RPG: Chunk 3 and Revisions

Before we get started, I want to say that I’m adding an entire dungeon. The players don’t have enough to get familiarized with combat strategy before they reach Iuris and the entire Demon Convoy sequence is probably too hard for an early level, so I’m adding a path through the mountains between Crasada and Iuris called Iuris pass.

Dungeon – Iuris Pass

This is a fairly long dungeon; longer than Merisi Mine, definitely. It’s probably the first real dungeon-crawl experience the players get. The basic puzzle mechanic is the rockfalls: loose rocks on the walls of the mountain pass tumble down and block the players’ path unless they push the right configuration of blocks against the wall to block the spread of the rockfall. The sites where the rocks will fall are marked by barren stretches of ground, and pushing rocks around the borders of the sites blocks the sliding rocks. The problem is that the supplies of pushable rocks are limited, so you have to figure out how to maneuver them efficiently to block off the rockfalls. At certain points the path of the dungeon splits – if you use the obvious configuration of rocks, it routes you along a more roundabout path, whereas the more complex configuration earns you a straighter path.

Monsters

Iuris Pass contains Rockhoppers Desperate Bandits and Minor Golems

Rockhoppers are large bugs. Fairly easy to kill, but they’ll wear you down over time. They can Attack, Bite (light damage for two rounds) or Chitter (decreases either defense or accuracy for duration of battle).

Desperate Bandits are starving humans. They’ve got knives and hunger. They can Attack, Slash (plus one-quarter attack damage) or Call for Help (60% chance to bring one extra Desperate Bandit in).

Minor Golems are magical rock constructs, presumably used by the bandits. They can Attack, Crush (plus one-third attack damage, 30% chance to Daze) or Call Superiors (75% chance to bring one Desperate Bandit in).

No boss. Okay

Chunk 3

Story

Alarim, Imere and Alistair travel west from Iuris to the capital city of the nation, Cilusia. When they arrive in the suburbs, they come upon the burned-out husk of a house, and then the player knows shit’s about to go down. Basically, there’s been a rash of random, apparently unmotivated arsons recently. No deaths have been reported yet, but most of the people they talk to figure it’s only a matter of time. Even worse, the municipal government is occupied with what is only referred to for now as “The Lucan Problem” and can’t turn its attention to the destruction of its suburbs. Naturally, being heroes in an RPG setting, the three kids take the law into their own hands and set out to find what’s going on. There’s a house on the very outskirts of the city that’s always boarded up; the local kids think it’s haunted. It seems suspicious, so the players visit it. They find a way to break in and discover that it is linked directly to the older, unused sewer system of the city, which they journey through until they find the cause of the arsons: a young, magically-talented girl named Enata. Enata has been possessed by a pyromaniacal demon, whom the players manage to defeat. In gratitude, Enata joins the party, and you suddenly have a badass fire mage with you.

Characters

Enata – An orphaned street girl who has nursed a profound natural talent for magic her entire life. She is quiet, timid and guilty, which contrasts oddly with her violent, conflagratory abilities. She has been possessed by a demon for several weeks when you find her, which has turned her into a skeletal, emaciated wretch. She has high intelligence, speed, evasion, and accuracy, average luck, and low strength and defense. When you meet her she can cast Flame, Flare and Fireball, which means you’re pretty much set offensively. After a few levels, she gets Salamander’s Blade. She can equip staffs and knives.

Cilusia

Cilusia is huge. I mean, seriously fucking enormous. Nine screens: four for the outskirts of the city, four for the cosmopolitan interior, and one for the city square where all the really good shops and important plot-driving NPCs are. All the talkative townsfolk (or at least the ones with relevant things to say right now) are in the four outskirts. You can find out things about the The Lucan Problem from them, as well as the arsons. Also, the cheap inn is in the outskirts. The shops that sell things you don’t already have are in the city center, so that’s important. You come in by the Farmer’s Gate, on the east side (represent), and the first burned house is right there as you enter. Enata’s hideout is on the west side, by the Merchant’s Gate.

Cilusian Sewers

So, these sewers are pretty old. They haven’t been in use except by the obligatory Thieves’ Guild for a really long time now. The demons have kind of refurbished them since they arrived, and by refurbished I mean set everything that could ever have carried any kind of liquid on fire. So now, instead of unspeakable human waste flowing through the tunnels, there is fire. Not lava. Fucking fire. The basic puzzle mechanic for this dungeon is rerouting flows of fire – making tunnels walkable, for the first part, and then using the fire to flip switches to other levels. There are three levels. The last puzzle, the one right before Enata’s chamber, uses all three floors and requires both previous mechanics to open the door.

Like the Merisi Mines, the Cilusian Sewers have another, lower level that gets even more devilish. I guess these are the really old sewers or something. Whatever. Pretty much, the puzzles are much harder. They use the same mechanics, but the puzzles are longer and more mind-bending. At the end, you either get the Staff of Light (if you have Eusoph) or the Possessor summon (if you have Ricca). The Staff of Light is an incredibly powerful Holy-aligned weapon which can simultaneously cast Judgment and Angel’s Mercy once per battle, and the Possessor lets you take control of an enemy for an MP cost that changes with the enemy. Handy.

Monsters

The Cilusian Sewers contain Corrupted Thieves, Pyrodemons, and Fire Elementals.

Corrupted Thieves are the thieves who were present in the sewers when the demons showed up. They’re like beefed-up versions of the Desperate Bandits from Iuris Pass. They can Attack, Fire Slash (plus one-quarter attack damage, fire-aligned) or Summon Help (50% chance to bring in one Pyrodemon)

Pyrodemons are stronger, fire-aligned versions of the Minor Demons from yore. They can Attack, throw Fireballs (attack damage divided evenly between all party members) or Burn (monster-only spell, does poison-type damage, but fire-aligned and alleviated after end of battle).

Fire Elementals are made of fire. They can Attack, Burn, Split (divides self into two Elementals, each with half HP of original.

Boss - Possessor

This guy is a pretty serious problem. Basically, he’s inhabiting Enata’s body. If you kill her, you lose the battle, so you have to do just enough damage to her to make him vulnerable, and then use a special ability that Alistair gets for battles like this called Exorcise to force him out of her mind. Then, you fight him. Enata herself is very powerful: she gets Cutscene Power, so she has like four or five times the HP she will have when she’s in your party and she gets much better spells (alright, she has the same spells, but she also gets Torch, which is very dangerous this early on). The Possessor can cast everything she can along with Explosion and Drake Fire (a weakened form of Dragon Fire which can still seriously fuck you up). Enata can do basic attacks, but the Possessor can’t, being technically incorporeal. Once you defeat him, he cackles and escapes to the lower levels of the sewers, where you vow to find him later (The boss of the really old Cilusian sewers is him in full corporeal form, which means he’s maddeningly strong). He drops a Staff of Darkness, which would be very powerful if you could equip it without fucking your characters up: it Curses them, which means it does damage to them and can’t be unequipped unless you take it to a hospital and have it exorcised. Exorcists are common in hospitals.

~ by pieboy on June 12, 2008.