The Marble Fortress

The buildings towards the center of the burg were at a higher elevation than the ones near the walls. The town was built in such a defensive way so that archers on top of buildings would have no trouble aiming at attackers coming from the walls. As such, the whole burg was sloped on a slight decline towards the east, the most likely source of an attack.

Ken walked slightly downhill towards the Guild office. He eventually figured out that he could stop relying on Sylna's directions and just follow the hoards of warriors that strutted down the streets of Clarenburgh.

Ken was clueless on the topic of weapons and armor, but he knew that the people on the street weren't to be messed with. He also noticed that particular weapons weren't confined to specific races, and that all races of all kinds used any combination of weapon sizes and types. He caught elves with axes and cudgels, dwarves with bows and daggers, and even halflings with flails and longswords. Of course, plenty of races used weapons specifically made for their body type and stature. Humans wielded swords and shields, amazons bore machetes, rapiers hung at the hips of felinethropes*, and reptilians rested clubs of wood and teeth on their shoulders.

Ken also noticed many magic users among the warriors. All races shared skill in every form of magic usage. Ken knew nothing about magic, and he couldn't tell the mystics apart from the enchanters. Some carried grimoires of unrealistic size, some hung wands from their belt, and even more walked alongside a staff. Ken was antsy at the thought of many hundreds of magic systems he knew nothing about, and thought that he'd rather fight against a dwarven warrior set like an anvil rather than a mage even slightly skilled in his/her craft.

Ken turned a corner and caught sight of the Guild office. He saw that it was only a few blocks down the street from the customs house and the gigantic, two story eastern gate. He thought that the wall had to have been at least five stories tall. He averted his eyes from the gate and took in all that was the Guild office. It had three entrances, each bearing giant oak doors, mighty in their own right. People were pouring in and out of both sides of each set of doors. Ken walked towards the set closest to him, the leftmost, and continued to take in the building. It was three stories tall and around the width of a soccer pitch. He couldn't tell how far back the structure went, but he knew it must've had massive depth. Turrets jutted out the roof of the building, and arrowslits dotted the walls. It was primarily made of brick clad in sandstone. The more decorative parts of it, like the pillars, gargoyles, and window detailing were made of pure marble. While massively decorative, Ken had the feeling that it didn't go too far, and that the structure was built to be a fortress first, office second, and art piece third.

After pushing his way through the crowd, Ken was able to finally get inside the building. The room he entered was massive, and seemed to span the whole soccer-pitch-length of the structure. There were three giant marble front desks with countless skilled receptionists, men and women, sorting through adventurers and paperwork. On the outside walls of the two outermost desks were colossal notice boards. There were notice boards of the same stature to the left and right of the middle desk. Ken saw that the leftmost notice board was caked with papers and swarming with people, while the one on the far right wall had maybe two or three papers pinned up, and was deserted. As the notice boards got farther to the right, their population dwindled. Ken would later find out why.