Little Lost Dungeon

[Merior]

Also, Core is best core... prettiest and shinest! Also, cutest!

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Spoiler: Response

 

[Candesce]

I'd like to call out the newest item in our cute little core's inventory:

[ Full Neural Mapping (Etsuko Ableson) ]

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Dunno what we might ever be able to do with that, but if the crossout just means we don't know how to do anything with it, rather than it being damaged somehow or not being storable long-term, I smell potential.

I wonder how that meshes with the existence of souls?

 

[Merior]

I wonder how that meshes with the existence of souls?

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This hits up against the limits, and holes, in the Core's knowledge of "stuff". Fixing Etsuko's mana, having someone die in your dungeon, or making a [ Boss ] contract would also teach you different things in regards to souls though for what should be obvious reasons.

(Less obvious is that one possible result of "Open the Door" would give you some interesting insights to souls as well.)

 

[Candesce]

Fixing Etsuko's mana, having someone die in your dungeon, or making a [ Boss ] contract would also teach you different things in regards to souls though for what should be obvious reasons.

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It seems likely that at least one of these will happen in the near future.

... Possibly even all three.

 

[Aoinfinity]

[X] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)
[X] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)
[X] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
[X] Give her a class. (5 Mana.)
[X] Sort out her mana. (5 Mana. Incompatible with "Open the Door". Requires Upgrade her class.)

 

[Gaemnomut]

The whole soul thing reminds me a bit of that anime with the magical girls that tirn into witches. I never watched it, but didn't they store their souls outside their bodies as well?

I'll quickly confirm that isn't an error on my part. If the Core wasn't preoccupied with things then the gain might have been noticed IC.

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I wonder how we got those extra mana points. Just from a delver entering the dungeon?

Spoiler: Typos and stuff

away, some of your precious EXP vanishing to provide the opening, and you suddenly (k)new that you had a voice!

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, I (was) just was bored, and wasn't paying attention..."

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It wasn't you, you had worked out that much, and so whatever it was wouldn't get to get your Etsuko.

So there whatever had gotten your Etsuko like this.(??)

Nananana.

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Not sure what to vote for yet.

 

[DIT_grue]

Best core needs to get to know best delver Boss-candidate. Obviously signing up with us will solve all her problems! And only the best possible upgrades for our first minion.
[x] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)
[x] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)
[x] Open the Door. (20 Mana. 1 EXP. Empower her with something useful from another dimension.)


OOC: Hmm, there are some obvious groupings here. First, note that mention of "solving the maze in time" even though IC we don't know of any time limit - the Bakuda hypothesis (or something like it) just ticked up in plausibility.

Could grab for everything that isn't incompatible, and let the dice fall where they may, which seems to be popular so far.

[ ] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)
[ ] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
This is the "fix the problems she recognises in her situation" set, and with hurrying her through the maze stands a decent chance of resolving the situation and thus still earning friendship even without pestering distracting talking to her. Trying to add anything else makes it all too likely we flub the critical roll and end up with a new paint scheme for our efforts. Probably works because just Healing with our present information wouldn't address the problem, but is necessary (or at least closely related) to the solution.

[ ] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)
[ ] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)
Here we have the "change the situation so the problems don't apply" option. Results in Friends Forever, although the adjustment period may be a doozy. Could add some extra shinies if you like; whether or not they succeed, they probably won't penalise the important rolls (since that isn't mentioned). Does carry a greater risk of not getting any chance to help.

[ ] Open the Door. (20 Mana. 1 EXP. Empower her with something useful from another dimension.)
If we are in Worm, this has a decent chance of effectively forcing a Trigger even if she's not capable of one, with possibly weird and/or amusing results. (Whether or not that leads to regretting everything depends on which setting's genre rules are in effect; in guessing that, the chipper brightness of our core's narration is hopefully more important than the way it is often obviously forced.) Even without that, this is the lottery option.

 

[Happerry]

[X] Plan Bii

 

[lot]

[X] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)

[X] Open the Door. (20 Mana. 1 EXP. Empower her with something useful from another dimension.)
[X] Sort out her mana. (5 Mana. Incompatible with "Open the Door". Requires Upgrade her class.)

 

[Alexander]

[X]Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)

[X] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)
[X] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
[X] Give her a class. (5 Mana.)
[X] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)

 

[Gaemnomut]

[x] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)
[X] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)
[X] Full heal. (5 Mana.)

 

[prandom]

[X] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)
[X] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
[X] Give her a class. (5 Mana.)
[X] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)

 

[Biigoh]

Merior... Given how sparse the benefits are... Could you expand on benefits of the choices?

 

[Merior]

Merior... Given how sparse the benefits are... Could you expand on benefits of the choices?

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I can in part, but there is a lack of IC knowledge on some points. Unless mentioned the below assumes that relevant rolls will be successful.

[!] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)

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This deals with the fiddle/weird stuff which might be wrong with Etsuko. The bonus is due to it being easier if the Core focuses on 'fixing' her in all aspects.

[!] Full heal. (5 Mana.)

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This will fix basically anything which isn't important enough to be a status effect (and, although not relevant in her case, a few of those like [Bleeding]). That missing HP in her sheet? Restored. Her 'equipment' is worn or ripped? Fixed. Does she have split ends or dry hair? Not any longer...!

[!] Give her a class. (5 Mana.)

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This is something of a metaphysical 'patch'. Etsuko will gain a class with any relevant benefits and, although perhaps not visible to the Core, EXP and XP will start to be tracked for her.

[!] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)

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This, as mentioned above, makes her a boss and the Core knows that bosses respawn. However our Core isn't sure what other benefits come with being a boss. (Although any type of boss does count as a monster...)

[!] Open the Door. (20 Mana. 1 EXP. Empower her with something useful from another dimension.)

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This is the "IMMA DUNGEON, MY RULES HERE!" option. By accessing multiple dimensions until something useful turns up and applying it, in a Gatcha type process, it should effectively cover both sorting out Etsuko's mana and giving her a class.

Marginal success would just give Etsuko something which there is a strong connection to (a rarer or more 'exotic' class from the type of world the Core should have settled into or hijacking something from the current one). Better successes could get... interesting.

[!] Sort out her mana. (5 Mana. Incompatible with "Open the Door". Requires Upgrade her class.)

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Poke that soul until it works right. Poke it! Combined with Etsuko having a class this would not just give her a proper number on her sheet, but also kick recovery for her HEALTH and MANA into gear.

[!] Spawn a piece of Boss loot. (20 Mana. Penalty due to limited loot [Patterns]. May grant pattern.)

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The expensive, but 'traditional', option which draws on why Cores were made and so is hard to mess up. It generates a Boss drop ex nihilo which would be useful to the recipient. The item would be based on either something from the Core's 'native' dimensions or the local one.

 

[Candesce]

This is the "IMMA DUNGEON, MY RULES HERE!" option. By accessing multiple dimensions until something useful turns up and applying it, in a Gatcha type process, it should effectively cover both sorting out Etsuko's mana and giving her a class.

Marginal success would just give Etsuko something which there is a strong connection to (a rarer or more 'exotic' class from the type of world the Core should have settled into or hijacking something from the current one). Better successes could get... interesting.

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That's actually a lot more tempting than I thought it'd be.

To doublecheck my understanding - if we gave Etsuko a class directly, she'd get a class appropriate to the world we're in, much as the wallet was a minor loot drop appropriate to the world we're in, where "open the door" is much more of a wildcard?

 

[Merior]

That's actually a lot more tempting than I thought it'd be.

To doublecheck my understanding - if we gave Etsuko a class directly, she'd get a class appropriate to the world we're in, much as the wallet was a minor loot drop appropriate to the world we're in, where "open the door" is much more of a wildcard?

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A class related to either the world the Core is currently connected to or the world that the Core originated from. A random example from one side might be [Student] (as she is still learning) while one from the other might be [Knight] (due to her convictions).

You are correct in that "Open the Door" is more of a wildcard while potentially more spectacular on either success or failure.

 

[Candesce]

A class related to either the world the Core is currently connected to or the world that the Core originated from.

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Ah, ok.

Thank you for the clarification.

 

[shaderic]

[X] Plan Bii

 

[1986ctcel]

[X] Plan Bii

social is fun.

 

[Xicree]

[X] Plan Bii
[X] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)
[X] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)
[X] Open the Door. (20 Mana. 1 EXP. Empower her with something useful from another dimension.)
[X] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
[X] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)

 

[Prester Fred]

[X] Plan Bii.

 

[Merior]

Spoiler: Tally Results

Vote Tally : Little Lost Dungeon | Page 4 | Questionable Questing
##### NetTally 1.7.10.1

[X] Plan Bii
[X] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)
[X] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)
[X] Open the Door. (20 Mana. 1 EXP. Empower her with something useful from another dimension.)
[X] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
[X] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)
No. of Votes: 6

Spoiler: Voters

Plan: ◈Bii
1986ctcel
Biigoh
Happerry
Prester Fred
shaderic
Xicree

[X] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)
[X] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)
[X] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
[X] Give her a class. (5 Mana.)
[X] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)
No. of Votes: 3

Spoiler: Voters

Anaja
Alexander
macdjord

[X] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)
[X] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)
[X] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
[X] Give her a class. (5 Mana.)
[X] Sort out her mana. (5 Mana. Incompatible with "Open the Door". Requires Upgrade her class.)
No. of Votes: 2

Spoiler: Voters

Seventeen
Aoinfinity

[X] No. (Grants Etsuko a bonus to solving the maze in time.)
[X] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
[X] Give her a class. (5 Mana.)
[X] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)
No. of Votes: 1

Spoiler: Voters

LordPanther14

[X] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)
[X] Give her a class. (5 Mana.)
[X] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)
No. of Votes: 1

Spoiler: Voters

Robotninja

[X] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)
[X] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana)
[X] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
[X] Give her a class. (5 Mana.)
[X] Sort out her mana. (5 Mana. Incompatible with "Open the Door". Requires Upgrade her class.)
No. of Votes: 1

Spoiler: Voters

Latewave

[x] No. (Grants Etsuko a bonus to solving the maze in time.)
[x] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)
[x] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
No. of Votes: 1

Spoiler: Voters

Candesce

[x] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)
[x] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)
[x] Open the Door. (20 Mana. 1 EXP. Empower her with something useful from another dimension.)
No. of Votes: 1

Spoiler: Voters

DIT_grue

[X] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)
[X] Open the Door. (20 Mana. 1 EXP. Empower her with something useful from another dimension.)
[X] Sort out her mana. (5 Mana. Incompatible with "Open the Door". Requires Upgrade her class.)
No. of Votes: 1

Spoiler: Voters

lot

[x] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)
[X] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)
[X] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
No. of Votes: 1

Spoiler: Voters

Gaemnomut

[X] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)
[X] Full heal. (5 Mana.)
[X] Give her a class. (5 Mana.)
[X] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)
No. of Votes: 1

Spoiler: Voters

prandom

Total No. of Voters: 19

Spoiler: Rolls

[X] Yes. (Roll to obtain small social bonuses toward Etsuko.)

ETSUKO rolls 79 vs [30+0 LVL +10 Ordinary] = Failure (3)​

[X] Offer her a contract as a [ Boss ]. (Free as no current bosses. Bonus if "Yes" was picked. Bosses respawn.)

Rolled 33 vs [30+1 LVL +5 Bonus +0 Challenging] = CRITICAL SUCCESS (0)​

[X] Open the Door. (20 Mana. 1 EXP. Empower her with something useful from another dimension.)

Rolled 13 vs [30+1 LVL +10 Affinity +0 Challenging] = Success (1)​

[X] Full heal. (5 Mana.)

Rolled 41 vs [30+1 LVL +20 Routine] = Success (1)​

[X] Erase all negative status effects. (0 Mana. Hard. Bonus to roll paired with "Full heal" only.)

Rolled 68 vs [30+1 LVL -10 Difficult] = Failure (4)​

Spoiler: Notes

Ouch.

The small bonus from talking to Etsuko made a real difference in the offer of the contract, pushing it from failure to success, and that being a critical (i.e. doubles on the roll) is nice.

However this needs to balance out how badly she did traversing the maze and the Core did even worse to safely erase those negative status effects.

 

[Candesce]

Oh boy.

Edit: Err, not that it really matters given how poorly we rolled - but I don't see the bonus for pairing the status cure with full heal?

Or would the difficulty be even higher, otherwise?

 

[Biigoh]

.....

Oh noes...

 

[Merior]

Err, not that it really matters given how poorly we rolled - but I don't see the bonus for pairing the status cure with full heal?

Or would the difficulty be even higher, otherwise?

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Um, why would you get the bonus? That was if you paired it with the full heal "only", but the vote included other things (the boss offer/transformation and Open the Door). It would have been gotten if the Core focused on "fixing her everything" in both respects without the distraction of other stuff.

I do apologise if that wasn't clear enough.

 

[Candesce]

Um, why would you get the bonus? That was if you paired it with the full heal "only"

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Oh!

Ok, got it. My misreading.

 

[Anaja]

I do apologise if that wasn't clear enough.

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Yeah, I had read it as Full Heal being the only thing that gave a bonus.

Might have voted differently if that had been clearer.

 

[Candesce]

Might have voted differently if that had been clearer.

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I did end up voting in a way that would have gotten the bonus, but given the rolls we got I can't say I would have preferred the end result that'd have produced.

 

[LordPanther14]

Two young kids.
One a lost girl.
The other a lost dungeon.
Together they will find themselves.
The result won't be pretty.

 

[Merior]

❤ Best Friends For Life! ❤​

Etsuko looked at the phrase written on her wrist in already fading glitter pen, at the hearts flanking the words, then pushed back her sleeve back down again. Marie had written it during lunch the day before using all the colours she had in her bag.

But that seemed so long ago, so far back, and her stomach twisted as she remembered giggling and how her biggest worry had been it smearing on her blouse before it dried.

Taking a deep breath Etsuko started forward again, her nice shoes making little noise even on the concrete floor of the 'storeroom'. An array of empty shelves, locked cupboards, dented lockers, and more formed the 'passage' that she picked her away along. Bare bulbs dangled down from a ceiling far over head, the harsh light showing the way forward and back, and the air was uncomfortably cool.

A small corner of Etsuko's mind pointed out that if she wanted to then she could have been somewhere more comfortable. She could have been in class. Passing notes to Marie or maybe sneaking looks at Darren...

Yet being in class with Marie, Darren, or even Mrs Hutchkin was the last place she wanted to be now.

She'd wanted to run, she'd wanted to beg for it to stop, but after that innocuous little pop her body wouldn't move. They'd dragged her in from the street, scraping her knee bloody, and now there was someone doing something and there was a weird high pitched whine.

Then something was cutting her..

They were cutting her head!

It hurt so much and she wanted to beg mommy, to beg anyone, just to make it stop.

But she still couldn't move...!​

Etsuko pushed down the memory before the tears could well up in her eyes and took a deep breath. Class wasn't the last place, she corrected herself, but it was one she needed to avoid now. After all Mom, Marie, Darren, and everyone else couldn't help her.

But, even if her head still hurt so much it was hard to think, she knew that she could help them if she just stayed far enough away...

"You can do it! It's not too far now!"

The sourceless voice sounded cheerful, far too upbeat, but Etsuko could catch a hint of worry in it as it tried to encourage her.

"I think you said that a few minutes ago." She tiredly pointed out then bit back a curse as she reached a dead end and was forced to retrace her steps to the last junction.

"...I did?" The voice asked, sounded so confused and guilty than Etsuko almost giggled.

"You did." She confirmed, pausing to remember which turnings she'd already taken. The ache at the back of her head was a distraction so, in the end, she just picked at random. "So, are you going to tell me what is really going on?"

"You're in a maze, trying to get to the center, so I can give you the [Prizes]." The voice stated, seemingly happy to be back on ground which was familiar to it.

The mention of [Prizes] was not familiar to Etsuko though. The way the word seemed to resonate in her thoughts was also... odd.

"I get a pri- I mean [Prizes]?" She asked, a little surprised when she managed to somewhat mimic the strange undertones of the word. She'd never been good at languages.

In the back of her mind the teen marked this up as more evidence for 'weird Leet thing' rather than 'really weird dying hallucination'. After a moment she also marked it as evidence against this being 'weird cape thing' because, really, she wasn't a believer in any sort of parahuman being nice any more.

Not with that bitch (she flinched, but none of the teachers could hear if she said it in her head) Bakuda as an counter example...

"Yes." The voice agreed eagerly, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. "I'm supposed to give some sort of [Prize] when someone wins an' you're nice an' my first delvers so I should be really nice to you."

It startled Etsuko that, in the middle of her despair and grim determination, there was still a vague spark of curiosity to be found. "What sorts of things would a [Prize] be?"

"Um, good ones?" The voice offered hesitantly

Another dead end and Etsuko turned back again. A part of her was tempted to simply sit down, to rest her back against the cold metal of a locker, and just wait until... it happened.

But walking through the maze, listening to the voice which might have just been in her imagination, at least gave her something to focus on.

"Imgonnatrytomakeyoubetter." The voice suddenly added, seemingly disconcerted by Etsuko's silence.

The hurried words took a moment for the girl to parse and she wrinkled her nose (Marie was always saying not to do that…), "'Better'?"

"You're sad and… and [Moribund]." The voice offered, the last word ringing oddly but one which Etsuko recognised.

'Moribund'. It was German, she remember it from somewhere, and meant 'death bound'.

A soft giggle escaped her lips, "I'm going to be so pissed if this is some sort of E88 initiation thing."

A soft beep sounded, making her skull ache, and Etsuko's giggle cut off suddenly. She knew she wasn't thinking properly, she knew she'd been thinking even less clearly when she'd been told about what was in her head, but she remembered what she'd been told about that sound.

"So, can you give me some help with the maze?" She asked of the voice, "Or, if not, maybe you can tell me about yourself?"

"Oh." The voice sounded startled. "I could do that? I mean, I can do that!"

Etsuko didn't bother hiding her smile and simply listened as the voice began giving directions, along with comments about the 'really neat maze!'. She was going to play along because, if nothing else, it was an amusing hallucination to have before she died.

Even as she started to walk she checked her wrist again, reminding herself of why she had come so far out of the way rather than do what she was told to do. What could have kept her alive.

❤ Best Friends For Life! ❤​

"I can't get away, Marie," Etsuko thought, wishing her words towards her friend. "But they're not going to make me drag you or Mom or even Daphne and her Empire bullshit into this…"

"I'll die first."​