Trash Mountain Dungeon

Filling out the new floor wasn’t as easy as I thought, unfortunately, not that I didn’t have the means of course but rather I didn’t know what to put in them. The main problem is that I want to keep to the idea of using the main rooms that led to the core as defensive structures and the offshoots as supports but I had no access to real defensive structures outside of the canid den. Without more creatures to absorb and make into blueprints, I would likely have to rely on the store for my monsters and by extension, rooms. Currently, I don’t have much in the way of DP with a measly 12 at the moment, affording me only a low-tier monster at the moment.

Before buying the random monster though, I considered the long-term impact such a system would have on my plans. I could just stick with it and save up DP every month until I could afford new monsters, but that didn’t seem very reliable, consistent yes, but people tend to move around a lot in months and the locals might not tolerate me for that long. On one hand, I could get comfortable with the long view of things and just double down on what monsters I have while slowly accumulating new monsters and rooms over months and years. On the other hand, I could use a more short-term mindset to drag and claw my way to becoming dangerous enough to prevent most attackers. What this short-term mindset would actually look like I’m not entirely sure, I still had my mecha-hounds from when I first made them, and I could tell that they were still gathering in the mountains, but I couldn’t tell exactly where they were nor what was happening to them, but I could vaguely sense that they were alive, relatively alive anyway. After sending them the command to return I could feel them slowly make their way back and by a rough estimate it would be about a week before they returned, plenty of time to incorporate this new monster. After purchasing the suspiciously gatcha-like option I was given my newest, monsters?

Two options were generated for [Random Low-tier monster].

Different, would every random pull from the store give me multiple choices?

All random monster and trap options will produce several options equal to your level until the core reaches level 5 at which point it will be five forever.

So as I level up my level influences my options, I suppose I already knew that, but to see it alter the shop is a pleasant surprise, and with my mechanical focus rolling more choices could net me better machines. All I would have to do is find a way to get a steady stream of DP. But back to the matter at hand, my two options for the dungeon.

Kobolds (Copper Claws)

Kobolds are the smallest and weakest of the creations of the true dragons, but they are used as highly adaptable busybodies, smart enough to make tools and traps as well as use some rudimentary forms of dragon magic. Kobolds form tightly bonded communities that focus on the group rather than the individual.

Copper claw kobolds are descended from the many kobolds used as slave labor in gnomish factories.

Skilled in crafting traps and community planning.

Capable of using low-level magic.

Gives access to draconian options in the future.

Despises gnomes.

Creation Cost:

45 mana

1 pound of food per 24 hours.

Node Cost:

100 mana

5 mana taken from production.

Creates: 5 Copper Claw Kobolds

Ratkin (Rustfur)

Ratkin is both an old and new threat to the world, existing during the First Era and after it. Ratkin are excellent crafters and weaponsmiths, focusing on producing more dangerous and nonsensical weapons each time. Ratkin utilizes a special variety of innate magics. However, ratkin naturally form competitive societies and often fight each other when not fighting an outsider.

Rust Fur ratkin are accustomed to working with metal and the thrown-out machines of dwarven cities.

Skilled in crafting weapons and low-level enchantment.

Capable of using Rust, Plague, and Insect magics.

Dislikes dwarves.

Creation Cost:

40 mana

2 pounds of food per 24 hours.

Node Cost:

100 mana

6 mana taken from production.

Creates 6 Rustfur Ratkin

Interesting, rat and lizard people that specialize in working with metal. Even without the presence of the two mines or the assembly room, I could do plenty with them. At the core of both of them, there was an intelligent community-oriented monster that relied on their creations to let them defend themselves with the big difference being that the kobolds relied on pre-made traps while ratkin used weapons they made. I could only choose one of them and with the next roll coming in at least another five months, whatever I chose would become the mainstay of my dungeon for a while.

Looking over my current setup, I could use the mainline series of rooms for whichever I ended up choosing while the side rooms would be used by them for materials and such, perhaps I could use an assembly line to churn out parts for either of them to tinker with. If I went with the kobolds, they could stuff traps all around the main rooms and work together to take down any invaders, while on the other hand, the ratkin could start using different parts and pieces to make whatever weapons they used mainly. The biggest downsides of each were problematic though, kobolds were small and weak-bodied while ratkin suffered from infighting, and both problems would be difficult to manage with the available tools before me.

Hmm, it's not that the choice is especially difficult, I’m going to choose one of them but the main point I guess is that if I use kobolds I’d start experimenting with traps and such while ratkin makes me want to double down on having mostly just monsters, an accidental choice, but one I could stick with if only for now. While I already know what focusing on monsters looks like, what do traps do in this setting? Going through my trap catalog gave me my answers and some irritation, traps were just that, traps, with limited influence from your theme, right now I only had access to three base traps, a pitfall, a spike pit trap, and an odd one called ‘environmental hazard’ which was just a bunch of spikes that were dotted around the walls. None of them were that expensive and none had any maintenance costs, the only downside is that there could only be one per room which thankfully your monsters couldn’t trigger.

Eh, why the hell not, aside from the worm room I put traps in all of the first-floor rooms, and a pit trap in the center point of the room, obviously it was easy to spot but the flow of battle could make people forget it was there. As for the rest of them, I put a wall hazard in the assembly room and made a spike trap also in the center of the formation room, with the canid having another wall hazard it could use to keep people from turtling up in a corner. They cost pretty much nothing at this point but I hope that even if they don’t get people or things, knowing they are there will be enough to give my monsters an environmental edge over any attacks. For floor 2, I wouldn’t put in any traps just yet, the mines were designed to attract people, and putting traps in them could give me a negative reputation but once I made up my mind about which monster to choose I could go wild with the second floor.

Moving on, I set up two more rooms on the second level, along the main line, and in one of the offshoots I made two assembly lines, both with a clockworker node to operate them, bringing it down then up to 48 mana per hour with a storage capacity of 300. Additionally, I started spreading out my main three critters, with the rats scurrying out of the room and into the assembly rooms, already working together on building more metal nests with the odd copper roach getting caught by the furry little menaces.

But with that, I would be able to support at least one or two nodes for either monster as well as give them some materials to tinker with when I chose which one to go with. Of course that still brings up the choice of which one I choose, the trap-making lizards or the weapon-crafting rats?