20 Reasons the Dungeon is Timed (that don't involve running out of food or torches)

Special Thanks to S. Quinn "Authenticity Trip" Morris of 200 Proof Games for their contributions.

1. The Dungeon only came up for air and will submerge again once it has caught its breath.
2. The entrance only opens in the light of the full moon. It will reseal with the dawn for 28 days.
   
3. The Adventurer's Guild did not authorize overtime, if you're caught delving off the clock you lose your membership.
4. The Dungeon is coin operated and requires another gold in the slot every few hours or the whole thing shuts down
5. The parking outside the dungeon is metered and you WILL get towed.
6. You have a head start on the rival adventurers, but not by much.
7. The Dark Lord dispatched her Grim Wardens from Beyond the Horizon as soon as the entrance was disturbed.
   1. Post-Dungeon Variant: the rich jerk squatting on the deed called the fuzz on you.
8. The Dragon is sleeping, but remembered to set an alarm.
9. The antidote for the poison blackening your veins at the bottom of the dungeon won't bring you back from the dead.
10. A visible miasma is, ever so gradually, rising from the floor of every room in the dungeon.
11. You have a date with your crush planned for tonight. Make sure to get home in time to wipe the blood off!
12. The dungeon itself is literally a ticking clock and you do NOT want to be inside when the gods re-wind it.
13. The ritual you're trying to interrupt is set to happen tonight or else they'll sacrifice the mayor's daughter!
14. The ritual you're trying to perform must be concluded tonight or else you'll have kidnapped the mayor's daughter for nothing!
15. A swarm of admittedly quite slow zombies are shambling in your wake and they keep getting back up until the necromancer is put down.
16. The palace guard abandoned their post when the floodwaters started rising, but that doesn't leave you much time to grab treasure before you get caught in the storm.
17. The captain was extremely clear - he's not hanging around these pirate infested waters for one minute past when its anchors aweigh.
18. Your ICE can keep the scrying ritual from locating you. For a while.
19. If you're late for school one more time it's detention, and nobody's gonna care that you were trying to save the whole town from monsters.
20. Elsewhere, unbeknownst to you, the dungeon is on fire.

Written by Dan Phipps
Thanks to the Gem Room Games Discord for talking about dungeon turns with me today!
Current Mood: Sleepy
Current Song: Tick of the Clock - Chromatics
Cover Image: Aircraft Station at Notre-Dame by Albert Robida