Trunk Updates 13 July 2020

The trunk updates roll forward with a clatter of scales!

Hello crawlers, and welcome to the first trunk update of the 0.26 cycle. There’s been a flurry of activity in trunk since the end of the tournament, and I’m excited to bring you the latest from Geh:7. Before diving into the details, I want to highlight two major changes that arrived just as this post was going to press, as well as something that’s unfolded over the past week.

The first is a new species: Palentonga. Palentongas are a two-armed, four-legged, scaled mammal species the size of a horse. Their special power is the ability to curl into a ball and launch a rolling charge at enemies, dealing extra damage proportionate to the distance traveled. Palentongas have flat melee apts, slightly weak spell apts and fairly weak ranged apts. They have +3 base AC and extra HP, along with an aux attack – an upgraded tail slap. They wear bardings (which have been merged into a single item type, shared with nagas). Stats skew towards strength and away from dex, to give the ‘large race’ feeling. Palentonga have deformed body and bad armour/dodging apts. In the Lore, Palentonga are an up-and-coming power, displacing the orcs, trolls, and ogres of the eastern wastes. Their generals ride elephants into battle, goading them forward with spiked ankuses.

The second is a new background: Delver. Shaft traps are fun. What if you had a background that started shafted all the way to D:5, and needed to find their way back up to survive? To make it fair, you start with a nice set of consumables: a wand of digging, scrolls of mapping, fear, and fog, and a potion of haste.

Finally, several aspects of the game have been touched with the long-hungered for removal of food and hunger mechanics. That’s right, no more eating, no more butchering, no more spell or ability hunger, and no more rations.

What happened to Ghouls with the removal of chunks? Well, read on gentle crawler, read on…

• Crimson Imps no longer spawn in D, and Shadow Imps less often (not at all after D:10); in their place White Imps and Ufetubi chase adventurers.
• Shadows and Wights no longer spawn in Crypt; replaced with flying skulls, necromancers, and wraiths.
• Spider is now ambiently quiet, apart from the unsettling clatter of chitin.
• Evocations skill no longer grants max MP.
• Banishment (from Lugonu or distortion) grants full XP.
• Wizards have been renamed Hedge Wizards; they now start with a dagger and 2/6/4 stat modifiers.
• Conjurers start with -1/10/3 stat modifiers that Wizards used to have.
• Assassins have been renamed Brigands.
• Ghouls, no longer able to eat chunks, now heal when they kill the living.
• Centaurs have galloped out of the game and are removed.
• Deep Elves‘ bow aptitude is increased to +3 for all you longbow enthusiasts.
• Nemelex has removed the shaft card from their decks, and the self-banishment chance from the exile card.
• Amulets are now slow to equip; guardian spirit, acrobat, and reflection no longer need to attune to the wearer.
• Pikel’s minions are now lemures, demons that depart this plane if you free them from Pikel.
• Spiny Frogs have been renamed Cane Toads for the authentic Australian experience™.
• Pandemonium lords’ spells and melee flavours have been adjusted; melee focused lords have now learned a few position-altering spells so watch out!
• Hungry ghosts hunger no more, because they’re removed.
• Conjure Ball Lightning now summons a fixed number of balls, with damage scaling with spellpower.
• Necromancy ally spells have been adjusted:
• Animate Skeleton and Animate Dead animated remains have a reduced duration. The durability of skeletons and zombies produced by these spells scales with spellpower. Animate Skeleton now animates the nearest skeleton, without requiring the caster to stand on it.
• Death Channel spectral things have a reduced duration, and all spectral things vanish when Death Channel expires.
• Infestation scarabs have a reduced duration.
• Aura of Abjuration, Recall, and Summon Butterflies are removed.