Maine Sells Jessica a Vacation

The Aleklotson Inn made the party's mission feel less like a sacred artifact recovery and more like a bad social errand with rooms attached.

Al Ivers wanted Jessica James's contact information. Maine decided the cleanest path to that information was not honesty, but theater.

He built a VQU vacation scam on the spot.

Jessica became, in Maine's performance, the lucky winner of a paid trip connected to Scrollbook reviews. The pitch worked better than it had any right to work. Maine's persuasion landed so hard that the lie almost became a service industry miracle: congratulations, you and your life have been selected by a university-branded opportunity that definitely does not exist.

Jessica gave him the contact information.

Elsewhere in the room, Ash tried to remove himself from the whole situation by drinking at the bar with Jennifer James, Jessica's twin, and whoever else could make the inn feel less like a stage for Maine's nonsense. That did not keep the scene quiet. Orenthal Jones, Jessica's husband, started to suspect that something was being done to his wife, or at least around her, and the inn staff had every reason to notice the party's shape pressing into local life.

The errand succeeded.

That was almost the problem.

Al's discount hook had been paid off, but Aleklot's Rest had already taught the party that every shortcut in town came with someone watching, someone offended, or someone ready to sell the consequence back to them.