Dungeon

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A Dungeon is a medieval prison, generally kept underground in the basement and a typical part of many castles. Generally a dungeon is room with a heavy oak door, small barred windows (if any), some latches for shackles and a bucket for dealing with human waste, or a small number of said rooms. As a rule people did not stay in a dungeon for long in the middle ages. The penalties of medieval justice were either to the effect of fines, community service and public humiliation for mild offenses or public floggings, mutilation and death in various levels of painfulness for more severe ones with little in between. Either way these penalties were immediate and quick in their implementation. Housing people was expensive as you needed to feed them and keep them under guard back in the day when people were literally willing to work for food and a roof over their heads. Dungeons were used mainly to store people temporarily until the real punishment happened, to house captured enemy soldiers being ransomed or individuals who were to be interrogated. At most you might toss a servant into the dungeon for a night for some minor offense if they were not full.

Dungeons (well, structures loosely inspired by dungeons) are also a major part of Dungeons & Dragons. In the context of D&D (and many other role-playing games, including online ones), a dungeon is a structure (typically underground, featuring cavernous rooms connected by twisty passages and corridors) inhabited by monsters and traps and containing loot. The basic hack-and-slash game features player characters delving into dungeons, fighting monsters, and disarming traps, all to get to the treasure chest at the end of the hallway. Who built the dungeon? Why did they think the treasure was important enough to hide in it? How do those monsters stay alive in between making meals of adventurers? These questions are often left unanswered.