Peek: New Recruits

Karn's spring is busy, and he wouldn't have it any other way. Not only are the more experienced adventurers becoming even more experienced thanks to Thedeim, but the strange dungeon has created a new market to be served!

With hindsight, it probably should have been obvious. Thedeim fits the term 'cooperative' to a T. Even Karn, who is in the camp the Dungeoneers should either rename or break up the category, can't come up with a better way to describe how he runs his encounters. The mood in the guild went from gloomy and demotivated to bustling and eager in less than a year. Rumors of Thedeim's early and rapid progress had adventurers transferring just to see something new, and especially with the plans for that new tree, even the veterans will have something to look forward to.

Heck, even Olander Wideblade himself is looking forward to exploring the tree once it's up and running.

But he's not the only one looking to have some fun in the dungeon. Karn even wonders if Thediem was deliberately aiming for something like this with how he treats the gathering delvers. In normal dungeons, gatherers will need to hire adventurer escorts to keep them safe while they ply their trade. With Thedeim, he expects even them to contribute a little to the fighting. With so many of them getting a couple extra levels under their belt and some more fighting skill from the requirement, the escort quests may be drying up, but the supply of potions and the like has never been stronger.

And such gatherers will have their own friends, who they surely regale with the tales of fighting off a group of rats or other denizens that most civilian classes would have nightmares about. Add to it his reputation for no deaths, and the civilian classes will start to wonder if they could have a bit of excitement in their lives. If they were truly cut out to be adventurers, they would have gotten a class suited for it, but they of course still dream of being strong and capable, or at least not completely hopeless in a fight.

At first, it was just a trickle of them testing the waters around the manor. New adventurers are easy to spot with the overloaded packs, too-heavy armor, and tendency to wear themselves out on the first encounter. Thankfully, with Thedeim, such inexperience can be overcome with only a bit of embarrassment, instead of the potential loss of life and limb. More than one adventuring class has had to try to figure out how to apply themselves to a civilian role after a disastrous first delve, and many never even get that chance.

But with Thedeim's safety, the civilians are getting a taste of adventure, which is all most of them really want. Still, with so many new people delving, Karn got an idea.

Full guild membership comes with dues and responsibilities, but also significant support. The civilians wouldn't be able to handle the responsibilities, and probably wouldn't be able to take proper advantage of the support, either. But a lower due with little responsibility and simpler support, now that is something to get the attention of a fresh delver looking for a taste of excitement but not wanting to take too much of a risk.

He reached out to Parval, the outfitter, after following rumors of him being the best place to get gear for new adventurers, and finally hashed out a deal. He'll offer a discount to people who become reserve guild members, and Karn will pay the difference in price. Parval gets to claim official affiliation with the Slim Chance guild, and Karn gets more new members. Everyone wins! Even the new reserve members and the full members come out ahead, in his opinion.

The reserves get access to the library, and even a few basic training courses offered by the experienced members, and the members get to have easy quests in guiding the fledgling delvers.

He's probably going to need to expand to have room for proper training fields, too. He might even be able to negotiate something with the various crafting guilds for their members, getting discounts for them and for his guild as well. They get cheaper ingredients, he gets cheaper equipment, and maybe even both sides will be able to learn a bit from the other. None of his adventurers are going to be as good as a proper apprentice in any crafting skill, but just being able to better maintain and to know what the crafters really want will be incredibly valuable. And for the crafters, if they see what it's like in a dungeon, even one like Thedeim, they'll know what the adventurers need, too.

He chuckles as he puts away the last of the paperwork for today, looking forward to getting back down to the bar. It's about time for the early delvers to return, and not only are they always thirsty, but eager to chat about their delves. The really clever reserve members have started noticing this and coming by to pay for drinks to get the details, showing yet another little thing that prooves just how accurate 'cooperative' is to describe Thedeim.

Because it's exactly the type of atmosphere he cultivates.