Khenal

Peek: The Fall of the Sanctuary From Death

Ah, the tale of a tragedy second only to the Great Collapse.  The Sanctuary From Death was among the first of the sanctuaries after the First, and it was the first to discover how to keep its dwellers from the clutches of the Raven.

It loved its kobolds, and each that died, whether from age, sickness, or injury, was felt keenly by the sanctuary.  But there was little it could do.  Death is a part of existence, and even death aspects help keep the mana flowing.  And y...

Chapter Sixty-Six

As far as I can tell, the baby dungeon hasn’t gone nuts.  It tried to attack Rhonda and Freddie, but they’re strong enough to deal with anything it might try to pull.  Leo’s been sending more wolves to keep an eye on it, and as far as they can tell, it hasn’t really changed its behavior.

It’s still making centipedes and mushrooms, which is interesting.  I thought it somehow had the mushrooms as herbalism nodes, but the wolves say the fungus is what’s dealing w...

Chapter Sixty-Five

I only half pay attention to what the lady tells the kids, though I do at least catch that her name is Telar.  I kinda already know the basics of dungeons just from experience, and from how Elf Guy behaved in those early inspections:  beat up a few things, gather a few things, take a look around… that’s about it.

It’s difficult to pay too much attention over there when the terrible trio are making unexpected progress in the gauntlet.  They still haven’t figured ou...

Nudge Topics!

Actually making a new nudge post this time!  There's still a lot of good stuff in the previous Nudge, but I wanted to make a fresh one and see if there's new ideas, new things you all want to see!  I'll still be looking at the old Nudge, but the new one should help refresh the conversation and the ideas!  Thank you again to everyone who's reading and supporting.  I never expected to be in a position to be able to make a living on writing.

Peek: The First Dungeon

At first, all was still.  The earth, the air, the waters, the mana: all still.  But then, there was a ripple in the mana, and the disturbance caused it to crystalize.  It grew, slowly but surely, until it became aware.  This was the First Dungeon.

It felt around it, observed, tried to comprehend existence.  Around itself, mana slowly flowed, moved.  Further away, the mana was still.  Everything was still.  The First Dungeon decid...

Chapter Sixty-Four

It feels kinda weird to watch through Teemo’s eyes while he talks with the ODA lady.  I’ve gotten so used to just knowing what’s going on around me that just having the directed senses of a rat is strange to me now.

“The Boss is pretty sure it’s a dungeon, at least,” says my Voice.  “The expedition can taste it, but it’s really small.  The Boss was most of the entire manor when he started, but the little cavern this one is in is barely bigger than...

Chapter Sixty-Three

The public gauntlet is getting close to being finished.  I’ve made it a lot simpler and easier than the one attached to the jail.  Once the trio finally frees themselves, I’ll probably open that one up to everyone, too.  The mana gains are decent, but with the investment I put in, I don’t think it’s especially dangerous for other dungeons to try similar.

It might even encourage other dungeons to capture instead of kill delvers, who knows?  The trio has also m...

Peek: Mana Dynamics

One of the first questions any aspiring Dungeoneer asks is: How do dungeons form?  It's not like a mommy dungeon and a daddy dungeon loving each other very much, right?  Of course not.  To understand how they form, though, one must understand at least the basics of mana dynamics.

Generally, mana dynamics is something focused caster classes are concerned with, but Dungeoneers are also interested in them, at least in the macro sense.  So, let us start with how mana beh...

Chapter Sixty-Two

The terrible trio have finally managed to get past the rocking stones.  The diminishing returns for a trap also reset at dawn… I think.  They reset at some point, at least.  It might be midnight, it might be dawn, it might just be from them not triggering the trap for a while because they’re sleeping and I have the wall up.  Whatever the actual reason, my new mana source is stable, if not especially large.

The public gauntlet will probably be a great hit...

Chapter Sixty-One

I think Leo could watch the terrible trio fail at the gauntlet all day.  They’ve actually started getting a couple stones through it, but haven’t managed to clear all of them.  I don’t think it’ll be too long before they get through that first challenge, though.  Probably tomorrow, after they rest up a bit.

I impress upon Leo the need for him to send a few of the lesser wolves down the ratkin’s hunting tunnel.  At first, I thought the lesser wolves were cub...

Peek: Spawners

One of the first things any Dungeoneer or Delver learns about a dungeon is that it has monsters.  While some are more monstrous than others, they are all still classified as such, from little pixies to drakes and wyverns.  The second thing one typically learns about a dungeon is that a lot of a dungeon's monsters follow a theme.  If a dungeon has pixies, it has or will have eventually brownies, sylphs, pucks, and potentially elves.

Yes, elves.  Every race is represen...

Chapter Sixty

Rather than looks of terror or concern, or even excitement, the trio wears looks of confusion as they get their first look at the gauntlet.  Maybe they were expecting swinging blades and gouts of flame?  What they’re getting is a lot of platforms, ropes, netting, and other things that look like a random jumble with even less of an obvious way forward than if I went with the blades and fire option.

“If you all want to escape, you all need to get through the gauntlet,” say...

Chapter Fifty-Nine

The rest of the night I mostly spend with Teemo, confirming the affinities of my scions.  Unsurprisingly, looks like everyone has Fate affinity, probably because of me.  It makes me wonder if we could actually avoid accidental kills.  I’ve been wondering about when it would happen.  Yeah, I know, doesn’t seem like something I’d worry about.

I’m not exactly worried about it, but more because I thought it was kinda inevitable.  Parks and stuff bac...

Nudge Topics

There's (I hope) a lot of questions to ask and think about to take a closer look at.  The other topic that was suggested was if all spawners have intelligent options, and if so: what are they?  There are also other questions that might be interesting to talk about and to read about, like how the spawners work.  I've shown upgrades, mentioned specializations, but specifics have only been vaguely talked about in a few replies.  Maybe specifics about what dungeons actually do...

Peek at The Guilds

While there are countless guilds in the world, the two that get the most attention are the Dungeoneer's Guild, and the Adventurer's Guild.  Many who aren't interested in joining either of the two even conflate them as the same guild!  They go deal with dungeons, how different can they be?

Dealing with dungeons is one of the few things they actually have in common.  The Adventurer's Guilds are subject to national oversight, and even compete with each other.  There is ...

Chapter Fifty-Eight

We talk a bit more about Fate affinity and how it works, and it seems to me like Luck might be a little more accurate, though that might be splitting hairs.  I always felt like Luck was basically quantum stuff, but if that’s actually how it works, it destroys my working theory on how magic works.

I was thinking it was basically controlled quantum observation: observe the wave-form just right, and collapse it exactly how you want.  Could be a fireball, or it could be a coin f...

Nudge Topics!

Hello everyone.  Thank you again for your support.  If you have things you'd like for me to talk about on the Peeks, please reply and upvote suggestions that sound interesting!  The top won't be guaranteed to be the next topic, but it has very good odds for it!  Peeks will be posted Sundays.

First Peek: Dungeon Classification

The Dungeoneer's Guild, not to be confused with the Adventurer's Guild, has four classifications they give for dungeon danger.  They are, in descending order of violence: Murderous, Belligerent, Cooperative, and Toy Box.  The dungeons themselves don't have much of a concept of these classifications, and don't see the need to conform to any of them, but the Guild has found them to be useful.

The most dangerous are the Murderous dungeons.  They not only attempt to destroy a...

Chapter Fifty-Seven

I’ve got my notes as prepared as they can get.  I still don’t know how magic works, which can be a big wrench in my plans.  I have a couple gues- I mean theories on some of it, but I’ll need to talk to my two Residents to get any actual information.  I probably should have tried to talk with Old Staiven about this, but if any of my ideas actually work, it could be way more dangerous than a dungeon with a mana battery.

Dungeons don’t get up and walk around...

Chapter Fifty-Six

Alright, with Leo getting himself settled, I need to get a few things prepared to talk with Yvonne and Aranya.  I mean, I had known there had to be jerks around, I had just hoped to be able to get a bit more prepared first.  Locals are always easier to keep friendly.  Nobody wants to go rocking the boat if they have to actually live on the boat after.

So if that group had some idea about me, others will eventually, too.  I can’t force people to not be stup...

Chapter Fifty-Five

I consider Tarl’s suggestion on making the punitive gauntlet secret.  On the one hand, I want to be able to humiliate these delvers for being jerks.  But on the other hand, especially if this works, other dungeons could cause a lot of trouble with this.  Imagining Neverrest having a mana farm is just… no.

I sigh and get working on hiding the entrance to the jail and gauntlet.  At least I didn’t make the exit for the gauntlet yet, so that can be hidden from the ...