So, a case of good news, bad news…

The good news is that we found Falin. Yay! The bad news is that she is really, really good at killing us. I have played a fair amount of D&D and this is the kind of fight that would be tough for any boss monster to win just due to the sheer size of the party arrayed against it. So, our reliable author found creative ways to split the party and take them out one or two at a time. I just want to commend Falin on the strategies employed here.

First, there were the harpies that are relatively easy to defeat to lure out the ninja vanguard of the group while the rest of the party figured they were safe. After dispatching the ninja, Falin makes her appearance, causing the strategists (Laios and Shuro) to freeze up while she takes out a couple party members that are not frozen in shock (from Kabru’s party and Oni girl from Shuro’s party). Then, after the opposing party starts to get their act together, further disarm Laios by referring to him like Falin would. At this point more than half your opponents are already incapacitated in some way. Finally, when your opponents are getting themselves organized again and you took some damage from best boy Kabru, pop off a big AOE and escape. Really well done Falin. Other boss monsters should take note!

There were two parts of this whole sequence that I really enjoyed. First there was Laios’s initial reaction to seeing Falin. He finally sees the sister that he has gone through hell to try to get back only to start criticizing her monster form as too greedy for having feathers, scales, and human skin. Pick a lane Falin! The second part I really enjoyed was that through this whole thing of watching tons of people die around him, Senshi is still holding his plate of food. This is a man with priorities. Honorable mention to both Marcille and Shuro freaking out when Falin started ripping her shirt off.

The fight that resulted between Shuro and Laios is your classic “talk through your fists” kind of fight. I think they are both just incredibly frustrated with the situation with Falin…but since they can’t really do anything about that right now, let’s talk about some other shit that I have on my mind. They managed to part on good-ish(?) terms at least with Shuro handing over that bell (which is definitely going to be important later).

Speaking of things that are likely to be important later, there are two others that stand out to me. First is that one of the ninja (Asebi) is still in the dungeon with them. I expect them to show back up before too long. Second is that Kabru really made sure that Laios remembered his name. So, I don’t know what Kabru is after here, but he is the kind of guy that always has some kind of angle. I suspect that with the knowledge of events he has, he might get involved with some topside politics or scheming for a while. The elves have some kind of interest in the dungeon and Kabru knows more than almost anybody else on the surface what the current state of it is.