The city rises around you in crowded tiers of stone and timber, its evening bells fading beneath wagon wheels and market calls. Your weightless bag holds no coin worth spending.
Ahead, an Adventurers Guild closes beneath a carved sword-and-star sign. A young adult woman with copper-brown skin, a sturdy build, and tightly braided black hair and wearing a dark green wool surcoat over a cream blouse, with a pale scar through one eyebrow pulls the doors inward, one hand on the latch.
The Guild Attendant
Hold there. The doors are closing, and guild business waits until morning unless it is already filed.
Through the narrowing gap, you glimpse a request pinned to the inner board. Its seal is red, its wording urgent, and the promised payment is high enough to matter.
The Guild Attendant
You are carrying no guild badge. Are you registered with the Adventurers Guild?
Her fingers remain on the latch. Behind her, lamplight catches the request's final line: immediate aid required before dawn.
✓ Quest Accepted
Obtain the urgent guild request
“I ask her to let me take the urgent request before the doors close.”
FAILURE (Poor Diplomacy, rolled +0)
Inkei Hitori
Please let me take the urgent request before you close. I can bring it back if it requires guild filing.
The attendant studies you over the narrowing door, then glances toward the red-sealed notice. Her hand tightens on the latch, and the gap shrinks to a blade of lamplight.
The Guild Attendant
No. Urgent does not mean unfiled, and you have no badge for me to record. I will not release a guild request into the street.
She reaches through the gap and tears the notice from the board, folding it beneath her surcoat before the seal can be read. The doors close, and the lock settles with a heavy click.
The Guild Attendant
Return at first bell and register properly. If the matter survives until then, you may petition for it like everyone else.
Inkei Hitori
The request is inside, and the guild is locked.
Warm lamplight withdraws behind the barred doors, leaving the urgent seal beyond reach and the evening street open before you.
“I ask her to let me take the urgent request before the doors close.”
FAILURE (Poor Diplomacy, rolled +0)
The sealed doors give no answer. Their iron bands hold firm, and the guild’s last warmth fades into the chill of the street.
Inkei Hitori
The notice is beyond reach until morning.
Footsteps and wagon wheels carry on around you, indifferent to the red seal hidden inside. Above the rooftops, the first stars emerge through the dusk.
The request cannot be taken tonight, and the closed guild offers no path around its own rules. Dawn now marks the next clear chance to act.
Behind the barred entrance, the attendant’s presence is no longer visible. Only the carved sword-and-star sign remains above the darkened doors.
The open street waits before you, while the urgent matter remains sealed inside until first bell.
Director's note
mind control spell
“I attempt to use a magic spell to convince her to let me in”
SUCCESS (Legendary Magic, rolled +1)
You raise a horned hand toward the sealed doors. Arcane force gathers softly, threading through the iron bands and settling around the attendant’s will inside.
The spell finds the memory of your request and turns it gently toward agreement. The lock lifts beneath the attendant’s returning hand.
The Guild Attendant
Very well. Come inside, and do not touch anything except the request.
The doors open inward. Warm lamplight spills across the street as the attendant steps aside, her expression composed, her judgment bent toward letting you enter.
The Guild Attendant
You may read the sealed notice here. If you accept its terms, bring it to the front desk at first bell.
Beyond her, the red-sealed request rests beneath the guild’s lamplight, no longer separated from you by a locked door.
“I pick up the red-sealed urgent request and leave to go fufill the request”
SUCCESS (Great Agility, rolled +1)