"Those names have become well known to us as many people speak of them why you ask about council or the protection of the city. I'm Nex captain of eaglessong Malitia."
There was nothing said beyond a grunt as the half-orc turned over the rumors that were heard, taking a drink from the mug. Not having too much experience with drinks, he could make out nothing beyond the quality of the drink, which was certainly good. He acted like he was appreciating the taste, and set the mug down, contemplating what he had been told. Organized Bandits, more traffic in Nulb, and a Dire Bear with a Hill Giant... The bandits were something of note, the rest he would have to ask about. A reflexive check of his pack by his feet made him notice that the stool had not squeaked, which was good craftsmanship.
Considering the things he was told, he decided to wait for the others to show, wondering what they had found out. What was in his cup was not going to last long, but that was fine. When it ran out, he intended to talk to the local blacksmith. Getting to know someone who might determine whether you came to harm or not was always a good idea. He could remember smelling the tang of hot iron in the wind when they first arrived and wanted to get his weapons examined while he had the opportunity.
"The Viscount in Verabonc" He rubs his chin as he then itches his faint scruff.
"Tell me how is the bearded bastard, did he have his beautiful red-haired wife with him? I hope all was well." He says as he looks them over.
"As for my name you have heard it before, as Nice to meet you both"
------------------------------
Augrokyou sees a merchant come over to the man with the gunslinger hat and they begin to play craps. They do a series of rolls.
"Let's get to brass tax. What is there to these bandits and their dark magic cult worship?" Beyond that, does the town the town need any other help, we have heard a giant with a bear."
'Ah so you are here for that business. Then yes, yes They will see you." He holds out a hand and snaps his finger to summon a few different strands of rope in his hands.
'peace bond your weapons and no magics" He says handing that to the older guard before he begins to climb the stairs.
"I would be happy to. That is a smart precaution."
"Of course", Eÿliana says reluctantly as she takes the rope and slips it through the hand guard of her rapier. Looping it around her belt she ties it in a quick knot. The rogue grimaces as she secures her weapon, clearly unhappy, but knowing that she isn't defenseless as the concealed dagger in her boot is within easy reach.
Ekaitz unstrings his longbow and ties his mace down, then follows. "So what exact is the positions of Captain Burne and Master Rufus among this community? Do they often grant their helps to adventurers?"
Pajet binds her longsword and dagger and follows along, peering at the construction going on around her with interest.
"Well, Rufus and Burne are heroes who helped finish some of the last vestiges of the Temple. When they were younger they were apprentices to some of the heroes who joined the forces to combat the powerful Temple and its cult. Eventually, they went and found their own adventures and thanks to the Viscount of Verbabonc were awarded land here. So they now are constructing a Keep to retire too and help watch and grow this community. Which the town council greatly appreciates as funding for a militia on top of volunteers is greatly needed just in case the rabble form Nulb cared to strike or bandits or what not." He said leading them up the stairs.
"AS for the Adventuring lot...They do not get many. The few we get seem to move on. Either they die or something not many come back through. Those who do are either licking their wounds from the dead or have struck it rich with an actual bout of heroics." He finished leading you up a few staircases before he stops at a door and knocks.
"Yes" Says a voice from beyond.
"Its Blue let me in I have the guests"
A pause happens and it opens."Sure, are you gonna announce them or should I"
"You should I have to get in there and get to my position" The man turns and winks to you."I have to get ready you all wait for Kiev here to introduce you to Rufus and Burne okay"
Without confirmation, he dashes in the door, and you are left staring at a patchy straw colored beard on the face of a man with several facial scars. He though has a set of piercing gray eyes you can see through his helmet.
This man Kiev looks at you all and asks."So what do you call yerselves?"
Pajet, noting the pause to answer from the others pipes up. "For now you can call us the 'Daring Seekers.' It's unlikely our reputation has reached Hommlet, but we're here to offer our help regardless!"
He would definitely go to the blacksmith to see about maintaining his equipment. After this drink.
"We would like to help any way we can. While we have you. Do you know why there is a tunnel under the church?"
"That's true! It looked pretty well hidden, as well. Didn't seem the sort of thing that would be used for up and up purposes, but we're new here, so you, or Rufus and Burne perhaps, might know better. It was actually under the Village House though, rather than the temple. You'll have to excuse us if we mix up locations until we've been here a while and get a better feel for what and where everything is."
You have noticed the gambler is rigging his games so that he wins more then loses.
"Daring Seekers, eh? Alright then"Kiev says as he hears the horn and calls out the Daring Seekers.
Kiev turns around and looks at you guys."Good luck!"
As the doors open you see four guards two robed individuals and two men who are sitting on a dais. One was the man before in blue robes, the other was in chain mail with a tabard on it showing a badger, and a matching shield nearby. he had no facial hair save a handlebar mustache and a bowl cut of dark brown hair.
One of the men in a matching tabard came forward with a gesture."The Daring Seekers, may I present Captian Burne the Boastless and Rufus the Renown Conjurer!"
Captian Burne twitched his nose as he seemed to have a face that scowled and also looked like he ate a sour pickle. Rufus, however, was chuckling as he spoke."Welcome Daring Seekers, Please tell my old friend Burne here what you told me"
Pajet smiles, happy to explain again. "Good to meet you Captain Burne, and to get a formal introduction to you Rufus! As we were saying earlier, we've been summoned by the Viscount in Varabonc to help with something here in town. It's not quite clear whether that something is supposed to simply be the bandits or a greater threat, so we've been doing our best to sort that out. Here's the writ that we all received, in case you'd like to see what we know coming in." The gnome sticks out her letter to anyone who might be interested in taking a look, and then continues regardless of whether anyone chose to take it or not.
"The letter indicates that it was the church of Iomedea and the village council who requested the help originally, so we thought we'd start by checking in with them, er, you I suppose. We went to the church first because churches are easy to find in towns even if you don't know who anyone is, though on the way there we happened to poke our heads into the village hall and find a hidden tunnel that seemed quite out of place which we thought you should know about. It seemed a surprising thing to find, and someone's gone out of their way to hide it, but we didn't think we should go through the tunnel without bringing it to someone's attention first. After all, maybe it's perfectly harmless and supposed to be there.
"When we got to the church we did manage an audience with Canon Terjon, but it turns out that he didn't seem to know very much about what was happening outside the church building itself. He did point us in your direction though, so the time wasn't entirely wasted. Now we're here to offer what help we can, and figure out what it was that convinced the Viscount that help was needed in the first place. We've heard a bit about giants and bears and bandits and what not, but we're hoping that you've got a more concrete idea of what's going on."
Augrok snorted and savored the remainder of his drink as he watched the games of chance play out. He was not a fan of those games, since luck was often determined by the owner of the item of chance. When the mug was empty, he nodded to himself and set the mug down on the bar. It would not be wise to go further into the cups than he had already. When he stood, he took a look at the individuals that looked over at him, but left the inn and followed his ears to the smithy. Maybe by now, the others had left the church.
"I can confirm that Pajet has provided the debrief accurately. She seems to have a talent for detail and conversation that I lack."
Both of the men before you take in the information. Burne looks to Rufus. They exchange glances and a few inaudible words.
After an exchange, they look to you all. Rufus speaks as Burne sits back and ruffles his mustache."SO the Viscount has found evidence of the Cults possible return. Seems prudent to investigate."
Burne nods and speaks in a rumbly bass."Yes, quite right. the journey to the Temple is long covered from here. I doubt the way to get to it from other avenues are any better. However, the old road should take you by an old Mill. That mill currently has been reported to have some very active and decently equipped bandits. from there you can take a hunting trail to Nulb which will lead you past the field of the dead to the Temple proper. Once there I am not sure how you will proceed." He says as he twitches his nose letting the mustache dance.
Rufus pipes in at the end.'And we aren't saying that we don't know how you'll go on from there as we don't have a map, We have been there no this would be more about the enchantments left by powerful arcane and divine spellcasters to seal the vile place shut, trapping the Demon Queen inside. I doubt it has been broken, but that doesn't mean the forces of good that day didn't miss and entrance we did not know about or some sort of magical gate we did not expect. I do hope though that this is just a false alarm and the Viscount is worried for nothing. Still, we will aid you as we can in your mission.' he says rubbing his chin.
Burne looks back to the party and speaks once more."I wish we could provide you with some troops or healing, but Hommlet is small and its resources in a similar boat. I will say that Terjon, Brother Jaroo and us will try and give you aid in whatever way we can spare. Until then I will send word with Goodman Gandygoot to give you guys a few nights free at the Welcome Wench. After that, you'll have to provide your own accommodations.Any questions?"
Ekaitz listens intently as they explain and confer with one another, and he tries to get a sense of whether they're telling us everything they know.
At the mention of a Demon Queen, his eyes light up. "Could this Demon Queen cause the troubles? What holds her? Can you tell us of her influence?"
Rufus looks at Ekaitz and sputters through his lips as he taps his chin.
"Well, to put it mildly, the Demoness was called Zuggy...Zugga, Ziggy? No, it did start with Zugg. As for what holds her is she was defeated on this plane, and unless summoned which was really hard to perform without a lot of sacrifices and ritual casting involving several priests."
" AS for her influence? Not sure I was more of an apprentice when this all went down"
Pajet nods at the information and smiles. "Well then, we've got a much better idea of what we're about now. Thank you so much! Let's see if we can return the favor and get to the bottom of some of what's been happening. I do wonder if you'd like us to investigate that tunnel under the village hall for you though. It's not clear whether it's connected to anything else, but unless you want to deal with it on your own it seems like the sort of thing that someone should look into."
"You have been very helpful. Is there a city archive that may have more information, surveys of the area, old ranging reports, or even old wives' tales. There may be advantages in knowing more."
Eÿliana leans in to see if she can hear the quiet conversation between the two hosts. Unable to hear much of anything, she nods and agrees with the others. "Yes, thank you for the information. We'll see what can be done to help."
Ekaitz puts his hands together and bows to the two men. "Indeed, thank you for the helps. Our group we shall find this Demon Queen and put the stop to her bad plots. Calm seas to you."
"If you find the temple occupied please return Both me and Burne will try and assist you, we may even have to see it for ourselves" Rufus says with a polite smile before nodding.
"So with that, I believe our business is done, thanks for informing us. Please relax a bit before you hit the road for Adventure!!"
Augrok you are able to go to the shops near by
Pajet gives a serious nod to the two former adventurers. "We'll keep you informed of our progress. Thank you again for the information! If you need to reach us we'll be Welcome Wench when we're not out on our investigation. We hope to have news for you soon."
The gnome waits to see if anyone else has last words before heading back to town and to the inn to see if she can find what's become of Augrok.
"Let us find Augrok then I suggest we check out the bandits at the old mill and go to the temple. We will have to come back here before exploring the temple to resupply and heal. We may be able to explore the tunnel then and any other leads then. Thoughts?"
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Pajet nods. "That sounds like a plan to me. Oh, and I might have picked up a couple things on our way here. Nex and Ekaitz, you might make use of this scroll. It seems divine in nature and from what I can tell that's up your alley. There's also this amulet here which looks interesting. Near as I can tell it can protect the wearer for demonic possession and the like. Does anyone feel like they might be in immediate danger of such things?"
The gnome passes the scroll over to whichever of Nex or Ekaitz acts to take it first and holds the amulet of life protection up for all to see. Should anyone express interest she'll hand it over without reservation.
"Now then, where did that half-orc get to I wonder. Think he'll be excited to try to route some bandits?"
"Amarok find Augrok."
The wolf will start sniffing attempting to locate there friend.
On the way, next will try to decipher the scroll with read magic.
Ekaitz takes the amulet and studies it, then looks amongst his companions. "These talks of demons troubles me. I have studied the demons, and fought them. They are dangerous, and they are...they sneak, and they tempt. If this amulet does protect from them, then we should be giving it to the one…" He catches himself before completing the thought. "We should be giving to Augrok, perhaps?"
"Seem like a good choice. I'm anxious to get this problem solved I'm much less optimistic than the people of this town. Magic is dangerous and not dependable."
To quickly find our friend.
Ekaitz will look as well.
AS you wait you see a few people walking about, many head towards the Inn.
"Let's check the inn. Seems like a popular spot." Nex heads there for a quick check.
The party finds Augrok in the inn or nearby and as they head out along the old road they fill him in on the new information. When they're out of sight of the last of the building of Hommlet, Pajet draws her bow and begins to keep a careful lookout for any trouble.
Nex takes up point as they begin to travel toward the mill.
His companion also searches for Dangers
You see a Blonde woman strutting down the lane with a scimitar an ax and leathers coming your way. Over her shoulder are several slain small game, mostly rabbits. She wears a green cloak and the rest of her body is brown. On her side is also a sling of strange quality [sling shot].
The blue-eyed woman is humming to herself out of tune. In fact, a few of the dogs began to howl as she walked along yet she didn't care one bit.
Pajet eventually sees the woman walking down the lane towards the party, and drops her bow to one hand to wave a greeting. She flashes a smile and calls out in a friendly way, "Hail stranger! Looks like you've had a good day hunting. I wonder if we could trouble you to ask a question or two as we're new the the area and I'm guessing that you're fairly familiar with what goes on around here."
Augrok had been intercepted by the group as he was exploring the village, curious about the other tradesmen that were in the town, and quite content to let the others chase down any leads that might have occurred. He did relay what he had heard from the innkeeper— though he could not quite remember the man's name– and listened to what the others chose to relay. His disappointment at the inn's name being distinctly misleading was kept to himself. Still, by this time, the chill in the morning air had blunted with the rising of the sun, and he was finding the morning enjoyable.
Keeping her hand hidden beaneath her cloak, Eÿliana grasps the pommel of her rapier as she regards the stranger with suspicion.
Nex approaches very cautiously.
"Oh Hi! I'm Enora, welcome to Hommlet! Have you tried the Inn its got some great ale,not as much as the stuff the last merchant caravan a few days back had, but it'll due." She says as she chuckles.
"Say what brings y'all here? You looking to get jobs with the mason? Or heading north for the opportunities as mercenaries. Heard from a few men passing through that they are hiring mercs for something north o' here. I was gonna take the offer but they said I wouldn't suit the group's needs. Seriously men, thinking a woman can't brandish a sword as well as a woman, the nerve..." She says blinking at the end and then blushing for a minute before she composes herself.
"Anyway I have to head home and skin these things for sale. If you ever want to talk or maybe some small game rations,or an extra sword arm. Come by my place its right over there"Points at a small house and barn near the little pond,
"Enora it is. Well met! I'm Pajet, and my friends here and I are the Daring Seekers. We're just headed to the old mill to investigate some rumors of bandits we've heard there. I don't suppose you know anything in particular we should be aware of?"
"Once we're done there we'd love to come by to talk about rations or potentially a sword arm. I can promise you that we don't have some silly notions about who should or shouldn't be taking up arms and making their way in life. Once we've got a better feel for the lay of the land we should certainly talk!"
Nex whisper, "You're very cheery but maybe we should be a bit more vague with our exact destinations in the future. The worlds a dangerous place."
"Yes I would like to patronize your wears. I have been whopped by enough 70-year-old druid women that I take nothing for granted. You stop underestimating people when you realize that some of them are immortals that can become huge earth elementals at will. It was nice to meet you but we need to be going."
Once they're clear of Enora, Pajet attempts to reassure Nex. "It's highly unlikely that we have to deal with both her getting a message to the bandits before we arrive without us noticing and the bandits not having heard of our approach through other channels. I'm not giving away any plans of ours that she'd have a chance to ruin before we get to them were that her goal."
"I realize that not everyone is out to do good, but not everyone is out to do bad either. Better to make connections with the locals while we've got the chance to than to alienate them with suspicion. We'll sort out the bad ones in time."
"Hi Pajet, you have some handsome men you are traveling with! So Jealous. Say are you all adventurers. I would love to go out and fight monsters and seek a fortune but my Da won't let me leave his house until I wed. Granted I do want a husband, but its stupid to keep me all cooped up when I damn near 30!.." She says blinking and blushing.
"Sorry, You are right I am taking your time. And Yes you both are right I shouldn't let those men tell me what I can or can't do!"She says with vigor and then waves bye to the heroes as they walk away. If you notice she takes a few steps almost skipping back home.