Dungeon 5 Turn 32
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Ricki rides Daisy back up the ladder briefly just to pick up the stray magic lens and use it on the owlbear. These things are pretty dangerous, but this one seems to at least be under the animal gang’s tenuous control. Before leaving Ricki grabs one last longsword to feed to the rust monster, just to see how happy it gets.
The entire party, including Macadamia, the little girl, and the kobold with the pickaxe, congregates in the apartment’s upper floor. It seems like something is playing out at this point, so Ricki, Kamau, and Lara decide to just listen as the situation unfolds.
The kobold father pulls out a key and opens up the wardrobe, revealing a tunnel that leads downwards. He also quickly opens the locked chest and pops something in his pocket, but nobody gets a good look at what it is
“This here leads down to the secret mines. There’s no ladder, so it’s a one-way trip, but there is another exit down there. It might be kind of… tricky to get to, though.”
“We should fill in the miners about the situation as well. If they see you strangers unescorted they’ll probably attack.”
“They know us, though, so as long as one of us is with you it shouldn’t be a problem.”
The kobolds wait for the party to be ready to head down.
Off to the side, the kobold mom just seems happy that all five of her kids are accounted for. Suddenly, a strange item materializes in Ricki’s hand. She looks it over with interest, but everyone’s inventory is full right now.
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OWLBEAR
HP: 15
Atk: 3
Def: 2
Ability: Can attack twice, +1 Atk when at 5 HP or less
Drops: 20% random Owlbear item
A creature that could only have emerged from a dungeon. The owlbear is notoriously aggressive and violent, and becomes even more so when injured. It can quickly tear apart individual targets, but when surrounded prefers to spread its attacks out. Despite its ferocity, there are many known instances of an owlbear being raised from an egg and tamed. An owlbear near other types of creatures has likely been tamed, but one by itself or with only other owlbears will almost always be murderous beyond all reason.
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POCKET HEARTH
Consumable/Treasure
A small stone hearth with a real fire burning inside, engraved with the symbol of the God of the Home. Can be placed on the ground to transform into a real hearth which provides light and grants +1 Def to all allies in the room.
Weight 1, Cost 12
Gotta comply with instructions, as it is.
Ricki, trade tails for Lara’s lens, use Lara’s lens to lens a guard. Take the pocket hearth.
Everyone who can, announce you’re ready. Then everyone go down the wardrobe when cleared to do so. Then everyone, go right as much as you can without losing sight of your kobold escorts and stay together.
Lara cannot have godly items, so, to minimize shuffle, I’m leaving the Hearth with Ricki for now.
We must remember we can’t lose sight of our escorts.
This also conserves all our defensive and offensive items in case of tricky business, and tools in case we have to bust a lock somewhere.
(BTW, called it that we wouldn’t be allowed access to the locked chest and would just waste an action 🙂 )
LSN, love the Pocket Hearth just for the pure Aaaaaaawwwwwww value of the scene.
Wrong, she can carry, just not wield or wear. This was clarified on Discord just importing the correction to here.
You are correct, but hey, we can change it back later 🙂
She can wear/use, but at a penalty. (remember the tarnished solar armour and the holy pope hat? She wore that. She didn’t fire a shot with the hat, but that might have been just LSN creating a better story, showing off her skills)
“wearing”: Having the item equipped (i.e. being depicted showing that item) is surely wearing. Is carrying the item somewhere in the inventory also wearing? For example:
Being clothed in a robe: wearing.
Carrying the robe folded/rolled/scrunched up in the inventory: ?
Things just carried have not given a bonus, thus I would not expect a malus, but who knows?
Unclear for me, please ask at the post-dungeon-twitch!
Hey, why did https://dungeoneyes.com/dungeon-5-turn-32/#comment-5122 not show up here before I posted this comment? So, just ignore my post, sorry.
Hey, so this is more of a reminder for everyone.
Let’s not forget that since the spider is a temporary ally that can’t leave the dungeon with us, GET RID OF THE SPIDER before we exit the dungeon. Either release it AWAY FROM EVERYONE ELSE or flat out euthanize it. Heck, if we need to, have Lara send it to attack the guards as one last hurrah.
If LoneStarNorth is willing to make us get hit by the mousetraps and broken glass every time we forget to mention them, then it’s possible we could have a dark comedy “Did we forget something?” “Nah, I’m sure we’re fine” scene where the spider is attacking and/or eating the kobolds in the background right as we’re leaving. And I’m sorry, but after a near-perfect dungeon run, we don’t need it undoing all our hard work at the eleventh hour.
Uhm the kobold dad said “it’s time for evacuation”. This might mean the miners down below, too.
And if the miners don’t flee with us, they are so much more likely to get slaughtered by the members of the guard (who were explicitly stated that they would mow down any and all creatures in the dungeon that they find, iirc.) than by a single spider left behind at the end of the dungeon.
Therefore I would keep the spider for now, we might still need the resources (additional attack and health points).
But thanks for the reminder, we might address what to do with the spider once we know how/where/when we’ll leave.
I don’t think the spider poses any threat. As long as Lara is here, the spider is under her mind control. It can follow us all the way to the end, but can not exit with us. Do you remember how dungeons ended? “ping”, check goals, ffw to intermission. “Check goals” is done while we are still in the dungeon, at the exit/etc. At this moment we’re still in the dungeon, so spider is under control. Even if the spider gets out of control after we leave the dungeon, were AFTER the dungeon and in the intermission, so dungeon goals are already resolved, either positively or negatively.. and in the intermission we can see a godzilla destroying the warrens if the guards decided they need a heavy backup. I really don’t feel the problem here.
If we’re really worried about the spider getting out of control on the very last second when Lara thinks “ok, I’m moving my first leg through the line of the true exit”, then in the very end, everyone can exit first, then Lara can exit last, problem solved?
Mechanically, agreed, the spider won’t cause us to fall any conditions. It also sounds like everyone is getting out, so we shouldn’t need to worry about the story of leaving a spider with kobolds (and even then, they live in this dungeon, if it isn’t an unarmed child then they can probably handle it).
However, I’d still like to butcher the spider just before we leave, to get a chance at a venom sac. Lara has two level up abilities which work on venom, and it’d be nice to see what it does. I highly suspect that spider venom causes 1-2 poison damage just like a spider bite, and probably poisons a weapon for 5 turns like other buffs, but until we have the item in hand then these are just guesses.
Of course, we’re not out of the dungeon yet. The kobolds have said that the exit might be tricky to get to, and if that’s the sort of tricky which can be solved with attacking, then we want to use the spider to help.
This plan doesn’t get us to explore any new territory. We need to at least TRY to get Ricki down the ladder IMHO because we need to be able to plan actions for a new room next turn. Without going down the ladder all we will be able to do next turn is send people down the ladder and Ricki through the hole. Getting Ricki down the ladder this turn would let us actually use actions there next turn and still reveal the rat hole with Ricki or scan the justiciar if desired.
I am unsure on what you mean by ladder. The wardrobe likely takes a move like the chapel doors did.
If you mean the actual mine ladder, I find it unlikely the kobold family will separate again for our convenience, and we can’t be out of their sight. So we have to stay together and move with them.
There’s a ladder down under Rusty. That’s three moves away which Ricki can cover with Daisy counting the wardrobe as one, right one screen as two, and down as three. The text of this turn also says “so long as one of us is with you it should be fine” which seems a pretty direct indication we can split off at least one kobold family member (perhaps the father from the mother and children or the mother from the father and children). Trying to move 3 screens now lets us know whether we CAN move three screens with a Kobold guide, gives us better options the following turn if it works and lets us know what is possible moving forward if 3 moves are ever NEEDED. (Caps for emphasis due to phone, sorry).
I don’t think we have a pressing need to do that, but ok. I’ll add a reply comment (can’t edit).
Additional thing because I can’t edit the comment anymore:
If, after everyone else moves to below Rusty, Ricki still has a move, and the kobold escort is willing to split up to stay in two different screens with us, Ricki should explore down the ladder that goes below Rusty’s room.
Kamau:
INVENTORY: Drop the wanted poster and pick up the pocket hearth.
Everybody:
FREE ACTION?: Announce you’re ready to leave to the kobolds.
MOVE:
Have the kobolds guide you down through the wardrobe.
MOVE 2 (ACTION ON ALL BUT RICKI): Right one more screen if the Kobold guides can stick with you to go that way.
Ricki:
MOVE 3: If a kobold guide can keep up with you on Daisy, move down the ladder in the tunnels below Rusty. Don’t outpace the guide.
I think the wanted poster isn’t worth carrying out. If we save the lens now we can use it on the justiciar on turn 34 from the tunnels below. Assuming that no more than 2 guards failed the 30% miss chance on turn 31, the bats died that turn and every turn since the Justiciar moved closer with 4 guards. Dropping the wanted poster lets us use the lens with the encyclopedia as well, which would give us only 10% odds of wasting the lens and 50% odds of getting another use out of the lens this dungeon or next. I think justiciar info is way more valuable than guards info.
Can’t we use poster instead of dropping? It gives kobolds at entrance a fighting chance, and the broken wall is a dead giveway for the entrance anyway. I think only one person needs to spend action to announce readiness, and tunnel is likely to spend a move only, as per chapel.
Do we think the kobolds are going to fight? I was assuming the guides would tell them to come along with them/us. If we think we need to tell them to come along individually we should structure actions that way. The kobold at the entrance would have to be able to soak >8 dmg for the poster to save them for a turn. (4 guards x 2 plus the justiciar)
We can always toss the poster into the fireplace.
I really wouldn’t do that, because if we leave the poster behind, what stops the guards using it to knock down Kamau’s attack and defence yet another point?
The guards have to A catch up to us and B use an action to do that. Assuming they do that in any room but the last room/one we are stuck in that’s less damage against Kamau than the guard attacking that turn and at worst only affects Kamau as long as we stay in that room. It only leads to more damage 2 turns after it is used. Unless you think we are going to be fighting guards in the same room for 3 turns, having the guards use the poster on Kamau is preferable over them attacking.
Whenever the guards catch up with us there will be at least 4 of them and the justiciar, which is 12 damage plus whatever the justiciar does. Every turn after there will be two more guards and 6 more damage. The 1 defense debuff won’t matter if we get stuck in combat now. Kamau has max 11 armor if we give him a shield potion, so he will take damage if all 4 guards attack.
We could of course use the poster on the guards if they caught up to us but that would only reduce the initial group to 8 dmg plus the justiciar. After one turn it’d be 12 damage plus the justiciar. If we get stuck fighting guards we are probably already in deep trouble because that 12 damage group is fully 18 damage as soon as they leave the room.
What you write is consistent with the item’s description:
However, it is not consistent with what we are experiencing.
Kamau is still getting -1 Def -1 Attack from the wanted poster, even though he is not in the same room with it any more. Another -1 Def -1 Attack from Judy’s curse or whatever that was. (So in sum -2 Def -2 Attack, as displayed on the character page atm.)
This might be due to the ninja having some kind of special ability to amplify the effectiveness of the poster that we don’t know about, but similarly, we can’t know if the guard don’t have this ability as well.
Or maybe the description isn’t 100% accurate and it’s not “for that room”, but “for that dungeon” instead.
Either way, I’m fairly sure that we will want to keep on having Kamau on interpose if we have to have any more fights in this dungeon, in order to keep everyone safe. This gets increasingly risky the more Def he loses and/or the more enemies he gets attacked by at the same time. Guards that are allowed to amass might very well trigger a TPK which possibly still can be prevented by the poster, if it happens on the last turn before we can flee.
We have no idea how much dungeon we’ll still have to cover from here on out, nor how many enemies will be in there, so it’s not possible to gauge which items would be more valuable.
I’m leaning on keeping the poster for reasons explained above (and below).
As for “rat tails are fairly easily available”:
We might have gotten up to 3 rat tails in this dungeon so far if we had killed the last dire rat (loot only drops once the last member of that group is killed, drop rate = 70% for dire rats), and so far in -every- dungeon we have been in, there were rats present.
And there might yet be more rats there on the way out (not that it will matter much, unless we get more inventory space).
EDIT:
an afterthought that I had: If the guard is feeling bloodthirsty, they might even use the wanted poster on kobolds, instead of any of our party, and then slaughter them left and right (e.g. because Judy tells them that “they are a traitorous race, can’t be trusted, supplying criminals with the special rings meant just for the Emperor and his lackeys, blah blah, genocide is justified” kind of crap) that much more easily. That is also something I do not want to risk.
So, in conclusion: what gets left behind should not only be about what is more valuable to us, but also what is less valuable to the members of the guard, and the rat tails are most likely going to be useless to them and they won’t be able to use them against us/the kobolds.
The justiciar curse is -2-2 and has been there since it was used. Kamau had no debuff on him between leaving the blue base and the curse being used. It has nothing to do with the poster. Y’all are overvaluing the poster over just moving to get out as quickly as possible. Siv’s plan doesn’t even get us to see a new room this turn when we have 3 move available. Even if they use the poster on the kobolds, that’s only -1 defense on them. Unless the kobolds run the turn they get attacked-1 defense will not be the difference between them living or dying. If we interpose, Kamau cannot leave the room he interposes in. Interposing against the guards will require taking two turns of attacks on Kamau unless we can deploy another creature distraction.
Thanks for clarifying that. With 2 turns a day and no “history” where I can look up how the stats/inventory was looking like in any given turn, I find it hard to keep track of things like this.
However, you misunderstood part of what I was saying. I meant Kamau interposing against whatever enemies we might run into further down the mine of the kobolds while still running away from the guards, not him staying behind deliberately “waiting” for the guards and/or defending kobold miners unwilling to move.
Still, depending on how fast we can move forward compared to the members of the guard moving forward and how long the remainder of the dungeon is, the guards might catch up with us eventually.
In THAT case, possibly close to the exit, we might want to have Kamau interpose against the guard (so nobody gets killed), or not (so Kamau can leave/move, too). Either way, using the poster in that situation might save lives and/or Kamau’s level up (in case allies get 5 damage without the use of the poster and less with the use of the poster).
Edit: clarified something a little better.
Rather than leaving something valuable behind (that could indeed be used against us), why not leave the rat tails? They are extra damage, but should not be difficult to replace
What’s your basis for assuming that? We’ve picked up 0 this dungeon. Presumably the gating factor for getting us out of the dungeon is going to be finishing a fight quickly or negotiating our way past some obstacle. The poster is only more helpful with that than the rat tails if there are more than 12 enemies of the same type (as the rat tails are worth 12 damage and 12 enemies would lose 1 defense each with the poster). We are more likely to use the rat tails escaping and the poster isn’t particularly dangerous to us.
Those are good points which I didn’t think about. I still d in alike leaving the poster behind, but as it stands I think your proposal is the best one right now (+ the added action for Ricki proposed below)
Huh, i like the lore tibits in monster descriptions.
I think we should stockpile on them for next dungeon and get more LSN writing!!!
and we just got attention of a God. Item is sweet, but the idea of God watching us scares me.
That being said we should leave the heart with Ricki Grandma when we leave the city. Seems like something she would find usefull out on cold streets.
There is https://bit.ly/dungeon-eyes-enemies where information not yet on https://dungeoneyes.com/enemies/ is stored, also https://bit.ly/dungeon-eyes-mechanics has a section “Enemy behavior”. Monsters are not necessarily enemies, but the information has to go someplace.
About Lohk: I really would like to ask her to leave the town together with us, not entering the dungeon, but camping outside. The empire’s capital seems to become more dangerous/guard infested with time.
I don’t think the god did it. I think it was the kobold-father who picked it from the chest and sneakily gave to Ricky for keeping his family safe. OFC I may be wrong. The option of the god beaming it down into her hands is also really cool.
And I totally agree with giving it to grandma. Ricky may finally get some words of appreciation, since it’d be a kind of a proof of good deeds?
Lohk: “Went into a dungeon again, did you? Brought back a dog, a guard dog, mind you. Who will feed and walk her? In the end, everything is always up to me! And yet another eater, a kobold! Where did you have your mind? And what it that? Fire, you say? Bah!”
It’s just like the Coin of Revelry. Gods like to watch what people do in dungeons.
Lara:Drop leather armor through the wardrobe into the secret mines. Drop poster on the ground. Pick up hearth. Pick up poster.
The phrasing on this is intended to make sure that if we’re not allowed to drop items through the wardrobe, that we still get the hearth. If we are, then if we expend a consumable, we can nab the leather armor back.
additional action to anything else that gets done:
Ricki: Ask the kobolds if the last one of them going down can please close the wardrobe doors. It might not delay the guards much, but every little bit helps.
(I’m picking Ricki here, because she has the most movement, even when not riding Daisy and thus can best afford to spend one action/catch up easiest.)
Yes, let’s try to delay the guards as much as possible – I considered moving the empty chest above the ladder to block new guards taking the shortest route, but hiding where we went is better.
Also: don’t just close the wardrobe, but actually lock it again (Kobold father has to he key). If the NPCs can’t do this by themselves offer to help them (assuming asking & helping can be part of to he same action)
In conjunction with other instructions this will make us lose the Pocket Hearth
Can Macadamia use his powers to transfer rat fang ability (+3 Atk for a rat tail) into a ring?
So we have one more empty place (for POCKET HEARTH).
That’s most likely not something he can do in the matter of one turn, but a more lengthy process.
But it doesn’t hurt to ask him. 😀
Also it is good to ask how many times he is able to do this. If he performs the trick quickly, but then he needs a rest – that is most likely once-for-a-dungeon power.
Also why Paws proposed to take a ring or TWO?
I think the smiffing process can be fast.
Upd.: WHAT IF HE CAN PROCESS TWO ITEMS PER TURN??? )))
(I don’t believe it is possible, though)
Upd2.: I know the (name of) person who is able to make it real. 😉
Also Macadamia has got the RING OF PROTECTION, we can ask him to pass it to Kamau so he will be able to do the defend the party better (+1 Def). If he (Macadamia) doesn’t mind.
One more option is to ask Macadamia if he can imbue OXIDICER power into a ring (to free one more slot).
Another thing I just remembered:
All the Kobolds down in the mine seem to have those neckerchieves on. Probably so they don’t get dust lungs or such.
Probably Ricki (because she is the only one who saw those neckerchieves): Please check with the kobold family whether we’ll need something like this or risk health issues/debuffs while in the mine and ask if we can scavange the bed sheet for that purpose, if the answer is “yes, we need something like this to avoid problems/harm”. If allowed, scavange the bed sheet to make 3 of those neckerchieves for the humanoids of our group and any more needed for kobolds (and pets) who don’t have them.
Good catch. I thought about it way earlier, that it’s a bit odd for them to be masked as such. It wouldn’t be gas, masks like this wouldn’t block it. But dust, sure.
If the guards fight rusty (they fight other dungeon creatures along the way) he can tank them indefinitely if we put the poster up in his room. To that end!
Ricki:
Trade Kamau your rat tails for the poster. Move right one on Daisy and put up the poster targeting guards. Move back left one on Daisy and take back your rat tails from Kamau.
Kamau: Pick up the pocket hearth once Ricki takes back her rat tails.
Everybody: Have the kobolds guide you down the wardrobe, Ricki riding Daisy in a probably very impressive but off screen manuever down the drop.
Ricki: Stay in the tunnels below the house with one of the members of the kobold family to keep you safe/unthreatening for the miners.
Everybody except Ricki and a single guide Kobold, use your action to move one to the right so you’re below Rusty.
I just noticed on ‘enemies’ page, we still see ??? on “spider”.
I find it odd. Why so? Is our ‘temporary-pet-spider’ with hp9/atk4/def3 any different than a normal ‘enemy-spider’? If not, we know its full stats by having it on our team, so it should count for the bestiary as well.
Enemies pages only get updated in two cases:
I daresay the spider-info will get added after we finish this dungeon.
Makes sense, thanks!