Dungeon Life
Chapter Three-Hundred Seventy-One

They head into the crypt complex with Teemo riding shoulders as he sees fit. He ends up sticking mostly with Berdol, since Tarl and Olander are a lot more physically active when they fight. Berdol, on the other hand, can mostly keep his eyes on everything, take notes, and use his floating weapons to engage with whatever needs engaging.

As they delve, I can pretty quickly feel a drop in the enjoyment of the inspectors, and it’s not difficult to see why. Perhaps fittingly, there’s not a lot of life in the encounters in the complex. The hands help mix things up a bit, but the fungal zombies and verdant skellies can only do so much. It all feels kinda basic, which is great for getting the Shield people some combat experience, but if I’m trying to prepare them for nastier dungeons, I think I’m falling pretty flat.

Once they finish cleaning out a large attack of hands and mixed undead, Teemo speaks up. “What can Boss do to improve his undead? The Shieldies never really complained, so he never paid too much attention to the encounters, but after watching you guys, he doesn’t think this area is up to his standards.”

Berdol doesn’t have much to suggest, as he hasn’t really dealt with many undead dungeons, but Tarl and Olander both have opinions. “I think you need to double down on the hands and encourage ambush tactics in your denizens,” suggests Tarl. “I only really have Neverrest to compare to, but his tactics were a lot different than what your undead do.”

Olander nods. “One of the major dangers of an undead dungeon is getting bogged down by numbers before getting picked off. They don’t tire, and though there’s always a lot of slow and lumbering undead, they serve to tire out delvers so the stronger and faster ones can easily clean up. I know most of your undead aren’t specialized for fighting, but I’m sure you can improvise something,” he says with a smirk.

I consider that as Teemo answers for me. “Boss has been thinking of moving a lot of the weaker spawns out into the Forest, especially in spring. Do you guys think the next tier of spawns would be good to be that shambling horde to wear delvers down, before the arcane hands pop up to cast sleeps and paralysis?”

Tarl looks to Olander for his opinion. “I think so. If they have access to it, use fatigue as well. In fact… as many status effects as you can manage. A normal undead dungeon tends to focus on draining afflictions. I think if you get new delvers to associate undead with needing status protection, it’d go a long way toward making them take more typical undead seriously. I’ve seen a lot of people underestimate undead and pay the price.”

He smirks. “Including me. I constantly underestimated Rocky in our fight. Undead are usually so slow that it’s easy to forget that speed isn’t the only way a denizen can be dangerous.”

Teemo nods at that as I take notes, and I even take a quick look through the next spawns for my zombie and skeletons. Each new tier has a lot of options, and I usually just let it go with the default. That tends to be a bit of a jack-of-all-trades upgrade, but if I want to lean into statuses, I’ll need to consciously do that. Thankfully, with the specializations I have for the two spawners, I have a lot of options.

And a lot of options I need to be careful about. There’s several varieties of new fungal zombie that would make Ellie and Joel feel right at home, but I’m not aiming to make a fungal apocalypse. The spores wouldn’t last long outside my domain, but they’re still unpleasant at best and lethal if not dealt with swiftly. There’s a couple that don’t act like cordyceps, but are still pretty nasty. Sure, healers can technically remove infections from muscles and the like, but from how expensive those particular spawns are, it’s probably not easy nor cheap.

I do eventually find a few good options for the zombies to pick from, once I’m ready to eventually upgrade. There’s a wide variety of puffball zombies that will pop when defeated and inflict all sorts of nasty ailments, but not always varieties of fungal infections. Sleep is common, as is paralysis and fatigue. I’m personally liking the manavorous fungi that will interfere with delvers trying to use spells or abilities. That sounds like just the sort of thing that a mean undead dungeon would use, but also one that isn’t instantly lethal for me to expose people to.

The skeletons have their own unique effects, stemming from plants rather than fungi. A rafflesia skeleton can unleash a stunning wave of stank upon unsuspecting delvers, which also makes me wonder if the verdant skellies can carry around a dreambloom like my earth elementals and the brambles. Definitely something to try.

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Another interesting option for the skeletons is a pitcher skeleton. They’d be my first summoner denizen, able to unleash swarms of insects from the pitcherplants nestled in their rib cage.

And there’s the variations on ordinary vine skeletons, giving them stronger vines to ensnare and entrap delvers. It even looks like the later variations of those can have little blooms on the vines for other status effects, too. I can’t go digging too much more before I feel Teemo poking me, getting my attention before he speaks up.

“It looks like the Boss found the status effect options. There’s a lot of nasty things to stay away from, but he likes the potential the puffball zombies have. And for the skeletons, the rafflesia, pitcherplant, or vine skeletons all have potential.”

Berdol notes the options down as Tarl nods. “I’ve heard of the puffball zombies. A lot of undead dungeons use similar sacrificial zombies to hinder delvers.”

“I’d go with the pitcherplant skeletons, myself,” comments Olander. “Rafflesia skeletons only really work once against delvers. After that, everyone knows to come prepared for stink. Vine skeletons are versatile, but I think your hands can do similar spells already. But having summons, especially of swarms, is not something common, nor easily countered. It’ll probably be among the most unpleasant experiences for delvers, but learning how to deal with it is invaluable.”

Teemo nods at that as I make a note for those options for later. “Anything else? I remember Neverrest had this place practically paved with magical traps when we moved in. Should we try something like that, too?”

Olander shrugs. “Some undead dungeons really like traps, especially ones that won't affect their denizens, but I think most don’t bother.”

Teemo shrugs. “Then Boss’ll probably ask Thing to sprinkle a few around, but not make it a priority. Once the new varieties are in, the delvers will probably have enough trouble with the status effects already. If they want trap practice, they can head to the labyrinth. Any other suggestions, maybe for synergy with some of our other denizens? Boss already likes the idea of pitcher skeletons with lightning affinity, and maybe using bees along with them.”

Hey! Don’t give away all my secrets! Teemo sticks his tongue out toward my core as the inspectors collectively shudder at the idea.

“His ants would probably go well with them,” points out Berdol, and I make a note, even as Tarl and Olander look horrified at the idea.

“On the other side of the terror scale, they’d probably be highly effective with the healing ability you gave some of your slimes,” points out Olander, which I also make an eager note of. I like the slimes, I really do. They act like a sci-fi healing tank once someone gets in, but they move so slow! Healing swarms from the skeletons would be a lot faster, if probably traumatizing. I snort to myself as I note down my potential ambulance teams, with paralysis puffball zombies to immobilize people before a healing pitcher skelly unleashes the buzzing swarm of triage.

It’d certainly encourage delvers to not press their luck too far.

“You also might try to purchase gremlins from Violet, too. They might not technically be undead, but I’ve heard of a lot of dungeons that use them, too,” suggests Tarl, earning a wince from Olander.

“...it’d probably be good training, yes. Whether gremlins or a variety of ghost, having something with limited or full intangibility is common for strong undead dungeons. They are… highly effective at delivering lifedrinking.”

Teemo solemnly nods as I note that down. “I’m sure Queen can come up with some kind of slow paralysis poison we can use to simulate it. Just because we know how to counter it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t train people to avoid it in the first place. It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to do a smaller expansion to the complex at some point, too. Neverrest was never really high-volume, so this area isn’t designed for a lot of traffic.”

Olander nods, his gaze far away as he dwells on memories. “It’d be good to have more area dedicated to dealing with undead. There’s another dungeon called the Shrouded Bog further to the south, which specializes in undead. It’s an incredible place to get over the hump and truly into high level, but it’s also incredibly dangerous. Past a certain level, almost everyone has gone through there once. Not many go a second time.”

Teemo nods at that, not pressing the older elf for details. “Sounds like exactly the kind of place Boss wants to prepare people for. And hey, if we’re doing our job right, people might not even need to go there. He wants to be able to help train delvers of all levels, so he’ll become an alternative to that bog eventually.”

Olander smiles at that, his distant gaze focusing on my Voice. “I hope so. I’ve seen far too many adventurers go into the dense fog and never come out.”

Silence stretches for a few moments after that, before Teemo eventually breaks it. “Well, rather than just promise to make other options, what say we get you three to the Forest now, so you can see just what the Boss has planned for delvers at that sort of tier. If there’s a need for a better option, the Boss is eager to provide it.”