Dungeon 8 Turn 20
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Kamau continues blocking attacks while Cordy and their army of shrooms invade from the other wagon and take out one of the melee guards. A fifth mushrooms sprouts from the guard’s unconscious body, meaning everyone in the party but Ricki now has one. Lara takes a swing at the other crossbowman, but doesn’t quite take him out.
Ricki heads to the second wagon, grabs the bandit token off the floor and flips it over to the group of bandits nearby. They immediately relax and talk to her.
“Oh, cool. Good to know you’re in good with the gang.”
“Does that mean you’ll let me open that chest you’re guarding?”
“Yeah, no problem. We were just keeping an eye on it until somebody came to pick it up.”
“Do you know what’s inside?”
“No, we decided not to open it… for… some reason? Huh.”
It seems the dungeon madness might be wearing off! Maybe this is because the bandits’ “role” in this dungeon is to fight the merchants and their guards, but they’re running out of people to fight? With a little more effort, the bandits might all be ready to leave, so long as the cargo they came here for has been secured…
Ricki hurries back to the first wagon just in time to see a group of wolves arrive. Uh oh, looks like there’s another big one… hopefully the bandits can hold out for a little while!
I’m glad we lens’d the big wolf before. We also know from turn 14 that small wolves have 2 atk (Kamau would have taken damage at 3 per wolf). So we’re looking at 15(16 when outnumbering) total damage from wolf group.
Knowing their AI (target largest, most intimidating foe), they will first go for the bugbear goon, who can take 14 damage before dying.
Assuming they can’t split up, they’ll then spend their next turn on the small thug before moving on to top group and killing spear goon, giving us 3 turns to help or finish goal.
I don’t see any way to reliably finish goal before they kill 3 bandits so I think we gotta help.
I see 2 way for us to do this:
[Note: These are NOT full plan proposals, just ideas/partial frameworks to build on]
Option A: Ricki the savior
Ricki kills a small wolf while bandit pair kills another and wolves kill bugbear goon(Ricki is small). This leaves the wolf group at only 9 attack since they don’t outnumber anymore. Meaning they can only do 1 damage to Ricki even if they go for her instead of the remaining thug wielding a bigger, more intimidating weapon while another small wolf dies. Then, the lone direwolf can’t hurt Ricki anymore.
Risk/Downside: Possibly 1 remorse.
Option B: Kamau the savior
Lara web the armored guard, reducing its damage by 3 and (logically)preventing him from moving. This leave guard group with only 4 total damage output, letting Kamau run to help while Cordy finish. With Owlbear boots+spending action to move more, Kamau can interpose wolves on the 2nd turn.
Risk/Downside: 1 corruption, possibly 1 remorse.
What do y’all think?
It’s worth noting the group seems to be able to kill a small wolf in one turn. That means they’ll be down 3 damage on turn 2, etc. It’s still probably only 3 turns though.
Yeah, small one cannot kill the wolf
The Dire wolf will force the group to prioritize ricki. She will instantly die. She can do nothing without Kamau. Hence option A is out.
Option B isn’t all that bad. i rather like it.
Why do you think it would prioritize Ricki in option A? We know Dire Wolf isn’t a tactical genius like the Undead Knight, it just aim for the “largest, most intimidating” foe per magic lens.
Between a small thug wielding a giant sword and the tall bugbear who can look down on the Dire Wolf while having a staring contest, I don’t see how the small goblin with a 1-handed sword match its priority.
But sure, I can try to post a full plan for option B before bed. To anyone who prefer option A, I encourage you to do it yourself, I’m too tired to prepare 2 full plans tonight.
I am thinking on it deciding to attack the goblin mounted on an attack dog with magical armor and weaponry. I wouldn’t fault LSN if Dire decided Ricki is more intimidating. She is. Not enough to beat Dire, tho, so best not to risk it.
Option A
Do you trust LSN’s wordings to mean what you think they mean? Ricki is a better combatant than any of the shmucks in the group below, even though she is small. To me, that is intimidating.
Wolves have no way to know that, though. And they prioritize size first
Not necessarily. Wording says largest and most intimidating. That is unclear. Does largest or most intimidating take precedence? Regardless, once bugbear is dead, Ricki will then truly be largest AND most intimidating, and will, then, be next on the chopping block.
Wanna bet losing the whole game on that, as opposed to just losing the quest?
Behold the real absolutely-for-sure-just-trust-me wolf-o-vision:
What does “SIZE” mean? Height in pixels? Or maybe diagnoal/crossection? Or maybe naive width*height sprite area? Ricky wins in 2 out of 3 such interpretations.
Also, I think it’s worth mentioning that the original flavor text says:
I’ll repeat, “IN MOST CASES”. Not ALL CASES.
Yeah, we have been screwed before by blindingly believing lens wording (Undead Knight).
Wolf-o-vision surely also includes Atk, Def, and Mov values. That makes Ricki most intimidating for sure. – Well, we do not know, but NOT risk Ricki!
Plan to have Lara web up a guard to free up Kamau to run back toward wolves.
Ricki: Move 3 screens right(using tunnel beneath roof in screen #3) to use your bandit token to pacify bandit group there, avoiding the pressure plate trap along the way.
Lara: Move as far left as possible to leave the battle area and cast your ranged Web Binding on the armored guard.
Cordy: Get between the guards and punch the webbed one.
Cordy’s shrooms: Attack the webbed guard
Kamau: Drop an ale in front of poor Molly(RIP) then equip your Owlbear Talons then move a room right. Keeping your shroom safe on you, loot the trapped chest(prioritizing non-ammo loot) then move to the roof before moving a room left.
Explanation:
The web means guards can only deal 1 damage to Lara even if focusing on her, so Kamau can start heading for the wolves while doing useful actions on the way.
We actually want to interpose on the 3rd turn for the top bandit group because the bottom bandit group on screen 1 is still hostile to us. The strong group on top will allow faster killing of wolves too.
This defeats the webbed guard. Maybe the crossbow one too if it’s stupid enough to shoot one of Cordy’s shroom.
Guys, yes, we are on emergency mode here. I endorse the use of corruption in this case as it will save lives by virtue of being the only way kamau can leave this scene and start moving towards the bandit group without remorsing.
Mushies are immune to each other’s explosion so only 1 mushie can die at worst here.
I’m also having Lara back off since her web is ranged anyway.
Without mushies attacking, we can’t secure the defeat of webbed guard.
Yes, I was wrong, and edited my comment to support your plan, sorry
LSN: Just making it clear that the trap to be avoided is on screen 2.
https://dungeoneyes.com/dungeon-5-turn-20/
and
(https://dungeoneyes.com/dungeon-5-turn-42/#comment-5554)
means: Kamau will get all the damage from that chest-trap in wagon 5. Ouch! – On the way to wagon 1, do we plan to have him pick up the potion of greater healing and/or honey in wagon 3 and consume them? (If inventory and time permits.)
This is still gonna allow foe two bandit deaths. I think it’s better to just have Kamau use his action to move back to the middle. He’ll trigger all of the pressure plates, thus revealing what they are. That’ll let us know whether we need to open the trapped chest, and if we do, Cordy can safely do that on the following turn.
If its an arrow trap, the pressure plates could be triggered more than once.
It’s definitely important that we give Molly a proper burial after this dungeon.
Unfortunately we do not have the option of carrying her out. We are literally unable to. 🙁
How about a big cauldron of tasty MuleSoup? xD
Ricki: when the wolves attack the bandits, join in and kill one of the small wolves.
Daisy – stay safe girl
Kamau – double move using the Talons. Right to 5, up and back to 4, then stop when you reach wagon 2.
Lara – step back and web binding the armed guard
Cordy – Spore Touch the webbed guard (10-11)
2 Mushies – assist Cordy (12-13, KO should be guaranteed at 12
Other 2 Mushies – attack the crossbow guard for fun (unlikely to do anything but if one gets itself killed the unblockable dmg might be enough)
Reasoning: we know the Dire wolf will target the entire pack at the largest enemy. That’s effectively an involuntary interpose by the big bandit, so we use it to secure a wolf kill. The bandits should be able to take down at least one more, and next turn Ricki can guide Kamau past the mine on screen 2 and he can begin interposing.
Web Binding is -3 atk and def, so Lara and Cordy can clean up the guards safely enough.
Finally, the bandits are smart enough that they won’t attack us while being attacked by wolves, just like they leave us alone while we help vs merchants, so they won’t backstab Ricki either, and once Kamau arrives next turn it won’t matter. We may even have the survivor switch to allied if/when the final guard go down
Assuming Dire wolf will not attack Ricki on the first turn, he will on the second (you cannot make me believe the unarmored guy with a rusty greatsword is more intimidating than the armored girl with a electrified magic sword). That is 6 (base dire wolf damage) + 1 (buff on the small wolf) + 2 (normal wolf atk). Total of 9. Ricki’s armor is 8. This may remorse Kamau out of the game on the second turn if anything else happens, and it will likely be unavoidable if Kamau can’t get there for any reason. 🙁
Double move (using action as move) does not double speed (imagine Ricki zooming across six screens!) It merely adds one move (per How to play: Characters can always use their action to move one additional room. ). And you intend to have her guide Kamau across… while starting on the dire wolf battlegroup. LSN will read this is: wolf attacks Ricki, as she leaves to help Kamau. Kamau will be unable to interpose as he will be waiting for passage.
Lastly… Both guards are armed. Which do you mean?
I’d like to point out to my other comment, where I show a small image, depicting my doubts about nuances of wolve’s brain’s perception and the meaning of the word “largest”.
I see two major problems with that:
– If Ricki enters the fight now she’ll be locked in combat the wolves likely target her the following turn. She also can’t point out any traps for Kamau
– ‘double move’ is move+1, not x2. Kamau can reach wagon3 now, tanking all traps after fettling opportunity attacks is risky. Also the following turn he’d possibly get hit with 1 trap + the remaining wolvs