You spend some time wrestling with which issue to tackle first, but in the end, the issue of priority is solved for you...
You can't leave the build menu half complete.
Unlike most of the build menus you've used, there's no preview vision, no way of checking what the final room is going to look like. Just vague and unhelpful names.
Immediately you discount the various war camps. While you're sure that, with names like those, those choices will come with or offer discounts on some sort of minion summoning mechanic during fights... to get to here, on the second floor, any party of heroes must already have battled through a goblin town and kobold camp. You can only hope that, having unlocked these options, f you change your mind then the ability will still be available for you.
Hive is discarded too, for similar reasons. Also, the idea of having your boss room being surrounded in bugs, clicking and clacking and jerking around with too many legs and smelling of death and rot.
breathe.
You're not comfortable with spending more time around bugs than you need to, right now.
You chew on your cheek as you group Feral Wilderness, Silent Grove and Black Church as more specialised boss rooms... and discard them. You lack any sort of ability which can bend nature to your will, and your demon summoning perk is temporary. Leaning into them seems like a waste.
Although Black Church would look good here, at the end of the second floor...
You muse for a moment longer before shaking your head. You already have an evil church, and there's no reason to think you won't ever build a third floor.
Which... leaves Cavern, Treasure Cave, City Hall, Trapmaster, Puzzlemaster and Silver Mine.
The first two of which sound very bland. 'Big Cave' and 'Big Cave plus Gaudy Trinkets', if you're guessing right.
You're forced to concede that they're... not the worst choices. A large, open space gives you the greatest chance to make use of your wings and fire breath, and if the floor is covered with shifting coins that disrupt the footing of adventurers all the better. Presumably, that's why the Treasure Cave is your line's unlock.
City Hall sounds... like books. And marble pillars. But you must admit a certain level of interest. Of all the options, that's the one which sounds like it would upgrade the rest of your minions the most. Although you're not entirely sure what a goblin influenced city hall would look like – as far as you know, on the whole, goblins are not literate. Pictographic slates perhaps?
Trap and Puzzlemaster have potential. The names imply a greater freedom than just having some traps or puzzles around. But in the end, is that unknown extra potential worth the gamble? Neither traps nor puzzles are something you would say are core to your lair's 'identity', just something you created out of necessity. Upgrading them, or even the ability to change your traps and puzzles on the fly can both be completed with Animus too, as showcased by your variable trapdoor hedge maze.
Silver Mine sounds like... well, a silver mine. Presumably it would come with some resource nodes, or some upgrades to resource nodes. But again, you can upgrade your resource generation on your own, and while it's been in short supply so far... your animus supply will only ever grow.
Of the last three, perhaps if you'd developed your dungeon differently, focused on one thing above all others, perhaps they would have been worth it.
But the thing you've specialised in isn't money, or traps, or puzzles. It's minions.
Your claw descends on City Hall, and with barely a hiccough, your boss room shudders into existence.
A marble auditorium, surrounded by benches of many different sizes and headed by a large plinth of white stone now sites betwixt the treasure room and you. The plinth is large enough for you to recline on comfortably, with a small gilded lip surrounded a shallow indent lined with soft furs – the perfect place to rest for hours at a time, although hardly a substitute for a bed. The floor is covered in a fine mural surrounding a marble stage; red, green, blue tiles fitting together as swirls and splashes in a pattern that only becomes clear as you gaze down upon it from your podium.
It's you. Or a you that could be. Larger, longer, more powerful, lying wrapped around the entire edge of the room, your tail tucked under your chin. A crown of horn and flame upon your head, and scars wrapped around your body. Half hidden beneath your bulk are goblins, kobolds, people. Creatures and sentient beings of every shape and size gathered beneath you for protection even as spears and arrows jab your flesh.
You swallow a lump in your throat.
It's a grim picture. It would be too easy to see it as... an obligation. Others, using your very flesh as a wall, forcing you to take the pain of the world into yourself to protect them. But the eyes in that mural... your eyes, and gimlet and determined. A burden you take on to protect those you love, knowing that they will protect you in turn.
You tear your eyes away, looking over the walls filled with scroll racks and empty shelves. Potential.
You shake away the oddly poignant thoughts, opening the room's upgrade menu, before letting out the biggest sigh of your experience as a Boss Monster.
You cast your eyes up, to the generally agreed upon direction of the gods.
Why? Why ANOTHER resource to manage?
You scan the message again, then close it.
And why couldn't you tell me how to get it?
A huge thank you to my patreons Spockk Kirkk, Tyrant615, Dakkanor, Jakelandiar, Roman, TheDrTelos, Bakerdea, Hemlock, Baby Bird, Jupotter and Torish 12. A special thank you to Spockk Kirkk who is paying more than they need to, which is one of the most incredible feelings. A very special thank you to Roman for being insane and updating their pledge to a truly silly amount.
Also a reminder that I have a patreon,
https://www.patreon.com/BlackBug
Where for £1 a month you can support this silly story
You spend some time wrestling with which issue to tackle first, but in the end, the issue of priority is solved for you...
You can't leave the build menu half complete.
Unlike most of the build menus you've used, there's no preview vision, no way of checking what the final room is going to look like. Just vague and unhelpful names.
Immediately you discount the various war camps. While you're sure that, with names like those, those choices will come with or offer discounts on some sort of minion summoning mechanic during fights... to get to here, on the second floor, any party of heroes must already have battled through a goblin town and kobold camp. You can only hope that, having unlocked these options, f you change your mind then the ability will still be available for you.
Hive is discarded too, for similar reasons. Also, the idea of having your boss room being surrounded in bugs, clicking and clacking and jerking around with too many legs and smelling of death and rot.
breathe.
You're not comfortable with spending more time around bugs than you need to, right now.
You chew on your cheek as you group Feral Wilderness, Silent Grove and Black Church as more specialised boss rooms... and discard them. You lack any sort of ability which can bend nature to your will, and your demon summoning perk is temporary. Leaning into them seems like a waste.
Although Black Church would look good here, at the end of the second floor...
You muse for a moment longer before shaking your head. You already have an evil church, and there's no reason to think you won't ever build a third floor.
Which... leaves Cavern, Treasure Cave, City Hall, Trapmaster, Puzzlemaster and Silver Mine.
The first two of which sound very bland. 'Big Cave' and 'Big Cave plus Gaudy Trinkets', if you're guessing right.
You're forced to concede that they're... not the worst choices. A large, open space gives you the greatest chance to make use of your wings and fire breath, and if the floor is covered with shifting coins that disrupt the footing of adventurers all the better. Presumably, that's why the Treasure Cave is your line's unlock.
City Hall sounds... like books. And marble pillars. But you must admit a certain level of interest. Of all the options, that's the one which sounds like it would upgrade the rest of your minions the most. Although you're not entirely sure what a goblin influenced city hall would look like – as far as you know, on the whole, goblins are not literate. Pictographic slates perhaps?
Trap and Puzzlemaster have potential. The names imply a greater freedom than just having some traps or puzzles around. But in the end, is that unknown extra potential worth the gamble? Neither traps nor puzzles are something you would say are core to your lair's 'identity', just something you created out of necessity. Upgrading them, or even the ability to change your traps and puzzles on the fly can both be completed with Animus too, as showcased by your variable trapdoor hedge maze.
Silver Mine sounds like... well, a silver mine. Presumably it would come with some resource nodes, or some upgrades to resource nodes. But again, you can upgrade your resource generation on your own, and while it's been in short supply so far... your animus supply will only ever grow.
Of the last three, perhaps if you'd developed your dungeon differently, focused on one thing above all others, perhaps they would have been worth it.
But the thing you've specialised in isn't money, or traps, or puzzles. It's minions.
Your claw descends on City Hall, and with barely a hiccough, your boss room shudders into existence.
A marble auditorium, surrounded by benches of many different sizes and headed by a large plinth of white stone now sites betwixt the treasure room and you. The plinth is large enough for you to recline on comfortably, with a small gilded lip surrounded a shallow indent lined with soft furs – the perfect place to rest for hours at a time, although hardly a substitute for a bed. The floor is covered in a fine mural surrounding a marble stage; red, green, blue tiles fitting together as swirls and splashes in a pattern that only becomes clear as you gaze down upon it from your podium.
It's you. Or a you that could be. Larger, longer, more powerful, lying wrapped around the entire edge of the room, your tail tucked under your chin. A crown of horn and flame upon your head, and scars wrapped around your body. Half hidden beneath your bulk are goblins, kobolds, people. Creatures and sentient beings of every shape and size gathered beneath you for protection even as spears and arrows jab your flesh.
You swallow a lump in your throat.
It's a grim picture. It would be too easy to see it as... an obligation. Others, using your very flesh as a wall, forcing you to take the pain of the world into yourself to protect them. But the eyes in that mural... your eyes, and gimlet and determined. A burden you take on to protect those you love, knowing that they will protect you in turn.
You tear your eyes away, looking over the walls filled with scroll racks and empty shelves. Potential.
You shake away the oddly poignant thoughts, opening the room's upgrade menu, before letting out the biggest sigh of your experience as a Boss Monster.
You cast your eyes up, to the generally agreed upon direction of the gods.
Why? Why ANOTHER resource to manage?
You scan the message again, then close it.
And why couldn't you tell me how to get it?
A huge thank you to my patreons Spockk Kirkk, Tyrant615, Dakkanor, Jakelandiar, Roman, TheDrTelos, Bakerdea, Hemlock, Baby Bird, Jupotter and Torish 12. A special thank you to Spockk Kirkk who is paying more than they need to, which is one of the most incredible feelings. A very special thank you to Roman for being insane and updating their pledge to a truly silly amount.
Also a reminder that I have a patreon,
https://www.patreon.com/BlackBug
Where for £1 a month you can support this silly story
