The group woke up emerging from their rooms ready to start the day as they ordered breakfast from the bar. The group sat at a table in the corner by a window. “What’s the first order of business captain?” Victor turned to Forala who ordered a large hock of meat.
“Guildhall, we need a place to serve as a base. We have to establish ourselves with a clear message and symbol. Then after resupplying we get to normal operations and try to attract more members and groups.” Forala continued eating and explaining between bites. “Then as we develop, we’ll need additional guild halls in other cities and eventually in other countries.”
“You have a detailed plan huh.” Victor raised an eyebrow genuinely impressed.
“My father left me a book on it. It was the history of The Great Golden Guild. It detailed their rise to prominence on this continent.” She noted.
Serena finished her eggs. “There’s no way we can afford a guild hall even with the haul we got from those bandits. I bet the cheapest building that could serve as one is 5,000 gold or more since we need something with 10 or 20 rooms at least for multiple parties. I think we should spend the day exploring the city to see if any buildings could serve as one before going to the church this evening.”
“What why not go to the church first?” Emilie groaned with irritation. “They’re going to be the most helpful people in the city to us.”
Serena pushed her plate forward and leaned on her arms thinking. “Well, we are starting a guild. It’s not in the best interest of the church affiliated with The Great Golden Guild to actively assist us in becoming large. Sure, they might help us find a guild hall with 5 or 6 rooms locking us into a small size for a long time. It would stunt our growth while still technically helping us.”
Emilie laughed. “Oh, please you’re way too paranoid.”
Forala tilted her head. “Well, it isn’t like they are expecting us. We have plenty of money for an extra day or two at the inn before we do anything else.”
Victor turned to Emilie. “Does the church normally have an evening service?”
Emilie put down her drink nodding. “Well of course it’s to celebrate the passing of a day.”
“We should all meet for evening service and speak with the person giving it after the service ends.” Victor turned to Forala hoping she’d like the pitch.
“Given that we do not know this city you four will split off and search in pairs. I will search on my own. Do not get into any altercations, make any enemies, or break any laws.” She glared at all four of them. “If today goes poorly there is a good chance, we’ll fail to even get a good guild hall, and I will have to take a bunch of jobs to get enough gold to establish our guild months or more from now. If the church gives us a cheap effective guild hall we take it. Full stop. The reason is simple. I thought deeply about what Victor proposed, and I envision us needing a large backlog of artifacts that entice people to join the guild. It will create a sort of snowball effect where having artifacts to bid on will increase the value of guild membership.”
Serena turned to the other girls. “Couples?”
Jenora and Emilie answered in unison. “Couples.”
Cawthorn crowed. “ME AND MY MAGE ARE THE COUPLE!”
Forala laughed nearly spitting out some of her meat. Serena pointed to Cawthorn edging her finger closer. Victor cut the tension slicing a sausage in half and giving it to Cawthorn. “We can all 3 look together Cawthorn but you’ll need to fly overhead and inspect buildings that fit the size requirement.”
Cawthorn choked down the sausage. “SAUSAGE IS THE BEST FOOD IN VERDAN! I SHALL FIND THE GUILD HALL!” He jumped out the window and flapped into the sky.
“Well, I didn’t expect that to get rid of him. I still had half a sausage for him.” Victor held up the other half of a sausage.
Cawthorn swooped by “SAUSAGE!” Easily swiping it off the fork and flying back out the window.
“Can he hear that word from above the city?” Victor asked.
Forala giggled. “I could if I was listening for it. His senses are pretty impressive. Well, let’s get going Artifact Hunters. Get searching for that guild hall.”
The group stood up and exited the Deep Mug Inn. The city was once again bustling and busy as it had been yesterday. “I’ll start in the eastern side of the city. Serena, Victor you two take the west. Emilie, Jenora looks around the northern part of the city and yes near the church.” Forala started walking away waving. “I expect to see all of you at the church as the sun is going down.”
Jenora still wearing her armor grabbed Emilie’s hand excitedly nearly lifting her off the ground. “Let’s go!” Emilie squeaked as Jenora practically dragged her away.
“Well, she’s enthusiastic. Shall we Serena?” Victor motioned for ‘after you.’
She started to lead the way. “I was once a slave for a construction company, they sold me fast because I actively sabotaged their buildings in subtle ways. One thing I learned was that the price of land gets cheaper the farther away from the center of town you get. So, we should start by going all the way to the wall and then checking the buildings at the edge of the wall.”
“Lead the way.” Victor followed her. They walked for almost an hour passing by a theater, a massive guild hall with a scythe on it, shop after shop, then food stalls, and finally they approached the massive wooden gate and stone wall. “Well now that we are here what’s next?” Cawthorn landed down on Victor's shoulder.
“Well, I guess we start by just walking and see if we see any larger buildings. Anything too small would be kind of pointless so we should look for larger options.” Serena started looking around.
“Didn’t Forala explicitly say to include those as options?” Victor asked.
“She did, but it isn’t like we can reasonably inspect them. Cawthorns can fly above and look around. We should look for an abandoned or old building.” She turned to Cawthorn. “See if you can find any abandoned buildings.”
“I WILL BE THE FIRST TO FIND OUR GUILD HALL!” Cawthorn took off energized by the request.
“Well, we can go door to door to see if any of the viable options exist.” Victor turned to the nearest building of considerable size. He walked up to the door and knocked. “Hello?”
Someone stomped toward the door. A man cracked open the door leaving only his eye in view. “Who’s there?”
“Is this building for sale?” He asked able to hear Serena slap her face.
“No! Your guild members should get the hell out of town you make everything too noisy!” He slammed the door.
“Crotchety old man number 1.” Victor turned around and walked back to Serena.
“That was just… Wow. You have no tact at all do you?” Serena turned to him.
“Well, what am I supposed to do?” Victor put his hands on his hips confused.
“Good grief. Follow behind me.” Serena started walking and glancing in the windows they passed by. They walked for a few minutes seeing people inside of nearly every building until they came across a large inn nearly empty save for a barkeep and one person drinking. Above on three corners, it had gargoyles perched on the edges with one missing long since broken off. “Let’s ask here.”
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The two walked into the tavern. It was rather spacious with a backside stretching deep. It had long since past its prime. Rotten floorboards, and cracked windows, and Victor even saw some roaches. ‘This place looks horrific, but it might end up cheap I suppose.’
Serena sat down at the bar with Victor. A fat man approached them smelling of hog and dirty dishes. “What’ll it be?”
“A beer. He’s not a day drinker so water for him.” She leaned forward as the man returned with a beer and water. “Business seems a lot slower here than elsewhere in the city.”
“Aye, what about it?” The man spit on the floor.
“My name is Serena Brooks. I wanted to know if there was a reason for it.” She leaned forward one arm on the counter. She took a drink of the beer and tried not to recoil from the taste. She had discovered one reason of many.
“Mine is Gavin Halock. It’s an old inn. The first one in the city before they built these walls and decided my inn which had been here before they developed the town would be at the edge instead of the center. People don’t come out here unless they have to. Ruined my inn.” He spit on the ground again. “Freedman’s Guild can go to hell.”
“You know this guy is speaking my language.” Victor gave him a small nod and a smile.
“Freeman’s guild is at the center of town, and anything not owned by them slowly dies. Absolute trash guild.” He spit on the ground again.
Serena leaned forward. “Bet you wish someone would take the place off your hands.”
“Aye if I could get back the money, I’ve put in over the years I’d relocate to Kival and open a smaller inn.” He shook his head. “But no one’s going to pay that much for this rundown shit shack.”
“How much are we talking?” Serena tilted her head.
“4,500 gold over the years building and expanding this place, but I’d take 4,000 and leave.” Halock seemed to look into the cracked window.
“I’ll pitch that to my guild leader later this evening. If 4,000 is your bid, I will make sure to mention that.” Serena nodded back standing up.
The man held out his hand. “Wait! If you’re serious about buying this soon I’d let it go for 3,500 gold. The land alone is worth at least 3000 gold at this point so I can’t go lower.”
“I’ll make sure I mention that to her.” Serena walked out with Victor. As soon as the door closed, she added. “That is what you are supposed to do. Not walk up door by door to people’s homes.”
“It does seem like that guild isn’t particularly popular.” Victor scratched his chin thinking.
“Not our job, let’s get moving,” Serena noted as caws could be heard overhead.
Cawthorn was circling over them finally landing on Victor’s shoulder. “COME WITH ME! I FOUND IT!” The two of them went 4 blocks down and at the corner of what could best be described as a ghetto a broken-down sign with the letters B NK appeared in front of them. “I CHECKED INSIDE! NO ONE IS IN THERE!”
“What do you think?” Victor asked.
“I think entering would be trespassing if someone still owns it, but we can check the windows.” Serena eagerly inspected the windows. The pair started to circle the building peering in each window. They noticed cobwebs everywhere and dusty windows but couldn’t see much inside. The floors they could see were covered in papers and scratch marks. The grass around the building was completely overgrown. The bushes and ivy ran up the side of the building completely overrunning the walls, yet for all its damage and age the stone exterior stood firm against the elements. “What’s the address to this place?”
The two circled back around to the front and noticed a mailbox on the ground stuck in a bush. It read ‘5 Star Road’ Victor read it aloud to her adding. “I wonder who can tell us more about this place. Why is it abandoned?”
“This place probably won’t be cheap. I’m guessing it sat here because the old owners refused to sell it, and they left it to rot instead of undervaluing it.” Serena tapped her chin. “Probably unlikely we can get it but it’s a way better option if we can. That said if that uh ‘shit shack’ I believe he called it is worth 3,500 gold this place has to be worth at least 40,000 even in this condition even at the edge of town probably a lot more. Almost no way we can afford it.”
“We should investigate more.” Victor kept looking toward the old bank ready to start knocking on doors again.
Serena snapped her fingers in front of him. “We don’t have time to do that today. We need to go meet them at the church, and this city is huge. We could run but I don’t want to draw attention to us on the first day we are here.” The two of them turned around and started to walk out of the decaying district of shabby houses. Serena looked up. “So why are you following us?”
“Awe what gave me away?” A woman jumped down from the roof of a nicer cobblestone building. She had a black scarf, a black sleeveless tank top, and a short pair of pants-clad in knives with a bow across the center of her chest. That was when they both noticed the twitching cat ears and tail.
Serena drew a blade. “Your shadow, I didn’t notice you at all until I saw those ears twitch.”
“Awe! They always give me away, can’t stop the twitching. Relax I’m not after you. I’m a scout for the Reaper guild. My name is Kim Lofal.” She extended her hand to shake perking up.
Victor approached to shake her hand before being stopped by Serena. “We don’t know if she’s a thief. We need to be”
Victor stepped forward passing by her arm and shook Kim’s hand. “Sorry, she’s overly cautious.”
“Victor Vogal right, and she is Serena Brooks if I’m not mistaken?” She leaned forward pointing to the two of them.
“How long have you been spying on us?” Serena sheathed her blade.
“I watch the south gate all day in stealth. You’re the most interesting group that I’ve seen in weeks. Is what you told the captain true?” She leaned back against the building she jumped down from.
“Don’t tell her! We don’t know anything about her.” Serena protested.
“I am a recruiter and if what you told the captain is true then the Reapers Guild is definitely interested in you and your friends. Join or don’t but either way, you should stop by. I will see to it that Lidia spends some time talking with you. She is our guild leader. She’s had some downtime since the necropolis with Lightbringer Luke she’s not had any big game to hunt so she’s just doing interviews.” She waited for a response with a hopeful grin.
“We’re establishing our own guild. I don’t think that a recruitment interview is worth our time.” Victor waved walking past.
“The invitation stands new recruit or not. You’re interesting and I think she’d like to speak with you.” Kim flipped back to the roof and waved with a smile as her tail disappeared over the roof. “See ya later!”
“So there are cat girls?” Victor asked.
“Catfolk yes.” Serena glared. “Why?”
“I just expected more racism from this place and fewer races.” Victor put his hand up shrugging with one shoulder.
Serena relaxed. “Oh, well with as many slaves around here as they have some inevitably get freed. Not many and most of them are combat slaves since high-level combat is so much faster. It’s why I sabotaged or worked so poorly on purpose until I got bought as a combat slave. Unfortunately, those two saw me as disposable trash instead of as someone useful. Since you can die if you mistreat combat slaves the attitude amongst more intelligent people is to free them or dangle freedom if they accomplish some set tasks.”
“So does that mean she was freed by the Reaper guild?” Victor’s face slowly illuminated with a smile.
“Well no, but it’s possible that is what happened. She also could be one of the few catfolk born in Peria. You can ask later. We need to get going.” The two of them hurried through the area as the buildings became newer and improved with every block until they returned to the center of town. In the center of town, a large fountain featuring a woman covered in leaves had water flowing from its hands. The two of them continued north toward the church. It stretched so far into the sky Zane was not kidding when he told them that. You could use the church steeple with the golden sun from almost everywhere within the city.
As the two of them approached more and more religious shops appeared with knickknacks, religious icons, and golden equipment. The streets became paved more tightly and lamp posts began to dot the road. Another fountain but this time of a winged creature with no head, as they walked toward it the many golden suns that dotted the church straight down the line would form the statue's head. The two of them found Forala already waiting at the fountain along with Jenora and Emilie. “Last to wake, last to arrive, always late.” She laughed. “I’m kidding of course, we haven’t missed anything. Emilie said we still have a few minutes. What did you find?”
Serena began to analytically recount what they talked about and what they saw finishing with their encounter. “The Reapers Guild recruiter also said to check-in. The recruiter was a catfolk named Kim Lofal.”
Forala tapped her chin and pursed her mouth. “We will speak with the Reapers Guild after we speak with The Great Golden Guild and see if they can help us. Now let us attend this service.”
Emilie performed several quick small claps with a small enthusiastic smile. “It’s been so long since I’ve been able to attend a service.”