The Deathly Hallows: Innkeeper's Tale

Blogger's Note:  Here's the next episode of "The Deathly Hallows".  Read on, and enjoy.

        “What can I get ya, stranger?”

        “Information.”

        “No, I mean to drink…to eat.  What can I get ya?”

        “I don’t want a drink, and I’m not hungry.  I want information.”

        “Look, friend, this here’s an inn.  We sell food and mead.  If you don’t want…”

        “We’ll take two glasses of mead,” a woman’s voice interrupted.  She placed two large coins onto the bar. 

        “Well, alright then,” replied the innkeeper, and he turned to fill two mugs with mead.

        The woman was tall and fair-skinned.  Not even the hood of her purple robe could completely hide her long locks of bright red hair.  Though her young face bore the unmistakable signs of someone whose experience stretched far beyond her age, her eyes were bright.  There was an aura of innocence and purity about her, making her seem somewhat out of place at the bar of this inn.

        A loud crash followed by an eruption of laughter from the far side of the room startled the woman and she turned to find the source of the noise. 

        The inn was filled with people, and the noise of people eating and drinking almost filled the room.  At a table on the far side, however, three men and a woman dressed in light armor were laughing louder than all the rest.  A serving girl was picking up bowls and utensils off the floor from beside their table.  The floor beside her was covered with stew, and a loaf of bread lay in the middle of it.

        “Here, let me help you with that,” said one of the men.

        He leaned down from his seat, picked up the loaf of bread, and slammed it down onto the serving girl’s tray.  The tray crashed to the ground again and the table erupted with laughter again.  One of the men spit out a mouthful of mead onto the table.

        “Oh, I’m sorry,” laughed the man, “clumsy you.”

        As the serving girl leaned over to pick up the bowls and utensils a second time, the man made a gesture towards her, and the table exploded with laughter again.  They pounded the table with their fists as they laughed.

        “Disgusting,” said the woman at the bar.  She turned back to her companion, a rough and seasoned man in a dark green cloak.  His face bore the scars of many battles…some of them fresh. 

        “What are we doing here, Solomon?  The house is deserted.  The wizard is gone,” the woman said.

        “I need to know,” her companion replied.

        “You need to know what?”

        “Here you go,” said the innkeeper as two full mugs of mead thumped down onto the bar.  “Now, is there anything else I can get ya?”

        “Information,” said Solomon Rayne curtly.

        The innkeeper’s face turned somewhat sour, mirroring Solomon’s curtness.

        “We came to see the wizard,” the woman interjected quickly trying to lighten the mood, “who lives up on the hill, but his house seems to be deserted.  We were supposed to come back to…”

        Solomon shot the woman a quick but stern look and she stopped talking immediately.

        “Zarek Ral?  He’s gone,” the innkeeper replied to her.

        “Do you know when he’ll return?”

        “Don’t think he’s gonna.  Took a whole cart-load of stuff with him when he left…books and trinkets and such.  I don’t mind tellin’ ya, it seemed like he was real nervous, too.  He sure left in a big hurry, after all.  Didn’t tell anybody he was going, either.  Just one day, he shows up in town, picks up some supplies, food and such, and heads off.  That was about three months ago.  My niece, she worked up there for Ral, cooking and cleaning and such.  She was there the day he left.  She said she heard him say something about a shadow falling or something like that.”

        Solomon and the woman shared a look of knowledge and concern with each other, though the innkeeper didn’t seem to notice.

        “I don’t really understand that wizard stuff, you know.  Anyway, he packed up a bunch of his stuff and headed out the door, and old Zarek Ral hasn’t been seen here since.  Just left my niece high and dry without a job, without pay, and without no notice.  That’s no way to treat people who work for ya, I’ll tell you that.  She’s got them kids to feed, and she’s had a hard time doing it these past three months.  Guess I can’t fault that man for leaving, though.”

        “Why not,” said Solomon.  He was intensely focused on the innkeeper’s story now.

        “Well, ‘cause of the haunting, of course.”

        “The haunting?” asked the woman.

        “Sure…the place is haunted now.  Probably why he left in the first place.  I don’t mind tellin’ ya that I couldn’t stay in a house that’s haunted like that one is…don’t care how nice it is.  No way.  All those ghosts floatin’ around in there.  No thanks.” 

        The innkeeper leaned in a closer to Solomon and his companion, and lowered his voice.  “Sure has been good for business, though, I don’t mind tellin’ ya.”

        “What do you mean?” the woman asked.

        “Don’t get me wrong.  I feel bad that Ral got chased out of his home by them ghosts, but ever since people found out that the wizard’s house is haunted, people been coming from all around to check it out….wanting to see a ghost or maybe find some magical relic or something he left behind.  People been streaming through here to go up to that house.”  The innkeeper nodded toward the table where the serving girl was now mopping up the stew off the floor.  The table’s occupants were still laughing loudly.

        “Idiots,” declared Solomon.  “They have no idea what they’re dealing with.”

        “Oh, you’ll get no argument from me on that, friend.  Like I said, I wouldn’t go near that house.  Some folks that have gone up to that house don’t come back the same, and some of ‘em don’t come back at all.  No, sir, I don’t mind tellin’ ya, I’m staying right here, thank you very much.  But I don’t mind the business all them ghost hunters bring in.  They gotta eat, you know, and most of ‘em gotta drink a whole lotta mead to get up the nerve to go up to that house.  No, sir, you won’t catch me sneakin’ a peak up there at that house, but I sure do like the business they bring my way.  My family’s gotta eat, too, ya know.”

        Suddenly a shout came from the kitchen.  The innkeeper excused himself and disappeared behind the door.  The red-headed woman watched Solomon as he reviewed the innkeeper’s tale in this mind.  After a few moments, Solomon turned to his companion.

        “We have to go up there, Ana.”

        “I figured you say that,” she replied.

        “Ral knew about the Deathly Hallows.  If there’s anything in that house…”

        “I know.  We can’t let them find the Hallows.”

        After a few moments of thought, Solomon said, “We need to prepare.  If there’s anything in that house that will lead us to the Hallows or the wizard, we need to find it before they do.”

        Ana nodded her agreement, and the two headed out the door, their mugs of mead remaining untouched on the bar.

        Laughter erupted from the table on the far side of the room again.  The three men and their female cohort were pounding their fists on the table, again, totally unaware that Solomon Rayne and Ana Karithon had even been in the inn. 

         A few tables away over, however, two hooded figures sat silently in a shadowy corner.  There were no dirty plates or mugs on their table…no sign they had eaten anything at all.  They watched as Solomon and Ana left the inn, then turned to each other and nodded.

Blogger's Note: Below are pictures of the board on which we'll be playing.  They are rooms inside the wizard Zarek Ral's house.

The five rooms in which the game takes place are the Entry, the Rotunda, the Library, the Hall, and the Armory.  Below are pictures of the Hall, the Library, and the Rotunda:

In this game, the Lava Field tiles aren't Lava Field, but serve as a red carpet running through the house.  Charles and I came up with that one together while sitting in Chuck E. Cheese's at Liam's birthday party.

Each of the rooms will be separated (like they are in the pictures) at the beginning of the game to better facilitate several simultaneous one-on-one games, but when it's time for the Ghost Hunters to face the Caller in Darkness, all the rooms will be connected together to form one single board.

Don't forget to check back next Friday for the last episode before the game itself.

Until then, happy Heroscaping.