#Dungeon23 week 4: Filling in the blanks: Bird Food and Prototypes

 This is week 4 of my #Dungeon23 entrees:

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Basically rounding out what I've established in the prior weeks and getting ready for level 2. 

Discussion

Though I don't know if I am any good at it, I like dungeon ecology in principle. If the dungeon is a place with an internal logic which players can use against it, that internal logic needs to be accesible and basic questions about food, water and waste are accessible. I can see how one could go completely overboard with this, and I know that I probably would if the challenge wasn't to do only one room a day. Not everything needs a hard answer I feel (I don't know who rammed the metal spikes into the stone that the birds use to store their captured prey), but giving some of it some basic thought gives players an opportunity to scheme more easily I think. Or at least, it makes it easier for me to answer the sorts of questions scheming players might ask on the fly.

Because of the location (building sticking out of a lake), fresh water and waste disposal are really easy. The Little Helpers just poop and pee off of the building into the water and get their drinking water from there as well (though probably not the exact same spot). As they steal I don't need to think much about food either: their provisions are just stolen goods. 

The Frogs mostly live off of the prison and eat whatever they can catch in the water. They really only use the prison as a relatively safe place to store their eggs. 

The Birds just shit wherever, are based on shrieks (like all birds in fantasy games...) and thus store their food on spikes. They probably hunt most of their food fromt he surrounding forest, though I imagine if they can get a frog to not explode, or a human that doesn't put up much of a fight they'll take it. 

Ventilation and light aren't really problems for this first level yet, but I'll have to consider that more once I get to lower levels, especially ones still inhabited. I was thinking adding ventilation shafts running through the bits of the building that are now wastes of space. For example, the bit between the stairs of Mon 23 and the T-junction of Fri 26, and the four corners of each of the two stadiums. 

I'm probably forgetting a bunch of stuff that should go into a stadium that people visit to witness the trials and punishments of criminals (if you are put on trial you must have at least done something worth punishment). This will be a good practice in making stuff without caring too much about how good it will end up being first time around. I can always polish whatever comes out of this some other time if I feel like it. 

Predator Bird

Size: Condor
Speed: On foot: Chicken; Flying: Hawk
Intelligence: Corvid
Disposition: Calculating

• Diving snatch: Will dive down from great hight to snatch up prey. Usually banking that the sudden acceleration will stun their target. When it doesn't, they drop it from dangerous hight and try again. 
• Gentle fist: Their paws have no real talons, making it near impossible for them to tear flesh off with them. They can use them to play with eachother in ways that would otherwise be unsafe.
  
• Crafty problemsolvers: Use simple tools to solve problems: Spikes to impale food on to compensate for lack of talons, dropping rocks to stun aggresive foes, using sticks to reach otherwise inaccesible objects.