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[m1895]

Cymbalic Rats
In keeping with our musical theme (and our budget), we've modified some of the rats that infest our dungeon.
Slightly larger than the average rat, a Cymbalic rats most striking feature is the razor sharp cymbal that grows out of its tail. This Cymbal can be used to slice and dice protagonists, and they instinctively smack it against the ground to the beat of that particular dungeon floor.

[Screech9791]

Cymbalic Rats
a Cymbalic rats most striking feature is the razor sharp cymbal that grows out of its tail.

Is the cymbal made of flesh, bone, or metal?

[TricMagic]

Backup Rats

The Duke has a number of rats specialized in stealth, with some magical ability to strike when the beat is high unseen by others. On the high, their speed and stealth is impressive. On the low they dance. Either way they serve the Duke in the boss battle.

[Failbird105]

Effectively a repurposed Dwarven mining machine, the Ironwrought Groundshaker is large contraption with four pounding piston arms on all sides of it. The Groundshaker will pound to the floors rhythm(and also influence said rhythm to a more comfortable speed via its presence on the floor). While these pounds are not aimed at adventurers themselves, they will shake the ground with great force. Effectively forcing the adventurer to move in time with the rhythm lest they be sent sprawling to the floor. And once down, the constant beat will leave them struggling to right themselves.

Of course, there have been two notable problems with this device: First is that it does no damage on its own, meaning it must be paired with either monsters or other traps in order to be more than a nuisance. Secondly is that our own monsters are not immune to its effects. Indeed, any monster that is not flying, swimming, or rooted to the ground will be just as vulnerable to this machines effects as the adventurers will. While monsters who have been tuned to fight to the floors rhythm will be better equipped to handle it, as will low-standing wide-set quadrupeds(like rats, if they were somewhat larger and proportionally wider), it can still have an effect on them, albeit reduced.

The Duke of Rats could honestly work, he simply doesn't have what he needs to make him the best he can be. Or at least, that's what we've been told. We do however see how this proposal could benefit other bosses in the future however, so we will go along with it.

The Prop-Stands are a 'Trap', in that this is what they function most closely to, and while they can certainly be used on their own, it would be more accurate to say they are a feature to be used in our bosses. Effectively, the Prop-Stands are a series of lines cut out of the floor, walls, and ceiling of a room. From these lines, can emerge wooden cutouts shaped and painted to look like various things. These cutouts do several things: 1. They act as distractions for the Adventurers, 2. They can be hid behind by monsters(or technically adventurers too, but we/the bosses control the Props, so we can limit their opportunities to do so) to block attacks, and 3. They can have sharp objects attached to their edges to make for an impromptu death trap.

As we've said, this Trap is primarily made for enhancing boss rooms, and as such while we will have to make other bosses with it built in unless we want to spend extra time afterwards implementing it, this initial go at creating it pre-installs the Prop-Stands into the Duke of Rats boss chamber.

While the Duke of Rats may not be effective, his dances are fun and amuse us greatly. As such, we've deigned to give him assistance in the endeavor of actually beating adventurers. Enter, the Phantoms(of the Operat). These intelligent masked rats are... well, just that. Intelligent rats in masks. Intelligent Rats in Masks that can stand and act upright effectively, but still.

The goal of these rats is to use their intelligence and superior minds to allow them to effectively coordinate their attacks in time with the Duke's performance, without becoming fully caught up in the performance themselves. With what time we had left after making them smart and bipedal(and crafting their adorable little masks), we gave them little knives as well(did you know that rats have forepaws that can function effectively as hands? Thank goodness we won't have to make hands ourselves).

As these Phantoms are specifically made to assist the Duke, they won't be seeing deployment outside of the Dukes own chamber. Not to mention, well, physically, they're no bigger, stronger, or tougher than our regular rats.

Two designs for later, and a revision for this turn.

[m1895]

Cymbalic Rat (1): m1895
Phantoms of The Operat (1): m1895

[Failbird105]

Cymbalic Rat (2): m1895, Failbird
Phantoms of The Operat (2): m1895, Failbird

[frostgiant]

Cymbalic Rat (3): m1895, Failbird, Frostgiant
Phantoms of The Operat (3): m1895, Failbird,Frostgiant

[Naturegirl1999]

Gregarious Rats
When rats are too far away from each other, they will focus on getting closer to others, this can cause smaller swarms to combine into a larger swarm

[a1s]

Cymbalic Rat (4): m1895, Failbird, Frostgiant, a1s
Phantoms of The Operat (3): m1895, Failbird,Frostgiant

[TricMagic]

Cymbalic Rat (4): m1895, Failbird, Frostgiant, a1s
Phantoms of The Operat (4): m1895, Failbird,Frostgiant, TricMagic

[Naturegirl1999]

Cymbalic Rat (5): m1895, Failbird, Frostgiant, a1s, NG1999
Phantoms of The Operat (5): m1895, Failbird,Frostgiant, TricMagic

these are much better

[AnonymousSpeed]

Rats Birthday Mixtape
The Duke of Rats leads his minions in a performance of the Rats Birthday Mixtape and presents the protagonists with a poisoned cake. It is entirely possible for less savvy protagonists to get swept up in the festive performance and indulge in dessert even if it's not their birthday or their name isn't Michael.

[Man of Paper]

Proposal: Cymbalic Rat
Difficulty: Normal
Result: (4+3)+1=8, Average

Right, so that mad wizard what fucked with the rats is actually a board member of the Dungeon Design Bureau. So surprise! More rats! A good percentage of the largest rats we could wrangle were horribly and freakishly mutated in an unspeakable manner - their tails grew metal cymbals at the ends! The Cymbalic Rats drag these cymbals around against the floor to hone the edges at all times.

They're simple creatures, but in-tune with the dungeon enough that they smack their cymbals against the walls and floor to the beat of that level of the dungeon. This could potentially help smarter creatures keep time, should they need to for some reason. Cymbalic Rats can be placed on Four Floors.

Cymbalic Rats add the Brass Frisbee to the Protagonist's Common loot table. It is a single-use item that temporarily stuns an entire room when thrown, but is immediately discarded as the racket it causes is as annoying to the user as everyone else 


Proposal: Phantoms of the Operat
Difficulty: Hard
Result: (6+6)-1=11, Masterwork

No performance is complete without back-up dancers, and the Phantoms of the Operat are the best-of-the-best! Not only do they dance to complement their lead dancer (the Duke of Rats, obviously), but they also let him keep the spotlight to do naught but dance! While the Duke dances, the Phantoms move gracefully around the room, utilizing shadows to strike at any intruder and threat to the Duke. Their daggers are keen and their attitudes are mean, but they are dear to the Duke. As such, when a Phantom falls the Duke stops dancing in shock, throwing the rest of the Phantoms off-step and providing an opponent a brief opening to attack the Duke directly.

Phantoms of the Operat will always appear alongside the Duke of Rats.

Phantoms of the Operat add the LEGENDARY Loot known as Erik's Gold Ring. Originally owned by some ass-ugly basement-dweller, Erik's Gold Ring now grants dungeongoers the ability to charm one mook per floor. The charmed mook does not leave the floor and probably runs off with a Persian once the wearer is out of sight.



It is now the planning phase! You guys get the funner phase here! This is the phase where you'll construct the dungeon every turn, with each floor, boss, trap, and mook assignments being decided here. Since you only have one floor, use this phase to figure out a format for proposing future dungeon layouts! Right now your only choice with variance will be which boss to use, but you may also decide not to deploy some of your mobs if you want to pull some punches.

Also, for funsies, give your dungeon a name!

Spoiler: Dungeonmancer Caches (click to show/hide)

Floors:
Basic General Dungeon Floor (1st Floor): A basic, normal, completely standard dungeon floor. Can house the most basic enemies. Has 2 Chest Rooms. Has 1 Trap Room. Has 1 Exit guarded by a Level 1 Boss.

Rooms:
Novice's Folly: Trap Room. Consists of an empty chest in the middle of a large room. Also, there is a massive pit around the chest. The pet seems to always be juuuust too wide to jump over, resulting in immediate death. Will not fool Protagonists too often.

Creatures:
Rats: Rats, the bane of dungeon keepers everywhere, everywhen. Fortunately you're smart enough to utilize them! A basic, weak unit individually, but can eventually wear down the unprepared adventurer. Deploys on All Floors automatically. Note: Assigning any other low-level creature to a level will replace the rats.

Cymbalic Rats: Larger-than-usual-for-us rats with sharp metal cymbals fused into their tails. Angry and dangerous. While not common enough to be ubiquitous, they can be deployed on Four Floors.

Musical Eyezor: An eye on a pedestal that fires a laser when it's armor is open. The eye opens on a musical beat dependent on the floor it's on. Can be deployed on 2 Floors. Will not frequently appear in most rooms of the floors it's assigned to.

Bosses:
Rat King: Level I Boss. No matter where you go, you can always count on rats. Wherever rats appear in large numbers, you can guarantee their biggest, baddest, most charismatic rat will lead them to victory or defeat. The Rat King is the size of your average Protagonist. Strong, fast, and armed with mean teeth and cute claws.

The Duke of Rats: Level I Boss. A musically-inclined Ratman who fancies himself a dancer, not a fighter. Dancing will summon Phantoms of the Operat and confound enemies. Phantoms of the Operat attack enemies from the shadow while the Duke dances. Phantoms will repeatedly sacrifice themselves to save the Duke, so the Duke can only be damaged when a Phantom is killed and he is stunned due to the crippling sadness of loss.

[m1895]

First Floor Boss
The Duke of Rats: (1) m1895
Dungeon Name
Monster Mash: (1) m1895
Pull No Punches: (1) m1895

[Failbird105]

First Floor Boss
The Duke of Rats: (2) m1895, Failbird
Dungeon Name
Monster Mash: (2) m1895, Failbird
Pull No Punches: (2) m1895, Failbird