Draft:Skorch
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.[1]
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).[2]
| 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.[3]
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.[4]
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.[4]
| 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.[4]
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.
References
- ↑ lib/country.dat in Omega 0.90.4; aux1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 74–79; move.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 1097–1153.
- ↑ lib/village5.dat in Omega 0.90.4; village.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 211–270; aux2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 984–1042; site2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 991–1025.
- ↑ lib/village5.dat in Omega 0.90.4; village.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 44–129; village.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 273–299.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 move.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 1097–1153; scr.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 1038–1054.