Light Vs. Dark – While neither good nor evil, the light tend toward law and order while the dark prefers strength and chaos. The vast majority of summoned enter the world as part of the light faction for unknown reasons. Races, classes, abilities, and dungeon entrances differ between the factions. There is also an ancient animosity between the two, though it is more of a tendency than a rule.

* The Adventurer’s Guild Guidebook

Later that night or perhaps very early in the morning, Nash woke up to an odd feeling. The room had a slight chill and he could feel a slight breeze blowing across his face. His eyes snapped open just in time to see the man looming over him, the would-be assassin’s face cloaked in a purple mask. The man noticed Nash had woken up and plunged the dagger he held in his hand down towards Nash’s gut.

It happened in an instant. Nash knew he couldn’t get the leverage necessary to catch the attacker’s forearms so he did the only thing he could, he slapped the man’s hand away while rolling in the other direction. It worked, just barely. The dagger grazed him instead of plunging into his body. Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, the assassin had recovered and launched himself across the bed at Nash. A hard punch broke the assassin’s nose and halted his wild charge.

Nash summoned his axes forth from his inventory while the cut on his hip began to burn… poison. He was already starting to feel light-headed. Whatever it was, it was strong and worked fast. Using the last of his strength, Nash brought both axes down on the assassin’s neck. The man slumped, half hanging off of Nash’s bed, his blood pouring onto the floor below. Looking around, Nash spotted Tamsyn asleep in the chair across the room.

“Tamsyn, wakeshup!” shouted Nash, his voice slurring badly.

She didn’t stir, even at that. Maybe she had been enchanted. That was Nash’s last coherent thought for the moment. His knees buckled and he dropped to his knees. He willed his axes into inventory while falling forward onto the floor. Warm blood pooled around him and everything went dark.

The coppery taste of blood woke him. He was still lying in the pool of the assassin’s blood and it was still warm. Nash realized that he couldn’t have been unconscious for more than a couple of minutes. Quickly checking his status effects, he saw that he had been poisoned but then the antidote had been administered. The only conclusion at Nash could come up with was that the assassin had taken the antidote in case of an accident and he must have consumed some from the blood in his mouth. Nash’s mood darkened while he spit the remaining blood in his mouth back into the rest of the pool. He couldn’t afford to rely on dumb luck to save him. This world was far too harsh for that.

Nash geared up and checked on Tamsyn. Shaking her small body, it became clear that she had been enchanted to sleep. Scooping her up, he headed for the door just as it burst open. Four burly men entered, all heavily armed and armored. They were all human, wore plate mail, and Nash was fairly certain that he’d never seen them in town before. He figured they must be more assassins. Dropping Tamsyn’s limp body into a pouch at his side, Nash brought forth his twin axes and faced off against the foursome.

Nash needed this over quickly. Enacting Dark Regeneration and Evade, he charged the first guy before the rest could get through the door, pushing them all back. Now, essentially one-on-one, Nash hooked the lead man’s sword with Darkward and sank Moonglow into his neck, just above his chest plate. The man was dead before he hit the floor.

A spear thrust through the doorway forced Nash to sidestep, breaking his momentum. Nash hooked Darkward onto the gauntleted hand that held the spear and pulled the man into the room, causing him to stumble over his dead comrade. Fully off-balance, the man had no chance to avoid Moonglow as it came down upon the back of his neck, savagely removing his head from his body.

The next guy tried jabbing his sword into Nash, using the doorway to shield himself from Nash’s counter-attack. With no clear line of sight, the thrust missed. The man backpedaled quickly, but Nash charged into him, knocked his sword to the side with Darkward, and lopped the guy’s leg off at the knee. Howling in pain the man fell. The last man watched this all happen through wide eyes. Throwing his sword at Nash, he turned and sprinted down the hall. Nash stepped out, using Darkward to knock the flying sword down.

Pivoting on his feet, Nash launched Moonglow at the retreating man, catching him in the back of the head. He jogged over and reclaimed his ax, wrenching it out from the broken skull of the now-dead fourth man. Turning back, he noticed that the man on the floor had passed out. The sword he had knocked aside was pinning the man’s forearm to the floor while his lifeblood spurted grotesquely from the stump of his left leg. Nash returned his axes to inventory and grabbed the handle of the sword that had skewered the man to the floor. Pulling it free, he plunged it into the man’s neck.

Nash wiped the blood from his face while he surveyed the area. It was a blood bath, carnage everywhere, and it had happened in less than fifteen seconds. Thinking quickly, Nash leaped the bodies and rushed downstairs to see if the attack was more widespread.

He could hear loud talking as he approached the bottom of the stairs. He stopped to listen.

“…why I need to pay you for old information,” growled a man’s voice. “If he’s dead, I want my money back.”

“Look,” said what sounded like the assistant tavern keeper. “It’s just business. It’s not my fault that they beat you here.”

Stepping into the main tavern room and looking around told Nash everything that he needed to know. Two tall lizard men were right in front of him with weapons drawn. Behind them, a rough-looking barbarian fellow was having a heated discussion with Jed, the shady assistant to the tavern-keeper who was off for the evening. Nash quickly realized that Jed had sold him out… a few times over. Nash would need to have a talk with him about that. But first…

The pair of massive lizard men prepared to attack, pulling their weapons from their inventories. Nash was already two steps ahead, axes in hand, and expecting the attack, he planted each ax into the forehead of a very surprised lizard man. They crumpled to the floor in unison, wrenching free of Nash’s axes while they died.

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Seeing an opportunity, the man speaking with Jed turned and charged, a spear in his hands. Nash sidestepped and deflected the powerful attack with both axes, throwing the man off-balance and causing him to stumble over the body of one of the lizardmen. Spinning behind the man, Nash’s ax found the back of the man’s neck. With a spray of blood, he too fell to the floor. Nash looked over at Jed and cocked his head to the side. Jed saw the look of disappointment in Nash and knew it didn’t bode well for him.

“Wait, wait, wait…” pleaded Jed. “I was only trying to make a mark. I’ve got information.”

“What information?” snarled Nash, stalking up to the frightened man. “Why is everyone suddenly trying to kill me?”

“The Province’s governor put out a bounty for you once he heard about your proclamation here in town… you know… about the slaves being free,” stammered Jed.

“Okay,” said Nash, drawing out the word. “And you figured you’d point them all in the right direction for a few marks. Anything else?”

“No, that’s it,” said Jed, his face turning white. “I swear.”

“Alright then,” said Nash. “You have my thanks for the information.”

Jed noticeably relaxed. Smiling weakly at Nash, he didn’t even register the ax until it had ravaged his throat. Nash had brought the weapon up and over the bar before drawing it across his body in a horizontal arc that just happened to intersect with the front of Jed’s neck. With a spray of blood, another body dropped to the floor.

“And I forgive you,” finished Nash, the last words that Jed would ever hear as the light faded from the eyes in his decapitated head.

Scanning the rest of the main tavern area, Nash didn’t see anyone else that was looking for a fight. That suited him just fine. Returning his axes to inventory, he strode outside to see if he could tell if anything else was amiss. The street looked quiet.

Returning to the bar, Nash dropped a bag of 500 marks on its well-lacquered surface. He turned to one of the wide-eyed barmaids who was trying to figure out what to do about the bodies before her boss showed up. The other barmaid had left to bring him back.

“This is for the mess,” said Nash. “I’ll let the Sheriff know what happened, okay?”

The woman only responded with a hurried nod, her eyes never blinking.

Five minutes later, Nash entered the jailhouse. It was late and the Sheriff was off-duty. One of the new deputies, Taft, was there, so he quickly filled him in on what had gone down at the tavern.

“I really need to find a place to sleep that has some security,” grumbled Nash out loud.

“Why don’t you stay at the Manor?” asked the Half-Ogre deputy. “It’s the official mayoral office, so... I guess it makes it yours already.”

“Hey, nice thinking,” said Nash. “Where is it?”

“Just look for the highest point in town,” answered Taft. “It’s near the North end of town.”

“Thanks, bud,” replied Nash. “By the way, how’s everything been going? It’s been a few days.”

“Good and bad, I suppose,” answered Taft. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m more than grateful for my freedom. It’s just that this job is a lot harder than my old one. With that one, I pretty much just hurt people when I was told to. Now, I have to actually think and consider things with this job. It’s a challenge, but you know what, I love it!”

“Good to hear,” said Nash, smiling at the new deputy.

“Oh, hey… if I didn’t say it before, thanks for hooking me up with this job,” said Taft.

“Anytime. Oh, you’ll want to roust the gravedigger before you head over to the tavern,” replied Nash, then quietly began counting on his fingers before continuing. “I think that I left nine bodies there. Five upstairs and the other four in the tavern room. Good luck and thanks! I gave Edgar a sizable tip to help cover the clean-up and damages.”

“I’m sure glad you’re on our side,” said Taft, chuckling darkly.

“Heh, take care, Taft,” answered Nash, waving while walking out the door.

It was late and Nash hadn’t gotten much sleep. Grumbling from the sack at his waist informed him the Tamsyn was finally stirring. Relief flooded through him when he heard her tiny voice speak up.

“What in the… Nash!!!” screamed the tiny nixie woman. “Why am I in a sack?”

“You want the long version or the short version?” asked Nash while opening the sack and letting Tamsyn fly free.

“I’ll take the short version,” replied the irate nixie.

“We were attacked in our room,” replied Nash. “You were under a sleeping spell and I didn’t want to risk leaving you there unprotected, so I took you with me while hunting down the rest of the assassins. I couldn’t carry you in my hands because I needed them to fight and I can’t put in inventory because you’re your own person, so… the sack was my only good option.”

“Good option?” she squealed in anger, though her look said she understood.

“Only option?” asked Nash, trying to change his answer before the tiny angry woman blew her top. Her personality matched her fiery red hair.

“Fine, I get it,” she sulked. “So, what now?”

“Well, it turns out that being mayor may have some perks,” answered Nash mysteriously.

“Such as…” prodded Tamsyn.

“The mayor has a manor,” answered Nash. “It’s ours now and that’s where we’re headed. I’m sure you’ll even get your own room. So, it’s not all bad news, right?”

Tamsyn nodded and smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. Nash noticed but didn’t say anything. He was still trying to figure the nixie girl out. She had told him about how she had been betrayed but she didn’t say much about her time in captivity. Nash decided not to pry. She’d tell him if and when she was ready. She landed lightly on his shoulder while he plodded along the main road.

Rounding a bend, Nash noticed the road sloped upward. At the end of the road, Nash spotted the manor house sitting atop a hill just outside of town. It had a metal fence surrounding it and a heavy gate out front. A small gatehouse was off to the side. It took a few minutes to walk there and as the manor grew closer, Nash marveled at its size. Nash estimated it was easily the size of the entire tavern, maybe 7500 square feet of living space.

Unsure of what to do, Nash walked up to the gatehouse and knocked on the wooden door. He could tell from his knock that the wood was very thick and he received verification when the heavy door silently swung open. A thin man looked him up and down.

“You must be the new Mayor,” stated the man with a nasally voice. “I’ll get the gate for you. The name’s Weston, by the way. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“Nash… and this is Tamsyn,” replied Nash, indicating the sprite resting on his shoulder. “Pleasure’s all mine, and thanks. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you a lot.”

With the pleasantries aside, the man went back into the gatehouse and the gate swung open a moment later. Nash strode through the open gateway and up to the manor, stopping before a pair of thick wooden doors with ornate craftsmanship. Set between a pair of perched griffin statues, the doors seemed grandiose. Foregoing another knock, Nash turned a large brass handle and pushed. The door swung inward just as silently as the gatehouse door. Either the periodic maintenance was incredible or there were enchantments on the property.

Inside, the lights came on by themselves, definitely enchanted. Nash with Tamsyn on his shoulder, walked each room, taking it all in. Everything was massive, ornate, and well-maintained. The main floor had a kitchen, living room, sitting room, dining room, bathing room, and conference room. There was a basement and cellar below and six bedrooms and two water closets upstairs. It even sported a small library. Nash claimed the largest bedroom and fell back onto the bed and quickly fell asleep.

Tamsyn had flitted away earlier to check out the house herself. She also noticed the many bedrooms but curled up beside Nash nonetheless. He made her feel safe and she hadn’t felt that way for a very long time. Besides, it had been a long day and an even longer night filled with interruptions. They both needed sleep and she was out within seconds of lying down, curled between his bicep and chest. Feeling the warmth and strength in Nash’s muscles, Tamsyn soon had pleasant dreams indeed.