Who Goes Down

Three delvers are known to go down regularly. You may take one of them, or you may roll your own and find out what you get.

They are not balanced against each other so much as pointed in different directions. All three are built on the same six points spread across the six stats — eighteen in total — and the difference is entirely in where those points sit and what they walk in carrying.

The three

@Missing file is the one to learn the dungeon on. Nothing about them is remarkable and nothing about them will surprise you. Twelve hit points, defense 15, six damage a swing, and a decent chance at everything the floor asks. If you are not sure what you want, this is the answer.

@Missing file was above ground while the vaults were being dug, and is still here. AGILITY 5 and WITS 5: she acts before almost anything in the dungeon and spots roughly seven traps in ten. She also has ten hit points and does four damage a swing, which means fights take her a long time and two clean hits end her. She is the delver who wins by not being hit and loses the moment that stops working.

@Missing file is empty plate that stopped standing where it was put. Sixteen hit points and eight damage — the hardest hitter that goes down that stair — at the cost of AGILITY 1, so it is last to act against essentially everything. WITS 2 means it finds tripwires by setting them off. Its one quiet advantage is RESOLVE 4: the water has nothing to offer a thing with no thirst, so it drinks where the others gamble.

Rolling your own

You can also make one. It takes about a minute and it is a genuine gamble, which is the point of offering it.

You answer what you were doing before the seal broke, you pick one of three kits, and then you roll one die for each of the six stats, in order, and take what falls. MIGHT first, then AGILITY, VIGOR, WITS, LUCK, RESOLVE. They are not rearranged afterward and they are not rolled twice.

That is the risk, and it is worth understanding exactly where it bites. The three above each total eighteen points arranged by somebody who knew what they were doing. Six dice will usually total a little more than that — and will scatter it. A rolled delver with LUCK 6 and VIGOR 1 has more raw points than any of the three and eight hit points to spend them with, which is two hits from the Ossuary King and one from almost anything at the bottom of a floor.

VIGOR is the roll to watch, because maximum hit points are 6 + (VIGOR × 2) and hit points are the only thing down here that does not come back on its own.

The three kits are the same gear the three delvers carry, and you may take any of them regardless of what you rolled:

A bad roll is not a mistake to be corrected. It is a short run, and short runs are how this game is normally played.