Dungeon Master (Karma System)

The most troublesome visitor in Sanctuary was not Holt.

Holt’s punishment at the orc work camp placed him in a separate category. The elite gnomes ranked only people who remained technically compliant while creating unnecessary work.

First place belonged to a merchant named Cassin.

His record contained forty-three incidents. He asked three departments the same question and used the answer he preferred. He submitted routine requests as emergencies. He moved signs when they directed customers away from his stall. None of his actions justified expulsion or punishment at the work camp.

Together, they made every gnome who dealt with him less efficient.

Max read the ranking document beside Anna and Quin.

The categories included visitors, merchants, adventurers, ordinary staff, elite staff, and people whose classification remained disputed.

Max appeared in the last category.

[MAX CLARKSON]

[Difficulty varies according to whether he notices a problem before or after corrective work begins.]

[Frequently resolves issues quickly. Occasionally creates new review requirements by asking why the old procedure exists.]

Anna read his entry twice.

"You ranked your Dungeon Master?" Max asked the elite team.

The lead gnome stood at attention.

"The list would be inaccurate if authority prevented inclusion."

Anna found her own entry.

[ANNA CLARKSON]

[Provides clear objectives. May approve experiments without specifying when they should end.]

The recent efficiency competition had added the second sentence.

Quin’s entry described him as easy to work with until he discovered an untested assumption. Then he continued asking questions until the assumption stopped existing.

The rankings were insulting in places. They were also specific.

Max asked how the list was used.

Elite gnomes reviewed it before assignments. A visitor with repeated incidents received a gnome familiar with the history. Merchants known to ask several departments the same question had answers entered into a shared record. Staff members with particular habits received reminders before joint work.

The system prevented repetition, but the rankings had never been approved because no one had submitted them.

"Why keep it unofficial?" Max asked.

"Official records require neutral language."

"Official records use neutral language for a reason."

The gnome did not agree.

Max examined Cassin’s incidents. The merchant had learned how Sanctuary’s tiered response system worked and framed requests to reach whichever person he believed would give him the best result. The system still prevented routine matters from reaching Max, but several clerks had repeated work already completed elsewhere.

The ranking exposed a real weakness.

It also labeled one adventurer THE MAN WHO ASKS WHERE THE HIDDEN ROUTE IS AFTER BEING TOLD IT IS HIDDEN.

Max refused to make that wording official.

Anna proposed separating facts from opinions. Repeated incidents, conflicting requests, and prior rulings could enter a shared service record. Commentary about personality would remain outside it.

The elite gnomes objected that personality predicted future incidents.

"Then describe the behavior." Anna said. "Do not declare someone unbearable when you can record what he actually did."

The revised entry for Cassin stated that he had submitted the same request to multiple authorities after receiving a valid decision. Any new request on the subject would route to the person who made the first ruling.

The change closed the gap he had been using.

Other entries required less action.

A healer ranked highly because she asked every hospital attendant detailed questions about resurrection cases. Her questions consumed time, but she had used the answers to improve party preparation and stopped whenever an emergency arrived.

Max removed her from the difficulty record. Curiosity was not misconduct.

A caravan master appeared because he arrived with inaccurate passenger counts. The errors came from people joining or leaving during travel, not deliberate misreporting. Portal staff needed an update procedure, not a warning about the man.

One ordinary gnome ranked another for borrowing writing tools and never returning them. That matter stayed with their supervisor.

The document became shorter as they worked.

It also gained rules about who could see it.

The gnomes had treated operational usefulness as sufficient justification for access. Max disagreed. A food vendor did not need to know that an adventurer repeatedly became confused after resurrection. A portal clerk did need to know when a traveler submitted conflicting destination requests.

Quin divided the records by function. Safety incidents followed the person only where the information could prevent harm. Service disputes stayed with the departments involved. Personal observations that had no operational purpose were removed.

"Restricted information makes preparation slower." the lead gnome said.

"So does allowing everyone to read everything ever recorded about them." Quin replied.

The gnome considered the social consequences and accepted the restriction.

Max added a review process. A person affected by an official note could ask what decision it influenced and challenge inaccurate facts. The request would not rise to Max unless lower reviewers disagreed or dungeon authority was involved.

The tiered response system already had places for those questions. The rankings had grown outside it because the elite team wanted speed. Bringing useful records inside the system meant accepting the protections that came with authority.

Anna found an entry concerning a young adventurer who asked hospital staff the same question after every death. The note called him inattentive. A hospital worker explained that resurrection sometimes left him disoriented for several hours.

The entry was deleted. A private medical note already told staff to repeat the explanation patiently.

The elite team disliked every deletion until Max showed that useful entries gained weight when trivial complaints disappeared. A record containing ten meaningful incidents helped more than a ranking containing fifty annoyances.

The gnomes retained one private category for internal amusement, provided it contained no protected records and never influenced official treatment.

They applied the new standards to their own team first.

One elite gnome held the record for correcting other people’s map orientation while holding his own map upside down. Another had initiated seven unnecessary equipment checks because a hinge sounded different in humid weather. The lead gnome ranked highest for continuing an experiment after its conclusion was already obvious.

"You included yourselves before anyone ordered it." Anna said.

"Accuracy prevents resentment." the lead gnome replied.

The ordinary staff requested access to the internal list. The elite team denied it because amusement did not qualify as an operational purpose.

Max supported the denial. Private mockery became a different matter when the subject could not answer it, but an internal team could acknowledge its own habits without turning them into public labels.

He required one additional rule. Anyone mentioned on the humorous list could demand removal. Refusal would transform a shared joke into an imposed one.

No elite gnome requested removal. Several submitted clarifications that made their entries longer.

Max expected them to hide it.

They placed the category on the wall of their workroom.

[PEOPLE MOST LIKELY TO CREATE A NEW PROCEDURE]

Max held first place. Anna ranked second. Quin occupied third despite objecting that discovering a missing procedure was not the same as creating the problem.

Hizon appeared fourth because every Undercity business eventually produced a rule Sanctuary had never needed before.

The list changed throughout the day as gnomes argued over evidence.

Cassin arrived at the portal plaza before the revision ended. He attempted to move a temporary sign so customers leaving the portal would pass his stall.

An ordinary gnome returned the sign and recorded the incident. Cassin then asked an elite gnome whether the sign’s location had been formally approved.

The elite gnome opened the shared record.

"The location was approved after your thirty-seventh incident."

"I have never had thirty-seven incidents."

"You have forty-four now."

Cassin left the sign alone.

The official record did not call him troublesome. It did not need to.

Cassin demanded to see the full list.

The gnome showed him the official incidents concerning his own requests and nothing about other people. Cassin challenged six entries. Two lacked enough detail to prove he had received the earlier decision and were removed. Four included his acknowledgment marks.

"Removing two proves the record was unreliable." Cassin said.

"Removing unsupported entries proves the review worked." Max replied.

Cassin had not expected Max to be present. He shifted from demanding deletion to arguing that repeated requests showed persistence, not obstruction.

Max asked whether Cassin would accept customers reopening completed sales whenever they disliked the price. The merchant admitted he would not.

The comparison did not make him pleased. It made the rule difficult to pretend he misunderstood.

His record gained no new incident for using the review process. Challenging a record was permitted even when the challenge failed. The distinction mattered more than whether Cassin deserved additional criticism.

At the end of the review, Max found one category the gnomes had not shown voluntarily.

[PERSONNEL NEEDS]

The first entry concerned him.

[The Dungeon Master possesses an elite combat team but no assigned personal attendant.]

[Operational gap remains unresolved.]

Max crossed out the entry.

The lead gnome watched him do it.

"Crossing out a need does not resolve it."

"The position does not exist." Max said.

The gnome added a note.

[Dungeon Master currently resistant to acknowledging operational gap.]