IWUAaDNW: Exploit 4.10

The last thing I learned came at the very end of the second floor party’s surrender. At that moment, the people on the first floor hadn’t finished their own training, which meant the barrier was up when the second party group tried to come up the spiraling staircase.

To my surprise, I saw them disappear in a cloud of blue, red and orange motes of light. A moment later, there was a flash of light, and the group stumbled over their own feet as they found themselves on the surface, right in front of my entrance.

“What just happened?” One of the soldiers asked.

“You got warped,” Ulfric replied. “It’s what happens if adventurers end up trapped, or try to go into a floor that’s already full. You’ll warp up to the surface, or to the next free floor. Part of the reason guilds insist on only having full parties, and why trying to progress with a man dead is frowned upon.”

“Huh? Why?” Maryll asked.

“Because then you risk isolating someone,” Gwen was the one who replied without interrupting her sit-ups. “An incomplete party,” she pushed herself up with a grunt, “can cause someone… to get stuck alone… when their party gets warped back.”

“I’ve seen it happen before,” Ulfric grunted. “The party below ours lost two people to a wyvern floor, and the one below them ended up warping back minus two of their members. Gwen, what’s the correct thing to do if that happens to you?”

“Stay in the stairs room… until the barrier re-appears, sir,” Gwen replied. Ulfric nodded.

Ulfric nodded. “Then you find out which party came to fill up the floor and you pay their drinks. Good answer. Take five.”

Gwen stopped immediately and collapsed on the grass with a noisy sigh of relief, her arms spread wide. Maryll offered her her water gourd. It was drained in moments.

A way to isolate adventuring parties was definitely something I was going to include in my defenses. I could have hidden passages into which I’d guide villagers––or drag captives––to fill up the party limit at just the right moment so I could split a party in half. For that matter, was there anything that stopped me from just keeping four people in my first level and forever blocking the way in?