“Enter,” came a deep, commanding voice when the receptionist–I still didn’t know her name–knocked on the door she had led me to. While the front of the Guildhall differed from the one in Forestend, the administrative area had the same winding corridors of rooms and offices. It was comforting in a way. And it probably saved the guild a boatload of time and money to standardize the areas most people won't see, a cynical part of my mind remarked. On the other hand, with how many guild employees jump between branches, the standardization could also be so those employees can get to work faster and not have to learn where everything is. All that to say, the route we took to the guildmaster's office was almost identical to the one in Forestend.
The office itself was a standard box with wood panel walls. Two walls had decent-sized windows that looked out onto the street a story below. I guess this would be what was called a corner office on the world the System Creators came from. I thought. Most of the offices with widows only had them on one wall, but the vast majority didn’t even have that. At the center of the office was a large desk with two overstuffed chairs in front of it.
The man seated behind that desk—Guildmaster Willams, I guessed—was broad-shouldered and muscular. His dark hair, peppered with gray highlights, was cut short. His eyes, a piercing shade of blue, watched as I stepped into the office, and the receptionist closed the door behind me. For a few heartbeats, we just stared, taking each other's measures. The Guildmaster was the one to break the silence first.
“So you’re Bill and Cassy’s daughter?” he asked, which got a raised eyebrow from me as that was not what I had been expecting him to ask. “Damn, that's freaky; you’re the spitting image of your mother when she was your age, but that raised eyebrow is right out of your father’s playbook.”
“How do you know my parents?” was all I could think to ask as this meeting was not going how I had expected.
“Your father and I used to adventure together in your younger years. Best damn DPS you could find on the entire content. Mind, I was no slouch as a tank, but your father could really dish out the damage. Anyway, enough reminiscing about old times. I doubt you came here to discuss your old man’s adventures.”
“Um, right,” I say, holding out the letter, which the Guildmaster took and opened.
“So you want access to the Southport Adventure Guild’s Archives,” Guildmaster Williams said after a minute or two. “Well, you might as well take a seat and explain.”
“Yes, Sir.” I answer, taking the offered seat, “I’m not sure if Dad mentioned in his letter that I’ve been doing odd jobs around the Guild in Forestend for the last few years. Partly because I was curious about what happened behind the scenes; I’ve always been an inquisitive child. But also to break up the monotony of delving into the dungeon or gathering plants and other alchemical ingredients from the forest. To make a long story short, one of the jobs Dad had me do was cataloging and organizing the Forestend’s Guild Archive. A task that hadn't been done in a few decades if the state of it was anything to go by.
“Anyway, while doing that, I came across a reference to a fourth dungeon near Southport, which I found odd since there are only three dungeons in the area. As I said, I was a curious child, so I started pulling everything I could find that mentioned this fourth dungeon and found that a little over three centuries ago, there was, in fact, a fourth dungeon around here, but something happened to it. From the little I could gather and some reading between the lines, it appears that the dungeon one day just disappeared; one report I found mentioned that a group that had gone delving into the dungeon around the time hadn't been heard from for almost a week. For this group, this was apparently out of the ordinary, so much so that the guild sent another group to investigate what happened, but when that group got to where the dungeon’s entrance was supposed to be, they couldn’t find it.”
“Fascinating.” The Guildmaster said while the word might have been a bit patronizing, his tone took most of the bight out of it. “I assume then that you wish to look at our Archive to see if we have any more information about this Fourth dungeon.”
Stolen story; please report.
“Yes, Sir.”
“And what do you plan to do if you do find any more information.”
“Well, I was hoping that the Archive here in Southport would have the location of the entrance to the dungeon, and if it did, I planned to gather as much information the archive has on the dungeon and set out and try to find it.”
“I see.” The guild master said thoughtfully. “I suppose the reward for finding a dungeon didn’t enter into your calculus.”
“Actually, sir, it had, but I wasn’t sure if it would apply in this case. After all, the actual wording for the reward is ‘for finding a new dungeon,’ and as this one had already been discovered, there could be a real argument against paying out the reward. In actuality, what appeals to me more is the possibility of solving the mystery of what happened to the dungeon, not the potential monetary reward.”
“You definitely are your father's daughter.” The Guildmaster laughed, “Bill always had an annoying tendency to do things because they were interesting, not because they would actually give a big payout. He’d always say, ‘What’s the point? Money is nice to have, but at a certain point, it just becomes a way to keep score. Experiences, however, will last you a lifetime.’”
“That does sound like something Dad would say,” I agree with a fond smile.
“Anyway, I’m inclined to grant this request on two conditions,” Guildmaster Williams said. “The first is that if you find enough information to make a feasible attempt at finding this lost dungeon, you will not do so alone. And second, a guild representative will accompany whatever group you put together.”
I opened my mouth to reject the conditions but closed it as I gave it more thought. On the one hand, having anyone along would make reactivating the dungeon harder, not to mention opening the entrance without them figuring out that was exactly what I had done. The fact that the second group sent to investigate the dungeon hadn't been able to find the dungeon entrance hadn't surprised me at all. One of the main parts of the hibernation protocol was to close off all access from the outside until an administrator could come and rectify whatever problem had occurred. On the other hand, I could also see it from the Guildmaster's point of view. Even if I found enough evidence and if we found the dungeon, some pretty big ifs, there would be no telling what we’d find in there after three centuries, and there was always safety in numbers.
“Okay,” I said after a moment, “I can live with those conditions.”
“Excellent. Setting up the necessary access will take me a day or so. I hope that won't be an issue.”
“That would be perfect. I still have to find an inn, and I’d like to sell some of the loot I had gathered on the trip here from Forestend, so having a day or two to settle in would be great.” I say.
“Great. And if you're looking for an inn, might I suggest the Wondering Adventurer over by the docks? It's not one of the best in town, for that you’d need to go over to the merchant quarter, but the people and atmosphere are welcoming and the food is good. Plus, they give a pretty good discount to members of the Guild, and an old party member of mine runs it.”
“Thanks. I’ll look it up if I’m in the area,” I say, not really committing to anything. But then again, I didn’t really have any concrete plans anyway. The Guildmaster and I say our goodbyes, and I make it out of his office into the empty hallway.