Of course you do! You loyal guild dog you.

There is no single guildmaster administrating Dawnlight. Rather, there is the First Party, a party of seven highest ranking guild members. Whilst many adventurer guilds across the land would often have a hierarchical structures that favors seniority, popularity, loyalty, wealth, or straight up nepotism, Dawnlight is one of a handful of guilds that ranks its members and picks their leaders solely by virtue of merit and ability.

This however often means that the guild’s command structure is often biased in favor of certain long lived races who have the time to to accumulate experience, power, and accomplishments. Elves are the most common example of course. Dragonkin and Nephilim are close seconds, but there are also some humans who have learned to extend their lifespan with magic.

In any case, these folks are pretty rare within the human kingdoms. Most elves prefer to live on their own continent or in a handful of enclaves bordering the west of the human realms. Dragonkin are pretty much loners while Nephilim, who are half-angels, tends to gravitate towards service to the churches.

The first party of Dawnlight has had the privilege to retain all three of these rare races. The party consists of three elves, a dragonkin, a nephilim, and two humans. The humans are named Rex and Cain, a High Knight and Master Rogue. They are highly accomplished adventurers who are about 85 years old but look like they are still in their mid-thirties. They owe their increased lifespan to an encounter during their adventuring days where they had somehow obtained two vials of elixir of youth.

The three female elves of the first party were originally from the kingdom of Sommertale in the elven continent to the west. They came to the human realms as part of a diplomatic retinue. Being young 20-year-olds at the time, they decided to stay and explore the human continent to quench their wanderlust. That was nearly 180 years ago and they are now about 200 years old. However, being elves who have lifespans of up to 1000 years, they look like they just turned 18.

The first party elves’s names are Ophelia, Liliana, and Iona, they share many similarities, including their milky white skin, white-gold hair, graceful figures, and pointed ears. A key difference would be their eyes. Iona had striking emerald-green eyes. Ophelia’s were blue like sapphires, while Liliana had Ruby-red irises.

As for their specialties, given their extensive experience, they’ve had time to master several disciplines each. Ophelia is a master wizard, alchemist, and blademaster. Liliana is a master ranger, rogue, and arch-druid. Iona is an arch-priestess, grand-paladin, and weapons-master.

As for the other two members, the nephilim, Helethea, has long purple hair and gold irises. She is an arch priestess. The dragonkin, Konrad, has black hair, fiery glowing eyes, and red dragon horns on his head. He is a fearsome berserker-warrior.

You could hear the first party discussing matters of importance as you approached the meeting room with the cake in your hands.

“The fact of the matter still remains,” you heard Ophelia say in her songbird-like elven voice, “We aren’t getting paid nearly enough to do this.”

“Money shouldn’t factor into our decision. If we succeed, Dawnlight’s prestige will increase several fold! We will have our pick of contracts from the highest bidders then,” said Rex.

“I am afraid that this has deeper implications than just finances,” Helethea’s cool, noble voice said, “It’s politics. If we pick a side, we risk alienating the others.”

“Not to mention, this is totally out of scope for an adventurer’s guild,” said Liliana, “The affairs between human factions are the domain of the mercenaries. We adventurers handle monster incursions and dungeon expeditions.”

“It’s no longer that clear cut, Lili,” said Cain, “The other major adventurer groups have also started accepting contracts like these. Like it or not, adventurer guilds are a militia **** with enormous utility. We lead and protect expeditions to secure rare and important materials, thus imperative for the maintenance of logistics and supply chains. Despite what you may think of our scope, the truth is, we represent an invaluable source of martial might for whoever retains our services.”

Cain continued, “Furthermore, not accepting politically charged contracts may also turn out to be to our detriment in the near future. We may inevitably find ourselves in the crosshairs of all the competing factions.”

“Exactly,” Rex said, “If we stand out as the sole wildcard, it would be easier for all of the factions involved to crush us first while we are isolated than risk us joining forces with their foes at a later time. In their perspective, it would be strategically sound move. If on the other hand, we pick a side now, we would be protected.”

“That is unless our faction loses,” said Helethea.

“Well, we’ll just have to make sure that that doesn’t happen now, won’t we?” Said Rex.

“Rex, military and adventuring operations are like night and day,” Iona said, “You can’t expect us to go toe to toe with mercenaries and professional armies and not have serious consequences, what more coming out of this victorious.”

“Besides,” Ophelia added, “I am concerned about where you’re coming from with this. If we truly are to commit to this, it would be imperative to approach this rationally and pick the side that has the highest chance of coming out on top. However, I assume, due to your personal relationship with the third princess of Edora, that you already have a faction in mind that you wish us to join?”

“That’s…” Rex paused, sounding conflicted.

You decided to enter the meeting room at this point, but you’ll need a tension breaker of some sort. What do you say?

1. “Hellooo. This is definitely not cum-cake.”
2. “Happy birthday to meeeeee! Also, I didn’t jizz on the cake.
3. “Excuse me! I’ve got cummy- I mean, yummy cake…”