Accasbel

Creation

Accasbel was created by writer/artist Peter Gross in The Books of Magic issue 51, in 1998.

Major Story Arcs

Accasbel has run The Inn Between Worlds, one of the four Safe Houses, also known as Free Houses, of the realms, for a very long time. These are places where anyone is safe and free to come, as per the rules created by the Lords of the Compact.

Many beings stay there for protection and the solace of drink and companionship. Thomas Currie began his story of the Other there, and Accasbel played bagpipes for him when he left.

One of his main assistants is Joh, a young girl. He acts like a father to her. When a magic storm, released by the Other, weakens the borders between realms, Joh wanders through them, and meets up with several other beings, including Tim Hunter, in his guise as Mary Hunter. They both go to the Inn, and Joh asks Accasbel to hire Tim/Mary.

Accasbel soon sets them to work. He is a strict but jovial boss and host of the tavern, always balancing out the different interests of his varied clientele, from living dreams to demons to angels to trolls to the dead.

Titania, queen of Faerie comes in, to try to browbeat her subjects into returning to Faerie, but Accasbel makes it clear that no one has any rank in a Free House after she gets into a fight with a dream of Tamlin. Accasbel banishes her.

One day, Accasbel asks Drunk to make him a special beer for the tavern. They spend a long time preparing it, with Tim's help. Meanwhile, the people at the tavern start worrying about the Wild Hunt, which has been recently released and is hunting down atavistic gods.

Eventually the beer is finished. Knowing the Hunt is coming, Accasbel sends Tim and Joh away for the day on an errand. Accasbel and Drunk discuss how the Inn will be destroyed this time--it has apparently been destroyed in many cycles of time in the past, the last by earthquake.

Accasbel has actually set the whole thing up--he has offered free beer by Drunk to all criminals, who in turn have chased off his normal clientele and staff, so that when the Hunt comes, only those who deserve it will die. Blood is the price of Drunk's beer. Unfortunately, Joh comes back early.

The Hunt is after Tim, but Accasbel won't say where he is, so the Hunt kills everyone in the Inn and then destroys the building. The Hunt is not bound by the Compact's rules of safety for all at the Inn. Accasbel hides Joh in a cabinet; she is the only survivor. She thinks he is killed along with the rest of the people in the Inn, but in the same way that the Hunt is not bound by the normal rules, beings like Accasbel and Drunk are also outside the normal rules and cannot be killed by the Hunt.

Later, Accasbel starts building a new Inn, and reunites with Joh.