Dungeon 6 Turn 4
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While the rest of the party moves downstairs, Lohk quickly investigates the cabinet. She finds two cheap ales insides, already poured into mugs for some reason. She can also see from here that the nearby bucket is empty. Lohk then follows the rest of the party.
After carefully stepping over the trap door that Ricki points out, the party attacks the pair of centipedes. Lara hits one, while Ricki and Macadamia team up against the other one. Both centipedes take significant damage, but neither dies. No party member takes damage in the exchange.
Daisy looks down at the dead dog and considers chewing on some bones, but the moral implications of desecrating the remains of her own kind are simply too much for her.
Okay so the skulls are related to enemy deaths. I was really hoping it was hp. Skeletons appear to be small skulls, and centipedes appear to be medium skulls. If we think in terms of hp per enemy, that might indicate that small skulls are approximately 4 hp and/or below, and medium skulls are at least 7/8 hp. That might give us a difficulty guide on what enemy would clear what skull.
Maybe it has nothing to do with hit points, but it’s related to “enemy type” (which is nothing specific in the rules). Like undeads, beasts something else.
We currently have explored four rooms in the dungeon. So far, they contain 15 undead, 15 beasts (owlbear, rats, bug people, centipedes and wolf spiders) and 3 things under the beds. If we scout the other rooms and count the number of “creture types” we could be sure how to keep track of the skulls in the sealed door (if we must, anyway).
24 small skulls x ~4hp
16 medium skulls x ~8hp
5 large skulls x ? hp
Let’s say the “?” is 16hp because, why not, powers of two, AND the OwlBear has 15hp, and Sally had 22hp, so 16 isn’t that unreasonable.
That gives 96+128+5x? (80) = 224 (304).
While large skulls certainly look deadly, in terms of dps (or rather, dpr, since ’rounds’ are more likely to be our timeunit than classic seconds), it seems that majority of the work is in med, then small skulls. But I don’t see how could it be important for us. Just noticed a fact.
Also, it doesn’t include enemies’ DEF, which will raise these numbers noticeably, since for example, if that ‘small monsters’ were 24 small skeletons having 1 DEF each, it would mean 24 total dmg to add, and we know red-eyed ones have 3 DEF due to the October curse.
So, getting exact numbers may be a bit more involving, but to get the rough idea, adding a bit to account for DEF, it seems we have to do at least 300-400 dmg.
I took a look on character sheets, our team seems to have 16dmg/turn, or 19 if to include Daisy. If every bit of damage sinks and nothing is wasted, we could do 400dmg in 21-25 turns. So we have to survive at least 4 ghost encounters.
Lara: Attack the centipede Ricki and Mac were working on.
Lohk: Frost Ray the centipede Lara started attacking
Mac: Attack the centipede Lara originally attacked.
Ricki: Lens the specter when it shows up using the encyclopedia. If that’s impossible, attack the specter. If that is ALSO impossible, make your way to the woodshop, dodging both the trapdoor near the centipedes and the trap door near the woodshop. Once there, carefully investigate the woodworking tables (the table saw and vice/clamp) but don’t stick your paws anywhere dangerous. Do the tools seem useable (maybe to make a stake)? Is there anything else on the tables?
I think we need to finish the centipede fight, as there’s no guarantee running from them will do any good or save us from taking damage. Fortunately we should have enough damage to finish them off. We know their stat block is now 7/8 HP and 2 defense, so Lara’s centipede took 6 damage, and Ricki/Mac’s took 5. They need 4 and 5 more damage respectively to guarantee a kill. I’m having people switch targets just in case the specter buffs enemies or something like that.
since both Centipides took “significant” damage i don’t think Lohk is needed to fight them. Do we expect 2dmg to make a difference? Lara and Mac should be good enough on their own.
Lohk should do something else with her time.
I would prefer her moving the chest on top of weakened floor so in the future we can break it and instantly drop chest on spider bellow.
We know exactly how much damage it takes to kill a centipede now. Kamau killed one in four turns back in the chapel using his hilt, and was only doing minor damage. We guessed that meant 2 damage and 2 defense, for a total of 7 or 8 hp over 4 turns, or 1 damage and 3 defense, for a total of 4 hp. This fight confirms it can’t be the 4 hp and 3 defense option, so it has to be the 7/8 hp and 2 defense option.
Also, there’s a small chance that OctoberCurse also affects centipedes 🙂
So that weird-looking gray patch of the floor is a trap door! The one we just walked over is extra-smart: person who falls down, falls directly onto a pressure-plate trap.
It may be possible to use that twice.
If we move anything onto the trapdoor we just jumped over, the thing may fall down onto the pressure plate and effectively deactivate it — or activate it for fireworks and amusement. The nearest thing we could try to drop there is the bucket (probably too light) and the wardrobe (after taking out the mugs, they could be destroyed or spilt), and the chest to the left.
Then, since that’s a trap door, we can open the chest on the left side of the room, and then push it over to the bottom trapdoor and drop it on the middle spiderwolf’s head. Or a wardrobe. Heh. Gravity!
EDIT: Of course, all assuming the trapdoors are not magical, or weight-limited etc. We could try, and learn they won’t open unless something person-ish or alive-ish stands on them, who knows. But I’d try out at least one of them.
EDIT: Of course, not now, now it’s the spectre showtime. Maybe next turn.
That trapdoor can also give us access to that locked room, assuming we can get it to hold open after someone goes through.
And using the chest in that room as aid for climbing we could even get out of the room, too!
Well, if we have any problems, I suppose we could get rid of the eyes, and move the bed first, then drag the chest onto the bed. Jenga time!
Excuse me another non-action post, I do a lot of them lately, but I forgot to say, I really love the idea with the sealed door and skull-indicators. That’s just sooo coool. Great idea LSN!
Good for you, Daisy!
Wow, I was afraid of that, but there it happened. I overestimated Def and underestimated HP for the sun-heads too, but “minor” damage really sounded like 1 damage. None of the critical hits helped either… In retrospect, should’ve used cigarettes here, before they’re wasted anyway. Oh well.
Spectre is going to hurt, sadly.