It took a few more days before he reached the gates of Patterson; during his first night's rest, he'd ended up stripping the innkeeper down to his small clothes and gagging him. His return felt quicker than his departure, but he chalked that up to the idea of a warm meal and a soft bed. As he slowed to enter, a pair of guards approached him cautiously.

“What’s your business in Patterson?”

“I'm returning with a bounty and a criminal for the courts. I have papers on the bounty and I was the target of the criminal.”

“First show us your pass.”

With a gesture, Jaeger pulled out his adventurer's badge and displayed his information. The guards looked at it and confirmed its authenticity.

“Everything seems to be in order, Bounty Hunter Darkblade. You can either take your two charges to the Adventurers' Guild or deliver them to the courthouse. Be aware that if the criminal is not reported alive within three hours, you will be hauled in for questioning. Please proceed.”

The guards stepped aside and motioned for him to pass. Jaeger, who had no idea where the courthouse was, decided to just go to the Adventurer's Guild. He got a few curious looks as he rode through the streets, but nothing more, even Jaeger admitted that he wasn't the most interesting thing to see in the city. When he reached the guild, he tied Ventress outside and dragged the innkeeper inside, the man was beginning to groggily come to, and remembering Lisette's words about head injuries, Jaeger simply beat him back to sleep. Inside the guild, things were slower than the first time he'd come through. There were only two people behind the counter and maybe ten adventurers standing around. He looked around before he heard someone call his name.

“Jaeger! Over here!”

Lisette called to him, her red hair bouncing wildly as she put too much energy into waving. She wasn't working at one of the counters, but was propped up behind a large desk. Jaeger walked over to her, nodding to a few adventurers he passed.

“Lisette, it's good to see you.”

“And you, now correct me if I'm wrong, but your bounty was on an orc, a large one if I remember correctly, and that appears to be a skinny redheaded human. So what happened?” She pushed her glasses up her nose as she sat up straight with a raised eyebrow and a smile on her lips.

Jaeger half-smirked before recounting his adventure, and when he reached the subject of the bandits, he dug through the bag over his shoulder and pulled out the Killers Chain, placing it on the desk next to one of the two bloody sacks at his side. Lisette gasped as she touched the numerous tags on it, to stunned to even care about the head. Undeterred, he continued to speak, skipping his contract with the cat. Eventually he told her about his time in the raider camp, pulling out the burlap sack and placing it, and its gruesome contents, on the desk.

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“I just came back from there, honestly the return trip was surprisingly fast and uneventful; except for one short stop. I went back to the inn I came from and picked up this man, a few patrons convinced me he deserved a trial.”

Lisette stood up and walked around the counter to the redhead. He was beginning to stir again, Jaeger's story had taken a long time to tell, and a crowd was gathering. Lisette waited for the redhead to come to before she drew a wand from her belt, whispered an incantation, and spoke to him.

“My adventurer here has stated that you conspired with bandits to betray members of various guilds, including ours. How do you plead?”

“I...I...I did it. Guildies, you all think you're so strong and better than me. Well, Calico Pete showed them.”

“Disgusting. Why did you do this? Did the bandits have any influence over you?”

“I did it because you all deserve it. You Guildies think you're special and above the rest of us.”

“Did a guild or guild members do something to you personally? Do you have a reason to hate the guilds?”

“Some adventurers shut down my business and arrested my partners. Now I'm stuck working in an inn, so of course I have a reason for it.”

“Tell me about this business?”

“No. I…I…I… won’t.”

“A strong will in this matter, I can fix that.” Lisette had become more and more emotionless as she went through this back and forth. This was reinforced when she stomped on the man's knee and shattered it. “Now tell me about this shop that the Adventurers' Guild closed.”

For a moment, all that could be heard was the man's screams of pain, then slowly, like an empty keg, he slowed, then stopped, and looked at Lisette. With a monotone voice he spoke.

“Down near the coast, I was running a very successful slave trading ring. We moved flesh from here to the Ebony Towers and beyond. Sand barons, oil raiders, mind tinkerers, and even Ygsolutz bought through my group. We were richer than kings, then you all came. Adventurers came through and killed everyone. I barely escaped with a few coins. I went from king to pauper, barely able to afford the shitty inn I ran.”

“A remnant of the Profane Peddlers. How did you escape?”

“I was away on personal business, luckily I'd snuck out to take care of some business.”

Lisette nodded at that and then she turned to one of the nearby adventurers.

“Fetch Marshall Moric, tell him we’ve got a Profane Peddler for him.” Turning to two others, she motioned to the red head. “He doesn’t leave, we only got him because Jaeger was after some revenge and I won’t lose him now.” They nodded at her, nodded at Jaeger, and grabbed the man, dragging him out of the room.

Jaeger had absolutely no idea what had just happened. He'd been under the impression that he'd caught an innkeeper with bandit ties. It turned out that he'd caught a former high-ranking slave trader. It also seemed that Lisette had a truth spell and a ruthless streak. He watched her as she returned to her desk.

“You've been a member for almost a month, and you haven't even officially completed a single quest. Yet you've somehow captured a highly sought-after member of a major slave ring. You are impressive, I guess it’s true what they say about Outworlders.”

“I’ve been bounty hunting for a while, but this is also a first for me. What do they say about Outworlders?”

“It is said that Outworlders bring new ideas and solve lingering problems. Outworlders used to be heroes, world savers, and occasional problem solvers. But with so many of you coming through now, you are just really efficient problem solvers and occasional demon lord slayers.”

“If the bounty was high enough, I would hunt a demon lord.” He said with a moment of thought. “Do you want to tell me about what just happened?”

“Not yet. Before we get sidetracked with unrelated guild stuff, let's finish you up first.”

Jaeger just nodded, feeling that the guild business might be a distraction. Besides, he had a few questions about his own situation.