by Galen Wolf
'I think you just select the part you want to convert,' Bernard says, pointing at the dungeon tunnels. I see the door to the exterior and the mapped shape of the chambers I'd come through. The spooky corridor with the pit trap is currently a dead end, but we can build on from there.
I use the cursor to delineate the area by drawing a lasso round it. Once that's done I look at that tab again, trying to get my head round the different controls.
There's a settlement type button. Currently it's simply 'settlement'. I hover over it and it goes: Settlement, Fortress, Port, Dungeon...
I select 'dungeon' and the selected area blinks red. I make sure I've only got those corridors and chambers to the right of the connecting door selected. Those to the left will remain as settlement.
It continues to blink and I hover over the confirm button.
I hit confirm and it's done. There's still an empty box blinking in white. It takes me a second to figure out what it is, then Fitheach says, 'You need to name the dungeon.'
I think for a minute then mentally select the letters to spell out:
'Don't you want something more ominous?' Bernard asks.
'No, I'm good. Forgotten Chapel is okay.'
Fitheach smiles and it's done. The Forgotten Chapel dungeon is born and now the game will start advertising it as a Level 1 dungeon for players to come into.
Trouble is we don't have any treasure and no mobs. All we've got is a few rooms with minimal dungeon dressing and one trap.
I glance at Jason. 'What's our cash flow like?'
'Not great. But Geraint's been helping.'
The dark haired blacksmith has been quiet all this time. He grunts. 'I made some stuff.'
Simon the Vendor says, 'I bought it off him and credited it to your account as he's your NPC.'
'What did you make?'
The blacksmith looks embarrassed. 'Nothing much, some Level 1 copper swords and helmets.'
'Better than nothing though,' Bernard says. 'He used the copper the miners dug out of the walls as they extended the tunnel.'
'And the dungeon chambers,' Oliver says before blushing as he realizes he's reminded me they were diverted from their urgent work.
Bernard interjects, 'And I made some potions from the gems they found — some amethyst, tourmaline, a couple of lumps of agate. Just low level things, healing, stoneskin potion and stuff.'
I'm interested. 'So you keep these potions for sale, Simon?'
'That's how it works, governor,' Simon says. For the first time I realize he's missing several teeth.
I ponder the dungeon. I don't want to divert too many resources to it, but it has to look like the real thing or else the enemy will see through our little ruse and come and find our settlement and burn it out.
'How deep do you think it should go?'
'Four levels, maybe?' Bernard says. He's obviously been thinking this through.
'Why four?'
Bernard cups his chin in his hand. 'I figured you're going to be the dungeon boss. So you can be on the lowest level. Then on level three we have Fitheach and his holy chapel. On level two, you have yours truly and my alchemist's workshop.' Bernard grins. 'Then on Level One, I thought we'd put Geraint and his Holy Forge.'
'Holy Forge? Sounds interesting.'
Geraint looks puzzled like no one has mentioned this to him before.
'Why holy?' I say.
Bernard shrugs. 'I haven't thought it through. I just liked the sound of it.'
I shake my head. 'Geraint is too important. I need him to level and not die. He's the guy who is going to equip the army, when we raise it.'
Bernard points at Peter the Silent. 'What about a trapsmith's maze level?'
'Same thing. I don't want Peter to die. We need him to keep his levels. We need another player character really, then he can just resurrect.'
Peter smiles his weird smile. 'If you were to get another player, Sir Gorrow, might I suggest a wizard? He could help with the traps. He could energies my traps with magic and produce far more effective results.'
That's not a bad idea. I look to Bernard. 'How do we get a wizard? Do you know any?'
He says, '...Of course the big wizard is Merlin.'
'We're not going to get him.'
'Then there's Mad Sweeney.'
'Fled to Scotia,' Fitheach says.
'We might be able to pick up a noob. He might like the idea of levelling in the dungeon. Wandering around the countryside is pretty dangerous these days and noobs don't want to die all the time. I'll take a look at the social boards and the "looking for group tab." I'll work on it.'
'What about dungeon mobs?' Asterix speaks for the first time. 'I can get some low level ones for a small price.'
'Like what?'
'A cave bear, maybe. And a carrion crawler.'
'The big maggoty centipede thing?'
'Yeah. Depending on how much cash you have, I could get some slimes too.'
'Okay. Get them. How do I place them?'
'You use the schematic,' Bernard says.
I call it up again. I say, 'Okay, Asterix. Get me a cave bear, two carrion crawlers and two slimes.'
'What kind of slimes?'
I don't remember what kind they have. 'Two acid,' I say. I can't think of any others. Within a second my mobs are blinking to the right of the schematic. I just need to place them. I do that. Putting the cave bear I the corner of the big chamber I'm calling the Tapestry Room. One carrion crawler down the dead-end passage, another in the Ruined Chapel that is the first room an adventurer would come to, placed under a smashed lectern. To my delight I find I can put the slimes on the ceiling. I put one in the entrance corridor and then one on the wall by the door to the bigger chamber. That makes me laugh.
Then my heart sinks. I still need to think of a way of feeding my NPCs, and fast before they starve. No brainwaves so far.
There is a musical pinging.
'What's that?' I ask Bernard.
He points to the schematic and I see a small icon of a man at the entrance to the dungeon.
I stare at the map and the blinking icon that has moved slightly inside the Forgotten Chapel dungeon.
'An adventurer has entered,' Fitheach says.
'Already?' I say. 'We're not ready.'
'Too late,' Fitheach says. 'Let's see what happens.'
THE FIRST ADVENTURER
The blip is standing still on my schematic. The adventurer, whoever it is, is on his own and being very cautious.
"Is this the only way I can see what's happening?" I ask.
Fitheach shakes his head. 'As dungeon master you can either be in Dugeonmaster mode, where you can fight...'
'Figures.'
'...or in Observation mode. If you're in observation in your own dungeon, you can walk around invisible, totally undetectable but you can't interact.'
'But if you want to interact,' Bernard adds, 'you just drop out of observation mode and draw your sword.'
I grunt. 'Pretty harsh on the adventurer though, what is he... Level 1?'
Fitheach says, 'You can see if you hover over him.'
The cursor is operated by mind control. Sounds freaky, but the VR rig I'm wearing picks up faint electromagnetic signals from whichever brain area is firing in my head, then translates them into movement. They learned how to do that with prosthetic limbs first, then the game industry developed the technology further.
I hover the cursor and I get more details. He's a Level 1 Warrior, name of WarEagle, but he's hovering about by the entrance and that makes me wonder why. Either he's too scared, or he finds it boring and is thinking of leaving. We've got no loot at all in there. I turn to Geraint the Blacksmith. 'Can you go and drop him a Copper Sword or something? Just lay it in the Tapestry Hall. Don't get seen though. And when you come back, can you also bring Spirit and the friars back through from the dungeon?'
&
nbsp; Bernard says, 'You'll have to go with him to open and lock the door now. You've got the key.'
I check and sure enough there is a brass key appeared in my inventory labelled, The Forgotten Chapel.
Geraint goes off but I'm fascinated what the adventurer, WarEagle does. He seems to be having a look around the first room, the ruined chapel area. There's a carrion crawler in there. I can see it green in the schematic. Seems mobs are green because they are friendly, to me at least, and adventurers are red. I hover over the carrion crawler and the stats pop up.
Name: Carrion Crawler
Type: Animal
Level: One
Health: 50
Dodge: 5
To Hit: 10
Special: Acid Attack 10
XP Value 10
A Level One adventurer will have about fifty health points. I hope he's got some potions, then I remember that I don't hope he has potions. I want him to die so I get the xp. I'm interested to know how this works.
Geraint has already disappeared and so I follow him, still looking at my schematic. I can't tear my eyes away from the adventurer's faltering steps. Then I see the green blip representing the carrion crawler active and start to move. Damn, it moves fast. It's on the adventurer, but all I can see is the two blips blinking together. I don't get the stats of the adventurer, but I can see the stats of the carrion crawler.
Name: Carrion Crawler
Type: Animal
Level: One
Health: 35/50
Dodge: 5
To Hit: 10
Special: Acid Attack 10
XP Value: 10
So he's damaged it. I stand still and Geraint comes past me with the friars and Spirit. Spirit neighs when he sees me. Geraint jerks his thumb behind him, 'Door was open. You want to lock that.'
'Did you drop off a sword?'
He nods. 'A helmet too.'
There actually isn't any cost to this for me, or not much. I'm paying and feeding Geraint anyway and the minerals are free. They get dug out of the walls as a side-effect of the construction work. And if attracts adventurers, that's a good return on investment.
I glance at the battle of the dots. A second goes by then there's only the red dot. Well heck, the adventurer killed my carrion crawler and got 10 xp. WarEagle needs a thousand to level to Level 2.
I check the green dot which is not blinking now but pulsing slowly.
The dot starts to move around the Ruined Chapel, he's probably searching for loot. I switch off my schematic and concentrate on where I'm going. I get to the Dividing Door between Silver Drift Mine and the Forgotten Chapel Dungeon. I step through into a corridor that leads into the Tapestry Room. To adventurers this is just going to look like a dead end. At least when it's locked. I don't want WarEagle wandering through inadvertently, so I take the brass key from my pocket and lock the door. The door is now invisible even to me.
It's not dark in the dungeon. The whole place is suffused in green like I'm wearing night vision goggles. I guess it's pitch black to adventurers unless they bring a light source. I enter the tapestry room and see a big dark bulk to my left that isn't moving. It wasn't there before. It's my cave bear. It's immobile and I guess it has to be within a certain distance of an adventurer before its AI triggers it to move and attack.
Even without the schematics, when I hover over it. I can see a label, which I click.
Name: Cave Bear
Type: Animal
Level: One
Health: 100
Dodge: 15
To Hit: 20
Special: None
XP Value: 40
I gingerly step forward. The floorboards creak under me and I stop. I don't want him to see me. Then I remember, Observation Mode. I select that and I'm not trusting that I will be invisible to any adventurers. I can't interact with them, or kill them, but that's fine.
I nearly stumble over the copper sword and helmet that Geraint has left as loot. They're not very artistically placed, more like just plonked down. I'm going to leave the placing of loot to Bernard. He seems to have a flair for interior design and dungeon dressing.
Torchlight flickers and I step back. I'm strangely excited as I see WarEagle step through the stone entrance into the Tapestry Room. I back off quietly then remember he's not supposed to see or hear me anyway. Even so, I stand against the wall and just watch.
He's carrying a black sword in his right hand and holding a burning brand aloft in his left. He's going quietly, attempting to be stealthy, but he's wearing black lacquered armor that I can see carries the insignia of the Fangs of Koth, an evil guild loyal to Satanus. I don't feel so bad about him dying now. In fact, I want him to die. The dungeon needs the xp after all, like a big thirsty sponge.
He steps into the room. He's very cautious then he sees the loot and steps quickly toward it. He reaches down, picks up, examines the sword and puts it in his inventory but with the helmet he actually puts it on. He didn't have a helmet before and now the copper gleams dully in the light of his torch. He must be pretty low down in Level 1 for even a copper helmet to be better than his existing gear.
He begins his search and goes north towards the tunnel I came out of where he'll find a dead end. But as he steps forward, even being as cautious as he is, he triggers the cave bear. I jump back myself as the cave bear roars and rears up. WarEagle lifts up his torch to get a better look then backs off, but it's too late, the bear has rushed him.
The bear is about twice his height. It lashes out with its left paw and rakes his chest. I see WarEagle sip a blue potion, most likely health. But now it's on cool-down, so he won't be able to heal up again for a minute. A lot of things can happen in a minute.
WarEagle jabs up with his black sword and wounds the bear in its flank. It roars in anger and lashes left and right, which both connect. I guess WarEagle doesn't have any points in ShieldBlock. In fact, he doesn't even have a shield. He jabs the bear again and I check its stats. Its health's down to 60/100.
The bear slaps him with its right paw and he stumbles back but the bear follows up and wraps him in its mighty arms, to give him a death hug. The sword's no use now at this range. I see a copper dagger appear in WarEagle's grip instead of the sword and he jabs repeatedly at the bear. It's damaging him but he's getting the hits in. With a final roar, the bear collapses dead to the ground. WarEagle sips his health potion. He made that by the skin of his teeth. I almost feel a grudging respect, but then I don't. He's one of the enemy after all.
So far he's got a copper sword, a copper helmet and 50xp from his trip into my dungeon, and I've got — nothing.
He's not finished yet. He looks round for loot but there isn't any. There was an acid slime on the wall by the door he came in at, so why didn't it trigger? Then I hear a slurping sound and get a whiff of hydrochloric acid. He did trigger it, it's just so slow. WarEagle has seen it but he's not bothered, he just strolls away from it.
Then he looks into the Creepy Corridor, where the pit trap is. I go to inspect the Pit Trap too. WarEagle absolutely can't see me or hear me. That's cool.
Name: Pit Trap
Type: Trap
Level: One
Disarm Difficulty: 10
Damage: 20
Crit Chance: 10% x 4
XP Value: 40
I guess the xp value is if you're a rogue and you manage to disarm it. It has a crit ability too. That's good. I look back and see WarEagle's coming my way. His face shows his concentration as he lifts up the torch so he can see better down the corridor.
Please go down the corridor. I will it.
He turns to see the slime as if he's considering fighting it. Slimes eat your weapons as everyone knows. Pity the thing is so damn slow. He turns back and stares down the corridor. I can see him thinking there must be something good down there. He's wrong, but he really needs to step in. Please just step in.
He takes another look back at the slime. This is painf
ul.
Just go into the corridor.
He turns to face the slime, looks at his sword as if thinking of it being eaten away then decides not to fight. With purpose in his step, he strides into the corridor. And goes right into the pit trap. I get a dungeon message.
I cheer. WarEagle's ghost shimmers for a while then vanishes as he goes back to his bind point. I'm surprised when I get a message:
That's novel. This Dungeon Mastering has a lot of features. I hit yes of course. There are various calculations then I get
The figure in parentheses is its armor value. I peer down into the pit trap and sure enough there is a set of Black Lacquered Amour and a blue health potion down there. It looks like I don't have to place all the loot myself. The more adventurers die here, the more loot the dungeon acquires. And more xp. I check what I need for Level 2 Dungeon and it seems it's 500xp.
That was fun. With no more adventurers currently in the instance, I start to make my way back to Silver Drift through the dividing door. I step over the sad corpse of my cave bear and reach to stroke it's poor dead fur. Then I remember it'll respawn in thirty minutes, so I'm not sad anymore.
I need to speak to Geraint, Peter and Bernard. I want more traps, more loot and more xp. Plus I need a wizard to be mini-boss of this first dungeon level. Lots to do.
10
PLANNING AND THINKING
When I next log in, I want to go and see Thorvald. It's bad enough for me to be here in this gloomy mine all the hours I spend in-game, but the NPCs actually live here. Most haven't seen daylight for a long time.
I wander down the Long Corridor and by now it's a really long corridor. The miners are toiling at the rock-face and I hear the sound of picks and shovels long before their dusty forms emerge from the gloom. They're digging by torchlight which casts weird shadows.
