Dungeon 15 Turn 6
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Amadeusz kicks at the purple-burning brazier on the ground, having noticed that it flared up when the purple widow respawned. He tries to destroy it, but his attack doesn’t quite do the trick, though it does seem to do some damage. However, the fire flares up and burns/poisons him in retaliation. Combined with the purple widow’s attack, he narrowly avoids damage. In the process, he also notes that he can’t pick up or move the brazier, it’s rooted to this spot.
Amadeusz then leaves the room.
Lara and Sue rearrange their inventories, then Lara heads to the next room on the right while Ricki distracts it with a swipe from her swiftblade. She deals modest damage.
Lara finds herself face to face with a mixed group of arachnomancers, spiders, and those in between.
Lara, repeat after me: “How do you do, fellow cultists.”
Plan: yeehaw 2
Lara: equip silk armor. move left. pick up Ricki and move down to drider pit. Move left again. Drop Ricki off in the room and move past web to break brazier with your siegesword. End turn next to brazier.
Ricki: loot the chest and let Lara carry you down the chute. Move left with her and wait for her away from the single drider group.
Amad: go down ladder and attack killer spider.
Sue: move left and throw your shocktail at the tiny spider.
Next turn we can finish of the brazier and get Ricki and Lara back.
Sue is taking out spider first since it is possible that if she goes for the brazier the spider will agro on her (and the range of the brazier counter could also be ranged). That would be a lot of dmg on sue
Aw c’mon, that shocktail javelin’s gotta be good for something! Maybe she can help Amadeusz out?
Sorry, this was a incomplete post. We’ll think of something
It is now complete.
so far we saw 2 violet braziers
we know they spawn (or revive) small spiders that do noticeable damage
we now know we can destroy them and they fight back, so it seems to be an important prop
so far we saw those braziers in 2 “legs”, assuming the dungeon is shaped moreless like a spider, we can assume at least two more legs, symmetrically top-left from the entrance, making it 4 braziers. Spiders have eight legs, so we actually might have 8 of them, but I guess it could be hard to make it into a reasonable-looking map. Unless we’re looking at 4 legs near the entrace facing backwards, and another four from the head looking forward right.
the room to the right of the entrance has a ‘waist’, forming a new chamber. all (two, or four) “legs” that we saw so far are to the left of it, but easily connected to it in rather straight corriors.
we know that presence of spiders boost arachnomancers’ abilities – attack, defense, probably some skills too.
how about we screw up lazy players who didn’t fancy destroying braziers by making a boss that can actively call out for ever-respawning small black widows, getting a fresh waves of 2/4/8 of the from time to time?
Wait isnt Sue the one supposed to be scouting instead of Lara from the plan last turn?
OK, so the braziers seem to be the mechanism the High Priestess uses to replenish spiders. But who cares? They’re sitting at the ends of dead-end hallways that have no loot in them and don’t lead to the High Priestess. Destroying them just seems like a waste of time.
… unless of course the braziers affect a larger area than just the hallways they’re sitting in. Maybe each one revives spiders on its entire sublevel, kind of like the way each egg sac in D12 poisoned the water on its entire level.
So I guess we should destroy at least one, and then pay attention afterward to which spiders get revived where.
They could also have more than one function
Agreed. Especially since the dungeon goal is: “Goal: Defeat the Arachnomancer High Priestess.”, it’s quite possible that the braziers are designed to make that goal harder/easier for us, depending on how many of them are still active, when we’re fighting her.
LSN quite enjoys multi-layered tasks like this.
Maybe Ricki could ask Lara, if she can tell her anything about those braziers? Or about the high priestess? I think Wolf had the right idea… (“ASK ONE WHO KNOWS PLACE.”)
We could ask about the tiny spiders, too (e.g. if they eventually will “evolve” into bigger spiders, if left alone long enough).
Edit: Typo
I really think they may be source of ever-lasting reinforcements for the high priestess. We’ve seen flocks of skele-fish that roam. We’ve seen that some enemies may call out for help (think: elemental laboratory and how enforcer called other guards). We’ve seen tyrant babies call out and have their mom arrive from afar. It is totally possible in-game with what-we-already-saw that the high priestess may call in all spiders that are nearby, or at least all spiders that are near magic braziers. Even if it takes ~2 turns for them to respawn, and even if it takes 2-3 turns for them to arrive after being called, sudden arrival of 4 spiders that do 4x6dmg and give the boss 4x?def bonus sounds *bad* for us.
The current plan above probably doesn’t work due to timing. Actions are typically simultaneous, so Ricki shouldn’t be able to loot a chest, wait for Lara to arrive, move with Lara to a new room all for Lara to then take her own action. So:
Ricki: Equip your Dodge Ring in place of an Atk Ring while you wait for Lara to arrive, then ride down the center shaft with her. Attack the left Drider. Have Daisy attack the Right Drider. Do your best to be within reach of both of them.
Lara: Head left. Help Ricki and Daisy down the center shaft. Equip your Siegesword and attack the Right Drider.
Wolf: Head down the right-side ladder. Attack the Killer Spider.
Sue: Loot the chest. Hooray loot!
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According to the Enemies page regarding Driders, “They are always hungry and will attack the smallest creature they can reach.” So Lara and Daisy should be safe from damage unless our lens lied to us. Ricki only risks damage if she fails two 60% dodge chances, and even then she would only take 2 damage, so not a big deal.
Lara attacks for 16 (She has Night Eyes) and halves the Drider’s poison defense. So whether 3 halves to 1 or 2, Daisy’s 3 Atk will help her finish it off.
Given that Daisy is smallish and Ricki is small, I guess Ricki would be the target. Still makes me feel uncomfortable though.
Lara can only carry one Small ally, so this plan will probably end up with Daisy falling down the shaft, no?
Ricki: Head right. Case the Drider w/ the purple sword. Head left.
Lara: Head left, then left again. Attack the Brazier.
Wolf: Head left, attack the purple widow.
Sue: Loot the chest.
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Take another crack at the brazier and gather some info on a future hyper-difficult encounter.
Good idea. The sword looks like a type we haven’t encountered before.
Edit: I’m referring to its shape, not its color, which I assume is just a venom enchantment.