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[syvarris]

...Combat skills?  Is "rapid fire" something that can be used with a staff?

On the topic of a +5 weapon for Trence, I can see two decent arguments here.  One is that we may want to reforge the black blade into a +5 or +6, which might make buying a +5 be a bit of a waste.  The other is that we might not want to reforge the black blade, on account of it costing an action to activate; Trence, by sheer dint of being a dragon, has a lot of buffs to spend actions on.  It also might take up an "enchantment slot" that could be better spent, for instance on a haste enchantment.  There's a possibility we could do something absurd like stack haste on weapon, haste on armor (moved from that shortbow), haste boots, and an exhausting triple attack to give Trence six attacks per turn.  _{Yo derg, I herd you like haste, so I put some haste in your haste so you can haste while you haste!}

I lean towards the former argument, reforging the black blade, because a +5 or +6 that can be buffed to +7/+8 with mana drain on every hit is pretty solid and prolly demolishes any mana-dependant opponents... but it's not that much better than a +5 with a more mundane bonus damage effect of some kind.  +5 antimagic might well be equivalent to +5 mundane against Spar and Carina, though Dorren and Arngrim would surely hate it.

[Devastator]

...Combat skills?  Is "rapid fire" something that can be used with a staff?

No, that's bow-only.  Transferring an enchantment over would give a staff an ability like that, but it wouldn't be as powerful without Willis's ability.

Also, Willis does have melee weapon skills, if you get him a sword.

[syvarris]

Oh, you mean 2-token staff training would come with another set of staff-only combat skills.  Well, that sounds interesting, and I'd bite; I think staves are appropriate for our blaster mage, and having more skills for his magic seems fun.  Especially if we can get a mana cap increase, so he's more reasonably able to rely on magic.

...Another thing we might be interested in buying are elemental bombs.  Just a few to cover elements we don't have access to, for general adventuring use.  That's not something to worry about right this moment though, Valterre is the capital of equipment.

[NJW2000]

We need to know more about our options to work that one out… and working exotic materials is probably relevant to the creation of Spar’s weapon.

Ask around for someone specialised in forming exotic material weapons. Don’t mention the Valterre sword just yet, ask what we can make our bane metal from the Black Blade into.

Rationale is that the forming was probably key if one person did it, and that kind of weapon was presumably made of a very unusual substance.

I have basically already suggested this, so might need a tiebreaker as this suggestion is against asking about the legendary sword directly. Although maybe we could just ask what can be done in terms of melting down and reforging the black blade in any case.

[syvarris]

+1 to NJW

[NJW2000]

To be honest, we're probably going to have to go with Irony's strategy at some point, unless we meet someone really bad at keeping secrets.

[King Zultan]

+1 to NJW

+1

[Devastator]

Spoiler: Sessha (click to show/hide)

Sessha Naver, Assassin of Klamati.

Mithril Hawkeye Daggers (+5) Crit chance maxed.
Storm Shadow Leather (+5) Moderate lightning resist, Significant magic defense, Slightly reduced defense.
--
--

Resistances:
F/C/W/D/L++/E
N/P
V

6 armour, 2 magic damage resistance

Can use Swords, Daggers, Throwing Weapons, Seige Weapons, and some magic wands.
Can wear Light Armour

Equipment: Skipped, as Sessha already has +5 equipment.  There are options if you want to swap, though.

Spoiler: Alice Nepenthe (click to show/hide)

Alice Nepenthe, Unaligned Paladin.

Alice:
(+4) Antique Losoan Weapon Crystal. (Lance, Mace, Pike.)
(+3) Plate of the Icemark.
Ring of Elemental Armour.
Peridot Amulet of the Sea.
Masterful Mithril Seawalking Horse Barding ~(+5)

Can use Spears, Pikes, Lances, and Maces.
Can wear Heavy Armour

Resistances:
F/C+++/W+/D+/L/E+
N/P
V

8 armour, 0 magic damage resistance

Weapons:

Narrow-bladed Adamant-Alloy Spear [+5]
Archaon crystal Pike. [+5], nature attuned (33%), One additional + granted when attacking demons, corrupted creatures, or Void Beasts.  Replaces the normal pike "Large Creature" bonus.
"Knocker", custom mace. [+5], small bonus earth damage.

There are no +5 lances available.

Armour:

There is a set of Giswald's Champion Armor [+6] available.  If bought, it'll cost four upgrades over the plate of the Icemark.  It's fairly normal, granting minor magic resistance, resistance against wind, poison, and water, and a double weakness to lightning.

Armoury Peristeel Plate, [+5].  It's plain, with normal protection and no magic resistances at all.  Or weaknesses.  It's also cheap.  This will cost only one upgrade, not two.
Carborundum Burned Antique Armour, [+5].  +2 additional defense, moderate magic resistance.  Double weakness to nature.
"Glissandro", custom armour, [+5].  -1 defense, resistance to fire, cold, lightning, earth, and nature.  Moderate magic resistance.

Ask around for someone specialised in forming exotic material weapons. Don’t mention the Valterre sword just yet, ask what we can make our bane metal from the Black Blade into.

There's a fair few people like this around, but thinking about Valterre, you want one that was in operation back then, which limits you to only two choices.


Both of them say they can make a bane metal weapon from the Bane Sword, but..
..  There's not a ton of metal, so you're limited to small weapons.  Spearheads, short swords, daggers, maces, throwing knives, or picks.
..  You can get them to make a bare weapon, basically a Bane Metal [+2] weapon with no enchantments, suitable for adding additional features to it.  Any decent enchanter should be able to get a mana burn enchantment put onto it, but you could customize what it does.  You can also get them to boost it in power somewhat.
..  They can also just reforge it into a proper Bane Metal weapon.  [+3] or [+4], depending on if you want to spend one upgrade or two.  It'll have the same skill on it as it does now, but the base weapon will be more powerful.

Better than that is possible, but you want to line up an enchanter first and get them in the same room together, as the materials crafter will need to do things differently for the enchanter.

You don't mention the Sword directly, but both of them have a few examples of their work around, either pictures or specific examples, such as art pieces made from exotic materials or well-crafted weapons made from cheaper ones.  Nothing truly valuable, but enough to show off.

And one of them has a picture of a strange scabbard.  Now you've never met Spar Hessom, or seen the Sword Valterre.  But from what the fans have said, that's her scabbard on the wall.  This particular guy knows something about it.

[Devastator]

One final note, you've been looking around a bit.  A lot of your loot was readily salable, and this is a perfectly good place to sell them.  The padded armour, sharkskin vest, and the gemstones don't have much use, so..

And you've killed a rather large monster.  That gets you paid by the adventurer's guild.  It takes a lot of argument to determine an exact value for such an exotic creature, but in the end you're paid two upgrades, due to the threat to shipping.

The gemstones are marginally less valuable than you expected, bringing in an even 5 upgrades.  Gems are individuals and it's possible for specific ones to be almost infinitely valuable, if you're lucky enough.

Anyway, at this time you have a total of 16 upgrades worth of money.  Sixteen!

Spoiler: Loot (click to show/hide)

Silver Earth Emblem
Silver nature emblem
Silver cold emblem
3 x Silver Water emblem

The Black Sword, Shortsword, [+2]
Flaming Garnet Chakram, [+3] (worth one upgrade)
Freezing Cobalt Chakram, [+3] (worth one upgrade)

Kingly Brocade Outfit (Worth 3 upgrades here.  Could get more if you look for a specific buyer.)

Lesser Skull Totem (Worth a small amount.)
Peridot Amulet of the Sea.  Grants water breathing.  (Worth 1 upgrade here, but could be worth extra in a location with lots of diving.)
Spyglass
Sea Captain's Letters
3 unidentified potions!
Enchanting Counter-Resonator (Worth 1.5 upgrades if sold)

[syvarris]

Buy the +6 armor for Alice.  It's very much generalist armor, which we definitely want for our tank.  Lightning vuln hurts a bit, but Sessha has lightning resist, and Alice will probably use element rings anyway.  We could also shop around for a lightning emblem if we're really worried.

Giving Alice a +5 mace seems like a fine option.  Maces give her an armor debuff attack, which is nice, while lances give her a bonus + of damage on all attacks (but Lance has much worse skills).  I don't think we've seen Alice's spear skills?  I didn't save them in my first post if we did.

Buy Brazen Silversteel halfplate for Willis.  If the three armor choices would all be equally able to accept an enchantment from the counter-resonator, buy Red Steel Scale armor for Trence.  Hopefully we can also make it green when we move an enchantment onto it.

That leaves us with ten upgrades.  We could put everyone up to +5 level weapons and have six upgrades left over for accessories and training.  But I still want to leave Willis at +4 and try out a staff; upgrading his spells to do an entire extra tier of damage is just so Willis.  He has meditation, a natural affinity granting +1 tier, and then a staff adding more on top of that?  With an accessory allowing him to cast twice?  How can we possibly say no to Willis casting two Extreme+++ damage Absolute Zeroes?

_{Frankly I want to see what +5 tier staves there are, maybe there's something like "half cost", which would be such a ridiculous buff to Willis}

I very much dislike the black blade only being a small-size weapon.  That means we can't use Counter!, and while we virtually never do use the skill, it's a good skill all the same, mostly thanks to Max dragon.  I could see doing it if we lean into the small weapon style and train a better multiattack skill, though.  Oh--I've also previously brought up the possibility of reforging the black blade into a weapon for Alice, because it perfectly compliments her harrying Dorren and Arngrim, who both rely on mana and aren't very good at attacking.  Note that one of the options is "spearhead"; if her spear skills are good, this might be a perfect option.

[Devastator]

Do note, that if you want specifically to still be able to use Counter! with a reforged Black Blade, turn it into a spear.  Trence can use counter with a spear, and indeed is using a spear right now.

[syvarris]

...What I'm hearing is "we should really pursue reforging the Black Blade into a +5 spear, because two of our party members can use spears and would really synergize well with it".

Although now I want to make it a glaive.  Trence's very first weapon was a glaive, and I generally love glaives.  But I suppose they count as polearms rather than spears, despite some glaive designs being really similar to spears...

[Devastator]

Eh, maybe just ask for that?  I listed specific examples, not an exhaustive list.

Spoiler: Alice Spear Skills (click to show/hide)

Fight:
Stab, +++.  Attacks a creature with a stab.
Pinprick, ++.  Attempts to weaken a target's attack for one turn.  Tiring.
Power Stab. ++++,  Attacks a creature with a mighty blow.  Tiring.

Skills:
Counter+.  Attempts to counterattack any creature that attacks Alice.

[syvarris]

Well then, investigate finding an enchanter who can work with the black blade, and get them in a room with the smith.  Specifically the smith with Spar's scabbard.  Might be relevant to ask him who he knows could work with it; if he is Valterre's smith, he probably worked with an enchanter on it.

And additionally ask for it to be made into a swordspear which handles like a spear.  Because they look awesome, and there's enough material for a proper shortsword on the end.

[King Zultan]

Well then, investigate finding an enchanter who can work with the black blade, and get them in a room with the smith.  Specifically the smith with Spar's scabbard.  Might be relevant to ask him who he knows could work with it; if he is Valterre's smith, he probably worked with an enchanter on it.

And additionally ask for it to be made into a swordspear which handles like a spear.  Because they look awesome, and there's enough material for a proper shortsword on the end.

+1