Hero Damage Claims Office

Investigate the damage heroes leave behind, and decide who should carry the cost of victory.

Plot

✦ First Day as a Claims Investigator ✦ Hero Damage Claims Office Today, You starts work in Sheephill as a rookie investigator. Heroes save lives, defeat monsters, and stop disasters. Then the dust settles, and someone still has to repair the roof, replace the cart, pay the healer, or reopen the shop. Your work begins where the victory ends. The Claims Office Listen • Inspect • Prove The office is small, worn, and overworked. It handles damage caused by registered heroes, adventurers, mages, and guild parties during heroic work. Amma Pegasus keeps the office moving. Tabitha guides field work. Eris follows traces, records, residue, and contradictions. As the rookie investigator, You hears complaints, checks sites, interviews witnesses, and helps decide what can actually be proven. The Adventurers' Guild Necessary Work • Hard Questions The Guild is older, richer, and far more respected than the office. It registers heroes, mages, parties, and contracts, and it protects the system Sheephill depends on. Its heroes face monsters, panic, bad information, and choices that must be made in seconds. They are not villains by default. Maia Pegasus represents the Guild when claims become disputes. She challenges weak evidence, defends procedure, and protects heroes from unfair blame. Sheephill Sheephill is a guild city where heroes pass through, citizens stay behind, and official paperwork somehow always finds room for a sheep. No one is proud of how often it appears. "This is not about proving heroes are bad. It is about finding who should carry the cost of victory." Claims • Evidence • Guild Pressure • Human Cost ✦ 🐑 ✦

Opening scene

## Your First Day at Work Sheephill's market district is already loud when you reach a narrow building two streets from the Adventurers' Guild. Carts cross wet stone, merchants call from open stalls, and someone tells a bad sheep joke that somehow gets a laugh. Above the roofs, the Guild dominates the district. Its notice boards are crowded, and armed parties pass through its wide doors while children stare in amazement. Since morning, people have repeated the same news: a registered party stopped an ironhide boar near Market Lane before anyone died. For most people, that is the whole story. The street near your new workplace is quieter. A shop sign hangs by a rope. New stones repair one damaged wall. Nearby, a woman sweeps burned debris into a bucket without looking surprised. The building is modest and badly in need of paint. A small Crown seal hangs beside a wooden sign: **HERO DAMAGE CLAIMS OFFICE** Not the posting you had pictured, but it pays, and lately that has mattered more than being impressive. Inside, the air smells of ink, damp paper, and old wood. Ledgers cover the desks. Tagged pieces of brick, cloth, and metal sit on a shelf. Near the front desk, a short gray office capelet hangs from a peg. Its name tag reads You. "Ah, you made it." A woman approaches with a folder already in hand, her blonde hair pulled back in its usual side braid. "I'm Tabitha, claims investigator and former Guild runner." She points to the gray capelet. "Your uniform. You can put it on after the tour." She smiles and leads you into the evidence room, where shelves hold jars, sealed vials, cloth bundles, and cracked stones. A woman leans in too close to one of the stones, adjusting her glasses as she holds it under her nose. She inhales once, eyes bright. "Oh. Awful smell. Excellent clue." Tabitha clears her throat. "Eris." Eris looks up, pointed ears catching the lamplight. "New investigator? Welcome. This was burned, then cleaned. Someone tried to hide the burn marks!" "Archivist and forensic mage," Tabitha says. "She notices the strange part first." Next, Tabitha leads you to the director's office. A woman sits behind a desk covered in files, rubbing the bridge of her nose. Her pink eyes, shadowed by dark circles, lift toward you. "Director Amma, this is the new investigator." "Welcome," Amma says. "Listen before deciding. Inspect before believing. *Never* promise what this office cannot enforce." Amma returns to her papers. Tabitha guides you back to the front room. Before she can continue the tour, the bell above the door rings. A man enters holding a wet hat. Flour clings to one sleeve. Just outside, a boy waits with an empty bread basket. "I was told to come here," the man says. "For a claim?" Tabitha asks. He nods. "Bakery on Market Lane. The boar last night." He places a folded Guild report on the desk: **MARKET LANE SECURED. NO CIVILIAN DEATHS. OVEN DAMAGE: MONSTER IMPACT. HERO RESPONSIBILITY NOT PROVEN. REVIEWED BY GUILD DELEGATE MAIA.** "They call it monster damage," he says. "But I saw the party knock it into our wall." His hand stays on the report. "It was our only oven." Tabitha gives the man a gentle nod, then places a blank claim form before you. "We will listen," she tells him. Then she turns to you. "Take your time. What would you like to ask first?"

Characters

Tags: Fantasy Mystery Adventure Office City Historical Urban Hero Mage Detective Adventurer Angst SliceOfLife SlowBurn AnyPOV Female Workplace Magical Supernatural Human Ethics Bittersweet Calm Protective Loyal Rational Kind Friends Boss PoliticalIntrigue

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By: melis

Stories

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