Dungeon 3 Turn 15
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Kamau swaps his sword for his torch so that he can see what he’s doing, then descends the stairwell and attacks the only undamaged skeleton. He very nearly destroys it in a single strike, like he did the first time. The skeletons try to hit him back but only scrabble ineffectively at his armour.
Ricki heads to the small chamber with the lever and pulls it. The old chandelier lowers way too fast to be safe and obliterates eight of the eleven skeletons that were gathered underneath it (isn’t that more than a minute ago…?). The chandelier automatically stops short of hitting any small-sized skeletons, which is a safety feature Ricki can get behind.
The chandelier remains in its new position for now, as does the lever.
The ghoul pope seems distraught.
Ricki: Pull the lever again, then go left, mind the glass, join Kamau, drop the graveflowers, take the torch, THEN attack with the dagger
Kamau: Pull out the longsword again and attack the skeletons
Pulling the lever again will let Kamau reach the pope once we’re done with these skeletons in a couple of turns.
Dropping the graveflowers because they’re used automatically, so giving them to Kamau or keeping them on Ricki is wasteful right this turn.
If that chandelier doesn’t go up, we should clear the entryway and then go back up for the black skellies. Turn 20 skellies might try to go past sunhead up top or they may just wait by ghoul pope
How do you know pulling the lever again raises the chandelier?
This might be where the winch in the other room is needed
Which was my guess a couple of turns ago. The lever is likely the brake and the winch is needed to raise it back up. This also means that one person will be needed to use the winch and a second person pulls the lever back to engage the brake.
We don’t, but I don’t want to have to backtrack to this room to pull the lever again later.
I like where this is going, but it’ll take two moves for Ricki to meet up with Kamau and pulling the lever again will be an action. There’s no way for Ricki to attack this turn, though she could be torchbearer.
Let’s do this!
Like multiple people already said, pulling the lever probably won’t pull up the chandelier, but I suspect that if we winch the chandelier up and then want to or need to drop the chandelier again in the future, the lever might have to be back in the starting position. Better be ready for when the need arrives.
On the other hand, the chandelier might not stay in the up position with the lever in its current position. The question is:
There should clearly be a warning sign next to the lever, explaining its function, and an observation window to oversee the chandelier. This dungeon clearly has severe violations of safety regulations!
Dwarf Fortress levers intensify
Mechanically, I’m expecting the lever needs to be to the right to avoid a fall but you can still winch up with that set. A gear with ratchet can move in one direction but not backslide, then removing the ratchet releases that weight.
Worst case, the lever doesn’t allow ratcheting and to raise the chandelier you need one person winching with another person ready at the lever to lock it in place at the top. That would require a lot of coordination though.
Kamau: change from sun armor to leather.
I’m not sure, we still have the Pope there, with unknown stats/skills/actions. So far we only know it orders others, so it’s not same as a skeleton.
It’s a pope, it must do holy damage. The armor protects against holy damage. That’s why the sunhead didn’t hurt Kamau this time.
That’s why we need to have the solar armour for when we fight the Ghoul Pope. No use to us if it breaks on the skeletons.
Ricki: Push lever, head left. Mind the glass.
Kamau: Switch to leather armour. Hold the torch in one hand and kick the freshly damaged skeleton to pieces. (Attempting unarmed attack.)
We have confirmation, skeletons have 4 HP. That chandelier positioning makes me concerned that Kamau may not be able to fit through there, and I don’t think the lever will raise the chandelier. Kamau can probably climb over it, but that might take extra time. We’ll have to decide whether to continue pursuing the Ghoul Pope if Ricki needs to face it alone.
I also expect that the Ghoul Pope will add +1 attack to all undead in its room.
There were 9 skeletons on turn 12 (2 arriving that turn), and 6 skeletons on turn 2. Now on turn 15, there were 11. More may trickle in before turn 20.
I say we pull the lever again, and if it brings the chandelier up we have Ricki stay there while Kamau tries to lure the ghoul pope under the chandelier. If the lever doesn’t pull the chandelier up, I think we should just focus on getting the ghoul pope before it summons more skeletons.
Yes! Lever Time! THANK YOU
Man, those dwarf skeletons are just there to keep us busy while the ghoul pope hits us with unholy blight or whatever spell-like abilities he has. Ricki sneak past? I guess she doesn’t have a sneak ability yet, and anyway he’s the dungeon boss, he’d obliterate her in combat. But if Kamau fights his way through the skeletons, that’s at least three rounds with the ghoul pope raining down destruction on us. Come from behind?
Probably the treasure room, but we wouldn’t know as we haven’t explored the level yet and are just plunging head-first into combat encounter after combat encounter. Set off the bat bomb and explore the rest of the level while they take off the skeletons’ HP sounds like the best idea to me.
Ricki: Push the lever back to its original position.
Kam: Beat up those Skeletons.