TELEPHONE INTERCEPT 88442555-3

- So I was thinking, if we make it so the Npc’s respawn, we can build some mission hub areas that always have like the same mission. It supports the power leveling part of the player-base to at least have some static mission hubs in the game.

- I see your point, but, I mean it’s kind of wasting the dynamic AI if we hard code in any missions.

- Look, I love the dynamic AI as much as you, hell I wrote half the thing, but if we want this thing to be marketable we need to make sure there are always epic adventures available… you know? I mean the natural tendency of society is to want to head towards stability. After initial conditions are set, it might take only a few years for the various wars to calm down.

- Once players start moving up the command structures they will start generating questlines themselves, they will breed conflict into the system. It shoul-

- Well we need something in there as a backstop… you know a constant thing, something that can be ensured to provide a wide range of challenges to the players.

- We could just put dungeons in it, you know have them spawn and evolve into like instanced adventures.

- Wasn’t that in the design doc at some point?

- *paper crinkling sounds* Hmmm...

Chapter 8

Dungeons and Dragons

Ria looked back at Canfermirax. “Are you sure about this?” she asked.

The dragon sat waiting with his arms crossed. “You wanted to learn, this is how we learn,” he said, his mouth quirked at the side, and she realized he was taking some strange satisfaction out of this.

Muttering in annoyance, Ria reached out her hand and stepped slowly towards the dungeon entrance. As she got closer, the hair on the back of her neck tingled, and she could feel an abundance of static electricity in the air.

A dank earthy smell with an underlying hint of rot reached her nose. Looking in through the dark crack in the wall, she could barely see beyond a couple of feet in the dim firelight from behind. She thought she saw movement but it could have been the firelight playing tricks.

Sliding her feet forward cautiously, Ria heard a snort of amusement from behind. “Hey. Not helping Canfer,” she said over her shoulder at the dragon. “It’s my first time doing something lik-”

Her outstretched hand suddenly began to tingle and a fraction of a second later the dungeon entrance bloomed into light, a rippling barrier of light spread out across the dungeon entrance. Tendrils of otherworldly energy twisted and wove their way around the edges of the crack. When the ends of the tendrils touched the nearby rock they stuck to it like glue for a moment before fading and re-forming to touch a new area of the cave wall.

A tendril reached out and caressed her arm causing her to suddenly break out in goosebumps before it faded away.

Ria looked back at the dragon, whose only response was to nod encouragingly and gesture for her to continue. With a frustrated sigh, Ria took another hesitant step forward and reached out to touch the rippling barrier of magic.

She felt a strange buzzing sensation under her hand as it pressed against the barrier. Suddenly multiple arc’s of energy reached out and wrapped around her wrist and forearm. In shock, Ria tried to jerk backwards but her hand wouldn’t budge an inch.

DING!

Congratulations, you have discovered an unnamed dungeon!

To name this dungeon, you must be the first to reach it’s Dungeon Core!

Would you like to enter the dungeon

Y/N

“No!” she quickly said, immediately her hand was released and she stumbled back. The glowing effect faded slowly as she stared at it.

“The fuck Canfer?” she asked turning to face the dragon only to see him stifling his laughter and wiping a tear of amusement from a reptilian eye.

Ria glared daggers at the dragon until he regained his composure.

“Sorry, your face though. It was just like Alar’s when he opened that mimic chest,” he said and immediately devolved into another fit of laughter which took some time to finish.

“Are you done?” Ria asked.

“Ahhmm, sorry.”

“Who’s this Alar?”

“An old companion of mine from some years ago.” He met her gaze. “So, what did the menu say?”

“It just said do you want to enter and that it was an unnamed dungeon.” She replied looking down and touching her still lightly tingling hand, Ria looked back at him, “So what’s next?”

“We go over the basics and get to work,” Canfermirax replied.

“Fine with me… uh, you sure we can get out if we go in right?” She asked.

“Yes yes, I’ll explain all that, come sit by the fire.”

“Ok, the basics.” Rumbled the dragon as the pair sat by the fire, Ria carefully packing her stuff away as she listened.

“Dungeons are living magical structures. To survive and grow, they consume mana, the magical energy of this world. In order to get this energy, the dungeon will try to lure in creatures and people who it will try to devour.” he said.

“They are unable to directly slay their prey and must instead rely on condensed mana constructs which we call dungeon monsters. They may look like a surface monster, but they are entirely under the thrall of the dungeons will. A dungeon can also control its internal structure to the point that they can create lethal magical and non-magical traps which are also used to kill those who enter.”

“All dungeons seem to conform to the same general design and as they grow, dungeons also develop along similar lines. They are divided into multiple levels, each of which has a ‘Boss’ room at the entrance to the next level. In addition, each level becomes progressively more difficult as you move away from the entrance.”

“The differences between dungeons stem from the environment where they are developing, the monsters and people they have consumed, and how they were created. Those key things decide just about everything else about the dungeon, from traps and monsters to the appearance and layout of each floor. Dungeons will also change drastically as they finally reach sentience, those are an entirely different class of dungeons than this one.”

“So, that brings us to this particular dungeon,” the dragon gestured in its direction. “Some dungeons will develop an ecosystem, usually this happens when one has absorbed a natural cave holding a varied ecosystem of plants and animals. When that happens, the dungeon will often twist and change the nature of that ecosystem into something able to kill and deal damage to the dungeons prey.”

“What I’m thinking has happened is. This dungeon has likely done something similar and absorbed something like a mushroom grotto or some kind of fungus and it has begun growing fungi with infectious spores. The wolves have wandered in to explore and become infected by it.”

“That is why we need to kill this one. Young dungeons are uncontrollable and are not intelligent enough to do anything but eat. This one will keep producing more and more spores, gradually it will begin to mutate them to serve its purposes.”

“Dungeons like this have been known to bypass the rules which stop them from interfering in the outside world. The spores allow them to directly send out infected creatures to bring back food to the dungeon, something other dungeons are unable to do. They are extremely dangerous as a result.”

“Normally a dungeon can’t do much of anything beyond its entrance barrier other than expand its external surfaces, older ones tend to find ways to manipulate the exterior of the dungeon but no dungeon could normally have monsters pass through the barrier.”

“Alright so… that’s the basics. Any questions.” Rumbled Canfermirax, finally ending his lecture.

“Uh, where does treasure fit into all this?” Ria asked.

“Dungeons live by a whole bunch of rules, one of those is that it must reward those who face the challenges of the dungeon. It’s also likely another way of luring adventurers inside.” Replied the dragon.

“How do we get out once we get into the core and destroy it?”

“Dungeons have an exit teleporter in the dungeon core. It also cannot re-set traps or respawn monsters until we have left.”

“Ah… boss monsters?”

“Larger and more dangerous versions of normal dungeon monsters, sometimes they could be a unique monster, created by the dungeon specifically to act as a boss.”

“Ok, how are you going to fit in the dungeon and how are we going to deal with the spores?” Ria asked.

The dragon tossed Ria a small green potion. “It’s a cure disease potion, use it only when you get infected. It’s the only way to ensure you get the immunity buff,”

She caught the potion awkwardly and finished shrugging into her pack.

“As for me. One moment.” said Canfermirax.

The dragon began making a strange complicated set of hand gestures and chanting in a strange almost guttural growling language. Ria watched in fascination as an aura of blue glowing mana energy began to swirl and twist about him. The dragon was momentarily lost to Ria in a flash of blue-white light.

When her vision returned sitting where the huge ice dragon once stood was a white house-cat. Ria stared open-mouthed as the cat turned its golden eyes on her and said, “Well, are you ready?”

“uh, yeah. Sure.” She replied, shaking off her incredulity at this strange world.

Ria walked up next to the cat-dragon and clenched her nervous hands around her spear then she stepped through the dungeon entrance, the cat trotting calmly along beside her.