Dungeon 11 Turn 0
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“Well, we’ve arrived. I told you it wouldn’t be difficult to gain entry.”
“Now then, as to our actual purpose here…”
“Yeah. You said there’s a lot of equipment here, right? I think we should try to get a variety of stuff, even if we’re just gonna sell it to Paws.”
“An adequate goal. But if I may suggest, I think we can accomplish something more than merely the acquisition of treasure.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“If you’ll recall the circumstances of the manor, once it ceased to be a dungeon it immediately appeared in a state of advanced disrepair. This despite the fact that it was in fair condition beforehand, and that the dungeon itself was largely indestructible.”
“Damage that occurs within accumulates over time, despite having no effect until the dungeon is cleared.”
“Right…”
“I believe that if we look carefully in this outpost, we will find explosive materials.”
“If we set them off at the correct locations, once this dungeon is cleared, the guard outpost will collapse immediately.”
“Though it is not particularly close to our home, it would surely be best not to have one even this near to us, don’t you agree?”
“That seems kind of extreme.”
“It is only a structure. The dungeon will retain its shape until some time after it is cleared, giving both us and any Guard members within ample time to escape. We ourselves may even be long gone by then.”
“Still… I need to think about that.”
“As you wish.”
“Regardless of what you decide, we shouldn’t linger too long. I expect the Guard will be sending a patrol through sooner or later.”
Ricki examines the first room of the dungeon. She can see there are already Guard members inside, perhaps watching over some supplies that they haven’t brought out of the dungeon yet. Knocking them out would let her party claim whatever they’ve found, but since they probably know their allies are waiting just outside the door, it’s possible they might send for help and get that patrol to show up early. Ricki decides that if she’s going to fight them, she’ll have to go in with a plan.
She also notices some open windows on an upper floor of the room. They’re too small for her or her friends to escape through, but they make her wonder if maybe there are other potential exits.
Although Ricki hasn’t yet decided whether blowing up the outpost is a good idea or not, but she doesn’t see anywhere in this room where a bomb could be planted anyway. She assumes she’ll know what such a place looks like when she sees it.
Finally, she sees a bunch of notes on the walls. She wonders if writing notes is a uniquely human manifestation of dungeon madness…
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Dungeon 11: The Guard Outpost
Goal: Exit the dungeon with at least one weapon, one shield, and one armour (not including items you entered with). These newly looted weapons/shields/armours must have a combined value of at least 100 gold coins in total.
Secondary Goal: Plant Explosives at three load-bearing points within the dungeon. Materials and instructions for creating Explosives can likely be found somewhere within, as well as a suitable work station to create them.
Time Limit: On turn 40 the Guard will send a patrol into the dungeon.
This dungeon can be abandoned.
Simple scouting plan to start with.
Ricki : Read the second floor note, and then scout to the right.
Kamau : Read the far right note on the first floor.
Amadeuz : Read the note near the downward ladder.
Maca : Whine about trespassing in a Guard Outpost, and scout downward.
This is the way. It keeps our options open for the 1 movement characters so we can decide whether we
1) Send them right
2) Send them down
3) Have Ricki come back and open the door so we can do a big fight.
If we commit Kamau or Amadeusz to moving this turn, we may very well pick the wrong place to move them to based on what we see this turn.
I Suggest adding:
Phoenix: climb onto your owner so as to be immune to damage.
Slightly modified scouting plan, if this is permissible by GM:
Everybody: read all three notes
Kamau and Mac: Climb down the ladder to the room below
Ricki and Amadeusz: Enter the room to the right
Don’t do this! We don’t know what’s right OR down, and the bigs have only one movement. We can move anybody one screen and still get an action on that screen. If we commit Kamau or Amadeusz to a movement now, we wouldn’t be able to use the information we’re getting to decide where to send them. If it turns out we want the full party going down, Amadeusz wouldn’t be able to get an action in going down if you move him right now.
We now return with another episode of “What does coloured text say!”
AMADEUSZ: “Well, we’ve arrived. I told you it wouldn’t be difficult to gain entry.”
“Now then, as to our actual purpose here…”
RICKI: “Yeah. You said there’s a lot of equipment here, right? I think we should try to get a variety of stuff, even if we’re just gonna sell it to Paws.”
AMADEUSZ: “An adequate goal. But if I may suggest, I think we can accomplish something more than merely the acquisition of treasure.”
RICKI: “What do you have in mind?”
AMADEUSZ: “If you’ll recall the circumstances of the manor, once it ceased to be a dungeon it immediately appeared in a state of advanced disrepair. This despite the fact that it was in fair condition beforehand, and that the dungeon itself was largely indestructible.”
“Damage that occurs within accumulates over time, despite having no effect until the dungeon is cleared.”
RICKI: “Right…”
AMADEUSZ: “I believe that if we look carefully in this outpost, we will find explosive materials.”
“If we set them off at the correct locations, once this dungeon is cleared, the guard outpost will collapse immediately.”
“Though it is not particularly close to our home, it would surely be best not to have one even this near to us, don’t you agree?”
RICKI: “That seems kind of extreme.”
AMADEUSZ: “It is only a structure. The dungeon will retain its shape until some time after it is cleared, giving both us and any Guard members within ample time to escape. We ourselves may even be long gone by then.”
RICKI: “Still… I need to think about that.”
AMADEUSZ: “As you wish.”
“Regardless of what you decide, we shouldn’t linger too long. I expect the Guard will be sending a patrol through sooner or later.”
Need more info before making a plan. Proritizing Exploration.
Ricki: Read first note, Move down ladder
Mac: Read 2nd note by the 2nd ladder. Explore Right
Kamau: Read upper note. Stay put
Amad: Stay put
The idea is that Ricki, Amad and Kamau can move into whichever new room we desire to explore first. Mac may take a turn to catch up, but he is pack mule so it shouldnt matter.
I dont want to use lockpicks without checking adjacent rooms first. We’ll hopefully get a better idea as to how crucial picks will be at a glance.
This works too. The big thing is just to not pre-commit our slower party members. I personally think right is the more likely exploration direction, since we know at the very least that there’s another exit from that room leading back to the top of this one.
I Suggest adding:
Phoenix: climb onto your owner so as to be immune to damage.
Something to keep in mind – we only have two lockpicks this dungeon at the moment. We might encounter traps, and we’ve already seen one locked door. We need to be VERY strategic about where we spend our thieves tools, or else we risk locking ourselves out of future choices.
Since this was a guard post, there are likely to be keys around, so we should probably do as much exploring as possible FIRST before risking losing any of our tools. If we can find some easy to access keys, that’ll make deciding where to use lockpicks much easier.
Ricki: read note and go right
Kamau: read another note and stay put (Kamau has 1 mov, so he needs to stay in starting location so if we want to do combat in any of the rooms we will discover next turn, he can get there and still be able to fight)
Mac: read finall note and go down. (so next turn he can go back and pick up SiegeSword. As is he is useless in a fight anyway)
Asmodeuz: drop Siegesword and stay put (we don’t know what direction we will want to go)
we will want Siegesword on Mac by the time we start fighting. As is Mac is useless in a fight so even if we will engage enemies next turn, without weapon he wouldn’t be participating. This way he can spend next turn equiping himself rather than continue standing in place doing nothing.
Bonus points for keeping both Kamau and Asmodeuz in starting room so they can go to right or down next turn and fight. 1Mov gang!
Noteworthy points:
1-) messenger pigeon! Could be a new enemy or a pet. We shouldn’t target it first.
2-) Big flashy thing on second floor. Either a load-bearing point (conveniently signaled), a painting, or a trap.
3-) Let’s look for keys/levers before messing with lockpicks.
4-) What are the odds the Broken Stargate outside falls down if we explode this building?
5-) We don’t need to clear the dungeon to achieve the secondary goal, remember!
Never mind about the pigeon. Hologram Golem pointed out in Discord that it’s likely going to summon more Guards
I wonder if we will get a “Mac will remember that” if the we go through sabotaging the outpost.
Since we’re wasting an action might as well check the guards for hidden items
Ricki : case right guard, and then scout to the right.
Kamau : Read the far right note on the first floor.
Amadeuz : Read the note near the downward ladder.
Maca : Read the second floor note, and scout downward
I was just thinking we could use case. Might as well! I voted for this
Note there’s a pressure plate on the top floor of this room, in the middle. No clear trap to activate, so it’ll probably explode. I don’t think those have broken floors in the past, so the barricade should still need breaking.
The big square wall marker is not a load-bearing point as Ricki doesn’t see a load-bearing point in this room. Is that the Empire flag? I can see it both as a bunch of arrows pointing at a diamond and as a big X, both of which indicate a target. Maybe notes will clarify.
I don’t see anything else in the room for the lever to interact with. The lever is at the end of a gauntlet, though the plate there is 30gp of our 100gp goal.
Speaking of which, expect to need more than 3 pieces of loot to reach 100gp. Gold equipment doesn’t have a higher value, it just gets the treasure item type which removes the sell penalty. The most expensive weapon/shield/armour is the specialty Magma Shield at 37, then the double crossbow at 32.