Corvayne eased back into his seat as the Innkeeper just looked at him. Corvayne went poker faced and stared back. He had paid the Innkeeper to talk, and while there was some good information in there he needed to know what was putting the man on edge.

He softened his tone and forced himself to relax. “I don't mind if you don't trust us for some reason, but who or what are you worried about? If it's a possible danger to our group, I'd appreciate knowing as well.”

There was silence, then the man behind the bar just laughed once. Not a happy laugh but one that Corvayne felt was the man's way of saying 'what does it matter?'.

The innkeeper thought a little and looked back to make sure the woman was out of the room before speaking. “Some people think of the Under-Sky folks as... prey. They, the Under-Skyers or unawakened folk, can't intuit hostile intent or manipulation as well as a normal person until they are exposed to lying. Or get hurt.”

Wick crossed her arms and used her head to indicate the kitchen. “That or you're worried because people who protect the Under-Sky people would see what your doing with her as wrong.”

The innkeeper's face darkened with anger and he started leaning forward. Corvayne thought he was going to have to jump in front of Wick but the man lowered his voice and spoke, “Wrong? How about this: May's loop was asking about her young husband who went off to war, and then begging people to spend more at this inn because times were hard. I just wanted to fix up this shitty inn up so I had a base on the floor, I was really aiming for a cabin. I wanted to live out here for a few years cooking monsters and fishing. Alone. This floor has a huge variety of game and they are all soft targets. That and I like the fucking pine forest. So every day I was in town I'd patch up a section of inn and she'd pay me to cover the materials and ask about her husband before I left to go into the woods. When a Under-Sky person has a problem, seeing them hurt wears on you. Eventually I asked the mayor about it, he tells me that a traveler came into town, 'Married her', got bored, and left years ago. If the mayor himself was awake, he'd have told her the truth himself probably. I didn't think that alone would help her.”

Wick didn't look impressed. “I'm waiting for the messed up part of molding her into what you want her to be.”

“Well I spent a few months repairing the inn. Her parents had owned it before they passed. At the time I'd just fuck the miller's daughter June if that's why you're so upset: She normally rolls through the unmarried men in town once a week while 'helping them with their laundry' if left alone. So yeah, I was fucking a willing villager.” He folded his arms. “If they don't want to, they say no, just like anyone else.”

Mister I cut Wick off from making a comment. “Do ones that always say yes do so? Or do they have preferences?”

“The bar is not always high, but I've seen the same Under-Sky folk say no, then warm up to someone and say yes to sleeping with someone.” Watching the innkeeper speak, Corvayne had a feeling he was speaking about himself.

“I treat them like people, June was always happy to see me, and was fine with me saying I was around her for fun. So I had fun. Then one day, May asks me if I could stop seeing June. I was stumped on how it happened, I'd never had an unawakened make a personal request like that. She couldn't express why she wanted me to stop either, and she looked frustrated at the question. I felt worse about getting May upset then I ever will with anything I did with June, so I took a break that day and I asked her to tell me what she was sure she felt. She knew she missed her husband. She worried he was dead. She had been worried about the inn before I showed up. She had weird thoughts that scared her.”

Corvayne looked and the others were mostly finished with their stew and just listening. He noticed the drunk wasn't paying them any mind, and the other adventurers had left.

The innkeeper went on. “She had thoughts of leaving the village and dying on the road like her husband might have, far from home. She sometimes would think about burning down the inn and it would make her cry. She told me she sometimes was really scared and trapped: it felt like she couldn't leave. That she thinks her husband had killed her parents.”

Mister I leaned back. “Some of that sounds like depression.”

The innkeeper nodded and kept speaking, “You have the right of it. She was living a loop that was chipping away at her. I admit that before I came here, I only cared about the unawakened in that people were cruel to them for their jollies and they were the canary in the mines for sociopaths. But I was interested in May now as a problem or outlier. I admit, not very romantic. So I told her I wanted her to talk to me when she had odd thoughts. That was the most forceful I was ever with her: if she had an impulse to do something she found scary to talk with me first. I promised her I'd stop seeing June. I also said I'd ask around town so that it might be possible to find out where her husband went.”

Hari smiled. “That was sweet of you.”

His expression had gone thoughtful, but Hari's comment made him resume his stern face while holding up a hand. “I'm not sweet. I just always had a desire to see how things worked. I figured I'd just solve a mystery. Sometimes the Under-Sky folds in challenges from the unawakened as part of the forging...”

Wick interrupted. “What's the forging?”

The question made him blink. “Oh. Sorry, I forgot, you guys say you are newbies. There are travelers of the tower that think it's specifically trying to 'forge' people with trials and rewards to make a champion or army or something.”

Corvayne thought about nearly dying earlier in the day. “There's a place on this floor that's much, much harder.”

“10 gold and I'll tell you everything I know about that island of the dead. Otherwise, yeah, stay away.”

Corvayne didn't want to go back right away, but he was tempted by the man's offer. “I'd think about it, but maybe when we are ready to go back. Not this week for sure. You were talking about your wife?”

“Yes. Well, I talked to the townspeople. The butcher, the smith, the wandering merchant... the merchant helped the most. She says she trades between here and Larscoc and other towns on more mild floors. I never followed her to a different town... another thing I ended up putting off. Maybe we'll go when me and May are ready to leave.”

Corvayne found the idea of living on the floor so appealing he let a little disbelief slip into his voice. “Ready to leave?”

The man nodded. “If she fully awakens I think she'll want some time to explore. I'd be happy to do that with her.”

“And Larscoc is another town...” Corvayne asked. He noticed Hari had stopped paying attention because his comment caused her to look up from her book and the sun dial.

The Barkeep was mostly focused on him. “It's down then up through 'The Rainy Spiral' As she tells it. The trick is to follow the lines of trees: they planted lines of trees to help mark a path to their place. The trader says that Larscoc also knew of her old husband, and he had knifed a woman there and beat an awakened within an inch of his life. They survived, so the Mayor of Larscoc apparently put out a bounty for him, preferred alive. I gave the merchant some money to add to that bounty, with a request to tell me if he's captured so we can go for the trial.”

“If they don't know the way to the ruins I came from here, perhaps the trader does, or they do at Larscoc.” Hari said, looking at Corvayne.

Corvayne nodded at her.

Wick picked up the word that Corvayne had also heard. “Bounties? How can you possibly collect one in here? I mean, finding someone in the woods we saw would be impossible.”

He nodded. “It would seem impossible, but there's something in this place that likes when people fight. The tower seems to support it further with a figure who helps people hunt each other... you'll find him or her in the big inn if you look.”

“We are in the inn.” Corvayne gestured.

The big man finally laughed. “I'm convinced. You're either the best actor I've ever seen or you're really on your second run up. Names Banner. I forgot yours, to be honest. I was waiting for a fight to start.”

Corvayne shook the man's offered hand. “Again, I'm Corvayne. I sensed you were... tense... are people after you?”

“... That's your real name? Corvayne?”

Corvayne was composing a very... diplomatic response to that when the innkeeper Banner held up his hands and apologized, “Sorry Corvayne, yeah. Same as half of everybody: the Illaureii. They call the unawakened 'Enpiiseia'.

Wick blinked. “They call them En-pii-seas?”

Grunt cracked his knuckles: A sign of disapproval.

The innkeeper frowned. “The Illaureii are a blight on the entire Under-Sky. Yes. Enpiiseas for plural. Your enunciating it a little off...”

Mosh laughed with a hint of perhaps anger? “No, she's got it. It's three letters buddy: NPC. A very not nice way of saying someone's being played by the computer. A non player character.”

“I don't know what the computer is, nor what a player is in this case.” The barkeep said. Corvayne also wasn't following, but he HAD seen the term before, just never explained.

Corvayne put a few more coins down. “If you don't mind serving us a few drinks, I think we are fine to keep listening.”

“That would also cover rooms.” Banner looked at them. “How many beds do you need?”

Grunt held up seven fingers. Wick elbowed him. “Six.” Yep, angry.

Mosh took a sip of his drink after Banner was done pouring them beers then explained. “Boss looked confused too, so... Think of NPC as a term for someone... in a play who has one line. Not a long one and they go off stage, so you have one guy maybe playing a dozen different NPCs. The actors everyone knows, the players, they get big roles that have depth. A range of emotions. NPCs exist to either help or hinder the roles the named players in this trope are playing. But unless an actor says 'I kinda like the guy who handed us our cups, I'd like to know more about him' then they don't have more depth and never will. They are like props who exist because the world needs someone to hand people cups, not all of whom are important like say a cup-hander who's the assassin. Sometimes you just need a dude to exist for 5 seconds in a play to say 'here'. That's why the term NPC is so insulting. These folks are obviously living a life. Now I'm double mad, why the hell did it put me with a bunch of unawakened monsters? I coulda been living the high life here! Pardon me gentleman, where does June live?”

Wick leaned to glare at him behind Corvayne's back. “Mosh you little...”

“She knows my name! Praise the Sun or whatever they say here. Look. June is a woman. If she doesn't want to help me wash my clothes with lots of suds in the little shallow part of the river where no one can see us, then okay. But hey, you probably saw Boss and thought 'the goods are odd, but the odds are good' exactly the same way, right? Why deny June an new adventure with a new adventurer?”

Wick went red, possibly with fury. Wait, had she thought that about him? Should he be insulted or pleased? He felt both, honestly.

“Down the street to the bridge, follow the trail past the mill to the little house there.” Banner handed Mosh a key. “If you bring her back here tell her to keep it down. She gets loud.”

“Thanks Banner! See ya guys later!” Mosh waved then skipped out the door.

“Mosh! Hey, why did you tell him that?!?” Wick hissed.

Banner shrugged. “June was at her most awakened when shes complaining about sleeping with the same ten men every week. So I figure I'd throw her a bone.”

Mister I stood up, a serious look on his face as he bowed to the shorter woman. “Do not worry Wick. I will make sure he doesn't do anything unmentionable.”

Wick slammed her palms on the bar. “I know you don't honor a vow of chastity! You also never drop your smile unless you're lying!”

“Nor a vow of difficulty. But I really want someone to wash my clothes, and I can fish if that's all she's going to do. We cannot know what the future holds until we try. Have a good afternoon!” He took another key and strolled out, whistling.

Grunt stood up next.

Wick was shaking and Corvayne could hear how mad she was. “We just had someone get hurt wandering off! And now THIS? If you go I'm telling Dawn. I'm she she's keeping that peeler sharp for Corvayne as-is!”

Grunt gave her a look that said: Come on, you think that little of me? Then the big man mined pulling on something and reeling a dial. He continued by putting his thumb against something... no! He was putting quarters into a machine, then mimed getting cut and blood flying, and then gestured back at his clothes: I actually want to fish while she washes my clothes. Look at how much blood are on these.

Corvayne laughs. “Build a fire, it's really freaking cold out there if your just sitting around this floor naked.” As intended, it made Wick glare at him a little in a way that amused him.

Grunt nodded, then pulled his actual fishing pole out his back-basket then tapped himself and pointed at the innkeeper then the stew: I'll try to catch something tasty and bring it back.

Banner smiled and placed a key on the bar for Grunt. “Much appreciated... mister..?”

Grunt grunted in response.

“Mister Grunt?”

A nod and smile then Grunt walked out, putting a hand on Corvayne's shoulder and giving it a shake before pushing both doors open to let himself out.

The innkeeper had a little laugh. “Anyone else going over to woo June?” He saw there were no takers and kept talking. “Well, the long and short of the rest of the tale is that the story the town had always heard was monsters and bad luck got her folks. But I asked everyone about it. Including June who mentioned that when Agotti asked her to wash his clothes, sometimes there was blood on them. The last time, before he left town, he was covered in blood and had been stabbed. June refused him as she felt something was wrong. She did end up washing his clothes for the coins, and when he left at the same time someone else went missing, one of the guards. I talked to the Mayor and head of the watch.”

Banner paused and took a sip from his own cup behind the bar. Corvayne could see that Hari and Wick were both listening rather then continuing work on their projects they had started at the bar.

The innkeeper asked aloud, “Where was I? Oh, when we met. So I laid out what I had found out, and then they could fill in other details that fell into place. I think talking to them might have woke them a bit. As for May... I told her that her husband probably wasn't coming back. He was wanted, and he had hurt people, but it wasn't her fault what happened. She cried because she felt lost, so I told her I'd help her full-time with the inn for a few days and be there when she needed to talk. The next day she walked over to the mayor and asked him to divorce her. From then on she'd call me into her room to sit by her bed and talk to her as she fell asleep. She had hard questions when we talked, the reflex maybe of being jolted out of her routine twice I think. Questions like: what's the point of life? Why do we feel sad? Why do people do bad things? Sometimes when I told her that there wasn't an answer she'd get frustrated or sad, and she'd talk about her memories and how they kept growing and changing in her mind. Either way, sitting in a chair by candle and listening to her talk... she had a good trick going: after the first three long nights of sitting by her side I knew she had me. So much for not being cunning: I had married her next summer after she dropped hints asking me to do so and life has gotten better. I like that she's more complex even if sometimes it drives me up a wall.”

He was smiling by the time he finished speak.

Wick nodded and held her hands above her head. “Ok. I'm sorry about doubting you... you looked happy when you talk about her feeling better.”

Hari nodded. “I liked the story.”

Banner looked thoughtful as he started cleaning one of the mugs from the bar with a rag. “If I was younger and still full of fire I'd probably have gone after that guy's bounty myself.”

Corvayne shook his head before saying, “I'm not going to hunt anyone, but I want to visit this other town. Do you know if the trader is in today?”

“She's out of town, sadly. But if you follow the road out of town over the river it turns into a path through the woods that leads to the Rainy Spiral floor. You then follow the lines of trees to mark the path to the way up.”

Corvayne added something else to his to-do list. “What kinda monsters do you find on that floor?”

“Armored-rats, brush-slugs, vine-birds, maybe a few painted-lions.

“Thanks.” Corvayne said. He was pretty sure it was a list of creatures he had already fought. He took a sip of beer and added, “Maybe tomorrow that's our goal. Would anyone else in town know about other worlds?”

“I don't think so. The unawakened take a lot of prodding to start accepting and talking about the Under-Sky. The only ones that generally move between floors without some sort of push are the traders.”

“Ok thanks Banner.” Corvayne took his key from the bar. He looked between Hari and Wick: Hari was gently fiddling with the artifact sundial and was rotating the entire thing around to look at the bottom of the base. Wick, on the other hand was looking back at him.

She looked calmer but he wasn't sure she was actually over what happened earlier in the day with him nearly dying. So Corvayne stood up and stretched his arms, then spoke to his two companions. “I'm going to meditate and rest. I'm still sore from getting beat up earlier today.” He grabbed his pack from beside the bar stool.

Wick called after him, “You sure you're not going to go off and try jumping off the edge if we leave you alone?”

Corvayne stopped and turned around. He cut off a dozen sharp responses. “I don't know why you're acting like this.”

“Because you almost died you dumbfuck!” Wick had stood up, looking around as she realized how loud she was, then grabbed Corvayne's sleeve and tried to drag him towards the stairs up to the second floor. Corvayne let her guide him as he didn't want his shirt ripped. Once they were out of the main room of the bar she lowered her voice to a hiss. “You were standing there with a dumb look on your face when you stumbled in half dead. Did it cross your thick head that the rest of us worry about you when you run off and come back half dead? You think it's funny to drop you have feelings for me, then go off and fight a dragon alone?”

Corvayne inwardly winced but marshalled himself to stay calm as he pointed to the second floor. “Up stairs, I'll give you the talk.”

Wick followed him. “What?”

“The talk.” Corvayne just lead the way upstairs and found his room, a small space with two beds. He put his things down and then leaned against the wall next to the window.

Wick had her arms folded. “Ok, the talk. Give me, THE talk.”

He hadn't thought she cared that much about him, so it made it easier to understand why she had been mad at him. “It's the one every warrior has with the people he loves. I never had to do it in the village but Spears made me listen to her practice her run of it at least 3 times, and I've heard at least 3 other people go over it.”

Wick folded her arms. “Given how much you like your spear, and that her name's come up more then a few times... I'm starting to think she was dating you and you didn't know it.”

Corvayne couldn't stop himself from looking disgusted. “She broke a lot of my ribs sparring.”

Wick folded her arms and gave him a chilly look. “Right now I feel like that just reinforces my theory.”

Corvayne closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. Then he looked at her and spoke. “Every warrior, scout, guard, and solider; Hunters even... they all accept into their lives danger. I do too. In this case because you've asked me for help. I know you don't want to get into the details but there's danger in doing this. I want help, I mean, I'd love if Hari was sticking around as another scout. Until then, I'm going in first because that's the role I took. I take risks to get the things we need to mitigate those risks we find later. I do this with the goal of protecting you, and my other friends too. I think today was not good, and I'm going to do my best not to worry you without a good reason. I never leave home without making every effort to come back alive. I face danger to save others from doing so.”

Wick's glare softened a little bit. “You need to run sooner.”

He nodded. “I may need a partner such as Hari when looking at dangerous places like that.”

“We are dumping a lot of gear on her as-is. I actually think we'd see Mosh more then her.” Wick looked away, and Corvayne had thought a little about what watching Wick go into danger would do to him.

He waited for her to look him in the eyes. “I also would like to say I'm really sorry. I had not... I need to think about what it means to you, Wick, if something happens to me. I've never had anyone who cared if I got hurt or died.”

“That's right. You're my god damn rope up and out. But there's a third thing... conspiring with Hari! Your job is to conspire with me.”

“She's was trying to help me with you.” Corvayne laughed a little at this.

“I was going to help you with HER.”

Corvayne smirked. “Why? She's going to be gone in a week.

“Hah. I bet you she WON'T be.” Wick folded her arms.

“Wait what? Why's that?”

“I don't KNOW why it's a gut instinct. Anyway, before you and her get involved I'm taking a turn.” Wick headed over to the door and latched it locked.

Corvayne was completely caught off guard. “Wait, what? I thought you were angry at me.”

“Yeah? And? Get on the bed.”