Little Lost Dungeon

[Biigoh]

[X] Plan Bii
[X] Figure out passive [MANA] respiration.
[X] Scry for a [Poor] quality [Treasure Pattern]. (2 Mana) *
[X] Lure in the young person who is crying close to your entrance.

 

[Happerry]

[X] Plan Bii

 

[DIT_grue]

We're going to be the best dungeon ever, so obviously we can't let anyone in until we've fixed both problems. Of course we can imagine the scariest monsters... (*gk* *pant pant* such hard work!) But you know, people around here are so strange they might not appreciate our treasures properly, so we should find out what they want and make some of that. Then we just have to add some of each to our big room and we'll be all ready!

[x] Invent a [Poor] quality [Monster Pattern]. (10 Mana) *
[x] Scry for a [Poor] quality [Treasure Pattern]. (2 Mana) *
[x] Do further work on your room.

 

[Biigoh]

/me patpats the best little dungeon core...

Invent

Click to shrink...

Why not scry a monster pattern? It IS cheaper...

 

[Gaemnomut]

Why not scry a monster pattern? It IS cheaper...

Click to shrink...

From the sound of it it comes with two downsides:
1) we do not get to chose what it is.
2) We might actually have to find some way to reach it so we can absorb it, meaning we can't use it right away

 

[Merior]

Why not scry a monster pattern? It IS cheaper...

Click to shrink...

From the sound of it it comes with two downsides:
1) we do not get to chose what it is.
2) We might actually have to find some way to reach it so we can absorb it, meaning we can't use it right away

Click to shrink...

I have been trying to avoid giving away too much OOCly, but I think that it's appropriate to describe the difference between the "Scry" and "Invent" options for [Patterns].

With "Scry" the Core is effectively using magic to semi-randomly get a pattern of the appropriate type. It's cheap and had a chance of getting significantly something worse (a normal failure on the roll) or something better (a critical success). Think of it as buying a raffle ticket with good odds and some consolation prizes.

With "Invent" the Core takes a guess at what she wants to end up with then tries to work 'backwards' from there. It's expensive in Mana as it involves lots of experimentation. It is also hard unless you have a lot of similar examples, have appropriate knowledge/skills, or are willing to stubbornly keep trying until it works. OTOH, there are rewards.

 

[Candesce]

I think that it's appropriate to describe the difference between the "Scry" and "Invent" options for [Patterns].

Click to shrink...

So, that's quite informative, but still leaves me with an important question:

Which should we be taking for the best odds of getting the [Angry Catholic Nun] Mob?

 

[Gaemnomut]

Ok that makes sense.
Out of curiosity, are you tallying by line or by block?

 

[Merior]

So, that's quite informative, but still leaves me with an important question:

Which should we be taking for the best odds of getting the [Angry Catholic Nun] Mob?

Click to shrink...

Given that the Core currently believes that 'Catholic' is a type of building?

Ok that makes sense.
Out of curiosity, are you tallying by line or by block?

Click to shrink...

By block. Unless I explicitly say otherwise it will be by block in this Quest.

 

[Candesce]

[x] Invent a [Poor] quality [Monster Pattern]. (10 Mana) *
[x] Scry for a [Poor] quality [Treasure Pattern]. (2 Mana) *
[x] Figure out passive [MANA] respiration.

 

[Anaja]

[X] Figure out passive [MANA] respiration.
[X] Invent a [Poor] quality [Treasure Pattern]. (10 Mana) *
[X] Lure in the young person who is crying close to your entrance.

 

[ultima333]

[X] Plan Bii

 

[1986ctcel]

[X] Plan Bii

 

[macdjord]

[X] Plan Bii

 

[Alexander]

[X] Figure out passive [MANA] respiration.
[X] Scry for a [Poor] quality [Monster Pattern]. (2 Mana) *
[X] Scry for a [Poor] quality [Treasure Pattern]. (2 Mana) *

 

[Merior]

Spoiler: Tally Results

Vote Tally : Little Lost Dungeon | Page 2 | Questionable Questing
##### NetTally 1.7.10.1

[X] Plan Bii
[X] Figure out passive [MANA] respiration.
[X] Scry for a [Poor] quality [Treasure Pattern]. (2 Mana) *
[X] Lure in the young person who is crying close to your entrance.
No. of Votes: 5

Spoiler: Voters

Plan: ◈Bii
1986ctcel
Biigoh
Happerry
macdjord
ultima333

[X] Figure out passive [MANA] respiration.
[X] Invent a [Poor] quality [Treasure Pattern]. (10 Mana) *
[X] Lure in the young person who is crying close to your entrance.
No. of Votes: 3

Spoiler: Voters

Latewave
Anaja
shade argost

[x] Do further work on your room.
[x] Invent a [Poor] quality [Treasure Pattern]. (10 Mana) *
[x] Lure in the young person who is crying close to your entrance.
No. of Votes: 1

Spoiler: Voters

Gaemnomut

[x] Invent a [Poor] quality [Monster Pattern]. (10 Mana) *
[x] Scry for a [Poor] quality [Treasure Pattern]. (2 Mana) *
[x] Do further work on your room.
No. of Votes: 1

Spoiler: Voters

DIT_grue

[x] Invent a [Poor] quality [Monster Pattern]. (10 Mana) *
[x] Scry for a [Poor] quality [Treasure Pattern]. (2 Mana) *
[x] Figure out passive [MANA] respiration.
No. of Votes: 1

Spoiler: Voters

Candesce

[X] Figure out passive [MANA] respiration.
[X] Scry for a [Poor] quality [Monster Pattern]. (2 Mana) *
[X] Scry for a [Poor] quality [Treasure Pattern]. (2 Mana) *
No. of Votes: 1

Spoiler: Voters

Alexander

Total No. of Voters: 12

Spoiler: Rolls

[X] Figure out passive [MANA] respiration.

Difficulty reduced due to persistence.​

Rolled 46 vs [30+1 LVL +10 Ordinary] = Failure (0)​

[X] Scry for a [Poor] quality [Treasure Pattern]. (2 Mana) *

Rolled 40 vs [30+1 LVL +20 Routine] = Success (1)​

[X] Lure in the young person who is crying close to your entrance.

Rolled 33 vs [30+1 LVL +10 Ordinary] = CRITICAL SUCCESS (0)​

Spoiler: Notes

That's the first critical (i.e a roll of doubles) of the Quest. Not only that, but it's a critical success and on your first piece of plot to boot!

 

[Merior]

Spoiler

[X] Figure out passive [MANA] respiration.
[X] Scry for a [Poor] quality [Treasure Pattern]. (2 Mana) *
[X] Lure in the young person who is crying close to your entrance.

oOo​

In hindsight you felt that should have expected this.

You were, after all, situated beneath a place which taught young people. Young people weren't know for being rich, were known for having odd ideas and fads, and definitely wouldn't be the type to carry around interesting bits of treasure that you could scry a pattern from.

Similarly your dungeon was situated below a place which taught people. Somewhere in your vague knowledge of how the world worked (being a Core let you know such cool stuff without boring learning of things like the tutorial wanted you do to...) you were aware that teaching places put odd amounts of value on stuff that delvers wouldn't normally be interested in.

It was like the books you'd looked at in the 'high school' above. You'd been browsing them occasionally, between doing other things, and there wasn't one tome on proper swordplay and you hadn't seen a single bestiary!

Glumly you toyed a little more with the pattern of the [ Wallet ] while trying to figure out what the weird green pieces of paper in it were for. Maybe they were some sort of tinder? But then why would someone put so much ink in such similar patterns on it?

Focusing on the finer details you got even more confused. A chunk of the pattern was caught up in making sure that a little bit of the ink formed a different series of numbers on the paper for each individual piece.

Why would it need to be so focused on that?

And why couldn't you have just gotten a pattern for a nice valuable copper coin?

Experimentally you manifested then removed the pattern in various places around your Furniture Maze, noticing with a metaphorical pout that at least the randomization effect did work properly. The slightly shiny stuff the main wallet was made of, which wasn't proper leather, changed too with no two examples of the [ Wallet ] being exactly the same.

(You were sure that if you tried long enough then there would be repeats though. There was a limit on the different 'styles' the pattern recognised.)

Despite your disappointment it was oddly interesting how the [ Wallet ] changed each time. You tried focusing on working out how to draw mana into you, you'd got the feeling that it had something to do with your entrance, but after just a few hours you ended up examining the treasure again.

It was during this second burst of playtime experimentation that you discovered an amazing thing.

There were a sub-patterns hidden in it!

This was, you 'knew', not normal. Not that you minded this discovery though and immediately you worked on extracting these extra patterns just to see how shiny they were.

One of the patterns was for the green bits of paper, a single [ Dollar Bill ], so you quickly ignored that one. More importantly there was a pattern for an [ Empty Wallet ] made of that same 'not quite leather'. Both of the patterns were [ Feeble ] quality, but you were pleased with the idea of scattering a few examples of the [ Empty Wallet ] in the maze to encourage exploration.

You guessed that if they got a half dozen or so then they could have a cobbler make them some boots. Wouldn't that be great? Crafting material were, or so said your inherent knowledge, of great interest to delvers.

That means that they'd want to come to your dungeon. Which was a good thing.

With that thought in your mind you used a single point of your mana (you were trying to be good and ration the mana out) to manifest an [ Empty Wallet ] just inside your entrance where anyone coming in would see it.

It was probably a waste, and you hadn't altered your room to actually make it respawn properly, but it'd be a lure. You could imagine it now already.

Some delver would look inside, see the shiny [ Empty Wallet ], and go "Ah hah! A value crafting material. I am wary of this powerful and beautiful dungeon so I will gather a large group of others to help me explore. Low level of course so that none of them can force them me to give up the value [ Empty Wallet ] beyond their share."

And then there'd be delvers coming.

And you'd be getting EXP and remains and patterns.

And you'd be known as a Valuable Dunegon and it would be great!

You indulged in a little spin in the air before settling back down then turned your attention towards the world outside your dungeon.

You were already eagerly anticipating how great that things would be that it came as a shock when you noticed that there was a delver young person RIGHT OUTSIDE. And you didn't have any monsters yet!

A long and tense minute passed before you realised that the young person wasn't actually trying to enter your dungeon. Because, of course, they were a nice delver and would be waiting until you were ready.

Right?

Except, when you looked at it, you were pretty sure that something wasn't right. Looking at it you noticed that there was some fluid stuff leaking when you were pretty sure that 'leaking fluids' either meant that the delver was about to die or was defouling an area.

You decided to wait just a little longer and watch what they did.

...they didn't sound happy.

Really unhappy.

And being curled up on the floor properly wasn't a good sign either.

Um, um, umm...?

(You briefly wished that you had done the tutorial. Weird stuff, which wasn't about how to dungeon because you knew how to do that, like this was probably what it covered.)

You were really lost about what to do and so, after thinking about it for long minutes, finally settled on one of the few things you knew that you could do.

You sang a [ Dungeon Lure ].

It was a wordless song which came form the deepest part of you, the part which wanted delvers to come to you. It didn't promise safety, it didn't promise wealth, but it inspired interest and silently told them that there was something of interesting to be seen.

Pity that it'd wear off as soon as they reached your entrance, or recognised you as a dungeon, but the young person was young. And probably inexperienced. It would likely actually come inside and you'd be able to take a look at it's status to figure out what was wrong.

(And hopefully how you could fix it...)

It took a surprisingly long time before the young one uncurled. You kept up the song, mentally urging her to follow the lure, and it sent a spark of joy through you when finally they did. Without letting the song falter you watched with anticipation as they slowly, not recognising the influence but still curious, walked through the door which was your entrance.

The sudden inability to effect your dungeon was half expected, but still disturbing. It would have been cheating to change things while a delver was doing a dungeon run and technically the young one was your very... first... delver...

Oh.

Oh!

You'd have to do something great for this one!

They were your VERY FIRST DELVER!

(There was even a blue box announcing that you'd gotten a single point of EXP for that. Wasn't that cool?)

Determined to do this properly you pulled up what you could see of their [ STATUS ] and started reading. "Etsuko Abelson" was a really nice sounding name (you hoped you got as nice a name!) and they were a female human! Humans were supposed to be fun things, lots of them around and lots and lots of delvers were humans.

Obviously Etsuko had to be a good person then.

The '<CLASSLESS>' entry where her class was struck you as odd, but you couldn't place how. You didn't need a class yourself, you had your race and that was enough, yet something deep inside you was disturbed by the lack.

She was a little injured and when you looked closely there was a little red mark on the back of her neck hidden under her hair. Odd place for an injury, and very small, but head wounds could be bad?

If the class had been odd then what she had listed under her mana was just so so wrong. You didn't know numbers well, but you knew enough to say that '<NULL>' wasn't a number. How could she use spells or use special skills if she didn't have a proper number for her mana?!

You were still dwelling stuck on the mana issue (<Null>? What in the hells...?) as you continued reading and hit the section on the notably status effects that Etsuko was under.

As Core's went you were a newborn. Inexperienced. Ignorant even. Yet what you saw made you reach for [ Least Scrying ] and smack it against the two named status effects present on Etsuko until the explanations manifested.

...you didn't feel so happy any more.

oOo

DYING WILL This being has made a decision which they plan to stick to even as it kills them.

MORIBUND This being utterly believes that it will inescapably soon die.

oOo​

Your very first delver, the cute but crying Etsuko, is not in a good state.
You need to do something! (Pick up to three.)
Multiples of some actions are allowed. Rolls will be involved for success.

[ ] Do nothing. (Exclude all other actions.)
[ ] Erase a [ ??? ] status effect. (1 EXP. Take up to twice. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)
[ ] Give her a class. (2 EXP.)
[ ] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.)
[ ] Scry what is up with her mana. (2 Mana.)
[ ] Scry what is the matter with her class. (2 Mana.)
[ ] Scry what she is thinking about. (2 Mana.)
[ ] Sort out her mana. (1 EXP. Requires a successful 'Give her a class.')
[ ] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)

 

[Merior]

[ Dungeon Lure ] It can be hard for a Core to get its dungeon noticed especially when it had manifested in an obscure location. Thus the Core of an unvisited dungeon can gently influence those outside of it's domain to approach and enter. This influence is negated on any being who has entered the dungeon or which recognised the presence of a dungeon. Linked to the [ Newborn ] or [ Neglected] status effect.

 

[Merior]

STATUS <UNNAMED DUNGEON CORE> LVL 1 (5 EXP) HEALTH 75 (100) MANA 25 (30) [ Newborn ], [ Undungeoned ]

TRAITS [ Blissful Ignorance ] [ Dimensional Affinity ] [ Race : Dungeon Core ] [ Wandering Door ]

SKILLS [ Core Restoration ] [ Dungeon Lure ] Least Scrying (LVL 2; 2 XP)

INVENTORY [ Institutional Utility Area ] [ Row of Lockers ] [ School Bookshelves] [ Teacher's Desk ] [ Wooden School Desks ] [ Dollar Bill ] (Feeble) [ Empty Wallet ] (Feeble) [ Wallet ] (Poor)

FLOOR ONE [ Inactive ] Furniture Maze - [ Institutional Utility Area ]

 

[Merior]

ETSUKO ABELSON FEMALE HUMAN <CLASSLESS> - LVL 0 HEALTH 20 (24) MANA <NULL> (<NULL>) [ ??? ], [ ???], [ Dying Will ], [ Moribund ]

 

[Candesce]

She was a little injured and when you looked closely there was a little red mark on the back of her neck hidden under her hair. Odd place for an injury, and very small, but head wounds could be bad?

Click to shrink...

Yet what you saw made you reach for [ Least Scrying ] and smack it against the two named status effects present on Etsuko until the explanations manifested.

Click to shrink...

Oooh boy.

Anyone care to bet that one of those [???] statuses isn't "implanted bomb?"

 

[Aleh]

[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.)
[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.)
[X] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)

​

 

[Alexander]

[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.)
[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.)
[X] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)

 

[Candesce]

If what's going on is what I think's going on, we might not have time to do this neatly, cleanly, and knowing just what we're doing.

That is, we might only get three actions because if our first delver here isn't fixed by the time those three are taken, we might get blood and brains scattered all over our first dungeon room.

So, couple thoughts.

[ ] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.)
[ ] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.) x2
[ ] Erase a [ ??? ] status effect. (1 EXP. Take up to twice. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)

Figure out what the other two statuses are, rip out the one that looks the worst. Probably the path that fucks up Etsuko the least, but doesn't make it obvious that there's anything special about the room she's in, so we might not get a repeat visit.

[ ] Erase a [ ??? ] status effect. (1 EXP. Take up to twice. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)
[ ] Erase a [ ??? ] status effect. (1 EXP. Take up to twice. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.) x2
[ ] Give her a class. (2 EXP.)

Gets rid of the bomb, probably fucks her up in some way depending on what that other status is, grants her power. Unfortunately likely to be mistaken as a trigger event. Or fortunately, if you aren't looking to acquire Bakuda's attention. Might provoke a return to this room, depending on exactly what being granted a class does to Etsuko.

[ ] Scry what she is thinking about. (2 Mana.)
[ ] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)
[ ] Erase a [ ??? ] status effect. (1 EXP. Take up to twice. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)

Assuming "speak" or "scry" lets us ID the new statuses, has a decent chance of getting rid of the bomb and IDing this room as special. Lets loose the information that the dungeon is sapient, which will have a bunch of effects on what people show up, and why.

[ ] Scry what is up with her mana. (2 Mana.)
[ ] Scry what is the matter with her class. (2 Mana.)

Leave our first delver to probably die, figure out what's up with her so we can do a better job with the next one.

Keep in mind that if "Bakuda victim" is what's going on here, just getting rid of the bomb doesn't fix everything; after all, the ABB grabbed her before, and can probably do so again.

 

[shanagan]

[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.)
[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.) x2
[X] Erase a [ ??? ] status effect. (1 EXP. Take up to twice. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)

 

[Aoinfinity]

The Bakuda theory doesn't really fit with Dying Will.

oOo

DYING WILL
This being has made a decision which they plan to stick to even as it kills them.

Click to shrink...

Not to mention that the only indications that this is Earth-Bet in the first place are that two of the initial options were docks and a high school...

The text of the condition fits better if Etsuko intends to commit suicide. So let's give her a sounding board.

[X] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)
[X] Scry one of her [ ??? ] status effects. (2 Mana. Take up to twice.)
[X] Scry what is the matter with her class. (2 Mana.)

The first of these is the one I care the most about. If someone wants to combine votes and has a different idea for the second two, feel free to PM or @ me.

 

[Candesce]

The Bakuda theory doesn't really fit with Dying Will.

Click to shrink...

"Just suicidal" doesn't explain the very odd wound on the back of her neck.

And "was given an order to carry out or die" followed by "chose to go somewhere without bystanders rather than follow orders" covers Dying Will handily, I think.

But yes, I'm making assumptions here.

 

[prandom]

[X] Erase a [ ??? ] status effect. (1 EXP. Take up to twice. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)
[X] Erase a [ ??? ] status effect. (1 EXP. Take up to twice. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.) x2
[X] Give her a class. (2 EXP.)

 

[DIT_grue]

The Bakuda theory doesn't really fit with Dying Will.

Not to mention that the only indications that this is Earth-Bet in the first place are that two of the initial options were docks and a high school...

The text of the condition fits better if Etsuko intends to commit suicide. So let's give her a sounding board.

Click to shrink...

Dying Will would be phrased really oddly if it was about suicide qua suicide; it can be reconciled with the Bakuda theory (or something similar) on the assumption that she has determined not to follow her orders even though she will be killed horribly for that. I'm not entirely convinced of the theory, but I can't think of anything else that explains both the wound and her statuses; assuming conservation of detail applies that makes it appear the more persuasive of the hypotheses so far.

[x] Scry what she is thinking about. (2 Mana.)
[x] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)
[x] Give her a class. (2 EXP.)

Try to find out what's on her mind before talking - making it worse would not be good. (Then give her a class, because obviously that will make everything better!)

 

[Biigoh]

So... as noted, Best Little Core has a different sense of what is good/useful.

I think observatoin might be a good thing to do to her first before speaking to her. :3

[X] Plan Bii
[X] Scry what she is thinking about. (2 Mana.)
[X] Scry what is up with her mana. (2 Mana.)
[X] Speak to her. (2 EXP for scene. Opened by Blissful Ignorance.)