Hm. I should have said that it cannot be *trained*, but that wasn't the question. Sorry.
Let me think about it. It basically comes down to whether I want to do the work of managing multiple temporary classes and I've been going back and forth on that. My understanding is that you won't do it until right before you go down the stairs so it's not a rush. Right?
That's what I'm pushing for whenever the topic comes up, yes.
In a dungeon where there's a million and one things that want us dead, in a million and one different ways, having the wider repertoire of counters to make sure they fail equals maybe a percentage or two increase in our chances of survival long enough that we can become the thorns in Borants side we strive to be.
For other readers and voters, the argument against this is: it'd make Drew less unique, and detract from our popularity and viewership. As well as the possibility that Borant or the AI decides that they don't want us compounding more skills and spells through what might be an oversight on their part.
Correct. Taylor being able to make use of his class for this floor is preferable xD, and considering there's 10 days until next floor, there is zero rush.
The other argument against that is diluting skill exp. The Dungeon is set up so that having 1 level 15 skill is way better than having a bunch of level 10 skills. It is already super hard to train something to 15. If we have to stay focusing on more and more skills we will be a puddle, broad but shallow.
That's fine for 1 person in a group (Drew) but if everyone becomes a jack of all trades master of none I think that will hurt our survival chances more than help.
Is much rather copy Plunder to Leo to increase her box chances or better yet copy her Roll Up onto Taylor or Moose (let's not put any more on Drew than we have to.) For the person arguing this would follow dilute Leo's exp and slow her training Roll Up I don't think that's true because we will not always be able to transfer boxes to her. The 6 hour cooldown really limits how much we can do that. Plus, even if it did slow her leveling it up fractionally, doubling the ability would more than negate it.
Hmmm... bit of a dark thought EJ but if we were worried about Drew dying could we copy his manager benefit to someone? Would that give us the same manager or a new/second manager?
Hm. I should have said that it cannot be *trained*, but that wasn't the question. Sorry.
Let me think about it. It basically comes down to whether I want to do the work of managing multiple temporary classes and I've been going back and forth on that. My understanding is that you won't do it until right before you go down the stairs so it's not a rush. Right?
Personally, I'd argue against it for narrative reasons. I want to keep Drew with something special for him. Keep him interesting, don't dilute his sparkle with others getting the same gimmick.
I'd also argue against it for quest reasons, making a larger bookkeeping issue from going down each floor, but on the other hand, it's also a good engagement booster, the quest is always busier during a class decision.
The other argument against that is diluting skill exp. The Dungeon is set up so that having 1 level 15 skill is way better than having a bunch of level 10 skills. It is already super hard to train something to 15. If we have to stay focusing on more and more skills we will be a puddle, broad but shallow.
That's fine for 1 person in a group (Drew) but if everyone becomes a jack of all trades master of none I think that will hurt our survival chances more than help.
A few things to note. 1. Copying Character Actor to someone else will give it to them at lv1. They'll get very few things from any classes. There isn't going to be much of anything until later to train on to take up precious time.
2. Anything they do get, hopefully we'll have voted to make it something synergistic with their current skillset, or something their current skillset severely lacks. Any such skill or spell will have to be worked on in conjunction with everything else. If we can get Taylor a dip into a tankier class, considering his health has now taken a major blow, that'd be something he'd be able to work on alongside everything else, not as something to take time away from everything else. Leo could get something that gives her more put-down power, Moose, something that lets an elephant-sized good doggo dodge.
Personally, I'd argue against it for narrative reasons. I want to keep Drew with something special for him. Keep him interesting, don't dilute his sparkle with others getting the same gimmick.
3. Drew's special thing is weed and luck. Taylor has multiples and yo-yos. Leo is a kitty with a skateboard. Moose is a dog with wings. They're all special, distinct, and unique. Giving them "the thing that becomes more things" doesn't detract from Drew. It adds to the whole.
Hm. I should have said that it cannot be *trained*, but that wasn't the question. Sorry.
Let me think about it. It basically comes down to whether I want to do the work of managing multiple temporary classes and I've been going back and forth on that. My understanding is that you won't do it until right before you go down the stairs so it's not a rush. Right?
Yeah, my goal is to copy it over to Taylor right before the (I'm assuming still existant in DCC as well as DCK) swarm of ghouls that try to kill everyone on the last day before the staircases open. Because I doubt the debuffs tricks we're planning on using normally will be helpful in that situation.
Let me think about it. It basically comes down to whether I want to do the work of managing multiple temporary classes and I've been going back and forth on that. My understanding is that you won't do it until right before you go down the stairs so it's not a rush. Right?
If in doubt you could also have the ai give us a "That was funny. Once." repeatable Achievment followed by a patch if you decide against it afterwards.
3. Drew's special thing is weed and luck. Taylor has multiples and yo-yos. Leo is a kitty with a skateboard. Moose is a dog with wings. They're all special, distinct, and unique. Giving them "the thing that becomes more things" doesn't detract from Drew. It adds to the whole.
Drew's special thing is weed, luck, and the ability to pick up new classes on each floor. Not just in-game, but also OOC. The class changes make him more distinct as a character. You can't argue that it doesn't.
Hmmm... bit of a dark thought EJ but if we were worried about Drew dying could we copy his manager benefit to someone? Would that give us the same manager or a new/second manager?
Good news! I have added Taylor's racial and class powers to the info post: Dungeon Crawler You! The power was within you all along! *spooky voice*
Dorothy: Hang on. These slippers have the power to take me home?
Glinda: Yes, my child. Isn't that wonderful? Now, if you'll just click your--
Dorothy: These slippers, that you teleported onto my feet without my consent, have the power to take me home.
Glinda: Yes. I said that. Now, if you could--
Dorothy: No, hang on. This is seriously messed up. You sent me traipsing across hundreds of miles of weirdness where I almost died multiple times, and I was forced into terrifying situations! I had to kill someone! Are you kidding? Why didn't you just tell me about the slippers when I first showed up???
Glinda: Well, um...you needed to learn a lesson about...um...personal empowerment? Yay, girl power?
Dorothy: Have you ever heard of using your words, bitch?!
Dorothy: Hang on. These slippers have the power to take me home?
Glinda: Yes, my child. Isn't that wonderful? Now, if you'll just click your--
Dorothy: These slippers, that you teleported onto my feet without my consent, have the power to take me home.
Glinda: Yes. I said that. Now, if you could--
Dorothy: No, hang on. This is seriously messed up. You sent me traipsing across hundreds of miles of weirdness where I almost died multiple times, and I was forced into terrifying situations! I had to kill someone! Are you kidding? Why didn't you just tell me about the slippers when I first showed up???
Glinda: Well, um...you needed to learn a lesson about...um...personal empowerment? Yay, girl power?
Dorothy: Have you ever heard of using your words, bitch?!
"Hang on, don't open your boxes yet," Taylor said.
Calliope looked over. "What? Why not?"
"Because," Taylor said, drawing the word out with an evil grin, "I have a brilliant idea."
"Uh-huh."
"Such suspicion! Who is the brilliant and creative uncle with years of life experience here, hm?"
"Given that I've got more life experience than the last five generations of your family combined, I have to admit that I'm curious," Levi said tartly. "Especially since I literally just said to open your boxes."
"Leo, what are your box counts right now?" Taylor asked, ignoring the manager.
"Nine Bronze, three Silver, one Gold, and the Platinum from the 'survive Belfie' quest," she read off. "Why?"
"Moose, how about you?" Taylor asked.
Moose: MOOSE HAS SEVEN BRONZE, THREE SILVER, AND THE PLATINUM!
Taylor nodded. "Okay, sounds like I'm in the lead then. Nine Bronze, four Silver, and one each of Gold, Platinum, and Legendary."
Calliope's eyes shot up. "Whoa, really? Sweet!"
"More importantly, my Sysop powers are available again," Taylor said. "Including this one..." He quickly pulled up his class abilities and skimmed down to get the exact wording.
IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ:
Unless stated otherwise, your class abilities that operate on crawlers can only operate on crawlers in your contact list! That means that you should read 'a crawler' as 'a crawler who is in your contact list' unless it explicitly says otherwise.
This is true of touch-range abilities as well, but it is not a limitation since you can immediately add other people to your contact list by touch and without consent
You are a valid target for all of your class abilities
Unless stated otherwise, Sysop abilities have no maximum range
You may only use one ability at a time, so (e.g.) copying contact information from someone and then to someone must be done in series, not parallel
Abilities with no cooldown:
Add a crawler who is not in your contact list to your contact list. Does not require consent. Range: touch
You may copy any or all contact information from another crawler's contact list to your own. You must be touching the other crawler
You may copy any or all contact information from your contact list to that of another crawler. You must be touching the other crawler
When you cast a 'Target: Self' spell, you may choose to have the effect apply to another crawler instead of to you. The target crawler must be within (your Character Level) meters. The target crawler must either be in your contact list or you must have line of sight to them at the moment of casting
You may transfer a debuff or negative status condition from a crawler or pet to yourself. Range: touch
Abilities with a cooldown of 1 minute:
Provided that both sender and receiver are willing, you may move items from one crawler's inventory to another's
When a saferoom door is open you may rehome a crawler's departure point to be the other side of the open door. The ability triggers at the end of the cooldown. Throughout the cooldown period you must be touching the crawler, you must both be inside the saferoom, and the door must stay open
Abilities with a cooldown of 5 minutes:
You may edit the stylesheet of a crawler's chat system. Range: touch
You may transfer any buff or positive status condition from yourself to another crawler, regardless of range. (Note this distinction from the similar ability above)
You may transfer any buff, debuff, or status condition from yourself to a mob, crawler, or pet within (your Character Level) meters and in line of sight
When you cast a 'Target: Self' spell, you may choose to have the effect apply to another crawler instead of to you
Using any of the following abilities will deactivate your class abilities for 6 hours.
Provided that both sender and receiver are willing, you may reassign all unopened dungeon loot boxes (i.e. not fan boxes or Benefactor boxes) from one crawler to another. You must be touching sender when you use this ability
Using any of the following abilities will deactivate your class abilities for 30 hours.
Reset a crawler's mana and health to 100%
Remove all debuffs and negative status conditions from a crawler
Reduce one of a crawler's currently-running timers by 50%
Provided that both sender and receiver are willing, you may transfer a tattoo from one crawler to another. Activation time: 10 minutes and you must be touching both crawlers throughout that time
Using the following abilities will deactivate your class abilities for the rest of the floor
Provided that both sender and receiver are willing, you may copy an actionable from one crawler to another. You may not be in a saferoom while using this ability. When copying a levelable actionable, the recipient will get the actionable at level 1. Activation time: 1 hour and you must be touching both crawlers throughout that time
Choose a crawler and an NPC who is not currently a manager. That NPC becomes that crawler's manager. You must be touching the NPC when you use this
Huh, that was weird. The text had changed slightly. Thank you, AI?
Whatever. He shook off the surprise, found the correct item, and read it off verbatim. "Provided that both sender and receiver are willing, you may reassign all unopened dungeon loot boxes (i.e. not fan boxes or Benefactor boxes) from one crawler to another. Range: touch. The downside is that it deactivates my class powers for six hours. So here's my thinking—"
"You're giving me all your boxes so I can train Rollup," Calliope guessed, the words a rush and her face glowing in excitement. "Sweet! I'll be making Platinum boxes in no time."
"I am indeed," Taylor said with a grin. "Except we're not going to open them right now."
o-o-o-o
The train emerged from the tunnel with a rattling clatter and a brief blue flash, slowing to a halt. The engine car ended up inside the exit tunnel and thus inaccessible to the team due to the tight-fitting walls.
"That's a lot of mobs," Calliope said nervously, looking through the windows of the various cars as the team stepped out from behind the 'stay behind here' line and moved to the front of the train.
"Yeaaahh," Drew said. "Cannon time?"
"No," Taylor said. "Firing in through the doors only gets you part of one car worth of kills, even on an angle. We want you inside, firing down the length of the train."
"I thought you were worried about me wrecking the train?" Drew asked, smiling.
"I'm very much of two minds," Taylor admitted.
"Ha!" Drew said, shooting him a thumbs up.
"Here we go," Calliope said, bouncing on her toes and rolling her shoulders to limber up as the train shhhed to a halt. The doors opened and two dozen parrot-beaked balls of snakes shrieked.
Moose: FOR SPARTAAAAA!!
Moose charged onto the train, shouldering three of the mobs aside and making room for the humans to follow behind. Calliope leaped, stabbing down on the first Parrak — Level 18. Her sword speared through two of the snakes and into the main body. It shrieked as its health bar dropped by a quarter.
Drew followed behind, ramming his bident into one of the parrak and yanking the lever to make the tines scissor closed, snipping through alien flesh in the process.
Taylor Blue stepped aboard and slammed his yo-yo into the nearest of the beasts. Simultaneously, Taylor Orange teleported to the opposite side of the monster and joined in the bludgeoning-based fun.
Turns out, writhing masses of flexible snakes make excellent shock absorbers, and therefore excellent defense against bludgeoning-based fun. Taylor dropped his yo-yos into inventory, pulled his Glocks, and dumped a magazine from each body into the monster.
Half a dozen of the other parraks leaped through the air, beaks wide, and bore Taylor Orange to the sticky floor. Behind them, the door tunked closed and the train started moving again. Taylor covered his face, letting out a girlish shriek of pain and surprise manly war cry in order to terrify his enemies. The war cry utterly failed and his health plummeted like a waterfall as the parraks tore chunks out of him with their massive beaks.
Taylor Orange slammed down on Invulnerability and was instantly wrapped in a shimmering golden field that shrugged off the attacks.
You are invulnerable for 2 seconds!
New Achievement! Invulnerable Defense!
You have used Invulnerability to save yourself from being torn into tiny little gobbets of flesh, thereby giving yourself another few seconds of life!
Reward: Your have received a Silver Desperation box
New Achievement! The Reason You Suck!
You got the 'Invulnerable Defense' achievement at a time when your spell level (3) and Intellgence (30) suck so badly that the defense lasts for 3 seconds or less. What a waste! (Of a spell, not you. You've probably been a waste since you slipped out of your momma's hoo-haa.) Makes me wish I had given that spell to a more deserving meatsack instead of you. Oh well. Still, you've amused me in the past, so here's a shiny thing for you. Be grateful.
Reward: You have received a Gold 'Dance for Me, Monkey! Dance!' box!
"Drew!" Taylor Blue shouted, pointing. "Cannon!"
Thankfully, Drew didn't ask questions. He unnecessarily waved his hand and shouted, "Conjure Cannon!"
A ton and a half of iron popped into existence. Taylor had been hoping to have it appear above his other body and fall, crushing the attacking parraks. Or perhaps it might appear straddling him, thereby telefragging the monsters into chunky salsa. Sadly, the spell didn't work like that; it required sufficient clear space to materialize.
Which was sort of irrelevant, since Drew immediately yanked the firing lanyard and the world became ringing silence and ashy, sulfurous smoke.
Drew had once again conjured the cannon with a load of grapeshot, but this time the team had gotten on at the front of the train, all the way up at the first door of car #2. Dozens of small iron balls shredded the parraks that were pinning Taylor Orange down, deflecting harmlessly off the field of his Invulnerability in the remaining second before it expired. The shot turned every other monster in the car into meat slurry without slowing down. It turned the back wall of the car into a collander, crossed the gangway, turned the inhabitants of the next car into more meat slurry, continued on, and slurried the monsters in the third car before finally losing energy. Along the way the balls spread out, tearing the walls and ceiling into metal netting as they passed in and out multiple times, deflecting off the tightly-fitted walls of the tunnel each time. The floors were made of sterner stuff and most of the balls did not penetrate. The deck of the tunnel was farther away than the sides or roof, so most of the few balls that passed through did not come back. Which was good, since otherwise the train would probably have torn in half.
The humans were staggered by the noise and blast, but Moose shrugged it off and took care of business, finishing off the last two parraks by biting the first one in half and swiping the second one into the wall so hard it crunched.
Moose: THAT WAS VERY LOUD! IT GAVE MOOSE'S EARS A OWIE! MOOSE IS NOT SURE THAT CANNONS ON TRAINS ARE A GOOD IDEA!
"Yah," Taylor Orange said, climbing shakily to his feet with an assist from Taylor Blue. "Nice job, Drew. Glad you figured out that I was using Invulnerability."
"You were?" Drew said, eyebrows up. "Cool." He leaned his bident in the crook of his arm so that he could light a joint.
"Hang on," Taylor said, ignoring the way his friend's hands shaking made him need two tries to light up. "You didn't know? You thought you were shooting a cannon into me?"
Drew shrugged as the joint finally caught. "You were getting mauled and you told me to do it. I figured you had a reason." He looked around, drawing strongly on the joint. "So, you think these guys had any loot?"
"Yah," Calliope said, kneeling over one of the parraks. "What the hell is a 'Sterilization Emitter' and why is it expended?" she asked, holding up a device that looked like a fire extinguisher with a T-shaped vacuum cleaner head on the end of the hose.
"Let me see?" Taylor asked, holding out a hand. Calliope passed it over.
Sterilization Emitter (Expended)
It emits stuff. Stuff that sterilizes. Except it doesn't do that anymore because it's all used up.
"It also dropped its beak as a crafting component," she said, grimacing.
"This guy has one too," Drew said, bending over another parrak. "Moose, you killed it so I can't loot it yet."
Moose: OH BOY! MOOSE GETS LOOT!
Moose hurried over and pulled the entire corpse into his inventory, then popped out another emitter. It was basically identical to the first, different only in the pattern of wear and a couple of dings on the side.
"Well, I'm sure that's not somehow connected to a horrible thing that will end up with all of us dead," Taylor said with a sigh.
"Eh," Drew said. "We'll handle it when it happens."
"I suppose," Taylor said. "Let's see about the engine."
The team moved to the door leading to the engine car. The engine appeared on their maps as a blank spot, which usually meant that it was behind a magical barrier. The door that led within was heavily armored and said 'Engineers Only'.
"No handle, no keyhole," Taylor said.
"Not real welcoming," said Drew, lighting his next joint.
"If you would?" Taylor said to Calliope, gesturing towards the door.
She stepped up to the door and rapped on it with her knuckles. "Hello?" she called, pitching her voice to sound feminine and helpless. "Mr Engineer sir? Please open up. I need to speak with you."
No response.
Calliope knocked again, more frantically. "Please, Mr Engineer sir! I'm in trouble! I need help! There's a man out here and he's...he's...oh god! Please, help!"
No response.
"Lousy customer service," Calliope said, kicking the door lightly. "Should get our money back."
"Let's head down the train," Taylor said, hiding his disappointment as best he could. "More mobs, more XP. Plus, I want to know what's in car five."
o-o-o-o
Drew had wiped out cars two and three with his cannon blast. The team looted their way through both and then breached into car four. It was loaded with more of the parraks, but they fell easily enough when the team was able to face them without starting off surrounded. The metal poles distributed down the car gave the mobs only enough room to approach two at a time; Taylor and Calliope went first, standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Drew spread the jaws of his bident to their maximum width and extended the shaft enough that he could stand behind them, the weapon reaching over their shoulders to block most of the aisle so that attackers could come only one at a time. Moose was not best pleased with this plan since it left him basically sidelined, but Taylor told him that the humans needed to get some experience too and that if things went sideways they would drop to the floor and he could jump over and past them. The giant dog had grumpily stayed back.
Looting and fighting took enough time that as they finished the fourth car the train started pulling into station 84. As when the team boarded at the prior stop, the lights on the platform were flashing as the train pulled in. The area behind the yellow-and-black lines was choked with restless mobs; the train pulled in with a blue flash, the lights went back to a steady glow, and the monsters rushed the train doors.
The mobs, scaled griffins with humanoid arms, received an unpleasant surprise as the doors opened: Team Trick Shot had blocked off the front and middle doors of car #4 with Levi's barriers, leaving only the rear door open to entry.
A pair of griffins leaped into the car, slashing with clear panic and trying to force the team back in order to make room for more of their packmates. The team was ready for them; the door was bracketed by a pair of stanchions that meant attackers had to come straight forward a pair of steps before they could move to the sides, and they had built their strategy around that. Moose stood in front of the door, backed up as far as possible. He had needed to shrink to half size so that he could fit crossways in the car but he was still massive. Calliope and Taylor waited on either side of the door so that anything coming forward to attack Moose was entering a killbox where they could be attacked from all sides. Drew had extended his bident enough that he could thrust over Calliope's shoulder without getting tangled up with her, and was using his Smoke Form spell to hold a massive cloud of stinking burnt-plastic smoke against the ceiling.
The griffins' initial attacks missed as Drew brought the smoke down around their heads, blocking their sight. They screamed in anger and then coughed and hacked as the toxic smoke went down their throats.
The griffins were frantic, snarling and slashing at Moose with needle-clawed feet while bashing at him with their expended sterilizers. Taylor Blue flicked out his yo-yo, wrapping it around the rear leg of the closer griffin, and yanked hard. It staggered, giving Moose a chance to get his teeth into its shoulder. The monster gave a steam-whistle shriek of agony while the other griffin clubbed at Moose, but the big dog hunched his shoulders to absorb the blows and shook his head, his Back Breaker skill activating and magnifying the damage of his bite. The griffin's health plummeted as it beat ineffectively at Moose with its fists for the moment it took Drew to shove his smoke down its throat. It collapsed, arms wrapped around itself as it desperately coughed and gasped for air.
Taylor Orange hurled a handful of gold spheres out onto the platform and called them back to his hand with his much-neglected Gold Grabber spell. The spheres impacted on the griffins crowded around the door, injuring them slightly and making them spin around in surprise to see what had hit them.
"Holy shit!" Taylor Orange said, catching something out of the corner of his eye: up at the front of the front of the car, two of the griffins had managed to reach around the ill-fitting wedge-shaped barrier that Levi had designed. It was held in place by a pair of adjustable struts that anchored to the stanchions placed by the door for passengers to hold onto for balance. The struts were simply a pair of nested tubes with matching holes; they could be shifted to a variety of lengths and then locked in place with a simple bolt and butterfly nut through the holes.
The griffins were unscrewing the nuts. In another few seconds they would lift the barricade clear and flood the car with mobs.
"I got this!" Taylor Orange shouted, teleporting up the car as far as he could and then running forward, yo-yo spinning in his left hand while firing with the Glock in his right.
The doors of the train closed with a shunk. They lacked the protective circuit that real-world train doors had, and four scaled arms hit the floor amid a splash of blood. Moments later, all the bipeds staggered as the train lurched into motion.
The griffin that wasn't in the middle of being ripped apart by Moose took advantage of Calliope's stumble to attack. Even off-balance, the catgirl managed to pivot around the lunging creature and knee it in the ribs. It was far more massive than she was, so the blow knocked her back against the wall and barely injured the monster, but it was enough. By the time it managed to get itself turned around, Moose had finished ripping the arm off his current foe and kicked the screaming body aside. Team Trick Shot descended on the lone survivor and beat it to death in moments.
"That was fun," Drew said.
"I liked the thing with the smoke," Calliope said, leaning forward with her hands on her knees as she sucked in giant gulps of air; there was no cardio so intense as fighting for your life. "Can you do that again?"
Drew grunted in annoyance. "As soon as it goes inside the thing I lose control of it, and the boundaries are a little wonky as to what counts as 'inside'. I basically pack the smoke around its face so that it breathes it in whenever it inhales. Once it's dead and not exhaling, I can't get the smoke back."
"We've got plenty of trash bags and other stuff to burn," Taylor said. "I wouldn't sweat it."
"I suppose." He shrugged. "Shall we loot the bodies?"
The griffins had more of the expended sterilizers and a gold coin each. One of them dropped his liver, which was labeled as an alchemy ingredient. It was gross, but Taylor pulled it and the severed arms into his inventory.
"Shall we go see what's in the next car?" he asked.
Moose: MOOSE WOULD LIKE EVERYONE TO NOTE THAT THE GRIFFINS TASTE REALLY BAD, AND THAT BITING THEM WAS A MAJOR SACRIFICE ON MOOSE'S PART! SCRITCHES AND EAR RUBS AND BACON WOULD BE APPROPRIATE WAYS TO SHOW RESPECT FOR MOOSE'S SACRIFICE!
Before anyone could respond, the whole party's eyes flickered as a chat message arrived.
Tina: Hey guys, got a minute?
Taylor: Hey, Tina! Long time no hear. Sorry for not reaching out sooner.
Calliope: Hi, Tina! How are you? How is everyone? Is Jada still thinking about getting all kissy-face with Uncle Drew? Is Lululemon still a raging bitch?
"Jesus, Leo!" Taylor hissed. "Tone it down!"
Drew: Hi Tina. Jada's been telling me about what's going on with you guys. She said you got a Rockcrusher Troll race that's pretty badass.
Tina: Hey, Drew. Nice to hear from you, too. I didn't realize you and Jada were still chatting. She's been keeping you a secret.
Calliope: Drew and Jada, sittin' in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love, and god I can't even with this. I'm glad you and Jada are still chatting, Uncle Drew.
Tina: We're checking in with everyone we know, seeing what everyone's learned. This place is weird.
Taylor: Yeah, our manager says that this is a puzzle level. Pretty sure we've mentioned him before—Levi, rabbit/manatee guy? He was our game guide. During path selection Drew took something with the 'Manager' benefit. Now Levi travels with us until we leave the dungeon. He was an eleventh-floor crawler back in the day and he's got a head full of info, plus he can make enchanted gear for us once he gets the stuff. He says this is a puzzle level, meaning that there's some trick to figure out. The first few days should be pretty easy but something awful will happen the last day or two. If we can figure out what that is then it'll be a lot easier to handle.
Tina: Damn, that sounds handy. Wish we'd got one of those. Louisa chose a druid class—National Park Ranger—which came with a pangolin familiar. It's smart and gives good advice, but it doesn't have the kind of info you're implying.
Drew: Yeah, he's handy. You got the message about stairways being at 12, 24, 36, 48, and 72? It went out on a chain a while back.
Tina: Yup, we all got it. Followed immediately by so much spam that I had to turn off chat for a while.
Taylor: Same here. I only turned it on again when we got on this train. So far we've noticed that the mobs are all carrying 'Sterilizers', except they're expended. Looks like a fire extinguisher with a T-shaped thing on the end of the hose.
Tina: We've seen those too. We've also noticed that the mobs get on at stations ending in 1-4 and 6-9. They ride up to the next x5 or x0 station, then get off. They all get off, meaning that if you want to explore one of those stops then you're going to be dealing with an entire train load of mobs on the platform.
Calliope: Ouch.
Tina: Yah. The mobs are all the same at a given station but different from one station to the next. We entered the level on the Hazelnut line as it was leaving station 81. We stayed on up to 101. There were transfer stations at 83, 89, 97, 101. There's a Desperado Club here, and Millicent (girl in my chat) says that there's also a DC at stop 101 on the Cherry Blossom line.
She had gotten Desperado Club access. Interesting. Taylor made a mental note to never ask how.
Taylor: Given that the stairs are at the same stops on all the lines and you say that there's a Desperado at 101 on two different lines, I feel like the trains are probably all similar—we probably all started just after station 81 on different lines, the transit stops are all at the same stops on all the lines, a Desperado is at 101 on all the lines, and so on. Makes it a lot more useful if we can spread the word around, which they may want us to do since it's a puzzle level.
Tina: Yeah, that's my thought too. Problem is the sucky way this message relay system instantly turns into a mailbomb. I'm suggesting that everyone agree that the two hours following the recap are message time. Everyone compiles everything they want to share into a single message with a message header made of their name and time to level collapse, then sends it out. Header should look like: "Tina:9d18h45m" We all relay everything around and we deal with the fact that we'll be flooded. With the mail headers it's easy to filter out ones you're already seen. Outside of that time, only DMs.
Calliope: br.
Tina: ???
Calliope: It means 'brainy'. You know, 'that sounds smart'.
Tina: Taylor, Drew, does she make you feel old?
Taylor: Yup.
Drew: I like to think of it as 'she keeps me young'.
Tina: I was wondering why bromine had entered the chat.
Taylor: I have a feeling people are going to be lazy about formatting the header but I like the basic idea.
"Now approaching Doomhawk station, station 85!" clamored the loudspeaker. "This is an exit-only stop. We'll be arriving in three minutes. Please make sure that you have all your belongings."
Taylor: Crap, we're arriving at station 85. It says that it's exit-only. If we get off, can we get back on?
Tina: Dunno, sorry. We've been leery to try it. I will say this: the mobs have to be leaving somehow, because otherwise a steady inflow of mobs would make the place explode. Plus, where would new mobs at the other stations come from—I suppose they could be generated, but Big B doesn't seem to like doing that. Makes it too easy for us to sit in one place and grind instead of continually moving around. It would make sense if they go to 85 or whatever, then get on a different train back to their starting point. Or maybe portal.
Taylor: Makes sense, but we've gotta go. Catch you later.
Moose: AS MOOSE WAS SAYING BEFORE FRIENDS REACHED OUT, MOOSE WOULD LIKE EVERYONE TO NOTE THAT THE GRIFFINS TASTE REALLY BAD, AND THAT BITING THEM WAS A MAJOR SACRIFICE ON MOOSE'S PART! SCRITCHES AND EAR RUBS AND BACON WOULD BE APPROPRIATE WAYS TO SHOW RESPECT FOR MOOSE'S SACRIFICE!
"Yeah, you're not getting any bacon," Taylor said with a smile. "One person on the team using gas attacks is enough, thank you." Still, he was scritching behind Moose's ears as he said that and the big dog didn't seem to mind too much. He leaned hard into the scritching, eyes drifting closed in pleasure as Taylor braced himself against the lean.
"Don't worry Moose," Calliope stage-whispered, one hand held conspiratorially around her mouth. "I'll give you bacon later."
Taylor shot her a pair of glares. "That's enough out of you, missy," he said in stereo.
"Next car?" Drew said. "Or do we get out and farm the platform? My cannon is on cooldown."
Taylor hesitated. "We can't see into the next car on the map," he said. "That usually means boss room. I'm not best pleased at the idea of being locked into a boss room on a moving train. On the other hand, I'm not thrilled about fighting an entire train load of mobs at once."
"It didn't have any windows," Calliope noted with a frown. "Didn't want us seeing what we would be getting into." She cocked her head. "That kinda speaks against it being a boss room, actually. Before, there have always been hints about what the boss was."
"Plus, the previous car that we couldn't see into was just the janitors," Drew reminded them. "Nothing serious."
"We could also hop out and go around it," Calliope said, lips pursed in thought. From her tone it was clear that she was playing devil's advocate. "We've cleared cars two, three, and four. At 85 we jump out, run down the platform, and hop into car six while the mobs are still getting out and aren't organized yet. It lets us get a glimpse of the station and positions us for more grinding." She dipped her head in an 'or not' gesture. "Granted, last platform we saw was crowded end-to-end in mobs, so we might have that plus everything that's currently on the train."
Moose: MOOSE WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHERE THE MOBS GO. LIKE TINA SAID, THEY CAN'T JUST KEEP GOING TO 85, 90, ETC OR THE STATION WOULD EXPLODE. THEY MUST LEAVE THOSE STATIONS SOMEHOW, AND IF THEY'RE RIDING A DOWN TRAIN THEN MAYBE WE CAN TAKE IT BACK TO THE STAIRWELLS. ALSO, WHY ARE THEY RIDING THE TRAINS IN THE FIRST PLACE?
"Fair points," Taylor said, nodding thoughtfully. "I think we should—"
Voting is open. What does Taylor think you should do?
[] Hit car #5 now
[] At station 85, hop out and go around car #5, clear out cars 6-9
[] Get out at station 85, explore
[] Stay in car #4 and grind until the next transit stop at station 89
[] write in
Voting ends when discussion has run its course, but no earlier than
.
[X] Hit car #5 now
Don't know if EJ is going to have them on here the way the were in DCC but I'm hoping for a prize car. Where Drew's luck can come into play.
[X] No tickets!
After hitting car #5 we work our way down the rest of the train tossing mobs, grinding, and trying to get more info. I think we should work out way down the train exploring the rest of it if possible to see what is going on in the DCY Iron Tangle. I've got a couple guesses based on the expended sterilizers but nothing firm yet. We should keep an eye on the time though and try to be at a safe room when the six hours is up to open loot and transfer boxes back to Taylor like we voted in the last plan.
[X] [Stunt] Nigerian Royalty
The message spam is getting out of control and getting information out clearly to everyone could save a lot of lives. Tina's suggestion is moving things in the right direction. If we can get people to meet at the Desperado Club while Taylor's powers are active. By copying everyone's contact lists we can cut down on the amount spam being sent around and really streamline the communication so its not just noise.
[X] Know Thyself
Have Taylor figure out what the
You may edit the stylesheet of a crawler's
chat system. Range: touch
Power does.
[X] Golden Ticket
Check in with Charlie & Co and see of they have anyone saving up boxes for us to transfer to Leo. I don't feel as much like we need to do the 12 hour transfer with them since they have such a big group. Someone will be able to get good use out of the gear Leo opens.
@eaglejarl
What was the category for write-ins that are recommendations for tricks/stunts to try, rather than the mutually exclusive choices how to proceed in story?
@eaglejarl
What was the category for write-ins that are recommendations for tricks/stunts to try, rather than the mutually exclusive choices how to proceed in story?
I promise you'll see it next chapter. As to cannon cocker, the issue is that the cannon destroys everything in front of it for two cars or so, meaning there's nothing to spend another shot on. It takes more than five minutes to move the cannon down the train to where it could be usefully fired again.
