Dungeon’s Path

Ally raises an eyebrow, ‘Huh, I would have figured that the workers would end up with the bonus for being commanded.’

Doyle nods, ‘A little odd, though If I had to guess, non-monsters likely don’t count for it. [System, please pull up the commander bonus thing I have.]’

{Monsters being commanded by other receive +1 to all stats and an additional bonus to their highest stat equal to a third of whichever is higher of their commanders Wisdom or Karma capped to their base stats total}

Ally, ‘Looks like you were right and I guess it would make sense. While a plus one to Strength doesn’t seem like much, that would double the worker’s Strength. Not just Strength either, all of the ants stats would double. For something like an ant that isn’t just a doubling, though. The difference between one point in a stat and two can be greater than any difference outside of zero to one.

‘After all, the system works to base everything around humans, but does an ant’s strength of one really compare to a human’s strength of one? No, of course not! So as long as a being has anything that could even be dreamt of as being Strength, they get one point of Strength. In reality, you could look at that one point as being a rounded up value. Then you give it one extra point of Strength and magically the system will bring its strength into line with what the system expects.

‘Notice how the queen has two points of Constitution? If we take what I just said and our general understanding of stats into account, my guess is that their ability to produce an entire nest worth of ants is the main drive of that stat for them. So likely if we pumped that stat a lot, the queen wouldn’t suddenly be able to regenerate as well as someone with a similar amount. Instead, the queen would likely be able to produce more and higher quality eggs.’

Doyle tilts to the side, ‘So how are we supposed to work on improving the ants? I assume I can’t dig down and find out one ant has 0.01 more Strength than another?’

Ally shrugs, ‘You weren’t using actual stats to figure out which wheat to pick. Besides, just because you can’t see the actual stat value, you can test it. Make a bunch of mini dumbbells or some such and get them to lift them. Maybe have them run around until they faint from exhaustion?’

Doyle, ‘That does make some sense. Though with the queen, I can probably start by just judging how many ants are in the nest and how well built the nest is. Sure, the quality of the workers is important, but the queen is the key.’

Ally claps her hands, ‘A good idea, however that might not be the best way to do it. Quantity is one way to judge things, but quality is also important. If you have a queen that can make a thousand workers and one that can only make a hundred but each is ten times as strong, I know which I’m picking. You need to find a balance.’

Doyle is about to say something, but pauses to think a little longer. ‘I don’t know what I want from the ants? From what I can remember, I was going to use them as a sort of go between for active floors since the queen would be a wandering boss.’

Ally nods, ‘That isn’t the worst idea, though I don’t think it fully takes advantage of the massive hivemind you’re going to have. While I haven’t looked into this sort of thing specifically as we both managed to forget it, something I will not let happen again and just as a reminder, you got those monster pattern adjustment points. But despite that, I do have some idea of how you could use this.

‘You’ve already realized that you can use it to help interfere with active floors. In fact, with enough dungeon rules, you could basically control the floors like a puppet master through your queen. In theory. Because in reality, the system wouldn’t let you. No setting up a wall of ant sensitive buttons that you can have the queen activate like some kind of haunted house attraction where you a dude scarfing down donuts is in the back and activating air jets and what have you.’

Doyle dims, ‘Wouldn’t that make the whole idea of using the queen as a go between a complete non-starter? If I can’t have the queen do stuff like that, what would be the point?’

Ally gestures at a screen. On it, the kobold boss is ordering around the other kobolds to reconfigure the town, all the while a team of delvers is poking around in the tunnels at the edge of the floor. ‘She is able to change the very structure of the floor right now. I just said you couldn’t run all the floors like some kind of puppet master.’

Doyle nods, ‘Okay, I think I understand. The bosses can do what they want on an active floor. I’m just not allowed to take direct control. So using the queen to pass on a message is fine as long as I leave the actual planning to the monsters on the floor.’

Ally smiles, ‘Exactly that, plus you can free some of those limitations depending on how you set up things. If you set the dungeon to be meant for six delvers per a floor and make it obvious, if a group tries to circumvent that, the system will look the other way. After all, this is a limit imposed by the system and not some dungeon specific limitation.

‘So with that in mind, I feel we should make use of that Adventurers Guild contract you signed up for. It isn’t just a one-sided thing. Other awakened dungeon cores have done the hard work and made sure the rules and such weren’t unfair. Now, if you gave the guild enough time, they would end up giving you a party size recommendation, but you can speed that up by informing the guild’s system directly that you’re designing your dungeon around six delvers.’

Doyle, ‘By system do you mean something similar to the system our universe now runs on?’

Ally nods, ‘Admittedly I would more liken it to a mod on top of the system, but it is capable of working even in dimensions without a system so is stand alone enough. Don’t expect anything fancy from it, though. Just recall the memory of the contract and think real hard at the guild building in town that you’re meant for six people per a floor instance.

‘While you won’t get a return message, there should be a feeling of the message being accepted. Simple as that. Oh, and don’t worry about this revealing the fact that you are awakened. Their system isn’t exactly all that powerful so how long it takes to judge a dungeon will vary by a lot. It could have come to a conclusion months ago or it could take years.

‘If I’m going to be honest, likely closer to that second one. After all, you aren’t some random instinct driven dungeon. Even a natural born core that was awake would be easier to predict than you. Anyway, the guild’s system will then inform Jim and you’ll end up free to play around a little more with people if they come in trying to break the rules. This works even if they aren’t in the guild because the Adventurers Guild will post the size limit, so even non-members will be able to see it.’

Doyle spends a moment to inform the guild’s system about his recommended party size and then sighs, ‘Now I just have to figure out what to do with the ant queens.’

Ally shrugs, ‘Keep it simple? The queen will be able to observe every floor there are ants on. Beyond that, I guess you could make a floor based around ants. Once the queen becomes a boss, you will have as many monster ants as you could want, even if she does wander away from the nest floor itself. I looked into the farm function a little more and eggs will basically end up suspended in time once you have enough monsters on the floor.’

Doyle tilts back, ‘That isn’t a bad idea. I could make it a more cramped experience. So far, the closest I’ve come to a tight space is those staircases on the third floor and they’re quite open. Plus, with monster ants, I could have them build the floor itself like I’ve had the kobolds build their town and dig out the tunnels.’

Ally laughs, ‘Just make sure the ants make the tunnels big enough. Giant ants tend to only be giant compared to regular ants, coming in more around the size of a large cat or small dog. That doesn’t exactly lend itself to tunnels big enough for humans to walk through and I don’t think many would be willing to crawl through a giant ant nest.’

Doyle chuckles at the image, ‘That would definitely be a hard stop for anyone with claustrophobia or just doesn’t like spelunking in general. I’ve seen a few tight cave exploration videos and I wouldn’t be up for that kind of nonsense. Squeezing into spaces without any assurances I won’t end up stuck.’

Ally shivers, ‘Yeah, less of a trouble for me as a fae since with enough magic our size is more of a suggestion, but not a pleasant thought. Now do you have any thoughts on how to use the queen?’

Doyle nods, ‘A little mundane, but I figure once the queen has enough of a mind and personality, she can help you with surveillance. Neither of us is even close to being able to watch everything all at once and the ants would fill in the gap for noticing more mundane things. You can catch the big things easily enough, just look for the disturbance.

‘On the other hand, it is much harder for us to notice small things like if a couple of the food farmers mention that family is visiting and plans to bring a magic item to sell here. It isn’t critical that we know this, but it would keep us from being surprised when some idiot’s sword is suddenly on fire.’

Ally, ‘That isn’t the worst idea. Though you need to think of something else as well. The hivemind aspect has a ton of potential and I’m not going to let it go to waste because of ignorance on our part. There is more we can do with the queen.’

Doyle shakes his core, ‘I don’t disagree on that. However, I suspect that we won’t be able to really dig out the full potential until we see what the queen can actually do. The path was a little lean on the actual details.

‘Sure, it is easy enough to understand that the chosen queen doesn’t have a max lifespan, will form a hivemind with a queen on each floor, and is more likely to become a wandering boss. But the details are missing from it. What does not having a max lifespan mean for a dungeon monster? After all, far as I can tell they really shouldn’t have that as long as they are in the dungeon.

‘That and how much more likely are we talking about when it says there is an increased chance of the queen becoming a wandering boss? All these plans are nice and all, but if she ends up stuck on whatever floor I make her on, that would be unfortunate and a waste of that floor’s points. Like I said, we’ll have to wait to find out.’

Ally shrugs, ‘Fair enough, though with that last part in mind, we probably should make sure to have the selected queen be on whatever floor you plan to keep her on. This will mean a new floor if you do plan to make an ant themed one. More to the point, choose an ant queen that is already a monster. I find it a lot more likely that a monster will have an easier time becoming a wandering boss than a critter.’