Part 37: Bardvig Aqueduct

Update 37: Bardvig Aqueduct



Welcome back! Last time we beat up an immortal god king in a street brawl. This time we’ll be wlking alongside a biiiiig Aqueduct that’s also a bridge.



We come in on the party examining their surroundings.



Primus would probably now. It must be as ancient as he is.
It’s very impressive.



There’s a very brief pause.



When someone calls out to us.



As Reiner greets them the camera pans over to show an ominously colored group of travelers.

No doubt on their way to the Gogombob City Temple.
You’re wasting your time. The Kawas won’t allow anyone to access the Temple.
And they are too many to slay.
…



We have no quarrel with you. Pray that doesn’t change and be on your way.
Hahahaha! No. The way I figure it, since we can’t enter the Temple, we’ll simply off every other Marked as they arrive. Then I will be declared the winner of this little game by default!
I don’t think that’s how it works…
Boss. Me former crew went after them bastards before. As ye can see, it didn’t bear the expected fruits. They’re brutal and merciless. Best be wary.




And it’s time for another fight. If you don’t come into this one with a plan, then it can get brutal very quickly. Even though it’s a defeat the leader fight, Draxl’s difficult to snipe since he’s solidly bulky and stays in the back row of the enemy.



I’m bringing in Katja and Anadine on the left, and then Bobby, Sophia, and Mongo on the right. Both Anadine and Katja can swim, so that’ll let me link up quickly and hopefully take down one side of enemies before the other can really engage.



And I really do need to split them up because we’re looking at 10(!) enemies against us, with a good number of advanced and powerful classes between them. Thankfully, this map has a saving grace in its AI, in that the top 4 enemies (Draxl, the Vampire, the Werewolf, and the floating Merc) will not advance towards you unless you enter their attack range. They will still do things like buff people in range or revive others, but if you hang back you won’t have to deal with them for a little bit. The main downside in hanging back is that it can be difficult to take out the backliners like the Sorcerer and Mender. Still, I think it’s a much better strategy than rushing in.



To demonstrate, the Vampire opens the fight by hasting the Mender, but does not move himself.



Katja uses her turn to advance and gets brained with a rock for her troubles.



There’s a bunch of buffing on both sides until Kyrie inflicts my first damage with a Dark Bolt on the Fellblade.



Though the Druid immediately undoes it.



Katja gets healed by Sophia then zapped by the Warmage.



And the Sorcerer advances into the middle of my party to hit everyone for quite a lot of damage. He does get a few statuses from the counters, but the Mender heals those and then retreats to the back.



Anadine gets hit with a decay status, which is bad because she ends up with about 80 HP after it.



To slow things down and hopefully keep Anadine up, I have Katja try to put the Peddler to sleep. And thankfully it does proc so Anadine will get a turn.



Mongo whacks the Sorcerer for about half of his health.




And now that enemies are in melee range, low HP Anadine 1 shots the Warmage, gets a cleave turn and literally does 150% of the druid’s max health in a single hit.



While Kyrie takes out the Sorcerer with damage to spare.



Bobby goes to kill the Fellblade. He his with the locus, but misses the basic thunder attack to actually get it.



Up top, the werewolf revives the dead Warmage.



And back in the fray I have Katja net the Fellblade. It does no damage, but is a guaranteed root. Since he has no ranged damage, this’ll make sure that I don’t lose anyone before I can heal back up.



The Warmage uses a full potion and then advances, and Mongo falls just short of killing the Mender.




Which also triggers what may be the most impactful teleport in the game. 1 whole square away.




With no one left on the surface, Anadine jumps under water to kill the Peddler and the Fellblade.




Kyrie finishes off the Mender.



And Sophia heals the front liners back up.



The Werewolf uses their other Pheonix Ashes, though he doesn’t revive the Mender. Instead he goes for the Sorcerer, which is a mixed blessing. Especially after the Vampire buffs the Sorcerer’s Mind.



I had Katja net the Warmage on her turn, so because he can’t do anything else, he just gives himself reraise.



Kyrie nearly kills him right away though.



And then Sophia takes him out with a cast of Nameless One.



And Bobby finishes him off a 2nd time.


Having advanced far enough forward, the final party is now able to move up. The Werewolf runs up and kills Kyrie.



Because the Sorcerer’s turn is coming up, I have Katja heal Anadine so she doesn’t die.



Which was a good idea, because he hits everyone with a big dark blast. It nearly kills both Mongo and Katja, but no one actually goes down.




And thanks to the big hit, Anadine gets her damage boosted again and kills both the Sorcerer and the Werewolf.




Draxl and the Gadgeteer both go for Anadine, but she barely survives.



Now that I finally have some breathing room, Sophia hits Draxl with Fafnir to start weakening him.



Katja weakens him further.



And then Bobby finishes him off with a Holystorm.



I managed to mistime getting the screenshot so it’s really dark. Still, Anadine definitely deserved the MVP. Overall on the fight, I got really lucky both with people barely surviving hits and with the turn order letting me save them afterwards. It also helped a lot that I knew what the fight was like coming in. If you’re not careful it’s pretty easy to trigger the leader’s party and make things a lot harder.



Afterwards, we see that Reiner was not happy with that fight.

Unless they become and Immortal, that is.
That Marked said the Kawas were blocking anyone from entering the Temple. What are we going to do?
I’ve had dealings with the Kawa elders before. I know them to be reasonable. They probably have a good reason for blocking access to the Temple, and perhaps we’ll be able to help.
In any event, no use worrying about it, right? We’ll see what it’s about once we get there.
Let’s get going.



Yes, boss?
We might yet make an Arbiter out of you, I think.
Hmph. As ye say, boss.



And then we’re back on the world map. Next time we’ll be continuing on our trek and heading through the jungle.