Lore - Bourgeaux Adventurer's Guild (Patreon)

Just a quick update on my current workload and junk before I let you read all this new lore.

I've been feeling really junky the last few days, like, really bad. I think I'm getting over it but it came outta nowhere and hit especially hard yesterday so I barely got anything accomplished. I don't think I'm gonna do the RotGM chapter I promised for this week after all because of it, but I'll try and have a new one out by Wednesday.

These lore notes are super off the cuff, undedited, basically just putting ideas one after the other on the page. That being said, I'm very happy with the ideas I came up with and I think it will be a real good setting for side stuff eventually. I'll do some follow up notes on the actual town itself sometime soon.

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The Bourgeaux Adventurer’s Guild is a fancy building, like a classical mansion from the outside. The grass is well maintained and there are exotic shrubberies cultivated in the shape of famous adventurers surrounding the premises.

It has a red-tiled roof and is three stories tall, which isn’t too abnormal but it makes up for it in square footage. The building is made of white material, has high ceilings, and has numerous pillars on the outside that serve as decoration.

The entrance is decorated in twin banners, one of House Glorigold and one of the AoA. Typically, Guilds are not supposed to show favor towards noble houses, but since its inception this Guild has almost always had a Glorigold Guild Master so an unofficial exception was made.

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There is a separate building for the help to live out of, and it’s hidden in the back beyond a grove of trees, like they were being hidden since it’s not very nice looking. It’s a cramped wooden two story house where the staff is forced into crowded dorms, with only upper management getting their own private rooms. Not all of the employees live here, but many are destitute commoners and have no choice.

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Unlike many Guilds, the Guild Master does not live in the building. He resides in a Glorigold fort he owns that is only a few hours away.

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The entrance hall is wide with a high ceiling. Tiled floor, polished white and black squares in checkerboard pattern. A red carpet leads visitors to the reception desk. Nearby is two separate quest boards. One for normal quests, and one for quests issued by the nobility (most usually the Glorigolds). These quests pay more but adventurers have to be given special clearance, which is usually earned by sucking up to nobles or to the GM.

Halfway through the room there is a large statue depicting the Demon Lord of Envy being defeated by Eduard Glorigold. It's positioned so that the visitor will walk under the statue if they follow the carpet. Behind the front desk is a large portrait of Eduard. Throughout the Guild there is other propaganda depicting Eduard’s life and exploits, which are largely true, but you get the feeling that they’re focused on making people think that the Demon Lord Rahnon was a Glorigold who fell from grace, too.

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This Guild is almost exclusively for mid to high rank adventurers.

Adventurers who live here are often self-indulgent profit seekers, and it comes to no surprise that many of them are exceedingly full of themselves. Most adventurers here are not looking to make friends. They tend to be quite rude to the housekeepers as well, with there being a toxic workplace environment with rampant sexual harassment. The adventurers often mess with the maids, who are told to just put up with it. At most, the adventurers will get a slap on the wrist if reported but many of the staff can’t risk losing their jobs here.

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The cafeteria is equally fancy. There are three long tables and a smattering of smaller isolated tables away from the riff raff for private dinners for important people. These tables are partitioned off and are enchanted with silence wards so that no one can hear the business being discussed from the outside.

The food served at the cafeteria is of middling taste but high nutritional value. The Guild prioritizes making sure its adventurers are eating properly at the expense of anything else, so it’s not uncommon for their heroes to pass up and eat somewhere else in town.

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The dorms are all very luxurious, save for the bronze rank dorms which are crowded together and have cheap beds. This is apparently to motivate the low rankers to try harder and move on up in life, but all it does is foster negativity and get them to stay at inns instead. It’s still better than the servan dorms, though.

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Next to the main building is an indoor arena where adventurers can make a little side money by entertaining people through paid sparring matches. These matches are simple, and are held on a tiled square ring. Whoever is knocked out first or suffers a ring out by touching the ground loses. Really basic stuff.

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There’s also a hidden second arena for gold-ranked and certain vetted silver-ranked adventurers where less than legal fights are held. This arena is heavily rumored but often denied.

This arena predates the founding of the Guild, and was originally a secret Glorigold gladiator pit meant to humiliate their enemies and keep the noble house entertained. One of their many dark secrets. After several hundred years of the Guild’s founding, one of the earliest Guild Masters, a Glorigold as is tradition, came up with the idea of tying it to the Guild and the rest was history.

It holds seating for 2,000 people, ranging from pews to those fancy opera-like VIP rooms that can watch from on high. There is a special VIP room which is built up against the back wall where only members of House Glorigold are allowed to sit and preside over the games. The current Duke, Wassily Glorigold, is often seen here in his freetime. There is a special throne for him when he’s in attendance.

There are secret entrances to this arena all over Bourgeaux known only by the nobility, wealthy merchants and powerful crimelords alike. It would be suspicious if tons of these people were always entering the Guild in plain sight, so it was a necessary investment.

In exchange for potentially making a lot of money, the adventurers have to allow themselves to be cursed. If they speak out about the hidden arena to anyone, not in the know, their mouth will be compelled to bite its tongue off and kill them.

The fights that take place here are against convicted felons and dangerous monsters, both of which are often smuggled in from other realms since Bourgeaux. These felons can earn a degree of freedom by performing exceptionally well and besting the Adventurers they’re pit against.

After sufficiently proving themselves, the Guild Master will forge fake identities for the criminal and certify them as gold-ranked adventurers. This involves making up years and years of questing history that somehow was never reported until now, but the Association turns a blind eye to it because of how much revenue the Bourgeaux Guild gets them. Naturally, when all of this ‘forgotten’ paperwork is submitted there is always a bribe sent along with it as an ‘apology’ for forgetting.

The arena is overseen by several mages and architects. The architects draw up new ideas for dangerous stage combinations and the Mages work to create the arenas in front of the crowd as well as provide scheduled ‘events’ during the battle. For example, the battle starts on a grassy plane, and 10 minutes in there’s supposed to be a twist where the field is covered in flames. The mages will do so in a flashy way that pleases the crowd, like a special effects team.

There are also remove viewing mages who create large display screens of the fight so that anyone can see the action no matter their seating.

Adventurers rarely battle other adventurers here, since fights are typically to the death. There are exceptions, and when this happens it’s booked as a big event.

Rather than having the normal housekeeping staff look after the hidden arena, it is looked after by slaves bought from other realms. Slavery in Karnalle is (currently) illegal, but given the underground nature of this place, no one cares especially seeing as how none of them are native Karnallians.

Any adventurers who die in the underground arena have their deaths covered up. Depending on how successful they were or how much he liked them, Abernathanial might ensure that their family is well compensated but it largely falls to his whims which can’t be trusted. In almost all cases he will take possession of any and all assets that the dead adventurer had in his Guild storage account, and for his favorites, he will add their trademark weapons and such to the display cases in his office.

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The current Guild Master is a man by the name of Abernathanial Glorigold, a luxurious nobleman in his 90s. He is the younger brother of the current Duke of Lillance, Wassily Glorigold.

He is a master of saying one thing and meaning another, he is superficially a friendly man who is kind to everyone, but on the inside he’s motivated purely by financial gain and benefiting his family.

He has short slicked back hair which is silvery gold, he is tall and somewhat lanky, wears a large bow tie and fancy suits. Kind of gives the impression of an entertainer from the 1930s. A slightly long face that always smiles, often closed eyes. He relies on a cane to move around, but it’s a powerful magic artifact meant to protect him in a pinch. He does not have combat skills.

Abernathanial is always attended to by his wives- a pair of identitcal blonde elves who wear glittery dresses and speak in unison. No one is entirely sure what their deal is, as they act like little more than eye candy and only speak when spoken to or when given permission. It’s unclear if they’re sisters or not.

He pretends to be old, frail, and suffering from the ravages of time, but it’s a mask. His real personality is akin to a showman/fight promoter, like Vince McMahon and despite his age he is as sprightly as ever. More on this later.

His office is huge, expansive, and he sits at what looks like a throne with a work desk in front of it. This intimidates anyone here to do business with him and puts him in a huge position of power just from presence alone.

He has display cases of weapons, armor and trinkets of past famous heroes, mainly those who were fighters in this Guild’s arena. The display cases are magic, and every day they change to display different pieces of his vast collection.

Beneath all of his showy veneer lies a man with control fantasies and an obsession to entertain himself in new and exciting ways. He had no chance of ever becoming the Duke, so he took the path of the Guild Master as was common for those in his family. Under his visionary leadership, the twin arenas have never been more profitable for either the Association or House Glorigold.

He views the Guild, more specifically its arenas, as his own kingdom where he is the ‘King of Entertainment’. The fighters, audience memebers, its slaves and everyone in between are all his to do with as he pleases. They aren’t people, they exist only to amuse him, and anyone who he likes or shows fondness toward is akin to a child having preference towards their favorite toy.

This is all to cover up for the inferiority complex he feels over his older brother.

Possibly the dad of Perlshaw Guild Master, Gilver Glorigold. Haven’t decided yet but listing it here as a possibility if I choose to develop it.

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In the basement is a magically enchanted bigger on the inside room that serves as the Guild’s training yard. Because the Guild is focused on arena fights, their training facilities are the highest in any Guild aside from Perlshaw. They have all sorts of equipment as well as a pool and track field. The Guild makes extra money by renting out personal trainers to adventurers and some equipment is only available to use if one buys a training subscription or is a fighter in the underground arena.

There are statues of Eduard and other Glorigold heroes working out all over the place, meant to motivate the adventurers. These statues are also enchanted, giving people a feeling like they’re being watched. Abernathanial has someone monitoring them at all times so that he knows if any of his fighters have been slacking on their training and he can threaten them into working harder if need be.

Adventurers who don’t buy a training subscription are routinely hounded to do so, and they are encouraged to train just about every day.

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The storage rooms for gold and equipment are locked behind a giant magic vault, and it’s also bigger on the inside. Depending on the key used, it will open up into the bank, the armory, or item storage. It’s a very expensive enchantment, most people are impressed when they see it for the first time.