Dungeon 9 Turn 0
————
Saying farewell to Paws, who waits by the entrance, Ricki and her friends squeeze through the narrow tunnel. The air up ahead smells musty and stale. The outer wall of the tomb, when they reach it, is made of ancient clay bricks that appears to have fallen inward at some point long ago. The place has an air of—
“Hey! Hey you!”
“What do you think you’re doing here?”
“You gotta be dead to be here! No breathers allowed!”
“So either back the HECK up, or stay still so I can administer the cure!”
“So says Coccyx, the greatest archer the world has ever known!!”
It seems one of the tomb’s inhabitants has already spotted the party, and is definitely hostile. Judging by the surroundings, it seems their threat isn’t an empty one. It looks like they’re ready to start shooting immediately, so Ricki and her friends should either get out of range or find a way to defeat that archer.
“A TALKING skeleton…? That’s new.”
“what skeleton”
“i can’t see anything it’s too dark”
————
Dungeon 9: The Broken Tomb
Goal: Eliminate the source of the zombies.
Secondary Goal: Defeat all zombies.
Time Limit: New zombies appear every 10th turn and begin to wander the dungeon. Being attacked by a zombie, whether they deal damage or not, leads to Infection. Five points of Infection causes a character to die and rise as a zombie. Only plants are immune.
This dungeon can be abandoned.
This may be the new Character we can recruit and they may have a.. *ahem* bone to pick with the zombies. Something to think about a at least.
Kamau: Interpose on any incoming arrows and interpose on skeleton group below.
Ricki: Talk with Coccyx. Tell them/it that they’re here to stop the zombies and would like some help. Unlock chest after.
Botania: Move past skellies with Kamau’s help. and scout next room.
Lara: Attack a skelly
Not sure if we even need to attack this group. No rules state that we’ll need to come back to this group since exit is automatic on objective. That said, zombie infection is super scary and we may actually need to abandon which would require Ricki to be at the exit.
Coccys may well go to the next room and fire if we split the group now, not the best course of action.
Depending on the lower room. Lara’s Web corruption may be a game changer and worth it.
Everyone: Stay together as a group. Don’t move yet. Stay behind Kamau.
Kamau: Interpose.
Ricki: Talk to Coccyx – try to find out what is his problem with breathers/what he wants in exchange for passage.
Botanya: Spawn a Flytrap, assign it to Kamau.
Lara: Talk to Coccyx – Tell him about the guards outside and that we are not with them.
Clarification: There is NO place on this outside of his range, and he can follow us. We can’t open the chest AND talk, neither. Neither should we attack the skellies before we know what is up with our hopefully future new party member, we shouldn’t aggro him. Which means we are soft locked on this screen.
(Lara has NO safe useful actions, that I can think of, might as well try to move the conversation along faster. And as much as I want someone to ask if he recognizes Botanya, that is metagaming – besides, this seems to be a different consciousness than her mother’s friend)
Talking cost the NPC’s action and they’re limited to one too, as we’ve learnt in the previous dungeon so I doubt we can get 2 turns worth of talk in 1 by having 2 character talk to them at once.
I don’t see much worth talking about the guards right now anyway. How about having Lara do the useful talks while Ricki unlock the chest?
I normally would agree, but only Ricki can interact with recruitable characters (see Lohk not talking to Botanya when told to, on the farm dungeon). Given that others talked to a recruitable character when Ricki was in the same room, it’s possible it works.
A more guaranteed action for Lara would be worth it, but I don’t see what she could do safely, except picking up arrows.
I think it’s more that only Ricki can recruit recruit-able characters. Botanya only had the recruit step left, but Coccyx obviously will need some side objective before being recruit-able.
Though that may be something that LSN can confirm on Discord?
Also, I’d suggest moving everyone(while interposing) to huddle behind cover of the chest regardless. We’ll learn:
1-If Coccyx will move. Normally a given, but why would he ask us to stand still then? It’s not like moving targets have an evasion bonus.
2-If the chest is valid cover.
What what it’s worth I think you’re right. Lsn clarified that lohk talking to Botanya didn’t work because we were going to get all of that same info when Ricki talked to her next turn.
Good to know, thanks. I’m posting the variant then.
Kamau interposing infection will kill him.
Goddammit we should have brought Cordy instead of Lara. His summoned shrooms would have been perfect chaff (on top of the huge economy bonus)!
What’s done is done, but let’s not forgo our most effective character in the future, please?
Cordy is not immune to the zombie plague and pets cannot stray away from their master. We could kill cordy.
For everyone else except Botanya, they get hit 50% of the time instead of a pet by random targeting. We can add more characters and their pets to reduce an individual’s % of getting hit, but we can’t get less than 50% of a character getting hit.
But Cordy? That’s only 20%! And his little shrooms are more expendable than other pets when they do get hit. So yes, he could die, but so can Lara, and she’s 2.5x more vulnerable to it.
I see, that’s a good point.
Assuming Zombies randomly target. Not saying they wont, or that its even u likely, but they may focus the enemy with more brains. (Character vs. Pet, at least)
If this goes as poorly as I think it could we may be abandoning very quickly. Kamau at 4 pts of infection on turn 1 wow. I’m assuming the people writing actions have considered this already, but this feels very very bad for us.
Edit: I’m also seriously wishing we had invested more in ranged weapons rn.
Sadly, ranged weapons wouldn’t have made a difference thus far.
Kamau is still useful to interpose against other enemies and cleaving thru zombies.
Uhm, how do you figure that Kamau gets 4 points of infection? He’s interposing Skeletons not Zombies.
Quoted from the update post and underlined for clarity:
Variant to my original plan (credit to Valiance!)
Everyone: Stay together as a group. Don’t move yet. Stay behind Kamau.
Kamau: Interpose.
Ricki: Talk to Coccyx – try to find out what is his problem with breathers/what he wants in exchange for passage.
Botanya: Give Batwing armor to Lara
Lara: Receive Batwing armor from Botanya and don it.
Clarification: There is NO place on this outside of his range, and he can follow us. We can’t open the chest AND talk, neither. Neither should we attack the skellies before we know what is up with our hopefully future new party member, we shouldn’t aggro him. Which means we are soft locked on this screen.
Second Variant to my original plan (credit to thisnameismeta!)
Everyone: Stay together as a group. Don’t move yet. Stay behind Kamau.
Kamau: Interpose.
Ricki: Talk to Coccyx – try to find out what is his problem with breathers/what he wants in exchange for passage.
Botanya: Give Batwing armor to Lara, Receive cigarettes from Lara
Lara: Give cigarettes to Botanya, Receive Batwing armor from Botanya and don it.
Clarification: There is NO place on this outside of his range, and he can follow us. We can’t open the chest AND talk, neither. Neither should we attack the skellies before we know what is up with our hopefully future new party member, we shouldn’t aggro him. Which means we are soft locked on this screen.
I don’t think skeletons do infection… but I don’t think we should trust the ones on the ground
We have battled those before, without trouble, and the dungeon rules do not include them. It’s ok.
Coccyx is a really cool name, but it’s an annoying word to pronounce. Since he is gonna get a nickname eventually, I propose we just call him Buttbone or BB.
That is all I have to contribute.
Everyone: Move to the left of the chest as a group.
Kamau: Interpose all attacks on the group.
Ricki: Unlock the chest.
Botanya: Spawn a Flytrap, assign it to Kamau.
Lara: Talk to Coccyx – try to find out what is his problem with breathers/what he wants in exchange for passage.
Explanation:
Per https://dungeoneyes.com/dungeon-9-turn-0/#comment-10076, we can in fact open the chest while getting the talking done by having Lara do the talking.
This gives everyone a useful action while still staying safe.
Hm. Let’s hope this works.
If what we say matters at all – we should explain that we’re there to combat a zombie plague. Zombies probably breathe, and whatever is summoning them probably also breathes. If there’s anything worse than live breathers that could someday become cool skeletons, it’s definitely zombies that will just keep being zombies.
Other possible arguments – we’re totally skeletons, just wearing cool meat suits that we can’t remove. It’s part of our culture, and honestly, it’s hurtful that he’d even imply we’re anything but skeletons. Alternatively – he’s probably breathing if he’s talking. Check yourself before you wreck yourself, Coccyx.
It’s a trap!
Kamau: throw a mushroom at coccyx to make a big boom.
Others: climb down the ladders, carefully. There may be other traps.