Decoding the Signal Pt1

Ready for the third last quest in Qud? This is a quest that requires some amount of cold resist, so grabbing as much as you can (Sven in Kyakukya sells some, and you may find some on your own. You can also take the 'Weathered' skill in Endurance for some more) is good. Bethesda Susa is easily the last difficult dungeon at the time this guide is written, so hang on tight. Bethesda Susa is strangely far from everything else. Characters without jungle wilderness lore are likely to get lost. When you do arrive, you will be in a snowy area with some enemies. Mechanists will sling ranged weapons at you, and Cragsmensch all have weirdly high AV and damage attacks (but are slow). Having a non-physical attack (elemental (e.g. via Polluxus) or mental) to deal with Cragsmensch is recommended, as they take quite a few hits to take down. Once down, the first floor may either be a normal dungeon, or a waterway. Either way, simply head down and you will find yourself with the first of the Three Troll Kings in the healing pools. You will fight one at a time, one per level. Jotun, Who Parts Limbs is always the first king. Like his name suggests, he is capable of dismembering characters that he can hit. He is capable of charging at you, and has throwing axes which can likewise dismember. Avoid attacking in melee if you can - I find that if he is on the other end of the room and you are a high agility character, the Carbine can kill him before he gets anywhere close to you. Mental mutants may find force wall to be useful, and Hologram bracelets are likewise good. Standing in the covalescence will heal you, which may be useful if you cannot avoid melee.Fjorn-Kosef, Who Knits the Icy Lattice is always the second king. He is capable of instantly cooling the area around you, while creating icy webs. This will hold you in place or freeze you while he does incredible damage at melee range. Standing in the covalescence will still heal you here, but be wary of it turning into cyrogenic mist due to this guy - it will hurt.The final Troll King is invisible! Haggabah, Who Plies the Umbral Path can only be seen by his splashing footsteps, or by the troll foals he spawns. Pressing '\' will hide the sidebar, allowing you to see the entire room at once.There are actually several ways of finding him despite his invisibility:1) The Jump skill will not allow you to land on the same square as him, and will be greyed out.2) Firing wildly and seeing where the dodge/hit animation plays tells you where he was last turn.3) If he spawns a troll foal, he is always in an adjacent square.4) Hold ctrl and hit a numpad direction. If he is there, you will swing at him. If he is not, you will not waste any time.Either way, he deals an impressive amount of melee damage, so be careful. Once he is dead, you are finally in the Wards of Bethesda Susa.The Wards have a variety of enemies that are all really difficult. You can generally tell what to look out for by looking for specific cues:1) If you see slime, there is a Snailmother on the level. The ickslugs she spawns can inflict poison and Glotrot, so killing her is a big priority. Note that she is, by default, neutral to you, so you will have to hold ctrl+move to attack her first if you are a melee character.2) If you see Molting Basilisk Husks, there is a Molting Basilisk on the level. Molting Basilisks look exactly like Husks, except for a few things:- They suffer from coldness, so they will change colours- In the version this guide was written in, the tile they have actually looks different. Husks are grey Rs, the Basilisk has an actual tile- If you move out of sight of the real Basilisk, it will disappear. The Husks do not.Either way, trapping and killing it is your best option.3) If you see a Luminous Hoarshroom, STOP. Around it is likely Lurking Beths. There are a stronger version of the Young Ivory from Red Rock, but they also spawn in groups, so moving rapidly is an easy way to run into many and die. For reference, I recommend having over 60 HP at this point.4) Twinning Lampreys must be killed at the same time. Easiest to do if you have a freezing weapon.5) Blue Jels are neutral to you, but if you kill them, they drop some Covallesence you can use to heal. Your choice.6) Booster Bots will inject you with random Injectors. usually beneficial, but getting hit twice or more is usually lethal. Do not let them hit you, either by having high DV, high AV, using Force Wall, using Holograms, etc.On the first floor, you will notice a control panel somewhere near the center. You can use this to skip the majority of Bethesda Susa if you wish by calling up the platform (look around with 'l' to see if the tile below it is empty space or a platform) and then standing on it and pressing space. You will only miss out on some Sparking Baetyls, some experience, and the Alchemist.