Amalgamate. It'll give Merude lots to experiment with.

Speaking of golem's, question, Deem.
Eventually, when you're fragment matures into it's own core, do you think she'll prefer to live as an independent golem or do you think she'll quickly settle down somewhere and start a new dungeon?

Wait, which timeline does Stargazer remember?

Both of them seem like they'll up our overall level of power pretty heavily, golem garrison letting us float a larger contingent of enemies, and Amalgamate letting us refine quickly through combination.

I'd say it follows the way we are to go with amalgamate. Mutation and evolution is more your thing than having an army at your back.

And, just as a funny thought, now that Reisarf has a clone of him/herself, you know he's eventually going to get freaky with himself.

1/3 Deem 2024/05/17(Fri)04:52 No. 1091126 ID: ef4bac
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>Deem, the dungeon and our denizens are really trending towards the blending and fusion of things aren't they? A lot of the unforeseen incidents have that in common as well. Is that normal?
As a dungeon I try to take in denizens that will complement my weaknesses and add to my strengths. I've chosen twice now to focus on ensuring development in my denizens: I'm still working towards adding an element of shadow to help them develop their own mysteries and unique skills, and I have strengthened the fecund aspects of my earth element too to promote denizen growth.

An earth dungeon has variety in expression, but my dungeon is still undersized and monotonous. It's only in the last few weeks I've even established lairs I have aspired to shadow but not really grasped it, so I am suffering from vagaries with truths to be discovered. I have passed over fire and can't pass down gifts of pyromancy or other enlightenments.

We shall not speak of air, light or water. My dungeon is however wetter than perhaps it should be and thus I am suffering from blending there too. I have placed myself more centrally than is perhaps ideal too, as my development of the False Idol has indicated.

Considering all of this it's not surprising that we are seeing all these recombinant efforts to force growth and generate variety as new things are encountered, expressed, combined and passed about my dungeon to see which denizens they resonant best with.

It doesn't help they are all developing so fast. Hin, Reisarf and Moriko are all over-levelled for the current state of my Dungeon Heart. Stargazer likely will be next. My wounded Heart will be struggling to support them unless I can gather more gold.

Perhaps people grow faster in this era or perhaps my wou- no, I am getting sidetracked.

>As a researcher, amalgam is something new and unique for Merud to experiment with. The results aren’t reproducible by his peers yet unfortunately, but maybe he’ll work something out.
>Amalgamate would greatly speed up the development of new golems. Combine, observe the effects, and then figure out how to replicate.
I worry I have left Merud to pick up the slack too many times, so giving him the opportunity to ease his research and more quickly develop golems seems a fitting reward.

>Given Merud's goal is golem sentience I think we should go for elite golem rather than golem army.
And his own specialty is one that would likely benefit from focusing on quality over quantity.

>From a practical/dungeon master standpoint, golem garrison is incredibly useful. Instant reinforcements, larger unit cap. As creative as amalgamate golems could be, someone’s got to be the handy man about the dungeon, and that is a lotta hands.
There's dungeon structures I can make that should help ease the burden of building and maintaining a large number of golems, though less versatile than this skill.

I give Merud a few minutes to ponder his new skill in isolation to see what he comes up with.

2/3 Deem 2024/05/17(Fri)04:53 No. 1091127 ID: ef4bac
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Reisarf hustles back in.

"Deem! I took a nap and remembered what happened to the Potential Void on the monster hunting trip and thought you'd want to know."

I think for a moment about what I would find the most personally annoying.

"Alkaline ate it, didn't she?"

"Oh I didn't have to worry at all." Reisarf says. "How do you always know these things?"

"I - no, lucky guess." I say.

I catch a rock that is flung at me from ambush. The shadow slick slime yelps in panic and hides again. That slime's getting added to the punishment roster too.

Reisarf blinks at me, arms half raising as if he was debating whether to applaud. "Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm sure. What did it do?" Obviously she didn't explode or I would know.

Reisarf shuffles uncertainly. "She wants it to be a surprise."

"And if I don't want to be surprised?" I say icily.

"I would be very conflicted!" Reisarf says.

I sigh. "Fine, if Alkaline wants to surprise me, she can surprise me." I spoil that slime too much.

"OK, but you'll want to know that Hin also ate it!"

This is my hubris. "What happened?"

"I also passed out in the middle of trying a hybridisation spell. Hin tried to interrupt it but the Void fused directly to her. I don't think the Moon is involved, but it's like a less hairy werewolf! She's lizardy like she was in the Orange Crags, but littler."

I blink. We were thinking of researching such a thing, though this is a bracingly direct approach.

I hold in another sigh. Reisarf is trying to do better. "Thank you for informing me Reisarf."

>Wait, which timeline does Stargazer remember?
I don't know. She doesn't talk. As she was at the epicenter of events and didn't get moved to accompany Alkaline and Hin on the expedition, the original one I would say.

>Gazeggs could replicate Stargazer’s dungeon level powers without the corrupting influence of the winze! That’s super powerful! If there are two Reisarfs, one of them should eat all the eggs to be a temporary Stargazer standin. (Will her wiggles and suitability as a staff be emulated, I wonder?)
It certainly might be powerful, but I'm not doing any experiments with those things until after Olan's visit.

>For the Overlapples, they're bigger on the inside to store more juice and fruit stuff, maybe we can make a potion from it that will let the drinker store more "juice"? Like if it could temporarily expand their pool of mana, or stamina or just energy in general, rather than restoring it?
That seems like a good idea as it might also work well with the serum gland attempt. Since Belphe is still brewing up a mix for the cauldron-golem, I ask him to try this. He sulkily agrees to brew this up for his 'competitor'

>Eventually, when your fragment matures into it's own core, do you think she'll prefer to live as an independent golem or do you think she'll quickly settle down somewhere and start a new dungeon?
Don't be an idiot. I am myself. I will remain myself.

And, just as a funny thought, now that Reisarf has a clone of him/herself, you know he's eventually going to get freaky with himself.
No, I don't know. I go to some trouble to not know what my denizens get up to in their private moments while within my dungeon. I don't think about it.

And neither should you.

3/3 Deem 2024/05/17(Fri)04:54 No. 1091128 ID: ef4bac
File 171594689450.png - (52.13KB , 800x600 , golem_choices.png )

>You should get Merud a new robe.
>Maybe thats a good use for that Gazerspawn Skin.
Yes, that might work quite well. Is there anything special I should try to work in?

>A note of caution: would anything amalgamated with Centaur actually be able to de-fuse?
It would perhaps be good to test that. Raw materials almost certainly, it might have some odd effects on magic items, and golems are likely to be damaged.

>Fusing the cauldron golem with a hat golem: uh, larger cauldron storage capacity? Could use the spatially warped cauldron as an extra potion bath.
Those golems are more complicated in what they're meant to do. I want to try the golems out before making further modification to them.

>Homunculus golem fused with flesh - golems made from flesh are harder to animate, does this bypass that limitation? Though, hmm, where are we going to get a bit of spare flesh. …Oh! Stargazer left a bunch lying around.
I will add it to the list if Merud hasn't already thought of it.

>Amalgamate Construct, obviously. Test it with yourself and gold. Think of the earth pulse you could generate!
Unless I'm willing to play the part of a statue in my Treasury or Heart Chamber, very little.

I check in with Merud to see what ideas he's had. We can test one for now:

Homunculus + Alien Lard: "This might be a viable means of creating a more independent golem if the combination can retain Stargazer's ability to store and release mana, as any mana user could provide them energy instead of just a golemeter. Of course command tools or more sophisticated golem cores would still be needed to no longer require a golemeter present."

Hammer Brute + Treated Slime: "Liquids and gels are not a good match for a lot of common golemetry techniques, which this might sidestep. I'd expect the resultant golem to be more limber and resilient, possibly even stretchy."

Handy Brute + Sculpted Simulacrum: "Potentially a substantial increase in capability, however it'll depend on whether any remnants of the Simulacrum's abilities will remain once the spell that created it expires."

Woody Brute + Rockfruit: "This golem is already focused on tenacity and regeneration, so I believe this would further enhance those features by allowing stone armour to be grown as damage accumulates."

Gardener + Sap Bombs: "Again trying to bypass the limitations of our current tools and materials by fusing in more magically active components via amalgamation. I would expect a substantial improvement in the power of the plant growth inherent spell."

Centaur + Basic Golem: "I'm curious about three things: whether a golem combined via this method can successfully be disentangled from Centaur's aberrant golemetry, whether there'd be any side effects on the basic golem, and whether we will see more sophisticated behaviour after adding a third core."

Test the handy brute with a Hin simulacrum. Uh, once we see what state she’s in!

Woody Brute + Rockfruit! White Witch all day every day lets fucken goooooooo

Gardening Sapbombs!

>>1091127
>fusion theme is due to the dungeon being underdeveloped in comparison to our denizens
Shit, we better fix that.

>I don't know. She doesn't talk
Well ask Reisarf to ask her and tell you the answer, then.

>gazerskin robe?
Feels more on-brand for Reisarf, honestly... Maybe we have a surplus and can make more than one?

Woody Brute + Rockfruit

Since he can only maintain one at a time, we really should test that Centaur fusion first as a matter of practicality. However, I support testing the handy brute simulacrum long-term.

>>1091128
>>Gazer Golem Robe
Well, the skin supposedly had shapeshifting properties, and was part of something alive, maybe we could try giving it the ability to mimic materials, and some minor self repair ability. Just enough on the latter to keep it free from wear and tear. The mimicry might have some fringe utility for Merud's research as well.

>>Amalgam Golems
Both the Gardener + Sap Bombs and the Woody Brute + Rockfruit option seem great and on brand, so either or both of those should be good.

Though, we should keep the Hammer Brute + Treated Slime option in mind for after Hin comes back, since her Gelforging could be a key piece to really solidify that idea.

Gazer golem robe features:
-waterproofed
-bigger on the inside (roomy pockets)
-eyespots can be waved around to confuse and frighten predators
-jersey number on back (01)
-chemical/potion spill resistant?

brute + slime could lead to attributes with easy application across our entire gollem stock

>>1091128
I like empowering handy golem. It has a unique feel to it and perhaps Merud would appreciate your joint creation seeing some advancement.

1/2 Deem 2024/05/29(Wed)20:00 No. 1092064 ID: 9e80c7
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>>fusion theme is due to the dungeon being underdeveloped in comparison to our denizens
>Shit, we better fix that.
Time, resources, and more gold will fix that. This offer of patronage from Olan should hopefully address two of those.

>Both the Gardener + Sap Bombs and the Woody Brute + Rockfruit option seem great and on brand, so either or both of those should be good.
Adding the Rockfruit to the Woody Brute should be a relatively straightforward first exercise of this new ability and hopefully give us an exceptionally sturdy denizen as a defender of the dungeon.

I have some golems - and Stargazer - pile up the salvaged Rockfruit and then send them back to clearing the Thaumatorium. Stargazer I have stay, as I did want her to understudy more dungeon happenings as Merud and I discuss what effects this will have on the golem's embedded plants and primitive synthetic biology as he presses rockfruit to it in various locations to try to gauge what response he's getting.

Merud keeps his regretful habit of alluding to golemeters and treatises that were born or written during my long sleep, but I'm glad he's happy.

>Since he can only maintain one at a time, we really should test that Centaur fusion first as a matter of practicality.
It would be good to test, but I think something that's an immediate and dependable show of golem construction would be better.

We keep Centaur wandering around as well, to see what effect the Goo Gullet has on reducing her dependency on a supply of mana from my dungeon. I'll ensure we have some more golem bells readied as well, as the reduced demands of the link should allow her to be sent along with non-golemeters on at least some short tasks outside the dungeon. I don't want to try to switch her to fully independent, and I don't think she has the sophistication to interpret a non-golemeter's orders easily.

It's still too early to see if the cauldron golem has done much potion production, though I do notice Belphe keeps peering into the Golem Totem where we're working, as if expecting it to explode or some other nonsense.

Merud reaches a configuration he's happy with and the Woody Brute is amalgamated with a plentiful supply of Rockfruit. Some quick stab tests show more Rockfruit sprouting in and sealing injuries. It's a success!

>Keep the Hammer Brute + Treated Slime option in mind for after Hin comes back, since her Gelforging could be a key piece to really solidify that idea.
We may not need the amalgamation technique at all if she can just combine clay with Treated Slime using her hammer. That would need new golems though, so less of building up an elite and more working on a new variety.

>>I don't know. Stargazer doesn't talk
>Well ask Reisarf to ask her and tell you the answer, then.
I can get to the bottom of that later.

>>Gazer Golem Robe
Well, the skin supposedly had shapeshifting properties, and was part of something alive, maybe we could try giving it the ability to mimic materials, and some minor self repair ability. Just enough on the latter to keep it free from wear and tear. The mimicry might have some fringe utility for Merud's research as well.
>bigger on the inside (roomy pockets)
I don't think we'll have much time for enchantment before the visit but I shall see what can be quickly put together. It helps Stargazer's skin is such a magically reactive material already.

>Feels more on-brand for Reisarf, honestly... Maybe we have a surplus and can make more than one?
I just made a new robe for Reisarf but we shall see.

2/2 Deem 2024/05/29(Wed)20:02 No. 1092066 ID: 9e80c7
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I still would like to work some more with Merud, but I can feel my monster hunters finally coming back.

Hin - looking very lizardy and slightly sheepish - approaches my dungeon's entrance and says the slimes, Reisarf, and the captive monsters are lagging behind before getting to the meat of things.

"So, Deem. I think uh we time travelled or something?" Hin says.

I sigh. "Didn't Reisarf explain?"

"He's been really out of it. Not having Stargazer around to keep him on track isn't helping. Why didn't you send her too?"

"It's because I didn't originally send him with you at all."

I explain Reisarf and Stargazer's misadventures with greenhouses, dungeon mimicry, the magic of potentialities, and the resulting paradox.

"Huh." Hin says, fiddling with her gelforged top.

Though before she tells me how the expedition went, I'd better get to the bottom of her condition. My attendant golem hands me the Scan Lens.

----------------------------------------
Hin Ivac
Lvl 4 Half-Ogre Allsmith (3=>4)
----------------------------------------
Power: A=>S
Vitality: A
Accuracy: C
Speed: D
Wits: D
Skill: C
Spirit: B
Luck: D

A craftswoman growing accustomed to treating everything in the world as her forge. Easily befriended by creatures everywhere. A towering presence in and outside the dungeon.

----------------------------------------
Detected Abilities
----------------------------------------
Giant Blood: Great power over the physical world. Hin is resistant to any effects that would reduce her physical condition and gets an additional bonus on effects that would enhance it.

Item Creation: Hin is trained in the skills and secrets of creating magical items. She can temporarily enhance tools and gear or, with the correct setup, create permanent magical items.

Gluttonous Ogre: Consuming food recovers Hin's stamina and gives her a temporary boost of health. Overeating lets her overcome injuries and illness faster. Hin can eat a wider range of food without ill effect and resists ingested poisons and curses. Potions have an increased effect, as do other food related special effects.

UPDATED - Glutinous Ogre: Hin's body produces slime. She can reflexively sweat tiny amounts of it out of her skin to give herself some protection against fire, cold, acid and cutting attacks. She can also spit slime. Secreted slime can be made sticky, slippery or acidic. Hin can allow abilities that only affect slimes to affect her, usually at full effectiveness due to being honorary slime royalty.

UPDATED - Dragon of the Orange Crags: While dwelling within the Orange Crags, power slowly flows into Hin as reinforcement magic. Within a few hours, Hin gains a boost to size, Power, Vitality and most abilities; a slight impairment to Speed, a powerful acidic breath and can consume gelatinous substances at no harm to herself, possibly boosting her power. When fully transformed, the added strength is on par with the spells reinforcing an elite guardian of Deem's dungeon. Outside of the Crags, Hin can partially access this power after consuming resources from the Crags or overpowering a creature from there. The transformation lasts until Hin cancels it, though she is then weakened for a period that scales with the amount of time spent transformed.

Gelforge: Hin can forge items out of liquids, although viscous ones work best. As part of working it, she can harden such substances into a glassy solid, although the exact properties of the material depend on the effort put in and liquid used.

NEW - Blue Skies Monster: Hin can soak up sunlight and store it. She gains a small boost to her Speed the more light she's stored and can expend it as healing magic, but only for others. Hin can projects the shape that she visualises but they're small and only have only a little substance. She can combine stored light with these conjured figments to swiftly create tools, weapons, armour and other items with substance, although they degrade over time if not stabilised afterwards.

----------------------------------------
Special Equipment
----------------------------------------
Little Mace: A simple enchanted weapon Hin crafted as an apprentice. This mace can be shrunk down to the size of a toothpick when not needed.

Handy Hin Hammer: A hammer that can be used to precisely soften what it's hitting, making it easier to work.

----------------------------------------

I hadn't expected this possibility when I recruited her, but my blacksmith is now the strongest single creature in my dungeon. The collapse of the Potential Void in the possible chain of events where Reisarf worked on chimerism acted as a void shard for Hin, granting her another ability, and has ended up giving her a permanent connection to the Orange Crags. Despite my mild exasperation at the cause and that inisidious Light affinity creeping back in, this is amazing news.

"Hin, why are you honorary slime royalty?" I say.

"Deem, why was that your first question and how the hell do you do keep doing that with that dinky basic lens?" Hin says.

"I asked you first." I point out.

"Well it turns out little Alkie was so cursed and touch-starved that she goes into hugging frenzies. And it turns out she can delegate most of her sliminess to me in a pinch, which was very helpful for keeping her manageable and us all on task."

"With the - ?" I mime a bubble on my head.

"Yah." Hin says.

"Did it hurt?" I shake my head. "No, moving on. To answer your questions, Reisarf did tell me a little of what happened so this wasn't entirely a surprise. And I'm very accustomed to having to make do with poor tools."

"Wait when did you speak to Reisarf?" Hin says.

"We have two Reisarfs now."

"Huh." Hin says again. "This has been a strange week."

I barely have half of a week left before Olan's expected arrival, so one thing to decide is whether Hin should stay as a nine foot tall lizard until then. I'm not currently sure how extensive and prolonged the weakening after turning back will be, but currently I have more strong denizens than dungeon rooms they can be reasonably deployed to.

Put her to work, then. She treats all the world her forge, it's time she lived up to that. Tell her to get more ambitious with her projects now that she's this strong.

Given the uncertain timeframe, we should postpone Hin's de-lizzification until after the visit. This will be our first opportunity to get some practice in with Hin's guardian powers besides. I see a powerful setpiece for the thaumatorium where Hin uses Alkaline's Hydro Pump and emerges from the pool to do battle - once we get it filled back in, of course.
As for who we bench? Well, Stargazer's out of course. We only need to bench one of the Reisarfs, and Moriko...well, depends on how she's feeling.

well things are a mess arent they.
i say we try to get everything presentable/functional, as thats the main thing

>>1092066
Ah, so Stargazer didn't get duplicated.

>turn back?
Ask her how she feels about remaining in that form permanently. Though, I guess if she dies during an invasion it'll remove itself when she resurrects? If the weakening period doesn't happen due to the resurrection refreshing her body, there's no drawback to keeping the form that long. She'd just have to make a trip there to regain it.
Only question is if she's better or worse at blacksmithing while like that. That is her primary job, so if she's worse at it then she'll only want to use the transformation for battle, in which case we need to either work on a chamber that connects to Orange Crags, or collect materials from there that she can use for the incomplete transformation.

Can she even fit in her blacksmith shop now? Might have to do some renovations.

>>1092066
I suppose the question is pretty simply defined:

The state in which you present the dungeon should be, ideally, what you want the dungeon to be.

Thusly: can Hin do her main job like this? Can she adjust enough to be a competent blacksmith? Does she mind staying like this, perhaps training an apprentice, if she has trouble?

If you want Hin to be another miniboss and part of your main force and the above issues don't bother her/you, why the heck not?
Otherwise, I'd advise reverting her posthaste, seeing about making that change more rapid (to use as a panic button) and making your workforce more predictable.
Running theme, that last one. Anyone else undergoing massive, chaotic shifts to their entire being we need to know about, or is it just the two?

Maybe male Reisarf can use a slightly different name from female Reisarf, like if he reversed the order of the letters in his name, that would o̷h̸ g̷̛̐͝ͅo̵̪̓d̴ N̵O̵͖̦ N̵Ō̸̬̘͆̈́͆̉͘T̸̞̦̝͕̍̇̎̀͘ͅ T̶͎̟͓̫̺̽̀ͅH̵͕͇̺̳̫͛̀

Lizard-Hin! Lizard-Hin! Lizard-Hin!

If for nothing else, keep her as is to make Char jealous of the "new dragon" and thus driven to improve himself.

>>1092099
Malesarf and Femsarf

Will Hin fit in the dungeon like this? If she has to spend a lot of time hunched over I wonder if it would have an effect on her body.

>>1092066

Well, Hin's certainly impressive now, we might as well gave her show it off while she's got it.

Deem, if Hin's Light ability bothers you, is there any way you could nudge being a more Earth related, photosynthetic type thing? That's something Slimes can do right? And shes already part Slime...Royalty even.

On an unrelated tangent, I have to point out how thankful we should be for Doyle. He's like our one minion whom we (so far) never have had to worry about running off and doing something crazy, and actually does his job with no major shenanigans. We should give him some kind of acknowledgement soon, his confidence seems real low.

It feels like Elements trying to balance each other out is just going to be A Thing. If we're all worried about Light contamination, I guess, it might be better to find ways to contain it rather than try to excise it entirely. Building valuable Light-based loot is one. It's appropriate for a blacksmith to focus her efforts on that, as long as nothing she makes can hard counter the dungeon build.

1/2 Deem 2024/06/01(Sat)03:46 No. 1092249 ID: ea505d
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>Lizard-Hin! Lizard-Hin! Lizard-Hin!
Yes, yes, she's very impressive.

>The state in which you present the dungeon should be, ideally, what you want the dungeon to be.
I don't have a decade to get everything in place so this will have to do.

>Given the uncertain timeframe, we should postpone Hin's de-lizzification until after the visit.
"If you don't mind the rest of the week being a little strange, would you mind staying in that form?" I say.

"Ah dress to impress huh?" Hin says.

>This will be our first opportunity to get some practice in with Hin's guardian powers besides. I see a powerful setpiece for the thaumatorium where Hin uses Alkaline's Hydro Pump and emerges from the pool to do battle - once we get it filled back in, of course.
"Exactly." I say. "Reisarf won't be casting as effectively without Stargazer, so I might put you in the Thaumatorium if you don't mind. It should be a nice opportunity for you to properly learn the ins and outs of that form."

Hin nods. "You're the boss, boss."

>Ask her how she feels about remaining in that form permanently. Though, I guess if she dies during an invasion it'll remove itself when she resurrects? If the weakening period doesn't happen due to the resurrection refreshing her body, there's no drawback to keeping the form that long. She'd just have to make a trip there to regain it.
"Do you think you'd want to try keeping it up for a longer stint?" I ask her. "We'll have to see how it interacts with resurrection though. I suspect you'd revert and then have to deal with that period of weakness. It might have other side effects if sustained too."

"I feel awesome at the moment." Hin shrugs. "Maybe I'll evaluate it for another week or two to see how how annoying everything being undersized is, and bad that weak period is?"

It sounds very sensible to me.

>If for nothing else, keep her as is to make Char jealous of the "new dragon" and thus driven to improve himself.
My cave wurm shows up at this point.

"Heya Chak, looking good!" Hin says, stomping over to him.

"Hrrrrrm!" he whines at the sight of another large lizard in his dungeon. He raises his head, jaws half open, and waggles it side to side as he decides what to make of this challenger. Suddenly he turns and rushes deeper into the dungeon.

Hin follows. She must have seen something in that look in his eyes. "Are you scurrying off to my forge? Get back here you! YOU HAVE YOUR OWN ROOM NOW CHAK!"

>Can Hin do her main job like this? Can she adjust enough to be a competent blacksmith? Does she mind staying like this, perhaps training an apprentice, if she has trouble?
She's not outrageously bigger, can conjure tools she needs out of light if needed, and can make new ones. The main headache I'd see is the various benches will be lower.

>Will Hin fit in the dungeon like this?
Just how low do you think my ceilings are?! Some of the doorways will be a bit of a squeeze but she'll be fine.

Hin makes her return a few minutes later, grumbling about idiot lizards though with a smile on her face. The sliems have started trickling in. Alkaline must have been budding aggressively.

"It was pretty rough out there Deem." Hin explains. "I think we were lucky you sent us out when we did. Pissed off frogs everywhere. Most of the other critters were either gone or hiding. If we hadn't given the frogs a bloody nose looking for critters, they'd probably be swarming here again. We nabbed a few interesting creatures.. first though, about Alkaline. She wanted to surprise you but-"

I raise a hand. "Reisarf already tried to warn me that Alkaline has some sort of surprise in stock for me. I'm going to let her surprise me."

Hin blinks. "Are you sure? It's, uh, it's a big surprise."

"Hiiin." I say warningly.

"Alright, I won't say anything more." Hin holds up her claws placatingly. "But you better not fly off the handle when you get your surprise, OK?"

"I don't fly off the handle!"

"Your handle's about to fly off right now!" Hin says.

I take a deep breath. "I don't even have a handle." I grumble.

"Probably didn't stick it back on last time."

I snort. "Really Hin? I might have to make you our potion tester again for that. Doyle's brewed up one that should help overstock all your reserves of stamina, mana, slime, light, sass, and so on and so forth."

"Oh nooo what a terrible fate." Hin laughs.

>On an unrelated tangent, I have to point out how thankful we should be for Doyle. He's like our one minion whom we (so far) never have had to worry about running off and doing something crazy, and actually does his job with no major shenanigans. We should give him some kind of acknowledgement soon, his confidence seems real low.
This seems to demonstrate I am not sufficiently terrorising my denizens. It's true though, he has been dependable and I should recognise that. The problem of course is the question of what a renegade witch's cauldron actually wants.

>Deem, if Hin's Light ability bothers you, is there any way you could nudge being a more Earth related, photosynthetic type thing? That's something slimes can do right? And shes already part slime... Royalty even.
Not immediately, no. And I shouldn't be adjusting something purely for my own comfort.

>Put her to work, then. She treats all the world her forge, it's time she lived up to that. Tell her to get more ambitious with her projects now that she's this strong.
We don't have much time for any more projects sadly.

2/2 Deem 2024/06/01(Sat)03:49 No. 1092250 ID: ea505d
File 171723894916.png - (54.88KB , 750x700 , alk_al_ine.png )

Alkaline comes into view.

And so does Alkaline.

And Alkaline too.

I should have seen this coming, Reisarf outright told me he was going to try to temporarily split Alkaline before the Potential Void was 'eaten' by her. This was supposed to be to help them get uncursed but I still smell something about them. Multiple curses on each unless I mistake myself.

"Are you surprised?" The smallest of the trio says, looking somewhere between smug and mischievous. She's all wrapped up in a dress formed out of her Toxic Shroud, though her hair and her hands have more of that organic crystal look.

"Hello, Deem!" The slime in the rear waves enthusiastically. She's reminiscent of our trip to hunt the devil bear, an absolutely massive slime sprouting tentacles and looking on the verge of splitting off slimes at any given moment.

"Hey." the last one says. This one seems to have listened the handful of times I told her to keep drinking water so she'd end up big and strong like Hin. She's much more crystalline on the limbs.

>Anyone else undergoing massive, chaotic shifts to their entire being we need to know about, or is it just the two?
I'll have to check on the glossid and the cake mimic at this rate.

----------------------------------------
Alkaline
Lvl 2 Slime Queen (1=>2)
----------------------------------------
Power: C (D=>C)
Vitality: C (D=>C)
Accuracy: D (E=>D)
Speed: C (D=>C)
Wits: C (E=>C)
Skill: C
Spirit: D
Luck: D (A=>D)

A newly developed slime queen seeking to tackle all the paths she might take. Is it aspiration or indecision?

----------------------------------------
Detected Abilities
----------------------------------------
Gelatinous Body: An amorphous form that's soft but can easily heal injuries and reabsorb lost pieces. The weak point is the core residing in the head, though it's protected by toughened slime hair.

Inimical Inversion: Degrades and consumes curses affecting Alkaline with a Luck-based probability of converting them into a positive effect.

Toxic Shroud: Alkaline can form clothes of toughened slime to help protect herself. Her defence grows stronger the more poison and curses she's absorbed.

Slimy Secretions: Alkaline can create small quantities of the following substances.
- Nourishing Goo: Edible slime. Depending on its composition and concentration, it's known as slime-milk, slime-syrup or slime slushies. Superb fertilizer for plants and, in concentrated form, has minor healing properties. Plants can survive and grow embedded in Alkaline.
- Oozy Oil: Slick and slippery slime. It's flammable. Can be processed into a low quality oil.
- Goo Glue: A sticky substance with a moderate adhesive strength.

Delegate: Alkaline can loan one or more slimes a portion of her strength semi-permanently, powering them up and giving them access to some of her abilities. This weakens her accordingly and loaned abilities lose power or become unusable by her. She has to touch the slime to create or cancel a delegation.

NEW - Imperial Ambitions: The rare and powerful slime empress is a royal jelly that's able to spawn multiple subservient slime queens as part of the same colony. Alkaline has taken the first, tentative steps along this path, although the triumvirate rule of her split self is more argumentative than most. The impact on slime colony cohesion is yet to be seen.

----------------------------------------
Overflowing Alkaline Abilities
----------------------------------------
UPDATED - Shadow Slick: An expansion of Puddle. Alkaline's puddle form becomes flatter, like a shadow. She can climb walls in this form but will slip off ceilings. The puddle has a false depth to it, causing objects and people to sink into it and become mired. Intense light can remove the effect. Most of Alkaline's slime mass is buried in her shadow slick and she can expand it outward from her body to release slime and bog down enemies.

Bad Egg: Alkaline ejects a dense blob of volatile slime. The unstable concoction explodes shortly afterwards. She can increase its power by expending stored curses and poison.

UPDATED - Tailored Slime (Stretchy Slime): Alkaline's Toxic Shroud can be quickly adjusted on the fly and even partially crystallised. She's learnt to form complex and layered clothes for extra protection. She can layer it in with her Shadow Slick, Bad Eggs and Slimy Secretions.

----------------------------------------
Overgrowing Alkaline Abilities
----------------------------------------
UPDATED - Gluttonous Goo: Alkaline's continuously growing and storing additional slime mass if surplus food is available. Alkaline can quickly recover health by eating things. As she gets bigger she gains a bonus to her slime and slimy secretion production but she suffers penalties to her agility. She can burn off the additional mass to heal herself or instantly create slimes. While cursed or poisoned she experiences faster growth but she also steadily consumes material stored in her Toxic Shroud.

Stretchy Slime: Alkaline's improved the versatility of her slime. She can stretch out parts of her body and create tentacular appendages.

UPDATED - Spit Shot: Alkaline can propel small objects or small globs of her own mass out of her body at high speed. She can launch her attendant slimes this way, and globs of her mass can act semi-autonomously and will try to return to her.

----------------------------------------
Overloading Alkaline Abilities
----------------------------------------
Hydro-Pump: Alkaline can give a moderate boost to her size and strength by absorbing water. She can also use this to enlarge other slimes.

NEW - Goo Crystallisation: Alkaline has a skeletal structure composed of accumulated toxins and impurities from her Toxic Shroud. It lets her be unusually large and agile for a slime, and resonates with mana, improving her speed and strength at the cost of her stamina. She can crystallise other parts of her body to improve its toughness but at a loss of flexibility.

UPDATED - Unstable Gunk (Unstable Core): Alkaline charges part of her body with energy to explode as a powerful effect. This uses up some of her slime and crystallises more of her body. She can separate the charged goo and throw it, or have it explode outwards from her body.
- Egg Rave: An explosion that sprays out multiple Bag Eggs that release smaller Bad Eggs when they explode
- Shadow Mire: Sprays an area with Shadow Slick-like slime.
- Splatterweb: Spills out a cluster of long sticky strands of slime that create a spider's web. It can't stick to crystallised goo.
- Ooze Zap: Charges up nearby slimes, making them temporarily stronger and faster.

----------------------------------------
Lost Abilities
----------------------------------------
Muddy Mien (Degraded): Alkaline takes on a mud-like consistency. She's physically stronger but becomes clumsy.

Clumsy Mime (Degraded): Alkaline has a chance of successfully repeating a technique she's seen used, at a degraded quality. If successful she can use it once shortly after witnessing it.

----------------------------------------
Spawning Quirks
----------------------------------------
Eggs: Alkaline can choose to create eggs. They keep indefinitely and can be rapidly hatched and grown into full slimes when needed. They can also be filled with any of her Slimy Secretion options instead.

Fusion: Alkaline's slimes can readily combine, allowing larger and more dangerous formations slimes to be created.

Hoplites: Slimes able to shift shape and generate Toxic Shrouds to create shields and other accessories. They are especially skilled at combining and working together.

Craftslimes: Tough-skinned slimes full of volatile alchemical goo with a hydra-like motif. They're able to create Slimy Secretions and Bad Eggs. Due to their extremely active biology, a defeated craftslime might spawn one or more small slimes.

Assassin Slimes: Sneaky slimes able to hide in Shadow Slicks. Their armament is lacking unless given weapons or fused with other slimes.

----------------------------------------

I don't know how to handle this.

This wasn't Alkaline's doing originally but the fact they haven't fused back together means they're running with it. Lately it feels like all we've been doing is fighting. This is a symptom of the same thing: she's still trying to rush ahead, do things on her own, and push her luck.

At the same time it's an impressive accomplishment. She seems mostly stable, but again I'm worried she's spreading herself too thin.

What was she hoping for by surprising me? Was she expecting me to be happy? Angry? Proud? Worried?

I don't even know what to call them to tell them apart.

>>1092250
Oh nice, she leveled up! Wits went up a lot, that's good.

>spreading herself too thin
Ah, but her Wits going up so much means she can handle that better. Tell her you are... impressed, and she should focus on improving what she's done. Refine it; make the split completely stable for starters. Don't want any pesky adventurers or sudden surprises disrupting the split. Secondly, she's got a lot of new abilities which is great, but she'll have to practice using them all! Hmm, can she swap the abilities around between her split bodies?
>What was she hoping for by surprising me?
She wanted you to be proud of her, but also probably wanted to see what you look like when surprised, heh. Also Hin said she's touch starved, so I think this is a good time for a hug.

>I don't even know what to call them to tell them apart.
Ask them, then. If they want to be named, maybe something like Alka, Kali, Linea?

Wait, her luck went DOWN?

This is so awesome.

Have the Alkaline triplets work in randomized shifts, see who synergizes best with each Alkaline.

Lithium, Rubidium, and Cesium for names? And then Alkaline is their last name now. Anyways, she seems much happier this way. Don't ruin this for her.

Ok. Yes, this is a handful.

But it's also... kind of perfect?

Alkaline was a big investment and a big piece of your dungeon. We've spent a long time raising her and discussed ad nauseum the future we see for her.

This shows all our theoretical outcomes we desired at once. Not just the things we thought might happen, the ones we were shooting for.

You have the mother slime that focuses on building up something of a slime community, the slime queen, who while a handful and entitled will frankly be more competent and capable at accomplishing things outside your view, even if that'll get her into trouble, and we have the combat focused outcome where we focus on her being competent to actually fight. I know you kind of wanted all three of those in the same package but this... has many possibilities.

Considering you don't want your entire dungeon to be slime battles, they'd obviously need to work in concert, yet seem to not have much trouble not getting each others way at a glance, even if they have different personalities informed by their... forms.

Yeah, as much as it was accidental, this seems kind of like a good thing. Well, other than that maybe this is like having 2/3rds of your personality ripped away for each alkaline, it might mess her up a bit, so be wary of that while you consider how to array these to make a really badass encounter.

>>1092250
>What was she hoping for by surprising me? Was she expecting me to be happy? Angry? Proud? Worried?

Well, impressive was your first genuine thought, go with that. Impressed, a little worried, and give her the surprised face she wanted. She seems happy, dont want to put her off by being too down on her.

Ask her about her new forms, if shes tested it out, how it works, show interest. Maybe Alkaline has been rushing so much because she's been trying to hit some goal, or prove something. If you can get her to acknowledge her accomplishment, and feel like shes reached a milestone, maybe she'll slow down.

>>Doyle
>> The problem of course is the question of what a renegade witch's cauldron actually wants.
I dunno, the only thing he's really articulated is he likes helping. Maybe he needs a more active job. Making potions is important, but its probably hard to feel like he's contributing compared to all the other craziness going on in here. If the Cauldron Golem works out, maybe put Doyle in charge of it, like a subordinate.
If he wants a gift, maybe some kind of battle ladle or something would work.

Greet Alkahime, Allkaline, and Tallkaline warmly. Show your surprise, ask how her trip's been, and give her the hugs she's been needing as Hin mentioned.
What are her plans for having three bodies? Will they all fight as one for more power in battle, or will they rotate for each dungeon run? You should lean towards starting with the former, and help them grow together.
Can they all be trusted to share a room? If alternate living arrangements are going to be needed, set them up in the hidden valley, but separation should be a temporary solution only.

>what a cauldron wants
At least make him officially head of potion making, so all cauldron golems are working under him. Let him know that he can't just be replaced.

>it's an impressive accomplishment
If you're impressed then show it. Be supportive and keep your reservations to yourself for now. See how well they work together before you criticize.

Above all else, show some relief for her. The only reason that she would keep pushing her luck, from where you're standing, is try to impress you. Make it clear on uncertain terms that your affection doesn't hinge on her accomplishments, being unable to show affection does not mean a lack of it, and being supportive of her adventures doesn't mean you'll stop worrying after her. Acknowledge she's an adult now, so you can respect her as one.

At least you can be supportive by helping her with her adventuring career. She can't rely on dumb luck, as she is neither of those anymore. Her other stats are looking good, at least. All-rounder builds can work if there's strategy behind it.

>Inimical Inversion
Only reason this wouldn't atrophy is because it can still be used for cleanup, or defense in a pinch.
>Imperial Ambitions
With the ability to do socratic dialog on demand, there's no wonder how her Wits got a big bump. Even better, each form can pick different stats to improve on their own, therefore improving when back together. Screwing with analysis readings, presumably because it averages between the three, is a funny bonus.

That said, your concerns about cohesion are valid do need to be addressed. In the short term, her minions/kids/troops are going to play favorites soon. You might as well settle the issue here and assign which troops are to fall under which command/form. For the long term, she'll have to find or maintain concensus between herselves. It could be better to treat each one as parts of a whole, rather than as individuals. Ideally, she'd develop a core personality across her (currently) three forms, even if it's not what you originally envisioned. (You don't need to literally split your personality to understand the need to have different "faces" for different situations or contexts.) That's a way you could have the classic boss setup where the other forms are empowered as each form "dies", but that kind of ability does sounds like it would be Spirit-based rather than Wits-based.

---
So the situation so far has been chaotic, but ultimately beneficial to your crew with a lot of improvements. You may know better, but one could think Stargazer had planned for this to happen. Considering such, could she have foresaw something that necessitated what she did?

>>1092250
Ahh the Hecate classic; Maiden Mother Crone trio. We should look to develop a sort of Witch Queen of the Slimes persona for her dungeon work.

>>1092250
Might as well ask about names or if they should be differentiated at all. We can't exactly call her Thing One, Two, and Three, after all, aand it's a bit insulting to just name them after appearance. However, there's all sorts of questions we need to ask about things like independence, how they resurrect (do all of them share a coffin? What if they wipe all at once?) how to employ them in the dungeon (she could do a whole section on her own! A whole wing! A sub-dungeon, if you will!) or if we could just have her work the outdoors, keeping our local area more up to snuff and less chaotic.

And this is all before how this has affected her production of lesser slimes. Is it divided among them? Is it faster? Do they each make different slimes? Can they control each other's slimes?

I have so many damned questions, and so little to actually suggest, but here's the big one:

Alkaline is the first of our chaotic mess of a party to come out the other end of this more or less with a complete bonus. She's just More Alkaline, she's smarter, and it's more a question of HOW to apply what she has than putting out some sort of body-modification fire. Gratze, Alkaline, as far as I'm concerned you're in the top billing!

Quiz her on the above. I'd love to use her new slimes and friends with the statues from before to make a truly heinous room that would confound any adventurer, but first we should see how she works. She might just be our new best groundskeeper, really, but as she is, she could do that AND other stuff!

>I'll have to check on the glossid and the cake mimic at this rate.

yeah do that

>What was she hoping for by surprising me? Was she expecting me to be happy? Angry? Proud? Worried?
You've consistently stated to her face that you don't want to be her mother. She hasn't taken that well. This is her trying to conform her mind around that.
The point of this is to try to get some kind of reaction other than a business-like apathy towards an employee. Even hatred would be enough to help her get past her obsession, but you're still not applying that.
She's obviously angry at you for treating her like a junior employee her entire life. Can we compromise? Even treating her like a pet would be preferable - and that's something you've done well with Chakarchelou, so now she's envious of the fact that you treat your animals in a way she would prefer to detached respect.

"Don't you want things to defy your expectations?"

1/3 Deem 2025/04/02(Wed)04:35 No. 1105716 ID: 30e252
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>"Don't you want things to defy your expectations?"
A lack of nuisance commentary would certainly defy my expectations!

>At least make Doyle officially head of potion making, so all cauldron golems are working under him. Let him know that he can't just be replaced.
In a while! I need to handle Alkaline right now.

>So the situation so far has been chaotic, but ultimately beneficial to your crew with a lot of improvements. You may know better, but one could think Stargazer had planned for this to happen. Considering such, could she have foresaw something that necessitated what she did?
After all that exertion I wasn't about to permit something bad happening to my denizens in lieu of Reisarf and Stargazer's little misadventure.

>Oh nice, she leveled up! Wits went up a lot, that's good.
It has been quite a while since I last properly used the lens on her. It's not too surprising.

>Wait, her luck went DOWN?
Yes. Substantially. It's entirely possible to exhaust one's luck.

>Also Hin said she's touch starved, so I think this is a good time for a hug.
That would be at least three times as much hugging as I am comfortable with.

And it's not needed as she doesn't seem to be going into some sort of hugging frenzy.

2/3 Deem 2025/04/02(Wed)04:35 No. 1105717 ID: 30e252
File 174359374475.png - (48.50KB , 800x550 , the_council_will_decide.png )

>If they want to be named, maybe something like Alka, Kali, Linea?
"First we'll need to tell you apart." I point to the sitting slime "You can be Alka." Next I point to the tallest "You're Kali." Finally I point to the shortest of the three. "And you're Linea."

I'm unhappy with my own diffidence. I feel as though I should be feeling something stronger. I ask Alkaline if she can describe what happened. Perhaps then I'll have it.

"The frogs were being a menace and the lizards kept trying to kidnap our slimes." Linea says, appointing herself as spokesgoo for the trio. "And it was hard while being so cursed. We talked with Reisarf, and his idea was to try to recreate a splitting spell he had almost learnt, using the Potential Void. But everything went wrong and the void peeled apart." The slimes all look haunted for a moment. "We remembered that Reisarf had been with us all along, and..."

"I knew it would be best for everyone if that void was used up." Linea says.

"I knew everything was going to be alright." Alka says.

"I knew we had to take this chance." Kali says. "And then it was the three of us. A slime empress was something we could do someday, so why not today?"

Alka frowns slightly as Kali takes over the narration.

>Anyways, she seems much happier this way. Don't ruin this for her.
>She wanted you to be proud of her, but also probably wanted to see what you look like when surprised, heh.
>Well, impressive was your first genuine thought, go with that.
"I'm glad it worked out as well as it did." I smile. The larger, reclining Alkaline's smile broadens.

>Ok. Yes, this is a handful.
>But it's also... kind of perfect?
>Alkaline was a big investment and a big piece of your dungeon. We've spent a long time raising her and discussed ad nauseum the future we see for her.
>This shows all our theoretical outcomes we desired at once. Not just the things we thought might happen, the ones we were shooting for.
>You have the mother slime that focuses on building up something of a slime community, the slime queen, who while a handful and entitled will frankly be more competent and capable at accomplishing things outside your view, even if that'll get her into trouble, and we have the combat focused outcome where we focus on her being competent to actually fight.
"I might have expected some inspiration after being temporarily split by Reisarf's magic, but the three of you seem remarkably stable. We've worked before on paths you might have the opportunity to take and you decided not to choose after all and instead go for a path of ambition.

"However..." I begin. Linea, the shortest of the trio smirks at my cautious shift in tone. "I must caution you that not making a choice is, itself, a choice."

The tall one, Kali, frowns. "If you don't approve, just spit it out."

I hold in a sigh.

>Refine it; make the split completely stable for starters. Don't want any pesky adventurers or sudden surprises disrupting the split.
"I don't want to risk the three of you." I say. "I want to make sure you're fully stable. A slime empress normally has one more developed queen producing less mature queens. You need to commit to distinctive roles to maintain that separation, and you might undo all your work if one element becomes too dominant."

"Oh." Kali says, a little shame-faced.

3/3 Deem 2025/04/02(Wed)04:36 No. 1105718 ID: 30e252
File 174359378565.png - (25.64KB , 900x900 , random_encounter_tableau.png )

>Can they all be trusted to share a room? If alternate living arrangements are going to be needed, set them up in the hidden valley, but separation should be a temporary solution only.
>That said, your concerns about cohesion are valid do need to be addressed. In the short term, her minions/kids/troops are going to play favorites soon.
"You need to get used to sharing too." I say. "The slime lair is only three quarters the size I intended it to be due to digging into that pocket of Green Thumb spores. Even full sized, it will be inadequate for the number of slimes you'll be producing. You also need to know how your slimes will act in an emergency. Who are they going to listen to?"

My trio of royal jellies exchange uneasy glances at this new information.

>What are her plans for having three bodies? Will they all fight as one for more power in battle, or will they rotate for each dungeon run? You should lean towards starting with the former, and help them grow together.
"Next there's three of you, and you'll have to think how that's going to work in this dungeon.

"My Resurrection Matrix will only work on the final queen slime. Any others will have to be budded off by a surviving queen. This will mean reduction in slime creation until those budded queens regrow to their old forms. Stored eggs would help cover this gap. You in particular will be affected, Alka, as your slime mass would be lost. Delegating Gluttonous Goo to other slimes might help address this."

The three Alkalines huddle and express the opinion in that case either just one of them should fight, or all three. That'll avoid confusion hopefully, and at some point they need to find out what it's like to come back from their weakest possible starting point. Alka says that's fine, she can spread things around.

>Maybe Alkaline has been rushing so much because she's been trying to hit some goal, or prove something.
>If you can get her to acknowledge her accomplishment, and feel like shes reached a milestone, maybe she'll slow down.
"This will be complicated, but these are exciting complications!" I reassure her. "It's time to consolidate things a little, and you'll have a chance to show off what you can do in just a few days."

>Secondly, she's got a lot of new abilities which is great, but she'll have to practice using them all! Hmm, can she swap the abilities around between her split bodies?
I need to think about how to use Alkaline in this upcoming tour, and what she might want to do to prepare for it. There's a lot of new skills she has, and she can even potentially swap them around.

I concur with her opinion it would be best to have just one slime queen or all three battle. I usually would but don't absolutely need to put her in the Slime Pit, and could split her up if I elect to use all three. Tentatively I currently have Hin fighting in the Thaumatorium and I still need to select a final guardian. I should keep myself uninvolved so I might lead this tour.

I didn't bring it up right now, because I didn't want to sour this moment but I do also still need to punish her for being a participant in bullying Doyle into providing supplies for illicit potion parties. I had planned to have her and her slimes work on refilling the Thaumatorium pool.

Alka’s got a lot of slime for refilling the pool, and Kali’s suited for final boss fighting, so that leaves Linea in the slime pit itself. Hm, no, have Alka delegate to Linea for pool refilling. She’ll be the first one to face the party, instead.

>>1105718
>I didn't bring it up right now, because I didn't want to sour this moment but I do also still need to punish her for being a participant in bullying Doyle into providing supplies for illicit potion parties.

Three times the Alkalines, three times the punishments.
After the tour, but let them know it WILL be coming. Might force them to choose their roles with this knowledge.

>>1105718
One thing you haven't brought up to them yet... Do they want to be treated as separate individuals, or as a collective Alkaline with separate sections?

>Have all three fight
>…in separate encounters
That’s basically having them fight one at a time in rapid succession. Hm, is it practical to have them try and pull back to the next queen when they’re routed?
Sounds like expanding the slime cave in a different direction is a priority. Throw it on the pile, I guess.
The pool does give extra room for a larger minion to fight in until it’s refilled.

1/2 Deem 2025/04/04(Fri)01:03 No. 1105816 ID: 23a197
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>Three times the Alkalines, three times the punishments.
>After the tour, but let them know it WILL be coming. Might force them to choose their roles with this knowledge.
I don't know if I can really call work on refilling the Thaumatorium punishment any more, the damage and missing water from Stargazer means it's now something everyone has to pitch in on to get done.

I suppose I will save a punishment detail for when things are calmer.

>That’s basically having them fight one at a time in rapid succession. Hm, is it practical to have them try and pull back to the next queen when they’re routed?
Hmmm, I have been wanting to use my outdoor area better. If I station Kali on the bridge when it raises, she - and slimes carrying delegated power - can fall back when they get too much pushback from the invaders. I can use the current planned golem as a buffer - it may get some easy hits in with the unlucky hammer and otherwise get some time for the slimes to regroup in the hallway behind it.

The sharp corner might make it harder to retreat, so I think Linea would be a good match here - her Shadow Slick should make it harder to pursue. Finally this makes it easy for Alka to remain on station in the Slime Pit. Yes this feels good. The setup isn't ideal but I think it'll work well within our current limitations.

>(Stare)
No Stargazer. Yes I noticed that Linea has lined her Toxic Shroud with a Shadow Slick to store her full slime mass in, but no I'm not going to pull her clothes off just to get a closer look.

I explain to the Alkalines what I'd like her to do as more slimes troop in, and they seem generally enthusiastic. This should hopefully showcase what they can do and let them improvise some. In the meantime, I give them some other projects.

>Have Alka delegate to Linea for pool refilling.
>The pool does give extra room for a larger minion to fight in until it’s refilled.
"Alka, we have a lot of excess fruit from Stargazer and Reisarf's greenhouse adventures so I'd like you to stay in the dungeon and concentrate on slime production. Kali and Linea, you're both well suited to helping move water, but I'd like Alka to delegate some of her Gluttonous Goo to you Linea. I want you to focus on guarding our supply line while they're out Kali, and you to focus on getting the water carriers organised Linea."

"As a side project for all three of you, we need Hin acting as a huge, terrifying pond monster in the Thaumatorium once it's filled as much as we can manage and many of your slimy skills will work on her too. Please work with her on what will help her out."

2/2 Deem 2025/04/04(Fri)01:04 No. 1105817 ID: 23a197
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Linea loiters as the other two get settled back in. "I need to return these." she confesses. "Somehow they got stuck in my slime when I was leaving with Hin and Reisarf, and by the time I realised we were too far away." She holds out my medallion and a little pebble.

How does she have that? She did have some sort of pick-pocketing curse, but I had my Focus Medallion all through the fight with Stargazer... I touch my throat. No I haven't had it for a while, have I?

Agh, I'm going to be dealing with little temporal annoyances like this for days. Well I'm glad she's been upfront about it.

Our hands touch and -

Crown's Burden activated! An affliction is being transferred from Linea to Deem!

Choose:
Hug Dependency: Hug deficiency results in progressive loss of sanity as the subject enters a maniacal hugging rampage.
Sticky Fingers: Randomly acquire nearby items without anyone's knowledge.
Fat Default Shape: No, explode.

>>1105817
I vote explode

I just checked, you didn't have the medallion when you resurrected, but you had it when you died.

Anyway, Hug Dependency.

>>1105817
You can no longer escape your impulses, Deem!
Hug Dependency.

Ah. You totally should have hugged her more.

Hug dependency.

Embrace hug dependency.

…Okay that one’s on us not her, no additional punishment for this okay?
Time to go collect HUGS from your minions.

Hug Dependency of course.

Hahaha, Deem's gonna hate us for this one

hugs hugs hugs HUGS HUGS HUGS

>>1105832
Oh, she doesn't know we have (limited) control over her curses, and won't believe us even if we tell her. Anyways, yes, hugs.

Let there be hugs!

Also, as an aside directly to Deem: We know you think this is bad, but at least it's merely hugs.

Hol'up.
I sense... Opportunity...

Hug Dependency-but:
Swap progressive loss of sanity with increasing risk of explosion.

>>1105838
He's on to something.

>>1105838
yes... yesssss...

>>1105838
>>1105839
>>1105847
For the record, I'm pro-hugs but anti-exploding. I hear exploding is bad for you.

how can it not be hugs? thats just beneficial for Deem's underlings

>>1105838
I'm game.

Alas, one option has been replaced with explosions, so I shall have to instead vote for hug dependency.

1/1 Deem 2025/04/07(Mon)04:55 No. 1105965 ID: 037934
File 174402693145.png - (42.15KB , 800x600 , reisarf_meet_reisarf.png )

>You can no longer escape your impulses, Deem!
>Hug Dependency.
>Ah. You totally should have hugged her more.
>Embrace hug dependency.
>Time to go collect HUGS from your minions.
>Hahaha, Deem's gonna hate us for this one.
>hugs hugs hugs HUGS HUGS HUGS
The crowned pebble is impossibly heavy in my hand as I feel a strange chill come over me. I'm cursed again. I have not suddenly tripled in rotundity or started dropping exploding pieces so this should hopefully be manageable once I identify whatever it is.

"Now Alkaline, I'm not angry but -" I begin.

"I didn't mean to do that, I'm sorry!" Linea says, princess demeanor shattered as she sounds half sorry and half bewildered that something about the world seems to not be working how it's supposed to. She pushes past and flees into my dungeon.

She looks like she needs a hug, but I need to finish getting the last of my returning denizens.

Our extra Reisarf is coming up to Reisarf!

I must admit to a little curiosity about how the two of them are going to interact for the first time. It's hardly the first time I've seen a sort of cloning ability and different personalities can be very different when dealing with their own doppelganger.

"Hello!" Reisarf says.

"Hello!" Reisarf says back.

There's silence.

They both turn to me, as if I'm the one expected to carry the burden of continuing this conversation.

"Oh, these are yours!" the returning Reisarf says, holding out a satchel of the deemimic eggs.

I thought Stargazer had still eaten all of those but it seems I'm now being haunted by two sorts of egg. Thankfully these are a complication I can worry about after Olan's tour. I will slightly increase doing a proper inventory of the plants recovered from Stargazer and my dungeon's other items though.

"Thank you Reisarf." I say. I hand the eggs off to my attendant golem to store them somewhere safe. "Now as a reminder," I say to the two of them, "No more unsupervised experiments, and no spells without permission until the tour. You'll be working to help make sure everything's in shape for the tour. It's not long away now. If you feel confident about doing it without Stargazer helping your spells, you can participate in the defense."

I've already given him some alternate foci to help play off the strengths of Stargazer's Independent Action by letting them more easily split up, but I still want to make sure he'd be fine fighting totally alone.

"I'm not sure." Reisarf says. He pauses. The other Reisarf nods at him encouragingly. "From what you said, Mr Olan is interested in golems, big things, the potions, and he kept talking about wanting to see something really unique. There's not a lot of rooms left, and you need to show off your golems." Is this critical thinking? I guess the boy can learn! "Also I'm not that big any more, and I'm really not unique."

"Reisarf, a lot of your magic and techniques are very unusual. I only wouldn't say unique because almost nothing is unique."

"Oh, ah, but?" The two Reisarfs point at each other, blinking in confusion.

"Having two of yourself is very rare, Reisarf." I elaborate.

"Oh that seems like an oxymoron." one Reisarf says quietly.

"Also you could just not tell him there's two of you if you'd prefer." I add.

"Ohhhh." they say together.

They do seem a little lukewarm on fighting though. Reisarf has made good points: I've barely worked in potions and could better showcase specialty golems like the Woody Brute and Handy Brute.

As it stands I have two rooms left completely unoccupied, though they're basically glorified hallways. I can easily add more defenders to Chakarchelou's lair (a homunculus throwing bomb flowers perhaps?) and the Thaumatorium too. The Thuamatorium now has the space warping golems though I don't know if they'll be a huge benefit to Hin.

I need to pick a final guardian too. That would most likely be Moriko. I am still a little worried about exerting undue influence while she's under the effects of her Mana Vacancy, but the reinforcement set is something I've used on her before and that dragon scales enchantment should hopefully shore up her extreme vulnerability to hostile magic.

I should give Reisarf at least a small project to keep him busy too, even if it's just being a potion tester or building up more Traces.

Reisarf is perfect for double blind tests now.
You should focus on showcasing your golems instead of your Reisarfs.

>>1105965
Indeed, double blinds are much easier with a perfect (ish?) copy. In fact that setup in and of itself is quite unique and great for showing off, so Reisarf can handle that. Carefully. Very carefully.

They went awry by making Stargazer big, so maybe they should work on a spell for small things now. And no spellcasting yet, stick to theory until Deem can supervise!
And what golems go in which hallway isn’t as important right now as following after and hugging Linea!

>>1105965
You should identify your new curse.

1/1 Deem 2025/04/08(Tue)07:31 No. 1106000 ID: 037934
File 174412269368.png - (49.38KB , 800x600 , miscellanea.png )

Perhaps I should elaborate a little.

I haven't heard any arguments against, so I think I will use Moriko as my final guardian: she performed well against Myaousha early on with a combination of slight enlargement, protective scales and a cloth golem. I can layer on stronger reinforcements thanks to my Heart being strengthened since then, and Merud has improved his own work into this cooperative golemetry idea.

>Reisarf is perfect for double blind tests now.
I'm not sure what sort of placebo effect you're expecting here.

>You should focus on showcasing your golems instead of your Reisarfs.
The wider hall just before the Thaumatorium seems a good place for the woody brute then. I can pair it with the gardener golem, or perhaps that one will perform better in Chakarchelou's chamber by helping ensnare invaders and throwing bombs.

I can either place the handy brute in the chamber before, or perhaps for a surprise I could have it cling to the ceiling and drop behind the invaders.

With my homonculi I'll simply sprinkle them around where the monster density isn't high.

I intend to have Hin drinking the majority of the overlapple potion that the cauldron golem will be producing with Merud's new serum gland. Letting a denizen store more than their normal maximum pools of vitality and mana would likely benefit her the most. If it works on her ability to store up light and slime as well, then she has a lot of little boosts to her status that could really snowball.

However that's not very impressive in terms of what the potion's doing. Moriko still has the potion of enlarging touch and the golem manifestation and I could have Doyle brew more potions or deploy him to one of the fights. If I do concoct an exotic potion the homonculi would likely be the best demonstrators.

>And what golems go in which hallway isn’t as important right now as following after and hugging Linea!
I keep telling you I am not a hugger and you keep not listening. Besides she's probably busy hugging the slimes that stayed here, and not me, and I'm fine with that.

I'm fine.

>You should identify your new curse.
I don't have terribly many tools for that you know. Perhaps I should make that Reisarf's project?

>They went awry by making Stargazer big, so maybe they should work on a spell for small things now. And no spellcasting yet, stick to theory until Deem can supervise!
Enhancing Reisarf's spatial manipulation skills would likely be useful in the long run, true.

Reisarf is going to be doing some cleanup and some water hauling. But while I intend it to be a punishment, I don't want to just use Reisarf for drudge labour. I'm pleased he seems to to be thinking things through a little more already. I don't think I've been very fair to everyone today. Despite Reisarf and Stargazer's... exuberance, everyone's jumped at the chance to grow stronger. That is something to celebrate. I just wish everything would stop constantly happening all the time.

So something small that requires some level of critical thinking, that he can perform under the supervision of myself or one of the more responsible of my denizens that is unlikely to cause some sort of explosion or ontological collapse. Decorating one of the newer chambers, statue repair, perhaps cooking or potion brewing with new ingredients, maybe even planning some experiments to try with his clone after the tour or adding a few more spells based on my denizens with his new Trace Melding should I feel especially generous.

>>1106000
I would give the Reisarfs(Reisarves?) some time off to adjust, or at least some evenings, I'm sure they have some ideas themself they can bounce off of each other.
Other than than that,
>statue repair
It is important to keep what exists in a proper state, rather than expanding all the time.

Agreed on Moriko as the boss. If you can, give her the overlap please potion to boost the effect of her other, more impressive potions. While general boosts to Hin’s stats are good, hee stats are already good and this is a showcase, not a tournament.
Put one Reisarf on statue repair, and one on potion brewing. It doesn’t matter which so long as both get done.
Give ‘em the ceiling surprise with the handy brute (or Pancake!), and pair Chak with garden bomber.
Doyle should brew more potions for the homunculi.
Now that that’s out of the way, it doesn’t matter if you’re a hugger. Alkaline is a huggee. You owe her a big hug like the one she gave your core!

>>1106000
>You should identify your new curse.
>I don't have terribly many tools for that you know.
You have that lens, don't you? The one you use to check the status of your denizens. Can't you just let someone else use it on you and they can tell you about your new curse?

>>1106002
>Put one Reisarf on statue repair, and one on potion brewing. It doesn’t matter which so long as both get done.
Maybe could synergize that to developing potions that clean.

>>1106000
>I don't have terribly many tools for that you know.
You keep forgetting that we are one of those. Speaking of, you know how you just said you're not a hugger?

>>1106005
Fffff- Don't tell her that! That's a secret! Someone get me a newspaper or a magazine to roll up!

>>1106006
it's fiiiine, she's not gonna believe us until she has external confirmation anyways

>>1106000
You know, we could just tell you what you're cursed by. I'll give you a hint. It's something related to physical contact, and it *wasn't* her kleptomania curse.

>or deploy him to one of the fights.
Cauldron's gotta level up somehow. Or is he getting exp just from being used for potion brewing?

>Reisarfs' task
We have little decoration, why don't we work on that with them?

Look, it's Stargazer swimming through Deem's thoughts!

Planning some more experiments should be good practice for incorporating more safeguards into these tests.
As for assignments, what's the idea of the showcase? Should you be planning to let them win or to show off your forces at their very strongest? If you're giving a tour of the dungeon beforehand, will that clue the adventurers in to ambushes, allowing them to prepare?

1/3 Deem 2025/04/13(Sun)19:09 No. 1106223 ID: effc02
File 174459659763.png - (28.25KB , 600x800 , potion_boss.png )

>Doyle should brew more potions for the homonculi.
>Put one Reisarf on statue repair, and one on potion brewing. It doesn’t matter which so long as both get done.
Good thinking.

It's time to give Doyle the good news. I call my cauldron gulper over and announce that taking effect immediately he's my head of potion making and in charge of the cauldron golem.

He immediately climbs on top of the cauldron golem and has it carry him around, perhaps taking my 'head' comment too literally. Hmmph, well at least he's enjoying himself.

"Reisarf, I'd like one of you to get more experience in potion making. We have some more ingredients so I'd like you to work under Doyle's supervision and see what simple-to-make effects you can express out of combining them without needing to add too much mana. Aim for a variety though. And nothing you think might blow up."

One of the Reisarfs raises a hand. "So no bomb seeds then?"

"Very astute, Reisarf. Maybe the Sap Bombs, if Doyle thinks its safe."

Doyle totters over with his new chair, smirks at his new underling and then waves to have my alienist follow him to the brewing room. With that pair working away at it I expect I'll certainly get some unusual potions I hoped for.

>We have little decoration, why don't we work on that with them?
I turn to the other Reisarf. "Your days will be spent on statue repair and cleanup. If you can get things a little more presentable that'll be perfect. Just remember though, no spells without permission!"

>Agreed on Moriko as the boss. If you can, give her the overlapple potion to boost the effect of her other, more impressive potions.
I don't see it interacting with other potions much. What it does is allows the drinker to exceed their normal limits on things and qualities they can 'store' - a higher than normal maximum potential for things like health, mana and perhaps odder things like Hin's new ability to store light.

>As for assignments, what's the idea of the showcase? Should you be planning to let them win or to show off your forces at their very strongest? If you're giving a tour of the dungeon beforehand, will that clue the adventurers in to ambushes, allowing them to prepare?
I will be walking with Olan and his adventurer friend as they take on the dungeon, though I expect Olan and myself will stay apart from the fighting. We may have to pause and reset things should they prove too much for this adventurer. I expect to end up running a mana deficit from this, but at least I can expect some more gold should it not turn into a total disaster.

2/3 Deem 2025/04/13(Sun)19:10 No. 1106224 ID: effc02
File 174459664937.png - (46.07KB , 800x600 , get_stickbugged.png )

The convoy of my returning denizens has finally brought in the monsters I sent them to collect. We have a bunch of branch bugs tied together in a bundle, seemingly content to impersonate a pile of sticks if it means no-one will bother them. A woven cage of mosquito fairies, seemingly to stop them buzzing around and containing their bickering to be with each other. And finally a slime spitter who's just been obediently trotting along with the rest.

"Welcome to my dungeon." I say to them.

"Great Darkness, if you should protect us from the vile amphibians, we shall gladly not tie your shoes together!" a mosquito fairy buzzes at the cage's bars.

"Fool, she is without shoelaces!" another hits her.

"We shall not taunt your shoelessness!" the first fairy rallies.

"They're kind of jerks." Hin stage-whispers.

"Well you and your kin shall all remain welcome as my denizens should you help defend my dungeon and help my other denizens."

Very minor fairies like this aren't quite people, though they have the ability to become something more. A group of fairies as a whole has something like multiple reincarnating personalities. Which is to their benefit as they draw trouble down on themselves and die a lot. The branch bugs are much the same. The only one who seems like they might have that spark right now is this last lizard they've found.

"We were struggling to catch any of the slime spitters, then this old girl practically fell in our lap." Hin says, pointing out the lizard. "I think she's had some hard times. Look at that snout scar. She brought back one of Alkaline's lost slimes, but she was hurt too. I used up a lot of light healing her."

"Grrrrrnnnk?!" Chakarchelou slithers in behind Hin, looking excited. The slime spitter lift her head and tastes the air.

"Let the lizard get settled in first, Chakarchelou." I warn him.

I'm planning to keep these monsters - and the Morphic Lantern - in the hall adjoining the Thaumatorium for the moment. We still have a few days of hastened monster development from my Churn the Earth and given the depredations of the frogs against them I suspect they'll have some helpful desperation to quickly mutate.

They'll have to instead briefly disturb the tranquility of the Meditation Chamber for the tour.

3/3 Deem 2025/04/13(Sun)19:11 No. 1106225 ID: effc02
File 174459669316.png - (49.35KB , 900x900 , a_talk_of_mine.png )

>Give ‘em the ceiling surprise with the handy brute (or Pancake!), and pair Chak with garden bomber.
I'll go with that then, my dungeon's almost ready for the visit!

>You have that lens, don't you? The one you use to check the status of your denizens. Can't you just let someone else use it on you and they can tell you about your new curse?
It's not really intended to diagnose such ailments. And I have a sense for the disposition of my denizens, and their development in particular, but that too is limited in its ability to detect more ephemeral features. I should consider more infrastructure for it. But for now we'll have to simply power through.

>It doesn’t matter if you’re a hugger. Alkaline is a huggee. You owe her a big hug like the one she gave your core!
I don't 'owe' anyone hugs.

I still feel culiarly ill at ease, as if I'm lacking something, so I have Stargazer come with me to work on the final excavation of what'll be my new Heart Chamber. I shed my dress to keep it clean and switch to my Disperse Mode to make use of its better physical attributes. A chance to get moving and complete one last thing.

I point out a little about how it'll improve the flow of the earth pulse through my dungeon to Stargazer, and check in about how she's feeling. I think I am finally learning to interpret her stares and silences a little better.

Our 'talk' and my other awareness of my denizens' progress points out to me that Stargazer has developed a little from her ill-advised foray into dungeon magic. Reisarf did once mention she can 'overflow' if she has too much mana and this perhaps is a deliberate application of it?

----------------------------------------
New Ability Gained!
----------------------------------------
Star Spilling Gaze: Stargazer can gradually infuse some of her essence into inanimate objects or especially weak willed or subservient creatures. This allows her to incompletely use her abiltiies on them, including forced animation of objects or activation (and overcharge) of magical items. Affected objects sprout one or more eyes when active. This persists as long as she maintains the infusion.

----------------------------------------

Interesting, that would let her continue to assist Reisarf while split up if she can spill into some of my alienist's equipment. It has potential to act as traps and minor guardians throughout my dungeon, as well as packaging a surprise into some of my golems.

I check how Stargazer is coping with the matter of the winze as well. I end up needing to call in Reisarf for some additional interpretation. My Sealing Designation hasn't made it completely inert as I'd hoped. I should have known better. This isn't an emergency but it's still leaking some power, perhaps it did manage to snatch some of the energy from my Verdant Idol.

"You will have to be careful Stargazer." I tell her. "What that thing is leaking isn't quite raw mana. I called it liquid corruption before but it's more that it is tainted by malice. It has the potential to harm things and make them better at harming others."

Stargazer can safely absorb a small amount of it and has the Kindly Mushrooms which are able to break it down as well. If she focuses on horticultural efforts she is likely to develop plant based abilities in the future though.

She could potentially transfer mana to me as well to make her innards less energetic, but she did win that from me despite all the circumstances surrounding it so I am loath to suggest it.

If she's able to direct plants and monsters to the corruption they could potentially absorb the excess but this is likely to make particularly hostile varieties.

Some interpretative dance also informs me she was thinking of trying to use her Star Spilling Gaze on the remains of the flesh golem simulcrum of Reisarf I made to have its Crystal Plague crystallise a dumping ground. Inventive but also a wobbly stack of possibilities I shouldn't be suprised she came up with.

Finally, I can tell her more about what would help siphon energy from that thing, but that knowledge is dangerous to me as well. Also I worry if it becomes too low on energy something bad might happen.

>Finally, I can tell her more about what would help siphon energy from that thing, but that knowledge is dangerous to me as well. Also I worry if it becomes too low on energy something bad might happen.
Bad things are good for you, Deem. They build character.

>mushrooms
Eh, I don't like the idea of Stargazer gaining plant abilities.
>transfer mana
Nah
>direct stuff to the corruption, maybe making hostile varieties
I kinda like that idea, assuming we'll be able to tell when we make something bad.
>crystal dumping ground
Isn't that just putting off the problem for later? The crystals will still have the corruptive energies. I guess if we could then use those crystals up in a constructive manner it'd be ideal.
>tell her secrets that could be used against you
Hmm. Maybe. How loyal are the three of them? Is it even a valid worry for them to betray you-- have any of your denizens ever done that? Those that were aware you were a thinking being, anyway. The advantage to doing this would be that she can use it on you if you go berserk again, solving the crisis quicker.

...ah. I just realized something. Now that there are two Reisarfs, doesn't that mean Stargazer is getting twice as much energy from their pact? It's either that, or the Reisarfs are giving half as much energy. ...well, I guess it could be something in between. Depends on how the pact is structured.

How does the slime the lizard rescued feel about its savior? She can live on a diet of slime milk, right? And likewise, do the fairies need blood? Can they leech from homunculi? (Will they try anyway?)

You should favor mana transfer over horticulture. I just think plant-based abilities don't suit Stargazer very well. Let the kindly mushrooms do what they can and then let your experienced embrace help shoulder the burden. This does not negate her win, perhaps you can repay the favor later.

Spilling into the Reisarf simulacrum? Absolutely, that was a powerful form of Reisarf. You already have two Reisarfs, what's the matter with a third?

Cultivating more hostile varieties of monster from the corruption seems almost cruel to the monsters, almost, but to give it animate form and substance also makes it easier to attack.

Finally, let forbidden knowledge stay forbidden knowledge. She's in punishment too for reckless self-endangerment, don't forget. Keep the winze out of crisis mode until it's too late for it to resist.

Hostile plants sound useful and fits the dungeon theme.

What happens if you eat a Deemegg? Will your homunculus body form a deeper link with your core?

Also Deem you really should get hugs from someone. Soon.

>>1106234
>More reisarfs

I... think we should ask them before cloning them any further. With the exception of an object lesson on 'doing unpredictable things' we should be sure they'd be okay with yet another one of them running around and needing hugs.

>>1106225
i think the dumping ground is a valid idea. we can throw bad shit there to make even worse shit later!

also someone is probably interested in buying nuclear magic crystals

It'll probably be more effective to guide her to people who are likely to hug her, than to simply tell her to go hug someone. Now that you've gotten the new denizens settled, you should probably go find Linea and make sure she's not stewing too hard over transferring a curse to you.

Do lizard pile-ons count as hugs?

>"Let the lizard get settled in first, Chakarchelou." I warn him.
No, no, let him interact even more with the more experienced lizard. Not unobserved, of course, but I'm sure you're able to intervene if they get too out of hand.

Hmm... Maybe if Chakarchelou and the new lizard are good we can infuse the new lizard with some dragon, later...

>>1106225
>>If she's able to direct plants and monsters to the corruption they could potentially absorb the excess but this is likely to make particularly hostile varieties.

This seems like the best choice, as worst case scenario, we just have to fight off whatever results of it, no worse then what we usually do anyway, and probably more interesting then fighting more frogs.
Directing it more towards plants might be the best bet, unless we maybe want to soup up the Cake Mimic. The new guys we probably dont want to get too hostile and unpredictable before the tour.
I'd suggest maybe corrupting some vines I think are around? That might get us something we can use for traps, and maybe if we expose some Bomb Flowers, we can get some more volatile explosives.