Myrddyn

Erik heals Heckz, Drucilla and Thalion, before following the party up the stairs.

Erik raises his boot, but puts it back down without issue when Heckz and the teachers try to stop him. "Children..." He scowls, but his helmet obscures most of his face. They're hardly children anymore. They look 16 or so. Maybe they didn't kill her, but with the five of them egging each other on, they definitely could have. And if they're kidnapping and stealing now, when they're weak children, what are they gonna do when they're older and actually have some kind of power? He steps back and watches in silence as other people are sent off in the box, before following the rest of the party.

"Their leader's called Grant, did you say, Sorsha? Which one's he? Pointy-hair?" If Sorsha identifies one of them as being the leader, Erik walks to him and bends down. He slides one of his Twin Axes out of his belt, and waves it near the boys face. "I'm not gonna threaten to kill you, because I don't really do that sort of thing. But after what you just pulled... If you don't want to come to the school, I can understand that. Ransoming a teacher? I suppose I can see why you made that decision. But it was still damned stupid. Did you not notice the demons everywhere? And stealing those kids lunches was the lowest part. You think they all love school? Some of them feel the same way as you about it, I'm sure." Erik's voice fades out. "Y'know, I doubt you're paying any attention to what I'm saying. You didn't before, and you're half asleep now." Megablocking kids. Gonna grow up to be entitled, psycho nutters if no-one does anything about it. Killing 'em would probably be for the greater good. Erik attempts to stomp on the leaders leg. Possibly breaking it? Guess I don't have the guts to kill him, but at least maybe the pain will get my point across. If the kid appears to be in danger of dying, Erik heals him.

I do believe Eric's Boots of Evasion should have halved this damage. So he'd be on 29?

"I considered that, but if I were in their position, I would only have moved the furniture back far enough to open the door that much." Erik sees Thalion roll in a sleep bomb and shrugs. "That bomb shouldn't hurt 'em bad anyway." "Heckz, do you want to send someone in with the Ruby Slippers? Just to make sure that teacher's alright, and clear any obstructions that might block the door from the inside?"

As he makes his way around the corner, Erik turns around and realises no-one followed him. He glances back around the corner, sees the door is now open slightly, and hears the rest of the party discussing handing the lamp through the crack. Oh. There I was thinking we'd leave stuff in front of the door and the kids would come out and get it when they heard our footsteps move away. He fishes in his pouch for the pipeweed he'd taken up smoking when he became a Shaman, and his hand comes out full of coins. And I must have offered Karie my pipeweed. Not my finest hour. He awkwardly makes his way back down the corridoor, stepping as quietly as he can, as much out of embarrassment to avoid drawing the attention of his questmates as to avoid letting the Rogues hear him. They'll think I've gone mad, stomping off all of a sudden and throwing around a bag of pipeweed! At least most of them probably aren't paying attention. He retrieves his pipeweed, either from the floor where it must have fallen if Karie did not accept it, or awkwardly from wherever she put it if she accepted it, before grabbing his coinpouch from his belt. "I take it we aren't pooling our gold and offering what we have to them now, then? We must have over 2000 pieces between us." He whispers to whichever party members hear him.

Erik sees Karie emerge in her ridiculous dress, and has to bite his tongue to keep from giggling when he hears her talk. He grabs his pouch of 35 coins, jingles it, and hands it to Karie. He raises his voice, trying to make sure the Rogues hear him without seeming like he's talking to them, closes the faceplate on his helmet, and speaks gruffly. "Megablocks, harlot. You and your insatiable appetite for sex. If you wanna defile those kids, I'm off to do the job we were hired for. Be sure to give them those coins for me, and tell 'em I'll be back with more later." Erik stomps away from the door, more heavily than normal at first, but stepping more lightly as he gets further down the hall, beckoning for Sorsha, Noel, Pepe and Nugwug to follow him. When he gets out of sight of the doorway, he stops and waits.

"We don't have nearly that much money at the moment, but we can see how much we can acquire, if you give us some time. That shouldn't be a problem, though, if you have all that food in there." Erik diplomatically calls through the door in response, before stepping back and replacing his Peacekeepers Totem with whatever he was wearing before he equipped it. He turns and whispers to the rest of the party. "Wow, you were right about these 'Rogues' being horrid little megablocks, Sorsha. But even so, they are just immature, spoiled kids. I'd like to see about getting that teacher out, as well. We don't have enough gold to meet their demands, though, so the way I see it, we can either pretend we'll give them the money, and jump them when they open the door to get it, or get a mage to blast the door down. Either way, I think we should regroup and discuss this with the rest of the party first. We might end up fighting them, and outnumbering them should give us a better chance to take them alive."

Erik grabs his Peacekeepers Totem, and calls diplomatically "We're from Heroica. We've got a bunch of weapons and a box we can ship you back to Eubric in, assuming you don't want to stay in there until you starve. You wanna let us in now?"

"Yeah, lets move out." Erik heads towards the Auditorium. What exactly does "pose as undead" mean? Are they immune to non-elemental attacks? Or avoid free hits from undead?

"Ah, I see. So did she speak to you before or after the demons started to appear?" "Well, they might not be needed, but I don't want to risk ending up fighting demons I can't see."Erik turns to Karie. "I'm sure we'll end up there sooner or later. We can check that room north of the north demonic door first if you think it's worth it, I guess." "Sorrow, can I have that helmet?" Erik equips the helmet in place of the Peacekeepers Totem. if he receives it.

Erik sighs. He idly picks up his Peacekeepers Totem. "Well... If we need to find this Grumpkin girl before we can rescue the kids in the Archives... Then we'll need to go get her from the demonic dark corridor, and torches might be handy there. They didn't do much before, but every little bit counts, hey?" Erik says Diplomatically. "If it would help, you can carry the torches, as an official member of the school staff, and we can put them back later."

Mostly, yeah. There's not really a reason it needs a buff, but I wouldn't mind one. And making the boots effect standard would, as you said, be minor.On somewhat of a different note, I just skimmed the hero list on the first page of the hall topic, and got results I find quite interesting. They could be slightly off. Cleric - 10 Ranger - 16 Barbarian - 17 Mage - 23 Rogue - 24 Knight - 29 Yeah, who would have thought it, Cleric has the least. But then quite a significant amount more people start as Knight than Rogue - they just don't stick around.

Warning: Lots of unmarked *Snip*s Perhaps. But the reason I went Barbarian over Cleric was because I didn't want to have to worry about Ether early into a game I hadn't played before. So their "Default"ness was actually the reason I chose it. That and I don't like tanks. Not exactly a hugely major issue, in my honest opinion. Yeah. Titanic Axe. There's the Twin Axe as well, but it started at power 5, and as far as I'm aware that is the weakest any dual-striking weapon gets. And believe me when I say if it had been up to me, they wouldn't be axes. I have no clue what I'll do for expert classes. Chi Monk is probably my best bet.Artificer uses "Everyday items", but apparently not Axes. Marauders use light weapons. Axes might not generally be particularly light, but they're usually lighter than Maces. Necromancers use "imposing" weapons, but not Axes. They use Maces again, though, so apparently Maces are both more imposing than Axes, and lighter than Axes. Maybe they're hollow? Dragoons and Skirmishers use polearms, but not Axes. Axes are polearms, aren't they? They have poles for handles. Just stabby polearms, then. Pretty sure Regulator is no longer unlockable. Winged Warrior, Infiltrators and Beast Warriors use Axes, but also have access to ranged weapons. So, better to go to from Ranger. Alchemist uses Axes. Shaman's big advantage is sustainability. Natural Respite, Extra Critical healing, Ether-less, fully healing shield rolls, and Meditate. That said, a Cleric>Shaman has about +1 HP and +4 Ether over a Barbarian>Shaman, and the weapons they have from their basic classes again slightly favour the Cleric. Both have Hammers, Barbarian shares two weapon types with Knight, and Cleric only shares one with Knight, but two with Mage, one of which is ranged. Perhaps, but Cryos raises a valid point, plus it seems kind-of unrealistic - it's one thing to be really tough and able to take hard knocks and recover quickly, but recovering WHILE you're being whacked just takes it to another level.I think the obvious buff to Barbarian/Natural Respite would be making it heal fully, without needing Barbarian Boots.

"Sending these guys off now would mean Noel would have to make an extra shipment. There's still that locked door to the Archives we haven't been through, I believe." "Pepe, do any of those keys hanging from your belt unlock the door to the archives?" Erik also tries to take the torches off the walls, just in case.

Erik follows the rest of the party. "I'd like to kill this darkness creature too, but I think our party is meant to avoid fights?"

"Woah, wait up, I've still got a couple of tonics. I'm sure other people do as well. No sense paying for this overpriced stuff." Erik says, seeing Karie go to put money into the Automedic. "Anyone need some of mine?" He pulls a handful of tonics out of a pouch and extends his hand, turning around to offer them to everyone. He looks up at the Automedic's eyes. "You talk as well as stare?"

Quarryman, I believe Namyrra could swap out the Bloody Bug for a Splatterfly and then swap a Gloom Widow with one of the Tangleweeds for no additional cost. Only a slight damage increase though. Seriously, cocaine messes you up.

Erik follows along as well. He reaches for his new helmet, but realises Sorrow still seems to have it. "Mind passing me that new helmet, Sorrow? And maybe there's a piece of armour or two that other party members could put to use?" "Speaking of which, Sorsha, could I borrow one of your non-elemental weapons, in case we run into more enemies that are immune to magic?" Endgame, I don't think loot distribution actually ended up bolded after the Armoury fight.

"Two. I think you forgot to include those still with us." (54-36-5-11) "Sounds like an alright deal to me, Sorrow." Erik turns to Djinnifer. "Will this new face and body you give him affect anything more than his appearence?"

"I'll see what Djinnifer wants from me, after Sorrow, before you have her bind to you, if you don't mind, Heckz." "I think it's just the janitor and that orc who have run off. And I think we could send either of them with these five students." "Karie, do you want to lend that Medal of Valour to someone, if you aren't wearing it?" "Speaking of which, Aunt Hymnessamine, if you give it back once we're done here, I'll lend you this Hundred Hero Hymn. I don't think you'll know it, It was writen by a bard named Borris I met in a tavern not long ago."

Well, in that case, you exchange the ability to focus both your hits on one enemy for the ability to hit one additional enemy. (1 hit enemy A, + 1 hit enemy B OR 2 hits enemy A) versus (1 hit to three different enemies). Since the Dual-strike still only prevents free hits from one enemy, it is often more beneficial to concentrate both attacks on the one target, in order to remove that target from the field sooner. Conclusion: Perhaps somewhat OP. But it's a one-off item, from a massive quest. Plus, there's already more OP items, I'm sure. And, y'know, at least it isn't Hybros who has it.

Yeah, as other people have said, they aren't actually that rare. Especially considering #99 just dropped one that also ignores SP. But enemy SP is not that common, so I don't think it's really that much more powerful than a standard Broomstick, so personally I consider Broomsticks to be more a Staff with a special ability than a whole new weapon type. Broomsticks without effects are less powerful than Dual-Strike weapons. They ignore both hero and enemy row, which is uncommon anyway, but they have no option for double damage. So, in my opinion, a Dual-Striking Broomstick would be way OP, but a Dual-Striking Bow would not.

Erik stares in awe as his ritual heals everyone up to full health and takes out one, almost two demons. He barely even notices the Bagpipes assault. "Yeah, we could see if Drucilla can kill them with less effort, but then we'd risk giving them a chance to play more of that awful music." He equips his Barbarian Boots in place of his Peacekeepers Totem from the back row." Battle Order: Erik~~~Hit by Bagpipes Amorith Hit by Trumpet Hymnessamine plays Angelic Aria.

Ooh yeah cool. "Good to have you all back with us." Erik heals Heckz from the back row with Voltedge. "I suggest we put healers first, to ensure that the recently revived people are not taken out again by the Chaotic Concerto.