"Welcome to Vaqyn!" Jack spread his arms wide and did a spin in an exaggerated gesture that was very much overkill for a town with maybe forty or fifty people in it. But it was a town with an inn. So no sleeping on the ground for the first time in.. I did some quick mental math. Uh, I want to say more than three years? Time in the demonic Abyss was weird.
"Inn's cost gold. Of which, we have zero."
I angrily turned and glared down at Paz. "Okay seriously, can you read my fucking mind or not?"
She huffed. "Love, we spent every waking moment together for thirty years. Of course I can read your mind most of the time, just not with magic."
I sighed and looked down sheepishly. "I thought it was like three years, but your point stands either way. I hate my dumb low wisdom. You're so much harder to read."
"You're adorably oblivious. It's one of things I love about you!" Paz smiled and stood on the tips of her toes to kiss my nose. Then she took my hand and we wandered into town.
"The tall building is Sabastian's inn. The L shaped one with the chimney is Dame Olivia's forge." I pointed out buildings as we walked, playing tour guide for Paz. "The stable over there is Chuck's Used Horse Emporium. Don't buy horses from him, he'll rip you off." I briefly contemplated trying to explain why it was funny that Chuck looked and sounded like Nathan Fillion and sold used horses, but then shrugged it off. Way too complicated. My players thought it was hilarious though. "The small one with the crooked windows is Maple's little shop. The house behind that is Anabelle and her daughter, Sterling. Both devil-bloods. Sterling's father is a piece of shit. It was a whole thing with a fight by the lake. Anabelle is the barmaid at the inn. And the one down on the end is the local temple." Huh, I wondered who would be in the temple since Hannah was busy doing other things in this campaign.
Paz gave me a long, measured look. "Oh, I hadn't realized you've been here before."
I shook my head. "Oh no, I haven't ever stepped foot in this town." The one aspect of my life on earth that I had never shared was the dungeon master element and how I wasn't sure if I was some kind of god who had created Illith Aranor.
Her eyes narrowed. "Then how..?"
I gave her a mischievous smile. "You're not the only one who can have secrets you know. The gods Above whisper to me about the world sometimes." I stood a little taller and tried to look important.
Her nose wrinkled and she stopped walking. "No they fucking don't. I'd have heard it."
"Oh, so your ESP goes both directions huh? Good to know that you can spy on me coming and going." I loved her, but I was starting to feel a bit squeamish about some of the things Paz hadn't told me. Not that I wasn't keeping my own big secret. Am I a hypocrite? Pretty sure I was.
She huffed. "I don't know what ESP means. But yes, I am extraordinarily sensitive to divine fuckery."
I nodded and marched off toward the inn. "Well then, we both learned some things about each other. That's progress."
"But you still didn't tell me anything except bullshit!" She shouted and then hurried after me.
The inn was dimly lit and very cozy. Smells of cooked meat and some kind of fermented alcohol washed over me as soon as I pushed through the door. Sabastian, the dwarf proprietor, was standing behind the bar washing mugs. "Howzit folks! Fair travels?" His deep drawling voice was very easy on the ears.
I leaned on the bar counter and blew out a heavy sigh. "Demons. Slavers. Giants. The usual headaches." Paz leaned beside me, close enough that our thighs were touching.
He looked me up and down. "Yeh don' look lie' adventurers. But if yeh are, there's work for the taking, if yeh be wantin' it." He lifted his chin in the direction of the notice board.
I nodded excitedly. "Work means gold. And gods Above, do we need gold. I'm so fucking tired of sleeping on the ground."
Paz's hand very gently brushed the tip of my ponytail as she walked past me over to the notice board and began perusing it.
Sabastian's craggy old face broke into a wide grin. "Hard gold for hard work." His eyes followed Paz for a second. "Yeh two been together a long time. Cute couple." It wasn't a question.
My mouth fell open and I glanced over, my eyes lingering on my girlfriend's cute butt. "You can tell?"
"Aye. When two people are quietly comfortable being together, it shows. The way they move and just exist near one another. I'm guessing she's quite the handful when she gets riled up? The gingers always are." I smiled and nodded. "Aye, my husband was like that too. When he got a bee in his bonnet, you'd best run for the hills. Gods Above rest his soul." Sabastian placed his hand over his heart and bowed his head.
The words slipped out before my brain could catch up. "Shit. Michael is dead?"
Sabastian got very pointedly quiet as he looked at me long and hard. "Aye, almost three winters back. Who are yeh, stranger? I've never laid eyes, but yeh knew my Michael?" His eyes went up to my horns. "Are yeh kin with Anabelle?"
"Very distantly." I tried to stay as vague as possible. "There was some bad business with Sterling's father a while back. I helped drag him straight back to the Hells, where he belongs." That was close enough to accurate.
Sabastian nodded. "That lil' girl is a genuine treasure. Let me know if there's anything I can get for yeh."
I smiled at the surly dwarf. "Will do. Can I ask how much for a hot meal and a room?"
"Aye, three silver for a meal, and by the looks of yeh, yeh both could use several." He grinned at Paz's and my skinny asses. "And a room would be a gold piece."
I nodded thanks to him and wandered over to join my beautiful ginger by the notice board. "Anything promising?"
She slowly turned around with a terrifying grin and held a parchment up to my face. "Wanna kill a dragon?"