The Great Outdoors (Qendou)

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The brief transition screen's tooltip nearly made you want to leap off the cliff you suddenly appeared on. However, you were chosen to be an Alpha, and you refuse to insult your Goddess through frustration induced suicide. Instead, you took a deep breath held it for five second and exhaled. Four miniature fog clouds flowed down your back, then off the torn stone edge and over the side. You could see the sheer face went down about twenty feet to a small grassy meadow. Beyond was the field were strange shapes that seemed to float in midair as their bases went past your blindsight.

A slow turn showed you to be on a path running under another jagged outcropping above you. This position was good; getting to you here would be dangerous. The path itself measured barely more than five feet at the widest. Unless they could fly, your enemies would be **** into single combat. Not that you planned on giving anyone a fair fight; Lesser Star-beasts are clearly meant to be assassins. The idea of pushing some asinine adventurer over the edge and watch them fight fruitlessly against the inevitable plummet made your chitin plates rattle in excitement. Before any of that could take place, you had to learn about your environment.

While blindsight was great for enclosed spaces, it sucked in the open. Everything was crystal clear up to sixty feet. The next sixty looked to have a very low poly-count; a pine tree and a large pointy rock were basically the same. Great graphics with a shitty draw distance. Thankfully it was night, maybe. You followed the ledge to a sloping tunnel, possibly the remnant of some aquifer. In less than a minute, you popped out of the ground like some kind of abyssal gopher.

Keeping low, you began to explore a few dozen yards at a time. Things looked weird. Not due to any individual object, but in their position to one another. Trees growing in solid rock, numerous fractured boulder and earthen overhangs, a gorge with walls covered in scrub brush and giant mushrooms on either side of a boiling brine stream. A petrified forest with patches of crystals for leaves. Even a marshy field of purple wheat that grow over the edge of a cliff. All this in just a few square miles.

What confused you most occurred at 'sunrise'. As the sky brightened, you tried to gain a proper orientation, but you couldn't. A uniform glow came from a wavy linear path some great distance above. Your meager senses did their best to compile this new information and left you wanting. All you got was the impression of a river made of sunlight flowing far above. While sunbathing on a moss bed sounded great after all that walking, you had no idea what creatures would be stirring soon. It was time to head home... with the moss.

Getting back was fairly simple thanks to your map. A good portion around the cave was visible and after your wanderings about a quarter of the area was uncovered. Hopefully you were on an island of some kind and not one of those floating chunks of rock the expansion intro mentioned. **** nearsightedness and sheer drops into oblivion didn't mix well. On the way back, you managed to catch a decent sized rabbit. Three raw meat and one small fur.

Over the next few days, you managed to fill out the remaining map sections. More of the same weird topography and biome combos. It was like this place was made with leftover assets from a dozen different maps. Also, you were on a floating island. This you discovered after slipping off a mini glacier and catching on a tree root. Luckily, a relatively high Dex made climbing back up no problem. During each trip out onto Shard #79 you made sure to mark down resource nodes, game trails and other points of interest. You've also taken note of several monster spawns, lots of strange wildlife and at least five separate factions.

Cragmaw Kobolds: About two dozen of these little lizards serve a young female earth drake who lives in a ground level cave a good distance from you. Stay out of her territory and you'll be fine.

The Demons of Imp's Landing: A handful of various demons who hang around a sulfur pool near one of the map's edges. They spend most of the time having sex and fighting each other. Not that dangerous.

Saltshroom Goblins: Close to thirty goblins live in the brine stream gorge. They ride mushroom cap rafts and collect shrimp in nets. Very little in fighting from what you've seen. Possible allies.

Maiden Song's Bandits: Ruff and tuff humanoids of varying kinds bunkered down in a well fortified camp by a small freshwater pond. Mostly female and led by a bard named Maiden. More time than you'd care to admit has been spent listening to her serenade the gang.

S.F.M.C. Outpost: Owned by the small folk mining co-op. Dwarves, Gnomes and Halfling who gather gems and stone from the petrified forest. You managed to steal one of their pickaxes. Turned out, you need clay in your inventory to use the Hive-builder feat. Which made sense; otherwise you'd just spam it like crazy.

And that's what brought you to the other side of Cragmaw's mountain. Building a nest wasn't just a desire, it was a need. A kind of hunger that abided somewhat when you sprayed resin on a wall or floor and shaped it into half remembered forms that resembled your own body. While you wanted to officially make it a dungeon, that act would require a Claimant Crystal.

If the update notes are to be believed, only level three or higher adventurers carried them. The best way to attract them was with rare materials or equipment. Stumbling over a Flame-tongue blade or a greater bag of holding felt a tad improbable, so you were hoping to find a couple nice gems while mining for clay.

A grainy suction noise followed by a wet slap announced Chunk-of-clay number fifty hitting your inventory. Such a low strength meant you could only carry stacks of five, but at one chunk per square foot of resin things were going pretty well. No shiny rocks yet. It was easy to keep yourself distracted from the tedium of repeatedly swinging a pickaxe by planing how to slay those who came looking for your soon-to-be hoard.

First was the cliff. A twenty-foot fall would kill anything less than a level 5 barbarian, so it was a good start. The plan was to hide your cave entrance by building a wall from your walkway to the outcropping above. You tend to walk on all fours outside, so a sloped wall would fit and be easier to cover up with dirt and leaf litter. Two or three break away sections would make it less of a challenge to knock off any adventurers who relaxed their footing.

A pitfall just inside the opening was up next. Nothing too big, just six feet or so with some wooden spikes at the bottom. Your resin should be able to withstand the weight of anyone not in heavy armor. Maybe you'd put some snakes in as well, or a disgruntled badger. Regardless, occupying the tank for about thirty seconds would let you get a couple good hits in on any less robust targets. Ideas for falling rocks and poison dart traps would have to wait for when you had an actual dungeon. Before long, there was a pop-up saying your inventory was full.

'Awesome, I found a few Geodes too.'

The small bubble of delight popped upon inspecting your handiwork. Buried three feet back, caked in mud and hosting a couple scratches, was a solid metal door. Steel inlaid with bronze. Some further digging revealed it to be twice your size. It was masterfully crafted, even you could see that. The thing looked to weigh at least a ton. Your lore skill told you all the straight lines and right angles meant it was likely Dwarven. Placing a hand on the stylized central dial triggered a pop-up.

[Enter?]