I doodle a few different designs for the labyrinth entrance while the group works their way back out. I could make it look like an obsidian tube, but I think it’d look a bit bland just like that. Some lava pools could spruce it up, and would even give some light, but I don’t think they’d be osha approved. I might make the actual entrance look like the delvers are walking into the mouth of a giant wyrm, though. That’d be cool, especially if I can get the mandibles to close.

For the resting area just outside the entrance, I try to blend the ideas of a park and an open-air mall. While I can’t exactly get grass and trees in here, a few herbalism nodes could definitely make the area look nicer. Considering a lot of them have a little glow to them, the herbs can even help keep the place lit.

The sun eventually sets and Coda is able to come take a look at the designs. He also likes the wyrm entrance, but practically vetoes the bunker design for the aranea quest kiosk. He’s not wrong, either, when he points out that the ratlings could just dig a crawlspace in the roof and let them hang their signs like on the porch.

I like the variety that using signs stuck up from the ground would give, but it would probably be better to just let them hang the signs. Yet another brilliant design foiled by reality. At least Coda doesn’t shoot down my basic design for merchant stalls. The two of us spend most of the rest of the night iterating on what to put in the rest area, and where.

The resource processing areas will be near the walls, out of the way of delvers looking to head into the labyrinth, but still accessible enough to those coming out with things they’ll want to process. I’m planning to start with four smelters, and see if the demand is there for more. There’s room for another four or so, but we’ll see. I also plan out room for two smiths, and expect to put in the metalworks once I get it. Jello is definitely close to getting the title, which means I should be close to getting the room, too.

Speaking of getting close to things, I should probably let Coda work on finalizing the design while I focus on the dragon spawner. My desire to minimize the cost of sprucing up the labyrinth entrance isn’t just pinching pennies for its own sake. That spawner devours mana for upgrades, but I think I might get a new thing with the next upgrade to it.

Or I could finally pull the trigger on the ant enclave. I’m pretty confident I have plenty of room now. The tunnelbores have been dutifully digging to make that a possibility. The magmyrms have been integrating themselves well into the labyrinth, as well as some of my other special projects, too. They seem very interested in the devices and mechanisms of the traps in the labyrinth. Be it mechanical, magical, alchemical, or a mix, they have taken it upon themselves to maintain them. They’ve even started moving into the gauntlets to reset the challenges in there, saving me a decent chunk of mana over if I had reset them myself.

I’m not going to pretend the enclave isn’t tempting me something fierce, but I should resist its siren song. As much as I’d like to spend the mana on something nice and quiet like an enclave, I really should stick to the plan and get the next version of dragon. I still need to deal with the Harbinger’s dungeon, and I’d much rather send a new dragon variety than fresh dwellers.

I try to ignore the huge bite the upgrade takes from my mana when I upgrade the spawner, and idly wonder how more ordinary dungeons afford these things. I don’t get to think on that question for long before the spawner graces me with another dragon that doesn’t look anything like what I’d expect a dragon to look.

I can kinda squint and see the relationship to the wyrms. The label says basilisk, but it doesn’t look like what I’d expect that to look like, either. The head is weirdly shaped, making me think a lot of a dinner plate, but I think most of that is a bone ridge or some kind of weird horn structure. It has two eyes that look like a tiger to me, but that might just be how piercing they are. The mouth is what’s really throwing me off.

If my wyrms have a mouth similar to a graboid, my basilisk has a mouth similar to The Predator, but hidden behind a jackal-like muzzle. A long tongue licks the lips before they creepily pull back towards the rest of the head, revealing the four mandibles with webbing between them.

And I thought the spiderkin mouths were terrifying. The head sits on thick shoulders, or haunches? They definitely connect to forelegs and not actual arms. They look a lot to me like what a monitor lizard has, but with bulging muscles. After that, I think it has a rib cage, but it’s hard to tell, because the whole thing tapers into a long thick tail. And, of course, the entire thing has the same living magma look the wyrms do. It rides that line between cool and terrifying, which probably means delvers are going to need new pants when they see it.

Speaking of delvers, I take a good hard look at its abilities, and I’m relieved to not see anything about petrification. While that’d be great for fighting an enemy dungeon, I wouldn’t have much use for it in my day-to-day.

My basilisk decides it’s spent enough time getting its bearings, and starts to wander down the tunnel and explore the labyrinth. Watching it move, I get a better feel for why it’s shaped like it is. On the ground, it mostly pulls itself forward with those beefy forelegs, using the long tail more to steer than to help with propulsion.

It eventually notices a fire elemental through the wall and dives into the rock as the head plate folds back against its neck. It keeps the forelegs loose at its side and uses that long tail to swim through the rock like an eel. It’s even faster than my wyrms! In no time, it bursts into the tunnel with the elemental and grabs the invader with that freaky mouth, before using those forelegs to tear it to shreds. Once the thing is dispatched, the basilisk spends a little time licking up the pieces with that long tongue, before it resumes meandering around the tunnels of the labyrinth.

Yeah, that’s going to give my delvers nightmares. With any luck, it’ll give the harbinger nightmares, too. For bigger prey, I wonder if it’ll wrap that long tail around the victim before savaging with the claws? It seems flexible enough for that. I leave it to wander the labyrinth as I turn my attention to Teemo.

It looks like they’re making good progress through the shortcut, and my Voice is dutifully working on making it even quicker to traverse. I think it’ll still be a day or two for him and the whole group to get to the Southwood, but the return will be much quicker, as will further expeditions. Teemo has to go slower to build the shortcut, but once he’s done working on it, everyone else can go at their full pace.

“Heya Boss. What was that… whatever it was you were thinking about just now?”

Ah, I upgraded the dragon spawner. Now we’re getting basilisks as well as wyrms.

“Cool.”

Yeah, I think those weird leech-heads are gonna be no match for them. We’ll see if I get enough of them to be able to send in time. How’s Nova? With her spawner upgraded, I was wondering if she’d change any.

Teemo glances around, but doesn’t see my youngest scion. “I dunno. Hey Nova! You around?” he yells. A few of the adventurers give him curious looks, but soon return to what they were doing. Once their attentions are redirected, Nova pops her head out of the ground nearby Teemo, and rumbles at him.

My Voice chuckles and waves a dismissive hand. “I was hoping it’d make it easier for you. It’s not difficult to add a bit of ground to the shortcut. I might need to figure out how to add a stream or water or something eventually, too. Imagine how surprised someone would be if I could have the First Mate pop out of a shortcut and just eat an invader!”

Nova tilts her head a bit at that, and rumbles again.

“Right. The Boss wanted to get a look at you, see if anything’s different. He just upgraded your spawner and got basilisks, so he was curious if you had changed.”

Nova slides out fully onto the ground of the shortcut and contorts herself to look, but I’m not seeing much in the way of a difference. It’s more than a little adorable watching her twist and turn, though.

“Yeah, I don’t see anything different either,” agrees Teemo, and Nova gives him a worried look.

“Nah, it’s not bad, Nova. The Boss was just curious.” She rumbles again and Teemo hops onto her head, then quickly moves to her cooler mandibles. “No, the Boss doesn’t want you to change, Nova. He just wants you to be you.”

She manages to pout and rumbles once more, earning a smirk from Teemo.

“That’s just something you have to figure out on your own.”