Defend the Core! (Dungeon Core Quest)

Year 1040, Oris, Okrasi Province, Slaria
The sparks fly everywhere, the strange bipedal lizards casting spell after spell to stop your group but if anything it only speeds up the movement of your group. Slamming through the hordes of monsters, your group continues to try to reach the robed monsters in the distance. But every time you try to sneak around or get closer more and more of the monsters appear and slam into you.

Finally fed up after a few more seconds of slogging through the ever-increasing hordes, you have enough. Slamming your hands on the ground, the ink spreads beneath everyone's feet, and all around inky-black spikes rise from the group. Like the forests you only ever see in the dungeon, all the surrounding monsters are spread through. Quickly everyone rushes to finally end this painful slog.

Time to choose your dice:
[]Floors: From living breathing ecosystems to labyrinthine corridors floors encapsulate them all
[]Monster: Roaring monsters and spelling slingling gremlins, monsters are those that directly stand up against those who dare enter your halls.
[]Traps: A constant plague to a dropping boulder, traps are what keep invaders from your body without the physical component of monsters.
[]Research: From the flows of the world to items that harness the latent energy of the universe, research is the way to get them.
[]Core: A hidden room to a crushing rule on all that enter, core is for your entire dungeon top to bottom.


Turn 18:
Mana: 810 (825 Mana per Turn)
DP: 92/130 (202 DP per Turn)
[]Delta Ecosystem: With your newly expanded floor you can now work on new ecosystems, one that seems like would provide a large increase in mana would be creating a delta ecosystem, therefore lessening the costs of all aquatic monsters through the use of more waterways allowing invaders to be attacked more often. (20 Mana per Dice 125/375)

Water is the true pull of your dungeon. Like the sirens that call this lifeblood home, these waters are what called the invaders into your dungeon surrounding and looking for the water that supplies your physical monsters and the invader's life. However you have already spent the time to disrupt their supply of this water, poison, and monsters lurk inside these blue depths, but now you are truly embracing this outlook, already you have drafted designs for the ecosystem before you started to build it. Now you need to take the time to make secondary plants for this ecosystem

[]Cavern Ecosystem: While the basics have been established you can go one step further and tailor your ecosystem to the area in it, caves. By growing more mushrooms and mutating plants to become beneficial to a cave system you can create the conditions to allow more proliferation of physical traps. Whether hiding behind a taste placement of vines or an actual boulder held up by branches, you can fit more physical traps in a cavern ecosystem allowing you to get traps in a smaller space. (15 Mana per 216/175) (+5 MpT) (+5 MpT for each Mechanical Trap)

With the crystal menace stopped you are now taking the time to go through and hide all of the traps in this ecosystem as well as physically putting them in place. Now that you have finished that you have finished all of the ecosystems that were some of the first ideas you created in the dungeon. Now that this is created you have more time to spend on other projects which litter your dungeon. (+5 MpT) (+5 MpT for each Mechanical Trap)

[]Oasis Groves: Plants, there everywhere in your dungeon, from the ground to the walls to even the roof, each hiding a monster or trap, because of this abundance of plant monsters it only makes sense to tailor the surrounding environment towards them, from the nutrient rich ground to the holed walls which allow their roots to grow further out, you can lower the costs of maintaining your monsters as well as increase the amount of mana you get from each invader. (30 Mana per Dice 176/175) (+6 DPpT) (+2 DP for each Plant Monster)

While the crystal may have taken a little of your attention away from making the oasis groves, this year they have taken a full part of your attention, already you have finished the secondary plants and made the oasis groves which will hold your plant monsters. The effects have already been extrapolated and seen in real-time. Invaders greedily fall into a variety of traps just to gain nothing of their efforts as the very plants around them attack and ambush them. Already a slight boost is happening to your core, but you are sure more will come as the years move on. (+6 DPpT) (+2 DP for each Plant Monster)

[]Armory: Invaders have always hunted in your dungeon for mana materials, but now with the creation of your bipedal monsters, you can create dedicated spaces with finished mana weapons tempting them to fight through these rooms where your bipedal monsters utilize these weapons against them, stopping them in their tracks with your ingenious weapons and monsters as well as providing a place for your monster to rest. (15 Mana per Dice 299/275) (+6 DPpT) (+2 DP per Bipedal Monster)

Actually making an armory was, as you predicted, even easier than actually making the weapons that would reside in these places. These buildings, specifically designed to be defensible, hold you bipedal monsters, decked out in the weapons that litter these rooms, they have already started ambushing and luring invaders into your armories leading to their diminish in the best case and a depleted armory in the worst. (+6 DPpT) (+2 DP per Bipedal Monster)

[]Curseland Dragon: While not a true dragon, this boss is sure close, by taking the old mutations of the fossil monsters and applying them to your already strong monsters, you can now make a truly monstrous monster. Covered in crystals and adorned with the affinities of earth and curses. This boss bears the ancient grudges of a more primordial time, stalking a cursed land, you are sure this boss will stop invaders in their tracks. (60 Mana per Dice) (16/335)

Initial work has begun on your cursed boss, shaping the bones that will hold the truly gigantic body of this prehistoric monster up, but throughout the year you spend more time coming up with an idea than anything else. However now that you picked one, you can now spend the time to go through and truly make this boss something that will frighten the invaders.

[]Lizard Acolytes: Taking an opposite direction from the bruisers, you can instead spend your mana enhancing the bipedal lizard's magic potential, increasing the size of their body as well as making them smaller targets. Trading the stealth tactics for complex spells, from molten glass to forming quicksand underneath the invaders, these monsters are going to be a true nuisance to any invader who enters your dungeon with their coordinated spells and untapped magic potential. (15 Mana per Dice 285/225) (Quality: 48) (+6 DPpT) (Unlocks Lizard Soceroers) (Unlocks Lizard Mages)

A test case in all ways, you have decided to use your newfound radiation on your bipedal acolytes, and you can already feel the effects. Taking a few variants you have placed them underneath the effects of the radiation and gained something. While it may be a small increase, you have seen a small increase in the strength of their scales, tapping into the reverses of the monsters. While it is not enough to truly affect the day-to-day operation of your monsters, you believe that you can either sacrifice the mana pool for these monsters for an increase in the hardness of their scales or leave the mana pool alone, giving the acolytes more mana to work with.

[]Apply the Mutation: This new mutation has a decent effect, more toughness is something that has always been in need. Taking this mutation you can place it on all of your acolytes except a few to remain a surprise and watch as they handle blows that regular mages could not.

[]Leave it be: Your monsters are specifically designed with certain abilities in mind, a large mana pool is more important than an increase in defense, after all, they have your multitude of strength and toughness monsters to keep them away from invaders, they should instead have a large mana pool to rain hell on the invaders entering your dungeon.

[]Aquatic Plant Monsters: A floating lilypad just waiting to become a bear trap, to seaweed which drags you into their wooden beak, aquatic plants are some of the rarer monsters that you can make, which just makes them more deadly after all most don't understand how these monsters work. By speeding these monsters throughout your dungeon you can create another layer against the invaders entering your dungeon as well as utilizing the mass amount of water you have flowing throughout your dungeon. (10 Mana per Dice 78/125)

Already you have finished almost all of your initial designs, from the vines that drag invaders into the water to more sinister options, plants that charm invaders into peacefully entering the water only for them to drown, to the parasites that can take control of invaders entering the water, you have given your dungeon a truly strong mix of monsters. Now that all is needed is to finish designing the last few monsters and begin making areas for them to inhabit in your dungeon.

[]Boat Monsters: With the intelligence of your bipedal monsters, you can now fashion a new type of monster, taking the mind of your smart monsters you can fashion a device for them to move between the various waterways of your dungeon, forcing the invaders to wade between the water to reach these boats, allowing you time to unleash more attacks than before. (20 Mana per Dice 179/100) (+4 DPpT)

With the experience gained from observing the invaders entering your dungeon, you have quickly designed and implemented these monsters and their modes of transportation. From the small canoes that your bipedal monsters use to move through the water and the surrounding area. To the large ships that dot your swamps firing their ranged spells from afar or raiding invaders as they ram into them from their precarious walkways as they try to traverse your swamps. (+4 DPpT)

[]Basic Mechanical Traps: Whirling gears powering swinging blades, to massive hammers falling on invaders, your mechanical traps are some of the more specialized traps. With no mana embedded in these traps and the strength of metal in these traps ensuring that these are obstacles to be avoided rather than fought through, this aspect ensures that it will force the less athletic invaders will struggle to pass these trials (15 Mana per Dice 83/215)

Even with the error you made limiting your progress, you were quickly able to begin working again on your mechanical traps. Taking your experience with a variety of weapons, you first make gigantic forms of these weapons and use mechanical means to drop them and crush, slice, and dice invaders. However, with this type of finish, you already know there will be a lot more traps to design.

[]Pressure Traps: Pressure, it's all around you now that you notice it, from within the earth's core or from distant stars. Now that you know it exists you can now tell when the pressure mounts within your dungeon. With this sense, it makes perfect sense for you to take it and make a new weapon against the invaders. From airtight pressure chambers to the strange water spells that cause a crushing pressure on those who dare enter spell circles. You can take your new knowledge of pressure and use it to truly milk the invaders of their mana. (50 Mana per Dice 86/105)

Taking up a large part of your time, actually designing the pressure traps has taken a lot of time, making sure that water doesn't escape the deep pressure chamber or that the air doesn't go flying away when pressure is applied to it. However, with all the kinks on this project, all worked out you now only need to actually implement your traps.

[]Chemical Traps: Unstable solutions, to strange phase changes, you can create a variety of traps by researching deeper into the basic elements, from certain chemicals melting skin off when mana is applied, to an air-borne poison, you can create a variety of traps that make use of how hard it is to tell if a certain substance is a dangerous chemical, tricking them and harming them with these hidden traps. (45 Mana per dice 113/115) (Autocompletes this turn) (+15 MpT) (Unlocks Chemical Monsters) (Unlocks Stimulants)

Taking the time out of your year, you were quickly able to place a variety of traps throughout your dungeon and have already begun reaping the reward. Mana has started flowing into your coffers from the use of chemical traps. For some of your special traps, you have already started drafting up plans to make use of chemicals more inside your dungeon, from stimulants to monsters based off of these chemicals. (+15 MpT) (Unlocks Chemical Monsters) (Unlocks Stimulants)

[]Specialized Affinities: With the completion of basic affinities it is time to research specialized affinities, from blood to sand. These affinities are often made through bizarre combinations between the four basic elements from the use of earth, water, and fire to make ice to the use of water, earth, and air in specific quantities to make blood affinity. It will take a long time to go through each grouping of specialized affinities but at least it isn't mind-boggling and mana-twisting high affinities such as time or space. (20 Mana per Dice 157/500)

While this project has been something that has been on the backburner for at least a decade you can now spend the time to take a deeper look into the various affinities which are found throughout the world. Starting with a few you already know of, found from the most common mages in your dungeon besides the four common elements, from blood to cloud, you have researched deeper into these affinities and found how they are a dizzying array of ratios that make little to no sense. You need to spend more time on this to truly understand how these ratios work.

[]Ancient Mana Types: Ancient Monsters, while they may have been inoculated into your mana types now, that doesn't mean you can't begin research on these older, more primeval types of mana. While it may not have a lot of uses, as most spells require the newer mana types, that doesn't mean it is without use, this will help you further develop your theories about mana allowing you to refine your mana collection skills. (30 Mana per Dice 96/375)

While a recent phenomenon, you have taken the opportunity to further your understanding of ancient mana types and the way that they can affect you and provide benefits to the monsters inside your dungeon. Already you can tell a few things, from the way that volcano and magma affinities are more prevalent a seemingly wider ratio for the formation of magma seems present in your prehistoric monsters. While strange there you believe that as you continue to research these mana types the reason the ratios are large will show itself to you.

[]Summoning Circle: Now with your understanding of how spell circles work, you can spend the time to spread a new utility throughout your dungeon. Summoning Circles, or more accurately teleportation circles. These circles will provide a quick means of transport for your monsters throughout the dungeon, bringing them from one end to another as fast as possible allowing for even quicker deployments of monsters. (30 Mana per Dice 225/200) (+6 DPpT) (Unlocks Personal Teleportation)

With the completion of your calculations, you have spread points throughout your dungeon which allow an even greater amount of your monsters to flood your floors. Already you have seen the effects, invaders slogging through hordes of monsters all attacking and dragging them down to their level and from their attacking at all sides. The use of summoning circles has generated new ideas, already you have started to formulate effective ways to create a personal teleport for monsters to teleport themselves across the battlefield, allowing them to get the drop on invaders by rapidly appearing in their sight. (+6 DPpT) (Unlocks Personal Teleportation)

[]Hidden City: With the creation of more of your truly intelligent monsters, you may have created a problem. While the rest of your monsters are fine sleeping pretty much anywhere you designed for them, it seems that the bipedal monsters need more social interaction than the various rites and customs your regular monsters go through. By taking these more social creatures and hiding them deep within your tunnels, so deep that your frequency is almost blinding, you can create a miniature city like the one outside your dungeon, a place for your intelligent monsters to rest and be social. (45 Mana per Dice 80/265)

As your population of intelligent monsters grows ever larger, you have quickly started to address the issue, hidden deep inside your dungeon, you have started excavating homes and shops, an entire city for your monsters to live in. However, more excavation work still needs to be done and you also need to begin tailoring places to the monsters when they move in.

[]Basic Ambush Points: Invaders have some of the weakest senses, they can't hunt through smell, nor understand all of a room from a sound. These weak senses allow for the creation of ambush points, places where monsters can attack from the shadows. Creating dedicated ambush points creates a surplus of places to attack from allowing your monsters to choose where to ambush from and giving a sense of variability to each group as there is always a different ambush location. (20 Mana per Dice 193/200) (Autocompletes Next Turn) (+2 DPpT) (New Synergy All Back to Core: The Core, the lifeblood of your dungeon, home to your heart and soul as well as where you implement dungeon-wide changes. By amplifying this frequency you can increase the amount of mana you reap from your ambushes and other utilities, making them activate faster, have stronger effects and even leave a temporary boost in capability after use. (+30 MpT) (+5 DPpT))

Taking the time outside of your yearning plan, you quickly place ambush points throughout your dungeon and have seen the effects you are a little disappointed with, no life-changing effects or even a change in the statistics in your dungeon. However with the completion of your ambush points you seem to have found new synergy for you to make use of, enhancing the general ability of all things dungeon-wide, you can't wait to see what happens when it is in use. (+2 DPpT) (New Synergy All Back to Core: The Core, the lifeblood of your dungeon, home to your heart and soul as well as where you implement dungeon-wide changes. By amplifying this frequency you can increase the amount of mana you reap from your ambushes and other utilities, making them activate faster, have stronger effects and even leave a temporary boost in capability after use. (+30 MpT) (+5 DPpT))

Rumour Mill:
Trade Flourishes: With contact now in the west, trade has continued to pick up and profit has been made, quickly making up for a temporary dip in food as the actual farms in the Kert territory have a subpar crop this year. However, with the trade flowing through the west, the dip was quickly forgotten.

Likva calling for Mercenaries: While a somewhat strange request, the empire of Likva has been making overtures to the variety of mercenary companies of Slaria, already taken up their offer, a majority seem to be refused due to the prosperous lifestyle they currently have diving dungeons.

Invader Stats:
29.7k Invader Total (3.7k Growth per Year - 2.5k Deaths Per Year)
Food: Large Surplus
Water: Medium Surplus
Mana Materials: Medium Surplus

Year 1041, Oris, Okrasi Province, Slaria
The burning skylights above, turn the sky a burnt red as the sun goes to sleep for the day. Already the festivities are starting, from the roof you quickly scaled you already see the fires lighting up for the long night before you. Streams of people slowly exit work for the day and wander towards the gatherings of their choice, in one corner of the city you can already see the colorful spells as the magi let loose after a long decade of training and delving.

In another corner of the city, you see the game of your choice, the golden flashes as the casino spools up for the night. Jumping off the roof, you quickly slide through the crowds, moving slowly but surely towards the casino, already you can hear the sounds ahead of you, laughing, clinking of coins, and even the chime of the new machines that are apparently an important form Likva. As you near it you breathe a sigh of relief as finally the tension of the last decade wash away, however, in the back of your mind, you can't wait to see what the new decade brings.

Turn 19:
Mana: 1635 (825 Mana per Turn)
DP: 92/130 (202 DP per Turn)
[]Fourth Floor: With the revival of your fossil monsters as well as the variety of even stronger monsters entering your dungeon, you can now build a fourth floor. This will expand your limits and hopefully, finally decouple at least a decent part of your mana generation from the whims of the invaders who live outside your dungeon. (1 Dice)

[]Shadow Ecosystem: Hidden in the half-light of your tunnels, you have gained an idea. With the expansion of a second frequency you want to make use of it to its fullest, spreading from a variety of shadow corners of your dungeon, you can make a world of shadow. These hidden floors will take advantage of the way your monsters now have the shadows cling to their skin, and create a truly frightening environment for the invaders to enter, full of dark ambushes and gleaming claws this environment promises to lead to more invaders to their deaths. (50 Mana per Dice 0/195)

[]Mangrove Ecosystem: Growing a variety of mangroves over one of your swamp ecosystems, you can create a perfect environment for your illusionary traps and monsters to fight. From the hidden pathways, which are just the roots of some truly giant mangrove trees, you can lead these invaders further and further into this natural labyrinth, afterall all it takes is one brief distraction and their slipping into the poisonous waters underneath. (30 Mana per Dice 0/200)

[]Delta Ecosystem: With your newly expanded floor you can now work on new ecosystems, one that seems like would provide a large increase in mana would be creating a delta ecosystem, therefore lessening the costs of all aquatic monsters through the use of more waterways allowing invaders to be attacked more often. (20 Mana per Dice 125/375)

[]Lizard Hoards: From your smaller venous geckos to the large lizards that wander your dungeon you have an abundance of reptiles that live inside your dungeon. By tailoring large parts of your dungeon you can increase the comfort as well as the lethality of your monsters, making tailor-made ambush spots, therefore increasing the mana you gain from all types of reptiles inside of your dungeon. (20 Mana per Dice 0/275)

[]Monster Reefs: A crocodilian monster to schools of sand-bending fish your dungeon is seeded with all sorts of aquatic monsters, therefore it makes sense to tailor the waterways even further to specific species, increasing the total number of monsters you can hold as well as the efficiency of them. (25 Mana per Dice 0/225)

[]Gremlins Shop: From complex machinery to labyrinthine floors, the gremlin shop with its goblinese denizens and their knack for gears and trickery is sure to repair and revamp any physical-based trap in your dungeon. It promises to increase the mana you can save, allowing you to spend more of your elsewhere rather than rearming every physical-based trap in your dungeon. (20 Mana per Dice 0/275)

[]Witches Hut: Dangerous compounds to quick spreading diseases, the witches hut with its green-skinned, chemical-focused denizens allows them to create a multitude of various concoctions, from dangerous pathogens to toxic minerals these denizens promise to refill all of your environmental-based traps, saving you the time it takes to find replacements as well as mutate them into the correct configurations. (30 Mana per Turn 0/175)

[]Rune Hall: From subtle carvings to large rune-covered doors, the rune hall with their even stouter denizens and pointy hats, ensures that every magical trap in your dungeon is in proper shape, making sure they have enough mana and are repaired when they inevitably break due to the invader stomping through your dungeon. The rune hall promises to be on top of repairing your magic-based traps and save you time and mana which can be spent on other things. (25 Mana per Turn 0/225)

Monsters (5 Dice):
[]Curseland Dragon: While not a true dragon, this boss is sure close, by taking the old mutations of the fossil monsters and applying them to your already strong monsters, you can now make a truly monstrous monster. Covered in crystals and adorned with the affinities of earth and curses. This boss bears the ancient grudges of a more primordial time, stalking a cursed land, you are sure this boss will stop invaders in their tracks. (60 Mana per Dice) (16/335)

[]Basic Golem Monsters: Giant rock with no weak point to a viscous acid monster, your basic golem monsters promise to be a large roadblock against invaders, separating from other monsters in that rather than become overall stronger, you take the approach of being harder to damage, from the liquid like slimes to the rock golems, these monsters promise to force invaders to fight differently to defeat these monsters. (10 Mana per Dice 0/225)

[]Elemental Monsters: Bodies of flame to air-shaped whirlwinds, you can now in an entirety direction in regards to affinity, rather than giving monsters various flavors of attacks you can now make monsters solely of affintiatied mana, making them their own attacks and forcing mages to the forefront to deal with these new monsters, making them rely on counter-affinities to even damage them rather than a standard steel covered invader. (15 Mana per Dice 0/175)

[]Swarm Monsters: A pack of bipedal monsters, or a lounge of lizards, you can take your experience with making hive minds of bugs and instead start connecting monsters with each other, allowing them to coordinate to an eerie degree, movements precise and fluid as one whole group. However this comes with a cost, these monsters will be weaker individuals, and a large portion of their mana put towards keeping the link open and running. (40 Mana per Dice 0/225)

[]Room-Sized Plant Monsters: Twisting roots filling a whole room, to vines covering every angle, you can create rooms in which have to fight an entire room of the same monsters, allowing you to focus more monsters on other things as well as allow the room-sized monster increase coordination, making them capable of complex tactics because they share the same mind. (40 Mana per Dice 0/125)

[]Heat-Sensing Monsters: From magic to plain old camouflage, there is a multitude of ways to hide, however, one that most people don't think of is heat, something that doesn't really come up that often heat is all around us as well as requiring a very technical enchantment and it can be taken advantage of through the use of heat-sensing monsters, your monsters will be able to find anybody hiding through camouflage or invisibility. (15 Mana per Dice 0/125)

[]Aquatic Plant Monsters: A floating lilypad just waiting to become a bear trap, to seaweed which drags you into their wooden beak, aquatic plants are some of the rarer monsters that you can make, which just makes them more deadly after all most don't understand how these monsters work. By speeding these monsters throughout your dungeon you can create another layer against the invaders entering your dungeon as well as utilizing the mass amount of water you have flowing throughout your dungeon. (10 Mana per Dice 78/125)

[]Sonic-Based Monsters: While the frequencies in your dungeons were painful, at least you learned something from the experience, by taking your experience with sounds you can now create monsters that turn those hated sound waves against them rather than yourself. These monsters promise to disrupt various mana attacks as well as cause an overall loss of coordination with their attacks. (15 Mana per Dice 0/125)

[]Fairy Monsters: First found in your visions, you can make these small creatures to hopefully help you better understand the frequency which emanates from your faean domain. These creatures would be small in stature and fly on two wings assisted by their mana, this affinity mana would allow them to cast more magic than their small size would suggest and give more groups of monsters truly dedicated magic casters. (40 Mana per Dice 0/125)

[]Imitation Monsters: With the recent growth of hidden rooms, you can keep up the paranoia inside the dungeon, from strange voices whispering or screaming for help, to strange monsters, eerily similar to everyday objects except for the fact that they lure you into them and then strike, with tongues, venom and teeth, these imitation monsters are sure to trick any adventures entering your dungeon. (20 Mana per Dice 0/175)

[]Pyrotechnic Monsters: With the completion of your monster mines, you can now begin work to creature monsters that take advantage of your new discovery of pyrotechnics by putting two different types of mana materials together it generates an explosion which you can take advantage of by developing monsters, whether the actual materials or ones which just weapons made out of these materials, you can create a new weapon in your fight against the invaders. (25 Mana per dice 0/200)

[]Crystal Symbiote Monsters: With the discovery of the rock-like protrusions on some of your prehistoric monsters, you can now try to take it a few steps further by specifically mutating your prehistoric and regular monsters to accumulate crystals on their body, whether just general mana crystals or even some more rare forms of elemental crystals, you can grant another boost to a decent population of your monsters, contributing to the diversification of your forces, making sure there is no overall weakness in your forces. (40 Mana per Dice 84/100)

[]Adapted Prehistoric Monsters: While you now have prehistoric monsters, with their old evolutionary abilities which are an outside problem to a variety of invaders entering your dungeon, things that they have never encountered before. However, just because your prehistoric monsters only started with this ability doesn't mean you can't spread it throughout your monster forces, making all of them just that bit harder for invaders to attack. (60 Mana per Dice 52/75)

[]Basic Mushroom Men: With your spreading experience with intelligent monsters, you can now change from a primary animal focus to a more plant-based approach. By taking an understanding of how to form intelligence and adding it to your mushrooms, you can create a creature with full ability to use the multitude of effects that your mushrooms have in their grasp. From fire to paralyzation and even ones that cause mutations, you can give these effects to a truly intelligent life form and watch as these mushrooms use it to the fullest. (40 Mana per Dice 0/155)

[]Hive Mind Monsters: Mushrooms, the nervous system of plants, sometimes spread throughout an entire forest. By taking this information you can apply it to the rest of your monsters, by taking in a variety of mushroom parts. These monsters can be added to a tactical network. Eerily coordinating to take down invaders and responding faster than ever before you can truly take up the strength of your monsters with this ability. (50 Mana per Dice 0/105)

[]Shadow Monsters: With the way your frequency now grants your monsters the ability to hide in shadows more easily, you have gained the idea to make monsters out of these shadows. While you have no idea where to start with these plans, how to even animate shadow, an intangible substance in the first place, or how to make them attack when they are intangible, you believe that all it will take is some hard work and of course, mana to bring your vision to life. (45 Mana per Dice 0/245)

[]Lizard Scouts: Scouts, something that has been a mostly untapped ability of yours. While your monster's strengths are top-notch, their scouting ability is not. Consistently some of your stronger monsters have walked into traps set up from a variety of invaders. By modeling your new monsters off of the rogues that litter your dungeon, you can create scout-type monsters to spring and disarm these traps. (30 Mana per Dice 0/245)

[]Lizard Soldiers: While your Lizard bruisers have their brawn to match up against even the stronger invaders, their intelligence leaves much to be desired. However, by taking the time to go over their abilities and increasing them across the board you can bring them to a further level, making sure that they can fight on an even greater level, coordinating with each other, and bringing extreme strength to those who would enter your dungeon. (45 Mana per Dice 0/235)

[]Lizard Calvary: Movement, one of the things that you have an extreme edge on against the invaders. While they have to slog through the winding corridors of your dungeon and fall to traps and ambushes. You can take this edge a step further by binding something that has been a long time coming. By taking your basic animals and your bipedal lizard you can bring them together into a single unit. Riding their animal companions you can make a fast-moving force that can attack in a blitz and leave the invaders wrong-footed. (30 Mana per Dice 0/165)

[]Airship Monsters: The sky above, something you can barely see from the entrance of your dungeon. However with the ever-growing ceilings as you dive deeper and deeper into the dungeon you believe that you can create mobile platforms in the surrounding air inside your dungeon. These platforms will hold a variety of monsters that can utilize their ranged attacks to harass invaders without stopping, forcing them to counter this air-based attack, taking time away from their attack to your more landlocked monsters. (40 Mana per Dice 0/155)

[]Crystal Monsters: Reminiscent of the out-of-control crystal that has haunted your dungeon, you can take your experience researching this crystal and instead try to create a new type of monster. Fully made in these pieces of crystal these monsters promise to be extremely tough to fight and be pain to truly break into their vulnerable core. (75 Mana per Dice 0/95)

[]Lizard Sorcerers: A meld of your newly made acolytes and the already-established sprites. By binding the small mana sprites to the acolytes you can increase the affinity these sorcerers have access to, utilizing more and more specific elemental spells for a decreased cost. However, binding these sprites to the lizards may have a few cosmetic changes as the lizard's affinity increases. (50 Mana per Dice 0/115)

[]Lizard Wizard: Taking the opposite direction from your sorcerors instead of focusing on just one affinity, by diversifying in affinity and the spells, you can give your magic lizards access to more utility from fire spells to just simple force spells your lizards will be able to counter any spell that the mage invaders use. (45 Mana per Dice 0/175)

[]Chemical Monsters: With your understanding of chemicals you can take it one step further and make monsters who use this property. Reusing an old concept you can create an amorphous body specially designed to the chemicals inside of them and force reactions when ambushing invaders. Besides your slime-like creatures, there are also a few more solid monsters in the mix as well, but whatever their shape these monsters promise to be a trial for invaders. (40 Mana per Dice 0/220)

Traps (5 Dice):
[]Basic Labyrinthine Traps: More of an ecosystem in size rather than a trap. Labyrinthine traps cover a large area, leading invaders in random directions and getting them lost, while this may seem like a lot of work, these traps are incredibly cheap and allow for a variety of ambushes throughout these huge traps, promising to stop invaders from getting deeper into your dungeon. (10 Mana per Dice 0/325)

[]Basic Mechanical Traps: Whirling gears powering swinging blades, to massive hammers falling on invaders, your mechanical traps are some of the more specialized traps. With no mana embedded in these traps and the strength of metal in these traps ensuring that these are obstacles to be avoided rather than fought through, this aspect ensures that it will force the less athletic invaders will struggle to pass these trials (15 Mana per Dice 83/215)

[]Basic Runic Traps: From an immolation rune to a paralyzation circle, you can further spread and create new runic traps throughout your dungeon, promising to fire quicker, be more complex as well and be more hidden, from runes that sense heat to ones that can sense intelligent life, you can further tailor your traps to focus on certain types of invaders to fully account for their weaknesses allowing for an increase in mana production inside your dungeon. (25 Mana per Dice 0/195)

[]Basic Pathogen Traps: A spore or a bacteria, a spreading sickness or a rotting virus, pathogens allow you to spread death throughout your dungeon, even if those outside your halls have found a way to stop your sickness, it just means you can concentrate it further, from clouds of spores to animals which give bacteria, there are a multitude of ways to slow down and stop the invaders entering your dungeon and pump them for their mana. (10 Mana per Dice 0/250)

[]Fungi-based Traps: From spore to shroom, mushrooms are easy to hide and can have extremely detrimental effects, from the hallucinogenic spores to a form of parasitism that leads to repentant acts of violence, spores can be fine-tuned to cause all sorts of mental problems to a group of invaders entering your dungeon, creating divides in groups of invaders and making sure that they spend more and more time, being affected, making them waste their mana as well as their life to escape your dungeon. (15 Mana per Dice 0/250)

[]Illusion Traps: Visual tricks, from hiding holes in the ground with these illusions to hiding a variety of other traps, hidden pressure plates, and plant traps that look like bushes, you can take these illusionary tricks and spread them throughout your dungeon. This augments your already placed traps making some of them harder to find, however, you need to refine this technique to truly hide the mana from the invaders' mages. (20 Mana per Dice 0/270)

[]Pyrotechnic Traps: Mana ore explosion, something unexpected but now something that you can take advantage of, by placing a variety of mana ores beside each other you can now weaponize these explosions to activate when invaders come close to them, making a variety of new traps which blend into the background, only showing how much mana has been stored in these mana materials when they explode. (25 Mana per Dice 0/175)

[]Tree-based Traps: Trees are some of your more understood monsters, while you may have used them to create monsters, now you can go in the opposite direction and instead create traps out of these large plants. By taking a variety of effects and granting them to one tree you can make a multi-use trap that can target a variety of weaknesses in the invaders that enter your dungeon allowing you to reap the rewards. (35 Mana per Dice 0/140)

[]Pressure Traps: Pressure, it's all around you now that you notice it, from within the earth's core or from distant stars. Now that you know it exists you can now tell when the pressure mounts within your dungeon. With this sense, it makes perfect sense for you to take it and make a new weapon against the invaders. From airtight pressure chambers to the strange water spells that cause a crushing pressure on those who dare enter spell circles. You can take your new knowledge of pressure and use it to truly milk the invaders of their mana. (50 Mana per Dice 86/105)

[]Contract Traps: Contracts, something that you have made a lot of use of, from the mana laws that litter your dungeon to the research into intention mana, you have a plenitude of experience with using mana to bid invaders to do something. However you can take it one step further, by placing a variety of contracts onto some of the more intelligence-based traps and making a multitude more, you can create another way to drag invaders down a level, making them handicap themselves for their greed. (45 Mana per Dice 0/245)

Research (4 Dice):
[]Internal Mana Flows: A mana-enhanced slash to fire-covered punches, you can take a look at how invaders flow their mana through their body, helping you to understand your monster mana flows, as well as your own mana flows, after all when entering your dungeon their mana should leave their body en-masse, leaving them deficient in mana. (35 Mana per Dice 0/300)

[]Specialized Affinities: With the completion of basic affinities it is time to research specialized affinities, from blood to sand. These affinities are often made through bizarre combinations between the four basic elements from the use of earth, water, and fire to make ice to the use of water, earth, and air in specific quantities to make blood affinity. It will take a long time to go through each grouping of specialized affinities but at least it isn't mind-boggling and mana-twisting high affinities such as time or space. (20 Mana per Dice 157/500)

[]Intention Mana: Crushing geases to smooth stands of the fae, intentioned mana is often used to bind, trick, and mislead, whether that is binding them to their word or crushing them for their transgressions. Intention mana is used for every type of bond. By researching this phenomenon more closely you can begin to unravel this mystery and allow your mana to have a distinct advantage in punishing invaders when they enter your dungeon. (20 Mana per Dice 0/300)

[]Large-scale Mana Runes: From a demon summoning circle to a war ritual, large-scale runes are used to enchant and focus various pieces of mana into a complex mana weave, opening up the world to more complex mechanics than just affinities, creating portals to making mana shields, you can create these complex functions and seed them throughout your dungeon stopping invaders from just using a counter-affinity to stop your specialized monsters and letting them roll over you. (25 Mana per Dice 0/300)

[]Artifact Weapons: Artifacts, the fusion of scientific understanding and the reality-bending power of magic, by fine-tuning the effects of magic you can get a stronger effect and a lower mana cost in general. By taking your experience with mana weapons and a deep understanding of mana and the material realm, you can start to create truly unique weapons to gift your more unique monsters. (30 Mana per Dice 0/245)

[]Set Gear: Synergies, something that you know intimately now, provide bonuses throughout your dungeon and give you an edge against the never-ending tide of invaders. By taking this understanding you can apply it to the gear you give your monsters, allowing them to gain a synergistic effect through their gear, weapons, and abilities. While costly these effects promise to apply a multiplier to your gear-making adventures, giving an overall boost to your dungeon. (25 Mana per Dice 0/295)

[]Ancient Mana Types: Ancient Monsters, while they may have been inoculated into your mana types now, that doesn't mean you can't begin research on these older, more primeval types of mana. While it may not have a lot of uses, as most spells require the newer mana types, that doesn't mean it is without use, this will help you further develop your theories about mana allowing you to refine your mana collection skills. (30 Mana per Dice 86/375)

[]Luck-Based Equipment: With your curse traps now spread throughout the dungeon you can now take the time to do the inverse, by isolating the curse signature in items, you believe that you can create the inverse effect and instead gift unnatural luck to your monsters inside the dungeon. (35 Mana per Dice 0/285)

[]Targeted Radiation: With your radiation research research finished you believe that you can now refine this concept of radiation, refining wavelengths and isolating patterns in your monster's bloodline to truly choose the best types of radiation for every new monster in your dungeon. (55 Mana per Dice 0/225)

[]Personal Teleportation: While the monsters inside your dungeon have access to the summoning circles, you believe that you can take it one step further by researching a way for a variety of your monsters to be able to teleport throughout your dungeon without having to find a summoning circle to bring them elsewhere. (75 Mana per Dice 0/150)


Core (4 Dice):
[]Crystal Monoliths: Mana, the most precious resource in the world, the counterpoint to matter, the answer to heat death, you can't have enough, with the creation of these crystal monoliths, rune-covered, storage obelisks that suck mana from the outside world into your dungeon, from the air to the earth you can suck in more and more mana to fuel your advancement. This influx might overstrain your abilities, highlighting the sheer amount of mana you using unless you hide it, allowing those invaders to tap into your mana streams inside your dungeon and supercharge themselves. (20 Mana per Dice 0/200)

[]Change Synergy: Now that you have spent some time getting used to how synergies are used, you believe that you can change what frequency you are focusing on and instead bring some of the other ones to the forefront, gaining new bonuses and keeping the invaders on their toes. (1 Dice) (Triggers Subvote)

[]Poison the Ground: Like termites invaders entered your land and raided your home and body for your precious resources, things made by your work, sweat, and tears, all gone due to their pillaging. Enough is enough, no more of these so-called humans entering your dungeon and skinning your children, and no more mages with their greedy eyes throwing themselves into your grinder for your core, promising unlimited wealth for their dynasty. No more soldiers apathetic to all around them, only finding joy in blood. No more rouges with their coin-loyalty, only in it for a quick buck. No more tamers, hunting for their next victim to breed and distort into an obedient puppet. No more clerics and their false worship all in it for a quick breath of their gods' power. You'll kill them all, from the toxic chemicals in every animal and water source to the clouds of sand tearing lungs and making them drown in dry land, the land is yours and only yours, they have entered your lair and you say when they die. (10 Mana per Dice 0/100)

[]Hidden City: With the creation of more of your truly intelligent monsters, you may have created a problem. While the rest of your monsters are fine sleeping pretty much anywhere you designed for them, it seems that the bipedal monsters need more social interaction than the various rites and customs your regular monsters go through. By taking these more social creatures and hiding them deep within your tunnels, so deep that your frequency is almost blinding, you can create a miniature city like the one outside your dungeon, a place for your intelligent monsters to rest and be social. (45 Mana per Dice 80/265)

[]Absolute Mana Control: With the revelation of how much mana you truly waste, showing in the shimmers which you now know as wasted mana, the energy that could fuel a multitude of projects. You can now spend the time honing your mana control until you no longer feel like you will waste all the mana you have at your disposal. (40 Mana per Dice 0/350)

[]Stimulants: Chemically increased strength, something that you thought was impossible. However with an increased understanding of how chemicals work you believe that you can weaponize these increases in strength granting your monsters a boost as well as hinder invaders as their strength, speed, and power drain out of them when exposed to your chemicals. (35 Mana per Dice 0/285)

Invader Stats:
29.7k Invader Total (3.7k Growth per Year - 2.5k Deaths Per Year)
Food: Large Surplus
Water: Medium Surplus
Mana Materials: Medium Surplus