Having followed Maqli, Nummil nervously starts to collect his belongings and pack them carefully. This of course takes a while, especially with the occasional quill flowing out of his reach. But only a few minutes after Maqli he joins the others with a slightly crooked smile.
"Ha! I was fast, wasn't I?"
"The question is where to start for clues"
"We have no idea where the children came from and no idea who they even are..." Vero reiterated.
Vero got up off of his chair as if to signal he was ready to leave.
"...we'll have to search every inch of this town..." the rogue said hopelessly.
"The barmaid said she heard some people talking about it. that suggests someone here knows the story. Why not just ask?"
"Not so much, young master," Maqli says with a wry grin at Nummil. Then she looks to the rest. "You're right, Vaashti. We should ask around, see what we can find out. Don't lose heart so quickly, Master Inious."
Perception
as you walk around you pass by a group of gossiping women
"Halfway house? What's that?" Maqli whispers to Vaashti, Vero, and Noya. Five children... the woman thinks, wondering how this could have happened.
"Where I come from, a halfway house is usually where 'former' criminals are housed until they can get real jobs and housing lined up. They come out of prison, and it is a place to stay until they 'legitimately' get their feet back under them. They are also used to house recovering addicts and the like." Vaashti answered in the same quiet tones. "Why? Does a halfway house have something to do with this?"
"I caught a woman talking about it, back there a ways." Maqli hooks a thumb over her shoulder, looking at Vaashti. "Said there was a dare about it or something, she'd heard her kid talking about. She also said that there are five kids missing, not four."
"The Half-way house dare, even though the place was called a half-way house it was more like an orphanage."
"Orphanage...seems like a natural place for five children." Vero joked darkly.
"They probably just got lost. But still, let's go and find them - there might be a reward for their safe return."
Vero turns to Noya.
"I hate to say it but it seems like you know the place better than us. Can you take us there?"
Not very familiar with the mundane things in this world, Nummil is late to decipher what he had overheard but it seemed the others had a plausible explanation of the meaning of the words.
"Yes miss, could you take us there?" Nummil adds after chuckling a bit at Vero's joke.
Vaashti cocked her head to the side as Noya explained about the orphanage. "Now there's a use of the term I've never heard before. Must be a local dialect thing. What's so "daring" about the halfway house?"
“Elara was a selfless woman who
spent the greater part of her life caring
for those no one else wanted. The fire was
a horrible tragedy.”
"A fire, I see. I guess the 'dare' is pretty well known bythe children around here. Are any of you well enough spoken, or known enough by the locals to gather more information? These tend to put strangers off for some reason." She motioned to her tail and horns.
"F-fire?" Vero stated reluctantly, not wanting to mention the word that cost him so much in his life.
"Fire..." Maqli says. She almost looks to be somehow drawn to the word and its implications, and she seems to be struggling with something. Why is that...? But even she cannot so much as put her finger on what it is that calls to her.
"So, a burnt-down house that the local kids dare each other to explore or something? This just gets better and better." Maqli shifts her pack, and briefly touches the haft of her large axe. "We'd best get going, then."
"It might be wise to know who the children are before we leave."
Vero snapped back to life after hearing Noya's comment.
"Why don't we ask who their parents are? What are their hobbies? What their favorite three course meal is?" Vero replied mockingly.
The rogue then removed the mocking tone and lowered his voice.
"Any more asking around will just delay us. I think it's time to some field research" The impatient wanderer added.
Noya inquires with the gossiping women
"It looks like: Kimi Eavewalker, Hollin Hebbradan, Mikra Jabbs, Savram Vade and apparently Jurin Kreed."
"Thank you, Noya. Knowing who they are might at least allow us to lessen their fears, should a group of strangers attempt to aid them. Now, as our erstwhile rogue has said, perhaps we should check out the area around the burned down orphanage? "
"It'll be quite a walk, a little over four to five hours.
If they went into the Vale, it is not wise to bring horses."
"Wow. That's not a short jaunt. No wonder it's a big dare for the kids. That's definitely far enough for them to have fallen into some kind of trouble. Well, I am ready to go." Vaashti looks at her secondhand gear and frayed cloak. "Ready as I can be, I suppose."
"Five hours is nothing...and I could uh...use the walk"Vero said.
The large woman shrugs her pack to reshift the weight. "I'm fine on a hike, used to spend entire days walking back in Absalom. I'm ready whenever you are."
"Why shouldn't we bring horses miss?" Nummil asks Noya.
Nummil has a wondering look on his face and the local winds seem to have decided to twirl around him a little bit more slowly than before.
"It sounds like a long walk and I'm definitely not looking forward to it... then again.. I do wish to visit the Vale."
"The reason being, most of the trails through the vale are not horse friendly, that and there are a few creatures in the vale that love horse meat."
"Horse meat... really?" Nummil said with a slight look of surprise. He had never really thought about the actual dangers of being out in the wilderness. There were plenty of creatures, monsters, that would go a long way to eat some horse or other pack animal. Livestock and even humanoids quite often ended up as breakfast, lunch or dinner in some regions. Nummil hadn't encountered any of those before, he'd read about them.
"So.. any specific creatures that we should look out for?"
Not wanting to create panic he kept his mouth shut about the combination of said creatures and some lost children. They'd better hurry.
"Let's talk as we walk. I don't think any of us wants to wait a moment longer than necessary."
You all start walking to the half-way house
and the trail is easy to follow.
Maqli notices the sylph's agitated nervousness and grins. "Relax, young master," the woman says, unstrapping her large axe. She swings it around to her front easily, hefting it in one hand and giving a practice stroke with two. The haft of the weapon is nearly as tall as she is, with a head of what looks like gleaming black glass, nearly a foot across at its widest point, and tapering to a wicked edge before rounding back into a hook.
"I'm sure there won't be too much trouble with any beasts along the way."
"It's not beasts you should be worried about" Vero warned, completely oblivious to the fact that he was supposed to be calming the sylph's nerves.
The rogue pulled out his dagger with some finesse and began playing with it to make the journey go by faster.
"Fear the man with a plot, for he will kill you and leave you to rot" Vero quoted from an unknown source, paying more attention to the blade than to the words leaving his mouth.
Vaashti looked sideways at Vero as he spoke wondering Is he making an open threat? Or just idly talking? Either way, it's worth keeping an eye on him.
Aloud, she said "I am sure between the lot of us, we can manage." She kept an eye out for signs of the children or of danger as she walked.
"In that case Vero,
you picked a semi-bad village to stop in."
As the others seem to look sideways at Vero and make comments on his little rhyme, Maqli can't help but internally agree with the man. People are a lot more dangerous than animals, that's certain.
Maqli walks a little in front of Nummil, her eyes darting to pick up any threats.
"Ah yes you're probably right but right now there's no man with a plot, as far as we know."
Nummil walks on and ponders about about his planned research on the Darkwood. After a while though his thoughts abandon his research and focus on the missing children. Ah well, it seems priorities have been set.
you are nearing the half-way house
perception checks please.
As they were walking, Vaashti was more interested in knowing about her companions than really paying attention to their surroundings. They had barely left the boundaries of the town when she had thrown her hood back to let her raven hair flow free. She chatted with Maqli, Noya, and Nummil quite freely, and even shared a few bits about herself. As for Vero, well, he didn't seem inclined to talk.
Perception:
Vero kept mostly to himself for the duration of the trip, having returned his dagger to its resting place and only speaking up when the discussion was directed at him or the mission at hand. The rogue still listened to the words that passed him - albeit only to know who exactly he was adventuring with.
When the food for thoughts on both his research and the missing children seemed to have dulled his hunger on those subjects for a while, Nummil joined the chitchat with the others in the group.
Nummil was used to being indoors a lot, it simply didn't work that well to study outside but he'd noticed that he liked being outdoors ever since he had set off with Maqli. Now he was walking alongside Vaashti and listened to her tell about herself. Nummil's windy aura swept away some of the leaves in front of the talking tiefling and the blueskinned mage. Nummil readjusted his brown head as he looked around and took in the surroundings.
Maqli also walks with the group, still beside and slightly in front of Nummil. She looks about as she walks, keeping her eyes and ears wide open to take in the surroundings.
"Looks like we are almost there."
Noya and Maqli notice the recent tracks of children going to the halfway house
"Well, they were definitely by here," Maqli says, crouching down and pointing out the bent grass and misplaced stone and dirt. "And it leads to the house. We'd best continue."