Ricki gained the Dash ability!
Kamau gained the Heavy Armour Proficiency ability!
Kamau’s bond level increased!
Lara gained the Poison Proficiency ability!
Lara’s bond level increased!
All expended HP and abilities are restored.
Intermission 4 will now begin!
Ricki goes surfing
Map: https://bit.ly/dungeon-eyes-map
Enemy stats: https://bit.ly/dungeon-eyes-enemies
Community-sourced “rulebook” for each “mechanic”, with/out proof attached: https://bit.ly/dungeon-eyes-mechanics
Those of us on the Discord server have been working on the Mechanics over the past week, just listing all the things we either know will happen or think we know will happen if somebody does(n’t do) something. It should help with future decisions. Chip in if you (don’t) see something we missed.
Not to be nitpicky, but in the Charactes page, Lara’s description “excommunicated arachnomancer” is not in italics, oposed to “optimistic thief” and “fallen champion”.
Edit: Thanks for fixing it, LSN!
Congratulations!
Lara: Give one set of thieves tools to Kamau (to get space for cigarettes).
Ricki: Pull up the rope, untie rope, give to Paws (if present) or otherwise to Kamau.
Kamau: Put the grate back on the sewer (nobody should fall down).
Please.
Shopping thoughts…
Definitely cashing in the treasures for 15+1+16 gold, for 32. With that we can buy Plate Armour for 30, which seems highly likely to be +4 defense for 4 slots much like the tarnished solar armour but better.
The bent wand of Mend is cost 17, so selling it with a set of thieves tools gets us another 11. With that and 2 leftover, we could get a regular greatsword for 12. That would let Lara swing for 5 or Ricki swing for 4, and with Kamau defending then the off hand isn’t needed for a torch or shield.
We also want to cash the rusty greatsword for 3, and the iron boots take 2 slots and probably won’t be used next so that’s another 3. That lets us grab a copper ring for 5 as recommended for the Warrens.
There’s 2 gold leftover with that. We could just pick up a torch as we’ve run out of light sources, but I really want to have at least one gold left to buy food maybe. It might be worth selling a longsword, as a greatsword with two longswords and Rat Fang is more weapons than we can use. Keeping one for the next ally might be reasonable though. The other options to sell are more thieves tools (even after selling one we’d go into next dungeon with two plus Always Prepared) or the critical accessories which are hard to plan around but give stacking damage sometimes.
Torch should be high priority since we know light is not always guaranteed. If we end up going to Warrens than having 1-2 rings would be a priority. I’m loathed to give up extra damage from the Crit since it’s hard to Boost damage right now.
Also, Warren’s will be rogue heavy from the sounds of it so that could mean lots of locked stuff, or lots of thieves tools, or both
On the discord, the general vote was sell all treasures, the rusty great sword, the iron boots, and the bent wand. Doing so gives us enough gold to buy plate armor, two copper rings, and a torch with gold leftover for food.
It bugs me that every time we see Paws we’ve left half a gold on the table by selling an odd total cost which is rounded down. I think four sets of tools is too many for one dungeon, but selling one now for 3 gold instead of 2 gold doesn’t do us much good with that shopping list.
There’s a bit of a gap in prices, with the copper ring we already have all the under-10 items that we want. Next up is the greatsword at 12, then crossbow at 25, then maybe the wands. Maybe oven mitts, if there’s more torch-wielding people with Dungeon madness. A bow might be interesting, it might deal more or the same damage as a crossbow due to being two-handed and having more expensive ammo (bow and 6 arrows is 22, crossbow with 6 bolts is 31). Ranged weapons are good on Ricki since they ignore Attack anyway.
Paws’ shop on-line (not on-line shop!) at:
https://dungeoneyes.com/intermission-3-page-4/
Prices and availability might have changed since last visit!
Prices are unlikely to change, though the magic lens cost was rebalanced because it was more valuable than actual loot. The cost stat on items fully controls pricing.
Availability will be interesting, I wonder if items will drop from the list. It’d be nice to know if we could buy back iron boots for a future water dungeon. A regular helmet would also be neat, weight 2 for +1 defense is rough but could help out Lara and on Ricki solo rooms.
Use the gold to hire a temple to cast Regeneration on Kamau’s arm.
Where’s a second-hand shop when you need one?
If you’re using D&D as a reference point, Raise Dead is 5th level while Regenerate is 7th level, and the dead cannot be revived. Lohk’s magic helped with the infection at the stump, so we have some hint that healing with magic is possible, but I don’t expect it will be easy.
There’s also a psychological component. Order of the Stick had a character who refused to regenerate a limb, even when that was relatively easy, because of the trauma and survivor’s guilt from the event that took the limb in the first place. Of course, the character hint on Ko-fi suggests that that hand was last holding Kamau’s Hilt rather than the hand of a loved one, and Sentiment has him holding tightly to that hilt.
WTF do you want Kamau to go through the entire campaign with no shield arm? Sure is a weird pushback.
Just friggin’ ask around about a temple. It shouldn’t be that hard. Getting his arm Regenerated is an obvious adventure goal.
This would’ve been the best Turn 20 Page possible. It almost makes me was we failed to have this officially happen. 😛
Am I the only one who feels somewhat disappointed by the fact that those swimming barricade builders appeared on the enemy list as “Beaver” and not “Rat, Pancake” ?
I did call that the crowned humanoid rat is “RAT, KING” (so a King Rat) while the pile of tangled rats is a “RAT KING”.
I’m more curious if Rat Fang would have counted beavers as rats. Only way to confirm would be to have Lara attack an uninjured one with Rat Fang, Ricki with Rat Fang couldn’t finish one d4t7 but that would only be 3 damage even with +1. I don’t see a visual or text hint of Rat Fang effectiveness from attacking the rat kings or small rats.
Dungeon 4 wrap-up stream.
– We actually could have done Warrens first and still been able to visit the Vault. If a dungeon actually is now-or-never, then this will be unambiguous. Be careful about what is actually said vs how we interpret it. (Also make sure to read his mind to find out when something is unambiguous, because not being able to talk to Lara was described as unambiguous in chapel wrap-up, while we almost looked for other means of communication.)
– Rules are vague by design. Baseline rules have no randomness, it’s mostly items that add random outcomes. Figuring out what can be done is a large part of the game. We need to make some guesses.
– The King Rat is a true villain who would never be caught negotiating with adventurers.
– Barricades may have been overkilled
– Couldn’t have taken the rope, needed it to get out and then we’re out of the dungeon. Bringing a rope in from last dungeon, though…
– Damage in Ricki rooms was not decided after seeing our equipment, but it was set based on how much defense we might have by now. Chain armour and a shield would have made the room 3 lever safe.
– Blood Rat would’ve been washed away turn 5 making it impossible to open the puzzle chest.
– Sun Sphere was not an attack, more of a trap. It’s rolled or dropped instead of being thrown. Non animals might have reacted differently.
– Trapped chest was full of 5 regular rats, similar to the bucket of rats which was a poorly hidden trap. Three pieces of moldy cheese, not a treasure but could be useful here. If opening after flooded, rats would get a free attack with no penalties for attacking from a dry space (so 1 Ricki damage due to -1 Def) but then all drown at end of turn.
– Rat treasure room chests: first had 3 magic lenses, second had potion of greater healing and treasure Goblet we might see later. Locked: Burning Greatsword. Didn’t acknowledge the possibility of pushing closed chests.
– Could Lara shoot through bars? What an interesting idea!
– Other alcohols may exist to fill out the pattern hinted at by the Coin of Revelry.
– Could have jumped down to room 2 lever, but then it’s hard to get back up. A rope would have worked, as would waiting for water to rise (though you need to be careful about being stuck behind the grate and drowning).
– Using chest to push lever wasn’t expected but was a good idea. The cost of blocking off that area helped justify allowing this.
– Chests at bottom of room 3 had 6 arrows and 6 crossbow bolts, and a beaver hat.
– Going up for air in combat: If you’re actively attacking in melee, you have to stay in the area of your target. If you’re running past, no such restriction. Kamau hitting the bat and moving away was a mistake. (Ranged attacks not mentioned, but in practice Lara could go for air when casting at range.)
– King Rat’s chest: Unique treasure item Golden Cheese worth 8. Can distract rats indefinitely since they can’t eat it, but picking it back up opens you to attacks. There was no intended mechanism to win here. Non visible item on King Rat: Keys to the chest, so opening it is still possible with Ricki locked out.
– Questions:
– Ranged only has advantage if there’s an obstruction. Example: The bow from the balcony in the Chapel. Animals and mindless enemies can be completely distracted by a melee combatant. Rat head was definitely a jokey way of showing that all combat is simultaneous, the more serious description (as seen in Tavern Cellar) would have been for rats to rush over and get an attack in as they die. Typically ranged is worse since you can’t add your base Atk.
– Could a lever be flipped by an arrow? Interesting theory!
– Characters know what damage types they’re hit by, but he doesn’t always bother mentioning. Will be much more careful if we have relevant skills. Plague rats deal poison.
– Solar guardian deals holy at range but regular in melee. This accidentally saved us an HP, solar armour bonus would’ve been needed against the one with a sword to soak 7 damage.
– Venom bat deals poison damage, spider dealt bonus poison damage, centipede dealt some poison damage. Guy with torch dealt fire damage.
– Interpose is in place of attacking, and “in place of” still counts as attacking to keep you from leaving. Being attacked doesn’t count as “in combat” for keeping you from leaving the room.
– To leave dungeon, Ricki needs to leave and anyone else near exit is counted as nearby. Ricki could not attack and leave. Kamau could Interpose, Lara could attack, and Ricki leaving would count as victory including the others because they were nearby.
– We could have stayed in turn 20 without drowning damage as long as we left before end of turn.
– Can Lara get other clothes? He’ll ask her!
– Will Paws sell clothes or food? You’ll have to hope he reads the comments! LSN wouldn’t know!
– If food becomes a mechanical problem then it will have a mechanical solution. Players don’t need to worry about saving money to spend on food unless we are told that food is required. Readers are welcome to worry about how long these poor people are going without food and sleep.
– With Sneaky (an action!) Ricki is undetectable and can get out of combat without being attacked.
– What if you dropped the grate on an enemy? That is a thing you could have tried to do!
– Pushing empty chests to block the grate? That is a thing you could have tried to do!
– Cloth Proficiency does what it says. Get +1 defense with no armour or armour with no defense bonus like possibly Dawn Robes. Robes of Fire Resistance for +0 base and +3 vs fire? Works because base bonus qualifies. In general, Proficiency skills are there to leverage items with cool abilities (like Rat Fang) especially when base stats are less desirable.
– Do items in inventory stay dry underwater? No. Cigarettes got wet but the box is watertight or something, item description doesn’t mention problems with water so water didn’t do anything to it. Torch would’ve gone out whether in hand or not, its item description says it is destroyed when doused.
– Legendary armour “Plumber’s Overalls” might help with fire underwater… (Joke about Mario being able to throw fireballs underwater)
– Don’t worry too much about making room for free items. “I am always going to make sure not to screw you out of your free items” – LoneStarNorth, 2022
– Amount of comments is impressive, wondering if that was due to this dungeon in particular or just the comic getting more popular. If you want actions to be seen, put them in a top level comment so they show up when sorting by votes, rather than hiding them in replies.
– Every dungeon will have some kind of time limit.
– Dungeon 8 turn 47 will just be Ricki with cigarette in hand looking threateningly at the chat. (Joke at how disagreements have been quite civil and Ricki smoking would break the peace.)
– All characters have a sprite version even if they aren’t supposed to be in a dungeon. These are useful as set dressing during streams (the sprite sheet on stream is a viewer-safe version without upcoming enemies, and hasn’t been updated in a while) and as a quick colour reference.
– This Intermission will start to drop story hints…
OK, some thoughts then about possible ways to profit from ranged attacks.
Obvious one. Kamau fights animals (spiders, maybe bats?) as a first line and girls shoot them from a distance.
If we have a way to put an obstacle (in case of some powerful enemy) – all three can start shooting. We need a mage with appropriate spell…
Maybe Kamau is able to break out some grate to carry it and put it before enemies? ))
Also, if we set a chest on fire will it count as an obstacle for animals (at least them)?
Fire has distracted animals before, but we’ve only tried that in place of attacking. I don’t know what would win, the potential threat of running through fire or the real threat of being shot.
It is nice to hear that there’s some benefit to joining at range at first, since unintelligent enemies tend to lock on to a melee target. That lets us get a hit in on that first round, and then join in melee later once their target is already set. Throwing dagger was good for this.
Yeah, ranged combat seems more of a situational tool than a substitution for melee. So far the biggest use is triggering bats remotely
I’m a little irritated by the mention that the rat vault could’ve been done later, especially since the description given after we chose it was that they only flush out the sewers once a month and that just happened to be today. If we had gone to the warrens first, had our standard night visit to freak out Lohk, then tried the vault as dungeon 5 with the same description of a once-per-month flush, I would’ve wondered what we would have done for the day of waiting if we had picked the vault first. We theorized that “the window to get in and explore is narrow” meant we couldn’t get in and explore later, and the dungeon selection doubled down on this with “particularly dangerous and time-constrained”. I did guess that this might actually mean that the dungeon was more time limited than normal (I3P4), but that didn’t make as much sense as being explicitly told we had a narrow window to get in. Oh well. Figuring out what hints are supposed to mean is part of the game, a part LSN is also playing as he sees how we interpret what we get.
We had to make the call and I like how it turned out. I look forward to starting the Warrens with the gear we usually spend half Kamau’s HP to find. If Kamau levels here, then we’ll have filled up to the first bar on his Bond track.
I suppose that people were attracted to this dungeon because of its small size and “get in, get out, get rich” nature.
Dungeons 2 and 3 were quite hard to follow because they were big, it was difficult to keep everything in mind and I already got really tired by turn 50 or so.
There is https://bit.ly/dungeon-eyes-map (currently showing the empty dungeon 5, but has navigation elements at the bottom to go to dungeon 1…4), which helps in seeing what enemies were there, which are left, and the same for chests, levers etc. Without any map, it is indeed difficult. (In pen & paper RPGs, drawing maps of dungeons to follow ones own progress is not that uncommon.)
Yeah, we also really didn’t know what we were doing in those dungeons and spent a long time wandering around looking for the plot, while the goal of the Vault was clear. Dungeon 3 spent a lot of time on cleanup of skeletons, which ended up working out for us but got monotonous. There was basically a couple of interesting decisions each week, which each took several turns to play out. Meanwhile, every turn of the Vault changed the situation; we still had plans that took several turns, but new stuff kept showing up.
We’ll have to see how complexity builds up, the hidden downside to Dash is that you need to keep a lot more of the dungeon in mind when you have more flexible movement (though if we mostly use it to check on adjacent rooms then it may help remember what is nearby). Every new party member also adds more to track and decide, while all those actions also help finish plans in fewer turns.