Alfred watched the team leave the mansion on their way down to the common room. He was looking forward to discussing the Soul Bestiary with Deacon. Unfortunately they needed to go drink something. Alfred would have to experiment on his own. Dissolving back into the walls, he focused his attention on the large memory screen back in the conference room. On it played Deacon’s battle against the Gilgerith. The sand on the table shifted and morphed to create a three dimensional replica of the creature. Then it split in two. One large sand Gilgerith and one smaller bipedal creature with dragonfly wings.

“Now what is this creature?” Alfred asked himself as he switched the memories on the screen to one of flying goblins. His inner thoughts ran rampant with creativity.

“What if the big spiky one had wings as well?”

Down in the common room of the inn, there were about ten tables filled with travelers. Half of which contained the members of the Deep Dweller caravan. There were also four booths dotted around the space. On the eastern wall was a lit fireplace with a pot dangling over it. Along the northern wall ran a bar that ended in a door to the kitchen. The stairs ran down the side of the western portion of this wide rectangular room, while the entrance faced south.

“I could have sworn someone was watching me,” said Hani pointing up and a little to the left.

“There are a lot of people in here. Anyone one of whom could be watching you but none of them are where the ceiling meets the wall. Calm down and drink your ale,” said Earl before taking a swig himself.

“Oh look, here they come. What do you think they do all crammed into that room?” Hani asked.

“By the state of that woman at the bar, nothing good,” Earl replied as Deacon, Typhus, Tantus and Ralph all sat down at their table.

“Evening gentlemen. How’s the ale?” Deacon asked.

“It’s bitter,” replied Hani looking at him over the lip of his flagon.

“Not good then? I haven’t had much ale. We didn’t drink it back home,” commented Deacon.

“The ale is fine. I think our traveling jester is making some social commentary about his particular situation,” said Earl Tirebrook.

“Something wrong Hani?” asked Ralph waving a waitress over.

“I’m just trying to figure out what to do next. I can’t go back to the castle now that my cover is blown. Best guess, I’ll check in with the guild at the Shattered Sky. See if they have anything. My specialization isn’t fit for adventuring,” Hani explained.

“Well you could always help out with us until you get there. I’m sure something will happen. It’s been pretty quiet lately and that is unusual for this guy,” Ralph said as he thumbed over toward Deacon.

“Hey! I’m allowed to rest between events,” Deacon reacted crossing his arms.

“There is already a Deactastrophe brewing. I mean we did encounter those flying goblins upon arrival here. My shadow self says everything is quiet out there,” Typhus interjected.

“Not this again. I’m sure they would have attacked with or without me being here,” Deacon shot back.

“What’s a Deactastrophe?” Hani asked with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s when something insane happens and Deacon has to solve it with a crazy idea or new powers he just discovered. Happens more than you’d think,” Ralph said between chuckles as a mug of ale was placed in front of him.

“You know what, I’m going to join the ladies at the bar. You all can sit here and have a big belly laugh at my expense,” said Deacon as he got up to go to the bar. Unfortunately there was man barring his path. He tried to step around the wide shouldered man, but he stepped back in front of Deacon.

“You the reason that girl is upset?” asked the burly man.

He stood about six-foot-four with a strong back, black hair down to his shoulders and scars up and down his forearms. Deacon assumed he was logger or some other laborer from this village. He didn’t want to hurt this guy who was clearly several drinks in. So Deacon took the path of least resistance.

“I don’t know what you think you heard but they are my very close friends. I’ll tell you what, next rounds on me, for everybody,” Deacon raised his voice on the tail end of his sentence and nodded at the bar tender when he said it. He received back a nod in acknowledgement and round of cheers from all present. Sadly, the burly man stood unfazed by the gesture.

“You listen to me. We don’t take kindly to no eyebrow having lordlings around here. Bad enough you junked up my favorite watering hole with all these dwarves—Deep Dwellers. Now you’re trying to push me around with your belt pouch…Burp!” said the burly belligerently man before belching in Deacons face.

Since this was just your average villager, Deacon didn’t want to hurt him. But the belch in the face was the last straw. He could see several of the Deep Dwellers reaching for weapons before the man corrected himself. Maybe he should just go intangible and let the man take a few swings. Deacon wiped the spittle from his face on his shirt sleeve and took a step back. Just as he did the man cocked his right arm back but it was grabbed by someone from behind.

“Felix. Stop. This man didn’t’ do anything to you. Its probably time you went home for the night,” said the slightly slimmer blonde man behind him.

It was too little too late. Felix mule kicked the blonde man sending him careening into a table full of Deep Dwellers. All the mugs on the now flipped table flew across the room and spattered all over a table of what appeared to be random adventurers. The mage at the table stood up and erected a green colored shield while the archer made ready an arrow. The Deep Dwellers who’ve been drinking for some time now charged across the gap before an all-out brawl broke out.

Deacon was standing in the same space he occupied at the start of all this. Felix turned to him with hatred in his eyes. Deacon didn’t understand why this guy had such a hard on for him but he’d let him waste his endurance pool swinging through his incorporeal body for a while. Felix took his swipe and over committed tumbling right through Deacon smashing his head against the wall. Deacon didn’t even turn to face him, he just kept looking over the brawl in the room as it grew and swelled into the next table of people followed by two more. At this point Sophie and Amanda had a few knocked out patrons on the floor next to their stools. Deacon idly wondered when that happened as foot emerged from space his chest occupied.

“Are you done yet? You’re missing a great fight Felix,” Deacon mocked which only seemed to enrage Felix further.

Felix grabbed a chair and tried to smash Deacon with it not once, not twice, but three times before throwing toward the back of the room in frustration. That chair landed on the table of a booth in the back where a man in robes sat. That must have been the straw that broke the camel’s back as a wave of force pushed all the chairs and table against the south wall along with all the people.

“Please take your games outside,” said the man in robes standing from his now ruined meal.

Deacon just marveled at how little effort the man used to smush the whole crowd against the wall. The wave of forced ignored Deacon as the furniture and people passed through him. He wondered if this was what a high level mage could do. At least one that wasn’t crazy and trapped within his own creation. If Tantus had this guy’s power, he could own a battlefield. Tantus hasn’t reached his specialization yet, maybe it would happen then.

Deacon looked over at his party. Tantus was pulling himself free from a pile of chairs while Typhus and Ralph helped others back up to their feet. Deacon felt it would be rude of him not to help so he used Polterheist to move tables and chairs back to their original positions. This helped to both clean up this mess and get people free of the furniture. There were several pieces that were too heavy for Polterheist but eighty percent of the room was put back in order. Several locals took this opportunity to leave for the night, including Felix. Once things settled down, Deacon finally went up to the bar.

“Thanks for helping to clean up. I could use someone like you around when things get rowdy. Malcore over there usually ends a brawl but he’s often back in the woods by the time the cleaning part happens. They usually don’t get this far out of hand though,” said the bar keep as he wiped a mug with a rag.

“No worries. Unfortunately I’m just passing through. A little birdy told me you wanted to talk?” Deacon asked as he slid a silver piece across the bar.

“What’s this for?” asked the bar keep while simultaneously pocketing the silver.

“Damages. What did you want to talk about?” Deacon pressed.

“Oh, You’re from the Adventurer’s Guild, right? We’ve had some kids go missing up north. They usually play near Clayton ravine, but they haven’t come back. We asked Malcore to look into it but he says he’s going south for a while and doesn’t have time to babysit. His words not mine. Would you all be willing to check it out?” asked the bar tender.

New Quest: Children and a Lesser God- several villagers children have gone missing to the north. Investigate and return the children back here. Rewards; Five hundred Guild Renown, ????

Deacon had never seen a question marked quest reward before. He had a bad feeling that those kids might be in bigger trouble than this village realized. He’d have to ask Sophie what this meant. In the meantime the bar tender was trying to get his attention so he pulled himself away from his slate.

“I think Malcore wants to talk to you,” said the bar keep gesturing toward the table in the back where robed mage beckoned Deacon forward.