Questioning the known and exploring the unknown was something the gnome Wizard Phlipper had always done throughout his long life in human standards currently being 150 years of age, he had seen a thing or too as well as done a thing or too, but his current fascination was on the what kind of magical curse was placed on the “Cursed Forest” to the North of Rolent. So far every magical practitioner hadn’t been able to discern what kind of magic the curse was just as the druids hadn’t been able to bring life back to the scar where the dragon attack had occurred.
The curse in itself never seemed to harm any sentient being that was exposed to it but it was common practice amongst the people of Rolent to stay indoors when ever an Elven Ranger from the north would come warning of a wave approaching. But something interesting that did happen is that whenever the “fog” came into contact with vegetation the plants would enter a state of hyper growth and in place of whatever their natural fruits/seeds would sprout a to good to be real version of the plants product.
Anyone who was found out to have been exposed to the fog was shunned and outcasted by the city due to the belief that they too were cursed by the fog. Whenever a wave of the fog would pass by the city atleast taking 12 hours and the longest time the fog stayed around was 2 days the Elves would send out their people to collect all of the fruits the fog produced and dispose of them properly. Due to the fog making all agriculture impossible the average diet of a Rolentian was meat.
But Phlipper was beginning to realize that if his goals of dispelling the Curse and uniting the three factions of Rolent was to ever have chance of becoming reality he would have to seek help in the form of the “Adventures Guild” which had started spreading cards around the city's underground community of which Phlipper tried to limit his interactions with the unsavory types but due to the nature of some of his research being “taboo” sometimes you must endure hardship to accomplish your goals.
Phlipper decided that this “Adventurers Guild” was just the place to find like minded people to help protect and save people so he headed to the address on the card that lead him to the farmhouse.
Approaching the farmhouse nothing seemed out of place except for the terrible condition the main building and the barn were in, so being the ever brave soul that he was he pushed on towards the house and knocked on the front door.
“O our first applicant how exciting, you should get the door Nillian.” Came the melodic voice of an Elf
The door flew open and Phlipper jumped back a little in shock but hopped the other Gnome that was now standing the doorway didn’t notice.
“Nice to meetcha friend Gnome i’m Phlipper, Don’t really see many of our kind around these parts.” Said Phlipper in as inviting a tone he could manage while extending his hand.
Nillian took Phlipper’s hand and shook firmly the obvious hardness of Nillian’s hand immediately identified him as a melee type likewise he was sure his tender hand and age alluded to his magical abilities.
“The name’s Nillian and that tall grouch over there is Valendryan” Nillian ushered Phlipper inside as he relayed the information.
Phlipper was none to pleased at the condition of the inside of the farmhouse either it the floorboards creaked, there were splinters, and the windows were smudged with the wear of time.
“So you’re looking to join the Adventurers Guild?” asked Valendryan with just letting a little to much hope creep into his voice.
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“That i am friend Elf, The names Phlipper and my talent are that of a Wizard! But these accommodations just won't do for Rolent’s first Adventuring Guild.” Phlipper said proudly
With that last statement Phlipper moved his hands slowly enough for Valendryan and Nillian to keep track but every time the two appeared to follow the motions they would see something that couldn’t possibly happen like an extra finger completing an intricate hand motion and then it would blur out as Phlipper was performing these hand motions he was also speaking in the unintelligible language that Wizards, Warlocks and Sorcerers spoke in when casting, and just like that it was all over and hovering beside Wizard was a near complete translucent large goliath hand.
“Get to cleaning!” Phlipper said
The hand just started to slowly hover around and cleaned.
“You do that everywhere you go?” Nillian asked a little on edge moving his hands away from his daggers.
“Only the places that i plan on returning to.” Phlipper replied realising that his new guild mates had been extremely on edge he was beginning to apologize when an extremely loud roar came from the outside from the direction of the barn.
The three grabbed their gear and sprinting out the door to see what the disturbance was and were absolutely stunned to see was a Gnome trying to calm the large brown bear that was standing on its hind legs at a massive 10 feet tall compared to the 3 foot tall Gnome. Just as the three were preparing to enter battle with the massive beast to protect the Gnome the bear seemed to supernaturally calm down and go back onto all fours and lick something out of the Gnomes hand.
Alfie seeing the Elf and two Gnomes watching from afar motioned for them to come closer.
“Hi guys my names Alfie and this here is my new friend.” Alfie said in a voice twinched with magic, Nillian and Valendryan couldn’t quite place the feeling but Phlipper knew that this was the feel of Druidic magic.
The three introduced themselves to the Druid and after some talking Alfie decided that he wanted to direct his efforts in healing the “Scar of Rolent” as it was now called from the Adventures guild. Alfie let the three know that this bear had lost its home and he had invited the animal to stay and live from the barn in return the bear would offer protection from outside threats.
The party of four entered the farmhouse they saw that over in the corner of the room just to the side of the door that led to the basement laid a Orc sized rusted pair of full plate gauntlets, and greaves.
“Where the hell did that come from?” Asked Nillian.
“The Mage Hand must have found it in the basement” Phlipper responded.
“Well let’s stop dilly dallying around and go see where it found it.” Valendryan said taking charge over the situation.
The party headed down into the basement and Phlipper lit a lantern with a short spell. What the three saw shocked them the Mage Hand had been cleaning the basement and had moved a rotted crate and uncovered a hole in the floor that revealed two sets of melted orchis full plate and a chest underneath the armor that they pulled back into the living room.
“Nillian would you be so kind as to open up the chest?” asked Valendryan
With a smooth practiced motion Nillian withdrew his lockpicks and after a quick search and judging that it wasn’t trapped he went to work and after a couple of minutes and a satisfying click the lock fell open and the chest was opened to reveal a large chest of Coins and Jewels.
After a couple of hours counting out all the coins and one or two of them going missing from Nillians section they found the total value of the contents being around 5000 gold along with some very strange platinum coins that Nillian had never seen before but speculated that they were of Dwarven origination.
“So we split it five ways with 20% of anything we make as a guild going to the guilds funds to improve the guild.”
Everyone agreed in the end with some grumbling coming from Nillian, they had now acquired enough members for Valendryan to consider himself a guild master and all they had to do now was earn a reputation.