Flipz

Well...I suppose I can try to host the pair of Quests I have ready. I already got all of it pre-approved by Sandy before the Anniversary, all I'm waiting on now is for 150 to let out, and for me to finish some of the sets (although more help there would be greatly appreciated, things IRL have been...difficult, which makes it hard for me to handle artistic stuff like building). Really, my big issues have been feeling creatively drained and wondering if people were still interested in Questing under me after so long, but if people are interested I can certainly try to get the gears turning again.

Loot: Addok-Zo: Carrion Beetle Horn, 35 gold Boris: Ice Bomb, Stun Bomb, Ruby, 9 gold Zanna: Stun Bomb, 30 gold "If you think you can kill a Selkreeth, you are wrong," Zanna offers simply, carefully staring into the bandit's eyes. "But then, maybe the Blanton already told you that...am I not right, Chuck?"

Seeing that the battle is nearly won, Zanna attacks Cavespider Youngling A from the Front Row with Sven's Dagger. Samantha attacks the Horned Carrion Beetle twice from the Front Row. Same Battle Order

Zanna stabs the White Widow Youngling from the Front Row with Sven's Dagger. Samantha attacks Cavespider Youngling Mob B twice from the Front Row. Same Battle Order.

Zanna looks as if she is about to protest Boris' suggestion, but then spots the flaws in her own plan she'd overlooked. She and Samantha both follow Boris' plan.

Zanna and Samantha follow Boris' suggestion.

"Zed?? Oh, you mean Zeus...I liked him. He--wait, what?!" Arthur looks back and forth from Namyrra to Pretzel to Hybros. "...she's dead? Truly, finally dead?" Arthur focuses on Hybros. "Then you have my thanks. And likely the thanks of my family, too, were it not for the...ridiculous political nonsense we've let ourselves get wrapped up in. If there's anything I can help you with...anything at all...let me know. The Ziegfrieds owe you a debt, even if we can't officially admit it, and I would be happy to help repay it."

Psst, Pie...that Counter should have dealt Poisoned-by-10 to the Pilgrim along with the Jinxed. I do want to say that I really like that battle mechanic for the Burning Pilgrim. A very creative boss concept, and maybe even something to mimic (no pun intended ) in the future.

Zanna and Samantha repeat their attacks. "Leave the first ones, khrnmalv, they hurt the Samantha less." Battle Order: Samantha Zanna John Alburn Addok-Zo Boris (If no action is given by @Goliath, Addok-Zo attacks Cavespider youngling Mob B with his handcannon from the Back Row.)

Don't Fellows have moderation/editing powers within the Special Interests area? Plus, if/when a new Heroica Master is appointed, they'd presumably have the ability to edit the first post in the Hall (at least, if this software is at all similar to the other ones I've used ). At this point it's pretty much up to whoever Dragonator picks.

"Khrnmalv, you should use that...thing," Zanna offers, gesturing to Addok-Zo's Ice Bomb, "and you, khrnkav, should use that one," she adds to Boris with a gesture at his Dirt Bomb. "That will kill the weak and hurt the strong." With a flourish, Zanna attacks the Dread Spider with Sven's Dagger from the Front Row, while Samantha attacks Cave Spider A and Cave Spider B from the Back Row. Battle Order: The Samantha The Alburn Zanna The Addok-Zo The Bruhalv

"You're not the only one. But I think the Old Gods offer a clue: they care not for their own good works, but instead nurture and defend the works of others. We are young, by their reckoning, so it's natural we feel the need to act, and act directly. Perhaps once we attain their age, ego will have lost its appeal, and we will rather intervene than truly act on our own accord." Arthur takes another long drink. "But I'm sure that's for another day, for me anyway. I gave up the life of a Hero once before. I'm not quite ready to do it again quite so soon...and especially not with the Darkness looming on the horizon." "Ah! Thank you, Namyrra. Might I trouble you to exchange 500 of that gold for a Cornucopia from the Sungold store? I'm also in the market for a Ruby, if you're open to it." Arthur slides back the requisite 650 gold total. "I'm glad to hear the gloves are serving you well. Out of curiosity, where exactly did they serve you? It's been quite some time since we made our deal, but I don't think I've seen you since. Long Quest?" "Monk Pretzel! Good to see you as well. If you're up for some Marketplace shopping, I'd very much like to pick up some supplies." Arthur scribbles down a list to show the Artisan. "Let's see...does 850 gold sound fair for this lot?" 100 = 2x Blind Bomb 100 = 2x Seal Bomb 050 = 1x Stun Bomb 300 = 1x Desert Cloak (Immunity to fire-, earth- and wind-elemental damage; backwear.) 300 = remove gems from cloak, imbue into Shadeaux Cloak (6 gem operations) 150 = Imbue loose Ethereal Opal, Garnet, and Ruby into Icy Halberd (3 gem operations) -------------------------------- 1000 gold (750 w/Artisan discount)

Noting a new Knight with a sign pinned to the next table over, Arthur surveys the listed deal. "60 Gold for a Health Core? Done," says Arthur, handing over the gold. "Pleasure doing business with you, newcomer." "You...might say that. Remember that big storm a few months back, nearly destroyed the city? I helped put an end to it. Had to take out one of the Old Gods' original allies against the Darkness to do it, but the fool wouldn't see reason." Arthur looks down at the floor. "It cost me Miirym, though. She left me, before the others killed her grandfather. I still worry about her--what that did to her, and who she's becoming without me. Part of me wants to go out searching for her, but another part's telling me it would only make things worse." Arthur chuckles darkly. "At least she's not a human child. The two of us--we can afford to play the long game. She's young, but she's also a Dragon--she can defend herself just fine without me. And even if it takes decades to find each other once more--it's not like that's a significant chunk of our lifespans. And ultimately, that's why I'm not going after her--we've got centuries, or longer, so there's no sense in damaging the relationship any further this early on. We've got to share the world with each other for a very, very long time, so if she needs her space, I'm going to give it to her...no matter how painful it is for me." The Skirmisher takes a long pull from his drink. "Besides, she's got a protector out there--and a damn good one, an immortal who owes the both of us a life-debt. With him on the case, I know she's safe, and if she needs my help, he'll let me know. For now, that has to be enough."

"Tiring, isn't it?" Arthur says with a sigh as he seats himself at Matthias' table. "I've been gone for weeks, but I walk back in and it's all the same. At least a few more Heroes have arrived from their missions, though. Good to have everyone in one place for once." Arthur glances around casually. "So, how are things in the world? Anything new to be worried about?"

With no preparations to make, Zanna dismounts her horse, prepared for battle once more.

Seeming distracted, Zanna uses her Magnifying Glass to examine each of the chests for signs of tampering.

Zanna seems surprised at Samantha's generosity, but she smiles at the young woman. *This one has a warrior's spirit,* she thinks to herself, *to her, the battle was its own prize. She sets a good example.* "Well done, all of you," Zanna commends her allies as she hands out the loot, adding the 5 Gold she had stolen from the spider to the loot as well. Loot Distribution: Addok-Zo: 1x Lightning Bomb, 1x Ice Bomb, 15 Gold Boris: 20 Gold John Alburn: 1x Lightning Bomb, 8 Gold (if refused, bomb goes to Addok-Zo and gold goes to Boris) With the spiders vanquished and the spoils distributed, Zanna moves to cut free the trapped pig and human the spiders had captured.

I don't have a great screenshot of the old board, but the difference in color should be visible enough from Firefox's cached thumbnail: The "unread" icon seems about the same color as on the old board (though you can't see it here), but the "you've already read this topic that you posted in" icon definitely seems different--as I recall, the "already read" indicator was a lot darker and less saturated, almost gray compared to the brighter version for "unread messages in this topic you've posted in". Like I said, though, it's only a minor gripe, but since we're still in the process of tweaking things I thought I'd bring it up.

Say, is there any chance the color of the "topic read" brick could be changed? With the old icon, I could easily tell which topics I'd posted in had new posts and which ones couldn't, but now the colors are just similar enough to trip me up. A minor gripe, to be sure, but it is frustrating, especially on desktop (my phone screen seems slightly better for differentiating those particular colors...or maybe it's just that I can hold it closer to my face and zoom in to see more clearly ).

Zanna attacks Glow Widow C from the Front Row. Samantha attacks Cavespider Youngling Mob A twice from the Front Row. Battle Order: Zanna Samantha John Alburn Addok-Zo Boris

I mean, I got it in like five seconds, but then again I play the PC who worshiped Chaos at one point, so I'm pretty sure my brain is broken in some pretty specific ways already to let me solve something like that.

No. No. "Ultimate Boss Battle" doesn't--and shouldn't--necessarily mean a long, dragging slog that lasts forever and is nigh-unbeatable. Too often we see boss battles (here and elsewhere) that either counteract all the heroes' advantages or just remove all the enemies' weaknesses, so that everything eventually just comes down to the roll of the dice and these high-level characters don't get to use any of their special abilities and skills that they've built up and saved for just the right moment. If the "big bad" is just going to be immune to anything you can throw at it, why even bother hanging onto rare and powerful items at all? Why bother having rare and powerful items if there's never a good opportunity to use them? Why bother growing powerful if you never get to use that power? Let's take a look at the specific scenario. First of all, Baba was nasty--all of her Specials, save one, were area-of-effect, which meant one Round of bad luck and the entire Hero party was toast. Sure, her Level made her less of a threat in that regard, but she still could have OHKO'd Byblos and 2HKO'd several other party members; much higher than she was and she would have been unfair, especially with her getting the Encouraged buff later that would have OHKO'd literally the entire party other than Pretzel, and even then he only survived with the extremely expensive Inspired buff. Second, she had Perfect Dodge--until the relevant plot macguffin showed up to negate it, and the psycrown was both foreshadowed and specifically prepared for. I'm very much not a fan of the "no sell on anything other than one weak spot" school of boss design, but even so it's totally fair for the crown--an extremely powerful magic item via established lore--to counteract and nerf the major power that she relied on--and I would argue in-character over-relied on--to fuel her "invincibility". Third, look at it practically--even pretending that Baba was perma-Fragile, she could take a maximum of 1160 damage from Hybros per attack, and he was the only member of the party who could do anything at all to her. That's 10 attacks minimum (including the one that first applied the attack), and not all of those are going to land, or they might land but not deal as much damage--without autorolling, we'd have been looking at a solid two to three weeks of only one player being able to play. Letting the players nerf her and autorun was good design by Sandy, and did well to emphasize how pathetic Baba really was once stripped of her crutch. She was the "Big Bad of Heroica" because of that one power of hers that let her always be one step ahead and always be too powerful to challenge. The Heroes have finally achieved true power at epic levels (the Level 50 and up players are basically playing the equivalent of Level 20 in D&D or Pathfinder), so it makes perfect sense that several of them together--or even just one of them equipped with the proper magic items--could go toe-to-toe with threats considered impossible by the common bystander or even fellow Heroes of lower level. Could Keliim have taken on Baba? Kiray? Annienal? Jinnipher? Miderun? Bobby? Maybe after she got nerfed with Minimizing Dust, but who carries that around? High-level Heroes with experience of fighting ridiculously powerful enemies that need a nerf, that's who. The Heroes of 148 earned their power over years of play, and they poured a ton of expensive resources into this Quest and into this battle specifically. It's only fitting that they reap the rewards of their persistence and diligence and preparation. Oh, good someone got it. I was worried KotZ was going to claim the dubious honor of being the first QM to achieve a TPKO Quest failure via logic puzzle.

With a grin of acknowledgement to her accomplice, Zanna resumes the fight against their foes. Zanna attacks Glow Widow B from the Front Row with Sven's Dagger; Samantha attacks Glow Widow A and Cavespider Youngling Mob B from the Front Row. Battle Order: The Samantha The Samantha Zanna The Addok-Zo The Alburn The Bruhalv

Zanna pauses mid-attack to size up her fellow fighter. "Hmm...you have mshava...very well, follow it and fight from the Front--" At that moment, Zanna is attacked, and Stunned by the lightning spider's shocking web. While Zanna recovers in the Front Row, Samantha attacks Glow Widow B and C from the Front Row. Battle Order: Zanna Samantha Samantha John Alburn Addok-zo Boris