T&T Dungeon 8 - Clockwork Cave

[PurpleKoopa]

ROUND 4

Torchwood does a little Toasty dance.

Mr.Onion electrocutes the head with a Tesla coil, making an ear-piercing buzz noise! Also, Mr.Onion regains a tiny bit of life because I forgot about Energy Converter last round.

CheeseLord slashes the Mechadino's head with a fiery sword! Then he prepares a counter move...

The Mechadino slowly treads over to CheeseLord, then clamps its mouth tight on the Pyromancer! Uh oh, this looks like the end of CheeseLord... until the robot lets from the Toasty's fire and the time bomb explosion. Mechadino's head a sploded! The robot continues to make robotic roaring sounds, but it's not as menacing now. In fact, it's really not much of a dinosaur now – it's more like a metal box with a flashing core and tank treads.

CheeseLord's staff produces a flash of light! It's impressive, but unfortunately, it doesn't do much since the Mechadino is already headless.

Darkguyhades points his stafftar at the ground by Mr.Onion, then raises it into the air! As he does so, a tower of rocks erupt from the ground and surround Mr.Onion, providing him with a secure rock fortress.

Mechadino's Core
35/35 HP, 5S, 0A, 3E
Vengeance Beam (1C) (0) Deals (4*number of dead body parts) damage.
Laser (1C) (+1) 6 piercing damage.
Rebuild (1C) (-4) Revives a body part with half HP.
Specialty: Replacement Part (Cannot be damaged or affected unless a body part is defeated, in which case the Core will be active and vulnerable during dead body part's turn.)
Specialty: Final Boss (Immune to all negative status effects (except damage over time), stat reduction, energy-removal, copy, instant kill, mind control, block, and revival. Dungeon ends when defeated!)

Mechadino's Head (DEAD, corpse available)
0/18 HP, 8S, 1A
Flamethrower (0C) (-1) 3 damage to three separate targets.
Chomp (0C) (+1) 4 melee damage.
Fire Blast (0C) (-2) 5 damage. Target takes 1 piercing D/T for 3T that spreads to allies it targets.
Swallow (0C) (-2) Target is blocked, hidden, and takes 2D/T for 3T.
Specialty: Intimidation (Enemies have -1 Armor while user is alive.)
Specialty: First In Line (Moves only on rounds 1, 4, 7, etc.)
Specialty: Body Part (Shares energy with the Core. Immune to blocks, copy, sleep, instant-kill and mind control.)

Mechadino's Artillery (DEAD, corpse available)
0/18 HP, 6S, 2A
Turret (0C) (0) 5 damage.
Rapid Fire (0C) (+1) 6 1 damage attacks spread out over 2 targets.
Mega Missile (0C) (-2) Target hit for 8 damage next turn.
Specialty: Missile Swarm (Weather in effect while user is alive: Deals 2 damage to the weakest enemy.)
Specialty: Second In Line (Moves only on rounds 2, 5, 8, etc.)
Specialty: Body Part (Shares energy with the Core. Immune to blocks, copy, sleep, instant-kill and mind control.)

Mechadino's Legs (DEAD, corpse available)
0/18 HP, 15S, 1A
Trample (0C) (0) 3.5 melee damage to 2 targets.
Stomp (0C) (-1) 6 melee damage. Blocks target next round.
Tail Sweep (0C) (+1) 2.5 melee damage to 3 targets.
Specialty: Mobility (Allies have +4 Speed while user is alive.)
Specialty: Third In Line (Moves only on rounds 3, 6, 9, etc.)
Specialty: Body Part (Shares energy with the Core. Immune to blocks, copy, sleep, instant-kill and mind control.)

CheeseLord the Pyromancer
1/8 HP, 8S, 0A, 2E
Cooldowns: Time Bomb (1C) Flame Sword (3C) Sun Flash (4C)
Flamethrower (2C) (+1) Melee. Hit 3 separate targets for 3 damage.
Flame Sword (3C) (+1) 4.5 melee damage.
Time Bomb (2C) (-1) Hits this turn. Next turn, target takes 6D.
Afterburner (3C) (-2) Deal as much damage as you did total last round to 1 target.
Fiery Vengeance (6C) (0) Deal 12-HP damage. Target must have successfully hit user last turn.
Sun Flash (4C) (-1) Counter. Attacker hit for 4 damage at (attacker speed -1).
Specialty: Toastmaster (Starts battles with 2 Toasties!)

Torchwood the Toasty
3/3 HP, 12S, 0A, 2E
Cooldowns: Ignite (2C)
Fireball (2C) (+1) 1 damage.
Flame Armor (1C) (0) Target has +1 armor for 2T.
Ignite (3C) (-1) 1 damage. Target takes 1 piercing D/T for 2T that spreads to allies it targets.
Self Destruct (0C) (-3) 4.5 damage. User self destructs.
Specialty: Summon (Immune to special effects. Dies when summoner defeated.)

darkguyhades the Geomancer
3/9 HP, 6S, 2A, 0E
Cooldowns: Stoneskin (2C) Charge (3C) Monster Toss (1C) Rock Wall (5C)
Rock Out (1C) (+1) 2 piercing damage. Target has -2 speed next turn.
Stoneskin (5C) (+1) Armor +3 next turn.
Monster Toss (2C) (+1) 2.5 melee damage to one target, 2 non-melee damage to another.
Charge (5C) (-1) Speed +5. Deal (5+A) damage. Melee.
Rock Wall (5C) (-2) Summons a Rock Wall for an ally.
Rock On (5C) (-2) Target takes 2 piercing damage a turn for 4 turns.
Specialty: Aura of Gaea (Enemies have -1 armor (minimum 0) and -1 speed while user is alive.)

Mr.Onion the Electromancer
4.5/8 HP, 9S, 1A, 1E
Cooldowns: Berserk (2C) Shocking Uppercut (1C) Lightning Fists (2C) High Voltage (2C)
Lightning Bolt (1C) (+1) Separate 2-damage and 1-damage attacks.
Lightning Fists (3C) (-1) (speed/2) separate 1-damage attacks. Melee.
Shocking Uppercut (2C) (0) Instant. 2 damage. Gives +4S this turn.
Charge Cannon (5C) (-1, 0) 1st turn – Instant. Do nothing. 2nd turn – 6.5 damage.
Berserk (5C) (0) Instant. Use a (normal, non-instant) move two times this turn.
High Voltage (2C) (0) 4.5 damage.
Specialty: Energy Converter (User heals 0.5 HP for every 1E used. Max 2 HP healed per turn.)

Rock Wall
9/9 HP, 0A, 0S
Specialty: Blockade (Attached to Mr.Onion. Takes all damage from enemies for Mr.Onion. Dies 4 turns after being summoned.)
Specialty: Living Effect (Leaves no corpse. Immune to all effects and weather. Is killed if its Mr.Onion is debuffed.)

seamonkey the Necromancer (DEAD, corpse available)

Round 5! The Core is open again!

[darkguyhades]

Rock out

[CheeseLord]

Afterburner.

[PurpleKoopa]

ROUND 5

Torchwood shoots a fireball at the Mechadino's core! Shoot the core!

Mr.Onion fires a lightning bolt at the Mechadino from his rock tower! He heads up to the top of the tower and starts to charge up a big ball of electricity... and not to play energy ball tennis with, mind you! (I'm looking at you, Ganondorf!)

CheeseLord's staff vacuums up the shrapnel from the time bomb explosion and the flames from the flame sword, then shoots it all back at the Core!

Darkguyhades plays a guitar solo worthy of a true guitar hero! His fingers move so fast, his frets catch on fire! He's... um... jamming! Lammy! His music so good, it's like surfing on audio! Maybe he should join a rock band. His music makes the Mechadino want to dance, dance, and start a revolution. A revolution on not being able to dance without legs.

Without the rest of its body parts, the Mechadino now has an obscene amount of power! You consider using a staggered approach the next time you face a horrible dinosaur robot, but now is not the time to worry about it! A bunch of nanomachines swarm around the Core, which then fires a giant nanomachine-infused beam at Darkguyhades! Hehehe, giant nano. Darkguyhades has been obliterated! (probably for all of those bad music game jokes.)

Mechadino's Core
18.5/35 HP, 5S, 0A, 3E
Cooldowns: Vengeance Beam (1C)
Vengeance Beam (1C) (0) Deals (4*number of dead body parts) damage.
Laser (1C) (+1) 6 piercing damage.
Rebuild (1C) (-4) Revives a body part with half HP.
Specialty: Replacement Part (Cannot be damaged or affected unless a body part is defeated, in which case the Core will be active and vulnerable during dead body part's turn.)
Specialty: Final Boss (Immune to all negative status effects (except damage over time), stat reduction, energy-removal, copy, instant kill, mind control, block, and revival. Dungeon ends when defeated!)

Mechadino's Head (DEAD, corpse available)
0/18 HP, 8S, 1A
Flamethrower (0C) (-1) 3 damage to three separate targets.
Chomp (0C) (+1) 4 melee damage.
Fire Blast (0C) (-2) 5 damage. Target takes 1 piercing D/T for 3T that spreads to allies it targets.
Swallow (0C) (-2) Target is blocked, hidden, and takes 2D/T for 3T.
Specialty: Intimidation (Enemies have -1 Armor while user is alive.)
Specialty: First In Line (Moves only on rounds 1, 4, 7, etc.)
Specialty: Body Part (Shares energy with the Core. Immune to blocks, copy, sleep, instant-kill and mind control.)

Mechadino's Artillery (DEAD, corpse available)
0/18 HP, 6S, 2A
Turret (0C) (0) 5 damage.
Rapid Fire (0C) (+1) 6 1 damage attacks spread out over 2 targets.
Mega Missile (0C) (-2) Target hit for 8 damage next turn.
Specialty: Missile Swarm (Weather in effect while user is alive: Deals 2 damage to the weakest enemy.)
Specialty: Second In Line (Moves only on rounds 2, 5, 8, etc.)
Specialty: Body Part (Shares energy with the Core. Immune to blocks, copy, sleep, instant-kill and mind control.)

Mechadino's Legs (DEAD, corpse available)
0/18 HP, 15S, 1A
Trample (0C) (0) 3.5 melee damage to 2 targets.
Stomp (0C) (-1) 6 melee damage. Blocks target next round.
Tail Sweep (0C) (+1) 2.5 melee damage to 3 targets.
Specialty: Mobility (Allies have +4 Speed while user is alive.)
Specialty: Third In Line (Moves only on rounds 3, 6, 9, etc.)
Specialty: Body Part (Shares energy with the Core. Immune to blocks, copy, sleep, instant-kill and mind control.)

CheeseLord the Pyromancer
1/8 HP, 8S, 0A, 0E
Cooldowns: Flame Sword (2C) Sun Flash (3C) Afterburner (3C)
Flamethrower (2C) (+1) Melee. Hit 3 separate targets for 3 damage.
Flame Sword (3C) (+1) 4.5 melee damage.
Time Bomb (2C) (-1) Hits this turn. Next turn, target takes 6D.
Afterburner (3C) (-2) Deal as much damage as you did total last round to 1 target.
Fiery Vengeance (6C) (0) Deal 12-HP damage. Target must have successfully hit user last turn.
Sun Flash (4C) (-1) Counter. Attacker hit for 4 damage at (attacker speed -1).
Specialty: Toastmaster (Starts battles with 2 Toasties!)

Torchwood the Toasty
3/3 HP, 12S, 0A, 3E
Cooldowns: Ignite (1C) Fireball (2C)
Fireball (2C) (+1) 1 damage.
Flame Armor (1C) (0) Target has +1 armor for 2T.
Ignite (3C) (-1) 1 damage. Target takes 1 piercing D/T for 2T that spreads to allies it targets.
Self Destruct (0C) (-3) 4.5 damage. User self destructs.
Specialty: Summon (Immune to special effects. Dies when summoner defeated.)

darkguyhades the Geomancer (DEAD, corpse available)

Mr.Onion the Electromancer
4.5/8 HP, 9S, 1A, 1E
Effects: Charge Cannon (Hits the Core next turn for 6.5 damage.)
Cooldowns: Berserk (1C) Lightning Fists (1C) High Voltage (1C) Charge Cannon (5C)
Lightning Bolt (1C) (+1) Separate 2-damage and 1-damage attacks.
Lightning Fists (3C) (-1) (speed/2) separate 1-damage attacks. Melee.
Shocking Uppercut (2C) (0) Instant. 2 damage. Gives +4S this turn.
Charge Cannon (5C) (-1, 0) 1st turn – Instant. Do nothing. 2nd turn – 6.5 damage.
Berserk (5C) (0) Instant. Use a (normal, non-instant) move two times this turn.
High Voltage (2C) (0) 4.5 damage.
Specialty: Energy Converter (User heals 0.5 HP for every 1E used. Max 2 HP healed per turn.)

Rock Wall
9/9 HP, 0A, 0S
Specialty: Blockade (Attached to Mr.Onion. Takes all damage from enemies for Mr.Onion. Dies 3 turns after being summoned.)
Specialty: Living Effect (Leaves no corpse. Immune to all effects and weather. Is killed if its Mr.Onion is debuffed.)

seamonkey the Necromancer (DEAD, corpse available)

Round 6! Keep blasting the Core!

[CheeseLord]

Flamethrower and Self Destruct.

[Mr.Onion]

Shocking Uppercut, Lightning Bolt.

[PurpleKoopa]

(Lightning Bolt is on cooldown, but anyways!)

ROUND 6

Torchwood bids its master a fond goodbye before it jumps at the Core, blowing itself up! Kamikaze! Torchwood has self destructed!

Mr.Onion tosses the energy ball at the Mechadino! He then jumps out of the rock tower at lightning speed and delivers a shocking uppercut at the exact moment the energy ball collides into the Core! Let's just say it's pretty epic.

CheeseLord suddenly goes nuts and blows flames everywhere! He feels the battle is nearly over...

The Core flickers and flashes. The Mechadino makes a loud distorted sound between a moan and a roar. Its core starts to glow... you run behind one of the shrine's pillars as the whole machine starts to shake! Finally, the power ore detonates inside the Mechadino, blowing up the robot in a brilliant red explosion! Whew... it was tough, but now the Clockwork Keepers' plot has come to an end! Now then, about that ruined shrine... you grab a push broom and start to sweep up.

Congratulations, you've just defeated the Mechadino! High fives all around! Stay tuned for the epilogue!

[PurpleKoopa]

The wizards start to clean up the damaged shrine. They find a bunch of journal pages and clockbot blueprints in the back of the shrine. Hmm...

Eventually, the Diamond Elementals finish recovering after the driller battle and return to their shrine. They gather around the heroes and bow. “Well done, heroes,” congratulates Lucy. “You have expelled the clockwork robots from our shrine and restored peace to the caverns! For your reward, you shall receive some of the riches we diamond elementals keep guard. These riches are for true heroes to earn, not for those with greedy hearts to take for themselves.” The wizards receive a good amount of jewels and gold – not too much, not too little. Yay, loot!

Gregor feels ashamed for taking the treasure. “I invented those clockbots in the future only because I was greedy, just like my former miner partners. You know, what if I never build them at all?”

It seems like a pretty good idea, but Lucy shakes her head (or her entire body, since she doesn't really have a head) sadly and says, “Unfortunately Gregor, history itself will collapse in a time paradox if you do not build those robots.”

“Wait, what?!” exclaim Gregor and the wizards. “After all the trouble they've caused?!”

Lucy explains, “When the Clockwork Keepers and the rest of your robots went back in time, they became part of history. If you never build them, how would they have arrived here in the first place? For the timeline to remain intact, you must invent the robots, program them like you would have in the timeline where you were greedy, then send them back in time along with the journal pages.”

Gregor grumbles, “Great. I'm forced to build robots I don't even care to build anymore to prevent a time paradox.”

“It's not completely horrible, Gregor!” encourages Darkguyhades. “You're a fantastic inventor, you just need to use your robots for goodness, not greed! Your canaries could detect poison in the mines.”

“And your trees could befriend those mushroom creatures!” adds CheeseLord.

“The drillers could be used to clear cave-ins and drill deeper instead of fighting the diamond elementals!” says Seamonkey.

“And the keepers – well, that's time travel. That's another story all together.” says Mr.Onion.

“The wizards are right,” Lucy states. “Gregor, there is nothing wrong with mining itself of course, just when used for the wrong purposes. You can still build the clockwork robots that came to our time, send them to the past, and then build a new set of robots to mine.”

Gregor smiles a bit. “Well, that does make me feel a lot better. Thanks guys.” He turns to the wizards. “Gentlemen, you have been a big help on this adventure. We wouldn't have defeated the robots without you, and I'm sure that I wouldn't have had my change of heart any other way. How about I treat you to some ice cream, then you can help me prevent a paradox by building those robots?”

“Sure, but where are you going to get ice cream in these caves?” asks Mr.Onion. Gregor walks back to his cabin – oh well, some questions are better left unanswered... at least when ice cream's involved.

–

And so, the wizards stayed a few weeks to help Gregor Grumblin build the robots that would eventually go back in time and battle the wizards themselves. After the wizards left to find new adventures, Gregor started a new excavation with a new set of clockbots. This time, he donated most of the findings to charities, while the rest he used to research new clockbot types. Some say that he tapped into the power of the clock again in a different way... The diamond elementals, pleased with Gregor for preserving the quarry and the shrine, went back into their shrine and closed the door. Who knows when they will return?

Several months later, a mysterious man in a cloak arrives at Gregor's cabin. A few minutes later, he leaves the caverns in a huff. “Darn it! That inventor took my steam powered tree commission alright, but he gave me my money back and refused to let me claim the robots! Next time, I'm bringing my eyeball staff. Life is so much easier when you can obliterate people...” The cloaked man pulls some blueprints out of his cloak and sighs. “Steam power would have been such a good way to build my doom satellite. But now that I think about it, that's okay.” He looks over his Tome of Ancient Knowledge. “I've been meaning to try out this for a while. Yes. YES. Ha ha. HA HA! Gwahahahahahaha! Ha ha. Cough.”

THE END

iT'S OVER! Thanks for playing, everyone! I'll post some comments about the game soon...

[PurpleKoopa]

Hey folks, thanks again for playing T&T Dungeon 8 – Clockwork Cave. Or if you didn't play, thanks for reading through my game anyway!

Advice to those who want to run T&T games – plan stuff out! You don't need to plan out every minute detail, but have an idea about what the dungeon will be about. Deciding the theme and some of the plot and enemies are good ways to begin designing a T&T game. I had already drawn up all of the enemies before the game started, and most of the plot, rooms, and puzzles were already worked out beforehand. I'm glad I did this since this game was a lot more plot-oriented than my older ones.

Speaking of the plot, I hoped people enjoyed it! I'm not a great story writer, but I hope that the story made sense and was entertaining!

I cheated with a few things to keep the game moving. A good example of this is the stove puzzle. The intended solution was to fill the bucket with the water from the spring, and then put out the fire. A few times I let certain attacks work that shouldn't have since otherwise, the battle would have dragged on. This is also why some battles ended early – victory was inevitable and I didn't want things to drag on.

I like how the spellbook system worked in this game. I especially enjoyed the Enemy Radar – it gave a little bit of information before each battle, so that way the players wouldn't be completely left in the dark. I'm also happy that I put more exploration and puzzle-solving in the game. The game was pretty linear because I wanted the battles and plot events to progress in a certain order.

I liked how the wizards turned out, particularly the Geomancer and the Electromancer. I came up with the most new moves for them. There are some moves that weren't included because of all of the bosses in this game. For the next game, I am going to force the players to play certain roles (instead of a wide list of roles, some which are not included in the game) like Coolguy does in his recent dungeons. I am probably going to change some moves though (read: Stoneskin and Charge strategy )

Here are my thoughts on the enemies in the game. I'm glad that I made all of the enemies original instead of using enemies from video games like I did in the Aerodome. Next game I may include less bosses or change the boss specialty since, like Coolguy said, it makes status effects actually useful.

• Gregor Grumblin's not an enemy, but he was an important character! An inventor's robots becoming hostile was the idea that the story came from. The rest just slowly grew from there!
• The Clockwork Miners and the Clockwork Canaries... um... actually I don't have anything interesting to say about them, except that it was important to have a generic mining type robot before delving into the more bizarre clockbot types. The Clockwork Canaries are based on the fact that canaries were used to detect toxic gases in coal mines.
• I put the Steam Powered Trees in this game because I felt that every game I host needs at least one new kind of eyeball tree. It's like the Happy Stick in Hamumu games. The Mushroom Sporriors were based on mushroom characters that I used to draw.
• The Power Driller was created as an elite form of the Clockwork Miner. ...okay, I don't have anything else to say about them. Ho hum.
• Lucy the Diamond Elemental was originally a rejected enemy from the Aerodome. In that game, she was just a random enemy called the Sky Diamond – the name Lucy is just a Beatles reference. I realized I could work the diamonds into the game. I mean, where else would I get the chance to use giant diamond enemies?
• The Clockwork Keepers are probably my favorite enemies in the whole dungeon. It was fun to come up with time travel moves. They make me want to include a Chronomancer in the next game!
• The Mechadino was an enemy concept I came up with early in development – a “core” type boss with body parts that attack in order. In the early stages of development, it was a Heavily Armed Turtle. As the game turned from a generic cave setting to a clockwork mine, the turtle changed to... a robotic dinosaur of some kind. It made sense at the time.
• Here are two enemies that I drew up that weren't included: the Crab and the Grue! I drew these before I decided on featuring clockwork robots in the game.

Well, thanks for reading, and I hope you had as much fun playing or reading the game as I did making and hosting it! See you next mission!