The Dungeon Inn - English

B01C16 - Upgrades

Finally the day came, when I met Aron again.

"Ah, someone is already waiting impatiently for their delivery."

"I have great expectations of the saw. I hope this will improve a lot of things."

"Hehe, we feel the same way. Sorry that it took so long, it wasn't that easy to get. Here."

"Thanks. How much do you get?"

"20 silver coins."

"Then this is for you."

"Huh? How come, we were away for a while, but you didn't earn that much in such a short time."

"Let's put it this way, we had unwanted visitors."

"Unwanted visitor? Is that where the leather armor and swords come from?"

"Oh, yes, exactly, they gave them to us too because they didn't need them anymore."

"I didn't think there were idiots in the area. Normally the forest scares them away."

"Maybe they didn't know about the danger."

"Unlikely, but who knows. Did you get through it unharmed?"

I told Aron's group what had happened, leaving out just a few details here and there that would give us away.

"You were lucky then."

"Yes, I agree, but I hope we can work on it now."

"Well then, we won't bother you for long, what should we bring next time."

"I would be interested in another large cooking pot this time."

"You already have one, why have another one?"

"Well, let's put it this way, I would like to try something and I don't want to ruin the old one."

"...Just don't do anything crazy. As I said, they are quite expensive. Do you still have any money left?"

"Unfortunately no, you've already gotten everything."

"Hmm, do you still have one of the swords?"

"Yes?"

"It could fit in terms of value, so I want to take a closer look at it."

I had Bruno fetch a sword and Aron examined it with his colleagues and accepted it as payment.

Again they only stayed one night and then left.

I used the following days to carry out the necessary improvements with Bruno.

Action number one was safety. It was far too easy for the robbers to get in and we wanted to make that more difficult. To do this, I made a gap in the wall of the corridor upwards and we placed tree trunks in it, that protruded into the corridor. On the opposite side we repeated the whole thing, only the gap there was deeper so that the logs could be pushed into the wall, which more or less created a door. If you push the logs back into the corridor, you can clamp another log vertically behind them in the wall, so that the logs can no longer get into the wall. The vertical trunk is then fixed and there is no way to open the door from the outside. We placed a few more logs over the door so that the barrier went up to the ceiling and the corridor was completely closed. This means that robbers should no longer be able to advance so quickly in the future. I did have extra work, when Bruno came back, but most of the time it should be fine.

Next was comfort. Bruno sawed thick logs a little below knee height and we got stools. Then he repeated the whole thing, but this time he made it longer and then rammed a sharpened stone into the middle. He then took a trunk about three times as wide and created a slab a little less than a hand high. He then rammed this onto the sharpened stone and we got a table. There should be room for four people at a table without any problems. So far the highest number of groups has been three, but perhaps they wanted to have one again for planning or storage, so we decided to make four tables for guests and two for food preparation. Of course the furniture wasn't perfect, but it should still be a big improvement. Bruno chopped up the old logs so we could use them for the fire.

I remembered, that I had told Aron, that we were expanding the guest room. However, I couldn't just adjust the size quickly to fit another group, because I didn't know when he would come back. We didn't have any good tools and it would be suspicious if we had made so much progress. I therefore planned to expand it a little over the next few days.

But for today I would start somewhere else. We had chairs, tables, cutlery, dishes, food and beds, but we had no toilet. Up to now everyone has always gone outside, which was very unpleasant when it rained. The adventurers just accepted it, because they often had no choice in such things, but as the owner of a real Inn, I can't let it go. I created two small hallways next to the entrance that went around the corner and then had a hole in them. This means you shouldn't be able to see anything from the outside when someone is doing their business. To make it clear when a location is occupied, I made a gap at the entrance to the hallway and stuck a thick branch into it. If necessary, you could simply fold it down and block the entrance and when you were finished, you could lift it back into the wall. Thanks to Dungeon I didn't have to worry about disposal, he would just absorb it every now and then.

So we should be able to call ourselves a Inn to some extent. Then it occured to me, we don't have a name yet. What is it that defines us? Our secret ingredient is slimes, but I would like to avoid including it in the name. The monster kitchen isn't exactly very inviting either. Of course, the fact that we are a dungeon should not be revealed. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the names for the area, and the adventurers have never said what they call the plain we're on or the adjacent forest. But they said that it is dangerous and that is why no one has settled here yet. So they are happy, that they can take a short rest here before entering. So we are something of a safe haven. But anchor or harbor seems inappropriate to me on a plain. Maybe hope, but Hope Star seems incongruous to me, considering we're actually the bad guys to them. How about "To the rising Sun"? It is a symbol of hope and when they return from the forest they essentially come back into the light. It also has the charm that part of the sun is hidden, so it's not the whole truth. Whether the hidden sun serves as darkness or as light for others is up to each individual to decide. Yes, I think, I like that.

"Bruno, one last thing. Now that we can block the entrance and need money, we should draw more attention to ourselves. Can you put a sign outside? I would keep it simple for now and just engrave our symbol."

"That should be possible. What is our symbol?"

"A rising sun and the inn we call 'To the rising sun'. Simply use a stone that looks like a semicircle as the lower part of the sun and mark the edge of the upper part with narrow stones. There's a short line to the left and right."

The semicircle stone was a bit difficult to make. Bruno broke a stone, the lower half of which more or less met the requirement, and carved a small gap into the shield, into which he then pressed it. The other lines were relatively easy to create and soon our entrance at the top of the level was decorated with our small welcome sign.

So we were ready for new guests.