History Awesome / DarkestDungeon

---> ''Stalwart: "Many fall in the face of chaos... but not this one! Not today!"''

---> ''Vigorous: "Adversities can foster hope, and resilience!"''

-->'''Jester''': [[BondOneliner Truly amusing.]]

---> '''Commenter #1:''' local guitarist kills ancient evil by bowing
---> '''Commenter #2:''' That's what you call a great concert. Especially the drugged performer part.
---> '''Commenter #3:''' "In the end, he will be laughing, still..." Laughing at the Heart of Darkness it seems.
---> '''Commenter #4:''' [[BondOneLiner Rain in]] [[CallBack the forest]] 2 confirmed by Fourtwoflow
---> '''Commenter #5:''' '''BEHOLD THE ALPHA AND OME'''- [[AntiClimaxBoss never mind he's dead]]
---> '''Commenter #6:''' [[Film/TheDarkKnight Let's put a smile on that face!]]
---> '''Commenter #7:''' So what you're saying is, give a musician proper backing and a ton of drugs of dubious origin and he'll gain the power to slay gods?\\

* Learning why the team setup is called “The Gatling Gun.”
* Somewhat understate, but when you upgrade your blacksmith you might hear: "Fan the flames, mold the metal; we are raising an army."

* When at Death's Door, any damage to the hero has a base 1-in-3 chance of being a mortal blow. You can mitigate this but the minimum chance caps can't go below 13%. Still, seeing a hero be such a {{Determinator}} so as to [[HowMuchMoreCanHeTake constantly defy death]] is amazing -- even so if the Hero holds out to the battle's end. The game even acknowledges such a feat with an achievement.

--> ''"Continue the onslaught!'' '''''Destroy. Them. All.'''"''

--> ''"The bigger the beast, the greater the glory."''

--> (Upon being buffed) ''"A time to perform beyond one's limits!"''
--> (Upon performing a crit heal) ''"The flesh. Is. KNIT!"''
* Any time an adventurer's resolve is tested and they come out Virtuous. These guys have seen horrors unimagined, have battled with the stress of what they've seen, and they've come out on the other side resolute in their path.
--> ''Courageous: "A moment of valor shines brightest against a backdrop of despair."''
--> ''Focused: "A moment of clarity in the eye of the storm."''
--> ''Powerful: "Anger is power — unleash it!"''
--> ''Stalwart: "Many fall in the face of chaos... but not this one! Not today!"''
--> ''Vigorous: "Adversities can foster hope, and resilience!"''
** Courageous heroes: They can heal stress from the entire party at the start of their turn, and they become faster and more resilient to stress.
** Focused heroes: Their focus lets them gain a large accuracy and crit boost, and they can provide this same boost to their comrades.
** Powerful heroes: Their gain a large increase in damage inflicted, and can provide a damage buff to other heroes, too, allowing the team to cut through the monstrosities all the easier.
** Stalwart heroes: Their stress has a chance of waning a large amount with every turn and they get increased Protection and Deathblow Resist — these guys and gals have seen the worst the terrors had to throw at them, and their response is to practically NoSell their stress and block part of the damage headed their way for the rest of the battle.
** Vigorous heroes: They gain a big boost to speed and dodge, and they have a chance of healing a slight amount every single turn, increasing their survivability by a huge margin.
*** As if these boosts weren't enough, there's also the quotes heroes drop when Virtuous.

--> '''Houndmaster:''' ''"Steady, girl. If we're called, we answer."''

* Somewhat understate, but when you upgrade your blacksmith you might hear: "Fan the flames, mold the metal; we are raising an army."

* Some of the heroes' quotes when you hover over them for sacrifice to the final boss. Some of them [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu directly challenge and mock]] the EldritchAbomination before you, while [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming others freely offer themselves for the good of their allies]], others simply accept your decision and [[FaceDeathWithDignity face it head-on]], and some even [[DeathSeeker long for it]].

----> '''Commenter #1:''' local guitarist kills ancient evil by bowing
----> '''Commenter #2:''' That's what you call a great concert. Especially the drugged performer part.
----> '''Commenter #3:''' "In the end, he will be laughing, still..." Laughing at the Heart of Darkness it seems.
----> '''Commenter #4:''' [[BondOneLiner Rain in]] [[CallBack the forest]] 2 confirmed by Fourtwoflow
----> '''Commenter #5:''' '''BEHOLD THE ALPHA AND OME'''- [[AntiClimaxBoss never mind he's dead]]
----> '''Commenter #6:''' [[Film/TheDarkKnight Let's put a smile on that face!]]
----> '''Commenter #7:''' So what you're saying is, give a musician proper backing and a ton of drugs of dubious origin and he'll gain the power to slay gods?\\

** After the Color of Madness update, it's actually possible to kill The Heart of Darkness [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK7gBaID2-k in literally ONE ATTACK]].

** Did you ever wanted to roam the cursed estate as ''Dracula''? Thanks to the Voivode class mod, [[https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1533032528 now you can!]].

** There is another way to avoid triggering [[OneHitKill Come Unto Your Maker]]... Bringing only two heroes to the final battle. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLQWhb3oQWU Someone did this successfully.]]

--> '''Commenter #1:''' local guitarist kills ancient evil by bowing
--> '''Commenter #2:''' That's what you call a great concert. Especially the drugged performer part.
--> '''Commenter #3:''' "In the end, he will be laughing, still..." Laughing at the Heart of Darkness it seems.
--> '''Commenter #4:''' [[BondOneLiner Rain in]] [[CallBack the forest]] 2 confirmed by Fourtwoflow
--> '''Commenter #5:''' '''BEHOLD THE ALPHA AND OME'''- [[AntiClimaxBoss never mind he's dead]]
--> '''Commenter #6:''' [[Film/TheDarkKnight Let's put a smile on that face!]]
--> '''Commenter #7:''' So what you're saying is, give a musician proper backing and a ton of drugs of dubious origin and he'll gain the power to slay gods?\\

** It's also possible to defeat the FinalBoss without any deaths... by bringing only 2 heroes into the fight. Extra points if you did it with Reynauld and Dismas.

* Gaining a virtue in battle is a CMOA in its own right due to it being HeroicSecondWind combined with HeroicWillpower, but it is doubly awesome if it happens during the Drowned Crew fight. They use an anchor attack to force the heroes to feel what the Crew did as they were drowned, causing said heroes to gain stress. If the hero it targets gains a virtue, [[NoSell they shatter the anchor, and all attempts to use it on them after that will fail.]]

** Somewhat understate, but when you upgrade your blacksmith you might hear: "Fan the flames, mold the metal; we are raising an army."

* Learning why the team setup is called “The Gatling Gun.”

* Facing down a boss who is throwing everything they have at your Flagellant, leaving him at death’s door throughout the whole battle. The Flagellant goes rapturous and refuses any last second healing. Then in the final round, with a bomb lying at his feet, he yells “It falls to me to bring you into the light!” and ends the battle with an exsanguinate critical hit.

** [[https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1429069819 The Slayer mod.]] It adds [[Videogame/Doom2016 a Lovecraftian version of the Doom Slayer]] as a recruitable class. It's pretty hard to match the awesomeness of slaughtering the horrors of the Estate with chainsaw and shotgun.

--> '''Commenter #6:'''

** [[https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1526565539 The Thrill of the Hunt]] makes a small but potent change: ''every'' critical hit automatically ehals stress across the entire party. What's more awesome than a devastating blow? Seeing your entire party rally against the enemy, especially when you start landing crit after crit.

** Even better, the thugs that the Bounty Hunter butchered? If you read the Hound Master's comic, you'll learn that they're the evil flesh cultists that were once the Hound Master's partners back when he was still a lawman. [[AWorldHalfFull Justice, at times, can be swift and merciless.]]

* Any time you land a CriticalHit, usually accompanied by an [[MostWonderfulSound amazing]] BadassBoast from the Ancestor.

* In regards to the Ancestor, where it is revealed in the final flashback in Crimson Court DLC that he managed [[spoiler:to kill/incapacitate the [[TheVamp Countess]] with [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu just a knife]], all by himself. At that point, the Ancestor is a young aristocrat with no experience in the [[BlackMagic Eldritch]], so this is mighty impressive]].
* The ending. Sure, you only managed to knock out [[spoiler:the EldritchAbomination that claims to have created all life on the planet as a whim]]... but you ''[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu knocked it out]]'' until the next moron decides to awaken it again, and it's implied that you [[spoiler:[[HeroicSuicide kill yourself]] to [[TheDeterminator remain its guardian forever despite knowing the agony it puts you through]]]]. Nice work, chum.
** It's implied in the ending that not only do you [[spoiler:knock out the Heart]], but that in [[spoiler:committing suicide]], the Heir traps it in a StableTimeLoop to prevent it from ever escaping.
* Some of the heroes' quotes when you hover over them for [[spoiler:sacrifice to the final boss]]. Some of them [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu directly challenge and mock]] the EldritchAbomination before you, while [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming others freely offer themselves for the good of their allies]], others simply accept your decision and [[FaceDeathWithDignity face it head-on]], and some even [[DeathSeeker long for it]].

* Somebody managed to beat the final boss... ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGsTZtH8308 without anyone dying]]''. Yes, that's right, he stacked enough buffs and dealt [[SingleStrokeBattle such a powerful blow]] that it ''never'' got to [[spoiler:use the [[NoSavingThrow otherwise guaranteed]] OneHitKill "Come Unto Your Maker"]]. The comments sell the WOW factor:

'''Commenter #7:''' It had all come down to this. The final battle. The journey to this point had been long and grueling, with many friends and allies having fallen in their efforts. Now the last group of would be heroes marched into the Darkest Dungeon, all having resigned themselves to the fate that they might not survive. 3 doctors and a leper, seemingly doomed for failure now stood at the brink, having uncovered [[spoiler:the truth about the Ancestor, about how he sacrificed his own humanity for power beyond imagination]]. Here they stood, the leper barely able to stand from his grievous wounds, only the swirling fumes of whatever concoctions the doctors were using on him and his own willpower and anger keeping him up as [[spoiler:the Heart of Darkness pulsed steadily before them]]. With a guttural roar, the leper swung at [[spoiler:the foul heart]] with all of his might. The 3 doctors watched in awe and surprise as the leper's swing nearly split [[spoiler:the Heart]] in two, Eldritch blood splashing onto the cold stones of the manor floor and onto the leper. Standing straight for the first time in a while, the leper closed his eyes and smiled a bit at what the sound of the blood hitting the floor reminded him of. [[BondOneLiner "Rain in the forest."]]\\
'''Commenter #8:''' (speaking from [[spoiler:the Heart of Darkness's]] P.O.V.) [[WowingCthulhu What... what is this power?!]] [[WhatTheHellAreYou WHO THE F*** ARE THESE PEOPLE?!]] [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere SCREW THIS I'M OUT,]] [[SweetAndSourGrapes KEEP THE DAMN MANOR!]]
** The same guy [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut556KnlbIw then went on to beat the final boss again...]] '''[[CherryTapping with 4 Antiquarians.]]''' The class that the game itself goes out of its way to tell you is ''[[JokeCharacter not]]'' [[JokeCharacter well-suited for direct combat]]. At this point, [[spoiler:the Heart of Darkness may not want to bother with waking up again. Ever]].

** There is another way to avoid triggering [[spoiler:[[OneHitKill Come Unto Your Maker]]]]... Bringing only two heroes to the final battle. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLQWhb3oQWU Someone did this successfully.]]
** After the Color of Madness update, it's actually possible to kill [[spoiler:The Heart of Darkness]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK7gBaID2-k in literally ONE ATTACK]].

--> '''Commenter #3:''' "In the end, he will be laughing, still..." Laughing at the [[spoiler:Heart of Darkness]] it seems.

** Even better, the thugs that the Bounty Hunter butchered? If you read the Hound Master's comic, you'll learn that they're [[spoiler:the evil flesh cultists that were once the Hound Master's partners back when he was still a lawman]]. [[AWorldHalfFull Justice, at times, can be swift and merciless.]]

** Stalwart heroes: Their stress will consistently wane a large amount with every turn and they get increased Protection and Deathblow Resist — these guys and gals have seen the worst the terrors had to throw at them, and their response is to practically NoSell their stress and block part of the damage headed their way for the rest of the battle.

--> '''Focused Man-At-Arms:''' I am one with my mace. I am one with my blade.

'''Commenter #7:''' It had all come down to this. The final battle. The journey to this point had been long and grueling, with many friends and allies having fallen in their efforts. Now the last group of would be heroes marched into the Darkest Dungeon, all having resigned themselves to the fate that they might not survive. 3 doctors and a leper, seemingly doomed for failure now stood at the brink, having uncovered [[spoiler:the truth about the Ancestor, about how he sacrificed his own humanity for power beyond imagination]]. Here they stood, the leper barely able to stand from his grievous wounds, only the swirling fumes of whatever concoctions the doctors were using on him and his own willpower and anger keeping him up as [[spoiler:the Heart of Darkness pulsed steadily before them]]. With a guttural roar, the leper swung at [[spoiler:the foul heart]] with all of his might. The 3 doctors watched in awe and surprise as the leper's swing nearly split [[spoiler:the Heart]] in two, Eldritch blood splashing onto the cold stones of the manor floor and onto the leper. Standing straight for the first time in a while, the leper closed his eyes and smiled a bit at what the sound of the blood hitting the floor reminded him of. "Rain in the forest."\\

* It's possible to take the developer's explanation of the Light being 'humanity's faith in delusions of their own making' as this when one considers what the Light is actually ''capable'' of. HolyBurnsEvil, Holy Water that effective and vital in a number of places, helpful visions, genuine HealingHands powers, and even the Heart isn't resistant to holy attacks. Taken into account, this all implies humanity [[{{Tulpa}} created a benevolent god actively opposing the Heart]] and powerful enough to do so ''through belief alone''. That's a pretty big in for humanity.

'''Commenter #6:''' (speaking from the Ancestor's P.O.V.) You know what? Normally I would say "THE GROUND QUAKES" but [[PrecisionFStrike HOLY FUCK MAN]], I'M PRETTY SURE YOU JUST BROKE [THE] UNIVERSE IN HALF WITH THAT CHOP 0_0\\

** There is another way to avoid triggering [[spoiler: [[OneHitKill Come Unto Your Maker]]]]... Bringing only two heroes to the final battle. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLQWhb3oQWU Someone did this successfully.]]
** After the Color of Madness update, it's actually possible to kill [[spoiler: The Heart of Darkness]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK7gBaID2-k in literally ONE ATTACK]].

--> '''Commenter #3:''' "In the end, he will be laughing, still..." Laughing at the [[spoiler: Heart of Darkness]] it seems.
--> '''Commenter #4:''' [[BondOneLiner Rain in the forest]] 2 confirmed by Fourtwoflow
--> '''Commenter #5:''' '''BEHOLD THE ALPHA AND OME'''- never mind he's dead

[[folder: Awesome moments by the heroes during individual missions.]]
* In the vein of [[Awesome/XComEnemyUnknown X-Com: Enemy Unknown's awesome page]], this section is for awesome player stories.
** During the first foray into the Darkest Dungeon. The party of a Vestal, Arbalest, Leper, and Crusader were delving further and further in, reaching the final room. The Boss there [[spoiler:slowly but surely drove everyone to madness]]. Only the Vestal and the Arbalist turned out Virtuous, [[spoiler:and were thus immune to the madness]], but the Vestal slowly succumbed to her wounds, dying from the first hit on Death's Door. This left only the Vigorous Arbalest, only capable of Blindfiring from the first position. Again and again the boss would do a pittance of damage and attempt to stress her out, and again and again the Arbalest would heal herself from the Virtue she had obtained, blindfiring again and again, often hitting the boss. After 40 turns, the Arbalist, with 10 HP left, finally felled the boss and its minion. The kicker is that upon returning victorious to the hamlet with her fallen companions' trinkets, the Arbalest was granted the Dispomania quirk[[note]]Description: Has an intense craving for alcohol[[/note]]. After what she went through, she's not going to treatment for that, she's [[INeedAFreakingDrink allowed to get as many freaking drinks as she wants]].
** The heir was being [[BadBoss a terrible boss]] like usual, and recruited four no-name heroes. A Highwayman, Crusader, Plague Doctor, and Arbalest. They didn't know what they were getting into, although their first hint was being punted into a long dungeon with no supplies. Slowly, but surely, they explored the Ruins and were determined to bring back the mission as a success. They hardly took damage, found plenty of torches along the way to light the path, and had only one goal: Explore 90% of the rooms. After their second time camping, on the way to the final room, their final bit of light ran out... Now, they knew it would've been a cakewalk. The room had been scouted with nothing in it in the end, and only a single battle on the way. On the final tile before reaching the room, disaster struck. A Shambler surprised the party, took the first move, and quickly put the Arbalest and Crusader on death's door. Not soon after, they fell, leaving only a plague doctor and highwayman who stressed out soon after. But they didn't give up. They kept getting assaulted, but each time they got an invitation of death, [[{{Determinator}} they wouldn't accept]]. Surely, they had to have been on the brink of death more than twenty times. Those two killed off the Shambler all on their own, soon followed by its minions... And got a trinket out of it that increased ''[[{{Irony}} virtue]]'' chance. Needless to say, once they entered the final room and brought back treasure, two new heroes joined the ranks of the elite.
** A group of adventurers, all level 1, prepare for a long dungeon. They grab their food, when suddenly the Heir seems to remember something, runs out, grabs trinkets, and runs back in and hands them out. The heroes... forgot the rest of their supplies. The goal? Cleanse all the rooms within the ruins of the foul monsters within. After a few rooms of exploration, it is pitch black within the dungeon. The heroes stumble through the dark, desperately searching for any way to keep the torch lit. Two torch sconces give them brief light, but it doesn't last. After two grueling battles, it seems like the entire group may be doomed due to the Heir's incompetence. And then the third battle. A mass of bone and iron, a sword-wielding undead and two skeletal archers. The plague doctor throws grenades at the backline, stunning the archers into inactivity while the jester buffs the party. The hellion Charges past the Man at Arms, stabbing into the first three enemies in the line, while the man at arms sets his stance hard to fight back against attackers. After all was said and done, not a single member of the group had more than 3 hp left when the last skeleton fell. But they knew no fear. Not a single adventurer with a stress level of over 20, and not a single one on death's door. The adventurers prepared to press on, only to realize... they were in the final room. They had succeeded in their goal. The heir welcomed them with open arms, and they immediately joined the short list of adventurers with any upgraded equipment.
** This troper had once had one of his early Champion ruins runs going bad, with all of his heroes hitting 100 Stress in a chain reaction and beeing close to a total party kill, when suddenly 3 of them came out of their stress checks heroic with the crusader being powerful, which caused the whole run to turn around and the fearful vestal to be somewhat diminished by the heroic characters.
** A trio of fresh-faced adventurers: a Man-At-Arms, a Hound Master, and a Jester headed into the manor, backed up by a [[TeamMom veteran Vestal]] who would do her best to keep them alive. No sooner did they step into its darkened hall than they were set upon by a trio of massive spiders, every one of their eyes trained on the Jester. The arachnids leaped onto the masked man, sinking their poisoned fangs into his flesh. By the time they retreated, the Jester's health had been shredded, and he was on Death's Door. The hound master tried siccing his faithful companion on the aberrant insects, only for the girl to miss. The Man-At-Arms swung, missing as well. The spiders then made their move: as the Jester's companions watched in horror, they moved for the kill, leaping onto the poor man one after the other and digging their fangs in deep. But the Jester let out a mocking, choking laugh, and though his knees knocked beneath him, he did not fall. Even as the Blight ravaged his body, he refused to fall. Even as the other heroes cut down two of the spiders, one of them slipped by and delivered what was surely the killing blow, and '''the Jester refused to fall'''. As the last spider twitched and lay silent, the other heroes rushed over to aid their trembling companion with food and antivenom. No sooner had the Jester eaten his fill than he pranced off deeper into the manor: he would go on to survive the rest of the expedition, using his music to soothe the stress of his allies on more than one occasion and pull them back from the brink of madness. So ends the anecdote of Poer, Darkest Dungeon's most [[{{Determinator}} bullheaded]] Jester.
** It was supposed to be a simple task. The crew, after weeks of scouting, finally came across the location of the brigands' dreaded 12-pounder cannon which terrorized the travelers on the serpentine roads. Strong in spirit, the crew of four headed out, a Highwayman (Level 2), a Man-of-Arms (Level 2), a Hellion (Level 2), and a Vestal (Level 3) who they had strong-armed into tagging along, set out into the Weald to dismantle the brigands' war machine. A supposedly easy task: however, in the three warriors' eager enthusiasm, they overlooked the built-up stress in their most experienced member, the Vestal, lingering from all the previous scouting in the Weald. As they made their path through the corrupt forests and rabid dogs, the Vestal's sanity snapped after the first two encounters and her selfish side surfaced up at full force, much to the other members' distress. Yet, they pushed on, despite being in the company of a unwilling Vestal who more often stayed back and passed turns than healing the others. Right before the final push upon the war machine, doubt, hesitation, serious wounds, and massive amounts of pent-up stress filled the crew as the warriors glanced back at their most wounded member, the selfish Vestal, and for the first time, started second-guessing their drive to see the task through. After hours of hesitation, the Man-Of-War, who prepared a plan as the others argued among each other, took command, shut the other two warriors up, marched up to the Vestal, grabbed her by the collar, and revealed to her in great detail about the consequences if they failed their task, especially what the Brigands would do with ''[[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil her]]'' if the rest of the crew died first. Shaken, the Vestal silently nodded and the crew, with the Hellion as vanguard, marched right into the war-machine's nest and the brigands' outpost. A fierce battle ensured for hours, the crew continuously circling and dodging on their feet as the Man-Of-War did nothing but ordering them to move (buffing their dodge and speed to inhumane levels every single time the turn came to him) while the Hellion, on designated kill-duty, snuffed out the match-man while the Highwayman sprayed bullets over brigands and the war machine alike in collateral damage, chipping it down piece by piece, as the Vestal, oddly obedient, kept providing healing for the crew when asked to. However, at one, fateful moment, the match-man, a unruly fellow with a bullet from the Highwayman in his shoulder, managed to dodge the Hellion's halberd at the worst possible time and headed straight for the war machine, matchstick in hand. Fear, panic, and despair rung through the crew with its three warriors, running on fumes, as they realized the distance between themselves and the man was far too vast as the match-man headed up for the ladder and tried igniting his matchstick. However, in that one, timeless moment, the Vestal, bruised up, worn-out, tired, and royally pissed off, took the selfish initiative for the first time since the strife started and flipped up the pages of her holy scripture as she raised her mace and called down a divine lightning bolt upon the match-man, carbonizing his burning corpse into charcoal as he tumbled back down to the ground, screaming. For the first time since the battle began, the war-machine stood alone, unguarded, something the crew, with the widest and most wicked grins in their adrenaline-pumped bodies, realized as they, too, for the first time, could unleash their full attention on the machine, brutalizing it. A call for help chimed from the 12-pounder, which stood on its last legs, yet only one brigand brute and a match-man dared answer the call as the rest trembled at the sight of the scowling, silent Vestal on the scene. As the rest of the crew resumed their tactics and as the match-man immediately headed towards the cannon to light the match, the Vestal, with the trembling scowl of a furious wrath-demon straight from hell, once again took the initiative in her own hands and turned away from the match-man...as she stepped up in front of the 12-pounder's barrel's maw instead. Dark clouds built up over the sky, the last torch died, and the vestal, her voice booming in a massive AtomicFBomb with her mace reaching back as she opened her scripture, called straight to the divine forces above and swung her mace as a beacon up towards the sky. Thunder shook the heavens and the earth as a massive divine bolt of pure light pierced down from the clouds and devoured the 12-pounder completely, reducing it into a pile of burnt shrapnel and iron-ash, before the match-man could reach it. In the moments of complete, motionless silence which followed, the brigands in the background hauled ass as fast as they could from the outpost, leaving the two stragglers to be decimated by the rest of the flabbergasted crew. As their mission reached completion, without a word, the Vestal marched out from the Weald, ahead of the others, who without a word followed her with wide-eyed awe. As they reached Hamlet, as the crew received their reward (and the resolve level 3), the Vestal instead ignored them all as she marched straight into the tavern while followed by her latest teammates, claimed a table for herself, pointed at the bartender, and [[INeedAFreakingDrink ordered him to bring out his strongest booze]], and pointed at her other teammates who watched her from the entrance as they followed her in curiosity, telling them that ''they'' will be the ones paying her tab and that next time, they should ''ask'' her first before heading out again. [[FriendshipMoment They paid the tab smiling without complaints afterwards.]]
** A quartet of women entered the Warrens, their heads held high despite their relative inexperience save for their Vestal. She had seen her fair share of the horror this place held and wanted little truck with it, content to stay behind the Hellion, but far enough ahead of the Plague Doctor and the Grave Robber so that she could offer assistance. At the start, the trek was fairly mundane, despite the encounters with the Swine Folk taxing their sanity and leaving indelible wounds; the Vestal's companions would not leave here the same women as they had entered, she was certain. Little did she know [[ExactWords that they wouldn't leave at all]], for as they ventured down a dank hallway much like the ones they'd passed through beforehand, they ran afoul of a creature only barely whispered of; The Collector. The foul headsman was taxing and dismaying to fight, and while the Vestal and her party were victorious, their success came at the cost of the Grave Robber, slain by one of the Collector's enspirited heads. The Vestal tried to turn back, fearing for her safety and the safety of her remaining companions, but a singular madness overtook the Hellion leading the group. She was convinced that this would be her finest hour, and grew greedy for glory and treasure, forcing them to press onwards. Inward and inward they went, accruing more and more wounds and maladies for their troubles as they cleared the Swine Folk out, room by room. Then they came unto the last chamber, beset by an altar to a maddening god guarded by four Swines. The three women's minds and bodies were sent to the brink of despair during the ensuing battle, and while the Hellion and the Plague Doctor fought valiantly, they too would fall before the onslaught of the pig men, leaving the Vestal on death's door and with two Swine yet left to kill. And despite all of the suffering and despair she'd borne witness too, she drew upon her faltering reserves of strength and emboldened her mace with the Light of God, proclaiming that she would see these monsters judged for what they'd done to her friends. She smote them upon the head over and over, whittling away what little sense the pig men had as she barely dodged their blows until their skulls caved in and they fell limp and dead at her boots. With a stalwart sniff, the Vestal gathered up the loot of her fallen comrades, said a eulogy for their souls, and departed the dungeon. The tavern was calling to her, and the Heir knew that this singular, resolute Vestal had earned a stiff drink and a good night's rest.
** Read ye here the tale of the Bounty Hunter who would not die. The Heir had sent four heroes into the Courtyard to burn three hives, all of whom were chosen first for their disposability, and second for their ability to poison, stun, or bleed. The adventure went poorly, for the foul parasites infesting the bog were particularly thirsty that night. Firstly, the Jester perished, then the Vestal, and finally, the Highwayman, all drained to the last drop. The bounty hunter, bleeding at Death's Door, and divested of all help, stood alone against the horrific, hybrid bulk of the Crocodilian. He lasted ten rounds before finally being devoured.
[[/folder]]