William “Billy” Walden grew up in a company of eclectic vagabonds. His family would travel from town to town, telling tales of far-away places, entertaining inn patrons in exchange for small coins, meals, supplies and a place to park their wagons.

They would also rely on other skills to survive. They might play music, make maps, paint faces, sharpen and polish weapons, fletch arrows, trade and barter, or even steal if someone really deserved it. His parents had taught him most of those skills early on and by the time he was ten, he could even recite many of the great tales people requested whenever his family performed.

Tragedy struck, however, and Billy’s father was stabbed while trying to stop a drunken nobleman who was beating an orphan girl who had come begging for coin. A riot ensued and Billy quickly left town with the girl and his remaining family. They were forced to leave his father behind lest they all die at the hands of the furious and violent noble who hated vagrant filth above all else.

A few years later, they fell on hard times and his mother’s health deteriorated from old age, stress, and a poor diet and eventually a fever took her. By that time, Billy’s cousins had left to find their fortunes elsewhere, leaving only the remaining three to fend for themselves.

His older sister took a waitressing job to help support them as none of them were in any condition to perform with enthusiasm. Billy apprenticed at a local map maker’s shop and learned proper cartography. He loved drawing but made very little money so he would play music at a nearby inn accompanied by the homeless girl, now a beautiful young woman, whose name was Layla. They made twice in tips what Billy made selling maps, and over time they became known as the best musicians in town.

Layla and Billy were fond of each other, but their relationship remained platonic. Eventually Layla fell for a handsome young merchant who was charismatic and well respected for his business acumen. At first she continued performing with Billy, but slowly spent less and less time up on the stage. One day she got an offer to play with a high society entourage and stopped visiting the inn altogether. Billy later heard she was engaged to be married and was happy for her but also stopped playing music, deciding instead to pour himself into map making. After some time, Billy began to yearn to travel again, as he had when he was as a child, wishing to see the places on the maps he made. Better yet, he wanted to map areas that were yet to be discovered, even if he had to travel to the ends of the world to find them.

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Billy is packed and ready to go on a grand adventure to the next town over where he is to deliver a bundle of maps to another cartographer, for whom he will work until he is deemed ready to register as a journeyman. He meets his sister, Brandwyn (Brandy) to make sure she would be alright on her own while he is gone for a few weeks. She reminds him that she has Beau, the bartender, who has slowly taken a liking to her. Billy departs the tavern and finds his wagon driver at the edge of town, eager to get going.

He travels from Tawnfield to Terry Hill without incident and meets his new master cartographer. The next day, he surprises his master, Ben Kinno, renowned map maker extraordinaire, with his technique and understanding of geography. Ben prepares a sealed recommendation and instructs Billy to head to New Harbor, the second largest city in the region, first thing in the morning. Upon arrival, he will join the latest group of tradesmen apprentices being registered as journeymen by the Trades Guild.

Billy catches a ride north, and meets an attractive half-dwarven blacksmith named Tash, who is also going to New Harbor to get her Journeyman license. They chat and have drinks at an inn where they and the others from the carriage stay the night before continuing the second half of their trip.

Early in the morning, they hear alarm bells and decide to investigate the disturbance. Tash grabs swords and armor for them, and they emerge from the inn to discover a goblin raid in progress. Surprisingly, the town is relatively calm and a guardsman asks them to go back inside, explaining that goblins are seen a lot in this area and the settlement employs adventurers specifically for this kind of situation. At that moment, the guardsman takes an arrow to the knee, and Billy and Tash are forced to react.

After getting the guardsman behind a stone wall and verifying that his wound was not too serious, they try to locate the archer and determine if they can make it to the inn with the injured guardsman in tow. They see the archer head off to fight adventurers but a stray goblin finds its way to the inn and throws a torch into a window. Realizing that his recommendation letter and money are in the inn, Billy decides to rush the goblin. Time is of the essence and Tash is guarding the guard.

In an adrenaline fueled rush, Billy runs toward the goblin, sword raised... and slips. The grass is wet with morning dew, and Billy goes down. The goblin is startled by the loud crash and runs off toward the others. Billy recovers somewhat, remembers the inn, and rushes inside. The torch landed on a lacquered table and hadn’t caught much else on fire, so Billy grabs a pitcher of water and douses some burning cloth upholstery and the torch itself. He checks outside, calls to Tash, and helps her get the guard into the inn. There they barricade themselves until adventurers bang on the door to let them know the raid is over. The guardsman thanks them for saving his life and mentions he would put in a good word for them if they ever wanted to join the guard or the Adventuring Guild.

The next day, they discover that the guardsman was joining them on the trip up north. He had gotten leave from his commander to go get healed and had offered to guard the wagon with bow and arrow in exchange for a ride.

Eventually, Billy finds his way to New Harbor and goes through the ceremony for Trades journeymen. He confides in Tash that even though he has a passion for making maps, he doesn’t know if he wants to spend the rest of his life running some kind of shop in a city. While unorthodox, he is strongly considering being a traveling map salesman. It would be dangerous, but if he applied to join the Adventure Guild, with a good word from their friend Frederick the guardsman, he might get qualified as a Chronicler, which meant he would have his pick of traveling companions, income, and more importantly, protection. Chroniclers were glorified guides, historians, advisors, and tacticians. In addition to recording the heroics of their team, they were highly sought after because their wits, knowledge, and non-combat skills which often made the difference between a team making it home alive or never being heard from again.

There was never any shortage of brutes with weapons or country folk claiming to be expert hunters and trackers, but Healers, Wizards, and Chroniclers were rare. Each required a lifetime of training or experience and often demanded a hefty fee for their services. The only thing rarer was a Magus, an elite mercenary trained to blend magic and swordplay to astounding and gruesome effectiveness. Even when they appeared, most worked alone so Billy had only heard stories.

Billy stopped by the local apothecary to visit Frederick and mentions he is going to apply at the Adventure Guild. Frederick is being healed by an older woman wearing an apron with many pockets. She has a sickly sweet smelling green paste smeared on his knee and is focused intently on it, her eyes glowing faintly white and her brow beading with sweat. Her hands hover over Frederick’s knee for a few long minutes before dropping to her side. She dabs her forehead with a cotton cloth and gestures for him to stand up and see how he feels. It is still a bit tender, but she assures him it will be right as rain by the time he leaves. He thanks her and counts out an agreed upon sum of money.

Billy and Frederick leave, and Frederick mentions that the healing cost him most of his savings but meant that he would be able to go back to his job. He had no family to support, but still needed to eat.