I continue the darkest descent of gaming this week for the second time, playing Darkest Dungeon every day of November. Let’s see what happens this go around and who survives, shall we?

November 6th, 2016

My return was well met. I killed everything with little problem and got to use one of my current favorite groups.

My Group (The Laughing Dogs of War):

• Font the Crusader
• Cobb the Houndmaster
• Bretteville the Jester
• Giscard the Occultist

Bullet Points:

• The highlights were some awesome ass-kicking “combos” with the group raining down Debuffs and Bleed on their foes.
• Walked away with some minor scratches.

Just got a Town Event that takes away level restrictions. Might be time to give that damn Sonorous Prophet a go again with my higher level heroes. Hmm…

Brought along a combo team. Let me introduce you to the Olive Salad!

My Group:

• Hot Dog the Abomination
• Sardine the Bounty Hunter (always Masochistic)
• Cobb the Houndmaster
• Giscard the Occultist

Bullet Points:

• The Sonorous Prophet is dead. Eat shit!

Back to the Ruins to get some coin (I’m broke).

My Group:

• Carbuncle the Man-at-Arms
• Bretteville the Jester
• Martel the Antiquarian
• Petremol the Arbalist

Bullet Points:

• What should have been relatively easy, was not.
• Martel got killed after getting Death’s Door early on. I can’t keep an Antiquarian alive.
• The others did fine for the most part, Petremol scraping by with 1 HP.
• Ugh, I need to destress.

Time for a Veteran expedition. Spoiler: this probably will not go well.

My Group (Red Red Whine):

• Bloody Jobe
• Font
• Sardine
• Giscard

Bullet Points:

• Only two battles in and I’m getting whacked left and right. There is some kind of Blighted Giant that beats the holy shit out of you with a tree.
• I had to run or else everyone was going to die. These Veteran expeditions are no joke.
• Everyone gets stressed and walks away in shame.
• I now only have Veterans in my group now and I spent all my money on upgrades. I’m broke and I’m going to have to send some Seekers (Level 0 folks) out for a while to build my money back up.

 November 7th

With no money and little faith in my ability to take on Veteran expeditions at the moment, I’m sending a spanking new team into the Ruins to get me some more coin. Let’s hope this works.

My Group:

• Percival the Crusader
• Folio the Highwayman
• Culai the Vestal
• Petra (formerly Petremol) the Arbalist

Bullet Points:

• Percival got hit hard a few times, but Culai kept him healed.
• Ditto for Folio.
• In the end, the team ended up pretty decent. Only a few minor scratches.
• Let’s see how they fare somewhere else…

My Group (I suppose I should name them. How about Minotaur Maggot Machine?)

• Percival the Crusader
• Folio the Highwayman
• Culai the Vestal
• Petra (formerly Petremol) the Arbalist

Bullet Points:

• This…was…something.
• Everyone got their Resolve tested. Abusing each other, cursing, going mad, it was all over the place.
• Ultimately they all died from Heart Attacks. Yes, seriously all four of them. All dead.

After that last abysmal outing, I’m going back to the Warrens with another set of greenhorns (this time led by Bretteville at least, who has a little experience)

My Group: The Mad Misfits

• Crescent the Leper
• Marriage the Hellion
• Dufay the Highwayman
• Bretteville the Jester

Bullet Points:

• Got stressed AF but managed to pull through with everyone intact.
• Crescent got the brunt of the damage. They seemed to work well together though.

 My Group:

• Hot Dog the Abomination
• Cobb the Houndmaster
• Sardine the Bounty Hunter
• Giscard the Occultist

Bullet Points:

• Damn, Cobb got obliterated by spiders and I had to retreat. Then he was Blighted so badly, he was going to die so I cut my losses and abandoned the mission. I can’t catch a break with these Veteran missions.
• I’ll have to call it a night.

 

November 8th

 My Group:

• Font the Crusader
• Carbuncle the Man-at-Arms
• Courteney the Gravedigger
• Sickle the Plague Doctor

Bullet Points:

• This is one of the first Veteran expeditions I haven’t gotten mauled in. I’m plodding along well for the most part.
• Font gets stressed AF but his Resolve makes him awesome! I think it was Focused.
• We beat the shit out of most everyone, even downing that giant bastard that kicked my party’s ass in the past.
• I did it and got a shitload of money. Yeah!

My Group:

• Carbuncle the Man-At-Arms
• Death-Bringer the Hellion
• Bretteville the Jester
• Giscard the Occultist

Bullet Points:

• I got really lucky with some maps and found a secret door! There were some heads inside. Gross. But they give me some good abilities and some bad. Yay?!
• Some big ass enemies in here, but I managed to keep it together. Even killed a Swinetaur (a pig centaur). Nice.

My Group (Need to name this group as they did well the first time. How about The Hyenas of the Deep?

• Carbuncle the Man-At-Arms
• Death-Bringer the Hellion
• Bretteville the Jester
• Giscard the Occultist

Bullet Points:

• Got waylaid the second or third fight in (mostly by Stress)
• Both Death-Bringer and Bretteville were clinging to life due to a big crab that kept bleeding them out. They both got negative Resolve tests and hit Death’s Door at the same time.
• I decided to abort the mission and try again another time. The Hyenas of the Deep go back to the surface. That’s all for tonight.

November 9th

My Group (Chicken Olive Salad):

• Hot Dog
• Cobb
• Sardine
• Sickle

Bullet Points:

• Sardine got Death’s Door, but managed to not get killed miraculously.
• Both Sardine and Cobb got their Resolve tested and turned Selfish, but Sickle got a positive one, Virtuous (?)
• We made it through, but just barely. These Veteran expeditions are hell.

I got a Town Fair which made all activities that aren’t upgrades free. Damn, I needed that. I de-stressed almost all of my Veteran heroes and got some diseases cleared up as well. That meant I had to go with my lower end Apprentices for the next mission. So I decked them out with upgrades and some of my fancy treasure I picked up.

My Group:

• Crescent the Leper
• Marriage the Hellion
• Dufay the Highwayman (with bloody head in a bag for extra oomph)
• Maudit the Vestal

Bullet Points:

• Marriage looked to be in trouble early on, but pulled through.
• Maudit proved a life-saver with her healing spells.
• Dufay is the hardest hitting Highwayman (that’s a mouthful), I’ve had so far. Mostly due to upgrades and his equipment.
• Pulled through with no major injuries, but got a shitload of Negative Quirks.
• Had a long day and two long expeditions, so that’s all for tonight.

 

November 10th

I actually fell asleep early last night, but I did this one in the morning before work, so I’m counting it!

My Group: (Hell Walkers)

• Crescent the Leper
• Marriage the Hellion
• Dufay the Highwayman
• Maudit the Vestal

Bullet Points:

• This group works pretty well together. Crescent has high melee power, Marriage has some bleeding ability and pretty strong melee as well, Dufay has a good mix of abilities and does high damage due to the head in a bag treasure, and Maudit has nice healing mixed with Judgement which drains life from enemies and gives it to her.
• With all of the above said, I made short work of the enemies in the Weald this go around.
• The only thing that gave me trouble was a pack of Rabid Dogs, but only because they were bleeding everyone.
• Crescent finished with 99 Stress, so he just barely avoided getting his Resolve tested.
• That’s all for now. More later!

 

November 11th

My Group:

• Marriage
• Dufay
• Campbell the Arbalist
• Maudit

Bullet Points:

• Well, I think Crescent going on a drinking binge screwed up my chemistry.
• Everyone got their Resolve tested, especially Dufay after getting hit over and over again.
• Eventually we were ambushed after camping and Dufay had a Heart Attack and died. Shit.
• I had to call it after that because everyone else was pretty well stressed and I don’t think I could have taken on the goal of killing the Wizened Hag with three members only. Back to the drawing board.

After that last shitty expedition it’s time to send my Champions out (Level 4).

My Group: (Meaty Supreme)

• Carbuncle
• Hot Dog
• Sardine
• Giscard

Bullet Points:

• Sardine got pegged with another Resolve test as usual. This guy is a target for getting stressed.
• Otherwise I zig-zagged through the dungeon and managed to not get beat up too bad. Got stressed as hell though. Time for a rest.

November 12th

My Group:

• Crescent
• Berners the Highwayman (let’s see if he dies like all my others)
• Maudit
• Campbell

Bullet Points:

• No major problems here other than getting stressed again and Berners getting Masochistic. Everyone hates my Highwaymen.
• I killed a shitload of Fish people and got the jump on a few.
• Decent group.

My Group: (Holy Shit Team)

• Bloody Jobe
• Font
• Bretteville
• Sickle

Bullet Points:

• Tempting Goblet pisses me off. Ugh!
• I managed to get through this without camping. Decent!
• No one suffered much other than Font who was in position 2. Everyone hates position 2. Everyone survived though, so all and all, good show.
• That’s it for tonight. Whew!

November 13th

My Group:

• Crescent
• Emory the Bounty Hunter
• Berners
• Maudit

Bullet Points:

• I don’t recall any major hits because I think I did this one really, really late (or early depending on your perspective)
• Balancing the more difficult missions with these smaller ones is a good way to advance. Plus, my level 4 folks need to rest or they’ll be stressed AF.

My Group:

• Berbers the Highwayman
• Wissant the Antiquarian
• Cairon the Occultist
• Campbell the Arbalist

Bullet Points:

• Killed the Collector
• Campbell became Courageous
• Found a rare antique
• Got Junia’s Head, gives +30% Healing, but +20% Stress too

My Group:

• Crescent
• Marriage
• Maudit
• Cairon

Bullet Points:

• Found a secret room
• Found the Siren with little issues
• Marriage got tempted, but we killed the Siren. Hell yeah!

My Group:

• Carbuncle
• Font
• Giscard
• Maudit (which I noticed too late was already stressed from a previous expedition)

Bullet Points:

• Planning to find the Necromancer, but things are looking good from the get-go with all these Stress attacks.
• OK, shit, too stressed
• Maudit and Giscard at Death’s Door
• Maudit Heart Attack. Time to pack up and call it a day.
• I had to abandon the quest, but kept some of my favorites alive. That’s it for Week 2!

If you’re interested to continue following these adventures, stay tuned to Week 3!