The town of Magathon

* Entering the Imperial Inn, Tyrian went over to a table with a couple who looked like farmers. He spoke with them for a few minutes then wanted us to come over. I know that I simply wanted a drink and a good meal and headed straight to the bar. It seemed that the rest of my party may have had the same idea in mind as they also approached the bar.
 
* The barkeep introduced himself as Hugo and took our orders. He told us to take a seat and that he would have it brought out to the table. Tyrian shortly joined us.
 
* There were not many people in the tavern itself and the most interesting person was a female dwarf. She had blond hair. I thought that my brother may try for her as he did the last dwarf but Struth made his way over first. Tyrian leaned back and nudged me "This should be good."
 
* After chatting with the dwarf, Struth headed back to our table. Tyrian was trying to assess whether he had got lucky by putting his thumb up then thumb down. Struth gave him the thumbs down.
 
* Eating and chatting away, part way through our meal, there was a sudden disturbance as the doors were thrown open. A man stood there, or once what was a man, as he entered the tavern. He looked like he was infected or sick and made his way to the farmer couple that Tyrian had been chatting with earlier. He was quick, even though he dragged one of his feet, which was definitely not pointing in the right direction. The creature/man immediately attacked the woman, biting into her neck. It all happened so quickly as people stood from their table in shock. Hugo exclaimed, "What in hell is that?"
 
* The first to act was Mal, as he stood, drawing his sword. He went over to the creature/man and sliced its head off clean from its body. The disembodied head rolled away from the trio. The farmer screamed, as he realised, his wife was dead, and cradled her body.
 
* I ran over to the window to check if there were more of these creature/men coming. I could discern from which direction it had come as there were a lot of people staring at the tavern with puzzled faces. They were all in line, coming in from the opposite exit that we had come in from. I could see the local militia men in their guard towers not reacting. The militia men on the ground had come over to the crowd and I could see them talking with some of the bystanders.
 
* A gurgling sound could be heard from behind me, I turned to see that the woman who had been bitten, now seemed to be coming back to life. I felt that this would not bode well, as she became like the creature/man and tried to bite her husband. He held her head, to keep her from biting him.
 
* Mal then turned on the woman, and killed her, taking the husband's arm in the process. At this point, the doors opened again and some militia men came into the tavern. "What is going on here?"
 
* Mal, covered in the blood of the farmer's wife stood there, not sure what to do. He seemed to panic and cast a spell. It was too late to stop him, and I hoped that he was not going to attack the men. A monkey suddenly appeared, ran over to the bar and hopped onto it. It began to throw bottles and make a mess. One of the militia men went over to try and grab the monkey.
 
* "Where the hell did the monkey come from? What is happening? Who killed that woman?" the same militia man who had spoken asked. I explained that the creature/man burst in then attacked the woman. I also explained that my fellow party member killed the creature/man and that the woman then turned into the same thing. She had to also be killed. At this time, the male farmer began to twitch, and I could see the same thing happening to him that had happened to the wife. Mal backed up.
 
* "He is turning, you will need to kill him as well before it is too late," I yelled at the militia man. The militia man just stood confounded and this gave the newly turned man the opportunity to attack the militia man.
 
* I wasn't going to get bitten and turned into one of those things. I ran to Mary, grabbed her hand then pulled her out onto the street where it would be safer away from these creatures. Mal shortly followed and questioned my motives. I simply told him that I was removing Mary from the danger.
 
* Mary piped up and told Mal that she was safe with me and that he really needed a bath. This seemed to placate Mal. I wondered at his sudden change and super protectiveness of this child that he barely knew.
 
* The next moment, I could see flames begin to engulf the tavern. I stood there in surprise, wondering what the hell had happened to cause the fire. The entire building caught in flames as Petros, Tyrian and Struth came out of the tavern. I wondered if the others who had been in the inn also got out. I could not see the innkeeper.
 
* We could hear a scream, coming from the back of the inn, then nothing. The bystanders began to grab buckets of water to put the fire out. It wasn't too long before the flames were out but the inn was completely destroyed.
 
* Holding Mary's hand, I exclaimed to my party, as the rest came over, "Well, we should head to the next tavern." I could see one from across the road. They all heartily agreed. On the way over to the next inn, I asked Tyrian, Petros and Struth what had happened and what caused the fire.
 
* Tyrian sidled up to me and whispered "Well, you know how back home we put things in the fire to cleanse things..." I shook my head at this as I did know what he was talking about, "I will tell you the rest later."
 
* Entering the Duckling, we were met by the innkeeper. We told him what had happened and he offered to put us up for the 1 night free of charge. Any additional nights would cost us.
 
* Sitting down, he brought over some ales for the party and then food followed shortly after. The innkeeper explained her could give us 3 rooms, which had 2 beds each. I said that perhaps Mary should stay with me as the only 2 females of the party. This would also give me the opportunity to question her in private away from Mal. Tyrian wanted to also stay with us to protect me. I knew it was because he had to ensure that I got back home safely.
 
* Mal disagreed and wanted Mary with him. Mary told Mal that she would be fine and that she wanted to stay with me. She said that we would have a girl's slumber party. I could see that Mal half-heartily agreed to this but wouldnt push it any further.
 
* After dinner, I excused myself from the party to head upstairs with Mary. Tyrian followed. Once inside the room, I questioned Mary. "What has happened with Mal? He has changed." Mary told me that he had suffered much and that he was trying to find purpose. She was going to help him. I could see that she was telling the truth on this but she was still hiding the full truth. Tyrian gave me the thumbs up to indicate he believed her.
 
* Looking into Mary's familiar eyes, I whispered while Tyrian was not looking, "I know who you really are," before I said out loud that she better ensure that Mal was not hurt. Mary whispered back, "I know that you know but you do not know the full story." I nodded at her then we both turned in for the night. Tyrian set himself up in the only chair in the room.