Darkest Dungeon

[Firuthi Dragovic]

So with the forum having to rebuild from the ashes, I don't know if this better belongs in General or Shenanigans (wherever we're putting "games and media" stuff), so...

What was going on was that I was finally getting around to playing through the game to its conclusion - and documenting it in story format here.

The difficulty curve of this game is unforgiving and I don't exactly have good luck with a lights-out treasure run, so for me it's reliance on Antiquarians if I want to make any sort of income.

I still have my notes, so I can recreate the story so far at least...

I'll do that shortly.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

STATUS REPORT: DAYS 1-7
Weeks 1-35

Blast! Some thief made off with my original notes! Good thing I have a decent memory, so I can reconstruct what's happened so far.

So... I've been able to make quite a bit of progress rebuilding this hamlet. Hero Barracks is at its best thanks to several rounds of free labor, and everything else has at least a little enhancement to it. I'm mainly looking for cost reduction so that I may outfit more heroes with what we need.

Speaking of which, let me fill you in on the hero team captains:

• Team 1 is run by Reynauld and Dismas, the Crusader and Highwayman who helped me get here. They are paired with Dr. Valorgas and Mother Craon (Plague Doctor and Vestal respectively), and the general rule is they are my elite generalist team. Also probably the only team where everyone is clearly identified until I have teams coming back from the Darkest Dungeon.
• Team 2 is run by a Leper named Fairfax. I picked him to captain a team after his first two stress moments in a row resulted in Virtue. He has a Houndmaster and a Musketeer under his command... he had an Abomination, but that guy met his end in the Courtyard. Replacements are being sought.
• Team 3 is run by a Hellion named Vernon. She was the sole sane survivor of an early encounter with the Thing from the Stars and that's how she earned her place as a captain. She's got a Grave Robber and a Jester under her command - she lost an Occultist recently in the Courtyard.
• Team 4 is run by an Antiquarian named Fonnereau. I'm embarrassed to admit she basically bought her commission by funding Team 1's equipment bill by herself. I'm even more surprised that she's actually kind of legit as a leader. She's managing a Flagellant, Grave Robber, and Houndmaster at present... and I should send her on jobs more often as she's kind of annoying around the hamlet.

You may notice I mention the Courtyard twice. I'm being stonewalled by another of those Crocodilians. I will not go back to that place until I can recruit a Bounty Hunter or Shieldbreaker and train them high enough. This means most of my town might have issues with the Crimson Curse soon, as all of Team 2 has it.

Have I had any boss luck so far? Yes, actually. The first boss of each of the four main zones was brought down. Team 1 vs the Necromancer Apprentice and the Swine Prince, Team 3 vs the Siren, and Team 4 vs the Wizened Hag.

Had I been doing this on Stygian or Bloodmoon, I'd have passed the hero death thresholds by now for sure. These dungeons like churning heroes.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

STATUS UPDATE: DAY 8
Weeks 36-40

With my money supply at rock bottom, it was time to abandon all progress and just send the Antiquarians out to fetch valuables. Three of the five missions I had today were about making money.

None of them involving Fonnereau, just her understudies. She just wanted to get wasted at the bar.

Either way, I can safely say I've got cash now. Especially because one team found this secret room with a few weird trapezohedrons.

That's not to say the Antiquarians are only good for bringing in money. One of the teams ran into someone called the Collector. Summoned some weird floating heads to fight with. That battle... because I wasn't expecting this guy at all, the vast majority of the damage was done by an Antiquarian and the vapors from their incense burners.

Loaded with money and confident from getting a massive haul, I sent Fairfax's team to deal with the cannon I'd heard about in the Weald. For all of the bloodrage-induced shenanigans from him and his Musketeer, it was the Jester I'd assigned to his team that dealt the final blow. Never mock those guys.

After which... Reynauld and Dismas showed me the blueprint I'd gotten many weeks ago and had an idea. A Puppet Theater. It'd help the town de-stress without using up precious coin. Naturally, I sprung for the idea immediately. Should I have gotten something else? Maybe. But stress is a major money sink right now.

There was one more errand I went on. After one caravan came packed with twice as many heroes - including a Bounty Hunter and a Shieldbreaker - I sent the two of them on an errand to retrieve more of that blood-wine that Fairfax was ranting about. I have got to do something about that Bounty Hunter's case of Impostor Syndrome - I can't have him running into performance anxiety.

I have the coin to treat him now anyways. It's time to raise a team to deal with that Crocodilian.

And shuffle the teams a bit, because the staggering means some won't go to easy places while others will. I still have three more low-tier threats to deal with in these dungeons.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

STATUS UPDATE: DAY 9
Weeks 41-45

More and more of my heroes are coming down with the Crimson Curse. Including Dismas and that bounty hunter I've been training. I can't risk staying out of the Courtyard too much longer.

Truth be told, I probably won't need to stay out much longer. Three of the five missions involved that Bounty Hunter, and his training has been going very well... for two out of three. See, the Shieldbreaker's nightmares can apparently manifest real serpents, and that pretty much doomed the first expedition the Bounty Hunter was on during this phase.

Fonnereau's team found another secret room with those trapezohedron thingies. And apparently someone's severed head. Yeah, typical Fonnereau, bringing back a severed head instead of thousands of gold. She brought back over 50 heirlooms and still managed to haul 17k in gold back, so I guess I can't fault her too much - with the amount she funds these expeditions I have to give her considerable leeway.

Anyways, back to the Bounty Hunter. His two successful training missions included bosses. Some prophet in the Ruins and this weird mass of flesh in the Warrens. Second time was the charm on the first Shieldbreaker nightmare... though she'll certainly have more of them. For the Prophet, let's just say the Shieldbreaker's immunity tricks - plus some scales that were found on the ground after the nightmare - gave the team enough time to not only slay the Prophet, but smash every single one of the pews blocking him and salvage a bunch of the pieces. When I showed the fragments of pews to Fonnereau, she said they were made of ziricote. That's, like, one of the rarest types of lumber there is! Just how rich is this place?

The mass of flesh was an interesting case. Shifting form rapidly, four different sections even though they're technically all one creature... most of the work of taking it down was by a Jester. Not with buffing, but with a sickle trick that hits two and causes bleeding. Damage over time was of great use against the flesh.

I think the Bounty Hunter will need just one more mission to be ready for the Crocodilian. Maybe the rumors of ghosts in the Cove would do?

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

STATUS UPDATE: DAY 10
Weeks 46-50

First, the good news.

The Bounty Hunter and his team took down the ghosts in the Cove. He even stood his ground while anchored - quite impressive! Also, the Crocodilian is no longer blocking me from the Courtyard - though I dare say bleed and blight are way more important than movement manipulation with how tough that Crocodilian was.

But there was a price to pay this time.

I sent both Vernon and Fonnereau on a relic-hunting mission because I was literally too poor to afford treatment for anyone. Fonnereau reported that they ran into the Thing from the Stars again, and won. Unfortunately... she then reported that Vernon got killed by a Gatekeeper. The Jester that was with them has developed a drinking problem as a result of Vernon's demise. And in Fonnereau's haste to fund the Hamlet, she convinced me to send her and Fairfax on another money run... neglecting to tell me that Fairfax was about to waste away from the Crimson Curse. I had to retreat from that run because I could not find Blood in time. I'm not losing two leaders at once.

So with Vernon's funeral over, now I have a difficult decision to make. Who will captain Team 3 now? I'm torn between the Jester Bourneville and the Flagellant Parthenai. Parthenai was on Fonnereau's team, and Bourneville got a perk from the Thing from the Stars. Who to take as a strong leader?

Either way, I'm going to have to start churning heroes again until I get good replacements. I've got a Man-at-Arms who can step up for sure...

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

STATUS UPDATE: DAY 11
Intermission

So, it's good news that I'm able to get up and running. There was a bit of an incident updating the books... I thought I'd lost rosters and all.

Turns out someone else has been backing them up for me. Who knew?

Anyways... today's going to be a bit of an intermission while I get some stuff sorted out. I want to re-evaluate who I've got that can do the Veteran tier.

So now you're going to learn the names and professions of my core team members:

• Reynauld, Crusader
• Dismas, Highwayman
• Valorges, Plague Doctor
• Craon, Vestal
• Fairfax, Leper
• Port, Grave Robber
• Dive Beugelin, Jester
• Howard, Musketeer
• Murdac, Grave Robber
• Bourneville, Jester
• Parthenai, Flagellant
• Talvace, Grave Robber
• Moyaux, Houndmaster
• Fonnereau, Antiquarian
• Hendry, Man-at-Arms
• Malleville, Bounty Hunter
• Guyot, Vestal

Team 1 is already solidly Reynauld, Dismas, Valorges, and Craon.

Team 2 is led by Fairfax, and Howard is the only other surviving team founder.

Team 4 is led by Fonnereau. Parthenai, Talvace, and Moyaux were part of the initial team formation.

Team 3 does not have a leader at present, but Bourneville and Port were founding members.

Murdac, Guyot, and Bourneville are actually one or two missions short of Resolve level 3 for Veteran status, but they're close enough otherwise.


The rest of the roster is for churning and an occasional source of replacement Veterans.


Assessing the above information, Team 1 is already set.

Team 2? Fairfax is a bit shaken, but unstirred. He remains team captain. With a sturdy wall like that, I'm actually going to assign this as a specialized mark team. Malleville, Moyaux, and Howard will fill out the ranks of Team 2. It's a tossup whether to set speed trinkets on Moyaux or Malleville - both of them are fast enough to set the first mark.

Team 4? Fonnereau stays, she's too valuable to leave out. I'm assigning fellow drunkard Bourneville to her team as well. The issue is who the other two members should be... and I'm going to go with Murdac and Hendry. I need a good strong tank on the team and I really don't want to pair off too many Grave Robbers together.

Which leads me to Team 3. I've decided Parthenai's going to be the new team captain. Dive Beugelin and Guyot are going with him, as is Port. Not exactly a bad team setup - healing, stress heals, and two good bleed dealers as well as a blight dealer. Plus, decent rank coverage.

That leaves Talvace as my reserve, in case someone bites it. I just happened to have too many Grave Robbers for this to play out any other way.

.....I really need to train another Plague Doctor or Abomination or something.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

STATUS UPDATE: DAY 12
Weeks 51-55

Slowly but surely, I inch forward.

I am probably about halfway through the Baron's residence at this point.... unfortunately, my trips are plagued by bad luck and bad planning.

Bad luck, because on one of my runs I encountered the Collector again - and had to abandon the run then and there. And Murdac bit the dust at the end of another expedition, so Talvace has stepped in on Fonnereau's team.

Bad planning, because I keep forgetting how much the Crimson Curse progresses. I had to abandon a run early because I forgot to bring blood for Guyot, who had been cursed only four weeks prior.

News inside the Hamlet is better. The Guild is ready to train Veterans proper and I've been able to implement more cost-cutting measures as time goes on. And frankly, even my bad runs are still bringing in boatloads of heirlooms, so things are not looking too bad at all.

Soon, the Stagecoach will be bringing in even more prepared heroes. At this point, any resolve 0 scrubs get sent home without a tryout unless I desperately need to fill a specific role. I have no time anymore to train complete newbies.

Also, money might still be an issue but it's not going to be as big of one with multiple Antiquarians around - and the fact that even the early-abandoned run I mentioned earlier still brought back 7k in gold and 30 total heirlooms.

With all my core teams fully stocked on level 4 gear... I'm at a phase where I can just start building money.

I really need to focus most of my efforts on that Courtyard though. There's only so much Blood to go around.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

STATUS UPDATE: DAY 12.5
A Brief Diversion

So today, allow me to recall a vision of the future.

There I sit in a ruined study or office of some kind. A written letter on the table, books, a wilted plant...

Then someone busts through the door, warning me what apocalypse has come. He's an academic and I somehow recognize him. He handed me something and ushered me to a stagecoach outside.

At a crossroads, I meet four individuals.

• One looks an awful lot like Dr. Valorges, but refers to herself as Paracelsus.
• A second bears some resemblance to Talvace or Port, but calls herself Audrey.
• A third kinda looks like Hendry, but calls himself Barristan.
• The fourth? I had never seen the like of her before. An estoc or rapier or epee of some kind in hand, cloak over her shoulder... she calls herself Sahar, and apparently she is some kind of 'duelist'.
• I thought I glimpsed Dismas somewhere in the distance, but he didn't acknowledge me.

The four of them wanted me to take them to an inn up the road. I knew the road was a bit treacherous, so I took them up. Barristan up front with me, Sahar right behind, and Audrey and Paracelsus riding in the back.

Sure enough, there was a roadblock constructed by a couple of emaciated people. I asked my new companions what to do, and Barristan simply hefted his morningstar and called the team out to break the roadblock - it turns out the emaciated people were hostile. A fairly easy conflict later and we were back on the road.

I got a chance to see how Sahar fights. Hers is a stance-dancing kind of combat. Aggressive or defensive, she moves constantly. Hard to get used to directing her.

Sahar and Audrey wanted me to pull over for a group of survivors. I had Sahar lead the negotiations and she was able to get us a few salves and some laudanum.

There was another roadblock further up. This one had another scrawny guy, but also a big woodcutter and a lady who kept saying she was ugly. Wouldn't stop trashing Sahar... and after one word too many, Sahar simply cut her down in the middle of her talking. The woodcutter? Most of that was up to Audrey and Paracelsus, and their poisonous weapons.

We made it to the inn. The four of them told me to take a load off....

.....that is where the vision ends. What am I in for?