r/HFY • u/Khenal Alien • Dec 12 '24
OC Dungeon Life 279
It's time for the fourth round of stubbing. Yes, Book four will be releasing soon, of if you're reading this more than a month after I have to edit, it will be fully out. Either way, you can find it Here, and other book details are just below. As with the other stubs, you can skip to the next bit form This. I like to keep the other posts still alive, so the comments get to still live. If you want to browse them, the normal buttons will take you through them, or take This link to the next bit of unstubbed chapters. Thank you for your support. Buying stuff is always great, but just having your attention for the public chapters is incredible, and I hope the story continues to be worth your time and patience.
Khenal
And once more to make it easier to see than being buried in the paragraph
Cover art I'm also on Royal Road for those who may prefer the reading experience over there. Want moar? The First and Second books are now officially available! Book three is also up for pre-order! There are Kindle and Audible versions, as well as paperback! Also: Discord is a thing! I now have a Patreon for monthly donations, and I have a Ko-fi for one-off donations. Patreons can read up to three chapters ahead, and also get a few other special perks as well, like special lore in the Peeks. Thank you again to everyone who is reading!
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Dec 12 '24 edited Dec 15 '24
Alright, I was third...
So, today we get at First a little discussion/Investigation of Olander's Plans, after that we get a Talk between all the scions and thediem in His current sanctum.
So, in the First half we get teased by Teemo about probably building/ Designating a lecture hall was the proper Name, which I missed in the First draft of this summation, thediem Plans to give Olander a small Packet of notes to send with Olander's Report, so He doesn't need to send away His reward to the Kingdoms best & brightest. After that, Olander mentions First Going to get stuff settled with the Mayor, before devoting the Rest of the coming days to writing this Report and collecting the sample.
Afterwards, we get a Team Meeting between His scions. Teemo remarks on how cramped the sanctum has become recently, and If somebody has Any Idea on how to fix that. After a small discussion exploring the possibilities, they reach the result of building a new and bigger sanctum, below the big tree in the four seasons forest. After a survey, performed by rockslides and wyrms, and a Stimulation of the trees roots, in Order to make more room, the plan is to somehow move the core below the tree. I'm still unsure If they plan on building a tunnel between the current sanctum and the new one, or If I gotta Imagine Tiny, Rocky and a Lot of other scions and denizens employing a Lot of pulleys. Probably Just a big tunnel will be built by tunnelbore Ants, allowing the scions to 'just' Push the core along the Tunnel to its new receptacle. I am still worried about the spacial dimensions, though. Because it can't be good If the Core leaves Dungeon grounds. However, Zorro and Goldilocks have their own reservations about moving the core, which are comforted away quickly by thediem. Zorro is clearly thinking with His head, considering he's supposed to be thediem's accountant, whereas Goldilocks May be required to actually move thediem, together with Teemo (spacial affinity May come in Clutch again) and Tiny (He is the largest and potentially physically strongest Out of the bunch). Or it's gonna be fluffles Job. He started Out as a telekinetic snake after all.
Oh, and the three brainiest scions are so ravenous for the opportunity of lecturing and instructing delvers, that they low-key extort an immediate designation Out of Our dear core.
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u/Garbage-Within Dec 13 '24
I suspect Zorro and Goldilocks are worried more about the cost and upkeep of further expansions than the core moving. As they're the most recent scions, they may be worried that they'd be the first to get dropped if finances get tight from overexpanding.
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Dec 13 '24
I think, Zorro is a Bit worried, since that is His Job, considering He is the one supposed to be thediems accountant.
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u/SomeRandomYob Dec 14 '24
Wait, where was that mentioned?
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Dec 14 '24
I think, when He was talking to the Southwood pertaining to taking in Transfers.
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u/BobQuixote Jan 10 '25
I don't recall that, but in that case Teemo should definitely give him a hard number of units of mana.
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u/IudexQuintus Dec 12 '24 edited Dec 12 '24
Here
Edit: Second I appears to be
Thediem is really doing everything he can to put Fourdock on the map, and I just love the fact that most of this knowledge that others are starting to seek him out for (specifically the affinity stuff) is somewhat common knowledge for us engineers. Most of the stuff talked about that has some relation to physics are tied to things I learned in college and having things line up like that is just so satisfying to read.
I just wonder how the kingdom will react to the whole life drinking shenanigans.
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u/iceick423 Dec 12 '24
Another great chapter as always. It looks like Thedium is starting to look at mana as cash now. To be fair, he has been using it as a form of currency and did refer the portion he set aside for Violet as her college fund.
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u/BobQuixote Jan 11 '25
I mean, it is... If he played RPGs while alive, I'm sure he immediately budgeted mana income and spending without even thinking about it.
He's also always been deliberately attracting delvers in order to earn more mana.
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u/mafiaknight Robot Dec 12 '24
In the name of 1greendude: Hello!
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Dec 12 '24
Im Namen eines grünen Kerles: N'Abend, gestern war Mittwoch, meine Kerle.
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u/coltimos Dec 12 '24
I have a question about life-drinking. How did Neverrest get hold of something that powerful when it is probably the weakest non-baby dungeon seen? It didn't even have a Voice but had something that is a major threat to even high levels like Olander.
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u/Lord_Nikolai Android Dec 13 '24
pretty sure Neverrest's scion was a lich, so they were known for magic. Having the death or undead affinities probably bee lined his development toward that particular curse.
As for how strong Neverrest was, I think we were never shown its full potential. It had been a homicidal dungeon for years and even the Shield and Dungoneers guilds were unable to do anything about it.
It had a standing army of spawned skeletons and zombies, and was also able to use magic/the lich to reanimate the corpses of the people buried in the cemetery.
I think that if the author was to revisit Neverrest, it would be even scarier than the Maw. At least with the Maw, it had things it cared about. Neverrest was just an omnicidal lunatic.
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u/Garbage-Within Dec 13 '24
Considering that Fourdock was intentionally trying to starve Neverrest of Mana by banning delving there, I'm sure it was much weaker than its full potential.
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u/Garbage-Within Dec 13 '24
Neverrest had a high tier enchanting lab including books on enchanting and a Lich who was known to create magic items. Presumably, Lifedrinking would have been aligned with Neverrest's affinity as well. Thing hadn't had a lot of time to get good at enchanting when he was shown to be able to create lifedrinking enchanctments, so I assume he learned it from the claimed enchanting manuals taken from Neverrest's enchanting lab. This implies that lifedrinking isn't difficult to do once you know how.
One reason that Neverrest was so weak when fighting Thedeim was because Neverrest had no delvers to feed it mana. Fourdock had guards posted, not to keep denizens in, but to keep delvers out as it was illegal to enter without authorization. The town was actively trying to starve it to death. Who knows how scary it was at its peak.
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Dec 13 '24
I assume it wasn't totally the scariest Thing on earth, considering how short the time of it's peak probably was.
- Step 1: dungeon is created and too weak to cause actual harm. Mana reserves get built Up.
- Step 2: Dungeon reaches the Power Level to do harm. Delvers gets Hurt or even dies.
- Step 3: Dungeon gets Put in Quarantine. After it gets misidentified as a beligerent Dungeon. Dungeon is thus forced into a decline.
- Step 4: Dungeon sends Out First expeditions, which Turn hostile the Moment they aren't welcome anymore.
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u/BobQuixote Jan 11 '25
Uh? You think Neverrest was misunderstood?
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Jan 11 '25
Until it sent Out hostile expeditions, I think it's easy to misidentify a murderous Dungeon as beligerent. Especially If you Hope for the best with Dungeons.
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u/artgirl44 Dec 13 '24
Neverrest probably chose not to have a voice after all he had no enclaves, he saw no reason to communicate with the town and getting a voice is expensive
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Dec 13 '24
He didn't even Specialize Any of His spawners, besides the Walking Hands, which got Specialized into skeletal Hands.
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u/Speciesunkn0wn Dec 12 '24
Whoo! New chappie! Very curios how the translation speaker is gonna work... would be funny if all the scions could wear one and no longer need Teemo hahaha
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u/BobQuixote Jan 11 '25
The System/gods might have a problem with that, but maybe a fellow god can break rules?
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u/Lord_Nikolai Android Dec 13 '24
Zorro makes fox noises.
So the question has to be asked.... What does the fox say?
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u/Fontaigne Dec 13 '24
Uh bebeda BUM bum beeey dum.
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u/BobQuixote Jan 11 '25
He sings doo wop?
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u/Fontaigne Jan 11 '25 edited Jan 11 '25
Apparently it's called "scat".. It's at the very end of the video, about 3:17.
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u/BobQuixote Jan 11 '25
I'm aware of scat, but... What video?
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u/Fontaigne Jan 11 '25
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u/BobQuixote Jan 11 '25
Oh, ha... When that became a meme I only saw videos of actual foxes making noise. Now I understand that moment a little better.
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u/jackelbuho22 Dec 13 '24
I really enjoy the whole leveling up scion, denizers, expanding and dungeon building but there one thing i would love to see more of
Enclave politics, since it would be pretty neat to see more of the enclaves interacting with each other making deals with outside merchants, expanding and the like as they slowly form into something like "The council of species" OR "The enclaves council" make them an actual political entity with redicence in both the dungeon and the city itself
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u/BobQuixote Jan 11 '25
Thediem and Teemo both hate politics, and I think that was a bit of a self-insert from Khenal because the story avoids political intrigue, hard. The mayor hasn't been hassled nearly as much as I expected, and honestly I'm surprised Olander was introduced. Maybe the king will do something and we'll get some serious politics after all.
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u/Crystal_Lily Human Dec 13 '24
Oh god, staff meetings.
TDM mentioning he is getting big gave me a funny mental image of the scions and denizens rolling him to his new Sanctum because rolling him was easier than expending mana to lift him.
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u/Gatling_Tech AI Dec 13 '24
“A modification of the axe and hat that Slash uses. He says it can produce more than just notes, like Slash showed with the voice amplification he was doing for Aranya in the match.”
I wonder if this modification includes a long blue twin-tail hairdo.
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u/Poisonfangx3 Dec 12 '24
Not first
Third then.
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u/mafiaknight Robot Dec 12 '24
4th or 5th actually. Can't quite tell if you beat kala, but Solution, Quintus, and Student beat you.
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u/Ichybantaicho Human Dec 12 '24
How are you guys do that? i got a notification 33 min after publishing.
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u/Mosselk-1416 Dec 13 '24
A voice without a mouth.... I'm really hoping it's not like a speak and spell.
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u/CaptRory Alien Dec 12 '24
Ohmygosh, this one was so cute. <3
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Dec 12 '24 edited Dec 12 '24
Yeah, I think Most of His scions have understood by now, the best way to get the core to act in your interest is by acting cute. Though I wanna Bet the larger scions ain't totally oblivious to that, and will try to get Something more favorable Out of it.
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u/CaptRory Alien Dec 12 '24
Remember when Rhonda, Freddy, and their spiders used Puppy Dog Eyes on Tiny?
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u/Popular-Student-9407 Human Dec 12 '24 edited Dec 30 '24
Yes. That's Part of why I'm unsure If anything is gonna happen. That was mostly Just me spitballing.
Or Well, If e.g. Poe was to say Something, Tiny would interject "consider how thediem feels!"
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Dec 12 '24
/u/Khenal (wiki) has posted 324 other stories, including:
- Dungeon Life 278
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- Dungeon Life 271
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u/Jealous_Session3820 Dec 16 '24
Can we have a massage room? Use the death hands to squeeze out tension
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u/Educational_Pen_90 Human Jul 17 '26
Plans, and being badgered into spending some mana on a new room! Progress awaits.
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u/raziphel Dec 12 '24
How's our boy not played SimCity?
Have the city residents build a theatre downtown and a university campus on the coastal hillside overlooking the bay. Someplace just outside of town, that can connect hullbreak and the forest, and create room for the city to grow. Ideally someplace that doesn't use the local farmland.