Deacon caught up with his party on the first floor of the guild hall. Tantus came running around a corner with a look of excitement in his eyes. This made Deacon shrink back anticipating another in a long line of events that ruin his days.

“Deacon, they have a wand in the guild shop. It would let me do that thing…you know when you hold the paper up in the air for me, so I don’t have to sprawl them out on the ground,” said Tantus between breaths with his hands on his knees.

“So get it.” Deacon replied.

“I’m not a guild member. They turned me away. I’ll pay you back.” Tantus said finally standing upright.

“Really? Fine, let’s go.” Deacon said.

They moved through what looked like a large crowd of people in front of a free standing wooden wall. As they got closer, they noticed there were papers affixed to the wall with a chalk line separating groups of them from left to right. Four sections in all. Most of the pages in the fourth section were all still there while the pages in the first two sections were getting grabbed swiftly.

“Quest board. All the easy coin quests go on the left while the more difficult, yet lucrative Guild Point quests are on the far right. Most of the quests you have now would go there.” Portus said shimmering into existence next to Deacon.

“Good God, man. How did you do that?” Deacon asked almost jumping out of his boots.

“Racial ability. But you know all about those don’t you? I’d say take look and see what you can handle but most of the quests on the right side are for level thirty and above members. You also won’t be here long so, never mind,” replied the Guild Master.

He had mischievous grin on his face that Deacon didn’t like. It was the kind of grin that Deacon learned means there’s more to what’s being said than is being said. Not interested in looking for subtext today, he headed in the direction of the guild shop only to be stopped by Portus who gestured him into a big office. Deacon had no idea where the Guild Master was going with this, but it looked like he wanted to have his say before he could get on with his day. Deacon and his party entered the office. Oddly, Typhus and Elle stayed outside.

“Ok I’ll make this brief. The Founder and I discussed it, we think you as the Champion of Chimera and a representative of the Adventurer’s Guild need a unit name. This will be first time in the history of the we have created a unit with a Champion of the current pantheon. You should consider a name carefully. Unlike the Cardinal Unit that is used to prop up the third born children of nobles. As they are necessary to fulfil the Triumvirate Accords, your unit will be a groundbreaking show of support from the guild to the God Chimera. We are hoping this will bring some of the more religious leaning freelancers into the guild.” Portus said.

“What’s in it for us? I mean one of us is from the Tower.” Deacon said.

“I was under the impression you were just delivering him to the gnomes at Shattered Sky.” Portus answered.

“No. Tantus is one of us.” Deacon said without even looking back at Tantus. The mage looked shocked at that.

Portus looked at the faces of Deacon, Amanda, Ralph and Tantus. He leaned back in his chair and ran his fingers through jet black hair and seemed to come to a decision. Opening a drawer on his right, the red elf lifted a communication crystal and put it on his desk. He channeled some mana into it before a face appeared. It looked like an old man with a long white beard and conical hat.

Deacon could see Portus’s mouth moving but he couldn’t hear what was being said. What was more disturbing was Portus was growing visibly angry at the image in the crystal. He looked back at Ralph who just shrugged and slumped deeper in his chair. Then Portus swiftly grabbed the crystal and tossed it back in the drawer, slamming it shut with a loud thud.

“Pompous windbag. I’ve cleared it with the Tower on one condition. After Tantus is done with his studies he is to return to the Tower in the Crystal Cascade to teach for one year. Is that agreeable young man?” Portus asked looking frustrated.

“Yes, yes, I suppose it is. I’ll have to message my uncle and let him know.” Tantus murmured.

“Wait, what good does this do for us? I’m not hearing any upside.” Deacon said.

“For starters, a named unit within the guild gives you a ten percent boost to Guild Renown. Your friends outside already get that now. That’ll make it easier to rise in the ranks. It seems you are already at Adept, and you are working your way towards Specialist. A fast trip up the tiers for a level nineteen like yourself. Most won’t see that until after their class specialization. Secondly it gives you operational authority in large scale guild conflicts. That means leadership positions and not necessarily being on the front line. Finally, you will have access to quests not found on the boards.” Portus explained.

“Just sounds like more work to me.” Deacon replied. Amanda reached forward to tap Deacon on the shoulder. The group huddled up whispering to each other. At the same time Portus put an hourglass on his desk.

“You have until the sand runs out to decide. I have another appointment shortly.” Portus said steepling his hands on the desk.

“Ok, we’ll do it.” Deacon said turning back around in his chair.

“Good news. I’ll need a name for your team.” Portus said.

“Regulators.” Deacon said without missing a beat.

“I’m sorry. Regulators?” Portus asked.

“Yes, we’ll be called the Regulators. We regulate any stealing of my property, and we’re damn good too. You can’t just be any geek off the street. You’ve got to be handy with the steel if you know what I mean, earn your keep.” Deacon said.

“Is someone trying to steal from you? I’m afraid I don’t understand.” Portus questioned.

“Doesn’t matter, Regulators is the name. You’ll want to write that down.” Deacon said gesturing to Portus’s paper. He thought he heard Portus mumble something about insufferable adventurer’s before being shooed out of the office.

Guild Notice: The Regulators Unit has been created. This unit represents the solidarity between the guild and the Church of Chimera.

Chimera’s Blessing: All Adventurer’s Guild halls now have access to a random strength dungeon located on the premises reachable through the new shrines to Chimera.

Guild Message from Chimera, God of Gambling and Chaos: The house always wins.

There was subtle rumbling coming from the building as a nearby wall indented and was shortly filled with a lectern adorned with the symbol of Chimera. Portus exploded out of his office with a blast of heat. The hallway was filled with warm air left in the wake of his passing. He was standing in front of the shrine, mouth agape.

“You didn’t know this would happen?” Deacon asked.

“We knew there would be a blessing but all of our guild halls having their own dungeons no matter how powerful is too much. Skirmishes may breakout in regions with a smaller guild presence but still containing a hall. I have to warn them. We’ll be seen as a threat to other guilds. They’ll assume we can out level them without the same risk level. I’ll need to recall all the Specialists just for security purposes or…I can start a contract with the Kingdom for dungeon runs.” Portus answered while spinning out his strategies to deal with this circumstance.

“You seem busy so we’re going to go…” Deacon said waiving the Regulators toward the guild shop.

Ten minutes later they were all on the street looking at all the guild members piling into the building behind them. The amount of people crowding the entrance was absurd. Deacon considered any guild member who just joined to be affiliated now had a reason to check in besides easy quests.

“So it is really like this everywhere you go.” Tantus said.

“I told you boy, a Deactastrophe waiting around every corner. He just had a meeting and look at all this.” Typhus said.

“Don’t even start that. This was a good thing for the guild as a whole.” Deacon said to Typhus.

“Tell that to the smaller guild outposts that now have a random strength dungeon in the building. Some of those places are just a bar with a few rooms on the second floor. This is going to be a problem for a lot of people.” Typhus explained.

“Look I didn’t do anything but accept an offer. Let’s go the longer we are out here the worse things are going to get. Hey watch it pal!” Deacon said as a guy bumped into him rushing to get into the guild.

They all headed toward the Eastern District to hunt down Mentalba’s new shop. Passing between the Central District and the gate to the Eastern, they marveled at the grand cathedrals to the gods. They were all situated on Temple Lane. One more extravagant than the next. The streets here were flooded with clergy of all kinds. From Clerics to High Priests. Each block ended in a specific graveyard dedicated to the patrons of that faith.

“Wow. The architecture is fantastic.” Ralph said pausing outside of the Temple of Mantarok.

“You want to go in?” Deacon asked stopping to enjoy the view with him.

“I think I might.” Ralph replied as he stepped toward the cathedral. Each of the steeples were adorned with different weapons. Amanda fell in step with Ralph. Tantus was now standing next to Deacon while Elle and Typhus were having a conversation. Elle turned into an owl with antlers and flew away.

“She’s going to get Armand.” Typhus said.

Deacon opened his mouth to ask something when a portal snapped open in between him and Typhus. An arm shot out with a familiar pair of gloves on. It grabbed the front of Deacon’s shirt and dragged him into the dark oval.

On the other side of the portal was large graveyard. Deacon knew he was still near his starting location because now he could see the back of all the churches. He was being held by that guy the kidnappers called Mike.

“Mike, hurry up!” said one of the other guys.

“No I’m going to savor this. He doesn’t have his friends with him now.” Mike said.

“What the hell, man? Put me down.” Deacon demanded as his feet dangled six inches off the ground.

“You must have nine lives buddy. No one scurry’s away from us as much as you do.” Mike said as he hauled back with his free hand. That’s when Deacon slammed his forehead into Mike’s face. It felt like he just bashed his head into a brick wall. Mike did drop him and grabbed at his face.

Deacon bounced up and shoved his index finger in Mike’s exposed left arm pit paralyzing that limb. He had to jump back as blade of force scraped the ground between him and Mike. The sword guy was closing the distance, but he didn’t see the magic archer anywhere. Mike attempted to swing his left arm, but it was no more than a limp noodle. Deacon took the opportunity to kick Mike’s right knee in sideways getting a satisfying crack. That was all he could manage as the swordsman closed in. He came at Deacon with a flurry of sword strikes that Deacon needed to use Spectral Dash to avoid. While dashing he noticed several of his ghostly duplicates get shredded by the sword and others took arrows in the chest.

Deacon didn’t like his odds against three higher leveled opponents with obvious team tactics. He wondered if he could just outlast them. The swordsman would get tired, and the dirty guy could barely move right now. Then he remembered where he was, he could see ghosts making their way out of graves and floating toward all the commotion. That meant he had an abundance of soul energy to draw on. He tried to concentrate and switch his source of power, but the swordsman wouldn’t let up. As long as there was no space between them the archer did not fire. Then he felt the air passing by him as the sword just barely missed his head.

“It can’t rain all the time.” Spoke Deacon

Black clouds billowed out around him filling all the space his aura occupied. Two horns appeared made of storm clouds jutting from his forehead. The image must have been enough to startle the blade wielder since he stopped attacking. As the clouds began to obscure his location, Deacon then remembered he hasn’t tried out that Banshee power yet. The description said it needed to be powered by the Tempest Plane. Deacon used Banshee’s Wail. The sound was ear piercing and warbled from his mouth. It consumed one hundred percent soul energy meaning he could only do it three times. The swordsman dropped his sword and grabbed at his ears before he went completely rigid falling on his back. That soiled guy they call Mike just crouched there holding his right knee with his right hand. The look in his eyes spoke of man who feared little but had just seen something beyond him.

The storm clouds around Deacon became peppered with arrows. Ducking into the cloud, Deacon looked around to see where they were coming from so he could use Phantom Shield, but he couldn’t pinpoint the direction. When he looked back the swordsman was gone, and black disc was half through swallowing Mike.

“You obviously do not know who you are fucking with!” Deacon screamed into the air as purple lightning flashed within his sanctuary of clouds.