"You just did," I joked.
"So I did. Hmm." She took off her bracelet. "You know what? Maybe that custom of yours has some merit." Alice Black leaned in and planted a kiss on my cheek. Before I could react, she was already walking away. "See you!"
I sat there for a long time, unmoving, in shock.
TO BE CONTINUED
Acknowledgements:
You know that part at the end of a game or movie where a whole list of people you don't know scroll by? That's this part of the book.
I want to thank the members of the Story Forge community, especially Kate Adams, Thomas Bridgeland, Mary Catelli, D. G. D. Davidson, Cheah Wai Kai, Jesse Abraham Lucas, Jim Schuler, Justin Tarquin, and Ben Wheeler. You guys rock.
For spiritual advice and support, I can't help but thank Monsignor Kevin M. Quirk, especially when I wanted to quit (but didn't!) For spirits, I can't help but thank the Cherubim for being a good sport about all this, and for humans, the prophet Ezekiel, for writing my favorite section of the Bible (which I totally did not rip off, what are you talking about?). I must also thank a certain friend whose name starts with T, whose occasional advice had a great effect.
Special thanks go to my family for supporting me in this crazy endeavor. You can finally stop hearing me talk about this.
Appendix A: Glossary
A
Aeviternal Fire: A class feature of Black Seraphs that allows the Seraph's fire spells to ignore all immunities and resistances.
aggression/aggro: Most common thought-rules require the monster to attack the nearest delver, the last delver who attacked it, or both. Some spells and abilities manipulate this.
airship: A ship constructed by flight spells attached to an otherwise ordinary ship, then propelled by other spells. Owned only by delvers, but seen all over the world.
Alignment: An artificial attribute of delvers, a number ranging from 500 to -1,000. The Law primarily functions by manipulating alignments.
Area spells: A spell that affects a number of tiles (also called AoE)
Auction House: The publicly-owned auction house in the City for nearly any kind of good. The City government makes most of its revenue from taxing high-priced bids. Uses multiple forms of auction, depending on value of good.
Aura: Anything that surrounds a delver.
alignment aura: An artificial aura that shows a delver's alignment and individual acts. Lawful auras are white or gold, Chaotic auras are black.
spectrum aura: Usually what is called an aura, a sphere of one color from red to violet. The higher the spectrum, the stronger the delver.
B
Bag of Holding: A bag that is not only larger on the inside than on the outside, but weighs less as well. Never put one inside another.
Bank: The one government-supported bank in the City. Originally established by High House Medici, it is still de facto run by them.
personal storage: Safe deposit boxes offered for free inside the Bank.
Big Room: The 7th Floor. Unlike the rest of the Dungeon, the Big Room is one massive open cavern.
Blues: A celebrity magazine for the highest-spectrum delvers. Free to those it covers, expensive to the general public.
Boss: A powerful monster that guards a Lock. Much about Bosses remains a mystery.
Boss Rush: A delving strategy involving a superparty that tries to clear as many Locks as possible. Usually suicidal.
buff: A spell or ability that empowers a delver.
Haste: Increased speed of action and thought. One of the most beneficial buffs in the entire world.
immunity: A buff or intrinsic that completely negates an element or status effect.
intrinsic: A buff from a class or gear.
reflect: A buff or intrinsic that sends an element or status effect back at its origin. Rarely found with delvers, but common among deeper monsters.
regeneration: A buff that rapidly restores health over time. Extremely useful in pitched battles.
resistance: A buff or intrinsic that grants partial protection from an element or status effect. Expressed as a percentage.
Sanctuary: A buff that makes monsters never have aggression.
build: The specific set of spells, classes, and abilities that a delver chooses.
C
Chaotic: An action against the Law, or a delver who has committed said actions. A delver with an aura of -100 or less may be lawfully killed on sight.
chest: Boxes filled with treasure found through the Dungeon, usually guarded by monsters. Shallower Floors have a lower chance of higher-spectrum chests.
City: A vast metropolis in Tanzania, Africa. Also the world's superpower, pursuing a noninterventionist policy.
class: A specific job or type for a delver, mimicking a job or even a myth from the outside world. In the past, delvers usually acted as if they really were that job, but in modern times this has fallen out of favor.
class feature: A special ability given to delvers possessing a specific class. Sometimes comes with drawbacks.
Class Restriction: Some gear can only be used by certain classes. Attempting to subvert this is futile.
classtone: A stone that allows a delver to gain a class. Rare and extremely expensive.
Complications: Permanent stat loss as the result of a failed revive.
Lingering Grasp of Death: A dangerous status effect always accompanying a failed revive.
Core: The section of the Dungeon under the Deep, starting at the 51st Floor. Almost none of it has been explored.
Cornerstone: The unique stone at the center of the City that transforms anyone who touches it permanently into a delver. A few consider it a holy object.
Corrupter: A force of evil in some religions.
Council: The ruling body of the City.
Courthouse: The location of all courts in the City.
Creator: An all-powerful deity in some religions.
critical hit: A hit in one of a target's more vulnerable regions, doing increased damage or even instant death. Can sometimes happen at random, even on a normal hit. Also called a critical for short.
crystal: Many things in the Dungeon are made of crystal, but crystal commonly refers to small glowing crystals of various rainbow colors. Each shade of crystal is worth a thousand times the previous shade. Delvers use them for both food and currency.
curse: The inability to remove a given gear. As any amount of gear in the Dungeon may be cursed, it is unwise to equip unidentified gear.
D
DA: Short for Dimensional Archmage.
DA bubble: A form of knot in space time created by a Dimensional Archmage. Usually is larger on the inside than on the outside, and time may pass differently as well.
Death Train: Another name for the Boss Rush.
deauration: A legal tern referring to the partial forgiveness of a Chaotic action.
Deep: The section of the Dungeon between the 26th and 50th Floors. Traveled only by high-spectrum delvers, it is one of the most lethal regions of the Dungeon. Many rules of the Dungeon change in the deep.
Deep House: A mythical organization comparable to the High Houses, except based in the similarly mythical Undercity. Nearly every conspiracy theory involves it.
Deep wound: An injury caused by a Deep monster—it does not heal on its own, and can only be healed by Tier Two healing spells.
delver: A human being that has touched the Cornerstone. Delvers are apparently immortal, and can be revived if “killed.” Transformation into a delver is irreversible.
DfV: Abbreviation for Dig for Victory
Dig for Victory: A delving strategy involving digging through the Floors until the barrier at the 25th, then gathering as much treasure as possible before fleeing. Considered insane by most delvers.
Digger: Someone who practices the Dig for Victory strategy. Diggers have their own subculture.
Dragon Scale: Dragons drop magical scales on death, which can be enchanted and forged into some of the best armor in the world. Bo
th a status symbol and a necessity.
drop: The treasure granted by a specific kind of monster, or found in a chest.
Dungeon: The vast, unknown world underneath the City. No one knows where it came from. Some believe it is a test sent by the Creator.
Dungeon-worn: A psychological state, somewhat related to PTSD, where a delver becomes worn by the dangers and treasures of the Dungeon.
E
Earlier: Prior to July 12, A.D. 2034.
echoer: A magical device similar to the ancient “loudspeaker”
Eidolons: A pseudo-High House, consisting of a number of delvers with theomorphic gear along with their sycophants. Hated by almost everyone.
element: A specific type of damage. Common elements include physical (earth), fire, water, air, ice, light, and dark. Some elements are related, and protection from one will partially protect from another. There are an unknown number of elements, as a few of them extremely rare.
Elevator: A system run by the RDU to teleport low-level delvers in and out of the
First Five. Free for all to use.
Even Earlier: The distant past.
Experience: The mysterious and almost addictive force felt by killing monsters or other delvers.
F
First Five: The first five Floors.
Floor: A vertical section of the Dungeon. No one knows how many Floors there are.
force telepathy: A form of telepathy that can potentially sense otherwise invisible targets, at the cost of doing damage. Extremely impolite to use.
G
gear: Equipable treasure found in the Dungeon. If a properly qualified delver attempts to wear one, it will shrink or grow to his size.
black gear: Nigh-worthless gear dropped in the shallowest Floors.
delver-made gear: Gear created by certain classes of delver.
numinous gear: Gear that can transform the wearer into a creature from myth.
outside gear: Gear created by surfacers. Unlike normal gear, it will not change size to fit a delver, but neither does it have stat requirements or restrictions.
spectrum gear: Most gear found in the Dungeon. Ranges from red to violet, with higher spectrums being harder to equip but more powerful.
theomorphic gear: gear that can transform the wearer into a god. Cannot be soulbound or copied.
guild: An organization built around a number of related classtones. Guild membership is not exclusive of House or other guild membership.
H
heal: A spell or ability that heals. Will restore physical damage to a delver's body at the same time. Never works on surfacers.
heartstone: The heart of a delver. A dead delver can be revived by certain spells,
High House: One of the seven Houses occupying the spires.
Horde: A delving strategy involving a huge superparty of low-level delvers and one higher-level party.
House: An organization built around a Housestone. Membership in a house is usually exclusive.
housestone: A stone that allows a delver to join a House. Each housestone is unique, granting different benefits to every user.
I
Identifier: A relatively expensive device that casts Identify for the user.
Indestructible: An attribute of heartstones, shards, and some items which make them impossible to destroy by any means. Heartstones, nonetheless, can be shattered.
instakill: To end a target's life with a single swing or spell.
Insurance, Retrival: A policy to hire a party to retrieve one's heartstone or shards.
Insurance, Revival: A policy to revive oneself after death.
K
kite: To gain the aggression of a monster, then run in such a way to drag it away from or into other delvers. Done within a party, it is a popular tactic; but kiting monsters into another party is illegal.
L
labydule: Slang for a labyrinthodule.
labylat: Slang of a labyrintholator.
labyrinthodicy: A philosophical argument justifying the Dungeon's action.
labyrinthodula: The veneration, but not worship, of the Dungeon. Some forms are:
Followers of the Sealed Messiah: A religion that preaches the Creator is trapped within the Dungeon.
Penitents: A religion that preaches the Creator sent the Dungeon as a Test.
Redemptorists: A religion that preaches the Creator has left the world and will not return until the Dungeon has been cleared.
Redeoincarnists: A religion that preaches the Creator has created the Dungeon in order to personally reincarnate.
Reincarnists: A religion that preaches that delvers are a new form of being, and it is the Creator's will that all humanity become delvers.
labyrinthodule: A practitioner of labyrinthodula.
labyrintholatry: The direct worship of the Dungeon. Some forms are:
Followers of the Impossibly Magnificent Dungeon: A simple religion that teaches that the Dungeon is all-powerful, arbitrary, inexplicable, and worthy of all worship.
Maze Manicheanism: A religion that teaches the Dungeon is the Corrupter, a fallen equal to the Creator.
Law: An extremely powerful yet automated spell that enforces the written code, monitors all delvers, and even prosecutes cases.
Lock: Indestructible rooms that guard the way to lower regions of the Dungeon. Bypassing a Lock is unwise and may lead to out-of-depths spawning.
Lockstone: A massive stone that covers the stairs in a Lock, should a delver in the Lock be unqualified. Can be used to summon a Boss.
M
magic type: One of seventeen or more forms of spellcasting.
M-Type: Mana magic. Spells are cast using mana. Common and flexible.
N-Type: Natural magic. Spells are freely cast at a thought or action. Rare but powerful.
S-Type: Stealth magic. Spells are cast with small motions, easily concealable. Comes in several subtypes, including Sm and Sv.
T-Type: Trigger magic. Spells are cast beforehand then unleashed with a verbal trigger. Comes in several subtypes, including Tm and Tv.
V-Type: Vancian magic. Spells are selected at the beginning of a day then cast once. Powerful but inflexible.
magilocked: A chest that can only be opened by the spell Charm of Opening.
mana: Magical energy used by multiple types of spellcasters to power their spells. Can only be regained by spending time outside the Dungeon, consuming certain items, or using Spell Regeneration.
The City and the Dungeon: And Those who Dwell and Delve Within Page 33