When last we left our heroes, they had just fought through spider swarms and kobolds and confronted Maximus, the alehouse drake mastermind behind a plot to destroy The Dog & Duck Inn.
After taking a moment to consider the possibilities, Rashida Gnomes and Felina the Cat decide to investigate the now dead villain’s lair to see what treasures can be collected. Brother Erno Viranen, the temple acolyte chaperone assigned to our band of adventurers, elects to join the rogue and ranger, and Pip the Mighty Squeak reluctantly follows his companions.
Proceeding cautiously, the team move into the semi-circular room in which the conflict with Maximus sparked just minutes before. Checking carefully for traps, the ranger proceeds to the door that seemed to produce kobold after kobold during the fight, and is followed closely by her best friend, the rogue.
Finding no traps, they open the door and move carefully inside a small-ish square room, about 20 feet on a side. Propped against the walls are dozens of old and worn-looking short swords and blunt instruments, dented helmets, dulled and corroding shields, and all kinds of other poorly-kept weapons and armor in disorganized heaps. They look for anything interesting and find one sword still glinting, somewhat cleaner-looking than the rest. Felina takes it and the pair continue to a door on the left wall.
Rashida moves through the next door, this time somewhat recklessly, and barely dodges out of the way as a wooden bucket full of kobold waste falls to the ground, having been propped up on the door. While the smell is awful, the team press on into what they discover to be the now-dead drake’s modest horde.
The room is half of an octagon, 30-feet long an 15 across, and would be pitch black but for Erno’s magical light. There our heroes find some crates, sacks, barrels, a medium-sized chest, and a curious table emanating a magical glow. Investigating the containers in the room, Pip and Rashida find a number of unknown potions and liquids and a few old apples. The cat, burglar that she is, deftly picks the lock on the chest, and then jumps nimbly inside, as cats are wont to do. Inside they find a goodly bit of coin and two rolled up bits of paper which Rashida recognizes as spell scrolls, as well as a small key, though they are unable to discover any lock in the room that it may fit.
Felina offers an old apple core to the pet mouse in her pocket, who eats it gratefully, but Pip is less contented. Having died and been resurrected just a day before, he is anxious to rest, recover, and review the events of the previous days. He leads the way back out of the storage room and armory. Back in the semi-circular room, the team take a moment to barricade a door in the far corner they’ve not yet explored, then head back out the door in the near corner—back out toward safety.
As they near the body of the dragon they slew earlier, still lying lifeless in the corridor, Rashida and Felina begin to debate the best way to bring the body to the guard so that there is some proof of their efforts and of Hypsi’s innocence. In a Herculean display, yet with as cool a demeanor as ever, Pip slings the full (and significant) heft of their slain enemy’s corpse over his shoulders and moves casually on toward the exit. Astonished and awed at this impressive display of strength, the rest of the party follow.
Pip leaves their fallen foe’s body in the the cool cellar of The Dog & Duck and they all ascend the steps into the cool clear evening, starts twinkling above as the last hints of purple and orange fade from the western horizon. Looping around and entering the front door they find the public area nearly empty; only Hypsi is in the room, nervously pacing and wiping the bar, though it’s likely it’s seen no use in hours. As he sees the intrepid adventurers come through the door, his face lights with conservative hope.
“You’re alive! What happened? Is it done?”
The words fall out of the innkeeper like the contents of a drunkard’s stomach after an evening of indulgence. Ever the professional, however, he quickly collects himself and offers to make dinner, which the weary heroes readily accept. They eat and rehearse the events of the day—the spiders and kobolds, and of course, Maximus’ true nature and the fierce struggle to subdue him—with Hypsi interrupting from time to time to express profuse gratitude. Finally, as they explain how they slew Maximus as he made one last attempt to flee, the host leans back in his chair and breathes a deep sigh of relief, his closed eyes glistening faintly with the tears of a person who’s fears have been lifted.
“Well, you’ve saved my life and you’ve saved my livelihood,” he finally says. “I don’t believe anything I could do would be enough thanks for what you’ve done for me tonight, but I will offer what I can: As long as the Dog & Duck stands, you will all have a place here. I’m almost never full, but from now on, I’ll keep one room empty for you. We can do what we need to to make sure you’re all comfortable there. And you’ll also always receive every courtesy any guest is entitled to, including meals, all of it. Whatever you need.”
When they finish their meal, Hypsi shows the team to the room he’s now permanently reserved for them, and they tell him about the less dangerous stuff they found. They particularly mention the magical table and their grateful host agrees to have it extracted and brought to their room, where he will investigate it’s magical properties.
And so, we leave our heroes as they retire for the evening, safe, fed, and ready for sleep. What can that magical table be? What will Felina and Pip—the former prisoners of the guard—do with their newly earned freedom?
And what surprises might the future hold?