The old doorman at the Adventurer’s Guild glared with his one good eye as Raith entered, shooting out a tree trunk of an arm to bar his progress. Balamar may have been long retired, but he was still a fourth braided [Warrior] who practiced his sword forms every morning.
“It was one thing to let you run around in here as a lad, but I'm going to get guff for letting a non-member in at your age.”
Raith held up both hands in a gesture of peace and gave the man a cocky grin.
“Relax graybeard. I’m actually here to join the Guild and register my team.”
Balamar dropped his arm and gave a skeptical look.
“I thought you’d picked a [Scholar] class?”
A flush crept over Raith’s face.
“I’m a hybrid.”
The broad shouldered man harumphed and looked him up and down.
“Well, you seem fit I suppose. Must be enough of your father in you.” He waved a hand. “Go on in.”
Raith smiled as he entered the familiar room and took it all in. It was early in the day, and only a few tables were occupied by loners or pairs quietly eating breakfast or nursing hangovers. In the evening, this place could get pretty rowdy, when the free flowing booze mixed with an adventurer’s competitive spirit. Still, even for morning it seemed less crowded than he remembered.
Above the bar was the Wall of Paragons, with woodcut engravings of all twenty-eight local adventurers who had attained the rank of Paragon. Raith had dreamed of seeing his name up there for as long as he could remember.
Monster trophies were mounted along the walls. A regal gryphon, an acid spitting black drake, the snarling maw of a scytheclaw tiger and more. Elite specimens of their species, hunted by brave adventurers to end a reign of terror. Raith knew the stories behind every single one, often from the mouths of those that did the deed.
His eyes fell on the flaming lily beast that been rampaging in a nearby forest. The colorful, flower-like head of the plant creature looked out of place out of place to those who didn’t know its dangers. He’d personally known the [Knight] who was boiled in his armor while his team took the creature down. That had been Raith’s first lesson on the dangers of life as an adventurer. One day the boisterous knight was laughing and telling very inappropriate jokes to an eleven year old. The next his family is spinning a prismatic shawl.
Now Raith had spun one of his own, and he paused to see the memory of his uncle sitting at a now empty table. Merin gave a sly wink as he warned Raith that he’d better not repeat any of these jokes to his parents or they’d both be flayed alive.
He smiled sadly until a welcome voice startled him from his reverie.
“I’ll be a kobold’s auntie, if it isn’t little Raith all grown up.”
Senora Goldheart emerged from the back office, looking as though she hadn’t aged a day in the last decade. As a half-elf, she probably hadn’t. Her long golden hair was pulled back into a practical ponytail, and her smile took Raith’s breath away just like it always had. She had been his very first crush, which put him in the company of every other man that laid eyes on Beckhaven’s famous Guildmistress.
Raith found himself blushing for no reason and took a minute to get ahold of his adolescent embarrassment. He cleared his throat and replied in an octave lower than his normal speaking voice.
“Hey Senora. You look great!”
Stupid. Of course, she looks great. Why did you say that?
“I’m sorry to hear about Merin. He was a good man and a great adventurer.”
That was just the glass of cold water over the head that he needed to shake off his awkwardness. She gestured him over to the bar.
“Let me get you a drink on the house and we can catch up.”
“Cool tea, please. It’s too early for booze.”
At the mention of booze, a queezy looking man sitting by himself in front of an untouched breakfast made a retching noise. His cheeks puffed out and eyes flew wide, and he sprinted for the courtyard. A duo sparring with practice swords stopped and looked on in disgust as the man loudly emptied the contents of his stomach. Sonora rolled her eyes and shook her head sadly.
“I could be singing for kings, but for some reason can’t shake this love for these delinquent adventurers.”
She went behind the bar and grabbed a pitcher from the preservation box, pouring them both a cup of tea.
“How are your parents?”
“Same as always,” he shrugged.
“So, are you finally going to break your mother’s heart and run off with an adventuring team?”
“I don’t think she’ll be all that sad to see me go at this point.” He smiled. “But yes, I’m here to join the guild!”
“Splendid. Grab your drink and let’s go back to my office. I’ll get you signed up.”
The room was large for an office, with a desk full of cluttered paperwork, a wall lined with wooden cabinets for yet more paperwork, and a long conference table. The wall next to the table had a huge map of the world with little glowing symbols scattered across. Raith knew that each of those represented an adventuring team’s last reported location, and magically updated across all Guild maps.
“That one is Rowan’s Rangers, isn’t it?” Raith had actually met the famous gold ranked team several years ago and bragged about it for months afterwards.
She looked to the symbol he was pointing at and nodded. “Yep. Although Rowan died last year on a dungeon delve. They kept the name.”
Raith wasn’t sure what to say to that sad news, so kept quiet.
Senora went over to fish through one of the cabinets for some papers, then took a seat at her desk and gestured for Raith to take a chair. It occurred to him for the first time that if this guild required a large buy-in like the Thieves Guild did, he may be unprepared.
“Sorry, I should have thought of this before bothering you, but how much does it cost to join the Adventurer’s Guild?”
She raised an eyebrow and half smiled.
“Nothing up front. We take ten percent across the board from [Quest] rewards and loot.”
Raith sighed in relief, but another concerning thought popped into his head.
“All loot no matter where we get it, or only Guild [Quests]?”
Now both of her eyebrows went up, and her bright green eyes sparkled in amusement.
“How have you spent so much time in here and have no idea how the Guild works?”
A flush crept across his face and his mouth worked noiselessly. She put both hands flat on the desk and continued before he could come up with a response.
“Ok, let me give you the pitch, start to finish. To answer your question, only loot from Guild [Quests]. Regarding those, we don’t issue [Quests] ourselves, but function as a [Quest] broker for nobles, guilds and other parties.”
Raith breathed another sigh of relief.
“We have contracts with several guilds who issue all of their [Quests] though us. Fetching ingredients for the Alchemist’s Guild, guard duty for Caravaner’s Guild, local monster eradication for the Duke, etcetera. So before you get a bright idea like going straight to the Caravaner’s Guild hoping to get a bigger payday by cutting out the middle man, know that many have tried before.” She arched an eyebrow and leaned forward. “You won’t like how that goes down, understand?”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He gulped.
“Yes, ma’am. What about the new Bodyguard’s Guild? I thought you guys handled those [Quests].”
The frown this elicited brought his heart into his stomach, and he shook his head to clear it.
“Now we’re getting into politics. The thrice damned Merchant’s Guild is trying to squeeze us out. Greedy, soulless bastards looking to save on personal and shop protection. That farce of a guild you mentioned is almost entirely comprised of goons from the Thieves Guild who do it for almost no profit. In return, merchants turn a blind eye to their black market operations and other illicit endeavors. Up to a point, at least.”
The direction this had taken was making Raith very uncomfortable. He shifted in his seat and tried to redirect the conversation.
“So where do I find the [Quests] the Adventurer’s Guild has available?”
“Members in good standing can access our [Quest] board in the back room and take rank appropriate assignments. Notice I said rank appropriate. We are in the business of keeping our members alive. A copper ranked team isn’t allowed to rescue noble hostages from a fourth braided bandit lord or clear out a nest of phase spiders. Understand?”
He nodded.
“Good. That ten percent includes enchanted items and any other loot, which you must have valued by a Guild appraiser.” She held up a hand to forestall any questions and continued in a brisk, business like manner. “We have a credit option arrangement with the Silver Scales Bank for valuable items if you don’t have the gold up front. The Guild also offers a number of other benefits in addition to [Quests]. We have a library of our own with info that the Order of the Loom does not possess. Tomes on monster strengths and weaknesses, team tactics, dungeon traps, and boon tower strategies.”
“Where are the books?” He looked around the room hopefully.
“In the back room by the [Quest] board. Now let me finish. I’m almost done. We also have a precious few dungeon maps along with the locations and rumors of others, safe houses, and relationships with elite clients who will sometimes offer [Quests] to specific teams they like. Most importantly, we try to keep you alive.” She leaned forward and pointed to the map. “If you miss too many check-ins while on an official guild [Quest], we’ll send every willing team in the area to try to bail you out.”
This was a much better deal than he had anticipated. It would be worth it to him for the books alone, never mind all that other stuff. He leaned forward eagerly.
“Where do I sign?”
“Hold your hippogryphs. We need to get some information from you first. What is your braid and classes?”
“First braid. [Scholar], [Warrior], [Rogue].”
“Full hybrid can be a rough road for an adventurer. Do you have a plan?”
Raith nodded. “I do now.”
“Good. If you need advice, we have a lot of experience and knowledge to draw on. Don’t hesitate to ask.” Her quill scribbled neatly onto the form in front of her. Without looking up, she moved to the next question.
“Do you understand that by forming a team, all members are entering into a [Quest] whereby weft from all subsequent [Quests] and combat is shared equally among the members?”
“But not achievement?”
“Correct. Any weft you earn by exceeding personal limits remains your own. Now, who are your other team members?”
“Nyhm Quirric and Althea Gannon.”
Senora looked up, quill hovering over the parchment.
“And?”
“…and that’s it? I don’t understand the question.”
She set the quill down and leveled a stare.
“Copper and silver ranked teams require four members minimum. We highly encourage five or six to make it well rounded, but you’ll not be registered without at least four.”
It felt like he swallowed an acid slug. What kind of stupid rule was this?
“Nyhm is already on his third braid, so we’re ok.”
He offered a hopeful smile that did nothing to change the deadpan expression on Senora’s face.
“What is his adventuring experience? And Althea, what is her braid?”
He opened his mouth, but she didn’t give him an opportunity to argue.
“Don’t bother. I know the answer to both of those questions. I will record your current team as provisional, with full membership pending the fulfillment of all requirements. You can either find your own fourth or post a solicitation on the message board in the back room.”
Raith leaned back in his chair, puffed his cheeks and blew a long breath of air.
I don’t have time for this. The Order is going to be breathing down my neck.
“Wait, I can go in the back room?”
One corner of her lip turned down.
“You may post to the message board and confer with other Guild members, but if so much as a finger touches that [Quest] board, I will cut it off.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Raith said, getting to his feet. “I will be back the second we have our fourth.”
Forbidden entry to the back room every other visit, he was excited to finally see the big mystery.
The reality was pretty mundane. The room was about half the size of the dining and bar area, with four big round tables. Three doors on the far side led to private conference rooms for adventuring parties to use for planning. One of the rooms was in use at the moment. On the wall to his right was the message board, with sections on gear for sale, gear wanted, public announcements, parties seeking members, and adventurers seeking parties.
He checked to see what adventurers were currently looking to join another crew. There were only three at the moment.
SEEKING PARTY: Fourth braid [Rogue] looking to join with gold rank or above. Excellent with traps.
Well, that one is out.
SEEKING PARTY: Second braid [Ranger] looking to join team. New adventurer. Prefer party with some experience.
Now that looks promising. A [Ranger] or [Healer] is at the top of my list.
SEEKING PARTY: Third braid [Beastmaster] looking to join team. Gryphon mount and blood hawk companion. No dungeons.
That actually seems pretty cool, too. Although I definitely want to explore dungeons when we get strong enough.
Raith approached the counter that formed an L boxing off the corner of the room. The large [Quest] board hung to the left of the counter, and a bored looking half-elf sat behind it. The beautiful young woman’s resemblance to Senora was unmistakable. She looked at him from under heavy lidded eyes as he approached.
“Can I help you?”
Raith gave her his best smile and she flinched.
“Have you got the Grins or something?” she asked.
Thea told him he looked a bit crazed whenever he faked a smile. He quickly dropped it.
“Sorry, sometimes I don’t know what to do with my face.” Confusion mixed in with the disgust on her face so he quickly pressed on. “I was wondering how to contact the adventurers who are seeking a party from the message board.”
“Leave a message with the clerk.” She followed up with a blank look.
“Are you the clerk?”
She rolled her eyes. “At the moment, yes.”
“I’d like to leave a message for the [Ranger], and also post a message of my own.”
The woman let out a noise of disgust from the back of her throat, but reached under the counter to grab a pen and paper.
“Go ahead with the message for the [Ranger].”
Raith had to pause for a moment, not having considered this ahead of time.
“What do people usually say?”
This earned him an eye roll, disgust noise combo.
“They need to know who you are and when to meet you here, obviously.”
Obviously.
“Please tell them the party of Raith Quirric will be here this evening, from five to seven.”
“People usually give more than one time slot. They may not check in here every day, you know.”
Shit, I don’t want this taking all week.
“I’ll try again tomorrow if I need to.”
And if that wasn’t enough time, he would just hire a beggar to fake it until they got out of town. This whole thing was ridiculous.
The clerk finished writing, then filed the message and produced a blank sheet. She looked at him with a blank expression.
“What do you want your post to say?”
“SEEKING ADVENTURER: New copper ranked team looking for additional member. Prefer [Archer] or [Healer], but other classes will be given consideration. Be here tonight from five to seven for interviews.” He tried to think of anything to add, but couldn’t. “Does that sound ok?”
“If that’s what you want to say then it’s ok, isn’t it?” The accompanying eye roll was the one that finally got on his nerves.
“Sorry you didn’t get your mom’s singing skills, but it’s not my fault you’re stuck in this job.”
He felt bad as soon as the words left his mouth, but to his surprise, she smiled for the first time since he walked in.
“Nice one. I can do more than sing, I’ll have you know. I can dance and act, too. I have ten times her talent, and won’t be stuck behind this counter dealing with you stinky brutes for long.” She looked up dramatically. “Just waiting on my big break. I’m Terra, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you. Raith.”
“I know. You just made me write it down.” The eye rolling was a little less irritating now that she was being friendly.
“I actually know some players.”
She leaned back and looked at him skeptically.
“Who do you know?”
“The Players of Shan. I’m friends with Figbert and Gerard.”
Ok, maybe not exactly friends, but she didn’t need to know that.
“You know Figbert the Magnificent!?”
She squealed so loud a grizzled warrior poked his head out of the conference room to make sure everything was ok. Terra grabbed both of his hands and looked up at him with her eyes as big as she could make them. Her hands were warm and soft, and he felt that warmth creep all the way up his arms to his face.
“You have to introduce me.”
This wasn’t the first time Raith had a pretty girl try to manipulate him. Yet despite being aware of exactly what she was doing and how she was doing it, despite knowing it was a terrible idea, he found his mouth moving.
“Of course. They’re set up at Market Square. I promised them I’d stop by later today, if you want to come with.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She hopped in a little circle, causing her parts to move in distracting ways. “I get off work at noon and need an hour to get ready. Can you meet me here at one?”
“Sure thing. Before I go, where is the guild library at?”
She pointed to the closed door along the wall past the [Quest] board. A sign above the door read ‘Library’, yet she somehow managed to refrain from adding an eye roll this time. He smiled in appreciation.
“Thank you. I’ll see you back here at one.”
Raith let himself into the library and took in a deep breath. The odor of parchment and leather brought a contented sigh. Shelving lined the walls to either side of the doorway, as well as both walls to the side. The far wall contained an unlit hearth flanked by two windows that let in the morning sun. In the center of the room sat two desks facing each other and a pair of comfortable chairs in front of the hearth.
There were probably several hundred books in this room, and Raith didn’t intend to leave till he read them all. He started to the right and pulled down the first book, reading the title.
Dangerous Creatures of the Pruxling River Valley
Raith smiled and opened the first page.
[Life in Staccato]
