Beers and Beards-Book 4: The End

Several Years Later

On the side of a cliff stood a white stone gazebo. Mist fell from a great waterfall that stretched beneath it, vanishing into the clouds below. A black mountain rose up behind it, seeming to touch the sky. A circular marble table covered in strange ever-shifting objects sat in the center of the gazebo, with a myriad of strange and wondrous ever-shifting eldritch objects scattered across it.

Eight Gods sat around the table, each radiating an aura of power and majesty.

And angst.

“Aghhh, why did I ever agree to this!?” Yearn demanded, shifting uncomfortably in her seat as she shifted from an elderly elf woman to a young human maid. She dropped the multi-dimensional cube she was adjusting back onto the table. Down below on Erd, an earthquake rocked a small pocket of a yet-undiscovered dungeon, terrifying its minotaur inhabitants who quickly ran to make sacrifices to their still-unnamed Gods.

“We all agreed to do this, because that’s the rules of the Game.” Lunara said calmly, as she continued working on her own project.

“But it’s usually not this much work!” Yearn whined again.

“Yes, but at least it was useful to us this time, so don’t complain too much.” Archis replied with a wink. “And besides, it was your Chosen who won! So, back to work young lady!”

Yearn’s body blurred until she became an ancient white-furred beastess. Her voice was like papyrus as she croaked, “Is that any way to speak to your elders?”

“I for one am having a BLAST!” Tiara piped up. “A wish to expand all the dungeons so that the new races wouldn’t be in competition for space with the current races? It’s like a brand new age of exploration! And it’s an excuse to add all these neat new gems and metals to the world, like that Lagh stuff that whatsisname with all the vowels was bragging about at the last gathering! This is even more fun than when we made Cascadia!”

“You’ve been surprisingly quiet about all this Solen.” Lunara couldn’t help but needle the silently working dragon. “After all that fuss you kicked up about Barck sabotaging your Chosen.”

Solen snorted, smoke curling from his nose. “He technically didn’t break any rules. The dragons were in an allowable range, and valid targets for a deific intervention. And in the end, I got what I wanted. The dragons are finally free of their self-imposed exile and part of the wider world again. It was never really about conquering anything.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“So yer gonna take back yer promise to smite Pete?” Barck whistled happily as he put the finishing touches on his own dungeon expansion project. As God of Spark, he was especially in his element, filling the expanded dungeons with fresh greenery and strange beasts and monsters.

“That will depend.” Solen smiled maliciously with a maw full of teeth as he put the finishing touches on a special little piece of Chaos. “On whether or not this little present I’m leaving in Cascadia finds him or someone else.”

“Speaking of Pete. I have to ask, did you do anything with Pete’s wife? Or were you just messing with him? I’ve been wondering.” Aaron asked from the other end of the table. “Since, you know.”

Barck shrugged. “No. The God she followed is one of those jealous ones. He doesn’t trade or sell. She died of old age, surrounded by loved ones and at peace with the world. His daughter went on to marry and have two children of her own. They moved on, as he did.”

“Oh, what’s he doing now?” Lunara asked. “I haven’t kept up.”

“He just got married!” Yearn squealed, turning into a young pink dragoness. She let out a cheerful gout of flame to shouts of anger and alarm from the other Gods. “To that human!”

“Aye. And I gave ‘im a little gift to help him celebrate.” Barck laughed. “I refilled his barrel of the First Brew. But the biggest news is that his first viable batch should be just… about…”

Bing

* System Notification: Ability Error! * 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

A system error has caused a fault in [Copyright: Wine].

Error: Wine.exist == true

[Copyright:Wine] will be disabled until the system error is repaired.

“Done.” Barck set the notification to ‘ignore’ and rubbed his hands together with glee. Then he threw a notification down off the mountain with a spin of his hand, and a star in his heart. It was the conclusion of Pete’s final quest, and the end of their strained, sometimes chummy, sometimes acrimonious relationship.

For now.

He looked over the notification with a sense of satisfaction. He’d been waiting for this moment for millenia.

Quest Complete: I’ll show you fuss!

You finally did it, you glorious dwarf, you.

Wine Made: 1/1

Obtained: Surprise! You solved Romero’s problem! Go tell him that his copyright is broken and his students can start making wine. Offer him a place in Cascadia to set down roots and you might get an even bigger surprise!

Finally, all was right with the world. Beer, wine, soju, sweet ciders – he had it all, with more new drinks arriving by the day.

What a successful Great Game. He couldn’t wait for the next one.