| “Dungeons? I love them. You know how often I’ve slept in a dungeon, for free? More times than I can count. Hell, I spent my twenties sleeping in the dungeon every night. Dangerous? Yes. Is it not a great pull for the ladies? No, it certainly is not. Unless you have a thing for the killer-eyes types. Was it worth clearing a few floors to sleep safely on floor one every night, by the dungeon-gate? I didn’t pay rent for ten years, so you tell me. Plus with the loot from the stuff I killed, I could go buy breakfast every day. Not a bad deal, right? Sure, there’s always the risk of a dungeon-breech and a bunch of level fifty monsters rushing the gate. But, well, it didn’t happen for the ten years that I was there. You may as well be worried about lightning, if you’re worried about that. Take it with a grain of salt, though. Dungeons have different tempers. Would I try to take as much as a catnap in the deadlight-graveyard, to the northwest? Hell no. Now, the southern fairy dungeon? Count me in. There’s some prime napping to be had there. That dungeon has a good attitude about life. What I’m saying is, don’t just pick your battles. Pick your beds too.” |
~ Interview with the Goudin the goblin-hunter, of the northwestern territories.
Isaiah looks down at the river, watching the fish swim around in it, just beneath the surface of the water.
Sunlight has come once again and the rains have vanished for now, leaving the forest wet and nourished. The surface of the river glistens with vivid light, catching the rays of dayglow on its ever-moving surface.
There, deep down beneath the water, a great shadow moves.
| ~ [Melusine] ~ | |
| Class: Monster | Element: Water |
| Type: Ambusher | Category: Serpent* |
| Rank: C | |
| Level: 03 | |
| Half-serpent, half-humanoid, a melusine is a spirit of holy water and rivers. Melusine are shy creatures that like to sing. If someone comes their way, however, lured in by their songs, they will hide. Melusine are very sensitive to liars and promise-breakers and will become highly aggressive towards them, coming out of hiding to attack these people with murderous intent, even if unprovoked. They have poisonous fangs, but prefer to drown their prey. | |
| [River song]: Wards all DARK and UNDEAD type entities from any area where the song can be heard. Lures all OTHER type entities towards the river. | |
| HP: 17/17 | SOUL: 35/35 |
“Not bad, right?” asks the black-winged uthra. Isiah looks at it and nods. “It got lured in by all that rotting boar meat we spread in the water,” it explains. “Not exactly what I was expecting, but maybe it likes the vibe around the tower?” suggests Black.
“Good work.” Isaiah looks back down at the thing swimming down beneath the water. The moving monster stops swimming around, feeling itself being watched. Isaiah tilts its head, curiously and then the Melusine swims away, hiding behind a rock.
Apparently it really is shy.
An odd trait for a monster to have. But maybe not all monsters are incredibly violent, brutish, aggressive things?
| ~ [Dungeon] ~ |
| Upgraded Area |
| Firepit {Level 1} to Kitchen {Level 2}! |
| A simple cooking area, offering the utility to allow preparation of more complex foods that can be used to attract monsters with a more refined taste. |
| Level {1} Effect: Allows the preparation of simple food items. Level {2} Effect: Allows the preparation of complex food items. |
| Firepit: 01% chance of summoning a FIRE-spirit every day {Holy} Beauty in Simplicity: Basic, simple meals cooked here are more restorative. |
| THIS IS A RESTRICTED AREA. NO HOSTILE INTRUDERS ARE ALLOWED INSIDE OF THE KITCHEN AREA. |
“There!” says Red. “Got it all set up.”
“Good work, Red,” praises Isaiah, looking around from above. It doesn’t actually want to go down into the kitchen, because the kitchen is below ground. Isaiah does not want to go underground. It seems like a very bad place for a creature with wings to be. The entrance is a secret door on the outside of the tower, facing the river.
“Uh, yeah,” replies the Uthra. “Anyway,” it calls up the stairs. “What’re we supposed to do with that dark-elf, exactly?” asks Red. “Killing her is still on the table.”
Isaiah shakes its head. “It is not.”
Red rolls its eyes, flying up the staircase. “You know, you can’t go soft all the time, right?” it asks, buzzing up to Isaiah. “What are you going to do when the humans show up?” it asks. “Because they’re going to and when they do, it’s going to be them or you.” Isaiah frowns, but understands.
It will be inevitable. The death of a human, if not many humans.
It needs to keep building the tower, but by doing so, the eyes of the greedy and hungry will fall towards it sooner or later. They will come here and they will take everything they can, if not destroy the tower itself in the process.
This has to be avoided at all costs.
“I understand, Red,” affirms Isaiah. “When it must happen, it will happen,” affirms the entity. “But the dark-elf is not a problem.”
Red shrugs. “Okay. Sure. Whatever. I’ll get started on the storeroom for food and stuff then. I think White said he found some salt. I’ll see.”
Isaiah nods.
The top of the tower rumbles, as the upper platform slides up another floor in height.
| New Area | |
| ~ [Dungeon] ~ | |
| Floor {4} | |
| The fourth floor of the tower dungeon. It is currently empty | |
| Capacity: {10} Monster-Points 1 TRAP | |
| Monster-Point prices per monster | |
| F-Rank: 01 | D-Rank: 04 |
| C-Rank: 08 | B-Rank: 16 |
| A-Rank: 32 | S-Rank: 64 |
| SSS-Rank: 128 | |
| The next sub-boss/challenge room will be available in {1} floors. The next boss arena will be available in {6} floors. |
Isaiah, sitting on its roost, lifts its gaze towards the sky, which is slowly coming closer and closer.
The tower is higher than the tree-line now, surpassing even the tallest trees in the forest and for the first time, the view of the landscape is entirely unobstructed. It remains true to what it had seen in its first flight.
This of course means that any with observant eyes will see the tower now too, if they are standing at the right place. For example the hills to the north. The human city is too far away, but there are many houses on the outskirts of the forest. They must be on the watch. It’s only a matter of time now.
“Hey, boss,” says an Uthra. Gray. Isaiah turns its head to look at it. “Do you want to keep the forge in the tower, or should I move it downstairs to the underground?” it asks.
Another pair of wings flies in. Crystal. “I think we should move it,” says the uthra right away. “It’s messing up the whole theme of the tower,” explains Crystal. “Floors one and two are really nice and water-themed and then all of a sudden there’s a forge. It’s not a great design.”
Gray shrugs. “I don’t really care myself. We just didn’t have an underground area before, so it was the best spot.”
Isaiah points. “If the tower is attacked, will the forge continue to be worked?”
“Hard to work when there’s some wizard there trying to blast me,” says Gray.
Isaiah nods. “Put it downstairs in a restricted zone,” commands the dungeon-core. “The construction must not stop,” it says, turning its head towards the tree, where its old nest is. The eggs haven’t hatched yet, but… “Go.”
“You got it,” says Gray and flies away with Crystal in tow.
Isaiah looks towards the sky.
They have to build faster. But it only has six uthra and it will need more intruders to defeat to grow stronger, so that it can summon more.
Isaiah has a realization.
…Maybe that’s the answer?
“Red!”
“Huh? What?” asks Red. “You want me to lure monsters in from the forest? Really?”
“Yes,” says Isaiah. “Find goblins. Find boars. Find creatures and let them know of our treasures.”
“I mean, sure, whatever, I can do that,” says Red. “I have a suggestion, though,” it says, lifting its gaze.
Isaiah lifts its head, following where it’s looking. The dark-elf is slung over a high branch on top of the very-big-tree and is still dozing off her life.
“I said no,” warns Isaiah.
“Huh? No, not that,” says Red, flying towards Isaiah. “You want more magic, right?”
Isaiah nods, deciding to ignore Red’s usual snappiness. The creature is very helpful, after all. “Yes.”
“Then why not keep her around?” it suggests, in contradiction with its prior plans. “You know how gods get their power from the people worshiping them?”
Isaiah thinks for a moment, remembering an old memory of its, back from its human life. “Yes.”
“It’s the same thing. A person can give some of their magic to a dungeon, just like they can give it to a god, or a big tree or a place or a statue or whatever.”
“Of course!” says an excited voice from the side, butting in. Crystal is back again, having popped out of some hole somewhere. “Why don’t we put a chapel outside and a prayer hall on floor three?” it asks. “That way people can worship here and we’ll get their magic for free!”
Red taps Isaiah’s head. “Think about it,” it says. “They come here, say a prayer or two and bam! We get a piece of that spiritual soul-pie before it goes up to the gods.”
Isaiah thinks for a moment. This actually sounds like a very pragmatic idea. They are a holy site, after all. So a place of worship, if not even multiple, only fits thematically and given that it will give the tower ‘free’ additional power for every person who uses them…
“Do it,” says Isaiah, looking at the drooling dark-elf. It’s hard to say if she’s a spiritual type.
But maybe there is more use for her than straight out killing her after all?
A church will need a ministry, after all.
Razmatazz
| ~ [Note for occultists]{Melusine} ~ European folklore absolutely loves river monsters that drown people.
Essentially, there isn’t a single culture In Europe that doesn’t have one, ranging from the Germanic Nixe (inspiration for Nøkk, for any R6 fans. She’s a creepy naked lady that likes to drown people), to the Greek Naiad, (who is a pretty naked lady that likes to drown people.) to the ever-famous Selkie (The monster, not the famous author of this platform) of Scottish mythology. Curiously, Selkies didn’t like to drown people, rather, they were essentially water-succubi with seal skins. They’re a whole episode in and of themselves, super weird lore. Scottland had a very strange phase for a while.
A melusine is a ’good’ spirit stemming from the western to northwestern regions of France. (Remember our last trivia about a demon in that exact area last time? Lots of spooks hanging around Normandy. It's a thing.)
They essentially look like the classic take of the mermaid legend, so half fish, half pretty woman. The name itself stems from the Latin word ’Melus’, melodious, which is a hint towards their attitude of singing. Any of you with a sharp eye might notice right away that these creatures seem to be a lot like the Sirens, of greek mythology, who would sing to lure sailors to their graves.
A key difference is though that Melusine live specifically in pure rivers and holy wells, not in the ocean. Legends say that they are docile, friendly creatures who react violently to the presence of anyone who has been tainted by a mark of evil. Particularly, they are not fond of liars and take a personal grudge against them. Like an alligator, A melusine will prefer to drag its prey underwater and drown it, rather than killing it right away.
Any others who are good, kind and honest, the melusine will not bother. But will likely also not reveal itself too either. They are held to be incredibly shy, despite their penchant for singing.
The first written use of the term ’Melusine’ stems back to 1382, in which the author alludes to it being a documentation of a wive’s tale that stems back even further to the Romans.
In many tales and artworks, melusine are depicted as also having wings, despite living in the water. If a person makes a promise to them and breaks it, they will fly away in heartbreak, never to be seen again. =( |
| “Dungeons? I love them. You know how often I’ve slept in a dungeon, for free? More times than I can count. Hell, I spent my twenties sleeping in the dungeon every night. Dangerous? Yes. Is it not a great pull for the ladies? No, it certainly is not. Unless you have a thing for the killer-eyes types. Was it worth clearing a few floors to sleep safely on floor one every night, by the dungeon-gate? I didn’t pay rent for ten years, so you tell me. Plus with the loot from the stuff I killed, I could go buy breakfast every day. Not a bad deal, right? Sure, there’s always the risk of a dungeon-breech and a bunch of level fifty monsters rushing the gate. But, well, it didn’t happen for the ten years that I was there. You may as well be worried about lightning, if you’re worried about that. Take it with a grain of salt, though. Dungeons have different tempers. Would I try to take as much as a catnap in the deadlight-graveyard, to the northwest? Hell no. Now, the southern fairy dungeon? Count me in. There’s some prime napping to be had there. That dungeon has a good attitude about life. What I’m saying is, don’t just pick your battles. Pick your beds too.” |
~ Interview with the Goudin the goblin-hunter, of the northwestern territories.
Isaiah looks down at the river, watching the fish swim around in it, just beneath the surface of the water.
Sunlight has come once again and the rains have vanished for now, leaving the forest wet and nourished. The surface of the river glistens with vivid light, catching the rays of dayglow on its ever-moving surface.
There, deep down beneath the water, a great shadow moves.
| ~ [Melusine] ~ | |
| Class: Monster | Element: Water |
| Type: Ambusher | Category: Serpent* |
| Rank: C | |
| Level: 03 | |
| Half-serpent, half-humanoid, a melusine is a spirit of holy water and rivers. Melusine are shy creatures that like to sing. If someone comes their way, however, lured in by their songs, they will hide. Melusine are very sensitive to liars and promise-breakers and will become highly aggressive towards them, coming out of hiding to attack these people with murderous intent, even if unprovoked. They have poisonous fangs, but prefer to drown their prey. | |
| [River song]: Wards all DARK and UNDEAD type entities from any area where the song can be heard. Lures all OTHER type entities towards the river. | |
| HP: 17/17 | SOUL: 35/35 |
“Not bad, right?” asks the black-winged uthra. Isiah looks at it and nods. “It got lured in by all that rotting boar meat we spread in the water,” it explains. “Not exactly what I was expecting, but maybe it likes the vibe around the tower?” suggests Black.
“Good work.” Isaiah looks back down at the thing swimming down beneath the water. The moving monster stops swimming around, feeling itself being watched. Isaiah tilts its head, curiously and then the Melusine swims away, hiding behind a rock.
Apparently it really is shy.
An odd trait for a monster to have. But maybe not all monsters are incredibly violent, brutish, aggressive things?
| ~ [Dungeon] ~ |
| Upgraded Area |
| Firepit {Level 1} to Kitchen {Level 2}! |
| A simple cooking area, offering the utility to allow preparation of more complex foods that can be used to attract monsters with a more refined taste. |
| Level {1} Effect: Allows the preparation of simple food items. Level {2} Effect: Allows the preparation of complex food items. |
| Firepit: 01% chance of summoning a FIRE-spirit every day {Holy} Beauty in Simplicity: Basic, simple meals cooked here are more restorative. |
| THIS IS A RESTRICTED AREA. NO HOSTILE INTRUDERS ARE ALLOWED INSIDE OF THE KITCHEN AREA. |
“There!” says Red. “Got it all set up.”
“Good work, Red,” praises Isaiah, looking around from above. It doesn’t actually want to go down into the kitchen, because the kitchen is below ground. Isaiah does not want to go underground. It seems like a very bad place for a creature with wings to be. The entrance is a secret door on the outside of the tower, facing the river.
“Uh, yeah,” replies the Uthra. “Anyway,” it calls up the stairs. “What’re we supposed to do with that dark-elf, exactly?” asks Red. “Killing her is still on the table.”
Isaiah shakes its head. “It is not.”
Red rolls its eyes, flying up the staircase. “You know, you can’t go soft all the time, right?” it asks, buzzing up to Isaiah. “What are you going to do when the humans show up?” it asks. “Because they’re going to and when they do, it’s going to be them or you.” Isaiah frowns, but understands.
It will be inevitable. The death of a human, if not many humans.
It needs to keep building the tower, but by doing so, the eyes of the greedy and hungry will fall towards it sooner or later. They will come here and they will take everything they can, if not destroy the tower itself in the process.
This has to be avoided at all costs.
“I understand, Red,” affirms Isaiah. “When it must happen, it will happen,” affirms the entity. “But the dark-elf is not a problem.”
Red shrugs. “Okay. Sure. Whatever. I’ll get started on the storeroom for food and stuff then. I think White said he found some salt. I’ll see.”
Isaiah nods.
The top of the tower rumbles, as the upper platform slides up another floor in height.
| New Area | |
| ~ [Dungeon] ~ | |
| Floor {4} | |
| The fourth floor of the tower dungeon. It is currently empty | |
| Capacity: {10} Monster-Points 1 TRAP | |
| Monster-Point prices per monster | |
| F-Rank: 01 | D-Rank: 04 |
| C-Rank: 08 | B-Rank: 16 |
| A-Rank: 32 | S-Rank: 64 |
| SSS-Rank: 128 | |
| The next sub-boss/challenge room will be available in {1} floors. The next boss arena will be available in {6} floors. |
Isaiah, sitting on its roost, lifts its gaze towards the sky, which is slowly coming closer and closer.
The tower is higher than the tree-line now, surpassing even the tallest trees in the forest and for the first time, the view of the landscape is entirely unobstructed. It remains true to what it had seen in its first flight.
This of course means that any with observant eyes will see the tower now too, if they are standing at the right place. For example the hills to the north. The human city is too far away, but there are many houses on the outskirts of the forest. They must be on the watch. It’s only a matter of time now.
“Hey, boss,” says an Uthra. Gray. Isaiah turns its head to look at it. “Do you want to keep the forge in the tower, or should I move it downstairs to the underground?” it asks.
Another pair of wings flies in. Crystal. “I think we should move it,” says the uthra right away. “It’s messing up the whole theme of the tower,” explains Crystal. “Floors one and two are really nice and water-themed and then all of a sudden there’s a forge. It’s not a great design.”
Gray shrugs. “I don’t really care myself. We just didn’t have an underground area before, so it was the best spot.”
Isaiah points. “If the tower is attacked, will the forge continue to be worked?”
“Hard to work when there’s some wizard there trying to blast me,” says Gray.
Isaiah nods. “Put it downstairs in a restricted zone,” commands the dungeon-core. “The construction must not stop,” it says, turning its head towards the tree, where its old nest is. The eggs haven’t hatched yet, but… “Go.”
“You got it,” says Gray and flies away with Crystal in tow.
Isaiah looks towards the sky.
They have to build faster. But it only has six uthra and it will need more intruders to defeat to grow stronger, so that it can summon more.
Isaiah has a realization.
…Maybe that’s the answer?
“Red!”
“Huh? What?” asks Red. “You want me to lure monsters in from the forest? Really?”
“Yes,” says Isaiah. “Find goblins. Find boars. Find creatures and let them know of our treasures.”
“I mean, sure, whatever, I can do that,” says Red. “I have a suggestion, though,” it says, lifting its gaze.
Isaiah lifts its head, following where it’s looking. The dark-elf is slung over a high branch on top of the very-big-tree and is still dozing off her life.
“I said no,” warns Isaiah.
“Huh? No, not that,” says Red, flying towards Isaiah. “You want more magic, right?”
Isaiah nods, deciding to ignore Red’s usual snappiness. The creature is very helpful, after all. “Yes.”
“Then why not keep her around?” it suggests, in contradiction with its prior plans. “You know how gods get their power from the people worshiping them?”
Isaiah thinks for a moment, remembering an old memory of its, back from its human life. “Yes.”
“It’s the same thing. A person can give some of their magic to a dungeon, just like they can give it to a god, or a big tree or a place or a statue or whatever.”
“Of course!” says an excited voice from the side, butting in. Crystal is back again, having popped out of some hole somewhere. “Why don’t we put a chapel outside and a prayer hall on floor three?” it asks. “That way people can worship here and we’ll get their magic for free!”
Red taps Isaiah’s head. “Think about it,” it says. “They come here, say a prayer or two and bam! We get a piece of that spiritual soul-pie before it goes up to the gods.”
Isaiah thinks for a moment. This actually sounds like a very pragmatic idea. They are a holy site, after all. So a place of worship, if not even multiple, only fits thematically and given that it will give the tower ‘free’ additional power for every person who uses them…
“Do it,” says Isaiah, looking at the drooling dark-elf. It’s hard to say if she’s a spiritual type.
But maybe there is more use for her than straight out killing her after all?
A church will need a ministry, after all.
Razmatazz
| ~ [Note for occultists]{Melusine} ~ European folklore absolutely loves river monsters that drown people.
Essentially, there isn’t a single culture In Europe that doesn’t have one, ranging from the Germanic Nixe (inspiration for Nøkk, for any R6 fans. She’s a creepy naked lady that likes to drown people), to the Greek Naiad, (who is a pretty naked lady that likes to drown people.) to the ever-famous Selkie (The monster, not the famous author of this platform) of Scottish mythology. Curiously, Selkies didn’t like to drown people, rather, they were essentially water-succubi with seal skins. They’re a whole episode in and of themselves, super weird lore. Scottland had a very strange phase for a while.
A melusine is a ’good’ spirit stemming from the western to northwestern regions of France. (Remember our last trivia about a demon in that exact area last time? Lots of spooks hanging around Normandy. It's a thing.)
They essentially look like the classic take of the mermaid legend, so half fish, half pretty woman. The name itself stems from the Latin word ’Melus’, melodious, which is a hint towards their attitude of singing. Any of you with a sharp eye might notice right away that these creatures seem to be a lot like the Sirens, of greek mythology, who would sing to lure sailors to their graves.
A key difference is though that Melusine live specifically in pure rivers and holy wells, not in the ocean. Legends say that they are docile, friendly creatures who react violently to the presence of anyone who has been tainted by a mark of evil. Particularly, they are not fond of liars and take a personal grudge against them. Like an alligator, A melusine will prefer to drag its prey underwater and drown it, rather than killing it right away.
Any others who are good, kind and honest, the melusine will not bother. But will likely also not reveal itself too either. They are held to be incredibly shy, despite their penchant for singing.
The first written use of the term ’Melusine’ stems back to 1382, in which the author alludes to it being a documentation of a wive’s tale that stems back even further to the Romans.
In many tales and artworks, melusine are depicted as also having wings, despite living in the water. If a person makes a promise to them and breaks it, they will fly away in heartbreak, never to be seen again. =( |
