The Leafel Adventurers’ Guild Watchtower is a former watchtower outside Leafel that brings together the village’s adventurers, guild work, and visiting heroes. Its role shifts from training ground to place of care and mourning: Glefald keeps the remote guild running, and after his death his burial beside the building gives the roadside landmark a new meaning as a guardian of the village.

Setting and Purpose

The building stands just outside Leafel, beside the main road. Though it began as a watchtower, it now houses the Adventurer’s Guild for this sparsely visited northern region. Glefald, a retired elf adventurer, is its only employee; he maintains the rooms and organizes quests. There are few adventurers this far north, and Leafel’s own party acts as the village’s guardian rather than ranging far afield. The guild therefore serves a small, local community rather than a steady stream of passing adventurers.

The Watchtower is also a home. Hayden and his party live there, and the rooms that Glefald maintains are part of the building’s everyday use, not merely facilities for guild business. Its position just beyond the village gives it a distinct edge-of-town character: it is close enough to serve Leafel, yet set apart along the road that travelers use to approach it.

Training Ground and First Encounters

The Watchtower becomes a practical site for the Hero’s party to train. A shield can be raised around it to contain magical attacks and prevent them from damaging the surroundings, making the location suitable for powerful practice that could otherwise endanger the village. When the Hero’s party arrives, Leafel’s four adventurers are already training. Glefald watches from a rocking chair on the porch, with a cat at his feet and colorful yarn in his lap; the ordinary domestic detail sits beside the building’s martial purpose.

The arrival also exposes the tensions and differences within the local group. Hayden regards the visitors with dislike, while Micah, a young cat mage who is below the guild’s usual age for adventuring but is allowed to participate in Leafel, watches them with awe. Wicker breaks the initial tension by greeting the group and explaining that they have come to train, now that Khal has recovered. The Watchtower thus acts as a meeting point between the village’s established adventurers and the larger Hero’s party, as well as a protected space where the two groups can work together.

Glefald’s Care and Death

The Watchtower’s role as a place of work becomes personal when Theo visits to refill Glefald’s oil and learns from Micah that the elf has spent the night coughing. Micah answers the door, then leads Theo upstairs to Glefald’s room. There, beneath a quilt, Glefald appears skeletal and pale; a burner heats a pot beside his bed. Theo’s healer’s instincts take over, and the guild’s rooms become the setting for an encounter with the illness that will eventually claim their sole employee.

Glefald’s funeral takes place the following day. Rather than the customary Leafel bonfire, he had wanted burial in the earth with a tree planted above him, an elf tradition that the villagers honor. The grave is placed just across the road from the Watchtower so that, as the tree grows, it will serve as a second guardian at Leafel’s entrance. Micah stands by the grave clutching his staff and weeping; the adventurers lower Glefald into the earth, and the gathered villagers each add a shovelful. Liffey sings in her own language after the sapling is planted. The Watchtower remains physically unchanged, but Glefald’s chosen burial makes the neighboring tree a living memorial and extends his guardianship beyond his life.

Farewells and Community

The Watchtower also marks a boundary in Theo’s relationships with the Hero’s party. When the party gathers its packs to leave Leafel, some of the equipment is strapped to Cargo. They walk quietly through the village and stop at the Watchtower, where Theo says that this is where he will leave them and hopes they will return safely. The goodbye does not remain formal: Wicker, Veiv, Khal, and Bryony draw the group into a large embrace, which Theo accepts. At the place where the party had trained together, the departure becomes an expression of attachment as well as separation.

Across these episodes, the Watchtower is defined less by its former defensive purpose than by the people and practices it shelters. It is guild office, residence, training enclosure, sickroom, and departure point; outside it, a tree takes up the work of watchfulness after Glefald’s death. Its position beside the road makes it a threshold between Leafel and the wider world, while its rooms and porch anchor it in the close-knit life of the village.