Guild Dispatch #001

A Simple Door

The job request described the task as minor.

Eldric Pennwick disliked that word immediately.

He reread the contract carefully, adjusting the cooking pot on his head as he did so. The pot had once deflected a falling stone in a cave. Eldric had recorded the incident, reviewed the results, and approved the pot as adequate head protection. Revisiting the decision was unnecessary.

The door stood at the end of a narrow stone corridor. Reinforced oak. Iron bands. A small, neatly painted sign nailed to the center.

DO NOT FORCE

Eldric sighed and opened his ledger.

“This may require approval,” he said, already flipping pages. “The sign suggests—”

Darren Wicklow stepped forward and examined the door with interest. He adjusted his armor. One shoulder plate slid slightly out of place.

“It’s just a door,” Darren said. “Doors are meant to open.”

“Yes,” Eldric replied, “but typically not—”

The hammer whistled through the air.

Garrick Hale did not wait for the rest of the sentence.

The impact was decisive. The door shattered inward, iron bands snapping loose as splinters scattered across the corridor. Dust settled slowly.

Silence followed.

Eldric stared at what used to be a door. He closed his eyes, took a breath, and began writing.

Darren nodded. “See? Open.”

Garrick leaned forward, peering into the room beyond. “Anything else need hitting?”

Eldric turned another page in the ledger.

“The Guild of Unclear Intent,” he read aloud while writing, “has successfully resolved the obstruction.”

He paused, then added a note.

Signage was misleading.

The Guild proceeded.