The Adventurers' Guild

Intro

Summing up the role of the Adventurers' Guild is not as easy as you might think. To prove this, I will try it.

The guild can best be summarised as a kind of combination employment agency/ bank/ mail-order firm/ hostel/ trade union. There, I told you. Instead of trying to summarise it, I'll take you through its lifetime.

The Growth of the Guild

The first Adventurers' Guild was originally formed to provide a central focal-point for the co-ordinating of adventures and adventurers. It was little more than a place to obtain information, or to post notices. Adventurers would go there to look for work, or to find a cheap place to live for a few nights, or to find out where to buy equipment.

Adventurers' guilds began to pop up wherever there was a need for them. When Keese was founded, there was a greater need than most, and a guild was quickly established.

Wherever adventuring was a major activity, in particular in Keese where it is the major activity, the adventurers' guilds grew in status and began to take on more roles.

Not only did they allow the posting of adverts for work, but they actually became an adventuring agency. Anyone who wanted to hire a party would go to the guild and describe the task they wanted achieved. The guild would assess it, and recommend a party, and thus suggest a cost. After negotiations, the guild would contact whatever adventurers they thought would be suitable for the task, and organise everything for the client.

Adventurers are notoriously bad at keeping hold of their money, so it wasn't long before the guilds began to offer rudimentary banking facilities. They kept hold of the earnings of the members, and gave them a kind of simplified cheque account that they could use for buying adventuring equipment or for paying rent.

The Keese Guild

In Keese, where the Adventurers' Guild is larger than any other, the guild expanded still to take over the trading of equipment, and started to provide cheap accomodation for its members. Certain hardware stores and blacksmiths became guild-controlled, dealing exclusively with the guild in return for a guaranteed steady trade.

Despite its size and influence, the Adventurers' Guild was, until very recently, regarded as vastly inferior in status to the long-established Rangers' Guild. However, there came a point where the council had to give way and give the guild a position on the council, thus acknowledging its equal status with the other guilds and the churches. Now the adventurers had a political voice.

With the escalation of hostilities between the humans and the wolfmen, the membership and influence of the guild began to rise. Prominent individuals in other guilds were joining the Adventurers' Guild as well. When the council fell, and was resurrected under the leadership of the Adventurers, the guild had a significant influence in all the major aspects of society. In a short space of time, almost all the positions in the council were filled by members of the guild.

The Guild Now

The Adventurers' Guild now is far and away the most powerful force in Keese. Although the council is technically still the highest authority, the council is dominated by the guild. All life is focused around adventuring, and all residents work for the guild directly, or supporting the industry indirectly. Currently adventuring is a boom industry, and Keese is prospering as never before, but there are those who say it cannot last and that when it all crashes down it will be apparent just what a mess the guild has made of the town.

Hierarchy

There is no real hierarchy in the Adventurers' Guild. There is a head, and a deputy head, who keep things in some degree of order, and there a certain people responsible for maintaining certain aspects of guild business, but there is no ladder than an adventurer can climb.

As an adventurer, you will be assessed on your ability to complete missions. For every mission you complete, your rate of pay will increase by (on average) 10 banes, from a basic rate of 10 banes per mission. With greater competance and experience comes greater financial rewards, but not greater authority.

To obtain a position of authority, that position must be vacated. A direct challenge will usually be honoured, but in a guild where violence and murder are everyday activities, political betrayal is only ever attempted by the very skilled.