The room is nearly dark, only the light from outside illuminating what is clearly the landladys office. With my back against the door, I wonder what the odds are that whoever is outside is going to come in here. I realise as I say it there’s no reason to take a chance and search the room for somewhere, anywhere to hide. The desk is too obvious, the window is too risky. There are curtains here, but they’re too light to be able to hide behind. My only choice is to go to a large chest in the corner, hoping it’s not completely full. The lid is held in place with a simple latch, and I cab put a piece of paper in the mechanism to prevent it from trapping me. Opening it, I find a large pile of papers inside. No chance I’d ever fit inside. I can hear the footsteps stop right outside the door, and I know I’m out of time. I dive behind the chest. I have to move it away from the wall just a little bit, but by the time the door opens, I’m invisible enough, as long as they don’t get too close.

The door closes, and two sets of feet walk across the room to the desk. One person sits down heavily, sighing.

“What happened?”

The landlady. Not surprising, really.

“He snuck up on me somehow. He nearly grabbed me as I leapt out of the window.”

A womans voice I’ve never heard before. Sneaking a peek is tempting, but considering my complete lack of stealth skills, all I felt comfortable with was sitting really still and breathing quietly.

“Did you do what you were supposed to at least?”

The landlady sounded hopeful.

“I did. But this is the last time. I’m sick of being at your beck and call. If you want anything else, you pay like everyone else. Are we clear?”

The landlady scoffs in response.

“Took you long enough to grow a backbone. By my reckoning, you still owe me a few favours, but I can be lenient. Get lost for a few weeks so he won’t recognise you, and we’ll call it even.”

A deep sigh from the mystery woman.

“Fine, I’ve got a job to do in the hinterlands anyway. Have you heard the rumours?”

“I’ve never put much stock in rumours.”

The landlady is getting more curt as the conversation drags on.

“And that’s why you’re stuck in a one donkey town like this. There have been sightings of a new race, deep in the lost hills. The king is paying a lot of money for confirmation or proof. Maybe I’ll come back and buy this place from under you when I get it.”

I can nearly hear the smugness in her voice.

“You’ll probably vanish like everyone else who goes to the lost hills. Flights of fancy like yours is the reason I’m stuck here. You’ve outstayed your welcome, now leave.”

After the curt dismissal, the unknown woman leaves the room quickly, letting the door slam behind her. I can hear her stomping off through the main hall. From the desk, I can hear heavy breathing, which soon turns to soft sobs. After fifteen minutes, she stops and leaves the room, leaving me to feel terrible all by myself.

When she’s out of hearing, I sneak out of the room.

Hurrying to the kitchen door, I put my ear against it. There’s movement, splashing. At the very least, someone’s cleaning in there.

[Skill increase: Perception]

I take a deep breath and go for it. Staying in the hallway will only lead to me being caught in a much worse position. I open the door, moving inside as fast as possible. I’m halfway to the cellar stairs when Yadra turns around.

“What the..”

I’m down the stairs before she can react any more than that. Down here, it still smells pretty strongly of bad beer and cleaning solution, but I’m not feeling dizzy at all. I check to make sure all the windows and air vents are open, then tilt the barrel on its side. It’s much easier in it’s empty state, and I soon spot my missing items. A small pouch and some soaked clothes needing repair. At least I didn’t need to dispose of my own corpse. When I retrieve the items, I notice a thread attached to the pouch. I follow the thread out of the keg, to the side of the stairs. I didn’t notice on my way down that there’s a dagger stuck in a wooden beam, attached to the string. Hanging from the other end of the string is a small glass bottle with a stopper, and a note. The bottle seems empty, but when I open it up and smell it, there’s a strong, unpleasant smell.

[You have been poisoned: Weak Paralysis. Time: 10seconds]

I anxiously wait the 10 seconds before I can replace the stopper. What was that? A poison of some kind? And the note?

‘Dearest TeeCee,

You are not out of our reach. Do not cross us again.

C.’

A threat? I look at the bottle again. It wasn’t just me being an idiot? I knew beer kegs weren’t that poisonous! I’m annoyed at the implications. Someone snuck down here when I was working, avoiding the girls, and murdered me. I’m about to crumple the note when I have a better idea. I go outside, back to the outhouse. Once inside I hold the amulet the strange woman gave me. Focusing, I start thinking her name. And I wait.

It takes the better part of half an hour, before anything else happens.

[You are affected by Respawn Sickness: Level 2. 60 minutes remaining.]

My mind clears as the sickness diminishes. I sigh happily, closing my eyes. Only some soreness and generally feeling crap left, and it’ll be like I never respawned.

“What.”

If she wasn’t ready with a hand over my mouth, I’d scream. As it were, it was all I could do not to bite her. I take a few moments to let my heartbeat subside before I respond.

“What the hell, lady! You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

She shrugs, not helping my mood.

“You called, I spent time and resources to be here for you. What do you want.”

I close my eyes, calming myself before responding through gritted teeth.

“I was just killed. The assassin left these at the scene, on purpose.”

I hand over the knife, bottle and note, and she examines them.

“This is powerful poison. Are you familiar with alchemy?”

I shake my head.

“Poisons are hard to make, normally you need a specialised alchemist, or a highly trained assassin. A bottle this size, of that potency… Safe to say you pissed someon off and good. Where did it happen?”

“It happened in the beer cellar. And when I..”

I have to take a moment to think of how to explain respawning.

“When I came back, I guess. I saw someone in my room. I think they wanted to steal something, but there’s nothing in my room.”

A thoughtful look crosses her face.

“I’ll investigate it. If I find anything I’ll let you know. In the meantime, keep doing what you’ve been doing. If you keep stumbling into their operations I’m sure we can flush them out. The huntsmen who failed to find them before didn’t have players on their side.”

She winks at me, which is a whole other level of distressing, and vanishes into the shadows again. I take a moment to relax before I head into the kitchen. Inside, Betha is prepping for the dinner service. I’m about to help her, but she orders me to clean my clothes first. Afterwards, I finish cleaning up the basement, putting the keg back in it’s place.

When it’s time to serve the food, I get busy serving our customers. A hearty stew with dark bread seems to go down well with the townsfolk, and the mood increases rapidly. I see the mayor come in, and hurry to fetch his special brew, getting it right the first time. He’s happy to see me, greeting me with a handshake.

[Your standing with the mayor of Hogsmud has increased to Like]

“So what’s your impressions of our little town so far?”

He’s deep in his first mug, but already seems to be a bit buzzed.

“What little I’ve seen has been very nice. I’ve met the Candrids, which was rough, but Tiene is nice. I wish I had more opportunities to explore though.”

He takes another sip, waiting for me to continue talking.

“I’m pretty constrained by the arrangement with the miss. I think I’d be able to contribute a lot more to the town if I wasn’t stuck here at her whim, if that makes sense, but I don’t know how to even begin negotiating an early release with her. She’s not very approachable.”

He laughs at this, finishing his mug before replying.

“I understand your predicament. I used to be quite an adventurer when I was young, I know what it’s like when you’re tied down to one place like this. But you have to remember that you did cause damage, and you did consume a lot of food and drink. The miss doesn’t normally take money as payment, as you probably already know. The only way out would be to serve your time, less than a week I guess, or to give her something she wants or values as much or more than your service. Now, if you wouldn’t mind, could you fetch me another one of these?”

He hands me the mug, reminding me of my current place in society, and I run off to fulfil his request. When I return, he puts his arm around me, pulling me close.

“I do appreciate your handling of the old ladies request, however. I could use your skills, in fact, to visit some friends of mine. I’m in need of certain ingredients that I don’t like others to know about. If you could run the errands for me, I think I can convince the old bat to let you out early for good behaviour. Interested?”

[You have been offered a quest: Mayors gofer. The mayor of hogsmud needs rare ingredients. Rewards: Success: Reduced time as indentured servant in the Salty Swine. Failure/Reject: Lower standing with Mayor of Hugsmud.]

I accept without hesitation. This is more like it.

“So what you need to do is visit these farms on the outside of town. It’ll take you a couple of hours to reach each of them and come back, so make sure you keep an eye on the time you spend.”

[The quest: Mayors gofer has been updated:

a) Fetch hops from Rognstats farm.

b) Fetch a sack of Fairysugar from the Gennett farm.

c) Fetch wheat from the Barret farm.]

I nod.

“So this is everything you need?”

He looks me over, contemplating something, before answering.

“That’s everything, but make sure that when you talk to old man Rognstat he doesn’t give you the runaround. The hops need to be fresh.”

[The quest: Mayors gofer has been updated:

a) Fetch hops from Rognstats farm. Optional: Make sure the hops are fresh.]

“Yes sir. I’ll make it happen as soon as possible.”

The rest of the dinner service goes by without any incidents. People are happy with the food and the landlady leaves us alone to finish cleaning. When we’re done, I run out to check my mail.

Mr .. Father Houg bare acknowledges me as I come in. I check the mailbox, and I find another message from Mika.

‘Tee,

Hahaha.

Just like you, being bamboozled like that. I’m sure the debuffs made sure you learnt a lesson from that. Can’t send any money at the moment. Everything is invested in equipment. We’re getting ready to go on an expedition. They want to kill a bunch of mountain giants. When we’re done, we’ll make our way towards your position. We’re making lots of content, but the portal isn’t connecting properly. I think the system is blocking it for now. I’ve sent a complaint to tech support, so we should get somewhere soon. In the meantime, don’t lose your spirit. We’ll get together soon, and as soon as Rishi’s done beating you up we’ll figure out how to proceed. Take care, Mika.’

I’m torn between smiling and screaming. Why are they getting exactly what they wanted while I’m stuck here making no progress at all. Well, that’s not really true, I’m slowly learning skills, and my understanding of the area grows all the time. I sigh and try to connect to the portal.

[The site you’re trying to connect to has been blocked.]

Hm. I quickly compose a query to tech support asking for clarification, and one to Rishi…

‘Hi Rish,

Please don’t hate me. I don’t know how I’d live without your tiny fists of fury beating me whenever you feel like it. I look forward to us hunting down Captain Tubbins together when you get here. In the meantime, take care, and don’t let Mika get inside his own head. Best, Tee.’