Dungeon 3 Turn 46
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Kamau climbs the ladder and jumps the small gap, then opens the chest. Inside he finds a set of thieves’ tools, which he leaves on the ground for now.
Ricki heads back downstairs, while Kamau climbs through the window and up the wall.
Ricki fires off a holy bolt, killing another of the bats. Ricki takes no damage from their reciprocal attacks.
Kamau climbs up the wall until he reaches an open window, then takes a look inside. He sees a rope dangling over the pit in the middle of the room. The rope disappears through a thick iron grate in the ceiling, so he can’t see what it connects to, but he has a pretty good idea. It looks like the rope was cut at some point. He also sees a damaged ladder, a hole in the ceiling that he can’t go through because it’s blocked by a giant metal object, a coil of rope lying on the ground, and a golden chest.
He also notes that he can’t climb any higher due to a lack of handholds. It’s too high to jump or to boost Ricki out the window.
Also, there’s a LOT of unconcealed webs in this room, but they don’t appear to constitute a hazard as they line the walls rather than hanging across the room.
Ricki: Go back upstairs and follow Kamau
Kamau: Tie the rope to the rope, then check out the chest
Drow is the next member, LSN gave her a prologue on kofi or patreon, I don’t remember.
https://ko-fi.com/lonestarnorth/gallery#galleryItemView
These are the right images on Ko-Fi, I belive.
The drow seems to be smoking a cigarette in a holder, how classy! (I don’t promote smoking, but if you gotta do it at all, that certainly has more style than the regular way.)
Random thoughts:
a) the bird could possibly be the familiar of the drow (I dunno how many birds drow, who generally live underground, have access to in general, but she could be a wizards, and wizards on occasion have birds as their familiars) and therefore “getting” the bird might be a pre-condition in order to gain the drows trust.
b) the key could be the key to the grate in the ceiling in the bell tower, allowing us physical access to the drow in the first place.
Kamau: in addition to any action you take this turn, please look at the grate in the ceiling. Does it have a keyhole anywhere?
IF it’s her familar, we’d better NOT kill nor injure it. Good point. However, I don’t think so. It has a nest, I never heard of a wizard’s familiar that makes any housing for themselves. Also, if that key were for the grate and if the bird were a familiar, why wouldn’t she just call it back and use the key? So either key is not for the grate, or it’s not her familiar, or both 🙂
It’s possible it is not a nest the bird (familiar) built, but one that was on the roof anyway. And it’s also possible that the drow ordered the familiar to go hide the key to the grate, so people (certainly not brainless undead) will less likely get to her, if she’s hiding out up there.
But it could also be just a random bird (and the nest his/hers or not), and keys to the doors in the “room of many doors” or to some chest(s) or to some lock we haven’t even seen yet (there is still one more room at least above the one with the bells).
To help find out, I am trying to get Kamau to check out the grate, if it has a keyhole. If it hasn’t we can at least be sure that the key is NOT for the grate. 😀
There shouldn’t be any more rooms up there. Look at the black upper border of this “room”. No way up. But yea, I agree that Kamau should take a look at the grate first.
Hey, it looks like a real lady’s there xD
Ricki: watch the glass under the window when you join Kamau. Also, yell through the metal grate hello and ask if she needs any help. (Providing talking is a free action)
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It is possible that the drow did sabotage the bells on purpose. The rope was cut, the ladder damageD (it is very possible that (s)he came up the ladder) and that metal bit that connected the one bell to the belfry could also have been purposefully damaged, in order to block the opening above the ladder. (It also could have been someone/something else, mind you, but we have no clues to who/what, if that’s the case.)
I dunno if the drow did all this with the purpose of stopping the bell from tolling, or if they just wanted to save themselves from the hordes of undead. (…so which purpose the drow had is unclear; Having Ricki talk to them might help, if they are willing and able to reply, and provided whatever they tell us is true.)
Also, couple of observations:
the chest with the question mark most likely is one that has prerequisites to open. Since the colour of it is EXACTLY the same shade as either the chest plates of the unlocked chests as well as the “skin colour” of the sunheads (and distinctly different than the insect larvea or the birds nest), I’m assuming we’d have to kill all the sunheads in order to open that chest. (that would include having to have Rick battle the one accessible ONLY by rat tunnel, I think we can kiss the contents of that chest good-bye.)
It also looks like in the level of the tower the drow is in, it should be possible to climb up higher.
I wonder if ringing just ONE bell will even have enough effect on the undead to stop them. If not we are pretty screwed, I can’t think of a way that Ricki and Kamau could re-attach the other bell to the belfry. Maybe the drow could have a handy spell (pun intended)? 🙂
And at long last we now know what those piles on the floor are, namely pieces of rope, like many of us already suspected, but it is SO GOOD to have confirmation now. 😀
This is the last room. The ceiling above the drow is solid and blocked off.
…and if she minds if we repair the bell, it’s gotta be a hell of noise up there
Looks like the new potential party member. I wonder if Ricki can talk to her through the grate. Also looks like we do need to use all three ropes to connect the winch to the bell to ring it. That leaves our obstacles as: 3 Ash Skeletons, 3 skellies + dog, and 1 Sunhead.
We are also fast approaching turn 50 which might bring extra challenges.
Yellow puzzle chest! The obvious condition is killing every sun-head, which is a tall order since one is in a Ricki-only area.
Congrats to all who placed the pile as a rope. We’re definitely taking on the ashen skeletons, hopefully with a bit of extra help. Repairing that bell could be a problem too, even moving it out of the way could be tough. Maybe the Drow up top can spider walk down the outer wall, or she’s just leaving the fallen bell there to keep dungeon monsters from getting to her room.
Kamau: In addition to other actions, give Ricki a boost to check out that hole in the ceiling. That metal object in the way just might be hollow.
Ricky-only area, but if for any reason the drow lady joins us in the middle of the game, I think she’s small enough to fit there with Ricky. Also, I think Ricky can wear the sun-armour for extra protection. But yeah, that won’t help much for Kamau’s remorse.
If we got the time, I would -very- much like to get some rat tails and try to tame the bird with them. But that’s at least 13 to 17-ish (four more if we don’t use the thieves tools, but go through the small hole in the back of the 3 rat room) turns for Ricki (if she works “alone” on that project). (She gotta get to the rats – e.g. the three normal rats; that could be 3 turns and a thieves tool to get there from where she is now – then kill the rats – that would be 3 more turns with a drop chance of 30% 1 Rat Tail, we’re not likely to get more than one tail, unfortunately, and Ricki isn’t tough enough to take on the dire rat pairs – with undead portions; and then 5 more turns to get to the bird in the nest, and possibly two more turns (if we got two rat tails that is) in order to tame the bird).
My assumption that we need 2 rat tails to convince the bird we are friends is based on what was said (in the after dungeon talk after dungeon 2) about the tame-able pet rat, that one needed to be coaxed with two/mugs lumps of cheese as well.
Why must everything to do with pets be so time intensive?!?!?!?! *frustrated groan*
So considering that nothing dangerous enough to hurt Ricki (that we know of) is in the way, I’d like to propose a differnt route:
Kamau: climb inside, pick up the rope, tie the rope to the one hanging through the grate. If possible afterwards, climb down a room again (outside, left side).
Ricki: stay where you are for now, shoot another agitated bat. (also makes the room safer for Kamau, later when he has to fight the skeletons and the skeledog, as well as for the potential ally; we don’t know their stats, and while we have a spare set of leather armour, two bats might be enough to hurt her, which in turn might then trigger remorse for Kamau – depending on whether or not he considers her an “ally”.)
(I don’t want to send Ricki towards the rats this turn yet, in case there is something fishy in the spider room and Kamau needs her assistance. But if nothing stops Kamau from getting the rope and tying it to the other rope and going down again, this way she is still one turn closer to the rats.)
Next turn: Kamau can get started on the skeletons and dog that block the next piece of rope. And Ricki can start moving in order to get some rat tails soon-ish.
I’m very much assuming that the drow won’t move and Ricki can still try to talk to her later. If it is similar to how it was with Kamau, we’ll most likely need some kind of key item (Kamau’s hilt worked for him) in order to get her to join us, anways.
Additional note: Generally we might be able to climb down the rope, too, in order to get around (or up, if need be), but in this case, I don’t think it would be safe for Kamau to do so, he’d have to go past the two trunk flies and the three yellow blobs.
Re climbing the rope, Kamau has one arm. It maybe harder for him to climb up the rope, much harder than up a ladder or handy ornaments. I’d ask him via Ricky for opinion first, because if we just give him an idea to try out, he may be not keen on hesitating and thinking aloud how dangerous it is instead of doing it and whoops, falling.
Re key items, in the prologue, the drow lady ran away crying from some fanged building. That doesn’t really give me any hint about key objects. And looking at what we already have seen here, the only atypical object we found is .. the pope mitre. I have my doubts regarding it being the key object, but who knows. The drow may be a wizard, or very well could be a priest who was kicked out of her order and landed here etc. If Ricky keeps it on her head, and if drow wants it, we’ll probably hear that as soon as they meet.
On the other hand. Stalkroach is a nasty pest, lurking in chests – it may have stolen something and carry it along. That may turn out to be a demanding fetch quest if that’s that. I hope it turns out simpler..
I really want to get hints to what she wants before we start backtracking.
I would be surprised if the larvae could do anything to Kamau if he jumps down to the right landing, and two flies don’t seem likely to pose much of a threat to him. There isn’t much point to going through there at all since we can move around just as easily. If they start hatching though, we should consider fighting them while they’re small.
And if Ricki receives two more points of damage, Kamau’s remorse triggers, and he leaves the dungeon. 🙁
The bird has keys In its nest. It might want shiny things instead of tails
If you’re hinting at coins, unfortunately we don’t have any of those.
If that’s a crow.. maybe it can be tempted with cheese, like in that old tale? We have cheese in the dungeon, and it worked on some monsters earlier 🙂
Looking at the art some more… Is It possible that Kamau lift Ricki up INTO the bottom of the bell and she climbs out the top? It looks like there is a hole in the top
I don’t “see” the hole at the top, but certainly, there may be something in the bell, so it’s worth taking a quick look inside. Ricky probably could check it even without actually going inside.
Doesn’t look to me like a hole in the top, I picture that broken part as a clip of sorts. It definitely looks like the bottom is open, though.