“A damn dungeon core!” Evelyn fumed as the stone wall before her seemed to recoil in the face of her anger. “I must have got one of the sigils for the phylactery wrong, but to end up as this of all things!”
Normally she would call someone raving to themselves like this a lunatic but right now she was beyond caring. As she glanced back along the corridor she’d already carved, she noted it wasn’t like there was anyone to see her in this state anyway. No sooner had that thought appeared than her heart started to pound as if someone was about to disturb one of her rituals. She knew a young woman had just appeared in front of the curtain of shadowy magic that marked the entrance of her dungeon even before spinning to look at her.
[Guide] obtained. Additional features unlocked.
Skeletal versions of {Creature Templates} unlocked based on previous class.
{Creature Template} options available
{Dungeon Boon} options available
Brushing aside the surprising notification, Evelyn appraised the unusual young woman. Her strange blue breeches worn white near the knees suggested a familiarity with hard labour, yet her loose white top had strange, navy glyphs across the front. She bore the colours of the system with a boldness that few nobles would dare. Deciding that caution would be prudent Evelyn asked, “Would you be the [Guide] of which the system spoke?”
“Oh, uhm, yes. Hi.” Her ginger hair swished as she glanced around, revealing a small scar amid the freckles of her left cheek. “Wow, you seem to be doing well already having dug a few rooms out, I’d heard most of your abilities would be locked until I arrived.” Her beaming face did much to alleviate the sense of tension from her unexpected arrival. “Ahh but where are my manners, my name is Ivy and I look forward to working with you. I’m here to help and offer advice until you get a safe number of levels. Oh, and please remember I’m just the [Guide], you are the [Dungeon Keeper]. I can give suggestions but ultimately it’s your dungeon. So don’t be afraid to tell me to stop if you need to, I can get a bit carried away at times.”
Evelyn was caught off guard by the casual, bouncy nature of her new companion but responded warmly, “A pleasure to make your acquaintance, I am Evelyn of Timberhollow and my class recently changed to that of [Dungeon Keeper]. Could you tell me more about the class as I was unfamiliar with it before now?”
“Yeah, I heard you were a bit of a special case like myself. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of time, but basically, you’re in charge of this dungeon and you can shape it as you will as long as the gods don’t object.” Ivy seemed to be counting off key points on her fingers, “You can’t have another class or change class while you’re the [Keeper]. The fast formation of this dungeon means that there was a spike in magical activity in this area, so I don’t want to rush you, but we should really start setting up defences.”
Evelyn felt like an anvil had been dropped in her stomach, the [Necromancer] classes she worked so hard for were now gone and denied to her. With a faint shake of her head she tried to focus on the immediate issue. “We likely have little time then given the proximity of Timberhollow. I assume the {creature template} and {dungeon boon} options are how I defend myself?” Having them appear before her with a thought and a flick of her wrist.
Dungeon Boon options:
Boon
Effect
The Dead Shall Serve 1
The corpses of invaders immediately animate as an undead of equal level to the invader, loyal to the dungeon, that die after 30 seconds.
Untiring Legions
Undead creatures within your dungeon have a chance of respawning early.
Leadership 1 (Undeath)
Your undead creatures have the intelligence of the most intelligent undead creature, or creature with an undeath affinity within 10 meters of them.
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Creature template options:
Creature
Rarity
Description
Orc
uncommon
Strong humanoids, intelligent, able to use a variety of weapons
Giant Trapper Spider
uncommon
Sized similar to a large dog, prefers to use sticky web traps to fight intruders. Mildly venomous.
Goblin
uncommon
Small humanoids, physically weak but capable of tool use and easily upgraded. Intelligence barely sufficient for sapience.
Ivy pressed close beside her, somehow seeming able to peer at Evelyn’s system messages. “We’ll be able to use traps as well, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Hmmm, some good options, I take it you’re attuned to undeath?”
“Yes, I was previously the city mortician with a [Journeyman Necromancer](Undeath) class, not that the latter was widely known.”
“Wow, yeah that would do it.” Ivy glanced at her with wide eyes. “Well that means you’ll now be a [Dungeon Keeper](Undeath). So your dungeon in turn is also (Undeath) attuned, hence the boon options. I guess the first question then is how obvious you want to make that? I don’t claim to know the area, but my impression is most people view the undead… err… somewhat unfavourably.”
“Yes, I imagine if Timberhollow becomes aware they have an (Undeath) dungeon less than half an hour’s walk from them they will likely try to purge it. If I can get a message to the Lord however, we may be able to temper that…”
“We can’t!” A somewhat panicked looking Ivy interjected, “Direct communication with delvers is something the gods have to approve before it comes into effect, to stop exactly those kind of deals. Also, I didn’t know we were that close to a city, we need to get these defences up ASAP!”
“Asap? Never mind.” Evelyn shook her head, “In answer to your question then, I’m tired of hiding my methods and don’t mind being seen as the villain. A challenge like this could be exactly what Timberhollow needs to start levelling the residents once more; let’s be obvious.”
“OK, I’d suggest we at least let the first room just be traps and I guess for the creatures you’re looking mostly at what the skeletal versions of the templates will be like then. Orcs are probably as close to standard skeletons as possible, maybe a little stronger. Skeletal spiders could be pretty cool and might earn a little less hatred from the town than something humanoid. Goblins would be smaller and weaker, but would probably be a bit cheaper, and so, more numerous than the orcs. You probably have more experience with skeletons than I do, what are you thinking?”
“Losing the venom and web from the spiders makes them much less useful. They might gain skills to emulate those aspects as they level but I’ve never thought they were particularly worth the effort. Goblins are unknown to me, but while skeletons rely on numbers, they lose a lot of utility if they don’t have enough individual strength. I would be a fool to risk something too far from what I’m familiar with, when I assume my life is on the line if I fail?” A nod from Ivy confirmed Evelyn’s choice, “Orcs it is then.”
Orc template unlocked
Orc Skeleton template unlocked
“Super, probably worth spawning one now so you can get some mana regen while we work out the boon. We can always reposition it later.”
“Sound reasoning.”
Evelyn found the summoning similar to her old [Summon Skeleton], relying largely on the effect of intent on mana shaping and the skill system to compensate for the differences. She’d had the opportunity to work with a few orcish bodies over the years but never a pristine skeleton such as this. She should have noticed the 6’5” height, the yellowish tinge of the bones and wider flatter ribs but what made her gasp was the tiny mana stone. Smaller than the tip of her pinky finger to the first joint, floating where a heart would be in the ribcage. She now understood why she was spending what would have been several times her previous mana pool for a single skeleton.
Mana: 9,000/10,000
Mana Regen: 10/hour
“Evelyn you doing OK there? Something unexpected with the skeleton?”
“Apologies, I just… it has a mana stone. I knew dungeon creatures had them, but I’m just not used to working with such quantities of mana.”
“That makes sense. Look, we’re both finding our feet here and when we have more time I can give you a more detailed description of how dungeon cores work if you think that will help?” Evelyn was surprised to feel a supportive hand laid gently on her shoulder. “For now all I’ll say is when you created this skeleton it was entirely made from mana and it will stay animated indefinitely and respawn every…” Ivy peered intensely into middle distance, “…hour, when the whole dungeon resets.”
“I suppose that brings us naturally to the boons; do you have a particular recommendation?”
Ivy smiled softly, clearly sympathetic. “[The Dead Shall Serve] sounds powerful, it could definitely cause groups to death spiral with one death leading to another. Having said that, turning teammates is the sort of thing that has people swearing vengeance. I imagine most teams will pull back if people start dying anyway, so it may not do as much as you might think to improve your safety.”
“Hmm, I hadn’t thought about it through that lens. People will die in the dungeon, but primarily my goal is to push the denizens of Timberhollow to level and grow now that I can no longer aid them directly. Ideally, it should be difficult, not lethal.”
“That’s a good attitude, I’ll try to keep that in mind then. [Untiring Legions] will help if lots of parties are trying to rush through close together or could give a party a nasty surprise if they tarry too long. Actually, you could probably design puzzles with that in mind. The only thing is, it doesn’t help much with the immediate defence.”
“What about [Leadership]? Also, I assume the abilities can rank up in some fashion?”
“Yes, but it’s linked to your levels and the next opportunity to upgrade or obtain a new boon is level 5, so it’ll be a while yet. [Leadership] is probably good as I’m assuming many undead aren’t particularly bright. While you can program creatures with orders up to a point, intelligent creatures will adapt to the changing circumstances in a fight much better. It’s probably why orcs cost more mana than their skeletons. The only downside is, it doesn’t do anything until you have a more intelligent creature to use as a commander and the range is quite short. It could definitely catch people off guard though.” Ivy chuckled.
“I know what my choice is then.”