Jaikus and Reneeke Join the Guild

by Brian S. Pratt

  The Adventurer's Guild: #1-Jaikus and Reneeke Join the Guild

  Title Page

  here

  The Unsuspecting Mage

  Shepherd’s Quest

  Jaikus and Reneeke Join the Guild

  Click here for series description

  Click here for series description

  The

  Adventurer’s Guild

  #1-Jaikus and Reneeke

  Join the Guild

  Brian S. Pratt

  Copyright 2009 by Brian S. Pratt

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  Thank you for downloading this free eBook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to your favorite online retailer to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

  To keep updated on the latest happenings with Brian S. Pratt, be informed as soon as new releases become available, or to ask questions and have discussions with other readers, visit and Like the author’s

  Facebook Fan Page

  The Fantasy Worlds of

  Brian S. Pratt

  The Morcyth Saga

  The Unsuspecting Mage

  Fires of Prophecy

  Warrior Priest of Dmon-Li

  Trail of the Gods

  The Star of Morcyth

  Shades of the Past

  The Mists of Sorrow*

  *(Conclusion of The Morcyth Saga)

  Travail of The Dark Mage

  Sequel to The Morcyth Saga

  1-Light in the Barren Lands

  2- Tides of Faith

  The Broken Key

  #1- Shepherd’s Quest

  #2-Hunter of the Horde

  #3-Quest’s End

  Qyaendri Adventures

  Ring of the Or’tux

  Dungeon Crawler Adventures

  Underground

  Portals

  The Adventurer’s Guild

  #1-Jaikus and Reneeke Join the Guild

  #2-Caravan to Kittikin*

  *coming April 2014

  Click here for details on how to get complimentary, full-length copies

  of Two more Brian S. Pratt’s eBooks:

  The Unsuspecting Mage

  Book One of The Morcyth Saga

  And

  Shepherd’s Quest

  Book One of The Broken Key Trilogy

  Both eBooks are Free at most major online eBook retailers

  Get your copies today!

  This is for my children:

  Joseph

  Breanna

  Abigayle

  A Little Bit of History…

  Rumor has 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 be 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 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 manage to find their way there more often than not continued on their way 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 have 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 makes men thump the table in applause, and women weep at the tragic ending. And this was but one of a dozen such tales that still survive from his day.

  In the winter of his years, when Reakla realized his strength was beginning to wane, reflexes growing slower, and gray starting 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 has fled.

  There have 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 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 same company as the great warrior. A few brought families with them, others slaves, and this collection of ramshackle dwellings began to turn into a bona fide village. The place began to be called Reakla’s Place, Reakla’s Inn, and others that have now 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, it seemed more and more adventurers gravitated to Reakla. The camaraderie of fellow warriors, the sharing of mutual histories, drew men and women alike from all over. 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 indicate that the first real construction on what is now known as the Adventurer’s Guild didn’t begin 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 were added, a courtyard built, and areas began to be designated 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. Brother to a fighter by the name of Breyki, whom you may recall from such sagas as “Breyki and the Troll’s Head” and “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 fail 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 more 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 were always there anyway, 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 depends on whom you ask. On the one hand, thieves play 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 coexist together fairly harmoniously. Each class was almost always represented in Guild Parties, a Party being a group of adventurers that have banded together to hire out collectively. A few Parties are formed entirely of fighters or thieves, rarely do magic users band together as they tend to prefer having muscle-bound toughs taking the hard knocks while they fire 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 find their way to Reakla. One is the North Road which leads to the Lands of the Kittikin, a place most civilized people would just as soon keep as far away from as possible. Brigand’s Way is the other, so named due to the frequent raids on caravans and travelers foolish enough to attempt to pass without sufficient escort.

  Adventurer wannabes come 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 is 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 satisfies three qualifications.

  The first qualification is 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 is for the Adventure to be successfully concluded. If the whole point of the quest was to retrieve a specific item, 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’s got to eat.

  Very few wannabes are able to satisfy the requirements since most have no experience or training for such a life. The bones of many a lad can be found in out of the way places where their misguided hopes to complete an Adventure had led to an untimely end.

  There are those who have friends or relatives in the Guild and merely tag along on an Adventure with a seasoned Party to satisfy the requirements. For others without such connections within the Guild, membership can 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 make it, the rewards are 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 One

  It was a day like any other in the great city of Reakla. The hustle and bustle of everyday life continuing as it had for many a year, though in this city, what constituted everyday life could at times seem extraordinary if it were to be encountered anywhere else. But in Reakla, the sight of three trolls being led through the streets by a party of adventurers was hardly worth a second look.

  Ye’s Band of Thugs, a party of five that had been adventuring together for the better part of a decade, were herding six of the great beasts toward the Adventurer’s Guild. Trolls were in demand at the Guild, being as they were very hardy and regenerated well. They gave the up and coming newbies something to practice on. Each of the three Classes that called the Guild their home had a courtyard in which they could hone and fine tune their skills between adventures. Within the courtyard, fighters fought, mages worked on spells, and thieves, well, they did what thieves always do and were not about to explain themselves to others. If you’re a thief, you know what goes on. If not, it’s best not to pry.

  Below the Guild lies a network of pens which house beasts that for a price, were made available to its members. There were the usual sorts of animals one would expect, such as cows, dogs, cats, rats, etc. Then there were the more exotic beasts such as the trolls, and if the rumors could be believed, even a green dragon held in a great cavern far below the rest, but such was most likely nothing more than rumor.

  Ye’s Band of Thugs tended to receive the commissions to acquire trolls for the Guild as they have had much success at it and almost always returned with good specimens that had little in the way of damage. Of course, the regenerative nature of trolls could in no small measure account for that as well.

  For the lads of Reakla, those too young or not predisposed for adventuring, the sight of Trolls being marched to the Guild pens was the closest they could get to the excitement, and glory that was Adventuring.

  Two of the onlookers that stood in awe of the seasoned band of adventurers herding the trolls, were relatively new to Reakla. Having arrived only the night before, they gaped at the massive beasts passing by.

  “Would you look at the size of them!” Jaikus remarked.

  Reneeke was much too enthralled by the sight to respond.

  “Only three this time?” one onlooker shouted.

  The man walking at the head of the procession glanced toward the shout. “That’s all they wanted,” responded the seasoned fighter. He bore a longsword and shield, his helm was silver with an erect bright blue plume sticking six inches straight up, while his chainmail, though looking well-worn, shone in the afternoon sun.

  As the men and trolls moved on, Jaikus slapped his friend Reneeke on the back. “Just think. One of these days, that’s going to be us.”

  Reneeke turned his gaze from the departing trolls to his friend. “Yup.”

  “Tomorrow we’ll go down and join.”

  “If they’ll have us,” countered his friend. “We don’t exactly look the adventuring type.”

  Which was true. Jaikus was but five feet seven, slight of build, and not exactly muscular. Reneeke on the other hand stood a hair over six feet, had worked on a farm all his life and
thus had built up a sizeable set of muscles. Chopping wood will do that to a lad. But despite his build, dressed as he was in hand-me-down homespun, he looked anything but someone ready to face the evil in the world.

  “Of course they’ll have us,” asserted Jaikus. “Do you think every adventurer started out with a set of armor, swords, and all that stuff? No, of course not. They were like us. Full of energy and raring to go.”

  “If you say so.” To be honest, Reneeke preferred life on the farm to that of adventuring. It was good work, you knew what each day would bring, and perhaps best of all, you weren’t risking your life on a daily basis. Jaikus had talked him into coming to Reakla to join the Guild with him. If they turned them away without so much as a how-do-you-do, that would suit him just fine. He definitely felt out of place among such company.

  “Come on,” said Jaikus as he grabbed his friend’s arm. “Let’s follow them to the Guild.”

  “Okay.”

  They had gone to the Guild upon first arriving in town, but hadn’t worked up the nerve to approach the front door. Several rather intimidating individuals had been standing before the entrance and the two lads thought that perhaps coming the following morning would prove better.