Draft:Skorch

Omega 0.90.4

Skorch is the village at (41, 43), on the western edge of the southeastern desert. Its sacrifice stone exchanges life for Power, making the village a possible growth destination with a direct risk of death.

Local map

The complete 64 by 16 layout of Skorch is shown below; @ marks arrival at (2, 8).

These are spoiler maps. Coordinates are (column, row), starting at zero. Letters and highlighted symbols are article keys for sites and initial placements, not a literal game screenshot or a promise that a creature remains there.

0000000000111111111122222222223333333333444444444455555555556666

0123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123

00 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

01 X..............################################................X

02 X.............##################################...............X

03 X............##.....##h-...HS....##.##..##.....##..............X

04 X...........##..#x#..########G...x#.x#.##.##.##.##.............X

05 X..........##..x###x..##..............##..#x.x#..##............X

06 X..........##G..#x#...##.....~~~~.....##........G##............X

07 X..........--................~!!~.........x#x#x..--............X

08 X.@........--................~!!~.........x#x#x..--............X

09 X..........##G..#x#...##.....~~~~.....##........G##............X

10 X..........##..x###x..##..............##..#x.x#..##............X

11 X...........##..#x#..##.#x.#x...G########.##.##.##.............X

12 X............##.....##..##.##....g^^^fff##.....##..............X

13 X.............##################################...............X

14 X..............################################................X

15 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Map key

Key	Meaning
!	Sacrifice stone
#	Wall
-	Closed door
.	Floor or open ground
@	Arrival point, not the current player position
G	Initial guard post
H	Village merchant
S	Stables
X	Return to countryside
^	Concealed granary siren
f	Horse grain: ten portions per bin
g	Granary entrance
h	Initial horse placement
x	Shuffled service or residence entrance
~	Ordinary water

Service identities at x are shuffled; identify the actual shop in your game. Population and supplies can change on re-entry. The stone position and terrain layout are fixed.

Arrival and supplies

You arrive at (2, 8); the outer boundary returns to the countryside. Unlike the other villages, Skorch has only 22 random door sites, so it can lack one or two of the five usual services. Its cartographer, when present, centers the regional map at (40, 43), not the actual entrance's (41, 43).

Feature	Initial village position or count
Sacrifice stone	Four cells, x=30-31 and y=7-8
Merchant / horse	(27, 3) / (22, 3)
Grain sites	Three, at (37-39, 12)
Concealed sirens	(34-36, 12), beside the grain
Guardsmen	Six

The four stone cells all invoke the same interaction.

Sacrifice stone

Touch the stained basalt block, then agree to climb on. Each round drains current HP by 1, 2, 4, 8 and so on, and maximum HP by 0, 1, 2, 4 and so on. After each drain, Space continues and Escape gets off. Escape does not make a random success check. A drain that leaves either HP value below one kills you before the next prompt.

If the starting maximum HP was above ten and the remaining maximum is strictly below three quarters of that starting maximum, rounded down, the reward adds the next doubled drain amount to current Power and one tenth of that amount, rounded down, to maximum Power. Otherwise that amount is awarded as experience.

Starting current / maximum HP	Rounds	Remaining current / maximum HP	Reward
100 / 100	5	69 / 85	32 experience
100 / 100	6	37 / 69	+64 current Power, +6 maximum Power
60 / 60	5	29 / 45	32 experience: exactly three quarters is insufficient

These outcomes follow the same original stone function used by the game; they assume no other damage or healing during the interaction.

Strategy

Calculate the next loss before pressing Space. In the 100-HP example, continuing after the sixth round costs another 64 current HP and kills the character. The large increase to current Power is not an equally large increase to its maximum, and repeated visits continue consuming maximum HP. Recovering current health alone does not undo that cost.

Check which shops actually exist before planning recovery, and carry a return route out of the desert. Do not rely on a missing healer or confuse the nearby grain alarms with harmless storehouse floor.