Celestalia's Challenge - A Maple Journal

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PART CCLXIII. The Smore the Merrier

Spoiler: PART CCLXIII. The Smore the Merrier

So how long exactly was it going to take to land the final two cards? Well, this first one took half an hour after the start.


But the last card is always the most difficult, as they say...so the real question was, how long would Celestalia stay at four.

...Six minutes. The answer was six minutes.


Look, I don't make the RNG up. If I did, Celestalia would have had the Asianic Bow before Athena.

Anyway, now Celestalia could try out all of the doorways and see where she ended up. And almost every room of the house was accessible from here. She found a funny mirror (which did decent damage, actually), a toy room, a piano (oooooh), and even Sophilia herself!


But by far the two most interesting doors were to the library and to what appeared to be an inverted version of the same hallway!

Celestalia began in the library, since the enemy present in there was in the Orange tier.


They also drop a boatload of candy...including the elusive Green Gummy Slime which is the 600 HP version. She was missing that one.

The only thing that hits for a decent amount in here are the floating books, which are ~50 damage, but they are also invulnerable.

But wait, it turns out there's a fourth Gummy Slime! The red one restores 1200 points each!

In addition to all of this, they were also dropping...duct tape...?


And coat hangers...and chewed-up wads of gum. Oh and there were also a couple Jr. Wraiths thrown in to the mix too. And they drop Tablecloths...so Celestalia kind of could make an entire glider if she wanted.

But she would be satisfied with just cardboard.


The set overall didn't take a great deal of time, maybe like an hour or so.


More importantly, Celestalia found herself with over a stack and a half of Smores...equivalent to 77 Elixirs!

Sadly, the session had to be cut short due to some administrative issues that cropped up. It seems the uneasy peace that had been brokered with the Showa Mob may be in the process of breaking down. The Rangemaiden was on call with her general staff, as well as her local officials, for two straight hours trying to see whether the situation could be sorted out. They managed to come up with a temporary solution, which should last at least a couple weeks. That's ought to be enough time to clear out the remaining four card sets, if needed; though whether it will be enough time to clear out the Justice Cape is another matter entirely.

The base affairs in Masteria will go on to a fourth and likely final week, although it will be running contemporary to Suboptimal's entry into the "Mini Jame Gam" which Celestalia submitted herself to as a game design writer. I was debating cancelling next week, but the brunt of her work might be cleared up in time to start the session on time. At most, it will be on-and-off during the campaign hours, which should leave her plenty of time to at least do the remaining two sets within the mansion.

Celestalia is not planning on card hunting in the region any longer than next week, that's for sure.

See you on Friday, although who knows if it could be earlier than that. The timing on all of this is going to be a bit wacky.

 

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PART CCLXIV. Hoodoo You Do(n't)

Spoiler: CCLXIV. Hoodoo You Do(n't)

Now it was time to check out the inverted hallway. By the time Celestalia headed out, the period for submitting game ideas was almost over, and it seemed like her idea was going to prevail. But perhaps it wasn't as cut-and-dry as she was expecting.

In the meantime, some card sets needed to be put away.


Voodoo and Hoodoo are both Level 60 and as far as I can tell are the exact same apart from probably the drop tables.

Otherwise they are most well-known for this treat:


The Heartstopper gives 60 (!!!!) Weapon Attack for one minute. And a few other things.

And the first drop of note?


Oh. Yeah, that event is ending already isn't it.

Anyway. The first card came around 25 minutes in.


Hoodoo dropped a second card 15 minutes later. And, after an additional 15 minutes, a third card.

Voodoo meanwhile hadn't done anything except for fork over a few more of the spicy candies.

But they eventually reneged.


After a couple of equips, including an Esther Shield from Nightmare (that completed the drop table from them), Hoodoo dropped their fourth card. The drop table left a lot to be desired, sadly.

Voodoo, on the other hand...well, they had a surprise or two still tucked away...


Unbelievably the stats on the Blue Patriot are even worse. Only 2 DEX compared to the Beige's 3. It also didn't really fit Celestalia's style all that much.

Before any more curveballs from Voodoo were revealed, Hoodoo finished up their set. Less than 2 hours in to the session!


Judging from the Monster Book, there are a lot more areas of the Haunted House where Hoodoo (and maybe Voodoo?) could be found. Celestalia decided to take some time to look around and see if she could land a better hunting spot.

After trying a billion doors and going through an entirely different hallway, she came upon an upside-down study which was a flat room.


Or flat ceiling, if you will. Anyway, there are four separate spawn points in here that can be any one of four different mobs. But since there are only four, Celestalia can easily wipe out the room within the ten-second spawn window, and have all of them come back. A strategy that has been tried before, to decent results.

Of course the Sophilia Dolls have an odd habit of immediately flying up, or I suppose it should be down in this case, and out of reach of Strafe. Even with that though, she did get a card out of the ordeal. Then after leaving the room, there was apparently a Voodoo outside on the platform? It wasn't there when she went in. Honestly, who knows with this place; the ghosts go in and out of rooms and chambers all over the shop, such that applying the concept of "map conquest" is a bit more of a figurative thing than actually relying on card sets to acquire specific rooms of the house.

Also bear in mind: The hallway is all the same room; just being approached from other angles. There really is no way to fully enforce things.

With that philosophical argument flummoxing her, Celestalia returned to NLC to eat dinner.

Just to be on the safe side, Celestalia will stay in the main upside-down hallway for now. Which was also a good decision, because she got a card within a couple minutes. Unfortunately it took over an hour after that to nab the fourth card.

That said, could Voodoo have the drop table she was looking for???

...



Honestly don't even know why I tried. The mob it would make THE MOST SENSE TO HAVE THE DUMB CAPE naturally doesn't have it.

The Rangemaiden tried to grind some more, but was just too disgusted and left without finishing the set.

So that's it then. Unless Wolf Spider's got it tucked away, which as a Level 80 seems incredibly unlikely, the Justice Cape is locked behind the dark creepy depths of the Phantom Forest. And even if one of the lesser mobs has it, who really wants to spend all that time grinding in such an area like that...outside of Halloween season, anyway. I sure don't.

Therefore, it's time for Celestalia to settle that territorial dispute over in Zipangu...stay tuned.

 

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PART CCLXV. An Offer They Can't Refuse

Spoiler: PART CCLXV. An Offer They Can't Refuse

While the brunt of the military was attempting to secure control of Prendergast, negotiations between the Celestial Empire and the Showa Mob continued. Unfortunately, the diplomatic play broke down after the Mob attempted to force a deadline for Celestial forces to withdraw from Zipangu. That deadline was 18:00 server time today, and in preparation for that Celestalia had already arrived in Ludibrium and was ready to assume control of operations.

Things remained calm for the first few hours after the deadline, but around 20:00 a huge firefight erupted within the vicinity of Showa Street 3. After almost an hour of continuous combat, Celestial forces were able to carve a path all the way to Street 2. That was how Celestalia found things when she arrived.

With no enemies present on the top part of the map (where the portals are), she was able to skip that map entirely. Which is a great thing, since now she doesn't have to risk getting one-shot by Male Boss.


This map has literally all of the enemies Street 3 does, apart from Male Boss of course. So honestly, is there a difference? ...No. No there is not.

Anyway, as you can see Arrow Rain is the true don on this map. And cards promised to be steady, if not necessarily all that fast.


This is Extra A's second card, the first one being obtained in a very small skirmish back when the region was first unlocked.

By the way, don't be fooled too much. While Male Boss has a super-powerful pistol, and knows how to use it, Leader B's is more like a cap gun in comparison. Their shots never even break 150 against Celestalia. That doesn't change the fact though that there are so many attackers, and they hit quickly, meaning Celestalia more often than not has her health bar more white than red.

Strength in numbers indeed.

Extra C was the second of the five to yield cardboard.


The Rangemaiden was considering leaving to have dinner, but decided to go a little longer and ended up getting a second Extra C card. She finally did leave after attaining 50% XP.

Voodoos/Hoodoos are pretty good XP-wise. These fellows aren't that bad either.

As Celestalia returned to Mushroom Shrine, she went past one of her guildmates without even knowing. The guildmate was very plain-clothed but doing her best! They caught back up next to the Gachapon.


This is Guan Yunchang, an ancient warrior from nearly two millennia ago...or so she claims. Celestalia really struggled to get a good read on her as they shared a few brief words, but she did remember reading about her recent exploits (Journal here!). Although Celestalia much prefers to keep the details of her own digestive system a secret, she will never turn down an opportunity to get to know her buddies a little better.

Not that Celestalia's record along the lines of food has been all that perfect either. And you can imagine how many bits of Slime Gummies she has stuck in her teeth right about now...

During the final half-hour of the session, Celestalia got another card from both Extra A and Extra C, along with:


She also picked up a cool dagger, but none of her three 10%s worked on it. And it was a gray name anyway. Oh well.

Not a lot of time was actually able to be spent today, but six cards is not a bad haul! Plus, Celestalia did end up picking up a few of those Fury Arrows (Attack +4). They're not as good as Diamond Arrows, but it sure can't hurt to have them around.

The action will pick up next Friday as the battle with the Mob continues. Take care!

 

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PART CCLXVI. Top o' the Ohayou!

Spoiler: PART CCLXVI. Top o' the Ohayou!

It's St. Patrick's Day, which doesn't necessarily mean much to Celestalia or the campaign, but I like the sound of Irish music a lot. And there are more than a few similarities between the verdant meadows of the Emerald Isle and the prairies surrounding the Vereina estate in Henesys.

In any case, after a week of R&R, it was time to resume the fight against Showa. So far, it's been a strange one. Celestalia has three cards from two minions, none from the third, and one leader card.

Naturally, the same leader opened things up today.


So the tally now stood at 3-0-3-0-2. This was teeing up to be a complete disaster.

Sure enough, the next card to fall was the fourth Extra A.


Then Leader B dropped another one! NOW it was 4-0-3-0-3. Typical of Leader A, who does by far the most damage, to also be such a troll. I was pretty sure Aescavon at least got a card from Extra B...not sure where they're at.

Oh, also. Maple is apparently considering plastic bottles to be weapons now. Janitorial supplies was bad enough, but this??

Ramuné bottles I could see though.

The dagger Celestalia picked up last time, incidentally, is the double-bladed one next to it (Liu Bei).

And FINALLY Extra B decided to join in on the action.

The drop table isn't bricked after all!

Some time later, it was Extra C's turn. His drop table has exactly two items, the Etc. drop, and a Dark Snowboard. Absolutely pathetic.

Completing the circle, Extra A finished up after that.


But that doesn't mean they just up and surrender, no. The mob is most certainly a "package deal", i.e., all five have to be taken down before victory can officially be claimed. Considering Leader A is STILL without any cards, that is going to be a difficult task indeed.

The seventh card of the session was yielded by Extra B, putting the tally at 5-2-4-0-3. At that point, the Rangemaiden decided to grab a break, and didn't return to the front until after dinner. Still, it was a fantastic start.

After a pretty decent amount of fried fish, Celestalia returned and immediately snagged one more from both Extra B and Extra C. Which topped off the latter set.


At that point she was pretty satisfied, and went back to Ludibrium to enjoy the rest of the holiday.

The tally is 5-3-5-0-3. While there are only 9 cards left now, there's no way the entirety of Leader A will fall in just one Saturday...right?

 

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PART CCLXVII. Ordem e Progresso

Spoiler: PART CCLXVII. Ordem e Progresso

Celestalia spent another thirty minutes fighting the mob before she realized that it was probably a tremendous waste of time. It didn't help that the two cards she received were both from Extra C. So now that she's seen how bad the drop tables are, rather than drain all of her restorative items into that fruitless endeavor, she decided to go back to fighting things that would actually drop stuff.

And of a surety she did not want to go back to Masteria, for obvious reasons. So, while she had the energy, why not try again at:


No one guaranteed that anyone would get anything.

But to their credit, the first drop that came was a brand new one!


Of course it wasn't the Red Hinkel.

They then dropped a Deadly Fin, followed by the third example of this:


Still as useless as ever. But the equips are coming out!

And then another weapon.


Lazy Buffy pinched in with a Black Gaia Cape and a Sapphire Clench, both of these were also first-time drops.

At last Buffy dropped something that wasn't threatening-looking.


But then they just went back to Skull Earrings.

Then, Lazy Buffy gave up another Choro, so that's eight total Bowman overalls lifetime from them.

Next up:


And:


The Viska is overall #16...overall. Yeah. What is anyone meant to do with 16 overalls?

Buffy immediately gifted the Rangemaiden a second one.

And then, well Celestalia already has one of these, but...


Yeah I'm pretty sure hers is max Jump. So this just gets sold.

Ah, by the way, the gold thing sticking out behind the money bundle is a Year of the Rabbit Coin. Celestalia will have to see if she can exchange for something eventually.

Around the time the Colorful Tube dropped, a Priest belonging to the world-famous SURRA guild offered to party.


LordZEH was in the map to hunt cards. A service which Celestalia very much could help with! Provided he was on the lookout for the Red Hinkel, of course.

Shortly after they began grinding, however, he had to depart for a much more noble pursuit: dinner. Celestalia's was coming up shortly too; how many more equips would she land before then?

The first drop after the tube was another Brown Lorin, followed by an Oaker Shouldermail. That's fifteen equips in less than four hours!

They weren't done there; Lazy Buffy provided another TWO Blue Linnex (#5/6!!), an Umber Shouldermail Pants, and kicked with an Old Mithril Nordic Helm.

LordZEH came back eventually, and something very quickly happened...


He pulled it off?!!?!?!

SURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I knew the entire time the Hinkel was going to be less Attack than the BMD. That was basically a given. But who cares!


After all, there are many other ways to get damage.


So how many cards did Celestalia end up getting for this glorious character? Believe it or not, 3. With that, he was able to complete the Buffy set in a very short time. Unfortunately, dinner was approaching and she couldn't help with Lazy Buffy. And the gentleman repeatedly refused the 350k that Celestalia owed him per the rules. I don't know what I am meant to do about that, the rules apparently assumed that the person would accept the bonus. But 350k also isn't a great deal of money at this stage. Celestalia will find something to do with it that is just as charitable.

Anyway, here's the final tally from both mobs.


Hopefully Soul Teddy doesn't fill up the equip inventory as quickly...I can't believe I just said that.

 

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PART CCLXVIII. The Shoes Athena Fancies

Spoiler: PART CCLXVIII. The Shoes Athena Fancies

It's considered a carefully guarded secret in the archery world, mostly because the lore has next to no information on it, but how old is Athena Pierce really? Celestalia always thought she was Athena's biggest fan, but there exists at least one with greater affinity - and his best guess is 600. In the same copypasta, he mentions that Athena is an Elf. Celestalia never really saw any difference. Either way, there's a whole tier of Bowman shoes named after that race, and she can kind of picture Athena wearing them.

Time to acquire a pair, but first, there was much seafood to be had. Although she was waiting a fairly long time for the supply train to actually make it down to the Path of Time. This usually isn't a problem, although in this case where Celestalia was laid over in Victoria for two weeks, it can be understandable that some of the logistics are slow to get going again, and then make it across two boat rides, and then make it halfway down the Clocktower.

On to the fighting.


This first Teddy dropped the Violet Platina Pants.


Next:


Followed by a second Thief equip:


Oh, and I completely forgot that Soul Teddy drops Glove ATT 60%...

So at long last, the Willow can come off.


There was a chance at another lateral move (I call this lateral because Celestalia lost 9 MP in the exchange),


But the Patriots still can't get decent stats going.

The hat was followed by a second Brown Moon Pants.

Now, it was Master Soul Teddy's turn, with the Brown Husk.


Which was the only equip they managed to drop at all, because about 30 minutes later...


Splendid work! The stats are pretty mediocre, +2 Weapon Defense and -1 DEX, but Celestalia can't go wrong at this point by investing in defensive capabilities. At the same time, none of the remaining three equips (Blue Falcon from Homunculus, Blue Cordon from Captain, and Green Wing Boots from Tauromacis) were really calling out to be obtained.

So while the Rangemaiden was in the neighborhood, why not pay another visit to:

Thoughts on the boots?

I want to reiterate how unplayable this map would be without Arrow Bomb. I reckon I'm going to be saying that quite a bit for the remainder of the campaign.

You know what though, at the end of the day, there's a system that works, and that's all that's going to count.


Very soon Klock had dropped two more for a total of 4! Insane efficiency, but is the drop table worth it?


Heck yeah, the next Earrings! I don't know why they're called "Half", they look full to me. The Single Earring is half a set though. I'm not terribly impressed with the Blue Wing Boots, but if they get a good DEX roll Celestalia will absolutely take them.

Well, you're not going to believe what happened next.

That's right, they dropped ANOTHER CARD.


The last four cards took, collectively, 35 minutes, and that with significant breaks in the action. And AS A WHOLE, Celestalia earned...NOT EVEN 8% EXPERIENCE. She did spend a bit more time in combat, but it was pretty obvious that Dark Klock didn't want to play anything near the kind of ball Klock was. So, still shy of 9%, she left. I've got to say, that is the most productive <9% of experience I've ever had in this game! At least it feels like it.

Tune in tomorrow to see what Dark Klock might have in store, should it ever start providing some cardboard of course.