The Questing Hall was a considerably large building for being in the densely packed upper end of Giantrock City, which made it a cramped size compared to equivalent buildings in most cities. It was built with young redwood trunks as pillars and wide old growth planks for walls. The building itself was roughly shaped like a sword, with the main entrance being at the bottom of the hilt where it jutted into the courtyard.

The inside had exposed beams and tall ceilings with open skylights. Along the walls were tents of various factions, organizations and unions. It looked not unlike a small trade hall with quest vendors for shops. Eli was relieved to see several small Adventuring Corps tents spread through the hall rather than one centralized tent with a long line. Still, a large number of adventurers were crammed into a space not quite designed for that many.

"We're just here for a look at the map and the 5 random assignments," Eli turned his head towards his party and spoke loudly to break through the noise of the crowd, "don't let any of the quest peddlers rope you in to anything." He looked pointedly at Autumn, and then at Iris.

They squeezed their way through the crowd towards the nearest Adventuring Corps booth. As they passed by a booth belonging to the local Fishermen's Union, a gruff looking human man behind the table spoke loudly to the crowd, "50 gold for six bullfish dead!" As a well adorned party of Champions passed by a booth ahead of them, the lavishly dressed merchant behind it announced "ten thousand for wyvern meat!" while waving a quest slip in his hand.

Iris caught glimpses of some of the quest slips displayed on boards, walls and desks at various booths. They seemed to be the lower paying -- and thus lower level -- quests. One slip offered 30 gold for retrieving a bulk supply of a certain fruit from the forest, another slip at a dingier booth offered 10 gold for 20 rat skins. At the Trade Association's booth, there was a prominently displayed slip offering 100 gold for the slaying of a wooly bipedal monster depicted attacking a caravan. Iris wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of her day in the hall looking over and accepting quests.

There was a short line when they reached the Adventuring Corps' booth, but the process seemed swift and the line moved quickly. While they were in line, Eli pointed out the large map hanging above the booth, it depicted the central Giantrock Region, with the city and lake in the bottom right corner and the redwood forest filling much of the middle. Grasslands filled the northwestern corner, and craggy ravines filled much of the northern edge. A spider emblem marked the location of the base camp for their target, deep in the forest to the north of the city. Eli unfolded a pamphlet and marked the location on a map.

As the line shortened in front of them, Eli instructed everyone to have their registration cards ready. When they reached the front of the line, a dwarf with a hefty mustache looked over them. Eli held up his registration card and the others followed suit.

"Sorry," the dwarf said with a rough voice, "we're out of quests up to level 30."

"Already?" Eli's shoulders slumped.

"Lots more Heroes than usual this year," the dwarf shrugged. He waited a very short moment for Eli to reply, then announced "next!"

They were shuffled aside by the group behind them pressing forward to take their spot. Reluctantly, Eli made way and the others followed. They tried three more Adventuring Corps booths, all of which were also out of low level quests, before Eli finally stopped and pulled the group aside.

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"Okay," he sighed, "the officially assigned quests would have been the most vetted and reliable, but it looks like we'll have to make due. We'll split up and each choose a quest." The whole party perked up at that. "Keep it Level 25 or under and make sure it's more-or-less on our way to base camp. Let's all go with something personally challenging for ourselves, but nothing that separates us from the team. Autumn, nothing deadly."

Autumn frowned.

"Iris," Eli continued, "you should stick with one of us -- not Autumn -- so we can give advice on quests before you commit to one."

"Why not me?" Autumn asked with offense.

Titus stifled laughter with a cough, "there was the eel incident."

"How was I supposed to--" Autumn's retort was cut off by Eli.

"Not now," he said sternly, "let's get moving. One hour max, meet in the courtyard when you're done."

Iris decided to go with Titus, guessing that his advice would give her the best balance of keeping her alive and actually letting her adventure. Their first stop was a booth belonging to a local guild, but they found that most of the quests here were auxiliary support roles for higher level guild teams and moved on.

Their next stop was the Leatherworker's Union, where Titus turned down a few retrieval quests. When they stopped at the Trade Association booth and perused the various quest boards, Iris nudged Titus and pointed at the one with the wooly monster she'd seen early. Titus leaned down to inspect the quest, respecting the multiple signs requesting that no one pull slips from the board.

"What can you tell me about this one?" Titus asked the elf behind the booth as he pointed at the quest.

"Ah, those things attack caravans throughout the region from time to time. One in particular, or maybe a few, has been especially active in the forest to the north. The contract's just to kill the one, if you find extra then we'll add your reward over again for each head."

The quest was rated at Level 25, and Titus seemed satisfied. He accepted the quest from the elf, who unpinned it from the board to reveal two copies. He stamped them with a Trade Association seal and wrote Titus's name on both, before handing one to Titus and placing the other in a pile.

"Good to go," the elf said, shifting his eyes to the adventurer's behind them.

Titus looked to Iris to see if she was finished, and she shrugged. They checked several more booths with no luck for Iris, she found several quests at almost every booth that interested her, but most seemed either too dangerous or were too far away. There was only one quest that Iris tried to argue for but was ultimately vetoed by Titus, on the grounds that he "couldn't drink enough mana potions" to heal the whole party after fighting a giant magic scorpion.

Finally, they came across a booth belonging to the Giantrock City Badger. These quests almost exclusively entailed investigating reported monster sightings or unexplored locations and bringing back information for the Badger to publish. Iris was drawn to a quest that called for locating and exploring a decrepit shrine that had been sighted in the forest by a passing adventurer party.

The slip described a large circle of stones with a central fountain, which had all been overgrown with plants. The drawing was a zoomed in, crudely drawn map of the area northwest of the city, with a circle drawn around the general area of the reported sighting. It was marked Level 15, and the reward ranged from 10 gold to 50 gold based on quality and quantity of information.

"What about this one?" She asked Titus with excitement.

Titus studied it for a moment, "you have to be careful about vague reward ranges, sometimes you'll actually get the lowest amount no matter what you bring back. Otherwise, it looks good. Depends on how much you trust the Badger, really."

"I'm sure they're trustworthy," she said, "worst case scenario, I know a guy."

She accepted the quest from the rather plain looking human girl behind the booth, getting a stamped copy like Titus had.

"Written notes are best," the girl said as she handed it over, "if you can draw, even a sketch is highly appreciated."

Iris nodded and thanked the girl, then she and Titus set about making their way out of the hall.