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Ozzi has a ranged weapon, a melee weapon and at least one backup but he wouldn't be a rogue without a hidden dagger or two ;)
Colleen has her mace and maybe some magic for ranged but she only has so many spells
Randulf should have learned from the last trip that an axe isn't the answer to everything, I'de have expected him to be carrying more iron than most Dwarves mine ;)
New party so starting again from the top. Do you get an easy level at the top, or does it adjust the difficulty for the size and experience of the party. Or as it's still Randulf and Colleen, do they have to walk through all the floors they have already looted?
My understanding is the dungeon changes every time. Every time the door opens to enter, you will be entering a new area.
I think Randulf has commented that Marble Gate tends to adjust where it's opening to with a location on level with the team entering. I believe he also noted it has a habit of presenting you with what you need when Colleen got her buckler from the slime.
With the adjusting difficulty, its probably another good reason why you don't want to enter with a party bigger than 5. The more people you have, the more difficult the situation/s are likely to be and the more likely those situations are to cause the casualty of several party members, even if the large party on a whole is successful and has most members return, "most" is not "all". With fewer members, its more likely they'll face challenges that might result in several of them injured or even seriously injured, but less likely a deadly encounter, resulting in multiple dead.
Personally, I'm wondering if the party will expand. The most likely candidate in my mind is Stella, for a ranger type focused completely on long range archery. But I feel like they might have a more classical magic user join them as well. Maybe that young witch with the classic witch hat who's only been a background character so far. Difficult to say as we don't have a lot of options in who we've met, but I think Brett mentioned that the first book's worth of chapters has passed or is passing so any other characters set to get more time could show up in the next chapter or so.
They get a new floor every time the go down a set of the stairs. The dungeon tries to match up the group with a fitting challenge that's dangerous, but not insurmountable for them.
@charles is correct; the larger your party, the higher the difficulty and higher chance of casualties. If you send a small army in, you will almost certainly get a huge amount of casualties and not much reward, especially considering the amount of equipment you lost from your fallen allies.
A small group of 3 to 5 is optimal. Plus a group that size can still use the teleporter scrolls and escape mid dungeon instead of having to navigate back to the stairs.
bet Ozzy's thinking something akin to "ok, its nice to be in a group which isn't out to get your throat at the first oportunity"
altho I'm sure he'll get a word or two from Randulf
Clearly this is the start of a glorious and happy adventure. Nothing can go wrong now. The title cover is in no way an indicator of troubled times ahead.
New chain mails for Colleen (almost getting stabbed on an altar will do that to you) and some more armor and a spare weapons for Ozzy (getting into so much so close quarter fighting than he is used to remake you think your priorities).
New chapter, new member, new equipment, new floor. *inhale deeply* I love the smell of new adventures in the morning.
I am curious about the Marble Gates... well gates. They seem to open on their own butcl we also know there is a dungeon master plotting behind the scene so I want to know if the doors opening and selecting an appropriately floor for a party is something automatics or it's manually operated in the shadow?
Being able to select a floor depending on the objectives and wishes of the adventurers as well as taking in consideration their strengths is quite something. It feels like there is a form of sentience behind this but it doesn't necessarily have to be the end boss. I guess there could be a few dozen different scrying spells integrated into the doors that scan the candidates for different things and select something from that but that doesn't explain everything.
Heck, complex mechanical computing devices could do that with the right input and there could be an archive system that keep track of which floor a user has been to before but how come Randolph wasn't able to get to the same floor he want to find? It could be an algorithm problem but after so many years, it feels like it's someone messing with that.
Maybe the wizards who studied the Marble Gates for so many years have some answers? Wait, they study the gates and what comes out of it right? We haven't really seen it but they didn't seem to ask extensive questions to Colleen about what they saw or even collect maps of the floors they came across for that matter. If I was trying to crack the mystery of the dungeon, I would try to see if different adventurers groups come across the same floors over the years by cross referencing the maps or something and to see if a there is a limit to how many floors another is connected to.
They could easily collect that information by offering a monetary compensation for the maps and interviews, giving Colleen another source of revenue.
I am curious about the dungeon and what the wizards are doing with it as well as how they do it.
The last panel is bit weird for me. The strong contrast around Colleen's chin and the similar color pairing around her eyes and mouth make it look like she wears her face as a mask. It caught my eye and now I cannot unsee it.
Colleen has her mace and maybe some magic for ranged but she only has so many spells
Randulf should have learned from the last trip that an axe isn't the answer to everything, I'de have expected him to be carrying more iron than most Dwarves mine ;)
I think Randulf has commented that Marble Gate tends to adjust where it's opening to with a location on level with the team entering. I believe he also noted it has a habit of presenting you with what you need when Colleen got her buckler from the slime.
With the adjusting difficulty, its probably another good reason why you don't want to enter with a party bigger than 5. The more people you have, the more difficult the situation/s are likely to be and the more likely those situations are to cause the casualty of several party members, even if the large party on a whole is successful and has most members return, "most" is not "all". With fewer members, its more likely they'll face challenges that might result in several of them injured or even seriously injured, but less likely a deadly encounter, resulting in multiple dead.
Personally, I'm wondering if the party will expand. The most likely candidate in my mind is Stella, for a ranger type focused completely on long range archery. But I feel like they might have a more classical magic user join them as well. Maybe that young witch with the classic witch hat who's only been a background character so far. Difficult to say as we don't have a lot of options in who we've met, but I think Brett mentioned that the first book's worth of chapters has passed or is passing so any other characters set to get more time could show up in the next chapter or so.
@charles is correct; the larger your party, the higher the difficulty and higher chance of casualties. If you send a small army in, you will almost certainly get a huge amount of casualties and not much reward, especially considering the amount of equipment you lost from your fallen allies.
A small group of 3 to 5 is optimal. Plus a group that size can still use the teleporter scrolls and escape mid dungeon instead of having to navigate back to the stairs.
altho I'm sure he'll get a word or two from Randulf
Nope.
All is right with the world.
New chapter, new member, new equipment, new floor. *inhale deeply* I love the smell of new adventures in the morning.
Being able to select a floor depending on the objectives and wishes of the adventurers as well as taking in consideration their strengths is quite something. It feels like there is a form of sentience behind this but it doesn't necessarily have to be the end boss. I guess there could be a few dozen different scrying spells integrated into the doors that scan the candidates for different things and select something from that but that doesn't explain everything.
Heck, complex mechanical computing devices could do that with the right input and there could be an archive system that keep track of which floor a user has been to before but how come Randolph wasn't able to get to the same floor he want to find? It could be an algorithm problem but after so many years, it feels like it's someone messing with that.
Maybe the wizards who studied the Marble Gates for so many years have some answers? Wait, they study the gates and what comes out of it right? We haven't really seen it but they didn't seem to ask extensive questions to Colleen about what they saw or even collect maps of the floors they came across for that matter. If I was trying to crack the mystery of the dungeon, I would try to see if different adventurers groups come across the same floors over the years by cross referencing the maps or something and to see if a there is a limit to how many floors another is connected to.
They could easily collect that information by offering a monetary compensation for the maps and interviews, giving Colleen another source of revenue.
I am curious about the dungeon and what the wizards are doing with it as well as how they do it.