Flipz

I seem to recall your first bit of QMing advice you gave me was (paraphrasing): "your players will attempt to abuse EVERYTHING."

Enemies half the character's Level and lower can't attack the character at all.

I think you broke Arthur, Sandy.

"...I'm dead. Something killed me, I died, and I've been banished to the Void with Althior and Alexis and sentenced to an eternity of insanity. I always knew there'd be a price to pay for my actions, I just didn't expect it to be this." Arthur's eyes glass over as he stares unfocusedly into the distance, clearly at a loss to comprehend the situation they were in.

Note that you can swap multiple Artifacts within a single turn; if you're wearing a hat and a cape, for example, it only takes one turn to swap them both for boots and gloves.

Arthur freezes in response to Morgan's sudden disappearance, wondering with horror what had happened to her. "Lilly..." Arthur trailed off, having lost the words. He shakes his head fearfully. "Where did Morgan go? When you wished she would go away, where exactly did you picture her going?"

All right, so first things first: 118 was, in a lot of ways, me going all M. Night Shaymalan, in some good but mostly bad ways. (Think "The Last Airbender" more than "The Sixth Sense".) One thing that I think has shown up throughout the Halloween Anthology (wow has it ever gone on way long) is that traditional horror doesn't go over well in Heroica. Traditional horror relies on the cycle of tension and release, and generally relies on the audience/player feeling helpless and afraid. That...didn't go over well in 118, and notably the best Quests of the Anthology (114 and 116) didn't use this style to fuel themselves, opting instead for a subtler, more retrospective horror after the fact. My method ultimately amounted to taking control away from the players, and did so in a way that ultimately discouraged participation rather than encouraging interaction. *Sigh* I made a rookie mistake with 118: I hosted a concept, a predetermined string of events, rather than an explorable, malleable Quest. The basic premise was, actually, surprisingly simple: a group of Heroes get knocked out, travel to a village, and clear it of the monsters who have taken it over, only to find out that they themselves are the monsters. Unfortunately, the bloat I ended up adding in the process of logic-ing the situation out resulted in an overlarge mess at a scale far bigger than I or my players wanted. One of my big mistakes was the overemphasis on the "twist" ending. While the concept is interesting in theory, in practice this active secret-keeping (including keeping the number of battles secret) drives a wedge between players and QM, since from a player perspective there can seem to be no end in sight. For a Quest that's progressing swiftly, in which everyone is enjoying themselves, that can be all right, but even one misstep can turn an otherwise-fun battle into a slog if it seems like they'll never end. In fact, a lot of the criticisms I leveled at Sandy for 93 apply here to 118, and like Sandy with that Quest, I felt compelled simply to keep things going as best I could and try to get through them as fast as possible--resulting in a breakneck rush through probably the only halfway-decent part of the game. I think another mistake I made was worrying too much about logic and building things by the rules. My favorite enemies and battles were the ones where I made stuff up myself--namely, the Golem Merchant family and the Civilian Golem Defender enemies (which I conglomerated into the mob in the rework). By limiting the enemies' health and Levels to a formulaic amount (the specific formula for Level was "2x WP of hypothetical drops + set Level", and the health was calculated off of that Level, their class, and the most logical base class for them), I ended up writing myself into a corner--I convinced myself I couldn't change their HP amounts to better suit the pace, so I ended up making a lot of slogging repetitive battles that were more about putting in time than effort. Each of the battles was intended to advance the plot in a very specific way, but unfortunately none of them save the last had any real impact. The merchant family was intended to be the reveal of the monster, something that would have been built up to after the Heroes had already visited at least some of the other houses in town and read the mysterious notes. Ironically, by allowing freedom in that area, I ended up undercutting what was supposed to be the big hook of the first act, turning the rest of said act into a simple (and slow) scavenger hunt. I also feel I was a bit too generous with loot in this act--in particular, I ended up reworking the appearance of the Inn of the Wayward Angel to compensate for Hybros and Docken taking all of the apples instead of sharing them evenly with the party. The battle at the tower entrance was again meant to remind the players of their goal, as well as serve as an introduction to enemies using ranged weapons. I had actually planned for the clerk in that battle to be a Scholar, but unintentionally copied the stats from my first draft of the battle (in which both he and Mayor Persephone were Rangers using throwing weapons), which screwed up my intended training sequence. Each battle from then on out was meant to introduce the players to a different type of enemy, culminating in the Final Four fight (with an Alchemist, Weather Mage, Skirmisher, and Scholar). In another bit of cruel irony, one huge thing that was missing from Acts II and III was a sense of urgency. Act I was intended to be rather slow, to build up the tension of what awaited within the Tower. The brief, interrupted convo with the Final Four started to spark that urgency...right before I threw a half dozen enemy counterparts of the tankiest Heroes in the game at you. Like the Quest in general, the Skirmishers were a good idea on paper, but in practice they ended up being little threat whatsoever thanks to how easy it was to manipulate their AI, not to mention putting SP on back-row opponents just needlessly prolonged the battles. I honestly wish I'd had the idea to use the mobs from 108 sooner--WBD turned me on to them when I was trying to rework the sanctuary fight, and if I'd thought of using them sooner, I could have completely reworked the second act into something much quicker-moving. Speaking of the Sanctuary battle, that was probably my biggest disappointment of the Quest. The whole point of Act II was to subtly turn the Heroes into hunters who would mercilessly hunt down the golems--so that once it was revealed that they were the townspeople, it would hit the players hard, in a "I [the player] should have figured this out sooner, how did I become a monster" sort of way. Ultimately, though, only Ellaria seemed to have that reaction to the events that happened, no doubt in part because of how heavy-handed I was with keeping things from you guys. On the flip side, however, that was a somewhat frustrating facet--from about the merchant fight on, it often seemed like Ellaria and Hybros were the only ones interacting with the environment and trying to puzzle out what was going on. A lot of that had to do with me not giving you guys enough to do, I'm sure, but the lack of intra-party interaction was still disheartening. I was particularly surprised to see so little out of Doc in the battles, especially given how much that seemed to be Docken's big schtick. I also often found myself waiting for that one last party member a lot--if I ever host again in the future, I'll try to just move things on more frequently even without input from every single player, rather than trying to be so absolutely certain everyone gets their piece in. Another thing I'm never doing again (again, if I ever try to get back into hosting) is leaving the players without NPCs to interact with. The idea was to create an atmosphere of isolation and powerlessness, but in the end it just distanced me even more from the players. It doesn't have to be as heavy an interaction as with Diana, but having some kind of NPC mouthpiece to speak through would have made the experience more enjoyable for all of us (even if, in this case, it would have inevitably resulted in blowing the twist super early). *nods* One of the reasons I ended up taking so long with the notes was because I ended up writing and re-writing them several times in an attempt to get you guys to pay more attention to them. Unfortunately, without an NPC to subtly hint that they would be important, you guys ended up mostly ignoring them. Looking back, I probably could have done more with Mallora being the narrator, though I think she suffered a lot because my perception of who she was as an NPC changed a few times in between the planning stage, the start of the Quest, and the end of the Quest. Also, as you've pointed out, the plot (or more specifically, the backstory) was way too complex, meaning I had to convey a LOT in each note. This meant huge walls of text, with none of them really being all that interesting to read. To be fair, the plot had more holes than Swiss cheese, just because of how overcomplex it got. To summarize: *Years and years ago, Amara's magical powers were revealed, and she was kicked out of the village. *More recently, the Mayor received a threat toward "your daughter", and put the guards on high alert. *He received a second threat making it clearer that Amara was the daughter they referred to, and meanwhile the guards couldn't handle the extra hours, which led to the alchemists trying to make golems to replace/reinforce the guards. *The Mayor asked Amara to come home, and had people looking into ways to get around the whole "alchemists hate mages" thing. *All of the above came together to set off the golems, with duplicates of the Final Four escaping. Having a tiny bit of advanced warning, the Mayor tried to get his people to safety in the Sanctuary (the golems were stored in the basement) and send Mallora to get help, but people panicked, causing the process to take longer than it should have. *Amidst the panic, a few golems got loose into the Sanctuary and killed a few citizens, but for the most part the guards were successful in killing the golems that had slipped past the initial line. *Outside town, the duplicates of the Final Four kidnapped Mallora and made doubles of the Heroes. The Heroes then chased down and killed the Final Four duplicates. *When the Hero Golems entered the Tower, the noise distracted the guards long enough for some duplicates of the guards to start to escape. Said guards blew up the staircase into the basement (something they didn't want to do since it risked causing the Tower to collapse) and chased down their duplicates and killed them, but then the Hero Golems saw them standing over the golem corpses and killed the guards. *The Hero golems slaughtered all of the other surviving townspeople, thinking them to be golems. *The true Heroes arrived in town with Mallora, saw enough to realize something was systematically killing the survivors, and Mallora led them in the back entrance. ...yeah, even the summary is crazy complex. You're not the only one who lost track of things partway through. Agreed. Unfortunately, I'm in a poor position IRL to be able to build and photograph sets (and as you saw with the conclusion, even rendering them takes me a long time to get things right). I just can't stand building anymore, I don't enjoy designing and building my own ideas like I used to when I was younger, and as a result I have to rely on others to bring my imagination to light. Unfortunately, this means I'm also at the whims of other peoples' unreliability, which in turn affects my own reliability. I really appreciate what Pyro was able to accomplish for me, and I REALLY owe Scuba for stepping up to help me with some of the stuff later on, but at the end of the day if I can't count on myself to make sets, I can't make a commitment to regular updates, and that's the most important thing you have to be able to do when hosting--update regularly. Of course, that's not the only reason, and I have no excuse for how slow things went throughout many other portions of the Quest (especially for things like the writing of the notes), and for that I'm sorry. It's funny that you list battles and loot as some of the stronger elements of the Quest--I got the opposite impression, actually. While I'm glad I didn't introduce a lot of new items to the game, not adding anything special made loot generation a little boring for me (thus why we got a few small options like Jill's hair clip and the Scrolls the Scholars used but didn't drop). I did try to drop one or two major things for each character (the boots and Butcher's Cleaver were intended for Docken, the weapons from the second Huxley fight were obviously intended for Thormanil, the Wooden Mace and Cheat Sheet were intended for Ellaria, and the Emerald and scrolls were intended for Hybros). While much of the other vendor trash was okay on its own, I still feel like I dropped quite a lot of it, probably a bit too much if it weren't for how long the Quest dragged out. Battle-wise, I think the Sanctuary fight was my favorite to build and run--it was one of two fights where I really saw you guys engage, and I wish I could have provided that for you more often. I completely agree. Even though I'm leaning against hosting it, my next planned concept is very simple, and I've devised it in such a way that I can pretty much guarantee the length of the Quest (for better or for worse ). I've learned a lot from hosting 118, I only wish I could have learned these lessons before dragging all of you through it. Oh, and before I forget: congratulations on completely re-writing the ending! Originally, I'd planned on you killing the Final Four before the arrival of the real Heroes serving as The Reveal. Amara would have explained a couple things with her dying breath before the golem Heroes went berserk on the originals (another reason I had the Mayor drop a Scroll of Disenchantment--if you guys had decided to buff up when you realized the Quest wasn't over but before you realized you had been controlling the final boss all along, I wanted you to have a way to not get instagibbed ). That was actually another reason I decided to accept Scuba's offer to set-build and took Thormanil instead of Guts--I knew Scuba would be more active than Swils, but I also didn't want to put you guys up against Mirror Guts (because seriously, Guts and Docken duplicates against Heroes? Ain't nobody gonna win against that.). While I'm disappointed I wasn't able to get you guys to figure out a way to seriously threaten a Docken (), I am glad I got the chance to save some of my favorites of the many characters I made for this Quest (and yes, every single person in that town had some kind of backstory, even if it was just a four- or five-word phrase). So thank you, for making an ending that, while perhaps not the best, ended up being a lot better than what I had planned.

"We got off to a rough start before. Let's start over." Arthur offers a hand to Lilly to help her up. "My name is Arthur Justus Regulus VII, a Hero of Heroica. More importantly, I'm your second-cousin Noel's half-brother. I'm here, along with Althior and Alexis, because Lilly wanted Heroica's help in investigating the weird noises she'd been hearing." Arthur then looks to Lilly. "Lilly, on the night Morgan stayed up with you to listen, did you hear the noises, or did they stay silent that night? It might be that whatever's in here wants you specifically." Noticing Alexis changing, Arthur also swaps out his Macabre Collar in exchange for his Lens of Speed-Reading, and downs a Mead as well to bolster his strength.

Rule 63, maybe?

"I think Alexis deserves that bear suit, but I'd really appreciate it if I could borrow it for now." Arthur hands 420 gold each to Althior and Alexis, before moving to check on Morgan. "Morgan? Are you all right?"

You've got it all wrong, Darksten. Undead are immune to any attack that has no element. Your Crossbow (WP:6) has no elements in it, so it wouldn't damage the undead; however, ANY element in it whatsoever would allow your Crossbow (WP:6) to damage the undead, even a Darkness element. Your Spider-String Bow is Darkness-elemental. All Darkness-elemental attacks, regardless of whether they are spells cast by a Mage or regular attacks from a Darkness-elemental weapon, deal double damage to Humanoid enemies, and deal regular damage to all other enemies except Ethereal, Dark, and Demons. Donna Winter is Undead/Humanoid. Your Crossbow (WP:6) would deal 0 damage to her, because she is undead and your Crossbow (WP:6) has no elements imbued into it; however, your Spider-String Bow (WP:4, Darkness-elemental bow) deals double damage to her, because it is elementally imbued (meaning it CAN damage undead) and because Darkness-elemental deals double damage to humanoids. EDIT: Wait, what? When did I pass 8,000?! Curse you, mobile, for not drawing my eye to these things even in desktop view!

Maybe take Lucky away from Chakra, then? I know seeing a constant stream of useless SHIELDs out of Hybros was a little bit frustrating on my end a couple times, I can only imagine what it was like for JimBee. ...then again, I could barely touch any of you, so maybe the healing is better than it looks.

I like this change a lot. On the subject of shield rolls that could use a little tweaking, Chi Monk could use something to do once it has every single positive effect; the restoration is nice but lackluster, and with it getting Lucky from the Shield it ends up rolling Shield quite a lot.

"New plan: we've got time to spare. Drink a Remedy, we can follow my plan next Round instead." Arthur swaps out his Lens of Speed Reading in favor of equipping his Macabre Collar.

"Okay, let's finish this." Suggested Battle Order and Actions: Althior revives Alexis with ether IF Alexis not revived, Arthur uses Phoenix Essence to revive her, otherwise he casts Ice at Snooty Bear, Back Row Callous Kelly vs Snooty Bear (ends battle no matter what) OOC: Doomed won't trigger if the battle ends this Round, correct? "Keep a cool head, Althior. We have time for one last try before we end this."

OOC: You had it right the first time, you can switch as many Artifacts as you want in a single turn. ...though it looks like it doesn't matter. Althior is Lucky, second roll for Alexis revival?

Four of the golems stood still, some sorrowfully, some steadfastly, as Amara summoned vines to climb up them and compress, instantly crushing them to dust. As each disintegrated, a miniscule fragment of light emerged from each "corpse" and flew back to its original owner. The Weather Mage turned to the Golem Hybros, scroll in hand, but at the last moment turned the counterspell over to her father, who nodded and cast it upon the golem monk... ********* Hallow's Eve Inn of the Wayward Angel In an instant, the candles re-light themselves, forcing the storytellers of the Midnight Society to shield their eyes as they waited for them to adjust--all but Mallora, naturally, who seemed unfazed by the sudden brightness. "That night, we all learned a grim lesson, paid at a terrible price: the greatest danger lies not from the monsters without, but from the monsters within ourselves." "...so wait, is that it? What happened to the Heroes? And to the last golem?" "The Heroes returned to Eubric, and us with them. We accompanied them to the Guild of Invision, where my father explained the whole story--the mysterious notes he'd received threatening me and Amara, the decision to create golems to bolster the guard forces, the way the situation had spiraled out of control as he looked into forbidden magic to try and protect us, how that magic had backfired, causing our own duplicates to create Hero doppelgangers, turning those who had tried to be our defenders into our destroyers. The Heroes returned to their Hall, perhaps feeling a bit wiser for their experience, while the rest of us found our way to a certain wayward inn..." As their sight returned, the other members of the Midnight Society could see two figures standing at the foot of the stairs: a curly-haired redhead who could only be Mallora's sister... ...and a blank-faced impish monk, Ruby in hand. Mayor Kennedy Persephone casts Perception Filter Counterspell on Golem Hybros - 4, Success! The Party: Ellaria Arbour (Sandy) 23 years old female human Druid Level 32.75 *Immune to Sealed, Poisoned, Bleeding, and Hexed* *Ignis Fatuus: permanently poisoned by 15* Power: 45 (32+13) Defense: 7 (3+4) Health: 50/50 (9+31+7+1+2) Ether: 44/44 (5+31+5+1+2) Gold: 270 Equipment: Ignis Fatuus (WP:13, permanently poisoned by 15, fire- and lighting-elemental staff), Robe of the Archmagi (SP:3, Max Ether +5, protects from sealing; bodywear), Sterile Gloves (immunity to poisoned and bleeding, handwear), Spider Helmet (SP:4, passes poisoned and bleeding effects to the enemy when the wearer is hit; headwear), Paper Doll (Protects from hexed; accessory) Inventory: Weapons Sylvania's Crossbow (WP:10, wood-elemental crossbow), Pan Flute (WP: 7, instrument), Wizard's Staff (WP:1, fire-, wind-, water- and earth-elemental staff), Quill Pen (WP:1, retrievable throwing weapon), Skull Shield (SP:6; immunity to Darkness-elemental damage; suitable to Black Knights only; shield.), Spear (WP:6), Halberd (WP:6), Mace (WP:5), Wooden Alchemist's Hammer (WP:8 wood-elemental hammer, hollow [nothing]) Artefacts: Ranger's Quiver (WP: +1 to bows and crossbows. Suitable for rangers, beast warriors, infiltrators, and winged warriors), Spirit Robe (Renders wearer invisible to the enemy for the first three rounds of battle so they do not take free hits; backwear), Black Bandana (Power +3, pirate lingo; headwear), Spell Items: Scroll of Inspiration (Inspired for rest of battle, 10 ether, 50/50 chance) Scroll of Sealing, Scroll of Frailty, Scroll of Weakening, Serenade of Water (Causes Water damage equal to the minstrel's level to all enemies per round for as long as the song is sung. Costs 10 ether per round. Battle Song), Ruby (Fire) Consumables: 3 Potions, Diluted Arc Potion, 2 Grand Potions, 4 Health Cores, 4 Tonics, Diluted Arc Tonic, 3 Grand Tonics, Ether Core, Hyper Arc Tonic, Elixir, Arc Elixir, 3 Remedies, Neutralizer, Tiger Balm, 2 Phoenix Essences, Emergency Essence, Last Resort, Meads, 3 Smoke Bombs, Flash Bomb, 3 Fire Bombs, Ice Bomb, 2 Lightning Bombs, 2 Water Bombs, 2 Holy Bombs, Blind Bomb, Air Bomb, Aeolus Bomb (100 wind-elemental damage), Bad Breath, Feather of White Currency: Gold Ore (worth 80 gold) Tools: Bedroll, Pickaxe, Telescope, Magic Compass, Magnifying Glass Quest Items: Hybros (played by JimButcher) 53-year-old male imp Chi Monk *Permanently Hastened* *Immune to Cursed, Asleep, Blinded, Confused, Fragile, Weakened* *Immune to all elements except wood* *Intimidation* *Natural Respite* *Life Drain* Level: 35.25 Power Bonus: 3 (8 in front row) * Defense: 0 Health: 56/56 (7+34+12+3*) Ether: 39/39 (34+3+2) Gold: 730 Equipment: Golden Armor (user is permanently hastened and cursed, fire-, water-, earth-, wind-, ice-, lightning-, darkness-, light-elemental, grants immunity to Sleep, Blindness, Confusion, Frailty, and Weakening; bodywear), The Black Hat (Suitable for anyone, grantsIntimidation, immune to darkness and cursed, headwear), Fighting Boots (Power +5 on the front row; suitable to barbarians, knights, rogues, beast warriors, chi monks, dragoons, harlots, infiltrators, marauders, skirmishers, regulators and winged warriors), Metal Claw (Unarmed attacks drain health from the enemy equal to 50% of the strength of the attack (rounded up); handwear) Inventory: • Sword of Ancestral Hatred (WP: 45.25 gains 1/4 WP every kill made with it; longsword), Zoot's Reaper (WP:15; scythe, suitable to Hybros), Clock Cog (WP:14, retrievable), Banana Bladerang (WP:9, damage all, retrievable), Justice (WP:8, causes blinded-effect, dagger), Twin Kunai (WP:6, dual strike, daggers), Hollow Dagger (WP:6, hollow blade [nothing]; dagger), Spinning Bolas (WP: 5, deals the Slowed effect, but the effect is removed when retrieved; retrievable), Nimbus Broomstick (WP:5, long range, usable by mages and clerics; Broomstick, sells for double usual price), Training Longsword (WP:5, Longsword), Wrench (WP:3, decreases the target’s level by 1, retrievable), Pan (WP: 1, +1 Health; suitable for all classes), Skirmisher's Shield (SP:10, shield), • Sticky Gloves (gains 50% more gold, suitable for Rogues, handwear), Baron's Epaulets (Suitable for short heroes, grants Command over short NPCs), Cloak of the Blue Assassin (SP:1, suitable to Rogues; backwear), Cloak of the Red Assassin (Chance of Assassination is 1/3, suitable for Assassins; backwear), Sterile Gloves (grants immunity to poisoned- and bleeding-effects, handwear), Pugilist's Gloves (Power +2, protects from Weakened-effect; handwear), Swift Boots (Changes HIDE into STEAL & HIDE, allowing the wearer to STEAL gold equal to the target’s level if it carries gold, in addition to hiding; suitable to rogues; footwear), Enchanted Bracelet (protects from Sealed, accessory), Alchemist's Cheatsheet (Suitable for alchemists, 1/3 chance to make two of the same Mixture on rolls of Shield, accessory) • Emerald, Garnet, Amethyst, Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire, Opal, Scroll of Luck (grants Lucky-effect for one battle, costs 10 ether) • 12 Potions, Diluted Arc Potion, 13 Grand Potions, 16 Health Cores, 9 Remedies, 2 Neutralizers, 3 Elixirs, Diluted Arc Tonic, 2 Grand Tonics, Soma, 2 Feather of White, Wyvern's Breath, 2 Phoenix Essences, 4 Phoenix Incenses, Fenghuang Essence (After being consumed, automatically revives the target with full health once when knocked out; cannot revive targets that are already knocked out), 2 Deadly Venoms, 4 Smoke Bombs, 3 Holy Bombs, 5 Nostrums, Minimizing Dust, Baldur Bomb (100 light-elemental damage), Demeter Bomb (100 wood-elemental damage), Rudra Bomb (100 lightning-elemental damage), Pumpkin Bomb (causes stunned-, poisoned-, asleep-, blinded-, sealed- and confused-effects to all opponents when used), 2 Gold Rings (Worth 15 gold; can be given to someone to make them enamored with the giver), Skeleton Decoy, Bone, • Bedroll, Shovel, Pickaxe, 4 Mythril Shards, Crimson Haze (Causes a weapon to deal the poisoned by 7 and cursed effects permanently), Grating Stone Bartholomew Docken, Dragonslayer (Brickdoctor) 34-year-old human male, Warden Level 51.6 *Gains Triple XP* *Takes Halved Damage from Free Hits* *Scary* *Immune to Defense Reduction, Removal of Positive Effects, Confused, Blinded, Poison, Fragile, Fire, Earth, Wind, and Sudden Death* *Counterstriking* Power: 61 (Level 51 + WP: 10) (Power Bonus: 0) Defense: 23 (SP: 20 + SP: 3) Health: 85/85 (base HP: 6 + Level bonus: 50 + Class bonus: 8 + permanent boost: 21*) Gold: 559 (1 Gold loaned to Lord Lawrence Boomingham [Zepher]) GP: 27 Equipment: Darksteel Crossbow (WP: 10; inflicts the Blinded-effect; Crossbow), Mythril Shield (SP: 20; Shield), Dread Hat (permanent Scary effect; immune to Defense Reduction, Removal of Positive Effects, Confusion, Blindness, Poison, Fragile, Fire, Earth, and Wind; suitable for anyone; Headwear), Mail of the Renegade Commander (SP: 3; Damage of all Free Hits is halved; suitable for anyone; Bodywear), Cobweb Cowl (immune to Sudden Death; suitable for anyone; Backwear), Medal of Glory (Mark of true talent that allows the wearer to gain triple experience from battles; suitable for anyone; Accessory), Counterstrike Gloves (After the wearer is struck by a Free Hit, he counters with strength equal to his Level; suitable for anyone; Handwear) Inventory: • Pan (WP: 1; +1 Max HP; suitable for all classes), Fishstick (WP: 7; deals double Damage on ships; club), Unlucky Horseshoe (WP: 13; inflicts the Jinxed-effect; Throwing Weapon [borrowed from Arthur Justus Regulus VII (Flipz)]), Training Longsword (WP:5, Longsword), Lieutenant's Sword (WP:6, longsword), Throwing Knife (WP:3, retrievable throwing weapon), Skirmisher's Shield (SP:10), Training Longsword (WP:5), Composite Bow (WP:11, ignores defense, bow), Butcher's Cleaver (WP:3, throwing weapon, inflicts Bleeding-5), Iris Shield (SP: 15; reflects physical Damage back to the attacker regardless of Row or Defense, if the user survives the attack.), • Large Water Canteen (Carries 6 portions of water; Accessory), Aqua Gear (Adds Water-element to physical attacks, immune to Water, Accessory) • Potions (4), Diluted Arc Potion, Grand Potions (9), Health Cores (3), Grand Tonic, Remedies (10), Phoenix Essences (3), Phoenix Incense, Mead, Smelling Salts, Feather of Lithe (2), Feather of White, Smoke Bombs (5), Water Bombs (5), Lightning Bombs (5), Doomsday Bomb (99 damage to all enemies), Bones (11), Venom (5), Deadly Venom, Skeleton Decoy, Teleportapple, Grating Stone, Adamantite Shards (3/4 Adamantite), Writ of Blacksmith Service (Voucher for one free weapon or shield upgrade at Anwyl's Smithy), Inkwell (consumable, causes a weapon to deal the Blinded-effect for one battle) • Bedroll, Shovel, Magnifying Glass • Silver Ore (60 Gold) Thormanil Nihai, Dragonslayer, Orc-kin (Played by swils) Level 46.4 Dragoon *Immune to Darkness, Light, Water, Fire, Air, Earth, Lightning, and Asleep, Blinded, Bound, Confused, Fragile,Slowed, and Weakened* *Gains Triple Experience* Power Bonus: +1 Defense: 13 Health: 65/65 Gold: 1699 Equipment: Shishkebab (WP: 16, dual-strike, darkness-elemental, lance), Skirmisher's Shield (SP:10, shield), Bright Armor (SP: 3, Null Darkness), Winged Sandals (Wearer is immune to Light, Water, Fire, Air, Earth, and Lightning, and the Asleep,Blinded, Bound, Confused, Fragile, Slowed, and Weakened-effects), Medal of Glory (Wearer gains triple experience, accessory) Inventory: • Dragonsbane Lance (WP: 20, triple damage to enemies with 'Dragon' in their name, lance), Gladiator Trident (WP: 11, Spear, causes bleeding-by-5 effect), Guardian Halberd (WP: 5, target's defense is used as additional WP, halberd), Duplovian Swift Halberd (WP:3, deals Stunned, halberd), Tongue on a Stick (WP:1, Miss -> "Aim"), Frozen Saber (WP: 9, longsword, Stuns enemies), Repeater Crossbow (WP: 7, crossbow. Hastened for first round of combat while equipped.), Schoolyard Sword (WP: 8 great sword), Wooden Shield (SP:5, Null Wood), Crossbow (WP:5), Mercutio's Dagger of Mugging (WP:5, +5 gold from stealing; dagger), Notched Greatsword (WP:5), 2x Throwing Knife (WP:3, retrievable throwing weapon), Composite Bow (WP:11, ignores defense, bow) • Trickster's Mask of the Gender Swap (Accessory), Trickster's Mask of the Weredog (Accessory), Trickster's Mask of the Elf (Accessory), Fighting Boots (Footwear, Power +5 on the front row, suitable to barbarians, knights, rogues, beast warriors, chi monks, dragoons, harlots, infiltrators, marauders, skirmishers, regulators, and winged warriors), Sticky Gloves (Handwear, Increases the amount of gold stolen by 50% (rounded up)), Pugilist's Gloves (Power +2, protects from Weakened-effect; handwear), Aqua Gear (Wearer deals and is immune to water-elemental damage), Jeff's Goggles (Protects from blind-effect; accessory.) • Pickaxe, Shovel, Magnifying Glass • 2x Amethyst (Darkness), Emerald (Wood), Opal (Ice), • Potion, Diluted Arc Tonic, Grand Tonic, 2x Remedy, Phoenix Essence, Neutralizer, Milk • 2x Nostrum, Smelling Salts, 3x Mulled Wine, Soma, Jinxy Juice, 2x Feather of Lithe, • 2x Fire Bomb, Lightning Bomb, 3x Smoke Bomb, Ice Bomb, 5x Water Bomb, Doomsday Bomb (99 damage to all enemies), • 3x Venom, 2x Deadly Venom, • 2x Grating Stone, Bright Polish, Teleportapple Arx the Youngling (pet Dragon controlled by Thormanil Nihai (swils)) *Lucky* Level: 46.4 Health: 75/75 (30+45) Element: Ice THE QUEST IS SUCCESSFUL. QM Note: Thanks for hanging in there with me, everyone! I'll have notes in the QM Lounge within a few days, and we'll post the conclusion to the Halloween Anthology here once Quest 117 is complete. Reputation Earned: +1 Guild of Invision (all Heroes)

"I want to maximize my odds of hitting all of them--we can take one hit from the Big Sister Bear, and if I can get off two Disasters, they all go down." "And actually, Alexis should swap out her cape for her Quickdraw Quiver and then Nostrum me, that way she'll have two actions to work with next Round." "...then again, I suppose we do have three Rounds to work in, I was just hoping to end things before the Doom kicks in." Arthur casts Sealing at Baddie Panda and then Ice at Big Sister Bear.

"All right," Arthur says, a dangerous gleam in his eyes, "let's do this. Althior, I think our previous paramour could do with a revival--see if you can convince her to Nostrum me once she's up. Lilly, I need you to take on Snooty Bear, think you can take him?" IF Alexis is revived, Arthur casts Sealed at Baddie Panda and Ice at Broody Bear (Back Row); otherwise, he casts Sealed at Baddie Panda and Ice at Big Sister Bear (Back Row).

QM Note: Currently we have: Death: Docken golem, Ellaria golem, Thormanil golem, Arx golem Alive and Sentient: Alive and non-sentient: Undecided: Hybros golem, JimBee, do you have a preferred outcome regarding the success of the Scroll, or would you prefer it to be random?

Normally this would be right up my alley, but right now I'm just a little too burnt out and want to conserve my strength/interest in Heroica. On that note, for now, I still plan to host my next Quest sometime in March, but once I'm done with that I'll probably take a month or two break from Heroica--take some time, get my head together, and see if I can get myself into the mental state I need to be in to enjoy this game.

"On second thought, why don't I do this?" Arthur throws his Blind Bomb, then casts Sealing at Baddie Panda, both from the Back Row. "You'll have to hit Big Sister Bear again this Round, but next Round you can use your powers to revive Alexis."

QM Note: Sorry I wasn't clearer! Those are indeed your three choices, but "dead golem" will restore the spirit fragment.

"I've got Broody Bear!" Arthur calls, casting an Ice Spell at Broody Bear while also casting Sealed at Baddie Panda, both from the Back Row. "Althior, if you're going to throw your bomb, let me go first, that way there's a chance I can make all of them Fragile first." OOC: Free Hits? Also, my Power is wrong, it should be 55 since I'm now using Zoot's Rebel for my attacks.

"I think that would be best." Arthur pauses. "I know those leggings will protect her here, I just worry about what would happen to her if something happened to us, that's all. Who knows what else could be waiting for us in this dollhouse?" "I do still think it would be best for Alexis to take on Broody once it's been Jinxed; even one or two Assassinations would help us greatly. You should probably take on Big Sister Bear, since you and I are the only ones who can survive at all if it gets a hit in." Arthur attempts to forecast a Cold weather, then casts Sleep at Snooty Bear, both from the Back Row. OOC: I have GOT to remember I can do that!