The adventurer's guild was packed as usual. The clatter of mugs, snippets of boisterous laughter, and the occasional heated argument filled the air as seasoned warriors and fresh-faced adventurers milled about. Amidst the crowd, Lys navigated the crowded hall towards the perpetually crowded job board.
Her coin purse felt depressingly light, its meager contents a stark reminder of her recent string of "successful" solo quests – successful in the sense that she hadn't been eaten by anything, but less so in terms of financial gain. The choice loomed: find decent work, or add another day to her growing tallies of hungry ones.
Her purple eye - singular, as the other was obviously far too dangerous to be exposed, scanned the overflowing job board. Notices pinned over notices, layered thick enough to be used as armor, promising everything from "Escort merchant caravan, high risk, high reward" to "Find my lost cat, Mittens, reward: one slightly used boot."
Lys’s fingers traced the edges of a notice that promised a decent reward for clearing out a nest of goblins from a nearby silver mine. "Goblins..." she muttered, "Easy enough, even for a..." Her voice trailed off, she refused to utter the words, "magicless failure". Still, it would pay.
Just as she reached for the notice, another hand grabbed it too. Lys looked up, her one visible purple eye widening to see who her competition was.