Path of Responsibility 1 -- Contested Quest
Atlas and Apexus sat across each other.
They occupied the broad sides of a long table. Next to each of the party leaders sat their many members.
On Apexus' side, Aclysia glared with all the annoyance an angel could muster. She was in full agreement with her darling's moral stance on this issue and, further, she found the whole hassle that now cropped up around it an affront to his valuable time. Reysha was torn on the matter, between old selfishness and learned altruism, and thus sat uncharacteristically quiet. Korith, under other circumstances, could have seen herself on Atlas' side.
As for the Warrior's party, it was not nearly as mixed. Alabasta was the mirror of Aclysia when it came to the morality of this. Although less extreme, Flora and Rahesia both were also of the firm opinion that they were in every right to ask for a massive reward for a Quest that sent them across the entire Leaf. Months of travel would incur costs for provisions, equipment damage, and consumable items, not to mention the danger that they would put themselves through. Out there was the true wilderness. Only Kumlin had some reservations about how much they were taking from the noble.
Said noble sat on one end of the long table. He was a nervous wreck, stress-greyed hair dishevelled and leg bouncing. His sunken eyes darted around the table, searching for any certainty.
On the other end of the table sat the local guild master. The man was a former veteran adventurer. The reason for his retirement was starkly visible: a massive scar from the side of his forehead across the temple. The scar, despite its age, still looked raw in many ways, creating a fleshy trench in this hairline. It was a remnant from an expedition into the general vicinity of the influence zone of the Necro Lord's Crypt. A single axe swing from a Death Knight had left the scar and the guild master's reflexes had never been quite the same afterwards.
Still, he had been level 38 at his peak and such strength may diminish, but it never properly faded. A power to assert dominance, if it was ever needed.
Beyond the people at the table, the guild itself was packed. Everyone with some relation to the Atlas or Inevitable Party wanted to see this -- which was almost every regular adventurer of Drowse. Atlas was the regular, Apexus the sympathetic newcomer, and the fault line that ran down that table ran through the heart of every adventurer as well. All tilted towards one way or another, but no one could deny that there was a call to do both what was right and what was personally rewarding.
"All of this is stupid," Atlas growled.
Apexus stared across the table. The lack of response had Atlas gnash his teeth. He got ready to say more. The guild master loudly tapping his finger on the tabletop prevented any escalation. "Stupid it may be, but it's the situation regardless," the man declared and crossed his arms. His eyes drifted over the crowd. 'I would have preferred to do this privately, but they made a whole deal about it from the marketplace up to this table...'
The whole situation was the logical endpoint of an argument in public. Both sides had accepted the Quest, but neither side wanted the other to have it. Apexus found it immoral to force the noble to sell his entire livelihood when the reward was, in his opinion, plenty. Atlas found it idiotic to sell his services short when the Quest was, in his opinion, too dangerous to do it for less. Had this not been a matter of principle for both of them, one could have backed down.
'Now it has come to this,' the guild master thought as he rubbed his forehead, then let out a heavy sigh. "We will cover our bases first. Lord Tarath, it is my knowledge that you have posted the Quest for 50 Platin, is this correct?"
"Y-yes! That is all the liquid assets I can spare at this time..." the noble answered, his voice growing quieted with every moment.
"And you can go up to 5000, you declared?"
"I-i-I can... accrue some debts..."
"How much can you do without going into debt?" Atlas asked.
"Around 3000?" the noble answered. A sum that caused rumours all around regardless. With 3000 Platin, a party could comfortably retire or get enough magical items to effectively trivialize their current Level bracket. The weapons would become useless as their Levels then increased. Until that point, it was the kind of assurance everyone wanted.
And that was only if they stayed on this Leaf, where competition for such items was high. If they moved to a world with a buyers' market, that kind of money could make them lords of the economy for several years.
"3000 Platin, sounds reasonable to me," Atlas stated. "Just let us do this Quest. He'll lose his lands, but that's just how fate plays things sometimes. His daughter will be saved and they will have each other."
"You would take from a man his house, his pride, and all that he can offer his daughter in the process of saving her." Apexus continued to stare stoically at his opposite. "I would eat Parasytes before I let you do that."
Aclysia sent her man a shocked glance. The wider room gasped, murmurs breaking out between the many parties. Apexus' true nature was somewhat of an open secret by this point. It was not necessary knowledge to know how deep of an insult had just been delivered. Atlas' face gradually turned red with rage.
"ORDER!" The shout of the guild master blasted through the room, his voice boosted by ki concentrated in his vocal cords and neck joint. "I see no way out of this then! Since neither of you will back off, we might as well accept the inevitable. The Guild authorizes a Contested Quest!"
The adventurers returned to speaking to each other, louder this time. The only two parties in the room totally quiet were the ones at the table.
A Contested Quest went against the mission statement of the Adventurer's Guild.
The foundation of the organization laid in being the legitimately accepted arbiter between those who gave quests and those who took them. In that work, it was important that the Guild assured that parties did not overlap in what Quests they took up. This was for a variety of reasons, each of them highly important to the functioning of the ecosystem.
If Quests became an open system functioning on 'whoever reported back first', this would inevitably breed resentment between parties. Doing Quests would not become a matter of actually doing them, but of being the one to actually claim the credit. Charlatans may run back ahead of parties, or just take out competitors in the field, in order to gather the juicy rewards.
Then there was the issue of monopolization of adventuring forces in the hands of the wealthy. Better paid Quests already received much more attention. This was logical and inevitable, and making it so parties could compete over them would leave fewer adventurers that were willing to take work that was comparatively poorly paid.
