Bob The Innkeeper

A monk was balancing his fork on one finger while his companion adventurer, an elven archer, finished up the stew Liam had made. They had been discussing their next mission, defeating a troll that had been flushed out from all of the orcs and wyverns, but they were waiting on the rest of their party.

Bob looked up as Martha rushed into the inn.

"Bob, I have bad news! Primrose died in the night, and we"ve lost some of the babies. Do you mind if we bring all of them here, until the cleric Dianna can take them? It should only be a couple hours. When the temple was built, it was fully furnished!"

Bob nodded as women began to pour into the inn carrying babies and toddlers. The adventurers stopped what they were doing to stare in surprise and confusion.

"Trudy, fetch some of the milk and soup so these toddlers can eat something, and have all of the kids not busy with stuff come help feed the babies."

"Oh, Bob! You don"t have to do that!" exclaimed Martha as she helped the woman move some of the extra chairs to pen in the babies that could crawl and walk, so they didn"t get too close to the fire.

He smiled at her and said, "Which is why I"m doing it. Now, go find Dianna."

She smiled back at him before hurrying off.

The monk set his fork down, came over to hold one of the smallest babies, and started chatting with the women. Royce had his fork halfway to his mouth and was staring at the babies with a mixture of horror and fascination.

"A drink, please," said a dwarf, coming into the bar and sitting down. He glanced at the babies and said, "Is it bring your kid to work day? Or are ye opening a daycare?"

"I serve all ages here, good dwarf," chuckled Bob handing him a large mug of dwarven ale as Trudy came out with the milk and soup.

Setting a gla.s.s of elven wine next to an elf, the dwarf said, "I can see ye serve all kinds here, as well."

"Gold shines no matter the source, as does silver and copper."

The dwarf nodded and picked up his ale.

Dianna rushed into the inn and ignoring all of the adventurers, headed over to the group of babies.

"You poor things! Bring them over to the temple! I have a room prepared for them. Are all of you women the ones taking care of them?"

"Actually, we"re only bringing them to you. We have to get back to work," said one of the women apologetically, as she held two babies and followed after Dianna.

"Thank you for letting them stay here, Bob," said Dianna as she led them out of the bar.

"Bob? I need a drink. I just don"t know what to do," said a man sitting at the end of the bar.

Bob handed him a mug of standard ale and said, "What"s the problem?"

"My girl. The festival is in full swing out there, and she doesn"t want to attend. She keeps saying she hates the cold and just wants to stay inside."

Bob nodded thoughtfully, trying to figure out how to tell the guy his girl was cheating on him, when he spied her coming into the bar with her secret boyfriend.

"Is that her?" he asked, knowing the magic would keep them from fighting physically as the man rose from his chair to speak with them.

A man wearing royal garb entered the inn and headed over to the bar.

"Master Bob? The king requests your presence at the City Lord"s house within the hour."

Bob nodded carefully and watched as the man turned and left without another word. He set the gla.s.s he was cleaning down carefully and sighed. It was time to try out one of the new abilities he had acquired from Joe. Focusing on the ability, he gave himself a shake, and a copy of himself stood next to him. The new copy was invisible as he moved over and took his cloak down off its hook, then headed out the door. The original stayed at the bar, cheerfully refilling the dwarf"s mug of ale and listening to the weeping gent tell of his love"s betrayal.

As he stepped outside, Bob froze when he saw the building on the other side of the road. It was made entirely of stone, but he knew it had to be built with magic. Did Joe do this too?

Stepping up to the door, he noted the steam that was escaping from within. Inside he found two halls leading in opposite directions and a door directly in front of him. Magic allowed men to travel left and woman to travel right, but no magic prevented anyone from going straight. On the other side of the door, Bob found the central area was designed for people to clean laundry. Magic created the water, heated the water, and destroyed the water once it was done being used. There were many safeguards in place to protect people from harm, and even an area to dry the clothes before leaving.

Even though there wasn"t any soap or oils for bathing, he knew right away this was a fantastic birthday gift, and he wondered if Joe was going to require something in return for it. Deciding there wasn"t anything he could do at the moment, he left to hurry to the City Lord"s estate.

Making his way down the street, Bob kept the hood of his cloak pulled down to hide his face from the festival partic.i.p.ants. Minstrels danced and sang, wearing thin tights, and changing out often to warm up, as the crowds surged around the many merchants employed by the City Lord to hand out free beer and roast boar. Bob was learning so many things tonight, he was almost overwhelmed.

A paladin allowed him into the estate, and quietly escorted him to the grand hall. His father sat chatting quietly to the king, while the City Lord sat staring morosely at a young girl dressed all in black. Bob didn"t have to look at the girl twice to know she was evil through and through, but he wasn"t sure how much of that knowledge came from his G.o.dly abilities. He could tell right away that they hadn"t tried her yet, and wondered why he had been summoned.

"Ah, Bob, so good of you to join us so quickly. Please have a seat," said the king, motioning to a chair next to his father.

Sitting down, Bob watched as several paladins entered the room, to join the one that had escorted him, and then circled around the girl. A magical circle had already been drawn on the floor, and Bob knew that it was keeping her from escaping.

"I thought you would enjoy getting to sit in on this trial, since she targeted you specifically, and it is your birthday," said his father.
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Bob nodded, as the paladins began to pray to their G.o.d. He watched their prayers form a ring along the magical circle, and wondered if the king or anyone else could see it begin to glow. Lily snarled at them, as she began to manifest as a demon. Bob had seen the blackness of her soul, and shuddered as the monster that was within her struggled to stay hidden.

The paladins all nodded as they stopped their chant.

"We find the individual guilty of evil acts. May we pa.s.s judgement?" asked the oldest paladin to the king.

"You are holier than me. Decide her fate so that we can get on with our evening," said the king, waving his hand.

Bob realized the king hadn"t seen the evil monster and glanced at his dad who was sitting very still, his eyes wide in fear. He had always known he got his sight from his father, but this proved it. Did he give off an aura now that that he had divinity of his own, that his father could see? Thinking about it for a moment, he decided he didn"t, otherwise his father would have commented on it by now.

"Lilly Winston will be burned at the stake, for all to witness the end to such evil, and then her ashes shall be mixed in the mortar for the bridge being built to the south of the city, so for the rest of time, she shall be trodden on as further punishment."

"Wow," said the king. "She must have been really evil."

Bob and his father both nodded seriously as the paladins used magical bonds to escort her out of the room. Bob was unable to keep the shiver from traveling down his spine. He hoped that when he encountered evil like that, it was in his bar, where he would be safe and protected. In fact, he couldn"t wait to return to it, and probably wouldn"t leave it again for a very long time. He now understood why some G.o.ds never left their heavenly realms. How could Joe enjoy it so much? There must just be a power difference, he decided.