Quests, Chaos, and Consequences

Step into a tale spun with nothing but voices—no narration, no guiding hand—just raw, unfiltered words bouncing like sparks between heroes and headaches. This piece is a dialogue-only experiment, a little writing dare I gave myself to let the characters do all the talking (and boy, do they talk).

A guild.

A mission.

A mess.

And one swordsman who might be more trouble than he's worth.

Come eavesdrop on the mayhem. I hope it makes you grin, groan, and maybe gasp—just a little.

***

“What you have there... Guild Master?”

“Your report.”

“Oh, that.”

“Yes, that. And looking at this, you have a lot of explaining to do.”

“Why would I need to do that? I’ve been a great help.”

“A great help, huh?”

“Yeah... I am the best swordsman in the guild.”

“Skill doesn’t make up for picking flowers when the rest of us were being chased by a gorgon.”

“Why, I...”

“That was submitted by David Hetaber.”

“That’s an over-exaggeration.”

“David Hetaber exaggerating?”

“Well, you know...”

“No, Jordan, this is serious.”

“They were for my little girl. She has been really sick, and I knew they would just brighten up her day.”

“And that couldn’t wait till after?”

“They would have been stomped up with all the running.”

“Woke up the Beast when an unstable cave wall collapsed because he was messing with it. This ended up causing a cave-in.”

“It was just down a side path, so it didn’t block our escape.”

“You still woke up the Beast, ultimately ending in the quest almost failing!”

“I stopped it from caving in at a worse time.”

“Tripped a trap because he was being careless. Got in the way of my trap spell because he ran to go look at something. Playing with some things that he then dropped, causing the horde to run at us. Need I go on?”

“I think...”

“Don’t think, I’m tired of hearing your excuses.”

“Okay.”

“This is just the tip of the icebeard of complaints... Your shenanigans are not just making completing the jobs harder, it has also almost caused several missions to fail.”

“We always work it out.”

“We shouldn’t have to when it’s an adventure.”

“I understand, I’ll do better, I promise.”

“No, your promises mean nothing if no one will work with you.”

“What do you mean? David loves working with me, and so does...”

“No, he really doesn’t.”

“He’s always excited to work with me.”

“He only does that because he doesn’t want to hurt your feelings.”

“David... really?”

“Yes, have you noticed that you only go on missions that David is in charge of?”

“But I’m really good, I mean I do have the highest-level sword skill in the guild!”

“That doesn’t change the fact that your goofing off is messing up the missions.”

“But I’m really good.”

“That doesn’t mean anything when you are a liability to the party. Heck, Calin is better in a party than you.”

“Calin... He has only been in the guild for like a month and he has no real skills!”

“True, but he is not making the missions harder and needing to make up for his trouble with skills.”

“I understand, I’ll do better.”

“No, this is the last straw.”

“Please, you have to give me another chance, and I promise I won’t...”

“Fortunately for you, I have to give you one more chance.”

“Really!”

“Yes. By the guild rules.”

“Okay, what do I have to do?”

“You are to take this mission and put together a party of four...”

“What if I can’t get three others to join me?”

“Then I guess you’re out.”

“No. I can do it... How long do I have?”

“Starting today, you have one week to complete the quest.”

“Only one week?”

“Yep. You have one week to put together a party and complete the quest... Unless you don’t think you can?”

“No, I can do it.”

“Then go. And I would be swift about it, the clock is already ticking.”

“I won’t let you down, Guild Master.”

“Only time will tell.”