The Life Cycle of the Dungeon

[manfred]

Lesson 1: The dungeon worm
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I am glad to welcome the students of the dungeon-lore and give you insight into the fascinating world of the dungeon worm. You have never seen the dungeon worm ? Well, you probably never will.

The dungeon worm is one of the species which existence is hard to explain and still harder to believe. The only real manifestation and the evidence of his existence are the numerous dungeons found in the wild. You may naturally object that many of this objects are the work of Dwarves, Men, even Orks and many others. This is surely true, but the great sage and adventurer Goblinkill Everdrunk personally researched numerous underground locations in the Darken Woods and found that many dungeons could not originate from ANY known source.

Lacking another explanation, Goblinkill consulted many innkeepers and heroes to finally find an answer for this 'natural' dungeons:

The dungeon worm is never seen in the world as we know it, in his original enviroment an immaterial creature, rock being his ocean and air. How much does the fish care for anything existing outside of water? Very little, I guess.

But sometimes comes this playful creature near to the surface, near to our world, and finds a small crack which, as any dwarf can agree, may run yards deep in the stone. What does it think as it finds this bizzare element of air in its stony world? While pondering the news, sometimes it is joined by another member of its species, and they decide to explore. Adapting to a new enviroment, they materialize and begin to grow. Afraid of the world outside, they shape a lair of well-known proportions. As they eat their way through stone, they grow to their final size estimated at about 10'x10' sqare foreside, length at least 20' , though other sizes and shapes have been reported.

And so is the dungeon born, with many tunnels size of their creators, and many rooms inbetween. Given the excellent architecture, exact to the point it can be easily drawn on paper, one might consider the hypotesis of creating the dungeon as a part of a mating ritual. I leave this to you.

But be the dungeon smaller or greater, the fear of Outside becomes weaker, and there comes the day, when a way out is found and opened. (It is worth noting only one outlet/exit is consistent with the stonework of any natural dungeon, others are of another origin.)

The question remains, what happens to the dungeon worm once it leaves the dungeon? Does it adapt again and become some kind of air spirit, or maybe some monster? Or is the sky and the sun simply too much, and it returns back to life in stone? If you ever find out, or have other hypothesis, tell me.

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So much to the dungeon worm. In the next lessons we will talk about the mysterious Call of the Dungeon, and which creatures are especially susceptible to it. We will also explore the frail ecosystem which ensues from the various creatures called. And when finally stability emerges, the Call changes and humanoids with special qualities are drawn towards the dungeon. For a lack of a better term, we call them simply 'adventurers'.

[Strolen]

Guest Speaker: Raskillian Trickor on The dungeon Worm
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Hello, my name is Raskillian Trickor and I have made it my life's work to study the elusive enigma known to most scholars as the Dungeon Worm.

It is common knowledge in most circles that the Dungeon Worm grows to about 10x10x20 and my research into many a abandoned dungeon system has shown this number to be consistant. Normally there are 6x4 openings on either of the short sides that have lead us to believe that the worm must find these locations to have a high content of some life sustaining substance that precludes the necesity to leave the area and hence they grow to the standard size. It is at that point, when they reach their maximum dimesions, where scholars seem to differ on what actually happens to our feral Dungeon Worm.

Some believe that the worm reaches its critical mass and basically self-destructs and 'sheds' its huge mass. And so would explain the 6x4 opening and path out the other end of the massive metamorphisis chamber. It will then continue its travels till it finds another place where the substinance meets its criteria and it will grow again.

I am a subscriber to this sequence of events and have a further hypothesis on what happens to the shedded mass left behind.

It is my firm belief that these remains hold magical and monetary properties. It is quite obvious that these dungeons usually have many magical items and, very often, monetary substance much beyond the obvious means of any creatures that may use the created system as their home. The adventurers interviewed have attested to this interesting fact.

The remains of the Dungeon Worm are obviously turning into gold and, depending on the chemical makeup of the earch the worm devours, magic items. How does this work? Well I have come up with the reason. The dungeon worm must be made up of Huthanite and it uses Jikulist to breakdown the earth to digest and absorb it. Huthanite is an epidermal chemical used for ease of movement through the newly created passages and Jikulist is an  acid throughout the inner organs to deteriorate and absorb the nutrients taken from the earth. When the skin is shed these two chemicals combine and I have repeated these results in the lab to a minimal effect. It is only because every moment Jikulist is exposed to air it become less potent, and that is the key, the quick interaction with the almost pure Jikulist.

Different combinations of these two chemicals can create anything from a +1 magical sword, to a small pile of gold, to a ring of healing. Through time the coins will become coin shaped from the bonding properties of the two chemicals. Similiar reasoning will explain the formation of the magical items, all tied to the chemical bonding properties of the two combined chemicals and the amount of time the Jikulist is allowed to air. All the initial occupants have to do is collect this wealth and they have a ready made, liveable, underground fortress.

[DaWergyling]

Guest Speaker: Bornhald Rurik
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Ah yes! The Dungeon Worm! Er,   what trickor said! Ummm...  Wheres that passage....  AHA!  
                Often, there are also jewels and other crystalline valuables along with the treasure as well. It turns out, that, juvenile dungeon worms, when going through a stage of growth, create the chemicals Uernath and Etherian. The Uernath molecules seem to form a weak lattice, whereas Etherian, if it seeps into it quickly enough, to the exposed Uernath, serves as "glue" to the Etherian molecules, and also adds various coloration, depending on what the dungeon worm just ate. The untreated Uernath crystals are, if not mixed, mistaken for miscellanious slime. Anyway, I'm just craving some Raspberry Cheesecake right now....

[Ria Hawk]

Guest Speaker: Merrinjal Atimos

While the theories that my esteemed collegues have admirably explained the structure of and the items found within a typical dungeon, the question remains: what of the dungeon wyrm itself?  No dungeon explored has ever been found to contain one.  However, the loo... I mean, adven... I mean explorers usually encounter other creatures in the dungeon wyrm's lair.  One theory is that these creatures move into abandoned tunnels, and that seems valid.  But my personal theory is that in the later stages of the dungeon wyrm's life cycle, it goes through a metamorphosis, much like a caterpillar.  Only instead of turning into a butterfly, the wyrm changes into an ogre, wyvern, dragon, or some other type of nasty behemoth of the type commonly found in most dungeons.   The creature it becomes is determined by the environment, the type of stone the dungeon wyrm has burrowed through, and several other factors.  In fact, I suspect that more dungeon wyrms have been slaughtered by treasure- or excitment-seeking adventurers than we have previously believed existed.

[manfred]

Nice theories.

I am but still not sure, why should one worm change into this creature, and another into that one. Maybe it changes in only one type of creature, to be later killed or pushed aside by some newcomer. Or it does not transform at all, maybe it just returns to its former shape...

Could it be, as some philosophers claim, that the number of all possible shapes and life forms is limited? I don't know. Otherwise, thus born life forms might be absolutely different from all we know! If it is not so, perhaps it could be recognized from that ogre, wywern or dragon, in having a different mind-set from those originals. A friendly dragon that does not hoard treasure? 'doh.


Yes, fear of the Outside is great. But eventually the Outside comes in. We have not yet considered the (theoretical) intelligence of our worm. It could be possible, that it stays behind to watch the behaviour of all creatures that come inside. This implicates a scientifical mind, and interests beyond its own living space. This also implicates some neutrality in the mind of the watcher. It was not yet observed that such a creature would intervene into any of those blessed dungeon activities, like looting and killing. But old experienced dungeon-delvers claim that as soon they enter some  underground areas (known as dungeons), they feel slightly paranoical. May be a natural effect. May be that someone really watches you...

[Kassil]

Guest Speaker Eriol Rivenwill

While the existence of the dungeon worm cannot be disputed - there is a question of those few dungeons which are clearly not of make by either Worm or mortal race.

My own personal hypothesis - which is supported by the presence of those rare dungeons which do not meet stanrdard dungeon worm dimensions - is that there is a peculiar sub-breed of the worm which seeks out stone which bears the mineral Elemite - a substance which sustains worms without them growing. Often, these veins wind about in elaborate fashions, and branch off, giving rise to the mysterious labyrinth dungeons, which never conform to the classic size and often are scarce of treasure and open rooms alike...

[Grimalkin]

Grimalkin's Treasury of Great Recipes, page 973

Take a slice of a dungeon worm which is no older than 35 years of age and put it in a mixture of autumn honey and dried chervil. Let it stay in a dark place, with moonlight protruding directly from above, for three days during the second week after full moon. Then take out and bake on heated stones for a considerable period of time, until it develops a greenish crunchy look.
Season with salt and/or black pepper according to your preferences.

[Strolen]

Shameless bump.