Chapter 38: Drinking and Dowries

Chapter 38: Drinking and Dowries

Suzette awoke, at first disoriented to be waking up in a strange bed. Seeing the bandages on her arms reminded her of the events earlier in the day. She needed to get moving and see what the hell is going on.

She was only wearing bandages and a nightgown. Her own clothes had been hauled off to the wash, but she spied a pile of clothes on a chair with her shoes nearby. Thick cotton paints, and a simple tunic were laid out. She blessed Adrianna for leaving her clothes that were easy to put on. As she was dressing, her hostess came in the door with a loaf of bread and some tea.

"I know you're in a hurry, but eat something and drink the tea. Then take this potion to finish the healing. It won't work as well unless you get some food in you to help things along."

Munching the thick slices of fresh bread, Suzette mumbled "Hasssomthinghappned?"

Adrianna looked like a worried mother trying to project calm and utterly failing. "Maybe, not sure. Ozzy and Aliester went over to the Tavern, but they haven't come back yet. And it's a pretty good guess my daughter went with them. "

"Went with them to the basement?"

"No, into the dungeon that's now in the tavern’s sub-basement. I went over while you slept. There's a note there for you.

Suzette downed the potion and grabbed another piece of bread. "Right. I'm heading over. Is Derek over there?"

"Oh, he's over there all right. When did he start drinking heavily before noon?"

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Derek was sort of sitting at a table. There were a couple empty flagons, and an open bottle of Hykernian brandy on the table. He was stacking up six shot glasses and pouring brandy into a seventh.

Great, something else to figure out. But not right now. Suzette ran down the stairs and then into the sub-basement. Sure enough, there was a staircase leading down to what looked like your classic dungeon door. A note was pinned to it.

"Aliester says the dungeon is about to burst from too much mana or mobs or something. That's a bad thing. The two of us are going into to kill a few rats. Be back in a bit. -Ozzy"

No mention of Zephyr. So, she wasn't with them when they went in. Of course, she might have already gone in. Would she? Of course she would she would have. Daddy was an adventurer once and she's definitely a Daddy's Girl. Best to assume Zephyr went in and was with them. Rushing in on her own wouldn't help. This all started when she had to fight one rat-kin on her own, a dungeon of them was beyond her. Meanwhile, time to figure out what is up with her boss trying to drain the stock of booze.

Derek was still there. Another dirty shot glass had joined the pile, and he had just poured another. Suzette picked up the shot glass of brandy and knocked it back down her throat, and took away the bottle from him. "More of this won't fix the problem. What's going on? "

Derek looked at her. He was seriously lacking in sleep and had a couple days growth of beard. Come to think of it, he'd been a little rough around the edges yesterday when she came in for the night shift. "Rats!!.... Stupid rats. I hate rats. And I hate Billy. And contracts. Give me back my bottle."

Underneath the empty beer flagons lay a stained, two-page contract with the ACME logo on it. She cleaned up the table. Wiped beer off the contract, and took a look. "This is the contract you signed when you sold Billy half the tavern?"

Derek nodded. "Never should have done it. Worse off now than I was."

"Why are you worse off than you were? What happened Derek?"

Derek pounded his fist on the table for emphasis. "Rats happened. That damned quest every day telling me I had rats in the tavern. Evelyn won’t set foot in the place with rats in the basement. And that was before the big ones showed up."

Suzette sighed. She put two shot glasses out. She put a few drops in Derek's and refilled hers, then corked the bottle. "Ok, right don't you start at the beginning and tell me the whole story."

Encouraged by the token offering of brandy, Derek told his story. Evelyn was the daughter of a tavern keeper over in Dalesford, about 30 miles south of Sedgewick. Derek had grown up there and wanted to court her, but her father refused until he showed he could run a tavern on his own. Tavern keeping was hard work and he needed a son-in-law to take over the family business.

Derek has sold everything he had and bought a rundown tavern here in Sedgewick. Most of the profits went to paying off the loan, but he was free and clear after five years. He asked again to marry her, and hoped they could make a life here in Sedgewick. But someone else was also after his sweet Evelyn. As well and she was torn between them. Her daddy was more pragmatic. Whoever came up with a dowry of 500 gold got Evelyn and was heir to the family tavern.

“And when Billy came round to see if you were interested in selling, you asked for 500 gold? " Suzette was scanning the contract looking for the trap she knew was in here.

"Yep, we dickered a bit. Billy needed a tavern to feed his workers. I needed gold. I asked for 2000, he offered 500 for half. We eventually settled on that and I rode down to Daylesford and paid her dowry. The money will go into the tavern there. In a way, it will come back to me eventually. Or would have.”

Bugs began pouring out of Layla's clothes, as she screamed and danced around, swatting at them. Suzette stepped back, covering her mouth in horror. More and more insects poured out. Layla began taking off her clothes, stripping down until she was nearly naked. She was covered in insects, and kept slapping at her skin that was rapidly becoming covered in welts.

Everyone stared. No one knew what to say. Layla screamed in rage and started running back towards the village. Billy walked over to Suzette, eyeing the clothes strewn around and covered with creepy crawlies.

"Nest of insects?"

"Must have been. She should be more careful. That was really frightening."

Billy chose his next words carefully. "Look Suzette. I appreciate you trying to help Derek. I understand he's in some kind of bind. But just let him work it out. He'll figure out a way to make sure ACME gets it's promised cut. As long as that happens and the tavern feeds the workers, I'm happy. That contract can't be changed at this point. It's registered in the game, and at ACME HQ. Nothing I, or Vern, can do about it."

"You do a good job at the tavern. You're practically running it now. You have nothing to worry about, and your job is secure. Maybe avoid Layla though. "

Suzette nodded. Then she smiled, waved at what was left of the workers, and then at Vern. "Ok Billy. Thanks for trying. I'm going to go get lunch ready for everyone."

As she walked back, she reread the contract again. Getting back to the tavern, she was happy to see Derek being forced to eat a sandwich by Granja.

"I have an idea, Derek. Sell me the tavern."

Derek took a second to think on that. "Sell you the tavern? But you don't have any money. I know none of you workers do."

Suzette laid out her points. "Doesn't matter. You want to leave, but can't unless someone else takes over the tavern. I can take it over. You run off to Daylesford and get married. If she prefers you to the other guy, your father-in-law will be happy to have you work that tavern until he retires."

"And you take my tavern here for free?"

Suzette shook her head. Nope. I won't cheat you. I'm here for 5 years already. I'll run the tavern, and pay you 10 gold a month, starting today. That's 600 gold over 5 years. I think that's fair considering you sold half for 500 and now it has a rat problem."

Granja walked back to the kitchen and came out with Betty while Derek considered. She brought a blank page torn from the back of a cookbook and a quill and ink. "She's offering you a good deal Derek. Go marry that little gal before she gets snatched up."

Derek made his decision. "You’re right. If someone writes out the deed of sale, I’ll sign it. My hands aren't too steady right now."

Derek was on his way in the next hour. Suzette sat down with Granja and Betty to talk about ways to run things better. Granja had been living in Sedgewick all her life and was eager to take on more of a challenge. Betty was happy to take over more of the cooking. Suzette insisted on working out a way to share profits if things went well.

They had just finished when the start of the evening crowd came in. The first was Sir Timothy with a following of a dozen adventurers. He saw Suzette and quick bow. “We have returned, fair maiden. Let’s start with a couple of rounds of Blud Dark.”

The other person was an older man wearing a dapper looking suit of grey cloth, and a white shirt. He took off his coat and derby hat and sat at the bar, looking at the kegs of ale. Suzette got to him after serving Timothy and his entourage. They emptied out a keg of Blud Dark fast. She really had to do some brewing and build up her stock.

The gentleman asked for a small flagon of each of the brews Derek had traditionally made himself. He made small comments, asked for the names of the ales or beers, and wrote in a small book. Eventually he asked for a small glass of Bludgeon Brew, and one of Blud Dark. He didn’t seem to be very drunk as he finished off the last of the beer.

Suzette asked him “Figuring out what you like? Need anything else.”

“It’s a hobby of mine, combined with my job. So many small taverns, each with their own distinctive brews. Quite enjoyable.”

“Glad you enjoy it. And the job?”

“Oh, not so enjoyable. I’m an inspector for Bludgeon Brew. It has a ‘distinctive’ taste that the company wants replicated both here in Genesis as well as in the other world. I’m happy to say your version is as bland and unappealing as it is supposed to be.”

“However, we need to talk about this ‘Blud Dark’. A nice flavor by the way. Quite dark, with a good head. It has some nice flavors in it that I’m not quite placing. But I quite like it.”

“But officially, we have a problem as you are guilty of several types of copyright infringement and have voided the agreement we have with this tavern, and tangentially with the ACME corporation. “