Gina snapped out of her sleep, if it could still be called sleep. Something was wrong, it was like a sliver nagging at her. She focused at the source of the irritation. It turned out to be an intruder sneaking into the cavern, it stopped and sniffed at the door to the bar but walked past towards the back of the cave. It seemed to have a destination in mind, finally stopping and laying down in the nook towards the back that had been a den at one time.

The creature resembled Shale's description of the portabique, this must be its winter den. Now that the mountains were getting colder it made sense that it would come down where it was warmer. Gina kept an eye on it, though it seemed content to just sleep. She informed everyone as they woke up, wondering what they would do.

"I could probably kill it with some help" Uden offered

"Or mum could put deadly, deadly traps around it"

"Then we finish it with our new daggers"

"Break them in with a big scuffle" Shale added almost too eagerly.

Before they could continue Pappi held up a willowy hand, then went to the kitchen to grab a salted fish and brought it out to their visitor. The fish was set down a short way from the beast as it watched with one eye barely open, either still resting or getting ready to crush anything that moved to close. Pappi backed away from the beast and sat down, it slowly shuffled over without standing and ate the fish, then shuffled back to the nest and went back to a half sleep.

As they days continued Pappi kept feeding the portabique, getting a little closer each time. Everyone else gave it space, bringing in grasses and other stuff for it to help it build a better nest. It really was only cautious around Uden, who fortunately was also very cautious around it. They gave each other as much room as possible when they saw the other enter or exit the cave, the beast always sharing a low growl, upset it had to share its den but if that was the price to pay for free fish it would unwillingly pay it.

The new visitor gave Gina a trickle of energy every day, but after six days the trickle was gone. Examining the Portabique she was surprised to see it listed as Pappi's pet. "Way to go! I didn't even know you could tame something this big!"

Pappi responded with a smile and a thumbs up.

Uden was startled to see Pappi ride the portabique out of the cave, and even though the beast was still cautious it didn't seem as ready to claw out the nearest throat. Having a bouncer bear may be fun, she would just have to make sure she wasn't the one being bounced.

It had been over a week since the attack on the dungeon. The bridge was finally complete, and the storeroom was stocked. The minions had loved their rooms, each making small requests or adjustments as Gina prodded them to let her know how to make them more comfortable.

The bridge was a classic stone construction with wood boards, built to last springs high water or winters cruel grasp. Uden had built one before and still remembered all the points the engineer had screamed at her. She passed these along to Shale (much lower in volume) so it ended up looking natural even though it was basically stone fused together in one solid chunk.

Several crates partially filled with cloths were put in the dry storage in front of the bedroom door. If Gina was careful she could pull the crates along with the door so it was hidden at night. The rest of storage was filled with barrels and crates, some of the crates had barley in them from the grow room. Having the plants tended daily by a plant mage did wonders for growth and yield. Also, the magic rich environment of a dungeon helped too.

Gina had finished the bar, all the extra wood brought in over the last couple of days put them over what they needed. With the extra fabric she was also able to put sheets and blankets in six of the rooms, as well as improve Udens situation. Chests were added to the rooms for traveler storage, Uden got a wardrobe to put her new cloths. She had also spent time going over the work she had already done, surprised she had thought it was good enough. "It was late and I was tired" was her unconvincing excuse.

The barrels of alcohol filled the spots behind the bar, many more were in dry storage and it felt like they were ready for business.

Uden was outfitted as well. Sapana had offered to adjust the armor, fitting the leather to a cloth gambeson, with metal plates slipped between in strategic places. The plates were Szef's suggestion, knowledge of healing and biology guiding the placement to cover vitals.

The kitchen had also improved, Gina learned all the right words from Uden who had actually been in a real kitchen. Gina laughed at first when Uden told her how large the spoons needed to be in the kitchen, but after explaining it wasn't a joke and seeing them being used to stir, it started to make sense. Szef's cooking practice had started to pay off, foraging for ingredients and using a rod to catch fish while Sapana helped by hunting the fish in their own element with a simple spear. Gina had also summoned six more wisps to start to learn to cook, that alone took two days’ worth of energy.

All of Gina's energy had been in trying to square up walls, smooth down surfaces and square up floors, she was still too short on energy to summon up the metal needed to create all the pots, plates, spoons and other things needed to serve customers. There was also the issue of water. It was hard to have to fill and carry pitchers and barrels all the time, considering they had running water literally right outside their door there had to be a better way.

She started to consider a floor #0 above her first floor with a water tank to draw from, she was pretty proud of her idea for a water cellar, maybe the idea would catch on and she could make some gold from it. "All I need to figure out is how to ship out cellars, then again, how many people own a waterfall."

While everyone else was putting the final touches on the new business venture, Uden took the cart out to buy scrap that could be repurposed. At first Gina had insisted that she take protection, but Uden convinced her that bringing magical wee folk out would attract the kind of attention they would be protecting her from, and the amount of protection they would provide wouldn't come close to countering the danger they brought.

Dressed down, but not too down, Uden left with the cart, her new axe on her hip.

The trees were almost bare, the crisp air putting the earthy smell of leaves returning to the soil on hold until spring. the cart was easy to pull now with the trail in place, making it a simple half hour trip to the road and another fifteen minutes to the traders camp where the road split downstream.

The camp was crowded, some trading was happening on site. Many of the local farmers and artisans met here to try and get the caravans to buy their wares and save a minimum of a three-day trip to the city and back. Scrap was surprisingly hard to come by, no one had room or time to bring junk along with them. Some of the locals said they had barns full of it and she ended up going out to their homesteads.

It took just two stops and five gold to fill the cart with salvage iron and copper. That amount of money could have fed a family of four for a month, but the amount of scrap she got was an impressive 200kg (450 lb).

As she walked back to the cavern completely exhausted, the wagon creaking under the weight, she didn't notice the less than stealthy figure following her. The figure had even tripped on a root at one point, trying to stay off the trail, completely faceplanting into the underbrush. If Uden had heard it, it was never clear if she had or not, it would have just passed through her mind as the sound of Makwa. Makwa were common destructive rodents found everywhere, bears that could grow as tall as Shale that would have been thought of as cute if they didn't stink so bad and weren’t constantly getting into food stores.

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Incidentally Shale had scuffled with Makwa before, the battle was furious with dirty blows coming from both sides. The rodent stood on two legs and swiped viciously with its claws, cornered by the other two. In the end the careful stabbing of the dagger won out over the desperate swiping and biting of tooth and nail, though by the end some clothing repairs were needed from Sapana.

As Uden entered the cave the figure didn't follow but turned back down the trail. The creatures of the woods watched it pass, listening carefully to the curse words it shared and watching it abuse the forest with a large stick.

The next morning, while everyone was finishing up preparations to open Gina started working on the water issue. Starting with a hole that opened up into the river high above, the channel led into a large storage tank on the floor above. Floor zero didn't sound right, so she named it the balcony. Even adding a staircase up to the tank so Shale could maintain it if needed.

From the tank ran several water channels into each area that needed water, when the channels entered a room it transitioned into copper piping that was anchored to the wall using metal anchors and sealed using pitch replicated from some the bandits had for repairs. All basic problems the dwarves had solved in history long past.

After the water was added fixtures and simple faucets. It wasn't too much work since it was only the kitchen, grow rooms and the washrooms that needed water. She also added some simple cleansing rules to the tank, they weren't as good as she wanted so she had Sapana help and together they created something that would hold for a while. The water coming off the mountains was pretty clean already and didn't require much cleaning anyway.

Gina was finishing up crafting the remaining wares for the inn (since it had food and beds it was no longer just a bar) when shale came running in.

"Oye! Mum, we got customers!"

Everyone took their places, ready for their first evening of business. It was a surprise that they were found so fast, Shale hadn't even put up the signs they had slaved over all morning. The signs were simple boards with INN carved in them, shale insisted on doing it, even with no woodworking skills at all. It took ten tries before they were good enough for the gnomes. It still looked like the words were hacked out with daggers (which they were) but at least now it was readable. Fortunately for everyone involved Szef stepped in with the offer to scorch the words to make them stand out, smoothing out the ragged, splintered grooves in the process.

Three Langdens walked into the cavern, looked about with a small amount of surprise at the renovated space. The stone path from outside ending in steps carved in the rocks and continued along the side of the waterfall. A low wall was built next to the falls to keep the path dry and give something for people to hold onto, welcoming lamps lighting the walkway but not so many that it took away from the atmosphere that screamed "CAVE". All together it looked like a professional establishment.

Uden was waiting behind the bar when they walked up, the minions were all tucked away in their own places. Shale was downstairs, carving out new rooms, creating a maze to challenge Uden. Since they couldn't hunt Makwa and leaf diggers this would be the next best thing. Pappi was tending to the expanded personal garden built in the living quarters. Szef was organizing the storeroom while the other wisps prepped. Kawn was polishing levitation skills while helping Shale. Sapana was content in the pool, moving fish around with carefully placed illusions.

No one noticed Uden's face pale at the new arrivals.

The first one in the door was the farmer who fired her for stealing, followed by an intimidating looking police officer wearing light scaled armor complete with helm, carrying a mean looking crossbow and a spear hanging from his back. The last Langden was a woman who looked important, wearing something halfway between a cloak and a suit, fashioned from a heavy cranberry cloth that followed more than flowed...

"There she is! that's the thieven pagnos that stole all my gold. Look at this place, she bought this all with her thieven and built it on my land no less!" The farmer looked around wide eyed even as he was shouting, he had only lost one gold even though he told the police it was ten, even with ten there was no way it would have bought all this. He would have to convince the police it was all from money stolen from him, he wouldn't want anyone else coming by to claim ownership of his new establishment.

"And there is the still I built with my own two hands! it was locked up in my shed, I didn't even know that pagnos had gotten it!" Greed filling his heart with dreams of easy days ahead. He had always avoided this cave, knowing it was a portabique den in the winter, he had no idea this place was buried in here.

"And this is your land" The officer looked at the woman instead of the farmer.

The woman pulled some papers from the satchel, shuffling them until she found a map, her facial expression not changing once. "Yes, the farmers land looks to go back up the mountains to just past the peak, although the taxable amount of arable farmland is only fraction of that, with another block set aside for sustainable lumber harvest. I did notice the trail we came on was never permitted, that would go against the foresting agreement. There would either be a fine or a change in tax status with overdue taxes due.

The farmer snapped out of his greed haze when hearing this, nearly shouting. "I am not paying any new taxes, this one can pay the fine" he pointed at Uden, who by this time was grimacing with barely disguised resentment.

The officer stepped in at this point. "The materials and gold never left your property; you can't press charges for thievery. Obviously, this Inn and everything in it belongs to you unless... I am sorry, your name?"

"Youdenoth" Was the emotionless reply.

"Unless Youdenoth can prove ownership of any personal possessions"

"She was a vagrant sleeping in my barn until she robbed me blind!" The farmer was not happy at the dropping of charges.

"She didn't rob you sir, although I understand your anger" The officer tried to calm him down "What are the fines for this?" he turned to the woman again.

She pulled out a box with buttons and levers on it, with several clicks and whirrs and finally a ding she had the answer. "One hundred and twenty-three gold for damaging protected land, breach of public trust, building without a permit and tax fraud"

The farmer nearly choked with his attempt to yell while swallowing the large number.

"Obviously since you are not directly responsible, we won't demand that up front" the officer quickly cut in, trying to prevent any possible heart attack. Youdenoth will be forced to work it off until it's paid. As the injured party you would have first claim to indentured servitude" Looking around the room he added "Considering your new establishment, she could probably serve it all in two years. No pun intended."

The farmer choked his choking down. A free bar filled with at least fifty gold worth of furniture and equipment, a still worth who knows how much, and a free bartender. The still looked like something he saw ads for in the trade magazines, not the farmer section but the "I can't believe anyone can afford this" section. He had always daydreamed of finding a goldmine in the hills, he never thought it would be in the form of a bar. And you better believe it would take at least ten years before that pagnos managed to pay off the debt reguardless of how much gold he ACTUALLY dragged in.

"I'll take the indentured servant" He couldn't sound more confident in his answer, this time he wasn't yelling out of anger, but excitement.

"Youdenoth, you are now Faul Ginigan's indentured servant, should any harm come to him you will finish your sentence in a forced labor camp. Should you abandon your sentence the responsible party has the option to request the death sentence. Should your labor not cover the debt owed the responsible party can request your transfer to a forced labor camp for the remaining amount owed or sell your contract privately. Do you understand these terms?" The officer recited the script with the ease that comes from repetition.

"I am familiar" Unden said through gritted teeth, rage building at the smile painted across the farmers face.

"Unless you have any more concerns our business is done" The officer turned to both the farmer and the woman.

The women held out a paper to the farmer "Here are the terms of payment, a full list will be delivered by courier in one to two months. You can submit payments with your regular taxes, any amount paid over what's due will be taken from the debt. if you don't pay towards the debt annually, or it has not been fully paid in ten years, the debt will be transferred to you and will be due immediately."

Uden and the farmer just stared at each other, one with greed, the other with resentment. Uden had finally been free, and now she was a slave in all but name again. She knew it would be for the full ten years, debts were never considered paid off before they absolutely had to. She knew there was nothing to do, she was a worker, he was a landowner, this was the world.

Gina watched the whole situation; this was not how opening day was supposed to turn out. She was angry, hurt and confused. What could she do next? In a rush of anger, she tried to place a trap at the door, but she couldn't, something stopped her. She tried to ask Shale to attack the group but again something stopped her, it felt like a pure white light had gripped her crystal and squeezed. She opened Status to see if something changed and was rewarded with a miserable change.

Race Dungeon Diety Allignment Avoh Master Faul Ginigan

She had been claimed by Avoh, God of the Langdens, and God's representative had appointed Faul the master of the Dungeon.