Dungeon 13 Turn 6
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Ricki briefly runs back into the middle room to help Cordy navigate around traps, then returns to where she was.
Lara arrives and helps Amadeusz defeat the remaining skeleton, though its attack deals 1 unblockable damage to Lara before it falls. Amadeusz picks up the plate armour and tower shield it drops, while a crossbow, five bolts, and a deadly dagger are left on the ground.
Cordy reads the middle note.
“Poison, lightning, and deadly wisps are to be transmuted or used in item creation. The creatures they produce are decidedly inutile.”
Ricki uses her Case ability on the justiciar. He doesn’t appear to be holding any concealed items, but she does get a better idea of what kind of staff he wields.
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DEADLY
Enhancement
Applies to weapons and ranged weapons. Attacks with the weapon deal 1 unblockable damage on top of their normal damage.
Cost +9
STAFF OF TURNING
Staff
Can target a group of skeletons or skeletal creatures at range to either render them docile or deal 10 holy damage to each. Docile skeletons will still attack any other creature that is hostile to you. Attacking docile skeletons will return them to their previous behaviour. Can only be used once per dungeon.
Weight 1, Cost 10 per charge
Time to get our fight on
Ricki: move left and point out the traps in case someone is behind one. Move right and attack a reg Skelly
Lara and Amad: avoid traps and move right. attack the staff guard.
Cordy: avoid traps and move right. Sting staff guard.
This takes out staff guard and gets us a shroom. Next turn we can engage guards below and mop up Skellies so the staff drops. Then we have lots of options like note. Keys and chest
Ricki: Move left, point out the ladder trap to Cordy again and head back to the right. Kill a Reinforced Skeleton with your Swiftblade.
Lara: Move right, attack the Justiciar with your Siegesword.
Cordy: Avoid the trap Ricki points out, head right, and Sting the Justiciar.
Amadeusz: Head right, and kill another Reinforced Skeleton.
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Lara has 13 Atk, maybe 14 if this room is dark enough for Night Eyes. I don’t see any torches, but it’s possible the tubes or wisp jars count as light sources. That combined with Cordy’s 2 damage Poison Sting should be enough to take down a squishy caster-type like a Justiciar.
For anyone worried about skeletitan or guards below joining fight:
The Titans in the well and tomb both allowed us to move by relatively close without it attacking.
As for the guards below, the thugs in the Warren never helped their buddies when we attacked them a floor below so I think we’re good
Thanks for thinking about me and any newbies who don’t fully understand how enemy activation works.
I see that on Turn 7 we got the red “!” notice of activation above all 3 of those guards below (1 Elite in chainmail and 2 regular Guards in leather armor) but they didn’t somehow immediately join the fight (I assume that is because they were not attacked themselves).
Looking at what happens in the combat on Turn 7, it appears that Lara’s 14 melee Atk and Cordy’s 2 damage ranged Poison Sting (total 16 points of offense) minus the Justicar’s 3 Def Imperial Chain Armor and the Justicar’s natural Def stat (unknown) and probably the Justicar’s magic debuff (-2 penalty to Atk and Def, assuming it was applied before resolving Lara’s melee attack) were NOT enough to take him down in 1 Turn. Thus the “squishy” Justicar’s Def + HP is probably greater than 16-5=11 and would have to be greater than 13 if the debuff did not take effect before melee combat was resolved.
I’m just posting this so that other people can check my methodology and math, not to criticize this plan with the benefit of hindsight of what happens on Turn 7.
The note uses the word “inutile” which means this whole thing takes place in France. That means if we walk up to the guard and ask them to surrender, they will.
wasn’t this joke about Italy?
In America the joke is that the French surrender easily. Mostly because of WW2.
I had been getting up voted recently so I decided to piss off the French. It worked.
I am not sure if that’s any strong hint for us, but please observe how the first line says “Ricky helps Cordy” and doesn’t mention Lara, who’s very clearly seen on the ceiling.
This may mean that indeed we managed to properly ask Lara to walk on the ceiling and therefore not-need Ricky’s pointing-out-traps.
edit: this also makes me wonder, will we see in future some pressure-plates on ceilings? better be careful about that!
edi#2: with StaffOfTurning comes the question – is the Experiment63 undead, or living? oooh.. it says, “Skeletal”… so not “undead” in general. That’s important to be careful about.
I’ve noticed that the Deadly Enhancement is significantly better than having a Wand of Death Touch and is MUCH cheaper as well! The Wand of Death Touch can only be used 3 times per dungeon, doesn’t stack with Atk, cannot be thrown and costs 35, whereas the Deadly Dagger can be used an unlimited amount of times, adds to Atk, could be thrown and costs 3+9=12. Just wow!
I know our inventory is likely to be tight but I’d like to take the Deadly Dagger if we can, since I suspect Ricki will eventually be able to Dual Wield and it seems like a good second weapon.