DISCLAIMER: I do not own Dungeons and Dragons or their d20 system. I did not make money writing this story. DnD and all its supplements are owned by Wizards of the Coast. Do visit their site for this epic awesome game.

Chapter I: The Guild

Every adventure has got to start somewhere, and so my story starts at the Guild. At the time I lived in a small city named Ravensburg. In this city, there had always been merchants, rich men, and common folk who had needed the help of others, and to ease this process, the Adventurer's Guild, or just Guild, was founded. Here the people came and hired adventurers to do dangerous jobs for them. The adventurers give a small fee to the Guild, and keep the rest, slowly building a reputation, and slowly working their way up the Guild ladder. The Guildmaster was the adventurer who had done the most adventures, if he was willing to take the position.

I had lived in the city for one year by then, and I had registered at the Guild as an apprentice Wizard. I had only done minor jobs by then. To my frustration, most of these jobs were entertaining jobs at parties and such; it didn't pay all that well (just enough to keep the landlord from kicking me out), and it was monotonous and not really challenging.

Two weeks before everything started, the Guildmaster died, and a new Guildmaster had to be chosen. Several adventurers challenged each other, and eventually an old Elf named Area Cali took over as Guildmaster. As soon as she took the job, she changed several things. The adventurers would be assigned into teams to increase efficiency. The teams would be four to six big, and every team would be a mixture of different specialities. The rogues and fighters amongst the ranks thought it was madness, claiming to work better alone, but as one of the Wizards I could say I truly welcomed the new rules; a lone Wizard is not as much of a threat to anything as he will be when he has a warrior next to him who could take a few punches.

Two weeks passed, and the teams were finally decided. Everyone was to come to a gathering where the teams would meet and new assignments would be given. I got ready as I always did. I didn't have much I had to bring with me; clothing, some essentials like rations and a bedroll and such, my spellbook and finally my wand.

Many of the adventurers had left the Guild after the recent changes, so there were only about six groups left when assignments were given. First, I was given a scroll. On it were details on the other members of my team. Our team was called Darastrix. I found the scroll again. It said the following:

Team Leader: Bardryn; Dwarf, Female; Divine warrior of Bahamut

Team Guardian: Asteron; Minotaur, Male; Experienced Gladiator

Team Wizard: Ghrak; Kobold, Male; Scholar of the Arcane

Team Covert: Maragh; Kobold, Male; Apprentice Assassin

Team Backup: Surina; Dragonborn, Female; Monster Hunter

The first thing I noticed was the other Kobold. There weren't many Kobolds in Ravensburg, and I didn't mind that very much. In general, the other Kobolds were stealing, killing, brutal scoundrels that gave our race a bad name. The fact that he was our Covert, and an assassin to top that, didn't suit me, but I would give him a chance.

The Minotaur was also something that drew my attention. If there were little Kobolds, there were even less Minotaurs. I had, in fact, never seen one in Ravensburg. These creatures are often misunderstood. Minotaurs have a short fuse, but they are very civil, kind and even compassionate if you treat them with the respect they deserve.

Soon after receiving the scroll, I was approached by one of he Guild's errant boys. He led me to a small room. In it was a table that was just a bit too big to actually fit the room. Around the table were several chairs. There was magical lightning in the room, and at the table sat Darastrix.

The Minotaur sat very uncomfortably, its belly squashed between the table and the chair, which was burying itself in the wall. The Dragonborn was also quite uncomfortable it seemed. I felt tiny in comparison to these two gigantic creatures. This feeling was even worse when I saw the Kobold sitting next to the Minotaur, who was eying him carefully as he didn't want to lose any possessions, playing with a coin, flipping it around in between his long, slender fingers. The Dwarf didn't help much either. She came only halfway the Minotaur, it seemed, although this could hardly be the truth.

The four people watched me as I sat down. Everyone was quiet and quite uncomfortable it seemed. I couldn't blame them, for it was the weirdest group I had ever seen. The only one who was making any noise was the Dwarf, who was drinking a pint as she was humming a drinking song.