Dungeon Heart

## Evil's Greatest Tools

To fully understand the power of a Dungeon Keeper one must first understand what a **Dungeon Heart** is.

Designed by minds beyond mortal understanding, these are the most powerful Evil artifacts that have ever existed. Inactive, they are just monstrous man-sized hearts kept safe inside a shell of stone engraved with sinister words and ominous glyphs. But when activated - they become instruments of pure corruption.

But while they are the source of a Dungeon Keeper's powers, they are also their greatest weakness. They are too vulnerable, big and heavy to be moved easily. And because their life is now linked to these Hearts, Keepers hide them underground and build complexes of caves and tunnels around them filled with traps and evil minions – the name-giving Dungeon.

### *The lure of power*

Contrary to common rumor dormant Dungeon Hearts have no magical mind effecting ability. Still the lure of their power is often enough to temp even those with good intentions. For many Underworlders, it represents a quick way up in the often very strict and steep hierarchy, out of the misery of their daily lives and to a glamorous existence at the top.

### *First they corrupt their user*

By activating a Dungeon Heart and using it's power you bind your life to it. As evidenced by the perpetual red glow in the eyes of Dungeon Keepers their bodies now continually channel massive amounts of the mana and corruption of the Dark Gods. This power corrupts their bodies, their mind and their hearts. A Dungeon Keeper sells his very soul, that is from then on out lost within the Dark Realms, ready to be harvested by the Dark Gods as soon as the mortal body dies.

But whatever their fate the only constant is that their souls will be dragged down, kicking and screaming most likely, straight into the gaping maws of their extra dimensional masters. Some might call that a fitting end for them.

### *Second they corrupt the land*

"Corruption" is not just a word used to describe a person slowly becoming evil at heart, but is also a name for the wicked side effects that the Dungeon Hearts inflicts to its environment on a constant basis. While the exact way this corruption manifests can be changed by the Keeper (if he knows how to make manual adjustments to the Dungeon Heart) as a rule of thumb this corruption spreads around the Dungeon altering the landscape.

Trees become twisted and grow thorns, animals either die or change and become ferocious, the ground dries up and cracks...Such is the fate of a land where a Keeper makes his base.

There are some who chose to alter this manifestation though, some do it in order to minimize the damage to their surroundings (likely so they can get more resources out of them) while others may do it to create some form of natural barrier against intruders. Some even do it because they enjoy changing their surroundings to match their preferences (some Dungeon Keepers quite like to appease their own egos). Some examples include:

* A Keeper enjoyed having a lightning storm crashing around his mountain peak Dungeon 24/7.
* A Keeper chose to focus all of his Dungeons corruption onto the local river to be washed away so he may stay undetected longer.
* A Keeper chose to create a wall of thick poisonous mist around the entire area where his Dungeon was.

But Keepers, despite their best efforts, can not fully control this Corruption. The more they try to manipulate it and control it the more it spirals out their of control. As if the effect itself shared it's masters malevolent disposition. Even when the corruption is focused into weather or the surrounding land the side effects are chaotic at best.

* The bolts of lightning will seem to strike the same place several times and twist out of their way to strike before (or directly at) travelers.
* The river will become toxic and kill all life around it.
* Evil looking forms of hands and faces will form in the mist, causing most natural creatures to stay away.

## Two Hearts beating as one

Their shape is not just some kind of gruesome joke made by the Dark Gods (although that is definitely a part of it, as their design definitely says something about their creators' tastes) the Dungeon Hearts are literal **hearts**. Beating in unison with their Keeper's own heart (or *hearts* in some cases) they serve as the source for their power but at the same time, they are their greatest weakness.

The bond between master and Heart is so strong that any harm inflicted on a Heart is felt by its owner. If any one of a Keeper's Dungeon is conquered and the Heart at its core destroyed a small interdimensional rift opens up, sucking in the defeated Keeper and banishing him to the Dark Realm. So far no Keeper has found a method to avoid banishment. How long this banishment lasts can vary from hours to days. After that, the Keeper emerges from one of his remaining Hearts. Should his last Heart be destroyed, he has no means to return to the material world and is for all intents and purposes dead for good.

After a Heart's destruction the small rift remains, preventing the respective Keeper from ever approaching that place again at the risk of being banished again. And since he and his Dungeon are like one, he cannot even attempt to claim territory anywhere in the vicinity.

## The Heart of the Dungeon

But while Dungeon Hearts are the source of a Dungeon Keeper's powers, they are also their greatest weakness. They are too vulnerable, big and heavy to be moved easily. And because their life is now linked to these Hearts, Keepers hide them underground in complex labyrinths of caves and tunnels filled with traps and evil minions – the name-giving Dungeon.

Some Keepers have explored the possibilities of mobile Dungeons, so far with little success. Most vessels are simply too small to house a full Dungeon, but Dungeon Hearts without the protection of a Dungeon are generally too vulnerable and were quickly destroyed by the Keeper's enemies.

## The Keeper Abilities

The abilities granted by a Dungeon Heart are:

* **Minion Contract:** Your units take commands from you and fight for you til death, but you have to keep them happy. Only when the contract is in place can you use all your other keeper abilities on them.
* **Keeper Sight**: The Dungeon Heart has a connection to the Keeper, the Dungeon, minions, prisoners and things belonging to any of those. Through this connection it can gather sensory input and transmit it to the Keeper (either trough visual, tactile or audio cues). This is also how it sends pain signals when the Dungeon or the Heart itself is hurt
* **Keeper Hand:** The DH can magically effect targets through the connection, like applying telekinetic force or warp them in and out of a small pocket dimension (This dimension can only contain one target at a time). The Keeper sends instructions which effect to apply where to the Dungeon Heart through their mental link. But to prevent random thoughts of "I really want to hit that guy with lightning" to trigger such an irreversible action, there is a safety feature: the Keeper has to give clear and conscious instructions not too different from spell gestures. The easiest way to do that is to visualize a giant invisible hand to perform specific gestures. This is the **Keeper Hand**. As a general rule the larger the Keeper Hand being manifested the stronger it is but the less precise control the Keeper has over it.
* **Possession:** The first Keeper Spell that needs to be researched: take possession of a minion's body, give it an ability boost. It also allows for very intimate interaction with the mind of the possessed minion.
* The reverse philosopher stone: Turn empty caves in your territory into fully furnished rooms, spending nothing more than gold, gems or similar valuables. These rooms have enchantments that allow them to perform as in the video game. (Can be abused by the creative keeper to function like the spell *fabricate*, but the created item is transformed, not conjured, so it doesn't dispell with time.)
* **Keeper Magic:** The dungeon heart serves as mana reservoir and spell catalyst, giving the dungeon keeper access to magical power far beyond the humanly possible. Keeper Spells are roughly ten times as strong/destructive as similar spells performed by minions, even experienced warlocks.
* **Create Imp:** The most fundamental Keeper spell as imps are the backbone of your economy and your workers and miners. These tireless and loyal workers follow your command. One thought is enough. Simply wanting something done is enough to get them to work instantly. In combination with keeper sight and keeper hand this means a keeper doesn't need to be physically present to manage his dungeon. (You could be sitting on a comfy chair at home,...)
* **Dungeon Shifting:** If you a have more than one dungeon with an active Heart each you can use the hearts connection with you (see below) to teleport from one to the other.
* Last but not least: **The Soul Link**. To bind with the dungeon heart a new keeper must sell his or her soul. But in addition to all the power and abilities listed above, you get (virtual) immortality. When the link is formed, all the keeper's hearts beat as one. Damage to a dungeon heart is felt as physical pain in the chest, intruders penetrating the walls of the dungeon are perceived as irritating pinches. The drawback: Whenever you lose a dungeon heart you are banished to the realm of the dark gods for some period of time. If that happened to be your last heart, you won't come back. Same thing when your physical body is killed.

## The Claim

Many abilities the Dungeon Heart offers its Keeper are closely tied to a mythical *claim* and only work on ground, people or objects said Keeper has the strongest claim on. To expand his Dungeon a Keeper must first claim new territory before the Heart can imbue it with its magic.

But the claim is not a binary thing but its strength can vary with time due to many factors. Often the relevant question is whose claim is the strongest. Thus what the Dungeon Heart recognizes as "yours" sometimes appears arbitrary. Simply put, your Dungeon, your treasures, your minions, your prisoners,... they all are *yours* until you give them free or someone successfully overcomes your Claim.

Many methods exist to reinforce a persons claim on something, including traditions like branding or inscribing your name or insignia into things or maintaining forts along a border. But there are also magic rituals such as the short dance imps perform when they expand the Dungeon – they figuratively stomp their Keeper's claim into the ground until it beats any competition.

## Kinds of Dungeon Hearts

There are several different types of Dungeon Hearts in The World, the standard and most widespread variety being an **organic Dungeon Heart**, which resembles an enormous heart made of living tissue inside of a stone casing, an inherently evil artifact that grants its owner immense power at the cost of their soul.

Another type of Dungeon Heart is known as a **"Crystal" Dungeon Heart** and it consist of a enormous crystal hovering above an ornate base. These Hearts have all the abilities of a standard Dungeon Heart but lacks the ability to draw on the mana of the Dark Gods. Instead it generates mana by transmuting gold from the treasury for every spell. As a side effect, material transmuted that way instead of fabricated purely from mana is more real, that means is harder to dispell and doesn't automatically destabilize after some time. Some boundary conditions for the use of Keeper abilities outside of claimed territory are also slightly different.

After millennia of never-ending battle, The Light has also attempted to create an artifact that can counter the evil of a Dungeon Heart. Using the Crystal Dungeon Heart as a basis The Light created an a Good aligned version of the Dungeon Heart on Avatar Island and named it the "**Hero Heart**". These Hearts however, are slightly inferior to their Evil counterparts.

Due to them being created as a replica without any of the more Evil design elements (and also being originally based on the Crystal Dungeon Heart which lack the element granting it to receive mana from a deity) The Light itself seemed to be teetering on giving up on the project entirely. But after a miraculous event occurred recently and a Dungeon Keeper struck a bargain with The Light itself the Hero Heart truly being completed might actually become a real possibility.