Adventurers Guild

The **Adventurer's Guild** is a global organization in the world of Delve, dealing with matters of the Awakened. It generally handles problems that are either too unusual, too trivial, or too hard for other authorities/organizations to handle.

The Symbol of the Guild is a sword and a quiver, crossed. This symbol is embroidered in the blue uniforms of the guild, attached to signs announcing the presence of the Guild (buildings and street signs), and is of course placed on the Guild's plates.

## Organization

The Guild traces its roots back to the Majistraal, from which it inherited the ranking system of Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. The plates that are handed out by the Guild serve as an identification tool, with ID numbers stamped into them. Bronzeplates and Silverplates can be issued in every branch of the Guild; and Guild clerks are authorized to issue them to every Awakened who can prove their respective levels. It may be possible that Goldplates are also available to get awarded in every branch, but this remains to be proven. As goldplate Guilders are quite rare, they may need to visit specialized branches for the awarding, however. When it comes to platinumplates: None has been in the guild for hundreds of years.

The Guild is not active in all places of the world: The Empire of Adamant prohibits the presence of all global organizations, and in Rellagia Guilders are merely tolerated in the coastal cities as long as they don't get involved in local politics. The Guild is also unlikely to hold much power in Ter’karmark and Splendor. In global politics the Guild remains neutral but fiercely opposes efforts to restrict adventurer's freedoms. In areas controlled by the Watch (like Fel Sadanis), they tend to tread carefully. Similarly, they are carefully in other powerful nations like the DKE to not anger the Awakened government there. In Ekrustia, the Guild is signatory of the Treaty of Halfstone that regulates Awakened law in Ekrustia since hundreds of years.

The Guild handles, most importantly, the quest system: That means local tasks that are publicly posted after their approval by the guild, on a noteboard in the respective Guild branch. Those quests can be taken by any adventurer; rewards are usually paid out in Tel. Hogging quests is disapproved, quests that are not fulfilled in reasonable time get relisted for other groups to fulfill.

Members of the Guild enjoy its protection, but there is a *contribution score* that keeps tracks on all adventurers based on how beneficial their membership has been for the Guild. The contribution tally may also go deeply into the negative: Some branches of the Guild are setting requirements of positive contribution scores to allow members participation in a quest, or granting certain other privileges. These records are magically coded and kept in special ledgers.

### Xiugaaraa

The books of the Guild (both the regular quest logs and contribution ledgers) are kept centrally in Xiugaaraa, the "City of Lights", and maintained by local guild branches. The books are *pulled* once per week, which means there is basically a versioning system keeping all records together.

Xiugaaraa serves as the seat of Guild Leader Burrik, “The Volcano”, a goldplate fire mage. As the city is deep in a Ranked Zone, Illuminators play an essential role in everyday life. The local language is Zeelada, and the customs require extremely deferential attitudes towards higher-level persons.

### Fel Sadanis Branch

The Guild in Fel Sadanis was located in a large wood-and-stone building but compared to Bank or Watch it was rather poor. This was due to a combination of being mostly bronzeplates who were under strict control by the Watch, and systematic embezzlement by local Guilder Rankin. The Branch was officially led by goldplate Halgrave. He cracked down hard on Rain for violating a minor rule, but explained his reasons later to Rain, together with the purpose and delicate political position it has in Fel Sadanis.

### Three Cliffs Branch

The Guild maintained a rather small building in the pirate nest Three Cliffs. It had only a single Guild clerk to maintain the outpost (as of 3061, this was Gus) and a large main room outfitted with an enchanted Arena, in which lower-level Guild members could safely duel.

### Barstone Branch

The Guild has a "compound" in Barstone, meaning several buildings among them several shops, and an Arena, as well as outdoor training facilities. Next to the main building, there is an entry to the Depths, where adventurers have mined entrance to Rank 6 and almost Rank 7 areas. This is attractive mostly for Bronze-level adventurers, of whom there were about 300 present in the compound when Rain visited. There were only few Silverplates present, like the local branch-leader Everiss. There is also an archive.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 207
2. ↑ Chapter 065
3. ↑ Chapters 76, 205
4. ↑ Chapter 203
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Chapter 58
6. ↑ Chapter 111
7. ↑ Chapter 57
8. ↑ Chapters 203, 204