A year has passed and you’re back in college, though it’s not as much fun as it was when you didn’t need to worry about where your tuition was coming from or having something like a job.

Finding time to study while running the inn is difficult, but fortunately your mother picks up some of the slack when you really need time. You’ve also managed to re-establish some old contacts with people you were “friends” with before your “break”. Most of them are ahead of you and some are getting ready to graduate. While none of them bothered to stay in contact with you (so much for education breaking down class distinctions) a few of them are still willing to help you out by selling you books for cheap or giving you some of their old notes. Every little bit helps.

As for the inn, it’s doing well, but you constantly worry about its future profitability. You’ve got a much broader customer base and even classed the place up a bit, but this isn’t without its drawbacks. Namely the Flying Griffon Inn has stepped up its efforts to get back its customers. This has so far involved an aggressive advertising campaign, hiring a bunch of sexy barmaids and special deals. So far it has helped them a lot and if they continue to succeed, your inn is going to start losing money and you can’t have that. It doesn’t help that your place isn’t in as good of a location as the Flying Griffon

So first things first, you need to figure out how to deal with Flying Griffon and you call a staff meeting in the hopes of getting some other ideas on how to deal with them.

“Why don’t you just hire someone to cut up their slutty barmaids? I mean that’s what’s mainly getting the main draw right? Seems like you could easily solve the problem by getting rid of them.” Rita says. Naturally this doesn’t go over well with the others.

“That’s horrible!” Eliza says

“ What? I didn’t say kill them, they’d still be able to work and shit. They just wouldn’t be pretty anymore.”

“Have you gotten so jealous that you’ve gone completely barmy? By the gods, we’re not doing that, we’re not the Crimson Talons!” Wendy shouts.

As much as disfiguring Flying Griffon’s staff would solve some problems, you hesitate to resort to such measures.

“Maybe we could offer deals to traveling merchants like Flying Griffon does, like they get a discount on their rooms?” your mom suggests.

“Not sure if that’s going to help us a lot, unless we make an addition to the inn. It’s not like our rooms aren’t being used. If we start giving discount to merchants we might attract them, but we might not have enough rooms to accommodate them or we’ll be accommodating them, but won’t be accommodating adventurer types who are paying full price.” Wendy says.

“Well if you’re so knowledgeable Wendy, what’s YOUR solution?” Rita sneers.

“We have a lot of Klyton Milita that come here to drink now don’t we? Why don’t we get some of them to help us? Seems like some very public investigation during heavy business hours would help out a lot and ruin the reputation of Flying Griffon. Hell, maybe they’ll even find something and we’ll really get lucky.”

You take all these suggestions into consideration, but you can’t help notice that Eliza looks like she wants to say something.

“Eliza, do you have a suggestion?”

“Huh? Oh. Um…yes…but I... Just forget it. It’s silly anyway. The rest of your ideas sound better.”

“Eliza, just spit it out!” Wendy demands.

“It’s okay, just tell us.” You say with a lot less intimidation.

“Well okay, but it’s silly. I was going to suggest getting someone on the inside to spy on the place and finding something to use against them. It seems odd that they are managing to attract that much attention with just pretty barmaids when we have our own. I think maybe something else is going on there, like an illegal brothel or something.”

Most of you are surprised that Eliza came up with something so complex.

“Well, that’s a very elaborate plan Eliza, but I think we could accomplish the same thing just by sending in our militia buddies to harass them. Like I said, if they do find anything actually incriminating, then its even better.”

“Yes, of course. That sounds like a more efficient idea.” Eliza says.
> You go with your mom's idea
Mom’s idea seems the least underhanded so you decide to go with that. You realize that you’re going to have to spend more money in actually building the place up, but you figure that you’ll earn more in the long term.

So you start to build. It’s a lengthy and expensive process, and the Flying Griffon’s success hasn’t been slowing down and it’s starting to cut into your business. Meanwhile you’re having a hard time concentrating on your schoolwork due to all the stress, you start snapping at everyone which makes the overall atmosphere of the inn a little tense.

Eventually your additions get done, and for a while it helps, but ultimately you’ve spent more money than you’re gaining, because whatever the hell the Flying Griffon is doing, they’re still getting more customers. At this rate you won’t make enough to pay for your tuition and you’ll have to drop out again and that won’t exactly endear you to the university who frown upon such chaotic patterns to higher learning even you do manage to raise the money to get back in again.

One night it all comes crashing down.

“Yes sir, you’ll get your breakfast in the morning at twenty five percent off, so that’s three gold and 4 silvers.” You tell a fat Delantium merchant.

“Huh! Highway robbery for a place like this! But I suppose I have no choice as the Flying Griffon is filled up tonight…”

“Flying Griffon…Flying Griffon…” you say with a smile before you grab the merchant by his throat.

“Hey, ulp!”

“You like the Flying fucking Griffon so much well get the fuck outta here and sleep in their doorway you fat piece of shit!” you shout, releasing the merchant roughly so he falls to the floor dropping his coins all over the place. Everyone in the place stops what they’re doing to watch your outburst.

As the merchant tries to get up and collect his dropped possessions, you grab your dad’s Troll Gun and point it at him telling him to hurry up or you’re going to blow his head off. At this point several of the Klyton Militia customers tell you to calm down and draw their own weapons, some of which have small flintlock pistols of their own. You mother and several of your staff pleads with you to calm down.

It works and the merchant leaves the inn as quickly as possible along with several other customers. The only ones who stay are the militia who insist that you hand over your weapon or they’ll actually arrest you. You comply and state you have to go lie down. When you get to your room you collapse on your bed and fall asleep.

When you wake up the next day, you feel like you’re in a daze. You aren’t sure how you’re going to proceed, but your mother has already stepped in for you.

“You’re selling the inn?” you say with a sense of familiarity.

“Yes, I’m selling this place, it’s going to be the best thing for both of us! Especially you!”

“Bullshit! You just don’t want to be here anymore! You’ve said it yourself! If you really cared about me, you’d try to help me with finishing my education. You know like YOU and DAD wanted me to? But why bother right? It was all fucked from the moment dad ran out of money and had to borrow from a loanshark. I never had a chance.”

At this point your mother takes your hand.

“Son, I’m sorry. We really tried the best we could. We really did want the best for you, but maybe we just aimed too high and as a result you had a lot of pressure on you. I never thought I’d ever see you pull a gun on someone in anger. It was scary to see that side of you because I didn’t raise you to be that way. So I’m going to do the only thing I can think of to help you. I’m selling this inn and you can have ALL of the money I get from it. I don’t know if it’ll be enough that you’ll be able to finish up your classes, but maybe it’ll help. Now doesn’t that sound a little easier?”

You have to admit, it does though you’re still concerned about finances. Proper medical school is still really expensive, but you guess you’ll figure something out.

“I just want you to know that if something doesn’t work out though, that you’ll always be welcome at your aunt’s house in Teckleville where I’m going to stay. I love you.”

You and your mom hug and at that point you feel a little weight lifted off your shoulders.

Your mother ends up selling the inn to Frank, the owner of the Flying Griffon. He mentions that he’s a little surprised at the offer considering the new additions built onto the Traveller’s Inn, but he’s willing to pay more than the city will. It’s a lot, but not enough for medical school.

You decide maybe while you can’t be a doctor, maybe you can still choose something in medical field, presumably something you’ll be able to afford and not be as stressed all the time.

You ultimately become a veterinarian and feel a great sense of accomplishment. The only problem is they aren’t in great demand in Klyton and the few that do exist in the city have the market pretty much cornered, but you do know of a place where they might need one…

You move to Teckleville where you make a living treating farm animals and pets like kitties and puppies. Occasionally someone has something more exotic like a purple tailed glittermane, but it’s a quiet life for the most part. You eventually have a family and live the rest of your days there.

Sometimes you wonder what would’ve happened if you’d done things a bit differently at the inn, but all things considered it worked out.


A year has passed and you’re back in college, though it’s not as much fun as it was when you didn’t need to worry about where your tuition was coming from or having something like a job.

Finding time to study while running the inn is difficult, but fortunately your mother picks up some of the slack when you really need time. You’ve also managed to re-establish some old contacts with people you were “friends” with before your “break”. Most of them are ahead of you and some are getting ready to graduate. While none of them bothered to stay in contact with you (so much for education breaking down class distinctions) a few of them are still willing to help you out by selling you books for cheap or giving you some of their old notes. Every little bit helps.

As for the inn, it’s doing well, but you constantly worry about its future profitability. You’ve got a much broader customer base and even classed the place up a bit, but this isn’t without its drawbacks. Namely the Flying Griffon Inn has stepped up its efforts to get back its customers. This has so far involved an aggressive advertising campaign, hiring a bunch of sexy barmaids and special deals. So far it has helped them a lot and if they continue to succeed, your inn is going to start losing money and you can’t have that. It doesn’t help that your place isn’t in as good of a location as the Flying Griffon

So first things first, you need to figure out how to deal with Flying Griffon and you call a staff meeting in the hopes of getting some other ideas on how to deal with them.

“Why don’t you just hire someone to cut up their slutty barmaids? I mean that’s what’s mainly getting the main draw right? Seems like you could easily solve the problem by getting rid of them.” Rita says. Naturally this doesn’t go over well with the others.

“That’s horrible!” Eliza says

“ What? I didn’t say kill them, they’d still be able to work and shit. They just wouldn’t be pretty anymore.”

“Have you gotten so jealous that you’ve gone completely barmy? By the gods, we’re not doing that, we’re not the Crimson Talons!” Wendy shouts.

As much as disfiguring Flying Griffon’s staff would solve some problems, you hesitate to resort to such measures.

“Maybe we could offer deals to traveling merchants like Flying Griffon does, like they get a discount on their rooms?” your mom suggests.

“Not sure if that’s going to help us a lot, unless we make an addition to the inn. It’s not like our rooms aren’t being used. If we start giving discount to merchants we might attract them, but we might not have enough rooms to accommodate them or we’ll be accommodating them, but won’t be accommodating adventurer types who are paying full price.” Wendy says.

“Well if you’re so knowledgeable Wendy, what’s YOUR solution?” Rita sneers.

“We have a lot of Klyton Milita that come here to drink now don’t we? Why don’t we get some of them to help us? Seems like some very public investigation during heavy business hours would help out a lot and ruin the reputation of Flying Griffon. Hell, maybe they’ll even find something and we’ll really get lucky.”

You take all these suggestions into consideration, but you can’t help notice that Eliza looks like she wants to say something.

“Eliza, do you have a suggestion?”

“Huh? Oh. Um…yes…but I... Just forget it. It’s silly anyway. The rest of your ideas sound better.”

“Eliza, just spit it out!” Wendy demands.

“It’s okay, just tell us.” You say with a lot less intimidation.

“Well okay, but it’s silly. I was going to suggest getting someone on the inside to spy on the place and finding something to use against them. It seems odd that they are managing to attract that much attention with just pretty barmaids when we have our own. I think maybe something else is going on there, like an illegal brothel or something.”

Most of you are surprised that Eliza came up with something so complex.

“Well, that’s a very elaborate plan Eliza, but I think we could accomplish the same thing just by sending in our militia buddies to harass them. Like I said, if they do find anything actually incriminating, then its even better.”

“Yes, of course. That sounds like a more efficient idea.” Eliza says.
> You go with Wendy's idea
Wendy’s idea requires almost no effort on your part and she’s right, if they are doing something illegal like Eliza suggested then the unexpected militia inspection should catch them off guard and in the act.

“Okay let’s get some of our militia buddies to help us.” You say.

Wendy smiles and says she’s on good terms with one of the sergeants that drinks here and can easily persuade him to help. You mother doesn’t exactly approve of this and Rita’s not thrilled with you picking Wendy’s idea over hers, but everyone goes along with it.

Later, Wendy speaks with Sergeant Keller, who is drinking with a few of his men at a corner table. You watch from the distance at get the impression that something more is going on between Wendy and the Sergeant, but whatever works right?

Wendy comes back with a slight smile on her face.

“Well?”

“He says he’ll do it, but not for free. He wants at least fifty silvers.”

“What!?”

“He says that while he’d love to just harass people on a daily basis he really can’t go around abusing his position like that, at least not without a little incentive.”

“(Sigh) Yeah, yeah I get it, everyone’s gotta get paid. Fine, let me get it from the back, but for that amount of money he better do a good job.”

“Oh don’t worry about that.”

You pay off the militia and get on with your work for the rest of night. You fully expect them to show up towards closing time, but they never do. Wendy says that maybe they did find something that they made a bunch of arrests. Of course if that was the case, it seems like Keller might’ve sent someone back to at least tell you. You’re hoping they just didn’t pocket the money, but Wendy assures you that Keller wouldn’t have done that.

The next day after you get back from class and ready for another grueling day at the inn, you ask Wendy what’s the status on the Flying Griffon and Keller. She says she doesn’t know and that she hasn’t seen him.

“What?! Are you kidding me? I know you two got something going on and you’re saying you haven’t seen him?”

“Yeah that’s what I said! We’re not fucking married alright? He’s a damn militia man, he might’ve gotten assigned to the Cloudspeak Mountains and his head smashed in by a troll for all I know!”

“Who got their head smashed in by troll?” a familiar voice asks.

Wendy and you turn to look and see Sergeant Keller with his men.

“Where have you been?! I was worried!” Wendy exclaims, running to him.

“Just on business, m’love. No need to worry, I’m here now.”

“And that still doesn’t answer the question, where have you been? I paid a lot of money, I would’ve appreciated someone telling what exactly happened at the Flying Griffon last night.” You demand causing Sergeant Keller’s eyes to narrow.

“Nothing happened. And I don’t know what you’re talking about. In fact I’ve gotten some reports about this place and I’m afraid I need to search it. Please cooperate and things will go smoother.” Keller says as his men start spreading out to search the place.

“What the fuck Keller?! Did Frank pay you more money or something?! You fucking sonofabitch!” you shout.

“I said mind your tone kid, or I’ll arrest you for interference with an investigation.”

Your mom soon comes out of the kitchen and your remaining guests start wondering what’s going on as they’re being pushed out of their rooms.

“Son, what’s going on, there’s militia looking all through the kitchen and the cellar!”

“Apparently Keller’s a double crossing bastard that’s what…”

“Now hold on! I’m sure he’s got a perfectly good explanation for all this!” Wendy says trying to defend him.

“Hey Sergeant! We got something here!”

At this point one his men comes out with a container that contains several Cloudspeak Rock.

“NO! NO! NO FUCKING WAY! You planted that shit there!” you protest.

“That wasn’t in there!” your Mom adds

“Oh my!” Eliza says.

Keller looks at the container and shakes his head.

“(Sigh) Y’know I’ve been coming here for awhile now, and I can’t believe that this going on the whole time…”

“Now wait a minute! You can’t honestly believe that we were all selling illegal drugs!” Wendy says.

“No, I don’t believe you were. But I do believe they were.”

Suddenly four of Keller’s men apprehend you and your mother. There’s a lot of protesting and fighting, but of course this only makes things worse. You end up getting a mace to your head and when you wake up you’re in a jail cell with almost all of your staff.

“What…what’s going on?” you say rubbing your head and sitting up from the cell floor.

“Keller’s gone fucking crazy that’s what and that bitch Wendy is backing him up to save her own ass! I told you we should’ve just went with my plan!” Rita yells.

“What the hell are you doing in here? Last thing I remember they took me and mom in for those drugs they claimed we were selling.”

“Well they decided to trump up the charges of illegal prostitution as well, so they took in me and those two half elven sluts over there. Yeah right like if I was a prostitute, they’d even be in the same league as me!”

“Oh fuck you Rita.” Sunshine says, while Flameflower gives Rita the finger.

“Even Eliza?” you say in disbelief at all this.

“Um, no. I’m here for assault. I knocked out one of Keller’s men when they were taking you and your mother away. I didn’t mean to, I just got so angry at this great injustice.” Eliza says.

“Heh, thanks I guess.”

You get off the floor and go sit over with your mother who’s been silent the whole time.

She doesn’t have too much to say except that assuming that she doesn’t go to prison, she’s getting the hell out of Klyton. She apologizes to you that you won’t get to achieve your goal, but at this point you’re just worried about not going to prison too.

Eventually all of you are released after a couple days. Rita, Flameflower and Sunshine are all given a warning. Eliza somehow manages to avoid real prosecution for assaulting a guard, but for whatever reason she doesn’t get any further punishment.

You and your mother aren’t quite as lucky. You don’t have to serve any time fortunately, but the inn is taken away from you and given to the city of Klyton as reparations for your “crimes” against it.

Well that’s it then. An end to you future in Klyton. You and your mother have little choice but to move to Teckleville now. And that’s where you go.

Your aunt Enora is happy to see you both, and while this whole living with her thing was sprung on her at the last moment it doesn’t seem to bother her. She says there’s plenty of room and you can stay as long as you like.

While the house is certainly nice and you’re happy to live there rather than in the street, it’s sort of on the small side and you feel like you have no privacy. Teckleville isn’t anything like you’re used to either. The whole small town thing just doesn’t appeal to you, and you feel trapped with a bunch of boring backwards people.

You were supposed to do greater things! You were going to be a doctor! You did everything right and studied hard and what do you have to show for it? Nothing! You’re stuck in some cow town where the best job you can hope to get is probably shoveling shit. Some future.

In time, your mother works at the local tavern where she serves as a cook. It’s not much, but it is something she’s used to doing.

You manage to get a job working as an assistant to the mean old bastard who runs the general store. It’s a thankless job, but he’s about the only one who’ll hire you since nobody else will work for him and everyone else thinks you have a superiority complex (Which is sort of true) and won’t hire you.

The only upside is since you live at your aunt’s house you manage to save what little money you do make and eventually get a place of your own. You always think about moving to the Delantium Kingdom and start fresh again, but you never do.

You basically remain in Teckleville where you eventually take over running the general store when the mean old bastard dies, where upon you become the new mean old bastard who runs the general store until you die as well.

You often think back about what went wrong at the inn and what might’ve happened if you’d done things differently, but you’ll never know.


A year has passed and you’re back in college, though it’s not as much fun as it was when you didn’t need to worry about where your tuition was coming from or having something like a job.

Finding time to study while running the inn is difficult, but fortunately your mother picks up some of the slack when you really need time. You’ve also managed to re-establish some old contacts with people you were “friends” with before your “break”. Most of them are ahead of you and some are getting ready to graduate. While none of them bothered to stay in contact with you (so much for education breaking down class distinctions) a few of them are still willing to help you out by selling you books for cheap or giving you some of their old notes. Every little bit helps.

As for the inn, it’s doing well, but you constantly worry about its future profitability. You’ve got a much broader customer base and even classed the place up a bit, but this isn’t without its drawbacks. Namely the Flying Griffon Inn has stepped up its efforts to get back its customers. This has so far involved an aggressive advertising campaign, hiring a bunch of sexy barmaids and special deals. So far it has helped them a lot and if they continue to succeed, your inn is going to start losing money and you can’t have that. It doesn’t help that your place isn’t in as good of a location as the Flying Griffon

So first things first, you need to figure out how to deal with Flying Griffon and you call a staff meeting in the hopes of getting some other ideas on how to deal with them.

“Why don’t you just hire someone to cut up their slutty barmaids? I mean that’s what’s mainly getting the main draw right? Seems like you could easily solve the problem by getting rid of them.” Rita says. Naturally this doesn’t go over well with the others.

“That’s horrible!” Eliza says

“ What? I didn’t say kill them, they’d still be able to work and shit. They just wouldn’t be pretty anymore.”

“Have you gotten so jealous that you’ve gone completely barmy? By the gods, we’re not doing that, we’re not the Crimson Talons!” Wendy shouts.

As much as disfiguring Flying Griffon’s staff would solve some problems, you hesitate to resort to such measures.

“Maybe we could offer deals to traveling merchants like Flying Griffon does, like they get a discount on their rooms?” your mom suggests.

“Not sure if that’s going to help us a lot, unless we make an addition to the inn. It’s not like our rooms aren’t being used. If we start giving discount to merchants we might attract them, but we might not have enough rooms to accommodate them or we’ll be accommodating them, but won’t be accommodating adventurer types who are paying full price.” Wendy says.

“Well if you’re so knowledgeable Wendy, what’s YOUR solution?” Rita sneers.

“We have a lot of Klyton Milita that come here to drink now don’t we? Why don’t we get some of them to help us? Seems like some very public investigation during heavy business hours would help out a lot and ruin the reputation of Flying Griffon. Hell, maybe they’ll even find something and we’ll really get lucky.”

You take all these suggestions into consideration, but you can’t help notice that Eliza looks like she wants to say something.

“Eliza, do you have a suggestion?”

“Huh? Oh. Um…yes…but I... Just forget it. It’s silly anyway. The rest of your ideas sound better.”

“Eliza, just spit it out!” Wendy demands.

“It’s okay, just tell us.” You say with a lot less intimidation.

“Well okay, but it’s silly. I was going to suggest getting someone on the inside to spy on the place and finding something to use against them. It seems odd that they are managing to attract that much attention with just pretty barmaids when we have our own. I think maybe something else is going on there, like an illegal brothel or something.”

Most of you are surprised that Eliza came up with something so complex.

“Well, that’s a very elaborate plan Eliza, but I think we could accomplish the same thing just by sending in our militia buddies to harass them. Like I said, if they do find anything actually incriminating, then its even better.”

“Yes, of course. That sounds like a more efficient idea.” Eliza says.
> You go with Eliza's idea

Eliza’s idea might be a little complicated, but if you’re going sic the Klyton militia on Frank for something, you’d better at least have some sort of evidence to back it up, real or imagined.

“Okay Eliza, we’ll go with your plan.”

“What?” Rita exclaims.

“Are you serious?” Wendy adds.

“ Oh, um really?” Eliza says just as surprised as everyone.

“Sure and you’re going to be the one to do it.”

“Oh I couldn’t…I’m far too shy!”

“Oh for…if you’re going to insist on doing this plan, you’ll need someone who can work a room. Of course I’ll expect to be paid extra for this.” Rita volunteers.

“Oh I can see this plan is a GREAT idea.” Wendy says rolling her eyes.

“Everyone be quiet! I’m not using you Rita because quite frankly too many people already know who you are and you’re too obvious. Eliza needs to do it. She’s practically invisible. No offense.”

“Oh none taken, but I just don’t know if I can.”

“Of course you can, you came up with the idea right? We just need to hammer out the details.”

After a few moments of discussion, Eliza says that the easiest way would be to get hired there as a waitress. If Frank questions her, she’ll say that she didn’t like the environment at your place and her co-workers (especially Rita). It should be enough to convince him, but Eliza’s just worried that she won’t get hired due to her looks. She’s a pretty a girl, but she suffers from low self esteem so you try to boost her up a bit with compliments. Hopefully they work and hopefully this plan works.

A few days later the plan is in motion. Eliza “quits” working at your Inn and works for Frank. In your first secret meeting, she tells you he did know who she was, but apparently he didn’t even question her that much. He was too overjoyed that he was taking help away from you that he hired her right away. Though you wonder if that could be a ruse to lull her into some sort of trap, you tell her to be very cautious.

The next time you meet Eliza she’s dressed a lot more provocatively than usual. You can’t help but to comment.

“Wow, Eliza that uh dress…”

“I know. It doesn’t leave much to the imagination does it? I feel like I’m almost walking around naked and everyone is looking.”

“Oh don’t worry about it, they were looking even before you dressed like that. You are very attractive after all.”

“Oh you don’t need to boost me up anymore, I’m getting over my shyness, though I suppose I don’t have much choice. Now here’s what I’ve found out so far…”

Eliza goes on to say that other than having a lot of beautiful girls working for him she hasn’t found anything out of the ordinary yet. He doesn’t seem to be involved in any illegal activity either.

“Are you sure there isn’t any prostitution going on?”

“That was the first thing I thought of, but it doesn’t look like it. None of the other waitresses are sneaking off with the patrons to some backroom and I haven’t been asked to do anything unseemly either.”

“Damn…uh I mean that’s good you weren’t put in that position though. So nothing at all huh?”

“Well, the only thing that I noticed that might be odd is two of the girls always seem to be there all the time and sometimes they go off with Frank in the basement for long periods of time. There are rumors that they’re sleeping with him.”

“Well sleeping with the boss might be sleazy, but it’s not illegal.” You say.

“I dunno if it’s that sleazy, I think people can maintain a healthy relationship even if one is in a higher position than the other.”

This odd little quip from Eliza puts you off guard for a moment.

“Uh, well sure, but I doubt if that’s the case with those three.” You sputter.

“Oh I agree, but the thing is, I get the impression it isn’t necessarily sex. It feels like something else is going on with them. I think it’s still worthwhile to stick around a little longer.”

“Okay, but as I’ve said before, be very careful. I wouldn’t want anyone there to find out about you, you’re the only employee I have that doesn’t cause any trouble.”

“I will, but thanks for your concern.”

You suddenly feel the need to “correct” yourself.

“I don’t mean I only care about you as an employee, I mean I also care about you…I mean as a person! Y’know, I don’t want anything to happen to you.” You awkwardly word.

“I know what you mean. And thanks again I appreciate it.” Eliza says with a smile.

You tell her the next time you want to meet, but if she finds out anything really important to come to you earlier. As she begins to leave you realize you are starting to develop some feelings for Eliza, though you aren’t sure if she feels the same way, but you get the impression that she has also been dropping a few hints.
> You say something
Things don’t get accomplished by sitting around doing nothing. You have to seize the day! You stand up from your seat and call out to her.

“Eliza!”

“Yes?”

“I like you! Do you like me?”

Not exactly the most mature way of “seizing the day” but fortunately for you Eliza is easily amused and she isn’t without her own feelings towards you.

After a few moments of talking the pair of you both realize you can’t really do anything major with this relationship now, but after all this spying business is over with you’ll be able to.

Except that doesn’t really happen and the pair of you are meeting a lot more frequently.

A month passes and Wendy begins to grumble about being short staffed and wonder when the hell Eliza is coming back.

“Eliza’s doing important work and I’m sick of hearing criticism about her, so just suck it up and work harder.” You tell Wendy

“Are you fucking kidding me? I work like a fucking Dwarven Shieldmaiden around here!” Wendy exclaims. “It’s not like Rita does any damn work except sit around and look pretty, and as for those two halfbreed sluts I have to practically light a fire under their asses in order to get them to do anything. Eliza was the only one who I could reliably count on and now I don’t even have her because she’s fucking you!”

“HEY! Watch who the hell you’re talking to!”

“Or what? It’s true isn’t it? Don’t think I haven’t noticed the increase in your little meetings with her. Far be it from me to get in the way of young love and all that, but it’s starting to interfere with MY life. Tell me has she even found anything to incriminate Frank yet?”

“Well no, but she says there’s still a lot of suspicious stuff going on. She says she thinks she might be on to something soon.”

Wendy just shakes her head. “I told you we should’ve just gone with my plan. I’m telling you right now though, I’m not going to put up with being overworked too much longer, so if you expect me to stick around, you better stop playing so much grab ass with her so she can concentrate on her real job.”

While Wendy’s words give you something to consider, they’re a little too late. A few days later while you’re going to one of your classes you run into Frank of all people on campus.

“So, this is what college is like eh? I believe I probably would’ve liked going to this institution. Having more knowledge is always a good thing.”

“Frank…what are you doing here?”

“Ah, what I’m doing here, let’s walk and talk, wouldn’t want you to be late for class and all.”

You slowly walk with Frank while having a sickening feeling about this whole surprise visit.

“Okay m’boy let’s get right to it since you’re obviously about to vomit. I know all about Eliza, quite honestly I don’t know why I didn’t pick up on her reasons for being there in the first place. Stupidness on my part, I suppose I was blinded by the idea that my inn was finally starting to gain more customers again…but this isn’t about my stupidity, it’s about yours.”

You stop for a moment as you begin to feel sick to the point that you’re dry heaving.

“Oh for…alright I better tell you the good news first before you make a damn scene. Eliza is fine…for now. Anyway let me get to the point. Your inn is mine now.”

“What?”

“Well your mother’s inn then, or whoever owns it. I’m not unreasonable so I will buy it for a fair price.”

“Wait, you just want me to hand over the inn to you?”

“No, I said I was offering to buy it…that is unless you don’t really care about your precious Eliza after all.”

At this point you get angry and grab Frank by the collar with both hands, causing several passersby to avoid the pair of you. Frank isn’t at all intimidated though.

“Attempting to beat the hell out of me isn’t going to improve your situation m’boy. Look you need to just accept the fact that you’ve lost. It’s obvious you have feelings for Eliza, so the logical thing to do is to sell your inn.”

“I have friends in the Klyton militia, I could just have them storm your place!”

“You could I suppose, but not in time to save Eliza, not to mention that plan might not work out like you think. I have friends of my own too, much more powerful than the Klyton militia.” Frank’s expression is quite serious at this point.

Lacking any other ideas, you feebly attempt to bluff.

“…well maybe…Eliza will have to be sacrificed for the good of the inn…or…”

“Wow, I’m surprised you actually managed to say it, even if you don’t mean it. Even if you were serious, I doubt that even you would want to sacrifice your own child within her.”

The shock of this revelation leaves you speechless.

“Hmm, didn’t tell you then? She’s not far along and obviously not showing yet but trust me I know. It’s one of the reasons why you’re getting this special generous deal. I’m not exactly heartless even though you probably think I’m being a complete bastard right now. Well I suppose I’ll leave you to it, I imagine you’ll need lots of time to get your stuff in order.”

You heart sinks, there’s no way out of this. You’ll have to tell your mother everything and this is definitely going to put an end to your college pursuits for a long time.

The transfer isn’t complicated. Your mother isn’t exactly happy about how you bungled all this, but she isn’t willing to sacrifice her future grandchild. Not to mention she was only continuing to help with the inn due to your college fees. She’s been tired of living in Klyton ever since your father died.

When you and your mother meet Frank at his inn, he has a couple of his waitresses to get Eliza. She looks none the worse for wear. Frank assures you that apart from keeping her locked up in one of his rooms nothing was done to her.

In the following months you eventually marry Eliza and get a job as a lowly clerk filing away insignificant papers and other dull material. You move into a modest apartment and manage to get settled in fairly well due to the money your mother got from selling the inn. She gave most of it to you since she moved to Teckleville to live with her sister Enora.

In the months that follow, Eliza finally gives birth to your daughter. You find yourself working a lot and while you aren’t completely unhappy, you begin to feel a sense of dissatisfaction.

In the years that follow you’re beginning to feel burned out, you wonder if moving to Teckleville wouldn’t be a good idea, but Eliza says that you wouldn’t be find work there, or at least not the kind that pays well enough to support all of you. You and her begin to argue a lot, mostly over money and how you never seem to have enough of it.

Another decade and you’re practically miserable. You’re working at a job that you hate, you live with a wife that you’ve fallen out of love with and you now have two children that are barely obedient.

It’s probably just as well that you suddenly suffer from a heart attack due to all the stress. Any longer and you probably would’ve snapped and went on a killing spree.

In your last moments you wonder back to your days at the inn and if you could’ve avoided all this had you done things differently there.

You’ll never know.


Eliza’s idea might be a little complicated, but if you’re going sic the Klyton militia on Frank for something, you’d better at least have some sort of evidence to back it up, real or imagined.

“Okay Eliza, we’ll go with your plan.”

“What?” Rita exclaims.

“Are you serious?” Wendy adds.

“ Oh, um really?” Eliza says just as surprised as everyone.

“Sure and you’re going to be the one to do it.”

“Oh I couldn’t…I’m far too shy!”

“Oh for…if you’re going to insist on doing this plan, you’ll need someone who can work a room. Of course I’ll expect to be paid extra for this.” Rita volunteers.

“Oh I can see this plan is a GREAT idea.” Wendy says rolling her eyes.

“Everyone be quiet! I’m not using you Rita because quite frankly too many people already know who you are and you’re too obvious. Eliza needs to do it. She’s practically invisible. No offense.”

“Oh none taken, but I just don’t know if I can.”

“Of course you can, you came up with the idea right? We just need to hammer out the details.”

After a few moments of discussion, Eliza says that the easiest way would be to get hired there as a waitress. If Frank questions her, she’ll say that she didn’t like the environment at your place and her co-workers (especially Rita). It should be enough to convince him, but Eliza’s just worried that she won’t get hired due to her looks. She’s a pretty a girl, but she suffers from low self esteem so you try to boost her up a bit with compliments. Hopefully they work and hopefully this plan works.

A few days later the plan is in motion. Eliza “quits” working at your Inn and works for Frank. In your first secret meeting, she tells you he did know who she was, but apparently he didn’t even question her that much. He was too overjoyed that he was taking help away from you that he hired her right away. Though you wonder if that could be a ruse to lull her into some sort of trap, you tell her to be very cautious.

The next time you meet Eliza she’s dressed a lot more provocatively than usual. You can’t help but to comment.

“Wow, Eliza that uh dress…”

“I know. It doesn’t leave much to the imagination does it? I feel like I’m almost walking around naked and everyone is looking.”

“Oh don’t worry about it, they were looking even before you dressed like that. You are very attractive after all.”

“Oh you don’t need to boost me up anymore, I’m getting over my shyness, though I suppose I don’t have much choice. Now here’s what I’ve found out so far…”

Eliza goes on to say that other than having a lot of beautiful girls working for him she hasn’t found anything out of the ordinary yet. He doesn’t seem to be involved in any illegal activity either.

“Are you sure there isn’t any prostitution going on?”

“That was the first thing I thought of, but it doesn’t look like it. None of the other waitresses are sneaking off with the patrons to some backroom and I haven’t been asked to do anything unseemly either.”

“Damn…uh I mean that’s good you weren’t put in that position though. So nothing at all huh?”

“Well, the only thing that I noticed that might be odd is two of the girls always seem to be there all the time and sometimes they go off with Frank in the basement for long periods of time. There are rumors that they’re sleeping with him.”

“Well sleeping with the boss might be sleazy, but it’s not illegal.” You say.

“I dunno if it’s that sleazy, I think people can maintain a healthy relationship even if one is in a higher position than the other.”

This odd little quip from Eliza puts you off guard for a moment.

“Uh, well sure, but I doubt if that’s the case with those three.” You sputter.

“Oh I agree, but the thing is, I get the impression it isn’t necessarily sex. It feels like something else is going on with them. I think it’s still worthwhile to stick around a little longer.”

“Okay, but as I’ve said before, be very careful. I wouldn’t want anyone there to find out about you, you’re the only employee I have that doesn’t cause any trouble.”

“I will, but thanks for your concern.”

You suddenly feel the need to “correct” yourself.

“I don’t mean I only care about you as an employee, I mean I also care about you…I mean as a person! Y’know, I don’t want anything to happen to you.” You awkwardly word.

“I know what you mean. And thanks again I appreciate it.” Eliza says with a smile.

You tell her the next time you want to meet, but if she finds out anything really important to come to you earlier. As she begins to leave you realize you are starting to develop some feelings for Eliza, though you aren’t sure if she feels the same way, but you get the impression that she has also been dropping a few hints.
> You leave it alone
Whatever feelings either of you might have need to be put aside and left alone at least until she’s done with this mission. She needs to focus.

A month passes and Wendy begins to grumble about being short staffed and wonder when the hell Eliza is coming back.

“Eliza’s doing important work, just hang in there. She’ll be back here on a regular basis soon.”

“Well she better. Dunno why you went with her plan anyway, it would’ve been easier to go with mine.” Wendy says.

“Maybe, but I wanted to have some extra leverage on Frank if we’re going to report him to our militia friends.”

Your gamble pays off, a few days later. Eliza comes running into the inn with something bundled under one of her arms and looking more than a little nervous. She says she needs to talk to you immediately and how important it is. You comply and head to the kitchen where your mother is, since she probably needs to know whatever Eliza has to say as well.

“Demons…Frank’s in league with demons!” Eliza blurts out.

“What? Are you sure?” you ask.

“Yes! I was in his wine cellar getting a special bottle for one of his wealthy merchant customers when a rat passed by and startled me. This caused me to jump back and I hit the wall, but in doing so I must’ve hit some sort of secret button because the wall opened up into a small room. There was blood on the floor, a few bones, and a bunch of symbols drawn everywhere. The thing that stood out though was this!”

Eliza drops the bundle on the kitchen table and unwraps the cloth she’s put it in to reveal a large leather bound book with a few symbols written on it. If it isn’t a spell book, it sure looks like one.

“Well I suppose we now know Frank’s an unlicensed mage, but are you sure about the demons?” Your mother asks.

“Yes! I’ve seen them! I mean everyone has, they just don’t know!” Eliza exclaims. “When I was leaving with the book and closing the secret door, two of the waitresses I work with confronted me. When they showed me their true forms, I was scared for my life. These two in particular had always made me a little nervous. They just had an odd aura about them, never imagined that they were demons though.”

“They didn’t try to do anything to you?”

“No, they just said that I was very lucky Frank neglected to be thorough when drawing up his contract with them. I think they saw me as a potential loophole out of their service to him. I know they never really seemed fond of Frank.”

“Well whatever the reason, I’m glad you’re safe. I suppose now we should go inform the Klyton militia.” You say.

After bringing the book to Klyton sergeant and Eliza repeating her story to them, they take action immediately. Unlicensed magery is a very series offense, let alone cavorting with demons.

Naturally you don’t witness the raid; in fact the Klyton militia tries its best to section off the area beforehand, but given that Frank’s place is in a high traffic area and is already pretty popular, it’s not an entirely successful endeavor. A group of heavily armed Klyton militia with sanctioned wizards as support tends to draw attention. Fortunately it doesn’t end in a big explosion and hundreds dead. It ends with a few smaller explosions and only a couple dozen dead instead. Unfortunately it also ends with the one of the demons escaping as well. For a while there’s a lock down on the entire city as the Klyton militia tries to maintain order as well as searching for the thing, eventually nothing comes of it and it is assumed that the succubus flew away to a place where it could hunt for new prey a lot easier. (Probably Hessla).

During this time, the inn was pretty busy since several merchants couldn’t leave the city right away, not to mention some of the regulars drinking a little more to calm themselves of a possible demon running around, so it works out for you pretty well.

After everything is said and done, you have enough money to continue your education and with this financial pressure off, you easily pass the rest of your classes with no worries.

Of course now you’re in your final stages of your education, which means medical school as well as actually having to get a job actually working at a hospital. The only problem with that is being an intern doesn’t pay all that well and you certainly can’t do that AND work at the bar. Your mother reassures you that you shouldn’t worry about it as she’ll be able to hire a couple extra people as well as being able to help with the rest of your tuition.

In any case it looks like your days as an innkeeper are over.
> You future Plans
A few years have passed and your medical schooling is complete and you now work at the Klyton hospital as a real doctor.

Your personal life has changed quite a bit over the past few years as well. You currently live in an apartment near the hospital with a fellow medical student. Actually she’s your girlfriend. It started out as a simple roommates thing, but then it developed into something a little more. Cindy still has a year of schooling to go, and you now have a job at the hospital so you weren’t planning on going anywhere just yet.

However Cindy suggests that the pair of you should leave for the Delantium Kingdom, specifically Sivak, which is the closest big city. She mentions that there are more opportunities there and she would prefer living there as well.

You don’t really have any specific objections against going there, it’s just you’ve never left Klyton, so you’re probably a little nervous especially since you’ve managed to succeed in getting a good job here and maintain a friendly relationship with most of the people you work beside.

Well you have a year to hammer out all the plans in the meantime you’re on your way to visit your mother. You don’t see her as much as you used to but she is of course very proud of you and mentions that your father would be too if he were still alive. After all it was always his goal to make sure that you went into medicine for a career.

When you get to the Traveler’s Inn, it never ceases to amaze you how much the place has changed and how much it has grown since the days when you were little. Wendy does most of the day to day inn management nowadays, leaving your mom to concentrate on the cooking, which she prefers in the first place. Rita still works there surprisingly enough. Apparently she found it a lot better to just hook up with various rich guys for a short period of time to get some gifts and then remain single.

Eliza is the new head barmaid. You guess that experience with the whole Griffon Inn situation boosted her confidence. She even managed to turn Flameflower and Sunshine into productive employees! You remember how friendly you were to each other and how sometimes it seemed like there was the potential for more there, but neither one of you seriously pursued it.

“Well, haven’t seen you in awhile Mr. big shot doctor. You still with that…girl?” Rita asks when you walk in.

“Her name’s Cindy and yes I am, Rita. What’s it to you anyway?”

“Nothing, can’t I be concerned for your well being? I mean we have known each other for a long time and all.”

“Hm. Well I’m fine. Where’s my mom?”

“She’s in the kitchen as usual.”

You walk past Rita, shaking your head at her sudden interest in you now that you have a good paying job. As you approach the bar, Wendy notices you.

“I see the great doctor has come for a visit. Taking a break from that girl you shacked up with huh? Anyway your mom is in the kitchen.” She says and then goes back to talking with some of the patrons.

When you enter the kitchen your mom turns around to see you and smiles before rushing to give you a big hug.

“Aw mom.” You say not wanting all this fuss.

“Hey indulge me, I don’t get to see you as much as I used to. So how have you been? What’s going on? Are you still with…that girl?”

“Her name’s Cindy, geez why doesn’t anyone like her? Rita and Wendy both made some snide remark about her as I came walking in.”

“Sorry son, I’m sure Cindy’s a nice girl and all, but the couple times you visited here with her, she was a bit pretentious, and you know Wendy doesn’t care for people like that. As for Rita, well I’m sure you know why she’s acts the way she does by now.”

“ Okay I know Cindy has a bit of that upper class personality, but Eliza was the only one who even tried to be friendly with Cindy the last time she was here!”

“Eliza would be friendly to a mountain troll as long as it wasn’t eating her. It’s just her nature. Not to mention she thinks you’re happy with Cindy so she’s happy for you.”

“So, why can’t you be happy for me?”

“Who said I wasn’t? If that’s who you want then good! I’m all for it. The question though is are you happy?”

“Of course I am! I wouldn’t be moving with her to Sivak by next year if I wasn’t! That’s sort of why I came here today. I wanted to let you know, I’ll be leaving Klyton soon.”

You mother doesn’t seem too emotional about this revelation, you were sort of expecting more tears or celebration. Instead she just sighs and heads off to cut some vegetables, before speaking again.

“Hmm, okay. Well as long as you’re sure that’s what you want to do.”

“Why wouldn’t it? I mean there are more opportunities in Sivak than there are here for me and Cindy. You didn’t want me to stay did you? I thought you were going to sell this place and move to Teckleville anyway.”

“No, of course I don’t want you to stay for me! Geez, I can manage just fine. Your father and I always knew the day would come that you’d move far away. As for selling this place, eh, I’m not sure yet. It is true that after your father died, my main motivation was to keep this place running to help continue paying for your education. I figured after that goal was reached I would indeed retire to Teckleville. I dunno now though. I guess after all the stuff we went through to keep this place, not to mention making it better, I’ve become more attached to it again.”

Now you’re sort of surprised to hear her say that, you thought for sure that she was fully intending on moving back to Teckleville.

“Well, no matter where you are, I hope you know I’ll visit.” You say.

“Oh of course, I wasn’t worried about that. Well anyway I have to finish preparing this drakling. Some adventurers can’t ever order something simple, well at least they brought it in themselves I suppose.”

At this point you and your mother say goodbye to each other and you walk out of the kitchen. On your way out you bump into Eliza.

“Hey you! I haven’t seen you in a long time! How have you been? Are things going well for you and Cindy?”

You smile at the fact that she remembered your girlfriend’s name. “I’ve been okay. I heard about you being the head waitress now, congratulation.”

“Thanks, I’m actually running a little late right now. I’ll have to talk with you later, maybe we should meet sometime when we’re not both busy.”

“Um…yeah maybe. Well see you later.” You say and quickly leave the area.

As you leave you feel a mixture of guilt, anxiety and confusion. Part of you wants to go back. You don’t know if you have real feelings for Eliza or you’re just deliberately thinking about sabotaging things so you don’t have to move away from Klyton.
> You make plans to meet with Eliza
You go back to the inn. You don’t know what the hell you’re doing, but you’re doing it.

“Back so soon doc?” Rita says as you ignore her and look for Eliza.

You instinctively head back to the kitchen where you find her talking to some of the other staff members.

“Eliza, I have to talk to you!” you say anxiously.

“Um…okay, I’m almost done here.”

You wait impatiently for Eliza to finish talking to her subordinates, while you’re doing that your mother is eyeing you suspiciously as she begins cooking a large piece of meat.

You can’t wait here! This was a mistake! You have to leave now!

You rush out of the kitchen, but you don’t get far when you feel Eliza’s hand grab your shoulder.

“Hey, where are you going? I thought you had to talk to me.” She says.

You turn around and nothing comes out. You just take one look at her face and you can’t contain yourself. You grab and kiss her right on the lips. This is followed by a few cheers and claps from the patrons in the bar.

“Huh, took him long enough to realize it.” Wendy says and goes back to cleaning the bar.

Eliza’s response is pure shock. She doesn’t know what to do except run into the ladies room. You call out to her before realizing you’ve done this in front of several onlookers. You panic again and run into the kitchen.

“What’s going on out there? Did I hear you call out Eliza’s name? What did you do?”

“I…I fucked up…” you blurt out.

You quickly explain what just happened and your mother shakes her head while throwing a washcloth on the table.

“(Sigh) I KNEW something was up when you wanted to talk to her and were acting more jittery than a goblin caught in a troll’s larder. I don’t know what to tell you son except you’ve handled this poorly. This is definitely something you’re going to have to fix yourself, but you need to do it soon, because Eliza’s one of the best employees here and I don’t need her all upset right now.”

You think about slipping out the back, but your mother’s right, you need to take care of this now. At least part of it, because you’ll need to take care of the rest tonight when you talk to Cindy.

You sheepishly exit the kitchen wondering if everyone will be looking. Most glance your way, but go back to their business.

“She’s down in the cellar doctor love.” Wendy says.

Not saying another word you go down to the cellar. You see Eliza trying to keep busy by taking stock of the beer casks with another employee you don’t know.

“Eliza.”

“I can’t talk anymore, I really have to make sure we have enough beer this month. Our shipment is a little late. It was nice seeing you.” She answers without looking in your direction.

“Eliza we need to talk about what just happened.”

“I think we should just forget about it. Shouldn’t you be getting home? I’m sure Cindy will be wondering about where you are.”

At this point you grab Eliza again and tell the stock boy to leave, he doesn’t seem to want to get involved in whatever drama you two have so he complies.

“Let me go.”

“Okay, but we’re gonna talk!”

“Talk about what? About me being the other woman? I don’t want to be that and Cindy doesn’t deserve it! I don’t deserve it!”

“I’m gonna break up with Cindy! I want you. I know that now. I should’ve acted on it earlier…”

“You certainly should have! (sob) Do you know how much I wanted you to say something? Years! From the moment you came back to this inn after your father died, I wanted you to say something. Now it’s too late!”

“It’s not too late! I just said I’ll break up with Cindy then we can be together!”

“Just like that huh? You can toss her aside so easily? I thought you were in love with her.”

“I was…I mean…no…agh! Shit look, I want to be with you! Why are you making this so difficult?”

“Because it IS fucking difficult! (sob) I had just come to accept the fact that you and I were never going to happen no matter how much I wanted it. (sob) And now you come back and stir all my emotions up, because you’re having doubts about your relationship with Cindy? What the hell happens when you start having doubts about me one day?”

“That wouldn’t happen…”

“How do I know? I mean… (sniffle) we’ve never even gone out on a date. How do you know if we’re even going to be compatible?”

“Well let’s go on one right now. Anywhere you want!”

“Just leave me alone. I need time to myself.”

You try to touch Eliza to reassure her, but she flinches away. You don’t say anything else and leave her be like she wanted.

On your way home you think about everything and how badly it all went. You didn’t know Eliza pined after you for so long. You really had no idea. If you did you would’ve…

Would’ve, could’ve, should’ve, doesn’t really matter now. What matters now is what you’re going to do about all this. Eliza also brought up a good point on how can you possibly know that you’re compatible and how it looks like you’re just reaching out to her because of your doubts with Cindy.

Speaking of Cindy, you need to figure out what you’re going to say to her when you get home.
> You stay with Cindy
Given that Eliza didn’t seem to happy with you, your future with her seems unlikely. You see now that you missed that opportunity a long time ago and that you need to move on from this folly. You just hope that you’ll be able to and that none of this will get back to Cindy.

When you get home, Cindy asks where you’ve been and you tell her you visited your mother at the inn. You don’t really elaborate anymore than that, but Cindy doesn’t ask anything further as she’s not too interested in what’s ever going on there in the first place.

During your last remaining year in Klyton, you don’t visit your family’s inn anymore as a safety precaution. You try to go on about your life though the fear of Cindy finding out what might’ve happened is always in the back of your mind. Granted Cindy’s not likely to visit the inn anytime soon, but what happens if one of those miners goes to the hospital for a broken leg or something? What if he sees you and asks how Eliza is in the “sack?” What if Cindy is with you when he asks that question? What if Eliza herself comes down and causes a scene?

“Hey you! Come here we need another doctor in ER!” a nurse shouts at you.

You stop your current daydreaming and quickly follow her to the emergency room

“She’s not breathing!”

“Does anyone know what she took?”

“Her employer said she thinks it was Bog Malice.”

The noisy chaos of the emergency room seems to go silent when you step forward to see the girl lying on the table.

It’s Eliza.

“Don’t just stand there, hand me that pump!”

You snap out of your daze and grab the pump the surgeon asked for.

“This isn’t working, the poison’s too damn strong. Her body is probably completely shutting down. Where the hell are those electro-gauntlets?”

“NO, she can’t die!” you shout. “Hand me a syringe of Troll Adrenaline!”

“Troll Adrenaline? Her body can’t take that!” a nurse says

“She’s already fucking dying! Somebody gimme that syringe now!”

You shove the syringe deep into her chest and inject the adenaline. This causes Eliza’s body to begin to twitch violently and she even opens her eyes. She then spits up a mixture of blood and some sort of black fluid.

“Huuuuuuuuuu!” Eliza wheezes

A nurse rushes in with electro-gauntlets and you grab them immediately and lay your hands on Eliza’s chest.

“CLEAR!”

BUZZ!

“CLEAR!”

BUZZ!

“CLEAR!”

BUZZ! SPARK! FWOOM!

The electro-gauntlets short out and you end up giving yourself a nasty zap causing you to fall to the floor. It doesn’t take you long to realize the gauntlets are also on fire. You shake them off immediately. You smell the scent of burnt flesh and scramble back up to help Eliza who has now once again ceased to move.

“Oh shit, shit! I’m sorry Eliza! I’m so fucking sorry!” you say and begin pounding on her chest, but it’s no use

“You tried everything you could my boy, she’s gone.” The surgeon says trying to calm you down.

“No, but look her foot just twitched, she…”

“That twitch was just an after effect of the troll adrenaline. (Sigh) Never gets easy losing a patient…and I gather you knew this one personally?”

“…yeah…she…yeah…”

You stumble out of the emergency room and see your mother who must’ve been the one who brought her here.

“Son! Is Eliza…”

“She’s dead.”

After the funeral you take time off from work. Cindy tries to be sympathetic, but the fact that you feel really guilty over Eliza’s death and incredibly broken up about it leads her to quite rightly think that you had stronger feelings for her than you let on. Ultimately Cindy breaks up with you and eventually moves back to the Delantium Kingdom by herself.

Eventually you go back to work and continue on with your life. You never do forgive yourself for Eliza’s death though and immerse yourself in your work.

As for your family’s inn, your mother continues to run it until the day she dies. You get the impression her concern for you caused her to stay rather than retire to Teckleville like she once planned. Upon her death you sell the inn, as you have no desire to run the place. The owner of a chain of inns from the Delantium Kingdom ends up buying it.

Due to your focus on your job, you end up becoming a more dedicated doctor with many patients speaking highly of you. In time you even win an Excellence in Medicine Award. You graciously accept these awards and praise, but you always think back of what you should’ve done differently to save the one life you feel directly responsible.

You think Eliza’s suicide could’ve been prevented if only you’d kept your mouth shut that day. Or maybe you should’ve pursued her harder. Or maybe you should’ve done something else. You routinely mentally torture yourself with all the possible better ways you think you could’ve handled things. As a result you never marry and place flowers on her grave site on a weekly basis.

Your own death is a sudden one at home that comes to you many years later well into an age when you should’ve long retired. When your body is found, your last request in your will is carried out. Your body is cremated and the ashes sprinkled over Eliza’s grave.


You go back to the inn. You don’t know what the hell you’re doing, but you’re doing it.

“Back so soon doc?” Rita says as you ignore her and look for Eliza.

You instinctively head back to the kitchen where you find her talking to some of the other staff members.

“Eliza, I have to talk to you!” you say anxiously.

“Um…okay, I’m almost done here.”

You wait impatiently for Eliza to finish talking to her subordinates, while you’re doing that your mother is eyeing you suspiciously as she begins cooking a large piece of meat.

You can’t wait here! This was a mistake! You have to leave now!

You rush out of the kitchen, but you don’t get far when you feel Eliza’s hand grab your shoulder.

“Hey, where are you going? I thought you had to talk to me.” She says.

You turn around and nothing comes out. You just take one look at her face and you can’t contain yourself. You grab and kiss her right on the lips. This is followed by a few cheers and claps from the patrons in the bar.

“Huh, took him long enough to realize it.” Wendy says and goes back to cleaning the bar.

Eliza’s response is pure shock. She doesn’t know what to do except run into the ladies room. You call out to her before realizing you’ve done this in front of several onlookers. You panic again and run into the kitchen.

“What’s going on out there? Did I hear you call out Eliza’s name? What did you do?”

“I…I fucked up…” you blurt out.

You quickly explain what just happened and your mother shakes her head while throwing a washcloth on the table.

“(Sigh) I KNEW something was up when you wanted to talk to her and were acting more jittery than a goblin caught in a troll’s larder. I don’t know what to tell you son except you’ve handled this poorly. This is definitely something you’re going to have to fix yourself, but you need to do it soon, because Eliza’s one of the best employees here and I don’t need her all upset right now.”

You think about slipping out the back, but your mother’s right, you need to take care of this now. At least part of it, because you’ll need to take care of the rest tonight when you talk to Cindy.

You sheepishly exit the kitchen wondering if everyone will be looking. Most glance your way, but go back to their business.

“She’s down in the cellar doctor love.” Wendy says.

Not saying another word you go down to the cellar. You see Eliza trying to keep busy by taking stock of the beer casks with another employee you don’t know.

“Eliza.”

“I can’t talk anymore, I really have to make sure we have enough beer this month. Our shipment is a little late. It was nice seeing you.” She answers without looking in your direction.

“Eliza we need to talk about what just happened.”

“I think we should just forget about it. Shouldn’t you be getting home? I’m sure Cindy will be wondering about where you are.”

At this point you grab Eliza again and tell the stock boy to leave, he doesn’t seem to want to get involved in whatever drama you two have so he complies.

“Let me go.”

“Okay, but we’re gonna talk!”

“Talk about what? About me being the other woman? I don’t want to be that and Cindy doesn’t deserve it! I don’t deserve it!”

“I’m gonna break up with Cindy! I want you. I know that now. I should’ve acted on it earlier…”

“You certainly should have! (sob) Do you know how much I wanted you to say something? Years! From the moment you came back to this inn after your father died, I wanted you to say something. Now it’s too late!”

“It’s not too late! I just said I’ll break up with Cindy then we can be together!”

“Just like that huh? You can toss her aside so easily? I thought you were in love with her.”

“I was…I mean…no…agh! Shit look, I want to be with you! Why are you making this so difficult?”

“Because it IS fucking difficult! (sob) I had just come to accept the fact that you and I were never going to happen no matter how much I wanted it. (sob) And now you come back and stir all my emotions up, because you’re having doubts about your relationship with Cindy? What the hell happens when you start having doubts about me one day?”

“That wouldn’t happen…”

“How do I know? I mean… (sniffle) we’ve never even gone out on a date. How do you know if we’re even going to be compatible?”

“Well let’s go on one right now. Anywhere you want!”

“Just leave me alone. I need time to myself.”

You try to touch Eliza to reassure her, but she flinches away. You don’t say anything else and leave her be like she wanted.

On your way home you think about everything and how badly it all went. You didn’t know Eliza pined after you for so long. You really had no idea. If you did you would’ve…

Would’ve, could’ve, should’ve, doesn’t really matter now. What matters now is what you’re going to do about all this. Eliza also brought up a good point on how can you possibly know that you’re compatible and how it looks like you’re just reaching out to her because of your doubts with Cindy.

Speaking of Cindy, you need to figure out what you’re going to say to her when you get home.
> You break up with Cindy
You have to go for this. Even if doesn’t work out you’ll always be wondering “What if?”

But before you can do anything, you have to break up with Cindy first. You aren’t looking forward to it, but in a way you feel it’s probably for the best no matter what happens with Eliza. You don’t particularly want to move and you’re happy where you’re at right now. Cindy’s been dominating your relationship since you’ve been together and it’s time to put an end to it.

When you get home, Cindy’s already there questioning where you’ve been. You take a deep breath and say what’s on your mind about her whole plan to move and how you’re not into the idea. This of course has the predictable result of causing an argument, but Cindy’s not an idiot. She KNOWS there is more to it than just the moving. She continues to press the issue of where you’ve been before you came to tell her this new revelation.

Eventually you just tell her everything about how you also have feelings for Eliza. Cindy becomes very upset and even throws a few objects at you before attempting to hit you with her fists. You manage to fend her off long enough so she stops and just resorts to calling you every swear word in the human language (and a few in some other languages!) before starting to pack her belongings.

“Cindy, I’m really sorry, I didn’t want it to be like this, I just…”

“Save it asshole. I can’t believe I fell for you! I see now that you can take the boy out of the gutter, but you can’t take the gutter out of the boy. I hope you and your trashy barmaid have a good life together because you certainly deserve each other. Oh and don’t think you’re getting away with this insult. My wrath will be terrible. This, I fucking vow dickhead!”

And with that Cindy leaves while slamming the door of your apartment. It went about as well as you could’ve expected. All you have to do now is talk to Eliza again. You figure you should probably give her a couple days before do so though.

A few days pass and after work you head over to the inn.

“Oh it’s you. I suppose you’re looking for Eliza, well she’s here. Dunno where though. Y’know, you should’ve just tried to hook up with me instead. Hell I wouldn’t have even cared if you still wanted to stay with Cindy.” Rita says.

“Yeah, just as long as I bought you something nice and expensive right? Sorry, I don’t go for gold digging whores.”

“Oh fuck you, Mr. big shot doctor! Don’t try to play moral superiority on me with all the drama you got going on!”

“I wasn’t playing anything and none of this is about you anyway, despite the fact that you like to think everything is.” You retort and leave.

After a quick scan of the room, you don’t see Eliza. You head over to the bar where Wendy is located.

“Wendy where’s Eliza?”

“You’re back a lot earlier than I expected. You just cost me 20 coppers in the bet we had going. But nevermind all that, I’d just like to say, that you really fucked up with how you handled this situation. I hope you’ve at least had the sense to break over with that snooty bitch before trying this again.”

“Cindy’s not…” you begin to say still feeling the need to defend her, but you stop yourself “(Sigh) Yeah, yeah I did. And I’m probably going to pay for it later.”

“We all pay for our mistakes in some way. She’s in the kitchen. And hey! Be gentle with her, she’s been upset for the past few days and in a fragile state right now.”

You nod and enter the kitchen.

Upon entering the kitchen all eyes turn to you. Eliza’s, your mother’s, the other workers you don’t know, everyone. You half expect Eliza to run off again, but she doesn’t in fact she seems ready to confront you.

“Um, Flameflower can you be in charge of the staff for a little while?” she asks.

“Can I? I’ve waited for this day to come!” Flameflower gleefully says in semi-power drunk glee and then telling everyone to quickly get to work. Her sister Sunshine looks a little jealous. You knew Eliza had managed to instill a work ethic into them, but you didn’t think either of them would jump on the chance for more responsibility.

“If you two are going to talk here at the inn, I suggest one of the empty rooms upstairs and I’d rather you not cause such a scene this time.” You mother says.

“We won’t.”

You and Eliza exit the kitchen through the back way.

“Hey wait doesn’t this lead to your family’s living quarters?” Eliza asks.

“Yeah, and what better place to talk? Nobody will be there, nobody will interrupt us and if something upsetting does happen, a scene won’t be caused.”

You take Eliza to the living area to talk. You notice she’s shaking a bit.

“How come you’re shaking?”

“I’m nervous. I’ve been nervous about all this for the past few days. I didn’t know what was going to come next. I didn’t even know if you were going to come back after what I said to you.”

“What you said? If anything, I should be the one apologizing for all the stuff I did. I mean I mean you were right, I dumped all this stuff on to you suddenly, I also just grabbed and kissed you the way I did. That was really out of line, I’m sorry about that.”

“It wasn’t so much the kiss that bothered me, it was just the situation in which it happened really. I always believed our first kiss…if we ever had one, would be under different circumstances.”

You take a deep breath before continuing.

“Well I feel you should know, I’ve broken up with Cindy.”

“You really broke up with her?”

“Yes, she’s vowed revenge on me and everything.”

“Revenge? You don’t think she’ll do anything crazy or violent do you?”

“I don’t think so and least I hope not. Look, I’ll deal with it when it happens. The point is, I want you to know is I’m here for YOU now. If this means your ready, then I’m ready too. If this means you still need some time, I’ll back off and wait. If that means you don’t want me at all, then fine I’ll leave you alone.”

Eliza takes your hand.

“I don’t want you to leave. I’ve waited a long time for this moment, but I still have concerns about whether we’ll really be happy together or not. I mean what if you come to the conclusion one day that you’ve made a mistake breaking up with Cindy. I’d hate for you to start resenting me for that.”

“Eliza, my breaking up with Cindy wasn’t only for you. I mean I hate to admit it, but yeah perhaps there were selfish reasons for breaking up with her as well. Like not wanting to have her plan our entire life out with minimal say on my part. I really should’ve broken up with her earlier (Sigh) I really did handle this poorly. I just hope you can forgive me for putting you through all this.”

Your talk with Eliza goes on for awhile, eventually you both agree on taking things slow at first, but the pair of you are pretty happy about this new relationship.

Time passes and your relationship with Eliza is going well. Unfortunately Cindy is true to her word and takes revenge even after she leaves Klyton.

She doesn’t do it directly, but rather indirectly, namely through her father’s business connections. The price of booze distributed to your family’s inn is increased, the food too. Most of the traveling merchants that used to stay at the inn now have taken their business elsewhere. Your family’s inn takes a huge loss, and it ends up resulting in laying off most of the staff.

While your mother could keep the place running even with all the cut backs, she ultimately decides it isn’t worth it and sells it altogether in a few years. Naturally Cindy’s father makes sure his people are the ones that get a hold of it. The revenge tries to continue on directly through price gouging from a few shops you buy from, but you manage to put an end to that, by reminding the various owners that you’re a doctor and how pissing you off might not be beneficial for their health plan should they ever get sick in the future.

You apologize to your mother for the situation with the inn however, but she tells you not to worry about it. She got enough from the sale and is moving to Teckleville like she originally planned. She just hopes that you and Eliza will visit every once in awhile.

With Eliza out of a job, she moves in with you. It becomes permanent when you get married. Eventually you also move to Teckleville to start a private practice and soon Eliza gives birth to twins and you start the next phase of your relationship as a family.

Overall your life with Eliza is a good one and you never regret your decision even if it did result in the loss of your family’s inn. Besides you always had the best thing that was ever connected to that place and really that’s what was important.


A few years have passed and your medical schooling is complete and you now work at the Klyton hospital as a real doctor.

Your personal life has changed quite a bit over the past few years as well. You currently live in an apartment near the hospital with a fellow medical student. Actually she’s your girlfriend. It started out as a simple roommates thing, but then it developed into something a little more. Cindy still has a year of schooling to go, and you now have a job at the hospital so you weren’t planning on going anywhere just yet.

However Cindy suggests that the pair of you should leave for the Delantium Kingdom, specifically Sivak, which is the closest big city. She mentions that there are more opportunities there and she would prefer living there as well.

You don’t really have any specific objections against going there, it’s just you’ve never left Klyton, so you’re probably a little nervous especially since you’ve managed to succeed in getting a good job here and maintain a friendly relationship with most of the people you work beside.

Well you have a year to hammer out all the plans in the meantime you’re on your way to visit your mother. You don’t see her as much as you used to but she is of course very proud of you and mentions that your father would be too if he were still alive. After all it was always his goal to make sure that you went into medicine for a career.

When you get to the Traveler’s Inn, it never ceases to amaze you how much the place has changed and how much it has grown since the days when you were little. Wendy does most of the day to day inn management nowadays, leaving your mom to concentrate on the cooking, which she prefers in the first place. Rita still works there surprisingly enough. Apparently she found it a lot better to just hook up with various rich guys for a short period of time to get some gifts and then remain single.

Eliza is the new head barmaid. You guess that experience with the whole Griffon Inn situation boosted her confidence. She even managed to turn Flameflower and Sunshine into productive employees! You remember how friendly you were to each other and how sometimes it seemed like there was the potential for more there, but neither one of you seriously pursued it.

“Well, haven’t seen you in awhile Mr. big shot doctor. You still with that…girl?” Rita asks when you walk in.

“Her name’s Cindy and yes I am, Rita. What’s it to you anyway?”

“Nothing, can’t I be concerned for your well being? I mean we have known each other for a long time and all.”

“Hm. Well I’m fine. Where’s my mom?”

“She’s in the kitchen as usual.”

You walk past Rita, shaking your head at her sudden interest in you now that you have a good paying job. As you approach the bar, Wendy notices you.

“I see the great doctor has come for a visit. Taking a break from that girl you shacked up with huh? Anyway your mom is in the kitchen.” She says and then goes back to talking with some of the patrons.

When you enter the kitchen your mom turns around to see you and smiles before rushing to give you a big hug.

“Aw mom.” You say not wanting all this fuss.

“Hey indulge me, I don’t get to see you as much as I used to. So how have you been? What’s going on? Are you still with…that girl?”

“Her name’s Cindy, geez why doesn’t anyone like her? Rita and Wendy both made some snide remark about her as I came walking in.”

“Sorry son, I’m sure Cindy’s a nice girl and all, but the couple times you visited here with her, she was a bit pretentious, and you know Wendy doesn’t care for people like that. As for Rita, well I’m sure you know why she’s acts the way she does by now.”

“ Okay I know Cindy has a bit of that upper class personality, but Eliza was the only one who even tried to be friendly with Cindy the last time she was here!”

“Eliza would be friendly to a mountain troll as long as it wasn’t eating her. It’s just her nature. Not to mention she thinks you’re happy with Cindy so she’s happy for you.”

“So, why can’t you be happy for me?”

“Who said I wasn’t? If that’s who you want then good! I’m all for it. The question though is are you happy?”

“Of course I am! I wouldn’t be moving with her to Sivak by next year if I wasn’t! That’s sort of why I came here today. I wanted to let you know, I’ll be leaving Klyton soon.”

You mother doesn’t seem too emotional about this revelation, you were sort of expecting more tears or celebration. Instead she just sighs and heads off to cut some vegetables, before speaking again.

“Hmm, okay. Well as long as you’re sure that’s what you want to do.”

“Why wouldn’t it? I mean there are more opportunities in Sivak than there are here for me and Cindy. You didn’t want me to stay did you? I thought you were going to sell this place and move to Teckleville anyway.”

“No, of course I don’t want you to stay for me! Geez, I can manage just fine. Your father and I always knew the day would come that you’d move far away. As for selling this place, eh, I’m not sure yet. It is true that after your father died, my main motivation was to keep this place running to help continue paying for your education. I figured after that goal was reached I would indeed retire to Teckleville. I dunno now though. I guess after all the stuff we went through to keep this place, not to mention making it better, I’ve become more attached to it again.”

Now you’re sort of surprised to hear her say that, you thought for sure that she was fully intending on moving back to Teckleville.

“Well, no matter where you are, I hope you know I’ll visit.” You say.

“Oh of course, I wasn’t worried about that. Well anyway I have to finish preparing this drakling. Some adventurers can’t ever order something simple, well at least they brought it in themselves I suppose.”

At this point you and your mother say goodbye to each other and you walk out of the kitchen. On your way out you bump into Eliza.

“Hey you! I haven’t seen you in a long time! How have you been? Are things going well for you and Cindy?”

You smile at the fact that she remembered your girlfriend’s name. “I’ve been okay. I heard about you being the head waitress now, congratulation.”

“Thanks, I’m actually running a little late right now. I’ll have to talk with you later, maybe we should meet sometime when we’re not both busy.”

“Um…yeah maybe. Well see you later.” You say and quickly leave the area.

As you leave you feel a mixture of guilt, anxiety and confusion. Part of you wants to go back. You don’t know if you have real feelings for Eliza or you’re just deliberately thinking about sabotaging things so you don’t have to move away from Klyton.
> You go home
You never really had a relationship with Eliza on any romantic level; it’s probably just the “idea of Eliza” that’s getting to you. Your life is probably going to change a lot in the near future so your mind is starting to look for loopholes to stay.

But you shake off these feelings. Your life is going good right now, why jeopardize it with poor judgment and fear of the unknown? You overcame hardship to get where you are now. To invite more drama when it isn’t necessary would be foolish.

You head home and when Cindy is finished with her classes you take her out for romantic dinner to reaffirm your dedication of your future plans together. This seems to please her greatly.

During your last remaining year in Klyton, you don’t visit your family’s inn anymore as a safety precaution. You don’t need doubt plaguing your thoughts again. You do make one more visit to your mom before you do eventually leave though.

Thanks to Cindy’s family connections in the Delantium Kingdom, your job at the Sivak hospital is more or less secured (Obviously hers is as well), though they were in need of more medical professionals anyway. The hospital there is a little newer and understaffed, so for a while you’re working a little more than you usually did, but over time your workload becomes manageable.

Your life in general plays out rather mundanely, you end up living in a nice area and eventually you have a couple of children. No major problems for you ever truly crop up though.

As for the old inn, your mother eventually does sell it a few years after you initially left Klyton and retires to Teckleville. On one of your family visits you ask who bought the place and she says Wendy ended up taking it over, which doesn’t surprise you. Curiosity gets the better of you and you ask your mother for more information on your old co-workers. Your mother mentions that Rita quit about a few months before she sold the place. Apparently she finally snagged a guy rich enough to settle down with. Flameflower took her place as hostess and she, along with her sister Sunshine still work there. As for Eliza your mother says she was still working as the head barmaid there.

“All seems like a lifetime ago eh?” your mother says.

“Yeah. I suppose so.” You answer a little preoccupied.

“Is there something wrong son?”

“Oh no. Nothing wrong, just momentarily lost in thought.”

You don’t really explain anymore than that, but your mother senses that you’re playing “what could’ve been” again. She doesn’t address it directly, but does mention of how successful you are and how you’ve got a good life. She also mentions of how it’s everything that your father and her could’ve hoped for you. This truth snaps you out of it, and you never dwell on the past again.

You live out the rest of your life in Sivak working as a physician until you decide to retire. You grow old with Cindy, your children eventually have their own families, and one day you fall asleep and don’t wake up.

Yes, it was a good life overall, but your years as an innkeeper were definitely the ones that helped achieve it.


A few years have passed and your medical schooling is complete and you now work at the Klyton hospital as a real doctor.

Your personal life has changed quite a bit over the past few years as well. You currently live in an apartment near the hospital with a fellow medical student. Actually she’s your girlfriend. It started out as a simple roommates thing, but then it developed into something a little more. Cindy still has a year of schooling to go, and you now have a job at the hospital so you weren’t planning on going anywhere just yet.

However Cindy suggests that the pair of you should leave for the Delantium Kingdom, specifically Sivak, which is the closest big city. She mentions that there are more opportunities there and she would prefer living there as well.

You don’t really have any specific objections against going there, it’s just you’ve never left Klyton, so you’re probably a little nervous especially since you’ve managed to succeed in getting a good job here and maintain a friendly relationship with most of the people you work beside.

Well you have a year to hammer out all the plans in the meantime you’re on your way to visit your mother. You don’t see her as much as you used to but she is of course very proud of you and mentions that your father would be too if he were still alive. After all it was always his goal to make sure that you went into medicine for a career.

When you get to the Traveler’s Inn, it never ceases to amaze you how much the place has changed and how much it has grown since the days when you were little. Wendy does most of the day to day inn management nowadays, leaving your mom to concentrate on the cooking, which she prefers in the first place. Rita still works there surprisingly enough. Apparently she found it a lot better to just hook up with various rich guys for a short period of time to get some gifts and then remain single.

Eliza is the new head barmaid. You guess that experience with the whole Griffon Inn situation boosted her confidence. She even managed to turn Flameflower and Sunshine into productive employees! You remember how friendly you were to each other and how sometimes it seemed like there was the potential for more there, but neither one of you seriously pursued it.

“Well, haven’t seen you in awhile Mr. big shot doctor. You still with that…girl?” Rita asks when you walk in.

“Her name’s Cindy and yes I am, Rita. What’s it to you anyway?”

“Nothing, can’t I be concerned for your well being? I mean we have known each other for a long time and all.”

“Hm. Well I’m fine. Where’s my mom?”

“She’s in the kitchen as usual.”

You walk past Rita, shaking your head at her sudden interest in you now that you have a good paying job. As you approach the bar, Wendy notices you.

“I see the great doctor has come for a visit. Taking a break from that girl you shacked up with huh? Anyway your mom is in the kitchen.” She says and then goes back to talking with some of the patrons.

When you enter the kitchen your mom turns around to see you and smiles before rushing to give you a big hug.

“Aw mom.” You say not wanting all this fuss.

“Hey indulge me, I don’t get to see you as much as I used to. So how have you been? What’s going on? Are you still with…that girl?”

“Her name’s Cindy, geez why doesn’t anyone like her? Rita and Wendy both made some snide remark about her as I came walking in.”

“Sorry son, I’m sure Cindy’s a nice girl and all, but the couple times you visited here with her, she was a bit pretentious, and you know Wendy doesn’t care for people like that. As for Rita, well I’m sure you know why she’s acts the way she does by now.”

“ Okay I know Cindy has a bit of that upper class personality, but Eliza was the only one who even tried to be friendly with Cindy the last time she was here!”

“Eliza would be friendly to a mountain troll as long as it wasn’t eating her. It’s just her nature. Not to mention she thinks you’re happy with Cindy so she’s happy for you.”

“So, why can’t you be happy for me?”

“Who said I wasn’t? If that’s who you want then good! I’m all for it. The question though is are you happy?”

“Of course I am! I wouldn’t be moving with her to Sivak by next year if I wasn’t! That’s sort of why I came here today. I wanted to let you know, I’ll be leaving Klyton soon.”

You mother doesn’t seem too emotional about this revelation, you were sort of expecting more tears or celebration. Instead she just sighs and heads off to cut some vegetables, before speaking again.

“Hmm, okay. Well as long as you’re sure that’s what you want to do.”

“Why wouldn’t it? I mean there are more opportunities in Sivak than there are here for me and Cindy. You didn’t want me to stay did you? I thought you were going to sell this place and move to Teckleville anyway.”

“No, of course I don’t want you to stay for me! Geez, I can manage just fine. Your father and I always knew the day would come that you’d move far away. As for selling this place, eh, I’m not sure yet. It is true that after your father died, my main motivation was to keep this place running to help continue paying for your education. I figured after that goal was reached I would indeed retire to Teckleville. I dunno now though. I guess after all the stuff we went through to keep this place, not to mention making it better, I’ve become more attached to it again.”

Now you’re sort of surprised to hear her say that, you thought for sure that she was fully intending on moving back to Teckleville.

“Well, no matter where you are, I hope you know I’ll visit.” You say.

“Oh of course, I wasn’t worried about that. Well anyway I have to finish preparing this drakling. Some adventurers can’t ever order something simple, well at least they brought it in themselves I suppose.”

At this point you and your mother say goodbye to each other and you walk out of the kitchen. On your way out you bump into Eliza.

“Hey you! I haven’t seen you in a long time! How have you been? Are things going well for you and Cindy?”

You smile at the fact that she remembered your girlfriend’s name. “I’ve been okay. I heard about you being the head waitress now, congratulation.”

“Thanks, I’m actually running a little late right now. I’ll have to talk with you later, maybe we should meet sometime when we’re not both busy.”

“Um…yeah maybe. Well see you later.” You say and quickly leave the area.

As you leave you feel a mixture of guilt, anxiety and confusion. Part of you wants to go back. You don’t know if you have real feelings for Eliza or you’re just deliberately thinking about sabotaging things so you don’t have to move away from Klyton.
> You cindy (Your girlfriend)
Cindy: Girlfriend

You met Cindy about a year and a half ago. How you missed each before all this time is mostly due to her focus in pediatrics. It’s a relatively new field. Before it was seriously considered as a real branch of medicine; kids were treated like miniature adults, which sometimes lead to unfortunate “over medication.”

Like most people who pursue the medical field she comes from a wealthy merchant family, though originally her family came from the Delantium Kingdom and moved here a long time ago mainly because her father didn’t like all the new taxes imposed by the Kingdom. She still has extended family there and remains on good terms with them and hopes to move back some day since she’s never cared much for Klyton, claiming that most of the city doesn’t have the appreciation of the fine arts and is rather “low class” in general. (Even the rich Klytonians)

This sort of attitude is mostly due to her Delantium upbringing when she was young, but despite this she still wants to help the children of the less fortunate since she feels everyone still should get the chance to pull themselves out of the gutter. This is probably why she found you attractive. While you certainly had help, you did manage to pull yourself “out of the gutter” so to speak. Of course the few times that she visited the inn, she didn’t make a good impression with most of your acquaintances there. She wasn’t outright rude, but she was standoffish to a point where most of them considered her a snob (and a few others worse than that!)

You take it in stride for the most part. As long as she’s not calling your mother a gutter whore, you’re not excessively bothered by her slightly elitist ways.