Davin walked through the enclave, now bustling with activity, assumedly all the rangers have returned to the enclave. There were new smells all around him, many of them some of the most delicious that he's smelled in days. Bacon was always one of his favorites, specifically ones that were candied, the mixture of sweet and savory. He had to not let himself get too distracted by the new smells, he had a mission, he wanted to talk to Mayberry before he headed back to the inn for the night, hopefully with some bacon in hand. Following his nose across the enclave, seeking out the smoking hut seemed like an easier thing before his events in the surrounding woods, he didn't expect that there would be multiple… each seeming as though it was sponsored by a different group in the city rather than them all working together. Thinking about it, that made sense, they'd not have industrialization or corporations, so everyone having their own made more sense.

The smell hit him like a truck… the awful smell that you only knew if you've butchered animals or worked in some form of animal control, the mix of excrement and blood was overpowering, almost knocking him to the ground when it hit him. Bent over coughing as he struggled to get a breath of fresh air.

"Davin?! That you? Made it back in one piece?" The dwarf stood, in a doorway, smoking a pipe, seemingly unbothered by the smell.

"Mostly." almost spitting out the word between gasps and coughs.

"You okay? You ain't looking so good." The concern in his voice was honest but also came across as a little more patronizing than Davin would have liked.

"Just the smell, that is rough." Crushing his nose into the sleeve of his armor.

"Smell? Oh, yeah, step back a bit, it'll go away." Waving his hand in a brushing motion as if the movement would push Davin back.

Stepping back, the smell vanished almost instantly, the savory smell of smoke replacing it at the same instant. "Oh, that is not good on my stomach." Davin wavered slightly as he caught his breath finally with a few deep breaths, now the conflicting smells fighting in his nose.

"Yeah, normally there's more people down this way so they could have stopped you, but with that beasty that Chand brought in we were all hands on deck." Walking passed the threshold of smell.

"Why would they stop me?" Davin was honestly curious about the whole thing.

"Oh, there are some enchants that stop the smell from leaking out, and anyone not used to it is usually warned, easier to keep things all together, which makes processing go a lot faster."

"Enchantments? For smells?" Davin felt that that was a bit of overkill in his mind, but then thinking about it, that smell mixed with the others would have been far worse.

"Yep, the barrier keeps the smells from mixing, that’s why all the smokehouses seem to be clustered, the smoke is part of the enchantment, but without the smoke, the smells would bleed through to the rest of the enclave." Waving his hands around, pushing some of the lingering smoke from his pipe.

"Handy, that smell is horrifying." Davin made a retching face.

"Eh, you get used to it, just be glad it's not the middle of summer." Mayberry let out an involuntary shiver. "That smell will curl your hair."

Davin retched at the idea of a smell that bad… "No thanks, that doesn't sound like my idea of a fun time. But that horrifying thought aside, I wanted to talk to you before we set out."

"Oh yeah? Let me guess, you're thinking you want to be a bit more flexible in your targeting? Makes sense, based on our chat, I think the flexibility would come in handy for you."

"That and I doubt that I'll have much of a reason to need to track down a whole group," Davin stated.

"That too, you planning to go all over would be hampered more than anything." Shrugging in response.

"So how do you do it?" Davin jumped to the point of the conversation.

"Hmm, it's a bit of investing some magic into your target, but not like casting spells, more like you can use it to read your target and you can exploit them a bit making your hits more effective… Hmmm, I am explaining this horribly… we have a spell that we usually call Hunter's Mark, it lets us be far more fearsome in combat against that chosen target, making them easier to track as well, the one that I use is a bit lesser than that, It just gives me a combat edge over my targets, but only as long as I keep my focus on them." He looked off into the distance as he thought about his skill and tried to explain it.

"Oh, okay, that gives me something to think about, sounds similar to the rogue's Sneak Attack, but with fewer conditions to meet."

"From what I know about rogues, it's pretty close, just not as potent in some instances, better for more sustained though, rather than the bursts that rogues can output."

"Any tricks that you can think of to help with that?" Davin sounded confused with the explanation.

"Just really hate something, then just kind of project that on the target, now I know that isn't the most elegant of explanations, but it’s one of the easiest explanations in most instances, you'll get a feel for it." Mayberry reached out to the air as if he were strangling someone.

"So project my anger at a target?" Davin asked.

"Hmm, not a bad way to think about it actually."

"I'll see what I can do, could be handy in a pinch if anything."

The dwarf nodded. "Needing anything else before you set out?"

"Now that you mention it, and the smell has cleared out of my nose, some bacon would be awesome, preferably something that’s been dried if possible, like a jerky?"

"Jerkied bacon?" Mayberry cocked his head, clearly thinking. "That would be some handy stuff for the road, just rehydrate it in some boiling water and then give it a sear…."

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"Would be? So I guess that means you don't have any now?" Davin's voice hinted at the disappointment.

"Not today, but definitely for next time, but I do have some that have been aged in salt, so it should last you for a bit."

They went to the building that Mayberry was standing in front of earlier, upon opening the door, a smooth sweet-smelling smoke rolled toward Davin, making him salivate. The slab that was presented was easily more than five pounds of what had to be the best-looking bacon that he'd ever seen, it was wrapped, packed, and a few tokens traded.

"Hopefully that'll hold up, I will work on the more dried stuff while you're out, so stop in and come say hey any time you're in," Mayberry said with a wide smile on his face.

"That works for me, and maybe the next time I'm in the area, we can talk about candied bacon or pork rinds," Davin said jokingly as he started heading back to the Inn to settle in for the night.

"Candied bacon?" The confused last words were the last thing that he could make out before he'd gotten completely out of earshot.

The trip back to the town proper felt a lot faster than it had previously, but he wasn't sure how much of that was just anticipation and how much of it was being tired from being hunted in the woods. The evening had started to come alive in the area around the inn since that seemed to be where all the bars were congregated, he could only guess how much had been drunk, based on the singing and the smell, he'd bet it was a lot.

"Davin!" the familiar voice pierced the buzz of the crowd. "Over here!"

Davin locked eyes on Hugh, sitting near the stage that seemed to be hastily set up. The small band played an upbeat tune that a few people were dancing to in an open area that was circled by tables, a few young couples were dancing together in what he could best describe as square dancing. Moving around the edge of the dance floor, he made his way over to Hugh, sitting in the open chair.

"Did I miss the party?" Davin asked as he adjusted his bags on the ground.

"Nope, it's just getting started, apparently, the Inn's owners got married earlier today, and this is the reception, and the whole town was invited, or so that’s the claim I've heard at least three times now." Hugh sipped his dark-colored drink.

"Well that’s fun, so I guess we're not getting a good night's sleep tonight." Letting out a sigh.

"Nah, shouldn't be a problem, this isn't an uncommon occurrence here. Which, as a result, most of the Inn's rooms are soundproofed, and come with darkening curtains to block out the light for the more hungover individuals."

"Seems like a worthwhile investment, wish that the Inns back home did that."

"Right? Seems like a smart move in most cases."

"We stay for a bit then call it a night?"

"Sounds good, and you should really get some of this." Holding up his much of dark liquid. "Ezeirk made a new brew, it's delicious and hits like a club." taking another large swig from his glass.

"Just don't take too many blows to the head. We want to set out in the morning still."

"Agreed, I think I'll do one more after this and call it a night, but I plan on nursing these."

"That good?"

"You'll have to try it." holding it up in a gesture of a toast.

With that, Davin stood up, grabbed his bags, and headed back to their room, luckily maneuvering through the crowd was fairly easy, most of the denser groupings seeming to be clustered around what he would guess to be the refreshment tables. The inn was bustling, the small bar was handing out drinks left and right, wine, mead, and ales as far as he could see, toasts being shouted out, well wishes for the couple between general yells of agreement. Cutting along the back side of the room was a trial, the room was so full that the festivities would have been shut down by the fire marshal long ago. Dodging people as he moved up the stairs the party seemed to have spread to every available inch of the inn and the surrounding buildings. Going to the room that matched his tag, it opened easily, and just like Hugh said, the rooms were absolutely soundproof. This made Davin mildly paranoid, thinking about all of the stories and movies that he knew where someone was almost assassinated in an Inn just to be saved at the last moment because 'they heard something'.

Davin collapsed onto the bed, letting out a long groan as the adventures of the day left his body aching… he really wanted a shower… but the rooms only had a bath. Settling for a hot bath wasn't the worst complaint, the water warmed and relaxed his muscles, glad that he was done for the day, but he did want to at least have one drink before the night ended, so he focused on cleaning himself, the soap way too fragrant for being an adventurers inn, but based on how little there was for washing outside of the towns, he wasn’t surprised since that would cover most of the smells, he would need to think about a more neutral smell for the future. Dressing back into his clothes felt weird, but he didn’t pack enough to have a spare change for every event, so he'd have to get as much out of each set as he could, his armor was going to be funky by the time they made it back to town…. Making his way back down the stairs he joined in when he heard the cheering heading to the bar and getting a drink and some snacks he made his way back out to where he last saw Hugh.

"Okay, where do I get my hands on some of the dark stuff?" Davin held up his glass of a light citrusy beer that had a heavy set of floral notes.

"Ezeirk's over there, she's set up for the night, she didn’t bring any glasses though, so it's good you grabbed one first. Got any tokens on you? She's filling a glass for a single jade." Hugh patted his token pouch to emphasize the point.

"Yeah, I've got a few, if that’s what I think it is I'd rather have that, so let me pound this and I'll head over, want me to get you a refill?" Davin drank deep of his glass, almost finishing it in the first gulp.

Hugh blinked, surprised at the speed at that Davin practically poured the beer down his throat. "That was impressive. You've not been here that long, is that a skill from your past life?" Handing his empty glass up to Davin.

"Yeah, and from what I understand, my constitution is higher here than it was back home, so I should be able to hold it better too." Fishing his beer in another deep swig.

"Don't push it, it still takes some time to build up your full tolerance, higher constitution or not." Swaying in his seat slightly. "But yeah, fill me up, that one will be my last.

Davin started heading in the direction that Hugh had gestured, making his way through the crowd. Seeing the little black and orange lizard kin brought a smile to Davin's face, seeing her set up with several kegs filling glasses as fast as she could. Davin pulled up to the makeshift bar.

"If you have what I think you do, I will personally buy an entire keg when I get back." Davin put the two glasses on the counter and a pair of jade tokens right next to them.

"Oh yeah?" She scooped the tokens up, dropped them into a box below her counter, and grabbed the two glasses, putting them under a trickle of water to rinse them before filling them.

The pull on the beer was a thing of glory to Davin, the dark rich colors sang to him, the first glass was set on the counter, and Davin picked it up and sniffed it deeply.

"Oh, yeah, that's the stuff." The sip that Davin took was small, he tasted it, rolled it over his tongue, and let the fragrance run up his nose. The moan he let out was long and deep, finally swallowing the drink he loved from back home, the rich dark porter was splendid. "This porter is amazing, is that hints of vanilla? Cherry? What did you use as a base?"

The rapid fire of questions threw Ezeirk off, she was left blinking and her mouth was flapping like a goldfish. "How? How do you know what that is?"

"A porter? It was my beverage of choice unless I found a good cider."

"Most other worlds only know about ales, meads, and wines, you must come from a world rich in drink."

"Understatement, speaking of, do you know anything about spirits?"

The lizard kin's eyes narrowed. "You know that there aren't ghosts in this world, yeah?"

Davin chuckled, hoping that that wasn't going to be her answer. "No, they're stronger alcoholic beverages. We can talk about them when I buy a cask of that when I get back."

She nodded as Davin put the now empty glass back on the counter another token.

"No, I will not take money from another likeminded." Pushing the token back to Davin.

"No free drinks." He pushed the token back to her. "We can talk more about them later, but tonight isn't the night for that."

She nodded, took the token, and refilled the glass. Davin scooped up the glasses and started working his way back to the table that he'd left Hugh at. Setting the glass in front of Hugh, he sat as well and the two sipped their beers in companionable silence.