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Part 4 - Trailblazing the Bloated Grotto


:Something awful has happened!
:The Mushroom civilization is expanding so quickly. They are multiplying, evolving...they've spread beyond Sproggiwood and into...Ghostfen!
:Ghostfen is a scary place, filled with hungry, bloated frogs and creepy spiders. But that's not all. An even greater danger lurks in the waters of the fen...they aren't ready...they have no idea!
:Look, I know the Clogheads and the Mushrooms are not on the best of terms. Yes, they were furious when they discovered our plot at Big Tree. Yes, they declared war on your people. But they are in grave danger! You must help them!
:You're their only hope!
:You must journey into the heart of Ghostfen. The way in lies through the Bloated Grotto, where the giant frog Rumakko makes his lair.
:Go there and best Rumakko. Carve a path into the fen.
:Before it's too late...



Looks like we are getting a change of scenery, from forests to swamps! We have a mission to go kill a big, ugly frog in the way of us helping a civilization that we are currently at war at, which makes perfect sense



Let's give the Thief a spin! All dressed up in Assassin's Creed gear to boot.



Well, starting off, Ghostfen certainly looks creepier than the forest we were in before.



Heading up, I see a lily pad on the ground, which I am going to automatically assume is some sort of trap. There's also a frog up there, and it looks like it can take a couple hits, so hopefully it doesn't hit too hard.



I step on the lily pad to experiment, and it turns out to teleport me to another lily pad. Alright, I guess that's not too bad of a trap...



Uh oh, it's these assholes. I didn't really figure them out when I saw the sneak preview in Big Ick's Lair, and it seems like they are going to be common spawns by how quickly it showed up.



I level up off of killing off the small jellies. Before I level up, though, let's get rid of these respawning puddles. I assume they should go away if I just step on them, like other slime leftovers.



Yep, that worked! Unfortunately, it seems like the slime piles also stack, so the ones I slipped on to get up here only lost a single layer. That's going to be frustrating.



In fact, one already respawned



Well, let's take a look at the Thief's skills and figure out how to get out of this. One thing to notice is that all of the Thief's skills are very cheap, encouraging much heavier use.

Juke is a re-positioning skill that is a cheap way to deal damage and also potentially escape from a bad situation. However, enemies still get the ability to attack you back after the swap (which I've experienced in future runs, in case you couldn't tell that I'm writing these skill reviews with more knowledge than I should have :v. Thus, it really starts to shine with later upgrades, which give you a chance (and later a guarantee) to go invisible after performing the move, which removes that disadvantage since the enemy can't attack what it can't see.

Hide in Shadows was already covered last update, but it gets more preference to pick as an escape skill in the proper class (aka when I don't have teleport instead). Later upgrades double the time, then allow you to make a free attack out of invisibility. This means that, at Level 3, you can effectively do five free attacks on something before needing to take a hit, if you choose to do so.

Fire Trap is kind of like Pumpkin Bombs, except cheaper and much cooler in my opinion. It costs one Stamina less, but has a slightly different effect: instead of dropping 1+ pumpkins around your character, it drops one Fire Trap at your feet. When a monster steps on it, it spews a column of flames in all the cardinal directions, as well as hurting the creature that stepped on it in the first place. At higher levels, you can turn it more efficient by enabling it to trigger multiple times.

Backstab I covered as well already, and it doesn't really change that much from when I last used it. It's still pretty straight forward, with the exception that it is the only move that costs two stamina, which means that it loses value compared to a fully leveled Juke or Hide in Shadows until it gets its second upgrade.

I go with Hide in Shadows first, since this isn't turning out to be a good situation, and I may need to get out of it.



A second black jelly has spawned, so it may be time to retreat. Let's be clever and head back to that lily pad and teleport away instead!



Five seconds later, I immediately regret my decision. Turns out the enemies can use teleporters as well, and a spider cuts off my retreat

Man fighting the jellies doesn't appear to be working too well, either.



RIP



Well, if this was a full roguelike, that would be it and I would have to start over from the beginning. Thankfully, I just have to start over from the beginning of this dungeon!



To be honest, I don't think I'm going to be able to show off Thief too well with those black jellies around, so I'm going to switch back to Warrior for the time being. Maybe I'll show Thief off again later.



It starts off pretty calm, and I see another lily pad type (obscured by these coins) which is covered in white spots. The blank lily pads were okay, so let's step on this one and see what's up with it.



Oh hey, it's a wisp! It's probably not nice, but let's see what it does!



Okay, so I lost 2 health for being next to it, and another wisp spawned with this laser beam connecting the two. I guess I took damage for being in the laser path kinda? Well, let's just kill this one off.



Hmm, it spawned another one after I killed the first one. That's not good...



Also, I appear to be taking 2 damage for every turn I spend next to it, not the laser beam.



I kill the one next to me again, and there's yet another respawn. I'm guessing that the laser beam means that I have to kill both at the same time. That's pretty annoying...



Death Count: 2



This next attempt appears to be starting well. That is, except for the giant amount of black slime I'm standing on.



Luckily, I manage to clear it all before one of the big guys spawn.



I grab Cleave first, since I think I'm going to need it against these jellies and wisps.



I open up the pots and find a scroll of fireball and a health potion. I'll be keeping the latter as a class that's designed to be up close and personal.



In return for my dedication to pottery, the gods grant me more of them!



Well, hey, why not? I mean, how bad could it be?



Well, on the plus side, it looks like it can summon chests! On the negative side, it spawned some of those asshole wisp traps.



I grab a +15 HP set of armor out of one of the chests that spawned.



While going up to fight that frog, some weird looking mushrooms come up out of the ground. They die to a single cleave though, so I don't know what makes them different.



Good news, the frog is really weak! I face tank it down.



Finding and quaffing a potion of invisibility, I continue to explore.



Down here is a third type of lily pad. Let's give it a shot after I take care of these mobs.



The blue pot had a scroll of fireball, so I use it against the spider nest to show it off while also taking care of those annoying things.



All better!



Looks like these lily pads shoot flames in all cardinal directions when you step on them. I can only assume that this can work against me if an enemy steps on it, or these would be pretty good to see.



Ah shit, the black jelly spawned a wisp. Time to leave!



As I flee in the direction of the frog to the south, it suddenly pulls me all the way into melee range! I guess the frogs are there to screw over people who don't want to be close.



Yeah, no, I'm not drinking that again.



It takes me a bit, but I finally get the two wisps next to each other in order to cleave. It probably wasn't worth the life I paid to do so.



I nab a freezing sword out of another chest, probably a result of that scroll of wonder.



I also find something called Fireflare Mail, which gives me less HP, but has a chance to spew flames out in all directions when I get hit. That might be worth taking with Shield Wall, since I won't be taking damage when it triggers, so I grab it.



I do lose 10 HP when I change armor, so it looks like changing armor a bunch isn't a way to squeeze out more healing. Unfortunate, but oh well.



One step into the Bloated Grotto and oh boy this looks fun



Fuck.



Shit. Welp, let's keep trying I guess...





I guess Sproggiwood decided that Ghostfen is where all bets are off for Savage difficulty. That's fine though, this is what I was expecting from the hard difficulty, not the easiness of the first three areas.



On one of my many attempts, I finally manage to see what the purple mushrooms do!



After killing the one at the top, the bottom one dug itself back into the ground...



Only to pop out and ambush me around the corner! Pretty clever, but it still dies in a single hit so it didn't work.



I finally get another character into the Bloated Grotto, and it's already turning into a giant mess again.



I quickly push downward through the spider nests in search of the stairs. Fuck dealing with these wisps.



Good news, I found the stairs! Bad news, so did the black jellies that respawned!



I take a few hits, but manage to get away from all the awful stuff. Hopefully this level is much calmer.



I luck out and find a healing potion in a pot, which I use immediately.



I also manage to find a frostbarb sword in a chest off in a side area.



As I come across the stairs down, I also level up and get Dervish. Let's try it out for once!




That's pretty fun! Too bad it costs so much.



I finish clearing out the spider nests around these stairs. I could just go down right now, but I really need to find a source of healing first.



Of course, I don't find one

Oh well, I guess the boss can't be too hard, right?



Oh man, that's a big frog.



:By the nighttide, who slinks into my damp lair? A Cloghead? Ho, ho, ho, ho!
:You braved the waters of the fen...but you stink of hubris. Bear witness, Raako! I'll make a fest of its blocky bones!



Alright, it's go time! I got this!



I don't got this!

Fuck, this might take me a while.



NEXT TIME: Pudding farming???