I don't think it affected the sparseness of the story. If I had to offer a suggestion on how to blend them, I'd take a page from Zepher and use Flowers of Sibyl, litle memory capsules that sprout up from memories and ether (hell, maybe even the ether from the brainsquid on Pretzel's head is what makes them pop up?) With a little bit of changing in how the story was framed, it could've combined the two threads in a pretty organic way, and it could've been really cool throughout. Do I think that you planned for them to merge in the end? Definitely. But I think the party could've benefitted from it being drip fed to them, instead of to the audience, and then eventually just dumped on their heads at the end. Was the treachery thing cool from a future RP standpoint? Yes, Zepher is spot on with that. And some of Pretzel's sidequest tasks (secretly ring the belll, shift the labryinth) were great concepts. But I disagree with how it was all implemented. From the way it was designed, the players had every right to be vexed and frustrated. Pretzel had a tough game to play. But the other heroes were playing a game they didn't even know existed. The hints and little nods are likely a lot clearer to you, since you were the one who crafted through the quest. But as someone who read through it as it progressed, and real through all of it again when all was said and done, there was no reason to think there was a traitor, or anything like that. The biggest clue, the fact that Pretzel was on watch with Johon, could've easily been brushed over because of the herd of rockling cultists who showed up almost as soon as the bell was rung. Continuing off the party's viewpoint, the amount of invisible pressure on them was insane. Pretzel threw them into a lot of hard battles (as he should've - I do not disagree with how Palathadric played this in the slightest, he was given a role and he performed it). As soon as he got that Agni Bomb, things could go catastrophic in a second. Namyrra goes down? He can insta-wipe everyone but Thormanil. Thormanil goes down? Nuke and sleep the rest of the party. After a certain point, the entire party's well being hinged on two of the party members getting knocked out without them even realizing it. Even before then, one bad round and Pretzel could've dished out some effect bombs, crippling the party and letting them get smacked around into oblivion. It was downright punishing, and the rest of the heroes had no way to fight it and no informed decisions to make about it. They were left completely in the dark until it blew up (quite literally) in their faces and caused them to fail the quest. It wasn't a fair or well blanaced mechanic. And that has to hurt, especially because they lost a lot (Gems and the healing staff) and gained very little. This couldve been fixed in a lot of ways. Just telling the party there was a traitor, or preventing Pretzel from acting as an enemy in front of the party (or hell, stopping him from using items) would've changed it for the better. The former would've been a great choice, because itd add a whole layer of paranoia and cool party interactions.

"The scroll of blindness, please."

"You're not helping, Jinnipher, now you're just being plain rude..." Terry sends a rush of wind at Pterodactyl Hatchling B from the back row. Same Battle Order.

Why would you be sorry? You're doing a great adaptation. Yeah, seems fitting for Alatreon.

In my headcanon, Boomingham took out the entire shoulder. The arm is probably still there, frozen in the snow. Turncoats The Musical: Betrayal Never Sounded So Good.

On the birght side, the music industry will be booming.

Move to Moone, they're currently open to immigration.

Maybe because post-105, Boomingham had to go and chop off some poor dude's arm. Also, 100 gold says the next even (or the Wolfgang event) will be called "Kingbreaker".

Surprised Lind wasnt all "Have you heard of my lord and savior, Immortalis?" or "I elect the Dodekube!"

Can you buy items and have them Z-Mailed to you, or do you have to be phyiscally there?

I wie the sweat off my brow, my hand phasing through the blue aura of my hood, and toss Vindsval an Agni Bomb and myself a Fire Bomb. "Well fought." "Irisia. The spirit is erased. Are you okay?"

I believe ranged and fighting from the back row are two different things, no? One halves the damage taken by the enemy, the other allows them to defy row. Because you can definitely have a ranged enemy attack from the front. The blend of frustration and fear in Terry causes him to lash out, especially over all of the previous bickering. "Yeah, sure, should've used a wind spell and whatnot, but that wasn't even your advice, so... stuff it! I'm thinkin' maybe the reason you don't believe in relationships is just 'cause you're really bad at making them, lady. ...But fine, you can handle that thign with the giant jaws. Have, uh, fun." Terry shoots a wind spell at Pterodactyl Hatchling A. Terry glances to the other party, and sees Torald on the ground... "Make sure they don't eat Torald while hes down - or any of you guys! We'll try to be there quick, soon as we take out our share of dinos..."

800 seems like its fields health. It's not an adult yet, so I figured having less halth than its max, adult form made sense

"For the love of ENNOC!" Terry hops backwards as the overgorwn lizards emerge, desperately fumbling through his equipment for his new staff and opal. "Th-that thing's a kid, y-you say? How? It's gigantic... Well, h-hopefully it should be easy to deal with if it's not full grown yet... And those flying buggers are pretty much useless. Can't do much of anything, 'speically if we hang out in the back row like we normally do. Let's take down that big one and clean up the rest afterwards. Terry flings an ice spell at the Juvenile Tyrannosaur from the back row. Battle Order: Terry Jinnipher Sakurai (if he cooperates) "Listen, Sakurai... Looking down that thing's gullet, well..." Terry glances towards the tyrannosaur, looks at its many teeth, and elects to avert his eyes and slam them shut. "I'm as afraid as you, Sato. But you got us into this. Part of your job is getting us out." Terry squeezes his eyes open and looks at the other party. "I just hope they're okay... They're all as green as the grass we're standin' on, 'cept Boris..."

Sorrow repeats, the will-o-the-wisp repeats, and the battle order repeats. "You holding up, Irisa?"

Even though Vorpalis was a complete bastard to her, I love how he "improved" Jinnipher's opinion on dragons - she called Vorpalis a beast for all of 138, but she seems to have a bit more respect for their power now.

"And if I don't try, chances are I won't die or lose a limb or somethin', so... Yeah. Don't really wanna meet one... W-wasn't there an Onyx dragon or something or other that other heroes killed? What if it has kids?"

Terry recalls just what Jinnipher's gear was made of and panics. "I-if we're dealing with a giant forty foot tall exploding dragon, I-I'm sorry, but I can't fight that."

"Trust me, Torald, I'm just as unsure as you are... If you don't want to, say it."

Terry turns to his party. "Despite certain... uh, misigivngs... Looks like y'all fine with doing this. Since I said this would be more of a democracy of sorts, unless anyone rejects, we're going to Sakurai who-knows-where to kill-who-knows what... Okay?"

I get the feeling the other shoe is The World, and The World is very ambiguous.

"He can also stab us and do that creepy eyebrow wiggling thing again... Why weren't you clear with everyone from the start? It ain't like heroes don't do this stuff all the time. It's the fact that you're being deceptive is the big issue."

The undead pumpkin sneers and rushes headlong (only thing he could do, really, since he was only a head) into battle first.

Sorry, was reading the +0 from the artifact description itself.

I look with stern determination towards my first undead in cobmat... A pumpkin. With a silent gesture, I direct it to strike at the remaining wisp, repeating the battle order and my action.