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The scene:
Master Temperance, you're on a trip to see some of your relatives in the gnome town of Wispil, and were passing through the city of Maheto. By coincidence, Arien, you've just finished a small investigation in Maheto as well, and you're about to leave for Bellis in Andoran. Oranna, you'd also found yourself in the city, but since the city has a large dwarven population you were thinking it was a good time to leave. Too many glares and mutters. As it happens, a merchant named Silas Gribb was leaving town at the same time, heading for Bellis by way of Wispil, and was in need of caravan guards. All three of you see the wisdom of hiring on--safety in numbers, and all.
While passing through the small town of Belhaim, though, the sheriff and his deputies are waiting for the caravan, and arrest Gribb on charges of smuggling. The three of you are able to demonstrate your innocence, but this doesn't help you get any further along on your respective journeys. The Verduran Forest, where you are, can be a dangerous place. Luckily for you, the young proprietor of the Wise Piper Inn, Talia Orem, offers you free room and board for a few days while you figure out what to do next. You're sitting in the common room as evening falls, eating a simple meal and drinking watered mead, when Huc arrives.
Huc, you're in Belhaim visiting Talia after some time away. She greets you with a warm embrace, ruffles Fynn's fur, and gives him a bone to gnaw on. "And I've got some food for you, too. We can talk more after dinner." She bustles off into the kitchen.
Temperance notes the hunter and dog and arches a long, wispy, pink and white eyebrow. "Could that be a guide? I wonder if he would know about other caravans or parties moving through the forest. Always be on the opportunity to turn failure into success." He pokes a delicate pinkie into the watered mead. "And mead into whiskey, if possible." He hops down from his human-sized chair, caparisoned in his usual sleek black attire and approaches the hunter, staring up impassively from somewhat above knee-height.
"Greetings. I am Master Temperance, and as of yet I have not. These are my friends, Oranna and Arien. Would you care to join us?" His face is deadpan the entire time, albeit with a friendly tone.
Huc steps awkwardly back from Talia's greeting. He's a tallish Taldan with a mess of reddish hair on scalp and chin, an athletic build and outdoorsy clothes, gear, and bearing. He was also no good at this family thing, even if Talia was basically his only family. But despite the awkwardness he'd always felt at their semi-familial relationship, she'd always been good to him.
As she walks away, he calls out to her. "Oh, and what's the deal with Gribb?" He scratches at the ear of a reddish pup—well, huge pup, anyway. "I was supposed to join up with his wagons today. Guide the next leg. But folks are saying the law has him. What'd he—" The gnome's introduction cuts him off. "—do?"
Huc looks down, scratching at his own ear in a way he clearly doesn't realize is all too similar to how he did his mutt. He seems equally unsure how to respond to Temprance's introduction. "You've not what now?" He shrugs, "Not that it matters. I'll join you. Suddenly I have nothing better to do."
He pulls out the nearest empty seat, spins it around, and straddles it, arms crossed with his red-bearded chin resting thereon. "I'm Huc. You folks aren't local."
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Eyeing the newcomer through a pair of round smoky goggles, the half-elf waves the Taldan over with a weary gesture. “Eagle-eye, this one. It seems Gribb was charged with smuggling, though I don’t know how solid their case is. And now we’re stuck here, coins dwindling to nothing, with no real prospects besides our own two feet. Though I suppose Gribb might pay for someone to get him out of this mess…” Holding her mug aloft, she tilts the mug to collect the last few drops.
Shrugging off the thought and now-empty cup, she returns to the pleasantries at hand. “Well, anyway - I’m Arien Keine, and this delicate flower is Oranna.“
“Eagle-eye, this one.”
Huc shrugs and grins, trying to flag down Talia’s serving girl for a mug of something to wet his throat. ”So we would have been on the same crew for a bit. Fancy that.”
He nods to the serving girl as his drink arrives, taking the strange, mismatched threesome in as he takes a long drink. Finally, he sets the mug down, wiping his rusty beard with the back of his hand. ”Well lucky for us all, Talia’s pretty happy to take in strays.”
”Speaking of strays,” he continues, reaching down to pat the puppy-mutt at his feet. There’s no telling how many different canine bloodlines flow through its veins, but judging by its big ears, feet, and teeth, it’ll grow up big and strong. ”This is Fynn.”
"I ain't no delicate flower," Oranna says hoarsly as she drinks from a tankard of Mead, "Being poor is nothin's new to me."
True to her word, Oranna isn't a delicate flower, or hasn't been one for rather some time. Dressed in a Hodge podge of Belkzen and other clothing materials of foreign nations. Beyond her calloused body, her left eye is scarred and remained closed.
As you're talking, the walls of the inn rattle and a distant rumble is heard, like thunder in the mountains.
"I never had much, and I turned out alright," responds Huc, giving a warm nod of greeting to Oranna. The woodsman cocks his head at the rumble, "That sounds like a bad one."
His dog, however, stands up, a low, uneasy growl rising in his throat. Huc frowns down at him, then looks around the room. "What is it, Fynn?"
It's clear Huc puts stock in his canine companion's senses. He looks around, his voice suspicious. "Somethings spooked him." Then Huc heads for the door.
Huc looks out the door in the direction of the sound and sees a huge plume of dust rising to the northeast.
Huc squints, "Dust storm, maybe. Coming from town, though, it looks like."
He moves back to the table, snatching up his pack and huge lumberman's axe, calling out over the din of the place at the same time. "Talia! Something happening outside."
Then, turning back towards the door, he gives a pair of quick whistles as he passes Fynn. The massive pup falls in, padding along at Huc's heels. "I'm gonna go check it out."
The four of you head out in the direction of the plume, followed by a couple of other curious diners. As you make your way, a young man comes sprinting up to you. "It's the Witch Tower! Fell right over, and I heard someone say there was dead kobolds in the pile!"
Huc, that's a little odd. As far as you'd heard from Talia, there haven't been any kobold sightings near the town for months.
"That's the spirit," Huc responds, though his attention is clearly elsewhere.
"The dog knows better than most of us, best we follow," she stands grabbing a simple wooden walking stick, being the slowest of the group.
Huc watches the direction of the tower, confusion painting his features. "Kobolds? in the Witch tower?" As he quickens his pace, he looks back at the little group. "Kobolds haven't been active around Benhaim for a while now."
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...the boy and his dog.
"Never hurts to look," Oranna snorts, "Well there was Orlock, but that's another story."
Huc vaguely remembers the Witch Tower, and the location is fairly obvious. Even with the limping half-orc and the gnome, you get there ahead of the bulk of the crowd. There are a pair of locals there with brass badges; mostly, they're puttering around aimlessly--one stands with hands on his hips, chewing a grass stalk, and the other wanders about scratching her head occasionally and muttering. The only time they do anything different is when one of the townsfolk gets too close to the pile and they wave them back.
You can see a couple of kobold corpses in the rubble. Over the murmurs from the crowd, a voice calls out, "Hey, deputies! Maybe old wizard Hunclay knows something!" The pair look past the crowd to a new-looking manor house several hundred feet away.
Oranna nods and proceeds slowly over the guard deputies, "Excuse me, my name is Oranna. I am new to these parts. Who are you and what happened here? she says trying to get their attention.
Huc watches the deputies and the rubble for a few minutes. Not sure what to make of all this—and not sure what to do about the half-elf sneaking in to do her investigations—he follows Oranna towards the guards.
"Anything we can do to help?" he asks earnestly, then looks back at the rubble. "Was anyone in there? And does the Lady know?"
Arien, you're pretty sure that there's nothing much to be seen from this end; if you had some engineering knowledge you might be able to tell more, though. No one seems to have noticed your investigations.
Oranna, you're able to catch up with the deputies as they head for the nearby manor (they don't seem to be in much of a hurry). From this close, you recognize the badges they're wearing as identical to the ones worn by the Sheriff's troops when they arrested Gribb and talked to you. The woman eyes you suspiciously. "I'm Deputy Mulle, and this is Deputy Hodd. Seems kind of obvious what happened."
Huc, you get some hard looks, and a bit of muttering about your parentage, but no one answers you directly.
Master Temperance stands serenely, looking around.
"The Kobolds, crushed there in the tower. Guessing that would be the reason how it feel, but why?" she says. Her left leg from the walking grew a slight pain, "Sorry if this troubles you any. I don't mean to cause a fuss."
As she sees the master of the manor, she looks with a slight glare.
Nearing the manor, the two deputies get into an argument about who should go up and knock on the door. Oranna, you notice that there's another kobold body in front of that door--it's badly burned, and from the smell it hasn't been that long since it was burned.
"Mmm...we can do that, can we not, Arien? Deputies, may we enter the premises? We may be of assistance in recovering the injured and deceased."
Master Temperance appears unruffled by the death and destruction, but subtly listens at their reply.
and is clearly wondering about kobold wine.
Deputy Hodd bangs on the door, but there's no reply. Mulle reaches for the door handle, but Hodd grabs her hand. "Watch yourself--that kobold didn't just fall over dead here. Bet that was Hunclay's trap, and it might still be working." He looks over at Master Temperance. "That goes for you, too. If he don't come out himself, no one's going in there after him."
It is at this point that the murmuring of the crowd back at the fallen tower stops. Looking back, you see a middle-aged woman in what seems to your eyes to be expensive clothing. She wears a slender coronet, and is followed by a young man who bears a familial resemblance to her. Arien, you recall conversation in the inn's common room about Baroness Origena Devy, the noble who rules here. She strides towards the deputies. After a short conference, she gives them a sympathetic nod, then looks around the crowd, shaking her head slightly as her gaze alights on various townsfolk. Then she spots you and points at the four of you. "You. You're new here--most of you, at least. I heard about Gribb. What are your names, again?"
She smiles. "As it happens, there is. Today's your lucky day. Mulle and Hodd here are a little green, and can't handle this without the Sheriff to hold their hands, and I want to know what happened here. You seem to be a capable bunch. If you go into the tower ruin and look through the rubble--find out what happened, and why there are kobolds in my town--I'll pay the lot of you 500 gold pieces. While you're looking around in the ruins, keep an eye out for any signs of our local, ah, eccentric, Hunclay. It seems somewhat suspicious to me that he's not answering his door. Let me know what you find." She lowers her voice. "Unless it's a dire emergency, tell me first. I don't want a panic."
Huc ignores the worst of the local treatment; nearly twenty years of it tended to give a guy thick skin. He’s about to turn and head back to check on the rubble himself when the Lady Arien makes herself known.
”Huc Greenwood,” he responds, following the conversation, his eyebrows rising at the prospect of 500 gold for the job.
Huc frowns, looking around at the combined crowds. "I have a few questions about the job, ma'am. Maybe we can go talk somewhere a bit quieter before we head in?"
"Oranna, traveling soothsayer, bi... never mind," she says with a grin, "Sure, I'll do for some gold."
"Of course, get the cripple to investigate the dangerous ruins."
The Baroness calls one of the novice deputies over. "Have the people give us some room, here." Once the crowd has been chivvied back, she turns to Huc. "Your questions?"
Huc waits until they can't be overheard, then continues in a hushed tone. "You sounded like you had more to say about the tower. If we're headed in there to help you out, I"d sure like to know everything there is to know about it first."
He hesitates, then continues, "Also, what was it before .. ya know ... it crashed down. What was in it?"
She sighs. "I don't know. My damned fool husband died poking around in there nine years ago, and I was leaving it be as a memorial to him. Hunclay was after me to tear it down practically from the time he first came here, seven years ago." She looks around. "You'd think he'd be out here crowing about it."
Incidentally, the trees around the manor house have all been cut down. It's easy to tell where Hunclay's property starts.
"Mn. May I ask--how did your husband die? What is in the Tower?"
Master Temperance finds a blade of grass to chew upon absently. "Perhaps we should investigate Ser Hunclay's house. Are you authorized to enter it under these circumstances?"