Dungeon 5 Turn 11
————
Ricki opens the chest the spider had been guarding. Inside she finds two potions of healing. Pretty useful! Or they WOULD be if any of her friends were taking damage this dungeon. And if she had any inventory space. She leaves the two bottles next to the chest for now.
Kamau holds off the hobgoblin with the knife while Lara and her new pet spider each take out one of the dogs.
“Is that an arachnomancer?”
“It’s complicated.”
“I’m a lot LESS of an arachnomancer when I get my smoke breaks regularly, hint hint.”
Lara and Spider and Ricki attack bugbear
Kamau interpose
This is a waste – we can get all characters to at least 3 defense and bugbears do only 3 damage with a dagger. Kamau doesn’t need to interpose.
Is that a hint that smoke breaks decrease arachnomancer’s curse? Yeah, I know it’s unlikely, but who knows…
It pretty clearly stated that it’s PERMANENT. If we disregard that word’s literal meaning and assume that maybe, just maybe, we can revert it in any way, we’d probably need not just mere cigarettes we get for free, but rather some very tough quest to get through, or some unique (like in, one-time in the game) or hyper-expensive spell/item/service/etc close to a divine intervention, where I’d rather consider regenerating Kamau’s arm instead. Yeah, that’s this sort of notgonnahappenium IMHO 🙂
“a divine intervention, where I’d rather”
If we do some job for some god*dess, we should go for one thing for each member of the team: Remove corruption, regenerate arm, a ball for the dog, and something for Ricki, too. Might need to get higher level first before running errands for higher powers.
I think that word “permanent” was used to indicate that corruption level is conserved between dungeons (unlike remorse, for example) and not that it can’t be lowered. After all, why would LSN design all these abilities if we only can use them seven times?
LSN confirmed on Discord that it’s permanent, really really permanent, and that is why the spider is so strong.
That being said – if it is permanent, why are the other abilities so weak? No way we would ever use the web spell when venomous barrage exists. The best way to avoid damage is to kill things fast.
I think they should be altered.
Barrage should be instead AOE around Lara that doesn’t harm allies and deals 8 unblockable dmg to all enemies in melee
Biding and Web Walls should be combined and have both effects at the same time. Including Binding becoming room wide effect. And it should immobilise enemies.
as is with exeption of Subdue Spider it’s hard to even be in a situation where using them is worth it.
The closest is Web Walls due to potential utility options.
Kamau: interpose
Ricki: EXCHANGE DAGGER WITH KAMAU LONG SWORD (seriously, we can swap back next time Ricki needs to run somewhere) and stab Bugbear.
Lara and her Spider: Attack Bugbear
obviously non lethal attacks
let’s see if we can take him in one turn
This would be guaranteed to take it down. Per discord analysis on the last bugbear they have, at most, 10 health and 1 innate defense. This one has a buckler so that would be 12 damage needed to 1 shot. The alternative is that they have 8 health at most and 2 defense, and in that case 11 damage would be sufficient. They also might have significantly less health than that. Floor is basically 4 health, ceiling is 10.
This is a complete and total waste of kamau’s turn. The bugbear only does 3 damage and with a shield Lara can just tank that damage. If we are going to fight we shouldn’t waste Kamau’s turn like this. Even having him take a blind swing with a shield at one of the three bugbears is a better use of his time.
19 turns until the first set of miscreants enter the dungeon and possibly terrorize the passive inhabitants, maybe we can set a trap?
Gangs know about Kobolds living by entrance and allows them to be there.
Kids know to hide.
As for traps. Bats next to ring-not-shop. Once we send the kid back with his dolll and deal with shop keeper we can disturb the bats as form of a trap.
What happens with bottles for Potion of Healing after use?
I do NOT trust Ricki, but they could be usefull for Lara to milk the spider.
Looks like an interesting idea. We should probably write that we want to keep the bottle if/when we use healing potions in this dungeon.
I agree, but I know in my heart of hearts Ricki will just throw them away like everything else. Sometimes I wonder if that’s the real reason she’s poor
Maybe Ricki will not be the one drinking the potion? Our chance of the glass not ending as broken glass trap would increase significantly. “Restores 2 HP to any living creature when consumed.” i.e. we could even give it to the dog or the spider! (And could we make the spider smoke the cigarettes? No problem if it becomes addicted…)
Starting a gang war:
I suggested this at the Discord, but I’ll post here so people can vote when appropriate. I’m posting this now so people have time to think about it. In two or three turns we’ll be done with the bugbears by the lever and I think the plan has better chances of working if we put the gears into working before engaging the three bugbears by the lever.
Since we are not killing the bugbears, maybe we could yell something to the effect of “the Reds send their regards!” before knocking them out.
I also suggest we pick the blue caps (we can try to grab the cap of the lone bugbear in the upper level right next turn) and leave them around Red territory, and as soon as we knock out a Red guy, we plant a Red bandana near the lever in the Blue’s turf. The new guys arriving later (turn 30, 40 and 50) might be fooled and start a gang war where they will at the very least occupy themselves, leaving us alone, hopefully.
This is just an experiment on the chaos we can cause. We might gain nothing from this.
But I do not see us loosing something either (not even actions/turn/time), thus go for it!
With the Healing Potions being useless, I’m just going to say it. Platemail and Heavy Armor Proficiency may have been overkill.
We’re still getting Shield Proficiency next, right?
I prefer Shield Bash so Kamau has a chance to actually use his counterattack. For those few occasions when he does take damage.
and once we get fancier shield it would reduce the need for him to carry 2 sets of equipment. Shield and a Sword wastes a slot.
Presumably we would still get a fancier sword too. I think cleave is the real next best pick. Kamau with cleave and cigs could kill two dogs in a turn with a longsword. Anything better than a greatsword and cigs aren’t necessary. Cleave could also trigger off of a counterattack as written, and it might even be able to trigger off of ITSELF. Kamau could then kill an infinite number of 4 hp or less enemies with cigs and a longsword if the penalties don’t stack. Even without that foolishness, guaranteed damage like that is an invaluable tool because we can PLAN around it.
the issue with building Kamau for attack is that he only can ever attack if he is alone, and if he is alone no one else in party can engage in combat.
We can’t even find enemies we know won’t be able to deal damage to Lara and Ricki since with Kamau taking all the hits and his absurd defence it’s basically impossible to determine how much damage oponents can deal.
what im saying. If we get claeve we have to invest, and keep investing, in the magical monocles that tells us stats of enemies. That’s 10 gold a pop.
We can be pretty confident, particularly after we’ve fought a new enemy, that enemies will not do more than some range of damage. For instance, I don’t think we’ve seen a humanoid enemy that does more than 2 damage innate. We already know what damage bugbears do from previous turns, so for instance as soon as we have 2 or less dagger bugbears in a group, Ricki in wolf armor with shield is immune to their damage. Bugbears do 2 innate damage and a dagger adds one damage. Y’all are ignoring the fact that other characters can also buff their armor, and that in many encounters interpose will only be necessary or helpful at the very START of a fight.
I was mostly joking about Shield Proficiency, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the most popular next choice.
Shield Bash sounded good to me too because of Counterattack, but that’s not only just a 20% chance, but it also can only happen if Kamau loses health and we’re not sure if he can Counterattack when Interposing. Saving an inventory would be nice, but it’d be a lot more tempting if we could find a better Shield.
It is never overkill to be invincible.
Shield requires, you know, a second arm. But that’s just crazy talk.
It was pointed out that the safe has a combination lock. We need to see what the reds would trade for the combination, if they know it at all, or we may fail the Macadamia quest entirely and get no companion. Killing all the blues now would leave us little leverage for negotiating the matter with the reds, unfortunately.
Lara puts on hide armor and shield, Ricki puts on leather and shield.
Ricki, tell us or just think about what you know about that kind of safe, can your thieves tools open it?
Ricki and Kamau go down, avoid pressure traps, Ricki talks to Lone Red gang member with sword and armor. What info or items would reds give us to wipe out blues or monsters of any kind?
Kamau goes down again to talk to kobold near rust monster if he knows about the safe, since he presumably lived near it, especially if he can open it (Kamau won’t be able to do so this turn, but he can get there next to the kobold now).
Lara keeps fighting blue bugbear with sword in hand and spider backing her up. Attacks non-lethal, somehow, to keep Kamau happy.
Should we try negotiating with the Bugbear with biggest shield?
I think that won’t work because of the no-entry sign.
I think the sign means he won’t do that.
There’s no reason to assume the ring is in the safe. It could also be on any of the gang members themselves. There’s also no reason to assume the safe belongs to the red team – after all, why would they put a safe behind a moveable wall they can’t control?
Dungeon screwed them over?
I think the “quest” from bandits would be to get the door open so they can access their safe again. So we better wait with opening it untill we actually get this quest and talk terms.
This isn’t video-game, we won’t get auto-completion upon speaking with NPC.
I think you’re on to something. Question is, who does the safe actually belong to? I wouldn’t be surprised if both gangs claim it’s theirs. We should start asking all of them about it and see what they tell us.
I think you mean Ricki and Kamau go left.
avoid pressure traps, Ricki talks to Lone Red gang member with sword and armor. while Kamau interposes (in case the guy with the sword is NOT in the mood for talking).
EDIT: Man, this game is moving fast lately, I hardly ever get around to voting, much less commenting.
Average pace seems to be two turns a weekday when a dungeon is in session now. Yesterday was an outlier with three in one day. Sunday was another exception with 5 pages being posted in a few hours – LSN said he plans on doing one sprint stream like that a dungeon. Shouldn’t happen again until next dungeon.
You are indeed correct, but I cannot edit the comment any longer.
“Killing all the blues now would leave us little leverage for negotiating the matter with the reds, unfortunately.”
Maybe we should not tell the Reds what we did to the Blues?
By the way, we don’t kill blues, we just knock them out. Of course, they will be much weaker now that we killed their dogs and took their stuff, bet Blues are still there.
I believe next room is arranged for a couple of speaking actions…why don’t Ricky: “be cool” with the reds at the signs just like in the tavern with and find out if they have any resentment towards their neighbors, or any clues about the kobold quest before tackling the harder fight. (Don’t forget the pressure plates)
I’ve been watching too much Bob’s Burgers lately; now all I hear are Kamau and Lara as Bob and Linda, haha.
A healing potion may help the kid sleep. They could have growing pains or something…
I think it is better to move two bottles closer to the ladder.
If we pull the lever in this room and grey wall moves up it can break one and block another bottle.
So Ricki: move them closer to the ladder.
Or, uh, just have Kamau or Lara pick them up?
Additional thoughts:
1) About Macadamia and rings.
So we need permission from Imperial Guard to make our ring magical ones.
In intermission-1-page-4 Kamau said:
“I am officer 792 of Imperial Guard station number eight. Currently off-duty.”
And it worked perfectly.
What stops us from telling the same information to Macadamia?
I think Kamau should try to tell the same information to Macadamia after he finishes in this room.
2) In this room (After they take care of this one hobgoblin).
It is possible to pull lever without fighting. Kamau interposes and we have Ricki, Lara and spider to:
We can send the spider to try to pull the lever. And girls loot the chests.
If it can’t then one of girls pull the lever and another loot the chest near the grey wall.
3) in the room with strange big yellow bug it is possible to use our spiderto climb the ceilings so it gets to the right chest without facing the bug. Then it opens it (if able to) and then we see what is in the chest. At least.