Olivander arrived in a dusty town with nothing but the clothes on his back and the shoes on his feet. Considering that he had been trudging through the desert for half a week, they were in good condition. Considering that he had been living in a castle the week before that, they made him feel like he had never known a night sleeping indoors.
He had two objectives for his time in the small town of Demering — get something to eat, and get some new clothes. He hadn’t thought beyond that point yet. He was trying his best not to think about anything.
In order to tackle his objectives, Olivander needed to solve another problem. When they threw him out of the castle on his face, they did so without letting him grab any of his personal effects. He carried almost everything in a dimensional space, aside from a coin purse and some small items. One of those small items was a specially crafted token he needed to access his dimensional space. It wasn’t something he had a spell to open.
Since he didn’t have his coin purse, which was back at the castle with his dimensional token, he didn’t have any money for the food and new clothing he wanted. He would need to earn some.
He headed towards the guild hall at the town’s center. He was still a powerful Magician, even if he had been exiled from the capital and ostracized by the upper echelons of society. He could complete a few contracts.
The Demering town square was a quaint place. If he had been a farmer, fresh from the fields with a load of…wait, could they farm out here? A dirt farmer? He wasn’t quite sure what they did for work out in the desert. Whatever basic job he performed for the town, he was sure coming to the town square would have been a treat.
Extravagant for a desert town, there was a nice fountain in the middle of the square. It was two tiered, with a wading pool for cooling off and a second tier where townsfolk could fill up buckets for water as needed. He had been walking through the desert for days — just mindlessly wandering, really — and almost stopped to cool down his own sore feet in the fountain. He decided against it, since his stomach was hungrier than his feet were sore.
Most of the buildings around the town square were made from simple mud brick. They would be cool in the desert heat, which was why they didn’t bother with a sturdier building method. Things like the magical cooling systems in use in Castleton would just be impossible to maintain out here.
The guild hall was standard fare. It was a nice enough building, with a green tile roof to help it stand out. A large sign above the door proclaimed it the “Demering Guild Hall.” Not a particularly creative name, but Olivander could appreciate the practicality of the choice. Too many things in this world weren’t presented honestly and could learn something from a hard working, practical town like this one.
The inside of the guild hall was pleasantly cool. He was wearing soft soled shoes under his robes, and he was tempted to pull them off and feel the cool stone floor on his feet. Once again, he thought that could wait until after he had something to eat.
There was a job posting board across the room from the guild clerk’s desk. He examined the board, reading through the posted contracts until he found one that sounded somewhat interesting.
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WANTED: Wild Desert Wyrm
A wild desert Wyrm has set up a nest dangerously close to the Temerin Ranch. It has eaten four cows and countless other wild animals so far. Members of the Temerin family fear for their livelihood and the lives of everyone in the area.
A gold rank member of the Temerin family is available to assist.
Requirements:
* Gold Rank+ guild member with proven track record.
* Team: 3+
Reward: 4000 Gold (1000 Gold Bonus for quick resolution)
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He hadn’t seen any kind of wyrm in years. They typically stayed as far away from him as they could manage. Smart of them.
Olivander brought the posting up to the desk and received a skeptical look for his trouble.
“I’m sorry, sir. This is a Gold Rank member contract,” the clerk said, looking at his tattered robes and no sign of equipment. “A wild desert wyrm is no joke.”
“Fear not, I can easily handle this pest for the guild. Put me down for the contract, tell me where this Temerin Ranch is, and I shall take care of it.”
“Ok, well…Look, you seem confident, but I can’t just send people out to die. Do you have your guild token to verify your rank?”
As it turned out, his guild token was in storage, along with everything else.
“Ahh, well. I do not.”
“Then I’m sorry, sir. I can’t issue this contract to you. Without a membership token, you can only grab the Unranked member contracts,” the clerk said, pointing to a post farther down with just a few contracts posted.
“Listen…” he squinted at the guild clerk’s name tag, “Jeremy. I’m a Platinum Rank member. I can easily handle this wyrm, and by myself no less. What’s the worst that could happen? You get me out of your hair?”
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“I’m sorry, sir. The rules are the rules. I’ll be happy to help when you have your token with you," Jeremy said with an apologetic smile.
Olivander felt his blood start to boil, but he forced himself to be calm, unclenching his fist and releasing the tension from his shoulders. He didn't usually get so worked up. The stress of the last month was really starting to wear him thin. He needed something to distract himself. To get further south, away from the capital and into an area with more magic. He was still hungry though.
“You can’t just reissue me a new token?”
“I’m afraid an out of the way branch like this one doesn’t have backup roster records, except for local adventurers. Besides, we’re only authorized to give out tokens up to Silver rank here.”
The guild was a continent spanning organization, that, for all the good it did, had terrible bureaucratic processes and nonsensical rules. It was no use getting too mad at this clerk for the shortcomings of his whole organization.
“Fine, fine. I’ll take a look at the unranked contracts.”
The unranked contracts were significantly less interesting.
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WANTED: Lesser Mindrotted Goblins
A group of lesser goblins with a mindrot infection have overtaken the old Demerite mine near the Demering Hills. The goblins are weak, but numerous.
Treat any exposure to mindrot immediately!
Requirements: None
Reward: 10 Copper per Goblin
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He sighed, grabbing the goblin notice. Ten copper was nothing to him. Back at the castle, when he had to blow his nose, the tissues were worth more than ten copper. Still, killing a few of the poor souls was worth the time, and it would get him a meal and some new clothes. He didn’t really need the money outside what it could get him right now.
Jeremy happily gave him the details of the contract.
“This is an open contract, there might be others trying to defeat some of the goblins. While we do encourage our members and prospective members to team up, the rewards will remain at ten copper per kill, regardless of the number of people doing the killing. We have cure mindrot potions available for purchase in advance or for free with any bounty turn-in.”
Olivander waved away the potions and didn’t bother thanking the man, since he hadn’t really helped him in any way. He found a map of the area on a sign near the guild hall, and compared that with the contract details. Once he had his bearings, he set out towards the goblin infested mines.
The walk was uneventful, but Olivander found a curious sight just outside the mines.
The old mining facility where the goblins had set up was basically just a slightly upgraded cave. There was a pair of wooden doors that didn't quite cover a hole carved into the side of an excavated hill. Large boulders were strewn about, and evidence of the goblin’s encampment could be seen dotting the area around the mines.
In the middle of the excavated area, a young man in plate armor faced off against a goblin. Olivander had forgotten how small lesser goblins were. It had been at least thirty years prior that he faced his first one on his way to earning his copper rank guild token.
The young man dwarfed the goblin many times over, yet he seemed to be the one who was afraid.
When the goblin attacked, the man dropped his sword and curled up into a ball. If the goblin had been capable of it, it would have probably been confused at the sight. Instead it whaled against the armor with its primitive club. It couldn’t hit the armor hard enough to do much damage to the person within, but it was beginning to leave some solid dents.
“What is going on here?”
The young man looked up, and the goblin turned towards Olivander, snarling.
“Watch out!” the armored man said, trying to get to his feet, but only managing to sit up. Some deformity of his armor now limited his motion.
The goblin ran at Olivander. Ten feet away from his body, it encountered his first ward. This one was more offensive than some of his other shields. The volcano ward flared to life as a red haze in a sphere around him, and as the goblin crossed, it turned to ash.
The ash blew away in the faint breeze outside the mines.
“Well, I’m never going to collect any rewards if the goblins completely disintegrate,” Olivander said. He raised a hand to his chin, trying to think of a solution.
“Wow. That was amazing! How did you do that? Are you a wizard?”
Olivander looked at the man. Just based on his reaction, he was clearly inexperienced. Though not being able to handle a lesser goblin with mindrot was enough evidence to support that conclusion on its own.
“Wizard? I suppose that's not the worst descriptor. Close enough at least. That was my volcano ward. It burns any hostile enemies with volcanic heat. I think it’s too much for these goblins though.”
“Wow. Pardon me for saying, sir, but you seem way too strong to be bothering with some simple mindrotted goblins.”
“You are entirely correct. While the cause is worthy, they are far beneath me. I find myself in a bind, however, I need money for food and for clothing. I have lost all my possessions.” That was near enough to the truth anyway.
The young man’s eyes lit up from within his helmet, and he straightened a little.
“If you want, we could work together! I get a little nervous, but with you behind me, I can take on some goblins! Then we can split the rewards.”
Olivander considered the young man. He was in his late teens perhaps, but still a boy to Olivander’s long years. He was right, though. Olivander couldn’t hold back enough to leave anything left to collect a reward on, and this boy clearly needed some help. That plate armor just wouldn’t do, though. It was a crutch the boy clearly relied on too much, and with all the dents in it, it was bordering on unusable.
“I will agree to help you, but you need to remove that armor. It will just slow us down and tire you out. I can keep you far safer than the meager protection that armor offers.”
The boy hesitated for a moment, then nodded to himself. When he tried to remove the helmet, he found that it was stuck to his head.
"Oh no, not again!" he said.
Olivander watched with a bemused expression as the young man tried to get the armor off, tipping himself over with the effort.
"Could you give me a hand? I think I'm stuck in it."
"It seems like you might need more than a hand. No matter, I can take care of your armor."
Olivander decided he would just remove the armor for him. He cast a quick shielding ward on the boy’s body. He used one of his stronger wards, because his next spell wasn’t known for its finesse.
“Flames of Annihilation!”
“WHAT!?”
A brilliant column of orange and red fire consumed the boy entirely.