Rumor had it that the great city of Reakla had its beginnings nearly a millennium ago. Back then, it didn’t even have a name. In fact, the only thing that could be said for what would one day become the preeminent city of the realm, was that very few people knew of, or cared about, the place.
A solid league from the road now called the Adventurer’s Way ran the main trade route linking the production centers of the east with the populations of the west. This collection of huts housed less than a score who barely scraped out a living. Situated as this gathering of the destitute, poor, and unwanted was at the northern fringe of Keot’s Swamp, a swamp whose reputation for being infested with creatures of great evil and ferocity, they saw very few strangers willing to join their ranks.
The world ignored them, didn’t care about them, and those that did find their way there more often than not continued on without so much as a how-do-you-do; which for the most part, the residents of this backwater cesspool in the middle of nowhere preferred. That was, until the day when the great warrior Reakla decided to retire.
His deeds were legendary. Why, even to this day, bards still regale their audiences with his exploits. One of his most famous adventures, the one people had requested for centuries, was how he slew the Frost Drake Theriocula and rescued the Lady Eay from the Sorcerer Vultun. A tale of great daring-do and romance that made men thump the table in applause, and women weep at the tragic ending. And this was but one of a dozen such tales that survived from his day.
In the winter of his years, when Reakla realized his strength was beginning to wane, reflexes grew slower, and gray started to sprout, he knew it was time to hang up his double-headed battleaxe and retire. For only a fool continued to adventure when youth had fled.
There had been many theories as to why a warrior of great renown would settle in such a place. One suggested it was because he wanted the quiet solace he never had in his youth. Another put forth that he had fallen in love with a woman who lived there. But whatever the reason, this great warrior came to live among the residents at the edge of Keot’s Swamp.
As time went on, word spread of his whereabouts and fellow adventurers whom he had known and adventured with would come to share a pint of ale, and a tale or two of past exploits. Eventually, Reakla’s shack was enlarged and grew into a tavern, then an inn.
A few of Reakla’s cronies retired there as well, desiring to continue being in the company of the great warrior. A few brought their families, others slaves, and this collection of ramshackled dwellings grew into a bona fide village. The place began to be called Reakla’s Place, Reakla’s Inn, and other names that have since been lost to the past. It was a century or more after Reakla’s death that the elders gathered and stated that forevermore, their village would be called Reakla. They were proud their home would bear the name of the great warrior.
Year after year, more and more adventurers gravitated to Reakla. The camaraderie of fellow warriors and the sharing of mutual histories drew men and women alike from throughout the realm. It seemed that whenever an adventurer grew too old, or too infirm to continue, they would stake a claim, build a house, and hang out at Reakla’s Inn.
The earliest records indicated that the first real construction on what was now known as the Adventurer’s Guild hadn’t began until the third century after Reakla’s death. By this time, his original inn had undergone many additions to accommodate the influx of people. Rooms had been added, a courtyard built, and areas sprouted that were separated for the main classes of the day; fighters, thieves, and magic users.
Magic users didn’t start coming until the great magic user Meyk built his tower not far from Reakla’s Inn. Meyk was brother to a fighter by the name of Breyki, whom you may recall from such sagas as “Breyki and the Troll’s Head” or “Breyki Atop the Goblin’s Mound,” Meyk settled in Reakla when his brother lost a leg to an overzealous Giant of the Clan Dirtclout. Ordinarily, a simple healing spell would have taken care of his leg, but the loss had occurred far from such aid, and by the time he reached civilization, the stump had healed to such an extent that the healers were unable to affect a restorative cure.
After Meyk built his tower, he began accumulating a great collection of books that to this day can be found at the Great Library within the Adventurer’s Guild. Scholars, and up-and-coming magic users, came from all over to research spells. For one who walked the Arcane Path, Meyk was unusually friendly and helpful.
Now, the catalyst for the initial construction of the Adventurer’s Guild that we know today didn’t come from a desire to create such a complex, but rather due to a massive migration of Trolls from out of the Swamp. Overrunning the town in a spree of killing and destruction that resulted in more than a third of the buildings being either outright destroyed, or burnt to the ground, it took every able-bodied man and a few women to throw the horde back. Unfortunately, Reakla’s Inn which had stood for five hundred years, fell during the onslaught. Little more than charred beams and shattered stone remained, some of which can be viewed in the Gallery of Fallen Heroes, a room within the Guild dedicated to those members who personified courage, resourcefulness, and success.
Plans were drawn up in the months following the end of what came to be called The Troll Invasion. At first, the new building was going to follow the same lines as the previous one, only on a slightly larger scale. But the idea was proposed, by whom the histories failed to mention, to make the new construction into a centralized place where adventurers could come and find more than just a room, a good meal, and stories of past exploits.
It became a place where heroes past their prime could still find value in their lives by teaching the younger, newer crop of adventurers. Other crafts came as well; fletchers and master crafters of bows, blacksmiths, and others whose services were in demand. Very soon this new place was dubbed The Adventurer’s Guild and the name has remained to this very day.
Magic Users were always part of the Guild, ever since the time of Meyk. The joining of brain and brawn on adventures grew quite common. Thieves didn’t come along until later. It has been rumored that thieves had always enjoyed a presence there, hiding in the shadows, but it wasn’t until about a century ago that they were officially incorporated as part of the Guild. The reasoning behind such a move depended on whom you asked. On the one hand, thieves played an important part in any adventure; disarming traps, picking locks, etc, so it only made sense to have them as part of the Guild. The other side of the coin claimed that the Thieves connived their way into the Guild in order to be in on the “know” about the Guild members’ activities so they could beat them to the prize.
By and large, the three classes coexisted together fairly harmoniously. Each class was almost always represented in Guild Parties, a Party being a group of adventurers that had banded together to hire out collectively. A few Parties were formed entirely of fighters or thieves, rarely had magic users banded together as they tended to prefer having muscle-bound toughs taking the hard knocks while they fired off spells from a respectably safe distance.
In the centuries since the village of Reakla first took the name of the renowned hero, it has grown by leaps and bounds. The league of open space between the original collection of huts situated at the northern edge of Keot’s Swamp and the road now called Adventurer’s Way, has been completely filled in by a town to rival any in the realm. Two other trade routes now wound their way to Reakla. One was the North Road which leads to the Lands of the Kittikin, a place most civilized people would just as soon keep as far away as possible. Brigand’s Way was the other, so named due to the frequent raids on caravans and travelers foolish enough to attempt to pass without sufficient escort.
Adventurer wannabes came from all over in the hopes of joining the Guild, the prestige and glory which went with membership was something every lad desired. Unfortunately, only a very few ever succeeded in gaining the honor of being added to the Adventurer’s Roll of Heroes. An auspicious sounding title, the Roll was merely a list of currently
active members, and some who were past their prime yet still called the Guild their home away from home.
Before anyone was allowed to join, they must be able to lay claim to the successful completion of an Adventure. Of course, such an Adventure cannot be any old adventure, but one which satisfied three specific qualifications.
The first qualification was that there must have been some element of risk to life and limb. Finding a lost cat that strayed too far from home would hardly count toward Guild Membership. Unless, of course, the cat in question weighed five hundred pounds, had a mean disposition, and liked nothing better than to chew a man’s head off. Then perhaps it would qualify as a bona fide Adventure.
The second qualification was for the Adventure to be successfully concluded. If the whole point of the quest was to retrieve a specific item, then that item had better be in hand when all was said and done.
Lastly, and perhaps most important of all, a reward of some kind had to have been given. After all, what good was an Adventure if you didn’t get paid for your troubles? A man has got to eat.
Very few wannabes were able to satisfy the requirements since most had no experience or training for such a life. The bones of many a lad could be found in out of the way places where their misguided hopes to complete an Adventure had led to an untimely end.
There were those having friends or relatives in the Guild and could merely tag along on an Adventure with a seasoned Party to satisfy the requirements. For others without such connections within the Guild, membership could be as elusive as a five-legged dog. Their recourses were few indeed, and all held a high rate of mortality.
But for those who made it, the rewards were great: fame, gold, and the chance to become a power in the realm. All are waiting for the one strong enough, smart enough, and especially lucky enough to survive.
Chapter 1