Quoting Frogboy, reply 4The cataclysm was over a hundred years ago.
That's really the point - it's been 100 years and the land is dead... the longer time passes the less technological people would have become, and things like Inns would have been abandoned in the earliest years following the event....
That's... Incorrect. After a cataclysm of that scale and type, the level of Technology wouldn't scale downwards over time. Barring what few specialists would be left to make use of technology, the average level of technology on a global scale would INSTANTLY drop to near nil. Then it would slowly ramp back up. After 100 years of horrific survival conditions, I think people would learn how to build Inns. After 100 years of re-population as well, I wouldn't be surprised to see quite a few of them scattered about.
In a world where civilization boils down to refugee camps and roaming bad guys inns would be an unlikely find. Even if you did find an inn you would likely find yourself murdered in your sleep for your belongings. Or you may find inns but they would be few and far between, and certainly not cozy little inns; they would be fortified to protect the few travelers that stop by from roaming monsters. Once the Kingdoms begin to bring civilization back to the lands you would start to see cozy inns pop up in areas that have been rejuvenated and have the protection of the kingdoms guards. Just my opinion but I think even if you did find an inn you would likely want to avoid it.
It might be somewhat unlikely, but nowhere close to impossible to find them. Furthermore, if you happen to find a populated Inn that's somehow managed to stay afloat despite a near global extinction, chances are, rather than be murdered, the people would live there, maybe even build their own houses nearby, start a town, etc etc. And as life slowly comes back, they'd grow and survive. Channeler's only speed up the rejuvenation process, not enable it. If there wasn't a single place that went unaffected by this, then there wouldn't be any Channeler's anyway, since everyone and everything would be dead, on account of there being no food.
You're also assuming the worst in people, but the most dramatic changes in personality happen when a persons life is most at stake. If they have a place where they can finally get out of the rain and snow, and sleep on something resembling a bed, and use dishes, and grow their own food, and SURVIVE, I really doubt they'd do something as stupid as just kill everyone and leave. On the other hand, it is entirely conceivable that some of these people may have set up the Inns as traps for others, landmarks to draw them close, then kill them and steal their things... But considering it's 100 years or more after the fact, those people are long gone, their Inn's inhabited by someone else, someone who sees the PROFIT of not killing every innocent that passes through their door.
Furthermore, there are nobles, even 100 years after the fact. That means that possibly, on some small scale, there has been something governing the remaining people, that thing most likely being the mutual need of survival, but it's possible that there are some people bound to a noble or small house running those inns as way-stations for people looking to join the Noble Families/Houses.
Lastly, fortifying an Inn in a post-apocalyptic setting? Puh-lease. It probably took them weeks just to find the materials to BUILD the Inn's, much less fortify them. And most conceivably, the Inn's were built fairly close to the time the whole Cataclysm business went down, so monsters probably were as little of an issue as people themselves. Not to mention, 'Monsters,' 'Beasts,' and 'Animals,' as long as they have a modicum more intelligence than an insect, are generally more afraid of people than people are afraid of them, so again, a non-issue. The exception to this I think would be Trolls, at least this far into the Beta. (Read: Haven't seen any monsters that fit the same Psyche Profile.) Trolls, while not mindless, are highly aggressive and brutal. They eat what they kill, so they kill as much as they can. That's probably how the Trolls survived, honestly, is by killing and eating wandering people who were looking for shelter... Like, say, an Inn.
In short... I find your lack of faith, (and you inability to suspend your disbelief,) disturbing.... And unfounded.
