A Roof Over My Head

Quest · Chapter 1 · New Camp

Route

  • Ask Gorn about a place to sleep. He points you to a mercenary hut on the cavern edge that the bandit Shrike has taken over.
  • Force Shrike out, then report to Gorn. The hut becomes your place to sleep in the New Camp.

Quest Parts

  • A Roof Over My Head:
  • I should let Gorn know.:
  • I could take Shrike's hut.:

Outcome

Gorn confirms that the hut is yours once Shrike has been moved on.

A home claimed twice

The Hero's housing problem is really a dispute over who belongs in the mercenaries' part of the New Camp. Gorn explains that the huts are already occupied, while the hut at the cavern's edge was claimed by Shrike only recently. It was empty when Shrike took it, but Gorn insists that it belongs to the mercenaries, not to the bandits who share the wider settlement.

The disagreement is not about comfort alone. The New Camp is divided among people who work under different leaders, and even a spare hut carries the memory of who built, guarded, or occupied that side of the cave. Shrike's claim challenges that division in a way the mercenaries cannot simply ignore.

Shrike's warning

Gorn expects the matter to be settled physically. He mentions that Torlof was already prepared to give Shrike a beating, which shows how quickly a practical housing dispute can become a contest of authority. The Hero gets there first and forces Shrike to move, but Shrike does not treat the result as a friendly favor. His threat that the matter is not over leaves the Hero with a roof and a new enemy at the same time.

The scene captures the New Camp's rough idea of order. There is no formal housing office to decide the question, and no one appeals to a written rule. Instead, people rely on the strength and reputation of the group claiming the space. Gorn's approval confirms that the Hero has acted on behalf of the mercenaries, even if the solution creates more tension than the original problem.

More than a bed

For the Hero, the hut is a first piece of stability in a camp that otherwise treats outsiders as temporary visitors. Gorn is not offering charity; he is rewarding the Hero for enforcing the camp's own boundaries. Taking the hut means accepting the obligations that come with a place among the mercenaries, including the expectation that the Hero will not let another faction simply take what the mercenaries consider theirs.

That is why this modest errand matters. It gives the Hero a physical foothold while revealing the New Camp's internal divisions: bandits and mercenaries may cooperate against the Old Camp, but they do not share everything. Even shelter has a faction attached to it.

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