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Castle Dust
3ae3fd
Increased size is a massive no. Your denizens are already somewhat scared of you. They are finally realising just how amazing you are and it will take time for them to familiarise themselves with that. A more dominant personage would only cause trouble. And more importantly, you are a cave, your golem needs to operate in a cave. Your living spaces are fine, but the frontier digging and any natural caverns you encounter will need caving skills, and unless you want to get stuck in narrow passages of wear yourself bald against low ceilings you should avoid becoming taller or wider.
Homonculus is a dead-end. It is just an attempt to be human. If you were a dungeon that specialised in social challenges then a social skill would help, but as it stands, refining the quality of your golem's detailing is of very little value. Unless it strengthens your internal structure? but I didn't get that impression...
The best potions are defensive or vital and would do nothing for one already made of stone who has no metabolism, and the remaining potions would be pitiful compared to other traits.
The amount of mana contained in food is irrelevant to you. It hurts to say, but you constantly leak mana too pure for human magicians to wield, far less actually produce, and they eat all the time, while your internal mana is on another level entirely. Given how much of an extremity your golem is, it might be able to detect the extra mana, but actually getting noticeable results out of it seems ridiculous, and you can channel mana from your core...
You currently have issues dealing with magic. Mana churn would be good for shutting down something like the recent curse, but it is expensive and still probably only lasts for a single fight and might interfere with your golems and slimes which are both inherently magical to some degree. If churn was reliably safe for magical entities and had some utility, then I might change my opinion, but as it stands it is too situational and risky.
Primal Stone however is amazing. At a basic level, it is magic resistance and a powerful resilience to contrast with Moriko's powerful attack. If you can master it though? Being able to transition quickly could achieve some truly incredible things. Imagine grappling when you can slip up to them in your natural state then transition into stone once you have a hold on them. Stone form to bat a fireball out of the air then normalise to rush the arcanist. Stand before a hulking barbarian on a rampage in defence of a slime formation and see their confidence shatter as their armoured fist plows into you, and then just stops. Boss-mode a tail, swing a malleable clay tail towards your adversaries, and have it hit them as a solid lump of granite...
As for social aspects? It grants you the ability to become a very nearly absolute fact. sooner or later your denizens will be desperate. Perhaps Alkaline is being tormented, maybe your farms are being ruined, maybe Hin's artful furnishings are being defiled or someone is picking apart the secrets of Merud's golems to claim as their own... There are times when reason will fail. They may respect you, but on their worste day respect counts for little. The physical presence of something that just won't move is difficult to describe, but it is a social impact that, while rare to employ, dwarfs any impact a "pretty human face" might bestow.
Finally, this "bond with the ground" business is fascinating. What if it could be later refined into a direct connection between your golem-self and dungeon-self?
Goes without saying that stone-form would be good for digging...
As for appearance? You don't look like a child, you just look petite, which in a cave is terrifying. Of all your recent golem speculation, the most imposing one was also the weakest. The swarm golem, with its blade-hands and simple legs was all menace, and at that size? Nothing that small should be that dangerous, it is extremely unnerving, and in a cave? Imagine a swarm of those things scampering about a field of stalagmites and stalactites... a team of large challengers would be stumbling around like oafs as those terrifying little things dart about without care. In cramped quarters, respect comes from small, not tall.
More importantly, you need the utility. There will be slime nests in the grotto to deal with, unpredictable natural caverns to navigate, obstacle courses to work on, small trap mechanisms to maintain... Petite is practical, and I don't see you willingly embarrassing yourself by bulking your golem up into something impractical.
But most importantly of all, being big would be completely redundant. One of the easiest boss-mode effects is size increase, you have gigante, you can sit on a brute... If you ever need size you have an abundance of options, not to mention that you are actually the entire dungeon and thus massive beyond all comparison... and can probably earth-quake something off of the top shelf if you are desperate...
I would suggest some mobile hair to temporarily hold things conveniently. some sort of clamp on the end would help with this, and going the classical head-snakes route might differentiate your golem from whatever was bothering Moriko. But having some extra limbs to hold the lens to your eye or carry a pencil while your hands are full or something...
That spider-skirt of your boss-mode does look amazing, but perhaps is a bit much for every-day use? just a pair of spider-legs with crab-claws on the ends would grant you a lot of stability on uneven surfaces and some extra combat and manipulation options though...
Have you considered replacing your legs with a tail? It could probably get into smaller spaces, and as a golem that is not optimised for strength, it probably isn't good at climbing to begin with, while adding some sort of extendible/retractable scales or something could give it a lot of grip.
Of course, all of this would give you a massive serpentine theme, but snakes-from-a-vein is a rather intimidating prospect...
Your shard is good where it is. On your back you coulnd't access it yourself, and couldn't stop others from meddling with it. That your head can take a hammer-blow and continue to function is one of your strengths, keep it away from there. under a shoulder would be difficult to access and awkward to defend other than just covering it. Between your legs would be quite defensible, and possibly easy to access depending upon your flexibility, but if someone does get through your defences, then your legs would channel the blow right into it, not a nice prospect for a part of your primary self. On a hand would leave it too exposed and feet experience too much. Where it is has a good balance.
In brief:
You may have to squeeze, don't have any large protrusions that can't be flattened down.
It is in your own interest to have some rooms that are awkward for tall people, don't be your own victim.
Earn respect with your deeds, not your face. Winning allies doesn't help if you can't maintain them.
Everyone needs a Deem Doll.
Fez-and-bow-tie-wearing snakes with monocles are cool.
Primal Stone is ludicrously versatile and powerful, especially if you can be agile in its use.
Homunculus is just too redundant to be practical. Get Hin to do some fine sculpting on your golem if appearances are an issue, potions don't work well with a golem's natural properties, and if food had enough mana for you to notice then people would glow after every meal.
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