The atmosphere inside was electric. Everywhere were whispers regarding the events outside. An armoured figure at the bar was expounding on his theory as to what occurred using his tankard to punctuate his sentences. One table held a farming family holding hands and praying.
A mysterious cloaked figure dashed up to Peter an Dani and jingled a purse. “Twenty silver if you can tell me what happened! Thirty if you were involved!”
Dani shoved him out of the way and kept walking. “Nux thinks he’s an info broker,” she whispered out the corner of her mouth. “He’s really just a twerp in a cape. Ignore him.”
Nux swirled his cape around himself in an overly melodramatic way. “The Shadow Guild will hear of this, girl. You shall rue this day.” He ran to the door and wrenched it open. “Well, go on, start rueing!”
“See? Twerp.”
Peter paused, concerned. “What about this Shadow Guild he was talking about?”
Dani pulled out a pair of seats at the bar and patted one. “They’re a bunch of yahoos in the backstreets around here. They’ve got it into their heads that they’re a secret society, the keepers of ancient wisdom, all that nonsense. The only reason they’re secret is because no-one wants to know about them and no-one cares either. Once Travellers move onto bigger cities with real ancient societies they see these bumpkins for what they were all along. Here, pull up a seat.”
Peter was still rather dubious, but somewhat mollified he clambered up onto the stool while Dani attracted the barman’s attention. After exchanging some of his recent spoils for a pair of quite excellent cocktails of Dani’s choosing, she began to explain what was going on.
“You know how all anyone ever talks about are the Avatars? Like their farts don’t stink, they can arm wrestle a dragon, outdrink a hold full of dwarves, all that stuff? Well, there’s another side to it. They call them the Seven Deadly Sins. They show up every so often, usually when there’s something big on and try to mess with it. Wronging rights, depressing the oppressed, generally being asses.” Dani took a sip of her drink and thought for a bit. “This world quest probably brought them out from whatever hole they were hiding in and the Sucker, as I like to call her, is the one who haunts this area. Someone’s going to have to take her down, Travellers I mean. This lot,” she swept an arm back to encompass the room, “will only get themselves killed.”
Peter sipped his drink, noting the warning in the corner of his vision that it was an alcoholic drink and thus not for minors. “So, what do we do? At the moment my best skill is dying, and I don’t think that we’re going to take down some sort of boss monster by throwing ourselves at it until it gets tired.”
“Well, no.” Dani flipped the corner of his collar. “Not in these rags. That’s a nice weapon you’ve got there but it’s going to take several of us fully kitted and skilled up to even get into her lair. Since it’s just you and me so far and we ain’t got no money, how about we start with the last one?”
Peter pulled out his pen and paper and made a neat to-do list.
Get rich.
Buy clothes.
Make friends.
“See, simple!” Dani pulled the sheet out from under Peter’s hands and shook it. “Now we’ve got, ah, a plan!”
Peter looked at his companion. Her cheeks had gone a rosy red and she wasn’t as steady on the seat as before. “How old are you Dani?”
Dani poked him in the chest. “How old are you? Never ask a lady her age. Thass just rude!”
“I’m sorry Dani. I just though people our age weren’t allowed to drink here.”
Dani eyed him blearily. “I jusht saw you drinking. What are you on about?”
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Peter downed the rest of his cup in a swallow, which really was quite a shame as it was an excellent flavour. “Yeah, but it has no effect on me. There’s some sort of alcohol blocker age limity thing.”
Dani took his cup, turned it over and examined it as though she were going to find a secret compartment or trap door. “I don’t know how you did that, but you just put away one of the strongesest drinks you can get in this dump without, woah, blinking. Speaking offf blinking, did you know it gets dark when you do this?” Dani began blinking rapidly.
Peter took the cup back and placed it carefully on the bar. He then plucked the waving sheet of paper from Dani’s erratic hand, rolled it up and stashed it before it was destroyed. Finally he took her hand and guided her to a seat closer to the floor. “For someone so adept at poisons, you have resistance of a small bird.”
“For someone with that face, you have that face…” she slurred.
“Riiight.” He turned back to the bar and held up a hand with a large silver coin in it. “Barkeep, something to sober my friend up please? Strong, black coffee perhaps?”
The burly man took the coin and tapped it on the bar. “Done. For a whole silver I’ve got something that’ll sort ‘er right out. Miiight want to keep ‘er away from enclosed spaces or sharp implements for a bit though.”
Peter took the proffered concoction back to his tipsy compatriot. He guided the cup to her lips. “Ookay, let’s hope this isn’t as bad as it sounded.”
Dani took a long draught, sputtering a little at the taste. “Oh damn. What is that stuff?”
Peter looked into the cup, forehead wrinkling. “You know? I’m not sure. It cost a whole silver though. What’s it taste like?”
“Like ass and boogers had a disgusting baby and coated it in jam somehow. Wanna try it?”
Peter stuffed the rest in his inventory. “Yeah, no thanks. How do you feel?”
Dani struggled to her feet. “I’m still buzzing, but now for a different reason. Actually, both reasons. And I think my tummy doesn't like it. Hrk.”
Dani stood up and ran out the back door. Peter followed cautiously, having never been this way before. He found himself in a small stable with stalls for five occupants. In the far corner Dani was emptying her stomach into a drain with great wracking heaves. From a shadowy corner of one stall a tall, thin creature watched, a horrified expression on it’s too thin face.
Peter approached the figure, palms up. “I’m sorry, my friend had a bit too much to drink. She’ll be ok soon.”
“Oh my. I do hope so.” The voice rasped like wind over rock. “I was sick for three days IRL when I got drained by a wight. Now look at me.” As they stepped out into the light Peter could see that the person was emaciated to the extreme. “I’ve died and respawned a few times since, but looks like I’m stuck this way. My sheet says I have a curse, but no NPC can seem to uncurse me.”
Taken aback at the unusual use of gaming terms, Peter stuttered, “You’re a Traveller? An actual human? What’s your name?”
“Pham Nguyen in meatspace, just Pham in here.” Pham shrugged. “I don’t know about human though. I was an elf, high elf to be accurate. This seemed to be a great game to get a break from life and I like the crafting method they’ve implemented. Not so much a fan of the combat, though I have raided a dungeon or two.”
“That’s pretty much universal, Pham,” Dani’s voice echoed slightly as she was still bent over the drain. “Aren’t many who like dying, not as much as Peter does anyway.”
Peter glared at her back. “I do not like dying, thank you very much. I’m not good at fighting is all.”
“You know there’s other ways of taking down mobs than poking a lot of holes in them, don’t you,” Pham pulled a complex device from his inventory and laid it gently on the ground. “I made these glue traps and laid them around a small cave. Came back a few days later and collected the loot. No mess, no fuss.”
Peter poked the thing carefully, lest it explode. “Wait, how does that work?”
“Well, they need food, don’t they? Mobs need to eat just like Citizens.”
A fresh round of heaving brought their attention back to Dani. Between wretches she gasped out, “You leave them to… hrk… starve to death? You’re a monster.”
Pham just shrugged. “What gave it away? The voice? The skin? The way I look like the wight that ate my face?”
“Dani, two days ago you bragged about taking out a whole goblin encampment with a single dagger stab.” Peter chided. “This isn’t much different, and provides alternative methods to the run in, get killed, repeat plan.”
Dani straightened and wiped her mouth. “Look, I just don’t like it. I’ve been hungry. So hungry I killed and ate a sewer rat once. It tasted worse than that witches brew you just forced down my throat. Which I will get you back for, by the way.” She shot him a meaningful look.
“Fine,” Peter sighed. “Can we just go back to the job board and you can show me which quests you think would best prepare us for this? Pham, thanks for the ideas. If you ever want to party up I’ll be here in the inn fairly regularly.”
“You’re welcome. I don’t know if I want to party with a noob, but get some levels up and we’ll see.” Pham waved goodbye and turned around to sort through a large pack on the ground behind him.
Dani just shook her head and stalked inside.