Three days after they had exited the undercity, Thinneus, Anthony, Sarah, and Memlen sat in a waiting room of the central guildhouse for New Babylon. An elderly secretary pecked at a keyboard and behind her was a door with a placard that read “Charles Harper – Director of Personnel”.

“Anyone know why we got called in?” asked Memlen.

Sarah shrugged. “Thinneus, you do anything?”

“Not recently,” he answered.

They were interrupted by shouting coming from behind the office door. “I don’t care what your reasons are! You have disgraced that Guild of Champions, and for that we’re terminating your membership. Now turn in your cloaks and get out of my office.”

The door opened and several ex-adventurers stormed out, still carrying their gear but stripped of the cloaks that marked them as adventurers. The last of them slammed the door and the room grew quiet again. None of the adventurers dared break the silence. After a couple minutes, a panel on the secretary’s desk beeped and she said, “Mr. Harper is ready to see you, now.”

The adventurers walked in and at the end of the room sat Charles Harper. He was a beastkin with a badger as his motif animal and he looked to be at least 50. One of his arms looked dissimilar to the other, as if he had lost it to an injury and it had regrown improperly. Various missing bits of fur revealed past battle scars. In particular, a trio of slashes down his face by some monster claw had left a deep wound that never healed, or maybe that he’d decided to leave intact rather than treat. On his desk were strewn a mess of papers and reports. He had an assault rifle mounted on the wall behind him, and while it looked like it hadn’t been used in awhile, it also seemed ready to use in an instant if the worst happened.

Harper removed his reading glasses. “I got a letter from a trowlord named Muxpungur. Does that name sound familiar to you?”

The adventurers shook their heads. Memlen said “We did meet with a trowlord from clan Umbrunulluch recently, although he didn’t give us a name.”

Harper nodded. “Sounds about right. Well Muxpungur had a glowing review of your conduct down in the undercity and talked about how you assisted them in taking down a dangerous anti-trow hate group. Is this accurate?”

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“Yes,” said Thinneus.

“That’s interesting. Because according to the medical reports, they inflicted…” he pulled out a series of papers. “...Let’s see. Shrapnel damage, gunshot wounds, deep tissue and pulmonary frostbite, realgar poisoning, and even more gunshot wounds. Seems like quite the elite terrorist group you encountered.” The adventurers winced at Harper’s sarcasm. “Odd that your after action report didn’t mention any of this.”

“You see–” Thinneus started, but Harper silenced him with an upheld hand.

“I need real answers,” said Harper. “We’ve got plenty of blue mages in the guild and more than a few priests of Zareph. But if I call them in to get the truth out of you, I become Officially Aware of it. And I don’t think any of us want that. How about I don’t treat you like criminals and you don’t act like children caught stealing cookies?”

The adventurers nodded and Harper continued. “So who’d you really get in a fight with?”

“The Strigoli Family,” said Sarah.

“Who started it?”

“They did,” said Sarah. “We tried to reach a peaceful agreement; they rejected it.”

“And you won?” asked Harper. The adventurers nodded and he smiled, then continued. “Now, what caused the fight?”

“We were both looking for the Wondertrove,” said Sarah.

“And I take it you didn’t find it?” said Harper.

“Oh, we found it,” said Thinneus. “It wasn’t what we thought it was, and we left it behind, but we found it.”

“Officially,” said Anthony, “the expedition hit a dead end and we confirmed the Wondertrove was just a legend.”

Harper’s eyes went wide. “That’s a story for when I’m off the clock and we’re all at the bar. But for now, I need to know if any civilians got hurt.”

“None,” said Sarah.

“And did you break any laws while you were down there?”

The adventurers thought for a minute. Memlen finally said, “Nothing that can’t be excused as an act of heroism. And nothing that would tarnish the name of the Guild of Champions.”

Harper narrowed his eyes. After a bit of consideration, he said. “Well, if you did anything that would create too much of a mess, they wouldn’t have written you a letter of commendation. I think that’s all my questions. Except one. Would the four of you be interested in moving to the night shift?”

Sarah spoke the confusion her entire team felt. “Wait, you’re promoting us for this?”

“Of course,” said Harper. “You landed in a tough situation and you came out on top. It showed the kind of adaptability and excellence that it takes to handle the kinds of things that come out at night in this city. Do you think two days will be enough time to think it over?”

Sarah glanced at her team. She saw Anthony’s pleasure at the thought of higher night pay, Memlen’s smirk at the chance to test himself against the big threats, and Thinneus’ grin at the prestige of becoming an elite adventurer. She took a second to weigh the risk to her own life against a chance to protect the city. “We don’t need two days. We’ll start tonight!”

-End-