Darkest Dungeon - The Crimson Court - Halforums Edition
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GasBandit
Staff member
I was abroad when I received a yellowed, blood-flecked letter from a distant relative, head of the great ancestral home... its contents unsettled me. I must return at once.
Ruin has come to our family.
You remember our venerable house, opulent and imperial, gazing proudly from its stoic perch above the moor?
I lived all my years in that ancient rumor shadowed manor, fattened by decadence and luxury, and yet I began to tire of... conventional extravagance.
Singular unsettling tales suggested the mansion itself was a gateway to some fabulous and unnameable power.
With relic and ritual, I bent every effort towards the excavation and recovery of those long buried secrets, exhausting what remained of our family fortune on swarthy workmen and sturdy shovels.
At last, in the salt soaked crags beneath the lowest foundations, we unearthed that damnable portal of antediluvian evil.
Our every step unsettled the ancient earth, but we were in a realm of death and madness.
In the end I alone fled, laughing and wailing, through those blackened arcades of antiquity. Until consciousness failed me.
You remember our venerable house, opulent and imperial?
It is a festering abomination!
I beg you, return home, claim your birthright and deliver our family from the ravenous clutching shadows...
...of the Darkest Dungeon.
Ruin has come to our family.
You remember our venerable house, opulent and imperial, gazing proudly from its stoic perch above the moor?
I lived all my years in that ancient rumor shadowed manor, fattened by decadence and luxury, and yet I began to tire of... conventional extravagance.
Singular unsettling tales suggested the mansion itself was a gateway to some fabulous and unnameable power.
With relic and ritual, I bent every effort towards the excavation and recovery of those long buried secrets, exhausting what remained of our family fortune on swarthy workmen and sturdy shovels.
At last, in the salt soaked crags beneath the lowest foundations, we unearthed that damnable portal of antediluvian evil.
Our every step unsettled the ancient earth, but we were in a realm of death and madness.
In the end I alone fled, laughing and wailing, through those blackened arcades of antiquity. Until consciousness failed me.
You remember our venerable house, opulent and imperial?
It is a festering abomination!
I beg you, return home, claim your birthright and deliver our family from the ravenous clutching shadows...
...of the Darkest Dungeon.
GasBandit
Staff member
Our journey to the village was reaching its conclusion, when something upset the stagecoach, destroying its axles and leaving myself, @GasBandit the Highwayman, and @Terrik the Crusader on the road to fend for ourselves as the sun sank beyond the horizon and the wolves began to howl distantly. Steeling ourselves, we set off in the direction of the hamlet, keeping just out of sight of the road, lest whoever attacked our conveyance... wasn't in the mood for witnesses.
Surely enough, we barely had set foot upon the path than we were waylaid by a thuggish oaf.
The men dispatched him quickly, if not expertly, and we ransacked his encampment. Gold, trinkets and baubles... paid for in blood.
With the town in view, we were ambushed by two more ruffians!
Terrik was dealt worrisome injury, but we overcame. A brief respite and pillaging, and it was time to head to our new home.
... this, by whose reckoning, is a town? An ominous pall hangs over several mounds of stone and wood, weak lights barely visible through the windows. And overlooking it all, the ruins of my ancestral home - the precarious columns of burned wood and charred stone looking like the ribcage of a vulture-picked corpse... or perhaps gnarled fingers, stretching ever skyward in futility.
Here, however, there was comeraderie to be found, and two more souls joined our cause - @Dei, the Vestal, whose healing light would no doubt be most welcome among us, and @Null the Plague Doctor, equally deft at weakening enemies as supporting allies. With our numbers doubled, I decided it would be best to begin scouting the ruins about my ancestral estate upon the morning. Not leaving anythign to chance, I spent freely on food, torches, bandages, and other items I thought might prove useful.
Twas worse than I expected... the halls of the manse were patrolled by the unliving! But my stalwart companions rose to the challenge, time and again. We had to dig our way through collapsed rubble and unholy dead, but prevail we did... and among the loot we scavenged, something curious - an ornate vial filled with blood. Something made me think I should husband this vial closely... and find more like it if I could. We returned to the hamlet, soberer, only beginning to grasp the magnitude of the task before us, but with many of my family's valuable heirlooms tucked away in our packs. Null found the entire experience so stressful, he immediately trundled off to the tavern, and drank and gambled the night away...
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GasBandit
Staff member
There were two more new arrivals on the coach this week who joined our cause... Another Vestal named @Kags and @PatrThom the Plague Doctor. Pat took Null's place in the party while the latter... recovered.
We set off back into the ruins again, to try and root out some of the corruption.
In the ruins, we found a journal page, describing how another party was doomed by sticking a torch where it didn't belong... I shall have to be cautious about such matters.
The foray was successful, but upon our return, we found the hamlet beset by a new kind of pestilence...
But our efforts have already had an effect - the blacksmith and adventurer's guild have reopened their doors, allowing us to train and equip ourselves better! We took advantage of these new facilities.
The following week, we went back to scout the ruins again. Dei vacated her place to rest, and Kags stepped in, eager for the experience. GasBandit inadvertently trapped himself within an iron maiden, and henceforth became quite... severely claustrophobic.
Nevertheless, hope continued to slowly eked back into the local populace each time we returned from a successful foray. The Sanitarium reopened, along with another merchant and trainer. Two more stalwart adventurers join - @Charon and @Dave. Terrik was sent to the Sanitarium to relieve him of his kleptomania.
The newest recruits cut their teeth in the ruins. There was hardship, confusion, and hunger... but they prevailed... and returned better knowing their predicament, and themselves. We were joined by a Flagellant, named SpecialKO. I wasn't sure what to make of him, at first... Charon had to go into the hospital for a torn rotator. More new faces also arrived... @Wasabi, @Ravenpoe and @Grue.
GasBandit escorted the newest arrivals into the abyssal depths near the shores. He and Grue caught a disease from one of the eldritch creatures. Things were pretty touch and go for a bit, but everyone returned alive, if unsettled. @Zero Esc the Bountry Hunter, and @sixpackshaker the Houndmaster have joined the fight. They were sent down with RavenPoe and PatrThom to venture into the Weald surrounding the estate...
PatrThom's curiosity got the better of him, and he caught the red plague from digging in a grave, and Sixpack caught it later from some fungal combat. But apart from those drawbacks, the new blood performed admirably, and the corruption of the countryside was pushed back.
Treatment and training for the newest recruits drained my coffers dry. The supplies for the next mission would be scant, indeed. Two more adventurers joined, as well - @Shego and @figmentPez, the former a Hellion, the latter a Jester. They went with GasBandit and Grue into the Warrens, a confounding maze of twisting tunnels, running miles beneath the area. But there was no money for torches, barely enough for food and bandages...
The stress of fighting monsters in the dark was too much for Pez and Shego, and they became afflicted with selfishness. However, it brought out the best in Grue, who found a source of courage within himself even he had not known existed. GasBandit, when tested, also became a stalwart fighter. Alas, it was all too much for Pez, and he perished under the knife of a butcherous swine - but not of the cut, but rather of a heart attack from the fear. Shego and Gas had to be returned to the sanitarium for treatment. Even with the expenses, the loot was generous... but was it worth losing Pez?
The ranks were replenished by @Amy the Antiquarian, @BErt the Houndmaster, and @Bubble181 the Abomination. Zero took them on their inaugural foray into the Weald. It was a two day trip, and proved to be too much. Zero nearly died, but Amy managed to barely keep him alive, and all returned to the safety of the hamlet. However, just for the Antiquarian's presence, the trip was three times as profitable in loot as any previous "victory" had been.
A new Jester, @HCGLNS, was added to the troupe. He joined Charon, Dei, and Null to successfully attack the foulness in the Weald, but the stress of the experience made the new guy find his next opponent in the bottom of a bottle.
@Celt Z the graverobber joined next. Terrik took her, Wasabi, and SixPackShaker on a successful two-day excursion to the cove, to root out more fishmen.
Ten weeks have passed. It's a tenuous start, but a start nonetheless.
Huzzah!
Necromania sounds like it'd be a fun night for @ThatUndeadNickGuy
How does this forum keep getting into these messes?
Hell, we volunteer to be @GasBandit's cannon fodder. Repeatedly.
GasBandit
Staff member
The days begin to blur together. On week 14, Terrik, Gas, Dei and Grue finally trace the source of the ravenous bloodsucking insects that have been plaguing the hamlet. The trail led to a vast courtyard surrounding the manor. It was filled with terrifyingly warped humanoids with insectoid features and pedipalps, dressed in finery and bearing a dignified mein, as if clinging to the pretense of posh nobility. But pretense was all it was, for the slightest amount of agitation would reveal the bloodsuckers for what they really were - some sort of vampiric-mosquito hybrids.
The party moved deeper into the labyrinth of the crimson courtyard, torching enormous insectoid nests with pitch-soaked torches as they went. Things seemed to be going well enough, until Grue was given a particularly nasty bite... and though the vermin assaulting him was quickly dispatched, it left him changed... a new hunger was behind his eyes, or rather, a thirst. The party battled on, but as the hours dragged past, the craving built inside Grue until he could no longer ignore it. Taking one of the vials of blood found during the adventure, he quaffed the entirety of its contents... and the craving seemed to abate, somewhat.
And it was just after this, that a terrifying crocodilian predator leapt from the rushes and savaged the party fiercely! It would rise from the reeds to rake at a victim with its powerful jaws, then sink back among the cattails.
A mighty struggle ensued. Dei and Grue were almost dragged away to be dismembered, but finally the beast was slain. The party returned to the hamlet, the buzzing of wings fading as they left... but the blood sickness still festering quietly in Grue's veins...
In subsequent weeks, the hemophagic pests began appearing outside the confines of the courtyard. We may have closed the window, but clearly we opened the doors for this spreading pestilence.
Be that as it may, the heroes recruited to my grim task grew ever stronger. On week 18, Gas, Terrik, Dei and Celt Z went into the ruins and purged it of a foul necromancer, with little to no trouble. Dare I believe that my goals are not impossible?
Just admit that you don't want to recruit @SnuffleupagusAs an out-of-character side note, WHY ARE NO MEN-AT-ARMS SHOWING UP IN MY STAGECOACH TO BE RECRUITED? I thought they fixed this
GasBandit
Staff member
Quiet, you.
In other news,
Lately, Grue has felt like somebody is following him... Everybody else has been pretending not to notice him periodically sipping red liquid from secreted vials.
On what should have been a milk run through the ruins, Bubble is bitten by a mosquito, and contracts the Crimson Curse... The run is also somewhat spoiled by BErt insising on being the one to open every chest, meaning Amy can't search for valuable antiques, greatly hurting the profitability of the trip.
@Snuffles finally arrives, but he's so late and behind in experience that I wonder if he'll ever catch up.
Gas, Terrik, Dei and Celt Z were on a roll. They dispatched another boss with almost no difficulty! Each foray, I wait with growing trepidation for the other shoe to drop. I'd feared I'd hear it finally, when the increasing levels of bloodsucker infestations necessitated a return to the Crimson Courtyard, and its seemingly endlessly meandering hedgerows and pathways. More than once did a confounding mist drift across the path, leaving the party to suddenly realize it had gotten turned round, and needed to retrod paths already cleared.
Sure enough, my fears were realized when Dei was bitten by a supplicant, and contracted the Curse. As the mission progressed, she began to beg wounded comerades for "just a taste," and babbling about nonsense, all of which greatly unsettled her compatriots. Eventually, when her pleading became too much to be borne, they allowed her to drink blood from a vial pilfered from one of the enemy. Eventually, the stress of it all became too much and the quartet had to retreat back to the hamlet, dispirited - despite clearing no less than 18 locations, no way to stop the swarms was found. GasBandit and Celt Z drank away the bitter taste of failure, while Terrik sought refuge in prayer, and Dei found solace in bloody flagellation...
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"I'm not gonna say what's gonna go down, but you might want to reserve a spot at both the sanitarium and the bar for when we're done."
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
What makes this extra annoying is that the Crimson Curse is highly contagious. If I send Dei or Grue or Bubble to the sanitarium or the tavern or whatever, any non-cursed individuals also making use of that establishment at the same time runs a risk of contracting it.
So far, I'm able to keep up with the demand for "The Blood." But as the curse spreads, that may change... and if I can't keep up, people will start to attack each other, waste away, and die.
I have the option to build a "Sanguine Vintners" which will provide me with 2 vials of blood a week, but OH MY GOD is it expensive in terms of heirlooms.
So far, I'm able to keep up with the demand for "The Blood." But as the curse spreads, that may change... and if I can't keep up, people will start to attack each other, waste away, and die.
I have the option to build a "Sanguine Vintners" which will provide me with 2 vials of blood a week, but OH MY GOD is it expensive in terms of heirlooms.
GasBandit
Staff member
From what I've heard, it is slightly less curable than death.
Although death also cures it.
(Also, finishing the Crimson Court missions will make it curable like any other disease, so I am told).
GasBandit
Staff member
Charon and Amy both contract the Crimson Curse while adventuring in the cove. @Eriol and @Emrys join the troupe, and Emrys catches the Curse on her very first mission. Charon happened to be in treatment in the sanitarium at the same time as GasBandit, and the Curse spread from the former to the latter... things are starting to look like they might get out of hand.
Another attempt was made to go through the Crimson Courtyard. The party found not the Baron they expected, but another crocodilian! The fight was tough, and the search had to be abandoned again, the adventurers retreating to town to recover. The infestation of Crimson Courtiers in the dungeons of the demesne continues to worsen. Will there be any non-insectominids left to fight I wonder?
Not all the news is bad, though, two more dungeon bosses were defeated - the Brigand 8 pounder in the Weald, and the Siren of the Cove.
But then Charon went and got himself banned from the brothel for developing... Deviant Tastes.
Another attempt was made to go through the Crimson Courtyard. The party found not the Baron they expected, but another crocodilian! The fight was tough, and the search had to be abandoned again, the adventurers retreating to town to recover. The infestation of Crimson Courtiers in the dungeons of the demesne continues to worsen. Will there be any non-insectominids left to fight I wonder?
Not all the news is bad, though, two more dungeon bosses were defeated - the Brigand 8 pounder in the Weald, and the Siren of the Cove.
But then Charon went and got himself banned from the brothel for developing... Deviant Tastes.
Let's see if I live longer in this than in Rimworld.
Hardly befitting a Crusader, if that's what I am, this time around.
Also, DAMMIT GAS! Why you gotta give me diseases when I'm alreay in the hospital?!
(Ohfuck, I'm on hospital guard duty today.... *nervous look*)
GasBandit
Staff member
You made it pretty darn far, last time.[DOUBLEPOST=1510935484,1510935463][/DOUBLEPOST]
No, YOU gave ME the curse
Hardly befitting a Crusader, if that's what I am, this time around.
Also, DAMMIT GAS! Why you gotta give me diseases when I'm alreay in the hospital?!
(Ohfuck, I'm on hospital guard duty today.... *nervous look*)
Hurps, mis-read that.
Still, though... fucking vampire mosquitos.
Still, though... fucking vampire mosquitos.
GasBandit
Staff member
Yeah really. First they're all
But then they're all
And now we're all
GasBandit
Staff member
Reference for next year's halloween costume, though I'm using the palette option that gives you red hair and a purple coat.I have a hat!
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That is very tiny, but from what I can see, I'm down with it! In fact, forget Halloween, I wanna wear that now!
...It's not like the other parents think I'm normal, anyway...
GasBandit
Staff member
Dammit, the link went to the thumbnail and not the full picture.
Here you go.
Important parts:
Hat
Coat
Cravat
Leather Pants
Belt (BIG BUCKLE, pouches)
Pants (Leather, patched)
Boots (black leather, knee high)
Gloves (leather, elbow, fingerless)
Daggers
Green bottles
Pickaxe
Shovel
How long did you spend making sure there was nothing here to be seen, move along, move along before taking the screenshot?
—Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
That's why the resolution is so low.