The Gods were angry. Their heroes were having uneven experiences in all their dungeons and constantly complained about it. Some threatened to quit adventuring, which would reduce the amount of power the Gods received.
That would not do.
They took their argument to the Monster Lords. Several days of negotiations followed, each trying to leverage a better deal. In the end, an accord finally came into being. In exchange for fixing the problems with the dungeons and making sure they never happened again, the Monster Lords gained for their children several benefits:
- Dying while at work was no longer permanent; only dying outside of work or of old age were permanently fatal.
- Any hero killed in a dungeon grants the monster a substantial bonus, even if the hero is resurrected later.
- All creatures were given the option of taking a different species as their own outside of the dungeon.
- Heroes were forbidden from killing a monster outside of a dungeon under any circumstance. In return monsters were forbidden from overtly provoking a hero away from the dungeon.
- Any monster that chooses to live among the normals must abide by their laws and rules.
- Any monster that was fired from the dungeon lost all benefits.
- Any monster operating outside the boundaries of this agreement was considered a rogue operator and not bound by any of these terms or able to claim any of these protections.
The agreement formed a loose coalition amongst the Monster Lords as they worked to standardize the dungeon experience for certain strengths of hero.
Soon the monsters of Dungeon 114 banded together to get better benefits, like a paycheck and less abuse from the Dungeon Boss. Afraid of a work stoppage causing the Gods to take notice they came to an agreement. The first monster labor union came into being. More followed in their footsteps, leading the Lords to standardize labor across all dungeons. Paydays, teleportation to and from work for those living far from their assigned dungeon, mandatory half of a moon cycle of downtime after a dungeon raid, and even sick leave.
In time the Monster Lords took a more formal name for their group: The Dungeon Management Consotrium.
Five hundred years have passed peacefully. The Gods have gotten stronger, the DMC has gotten richer, and there is relative peace. A huge event is being planned to celebrate this anniversary. What it is, only the upper management of DMC know.
You are a worker in Dungeon 114, an abandoned ruin located in the shadow of a dormant volcano. At the moment a lazy group of adventurers are taking their sweet time through the dungeon which risks you being late on the anniversary event. Malvada, the Medusa witch Dungeon Boss, is agitated but forbidden by DMC regulations from using attacks to speed them up.
Hosted and narrated by:
M. Sparks (mrmarcus)
Completed 01/28/21.
Scenes played: 12
License: Community License
18+
