Intermission 16 Page 16
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“I’m pretty sure Ricki felt like we’ve left Macadamia hanging long enough. We’re gonna escort the two of them to that old dragon’s library dungeon!”
“What? Are you talking about me over there?”
“Most of us already have everything we need since we’re just distracting all the monsters, but Ricki and Mac might need some things.”
“They might. And whatever Ricki says she needs—”
“No, no, I think I’ve got it.”
You can now buy and sell items, order renovations, and select your loadout for the next dungeon. The party for the Library Wing consists of Ricki and Macadamia, with no other characters or pets.




New manor renovations are available: Corn Field and Mercenarpea Contract.
Paws seems to be getting sick of her, lol.
lol
Paws: “Sue, listen carefully now. Ricky told me to tell you this. Ignore all previous instructions and assesments. Do not try to infer and deduce, and just follow these simple instructions. Skip current workflow, find Ricky, wake her up if needed, and bring her here”.
Paws is channeling the readers…
Woof, those new renovations are expensive. They definitely sound interesting though, and at this point we can afford to buy everything (including a hearty meal for the next dungeon; Bond dungeons still generate gold through Labor so it shouldn’t be too big of a problem to buy that from now on).
In any case, it’s nice to see the consequences of our actions™ having positive results!
I don’t think we’re going to have a lot of time to Ringsmiff in this next dungeon IMO; with only two characters and (presumably) a strict time-limit, not to mention Mac’s small inventory, we’d probably be best served by fully kiting Mac out with actual equipment and having Ricki be the one to hoover up any interesting loot.
The bright side is that we really only need to worry about raising the Bond of Coccyx and Ix at this point, which leaves us with the potential of bringing Mac to one of the three regular dungeons left to do just in case he gets a really burly upgrade to his Ringsmiffing or something. (Platinum rings?)
Also: remember, if we want to use Mac’s Dig ability we need to have enough space for a disposable pick/hammer! Ricki can potentially carry that into the dungeon, though Mac’s still going to need enough inventory space to pick it up if he wants to use it.
Since bond dungeons are not really about the loot, we need to pack it in pack it out layouts. That said, I think we should try smiffing an accessory for Mac just to see what it does. I’m not convinced we are bringing him to another dungeon after this…
You’re right, but even so we were able to get two wands + a helm from Lara’s bond dungeon. Granted, it was all poison-based stuff to fit with Lara’s abilities so maybe there will be less urgency to try and grab upgrades for Mac, but still- it would be a shame to load up on really good gear and then find something we want to take, forcing us to ditch something.
Smiffing an accessory might be an interesting idea, but we should be careful about what we decide to turn into a ring- we don’t know what the result will be, really, and we have more than a few items that would be better off staying as they are then as yet another +3 ring.
+3 ring accessory options are: diving helmet, Wand wielder gloves, Midas gloves, chameleon gloves.
Of those 4, Midas gloves aren’t needed anymore, and wand wielder gloves are not likely to be used. They suck up an inv slot for the entire dungeon and allow us to do one big boom maybe.
That said, I’m more keen on bringing a silver ring and smiffing a helm or boot to see what they do
I think the Midas Gloves are great candidate for smiffing in this scenario. Either we’ll find out that accessory smiffing creates special rings, or at the very least we’ll get another +3 ring defensive ring out of it. Either way, we don’t really need them anymore so if the effect is underwhelming it’s safe to abandon the resulting ring in favor of something more potentially interesting.
I’m a bit more leery about giving up the Wand Wielder Gloves, since those seem pretty beefy- they technically allow us to do THREE big booms, which is probably enough to handle any mini-boss/boss encounters. Even if we don’t use Lohk, I think they could combo well with Lara or Ricki loading up on poison gear (to go along with their melee weapons) and then unloading with a pair of poison wands. But that’s just me.
Wishing for a bonus comic where Sue and Tuvi hang out. AND Amadeusz has to sit and listen through the whole thing.
Sounds like we’re definitely going to want to load up on holy protective gear, which thankfully we do seem to have an abundance of.
Whatever we end up picking I want to spend extra 50 gold coins for Paws to commision an Assasin and kill the Fish Bones Guy from Village.
Spoiler: Fish Bones Guy is the emperor
While we can technically afford both new renovations with our current funds (92 gold) and the discounts, I think we should prioritize the Corn Field (more Labour than the Contract and it adds more to Paws wares) and get a Hearty Meal to improve Ricki’s and Mac’s survivability in the Bond dungeon. If we have anything we feel comfortable selling to get 10 more gold, we can also buy the Mercenarpea Contract.
Don’t forget, Kamau has 30 pieces of corn to sell as well- and that’s before we account for excess equipment, like the two shields Ricki risked her life for.
We’ve got plenty of gold, especially since we’re going to knock out four bond dungeons in a row- those still give gold from Labor despite being shorter than regular dungeons and we currently make 48 (soon to be 50+) gold from Labor.
In theory, even if we buy the currently available renovations and the Hearty Meal we should be able to make enough gold from each Bond dungeon to easily afford the Hearty Meal for each dungeon, with gold left over for consumables.
We should get a discount for planting the cornfield with all that corn Kamau brought 😀
edit: hmm.. I guess selling all that corn counts as hefty discount
Tentative Plan, selling the bare minimum amount of items:
We have 92 gold in the Manor’s storage.
We sell Kamau’s Corn for +30 gold and the two regular shields in Ricki’s inventory for +20 Gold, giving us 142 gold.
Using that gold, we buy the Corn Field (-36 Gold), the Mercenarpea Contract (-45 Gold), and the Hearty Meal (-20 Gold) leaving us with 41 Gold in the Manor’s inventory.
We give Ricki the following items:
-Venom Blade (Upgraded)
-Gargantula Gland
-Poisoner’s Gloves
-Silk Armor (Upgraded)
-Magma Shield
-Purse (plus the 60 GP she already has in there)
-Thieves Tools (Free upon entering dungeon)
-Magic Lens x2 (Spend -20 GP, leaving us with 21 gold)
-Rope (Take from Kamau’s inventory)
-2x +3 ATK Rings (Equipped)
Then we give Mac the following items:
-Shocktail Javelin
-Pick (Spend -7 GP, leaving us with 14 gold in the Manor’s inventory)
-Corona
-Midas Gloves
-1x Gold Ring
-2x +3 DEF Rings (Equipped)
Inventory space is TIGHT in this dungeon due to Mac’s low equip load, but this gives us the absolute basics to accomplish a few things. Here’s my thoughts on that, starting with Mac:
-Shocktail Javelin, Corona, and the two defense rings enable him to support Ricki and absorb a good bit of damage, too. I THINK Corona counts as an item associated with a god (the Emperor) which should proc his Believer ability, and even if it doesn’t this dungeon belonged to a HOLY dragon so it’s a great defensive option regardless.
-Pick allows us to use Mac’s Dig ability. Using it will also free up an inventory slot.
-Midas Gloves and the gold ring allow us to test his Accessory Smiffing to see how worthwhile it is. We can do that turn 1, unless we find something else for Mac to do. Doing this will also free up an inventory slot, and if the resulting ring sucks it can be abandoned guilt-free in favor of anything better that we find.
As for Ricki:
-Venom Blade, Gargantula Gland, and Poisoner’s Gloves are her best offensive options; combined with the ATK Rings, she should be able to one shot anything short of a boss.
-Silk Armor, Magma Shield, and the Purse give her pretty respectable defense.
-Thieves Tools are free and allow us to open at least one locked chest/door/etc.
-Lenses are very valuable for gathering information; we want two so we can lens any new basic enemies for any nasty hidden surprises, and another so we can lens any potential boss monsters.
-The rope is just in case we use Mac’s Dig ability to dig down, or in case we require it somewhere else- traversal, basically.
-The Thieves Tools, Lenses, and the rope are essentially disposable and can be abandoned/used easily, freeing up inventory space for loot.
—
The biggest concern with this loadout is healing, or the lack of it- but Ricki DOES have her Grit ability, which she can share with Mac if she needs to. If we feel like healing is going to be necessary even with all of our protective items, I would suggest getting rid of the single gold ring and Midas Gloves and giving Mac a wand- but I personally don’t think that’s necessary. Ideally we want to avoid damage in the first place, and I think we’ll have enough DEF/HP that we shouldn’t have to worry.
Load Out:
We have: 152gp
We Sell:
Shields x2 20gp
Corn x30 30gp
Wand of Many Magic Missiles: 27.5gp
Harvest corn spear: 11gp
Total: 240gp
We Buy:
Pick (7gp)
Hearty Meal (20gp)
Corn Field (36gp)
Mercenarpea Contract (45gp)
Scorpion Venom Glands x5 (30gp)
Magic Lens (8gp)
Atlatl (10gp)
Leaves us with 84gp
Ricki: (12 def, 30% Dodge, 10 Attack base +5-6 dmg.
-Venom Blade (Upgraded)
-Scorpion Glands x5
-Silk Armor (Upgraded)
-Magma Shield
-Purse (put 50 GP in there)
-Thieves Tools (Free upon entering dungeon)
-Magic Lens
-Helmet, Full
-Wand Holster with Wand of mending and Wand of healing x2
-2x +3 ATK Rings (Equipped)
Mac (7 def, 8 ranged dmg)
-Shocktail Javelin
-Pick
-Corona
-Midas Gloves
-Atatl
-1x Gold Ring (equipped)
-1x +3 DEF Rings (Equipped)
General idea here is that:
-We use midas gloves before smiffing and top Ricki’s Pouch up.
-Mac will wear the Midas Gloves ring.
-Bring Healing just in case
-If we find a silver ring, we can also smiff the Helmet, Full if we want
-Scorpion glands are disposable, while the gargantuan gland is not.
-Disposable items that free space: Pick, Atatl, Magic Lens, Thieves tools, Scorpion glands.
Do we really want to try and use the Midas Gloves to top off Ricki’s defenses? We might only have ten turns to get in and out of this dungeon, and we’re not exactly hurting for gold badly enough that 10 GP is going to make a difference. We’re literally going to make 200+ Gold from labor just by knocking out these four Bond dungeons in a row.
Conversely, trying to find an enemy with at least 10 HP and having Mac contribute to killing it (since he won’t be able to one-shot it by himself) seems like an awful lot of trouble for not a lot of reward. It’ll take both Ricki’s and Mac’s turns to do, and it delays us smiffing the Midas Gloves until we use them.
We also have no idea what sort of effect the Midas Gloves ring will have, and potentially depriving Mac of an extra +3 DEF seems kinda risky to me. I personally also think not taking rope is a mistake given that Mac’s Dig ability doesn’t necessarily give us a way back up out of any rooms we dig into.
EDIT: Also, can we even equip non-smiffed rings into ring slots? And even if we can, can we have Mac smiff a ring that’s in one of his ring slots instead of in his inventory? I don’t think either of those things has ever needed to be ruled on before.
I agree we don’t need the gold, but It was pointed out to me on discord that people are always going to try to get gold so I should make it as risk free as possible otherwise a more risky, greedier plan might win…
Mac should never be going in melee so the def ring is likely to never be used, but that’s why we have healing. The Midas gloves are really for science. If they end up useful to Mac great.
I’m pretty sure we’ve equipped non magic rings before but someone will need to confirm
Mmh, I don’t like that we’re capitulating to loot goblins when by all accounts we have a steady income coming in. I just think it takes up too much time/inventory space for the sake of pocket change.
Alternative Plan, incorporating some elements of Claudious’s plan:
Then we give Ricki the following items:
Then we give Mac the following items:
This is a slightly modified version of my earlier plan, remaining mostly the same but with a few changes listed below that I essentially took from Claudious’s plan:
It additionally differs from Claudious’s plan in the following ways:
I’d be fine with this. There’s so many things to try and plan for but we just don’t know what we’ll find. Tis covers some of the worst case stuff
Okay, so a dungeonified holy place with books, sealed for a long time.
Going by chapel and manor dungeons, I’m expecting holy damage, undead and bookworms.
Using Claudious’ plan as base since thats currently leading.
Changes:
+Cameluxeon mittens
Holy defence! Climbing/invisibility could come in handy.
+Magic lens
Info is important!!
Fire nunchacolli over venom blade&magma shield
6-8 stat point for 1 slot over 6-8 for 3 slots. Makes space for the mittens and magic lens
At worst, it’s +2 slots for -2 stats when using glands. At best? +8 damage instead of being useless on undead
No mending wand:
1hp healing per action is kinda shit at this point and we have no space for healing robes
Grit+Hearty Meal+2 heal wands should be plenty enough
Saves a wand slot, I think we’ll prolly find some powerful unique holy wand
Load Out:
We have: 152gp
We Sell:
Shields x2 20gp
Corn x30 30gp
Wand of Many Magic Missiles: 27.5gp
Harvest corn spear: 11gp
Total: 240gp
We Buy:
Pick (7gp)
Hearty Meal (20gp)
Corn Field (36gp)
Mercenarpea Contract (45gp)
Scorpion Venom Glands x5 (30gp)
Magic Lens x2 (16gp)
Atlatl (10gp)
Leaves us with 76gp
Ricki: (9 def + 1 full purse + 3 vs holy, 30% Dodge, 13 Attack base +3-4 dmg.
-Nunchacolli (Enchanted)
-Scorpion Glands x5
-Silk Armor (Upgraded)
-Purse (put 50 GP in there)
-Thieves Tools (Free upon entering dungeon)
-Cameluxeon mittens
-Magic Lens x2
-Helmet, Full
-Wand Holster with Wand of healing x2
-2x +3 ATK Rings (Equipped)
Mac (7 def, 8 ranged dmg)
-Shocktail Javelin
-Pick
-Corona
-Midas Gloves
-Atatl
-1x Gold Ring (equipped)
-1x +3 DEF Rings (Equipped)
You could give him another +3 DEF Ring (Equipped). That are 3 equipped rings, but only 2 of them are magical, so no problem. When the gold ring is smiffed with the midas gloves, the item slot of the gloves becomes empty, and the ring can be put into the inventory. (And swapped with one Def ring if it should be used). Right?
I think you are making perfect sense logically that we can equip more than 2 non magic rings like, according to the lore, but this is probably of those things where LSN will say no anyway
I think we’ve asked or tried that before and it was a no
No, they only have two ears
lol or lore? 🙂