1/4 Deem 2018/04/19(Thu)01:52 No. 879487 ID: e56bf6
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A hero draws near!

No, not one adventurer. More. At least two, but probably not more than two.

We haven't even finished dinner.

I've sensed them a way out but that suggests that they are actively searching for me. I don't know if Liana has even managed to return to town after her stint here as a travelling merchant so there's not enough time for anyone to have gotten directions from her.

There was that explorer though. Liana didn't mention her but if she woke up at the town's Revival Fountain or another one within a few days' travel she may have told others she found a newly founded dungeon.

I think this group is actually slightly weaker than her, a fighter and supporting wizard combination unless I miss my guess. It looks like I won't be having a cat walking in uninvited again at least.

2/4 Deem 2018/04/19(Thu)01:57 No. 879489 ID: e56bf6
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Let me consider who I have.

First of all is my golem body. I have just improved it. I can now consume food to gain mana, benefit from healing magic and drink potions. I can access some of my magic to cast strengthening magic, curses or golemetry spells, however it's unstable and too slow to reliably cast during a fight. I can also absorb clay and loose stone to heal my body and increase its size.

Moriko is weakened, likely due to some internal conflict over her demonic blood that she doesn't know I know about. She's still by far my strongest fighter. She's a mobility based hammer wielder who can boost her attributes to suit the situation and has techniques to predict enemy actions, interrupt them and bash through heavy defences.

Reisarf is still a girl for reasons of stray magic but she can fight fine. My alienist possesses powerful but inaccurate attack magic and debilitating curses. She has a defensive random teleport if attacked but is otherwise quite fragile. She's just gained the ability to bind a second reserve of mana into her body so she has an impressive amount of mana to throw around.

Stargazer is Reisarf's staff and mentor. She helps Reisarf to cast spells, gives a little assistance in aiming and defends her wizard. She can also absorb mana from Reisarf to act independently, transforming her noodly form into something more combat ready. She's just gained the ability to absorb additional mana to transform further but it hasn't been tested yet.

Hin is my blacksmith, a half-ogre and is currently stuck in a slimy form due to a treatment to remove what turned out to be a giant parasitic worm that can swim through flesh. I should be turning her back tomorrow. She should probably sit this out.

Merud is my golemeter. He doesn't have much combat experience but does have useful spells for enhancing golems. He'd be most effective if fighting alongside them - or behind them - but can give some limited support to them if he can use long duration magic on them and then leave the room before adventurers enter.

Speaking of golems, I now have three brute golems. They are somewhat clumsy but they hit very hard. One of them is modified from an older golem by Merud - it's much more agile but not quite as tough. I also have six homunculi. They're quite fast for golems and I should be able to coordinate them effectively. Unlike the brute golems, they can benefit from healing magic and potions.

Chakarchelou is my quasidragon, a big lizard that can breathe smoke and sparks. He'll be a little fiercer if he's protecting his little hoard in the forge. He currently has a Covetous Ring to give him more benefits from hoarding gold but it hasn't shown much effect yet.

Belphejar Doyle is a cauldron gulper. It can produce strong but flawed potion effects from hastily brewing whatever its been fed and spray cursed potion broth at people. Its limit is about two potions unless fed with magical ingredients but I do have a surplus of imp corpses and raw mana. It's vulnerable to being tipped over.

Alkaline is my royal jelly. She's still developing but maybe I should consider giving her a taste of battle. Most pertinently she can collapse into a shadowy puddle of goo, throw globs of dangerous slime and produce weak healing goo, oil or sticky slime. She's currently looking after a pitifully weak slime that was was accidentally created from a severed piece of her body. The little slime needs to be kept away from adventurers and sharp objects in general.

Last of all is the cake mimic. It has the fighting ability of a cake combined with a crab and I can't resurrect it if it dies. It's staying in its cage.

3/4 Deem 2018/04/19(Thu)01:58 No. 879490 ID: e56bf6
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Assuming that it was that cat who told these new invaders where to find me, it might pay to play into their expectations. I'd get more mana that way - anticipation can be quite valuable for stirring up the earth-pulse.

In her own words, it was a "rocks, lizards and spooky things dungeon!"

I hastily threw everything I had at her to stall for my fledgling dungeon while I cast spells on Moriko in my Heart Chamber to create my final defender.

First off I had a basic fighting golem outside which she quickly defeated and Chakarchelou in the entry corridor who she also quickly bombarded with bombs.

I organised slightly more coherent opposition in the old flooded passage. Up top Hin got enhanced by Belphe's potions - stoneskin and enlargement - and promptly got labelled as some sort of troll witch by the invader. After Hin got whittled down by more bombs, the invader waded into the flooded passage.

Reisarf set up a good ambush by creating some ice platforms to stand on while he shot at her. She promptly decided he was some creepy child to beat up. Stargazer was transformed into a giant eel-like form and swimming around in the water undetected then pounced her. Unfortunately the cat had a trump card in the form of a barrier amulet and it took Moriko to put her down in the end.

So in other words a golem, a lizard, a giant 'witch' and her cauldron, a magician plus a aquatic monster and then my final boss were the fights in my dungeon.

4/4 Deem 2018/04/19(Thu)02:00 No. 879491 ID: e56bf6
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My dungeon has developed a lot since then.

However!

I don't think I can afford to let anyone into my Heart Chamber right now! It's still a complete mess due to that disastrous séance!

I've added the Golem Totem on the entry corridor. It currently has no effect as far as invaders are concerned. It's a small room with corner pillars and a large obstacle in the middle so it's not ideal for fighting in.

On the left just before the locked door to my Heart Chamber is Hin's forge and Chakarchelou's normal lair.

The flooded passage has been replaced with the Thaumatorium, a special room that alters magic cast within. It currently occasionally turns attack spells into healing for the caster. Due to the success of the ice platforms I've retained a deep pool with stepping stones.

The chest at the back has the key to my Heart Chamber so I absolutely need to stop them there.

How should I arrange my forces?

>>879491

You should grab a table and place it outside with the cake mimic on it, and a servant golem next to the table offering the adventurers a drink. Must've been quite a walk here.

If playing with anticipation is good, maybe distribute your forces like they were originally, but as a facade. The slimes but maybe Moriko makes a guest appearance, golems but Merud comes in and coordinates and rallies them, Reisarf with a surprise attack by Belphajar, and you to finish them off if they get that far. That work for the earth pulse?

>>879495
Oh right, and I think Chakarchelou should be where he's happiest.

>I don't think I can afford to let anyone into my Heart Chamber right now!
Good, that means we can crush them before they ever get there! No holding back!

Follow the same general encounter, with the following changes:
-Greet the adventurers with the brute golem pair. They should attempt to utilize their brother Pancake (the door golem) to stall the adventurers.
-Replace Chakarchelou's encounter with Merud and his golem harem (the homunculi and upgraded fighter golems) just outside the golem totem. Merud, try to remember you're posing as a mad scientist and not a gleeful schoolboy.
-Chakarchelou fights alongside Doyle just outside the gymnasium doors, more or less where Hin was. They may be close enough to Merud's fight that Doyle can get a glimpse of what he's up against before turning Chakarchelou into something more fearsome than a frog.
-Divert your reinforcement powers to Reisarf and Stargazer. Moriko is still a capable fighter without your help, and if all goes well they will not enter her chamber anyway.
-Since you'll be in that wing already, use your Gigant Form to appear after Reisarf's encounter. Or during it! You could provide useful cover for them to teleport behind if you can collect enough material, likely from that excavation behind the key.

Can Hin be resurrected safely with the Fixity Bangle attached? I want to put her in the forge room to both stall for time and redirect the adventurers should they choose the left path first, using words instead of violence if possible.
Alkaline needs to keep a constant watch on the gelatin slime and thus must be benched again.

>>879491
Well, if you want to be unfair, here is what you do:

Have Reisarf stand close-ish to the entrance of the thaumatorium and flee into it when (s)he sees the adventurers. Merud and the golems (he should probably be behind the squishiest) will be waiting hidden split between those alcoves the imps/your magic dug, and attack from behind once the adventurers engage with Reisarf and Stargazer at the water. Merud's control should help the otherwise clumsy golems not sink themselves.

Moriko, Chakarchelou, Belphejar, and Alkaline and her pet can sit in the smith area as a last-last line of defense. Couple reasons for this. Moriko isn't likely to appreciate being a part of the ambush going on on the other side, and so we set her as the guardian of our slime princess. It's a task that she can put her will into. Even if they don't fight at all, the experience of being -ready- to fight will help Alkaline. Plus, Alkaline is the least vulnerable to Belph's stray curse goo, so having them on a team is sensible.

Also, if the adventurers do make it that far and off that terrible slime, they're doing us a favor. Alkaline will have to face the facts of sending slimes to their deaths against adventurers sooner or later.

Open with Belphejar and a Brute. Troll Witch is a bust, Belph may as well go wild. Unless one of the Homunculi can pull off the petrified Troll-witch look?
Regardless, Belph and a golem at the entrance. Belph has too many imps stuffed down its maw hoping for something spooky to come out. The golem Keeps Belph upright and is less vulnerable to potions. Hopefully the adventurers pick up a couple of mild curses that set a tone for their stay.

Can you open locked doors? It would be nice to split up the golem encounter for more rocks.
First corridor encounter is a brute and two humunculi. Can you make the homunculi look like corpses? The brute could be carrying them to its "evil master" and throw the corpses at the party before attacking. Then the corpses get up and attack from behind. Setting up something for them to hit without breaking would help. Clay piles might be enough, or some boxes, even stone ones would break a fall by collapsing.

Reisarf and the Thamatorium is certain. They are too specialised for each other. Slimes might make an alternative later, and you might get another ranged threat someday, but for now...

When they get back to the corridor, Merud is waiting with the remaining homunculi and his personal Brute. Maybe the homunculi look more stony? Merud has been turning people into golems?

Finally the Smithy has Char and Moriko. It is a bit slap-dash, but it should be solid.
Or you could join Moriko. The two of you should work quit well together and Char can be the final encounter.

As for the boss...
Putting the Boss Mode on Moriko would focus on keeping them out of your heart. But with weaker boss enchantments? Also Moriko was boss last time, and the enchantments will be putting a strain on her. Best to save her strength for next time.
Dragon-riding Moriko would be a sight, but a giant Char would be cramped in the smithy. A shrunk Char maybe? With the same net strength plus some enchantments?
Or you could put all the size enchantments on Hin and hope that the adventurers don't notice the state of your heart because there is a wall of slime filling their corner of the room...
Or you could boss mode yourself and focus the boss-mode on terrain deforming, try to personally shove everything under the carpets...

This introduces a bit of an undead theme which is creepy not ideal. Also you want to be true to your theme of the future. Which is rocks and curses and slimy things in dark corners? Everything will be better when Alkaline grows up...

Moriko and Alkaline should guard the key. Stash that noncombatant slime in a crack in the wall behind the key, and close it up with an 'employees only' sealing designation.

Rei and Stargazer in the thaumatorium, of course. Have them focus on defense-in-depth, maybe set up walls of ice between the platforms to make jumping trickier and otherwise delay the intruders rather than attacking directly.

Golem brute squad near the entrance, maybe in the actual golem totem room, to play into that familiarity and get initial intel on the intruders at minimal cost. You and Merud can both lay some buff spells. Maybe focus on magic resistance? Wizards are harder to predict, so intel on them is more valuable.

While Merud is buffing the brute squad, Hin and Belphejar paint a sign on the wall: two big arrows, one pointing left (toward the forge and boss room) labeled "wealth beyond measure" and one pointing right (toward the thaumatorium) labeled "pain, confusion, and doom." Another boost to anticipation, and it'll be fun to see whether they get caught up in second-guessing the sign's accuracy.

Once that setup is in place, Hin and Merud retreat to the forge. Chakarchelou is stationed there as well (of course), along with all the homunculi. Belphejar and Merud stay in back, providing healing and support for the golems. In particular, Merud should be focused on keeping the homunculi from getting in each others' way.

Probably want to put the heaviest reinforcement on Chakarchelou, playing into the figurative and literal fire of a dragon ferociously defending it's lair (which happens to be a forge). Go easy on size boosts, though since that's going to be tight quarters already with so many people.

>>879505
Almost forgot! Deem's golem-body should stay with the brute squad, in the golem totem room. Willingness to take personal risks on the front line goes a long way toward maintaining morale and respect from subordinates, and it's also a last-ditch backup option. Worst case, if these adventurers DO make it through your defenses and plunder the heart chamber, you might be able to pull yourself together (with that clay-absorbing ability) in time to cut off their retreat, salvaging the situation before all that gold actually leaves the dungeon.

>>879491
If we want to spin a narrative:
Make it look like Merud and the Golems made a hostile takeover.

>>879502
Wow, we want to be unfair to the adventurers, not our slime daughter. Hin can watch over the baby slime in the living room.
Send out Brute+ as greeter again. That will show it's the same dungeon, but bigger and meaner this time.
Have Merud meet them in the middle backing up the two regular brutes. This would be a good time to pester the adventurers for how they heard about the- no, his dungeon.
Back Chak up in the forge with the homunculi. Draw out as many of the adventurers' trump cards as possible and for the earth pulse's sake, don't clump up and get taken out by an AoE spell.
Help Alkaline and Doyle lay an ambush in the cisterns. Doyle can eat some imps and use the brew to put debuffs on the adventurers, so they affect more than one encounter. A stockpile of Bad Eggs will serve up some poetic justice. (Hopefully neither of those count as spells.)
Deem and Moriko, help Reisarf and Stargazer protect the chest. 4 on 2's not exactly playing nice, but I'm sure the earth pulse will forgive you if their deaths are flashy enough. While you're at it, shove the chest into the alcove so there's just that much more ground they have to cover.
I'm torn between reinforcing Reisarf again and reinforcing Alkaline. Both have proven fearsome fighters under your influence but... oh right, Reisarf's reinforcement involved going shirtless. I pick that one!
It won't displease the earth pulse if you leave the boss room empty, will it? If worst comes to worst, you should recall your body early in order to be ready for a second encounter.

Since the key is effectively the treasure to be defended, the Thaumatorium is the temporary Boss Room. The first thing we should do is make another dumb door and place it's key in the forge with the small treasure.
For consistence and to repeat a promising strategy Reisarf and Stargazer will be the bosses.
Chakarchelou will defend his hoard and the new boss key. Although it won't be thematically appropriate, he will need some assistance to balance how much reward he offer. I say he should be guarded by the two brutes, together to avoid repeated encounters.
Since the quasidragon is supposed to be the second encounter the first one should be a golem similar to the original guard. The one modified by Merud is very similar and just slightly more threatening, what will help support the catgirl version of the events. This time let's put our first encounter in the corridor between the rooms instead of the entrance.
Can Moriko and Merud still coordinate golem extensions? If not let's pair Moriko with Deem instead. Either way Moriko and someone else hide outside the dungeon and ambush them after the invaders defeat Chakarchelou. Alkaline can accompany them if she want.
Deem or Merud, depending on the previous pairing, will be at the Thaumatorium with Belphejar and the six homunculi, right in front of the entrance, for a sub-boos fight. Our new golems are far less likely to complain at the side effects of the living cauldron potions.
Empowered Reisarf will watch the fight from the other end of the room and empowered Stargazer will swim until the invaders get close to the pool or attack Reisarf.
Hin will look after the weak slime if Alkaline decide to participate.

>>879491
Chakarchelou, Doyle, and Alkaline can fight in the Forge room. Alkaline should try to use Shadow Slick to grab the wizard. Doyle can reinforce Chakarchelou and hit the fighter with some harmful potion effect.
This is mainly a training battle for Alkaline. After the Shadow Slick she should practice using a variety of abilities, see what works best.

Put all your golems in that big hallway, with Merud enhancing them. This might be enough sheer mass to bring down the adventurers. The brutes can keep the fighter occupied while the smaller golems swarm the wizard.

Have Moriko and Reisarf/Stargazer in the Thaumatorium. That's enough combined firepower to take out the party on its own, really.

I council Alkaline and Doyle being separate. Alkaline is prone to drinking anything she steps in, and is one of Doyle's favourite foods. I see them as a great Team Alchemical someday, but they have yet to even brew their first potion together.
No! Stop! Innuendo, I love you, but not here, not now, not like this!

>>879565
Have a little faith your minions. Deem's already distilled the fear of Deem into that cauldron. Alkaline also has a powerful ability to turn negative effects into positive ones.

>>879579
I forget, but was that curse reverse power constant or random? I have this feeling it's not reliable, save for her luck.

>>879581
I think it's random conversion.

>>879491
You really need to add some more rooms before he heart chamber, it makes it quite a pain to try and keep interlopers away from it.

As for arrangements, I say group up Merud and the Brute Golems, and hope that his support will offset their clumsiness. I guess they'd be the first round of defense, so for lack of a better option either in the Totem room, or in the hall right off of it, assuming that counts as a separate area from the forge and thaumatorium.

Moriko, Reisarf and Stargazer can team up in the Thaumatorium. Moriko doesnt use attack spells really, so she can be the decisive striker, And focus on jumping around and keeping the intruder off the platforms when she can while the dynamic duo take shots at them. Both Stargaze and Reisarf can probably last a lot longer then usual due to the latter's secondary mana pool, and the random healing, and if need be, Stargazer can take her transformed states and also give Moriko an mobility boost by acting as a moving platform for her as well as fighting. If they can make it a fight of attrition, I dont see them losing.

the Last Group in the forge I think should be Deem, Chak, Belphajar, and a few homunculi golems to support Belph. The Homunculi and Deem can also benefit from potions now, so the can alternate fighting and feeding him ingredients as needed. Deem can probably buff either Chak or Belph or both, Size and speed buffs should work.

The slime team can stay in the safe room, Hin is still weakened, and Alkaline is preoccupied with the derp slime and hasnt finished her combat training yet.

>>879601
Then it's better to not chance it. I'm on board for careful training for her and Belphy, though it's not time to plan anything long term.

I just want to say, as someone who heard about this quest a couple days ago, that it's great, you're great, all things related to it are great, and Alkaline is best girl.

1/1 Deem 2018/04/25(Wed)03:55 No. 880609 ID: e56bf6
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>Send out Brute+ as greeter again. That will show it's the same dungeon, but bigger and meaner this time.
Right, it's already waiting at the Golem totem anyway. I send it to the entrance.

>Can you open locked doors? It would be nice to split up the golem encounter for more rocks.
No. Once they've been locked they stay locked until the adventurers are gone or they've used the key.

>You really need to add some more rooms before he heart chamber, it makes it quite a pain to try and keep interlopers away from it.
Yes, I know. They currently have to go through every room in the dungeon bar the Resurrection Matrix but that's clearly not enough.

>Put all your golems in that big hallway, with Merud enhancing them. This might be enough sheer mass to bring down the adventurers. The brutes can keep the fighter occupied while the smaller golems swarm the wizard.
>The forge I think should be Deem, Chak, Belphajar, and a few homunculi golems to support Belph.
>Moriko, Chakarchelou, Belphejar, and Alkaline and her pet can sit in the smith area as a last-last line of defense.
I don't think some of you have a very clear idea of how much space I have to play with. Also I have no control over whether the invaders visit the forge first or the thaumatorium and I should hold someone back to act act as my final guardian should everything else fail. But I'll finalise placements in a moment.

>Have Moriko and Reisarf/Stargazer in the Thaumatorium. That's enough combined firepower to take out the party on its own, really.
>Moriko, Reisarf and Stargazer can team up in the Thaumatorium. Moriko doesn't use attack spells really, so she can be the decisive striker, And focus on jumping around and keeping the intruder off the platforms when she can while the dynamic duo take shots at them. Both Stargaze and Reisarf can probably last a lot longer then usual due to the latter's secondary mana pool, and the random healing, and if need be, Stargazer can take her transformed states and also give Moriko an mobility boost by acting as a moving platform for her as well as fighting. If they can make it a fight of attrition, I don't see them losing.

"Is something the matter, Deem?" Merud asks me.

"Yes, adventurers!"

"Already?"

"Yes! A warrior and a wizard supporting him, I think. Seeing the state of my Heart Chamber, we need to stop them before they get that far. Reisarf, Stargazer, Moriko, I need you three in the thaumatorium."

They put their bowls down and get to their feet. Reisarf checks her shirt to see she didn't spill anything on it.

Since Doyle and I won't be there, there's no magical aid to take into account but I won't be able to give them any advice once they leave this room.

Moriko's good against anything - she's mobile, can potentially interrupt spells as they're being cast and breaks heavy defences. Reisarf's set up well to fight from the platforms in the pool. The only worry is friendly fire due to her low accuracy. She also has curses to weaken enemies. Stargazer mainly supports Reisarf.

The main decisions to be made tactically are who should focus on fighting who and whether Stargazer should use her Independent Action immediately or save it for part way through the fight.

>Reisarf checks her shirt to see she didn't spill anything on it.
Suuuure.

Geek the mage first, of course. They should be Moriko's primary target.
Reisarf, focus on using your spells to limit enemy mobility, primarily the fighter's, rather than trying to hit them directly. If you can separate the adventurers or cut off their escape they'll be easier targets for Moriko. Try not to overdo it on the formlessness curse, hammerai techniques aren't so effective on slimes.
Stargazer should stick with Reisarf at the start to assist in aiming, then split up if things start going south.

Do you plan on keeping yourself in reserve for the final boss, then? Seems that whoever you reinforce (unless it's yourself) can only make it to the forge room or stay here with the time allotted.

going to have to say that Moriko should focus on the mage since they are kinda glass cannons and it should limit the fighter if he doesn't have his support.

Reisarf/Stargazer should stick together until things start falling apart as it could be nice ace up our sleeve that could catch the adventurers flat footed and give us the win. But while they're together they should try to get the parties attention and bog them down with spells and curses. If they need to split up though Reisarf should just hurl spells out while Stargazer flanks.

Plan of attack I have is to have Moriko hide somewhere if she can then when the adventures enter the room and start fighting Reisarf/Stargazer. The warrior should move in to try and take Reisarf down. That's when Moriko should enter the battle herself and hopefully catch the mage unguarded and surprised enough to be taken out quickly. Failing that hopefully we'd split the party enough that Moriko can get some blows in before it just devolves into fight between two warriors backed by mages.

Yeah, Reisarf limiting the fighter and Moriko separating then demolishing the mage sounds good.

>>880611
The duo aren't marching directly to our doorstep, they don't know where it is. We've got some time.

As for combat advice for moriko and Reisarf. Tell them to focus down one of the pair, which one that bites it doesn't really matter. Bonus points if they can reveal any enemy secrets like healing potions or things like that.

As for every one else. Doyle, Alkaline and Hin are 2/3rds support staff and 1/3rd effectively on bed rest, so usher them into the resurrection matrix so they don't get involved.

Put chaka in the forge along with two homuncli for backup.

The remainder of your golems should go in the heart chamber for the final showdown and also to clean it up using the homunculi golems so tidying it up is a breeze)

Remind Rei to only start using direct attack spells after being injured at least a little bit. Make the healing conversion look intentional.

>>880609
I think Moriko should focus on punishing the caster while Reisarf's teleportation powers and Stargazer support stop their fighter from doing the same.

This gives the adventurers the decision between saving their nerd or letting Reisarf curse away unimpeded.

>>880609
If friendly fire is an issue, then Reisarf should open up with a bunch of spells at the start then switch to curses and Independent Action to support Moriko once the enemies draw close.

Moriko doesn't even need to defeat the mage, just threatening them can keep the fighter defending. Reisarf has the thaumatorium supporting their defences, so the same shouldn't hold true for the challengers, barring some sort of punchingolem wizard... Even with friendly fire, bomarding the area should be a net win.

Remind them all that they are on a team. Reisarf should mind Moriko's position. Moriko shouldn't try to win by herself. Stargazer should focus on pressuring them with Moriko rather than protecting Reisarf.

Sadly, you will need to limit your appetite if you want to keep them out of your core. Epic struggles get the mana flowing, but it is methodical slaughter that holds the line.

Considering we have a bevy of golems, your avatar included, who benefiet from potions, we should probably see what Belphe can whip up quick. A buffed up golem team could make a good ambush, reinforcements, or possibly form the basis of a boss encounter (yourself, supported with minions).

>Reisarf checks her shirt to see she didn't spill anything on it.
I'm sure that's it.

If she's going to be that way, maybe she needs a skimpy outfit to distract adventurers into making a mistake? ...hmmm. Better not, too much change she distracts herself.

>Alkaline is my royal jelly. She's still developing but maybe I should consider giving her a taste of battle. Most pertinently she can collapse into a shadowy puddle of goo, throw globs of dangerous slime and produce weak healing goo, oil or sticky slime
Hit and run tactics might be good? Have her harry them. Puddle come out of hiding spot, she pops up, goo-throws from their six or their flank, then back to the puddle and run / hide. Have her be their shadow, ready to pop up at the worst moment.

Maybe stick poor Explodey with Hin, since neither of them are fit to fight right now.

1/2 Deem 2018/04/26(Thu)06:39 No. 880793 ID: e56bf6
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>Stargazer should stick with Reisarf at the start to assist in aiming, then split up if things start going south.
Makes sense.

>Have Moriko hide somewhere if she can
I don't think she'd approve of making a sneak attack under these circumstances.

>Remind them all that they are on a team. Reisarf should mind Moriko's position. Moriko shouldn't try to win by herself. Stargazer should focus on pressuring them with Moriko rather than protecting Reisarf.
"I need you three to work together. Be mindful of each others' situations and don't try to do everything yourselves."

>Remind Rei to only start using direct attack spells after being injured at least a little bit. Make the healing conversion look intentional.
"Reisarf, I want you to focus on curses at first. The thaumatorium will occasionally provide healing instead of attack magic so that'll be wasted if you aren't hurt."

"Will I need a new haircut if that happens?" Reisarf asks me.

Did I manage to stop the Resurrection Matrix from doing that? My memory's a little fuzzy. "Try not to die." I tell her.

>I think Moriko should focus on punishing the caster while Reisarf's teleportation powers and Stargazer support stop their fighter from doing the same.
>This gives the adventurers the decision between saving their nerd or letting Reisarf curse away unimpeded.
"They'll focus on bogging down the fighter while you harass the mage, Moriko. Reisarf, let Stargazer join in the fight once you've started to wear them down."

Moriko nods. I guess she used up her words for the day this morning.

>If Reisarf's going to be that way, maybe she needs a skimpy outfit to distract adventurers into making a mistake? ...hmmm. Better not, too much change she distracts herself.
Do you think I keep a supply of skimpy outfits on hand?

>The duo aren't marching directly to our doorstep, they don't know where it is. We've got some time.
Outside, the grass rustles. The adventurers emerge. In the lead is a heavily armoured warrior, carrying a variety of weapons. Most prominently I spot a war pick slung over his shoulder. Presumably for fighting golems and other tough bodied things.

"Think this is the place?" he says over his shoulder.

"Mmmm." his companion says. A wizard. Also a cat. Judging by the blackened staff she's carrying, possibly a pyromancer?

I usher Reisarf, Stargazer and Moriko to the Heart Chamber's door. "They're here! Get in position!"

2/2 Deem 2018/04/26(Thu)06:42 No. 880794 ID: e56bf6
File 152475012207.png - (18.44KB , 800x600 , reference_deem_provided_for_scale.png )

The adventurers will be fighting the enhanced brute golem in a matter of seconds so I need to get the rest of my defenders out the door and lock down my Heart Chamber immediately!

>Sadly, you will need to limit your appetite if you want to keep them out of your core. Epic struggles get the mana flowing, but it is methodical slaughter that holds the line.
I don't believe they can win, but I don't want to take too many risks testing that. Moriko and Reisarf are probably enough but it'd be preferable to soften those adventurers up first.

>Do you plan on keeping yourself in reserve for the final boss, then? Seems that whoever you reinforce (unless it's yourself) can only make it to the forge room or stay here with the time allotted.
I should hold someone back in the Heart Chamber, just in case.

>Maybe stick poor Explodey with Hin, since neither of them are fit to fight right now.
She's more of an Edibley.

>Considering we have a bevy of golems, your avatar included, who benefit from potions, we should probably see what Belphe can whip up quick. A buffed up golem team could make a good ambush, reinforcements, or possibly form the basis of a boss encounter (yourself, supported with minions).
>Hit and run tactics might be good for Alkaline? Have her harry them. Puddle come out of hiding spot, she pops up, goo-throws from their six or their flank, then back to the puddle and run / hide. Have her be their shadow, ready to pop up at the worst moment.
Those could both work.

There's limited remaining space to work with.

The Golem Totem is the smallest room in my dungeon. I could fit up to two of my denizens in there. Anything past that and it'll start getting too cramped to fight effectively.

The smithy is a little larger but even then I shouldn't go through past three. It's closer to the entry than the thaumatorium but I don't know which room they'll visit first. I think I will at least put Chakarchelou here to defend his gold.

Lastly, I could have my denizens fight up to three abreast in the hallway, or just two for ones who need more space to move. I have very few ranged attackers at the moment however.

I don't have to fill up every room but I should give the invaders at least one fight between the entrance and thaumatorium just to test their mettle.

>Do you think I keep a supply of skimpy outfits on hand?
You do now! One of the homunculi can go naked if need be.

Stick the other brutes in the totem. Have Merud reinforce them but stay outside to retreat to golem gang two.
The homunculi can form a phalanx in the east hall.
You don't need your body to channel reinforcements, right? Let's have you, Chak and Alkaline in the forge while Doyle prepares for a boss fight (that doubles as gelatin-clearing duty).

You have cats...
One pussy showing up is happenstance, but three? You only know of the one settlement, and they knew nothing of these kitties and now they are everywhere?
There is a settlement you do not know of. You have a feline infestation in your forests...

Potion lucky-dip! Belph must have something cooking. It should be a breeze for your amazing self to tell if they are bane or boon in an instant, and that is enough to get them in the field.

Alkaline is Johnny-on-the-spot with the potions. She stays hidden and tops people up or throws a toxin if she can do so without notice.

Obvious golem threat and stealth slime in the hallway seems like a fun way to kick things off.

Hmm. Okay, let's reserve the last two brutes for the final showdown and one of the homuncli.

The other three can be split up as follows.

Put one in the forge to provide backup for chaka.

Alkaline and the remaining two can station themselves in the passage between the forge and the thaumatorium. In fact, put the two golems at the thaumatorium side of the passage, give one of them your knife and have them pose like they both have knives. the knife armed one should go for the wizard. Have Alkaline hide as a puddle near the forge doorway and engage when the duo turn their attention to the golems.

Chakarchelou and your avatar go in the forge. If the adventurers head for the thaumatorium first, that gives you maximum setup time for dragon-theme reinforcement magic to hold the line. If they hit the forge first, you're buying Merud time for last-minute golem upgrades.

Merud and Alkaline hide way back in the deeper side passage, with brutes in front of them, while Belphejar is in the shallower side passage, and two ranks of homunculi in the hallway. Homunculi in front try to dogpile the fighter, maybe get the wizard to spend an expensive area-effect spell before the real main force is in play, then Belphejar steps out to buff or heal them, or spray nasty goo on the wizard from a flanking position. Brutes in back receive buffs and guidance from Merud to hit whatever weak points become apparent, Alkaline gets more practice as rear-echelon leadership and Bad Egg grenadier.

>>880794
You could set up a pincer attack at the hallway. If possible Alkaline could hide in the totem room to block the door behind them(is the door set up with a mechanism that can be blocked?), otherwise I suppose you'll just have to let them retreat if they want to... but Alkaline could still ambush them as they attempt a retreat? Instead of Alkaline hiding and potentially being spotted, she could just sneak past the adventurers with Shadow Slick as they exit and harry them from behind to try to convince them to stay away from the door.

Big brutes in the hallway with Merud behind them on one side. Doyle behind the alchemical golems on the other side.

Cover the most basic of basics of slime-care with Hin.
If she were to, say, feed it soup, and it became over-hydrated and lost cohesion, then Alkaline would have difficulties trusting you or Hin in the future. Hin already hurt you once by trying to be helpful, and her current body is unfamiliar and that slime is... less resilient than your heart.

>>880793
The great thing about skimpy outfits is that a normal outfit can be converted into a skimpy outfit with a knife and a moments notice!

Hide at least one enhanced golem in the crack in the thaumatorium to ambush them from behind when they focus on Moriko and Rei. Wait- ask Moriko about that. Hammurai have a code of honor after all.

so Chakarchelou will be in the smithy then to defend his gold?

If so I say put Belphe in their with him with one of you homunculi to be supported by the potions that Belphe can spit out, while having the other three homunculi in the hallway also with some potions that Belphe spit out. Granted the hallway ones will only be able to be boasted by the potions they grab before the fighting begins but lone homunculi in the smithy could keep getting buffed by Belphe along with Chakarchelou to hopefully wear the pair down enough either by whittling down their health making Moriko and Reisarf/Stargazer job easier or at least by having the mage waste enough energy that they won't be able to cast as much during the fight.

1/3 Deem 2018/04/28(Sat)20:25 No. 881418 ID: e56bf6
File 152497231581.png - (34.02KB , 750x600 , golem_guards.png )

>You don't need your body to channel reinforcements, right?
That's exactly what I need. I can only use magic on something near my Heart or my golem body.

>Stick the other brutes in the totem.
Right, Chakarchelou will appreciate the extra muscle defending his hoard.

>>Do you think I keep a supply of skimpy outfits on hand?
>You do now! One of the homunculi can go naked if need be.
I don't think so.

>The great thing about skimpy outfits is that a normal outfit can be converted into a skimpy outfit with a knife and a moments notice!
That doesn't seem sustainable.

>The homunculi can form a phalanx in the east hall.
I've got a few random weapons pieced together from playing around with my stoneforging, it's not exactly a phalanx. I'll just send three golems so I have a workforce after the fight and to reduce the temptation for the invaders to drop a fireball on them.

"Should I be doing anything?" Merud asks.

"We need to get all the golems back on their feet after the fight and that'll be easier if you're not sick from resurrection." I grab my knife wielding homunculus by the shoulders and thrust it at him. "Use your magic on this one though."

>Belphejar steps out to buff or heal them, or spray nasty goo on the wizard from a flanking position. Brutes in back receive buffs and guidance from Merud to hit whatever weak points become apparent, Alkaline gets more practice as rear-echelon leadership and Bad Egg grenadier.
I turn to my little royal jelly. "Alkaline, take these three golems and Belphe to the hallway and defend it. You're the boss."

"Boss!" Alkaline clenches her fists in excitement and runs off to find her whupping stick.

2/3 Deem 2018/04/28(Sat)20:26 No. 881419 ID: e56bf6
File 152497239132.png - (35.35KB , 800x500 , mexicat_standoff.png )

>You have cats...
>One pussy showing up is happenstance, but three? You only know of the one settlement, and they knew nothing of these kitties and now they are everywhere?
>There is a settlement you do not know of. You have a feline infestation in your forests...
I don't think the warrior's one - the helmet ears are in the wrong place. Also there's that one catman who I almost recruited, there clearly is a settlement within a few days' travel of here.

Speaking of which, I need to check on my brute golem.

"Watch out, golem!" The wizard puts his hand up to tell the wizard to keep back. My golem slowly lifts one of its oversized hands and waves.

"Did your sister say it was that big? I don't think she did."

"Nnnn." His companion doesn't seem to talk much.

"Strange, she's never one to understate things."

"Mmmm."

The warrior takes a step forward. "It's got a lot of reach and she said it was tricksy, going to give a little help?"

"Nyah."

She baps him on the head with her staff. He suddenly shoots up in height. An expansion spell. A flickering core of light starts orbiting her staff. Leftover mana. Definitely a pyromancer then. That's something to be wary of. Those embers can be used up to empower spells. I guess their plan is to use support magic to ease the warrior through the opening fights and burn up their big attacks on serious opposition.

Wait, they're fighting. Agh, he's fast!

That means I need to get the door to my Heart Chamber locked right now so I need my remaining defenders in position!

3/3 Deem 2018/04/28(Sat)20:28 No. 881420 ID: e56bf6
File 152497250071.png - (23.60KB , 600x750 , belphe_bully.png )

Alkaline, what are you doing?

"No Alkaline, Doyle's not for riding."

She looks at me. "But boss?"

I think I'll need to give her a formation and advice. I can have her stay behind the homunculi at the start and throw Bad Eggs or try to ambush with her Shadow Slick.

Next how to use Belphe's potions. Its stronger at boosting its allies than weakening its enemies. It's been eating a fair few magical ingredients (mainly imps and slime milk) so I should be able to get a decent selection of magical effects out of it to enhance the homunculi, Alkaline or possibly both. I could go for lots of strengthening effects at the start or hold back some for healing or changing strategy.

>>881420
She's just incapable of not being adorable, isn't she?

don't be too hard on her, she probably saw you riding the other brute and assumed riding things was a boss thing.

at any rate just explain that belph can't spit if she is on his lid.

>>881420
Let's try having her use Shadow Slick. ...also she may need something better than that stick.

Since we don't know all the tricks the adventurers can put out, have some effects on reserve to adapt.

The adventurers are starting with lots of buffs, hoping to get through the start easily. I'd say matching them with your own strength buffs would wear them down a lot faster than they expect.

Arhra 2018/04/28(Sat)20:44 No. 881425 ID: e56bf6
File 152497347593.png - (14.41KB , 640x560 , belphe_corrections.png )

Oops, dropped the ball on the proofreading this time.

Most importantly, the brutes are with Chakarchelou in the forge. I grabbed the wrong quote.

This is probably Doyle's fault

Doyle ahould save some juice to adapt mid-fight. Alkaline should use shadow slick so that wizard can't just stand idly by and solve whole fights just by buffing the fighter.

>>881425
Mean :(

>>881420
Have the three golems arranged in front of Belph and make him look like the boss while Alkaline shadow slicks behind them for an ambush. Start with a bad egg barrage then see if she can goo the mage to death. This setup is bad for taking out the warrior, tho.

>>881420
Also explain that Belph's mouth is up there and he needs to be able to open it. That's why you can't ride him.

> Definitely a pyromancer
Doyle should focus on potions of fire resistance. Save the complicated strategizing for when you've got more time to prepare.
> giant warrior armed with a pick
Maybe make the homunculi slightly larger and stronger to match, and add some sort of tar-baby effect to snare the weapon after a hit? Plays into the slime theme.
>instructions for Alkaline
Cauldron-throne could be an interesting thematic concept, actually. Have Alkaline pretend that the troll witch (Hin) was usurped by her former minions (Belphejar) and experiments (Alkaline herself) while recovering from wounds inflicted by that previous adventurer. Makes the wizard's sister's actions that much more significant, even though she was ultimately unsuccessful. The idea that this is a dynamic environment they can leave their own lasting mark on ought to really help get the Earth Pulse pounding, no?

>drop a fireball on homunculi
It should take a very intense flame to damage clay. Is their hair flammable?
Belphejar is a cooking pot. A cooking pot with vital organs and sensitive concoctions, but still heat resistant. Alkaline could use fire resistance against blasts, but it likely won't be enough if they sight and focus her.
Strength potions would stop the fighter from overwhelming them.
Fire-breath potions could cook the corridor, the pyromancer would be discouraged from adding to that and fighter would lose endurance... Imp-juice is a source of fire?

Shove some glue eggs down Belph postbuffing, for some sticky potion to sludge the fighter, and a visible source of glue to hide Alkaline's sneaky gluing.

Would it benefit Alkaline to feign being a chemical spill from alchemy?

>Sitting on Belphejar Doyle's mouth.
He? eats magic and renders it to fluid, she is a magical fluid. It would be like asking her to carry the cake mimic inside herself in an air pocket. We trust each other and know nothing bad will happen, but it is unwise, but mostly impolite.
Congratulate her on those legs though, they are really well defined! Can she jump with them?

>>881436
To be honest, her arriving on a throne dressed as a queen is pretty aesthetic.

>>881418
Heart *or* golem body. So that's a no, you could send one of them ahead while you reinforce the boss. But since you're staying behind, it's a moot point.
For formation, have Alkaline fighting ahead of the golems while Doyle provides support from the back.
Alkaline, stop teasing the poor pot. He's going to buff you and the golems so you can go to town on the adventurers. Use your Shadow Slick to flank them and pepper them with Bad Eggs. Watch out for your core when fighting - the fighter came prepared to pierce armor.
Have Doyle buff the club wielding golem with one potion and Alkaline with the other. I suggest something speedy to counter the fighter's spell of biggity. Alkaline's curse inversion may mitigate the side effects.
Another reason to suggest speed potions is because Doyle will be retreating early to go find imp corpses and come back, if he can, so he can reload.

>>881470
Oh, is there a bit of a windup to the Bad Egg attack? If I had to pick between Bad Egg and Shadow Slick, the quick slick would win out.

>She looks at me. "But boss?"
Yes, you're the boss, but Doyle can't make potions with you blocking his lid.

>potions
You know, since the homunculi can drink potions but aren't actually living organics, you might be able to get away with double-edged potions. Things that come with a buff and a side effect, but the side effect doesn't matter as much to a golem as it would to an ordinary person.

I think strengthening effects are good.

Fireproofing especially, since we know they have a pyromancer. If possible, it'd be nice to bait her into wasting mana on a big fire attack only to then discover we protected against that.

>>881420
Speaking of Strengthening, is there any way we can have Alkaline access some water during the fight? Besides the potential mass increase, it might be useful to have her able to hose the pyromancer down in the middle of casting a spell once or twice.

I think using shadow slick to ambush would be the most useful.

Additionally, I would save at least some of Doyle's juice for when we know more about the heros' strategies. Buffs are great, but having a specific counter to the enemy's strategy is probably more valuable that a generic boost.

>It should take a very intense flame to damage clay.
It's WET clay, though, isn't it? Doesn't clay tend to become hard and rigid when exposed to fire? Even if that doesn't kill golems, it seems like their bodies hardening wold make them very vulnerable to other attacks.

Fire can kill golems, especially homunculi, but not as quickly as it will kill nearly anything else?

why aren't we all just rushing these dweebs at once? switch it up with a knuckledown frree for all brawl!

>>881696
That's not how things are run here. You must be new.

>>881700
I mean, that's not just not procedure, that'd be a cluster fuck. Tiny areas, friendly fire, a probably AoE heavy pyromancer...

>>881696
The goal is not to win, but instead to feed Deem. Deem eats glorious feats of grandeur, epic struggles, final acts of desperation, passionate confrontations... whatever gets The Earth Pulse buzzing. Of course, this ought currently be tempered to keep them out of the embarrassing boss room. Even then, rushing them might give Deem a bad reputation.

Deem might benefit from, when they take one path at her T-intersection, the group from the alternate path advance and hit them from behind while they are still recovering. Not two fights at once, but stringing them together into one really long fight...

>>881696
You don't group up against a blaster wizard, friend. Especially not when you've got your own blaster wizard who replaced aim with enthusiasm.

>>881420
Y'know, alkaline could probably use Doyle's lid as a shield and kick him into their midst bubbling and spewing hazardous liquids everywhere.

>>881895
pfftahahaha yeah I'm sure alkaline has the mass to knock over doyle with impunity. And even if she could, that'd leave him easy pickings for the warrior on top of expending all of his liquid capacity for something that probably won't work.

>>881895
No bullying Doyle! And the last thing Deem would want to do is teach Alkaline to bully, she'd just make herself a target with how easy it is!

Poor Alkaline. She can fling mud with the best of them, but doesn't have the backbone to take it...

1/5 Deem 2018/06/26(Tue)04:46 No. 890153 ID: 81d03b
File 153001357474.png - (24.34KB , 800x550 , the_time_has_come_the_golem_said.png )

>No bullying Doyle! And the last thing Deem would want to do is teach Alkaline to bully, she'd just make herself a target with how easy it is!
Excuse me?

>She's just incapable of not being adorable, isn't she?
We'll have to see if she can keep pulling that off in a battle.

>I think using Shadow Slick to ambush would be the most useful.
Yes, her taking down the wizard would be quite an achievement! I hope she can get some good hits in.

>Y'know, Alkaline could probably use Doyle's lid as a shield and kick him into their midst bubbling and spewing hazardous liquids everywhere.
Alkaline is physically strong for a slime, which isn't that impressive in the scheme of things. And Doyle's more effective boosting my other denizens.

>Don't be too hard on her, she probably saw you riding the other brute and assumed riding things was a boss thing.
>At any rate just explain that Belphe can't spit if she is on his lid.
I don't think so, it must be an independent innovation.

"No Alkaline, Belphe needs to be able to use potions and that can't happen if you're sitting on him."

She shifts around to try and find a position that might let Doyle open a crack. I hold up a finger to make a counterpoint. "I've got something very important that you need to do instead."

Slipping off, Alkaline comes to my side. I put a hand on her shoulder to maintain the correct spacing. "I need you to be very quiet and clever. Those golems and Belphe are the distraction. When the invaders are distracted by them, I need you to sneak up on the one in the green dress and treat her like a very big imp. Now go and look for a place to hide as a shadow near the forge door."

She races out, making a muffled, high pitched squeal of excitement.

I hope it all works out.

2/5 Deem 2018/06/26(Tue)04:47 No. 890154 ID: 81d03b
File 153001367589.png - (35.59KB , 900x450 , big_punch.png )

Doyle rocks in place, not sure if he should amble after her or wait for further instructions. I pick up a spare imp carcass and feed it to him.

>Fireproofing especially, since we know they have a pyromancer. If possible, it'd be nice to bait her into wasting mana on a big fire attack only to then discover we protected against that.
>Strength potions would stop the fighter from overwhelming them.
"Doyle, I want you to try and provide some fire resistance and strength enhancement. Can you do that?"

He does a jittery little dance on the spot. I think he's insulted.

Outside my advanced brute golem is struggling. The fighter is very good at knocking its punches off target and landing hits on its torso before getting back out of reach. No particularly damaging ones but I think he's being cautious to avoid injury.

His friend is just watching.

>Additionally, I would save at least some of Doyle's juice for when we know more about the heroes' strategies. Buffs are great, but having a specific counter to the enemy's strategy is probably more valuable that a generic boost.
"I want you to hold some potion in reserve too, in case they have something we're not expecting. I'll leave that to your discretion." I give him a little nudge with my shoe. "We don't have much time, get out there."

He races off.

3/5 Deem 2018/06/26(Tue)04:50 No. 890155 ID: 81d03b
File 153001381394.png - (32.99KB , 800x600 , fight_all_these_guys.png )

My door guard is defeated. Nothing but a few grazes to the fighter. I would have liked to have learnt a little more about their capabilities but that was an acceptable delay provided considering it was unsupported. That thermal expansion spell has worn off at least.

They come into the hall, pause to look around and move right, seeing Doyle and my trio of spell and potion enhanced golems waiting for them at the end. Mild potion side affects, mainly some skin discolouration by the looks of it. The lead golem is enhanced by Merud's magic as well. I feel the earth-pulse quickening as the invaders square off against my denizens. I hope they put in a good performance.

>Fire can kill golems, especially homunculi, but not as quickly as it will kill nearly anything else?
Their materials may be durable but the force animating them is fragile compared to the vitality of a living creature.

>Speaking of Strengthening, is there any way we can have Alkaline access some water during the fight? Besides the potential mass increase, it might be useful to have her able to hose the pyromancer down in the middle of casting a spell once or twice.
No time. I should think about adding a pool somewhere if I want slimes taking advantage of that.

"More golems and a witch's cauldron." the fighter comments, striding forward to interpose himself between them and his pyromancer friend.

"Mmmmm." she replies.

"Where's the witch?"

My mace wielding golem cautiously advances forward to engage them. I'll stagger the golems' approach in case the pyromancer gets trigger happy.

4/5 Deem 2018/06/26(Tue)04:52 No. 890156 ID: 81d03b
File 153001393713.png - (25.01KB , 800x600 , you_are_ten_years_too_early_to_ambush_me.png )

Shadows flow out behind them as Alkaline rushes to attack too. She bubbles out of her puddle, club held high and -

The pyromancer suddenly drops, dropping to one knee and sweeping out a leg to spin around and point her staff at Alkaline's torso.

The fighter glances over his shoulder. "She melted?" My golem lashes out, getting him to pay attention to his fight as a second golem closes in.

Did they spot the too deep shadows when they entered or maybe they were just looking out for a witch?

5/5 Deem 2018/06/26(Tue)04:53 No. 890157 ID: 81d03b
File 153001399656.png - (25.14KB , 600x750 , boss_decisions.png )

>Poor Alkaline. She can fling mud with the best of them, but doesn't have the backbone to take it...
Perhaps I was too greedy, thinking an ambush might be able to overcome the pyromancer. I probably should have supported Alkaline better. This pair seems to know what they're doing. Not to mention this cat is apparently that bomb throwing maniac's sister.

I still think it is unlikely they'll be able to get past Reisarf, Stargazer and Moriko but they've been playing their cards close to their chests so far. In case of further setbacks, I should prepare a final challenge.

I will be playing that role.

----------------------------------------
Deem
Level 1 Homunculus
----------------------------------------
Power: C (D=>C)
Vitality: B (D=>B)
Accuracy: D
Speed: D
Wits: E (D=>E)
Skill: C (D=>C)
Spirit: S
Luck: E

A mysterious golem girl from a lost era. Her body is meticulously crafted to contain a burning spirit, though the synchronisation seems to be imperfect. Luck is for the fortunate; she needs to force her own destiny.

----------------------------------------
Detected Abilities
----------------------------------------
Homunculus Body: Deem's body is an amalgam of alchemically treated clay and stone animated by her magic. This makes her difficult to injure and even her bare hands are effective weapons. She's refined an incomplete form of golemetry's Fourth Magic, the capacity to connect to the world, which makes her body more lifelike. It grants her the ability to eat and drink, gain small amounts of mana from doing so, benefit from potions and healing magic. It also grants her limited passive mana respiration, reducing the energy required to sustain her body.

Gigant Mode: Deem can heal and enlarge herself by absorbing additional earth, clay and loose rock into her body. The degree of physical improvement depends on size and the quality of materials used. A larger body is more mana intensive to move.

Stoneforging: By slowly infusing it with her mana, Deem can shape earth and stone like clay. The stone tools she can create with it are of high quality considering their material.

Hidden Reservoir: Deem can refill the mana reserves available to her golem body by drawing upon the energy stored in her Dungeon Heart. This gives her a mana capacity that vastly exceeds that of an ordinary magic user.

Ancient Power: Deem has strong affinities for earth magic, reinforcement, enchantment, curses and golemetry. However, due to Deem's limited circulation speed, simple spells are extremely slow compared an ordinary mage. Deem knows no Rote Spells, meaning there are no spells she can reliably cast under pressure.

High-Speed Ritual: The extraordinary density of mana channels in Deem's Heart fragment and her familiarity with massively parallel activations allows her to cast high complexity spell in a fraction of the time it would normally take.

Damaged Spell Channels: The damage which removed a fragment from Deem's Heart has lingering consequences, as some of her channels cross the cleaved surface. These severed circuits are not entirely responsive to Deem's control and cannot open or close properly, causing slow mana leakage. Additionally, if she's careless or unlucky when casting spells, she might activate a damaged channel.

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

I suppose I could simply recreate the Duo form I used to fight Moriko but I have the full magic of my Heart backing me this time. Perhaps there's a new concept I should try out?

>>890157
Just remember that like the other times you've entered a sort of boss form, the knockers are essential.

Other than that, could you possibly cover the floor of the room with clay in time? That way you could trip them up, move them around, or launch a nasty skewer from any angle in the room.

>>890158
Huge tracts of land stir the earth pulse like none other.

The adventurers are expecting a witch. So give them one! Fashion a witch hat with motifs of your minions, and prepare a hexing field of hexagonal platforms hexed with... woah, I'm getting a sense of deja vu here.
On second thought, reacquaint yourself with spider-limbs and engage them from a height advantage. By using a little of Gigant Form's power, you could make it really hurt (for them) if you dropped down on them. In close combat, many limbs will make it hard for the fighter to parry them all.
Gather the remaining gelatin into a coherent floor hazard, the best you can do with it now is make it look intentional. It's sort of like having a sticky web?

I got an idea. Can you make three bodies? Because What I'm thinking is if the adventures make it to you, have your clones act like your duo self while the real you hides either under the floor or in a wall (you can use the earth pulse to do that right?) But if they start getting worn down by the party then you pop out with the enlarging enchantment on yourself to become a giant. Add any enchantments that will make you more durable and give you a good chunk of strength and let you keep your agility even with you being as large as you would be. This part of the fight is where you'd be the center of attention and go and hunt down the most problematic member of the adventuring party with the duo clones punishing anyone that ignores them.

Idea with this fight is the duo will try and wear down the adventures and when things start looking dicy for them you burst out for some shock and aw have the duo move from fighters to rouges and start flanking any party member and trying to use divide and conquer tactics while you force the party to focus on you by being big, strong, and fast.

If you can't hide in a wall our under the floor could you give yourself an enchantment to make it seem like your nothing more then a statue or an alter and you could have your duo clones pray to you to try and sell the idea that you're just room decor so when you do enter the fight proper you still might catch them off guard?

>new concept to try out

how about playing up to expectations with >>890159 's witch motifs idea? current body and clothes are already pretty close to hitting that aesthetic actually.
if there's time to mess with the boss arena too, why not play up the shadow aspect of the dungeon somewhat and... make it poorly lit? okay I got nothing that wouldn't take ages to implement and definitely doesn't also hinder Deem, still it's an idea for later.

Add energy strings connecting the homunculi. Make them focus on surrounding enemies.

The catch is that the REAL danger is around their feet, where you do some earth stuff to set up proximity traps when you get them where they need to go.

>>890161
Combining Deem Duo and Gigant Form to do a statue-come-to-life schtick?
...I love it. Best plan.

>>890157
>Level 1
>Wits: E (D=>E)
Heh.

>>890173
Why did wits decrease?

>>890185
Probably the switch to homunculus, but any excuse is good to bully Deem.

Deem duo feels special. It was what you used to win Moriko's... favour and should be saved for... special occasions.

Fire and explosions work well on large targets with bits to blow off, as do stupid-strong fighter-grunts. Small is good. Something ranged would be nice, but they are mobile and experienced... Something subtle which can't be dodged?

Bulk up with Gigant then use a compression enchantment. Ludicrously dense feels like a good counter here and would match the wits adjustment.
Apply an intoxication curse to the whole room. It won't be that strong, but over time it will build up and ruin their control and coordination. A dense form should buy the curse its time.
See if you can get some ultra-dense plates for armour and self-localise a density-maintaining enchantment. That way they can be thrown, and as they leave the effect they will expand and explode, creating a scattering of rubble if you need a ranged attack-or-distraction.

>>890156
Oh, is she about to blast Alkaline point-blank? Put the Unstable Core front and center, let the wizard blow herself up.

>>890157
>>890173
Deem now has as much Wits as Alkaline. Make of that what you will.

>>890213
Pretty sure it's a little late for that.

>>890213
>>890220
She's pointing her staff more or less where she has the Unstable Core anyway. I don't know why it's not visible anymore (maybe Arhra forgot about it?) but even if it's under her Toxic Shroud now it'd probably explode from a fireball fired that close to her.

>>890236
You are assuming that Alkaline wasn't simply knocked out from getting blasted in the chest, unstable core or not. Given the paragraph immediately afterwards...

anyways. So, it seems like the wizard is more skilled at close quarters than she let on. And the fighter has a very defensive form. Given these two points, I'm not sure dual form is a good idea. You won't be able to get anywhere close to the wizard without one of your forms getting blasted and while I'm sure that you can double team the fighter... Well, then the wizard has a two for one special.

So let's not fight fair. Gigant mode and enhance yourself for speed and durability. If you can use stoneforging to make some throwing stone based weapons, that's even better. (javenlins/solid pillars would work well.) scatter them around the arena so you can toss them as needed to keep the wizard busy while you force the fighter to close the gap to YOU and not the other way around.

Gigant + spider-leg skirt. Make the legs heavily armored spikes, for a slow-and-telegraphed-but-unstoppable stabbing attack, and some barbs on the sides that a sufficiently agile hero could climb like a ladder while you're pulling it back out of the ground, thereby reaching the blinking weak point high up on your main body.

Mess around with alchemy and/or reinforcement magic on the orange goo to enhance it's tensile strength and stringiness, and tap into that fire aspect (along with the natural properties of sugar) so that any heating will toughen it up even more. When the wizard tries to hit your weak point with a bolt of fire from a safe distance, block with a shield-wall of goo and then fling the burning web back at them.

>>890248
I understood that paragraph as a commentary on Shadow Slick, but I guess we'll find out in a few months in the next update.

>>890256
I think the warrior guy just proved how good he is against slow-and-telegraphed-but-unstoppable, so let's not make it easy for him by giving him more of it.

>>890157
I like >>890158 's Idea of Filling the room you plan to fight in with loose earth material for you to manipulate, could lock down their foot work, or whip up a hand gravel/dust wave when need be.
You can also grab some boulders and round them off so your brutes can toss or bowl them at the adventurers, or use them as cover if need be.
For you yourself, You should probably save your Gigant form for partway through the fight, so you dont go into it with the increased mana drain, and a mid-fight transformation would both be very dramatic, AND have the possibility to throw them off guard. I'd also considering getting some curses ready, since by the time they get to you they should be at least a little worn out, So bogging them down with debuffs should be more effective.

The witch idea is fun but can you work Earth shaping into the fight? Or is it too intensive to work in a battle?

Shame about Alkaline. Maybe she could've done something to damage the staff if we'd planned it better, but it's all a learning experience. Nothing wrong with her performance anyway.

>>890349
We should have shaped her up a stone club too. At the very least it would be harder to burn.

>>890262
Ah, but the clever bit is, you can force them to attack or dodge in predictable directions - which you then block with webs of burning goo. Once they're all tangled up and distracted, slow clumsy attack's downsides become irrelevant. Very dramatic. Even provides an opportunity for villainous gloating before you crush them.

1/5 Deem 2018/07/26(Thu)03:10 No. 894499 ID: 96457c
File 153259981310.png - (40.97KB , 800x600 , suggestion_filtering.png )

>>Why did wits decrease?
>Probably the switch to homunculus, but any excuse is good to bully Deem.
Halfwits need not apply.

>The adventurers are expecting a witch. So give them one! Fashion a witch hat with motifs of your minions, and prepare a hexing field of hexagonal platforms hexed with... woah, I'm getting a sense of deja vu here.
I don't know if I could cackle enough for that.

>Shame about Alkaline. Maybe she could've done something to damage the staff if we'd planned it better, but it's all a learning experience. Nothing wrong with her performance anyway.
She should have waited longer. Waited until they were fully engaged by the homunculi. It was unfortunate the invaders were looking out for a witch to go with the cauldron - perhaps something more to draw attention would be better next time - but still, she rushed in.

>So, it seems like the wizard is more skilled at close quarters than she let on. And the fighter has a very defensive form. Given these two points, I'm not sure dual form is a good idea. You won't be able to get anywhere close to the wizard without one of your forms getting blasted and while I'm sure that you can double team the fighter... Well, then the wizard has a two for one special.
They are frustratingly experienced at attacking a dungeon. This is admittedly only their second fight but they're being very frugal with their resources and they don't have much discussion, just the fighter's banter and the wizard's monosyllabic replies. I wonder how he keeps it up, I would find it discouraging. Still they both seem to be able to look after themselves, so I won't consider extra golems in my own fight.

The homunculi don't have any special tricks up their sleeves, they're just competent humanoid fighters. The variety of weapons I've armed them with might have tripped up another warrior but he seems to be a weapons master so he's familiar with their quirks. The warrior's collection of weapons is presenting its own problems - he turned out to have a bolas stashed away. He immobilised one golem and then got past the other two to kick Doyle over.

>Deem duo feels special. It was what you used to win Moriko's... favour and should be saved for... special occasions.
That's an excellent point too.

>So let's not fight fair. Gigant mode and enhance yourself for speed and durability. If you can use stoneforging to make some throwing stone based weapons, that's even better. (javelins/solid pillars would work well.) scatter them around the arena so you can toss them as needed to keep the wizard busy while you force the fighter to close the gap to YOU and not the other way around.
Fairness is always something to aspire to. Although should it come to them having a battle with me, I have far more to lose than they do. So I can be a little unkind... The earth pulse is rising, they can march to my beat.

2/5 Deem 2018/07/26(Thu)03:11 No. 894500 ID: 96457c
File 153259989683.png - (25.47KB , 800x550 , boss_of_this_place.png )

>Huge tracts of land stir the earth pulse like none other.
What a good idea.

>Other than that, could you possibly cover the floor of the room with clay in time? That way you could trip them up, move them around, or launch a nasty skewer from any angle in the room.
I was able to excavate a good deal of clay during my midnight trip, but most of it is stored in the Golem Totem. Still, if I need a hazard I'm not restricted to clay.

>Bulk up with Gigant then use a compression enchantment. Ludicrously dense feels like a good counter here and would match the wits adjustment.
>Apply an intoxication curse to the whole room. It won't be that strong, but over time it will build up and ruin their control and coordination. A dense form should buy the curse its time.
>See if you can get some ultra-dense plates for armour and self-localise a density-maintaining enchantment. That way they can be thrown, and as they leave the effect they will expand and explode, creating a scattering of rubble if you need a ranged attack-or-distraction.
>For you yourself, You should probably save your Gigant form for partway through the fight, so you don't go into it with the increased mana drain, and a mid-fight transformation would both be very dramatic, AND have the possibility to throw them off guard.
I will streamline this somewhat. This chamber is part of my dungeon now, not some shallow cave I've hastily installed my Heart into. So let it move. Spiralling inwards, pulverised, weighed down and compressed as it flow into me. They will need to cross a floor of churning stone into an increasingly heavy and distorted space to fight me as I absorb material for the second stage of my battle.

If they want to hang back I can pick up rocks and throw them. The rocks will regain their original size and gain momentum as they leave the centre. Of course the invaders can shoot back but their own attacks will be blunted.

>If there's time to mess with the boss arena too, why not play up the shadow aspect of the dungeon somewhat and... make it poorly lit? okay I got nothing that wouldn't take ages to implement and definitely doesn't also hinder Deem, still it's an idea for later.
I have not yet developed that aspect. I needed to consider how to develop my dungeon to easily fit it in once I have the luxury of nurturing a second aspect. I do have Reisarf as one of my denizens, it's helped remind me of some slightly more convoluted configurations like this compressed area that I can do with my earth magic.

>Gather the remaining gelatin into a coherent floor hazard, the best you can do with it now is make it look intentional. It's sort of like having a sticky web?
I've tried to drain it into the cracks for now, hopefully it's not too obvious.

>Gigant + spider-leg skirt. Make the legs heavily armoured spikes, for a slow-and-telegraphed-but-unstoppable stabbing attack, and some barbs on the sides that a sufficiently agile hero could climb like a ladder while you're pulling it back out of the ground, thereby reaching the blinking weak point high up on your main body.
A classic. I will have to remember to use it someday.

3/5 Deem 2018/07/26(Thu)03:12 No. 894501 ID: 96457c
File 153259993171.png - (26.79KB , 800x550 , lets_all_fight.png )

The invaders have pressed ahead to the thaumatorium. That is a shame, I think the brutes and Chakarchelou would have done a good job of softening them up in the forge.

I haven't seen much of what the pyromancer can do, which is telling in of itself. The only spells she has used have been quite expensive in terms of mana consumption. She seems to be focused on maximising her creation of embers, so they can be expended on to empower singular, decisive spells. however, Reisarf and Moriko both possess good counters for that. Despite having light defences, their skills to help ward off that sort of attack.

The current dungeon setup does not give many options for passing information on to later defenders unfortunately. I feel the motion of my Resurrection Matrix as Alkaline is pulled out of limbo and restored. That reminds me of something important. Win or lose, I need make sure my chamber is ready to receive them. If they don't make it, I can practice against Moriko and some of the others after this.

4/5 Deem 2018/07/26(Thu)03:14 No. 894502 ID: 96457c
File 153260004034.png - (37.06KB , 800x600 , they_also_are_here.png )

I look at Hin and my remaining golems.

"How's the clean-up going?" With its space and security, my Heart Chamber has attracted the majority of the clutter. We have the leftovers of a lunch and various improvised seating and cooking utensils to store away in the annex housing the beds and Resurrection Matrix.

With the golems to do the heavy lifting and Hin supervising our newest slime to avoid it being stood on or otherwise unexpectedly dying it's gone fairly smoothly.

Merud pops his head into the room. "Deem, something's wrong with Alkaline!"

What.

I muster my thoughts. Nothing felt wrong. "What? Merud, symptoms."

"Her crown's swollen and she's having trouble standing."

I immediately feel some of my tension dissipate. "She's budding. It's early, but nothing to be too worried about. Merud, stay with her."

5/5 Deem 2018/07/26(Thu)03:15 No. 894503 ID: 96457c
File 153260015367.png - (31.96KB , 800x560 , should_have_recruited_a_stork.png )

This is fast. Too fast? Alkaline always seems to be in a rush to do everything. I will concede the minor instability of my Resurrection Matrix's surplus healing may be a contributing factor but the rate of her growth is definitely anomalous.

Hin sloshes side to side. "What do we do? I don't know how to deliver a baby!"

Sometimes I forget how inexperienced my dungeon's denizens can be with these things. "Slimes are very easy, Hin. They just split off from the crown. The only thing to look out for is you might need a knife."

"A knife?!"

"Sometimes the caul's a little too tough, so they need a little help."

"The what?!"

I sigh. "Hin, go get Merud."

The timing could certainly be better. I probably need to handle this but I can't leave the room, it's hazardous to be too close to me right now, I should pay attention to the fight to see if there's anything else I should look out from these invaders and I really need to seal up the door to the Resurrection Matrix. What should I do?

>>894503
Alkaline is long-term part of your dungeon, not like these transients, so she takes priority. You can take more direct control of that homunculi, right? Unless it'd disrupt your control over your current buffs, do so to see to the situation with Alkaline.

Door to the resurrection matrix is also obviously a high priority. Spying on the adventurers will have to get cut because a) the information would only be useful to you personally if it comes to a fight and b) they're already fighting your strongest team.

Can you just detach your upper body for a little while to go see Alkaline? Just the head and enough of the bust to keep the arms.
Reassure her everything's fine, you're proud of her having so many firsts so quickly (first dungeon clear, first dungeon defense, first dungeon baby) and then get back to paying attention to the fight.
After the fight concludes you can work on sealing the door extra tight. They still have one fight to go, possibly. Might need soundproofing so you aren't interrupted mid-fight by the miracle of slime birth.

it may also be her curse transformation. the illness that should accompany resurrection has instead made her even healthier.

also her luck is absurd. if something odd happens to her it will mostly be good things.

anyway, to explain slime budding how about... like plucking a berry, sometimes you need to cut off the stem.

can you use on of your spare golems to help look after Alkaline? And can you keep an eye on both her and the adventurers or is this a "only can focus on one group at a time" sort of deal?

Let's face it, as sweet as any knowledge we can glean from the battle between our top two denizens and those tight-lipped adventurers would be, our attention is needed elsewhere.

Take control over the golem wearing your old dress and assist with the situation at hand before it becomes an actual problem with long standing consequences. (lord knows we've already got enough of those going on as is)

Deal with the door problem after.

>>894503
...our little girl is going into labor. They grow up so fast...

>>894520
Doesn’t that mean that Deem is going to be a grandma?

>>894503
Don't forget, you still have one more group of defenders. I think you can delay sealing the door long enough to coach Merud and Hin through this, and reassure Alkaline. They can stay at a safe distance from you while you continue reinforcing your form.

Also I don't think the adventurers will try to get into the room, they'll be busy fighting you.

>Halfwits need not apply.
The poor thing doesn't realize what she accidentally said about herself, does she.

>>894531
Well, she has E Wits

You might be able to question your denizens after they revive, and there might be evidence of the battle left on the field. Missing the firsthand account is not the same as total ignorance.

There is some risk of coddling Alkaline, but this is her first budding, it is important.

It occurs that the heroes might say unkind things about the state of the boss room. Is it too late to add an anger-fuelled speed/strength/regeneration effect?
>Halfwits need not apply.
Deem is very conscientious, she always applies herself. But it is a choice, not a need.

>>894532
Considering Deem deflected the wits question I'm guessing Deem has to actively maintain her stats or they will degrade. So add stat maintenance and active training of stats worse then C to our list of things to do. Assuming worse then C just means worse then average. For wits the only thing I can think of off hand would be Deem actively practicing answering riddles. But on the bright side, improving her luck is TECHNICALLY possible.

>>894609
Wait, wouldn't that mean we've been doing her thinking for her? ...My God, she really is doomed. Deem, you have our pity.

First priority is to hustle all your non-boss-fight-related assets into the "employees only" area and seal the door behind them. If Alkaline is in such a wild hurry to rush ahead and grow up, she might learn something useful about the advantages of caution by being left on her own for a little while. Hin and Merud together can probably keep that situation from getting too far out of control, at least, and you can always worry about new denizens and growth after this raid's over, when you're burning off excess mana to set up new rooms or magic items.

Once they're secure, prioritize watching the fight. These are some of the toughest opponents you've faced in centuries (admittedly most of that time was spent asleep, but even so), right now they may know more about you than you do about them, and there's a limited window of time to correct that imbalance of intel. Continue boss-fight setup while you watch, incorporating adaptations as they occur to you. Rapid ritual casting makes you amazingly good at that sort of multitasking and improvisation, right? Play to your strengths.

1/3 Deem 2018/08/12(Sun)04:28 No. 896863 ID: e2ea73
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>Can you just detach your upper body for a little while to go see Alkaline? Just the head and enough of the bust to keep the arms.
No. That would destroy my golem.

>Alkaline is long-term part of your dungeon, not like these transients, so she takes priority. You can take more direct control of that homunculi, right? Unless it'd disrupt your control over your current buffs, do so to see to the situation with Alkaline.
>There is some risk of coddling Alkaline, but this is her first budding, it is important.
This is an important moment...

>Is this a "only can focus on one group at a time" sort of deal?
Directly puppeteering a golem like this requires a considerable amount of my attention!

>Door to the resurrection matrix is also obviously a high priority. Spying on the adventurers will have to get cut because a) the information would only be useful to you personally if it comes to a fight and b) they're already fighting your strongest team.
"Wait, never mind." I say to Hin. "I need to seal the Resurrection Matrix so I'm going to take control of one of the homunculi to intervene if anything is needed."

"But-"

"I'm closing the door."

2/3 Deem 2018/08/12(Sun)04:30 No. 896864 ID: e2ea73
File 153407340517.png - (33.26KB , 800x600 , get_back_im_a_professional.png )

>Anyway, to explain slime budding how about... like plucking a berry, sometimes you need to cut off the stem.
Something like that. A clean separation isn't always possible, sometimes the slime's under-ripe or abnormal. There are a few interesting types that can result from flawed budding but that's not what I intended for Alkaline.

>Reassure her everything's fine, you're proud of her having so many firsts so quickly (first dungeon clear, first dungeon defense, first dungeon baby) and then get back to paying attention to the fight.
I feel dull looking out of this body. It may have been made in the semblance of my original body but it is less refined. Using this golem I cannot talk - it isn't tightly bound to my Heart fragment - but still, it is fit for its purpose. I scoop Alkaline into its lap.

There are things I might have said to Alkaline, had the timing been any other than this. But instead I must settle for a cruder physical medium - rocking her and patting her as she quivers, her body still trying to figure out how to rearrange itself its resources to finish making and separating this new slime. It's merely a matter of time.

>It may also be her curse transformation. the illness that should accompany resurrection has instead made her even healthier.
That's not how how it works. Alkaline's Inimical Inversion erodes curse magic and potentially repurposes that energy to benefit her. That's going to do nothing to depletion of energy from cheating death.

>Also her luck is absurd. if something odd happens to her it will mostly be good things.
Luck is not reliable, otherwise it wouldn't be luck.

>...our little girl is going into labour. They grow up so fast...
It's what they were made to do. Hin's still panicking. Merud thankfully is just watching and asking simple yes or no questions.

>Doesn’t that mean that Deem is going to be a grandma?
Don't be absurd.

>You might be able to question your denizens after they revive, and there might be evidence of the battle left on the field. Missing the firsthand account is not the same as total ignorance.
These things all take time is the headache. I cannot place Sealing Designations instantly, I cannot revive someone instantly, I cannot get that useful information out of them instantly and I cannot cast spells instantly either.

>Also I don't think the adventurers will try to get into the room, they'll be busy fighting you.
Never underestimate the capability of adventurers to do things they weren't intended to.

3/3 Deem 2018/08/12(Sun)04:30 No. 896865 ID: e2ea73
File 153407342911.png - (27.35KB , 800x550 , alart.png )

Moriko just died.

Only mostly!

>>896865
Gamble time; do we trust our quirky miniboss squad to handle the invaders despite Moriko going down and keep our focus here? or do we get appropriately spooked by our most experienced fighter getting taken out and go back to dungeoning duties?

I personally think Moriko would have made good account of herself, even sick and having gotten defeated. I'm fairly sure that if things have played out even slightly according to plan, the adventurers were forced to focus Moriko down and as such left themselves open to accumulating curse stacks. Which means Reisarf and Stargazer should just have to mop up now.

Best be getting back to the security cameras then, before Foxy starts running down our corridor.

>>896864
>>896865
If you can’t speak, then write.

Tell everyone that Moriko just died and the adventurers are on their way here, so you’ve gotta refocus on preparing to fight them so that they don’t come into the Resurrection Room.

Then write simple instructions on what to do for Alkaline before you leave.

can you take a quick peek to see how the adventures are doing before coming back to make sure the slim splits properly? If not then I would say maybe hurry this part up a little as much as you safely can. Those adventures are really starting to get annoying.

Well if we lose this fight at least the mana can be expended to dig out more gold, but ugh. It can really be used so much better right now.

Recall all remaining resources to the boss door. If they beat Moriko than they have a strategy capable of dealing with a single powerful opponent. You need to fight with your minions at your side.

Troubling, but not unexpected. We haven't yet managed to force the duo to reveal any trump cards yet so they likely took her by surprise with it.

Regardless, keep helping Alkaline with the budding.

>>896871
Uh uh. Deem's not leaving until the last second. I wasn't for her coming here, but now that she is, she should see this through personally, unless absolutely necessary.

>>896882
Indeed, but it is worrisome they're slaughtering their way through our best personnel. I think Moriko's loss of her demonic side has crippled her. Clearly we need to go on a quest to recover that section of her soul but in the meantime we need to prepare the core and do our best to make sure Stargazer survives.

Also, we need to find a region with less overpowered adventurers and move there.
Seriously, first that psycho with the grenades, then a stone wall fighter and a Nuke-mage. What happened to 'four peasant kids in light armor with swords'? 'A healer, a mage, a thief and a warrior'? We just keep running into lone psychopaths with incredible strength.

Maybe this country is just cursed and everyone here is crazy. Or perhaps God really hates us.

Can you set the golem to auto-pilot? As a homunculus it should have basic presentation programming.
Rythmic Rocking can be patched in? Try to stay with her a bit longer though, if you can see her through this first time it would be best.

>>896866
Mostly dead is still too-slightly alive to be of much help in the short-term.

>>896871
Do not be absurd. No good can ever come of writing!

>>896927
Sky-Power is actively trying to make Deem sleep forever, although there seems to be a sense of concern in there. Yandere gods are terrifying. Although thus-far all our heroes have been from The Kute Kitty Klan, which seems to love its unstoppable explosion factories, so we seemingly have both OP-hero nests and god-hate. And don't forget The Bear!

>>896927
Yeah I thought the same thing about Moriko. Not only did she lose that demonic edge, her fighting instincts are probably dulled from the internal conflict. But that's for later.

Take a quick peek at the battle in progress, see if she managed to at least inflict some attrition on her way down.

>>896927
>Or perhaps God really hates us.
Sigh... E-rank luck. Deem loves saying that luck is useless, things keep happening to show reality to be otherwise. She still won't accept it, though.

>>896865
Mimic moriko's hammer stance, then draw your finger across your throat to let the others know. Keep the troops up to date.

Then pantomime swaddling a child to your golemeter so he knows to comfort her, and get your focus on out to help in the frontlines if you can.

>>896984
>Mimic moriko's hammer stance, then draw your finger across your throat to let the others know.
It’ll be so much easier to just write that in the dirt instead of having everyone try to guess what Deem is talking about.

>>896995
oh yeah

>>896871
>>896995
I don't think she can do that yet. I know she signed up for Merud to teach her, but I don't remember her actually getting to learn any yet? Even if she did start, learning to read and write quickly and correctly takes time. There just wasn't enough of it.

>>897007
I had completely forgotten that Deem was illiterate until you mentioned that.

>>897007
>>897008
Maybe she could draw a cute little picture of Moriko with Xs instead of eyes.

Can we not freak out our minions any further? There's already a fairly important situation happening RIGHT NOW that we're involved in and we don't have to make it exponentially worse by telling Alkaline and everyone else that Moriko just bought the farm.

>>897022
I agree with this, in addition to what I said here >>896882

>>897022
>>897032
I see what you're saying and I agree with you, but I really want to see that drawing now.

1/5 Deem 2018/08/18(Sat)02:26 No. 897697 ID: e2ea73
File 153458438795.png - (27.17KB , 600x750 , wizard_casts_GUN.png )

>Take a quick peek at the battle in progress, see if she managed to at least inflict some attrition on her way down.
It can't hurt to take a peek.

Ah, the pyromancer had a bound spell. They're a little inefficient compared to other magic items but the ability to skip complex incantations and activate a powerful spell by, for example, firing it out of a gun instead can be extremely valuable.

Moriko should have seen that coming though?

>I think Moriko's loss of her demonic side has crippled her. Clearly we need to go on a quest to recover that section of her soul but in the meantime we need to prepare the core and do our best to make sure Stargazer survives.
>Yeah I thought the same thing about Moriko. Not only did she lose that demonic edge, her fighting instincts are probably dulled from the internal conflict. But that's for later.
She didn't lose it, she's rejecting it. Loss of focus seems like the culprit here though.

>Recall all remaining resources to the boss door. If they beat Moriko than they have a strategy capable of dealing with a single powerful opponent. You need to fight with your minions at your side.
One of the causes of that inefficiency is they are consumed on use. It's doubtful she had more than one.

2/5 Deem 2018/08/18(Sat)02:27 No. 897698 ID: e2ea73
File 153458443641.png - (17.52KB , 800x520 , talky_time.png )

>If you can’t speak, then write.
That's not an option.

>Can you set the golem to auto-pilot? As a homunculus it should have basic presentation programming.
>Rhythmic Rocking can be patched in? Try to stay with her a bit longer though, if you can see her through this first time it would be best.
Do you think a little rocking is a substitute for actual presence?

>Can we not freak out our minions any further? There's already a fairly important situation happening RIGHT NOW that we're involved in and we don't have to make it exponentially worse by telling Alkaline and everyone else that Moriko just bought the farm.
Yes, Hin's panicking enough as it stands.

>Also, we need to find a region with less overpowered adventurers and move there.
>Seriously, first that psycho with the grenades, then a stone wall fighter and a Nuke-mage. What happened to 'four peasant kids in light armour with swords'? 'A healer, a mage, a thief and a warrior'? We just keep running into lone psychopaths with incredible strength.
I would expect that the type of person who goes happily traipsing around the wilderness has some confidence in their abilities. Going to a dungeon is dangerous, yes, but usually it's a known danger.

3/5 Deem 2018/08/18(Sat)02:28 No. 897699 ID: e2ea73
File 153458449009.png - (37.97KB , 800x550 , everyones_here.png )

>I personally think Moriko would have made good account of herself, even sick and having gotten defeated. I'm fairly sure that if things have played out even slightly according to plan, the adventurers were forced to focus Moriko down and as such left themselves open to accumulating curse stacks. Which means Reisarf and Stargazer should just have to mop up now.
They still would have to defeat me as well. They're definitely getting worn down. As much as the surges in the earth-pulse demand my attention

>Regardless, keep helping Alkaline with the budding.
She's decided to take her time but I cannot blame her.

She seems to have calmed down. Being here was useful in that respect. Now we wait.

Maybe we do need a knife. I direct one of the golems to search for a clean one just in case.

4/5 Deem 2018/08/18(Sat)02:28 No. 897700 ID: e2ea73
File 153458452329.png - (39.76KB , 800x600 , all_bossed_up_with_noone_to_fight.png )

The earth-pulse roars.

The heroes have been defeated!

Wait, Reisarf just... won?

Gold, mana, victory. Mana! It's enough, it's just barely enough to cast another great spell. I need to spend it before it slips through my fingers.

I need to release all the Sealing Designations too. No-one is getting in or out of my Heart Chamber or the bedroom until I do. I'll have to momentarily split my attention between Alkaline and managing dungeon functions.

All my denizens need to know. I take a deep breath. I'll try shouting.

"STAY WHERE YOU ARE EVERYONE. I NEED TO UNLOCK ALL THE DOORS."

5/5 Deem 2018/08/18(Sat)02:32 No. 897701 ID: e2ea73
File 153458477592.png - (34.39KB , 800x600 , lets_make_the_map_out_of_date_again.png )

It's no question of what magic I should use.

Delve: Dig deeper! Instantly digs a large room (the size of a boss room) or up to three smaller ones. Alternatively, can be used to reorder and rearrange rooms in the dungeon.

I have a few things to consider. Living space is at a premium, it's hard to reposition people in response to invaders, I need to keep digging along the fissure towards the upper valley I think exists and I will have to enlarge some of the existing rooms if I want to upgrade them. In particular the Golem Totem is very cluttered and a larger entrance would make it easier to move material (such as excavated rock) in and out of the dungeon.

Of the new rooms, outside of living space, these are the more specialised uses I can put them to:

Meditation Room: I told Moriko I'd build one next. A quiet place for the dungeon's minions to unwind in. Faster regeneration of mana and stamina. Fights should not be conducted in this room so it's a good spot for a puzzle or simply a safe space for adventurers to catch their breath.

Alchemy Lab: The alchemy kit set up in a room stabilised from outside influences to allow stronger and more reliable potions to be brewed. Preferably a low traffic area. Adventurers entering the room will ruin any potions being crafted. However, I have the option to blacken the mixture, turning it into a strong but short lived curse.

Miniboss Chamber: An anchor point for my Heart-cast reinforcement magic, allowing it to be used on targets within the room. Adventurers should definitely be allowed into this room.

Gymnasium: A room set up to allow my denizens to practice a variety of physical activities. The terrain can easily be made in such a way that it provides some sort of physical challenge to invaders.

Treasury: A room to store gold that isn't accessible by adventurers. Simply put, it means I am not at risk of losing all my gold if an adventurer is able to defeat my final boss. Until I have one built, I can't afford to lose. There's a drop in mana harvested from invasions depending on how little gold I'm wagering.

Monster Lair: A room adapted for a specific type of monster to dwell in. It allows them to recover between fights easily and helps them develop faster.

All according to keikaku! At least, that's what we'll tell everyone.
Meditation chamber first. Expand the imp diggings to the north of the gymnasium.
Second, incorporate a miniboss focus into the gymnasium. This bypasses the issue of traversing the dungeon by letting you be in both places at once, effectively.
Third, enhance living quarters. Hopefully whatever's funky about the resurrection matrix can be solved by throwing more money at the problem.
Direct your brutes in the forge to go check on Reisarf and see what the adventurers dropped!

I'd say meditation room, treasury and something else.

How big each of those rooms have to be? Can we Make half rooms and tight corridors as preparation for faster than normal manual expansion? Can we expand downwards?

Regardless, a promise is a promise. The Meditation Room have to be constructed.
If more rooms are available I vote for the Gymnasium. Improving our denizens is a priority spatially now that we are struggling to recover from that crazy dream.
The Monster Lair is also attractive but would only benefit our quasidragon.

>>897703
>gymnasium
thaumatorium, right.

Ask Moriko about the meditation chamber. She may have specific preferences.
Otherwise, north of the Thaumatorium would be a good spot. Unless someone is blasting in the thamatorium it should be quiet, and a rest-spot with the chest-spot would be thematic.

As much as I want to train Alkaline in alchemy before she has a chance to devote herself to slime-rearing, the slime lair right now would be just too poetic, and might be able to save fail-slime. It could go to the East of the thaumatorium for ready access to moisture and to act as a hidden bonus-encounter/treasure-spot.

The treasury is kind-of urgent... unless you can make one of those bound spells and put it on a rocket-fist. Rocket-fists automatically win! So your hoard would be safe.

Don't forget Moriko! It just wouldn't do to ignore her revival after she successfully repulsed the heroes.

kome 2018/08/18(Sat)03:41 No. 897710 ID: 094652
File 153458888243.png - (36.00KB , 800x600 , 153458477592.png )

Put the meditation room in the same area as the pool, it makes more sense there. Then pick two of three: Alchemy Room, Monster Lair, Treasury, and an empty room to put the third later. You have approximately 20,100 'pixels' worth of space, this uses that much for four rooms and some doorways.

>>897697
>She didn't lose it, she's rejecting it.
I did know that, I promise.

>>897703
Do this. (Even though I don't know exactly what you mean with the gym.)

Twistshock 2018/08/18(Sat)05:41 No. 897715 ID: b7627b
File 153459606742.png - (42.48KB , 799x599 , Stock photos make great icons.png )

>>897701
I mostly agree with kome's suggestion (>>897710 )
barring a minor change or three.
The first being to stick the alchemy room to the 'north' of the first room attaching to the forge, so it doesn't have a direct entrance from the hallway, and to stick the treasure room somewhere it won't interfere with possible future living quarter expansions.

Finally a few quality of life changes to widen up a hallway and a couple of doorways so we can hopefully slowscavate a bit faster.

On another note, after you've cast the spell could you check up on Reisarf and Stargazer? To ask them how they beat the adventurers and in case they're injured or crippled enough that we need to put them down for a respawn.

Suggestion 2018/08/18(Sat)07:00 No. 897720 ID: 10c408
File 153460085241.png - (38.50KB , 800x600 , delve suggestion.png )

I think we should talk shop with reisarif and Merud, try and figure out a way to include a source of lighting in every room that also doubles as an alarm/incursion indicator. (Orange for incoming/detected adventurers, red for active encounter, green for clean up and so on?)

And as for delve...

Meditation room, treasury and gymnasium. As nice of an idea as upgrading the barracks is, we can do it later when we don't have almost everyone holed up in it.

Spend any remaining delve energy on making the tunnel to the golem totem more straight.

As for anything else... Best guess for the adventurers is that they accidentally lined themselves up and reisarf blasted them with starlight destroyer. We should put a priority on having one of the remaining golems check on her.

Suggestion 2018/08/18(Sat)07:58 No. 897726 ID: 575ec0
File 153460429631.png - (36.49KB , 800x600 , Map2.png )

Alight Let's put these two big fissures that we already have to use.
The one just to the Thaumatorium should be the meditation chamber. Just make sure a soundproof door gets put on it.

The one that connects to the main hall can be the alchemy lab. With slimes and belphy and the stuff we bought, we need one of these.

Connecting to the Res Chamber should be a dormitory. The rooms are small to be sure, but our denizens haven't ha an opportunity for much privacy in a while, and will surely appreciate them. Plus there's room for a kitchen to be dug later.

Lastly, with the mana saved by using the fissures, widen the entrance so the brutes can begin serious excavation.

Meditation room, definitely. I wonder if you could make it sort of semi-hidden? Accessible by secret doors, that sort of thing. That way, for the purposes of meditation it's secluded (put a lock on the inside door for anyone using it for that), and during adventures it's available as a rest room for the adventurers but they have to solve a puzzle to get it. And if you put it in the right place relative to the other rooms then your denizens can use it as a shortcut to get around.

I'm thinking a relatively large space, make it look like a natural cave that's been partly carved/built into, mostly circular, with maybe a waterfall and a pool and a nice little meditation platform, throw some moss around, enough flat space in the middle for martial arts practice, then maybe some old-looking pillars in a hemisphere away from the water and on the sides where the entrances are. Have a sort of a recessed path around the edge of the room beyond those, maybe later throw in some alcoves or murals there. Maybe even make a tall, thin crack/crevice leading up to the surface over the waterfall/natural-looking part of the room, just enough for a little shaft of light to come down? I know your dungeon themes are more dark and shadowy and murky and such, but if it's going to be a refuge/rest point for the adventurers then a momentary lightening of those themes should be appropriate, right?

Plus a little variety will help your denizens not go mad.

>>897701
Meditation Room and Living Space because look at how crowded it is in the current bedroom: >>897699 ! That is completely unacceptable!

>>897701
Meditation Room > Miniboss Chamber > Treasury = Gymnasium.
Living space can be easily expanded without delve, so don't waste it on that.

I like >>897729 's idea of hiding the Meditation Room, and >>897726 's idea of making use of the fissures.

>>897733
Oh and fix the Resurrection Matrix already, FFS. It's caused enough trouble.

>>897701
Nice, Reisarf and Stargazer pulled through! I wonder if Moriko died on purpose to ensure that victory? Like, perhaps she grabbed the fighter to ensure he got hit by the spell?

>Meditation Room
First, keep your promise. Put the meditation room "south" of the Thaumatorium. Put a puzzle in it, we don't have any of those yet. Then, I assume you have some energy left over, which means we expand the fissure and start building facilities in the valley. Then fill out that other stuff you mentioned. Finally, if we have space let's get that Treasury, just beyond the current rez room is a good spot for it.

>>897700
Awesome. I wonder if the Thaumatorium's surprise magic change played a part on their victory? I imagine something like the mage trying to back up the warrior and suddenly healing herself instead, that'd probably spell out the end for him and leave her defenseless... I wish we could have seen the fight, but I guess Alkaline is more important both for us and Deem, even if she won't admit it.

>>897701
First priority is of course keeping our word, then we need a treasury. Gymnasium sounds nice, but we can do that with normal digging, can't we? The Miniboss Chamber sounds like something we can't easily make except during Delve.

>>897731
I completly agree with that. Morale among the deniziens can use improvement. Living Space and Meditation would support that. The lab for the third choice, me thinks.

Add an alchemy lab in that fissure by the baths, and see if you can get it to do double duty as a laundry room. Might also be a good place for a second 'employees only' sealing designation, to save people having to run the full length of the dungeon when an adventurer arrives unexpectedly.

Meditation room behind the thaumatorium, with some sort of puzzle to further delay access to the boss key.

Split the third small room's worth of delving among improving the entrance and widening the valley passage.

Say, do you think you could turn that low wall around the camp out front into a semicircle of incongruously aboveground stalactites, like the lower jaw of some enormous wolf? Fits the earth alignment, and with a subsequent Delve you might even be able to put a roof over that 'front porch' it to make another boss room. Claim back some territory from the hateful sky-powers!

Suggestion 2018/08/19(Sun)20:13 No. 898097 ID: 8b2814
File 153473478318.png - (36.82KB , 800x600 , Deem's Dungeon Backstage Passages.png )

I think there's lots of good options for front-end rooms for the dungeon. Do make a meditation room, and planning the alchemy room to be a good place to grow your mushrooms seems like a good use of space. Giving your pseudodragon a Monster Lair to speed its development is an investment that will pay dividends the sooner you get it done.

But for the love of everything, construct a Back Hallway such as shown. Preferably with seals on it, but letting your minions move around to get into position without having to use that first hallway will make it SO much easier to respond to adventurers.

Could the Alchemy Room also function as a kitchen?
Cooking is just alchemy lite, right?

>>898528
That depends. Would YOU eat food from the same room that someone used to dissect an imp?

>>898569
Would that food be sauteed imp?

>The current dungeon setup does not give many options for passing information on to later defenders unfortunately.
Hmmm. Magical ranged communication seems something that would be in the domain of the wind, not the earth. Carrying breath to another ear? Maybe you could pass messages through shadow or fire, once you build up one of those affinities. Or maybe tiny messenger golems able to scurry between tiny hidden passages like mice?

Of course the downside of any communication system is the eventual adventuring team that figures out how to crack it, or exploit it.

>>Doesn’t that mean that Deem is going to be a grandma?
>Don't be absurd.
Yeah, Deem's much older than that!

>Moriko just died.
Well, hopefully that doesn't mess up her confidence and self image further. Have to be careful how we handle that.

>>897701
I think this fight drove home that we need a safe "backstage" area that can lock adventurers out, where non-combatants can wait out attacks. Your minions need a home.

If at all possible, it would be nice to break out into that hidden valley, and incorporate access to that secret valley as part of that home. An outside that's inside and protected, where food and other plants can grow. (So the backstage would include the valley, and rooms underground near the valley, that can all be blocked off behind one sealing designation).

The Meditation Room should be underground, but should be solidly in this backstage area too. Off the tunnel to the valley, maybe? You promised Moriko, and she died securing this victory, so the least you can do is come through for her.

Priority after that is probably patching any problems with the resurrection matrix if you can.

I haven't formed a strong opinion on rooms or layout yet, but can we please get the back passage up to the valley up and running? Apart from anything else, it'll grant us access to a new area with unique properties (such as being open to there air and getting sunlight, good for growing things or scenic battles) without having to waste time or mana digging out every inch ourselves.

>>898622
For all we know the "backdoor" is home to monsters on the same level as the devilbear.

>>898622
Opening the dungeon means opening up another entrance route (intended or not), which would mean we have to design the dungeon from both sides. Overruled.

>>898663
>>898665
Isn't it a tiny valley surrounded by sheer cliffs? I was under the impression that nothing could get in or out without flying, and it would be small enough that there wasn't a whole lot room for anything to hide. Also, if it does turn out something's there, sealing parts off with sealing designations appears to be something we're pretty good at. We're not obligated to use the space, and it'll only take a tiny bit of extra floorspace to widen the corridor, so I still think we should do it.

>>898665
Incorrect. The back entrance has been stated as safe by Deem. Also we can just lock it? The front entrance shouldn't be locked because we need to let adventurers in, but the back entrance is easily secured.
We can put several layers of security there if you're paranoid about a thief sneaking in, but Deem will detect an adventurer before they arrive anyway.

>>898678
It's not just adventurers I'm worried about. Remember when Belphe showed up? We're still dealing with the after-effects of that. I'm just hoping Hin gets to recover her solidity soon so we can leave that in the past, so how about we don't make a repeat of that situation more likely until we have proper dungeon defense sorted out?

>>898682
As I understand it, random monsters can spawn outside the dungeon, but not normally inside it? (Unless we screw up like when we caused imps). If the hidden valley mechanically counts as part of the dungeon once we connect to it, stuff like Belphe showing up in the valley should be a non-issue.

>>897701
I'd like to propose an alternate plan: blow the entire Delve on a long hallway to the upper valley. Ideally connected to the main front hallway via a secret dungeon-locked door - we don't want a backdoor into the Resurrection room, we don't want to force a ton of golem traffic through hin's forge while she's trying to work, and putting it at the back of the thaumatorium is dumb for obvious water-related reasons - but wherever works.

>>898622
Or I guess I'm elaborating on the benefits of what's already been suggested, but whatever.

We'd lose out on some magical effect rooms in the immediate future, but the hidden valley has a lot of potential upsides.

Assembling buildings is a lot easier than digging out rooms, especially with the pile of golem labor we can throw at things. We have brutes to haul lumber and the homonculi to do the more delicate aspects of carpentry, and we have a lot of spare stone to throw around for walls or foundations. If we're feeling especially extravagant, we also have a large pile of clay for brickwork. Buildings outside of the dungeon can't get dungeon magic bonuses, but:

Buildings outside the dungeon are outside of the dungeon. Anything built outside would be well isolated from the LOUD NOISES of Hin hammering away at the forge, wizards practicing explosion magic in the thaumatorium, and golems excavating rooms and hauling stone around. Everyone would be able to get away from the noise and bustle of work if they needed to, and Deem would be able to work at night without worrying about noise if everyone was sleeping up in the valley.

These buildings would also (hopefully) be relatively isolated from adventurers and aggressive wildlife - our dungeon workers could store personal possessions without fear of them being ransacked. I imagine Merud wouldn't mind having a small workshop where he could leave half-finished projects without the chance of adventurers ruining them, and Moriko could have a zen garden or something.

Speaking of, Moriko didn't ask for the meditation room, she asked for
>living space! A place for privacy. Somewhere to reflect. To meditate. Regain balance.
and giving her a little cabin (and a small yard around it) of her own to do with as she pleases accomplishes that better than another magical hole in the ground. Also, putting a meditation room right next to the MAGICAL EXPLOSION PRACTICE room doesn't seem like it'd be particularly peaceful, anyways.

And if we're building a cabin for each person, we could take their input and build the things where they want them (Moriko might want her place further out from the rest), and to their preferred styling and room arrangement. Comfy rooms for everyone means comfy sleep for everyone, and workers work better when they're well-rested.

Workers also work better when they're well-fed, and having some safe area outside opens the option of having a small garden to supplement the variety (if not the quantity) of food in the stockpiles. And unless we intend to build an extravagant dining hall in the dungeon (where adventurers would be stealing the silverware and jumping on the tables), eating around a campfire or in a mess hall (where we could also build a kitchen) is probably more comfortable than sitting around in the boss room.

Basically, it'd be a massive boost to the overall comfort and happiness of everyone involved.

It'd also be a pretty large gesture of Deem putting the comfort of her dungeoneers in front of her desire to become a more powerful dungeon, which is probably an important thing to re-establish, especially with recent magical fuckups causing harm or discomfort for basically everyone.

If we need more time to get into position when adventurers arrive, we should focus on setting up a puzzle in the golem totem room. That was the original intention for putting it up front, after all.

>>898728
Yeah, if it's possible to open the passage all the way to that valley in one shot, I'd change my vote to that.

I think we should stick to increasing dungeon size first, I don't feel like we are powerful enough to start branching out into things like support villages yet. She did ask for space to live, so a series of living quarters sealed off from the dungeon, somewhere everyone can eat, and if there's any energy left, expand both the "boss chamber", and Hin's forge.

The boss chamber should be much larger, and maybe a lengthy oval shape, and Deems heart cradle should sit on a raised dias. Hin's forge might not need to be bigger, but I imagine our ability to shape stone into any kind of elaborate furnace she can conceive means she could probably make good use of some more space.

1/4 Deem 2018/08/27(Mon)06:54 No. 899255 ID: ab52c1
File 153537806253.png - (37.20KB , 600x750 , room_to_think.png )

>I think this fight drove home that we need a safe "backstage" area that can lock adventurers out, where non-combatants can wait out attacks. Your minions need a home.
>If at all possible, it would be nice to break out into that hidden valley, and incorporate access to that secret valley as part of that home. An outside that's inside and protected, where food and other plants can grow. (So the backstage would include the valley, and rooms underground near the valley, that can all be blocked off behind one sealing designation).
Hmm, let me think about this. It's a little bit of a stretch, but if I'm clever, which I am, I should be able to reach it if I'm careful.

>The Meditation Room should be underground, but should be solidly in this backstage area too. Off the tunnel to the valley, maybe? You promised Moriko, and she died securing this victory, so the least you can do is come through for her.
Hmmm.

>How big each of those rooms have to be? Can we Make half rooms and tight corridors as preparation for faster than normal manual expansion? Can we expand downwards?
There's no point in doing that when I can make a room with only a few finishing touches needed.

I can dig up or down as I please.

>Second, incorporate a miniboss focus into the gymnasium. This bypasses the issue of traversing the dungeon by letting you be in both places at once, effectively.
I can't layer multiple functions into one room yet.

>Oh and fix the Resurrection Matrix already, FFS. It's caused enough trouble.
I will have to calibrate it, but it's not urgent. In hindsight, Alkaline's bud has been developing for some time. The occasional haircut is hardly the worst problem I've ever had to deal with.

>Ask Moriko about the meditation chamber. She may have specific preferences.
I'd like it to be a surprise.

>Moriko didn't ask for the meditation room, she asked for "living space! A place for privacy. Somewhere to reflect. To meditate. Regain balance." and giving her a little cabin (and a small yard around it) of her own to do with as she pleases accomplishes that better than another magical hole in the ground. Also, putting a meditation room right next to the MAGICAL EXPLOSION PRACTICE room doesn't seem like it'd be particularly peaceful, anyways.
My Meditation Room would be extremely good for that! Still, I suppose you have a point.

2/4 Deem 2018/08/27(Mon)06:56 No. 899256 ID: ab52c1
File 153537816735.png - (18.66KB , 800x600 , a_new_map.png )

So from here let's lay out a new path.

I hear a hammering on the Resurrection Matrix's door. I look from the homunculus cradling Alkaline and it's Merud. "Deem, what are you doing?!"

Hmm, Merud does seem a little sensitive to these things. Wizard ears or perhaps a wizard nose as well as eyes?

I finish dissolving the Sealing Designation on that door. "I'm doing some renovations." I tell him.

My golemeter steps forwards, towards my golem body. I hold up a hand.

"Don't come any closer." I say to him. "You'll trigger the enchantments and I'd prefer to try to recoup at least a little mana from dissolving them." I lean forward a little. "Unless you want to fight me?" A fight would also do for that. It would be a little distracting managing that while soothing Alkaline but I'm sure I am able to do that.

Merud coughs. "I think I'll pass."

"Think of it as a violent puzzle!"

Alas, he's a wet blanket. I suppose he is only the one in good shape for it aside from Chakarchelou.

3/4 Deem 2018/08/27(Mon)06:57 No. 899257 ID: ab52c1
File 153537827147.png - (11.48KB , 600x750 , oh_boy_all_this_map.png )

I had just enough capacity to run a connecting tunnel out of my Heart Chamber to the fissure and then open up a narrow path of least resistance. This ungainly layout is bad for mana circulation but it's only a temporary measure.

>But for the love of everything, construct a Back Hallway such as shown. Preferably with seals on it, but letting your minions move around to get into position without having to use that first hallway will make it SO much easier to respond to adventurers.
Unfortunately I can't do that and open up the fissure at the same time. It should be relatively easy to run a branching path off this new corridor later.

>Meditation room, definitely. I wonder if you could make it sort of semi-hidden? Accessible by secret doors, that sort of thing. That way, for the purposes of meditation it's secluded (put a lock on the inside door for anyone using it for that), and during adventures it's available as a rest room for the adventurers but they have to solve a puzzle to get it. And if you put it in the right place relative to the other rooms then your denizens can use it as a shortcut to get around.
It's a place intended for reflection, not a thoroughfare. I've placed it part of the way along the new tunnel to give it some isolation.

>I'm thinking a relatively large space, make it look like a natural cave that's been partly carved/built into, mostly circular, with maybe a waterfall and a pool and a nice little meditation platform, throw some moss around, enough flat space in the middle for martial arts practice, then maybe some old-looking pillars in a hemisphere away from the water and on the sides where the entrances are. Have a sort of a recessed path around the edge of the room beyond those, maybe later throw in some alcoves or murals there. Maybe even make a tall, thin crack/crevice leading up to the surface over the waterfall/natural-looking part of the room, just enough for a little shaft of light to come down? I know your dungeon themes are more dark and shadowy and murky and such, but if it's going to be a refuge/rest point for the adventurers then a momentary lightening of those themes should be appropriate, right?
Space is at something of a premium but I've placed a pair of cascade pools with a waterfall feeding the top one... as soon as I can top up the cistern that feeds it. There's a hidden spot behind the waterfall. It needs a little more work before I can really show it off.

4/4 Deem 2018/08/27(Mon)06:59 No. 899258 ID: ab52c1
File 153537837540.png - (8.85KB , 600x750 , check_out_this_map.png )

The tunnel has a defensive bend in it where I placed the Meditation Room, just in case, and I've left a few feet to be dug out to open the entry into the valley because I am not an idiot.

>Add an alchemy lab in that fissure by the baths, and see if you can get it to do double duty as a laundry room. Might also be a good place for a second 'employees only' sealing designation, to save people having to run the full length of the dungeon when an adventurer arrives unexpectedly.
>Could the Alchemy Room also function as a kitchen?
>Cooking is just alchemy lite, right?
I do think I need to make a Treasury and Alchemy Lab my next priority alongside widening the tunnel, but this has given me something to think about for doubling up on functionality for the lab. I think I should settle it immediately.

In the interests of brevity, I will name them by their intended secondary purposes.

Laundry: An alchemy lab that also focuses on developing alchemical treatments for cloth and various other inanimate objects.

Kitchen: An alchemy lab specialised into substances intended to be consumed by living things for beneficial effects.

Brewery: An alchemy lab that deals with potions and poisons.

Brewery
I agree with >>898569 alchemy should not be done close to food.

>>899258
Hmm, I think our current setup seems to benefit best from a Brewery; Belphegor, Alkaline and now the Homunculi have obvious synergies with potions and poisons.

That said, our current fleshy companions are primarily cloth users... despite us having a cool blacksmith, hmm, do we have armoured golems on the to-do list? If not, we should add them.

I still vote Brewery though, the possibilities seem wonderful.

Kitchen. Buffs and foods first.

Kitchen. We have Belphy to brew, for now.

>>899258

Not only that, but Hin's new trait also allows her to benefit more from food and potions, as per:

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

So she and Alkaline will probably make excellent experimental subjects taste testers!

>>899258

So, definitely the Kitchen - pretty much everyone but the 'ordinary' golems stand to benefit and they already have their own buff room. Besides, you just developed taste buds! No way should you pass up on a potential future filled with culinary delights! You could even think of setting up a little well-defended shop outside for curious adventurers. Just imagine it... Deem's Dungeon and Dragon Cafe!

Oooh, and you can create a classy getup for the servers to go with the theme of your Dungeon.

Kitchen would be good for morale!

>>899258
Morale is important, let's go with Kitchen. Unless the Brewery can function as the other kind of brewery too? I'm not sure anyone but Hin would partake, though, except maybe when Kallia visits.

>>899258
Brewery. People are forgetting we don't need magical buffs from food for good morale.

>>899288
I was thinking more along the lines of "a dedicated place to prepare food in". You know, mundane morale.

>>899263 Hin's a little busy dealing with being a creature type that isn't half-ogre to make anything metallic.

Anyways...

Another vote for the brewery.

We don't have the cloth or a tailor to make the laundry room specialization worthwhile just yet

And while I'm sure that morale will improve by making a kitchen right now, I feel that morale is going to degrade too much over time given that it will also be used for things like processing imp corpses, making poison/detrimental potions, boiling the body of a certain devil bear into naught but bones so that we might fashion both our home and our golem body with the skeletal remains of our enemy! or other such work that will inevitably permeate any food made in the room.

And let's be honest, most of our minions are going to find such a room off-putting.

>>899311
They're drinking imp corpses right now. This is an era where people live a little closer to knowing how the sausage is made.

>>899290
We can do that with a normal kitchen. This choice is to choose whether we want MAGICAL food, MAGICAL clothing, or better potions and poisons.

I am obsessed with Alchemist Alkaline. She will be amazing! She will need bombs and poisons and potions and elixirs. So:
brewery

That said, Kitchen is the optimal synergy. We have golems that benefit from beneficial potions as one of their main advantages. Slimes can store healing potions that break when they get smooshed, Deem's Denizens have been getting medical maladies that could use some beneficial broths... The focus on ameliorating alchemy would just mesh so much better with the way The Dungeoness has been developed thus far.

I'd prefer brewery. Alcohol, potions, poison, and maybe things that explode. Guaranteed to be a good time.

Kitchen seems fine. Could work on reverse-engineering the cake crab.

Maybe figure out some way to combine the laundry room with a puzzle behind the thaumatorium using mundane construction, something involving shifting awkwardly long wooden drying-rack poles around between different mounting points? Or maybe that's a better place for a mushroom farm, so they can marinate in magic overflow.

Either way, finish tidying up, get everybody back together for after-action reports, then start planning to explore the valley. Probably want to wait until everyone's had another meal and a sleep cycle before committing to that, but good plans take time and having something to look forward to helps morale.

Moriko probably died because the adventurers were focusing more heavily on her, because they heard from the bomb cat that she was the final boss last time. Maybe point that out to her. Knowing that she not only succeeded in her task, but is already building a formidable reputation, might cheer her up.

...can we make better alcohol in the brewery?

Brewery so we can GET FUCKIN' KRUNK!

Kitchen

Laundry. Just about all of our minions have the capacity to wear things, but most golems can't eat or drink. I would also pick this over the brewery, because making items that can be used multiple times is going to pay more dividends in the long run than single use consumables. Also, keep in mind that golems themselves could as inanimate objects, and some of them are even also pieces of clothing, so it seems like there should be a lot of synergy there.

>>899540
Most golems can't eat, but most golems aren't inside Deem. Deem has, umm, 10? 12? golems? And 3? 4? of them can't eat? Of course, Merud can eat, so his golem gets second-hand food bonuses...
You are absolutely correct about Death-Scarves though! And a well-polished Denizen is nothing to sneeze at!

>>899540
>>899573
Welp, you convinced me. Team Laundry it is. ...Though it doesn't look like it has much of a chance of winning this.

>>899258
I'm inclined to say brewery, you've yet to try regular liquor, and unfiltered beer (not that we have enough malted grains) can also provide a source of sustenance.
A nosy adventurer might also be inclined to help test anything we have brewing, so if a poison's brewing and they're sufficiently curious, it might kill the cat.

Though a proper kitchen, and by extension proper meals would probably be great for morale since you've opted for sapient allies.

>>899258
Kitchen, Since Now that Alkaline has started budding, and how much slimes are dependent on diet, were only going to need more and better food.
If I had a second choice, it would be Laundry, if only because I want to make magical ink, Paint and paper, but that only barely relates.
No Brewery, Belph already gets short shrift as it is, dont take his job and/or food!

1/1 Deem 2018/08/31(Fri)07:25 No. 899739 ID: ab52c1
File 153572553640.png - (24.61KB , 600x750 , oh_its_you.png )

>So, definitely the Kitchen - pretty much everyone but the 'ordinary' golems stand to benefit and they already have their own buff room. Besides, you just developed taste buds! No way should you pass up on a potential future filled with culinary delights! You could even think of setting up a little well-defended shop outside for curious adventurers. Just imagine it... Deem's Dungeon and Dragon Cafe!
>Oooh, and you can create a classy getup for the servers to go with the theme of your Dungeon.
This is a dungeon. I won't be opening a cafe or a spa or anything like that for passing invaders. Providing shelter to them would erode the entire purpose of everything.

>Hmm, I think our current set-up seems to benefit best from a Brewery; Belphegor, Alkaline and now the Homunculi have obvious synergies with potions and poisons.
>I'd prefer brewery. Alcohol, potions, poison, and maybe things that explode. Guaranteed to be a good time.
Yes, Belphe is worse at harmful effects than he was before I tamed him, so something to balance that out and train Alkaline would be very helpful. A brewery it is!

>I was thinking more along the lines of "a dedicated place to prepare food in". You know, mundane morale.
I'm going to eventually make a dedicated mundane kitchen space anyway.

>No Brewery, Belph already gets short shrift as it is, don't take his job and/or food!
My Resurrection Matrix activates a second time and... oh right, Belphe died as well.

Alkaline's still budding. Reisarf and Stargazer are headed this way. Slowly, it looks like they're not in the best of shape. Moriko will be resurrected soon too, but I can only do so much at once. Who should I concentrate on?

>>899739
>I'm going to eventually make a dedicated mundane kitchen space anyway.
Yes, and we know how long "eventually" takes around here.

well might as well focus on Alkaline since she's in the resurrection room and it looks like everyone is going to head their eventually so might as well deal with things as they come to you.

>>899739
Stay with Alkaline, send the pair of normal homunculi to see if they can help Stargazer and Reisarf (I can't remember if we have healy stuff around but if we do, send some along with them) and have Hin on standby to welcome Moriko back and tell her what's going on.
Once Alkaline is sorted and everyone is feeling a bit better we can give out congratulations and critique.

Hmm... The matrix rooms is getting crowded. Send Merud off to check on reisarif. You are busy and even if you checked on them right now, you'd only be able to send golems to assist inadequately.

This'll free up some room for when moriko respawns, which will hopefully not cause an issue with our current problem.

Which is how long it's taking alkaline to bud. Focus on that most of all.

Focus on Alkaline but ask Merud to go assist Reisarf and Stargazer.

>>899744
This.

>>899739
Well, last we saw of alkaline she was right near the matrix, right? So you can help her while Moriko respawns since alkaline sees you as a bit of a mother figure.

And as >>899744 said, you can send someone else to check on Reisarf&Stargazer, to check if they're critically injured, or just walking at a normal pace.

Merud can take some golems along to help the victorious pair. Stick with Alkaline since she's not done.
Speaking of which, what are we going to do about post-battle injuries? I wonder if there's a point where natural recovery from wounds would take longer than shaking off resurrection sickness.

Tell Belphe (and Moriko eventually) welcome back. Once everyone is gathered they can report how the big fight went and you can give praises where they are due.

>>899739

>Providing shelter to them would erode the entire purpose of everything.

Aw. I'll curb my desire for a Deem-themed shop then.

Suggestion: Can Belphe boost one of the various recovery/healing potions with their current resurrection-chamber'd excess vitality? If so, you could pass one to Merud to give to Reisarf and Stargazer. If the side effect isn't too bad.

Keep watching over Alkaline, but position yourself so that you can greet Moriko when she recovers.

>>899739
Heal the living first. Take care of Stargazer and Reisarf. It is you fault that Reisarf is now a woman, after all, might as well do your best to help in other ways.

I'd rather focus on boosting Doyle's support capabilities and have a place to elevate food above campfire cuisine. You know, while also being able to train Alkaline? It's still an alchemy lab.
Alkaline can't be moved yet, so focus on her. Have everyone give her some space and reconvene in the boss chamber. Send a brute to meet Reisarf and carry them to the beds if needed.

So... How do we break it to Moriko that we missed her heroic sacrifice?
Lie: I needed to do complicated mana things, and now we have a meditation chamber!
Deflect: It is all Alkaline's fault! If she hadn't picked the worst time to start budding!
Seduce: My sight was tragically distracted, but I trust your combat experience and battle acumen to convey your glorious confrontation. Best not to be distracted, let us away to the privacy of this chamber, I built it, a part of my very being, specifically for you...
Work it off: Champion! Find bear, kill bear, return with pelt.
Break: Moriko, look! Alkaline is budding! We're Grandparents!

>>899776
Just be honest. Which actually means telling her exactly what you listed as Deflection, only without being accusative. An emergency came up, is all.

>This is a dungeon. I won't be opening a cafe or a spa or anything like that for passing invaders. Providing shelter to them would erode the entire purpose of everything.
...what about as a trap?

Kidding aside, having the capacity to host guests could have some benefits if a situation like the merchant visit occurs again. Taking control of the valley as a safe place for your minions already satisfies this though. If it can house minions, it can house visitors. So long as they're visitors you can trust in the normally off limits areas.

>Alkaline's still budding. Reisarf and Stargazer are headed this way. Slowly, it looks like they're not in the best of shape. Moriko will be resurrected soon too, but I can only do so much at once. Who should I concentrate on?
Biggest priorities are probably the budding, and the wounded. Lucky you, you have two bodies so you can tend to slime and alien(ists) at the same time! (Or you can delegate, send someone else to assist R&S if you have the door open now).

Probably should offer Belphie a quick word of encouragement for his efforts before running off to tend to that. Be nice to provide similar reassurance to Moriko (and there will be a longer, private conversation due with her sooner rather than later) but I tending to immediate medical needs will take precedence over issues of the heart or spirit.

>>899776
We didn't miss it, we were there for it. We are everywhere in the dungeon. We are the dungeon! We also knew the exact moment she died. We just weren't focusing higher thought processes on it at the time. It's the (subconscious) thought that counts.

Actually... hmm, can Doyle splash some healing potion on Reisarf and Stargazer, since he just got bathed in healing magic?

>>899776
You forgot the most likely option, pretend we didn't miss anything, Deem is omniscient and perfect, but describe the fight to the others in your own words please.

Stay with Alkaline. She's been rushing into things too much, so set a good example for her with calm and patience.

Send Belphejar to go help Reisarf & Stargazer with whatever they need - probably healing potions, but alkaline already proved he can serve as the equivalent of a wheelchair if nothing else.

Merud should do some after-action analysis on the golems and start putting them back together. Tell him to get them ready for carpentry work or whatever other tasks he things might help with setting up longer-term habitation in the valley, since the passage leading there is mostly clear now.

Tell Hin and Chakarchelou to haul the alchemy lab equipment (and some miscellaneous clutter) off to the new alchemy lab, then start warming up the forge and figuring out what we might need in terms of carpentry tools. Not just the basics, either, try to have some ideas ready for magic items that the surge of mana from the next wave of adventurers could be used to create.

1/4 Deem 2018/09/03(Mon)03:28 No. 900248 ID: ab52c1
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>Hmm... The matrix rooms is getting crowded. Send Merud off to check on Reisarf. You are busy and even if you checked on them right now, you'd only be able to send golems to assist inadequately.
I enter the Resurrection Matrix and replace my homunculus, cradling Alkaline. "Merud, would you go and check on Reisarf?" I say. Hin and I both have our hands full at the moment. With slime, curiously enough. "Once you're sure he's fine, I need you to repair the destroyed golems."

>Actually... hmm, can Doyle splash some healing potion on Reisarf and Stargazer, since he just got bathed in healing magic?
His broth is biased towards healing now, but he's running on empty. I have my homunculus top him up with most of the slime milk and a dash of raw mana. That should help a little.

>Probably should offer Belphie a quick word of encouragement for his efforts before running off to tend to that.
I beckon him over and pat his lid. "Good boy, Belphe. Now go look after Reisarf and Stargazer." He quivers and scampers off.

With the conflict that's just happened there, it's easy for me to refocus my awareness on the Thaumatorium. It looks like they've used up an extraordinary amount of mana. Reisarf's Secondary Storage has been expended and Stargazer is in a battered looking overgrown form. She's visibly deflating, the mana consumption is clearly terrible compared to the lengthy periods she can sustain her un-augmented Independent Action.

I send a homunculus along too, on a mission to steal and then repair Reisarf's slightly scorched hat.

2/4 Deem 2018/09/03(Mon)03:30 No. 900249 ID: ab52c1
File 153597061191.png - (25.02KB , 600x750 , moriko_will_remember_this_decision.png )

>Be nice to provide similar reassurance to Moriko (and there will be a longer, private conversation due with her sooner rather than later) but I tending to immediate medical needs will take precedence over issues of the heart or spirit.
I feel the pulse of healing energy again and Moriko staggers out of the Resurrection Matrix's sarcophagus. No side effects from surplus healing on her, which is a little worrying. Her vitality may be more depleted than I thought. I could just be over-reacting though; she's much stronger than typical denizens a dungeon in my state would normally have, so she takes more effort to heal.

>So... How do we break it to Moriko that we missed her heroic sacrifice?
I've never claimed to have perfect perception of everything that goes on in my dungeon. I have a sense of the tempo of the fight, that it was inconclusive until the pyromancer pulled out her bound spell. After that, things became far more frantic and there was a huge spike in mana expenditure.

The worrying thing is Moriko's predictive abilities probably should have let her dodge it.

Moriko looks at where I'm kneeling with Alkaline in my lap.

"We won." I tell her. Alkaline clutches at me and I look back down at my little slime princess. "She's budding." I say to Moriko, half apologetically.

"I'll wait outside." she says.

I track her position in my mind's eye. 'Outside' means outside my dungeon entirely. I send a golem after my hammerai to keep an eye on her.

3/4 Deem 2018/09/03(Mon)03:31 No. 900250 ID: ab52c1
File 153597067827.png - (13.81KB , 800x550 , fantastic_slime_prizes.png )

>Stay with Alkaline. She's been rushing into things too much, so set a good example for her with calm and patience.
There's little to do but wait. I pat Alkaline and murmur encouragements.

Wait, it's splitting at least. My royal jelly's toughened membrane has given her trouble but here we go, a new slime! It doesn't look like much right now, but give it a few days to develop.

>Aw. I'll curb my desire for a Deem-themed shop then.
Not in the dungeon itself, anyway! Safe spots are fine in a dungeon but adventurers should feel that it is a short respite, not some sort of shopping arcade.

And dungeon shops should be quite predatory, as a rule. It's honestly a great kindness on the dungeon's part to be offering under-equipped adventurers a chance to rectify their mistakes.

>Kidding aside, having the capacity to host guests could have some benefits if a situation like the merchant visit occurs again. Taking control of the valley as a safe place for your minions already satisfies this though. If it can house minions, it can house visitors. So long as they're visitors you can trust in the normally off limits areas.
Oh yes, the denizen only sections are, as a rule, far more hospitable.

Not that my current dungeon has been a great example of that thus far... It's very early days still.

>Speaking of which, what are we going to do about post-battle injuries? I wonder if there's a point where natural recovery from wounds would take longer than shaking off resurrection sickness.
The presence of the Matrix introduces a certain frailty in fighting strength - the body and soul would rather flee than face serious injury. The depletion of stamina means recovery from resurrection is usually slower than healing of the relatively minor bruises and scrapes a surviving denizen would suffer from. I also have the slimy healing potions and the ones I bought from Liana if needed.

4/4 Deem 2018/09/03(Mon)03:34 No. 900251 ID: ab52c1
File 153597086473.png - (31.28KB , 500x800 , alkaline_will_remember_this_decision.png )

I hold the squirming newborn slime to my chest and let my tired slime princess lean against me. Perhaps I should have shed more of this rocky carapace. I've depleted most of my mana. I'm content to sit here for the moment.

The first new life in my dungeon...

>Alkaline sees you as a bit of a mother figure.
>Alkaline is budding! We're grandparents!
Don't be idiots. I'd be a terrible example of either of those things.

Between the Delve and the invaders, my hoard is now 1103G. I feel a glow of contentment from that too. That absurd, narrow, new tunnel out towards the valley has thrown off the circulation of mana through my dungeon so I am only a little ahead of where I was, but that will ease up as I dig out more rooms.

Speaking of the valley, I should give everyone a few days to recover before I open up the tunnel completely. I'll be turning Hin back to normal at dawn tomorrow, showing Moriko the medition chamber to be, and will have to keep an eye on Alkaline and her new slime but I should be able to squeeze in one other activity:

Complete Forge: When I put on the finishing touches, I should be able to wrangle a minor magical item out of it with Hin's help.
Improve Dungeon Entrance: I should work with Merud to extend the Golem Totem to create a better thoroughfare and install some sort of puzzle or trap to slow down invaders.
Improve Golem: I can refine a golem into a stronger version with Merud's help. It means a little more work rebuilding them if they're destroyed in battle.
Brew Potions: Working with Doyle and Alkaline. Having extra potions on hand could be extremely useful if there's anything nasty in the valley.
Reading Lessons: Merud teaching Alkaline, Moriko and myself to read. Committing time to a low intensity task such as this might be a good idea while everyone recovers.
About A Boy: Reisarf hasn't been complaining about a few days of womanhood, but I should turn him back into a boy.

>>900251
Let's just get Hin back to being bipedial and finish the forge.

>Improve Dungeon Entrance
not going to lie, after being jumped by 2 adventure parties now (and that's probably going to grow through word of mouth now) something to buy us more time to set things up when this happens again would be nice. Plus I do think some adventures to like some puzzles in their dungeon crawling to spice things up a little.

Improve the dungeon entrance. Remove the bottleneck for quarrying and improve the bottleneck for adventurers so you have more time to get in position! That's extra important while we're still filling out the dungeon layout.

Reading Lessons.
It's easy, chill, and critical.

Reisarf can wait. Unless he has some sweetheart in town we don't know of.
As long as he's tended to before his first period, I don't think he'll care much.

The forge can be done after Hin is back in Top form, Puzzles are best left for after your literate, as writing gives you another dimension to work with, Golem improvements should wait until we work with the ones we have for a little bit, and the potions Idea is a waste of time, for now. If our Denizens can't handle whatever is in the valley, a few potions are unlikely to help.

>>900251
ABOUT A BOY

Seriously, we should really get on that. It isn't cool to permanently warp someone's biology without their permission, even by accident, and the longer we leave it the more difficult it might be to change him back.

>Don't be idiots. I'd be a terrible example of either of those things

that doesn't mean you're not one, bad mother figures exist (though you're doing quite fine so far.)
this is true regardless of whether or not you want it to be, this is not your decision to make, it is an unconscious part of Alkaline and can't be avoided or changed any more than her seeing herself at this stage as a child, and trying will bring only harm to everyone involved. please, just try to think about it, don't dismiss it out of hand. you're stronger than needing to turn away from the truth.

>>900251
>The first new life in my dungeon...
Hey hey, wait, wouldn't the terrible orange slime have been the first?

Also, About a boy. Dude deserves a break. And maybe it'll get Stargazer off of our backs.

Fix that boy.

>stargazer / moriko will remember these decisions!
Sorry girls, injuries, both physical and spiritual, lag behind children.

Reisarf and Stargazer should get words of thanks or praise the next time you see them. (Thanking / expressing appreciation for minions' effort after a conflict, whether they died or struck the winning blow is a good policy anyways).

>showing Moriko the [mediation] chamber to be
We are going to need to talk to her soon, she seemed shook up over her defeat, and there is the whole matter of being spiritually out of balance and the way she thinks of her heritage. That's going to require a frank and private conversation, and can't be allowed to fester. But allowing her some private meditation to come to terms with some of it might help.

>I should be able to squeeze in one other activity
>Improve Dungeon Entrance
More time to arrange your minions and study the opposition would be a big help in the next encounter.

>About A Boy
Tbh this feels like the lowest priority on the list, if Reisarf really isn't bothered by dsyphoria. It's a nice thing to do (assuming he/she isn't indifferent), but we're still operating on a very thin margin and most the other options give us concrete advantages we badly need.

>>900251
Reading lessons! Can't keep putting this off.

>>900251
About A Boy. Don't leave your denizens cursed for longer than they have to.

Improve Dungeon Entrance

Though I find that less important in the long run than uncursing Reisarf or relaxing with reading lessons, lately you've been scrambling to get ready and anything to help with that is more vital.

>>900251
Improve Dungeon Entrance: This might look like the highest priority thing to do on this list at first sight, but that's because we just had to fend off a hero. Which is, in fact, the reason why this isn't that urgent: we just got rid of a set, it's not likely for us to get invaded again today. This makes even more sense from a Doylist perspective, since having two adventurer groups in a row would induce player fatigue, but of course I'm not gonna tell Deem that.
Reading Lessons: Kind of important, but unfortunately there are way too many competing levels or urgency for it to take priority over anything. If you really need to read something and none of your famuli are available, we should be able to read it for you if you focus on the writing for a few seconds.
About A Boy: Reisarf may not care much, but Stargazer does. And we kind of owe her for that, since we (but not you) may have caused it.

Actually, since I'm touching on that subject, I think it's time we clarified something: what the hell are we? We're obviously not the same being since we can read and you can't, but it's also obvious that we're bound, since in normal circumstances you're the only one who can hear us.

>>900284
We're obviously Deem's wet dreams and sexual fantasies.

No option to try and deal with Moriko's reticence after her recent failures and doubt?

>>900306
Well I think that's being put off until we have some actual free time. Currently we're doing minor renovations, and recovering from the fight. Moriko needs more time and attention than Deem can currently afford, I think.

Brew Potions - You're still unprepared in the short term. Some boosts will keep you afloat against the next valley monster.
Complete Forge - And after you have the boosts, you need long-term assets. A magical item will be sufficient.
Improve Dungeon Entrance - When you're ready for raids, set up a nice entrance that doesn't repulse the investors dungeoneers and has enough space for the get construction golem team to do their job.

We should ask Reisarf. Tell him if he wants to turn back today, he need only say the word. He’ll be the one to decide if it’s urgent enough. If not, expand the entrance.

Improve the dungeon entrance. Heroes keep showing up sooner than you expect, so a bit more time to prep and plan would probably go a long way toward making everyone less frazzled and frantic, and thus more combat-effective. Having that puzzle or trap already in place means it'll be there, watching your backs, while everyone's struggling to recover from whatever ridiculous catastrophe you inevitably stumble into over the course of scouting out the isolated valley.

Plus, it's an issue of both professional pride and effective earth-pulse mana management. First impressions help set a tone for the whole delve.

Also, once you've got the improved dungeon entrance set up and are almost ready to open up the valley, take Rei, Stargazer, and Moriko aside and explain your reasoning. "Please don't take it as a personal slight. When any of you are birthing your first child, I promise I'll give that event my full attention even if Alkaline is fighting a battle at the same time."

>>900366

Seconding this

No no no, don't apologize and explain. Ancient and powerful dungeons don't apologize to their minions for not kissing their boo-boos. We've collected a array of eclectic but exceptional individuals, helping them deal with their problems is fine but babying them is not the right approach.

Send the Kallia homunculus out for Moriko, she has a face you can trust. And a modicum of modest clothing.
Improve the dungeon entrance now to restore your feng shui. That's the last time we are letting supper get interrupted by door-to-door bandits!

>>900567
Except for Alkaline. We're gonna baby the slime outta her.

Hell yes, she gets all the babying.

>>900251
Congratulations, it’s a.....actually, what is it, a boy or a girl?

>>900596
Congratulations, it's a slime!