7 - Check the Guild

She woke up in her bed and pulled off her new lover off her body. She needed another bath but this village at least had running water pumped from wells around the village. Zaya had to heat the bath herself though, Ryia said that in big cities, they had personalized heating and cooling magic for their water along with all sorts of better tech and magic utility. This small town was lacking in such infrastructure but was starting to get some things working. In fact part of the deal with the Valar was for them to help update the town; the wells and piping was their work but they hadn't gotten around to making the heating work right.

Washed up, fed a full breakfast, and a 10 minute make out with Ryia; and Zaya was off for her task for the day.

Easiest thing to do was go see the Adventuring Guild. Well, technically, the group was named 'The Runic Sentinels' or The Sentinels but with so many different jobs coming in, 'adventure guild' had a bit of a ring to it so most people referred to it that way in passing or slang. It seemed it handled all sorts of work that the city guard couldn't or wouldn't handle. Anything from pest and monster extermination, to herb and hide collection(or protection while doing so), and because of it's location, hired guards and explorers into the ruins.

That was another thing she had picked up; most the locals knew OF the ruins but not the name. Most of them just called it the Ruins, but a few gave the name they had given it; "The Corvus Vaults" due to the color of the metal further in, and the amount of birds that hung around the rooftops. Zaya had noticed a couple birds while in the ruins herself but given they seemed normal size, and she didn't even entertain the idea of eating a Raven at that point, she had let them slip her mind till now. Undead and killer plants were more important than little black birds.

"Are they Ravens or Crows? Which one likes collecting shiny things?" she thought as she walked.

Maybe the birds had collected all sorts of knick nack valuables over the years in their nests. Something to look into later. Maybe she could sell them to the guild, or jewelers.

The building the Sentinels were based out of was in the middle of the village. Well the general one. There was a more experience branch behind the secondary wall. Seemed if you got promoted enough, one could take missions from the other building.

Walking in, she saw it must have been converted from a tavern of some kind. A large wide stair case went up to the second floor, while several tables were in the middle, filled with food, mugs and mercenaries. On the wall opposite the door, was a wide counter with several people on both sides of it. On the wall parallel to the counter was a long board with several posters, notes, and other papers attached to it; some torn, others intact, some new, others old.

She moved over to the board and looked it up and down before seeing something odd. A famliar looking small winged shape was shown on one of the pages. She went to take a closer look, moving to pull the notice off the board when a hand gripped her wrist. Rather roughly too.

She turned and saw the owner of that muscled arm. His face scarred and worn from the sun, and his teeth a bit crooked from no doubt getting hit in the face and chin several times. But he had a gleam to his brown eyes and while his outfit, some sort of worn down Surcoat with mixed matched leather padding and metal plates looked pretty cheap, she could tell it was greatly cared for. Along with the heavy ax on his back.

"Oi oi lady, I don't mean to impose but..., rookie jobs are outside." he gestured with a thumb back to the door, "Guild members get the inside board."

Before Zaya could say something, a voice from behind the counter spoke up.

"FIPPS SO HELP ME GODS I WILL DRAG YOU BEHIND THIS COUNTER IF YOU'RE STARTING SHIT." The feminine voice cried out before adding, "AND YOU, Girl at the board, get over here."

She just shrugged and turned. The woman at the counter had shoulder length wavy black hair, framing her cute face behind a pair of oval glasses. She wore a white shirt covered by a dress vest with a bright blue tie in the middle, a long black skirt that ended at her ankles, and a pin that showed the image of a knight standing at attention with a spear.

"Ignore Fipps. He is correct, most the jobs inside should go to proper people but there's nothing wrong in you JUST looking. Besides I have all the records here anyway." she said as she made way over to a clear section of the counter, "Haven't seen you before, I take it you're new?"

"Something like that. Kinda passing through, low on funds. Had to do some hunting myself." She shrugged as she approached the counter. Zaya thought it would be best to be a little open with her reasons here, "I'm not gonna get in trouble if I hunted some of the big goats around here, am I?"

"NAAAAAAAH, even most the requests to deal with them are usually just 'get them to leave an area', so you'd be fine." She turned to the book case behind her and took out a book, cracking it open, "Hmmm no requests for Spiralhorns anyway. They breed well enough anyway so unless you killed maybe one hundred of them at once, we should be fine."

"No..., only about six of them, and I had Krea with me."

"REALLY? Huh... didn't think she worked with anyone." The counter girl sat back down into her chair before marking it down in her book, "Ah we try to keep records of hunts and slayings if possible. Just to keep things at a manageable level."

"So what do you guys do? First time I've been in one of these." Zaya asked, motioning to the board, "I figured I would just look at the listings and see what's up."

"At the core, we're basically a Free company, that is an order or mercenaries. We started off under our leaders years ago but rather than being hired to fight in human wars, were hired to fight monsters." the woman took out an old book and flipped through the pages, "Our founders followed one of the first heroes ages ago and we've been trying to follow in her footsteps. Since then we've been trying to help the people as best we can." She waved a hand over to the board.

"So we hire ourselves out from anything to monster killing, convoy guards, expedition helpers and guides, down to just collecting dangerous herbs. 'Our spears are thee's to wield, our blood shed so thy won't' so the saying goes. I'm sorry." the woman blushed a bit, "I tend to get excited about talking about our long history of work and honor."

"Yeah yeah, Honor is nice but so long as we get paid, I'll shed blood for others." a cackle came from behind Zaya.

The member named Fipps cackled as he walked back to his table, where a few chuckling companions were waiting for him. The counter girl sighed as she put the book away.

"Well, some people get through the cracks. Fipp's a bit of a braggat but if he wasn't with us he might be out with the bandits so... I suppose we do some good." she flipped back to her smile, "So how can I help you today?"

"Just looking, never been to one of these before. How's this all work?" Zaya asked.

The short version was anyone could attempt a job, but 'Taking the Job" was something only members could do. Taking the job gave more support from the guild and a higher cut of the pay along with up front pay, and only certain ranks could take certain listed jobs. In one part it was a skill check to make sure some lad straight off the farm didn't get murdered by some dragon or wrym. The other part was trustworthiness; some would try to shoot for the higher paying jobs to get an upfront pay and then resign the job.

"So can anyone take a job..., or even join up?" she asked, looking over the long board filled with jobs.

"Sure but if you want to join officially, there is a bit of a testing period. A certain number of jobs are to be done along with a practical exam; though it's not strictly combat. We handle a bunch of request types so you could even attempt mapping out parts of the area to update our own records, or help with brewing potions. So long as you can supply value to the guild, you can rise up the ranks in whatever manner you choose. We're willing to bleed for others yes, but it's always good to have your own support at times." the counter girl offered.

At the end of the day it was a place somewhat akin to job center; they took up jobs and let anyone take them as they wished or gave out priority requests. But members of the guild got more perks to go with it. So members ranged in skill in focus but given this village; most the members were probably suited for exploring, fighting, and gathering. Something good to know, and if she was able to tap into them as a resource, perhaps she could hear about how things were progressing in the ruins from the OTHER side. Along with just info about the area like threats and resources.

And the counter girl was pretty cute too.

"Can I ask about any jobs going on, or is that trade secrets or something." Zaya asked as she leaned on the counter.

"Hmmm no. But there's nothing big happening right now, it is a slow season." came the response.

"The inn I'm staying at said the same thing; what does it mean to be slow season here."

"Couple things; for one weather. Many rains come along some of the land bound paths leading to this region so most don't make the muddy travel. Also many of the goods found in the ruins usually would go to a port, but that port sees changes in their shipping routes this time of year. There's also no current danger in the site so it's a slow season." the explanation went as the counter girl turned and got another book out.

"Current danger?" Zaya leaned on the counter, "So you mean there's been dangers?"

"Dungeons or areas corrupted seem to have a few different modes." The counter girl put the book on said counter and flipped it open. Zaya could barely make heads or tails of the writing, but maybe that would come later. It had diagrams though so she could follow along.

"A site like the Corvus Vaults cycles between a passive state and an active state. During the active state it becomes more dangerous as new monsters are created or lured in. However because of how old the site is, it's never a worry that it will overflow and pose a problem to the nearby lands. The most likely reason is because the site seems to lack a Dungeon Core or Master."

"Oh?" Zaya said looking in the book.

"Yes. You see, A Dungeon Core is the heart and soul of the Dungeon, pumping out monsters, traps, restructuring the site, and so on. Meanwhile the Dungeon Master is a creature that either holds sway over the Core, is connected to the Core, or has the core embedded inside it. Without either, you're left with either a Dungeon Echo; a place that was a Dungeon and still exhibits some aspects of it, or a Dungeon Shade; which never fully expands to the level a proper dungeon would be."

"So the ruins are basically just a mini dungeon."

"Correct Miss." the counter girl offered, "Granted because it seemed to be some sort of alchemical site; we're unsure if the site is making them by way of dark powers or simply say... a long lost machine meant to grow crops turning on and working for a few days and making those pitcher plant monsters. So the site hasn't really been properly labeled." she closed the book and put it away.

"Maybe call it.... Dungeon Factory or Dungeon Lab; a place that was used to make monsters and hasn't turned off." Zaya suggested which got a chuckle and a shrug.

"Perhaps but that's for people way above me to decide. But at the end of the day, the ruins seem to slowly recover the monsters it has. And at the same time enters into a busier state where it seems to do this process at a faster pace. Of course this might mean something akin to summoning 2 monsters a day to summoning 5." the clerk shrugged, "They rarely go running into the wilds though and maybe two a year make it to the village walls. Perhaps they can't leave for some reason."

If that was the case, that would explain where all the monsters were coming from. She could kill and kill and kill, but unless she did something, Zaya probably wouldn't be able to fully secure the site herself. Well if she killed faster than they re-spawned, maybe she could get something going but that would mean fighting all the monsters at the site herself. And even then, it sounded like when it entered 'active' state, the rate of monsters would increase.

Upside is that meant she could maybe stock pile some resources, just in a slow way..., could she maybe GROW those plant monsters? Something to look at later. It also sounded like whatever was drawing or controlling the monsters had a 'limit'. That might be why there was a steady flow of monsters but never a wave. She could only control so many monsters herself too, so it made a level of sense.

It also explained perhaps a bit about that Pool. It was probably the... or well HER Dungeon Core. While that Pool was the center of a Bioferric Colony, the goddesses probably linked herself with it, and empowered it to act as the Core. That made the most sense..., she being basically an 'awakened' Bioferric monster so the Source Pool also awakening sounded plausible given how interlinked the two were.

"So what happens when it goes into it's active state? Besides just more monsters on the grounds." she asked.

"In sites like this, a local 'Apex' monster takes control or attempts to do so, hoping to use the surge in power and kills to grow in power. Squeezing out what resources it can from it before it goes dormant once more. It's one reason the Corvus Vaults are so weird." The counter girl said explained, waving another visitor off to someone else, "As when it becomes more active there doesn't seem to be any 'big boss monster' that shows up to try and absorb the latent energies. Or maybe something is already there, slowly soaking up the energy already. In fact there's a theory that some of the left over experiments and machines might be behind it."

_"That or my pool that's been there awhile has been absorbing it all even before I came along." _Zaya thought, her face scrunching up in thought.

"Say...," The counter girl said, snapping Zaya out of her thoughts, "Have you been here before? I know you said first time I think but..."

"You just have a sort of.... familiar face."

Well now....,

Encounter Table(d20)

• 1-4: Bluff - Lie
• 5-8: Quick a Distraction
• 9-12: Bail BAIL
• 13-16: Flirt
• 17-20: Some other idea.