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Dalboz of Gurth was born in Gurth City on the 16'th of Frobuary™ in the year 917 GUE. He was trained in the magical arts from the instant he could read a spell scroll. He travelled around all the world learning from the best Wizards, and eventually settled in the Eastlands, near Port Foozle. In the year 964 GUE, he became bored with his traveller's life, and decided to enroll in G.U.E. Tech. He got in easily, being so skilled in the magical arts, and eventually became the top of his class.
The headmasters assigned a fellow named Mir Yannick to be his roommate because they figured Yannick could learn a thing or two from Dalboz. Which he did. Yannick was not a skilled magician, but he could talk his way out of, and into, any situation. They became friends, because of their mutual trades (Dalboz's knowledge for Yannick's homemade pies), and when the headmasters decided to evaluate the freshmen to see who could stay in the university, Dalboz cast ZEMBOR on the votes to make sure Yannick stayed. One day, Yannick and Dalboz were having lunch in a restaurant overlooking the famous Flood Control Dam #3 when a group of Yannick's rowdy friends showed up and began mocking Dalboz. Dalboz had been going through this all his life, so he didn't mind it so much. But when Yannick, his friend and roommate, joined in on the mocking, he lost it. Yannick chased Dalboz to the top of FCD #3, where he accused him of putting a stupidity spell over him. He had his rowdy friends cast KULCAD (dispel a magic spell), which resulted in voiding the ZEMBOR spell, and Yannick's immediate expulsion. Yannick go so angry at what he believed was Dalboz's plan all along, and pushed him over. But Dalboz had cast EXEX first and managed to grab Yannick's shirt, which dragged him over the edge as well. To save both of their lives, Dalboz cast a Long Life Spell, and they bounced safely off of the rocks. Yannick and Dalboz did not really talk to each other after that.
On 14 Aug 966, the second Dungeon Master appeared with great fanfare in the halls of G.U.E. Tech. "I seek the one called Dalboz of Gurth!" he cried, and Dalboz was pushed to the Dungeon Master's feet. The Dungeon Master said that he had been keeping an eye on Dalboz, and that he was ready to retire, so he decreed that Dalboz was to become the Third Dungeon Master. He bestowed upon Dalboz all the proper Dungeon Master adornments, and then vanished from the halls in a mighty cloud of smoke. Dalboz ran back to his room to tell Yannick what had happened, but he instead found Yannick in the commons. Mir congratulated Dalboz, though not really the warmest of congratulations. They shook hands and decided to part ways here, as Dalboz was now the Dungeon Master, and Mir was hardly an alchemist. As Dalboz walked back to the conclave, sirens began wailing, and all the students were ushered out of the campus. Once they all were out, they all watched as G.U.E. Tech disappeared. The end of magic had come.
Dalboz spent the next 84 years looking into various ways to bring magic back to the Empire, and looking for a way to relieve himself of the boredom that came with having a fancy job but nothing to do. These ways mostly involved acts of desparate self-mutilitation, which, of course, had no effect on him. One day, Dalboz decided to try to hang himself on a tree in the garden outside of his house. Just as he kicked the footstool away, the branch the rope was tied to broke, and Dalboz fell flat on his face. As he got up, he saw that his magical plants had started blooming again! He rushed off to the Aboveground to confront his old roommate, now the Grand Inquisitor, and to try to get his help in restoring magic to the Empire. Unfortunately, Yannick was not having any of it.
In a very dramatic battle in the topmost floor of the massive Frobozz Electric building, Dalboz and Yannick had their final fight. Those who were there on that day say you could see the building shake. Dalboz lost mostly had not been doing any work for the last 84 years, and he was banished to the Etherial Planes of Atrii. While up there, he met the Enchantress Y'Gael, and they shared a room for two years. In 1052 GUE, Y'Gael needed Dalboz's space for an office, so she kicked him out of the Etherial Planes, and he ended up getting stuck in a lantern that was submurged under the docks of Port Foozle. And there he sat for 15 years.
Just as he was about to mad from boredom--again--a Perma-Suck salesman happened to snag the box the lantern was contained in, and then the lantern itself. He got the lantern repaired at Antharia Jack's pawn shop, and set out at the daunting task of bringing magic back to the Empire. With help from Dalboz and the Totemized forms of a Griff, a Brogmoid, and Lucy Flathead, he was successful. Dalboz then re-ascended to the Etherial Planes of Atrii after appointing this former Perma-Suck salesman, which he nicknamed "Afgncaap", to become the fourth Dungeon Master.
Dalboz has his own room this time.
Davmar was the great Thaumaturge who discovered that the power of magic spells could be stored on paper. This breakthrough, storing Incantation on specil Presence-imbued paper, eventually led to the widespread use of magic. Davmar, working in the early years of the reign of King Mumberthrax Flathead, was also known for spending six years of his life as a zucchini farmer, despite the fact that he was allergic to zucchinis, and could not eat them himself!
Delbor was advisor to Lord Dimwit Flathead, and father of Barbel of Gurth.
Demons are evil spirits of great power. The Wizard of Frobozz had imprisoned a demon inside a magic sphere, but the second Dungeon Master made it possible for the demon to escape and steal the Wizard of Frobozz's wand.. An obscure historical legend tells that King Duncanthrax was a demon who assumed human form, although little credence is given to this notion. One of history's most famous demons is the evil being Jeearr, who came close to gaining control over the entire world in 957 GUE.
The Diablo Massacre occurred at the Zorbel Pass in 666 GUE when the invading armies of King Duncanthrax met a native militia of trollish warriors. The invaders were outnumbered but well-armed; the natives were equipped only with wooden clubs and a large piece of very strong garlic, but they had embedded themselves into the Pass, and Duncanthrax's armies couldn't advance. Duncanthrax hatched the brilliant move of sending a small army into the pass after the militia, and then to have the army quickly retreat. The militia, seeing the army retreat and thinking they had won, chased the army out of the pass, where they were surrounded and extinguished by Duncanthrax's real army. Military historians consider the routing of the native militia as a key moment in the conquering of the Eastlands.
Famed General Thaddeus Kaine studied Duncanthrax's maneuvers almost obsessively, and based some of his own revolutionary tactics on them.
Dimithio of Borphee, known as The Cheerful Sorceror, was the founder of the Borphee Enchanters' Guild. A student of Yooman, the Musician Mage, Dimithio was tremendously well-read and good-natured, despised only by Holnac the Cynic. Dimithio was also a great animal lover, and he adapted the NITFOL spell for egg-laying mammals. His greatest skill was fireworks displays, and he was often quoted as saying, "Magic doesn't have to be great to be useful, nor does magic have to be useful to be great." His Double Fanucci handicap was 127.
The character Dimithio of Borphee from the classic sitcom This Psyantist's Life was based on him in name only, but Dimithio was such a big fan of the character, he made Donald N. Amount an honorary member of the Borphee Enchanters' Guild.
Dinbar was a 5th century GUE student of the mystic arts who thoroughly examined ancient writings on such mystic subjects as Thaumaturgy.
Lake Dinge is a frozen lake in the Gray Mountains. Those who purport to know say that skating on the slanted frozen surface of Lake Dinge is an exhilarating experience.
Discipline Crabs are small, moral crustaceans found in cellars, fallout shelters, and other subterranean lairs. These brooding curmudgeons are deeply offended by the slightest intrusion; if cornered, they employ their razor-edged pincers with righteous efficiency. Discipline crabs live in nests made of random bits of ocean debris, and are fond of jewelry such as gold crowns. These creatures need to stick close to the water, and the only known discipline crab lair is in Grubbo-by-the-Sea.
Dornbeast: Smart adventurers run the other way when they hear "Hurumph," the battle cry of the deadly dornbeast. This monster should be avoided at all costs - its 69 sensitive eyes can paralyze an unwary explorer with a single glare. (Range: about three feet for young beastling to about 20 feet for full-grown dorns.) Captured victims quickly lose their strength and are plastered with round, sticky secretions that never come off. Dorns usually live in crags and shadows near cliff bases. Known dorn lairs include the cliffs near Egreth, and a lighthouse near Grubbo-by-the-Sea.
Harv Dornfrob wrote the famous novel The Seventy Year Snidgel.
Double Fanucci: For a partial description of this famous card game, see Appendix C.
Dragons are monsters, large, winged reptiles that breathe out fire and smoke. Apparently fairly common in the old days, the species encountered a little problem in the form of Dimwit Flathead, who took it into his head to hold a feast on the meat of 300 slaughtered dragons. Since that event, there has been only one reported dragon-sighting, underground in the Eastlands in 948 GUE. An ancient tale, the Legend of Wishbringer, tells of a dragon called Thermofax that had an appetite for careless knights. Although quite intelligent, dragons are also notoriously naive, this being clearly demonstrated by the fact that the dragon found in 948 was killed when it was startled by its own reflection.
For more information, see "The Great WatchDragon of the Coconut."
Dryads, also known as tree sprites, are beautiful and shy. Many never leave the shade of the tree they were born under. If coaxed, dryads can reveal the location of forest treasures. They are only dangerous in large numbers, and then only if threatened. Angered dryads have been known to crush attackers under tons of rose petals.
DSq is the short name for the popular role-playing escapist game Dungeons and Dungeons.
Dungeon Master: There were in fact three of these mysterious people who inhabited the caverns in the Eastlands in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries GUE. These Dungeon Masters all had a keen grasp on magic, and they controlled much of the underground portion of the Empire, while Syovar managed to wrangle the aboveground sections from himself.
The first Dungeon Master was the descendant of a servant from the court of Lord Dimwit Flathead. That servant, present on the day that Megaboz cursed the kingdom, was able to save a piece of parchment that contained hints on how to stop the Curse. The parchment became a family heirloom, eventually making its way into the hands of the person who would become the first Dungeon Master.
On 14 Mumberbur 883, that man, in an attempt to forestall the Curse, came face to face with Megaboz himself. Despite his efforts, the Curse was fulfilled and the Empire was destroyed. However, for reasons that are not entirely understood, Megaboz felt it necessary that someone be left as a guardian or inheritor of the vast underground territory. Megaboz thus made the would-be Curse-buster into the first Dungeon Master, giving him total control over the Eastland caverns, not to mention powerful magical abilities, and half the wealth of the kingdom.
As the years passed and the underground caverns became the stuff of legend, the existence of the Dungeon Master was forgotten. In 948 a brave adventurer dared to enter the caverns near the former site of Flatheadia. Vanquishing a thief, many monsters, and the Wizard of Frobozz, this adventurer eventually found his way to the home of the Dungeon Master himself, who, unbeknownst to the adventurer, had been following him and guiding him on his quest. Apparently the first Dungeon Master grew old and weary of his powers, and had chosen this young adventurer as his successor.
The second Dungeon Master ruled until 966 GUE when he turned over his title and power to a young G.U.E. Tech student named Dalboz of Gurth. Dalboz became the third Dungeon Master for almost a whole hour, for magic was banished soon after.
Despite spending most of his time as the Dungeon Master either trying to kill himself, or being stuck in a lantern, Dalboz's term lasted 101 years. In 1067 GUE, an adventerous former Perma-Suck salesman found Dalboz stuck in a lantern, three Totems, and three powerful magical artifacts, and brought magic back to the Empire. Dalboz made the adventurer his successor.
The fourth Dungeon Master now lives just beyond the Underground Underground, in Dalboz's old house. Most of his¹ time is spent trying to keep wannabe adventurers from getting killed in the caves.
Dungeons and Dungeons was created in Estuary in the year 881 GUE by Marc Zandurr and Dave Monay. They met at G.U.E. Tech and came up with the idea for DSq while working on a psychology project. The project involved seeing how people would behave in a world of their own creation and control, and seeing how other people would behave in someone else's world, when the person controlling the world they're in is in immediate access to you. To begin, they laid down a set of rules to define a particular world, much like the rules that govern our own Quendor, and then they wrote a set of parameters to define the characters that people could create. They invited willing participants to create their own characters and occupy Marc and Dave's own worlds, where they took turns doing nice or mean things to the players' characters, to see how they'd react. The program evolved into what we know today as Dungeons and Dungeons, and that set of rules became the DSq Rules Set #0.01.
Following the worthy success of their DSq experiment, the two of them got a job at Infocom, where they spent all of their time modifying, ratifying, transmogrifying, gratifying, and petrifying the Dungeons and Dungeons game mechanics into more and more Rules Sets. The game's popularity took off even further because, first, of the appreciation shown to the game by certain famous people, including Lord Wurb Flathead, and second, because of the events of Curse Day 883, which rendered unto our Great Underground Empire our first Dungeon Master. Marc and Dave, always on the pulse of the world, adopted the name "Dungeon Master" and created the DSq Rules Set #2.12. DSq Rules Set #2.12, though certainly not the last to come out of Infocom, was the most popular DSq Rules Set for almost a hundred years! The reason? DSq Rules Set #2.12 was the first one that let anybody administer their own Dungeons and Dungeons environonments! The groundwork for this, as laid down in 2.12, said that the overruler of the world, known as the Dungeon Master, would have complete control over the events and creatures indiginous to the world, but only marginal control over it's inhabitants. This was to prevent some of the more overzealous Dungeon Masters from using near-Implike powers to crush their enemies. Marc and Dave passed away in 948 GUE just after the succession of the second Dungeon Master, but the game did not die with them. In fact, one of the most important events to happen to DSq, and one of the most groundbreaking revisions to the Rules Set was still to come.
In the year 966 GUE a sorcerer named Timothy Arfson, known in the annals of DSq as Arf the Shy, wrote the FILMIE spell, specifically for Dungeons and Dungeons. The FILMIE spell transports the mind of the player, temporarily, into the body of the player's Dungeons and Dungeons character. FILMIE was adopted immediately by the DSq Rules Committee (which formed in 948 after Marc and Dave died), and was introduced in the DSq Rules Set #85.6. The FILMIE spell enabled the Dungeons and Dungeons players to immerse themselves even more in their Dungeon Master's world, and added a whole new level of depth to the game. Now, since the average DSq world is a dangerous place, there is a clause in the FILMIE spell-casting system that says if the character dies, then the mind inhabiting it is returned to it's original body. The character stays dead, though (the rules say so).
Now, the closing of the First Age of Magic on 14 Augur 966 GUE devastated a lot of people and generally turned the world upside-down, but it could be said that it hit Timothy Arfson the hardest. Timothy Arfson, also known as Arf the Shy, was a professional Dungeons and Dungeons player, and as such, depended almost entirely on magic to support himself. Arf the Shy, his DSq character, is widely regarded to be the most well-conceived, high-experienced, well-rounded, nigh-invulnerable creation in the whole game. Arf the Shy's powers fell only short of the "Dungeon Master's". And sometimes not even then, for a bad "Dungeon Master" is still a bad "Dungeon Master," no matter what Rules Set he govers his world by. The collapse of the First Age of Magic brought the most revising revision to the DSq Rules Set, number 85.9, in Suspendur of 966, and it made the worlds and characters that could inhabit a Dungeons and Dungeons world much more realistic, and therefore, not quite as much fun. True, hundreds of thousands of the more casual DSq players abandoned the games in favor of other escapes. Timothy Arfson tore up his only Dungeons and Dungeons character statistics sheet and committed suicide.
When the Grand Inquisitor took over Quendor, he bought out Infocom and it became a subsidiary of Frobozz Electric, but he didn't discontinue the Dungeons and Dungeons game product, as many feared he would. Yannick liked how quickly the Rules Set of DSq had switched to be technology-based, and how well it worked with Yannick's own tyrannical views. It's been said that he fancied himself as the greatest "Dungeon Master" of them all, an irony that we're sure was lost on him. With the lack of magic in the Empire, the DSq Rules Committee felt no need to revise the rules as extensively and as often as they were before, so there were only about four major revisions during the First Age of Science². However, recent times have shown an incredible resurgance in this game's popularity, as the dawning of the Second Age of Magic has marked a return to the original magic-based Rules Set, and the return of the famous FILMIE spell.
The current Dungeons and Dungeons Rules Set number is 94.10b.
Dust bunnies burrow in obscure corners and under furniture, and defend their territory by multiplying. Due to the nature of dust bunnies, they multiply actually by dividing themselves in half. They can clog a passageway in seconds, filling the air with dark, suffocating particles. Static electricity and lemon-scented sprays are their only natural enemies. To date the only known dust bunny lair is in a lighthouse near Grubbo-by-the-Sea.
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¹The exact gender of the fourth Dungeon Master is only known by one person: The fourth Dungeon Master.
²If there was a first one, then there might just be a second one someday.