Arrival in Drachensturz

Alis and Fendis hung halfway out the cart as they gawked at the tall buildings and thronging crowds of Drachensturz, while Rosalinde merely guided their horses and Sigrid sat with her nose buried in a book. They both would have already passed through here on the way to Maplewald, and as impressive as it all seemed to the two girls who had never traveled more than a few miles from their home the town didn't hold a candle to proper cities like Brandenstein or Lorenzhafen. It wasn't long after they had passed the outskirts that they came to a stop in front of the guild hall, Alis gasping aloud at the sight of the massive dragon's skull mounted above the grand doors.

The town had been founded more than two centuries ago at the end of Widersaca's Last Flight, when the great black serpent of the mountains was finally laid low by the combined forces of the army of King Sigismund the Unifier and many of the greatest heroes in the land. As the story went, pilgrims had come from a hundred leagues away simply to behold the corpse with their own eyes, tearing it apart over the course of months for scales, bones, and other trophies or searching the nearby mountains for the beast's legendary hoard, while more enterprising sorts set up businesses to take advantage of the influx of people. By the time the skull was mounted on the new hall, Drachensturz was a thriving and well-established town, farmers tilling the ash-fertilized soil and street vendors selling 'genuine' dragon bone amulets on every corner.

It was said that King Sigismund himself had a dozen scales cut from the beast, to send to each of the neighboring realms as proof of his army's great strength and resolve. Within a year, seven of them had joined the new Commonwealth and proclaimed him Archking.

That glorious past belied the current state of the guild hall, as the four of them entered to the sight of cobwebs in the corners and a few old drunkards snoring at a chipped wooden table. Still, the bounty board had several quests pinned to it and the young woman slouched over the counter was squinting at them intently, so they just shrugged at each other and stepped forward.

The woman looked them up and down, indolently raising an eyebrow. She propped her head up on one arm, cleavage spilling out of her low-cut uniform. "Here to register?"

"Yes, please," Alis nodded. Noticing Rosa staring full-on at the woman's chest with a lewd grin, she kicked her shin and was rewarded with a wince and a brief glare.

The receptionist blew out a sigh and reached for a dusty stack of forms. She introduced herself as Agatha and began walking them through the entry process as she took down their information.

"Quests are over on the board there. Pick one and bring it here, I'll mark it down as in progress and provide you with any additional details. Claiming the reward is on your honor, if you lie and we find out about it then you'll regret it, seriously. If you fuck up horribly, try to make sure at least one of you makes it back here to report it; it's a pain in my ass when you idiots go missing or abandon a quest without cancelling it and I have to send out a search party. Any questions?"

Alis blinked. "Uh, so we're in, just like that? There's no, I don't know, trial of courage or anything?"

Agatha shrugged. "Just like that. I guess if you need someone to hold your hand, you can ask one of the senior adventurers to show you the ropes," she offered, waving vaguely at the drunkards.

All five of them grimaced at the idea, Agatha's outstretched hand falling to the counter with a thump. "On second thought, maybe just pick something easy to start."