Deem 2017/02/17(Fri)19:02 No. 780480 ID: dd5b4d
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Out here in the mountains, I have now assembled the three core components of a dungeon.

There is my Dungeon Heart. It is the petrified core of my being and with it I control the dungeon's functions and store its accumulated mana. I have a tiny hoard, I need its gold to tap the earth-pulse's power and convert it into mana. And finally I have the Resurrection Matrix, the first physical embodiment of my servants' covenant with me and the means by which I safeguard their lives should they fall in my service.

But this is not a very good dungeon. My Heart Chamber is a single room from the entrance!

A true dungeon is a labyrinth, a winding maze designed to let mana flow unhindered through it while baffling and delaying intruders. This makes it easier to marshal the dungeon's defenders and maximises the mana that can be extracted from the invaders.

This dungeon of mine has to grow. If I force an elemental affinity and pursue a specific theme, I'll be able to develop in certain directions faster and some dungeon features will be easier to build. There are six elements but I only have compatibility with four of them so I'll present the options now.

Deem 2017/02/17(Fri)19:04 No. 780481 ID: dd5b4d
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Earth. The most natural of elements for me, stone and dirt and loam and clay. A versatile element where the dungeon can take many forms, whether it be cavernous, massive construction, muddy and wet or sandy and desert-like. This would be best suited to direct manipulation of the earth-pulse, allowing me to affect monster types, spawning and behaviours in the area and would also allow me faster pursuit of golemetry.

Fire. An element of motion and energy. Fire consumes, transforms and purifies. Environmental hazards are natural to fire dungeons, whether it be lava or simple heat. As fire is naturally suited to sudden upwellings of power and illumination, it is excellent for pursuing magic item creation and the teaching of skills from me to my minions.

Shadow. The element of mystery and darkness. Things without form, things that elude understanding. It is the most mystical of the options available to me and thus is well suited help my servants develop their own unique skills. A shadow dungeon would be full of secrets and distorted areas to bewilder invaders. It confronts them with opposite they cannot directly oppose and lends itself well to curses.

Water. An element of the sky, however it is the counterpart to earth so I have some comprehension of it. Like earth, it is associated with cultivation. It would be an excellent fit if I wished to pursue alchemy and potions. It would also focus on the development of my monsters. A water dungeon presents a changeable nature, with elements such as underwater passages and ice or overgrown vegetation to bar progress.

There's nothing stopping me from gradually building up multiple affinities but for the moment I can only do one.

Shadow, to complement your training of Alkaline in this mystic element and to develop unique and powerful minions.

Also it obscures the fact that this dungeon's freaking empty and tiny.

>>780481
Shadow! Let's go chuuni!

earth, a get a solid foundation before you try anything fancy. as you noted, you can still handle mud so a bog for the slimes can be done even without water specialization.

Darkhorse vote for Earth.

Things'd be different if you had a volcano or glacier. But ya don't.

Let's go Earth for now. Best to start with playing to your strengths.

Honestly, earth seems the most natural fit. It helps you build the dungeon, harness the earth pulse, make your golems. And actually having control of over monster spawns is very tempting.

The other best contender is shadow. Focus on your minions, and build up their strengths. Lead not through your own strength, but through what you can cultivate in those you lead. Honestly, it's a good fit for the progress you've made with them so far.

I'm torn.

Water, because overgrowth is cool.

>>780481
Fire fire fire!

Lava forges and magma slimes and ash clouds, oh my!

Moats and lakes and fountains are also a lot more impressive when they're made with molten rock instead of just water.

>>780481
Water, it would go very well with Alkaline.

It'd also make it easier to make money via totally-not-breast-enlarging potions.

I'd say earth, I'm tempted by fire but you're still just starting out, so you should probably work to your strengths. Plus better golemetry means you can improve your golem bod even more.

let's start with earth since that's the element you have the most affinity for.

Gotta say, the choice between shadow and earth is hard.

But I'm going to lean towards earth. We've only just gotten started. We need to expand. We need more worker golems. We need more monsters, materials and gold.

Earth affinity satisfies all of these demands in one way or another, and it's not like we're locked in to only one element for the entire quest.

>>780481
Aw jeez. These are like picking what party members to boost.
Earth: Good for you and Merud, side bonus of more monsters/better control of monsters. Might make the town tolerate your presence better since you can keep the monster spawns from raging out of control or producing monsters that would endanger the town. It would also allow us to populate the dungeon with golems and more monsters, assuming we can capture more of them. This might also attract the attention of Tor Rokall if we can spawn some monsters with valuable hides.
Fire: Good for Hin. Might make us more money by producing then selling magic items. We could attract more adventurers by putting magic items in the dungeon as loot, or just use them to bolster the hoard via intrinsic value.
Shadow: This one's well rounded. It boosts everyone's unique qualities. Might favor Stargazer, Reisarf, and Moriko. The curse thing might intimidate your new friends though. You haven't even brought those up yet! Maybe we should wait on that.
Water: Good for Alkaline, Belphejar, and Chakarchelou. Stargazer might like the easy access to water. It might also allow us to make money, by producing then selling potions to town, but that's Seleni's job. We might be better off trying to sell rare ingredients to her and Izakikk instead. Heck, if we get enough good ones maybe Izakikk will come help us out.

Earth and Water would work well to start with. We have both earth and water present already, and they both have the potential to bolster relations with town.

I'm thinking we should start with Earth. Boosting golems means we can excavate and expand the dungeon faster, and we could try to spawn good monsters to recruit this way, and we can keep the town happy by controlling monster spawns in ways they approve of. It's just an all-around good choice.


Hey, can you describe what the themes would be like for hybrid dungeons? What would Water/Fire be like? Or Water/Shadow? I suspect Earth doesn't really change things much thematically.

>>780481
Earth really seems like the logical choice, there's plenty to work with here, you need more rooms right now and it's frankly your comfort zone.
Unless you hit lava during expansion, shadow is probably the next ideal; you currently have a solid core of elites rather than a swarm of mooks.

>>780515
that's cause alkaline hasn't hit puberty yet so she isn't spitting out our mook horde.

>>780486
We have a spooky shadow slime, an eldritch thing, and a living cauldron. I already voted here but we're well set up for spooky shadow shenanigans

Earth will get up and running faster, we can worry about the other ones later on.

Go with shadow magic for now. Your dungeon only has a few rooms, so use smoke and mirrors to confuse the adventurers into thinking they're exploring new places.

Earth, because
1. Improved golemetry means more minions (which even with slime would be good for variety) and more workforce to fix our low low room count.
2. Keeping our monster spawns from causing trouble would improve our ability to keep the town a useful asset rather than a source of opposition. First impressions are important in such matters.

Shadow is a solid second choice though.

shadow!

I'd say either Earth for minmaxing, or Fire for the items and skills angle.

>>780481
earth.

i'll eventually want to branch into water, but for now start with the basics.

Deem 2017/02/18(Sat)04:42 No. 780679 ID: dd5b4d
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I should perhaps emphasise that the choice of element is a decision on what is going to be a key focus in the dungeon's development.

Selecting an element lets me do a few things related to that element more efficiently. But choosing an element other than water doesn't mean I'm excluded from making potions and it's a similar story with advancing my golemetry, tutoring my servants, advancing my monsters, making magic items, conducting wide scale geomantic engineering and so on and so forth. I simply won't be doing it as often or as well.

>Things'd be different if you had a volcano or glacier. But ya don't.
I could make a volcano or a glacier?

>Hey, can you describe what the themes would be like for hybrid dungeons? What would Water/Fire be like? Or Water/Shadow? I suspect Earth doesn't really change things much thematically.
Well, some of it would be watery and some of it would be fiery? It might be a contrast of fire and ice or perhaps it might feature steam as an element, whether via mechanisms or some sort of hot spring. Water and Shadow might be swampy or be a flooded crypt or use fragile ice floors and bottomless pits or simply be a dark cave behind a waterfall or...

>>780679
F I R E!

Explosive growth! Transformation and Purification! Expand beyond the bounds of the dirt magic that has already led you to failure and ruin once before!

Seek the flame deep beneath the earth and become stronger than you have ever been!

Also, lava slimes.

Suggestion 2017/02/18(Sat)05:36 No. 780681 ID: 34576f

Is affinity seperate from theme? Earth's benefits are the best in my opinion, but dirt and sand isn't the most aesthetically pleasing choice.

>>780679
But don't you want to advance your empire of shady potions? Water for the win!

>>780681
Yeah, because the ageless, prideful and experienced dungeon will settle for masonry efforts funded by the lowest bidder when it comes to making her lair.

I'd say shadow, because right now with our lack of a large amount of servants and rooms, illusions would truly help us out

Earth or Shadow

Voting Earth, entirely based on the fact improved Golemetry means stronger Deem Body.

Also Water Dungeons suck.

Shadow

>>780703
>Also Water Dungeons suck.
*insert LOZ:OOT Water Temple PTSD flashback here*

>some sort of hot spring.
Yes! We could style ourselves as Deem's Abandoned Shrine in the Valley of Curses, guarding a mythical hot spring with magical knocker enhancing qualities!

Still voting Shadow though.

Hard to choose for me between Water and Earth.
I'm most inclined towards Water, since it seems like we'll be able to sustain the most losses, and right now that's arguably our largest issue...
Though something to note for later... Sky and Earth elements are opposed. Resinarf and Stargazer seem most aligned to Water. And the seal on you was Sky magic...Hrrrm...Also makes Resinarf's old villiage somewhat interesting as potential recruitment fodder if we really need it...

Earth, add in shadow later

Earth seems practical, given the concerns about our core, and it'd let us make more golems for regular mooks.

Earth is the obvious and correct choice. Our magic generation has been limited because the monster spawns are a threat to us, and earth lets us ameliorate the spawns, which means we can expand faster. Earth also improves golems, which are a major factor in excavation, and thus, more rooms, more precious materials being mined, larger horde, more magic, more golems... And getting our heart deeper into the mountain would be nice sooner rather than later because the more established we are the more unpleasant moving will be.

So I vote Fire, because Hin is amazing and magic items are amazing and sturdy metal doors/chandeliers/traps/murals/battlements are amazing and a cute little slime bow for Alkaline to wear would be amazing and Deem is amazing so clearly this is where our closest affinity lies.

There's really no choice but earth. We can't take shadow, cause too many of subordinates would not be cool with us running a dungeon that is "evil" (don't bother explaining shadow and evil aren't the same thing, it's more that Merud and Moriko wouldn't be down for shadow). Fire would be okay but plays to none of our strengths and water... well we aren't gonna focus are efforts on the gulper and we spend enough time and energy on Alkaline as is, who can adjust elementally as she matures.

It's gotta be earth. We can have a river feature later and volcanic vents further down, once we are massive and sprawling. For now, earth, even if that seems boring. We can make up for the simplicity with bizzarre arcitecture.

>>780679
>I could make a volcano or a glacier?
But it makes little sense to do so. An affinity for a huge power reservoir is practical in a way that making your own could never be.

Doubling down on Erf.

>>780923
I'm sure they'd be fine with it. They already know they'll be playing antagonists to anyone who enters the dungeon, appearances are just that: appearances. Plus as the minion-boosting route it comes with benefits for them in particular.

>>780679
>all these scrubs not running a shadow/earth build
>laughingancestors.jpg

>>781124
>posting images in /quest/
>>/questdis/94347

>>781125
happy? >>781124

>>780679
You made it sound like we could only control monster spawns if we picked Earth. If we can always do that, just not as well, then I vote for Water. Water lends to plant growth, which is the closest thing to the horrible poison/acid/fungus dungeon I want.

Also you can do cool things with water that isn't just forcing the adventurers to swim everywhere or ice floors everywhere with annoying ice physics. Hydraulic mechanisms! Floating block puzzles! Flooding rooms to drown intruders!

Definitely water. In the short term, a better alchemy setup will help avoid any more embarrassing potion side effects, medium term it would boost both Alkaline and Reisarf/Stargazer who are all relatively fragile but have been extremely loyal and reliable within the limits of their abilities, and long term you could add in some fire and develop that isolated valley further up in the mountains into a steamy alien jungle surrounded by frozen wastes, forcing brave explorers to slow down and reconfigure all their protective equipment at a critical time.

Still voting Earth myself, but I'm liking the future subtheme of fire.

Please remember that water is a sky element, and the sky is evil and bad and feeble and stupid and wrong.

I vote fire. The focus on environmental hazards will work well with our small, boss-heavy team, and more importantly the bonus to magical item creation will give us a much-needed source of money and treasure.

We already have Earth, so Shadow. Shadow/Earth hybrid should be great.

Deem 2017/02/20(Mon)04:52 No. 781414 ID: dd5b4d
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>Honestly, earth seems the most natural fit. It helps you build the dungeon, harness the earth pulse, make your golems. And actually having control of over monster spawns is very tempting.
Yes, The element of Earth is comforting to me. I need workers, I need to improve this golem body of mine and I could make devil bears go extinct.

Earth! I'm going to deepen my connection with Earth!

----------------------------------------
New Ability Gained!
----------------------------------------
Stoneforging: By slowly infusing it with her mana, Deem can shape earth and stone like clay. Rooms will be slowly improved over time. Golems that have not been provided equipment will be better armed. Deem can easily create small items for the dungeon such as pots and vases.

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

I don't have enough mana to do anything with geomancy at the moment. Once I'm powered up with mana from adventurers, that will be the time for that.

Merud and Moriko have finally returned from their supply run into town. They look tired from their journey so I take the opportunity to show them to the new bedroom and Resurrection Matrix. I swing open the door and -

Moriko sweeps in ahead of me, hammer ready. There's a screech of terror; Belphejar flees and cowers in the corner.

"I see you, demon!" Moriko calls to the cauldron gulper.

I squeeze forward to get between them "Wait! This is Belphejar Doyle, it's a cauldron gulper that I tamed!"

Everyone freezes for a moment. "I take it you came up with the name?" Merud asks. Moriko lowers her hammer.

"How'd you know?"

"I had a feeling."

I think Moriko made a noise. I turn but she's straight faced. Belphe stays in the corner. I think I need to get it more used to my other minions.

I walk to the end and turn to face Merud and Moriko. "As you can see, the bedroom's done. Everyone's sharing a room for now. Hin and Reisarf have already picked out their spots but I suppose that's fair, they did most of the digging."

"What is... that?" Merud says, pointing at the sarcophagus at the back.

"It's the Resurrection Matrix!"

They're silent.

Deem 2017/02/20(Mon)04:54 No. 781415 ID: dd5b4d
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"Would you like to know how it works?" I prompt.

Merud nods.

"Ahem. Death occurs when the link between body and soul is completely severed. The purpose of the Matrix is to intervene before this can happen. When life is imperilled, the soul enters a state of crisis. Body and soul will thoughtlessly burn their resources to preserve themselves." I open the sarcophagus and step inside. "The Resurrection Matrix creates a refuge for a soul that has been linked to my dungeon. When endangered, it will flee to the Matrix and the surge of energy reinforcing their connection allows the body to follow. This moment of crisis allows the resurrectee to shed most curse magic affecting them and the matrix floods them with healing magic, allowing them to recuperate before they step outside again."

Moriko looks thoughtful. "Have you ever failed to revive someone?"

"No."

"You sound confident."

"It is impossible for me to fail." I say.

Merud winces. "That's tempting fate."

"I set my own fate."

"And you designed it yourself?" Moriko asks.

"Well, Hin helped."

"It's very... nice." Merud ventures.

"Thank you." I clap my hands together. "Well, I'll let you rest for now."

I see them glance at the sarcophagus again as I leave. Belphe slips out after me, right on my heels.

While I am dedicating myself to the element of Earth first, I think it would be good to add a second element early into my dungeon's development. That will affect how I want Alkaline, Chakarchelou and - to a lesser extent - Belphejar to develop and what monster species I want to encourage in the area. I should think about what I want to do with it so I can have the pieces in place once I am ready to add it. Again, my options are Fire, Shadow and Water.

Fire is good for industry and tutelage, meaning my dungeon would be better at creating magic items and I would find it easier to pass skills on to my servants. Fire dungeons make heavy use of environmental hazards and are suited to an aggressive style as fire is the most violent of the elements.

Water is closely associated with life. I would find it easier to develop my monsters and grow ingredients for alchemy. It's an element that take a variety of forms like earth. For example my dungeon might feature frozen areas, dense vegetation or simply underwater sections.

Shadow is focused on secrets and the unknown. This focus on initiation into mysteries and exploration would help my minions develop their own unique abilities. A shadow dungeon uses secret areas, warped physics and debilitating effects to disorientate and defeat attackers.

I like shadow.

Water, for the A E S T H E T I C.

>>781415
Water!
Life! Mud baths! Ingredients for potions that totally don't enhance knockers!

Also of course, water for our living friends.

Shadow. Earth/Shadow the best. Construction, golems, trickery, and fostering the growth of our minions / lieutenants.

water is wet, so im voting water

shadow, get stargazer to work on setting up some crazy zones that only make sense to a starspawn.

Shadow.

Shadow. It nicely balances out Earth, with subtlety for Earth's straightforwardness and boss focus for Earth's golem minions. Also, think about the non-Euclidian pit traps!

I still want water because horrible poisonous hellhole dungeon. Let's make a verdant Valley ripe for Harvest.

Shadow. Stargazer and Alkaline Shadow Synergy is pretty sweet, since some small curses supercharged by Shadow should shoot Alkaline's reversion matrix into overdrive or something.

We do want people to want to come to the dungeon, so massive plumes of flame and environmental dangers that require preparation to take care of before an attempt puts a barrier to entry, so adventurers can't just get drunk at the tavern and decide 'hey let's hit up the local dungeon' because that'd lead to charred corpses. Alcohol is flammable.

And water dungeons suck.

Shadow!

FIRE...is sadly losing out. Rats.
I'm honestly inclined to Water-lots of support boosters on top of Earth boosters should be an effective thing.
On the flipside...Shadow. If Earth lets us control monsters to our advantage, Shadow is how we raise Champions of our cause. Not to mention secret areas could help protect anyone not in the dungeon rotation, while we twist physics to crea some truly clever traps and set-ups.
>I vote Shadow.

Heart!

... no?

Here I thought more earth would be an option.

Fire. Because Hin is best Denizen and magic items are best items. Also to better refine our minerals into valuables.

Ooooh, ooh, time to test out your enhanced control over the Earth-Pulse. Tell Moriko that you want to deepen your connection with her. Tell her to go to your heart, lie down, relax, and focus upon your presence. Then push your presence into her through the earth-pulse.

Using her sensitivity to the earth-pulse for communication would be useful. Stargazer might be monster enough to become bound to you as Alkaline is, but more likely, as a foreigner, she has even less connection to the Earth-Pulse than most. Still, no harm in trying, you could even do both Moriko and Stargazer together to save time...

Oh, and you may have forgotten to mention that the resurrection matrix has a limited range, unless you can design one of those badge systems...

Shadow! Developing unique skills instead of teaching your existing ones to minions is good for diversification. Also water is a sky element, and the sky is evil and bad and feeble and stupid and wrong.

And who doesn't love seeeeecret areaaaaas?

Shadow and earth means your tiny dungeon becomes a sprawling labyrinth in the adventurer's mind. You can then create modular events for the adventuring parties to explore as you goad them into the same two rooms over and over and over...

Fire. We industrial relovution now boyos.

fire because I really want to see if we can make fire slimes.

>>781415
F I R E F I R E F I R E.

it has flash and style that water and shadow just don't.

And, you know, living in a cozy, warm, well-lit whatever is a lot better than living in a damp or dark cave.

Also, it's a fuckin' dungeon.

If adventurers get caught in bullshit illusions for an hour and make no progress they're just gonna leave and not come back. Reputation fuckin' matters here; we have to make an impression on the people that show up before we murder them so they can tell all of their adventurer buddies how fucking awesome the lavafalls in the boss room were (or whatever).

>Heart!
That's already our secret 0th element. We are, after all, a dungeon HEART.

Shadow!

>>781559
I thought it was the 5th Element!

DOUBLE EARTH POWER
jk fire.

>>781415
Fire.

I think I'm gonna say Shadow.

>>781415
water.

>>781415
Water

>>781415
Between earth and shadow the dungeon could be accessible at your leisure

All hail Shadow! Heroes can rise again!

Kids these days have no taste in dungeon decor. Well we're bringing eldritch back, baby! That said, maybe you should hang a privacy curtain around the sarcophagus so the living and the recently-dead can rest in peace.

Hmmm, both fire and shadow appeal to me.

Fire. Planning willl be already dificout enough without noneuclidean layout.

shadow

I'm gonna be sad if shadow isn't in this thing SOMEWHERE

>>781415
Fire.

Shadow

>"It is impossible for me to fail." I say.
What happens if more than one of yours falls? Does the resurrection matrix have a queue?

>>781415
Man, what's their problem. Mortals. You'd think a physical symbol of your commitment to keeping them alive would be reassuring, not unsettling.

>>781415
Have a hurt expression on your face and ask them, "What's that look for? Don't you trust me to save your lives?"

>>781885
Also I vote Shadow.

>>781885
maybe ask how they feel about that pool in front of the church, then explain how that thing is just a poor imitation of a real matrix. theirs requires a physical object to bind to, and a sacrifice to activate it every time, while this baby will keep working even if you have nothing on you.

Water, we can grow all kinds of glowing mushrooms. What other dungeons have random potions as a major feature? There's gonna be some people that will want to go in just to drink random potions like an idiot, there's always those guys. Plus we could offer free beer to draw people in and send them in drunk.

>>781415
HEY WAIT A MINUTE

If we make a Shadow dungeon, isn't that going to make us reliant on things that only work once? Once an illusion is seen through, it can't be used again. Secret areas are found and the knowledge retained. Warped physics can be accounted for, as well. We'd have to keep changing shit, and that's annoying and possibly expensive.

This isn't the case for Water, which presents "a changeable nature", and Fire seems too aggressive to care about whether or not the adventurers have made a return visit or not.

>>781950
not really. let's say we have 3 lion head statues, you need to reach into their mouths to progress, one triggers a fight, one poisons you, and one opens the door, switching which of the three does what randomly after each party goes through can be done super easily, because the parts of all three options are already in all three lions, we just toggle which is which magically, deem can probably sub-routine shit like that if it's built right. now apply that concept to the entire dungeon, all the rooms become modular, the floor shifts and changes every time a party goes through a room, but not because we tear down the room and build a new one, but because the room was built in such a way that it could shift with minimal energy requirements.

Shadow

As much as I prefer water as an element I feel we should go for fire. Potions are useful but they only have one use per, pot enchanted items are forever. As for shadow I think our followers have enough doubts without devoting ourselves to what is commonly believed to be the element of evil.

>>781954
I feel that guessing is bad for The Labyrinth Game. Guess correctly and they pass the challenge with no challenge, guess incorrectly and they have a failure with no attachment.

But, hrmm... Mystic fogs that prevent the use of a single sense? Illusory monsters to bulk up numbers? Shifting murals to confuse and disorient? It is probably a good idea to change things around regardless. Even a simple challenge can grow stale once everyone knows about it so this problem is not unique to shadow. And shadow would probably offer some more malleable construction options. High-end curses probably include memory tampering. It may not be too far-fetched to hope for a memory fuzzening curse with results similar to alcohol...

>>781415
As much as I like the idea of a lava castle, Shadow is the vote, let intruders know the deep dark places of the world are not for the weak of mind or might

I shall vote for Shadow.

I vote fire for the second element, go full dorf fort. Traps, Masonry, Molten metal, and Lava flows.

Chuuni Shadow

Again, I worry our followers will balk at the idea of a shadow dungeon. The shadow element just doesn't match an honorable hamurai and I can imagine all of our subordinates having problems with it.

I'm voting fire.

>>782690
It does match an honorable hammurai with demon blood.

Shadow probably has things that are more like augments than lies. Like, making a hammerai seem slower than they actually are, or larger. It is somewhat deceptive, but is mostly just throwing off your opponents aim. I don't doubt that she will be outnumbered on many occasions, so such augments are just evening up the odds. Especially something like making illusionary duplicates of herself or others. Still voting fire because *heart* Hin, but I expect that Moriko would get over being a shadow monster so long as we don't mess too much with her hair, or convince her that demons are awesome and she should embrace it...

1/4 Deem 2017/02/24(Fri)22:45 No. 782799 ID: dd5b4d
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>Have a hurt expression on your face and ask them, "What's that look for? Don't you trust me to save your lives?"
They're resting. But you're right, it's truly unfair.

>Shadow and earth means your tiny dungeon becomes a sprawling labyrinth in the adventurer's mind. You can then create modular events for the adventuring parties to explore as you goad them into the same two rooms over and over and over...
I would expect the dungeon to be significantly expanded by the time I'm able to add Shadow!

>Shadow, get stargazer to work on setting up some crazy zones that only make sense to a starspawn.
Yes, Reisarf and Stargazer's space warping magic would definitely make it easier to make a shadow-aspected dungeon.

>And who doesn't love seeeeecret areaaaaas?
I'll watch those adventurers trying to pry their way into my most secret places and laugh at them!

>Shadow. It nicely balances out Earth, with subtlety for Earth's straightforwardness and boss focus for Earth's golem minions.
Yes, strength and subtlety. My stronger servants all have interesting bases for development and it would be good to see how I can best foster that. I am decided. In the future, I will dedicate myself to darkness and add the element of Shadow to my Earth dungeon!

While Merud and Moriko rest, I take the opportunity to inventory anything particularly magical or unusual we have.

Crystal Lens: A basic lens for scanning creatures.
Focus Medallion: A medallion for trainee mages that resists the activation of spell channels. It reduces chance of my spells misfiring.
Covetous Ring: Improved physical attributes, mana regeneration and dragonish things if allowed to hoard gold. Currently equipped by Chakarchelou. Yet to have much of an effect as he has very little gold.
Pretty Rock: The first uncut garnet Alkaline found. I've kept it aside from the others.
Weightless Plaque: A magical plaque that can be attached to things to make them lighter.
Milky Potions of Fullness: A batch of potions of satiation: a day's worth of food in a convenient bottle. Causes drowsiness. Causes swelling in women.
Alien Jelly: A jar containing Stargazer's internal substance (flesh?) that she cut off to close up her wound. I don't know what to do with this.
Raw Mana: A jar with my shed raw mana - precipitated magic that's leaked from my damaged Dungeon Heart. It reacts unpredictably with things it comes into contact with.
Boss Key: Hin's prototype. Comes with a matching lock. The enchantment isn't finished yet.

Hin has her mace as well. She's also made me a spear to replace the orichalcum sword I lost fighting the devil bear. I'm still bitter about that.

I take look through the supplies Merud and Moriko have brought back as well. It seems they were travelling fairly light?

There's two chests replacing the large one I sent off to be sold. The alchemical kit is in one of them. It's delicate so I leave it in its case for the moment. Together with the chests is a small cage of chickens. That's good thinking. I didn't specifically request it but the eggs and occasional meat from them will be handy. Aside from that it's just some more fabric and some metal blanks for Hin. I find my repaired outfit so I put it back on. There's quite a bit of leftover gold too - 52 gold. Perhaps there wasn't much to be had in town?

I add the gold to my hoard, bringing it back up to 291 gold.

2/4 Deem 2017/02/24(Fri)22:51 No. 782801 ID: dd5b4d
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>Again, I worry our followers will balk at the idea of a shadow dungeon. The shadow element just doesn't match an honourable hammerai and I can imagine all of our subordinates having problems with it.
Dark is not evil. And Moriko's actually got a strong affinity towards shadow, it's the basis of several of her techniques. For challenges involving her I can allow her to veto any additional effects.

>I expect that Moriko would get over being a shadow monster so long as we don't mess too much with her hair, or convince her that demons are awesome and she should embrace it...
She is sensitive about her demon blood. But since she doesn't know that I know about it, that is a beast to be tackled another day.

>Man, what's their problem. Mortals. You'd think a physical symbol of your commitment to keeping them alive would be reassuring, not unsettling.
That thought has been eating away at me.

That's it. I'm decided. I'll confront them!

I get a chicken out of the cage and get my doubting humans together. This feels like a waste of mana but I suppose it'll be worth it to put their doubts to rest.

Pacing holding the chicken, I turn to address them. The chicken is not being entirely cooperative. "I couldn't help but notice a lot of you seem worried about the efficacy of the Resurrection Matrix so I want to make sure everyone's got confidence that it will be there to protect them."

I hold out the chicken. "Look at this denizen of my dungeon."

I break the chicken's neck.

3/4 Deem 2017/02/24(Fri)22:53 No. 782802 ID: dd5b4d
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"It's met with a terrible fate, hasn't it?"

"Oh Deem." Hin says.

The chicken vanishes in a puff of smoke. They're being awfully quiet. Moriko's concentrating, is she trying to sense what happened?

>Ooooh, ooh, time to test out your enhanced control over the Earth-Pulse. Tell Moriko that you want to deepen your connection with her. Tell her to go to your heart, lie down, relax, and focus upon your presence. Then push your presence into her through the earth-pulse.
Now's not the time. Maybe later.

>What happens if more than one of yours falls? Does the resurrection matrix have a queue?
Yes. It's not ideal so I left space to eventually add a second sarcophagus.

>Oh, and you may have forgotten to mention that the resurrection matrix has a limited range, unless you can design one of those badge systems...
Technically the fountains have a limited range too. It's just longer.

>Maybe ask how they feel about that pool in front of the church, then explain how that thing is just a poor imitation of a real matrix. theirs requires a physical object to bind to, and a sacrifice to activate it every time, while this baby will keep working even if you have nothing on you.
I'd best speak up. "And now it's gone to the matrix to revive. You think the fountains are reliable, right? My matrix has several advantages. It doesn't require any gold or a token for its use. The only limitation is the lower range and I can only use it on servants of my dungeon."

Merud has a question, probably about the details. "Yes?" I say.

"Wouldn't a beetle or something similar have been better than putting a chicken through that?"

I frown. "Bugs lack desperation."

Reisarf puts up his hand. "How did you get the chicken to agree to be your servant?"

This isn't going how I expected.

There's a distant 'bwork!' from the bedroom. I brush off the stray feathers clinging to me. "It's just a chicken! I forced it to! Anyway, as you can see, there's nothing to worry about."

4/4 Deem 2017/02/24(Fri)22:54 No. 782803 ID: dd5b4d
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A hero draws near!

What?! No! NO!!

I'm not ready! This is too soon! This is far too soon!

"Is something the matter?" Merud says.

"There's an adventurer out there!"

Nothing's finished, almost everyone's in my would-be final boss chamber, there's stuff all over the place and the only thing between this intruder and here is my warrior golem that's positioned outside. I need to do something, several somethings!

Make the golem give the adventurer a quiz to enter the dungeon. buy time.

>>782803
Create a makeshift sign and have a golem carry it to the entrance!

Have it say something like this: "We apologize, but Deem's Dungeon of Devilish Dangers is not yet open, we ask that you turn around and return at a later date."

Are you sure it's a hero, Deem? You're not about to murder a hapless traveler because you didn't have time to calibrate your sensors, yet, right?

First priority is to use your golem to try and get a good look at the hero. An estimate of what they are and what they're capable of will shape our rushed response. Are they a warrior, a mage...?

I dont suppose Merud has any spare golems we could use to lure the adventurer on a merry chase to keep them busy while we get some things ready?
Maybe have Chakarchelou harass them using the tunnels?

>>782804
PERFECT. This is great. Have it give the standard, "ANSWER MY QUESTIONS TO PASS, HERO!"

What if it's not an adventurer? It could be a weary traveler that found a conveniently located cave to rest in because they're too tired to make it to town?

Just panic and say, "Oh no! I'm not ready for an adventurer to plunder my depths yet! I'm practically naked!"

>>782803
maybe it's a dungeon denizen applicant rather than an adventurer.

Either way, surely your warrior golem is a decent time-buyer for a random solo explorer.

Places everyone! anyone not on the fight roster go grab some our not-loot and go hide

It's not so bad. The golem will slow the enemy enough to reposition your denizens.
I don't know if the boss fight rituals are ready, but either way you will be needed in this chamber. Hin just recovered from her sickness, so let's not stress her with the responsibility of be the last protector of our treasures. Moriko just returned from her journey, but she makes a more impressive boss than Reinsarf and Stargaze, first impressions and all that.
Let's put Chakarchelou, Reisarf and Stargazer protecting the first corridor. The quasidragon can cover the main offensive and the alienist can give support.
I would prefer to keep our slime princess out of this fight, so probable at the end of that lake, but her abilities would work well guarding the entrance to the treasury room with Merud.
Hin and Belphejar can draw the adventurer in the direction of the lake or attack his rear if he chose to ignore them.
The worker golems can get busy recovering anything important lying around to safekeeping with the treasure or in the room. One of them should remove the noisy chicken from the supposedly secret resting room.

Plan A: I don't suppose we can just have our golem say or post a sign saying "We are currently closed for renovations. Please come back in [a week or something]'s time."?
Plan A2: If you do post such a notice and the adventurer rudely ignores it, would it still be against dungeon etiquette just have all your fighters (aside from the Warrior Golem) wait in the boss room to firmly tell the adventurer to leave and beat them down as a group if they don't?

Plan B: If we are obliged to provide as much of a proper dungeon experience as possible despite the circumstances (or if being closed is worse than being highly underprepared), our encounter layout should be Warrior Golem as door guard along with Chark if he can get there in time, Reisarf as the mid-encounter in the junction (due to the narrow corridor impeding dodging), and Moriko with some enhancement and the two worker golems as backup for the final boss fight (since she is our strongest fighter). Everyone else should pile into the bedroom under a sealing designation, maybe with a fraction of the gold hoard as a backup, though a backup is only applicable if we have a way to keep the adventurer from looting our heart if they win. Would it be viable to hide our heart in the sealed room for this encounter? (How does heart looting prevention work in a prepared dungeon, by the way? Are the schemes about embedding it in a fountain or light fixture actually normal security precautions?)

Have the warrior golem get a real good look at this supposed hero. Make damn sure it is, infact, a hero instead of a travelling salesman, soliciting sky priest or, and potentially worse of all, a horde of angry cuckoo's.

Shoot, so we can't eat the same chicken over and over.
Okay, Reisarf, Stargazer, get that boss key over to the end of the water tunnel! The enchantment isn't done, but is the lock in place? We can just bluff that it's important anyway.

Here's the plan: space yourselves evenly down the hall and throw yourselves at the adventurer one at a time, to accommodate the sarcophagus' limited capacity for revival. How long do we have to wait between resurrections, Deem?

Moriko, you're going to be the first boss fight. Hin, go with Deem to meet the adventurer at the door. You'll be the first fight, alongside Deem's warrior golem. Deem, can you help her out with your main body, or do you need to hang back to give Moriko her reinforcements? And camouflage the staff quarters if yo have time.
Alkaline, I want you to stay in the staff quarters for this one.

I am not sure that we can get into the staff room, it may be locked until the intruder leaves...

Have the warrior threaten them and then fight, send char to the front to cover the warrior golem's retreat if it is losing.

Have Char fight defensively and flee once the warrior golem is free and heal the warrior golem.

Have the warrior golem fight to the death with the two worker golems watching from the two passages.

The two workers should do the "one of use speaks the truth and one of us lies" bit. Just have the one that speaks the truth cover the water passage, they will assume that the truth path is correct, they always fall for that.

Boss-mode Moriko and have her attack from one side while Belph attacks from the other. Try to leave an opening for them to escape, you don't want them thinking you are pulling too much of an unfair ambush by surrounding them, but crushing them between Moriko and Belph should be enough to stop a sane challenge and yet only a single boss and one escort should be within the realm of a plausible fight.

Don't let them explore into the water or to our chamber entrance, we are not ready to let them go that far.

Activate the warrior golem, defensive stance, backing away if pressed but no further than halfway to the intersection. If possible, stall for additional time with riddles, highly formal state-your-name-rank-and-title, reason-for-coming-here sorts of challenges and so on.

Hustle Alkaline, and anybody else who wants to be a noncombatant for the first run, into the staff room (along with any supplies it would be particularly inconvenient to have plundered) and seal it up. Send Moriko out to the intersection, since she's probably the scariest even without buffs, and have her carry the boss key in a really visible way, as a bluff. Belphejar and the worker golem should hide just below the surface of the pool (or only partially submerged, if necessary to avoid diluting Belphejar's contents) for a possible ambush.

Once everybody's heading toward their stations, start prepping boss-level buffs for whoever's still standing around. How useful could the chickens be, as close-combat support for Reisarf and Stargazer? I mean, they're technically a type of dinosaur, they've got claws and beaks, they'll eat meat, and they can almost fly.

The chickens are useful for being adorable. But it is true that they are terrifying to anything smaller than them, and can hunt in an uncoordinated but terrifyingly enthusiastic pack. Sadly, bulking them up to an imposing size would be too much effort unless there is some sort of bonus to such things. Perhaps they could be granted a venom or curse?

If we can't use the key to force the adventurer to take the route we want, then let's ambush them just after the fork in the road. Have forces waiting down each path, so that once they go down one path, the other group can come up behind them for a pincer attack.

Only problem with this plan is Reisarf might have a hard time attacking without friendly fire issues.

Give the adventurer a fetch quest for something innocuous! He'll have to scour the entire continent for random items to trade with random people until he finally finds someone willing to part with their artisinally crafted cheese wheel. That'd buy at least five hours.

form a 'door' at the left intersection and put a 'lever' at the end of the right. they are both actually golems and aren't connected. it's just when they flip the lever you let the door golem crumble 'open'. may not be properly shaped but they aren't moving by themselves so they should be too energy intensive.

Diplomacy! It would be really embarrassing to subject them to an undesired adventurer trial if this is someone who killed the devil bear and is returning your sword.

I suggest that we plan a reception area in future to sort out the different kinds of arrivals, and make sure that all involved receive the appropriate treatment. It would also be nice to have some kind of scrying or foretelling overwatch so that we don't get surprised by unexpected visitors.

>I'll watch those adventurers trying to pry their way into my most secret places and laugh at them!
OH DAMN, that was a bad choice of words!

>A hero draws near!
TIME FOR WORK!!!

Your golem should act incredibly stupid and / or absentminded, then attack the adventurer while his back is turned. If that doesn't work, have your other minions take evasive action for the rest of the run to distract and tire the adventurer.

Begin by selecting a single squad member to charge the opponent (and find out if they have area attack spells). Have one of your other squad members come up with a deceptive persona as to trick the adventurer into thinking they got lost in the dungeon and would like to party up with them, and then relay back intel about the adventurer's inventory and skills. Alkaline will now begin her very first combat role in the dungeon - climbing above the doorway to the boss room and preparing to glomp the adventurer. Everyone else, prepare to bum-rush the adventurer. Deem, place large alcoves in the boss room, then everyone scramble for the top.

1/4 Deem 2017/02/27(Mon)05:32 No. 783372 ID: dd5b4d
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>Are you sure it's a hero, Deem? You're not about to murder a hapless traveller because you didn't have time to calibrate your sensors, yet, right?
Don't make me laugh!

>Have the warrior golem get a real good look at this supposed hero. Make damn sure it is, in fact, a hero instead of a travelling salesman, soliciting sky priest or, and potentially worse of all, a horde of angry cuckoo's.
I focus on my golem. It's an independent model but with some effort I can ride its senses.

The long grass rustles and a hapless adventurer emerges!

"Nyaha! My compass never lies!" she says, apparently for her own benefit. "A new dungeon!"

A catfolk. Some kind of explorer? Perhaps she lives in this area. In town one was mentioned to me as a possible servant to recruit after all. I don't like the look on her face. There's a claw-like mechanism on her left arm and a bulging bag at her hip. I would suspect it's full of potions or bombs. The claw gauntlet has a chain integrated into it, it probably fires and retracts the claw.

>Give the adventurer a fetch quest for something innocuous! He'll have to scour the entire continent for random items to trade with random people until he finally finds someone willing to part with their artisanally crafted cheese wheel. That'd buy at least five hours.
What kind of plan is that?!

>Make the golem give the adventurer a quiz to enter the dungeon. Buy time.
It can't talk!

>Create a makeshift sign and have a golem carry it to the entrance!
I can't write! I instruct my golem to knock down the sign Merud put outside the dungeon.

The cat pulls out a bomb. "Nyohohoho, you can't trick me! Sorry Miss Golem," she says to my warrior golem, "but I'm going to be taking all your stuff!"

2/4 Deem 2017/02/27(Mon)05:33 No. 783373 ID: dd5b4d
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If they're out here in the middle of the wilderness on their own, I don't want to underestimate them! I start my sluggish mana circulating, my Heart will be able to layer reinforcements on my last line of defence if I can buy enough time. Tension's thrumming through me, I can't afford to lose!

>Just panic and say, "Oh no! I'm not ready for an adventurer to plunder my depths yet! I'm practically naked!"
"No-one is going to be plundering my depths today!"

>Okay, Reisarf, Stargazer, get that boss key over to the end of the water tunnel! The enchantment isn't done, but is the lock in place? We can just bluff that it's important anyway.
I put the key in one of the chests.

"Reisarf, I need you and Stargazer to take this chest to the other room. To the end of the flooded passage if you can! Then be ready for a fight!"

He nods and Stargazer transforms to carry it.

>Let's put Chakarchelou, Reisarf and Stargazer protecting the first corridor. The quasidragon can cover the main offensive and the alienist can give support.
Hmm, my golem's not doing well. "Chakarchelou, go with them! You're covering the corridor!"

He grunts and bounds after the pair.

3/4 Deem 2017/02/27(Mon)05:37 No. 783374 ID: dd5b4d
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>Form a 'door' at the left intersection and put a 'lever' at the end of the right. They are both actually golems and aren't connected. It's just when they flip the lever you let the door golem crumble 'open'.
Where materials are lacking, mana and brute force will do! I'll use the key instead.

I turn to my golemeter. "Merud! Make a door! Use the lock and whatever stone you need in a golem!"

Merud shies back. "It won't be a very good-"

Irrelevant! "Just make it your best attempt at indestructible and able to roll!" I push him toward the rubble pile.

"Calm down Deem! You'll have another accident!"

My Heart is stirring, I won't do anything like that!

>I don't know if the boss fight rituals are ready, but either way you will be needed in this chamber. Hin just recovered from her sickness, so let's not stress her with the responsibility of be the last protector of our treasures. Moriko just returned from her journey, but she makes a more impressive boss than Reisarf and Stargaze, first impressions and all that.
"Moriko, you're the last line of defence! Stay here and I'll use reinforcement on you."

She blinks once. "Understood."

>Deem, can you help out with your main body, or do you need to hang back to give Moriko her reinforcements? And camouflage the staff quarters if yo have time.
My Heart casts the spell. I'll be sealing the bedroom as soon as the supplies and anyone who's sitting this out is inside.

>The worker golems can get busy recovering anything important lying around to safekeeping with the treasure or in the room. One of them should remove the noisy chicken from the supposedly secret resting room.
My worker golem lurches into activity.

>How long do we have to wait between resurrections, Deem?
A few minutes! It takes the resurrected some time to recover after a resurrection though.

>How useful could the chickens be, as close-combat support for Reisarf and Stargazer? I mean, they're technically a type of dinosaur, they've got claws and beaks, they'll eat meat, and they can almost fly.
I'm not so desperate as to be throwing chickens at my enemies!

4/4 Deem 2017/02/27(Mon)05:39 No. 783375 ID: dd5b4d
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Ngaaah!

The chicken charges me the moment the bedroom door is open. What happened to resurrection sickness?! I'm under attack! Moriko, save me!

I haven't made up my mind what to do with Alkaline, Hin, Belphejar or my golem body yet. I need things out there to stall the adventurer so I can get the reinforcement complete and hide anything fragile, seeing she's throwing bombs around! The tents and some camp supplies are still set up in the space before the flooded passage too. I might have to write them off. If I'm sending anyone out of my Heart Chamber, I need to do so immediately so I can close and seal the door!

>>783375
You made the mistake of angering a fowl beast! Pray that it does not attract a flock to assault you.

I think all you can do is wait and hope Moriko bats a bomb back into the cat's face.

Oh an also prepare some food potions in a chest for the brave adventurer.

Safari-Link-cat-girl... She is cute.
Since she is using a magical compass we may not be able to misdirect her to the water.
Are bombs effective against golems or living creatures? Real life logic would suggest clay and rock would suffer less from shockwave than animal, but video-game logic suggest the opposite.
I think Hin should team up with Belphejar for several reasons: his potions won't be very effect on their own, he know Hin and might as well learn to trust her, and she is the only one crazy enough to subject herself to his side-effects.
Alkaline should accompany Merud. He doesn't fight, his golems do, so if we decide not to involve the princess he can escape with her.
You should serve as support to Moriko.

That chicken is officially your servant, and you will tolerate NO INSUBORDINATION from a minion during a raid! Petrify that chicken with a gaze. Then back in the bedroom for you, lest you actually put it out there.

Merud, you could make a Snorlax-type golem with a very large but recognizable belly. All Deem said was it has to roll...

Okay Alkaline, you can join in against this adventurer! Perhaps her bombs can teach you a trick or two about the Bad Egg technique.

First of all, door golem: Step. Aside. Retaliate if she strikes first, but otherwise let her pass. You'll ambush her from behind during a later fight.

Alkaline, Deem: You're up to bat first. Deem will get a good look at this adventurer, and Alkaline's cuteness will lower her defenses! Well, until the tentacles come out to play. Better run to meet her! Bring that analytical lens too, but don't drop it as loot - hand it off to a worker golem before your fight begins in earnest.

Hin, Belphejar: Lay in ambush among the camping supplies. If we had an actual cauldron, hide it. When Belphejar attacks, that's your cue Hin: Come out of your tent and yell, in your best ogre voice: "WHAT are ye doing in my CAMP?" Belphejar's positive potion effects should assist you, and do so more effectively due to Giant Blood.

Chakarchelou, Worker Golems: Random encounter! You'll be somewhere before the boss "door." The REAL trick here will be the warrior golem ambushing from behind. Merud, if you have any golems you'd like to throw at this minion-heavy fight they would be appreciated. Yes, even the pack mules.

>>783375
Fascinating. Perhaps the sheer negligence of Sky Power in recent years has strengthened Earth Power enough that you can now TRIVIALLY resurrect anyone any number of times! This has fascinating ramifications, but more importantly, that chicken is a minion and is assaulting its boss. Punch it in the face to remind it who is in charge of the resurrection machine and then plot to dump a bunch of reinforcement spells into it later for fun.

>>783372
I guess next time, the sign should clearly state that the dungeon is still under construction and any would be dungeon crawlers should come back some other time.

>>783375
I think Alkaline, Hin, and Belphejar should sit this one out.

Alkaline because she's still practically a child and isn't ready for this yet. Even if the resurrection matrix revives her, her childlike mind will be traumatized by the whole ordeal and she'll freeze up anytime there's a fight, even practice fights, because she'll be scared of dying again.

Belphejar doesn't seem like he could put up much of a fight anymore, since he got weaker when you tamed him.

And Hin because you need someone to watch Alkaline and Belphejar to make sure they don't get into any trouble. And to make sure Belphejar doesn't try to eat Alkaline.

>hide anything fragile
Make sure your heart is hidden so that it's not mistaken for part of the reward the adventurer gets for beating the boss and clearing the dungeon.

Pffft, ha ha ha ha, yeah right, as if she'll be able to beat a reinforced Moriko all by herself! XD

Your shard-golem should be outside the heart chamber, so you can more effectively coordinate the delaying action and support it with your magic. Finish setting up Moriko's reinforcement through the main portion of your heart.

Can Belphejar cough up an oil slick, or some glue, or expanding foam or something, as a terrain hazard for the entrance hallway?

Can you remotely soften some stone on the ceiling such that a layer of gravel will crumble loose and fall down when a bomb goes off nearby? Not to actually compromise the structure, just enough to scare someone who doesn't know geology quite so well as you do into thinking something might be unstable, and thus being more cautious with their explosives.

Or, if they actually want to tear this whole place down (that line about the compass suggests they've made a habit of seeking out new dungeons), an apparent instability might provoke them into revealing that, and wasting ammo early in the game.

Well that compass is clearly cheating. you are probably too busy with the boss-mode enchantments to make a scarf-golem for the job so the worker-golems will have to do it. Have them walk into the middle of the first junction battle with orders to acquire the compass and then hide it under the water. Studying it later would be nice.

Also it may be possible to deceive the compass by manipulating the earth-pulse. This might be important if the challenger is aiming to rush your heart-chamber and is willing to explode a few doors to do so...

>>783414
Alkaline can make glue and oil! Ask her to make some glue eggs for the others and then spread some oil around the corridor to your heart-chamber. That stuff is flammable and slippery, which should make explosives a bit less safe and manoeuvring a bit less reliable. Starting a fight while she is half-way through a slimy corridor, especially against someone who is fire-resistant, should be quite effective.

You and that chicken are adorable together. You don't have many vitals to peck at and it should be quite clean after its revival so just ignore/hug it.

>she's throwing bombs around
Can you set up a fake "bombable wall" to distract her and waste a few of her bombs? A few cracks in a wall, the suggestion of a passage behind it.

>The tents and some camp supplies are still set up in the space before the flooded passage too
Won't she loot them? If we kill her, you get them back. Unless she's nuts enough to blow up everything.

>I haven't made up my mind what to do with Alkaline, Hin, Belphejar or my golem body yet
If Alkaline goes into puddle or shadow mode, she could offer surprise support for one of the others, or otherwise harry your enemy without exposing herself. Or we could just keep the kid from getting killed.

Hide Belphejar on a stone ledge above a door. He can be a trap. Surprise chemical bath when walking under.

Hin. Um. Could we set up a fake shop stall, use her as an npc? We can't put more up than junk at this point, but it could be a chance to gather intel on the adventurer or stall her.

>and the chicken
Throw it out the door and lock it. Cats and birds are natural enemies, it should eventually turn on her.

>>785043
>Hin. Um. Could we set up a fake shop stall, use her as an npc? We can't put more up than junk at this point, but it could be a chance to gather intel on the adventurer or stall her.
Wouldn't that just encourage the cat girl and/or other adventurers to attack Hin and try to take her stuff for free?

I think it would be a waste of time unless there was a way to prevent that from happening.

I think that stealing from a shop would be cheating, so there is no need to be fair about it. Heady stone plates dropping over the doorway, boss-mode Hin, catapult a fusillade of glue and slime eggs from the walls, drop the ceiling on the whole area if they win. And after all of that their struggle to survive should have been glorious, and you wouldn't keep much more than a basic repair forge, some basic spare equipment, and a supply of consumable restoratives there. I very much like the idea of establishing Hin as a dungeon merchant but it seems really early for that, and I don't know the rules for interaction between denizen and intruder.

Sadly, it seems too involved to use against this attack and Deem is a bit short to justify resupplies. Not to mention that Hin is still recovering. And our best comoddity, restoring the gear that has been tarnished in the trek to reach here, would require equipment that has yet to be constructed.

I wonder if someone can overdose on those potions...

Vote chicken for dungeon boss! Most dangerous minion, bar none.

1/4 Deem 2017/03/20(Mon)07:26 No. 789015 ID: d9d492
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>You and that chicken are adorable together. You don't have many vitals to peck at and it should be quite clean after its revival so just ignore/hug it.
I am not, it is not and I will not hug anything.

>Well that compass is clearly cheating.
A geomantic compass isn't anything to panic over.

>You made the mistake of angering a fowl beast! Pray that it does not attract a flock to assault you.
What kind of creature do you think that wretched chicken is?!

>Oh and also prepare some food potions in a chest for the brave adventurer.
I suppose it might make her drowsy but no, absolutely not.

>I wonder if someone can overdose on those potions...
If I'm in a position to force-feed someone potions then I've already won!

>Vote chicken for dungeon boss! Most dangerous minion, bar none.
Stop wasting my time with these ridiculous ideas!

>Can you remotely soften some stone on the ceiling such that a layer of gravel will crumble loose and fall down when a bomb goes off nearby? Not to actually compromise the structure, just enough to scare someone who doesn't know geology quite so well as you do into thinking something might be unstable, and thus being more cautious with their explosives.
I cannot. My magic's too slow.

>Can Belphejar cough up an oil slick, or some glue, or expanding foam or something, as a terrain hazard for the entrance hallway?
>Alkaline can make glue and oil! Ask her to make some glue eggs for the others and then spread some oil around the corridor to your heart-chamber.
Not a bad idea, but I don't think I was clear enough. I need to close the entrance to the Heart Chamber right now and seal it so that adventurer goes looking for the key. My golem outside is not going to hold together much longer. Unless I'm abandoning Alkaline on the other side of it, trapping the corridor is no good. Doing something inside might be possible.

"Merud, how's that golem coming?"

"Give me a minute." he mumbles.

"You have fifteen seconds! There's a cat and she's throwing bombs and I don't want her in here until we're ready!"

My golem was just destroyed. Hang in there Chakarchelou. I don't think Reisarf and Stargazer have gotten the chest to its hiding spot yet.

>>Are bombs effective against golems or living creatures?
Golems are resistant unless they have a vulnerable spot, but my golems are not especially tough.

2/4 Deem 2017/03/20(Mon)07:32 No. 789016 ID: d9d492
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>>The tents and some camp supplies are still set up in the space before the flooded passage too
>Won't she loot them? If we kill her, you get them back. Unless she's nuts enough to blow up everything.
It's a little unpredictable what they'll drop when they die. They're more likely to lose things they've just picked up but it's not guaranteed.

>I guess next time, the sign should clearly state that the dungeon is still under construction and any would be dungeon crawlers should come back some other time.
I'll have some proper dungeon ready by the time there's a next time!

>I think Hin should team up with Belphejar for several reasons: his potions won't be very effect on their own, he know Hin and might as well learn to trust her, and she is the only one crazy enough to subject herself to his side-effects.
"Hin, we need more time. Can you get to the old camp-site with Belphe? It'll back you up."

"Can't we just gang up on this adventurer?" Hin says.

"I want to resolve this like a dungeon, not look like a pack of bandits! I already tried reasoning with her! And if she's strong, Moriko backed by high grade reinforcement is the best defence we can muster! I know this isn't what you're here for, but we need to get rid of her."

Hin shrugs. "OK."

I push her towards the door. "She's got bombs and a grappling hook so she'll be hopping all over the place like a demented gremlin. If you can just wear her down a bit or force her to reveal what other tricks she's got up her sleeve, that's enough. Belphe, enhance Hin as much as you can. Defence first, then more physical enhancements."

Belphe rattles its lid nervously and skitters out after Hin. Merud's door golem rolls shut after them.

>Alkaline's still practically a child and isn't ready for this yet. Even if the resurrection matrix revives her, her childlike mind will be traumatised by the whole ordeal and she'll freeze up any time there's a fight, even practice fights, because she'll be scared of dying again.
Alkaline catches my eye and hoists her big stick out of the shrinking pile of goods being moved into the bedroom.

I take the club off her. "No Alkaline, you'd better stay out of this."

>Alkaline should accompany Merud. He doesn't fight, his golems do, so if we decide not to involve the princess he can escape with her.
"Merud, keep an eye on her would you? I need to set up the Sealing Designation."

"Wat?" Alkaline says.

"It's a magical seal, Alkaline." Merud says to her. "It helps hold the door until the right condition's met." He leads her off, explaining more as he does.

I scrutinise Merud's handiwork with a critical eye. His disc shaped golem waves at me with one undersized limb. I suppose it's technically a door. This will be the most shoddy seal I've ever done.

Chakarchelou didn't go so well. The narrow corridors and bombs were not to his advantage, along with use of that chain claw to cling to the ceiling and evade his counter-attacks. He got one good scorch breath in but that was it. This cat is clearly experienced.

3/4 Deem 2017/03/20(Mon)07:34 No. 789017 ID: d9d492
File 149002046057.png - (25.68KB , 800x600 , hindered.png )

My sense of an adventurer's position is vague if they're not in combat. The explorer's taken longer to find Hin than I thought she would. After defeating Chakarchelou, I think I heard a tap on the door but she seems to have taken a while to work her way over in the other direction. Paranoid about traps?

From Reisarf and Stargazer I feel they seem to be staying in the flooded passage. What are they up to? My sense of my denizens is quite vague too. Until the earth pulse stirs, they are difficult for me to perceive and my ability to communicate is practically non-existent. At the height of a battle, perhaps, I can give them a little push but that's it the limit of my abilities.

The earth pulse is stirring! My attention fixates on Hin and Belphe, facing off against the invader. My, what a sight.
A stoneskin potion for defence. A good choice, Belphe. A huge boost to toughness at the cost of some speed. But the second enhancement is lacklustre. It looks like it was a simple potion of enlargement but Hin's only a little bigger despite her giant blood. It must have been half baked.

"Nyaha! You with the witch's cauldron! What are you, a troll-wife? Well you're not going to cook me!"

Hin opens her mouth but only a sound like grinding pebbles come out. Belphe's unstabilised potions do have a lot of rough edges after all.

Back in my Heart Chamber, I tap Moriko on the shoulder. "Well, our enemy's an idiot."

>Make sure your heart is hidden so that it's not mistaken for part of the reward the adventurer gets for beating the boss and clearing the dungeon.
It's very difficult to move it at short notice. And I'll be in a lot of trouble if I lose my gold anyway.

>Pffft, ha ha ha ha, yeah right, as if she'll be able to beat a reinforced Moriko all by herself!
I'm not going to take any chances.

>You should serve as support to Moriko.
I'm not sure if that's a good idea. This explorer is strong even if she is an idiot and she knows how to make good use of her tools. This weak golem body is definitely outclassed. I probably am better off focusing my effort on making sure Moriko's prepared.

Moriko sits cross-legged by my Heart. "A fearsome fool then?" The mana is circulating properly through my Heart now, it's built up momentum. It's time to start layering up reinforcement magic.

I've previously practiced a dragon-scales spell on Moriko to improve her toughness and magic resistance. The animated hair I trialled would be effective in deflecting bombs but it unnerved Moriko. There was a golemetry substitute we were going to practice but there just hasn't been time. Aside from that the only thing I've tried with her is a minor physical boost. It may not be wise to experiment too much.

I still haven't seen much of what the invader's capable of, which is worrying. I'm sure she's got some trump card. Hopefully Hin can draw it out so we can prepare a counter-

4/4 Deem 2017/03/20(Mon)07:35 No. 789019 ID: d9d492
File 149002055756.png - (26.55KB , 650x750 , lzrd.png )

I hear a reptile screech of utter dismay from the bedroom.

My quasi-dragon bursts into my Heart Chamber, slides drunkenly sideways as he tries to turn ninety degrees on the stone floor and lunges at the golem-door.

It's obvious to me what could cause this sort of desperation. "Chakarchelou," I say, "did you hide your gold somewhere in the tunnel?"

He head-butts the golem serving as a door. "Grrrrrrrronk!" That's a yes. That adventurer must have found it.

"I can't open the door and you're in no condition to fight, Chakarchelou."

"GRRONNK, SKKRONK!"

I don't know how to handle this.

Give Chakarchelou one of the satiation potions. Less likely to cause trouble if he's half asleep.

Can we hide Chakarchelou in the ceiling as a last-ditch ambush attack in case the kitty makes a break for your heart? Giving our lizard an actual plan to attack under might get him focused.

>>789019
Tell him it'll be alright. He can have the gold the adventurer drops when she dies.

You don't need to reinforce moriko's hair. Not only is it a bad idea for personal reasons, it's also overrated.

Give her speed and defense. If it comes down to it, moriko can probably just smack the bombs back at the cat and away from her.

We'll work him into the boss fight. Perhaps he can provide a sacrificial power-up to Moriko? We'll call this style Crouching Hammer, Hidden Quasi-Dragon. Whatever this physical boost for Moriko you mentioned is, throw that in too.

Doyle: Use ranged 'splash' attacks to keep kitty off the ceiling and in Hin's range. Lingering potions also reduce her mobility on the ground, counteracting Hin's speed deficit.
Hin: Try using unarmed combat, keep those hands open for bomb deflecting/throwing back. Perhaps even grappling? Anyway, make the mace disappear so it can make a surprise comeback later.

Perhaps Chakarchelou should dig a series of access tunnels, small crawlspaces meant for diminuitive dungeon servitors to spread through out the dungeon when they respawn. Even if adventurers get in, they'll have no room to maneuver while Chakarchelou bites their face off.

Suggestion 2017/03/20(Mon)11:31 No. 789045 ID: 0555b9

Unfortunately, both untrained golemetry and demonic hair would detract from her effectiveness. Try to exhaust her supply on Hin, and Moriko will just have to rely on her earth pulse sense to avoid the rest.
Oh, whoops. In a far off land, near the rim of the sky, the Stoneskin enchantment raises resistance to potion effects as well. In the future, it would be best to apply the size enchantment first.

>>789015
Deem just put the chicken in the Boss room with Moriko we swear it will seal her bombs. Also pet your lzrd.

Don't you worry, we'll get it back.
Also, hes quite frisky after being res'd. Maybe he can be sent back out?

Can you give Moriko an earth-warping spell? Being able to detatch that grapple or put a little sinkhole under a foot could really help with closing distance. If that wouldn't work, either due to magic limitations or Moriko's experience or whatever, maybe just some basic firebolts from a finger. Going into this without ranged harassment seems like a bad idea.

instead of reinforcing moriko, why not set up some traps in there? Something basic like 'step her, rune goes boom' or something and warn moriko beforehand what they are.

would it be in bad taste to have him jump out and surprise attack the adventure as soon as she opens the door? Tell him he will have to wait here until she opens the door but let him know that she will open the door and he can try and get his gold back then. It would also buy you a few more moments to enhance our boss some more.

But yeah defiantly give her the dragon scales but ask her about the hair. If she's ok with it give it to her, if not the just give her the small physical boast as well.

>>789019
Here's an idea to practice later: a team of Chakarchelou and a rider on his back to be the boss fight. Just need to make Chakarchelou big enough to ride on and give enough practice time for whoever is the rider so that they don't get flung off of Chakarchelou.

Too bad we didn't think of this sooner for Moriko to be the rider. You can't do it now because since Moriko didn't get any practice, she might get thrown off.

>>789130
Also, how well are Hin and Belphe doing against the cat girl? Are they doing any damage to her or is she giving them a hard time?

>>789019
I really must insist that we try to hide a random (read: satiation potion) on her path, she's seems likely to drink random stuff she finds, and she'd probably suffer a negative effect to her coordination and kinesthetic sense.

>>789137
>satiation potion
Hey, you're right. When the swelling kicks in, she'll be off balance!

What do you think about that idea Deem? XD

several things at play, the odds of dropping recent things AND the need to drop gold/valuables to activate the resurrection talisman means odds are good she will drop most of the gold she picked up and then some to pay for the talisman.

anyway, chin scratches to calm him down, then hopefully with the adrenaline going away the rez sickness will hit him and he will want to go so sleep.

>>789017
Oh, and... no wonder the earth pulse is a-flutter. You just can't help but admire that imposing stature and chiseled stone skin. Can you, Deem?

>>789019

Satiation potion could helpagainst our overactive quasidragon.

Well, it has finally happened! Is it everything you had hoped? Are you getting plenty of mana from this struggle?
Oh! but you will need to give up some of your gold for Char's horde. And all that mana is leaking out of your heart! If you don't spend it now it will just be wasted! You need to expand, and summon more golems, and weaken the earth for mining, and sense ores. But Moriko needs boss mode Now! All your mana is pouring out as you think! Panic panic panic panic pnanic!!!

You could leave some slime eggs around. Make some delicious ones for Moriko to use and some glue ones for when the adventurer decides to be clever and use a healing egg for themselves...

>It's a little unpredictable what they'll drop when they die. They're more likely to lose things they've just picked up but it's not guaranteed.
Where does the stuff go when someone dies, if it isn't still there with their body? Adventurers get magic inventories for stuff?

>I'll have some proper dungeon ready by the time there's a next time!
Unless there's someone else not far behind this one.

>Chakarchelou didn't go so well.
>Hey Hin you wanna go get killed stalling for me
Our poor minions.

>>789017
Tried but true is probably better for Moriko than chancy innovation, or things that throw her off. She fights with skill, you want to allow her to leverage that.

>>789019
Well at least your resurrection chamber is fast. It's been only minutes since he got blown up.

Get your slime to cuddle him into submission.

I believe that adventurers do not leave corpses unless they fail to bring a charm, or maybe if they don't have enough to pay for it? Could we mug people into a permanent grave if we feel the need? Like if they set up a pool at your entrance, bring enough charms to last for years, and have a stated goal of using your heart as the centrepiece of a new revival pool in the middle of a sky temple?

>>790524
if that happened we would send someone out the service entrance and blow the pool up. also charms last forever, you just use money to power them.

1/5 Arhra 2017/04/11(Tue)05:02 No. 794997 ID: d9d492
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I don't have time for this.

>I really must insist that we try to hide a random item (read: satiation potion) on the cat's path, she's seems likely to drink random stuff she finds, and she'd probably suffer a negative effect to her coordination and kinaesthetic sense.
I refuse.

>What do you think about that idea Deem? XD
Don't make stupid faces at me.

>He's quite frisky after being res'd. Maybe he can be sent back out?
I'd prefer not to. Multiple resurrections in quick succession drains health.

>Give Chakarchelou one of the satiation potions. Less likely to cause trouble if he's half asleep.
Fine. If someone's going to drink one of these it can be him. I get my fractious quasidragon in a headlock and force a potion down his throat.

>Anyway, chin scratches to calm him down, then hopefully with the adrenaline going away the rez sickness will hit him and he will want to go so sleep.
>Tell him it'll be alright. He can have the gold the adventurer drops when she dies.
I turn the headlock into a hug to scratch Chakarchelou's chin and reassure him that he'll definitely get his gold back and he did a good job fighting. Now he's lying on the ground, making lizard snores. I'll have to drag him to the bedroom.

>Here's an idea to practice later: a team of Chakarchelou and a rider on his back to be the boss fight. Just need to make Chakarchelou big enough to ride on and give enough practice time for whoever is the rider so that they don't get flung off of Chakarchelou.
I will have to try that. Later.

>How well are Hin and Belphe doing against the cat girl? Are they doing any damage to her or is she giving them a hard time?
The cat's aggressive. Belphe's been tipped over. It was trying to spread some patches of hazardous liquid but the adventurer used her bombs. She forced Hin and Belphe to split up then went in for the kill. Experienced, clearly. She's got some sort of cleansing wind spell to dispel curses too. Seems it'd be effective protection against gas attacks and some water attacks. I'm not surprised. Solo adventurers need to be survivable.

Now Hin and the explorer are now having trouble doing much damage to each other. Hin's having trouble catching the cat since the stoneskin's made her clumsier but in return the cat's having trouble hurting her. It seems she usually relies on the firepower of her bombs. Ultimately that's in my favour - she can't carry an unlimited supply of bombs and I need the time to prepare my final boss.

The cat's keeping up a flurry of questions and observations but that's progressing about as much - Hin's been silenced by a side effect of the stoneskin potion.

Endure it, Hin!

2/5 Deem 2017/04/11(Tue)05:06 No. 794998 ID: d9d492
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>Oh, whoops. In a far off land, near the rim of the sky, the Stoneskin enchantment raises resistance to potion effects as well. In the future, it would be best to apply the size enchantment first.
Stoneskin only gives physical resistance and a little advantage against things that would affect flesh. It was just a weaker than expected potion. Two potions is about Belphe's limit by the looks of things.

>Oh, and... no wonder the earth pulse is a-flutter. You just can't help but admire that imposing stature and chiselled stone skin. Can you, Deem?
Of course. I have excellent minions! I feel the earth-pulse slowly strengthening as I watch.

Pairing Hin and Belphe has been effective because her Giant Blood is most useful when there's strengthening spells available. Unfortunately I picked Hin as a blacksmith, not a fighter and this is starting to show why. She's having trouble closing the gap now. She can be efficiently strengthened but she doesn't know any special techniques for combat. So she has raw strength and toughness but she doesn't many options to surprise her opponent or to vary her attacks. Hin might take time to wear down but she's got little chance for an upset.

The cat on the other hand...

Bombs have all but vanished - the cat must have decided to conserve them, keeping up a flurry of grapple shots and darting in and out again for attacks. Hin's getting frustrated from the chip attacks and trying to catch her acrobatic, talkative foe. I think this was the plan, the cat's smarter than she looks. Hin overextends and suddenly the grapple latches onto Hin's foot. My off balance half ogre is tripped.

Out comes another bomb at last, tossed with an underhand throw. Wait, magic! The cat pumps power into her bomb and taps her thumb into her closed fist.

"Detonation!"

The bomb skids into Hin's side and explodes with several times its usual force. Hin's defeated.

The cat decided to spend mana to save time and bombs. Explorers like this are painful to plan around, since they typically have various tools and speciality equipment and tend to learn a handful of rote spells as well. Frequently weird ones. I suspect this spell would work on any object she's touched but obviously bombs work better.

The fight's over, but I am able to cling on to the location of the adventurer this time. The fight damaged the tent Hin was hiding in but I had my golem pack everything else into a hole and then deactivate on top of it to protect it. I will be annoyed if she finds it but I suppose I'll be compensated by the time she had to spend searching.

3/5 Deem 2017/04/11(Tue)05:09 No. 795000 ID: d9d492
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No, she's taken just a moment to recuperate and found Reisarf in the flooded passage.

Ah, that's what he was doing staying down here. He's made three ice platforms he can stand on to fire spells at her while she has to trudge through waist deep water. The timing's going to be very tricky to bomb him without it just sliding off into the water. And if he would be hit by an attack, his Spatial Warp is likely to trigger and teleport him to another platform instead.

Clever boy.

I don't see Stargazer though. She must be hiding in the dark water using Independent Action. She had to use it to carry the boss key chest up to the end of the passage so it makes sense. Is that his replacement spellcasting focus? It looks like a toy.

I'm not sure if there's still a chance of the warp dumping him in the water too. It should try to deposit him on safe ground in range but is water safe? That might be another reason to lurk.

The earth-pulse is stirring! This fight should be something!

"Nyaaah! I don't trust finding a kid in such a creepy place! I'm going to beat you up!"

The cat doesn't let the unfair circumstances phase her, hooking the ceiling when she can to pull herself quickly forward and even diving under water for protection from the scatter-shot magic missile blasts of Reisarf's Stray Illume.

4/5 Deem 2017/04/11(Tue)05:13 No. 795003 ID: d9d492
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Haha, there she is! Reisarf used his Evil Eye instead and, in the moment of paralysis, Stargazer bursts out of the water behind the explorer.

My alienist was speaking too mildly when he said Stargazer can make simple forms bigger. What am I looking at here, a ten foot long eel? And she has a mouth after all. And teeth.

Those teeth try to clamp down on the arm with the claw gauntlet!

Mana flow from the cat then secondary activation. She's used a magic item. A vaguely humanoid faceted crystalline shell appears around her. Stargazer clamps down and then shudders - she can't bite through it.

"Bad fishie! You can't eat me!" The cat starts punching Stargazer with her barrier encrusted free hand.

It's as I thought. I don't think Reisarf and Stargazer can win this.

It was a good use of the flooded passage but the difference in strength is too much. That barrier's strong. And, hmmm, yes it blocks curses as well. Reisarf just tried to curse her. It must be expensive to use in terms of mana.

Stargazer silently sinks back into the water. Several seconds later the vaguely cat like crystalline shape turns back into the adventurer. It clearly can't be quickly switched off so I assume there's a delay before it can be reapplied. If she can conserve its use well she should be able to shrug off Reisarf's stronger spells, she has her cleansing wind to counter his curses and an implication I didn't properly consider at the time is she can also use Detonation to make her bombs explode in mid air. I think the wind spell might be able to knock the water back briefly too. I'm glad they found out about the barrier and they'll definitely soften her up though.

"What do you taste like?!" the explorer says.

Oh, she's biting Stargazer now!

"Stargazer!" Reisarf says.

"Bleagh, how do you like that?!"

5/5 Deem 2017/04/11(Tue)05:17 No. 795005 ID: d9d492
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I don't have much time left now. I'm confident in Moriko's victory but I can't get careless. I need to finalise what options I'm applying.

>Deem just put the chicken in the Boss room with Moriko we swear it will seal her bombs.
That chicken is going to be victory dinner if you don't shut up!

>Instead of reinforcing moriko, why not set up some traps in there? Something basic like 'step her, rune goes boom' or something and warn Moriko beforehand what they are.
I can only really cast golemetry and reinforcement on short notice like this.

>Give her speed and defense. If it comes down to it, Moriko can probably just smack the bombs back at the cat and away from her.
Yes, with that and her mobility, Moriko should be hard to bomb. That detonation spell is a concern though. She has the dragon scales spell but maybe I should consider improving her defence further.

>Whatever this physical boost for Moriko you mentioned is, throw that in too.
It's difficult for me to boost her raw attributes as she's much higher level than me so I settled for making her about Hin's height during the practice run.

>Definitely give her the dragon scales but ask her about the hair.
"How do you feel about that hair animation spell?" I say to her. "I think it would be useful for deflection and to bind up that cat. I know I said there was a golemetry option but we haven't had time to try it."

Merud pipes up. "Actually, while we were travelling to town and back, we practised it a little! If you'd like me to control it, I think it's polished enough to be usable."

It's good they've been so proactive but this also annoys me for some reason! I don't have the time to pin it down.

>Can you give Moriko an earth-warping spell? Being able to detach that grapple or put a little sinkhole under a foot could really help with closing distance. If that wouldn't work, either due to magic limitations or Moriko's experience or whatever, maybe just some basic firebolts from a finger. Going into this without ranged harassment seems like a bad idea.
I have two simple options I can think of. One's a tremor - I can have Moriko create a shockwave through the ground, either targeted or omnidirectional. The main weakness is it can be jumped over. The other is a missile enhancement - it'll add force to projectiles she hits with her hammer. I'll need to give her some stone balls to shoot.

It seems the biggest danger is the cat's detonation spell and whatever last tricks she might have up her sleeve. I don't think the barrier's much to be concerned about - Moriko doesn't have any single strong attacks and the cleansing wind will just be a gust of wind.

So the last decisions are do I want to give Moriko a ranged attack, do I want to use the animated hair or this cloth golem Merud has worked on and is there anything else I should fine-tune or add?

>>795005
cloth golem.
about the ranged attack, i like the counter attack option.

Give the cloth golem a once over and let her use that. I mean the whole reason we brought Merud along was to help take some of the weight off you when dealing with dungeon things and helping you save time and magic buy helping buff up some of your minions does help. Plus it would probably be easier on Moriko since she wouldn't be freaked out by the golem as she would be with the hair letting her focus more.

what would happen if the force spell is overlaid on the detonation spell?

You do realize Merud, this will make you a target during the fight. Likely before Moriko, too. I just wanted to make sure you're aware of that. Okay, do it.
That cleansing wind won't dispel reinforcements, right? Or have any unintended effect on someone with curse ancestry?
Go with the missile option and make a neat little stack of cannonballs for her use. In a pinch, your head could also be used as a projectile.
The best counter to an explosion is another explosion, unless Moriko can hit it out of the air before Detonate finishes. Can you do that? Can Moriko explode, twice?

Form a hiding spot for Moriko to spring from when the cat enters.
Enlarge the chicken.
When the cat opens the door, she will only see a really big chicken. When she inevitably starts talking shit to it, Moriko can spring from cover for the first strike.

Instruct her not to try to catch or even deflect the bombs just dodge, and be wary for the adventurer using the wind spell to change the bombs direction mid-air.

>>795005
Merud is the weak link in this coming fight, I think. If he controls the hair it'll be difficult for him to defend himself, won't it? I'm thinking he should play to his strengths and use the cloth golem. That'll give us a good example of how he fares in a straight up fight, which will allow us to use him more effectively in the future.

That cat has worn out her welcome. Share everything you've learned with Moriko, so she has an advantage while you increase moriko's toughness even further.

If nothing else merud/thrown chicken can be useful for either interrupting the cat or providing moriko an opportunity to get some hits in.

A personal shield, bombs, grappling hook, wind magic, exploding magic, speed... it seems like she's higher level than any of our guys. Or at least, she has a way more versatile tool-kit. None of ours are really specced for soloing a dungeon.

>detonation spells tricks
Things to be aware of and/or to be prepared to counter:

*Cat being desperate enough to detonate her grapple after grabbing your boss. The hook is harder to dodge.
*Detonating the surface she's standing on or touching (part of the floor, or the wall). Could allow her to attack even when she wouldn't otherwise be able to, to functionally set invisible mines.
*Using explosions to propel herself
*Attempting to detonate pieces of Moriko's equipment
*Detonating a handful of dust or sand as a blinding attack rather than an attack-attack (being able to shield her eyes in a hurry might be necessary)

Honestly, yeah, making sure Moriko can tank a surprise blast or few is probably needed. There will be one.

>I feel the earth-pulse slowly strengthening as I watch.
Deem likes to watch.

>That chicken is going to be victory dinner if you don't shut up!
The body won't disappear when it respawns? Cool, renewable food source. And a perpetually annoyed minion.

>do I want to use the animated hair or this cloth golem Merud has worked on
Is either going to get ruined by say, a bomb going off, or being cut with wind?

Honestly, if you put Moriko off balance with the enchantment she's not comfortable with, the cat is good enough to exploit that. The problem is: if we use Merud, how do we keep her from just taking him out? Does he need to see to control this spell? Can he operate from another room? Can you control it? Does it get wired to just follow Moriko's lead?

>omnidirectional shockwave
Actually, since you know your enemy relies on the grapple for mobility? An attack designed specifically to foul or loose the grapple's hold on things could be used to slip her up at a crucial moment. It would have to work on more than just the floor, though. (A pulse across the stone in the room, the stone stills and smooths, turning frictionless).

on the flip side, that shield is something moriko actually can deal with herself with her ability "Hollow the Mountain" assuming she can even activate it without moriko being able to use her "Break the Flow"

and if she keeps the fight in close she can prevent most bombs unless the cat is crazy and lets the splash damage hit her.

Be ready to bribe the adventurer with a potion in case she goes for your heart.

>>795463
Before you reject this outright: It's your knocker potions or your life. Just let her take the potion.

hrrm. I'm inclined to give Moriko the projectile attack, since that pesky kitty seems to like hiding on the ceiling as a defensive measure, and with her using bombs and that grappling hook, she's fine fighting from range, moriko would have to close the gap.
The quake stomp sounds fun but honestly that cat's reliant on dodging-she's not going to stand her ground if she can help it so we don't need that power. The hair thing...It WOULD be viable if it weren't for that Detonation trick the cat has, but since she has it it means unpredictable explosion times that would render that sort of defense mostly useless.
A ranged attack to force her into the crystal state seems best-since she can't really move in crystal form, it should allow Moriko to close in and attack, and from there, kitty gets mauled unless she gets away, in which case she gets pelted some more.

What we need to do is trick the cat into grappling one of them and then grab and hold the chain, this way the only way the cat can use it is to drag herself in a perfectly straight line into melee range.

1/2 Deem 2017/04/14(Fri)23:22 No. 795990 ID: d9d492
File 149223736483.png - (27.13KB , 800x560 , dragging_dragons.png )

I start dragging Chakarchelou to the bedroom. Need to get my Heart Chamber cleared. Why are you so heavy, Chakarchelou? I think I'll need my other golem to help. Moriko starts to get up to help me.

"Stay down!" I say. I pause. "Ah, ahem. Please sit still so I can finish up the magic I'm using on you."

>Form a hiding spot for Moriko to spring from when the cat enters. Enlarge the chicken. When the cat ope-
No.

>Be ready to bribe the adventurer with a potion in case she goes for your heart.
Unnecessary!

>Give the cloth golem a once over and let her use that. I mean the whole reason we brought Merud along was to help take some of the weight off you when dealing with dungeon things and helping you save time and magic buy helping buff up some of your minions does help. Plus it would probably be easier on Moriko since she wouldn't be freaked out by the golem as she would be with the hair letting her focus more.
That's all true. "Merud, get out your golem then!" I say to him. "Our invader has a spell to set off her bombs early so we might not get much use out of it, but let's see how it performs."

>You do realise Merud, this will make you a target during the fight. Likely before Moriko, too. I just wanted to make sure you're aware of that.
No, he'll control it from the bedroom. The headache is simply that the golem would be attached to Moriko but not actually under her control. This is why I wanted to practice it with her and me. Moriko and the golem's controller won't have much ability to communicate.

>What would happen if the force spell is overlaid on the detonation spell?
The bomb would be travelling fast when it explodes. It simply adds to a projectile's momentum.

>Hrrm. I'm inclined to give Moriko the projectile attack, since that pesky kitty seems to like hiding on the ceiling as a defensive measure, and with her using bombs and that grappling hook, she's fine fighting from range, Moriko would have to close the gap.
>The quake stomp sounds fun but honestly that cat's reliant on dodging-she's not going to stand her ground if she can help it so we don't need that power.
Right, it's going to be hard to catch her with the shockwave. Projectile enhancement it is then.

>That cleansing wind won't dispel reinforcements, right? Or have any unintended effect on someone with curse ancestry?
There's no way it could possibly budge my magic. It shouldn't affect Moriko's demon blood either.

2/2 Deem 2017/04/14(Fri)23:24 No. 795991 ID: d9d492
File 149223747194.png - (25.85KB , 800x500 , pep_talk.png )

>A personal shield, bombs, grappling hook, wind magic, exploding magic, speed... it seems like she's higher level than any of our guys. Or at least, she has a way more versatile tool-kit. None of ours are really specced for soloing a dungeon.
I'd say she's weaker than Moriko, even before reinforcement, but Moriko's more focused and does not own any magic items.

>>Things to be aware of and/or to be prepared to counter:
>*Cat being desperate enough to detonate her grapple after grabbing your boss. The hook is harder to dodge.
>*Detonating the surface she's standing on or touching (part of the floor, or the wall). Could allow her to attack even when she wouldn't otherwise be able to, to functionally set invisible mines.
>*Using explosions to propel herself
>*Attempting to detonate pieces of Moriko's equipment
>*Detonating a handful of dust or sand as a blinding attack rather than an attack-attack (being able to shield her eyes in a hurry might be necessary)
>Honestly, yeah, making sure Moriko can tank a surprise blast or few is probably needed. There will be one.
So many things to look out for. That spell's surprisingly versatile!

>That cat has worn out her welcome. Share everything you've learned with Moriko, so she has an advantage while you increase Moriko's toughness even further.
I have been keeping up some commentary as the fights have progressed but I make sure to specifically warn Moriko about some of the possible uses of her abilities. I've made sure to put plenty of power into the dragon scale spell.

>And if she keeps the fight in close she can prevent most bombs unless the cat is crazy and lets the splash damage hit her.
"The most important thing is watch out for her detonate spells and try to keep on top of her so she can't use her bombs easily."

>Instruct her not to try to catch or even deflect the bombs just dodge, and be wary for the adventurer using the wind spell to change the bombs direction mid-air.
"And it's probably better to dodge rather than catch or deflect her bombs, since she can set them off early. It might be worthwhile despite the risk though - she can't take nearly as much damage as you can."

>Deem likes to watch.
That reminds me!

"Oh, and one last thing! This is the final battle, so make sure you set the right mood."

Moriko looks at me. "...Set the right mood?"

How should I say this? It needs to be dramatic! To draw in full investment. To properly rouse the earth pulse, emotions should run high! She has to know how to present herself. I need to give Moriko some advice quickly, there's not long until that cat comes back.

This is really your domain isn't it, Deem? Final boss-fights need terrain actively working as an attack in Moriko's benefit. I'm thinking surprise detonations, rockfalls, pitfalls, stalactite and stalagmite eruptions, and such.

Also, Moriko herself should be customarily cold and classy, but mysterious evil voices coming from random directions to taunt the catgirl and mess with her concentration is a great thing to put in a bossfight confrontation.

>>795991
Easy there Deem, you're only just starting out, no need for cutscenes or dialogue yet. I guess she could say something about declawing a cat..? (don't ever declaw your cats tho)

You could also tell Mori to hang onto a satiation potion for loot drops.

>>795990
Uh oh. I think I see some swelling on Chakarchelou. Are you sure you didn't misidentify Chakarchelou's gender and he's actually a she?

The cat's a very poor listener. She's probably going deaf from all those concussions. Strike a pose, then lunge when she comes in. Speech should consist of demands to submit. Perform the coup de grace with poise and grace.

>How should I say this? It needs to be dramatic! To draw in full investment. To properly rouse the earth pulse, emotions should run high! She has to know how to present herself.
well the easiest way to explain it to her would probably to be to compare the dungeon to a dojo. She is the final boss so in a way she is like the master of a dojo and as such she not only represents herself but also the dungeon as a whole.

Now the thing I'm having trouble with is what theme we're exactly trying to go with here? I mean we literally just threw people at the cat girl to buy time with no real planning or reason other then to stale for time. But seeing as all the "major" battles so far have been your golem clone, a "troll witch" and her cauldron, a "creepy boy and his pet monster", and now what will probably look like a half dragon warrior or something like that the only thing I can honestly think of to tie everything together would be something like... hell I don't know, that this is a cave of exiles. Folk who were not accepted anywhere else so they banded together here and Moriko is these place's founder and guardian.

Or if that's to much just have Moriko glare hard at the cat girl when she enters and have her act like the cat girl has intruded on holy ground that she was protecting and then have her fight the cat girl off. Sorry but that's the most I can think of in such short notice.

just explain she needs to make the this FEEL like it's the final battle. some "you have done well to make it this far, but you shall meet your end here. for i am moriko, hammerai master!" and then she needs to strike an intimidating pose.

>>795991
Tell her she just needs to be intimidating, and give a good opening phrase before the fight starts. That'll give enough time for the boss title graphic to show up.

Better keep it short. This adventurer seems like the impatient type.

1/3 Deem 2017/04/17(Mon)01:58 No. 796441 ID: d9d492
File 149241948171.png - (23.16KB , 800x550 , cat_attack.png )

>Easy there Deem, you're only just starting out, no need for cutscenes or dialogue yet.
I need something!

>Now the thing I'm having trouble with is what theme we're exactly trying to go with here? I mean we literally just threw people at the cat girl to buy time with no real planning or reason other then to stale for time. But seeing as all the "major" battles so far have been your golem clone, a "troll witch" and her cauldron, a "creepy boy and his pet monster", and now what will probably look like a half dragon warrior or something like that the only thing I can honestly think of to tie everything together would be something like... hell I don't know, that this is a cave of exiles. Folk who were not accepted anywhere else so they banded together here and Moriko is these place's founder and guardian.
A theme will emerge! I'm not sure how popular that one would be with my various minions. I, I don't need to be beholden to such things at such an early stage!

>Well the easiest way to explain it to her would probably to be to compare the dungeon to a dojo. She is the final boss so in a way she is like the master of a dojo and as such she not only represents herself but also the dungeon as a whole.
"Think as if you've got someone challenging your dojo. You are representing more than just yourself. You're representing the dungeon as a whole!"

Moriko looks concerned. "But what am I representing? Nothing is finished. This is a hole in the mountain's side."

"..." I'm betrayed! H-how unspeakably cruel, Moriko!

She closes her eyes. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for."

>Tell her she just needs to be intimidating, and give a good opening phrase before the fight starts. That'll give enough time for the boss title graphic to show up.
Grr, I don't have much time. I move towards the bedroom door. "Look, there's no time! Just be intimidating and make sure you say something good before the fight starts!"

I almost cut it too fine. I close the door, check it's properly sealed and then the door-golem gives a strange noise and rolls aside. Our invader bursts in.

Here she is.

2/3 Deem 2017/04/17(Mon)02:00 No. 796442 ID: d9d492
File 149241963446.png - (42.40KB , 550x850 , all_final_bosses_get_them.png )

>Better keep it short. This adventurer seems like the impatient type.
The cat speaks first, before she's even skidded to a halt. She stares at Moriko's dragon scaled and otherwise reinforced form and grins.

"As I suspected! This is a rocks, lizards and spooky things dungeon!"

"You..." Moriko says. "You should not have come here. You are trespassing in this place. You have made it this far, but you will go no further. I, Moriko Aritawa, shall bar your way. Unless you intend to make an offering of yourself to the hungry earth, turn back at once." Funny, when she was fighting me she boasted about her fighting style.

"Nyaha, of course I should have come here! My compass points to ADVENTURE! I'll take your gold and buy an offering of fish for my hungry stomach!"

"So be it then." The earth-pulse surges. Behind the cat, the golem-door rolls shut and the Sealing Designation seals it shut. I hope it's strong enough. For an enemy destruction keyed door, weak ones can be forced by using a bomb. A boss strength one shouldn't be able to be overridden like that but this is makeshift at best. Her breaking into the bedroom here would be bad too.

In this one small room, I have Merud concentrating on his ribbon-golem at the door, Chakarchelou's taking up valuable floor space sleeping, Alkaline's following me around and Belphejar's hiding next to the Resurrection Matrix feeling sorry for itself. Maybe I should give Belphe something to drink to perk it up a little.

>Uh oh. I think I see some swelling on Chakarchelou. Are you sure you didn't misidentify Chakarchelou's gender and he's actually a she?
I'm quite sure! Maybe it affects lizards differently! Lizards don't need to eat very much, maybe it was too much food?

3/3 Deem 2017/04/17(Mon)02:01 No. 796443 ID: d9d492
File 149241970349.png - (23.85KB , 800x600 , ill_refrain_from_the_obvious_puns.png )

No, we have another resident. Power is squeezed through my Resurrection Matrix again, pulling Hin out of her state of limbo and flooding its interior with healing magic.

The lid of the sarcophagus inches open and Hin slouches out. She tries to speak, groans, clears her throat and then tries again. "Hey, Deem. I have a problem." Her horns have grown out. Her hair looks a little longer too. She looks worn out but that's to be expected.

"Uh, hmmm. I think the Matrix needs a little fine-tuning." I tell her. If the magic's not been absorbed properly it can spill over a little like that.

"Ah, great." she coughs weakly. That cough is still not gone? What on earth was Belphe eating to hit her with such a persistent effect. She tugs at a horn and grunts to herself. I'm not sure she has anything to cut it down if she normally grinds them down.

I feel awkward, should I be doing something here?

>>796443
Order her to rest. Maybe a potion if she insists, but normal food is recommended.

Of course you should, you need to run the terrain hazards, don't you?

First you should complement Hin's performance. And tell her how inspired you got from her rocky look.
Isn't an alchemy set one of the supplies Moriko and Merud bough?
As soon as you get the chance you should make some remedy for Hin. Until then she got to rest.
The booby potion may be necessary, but you know it will completely break Merud's concentration.

Uh. Hm. Okay. First of all, confidence. Secondly, ask her if she feels okay aside from being worn out.

>>796443
order her to rest, maybe give her another one of those potions if you got any left. talk to Belphe as well and let him know he did well for his first fight and see if you can't figure out what he was munching on before he got here. Not sure how well that little investigation will pan out but hey, if we can figure something out it would go a long way to figuring out how to counter it.

Oh and I guess pay attention to the fight as well.

>>796443
Compliment her horns! They're very becoming. And menacing!

>>796443
Also, Boss music. Can't forget the boss music.

>>796443
Don't mention the horns, Hin went out of her way to hide them and her nature. While complimenting her performance is good, don't push it too far, Hin is here because she wants to use her skills as a Blacksmith, not as a heavy.
We don't have time for potion brewing right this minute. Have Hin sit in front of you can comb/brain her hair. That should calm her down and help her rest, and emphasize the "there is only one change with your head we are paying attention to" factor.

>>796443
Hit Hin with some slime hugs, stat!

The fact that Alkaline will probably climb all over her and grab her horns is just bonus.

>>796452
Second.

>>796452
Hin hasn't been hiding her nature. Her skin's blue for chrissakes. You're thinking of Moriko.

>>796443
Tell her she can leave her horns long if she wants. It's not like she's living in a human town anymore. Does she prefer them short? Maybe they could be cut down.

Make some stone tools for her to cut down the horns. With the mana pulse beating so strongly, you can add a little flourish to the design, maybe even commemorate her first dungeon battle with an etching of her reinforced form.

Now gently caress her by the horns.

>>796442
>I'm quite sure! Maybe it affects lizards differently! Lizards don't need to eat very much, maybe it was too much food?
If it was too much, then you just made him fat.

Reisarf and Stargazer are okay, right? And later you should probably ask Doyle about his diet, or look up what exactly is in those giant frogs.

>>796443
the matrix 'healed' her trimmed hair, horns (probably fingernails?) and the traces of illness that remained, as the illness is also alive.

>A theme will emerge! I'm not sure how popular that one would be with my various minions.
I agree, branding yourself the island of misfit toys would be bad for morale.

>This is a rocks, lizards and spooky things dungeon!
Well, I guess a theme emerged.

>Funny, when she was fighting me she boasted about her fighting style.
That was a job interview. She was representing herself. Now, she's representing you. That was well done, she's got good dramatic instincts. (And remember, telling her what she did right or well after the fight is important. She wants your approval, and validation).

>>796443
Her hair looks flat, like it's badly in need of a shampoo, too. And she's got bags under her eyes too.

>I feel awkward, should I be doing something here?
Yes, you've got a minion who went outside her job description without hesitation and is now uncomfortable. She deserves positive reinforcement for the first, and sympathy and comfort for the later.

"Thank you, Hin. I know that wasn't what you signed up for, but you helped buy enough time for us to set up."

Could you make... a little hair cutting golem? Short of that, just offering a comb (and possible assistance) might be enough of a gesture.

You can ask if she want to keep the horns, but keep it neutral. Don't push either way. If she wants them off, you can offer some kind of assistance.

Is there anything you can do to aid your boss fight at this point?

Did Alien and Alienist survive their battle, or is it about to get even more crowded in here?

Deem, I know you wont want to but really, what you need to do right now is hug Hin and say "thank you". She just put herself out there for you. She didn't do it because she feels the earth pulse or wants to run the best dungeon, she did it for you, and you need to remind her she's not just a minion, she's family.

Thank Hin specifically for buying you enough time to set up Moriko's enhancements, and the intel about that detonation spell. Tell her that she's done a good day's work - maybe not the best at the fighting, but well enough, that's not what she's here for anyway - and needs rest.

Add a hair-and-nail salon to the low priority to-do list for excavation and construction.

Send her out as support, maybe you can intimidate the cat into thinking there's an army of grouchy, trigger-happy mages!

Is it possible that the "curse" is a disease? Biological in nature, not magical?

1/4 Deem 2017/04/19(Wed)03:37 No. 796758 ID: d9d492
File 149259827892.png - (37.38KB , 800x500 , bedroom_party.png )

>Her hair looks flat, like it's badly in need of a shampoo, too. And she's got bags under her eyes too.
Resurrection is rough on the body. I'm told it gets easier.

>First you should complement Hin's performance. And tell her how inspired you got from her rocky look.
"I couldn't have gotten ready without the time you bought. And you certainly looked the part out there." I say to encourage her. "Stoneskin suits you."

She shakes her head. "You saw that? All I did was flail around trying to catch that cat and get blown up."

"You wore down her health, her bombs and her mana, and found out about her detonation spell. I couldn't have asked any more out of you. I only wish I'd been able to warn Reisarf about it."

"...She's the most annoying person I've ever met." Hin says.

"Another important discovery!"

>Is it possible that the "curse" is a disease? Biological in nature, not magical?
I don't understand the distinction you're making.

>Could you make... a little hair cutting golem? Short of that, just offering a comb (and possible assistance) might be enough of a gesture.
>As soon as you get the chance you should make some remedy for Hin. Until then she got to rest.
>The booby potion may be necessary, but you know it will completely break Merud's concentration.
It is called a potion of satiation! And I have professionals, thank you very much! Maybe I'll present the potion as an option. It was effective in treating the symptoms of her cough, I don't want to risk a relapse.

"But I should let you rest. Can I get you anything? Some food, a comb, scissors? Maybe a nail file, or a rasp. Something to drink or one of the satiation potions?"

"Ah, just a comb and one of those potions sounds good." Hin coughs.

Maybe I shouldn't have made the offer. Belphe shifts agitatedly as I pull the potion out from our stores then settles down with a metallic whine as I hand it over to Hin. "Be careful, there's some swelling."

She predictably sculls it, stretches and and gives a huge yawn. "Ah, that's better." The side effects start to kick in. Hin hurriedly sheds her apron and starts loosening the strings on her vest to accommodate them. "Some swelling huh, Deem?"

"I did warn you!"

Hin examines her burgeoning bustline. "Can I keep them?"

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!"

"Could you keep it down?" Merud calls from where he's sitting next to the bedroom door. "I'm trying to concentrate."

"Hahahahaha, oh Deem you're too easy to mess with." Hin says.

>Talk to Belphe as well and let him know he did well for his first fight and see if you can't figure out what he was munching on before he got here.
While Hin re-laces her vest, I check with Doyle about what it eat recently before I tamed it. Frogs, tadpoles, berries, glowing moss, willow tree bark, a leather boot, slimy mud, some eggs, a giant toadstool, witchetty grubs, wild ginger, a snake and thirteen types of beetle. Oh, and Stargazer. None of those seem like obvious culprits to me for a persistent cough.

>Maybe it affects lizards differently! Lizards don't need to eat very much, maybe it was too much food?
>If it was too much, then you just made Chakarchelou fat.
One dose of far too much food shouldn't have any long term effects.

2/4 Deem 2017/04/19(Wed)03:40 No. 796759 ID: d9d492
File 149259845569.png - (31.35KB , 600x800 , hughin.png )

>Deem, I know you wont want to but really, what you need to do right now is hug Hin and say "thank you". She just put herself out there for you. She didn't do it because she feels the earth pulse or wants to run the best dungeon, she did it for you, and you need to remind her she's not just a minion, she's family.
That's not the sort of thing I do, I shouldn't... I don't really... rrrr... you're right. All I have to do is raise my arms up and wrap them around a living thing. That isn't so bad. I've hugged Alkaline. Hin is partially a creature of the earth-pulse too. I can do this.

I hug Hin.

Snug. Hrm, perhaps I should have done this sooner. Still, here I am. "Thanks Hin. I know this isn't what you're here for. It means a lot to me."

She accepts my awkward attempts at hugging and pats me on the back. "I appreciate it."

>Compliment her horns! They're very becoming. And menacing!
>Don't mention the horns, Hin went out of her way to hide them and her nature. While complimenting her performance is good, don't push it too far, Hin is here because she wants to use her skills as a Blacksmith, not as a heavy.
>Tell her she can leave her horns long if she wants. It's not like she's living in a human town any more. Does she prefer them short? Maybe they could be cut down.
"So on keeping things, what about your horns? Do you want to leave them long or trim them down?"

"I'll trim them down." Not a moment's hesitation.

That's a shame, I kind of like them. "I'll find a saw to cut them off then and then I can brew up something to treat the stumps." I tell her.

"Thanks."

>Oh and I guess pay attention to the fight as well.
I am. It's fine! Every thing's fine!

>Is there anything you can do to aid your boss fight at this point?
I can cast even more reinforcement on Moriko for a second phase, but I don't think it's necessary.

>>Funny, when Moriko was fighting me she boasted about her fighting style.
>That was a job interview. She was representing herself. Now, she's representing you. That was well done, she's got good dramatic instincts.
That's a fair point. I was worried she was ashamed of the state of my dungeon.

>>This is a rocks, lizards and spooky things dungeon!
>Well, I guess a theme emerged.
Hmmmm, I suppose that is almost a theme.

3/4 Deem 2017/04/19(Wed)03:42 No. 796760 ID: d9d492
File 149259857399.png - (29.36KB , 800x550 , reispawned.png )

>Did Alien and Alienist survive their battle, or is it about to get even more crowded in here?
Speak of the devil. I feel something pass through my Resurrection Matrix again. Stargazer was defeated before Reisarf but they've been resurrected together. She is his familiar after all.

They both look worn out and I'm seeing more overgrowth on Reisarf. What a thicket of hair. I suppose he didn't have any horns to regrow.

"What's up with these side effects Deem?" Hin asks me.

"It means the restoration function is too strong. The excess power accumulates in parts of the body where it can be used up. Hair for example."

"Ah, you do have a talent for overdoing things." Reisarf says, glancing at Hin.

Everyone is so cruel today!

4/4 Deem 2017/04/19(Wed)03:43 No. 796762 ID: d9d492
File 149259863211.png - (31.76KB , 800x500 , theres_a_boss_fight_but_this_is_more_important.png )

And someone needs to give this boy a sensible haircut!

Please come up with Reisarf's new hairstyle.

tell them they did good and put on a good show. Ask what they would like in their fighting arena/area in the future? They seemed to work well with the water and if we could get some actual platforms to stand on that would probably be a great mini boss area... or a second boss location if our hammerai needs a breather.

Twistshock 2017/04/19(Wed)05:18 No. 796766 ID: 7f917c
File 149260431372.png - (21.31KB , 249x364 , Dont ask where he found the headband.png )

>>796762
Might as well bundle it up for now.

>The excess power accumulates in parts of the body where it can be used up. Hair for example.
You realize, looking at Hin, he's likely under the impression this applies to chests.

>"Ah, you do have a talent for overdoing things." Reisarf says, glancing at Hin.
Better than underdoing them!

Don't forget to compliment the duo on what they did well in that fight. Positive Reinforcement is important for minion morale.

Belkie might need some too, actually, since it's smart enough to talk with. It lost twice in a short amount of time.

I wonder how the overgrowth's affected Stargazer and Doyle.

>>796762
Ah, don't neglect belphejar. Now that he's settled down tell him he did a good job too.

Your matrix isn't going to accidentally revive the cat when Moriko kills her, right?

>>796828
Were you not listening when Deem explained it only works on soulbound dungeon denizens or is that just your default state

>>796905
Hey, chill. Sometimes people forget things that were last mentioned literal weeks ago.

Suggestion 2017/04/19(Wed)16:59 No. 796911 ID: 70983e
File 149264639313.png - (44.14KB , 804x503 , cauldron cut.png )

Put Doyle on his head and give that boy a sensible haircut.

Riotmode 2017/04/19(Wed)17:30 No. 796923 ID: c31aac
File 149264823650.png - (7.59KB , 200x125 , 149259863211s.png )

May I present, for your consideration:
Rei-suave

LimeBreaker 2017/04/19(Wed)17:48 No. 796927 ID: 5792da
File 149264928543.png - (55.43KB , 800x500 , Reisarf.png )

The adventurer's shaggy ponytail is all the rage nowadays.

Suggestion 2017/04/19(Wed)18:49 No. 796939 ID: 12b116
File 149265295355.jpg - (114.40KB , 2800x500 , binbou.jpg )

The Regent Hairdo, most powerful of all, if he can learn to control it.

>>796927
That's cute. Throwing my vote in for this.

Suggestion 2017/04/19(Wed)19:16 No. 796947 ID: 12b116
File 149265456777.jpg - (109.20KB , 743x500 , stargazer platinum.jpg )

How about this? Cool, but intimidating.

Suggestion 2017/04/19(Wed)19:26 No. 796949 ID: 12b116
File 149265518995.jpg - (45.74KB , 743x500 , even crazy diamond cant fix your shit taste in ani.jpg )

Or a totally sweet pompadour

Anon44!lk4zOq2og2 2017/04/19(Wed)19:27 No. 796950 ID: 1f8505
File 149265523909.png - (36.16KB , 799x500 , Reisarf_hair.png )

Faux-hawks are still in, right?

>>796939
I gotta throw my lot in with this one.

Suggestion 2017/04/19(Wed)19:39 No. 796952 ID: 12b116
File 149265597843.jpg - (46.01KB , 413x474 , touchdown.jpg )

>>796950
I like this, maybe with some aviators to look real cool..

Suggestion 2017/04/19(Wed)19:50 No. 796953 ID: 12b116
File 149265662708.jpg - (48.49KB , 743x500 , punished reisarf.jpg )

>>796950
I like this, maybe with some aviators to look real cool..

How about some pigtails? (not pictured)

Suggestion 2017/04/19(Wed)20:02 No. 796956 ID: 12b116
File 149265735020.jpg - (47.88KB , 743x600 , polnareisarf.jpg )

This could be popular with the ladies

Suggestion 2017/04/19(Wed)20:10 No. 796958 ID: 12b116
File 149265780074.jpg - (50.21KB , 743x600 , like a plant.jpg )

Maybe a classy look for someone who wants to live a quiet life.

Suggestion 2017/04/19(Wed)20:18 No. 796960 ID: 669253
File 149265830110.png - (48.39KB , 851x688 , awaken.png )

AI YAI YAI YAIIII~

Suggestion 2017/04/19(Wed)20:22 No. 796961 ID: 12b116
File 149265854894.jpg - (55.96KB , 743x600 , but it was me.jpg )

How about something more sinister?

>"Can I keep them?"
>"ABSOLUTELY NOT!"
Might be useful as an added distraction if we go with the idea of her playing part time shopkeeper when the dungeon is more established.

Also, rethink adding those potions to possible loot for adventurers to come across. The cat was all agility and dexterity. If she'd had her balance thrown off that would have been it for her!

Suggestion 2017/04/19(Wed)20:45 No. 796966 ID: 12b116
File 149265991935.jpg - (45.91KB , 743x600 , riehan.jpg )

How about something eccentric

LimeBreaker 2017/04/19(Wed)20:53 No. 796968 ID: 5792da
File 149266039861.png - (113.65KB , 900x900 , King Me.png )

Well I guess we're just posting silly hair now.

Suggestion 2017/04/19(Wed)21:11 No. 796972 ID: 12b116
File 149266150960.jpg - (42.40KB , 743x600 , team hair.jpg )

We do need a dungeon theme....

Suggestion 2017/04/19(Wed)21:21 No. 796973 ID: 12b116
File 149266211480.jpg - (53.81KB , 743x600 , I ran.jpg )

Deem can you do frosted tips? Because that part isn't optional.

Suggestion 2017/04/19(Wed)21:34 No. 796976 ID: 12b116
File 149266284440.jpg - (45.09KB , 743x600 , Klaus.jpg )

Or something to terrify and disorient adventurers.

>>796927
Oh man ponytails.

Suggestion 2017/04/19(Wed)21:40 No. 796978 ID: 12b116
File 149266323101.jpg - (48.70KB , 743x600 , diamond.jpg )

Maybe add some glamor...

Suggestion 2017/04/19(Wed)21:52 No. 796980 ID: 12b116
File 149266393882.jpg - (45.91KB , 743x600 , stardust.jpg )

Or some war paint? Either way we'd need to dye it red

Apollo 2017/04/19(Wed)21:57 No. 796981 ID: 7c5acc
File 149266423197.png - (85.62KB , 800x1500 , oolala.png )

Ooh la la

Apollo 2017/04/19(Wed)21:57 No. 796982 ID: 7c5acc
File 149266424261.png - (39.36KB , 800x500 , bestjojo.png )

I contributed

Suggestion 2017/04/19(Wed)21:59 No. 796984 ID: 12b116
File 149266438139.jpg - (55.76KB , 743x600 , goblin.jpg )

Or we could try to attract the goblin crowd