The pain of his throbbing head hit him before he even opened his eyes. It took him at least three tries before he could pull himself up and sit on the side of the bed. Rolling his neck and stretching his arms he tried to un-kink his muscles that were not used to sleeping on cross sections of ropes that made up the cot. As Roy slowly made his way down the stairs Rowley, the Inn's proprietor, greeted him with a boisterous belly laugh as he recognized the familiar sight of a man beaten by the Alie.
"You see. You see." Rowley called out to bring the room's attention to Roy. "Not even the man from the island of Merth can outwit the spirits of the alie."
The bar was already full of merchants having their morning meal before opening their shops. They all cheered, whooped and stomped their
