Ariamis

An Idiot's Dungeon Union

@Ponn I like how Zoppy's mutant hand (likely from AI not knowing how to draw hands) is included as part of her lore. She deserves cute hands.

An Idiot's Dungeon Union

Posted. Let me know if there's any mistakes, and I'll fix them.

An Idiot's Dungeon Union

Muste's tentacles slowly writhed as the illithid came to, his eyes opening lethargically to take in his surroundings. He immediately understood that he was in an underground shelter of some kind, as it instinctually resonated as a safe place if not even home to him. He then deduced it to be a dungeon based on the presence of a dungeon core that radiated magnificent magical power. But there was no Mother Brain to greet him, nor even a traditional spawning pool of an illithid nest. The confusion only passed for a moment before the fledgling sorcerer understood that he had been spawned by the core itself.

The illithid, dressed in a black coat and hat, carefully lowered his walking cane as the scroll pile exclaimed in surprise at what looked like long-dead human remains. This was followed by the raccoon-looking beast woman/spirit(?) explaining the situation, to which the illithid sighed and nodded, turning towards the others. He recognized the same Shard of Authority in them that he also possessed: they were all equally qualified to manage the dungeon, something that could prove problematic should there be a conflict of interest or siloing. He examined the group.

A shadowy ghost with a beak or nose caught his attention first: he did not care for undead, as they lacked the delicious morsel he most craved in the cranium. However, he could use an employee who was tireless and capable of more subtle activities, should they prove useful.
He also noted a serpentine monster with a particularly refined appearance: they seemed capable enough, and should they possess the ability to enter human settlements in disguise, that was a a chance for him to get his tendrils on a proper dinner. There were also goblins and rats, and a monster he did not have knowledge of. Overall, It seemed quite a mish-mash of creatures, with representatives of multiple monster factions, but it wouldn't deter him from making a proper introduction for his first day at work.

"My name..." Muste spoke, his voice sounding a bit raspy, likely due to the facial tentacles. "...Is Muste. As of today I will be joining the dungeon development team as a magic specialist and artifact developer."
He touched his coat pocket to check for items, and found a grimoire. He quickly skimmed through the contents as he spoke, the spells contained in the tome as natural to him as the written word. "For my salary, I prefer human brains, with magical items and spelltomes as a secondary priority. In return, I provide expertise in arcane mysteries and improving the dungeon from the magical perspective. Uh, that is all."

Muste realized his introduction wavered off at the end. Well, he wasn't working in the public relations department any time soon. The dungeon sprit then gave the team their first item on the agenda for the meeting. "Miss Dungeon Spirit, you represent a party that is invested in the dungeon's operation and success, as you all can clearly see by how we have been summoned and given Shards of Authority." He lifted his cane, casually placing the rounded handle in his other hand.
"To that end, I think you should be named either Dungeon Owner, Stakeholder, or Client." In his head, they were perfect titles for one of the most important entities an employee, even one working in a dungeon, would know.

An Idiot's Dungeon Union

@Burger
Posted the sheet. Looking forward to the IC OP.

An Idiot's Dungeon Union

The Middle Manager

Muste

Rarity ★★★ | Illithid Magic Developer| Level 1

Appearance:

Muste is an illithid, a species of extraplanar monsters who subsist on the brains of other creatures. While he can subsist on non-sentient brains, they taste like plain white bread to him, and so he has a desire to eat the brains of sentient and especially intelligent creatures. However, he doesn’t need the brains to be completely fresh either: corpses would also suffice, though those taste like a cold pizza from the fridge.

Illithids have a natural affinity for the mystical arts, and have potential for both magic, and even psionics. However, they are physically frailer than humans, and will easily fall to any adventurer in close combat even at higher ranks. Hopefully by then he has learned enough spells to keep them at bay…Or delegated the task to someone from another floor of the dungeon.

While in the dungeon, he tends to dress very casual, something unusual for an illithid. For trips beyond the dungeon, he dresses more sensibly, with a coat, hat and walking cane.

Personality:

Muste is your typical salaryman in temperament: he works hard to manage the dungeon and its occupants through scrolls, but feels like he doesn’t earn enough respect for what he does, causing him stress. He likes to improve efficiency through magical means, but such experiments often end up blowing up in his face. He enjoys reading books and scrolls whenever his tentacles end up grasping one, and has a problem of staying up late reading, aware that he has to wake up early for his work. Due to his abnormal appearance, he often ends up shunned by other monsters, which can cause friction when he is trying to round them up for a visit outside the dungeon or other tasks.

Abilities:

• Magic Proficiency: Muste has a professional level of skill with all things magical, from general knowledge of magic and types of spells, researching and developing spells and magical artifacts to applying the knowledge in a practical way. However, his pool of spell knowledge is limited at first, and requires collected arcane lore from grimoires and spelltomes to improve further.
• Lvl1 Spells: Muste can cast basic spells designated as level 1. More spells become available given the chance for magical development, arcane knowledge accrued and other limitations.
  Example spells:
  -Create Scroll: using leaves and plants as a physical component, Muste creates a scroll that can be wrapped up into a tube or opened for reading.
  -Enchant Item: upon touch, enchants a physical object with a magical effect.
  -Detect Magic: detects magic in an area.
  -Magic Missile: lobs a projectile made from magical energy.
• Artifact Crafting: Muste can construct magical artifacts and other items with specific effects. However, what he can craft is dependent on both materials, the amount of mana available and his knowledge on the subject, all of which are limited at start.
• Psionic: Muste is capable of using the power of his mind to great effect…At some point in the future. In the future he has the potential to learn more psionics given sufficient arcane lore. At start, he only has two psionic abilities.
  -Telekinesis: only powerful enough to send scrolls to other monsters at start.
  -Telepathy: for giving messages like reminders to monsters to perform their tasks. Could develop into something more powerful like mind reading or even mind control of weak-willed targets later down the line.
  -Mind Blast: As a last resort, Muste can unleash a psionic attack that deals minor psychic damage and stuns targets with brains in a small area, similar to a flashbang. At start, can only do once a day, and it fatigues him. Could develop into something potent.
• Tentacles: Muste possesses facial tentacles that can eat brains from creatures like they were cups of coffee. His hands, while resembling tentacles in shape and dexterity, lack this quality.
• Ink Gland: Like an octopus, Muste can produce ink. In his case, he can either carefully drip it into a suitable container, or spray it in an emergency. Very useful for writing scrolls.

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

Lily’s scowl gave way to a trembling lip of her own as Chloe lashed out at her, and she sniffled, holding back her tears.
”I’ll…I’ll find a way. There must be one…” She mumbled, and was left standing there, her entire body shaking from a flux of emotions as Chloe walked away, blending into the crowd of skeletal monstrosities until she disappeared. She turned towards the others, and gave a sad look of sympathy to Connie as she was comforted by Gaia. And then, she looked at Alex, encouraged by him and Mayra both bringing their focus back to the task at hand.
”You’re right, Alex...Mayra. We can’t stay here any longer,” she spoke quietly, and managed to crack a slight smile as the energetic dragon girl crossed her eyes.

It was then that she realized that Gaia wasn’t just talking to Connie, but to the tree that had appeared with Pinocchio. The old oak’s mouth opened in surprise as he was enchanted by Gaia’s spell, and looked at a raised leg in awe. While already tall compared to the girls even when he was rooted to the soil, now he was even taller.
“My goodness! So these are legs, then?” He took a step forward, and exclaimed in glee.
“And you walk by moving them one after the other, how queer! I feel like a leaf blowing it’s way from one gust to another! O Blessed Nymph, you have my gratitude!”

Lily couldn’t help but stifle a giggle at the tree’s entertainingly antiquated vocabulary, and turned to look at Alex when he brought up the Guardian, petting one of the animals absentmindedly as she did.
”Wasn’t that one glowy girl a Guardian? Kayli, I think…” She didn’t manage to finish that thought, as she was surprised by Mariette’s voice coming out of a mirror that appeared close to them. Lily listened intently, followed by sadly placing a hand on the mirror to confirm what Mariette stated, as if longing to hold her hand. She frowned upon confirmation of her being imprisoned.
”Don’t worry, Mariette. You are my friend, and I promise I will rescue you! Because that’s what friends do!” She flashed her a peace sign, and waved goodbye as the mirror faded away.

She summoned her bike. ”Ok, let’s go, Mayr-” she turned, and only then realized that Mayra had disappeared. Just as she was about to ask after her, she had returned, with Brittany tucked under her arm like an oversized doll: the diminutive girl seemed to have recovered from her earlier stupor, though she had a strange look to her eyes, as if she didn’t quite recognize them, as she sang a little song:
“I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream
I know you, the gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam…”

”Brittany?” She leaned forward with her hand on her knee and waved a hand before her eyes: she attentively followed after it, her head moving in rhythm while humming the song.

”This must be the Wonderland enchantment Mariette talked about. Oh yeah, that reminds me!” She removed one of her earrings and offered it to Alex.

”These earrings block the enchantment’s effects. You should put one on. As much as I’d love to see you sing and dance, we can do that after we’ve saved Mariette, kicked the Queen’s butt, and done what magicals do best!”

The tree nodded, his branches heaving as he did so, causing a slight rustle of leaves. “I know the way to the Queen’s castle. It’s this way. Just follow me,” he said, as he started walking down the road towards the west…At a slower pace than the rainbow unicorns or Lily’s motorbike were capable of. Lily smiled, but it was the kind of understanding smile you gave to an awkward grandpa or uncle.
”Y-Yeah…”

Meanwhile, after having left the group, Chloe contacted her network of spies that had been posted around Penrose and Bolorton, and quickly got a response from Viper, who was assigned to the occupied town.

“It’s a river on the table.” Her words were corroborated by another Mint agent, who confirmed that numerous portals with red heart motifs have opened up to various royalist hotspots in Wonderland, with military personnel and equipment flowing to the town at an alarming rate. Chloe would further confirm from her undead forces scattered around Wonderland that military outposts and besieged towns began to empty, signs of resistance quieting down: they were all funneled to their world.

---

Rachel’s teeth could be heard gnashing past her closed lips as she held back a cringe after hearing Mac speak, but surprisingly did not speak, having let the audible torment pass by her with a deep breath.
“I can see that,” she curtly responded instead. “They seem to possess some kind of sentience, so you can try,” she responded to Mac after she suggested engaging them in conversation.
However, Alicia then gave a warning shot to the green cactus creatures: they were seemingly alarmed by the threatening display, and scampered past the dunes, only a single smaller one peeking at a farther distance.

“They don’t seem threatening,” Rachel absentmindedly commented, ignoring Mac’s outburst, and nodded as Alicia suggested to form a vanguard unit that could take point. “Hm, good idea, Alicia,” she mumbled as she looked at MDP cartwheel and bound her way across the sands towards the single cactus, who blinked in surprise. The two’s ideas were further enforced by Ronin and Miko, who suggested that they could handle the trip to the castle on their own.

The little cactus found his fear overcome by fascination towards the pastel-colored princess and the small girl as they gave friendly smiles, as it now approached them:

The creature’s limbs did not move beyond two positions, and it instead shuffled from side to side, like a living piece of two-dimensional art. It spoke in a strange, high-pitched language as it now looked up at MDP, followed by shuffling right up to her legs: despite its spiny body, it only stung a little, like a rose bush. It seemed to enjoy the shade MDP naturally provided. Soon, more cactus creatures popped their heads from behind the far dunes, and began to crowd around MDP while gibbering amongst themselves, slightly pushing and nudging each other in an apparent competition to get to the shade: they numbered about thirty in total. One accidentally jumped up on impact and hit the top of its little head against MDP’s bosom, causing a bounce.
Some of them also surrounded Ronin, and hopped around in apparent joy: they seemed to have mistaken her for being one of them based on their behavior of mimicking her movements.

Rachel rolled her eyes at the strange, yet no longer surprising sight of the two carefree girl’s antics. “Very well then. Alicia, I’ll be taking the teleporter back to HQ. Will you be coming with me, or staying with the group?”

---

Mariette, using Absolute Direction, opened a mirror to the throne room, which she saw a quick glimpse of while passing through the castle earlier. There, she saw the Queen of Hearts sitting at her royal seat, numerous portals opened all around her: they opened to various places around Wonderland, and most alarmingly to the dreary landscape of Bolorton, where soldiers and tanks began to quickly gather.

That was when the queen swiftly turned her head towards the mirror with excited eyes, jumpscaring Mariette.
“Oh! You must be hungry, my dear Alice. Unfortunately, mother is quite busy now. But I’ll send the Cheshire Cat to bring you dinner.” If Mariette were to close her mirror, the queen would deliver the message with a portal of her own.

Then, Mariette spent more time observing Wonderland. She confirmed that the Lilliput Princess had taken command of the Green Helms, as they were now drawing what looked like a contingent of royalist troops towards the woods, where the Forest Princess prepared an ambush. The Mermaid Princess’s forces continued advancing, with one detachment now moving away from the border of the desert where Mad Hatter’s factory was situated, having passed by that point. The dwarves were besieging a city near the valley where the royal castle stood, their cannons making quick work of the fortifications, and dwarven thunderers with large rifles breached the gates, only to find little resistance.

“Princess Alicee~?” She heard a knock on the door, followed by a cutesy cat-like voice of a perky female servant. “Can I come in? The Queen has ordered me to only enter if given permission by Your Highness, but I really want to serve some dinner to my adorable mistress, meow~!”

An Idiot's Dungeon Union

<Snipped quote by Ariamis>

Keep floor 1 to one entrance for now.

You get two illusory walls for free (legally obligated mascot's ability).

So I don't have to prefab a ton of components, it's more free-form. You don't have the workers yet, so any change to the floor plan will cost dungeon points instead of time. I haven't costed it out yet, but a full floor like that could not be sufficient with the starting funds (nor should you spend everything on landscaping--you'd brick your dungeon). Dungeon elements will be mostly gacha or built out of materials via pitch.

@Burger

Reduced the entrances and illusory walls to the limited amount. It's still going to be beyond our reach for now, but maybe one day we can get this, hah.

An Idiot's Dungeon Union

<Snipped quote by Ariamis>

Floors aren't actually size limited. I just thought that 26 was a nice number to make a square with.

@Burger

Alright, good to know. By the way, were there any problems with the suggested renovations? @BrokenPromise pointed out that the number of illusory walls could raise costs in dungeon points. How much would they factor into renovation costs? On that note, will we get a list for how much different types of rooms, passages and dungeon elements cost dungeon points, or will it be more freeform/gacha pull?

An Idiot's Dungeon Union

<Snipped quote by Xaltwind>

And I realized last night ERode has a goblin already. Hmmm. Is it a problem if there's two? Or should I try for something else?

@Expendable

In my opinion it would be better to go for more variety in the type of monsters.

An Idiot's Dungeon Union

Clearly we now need to build a swimming pool in the dungeon, maybe even turn it into a hot spring with fire magic

EDIT: This will be Muste's proposal for the design of the dungeon's first floor:

Dungeon F1 proposal

I kept the map to under 26 rows, as that was how much was in the WIP map. However, if that turns out to have been a mistake and the map should be smaller, then my apologies.

Essentially, he proposes three entrances, with the deadliest and thus most expensive and difficult to manage traps placed at two fake entrances: he believes that according to probability, adventurers will most often choose either the left or middle entrance. He also proposes a lengthier, circular route towards the core with a larger, dread-inspiring hall after the entrance room: there would be some splitting rooms with treasure chests for adventurers with nearby ambush closets. Additionally, he proposes a separate hidden section as a private sector for more essential facilities like residence and storage, and with hidden passageways to more efficiently move across the dungeon while still keeping core accessibility in mind. Monsters will have some hidden rooms where they can rest and from which they can easily ambush adventurers depending on which monsters are resting or not.

As a side note, he believes that the main path towards the core should not be obstructed by illusory walls, to give adventurers the wrong impression that the dungeon doesn't utilize them, and thus monsters should not use them unless they are absolutely sure any adventurers nearby haven't seen them, or they are quickly disposed of.

And yes, I have been watching Dungeon People recently.