Dungeon 4 Turn 17
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The party charges to the right. Kamau leaps in front of the surging pile of rats while Ricki and Lara hack away at it, dealing massive damage in part thanks to Lara’s magic gauntlets kicking in. Two more rats are cut free and will join the fight next turn, but the pile itself remains intact.
Do we really need to finish off that pile? Let’s get out of here before someone beside Kamau is hurt. I know he’s interposing, but let’s not risk it.
He has to keep interposing whil Ricki and Lara are near the rat pile. Else remorse kicks in.
While the worst possible scenario (Extra enemies) has been avoided, we have few turns left, and the pile is still described as “intact”. If it either takes too many turns to kill, and/or spawns a lot of rats on death, it may keep us entangled in melee for far too long, risking us drowning on turn 20. We won’t get loot, either, until we kill everything.
So, this plan assumes the pile is a sunk cost, and too risky to deal wih right now, merely because of the time limit and current combat description.
Kamau: Interpose and move right out of the rat pile aggro zone.
Everyone else: move out of the rat pile aggro zone.
If possible, everyone leaves now.
Why are we even fighting the rat pile? We need to be looting chests, not spending valuable time killing enemies for no benefit. There isn’t any XP in this game. I think too many people spent too much time on MMORPGs and are treating this like one.
To be fair, the only loot we can still get is Rat Tails from killing Rats. Not sure if it’s worth trying for though.
We might be facing rat piles in the future, so it will be good to gain as much knowledge about them as we can, at a time where it is not very risky to do so (the learning).
So while we don’t get XP as a value, we do get experience/data from this encounter.
Also, it might drop rat tails, which have become a valuable commodity ever since we got the rat fang dagger, but that is IMHO just a bonus at this time.
Additional updates where we poke the ratpile are boring and lame, wheras getting out of here gives us story and levels and bonds. Kamau interposes whilst we leave.
Please let us be done here there is nothing worth our time or LSNs time drawing updates to be gained here
Kamau: Interpose.
Lara: Move to rope and sting a small rat.
Ricki: Kill the small rat nearest Lara/rope. Give Kamau thieves tools.
Ideal ending positions:
Rat pile -> Kamau -> Ricki -> Lara -> Rope.
Projection for combat:
Turn 18: Small rats die.
Turn 19: Rat pile dies, spawns more small rats. We can’t pick up loot because there’s still an enemy.
Turn 20: Area floods, we have to leave anyway.
TLDR: We should probably just get out of here. But for safety, let’s wipe the small rats and reposition everyone first. And this plan works even if you want to continue fighting.
Also, emptying one of Ricki’s slots for Always Prepared before we leave the dungeon. Lara doesn’t need to for Addicted because we’re selling the treasure she has anyway.
Edit: To clarify, it doesn’t matter if the rat pile attacks Ricki as she leaves next turn. Ricki has 5 def. Lara’s the only one who really needs to be not targeted.
Retracted due to clarification.
This is a good opportunity to learn more on these rat piles.
I think it is safe to assume that everytime it is attacked a rat breaks free (we are 3 for 3).
We did a combined 8 damage I think( 3 from Ricki, 4 plus 1 Crit from Lara). So we know these are tough enemies if we see them again. If we can finish it off we’ll have a better idea on its stats
Not worth it. It will simply take too long. I won’t risk everything for this info.
I honestly would like to leave in turn 19, because in turn 20 the top level will be flooded already. It might make it more difficult to leave, especially with an enemy around still that might or might not have disengaged.
But I agree that we should take care of the two regular rats, so we don’t get any more remorse (of have Kamau lose more HP than necessary).
Kamau should take 1 Damage next turn. If the Rat Pile is still alive after that and it spawns two more rats, that’s 3 Damage on Turn 19. Kamau’s Dauntless I Ability would stop him from dying, but he wouldn’t be able to survive Turn 20. If we attack on turn 18 and the pile lives, we need to leave the dungeon turn 19.
We still have at least one more turn before we have to leave (two if flooding of the top level works the same as it did on the previous levels). I vote we have Lara kill one small rat, and Ricki swaps her gold coin for Kamau’s single rat tail, uses it to empower the rat fang dagger, and attacks the rat pile. Kamau interposes. If this kills the rat pile, we’ll know that it has no more than 14 health+ defense. If it doesn’t kill the rat pile, we’ll still only have two rats on top of the pile and can escape next turn.
Exactly. By attacking the pile this way, we either kill it and have 1 or 2 small rats (depending on whever killing the pile spawns the rat as well or not), or we have a pile and 1 or 2 rats again (depending whever the rat-spawning is probabilistic (and we rolled against), or deterministic). This means, we lose one rat tail, but we end up either in exactly the same situation, or much better.
We need to lose one rat tail anyway, and the information gained is valuable. People are treating the rat pile like it’s invincible, and one rat tail isn’t worth an inventory slot.
Anybody noticed all the other rats are gone now? Drowned or escaped. If we were healthy and had lots of free remorse left, we could try going on an drowning&looting underwater party. But we do not. Who knew a dungeon could be that simple. Just a few beavers left. Probably that’s why the Crowned-Rat-King is on the topmost level, so we cannot use this “just wait for them to drown” trick to loot his area freely.
Restating: no, don’t go drowning now. Just theoretical rambling.
The Crowned-Rat-King probably has something like “ring of gills” or something. Otherwise it makes no sense story-wise for him to wait there until getting drowned. Unless someone pulled a lever and he’s just stuck there.
You know of the staff-exits: https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0072.html, don’t you?
Kamau: Interpose.
Lara: Attack pile with longsword. Give thieves tools to Kamau.
Ricki: Kill small rat with Rat Fang. Give thieves tools to Kamau.
All: Regroup to rope.
Agreed that there are too many enemies left to safely get drops here. Interesting, not only would the sun sphere not have bowled over the pile (unless it has a special weakness to area attacks), but a Barrage also wouldn’t have dropped it.
I support an expeditious retreat, but also remorse happening would suck