Vernon Throckmorton stared at his mostly useless group of managers, searching their tanned and perfect faces for some hint of an idea about how to deal with the current situation. He saw nothing.

One of them was at least reading the briefing material he had dictated before the meeting. Ricardo was a new face at ACME. Nepotism at its finest. Someone that Ricardo was friends with knew Willy. Willy had hired him, and someone had tossed him to Vern. Vern couldn't fire him, just pass him on to someone else. He decided to start with Ricardo. Better to have him fail here and get rid of him fast.

"You look like you have some good advice for me, Ricardo. Why don't you brighten your Uncle Vern's day by giving it to me."

Ricardo spent another minute reading the paper, turned it over, looking for more information, and set it down on the table and sighed when he didn't find anything. The rest of the yes men around the table waited for his inevitable groveling and attempts to shift the blame.

"You're screwed, Vern. Fething screwed. What the hell were you thinking?" Ricardo had the calm of someone who knew his days were numbered and figured he might as well say what he thought.

Vern stood up, and his face turned from white to purple, and it surprised everyone when he didn't explode. "Such a firm statement. Let's see if you can back it up with any facts."

Ricardo was also surprised. He'd heard Vern didn't have much of a brain left, but the old man was at least willing to listen for 30 seconds. He shrugged and got to work. With several clicks on his laptop, four images appeared on the screen. All were of the lizardmen tribes that lived in the jungle surrounding New Vernon City. Formerly known as The Lost City of Mazqorat. "Mazqorat has more than two dozen tribes living in the jungles and villages around the city, but let's focus on these four. The Kraxmiroxtli, or Krax for short, are eight-foot-tall warriors who have guarded the Black Pyramid for 107 generations. Those are the big blue guys in the upper left. Next, we have the little red guys next to them. The Pixatatilii are three-foot tall, fast, and use poisonous blowguns. They control seven villages near the city that supply poisons, drugs, and luxury items like pickled snails to the main city.

The gat blue guys with the big chins are the Grixmottllicans. They act as traders, advisors, and priests for most of the warring tribes. Lastly, we have the Croctilidans. They specialize in fast-moving cavalry riding raptors and aerial scouts on weird feathered bird things."

"We all keeping up? Krax are fighters. Pix are assassins. Grix are priests/merchants. Crocs are scouts and cavalry. These four tribes dominate the area and control the other four tribes. They also hate each other, are constantly at war for control of resources, and all want to be in charge of the city. You marched in with your mercenaries and outnumbered the Krax, so they joined your cause to conquer the other tribes. One by one, they all agreed to follow you. You had total control of the city, and then you fethed it all up."

Vern liked how the young man came up with easy-to-say nicknames for all the natives. He was always getting them messed up. "I like the names. Is that all you have?"

Ricardo smiled. If Vern gave him a stage, he'd have fun with it. "Just getting started. Let's look at the city. Seems simple. Four large areas with the Black Pyramid in the middle. Under that is the older ruins, The Lost City. Again, split into four distinct quarters, each having an architecture that mirrors the tribes above. But it turns out there are little areas in the ruins corresponding to all the other tribes. Some only had a courtyard, others a few blocks. The ruins are big time important to the tribes. Who had what area was a matter of importance. Over and over, we see pictographs of the tribes marching along, always in a specific order. That's the clue to how you screwed the pooch."

As if on cue, Lorrie spoke up. "Yes, we saw all of that. And since it was important to the tribes, we gave them what they wanted. Each of the four main tribes was given their part of the city and control over the ruins below the pyramid. Our mercenaries hold the Pyramid. The system works."

Ricardo rolled his eyes. "Works so well that 27% of your mercenaries die each week, constantly losing days while they recover from the debuff and slowly increasing PTSD. You keep looking for which tribe is responsible. The answer is all of them. This isn't a loose assortment of tribes; it's one big corporation, similar to ACME."

Everyone around the table looked at each other and started laughing. "You had us for a bit, Ricky." " Nice joke to pull on your way out the door." "I can't believe I slept with that loser!"

Ricardo looked at Vern. Vern looked at the room. "Anyone whose name isn't Ricardo can leave. You're all fired. Get the hell down to HR, file a protest against me firing you, and see who can transfer to a new spot. Go on, get out!" He sent a message to his personal assistant. When everyone was gone, he sat down. "I ordered steaks and beer. Keep going. You were pointing out how all the tribes are in constant competition, and instead of directing their aggression at each other, as we would with low-level managers, we pointed them at us."

Ricky nodded. Vern caught on fast. "We need to put the Krax in charge. They are used to guarding the pyramid and keeping all the other tribes in line. Tell them they have been tested by the gods and passed. Then the Grix. They're used to keeping the Krax happy so they can get most of the work done. They control religion and the economy. The crocs work as transportation with those huge wagons pulled by stegadons. The pix come last out of the top four but ahead of the rest."

"Krax for muscle and doing the grunt work. They only get the top slot because nature made them walking tanks. They'd be working as bodyguards and in the mailroom currently. The Grix are accounting and morale. They keep the machine running. The pix are the HR department. If anyone gets out of line, the Pix make them disappear. The Crocs are logistics and information. Give them a strict pecking order and a little competition, and they'll get to work. Without order, they become a bunch of mid-level managers arguing over who gets to drive the car."

Vern was sketching out the new org chart. It made so much sense to think of things this way. "What else? I know you have some more tidbits for me."

Ricardo nodded but sat down to eat his steak. "What's my new title?"

"Assistant Head of the Southern Region. As soon as I get more control and move up, you become Head of the Southern Region. Feel free to crush the other three people and take over all of it. But be careful with Billy. Billy is vicious when cornered and holds a grudge like no one I've ever known. The little bastard is getting cocky. He's sending pictures of himself killing monsters. I don't see the point. Only idiots waste time killing monsters and playing the stupid game."

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Ricardo took a long pull from his beer, collecting his thoughts. "Sure, Assistant Regional Head works for now."

"Let's talk about dungeons. In the Lost City, you found two dungeons, one here and the other here." He pointed to two corners of the city. "I think we are missing two more dungeons. If you look at the pictographs in those quadrants, you see pictures of priests that look like the Grix tossing other tribes into a portal to the underworld, and in the Krax quadrant are pictures of a giant arena filled with warriors in an endless battle. Once we get things settled, we open up those two dungeons and get more revenue going from adventuring groups and guilds."

"Which is the next problem, transport to the city. This place is at the ass end of the world. A group has two ways to get here: Very expensive teleportation or a trek through the jungle. The Empire will keep charging us a premium to send people here. We need some sort of treaty with them. That goes back to having a stable city with some exports. But we can also cut a road through the jungle up to the tip of the Empire and make travel easier. We need to market it right. Four dungeons is a great reason to come down here and adventure."

Vern was thoughtful. "And a trade route and treaty might be a considerable amount of building points. We need those badly. I tried to get the board to force Billy to give me control of his, but it didn't work."

Finishing his steak, Ricardo reached for another beer. "Willy mentioned that at the game. I wasn't paying much attention that day. Something about wanting you guys in competition with each other and figuring things out yourselves. Seemed inefficient, to tell you the truth."

Vern slowly put down his beer. "Game? Just how well do you know Willy?"

Ricardo was on his fourth beer now, and a second steak had just appeared before him, brought up from the kitchens. ACME HQ had very good kitchens, at least on the executive level. "We're just gaming buddies. I play in one of his Dungeons and Dragons groups. There are twelve groups that he rotates between. I play a fighter in group #7 and a thief in group #2. It pays well and has some nice perks. He bought us all pods when GENESIS came out. A bunch of us have been in Mazqorat doing quests and exploring the dungeons since we found it. When he offered us jobs at ACME, a couple of us took him up on it. This seemed like a good fit for me, for obvious reasons."

Vern was drumming his fingers and thinking when a message from the game was sent to him and everyone else in their division.

Corporate Announcement

William Kovacs of the ACME corporation, AKA Baron William of Gadobhra, AKA 'The Butcher Baron,' has opened a trade route to the Demi-plane of Smoke and negotiated a trade agreement with a Lord of the Fae. ACME is the first corporation to open a trade route to another plane and the first corporation to sign a trade agreement with a Fae Realm.

ACME Corporation, Northern Division, under the control of William Korvacs, has gained 37,500 building points.

The Hamlet of Sedgewick, under the control of Mayor Suzette, the Lonely Barmaid, has gained 12,500 building points.

Captain Woodrat, Baron of Cingo, has increased his Aura by +1 and is acknowledged by the Queens as their representative to the Conjunction.

Alwyn, the Fae Lord of Summer, and his entourage will now be seated at a table only two removed from his Majesty, Oberon, at the next feast. He is encouraged to bring gifts. Red shiny gifts.

The Fae Realm of Alwyn, Lord of Summer, has been granted an increase. He may now claim a realm twice its former size.

Vern ground his teeth so hard he cracked a molar. Ricky whistled long and low. "How the hell did they get to the elemental planes? That's awesome. My group would love to head there."

----------------------------------------

It was 4:30 a.m., and Samantha Duran was waking her husband, Steven. She had taken the precaution to have a 24 oz. mug of Morning Thunder tea on the table next to him. She had the drink programmed to appear within 30 seconds of hitting the button on her phone. Delaying whatever Wally needed him for was worth the 30 seconds. He needed something with caffeine in it to get him moving. Steven routinely worked until past 2 a.m. "Your lord and master calls. He seems in a good mood and needs you to meet with upset corporations.

Steven downed half the tea, kissed his wife, and stumbled into the meeting room wearing a robe and slippers. He knew Wally would alter his image to show him in business casual, looking shaved and alert. He saw that no less than seven of the large corporations were asking for immediate meetings. "My oh my. What the hell did you do to upset them, Wally?"

The AI appeared on the screen. "Why, I've done nothing, nothing at all. They are protesting that someone else is winning. Look at this notification from the system."

Steven read it twice. "How interesting. I'm guessing that our wandering Butcher made it home, and the ACME representative got right to work on setting up some trading agreements with whoever brought him home. The Fae part of this is intriguing. I hadn't expected that to take off so soon. The system thinks it's significant. That is a lot of building points just for the initial contract."

Wally nodded. "Indeed. They can do quite a bit with that. A lot is going on in the Northern part of the Empire. Several corporations and nobles have noticed and are allying against ACME. Gadobhra scares them. No one wants someone else to control it. I am curious to see if normal economic sanctions and political pressure will work against Baron Billy. They certainly haven't worked against corporations in the real world for the last fifty years. Watching things unfold is becoming more and more fun."

Steven looked at the waiting executives and the blinking red lights on the screen. "How about dealing with that crowd? I'm not looking forward to it."

Wally grinned. "But I am. They were all given the same resources and told to build the world, improve trade, explore, and find the secrets of the world. Half of them are, and half don't seem to know how. Guess which half we have to deal with today? And the really funny thing to me is that things are just getting started." The lights quit blinking, and the voices of the representatives of the largest corporations spilled into the room.

"Greetings, gentlemen. I can see you are all as excited about the opening of new trade routes as I am. How can I assist you today?"