Part 72: Parental Advisory: Explicit Content (Fiery Field)

I get a little blue in this one, so you might want to be careful about reading it to the kiddies.



This is our first dungeon to have the Auto-Save condition, which is somewhat less than self-explanatory. Ordinarily, when you go into a dungeon, if you get defeated, you have three options: get rescued, lose everything you brought in with you but keep the experience, or reset the game and go back to your last save. Auto-save dungeons take away the last option; if you turn the game off without quicksaving, it counts as a loss.



Fiery Field is 30 floors of pain and suffering, as is to be expected of post-credit dungeons.



This is because of all the traps. (And no, I don't know how Hypnotoad failed to set that one off.)



So...



...many...



...traps! If you look closely, though, you can see Hypnotoad pulling his weight; he has the Damp ability, which prevents explosive traps from going on. So for that, I guess.



And sometimes they just fail to go off for whatever reason.















Are you sensing a theme yet?











Warp Traps are particularly obnoxious because they split the party, and as any roleplayer can tell you, you never split the party. In this case, it wasn't so bad; Sheldon landed in the next room over, so I just had to tell the rest of the group to wait for him to get back.







What's with all these freaking Mud Traps?



And these Sticky Traps! I'm just lucky my Cleanse Orb hasn't been hit.



Okay, first of all, fuck, and second, how did my Slugma buddy avoid setting that off? Getting out of this situation required some careful thought (one advantage of a roguelike; you can take as long as you need to figure out a situation). I temporarily made Hypnotoad leader of the party, told Sheldon to stay put, and turned the Dedicated Traveler IQ skill on for the others (which means that they'll prioritize staying with the leader over attacking other Pokémon). Then I ran for Sheldon like my feet were on fire.



Thankfully, I was able to reunite the party and take out the Flareon that had been chasing them.



That was my last move, you-- Calm blue ocean. Calm blue ocean. I will not start a swearing jag over an E-rated game... again... (Good thing I brought two Max Elixirs.) The tricky part, though, is getting off the trap without my idiot partners blundering into it; I very carefully tell each one not to move until I'm in a safe position.















This is getting really ooooold...







The reason I'm showing you this is under the Magcargo's, er, feet. Using a basic attack on a square will reveal any traps it has. Unfortunately, jabbing at every square you're about to walk on isn't a viable approach to clearing the dungeon, but I'll take a freebie when it's offered (especially since that's another Warp Trap, as it turns out).



Whoops, something spawned right behind us. Better pop back and take it



Oh Holy Fuck! I'm just lucky that wasn't Magnitude 10!



...dammit.



Dammit!



Oh, dammiiiit... (Grimy Food inflicts a random status ailment when eaten, so I can chow down right on top of the stairs, then go down and be cured. But still...)



Fuck! (Thankfully, when I tell the two to get away as the enemy closes on them, they both jump in the Warp Trap and wind up somewhere safe.)



This is past old and into geological now.



Ow dammit! (Something I forgot to mention earlier is that there are two kinds of explosive traps, and one hits a wider radius than the other--



Aaaaugh.



At this point, I think I'm beyond swearing and into weeping openly. At least I hit that Macgargo with a Hunger Seed (which prevents it from moving or using anything but its basic attack). Now if I can just get back to them before



Dammit.







...You fuckers! I will murder you to death! You... you...




...so many... traps... losing will to... narrate...



...



...



...



Huhwhat? Hey, it's something besides a trap to comment on! Fire Stones can only be found on this floor of this dungeon, and are needed to evolve Vulpix into Ninetales, Growlithe into Arcanine, and Eevee into Flareon. We pick up three on this trip, which means we never have to come this deep again. _{Except to recruit the boss. Dammit.}



...



...



...



We... we made it! Huzzah! Now all we have to do is defeat the boss and we'll be home free!

Next time on Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: I die horribly on the boss and have to do the dungeon again! _{No, not really.}