The Golden Company (金冠商会, jīn guàn shāng huì, "Gold Crown Commerce Group") is a loose coalition of influential diving parties whose leaders have grown wealthy and powerful through their exploits.
Over time, many of these leaders abandoned the dangers of the dungeon, choosing instead to manage operations from the safety of Fortune’s Rest. They now pull the strings of a vast, capitalistic web, profiting off the work of smaller, less-established parties with exploitive contracts and a monopoly over the relic market.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Overview
The Golden Company, often called the Company, is a loosely connected coalition of influential diving parties. Its leaders are former adventurers and entrepreneurs who have turned their hard-won fortunes into lasting power. These divers once braved the depths of Sunhallow, but have since traded the dangers of exploration for the comforts of control.
Basic Information
Aliases | The Company, the Gilders |
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Leader | |
Base of Operations | |
Demonym | Gilders |
Favored Deity | None |
Membership
Alignment |  |
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Species | Tallfolk, Elves (Sun), Elves (Dark), Dwarves, Halflings, Gnomes, Oni, Monstrous |
Roles | Diplomats, Scouts, Trackers |
Relationships
Allies | The Ironhounds |
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Enemies | |
Neutral |
From the safety of Fortune’s Rest, the Company dominates the city’s dungeoneering economy. They bankroll expeditions, manipulate artifact markets, and control the most lucrative dungeon contracts. Many smaller parties are deeply entangled in the Company’s web, reliant on their funding, equipment, and influence—often at the cost of autonomy and a steep share of profits.
Gilders prioritize profit over ideals of discovery or heroism, hoarding the best leads, controlling critical supplies, and using their wealth to sway Fortune’s Rest’s political landscape. While some divers dream of breaking into the Gilders’ elite ranks, many are crushed under debts or contracts that seem impossible to escape.
Despite their ruthless practices—and common colloquial jests about their greed—the Gilders are a cornerstone of Fortune’s Rest. Their operations fuel the economy, providing relics, resources, and essential tools for diving; and their influence is as unavoidable as it is begrudgingly respected.
Purpose
The Golden Company dominates the dungeon-diving trade and controls the economy of Fortune’s Rest. They do this by acquiring relics and scrap from Sunhallow—usually from contracts with diving parties—and selling them to high-paying buyers in Edeni. Smaller diving parties often find themselves under the Company’s control, exploited into trading their autonomy for funding, resources, and access to leads. These ironclad agreements keep them bound to the Company’s will, and part of a machine that funnels profits upward.
When a valuable relic is rumored in Sunhallow, the Company’s reach all but guarantees that they’ll claim it with ease—whether through superior resources, insider knowledge, or outbidding the competition. In Fortune’s Rest, no relic changes hands without the Company’s approval—or their slice of the share.
Tenets
Profit Over Pride | Success is measured not in deeds but in dividends. Heroes die and glory fades; but gold endures. |
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Obey the Contract | A signed agreement is sacrosanct. The Company’s reputation rests on the unshakable foundation of honored contracts. |
Coin Conquers All | Gold commands armies, builds empires, and bends wills. All things bow to its weight. |
Organization
The Golden Company operates less like a traditional guild and more as a sprawling, profit-driven cartel. Its hierarchy is entirely shaped by wealth; the most financially-successful members dictate the Company's direction and reap its greatest rewards.
Leadership by Wealth
At the head of the Golden Company is the Crown, a position occupied by the wealthiest member at that time. By the Company's tenets, wealth isn't just a measure of success but a requirement for authority; the more one contributes to the Company’s coffers, the greater their influence.
Most major decisions are made following a weighted voting system, where votes are proportionate to financial investment.
Contracts
One pillar of the Company’s operations is its Contract System, which binds new (or desperate) diving parties into their network as "members" of the Company. When small and inexperienced parties lack the resources to venture far past the Rim of Sunhallow, the Company offers to outfit them with all the diving essentials—at a cost.
These contracts of membership—more often than not—leave the parties indebted to the Company, with interest compounding over time. Many find themselves forced to work off their debt through further dives, deepening their reliance on the Company. The Company also claims a lion’s share of any findings, leaving divers with only a fraction of their discoveries. In some cases, relics deemed particularly valuable are taken outright, with divers receiving "compensation" at the Company's discretion.
Ranks Within the Company
👑 Crown of Economic Order | The leader and face of the Company, held by the wealthiest individual within the company. Their word is absolute, and they dictate the faction's policies. Duties: Approve major ventures, oversee relic trade to the mainland, maintain The Company's image. |
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🧧 Gilded Barons | A council of elite leaders who manage entire divisions within the Company, comprising largely of successful divers who have risen about the debt cycle. Duties: Control sectors like resource allocation, relic valuation, contracts, and political dealings in Fortune's Rest. |
🔱 Relic Lords | High-ranking members responsible for overseeing relic acquisition and trade. They decide which dungeon leads are worth pursuing and distribute tasks among lower ranks. Duties: Allocate relic leads to diving teams or taskmasters, manage artifact appraisals, negotiate with buyers in Fortune's Rest. |
🕒Taskmasters |
Duties: Enforce contracts, assign lower-stakes jobs, evaluate new recruits / parties. |
🥇Gold Members | Divers who have proven their worth through substantial financial contributions or successful ventures. They are trusted enough to lead smaller expeditions under the Company’s banner. Duties: Lead dungeon raids, recruit new members, report relic discoveries or leads. |
🥈 Contractor | The most common rank of recognized members, consisting of independent divers and smaller parties bound to the Company by contracts. Their earnings from dungeon-dives are heavily taxed in exchange for membership, resources, and leads. Duties: Dungeon-dive, gather relics, fufill any otherwise contract terms. |
🥉 Indentures | Divers burdened by overwhelming debt to the Golden Company often find themselves bound by "last-ditch" agreements. In exchange for being allowed to remain in Fortune's Rest without being persecution—or worse, they are placed on-call for the Company’s most dangerous and exploitative jobs. Duties: Undertake dangerous tasks, serve the Company without question, and repay their debts. |
Notable Members
Main Page: Golden Company - Notable Members
Companions
 Rulan, the Broker (Taskmaster) | Main Page: Companion - Hua Rulan Species: Tallfolk | Class: Warlock | Role: Mage Once a promising diver, Rulan abandoned dungeon-diving after losing her party in a failed venture. Now, she secures and enforces ironclad contracts for the Company, believing cold efficiency is the only way to survive Sunhallow’s harsh realities. |
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NPCs
Headquarters
x
Operations
The Golden Company runs a complex network of ventures designed to dominate the economy of Fortune's Rest and monopolize the flow of relics from Sunhallow.
Contract Management
The backbone of the Company's power lies in its unyielding contracts. Diving parties seeking funding or resources often find themselves bound to agreements that trade away their autonomy and earnings. These contracts ensure a steady flow of relics and profits, with the Company claiming the lion's share of all its divers' hauls.
Expedition Oversight
The Company often orchestrates expeditions into Sunhallow, delegating dangerous missions to indebted parties who are desperate enough to do anything to clear their ledger. They also keep a roster of trusted, skilled divers on payroll for high-value relic leads.
Relic Trade
Relics and scrap acquired from the dungeon are catalogued, appraised, and sold to the highest bidder in Edeni. By monopolizing these transactions, the Company sets prices and dictates the terms of trade, rapidly extending their dominance beyond just the city of Fortune's Rest.
Recruitment and Conscription
The Company often tasks silvertongued diplomats to recruit inexperienced divers with promises of wealth and success. Those who fail to meet expectations—or who fall into debt—often find themselves forcibly conscripted into more dangerous roles, effectively indentured to the Company and ensuring a constant stream of expendable labor for high-risk ventures.
Market Domination
In recent days, the Company has grown increasingly aggressive in its dealings with Fortune’s Rest’s innovators and small businesses. Several equipment and resource shops have been "absorbed" through hostile buyouts, while skilled scholars and crafters are cornered into exploitative partnerships that leave them reliant on the Company’s resources.
Relationships
The Golden Company’s alliances and rivalries are as meticulously crafted as its business ventures, leaving few factions—or individuals—in Fortune’s Rest untouched by their influence.
🐺Ironhounds | The Golden Company maintains a practical and profitable "symbiotic" relationship with the Ironhounds, Fortune’s Rest’s infamous enforcers. When debts need collecting, contracts require enforcement, or rivals grow too bold, the Company turns to the Hounds to handle matters with their characteristic brutality. Though many Ironhounds chafe at being seen as mere muscle, the steady stream of gold ensures their loyalty—for now. This arrangement allows the Company to keep its hands clean while ensuring its will is carried out with precision and fearsome efficiency. The Ironhounds’ reputation for ruthlessness itself is often more than enough to deter dissent, making them an invaluable—albeit volatile—asset to the Company’s operations. |
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Reputation
Opinions on the Company range from grudging respect for their power, to envy of their wealth, to outright disdain for their ruthless profiteering. Through contracts, coercion, or cold hard coin, the Company ensures that even its fiercest detractors remain firmly within its sphere of control.
Among the city’s populace, the prevailing sentiment toward the Company is a mix of humor and resignation—mocking their "money-grubbing" tendencies while knowing full well that, at the end of the day, they'll still need to sign that Company contract or be left in the dust in the relic-hunt.
The recent aggression with which the Company has started "acquiring" businesses has caused growing unease among local entrepreneurs and factions alike, as many now wonder how long they can operate without drawing the Company’s attention—and assimilation.
Membership
Rewards & Perks
x
Missions
x
Adventure Hooks
✅ Positive
An indebted diving party has gone rogue with a lead or lucrative find. The party tasks the party with tracking them down to recover the goods—and make an example of them.
The party is hired to retrieve a relic, on a supposedly run-of-the-mill job. When they find it however, they realize that the relic might be more dangerous than the Company let on.
A former Company broker is on the run with sensitive documents or information. Both the Company and rival factions are willing to pay handsomely for their capture.
A debt-ridden diving party was sent on a "suicide mission" into the dungeon. When they don't return, the Company sends the party to finish the job.
❌Negative
Word on the vine is that the Company fished up a powerful relic; the party is hired by a rival faction to infiltrate the Company's vaults and steal it before it's shipped back to mainland Edeni.
A beloved local business is being strong-armed into a contract with the Company; the party must protect the business owner from hired enforcers.
A rival faction in Fortune's Rest offers the party a hefty sum to saobtage the Company's shipments. The task is straightforward, but the moral or sociopolitical fallout can be immense, depending on what was in the shipment.
An area of Sunhallow has been deemed off-limits by the Company, because of supposed "dangerous conditions". Rumors suggest that the real reason is to keep a valuable resource hidden; and the party is hired to investigate.