- Location
- Everywhere
Why are you doing this to me?
Titan of Steel (Dungeoncore)
- Thread starter We Just Write
- Start date
- Original Novel Fantasy
Why are you doing this to me?
Hmm... I suggest that a possible response towards the Grand Dragon is to fly above it's city and hit it with a magical Super MAC after all he who controls the orbitals controls the world. Although that may panic the other nations at the thought of a flying dungeon that utterly obliterates cities for being uppity and attacking it.
- Location
- Australia
Please Keep Going I Want More
- Location
- Anchorage, Alaska
should have gone imperial titan route...emperor class titan to be exact, without the cathadreal.
also looks like you might have to invest in a army of sharp bladed spider-like minions with a penchant to rip apart anything non-clock-work or dungeon monster on your side.
if anything you should have made the habitation labs the size for the gremlins...and the mutant holding areas full of radiation and the rest of the place? Dear lord clock-work heaven!!!
also looks like you might have to invest in a army of sharp bladed spider-like minions with a penchant to rip apart anything non-clock-work or dungeon monster on your side.
if anything you should have made the habitation labs the size for the gremlins...and the mutant holding areas full of radiation and the rest of the place? Dear lord clock-work heaven!!!
15
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
A/N: So, I'm back. Yay.
The situation aboard my space station was very, very rapidly deteriorating. Very rarely was there a thirty second period in which another adventuring party didn't teleport aboard. With each such adventurer aboard the station, massive sections of the habitat cylinder became effectively unusable, preventing me from spawning any new minions in the sections they were fighting through.
As a direct result, I was very rapidly losing ground, for lack of a better term. The only saving grace was that none of the adventurers had yet appeared in the murder-maze surrounding my core, but that wasn't much comfort to my Gremlins, who were currently running for their lives to the designated evacuation bunkers. I needed to do something about this whole mess, and I needed to do it now.
Thus, I applied the brakes for my habitat cylinder, bringing it to a grinding halt and throwing everyone inside into microgravity. At the same time, I began churning out as many Clockwork Angels and Proton Tanks as I could from the murder-maze, and deployed them straight into the habitat cylinder, making use of those model's abilities for three-dimensional navigation.
The effect was almost immediate, as the lower-level adventuring parties either desperately hurried to teleport groundside, or found themselves helplessly floating in the air as they were picked off by heavy weapons fire. There were some notable exceptions of course, such as that first adventuring party who had teleported in. The angelic woman was gleefully darting around the hab and smashing Clockworks, the wizard had his own magic propulsion bullshit, and I still had no clue where the third guy was, so I presumed he was doing OK.
The group of special-forces troops were doing significantly less well, but still were holding their own. It seemed they had quickly figured out that they should use their guns to thrust back towards the 'ground'. Once out of the line of fire, they hid beneath a balcony for a few moments before teleporting away.
Turning my attention back to the environmental conditions inside the habitat cylinder, I very rapidly noted that all the heavy weapons fire taking place was quickly raising the ambient temperature to the point where it would swiftly become uninhabitable. Another double-check revealed that pretty much every Gremlin had made it to their assigned bunkers already, so I wasn't too worried about that being an issue. I personally pegged the point of uninhabitability to the first adventuring party, as all three of them grouped up again before teleporting out.
Gradually, over the next few minutes the number of adventuring parties warping in trickled off to zero, and I spun up the habitat cylinder again.
I was just about to start cooling down the environmental controls when one of my Clockwork Soldiers found a bottle full of a glowing orange substance beneath the balcony where the spec-ops team warped out. I immediately moved my 'dungeon view' over to the bottle in order to inspect it more closely, almost instantly recognizing that it was filled with a Protonium analogue, somehow kept in near-stasis by some form of enchantment on the bottle. I didn't have time to investigate the enchantment itself before it failed, and the Protonium in the bottle did as Protonium does, violently flying apart in a storm of nuclear fury.
The effect on the habitat cylinder was immediate and total; in a vacuum a nuclear blast is just a giant flashbulb ablating surfaces, but the inside of my station was not a vacuum environment. Instead, what I got was a superheated pressure wave rapidly propagating throughout the inside of my habitat cylinder, blasting it apart into thousands of fragments. Several of these fragments were rapidly embedded into the massive block that was my defensive maze, imparting nearly 120 meters per second of velocity in a fraction of a second. The framework I had constructed to hold my core was admirably built to hold me in place during this process, meaning that I wasn't smashed against the walls of my core chamber.
That said, now I had several other problems to deal with. Namely, I was on an uncontrolled trajectory likely to re-enter the planet's atmosphere soon, all my maneuvering thrusters were down, my main reactor wing had snapped off from structural stresses, and I had about fifty hull breaches. It was quite clear to me now, that orbit was not the place of safety I had originally thought it would be.
Quietly, I built myself a small escape pod with my remaining mana reserves. I made absolutely sure to include all the essentials this time; a small fission fragment reactor, agile thrusters for trajectory control, and a sturdy heat shield to handle re-entry. As I ejected from the wreckage of my space station, I put myself on a re-entry trajectory that would land me in the ocean just off the coast of Regno. There, I could rebuild in relative secrecy.
(a few hours later)
Chief Reactor Technician Shart was not having a good day. Admittedly it was their so far only day, but Shart was fairly comfortable with declaring it as being bad regardless. First, the reactor wing of the station had broken off, and the rest of the station had either been obliterated or put on a collision course with the planet. Then, there was the matter that they couldn't hear the Dungeon anymore, leaving them wandering aimlessly without the guiding entity that had previously directed them to various tasks.
However, in the dim red of the emergency lighting, Shart could clearly see her fellow Gremlins mulling around looking to her for guidance; after all, they still existed, and none of them particularly wanted to die. After a few moments mentally adjusting to the idea of issuing orders without having an objective assigned by the Dungeon, she called out "Alright crew! If we're going to get out of this mess alive, we need power, maneuvering and astrogation online!
Gesturing at a rough third of the small crowd, Shart said "You are Team A! Your job is to get at least one reactor online; I don't care if you have to canibalize parts from literally every reactor just to piece together a working generator, get to it!"
"Team B is in charge of getting a fabber working! If we want to go anywhere we'll need thrusters, and we'll need to install those thrusters in vacuum! Both of these require ways to fabricate equipment, including EVA suits and maneuvering packs!"
Lastly, the Chief Gremlin put in "Team C! You're in charge of restoring communications with the rest of the intact sections of the station! The more Gremlins we get working on this the faster we can resolve this crisis!"
With one voice, the crowd of Gremlins called out "Aye Aye, Captain!" and immediately set about their assigned tasks.
In the meantime, the newly designated Captain Shart considered where they would go once they had working propulsion and astrogation. One thing was for certain, she didn't want to be on the surface where the nuclear doom-dragons lived, and staying in orbit was just a recipe for more adventurers teleporting aboard and killing everyone. After a brief consideration, Shart ultimately decided that the best place to land would probably be on the moon's far side; nothing lived there, and it wasn't easily visible from the planet's surface. It would be a perfect place for the newly free Gremlins to build up a power-base.
The situation aboard my space station was very, very rapidly deteriorating. Very rarely was there a thirty second period in which another adventuring party didn't teleport aboard. With each such adventurer aboard the station, massive sections of the habitat cylinder became effectively unusable, preventing me from spawning any new minions in the sections they were fighting through.
As a direct result, I was very rapidly losing ground, for lack of a better term. The only saving grace was that none of the adventurers had yet appeared in the murder-maze surrounding my core, but that wasn't much comfort to my Gremlins, who were currently running for their lives to the designated evacuation bunkers. I needed to do something about this whole mess, and I needed to do it now.
Thus, I applied the brakes for my habitat cylinder, bringing it to a grinding halt and throwing everyone inside into microgravity. At the same time, I began churning out as many Clockwork Angels and Proton Tanks as I could from the murder-maze, and deployed them straight into the habitat cylinder, making use of those model's abilities for three-dimensional navigation.
The effect was almost immediate, as the lower-level adventuring parties either desperately hurried to teleport groundside, or found themselves helplessly floating in the air as they were picked off by heavy weapons fire. There were some notable exceptions of course, such as that first adventuring party who had teleported in. The angelic woman was gleefully darting around the hab and smashing Clockworks, the wizard had his own magic propulsion bullshit, and I still had no clue where the third guy was, so I presumed he was doing OK.
The group of special-forces troops were doing significantly less well, but still were holding their own. It seemed they had quickly figured out that they should use their guns to thrust back towards the 'ground'. Once out of the line of fire, they hid beneath a balcony for a few moments before teleporting away.
Turning my attention back to the environmental conditions inside the habitat cylinder, I very rapidly noted that all the heavy weapons fire taking place was quickly raising the ambient temperature to the point where it would swiftly become uninhabitable. Another double-check revealed that pretty much every Gremlin had made it to their assigned bunkers already, so I wasn't too worried about that being an issue. I personally pegged the point of uninhabitability to the first adventuring party, as all three of them grouped up again before teleporting out.
Gradually, over the next few minutes the number of adventuring parties warping in trickled off to zero, and I spun up the habitat cylinder again.
I was just about to start cooling down the environmental controls when one of my Clockwork Soldiers found a bottle full of a glowing orange substance beneath the balcony where the spec-ops team warped out. I immediately moved my 'dungeon view' over to the bottle in order to inspect it more closely, almost instantly recognizing that it was filled with a Protonium analogue, somehow kept in near-stasis by some form of enchantment on the bottle. I didn't have time to investigate the enchantment itself before it failed, and the Protonium in the bottle did as Protonium does, violently flying apart in a storm of nuclear fury.
The effect on the habitat cylinder was immediate and total; in a vacuum a nuclear blast is just a giant flashbulb ablating surfaces, but the inside of my station was not a vacuum environment. Instead, what I got was a superheated pressure wave rapidly propagating throughout the inside of my habitat cylinder, blasting it apart into thousands of fragments. Several of these fragments were rapidly embedded into the massive block that was my defensive maze, imparting nearly 120 meters per second of velocity in a fraction of a second. The framework I had constructed to hold my core was admirably built to hold me in place during this process, meaning that I wasn't smashed against the walls of my core chamber.
That said, now I had several other problems to deal with. Namely, I was on an uncontrolled trajectory likely to re-enter the planet's atmosphere soon, all my maneuvering thrusters were down, my main reactor wing had snapped off from structural stresses, and I had about fifty hull breaches. It was quite clear to me now, that orbit was not the place of safety I had originally thought it would be.
Quietly, I built myself a small escape pod with my remaining mana reserves. I made absolutely sure to include all the essentials this time; a small fission fragment reactor, agile thrusters for trajectory control, and a sturdy heat shield to handle re-entry. As I ejected from the wreckage of my space station, I put myself on a re-entry trajectory that would land me in the ocean just off the coast of Regno. There, I could rebuild in relative secrecy.
(a few hours later)
Chief Reactor Technician Shart was not having a good day. Admittedly it was their so far only day, but Shart was fairly comfortable with declaring it as being bad regardless. First, the reactor wing of the station had broken off, and the rest of the station had either been obliterated or put on a collision course with the planet. Then, there was the matter that they couldn't hear the Dungeon anymore, leaving them wandering aimlessly without the guiding entity that had previously directed them to various tasks.
However, in the dim red of the emergency lighting, Shart could clearly see her fellow Gremlins mulling around looking to her for guidance; after all, they still existed, and none of them particularly wanted to die. After a few moments mentally adjusting to the idea of issuing orders without having an objective assigned by the Dungeon, she called out "Alright crew! If we're going to get out of this mess alive, we need power, maneuvering and astrogation online!
Gesturing at a rough third of the small crowd, Shart said "You are Team A! Your job is to get at least one reactor online; I don't care if you have to canibalize parts from literally every reactor just to piece together a working generator, get to it!"
"Team B is in charge of getting a fabber working! If we want to go anywhere we'll need thrusters, and we'll need to install those thrusters in vacuum! Both of these require ways to fabricate equipment, including EVA suits and maneuvering packs!"
Lastly, the Chief Gremlin put in "Team C! You're in charge of restoring communications with the rest of the intact sections of the station! The more Gremlins we get working on this the faster we can resolve this crisis!"
With one voice, the crowd of Gremlins called out "Aye Aye, Captain!" and immediately set about their assigned tasks.
In the meantime, the newly designated Captain Shart considered where they would go once they had working propulsion and astrogation. One thing was for certain, she didn't want to be on the surface where the nuclear doom-dragons lived, and staying in orbit was just a recipe for more adventurers teleporting aboard and killing everyone. After a brief consideration, Shart ultimately decided that the best place to land would probably be on the moon's far side; nothing lived there, and it wasn't easily visible from the planet's surface. It would be a perfect place for the newly free Gremlins to build up a power-base.
- Location
- England
I'm pretty sure it wasn't a good day when she was named, either.
Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
That debris re-entering the atmosphere is going to create one hell of a meteorite storm. Anyone in a fairly large area is going to have a very bad day.
Surprised the MC thinks the ocean would be any less frightening, though the abyssal depths are pretty lifeless. Problem is that isn't entirely lifeless and the things that do live that deep down tend to be either completely inexplicable (tube worms) or freaking gigantic (squid, whales). Given how terrifyingly overpowered the surface world is, the ocean is probably wall to wall gigakrakens or something.
Boosting to a higher orbit, out of sight from the land below, hiding behind the moon (smart Gremlins) or just saying fuck it and leaving the planet behind to hang out in solar orbit\find a nicer planet would all have made more sense than going anywhere near the surface of that planet again.
I feel like the ocean is probably not going to be the haven he thinks it is.
Surprised the MC thinks the ocean would be any less frightening, though the abyssal depths are pretty lifeless. Problem is that isn't entirely lifeless and the things that do live that deep down tend to be either completely inexplicable (tube worms) or freaking gigantic (squid, whales). Given how terrifyingly overpowered the surface world is, the ocean is probably wall to wall gigakrakens or something.
Boosting to a higher orbit, out of sight from the land below, hiding behind the moon (smart Gremlins) or just saying fuck it and leaving the planet behind to hang out in solar orbit\find a nicer planet would all have made more sense than going anywhere near the surface of that planet again.
I feel like the ocean is probably not going to be the haven he thinks it is.
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
True, the ocean is almost certainly a very nasty place, probably with a militaristic empire or two of merpeople. On the other hand, it is also a location that the Grand Dragons will not be able to easily attack, giving me time to build a new chassis that will hopefully prove able to put down said Dragons.
Guardsman_Sparky
The Clueless Wonder
- Location
- Virginia
Gigantic Bobbit worms. That is all.
I freaking love this! You've escalated harder and faster than pretty much any dungeon-core story I've seen, to the point where you could probably ROFLSTOMP most dungeons out there at the same age as you now. But, you've managed to escalate the threats you face just as hard. Most dungeons at this age wouldn't be able to produce unending tides of metal doom, but they also wouldn't be forced to evacuate from their dungeon, twice.
Excellent story, looking forward to where it leads in the future.
Excellent story, looking forward to where it leads in the future.
Excerpts From the Titanomicon, Tome Of Dungeon Themes, Basic Daemonology
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
Excerpts from the writings of the globe-trotting Adventurer Sherry Rosotz
List of Current Titans (3rd Edition)
Though the uninformed often doubt their existence, most Adventurers will have at least one encounter with a Titan, or a Dungeon attempting to become a Titan in their lives. As such, for those of us who travel the dangerous wilderness slaying monsters and honing our skills in Dungeons, the existence of Titans is a concrete reality. As such, I have taken to compiling notes about all currently known Titans, as well as some whose existence is as yet only rumor. I shall start with the confirmed Titans first, before moving on to unsubstantiated reports.
Confirmed Titan: Storm Titan
Age: 195 years
Dungeon Theme: Thunderous Castle
Mana Source: Persistent Supercell Thunderstorm
The Storm Titan is one of the older Titans around, period, and is beginning to show the signs of old age that often plague Dungeons approaching their 200th year. They exist on the aptly named Stormy Isle, one of the largest surface territories known to be free of Grand Dragons. The reason for the absence of said Dragons is because if they even approach the island, the Storm Titan shreds their wings with extreme weather conditions before moving in for the kill in close combat. For this purpose, the Storm Titan is known to use a chassis greatly resembling a massive stone bear with a castle built on top.
Sadly, in order to move the Storm Titan needs to be constantly struck by lightning from the storm they command, meaning they cannot practically cross the oceans surrounding their island. Even crossing on the surface of the waves would be impractical, due to the chaotic wind currents and waves produced by the storm that they draw power from.
The Storm Titan is known to be trying to groom one of the Dungeons on his island into a successor, so as to keep it free of Grand Dragons once they pass.
Confirmed Titan: Titan of Wood
Age: 89 years
Dungeon Theme: Mystic Forest
Mana Source: Tree Of Life
The Titan of Wood is one of the only Titans known who willingly allows Adventurers to board and visit them. This is admittedly a tendency strictly limited to the uppermost levels, but it is a distinctly noteworthy one. Notably, instead of building their power source, the Titan of Wood was gifted a Tree Of Life sapling by a sympathetic adventuring party, which may explain their significantly less antagonistic relationship.
The Titan of Wood prefers a quadrupedal chassis that many have compared to a turtle-centaur with a massive tree growing out of their back. That said, if the tree is ever broken, the Titan of Wood will need to grow a new one all over again. This puts a major damper on this particular Titan's combat capabilities.
Confirmed Titan: Titan of Smoke
Age: 121 years
Dungeon Theme: Burning Clockwork
Mana Source: Combustion Heat Engine
The Titan of Smoke is one of the smaller Titans on record, and for good reason. In order to power itself, the Titan of Smoke has turned to nonmagical fire as a primary energy source. This both limits its primary roaming area to forested areas with an ample supply of fuel, and limits its practical maximum size based on the amount of fuel it needs to consume daily. This also limits it to non-legged means of transportation due to the need to be close to the ground for fuel harvesting, as such the Titan of Smoke makes use of a wheeled suspension.
In combat against similar-scale threats, the Titan of Smoke makes use of a heavy battery of rifled cannon firing high explosive shells.
Confirmed Titan: Aether Titan
Age: 41 years
Dungeon Theme: Aetherial Crystal
Mana Source: Planar Rift to Realm of Souls
Often considered to be the most colorful Titan, the Aether Titan is a jagged mass of crystals greatly resembling stained glass. Even on the exterior, the bright light of the Titan's power source can be clearly seen shining through, with multi-colored light scattering all over the general area they occupy.
Worth noting is that this is one of only two Titans to never be boarded by Adventurers; the backwash from the planar rift disrupts teleportation attempts, the Titan never lands, making it impossible for anyone who can't also fly to reach it, and an intense disintegration force field around the entrance blocks any Adventurers from coming aboard.
Confirmed Titan: Titan of Bone
Age: at least 80 years
Dungeon Theme: Necrosis (Subtype Unknown)
Mana Source: Long-Range Wide Area Life-Siphon
The Titan of Bone is quite possibly one of the most dangerous Titans on record, simply due to the means it uses to power itself. Anywhere within a radius of around two hundred miles of this Titan is vulnerable to the Titan of Bone's life drain ability, with the region they are currently in the center of being commonly known as the Dead Wastes. Fortunately, the life drain field draws such an immense amount of mana in its own right that it quickly ran out of life force to drain, and wound up helplessly stricken in the middle of a massive radius of inhospitable wasteland.
This is the other Titan that has never been boarded by Adventurers, for reasons that should hopefully be obvious.
Rumored Titan: Titan of Steel
Age: <1 year
Dungeon Theme: Not entirely known, but probably a modified form of Clockwork
Mana Source: Unknown, no external components required
Unsubstantiated reports of this Titan have trickled in from southern Regno; confirmation has been greatly frustrated by the fact that according to all reports, the Titan of Steel is not only capable of flight, but began flying as soon as it could, directly towards the Dead Wastes. All reports are, however, quite clear that the Titan of Steel was making use of a humanoid chassis profile.
NOTE: The Titan of Steel's existence has since been confirmed by several dozen adventuring parties during their boarding of its exo-atmospheric chassis; their theme is Atomic Clockwork, which apparently involves throwing around bona fide Dragonfire, along with sheer brute force and plenty of invisible damaging hazards. Presumably, their source of Mana is also artificial Dragonfire.
List Of Dungeon Themes (14th edition)
For the benefit of new adventurers, it is often useful to explain the types of Dungeon one is likely to come across. Most mature Dungeons have some sort of cohesive theme which informs a canny observer what sorts of threats and monsters can be found inside. Generally speaking, themes come in two parts; first there is the base, which defines the basic architecture of the Dungeon along with some of the general types of monsters one is likely to encounter. Then, there are one or more modifiers, which add on some special twist. There are five currently known accepted 'base' themes, listed below.
Castle
Often what people think of when they hear 'Dungeon', Castle dungeons are easily distinguished by the stonework surfaces studded with the occasional light source that make up most of their structure. As far as threats go, Castle dungeons have a bit of everything, but don't really specialize overmuch; you can find skilled humanoid guards, ravenous monsters, absurd deathtraps, and utterly bizarre magic effects all throughout one of these Dungeons.
As Castle Dungeons are such generalists, it is often hard to come up with a skill set perfectly designed to counter them; on the other hand, they cannot excel in any one field to the same degree as the other Dungeon types, which means that the threats inside are a bit less dangerous overall.
Clockwork
One of the biggest dead giveaways for a Clockwork Dungeon is how everything is made of metal. Seriously, no other Dungeon type makes literally everything out of metal. Clockwork Dungeons are also one of the only places one can find the eponymous Clockworks, mechanical constructs powered by Mana (NOTE: Clockworks may very rarely also be found in Castle Dungeons).
When it comes to the threats found inside a Clockwork Dungeon, they can usually be summarized as brute force, with the occasional difficult puzzle. That said, while the Dungeon's traps are brute force, they are also omnipresent; all exposed surfaces should be considered trapped until proven otherwise.
Crystal
Usually, the most obvious sign of being in a Crystal Dungeon is the crystals everywhere, though it is not unknown for significant parts of the structure to be ordinary stonework. In any case, it is not unusual for Crystal Dungeons to have relatively humanoid inhabitants, though they often sport truly bizarre magical abilities.
The main hazards inside of a Crystal Dungeon actually have more to do with its layout and architecture than they necessarily do conventional traps or monsters. It is not uncommon to encounter annoying things like four-dimensional mirror mazes or other, even weirder architectural features. That said, the monsters and traps are certainly present, and they often have bizarre abilities of their own, so don't think a good sense of direction will be enough to get you through one on your own.
Forest/Nature
Nature Dungeons are a bit odd, as it's easily possible to mistakenly think you're outdoors while inside one. Terrain features can include rivers, lakes, large stands of trees, deserts, and many other biomes. Very often, the insides of Nature Dungeons have breathtaking scenery that means they are often visited by Adventurers who just want to relax.
As far as hazards go, there aren't too many traps inside of Nature Dungeons, but you should avoid taste-testing any of the flora or fungi without making sure you have some serious poison resistance. On the other hand, Nature Dungeons have some of the most ridiculously dangerous biological monsters yet encountered. Many an adventurer has entered an ill-tempered Nature Dungeon and come out severely mauled, if they were lucky enough to come out at all.
Necrosis
If the walls seem to be made out of exposed gory tissue, or there are bones used as significant structural components, chances are you're in a Necrosis dungeon. Generally speaking, Necrosis Dungeons are filled to the brim with undead of all sorts, and they have several much more insidious hazards meaning that all but the most experienced of Adventurers are strongly discouraged from entering. To be more specific, they are more than happy to both infect Adventuring parties with lethal and contagious diseases that can devastate the surrounding region, or if they feel peckish for Mana they will rip your soul straight out of your body and devour it.
Given the extreme threat presented by Necrosis dungeons, even without them going down the route of the Titan of Bone, they should be immediately reported to the Global Adventurers' Union for termination.
Basic Daemonology
I have only one word of advice for anyone who wants to go down the route of a Daemon summoner. That word is DON'T. It doesn't matter what purposes you intend to summon a Daemon for; they will stall and offer excuses not to do anything even remotely benevolent for an indefinite length of time, and during that time their mere presence will slowly twist you into a being just as corrupt and malevolent as the Daemon themselves. So far, the only observed defenses against this corruption involve being typed with antithetical thematics (in which case you would never want to summon a Daemon in the first place), killing the Daemon immediately before it has a chance to corrupt you, or outright not having a soul whatsoever.
As such, no directions for carrying out a Daemon summoning will be provided in this text. Below, some of the more common varieties of Daemon you might have the misfortune of meeting on an adventure are listed, along with the most effective ways of killing them.
Scourges
By far the smallest of Daemons, Scourges are around four inches tall, fly using small wings attached to their backside, and are incredibly ill-tempered. They don't have much in the way of magical or combat prowess save for a mildly venomous bite, meaning that they aren't too much of a threat. That said, if encountered in large numbers, it is advised to use wide-area fire or poison effects, as it can be hard to noticeably deplete a swarm with normal weapons.
Deceivers
By far one of the most paranoia-inducing types of Daemon, Deceivers are around human size and shape, and have an illusion ability that allows them to impersonate people they encounter. They use this to frame innocents for heinous crimes, avoid liability for their own misdeeds, and leave unfortunate mortals impregnated with Daemonspawn. The children resulting from this are fortunately not Daemons themselves, but they will need to spend their formative years in a mana-rich environment themed with something antithetical to Daemonic presence to avoid growing up to become Daemons. Regardless, they will still grow horns, batlike wings, and a barbed tail as they mature.
(NOTES: Proven antithetical thematic elements include Holy, Benevolence, and Nature)
Fortunately, since a Deceiver's disguise is purely an illusion effect, they can be detected with anything that can penetrate illusions. Aside from physical capabilities capable of matching a low-mid level Adventurer, Deceivers have no other defenses, meaning they go down relatively easily.
Carilists
The 'Basic Footsoldier Daemon' as far as such things go, Carilists are fairly straightforward as far as their abilities go. They carry some manner of nasty melee weapon from which they are able to cast fire and lightning, they are fairly resistant to most forms of damage, and they are fairly smart tacticians. If at all possible, you want to take a Carilist down hard and fast; in the event of a prolonged melee engagement, treat a Carilist as a mid-level adventurer specialized in melee combat.
List of Current Titans (3rd Edition)
Though the uninformed often doubt their existence, most Adventurers will have at least one encounter with a Titan, or a Dungeon attempting to become a Titan in their lives. As such, for those of us who travel the dangerous wilderness slaying monsters and honing our skills in Dungeons, the existence of Titans is a concrete reality. As such, I have taken to compiling notes about all currently known Titans, as well as some whose existence is as yet only rumor. I shall start with the confirmed Titans first, before moving on to unsubstantiated reports.
Confirmed Titan: Storm Titan
Age: 195 years
Dungeon Theme: Thunderous Castle
Mana Source: Persistent Supercell Thunderstorm
The Storm Titan is one of the older Titans around, period, and is beginning to show the signs of old age that often plague Dungeons approaching their 200th year. They exist on the aptly named Stormy Isle, one of the largest surface territories known to be free of Grand Dragons. The reason for the absence of said Dragons is because if they even approach the island, the Storm Titan shreds their wings with extreme weather conditions before moving in for the kill in close combat. For this purpose, the Storm Titan is known to use a chassis greatly resembling a massive stone bear with a castle built on top.
Sadly, in order to move the Storm Titan needs to be constantly struck by lightning from the storm they command, meaning they cannot practically cross the oceans surrounding their island. Even crossing on the surface of the waves would be impractical, due to the chaotic wind currents and waves produced by the storm that they draw power from.
The Storm Titan is known to be trying to groom one of the Dungeons on his island into a successor, so as to keep it free of Grand Dragons once they pass.
Confirmed Titan: Titan of Wood
Age: 89 years
Dungeon Theme: Mystic Forest
Mana Source: Tree Of Life
The Titan of Wood is one of the only Titans known who willingly allows Adventurers to board and visit them. This is admittedly a tendency strictly limited to the uppermost levels, but it is a distinctly noteworthy one. Notably, instead of building their power source, the Titan of Wood was gifted a Tree Of Life sapling by a sympathetic adventuring party, which may explain their significantly less antagonistic relationship.
The Titan of Wood prefers a quadrupedal chassis that many have compared to a turtle-centaur with a massive tree growing out of their back. That said, if the tree is ever broken, the Titan of Wood will need to grow a new one all over again. This puts a major damper on this particular Titan's combat capabilities.
Confirmed Titan: Titan of Smoke
Age: 121 years
Dungeon Theme: Burning Clockwork
Mana Source: Combustion Heat Engine
The Titan of Smoke is one of the smaller Titans on record, and for good reason. In order to power itself, the Titan of Smoke has turned to nonmagical fire as a primary energy source. This both limits its primary roaming area to forested areas with an ample supply of fuel, and limits its practical maximum size based on the amount of fuel it needs to consume daily. This also limits it to non-legged means of transportation due to the need to be close to the ground for fuel harvesting, as such the Titan of Smoke makes use of a wheeled suspension.
In combat against similar-scale threats, the Titan of Smoke makes use of a heavy battery of rifled cannon firing high explosive shells.
Confirmed Titan: Aether Titan
Age: 41 years
Dungeon Theme: Aetherial Crystal
Mana Source: Planar Rift to Realm of Souls
Often considered to be the most colorful Titan, the Aether Titan is a jagged mass of crystals greatly resembling stained glass. Even on the exterior, the bright light of the Titan's power source can be clearly seen shining through, with multi-colored light scattering all over the general area they occupy.
Worth noting is that this is one of only two Titans to never be boarded by Adventurers; the backwash from the planar rift disrupts teleportation attempts, the Titan never lands, making it impossible for anyone who can't also fly to reach it, and an intense disintegration force field around the entrance blocks any Adventurers from coming aboard.
Confirmed Titan: Titan of Bone
Age: at least 80 years
Dungeon Theme: Necrosis (Subtype Unknown)
Mana Source: Long-Range Wide Area Life-Siphon
The Titan of Bone is quite possibly one of the most dangerous Titans on record, simply due to the means it uses to power itself. Anywhere within a radius of around two hundred miles of this Titan is vulnerable to the Titan of Bone's life drain ability, with the region they are currently in the center of being commonly known as the Dead Wastes. Fortunately, the life drain field draws such an immense amount of mana in its own right that it quickly ran out of life force to drain, and wound up helplessly stricken in the middle of a massive radius of inhospitable wasteland.
This is the other Titan that has never been boarded by Adventurers, for reasons that should hopefully be obvious.
Rumored Titan: Titan of Steel
Age: <1 year
Dungeon Theme: Not entirely known, but probably a modified form of Clockwork
Mana Source: Unknown, no external components required
Unsubstantiated reports of this Titan have trickled in from southern Regno; confirmation has been greatly frustrated by the fact that according to all reports, the Titan of Steel is not only capable of flight, but began flying as soon as it could, directly towards the Dead Wastes. All reports are, however, quite clear that the Titan of Steel was making use of a humanoid chassis profile.
NOTE: The Titan of Steel's existence has since been confirmed by several dozen adventuring parties during their boarding of its exo-atmospheric chassis; their theme is Atomic Clockwork, which apparently involves throwing around bona fide Dragonfire, along with sheer brute force and plenty of invisible damaging hazards. Presumably, their source of Mana is also artificial Dragonfire.
List Of Dungeon Themes (14th edition)
For the benefit of new adventurers, it is often useful to explain the types of Dungeon one is likely to come across. Most mature Dungeons have some sort of cohesive theme which informs a canny observer what sorts of threats and monsters can be found inside. Generally speaking, themes come in two parts; first there is the base, which defines the basic architecture of the Dungeon along with some of the general types of monsters one is likely to encounter. Then, there are one or more modifiers, which add on some special twist. There are five currently known accepted 'base' themes, listed below.
Castle
Often what people think of when they hear 'Dungeon', Castle dungeons are easily distinguished by the stonework surfaces studded with the occasional light source that make up most of their structure. As far as threats go, Castle dungeons have a bit of everything, but don't really specialize overmuch; you can find skilled humanoid guards, ravenous monsters, absurd deathtraps, and utterly bizarre magic effects all throughout one of these Dungeons.
As Castle Dungeons are such generalists, it is often hard to come up with a skill set perfectly designed to counter them; on the other hand, they cannot excel in any one field to the same degree as the other Dungeon types, which means that the threats inside are a bit less dangerous overall.
Clockwork
One of the biggest dead giveaways for a Clockwork Dungeon is how everything is made of metal. Seriously, no other Dungeon type makes literally everything out of metal. Clockwork Dungeons are also one of the only places one can find the eponymous Clockworks, mechanical constructs powered by Mana (NOTE: Clockworks may very rarely also be found in Castle Dungeons).
When it comes to the threats found inside a Clockwork Dungeon, they can usually be summarized as brute force, with the occasional difficult puzzle. That said, while the Dungeon's traps are brute force, they are also omnipresent; all exposed surfaces should be considered trapped until proven otherwise.
Crystal
Usually, the most obvious sign of being in a Crystal Dungeon is the crystals everywhere, though it is not unknown for significant parts of the structure to be ordinary stonework. In any case, it is not unusual for Crystal Dungeons to have relatively humanoid inhabitants, though they often sport truly bizarre magical abilities.
The main hazards inside of a Crystal Dungeon actually have more to do with its layout and architecture than they necessarily do conventional traps or monsters. It is not uncommon to encounter annoying things like four-dimensional mirror mazes or other, even weirder architectural features. That said, the monsters and traps are certainly present, and they often have bizarre abilities of their own, so don't think a good sense of direction will be enough to get you through one on your own.
Forest/Nature
Nature Dungeons are a bit odd, as it's easily possible to mistakenly think you're outdoors while inside one. Terrain features can include rivers, lakes, large stands of trees, deserts, and many other biomes. Very often, the insides of Nature Dungeons have breathtaking scenery that means they are often visited by Adventurers who just want to relax.
As far as hazards go, there aren't too many traps inside of Nature Dungeons, but you should avoid taste-testing any of the flora or fungi without making sure you have some serious poison resistance. On the other hand, Nature Dungeons have some of the most ridiculously dangerous biological monsters yet encountered. Many an adventurer has entered an ill-tempered Nature Dungeon and come out severely mauled, if they were lucky enough to come out at all.
Necrosis
If the walls seem to be made out of exposed gory tissue, or there are bones used as significant structural components, chances are you're in a Necrosis dungeon. Generally speaking, Necrosis Dungeons are filled to the brim with undead of all sorts, and they have several much more insidious hazards meaning that all but the most experienced of Adventurers are strongly discouraged from entering. To be more specific, they are more than happy to both infect Adventuring parties with lethal and contagious diseases that can devastate the surrounding region, or if they feel peckish for Mana they will rip your soul straight out of your body and devour it.
Given the extreme threat presented by Necrosis dungeons, even without them going down the route of the Titan of Bone, they should be immediately reported to the Global Adventurers' Union for termination.
Basic Daemonology
I have only one word of advice for anyone who wants to go down the route of a Daemon summoner. That word is DON'T. It doesn't matter what purposes you intend to summon a Daemon for; they will stall and offer excuses not to do anything even remotely benevolent for an indefinite length of time, and during that time their mere presence will slowly twist you into a being just as corrupt and malevolent as the Daemon themselves. So far, the only observed defenses against this corruption involve being typed with antithetical thematics (in which case you would never want to summon a Daemon in the first place), killing the Daemon immediately before it has a chance to corrupt you, or outright not having a soul whatsoever.
As such, no directions for carrying out a Daemon summoning will be provided in this text. Below, some of the more common varieties of Daemon you might have the misfortune of meeting on an adventure are listed, along with the most effective ways of killing them.
Scourges
By far the smallest of Daemons, Scourges are around four inches tall, fly using small wings attached to their backside, and are incredibly ill-tempered. They don't have much in the way of magical or combat prowess save for a mildly venomous bite, meaning that they aren't too much of a threat. That said, if encountered in large numbers, it is advised to use wide-area fire or poison effects, as it can be hard to noticeably deplete a swarm with normal weapons.
Deceivers
By far one of the most paranoia-inducing types of Daemon, Deceivers are around human size and shape, and have an illusion ability that allows them to impersonate people they encounter. They use this to frame innocents for heinous crimes, avoid liability for their own misdeeds, and leave unfortunate mortals impregnated with Daemonspawn. The children resulting from this are fortunately not Daemons themselves, but they will need to spend their formative years in a mana-rich environment themed with something antithetical to Daemonic presence to avoid growing up to become Daemons. Regardless, they will still grow horns, batlike wings, and a barbed tail as they mature.
(NOTES: Proven antithetical thematic elements include Holy, Benevolence, and Nature)
Fortunately, since a Deceiver's disguise is purely an illusion effect, they can be detected with anything that can penetrate illusions. Aside from physical capabilities capable of matching a low-mid level Adventurer, Deceivers have no other defenses, meaning they go down relatively easily.
Carilists
The 'Basic Footsoldier Daemon' as far as such things go, Carilists are fairly straightforward as far as their abilities go. They carry some manner of nasty melee weapon from which they are able to cast fire and lightning, they are fairly resistant to most forms of damage, and they are fairly smart tacticians. If at all possible, you want to take a Carilist down hard and fast; in the event of a prolonged melee engagement, treat a Carilist as a mid-level adventurer specialized in melee combat.
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- Location
- USA
Like the new updates but I would like to point out that it seems you gave up being in orbit a little to easily considering everything you went through to get there. Not to mention other then having adventurers popping up you have very little to fear in space.
So they know that the Titan that ran off to the wastes and the one in space were one and the same, interesting.
Though they don't seem to know about radiation, meaning the fallout from the impending crash is going to be... rather informative when they realize that, no, it isn't an effect from the dungeon, it's a natural effect (well, natural as nuclear radiation gets), and isn't going away any time soon.
Also, Daemons.
Radiation.
It's mere presence will slowly mutate and kill thousands.
Delicious candy.
Though they don't seem to know about radiation, meaning the fallout from the impending crash is going to be... rather informative when they realize that, no, it isn't an effect from the dungeon, it's a natural effect (well, natural as nuclear radiation gets), and isn't going away any time soon.
Also, Daemons.
Radiation.
It's mere presence will slowly mutate and kill thousands.
Delicious candy.
Mechanis
Confirmed Extremely Screwed
- Location
- Absconding with Alacrity
he's got effectively infinite delta-v thanks to being able to just summon fuel with magic. getting into orbit is easy, but until he has a way to block teliports staying there is simply impractical because of how literally everyone and their dog can detect and teliport to his orbital facilities. That said, I would follow the wisdom of a certain Gremlin and simply try to get out of range- the dark side of the moon, the local asteriod belt, the local oort clout, the nearest star system...
then I'd come back with a Bodel Zer fleet and just be like "ya'all're chumps. Behave or enjoy some localized Rain Of Death."
then I'd come back with a Bodel Zer fleet and just be like "ya'all're chumps. Behave or enjoy some localized Rain Of Death."
We Just Write
Blatantly Plural
- Location
- New England
- Pronouns
- Plural
My main objection is that with my current capabilities and the chassis I plan on building next, Orbit is literally twenty minutes away at any time, if that.
Most of the stuff I've been working with has fairly short half-lives (femtoseconds for Protonium, a bit less than a day for Sodium 24); that means that it won't be sticking around for all that long.So they know that the Titan that ran off to the wastes and the one in space were one and the same, interesting.
Though they don't seem to know about radiation, meaning the fallout from the impending crash is going to be... rather informative when they realize that, no, it isn't an effect from the dungeon, it's a natural effect (well, natural as nuclear radiation gets), and isn't going away any time soon.
Also, Daemons.
Radiation.
It's mere presence will slowly mutate and kill thousands.
Delicious candy.
Yeah, I could do that. Not going to though.
- Location
- UK
This entire fic: "Well, that escalated quickly."
We passed that point when magical nuclear reactors became a thing. I'd say its more going up like a nuclear rocket but that was three chapters ago!
- Location
- Ohio
You know when I think Clockwork I think self winding clocks, maybe Clockwork generators and such. I also think Steam punk and Tesla Coils/generators, just some cool stuff to see.
I also think of a magical wind turbine with runes circulating the air like an endless tornado or wind tunnel, add in enemies and you could add in some passive runes that breakdown debris/corpses for mana and to repair the turbine. Also a magnetic rune array that allows Clockwork's to come back together, like the robot that Hiro made in Big Hero Six film.
I also think of a magical wind turbine with runes circulating the air like an endless tornado or wind tunnel, add in enemies and you could add in some passive runes that breakdown debris/corpses for mana and to repair the turbine. Also a magnetic rune array that allows Clockwork's to come back together, like the robot that Hiro made in Big Hero Six film.
- Location
- USA
Just saying but they are called microbots. And they are not one robot but many thousands of robots that work together.
Recommendation: Iron Gremlin. Like Iron Man, except it's a gremlin.
Researchers who can easily and successfully defend themselves when their labs are under attack are an important resource.
I'm sure one of the enterprising gremlins on the Station can manage it.
Researchers who can easily and successfully defend themselves when their labs are under attack are an important resource.
I'm sure one of the enterprising gremlins on the Station can manage it.
Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
Evaporating Protonium would cause multiple fission reactions in surrounding material though, as the protons slam into atomic nuclei and cause all kinds of crazy shenanigans. So much of the falling metal will be quite radioactive. And probably covered in angry lightning. I'm not sure how long it would last, but at the very least anyone in the general area of the debris when it comes down is going to have a very bad day.
e: That's also ignoring the fact that a big pile of protons all together can and will attract spontaneous lightning from any nearby matter through multiple kilometers of solid granite while ionizing everything in a similar radius, including air, because electrical charges trying to cancel out.
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gatewaewanderer
Wandering Fool
- Location
- East Coast, USA
When one of your main enemies is a dragon that breathes nuclear fire ala Godzilla, what other choice do you have?
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Holy shite. Does this mean that according to this verse, Godzilla is a dragon? However-Many-Greats-Grandad maybe?