Royal Dominguez

Royal's appearance in Act 2

> Ye think ye will squeeze a defeat out o' **ME?**
>
> Royal Dominguez

**Royal Dominguez** is a character in Inscryption. He serves minor roles in Act II and the Finale and acts as the final boss of Kaycee's Mod.

## Background

Born sometime in 1589, Royal Dominguez was one of the finest pirates of his age. Unfortunately, as common for his profession he ended up coming down with scurvy, which due to his lack of vitamin C, could not be cured. He eventually died of the disease in spring of 1632, at 42-43 years of age. His body was buried where Grimora's Crypt stands today, where he now serves as one of her ghouls.

### Personality

Despite being a stereotypical pirate, Royal does not act out any of the bad traits that would be associated with them, and he appears to be quite happy given his current state. He frequently makes jokes about the circumstances of his death and tells the player his past alongside the position of his tomb, alongside congratulating them upon solving Grimora's riddle.

### Relationships with other characters

Royal is never seen directly interacting with any other characters, but it can be assumed he has a level of devotion to his leader, Grimora. Grimora warmly returns this by fulfilling his truest dream of being a boss during the Finale, although this is unfortunately brief due to the deletion.

## Act II

Royal appears inside Grimora's Crypt, blocking the path to the mirror room. When spoken to, he will engage in dialogue before initiating battle.

### Battle

Royal's deck consists of a Ghost Ship and Skeletons. His primary strategy is to constantly bombard the player with Skeletons.

#### Strategy

Royal will continually play Skeletons, but he has no permanent board presence besides his Ghost Ship. If you can get past his initial rush of Skeletons, he'll only be able to do 1 damage per turn, making it very easy once he runs out of steam. Sentry Drones can be used to great effect to destroy his Skeletons and even his Ship with ease.

#### Post-battle

After defeating him, he gives the player an Deathly card pack and part of his epitaph, then becomes incorporeal, allowing the player to proceed to the mirror room.

### Tombstone Riddle

Royal's tomb is the rightmost one, and the following epitaphs must be inserted into it.

* Royal Dominguez 1589 - Spring 1632
* Brought down by scurvy.
* There was no cure.

## Finale

> Y'AARRRRR!
>
> Grimora (as Royal Dominguez)

> Oh...I hoped we had just a little more time...
>
> Grimora

Royal appears as a boss at the end of Grimora's section, but his battle is cut short after a few seconds.

## Kaycee's Mod

> Avast ye!
>
> Royal Dominguez

If the final challenge the player can unlock - "Final Boss" - is activated before a run starts, then Royal will appear at the end to serve as the final boss instead of Leshy. His fight is a harder version of Leshy's, with stronger cards and new mechanics such as firing cannons and giving the player a pack of rodent cards.

### Strategy

At the start of both Phase 1 and Phase 2, Royal will place a pair of Mole Seamen on the edges of the board that are tougher versions of regular Mole Men. He will then follow up by playing Skeleton Crew and Zombie Parrots every few turns. In addition to this, after the first turn, he will start aiming his cannons at the board which will deal 10 damage each. Getting past the Mole Seamen can be difficult without a card that can deal lots of damage or has Touch of Death, but you can lure them into the line of the cannons to get rid of them instantly.

At the beginning of phase 2, the Challenger will be given a card pack. The card pack will contain a random assortment of four of the following vermin in it: Squirrel, Rabbit, Mole, Mole Man, Beaver, Opossum, Field Mice, Pack Rat and Stoat.

At the start of Phase 3, he will summon his ship The Limoncello to fight instead of The Moon, and the cannons on the side of the board will stop firing. Strategies that apply to The Moon also apply here. Having a single high **Power** Waterborne card such as the Great White can be a great long-term investment, as long as there are other cards on the field that can be damaged.

## Quotes

### Act II

* Initiating a battle with the player:
	+ "...**HARK!** A livin' slice o' lemon approaches. Bright an' trig as a lime. Ye think ye will squeeze a defeat out o' **ME?**"
	+ (player fixed their deck) "Hark! Yer deck be correct! We can battle!"

* Player's deck is invalid:
	+ "Arrr... Something be wrong. Yer deck. T'ain't right. Return when ye've got 20 cards in it."
	+ "Hark! Yer deck again. Ye did add cards to it, aye? 20 er so?"
	+ "Hark... Ye don't have enough cards in yer deck."

* Player loses the battle:
	+ "Orange ye a bit underprepared?"
	+ "I beat the livin' PULP out o' ye!"
	+ "Orange ye glad I didn' say banana?"

* Player wins the battle:
	+ "Aye. Ye beat the pulp out o' me. Firstly, take ye this. An' because ye bested me... with ye, I'll share my secret. Me name's Royal. I's the far right tomb. Here's the head piece."

* Spoken to:
	+ "Like I said: Me name's Royal. I's the far right tomb. Yar, life didn't me lemons... So I died."
	+ "I were once the finest pirate on th' seas. Lookit me now... Buried under the far right tomb..."
	+ "They say when life gives ye lemons... Ye make somethin' of it. Life were not so kind to give me lemons... It left me buried under the tomb on the right."

* Spoken to after solving the tombstone puzzles:
	+ "Ye solved the riddle of the tombs! Cheers to ye."
	+ "Aye? Me true dream? Te be a boss meself. The big lemon. Aye, tis but a dream."
	+ "Aye, yar, to be a boss. That be the dream. Enough o' me musin'. Off with ye!"
	+ "Off with ye!"

### Finale

* Battle introduction:
	+ "Y'aarrrr!"

### Kaycee's Mod

* Battle introduction:
	+ "Y-yar?"
	"Could it be?"
	"Me dream to be a scurvy boss upon the seven seas?"
	"Avast ye!"
* Firing cannons:
	+ "Yar har har!"
	"Aim..."
	"Fire!" (start of following turn)
* Start of second phase:
	+ "Yar?"
	"Blast! Me ship is full o' rodents!"
* Start of third phase:
	+ Royal: "Well boil me oranges..."
	Royal: "Ye've almost bested me."
	Royal: "But I've got ye one last trick!"
	Leshy: "That's far enough."
	Royal: "Yar. Me crew be the finest on the seas!"
	Royal: "Stalwart skeles who'd never betray me!"
* Destroying the Limoncello:
	+ "The Limoncello is sunk?"
	"By ye, a lowly landlubber?"
* Defeat:
	+ "Avast ye!"
	"Farewell."
* Run out of cards:
	+ Yar! Ye be out of cards. Full speed ahead lads!

## Trivia

* Royal is one of the five characters to have their own Steam trading card, along with The Dredger, The Woodcarver, The Bone Lord, and Rebecha.
	+ On the trading card, he is incorrectly named "Royal Rodriguez."
* The Skeletons and Ghost Ship used in his battle may be his old crew and ship, as they would be long dead and the ship likely sunk, and thus able to be made into cards by Grimora.
* Royal frequently makes puns related to citrus fruits as he died of scurvy.
* Royal's boss fight in Kaycee's Mod seems to be inspired by a fanmade mod called the Pirate Mod. It featured the skeletons and cannons but not the Limoncello.

## References

1. ↑ "Yar, life didn't give me lemons... So I died." -Royal Dominguez
2. ↑ The mask used for this battle is referred to as "RoyalBossSkull" when deleted.