RUNEvember Session 13: Echo Crater

This Realm is so cool! Most likely you'll do some exploration in the Present at first to build up some Lore, then go to the Past, die almost immediately after picking out some Lore (you get like 3 Lore before going to the past). It's definitely rewarding to explore the Present first because you get some very useful things and Lore, but you can just as easily go to to the Past and grab a few things there too. (I did everything I could in the Present before going to the Past and noted a few things that would have been very helpful in the Present, but also some things in the Present that I would have sorely missed in the Past. It's a good mix.) Speaking of Majora's Mask, there's a very Zelda-like amount of key items, and anything you find in the Past you have to find a way to preserve over the ages so you can go get it in the Present.

Enemies are cool. They're all pretty flimsy individually, but that's because every single one of them has an Orb summon and there's frequently quite a few of them, so you'll end up having your hands full either way. Every encounter with a Corrupted Psion (which can pop out 1-4 Orbs/turn) ends up requiring some actual thought, so that's pretty cool. One lategame encounter has an enemy that can shit out 8 (!!!) orbs at a time! If you're playing this, take out like 16 tokens pre-emptively, this Realm loves it some Orbs. As mentioned, you can also nerf every enemy: notably, one tough fight nets you the ability to have the nastier 2 regular enemies lose their 1 roll, which is the one that summons Orbs.

(With regards to the Impossible Orbs, I actually misunderstood the Wild designation and in doing so ignored it in favor of "they only attack the Engraved", which made the fights way more interesting and I honestly recommend this for players doing this fight with more than 1-2 Runes because without that change enemies will absolutely end up orbing themselves a LOT for lack of better orb targets.)

There's some equipment here which is interesting. There's two different kinds of the same Staff, because one is the one you get in the past and one is the worse version of it you get in the future. (You do get an anomaly for getting both, which is fun.) You're not likely to use both at the same time, because they both do roughly the same thing - 1-2 Harm to multiple targets, resolves before Harm - but neither has any Move. At the very end of the Realm - in fact, after the 2nd to last encounter - you get the Broken Timepiece, which lets you store a die you don't use and swap it in for another die later. (Definitely keeping that.)

The Rune Lord lead-up is pretty neat! First, you get a fight with the Orb Sorcerer (see 8 orbs above). Next, you have to fight the Calamity that killed the Realm in the Past, alongside a mysterious Temporal Voyager. This fight was a setpiece-style one (all its moves are "hit this row/column" style stuff) but some things weren't clear - it has an ability that pulls stuff towards it, and it has an ability that Harms anything that moves into it, but those two things combine awkwardly because it doesn't really specify when either of those things hit. Finally, it turns out your buddy is the Rune Lord, and fights you for it. (If you're willing to tread water on Stage 2 and let your Temporal Voyager buddy get chomped, you can explicitly skip Stage 3, which is neat.)

The Rune is a 1/rest reroll-everything, which is pretty neat.

1H: Range Adjacent

• 2-3: Move 1, Harm 1
• 4-5: Move 1, Harm 2
• 6: Move 1, Harm 3

2H: Range Adjacent

• 2-5: Drain 3
• 6-7: Move 1, Drain 3
• 8+: Harm 4, all enemies in one adjacent square and the square behind it, Take 1 Harm