"It used to be, once upon a time, that adventuring was a proud and distinguished career.  It used to be people looked up to the professionals, lauding them as popular heroes.  Why, they were influential enough to get their own Guild, complete with Royal Charter!<br/><br/>Ahhh,<em>those</em>were the days.<br/><br/>At least until there was a glut on the market.  It was so popular that farmers ran away to go adventuring, or ordered cheap scrolls promising to make them 'a mighty wizzard in onlie ten simple lessons'.  The harvests suffered.  All those little cottage industries?  They suffered, too.  Except for the ones making cheap swords and flimsy armor for the wanna-bes.  Worse, that was when the monsters had all been driven out, evil temporarily vanquished, and there was nothing for a kingdom full of poorly trained would-be epic heros to do but...well...beat up on each other, really.  And then it got out of hand.<br/><br/>Let's just say there was a nasty civil war that resulted.  When it ended, mostly because someone with more sense than bravado invaded, adventuring got a bit less attractive as a career.  His kids are still on the throne, and they're a level headed bunch.  Maybe too level-headed.  Boring, even.  They'd rather go over a budget resolution with the Chancellor of the Exchequer than watch a proper tournament with jousting and wrestling and feasting afterwards.  I guess that makes them good kings, but sometimes an old hand like me gets a bit nostalgic, you know?<br/><br/>Oh, the Guild is still here.  Guess who trains adventurers?  And licenses them, of course--you have to have the license, and delver's insurance.  A delver without a license is legally a bandit and a tomb robber.  That means that anybody, but especially a licensed adventurer, gets to beat you up and take your stuff.  If they can, of course.  In and of itself, that isn't a bad thing, but sometimes the parchment pushers are said to make mistakes and delvers can lose their license for no reason...<br/><br/>On the bright side, monsters are creeping back in.  Outlying villages are submitting requests in triplicate for delver support.  Parties are being sent out on actual missions, rather than rescuing lost sheep and so on.  It may be that things are changing.<br/><br/>But enough of my blather.  What do you want to drink?  First round's always on the house for new graduates."<br/><br/>--Hobart Ironbelly<br/>Guild Champion (ret.)