Dungeon 17 Turn 14
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Mac heads right briefly. Nothing new to see here.
Ricki uses another scorpion gland to finish off the grimoirm just as Mac returns. She gets hit this time, taking 1 damage and having one of her rings of aggression disenchanted. As she and Mac retrieve their dropped items (including the regurgitated javelin, minus the atlatl due to space concerns), Ricki inspects the box full of little paper cards the worm was somehow carrying.
It seems to be an index of some kind. Strangely, by some magic effect, it seems to correspond with the books back at the manor. Ricki herself never seems to have time to read any of them, but maybe somebody else would find this useful.
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LIBRARY CATALOGUE
Tool
While carried, doubles the effects of all book-related Manor abilities.
Weight 1, Cost 60
Plan: gate
Mac: move right. Smiff the hat
Ricki: move right examine the red gate.
No more delays. We get an answer on how we finish this dungeon
Ricki and Mac: Move right, examine the door together.
I’m having both Ricki and Mac examine the gate together on the off chance that it works like Lara’s Bond dungeon and we need them to be together to trigger whatever event is supposed to occur. I’m also doing it just in case another wandering enemy spawns/an enemy starts wandering on Turn 15- we can’t afford any surprises with how low Ricki and Mac are on health, so doing it right on Turn 15 seems like the safest bet. (Historically, whammies like wandering enemies happen on multiples of 5-10.)
Hopefully, this ends the dungeon or at least gets us into whatever final room awaits us so we can assess if it’s worth it to try and do anything there. If not, then we’ve pretty much done all we can do to try and solve this puzzle and should just grab whatever we can and vamoose.
To add: Mac’s maximum HP will be 1 next turn (though at a total of 3 thanks to temporary HP), and 0 at turn 18. He could leave early using Doing His Best, but we don’t know if he’d even survive trying this at turn 17 (as the action would complete on turn 18, meaning he’d be relying on how merciful LSN’s feeling in interpreting the rules).
And then there’s the fact that Ricki’s at 1hp, as Nobody emphasised below. Grit would help, but do we have time? Leaving is better than dying, of course, but it’s unlikely (but not impossible) that she’d take damage just by opening the door.
Better be overly precise. Now we’ve finished turn 14 and we plan actions for 15.
If we ask Mac to exit “now”, in comments under 14, he will do that on turn 15, he survives for sure.
If we ask Mac to exit on “next turn”, in comments in T15, he will do that on turn 16, he survives for sure.
If we ask Mac to exit in comments of T16, he exits on T17 and survives for sure.
If we ask Mac to exit in comments of T17, he tries to exit on T18, and we’re not sure what happens.
So, Mac has exactly 3 turns left now.
2 fully free to use as we wish, and 1 last when he should evac.
Regarding Ricky’s 1 HP – there’s still at least the Grit and the Cake, and I think we’ve not used Wands yet. Just need to ‘waste’ an action anytime.
I agree it’s quite risky to walk with 1HP. One trap, one random unblockable damage, and bye.
Trouble is, of course, we have so few actions left to ‘waste’. Also, if we find that primary source information we’re after but Mac’s already left, will we still get Mac’s full bond? A literal reading implies that it would, but that’s yet another thing we can’t be certain of.
Anyway, probably best to, as Alterkation said, have both Ricki and Mac examine the door so we can figure out if there’s any point in continuing with the dungeon.
> we’re after but Mac’s already left, will we still get Mac’s full bond?
I think yes. I think getting-bond happens if we complete the goal successfully – that is, complete the dungeon. And this we can do with, or without Mac on site, as long as he survives. Dungeon completion rules do not say anything about “Mac has to do it”, and that’s pretty telling.
My concern was that bond dungeons might work differently. After all, Lara’s couldn’t plausably have ended the way it did if she hadn’t been there… but yes, I’m likely being excessively paranoid. Even if Mac’s left the dungeon before Ricki finds the information, he’ll presumably believe her when she tells him; she’s never given him cause to believe she’d lie to him.
If we are still clueless after the examination of the door, we can still smiff the hat and leave and survive for sure (surprise events excluded). If we do get a clue about what needs to be done, we can do that (if we are able to do it at all and have the time to do it). Therefore: +1.
We really need to use grit for ricki. Please dont play fast and loose with 1hp ricki…
Once upon a time (i.e. until last turn) there was a ladder leading upstairs from where Ricki and Mac are standing right now. Did it just crumble or what happened?
holye crap (oO)
LSN didn’t need to edit that place to update the view
That might mean something big is happening
Like, the door. Cutting us from going up means we can only evac to left, or go to the door.
This might mean the door had a trigger like “kill X bookworms” instead of “destroy books” (we are in the library, right? sealed door against worm infestation? nah, nonsense.. the Glorious One was said to be a bookworm…)
Ah, the ladder returned, so just some editing glitch.
whooosh.. dungeon magic! 😀