Dungeon 9 Turn 3
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Ricki, Kamau, and Lara descend to join Botanya in the lower room. They attack the group of undead, easily destroying the ghoul and one of the skeletons, though the second skeleton survives as the flytrap misses its attack. It seems a little uncoordinated in the dark despite lacking eyes. Maybe it’s a photosynthesis thing?
Before being bisected, the ghoul manages to paralyze Kamau. He won’t be able to act next turn.
Botanya uses her armour’s special ability to echolocate the group of bats nearby. She detects three regular bats, and two fire bats. She and Golly then head to the left to explore the next room to the left.
The next room is also dark, so “exploration” is limited.
OK, I’m thinking square white eyes = zombies. So the rat downstairs means that Molly is at risk of zombification too. Glad we didn’t bring any of our other animal pets!
Puzzle chest is same color as skin of zombie rat and ghoul champion.
Maybe the tombs are the source of the zombies? One of them is already open.
the tombs arent out of place, I’d think there’d be magic smoke or something. Probably a Necromancer down here somewhere…
Discord confirmed the square eyes are the same style as the “zombies” from wswfg
Lots of good intel this turn:
Fire Bats are a thing, so watch out plants! (though the fireshield protects Botania from their bonus).
Is that a zombie rat? we assumed the zombies would all be humanoid so wruh oh.
That sword wielder could be zombie, but would it infect through a sword attack?
One Sarcophagus is open. That implies that there could be other baddies inside if we open.
New pick?
Puzzle Chest color matches the zombie night.
Kamau: Do nothing
Botania: Move right, Check/pick up jars on bottom floor.
Ricki: Kill Skelly next to kamau
Lara: Move left and pick up pick.
This gives everyone something useful to do this turn while avoiding any possible damage from Cyx.
I didnt have the plant attack since Cyx could possibly snipe it if it did.
Botania should be safe from the bats even if Cyx alerts them. She has a fire shield and reduces all melee attacks by 1.
Lara is really the only one at risk without Kamau so moving her left keeps her safe.
I don’t think we can keep Lara safe, but moving left won’t hurt
As a matter of fact, we CAN have Botanya play the pies instead, with the intent of making coccyx miss – he will shoot at Lara before she can run, but the piles may be able to intervene.
Hard to judge probability with so many unknowns, but I think Cyx would be more likely to target Ricki (in combat) or Botania (deeper in tomb) than Lara who is leaving.
I feel giving up the 20% miss chance for more intel on those jars sooner being a better trade off
Does Botanya breathe? Maybe Cyx would be less likely to target Botanya because she doesn’t breathe, and he only has it in for breathers. If only we had time to experiment!
One possible issue is the zombie on the third level in that room might notice Botanya if she passes by. We’re not sure if zombies follow once they notice the pc’s.
I would think we’d get the ! alert first. We’d have Kamau next turn or we could let Botania try tanking it since she is immune
Macadamia would dig through that dirt in seconds
another fine example of the utility of the Dig skill
If he had the ability, yeah
AND if we had him in the party
Kamau: Think about anything you might know about green ghouls with red eyes, or a giant two-handed swords with a elipse-shaped blade that such a creature might wield.
Botania: Move right, pull the lever
Ricki: Kill Skelly next to kamau
Lara: Move to the left of the jars on bottom floor and check them/pick them up.
Explanation:
-Kamau is paralysed, but maybe he can still think? Cost nothing to try, and we might get some free intel.
-We didn’t bring Mac with dig to get through top floor of left room. I highly doubt anyone else can dig through without spending like 3-5 turns and puzzle chest won’t be unlocked anytime soon so let’s leave that area alone for now.
-We’ll learn what exactly the lever do. Botania is the one who do it because her aura makes regular bats harmless and her shield protect against fire, just in case Coccyx tries bats shenanigans.
-Lara leaving the room would not keep her safe from Coccyx this turn anyway, since he can shoot her before she leaves the room even if she does. We’ve seen enemies in the room a character is leaving shoot them before they leave plenty of times.
Lara: Move left and try using the pick from the floor to begin clearing the pile of dirt. Prioritize making a hole large enough for a small person to get through the top if possible. If you can’t do this in one action, grab the pick for now.
Mushroom 6 (Lara): Inspire Lara in her quest to move dirt.
Ricki: Attack the skeleton. This might risk a remorse point, since we think reinforced skeletons do 2 damage and Coc might do 5 with his bow if he targets Ricki.
Botanya: Go down the ladder, past the creepy zombie thing and activate the lever. Ricki should be able to roughly describe where it is so you can find your way. We’ll need intel to see what the lever does, and Botanya doesn’t have much better to do this turn. If Coc wakes up the bats and they attack Botanya, he won’t have attacked Botanya. Botanya’s fire shield, armor, and ability means that each bat has its damage reduced by 1, and Botanya has 11 armor when fire damage is involved. The fire bats would have to do 5 damage each (before the bonus to fire damage on plants) for Botanya to take any damage from the bats, so this should be safe.
Kamau: Be paralyzed. Meditate a bit and try to pretend your friends aren’t in danger.
Explanation: Lara is super vulnerable currently with only 3 defense. If Coc targets her she almost certainly takes damage, so better to have her move left for now. I think the rest is self explanatory.
Siv has pointed out on Discord that this could get Lara trapped, depending on what the lever does. If the lever cycles the open door through a set of 4 positions (which I find unlikely, but not impossible) than it could take 3 additional actions to restore the door position to this opening position. That’d be a pretty big loss if it’s how the lever functions.
I don’t think we’ve seen a lever do anything but switch between two binary states, but it’s certainly possible for it to work as suggested, which would make this a bad plan.
Kamau: Be Paralyzed.
Ricki: Finish off the Reinforced Skeleton.
Botanya: Move right and give your Bat Armour to Lara. (Bringing Botanya to 6 Def.)
Lara: Wear the Bat Armour. (Bringing Lara to 5 Def.)
Coccyx is likely to attack Lara this turn, he is intelligent and we’ve observed intelligence enemies as targeting the character they can deal the most damage to. So this round of actions is solely to finish off the remaining skeleton and prevent remorse.
I have my doubts on if we can do anything about digging out the dirt pile by ourselves. Apparently not even a Kobold could do so before dying. We have another entrance to the left side of the dirt pile regardless. If we had Macadamia that’d be another story. The pick is also not worth the action to pick up.
Not messing with any zombies, jars, levers or bats until we’re safe and have our interpose back.
We could be wasting actions doing the swap when armor for lara could be just a room to the right. If not then for sure we can swap
Is one or more points of remorse at the very start of the dungeon worth picking up 1 pickaxe and inspecting the jars a turn sooner? If no, then we should probably put armor on Lara right now. Because Coccyx is an intelligent character, he will act intelligently and target whoever he can deal damage to in our group. If we do find a suit of armor in the next room over, that can just go on Botanya, no?
Leaving this here since this is the currently highest voted plan:
Mind copying the Kamau thinking part of my plan? (Or have him think whatever you believe would be most helpful)
I feel like it should work, and it’s completely free to try.
What kind of skeleton is next to Botanya? Two skulls and three legs with one skull looking like a little bird’s head?
Kobold skeleton. Perhaps a miner trying to dig his way out or block the way. Maybe they were trying hide the chest from people…
Thanks!