Was stricken by the idea of an "AU" for my characters. An absurd idea given they have no strict setting, but let's not get hung up on vocabulary.

At it's core, it is a dungeon crawler setting. The dungeon itself laced with traps and beasts to capture wayward adventurers and harvest their misery for unknown magic rituals. There exists a world outside the dungeon, but it hardly matters for the fiction.

Important pretense however: this is an erotic setting. So when I say "dangerous traps" and "horrible monsters," understand that it's like in a sexy way.

Dek

Dek is the one who undergoes the most radical transformation in this setting, for they are the one running the place. They're the mage designing every floor to filter out subjects in the way most useful for them. The enchanted traps and alchemical wonders were made by them using the essence of the souls trapped within. Also possibly a lich. Personality shifts closer to that perpetually angry + short wizard type. Bags under their eyes because they were taunting and insulting the heroes through safety glass but one of them still cracked it, and they cracked their voice shouting back.

They're also much more open and gleeful with their desires. Dek's busy all the time, but the bags under their eyes are because they were up too late watching the oubliette live feed. In fact the whole place is rigged up with surveillance for their own amusement. Even the "secret hiding places" where the adventurers think they can take a break are a ruse to spy on the parties. Dek is way too into the game. But when you live forever, you need hobbies.

Nick

Actually not a huge change from the baseline. Still sadistic and of questionable morals. Still violent and strong as if Mr Hyde abandoned Dr Jekyll years ago. But now he works in the dungeon. A roaming and recurring encounter akin to the Bitterblack necrophagous beasts or the Crow Mauler.

Much of the dungeon is designed around the inhabitants and Nick is the primary concern. Traps designed to work with his strengths and hide his weaknesses. If a main thoroughfare cannot accommodate Nick, it will be rebuilt. It is a playground for him and the game never ends.

Nick works for Dek. And this is not a strained relationship. He gets to roam the halls and torment the interlopers as much as he pleases and Dek gets to... watch. The two are not equals, but he is not a lowly henchman. Nick is the #1 fixer, the right hand man, the most prized muscle Dek can depend on, and this affords him luxury. (He's not a mindless yes-man of course. He will still step on Dek when they're throwing a temper tantrum.)

Maxwell

Maxwell fills a fascinating role in this. He's normally supposed to exist in a pokemon setting and thus his appearance in the "main" setting would be a crossover. But not here.

He would not be a warrior or a rogue, but a type of mage. To borrow the language of D&D 3.5, he'd be a Charisma keyed caster (or half caster.) Psychic Warrior swapped from Wisdom to Charisma OR Wilder are nearly perfect. He is a melodrama powered protagonist; force of will is where the fantastic might comes from. It also lets him keep his green glass / crystal motif.

BUT maybe the most amusing departure is that he is of particular interest to Dek. Spying a new party rolling in to fall to their doom, doing a double take and declaring "I will obliterate that twink myself." Hardest decision Dek has to make is if they should let him go so they may capture him again, or keep him locked up in their personal chambers forevermore. After all: he's fun to break, he's not fun broken.

Maxwell is not stupid enough to travel alone in this setting. His currently ill defined rival character would likely be the constant companion with a few other NPC / hireling style party members. Peeling away the defense of the group and leaving him vulnerable is another aspect why a mage role fits. Take away the tank and whatever rogue kept their ears out and he's easy picking.

The Dungeon

It is not an ever shifting dungeon or a literal living entity, it is a carefully engineered one. Rooms designed to carefully interlock with each other and erode the subjects. Like having a room with a gas trap's only exits be ladders to make fleeing that much more exhausting and that much slower AND to keep the heavier fumes from cross contaminating the next rooms. (The gas of course, dialed into whatever fetish suits the mood. This is still erotic fiction.) Illusionary chicanery so they don't notice how narrow a hall gets until they reach the dead end and need to back up, getting mad at each other and surely alerting any near by monster that easy prey is around. The key is to wear them down, not just kill them.

I do not know what the aesthetic of the dungeon would be. The lazy, but honestly accurate, answer is layers. Much like how Lufia 2's Ancient Cave tileset changes every 20 floor, dig deep enough into the dungeon and you find the bricks turn to unworked stone. Deeper still and you find steel. Part of the trick for this is what when I've imagined Dek as a dom in the past, it was either like they were an interloper (breaking into a CEOs office and sitting on his face until the job is done) or sci-fi with a cenobite chill. Even more so, because the character concept of Dek has roots in Guild Wars asura, that exact type of magic tech should be a fit. But I'm not felling it.


I will elaborate upon this idea further. I have characters I need to figure out.