Moderate chaos

Striding back into the main hall of the inn, you find a very different scene to the one you left. There are scorch marks in the stone all along the east wall, with a strong scent of smoke hanging in the air. Several of the large tables are turned over, and a couple seem completely disintegrated, with nothing remaining but splinters and the occasional chunk of wood spread across the floor. The bar is just lightly on fire. You guess more of the fighting came inside than you realised.

As you quickly look around, you count the bodies of at least 4 fellow waitresses strewn about the room, and you're pretty sure the figure being carried outside was a 5th waitress on someone's shoulder, though whether alive or dead you couldn't say. You try not to think about that too much, and then almost trip over what feels like a huge squishy pile of warm roasted meat.

On closer inspection you have to take a moment to stop yourself from throwing up. Although it feels and also looks (and to be honest also smells) like roast meat, it's actually the barbarian you saw charging out into the fray earlier. Or rather, it was. Trying to make sense of his almost completely broken features you remain confused about the majority of his bodyparts, but you do realise the source of most of the damage in the room. What used to be his well muscled arm is still holding firmly to a ridiculously large, though blackened sword, which in turn is fully embedded into the abdomen of the still warm remains of a Fire Cat. Thick black blood, forms a large puddle underneath both of their bodies and is still seeping out of the wound, but you're pretty certain the creature is dead, thankfully. You always thought 'Fire Cat' was an excessively diminutive and cutesy name for what is essentially a half tonne angry dragon, in the shape of a tiger, with natural scale armour, and when mature, breath hot enough to melt iron.

Although not especially religious, you shudder again, and privately send a prayer to The Devs, thanking them that you definitely made the right choice in running away upstairs. You stand quietly for a while, half shocked, half relieved. Until suddenly the silence is broken by two noises coming from different directions. The main door swings open, and a lone Inn Guard limps back into the room from the outside, then in the other direction you hear then see one shellshocked Waitress slowly dust herself off, stand up, and quietly beat out the last few flames on the bar.

It feels like decision time. If you still want to go out and explore the world, then this seems like a perfect opportunity. The guard coming back means the fighting has almost definitely stopped, and no-one would even notice you were gone right now. Maybe you could head into the countryside, go visit the capital! The possibilties are endless. You can almost taste the outside air already.

On the other hand the smouldering corpses next to you have reminded you that the outside world is a very real and scary place. And more than that the Inn is the only home you've ever known, and it hurts to see it like this. In a way it needs you. Who knows, with your new promotion maybe you could even do some good here. Start a union, get some better security, and this one sounds crazy but maybe even get paid!?

Of course if you do die, you'll respawn. Or at least you think you will? But what if you're back to your old self then. Maybe whatever you do, it would be useful to find someone who can help enlighten you about your new found free will, and work out whats going on. A wizard? A librarian? A Doctor? All three?! You're not sure who, but there must be someone out there who knows about this stuff.

[Author's note: Hi anyone reading this! I might re write this chapter but it will do for now. If anyone has an opinion on Ellie staying put or venturing out would love to know. I have ideas either way, and will eventually try and write both. Also fun to be back to trying to write after a long time away]