This island was never meant for humans - Let's Play Tainted Grail

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bagrada: Aug 4, 2007; The Demogorgon is tired of your silly human bickering!

1 ~~B, scout towards 108 since we have a free move from the event~~ B, explore the mounds and maybe do some more hunting to stock up.
2 not sure yet, leaning A ~~but if we go towards 108 that's the wrong direction. Leaning A only~~ because its an inhabited town, the miners can pull back and let the dead rest when the menhir goes out
3 A need $
4 A I'm sure Tom Bombadil will bail us out if we hit anything nasty
5 C save for empathy

Has anyone played the early access digital game? How does it compare to this? I'm guessing its not a direct copy like Spirit Island, and it doesn't even seem as close as Gloomhaven.

bagrada fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Oct 28, 2020

# ? Oct 28, 2020 17:26

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# ? May 15, 2024 08:09

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

bagrada posted:

1 B, scout towards 108 since we have a free move from the event

As a note, we can't travel directly from 106 to 103 since there is no travel arrow (there is a big chasm between the 2 locations), so this would cost us 3 Energy (2 with the discount).

And yeah, the digital game is not a 1 to 1 translation, is more in the like an "inspired by" kind of thing. It's kinda like a crappier Slay the Spire.

EDIT: Update at the bottom of the previous page

That Italian Guy fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Oct 28, 2020

# ? Oct 28, 2020 17:39

bagrada: Aug 4, 2007; The Demogorgon is tired of your silly human bickering!

That Italian Guy posted:

As a note, we can't travel directly from 106 to 103 since there is no travel arrow (there is a big chasm between the 2 locations), so this would cost us 3 Energy (2 with the discount).

Good point, I'll change my vote in the previous post. I'm all about exploring in games but this game seems pretty tight on resources so it isn't worth roaming around too far back and forth.

Do we know how big the map might get/how big the island is? Or is that a spoiler?

# ? Oct 28, 2020 17:43

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

bagrada posted:

Do we know how big the map might get/how big the island is? Or is that a spoiler?

We do have this map, although it's old and may be out of date by now:

# ? Oct 28, 2020 17:49

Omobono: Feb 19, 2013; That's it! No more hiding in tomato crates! It's time to show that idiota Germany how a real nation fights!

For pasta~! CHARGE!

1) B - forage some more at 102
2) A - metagaming a bit the village menhir is the magic path, the mounds menhir is the physical path, and we have Maggot to convert energy into magic
3) A - we need cash either way
4) A - exploring should check practicality, right? Or spirituality with Maggot
5) B - Maggot is specialized in spirituality already, so Ailei should cover practicality

We should probably light a menhir next day (not the current one). This random event delayed the event deck by one, it's clearly a warning.

# ? Oct 28, 2020 18:03

nweismuller: Oct 11, 2012; They say that he who dies with the most Opil wins.

I am winning.

1) B, the Warrior Fair.
2) A
3) A
4) A
5) C, Empathy

We have a bit of time before our first Menhir goes dark, and the timer on our next one starts at the same time regardless. I'm inclined to try and save another settlement from the wyrdness, thus incline towards helping Whitening, and we badly need Wealth in order to rekindle Menhirs. And if we're rekindling the Whitening Menhir, we'll lose our chance to check out the Warrior Fair or the Swords for a while, so may as well see what we can discover at one of them before we focus on getting the Whitening menhir up and running.

nweismuller fucked around with this message at 18:40 on Oct 28, 2020

# ? Oct 28, 2020 18:35

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

1A
2B
3A - we need wealth a lot more than rep at the moment.
Indifferent on 4 - this game is full of cool places to explore, but it's often risky. Note that this was one of the places where we were hinted to be able to learn Menhir Rites, so since we already have those, there's a chance we'd end up duplicating effort we've already made. (There's probably also other things to see/find, though.)
5C - skills are really good, you guys. Also, it doesn't seem like Ailei's really been hurting for lack of Spirituality. Double Practicality might be good (and would set up for Practicality skills later), but it's not really clear to me how often it's likely to come up. I think Maggot's been having more trouble lacking Practicality at all.

In general, I'd recommend interleaving some card purchases with stat/skill buys - the advanced cards will significantly improve our odds in combat and diplomacy by simultaneously pushing out not-great cards like Risky Attack and bringing in more powerful ones. But since we already have 4 XP, it won't hurt to wait a little longer and get a skill.

# ? Oct 28, 2020 19:28

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

nweismuller posted:

I'm inclined to try and save another settlement from the wyrdness.

You really can't. Lighting the Whitening menhir will only last a handful of additional turns and I guarantee we can't just sit around relighting it. This is a grander quest than that.

# ? Oct 28, 2020 19:30

nweismuller: Oct 11, 2012; They say that he who dies with the most Opil wins.

I am winning.

malkav11 posted:

You really can't. Lighting the Whitening menhir will only last a handful of additional turns and I guarantee we can't just sit around relighting it. This is a grander quest than that.

All right, temporarily saving Whitening, at least.

# ? Oct 28, 2020 19:36

habituallyred: Feb 6, 2015

1A
2B
3A
4A
5C This location will go away in the future, and skills are really good folks.

# ? Oct 28, 2020 20:22

Kobal2: Apr 29, 2019

1) A then B Hunting Grounds. We still have a couple days' worth of menhir mojo to spend and we'll need food to rekindle a new one. Also to keep, yanno, living. Plus the FAQ suggests stocking up on food big times rather than moving back and forth repeatedly. Since we need money, I'd suggest we spend the whole next day lewting and exploring before taking our free move east, and the day after that spending the whole day hunting. Then we can decide on 2.
2) TBD, with a preference for B since it keeps a loc we haven't explored yet open.
3) A. Rep we have, moolah is what we need. We shall gracefully take this entire village's worth of sentimental tokens and treasured family heirlooms in exchange for a leg of boar. Let catastrophe profiteering work for *us*, for once this year !
4) We have a bow and wish to... I mean A.
5) As we say in Blood Bowl : skills pay the bills. C With any luck we might even get enough XP by digging through the mounds and/or facing the unspeakable horrors dwelling within to get Coercion before moving to Whitening and reaping the instant rewards of bleeding-edge bullying !

# ? Oct 29, 2020 07:33

NeoRonTheNeuron: Oct 14, 2012

During the fight with Maggot, the Blood Moon daily event said that green encounters do 1 unblockable damage for each enemy attack. I dunno the terminology that well, but I think that should've triggered. That said, this is probably moot because Maggot didn't take any other damage this turn, started at full HP, and rested to go back to full HP.

I really like the new combat layout! It's much clearer now. Perhaps 1 thing that maybe was inaccurate is that the tokens gained should've been "prevent Red token (removal)" and "prevent HEART (wound/damage)" instead of 2 of the latter token.

I'm not sure this game gives us many bonuses for finishing early. While we are running out of time, I do believe we can explore once more before lighting a menhir. The card for the next day adds a random event to the top of the pile, and if I understand that correctly, that means we get at least 1 more day before the next story-card occurs.

1: B It's okay to spend more time exploring, but I don't want to go anywhere new. Spam Hunt in the Hunting Grounds to stockpile on food
2: A Light the Whitening because I think it pays to have some extra wealth around, and the location action lets you exchange our new food horde for wealth.
3: A Get wealth because we need money.
4: A Exploring is good. Usually. Ailei has the HP to spare in the worst case.
5: C Wait for a skill. I think Ailei's doing fine on diplomacy so far.

I like the design of this top row of cards. The Hunting Grounds gets you the food you need to activate the menhir, and both menhir sites have a way of getting wealth. The Whitening is a safer location to exchange your food for wealth (as opposed to gaining trauma and spending more energy), but it requires magic to activate. If you don't have a way of generating that, then you can always choose to activate the Fore-Dweller Mounds menhir instead.

# ? Oct 29, 2020 10:28

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

NeoRonTheNeuron posted:

During the fight with Maggot, the Blood Moon daily event said that green encounters do 1 unblockable damage for each enemy attack. I dunno the terminology that well, but I think that should've triggered. That said, this is probably moot because Maggot didn't take any other damage this turn, started at full HP, and rested to go back to full HP.

You are right! I realized that too late but, as you said, no harms done.

NeoRonTheNeuron posted:

I really like the new combat layout! It's much clearer now. Perhaps 1 thing that maybe was inaccurate is that the tokens gained should've been "prevent Red token (removal)" and "prevent HEART (wound/damage)" instead of 2 of the latter token.

Turns out I kinda screwed up in that Combat :v:

I though the Puffin's attack with 2

was going to be "deal 2 damage (3 with Blood Moon)", but instead it was "deal 1 damage (2 with Blood Moon), then destroy the last card in the sequence". So careful Attack was not going to be available for us to chain off to, meaning that Final Blow would have only dealt 5

instead of 6. Not a big difference, as if I had noticed that I would have activated the Clansword on Round 1 as well, closing that at 4

istead of 2 and winning the following Round with Final Blow nonetheless.

That said, I should have also put a "prevent

" token in the positive pile, in the current update, since that was an effect from Careful Attack.

# ? Oct 29, 2020 10:42

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Here's the thing about trading food for wealth: we need food literally every turn. Wealth we only need for specific things like lighting these specific menhir (menhirs vary widely). So it's not generally a good trade.

Also, keep in mind that hunting is not free. It's a fight every time we do it. That fight might be something we can win handily and with little cost, and better yet, give more food. But we've got rank 2 encounters in there, so, it may not.

# ? Oct 29, 2020 14:51

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Mid-vote Count Extravaganza

We are midway through to the next Update, and this is what's probably/maybe/certainly going to happen with the current votes:

Possible Futures posted:

1) Currently exploring a bit more has a 1 vote lead over concentrating on a Menhir right away. If this wins, given the current prefereces we are most likely going to dig around the Fore-Dweller Mounds and gather some extra Food in 102.
2) Rekindling the Whitening Menhir over the one in the Fore-Dweller Mounds also has a 1 vote lead.
3) We are almost certainly going to pick ~~grandma's wedding ring~~ 2 Wealth as our reward for helping out the people of Whitening.
4) We are almost certainly going to ~~dig too greedily and too deep into the Mountain~~ look for hidden treasure inside the Mounds.
5) We are most likely going to save our Exp for now.

So if you want to make sure your preferred option wins, or if you want to change the course of action for our party don't forget to vote!

That Italian Guy fucked around with this message at 15:54 on Oct 29, 2020

# ? Oct 29, 2020 15:51

Kobal2: Apr 29, 2019

NeoRonTheNeuron posted:

but it requires magic to activate. If you don't have a way of generating that, then you can always choose to activate the Fore-Dweller Mounds menhir instead.

Speaking of which, something I'm not clear on (and I don't think has been mentioned in the thread or FAQ) : is Magic a shareable resource just like food or cash ? It would not necessarily make sense, but it wouldn't necessarily NOT make sense either.
If it is, well, we could have worse ideas than storing a few points of juju on Ailei and let Maggot polish his staff more regularly. It's good for physical well-being and has been linked with better mental health, too.

# ? Oct 29, 2020 18:46

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Kobal2 posted:

Speaking of which, something I'm not clear on (and I don't think has been mentioned in the thread or FAQ) : is Magic a shareable resource just like food or cash ? It would not necessarily make sense, but it wouldn't necessarily NOT make sense either.

You cannot trade Exp, Rep or Magic - but you can "pool" it when you are interacting in a single instance with multiple characters. So you can use 2 points of Maggot's Magic to activate a Menhir that requires 1 Magic per character, but you can't practice magical onanism - or at least, not with those benefits :v:

# ? Oct 29, 2020 19:33

NeoRonTheNeuron: Oct 14, 2012

Ah, rep cannot be traded. In the case we did vote to pick 2 rep instead of 2 wealth, would we also have needed to select who to allocate it to?

I hope leaving Maggot at 1 rep doesn't become a problem later in the game.

I also think that with Maggot's overpowered sword that we won't have any trouble Hunting green encounters. Since he's at full HP and Ailei can heal, we have lots of leeway.

IMO, the decision for question 1 (to light a menhir vs explore) is whether or not there's a benefit to finishing the "light a menhir" quest early. I'm banking on "no", but we'll see!

NeoRonTheNeuron fucked around with this message at 00:21 on Oct 30, 2020

# ? Oct 30, 2020 00:17

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

To answe NeoRonTheNeuron's question: Rep is probably best stockpiled on Ailei, since we can alway pool it when we are exploring with 2 Characters, and if someone's doing a Rep check alone, it's probably her.

Expedition Log posted:

Current Location: Fore-Dweller Mounds (106)
Tasks: none!
Active Menhirs: Cuanacth Farmhold (101), 2 days left.

Today's Event is:

Vote Results posted:

1) We are going to explore/stockpile a bit more before rekindling a Menhir.
2) We are going to light up the Menhir in Whitening.
3) We have picked 2 Wealth as our reward for helping out the people of Whitening (current A: 2, M: 0); we can freely trade Wealth as long as we're in the same location, I've temporarily assigned it to Ailei since she's the one doing most of the talking.
4) We are going to look for hidden treasure inside the Mounds.
5) We are saving our Exp for now.

If we want to hunt, we'll need Maggot to lead; that means we probably want Ailei to do some Exploration. But since this seems like a dangerous place, we'll have them both go.

Exploration: Fore-Dweller Mounds (106) posted:

- Ailei and Maggot spend 1 each (current A: 7, M: 4).
Intro:

Verse 1:

One for one +1 seems like a steep price to pay, even more so if we need to forage some food afterwards; failing and coming back is going to be more expensive, though. We'll use Ailei's surplus to pay for most of this, since we want to preserve Maggot's Energy for later.
- Ailei spends 3 (current: 4). Maggot spends 1 (current: 3). We have 2 total Courage in the party, so we gain +4 to the roll. Unfortunately, we only roll a 2
Verse 8:

That was baaarely enough. If we had scrounged up on Energy, we would have lost 1 each. Note that spending this much on an Exploration roll is somenthing I would not have done normally. This time we had 2 mitigating factors, though: our other objective for the day is right next door; and we has a prophetic dream about a Secret hidden under the Mounds.
Verse 3:

Not a good place? Nonsense. We have a loot box and we want to use it.
Verse 9:

The good news: ghosts are rich (current Wealth A:3, M1). The bad news: ghosts are real.

We draw 2 Purple Encounters and pick the strongest one (highest Encounter Value):

Ahahah, no. We had not fought any Purple Encounters yet, so we still had our (slightly reskinned) Tutorial fight on top. Quite appropriately, the second one is an whole animated burial mound. Even with the Slow trait (we draw +1 card at the beginning and each round afterwards), we have no chance to win against a EV 14 enemy - especially since the Shatter trait means that every weapons we use against it would be discarded at the end of the Combat (and we really, really like our Clansword). Apparently, though, burial mounds are not super mobile, so we can escape quite easily - we only lose the last 2 cards of the Combat Sequence on an opportunity Attack, so a retreat has no effect in this case.

Now that we have escaped the angry spirits, it's time to bust down some doors! We don't have a fancy Steel Smasher, but Maggot got swole, so we satisfy the Aggression requirements.

Exploration: Fore-Dweller Mounds (106), continued posted:

Verse 10:

We already have Secret 11 (the Menhir Rites card), so our reward is only 1 point of Magic each (current A: 1, M: 4).

- We are Travelling to Location 102, Hunters' Grove. Each party member spends 1 (current A: 3, M: 2). EDIT: I forgot the effect for the daily Event! Consider Maggot's Energy 1 point higher, the sheet at the end of the update has the correct amount.

There we activate the Location Action to Gather Food. Each party member spends 1 (current A: 2, M: 1). We draw and resolve a Green Encounter!

Wyrdbear posted:

Oh look, it's the bear...thing from Annihilation. It's "only" EV 8, but it hits like a truck; also, the Guardian trait means that, if we were to escape from combat, the Wyrdbear would stay on the Map. Not only we would trigger an Encounter with this monster if we were to enter the Location it's currently in; but each Round the Wyrdbear would roll a funky dice with 6 potential results: wander in one of the 4 cardinal directions; stay still; or decide it's time to gently caress off and leave. Things may get ugly if we can't close this fast.

We start with Ailei and we play Outsmart, gaining 1 , followed by Careful Attack; the bear attack us and Ailei suffers 1 damage (current: 6). At the end of the round, we draw Crippling Strike, an awesome card that is not going to get used, though. Cause...

It's Maggot's turn and that means claymore o'clock. We play Attack and gain 3 ; then we discard Reposition from our hand and gain 2 more thanks to our lovely Clansword effect. This is enough to win!

Even without the Clansword we would have been able to win by playing War Magic, but at the cost of 1 . If we were 1 off, though, the Wyrdbear would have attacked us for 4

The writing gets a bit tiny when 2 characters are involved, please let me know if it's still readable! We gain a total of 4 Food (current: 5 each) and we are ready to call it a day.

End of Day posted:

Rest:
- Ailei consumes 1 Food, recovers 1 . Well Rested! Energy is set to full+1 (8).
- Maggot consumes 1 Food, recovers 1 and loses1 . Exhausted! EDIT: I forgot the effect for the daily Event! Energy is set to full (6).
Advancement:
- Ailei current Exp is 4.
- Maggot current Exp is 2.
Dream:
Maggot spins a Dial: gets a Grail! No Nightmares tonight.

Tomorrow's Event is going to be:

There actually is at least 1 Guardian Encounter in our Gray deck, so one will spawn in Location 101 tomorrow. The first one we draw is:

A Bowmaiden :v:

RAW our Charm would make her disappear immediately, since we gain the Food and put her at the bottom of the deck when we draw the Encounter. Since we're not in the same location, though, I would say that the Bowmaiden will spawn normally in 101 but we'll be able to activate the charm (removing her and gaining 1 Food) if the character(s) Encountering her have the Stagfather's Charm. 2

for 1 Food is not exaclty a stellar exchange, but if we decide to go South, this is just going to be 1 free Food instead.

:siren:

VOTE IS NOW OPEN
:siren:

Vote Options posted:

NOTE: a Menhir doesn't disappear when reaching 0 days left, but only on the following day. This means the one in Cuanacth will go dark at the start of the 3rd day from now. We definitely want to rekindle another Menhir before then; these are the activation costs for both:
Fore-Dweller Mounds

Whitening

We now have enough resources for either. We should be able to light the one in the Mounds even if we explore some more, since we only need 2 ; we may run into some issues if we decide to rekindle the one in Whitening instead, since it requires 6 Energy. As someone mentioned, choosing one or the other will also influence the way we are exploring the island quite a bit, so have a look at the map if you have any preferences. With this in mind, please vote what we should do:

1) Explore more or not Vote A to spend the remaining 1 and a half days exploring (trying to get back in time to light a Menhir at the end of day 2) or B to light a Menhir up tomorrow.
2) If 1A wins, where are we exploring? (you can vote multiple options - we may split up the Party if necessary):
- A for Location 103, Warrior Fair.
- B for Location 105, Forlorn Swords.
- C for Location 108, ???
- D for Location 101, Cuanacth Farmhold. Specifically, there was a paregraph about Secret Card 66 (the Red Sign) there. Good or bad?
3) If 1B wins, which Menhir are we rekindling? Vote A to stick with Withening or B to light up the one in the Fore-Dweller Mounds instead. This is a repeated vote, but circumstances have changed enough - especially since there was a difference of only 1 preference last time - that I think we should vote again. If 1A wins, we may vote a third time if things are different enough

The other effect of me forgetting the daily Event effect, is that Ailei had 1 extra Energy point that she can't bank, so I'll retroactively spend it depending on your choices.

Explored Locations:
- 101
- 102
- 104
- 106
- 107
- 109

That Italian Guy fucked around with this message at 13:06 on Oct 30, 2020

# ? Oct 30, 2020 12:52

Kobal2: Apr 29, 2019

People voting, keep in mind that the menhir in Whitening requires a whopping 3 energy per character to wax. Since Maggot usually only gets 4 per day, that means we should end tomorrow at most 1 square away from there. Which also means that Maggot won't be able to use the Warrior Fair action.

1) A
2) A and B. Ailei goes to the Warrior Fair to train (and maybe explore & find a merc ? Who knows ! She's got energy to spare) ; Maggot goes to Forlorn Swords for some shopping. Do NOT, under any circumstance, infect Cuanacht with the loving plague !
3) Abstain, we'll see tomorrow

# ? Oct 30, 2020 13:24

Kanthulhu: Apr 8, 2009; NO ONE SPOIL GAME OF THRONES FOR ME!

IF SOMEONE TELLS ME THAT OBERYN MARTELL AND THE MOUNTAIN DIE THIS SEASON, I'M GOING TO BE PISSED.

BUT NOT HALF AS PISSED AS I'D BE IF SOMEONE WERE TO SPOIL VARYS KILLING A LANISTER!!!

(Dany shits in a field)

Kobal2 posted:

1) A
2) A and B. Ailei goes to the Warrior Fair to train (and maybe explore & find a merc ? Who knows ! She's got energy to spare) ; Maggot goes to Forlorn Swords for some shopping. Do NOT, under any circumstance, infect Cuanacht with the loving plague !
3) Abstain, we'll see tomorrow

I like this plan.

# ? Oct 30, 2020 14:46

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Yeah, that's why I wasn't super fussed about exploring the Mounds. You can get a few shinies, but the real treasure we already got in the Charred Conclave.

# ? Oct 30, 2020 16:03

bagrada: Aug 4, 2007; The Demogorgon is tired of your silly human bickering!

That's unexciting but I can see why they have to seed the rites in a few places since you need them or the game is over pretty fast.

# ? Oct 30, 2020 16:46

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

bagrada posted:

That's unexciting but I can see why they have to seed the rites in a few places since you need them or the game is over pretty fast.

Yep. And they have different checks along the way. In the thread we got the rites from the Conclave real easy because we had Maggot. But when I played previously, neither Beor nor Ailei had what it took to get the info from the dead druids. And without Beor it would be pretty easy to not have double aggression to get through that Mounds door (though there's another option - but you have to find it). My previous party got it a different way still, but we haven't seen that.

# ? Oct 30, 2020 17:04

Blue Link: Apr 22, 2014

Kobal2 posted:

1) A
2) A and B. Ailei goes to the Warrior Fair to train (and maybe explore & find a merc ? Who knows ! She's got energy to spare) ; Maggot goes to Forlorn Swords for some shopping. Do NOT, under any circumstance, infect Cuanacht with the loving plague !
3) Abstain, we'll see tomorrow

That seems reasonable.

# ? Oct 30, 2020 17:04

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

bagrada posted:

That's unexciting but I can see why they have to seed the rites in a few places since you need them or the game is over pretty fast.

As you probably all have guessed by now, the prophetic dream we've had the first night has clues to find the Menhir Rites secret in one of three locations. Having Maggot in your party makes it super easy to find the Secret in the Charred Conclave, but impossible to find the one in the Asylum Island. Having Beor makes it easier to find the one in the Fore-Dweller Mounds. The one in the Island (that we probably won't see in this playthough) is the most dangerous to get - there is no automatic success option, so you probably have to explore with at least 2 characters and you risk getting everyone a nice Red Sign if you do so.

That Italian Guy fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Oct 30, 2020

# ? Oct 30, 2020 17:06

NeoRonTheNeuron: Oct 14, 2012

1: B I want to light the menhir ASAP. I worry that the next story event will not be very kind to us, so I don't want to delay this.
2: If 1A were to win, then I would want to go to the Warrior Fair. Ailei can use her bonus energy to head that direction with the Charm and remove the Bowmaiden encounter. (Ailei is much weaker in combat than Maggot, so it makes sense that she keeps the charm with her whenever they split up.) Maggot just doesn't have enough energy to wander around, so I would have him stay in the Hunter's Grove and spam green encounters for food.
3: B I now prefer to light up the Fore-Dweller Mounds.

I didn't realize the energy cost was 3 for the Whitening. I'm not sure if your turn instantly ends after lighting up a menhir, but if it does, then I'd prefer farming (either hunting grounds or searching for wealth) before doing that. If the turn doesn't end, then bank the energy until after the main quest resolves. We'd probably get access to more places, and the extra energy will be valuable for reaching them.

In this 1B scenario, Ailei can spend her extra energy exploring the Hunting Grounds or moving back to the Fore-Dweller Mounds. (We wouldn't have known beforehand that the Bowmaiden would pop up, so I wouldn't allow her go to south.)

NeoRonTheNeuron fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Oct 30, 2020

# ? Oct 30, 2020 19:20

Omobono: Feb 19, 2013; That's it! No more hiding in tomato crates! It's time to show that idiota Germany how a real nation fights!

For pasta~! CHARGE!

Voting:
1) B - get that Menhir lighted, I don't want to see the story event
2) A
3) A - I can always vote again tomorrow if 1B doesn't win.

If we decide to light the Menhir, Ailei can still hit the bowmaiden for her food with plenty of energy to spare.

# ? Oct 30, 2020 20:59

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

1B - there may eventually be a time when we can afford to faff around semi-indefinitely, but we sure aren't there yet.
3B - still a fan of Mounds menhir.

# ? Oct 31, 2020 07:05

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Mini-update recap

quote:

1) We currently have a draw between exploring more (A) or rekindling a Menhir right away (B).
2) If we are exploring more, we are going to the Warrior Fair with Ailei and to the Forlorn Swords with Maggot.
3) If we are going straight for a Menhir, we have a 1 vote preference towards the one at the Fore-Dweller Mounds (B) than the one in Whitening (A).

We have to break the draw of course, but don't forget to vote for 2&3 as well if you have any preferences!

# ? Oct 31, 2020 13:53

nweismuller: Oct 11, 2012; They say that he who dies with the most Opil wins.

I am winning.

1) B
3) A

# ? Oct 31, 2020 14:43

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Expedition Log posted:

Current Location: Hunters' Grove (102)
Tasks: none!
Active Menhirs: Cuanacth Farmhold (101), 1 days left.

Today's Event is:

The first Guardian we draw from the Gray deck is:

A Bowmaiden :v:

for 1 Food is not exaclty a stellar exchange, but if we decide to go South, this is just going to be 1 free Food instead.

Vote Results posted:

1) We are rekindling a Menhir right away (B).
2) Not applicable anymore!
3) Both the Menhirs have received the same amount of votes in this Round, but there was a slight preference for Whitening (A) in the previous round of votes, so I'll use that to break the tie instead of just rolling a die.

These are the requirements for the Menhir in Whitening, so even if we are close and we have some extra

from yesterday, we can't do much else today if we don't want to become Exhausted. Since it's a new day, we can use Maggot to hunt something before we move away, though. - Maggot spends 2

(current:4) and activates the Location Action in the Hunters' Grove.

Combat: Glade Hare posted:

This little things seems adorable until you realize that if you don't kill it straight away, it's either going to escape or cost you precious . We don't have Practicality and there are no other scoring Keys on the card; and each round if we are at 0, it'll remove the last card in the sequence. Plus it's an Opportunist enemy, meaning that if we don't play at least 2 cards in our turn, it'll trigger the Opportunity Attack, running away. Little furry git.
We draw our starting hand:

It's a good one, for this encounter. The first card each turn doesn't have any requirements for us to be able to play it, so we use Distraction to present us with some scoring Keys, then we play Charge, gaining 2 . We then use our Clansword on the hare by discarding the last card in our hand and we win the encounter before it has a chance of ruining our day.

We gain a total of 4 Food (current: 6 each), then we move to Whitening. Each party member spends 1

(current A: 8, M: 3) - Ailei is still at Full+1 cause yesterday I forgot to count the Good Weather modifier for her, so i'm counting it today instead.

When we enter the village, we draw a Blue Encounter

Diplomacy: Plague posted:

Are we the outcast the flavor text talks about? We could try to either Evade the Infected using our Caution or to Ask for Shelter by begging harcore; or we could just spend 1 and get someone to take us in based on our Reputation alone (we have a total of 5). Apparently being well liked is the best anthidote to the Red Death. Also, lying about being infected ourselves
This may sound risky, but the encounter doesn't have a negative effect unless you fail it, and we have 2 cautious characters - plus taking Encounters is one of the best way to gain resources, if we can beat them. We should be able to Evade the Infected as long as we can gain 2+ Affinity every other round. We draw our starting hand:

We start with Ailei.
- We play Bizarre Methods and score 2 ; we don't toss a Dial cause there is no "on placement" icon - so we would only have to toss the Dial if the card was not covered at the end of our turn. But before that...
- The "enemy" responds, causing us to lose 1 and to remove Bizarre Methods from the sequence.
- We then draw 1 card:

It's Maggot's turn.
- We play Rethoric and gain...nothing.
- The "enemy" responds and, thanks to Rethoric, we gain 1 instead of losing one.
- We draw 1 card:

Back to Ailei:
- We play Captivating Song. The order of effects is quite important here: Keys effects are always resolved before card effects, so we push the Affinity tracker to the top by connecting Caution and gaining 2 . Once we resolve the "on placement" effect, the Affinity is on Green, so we don't lose any Rep.

By winning the Encounter, we gain 1 Rep (current A:5, M:2) and 1 Magic (current A:1, M: 5). It's time to administer the secret Menhir Rites and bring this weird block of stone back to life. Have I mentioned that Menhirs are really, really weird? They looks like giant, four armed people for some reason...

We spend:
- 5

on Ailei and 1 on Maggot (current A:3, M:2).
- 1 Wealth on each character (current A:2, M:0).
- 2 Magic on Maggot (current A:1, M:3) - keeping at least 1 point of Magic on Ailei could be really useful in any Encounter.
Please watch this short moving tapestry illustrating the ritual:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0rrm5RXHyI

Rekindling a Menhir: Whitening posted:

We have Rekindled the Menhir in Whitening!
- Dial set to 7 days.
- New Locations available: Tangleroot (114), First Farmhold (117)

We also get to resolve our current Quest! As per the instructions on the card, we draw Chapter 1, Part 6 and resolve its effects:

For completing Chapter 1, we gain 2 Exp each (current A:6, M4) and 1 Magic each (current A:2, M:4). We then set up Chapter 2:

We will still face only level 1 and 2 Encounters, for the time being; we spawn a Wyrdbear Guardian in Cuanacth, since it's the lowest numbered revealed location. If a Guardian tries to move to an unrevealed or unconnected location, it is immediately moved to the highest numbered location available. If, instead, the Location is removed cause the Menhir that was revealing it goes out, the Guardian is also removed from the game.

We then reveal Chapter 2-1, our new Quest!

We are quite tired, so we'll bank 1

on Ailei for tomorrow and end the day here.

End of Day posted:

Rest:
- Ailei consumes 1 Food, recovers 1 . Well Rested! Energy is set to full+1 (8).
- Maggot consumes 1 Food, recovers 1 and loses1 . Energy is set to full (6).
Advancement:
- Ailei current Exp is 6.
- Maggot current Exp is 4.
Dream:
Maggot spins a Dial: gets a Grail! No Nightmares tonight.

Tomorrow's Event is going to be:

Whoever has the Adventuring Gear (current: Ailei) will be able to ignore this effect.

:siren:

VOTE IS NOW OPEN
:siren:

Vote Options posted:

1) East or West? Our current Quest has 3 possible resolution: one is a mystery, one involves us travelling ~~East~~West and finding out the fate of the original Expedition, one travelling ~~West~~East to Kamelot and get help there. We can't really plan for the mysterious one, but we can vote A if we want to go East (will require rekindling the Menhir in the Fore-Dweller Mounds) or B West. Our map may or may not help us when making a decision.
2) If we stick with the West, where to next? We can Explore A Tangleroot (114) or B First Farmhold; or C we could split up our party and have a look at both. Whatever we chose, I'll try to avoid taking damage from the Unnatural Chill, if possible at all. Again, our map may or may not help us when making a decision.
3) Level up: Ailei has 6 Exp, which means she can now level up any of her Attributes. If we chose to level up Empathy, we can also pick a Skill from this list! As always, the ranking is based on the OP's ideas and is not necessarily correct, so feel free to make your own choices!
4) Deck Advancement: by completing Chapter 1 we have gained a free deck advancement for each character. We probably want our fist advancement to match the roles our characters have, so we'll pick a Combat one for Maggot and a Diplomacy one for Ailei. Please pick one of these cards for each character:

Explored Locations:
- 101
- 102
- 104
- 106
- 107
- 109

That Italian Guy fucked around with this message at 15:43 on Nov 1, 2020

# ? Nov 1, 2020 13:45

Omobono: Feb 19, 2013; That's it! No more hiding in tomato crates! It's time to show that idiota Germany how a real nation fights!

For pasta~! CHARGE!

1) I think exploring Eastward towards CKamelot is our best bet right now - 106 is going out of reach in a couple turns, I doubt we can light its menhir in time. Keep our eyes open for the alternative resolution though.

Comedy option, we take Power transfer and swap 101 with 107. I'd houserule this away though because we can't still light Cuanacht's menhir.

2) We drew the Mr. Rat, Esquire in the purple deck already, right? Maggot to 117, scouting 115 and 119. Ailei should follow. Search for trouble. If a village is revealed Ailei hands her survival kit to Maggot and goes there for shelter and diplomacy.

3) I've been outvoted on practicality, so . Consensus was an Empathy skill, I'd go for Motivation or Power Transfer. Ailei needs reliable terror removal and Maggot has some terror generation in his combat cards; Power Transfer is self-explanatory and all--around useful.

4) Oh boy.
Maggot: Snakebite is loads of damage. Problem: its loads of damage come from a practicality link and a magic link, plus that 3x multiplier going out. It only has a double practicality link going forward which is simply :lol:

. It will become a really good card after sinking 14 XP into practicality though. Do we want to?
All in all, I'd choose Defensive posture. Good tankiness, decent links going forward. Blood Magic as second choice.

Ailei: De-escalation. Useful incoming and outgoing links, decent passive.

# ? Nov 1, 2020 14:32

Kanthulhu: Apr 8, 2009; NO ONE SPOIL GAME OF THRONES FOR ME!

IF SOMEONE TELLS ME THAT OBERYN MARTELL AND THE MOUNTAIN DIE THIS SEASON, I'M GOING TO BE PISSED.

BUT NOT HALF AS PISSED AS I'D BE IF SOMEONE WERE TO SPOIL VARYS KILLING A LANISTER!!!

(Dany shits in a field)

1) B - Stick with the West (shouldn't the right side of the map be east by the way?)
2) B- Explore First Farmhold .
3) Level up Empathy, Get Skill 39 Coercion
4) Defensive Posture and De-escalation (by the way, the text in the 1 - 6 card states that "1 free Combat deck advancement" so I understand that Ailei should be picking a combat card instead of a diplomacy card)

# ? Nov 1, 2020 14:37

Omobono: Feb 19, 2013; That's it! No more hiding in tomato crates! It's time to show that idiota Germany how a real nation fights!

For pasta~! CHARGE!

Out of curiosity, what were the non-random events we discarded by finishing the chapter? (Ignore any spoilery ones ofc)

# ? Nov 1, 2020 14:40

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

Had my cardinal directions mixed up :v:

it has now been fixed!

E1: we have already drawn the Purple tutorial fight, although we discarded it straight away cause we drawn 2 and picked the one with the highest Encounter Value (the un-living mound). It was this one:

E2: we only had 1 card left, Chapter 1-4:

That Italian Guy fucked around with this message at 15:48 on Nov 1, 2020

# ? Nov 1, 2020 15:00

Omobono: Feb 19, 2013; That's it! No more hiding in tomato crates! It's time to show that idiota Germany how a real nation fights!

For pasta~! CHARGE!

That Italian Guy posted:

Had my cardinal directions mixed up it has now been fixed!

E1: we have already drawn the Purple tutorial fight, although we discarded it straight away cause we drawn 2 and picked the one with the highest Encounter Value (the un-living mound). It was this one:

E2: we only had 1 card left, Chapter 1-4:

"Did you forget not having a menhir active completely fucks you over and here's how?"

# ? Nov 1, 2020 17:40

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

The reward specifically gives a Combat deck advancement, we can't take a Diplomacy advancement for Ailei from it.

I'm sad that we picked the same route my previous playthrough did. Siigh. (It's a cool route though don't get me wrong.)

I vote for Motivation for Ailei - giving her a way to remove terror when not eligible for end of day healing is really helpful, and while Perseverance will bleed terror for free, I think it's actually not that good for Ailei since she doesn't automatically heal terror a lot of the time. Also, Coercion is really useful but probably a later pick since we don't have piles of Rep yet. Do note that skills are on double-sided cards and there is only one of each. Any skill we give Ailei, Maggot will never get and vice versa, and neither will ever get the skill on the other side.

# ? Nov 1, 2020 17:47

That Italian Guy: Jul 25, 2012; We need the equivalent of the shrimp = small pastry avatar, but for ambulances and their mysteries now.

malkav11 posted:

The reward specifically gives a Combat deck advancement, we can't take a Diplomacy advancement for Ailei from it.

Reading is hard :argh:

I'll leave it as it is since we're already mid vote, we should somehow be able to fix this soon.

# ? Nov 1, 2020 18:12

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# ? May 15, 2024 08:09

malkav11: Aug 7, 2009

Snakebite also generates baseline 2 card draw, in addition to potentially four damage. The lack of accessible further links other than the magic and 3X free key is certainly a downside, but I'd argue it's still a pretty good card in many situations. Defensive posture is a straight upgrade from Defend, but defending tends to be more of a delaying tactic so it's not necessarily amazing. Blood Magic could really supercharge Maggot's effectiveness in longer fights at the cost of a little bit of health.

# ? Nov 1, 2020 18:46

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