I retired my old, crippled adventurer. Her glory days were over, as she had become so damn slow even unarmored and after tossing her backpack that there was no way for her to defeat most opponents, regardless of skill.
Before doing so, I had the wisdom to toss all her gear in a heap on the ground, including the stash of vampire blood, which she finally drank. mmmm, vampirey! A little stale after sitting in the backpack for a month.
My first new adventurer died horribly in the wilderness, to a deer I wanted to kill for food, because for whatever reason I wasn't awarded any gear or provisions. Didn't stand a chance. I was actually lost and way off course form my target; the village with the heap of gear.
The next adventurer, is A-okay, for the moment.
She started off in the village with the gear in it, amazingly. So, logically I forgo carrying around mountains of meat, and immediately go for the vampire blood. I nabbed the sword and a shield, leaving the armor behind, and headed straight for the mummy's tomb to the north. When I got there, I entered the first pyramid, and charged inside. I took a look around the tomb, and dodged the traps I encountered. Which is good, because I had no intention of playing a one-legged clown again. Or one-buttocked, but they died in their first engagement afterwards. A very half-assed adventurer. Maybe they stored all their good luck in their left buttcheek.
Anyway, after snooping around the tomb a bit, I came upon a *Steel Serrated Bastard Sword*, which is only a mediocre improvement over my last cahracter's +Steel Bastard Sword+ with some crappy decorations she slapped on after slaying some animals, but I decided I simply must have it. I checked the next room over, and sure enough that was the mummy's tomb. Which put me slightly closer to the door than they were. So, I put the old sword in my backpack, grabbed the new sword, and intended to run. But I forgot to stop sneaking, so at best it was a snickering half-jog tiptoe pace from some old cartoon. Sure enough, as I reached the door out of that first passage, the mummy slammed open the door to the tomb and started screaming about the kids on their lawn. As soon as I was through the door and shut it behind me, I realized how stupid I was and how much an advantage I'd lost, stood up straight and ran the fuck out of there. At that point I was actually excited, as this little race with death was going to be heart-poundingly CLOSE. And indeed, it was.
I escaped from the pyramid just in time, and ran around the back to go back into hiding and slink away. The mummy, once again out-smarted me, and took the much shorter route OVER the pyramid (as opposed to my plan to go all the way around the corner) as they pursued poor Lulon. In moments, they were right behind me again. So close I thought for sure there was no way a chump with halfway to novice ambusher skill could remain hidden. Poor kid could probably feel it's rank and dry breath down her neck. But apparently the mummy was stupid or had an abysmal observer skill and missing both eyes, and I managed to get her fuzzy butt all the way out of the tomb's site claim, at which point the mummy went back inside.
Talyxians must have a hidden legendary ambusher skill. They certainly have a legendary get-your-civilization-wiped-out-despite-having-steel-weaponry stat. The civilization I've been picking from has a grand total of something like 2 villages and 2 tombs left, none of which are occupied by anything but corpses or my past adventurers. And their corpses.
The adventure continued for a while. The fool slew three lesser dragons, by slitting their throats, and dodged two wild lesser dragon ambushes. She'd been set on fire and forced to walk clear across a site to jump in a pond, leaving her head and chest permanently scarred. She met a demon who hated her guts for having guts. Then she met a bandit chieftess who stopped by twice in one night, apparently just to make sure she was ok and offer to lend some companions. She took the goblins with her, and continued the journey to the capitol. But on the road, she accidentally bumped one of her new companions, and they all ganged up on her and beat her to death.
Never did become a vampire and still had to haul around a personal larder. That's how she got murdered so quick.
Last save was after only one dragon kill, but god damnit I'm gonna savescum.