Difference between revisions of "A Ritch Party"

Latest revision as of 12:02, 22 December 2023

A Ritch Party is a quest in the Embers of Rage campaign. The player receives this quest upon completing You Shall Pass! This quest centers around the Ritch Hive. The goal of the quest is to prepare Ritch eggs to hatch under the Gates of Morning, providing a distraction for when the player later assaults the city.

Upon starting this quest, the player receives the Stralite Sand Shredder quest item. The Shredder has 2 forms: if the player can use Tinkers, then the Shredder is a gloves tinker. If they cannot, then the Shredder is a pair of gloves. The tinker form of the Shredder is automatically attached to the player's gloves if the glove tinker slot is empty. Otherwise, the Shredder is added to the player's inventory. Upon first entering the Ritch Hive with this quest, the player is notified about the Shredder. While equipped, the Shredder is automatically activated whenever the player tries to move into a sand wall, and will immediately dig out the 8 tiles surrounding the player, as well as the tile the player is standing on. It takes 20 turns for a dug out sand tile to collapse back into a wall. The Shredder is required to proceed through the 3rd and 4th levels of the Ritch Hive.

The first step in the plan is to collect enough viable ritch eggs. On each of the first 3 levels of the Ritch Hive, there are 14 piles of ritch eggs (42 in total). Each pile grants the player 1 (viable) egg when collected. The player must collect at least 30 eggs to complete this quest. The player will receive the achievement This will make a big Omelette! if they collect 40 eggs.

The second step is to tunnel close enough to the Gates of Morning. This means tunneling north on the 4th (final) level of the Ritch Hive. At the north end of the map, there is a comfy ritch nest on the floor.

The final step is to place the ritch eggs in the nest to hatch. This happens automatically when moving onto the nest. This requires at least 30 eggs collected, and the player will lose all the eggs they have collected. (Therefore, if you intend to get the achievement This will make a big Omelette!, make sure to get it before you place the eggs.) Placing the eggs grants the player 3000 experience, and completes the quest.

Completing this quest will grant the player the quest Children of Garkul, Unite!, if they do not already have it. Starting that quest will in turn grant the quest Stargazers.

Effects on the Caves of Morning

If this quest has been completed, in levels 2 to 4 of the Gates of Morning (i.e. the first 3 levels of the Caves of Morning), the caves will be full of newly-hatched Ritches that have tunneled into the caves. The Ritches are hostile to both you and the Gates of Morning faction. On each level, the game will try 30 times to generate a group of Ritches at a valid position, plus 2 times per the level number (so 34, 36, 38 times). Each try happens at a certain set of coordinates, which is random but not within 6 tiles of the map edges. For each try location, a radius is randomly chosen from 4 to 6. The position is valid if none of the tiles within that radius are stairs or "special" or no-teleport. At each valid position, a "quake" effect is applied because of the Ritches' digging (shuffling tiles around, in the chosen radius), and the central 3x3 square around the position will be dug out (with an impassible crack in the centre, surrounded by open floor). Finally, 3 Ritches will spawn within a 3-tile range around the position.

If this quest has not been completed, in levels 2 to 4 of the Gates of Morning, each level will have 10 extra randbosses from the Gates of Morning faction (the Sunwall or their reinforcements from the Allied Kingdoms). In order to earn the achievement An Other Brick in the Wall when completing The Deconstruction of Falling Stars, this quest and Stargazers must not be completed.