Etzel

"Keep aiming for that parasite. William, you can take another hit, right? De'kra, forget about the sealing and hit the thing instead." Maurice attacks the Rotten Core from the back row. Battle order: William Maurice De'kra Mizuki Monk Pretzel

Just because it's an action theme focused on conflict you don't need to have the good guys fighting the bad guys with weapons or trying to kill them. If you replace the "Let's kill people that ..." with "Let's stop people that..." you have 3 perfectly good themes right there (although I would expect a Zoo theme to be a sub-theme in City without the obvious conflict). Another option be to look back at the old Adventurers theme and have two opposing treasure hunting teams (a good and bad) that fights to get first to the treasure.

"De'kra, seal the Rotten Core. The rest, attack it! William and I can withstand the free hits from the Dragon and its wings for a while." Maurice attacks the Rotten Core from the front row. Battle order: William Maurice De'kra Monk Pretzel Mizuki

I got a couple of these at my local BR toy store today. I like them, cool printing, cute head and an exclusive hat, but the best thing is that the white-on-red printing is actually white and not pink as we have seen on so many minifigs lately (like the Judge in Series 10 and the Lion knights in Kingdoms). Here are some pictures I took:

"Change of plans, De'kra goes first and tries to seal the wings, if he succeeds Monk Pretzel attacks the Rotten Core, if he fails our cleric should try to seal them. The rest of us keep our targets." Battle order: De'kra Monk Pretzel William Misuki Maurice

Oh, it's the last battle? I didn't realize we were already at the end. Bah, Maurice shouldn't have been so chivalrous to Umbra then, he needs the XP! I'll guess this battle will be quicker once we roll special damage against the Rotten Core. Might take some time that as well, though...

"If Monk Pretzel is successful you should be prepared to hit the Rotten Core, De'kra. William, keep aiming at that parasite and Mizuki, take another go at the wings. I'll target the dragon from the back row." Battle order: Monk Pretzel De'kra William Mizuki Maurice

"Good job! Let us all focus on the Rotten Core this round." Maurice attacks the Rotten Core from the front row. Battle order: Maurice Mizuki William De'kra Monk Pretzel

"Good, focus on the Rotten Core after the Dragon and the wings are sealed then."

"You better concentrate harder, now is not the time for failures. Try again with the sealing and if De'kra is successful, Monk Pretzel should seal the Wings. William and Mizuki, keep your positions and carry on." Maurice attacks the dragon from the back row again. Same Battle order: De'kra Monk Pretzel Mizuki William Maurice

Maurice draws a deep breath before engaging in battle, this was a truly great opponent to his team of heroes. Hopefully they would be able to destroy the greenish abomination that seemed to be the cause of the dragon's sickness before the dragon, or themselves, were killed. "Monk Pretzel and De'kra, I want you two to try and seal the dragon, if the first succeeds the other should try and seal the Wings. Don't bother sealing the Rotten core just yet, it might help us by weakening the dragon a bit first. We can always remedy the dragon if she gets down on critical health (I hope we can at least). Mizuki, go for the wings. William, take a shot at that rotten core. I'll target the dragon itself from the back row." Battle order: De'kra Monk Pretzel Mizuki William Maurice

"Well, we better be prepared for whatever we will encounter. Monk Pretzel, here take this tonic and drink it, it would be best to have you on full ether if things turn rough." Maurice hands a tonic to Monk Pretzel. (who will drink it)

"Nothing we didn't expect from before then, well thank you anyways lady Shadeaux." Maurice turned to his party comrades. "We better get moving. Stay alert but be careful with your movements when we approach the peak of the mountain, we don't want to disturb the dragon more than necessary." Maurice starts leading the party up towards the peak.

"Merci beaucoup, we will do our best to solve this problem. Just a question though, have you seen the dragon and been able to determinate the cause of its sickness? Also, if you have any knowledge about dragons that you think might be helpful to us, we would be very thankful if you could share those with us."

Maurice uses Diplomacy "Now mademoiselle, let's think this through. Since we have the same goal as you, to cure the dragon, we can't possibly be interfering with your plans, right? Besides, I'm not implying that a fine lady as you can't take care of herself, but to go alone into a dragon's lair is very risky and I fear for your safety."

"Well, I don't know what heroes from Heroica that you have met before, but I can assure my party is quite reasonable. Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Maurice Ratibor, Paladin of Ennoc and leader of this party. We are actually here on the exact same reason as you, my good lady, a sick dragon isn't in anyone's favor and we mean to cure it. I believe that if we joined forces we would be better suited to take care of this dragon, we are a team with many diverse capabilities and you claim to have knowledge about dragons. I'm sure you will find us much more trustworthy that whatever rag tag band of heroes you have met before."

Maurice was not a little surprised to see the heiress of the Shadaeux family standing here in the middle of a mountain range in Dastan. "Greetings mademoiselle Shadaeux. What has brought you to a such a dangerous place like this? Are you not aware of there being a furious dragon in the neighborhoods?"

"This foe blocked our path and interfered with our quest, that combined with its hostility towards us should be more than enough to motivate our battle. Now that the path is free we should continue into the cave, but first I will distribute the drops from the enemies. De'kra, take the Ruby Lamp of Summoning, Mizuki, 1 Deadly Venom, William, 3 Fire bombs, Monk Pretzel ,1 Deadly Venom, and I'll take 2 Fire bombs."

"Yes, same tactic as before. We will soon be out of this battle I hope." Maurice continues to attack the Lava Golem from the front row. Same battle order: Monk Pretzel De'kra William Mizuki Maurice

"We stand fast. A small throwback will not be enough to stop us, the Lava Golem will go down eventually. Keep attacking, but next round you and Monk Pretzel should do your sealing again." Maurice prepares to continue attacking the Lava Golem from the front row. Same battle order.

If you want to autorun I think that fine with us, Everyone will continue to attack until they get hurt. Maurice repeats his attack on the lava golem from the front row. Battle order: Monk Pretzel De'kra William Mizuki Maurice

That's some exaggeration there... take away one zero and you'll get closer to the total number of casualties in that war. Remember that the total population of the colonies at the time of the revolution was less then 3 millions. Maybe you are thinking about the american civil war which is often estimated to have had over 700 000 casualties in total.

"Let's do the same thing again, Monk Pretzel seals the Golem (or De'kra if the cleric fails) and the rest of us continue to attack it." Maurice attacks the Lava Golem from the front row. Battle order: Monk Pretzel De'kra William Mizuki Maurice

Maurice attacks the Lava Golem from the front row. Battle order: William De'kra Mizuki Maurice Monk Pretzel

"If our cleric is successful in his sealing yes, if not I would like you to try and do what he failed." Maurice attacks the Lava Golem from the front row. Battle Order: Monk Pretzel De'kra William Mizuki Maurice "William, declare an action in case we are able to remedy you out of that petrified state."