The Dungeon Fairy: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 1) by Jonathan Brooks (read novel full .txt) 📕

Physical Defense: 1 - 5

Ranged Defense: 1 - 3

Elemental Resistance: Dependent upon Variants

Specials: Bonus to sensing those hidden by invisibility spells and effects

Now, normally this information was provided to Dungeon Cores so that they could get a feel for the category they were looking at without having to dig into it and see what it contained; the Canines were a popular family of creatures, if only for one in particular – the Wolf and its Variants. However, there was something that was little known outside of the DPRC and the Dungeon Assistant school she attended; when a Core picked a creature to use in their dungeon, they technically weren’t limited to picking a single species – they could actually pick an entire family of species.

The only problem with that, however, was that although they could pick a “family of species” such as Canines, that didn’t automatically give them access to create whatever they wanted.  They couldn’t just select “Canine” as their choice and then create something of their choosing, because the Create Creature option didn’t work with general families; it was for this reason that Dungeon Assistants didn’t advertise this option – because it ultimately did them no good.  Any Core choosing a “family” instead of a specific species wouldn’t be able to create even a single creature until they improved their Core and were able to select another creature – if they lived that long.

Even knowing this, Tacca selected Canines as her initial starting creature – because she had some unique plans.  The next step was usually to choose a Variant, which was where a Core could specialize their creature to their liking.  For instance, her Gnoll Scout example from earlier was a Variant of a “Gnoll” – which didn’t have any special bonuses to anything and was just average – and instead of Scout she could’ve chosen it to be a Fighter, Brawler, Thief, Brigand, Caster, or any number of different Variants.  Some – like a Gnoll Caster, for example – were very expensive in terms of Dungeon Force and Control Requirements and couldn’t even be used by a brand-new Core, while others – like a Gnoll Merchant – were practically useless in the normal operation of a dungeon.

So, why choose a bunch of Canines over a Gnoll Scout or any of the other choices available to her?  Well, that all had to do with one of her future selections; that, and she still planned on acquiring a Gnoll for her dungeon in the future…

Anyway, since she had chosen a family of species instead of a solitary species, the Variant step was completely bypassed.  Tacca had been expecting that, however, so moving onto the Trap Specialization options immediately wasn’t surprising.

Trap Specialization

Projectile

Blade

Pit

Entanglement

Mechanical

Puzzle

Explosive

Poison

Fire

Water

Earth

Air

Death

Life

Enchantment

The name, “Trap Specializations”, was a little misleading; all that choosing one really did was make anything that was made in those categories cost a lot less Dungeon Force to create and replace.  Every single trap that had ever been thought up, created, and installed in a dungeon could be used by any Dungeon Core at any time; the same Jeff that had the Dragonlings had dozens of traps of all different kinds, though his Trap Specialization had initially been Pit – which was made obvious by how many he had set up on the floor of his dungeon before he had been destroyed.

Therefore, the Specialization she had to choose from the list really just benefitted Dungeon Cores initially, making the entire dungeon creation process smoother, faster, and more efficient; many Cores unfortunately got lazy after a while and primarily used variations of the traps they specialized in, which helped to change things up enough not to be boring…but it certainly wasn’t exciting.  Tacca knew she had to change the way her dungeon operated to bring that excitement and challenge, but it was likely going to be a while before she really could afford to branch out and use hundreds of different kinds of traps – because they could get expensive in terms of Force the more complex they were.

Therefore, to give her a base to work with that was a bit more flexible than the others, she chose Enchantment for her Trap Specialization.

Enchantment – Trap Specialization

Enchantment traps are for the most part non-lethal, but when used in conjunction with other traps and dungeon creatures, they can be highly effective.  Examples of Enchantment-based traps are ones that can augment physical capabilities for a limited time, to other status-inflicting ones such as blindness, exhaustion, confusion, fear, rage, dizziness, and even extreme hunger.

Specialization Benefits:

Enchantment-based traps require 60% less Dungeon Force to create

Enchantment-based traps require 75% less Dungeon Force to replace when used

By themselves, Enchantment traps weren’t very effective in killing Raiders, but that wasn’t necessarily her primary objective – at least at first.  She had absolutely no compunction about killing them – and would probably slaughter thousands of them if she survived long enough – because that was just a normal part of the entire dungeon invasion process; no, what she wanted to establish was a place where Raiders could come and have a “good time”, even if there was danger involved.  That was the balance that most Cores had to address: dangerous enough that it could kill the unprepared, but not too dangerous or difficult.

Besides, it wasn’t as though she couldn’t make traps that could kill Raiders outright, only that they cost more Dungeon Force to create.

Once she finished her choice for her Trap Specialization, it was time to choose her Environmental Access.  This was a bit more of an aesthetic choice at first but would help immensely in her efforts to create a diverse and “exciting” dungeon for Raiders to invade.

Environmental Access

Mountain

Forest

Grassland

Volcanic

Frozen Tundra

Jungle

Swamp

Desert

Aquatic

Tacca eventually wanted to acquire access