Damn, I didn't thought how to implement more elements. I think it would be a free upgrade that you can unlock (since they can access to Skills and Traits of both elements).
There's one fairly obvious minion i'm going to suggest. Thought-elementals, who attack by eating memories. Small, of course, for sheer quantity. Laugh, as enemies trying to invade your dungeon forget why they're even there! Rejoice, as enemies forget who they even are! Mwahahahaha!
Sparkling dragon flyes, for scouts.
Dragon flies are predators, though they mainly eat smaller insects, like mosquitoes. And I said sparkling, because electricity is a good detergent against most organic life, but not sure how much lightning we can pack into them.
Somewhere in the Vanguard Nest
The room they rented was austere: a bunk bed and a small wardrobe were the only thing present in it. It may have been small, and not very clean, but money was scarce, and it wasn't their first time in a room like that. Plus, it was close to their new discovery, so even better. The two men inside were a varied duo: Lukas was bald and short, with all the pockets on his jacket full of various things; Zalatar was blond, tall and very thin, with a large pair of glasses.
While Lukas was unpacking, Zalatar was writing something on a small device.
"What are you doing?" Asked Lukas, after noticing his friend.
"What do you think I'm doing. Contacting our boss." was the dry response of the other man.
"Come on, we don't exactly have to report to Elarukh our finding." Lukas said, trying to stop his companion, but the message was already sent.
"Oh, I didn't know you had a death wish. Fine, as long as you only pickpocket a small relic, it's only fair and square. But how you plan to hide an entire arena with four - FOUR - damned Cores. And we have to advertise the arena to bring people in, which is not exactly something we can do without getting noticed." The blonde man was sweating and pushed Lukas away.
"If he gets involved, we can say goodbye to our chance to leave this hole. He'll take, what ... 75% of the gains? " Lukas grumbled.
"25% split between us is still better than a bolt in the head, Lukas. If this arena of yours will bring as many people as you dream, it's still worth working on it."
A small ring on Zalatar's device put an end to the conversation. On the screen, the following message:
I'll come to see this "arena" when it's ready. I'll decide after that. Hope you two are not wasting my precious time.
Another message after that. You have 2 days
"Oh well, I think we're done." Lukas sighed. "How many goldies do you have on you?"
Zalatar rummaged through his pockets, taking out five golden disks.
"... well, fuck"
"If this arena doesn't work out, we're screwed." stated Zalatar.
Lukas mumbled, "If it does ... we might, at least, avoid going hungry."
In the Arena
Yeah, now you remember your name. Your art name on the Ring is Folly. Quite a surprise that between your element disks there wasn't Madness, with a name like yours.
You check them again: Noosphere, Lightning and Holy. There were a bunch of options at your disposal: Noosphere could be useful to access information about your enemies or trying to mess with their knowledge; Lightning could be extremely useful for traps and very aggressive minions or enchantments; Holy could be useful for protective spells and healing, maybe? So many ideas, but you'll think about it when the moment comes.
"Testing, testing." You heard again the voice of the man that you think is called Lukas.
"Oh, I see that you four are awake. This place apparently runs on a generator that, in all honesty, I have no fucking clue on how it works, and I don't dare to touch it. But I think I understand how the Arena commands work."
"If this button means Start the game and not Incinerate. - That should be Zalatar speaking.
"I hope is the first, but we are going to discover it soon. We'll turn the energy of the arena just to see if everything is working correctly."
You heard the typical noise of a rusty machine, slowly turning on, with white fluorescent mana floating in the circuits. Pale lights turn on and you feel energy entering in your body. The dark room where you are lights on and you see the environment magically change.
Behind you, a large ethereal sphere begins to form and when you gaze inside it, you see shapes, ideas and objects that quickly turn into each other, continuously changing.
On your right, a part of the room gets turned into what looks like a church or the place of a cult. Golden mana floats around it, as if coming from an higher place.
On your left, mechanical devices containing trapped sparks and lightings project an electric hues on that part of the room, barely contained, but highly explosive.
You heard a loud voice coming from the loudspeaker,
"ROOM 17 HAS BEEN CLAIMED BY FOLLY, HOLY AVATAR, BEARER OF LIGHTING, HERALD OF THE NOOSPHERE."
Then you hear nothing else, but another minute pass before Lukas talks again, "A bit pompous, but I hope the crowd will appreciate it. I don't think you can hear the claim of the other Cores, right?"
You shake your head. No information for free, apparently.
"So, I have one request for all of you: I said a week last time. You don't have so much time, unfortunately: our investor will be here in a couple of days. And we really, REALLY need something to show to him. Not a fight: too early for that. From what I know, you can create some creatures to do your bindings. I think you should create something like that. If it's iconic, the better."
Should look better. Ah, about the colons: they can be used to explain further what you mean, and I use them a lot even in my native tongue. I just checked and they should be corrected, not for opening dialogues (that's apparently not the right use in English), but for the parts where Lukas explains his request and why they don't have a week as promised.
[QM Note: As usual, I reserve the right of veto and ask for more details. Remember: descriptions will affect the final stats and traits.]
[My thanks to @Nigerian Duck for being my beta testing, I know I asked him a lot.]
You have 2 Actions and one of them MUST be a minion creation (only for this turn). Plan format only. For this turn, you'll have the full pool of mana.
Mana generation: +4 each turn
Mana pool: 12/12
Minion pool: 0/4
Minions are your way to directly fight and claim other rooms. You can always count on them. A Small Minion (or a Swarm of four Tiny creatures) costs 3 mana and occupy one slot, a Medium Minion costs 6 mana and occupy 2 slots, a Large Minion costs 12 mana and occupy 4 slots.
[ ] Create a Minion
-[ ] What element?
-[ ] What size?
-[ ] What is it?
You body is ruined by years and inactivity. Your mana tubes leaks. Your creature matrix is damaged. Your battery are half destroyed and some parts of your are still damaged. You'll unlock more upgrades by unlocking all the upgrade of the same tier and, by completing a tier, you'll get one extra action.
[ ] Repair your mana tubes (tier I): Increase mana generation from +4 to +6
[ ] Repair your mana batteries (tieri I): Increase mana pool from 12 to 24
[ ] Repair your minion matrix (tier I): Increase your minion pool from 4 to 8
[ ] Repair your map tracker: Unlock the map of the whole Arena
[ ] Repair the message system: Unlock the option to talk with other Automata (if they pick this upgrade)
[ ] Repair your trap matrix: Unlock the option to put traps in your claimed rooms (they will cost mana).
[ ] Repair your enchantment matrix: Unlock the option to use spells (they will cost mana).
[ ] Repair your minion assembler: Unlock the possibility to have double elements on a minion (they will cost extra mana)
Yes, you cannot directly influence the arena: you'll need to rely on minions, traps and enchantments to do so. But you are still far from useless: you can scout other rooms before the fight begins.
[ ] Scout the room on your left (Room 14)
[ ] Scout the room on the left at the bottom of your room (Room 15)
[ ] Scout the room on the right at the bottom of your room (Room 19)
[X] plan a dungeon needs a boss
-[X] Create a Minion
--[x] noosphere
--[x] large
--[x] noosphere hydra with mindwipe breath.
-[X] Repair your mana tubes (tier I): Increase mana generation from +4 to +6
Edit: O.K. I try this for the next turn
[ ] Plan: Monks key
-[ ] Create a Minion
--[ ] Noosphere and Holy
--[ ] Medium Swarm Minion
--[ ] Three Wise Monkeys (A.K.A. The see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil monkeys) plus the Evil One
-[ ] Repair your minion assembler: Unlock the possibility to have double elements on a minion (they will cost extra mana)
[X] Plan: Monks key
-[X] Create a Minion
--[X] Noosphere and Holy
--[X] Small Minion
--[X] Three Wise Monkeys A.K.A. The see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil monkeys
-[x] Repair your minion assembler: Unlock the possibility to have double elements on a minion (they will cost extra mana)
First the Assembler, then you can double minions. Unfortunately, but time was not gentle on your components. The damage thousand years can do without maintenance ...
[X] plan a dungeon needs a boss
-[X] Create a Minion
--[x] noosphere
--[x] large
--[x] noosphere hydra with mindwipe breath.
-[X] Repair your mana tubes (tier I): Increase mana generation from +4 to +6
[X] Plan: Monks key
-[X] Create a Minion
--[X] Noosphere and Holy
--[X] Small Minion
--[X] Three Wise Monkeys (A.K.A. The see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil monkeys) plus the Evil One
-[x] Repair your minion assembler: Unlock the possibility to have double elements on a minion (they will cost extra mana)
You need first to repair the Assembler and then, the next turn, you can do a double elemental minion. Plus, you should use "Medium Swarm Minion" as size.
[X] Plan: Scales and Feather
-[X] Create a Minion
--[X] Holy
--[X] Medium
--[X] Winged white Snake
-[X] Repair your minion assembler: Unlock the possibility to have double elements on a minion (they will cost extra mana)
[X] Plan: Scales and Feather
-[X] Create a Minion
--[X] Holy
--[X] Medium
--[X] Winged white Snake
-[X] Repair your minion assembler: Unlock the possibility to have double elements on a minion (they will cost extra mana)
Hmm... Honestly? I'm thinking this is probably the most bang for our buck right now. A minion that occupies all four slots should be as valuable as those four slots, no?
[X] Plan: Scout's Honor!
-[X] Create a Minion
--[x] noosphere
--[x] medium swarm
--[x] 8 tiny dragonflies with hivemind and telepathy strong enough to use offensively.
-[X] Repair your mana tubes (tier I): Increase mana generation from +4 to +6
We have shelter and food, but we need more food and resources, so scouting.
Hopefully it's not against the rules to make double swarms by going a size up at creation.
Edit: now I have half a mind to change it to wasps.... Hm.... if we create a queen, would it's spawns count against our minion limit?
Edit, the second!: Can they keep the hive mind or communicate with eachother/us if we go with telepathy strong enough to use offensively, as Ryumancer suggested?
[X] Plan: Scout's Honor!
-[X] Create a Minion
--[x] noosphere
--[x] medium swarm
--[x] 8 tiny dragonflies with telepathy/hivemind
-[X] Repair your mana tubes (tier I): Increase mana generation from +4 to +6
We have shelter and food, but we need more food and resources, so scouting.
Hopefully it's not against the rules to make double swarms by going a size up at creation.
Hmm... possible tweaks, have you considered leaning further into the Telepathy thing than just hivemind stuff? Being able to read an encountered enemy's mind would help with info gathering, and it's easier to justify offensive or debuff based abilities if they're fully Telepathic rather than just Telepathically Linked anyways.
Hmm... possible tweaks, have you considered leaning further into the Telepathy thing than just hivemind stuff? Being able to read an encountered enemy's mind would help with info gathering, and it's easier to justify offensive or debuff based abilities if they're fully Telepathic rather than just Telepathically Linked anyways.
I have a soft spot for hiveminds, but yeah I could. And hey If we go with offensive telepathy, no need for stronger natural weapons!
But let's see first if its good enough or not to be viable
I have a soft spot for hiveminds, but yeah I could. And hey If we go with offensive telepathy, no need for stronger natural weapons!
But let's see first if its good enough or not to be viable
Counterpoint, we're using our first minion-making action for this. We want whatever we made to cover as many edge cases as feasible so we don't get caught off guard by say, something pure scout-types aren't equipped to handle (which is to say, generally anything even vaguely threatening aimed in our direction). We can afford to experiment more with our later minion-making actions, but our first one has to count for a lot, because in an emergency, it has to shoulder everything for us until we get more diverse minions.
Counterpoint, we're using our first minion-making action for this. We want whatever we made to cover as many edge cases as feasible so we don't get caught off guard by say, something pure scout-types aren't equipped to handle (which is to say, generally anything even vaguely threatening aimed in our direction). We can afford to experiment more with our later minion-making actions, but our first one has to count for a lot, because in an emergency, it has to shoulder everything for us until we get more diverse minions.
[X] Plan: Scales and Feather
-[X] Create a Minion
--[X] Holy
--[X] Medium
--[X] Winged white Snake
-[X] Repair your minion assembler: Unlock the possibility to have double elements on a minion (they will cost extra mana)
Reminds me of something.
(Edited: I forgot to post this...)
