Tickle

Blue Keeper
Creature Limit	27
Starting Gold	9000
Starting Forces	4 Imps (Level 1)

Red Keeper (Human)
Creature Limit	30
Starting Gold	9000
Starting Forces	4 Imps (Level 1)

Tickle is the 8th level in Dungeon Keeper.

A great fiery river winds its way through this region and separates the factions. As indicated by the picture, some of the gold seams are natural crossings, so acting greedy is both rewarding and hazardous. A party led by the Lord of the Land (Thane Dennis^[1]) is supposed to visit when the Blue Keeper and all rogue heroes are slain, but he doesn't. Your mission here is simply to destroy all opposition.

Breakdown[]

Portal Speed: 550 Turns
Creature Pool:

Warlock		30
Demon Spawn		20
Troll		20
Dark Mistress		20
Fly		10
Bile Demon		10
Orc		10

Neutrals

Portal
(5) x1 - among Hero barbarians
(3) x5 (7) x2	▷ behind gold, east end

Specials

Increase Level - cavern, northwest

Locate Hidden World - dungeon, far northeast

Transfer Creature - behind gold, east end

Heroes[]

(4) (4) (4)

These Fairies represent a most unusual trap, certainly designed to punish players who dig around willy-nilly without using the Sight of Evil spell. They are waiting in ambush behind a gold seam that's taking a suggestive path north of your heart. Unlike a similar group of renegade Fairies seen earlier in Realm 6, these are powered-up with lightning spells and are hovering in safety over lava, making them fatally dangerous to Imps and any low-level creatures you might have attracted so far.

(5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5) (5)

Occupying a lava-bright cavern north of the fairies, this group is a stand-up fight. Likely a programmer's mistake, the seventh Barbarian seems to be exactly your kind of scum— he is a Neutral— and will instantly join the first Keeper to see him and attack his comrades. Back him up!

(5) (3) (3)

These three unpartied heroes are supposed to make a grand entrance when all other opponents have been slain or captured, but in the shipped game, no location for them has been designated. Instead, you win the match.

Blue Keeper[]

The primary source of opposition in Tickle, the Blue Keeper here has a very generous number of gold slabs in his immediate area. And still he may try to hog the small, center-south seam connecting Red (us) to his own island. This is noteworthy because if both keepers reach it, battle might commence early on. Other than superior geography, this keeper is more-or-less evenly matched to Red, with similar initial endowments, research, and construction options.

White Dungeon[]

An ancient structure is located in the northeast corner. At its north end, you have a choice of three Magic Doors. The center one contains the location of one of the hidden realms, Secret 1.

New Dungeon Features[]

This realm introduces the Temple with its accompanying host of applications. The Iron Door and the Keeper Spells Protect Monster and Conceal Monster may also be developed.

In constructing a Temple and attracting the right minions, we have access to Horned Reapers for the first time in the campaign (no suggestion of their existence and recipe is made to the player until the next level, however). The AI in the original release of Dungeon Keeper never sacrifices creatures, so Blue will not field these monsters, but since he can build 5x5 rooms, he is the first keeper that will compete with the player for the scarce Bile Demons in the Creature Pool.

Messages[]

Briefing Text: "Seek out the one who would be your rival in this region of the underworld. Explain the concept of early retirement to him. On the other hand, string him up. It's in the only language he understands."
Player researches Conceal: "You have researched the power of Invisibility. Cast it on a creature to hide it from enemy eyes."
Player researches Protect: "The Protect Creature spell has been researched at last. Cast it on a creature to increase its toughness."
Player researches Temple: "Researchers have found instructions for building a Temple to the dark gods. Sacrifice creatures in the Temple's pool to receive gifts from these gods. You might have to experiment with the offerings you make. The dark gods are not easy to please."
Player defeats Heroes and Blue Keeper: "That's another enemy successfully written off. The defenceless inhabitants of the land above bow down before your depraved presence. As if that will save them..."

Sound Bytes[]

"Blissfully unaware of the damage protracted war can wreak on their idyllic cluster of homesteads, the villagers of Tickle are pure of heart, and unblemished of face and neck."

— The Mentor, Intro

"Neverdorf. Once a flourishing homestead, now it's a stinking hole in the ground. It will be years before even the hardiest weed grows here again. War, on the other hand, is in full blossom."

— Canon Outro

Trivia[]

This realm's outtro speech file, BAD08.WAV, makes more sense if renamed to BAD07.WAV to correspond with Wishvale. Moonbrush Wood's outro file, BAD09.WAV (Neverdorf), makes more sense renamed to 08 to match up with Tickle. These files are in the game subdirectory \SOUND\ATLAS\.

Mismatched OC soundbytes
Intro	Matching File	Reasoning
GOOD01.WAV	BAD01.WAV	Anthrax
GOOD02.WAV	BAD02.WAV	Mention of Demon Spawn
GOOD03.WAV	BAD03.WAV	Inhabitants' altered viewpoints
GOOD04.WAV	BAD18.WAV	Mention of Trolls
GOOD05.WAV	BAD05.WAV	The quietude broken by screams
GOOD06.WAV	BAD07.WAV	What became of the bunnies
GOOD07.WAV	BAD08.WAV	~~Lady~~ Catherine
GOOD08.WAV	BAD09.WAV	War arrived
GOOD09.WAV	BAD10.WAV	The legions of Hell rode in
GOOD10.WAV	BAD11.WAV	Inhabitants' violent death
GOOD11.WAV	BAD06.WAV	Feeding on the dead?
GOOD12.WAV	BAD13.WAV	Fairy ring
GOOD13.WAV	BAD14.WAV	Being together, in a mass grave
GOOD14.WAV	BAD15.WAV	Sleepy farms got "developed"
GOOD15.WAV	BAD16.WAV	Undead massacre
GOOD16.WAV	BAD17.WAV	No more flowers
GOOD17.WAV	BAD12.WAV	Razed completely
GOOD18.WAV	BAD19.WAV	A great battle
GOOD19.WAV	BAD04.WAV	Poisonous fumes
GOOD20.WAV	BAD20.WAV	Skybird Trill named

The names for this level in other languages are as follows:

Translations: Tickle
Language	Translation
French	Rigaut-Le-Haut
Italian	Deliziandia
German	Herrlich-Hohenbollern
Dutch	Pretkerk
Polish	Łaskotniki
Czech	Šimrov
Swedish	KITTLINGE
Russian	Тикл
Japanese	ティクル
Chinese	欢娱村庄 / 快活国

Other versions[]

15 May 1997 Prototype	Retail	KeeperFX

The prototype and retail versions' scripts are identical.

KeeperFX makes a very minor change in the wall fortification for Blue, and adds a Hero Gate to Blue's Treasure Room (the retail version has script code that spawns some heroes, including the Lord of the Land, at Action Point 1, which is absent).

Map images in the official guide book are of the prototype version, not the final retail version.