Dungeon Goddess

Whereas “Gaia” is goddess of the earth, envision a mother goddess whose domain encompasses the dungeon and all its natural ecology. In essence, this could be a goddess who incorporates all monsters of a “natural” holiness and perceives all other beings (both holy and demonic) as interlopers, despoiling the (arguably) natural ecosystem of the dungeon.

Clearly, worshiping such a patron goddess of the dungeon and its denizens could be a huge boon to any adventurer journeying down to its depths. Yet, while powerful, this deity would not be overly powered in the Dungeon Crawl universe, for she would have limited effect in outer realms, such as Hell, Pandemonium, and the Abyss, to name but a few.

The most straightforward piety gain for such a power could easily come from killing “unnatural” beings she dislikes having in her dungeon, but there are other more unique actions she could approve of as well, such as one befriending natural monsters.

• Killing undead, demonic, and holy monsters
• Befriending the natural denizens of the dungeon
• Restoring indigenous flora and fauna of each dungeon/branch level

Presumably, a dungeon goddess would eschew the surface world of men and civilization. This might well translate into proscriptions against interacting with the civilized world or indulging in its goods.

• Disrupting the dungeon's natural ecosystem by using necromancy or summoning spells
• Using holy or demonic items
• The consumption of prepared (i.e.” unnatural”) food products (e.g. meat/bread rations, pizza)
• The acquisition of gold and the patronage of places of commerce (i.e. avoid gold and shops)

• Grow fruit - At the cost of a piece of fruit, character may select a suitable spot of floor to germinate a plant. Nothing occurs immediately, but after many turns have passed (1000+, for example), a harmless plant may appear and may surrounded with random number of fruits (if any at all). Because of the divine energy it takes to produce a successful harvest in the hazardous dungeon depths, every plant grown past the first at any one time has a quickly diminishing rate of return, making it quite unprofitable to spam the ability.

• Enchant hide - At the cost of some food, MP, and piety, a worshiper may take any monster hide they have obtained to one of the dungeon goddess's altars and with her blessing, have it converted to the armor of its appropriate type, free from using a scroll of enchant armor to do so.

There exists ample opportunity for the player to neutralize and even co-opt on the actions of organic dungeon monsters. These powers can range from completely passive to completely active and vary greatly in their ability to both help and hinder the player.

…but wait, how would this meaningfully differ from Elyvilon’s pacify ability? It would, and perhaps even dramatically so. Rather than rendering monsters ‘neutral’ and inspiring them to leave the dungeon post-haste as per Ely’s power, a player who is sufficiently in tune with the dungeon could render monsters ‘peaceful’ ( e.g. when one frees Pickel’s slaves from his thrall). These monsters would then be free to roam the dungeon randomly (as opposed to just leaving) and would attack other still hostile monsters they encounter.

Regardless of whether it generates or costs a nominal amount of piety, if this power was not designed to award experience points, it could easily be self-limiting in its clear ability to rob a player of valuable XP by not only neutralizing foes but also having those foes kill off some of the still hostile ones. Ultimately, the player would encounter meaningful decisions of when to use this power and upon what, knowing that using it too readily will cost them precious XP, while not enough might leave them dead during a tough battle.

Key aspects:

• Renders natural monsters ‘peaceful’
• Awards no XP for doing so
• Loss of piety for attacking monsters made peaceful

There are many other abilities a goddess of the dungeon could provide through her domain, such as increased player stealth by blending into the dungeon, bonuses to slaying unnatural monsters from outside her realm, perhaps even a passive ability to detect these monsters as they appear, and, of course, an ability to call on her monsters even outside her realm, perhaps as per a scroll of summoning but with no non-natural holiness monsters included.