Dungeon 5 Turn 12
————
Lara swaps armour with Ricki and receives a shield from Kamau, then she and her pet spider easily take out the hobgoblin goon. Lara restrains her spider from liquefying his insides and slurping them out through its hollow fangs because she thinks Ricki and Kamau probably wouldn’t approve. The hobgoblin drops a rusty dagger and cracked buckler.
After moving the potions to what she feels is a safer position, Ricki moves left to the next room. Kamau follows.
While Kamau continues to the room below, Ricki tries talking to the heavily armed human thug.
“Hi! Are we allowed to go through this hideout, mister Red?”
“Sure thing. As long as you keep your weapon stowed and don’t try anything funny, you can head up the ladder to our poker table. Might win a few coins, as long as you’ve got some to wager.”
“You can also pass through to fight those weirdos on the top floor, I guess. They’re not with us.”
“Just don’t try wandering any deeper into our base. If someone sounds the alarm, I’m coming for you, goblin.”
“Got it! Thanks! By the way, will you pay us to take out the Blues next door?”
“Nope. We got a tenuous deal in place to keep our hideouts so close together, we don’t need you messing with it.”
“Neat.”
Kamau reaches the room with the big yellow bug in it. He can see its antennae twitching in his direction as soon as he enters the room.
————
DAGGER, RUSTY
Weapon
Atk +1. 30% chance to break when used.
Weight 1, Cost 1
Interesting. I don’t recall the bug reacting to Ricky when she entered the room. Maybe indeed it is hungry for metal plate armour or something.
The dagger the hobgoblin dropped is metal, and pretty low-value, I think Lara could carry it here and throw it at the beast, as handy first-hand experiment. However, Lara has no space for items, so would need to drop something temporarily.
.. and since it’s rusty, I wouldn’t attempt walking and kicking it on the floor in front of her, like a ball, as it would probably break after few kicks. But we could try that some other time.
It’s quite clearly a rust monster. Ricki has at best smaller bits of metal like her dagger.
Rat fang may not be metal. Might be an enchanted actual fang.
It could be the volume of metal. A dagger may not be that noticeable compared to a suit of full plate.
It has been theorized that feeding the rust monster an amount of rusty items will unlock the puzzle chest. We could have ricki dump inventory and then make a trip with her extra move. Buuuuuut…. our priority should be helping the kobolds since we have 3 items to find.
Lara: move left, kill the dire rat on top of the chest.
Spider: move left, kill another dire rat.
Ricki: unlock and loot the locked chest after Lara kills the rat on it.
Kamau: ask the kobold near rust monster if he knows about the safe, since he presumably lived near it, especially if he can open it, then go up.
We should be fine, unless all rats attack the same character, but that is unlikely. And I don’t think that owlbear will attack us.
If the owlbear does though, we’d be in a heap of trouble. It probably hits like a truck and Lara only has 6 def. 4 def against the owlbear if only 1 rat attacks her. Needlessly risky I think.
Yes, I agree that my plan is risky, but if we wait for Kamau, then Lara’s and Ricki’s turns will be wasted (though we might read signs or talk to Reds near the table).
Indeed.
Does anyone know if damage taken by a pet triggers remorse?
LSN confirmed that pets do not cause remorse on Discord.
Yay!
Ricki: Go upstairs and talk with gambling thugs. Say you’re willing to gamble for a ring with a blue gem and/or a doll. She can offer up leather armor and possibly more.
Kamau: Move up. Forcefully stab it with your sword. If it’s not a monster, open the chest and watch for traps.
Lara: Drop boots and lockpicks, grab rusty dagger and two handed sword. Go left, watch for pressure plates, then down. Drop the rusty dagger and sword from above floor for the rust monster down below.
Since we’ve split the party and we kind of need to see what talking with thugs might gain us now, this is the best course of actions I can think of.
This way we’ll solve the mystery of the trapped chest, if we can feed the rust monster, and ideally, if the reds have any of the stuff we’re looking for (if they admit it)
Can Lara watch for pressure plates? She can’t see them and Ricki didn’t tell her about them
I think they innately know as long as we comment about them. In the past I think Kamau has avoided traps even though Ricki had never been in the room yet. I’d have to look it up.
Last turn comment: “Ricki and Kamau go down, avoid pressure traps”, i.e. Kamau knows about the traps. He should warn Lara when she approaches. (In this suggestion, he is even right there at the chest/traps.) Might need an edit to add “Kamau: warn Lara.”
Right, I know Kamau and Ricki do, just wasn’t sure about the mechanics of just telling Lara to do something she doesn’t know. Normally that’s fine but traps are weird.
Have Ricki ask about the ball too! And maybe some children’s book or whatever could help put the kobold kid to sleep.
Modified version of Claudious’s plan, since I don’t feel like Ricki is much of a poker player and I know Kamau is not much of a trap finder, plus I think one weapon is enough for the rust monster test and I hate to leave those potions behind:
Lara: Drop boots and lockpicks, grab rusty dagger and a healing potion (or both if they stack). Go left, watch for pressure plates, then down. Drop the rusty dagger from above floor for the rust monster down below.
Kamau: Move up. Forcefully stab the weird chest with your sword.
Ricki: Join Kamau downstairs. If the chest is a monster, help Kamau kill it. If not, check it for traps and open it.
Next turn, Lara can go upstairs to play some poker.
We have no way to disarm traps – if anyone is opening thar chest it better be Kamau when he is alone.
If it the chest is a mimic and Kamau is not interposing, it might attack Ricki. Mimic’s may be smarter than rats or stray dogs.
We still have the cuts of meat. Maybe we should wait for Lara to come down and throw a cut of raw meat into the chest. If it is a mimic, it should react to the meat, being a carnivore creature.
Lara can’t move two screens and take an action. Normally inventory maintenance doesn’t take an action, but I feel like dropping an item to feed a monster probably does.
If we fight what is assumed RustMonster with our new expensive armor on im going to flip.
Kamau: Let’s have Kamau back off. I don’t like the twitching. If it can be done without delaying his departure from the room, he should stow his plate and longsword before leaving the room, otherwise he should just immediately leave. He should return to the room above to wait for the others, and reequip his armor if necessary. Then he can take his shield back from Lara and wield it to lead the charge up the ladder where he’ll interpose to stop the owlbear from charging and anyone else taking damage.
Ricki: Go right and guide Lara back to this screen, helping her and the spider avoid the pressure plates along the way. She should get Lara’s thieves’ tools, and then unlock and loot the chest under the dire rat after Lara kills it.
Lara: You and your spider wait for Ricki to guide you through the pressure plates. Do the exchange with Ricki and then wield a longsword to kill the dire rat on the chest. The spider should attack the owlbear.
Alternative violence against the reds plan.
Ricki – goes and gets Lara, avoiding the pressure plates on her way there and back, and helping Lara do the same. She goes up a floor with Kamau and begins attacking the guard using an empowered rat fang (meaning burn a rat tail)
Lara – Waits for Ricki, follows her back avoiding the pressure plates and helping her spider do the same, then follows along and attacks the guard with her longsword. The spider also attacks.
Kamau – If you can do so immediately and without causing any delay, unequip your plate mail and sword before going upstairs. Waste no time down near the bug, so if simply leaving is safer than first removing and stowing your gear, then just leave. If armor and sword were removed, reequip them once safely on the screen above. Then lead the charge to interpose for the guard fight.
Possibly the guard will take 15 atk to finish off. I think perhaps Lara should have her smoke break
This combo yields 14 minimum, with possibility for crit gear or the extra poison damage to trickle in on top.
That being said, I can’t edit the comment but am not opposed to using smokes if that’s what gets voted on.
Lara: drop boots and thieves tools, pick up rusty dagger and rusty greatsword, move left, avoid pressure pads. Tell the red guy that the spider is her pet and ask whether or not she can bring it to the poker den with her.
Kamau: move upstairs. Give Plate armour and gold to Lara, receive hide armour, rusty dagger, rusty greatsword, torch and shield; avoid pressure pads. Move downstairs again and – if still possible – drop rusty greatsword down the ladder to see what the big creatures does.
Ricki: read the signs next to the poker table. Also ask every member of the red guys if they know anything about a ring with a blue stone or a doll or some way to get someone to take a nap. Ask them if they know about the creature below (suspected rust monster) or an owlbear.
This version will leave Lara with something to actually BET, if you want her to play poker next turn. Also, Kamau will have the torch with him and nearly no metal on him, when facing the rust(?) monster.
I was kind of wanting for something for Ricki to do, but since we found out that getting info actually costs an action, I guess her conducting a survey is enough for her to do.
Grab/loot blue and red gear, then frame one side for the untimely demise of some of the others! The looting will be great amid the chaos…
I think we should ask the poker guys if they know the whereabouts of the ball, the doll, or the ring. If they know, we know where to go next.
If not, we should finish off the blues, because the last three + chest are more likely to have one of those items than the red bouncer or the 4 small reds, who are at the “beginning”. LSN put treasures in each section in D4, so the quest items here are probably spread out as well.
Ultimately, fighting the reds should be the last thing we do, if we’re trying to help any of the kobolds before turn 30. We’re almost halfway through our first time limit, and clearing out all the reds, even with the help of the spider, is gonna take a lot of time.
Kamau: Go up to Rats and:
Ricki: go to Lara and lead her safely to Rats. Tell bandits that the spider is cool while passing by. Attack another Rat.
Lara: Attack yet another Rat. If needed give Kamau shild back
Spider: If any Rat survived, kill it. If Owlbear was aggro’ed then attack it.
For the alleged “Rust Monster” we need to collect non metal equipment and test with feeding rusty weapons. imo this turn we spend on helping Lara get to action and then Ricki can do stuff (carrying things around, developing gambling addiction and so on) while Kamau and Lara eat away at Owlbear HP.
[Moving and Trading]
Lara: Take your spider and move to the left. Mind the pressure plates, or have Ricki point them out to you if need be. Give your Wolf Armor to Ricki. Give Kamau your Boots and Crit items and take his Plate Armor.
Ricki: Give Kamau your Leather Armor and Wear the Wolf Armor.
Kamau: Move up, trade the aforementioned items.
Everyone: Move up the ladder and attack the Rusty Plate armored Red Guard.
[Equipment Check]
Lara: Longsword, Plate Armor. 6 Defense. 4 Damage.
Ricki: Rat Fang, Wolf Hide, Shield. 6 Defense. 5 Damage by expending rat tail.
Kamau: Longsword, Leather, Shield. 6 Defense. 5 damage, +0-2 if he crits.
Spider: Fangs. 4 damage, +1-2 with Spider Venom.
[Summary]
Everyone attacks the Red Guard for 19-22 damage. Probably guaranteeing we take him out in one blow without taking any damage. Worst case scenario, the Spider takes some damage. Kamau does not take remorse from pet damage, so it’s all good.
So, it seems the bad guys have a somewhat stable relationship. Not a surprise, given how close they live to each other.
That said, I’m still in the mood for gang war. We can pitch Blues and Reds against each other later, before the reinforcements arrive. But I’d to point out that the Reds are ok with us wiping out the crows and that message should be made explicit when we face the animal gang on the top floor.