A Dnd Tale - Waterdeep: Dragon Heist - A Night at the Opera

 

So where is the opera?

Reassumed playing and it starts at court as the deed is changing hands with some money changing hands and they look upon their new house. Parker Bronzebeard starts by getting 1 000 gp to start the renovation of the house, meaning they are out of money to get the guild licenses so they need cash. After looking for Renaer and meeting Volo in the Yawning Portal they are contacted by the Harpers with some tickets to the opera and a quest for looking for Mirt. So it's of to the cloth store in getting some finer clothes since it's apparently is formal dresscode. Immeral get some green robes with silver linings looking like a roman toga. Hope gets some arabic looking pants with a vest and silk light clothing in white and blue. And then the opera starts.

In the intermizzo they meet Mirt who introduces himself as part of the Harpers and ask if they can look for a talking horse in order to identify two members of the Zentharim.  The next day they find the mare and is able to identify the half-orc woman that was involved in the bar fight in the first session as a body guard to a sun elf. They report to Mirt by leaving a message to Durnam at the Yawning Portal. As they leave a sending spell reaches Immeral asking them to go to Blackstaff Tower and meet Vajra Safahr, the Blackstaff. She wants them to go to Mount Waterdeep and meet the hermit Hlam. They begin the climb, Immeral have no problem, but Hope suffers three levels of exhaustion from the climb. They meet Hlam and get a cryptic message of evil that they return to Vajra that thanks them and then let them go.

They return to Trollskull Manor where the workers have begun fixing the house. Parker informs them that the house appears to be haunted and then leaves. During the night Hope hears a knock on the window and a flying snake appears with a message to meet Davil Starsong at the yawning portal. So the next day it's back to the portal. After breakfast Yagra Stonefist appears and bring them to Davil, the person the mare described as a zhantarim operative. He introduces himself and since they know him being a zhentarim explains his position. The recent gang war seems to be due to another faction of the Black Network (another name for the Zhentarim) that have recently appeared and tried to infiltrate the Xanathar Guild that was exposed and caused the latest bloodshed. He need some help since recently three murders on elf and half-elf sailors have been reported in the Dock ward and he offers them a reward for 100 gp to stop the murders. 

So they are on stakeout duty for the next couple of days. Immeral is going from pub to pub pretending to be drunk in order to get the killers attention while Hope follows. Don't goes as well the first days due to the lingering levels of exhaustion, but the third night she is fit for fight and it's there they notice a half-elf sailor going from a pub. They follow and notice a drow gunslinger with his sword drawn hidden in the shadows. Hope jumps him, he fires a shot with a poisoned bullet right at Hope. Immeral follows with some attacks and then Hope unleashes the sun sword causing him to have disadvantage due to sunlight exposure. He cast darkness and runs off with his boots of elvenkind making him silent so that he can disappear without notice. They report back the next day and gets the reward of 100 gp that now allows them to pay all the licenses to get their business in order. And here the game stops for this session.

Apparently my third sister wants to join next time so that will be interesting if I can get her into the story..

Final Fantasy V (PSOne)

 

Original cover

Finally continued the Final Fantasy Playthrough... after jumping from IV to VII, IX, VIII, X, X-2 and XII. Now we are back to V. And the playstation version to boot. Thankfully the PAL version fixed so many of the problems that Americans reported on like save glitches and extreme load times... maybe load times still lingered a bit, but apparently a lot less. Finally, a good reason for being European. The SNES version was originally released in 1992 in Japan and didn't come to the west until the Playstation version in 1999. I got it for Christmas some time after we got the Playstation 2 as it was part of the Anthology version together with Final Fantasy IV. Probably the one I tried last since I got VI as well, and as everyone probably heard, VI might be the best classic Final Fantasy games, but this is a really good game, which took me a long time to get.

The story is that one day a meteorite crashes near castle Tycoon where Bartz and his chocobo Boko happens to wander around. He rescue Reine, princess of Tycoon as she is attacked by a couple of goblins as she tries to follow her father, the King of Tycoon as he traveled to the Wind Temple as he feared something was happening to the Wind Crystal. Around the meteorite they find Galuf, an old man that have lost his memory, but feels an urge to travel to the Wind Temple. They travel to a cave where they discover a pirate hideout where they try to take their ship, but they are caught and the captain Faris decides to help them since Reine has the same pendent as Faris. They get to the Wind Temple and reach the crystal chamber, but the crystal have been destroyed being the cause of the wind dying. Lucky for our heroes Faris ship isn't run by wind, but by the water dragon Hydra. And that the shards of the crystals gave them access to the job system, the defining gameplay of this game. And fun that is.

The art for the Anthology version, which I didn't get until long after, especially since it spoils part of the story.

So you get a couple of jobs like Thief, Knight, Black Mage and White Mage etc. In battle you get ABP (Ability Point) that level up your level and when you get a certain point you level up and get either an ability to use in battle or an ability that enhances the character, like higher stats or passive abilities like first strike, caution and so on. So by combining these you can have a thief with magic, a magician that gives more damage with the bare fists and so on. Traps get avoided and secret paths become visible. And in the end, you can use all the passive abilities on the mastered job in the bare job, the one you start in. Which at the end becomes the best job of all, plus your ability to combine the other abilities how ever you want, but the stats bonuses from all the mastered jobs as well. The enemies don't stand a chance.

So you get your quest, protect the rest of the crystals. Which take approximately 5 hour to get to the water crystal and fire crystals, both which explode and where I pretty much stopped four years ago. Maybe Mysterious Cities of Gold came in the way. So after watching SoemcallmeJohnny's review of Final Fantasy VI I got a huge urge to play that, but first was gonna finish V. So continue to find the earth crystal in the lost city of Ronka where it was hidden since it began to crack as it was used to power the flying city. With the help of Cid and his nephew Mid they get an airship running to board the flying city where the possessed body of King Tycoon is destroying the crystal. Turns out he is possessed by X-Death, a warlock from Galufs world. Galuf travelled to this world by meteorite to protect the crystals since 30 years ago Galuf together with the Warriors of Dawn defeated X-Death and sealed him in this world. The Dawn warriors travelled home except Drogan who decided to stay and protect this world and the crystals and turned out to be Bartz father. And Faris was Reine's sister who disappeared by falling into the water and being picked up by pirates who raised her. They fail to stop him and X-Death is released, another meteorite lands and Krille, Galufs granddaughter arrives and save them from X-Death who returns to Galufs world. Galuf and Krille follows. Afterwards Bartz, Faris and Reine charges the meteorites in order to warp to Galufs world where they get kidnapped by X-Death. Galuf uses a dragon to enter X-Death Castle to rescue them and then escape, but a barrier is set up so they fly toward another part of the world. After some adventures with meeting the other Dawn Warriors, who die one by one trying to stop X-Death they are sent to the Elder Forrest by the sage Gill, a 700-year talking turtle. The forrest is burnt down and it's revealed that the forrest was guarding another set of crystals and X-Death wanted to destroy them since by doing so merges the two worlds and allows him to get his hands on the void that was sealed 1 000 years ago after the wizard Enuo was defeated by the 12 sacred weapons... I feel Tales of Symphonia used this for it's story. And apparently X-Death is a tree that was possessed by evil spirits of executed criminals that gained sentience 500 years ago. 

Maybe they got the idea of Mithos from this guy as well.

X-Death have our heroes on the rope by trapping them with the crystals, but Krille appears once again, but is trapped herself by his magic, which causes Galuf to go berserk, destroying the crystal that trapped him and then fighting of X-Death on his own, but like Tellah in IV he dies in the end after rescuing everyone. X-Death gets away with the remaining crystals, Krille takes Galufs place and gets all his power.

Oh, you f***ed up X-Death!

That was a shocking moment when I came to it for the first time. Galuf's been with you since the beginning, but it is a bit telegraphed when the other Dawn Warriors dropped like flies talking about a new generation taking over. So you charges X-Death's Castle once again and fights him at the top. Defeating him you still lose and the worlds are merged and you are back outside of Tycoon. Faris and Reine are put in as leaders of the Castle since the king's dead. Bartz and Krille escapes, and followed by Faris who don't feel that ruling isn't her thing. You find Gill who takes you to the Ancient Library where they learn how to unseal the sacred weapons together with the most potent magics and summons. So a treasure hunt is on. First stop is a pyramid in the desert. As you got the tablet from inside X-Death have taken over the Void and sends it upon the Library, Tycoon... pretty much every major centre of World 1. As you reach the Elder Tree at the edge of the desert Reine appears again, possessed by a demon from the N-Zone where the Void was hidden. Defeat it and Reine joins again, but the dragon that appear and helped them is mortally wounded and travels to the Phoenix tower. You go to Fork Tower unlocking Flare and Holy, destroying the tower and unlocking the Ronka ruins where Cid and Mid hide. They upgrade your ship to a sub so that you can find the tablet at the bottom of the sea and the tunnel to the waterfall. All 12 weapons unsealed, traveling up Phoenix Tower to get the summon Phoenix and then fighting Bahamut to get that summon and then 10 hours grinding for jobs before tackling the N-Zone. 

Behold the King of Dragons!

Traveling through the zone there is a barrage of high-end monsters and bosses. First it looks like distorted version of the areas that the void was used by X-Death to swallow until you get to a transporter a space like area with crystals and tree roots binding the worlds. Here you get super bosses like Omega and Shunryu (who hides in a treasure chest, that's a cheap shot). Didn't defeat any of them, mostly since I hardly survived one turn against them and I didn't want to grind the jobs to max out the Bare Job and then try to find a winning combination. You reach the end and X-Death attacks you with the Void, but the spirits of the Dawn warriors and the King of Tycoon appears and stops it allowing Bartz and the Warriors of Light to fight X-Death, and then Neo X-death as the Void took over. Defeated him, all characters arrive (since the end differs if any character is unconscious as the final blow is landed). The world is restored to its merged form, the crystals is resurrected and returned to the places where the tablets where... which makes me wonder if 1 000 years ago that where their originally place until they used them to stop Enuo. And the Playstation version have an extra cinematic cg scene after the credits with highlights from the game.

It was a fun game, music great and the story is decent enough for what it is. The job system is amazing and I don't know how I didn't get this as a kid, or where the misinformation that I had to grind battles between each change? Was it bad translation or something? III was at least a couple of years away for me so it can't be confusion off both games? Still, would I play this version again when I got the GBA-version and the Retron 5 to see it on the big screen? Don't know, colours and music is worse, but saving and extra content and portraits makes it interesting at least (and I got the patches that might solve it). Still, PAL version works fine for me, but since SquareEnix is bringing games like Dragon Quest III and Live A Live back in the HD-2D engine it would be nice to see all the classic Final Fantasy get that treatment, combining all the contents fo the GBA and PSOne in a superior package for consoles, especially since the Pixel Remaster is a bit barebones and not released on consoles as of writing. 

A DnD Tale: Waterdeep - Dragon Heist: The Waterdeep Job

 

I'm the jester with no tears
And I'm playing on your fears
I'm a trickster smiling underneath this mask of love and death
The eternal lie I've told
About the pyramids of gold
I've got you hooked at every turn, your money's left to burn

The next adventure kicked off in January of 2022. Been given the message from the monk in the Temple of Elemental Evil, they are surrounded by fog and then... returned to a harbour in Barovia together with Madam Eve. A ship appears with Vistani colours on the sails, captained by a vistani crew. From behind carts carrying goods of wheat, wine, furs and furnitures to load upon the boat and they all board and sail away. Through the magical mist they enter the world of Toril and the continent of Faerûn and sails toward the city of Waterdeep, the City of Splendor and the Crown of the North.

Arriving at the docks Madam Eve sends them to the Yawning Portal to meet someone. There they observe the people in the tavern and a fight breaks out between a half-orc and five people dressed in black. During the scuffle a troll appears from the well with 9 stirges and all people erupts in panic. A short scuffle with the involved fighters it's over and the players are introduced to Volothamp Geddarm, Volo to his friends and in need of some help since his friend Floon Blagmaar has been missing for two days. With ten gold coins each as down payment they go out looking for this missing person. 

Walking through the streets they encounter the fall out of a gang war between two fractions of the underworld. Dead bodies and city watch walking all around. No one caring for the missing person beyond our heroes. They find some curiosity shop where they learn that the owner watched two people being abducted and dragged away by five people. They walk over to the inn that Volo last saw Floon. After bribing the patrons with some gold and ale they inform them that Volo and Floon was here, but after Volo left another person appeared and joined Floon and as they left five other men left the tavern. The five people the patrons recognized from a magazine by the docks. 

They arrive at the magazine and enters it, finding another scene of dead bodies. Looking through the bottom floor they find a noble by the name Renaer Neverember, son of the former open lord of Waterdeep who was the target of the kidnapping, but since he and Floon looked alike they both were taken by the Zentharim, the thieves guild. And here the Zentharim was attacked by the Xanathar Guild who got away with Floon who they mistook for Renaer. They also finds a secret room with stolen goods, but before they can do anything else the house is overrun by city watch guards that have been alerted by passers by some strange activity. The captain takes control of the place and after some questioning of the three lets them go. Renaer joins with the players to look for Floon since he feels guilty for the events that have transpired. They investigate and finds tracks to a manhole into the sewer and delve underground.

And here we come to the problem with sending level 8 characters into a first level dungeon. The first monster is a gazer, a small beholder pretty much. They just hit it once and it's dead. Next enemy is wererat that they don't actually have any problem with since the rouge alone made 37 damage, insta-killing it if they wanted to. Of course, Immeral the monk had a bit of bad luck and got bitten before anyone could do anything, failed the con saving throw and was now affected by a lycanthropy curse. And they found the secret door toward the boss room, skipping the most of the dungeon. They kill the goblin keeping watch and continues in to face the orc torturing Floon together with the mind flayer and an intellectual devourer. Hope the rouge attacks the orc and kills him in one hit. The big boss they encounter is a Mind Flayer. Immeral attacks the mind flayer that just shrugs at the damage and walks away, putting a dominate curse on Renaer that attacks Hope. And the intellectual devourer jumps on Immeral missing the strike, but is able to get off the brain drain and Immeral losses the saving throw and I rolled higher than Immerals Int ability score so Immeral is out cold. 

Which was lucky for me that they still could pose a threat for the players even though they are 7 levels higher than they are supposed to. Hope uses the spell protection from evil and good to wake up Renaer. The mind flayer escapes into a magic portal and Renaer and Hope kills the intellect devourer before it take control of Immerals brain (which I wouldn't even dare try since the luck of the player would mean that would have been the end of Immeral). They leave with Immeral's unconscious body and return to the Yawning Portal. Volo is relieved that everyone's back, but is a bit worried about the state of Immeral. So they send a message to the temple for a cleric to restore the intellect. Meanwhile payment is discussed. He don't have much money (the sales of Volo's Guide to Monster doesn't seem to be that high), but offers a deed to a house in the Northen ward. Taking a look Hope accept and add it to their growing list of real estate that lies in the hand of Hope and Immerals Emporium. Hope returns to the Portal, the cleric Parker Bronzebeard have arrived with a Greater Restoration spell and is able to cure Immeral on both the wererat curse as well as the damage done by the intellect devourer. Renaer pays for their stay during the night since they can't expedite the take over of the deed until noon the next morning. And here the session ends.

That was fast. We got through the first chapter in one sitting, I actually thought it would take two at least. Could be that I bumbled the magazine scene by accidentally skipping the check on opening the door so I had the kenku assassins already be gone. I also messed with certain rolls. For example I made the mind flyer go before Renaer in the last battle and I forced him to lose the dominate monster spell so that the ilithid could get away. Other adjustments was that I forced them to start with 625 gold each since keeping it all would wreck the economy (which it still does, but it will speed up certain aspects, but since they want flour and other things imported from Barovia they need to get some clearance from the right authorities and that might make everything equal). 

I also plan to change a lot in the end. First of, the keys are kinda underwhelming. Just 3 random things that can be found anywhere? And if you play it as written, then you would have 3 "dungeons" unused? Well, first instinct was using three statues that would open the door to the treasure. I got the idea from an old TaleSpin episode I watched as a kid, "Molly Coddled" it was apparently called. There the villain used a statue (or doll) to open a chamber where a ruby version of that doll was. Neat right, my only problem was what the statues would look like, and I thought gods would work, especially one would be Asmodeus.  Then I watched "The Phantom" from 1996 and thought, skulls it is, of gold, silver and jade.

The Skulls of Touganda

So each villain gets one key so that you can do all of it. Plus watching a couple of Jönssonligan-movies made me think about performing the perfect plan, planed into the smallest detail... or rather, the players gotta figure it out while I play the music from the movies. This gonna be fun.

The Shannara Chronicles (Season 1)

 

Well, hard to miss the post-destruction of earth.

As mentioned while playing through Shannara, I liked Terry Brooks Shannara-series (or at least the ones I've read). So, I discovered there was a TV-show made after one of the books, and it's the Elfstones of Shannara, the best book in the series. And it got John-Rhys Davies as king Eventine and the guy that played Deathstroke in Arrow as Allanon. The others wasn't that interestingactually.

So the story follows Elfstones pretty much. The "world tree" Ellcrys in the lands of the elves are dying and it is the only thing that keeps demons trapped from the real world. As the tree gets weaker three demons are released, the leader of the demons and two lunderlings that are sent out to prepare for the invasion of the demons. You got the chameleon that can take any form and infiltrate the elven court and tells on the planes to demons. The other is the grim reaper that first is sent out to kill the chosen of the Ellcrys, but one is missing. Allanon have awaken from his druid sleep and first pick up Will Ohmsford, the last of the Shannaras and then get an elven princess that left the court and was a chosen and send them out to gather a seed and reinvigorate the tree while Allanon leads the defence of the invasion of the demons. Great story.

A bit of difference here. The changeling is sent to take out the chosen in the elven capital and kills Eventine pretty early, especially when they killed it already just an episode or so earlier, and takes his place instead of reveal that the dog spied on them until the end when it killed Eventine. The wanderer's aren't the same either since they in the books was pretty much romanticised gypsies with ideas like stealing children... like blond blue-eyed children with all the black-haired gypsies... yeah probably good they changed them. In the book they pretty much cheated Will out of the elfstones, but one girl decides to steal them back leaving them with painted elfstones that let's get them killed by the grim reaper as it can follow the stones. The grim reaper shows up fairly late and is more a black knight. And the place they need to find is in San Fransisco. The witches, I don't know what they are, but it isn't like the book. Or I never saw it like that as I quite missed all the modern stuff that existed in the book. Here we have subway systems and areas with radiation poisoning, working pistols... wait, would they still work after what, millenia? At least Allanon fought in the war of the four lands 300 years ago and god knows how many hundred years after Bremen (who makes a small cameo in the show) and the other hundred of years after the destruction of the earth.

Also, they added some conflicts within the elves like the sons of Eventine, the youngest being a drunk after letting gnomes infiltrate the palace and killing the oldest brother and the middle brother wanting to becoming king but constantly fights Allanon and don't believe the demons are coming. Also, they ditch the human legion and dwarfs that would be the only ones that would stand by the elves as the demons attacked. I mean, the leader of the humans was the real badass. So instead of conflict between the elves themselves, why not put that on the other races? Which is funny, since there isn't a single dwarf in the show. And I don't know if trolls and gnomes should look like that, I mean trolls is just wearing gas masks and gnomes disfigured humans with aviator googles. They also added a seer that gets possessed by the demons that wasn't in the book. Seems to be an important character in season 2 so that will be interesting to see.

It was fine, but I didn't get the horror feeling of the hunt by the grim reaper or the tear-inducing ending as all is revealed and the princess realises that she has to sacrifice herself to resurrect the Ellcrys and Will's love for her powers the elfstones while Will tries to plead with her that he loves her and all that. It's a sad ending. They also doesn't show the toll on Allanon since it's also telling how magic affects a person, everything had a price. And the wanderer girl isn't even there in the end but still in San Fransisco. Which sets up season two that I'm waiting for arriving in mail any day now. Will I watch it again? Probably not, I prefer reading the books actually and have a bit of craving for it now.

DC's Legends of Tomrrow

 

Defenders of the Earth!

Well, since Supergirl isn't on Netflix Sweden for the moment, better jump in the next series and that would be DC's Legends of Tomorrow. Basically the show where all the side-characters disappeared from the other shows. I mean you got Sara Lance and the Atom from Arrow, Firestorm, Captain Cold and Mike Rory from the Flash. Then the Hawk-people from the Vandal Savage episodes, which basically is the plot for the first season. Captain Rip Hunter from the future puts together the group Legends of Tomorrow on his time-travelling space ship in order to save humanity from Vandal Savage that will enslave all humans if nothing is done. He gets Sara Lance, Roy Palmer, Mike Rory, Jax and Martin Stein, Leonard Snart, Hawkman and Hawkgirl. They try to stop Vandal at different times before he ascends to full power and conquers earth. Which doesn't work since the time bureau that Hunter belongs to tries to ensure the timeline as well. So in the end Snart sacrifices his life by blowing up the time bureau space station in the future. 

This causes time getting unstable and people and creatures are getting misplaced through time. A new time bureau have been created (somehow Rip Hunter ended up there with Sara Lance becoming the captain of the Waverider, the time-ship) and the legends are put out of commission due to creating this mess to begin with. Until Julius Cesar ends up in Aruba where Mike Rory is on vacation so they get together and starts to put back time as it was meant to be. Meanwhile Eobard Thane (the original looking one as well, don't get why the Flash continued to use the Wells version) together with Damien Darkh and an still evil Captain Cold is looking for the Spear of Destiny or the Spear of Longinus, the spear that pierced Jesus Christ during the crucifixion. We also get John Constantine (back from Arrow) trying to help this possessed girl Astra, that later turns out to be the daughter of Damien Darkh. Which set up the next season where Astra as a grown up resurrect Damien Darkh and prepares to release a demon trapped in the time stream that needs to be defeated by collecting the 6 talismans of the Zambesi, an african tribe where the superhero Vixen comes from (which appeared in Arrow as they fought Damien Darkh).

Fourth season brings in John Constantine again as the release and defeat of the time demon brought magical and fantastical beasts and monsters free into the time stream. There's unicorns, fairy god-mothers and more. Another Legend is Steel, which I don't think is gonna be a reference to the Superman hero Steel. He joins the legends and his father is a politician or something with pulls in Washington and made a pact with a devil to gather the fairy creatures. His father intends to use them for a theme park while the devil intends to create an app that people download where the fine print gives him their souls to take over hell. Then there was one season Sara Lance was kidnapped by aliens contracted by a genius from the future that intends to take over the universe by cloning himself and her. And then the Legends get trapped in 1925 America, their Waverider destroyed by another Waverider and being hunted by a robot J. Edgar Hoover after they killed him by accident. By an earlier version of the genius they used to kill his older self that made him build the Waverider and their computer that now went HAL from 2001 on the Legends. 

Overall I think this is the best series so far. It's completely wild, the legends pretty much does more damage to the timeline and has to fix it more often. Legends dies and disappears and new joins. I get invested in the relationship between Sara and Ava. Rory's whole arc up until season 7 is the emotional weight of the series. He loses his best friend in Snart in season 1, he joins the bad guys in season 2 for that reason but defect in the last episode, he gets invested in stopping the homage to slasher movie villain when the slasher kills his school girlfriend... and that reunion pulls him into a father role. And since he is the last original legend when Sara gets kidnapped, he takes it very hard and is the only one that travels through space of the Legends to save her. Then he leaves the series after killing the villain with his alien children after a union with the alien kidnapper that he had to birth.

And I love all of these misfits of society. They try to do their best, and they fall for temptations to alter the timeline to undo wrongs, but the lesson is always that the consequences is to dire. Also, I like that many episodes are based off movies or books. Also fourth wall breaking jokes like the T. P Barnum episode when they just bash Titanic and the guest star is Billy Zane (you know, the Phantom) that was the villain and Martin Stein played by the engineer in James Cameron's Titanic. And since I watched the other shows first it was fun to see what happened to them, like the Atom that I think just disappeared from Arrow. Although, season 6 was kinda weak in the final boss segment since a genius that clones himself is rather non-threatening after demons, devils and already proven enemies. But since he appeared again in season 7 it might be some later pay-off.