RUNEvember Session 2: Bulwark Hollow

This is a Realm where the clock REALLY matters. I'm not gonna pretend that I took an optimal route (I probably wasted ~8-10 actions, which really adds up) but I didn't die and I still ended the Realm Clock just barely while it was at the Sigil. If you want to cap it off earlier than that you really have to ignore a lot of stuff along the way to get to Area 8. Which is fine! But it's definitely a context shift you have to keep in mind in comparison to most other Realms.

The equipment's ok. The weapon you can get is the Festering Longsword - it's the same as the standard Longsword but with Drain 2 instead of Harm 3 on a 6. (Annoyingly, you can only get it by going all the way up a point with 3 FIGHT actions on it, which does annoying things to your Clock - you're better off waiting until the end of the Realm, which means you'll barely have a chance to use it.) Trade harm potential for health regen, it's probably worth it but it's still definitely a tradeoff. (I'm definitely taking it over the standard, the Drain pairs well with a second weapon for when you want to be more aggressive.) The Gear you can get is the Charred Whetstone which adds a flat +1 Harm (noted to be Fire) when Charged, which is kind of an old type of Utility where you had to lock in a die. +1 Harm's an obviously useful one, hopefully this gets revised to have some kind of interesting condition to it. (It's also at the very end of the Realm.)

The enemies are kind of all over the place but I generally like them. A lot of them just have Harm 1 pokes which get obviated by a worthwhile shield. Many encounters have an enemy that either lays Hazards or spawns reinforcements, which can get pretty hairy if an encounter rolls 6's a lot (this happened to me in one of them, 3/8ths of the usable map was covered in hazards). Some of them have really nasty stuff like Drain, so be careful! The two unique enemies are pretty cool and have some interesting stuff going on - one of them's a Troll whose limbs fall off if you deal too much Harm to it at once!

The boss is pretty great conceptually, it starts as an immobile ranged enemy but switches to a slow same/adjacent attacker that ignores terrain. Very souls.

• First phase has a move that gives it Block and health regen, which is pretty annoying when it rolls that one over and over and you're not rolling well enough to make progress. Maybe that one could've been changed to Drain instead of the regen so you can counter-play a little easier. It has range out to 3 and doesn't move, but one of its moves lays hazards, which is kind of a weird combo because odds are you're going to get into your favored range and stay there, so the hazards aren't going to be terribly relevant. Even if they're supposed to stick around into phase 2 it's unlikely to change.
• Second phase lays a bunch of difficult terrain around, which is one of those things where the change to terrain made a big difference - this would be a pretty nasty fight! But on the plus side, you can destroy terrain here by attacking it, which helps a bit. You're still probably going to take a few hits in the process though if going by the old terrain rules.

There are two Runes you can get. One (Bulwark rune) can prevent up to 3 Harm in a fight. The other (Devouring rune) lets you eat another one of your Runes to buff yourself! Each Rune can be eaten twice before it's gone forever. (This is kind of a pain to keep track of but it's interesting conceptually. I don't think I'd ever fully consume a Rune with it but who knows, if I know I'm getting one that I'd replace an older one with anyway maybe that makes perfect sense.)