Dungeon 5 Turn 28
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Lara climbs back up the ladder, grabbing some thieves’ tools and meat before walking to the right. In the party’s new storeroom she drops off the heavy gold shield and the tools before picking her crit items back up, along with the potion of rage and the greatsword.
Kamau drops off the moldy cheese he’s carrying and takes the potion of shield and the dolly before returning to the ringsmif’s room. He also takes the bucket off his head because he’s about to talk to a young child and he can’t deal with that level of embarrassment right now.
“Here you go, little girl. We found your doll.”
“Wow! Thanks, mister! You’re the nicest ever!”
“Just be careful next time, okay? And head on home. I heard your mom is starting dinner.”
“Okay! I’ll go right now!”
The kobold child gives Kamau a hug and gets ready to head home. Kamau feels happy and horribly, horribly sad at the same time.
Meanwhile, Ricki drops her wolf hide armour and shield in the empty hallway on her way over, takes the recovered ring from Kamau, and presents it to Macadamia the ringsmif.
“Look, Macadamia! We found this ring on one of the upper floors. Is this the one you lost?”
“Yes, yes! That’s it! Thank you so much!”
“I was so worried when this went missing. Like I told you, I’m only allowed to distribute these to the Guard normally. I could get in a lot of trouble if they thought I’d sold this to some criminal.”
“But sometimes the Emperor grants special permission for contractors like you guys, if they do good work! If you were able to fight off those gangs, I’m sure He’ll recognize your efforts soon!”
“Oh, we’re not official contractors.”
“…Eh? You’re not?”
“HALT!!”
“Ringsmif, you will cease dealing to this goblin IMMEDIATELY, in the name of the Emperor!”
“Magic rings are a controlled category of magic item! Submit yourselves to arrest or be executed for resisting the Imperial Guard!”
“Oh crap! It’s the fuzz!”
“No! No! They’re giving me the ring BACK! I’m not selling to them!!”
It seems an Imperial Justiciar has entered the dungeon and misinterpreted Macadamia’s interaction with Ricki! He calls back to the dungeon entrance for reinforcements, implying that there are more guards nearby. Macadamia frantically tries to explain, but it doesn’t seem the justiciar is interested in hearing it.
Looks like it’s time to get out of here. Since Macadamia doesn’t seem to understand how unlikely the Guard is to listen to his explanation, Ricki resolves to take him with her. He doesn’t seem like the type who can last in a jail cell for very long. On the floor above, Kamau shields the kobold child, who didn’t have time to return home before the justiciar showed up. Looks like she’s coming along, too!
It seems like the Guard is approaching from the dungeon entrance, by the kobold apartment, so the party will have to find another way out. Ricki tries to think if she’s seen or heard anything suspicious that might indicate an alternate exit…
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The dungeon parameters have changed!
Goal: Find an alternate exit and escape.
Time Limit: The Guard has entered the dungeon. Each turn, two more will arrive, and all Guards will explore the dungeon in search of the party. They will stop only to fight other dungeon creatures along the way.
All other parameters remain the same.
Rust chest is unlocked! Kamau could maybe buy some time. Or we could trigger bats to delay
Interesting, the chest was definitely locked on turn 26 and there was no mention of a click. We might have only gotten confirmation last time with the red chest because Ricki was in the same room.
Rusty was eating the safe on turn 27 and still had a greatsword and dagger to go, so I guess the condition was either to feed the safe or to feed some total weight of metal items which the safe put us over.
Honestly, I think the chest was just waiting for us to return the ring before unlocking.
Big discussion(s) going on in Discord about what to do next and what to keep/throw away. If anybody was still hesitant about joining the discord, now is a good reason to.
Discord is a Free App you can use without even having to download anything. It can run on a browser. Come join us!
It’s a short path between that and terminally online. I like LSN’s creations to take up five minutes of my day, not the entire day. There is so much else to do. Let’s keep the important discussions on the web page, where everyone can participate.
I’m legitimately happy to see you’re still around. I was worried we’d driven you off when we started the fights you weren’t in favor of, and I’m happy to see that wasn’t (at least permanently) the case. Seemed a shame if we couldn’t all just agree to disagree and still enjoy the ride.
Agreed. I don’t mind people discussing the details in real time for things like shopping where there are many choices packed into a given post, but if it isn’t on the page here for votes then it doesn’t count.
Extended discussion has diminishing returns, as late suggestions don’t have enough time to gather votes compared to the posts just after update.
On the topic of items to keep: Ringsmifs consume items to smif rings (D5T3), the ring of protection is blue, and the potion of shield is also blue. I say to try holding onto the potions in hopes of smiffing our rings into slotless buffs. (Once we convince Macadamia that his lucrative law abiding lifestyle has been forever ruined for reasons that are most definitely not our fault.)
As for treasure… The 39 gold coins is already above anything we’ve gotten before, and we’re too full to benefit much from new equipment anyway. Note the gold shield is only worth around 9 gold per slot, making the encyclopedia or a regular shield more valuable per slot. Still, we should try not to leave items that the guard can use against us, like the wanted poster.
The justiciar is unarmed.
We’re going to have to make sacrifices to get through this. Now, when the only enemy is a human without a weapon, is the time to skip an interpose. We won’t get a better turn, ever.
This is not the time to worry about a point or two of remorse. The dungeon is ending. Resources exist to be spent. Let Kamau do something useful this turn. Every turn we lose is two more guards. Every action we spend is ~half a guard coming in. Work on grabbing stuff now, interpose later.
And have Lara’s spider chew on the justiciar. It can’t do anything else useful this turn.
While I am inclined to agree that we could just try to run past them, we have the problem that Kamau cant interpose on 2 screens at the same time.
If kamau interposes on the one we see now he cant follow the group and everyone could be attacked by whatever is in the next room.
Also, that justicar is Definitely not unarmed, we just don’t see his weapon right now.
First, open the puzzle chest.
I am presuming that since a large number of guard is about to walk into the dungeon, the gangs are not going to show up on turns 30, 40 and 50.
Ask Mac if there is another way out of the area. Make a decision of what we want to keep and carry with us now. Ask Mac if he can carry some of this for us also.
As I read “parameters have changed” and “all other parameters remain the same”, I think the goal and time limit have both been fully replaced. Gangs won’t enter and we can’t finish by gathering at the entrance. Our secondary objective of keeping kobolds alive is still active, and by a strict reading we could technically abandon the dungeon.
Kamau: Tell the Dolly Mommy to go upstairs and wait for us to come get her. We will keep her safe and get her home no matter what so all she has to do is be a brave little mommy and keep her dolly safe for now. If she won’t do that, tell her to wait by the ladder for Ricki to come guard her. Heroically put on the bucket, then go downstairs and interpose. If you can, get to the left of the Justiciar so that the closest creature to the bats is the justiciar, but don’t compromise anyone else’s safety to do this.
Ricki: Tell Macadamia that the guard won’t listen to his explanations. He needs to pack anything up he needs from his shop and can get this turn, and tell you on your return anything he know about the mines or a way out of this warren that isn’t the front entrance. Reassure him that although this situation is terrible you’re all going to make sure he gets out of this safe. Move to the left, pick up your discarded hide armor and shield as long as you can do so safely (you should be able to get there faster than any guards can). Go back to the right and up the ladder. Give your hide armor to Lara for her leather armor, then equip your shield and the leather armor. Finally, open and loot the now unlocked puzzle chest then retreat back by the ladder to the next room.
Macadamia: If you know anything about an alternate exit, now is the time to tell everybody! Clear out any items you want to take from your shop right now, because you won’t have time to do it later! After this, exit the room up. If you won’t leave the party then stay by the ladder to the next room with Ricki.
Lara: Drop the torch and raw meat, then pick up a longsword and some leather armor. Go down one and give Macadamia the longsword and leather armor. If Macadamia somehow can’t hold these things, drop the longsword to be able to hold the wolf hide armor. Equip the hide armor and shield, then quickly poke your head and arm below to sting a bat before retreating back to the puzzle chest level. Hopefully the bats will target the Justiciar (or Kamau) and not you.
Spider: Wait with Lara and attack a bat if it goes for her.
Dolly Mommy: If Kamau can talk you into it, go up one room. Otherwise hide by the ladder up to the next room.
This gets us setup to abandon the entrance and move for the pickaxe Kobold by the rust monster. My bet is that he knows how to get to the mines. I could be wrong about this, but the fact that he has a pickaxe and that he wouldn’t leave his post when we cleared out his home make me believe he’s the key here. There’s also the fact that LSN had Ricki think about whether she knew of anything suspicious that might indicate an alternate exit, and also had Ricki note that it was weird the kobold wouldn’t leave his post.
If Kamau is interposing, might as well have Lara go down near him, shoot, then move back up (if she can), just staying out of range of the justicar. Just in case the bats attack her
Spider should attack the Justicar
Only problem with this is that I’m still not sure how retreating works. Ideally only Kamau is in range of danger for the top of next turn, so that when we retreat up the only one that can get parting shots is Kamau. If the spider is down there and bats focus on him he’ll die and we might want his help before the end.
Other option is to activate bats next round. But if Lara gets attacked I think we lose Kamau lol
Lara has 5 defense and the spider is with her and poised to attack. If Lara attacks next turn she can’t leave the room and we are stuck there until turn 31.
There seems to be a misunderstanding. We dont control Mac. We would have been told we can make him do things if we did, which we weren’t. This is an escort mission.
By comparison, D3T62: “Lara will take her actions from the reader suggestions, she GUESSES”
D1T25: “Kamau has agreed to aid in Ricki’s escape, but not to join her party. Readers can now give him actions to take”
We’re dragging them along. Unclear which interactions will count as actions, it’s probably fine to say they move with us without spending an action to pick them up, but we definitely can’t count on having Macadamia or dollmom pull levers, loot chests, or attack enemies. Best to assume that any items we give them won’t be coming back to us, which is fine because we have a lot of spare items.
I think we should consider using Lara’s action to open the chest this turn: getting information about the mine out of Mac might require Ricki’s action & with Kamau interposing the bats are likely not going to soak any attacks from the Justicar (though we could still activate them with the spider and hope interpose draws them from it?). Letting them loose next turn seems like a better idea to me since we mainly want them to delay the guards for now, not necessarily deal damage?
My reason for not activating the bats next turn is that whoever does so cannot leave the room. If we have to leave someone behind to activate the bats it would have to be Kamau, which will put him way behind the rest of the group. Beyond that, Kamau could actually miss activating the bats without light, so to be really safe you’d need another Kamau interpose and Lara attack. If the chest doesn’t get looted this turn someone can still loot it on the way out next turn, whereas I believe waking the bats will be inherently riskier next turn.
Ah true, I forgot we can’t move after combat. Guess aggroing bats now is the better move then (if we assume mine entrance is at Rusty & not the shop)
Entry points to basement:
First room (source of guards, could drop off girl): Wardrobe is suspiciously aligned with a pile of rock.
Second room (rusty): Strange-behaviour kobold has a pick, suggesting they know how to get to the mine with the other pick-using kobolds. Ladder goes down from mine. However, there is nowhere for a background tunnel to hide up top.
Third room (here): Rat tunnel in mine, but no matching tunnel aligned above it, and even the smiffery is out of the way. There’s a pile of rock aligned with a wall sign in the room above. There’s also definitely a room below this one (open gap at right), and the smiffery could hide a background tunnel to this unexplored room.
I really doubt that the entrance to the mines is under Macadamia’s shop, so it may be in the ‘kobolt residence’, or at Rusty’s or left from Rusty’s. I’d ignore rat tunnels, since Kamau and Lara can’t pass through. If we take a look at the map, right now we have almost rectangular map, with a hole on the top-left. That hole-in-the-map is:
The residence has a fireplace with a pipe chimney. It should lead to some kind of an open air, so the smoke can exit. Some kind of a roof, or maybe ground level, if we’re already underground. I doubt we could use that, as it would be very thin/narrow tunnel/pipe, but it may indicate that there’s an open-air room up from there. Also, the wardrobe, which could cover a downward pathway as you noted.
The kobold with pickaxe is oddly fine with standing at this place. I think he actually is not really just ‘fine living there’, but he might be guarding a way to the ‘hole in the map’, one room to the left from there. Path to room with Rusty passes through two gangs, nice layer of distraction for any Guards. Rusty itself is probably capable of effectively disarming a few Guards as well. If there’s an entrance to alleged hidden left room, it probably won’t be placed on the level with Rusty (metal, pickaxes), but rather where the kobold stands. Sounds like a good place for a hidden entrace, giving a lot of time to react if something bad is happening.
Of course, it’s all guesswork.
Another option is that we might get the pickaxe from the kobold and make a hole in the FLOOR somewhere near Macadamia’s shop – because it’s the nearest to the hole seen under that shop. Because, why not, who said the walls are not destructible with the right equipment?
This, however, doesn’t solve the problem of keeping all kobolds alive. There’s the family at the entrance. With TWO guards EACH turn, it will get very crowded very soon. Unless the hidden entrance is exactly at the wardrobe, it will be next to impossible to safely evac them.
Furthermore, I’m worried about this line:
Why is Kamau horribly sad? Either that’s a plot reference to his past and the flashes of dead bodies we were shown, or, that’s a foreshadowing feeling that the kobold’s family is already beyond saving. With this shouting now, the guards could be already killing them at the very next turn.
We do NOT have time for that.
Also… doggo!! 😥
We are NOT leaving without dog.
Turn 29:
Kamau, put the bucket on, go down the ladder and interpose;
Macadamia, go up the ladder, loot rust chest, take kid and go up to Blue’s territory;
Lara, drops torch, grab magic lens and comes down to ringsmiff area. Use the lens on the justiciar;
Ricki, get ring from Maca, get shield potion from Kamau and drink it, go to entrance, grab and equip wolf hide armor and shield and move back to ringsmiff area (should be enough defense to stand 2 Imperial guards without maxing remorse).
Next turn we can use Lara to provoke the bats and Ricki will get the dog. The supposed secret entrance to the mines inside/behind the kobold’s wardrobe is probably there so we can deliver the kid safely home. Kamau can use a healing potion next and grab the gold shield. The lone miner by the rust monster must know a way into the mines.
People seem to think we control Mac. We dont yet. We would be told we can make him do things. Which we weren’t. This is an escort mission now.
Please be mindful that Lara might need actual LoS on the justiciar in order to use the lens on them.
It shouldn’t be a problem (because they are not inside a crawlspace or somewhere else inaccessible), but it was hinted at before by LSN that only Rick can use the lens “through” walls, because of her dungeon eyes.
I’m going to assume that you deliberately chose not to have Lara use the book in combo with the lens because a) we don’t really have the inventory space to take everything with us, so we might as well use the consumable and b) there is a chance that we don’t get any info (20%) and time is the one thing we can’t really spare atm.
Kamau: go downstairs and interpose.
Ricki, go left, get all your equipment back, go right, then up, taking the kid with you.
Lara and Spider: drop meat and torch, get encyclopedia and dagger, go down , drop dagger on upstairs floor (so kamau can get it next turn to trigger the bats) and attack justicar
Macadamia: go up and talk about the exits. If you can’t talk about it yourself, and need Ricki to extract this info from you, loot puzzle chest and go up.
Kamau: interpose
Lara: Loot Rust Chest (symbol changed from ? to ! )
Spider: attack one of the bats (Spider not Lara in case Kamau interpose doesn’t count on discount dracula)
Macademia: go upstairs to our loot stockpile and doggo room
Ricki: go grab your wolf armor from room to the left. On the way there show middle finger to Justicar as he is being cornered by Kamau and can’t attack her, on both ways. Grab Mommy and get to Doggo (2 Mov + action as movement)
Mommy: go with grandma? Ricki upstairs.
If we do not have command over Dolly Mommy or Macademia then Ricki just drags them to Doggo Room.
Hmm, we’ve established the spider can’t attack a different group of enemies from its owner, but Lara wouldn’t be attacking here, and one of the spider’s abilities is to wall climb to places others can’t reach.
Should work just like the Spider attacking the bugbear while Lara flipped switches and such.
Pets can’t leave it’s owner and has to follow them from room to room.
Should be able to attack as long as owner is in same part of Dungeon and Lara will be taking care of Rust Chest at that time.
The kobald next to Rusty the bug has said they can get out to go hunt. Likely will know a surefire way out of the dungeon. We should go speak to em.
Also they have a Pickaxe which is a visual clue to the mines below. And we have lots of obstacles in the way to use to delay things. He’s the best call.
Ricki: Take Macadamia upstairs and trade ball and purse for Kamau’s Shield and bucket, equip both and run past the Imperial Justiciar to grab your armour and shield, then run back here. Give Macadamia a shield, ask if there’s another exit we could use, maybe hidden in the smiffery. As an action, go up to the blue hideout.
Kamau: Take the kobolds up to the blue hideout, give Macadamia the leather armour as well as thieves tools and a longsword, and use the ball to play with Daisy. Put loose gold in the purse, return purse to Ricki.
Lara: Command spider to drink the loose healing potion. Drop off the meat and critical gear, then pop down and loot the rusty puzzle chest. End turn by the ladder heading back up.
Different sketch here, risking spending some Remorse if the Justiciar has hidden weapons (though note it’s also dark here) and leaving bats alone in order to take more actions. Others are welcome to copy this general approach and adjust which items go where. Ricki ending turn in the blue hideout puts her in Dash range of Rusty’s room next turn, I thought of having her loot the rusty chest but I don’t want to risk leaving a puzzle item behind due to low inventory space.
I think that Macadamia will only be able to carry 5 items much like Ricki. Still, giving him our spare armour and a shield along with his ring of protection seems worthwhile.
It’s very possible the spider could eat the meat for better healing than the potion – just a thought.
I like this plan quite a bit. It doesn’t wake up the bats, but honestly that might be safer. Only worry I have with this is that Lara is now the closest enemy to the Justiciar. If we took a bunch of damage on Ricki Lara might push Kamau over on Remorse if we can’t stop her from taking damage next turn. There’s also the risk that you’re walking Ricki close to the Justiciar before you get her armor. Unclear she can do that safely, particularly because she will be the closest enemy to the justiciar from the very start of the turn.
Under this plan, Ricki will have 4 defense when crossing the Justiciar (1 base plus 2 shield and 1 bucket), as will Lara (1 base plus 1 armour and 2 shield). The only risk is if the Justiciar is as strong as Kamau and also has a hidden weapon, along with landing blows in the dark. That is a risk and I wouldn’t take it if Ricki had 1 HP left, but we have some space for mistakes here. Still, I feel the danger that the Guard poses is from swarming us, not from having individual Kamau-level threats.
I see, your concern is that Ricki could get hit on her way up the ladder to get equipment from Kamau. For this, I’m mostly relying on how we have been able to swap armour mid-combat and immediately gain the benefits. Timing is a little loose, though likely not quite so loose that Ricki could take an attack on the way to get her armour and then reduce the damage retroactively by putting armour on.
Lara:Grab shield and lens. Drop meat and healing potion to make room. Go down, hand leather armor and shield to Ricki, use lens on guard, go up ladder
Ricki:Once you receive armor and shield, go left, grab your armor, go right again, open chest, hand leather armor back to Lara
kamau:Interpose
We need intel. Good chance that the Justicar does something if we kill him. He also has a solid chance of dropping magic rings as a officer of the Guard…who are allowed to buy rings.
Lara:Grab shield and lens. Drop meat and healing potion to make room. Go down, hand leather armor and shield to Ricki, (wait for ricki to return), hand Ricki lens, go up ladder, Sting bats
Ricki:Once you receive armor and shield, go left, grab your armor, go right again, hand leather armor back to Lara, Lens justiciar.
kamau:Interpose
Kamau: Interpose.
Ricki: throw something at the bats
Macadamia: open the chest, loot.
Girl: go up and pick stuff up.
Lara: Talk to Macadamia about exits.
This is far from a full turn, but hopefully can be refined.
I just hope we are able to nab the gold shield, puzzle chest, and doggo before we leave
EDIT: I just triggered a spam filter accidentaly. If this post gets released out of its jail, PLEASE IGNORE IT and move to the next turn. Next turn happened while I was writing this.
Observation:At first, I throught the guards are meant as a swarm. Two guards each turn. That’s a lot. So either they will be goons, easy to be KO’d (maybe except the Justicar), or they are meant to be almost undefeatable mob, and this turns the thing into a benny-hill-style runaway from angry mob chasing us.However, can it be that the gangs are still coming? Can it be that BOTH the Guard and the Gang will enter, and start fighting each other? That would be heh epic.Let’s actually READ them with the current ERRATA:Dungeon 5: The Kobold Warrens(Old) Goal: Help at least one kobold, then gather at the exit.(New) Goal: Find an alternate exit and escape.Secondary Goal: Don’t allow any kobolds to be killed.(Old) Time Limit: On turns 30, 40, and 50 a gang of hoodlums will enter the dungeon and begin searching for Ricki’s party. They may be hostile to other creatures within the dungeon, and may steal loot for themselves.(New) Time Limit: The Guard has entered the dungeon. Each turn, two more will arrive, and all Guards will explore the dungeon in search of the party. They will stop only to fight other dungeon creatures along the way.This dungeon can be abandoned.(EDIT: reformatted due to QUOTE taking too much space)Alright. I just proved myself wrong. Since the gang-entering-on-30-40-50 rule was written under the “Time Limit” point, and that very point has just been completely rewritten, gangs will not arrive, and there won’t be a gangs-vs-guards war out there.Still, secondary goal is still active. Considering that the thing just happened at Macadamia’s, and Macadamia’s shop is right here, and the kobold family is back at the entrance, and the guards will be pouring each turn starting out at -this-next- turn, can it be that this is wired up to fail the 2ndgoal if we go through Macadamia’s arc? Sure could. We could ignore Macadamia, we could just give the doll, and quit, or give the ball back, and quit. Or even then get the dog, and quit. Mission complete, treasure hoarded, doggy obtained, and all kobolds would be safe. 2ndgoal was possible.However, we considered there will be a team member here, and DollyMommy won’t be a team member, I hope. Macadamia on the other hand, could be. And a very valuable one, considering his skills. I’m NOT surprised that getting this far (things done, items gathered, doggy, QUEST chest with unknown contents, and now maybe Macadamia) is at the cost of failing the 2ndgoal.I think, as bad as it feels, we should ignore what happens to the family. If the entrance to the mines is there, they will flee on their own. If not, it’s on guards’ karma, not really ours.