Playing as Samantha "LoneStarBelle" Hawthorne yesterday (Sunday), I got together with some of the Beyond the Veil crew to run through the Dream of the Darkness War, the "Dungeon" in Blue Mountain, where the players go on a Wabanaki-guided vision quest to defeat invading Filth-worshipping Mayans. I've key-mapped my screencap function (F11 for TSW) to one of my Nostromo buttons; so as I'm button mashing, I sometimes get some interesting shots. In this one, Sam is in the middle foreground, Antida, our tank, is obscured by the pyrotechnics of Maiastas' Quantum Brace, and Zander provides AR support. Exceeder is off camera, weaving his healing voodoo all over the place.
We had tried to finish the last boss last Saturday, but another player and I had to bow out for RL commitments, and the group collapsed. Yesterday, we stuck it out—even though it was really late for Antida (and Exceeder I think)—got the timing right, and downed the boss. Honestly, in my limited experience with TSW, this final boss fight against Wayeb-Xul, the Hound of the Nameless Days, seems to be the hardest: lots of moving pieces and ways to die in what seems like a fairly confined space.
As we careen toward the end of the vision, a giant Dream Catcher appears to catch us and transport us back to the waking world. Below (l-r): Maiastas, Exceeder, Zander, Antida, and LoneStarBelle.
I must say, that while the giant swirly instance gate has become an MMO trope (which inspired B.J.Keeton's Birthright), I like that the instance gates in TSW are objects; like the portkeys from Harry Potter, only not so random. The first instance, known as "Polaris," is reached by "boarding" a helicopter; the second, "Inferno," literally through a door to Hell. "The Dream of the Darkness War"? Reached through a sleeping bag next to a campfire.
As promised, Sam the Vaquera is traipsing through the Scorched Desert in her new "Dawn Leathers" and matching boots, brandishing her street cannon and six-shooters at any cultists who get in her way.
As we careen toward the end of the vision, a giant Dream Catcher appears to catch us and transport us back to the waking world. Below (l-r): Maiastas, Exceeder, Zander, Antida, and LoneStarBelle.
I loved TSW, and that instance was one of my favorite; it's one of the few I ran more than once (in harder modes) simply for the fun of it. Incidentally, if you run back after the boss from the top of the cliff, you find a part of the instance you skip by "teleporting" earlier on; there's a small forest filled with filth beasts!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, great instance, great storyline, great pictures, and great post! (;
Yeah, we did the filth beasts and got the lore objects they were guarding during last week's run. Unless you're about a different area, how do you get back to the top of the cliff?
DeleteThanks a lot for the praise. :)
I think that's the same area. If you zone out w/o disbanding group, I think you spawn back in there, but it may be at the start and you just have to run. The 2nd time through you skip the teleport over that area. The first time I found it I was alone, and it was - shall we say - a problem (;
ReplyDeleteYes, immediately following the final (second?) cutscene, we turned around and went backward through the camp and got 4 lore objects, fighting the filth hounds, too. Apparently, it's a decent place to farm gear from the hounds. I kinda think if you can farm it easily, you don't need the gear.
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