I looked over the 2nd floor with fresh eyes. Finding nothing to change about the layout I moved on to optimizing the creatures. While the 1st floor was playful and humbling, this floor would be confusing and scary. Confusion from all the repetitive twisting halls. Then scares from both the residents and the traps.

Started from the center of the floor, which is where invaders descend from above. There are 4 short halls that end in T’s. Taking either of these connecting halls will bring adventures to 4 identical rooms. In each of these are 2 tarantulas, a black racer and a rat snake. Additionally roaming those connecting halls are a pair of tarpians.

Looking over that set up I frowned. Having a group get ambushed by the 4 creatures in a room and the 2 wandering snakes wouldn’t be fair. I pondered over the design for a while looking for a solution. When nothing came to mind and the need to build grew I turned from that problem and looked at the next ‘ring’ of the floor. That being the winding halls that connected the 4 identical rooms to the other scattered areas and rooms in the dungeon.

The largest feature on this floor, even larger than the boss room in square ft, was the stream. It began and endlessly filled from the Western edge of the floor. Coming from the start of the stream the first thing other than moss, algae and some glowing crystals was a small raised island. On the little island was a brilliant green crystal golem and a locked chest. The golem was like the 1st floor boss and would look like just another crystal growth until it activated and attacked. I set this one to only attack if someone failed to unlock the chest or if they tried to open it by force.

After the island the steam bent and opened into a wide shallow pool where cave shrimp, fish and snails wandered freely. The floor of the pool was uneven but at its deepest wouldn’t pass Olive’s knees. This pool was also home to 4 black racers. In the northern end of the pool I added a stack of rocks and formed them into a rotating puzzle. Adventures would get a prize if they lined up the lines on each disk to form a tree. If they lined up the lines and formed a kobold, a nearby trap would go off and shoot iron spears out in all directions. The shooting trap sits near the middle of the pool and can also be activated by pressure plates scattered about the pool.

At the southernmost edge of the shallow pool there is a gaping hole where the water from the stream constantly drains. This opening goes all the way to the 3rd floor, but there is little chance that someone could survive the fall. Above and around the opening hang 4 cave bats. The farthest entrance to the pool wasn’t hidden. It was near the room where I planned to place several puzzles. The other entrance was a false wall in one of the identical halls. I made it nearly invisible with only a small key hole to show it was there. The key I hid in the resting room on the floor above.

The stream continues to the east then wanders south and east crossing 2 different hallways. With the first hall it crosses the hall is partially flooded with a foot deep water and slick algae on the bottom. At the other wider crossing the water ran under the hall and could be accessed by lifting one of 2 grates. Choose the wrong one and a centipede would attack. Hidden in the wall under the grates was a small chest. The stream wanders on south-east before collecting into a much smaller but deeper pool. It is about 12 feet deep and home to several fish, a pair of sea urchins and a puzzle at the very bottom. This one would require several stones, scattered around the bottom of the pool, to be found and placed into a grid to form a picture. The idea for it came from watching the mermaid swim in the small pool on the floor above. It would likely be hard for those that can’t breathe underwater and I fully expected it to go unnoticed for a while. The stream finally ended at the southernmost part of the floor.

Standing at the edge of the deep pool is a small dock. On it is just a wooden stool to encourage invaders to stay and fish for a while. This dock leads into the second floor’s resting room. Inside are a pair of beds, a barrel of cool drinking water and a round table with 4 chairs. Looking it over I felt like it was missing something. I put a sliding latch on both doors into the room. So adventurers could latch them from the inside and feel safer.

“I know.” I said allowed and started working. Una briefly looked at me when I spoke but I paid her no mind.

After toying with what I wanted and what I had, a blueprint was finally made.

Stone Hearth

Stone Hearth: A stone housing for a fire embuned with mana for comfort. Sleeping in a room with a Stone Hearth increases healing and the chance of a positive buff.

Perfect, I thought, looking at the design. There was a vague memory of sitting in front of a fire bundled in someone’s arms as they sang me to sleep. While it was short this memory brought me warmth and love.

As I placed the stone hearth in the resting room I pushed thoughts of that same warmth and safety.

Designate this area as a safe zone?

I stared at the prompt.

“Arizo?” I called her questioningly.

“Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, another thing I don’t understand happened.” I showed her the prompt

She blinked at it. As though not sure it was really there. “I didn’t expect this until much later.” In place of asking I just waited for her to continue. “A safe zone is a place where fighting is prohibited. If one of your creatures is in a safe zone and an invader attacks them the invader will be given a massive debuff. But if you try to use the zone as a lure to attack then you will be punished. I have only heard of a few dungeons ever doing this and the system erased some of their blueprints and made it so they could never relearn them.”

I thought on that answer for a long time before speaking. “What is a buff and a debuff? Who or what is the system?”

“A buff is a limited time where something is enhanced. Like a strength buff increases the strength stat but only for a limited time. There are whole classes of support adventures that do nothing but cast buffs and debuffs. Debuffs are the opposite. They are a limited time decrease in something.”

“So my new blueprint says it increases the chance of a buff. What does that mean?”

“Let me see.” After she looked over the blueprint thoroughly she looked back at me and I dismissed it. “Everytime a sapient creature sleeps for more than a few hours they have the chance of activating a buff. It usually just increases their endurance or decreases their mana use. Or something else minor for a few hours. The chance of getting this buff depends on where they sleep, how long and how well. There are items, skills, achievements and spells that increase the buff or likelihood of getting one. Most career dungeon divers will carry a totem or something so they have a better chance to get that extra bonus right before a boss fight or right after to increase healing.”

“So having an item like this in a safe zone will mean more people will sleep here and earn us more experience.”

“Yes but if the buff is too good you could spook them. They may think a dangerous boss is nearby.”

“Hum.” I thought about that. “Well it works doubly well for this level since the resting room is on the other side of the floor from the boss. So by the time they walk from there to the boss room the buff may be gone. And if they visit after fighting him they likely won’t make it to the 3rd floor with any buff still active.”

She twirled around with a giggle. “That’s a great idea! And they will likely hunt around in the area looking for why it’s so special.”

I laughed along with her. “More pranks for us!” I cheered.

Once we calmed down I addressed my other question. “What about the system?”

“The system is.” Her tone made it sound like those words should explain everything.

“What?”

“The system is.” Arizo repeated. “It’s all around us and governs all that we are and do. It’s what makes your menus, and stats and the rules for leveling. It processes evolutions, births and everything else that is. I… I don’t know….” She sounded a bit nervous. “I don’t THINK the system is on every plane, or maybe there are different systems for each plane. But here the system rules everything. So we just say; the system is.”

A distant part of me felt fear. But so much more of my being accepted this as the way of the universe. I tucked that piece of fear aside to look at later but for now I didn’t see it as important.

“So a safe zone is me promising not to hurt anyone in that area?”

“Essentially. You can’t place traps there either.”

“Great.” I turned my attention back to the prompt and pushed at it a bit. It seemed to understand and soon the room was a safe zone. The area had a…. something about it. It wasn’t something I could see or really even feel but there was something there that designated the space as violence free.

To finish up the safe room I placed some puzzles in the stonework above the hearth. All the prizes would be food.

That done I mentally followed the hall from that room back west over the 2 grates where the stream crossed the hall. About halfway between those grates and the next turn I placed a trap. This one part of the wall would swing around and smack into anyone in its way. The wall was mostly blunt but it was rather heavy. Turning it into a proper trap saw my dungeon magic make it able to activate from either direction. There was the option to have the wall stay in its final place forcing adventurers to turn back.

“Can I change a trap after I set it?” Arizo hadn’t fallen back into meditating and seemed to be feeling better about whatever had been bothering her.

“What do you mean?”

“This trap swings a part of the wall out and there is an option to have it go back into place after or to stay out and force people to walk around. And I want to choose based on the group and which way they are going.”

“Oh for something like that, yes. You can change minor parts of a trap or even the things in the walls of your gross trap as long as it’s not been sprung. You do that the same way you put things in a chest.” She paused, “Speaking of you might want to consider automatic drops from chests, traps and puzzles. Don’t worry you can alter the auto feature at any time or add things and have some of them be random.”

“Hum.” I thought it over for a while and looked over all the chests I had placed. There was no need to count them, they were just one of the things I just knew about the dungeon. 39 chests between the 2 floors. Many of them have different sizes or materials. But they all fell under the category of chest. I also knew I had 9 traps and 8 puzzles.

I looked at the chest that would appear when a floor boss was defeated. In those I set 1-6 items that were ranked uncommon or common would appear. I planned to give a few things to each group that beat a boss but I didn’t really want to choose everything. All the other chests I randomized to have various common or trash rated items in them. Though the 10 in the mini mimic maze, I giggled at the name, still just had one ring each.

That taken care of, I went back to working on the 2nd floor. The very next room was the one filled with puzzles.

“Hum…..” I looked over the room. “Why would they do these puzzles?” I asked myself. There needs to be a reason, other than the reward and sense of accomplishment. And the XP. Can’t forget that.

After a bit of thought I had it. There would be 4 puzzles and you had to solve all of them to get a key for the boss room door. But just one key is no fun. So I placed another as a prize at the bottom of the pool. Another in the trapped chest by the peridot golem. Maybe I can add a few more as I do the other half of the floor.

I set 4 large puzzles in the room. 1 was a wall with various key holes and a basket of keys on a table before it. The right keys would unlock a small part of the wall where the prize could be found and the wrong combinations would have various things happen. Like a pit opening under their feet, critters crawling out of all the keyholes and one where a centipede would attack.

Another is a stone table top and several squares with lines on them. They have to be placed to show a map of the first floor. Thirdly was another table with 2 baskets. In one was an edible part from each of my plants. In the other were 5 flowers. They would have to match the flowers to the plant parts. The final puzzle was a set of floor tiles that could be pressed. The correct ones had matching tiles on the ceiling. Several of the wrong ones would open pits or release critters. 3 of them would release a centipede.

Between the puzzle room and the shallow pool entrance was a roaming taipan. Going back to the safe room and taking the eastern hall there was a split that led back to one of the identical 4 rooms. Past that the hall split again. One hall heads south and leads to a room filled with spiders and spider eggs. The other that continues east before turning north leads to a pair of looping halls. Both loops have a trap with 3 roaming spiders and 2 rat snakes. Past the loops the hall continues north. On the eastern side of the hall is a small pond. In the back is another crystal golem. Only this one always looks active. I gave it a boss room key as a guaranteed drop if it was killed. In the pond were a few toads and fish.

Past the pond the hall turns back west. Soon it splits into a 4 way junction. To the north is a deep crevasse with bats and flying foxes above it. And a shiny chest in plain sight below. With no easy way down. I hid another boss key in the crevasse but not in the chest.

Taking the west hall from the 4 way junction would lead to the boss room. The south hall quickly turns back and meanders west. There is another junction that leads to one of the identical rooms, or to another loop with 2 snakes and 2 spiders.

“I declare the second floor done.” I announced. “And not a moment too soon.” Someone had just arrived.