Chapter 109: Paladins to the rescue!

Senior Brother Towers led his slightly diminished troupe of paladins in a final circuit of the town, and then satisfied that there were no more rat-kin to run down, turned and rode into the center of town. Village? Hmm, there really wasn't a lot here, was there? He decided to go with 'hamlet' as that was the smallest sounding word he could think of for a town. It was amazing that such a small hamlet had even attracted the ire of the rat-kin. Then again, rat-kin liked uneven odds in their favor, so that might explain it.

Calling a halt in the middle of the hamlet, he addresses the ragged assortment of peasants that his troupe had just saved from certain death. "Greetings, gentle peasants of the hamlet of Sedgewick. The Order of Paladins has once again come to the aid of the kingdom. The rat-kin are defeated."

The peasants seemed stunned that fate had saved them from a horrible fate. They barely reacted to his speech beyond a couple of half-hearted 'Huzzahs'.

He did however, spot a tavernkeeper. The plucky lass was attending to the needs of some of the survivors. He dismounted and approached her. "HO! Lass. I'd like to see about rooms for my men and I. They've had a long run and a victorious fight. I'll be needing a dozen rooms for them at your fine establishment and if possible, a menu to order dinner from."

The girl turned at looked at him. Her frown turned into a glorious smile as she casually walked up to him. The other peasants paused in their gossiping and paid attention to him. Although a few were slapping their foreheads. A local custom perhaps?

"Paladins you say? Like Sir Timothy?"

Good! The poor girl at least knew what a paladin was. "Exactly. Sir Timothy, the Shining Paladin is an up-and-coming member of our order. Is he here in this town?"

"Nope. Died fighting the rats. He was part of the group trying to conquer the town in their little corporate war. Caused a lot of problems here." Towers noticed that many of the other paladins were simply smiling and nodding as the girl spoke. Gadzooks! He'd forgotten the perils of leading a group of battle-hardened young men into a town of downtrodden but shapely peasant girls. He'd have to watch them carefully or some of them would end up married and working on farms. They lost more recruits that way than to battle with the orcs.

"Oh...I see. Bad situation that. I stay away from politics myself, never did understand it. But about those rooms? I take it this battered building is your tavern? I'm hopeful it has a back door? The front seems to be needing of repairs."

The tavern keeper rolled her eyes and pointed. "Nope, that lump of stone over there was my tavern. Sir Timothy took control of the dungeon and let it overflow. So sorry, but no rooms. Not that I rented rooms before anyway. I'm a tavern keeper, not an inn keeper. The inn is the large pile of rubble over there."

The girl was definitely upset about something. Probably worried about how she was going to attract a man to take care of her, now that her tavern was destroyed. Another reason to get his boys on their way. He didn't want her getting her claws into one of them. Junior Brother Sundiver seemed entirely smitten with her already, and he’d only just seen her. "No worries, lass, we'll be on our way then. I'm sure the Legion Keep will have accommodations to meet our needs."

He began to put his foot in his stirrup to mount when she put a hand on his shoulder and said, "No, I don't think so."

Towers turned around, confused. "I can assure you that they do have plenty of rooms. Don't worry your little head about it."

The girl shook her head in a negative manner and rolled her eyes. "I meant that you aren't leaving. This town needs help. There are still monsters around, many of the people are wounded, and it won't hurt for all you strapping men to lend a hand helping out. A lot of the slain will be resurrected at dawn, and going through that ordeal for the first time. They'll need hot food and shelter. So, I'm asking again that you stay and aid us."

Tears rolled down face and she clasped her hands in front of her. "Please sir, you're our only hope."

        Suzette, the Lonely Barmaid needs help!

Her village...hamlet has been destroyed by the evil rat-kin and the failure of Sir Timothy to manage the dungeon properly while he and Lord Brandon the Bully conquered her town. She suffered horribly at their hands.

She asks that the Order of Paladins stay and assist the survivors.

Success: Remove the stain on the Orders’ reputation put there by Sir Timothy's failure. Gain reputation with the Hamlet of Sedgewick.

Failure: Loss of all Glory from the battle. Worse reputation with the Hamlet of Sedgewick. Worse reputation with the Emperor's Legion. Worse reputation with General Themis. Lowered moral of Junior Brothers who need a break from marching. Enmity with the local Butcher.

This is a mandatory quest.

Senior Brother Towers was reading through the quest for a second time when Inquisitor Diego stepped forward. The old man took the girl's hands and beamed at her. "Of course, we will stay and help. Never let it be said that the Order of Paladins doesn't know how to put in a hard day’s work helping those in need."

Diego directed several of the junior paladins to help see to the wounded and practice their healing spells. And then to the mild horror of the Senior Brothers, he had all of their saddle backs emptied of food and drink. "It's not doing anyone good sitting on a horse and I'm sure the Legion will have more food at the keep."

After one of the Junior Brothers climbed the rubble to enter the keep and saw the enormous corpse of the Ubermaus, all of the paladins broke off what they were doing to take a look at the monster. Even in death, it was a fearsome thing. Towers turned to Diego. "By the Emperor’s brass doorknobs, I can't even tell what level this creature is!"

"Tier 4 Monstrosity, generally what you would expect in a very large dungeon, and not attacking a small village." Diego was measuring the dead monsters’ teeth and claws and making a drawing in the journal. "Take a good look, gentlemen. This is the cost when a dungeon overflows. You can be happy it was killed here, and we didn't meet it in the field."

"Damned right you're lucky! That thing would have torn through you without blinking, and been chewing down on your horses a minute later." Themis had emerged from the bar upon hearing Tower's and Diego's voices. She was feeling much better after a few mugs of Healing Beer. And she was quite happy to show off the monster she had had a hand in killing.

"How did you manage to kill such a thing?" Towers was in agreement with the general. Charging against rat-kin was one thing. This monstrosity would have been a terror to engage, and he doubted any of them would have lived.

"A good plan that involved teamwork, heavy artillery, creative use of magic, and in the end, a massive amount of sheer violence." Sitting on a large chunk of rubble she began to tell the story of the battle of Sedgewick to the group of paladins.

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