Adventure Story Time

It seems that last weeks choose my adventure ended with a tie! Talk to the dwarf and eat dinner tied with 4 votes each so I decided to work both into the story. I think I'll leave the voting open up until Monday morning each week when I'll see which option wins and write the next part. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this weeks story.

We join our story already in progress:

The stranger looked away before the gnome decided to approach him and try to talk. “Where is my blasted drink?” The stranger thought to himself. “All I want to do is have a drink and be left alone. If not for this blasted weather I would be in Stormwind by now.”

Unfortunately for the stranger, the dwarf noticed that the stranger was sitting at his table staring at nothing in particular and avoiding eye contact and took it as an invitation to walk over and try to start a conversation.

“Ello laddie,” The dwarf said. “Ah reckon that ye look familiar. Do ah know ye from somewhere?”

Luckily for the stranger, the innkeeper walked into the common room with food and drinks. From the look of it, dinner appeared to be roasted quail and flagons of mead. As the innkeeper placed the food down on the table, the stranger thought to himself “Well I suppose this isn’t the worst place to be stuck during a storm. If I can get this dwarf to leave me be, I’ll consider this night a draw.”

The dwarf took one of the flagons of mead and after taking a long swig, looked at the stranger expectantly. “Well do ye speak or ave the kobolds stolen yer tongue?” he asked.

The stranger took a bite of the roasted quail and looked the dwarf in the eyes. He debated whether it would be better to ask the dwarf to go away or to ignore him. Knowing dwarves, he wouldn’t get the hint that the stranger didn’t want to talk. “I’m eating and have no desire to talk.” He told the dwarf.

“Nae reason tae be rude,” the dwarf answered. “Ah jist wanna know why ye seem so familiar.”

The stranger answered the dwarf with the sound of chewing. The innkeeper noticed the exchange and walked over to the dwarf. “Would you like another flagon of mead good dwarf?” he asked in hopes of trying to cut the tension in the room. “If you’ll come back to your table I’ll grab you another and you can tell me all about that time you saved the burning city of Kharanos.”

The dwarf looked at the stranger like he expected an answer before he turned to the innkeeper and said “Aye that sounds good. It was a very big fire and ah did a lot of work.” Together they walked back to the dwarf’s table.

“Well that takes care of that. I’ll have to remember to leave the innkeeper something for doing such a good job,” the stranger thought to himself. “The commotion with the dwarf seemed to have scared off that gnome at least I don’t have to worry about him bothering me but it looks like the few guards in the place are now looking at me.”

The stranger sighed and continued eating his dinner and by the time he had finished, it looked like the gnome had gone up to his room, the dwarf was several flagons into his story with the innkeeper, and the guards had all left. He grabbed his belongings and stood up when someone approached him from behind and said, “Your room is this way sir.”

“Who are you?” the stranger asked as he turned to face the female voice. He saw a woman standing there watching him. She didn’t seem like much of a threat but the stranger was wary nonetheless for he had traveled to too many different places and had seen too many things to be caught unaware.

“I’m the assistant innkeeper, sir. You can call me Melika” She responded. “Farley told me to see that you were shown to your room when you were done eating. He’d have shown you himself but it looks like he is a little busy with that dwarf.”

“Yes, he does seem to be busy,” the stranger said. “Very well show me to my room, it’s been a long journey and it won’t be over anytime soon for me.”

“Right this way,” Melika said as they went upstairs to the second floor of the inn. She took the stranger to a room at the end of the hallway. They walked past several shut doors until finally they reached the room. “This is your room sir. If you need anything, Farley usually stays up late downstairs so the guards can wander in and grab a quick bite of food during their shifts. Breakfast is served early but if you don’t make it downstairs in time, there is usually fruit and cheeses available as well.”

Melika opened the door to the room and the stranger walked inside and looked around. The room was very sparsely decorated. A bed was against one wall and a few chairs were scattered near a small table. There was a large window on another wall with a view of the main street.

The stranger grunted softly and said, “This will be fine, thank you.”

“Have a good night sir,” Melika said as she closed the door and walked away.

The stranger put the few things he had with him on the table and lay down on the bed to sleep. The rain outside had started lessening which meant that his journey the next morning would be drier than that nights travel. The stranger closed his eyes and quickly went to sleep.

After what seemed like only a few minutes he was woken by a loud crashing noise. He looked around the room and then remembered where he was. It was suddenly bright outside but he was sure he hadn’t slept long. Suddenly he realized that it wasn’t sunlight coming in through the window, it was the light caused by a large fire. He ran to the window and saw that someone had set a nearby house on fire and that the flames had started spreading to the inn.

“With the rain, there was no way that this fire could have been an accident. Someone was trying to burn the town down but could I be the target here?” the stranger asked himself. “Either way I don’t have much time before I’m trapped up here, target or not. I’ve got to get out of here right now!”

He looked out the window one more time and then looked at the door. “But which way do I go: out the window or through the door?”

Those are the two options for the stranger: Go out the window or go out the door through the inn. Please leave a comment with which choice you think the stranger should go with and once again, thanks for reading!