# Tales from Oddwater 5.2 / Build 11 The city is burning. The Company has questions. The wine is still worth checking. Build 11 brings **The Burning City**, a complete fourth adventure, and a **combat UI overhaul** that makes every turn easier to follow. It also adds a new companion and Earth spells, combat reports, a larger sound-effects collection, five new music tracks, and the fixes from our latest playtests. These notes cover the complete update since **5.2 / Build 10**, including the earlier audio and touch-window improvements. ## Highlights - **Adventure 4: The Burning City.** Ten illustrated locations, seven battles, two interactive puzzles, hazards, discoveries and a story to unravel in Vellakar. - **A clearer battlefield.** Centered damage and healing, paired spell artwork, a bright blue-white turn ring and tidier status text. - **Meet Kobol.** A rune golem with four Earth spells and very little interest in lengthy replies. - **Read the aftermath.** Framed, graph-paper combat reports show who fought and what each hero contributed. - **More to hear.** A dedicated City soundtrack and expanded effects for magic, monsters, rewards and Company milestones. ## Adventure 4: The Burning City - Explore ten fully illustrated locations, from the Scorched Road and City Gates to markets, barricades, a burning winery, cellars, a watercourse, a walled garden and the halls of Vellakar. - Face seven encounters and seven new creature types, including Goblin Bandits, Flaming Skulls, Bugbears, Magmin, a Water Weird, hostile Treants and the adventure's final foe. - Discover two interactive puzzles, four hazards, two wine discoveries, two ordinary chests, five NPC conversations, three inspectable clues and a camp. - Meet the Toymaker, Opiad, Davian, Kobol and the mayor. Conversations, clues and discoveries use the existing journal and saved progress systems. - Choose the cellar ladder to reach the Garden directly, or continue through the Old Watercourse. The ladder asks for confirmation and does not permanently lock out the longer route. You can collect wine beyond the ladder and walk back before climbing. - New opponents bring fiery attacks, constriction, temporary growth and varied attack choices. A constricted hero can attempt Escape; defeating the captor also frees them. - Find the **Flaming Horseshoe**, a passive artifact. An active wearer grants the active party Fire resistance, even if that wearer has fallen. A reserve wearer grants no protection; it does not consume an armor-ward slot or stack a second damage reduction with an existing Fire ward. - The final encounter and follow-up conversation complete the adventure. Boss loot and expedition-completion rewards are recorded separately and awarded once. - The adventure includes its own introductions, layered panoramas, map, props and fiery horseshoe target frame. Final artwork refinements add clearer firelit scenery, a distinct Flaming Skull and a revised mayor portrait. ## Kobol and Earth magic - Kobol joins the reserves through his conversation. His minimum recruitment level is 6, or the lowest active hero's level if higher; recruitment does not replace anyone in the active four. - Kobol has 20 base HP, 14 AC, an Earth weapon attunement and an Earth armor ward. - **Hurl Stone** is a one-target Earth attack. **Fault Line** strikes all living enemies and can leave damaged survivors Off Balance. - **Gravity Well** lowers one enemy's AC. **Rune Detonation** is a stronger party-wide enemy attack. Both are available through normal spell learning. - Kobol has base, rank-earned Gilded and purchasable Spike artwork. Buying an outfit still leaves equipping it as a separate choice. - Existing Kobol progress from development saves is preserved. Missing starter ownership is added without replacing chosen equipment or exceeding ward capacity; the revised base HP does not heal injured or fallen heroes. ## Combat UI overhaul - Damage and healing now appear in a consistent band through the middle of the battlefield, centered horizontally over the affected figure. Short and tall characters no longer scatter results at different head heights. - Spell and ability artwork sits above its damage or healing as a single brief visual pair. Large enemies can use larger feedback while retaining the same alignment. - Mixed damage and healing retain both results. Feedback stays in place through lethal hits, fades cleanly and expires correctly when other windows interrupt combat. - A brighter, thicker **blue-white oval at the acting character's feet** replaces the yellow overhead turn marker. It sits behind the figure and scales with the combatant. Selected-target information panels remain independently dark. - Persistent **Thorn Skin** and **Briar Balm** labels sit on the road beneath the heroes, with separate rows when both are active. - Transient status captions remain complete on one line. Camouflage uses **CAMO**; labels such as **THAWED** and resistance messages no longer wrap or lose their endings. - Spell buttons place the full name on the first line and MP cost plus any IMMUNE notice on the second. Button labels fit within padded borders, refit after resolution changes and grow back when more space becomes available. - Fireball results group the affected heroes clearly. Burning uses an orange tint, with consistent priority when multiple visual conditions are active. - Combat introductions show the first enemy in the adventure's target frame beside centered text. Introductions must be acknowledged before the fight advances; saving and loading preserves that acknowledgement. - More spells, special attacks and status pulses have paired artwork and appropriate existing sounds, including fire attacks, Frost, protection and retaliation. Some effects deliberately reuse existing art while their dedicated visuals are developed. - City creatures and heroes share more consistent ground placement. Goblin and Bugbear proportions, Water Weird grounding and the cosmetic hover of Flaming Skulls have been refined. ## Combat reports - Use the **Eye** button to inspect the latest completed fight or retreat for that adventure. - A bold subtitle lists the enemy names and counts. The next line retains location, difficulty, victory/defeat/retreat outcome and rounds. - The participating heroes' damage dealt, damage taken, healing and critical hits appear inside an ink frame over graph paper. - Statistics count actual HP removed or restored, excluding overkill and overhealing. Ongoing effects retain their source for credit, including burning, poison, Balm and Thorn Skin. - Reports preserve the participating heroes and enemies through travel, party changes and save/load. Each adventure keeps its own latest report. - The explanatory line beneath the table has been removed. Older interrupted fights without prior statistics record only actions after resuming. ## Combat and difficulty tuning - **Thorn Skin replaces Barkskin** while preserving learned ownership. It costs 1 MP and shields living party members until each recipient begins their second upcoming turn. A damaging melee hit returns 2 Earth damage to its attacker, subject to normal defenses. It grants no AC; ranged attacks, spells, burning and poison do not trigger it. Recasting refreshes the duration without stacking. - Fixed a multiattack getting stuck when lethal Thorn Skin retaliation defeated the attacker between strikes. - The City's final encounter has reduced effective HP and direct damage compared with the first Build 11 playtest, while retaining its distinctive attack pattern and breath attack. - City creature profiles have been tuned across Basic through Master+. Wind, Holy and Earth provide additional counters alongside Frost and Fire. - The four-adventure balance review includes both City routes, earned resources, different parties and repeat Master+ expeditions. Training, equipment, supplies and tactical play still matter; Basic is not an effortless mode. - Existing battles retain their captured tuning and defenses when loaded, avoiding mid-fight changes caused by updated profiles or equipment migration. ## Puzzles, discoveries and rewards - The **Neglected Rosebed** is an interactive red-and-white rose puzzle. Fresh layouts require both colors, leave three blanks and avoid immediately repeating the previous completed arrangement. Existing saved layouts and partial answers remain valid. - The bottle-stack puzzle offers an interactive wick choice. Puzzle inputs support touch and controller navigation, including clearing or revisiting choices. - The rosebed is larger and sits lower on the road; its puzzle illustration is enlarged separately so it remains clear without overwhelming exploration. - Wine results explicitly distinguish a cheap bottle from a rare vintage and name the vintage. Rolls **1–14** find a cheap bottle; **15–20** find a rare vintage. The settled die and reward remain visible, and rare discoveries receive larger text and a chime. - Wine rewards and celebrations happen once. Reloading or reopening a committed receipt does not award or celebrate it again. - Selected risky challenge approaches now advertise increased successful gold and XP rewards: usually **25%**, with the signpost's axe approach at **50%**. Some corresponding checks are harder. Failure rewards, provisions and item-overflow rules keep their established behavior. - Challenge consequences display actual per-hero HP, resource and poison results. Settled challenge dice sit in the left artwork area and remain with the result. - Chest bonus panels retain stable outer bounds through rolling, revealing and displaying the prize, including long item names and full-stack conversion to gold. - Opiad's gift has a clear preview and received-item receipt, without duplicate grants. - Company rank notices use the configured reward icons and give their descriptions more room. ## Adventure library, exploration and dialogue - Books remain in adventure-number order. Opening the shelf selects the page containing the Company's current book, marked by the same soft blue glow used throughout the UI. - Difficulty ribbons and IN PROGRESS bookmarks have clearer spacing. An unfinished saved expedition remains marked after loading into Town; merely previewing another book does not make it current. - Story progression now follows **Forsaken Woods → Heart of the Forest → Lost Dungeons → Burning City**. Lost Dungeons requires a prior Heart completion; Burning City requires a prior Lost Dungeons completion. There is no hero-level gate, and the temporary City password is removed. - Already-active expeditions remain resumable even if they began before those prerequisites changed. Previously earned difficulty access is preserved. - All four adventures count toward future Company-wide difficulty unlocks. Each book still requires its own previous-tier clear, and completed tiers remain replayable. - Maps and adventure introductions use shorter copy and clearer action labels. The City map emphasizes its routes, and the cellar confirmation clearly names its destination. - Required stops and end-of-route exits remain selectable when optional scenery or discoveries overlap them. The Garden's arrival hatch is placed beside its entrance and the ordinary return route remains available. - Dawn Stones sit lower on their ground line, and the Watchtower combat landmark is opaque and easier to read. - Recruited Juniper no longer leaves a second exploration figure at her original Heart location, including when she is in reserve. An active Juniper can speak as herself in the relevant City conversation, using her equipped portrait. - Kobol's first appearance and dialogue face consistently. Xov faces left during her Sealed Road dialogue and follow-up, matching her road artwork. - The pack letter has clearer typography, a complete visible object and a readable signature. Later story hints retain the intended mystery, and Kobol's replies are more concise. ## Music and sound - The Burning City has **three new exploration tracks and two new combat tracks**: Exploration 10–12 and Combat 07–08. Exploration rotates the three tracks; each fight retains its selected combat song. - Added **39 selected sound clips across 20 effects**, covering dice, critical hits, bow release, spells, monster abilities, discoveries, rank promotion and adventure completion. - Named magical attacks and area effects avoid stacking generic impact sounds over their own cues. Variants rotate without immediate repeats, and voice limits keep the mix controlled. - Adventure completion, Company promotion and level-up fanfares play in sequence. Completion takes priority over an ordinary victory flourish; restoring or rereading old rewards does not replay their celebration. - Rapid Guild training can play successive dings without cutting each other off, within the existing bounded audio service. - Combat dice sounds are disabled by default, including enemy and escape rolls. Chest and challenge dice retain their audio. Existing Master and SFX controls still apply; the combat-dice switch is currently a development setting. ## Touch windows, saves and compatibility - On iPhone and iPad, tapping outside a cancellable floating window closes or cancels it. This applies to the Ledger and nested records, attire and difficulty pickers, the Game Menu and its subpages, and supported town/save/settings confirmations. - Nested windows close one level at a time. Outside taps never confirm purchases, load or delete saves, or activate the scene behind the window. Dragging and canceled gestures do not dismiss it accidentally. - Story messages and dice progression retain their explicit acknowledgement controls. - Existing Companies, equipment ownership, learned spells, earned tiers, prior completions and saved challenge receipts are preserved. No campaign reset is required. - Older empty-preview completions remain recorded without inventing a recruit or artifact reward. Partially completed puzzles, encounter introductions, new combat conditions and reports survive save/load. - Automated rules, balance, content, save and presentation checks have been expanded. Final iOS build, physical-device acceptance and TestFlight availability are recorded separately from this source update.