Meneas' lance buries itself deep within the strange man-sized spider which shreiks and hisses as burple gore splatters off its body.
The creature is barely alive and yet still it thrusts itself onward to continue its attack on Vodnykel but its attack is sloppy, nearly collapsing in front of the mastodon in pain.
Brental is surprised that the spider reveals itself so readily, and then angry that it chose his companion as its prey. He nearly roars his attack command to the mastodon, though Vodnykel barely needs an excuse to lash back out.
Brental abandons his plan to summon and rushes directly to his mastodon defense, charging as he draws his scimitar and flanks. But in his burning anger, his angle seems off.
The spider moves fast, and while Meneas quickly gets clear, Brental and his mammoth get stuck in, as the druid rushes to his companion’s defense.
Despite how her eyes seems to want to slip away from the beast, Lina's fairly sure she knows where it is well enough to target it properly, but whether she's over-corrected to make sure not to hit her friends...
As soon as she's loosed her arrow, she drops her bow and races to close in turn, grabbing her spear from over her shoulder so that she can keep her distance.
It is unclear what the killing blow was exactly. Whether it came from the crushing and tearing of Brental's ever-loyal mastodon or Lina's well-aimed arrow through the abdomen no one can be sure but what is certain is that in moments the already near-dead otherworldly creature is reduced to a mangled carcass with limbs flung this way and that by a purple gore soaked mastodon.
The party wait a few moments to see if more are coming but all is silent as they stand around the corpse and the web-strewn tunnel which comprosed the spider's nest.
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Morof sees the efficiency with which the others dispatched the spider and is glad to be on this side of the fight. He is a little embarrassed from missing his ray attack and not contributing to the fight in any way, so he tries a new subject and says "I detected a feint magical aura here, but it is probably a very old aura. There hasn't been any magic here in a long time." Hopefully this would make him seem capable.
"Mm." Meneas stows his lance as he nudges Veil closer to the spider. "Do any of you know why the spider was... shifting, I guess? Its outline was moving and it was somewhat hard to hit. Surely that might have something to do with the magic you detected?"
Morof sees the efficiency with which the others dispatched the spider and is glad to be on this side of the fight. He is a little embarrassed from missing his ray attack and not contributing to the fight in any way, so he tries a new subject and says "I detected a feint magical aura here, but it is probably a very old aura. There hasn't been any magic here in a long time." Hopefully this would make him seem capable.
“That’s a relief. At least we don’t need to worry about being bleached and broken like the grass and poor old bones here by some sort of undead thing,” Lina breathes, nodding her acknowledgement of Morof’s assessment as she retrieves her bow, and glad that someone was able to get more out of the site than she could.
"Mm." Meneas stows his lance as he nudges Veil closer to the spider. "Do any of you know why the spider was... shifting, I guess? Its outline was moving and it was somewhat hard to hit. Surely that might have something to do with the magic you detected?"
She turns to Morof again in response to Meneas’ questions, trying to extrapolate from the wizard’s more subtle sense for the place, and what she knows of magical creatures.
“I couldn’t get a feel for the land itself, here,” she confesses, “but on the face of it, it seems like two different things that just happen to coincide. Unless magic itself is a bit tangled here, and that’s where the spider got its powers from. It’s an odd place to lair up and hope for prey, I would think.”
That was easier than anticipated. But Brental won't look too suspiciously at such a gift.
Now that the creature is visible, even if it is destroyed, Brental looks at it to get a better sense of what it was.
It seems too destroyed for him to make much sense of, though.
The blight, however, is what continues to bother him. He would want to return to this site to understand it and help if to heal. Something still felt off.
Brental is uncertain about the magical auras either, and shakes his head in response to the ongoing pontificating. "At the Moot of Ages,, I heard someone talk about areas of alerted magic in the Mana Wastes. There magic is unstable and unpredictable. I don't know if that's what could be happening here. A First World influence could be more likely."
Of course, there is the tunnel leading further into the earth.
"Though nothing more is coming out, we may learn more by delving in." Brental begins moving towards the tunnel, feeling emboldened. He starts to hack away at the webbing with his blade before looking at his companion covered in spider goo. With a couple of quick gestures, a small deluge of about 6 gallons appears and washes the mastodon. Then Brental returns to his hacking.
Brental finds that at the bottom of the tunnel, around thirty feet down or so, there is a human skeleton with something shiny around its neck. The climb looks hazardous though and he could swear he see's something small crawling through the webbing here.
Brental detects magic before preparing to descend.
"I think there may be something else down there. Animate, if not alive."
"You suspect undead?" Meneas looks at the area around them. "Gods, I hope not. If something starts waking the dead around here, we'll be in serious trouble." He grips his lance again, readying himself for any oncoming attack by risen bones.
Brental takes his time descending into the spider tunnel. Finally he arrives at the bottom covered in cobwebs at examines the body. It has been reduced to bones but is still wearing its leather armor and carries a sack of 10 gold on it. The glinting amulet around the corpse's neck is non-magical but familiar to Brental. A silver stag skull.
Of more intrest is a slip of paper tucked in the skelton's boot. Taking it out the and unfolding it reveals the image of a twisted tree thatvlooks almost like a skeletal hand coming up from the earth with a big red X under it.
The young druid thinks he has everything he can get now but he's been increasingly bothered by tiny colorful spiders down here, crawling over and around him. They now crawl in alarming numbers, seemingly ready to swarm.
The druid has to get out fast or face the horde himself.
After securing the bag of gold, silver amulet, and slip of paper, Brental reaches for the rope he let himself down with and begins ascending as quickly as he can. He swats around at some of the spiders and calls up.
"There are spiders swarming down here! If you have a flask of something, you may want to prepare it!"
"You suspect undead?" Meneas looks at the area around them. "Gods, I hope not. If something starts waking the dead around here, we'll be in serious trouble." He grips his lance again, readying himself for any oncoming attack by risen bones.
“It could be more renegade fey, I suppose,” Lina shrugs, watching as Brental climbs down into the pit, and hoping she won’t have to follow. “I was just hazarding a guess as to what sort of thing would go out of its way to affect an area like this, or do it so ... evenly. Unless it was the spider-thing after all. It didn’t seem like it entirely belonged to this plane.”
She breaks off her speculations as she hears the sound of Brental starting to climb hurriedly back up, and his warning shout. She takes a step back to give the druid room to haul himself over the edge more easily, and prepares herself to shape her fireburst spell quickly as soon as he gets clear, if a mass of spiders is following.
Should burn as well as mites, she thinks, adding, aloud, “On it!”
Meneas grabs for a flask of alchemist's fire before changing his mind and snatching one of the acid flasks he has prepared. "Clear out, then!" He calls back to Brental, leaning back to throw as soon as the swarm appears and urging Veil forwards, so that he is in range.
Brental grits his teeth and tries to clamber up. He thinks to mention something potentially helpful as he goes.
"My heritage allows me to resist almost anything but fire. If you need to drop a flask of acid, do not fear for my safety!"
Cobwebs and spiders all over him Brental readily forges onward despite the immense distraction of hundreds of spindly legs crawling all about him. Pulling himself up and over the edge just in time as the swarm begins to truly coalesce Meneas chucks his flask which shatters with a loud crack! Hundreds of diminutive spiders sizzle and pop as the acid scours their flesh while Brental remains conspiciously unharmed.
Still more and more spiders funnel out of this tunnel and the party must steel themselves for the creepy crawly encounter to ensue!
Hundreds if not thousands of tiny spiders crawl all over Brental now, swarming forth from the hole. Searinf pain wracks the druid's body as the vermin sink their teeth into him and attempt to pump him full of their poison.
Brental is bleeding all over his body yet manages to push back the poison at first but that second wave is too much for the young man to bear and he begins to feel his strength being sapped from him.
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Morof says to Brental "Don't worry, I'll hinder the spiders!" and says lowly to himself "Don't screw this up." He proceeds to aim carefully and take some more butter from his belt. He conjures an arcane power and the butter is consumed. The walls and ground below Brental suddenly becomes very slippery.
The spiders still in the tunnel seem to have no success climbing the walls and are stuck flailing and falling all over one another in a great horrifying heap at the bottom.
Brental knows better than to go spelunking without proper precautions, and the pain that greets him makes it clear exactly why. As the creatures defend their home, Brental moves thirty feet away and begins to summon a creature.
"Backa!" he cries to Vodnykel.
Vodnykel breaks off from combat and runs well out of harm's way.
As soon as Brental gets clear, shaking spiders off himself as he goes, Lina moves to blast the swarms before they can sweep any closer. Angling herself so that she can catch what looks like two waves of massed tiny arachnids with her spell, she thrusts out her fanned fingers with a snarled roar of an abrupt incantation that leads to flames as surely as her gestures do.
With a small, grim smile tight on her face, she falls back far enough to give herself time to retrieve a flask of something flammable in case the mindless vermin don’t take the hint.
A sound much akin to the popping codn you've enjoyed so much at festivals is heard as the tiny spiders are roasted into cinder and ash at Lina's impressive goat of flame. Still some yet remain and the spoders in the tunnel seem to have managed their way past Morof's grease now and pour forth over the edge of the hole.
Meneas spies the swarms coming forth and launches his own projectile . Pulling back on the reins, he leads Veil away from the oncoming tide of spiders, urging haste.
Brental's intricate hand motions continue in broad, beckoning sweeps as his chanting picks up. Gusts of wind flit about, blowing up dust from the scattered bones. From within the vortex, an ethereal form of smoke and wind with a vague face coalesces just above one of the swarms of spiders. It glowers at Brental before it notices the wriggling mass beneath it.
Brental nods, knowing that he doesn't share a common tongue with the creature. Something to learn... Nonetheless, he knows he has heard his fellow druids commune with air elementals, and they are proud beings that do not take kindly to being summoned from their reveries on the Plane of Air.
The Small Air Elemental deigns to touch the ground as it turns into a 20 foot tall whirlwind, sweeping up the spiders, bones, and broken glass alike within its tremendous vortex. They remain fully obscured by the debris field.
Brental is grateful for the elemental, who he plans to ask for a name should they ever meet again. He reaches into his bag and pulls out a flask of alchemist's fire, just in case.
Meneas once again throws an expertly tossed acid flask right into the heart of the gathered swarm of spiders which sizzle and melt in the hundreds.
Meanwhile Brental finishes summoning his wind elemental which dutifully, if not willingly, creates a whirlwind wich sucks up the remaining spiders creating a multicolored torrent of death shredding the bugs apart.
The party stands ready as the whirlwind dies down but after a minute or two are able to drop their guard as all is finally silent once again. If any spiders remain they have retreated.
Lina feels a bit of tension she hadn’t noticed in the heat of the moment (ha!) dissipate as the swarms disperse. She’s glad that she wasn’t the one to have to scramble out of there with them on her heels, and she wonders what Brental found in the spiders’ larder, if anything.
“Remind me,” she says, working her way to the subject at hand, “if I ever go mad and become the more wicked sort of witch, of the past few days, and to consider higher ceilings and fewer vermin for my lair, out of consideration for my victims. It would only be the decent thing to do.”
Setting drollery aside (mostly), she asks, “Any road, was it worth it? Getting covered in tiny spiders?”
Despite her light tone as she asks about Brental’s findings, her glance flickers over the druid to make sure he’s mostly alright.
Meneas slides off of Veil and approaches Brental and the others. "Well done, everyone." He carefully examines the aasimar to make sure that his acid hasn't actually burned the man.
"I hope this ends that particular threat to, well... looks like pretty much everything." The knight-errant casts his eyes around the bone-filled area that the spiders inhabited. "At least, so long as there aren't more overlarge spiders."
Brental itches at the welts now present across his arms and legs, a pained expression on his face as the air elemental disappears. Vodnykel returns trepidatiously, and the druid scritches behind one of his large, floppy ears. As Meneas looks over Brental, he sees that the acid may have scarred his armor slightly, but there is no sign of damage to the aasimar's skin.
Brental smiles at Lina's quip. "We'll plan for a kinder lair, then." He scratches again and leans against his mastodon, pulling out the small bag of gold, the silver stag amulet, and the folded piece of paper. "There was a body down there, probably one of the Stag Lord's bandits when they were alive. Fully skeletal now, so they've either been dead a long time or the spiders were particularly efficient with their feeding."
Brental unfolds the paper. "But this may have made it worth it. I don't know if it's a map, per se, but I think we ought to keep our eyes out for a tree that looks something like this in the nearby lands."
"After we rest, though. I don't know how much more adventure I have in me today."
"Oleg's is near enough. Shall we make our ways there?" Meneas asks. "Directly, this time, so that we can get there and rest, rather than risking another encounter such as this?"
Brental nods. "Yes, let's go. Exploration is a core part of our charter, but we've done enough for now. And I won't be diving into anymore unknown holes without doing a bit more due diligence first."
Is that what they call it? Lina wonders, before hastening to reassure the druid, “I don’t think we hadn’t – we weren’t not expecting the possibility of more spiders, although maybe not quite so many tiny ones. Maybe just trusting our instincts and developing our pessimism?”
She sounds far too cheerful for that to be quite the right word, and must mean something closer to preparing for worse-case scenarios as best they can. At some point, finding a way to prepare magical scrolls might be a useful trick to consider looking into, along with potions or elixirs and such, she decides. “Onward back to the trading post!” she agrees, anyway. “Hopefully we shouldn’t have much further to go, and we have quite a bit to think about and work with before striking out again into the depths of the wood.”
After a few more hours on the open hills the group find their way back to the comforting sight of palisades surrounding the familiar trading post. In short time the band of weary travelers approach the gate to the sight of the muscular form of the bulky man you recognize as Oleg pulling in a cart of firewood. As he goes to wipe the sweat from his brow he notices you all on the horizon and welcomes you back with a hearty wave before turning to call back inside. Shortly thereafter he is joined by his lovely wife Svetlana who waves you in exuberantly.
When the group arrive at the gates to the trading post Svetlana rushes forward to greet you after you've all dismounted. Giving each of you a tight hug and a warm smile. "Oh! And you've brought yourselves a charming new friend! Well, any friend of our heroes is a friend of ours wouldn't you agree Oleg dear?" She chirps hugging the half-elven stranger before her.
Oleg stands back with his trunk-like arms crossed and a friendly smirk on his face. "Sounds fair to me, my love. Welcome back all of you! Meneas, Brental, Lina, and the new kid. I'm Oleg and this is my wife Svetlana and we run this here trading post, it's a pleasure to meet you."
Svetlana lingers on Brental after her hug with a worried expression on her usually cheery features. "My my you poor dear. You're all bit up! You need to take care out in the wilds, where you rest your sleeping bag! Well, nevermind that now I'm certain I have some ointment inside that will ease your ills..." She stops her chattering and suddenly pulls Meneas and Brental into another big hug. "Oh I'm sorry it's just so good to see you boys again I'm always worried sick when you go off on your own thrill-seekin' and what have you!"
Brental is cheered by the sight of Oleg and Svetlana. By his recollection, it had been nearly a week since they had last set out from this place.
Not the longest expedition, for sure, but an eventful one at the least. Their horses are laden down with all of their gains from poachers, mites, and the scheming kobold shaman. Hopefully Oleg had the coin and was interested in purchasing--or trading for--some of their loot. But that was a discussion for later.
"It is wonderful to see you, my friends!" he says, returning Lana's hug and nodding at Oleg. "Some ointment may be very nice. I try to take care, but the wilds here can be deadly."
Brental takes a moment before introducing their newest companion. "As you noticed, our new ally is Morof. I'll let him introduce himself." If Brental had learned anything about the half-elf since they met, it was that he was likely uncomfortable with the sudden outpouring of affection. Best to let him have his space.
"We have some news from the road, both good and ill. We ran into our old friend Wisp out in the Narlmarches. She was with us for a brief time before she and Signy were swept away by some fey scheme. I pray that they are well, but we do not know where they are right now."
Brental lets this revelation hang before continuing. He wants to pull Oleg aside privately to show him the ring before simply announcing it, lest he disappoint Svetlana. And he has plenty of other questions, such as the whereabouts and wellbeing of Kesten Garess and his company, along with the Leveton's errant ward Vlad. But those can wait for another moment.
Meneas shifts, distinctly uncomfortable at the embrace, before stepping back to take care of Veil. "We found a number of oddities and mysteries as well as losing several allies." He says, looking up from his work. "In better news, for instance, I'm fairly sure that the Sootscale Kobolds won't be bothering anyone passing by for awhile. They seem to be friendly enough, now that their corrupting influence is gone."
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Morof is caught completely by surprise by Svetlana's hug. His mother didn't touch him often and other people even less. He steps back at first chance and jumps at the opportunity to continue introducing himself after Brental started.
He says "Well, as Brental said, I'm Morof. I was lucky to be rescued by these nice people and it seems we have similar goals, so I just try to be helpful. Oh, do you and Lina discuss ointments? I want to learn some, and might teach a thing or two. Anyway, my horse is a little tired and cranky, I think he needs food and rest more than me."
Although he is anxious to rest his chafed crotch, he doesn't want to seem ungrateful and lingers in the discussion. He is glad he doesn't have much to add for now, so he just tries listening, but does so shifting his weight.
Svetlana gives Brental and Meneas a rather confused look and shakes her head. "Well, it certainly sounds like you've had yourselves quite the adventure out there but you needn't worry about dear Wisp and Signy. They passed through here just yesterday and said to be expecting your arrival shortly. Then they said they had some important business to attend at the capital and had to be off straight away. They were actin' a tad peculiar though if you ask me. Signy didn't even want to stay for a drink and chit chat, but II suppose she was in a rush then."
She returns her attention to Morof with a warm smile. "I'm afraid I'm not much of an herbalist I just by the ointments from local foragers but I'm certain you'd have much to discuss with our dear friend Bokken. He's an alchemist that lives near here trading us potions in return for food, water, and ale. He's... a bit of an eccentric though but he's harmless... just a tad intense." Svetlana taps at her chin as she tries to recall something.
"Oh right! You received some mail while you were out! From Restov. Came with a small package. No idea what it is, I didn't want to pry. Anyways I'll go retrieve that and the ointment for you while Ii get the soup on." She hugs Brental once more, barely stopping herself from hugging Meneas again sensing his earlier discomfort and hops back to the main structure of the trade post giddily.
Meanwhile Oleg unfolds his arms and nods inside. "Please come in and take a load off. Kesten is out back training our boy Vlad out back right now actually. Seems Kesten has put the idea in the boy's head that the way to pay his debt to society is as an agent of the law. Fine by me. He was real bad with numbers anyways."
As Oleg begins to lead them inside taking their horses towards the stable you notice and string of a man, balding, and decked in brown clerical vestments looking up pensively at you all from near the fire pit. "Aye." Oleg mutters keeping an untrusting eye on the man in brown. "And that man there came in lookin' for you. Claims his name is Jhod Kavken and that he's a cleric of Erastil. Say's he has work for you but something is amiss with that one if you ask me. Unusual for a servant of Old Deadeye to leave their flock and something just seems unusually dour about the man if you ask me. Like a great cloud hangs over his head rainin' down on just him... Anyways I'll take care of your horses and grab you you're reward for dealing with the kobolds. It'll be good for business with them no longer raidin' our caravans of weapons, potions, and the like."
Brental blinks in disbelief several times at Svetlana's response. Signy and Wisp had been here? Brental deeply wants to believe this but it feels like a trick. By whom, though? He smiles uneasily.
"Oh, that's good to hear..."
And a package? Brental waits eagerly for the package. He has his own mail to send as well, to ask questions of the Oakstewards about the Fallen druid.
He eyes the cleric of Erastil with curiosity. Before approaching him, Brental offers one more exchange with Oleg. He pulls out the ring they found. "I don't know if this is the right ring, but we chased it up and down the Greenbelt. Is this the one?"
Brental also makes a note to check in the kobolds later. Despite their warring influence being gone, it may still take time for them to change their scales.
Meneas tilts his head, pulling back his hood to reveal his tanned features, though his ridged brows cast his eyes in shadow. "A package? Odd..." He looks to Jhod. And Oleg's right. Erastileans don't leave their communities lightly... but we did save those elk from the poachers. Maybe Erastil has an interest in what we're doing here. The thought unnerves him slightly.
Despite Oleg's offer, Meneas takes care of Veil himself, more aware of her quirks than anyone.
After finishing, he seeks out the others, collecting them to a more isolated corner of the fortified trading post. "So. Did you get the package, Brental? You seemed keen to get it. Morof, welcome to Oleg's Trading Post, which has been our base for the past week or so. More or less, anyways." He smiles somewhat awkwardly.
"At any rate, I thought we should consult with each other to decide where to go next, and what to do there. This Jhod Kavken says he has a job for us, and while I share some of Oleg's skepticism, we," the knight looks at Brental and Lina, "managed to catch some poachers who were hunting elk earlier, and I believe that there may be a connection. There's also Bokken, as Svetlana said, who is apparently nearby - if Morof and Lina want to pursue some of that."
He looks from one to the next. "Thoughts? Opinions? Ideas?"
Lina watches the hustle and bustle as she and the others return to the trading post with some bemusement. After all these years up and down the rivers, she should really be used to it, but she’s not used to being so close to the centre of attention. Normally there are bigger boats coming in, carrying more (and more exciting) cargo than an herb witch, so she can just find her berth and set up her stall, as it were.
“And what about you two?” she asks Oleg and Svetlana, though there’s news aplenty to keep track of. “Anything interesting come in for you, or that we should worry about? I think we might want a day or two to recover and restock, prepare for our next excursion, but if there’s something pressing, we could move our schedule up a bit.”
For herself, she’d like to see if Oleg has tools she can use to play around with her footgear and help out with the solid materials recovered from the monstrous vermin the explorers have fought in the past few days, and she really ought to swap a few spells with Morof, but first things first.
She doesn’t miss Svetlana mentioning that Wisp and Signy apparently passed through again, which she finds surprising, though she keeps her thoughts to herself. Someone’s covering their tracks, sounds like. Interesting, but kind of frightening. If they’re watching or poking around enough to decide none of us can just disappear… It’s something to keep in mind, but it doesn’t seem like there’s much to be done about it at the moment.
As Oleg begins to lead them inside taking their horses towards the stable you notice and string of a man, balding, and decked in brown clerical vestments looking up pensively at you all from near the fire pit. "Aye." Oleg mutters keeping an untrusting eye on the man in brown. "And that man there came in lookin' for you. Claims his name is Jhod Kavken and that he's a cleric of Erastil. Say's he has work for you but something is amiss with that one if you ask me. Unusual for a servant of Old Deadeye to leave their flock and something just seems unusually dour about the man if you ask me. Like a great cloud hangs over his head rainin' down on just him... Anyways I'll take care of your horses and grab you you're reward for dealing with the kobolds. It'll be good for business with them no longer raidin' our caravans of weapons, potions, and the like."
She considers the other new face at the trading post. Erastilians at the best of times are considerably less fun than even the followers of Ketephys, and Lina has complicated feelings about the faith of the Hunter to begin with. She braces herself to approach this rebarbative individual, and noticing Brental’s glance towards him, decides to wait to approach Jhod together.
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Morof is curious about this Bokken person. Eccentric? Just as his first teacher of the arcane. He wonders if this is what one becomes as the years go by or if it is a trait required to reach an old age.
There is a myriad of information being dropped at them and he has a hard time keeping up. He focuses on Meneas who chose to break it all down and he is grateful. He thinks to himself that he is usually not good at multitasking, so he is not keen on seeing what this Kavken priest wants. However, he does not want to let the others think himself unwilling or unhelpful, so he just says "Let us talk to this priest. Who knows, his request might align with our path. And... we shouldn't judge someone because they're not doing what most others are. You wouldn't think a potential ally would be a kobold captive." Morof is a little resentful, since he was never expected to leave his small village and look for a wizard's training, but he still went against what others expected of him. He tries to hide his bitterness, but fails somewhat.
Oleg's eyes positively light up as Brental produces the ring. He quickly snatches the ring up and turns it over in his hands a few times, reading the inscription on the inside before smiling a big dumb smile to himself. "Yup, that's the one. I can't believe you actually found it! I was sure it was gone after those thugs made off with it." He sighs contentedly looking the ring over. "I can't thank you enough. It was killing me seeing Lana rub at the indent on her finger where the ring had been. She thought I hadn't noticed but I had... I'll surprise her with it tonight after I've had a chance to clean it up a bit and you... you deserve a reward so consider yourselves as having a thousand gold worth of credit at the trading post. Anything you want or if you have a special request I can put the word out and have it here within a few days."
Oleg quickly hides the ring in his back pocket as Svetlana returns to the group carrying a sealed letter and a small leather bag. She looks somewhat vexed as she hands the items to Brental. "I'm so sorry sweetie. I think they might have forgotten to put the object in the package. It seems empty to me or maybe they just used far too large a bag for a tiny object? I'm just not sure."
The bag does indeed seem empty when Svetlana hands it to you though it is tied shut. The letter on the other hand is signed, "To Brental, Meneas, Signy, Lina, and Wisp" in wonderful calligraphy. It is sealed with the Swordlord's insignia. You are also handed a vial of ointment and a heavy sack filled with 800 gold coins. "That's a reward the Swordlord's authorized us to pay the ones who took care of the kobold problem." Svetlana explains.
Oleg nods. "You've all more than earned it. As for us, well not much news other than that things are finally feeling safe around here. No sign of the bandits. I'm still offering a reward for a tatzlwyrm head in good condition and there is still a bounty out on Tuskgutter. Other than that business as usual."
Once the conversation wraps up with the Levetons the group approach the forlorn looking priest who quickly gathers himself up and dusts himself off. "Oh! Yes um h-hail adventurers." He says in a gruff voice giving a half-hearted smile and a respectful bow. "I, was hoping we would meet soon! My name is Jhod Kavken, a devout servant of Erastil and a... fellow traveler. I-I was hoping I might requisition your services... Have you, perchance, happened upon an area blessed by Old Deadeye? One... with a bear by any chance?" The man looks at all the adventurers beseechingly.