Dungeon 15 Turn 46
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Ricki thinks this combat is in the bag, so she quickly runs to the left side of the dungeon to check on things there. She notices no changes, but by the time she runs back to Lara and Sue, she finds that things have taken a turn!
Lara and Sue easily managed to defeat the remaining drider, but during the fight two more spiders ran into the room from the right! Their combined attacks, along with the swipe from the drider before it falls, deal a total of 8 damage to Lara (who had stowed her tower shield to maximize her damage)!
Sue drops a single gold coin in anticipation of picking up some dropped items, but with new enemies now joining the fight, she can no longer do so. And so the previously defeated arachnomancer stands up with all of his gear at hand.
Suddenly things are looking rough!
Meanwhile, Amadeusz wonders if he could play the violin one-handed so he could still hold a shield in his other hand. His wolf becomes enraged at this concept, both because of its obvious impossibility, and also because the human is encroaching on the wolf’s time in control! That is not the agreement! STOP THINKING ABOUT STRING INSTRUMENTS ARRARRARAR BARK BARK GRRR BARK
The mushroom watches this episode run its course without offering comment.
AHHH NOOOO I KNEW Lara wouldnt see a end of turn patrol on 45 ;_;
Yeah you pretty much called it perfectly. It my mind I thought there would be at least some visual effect to identify teleport/summon location, like if the brazier flashed or a purple outline of spiders/high priestess at the location, but it really is just that they pop into existence at the end of the turn. Rough mistake to make, sorry about to that.
We need to strategize. We need to start removing braziers and pin her down, we can’t rely on hoping to “ambush” the High Priestess by luck.
I’m guessing that a movement Teleport costs an action, where she can reflexively tp if attacked. I’m also guessing that summoning also takes an action. So hopefully that limits how many hunting spiders she can throw into the dungeon.
Where was High Priestess?
Turn 30, Ricki spots HP tp’ing out of D1.
Turn 31, not in D1, only Juvie Garg and Widow in lower room. Upper tunnel debraziered, two Killer Spiders remain.
Turn 32, not in A3 – Drider and Spider in brazier room.
– Speculation: HP was in D3 doing nothing
Turn 33, unknown.
Turn 34, unknown. Gargantua discovered.
Turn 35, unknown.
Turn 36 – HP is no longer in D3, no spiders have been reinforced there.
– Speculation: HP was in D3 doing who knows what. Possibly reinforcing spiders into D1, however as this is before Turn 40 HP should have been reinforcing empty brazier rooms? Or is HP acting tactically, creating a stronger fallback pocket in D1?
Turn 37, not in D3, D3 middle tunnel being de-braziered. No change in D3 tunnels.
Turn 38, unknown. Everyone gathered prepping to fight Gargantua, and selling to Paws.
Turn 39, unknown. Everyone fighting Gargantua.
Turn 40, not in A3. No changes had been done to A3 since previously seen.
Turn 41, unknown.
Turn 42, not in A3. No changes had been done to A3 since previously seen.
Turn 43, Ricki spots HP in D1. Two new spiders in brazier room.
Turn 44, unknown. Probably still in D1
Turn 45, Wolf “spots” HP in D1, enveloped in purple glow. Nothing //prior// changed in D3.
Turn 46, not in A3 or D1.
Probably summoned reinforcements hunting spiders into A3 during turns 43-45.[EDIT] Nope, I just noticed Ricki checked A3, no changes. so HP is in D3 reinforcing.
AND I JUST FINISHED EDITING MY MAP TO REFLECT TURN 45!!!!!
AND NO I HAVE TO EDIT IT FOR TURN 46!¡¡¡¡!
ARGLE BLARGLE FAKE RAGE!!1!2!3!4!5!!
Just to clarify, teleports & spider summons are happening on every 5th turn.
Was this specified somewhere other than page 0 for this dungeon? Because all it says there is:
“Time Limit: Every 5 turns, the Arachnomancer High Priestess will replenish some defeated spiders. On turn 40 and beyond, she’ll start summoning additional spiders to hunt the party.”
Which sounds to me like reinforcements prior to Turn 40 are every five turns, it says nothing about Teleporting or the timing for summoned hunting spiders. Which means, if TP’ing takes a turn tp out and then tp in (replacing movement and actions), and reinforcing is on every fifth turn, that leaves two turns of summoning hunters and/or webbing up tunnels at this point.
That’s my thoughts anyway. For all I know the TP and reinforcements happen simultaneously and she’s been playing cat’s cradle for four turns inbetween…
I mean there’s nothing forcing LSN to keep the NPCs on the same kinda action use rules, but seem to have been doing so up to this point.
Nothing explicitly says it, but it’s observed behavior. Turn 45 in particular shows it best. She definitely teleports away, but also 2 Spiders spawn in on bottom right at the end of the turn, that begin to wander and ambush us on turn 46.
High Priestess just does her stuff on every 5th turn which includes (potentially, since she didn’t teleport on 40) teleporting to and summoning some amount of spiders at an active brazier. And while a fully cognitive character would be less predictable, she’s likely got spider madness, dungeon madness, and just the general anxiety of her house being invaded fucking with her mental.
Since the HP teleports every 5 turns to a different brazier, if we are down to two braziers we know where she is going to go.
The top brazier is near impossible four us to clear or fight near so we should clear bottom right and then battle her at bottom left. If she does stop at the top brazier, Amad can force her to teleport out using hurtful dirge.
We aren’t down to two braziers, there are still 3 left, lower tunnel on lower left, lower tunnel upper right, and lower tunnel on lower right.
So we’d need to destroy at least one more brazier before plan “Split The Party & Use Dirge” could work (but that s a great idea).
Turn Order Suggestions ONLY (I don’t have a strong working understanding of the equipment yet to make good turn orders, so if you’ve got something better to clear this room, suggest away):
Wolf hustle your buns down to B2 (move left, left, down).
Lara equip Tower Shield. Attack Drider.
Everyone else needed to attack make sure Drider dies, pile on (not including pets). If Sue can be spared to heal Lara, do so (I don’t know if there are wand charges left).
If we think Golly and Princess can kill (or even badly wound) a Spider between them, let’s do so. I suspect the spiders and Drider will be piling onto Lara.
Between Ricki and Lara, the Drider should go down. Maybe a spider.
Also, let’s be careful not to hit the spider on the ceiling still napping off it’s food coma.
Current Map:
If we talk about strategizing, then aside from solving the problem at hand, we may need to carefully pick braziers.
Of course, we can “just destroy” all braziers and be left with one. Or at best, zero, to get rid of bonuses for spiders and the priestess. However, if we’re in pinch, we might also destroy the top one only. Running back and forth to the top one is really time consuming, but it could be manageable if we’re down to running back and forth between A3<>D3.
Just a heads up this probably does not kill the Drider.
Drider has 15 HP and 8 Defense (2 Base + 2 Shield + 3 Chain + 1 Field Buff) and is 23 to kill.
Ricki has 12 Atk and Lara has 10 Atk if she’s wielding the Tower Shield, and Lara’s poison adds +3 to the Drider’s Defense. So it’s 22 Attack, 4 damage short from the 26 needed to kill.
Daisy and Golly should be safe to attack the Drider since they’re both Smallish and the Drider focuses the smallest character (Ricki) and the Spider focus the holder of the Spider Idol (Lara).
I think our general plan is this:
T46-t50 clear patrol and heal up.
After that, depends on where priestess goes. If she goes A3. Then we good.
If she goes D1 then we clear D3 and wait
Ricki: Attack Drider w/ Swiftblade. (12 of 23)
Sue: Throw Shocktail at Drider. (21 of 23)
Daisy: Bite Drider. (24 of 23)
Lara: Equip your Tower Shield and attack Spider 1. (10 of 13, this includes Night Eyes)
Result: Drider goes down, one undamaged spider and one spider with 3 HP remains.
Wolf: Head left, left and then action down.
–
Princess not joining combat because she is small and might draw aggro from Drider.
Enemy stats as I understand them right now:
Spiders
HP: 9
Atk: 4 + 1 (Field Buff) + 1 (Drider) + 1 (Arachnomancer Helmet) + 1 (Spider Idol) + 1~2 (Poison) (9~10 Damage total)
Def: 3 + 1 (Field Buff) (4 Def Total, 13 to OHKO)
Observed Behavior: Will focus fire whoever is holding the Spider Idol, which is Lara.
Lara’s 24 Defense vs. Poison risks no damage if the Spiders both max roll for 20.
Drider
HP: 15
Atk: 6 + 1 (Field Buff) + 2 (Longsword) (9 Damage Total)
Def: 2 + 1 (Field Buff) + 2 (Shield) + 3 (Chain) (8 Def Total, 23 to OHKO)
Observed Behavior: Will focus the smallest enemy attacking in melee, which is Ricki.
Ricki’s 14 Def takes no damage from the Drider’s 9.
Following Turn
Spider 1: 3 HP & 4 Def (8 to kill), deals 7-8 damage, prioritizes Lara
Spider 2: 9 HP & 4 Def (13 to kill), deals 7-8 damage, prioritizes Lara
Ricki + Daisy: 15 kills Spider 2.
Lara: 10 kills spider 1.
Sue: Mends Lara for 2 HP.
Wolf: Doe somehting.
I agree with both of these, but for “Wolf: Doe something” I think Wolf should join the party to push right, so they can clear the last brazier in D3 (as well as Webs, Widows, Arachnomancer (and the following Drider), and any other hazards that may be waiting.
So my suggestion for Turn 48 is:
Ricki + Daisy: Kills Spider 2 (uninjured spider).
Lara: Kill spider 1 (the “at this point” injured spider).
Sue: Mends Lara for 2 HP.
Wolf: Move left, down, left, then Action move right.
This should leave Wolf in the middle tunnel of C3, gives Ricki eyes on D3, and doesn’t expose him to possible attack by the High Priestess if she’s waiting to zot the first character entering D3. It doesn’t put him with the party, but it does put him ready to join assist clearing right the following turn.
After that I have to say I like Alcor’s plan to Dirge D1 if we need to force HP to retreat into a prepped ambush in A3.
[EDIT] Edited to have Wolf avoid trap rung on ladder. [/EDIT]
The issue with Dirge is that it aggros the spiders (we saw this happen in the poison well dungeon).
If Amad Dirges, he’ll be at 9 def vs the18-20 or so dmg from the 2 spiders which will probably make him unable to join in the boss battle safely. We may need to get some def rings on him or clear the spiders beforehand.
Also need to keep in mind there is a ladder trap in the main chamber that Wolf needs to help to cross safely.
Hmmm. I’ve amended my “plan” above.
(Besides, that’s actually how he’d have to move to get where he needs to go. I kept overlooking a wall (and a trap).)