Dungeon 9 Turn 31
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Lara hurries to catch up with her friends.
Ricki continues to ask Kamau about things she’s seen further in the dungeon.
“I think I saw some kind of demon in a sealed room.”
“Probably for the best to leave it there.”
“Though, demons can’t actually hurt you unless you attack them first.”
“All they can do is try to convince you to make some kind of deal with them, but some of them can be very convincing.”
“I hope I don’t have to explain to you that it’s never, never worth it.”
Botanya runs ahead of the rest of the party and intercepts another group of zombies on their way through the dungeon. They attack her to no effect.
Fine, you twisted our arm. We’ll take the deal.
Plan: Deal with Zombies. Kinda
Botania: Stay put and Pipe Zombie 1
Kamau: Move Right and Attack Zombie 1 (no cleave)
Ricki: Wait for Lara, and point out the trap to her. Mover Right after
Lara: Move up. Avoid Trap. Double Move Right.
Flytrap: Attack Zombie 2
Ricki’s Mushroom: Attack Zombie 1.
So we’re still not sure of a couple things here:
This should kill zombie 1 and maybe zombie 2 with a less than 50% chance Kamau gets another infection (making that 2/5).
If we dont end up killing Zombie 2, we can finish it off safely with pets the turn after.
Also, Turn 30 and only 2 Zombies is amazing luck. It makes us staying past turn 40 more likely so we arent on so much of a time crunch and can afford to take more turns. Yay!
I think I remember it being two zombies last time, too. If the chests or the demon are our key to Coccyx, we can try to get them first. Depends on if we can handle zombies well enough that we will almost certainly survive turn 40. Coccyx is also likely one of the few characters who can handle zombies without getting infected, so having them around is a nice safety net. I think we’ll also get two zombies at turn 40, but a nasty surprise if we let it fester until turn 50. Seems like LSN is more liable to punish when turn 50 comes around (see Overgrown Farm).
I think first order of business is the three chests and demon. If we get attacked trying to run past, our hand is forced, I suppose. I also feel positive recruiting Coccyx will trigger guards, which will significantly affect our time, but getting the Coccyx item doesn’t mean we have to recruit them right away. And killing the boss prematurely will end the dungeon…so imo if we want to recruit Coccyx AND kill the necro, we MUST do these things within five turns of each other, and we must NOT take out the barriers or the enemies on the top floor near the barriers. As an added note, I hate that the item we need for Coccyx is likely right past the boss in either the chests or is associated with the demon, making this whole thing even more of a balancing act.
Also, if y’all think we can handle a round 40 I think it’s realistic we can accomplish ONE secondary task. But I do not think we can do turn 50. It’s just a perfect, even number, and again, nasty surprises tend to happen at that point. Turn 50 is the “You’ve Overstayed Your Welcome” turn. We’ve already seen this and got the closest call for a character death by going past 50. Cleaning the dungeon is out of the question. Killing the basilisk is too risky. But I think we can eliminate the zombies OR potentially open the green chest by killing the (last?) ghast.
Key takeaways from last three paragraphs:
1. Our performance with the zombies in the next few rounds will determine if we’re willing to go past turn 40, but turn 50 is a big no-no regardless of the patterns we’ve seen.
2. No killing basilisk and no total dungeon cleaning. Also don’t mess with any enemies or barriers or the chest on the upper floor. We need them as a buffer for potential guards.
3. If we decide to do turn 40-49, we MAY go ahead and do one of the following secondary goals: try to wipe out the remaining zombies OR kill the last ghast and possibly get the secret chest. Probably not both unless turns 30-39 yield uncommonly good fortune.
4. If we find the obvious means to recruit Coccyx soon, it MUST be done right before defeating the boss since they are likely a guard trigger. We have to be careful not to end the dungeon too early if we want them, and we also have to be careful not to recruit them too early if we want to beat the dungeon boss.
Even more condensed tl;dr:
I propose we do things in this order:
Get three chests (Coccyx item?)+demon–>if we don’t get our hands forced, clean up zombies OR kill (last?) ghast and collect secret chest, but likely not both–>recruit Coccyx–>immediately kill necro after recruiting Coccyx
Deadline is turn 50, not 40. Reasons above. Thoughts?
Does anyone have any ideas why that giant cobra we haven’t dealt with is there? Is it just schmuck bait to punish picking a fight with a miniboss without any reward? It looks like it’s guarding the egg it hatched out of, which is interesting.
There was some speculation about recruiting Coccyx early in the dungeon, and it seems like there was a hint (see quote below) that there might be something in the dungeon, and there isn’t that much stuff left besides the necromancer.
-Turn 1
Mind, I have no idea why an eggshell would come in handy for pacifying an unusually sapient skeleton archer, or why it might come in handy for any other reason, but if anyone has a bright idea it might be worth checking out?
I think the basilisk is just a bonus that yields a really nice item if we kill it. I think the Coccyx item has to be somewhere in the rightmost portion of the dungeon, most likely in the three chests or associated with the demon because Coccyx reacted funny when we first started traveling that way.
Sally the salamander dropped a unique shield on death. Something similar would prob happen if we killed cobra. But fact that we are low on kamau hp makes it high risk with unknown reward
Botanya: Chill
Ricki: Point out trapdoor to Kamau, go down and left, trip lever.
Kamau: avoid trapdoor, go down and left.
Lara: go one screen to the left. Tell Ricki what you know about necromancy and zombie plagues in geneal.
Sorry, guys, I really want to know what the Swoval Ghast does.