Delicious in Dungeon

Episode 16

Episode 16 of Delicious in Dungeon brings several long-simmering tensions to a full boil and the pot nearly bubbles over.

Most of this episode focuses on the interaction of the three primary adventuring groups: Laios and co, Shiro's team, and Kabru's party. These three groups have been circling each other for a few weeks and it was inevitable that they would eventually start interacting with one another. It was a neat idea to have all of them meet at once, as we've got a few scenes with two different parties meeting together but not three at once. The three overlapping group dynamics plus the various personalities in play make for an engaging extended scene of them all meeting.

The shared history that they have with one another creates great tension. Toshiro, Laios, and Kabru meet as team leaders to discuss various adventuring happenings/shenanigans. This should be a meeting of equals but the narrative weight skews towards Laios and Toshiro. Not only do they have more background with one another - and hence more tension and drama - but Kabru becomes more of an observer role as conflict sparks between Laios and Toshiro. Between bits of small talk about surviving and cooking monsters down in the dungeon, Laios' revelation that they used black magic to resurrect Falin sends Toshiro into a near rage.

What's less clear to me (and perhaps only me) is why this particular kind of magic is unacceptable when resurrection appears to exist in other forms. Forbidden magic is a long-running fantasy and fairy tale trope, so I can buy it at face value that some styles or varieties of mystical power are off limits for handwavey reasons. But there have been multiple mentions of resurrection, fees for such practices, etc. Maybe I missed some mention of it having to be done by a sanctified priest or something, but other than using monster meat as fuel for the spell it's not entirely clear to me why this kind of resurrection is somehow crossing the line (or maybe the monster meat part is the key). In any case, it will be interesting to see how this conflict pans out next week.

In other news, I enjoyed the expansion of the living dungeon concept. Yet more Gygaxian Naturalism in the form of tiny creatures that perform Dungeon repair like platelets in the bloodstream is neat. It's absurd in a realistic sense but works perfectly within the fantastical context.

Rating:

Grant is the cohost on the Blade Licking Thieves podcast and Super Senpai Podcast.

Delicious in Dungeon is currently streaming on Netflix.

Delicious in Dungeon is currently streaming on Netflix.