Another day home from school…

“I’m telling you Ms. Zelamoyer is a witch, there’s no way she could know what we did unless she read our minds!” David says.

“Yeah maybe she’s even a demon in human disguise!” Tom adds

“Or maybe you two looked guilty as hell and laughed the loudest when she sat on the thumbtacks you put in her seat.” You say. “I told you guys that was a bad idea. I’m surprised she only paddled you and didn’t have you kicked out of the school permanently.”

“Yeah well it didn’t even hurt. My dad beats me harder than that. Though I guess Tom thought it hurt with the way he cried! Hahahaha!” David taunts.

“Shut up David!” Tom exclaims.

“So are you playing Smash Sphere over in the park today?” David asks you.

“I hope so, but my dad’s been on my case about me studying harder. Says he wants me to make something of myself when I grow up.”

“That sucks. My dad is always either at the mines or drinking at your dad’s place. The only time I have to worry about him is when my mom tells him about something I did, then I get a beating. I don’t think I’d survive it if he was always around.” David replies.

“My mom doesn’t beat me, but she’ll yell and throw me into a small dark closet without food if I do something bad.” Tom says.

“Your mom is one scary ass dyke, Tom. My dad said he saw her scare away a mountain troll in the mines once.”

“Shut up David! My mom’s not a dyke!”

“Yes she is! What about that other lady that lives with you then?”

“That’s just mom’s roommate! She needs a place to stay so she helps around the house, like cook dinner or clean up. Mom is at the mines all day, so she can’t do that stuff, so it works out. She’s kind of like a live in maid!”

“Sounds more like a second mom…”

As much as you enjoy Tom’s naïve defense of his lesbian mother and David’s taunting of it, you arrive at the Inn where you say goodbye to your friends and tell them you might see them later.

As soon as you get in, you dad calls you over to the bar.

“So do you have any homework?” he asks.

“Yeah, but it’s not due until next week.”

“Hmm, well if it’s not due until next week it must need a lot of attention, better get started on it.”

“It’s really not that much dad, I can do it over the weekend. I’m going to go out and play smash sphere with David and Tom.”

“Is that what you think? Better cancel that idea. You’re hitting the books, besides I vaguely remember you mentioning you were also going to have test next week too.”

“But dad!”

“Don’t dad me! You’ve been letting your school work slide lately and getting into trouble at school with those two little hoodlums you hang out with.”

“They’re not hoodlums, and I didn’t get into trouble today!”

“You aren’t supposed to be getting into trouble in the first place! Look son, I know you think I’m being hard on you, but this really is for your own good. Your little friends don’t have fathers that give shit about them, I should know because David’s dad is in here all the time and as for Tom, well the less said about his situation the better.”

Doesn’t look like you’re getting out of here today, but you make one last attempt.

“But I really don’t have that much homework, I really can do it quick over the weekend!”

“Well if that is the case, you can help me out here instead.”

“What?”

“One of my barmaids is sick and I’m expecting a full house here tonight due to it being one of the miner’s birthdays today, so you can carry food and drinks.”

You certainly weren’t expecting that.

“What? Can’t mom do it?”

“Your mother is going to have her hands full attempting to cook the giant cloudspeak ram in the kitchen for the celebration, in fact you can start off by helping her chop up the beast.”

As usual your dad has given you no "choice" at all.
> You resign yourself to doing your homework
Well, you’d rather not do any real work and lying and sneaking out is probably just going to get you into more trouble.

“Alright, I’ll do my homework!” you say.

“Good choice son. Make sure you lock the door to the private quarters as usual.”

You head upstairs to the third floor where your family has their own living space and lock the door.

You get started on your homework to get it out of the way so you’ll at least have the weekend to enjoy. As you go through it, it’s a little more difficult than you thought it would be and it was probably good that you have given yourself a lot of time to work on it.

A few hours pass and you’re finally finished. Your dad might be right; if you’d paid more attention in class your homework wouldn’t have taken as long. It’s too late now to go out and play even if you were allowed, but that still doesn’t mean you have to do anymore studying tonight.

You spend the rest of the night playing with some of your toy soldiers and reading a few of your copper dreadfuls. You sometimes can hear some of the louder drunk miners using a bunch of curse words in an amusing way. Eventually you fall asleep.

The next day you wake up early, your parents are still asleep so you grab some cookies before you go out to play. You run into Quincy on the way to David’s house.

“Hey, where were you yesterday? You missed all the excitement!” Quincy says.

“Yeah, I had to go my homework. Damn, I knew I was going to miss a good game of smash ball!”

“No, not that! David and Tom got arrested!”

“What!?”

“Yeah! After we played a few games, we all went to the sweet shop. Well David and Tom tried to steal some of the candy and when Mr. Blek saw them, they ran off with it! They didn’t get far though. From what I know they spent the night in Juvie Hall!”

This is surreal to you. Your dad was right again. You wonder if you would’ve went along with them and gotten in trouble as well if you’d snuck out yesterday. You can always say now that you wouldn’t have, but who knows at that moment?

One thing is for sure; you’re not going to hang out with those two on a regular basis anymore.

…

The day is finally here and you’re heading off to Klyton University. All your hard work has finally paid off and your parents couldn’t be happier.

“Now remember, I’ve been saving for your tuition since you were born, but remember why you’re there. To learn! I don’t want you getting caught up in wild parties and failing your classes. Maybe the upper class kids with super rich parents can afford to, but you can’t.”

“I know dad.”

“Oh, don’t mind your father, have some fun when you can. We know you’ll do the right thing.”

For the most part you do, accomplish the right things in your days at Klyton University. You study, you make contacts, you make friends, and in your free time you have fun.

You initially thought you might be “looked down on” due to your working class background. While there are a few like you here, a university education is still expensive and generally only the rich can afford to send their children there. Still, you managed to get here, you (and your family) must have earned it, and so you’re treated with respect.

Your years at Klyton University are busy but happy ones. You can only imagine that when you just started you pre-med courses that more of the same would’ve come about, however that’s not to be…

You’re in your dorm when you get the message from a courier.

Your father has died of a heart attack. Happened suddenly last night while he was working and by the time a physician arrived nothing could be done to save him. You sit down in shock for a brief moment and when you finally gather your strength, you catch the next coach to the Miner’s Mug Inn.

When you arrive the Inn is closed, so you let yourself in to find your mother who is unsurprisingly upset. You console her as best you can for the time being and help make the funeral arrangements.

Your father didn’t want an expensive funeral, so it’s a small one. The Inn’s staff is invited along with a few of the miners that were genuinely friends with your dad. Everyone pays their respects before dear old dad is put into the ground.

On your way home with your mother, you suddenly realize you’ve missed a couple classes during all this. You then start to wonder about your future college plans and while it’s still a fragile time for your mother, you need to ask her about it when you get home.

You don’t know it yet, but you’re in for more shocking news…
> The long talk

“You’re selling the inn?!”

“I have to! I can’t run this place myself.”

“Well that’s what you have staff for!”

“Oh son…(sniff) I don’t think you know the entire situation. You haven’t been around as much over the years.”

“Mom, I always meant to visit more, but…”

“No, it’s not that. In fact I’m glad you had fun at college. You at least had some enjoyment. I’m just sorry you won’t get to have any more.”

“Mom, I don’t like where this is going.”

You mom at this point begins cry again until you eventually get her to calm down. What comes next almost makes you cry though.

While your father did indeed save for you, it wasn’t enough to put you through college completely. Costs were higher than he thought and even though business was okay, he had unexpected expenses such as making fixes to the inn and price hikes in his alcohol supplier.

Your father was determined to not pull you out of college though, so he found another way. He borrowed money from a moneylender.

“WHAT?! Why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve taken less classes or gotten a part time job at the university!”

“No, he didn’t want you to worry or get distracted.”

“Well I guess that’s good since all that worry can go to this now! By the gods, why didn’t he at least go to a bank to get the loan!?”

“He tried, but didn’t get approved. They wouldn’t even take the inn as collateral. I pleaded with him not to borrow money from criminals, but he claimed it would be fine as long as he opened the tavern earlier, found a cheaper supplier and made a few cuts here and there. And for a while things were running a little smoother, but I could see the stress taking a toll on him. It’s what ultimately killed him. I’m just so sorry that we failed you. We wanted so much better for you. Now I’ll have to sell the inn off to pay off the moneylender and hopefully I’ll be able to find a job as a cook elsewhere.”

You just sit in silence and try to wrap your head around all of this. Your bright future in medicine as you know is gone. You still have quite a bit of education, and you’re fairly certain you could still find a job to support yourself, but it’s going to be hard initially and you probably won’t be satisfied with it. You’re also worried about your mom, what if she can’t find a job? You won’t be able to help her much.

You can only think of one solution.

“Would it help if I ran the inn?” you ask.

“What?” your mother replies.

“Would it help if I helped you run this place. I mean granted I don’t have excessive experience, I have watched you guys do it while I grew up here. I think I can manage the basics. If we managed to keep this place running at least long enough to pay off the loan, maybe then I can save enough to finish my education.”

“I don’t know son, I mean…I would love to see you finish your education, but it’s a lot to take on. Would you have time? I don’t want you getting burned out and suffering a pre-mature heart attack like your father because of the stress!”

“Well, I’m going to have nothing but time now, if I drop out and focus on this place. I think the main concern is getting us out of debt…just how much do you owe?”

“Uh…about ten thousand gold coins.”

You really hoped it would be significantly less than that.

“Okay, well I’m guessing he takes smaller payments to buy you time but then charges more interest with each passage of time. We’ll have to get this place whipped into shape so it’s making enough profit that we’ll be able to pay the entire sum as soon as possible. After that, we’ll have some breathing room.”

Your mom looks apprehensive about all this and then shakes her head claiming she can’t let you shoulder this responsibility especially with the risk of physical danger involved if you anger the moneylender in some way.

She says that you should go on with your life and forget about the inn, she’ll be able to sell it and pay off the debt with no problem. And as for her, she also tells you not to worry about her either, but she hopes that you’ll forgive her and your father for failing in giving you the life you deserve.

It is true you could walk away from all this. You don’t really have any great desire to run the inn. It was just a solution you came up with to help your mom and possibly help yourself. But there’s no guarantee it’s going to work, just like there’s no guarantee that you can’t still achieve your goals on your own.
> You take over the inn
You shake your head; you can’t walk away from this. Your mom might be in serious trouble because this loan. Selling the inn might not even be enough to cover it and even if it is, she probably won’t have enough to fall back on.

You aren’t angry with her, but you do feel a little anger towards your dad for getting her in this position (and you indirectly). You realize he still had the best intentions for you, but those don’t really help right now.

“Alright first things first, who is the name of this loanshark?” you ask your mother.

“Mr. Reynolds. He’ll be coming next week to pick up a collection. He’s not a member of the Crimson Talons, but he does have a couple of their goons working for him.”

“The Crimson Talons? Oh geez, this just get better…okay how is this place doing for business?”

“It’s doing about as well as it always has.”

“That won’t be enough, we’ll need to get more people in here, or cut costs somehow.”

“Well your father was going to have more work done on the rooms in the hopes that it would keep adventurers and maybe even merchants to come back whenever they travel through here. I’m not sure if it’s worth it though. Adventures don’t care where they sleep half the time and it’s not always a sure thing that they’re going to live long enough for repeat business. As for merchants, I think this place is a little too blue collar for them most of the time.”

“You said something about getting a new liquor supplier?”

“Yeah, the one here raised their prices, it would actually be cheaper to get the stuff shipped in from Hessla. Your father was supposed to meet with the new potential distributor in a couple days, so I’m not sure how that’s going to go through, if at all.”

“How about the staff?”

“The staff is working on minimum wage as it is, we’ve got three barmaids, Rita, Eliza and Wendy and they’re all disgruntled about their jobs, but they all still work well.. We can barely pay them though, and we might have to fire one of them.

Grim stuff, but you’re determined to see this through. Since the liquor supplier from Hessla won’t arrive in two days you’re just going to focus on what you can do now.

Fixing the rooms is still a good idea to keep potential returning wandering adventurers happy. Spending a little money now could increase potential profits later. Who knows, maybe even a merchant will show up and spread the word that this place isn’t just some place where miners get drunk.

Firing people sounds like it might save you money, but all it’s really going to do is create more work for the rest of you, so you decide to hold off on firing anyone for now.

Your mother doesn’t agree with your idea of fixing the rooms, but seems relieved that you’re not firing anyone.

Things go as normal at the inn. Several of the miners still offer their condolences about your father and are surprised to see that you’re taking up his mantle as it were, but other than that they don’t say to much to you. They probably don’t know what to say since while some of them might know you since you were little, but you’re not really “one of them” in terms of education level. Not to say they’re all a bunch of grunting idiots, but they probably figure you’re used to talking about things of a more cerebral nature. You don’t mind though, after all your main concern is getting your mom out of debt.

Two days pass and the supplier from Hessla arrives. He’s a grungy shady looking individual, but considering he’s from Hessla that’s hardly surprising.

He immediately says his name is Calwin asks for your father at which point you tell him he died recently. Calwin shows no sympathy and merely complains that he’s made a trip up here for no reason. You show a little restraint and call your mother to speak with him, but after five minutes with him she’s ready to throw him out the door for hitting on her, and you’re not exactly thrilled with him either at this point.

“Look folks, if you want good quality alcohol at a low price I’m willing to deal wit ya, but I’m gonna need some incentive for my troubles because y’all seem like a buncha uptight prigs. Now I was invited here by the man who ran this establishment, so you called me here, if my help ain’t wanted, I’ll be on my way…” Calwin says.

While you’re tempted to just have him leave, you decide it would be best to at least see if his stuff is any good.

“Alright prove it. Surely you’ve brought some of your alcohol here so we can test to see if it’s any good.”

“Well I do have some with me, but I can’t just be givin’ this stuff away for free.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be compensated.”

You call attention to the miners in the room and ask them if they’d like to try some new beer, naturally they’re all for it. A few of the miners take their fill of Calwin’s beer and they say that it’s different from what they usually drink, but it’s just as good.

Calwin looks a little put off that they claimed his alcohol is “just as good”, but still maintains that it’s better than what you already have. He states his price, and also mentions that he wants a free room whenever he comes here since he’s apparently got a harpy of a wife at home and he likes to stay away for a couple days before having to go back to Hessla.

Your mother obviously isn’t thrilled with having to deal with him, and in the short time he’s been here; he’s also hit on every one of the barmaids. Granted they’re used to such behavior, he’s particularly revolting. (Plus he’s from Hessla)
> You deal with him and agree to the free room
If it’s only for a couple days, what can it hurt and you’re getting a good deal on his alcohol, so you figure it’s a good idea. This does not go well with your mother who says you’re going to get the pair of you further into debt. It takes some time, but eventually you manage to convince her that the money you’re saving will be worth the couple days out of the month that he actually comes up here.

Meanwhile Calwin calls his lackeys to unload his cart and take the stuff down to your cellar. Calwin then states he’s going to retire to his room and that if any of your barmaids want to join him his door will be open.

The next couple days aren’t exactly pleasant, Calwin is a complete lecherous slob and leaves not only his room a disgusting mess, but hangs around the bar all day trying to grope the barmaids. (Rita in particular) You have to warn him several times to leave them alone, and eventually one of the miners who has a crush on Rita punches him in the face resulting in a minor scuffle in which Calwin is not the winner.

You fully expect Calwin to claim that he’s never dealing with you again, but as it turns out he doesn’t think anything of it. Indeed he claims if it had been a bar in Hessla he probably would’ve gotten a knife in the eye instead, so he considers himself lucky. Eventually he leaves and everyone is glad, but there’s the sickening feeling that you know you’re going to have to put up with him a few times every month.

By the end of the week you haven’t saved any money. In fact you’ve barely broke even.

While you’re sweeping up the inn early morning, a non-descript man of medium height enters with two bigger figures. One of them is unmistakably an ogre while the other guy is just a tall muscular human. Either one could break you in half.

“Are you are Mr. Reynolds?” you ask, knowing that it has to be him.

“That would be me. I take it you’re the son of my late debtor? I do hope you realize that the debt doesn’t end with him dying…” Mr. Reynolds says

“No, no of course not. I’ve got some of what my father owed.”

You hand over the most you can under the circumstances, but Mr. Reynolds looks insulted.

“My boy do you take me for an asshole? Your father used to pay me much more than this pittance!”

“It was a rough week…”

“No, no, I don’t give a shit about your excuses, you’ve chosen to take on your father’s debt so you are expected to fucking pay up like he did! (Sigh) Look, since you’re obviously new to this, I’ll let you off with a warning. Olaf.”

Suddenly the ogre steps forward with a smile and punches you the stomach. You temporarily lose the ability to breath and collapse on the floor. When you finally do catch your breath, you promptly vomit.

“That was my warning, let’s hope I don’t need to do it again. Be seeing you again in a few weeks kid. Let’s get out of here.”

As Mr. Reynolds leaves, your mother comes running up from the cellar wondering what’s going on. She helps you up when she sees you.

“Oh no son I can’t let this go on. We’re selling the inn right now!”

“No, no mom, it’s alright, you’ll see. We’re going to make this place profitable and payback the loan and after that we’ll be able to take the next step.”

“Son, I love you, but you’ve made a lot of questionable decisions as far as business is concerned. I mean if this keeps up, I’m stepping in before this place goes to hell so I can actually make money selling it to the city.”

“You won’t get enough for it!”

“Well I’ll get enough to pay off the debt, and if worst comes to worst, I’ll leave Klyton and live with my sister in Teckleville”

“You can’t live with aunt Enora, you always said she’s crazy.”

“She is, but that still doesn’t mean she wouldn’t help me out.”

“Look, we’ve still got time, I know my ideas are going to help us out soon.”

“Well, I hope all your fancy schooling you gained some sort of insight that I’m not privy to. Alright we’ll give it until the next time Mr. Reynolds comes around for payment.”

You agree and start wiping up the floor before customers come in.

The next few days are uneventful; the miners seem to be enjoying the new Hessla ale though so that’s a relief. They even seem to be talking to you a little more, one in particular Ular has been chewing your ear quite frequently. He’s the one that has an obvious crush on Rita, but you’ve never seen him actually talk to her on any serious level. Strange that a big tough miner would be too shy to speak to a girl, but there it is.

“So how long have you known Rita?” Ular asks.

“Me? Well she started working here just before I left for college so I didn’t speak to her too much back then, and I haven’t really spoken to her too much other than about duties around the inn since I’ve got back here.”

“She’s so beautiful, you know? I always wonder if she isn’t a Delantium Princess hiding out or something.”

“Yeah, she’s a pretty girl.” You reply.

“Can you speak to her for me?”

“What?”

“Just speak to her for me. I try, but I…dunno I don’t have the words! I get all tongue tied an’ shit. I mean you’re a smart guy, you went to college an’ shit. Maybe you can tell her better how I feel than I can.”

“I dunno if should get involved in this…”

“Please man, just do it…oh shit here she comes!”

At this point Ular stumbles over his own feet trying to get to a dark corner before Rita arrives for more ale. Feeling a little sorry for the guy, you talk to Rita.

“Hey Rita, this is going to be strange question, but…”

“Oh gods, you’re not going to start hitting on me too are you?”

“What? Uh no! But well, there’s a miner named Ular who’s sort of nuts about you.”

“Yeah, he’s nuts over me like every other miner here trying to get under my skirt.”

“Heh, I don’t think so, he’s so damn shy he’s practically afraid to speak to you, and surely you’ve noticed.”

“Yeah I suppose I have. I will admit he’s a little different than the rest of these ale swilling pigs.”

“So are you interested in him?”

“Eh…I dunno. I mean from what I know of him he seems respectful and he did punch out that fucker Calwin when he groped me, but that’s not really enough. I need a man that’s going places. I mean he’s a miner; where’s that going to lead me? Not in fine Selkie furs and a big house, I’ll just be barefoot and pregnant and still living here.”

Same old Rita. Still, you can certainly understand her desire to move up in the world. However, a miner still makes a decent living. A lot better than her that’s for sure. She’d still be “moving up.”
> You tell Ular she's not interested
There’s no point in trying to convince Rita, she’s obviously looking to marry into money, though there’s a lot better ways she could go about it. Ular seems like a cool guy and probably should know the type of girl she is anyway.

As Rita walks off, you look for Ular and see him slowly coming out of his dark corner. You explain to him how the conversation went, he’s obviously upset about it, but thanks you nonetheless.

“Well, I guess it’s true about that old saying. You can’t judge a book by its cover. Give everyone a round for the house on me, everyone else might as well be happy even if I’m not. Just don’t have Rita serve my drinks anymore okay?” You understand and carry on with your duties.

The remaining days until the next payment go as normal and Mr. Reynolds is satisfied with the payment he receives, and you still have a little saved over. You have hope that in time you’ll get out of this debt eventually.

However, trouble rears its ugly head when Calwin shows up on his monthly delivery. He says that he’s decided to bump the price up on his alcohol. You furiously ask why, and he says that the last time he was here he noticed how nice the rooms were and that if you can afford to fix them up, you must be able to afford to pay him more for his product.

It doesn’t need to be said that your mother does not want to deal with him at all at this point.
> You comply with his demands

He’s got you over a barrel, you agree to his price. Your mother throws up her hands and rolls her eyes in disgust. Calwin smirks and calls his lackeys to take his alcohol into the cellar, while he “retires” to his room again.

Like last time, Calwin is a lecherous slob and Rita doesn’t have Ular defending her “honor” anymore. This time she quits when Calwin practically molests her when she takes food up to his room.

Deal or not, your mother isn’t going to put up with his shit any longer, grabs your dad’s Troll Gun from behind the bar and kicks him out of his room. He screams at you saying that you’ll regret reneging on the deal like this before leaving.

Now you’re a barmaid short and you’ll have to go back to the old Klyton supplier. While it’s true you don’t have to pay Rita anymore, you end up losing a couple of customers that liked looking at her. That’s not even counting the extra work that Eliza and Wendy have to do now who are now miserable to the point of wanting to seriously quit. You and your mother take up some of the slack, but it’s a drain on the pair of you.

And while you have enough to pay Mr. Reynolds this month, you’re not optimistic about the future. The problem is you won’t be saving money like you were going to while Calwin was your supplier. Your nice rooms haven’t really been helping like you thought they might and while you can keep on this way, you’re never really going to get ahead.

The thought of continuing to work here any longer is disheartening to you. Maybe you’re just being impatient, but after all the problems and headaches you’ve encountered you really don’t feel like dealing with this job anymore, especially not when there is potential danger constantly looming overhead. You’re ready to tell your mother to just sell the place.

So you do.

You fought the good fight for as long as you could, but maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. You’re not going to finish this one, which is a familiar theme to you since you dropped out of college. You tell your mother what you think and she seems just as eager to sell the place off too since the past few months have been pretty stressful.

During the remaining week the inn stays open to make a last bit of change before closing for good and selling to the city. Some of the miners seem a little sad by it, but there were so many changes within such a short period of time that most seemed content on finding a new place since the old one wasn’t like how it used to be anymore.

When the inn is sold off, you barely make enough to cover the debt, but at least you and your mother aren’t in any immediate danger now.

Your mother finds work as a cook for a short time, but eventually decides she can’t really stand living in the city without your father anymore. She leaves to go live with your aunt Enora in Teckleville, which is to the east on the outskirts of the Delantium Kingdom.

After a long time of the inn just sitting untended and forgotten due to the council having more pressing matters and red tape, it’s broken into by several homeless people who use it as a place to sleep. The homeless are soon ousted by a local gang who use it as a safe house. Eventually though they cause enough trouble that the Klyton Militia has to take severe action and storm the place, resulting in a small fire.

At this point someone in the council finally notices it, decides that the place isn’t worth salvaging and proposes that it be knocked down to build a medical clinic in its place to try to uplift the area. The motion passes.

As for you, you find a job thanks to your education level, but it isn’t anywhere in the field that you would’ve liked. You’re a clerk in tax office, filing away items, straightening out reports and such. You never really move up and you never make enough money to save away to get ahead either.

You don’t really have a bad life so much as a mind numbingly mundane one. You do have your good days, but ultimately you never really achieve your goals and always have a sense of dissatisfaction with your life.

Sometimes you look back and wonder where you exactly went wrong with the inn and how you could’ve done things differently.

You’ll never know.


There’s no point in trying to convince Rita, she’s obviously looking to marry into money, though there’s a lot better ways she could go about it. Ular seems like a cool guy and probably should know the type of girl she is anyway.

As Rita walks off, you look for Ular and see him slowly coming out of his dark corner. You explain to him how the conversation went, he’s obviously upset about it, but thanks you nonetheless.

“Well, I guess it’s true about that old saying. You can’t judge a book by its cover. Give everyone a round for the house on me, everyone else might as well be happy even if I’m not. Just don’t have Rita serve my drinks anymore okay?” You understand and carry on with your duties.

The remaining days until the next payment go as normal and Mr. Reynolds is satisfied with the payment he receives, and you still have a little saved over. You have hope that in time you’ll get out of this debt eventually.

However, trouble rears its ugly head when Calwin shows up on his monthly delivery. He says that he’s decided to bump the price up on his alcohol. You furiously ask why, and he says that the last time he was here he noticed how nice the rooms were and that if you can afford to fix them up, you must be able to afford to pay him more for his product.

It doesn’t need to be said that your mother does not want to deal with him at all at this point.
> You don't comply with his demands
You tell Calwin you’re not paying him anything more than he’s getting and that it’s complete bullshit that he’s jacking up his prices like this. Calwin goes on a rant about supply and demand and how he’s doing you a favor.

The argument heats up, but ultimately ends when your mother grabs your dad’s Troll Gun from under the bar counter and points it at him, telling him to get the hell out before she blows his head off. He and his lackeys leave, which means you’ll have no alcohol supply this month.

“I told you we shouldn’t have dealt with him at all now we’ll have to go back to the Klyton supplier and they probably won’t even get around to delivering a shipment to us until near the end of the month! We’ll have to make due with what we have left and given how much those miners drinks, we won’t have enough!”

“Well maybe we could water down the drinks or something…” you say trying to think of a solution.

“Water down the drinks? Are you serious? That’s not going to work and we’re going to lose people doing that! Those miners are some serious drinkers, they’re going to know the difference.”

“If you hadn’t chased Calwin out with a gun, I might’ve been able to reason with him. Okay fine, the only other solution I can think of is we’ll have to make our own ale.”

“And how do we do that? I don’t have any experience in doing that and we don’t have license to do it either!”

“I took some chemistry classes, I’m fairly certain I could try to build a still and…”

“And that’s even worse than watering down the drinks. Look, I’m tired just thinking about all this and I’m going to rest before the business hours start.”
> You start watering down the drinks
You figure you’ll be able to stretch out your alcohol supply just long enough to get your next shipment and you’ll just have to hope for the best.

That very night you’re already getting comments that the ale doesn’t taste quite as strong, this results in the miners ordering MORE ale since they aren’t getting drunk on what you’re currently giving them. This means you end up having less alcohol to stretch things out.

By the end of the week, you’re getting loud verbal complaints about the ale, and outright accusations that it tastes like water. Several miners are insulted and leave the inn claiming that they’ve been loyal patrons here for so long and that they don’t need to be treated like this. You attempt to explain, but they shove you out of the way and tell you to go back to your fancy college.

“I wish I could.” You quietly say to yourself.

You aren’t optimistic about the rest of the month. Sure there’s still adventurers and the odd wanderer, but not enough to turn a profit before you get in the next shipment. This still wouldn’t be so bad except it’s going to be time to pay Mr. Reynolds soon and you’re going to fall short again.

Your mother can’t bare to see you get hurt again and suggests forgetting all about the inn and just taking off with all the remaining money you have and going to live with your crazy aunt Enora.
> You leave Klyton

You agree with your mother, you don’t want to take another beating and that was only a punch in the stomach from an ogre. Who knows what they’ll do to you next?

You and your mother pack as quickly as you can and catch a late coach heading west. It feels weird leaving Klyton, in fact now that you think about it, you’ve never been out of city before.

Eventually after a couple days the coach stops in Teckleville where your aunt lives. Teckleville is just one of the many small villages on the borders of the Dalantium Kingdom. Probably in time it’ll get absorbed like so many others do, but that’s not really a concern of yours right now.

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. It’s even worse than when you were stuck serving the miners.

You were supposed to do greater things! Your 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.

“Thanks dad, you fucking idiot.” You say throwing a rock against a barn door.

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. You have a plan to head to the Delantium Kingdom and start fresh again, because staying here isn’t in your future.

Unfortunately neither is the Delantium Kingdom.

One night while you’re sleeping an oversized hand covers your mouth and two more grab your arms. You open your eyes to see Olaf grinning at you in the darkness.

“What? Did you really think we’d forget about you? Don’t worry about the debt anymore kid, consider it paid with your family’s life.” You hear Mr. Reynolds whisper before he shoves a knife into your stomach and rips it up to your chest.

The next day your aunt’s friend finds the bloody bodies of you, your mother and your aunt. The incident becomes known as the Teckleville Massacre.


You figure you’ll be able to stretch out your alcohol supply just long enough to get your next shipment and you’ll just have to hope for the best.

That very night you’re already getting comments that the ale doesn’t taste quite as strong, this results in the miners ordering MORE ale since they aren’t getting drunk on what you’re currently giving them. This means you end up having less alcohol to stretch things out.

By the end of the week, you’re getting loud verbal complaints about the ale, and outright accusations that it tastes like water. Several miners are insulted and leave the inn claiming that they’ve been loyal patrons here for so long and that they don’t need to be treated like this. You attempt to explain, but they shove you out of the way and tell you to go back to your fancy college.

“I wish I could.” You quietly say to yourself.

You aren’t optimistic about the rest of the month. Sure there’s still adventurers and the odd wanderer, but not enough to turn a profit before you get in the next shipment. This still wouldn’t be so bad except it’s going to be time to pay Mr. Reynolds soon and you’re going to fall short again.

Your mother can’t bare to see you get hurt again and suggests forgetting all about the inn and just taking off with all the remaining money you have and going to live with your crazy aunt Enora.
> You stick around
“Do you think you’d still be able to get a good price for this place?” you ask your mother.

“Yeah, but not before next payment! That’s why we just need to get out of the city now!”

You grab what payment you can afford and start heading for the door.

“What’re you doing?!”

“I’m going to see Mr. Reynolds early.”

“What?! You can’t! He’ll kill you!”

“No, he’ll have me beaten. Look, if we leave he’s just going to track us down and he probably will kill us by that time. If I pay him this now, I’ll take a beating, but he’s going to figure I’m still a source of income for him. We can then pay it off completely when you sell this place. Afterwards, well we’ll see what happens.”

Your mother still doesn’t want you to go, but you’re determined so she doesn’t stand in your way. You walk several blocks into bad neighborhoods half expecting to get mugged on your way to see him, but for once luck is on your side. Mr. Reynolds sits at his desk counting coins with both of his goons beside him as usual.

“Well this is unexpected, what can I do for you today m’boy?”

“This is all we can afford for this payment. I guarantee the next one will be much bigger.” You say plopping the bag of coins on his desk.

He lifts the bag and frowns at its weight.

“Feels a little light kid. You do realize what’s going to happen next right?”

“Yes, that’s why I came early to get it over with.” You say trying to sound brave.

“Heh, you’re trying your best to be brave, but I know deep down inside you’re terrified. It’s okay, you should be. (Sigh) Olaf. Reggie. Just beat him up, don’t break any bones, I’m in a good mood today.”

Olaf approaches you with a little disappointment that he doesn’t get to break any bones today, but he still takes glee in punching you in the face. Reggie picks you up and holds you while Olaf beats on you some more. You try not to think about the pain, but instead try to think about how it’s absolutely amazing that Olaf manages to pull his punches enough that he doesn’t break anything. It’s the odd ogre that can show restraint during violence.

Olaf does fail eventually though, when everyone hears an awful crunch sound and blood flies everywhere from your nose which is now completely broken.

“Oh Olaf, I told you not to break anything! All right he’s had enough, drop him Reggie.” Mr. Reynolds orders and steps from his behind his desk to speak to you.

“That’s two times I’ve been lenient kid. Next time, well for your sake there better not be a fucking next time because you’re not exactly the hardy type to take beatings like this. Olaf carry this kid back to his inn, he can’t make it home in his condition.”

You don’t even remember what happens in the next few moments since you’re drifting in and out of consciousness. When Olaf arrives at the inn he dumps your limp body inside and walks off. Your mother makes sure you’re still alive and somehow manages to get you to crawl to the bed of one of the empty rooms.

During the remaining week the inn stays open to make a last bit of change before closing for good and selling to the city. Some of the miners seem a little sad by it, but there were so many changes within such a short period of time that most seemed content on finding a new place since the old one wasn’t like how it used to be anymore.

When the inn is sold off, you barely make enough to cover the debt, but at least you and your mother aren’t in any immediate danger now.

Your mother finds work as a cook for a short time, but eventually decides she can’t really stand living in the city without your father anymore. She leaves to go live with your aunt Enora in Teckleville, which is to the east on the outskirts of the Delantium Kingdom.

After a long time of the inn just sitting untended and forgotten due to the council having more pressing matters and red tape, it’s broken into by several homeless people who use it as a place to sleep. The homeless are soon ousted by a local gang who use it as a safe house. Eventually though they cause enough trouble that the Klyton Militia has to take severe action and storm the place, resulting in a small fire.

At this point someone in the council finally notices it, decides that the place isn’t worth salvaging and proposes that it be knocked down to build a medical clinic in its place to try to uplift the area. The motion passes.

As for you, you find a job thanks to your education level, but it isn’t anywhere in the field that you would’ve liked. You’re a clerk in tax office, filing away items, straightening out reports and such. You never really move up and you never make enough money to save away to get ahead either.

You don’t really have a bad life so much as a mind numbingly mundane one. You do have your good days, but ultimately you never really achieve your goals and always have a sense of dissatisfaction with your life.

Sometimes you look back and wonder where you exactly went wrong with the inn and how you could’ve done things differently.

You’ll never know.


You tell Calwin you’re not paying him anything more than he’s getting and that it’s complete bullshit that he’s jacking up his prices like this. Calwin goes on a rant about supply and demand and how he’s doing you a favor.

The argument heats up, but ultimately ends when your mother grabs your dad’s Troll Gun from under the bar counter and points it at him, telling him to get the hell out before she blows his head off. He and his lackeys leave, which means you’ll have no alcohol supply this month.

“I told you we shouldn’t have dealt with him at all now we’ll have to go back to the Klyton supplier and they probably won’t even get around to delivering a shipment to us until near the end of the month! We’ll have to make due with what we have left and given how much those miners drinks, we won’t have enough!”

“Well maybe we could water down the drinks or something…” you say trying to think of a solution.

“Water down the drinks? Are you serious? That’s not going to work and we’re going to lose people doing that! Those miners are some serious drinkers, they’re going to know the difference.”

“If you hadn’t chased Calwin out with a gun, I might’ve been able to reason with him. Okay fine, the only other solution I can think of is we’ll have to make our own ale.”

“And how do we do that? I don’t have any experience in doing that and we don’t have license to do it either!”

“I took some chemistry classes, I’m fairly certain I could try to build a still and…”

“And that’s even worse than watering down the drinks. Look, I’m tired just thinking about all this and I’m going to rest before the business hours start.”
> You start building a still
You head down to the cellar and start constructing your still while trying to remember everything you learned in those chemistry classes. The main thing is to make something strong that isn’t going to make folks go blind.

You work on it over the course of several days during your spare time as the real alcohol supply dwindles down. Eventually after a mixture of sugar, yeast, potatoes and bunch of other stuff you’ve taken from the garbage, you’re fairly confident you’ve made enough of this stuff to last you by the time you get the proper shipment.

You haven’t exactly been telling your mother what you’ve been doing, but the smell has been getting to the point that it’s starting to invade the kitchen.

“Ugh! It smells awful down here, and I hope you aren’t doing what I think you’re doing.”

“I had to, besides it’s finished now and I think this batch has come out pretty good.”

“Smells like rotting garbage!”

“Well some of it is, but trust me I think this will tide us over.”

Hoping for the best, you and your mother release this new brew to the clientele. You do have the decency to warn them that it’s new, but they’re always willing to try anything once.

The moonshine brew goes over well, more or less. A few think it’s a lot more bitter, but it’s not enough to drive anyone away since they’re all getting drunk at a quicker rate.

Mr. Reynolds receives his payment and by the end of the month you’ve got your usual shipment. The problem is you won’t be saving money like you were going to while Calwin was your supplier. Your nice rooms haven’t really been helping like you thought they might and while you can keep on this way, you’re never really going to get ahead.

The thought of continuing to work here any longer is disheartening to you. Maybe you’re just being impatient, but after all the problems and headaches you’ve encountered you really don’t feel like dealing with this job anymore, especially not when there is potential danger constantly looming overhead. You’re ready to tell your mother to just sell the place.

The only other thing you can think of to cut costs to a degree that will speed up the process is to continue using the still and not bother with buying from the Klyton supplier in the future.
> You sell the inn
You fought the good fight for as long as you could, but maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. You’re not going to finish this one, which is a familiar theme to you since you dropped out of college. You tell your mother what you think and she seems just as eager to sell the place off too since the past few months have been pretty stressful.

During the remaining week the inn stays open to make a last bit of change before closing for good and selling to the city. Some of the miners seem a little sad by it, but there were so many changes within such a short period of time that most seemed content on finding a new place since the old one wasn’t like how it used to be anymore.

When the inn is sold off, you barely make enough to cover the debt, but at least you and your mother aren’t in any immediate danger now.

Your mother finds work as a cook for a short time, but eventually decides she can’t really stand living in the city without your father anymore. She leaves to go live with your aunt Enora in Teckleville, which is to the east on the outskirts of the Delantium Kingdom.

After a long time of the inn just sitting untended and forgotten due to the council having more pressing matters and red tape, it’s broken into by several homeless people who use it as a place to sleep. The homeless are soon ousted by a local gang who use it as a safe house. Eventually though they cause enough trouble that the Klyton Militia has to take severe action and storm the place, resulting in a small fire.

At this point someone in the council finally notices it, decides that the place isn’t worth salvaging and proposes that it be knocked down to build a medical clinic in its place to try to uplift the area. The motion passes.

As for you, you find a job thanks to your education level, but it isn’t anywhere in the field that you would’ve liked. You’re a clerk in tax office, filing away items, straightening out reports and such. You never really move up and you never make enough money to save away to get ahead either.

You don’t really have a bad life so much as a mind numbingly mundane one. You do have your good days, but ultimately you never really achieve your goals and always have a sense of dissatisfaction with your life.

Sometimes you look back and wonder where you exactly went wrong with the inn and how you could’ve done things differently.

You’ll never know.


You head down to the cellar and start constructing your still while trying to remember everything you learned in those chemistry classes. The main thing is to make something strong that isn’t going to make folks go blind.

You work on it over the course of several days during your spare time as the real alcohol supply dwindles down. Eventually after a mixture of sugar, yeast, potatoes and bunch of other stuff you’ve taken from the garbage, you’re fairly confident you’ve made enough of this stuff to last you by the time you get the proper shipment.

You haven’t exactly been telling your mother what you’ve been doing, but the smell has been getting to the point that it’s starting to invade the kitchen.

“Ugh! It smells awful down here, and I hope you aren’t doing what I think you’re doing.”

“I had to, besides it’s finished now and I think this batch has come out pretty good.”

“Smells like rotting garbage!”

“Well some of it is, but trust me I think this will tide us over.”

Hoping for the best, you and your mother release this new brew to the clientele. You do have the decency to warn them that it’s new, but they’re always willing to try anything once.

The moonshine brew goes over well, more or less. A few think it’s a lot more bitter, but it’s not enough to drive anyone away since they’re all getting drunk at a quicker rate.

Mr. Reynolds receives his payment and by the end of the month you’ve got your usual shipment. The problem is you won’t be saving money like you were going to while Calwin was your supplier. Your nice rooms haven’t really been helping like you thought they might and while you can keep on this way, you’re never really going to get ahead.

The thought of continuing to work here any longer is disheartening to you. Maybe you’re just being impatient, but after all the problems and headaches you’ve encountered you really don’t feel like dealing with this job anymore, especially not when there is potential danger constantly looming overhead. You’re ready to tell your mother to just sell the place.

The only other thing you can think of to cut costs to a degree that will speed up the process is to continue using the still and not bother with buying from the Klyton supplier in the future.
> You use the still
You’re willing to stick it out a little longer, but you really need to use a few short cuts now. The brew from the still is good enough for the miners and you won’t have to deal with a middleman anymore.

Your mother isn’t happy with this idea. She wasn’t thrilled with it before, but realized it was necessary at the time. You argue with her for hours about the moral and legal ramifications of it all until she finally gets tired and capitulates under stress.

Over the months you manage to save tons of money, are able to pay Mr. Reynolds off larger amounts and you believe in a few more months you’ll completely be free of him.

The problem now is with your mother who still insists on bitching at you day in day out despite the fact that you’re basically saving her ass from the problems that her and your dumb ass dad got you involved into in the first place.

“For fuck’s sake, will get off my fucking back? I’ve been the main one coming up with solutions on how to save this fucking place and I’m getting shit for it? Why the hell am I getting punished for something you and dad did? I was supposed to be taking classes right now to become a doctor! Y’know, like YOU all wanted me to? I’m trying to make the best of this situation and still find a damn way of achieving my goals yet all I’m getting is kicked in the fucking face for it!” you yell while throwing a potato against the wall.

Your mother shakes her head.

“I don’t know what’s happened to you, but the son I knew wouldn’t be engaging in criminal activities and yelling at me like this. This isn’t worth it; I’m not dealing with this anymore. You want to be mad at me and your father, you can go right ahead, you might even be right in some way but I’m still not going to put up with it. You think you can turn this place around and still achieve your goals? Go right ahead, but you’re doing it without my help. I quit, and I’m handing this place over to you. Have fun, and I hope you make all your dreams come true.”

You’re a little shocked by this. You run after her asking what she’s going to do and that you’re sorry about the stuff you said, but she won’t hear it. She just says she’s leaving the deed with you and she’s going to go live with your aunt Enora in Teckleville.

After some last words are exchanged she’s gone. You aren’t quite sure how to feel and you’re still trying to wrap your head around it when your barmaids come in.

“Hey which one of you is the best cook?”

“Uh, I guess that would be me.” Wendy says.

“Good, you’re upgrade to cook, you’ll get a small raise too.”

“What seriously?”

“Yeah, mom quit and gave me this place, so we’re making some changes around here.”

Wendy looks a little pleased with getting a small promotion, but Rita isn’t so happy.

“Hey what about us? You can’t just expect us to shoulder all the extra work! You’re going to have to hire someone else to help!” Rita says

“Settle down Rita, I’ll be getting some new help soon don’t worry about it. All I need from the rest of you is to do your jobs.”

A few weeks pass and you’re doing okay even if you’re getting some grumbles from your staff every once in awhile. You do end up hiring a new person, but it’s not another barmaid. It’s a janitor so the barmaids don’t need to worry about cleaning up as much anymore. The great thing is he’s simple minded and you don’t need to pay him since apparently his mother wanted him out of the house and dragged him by the ear to you when she saw your Help Wanted sign. You agreed to let him sleep in your cellar and he could eat all the rats he catches down there. (Though Eliza gives him real food from time to time)

Your still is perfected a bit better, but the brew from that stuff does take it’s toll on your usual patrons. While none of the miners go blind, a lot of them are starting to feel several side effects from drinking the stuff on a regular basis. This causes some to stop coming in altogether, but on the “plus side” you do get a few more lowly types that don’t give a shit what poison they put into their system. You end up changing the name of the place to the Bottomless Mug Inn.

Despite your decrease in clientele you still manage to cut enough corners and exploit enough drunks that you pay off Mr. Reynolds. He’s a little surprised considering how run down the inn has gotten. He suspects (quite rightly) that you’re probably doing something illegal and tells you if you ever need another loan in the future you know where to find him. You vow that you’re not going to let that happen.

Well the inn is profitable again (barely) and you’ve effectively saved the place and your mother from potential danger (mainly yourself) but taking over your father’s inn wasn’t your dream and it wasn’t your parents’ dream either.

You figure you’ve got two choices, you could either sell this place now and hope you get enough money for it to finish your education, or you could continue to run it as a ongoing source of income and somehow manage to save enough as well as find the time to study while running this dump.
> You sell the inn
You can’t stand running this increasingly run down piss hole anymore; you’re selling the place. You figure you should be able to get enough money to finish your schooling.

Unfortunately “piss hole” is too correct of a word for what it goes for. Sure it’s a business, and it’s in adequate shape, but the city generally doesn’t give out that much money for “adequate”.

You get just enough money to probably cover a couple semesters, not nearly enough. That’s when you get the idea to improvise.

Learning the lesson in cutting corners at the inn, you enroll back at Klyton University and set up a small lab like you did with the still but this time you decide to make drugs instead. Cloud rock is easy to make and you figure you’ll be able to support yourself and if you get a part time job on campus, you should be able to swing it. The inn money will help you in the beginning months while you get settled.

Things initially go good for you, just like you thought, but when the inn money runs out that’s when crunch time starts and you’re not quite as prepared for it as you thought.

Classes get increasingly harder, which means you need to study a lot more, combining that with your two jobs is rough and eventually you’re not getting enough rest and one of them has to go. Not surprisingly you quit your regular job as the university’s bookstore assistant since it pays less and you figure you can easily make up the money just by selling more drugs which you’ve become frighteningly good at.

After one more semester, you figure why bother with college at all? You could just sell Cloud Rock all day make as much money as a low level physician might and not bother with studying, because really what has this college business gotten you? A lot of wasted time that’s what.

So that’s what you do.

It doesn’t need to be said that such a path rarely leads to a good end, but you do have your fun while it lasts which is probably a little longer than you thought it might be.

As you lay dying because you pissed off some other criminal for whatever wrong or perceived wrong you might’ve done to him, you think back to where it all went wrong and all you can think about is:

“That damn inn.”


You’re willing to stick it out a little longer, but you really need to use a few short cuts now. The brew from the still is good enough for the miners and you won’t have to deal with a middleman anymore.

Your mother isn’t happy with this idea. She wasn’t thrilled with it before, but realized it was necessary at the time. You argue with her for hours about the moral and legal ramifications of it all until she finally gets tired and capitulates under stress.

Over the months you manage to save tons of money, are able to pay Mr. Reynolds off larger amounts and you believe in a few more months you’ll completely be free of him.

The problem now is with your mother who still insists on bitching at you day in day out despite the fact that you’re basically saving her ass from the problems that her and your dumb ass dad got you involved into in the first place.

“For fuck’s sake, will get off my fucking back? I’ve been the main one coming up with solutions on how to save this fucking place and I’m getting shit for it? Why the hell am I getting punished for something you and dad did? I was supposed to be taking classes right now to become a doctor! Y’know, like YOU all wanted me to? I’m trying to make the best of this situation and still find a damn way of achieving my goals yet all I’m getting is kicked in the fucking face for it!” you yell while throwing a potato against the wall.

Your mother shakes her head.

“I don’t know what’s happened to you, but the son I knew wouldn’t be engaging in criminal activities and yelling at me like this. This isn’t worth it; I’m not dealing with this anymore. You want to be mad at me and your father, you can go right ahead, you might even be right in some way but I’m still not going to put up with it. You think you can turn this place around and still achieve your goals? Go right ahead, but you’re doing it without my help. I quit, and I’m handing this place over to you. Have fun, and I hope you make all your dreams come true.”

You’re a little shocked by this. You run after her asking what she’s going to do and that you’re sorry about the stuff you said, but she won’t hear it. She just says she’s leaving the deed with you and she’s going to go live with your aunt Enora in Teckleville.

After some last words are exchanged she’s gone. You aren’t quite sure how to feel and you’re still trying to wrap your head around it when your barmaids come in.

“Hey which one of you is the best cook?”

“Uh, I guess that would be me.” Wendy says.

“Good, you’re upgrade to cook, you’ll get a small raise too.”

“What seriously?”

“Yeah, mom quit and gave me this place, so we’re making some changes around here.”

Wendy looks a little pleased with getting a small promotion, but Rita isn’t so happy.

“Hey what about us? You can’t just expect us to shoulder all the extra work! You’re going to have to hire someone else to help!” Rita says

“Settle down Rita, I’ll be getting some new help soon don’t worry about it. All I need from the rest of you is to do your jobs.”

A few weeks pass and you’re doing okay even if you’re getting some grumbles from your staff every once in awhile. You do end up hiring a new person, but it’s not another barmaid. It’s a janitor so the barmaids don’t need to worry about cleaning up as much anymore. The great thing is he’s simple minded and you don’t need to pay him since apparently his mother wanted him out of the house and dragged him by the ear to you when she saw your Help Wanted sign. You agreed to let him sleep in your cellar and he could eat all the rats he catches down there. (Though Eliza gives him real food from time to time)

Your still is perfected a bit better, but the brew from that stuff does take it’s toll on your usual patrons. While none of the miners go blind, a lot of them are starting to feel several side effects from drinking the stuff on a regular basis. This causes some to stop coming in altogether, but on the “plus side” you do get a few more lowly types that don’t give a shit what poison they put into their system. You end up changing the name of the place to the Bottomless Mug Inn.

Despite your decrease in clientele you still manage to cut enough corners and exploit enough drunks that you pay off Mr. Reynolds. He’s a little surprised considering how run down the inn has gotten. He suspects (quite rightly) that you’re probably doing something illegal and tells you if you ever need another loan in the future you know where to find him. You vow that you’re not going to let that happen.

Well the inn is profitable again (barely) and you’ve effectively saved the place and your mother from potential danger (mainly yourself) but taking over your father’s inn wasn’t your dream and it wasn’t your parents’ dream either.

You figure you’ve got two choices, you could either sell this place now and hope you get enough money for it to finish your education, or you could continue to run it as a ongoing source of income and somehow manage to save enough as well as find the time to study while running this dump.
> You continue to run it
You know it isn’t going to be easy, but selling the inn would be folly. You’re not going to get as much for the inn anymore and you know that you’ll need a steady source of income and this place also serves as your home. You’ve already managed to cut a few corners to save money, so perhaps you’ll be able to figure out how to cut some more to achieve your goal.

One idea has crossed your mind already, but you’d rather see if any other opportunities arise before resorting to it. The inn is a little shadier now, and that’s partly because of you. Still, you aren’t really a bad person, you’ve just been put in a rough situation and you’re trying to make the best of it. You figure the ends will justify the means after all is said and done.

You hope.
> Back to school...
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 Wendy picks up the slack when you’re not around. 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. Your regular patrons aren’t the upstanding working class anymore, most of them are petty criminals, broke losers and other ne’er-do-wells. You also have to do something about your overworked/underpaid staff. So far Wendy has been doing far more than she anticipated and is demanding more pay. Rita on the other hand is just plain threatening to quit. All of which is cutting into your study and school time.

A few bright spots are you’re getting adventurers coming in since those nice rooms you got awhile back started to pay off. You’re also saving money with your stills (You have multiple ones in the basement now) and your retarded janitor Alan who seems to be just happy to work and follow your orders. If only all your employees were so agreeable.

Today’s the day you make a change to the status quo.
> You fire Rita and hire some pretty girls
Rita is already threatening to quit anyway so you might as well get rid of her, besides you figure you can hire some prettier faces that will complain less and probably work for less as well.

The first thing you do is advertise for new barmaids. You get a few takers. Most of them don’t seem much better than Rita though, coming in and demanding more stuff immediately. You’re about to give up when a mother comes in with her two half elven daughters practically begging you to hire them.

Sort of what you’re looking for, young, pretty “exotic” even given that they’re half-elven. Their bloodline is what sort of concerns you though. Elves aren’t exactly known for their hard work ethic.

“Pfft! You think I don’t know that? Their no good father left to go prance around in the forest again while I have to raise these little leeches!” the mother says. “Look you don’t even have to pay ‘em that much, at this point I just want them to earn their keep around the house!”

“Well, I’ll see what we can do.”

You hire Sunshine and Flameflower and explain how things work and what is expected of them. Their mother periodically interrupts to tell them to pay attention and how if they end up getting fired that she’ll be kicking them out of the house. The pair of them seem rather unworried about the situation and do a lot of eye rolling, sighing and even some minor giggling. After all is said and done you tell them to arrive on time tomorrow and go back to work.

“It’s about time you hired some more help.” Wendy remarks.

“Well, I’m also getting rid of some too, where’s Rita at?”

“She’s out front serving drunks as usual, wait you’re going to fire Rita?”

“Yeah, I can’t afford them and her. Besides I’m getting two pretty faces for the price of one and hopefully less bitching.”

“Sheesh, I know Rita’s a pain in the ass and all, but you really think you should get rid of her? Who’s going to train the new girls? I noticed the pointy ears, I’m guessing they’re half-breeds. Elves have terrible work ethics.”

“I already told them what to do, but I figured you’d be keeping an eye on them most of the time, so you can make sure if they’re working and not goofing off”

“What?! As if I don’t have enough to do around here? Look, I’ll do what I can, but really between the cooking and other shit I do, you expect me to play mother hen to them you’re going to be sorely disappointed.”

“I can’t give you a raise if that’s what you’re angling for.”

“Huh, I wouldn’t dream of being that optimistic, but quite simply I’m stretched thin as it is, I can’t do it all and I think you know that.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right, well I guess Eliza will have to do it.”

“HER? Eliza’s a nice girl and all, but I dunno if she’s up to supervising.”

“Well she’s gonna have to, now if you’ll excuse me, I have to speak to her and Rita about the changes around here.”

Wendy shakes her head as you call Rita and Eliza over to speak to them in the kitchen

“WHAT?! You’re fucking firing me?! After all the shit I’ve done around here?!” Rita predictably reacts.

“Rita, all you do is complain and you’ve been threatening to quit for months! Is this really all that surprising? Hell, I would’ve thought you wouldn’t even give a shit given your attitude.”

“…y’know what? You’re right. I don’t give a shit. I should’ve quit a long time ago. I could get a better job just like that! (snap) Thanks for freeing me from this slave wage shithole, but I’ll just say one thing, without me, this place is gonna fail! You think you can replace me with those little half-breed sluts I saw you with earlier? Yeah right! I’m outta here!” Rita says and makes a dramatic exit by shouting to the various patrons of how they should take a good look at her ass as she walks out the door, because it’ll be the last time they see it around the inn.

“Oh my!” Eliza exclaims.

“Whatever. Okay, now I have to talk to you too…and don’t worry I’m not firing you.” You say before Eliza jumps to that conclusion.

You explain to Eliza that it’ll be part of her job to train the new girls. She’s surprised and nervous as you’d expect, but you try to reassure her that she’ll be fine.

Initially things are shaky. Eliza isn’t very authoritative and often Wendy or you have to step in to lay down more discipline in the half elven sisters. A couple more months pass and it’s obvious things are not working out. Sunshine and Flameflower work, but in a very half-assed way. Even Rita did her job. The sisters are prone to flirt a lot to the patrons, which is good…but not so great when they tend to disappear with said patrons for a few hours. This wouldn’t be a problem if you were running a brothel and making money on this, but you aren’t and it’s too late to start now.

You get angry with Eliza and tell her that she needs to get a leash on them, but all this does is make Eliza more nervous and cry that you’re yelling at her. You try to get Wendy to help more, but she complains about how she told you in advance that she can’t do anymore than what she’s doing now. Ultimately she quits because she’s getting burned out. This is soon followed by Eliza who is so stressed out that she can’t take it anymore. As for Flameflower and Sunshine, you don’t even bother firing them since they just stop coming in one day.

At this point your school work is taking a small dive due to your only source of income crumbling. You see the writing on the wall and decide to sell the place hoping that you can finish up at least the year. You aren’t going to be able to become a doctor, but MAYBE you’ll be able to get a good job with your education level. You feel slightly bad about Alan who you have to run off because he doesn’t completely understand why he has to leave.

You don’t get quite as much money as you’d like for the inn, mainly because the place had gone down hill quite a bit during the time your father ran it, but you finish out the year.

As for getting a job, you manage to get one, but it’s working as an office clerk in the city. Maintaining records, filling out shit, etc. It’s tediously dull work, but to a certain extent you’re just glad to not have to worry about that damn inn anymore.

Over the years, you settle into your mundane life. You’re always a little bitter about your situation, but you try to make the best of it. It isn’t a terrible life, but you always wonder what you could’ve done differently.

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 Wendy picks up the slack when you’re not around. 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. Your regular patrons aren’t the upstanding working class anymore, most of them are petty criminals, broke losers and other ne’er-do-wells. You also have to do something about your overworked/underpaid staff. So far Wendy has been doing far more than she anticipated and is demanding more pay. Rita on the other hand is just plain threatening to quit. All of which is cutting into your study and school time.

A few bright spots are you’re getting adventurers coming in since those nice rooms you got awhile back started to pay off. You’re also saving money with your stills (You have multiple ones in the basement now) and your retarded janitor Alan who seems to be just happy to work and follow your orders. If only all your employees were so agreeable.

Today’s the day you make a change to the status quo.
> You cut back on food and promote Wendy
Again, the inn isn’t really like how it used to be where you’d get miners coming in wanting some food with their ale. Nowadays you just get plain ol’ drunks coming in. Even the adventurers don’t normally order anything fancy. You figure you’ll just cut down on food shipments and jack the price up so only adventurers or perhaps the odd merchant will be willing to pay for a hot meal.

You also decide that Wendy is a pretty vital part of running this place, so you offer her the only thing you can think of that would keep her happy…

“Less kitchen work and a free permanent room? Are you serious?” Wendy says in disbelief.

“If you want it. The catch is though, you’d be living here and need to make sure things are running smoothly on a regular basis, this means opening up the inn early, closing it down late, or whatever else is required.”

“Pfft, I basically do that now.”

“Perhaps, but now you’d get to live at a place rent free, not to mention you don’t need to walk that far to work anymore. Now that should certainly alleviate some of your problems I trust?”

“Yeah, that would help a lot.”

“Good, oh one more thing, I know you have kids, I really hope they won’t be running all over the place bothering patrons.”

“No, it won’t be a problem. Y’know I had my doubts about you running this place and while I know me living here is going to make it more convenient for your own goals, thanks all the same.”

“You’re welcome.” You say and feel positive that this decision is going to work out just fine.

A few months pass and your inn is making a little more money and you have a little more time for your academic goals. Things are nice for a little while, but as usual a problem crops up to make you life a lot more difficult.

Wendy’s kids are little monsters. Not to you, but to just about everyone else. Wendy tries to keep them in line through screaming and beatings, but it doesn’t work for long.

Her youngest Carl is a dirty little boy who is constantly trying to look up Eliza and Rita’s dresses or touch them in some inappropriate way. If he can’t get to them, the local trashy women who frequent the bar will do. Most of the time he tries to play it off like he doesn’t mean anything, but he knows damn well what he’s doing.

Wendy’s daughter Annie is obviously taking after her with the same grasp of verbal swears. She swears so much you initially thought she had Rosette’s Syndrome. Her mouth wouldn’t really be a problem except she’s loud and is always asking the inn guests strange questions (swearing the whole time of course).

Finally her oldest son, Henry is well on his way to be a future sociopath. The kid will sit in a corner watching everything and everyone with this creepy look like he’d murder everyone if he could. You’ve noticed that knives from the kitchen have been going missing and you never used to come across so many bloody cat heads in the alley before Wendy moved in. While you can’t prove the animal killing or knife theft, you know for a fact that he’s been fucking with Alan. For the past week you’ve noticed Alan limping, when you questioned him, he stated it was nothing, but on closer inspection you saw that his shoe was in a burned condition and he had a bruise on his neck. You question it further and Alan finally breaks down and tells you it was Wendy’s son, but states that Wendy’s son was just “playing” that it wasn’t a big deal and he didn’t want him getting into trouble.

That’s the last straw for you. You and Wendy need to have another talk about this arrangement.

“Wendy I need to talk to you now.”

“Can it wait…HEY GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE BASTARD!” Wendy says shouting at one her little demons.

“That’s exactly what we need to talk about.”

“Wha…oh fine.”

You and Wendy step into the kitchen and you waste no time in expressing your concerns.

“Wendy you’ve been a great help her since you moved in, but it was my understanding that you were going to have your kids under better control than you have been.”

“Hey this is the best all of them have been in ages! Besides they haven’t been bothering you and business has been doing okay.”

“Yeah, but at this rate I’m not sure how long that’s going to last with how your kids have been acting lately. Your youngest is sexually harassing Eliza and Rita more than the lowest scum that drinks here. Your daughter is causing some the most hardcore adventurers feel uncomfortable. And your oldest son, hoo boy, you NEED to get that kid on a leash quick and instill some discipline into him because he’s one twisted little pup.”

“Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to fuckhead? You think you can tell me how to raise my goddamn kids? You think it’s fucking easy? You don’t have any, so fuck you! Shit, you ain’t even got a woman, so I’m guessing you ain’t gonna have to worry about it ever. Faggot.”

“And who the hell do you think YOU’RE talking to? I’m your boss and I’m telling you need to get your kids in line! Alan just told me that your oldest son snuck down into basement and gave him a hotfoot while he was sleeping. When Alan predictably woke up, he nearly choked himself because your little psycho set up a wire noose around his neck tied to the table nearby.”

“And you believed Alan?”

“Alan’s a lot of things, but he’s not a liar. If anything I had to drag the info out of him. He was afraid of getting your son in trouble, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was just afraid of your son period.”

“(Sigh) Even if it is true. So what? That’s just how boys play.”

“That’s how future murderers play. Look, I’m not arguing with you anymore. Your kids are a problem and you said they wouldn’t be. So get your shit together or face the consequences.”

“Fuck you, you gonna fire me? Pfft! Yeah right. Without me, you couldn’t run this place and pursue your precious education at the same time. Hell, I doubt if you could run it period.”
> You keep trying to reason with her
You can’t afford to fire her and you don’t even want to risk threatening her with it lest she call your bluff and leave.

“Will you listen to yourself for one moment? All I’m saying is to get your kids in line because they’re not just fucking up MY business, but they’re actually fucking up yours by proxy! If you won’t do it for me, at least do it for your own self-preservation!”

“Sounds like you’re threatening to fire me again. If you’re going to do it, do it and stop beating around the fucking fairy bush shithead!”

You shake your head at Wendy’s insults. It’s obvious she isn’t going to listen to reason this way, so you try another tactic.

“Look, I’m not going to fire you, but you’re going to have to find another place to live. I can’t have your kids screwing up my business like this. If this is unacceptable to you, well I suppose I can’t stop you from quitting, but seriously I think you know I have a point here.”

Wendy is a little caught of guard since she figured you might back down from this completely.

“Wha… shit. You do have a point. I know they’re little monsters. Look I’ll talk to them, I’ll get them in line.”

“I’m glad you see it my way, but the time for that has passed. I think it would be best for our future working relationship if you didn’t live here anymore.”

“But come on you can’t fucking throw us out like this! I at least need time to find a new place!”

“I’m not throwing you out right now, but you need to find a new place by the end of next month.”

“Okay…okay. But hey, if I manage to get my kids to behave within that time can we stay?” Wendy asks hopefully, which is odd to you considering how she was just behaving. You’ve never seen her act in such a desperate fashion before. In fact you’re pretty surprised she hasn’t called you a bunch of names again, though she might’ve realized now that isn’t going to work.
> You give her time

You figure you’ve made your point and she’s still vital to the inn, so you can give her this chance. Besides if she doesn’t get her kids in line then she’s out.

“Alright Wendy, but don’t stop looking for other places to move to, because I’m not optimistic about your chances.”

“Don’t worry about it, I can handle it.”

“Okay then I hope you prove me wrong.”

After this exchange you and Wendy go back to work.

A few weeks pass and you notice a decrease in the bad behavior from her kids. Carl’s not grabbing Rita’s ass, Annie’s not cussing out the adventurers and Henry…well he’s still creepy, but he isn’t setting any of your employees on fire and you haven’t tripped over any new cat heads in the alley.

By the last week it actually looks like Wendy has succeeded. You’re a little impressed considering how horrible her kids were; still you don’t want a setback.

“Okay Wendy you can stay, but I hope you know that they better continue acting like how they are now. If there’s a relapse, it’s back to finding a new place again.”

Wendy of course tells you that she has everything under control with her kids now. Unfortunately after a month you find that she doesn’t. Even worse, she isn’t the only person looking for a new place.

Apparently Henry couldn’t contain himself any longer and one night decided to finish what he started with poor Alan by setting more than just his foot on fire. Alan’s flailing soon set portions of the basement on fire, and your stills just make things explosively worse.

The first explosion wakes you up immediately. The smell of smoke and the sounds of your inn collapsing on itself gets your ass out of bed and running to the nearest exit. You don’t even have time to check on Wendy before the floor suddenly collapses on you and plunge to a fiery death.