Talk:Strung-Up Quartet

Adventure Info

Actually putting things together as a wiki page takes a million years, so I'll post the basic information here from what I've found:

This adventure occurred in the Ballroom.

Strung-Up Quartet

In a dusty corner of the Haunted Ballroom, you see a disturbing sight. Four ghostly figures hanging from ghostly nooses from a (non-ghostly) chandelier.

Looking more closely, you see that the strung-up figures are holding stringed instruments -- two violins, a viola, and a cello. How ghoulishly appropriate!

The figure in the lead suddenly looks at you, eyebrows raised. He's evidently waiting for instructions. What will you tell him?

["Play 'Provare Compasione Per El Sciocco'"] ["Play 'Sono Un Amanten Non Un Combattente'"] ["Play 'Le Mie Cose Favorite'"] ["Play nothing, please."]

Provare: Play 'song 1' please. The quartet begins to play.

Adventuring several more times, I haven't seen anything else. Unless the Ballroom Blintz is a new item (which I suspect it might be). -Id the Mildly Confused 22:36, 7 November 2006 (CST)

I think it might be combat frequency, i got a lot of non combat adventures with song number 2.

babelfish translations say: 1. to experience compassion for the stupid 2. I am An Amanten Not A Fighting (reduces combat frequency?) 3. My favourite thing Pthalo 06:12, 8 November 2006 (CST)

It stands to reason that Show Pity for the Fool would increase combat frequency; I'm a Lover, Not a Fighter should decrease combat frequency; My Favorite Things might well be +drop%.--Id the Mildly Confused 11:20, 8 November 2006 (CST)

But for how long? You don't receive any effects from these songs.--Jubbers 15:15, 8 November 2006 (CST)

If you pick to play the same song twice you get the message: "You guys are doing fine," you say. "Just keep playing what you've been playing." Perhaps that should be in the article? Idk! Jihiro 21:01, 8 November 2006 (CST)

• I added the message to the article, but could someone confirm whether or not doing this consumes an adventure?--Lord Grumbles 19:31, 9 November 2006 (CST)
  • Nevermind, I got the adventure again, asked for the same song, and it didn't consume an adventure. I'll add it to the article now.--Lord Grumbles 19:39, 9 November 2006 (CST)

Could these songs possibly affect the Rotting Matilda adventure? --TheArchivist 21:34, 8 November 2006 (CST)

I've got a sample size of 292 (and growing) that show that option #2 has no sustained effect on ballroom combat frequency. Any other data sets from people going for the level 30 trophies? --Worlds Number 1 Grandpa 23:27, 8 November 2006 (CST)

•This is what I'm currently doing, so I'll have a prod at it see if it makes any difference. So far I've run with just song 3 (because option 3 usually equals moxie), but I'll poke it inbetween matildas if I can. --Changling bob 01:54, 9 November 2006 (CST)

• If it affects the Rotting Matilda adventure, there's no change in what type the substat gain is. I got that adventure while playing songs 1 and 3, and both times the substat gain was moxie. --Nucleon 09:30, 9 November 2006 (CST)

• I'm wondering if these songs have a bonus to certain AT songs, such as #2 making Sonata of Sneakiness more effective - possibly along with the opera mask use.--Babyscarface 21:30, 9 November 2006 (CST)

• Nothing I can see about the songs affects the casting of AT songs, with or without opera mask.--Babyscarface 09:30, 10 November 2006 (CST)

• Probably just RNG wierdness, but after I selected the first song, I got Curtains three times in a row.--LegendaryBard 00:06, 20 November 2006 (CST)

Only a hunch, but does this affect substat gains or distribution? The songs loosely map to muscle, myst and moxie. --Fireyflame 12:56, 21 November 2006 (CST)

Outside of the Ballroom

Just anecdotal, but is really seems like the song played has an effect outside the Ballroom. I'm adventuring in the Gallery, and switching from song 1 to song 2 has seemed to increased the non-combat adventures I am getting. Can anyone confirm? --xcorvis 10:54, 12 November 2006 (CST)

It's been a while since anyone seems to have touched this issue, but I had a random thought that seemed worth pointing out to anyone who feels like spading it out. If it's possible to reduce the noncombat frequency at the airship to 0%, thus eliminating the one adventure there, and assuming that any combat frequency modifier is operating at 5% at the least, wouldn't that be an effective way to test this? Throw on three of the four +combat modifier, put the suspected +combat song on here, and hit the airship?--Joeisme 15:07, 26 December 2006 (CST)

Pitching in. There was spading going on with this at http://forums.hardcoreoxygenation.com/viewtopic.php?t=2518 . The songs apparently definitely affect the Ballroom, the debate is centred around whether the songs affect elsewhere. So far, research has been inconclusive. --Confusion 01:21, 27 December 2006 (CST)

It probably doesn't work outside the manor. --DirkDiggler 23:06, 11 January 2007 (CST)

It may be a coincidence, but after I selected the second song, combat adventures in the Bedroom seemed to decrease. No stats to offer, though. --Frosty Beverage 12:47, 18 January 2007 (CST)

This thread draws the conclusion that the second song, at least, does affect combat adventure rates outside the manor. I think the people who have been concluding that it doesn't work outside the manor have been assuming that the first song increases combat rates, instead of increasing monster level. In any case, much more research is needed on all the songs. --Greycat 18:15, 11 March 2007 (CDT)

My next round of spading will be to switch to song #1 and apply 10% +combat. If song #1 adds to combat % then I should get nothing but combat at the Peak. --Sidrock 14:39, 13 March 2007 (PDT)

Monster HP

I started out playing song 1 when I first received the adventure, and I noticed that 1) my Toy Space Helmet seemed to be giving higher HP readouts at the beginning of battles as well as 2) monsters that should not be able to hit me (119 moxie for no hit; I started with 174 unbuffed moxie) were able to hit both crits and regular hits. I started to record the starting HP given by my helmet, and though it is thought that the helmet is accurate within 10% (or, according to some sources, 7.5%), the upper end of the readouts are higher that 10% of 120.

I have a sampling of 125 combat adventures with the 120HP monsters as well as the HP readout from my Toy Space Helmet while playing song 1. Here's my data so far (only collected from first readout, because for some battles that was the only one given)

Starting HP	Occurences
113	2
114	2
115	3
116	1
117	7
118	2
119	5
120	1
121	4
122	9
123	12
124	7
125	9
126	7
127	13
128	6
129	7
130	7
131	6
132	4
133	3
134	4
135	1
136	3
Total	125

What interested me was that for a helmet that gives "mostly accurate" battle stats, there was only 1 instance of a 120HP readout, which is the wiki-given stats for all three monsters.

I'll update this as I get more data; please add your own data as well. Mahvelousmeat 12:44, 8 February 2007 (CST)

There's always some variability in monster HP now; I believe most of the numbers given by the wiki are just the old known values. It's possible the songs increase/decrease ML, I suppose, although someone would probably have noticed the change in stats by now. --Starwed 02:30, 17 February 2007 (CST)

Did a quick calculation on that data and that gives an average HP of 125 - which would be consistent with a +5 Monster Level. Granted, the space helmet is inaccurate but we would expect to be inaccurate in both directions, which should cancel out in a linear analysis. --Sidrock 15:22, 13 March 2007 (CST)

References

I'm not too good at phrasing things, so I'm putting it here...the one about being a lover not a fighter mentions a pair of anecondas intertwining, which may be a reference to the Caduceus, a symbol commonly used to represent medicine, due to it being confused with the Rod of Asclepius, the (roman? greek? can't remember which) god of medicine. The Caduceus is a stick with wings at the top and two snakes wrapped around it, and the Rod of Asclepius is just one snake wrapped around a stick, no wings.--Doran Draco 18:41, 25 November 2006 (CST)

Hermes/Mercury had the Caduceus, he was associated with magic. from Wikipedia:Caduceus: "The basic power of the Caduceus is the primal power to heal or harm." Asclepius was a doctor who was later diefied as the god of medicine, and as you say, he had a staff with one serpent around it. Both are used as medical symbology, though there is contention as to which is more correct. Frankly though, I think that's reading too much into it. I think it relates to the fact that two snakes copulating could easily be mistaken for two snakes fighting. --Horsedreamer 01:41, 17 February 2007 (CST)

= The Naughty Sorceress

Does the NS dispel this?