Hello, Everyone!
Last time our heroes finally managed to get to Ekoba city, after days and days of traversing the dull and grey countryside and seeing all the poverty and unfairness in the people's lives. Mary was especially saddened by all the misfortune they'd met - she had imagined that they were going into a den of thieves and alltogether bad people, but all there was there, was poverty and sadness.
After doing a quick reconnaissance via Mary's familiars, the trio entered the city through the tall and forboding wall manned by a group of thug-looking guards. They recommended visiting Rory's inn and our heroes made their way there.
The tavern was alive with chatter. And it was alive with… um, life. When Mary, Bruno and Aurum went into the building, suddenly the heaviness of the outside lessened and a somehow merrier atmosphere surrounded them. There were several tables where people sat, mostly sailors and off-duty guards. There were no waiters and soon the trio could see why.
The furniture of the tavern was fully animated.
Tables and chairs moved by themselves. Bottles uncorked on their own and poured drinks into glasses which jumped on small carts and got delivered to the people who'd ordered them. To Mary’s Eldritch Sight, everything in the tavern glowed with conjuration magic. There were no human employees of any kind and the whole business seemed to be controlled from the counter. It had one huge mouth and two lively eyes which constantly moved around as if trying to take in everything all at once.
The trio stood by it, uncertain of how to address it.
“Hello, hello! Welcome, I’m Rory,” the counter said. “Here, have a seat, enjoy yourselves! It’s not every day we get newcomers here in Ekoba. What would you like to drink?”
Three chairs--two human-sized and one higher for Bruno--came wobbling and settled beside the trio, closing the eyes that were animated on their seats. Mary wasn’t sure she wanted to sit there.
“Are you sure they won’t… peek?” Aurum said with an uncomfortable grin.
“Of course not!” Rory said. “Sit, sit, it’s all right. That’s their job. What will you drink?”
They ordered and watched as--in mere seconds--two mugs opened their eyes, went to the nearby barrel, filled themselves with ale and arrived to Bruno and Aurum’s hands. A similar thing happened to Mary’s cup of tea.
“You are simply amazing!” Aurum exclaimed. “How did you come to be?”
“I was made,” Rory said, a bit apprehensively, “by my father.”
“Yes, I see,” the bard said. “And who is he? He must be a really capable and famous wizard if he made you!”
“His name was Etien,” the counter said, even more guarded this time. “Why would you ask?”
Its eyes had narrowed. It pressed its lips together and looked Aurum with suspicion. The bard pulled back, suddenly confused by its unfriendly reaction.
“I was just asking,” he said, hands raised in a gesture of peace.
“Anyhow,” Rory said and turned to the other two. “What brings you to Ekoba?”
Bruno told him the ‘we-are-merchants-selling-oranges’ story and the counter ‘hummm’-ed and asked for a sample. The dwarf tossed an orange towards it and it caught it in its mouth. While it was munching and gulping the fruit, along with its peel, Mary couldn’t take her eyes off of it. She’d intended not to talk too much when they were in public--in fear that her not-being-able-to-lie side was going to show and ruin their cover--but curiosity got the better of her.
“How are you eating?” she asked, mesmerized by the sight.
Rory gulped and licked his lips.
“I dunno, I just do.”
“But where does the food go? Do you need it to survive? I mean, will you die if you don’t eat?”
“What?”
“Do you go to the bathroom?”
Bruno was quick to intervene.
“Excuse my friend Mary. She’s too curious for her own good and doesn’t know when her questions are…” He glared at her, “inappropriate or personal.”
It was Mary’s turn to glare at Bruno.
“Curiosity shouldn’t be something to be excused for!” she insisted. “And if my questions were inappropriate or personal, Rory would have told me!”
“Did you ask?”
Mary turned to the counter, confident that it’d give her a chance to tell Bruno ‘I told you so’.
“Rory, are my questions inappropriate of personal?”
“Kinda, yes,” Rory mumbled.
It took her a couple of seconds to comprehend the answer.
“Oh,” she said. “Then I am sorry.”
She covered her reddened face with the cup of tea, pretending to drink. Bruno finished his ale and ordered another, and watching his mug wobble towards the barrel, another batch of questions escaped from Mary’s head right through her lips.
“Are all the other items in here just as sentient as you are?”
“Yes,” Rory said. “Maybe a bit less so.”
“But can they see? Feel? Think?”
“A little?”
“Is that your body or is there something… else? Do you feel it when we touch another part of the tavern?”
“What? No, I’m just the counter, I’m not the whole building! I have something of a body but… well, I am just me.”
A curious--although quickly turning into morbid--thought passed through Mary’s head and she couldn’t stop herself from saying it.
“Has someone tried to carry you outside of the tavern? What happens then? Do you… die?”
Rory’s eyes glanced at the table with the guards who looked like beaters. Staring at them unblinkingly, he spoke slowly and carefully.
“No, it’s never happened before. I’ve never had to worry about that,” here he spoke a bit louder, “After all, I’m paying my insurance regularly and on time.”
Mary’s gaze shifted down and saw that Rory was bolted down to the floor with big metal clamps, as if to keep him on his place. She wondered if that was to prevent anyone from trying to get him out of the tavern.
“Yeah!” a voice came from a nearby table. “It ya don’t pay your insurance, ya may wake up naked and without a boat.”
A rough, thin, dark-skinned man raised his mug in a salute and drank. Aurum and Bruno toasted as well, but Mary suddenly felt like everyone in the tavern was looking at them. Some actually were – for example many of the guards Rory was looking at.
Aurum ordered an ale for the sailor that had just called out and joined him, leaving Mary and Bruno alone by the counter. Mary used her copper ring to send the dwarf a Message, uttering the actual spell words in her teacup.
"I’m afraid that we’ll have to be very careful what we talk about when we get to our room," she said. "We won’t know which part of the furniture is listening to us."
"We’ll figure it out," Bruno said in her head. "What I’m thinking is that Rory wouldn’t tell us more about anything unless the guards were to… not be here."
"Are you suggesting we get rid of them?!" Mary gasped.
"Of course not! I’m just saying, we may have to wait until they go away."
"Oh, ok. I got worried for a second."
Oh, my! Such an interesting place! What do you think this is? A whole animated inn? A shared hallucination? Or something else entirely?
Let's hope that we'll see next time!
Until then, take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide, the Glossary and the Map for the series. You're welcome!)
An important disclaimer: These are my notes from a D&D game turned into a narrative. All the worldbuilding and NPC encounters belong to our DM, and all the actions of the other main characters (Aurum and Bruno) belong to my co-players. My contribution to the story is only everything Mary-related (actions, reactions, inner thoughts), as well as the writing itself.