Challenge #146: Quest For The Holy Grail

[76561198272834243]

Challenge #146: Quest For The Holy Grail

Concept: AbbeyAdriaan
Story: Noctua Spell
Contributions from: BlackVision, Noctua Spell, FlameStalker, Liort, Pistax

Tagline : Reach the Ultimate Treasure! We will raffle 5 copies of Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis and 5 copies of Curious Expedition between all participants!

Want to win a copy of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis or a copy of The Curious Expedition? We'll be giving away 5 copies of each between all participants this week! Don't forget to submit either your Discord username or your Abbey Games forums username so we can contact you!

Story:

“A Holy Grail, was it?” Yvonne reconfirmed as they walked through some crowded streets in the Middle East. A somewhat shady looking hooded man tried to approach a bit too closely and Yvonne cracked her whip at him threateningly. He scurried off and Yvonne looked back at Maria on her left, who seemed to still be thinking about the daring clothing of the belly dancers in the square they just passed. She wondered how a certain Russian man would look at her if she were to try her hand at it.
Yvonne sighed exasperatedly and turned to Victor on her right. He raised an eyebrow at her.
“What?”
“How come you’re not off to la-la-wonderland?” Victor proudly raised his chin: “I am very happily married mon cher.”
“Of course you are.”
“But to your original question: Oui. We are indeed looking for a Holy Grail.”
“A grail. Not the?” Yvonne asked taken aback. Maria had finally determined that she was not going to change her fashion style and added her two cents to the discussion.(edited)
“There are quite some mentions of holy grails, Yvonne. Arthurian literature is likely the most prominent source, but the word grail itself is derived from French. Holy grails also come in all kinds of forms!”
Yvonne hummed in response.
“Correct me if I am wrong, oh, knowledgeable archaeologist, but those do not sound particularly Middle Eastern to me.” Maria shrugged and Victor thoughtfully adjusted his moustache.
“Pinkerton did send us here for a reason. In fact, he insisted that our party made an excellent combination of whip-wielding archaeological diplomatic explorers.” Victor remarked. Maria was pointing sceptically at Yvonne after the diplomatic comment as the aforementioned lady abruptly stopped walking after spotting a familiar outfit.
“What’s wrong, Yvonne?” Victor asked, concerned. Yvonne quickly started walking again and murmured:
“The Anti-Explorers are here. Old man Pinkerton is definitely on to something. We’ve done enough dawdling around. We can’t afford to be defeated by those losers. Let’s get off the main street and nab that Holy Grail.”

Rules:

• Your team must consist of Yvonne, Maria and Victor
  
• Yvonne must be captain
  
• You must visit Hungarian Fort
  
• You must visit the Holy Lands
  
• You must play on Adventure mode.

Scoring:

Your score is your renown:

• BRONZE: 3000 renown (1MP*)
  
• SILVER: 8000 renown (2MP*)
  
• GOLD: 13000 (3MP*)
  
• PLATINUM: Three highest scores above 13000 (3MP+**)

* Number of medal points awarded when playing on Classic Difficulty. Easy and Normal give less, according to these rules.
Gold and Platinum medals may only be achieved without losing, though Silver and Bronze are still possible to get with just the Record sheet for that trip.
** The platinum medal is extraordinary and can only be achieved on Classic or Impossible difficulty without losing. It doesn't increase Medal Points further than a Gold medal, but we will track how many you have.

How to participate

You can participate with a highscore, a story or both.

Stories

Write a story. Use the Challenge theme as an inspiration by looking at the constraints. Find other stories in the Fan Story directory or by looking at previous challenges.
Post your story in a new topic in these forums.
Also link to it to this thread with a comment: Include the first paragraph/few lines of your story in the post here to show readers what your story is about.

Highscores

Play the game according to the challenge rules and in Adventure mode.
Post in this topic a screenshot of your Win Screen*, right after the ceremony or your Leaderboard record.* Also include a text version of your score with the submission to allow for error checking.
Submit by 12:00 noon CET, 20/12/18 (Or 12/20/18 for those using MM/DD/YY)
({LINK REMOVED}click here for your local time equivalent )
NOTE: Only one score will be accepted - only one submission for each player please. If you wish to enter a new score, please edit your initial entry and make it clear which score you are submitting, and add the word "EditGreenlight" to the entry so we can see immediately when the result needs updating.
*If you forget to screenshot the Win screen, you can also enter with a screenshot of your Leaderboards: Go to Main Menu > Leaderboards > Local > click the entry that matches your submission game > screenshot those details.

Game Version

Must be Build 516 or later

Story ideas:

Why doesn't Yvonne like snakes?

For the previous challenge - Challenge #145 - click here

[FraggleJock]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1594012107

23000
"Edit Greenlight"

Secret rendevous are the trick. The Holy Lands are so much easier in #519, can pretty much clear the map completely now.

[Mysticjon]

My First ever community challenge nets me Bronze. I scored 4837 reknown - clearly need more practice how do i upload my screenshot

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198006652893/screenshots/

'Edit Greenlight'

2nd Runthrough scored 6736 and secured the Grail!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1591792177

[Noctua Spell]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1590662143
haha, this was not according to plan. Didn't realise the market with the dealer would reveal the end so incurred just a tiny bit too much defense penalties. Also, I hate AoE impress characters, thought we'd crossed that bridge with the priest so why the cats T.T

[Black Balloon]

I didn't play for a long time, but wanted to give the new DLC a shot. I thought my skills would still be okay, but then I got wiped by the cat boss and after giving up on that I couldn't handle the end boss too. Those AOE spells are indeed super frustrating. All the sadness resistances were so annoying as well. Needs much better planning to win it.
That said, the holy grail map is fun and I like the events a lot Now with the knowledge about the last expedition I might give it another try later to at least get silver.
__
"EditGreenlight" Didnt get silver, but at least I got the Grail this time by just bursting the boss down.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1594627260

[bethany.hopkins]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1590988062

17153 renown for Yvonne, Victor, Maria (and Victor's dad). Thanks for another lovely challenge, and thanks so much to Abbey Games. How many developers would bring out a giant chunk of new content three years after release and not even charge for it ? You monks really are something special! I'm looking forward to Godhood in 2019 :)

[Sigsig]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1591439642

17985

Thanks for the new DLC devs and it was good to play Yvonne for once, never really got to play her.

Also there seems to be some occasions where the Holy Grail doesn't spawn? Don't know if it's a bug or a feature but here's what I found.



When you reach the city (Marked place at the beginning), you will get additional choices for Lv3 Quick Thinker Wits and Lv5 Archaeologist. The Archaeologist choice reveals the location of the Hidden Treasury immediately and you get to arrive before the anti-explorer boss lady does. And you will get the Holy Grail and confront her on your way out. After the boss fight though, the Holy Grail chest animation and bonus selection screen does not pop up but rather the game just ends there. However if you arrive there after boss lady does (You do not choose the additional Lv5 Arch choice), the game just plays like normal, you get the Holy Grail and everyones happy.

[Maniafig]

https://i.imgur.com/ukk730x.png

Had a pretty good run but not the greatest Holy City, a lot of nodes don't connect to nearby nodes and there were a ton of 2-supply routes making traversal difficult.

Enemies in the Holy City got up to a lot of infighting, mostly cats picking fights with Belly Dancers and Swords Mistresses, but some of the cats were even clawing into Bibiño which was an unexpected surprise, and Florentina and her cronies also spent several turns just attacking each other. I assume this is a bug, since it made the final boss fight really easy.

Like the poster above, I also wound up not receiving the Holy Grail treasure after arriving at the Hidden Treasury before the Anti-Explorers due to that Wits check despite succeeding on all roulette spins and the flavour text stating the Holy Grail was ours, so that kinda put a downer on the end of the run.

[Commander Felix]

for me with classic mode....

[wredniak2003]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1591893449

13944

Those damn cats... Either I got rusty or fights in holy lands are much harder than other 5 star expeditions. Pleasant surprise with this expansion.

[Pistax]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1591984725

Renown: 10654

The most I ever had to work for a challenge. Was a nightmare, but am content with this score. Also, please fix the nonexistent Holy Grail.

Discord name is also Pistax. I really hope I get a prize after all this.

[DHBTVS]

Well then... finally got a gold. Mean mean monks making you bring yvonne to the most anti yvonne zone in the world though.

Anyway I did squeak out a gold at least, despite missing one treasure each in hungary, trans, and middle east.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1592231698

13101... really want to try again and get a platinum rated score, the extra three treasures plus a mistake i made in spending renown might have done it

[Welsh Dragon]

Well, things didn't exactly go as planned, and I think the game bugged out in the last expedition, but still a reasonable run for me.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1593024354

Renown: 8590

EDIT: Oh and for the competition, I'm Welsh Dragon on the Abbey Games forum.

All the Best,

Welsh Dragon.

[bethany.hopkins]

Since this challenge was so lovely and such a special occasion as well, I was absolutely determined to write a story for it . Here's my tale of our heroes in the Holy Lands :)

Yvonne, Maria and Victor have very nearly made it to the end of their expedition. But as it turns out there's one last tiny little obstacle they have to overcome. Will they manage it? Will the most fiendish of all the region's enemies finally put a stop to their plans? Why does Victor's dad have to come on this one specific expedition in person? Find out in my Challenge 146 story, Why Did It Have To Be Cats?

And as ever, please enjoy :)

[tyrantton]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1593295622

8126. My first silver medal

My Abbey Games forum username is tyrantton.

[whodinis]

Hey,
I had a nice run going, until I walked in circles in Transylvania, which made me loose out on 4 Treasures. After that, I was still excited to try out the new expedition. I really like the setting of the "Holy Lands" expedition and love the variety of enemies you encounter in this region. At least...Well... until those Belly Dancers and these nasty Cats wiped the floor with me in the last encounter. My whole crew was gone in the blink of an eye. Now I'm sad I could not secure the Holy Grail.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1593493018

11604 Renown and a lost final expedition should still give me a Silver Medal.
In Discord my name is the same as here: whodinis.

Best of Luck to all fellow explorers.