Dungeon Oasis

Dungeon POV

After designating the boss room, a huge stone door appeared on either entrance. Once a party entered the boss chamber retreat was no longer an option. It seems like this is just a normal dungeon thing since I didn't need to use any rules to set it up. If that's the case, then I'm sure nobody would try the boss unless they were certain they could win. As for the boss itself naturally I place down a single level 10 dire rat. This thing is absolutely massive, at least as far as rats go. It's 120 cm from its nose to the tip of its tail.

I also discovered, after placing another room to start one of the branching paths, that the core stays behind the boss chamber once one has been designated. This room I placed to the east of the room with three level 5 rats and a level 4 rat. I put four level 5 rats in it. The plan being to have every branching path continue the pattern established by the main path so delvers can't use the enemy's strength to figure out which way to go. I also planned to have every room that doesn't contain four level 5 rats branch off into at least one other path. At least until I realized that would create an infinitely repeating pattern and the first floor would never actually be finished. So instead, I decided to Just have every room of the main branch split off into side branches. With a few additional side branches within side branches to keep them guessing.

After filling the room with storage crates and a few scattered coins, I prepared to set down another room to start yet another branching path. All of a sudden, my controls were greyed out. It took less than a second to figure out the reason though as four people who looked to be barely conscious came stumbling in. And I do mean stumbling, as they all looked to be on the verge of collapse. They looked around cautiously for a second. I think even in that state they somehow knew they were in a dungeon. Their caution didn't last long though as one of them, a mage of some kind if I had to guess, practically ran full speed towards the wash tub and began drinking.

The mage was around 176 cm with what I would describe as a bean pole body shape. If he stood still, he could probably hide behind the staff he was carrying. Speaking of the staff I'd think it was just a stick if it wasn't for the mana I can see coursing through it. On his head sat the curliest short blond hair I'd ever seen

Another one, at the command of the person I'm guessing is their leader, placed an unconscious young lady gently on the ground and went over to begin filling several containers that the system helpfully recognized as waterskins. He was large compared to the others at around 207.5 cm tall, with a shoulder width of nearly 77 cm. From what I could tell he was all muscle to. The guy was a walking mountain of a man. The top of his head was completely bald. Whether that was a cultural thing, a religious thing, or a personal thing I don't know. The sword he carried was as basic as a sword can get. Yet despite him most likely carrying it in one hand, on account of him also having a shield, it would likely be a two-handed weapon for almost anyone else. The shield itself seemed to be just a flimsy piece of metal in the basic shape of a shield.

While he was busy with that the leader began removing the woman's clothing. she was very short compared to the others at only 122 cm. Besides that, she looked as though she barely weighed 45kg soaking wet. With straight blond hair that goes down to the small of her back. I was a little worried about what he might be planning if I'm being honest. Thankfully though it seems like he just wanted to ensure as much of her skin had direct contact with the water as possible. I'm not entirely sure removing her cloths was necessary, but I also doubt he was thinking clearly at that time. He was after all just as bad off as the rest of them.

He was around 165 cm. He was muscular for his size sporting another basic sword. He didn't have a shield but whether that was from him not wanting one or just not being able to get one I couldn't say. They were all wearing the most basic of clothing without any armor to speak of, except for the big guy's shield. Which is what leads me to believe he simply couldn't afford even a basic shield.

I could see the vitality of the entire party going up after they'd had a good drink and began to cool off. Well, perhaps see isn't the right word but I don't know really how else to describe it. The others didn't seem to know the young lady was recovering until she suddenly, at least from their perspective, regained consciousness. After she came to though she was offered water which she gulped down in a very unladylike way. To be honest though I was just impressed she could hold the waterskin in her condition. Especially given how large it was in comparison to her.

As her health improved even more, she began to look around. After a while she apparently noticed that she was naked because she began to panic and look around worriedly while attempting to cover herself. She calmed down not long after though. A few minutes after that she seemed to have come to a decision and just laid back in the water as if nothing had happened. No longer even bothering to cover herself. After what seemed like hours she got out and got dressed quickly.

After that the others splashed water on their faces and began discussing what to do next. It seems like most dungeons attack you as soon as you enter so they decided it was safe enough as long as they stayed in the first room. I'm not sure how much of that was logical reasoning skills and how much was them being too tired to really think. Either way they're right. As long as they aren't jerks, I won't attack anyone in the first room of any floor. I will need to look into what kind of dungeon rules I can set up to keep people from exploiting that though. For now, I also kind of need someone to playtest my design. Which is another reason I'm giving them all the time in the world to recover.

They slept for nearly a full day before one of them began to stir. The first to awaken was the young lady who began to examine the rest of them. The method she is using to examine them leads me to believe she is a healer. The rest of them slowly begin to stir one by one. After a while they begin discussing their options. The option to leave rather than press their luck was proposed and quickly dismissed. They seemed to come to the decision that I was likely the only source of food for kilometers. As much as they seemed to hate the idea of delving an unfamiliar dungeon on an empty stomach, said empty stomach also didn't seem to leave them any choice.

As they entered what I consider the first true dungeon room the rat stationed there leapt from one of the storage crates and bit the leaders ear. It tore off a chunk of the man's ear lobe causing a stream of blood to begin pouring down onto the man's neck and shoulder before his pained flailing sent the rat flying. Shortly after it landed a sword thrust from the other guy severed its front half from its back half sending blood splattering everywhere. As soon as the attack happened the healer came forward with an extremely weak healing spell. Likely the only one she knew. While she was doing that the other two were keeping an eye out for any more nasty surprises. I'm willing to bet if a level 1 rat was able to get the drop on them, they must be close to level 1 themselves.

After a while she managed to at least stop the bleeding. It was only then that they noticed a chunk of rat meat where the rat had been. As he reached for it the young mage also noticed the coin nearby. After pointing it out the rest of the party, I've played enough RPGs to recognize an adventuring party when I see one, began to notice several more. This along with the meat seemed to be all it took to encourage them to keep going. They did however proceed with much more caution.