Okay we’re at Book 9 now. Took me some time as my son had managed to lose the book inside his own room and couldn’t find it back even after I browbeat him into cleaning his mess. Kids… I mean, my son is awesome but tidiness is NOT is forte. Anyhow, I finally managed to find the book on the bottom of a drawer so here we are.

• Right at the start we get an encounter with a black-armored, sword and whip wielding Dullahan (headless knight). It seems like it’s part spirit part physical. Its sword attack goes right through armor without damaging it. It’s also impervious to attacks, even magic ones! What’s one suppose to do? Laios, critically wounded, manages to make a deal with the Dullahan and it was pretty much the only reason why he didn’t die.
• After that we have probably the most extreme example of dungeon ecology/monster biology to date when Laios’ Guild stumbles upon the reproducing ground of a swarm of Succubus [succubi]. True Succubus are demonic in nature but there’s another sort of creature that have been named after them: the Succubus Mosquito! Just like their namesake they can take the appearance of something of irresistible sex-appeal to their would-be victim. When they’re close enough they plunged their piercing, hollow tongue inside their victim to suck them dry. But wait there’s more, they then transform the stolen blood into a milk-like substance to nourish (via their anus, for good measure) their insect larvae that are kept in still water…
• In the last third of the book we learn a lot about dungeons, why they exist and how they grow over time when it has found a « master ». Dungeons are basically prisons for demons (entities from another world), one demon per dungeon to be more precise. A demon/dungeon needs to interact with people to get stronger and thus does what it can to lure people to itself (riches and desire-fulfilling promises). The more powerful and complex the desires of someone are, the more strength the demon will gain when it will feed (literally) upon them. A person « eaten » in this manner will be either too weak to survive or become a shell of its former self.

So you see, Delicious in Dungeon has many typical fantasy fares, and not typical at all dungeon ecology and monster biology. It’s also sort of about food, nutrition and food taboos… But it could also have been called Dungeons & Demons!