The Dungeon Fairy: Two Choices: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 2) by Jonathan Brooks (free e books to read .txt) 📗

group visited, then that would be Bad with a capital B.  She could probably eliminate them all once and then replace them with brand-new versions, but that would give her only another 40 CIPs from the ones that hadn’t been replaced in the current time period – which still put her nearly 700 points away.

There was no way she was going to risk trying to create 700 small traps again, as the last time she had done something like that it had cracked her Core badly.  That didn’t mean she couldn’t do at least half of that in traps and then bank the points, though.  She could easily make it up during the next month and achieve a full increase in her Level at that point.

“Don’t push it then; you have plenty of time to get stronger, and with your reduced countdown you can do it fairly quickly.  Instead of having to wait a year, you can do it every month.”

You’re right, of course.  I just have the urge to get as strong as possible, as quickly as I can, for some reason.  I know it isn’t something that is inherent in all Dungeon Cores, so this is probably just my normal Fairy personality rearing its head. 

“It’s still strange to hear you say that, by the way,” Shale said, perceptibly shuddering for a moment.  “Now, shall we figure out these exits?”

Certainly. 

Tacca got to work using her Dungeon Force to carve out a relatively large tunnel, which started near the right wall of the Boss Room and touched upon the walls of each room as it spiraled to the surface.  She didn’t create an opening up top, however, and wouldn’t until she had figured out a way to prevent access from above; what she did add was a set of relatively wide steps inside the tunnel, making the journey to the top relatively easy for anyone walking up the long staircase.  It was lit up with just as much light as the rest of the dungeon, so it was quite friendly-looking – or at least that was her perception of it.

“Ok, I think I’ve got it; it’ll take a bit of experimentation to get it right – if you can even do it, that is.  This is certainly not the way it is supposed to be used, so whether or not it can be done, well…” Shale shrugged helplessly, before he told her his plan.

Huh.  Never thought about that, but I don’t see why it shouldn’t work. 

Rotating Stone Bridge

The Rotating Stone Bridge can be inserted in any section of the dungeon, though there must be enough room for it to perform at least a 20% rotation.  The rotation on the Stone Bridge is triggered by an adjustable amount of weight applied to a single end; this trap can float freely in the air if so desired, and it need not be connected to any other section in particular.  All traps can be disabled with high-enough Disarm Trap skills.

 

Cost: 400 DF

Replacement Cost: 200 DF

Creation Time: 30 Minutes

Disarm Trap Resistance: 2

Activation Weight: 2 lbs.

Trigger Proximity: 0

Strength: 0.5

Duration: N/A

Resistance Category: Physical

Special Effects: If rotation is less than 30%, the Rotating Stone Bridge will reset to its original position automatically after 30 seconds

Normally, the Rotating Stone Bridge was meant for use in elevated sections of a dungeon that wanted to have some sort of puzzle or acrobatic portion in their designs.  The trap could be adjusted so that a certain weight – such as 2 Raiders instead of just 1 – would trigger it, dumping whoever was on it down into whatever was below, which tended to be some sort of pit or just bare floor.  It was a staple of many dungeons that wanted to have something that wasn’t inherently dangerous, but could lead to death if a Raider messed up jumps from one Bridge to another, or chose the wrong one that rotated under anything that touched it.  Not only that, but they could also be adjusted so that if one of their creatures passed over it, their weight wouldn’t trigger it, but if a Raider and the creature were on the same bridge, it would rotate and dump them both…somewhere.

Shale’s idea was to place it vertically, however – right where the entrance to the tunnel leading out would be.  If Tacca positioned it correctly, the idea was that a Raider could easily push it open with a firm shove, causing the “wall” (which was the Stone Bridge) to rotate approximately 25% so that it inserted its bottom portion inside of the tunnel, stopping when it came in contact with the ceiling of said passageway.  The group would then have 30 seconds to exit, before the trap would automatically reset itself and close up access to the room.  Granted, if someone were too slow, they could just open it again from inside the room, so it wasn’t like they would be trapped.

In theory, this seemed perfect; in reality, getting everything to line up with the right size of Rotating Stone Bridge and seamlessly incorporating it into the wall was difficult and required a lot of time, experimentation, and Dungeon Force when she had to try again and again.  Fortunately, Shale’s idea to have the trap placed vertically instead of horizontally worked without a hitch.  It was just the finer adjustments that needed some help.  In order to test it out each time, she had one of her Root Foxes jump into it feet-first, which was plenty of force to activate the 2-lb Activation Weight of the trap.  Finally, 14 hours after she had started making the exit staircase tunnels in the first place, she succeeded in creating her first exit door inside of the Boss room.  To test out whether it could be opened from the other side, Shale volunteered to watch a Mastiff try to