Winter had come.

White snowflakes littered the land of West Green. Pastures were blanketed in the soft stillness of snow. Forest trees were barren and harsh winds had caked one side of most trees with their own layer of frozen water. Smoke and warmth curled up from most homes in West green sending gray tendrils into the sky.

Chores were needed to be done at the Cup and Crow. More chores than Greta had been used to. It seems that even with the weather outside, or despite it, her Inn was livelier than ever. Most days, and every evening, had someone from the town make their way through her doors. A warm bowl of stew and the fireplace were quite the draw during the depths of winter.

Greta would like to think she and her cooking were the main draw, but she knew it was the four more permanent residents that were bringing in people these days.

Francis was as helpful as ever he was. The small redheaded halfling was more help than he realized. She often didn’t have to leave her kitchen, or even have the time to do so, because of how smoothly Francis was handling the crowds. Ah, but if she were a little bit shorter, and much younger, then maybe something could be done.

Paul was still around regularly as well. His ‘lawn drough maht’. what with the funny way of saying, was quite the hit with the local housewives. Greta had taken advantage of his services more than once herself. Even some of the older stains that she thought were permanent got taken out with a flash of light.

Tim was a bit of a rarer sight. The dwarf did stop by every now and then to catch a story or check in on things. They tended to spend a bit more time in the forest as of late. Greta had heard that the dwarf was intent on ‘managing’ the forest, whatever that meant. It seemed that a number of the children in town would follow them out to learn some forest tricks as the dwarf would call it.

Oh that Mark, tempting as he was, really was too standoffish for his own good. The man woke early, left with that giant axe of his, and always returned with a bundle of firewood for lunch. Greta knew that the man was serious in his work. Checking the guild daily, doing repairs around the village, Quite the handyman.

It wasn’t a rare thing to see all four of them huddled up in a corner. However they seemed to hunch a little bit more than usual. Perhaps something was going on with them?

-------------

“[Character Sheet].” They all whispered one after another.

“So it’s different for you guys as well?” Paul kept their voice low. “I just want to check.”

“Yeah, it’s different.” Mark had a far away look in their eyes. “I’m apparently a Champion it seems.”

“The Martial Archetype, yes.” Paul clenched the mug he was holding.

“I don’t see much difference, but I do have access to those level two spells.” Tim was rubbing their chin. “They seem a bit ‘more’ if you know what I mean.”

“Oh yeah, those things are a step up for sure.” Paul said. “Tried any of them yet?”

“I did an [Enhance Ability] on myself while out in the forest.” Tim nodded towards the north. “There was this like, rhyme or something that I had to focus on running through my head the entire time. Gave me a dull headache the entire time, but I could see for miles even through the dense forest.”

“So it enhanced your vision?” Mark looked over their shoulder in apprehension of being over heard. “Do you think other people have something similar, like for hearing?”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Funny thing that, I didn’t have the option of ‘vision’ or the five senses. I could only choose one of the six attributes. The words were ‘Owl’s Wisdom’ as I recall.” Tim tapped the side of their head.

“Yeah yeah, but are we gonna talk about the elephant in the room?” Francis tapped the table as he stood on his chair. “Those red words in the top left. ‘Kill God’”

Each of them turned their gaze inward to the [Character Sheet] again. Seven red letters that weren’t there a month ago stood out prominently on the white background.

“I know that goddess put a little bit of oomph into her orders. Is this the results of it?” Francis leaned over to get their head closer. “What happens when we run out of room on those things?”

“I don’t think it’s something we need to worry about right this moment.” Paul hastily whispered. “But besides that, you know how I got that notebook a while back?”

“Yeah, the caravan came through finally.” Mark nodded. “You were over the moon for a week straight just filling it with notes.”

“Spells.” Paul corrected. “But that’s the thing. I was doing a practice spell, [Identify], On one of the logs just to test it out.”

“Thought you said you needed a ‘Pearl worth one hundred GP’ for that?” Tim pointed out.

“Surprisingly one of my customers had one as a button, but it fell off and I couldn’t find who it belonged to.” Paul looked concerned. “I’m not sure what a gold piece is here, considering the money is bronze and iron. But this tiny thing counts it seems.”

Paul glanced around the room before returning to the huddled conversation. “Anyways, I used [Identify] on the log, and one of those blue boxes told me the name of the log just like the status from the guild. Interestingly I could read that box, and the thing was, those ‘Kill God’ words were there, just sort of floating in the background.”

“That don’t sound good.” Francis grimaced.

“Sure doesn’t. But at least it’ll keep us on task. Constant reminders tend to do that.” Paul became thoughtful. “I’ve got notions as to how we accomplish it. But it’s pure speculation.”

“Go on.” Francis rolled his hand. “a bit of story time never hurt.”

“So I’m making this up based on a couple dozen stories I’ve read.” Paul relaxed a little and crossed his hands on the table in front of him. “So we’ve been in the world a bit. I would like to think we’re settled in fairly well.”

“If by settled in you mean not destitute and have a place to stay, yeah we’re settled.” Francis interrupted.

“Yeah yeah, moving on.” Paul waved their hand. “So as these things go, the next step is usually getting a bunch of power. Many different ways of doing that, and I kind of think it’s being handled. I feel a lot stronger than I did from when we first arrived, more solid if you know what I mean.”

Mark was nodding. “Yes, there are times when I’m working that just feel, easier than the day before.”

“Exactly.” Paul pointed at Mark. “So I think our next step is probably to learn about the world a bit more. Like I know this is West Green, and there’s West Red down the way, but like which kingdom are we in? Is this even a kingdom? Continent? World?” Paul started hyperventilating a little bit. “I’m not sure we can really ask anyone here for this kind of information, considering what they did to the last guy.”

Recalling the arrow studded and filled body of the fifth guy gave each of them a small shudder.

“Right, so to deal with that aspect of things I think we can solve that by going through the guild.” Paul tapped the table with their clawed finger nail. “We rank up in the guild and get sent ‘higher up the chain’ so to speak. Find a bigger town, where we aren’t so noticeable, and we can ask around. Especially about that Church or Cathedral thing the body got sent to.”

“Saying to ‘rank up’ is easier said than done.” Tim leaned on the table causing it to creak. “But you know what happened to Everett. He’s still got four quests left, and is essentially confined to the guild office. Kind of getting in the way of taking a quest or two.”

“Something will show up, something that he can’t handle on his own.” Paul didn’t look worried.

The door to the Cup and Crow opened as it usually did then. A man walking in brought with him a flurry of snowflakes and a gust of cold wind. They were covered in animal furs as well as a heavy amount of snow. Shaking themselves off it was the hermit the four had met earlier last month.

“Ah, friendly faces!” the hermit had spotted the group instantly and made his way over to plop himself down at the table.

“It is good that I have found you. I have terrible news.” the hermit opened with excitedly. “Or not so terrible depending on how you look at it I suppose.”

“If it’s dangerous, you were right to come find us.” Mark pushed a half eaten loaf of bread to the hermit.

“Oh I think it’s terrible.” the hermit started chewing the bread. “You remember that Kiva last time we met?” Everyone nodded. “Well turns out that bear was moving so close for a reason. Turns out there’s a dungeon opening nearby and it’s throwing all the wildlife into a frenzy to move away.”

“A dungeon?” Francis asked.

Paul got a smug look on their fox face. “Yeah, it’s all coming together.”