Turniptails

When the adventurers walked into town, laden with loot and bristling with weapons, Guardsman Corin Wilson sighed. He turned on his heel after passing them and started to follow them. He snickered at their rations - two had bundles of turnips bouncing from the backs of their belts and a third had a net filled with hard cheese.
Their first stop, which was normal for their type, was the market stalls. They split, remaining within sight of each other, but the one with the lute handily split off with the shady one in the leather jerkin to hock the majority of their spoils. This was usually the way with adventurers. Wilson watched as they bargained the poor merchant down to nearly what he would sell the goods for, and then after money had been exchanged they moved on. The guard only had to give one polite cough for the leather-clad one to be dissuaded from slipping an extra purse under his cloak.
The two joined back up with the others, and Wilson arrived just in time to watch the most heavily armored one - bristling with murder weapons - hand over a bag of silver the size of his head. The apothecary took the money and dumped it on his counter, then recoiled with shock. He picked up a crimson-splattered silver piece gingerly and asked how he had come by so much. Before the fighting man could respond, Wilson interrupted saying, "Turniptails." Nodding, the apothecary asked no more questions and simply got them on their way as soon as he could.
Wilson saw that they were heading to The Down and Drunk Inn, and sighed. He pushed ahead to make sure that the owner was confiscating weapons, just in case there was a brawl.

Career

Payment & Reimbursement

Adventurers work for loot. When hired for some purpose, they typically receive a small pittance and an offer to keep some percentage of what they find while on the job.
It's understood that they almost always skim from the top, though the tolerance of this on their employers' part is inversely proportionate to how likely it is in the employers' mind that they could survive the ensuing argument.

Other Benefits

While adventurers are a dime a dozen - some even only employ themselves once in this way - successful ones may attract fans and admirers. Bards and minstrels are key in this endeavor.

Perception

Purpose

If an Archaeologist brings back ancient knowledge and technology, it's the adventurers that circulates buried loot. An adventuring company can turn a stalemate battle into a victory if a savvy general can bribe them enough.

Social Status

There's the upper class, below them the merchant/middle class, below them the lower class, below them the pets, below them the livestock, below them the pests, below them the dirt infested by the pests, below them are turniptails. Turniptails are generally viewed with suspicion and greeted with expensive locks on jewelry boxes and daughters' rooms. Some move on to become local heroes and often acquire careers as oligarchs or politicians, if they live long enough.

Demographics

Most people going through their Becoming could technically fall under this category. Realistically, this is usually just applied to people who choose this profession after becoming an adult. There are usually 100-200 adventurers in any given canton at any given time.

Operations

Dangers & Hazards

Adventure is a life of danger at all level of existence. They can go financially broke, they can be injured or killed by all manner of nasties, they can be killed by wildlife or outlaws on the way to an adventure, they could lose their souls to some hungry fiend or undead thing.

Alternative Names

Adventurers, rovers, ratcatchers

Other Associated professions

• Archaeologist