Dungeon 5 Turn 17
————
Lara wants to send her pet spider to help Kamau fight the group of gang members below, but it can’t fight a separate group of enemies from its owner, so instead it helps Lara fight the final thug on the third floor. With the large group finally defeated they drop a single rusty dagger… and 35 gold coins. Jackpot!
Kamau and Ricki descend the ladder and start fighting the next group. With her heavy sword even Ricki by herself is able to land a significant hit on the taller thug. Both thugs and the assassin attack Kamau as he charges into their midst, dealing a single point of damage to Kamau. He ignores their attacks and instead inspects the piece of paper hanging on the wall.
“Damn, they put up a magic wanted poster of me. That’s why I’m not fighting at my usual level.”
“The Guard use these things when they’re trying to fight a powerful opponent, but they’re pretty rare. I’d sure like to know how a two-bit gang like the Goblintown Reds got their hands on one.”
Kamau: say, the blues send their regards, then put bucket on head and interpose.
Ricki: attack the same guy
Lara and spider. Attack the short one.
LSN said Ricki did moderate damage herself to one. I think we can finish him off since spider plus Lara can def take the other.
Added some talking just for story purposes. It won’t make a difference in dungeon but in the gang area of town after…
As I said in response to Zuvatan below, the ninja might be an imperial guard working undercover, believing that Kamau is in league with one of the gangs, as he did escape prison along with a goblin and a human guard would have an easier time infiltrating the Reds to keep and eye on the Blues; or the Guard is searching for Kamau through the employ of underworld mercenaries.
This is just an assumption, of course, but if the guards are in any way using the gangs to search for Kamau, spreading the word that we are in league with one of them might throw them off our trail. And gives us one more reason to grab some red masks before we assault the Blues in the lever room.
Despite all of that, it wouldn’t hurt to try to interrogate the ninja.
It’s also possible that the wanted poster isn’t specific before being put up. Would make more sense if the gang has access to an illegal debuff it can use as needed if it wasn’t specific. The weird part is that in order to key in the wanted poster OR know to use it against Kamau the ninja had to see him.
Yeah. This is even more indication that the Reds might be the ones with Macadamia’s ring, having aquired it illegaly. Maybe Macadamia has any tips about how the Reds got their hands on the wanted poster (if the ninja is not a mole for the cops).
We know Ricki and Lara can take out the short guy in one turn, but we don’t know if the blue guy has more HP and would be able to endure two of Ricki’s attacks. If we do this, the Spider should attack the blue guy instead.
Edit: And Kamau should wear the Bucket so he doesn’t take damage again.
If Lara smokes and uses a Rat Tail, she can OHKO the halfling while the Spider and Ricki KO the Human. Turn after that, we can KO the Ninja.
It’s a turn faster than not using attack buffsIt gets more damage on the Ninja, which might be important, and it could free an inventory slot from the cigarettes if we’re “unlucky.” (I’m mostly suggesting this to try to free an inventory slot from the cigarettes.)Ricki:
Attack the Blue Human.Give Lara your Potions, equip the Crit gear she gives you, and attack the NinjaSpider: Attack the Blue Human.
Lara: Take and smoke the Cigarettes, attack the Halfling with the Rat Fang Dagger, and use a Rat Tail. Take Ricki’s Potions and give her the Crit Gauntlets and Crit Grieves.
Kamau: Equip the Bucket, give Lara her Cigarettes back and Interpose.
Edit: I somehow missed that Ricki attacked the Blue guy…. Edited the plan to get early damage on the Ninja.
ReEdit: Kamau should Equip the Bucket to avoid the minor but avoidable damage.
The Alternate is attack the Ninja and do that next turn, but we don’t know how tough the Ninja is.
Kamau: Equip the Bucket and Interpose
Everyone Else: Attack the Ninja
Alternative to the alternative because we don’t need the Cigarettes or Rat tail for the two other guys.
Kamau: Equip the Bucket, give Lara her Cigarettes back, and Interpose.
Lara: Take and smoke the Cigarettes, attack the Ninja with the Rat Fang Dagger, and use a Rat Tail.
Ricki and Spider: Attack the Ninja
Thr spider can probably kill the weakened one. There’s no reason to do this alpha strike unless we want to try killing the assassin with one fewer attack.
You know the feeling when you realize you missed something really obvious? Edited the plan to have Ricki attack the Ninja for early damage.
I’m cool with this if we also shout that “the Blues send their regards”.
Soo, the poster.
Does it only function as Debuff, or is it also Sonar of sorts…
Does it ping The Guard when in proximity of target?
cuuuuuuuz
uh oh
Like, we NEED to know if Guards are magically informed about Kamau being near poster AND where that poster is.
If it’s just “Poster 1214 is near target! Where is Poster 1214? No one knows it was stolen.” then it’s more chill.
also regardless of it’s function even if it’s completly safe to keep. I think it should be left to Kamau if we keep it as memento or destroy it. (inventory space is inventory space but surelly we can have some personall treasures)
This might be a sign that the Guard is searching a little more intently for their TRAITOR than we thought. Intermission 1 page 1 has Kamau expecting that the guard would need a couple of weeks to rule out more likely hiding locations, but that was before the Tavern.
Also possible foreshadowing for Kamau’s bond Dungeon.
The ninja might also be an imperial guard working undercover, believing that Kamau is in league with one of the gangs, as he did escape prison along with a goblin and a human guard would have an easier time infiltrating the Reds to keep and eye on the Blues; or the Guard is searching for Kamau through the employ of underworld mercenaries.
Maybe it is a good time to get out of town…
Alright, Kamau at 10 Def with the curse (3+6+2-1). I don’t think the last top thug got a hit on him, Interpose protects nearby allies and as a melee attacking action it locks him in place. That means he took 2 from two thugs, 4 from weapons, leaving 5 for the assassin to make Kamau lose 1 HP. Scary.
Possible as well that the assassin has an ability like Ricki’s Ambush level-up, where they get bonus attack on the first turn of combat.
35 gold is nice, note that thugs should drop 1-3 gold according to the Enemies page. The poker table winnings are a solid chunk of this. We’re almost at two full stacks of gold coins, note for future consideration of Comforting Weight. We’re looking at more treasure right here than from the loot dungeon, this can buy a wand of mend on its own.
The 35 gold were the possible winnings from the poker game. At least that’s my take on it.
But hell yeah, 35 gold is nice! If we get to keep it…
Point out that Kamau is a dangerous wanted criminal who is recruiting for his gang. You can gain profit from being on his side, or he can cave your skull in. Join him or die. If he really doesn’t like you he’ll have his spider paralyze you and drink your organs. Make a nice Intimidation check, or whatever this ruleset calls that.
Between only knocking out people and Kamau’s horror at that idea, it’d be really hard to make that bluff.
The thugs don’t know that. It’s called roleplaying.
Eh, fine, keep playing the MMORPG. Terminate all enemies in combat. Do not attempt to parlay with NPCs, it’s not what they’re there for. Evaluate them for their XP value and item drops only.
Have you read the how to play? We are free to try things but they have no guarantee of working if they aren’t detailed in the rules. You’re asking a former guard to threaten people with death and work with thugs for what purpose exactly? If it doesn’t work we waste an entire turn.
Enh, I’m less concerned about the written rules and just trying stuff. If we waste a turn we waste a turn and I’m cool with that. I really want to see if that spider can flip the switch for us in blue territory and save us a combat. Or even climb over the rust monster walls and open a chest for us, but the threat posted above just seems kinda jank to me given current circumstances so I’m not voting for it.
About the spider switching a lever: While that would be nice,
lootedchecked for ring, doll, ball,…All good points. I kinda wish we finished off the blues to see what we had before going for the reds, but too late now.
I think sending Ricki to do some chest opening while Lara and the rest finish them off may be a solid idea. We need to multitask a bit here.
You’re asking a former guard to threaten people with death and work with thugs for what purpose exactly?
Roleplaying. It’s what RPGs are all about. We can avoid combat and achieve the goal at the same time.
If it doesn’t work we waste an entire turn.
Oh, this is about minmaxing, isn’t it?
We have found 0 items to help the kobolds (ball, doll, maybe bedtime story book), we have found 0 items to befriend the potential 4th party member (ring for smif), we have taken out 0 of 3 gangs (to help the kobolds by giving them room for housing), we have not even found the way to the mine below, we were not able to befriend the dog (ball?), we have not dealt with the rust monster or its chests, but we did burn a corruption. We are at turn 17, in turn 30 the first gang will arrive. Thus wasting turns is, unfortunately, not an option.
I do think we should maybe take some more chances on stuff, but your point is valid. We need more turns doing stuff that isn’t fighting if we can manage it.
We’re doing roleplaying right now. I probably would have talked to a guild, but a voting majority wants to try to liberate the kobolds from the gangs. Weirdly enough, taking out all the gangs was borne out of a roleplay decision on some level.
And I think others are concerned about turn 30 when the thieves are gonna come in and murder kobolds. No one wants that so people are trying to get goals accomplished so they can get kobolds out of the way and maybe have Kamau protect the front of the mine so no NPC’s die. Again, if people wee all about minmaxing, they’d just ignore the ensuing raids and just let everyone die while they looted everything.
Also, I don’t see Kamau making that threat as a character. Doesn’t fit his personality. Maybe he’d go “hey save us some time and leave the poor kobolds alone” or some such – but he’s not gonna do a bluff like that you posted. Just rings false.
Trust, people are sympathetic to roleplaying and are into it (really think we just need to tell a bedtime story to the kobold and that solves that, but it does make it much harder to defend that option when you go this hard complaining about it. There’s been decisions made in these dungeons I and many others don’t agree with. But I just went “welp that wasn’t my call, but okay let’s work with what we got then.”
We’ve put such things in comments several things and they were regularly ignored. We can alter the character’s actions only when they don’t go against the characters’ demeanor
Part of Roleplaying is thinking how characters will react.With Kamau’s trauma and instance on not killing anyone, do you not expect him to react negatively? Another part of roleplaying not doing stuff that’s out of charter and that feels out of character for someone as cheerful and kind as Ricki, especially when it deeply upsets a friend.
A massive tip for any social game is rudely dismissing people that disagree with you is a very easy way to get your ideas dismissed.
If we want more info on the poster, I bet the Ninja at least knows where he got it from. However, I imagine it may take a sight of an arachnomancer and insistive spider eyes up close his face to convince him to spill the beans.
Just kill him. Talking to NPCs, I mean mobs, is a bad idea. They aren’t worth any XP that way. Neither do you get their item drops.
I’m super into talking to NPC’s. (Hell, wanted to ask the rat king what was up last dungeon). But the theme seems to be wanting to liberate the kobolds from all the gangs, so we gotta roll with it. And the threats at this point likely won’t work (I actually don’t care much about wasting turns myself, cause I’m into the cool ideas).
I’m super into the idea of asking the blue crow above if they have seen a shiny ring though. And we’re going to be interacting with all the kobold npc’s as well. Plus possibly petting a rust monster.
Also, if we were as concerned about loot as you say, people would have merced that kobold next to the locked chest in the first room. That’s not gonna happen.
Little concerned on time, but them’s the breaks.
Additional action (should be free, since no one is guarding this atm)
Kamau: pick up 16 gold (he already has 4 in one of his inventory slots and coins stack up to 20).
This is smart and the only reason I can see it being down voted is the existence of a local troll.
Or it could be downvoted because we don’t know if getting away from combat to pick something up and coming back to Interpose is possible.
I’d rather wait for a less risky chance to try this.
On the other hand, Lara could pick up 20 gold before going downstairs and joining the fight.
She could then”trade” the gold to Kamau in order to bring the stack up to 20.
Roleplaying in an RPG isn’t trolling.
Behaving like murderhobos is much, much worse.
Actually completely agree with you, believe it or not.
Murderhoboing isn’t a thing in Dungeon Eyes, because I control whether or not the characters kill or knock out a target. Also, although it hasn’t even been attempted yet, I don’t allow the characters to attack invalid targets (nonhostile sapient creatures).
Nobody is playing wrong, so you can stop accusing them of it.
I think we should down the ninja first unless we’re cool with him getting away. Do the speedy smoke plus rat tail plan but focus ninja!
Do we fear that he has something like “Sneaky I: Once per dungeon can become undetectable by enemies until end of turn. Can’t be carrying any item of weight 3 or higher while sneaking.” or even Sneaky II? With that, alpha-ing the ninja makes sense, otherwise clearing the weaker targets faster makes sense. Why do we have no Magic Lens when we need one?
I’m not sure, but it seems like these lenses have become much more rare recently.
To be fair, we’ve only opened one chest this dungeon.
I meant the previous dungeon.
Uhm, because we didn’t buy any? They cost 10 gold now and Paws sells them, so we could have gotten at least one of them, if we had bartered differently in the intermission.
(I’m not complaining about how the money we had was spent, it’s pretty nice not having to worry about remorse or Kamau dying, as well as dealing decent chunks of damage thanks to all this gear. I’m just pointing out that we could invest some money into one or more of these lenses next time we get the chance.)
Magic lens is a great item we should absolutely be using more often. Sometimes you just gotta burn some coin.
One last slight variation on the attack plans
Spider: Attack the weakened goon Ricki hit.
Lara: Attack the halfling.
Ricki: Attack the halfling.
Kamau: Wear bucket and interpose.
An addition while the beatdown is happening, cause why not?
Ricki : “Hey Lara,” *BONK* “I heard the old songs of my people about warg riders. You think I could ride your spider without it liquefying my insides?” OH GODS MY RIBS.”Cause that would be dope.” MOM IS THAT YOU?
Unfortunately:
LoneStarNorth @ Discord:
“you’d know if Ricki could ride the spider”
But: This also means, if we manage to pet the dog (Daisy), then we will get to know whether Ricki can take a ride there.
Yep. Either pets or ball play time. Either way, doggo just wants some love.