A fairly uneventful patrol through the Cove pushes Snuffles and Amy to level 6.
Mikerc went to meditate in the abbey for stress relief, and it calmed him down a little TOO much! -15% damage on the first round? Unacceptable! Gonna get the leeches to pull that nonsense right out of his blood.
On what should have been a milk run through the warrens, Wasabi and Nick contract the Crimson Curse. But the experience pushes Zero to level 6. Frank is also infected by the curse the following week. These swarms are everywhere!
Ashburner's morale breaks when his party runs out of food, leaving him hopeless on a trip through the ruins. His affliction causes a retreat to fail at a crucial moment, causing the death of both himself, and Null. Patrthom and Frank barely manage to escape.
@CynicalKat,
@stienman, and
@JunJun join the roster. The latter two are woefully inexperienced, but we really have a bad need for a crusader and a vestal.
On a trip through the weald, Emrys looks into a tent at a seemingly abandoned campsite, and the revelation of the grisly fate of its occupant drives her over the edge.
Grue, on the other hand, rises to the challenge.
The mission goes completely pear-shaped, however, and after retreating back to the bloody camp after a battle gone terribly wrong, Emrys dies of a heart attack. Another antiquarian arrives to take her place, named NobleHippy.
Grytpipe-thynne, Stienman, Junjun and Hylian are also afflicted with the Crimson Curse.
The Fanatic ambushes the party! The battle is bloody (and fiery), But Hylian, Nick, Stienman and Junjun finally overcome him - though Nick is nearly burned to death at the stake. Nearly. But in surviving, he advances to level 6. He celebrates by going on a drunken bender and isn't seen for three weeks. Two vials of antidote for the Crimson Curse are found on the fanatic's fallen corpse! With so many infected, it will be difficult to choose who to cure...
@Sparhawk and his faithful hound join the crusade.
Wasabi is cured of the crimson curse. She, Dave, General Specific and Shego go to destroy the last cannon in the Weald, the Brigand 16-pounder. They're fantastically successful, and bring home a nice trophy (and Shego brings home a tapeworm). (6:50)
When they return, they find some sort of miracle has returned Dirona to life! She's alive and as strong as she was, but considerable expense must be invested to re-train and re-equip her. Fortunately, money is no longer a problem for us.
The second vial of cure is used on Junjun. She is, however, almost immediately reinfected during the mission. As are Fade and Mikerc.
Wasabi, Serarelm, Genspec and Dave try to kill the final, Formless Flesh. Things do NOT go well at all. Wasabi is killed brutally by a lashing hail of toothed and spiny tendrils. Dave is nearly bitten in half, and then bleeds out before any aid can be rendered. The others come so very close to finishing off the horrible thing, but in a crushing flurry of teeth and bad luck, everyone is killed. Everyone. Catastrophe.
Shego, Dirona, Nick, and Sara_2814 set out to defeat the Beguiling Siren, but the stress of all the madness drives Shego to hopelessness with alarming quickness. Sara has a close brush with death, and the four deem it prudent to regroup in town.
@Adam the highwayman signs on to the endeavor.
After a very successful attack on the fish-men of the cove with Tinwhistler, Bones, MindDetective and Grue all advance to level 6.
It has now been two years. Two... long... years... since our arrival.
The hamlet, once a hopeless midden sheltering a few terrified rabble, is now almost completely restored to its heyday, and adventurers bustle through the streets. But what a cost the labor has incurred... so many dead, so many lost.
And the jagged rictus of the mansion on the cliff still looms over us all, like the Sword of Damocles, waiting to fall on us and end it all at any time.