The Bookshop and the Barbarian

by Morgan Stang

“I most certainly have not heard of murder-hobos, and I'm not certain I'm not entirely offended by the term. What in heaven's name is a murder-hobo?” “Well, perhaps you know them better as adventurers? Swords-for-hire? Mercenaries? Sellswords? You see, a murder-hobo is a man or woman who travels all about the land. They have no home. Their primary source of income is doing odd jobs for the people they come across. Now these jobs could be anything, and any number of solutions could be used to address these jobs, but to a murder-hobo, murdering is usually the go-to strategy. They carry large swords and are excellent fighters. So that's why people call them murder-hobos.” “That's awful. They sound like terrible people. Where could I find them?” “You'll want to head to the local dark and seedy tavern in town, the Bloody Stump.” “My word. What a horrible name that is. I hope I should never step foot in a place with such a terrible name. Where would I find this tavern?”