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Part 3 - Treaty at Big Tree


:I've returned from Big Tree, where I met with the Mushroom elders. I'm amazed at how quickly their civilization has progressed! Unfortunately, there is a faction among the Mushroom population that sees the Clogheads as a threat. I tried to assure them that nothing could be further from the truth, but they remain doubtful.
:This saddens me greatly. Why should two civilizations be hostile to each other?
:It's so unnecessary! Don't worry though...I've hatched a plan! The Mushroom elders are convening a council at Big Tree to discuss the future of Mushroom and Cloghead relations. You should send an adventurer to pleaed with them! I'm sure you can convince them of your peaceful intentions. Why am I so sure? Oh, I know these things. By Raako, I do. So, go to Big Tree, plead your case, and the Mushrooms and Clogheads can begin their grand friendship! Farewell, and good luck!



Well, despite Sproggi not appearing to notice that the Clogheads are incredibly violent (given our interactions so far), we are heading to Big Tree to make peace with the Mushroom species.



I'll be picking the Archer this time, since it is once again the brand new, shiny species.



The forest area outside of Big Tree appears to be of a more autumn variety. Also, there's a red slime! Good thing I'm an archer who can fire my bow!



Or, I guess, I just hit them with the bow until I learn how to shoot arrows...this might hurt for a bit.







Taking out the spider nest gets me Level 2, which means it's time for an ability rundown!



The first ability, Shoot Arrow, does the obvious. Later levels give you an improved critical hit chance for every empty space around you when you use it.

Roll is the defensive ability, which uses one turn to roll until you hit a wall. Further levels let your roll more than once in a single turn. It's a pretty good pickup, at least for one level, to be able to get out of range of something nasty.

The third ability, Piercing Shot, works differently from Shoot Arrow in that you can only shoot in the four cardinal directions. However, the shot pierces all enemies instead of hitting one at a time. Further upgrades improve this to shoot through walls, and then wrap around the screen to hit everything behind where you shoot as well.

The ultimate ability, Lightning Arrow, shoots a lightning arrow in a random direction, which shocks enemies around it for 1.5x the damage, with the second level shooting an additional arrow. It's a good panic button, but with everything else being so cheap and having a pretty nice defensive ability, it's rarely needed.

I grab Shoot Arrow first, since being able to shoot anywhere in line of sight means I can pop those red jellies in a safe manner.



I activate the Shoot Arrow ability to pick off this guy here, but I can't seem to figure out how to actually fire it.



While trying to figure it out, I accidentally end up waiting a turn, so I retreat further to the north to buy myself more space.



Turns out you have to hit the "Wait" button while in arrow shooting mode to actually shoot an arrow (which I would have noticed if I looked at the movement circle that I still haven't turned off smile:

I easily take down the slimes after getting past my UI confusion.



The blue pot to the north has a scroll of teleportation, which lets you teleport to anywhere within vision. Pretty cool!



Yep, this is waaaaay easier than if I had to try this as a farmer or warrior.



Oh hey, this potion sounds interesting! Let's use it!



Oh hey, my arrow ability got replaced with something that sounds like a vampire skill! That's cool!

...oh wait, I just lost my arrow ability on a level full of these red slimes



I can't see what my other powers are supposed to be at the moment, so let's keep exploring. Here's a chest!



Sure, I'll take +15 HP anyday! That's going to help with all those explosions that I'm going to face tank after trading away my arrow shooting



I level up again, so time to take a look at my NEW abilities!



Drain Life appears to be a Vampire ability. It looks like a worse cleave in terms of damage, but the ability to heal without using shrines is pretty powerful. The heal gets better as you level it up.

Teleport looks like a wizard ability, and does the same thing that the scroll of teleportation does, except it is reusable and only costs 1 stamina point! This kinda makes up for losing Shoot Arrow, since I now have a way to avoid the red slime death explosions. I'm not sure how useful the leveled up teleport is, however.

Hide in Shadows looks like a Thief ability. Since I have teleport, the first two levels of it look strictly worse than just teleporting to where I want instead. However, the third level seems like a good way to spend stamina to get a bunch of extra attacks in a row. I think I'll pass on trying to get it, though.

The ultimate, Backstab, is another Thief ability. It doesn't seem that powerful (just an extra damage hit, and you can't aim it if there is more than one enemy surrounding you), but it is pretty reasonably priced to do so. Since my only other damaging skill (other than maxing Hide in Shadows) is Drain Life, I'll probably use it quite a bit to deal with enemies like big slimes, where I can't kill it in a single hit.

So, overall, I guess I'm not that bad off. I'll be taking Teleport this level up, since one point in it is extremely valuable.



To test it out, I pop this small red jelly and activate the skill. It appears to use the same aiming system as Shoot Arrow, so at least I know how to use that!



And presto! No damage taken!



I finish going around the rest of the first floor to get more experience and loot. The pot I passed up earlier has a scroll of blizzard, which easily replaces my scroll of teleportation now that I have a renewable source.



I level up and decide to level up Drain Life, hopefully to help me leverage my super big HP pool to tank my way through my curious mistake.



The shrine blinks me away when I try to pray at it. Rude!



I enter Big Tree proper, which looks suspiciously like the other underground dungeons. Hopefully this gets changed up!



I pop a red jelly out of a pack and teleport away from the resulting

Okay, Teleport was a pretty good skill to get, I have to admit.



THere are a bunch of jellies waiting off to the side over here, so I take advantage of the corners to use Drain Life and recover some health, hopefully saving that health shrine in the upper right for later.



Delicious!



I carve through the jelly horde, but there are still more swarming. No time to open that chest just yet!



Luckily, it appears the explosions cause friendly fire as well! That would explain how healthy red jellies add to the explosion if they are caught in it. This takes care of the spider nest, the spider webs on the ground, and most of the spiders for me!



The chest ends up only having a different armor variation. This one has less HP bonus, but gives HP every time I break a pot. Since I already have Drain Life as a health restoration power, I'll stick to the extra HP.



Another level up after killing a spider nest! This one goes to Backstab.



Let's try it out!







Other than the joys of two spider nests in opposite directions continously pumping out the eight legged monsters, there's nothing else interesting on this floor, so let's jump down the stairs.



Hey, what's a weaker jelly doing here? Is this a trap?



It's no challenge to my Stab'n'Drain combo, though.



I get distracted from the chest and keep going on a killing spree, encountering the yellow slimes as well! What's up, Savage mode, did you just give up when I got Teleport?



The pot it was guarding had a Stamina potion in it, which is probably more useful to me than Blizzard, so I take it.



I drain some mushrooms for another level, and use it to max Drain Life. It is now as effective as 50% of my melee attack (not to mention the massive health restoration)!



I finally make it back to the chest and open it up to find a replacement weapon! Frost barb works the same as frost, except it freezes things in a pattern around the enemy I hit, instead of just that enemy. In the case of frost weapons, I think I would prefer to just hit the single target, considering that they only work once per enemy and the freeze only lasts for about a turn.

Still, it's way better than vanilla, so on it goes!



Here's a sample of what it looks like: not too big, but still an AoE freeze effect.



This shrine is much nicer than that surface shrine, giving me XP and everything!



Scouring the dungeon level earns me one more level up! I put it into Teleport to try out that decoy and see how useful it is. With that, I head down the stairs.



:They've already put down gentle Big Ick and they pillaged the Goatress's warrens. If left unchecked, they will wreack havoc on our society.
:Yip, yip. We must think of the Mushrooms first! Yip, yip. The Clogheads must go!
:Please, siblings! Hear me! I have visited with the Clogheads! I have broken bread in their homes! You misunderstand the nature of their actions. They are a simple and peace-loving people...they value order and community above all else, and they mean us no harm. Consider how bountiful a friendship with the Clogheads might be! Can we not put aside our perceived differences, and unite under one common goal?
:Look! A Cloghead! One has come to plead the case for its people...pay attention to how cute and peaceful it looks!
:It is sort of cute...
:Yip, yip. And peaceful-looking...
:Yes, yes! Come, gentle Cloghead, enter our home! meet my siblings, my wonderful Mushroom brethren...



:Uhh...err...
:???
:Oh oh oh!
:Why, this is villainy!
:Yip, yip! It's a Cloghead plot!
:How devious!
:Yip, yip!
:That is it! That is all! Let us declare war on the Clogheads!
:Yip yip. Let us declare war!
:Unleash the hulkshrooms!



Well, guess 'diplomacy' has failed. Let's fall back on good old-fashioned violence!



I try to retreat out of the room, but a trio of mushrooms sprouts and blocks my path.



Luckily, they all die to a single Drain Life. I take the opportunity of only one big guy being able to hit me to get a couple of free hits in, as well as using Backstab.



I get slammed across the room for my troubles, but I took about half of its life away! Too bad I'm just about out of stamina.



I smash the pot to see if it is useful, but I don't think I'm going to risk drinking this again.



I get lined up for the weaker one to get close to get a hit on it.



Unfortunately, it is still standing and knocks me once again across the room.



One Drain Life and one solid hit manages to take it out. I still need to kill the other one, though, and I only got two stamina back for killing one of them.



I use it to Backstab the thing, freezing it in place. Next, I drink my stamina potion to get all my stamina back for more stabbing.



I figure I could use more HP, since they hit for 12 per hit and I can't damage race it nearly as fast if I use up all my stamina on backstabbing. Thus, I only backstab once, use drain life a couple times, then teleport away.



It turns out that my decoy is distracting it for a bit! Hopefully I can find more mushrooms to get my stamina back before it comes after me again.


And hey, what do you know? More mushrooms stamina!



I even find a good clump with the boss at a diagonal that lets me get a bunch of life back with Drain Life!



All topped up, I go in for the kill with Backstab.



Bam, Cloghead supremecy!



Some more villagers for the village, including a captive mushroom!



As well as my spoils of war.



:I should have used a professional tailor for my Mushroom disguise. Now the Mushrooms are convinced the whole fiasco was a Cloghead plot. They will not be reasoned with.
:How upsetting!
:On the plus side, you did salvage this chest from the Chamber of the Council. I'd suggest returning it, but the Mushrooms would probably kill you. Might as well open it up...



Inside is the Thief, since we decided to ignore them the last two times!



:So civilized...I hope beyond hpoe that the Mushrooms don't burn it down! I must think on how to appease them...by Raako, I must devise a plan! I will return, Cloghead. For now, savor the comforts of civilization...the come find me.



My captive Mushroom villager is a bit of an asshole if you ask me



I decide to give all the town upgrades a fair shot with their first tier, grabbing 20% more special vases and cryptic shrines, even though it would probably be smarter to focus on XP gain or HP.


NEXT TIME: Heading to Ghostfen!