The City: PuzzleLocked Book 1

“That adventure was a bust,” Alastair said while walking back into the tavern with Flor. “At least, if we base it on seeing and questioning Klaos.”

“At least dinner was better than the normal tavern slop. I’m convinced we could enjoy an easy life here, Alastair.”

“Don’t bring that up again. I’m not in the right head space to get back into that discussion.”

“Okay. Got it. Off-limits for today. So, our next player-defined objective is to sit around and overhear juicy gossip?”

“Unless you want to ask Nikolette if she’s keeping a cat or two out back?”

“Not a terrible idea. I’ll get her to draft a couple of beers and send them over.”

“Wait, make sure we can pay, right?”

“We should still have like seventeen coins between us. More than enough for a night of drinking and buying a round or two if needed.”

“Okay, just wanting to be sure.”

Alastair selected a small round table on the wall and watched Flor walk to the bar to chat with Nikolette.

Flor returned a moment later with a couple of beer mugs that smelled more potent but less pleasant than the ones at the prison tavern. As she placed them on the table, she said, “She says there is a mean, well, I don’t think I could repeat the way she said it. Anyway, there might be an unpleasant cat out back near the wood pile. For a coin, she’ll sell me a fishhead from the stew that might lure the cat out. I figure it’s an easy coin’s worth. Oh, and the serving boy should be around but we’ll have to get served at the bar until he returns. She’s liable to whip him good for not being around. I’ve got to say, we picked the most reputable of taverns.”

“Reminds me of that hostel we stayed at in Mexico. If we weren’t so poor and scared, I expect we would have found different lodging after we saw that man. You remember, the one with the teeth like…well, I’m going to try to think of something else.”

“Oh, yeah, that was not our best adventure.”

“So, you go pet a cat. Hopefully, it’s more friendly than the barkeep says. Do you have a healing spell? You should be in full health regardless. Be safe anyway!”

Flor gave him a dirty look as she wandered back to the bar. Alastair watched her give over a coin for a fish head then follow the nod toward the back.

Once she was through the door, Alastair looked more thoroughly around the room. Gas lamps lit the walls, keeping the place reasonably bright. The trio of thugs were gone, probably out to attempt to mug some other sucker for more beer money. A couple of other patrons were drinking beer. None of them had a name next to a title, which meant they would repeat the same nonsense without giving much of a hint at an objective. What did Flor call them? Single answer NPCs? Drones?

Additional patrons walked in, sat at stools, and called to the bar. Nikolette yelled at them that they’d have to get served at the bar, and she was going to bludgeon that serving boy when he showed up.

Flor came back a few minutes later. She didn’t look the worse for wear, so perhaps the fish head offering had been accepted.

“Cat?”

“Yeah. Surely was a mean queen, but not one I’d want to attempt petting if I hadn’t given it a snack.”

“I didn’t get a notification. Anything of interest?”

“Just the normal ‘You’ve pet a cat.’ This one is appropriately named Scruffs. {Cat 009 is a 16-year-old American Shorthair named Scruffs. Even I’m surprised she’s still alive. Oh, I looked ahead. It’s not much of a tragedy to say that, in about a year, Scruffs gets caught by a hawk and dies relatively quickly. And she remembered fondly through the last year that she had a whole fish head to herself.} Anything interesting here?”

“A few more drones have come in. Quiet otherwise. It seems like maybe Nikolette or the serving boy cleaned the floor between renting the room and returning from dinner.”

Flor took a sip of her beer. “Wow, that’s awful! I wonder if there is something else?”

“This certainly tastes like the cheapest stuff. And probably mixed with the mop water to boot. It’s worth an ask. I’ll be right back.”

Alastair walked over to the bar. “Is this the only beer you have?”

Nikolette’s single eye narrowed. “What? My normal beer isn’t good enough for you?”

“It tastes like you mixed it with mop water.”

“Ah, well, maybe I did at that. I did tell you that when you asked for a room. Most of these folks don’t notice. You want the dark or the not-so-dark? It’s a full coin per, not just the half.”

“One of each.”

“Right. One moment. Oh, here is my worthless boy, finally. He’ll bring them over after his beating.”

“Can you beat him after he brings our beer?”

“Fine. Not like I really lay a hand on him. Mental punishment is more than enough.”

“I’m sure it’s just as useful in producing an upstanding citizen.”

“Don’t tell me how to raise mine. Get on before I refuse to serve you the quality stuff.”

Alastair went back to the table. “The serving boy will bring the non-mop water beer. Did I miss anything?”

“Those thugs came back. They’ve been giving me sour looks.”

“We can go beat them up again if you want.”

“I’d rather not pick fights.”

The boy brought their beers over. He motioned as if they wanted their mop beers taken away.

Alastair said, “I’ll give you a full coin if you top these off and take them and a third to those guys over there.”

The boy shrugged, took the coin, and returned the other two mugs to the bar.

Flor asked, “What are you doing?”

“Maybe buying goodwill?”

The boy pantomimed something to Nikolette, who shrugged, accepted the coin, and gave the boy back three mugs. The thugs seemed confused but accepted the beer and then drank greedily.

“Looks like they had a poor night on the prowl. And yeah, this beer is better.”

“I think this is just the same stuff from the prison tavern.”

“Likely. Who knows if the water is safe to drink here.”

“I’d rather not spend the next few hours finding out. Let’s stick to the beer for a bit.”

A few additional patrons came through in ones and twos. A few of the new patrons seemed to know others, and eventually, there was a bit of noise. The boy was busy delivering swill and returning empty mugs. It’s lively, not unlike some dives we’ve been to.

After the second round of not-mop beer, Flor wanted to head to bed. Alastair noted the time. “If we were at the prison tavern, I expect it’s about an hour until they’d be calling the search party. Do you think they call on it here, too?”

“No idea. But sure, one more beer. Let’s take them up to the room.”

They walked to the bar together. Nikolette was talking with a scrawny patron who seemed overly animated. Alastair gave a double-take, then got Flor’s attention. “Look left. The patron. He has a name.”

Sure enough, Irving, Thug 1, hung over his head as Nikolette dismissed him.

Flor said, “Oh, talk to him. Buy him a beer or something.”

“Hey, you,” Alastair directed his voice at the thug. Irving turned and cowered a bit. He pointed to himself. Alastair nodded and then waved him over. “You look sad. What’s the story?”

“I, we… We couldn’t save her.”

“Oh, sounds like a tale for over a beer. Come join us.” Alastair didn’t give Irving an option but directed him to the table they had vacated, which was still fortunately unoccupied. Flor came with three mugs. She placed one in front of Alastair and then one for herself. Alastair could see the third was swill, but the normal patrons didn’t seem to mind. “So, who’s this ‘her’ you couldn’t save?”

Irving whimpered and then sobbed into the beer. Alastair and Flor gave each other a look, then waited. “My sister. My only sister. The last.”

“Want to start at the beginning?”

He sighed, then took a swallow of beer, which seemed to give him a bit of courage. He took another pull for good measure, then downed it. Alastair caught the serving boy’s attention and motioned for another swill.

“The mayor’s goons arrested my sister yesterday. Girls…and boys…always going missing around here, about every month, at least. I pounded on the doors of the manor gates, but the guards turned me away. Said I could buy my sister back for two hundred coin, or see her for fifty. I don’t have that sort of coin. I barely have coin enough to feed myself and her.

“Well, I got an idea for myself. There is always a procession up to the keep the day after kids go missing. So maybe the mayor takes those kids up to the keep as some sort of payment.”

“What happens to the kids at the keep?” Flor asked.

“No one has any idea. Just that they don’t come back.”

Flor and Alastair sat there speechless.

Alastair said, “Maybe the Lord is giving them a free education.”

Flor glared at Alastair. “Now is not the time. Go on, Irving. What did you do?”

“Well, I got a couple of my buddies, and we went up the road, and we hid out in the woods. We figured I could try to release the prisoners while my buddies distracted the guards.”

“And I’m guessing that didn’t go over well.”

Irving began to sob, even more deeply, if possible. The serving boy gave Irving a strange look as he brought the swill. Irving drank it down in a gulp. Alastair gave the boy a coin and indicated two more.

“One got a spear through his back and the other…I don’t know. I’m not a good tracker, but I found his blood and then his body.”

“What about your sister?”

More sobs. “The locks were too challenging to pick. I couldn’t even get the tumblers to move. I stayed as long as I could but fled before the guards came back.”

“We saw the procession leave. It didn’t look like there were any prisoners.”

Despite the sobs, Irving looked affronted. “You calling me a liar?”

“No, not that. Just wondering where they keep them.”

“In the carriage. The Mayor rides in the hansom.”

“Yikes. That’s…well, awful.”

Irving began to sob more.

“Flor, how many coins do we have left?”

“No idea. Ten? Maybe less, maybe more. Let me check.”

“Don’t worry about that. Let’s just give Irving a few coins to drown his sorrows.”

She handed over a couple of coins.

“Let’s get those roadies and head upstairs to plan our tomorrow.”

Flor was almost asleep by the time they got to the room. The dark beer was a bit more potent than she was used to. As Alastair helped her into the bed, she said quietly, “We should help that man.”

“Right now, let’s hope we escape a summons to a search party. But yes, if we wake here tomorrow, we’ll help that man.”