The Butcher of Gadobhra

Suzette was hurrying downstairs to pluck four unlucky roosters when she heard the deep voice of Roderick Kallvek. Forewarned, she slowed her steps and came into the tavern's common room at a walk with a smile on her face.

"Ah, and here she is! My good friend Suzette. Please! Come let me introduce you to my family. We decided that a small vacation away from the capitol was needed! This is my wife, Melissa and our children: Misha, Sasha, Sora, and little Thaddeus. My mother Aurelia came along, as did my father, Emilio."

Suzette took in the extended family as she was given names and relationships. Roderick's father seemed to be an older, greyer and louder version of his son. Both his mother and wife were cordial, but she noted from their body language that they didn't defer to their husbands. Conversation brought that out as well. The children were inquisitive but polite, quivering like arrows about to be released. They had arrived the night before, just after the chaos of the Star Spawn had died down, and taken rooms at the Inn.

The Inn was doing better now with an influx of players who were earning money. The tavern could always survive selling beer and simple food. The inn required a richer clientele to support its larger staff. Gareth employed a cook, three maids, a handyman, and a hosteler. The large dining room served a higher class of meal and they had a decent wine cellar. It had been lean times with few customers in the years before ACME had come to town. Now, with a surprise expansion to the inn thanks to Ozzy's insurance policy, and many more people in town, Gareth and his family were busy every day serving meals and renting out rooms.

"Very nice to meet you all. Roderick has always referred to you as 'The Great Kallvek'. Should I refer to you by that or just as Emilio. Does this mean you are on vacation, or simply keeping a low profile?"

Emilio laughed. "It is hard for someone my size to go unnoticed. But yes, this is a little vacation with my grandchildren. Who knows though? There is always something interesting to see. Maybe we can do some business before I leave."

That was good enough for Suzette, for now.

She kneeled down to look the children in the eye. "We have rules here. Breaking them might get you eaten by something."

"Rule 1: Don't go in basements. Basements might have a dungeon with things that try to kill you."

"Rule 2: Don't go near the big smoking building. It ties people up in chains and throws them into the fires."

"Rule 3: If someone is scaring you, or hurting you, scream loud and we'll come beat it up."

The children pondered that, with the older ones repeating the rules for Thad. Getting eaten was bad.

Their mother agreed. "Those are good rules. This isn't the city. It is alright to scout the area, learn the territory, and meet the people. But don't explore the dungeons."

Warnings and introductions done; Roderick started into his part of the business. "I have all of the goods you requested. We wished to return swiftly and were delighted to find that our travel fees were already covered. The local Legion commander must hold you in high esteem?"

This caused Suzette to laugh. "Oh, he certainly was happy when the Baron's workers filled up his teleport pad with mana. They have more than they can use now and are sending excess back to Wolfsburg. Mana seems to be a commodity like everything else, and we have filled his coffers full. I'm happy that it smooths your road a bit."

The Great Kallvek nodded and let his son talk. He was enjoying not being the point man, and able to simply observe and poke his nose into things. This little town was well built. The walls of the tavern were made of thick stone which supported the extra stories of the building. If what Roderick said was true, it also contained not one, but two dungeons in the basement! Such a little money maker!

The dungeons explained the dozen or so magical items hanging on the wall behind the bar with price tags upon them. He laughed to himself. A tavern with magic swords for sale? Unheard of! But it also told him that she didn't yet have an agent in one of the cities selling her items. This matched what Roderick had said that she had been using them to trade for goods. And of course, the preposterous (yet true!) story of having traded a legendary item to pay her taxes.

His son was correct. This was an opportunity to set down roots before anyone else. The other merchants came to sell their whiskey and snails, happy to take away some coin. They were ignoring the true wealth that would soon be centered in this little town. Some places you could make money buying. Some places you made money selling. Here? Both were possible. Dungeons brought adventurers and produced wealth. His family could sell things to them, and buy their loot. Sell foodstuffs to the town, and buy their finished goods. And that was just Sedgewick. The great city was close enough that this was just the door step. How much business could he do in a city of that size?

His musings came to an end as son spoke to him. "The mayor has a building to show us. Let us go take a little walk, see the town, and decide if it will fit our needs."

Suzette took them to the village square, and then to a small shop at the corner. It was narrow and two stories tall. A small yard separated it from a larger 'L' shaped building that enclosed the yard on two sides, the two buildings forming a square. "Would this do? You mentioned the need for a modest building. Somewhere to store a few things, and maybe do some buying and selling?"

Roderick looked to his wife, who shook her head no. "Ah, I think that my plans may call for something a bit more than this fine little building. Although, I will admit that it is nicely positioned on the square. I think it could make a very good place for Myrna. She wishes to have a permanent place to cook." He looked around for the kobold, wanting to ask her opinion, but he didn't see her.

Aurelia and Melissa were discussing the larger building. It was as tall as the tavern, with four stories topped by a steep roof of slate. Four chimneys were jutted upwards from the roofline. Balconies were visible in three places, with great doublewide doors opening onto them. The windows on the bottom floor were tall and narrow, but on the third and fourth floor they were wide with many planes of glass.

"This is an interesting building. Why is it empty?" Melissa was peering in through the windows. The bottom floor was very open with a large kitchen in back, and then a huge area flanked on both sides by large hearths. Wide oak planking formed the floors.

Suzette gestured at the building. "That is one we have set aside for future use. Maybe a storehouse of sorts? Or workshop? Who knows? It's one of the extra buildings we gained when the town was rebuilt. Feel free to take a look, but I'm sure it's too large for the little shop Roderick said he was looking for."

Melissa and Aurelia entered the building, followed by the children who immediately set out to explore. Suzette followed behind them, pointing out the wide stairs that led down to a huge basement area, and the large kitchen. The children explored the entire house, (except the basement that was surely filled with monsters). Roderick watched their progress as they emerged from one balcony after another, and even onto the roof, where they had found a small widow's walk.

Emilio took out his pipe and lit it, then gestured to the rest of the town. "I am going to look around. Your mother will spend at least an hour looking at the building that Suzette wants to sell us, and that your wife wants to buy. You cannot hurry them."

It was not a large town, but it was interesting. Everywhere he went, people were busy. Very, very busy. The smithy was still a beehive of activity, even as he saw stone masons tearing down two of the walls and rebuilding them. Work did not stop just because the building needed an upgrade. He wandered into the large fortress at the end of town after politely asking to look around. Two men were taking their lunch and waved him on it. He saw another man working a loom and producing rough cloth, woodworkers making furniture, horses being shoed, and all manner of small crafts being worked on. The upper stories seemed to be individual rooms where people lived.

The Baron seemed to take very good care of his indentured workers. He was also getting a tremendous amount of work out of them. It had been late when they arrived in town, and the workers had still been busy. Later in the evening he had taken a small stroll, and still seen signs of activity. The forge had been in use, and large wagons passed him buy carrying loads of stone and timber. They had been at it again as soon as the roosters had begun crowing.

Several little shops were lining the courtyard. An alchemist was doing a brisk business selling potions, and there was a line at the butcher shop. That confused him until he got closer and could smell the bacon. Each player was emerging from the shop with a small package of it. A sign in the window proclaimed a special on smoked jerky. Silver and gold coins were being exchanged for smoked meats in preparation for a large raid on the local dungeon.

Smoke and fire erupted into the air, along with the unmistakable sound of an excited kobold. He followed the noise behind the main buildings to find Myrna standing on top of a barrel, watching a large man breathe fire. This had to be the Butcher. He was as large as Roderick had described him with finely sculpted muscles and dark skin. He took a large drink from a bottle, and then carefully blew a huge smoke ring into the air. Concentrating hard, he did another, and then lost control, belching out a huge gout of fire into the air.

Myrna clapped excitedly. The little fire shaman was a true pyromaniac with a deep love of open flames. She was shouting at the Butcher. "Again! Do it again, Fatfingers. More fire!"

An older man sitting in a rocking chair yelled back. "He's not supposed to be making fire you silly lizard. He's controlling the fire and making smoke. Do it again boy. I want to see at least three rings this time. If the fire in your belly gets too hot, let a little smoke trickle out your ears to reduce the pressure. This is your own fault for putting all that radiance in your belly, it's encouraging the fire too much."

The Butcher looked from one to the other and mumbled something, before taking another drink of Strawberry Surprise and started breathing out smoke again.

Myrna saw Emilio watching and hopped down. "Fatfingers is getting better. Fire inside is getting hotter. Needs to be hot, to match his pit. Lovely, lovely pit. I could stare into it for days." She shook herself. "But then nothing would get cooked."

She grabbed Emilio by the arm. "Come. You will buy Myrna a place for her grill. I am moving here. Fatfingers will be ready soon, and I need to be near this fire."

Suzette and Melissa were haggling when they got back. Aurelia walked over to talk to Roderick. "You wife found a house. It is ideal for you. Plenty of room for the children, including a classroom on the top floor. Storage in the basement, two floors for business, and a third to expand either the business or the family, depending on which way the wind blows."

"The small building will become a place for Myrna to set up shop. The price is reasonable, barely a quarter of what we would pay in Wolfsburg."

Roderick nodded. "So, she is buying it?" His mother laughed. "She already has, they are just working out the final price."

As they watched, Suzette and Melissa shook hands and then hugged. The children, who had been watching closely, raced back into the building to haggle over who got which room."

Suzette turned to Roderick. "I'm happy you are moving here. We have a lot to talk about. We have a late meeting tonight to discuss town planning. Would you like to come? Late dinner included."

The Great Kallvek inclined his head and smiled. "But of course, all four of us will come. It is very nice to be included in your plans. We will offer our advice and partake of your meal."

"Great, and now I should get back to the kitchen, I have...." She was interrupted by the sound of hooves. Ben came racing up on Mudhead, paused just long enough to grab Suzette before taking off again.

"Sorry folks, a bit of an emergency. Cham is about to be sacrificed by a grove of angry apple dryads. To calm things down I need Suzette to come sign a Treety with them." And with that, the two rode off in the direction of the forest.

Roderick watched them go. "I told you it was an exciting place." He turned to his wife. All of that is fine, but why can't we all live on the fourth floor? It is larger than our existing house?"

His wife came over and took his arm. "Oh, it is. But the children are cramped, and this will give us room. The third floor will be ours. You need a home that reflects a wealthy merchant. A place to entertain guests and hold dinners. Plus, I would like a place for the nursery that is near our own room and not so close to noisy children."

Roderick smiled broadly. "Ah, so we are expanding the family as we expand the business. Excellent thinking. I am amazed at your ability to plan ahead."

After some talk, the two women went back to the building, to measure the rooms for furniture and rugs, and plan the move to Sedgewick.

Roderick stayed with his father. "You are going to be a grandfather once again. This is a nice town. You will have to visit often."

The Great Kallvek looked thoughtful, and then made up his mind. "I think so too. Come, we can leave the women to plan their conquest of your new home. But I think I want some place quieter for when your mother and I visit. The innkeeper, Gareth, seems like the sort who wouldn't mind a silent partner. Let's go buy an inn."

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