After saying goodbye to Ronnus, Ren offered to spot us dinner at the tavern to celebrate since we’d run out of money. Never one to turn down a free meal I accepted and we headed back out into the dark underground market, breaking off onto another side path through the blackness. This path, unlike the last, wasn’t straight or short, we walked the winding road for almost an hour finally coming to a hill in the darkness that, unlike the rest of the place, seemed to be well lit

. Above us, in the black, hung a round silver moon and dozens of stars, somehow this hill seemed to be outside under the night sky thought the silvery glow stopped at the base of the incline. The grass on the hill was a deep shining black color, but contrary to what most would think it didn’t look dead at all, the glow of the moon shining down over the windswept hill creating an impression of black blood flowing through ever changing arteries on a squat dark giant. The starlight above seemed to fall more strongly at the top of the hill, almost like a spotlight from the heavens, bathing it in a stellar glow.

Atop the hill sat a large, somewhat worn wooden building. The windows glowed with a flickering orange fire light and a set of worn but well cared for wooden steps led up the porch. The door was sturdy and thick, made of ancient looking wood and set with two black iron hinges and a large black iron handle where a knob would be. Ren happily skipped up the path and up the steps, the rest of use following behind her in awe of the unnatural night sky above. She got to the door and pounded on it, and a muffled voice shouted a question, that being farther away, the rest of us couldn’t hear through the thick wood.

Ren, being closer just smiled and said, in a normal volume “We seek solace in the lonesome night.” After speaking she sat and pleasantly waited for almost a full minute in silence, before a loud thump sounded from the other side of the door and it creaked slowly open just an inch or two. The room beyond the door was surprisingly well lit by a few candles and a low fire in the back of the building. The tables crowded under the low ceiling were rounded and made of thick dark wood. Off to the side, from the wall near the door all the way the back near a staircase leading up into the dark stretched a massive black wood bar. Shining in the firelight as the dancing light flickered over the strange carvings covering the face.

The dim light and dark walls combined with the ceiling and the spacing of the tables made the room feel huge and empty, even a little malicious, as though it was crouching and waiting to swallow us whole. The patrons at the other tables seemed unaware or uncaring of our entrance, speaking low in hushed tones over large wooden or glass cups of various multicolored steaming foaming and boiling liquids and even, in one notable case, some kind of thick mucky syrup. The fireplace flickered with the same ghostly green flame as the path outside, casting strange roiling shadows over the length of the room as it danced grimly in the background.

Behind the bar, cleaning a glass, was an absolutely massive Orc, who stood at almost seven feet tall, his head only inches from the low ceiling as he cleaned a huge glass beer mug that looked miniscule in his giant ham hands. His glaring yellow eyes looked bored as they roamed over the room and the sharp yellow white tusks jutted out of his dark green face on either side of a mouth packed nearly too full to close with sharp white teeth. When his eyes focused on Ren, his already terrifying mouth split into a ferocious grin and he gave her a welcoming nod.

Ren grinned and waved, gesturing us across the relatively empty tavern towards the bar, as we walked she turned to address us “This place is called The Night Stop, the bartender Barton used to be a traveler to other planes, and he’s pretty awesome, always got plenty of stories. I’ve heard some people say he’s level forty, which would make him pretty much on par with any major power in the city just as an individual, but he mostly ignores it when people ask him about his level so I’m still not sure if its true. Regardless though Barton is good people and he knows an absurd amount.”

As we reached the bar the giant orc pulled out a huge tankard and poured a bottle of swirling silver fluid from about two feet up splashing into the mug. The tankard splashed over with the mercurial liquid as he slid it across the bar to the grinning ghoul with us. Without a pause Ren grabbed up the mug and downed the whole thing, not spilling a single drop of the huge stein despite chugging the whole thing in seconds. Ren wiped her lips and let out a huge rumbling burp that several of us cheered for, though Aiden and Sarah both wrinkled their noses at the belch.

Star unsurprisingly didn’t seem to care much and cheered along with the rest of us. Ren shot her a wink and tossed a red stone to the bartender for the unusual liquid. The huge Orc shot us a questioning look and I looked over to Ren, having already tapped myself out buying Abbys new bow, Ren flashed me a file much too full of much to many sharp teeth for my comfort and tossed a few more reds to Barton, who silently filled mugs for all of us with the same silvery concoction. Something about the stuff reminded me of a mix of mercury and starlight.

I received my own tankard and, in an uncharacteristic moment of wisdom, decided to take a sip instead of downing it, which was the only way I kept what felt like on fire rocket fuel from shooting up my damn nose as I choked it down. The silver swill hit my gut and I felt energy explode over me, rolling to every cell of my body in cacophony of roiling silver flame. I looked over at my friends to see them all in similar states of shock, except Magnus who had, in common Viking fashion, tried to down the whole damn tankard and was holding his head in agony and pouring water up his nose as he tilted his back to desperately try to rinse out the burning.

I saw a notification pop up in my view and couldn’t help but whistle in awe Child of the stars: A high level experience buff gained by ingesting Stellaris Sanguinus, double experience gain for 24 hours. Ren was grinning at me “Yeah, this is Barton’s premium brew, he doesn’t usually even sell this stuff to people, but he and I go back and since I never bring people here he made an exception. Figured with what you guys mentioned about raiding the tower this might help you out. Of course you only get the full twenty four hours if you finish the mug, so I’d get to drinking if I were you.” I took a long look at the mug in my hand, remembering the insane burn. This was going to be a long night.