Part 100: And it Burns, Burns, Burns

Chapter 75 – And it Burns, Burns, Burns



And it Burns, Burns, Burns
Searching for Rune Handles…
Servus and Alina’s House


Spectre at the Feast was tied for second, but I’m doing something special for that one, so it’ll be it’s own update, so I’ll do Damsel in Distress in this update instead, it’s short.




Music: Countdown to Death



Leaving the asylum behind, the Dragon Knight continued to wander the haunted streets of Crow's Nest.

Video: And it Burns, Burns, Burns


(Yara) _{A mysterious hatch! It looks like it was rusted shut at one point… but someone’s opened it recently.}
(Behrlihn) _{This could be important. Open it, Dragon Knight!
It’s locked. … there are four dials here with numbers. Someone in this town must know the combination and… there’s a woman by that burning house. I suppose I should see what she wants.}

It isn’t really locked, but I’m not going in there until we’re done with basically everything else in Aleroth.




(Claire) Help! Help! My house is on fire! My baby! Dragon Knight, please aid me!
Darn, the one day I forgot my bucket.
But my baby! My baby is still inside. Please save him before it’s too late!
Why don’t you try and save it?
The smoke, the fire… I don’t dare, I couldn’t stand to watch my valuables burn!
(-7500 XP) _{Pathetic woman! If she can’t be bothered to help her infant herself, just leave it be! Survival of the fittest.}
(Lucian) _{Typical Chaos thinking! You could never understand! The strength of many working together is always stronger.}
My old love letters, my wedding ring… If you see them, please don’t hesitate to salvage them. But my poor baby is the most important of all!
Your baby, where can I find it?
Upstairs, in his crib. Please hurry!
Those love letters you mentioned, where do you keep them?
They’re in my desk on the ground floor. Precious memories that may burn to a crisp.
So why aren’t you wearing your wedding ring your finger?
There’s no time for more questions! Please just save my baby!
Right then, I’m going in. Wish me luck!
Good luck, Dragon Knight! Divine grant you strength!
_{Sorry, can’t.}




As it Burns, Burns, Burns
This quest has three parts which each grant a small quest reward. But get all three - the baby, the letters, and the ring - and you get an extra quest reward for full completion and an achievement.

Music: Countdown to Death





There’s no clock on the screen, but make no mistake, this IS a timed mission. Take too long and the things will burn, and there are a few enemies here. You can only enter the house once.




On the desk in the ground floor room are the letters. If you don’t pick them up within 30 seconds after entering, they burn up.




There aren’t enough enemies to be a threat, but it does work to delay you and add time pressure.




By the fallen bookcase is this hidden, hard to see key that opens the jewel box so you can get Claire’s wedding ring.




_{…That’s a baby troll.}






The Jewelry box with the ring is across from the crib.




In the tub is a key that opens the Fireproof Chest downstairs. That contains a bunch of gold and random loot. Get it before you leave the house. The fire will even out-damage the massive health regeneration I have, so don’t stay forever, though.




(Claire) There you are! I thought the fire had consumed you whole. My baby, did you find him?
Your baby, the letters, the ring: I saved them all!
My sweet little baby! And my most valuable possessions! Heavens bless us both!
So Claire, care to explain the troll baby?
Isn’t he cute, my little Bert? I found him in a wicker basket floating by the river some weeks back. He’ll grow big and strong and defend the city. Can you picture him in Champion armour? Precious!

I guess this is goodbye, then.
May gold and joy rain down on you!
“Claire’s Baby / Wedding Ring / Love Letters” complete! Quest Reward: 3 * (4873 XP, 600 Gold) = 14619 XP, 1800 Gold Bonus Chosen: 4870 XP, 25 Ginseng.
“As it Burns, Burns, Burns” complete! Quest Reward: 6211 XP, 1300 Gold, Skill Book. Bonus Chosen: 3105 XP, 1300 Gold.


Bonus: Rune Handle Search: Crow’s Nest


The enemies here have respawned, and after killing only a few, I reach Level 39!

I also fruitlessly search Crow’s Nest for rune handles, and come up empty.





Whirlwind


Increased from Rank 13 to Rank 14

Mana Cost: 56 -> 59
Cooldown: 2 seconds
Bonus Damage (fixed): 451 -> 503.5
Knockdown Chance: 46% -> 49


Death Blow


Increased from Rank 12 to Rank 13

Critical Chance: +19% -> + 21%


Video: Servus and Alina’s house


<sub>Oh, right… I promised to check on this guy’s wife… hours ago… oops.




Uh-oh…</sub>

These guys actually hurt quite a lot, it caught me by surprise.




(Alina) N… no! Don’t hurt me! Let me live and I can make you dinner! But… a soldier! By the Divine, please fend them off!




Oh my, I thought my days were numbered until you arrived! And to think it took a great big Dragon Knight to save me when me husband’s a Champion! I’ll go to the Ministry and give him a piece of my mind!
_{I wouldn’t want to be Servus right now.}


The door to Servus’ bedroom was bent out of shape in the fighting, and can’t be opened. So how to claim his warhammer?




_{What’s a teleporter doing here?}
This panel contains a cavity in which an item may be sealed.





<sub>That blood trail seems to be going UNDER the wall. Hmmm… Aha, a switch!




What the hell? … and what’s this on the body?



Maybe the book on the desk will clear this up. … This is a woman’s handwriting</sub>

Alina’s Notes




I guess this explains why there are so many teleporters around Aleroth. The knowledge of how to build them clearly isn’t lost if regular people are building them as a hobby.




<sub>Well… that’s better than I thought… except… wait…






Either she was able to slip into the mortuary and drag a body all the way home, and there were no competent guards around who noticed that… or they DID notice and didn’t care



And I can’t decide which possibility makes me feel less safe.</sub>







And it Burns, Burns, Burns
Searching for Rune Handles…
Servus and Alina’s House




Music: Countdown to Death



I got bored. No, that's not accurate. I meant: I like this game so much that I couldn't wait for the LP to end to try out a new build . I started a new Priest character. This guy will be kinda a dick, and he’ll mostly use priest skills and fight in melee. For added challenge, he won’t use set armours, random and non-set uniques at most.

I’ve got a point into Polymorph because it fits the debuffing style of a priest. I’ll put a point into Whirlwind and Rush attack at some point, just because those are mandatory for making melee fighting tolerable. He’s already at level 7 and most of Broken Valley village is done. This time I killed pretty much every single enemy possible before doing the first part of Rhode’s quest, and I still ended up going from level 3 to 5 just from that one quest, and Arben took me the an eyelash away from level 6, and I probably would have made it if I had finished both skeletons before Arben.




Super Fun Activity Center!


Hey kids! One of these images is the Servus’ door from the outside, and the other is Servus’ door from the inside. Can you spot the difference?






Can you spot what important feature this house is missing?



Maps





Claire's House


Servus and Alina's House







(Claire) Help! Help! My house is on fire! My baby! Dragon Knight, please aid me!
Unfortunately I am more or less known for spouting flames, not water.
No no, you can’t save the house anyway. No one could! But my baby! My baby is still inside. Please save him before it’s too late!
Anything else needs saving?
Oh… er… now that you ask it yourself, I would certainly appreciate it if you could salvage my old love letters and my wedding ring.







Reader Participation

A discussion on reallocating.

Yara’s main skills are almost maxed out. Next update, I max out Battle Rage and Whirlwind, and I only need two more points to max Death Blow, which I’ll have by the end of Chapter 77. 79, if not sooner.

Things were clearly getting a bit too easy – I was actually surprised when enemies hurt me to half health. It’s time to increase the difficulty to Nightmare, which I have done starting with the next update.

(Revise with new stats) Yara’s primary weakness is low damage, so fights take a long time. Her base damage in combat gear (70 Strength) is 298-345 (plus 62-62 magic damage), which isn’t that impressive. At 99 Strength, it’s 330/382 (plus 62-62 magic damage). Jacked up with buffs, it is 546-631 (plus 66-66 magic damage), which is respectable.


Yara’s primary strength is health: Both with a high HP pool of 1100 plus, and the fast health regeneration; minor damage is healed almost instantly. However, that’s with an active creature being a distraction and tank. If it goes down in combat, I take a lot more damage, and Nightmare difficulty means I’ll take more still.

Here are the main contenders and the case for each:

• Rush Attack
  
  (Damage Increase skill.) Used to instantly reach distant enemies. More points increase the damage multiplier, and chance of knockdown. It maxes out at a 4x base damage multiplier, and a 100% knockdown choice. However, higher knockdown makes it harder to pull off my favourite “Rush + Thousand Strikes” combo.
  
• Fatality
  
  (Ends combat faster.) Gimmicky instant-kill special attack. It starts out killing below 10% health, but maxed out, it kills below 52% health. It’s not really going to be much use until we put in at least 9 points for a 34% health instant-kill, but we’ll get there.
  
• Bleed
  
  (Passive Damage Increase skill). Passive which adds extra damage over time to your attacks. It starts by doing 10% of your base damage per second for 10 seconds, and caps at 33% of your base damage over 4 seconds – effectively tripling your damage. That’s if it triggers. The chance for that starts at 10% per attack and goes up to 33%. But with the number of attacks we do, it should effectively go off often.
  
• Evade
  
  (Passive Survivability skill.) Passive that increases your chance of evading an attack. It starts at 10% and caps at 50%. Although that’s only from the +14% boost the last point gives. Think 36% as the closer-to-reality cap. Yara is somewhat like a monk in her weaponry, and this is a very monk-like skill to have.
  
• Healing
  
  (Survivability skill.) Skill to restore your health. It’s got a short cooldown, but it doesn’t heal much at our level. Currently it heals 120 HP, at a 15 HP per second rate. At Level 14, that’s 288 HP at a 144 HP/second rate. Level 15, 303 HP in one second. It also has a hefty mana cost as you put points into it. It’s of questionable value. Sure, the emergency healing might help in a fight, but if I’m in trouble I can drink a Healing and Restoration potion at the same time.
  
• Summon Demon
  
  (Survivability skill.) A summon that taunts and engages the enemy in melee combat. It’s pretty sturdy and lasts for a long time. I’m including this because we get a free point specifically for this skill at some point. It could be helpful if my creature goes down.

Suggestions for where you want to see me put my extra skill points are welcome, but I'm leaning towards Summon Demon and Fatality.