Coreborn: A Dungeon Quest of Gods and Ruin

[zamin]

A Dungeon's Divine Design

There is stillness beneath the world.
A silence where time has no meaning and the sun has never touched.
It is here, in the hollow between breaths, that you awaken.

Not as a child.
Not as a mortal.
But as something older.
Something different.

You are a Dungeon Core—a divine construct forged from leyline crystal and god-wrought purpose. You have no heart. No lungs. No flesh. But you are alive in a way that few can ever understand. You do not breathe. You pulse. Mana flows through your lattice like blood through bone. Your purpose is creation. Construction. Containment.

In ages past, Dungeon Cores were born rarely. Usually one at a time, carefully seeded into the earth by ancient rituals or divine will. Most kingdoms had a few under their protection—even the smallest realm could claim one or two dungeons within their borders.

For dungeons were dangerous things—yes—but also valuable beyond measure. A living dungeon brings with it all the things this broken world desperately needs: rare magical resources, powerful creatures, and a steady source of experience for would-be heroes.

But times have changed.

A great war shattered the balance between nations. Forbidden weapons were unleashed, leaving scars across the land. Entire provinces are now poisoned craters. Famine and plague ravages the coasts. Millions are dead. Millions more flee, starve, or riot.

And the Adventurer's Guild—once the proud gatekeeper of dungeon-kind—is on its knees. Half its senior ranks lie buried in shallow graves. The rest are stretched thin across the remnants of a burning kingdom.

The last lights of civilization are guttering out. The situation will soon spiral beyond saving. And so, the gods have chosen to act.

With trembling hands, the divine has reached down and forged new Dungeon Cores from the last stable leylines, each seeded with purpose—salvation, not conquest. You are one of them. And your time has come.

The divine voices that made you do not speak in words, but you understand their command:

Create. Grow. Endure.

But before your task can begin, you must choose where you will be sent. The gods do not grant this lightly. It is not a gift. It is a burden.

Your burden.

CHOOSE YOUR BEGINNING

[ ] Restoration (Easy Difficulty)
"Go where no life remains, and plant the seed of mana once more."
You are cast into a barren wasteland, a land stripped bare by ruinous magic. Your task is to breathe mana back into the shattered leylines—to become a heart that pumps life into the corpse of the world. But there is no one to guide or guard you. No towns. No paths. No heroes. (Slow growth. Few invaders early on. Minimal threat, but high solitude.)

[ ] Refuge (Medium Difficulty)
"They have lost everything. You will give them a place to begin again."
You awaken beneath cracked soil, near a camp of the displaced villagers. Word has already spread: a dungeon has formed. Hope flickers in desperate hearts. Refugees—untrained, starving, determined—will come to your doors seeking food, strength, and salvation. You will need to serve and shield them, building your strength before other, more malicious parties arrive. (Early activity. Balance between nurturing and defense. Dynamic and challenging.)

[ ] Restraint (Hard Difficulty)
"A godkiller dreams beneath the earth. You will be its cage."
Something unspeakable has slithered between the stars and fallen into this world. It sleeps beneath the land, wrapped in broken chains and half-forgotten wards. You are built as its prison. But it calls. Its dreams infect the minds of the desperate and the mad. Cults rise. Prophets rant. Zealots march. They do not want your treasures. They want what you protect. And they will burn the world to reach it. (High stakes. Constant siege. No safe moment.)

Which burden will you accept, Dungeon Core?

(Choose one by voting below. This will determine your dungeon's starting conditions and first set of design options.)

 

[zamin]

Mechanics

Mechanics Overview (TL;DR)

• You = the dungeon. Every choice is yours…
• Mana = passively generated energy used for building rooms, features, and traps.
• Essence = earned by defeating enemies; used for upgrades and evolution.
• Rooms = where you house monsters, traps, or treasure.
• Monsters = tiered by power, customized by roles, abilities, and enhancements.
• Themes = special modifiers that can be added to rooms.
• Treasure = things that invaders will come into your dungeon for.
• Enhancements = upgrades that can be applied to your monsters

Spoiler: Rooms

Rooms

Building new rooms will cost mana based on their size. The bigger the room, the more it costs, but the more things you can put inside. A "slot" can be filled with a monster, trap, treasure, theme, etc.

• Small room: 10 mana, 3 slot
• Medium room: 15 mana, 5 slot
• Large room: 20 mana, 7 slot
• Huge room: 25 mana, 10 slot

A dungeon can only support so many rooms on each floor—after the first 10 rooms on a floor, each further room will increase in cost (the 11th room will cost 25% extra, the 12th room will cost 50% extra, etc.

Spoiler: Room Themes

Themes

Themes are special features that can be added to rooms to give your monsters an advantage or provide some kind of environmental hazard. They cost mana based on the size of the room, but do not take up any room slots.

Only one theme can be applied to a room at a time. Normal themes will only cost mana, but special themes may also require Essence.

Basic theme cost:

• Small room: 5 mana
• Medium room: 10 mana
• Large room: 15 mana
• Huge room: 20 mana

Spoiler: Monsters

Monsters

Monsters are divided into Tiers, which determine how strong they are at a basic level.

• Tier 1 monsters are Minions. They only have 1 hp, but you can fit 4 of them into a single room slot.
• Tier 2 and 3 monsters are your "normal" monsters, which require 1 slot each.
• Tier 4 and Tier 5 are Elites and Boss monsters, which require multiple slots each.

Costs:

• Tier 1: 5 mana, 1 slot (Special: You only pay 5 mana to get four minions. You can choose to have less, but the cost will be the same)
• Tier 2: 10 mana, 1 slot
• Tier 3: 15 mana, 1 slot
• Tier 4: Varies
• Tier 5: Varies

All monsters will respawn after dying. However, only Elites and Bosses will keep their memories.

Enchantments and Abilities are bound to the monster and will respawn with them. However, any time a monster is killed, it has a chance to leave a "drop" (a special treasure based on their types, abilities, and enchantments). The higher the monster's Tier, the more likely this is to happen. Tier 1 monsters never drop anything, but Tier 5 monsters will always drop some kind of valuable treasure.

Each monster has a specific role, which determines the kind of abilities, upgrades, and enhancements it can get:

• Minion: These are your weakest monsters, serving as your basic crowd fillers. Minions are seen as "hollow" monsters—they are considered extensions of your will, as they don't have true minds or souls of their own. They have weak attacks and only 1hp, but respawn automatically once invaders leave your dungeon. Because they are so weak, you can fit 4 Minions into a single feature slot. Example: Decaying Skeleton, Feral Goblin, Wolf Pup.
• Brutes: These monsters are excellent front liners, dealing and soaking up lots of damage. However, their defenses are pretty low, meaning that they can go down pretty fast once they get focused on. Example: Bone Wyvern, Orc Berserker, Dire Wolf.
• Soldiers: Another front line role, these monsters have lower HP and damage compared to Brutes, but have higher defenses to compensate. They excel as the "tanks" of your monsters, keeping invaders away from your squishier ranged monsters. Example: Skeleton Knight, Hobgoblin Infantry, Stone Golem.
• Artillery: These monsters specialise at powerful long-ranged attacks. However, their own defenses are much lower and they won't last long in melee combat. Example: Skeleton Mage, Goblin Archer, Quillboar.
• Skirmishers: These monsters are relatively fragile, but have high mobility. They weave in and out of combat, focusing more on hit-and-run tactics to whittle down their enemies and pick off squishier targets. Example: Ghouls, Lizardman Hunters, Bulette.
• Lurkers: These are the "puzzle" monsters. They tend to have low health and defenses, but make up for it by striking from ambush or being tricky to target. Example: Wraith, Doppelganger Assassin, Mimic.
• Controller: Rather than killing directly, controllers focus more on forcing enemies into dangerous situations. They excel at debuffing their targets and manipulating the battlefield. Example: Myconid Spore Spreader, Kobold Trapper, Fairy Illusionist.
• Leaders: These monsters focus on support abilities, making them great at turning ordinary monsters into dangerous threats. However, they are fairly squishy and are weak at fighting on their own. Example: Necromancer, Cherub Devotee, Goblin Shaman.

Spoiler: Monster Traits and Abilities

Traits and Abilities

Traits are passive effects based on your monster's type or role. For example, a Wolf type monster may have a trait like "Pack Attack: deals more damage against targets being attacked by another wolf".

Abilities are active effects. For example, having the "Fire Blast" ability gives your monsters the ability to throw out a blast of fire as a ranged attack.

A monster normally has a number of traits or abilities equal to its Tier. Elite Monsters have a Tier 4 ability, while a Floor Boss has a unique Tier 5 ability.

For example, a Tier 3 monster may have abilities like "Tier 1: Fire Blast" (a basic magical attack), "Tier 2: Fire Bomb" (the spell explodes to deal damage to multiple targets), and "Tier 3: Piercing Fire Ray" (an armor piercing spell) while an Elite version of the same monster can have something like "Tier 4: Cursed Fire" (deals ongoing fire damage over time).

Spoiler: Elite and Boss Monsters

Elites and Bosses

A Tier 2 monster that survives long enough may "evolve" and turn into a monster that's one Tier higher. If a Tier 3 monster reaches this level, it becomes an Elite monster, gaining special abilities or traits compared to its kin. You can also create your own Elite monster by spending Essence to upgrade a monster to the right level.

Elite monsters are typically used as a floor mid-boss or sub-boss, but on the first level they may also be used as the Floor Boss.

A Floor Boss is always a unique creature that requires a significant investment of Essence. They can access abilities up to Tier 5, making them far more dangerous than other monsters of their type.

Spoiler: Traps and Hazards

Traps and Hazards

Just like monsters, traps and hazards can play an important role in defeating invaders. While everyone likes to see big, scary monsters, sometimes something as simple as the humble pit trap can be enough to change the course of an encounter. Just like monsters, traps are divided into different types based on what they're meant to do.

• Blaster: These traps and hazards are meant to create damaging areas of effect or hit multiple targets from a distance. They can work similar to artillery monsters as they often involve things like firing arrows, hurling magical blasts, or even spitting out a cone of fire. Example: Poisoned Dart Wall
• Lurker: Just like monsters of the same type, Lurker traps are meant to attack suddenly, then disappear, making them harder to attack or counter. Example: Rockslide Trap
• Obstacle: As the name implies, Obstacle traps or hazards are less about dealing damage and more about limiting creature's movements. Example: Tripwire Trap
• Warder: A warder trap triggers once an enemy enters the room. It's meant to start a combat encounter with a bang, giving your monsters an immediate edge over their opponents. Example: False Floor Pit Trap

Spoiler: Treasure

Treasure

Treasure plays an important role in your dungeon. Treasure has three main purposes, all involving encouraging invader to:

• Visit certain rooms (luring them in with useful or valuable items)
• Turn back and leave instead of going further (by giving them a treasure that's too big to carry while fighting)
• Come back later (by making them greedy to get more)

Some dungeons put lightly guarded treasure in their first few rooms to encourage invaders to quickly leave, while others place their treasures deeper in to lure invaders into more dangerous parts of the dungeon. Both of these methods are workable depending on what kind of reputation you want to spread.

Monster drops do serve as a type of treasure, though for most invaders only Elite or Boss Monster drops are worth specifically searching out. Normal monster drops are seen as a bonus at best since the chances of them appearing is random.

A dungeon that's all dangers and no rewards will scare off weaker, casual adventurers, meaning that only the strongest (and more dangerous) invaders will bother visiting you. If you fail to offer a suitable reward for their efforts, you may be classed as a rogue or defective dungeon, which will lead to groups coming in specifically to destroy your core.

Treasure can be added as a feature in any of your rooms. This feature represents not only generic dungeon treasure like gold and jewels, but also more exotic resources like herbs and mana crystals or even "Rest" features such as fruit trees with magical healing apples or fountains with healing waters.

The more slots a Treasure takes, the bigger it is and the harder it becomes to move.

• 1 Slot: small enough for a single invader to take and use. Example: a bag of coins.
• 2 Slots: must be carried in both hands. During combat, the invaders must drop the item or take a penalty to all attacks. Example: a large mirror.
• 3 Slots: too large for a single person to carry, but can be lifted by multiple invaders as long as they're not in combat. Example: a big treasure chest full of loot.
• 4 Slots: too large to be feasibly moved. However, invaders can take parts of it instead. Example: a tree that can be harvested for healing fruits.

Spoiler: Enhancements

Enhancements

Enhancements are upgrades that can be given to your monsters. For example, "Fireblood" gives them fire resistance and fire based attacks. Monsters can have up to three minor enhancements, but only one major enhancement.

Minor enhancements provide small tweaks to the monster, but major enhancements will drastically change their form, potentially giving them a new type. For example, the "Pack Tactics" minor enhancement provides a boost to all monsters with this trait in the same room, while the "Wightborn" major enhancement turns all the affected monsters into undead, giving them new abilities and weaknesses that change the way they fight.

Bear in mind that enhancements are not limited to standard items like swords and armor but can also be inherent upgrades to the monster's natural body. For example, you can upgrade beast type monsters with a "Dragonic Scales" enhancement that gives them armor and fire resistance.

Spoiler: Mana and Essence

Mana and Essence

Things like building rooms and creating monsters need mana, which you can gather passively. However, building new floors and researching new upgrades require Essence, which is only gained by killing or defeating intruders.

Mana Generation:
Each room in your dungeon will generate 5 mana per week as long as you're not being raided. However your mana is capped at 50 per floor of your dungeon.

For example, a dungeon with 1 floor can hold a maximum of 50 mana, while a dungeon with 2 floors can hold a maximum of 100 mana. Prison rooms allow you to generate additional mana based on the number of intruders trapped inside.

Essence:
This is a special resource that can only be gained by killing or defeating intruders. The stronger the intruders, the more essence you will get.

However, be warned: any invader that reaches your Core can claim the Essence stored within and use it to grow immensely stronger than before. Some invaders may even seek to destroy your Core to collect all the Essence you've gathered throughout your dungeon.

A typical untrained civilian will be worth 5 Essence, while an average bandit or starting adventurer would be up to 10 Essence. A veteran adventurer could be worth up to 20 Essence.

You may spend Essence to research new features, upgrade your existing monsters, and unlock new floors for your dungeon. Creating a second floor will require 50 Essence, a third floor needs 100 Essence, and so on.

 

[zamin]

Available Features

Spoiler: Monsters

Beasts
Cave Rat (Tier 1 – Rat Beast Minion)
Trait: Nimble – Gains a small dodge bonus against area and opportunity attacks.

Mossback Lizard (Tier 2 – Lizard Beast Lurker)
Trait: Camouflaged Hide – Gains Concealment while stationary. Has a bonus to Stealth checks while inside a room with natural or overgrown themes.
Ability: Lashing Tongue – Targets Reflex. On hit, binds the target and pulls it 1 square closer. Bound targets are considered Restrained and take damage at the start of each turn until they break free with a Strength check or the Mossback Lizard takes damage. The Mossback Lizard cannot hide while this ability is being used.

Spore-Spitting Toad (Tier 2 – Toad Beast Artillery)
Trait: Toxic Coating – When struck in melee, the attacker must pass a Fortitude save or gain the Poisoned condition for 1 turn.
Ability: Spore Shot – Lobs a ball of sticky spores. On impact, the area is filled with clinging spores for 1 round. Creatures that start their turn in the area take Poison damage and must make a Fortitude save or become Poisoned.


Goblins
Goblin Scrapper (Tier 1 – Goblin Minion)
Trait: Backstabber – This creature deals extra damage when attacking from behind or flanking an enemy.

Goblin Cutthroat (Tier 2 – Goblin Lurker)
Trait: Backstabber – This creature deals extra damage when attacking from behind or flanking an enemy.
Ability: Crippling Slash – Can only be used while hidden. Targets Reflex. On hit, the target is Slowed for 1 turn and the Goblin Cutthroat makes a Stealth check to remain hidden.

Goblin Snatcher (Tier 2 – Goblin Controller)
Trait: Backstabber – This creature deals extra damage when attacking from behind or flanking an enemy.
Ability: Snare Net – Targets a creature within range. On a failed Reflex save, the target is Restrained until it succeeds on a Strength or Dexterity check to escape. This ability can only be used on one target at a time.

Spoiler: Traps

Pit Trap
Basic Pit Trap
Cost: 5 mana, 1 slot
Description: A basic trap hidden under a layer of thin stone or sand.
Effects: The first enemy to step on it must make a Reflex save or fall in and take damage. If they survive, they are stuck inside until they succeed on a Strength check to escape.

Spoiler: Treasures

Healing Herbs
Bitterroot Bulbs
Cost: 15 Mana, 1 Slot
Description: Knotted, twisted roots that taste foul but strengthen the body.
Effect: Consuming it raw restores a small amount of health. If taken outside the dungeon, can be used to create basic health potions or tonics.

Magical Reagents
Howlroot Fungus
Cost: 15 Mana, 1 Slot
Description: Infused with ambient magic, this fungal growth is often found inside the dens of dire animals.
Use: Can be brewed into potions that enhance the senses. Occasionally used by bards to create voice-enhancing tonics.

Spoiler: Themes

Overgrowth
Description: The room becomes wild, tangled, and difficult to traverse. Roots twist up from the earth and the air is thick with pollen.
Effect: All ground-based invaders have reduced movement speed. Monsters with the "Plant" or "Beast" types gain increased evasion and damage when striking from cover. Monsters with Regrowth or Primal enhancements gain increased effectiveness.

 

[zamin]

Spoiler: Dungeon Map

Core Room
Contains your core. Cannot be modified.

Spoiler: Room 1

Room 1:
Huge Room (5/10 Slots)

Current Features:
Monsters:
(2) Mossback Lizard (Tier 2 – Lizard Beast Lurker)

Treasures:
(3) Bitterroot Bulbs (Healing Herbs)

 

[zamin]

You may now vote. Voting will be left open for one day.

 

[cricket]

this looks interesting!! (and very well written)

[x] Refuge (Medium Difficulty)

... i like the burden of refuge the most

 

[zamin]

this looks interesting!! (and very well written)

Click to shrink...

Thank you! I'm not sure how far this will go, but I wanted to do a dungeon quest which has a goal other than "build more rooms forever", if that makes sense. All three of the starting options will determine what kind of key challenge you will be facing throughout the quest.

 

[Ambit]

[x] Refuge (Medium Difficulty)

 

[The Well Wisher]

[X] Refuge (Medium Difficulty)

Hard sounds too intense, and on easy gathering essence will be a challenge. This seems like a nice middle ground.

 

[Dreaming Circuit]

[X] Refuge (Medium Difficulty)

 

[Jaguar2234]

[X] Restraint (Hard Difficulty)

 

[chonky tiger]

[X] Refuge (Medium Difficulty)

very cool dungeon core are rare

 

[Void Stalker]

[x] Refuge (Medium Difficulty)

 

[veekie]

[x] Refuge (Medium Difficulty)

 

[blankmask]

[X] Restraint (Hard Difficulty)

 

[Kingster]

[X] Refuge (Medium Difficulty)

 

[SilentSpaniard]

[X] Refuge (Medium Difficulty)

This middle ground seems interesting...

 

[Chiperninerm]

[X] Restraint (Hard Difficulty)

 

[aaronleeking]

[X] Restraint (Hard Difficulty)

 

[jj1111fg33]

[X] Restoration (Easy Difficulty)

Honestly, I just love the idea of dungeon cores being used to restore the environment. I'm thinking rooms filled with plant-based monsters and themes. Offshoots that diversify into beasts or fungi? That sort of thing.

 

[Crawkid]

[x] Refuge (Medium Difficulty)

 

[Nerm]

[X] Restraint (Hard Difficulty)

C'mon, if there's a Hard Difficulty, it must be chosen. 'Tis simply the law.

 

[FoxInASuit]

[X] Restraint (Hard Difficulty)

 

[LunaMoth]

[X] Restraint (Hard Difficulty)

 

[SleepyCaterpilar]

[X] Restraint (Hard Difficulty)