The Really Good Inn located in Dregmoor made a good use of it’s space. The rooms were cozy, but small enough that there were plenty of rooms available to travelers that come through. The lobby was also set up to have a small and intimate vibe. However, as Bryn and Jordan sat at the front desk, the vines that covered most of the room made the space feel incredibly cramped. The foliage that was sprouting from each vine gave the room a vibrant color that the pair had to admit was pretty to look at despite the property damage it was causing.

  The two of them sat across from each other, sipping on coffee Jordan had made them after showing Bryn what was going on outside. He told him to sit down and he would explain everything, closing the door quickly before Bryn could look around outside at all. Putting his mug down on the counter, he looked up at Jordan who was sipping on a glass of milk… with ice.

  “You’re drinking that to upset me” Bryn said, pointing at the vile beverage.

  “What I like cold milk, that’s not a hot take.” Jordan said, taking a tiny sip before setting his glass down.

  “But when you drink anything you do it too slowly, the ice is going to melt and then you’ll have watered down milk” Bryn said, his anger slowly rising. Despite Jordan’s impressive accomplishments as an adventurer early in his career, his most powerful skill was finding the exact right nerve of Bryn’s to hit.

  “Yeah, it starts out as whole milk and ends up as 2%, both of which I like” Jordan said, picking up his glass and swirling it around before putting it down without taking a drink. “Now that we’ve covered how judgmental you are about beverages, let’s talk business.” Jordan said, Bryn’s posture stiffening slightly as the tone changed from humorous to serious immediately.

  Jordan explained that 3 weeks before, he had carried Bryn back from his battle and proceeded to collapse himself. Additionally, he confirmed that the giant had indeed been killed and the remaining bandits took the deal offered to them and returned to Zyphtal. Both of them were unconscious for a full day after, but Jordan woke up the next day relatively unscathed. However, Bryn appeared to be in a sort of magically enhanced coma. He was breathing and whenever anyone checked on him he appeared to be in good health, but if anyone touched him, his skin would immediately become white hot.

  Bryn looked with concern as Jordan told him of the aftermath of the Titan Ascendance Form. He had hoped the form would be a sort of substitute to make up for his lack of the Adventurer’s Boon, but a power that puts you into a coma for 3 weeks after using it for 5 minutes isn’t exactly practical. Jordan noticed the defeated look on Bryn’s face, and patted him on the shoulder.

  “Look man, you obviously can’t use that again while we’re still in Dregmoor, but after this done we’ll be going back home with a lot of money. I’m sure there’s people in the city we can talk to that can help us figure out what this is.” Jordan said in an attempt to comfort his friend. Bryn smiled halfheartedly before he spoke.

  “I appreciate that, but this situation might be a bit more complicated.” He said, proceeding to explain the details of his time in the space room and meeting Scott. Jordan looked at him bewildered and closed his eyes while touching two fingers to his forehead as he tried to process this new information.

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  “Ok, yeah that’s pretty weird, not going to lie.” Jordan said, lowering his hand and making eye contact with Bryn. “Either way, don’t use it again until we get more info on it. From what you told me it made you strong enough to beat a level 14 adventurer by yourself, but at the cost of a 3 week coma. As far as we know, that could have been you getting off easy. I have some ideas of who we can talk to when we get back home, but for now we’ll stick with old school strategies ok?” Jordan asked, Bryn nodding in response. Though he was bummed out about the unreliability of his new form, he was also not keen to spend another 3 weeks in bed.

  “We have a more urgent problem to deal with anyway.” Jordan said, gesturing to the plant life around him. “In the last week the flower that these plants were coming from morphed into something with teeth. I went to deal with it myself, not exactly thinking I would need backup for a flower. It was weirdly mobile and had a strong bite attack, but I killed it eventually. I was hoping that would stop it, but the vine growth kept going, it even seemed like it sped up a bit.” He said, sipping his milk.

  “Once I looked at the corpse of the flower monster, I saw there was a tunnel underneath it. I used Nature’s Credit to get a lay of the land, and I detected some sort of presence in an underground chamber that’s connected to the wild plant growth. My guess is that if we kill whatever is down there, the plant growth will stop.” Jordan said, the origin of the green coloring on his armor now incredibly obvious.

  “Yeah that makes sense, we have a few more weeks on this quest anyway right? I’ll take a day or 2 to recover and then go with you.” Bryn said, sipping once again from his mug. Jordan grimaced and shook his head.

  “Yeah that’s not going to work. When I say the plant growth is out of control, I mean it. Most of the villagers are out using machetes to chop down the weeds, but they grow back just as fast. Reggie said if the growth doesn’t stop by tonight, he’ll need to evacuate the village. We’ll go out there soon, and you’ll see that he’s right pretty quickly.” Jordan said, a frustration to his tone.

  Bryn knew Jordan was annoyed, as rushing him back to combat so soon after a mini coma wasn’t advisable, but neither of them wanted to see the town abandoned. The people had been nice and were just ordinary people trying to get by, they didn’t deserve to have their homes taken after all they had been through. Though these kind sentiments didn’t mean much if saving the village killed him.

  “What do you think we should do?” Bryn asked as stood up and began pacing around the lobby in an attempt to stretch his legs. Walking around the vines made it more cramped than it should have been, but the mobility was returning in his legs and he could feel his joints creaking back to life.

  Jordan pondered as he followed Bryn through the lobby. “To be honest, if you’re able to go, then we should go. I’d feel guilty if we left this town to be destroyed when we could have done something about it.” Jordan shrugged his shoulders and raised his hands before he continued. “That being said, an entire town that owes us and an extra large payout by Everwatch is a pretty decent reward for one fight. It’s not like I don’t care about the town, but removing the plant monster would benefit us. So if you think you can fight, then let’s go do the best kind of good deed: one that also benefits us.” Jordan said as he did several high knees and hip rotations, unconsciously joining Bryn in his stretching.

  The duo paced to the front door eventually, and Bryn looked out the window. Most of it was covered by several vines on the outside of the Inn, and he could see them growing in real time. He thought for a moment about if he was ready to fight, or if he would simply drag Jordan down and get them both killed. Perhaps it was a better idea to cut their losses and bail, they were going to be paid the standard amount anyway. As he was about to voice his thoughts, a memory flickered through his mind.

  “Stop being so insecure, or you’re never going to notice what you’re actually doing wrong, only what you think you’re doing wrong”. The voice of Raphael said as it echoed through his mind.

  “Bryn?” Jordan asked, snapping Bryn back to reality.

  “What?” He asked sharply.

  “Umm, i asked you a question, you were about to start talking, and then you stared into space for 10 seconds.” Jordan asked, looking at his friend with concern. “Do you think you’re ready to fight today?” He asked again.

  “Oh sorry.” Bryn said, pausing briefly as he considered his options one last time. He took a deep breath and exhaled, then began walking to his room. “Let me get my supplies and once I chug one of those lentil potions that Maeve gave me I’ll be ready to pull some weeds.” He said, his attempt at looking cool giving Jordan slight nausea.