- TNP Nation
- Yamantau/The Black Cathedral
- Discord
- merchantofmercy
Dougie carried himself quite confidently, tapping his quill on the parchment as he looked around, observing the demons at work.
"So, this fella here, what's his name?" Dougie quickly asked.
"The Bringer of Pain." Salroth stated flatly.
"Riiiight. Oi, mate! Come here for a second." Dougie called to the serpentine demon looking over the torture pit.
The massive creature turned to face the comparatively diminutive wizard who stood next to the Dark Lord, a stark contrast between the two, Dougie in his bright blue robes with the sigil of Un embroidered on the sleeve towards the shoulder, and Salroth, clad in his terrible armor.
"What's your name, mate?" Dougie asked impatiently.
The demon let out an infernal shriek with a mouthful of blazing fire in response.
"Right, didn't catch a bit of that, so I'll just say Kevin." Dougie responded, unphased as he scribbled down some notes on his parchment.
"So, Kevin, I need to ask, when was the last time you renewed your torture pit tickets? I have to ask because I have here, in the records that you last took the Torture Pit Standard Safety Orientation, uhm…ta ta ta….almost fifteen millenia ago. That ticket is only good for the standard three thousand years, mate. You know that. I'm also kind of upset that there's no safety railing or signage designating this area as a Torture Area. It's not safe, Kevin." Dougie rambled.
The giant demon slowly blinked and looked towards Salroth.
"Listen, I'm gonna need you to get that renewed, as well as your Torture Pit Fall Protection, your Common Killing Field Certification Level C, as well as your standard Demonic First Aid, because all of those have expired as well, right?" Dougie continued.
"Come on, Dougie. I quite literally wrote the book on that, and…Kevin…has been with us for millenia, he's a hard worker, I'm sure it was just a clerical oversight." Salroth said with a tinge of exasperation.
"Ok, but Salroth, you've had an exemplary safety record for the last five thousand years, you've even got commendations from the Order of Magical Health and Safety and the Workers Alliance Guild, stuff like this really isn't in your character so it's kind of disappointing to see the standards slide like this. Just because Kevin works hard and he hasn't had an incident doesn't mean I can just look the other way when he's not got valid tickets, mate." Dougie explained.
"I understand, but this seems a little silly." Salroth remarked.
"Listen, mate, I don't make the rules. It's in the legislation, I don't control that, I just enforce it. The legislation is decided by the major governing bodies which are the Order of Magical Health and Safety, the Workers Alliance Guild, the Wizards Safety Association, and the Dwarven Smiths Guild. I just make sure that everyone is following the provided guidelines when it comes to occupational safety, mate." Dougie replied with a shrug.
"What do the dwarves have to do with this?" Salroth asked suspiciously.
"The Dwarven Smiths Guild have been leaders in industry and safety for years, so they get a say in these types of things." Dougie explained, motioning around.
"So they use their gold to influence things." Salroth grimaced.
"Salroth, you're being anti-dwarfmetic and it's kind of concerning, if you're going to keep up that kind of behaviour, I'm gonna have to ask you to attend some sensitivity training in order to sort of get over this way of thinking." Dougie chastised. "Do you really wanna sit in a classroom in Un and listen to some stuffy elf from who knows where tell you why it's bad to he racist?"
"No…" Salroth sighed.
"Ok, so, let's go have a look at your records, because I'd like to have a look at those, just to make sure everything else is in order. Sound good?" Dougie changed the conversation, before looking back at Kevin. "Kevin! Tickets!" Dougie shouted.
Kevin gave Dougie a thumbs up to the best of his ability before turning back to his torture duties.
Salroth rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger as he walked. He always hated when Dougie came for an inspection. No matter how hard he tried, the annoying little wizard always seemed to pop back up. He had tried everything. Dougie was unresponsive to the advances of a succubus tasked with distracting him, he couldn't just be snapped out of existence, he was like a rat that just kept finding his way back in.
"So, I am very happy with everything so far, other than Kevin's tickets being expired, but you've done a really good job keeping everything up to code. I do need to know what you're doing with the mass graves full of corpses though." Dougie chattered.
"They are to be reanimated to serve in my unholy crusade." Salroth explained, somewhat confused.
"Ok, well, your Necromancy Level A was renewed last year, so thats fine, but have you received written consent from the next of kin releasing the corpse to your possession, no pun intended. That's very important." Dougie remarked.
"The families are also in the grave, there is no next of kin." Salroth replied.
"Oh, perfect, that's fine then. When was the last time you renewed your Demonic Conquest License though, Salroth?" Dougie inquired, raising his bushy eyebrows.
"I..uh…" Salroth stammered.
"I already know it's expired, that ticket is good for five thousand years, and you haven't renewed it for forty thousand years, so you're quite out of date. Now if I was a worse type of wizard, I'd ding you for it, but you've been very accommodating and we've managed to settle a lot of other stuff pretty amicably, so I will have to ask you to renew that within the next thousand years to avoid a pretty stiff fine, right?" Dougie stated.
"Uh..Ok." Salroth said.
The two hustled off to Salroth's palace, carved of brutal stone, and strewn with the corpses of those who dared to oppose him.
"You're gonna need to either put up a Bodies Ahead sign or clear these corpses to either side of the walkway. It's a tripping hazard. First warning, yeah?" Dougie mumbled, making yet more notes on his parchment.
Salroth rolled his eyes.
As the paid entered the throne room, Dougie looked around, taking note of the general state of the area.
"So I know you're gonna hate this, but I have to ask if you have a permit for Thrones and Throne Adjacent Furniture." Dougie asked, raising his eyebrows.
"I…I need a throne ticket?" Salroth asked incredulously.
"Oh yeah! Absolutely! So Throne and Throne Adjacent Furniture needs to have a permit issued whenever the stairs up to it exceed six steps and have no hand rails, are constructed of slick marble, or are built to resemble anything phallic in any way. Throne related injuries account for almost ninety percent of lower back injuries, most of those are short term atrophy or slips, trips, falls caused by the slick marble." Dougie explained as he continued making notes.
"This is ridiculous." Salroth growled.
"I know, but listen, I'll make you up a provisional permit, good for the next three centuries, after that, you'll need to submit Parchment Twelve-J in order to get that permanent permit." Dougie explained, quickly writing up the permit and handing it to Salroth. "You can keep that in your records."
Salroth took the parchment and looked over it, reading all the fine print.
"Dougie, this says I can't even use a folding wooden chair on gravel." Salroth said, his annoyance growing.
"Yeah, mate. It's a pinch hazard. Pinch injuries can be really painful." Dougie responded.
Galmash, Salroth's second in command, entered the throne room carrying a heavy crate, with numerous scraps of parchment and scorched papyrus stacked loosely inside.
"These are all the records and incident reports for the last year?" Dougie asked Galmash.
"Yes." Galmash said curtly before turning and hurrying away. Galmash was already wary after failing to alert Salroth that Dougie had showed up the inspection, entirely forgetting to inform the Dark Lord that the inspection was not only happening, but had been scheduled weeks prior.
"Ok, these records could definitely be kept in better order, but I can see that you're at least keeping records. I'm pretty satisfied with that. So, about Kevin. I do have a guy that can come here and do those courses for him, fairly cheap and reliable, probably anywhere between a hundred and seventy to two hundred gold pieces per course. You just need to schedule him. I'll give you his orb number, but he's terrible for pondering his orb consistently, so it might take him a while to get back to you." Dougie rambled.
"That is…fairly cheap, thank you, Dougie." Salroth said, somewhat taken aback.
"Listen, you and I have had a fantastic working relationship for the past few millennia, so I'm perfectly willing to try and help you out, you just have to meet me halfway. I'm very happy with this, so I'll get my boss on the orb and let her know that we can probably start doing these every three years instead of every year. Like I said earlier, your record has been quite good for some time, so I'm not overly concerned. Your humanitarian inspection next month though, we're gonna have to have a chat or two about some things." Dougie chatted as he finished filling out the facilities safety certification.
"Like what?" Salroth scoffed.
"Like the tarp covering up the Impaling Station, which we had talked about previously, and agreed you would remove, but thats a different matter for another day. Until then, I'll slap a seal on this and we can call it good." Dougie said with a sly smile.
Salroth didn't think Dougie would notice that the Impaling Station was still in operation.
Dougie tore the parchment and waved his hand over it, the glowing sigil of Un appearing at the bottom before he handed it Salroth. "Right then, I'll see you next month." Dougie smiled, before waving his hand and stepping through the glowing portal he had conjured.
"Thanks, Dougie." Salroth muttered, looking down at the parchment.
Next to the box labeled "Safety Score" were simply the words "Exemplary. Three Year Inspection Eligible."
"So, this fella here, what's his name?" Dougie quickly asked.
"The Bringer of Pain." Salroth stated flatly.
"Riiiight. Oi, mate! Come here for a second." Dougie called to the serpentine demon looking over the torture pit.
The massive creature turned to face the comparatively diminutive wizard who stood next to the Dark Lord, a stark contrast between the two, Dougie in his bright blue robes with the sigil of Un embroidered on the sleeve towards the shoulder, and Salroth, clad in his terrible armor.
"What's your name, mate?" Dougie asked impatiently.
The demon let out an infernal shriek with a mouthful of blazing fire in response.
"Right, didn't catch a bit of that, so I'll just say Kevin." Dougie responded, unphased as he scribbled down some notes on his parchment.
"So, Kevin, I need to ask, when was the last time you renewed your torture pit tickets? I have to ask because I have here, in the records that you last took the Torture Pit Standard Safety Orientation, uhm…ta ta ta….almost fifteen millenia ago. That ticket is only good for the standard three thousand years, mate. You know that. I'm also kind of upset that there's no safety railing or signage designating this area as a Torture Area. It's not safe, Kevin." Dougie rambled.
The giant demon slowly blinked and looked towards Salroth.
"Listen, I'm gonna need you to get that renewed, as well as your Torture Pit Fall Protection, your Common Killing Field Certification Level C, as well as your standard Demonic First Aid, because all of those have expired as well, right?" Dougie continued.
"Come on, Dougie. I quite literally wrote the book on that, and…Kevin…has been with us for millenia, he's a hard worker, I'm sure it was just a clerical oversight." Salroth said with a tinge of exasperation.
"Ok, but Salroth, you've had an exemplary safety record for the last five thousand years, you've even got commendations from the Order of Magical Health and Safety and the Workers Alliance Guild, stuff like this really isn't in your character so it's kind of disappointing to see the standards slide like this. Just because Kevin works hard and he hasn't had an incident doesn't mean I can just look the other way when he's not got valid tickets, mate." Dougie explained.
"I understand, but this seems a little silly." Salroth remarked.
"Listen, mate, I don't make the rules. It's in the legislation, I don't control that, I just enforce it. The legislation is decided by the major governing bodies which are the Order of Magical Health and Safety, the Workers Alliance Guild, the Wizards Safety Association, and the Dwarven Smiths Guild. I just make sure that everyone is following the provided guidelines when it comes to occupational safety, mate." Dougie replied with a shrug.
"What do the dwarves have to do with this?" Salroth asked suspiciously.
"The Dwarven Smiths Guild have been leaders in industry and safety for years, so they get a say in these types of things." Dougie explained, motioning around.
"So they use their gold to influence things." Salroth grimaced.
"Salroth, you're being anti-dwarfmetic and it's kind of concerning, if you're going to keep up that kind of behaviour, I'm gonna have to ask you to attend some sensitivity training in order to sort of get over this way of thinking." Dougie chastised. "Do you really wanna sit in a classroom in Un and listen to some stuffy elf from who knows where tell you why it's bad to he racist?"
"No…" Salroth sighed.
"Ok, so, let's go have a look at your records, because I'd like to have a look at those, just to make sure everything else is in order. Sound good?" Dougie changed the conversation, before looking back at Kevin. "Kevin! Tickets!" Dougie shouted.
Kevin gave Dougie a thumbs up to the best of his ability before turning back to his torture duties.
Salroth rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger as he walked. He always hated when Dougie came for an inspection. No matter how hard he tried, the annoying little wizard always seemed to pop back up. He had tried everything. Dougie was unresponsive to the advances of a succubus tasked with distracting him, he couldn't just be snapped out of existence, he was like a rat that just kept finding his way back in.
"So, I am very happy with everything so far, other than Kevin's tickets being expired, but you've done a really good job keeping everything up to code. I do need to know what you're doing with the mass graves full of corpses though." Dougie chattered.
"They are to be reanimated to serve in my unholy crusade." Salroth explained, somewhat confused.
"Ok, well, your Necromancy Level A was renewed last year, so thats fine, but have you received written consent from the next of kin releasing the corpse to your possession, no pun intended. That's very important." Dougie remarked.
"The families are also in the grave, there is no next of kin." Salroth replied.
"Oh, perfect, that's fine then. When was the last time you renewed your Demonic Conquest License though, Salroth?" Dougie inquired, raising his bushy eyebrows.
"I..uh…" Salroth stammered.
"I already know it's expired, that ticket is good for five thousand years, and you haven't renewed it for forty thousand years, so you're quite out of date. Now if I was a worse type of wizard, I'd ding you for it, but you've been very accommodating and we've managed to settle a lot of other stuff pretty amicably, so I will have to ask you to renew that within the next thousand years to avoid a pretty stiff fine, right?" Dougie stated.
"Uh..Ok." Salroth said.
The two hustled off to Salroth's palace, carved of brutal stone, and strewn with the corpses of those who dared to oppose him.
"You're gonna need to either put up a Bodies Ahead sign or clear these corpses to either side of the walkway. It's a tripping hazard. First warning, yeah?" Dougie mumbled, making yet more notes on his parchment.
Salroth rolled his eyes.
As the paid entered the throne room, Dougie looked around, taking note of the general state of the area.
"So I know you're gonna hate this, but I have to ask if you have a permit for Thrones and Throne Adjacent Furniture." Dougie asked, raising his eyebrows.
"I…I need a throne ticket?" Salroth asked incredulously.
"Oh yeah! Absolutely! So Throne and Throne Adjacent Furniture needs to have a permit issued whenever the stairs up to it exceed six steps and have no hand rails, are constructed of slick marble, or are built to resemble anything phallic in any way. Throne related injuries account for almost ninety percent of lower back injuries, most of those are short term atrophy or slips, trips, falls caused by the slick marble." Dougie explained as he continued making notes.
"This is ridiculous." Salroth growled.
"I know, but listen, I'll make you up a provisional permit, good for the next three centuries, after that, you'll need to submit Parchment Twelve-J in order to get that permanent permit." Dougie explained, quickly writing up the permit and handing it to Salroth. "You can keep that in your records."
Salroth took the parchment and looked over it, reading all the fine print.
"Dougie, this says I can't even use a folding wooden chair on gravel." Salroth said, his annoyance growing.
"Yeah, mate. It's a pinch hazard. Pinch injuries can be really painful." Dougie responded.
Galmash, Salroth's second in command, entered the throne room carrying a heavy crate, with numerous scraps of parchment and scorched papyrus stacked loosely inside.
"These are all the records and incident reports for the last year?" Dougie asked Galmash.
"Yes." Galmash said curtly before turning and hurrying away. Galmash was already wary after failing to alert Salroth that Dougie had showed up the inspection, entirely forgetting to inform the Dark Lord that the inspection was not only happening, but had been scheduled weeks prior.
"Ok, these records could definitely be kept in better order, but I can see that you're at least keeping records. I'm pretty satisfied with that. So, about Kevin. I do have a guy that can come here and do those courses for him, fairly cheap and reliable, probably anywhere between a hundred and seventy to two hundred gold pieces per course. You just need to schedule him. I'll give you his orb number, but he's terrible for pondering his orb consistently, so it might take him a while to get back to you." Dougie rambled.
"That is…fairly cheap, thank you, Dougie." Salroth said, somewhat taken aback.
"Listen, you and I have had a fantastic working relationship for the past few millennia, so I'm perfectly willing to try and help you out, you just have to meet me halfway. I'm very happy with this, so I'll get my boss on the orb and let her know that we can probably start doing these every three years instead of every year. Like I said earlier, your record has been quite good for some time, so I'm not overly concerned. Your humanitarian inspection next month though, we're gonna have to have a chat or two about some things." Dougie chatted as he finished filling out the facilities safety certification.
"Like what?" Salroth scoffed.
"Like the tarp covering up the Impaling Station, which we had talked about previously, and agreed you would remove, but thats a different matter for another day. Until then, I'll slap a seal on this and we can call it good." Dougie said with a sly smile.
Salroth didn't think Dougie would notice that the Impaling Station was still in operation.
Dougie tore the parchment and waved his hand over it, the glowing sigil of Un appearing at the bottom before he handed it Salroth. "Right then, I'll see you next month." Dougie smiled, before waving his hand and stepping through the glowing portal he had conjured.
"Thanks, Dougie." Salroth muttered, looking down at the parchment.
Next to the box labeled "Safety Score" were simply the words "Exemplary. Three Year Inspection Eligible."