Board 8 > Labyrinth of Ishiene, Topic 2 [CYOA/Forum Game] [ITD8]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Sylvester kindly comes up the stairs.

He notices a number of things.

Like a closed inventory room door.

He applied his pick axe to the problem of the sealed door
---

Gl'thaggga had just witnessed his home ravaged by this monstrous demonic power wielding angel. There were no words that could hope to express how he felt about that, so he was not even going to try. Despite all that was thrown at it, the angel was still going strong, even going so far as to deploy its wings and glow, as if everything prior had been a warm up.

It was devastating demonstration of just how precarious a position Gl'thaggga was in, for should he lash out with magical energies now that Qslvl had taken the full measure of his powers, he could end up like Short had...only a miscalculation had spared Gl'thaggga this first time. And yet...and yet...it was his only means of contributing. That, and Qslvl had gazed upon his home recognizing some level of threat from it. There had to be something he could do that could not be so easily taken.

With only brief moments to ponder, and a glimmer of reflected winglight in his eyes, Gl'thaggga settled on an idea so crazy that it would have no choice but to work. Calling upon the full extent of the energies at his command, Gl'thaggga carefully shaped and formed them, or rather, did the exact opposite of such. To the casual observer, it might look like a darkness was falling around Gl'thaggga as he casts; what better tool to unleash upon an agent of light that had so easily been thwarted by an attacker completely in the dark? And yet, darkness was still a thing, immaterial though it might be, and to rely on such a basic countermeasure would be to court the light, practically demanding to be outshone. No, what Gl'thaggga was crafting here was pure, simple, Nothing. An absolute void that should, in theory, be the antithesis to all things Angel. Let Qslvl deliver unto himself this void, it would be his undoing, for what could a being of light and creation hope to achieve in a realm where neither exist? Could an Angel in such a place even be said to be? Such were questions Gl'thaggga would save for the future, should there be a future.

Unless otherwise interrupted, Gl'thaggga unleashes his spell upon Qslvl.

alternate interpretation of this action: 'Gl'thaggga does Nothing'
---

John, in desperate need of something else other than a dusty broom and knowing full well the consequences of running into battle under-equipped, will accompany IG-59 and loot the treasure hoard aswell.
---

Short also follows the classic ITD trend that characters who die often get the best endings (completed his quest of returning all of the Demons back home)
---

Frustrated, Remulel takes the other prototype ray gun from the assistant.
---

Ah well

Assisting Quo, X and Y will try to subdue (or further subdue) the angry angel with their combined arsenal
---

Fool had no idea in all the World... How he... Knew about Angels...

Then it came rushing back

I. The Magician based on a Charlatan Mage... but mages were unheard of on Sea-Quartz....

He was a lab assistant....

II. The Priestess based on a Lady of the Woods... but there were no forests on Sea-Quartz....

He was created as such.....

III. The Empress based on an Elven Queen... but Elves did not exist on Sea-Quartz.....

His creator was a bizarre man....

IV. The Emperor based on a Beastly King.... Beasts were not royalty on Sea-Quartz......

His creator was a Devil and......

V. The Hierophant based on a Holy Man.... Who has long been dead on their home world.

They found candidates to base the others on throughout the worlds.

VI. The Lovers were based on an Unlikely Pair.... Who caused great pain.

He and his Master stayed hidden in the shadows watching from afar except in one place.... What a strange memory that is "God of the Afterlife" indeed...

VII. The Chariot was based on a, well, Minotaur..... Seriously, we felt we didn't need to look further than that

Neibros was an excellent mechanist, Master, and friend....

VIII. Strength was based on a Struggling Mother...... For she carried on in horrid times for her children's sake

Neibros took all of Fool's ideas to heart

IX. The Hermit was based on a Introvert Druid.... For he truly fit the part (though it was hard to keep tabs on him)

Except for two...

X. The Wheel of Fortune was based on a Jack-of-All-Trades... For he made his own luck and fell when it ran out..... Then he came back again with greater fortune than ever....

Fool always asked, "What was I based on?" To which the response was normally, "You'll find out some day," but once in a while, "Not a God of the Afterlife, that's for sure."

XI. Justice was based on a Seeker of Truth...... Where all things were lies

This always left Fool pondering why Neibros didn't tell him

XII. The Hanged Man was One With No Choice... He made one mistake and had to live with the weight of it

Especially with what happened

XIII. Death was based on the Girl in Red.... For she was everywhere
---

They had been to a great number of worlds on some of them were.... off....

XIV. Temperance was a CEO... For he started with nothing but gained everything he and his family ever wanted

These worlds had no effect on Fool but Neibros seemed slightly different

XV. The Devil was based on a Devilish Friend.... The Lady of the Night willingly modeled for Neibros to make sure her Knight could receive aid for his family and friends.... All for naught...

Even Neibros' home world was warped and strange beings now roamed.

XVI. The Tower was based on Neibros himself.... He chuckled at the thought and then realized what Fool meant..... What Neibros wanted he could not have anymore...

Fool increasingly worried about Neibros' well being his designs becoming more abstract but still remained true.

XVII. The Star was a Disciple.... One with so much potential but with so much failure

Fool noticed that his last few works were incomplete except for....

XVIII. The Moon was the Master..... Who doted but feared his Disciple

The World from which even Fool was entranced by for he had a Stolen Heart as did she

XIX. The Sun was a Child of Love....... A child with no worries

"Where did you get the idea for the World?"

XX. Judgement was a Behemoth.... One who wrought pure destruction

"The same place as you but the DARKNESS says she is all we need."

XXI. The World..... was an Angel from a different World who loved a hated enemy

Neibros was CORRUPTED and he CORRUPTED the World..... No, Verida... and destroyed all of them.

And Fool (No I was, who was I.....) was left in pieces....

He snapped back and decided to release the Beta Fiends for even in his past life he was always a Fool.
---

[Note: I moved some stuff around for the sake of dramatic effect.]
[The final action order was:]
[Fool -> Qslvl -> Downstairs Group -> Qslvl Survivors]
[^ Don't highlight this until later if you don't want to be spoiled^]
[For the full reasoning, I'll explain it at the end]


A great, final buzzer sounded.
It was like... it was signaling the end of the end.
The fact that the game was over.
Whatever the final score read -- that was it.
One team would be going home the champions.
The other team... well, this is the kind of game where the other team didn't go home at all.
Or maybe it was a different kind of dramatic buzzer.
The kind that signaled the start of something.
A change from the second quarter to the third.
Where the momentum was about to shift.

Fool's hand was on the button.
He made his decision and he made peace with it.
To release... the Beta Fiends.

Liquid seeped out of the tanks as the curtains lifted upwards.
The soft, pale bodies within were dumped out onto the floor.
These things... were deadly!
And best of all, like most Fiends, they were easy to control [3].

"Watch the door," Fool instructed Joe. Then he turned to the Beta Fiends.
"And for you guys... attack!"

Without question, the Beta Fiends saw the strongest creature in the room.
It had taken charge. And they obeyed his commands.
Fangs, claws, they were naked without weapons or armor.
Still, they rushed forth into battle as they were told.
Even right into... that hellish room...
Where the Angel had turned Purgatory into Hell.

The statement "EVERYTHING IN THIS ROOM WILL DIE." was really not meant to be taken lightly.
You could consider it an empty challenge, but...
Honestly, for those that stuck around to face such an assault.
Heh.
They really had no one to blame but themselves.

They were truly a group of... well...
Each one of them had something to prove.
They couldn't just run away here.
No matter what it meant.
They couldn't turn away and run as Joe had done before them.

Quovadis reputation was just as important as his life.
Such was the way of the Gunslinger. If he missed here, if he turned tail and ran...
He'd never be able to live with himself after that.

Y had seen many new and fun things since coming to this place.
And he met people from Sea Quartz and this world who all meant something to him.
Letting it go like this, after Short had been murdered.
That... was not allowed!

Stunt might have just been a droid, but his heart was in the right place.
With his new magical perspective on things it was almost like he had feelings.
And he felt passion. The passion to succeed here.

Even Gil, odd and distant, had his reasons to fight.
He'd have to bet it all on this next attack. Because...
That bastard Angel had just destroyed half of his entire Dimension.

There was no way he could turn away from that.

Still-!!

From the perspective of this Narrator,
It really seemed like,

... they had done something pretty foolish by sticking around.

The Light erupted from within the core of Qslvl.
His body wasn't capable of containing this level of energy, but it didn't matter.
He never intended to survive through this battle anyway.
Not after the wounds he had just suffered.
Rather, this was his way of getting even and making sure the heretics were punished.

At that time, a gang of Beta Fiends charged into the room as well.

The more the merrier.

His wings broke and columns of energy erupted from within them.
Two sweeping beams of light cut through the room, slashing it to pieces. [X, X]
---

Gil and the others were forced to fall back.
But, honestly, it was a miracle that they were unscathed.
At the same time the Beta Fiends charged forward without fear.
These were creatures that couldn't know fear.
They only knew submission and obedience.
Though several of them were cut down in the erupting burst of fire,
Several more cleared the killing fields and made their way to where Qslvl was perched.
Even as part of the ceiling collapsed and rocks and dirt poured into the chamber from above...
And, at that time, a section of the floor was completely stripped away.
Bolts and metal sheet, torn from the force and heat of The Light, wrapped outward away from the ground.

Quo looked to Y and gave him a nod.
"We'll use the Fiends as cover. Move forward, and-"

Qslvl charged forward, right into the small band of Fiends in front of him.
They managed to grapple to his leg, his arm and shoulder.
One goblin looking creature even managed to wrap around onto the Angels back,
Wrap his arm around Qslvl's face, and drive a claw right into the mouth of the Angel.
He hooked the Angel right in the face and ripped out two teeth and more than a bit of blood.
But that didn't stop the Angel from charging, either.
Rather, it seemed, those who grabbed him managed to deal damage, but...
At the same time they merely doomed themselves to being cut down by his assault.

His wings snapped outwards and cleaved through flesh and bone alike.
A torrent of arms, legs, heads and torsos went flying in every direction.
It was as if a cloud of blood had formed around the Angel.
And he wasn't slowing down.
Not even for an instant.

He wasn't as fast as the Proto Fiend, but he was damn faster than anyone else in this room.
Gil shifted his form and went to his most natural state.
It was a move of panic. It probably saved him a few seconds of time.
He slipped away and found himself unable to even attack.
Rather, he thought, maybe doing 'Nothing' would somehow be able to end the life of this monster.
Really, though, it was better to say his plan was all for 'Naught.'
That was a better descriptive term.
The Angel slashed right through him, cutting the cloud to pieces.
And although he was immune to most conventional forms of attack...
Gil had been on the receiving end of an attack that was far from conventional!

He wasn't going to avenge anyone.
He wasn't going home.
He was... going... to die... [5]

The Angel blasted right through Gil and, a hot streak of light, turned through the air.
He changed his vector and continued speeding around the room at an insane velocity.
"Get down!" Quo commanded to his nearest allies.
He threw himself on the floor.
The bullet of Light, a living creature of the Light, the Angel, shot right past the group.
Quo had managed to duck under the assault, but...

Quo was not the target at that time.

There was a shrieking and a whirring noise as Stunt was torn off of the ground and lifted into the air.
The force of wind pushing against the Robot made his joints lock up.
He grappled with the foe while in the air and tried to raise the Neural Inhibitor.
If he could place this on the enemy, he
CRAASH!!!!
Qslvl slammed Stunt into the ceiling, breaking him up pretty badly.
Then, for good measure, he turned and unleashed a ballistic piledriver.
Stunt was jammed into the ground below with the force of falling,
As well as the accelerated speed of Qslvl who was still channeling The Light through his form.
At this time he was not just a 'wreckage' who could be repaired later,
Rather, all traces of Stunt had been obliterated.
---

That thing was no more than scrap metal now [4].

Y raised his knife in front of him and prepared for the next charge.
The Angel was coming right at them now.
He let out a wicked battle scream. He didn't even know he was capable of such a thing.
Before now he'd never fought like this, never thought like this, never acted like this.
But even just being here, in a world full of life, had changed him.

Quo was at his side and pointed the Z Gun directly at the incoming Angel.
It pulsed, crackling, and lit up in two spots before unleashing a Psionic Wave.
If the Angel came straight ahead... if the Angel came right for them, he'd surely...

His eyes lit up with explosive power.
Brilliant yellow and white.
Brighter than the sun, probably.
Who knows?
They hadn't seen the sun in this world yet.
But they definitely got to see The Light firsthand.

"--Deliverance!"

Qslvl grabbed the incoming psionic wave and Seized it.
Then he shattered it to a million pieces and flung the psionic shards back at the two.
Both of them were wracked with pain, their forms weakened.

Y twisted his body, turning his face away from the incoming strike.
Maybe it was better to look but he couldn't.
His eyes squinted.
His sensory functions turned off for just a moment.
He didn't want it.
He didn't want to die.

CRUNCH

Y let out a gasp as a rush of air went past him.

Qslvl's shoulder slammed into Quovadis, catching him right in the hip and breaking it.
He wrapped his arms around the Sureshot and tripped him.
Then, the Angel continued to fly forward.
Dragging the gunslinger along behind him at high speeds.
Quo's head bounced against the ground as he trailed behind the enemy.
He dropped the Z gun and it broke upon impact.
That was how fast they were moving?
But the wall was coming so-

SPLAT [3]

Quovadis was dashed against the wall.
His hollow husk, a mere broken form now, slid down and went limp.

The Angel teetered after landing this final blow.
He took a weak step toward Y and then fell over.
His body was shaking.
It took all of his power to push himself back up to his feet.
But his legs were quivering the entire time.

".... kill.... you...."

The Angel was muttering as he stumbled forward.

Y was staring at him in awe and terror.
He was afraid.
Piss scared.
If it was that Qslvl... even in this state... he might actually do it.
That Angel might still kill him. Even after all of this.

[So a quick note about what just happened:
You might have noticed Qslvl never attacked last turn.
This relates to his mechanics and how he fights.
I'll go into more detail later if requested, but the short version is...
Everything that just happened above was part of his opening salvo of attacks.
He 'queued' them at the end of last turn so they'd go off at the start of this turn.
He attacked FIVE TIMES. Each time there was a target selection with a miss chance.
He missed the first two attacks and landed the other three, killing 3/4 of the fighters against him.
Needless to say those who were slain will not be getting their actions this turn]

Joe goes over to the Security Door.
"Hey!... Anyone in there?" he asks.
Well, of course, he knew someone was in there.
He just wanted to see what kind of response he'd get.

"Who are you?" the voice asked. "What are you doing here?"
---

Joe smiled. Good. It was someone capable of having a damn conversation.
Rather than just waltzing into a place and murdering the fuck out of everyone.
"Name's Joe," Joe said. "I come from Sea Quartz."
"So, um, listen, we-"

"Sea... Quartz?" The voice inquired. "What is that?"

Joe chuckled. "Why don't you tell me what you are first."

"Fine." There was a short hesitation.
"I'm Patry. The Head Researcher."

"Okay Pat. That is good to know." Joe made a mental note of that.
He was pretty sure this Head Researcher character was supposed to be important.
Then again, right now, there was much bigger things going on.

"I've been hiding down here a long time. Working on my-..."
Patry stopped mid sentence. "Now, wait just a moment."
"Tell me already about the Sea Quartz that you come from."
"What kind of Kingdom is that?"

"I come from another Dimension," Joe told him bluntly.
"Actually, you might know the Gate I'm talking about. It's-"

"The one on the Second Floor!" Patry sounded excited.
"So we managed to make contact with the creatures that lived on the other side."
"And to think I missed it because I was shut up in my lab the whole time."
"Still. I have so many questions I want to-"

"Before that," Joe cut him off. "We've got a big problem out here."
"Something just showed up and started killing everyone."
"I think they called it Angel. We might need some help, cause..."

"No, no. Impossible." Patry opened the door at last.
He was shaking his buglike head. "There's no way an Angel could find this place."
"Even if they opened the Heaven's Gate it wouldn't matter."
"The Seal around this place protects us from being noticed by Angels."
"That was designed when I knew I'd be experimenting on Demons, after all."

Joe didn't have anything to say about that.
"Hell if I know. Maybe it's an imposter. But it's sure as shit dangerous."
Neither Joe, Patry, or even Fool knew what had happened.
None of them knew that Mara had broken the Seal.
Although if it hadn't been her the Red Wizards would have done it anyway.
Mara herself was captured by the Knights and taken here as a prisoner,
But she eventually joined forces with the Knights.
It was ironic that her rivals, the Red Wizards, would all die like fodder down here.
And the Knights who brought her here were all killed in the expedition as well.
Ultimately, then, it came down to this...
Aside from the mercenary Remulel,
And Mara Raiev who had been brought here as a prisoner,
This quest had all been one giant failure.

And the moment they broke that Seal they had doomed themselves to the wrath of this Angel.

IG-59 goes to the Treasure Hoard and loots.
He retrieves an Enchanted Lute.
It feels oddly nostalgic.

Sylvester wanders into the room upstairs after the bloodshed has already transpired.
"Hrm.."
He somehow fails to notice the Angel in the room.
Goes over to the Inventory Door, which is still sealed, and busts it down.
Inside is the Inventory Room.
It's been sealed off for a while.
The floor was actually partially flooded somehow and you notice about an inch of water.
Laying dead in one of the corner's is a long dead Research Assistant #3.
You're not sure what killed the cockroach but, well, it's dead.
---

There are assorted boxes and things in here that can probably be searched.
Additionally, at the far side of the room is a processing switch.
You're pretty sure if you press it the Green Pilot Light will turn on.
But, then again, is there any point to that anymore?

Nery glances over her shoulder.
"Um, Syl... Er.... ^__^;; "
"Shouldn't we be more worried (O o O) about that thing over there???"
She points Qslvl.

John goes to the Treasure Hoard and loots from it.
He retrieves a High Tech Breastplate. It seems like it improves mobility,
But it can also soak an attack or two.
With this kind of thing he can probably lead his allies into battle.

John's class has changed to Squad Leader

Remulel goes and takes the remaining Prototype Ray Gun.
Argh... he was getting frustrated with continually failing at his attacks and maneuvers.
The enemies and obstacles in this dungeon were so strong.
He could never have imagined he'd face such challenges here.

Mara glanced down the passage toward the sound of fighting.
Those upstairs were surely facing even greater trials.
She would quietly creep that way and climb up to the top of the ladder.
Then, just peeking out from below, she'd watch the end of the battle.

Y sprinted forward.
X was in his hand.
"Go! ATTACK!"
Y took his companion, the Garage Pet, and tossed it at the Angel.
If this thing could land a solid blow the enemy would be knocked off balance.
Maybe then he could land a finishing strike.
Although, in a way, he hated the idea of putting his pet in danger.
They'd have to fight together to have a chance of winning.
For now... he'd... place his trust in X!

And maybe

What happened before

Had not been just 'coincidence'

Maybe this thing was really just that good!

X landed on the enemy and savagely attacked the Angel.
Qslvl struggled with the foe on top of him.
He'd already burned through most of his energy taking down everyone else in the room.
It was all he could do to fight off the Garage Pet.

But he should have been focused on the enemy right in front of him.
Heavy footfalls came this way.
Then, a moment later, Y crashed into the Angel with a violent thrust [3].
It drove both of them to the ground.
Y was on top of the enemy with the knife buried in him.
Then he ripped it out.
And plunged it in again.
"I'll make sure... you die...!"
CHUNK!
CHUNK!
Steel into flesh.
The pounding sound of the enemy being beaten to a pulp and impaled again and again.
"FOR THIS!"
"YOU...YOU--!!"

By the end of it his hands and arms were stained red with blood.
The floor around them as well.
But the Angel had gone completely limp.

Y didn't feel like he had won.
He felt... numb.

Y's class has changed to Empty

"Who cares now if we succeed or fail...?"

For the Neonite who had only known a world of Darkness.
Seeing life meant he was able to experience new possibilities.
And one thing he had not experienced before was 'having something to care about.'
But it also meant he had never experienced the pain of losing it before either.

Mara climbed up from the ladder and went to his side.
She put a hand on his shoulder and crouched beside him.
---

Y was holding his stomach.
It felt like his gears inside were grinding against him.
There was a pain he couldn't describe.

"... it hurts..."



[Player List]

Joe, Lvl 13 Young HERO [Fire Chain Whip]
Fool, Lvl 12 Speedrunner [Ice Hammer]
Remulel, Lvl 17 Fighter [Injury, Seeker's Sword, Ray Gun]
John, Lvl 15 Squad Leader [Dusty Broom, High Tech Armor]
Sylvester, Lvl 13 Sea-Clops [Pick Axe+1, Nery(^.^)]
IG-59, Lvl 14 SPAM [Enchanted Lute]

Y, Lvl 16 Empty [Gold Knife, Garage Pet]

Mara Raiev: Decided to take charge of the Quest after all of the Knights died.
Cloaked Man: A Merchant who is inexplicably still alive even after all of this.

DEATH LIST (3):
1. Carwen. Smashed to pieces by the Proto Fiend. Fast!
2. Gil. Died to Qslvl. There was Nothing he could do about it.
3. Stunt. Found life, but all living things eventually die. Purged by Qslvl.
4. Quovadis. The Angel was not stupid enough to turn his back on this guy again. Killed him instead.




[So, basically, I checked Qslvl's opening salvo of attacks first.
Once I knew that everyone but Y had been killed I knew I'd want to move his final attack to the end.
Furthermore, with Qslvl going fucking ripshit on everything...
I thought it'd be more interesting to have Fool's action at the start of the queue.
This released the Fiends into the room,
And basically just created more fodder for the Angel to cut down so he'd look more badass]

Joe smiled at his new friend.
Then, his eyes drifted past Patry.
Inside of the Final Containment Room he caught a glimpse of something.
It was a... Sleeping Boy...
---

Holy fuck

(music playing during the finale of the fight as Y makes his approach)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrOXTADrIjw
---

Fool walks next to Joe after hearing the commotion in the other room die down and examines the Sleeping Boy.
---

Joe presses the processing switch.
---

unlucky boys
---

I noticed Qslvl didn't attack us last turn, but I thought it was because he spent his turn attacking Short. Guess not!

Also I love this:

MariaTaylor posted...

"Who are you?" the voice asked. "What are you doing here?"
Joe smiled. Good. It was someone capable of having a damn conversation.
Rather than just waltzing into a place and murdering the fuck out of everyone.

---

Yeah I also thought he "attacked" Short last turn as his move

I was also pondering if me saving Short is what led to Angel bad times but I guess the seal breaking is what allowed him to track the place anyway
---

also, courtesy of inspirobot:


---

yeah I'm a big fan of misdirection. he has a gimmick to the way his attacks are processed and it doesn't really work if you guys are thinking that he might have an attack queued up. needles to say Demons auto fail their rolls against Angels. so what you actually saw was Short failing his attack roll.

full overview of Qslvl mechanics:

(although in the end no one asked. too bad! you're getting them anyway!)

so I came up with a really interesting idea, or at least interesting to me.
basically he has a few interesting properties
1. his attacks take place at the end of each turn, but they are presented at the START of the following turn. this means he has the ability to disrupt team cohesion. for example if Quo and Y attempt a Team attack, but Quo gets killed, Y is no longer team attacking.

2. he was a high, high level. not only did his attacks instant kill anyone below level 15 (only Remulel could have survive a hit from him, and Rem wasn't there) but he also had a huge HP pool of 5 HP. for the record, the Quo+Y attack dealt 2 damage, Gil dealt 1 more damage, the Beta Fiends dealt 1 damage, and then Y dealt 1 additional damage right at the end to finish him off.

3. the number of attacks he makes depends on the number of people facing him, but he always has a miss chance. this is a bit difficult to explain but the quick way to give an overview is...

Number of Attacks: [Targets +1]
Die to Roll Per Attack: [Targets Remaining+1]

So a separate die is rolled for each attack depending on the circumstances.
He started off by rolling 5 sided die because there were four people facing him.
He actually rolled a 1 twice in a row at the start, which was pretty surprising.
His miss chance actually increases against fewer targets.
I never would have expected he'd miss the most at the start of the fight when his miss chance was smallest.
Anyway, after that he rolled a 5 and hit the target at the bottom of the roster.
Then he rolled a 4 on the 1d4 and did the same.
At this point only Quo and Y were remaining.
For his fifth attack (against four targets) he rolled a 1d3.
1 would miss, 2 would kill quo, and 3 would kill Y. We saw the result there and Quo was killed.

The reason this mechanic works so well to make the Angel a formidable opponent is that it completely offsets the advantage typically gained when ganging up against a boss. Essentially it means the more guys you throw at him he becomes that much more dangerous as a result. It removed the natural advantage of superior numbers and regresses things closer to an RNG-based outcome. Also speeds up the fight immensely by getting a lot of kills out of the way (instead of the players rolling 2 repeatedly like against Clarine). But his miss chance also increases as the number of enemies drop. The conditional probability going on here is very, very odd but I'm fairly certain it's still fairly likely for at least one or two people to remain standing (but there's also a relatively decent chance for him to wipe the party as well).

By the way, the guy does have a weakness.

And that is... hit and run tactics!

Basically you ambush him with a strike force as you guys initially did,

Then everyone RETREATS.

On the following turn Qslvl has no one to attack.

Then on the turn after that you strike him again.

Basically repeating this tactic was a safe way to bring him down.

I think if Y had not ended the fight here the remaining guys might have naturally figured this out on their own. And even if not, having a second wave of reinforcements sweep in is another good way to finish him off without threatening those guys with lethal (unless they fail to kill him).

Basically he was designed to be difficult no matter how many people he faced, and designed to kill multiple players for sure, but also that he would be beaten in the end almost certainly.
---

Sylvester walks over and digs through boxes seeing whats in this storage room.

"it all worked out the way it was supposed to" he commented to his fairy.
---

Bosses and elites usually have an HP count of 2 or 3 but 4 is not unheard of

he also had a huge HP pool of 5 HP

---

Wow, that was intense. I thought another party wipe was going to occur.
---

MariaTaylor posted...

Then everyone RETREATS.

Joe knows what's up
---

woodman posted...

MariaTaylor posted...

Then everyone RETREATS.

Joe knows what's up

Well he forgot the "hit" part
---

Pirateking2000 posted...

woodman posted...

MariaTaylor posted...

Then everyone RETREATS.

Joe knows what's up

Well he forgot the "hit" part

Actually, I misread it so that I thought the security door closed from where he entered, blocking off the way back to the Angel.

Joe might have gone back to fight if he wasn't hallucinating.
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Welp, that happened. Angels are serious business!
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SovietOmega posted...

Welp, that happened. Angels are serious business!

Are you now starting to understand why we say FUCK THE ANGELS?
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Anyway since there seems to be limited things to do atm (I think?) I'll just toss out some things if people want to roll with em or not

1. I'm willing to assist healing Rem if he tries to heal himself / if someone else wants to try patching him up

2. For people lacking a second item perhaps those from angel fight (minus Z gun) are retrievable (like inhibitor or djinn bottle or mana crystal thing) I am not sure if they were destroyed so may need confirmation

3. The merchant is still a thing if you want to attempt to trade away a useless item (if he is still available)
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the Cloaked Man is indeed inexplicably alive even after all of this

gonna say that all the items were destroyed during the Qslvl battle

you guys had your chances to use them earlier, and the Z Gun was a unique item specifically made for Quo. generally I try to punish hoarding so it's often better if items are deleted when a player dies while holding it.
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Ah okay nvm then (I was just going off assumption where in some cases items were still about after being dropped)

what else is there to explore anyway that hasn't already been done just now (unless the uncrossed chest is another thing that people lacking a second item could nab)
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I would just like to comment that I actively tried not to hoard

I just literally failed multiple times to use my items
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yeah that is true

Reg is not a hoarder, he's just unlucky
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I actually really enjoy the explanation of the mechanics behind the game.

EDIT: As a quick note, the odds of everyone dying there was 20%. Odds of everyone living was... Not great to say the least.
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MariaTaylor posted...

Reg is unlucky

pfffffffffft
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I think it's 0.3% for everyone to live

calculating the % chance for everyone to die is a bit harder. because the miss chance changes each time the number of people changes. I'd be curious to know how you got the 20% number. it seems fairly low to me? I wouldn't expect the difficulty curve to drop off so steeply, but I also never bothered to check the exact odds before running the fight
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The odds of someone dying at each step is n/n+1. Assuming someone dies each round, that works out to n!/(n+1)!, which results in 1/(n+1) = 1/5.

And I think it's .03% chance for everyone to live.

EDIT: Crap, just realized I forgot that there's n+1 rolls, not n rolls. That's a much bigger pain to work out.
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best I can figure out is something like...

80% chance to kill someone right away
(.8 * .75) = 60% chance to kill two people in the first two moves
(.6 * .66) = 39.6% chance to kill three people in the first three moves

at this point he has the normal 75% chance to kill someone in a 1 v 1 scenario with two moves left

so

(.396 * .75) = 29.7% chance overall to wipe the entire party

considering I did no balance testing and just worked off of intuition this is surprisingly close to a 33% chance of failure (which is obviously the RNG standard for this series). that being said I knew there was a 75% chance for him to win a 1 v 1 and I'm still pretty surprised at how much it drops off on each step. for some reason I thought I designed it better so that it would remain relatively difficult no matter how many extra people you added.

there are other potential paths to follow (like missing the first move only), but since his miss chance grows with each kill it seems likely that a miss at the start/middle would lower the overall odds by a lot more than if he arrives at the 1 v 1 scenario with his two moves still intact.
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It's been ages since I've done any serious work with combinatorics, but what I'm thinking here is that we know the odds of a miss occurring at any given step (1/n+1), and we know at most one miss occurs if everyone dies. With that one miss occuring, the other ones all hit which has the same odds as the no-miss scenario.

So the answer would be (.2/5)+(.2/4)+(.2/3)+(.2/2)+.2, or roughly a 46% chance of everyone dying.
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I don't get where those .2's are coming from
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The .2s are the odds of all the other attacks hitting. So the if the first attack misses (1/5) the other attacks then have a 20% chance of all hitting.

It's easy enough to see it works with one target. (.5/2)+.5 = .75

I also drew out the probablity tree for two targets and got 11/18 chance of everyone dying, which lines up with ((1/3)/3)+((1/3)/2)+(1/3) = 1/9+1/6+1/3 = 2/18+3/18+6/18=11/18.
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it's weird to me that this would make sense, because the 0.2 miss chance only exists UNTIL someone gets hit. then the miss chance changes. so if you're calculating the odds for four people to get hit in a row it seems like the chance can't be 0.2 the entire way through?

that being said I do think the odds should be higher than what I calculated up above. I basically only calculated the odds in the most favorable scenario. but I think what I needed to do was also calculate the odds in less favorable scenarios and then also add those to the total chance.

your way of doing it might be more correct. it just doesn't feel intuitive at all.
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The .2 isn't the odds to miss, it's the odds for 4 attacks to hit over 4 attempts.
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oh okay, I just got confused because I guess it works out that way totally by coincidence. yeah I just had to calculate it for myself and the odds for (0.8 * 0.75 * 0.66 * 0.5) is indeed 0.2, or at least close enough to it. which is pretty funny since the miss chance on the first attack is also 0.2

that's what was throwing me off.
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It'll be exactly .2 actually. (4/5)(3/4)(2/3)(1/2)=(4*3*2*1)(5*4*3*2)=1/5

Thinking about it, that coincidence is going to happen with every number of targets due to how factorials work.
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JeffreyRaze posted...

Thinking about it, that coincidence is going to happen with every number of targets due to how factorials work.

that is really interesting. numbers are awesome.
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Pirateking2000 posted...

1. I'm willing to assist healing Rem if he tries to heal himself / if someone else wants to try patching him up

I like this idea for the record

need more health to bleed away with my endless stream of 1s
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John will attempt to trade his broom with the merchant for a better weapon.
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