Jason woke up with a little bit of a hangover, his head aching as it tried to deal with the poisons left from the alcohol. He also felt really angry, more angry than he should the first morning of vacation, and more angry than he should even with a slight hangover. Some of the anger could be all the shouting he was hearing coming down the hall. He wearily pulled on some simple clothing, mechanically putting on his belt with his spadroon light sword out of habit, and slowly walked down the short hallway to the bar area.
He didn't want to deal with the argument, it was his job to resolve arguments within the ranks, but this was his vacation.
"WE ARE ON A 2 MAN ROTATION! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO SWITCH OUT AT DAWN!"
"WE LIVE... IN A CAVE... THERE IS NO DAWN IN HERE AND NO ONE WOKE ME"
"IT DOESN"T MATTER, YOU SHOULD HAVE SET AN ALARM."
"THE SPRING IN MY CLOCK BROKE! I COULDN'T SET AN ALARM!"
"THEN BORROW SOMEONES CLOCK, THERE.."
Jason opened the door, both guards went silent. "Ok you two, normally I would take both of you outside and train some bruises into you, but this is vacation Jason talking and I want you two to work it out WITHOUT YELLING." Jason winced at the sound of his own voice. " Niamh, just cover an extra two hours of Senaca's watch, and Niamh, just grab a clock from one of the empty rooms, OK? Bricks in a wall?"
They both responded "Brick in a wall", a reminder that if one doesn't work with the group the team is compromised, if many don't work together the whole organization collapses. This was something that was trained into them with very severe team building exercises, emphases on the building.
Jason watched them part ways. There was no reason for them to be so on edge, this wasn't how things went in his crew or even in the organization. He had seen Senaca pull double watches to cover Niamh when she was sick, and Niamh had never yelled at anyone before, that's what made her so scary. You never knew when Niamh was mad at you until a crossbow bolt pinned your pants to a log while you were alone relieving yourself in the woods or opened the door to your room to find an ax swung by a piece of spring steel just missing your head.
He stopped Tamar on her way to bed, she had been watching Faul all night. Turned out Faul hadn't done anything stupid, he would have to tell Tamar's older twin Zesiro that he wouldn't have to watch Faul anymore. Jason would just have someone go out in a couple of days and offer Faul some money for information on the people running the inn, if Faul says anything they would just rust him then.
But first some breakfast. The barkeep was already coming out with eggs, salted pork and some hardbread with jam. He hadn't made up his mind about her, he probably never would make up his mind, that's what made him good at his job, he learned long ago that anyone was capable of anything at any time no matter how long you knew them. He wished that they had something better than salted pork, he considered throwing at the back of the pagnos's head until he remembered that he never lost his cool. That was the other part of the lesson he learned back when he was just starting out with the Silver's Debole.
It was his six or seventh job, all the ones he had before were pretty standard guard jobs. Stand here, watch that, give the signal when... Simple things. But that seventh job he was asked to go along and guard during a trade. The trade itself was even simple, it was handing off some expensively rare spices to the hired hands of some rich nobody that he had never heard of. The hired hands thought that the nobody they worked for was somebody just because the nobody had money and they acted like they were sombodies by association or something.
A Simple job with people who decided to make it not simple. They started started insulting him and the other three of his team that were there, there were two on backup that the group didn't see, but it wouldn't have mattered, the hired hands started saying they could just take everything, give the rich nobody the goods and keep the cash, saying they had the muscle to do it, what would garbage like Jason and his crew going to do... and he lost his temper, pulled his blade on the hired hand with the mouth. He knew the guy was just some young idiot who thought he was on top of the food chain, the idiots friends realized the idiot was being and idiot too, but it didn't matter once a blade was drawn.
In the end, everyone was dead or wounded, sides didn't really matter when it's just bodies and blood. He ran. He didn't know the punishment for a botched job and didn't want to know. He realized he was just as big of an idiot as the idiot with the mouth, he had thought he was at the top of the food chain and that's why the idiots words got to him. In the end, nobody was at the top of the food chain, it was a dog eat dog world, eventually everyone got eaten. He ran home and confessed to his dad, looking for advice and shelter, his dad called the law on him. He got arrested but the Silver's Debole sent an arbiter for him and got him out of custody with some words that Jason was too hopped up on adrenaline and fear to remember.
It didn't matter. If now, all these later he got another chance, he would kill the guy that had insulted him.
Jason stopped thinking about the past, he didn't know why he started. Maybe it was the hangover, maybe it was waking up to yelling, maybe it was the past weeks events. He needed some fresh air, a walk to call back Zesiro from the farm might do him some good. He grabbed his civilian coat and warm hat before leaving the bar. He let Bobert know he was leaving so someone would watch the bar and bartender. Bobert angrily muttered something back, more engrossed in the numbers on the book in front of him than Jason. Jason couldn't help but wonder what had gotten under Bobert's skin as he left the warmth of the bar and it's crackling fire, to face the winter winds outside.
-
The cool winter air really helped clear Jason's head, the trip was uneventful so he had stopped at the encampment at the crossings to share how much of a shame it was the local bar was closed for renovations the next three weeks. It wasn't all business though, he genuine liked to talk to people and collect new perspectives on the world, he felt like the more perspectives a person gathered the more well rounded and rational they became. After getting Zesiro they headed back to the inn together, sharing pleasant small talk about the local countryside.
The winters weren't so harsh here at the base of the mountains, usually hovering around freezing during the day, and only plunging into the deeper temperatures at night. As long as you were prepared with gloves, insulated boots and a good coat, the sun would do the rest of the work to make you comfortable. The tension of the morning was long gone by the time they returned to the cave, only to see no one was watching the entrance.
The tension returned immediately, Jason could feel his temper slipping, leaving the base unguarded was unforgiveable, his anger quickly disappeared as his experience kicked in, it was more likely that his team was killed than them leaving their posts. He pulled his sword and moved slowly and purposefully towards the cavern entrance, his outline wavered and seemed to blend into the background, but that could have just been an illusion created by the way he moved.
Zesiro flexed his wrists and spiked metal plates from his armguards flicked up over his hands, giving his punches added impact to breaking bones. He had similar plates on his shins and his steel toe boots were unusually wedged, he was not a boxer, but a brawler focused on incapacitation, he had to focus if he didn't want to permanently injure someone in a fight. Zesiro went ahead, he instinctively knew his role to distract the enemy until either he got a solid hit or gave Jason an opening to land a fatal strike.
The cavern was empty, but as they traveled down the hallway they could hear smashing in the kitchen, they both got primed for a fight. A small crate flew through the air and smashed to pieces on the doorway. As they got closer they could hear the ever calm, even tempered Bobert yelling very loudly.
"THE NUMBERS DON'T LIE! Nobody admits to taking it but that doesn't change the fact that it isn't in the coffer and yet it's still in the inn's assets, MEANING someone TOOK the coins and STASHED them somewhere HERE! This pile of garbage is the only place I haven't looked aside from diving to the bottom of the pool.
Jason and Zesiro both sheathed their weapons and entered the room as Bobert grabbed the top of one of the large crates and pulled the whole stack down. The three other guards were on the other side of the kitchen, backed up against a wall that had been recently renovated with smashed produce.
"AND WHY IS THIS PILE HERE ANYWAY!. Why wouldn't we have cleaned this up!"
"Someone said they thought they saw a fuzzy in there, it's not our job to clean out fuzzy nests"
"ALL THE MORE REASON TO DO IT! Rotten food, rodents and old cloth all rotting in the corner... Wait a minute. He pulled out the cloth, this looks like a shipment that the first crew was supposed to nab.
Jason grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back as the rest of the pile started collapsing, Bobert dropped the cloth at the sudden movement. That's when Jason saw the door. A thousand thoughts ripped through his head all at once.
Was there someone else here already, Was the old team still here. Did the old team disappear behind the door. Is there a den on monsters here. Is this a closet no one knew about. Were the answers to who or what was causing problems for his crew waiting for them behind that door?
There was some thoughts that didn't rip through his head. He didn't consider a dungeon plotting his demise. He didn't hear a -Bwum- among the crashes of crates and barrel. He didn't consider that the noise he didn't hear was the sound of a dungeon minion, making sure he saw the door leading to his carfully planned fate.