It was obvious if he were to give it rational thought: not every person was going to be a quest giver, as not everybody had lived threatening problems. He might’ve been better off going to the ever-specific tavern or judicial area if there were one.

But he didn’t, so that part would go amiss. He would jog a few steps as the man that he had been moving with a surprising vigour, and turned again a second time, fractionally more annoyed than before at being stopped again.

'Where would I find a person in charge? If I wanted to help out, or something?' Ashur would get the man to stop,

'Well, everybody needs help.' The man spoke with a gruff voice and he sounded hoarse and as though he hadn’t slept. He spat into the dirt with a guttural hock of the lungs. 'What do you want?'

'I don’t know, anything honestly.' Ashur answered honestly: he hadn’t given it thought. He didn’t know if he wanted money, to get ‘stronger’ (what was the need in that, really?) or just have fun? Ashur wanted a little mix of things.

'The house you’re lookin’ for is that way. It’s called Ashcroft. It’s our... town hall if you wanna call it that.' The man seemed to give him some pity but would now point behind him in the direction that he had been walking before.

There was a civil building? This seemed to be a clear-cut village and everything that he needed was already in the square and/or riverside properties with its shops and people.

'It’s the first building on the right of the south gate. You can’t see it from this angle.' and the man would quickly get on as he saw the Dwarf nod.

And so that’s where Ashur was going to go first: he put his hands in his pockets as he was going to begin thinking about things. What could you do? It felt like another bout of option paralysis when he remembered the words of Book: he didn’t need to think so complexly.

'I want a house.' Ashur mumbled under his own breath. His fingers scratched his own palm. It had been two years since he was able to put his hands to something properly. Two years since he had properly gone into his spare room to hold or work with his many tools, and the land appeared to be fertile and ready to be built on, as it would be his canvas. Did he need to start here? It was quiet enough, and solitude had been what he had come here for.

His walk didn’t take any more than a few minutes as he walked along the riverside, avoiding the carts on his way past.

‘Why are there so many carts?’ Ashur thought, it had crossed his mind a fair few times now. He would put it to the side of his mind.

For the people who had lived there or seen the precarious situation through, there were people taking advantage of their current climate: others were packing up their things and trying to get somewhere new. More of the adventurous people were using the path to get through towards the Northern Kingdom. Some people were just trading caravans.

Other people were attempting to escape the oncoming storm.

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Ashur eventually reached Ashcroft and it was one of the bigger buildings: it was a two-story building, unlike the other houses and was built of what appeared to be a studier grey brick, the brick was more uniformed and of equal size unlike the other houses. It had a white trim on the outside and a thatched roof again: it was set atop a row of stairs and on either side of the building appeared to be a barracks of sorts.

‘A small military as well.’ Ashur thought for himself. Perhaps it was far too early to get into combat but here he was thinking about it, nonetheless.

He couldn’t be more wrong: the barracks was for show and only held a small garrison of around twelve guards and a captain. This was the village’s sole defence against evil.

Up the steps Ashur went, even then there was a spring in his step and something he was keeping in the front of his mind.

Straight through the front doors was his first mind: they were heavy, solid oak doors with very little notable about them.

It seemed that this was a bank as well, because there were booths on one end of the wall with people behind desks, though there was no glass. They didn’t seem very worried, nonetheless. On either side of the booths were stairs that curve up to the second floor to another foyer: there were a few seats and a secretary at the top of the stairs sat behind a desk and working away, next to another set of double doors. Ashur presumed that’s where he would have to go.

A single guard was at the entrance – in a very modest chainmail plate and leather chaps atop his trousers and holding a scimitar. He was leaning up against the wall, mindful of Ashur’s entry: he was a new face after all.

Ashur nodded to him and received very little in response. From other parts of the room through his own inspection that aside from the stairs and the booths was just an over-evolved house without much use.

The crunch of now being under rug didn’t go unmissed by the former paraplegic.

He would hurry himself up the stairs and in front of the desk manned by a lone secretary. A human woman, fair build, fair everything: she didn’t stand out.

She looked up from her seat to see Ashur looking down at him.

'Hey… I’m new around here, I was given this place for like an introduction?' Ashur spoke, placing his hands in his pockets again.

The woman looked him up and down, and yes, Ashur noticed exactly where she was looking as well. She gave a small, brief small.

'Yes, you’re at the right place. Can you just give me a moment?' she would lean over to the side of the desk, opening up a drawer to pull out a book, a planner it looked like.

Looking on the inside of the planner, there was still a surprising number of empty pages inside the book, but he didn’t know the purpose of it.

'Well… Naska is just about to finish a meeting, so you’re actually in at a good time.' She would lick the tip of a finger as she rolled through the pages.

It was good to be in a small town where their ongoings were as fresh as anything, he didn't exactly expect to get an audience with a King any time or year soon.

She asked a few more questions but otherwise remained undeterred from her job role. Ashur assumed that Naska was someone of some fair importance.

Ashur found himself seated whilst he waited, which was not what he had expected in his first twenty minutes of playing.

He would look and watch the interior with a vague interest. From the inside there were far many more windows on the sides of the building than at the front with wooden beams on the inside which made the building look like it had more space than what had been used.

A few minutes went by before the woman finally stood up and gestured for Ashur as well. She would give three solid knocks on the door to signify her entrance, before pushing the door open.

Ashur walked through the double doors to be greeted by two people standing around a long table in the centre of the room, the chairs being pulled back so people could stand around the tables, and they were murmuring among themselves.

'Naska, you have a visitor.' The woman called out, she too seemed sick of his shit. That was a recurring theme. The man- no, elf looked up. A tall man, even taller than Ashur looked up and he beamed.