48)

I admit it. I was skimming a lot. But one idea from the internets that stood out was to figure out what you want in your dungeon, then fit it all together.

What I wanted on the next level was to have all the water filled pits that dropped down to there be all connected so that adventurers would have to wade through them as they went around from the stairs down to that level to the stairs that led them to the lowest floor and a tough fight.

Incorporating the new ranged weapons was a must, but the room on the second floor down with the crenelations over the door and was made to give clear shots at adventurers jumping from platform to platform. It would be the best spot to introduce them.

I could do more with plants, and the water was something I switch around easily. So first I cleared out the plant room and replace it with a wall of thin cement covered with bathroom tiles. A similar cement wall stood a foot past it. In between was a mix of half dirt, half garden worms that would squirm and fall out of any hole bashed through the wall. Sort of a mental challenge rather than a dangerous one.

The kobold in the salt room got conveniently armed with claw hammers suitable for bashing a wall.

Down below, the stairs leading down from the riddle room now opened up on a platform with a blind corner to the side as they came down, and a five foot deep channel of water running along the side that was a continuance from the pit below the jumping platforms on the upper level.

It would be possible to skip over a bunch of rooms to get down there, but rushing to the last room wasn't the goal of the dungeon. Grinding their way through each challenge for experience was.

A spike kobold waiting around the blind corner at the bottom of the steps. Ready and waiting with another hammer and instruction to go for the toes of the first one down, who would most likely be looking over at the water instead of looking for dangers.

The channel ran into a wall, at least above the water. To go further the adventurers would have to hold their breath while they swam five feet underwater without the ability to see what they had to face up ahead.

A room that took up nearly half the floor with a mound covered in heavy plant growth waited for them. The channel of water curved all around it on the edge of the level and ended on a platform with the stairs down. Inside the mound was a concealed room with two of the smaller kobolds mounted on black face raccoon mounts, while another three kobolds with the toothpick crossbow lurked in concealed nests, ready to pop up and fire.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

If they got out of the water and tromped through the plants, they would have to deal with pits and concealed kobolds.

If they stayed in the water, then for once they would have to fight things that weren't attacking them from below their knees. And three sewer rats waited on the platform to jump in and swim at anyone who stayed in the water.

I also set up a boss fight in the twenty foot across lowest level, an empty room aside from the five foot wide pillar in the middle. Down there Kelvin would meet them, armed with a three foot long broomstick wrapped in copper wire.

Champions have all the classes, including mage.

The room was divided into eight sections. Four of them were filled with a half inch of salt water, while the other four were dry. The ceiling above it was covered in a few dozen of the big fat roaches, all crawling slowly around while ready to fall down on top of people as some nasty distractions.

It would do, for at least a few weeks until it was time for something new. With only one group of adventurers, it was easy to change things around. I would have to settle on a permanent setup if the dungeon ever went public. Maybe only changing things once a week by closing down for a reset day. Midweek since many people would only have a weekend free to make it to a dungeon.

This managed to keep me busy until a little car pulled up and a young woman got out with an eager but concerned look on her face as she stared at Iris's house. The driver of the car got out and took two large bags out of the back of the vehicle.

I waited

Iris stepped out on her porch and the two women stared at each other for a moment before they both rushed forward to embrace each other. The girl openly crying while smiling. The old woman even shed a tear.

I waited

The younger woman had much the same look as the old woman, not as thin as she was younger, but with the same sharp nose. Well mostly the same, she looked to have never had hers broken. Reddish brown hair instead of gray, but the same hazel eyes.

I waited, a bit impatiently. Yes, yes. I know you too are happy to see each other, but you don't have to make that big of a deal over it.

A set of slender but strong hands slipped up and over my shoulders and wrapped around my neck as Alelan stood on her toes to press her forehead against the back of my neck. "You recreated the farm in here? You could have made me a palace or a beach chateau, and instead, you recreated this poorly designed, makeshift repaired, and expanded old shed?"

I freed myself from her tightening stranglehold around my neck and turned around to lift her up high enough for her to wrap her legs around me as I held up high enough to look her in the face.

It had been a while since we were in shape for either of us to do that.

"This is where we started and ended our lives together, it just seemed right to start off our afterlives here too. I can change it, right now, anything..."

She shut me up with a kiss. "Shhhhh… Stop talking and take me inside. There are kobolds watching us out here."

Outside the house, kobolds practiced their marksmanship with the tiny crossbows and sparred with broomstick quarterstaffs.

Outside the core, a young woman excitedly told her aunt about the Mage class she had gotten on her eighteenth birthday and her fire ray spell. And kobolds searched the internets for mentions of their own kind. Gathering around as they read about Tucker's kobolds.

Outside the house, the only other person who had been in the dungeon talked with Hector from next door about what was not a sex dungeon in old woman Iris's basement.