With the disaster of a run last episode I decide to refocus my efforts on improving the team. Originally this was bringing in ‘fresh blood meat talent’  but i am quickly learning the path to success is investing in your people. Turns out experience is important. For a real world analogy here I was running our team like most public software companies run their businesses. There is always tons of young, fresh meat ready to do the work so who cares if you kill (“fire”) a few high paid performers? I decide to run this troupe less like EA and more like Valve!I focus on grinding out some adventures and improving the skills, equipment, and trinkets of the crew.
Zubon ‘sexual appetite’ update (yes, this is a thing here – our HR department is pretty lax): his ‘debauchery has reached new heights – whereabouts unknown’. Lock up your wives and daughters (and husbands and sons) – we don’t discriminate here at BlogNation. Either way, Zubon should be proud for reaching new heights to begin with. Our new employee focused regimen is producing results!
Leo/Asmiroth joins my ranks of level 3s. Our team is getting stronger quickly. The issue with this is that level 3s can’t do the level 1 boss fights – so it removes him from the running to be a hero in this episode. The sweet spot is those level 2s to get the Wizened Hag down. Refusing to work once you reach a certain status within the ranks feels very pro-union-ish, and I am not sure if that is the best way to go. Still, I respect (ahem) the wishes of the crew and let the senior leaders of the organization say no to the ‘easy’ tasks.
Oh look – WelshTroll is gone off drinking again. See? Consistency! Nice to see him and Zubon leading the morality side of our troops. Wilhelm is having visions of beings controlling our destiny and I wonder if that included me sitting on my couch, drinking a coffee while I write this. Still, good to see he is afraid of inspired by me. There aren’t many jobs out there where your boss would be okay with this level of vice but hey, its a stressful job (and they will probably be dead soon anyway). I am more forward thinking than Google – it’s not like they have their own brothel on campus!
With higher level adventurers come higher level and varied mission types. Originally there was just Scout misssions (90% of all rooms), Skirmish Missions (Win 100% of room battles) and Boss fights. Add “Knock Down the Shrines” to that list. We are diversifying as a team.
Miss Cook (Liore) just cost me 1000 gold. That is almost 10% of our bankroll. Readers know of my desire to run this troupe safely profitably, so that is annoying. Still it is these in between flavour items that really make it fun. Bhagpuss is gone on a personal vision quest. Probably to Daybreak studios to figure out what is going on with the future of EQN. At BlogNation Inc. we support out of office activities and encourage getting buried in your comfort zone. We call this “in the box” thinking – it is very new wave and the future of team building.
Beyonce is going down I tell you. After several missions I have upgraded my skills, weapons, and armor and have a two healer setup (Occultist and Vestal) ready to go. We are ready! The team has been able to run freely for a while and they have the best tools and stress free mindsets to tackle any challenge!
OK maybe we aren’t ready. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME. Tesh dies FAST as he gets put in the cauldron back to back to back, and I can’t even get a heal off before he is killed. Dammit. WHY TESH! WHY! This calm, understanding leadership role I have been thrust into is BS. I WANT RESULTS! Maybe letting your team do whatever they want, whenever they want is the wrong approach…
…or maybe it is the right approach. The team perseveres and win while Aywren takes a cauldron bath. I was one second too slow on the Hellion (not J3w3l, Jeromai!) deathblow screenshot but YES WE WIN! I am expecting a Kanye interruption now that Beyonce is defeated. Sometimes you just have to get out of the way and let your people do their jobs.
Ah Tesh. Still, amazing to see Aywren (the first character/employee) still going strong and dependable. WelshTroll as well, Mr. Drunk and dependable (I wonder if his IRL friends describe him that way?) Jeromai gets a bump to the A team because of his class skills and killing blow capability. WE ARE VICTORIOUS! I top up everyone’s 401k with a small bonus.
Well, partially victorious. Victorius enough to have beaten the first 3 minor bosses. Oh look! There are MORE bosses. One step forward, three steps back. And to semi-quote fictional Lieutenant Aldo Raine – “We are in the Boss Killing bizness. And Bizness is BOOMING!”. At least we have figured out what it takes to be successful in this crazy world of dungeoneering . I may franchise this out next. We have a thing.
Here is our current graveyard. Randomly enough they are all different classes which shows death (and myself) do not discriminate (see J3w3l? see?) and the Wizened Hag fight is clearly the main populator of this space. Hopefully we don’t have to visit here much more often. I start to plan around building set teams to push forward and handy reserves not far behind. It seems pretty clear I will need good levels of organization to get through even tougher bosses. You already noticed that I added Jeromai (Hellion) as he starred in this show – I purposely levelled him up fast because I wanted the Hellion skills to help with the Hag. I also added Belghast (Leper) and Pasduil (Hellion) to the team. There is no preferential treatment here, I am an equal opportunity employer. Everyone will have their own fair chance to die, in due course.
Ugh… not looking forward to that fight. I come back every episode waiting for me to die… surprised I’m still in there, too! XD
The trouble I have building up a team (I was playing it like you were with bringing in new team members all the time), is that due to stress, I keep having to alternate characters out. So that pushes me to try to form at least two teams. And someone’s always getting left out. I usually pull out of dungeons before I feel the deathblow is coming… so that’s part of my problem, maybe.
I think it is too. I think you have to be ready and willing for people to die. Once you get past the hump it gets to be a completely different game – just wait until Episode 10!
Right this is rather bizarre as my work email had some Russian spam and often it starts Mr Perfect or Mr fantastic, but todays where “Mr Dependable”.
After reading your blog I was laughing so much.
Sounds like my character has drunk more in 2 benders than i have in the last 2 years 😀
The personality parts of this game really shine through. You are our established lush, Zubon is our own Californiacator. Liore gambles like a fiend, and the Abbey keeps producing some interesting traits on our adventurers. Funny about the Russian spam – promise it wasn’t from me!