Faul took stock of his new bar. It was his by right, and he couldn't feel righter than he did right now. The harvest was in, his farming was done. Usually at this time he would be chopping wood to keep making money through the winter, but this year he could sit and manage his new investment.
He was never a cruel man; he did have a temper but that stemmed from having to fight to keep what little he had scratched out of this hard life, mostly hard because he never worked hard enough to make it easy. The officer had been right, he was not technically robbed, and in a way, he even felt grateful to the Pagnos. He would have to treat her well, partially because she would make him rich and also partially because he was worried about what she woud do if he took her hope entirely away.
The pagnos could stay in the Inn until it filled up, then she could sleep in the storeroom, better yet she could sleep in the storeroom all the time, it would prevent theft. But what if she started selling everything while he slept, and she kept the money for herself? He would start sleeping in the storeroom and the pagnos could sleep behind the bar. They still needed a cook; he was terrible at cooking and the pagnos would be running the bar. He would be counting the inventory, counting the money and mixing with the guests to keep them coming back.
He smiled, as he looked through the inn, his few missing and his one rotten tooth seeing the light for the first time in a long time. Faul was never a handsome man, that never bothered him though. His life was his farm, and "dirt don't care what you look like." He never married, the farmhouse was too small for more than just him, so he had put it aside. He was only 34 now, this land passed to him from his Uncle who had rented it out until his death and it passed to Faul.
This could be the turning point; he had found his fortune and will soon find a wife. The women would be swarming this place, the next inn was six hours away. People had always said the fork would be a good place for an inn, but the local government had always denied the permits because the amount of money they made from the camping fees. This workaround was just the workaround no one knew they needed.
He was glad he brought the priest along just in case there was a dispute on who owned the property, the ruling on the inn was a bonus that should shut down local authorities. The prime minister of the church was a political equal to the king, the church enforcing the law as mandated by God while the king managed the political dealings of commerce. Both had large armies that worked together to enforce peace, but when law came into conflict with commerce it was always the church that had the final say.
After a detailed inventory of the storage, well, as detailed as it could be without having to do any real heavy lifting or moving, he settled down at the bar with a mug of ale. The ale was better than anything he had before, he normally drank hard liquor because it would get him drunker for cheaper, but this would work. Faul started working on his plan.
The first step was to get his friends all over here and throw a party, friends may be a stretch, his neighbors then. He knew many of the people that worked around the fork, there was the guy who cleaned up the manure and sold it for fertilizer, there was the guy that bought his produce, the lady that collected camp fees, a couple of farmers down the road... He came up with a mental list of twenty people that definitely would stop by. This bar would make him the most popular person in the area!
The second thing he would have to do would be get a good supply of drinks and food flowing. After some thought he could just post a notice on the buyer’s board at the fork for what he needed and leave some money at the office there. They would take a cut of the sale, but it meant less work than trying to find someone to deal with directly.
He was on his third glass already, usually he would be feeling the alcohol hitting his head about now. He decided to check the barrels for something stronger. Better yet he would go to the crossroads to find some friends, then they could crack open a barrel together. He would have to bring the pagnos along, he didn't want to return to a burning bar.
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The night was late and Uden was exhausted. Not because bartending for a group of people was hard, it was because they thought it was her job to do everything they asked no matter how stupid it was. She was tired of them trying to get things to catch on her horns as if she was a hoop and peg game, she was tired of them explaining everything like she was three and she was tired of this entire day.
When the guests got drunk enough, she slipped into the cavern, she heard them drunkly shouting for her, but she knew that alcohol's poison would erase those memories. She found herself wandering back towards the portabique, there she found Pappi who had taken to sleeping with the beast. Pappi was still awake, playing with a seed.
"A different day a different owner, don't suppose you know what it's like do you?" She wasn't expecting much of a response and she didn't get one from Pappi. The portabique lazily growled in it's half sleep, not in a threatening way but because it was just expected by now.
Uden wasn't comfortable around the predator, but the protabique felt like the smallest threat in the dungeon now, at least to her. Who knows, she might get lucky and the beast would eat some of the new guests if they tried anything. Uden laid down on the other end of the den.
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"Uden I am so sorry, is there anything I can do?" Gina finally spoke up, now that there was no strangers around.
"It's not your fault, it's just life. Once you have been homeless everyone assumes that it's best if you stay homeless, like it's your only job in life. A blanket and some food would be great"
"If you need anything else let me know"
Shale came out of the passage in the back of the cave with a roasted fish and some blankets. Uden ate while the dungeon family sat in reflection.
"How was the farmer able to take over? I know the land belongs to him, but you said he blocked you from using your magic. How does that work? Does the church hold authority over dungeons? Uden asked Gina, hoping somehow there was a clear answer.
"I don't know, I can't do anything unless the farmer asks for it or doesn't know about it. I wouldn't have thought a local priest of the Landen church would have that power. I knew even the dwarves respect the Langden church to some degree, even though they don't follow their faith, I guess we now know why" Was Gina's atttempt at an answer.
They sat in near silence, no solutions coming through the fog that came with loss. Only time would offer answers.
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The days started to roll together, Uden serving at the bar, Faul and his "friends" drinking away any profit they made. Word got around that they were open, and the place got packed every night. Faul managed to get a young man to work the kitchen by bribing his dad with free drinks. The new cook, Dan, was fourteen, tall for his age and wiry. He was used to working on the farm he didn't have much for cooking skills but he did seem to have no end to his energy. Uden liked the boy, his willingness to slave away for no pay at all alongside her made it easier to do the same.
Gina moved the living quarters down a level. All the people in the Inn all the time was bringing in a steady stream of energy. She started improving on the simple maze that Shale started in a outspoken hope that Faul would get lost and never come out. It seemed like she couldn't do anything against him directly and had to do everything he asked.
The power Faul had over the dungeon had caused issues, every time he said he wanted something she had felt a tug on her, but fortunately almost everything he wanted had been outside her power to provide. Technically she provided everything Faul asked for that was in her power to give, it wasn't her fault it all showed up on the third floor and he never went and got them. The pile of daggers, bows, poisons and other things Faul said he wanted to use on his enemies was the biggest of the piles right next to a pile of statues representing attractive women he met at different points in his life.
Uden and the Portabique had gotten close over the last couple of weeks, the cold weather and shared body warmth was helping more than anything. They even named the beast scout, it seemed to fit her. Every night Uden had to listen to all the crude things businessmen said to her, they may only be away from their wives for a week, but this was her life. There were times a drunken man had followed her out of the bar, but quickly went back to the Inn when scout's growls seeped out of the darkness.
Gina spent her time talking with Uden in the mornings and working on the maze during business hours. All the minions were helping out now. With the availability of water they made drowning pools, spike traps, poison mist (Kawn had helped with that one by summoning poison emitting mushrooms) and crushing walls.
The crushing walls were Gina's favorite. The trap was simply a hole in the ground with a thin layer of stone over the top, and right before the pit was a ledge of stone that was colored in a way that made the shadow invisible. An intruder would trip of the ledge and stumble onto the stone, breaking through and into the pit. The bottom of the pit was V shaped, the walls were two stone slabs held in place with a hook and ring system like the one used to kill the thieves. When the intruder fell into the trip wire that kept the large stones that kept the walls in place, the stones would slide down the V and either crush the victim or hold them in place until someone saved them. Gina added spikes to the slabs to keep that from happening. She wasn't about to have Faul's drunken pals rescue him from her traps.
Sapana contributed the biggest piece to the maze though. She had the same spatial magic that allowed the creation of rules that Gina had. Shale help create four hydraulic instruments under Sapana’s guidance, one in each direction. A flow of water came down from the ceiling and filled a bucket, the bucket would tip and dump the water down one of the four channels, as the water flowed it hit a paddle that turned the bucket so it would always dump in a random direction. The water continued into a series of smaller buckets and channels that would strike metal plates, drums and resonate along glass tubes and wires, creating a haunting melody. The melody was originally very simple, it only became haunting after weeks of fine tuning from Sapana. The result was a melody that created an illusion of the room shifting directions, making it tougher to remember what way you were facing.
The final touch to the instrument was a rule at the doorway. "Following the melody will guide you to the end". The rest of the rule was "end of your life" but they left that bit implied and unwritten. Gina examined the Rule, Anyone who listens to the melody will find it nearly impossible to find the way out without a high Focus + Awareness skill. This rule will last for two weeks. Gina didn't really know what affected how long a rule lasted, but it wasn't going to argue with success.
Kawn had helped levitating and moving parts of the maze or reset traps. Gina summoned a couple more sylphs to add to the dungeon. They would manually spring ceiling drops and move pivoting walls to change the layout at key points. One of the Sylphs had even started summoning biting insects in areas, they didn't last longer than a few seconds, but every edge was a win.
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It was three weeks since the change in ownership, a light snow was on the ground as Dan walked to the Inn to start prepping for the day. He didn't mind the job, there was not much to do on the farm in the winter and his little sister always drove him crazy when he had to be cooped up with her.
When he got to the kitchen, he found out the potato bin was empty, there could be some more in the storeroom. He started digging through crates, moving the stack in the corner marked "Cloths", they might just be old crates reused for potatoes. He stopped when he saw the door hidden behind them, maybe that was the way to the root cellar?