Dungeon 2 Turn 27
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Kamau continues to fight the centipede, which is slowly flagging as he slashes at it repeatedly. Kamau’s buzz wears off.
Ricki heads through the hole in the wall, crawling up by bracing herself against the sides of the tunnel.
She emerges in the room above, in an isolated room. The two thugs immediately turn towards her.
“Keep your distance, goblin.”
Kamau: Keep fighting
Ricki: Ask them what they’re doing
in addition to the above:
Kamau: put on the bucket again, before you keep on fighting (I know it gives some % that the attack will miss, but without the DEF from the “drunk” state, he will get hurt most likely and so far we haven’t got any more healing items).
Ricki: also ask them, if they would mind, if you came close enough to throw that switch and then back off again. (no matter the reply, don’t do it ATM, because we don’t know yet which position we need this thing in) And ask them if they would be interested trade that crossbow for anything else, and if so, what that “anything else” would be. (I don’t see a reason not to negotiate/trade with them.)
I would maybe not ask for the trade yet, we don’t exactly have anything of value
Well, we don’t know what they want/need/consider valuable, so asking in order to find out, doesn’t hurt. It’s not like we’re saying “take your pick of whatever I have in my inventory atm”.
Besides, maybe they do have a set of lock picks and need someone who knows how to use them in order to get that chest behind them open, in that case we’d already be able to offer them something. 😉
Or perhaps one of them is a reverent collector of balls and chains, in that case we would also be able to (eventually, we’d have to go fetch it first) help them out.
A crossbow. Might turn pretty much deadly for Ricky. That two thugs either have beards, or are masked. I suppose they are focused on the chest, so it might help reassuring them that R+K have no intention of interfering with that, at the moment (but no point in adding “at the moment” to their knowledge). It’s very positive that they talked, instead of firing on sight. Any exchange of words will help to get back to the tunnel without being punctured by pointy sticks, and maybe learning anything. I’d focus on asking about the valve. Asking what they are doing at best will end up in gtfo/mindyours/etc and possibly antagonizing them. Re:valve, it may be beneficial to mention tavern owner’s problems – if pipes are fixed, people still stop being interested in the cellar, giving the thugs more time to do what they do.
… I wonder if we can somehow transport snale here to bath this two guys in acid 🙂
talking instead of shooting.. actually.. why did they? a goblin in a dungeon probably looks like a monster. and also, goblins aren’t very tough on def or high on hp.. for two guys with a crossbow it should be an easy prey/xp/loot.. odd. pacifist ninja thevies? cartographers with no-killing-mobs oath? or are they out of bolts?
ooh, how about Kamau’s not killing the caterpillar, and just disabling/stunning it (it’s “flagging” in the text!), and then dragging and pushing that caterpillar into the tunnel to the other side, and then blocking the tunnel’s exit at this side with the chest? We can check the outcome later when we actually know the pipe layout and really need that valve.
It’s a 50% miss chance from bucket on head. I think we can risk possibly losing 1hp (Kamau still has 3 Def, and the nastiest single attack we’ve seen thus far is 3) over spending more turns stuck here.
I am concerned about how drunks are camping the ladder, unless they’re sitting under the snale with mouths open while they dissolve. There’s 7 damage in that room if we want to get through (3 drunks + torch + 3 from snale). Still, Kamau with armor while drunk with bucket on head and shield in hand can guard Ricki through there (3+1+1+1+1=7).
Affirmative, the bucket’s miss chance is a lot worse than the one from the ale, but at least we can decide every round if we want to keep on using it. With the ale, Kamau is hindered (possibly “harmless”) for 5 consecutive turns.
Also, we don’t know yet what’s waiting for us in the last unkown dungeon room. We might still need every last HP that we can get.
And I would very much like to ranged attack the bats (ideally from a spot that the snale can’t reach/see) and then stay as far away from them as possible, in order to stay unmolested by them and duck back out of the room the following turn, so they and the drunks can just duke it out between themselves. I doubt that any drunk would die from that, and even if so, I’m not sure if they count towards the secondary goad. The tavern keep only mentioned that we should be mindful of the drunks that will enter the dungeon after us, iirc.
Besides… with the snales we can now have any dead bodies (the tavern keep didn’t want to have any of those lying around in his cellar, after all) disappear “mysteriously” (more like dissolve them with acid, but hey, they will be dead already anyways and our reward is at stake). *hrr hrr*
Kamau: Kill centipede. Check on the unconscious guy.
Ricki: Promise thugs that the closest you’d even think of getting to them is to that valve there, then head back through the tunnel and throw a dagger at the centipede from a safe distance.
I was initially thinking magic missile, but I suspect that the centipede will take 4 hits of 1 (“minor”) damage each, so 1 extra damage this turn should do it. With two daggers, seems worth figuring out if they can do that much at range.
Ricki, on the way back: Peek into the last room
The angry snale would attack Ricki and probably also the three drunks would attack Ricki. Seems to be a sure way to get Ricki killed. Do NOT do this, please!
Ricki: Examine the switch. See if you can figure out what it does. So long as it doesn’t aggro those short guys
That is not “keeping her distance” and could result in getting hit by a crossbow-bolt. Ricki only has 2 HP left and loosing HP adds remorse to Kamau. We do not know yet whether this switch needs to be switched at all, and with Ricki’s luck the switch will break while in the wrong position.
Anyone notice that the 2 wandering drunks aren’t visible on the right side of the dungeon? They may be wandering past where we fought the skeleton at this time. Not sure what will happen if they encounter another group of drunks