Overwhelmed in the Barrow Lair

The Solo Bunch is ready to descent into the Barrow Lair.

Things started quite well, with the duo dispatching the two Bandit Archers pretty easily. But little did they know the overwhelming odds that laid ahead. The Bandit Commander’s special ability to summon Living Bones led to increasing numbers of enemies entering the lair.

The original battle plan was quite sensible. To go for the Bandit Commander first, eliminating the threat that he posed. Brutus went ahead to perform the Skewer and Balanced Measure combo, hoping to strike hard. Unfortunately, the 3 Curses that were in the Ability Deck made an appearance, meaning that the combo missed. What a disaster!

In one of the early rounds, the Elite Bandit Archer created a trap near the Party. Brutus made a clever move by moving around the trap, attacked the enemy and used the Push ability again, this time making the Elite fall into her own trap.

The scenario didn’t end well. The Bandit Commander summoned so many enemies that everyone was crowded into a small room. Although immobilized, Weaver managed to target the Bandit Commander and killed him. But it was too little too late. Even with the summoned Mystic Ally to aid in the fight, the Party was overwhelmed. With the odds against them, Weaver put her last action, causing an Impaling Eruption which strike 6 enemies, gaining quite a handful of experience in the process.

Although the scenario was a failure, there was still a silver lining. They managed to loot the treasure, gaining 10 gold, and gained experience... enough to head into the Barrow Lair for a second try.

Black Barrow

The party embarked on their journey to the Black Barrow... along the way, the earth started trembling and there’s the danger of falling rocks. Being new adventurers, the party decided to play it safe and ran to an open clearing. They were safe, but suffered 2 damage. This is going to affect them in their exploration into the Black Barrow.

With the two points damage taken from the road event, this was going to be a tough start. In fact, it took me three tries before the party got past the first few rounds without Brutus getting exhausted. No point going further when one of your guys has to be taken out of the fight in the first room. 

With reduced HP from the start, I quickly discovered that I could not go in head-on to face the 3 bandits in the room. Even with the difficulty on Normal and choosing not to apply the solo variant rules, this adventure was tough.

Eventually, I decided to take a risk. Ignore the 3 bandits and focus on healing the two characters at the entrance. That allowed me to survive and continue on the battle. It helped that the enemy was not able to make any attacks in the first round.

Some memorable events in this scenario:

- Brutus went into the second room, did a Push on the Bandit Guard. Which led to the enemy falling back into the 2 traps... instant kill!

- In the third (and final) room, Weaver rode the wind and jumped pass the enemies, and landed herself on the treasure chest to open a new Random scenario.

- At the corner of the room, Weaver could perform a number of range attacks which helped to weaken the enemies.

- Brutus went forward to deal a Sweeping Blow attack on the two Living Bones hoping to take them out once and for all. The first Living Bones fell, but Brutus’ attack missed the second completely!

- Brutus moved into the room and did some clever maneuvering to do some area strikes on the enemies.

It was a close fight in the final room. Brutus was down to 2 HP and Weaver 3 HP. The final Living Bones were dispatched by Brutus at the last minute, leaving me breathless at the close call.

With this, the party rested and continue on their journey into the Barrow Lair in pursuit of the thief...

So this is the state of the world after the first scenario. Managed to unlock the Well of the Unfortunate scenario, but will have to save that for another day.

Gloomhaven- the tale begins

It took me a little while. But months after acquiring the massive Gloomhaven, I’m finally getting this to the table. With the TowerRex insert all built, tokens and tiles all sorted, essential cards sleeved, I’m finally ready to jump in.

 

Reading and learning the rules took a full 2 days. That included watching some playthroughs on Youtube to familiarize with all that is going on in the game.

So get ready to join the Solo Bunch (that’s the party name) in this epic quest.

In the party are Brutus the Brute and Weaver the Spellweaver. From the Personal Quest cards, Brutus wants to be a Battle Legend while Weaver is actually a worshipper of Xorn. I guess Brutus just wants fame while Weaver has a secret dark side.

Starting out in the city of Gloomhaven, the two characters got ready to take on the first quest, i.e. going to the Black Barrow to catch a thief.

Before heading off, the party saw the Sanctuary of the Great Oak being constructed and decided to help. That gained them some reputation and it seems a like a good start to the campaign, although they ended up being slightly exhausted. No big deal, since it’s still the start of the adventure.

The past and future

It's amazing how some reading materials elicit certain responses. She was never one for 'self help' titles. But this manga based on a tidying method by Marie Kondo made her think. While her eyes lingered on this page, she thought about her past, her future. She thought about her relationships. What she wanted in her life. 

Tracing her index finger over the arrow with the text 'Fear For The Future', her mind wandered to the three boys she ever really loved. Not at the same time, of course. She was not that kind of girl. Still, she could not but think about how her life would be like if she ended up with any one of them.

The past. The future. Perhaps it is true. She can never move on if she clings on to the past. Or if she fears the future. Deep thoughts indeed. All from a picture book on decluttering.

A very short story

He placed his right hand over hers and smiled. With his left, he reached out to press the red button labeled 'Destroy'. And the world ended in a whimper.

Random musings

This is a sunny day. Surely, the sun shines as it never shines. Compared to yesterday, the sun is certainly out in its full glory. The heat hangs in the atmosphere, thick as pea-souper, just that it's invisible. Walking along the street is a chore. Some people like the heat, but I prefer to stay frosty in the confines of my room.

Inside, it's cool. Cold, if you are not the icy kind. It's a comfortable kind of cold if you ask me.

The Spotify radio is playing tunes from a playlist called 'Life Sucks'. Life sucks at times, but not now. Now I'm just chilling in the cool air-conditioned air of a HDB room. Safe from the heat, protected from the sun. Closing my eyes, the songs about heartbreak and misery floats in the air. I'm content. Life sucks, but not now. For that hour before the sun sets, I'm just content.

Beautiful sky

The sky always looks beautiful from a certain angle.

Posting from Blogo

It's been a long time since I've posted on this blog. Blogpress doesn't even work anymore so i can't use it on the iPad Pro. So basically I'm trying out this app called Blogo to see how well it works.

Nothing much to see here. Move along.

Photos from Xi'an trip in 2014

SOC in LEGO-A pictorial essay that brings back memories...

This has got to be the best thing I saw at The Little Red Brick SG50 Edition exhibition.

Seeing the LEGO recreation of the Standard Obstacle Course (SOC) brings back memories of my NS days. This is the course I did back in the days... before they changed it to whatever modern trappings you have today.

For me, whenever the SOC is mentioned, there's this fear that sets in me. If you are one of those ultra-fit fellows, then the SOC is probably nothing to you. But for me, it's a challenge.

After running for a short distance... I can't remember what's the distance, you come face to face with the first obstacle. It's like this humongous flat piece of thing that is smack in front of you. You have to gather all your will to jump and step on the wall to push yourself over. I've seen some folks running into the wall, and not being able to clear it... totally a morale destroyer. But once you get past this, it's not so bad... in hindsight.

Next up, the Parallel Bars. This is not too bad. Just have to lock your elbows and shimmy across. Easy peasy...

...until you get to the Monkey Swing. It's actually not that difficult to do, considering you'd have done this when you were a kid at some playground. However, you are now wearing a helmet, carrying your M-16 (yeah... we are old-school soldiers), and wearing your Standard Battle Order (SBO). All that weight means that you can't really monkey your way across.

After that, you get to the Low Rope. I don't know why it's called the Low Rope when it's not that low. Going up the rope requires some technique. It's all about looping the rope the right way with your boots. when you reach the top, you slap the bar and shout out the name of your Company, which during my BMT is "Echo".

Then comes the Horizontal Beam. This is easy. Except that you have to high-port your rifle while running across. This thing swings around a bit... but as long as you keep your balance, you'll make it across without eating dirt.

The Gate is next. I found this quite fun to do. You grab the bars, tumble yourself over the 'gate', and you're done. If you've never fallen head-over-heels with someone in your short lifespan of 18 years, you'd have literally done it here with the Gate. Probably need to do a little re-adjustment of your helmet and webbing after this, as they will most probably be out of place after your clear this. Oh... and don't drop your rifle while doing this.

When you get to this next obstacle, you'll be panting and sweating and wondering what the hell you are doing all these for. When you ascend the Balancing Log, many thoughts will be running through your head, least of all that you're doing these to defend your father, mother, girlfriend, pet goldfish, etc. Again, balance is key here. Just keep going, banish whatever thoughts you have, and just quickly run across.

I've no idea why this next one is called Jacob's Ladder. Biblical reference? Not sure. Not that you'll care when you see the steps looming in front of you. It's all about conquering your fear of heights. And yes, it's still about balance. Don't drop into the spaces between the logs when you're at it. It's going to be painful for your nether regions.

We're close to the end of this torturous endeavor. The last obstacle is The Ramp. It's just a simple ramp that you have to charge up, and then jump down. The going up is the easy part. The coming down requires a leap and carefully landing on your two feet. Many folks will complain that they got their bad ankles or knees from their less than feline-like landing.

It's still not the end though. You now have to run with your SBO all 800m (?) to the finishing point, where you'd be given a timing. Whether you can book out for the weekend, or have to sign for extra duty depends very much on the timing you achieve.

Taipei 2013

Taipei 2013, a set on Flickr.

Had a great, relaxing trip to Taipei... my third time there and still so much to explore. Especially a great place for riding. Wish I had my D8 with me to ride there!

Review: The Song of Achilles

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A beautiful written tale that has almost everything. War, romance, violence, revenge, betrayal, friendship... you name it. It's Iliad told from the point of view of a minor character Patroclus, and it explores the love between him and the famous hero Achilles. As it's written from Patroclus' POV, there's a sense of intimacy and perhaps a sort of starry-eyed love, which is not quite what one would normally expect of a story about the Trojan War. Despite the gay angle, there's still enough blood and gore to satisfy anyone game for a heroic tragedy.

View all my reviews