Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Six - The Guildhouse

Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Six - The Guildhouse

Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Six - The Guildhouse

I pushed the front door open with a squeal of protesting hinges and peered inside. The interior wasnt all that well lit, just the light slipping in from the windows at the front illuminating a lobby area filled with shadows and a thin film of dust.

Hello? I called out as I stepped in. My voice echoed across the room.

I had only ever been to two Exploration Guildshouses before. The large one in Port Royal, which was a stately building, well-maintained and richly decorated, and a smaller one in Awens hometown, which had been clean and quite nice, though not as affluent.

Maybe that clouded my impression of the guild, because I was expecting something similar here, especially in Goldenalden where the city seemed much richer and the people here had a much greater focus on propriety than I was used to.

There were some decorations. The last two guilds had dioramas of dungeons and hand-drawn maps made by members of the guild. This one had glass-covered plinths to the sides with strange weapons and artefacts with little plaques next to them. They might have been impressive if a number of them werent missing and the rest werent currently being used as scaffolding by enterprising spiders.

This place looks abandoned, Awen said as she glanced around.

Yeah, I replied. I had that impression too. But the door wasnt locked, and theres still some things here.

Nothing of great value, but still enough that I suspect a common thief wouldnt just leave it laying around, Amaryllis said.

The clink of a door opening had all three of us looking up and to the end of the room. There was a desk there, with a doorway behind it slowly swung open. A sylph stepped out.

I wasnt great at judging the age of people, but I guessed him to be in his thirties or so. A proper adult. He had a suit that was well-cut but a bit rumpled, and he walked with the hunched back of someone who had given up.

Hello! I called out.

The sylph jumped, then spun to stare at us. His confusion quickly gave way to a shaky smile and he scurried around the desk to come and address us properly. Hello hello, he said. Welcome to the Goldenalden Exploration Guild. Its been some time since... ah, nevermind, I mean to say that youre all very welcome. Are you looking to hire someone to find something? A scout, a map-maker? Perhaps a dungeon diver?

I shook my head. Were not looking for anything like that, I said. My names Broccoli, and these are my friends Amaryllis and Awen. We--at least Amaryllis and I--are part of the Exploration Guild.

The sylph froze up, his smile turning brittle. An inspection team?

Huh? No, nothing like that, I said. Were just normal members.

Oh! Thats wonderful. Are you looking for a mission? We dont have many, but there are a few outstanding ones that we could use an experienced team on.

Amaryllis raised a talon. Whats going on here? Id suspect that the Goldenalden guild was just not as popular or as well off, but the location of this building and its size suggests otherwise. It looks, at a glance, as if this branch is falling apart.

What? No, no, were... he tried to keep up his smile, then abandoned that. Alright, so youre not wrong. Were basically skirting failure here.

What happened? I asked. It looks like this was a nice place. The decor was poorly maintained and dirty, but I could imagine it being quite fetching beneath all of that.

Happened? he asked. Ah! Where are my manners? My name is Reginald Leaflock, Im the current guild master of the Goldenalden branch of the Exploration Guild, its a pleasure to meet you. He bowed a bit.

Nice to meet you too! I said. Are you the only one here?

You still havent told us how everything turned out like this, Amaryllis said.

Reginalds proud look deflated. It started with... I suppose we received a new member. He was very talented, a young human from somewhere. He never really said. He was a hard worker, and while he was rather anti-social he worked well enough with the rest of the guild. He took quite a few missions, mostly mapping out dungeons. There are a few in the nation that arent as popular, so theyre not delved as often and our maps of those have become dated.

I imagine he did more than just that, Amaryllis said.

The sylph nodded. We didnt know it at the time, but he...well, he destroyed some of the dungeons he visited. Three of them, as far as we now know.

Amaryllis took in a deep breath and I saw Awen raise her hands over her mouth. As I understood it, dungeon destruction was a big deal. It would probably be really wise of me not to mention the dungeons Id destroyed.

The Inquisition marched in here and started rooting around, looking for him, but he had disappeared. Worse, he took a lot of paperwork with him when he left. Gold as well. I think the only silver lining in the entire matter is that the inquisition wanted the destruction to stay silent.

Did they ever find him? I asked.

Reginald shook his head. No. We lost a few members then and there. Others left soon after. I scrambled to fulfil the missions we still had, but that meant sending less experienced members out to tackle more complicated missions. We had to deal with a big surge in injuries. Then the news broke out amongst the nobility, and a lot of our members who were part of the gentry parted ways with us.

Oh no, I said. They were the ones supplying the guild with money and stuff?

In part, yes, Reginald said. We used to receive frequent donations from the nobility, often in lieu of donating to other organizations.

Huh? I asked.

Reginald blinked. Ah, yes, youre not from Goldenalden. Ah, the nobility are legally obligated to pay a certain amount of their earnings back to the nation. They can get an exception from this if they donate some of those proceeds to certain organizations. Some are military, others are civil services.

Ah, tax evasion, I said with a nod.

Its...not technically that. Anyway, a lot of noble families would donate to the guild, especially those that enjoyed the banquets and meetings which we held here. Which we can no longer hold here, not with the state the guild is in.

And all of this was caused by a single human? Amaryllis asked.

One human, yes. At least, I think he was human. At our looks, Reginald shook his head. Nevermind, just a rumour.

Wait, I said as I leaned forwards. Youre not sure if he was human...did he ever just change appearance? Like an illusion spell or something, or shapeshifting?

It was just a rumour. We needed to track him down after all the crimes he committed. So I employed some of the guilds best to chase him down. They cornered him, but all they found was a scared and confused sylph who didnt know anything. I trusted those members to track someone down, it was a strange occurrence. Then I heard that something similar happened to the Inquisition.

What was his name? I asked.

Drizz, his name was Drizz L. Lizard.

I blinked. No! I said as I jumped to my feet. My palm slapped the table. Thats Rainnewt!

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