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Brocken, called Steinfaust is a young muscular young Oread with broad shoulders, and strong hands. He has skin the colour of greywacke with red veins and is completely hairless.
In battle he wears a grey laquered Mountain Armor and wields a black adamantine Bardiche, coupled with an earthbreaker. He is accompanied by a stegosaurus companion he calls grumbler.
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Ushi Goroshi can only be identified as a nagaji by his head, the only place where his scales can be seen. He dresses in pure white garments with gold trim, from boots to gloved hands. All of his adventuring gear is of high quality, mithral armor and darkwood shield in good repair despite obvious use.
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Nino has no memory of a time before pain—pain suffered, and pain inflicted. A half-orc of the Haskodar tribe in Blisterwell, Nino was constantly forced to fight for survival against his larger, stronger tribe-mates, and quickly learned that the best defense is a total lack of fear or restraint. Those who thought to casually bully the child soon learned the error of their ways, for in Nino’s mind, every fight is a fight to the death, and anyone who pretends otherwise leaves themselves vulnerable.
Nino has no interest in picking on the weak, but believes that might makes right, relishing the red rush of battle and the communion it brings him with his god. He’s not opposed to working with—or even for—those he considers his equals, but those individuals are few and far between, and must take pains to show him proper respect. Perhaps the only activity other than combat that truly brings him pleasure is making music on his
drum—and then only if it’s sufficiently riotous as to echo the clamor of battle.
Finding yourselves moving through the town square near dusk, torches are lit, people are massed around a small man in fancy and some would say formal clothes. One by one you are all drawn to him as he tries to explain that he needs help for his employers and are looking for good people to help the family out. After much discussing, and haggling by many of the onlookers. You all find yourselves as one of two groups still listening to the man after the rest of the crowd has dispersed with disinterest.
The small man eventually gets to the point where he realizes that the two parties are the only ones interested, so he asks you all to disperse and meet him at the Oaken Hog later where he has bought out the bar for the night. During this break, is there anything that players wish to do or actively engage in before going to the local bar that is well known for their ale?
Patros - The merchant turns to you, he is a heavy set man who looks more bored then anything dealing with your question. He shrugs and says
"The word on the street is he is a house hold leader (manager of a baron's estate). He has heard of it only in passing, it is a run down estate in a small, back water village off the beaten path. From what he has heard, it has been prospering for the last few years but that is just hearsay..."
Looking to the left and right the merchant leans in closer and says.
"The baron is the last of his line from what he hears. So if you get an in with the baron he would pay you handsomely. Backwaters tend to pay handsomely for home brew items, you know how those mud born are...
Before your able to say more, a well dressed gentleman from one of the houses in town walks up and the merchant loses interest in you Patros, it looks to you like the man had been waiting on this man and decided to answer you out of the hope to make some coin.
Nino - Upon entering the bar, since you headed there right away(?)... You find the well dressed gentleman has bought out the bar as he said, the bartender is wiping a glass looking happy and well paid.
The bartender say.
"What would you like to drink good sir? The tab is on your patron there."
The bartender nods towards the gentleman who had gotten your attention in the square.
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{b]Thank you, sir. I shall be back later to browse your wares more thoroughly. [/b] he bids the merchant farewell. He then heads to the bar. Upon finding it is a free bar, he lights up.
My good man, any chance you have some Qadiran wine? Been dying to try some...heard it is absolutely delightful. If not, any good whiskey would do...I'm not picky...whatever you recommend. I trust your taste.
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Laiashi was dressed in a lace corset and flowing purple dress, accentuating her curves and bringing out her fiery red hair. She carried a belt pouch at her waist but, as usual, nothing else. She was making her way toward the rich part of town in the hope of bringing in some good gold today. It had been too long since her last Society mission, and her finances were feeling it.
On the way, however, she found a man begging in the street for help-- not money, but actual assistance with some problem or other. Given his attire, Laiashi guessed he was rich himself. Perfect.
She ducked out of sight and smoothed her dress into leather traveling clothes. She doubted any companions would want the tagging-along of a proper lady in proper attire, but likely would welcome a girl who looked the part of an adventurer.
"A glass of pepper whiskey for me," she tells the bartender when she arrives.
As the party gets together at the bar and obvious small talk is going on as the bartender is handing out every single drink you all have asked for (something rare in this area so clearly a bar to remember, a nice hidden gem to come back to at a later time).
A quieter group of adventurers come in, dressed in different traveling wear from all across the kingdoms of the world. Instead of heading towards the bar, the group moves towards the fire place in the far corner, as far from the bar as possible. The good cheer your group shares is like a warm spot in a room of cool water, a wonderful event that can be seen as a boon to the bartender when you look into his eyes.
Before your two parties can mingle, your possible future employer walks down an out of the way staircase, padding at his face with a piece of cloth. Tucked away behind a wall, the employer steps out around it and you see the bartender cross his chest in religious warding of danger from ages past, rarely seen during these new, and prosperous times.
In the better light of the bar, you can see the small future employer looking nice in a white silk shirt that hung limply on the man, dark purple leather traveling pants with some minor signs of wear and a handkerchief tucked within his left wrist, allowing the shirt most of the work holding it in. His collar shows clear signs of sweating but other then this small bit of wear and tear, the man might as have walked out of a minor house and into this bar.
The man has small, rat like eyes, but a generous and normally happy face from the lines on his face. Tonight he just looks tired, almost like he is not sleeping and the signs of this can barely be seen behind a thin layer of powder.
The gentleman clears his throat and waits for everyone to react to his arrival...
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What you initially thought was a potted plant in the corner lifts its head. It slowly adjusts its gaze, squinting, as if it is having trouble seeing straight. Turns out the plant is potted all right, just not in the way you were expecting.
Having rushed to the bar the moment it opened, it was enjoying the local libations for quite a while before it decided to take a nap.
It hops down from its stool in the corner of the room and stumbles over to the rest of the group. It speaks, a slight slur in its voice.
"Hey. Are you the other Pathfinders? I guess I got bored waiting for you and took a nap. I'm called the Vine of the People's Resolve, but you can call me 'S'. You wanna know why you can call me 'S'? Well, it's a really long story, so I'm gonna have to tell you later."
The leshy reaches into a pouch and counts the number of goodberries he made today.
Your patron shakes his head in disbelief as he sees Vine of the People's Resolve (or S) come out of the plant base. After the slight display he looks around, and grumpily asks the bartender to brighten the area even more with candles. "I have paid for this area, and I want it bright in here as I have asked, my room is barely bright enough for my tastes..."
The patron looks to the two groups and huffs to himself, then walks towards the bar where the other player characters gather.
At the sight of this, a female elf breaks away from the secondary group and silently pads over to the bar. The elf is dressed in basic clothing, very simple pants and top, all a tan or light brown. She shows no wear or tear but moves herself as if she is stalking prey.
The patron waits till she arrives in to the small group, wipes his face one more time and places a sopping wet handkerchief on the bar and pulls out the one from his sleeve before continuing.
"As you know, I am looking for help because my employer, the influential family of Tiboros of of Nisroch is worried over
the wellbeing of their youngest daughter, Anya. Anya is the loveliest of the women in the small barony and quite a wonderful woman, she treats even the lowliest townsman as if they were a noble and everyone loves her. Well her family is concerned and sent several letters to my baron to find out what is going on.
We explained the situation that she is perfectly OK and doing wonderfully with her young son, but the family wants independent people checking up on her. After he son was born, roughly... 2 months ago? She has not been herself and she has felt that her husband has been growing paranoid and erratic. Something I can assure you that has not been happening but she would feel better with getting that from an outside source.
With the family of Tiboros wanting outside people checking on her, I was sent here to find explorers of your caliber to check on her for her family..."
The elf starts to walk away like she is not interested but stops when he continues and says.
"The bounty for going will be 5,000 gold for the party that helps Anya feel better about what is going on so I and she can inform the family of the truth. If you are interested, please let me know and we can setup travel arrangements as it will take you a few weeks to get there by road. I would not recommend the river because it does not travel far enough to get to the barony."
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The walk into the town proper had loosened the tightness of his muscles from the long carriage ride. A fortuitous consequence of the square not being suited for the fine white carriage that had brought him here. He had bid farewell to his fellow Kalistocrat with wishes of good fortune, bleak as those prospects might be here. Still, a reward of services rendered is always a promising lead, not only for the wealth offered but the relationships that could be forged.
Swirling the wine in his glass, Ushi nods as he inspects his pure white attire for any stray droplets of red. "Most benevolent host, we would be delighted to assist. Such a request is fraught with subjectivity however, so perhaps you would care to outline your minimum expectations of our service?"
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Laiashi had just raised her glass to her lips when the bounty was named, and she paused. Five thousand? They must be really worried about this woman. "What do you say?" she asks Petros in a low voice. "Five large to go talk with a rich baroness? Sounds like quite a payday." She sips her whiskey. "Who's her husband?" she calls out.
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'S' leans over to the bartender.
"I make my own wine. How about I leave you some and if you like it, you can order a few bottles to sell here."
Turning back to the others.
"As long as I have enough coin to get by, I'm happy."
The vine leshy stares longingly at the bottom of his empty mug.
"But having a story to tell afterwards is the real reward, so I'd be happy to go with you."
The patron seems taken back by Laiashi's comment. He splutters a moment, spraying a small amount of saliva and looks down at his handkerchief to seem to need to draw strength from it.
"My good man, I am here to make sure that young, miss Anya and her new born son is safe. The influential family of Tiboros of Nisroch require it and are willing to pay large amounts of good money to do so. What more do you need to know?
They are in a small remote village, if you think there are bandits then I better call adventurers to handle it..." and he glares at you.
"If you think I knew what was going on out there, I would have picked the correct group of people instead of adventurers who have a wide range of skills sets to handle a wide range of issues that they might run into."
He seems highly flustered and rambles to himself... "I tried to tell them that this was a bad idea... Ruffians the lot of them."
Your patron reaches behind himself and pulls out a leather envelope and shuffles through some of the papers contained within. Pulling two out of the stack, he slams one piece of paper on the bar and then slams one on one of the corresponding tables closest to the silent elf.
"I am not gonna sit here and bicker on things that I have no idea of, we know that Miss Anya was happy with her new born son but concerned over her husbands new and recent actions. Paranoia being one of the things she commented on. If this interests you, feel free to sign your name below or leave your mark."
The patron turns to the silent elf, and says.
"I am sure you can understand what I am saying?"
Instead of replying, the silent elf turns to her companions and signs to them with hand gestures before turning around, biting her thumb and placing a bleeding thumb print on the piece of paper before her before silently walking out the door with her companions.
Your patron openly shudders, but none of you are clear if it is fear, disgust, but if one had to guess. Both...
"I knew we should not have called in the Silent Order into this. Murderous bastards..."
Turning back to you, he acts like he did not just say a thing about his recent guests and states.
"It has taken me some time to get here to find you lot, if your interested then sign the paper and leave with it. The instructions for travel all paid for by us and anything else you might need will be outlined on the paper after you sign it. Well?"
The contract appears to all of you to be simple enough, everything travel wise has been handled for your benefit. The travel is simple, down the block is your carriage company that has been prepaid to take you there. The company holds half your payment and will be leaving by tomorrow afternoon, most likely to give you all time to gather your things or anything you might want. Your accommodations are at your choice of a local pub or within the barony its self, and of course it is all paid for. It all seems to be overly simple, like someone without a royal background wrote it.
As you all start filing out, you hear your patrons voice break as he says one final statement before you all head out.
"Please... I am sorry, I am just so concerned about our Anya, please protect her and her son. They have done nothing but been nice to anyone they have ever met... Such a lovely girl..." (Sobbing)
You all have till tomorrow afternoon, if there is anything important to do or tasks you need to complete now might be the time.
Steinfaust Ms. Anya is really not the one that is the interesting one. She is a noble who as a child and later in life helped the 'help' being the good person she was. Other nobles looked down on the family for that so it was said to be a rumor but the rumor is a tad too entrenched and clearly true. Her good heart led her to help those around her and was married off to a small noble in the far off kingdoms to hide the disgrace.
Her husband on the other hand... He has had a rough time about ten years ago? The rumor mill says her husband lost both his brother as he disappeared from the area, and then a year later his father died of natural causes. It threw the barony almost in anarchy until the youngest son took control and everyone in the area prospered. He had to marry Anya because he had no other real prospects, if his father had been alive though, he would have had far more choices...
Patros...
Do you have any specific focus to your questions?
Patros
You ask around and move through the crowd, you get various scattered groups of people who talk of the baron or the town. Not much is really learned past what you know, but you are told that not many have been out that way for a few weeks. It sounds like a normal situation but something feels off. There is an under current of fear...
Nino
You move around the bar and other places of interest but you finally find one person that stands out in the crowd. The man is in his early 20's, dressed as a common worker, most likely has done or does road work (as in long haul or people transport) by his clothing and the wear of it. His face is bruising, as it has most likely been a very short time, maybe around the time you were in the bar with your patron.
Even in a few hours his face is looking terrible, someone who knew what they were doing did this to the man and he is clearly deep in his cups by the time you find him. He is slurring to himself and you pick this up from what he is saying...
"I have no idea why they did that, it was a part of the contr... (slurs) had to just go and do it didn't they? (slurs) hired just like they were... We did nothing, no reason to do that to us... (slurs)
Why would they want to go to that (slurs) and the bonfires... bet they are burning people... (slurs) it's the damned Fetchlings... They are infecting the good people... (slurs)"
Then the poor man passes out, but just hearing the venom in his voice and fear puts a shiver down your spine.