The party mounts up and continues on their journey.
Arriving two hours before sunset, they see the town ahead of them. Mercy rests a mile south of the banks of the Ustradi River. A wooden palisade
encircles a collection of its approximately one hundred wooden buildings. Hardy trees laden with red and yellow fruit dot the surrounding landscape.
The road leads to a wide gate, which bears a prominent sign with orange-painted letters.
A field of cashew trees line the path to the small town. Approaching the gate, a large sign on it reads "Mercy does not allow dishonesty, firearms, or large weapons within town limits. Respect the curfew."
Before the party reaches gate, a tall, dark-skinned man opens the gate and steps out. He greets the party with a neutral, but polite tone. "Welcome to Mercy. I'm Sheriff Molume, and I keep the peace around here. As you can see from the sign, we don't allow people to walk around with large weapons around here. Before I let you inside, I need to ask you to hand them over."
"You shouldn't have to worry about fights in here; Mercy is a peaceful town of people simply making a living out in the wastes.", the Sheriff answering back from the rough comments from the party. He otherwise doesn't budge and awaits for the party to either turn back or stand handing over their weapons. Molume chews on a bit of straw as he waits, eyeing everyone casually, but carefully.
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Benson draws his elven curve blade from its scabbard and gives it to the sheriff, saying, "Mind the edge. It's very sharp."
He points to his bow with a questioning look. If the sheriff indicates it is considered a large weapon, he will offer his quiver of arrows, saying "Bow's not much use without the arrows. This is an expensive weapon that I'd prefer to keep it with me." If the sheriff insists, he'll give the bow.
He leaves his dueling sword in its hilt, since he considers it a light weapon.
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While Marduk's inner orc would rather not simply hand it over, the elder's teachings of law and balance have him hand over the temple sword, cestus and whip.
"I trust you'll be respectful of our property."
Without trying, he makes this statement while standing full size upright.
When back next to Hakime, he tries to reassure her.
"I am never unarmed, should it come to it."
The sheriff takes the large blade and places it in a cart he has near him. At Benson's line, he shakes his head. "Don't worry, I'll keep them secure; you let me know if you're heading off into the wilderness and I'll get your items back to you. I can promise they'll be safe."
Taking the bow, he they pauses, eyeing the elegant blade at Benson's side.
With Marduk, he nods accordingly as the weapons are handed over. "You have my word as sheriff on that."
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After the lawman's assurance, and seeing others comply, Wyeth dismounts with a sigh of resignation. Pulling his morningstar and other affected weaponry from Colt's saddlebags, he carries them over to the man.
Other weapons turned over, he offers his fauchard. When the sheriff places his hands on it Wyeth says in low tones, "I am trusting that you control the situation here as well as you say. If I find myself needing this and not having it, we will have... words later."
The Oracle releases the haft, his gaze remaining locked with the lawman's for a few heartbeats before he turns away and remounts.
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Benson pretends not to notice the sheriff waiting on him, hoping he will allow him to carry his dueling sword. Eventually, he pretends to notice the sheriff eyeing his sword and sighs. "This too? This is a dueling sword, as light as a feather. I confess I feel a little naked without it. I've been training with it for over a decade and rarely am without it." He hands it over, resigning himself to making do with a dagger, a light mace, and a sap.
"Thought this was going to get troublesome after that first response.", the Sheriff placing the rest of the gear in the cart.
"So here's how things are going to be around here. We pray and attend temple twice daily, once at sunrise and once just after sundown. We ask that you stay inside the guesthouse from 1 hour before sunset until 1 hour after sunrise. That outta give you around 10 hours each day to wander around. When you hear the triple bell, you can leave the guesthouse, and when the triple bell rings again, return to the guesthouse and draw the curtains. Curfew begins shortly."
With that he opens the get and lets you in as he starts pushing the wagon towards a building, nodding for you to follow him.
"We worship Robori, the God of Trees. He grows at the center of the village and protects the town with his blessed Circle of Life.", Molune answers.
For a worshipper, Molune doesn't say 'Robori' with particular reverence.
@Gob: You cannot recall ever hearing of Robori.
@Aspex & Hakime: Neither one of you have heard of Robori, either.
Sheriff Molune shakes his head at Hakime's question. "There are three things I don't discuss with strangers: politics, religion, or marriage. No offense, but you outsiders usually give weird advice."
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Wyeth has enough sense to keep his opinions of gods -- and their worshipers -- to himself, though an eyebrow does go up at the sheriff's statement that their god lives right here in the village.
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"If you won't discuss religion, can you direct us to someone who won't mind telling us more about the faith that sustains you? One of the great benefits of traveling is learning about the people you visit. Also, where's the best place for visitors to stay and the best place for a good meal and a mug of ale?"
"If you really want to know more, you can check out the temple, though it's close enough to curfew that I suggest you whet your curiosity after breafkast.", the Sheriff answers as he pushes the cart towards a carriage house near the gate.
As the party follows the Sheriff, they see a few citizens wandering; all of them somewhat match Molune in that they wear orange shirts and belts with scarves that have faded towards yellow. The one or two that pays attention to the party eyes them and nods with a smile once eye contact has been made, then goes about his or her way.
You can tell that they seem to be polite, but are quite suspicious of the lot of you.
At the carriage house, Sheriff Molune carefully places all of the weapons into a large wooden closet, then locks it, tucking a key back into his pocket. "When you plan on heading out, just find me and let me know and I'll return your equipment outside the gate."
The weapons now secured, he leaves the cart and motions for you to follow. Following him, the party arrives at a large building, bigger than most of the visible homsteads of simple thatched cottages with orange curtains covering the windows. A few other buildings stand out, too. One building is painted orange, while a taller building with a belltower rests near a twisted tree covered with vanilla orchids growing up and around the trunk. Finally, what appears to be an artisans square for blacksmithing and carpentry makes up a good portion of the center of town.
Opening the door to the large building, the party sees that it is a comfortably sized living space filled with six sets of bunkbeds and a round sitting table and a fireplace along with an outdoor privy. The sheriff then points to a large box near the front door with an orange flag in it. "That's the message box. We make sure to provide for our guests, so three times a day someone from the village will put some food in there. If you need anything outside of curfew hours, just leave the flag in the box and myself or someone else will eventually come over."
The sheriff raises an eyebrow at Marduk's strange question. "Nope, can't say that I do."
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Sheriff, you might be interested to know that we killed a couple of mutant gnolls along the way from Alkenstar. We recovered some items they had in their lair. Would you know of anyone who would have lost a set of childrens dolls, very well made? We'd like to return them, if so. Also, we saw evidence of some kind of magical storm that obliterated some trees along the road. We were worried for the town as we saw evidence of damage going directly toward the town but obviously, you've suffered no damage that I can see. I guess your god is watching over you all.
At Wyeth's question, he points to the underside of each bed, showing a chamber pot. "That outta handle most emergency needs until curfew's over."
The sheriff seems to relax a bit as Benson talks to him clearly and directly, and at least without significant prying initially. When Benson gets to the dolls, a single eyebrow is raised suspiciously. "Dolls you say? Mind if I have a look at one of them."
While waiting for the PCs response , he answers the latter question. "Yeah, that was Robori's doing. Saved us all from that dreaded storm."
You think the sheriff may have more details, but you'll have to influence him a bit more to open up.
Meanwhile, Aspex tries to think of something about the environment and comes to a few conclusions.
1. The tree... all of the plants of Mercy are exceptionally healthy, which is odd given the harsh climate of this area. Furthermore, they are growing crops out of season, have mismatched plants growing together that should not yield good results, and finally have fruits and vegetables that require a lot of pollination thrive in an area that lacks bees regionally.
2. You still can't think of anything significant about the colors and choice of dress.
3. The thatched cottages are not suitable for surviving the horrors of the mana storms as you have read.
One thing that did stand out, though, is the painted house; it's the only one with a significant amount of paint on it and is far newer than most of the other buildings.
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Hakime waits to see the sheriff's reaction to one of the dolls, curious as to what he might think of it.
To the sheriff though she says simply, "Robori must indeed be powerful and protective of your little community. You are blessed indeed to have such a buffer between yourselves and dangers such as the mana storms. I respect your need to be secretive about such matters. However, might I ask you a question about Robori? I am curious to know whether the tree grew in the village, or was the tree here when the village was founded? When and how did you come to know Robori as your god and protector?"
"Well, we were saved from that last storm, it's true. Big trees with white bark and yellow leaves appeared in the sky and formed a shield. I've never seen anything like it. The storm rolled right over them, leaving Mercy completely unscathed. Robori's been here since before my time."
When Gob shows the staff, Molune nods somewhat knowingly, but waits to see a doll first.
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At the sheriff's request for a doll, Aspex turns from examining a strangely healthy plant and reaches into her pack for one of the dolls. She reached a few conclusions but decided to keep them to herself until they were alone. After a moment rummaging around in her pack she pulls one out and offers it to the sheriff. "This is one of them."
"Hmmm, ayup. As I thought.", the Sheriff presumably knowing the answer already. "This is Amenira's work. You said that you found this in a gnoll's lair?"