Intermission 4 Page 3
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Miss Ricki,
It has come to my attention that you and some of your associates have taken to extra-legal exploration of dungeons within the Imperial capital. This is of interest to me, as there is a dungeon only a few hours travel outside the capital that I would rather like to see explored.
It has also come to my attention that you and some of your associates have attracted unwanted attention from the Imperial Guard. It may be of interest to you to know that the estate on which this dungeon rests has been abandoned ever since said dungeon appeared. It seems to me to be an ideal location to escape the Guard’s interest. Had they any intention of clearing that dungeon, they’d have done so years ago.
If you find yourself interested, I’ve included directions to the estate with this letter. I’ll leave further instructions at the dungeon entrance.
Watching with interest,
A Friend
Player housing!
Super Sus.
I have to give credit to LSN for dangling a very tempting carrot in front of us. Sounds like a safe haven and also a dungeon which we of course want/need but it’s from a mysterious friend which could royally screw us over in the future.
That all said, this is still a webcomic so we might not even get a choice.
Whoever this is already knows about us. I don’t doubt that the Estate is outside the influence of the Guard, if they wanted to catch us somewhere where the Guard can reach then they wouldn’t even need to reach out. If we assume they know which dungeons we’ve been exploring, then the Warrens is an obvious next target as the other famous Goblintown dungeon.
This is the carrot, and they might go for the stick if they really want us to do this and it looks like we aren’t biting; all they need to do is tip off the guard and not just us but Lohk could be in trouble. That would require them to interact with the guard, which they already may have done if this was the one offering bail. I don’t see any reason for them to be impatient though, this dungeon has been left alone for years.
It all depends on what this dungeon is and why they want it explored. We will have choices, but we only choose what we do within the world, we don’t choose what the world is or does to us.
I wonder if A Friend has Intermission Eyes…
This is the safest, most secure plan presented to us by a total stranger ever in our lives.
Ricki: Get excited! It’s a great idea!
Kamau: Be a voice of reason. Please.
Lara: You are winded and uncomfortably soaked. Have no patience for the messenger, speak your mind.
I want to say go for it, as the only other dungeon we know of is the kobold one. This gets off the streets if it works and if not still a dungeon we can clear.
Random encounter possibility (outside the dungeon) has just been detected!
Dungeons are weird and break the laws of reason and physics. Would combat outside of one still be the turn-based number-checking we have come to know and… not love… optimise? (Yes, ok, it probably would)
If there is a fight outside a dungeon then Ricki’s Dungeon Eyes ability won’t work.
It will be interesting to see how we will see a picture. Maybe, not so widely as we are used to.
I think we might want to get the other ally first, this time. It would have helped LOADS to have them with us in the rat vault, so I daresay it will be useful to have them with me in this “estate”.
But yeah, in the long run, I’m all for getting a safe base, one where we cannot only “deposit” party members that exceed the 4 person limit (once we have more than 3 allies for Ricki), but perhaps even give Lohk a more comfortable place to stay, than in that alley (if she actually -wants- to leave, that is. Could be that she’s so intertwined with the community there that she wouldn’t want to leave).
…and watching with interest indeed. Ever since she landed in that jail alright.
It has come to my attention that this is actually quite fine handwriting, so an educated person wrote that. Or someone wealthy enough to afford paying a scribe to write it. Well, unless that’s a print. But the wolfox seal also suggest at least some wealth. Nice. And imperial-safe dungeon. Nice. I wonder if “cleared” dungeons deactivate, which would mean an abandoned estate free to repurpose to some extent. Nice. But estate advised by an unknown party calling themselves “a friend” (not “the friend”, etc), so apparently they want to keeping a feeling of anonymity and clear separation of interests. This means safe from the imperial guard, but not safe at all from that new “a friend”. Better keep all four eyes and ears wide open.
The name “wolfox” is not patented or trademarked. Feel free to use it in context of this story 🙂
I think it is not only a handwriting, but also the style that suggests that the author of this message is really well educated.
Well, not well educated, but out-of-date educated. Using “Miss” instead of “Ms” would get you a harassment suit here. But what do you expect from a society, who wants to execute Kamau, did not prevent the malnourished state of Ricki, does not help the citizens when dungeons spring up, …? Heroines and heroes are needed!
Seriously? Ugh. Do I still want to live on this planet? 😐
Guys hear me out
Manor
Kamau Bond 1
Lara Bond 1
Lara Bond 2
Lara Bond 3
Kamau Bond 2
Kamau Bond 3
Warrens
I don’t get it, but I do see that if Kamau gets 1 more bond, he’ll have its first tier completed, and something NEW should happen. Lara is fresh and still needs 2.
How to Play says that we unlock new side dungeons when adventuring with the same character. As dungeons, those should themselves advance bond. Assuming Kamau unlocks a dungeon at bond 3, then after doing that dungeon (and the one before it) then Lara will reach bond 3 and unlock her own dungeon. Lara only needs one bond advancement to fill the second bar, which could theoretically be gained from the first bond dungeon. How to Play also mentions Ricki becomes more powerful after developing a strong bond, so maxing one out earlier would be nice.
This all sounds like more reason to do the Warrens first and get the known ally for more help in all those other dungeons (plus building up more Bond options). It’s also possible that the bars on the Bond track are caps which prevent gaining further Bond, and/or the side dungeon removes the cap instead of advancing another rank. That would stop Lara’s dungeons from chaining, though it would encourage us to do those side dungeons ASAP to start getting progress towards the next stage again. I mostly suspect this as it encourages giving a breather between the second bar and the end of the track, though that might be intentional if one side dungeon leads directly into the next.
If that uncapping was the case:
Warrens – Kamau 3*, Lara 2, kobold 0
Kamau 1 – Kamau 3 uncapped, Lara 3*, kobold 1
Lara 1 – Kamau 4, Lara 3 uncapped, kobold 2
Estate – Kamau 5, Lara 4*, kobold 3*
Kobold 1 – Kamau 6*, Lara 4*, kobold 3 uncapped
Lara 2 – Kamau 6*, Lara 4 uncapped, kobold 4
Kamau 2 – Kamau 6 uncapped, Lara 5 max, kobold 5
Lara 3 – Kamau 7 max, Lara 5 max, kobold 6
Kamau 3
Either way, we’ve the potential for many bond dungeons in the near future. Only if we keep winning, though.
I’ve also suspected that a bond dungeon is a 2-person adventure just between Ricki and the friend in question, which would force slower advancement as other friends wouldn’t be gaining Bond or leveling up. This is already a lot of dungeons, though.
Party limit is 4, so as long as there are no restrictions from the “bond dungeons” of Kamau and Lara as to how many people can enter, #unknownKoboldAlly can still profit from tagging along in those, too, as long as we pick them up first. In those “bond dungeons” the kobold may (if dungeon goal is achieve and the kobold didn’t abandon like Kamau in the chapel) become stonger/more bonded in the process, alongside Kamau and Lara (and Ricki), instead of lagging behind insanely from the moment we recruit them and in the foreseeable future, as well.
See Kind Marth’s post, too.
Well, we’re certainly screwed.
It looks like Ricky has attracted attention of a certain “chess player” that probably knows about her unique ability and wants to utilize it in order to further his goals.
There are few things we can do:
1) Accept the invitation. It is most probably a really bad idea. Rverething about this message says “TRAP” to me. I guess this “friend” will get us involved in some shady activities amd then use us as “four petty thieves on whom the authorities will pin all the blame”.
2) Ignore the letter. It is also a bad idea because whoever sent this message won’t let us go that easy. He clearly has a source of information that allows him to know where we are and what we do.
3) Start our own investigation. We can try to find out who wrote this letter, what he wants from us and what action we should take in order to protect ourselves.
Sounds like place to go when we have issues with guards, not now.
They are looking for Kamau, sure, but they don’t know where he is.
Go there next time we are spotted by guards and escape? So far we got close few times but they never found us actually.
Will our group be “discharged” or mugged after finishing this job, or will this go on to more jobs later? This blatant but polite threat of denunciation with attached opportunity is troubling.
Maybe after some discussion tell Paws that his associate may be interested in knowing that very very early the day after tomorrow they will go “hiking” and that they may need Paw’s services. Maybe DEMAND a tab on travel basics as an unspoken colateral for “association”.
Go for the warrens and spend tomorrow relaxed with some good food (as good as laying low can get you); Gotta give some tranquility to old Lohk before speaking her about this troubling opportunity.
Maybe get some light bonuses similar to “Malnourished” but positive to compensate for the significant loss of earnings.
Way back in D1T31, we found out that someone was willing to bail Ricki out. This may be the same person. GathersIngredients’ suggestion of Warrens first to pick up the potential ally was also my thinking.
People… this is a dungeon that has been abandoned for YEARS. remember there rules for dungeons getting wierder the longer they exist. Best bet is to rope another ally and THEN go for the estate xP
The Chapel has been a dungeon for years too, and it turned out mostly fine. Though I agree that we should pick up kobold ally first
Oh hey! It’s Mr. A Friend again! What do you think the “A” stands for?
Anonymous
Amazing
Anthropomorphic
Aasimar
Ardon. Abviously.
How did you deduce that it is “Mr.”? And not Ms. or Mx. or a group posing as one person or a warforged or … there are probably a lot of other possibilities in fantasy, aren’t they?
The same way that I deduced that his last name was “Friend”. It’s a joke and it doesn’t matter. If anything the fact that I assumed even more possibly wrong information just adds to the joke.
I think we can try the following:
Ricki: ask Paws if he saw the sign (wolf-fox one) before and if he knows/presumes who could put the sign. Is it possible his associate used it?
V: “I’m not questioning your powers of observation, I’m merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is.”
That was an official looking seal, but there’s no name given. It would be odd for the seal to give information that wasn’t shared in the message. Can always ask, of course.