Dark Descent

[Powerofmind]

I had hoped, once, that time would dull my disgraceful desires.
-The Ancestor​

The Hamlet is a ruin as you finally make your approach. Sallow faces and sunken eyes seem to skim over you with apathy borne of sorrow grinding daily at the soul.

You will have your work cut out for you, and at the very least will need to get the town back in working order before you start launching regular expeditions out of it.

You are in the midst of planning a raid on the hamlet's fields, overrun by bandits, when three strangers approach.

"Who are you two? What are you doing in Samsara?" says the lead man, a local woodsman at a guess, with a large axe and a few bear traps hung at his belt.

A woman in musketeer's leathers gives you a sharp look. "Ah, Stetton, perhaps that is not the best approach to take with the lady noble, here."

You breathe deeply. "I am Ardelia Valoth. In accordance with my great-grandfather's wishes and laws of the land, he has bequeathed to me this estate and the lands surrounding it."

A sharp intake of breath, a furious shout, and the clash of metal. You look up from your planning to see that the woodsman, Stetton, has raised his axe to attack you, though Alecnon has jumped to your defense.

"I have been seconded to the Lady Valoth as part of her direct request to the church for assistance in clearing the rot left by the previous lord of these lands. To go against her is to go against myself, and the church, woodsman."

The third stranger finally speaks up, feminine under the layers of tightly-stitched leather padding. "Oh my. It seems quite a lot has happened since we came here. This place is more than a little cut off. Though I have to ask how you plan on managing such a feat with just a single knight, Lady?"

"I have the personal assurance of the king's minister that, as long as the situation calls for it, crown resources will be allocated to securing a stream of soldiers and supplies. I had simply gone ahead of the first batch to assess the problem for myself," you draw a parchment from your pack, stamped with the royal seal.

The musketeer whistles low. "Friends in high places, milady."

"Quite."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You automatically hire the Woodsman, Stetton, the Musketeer, Julia, and the Plague Doctor, Carline.

If Ardelia opts not to go on this specific expedition, she can compose a preliminary report for the crown and receive one free building improvement.

[] Select Party Composition (Leader name here)
-[] Pos 1
-[] Pos 2
-[] Pos 3
-[] Pos 4

[X] Mission (Forced: Clear the bandits out of the Farmsteads)

[] Free Hamlet improvement (only if Ardelia does not go on the mission)

 

[Shebe Zuu]

[X] Select Party Composition (Stetton)
-[X] Pos 1 (Alecnon)
-[X] Pos 2 (Stetton)
-[X] Pos 3 (Julia)
-[X] Pos 4 (Carline)

[X] Free Hamlet improvement (Smithy)

I'll admit it's risky, but the free improvement is very tempting and if we manage the party well I think we can pull it off. We want to be in control of Stetton here because it's going to be very important that we get to mark targets properly.

 

[Aigloss]

[X] Select Party Composition (Stetton)
-[X] Pos 1 (Alecnon)
-[X] Pos 2 (Stetton) [Dodge Stone (+4 Dodge, -1 SPD)]
-[X] Pos 3 (Julia) [Ferocity Stone (+3% Crit, -1 SPD)]
-[X] Pos 4 (Carline)

[X] Free Hamlet improvement (Smithy)

 

[Amilia]

[X] Select Party Composition (Stetton)
-[X] Pos 1 (Alecnon)
-[X] Pos 2 (Stetton)
-[X] Pos 3 (Julia)
-[X] Pos 4 (Carline)

[X] Free Hamlet improvement (Smithy)

 

[Icipall]

"What schemes are you devising, woman?"

The interruption derails your thoughts, and you wrinkle your slightly upturned nose at the offender with a huff. "I have no need for schemes, and if I did, I do not pay you to know them, knight."

The armored man shifts slightly in his seat, his unsheathed greatsword rattling in his arms. Such a ridiculous practice, to posture that Crusaders' blades never be sheathed in their 'vigilance against the heathen'. "You may not pay me to know your thoughts, but I would know why you thought to pay me at all. You can't expect I would not question why someone such as you would come to the divines for aid."

Click to shrink...

For a moment I thought he's our handler.

You think you see a crow the size of a house in the distance.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I hate that big shit.

Again, his sudden chatter disturbs you from your thoughts, but this time you feel little need to banter. A memory flows unbidden to your mind. The first lesson in summoning and invocation is to take no gifts from the patron you call. No Elder's knowledge ever comes to the mind without a price, and if you allow the Elder to dictate his boon, you will soon find yourself naught but a well-strung puppet.

Click to shrink...

Good advice.

Alecnon becomes level 1, gaining +10% to each resistance.
Quest Reward: 1000g, 4 Resources, 1 Common Trinket
Loot: 400g, 6 Resources, 2 Common Trinkets

Rolling:
Common Trinket - Dodge Stone (+4 Dodge, -1 SPD)
Common Trinket - Ferocity Stone (+3% Crit, -1 SPD)
Common Trinket - Dazing Stone (+10% Stun, -1 SPD)

Click to shrink...

Nice stuff for first loot.

You automatically hire the Woodsman, Stetton, the Musketeer, Julia, and the Plague Doctor, Carline.

Click to shrink...

Our first recruits. Hmm, we have lot of people that do extra damage to Marked, but no one who can Mark.


[X] Select Party Composition (Stetton)
-[X] Pos 1 (Alecnon)
-[X] Pos 2 (Stetton) [Dodge Stone (+4 Dodge, -1 SPD)]
-[X] Pos 3 (Julia) [Ferocity Stone (+3% Crit, -1 SPD)]
-[X] Pos 4 (Carline)

[X] Free Hamlet improvement (Hospice)

I decided to add some of the trinkets we've acquired to our hirees and to pick Hospice our free improvement, since it is extremely important building that is soon going to be in heavy use. Faster we can upgrade it, the better.

 

[SilentSpaniard]

Hmm… This new plan seems more complete.

[X] Select Party Composition (Stetton)
-[X] Pos 1 (Alecnon)
-[X] Pos 2 (Stetton) [Dodge Stone (+4 Dodge, -1 SPD)]
-[X] Pos 3 (Julia) [Ferocity Stone (+3% Crit, -1 SPD)]
-[X] Pos 4 (Carline)

[X] Free Hamlet improvement (Hospice)

 

[Powerofmind]

This seems ultimately decided. I will begin running the delve at ~8 AM EST this Saturday (and all subsequent delves will be held at the same time, same day), barring significant request for a later time.

 

[Powerofmind]

Timely alert: delve live will be in ~11 hours, as planned.

 

[Amilia]

Highlights of the delve:

We critted for 43 damage
Alecnon almost died

Let's not forget to bring a healer next time.

 

[Icipall]

Let's not forget to bring a healer next time.

Click to shrink...

If we manage to acquire one.

 

[Amilia]

Yeah, let's make that a priority.

 

[Powerofmind]

At first, my need for sustenance prevented me from ignoring the farmers of our home overmuch, lest I starve.
-The Ancestor​

You grumbled and grunted as the party trekked out into the fields surrounding the hamlet. Bringing one holy man did not an adequate amends make for the woman's inherited sins, but promises to reinvigorate the town and restore normalcy went a long way when there was a royal minister supporting them with funds and men.

Almost immediately, you'd regretted leaving so early, with the sun's light beginning to set bit by bit. It made it harder to spot the first few brigands. After dispatching those, you ended up caught flat-footed against their friends, though they also fell quickly enough in the end. After securing the first homestead, and assuring the terrified family inside that the rampaging bandits would be removed in short order, you stumbled on a few forgotten carts and a hidden stash of gold. Your companions, Julia in particular, seemed pleased. "Don't get many hauls this good cleaning up trouble in other towns."

You snort. "Won't live long enough to spend it all, either."

Your words prove prophetic, stepping through the threshold of the next home. In the flickering candle-light from the other room, a telling shadow of death stretches out of the open door to the bedroom. You suppress the chill that runs up the others' spines. This place holds worse than bandits and their victims.

On the way to the next home, you sample some of the harvest, feeling the warmth suffuse your limbs. Samsara harvests always seemed better than the rest of the kingdom. You quickly found use for the sense of strength, hearing a shout of pain from the next home. The expedition was nearly flawless, as the brigands fell swiftly and easily. You, yourself, albeit amplified by the doctor's concoction, managed to simply behead the many-hundred-pounded brute in the front with a war cry and a single blow.

The following fights wore on that easy victory, however. In bits and pieces, the party's strength was drained, until the last home still being raided came into view. The fight inside was grueling, a slog. The brigands were fresher, their blows clearer, and you and yours were already wavering. Alecnon fell, twice, stumbling back and groaning in suffering as their wicked knives found chinks in his plate. You would have fallen if not for the timely use of a bandage to stem the flow of blood. You could barely even strike at them, the blood of a dozen nicks and cuts flowing into your eyes, into your grip, sapping you strength. In the end, the doctor's deadly concoctions proved effective in the heat of the moment, and you'd managed to escape with your lives.

The damage you'd dealt to the brigand raiding party was done, and with so many of their higher ranked members dead and dying, the few left in the wheat fields fled back to their hidden camps in the moorlands south of the estate line. At least there'd be food tonight.

Stetton, Julia, Carline gain Resolve level 1, gaining +10% to all resists
Stetton becomes a Perfectionist.

MISSION COMPLETE
+3 Uncommon Trinkets, +3 Common Trinkets, +1550g, +12 Resources

Uncommon -
Splinterbark Charm (Woodsman) (+15% Damage, -4 Dodge)
Swift Cloak (+2 SPD, -20 Move Res)
Stun Amulet (+10% Stun, +20% Stun Resist, -4 Dodge)

Common -
Caution Cloak (+10% Scouting, -10 SPD on round 1)
Stun Charm (+20% Stun Resist, -2 Dodge)
Protection Stone (+5% prot, -1 spd)

 

[Powerofmind]

You answered the letter. You are now a part of this place.
-The Ancestor​

The Hamlet's people are a little more lively with the security of their crop and the safety of their neighbors. Your retainer has been beaten and battered bloody, but there are worse fates.

You examine the map of the estate, frowning. You mark several locations for reclamation efforts, but these motions feel familiar somehow...

THE COACH HAS ARRIVED WITH NEW HEROES, 4/8
[] [Hire] Hire the Vestal
[] [Hire] Hire the Sorceress
[] [Hire] Hire them both

A strange woman has arrived, and set up a little booth of charms and enchantments... The nomad mystics are passing through... They will only sell you one trinket.
[] [Wagon] Buy Debuff Stone (+15% Debuff chance, -1 SPD), 1000g
[] [Wagon] Buy Worrystone (+10% Virtue Chance, -10% Stress, -1 SPD, 1500g
[] [Wagon] No money, or no care, for their goods

The smithy's fires burn hot. Resolve 1 heroes may have their equipment improved.
[] [Smithy] Upgrade Weapons for (characters) (150g per weapon)
[] [Smithy] Upgrade Armor for (characters) (150g per armor)

-Weapons improve Damage and Crit, Armor improves Health, Dodge, and SPD


The town is a shambles. You have the resources to make things better.
[] [Town] Improve (structures)

-Improvements cost 6 * (1+Current Tier), and do not come into effect until the end of the following delve. You may improve multiple buildings, or improve one building multiple tiers, for the appropriate costs. Most buildings offer stronger, cheaper, or more varied services, or some combination of the three, as they are improved.


Your campaign to slay the dark things of Samsara has begun. You first must try to scout the homes of your foes, to more easily read their borders.
[] [Mission] Choose one
Scout the Ruined Catacombs
Scout the Warrens
Scout the Wyrdwood
Scout the Cove

 

[Amilia]

[X] [Hire] Hire them both
[X] [Wagon] No money, or no care, for their goods
[X] [Town] Improve (Chapel)

This for now I'm certain, I don't know about the others.

 

[Varder]

[X] [Hire] Hire them both
[X] [Wagon] No money, or no care, for their goods
[X] [Town] Improve (The Drill Yards)
[X] [Mission] Scout the Ruined Catacombs

They're not heroes until resolve level 3, they're spare meat bags with weapons - the more the better. And fighting off some spooky sexy cultists as first mission always brings my playthroughs luck.

@Powerofmind do you plan to run the blood court content? Or actually, do you plan to introduce stuff beyond the game?

 

[Powerofmind]

[X] [Hire] Hire them both
[X] [Wagon] No money, or no care, for their goods
[X] [Town] Improve (The Drill Yards)
[X] [Mission] Scout the Ruined Catacombs

They're not heroes until resolve level 3, they're spare meat bags with weapons - the more the better. And fighting off some spooky sexy cultists as first mission always brings my playthroughs luck.

@Powerofmind do you plan to run the blood court content? Or actually, do you plan to introduce stuff beyond the game?

Click to shrink...

I will include a modified storyline for the Crimson Curse, as well as a tweaked Colors of Madness (I find it positively prophetic of me to have made the farms a key region before Colors was announced, though I had a different idea in mind for it at the time). There will, otherwise, be some other content you are unfamiliar with, in addition my my twist on the overarching plot of Darkest Dungeon.

 

[Icipall]

[X] Plan: Together We Can Raise This Town, One, Two, Three, Four!
-[X] [Hire] Hire them both
-[X] [Wagon] No money, or no care, for their goods
-[X] [Smithy] Upgrade Weapons for (Stetton, Julia, Carline, Alecnon, Ardelia) (750g)
-[X] [Smithy] Upgrade Armor for (Stetton, Julia, Carline, Alecnon, Ardelia) (750g)
-[X] [Town] Improve (Chapel, The Drill Yards, The Hospice) (18 Resources)
-[X] [Mission] Scout the Ruined Catacombs

Final cost: 1500g, 18 Resources

We have the resources, so lets put them to use. Both new hirees are good and the nomad has nothing that good for us to buy.

@Powerofmind
Can we sell trinkets?

 

[Varder]

[X] Plan: Together We Can Raise This Town, One, Two, Three, Four!

 

[Amilia]

[X] Plan: Together We Can Raise This Town, One, Two, Three, Four!

 

[Powerofmind]

[X] Plan: Together We Can Raise This Town, One, Two, Three, Four!
-[X] [Hire] Hire them both
-[X] [Wagon] No money, or no care, for their goods
-[X] [Smithy] Upgrade Weapons for (Stetton, Julia, Carline, Alecnon, Ardelia) (750g)
-[X] [Smithy] Upgrade Armor for (Stetton, Julia, Carline, Alecnon, Ardelia) (750g)
-[X] [Town] Improve (Chapel, The Drill Yards, The Hospice) (18 Resources)
-[X] [Mission] Scout the Ruined Catacombs

Final cost: 1500g, 18 Resources

We have the resources, so lets put them to use. Both new hirees are good and the nomad has nothing that good for us to buy.

@Powerofmind
Can we sell trinkets?

Click to shrink...

Not just yet. Trinket selling comes later.

 

[ChaosStar0]

[X] Plan: Together We Can Raise This Town, One, Two, Three, Four!

 

[Icipall]

For those who came from IMF, here's a reminder that we now have a returned Sorceress:

 

[Shebe Zuu]

[X] Plan: Together We Can Raise This Town, One, Two, Three, Four!

Yeah, I can accept this.

 

[Aigloss]

[X] Plan: Together We Can Raise This Town, One, Two, Three, Four!

 

[Powerofmind]

There was a time, however short, where I wondered at the possibilities of branching realities, and the possibility of finding them.
-The Ancestor​

The road was old and winding. The worst sort of thing, in this situation.

My companion for the trip only made the unpleasant juddering of the wheels on cobble less obvious by comparison, like a broken arm could make one forget a pricked thumb.

"Please, say something."

I breathed, sharp and angry, but dared not bring voice to the storm of emotion in my heart. I stared all the more determinedly out the carriage window. There was plenty to see, in Samsara, but I wasn't really looking. The other woman had finally quieted down again, and I would have some peace for a few hours more.

Peace. Calm. Breathe.

Of their own accord, my eyes slipped shut. Meditation was quite ingrained in me by now, after some time among the witches in the frontierlands. If I could not stay the fire in my soul, it would only burn me, in the end.

I have since learned that such ideas were merely fantasy. An illusion, cast upon those whose eyes remain closed.
-The Ancestor​

"Emila..."

I doubt she could hear me any longer. She'd begun mumbling something profane under her breath. It was so difficult to look at her, to see a woman who could have followed a brighter path, but failed to.

There was a time when I blamed myself for things like that, but I've since learned. Everyone makes their choices.

Still, seeing Emila always hurt the most. She was so different, after she ran off and came back. It was so painful, to see one's own kin suffering. To see a face one sees in a mirror each day, haunted and dark.

"Sister..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

You have gained the following heroes:

Spoiler: June, the Vestal

Quirks:
Fated Pair - This hero's relationship with another could prove useful.
Hesitant - This hero has a tendency to overthink their situation. -3 SPD.

Vestal: 24 LIFE, 0 DODGE, 4-8, 1% CRIT, 4 SPD
Resists: Move/Stun/Blight/Burn/Debuff 30%, Bleed 40%

Skills:
Hand of Fervor, XXOO-OOOX
-40% Damage, +15% Damage vs Unholy, 1% crit, 85 acc, +25% Damage Steps/6 acc self

Judgement, OOXX-OOOO
-25% Damage, 5% crit, 85 acc, Heal 1 Self

Grace, OOXX
Heal 4-5

Comfort, OOOX
Party Heal 1-3

Camp:
Bless (Companion +10 Dodge/+10 Acc/+3% crit)
Chant (Companion -15 Stress/-20% Stress if Religious, -5 and -5% otherwise)

Spoiler: Emila, the Sorceress

Quirks:
Fated Pair - This hero's relationship with another could prove useful.
Enlightened - This hero requires meditation. They will not partake in other forms of Stress Relief.

Sorceress: 21 LIFE, 5 DODGE, 5-10 DAMAGE, 3% CRIT, 4 SPD
Resists: Move/Stun 20%, Bleed/Blight 30%, Debuff 40%, Burn 50%

Skills:
Witch Lightning, XOOX-OOOX
+80% Damage vs Marked, 3% crit, +3% crit vs Marked, 85 acc, self -20% DMG/-10 DODGE

Tongue of Fire, OOOX-XOOO
-60% Damage, 4% crit, 85 acc, Burn 3 (100 base)

Drain Life, OOXX-XOOX
-70% Damage, 4% crit, 85 acc, Heal 2-4

Gather Power XOOO
Self +25% Damage/+25% Stun Resist for 3 turns, Retreat 1

Camp:
Infusion (Companion +30% Damage, Self -10% Damage)
Mystic Eye (-15% Party Surprise, Block Ambush)

The following heroes have gained Armor and Weapon improvements (check specifics in the roster):
Alecnon, Stetton, Julia, Carline

This mission is suited to Resolve Level 1 Heroes, those below that will suffer a stress penalty.
[] [Party] Leader
-[] Member
-[] Member
-[] Member

Trinkets can be added to party members by placing the name in () next to their name

Supplies cost 50g per slot filled. It is recommended to take some Food and Torches, but you can also take Herbs, Holy Water, Antivenom, Bandages, Tools, Keys, and Laudanum.
[] [Supplies] Choose supplies