The snow has finally started to melt (thank you, Abacus), but the poor behavior remains. As we close the book on 1603, I find myself compelled to issue a few corrections.
You are adventurers, not barn animals. Please try to act like it.
I was privy to see some wonderful snow sculpting festivities happening in town! The many snow creatures were festive, charming, and a delight to behold. You would think I would have nothing negative to say about it! However, to the individual (rumored to be Haelga) who decided to use a corpse to sculpt a “lifelike” snowman: please do better. We have enough dead bodies in the Freelands; we do not need you to pollute a crime scene on the lawn using packed ice. It is tacky, it is morbid, and it ruined my hot cocoa.
On that note: the dead belong decomposed or burned. Not the lake, not the inn, and not the middle of the road where I am trying to walk in nice boots. If you killed it, move it and compost moss it; this is not a difficult concept!
To Lynn (and everyone else copying her): we understand you have slain your foe. We can see it. They are dead. Screaming “FATALITY” like my grandmother after that time I accidentally broke her favorite vase is completely unnecessary. It lacks subtlety or grace. Simply wipe your blade on their tunic and move on. You are an adventurer, not a fisherman selling cod at the bazaar.
Speaking of food, let’s talk about the innkeepers. I saw their tip box looking a little light recently-for shame! They feed you, they house you, they mop up after whatever you have tracked in from the woods. Leave them a coin when they bring you your food. I do not care how tight your purse is after the card game. Leave. Them. A. Coin.
And finally, the clowns and their ratfolk cousins. I should not have to say this, but please take notes: when you laugh at them, when you talk to them, when you toss them so much as a copper or a cube of cheese, they do not leave.
They multiply.
You are not being kind, you are being naive. A ratfolk who has found a source of free food has found a mark, and they will tell every associate they have; the clowns will tell no one, because clowns do not communicate, they simply duplicate. The end result is the same: you have made yourself a problem that the rest of us now have to solve.
1604 is a fresh year. Let us try to behave like it.