BBeast

Dungeon Keepers

We all have IRL stuff which slows us down at times. At least here if you don't post for a little while it generally doesn't get in everyone's way.

Dungeon Keepers

The Death Spire was the first indicator to appear over the horizon that Calvartem was almost home. As he approached the town, the grass seemed to be slightly withered under the effect of the Spire. In the town the bodies still lay, slowly rotting and drying up, although even the flies, maggots and mould were scarcer than expected due to the draining effects of the Spire. If Calvartem had a functional nose he would smell the stench of decay and death, and he would be pleased with such a stench. Standing in the streets was the dark shadow of an imp, which swiftly glided over to Calvartem once the imp saw him. Recognising that it was one of the scouts, with a wave of his hand Calvartem flicked a dark mote into the imp's incorporeal form to grant it the privilege of speech.

"Master, to the west and slightly to the south I have found a town on the coast," said the imp in its faint, ghostly voice, "A fishing town. Ships pass by there."

Calvartem nodded. "Is that all?"

"Yes," the imp answered. It squeaked faintly as Calvartem waved it into the void. While the town would be similarly easy to conquer, it would also be a high-profile conquest. Ships would pass by, notice the dark, magical tower and the town full of corpses and report back to the major city. He was not ready for that yet. First he needed a more rounded army.

Calvartem walked around the town and found a particular corpse. For his next Construct, he needed a steed which would allow him to traverse at enormous speeds. While he could mould this from human corpses, it would be far better to use the corpse of a steed. He entered a stable where two horses were slumped, massacred along with the townsfolk by the walkers. Choosing one which seemed stronger, the Necromancer tapped its forehead with the top of his staff and brought it to life as a Walker, its eyes burning black. He opened the stable doors and lead the shambling quadruped down the street and into the darkness of the crypt. He sealed the door behind them and, once he was satisfied with where the horse was standing, Calvartem revoked the spirit making it animate. The Necromancer then stepped over the body and settled down in his throne, where he extended his consciousness so he could work on making this horse a worthy steed.

0/5

Dungeon Keepers

That is a decent post. Yes, it should definitely be broken up.

Sanctuary

Endocrinology said
Ventral Tegmental Area

The ventral tegmentum, better known as the ventral tegmental area of Tsai (VTA), is a group of neurons located close to the midline on the floor of the midbrain (mesencephalon). The VTA is the origin of the dopaminergic cell bodies of the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system and is widely implicated in the drug and natural reward circuitry of the brain. It is important in cognition, motivation, orgasm, drug addiction, intense emotions relating to love, and several psychiatric disorders. The VTA contains neurons that project to numerous areas of the brain, from the prefrontal cortex (PFC) to the caudal brainstem and several regions in between.



The VTA, in particular the VTA dopamine neurons, serve several functions in the reward system, motivation, cognition, drug addiction, and may be the focus of several psychiatric disorders. It has also been shown to process various types of emotion output from the amygdala, where it may also play a role in avoidance and fear-conditioning. Electrophysiological recordings have demonstrated that VTA neurons respond to novel stimuli, unexpected rewards, and reward-predictive sensory cues. The firing pattern of these cells is consistent with the encoding of a reward expectancy error.

Finishing his morning reading, Zachary moved over to his workbench and began making the Trap cores functional. He wondered why they hadn't already been in a device which would allow their functioning. Perhaps the man was delivering them, or their contents. Perhaps he had a device on hand which Zachary didn't find. Perhaps they were meant to work with the plasma rifle, although Zachary considered that highly unlikely. Such mysteries were unimportant compared to the mystery of who that man was, though.

From his selection of parts Zachary chose a piece of Sparker metal alloyed to make it particularly reflective to core energy, like that found in carriages and shuttles. Many Sparker alloys exist to achieve different purposes. Pure Sparker tends to react spontaneously with cores, which was widely used in older devices like swords where a core is inserted and it comes ablaze with power, and is still commonly used in lightning core batteries. For many modern applications, however, more precise control is needed. Most alloys of Sparker do not react spontaneously and need a small electrical charge to trigger a reaction, which allows for control over the core (necessary in everything from lights to shuttles to guns). The exact mixture of the alloy modifies how it behaves. Some alloys are more efficient than others. Some are more sensitive. Some reflect the core's energies. Some conduct the core's energies. Some can handle higher core power. Metallurgists have studied Sparker for almost as long as corologists have studies cores. This meant that there is a great wealth of knowledge about Sparker, its many alloys and its intricacies. Conveniently, one doesn't have to know all the details of the alloys to get the right result. In this environment, where everything is recycled from old machines, one simply has to match the function in the old machine to the desired function in the new machine. Zachary's intuition told him that, in this case, if he wanted to project a field then engine Sparker was his best bet, as that projects out the energy of a kinetic core.

Of course, the alloy of Sparker is not the only consideration. The shape of both the core and its casing is vitally important, as that moulds, shapes and directs the energy. Energy firearms, like the plasma rifle, have to focus the core energy into a beam. Kinetic shields, on the other hand, project the energy out in a field. Zachary had a tricky time shaping the field of his personal kinetic shield so that it would fit around his body, although that's nothing compared to Skyways, which manage to project a twisting, bending road out which has minimal diminishing of strength. The task of projecting the trap core as a field would be straightforward in comparison- it shouldn't require any core geometry much more advanced than that of a torch.

Next, Zachary needed to add an electrical power source and control interface. Quite literally, this is just a battery, a button and a few wires. Add a switch to act as a safety, so if the button is pressed it doesn't trigger the core. Assembling the parts so they would operate reliably is slightly trickier, but Zachary's skill and tools made the task trivial. Adding a few more parts to make holding and operating the device more comfortable finished the device, and all that remained was a test-run. As Zachary headed outside he found a spot to test it out. His machine reading told him that all the wiring and craftsmanship had been done correctly. Pointing the business end of the trap core at a chunk of concrete, Zachary very tentatively pressed the button. A wave of red radiated from the front of the core, washed over the concrete chunk, and snapped back into the core, taking the concrete with it, as well as any dust lying around on the ground, with the violent bang of air rushing to fill a vacuum. The ground was marked by a circle of extreme cleanliness where the core had done its actions. Pointing the core at a different patch of ground, Zachary pressed the button again. The wave of red came out again, although it seemed to be a different shade of red. As it spread forwards it deposited the chunk of concrete on the ground with a clunk, sowed dust through the air there was a forceful whoosh as the air it had sucked up last time was released. The red wave dissipated instead of snapping back this time.

Zachary smiled, satisfied with the performance of the core. He pocketed the device and returned to his workshop to build a second device for the second core.

Dungeon Keepers

When I edit the map to add the locations of your dungeons I should also edit the scale so that it is in some easy-to-handle quantity of units. The current scale has the numbers it has because, from the circumference I chose for Elysium, the scale was in 1cm increments when drawn on paper. On a computer screen, where zoom is variable, such a scale is less useful.

On that note, what colour do you want to be on the map? I can give you all different colours, so long as the colour isn't the same as the map.

Dungeon Keepers

That is quite possible. The thing about the internet is that if someone drops off the grid you are rarely capable of finding out why, or when they may return.

Dungeon Keepers

Calvartem basked in the deep darkness of the mines. With the torches extinguished, it felt a lot like a tomb, only bigger, and a bit wetter. The cold stone walls felt inviting to him, and the claustrophobic tightness of many of the tunnels did not worry him. The distant faint noise of water dripping was soothing, and he lost track of the hours. He was suddenly greeted by one of his imps, who gestured for Calvartem to come outside. So he did, and once he had navigated his way out of the mine he saw the completed Death Spire in the middle of the main street. Calvartem walked up to the tower and inspected the masonry and foundations. It was so incredibly useful that imps had innate skills for construction, for they could be called fresh out of the void and be set to work on a major project, and said project will be finished to the highest quality manageable in a very efficient time-frame.

Satisfied with the quality of the tower, Calvartem climbed to its peak where a lump of quartz had been embedded into a pedestal. Calvartem had chosen quartz for his Spires because it was easy to find in large amounts, and it is still capable of retaining magic. The Necromancer took his staff and fed the crystal his energy, giving it a very dark glow. He descended from the tower and dismissed the imps before him into the void. Then he began the long walk back to his Dungeon.

Dungeon Keepers

Yes. What's taking Antartic Termite so long anyway? We haven't heard from him for days.

I considered making a Rogue Being, bringing back ol' Torrens, but there aren't much in the way of suitable Keepers for him (they're all either too wet, too flammable, too cold or already taken) and the niche of fire demon has already been filled by Ifrit. By the way, Dr Trapezoid, I think you're doing very well writing for Ifrit.

Dungeon Keepers

The terrain was getting steeper as the mining town got closer, but that hardly bothered Calvartem. Although he was not fast nor agile, he did not feel pain, hunger or weariness and could walk indefinitely, regardless of how taxing it would be on a mortal body. The walk did take longer than his imps had managed, though, as their ethereal bodies allowed them to float over the terrain and drift along at higher speeds, but Calvartem did not mind spending a day to get to his destination.

It was mid-morning when the Necromancer finally came with-in view of the town. It was built in front of a cliff and the houses had stone walls with thatch roofs. Two large horse-drawn carts were currently being filled with stone and ores. They did not seem to be heavily defended. Before he approached the town Calvartem detoured to the local river, where struck the ground with his staff and tendrils of black fire spread out around him. They found four human corpses with-in reach, three of them from inside the river. He had chosen the river to search because humans, to his inconvenience, typically did not leave their dead lying around. However, if the body can not be retrieved, such as when they drown in a river, it is left there. The three walkers from the river were mostly bone, their flesh eaten off by the fish of the river. The other walker was rather rotten, with water from the river having soaked through the soil and into him. Having his initial forces, Calvartem made his advance.

He guided his walkers so they would enter the town unseen, so they would have some element of surprise. They entered through the back of a house. A woman in the house heard the door open and someone walk in, so she cautiously went to investigate, and screamed when she saw the four rotten visages lunging towards her. The zombies made quick work of her, tearing flesh with their teeth. Two young children, who were in the house and heard their mother scream, also went to investigate, and they were terrified at the gory scene they beheld. They did not have to live with the trauma for long, as the zombies then turned on them too. Calvartem watched on approvingly, and once the three people were dead he raised them up as walkers too.

The seven walkers, as they exited the house, were met by a man who had rushed over to see what was wrong. As soon as he saw the undead walking towards him he turned and ran the other way, shouting that there were zombies in their town. Initially the other people were baffled and thought the man had gone crazy or something, but moments later they saw the walkers out on the street hunting down those who are nearby and reacted similarly, fleeing from the zombies. The walkers shambled around individually, but they were unable to catch up to any of the fleeing townsfolk before resistance arrived, in the form of miners variously armed with pickaxes, spades, bows and rock-bending magic. They were not skilled fighters, but neither were the walkers and they were desperately trying to defend their town, so the walkers were effectively held at bay, and half of them were incapacitated, their bodies rendered useless for fighting by loss of limbs or support.

Calvartem was not worried by this apparent defeat. While the walkers kept the town's defence distracted he had found the town cemetery. At a wave of his staff the hands of the dead clawed their way out of the earth and pulled their rotten bodies out with them. Now he had a decent hoard, numbering in the fifties, which he unleashed onto the line of miners which had successfully held back the first seven walkers. The hoard came at their flank, and the rag-tag team was easily outnumbered and overwhelmed by the zombies which swarmed at them. Those which were not slain scattered, and the zombies dispersed after them, spreading through the town to find further prey.

Four people had managed to climb on top of a cart filled with rocks and were quite successfully fending back the zombies. Two wielded mining tools, one a bow and another magically threw rocks. This would not do. Calvartem cast a bolt of black fire at the mage, striking the man dead. The archer saw this happen and shot an arrow at the Necromancer in vengeance. The arrow hit its mark in Calvartem's abdomen, piercing his robe. It passed with little apparent resistance out the other side and stuck into the ground. Calvartem did not so much as flinch, for the arrow had not so much as hit him than pass through him harmlessly, slipping between his ribs. Despite being unharmed, he would not let such a brazen move go unpunished. Calvartem cast another bolt of black fire, but this time he aimed for the stone heap. The magic buried itself into the stones before exploding, hurling rocks around the street and throwing the remaining three men to the ground, where the hoard of walkers finished them off.

Eventually the town had been cleared of living people. Blood, limbs, guts and corpses littered the streets. Calvartem ordered the walkers which were still standing to return to their graves, then he summoned ten imps. He set the shadowy beings the task of building another spire here, so he would be able to further increase his reach and power. As the imps got to work, making use of the stone which had already been harvested by the prior inhabitants, Calvartem withdrew to the darkness of the mine to ponder strategy. His greatest weakness was that he was slow, so if he is away then his Dungeon is not very well defended until he returns, and by then it would likely be too late. He needed some way to get around faster, so he decided that he would need to make some kind of steed. He also noted that the walkers also had the weakness of being easily outrun. A new creation would be needed that is faster, able to strike down those who flee. As the hours wore on, he continued pondering while the imps continued building.

Sanctuary

Endocrinology said Dopamine

Dopamine (or 3,4-dihydroxyphenethylamine) is a neuroendocrine transmitter (i.e., a hormone and neurotransmitter) that plays a number of important roles in the brain and bodies of humans. Its name derives from its chemical structure: it is an amine that is formed by removing a carboxyl group from a molecule of L-DOPA.




In the brain, dopamine functions as a neurotransmitter—a chemical released by nerve cells to send signals to other nerve cells. The brain includes several distinct dopamine systems, one of which plays a major role in reward-motivated behavior. Most types of reward increase the level of dopamine in the brain, and a variety of addictive drugs increase dopamine neuronal activity. Other brain dopamine systems are involved in motor control and in controlling the release of several other important hormones.

The ventral tegmental area (VTA) contains the largest group of dopamine neurons in the human brain. They project to numerous brain areas, but the two largest projections are the mesolimbic pathway, which targets the nucleus accumbens and other limbic structures, and the mesocortical pathway, which targets the prefrontal and insular parts of the cerebral cortex.

The VTA dopamine system is strongly associated with the reward system of the brain. Dopamine is released in areas such as the nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex as a result of rewarding experiences such as food, sex, and neutral stimuli that become associated with them. The source of this dopamine is primarily the VTA, although the substantia nigra may also contribute. Electrical stimulation of the VTA or its output pathways can itself serve as a potent reward: animals will quickly learn to press a lever if it results in stimulation of dopamine release, and often will continue pressing the lever for a long time, at steadily increasing rates.

Zachary finished reading the chapter and glanced outside, and was surprised to find that it was already approaching night. He had not brought sufficient supplies to comfortably spend the night here, so he needed to get home quickly. He quickly gathered up what he would take home and left, glancing both ways before stepping into the street and proceeding at a brisk walk. The darkness which was quickly falling was starting to out-pace the adjusting of his night-vision, but he dared not turn on a torch as that would kill his night vision and prevent him from seeing anything outside the beam of the torch.

As he precariously picked his way along the rubble-strewn streets, he spotted a small gang of people on the side of the street. Although he could make out nothing more than silhouettes, he could see them discussing quietly and looking in his direction. Zachary felt Kaa'is shift the position of the plasma rifle in his bag, and thinking that Kaa'is was going to draw it and shoot them he quickly turned his head to look at what he was doing. To Zachary's relief, the gun was still in his bag and not showing any sign of leaving. It had merely been positioned so that its profile was clearly visible to the gang. Said gang suddenly had further discussion and left quickly.

Intimidation is easier than fighting, Kaa'is commented. Zachary rolled his eyes. Kaa'is had probably made that move to intentionally scare him, more than to scare the gang.

Soon Zachary was home and he began his night-time routine. He ate dinner, brushed his teeth and then settled down to read before going to bed. Today he searched through the engineering handbooks he had to find what the two strange cores he had found were. After some searching, he found what they were. Trap cores- cores which store things in some sort of sub-dimension. From their size and purity, he determined from tables than these particular cores could contain somewhere around 200kg of matter or two cubic metres, which is a lot. He could make them work by creating a shell of Sparker metal which would project the core's power outwards in a field. There was so much he could do with these. Mainly it could let him carry around a large quantity of tools and materials in his pocket. What an exciting find! Zachary put the trap cores aside and went to bed, his mind going over what he could do with those cores until he finally drifted off to sleep.