Siegfried Herrmann's page

Siegfried looks apologetically towards Markus and Rali, "I am very sorry, but I have no knowledge of this Black Tooth. All I know is the last caravan we sent did not return, save one man. His name is Strum - he might be able to help elaborate on what happened." With that Siegfried sits down, the conversation over.

---ERHART---

You meet the caravan drivers at another small shop towards the edge of town. The shop holds basic traveling gear, more like a last chance shop along the long road.

There are five young men with five heavy duty carts laden with a good amount of unprocessed iron ore. The men are all fairly nervous, but feel a bit more comfortable knowing that they will be traveling with seasoned adventurers. You notice each man has a crossbow, a dozen bolts, and a short sword on their carts.

They mention that the carts are ready to go, but that they had requested a night longer with their families. They apologize to you for delaying the journey, but this plan had been formulated in naught but a single night and they wished for a bit longer with their loved ones.

---MARKUS---

The rumors regarding Black Tooth are scarce save Strum's account. Strum says that a dozen or so creatures swarmed their carts in the middle of the night, cackling madly. As their possessions were stripped and the men savagely beaten, a creature covered by the shadows of the night stepped forward. It was as tall as a man and a half, and it's eyes glowed a savage red. It roared that the Road was under it's control and spoke in some strange grunting language. The smaller creatures started to cackle as they killed the men. Strum was lucky as he had been hiding and avoided the worst of it. When the creatures left, Strum ran back to town as quickly as possible. He mentions that there are sections of the Black Road that are heavily wooded, and that there are sharp corners and turns to the road that you are completely blind to what might be coming up around the bend - past hills or thicker groups of foliage.

The descriptions of the smaller creatures match that of a common Goblins, while the larger creature may be some sort of Orc.

You are able to find an older map that details some of the Black Road. Falk is not on the map, however a town where Grott is supposed to be is. A man who had the map puts a small mark where Falk is, allowing you to see an approximation of the route. You note three places where you will not be able to see what is ahead, as the road wraps around a few larger hills. You should be able to climb the hills, however it will slow the caravan down. The map does not detail where the thicker wooded areas are, however from the accounts of a few people around town the Black Road notoriously is overgrown in sections, especially without a constant caravan for the last few months, it's likely that the forest has started to retake areas of the road.

These accounts do not make sense. Foliage, even thick vibrant, lively foliage, does not grow this fast. They mention that they had to clear cut parts of the road each month, but trees, bushes, etc. should not be appearing that often. You would suspect there are more forces at work here than just a hearty wood.

---RALI---

Detect Magic only has a range of 60 ft; The town is a lot larger than 60 ft. across. Also it can only penetrate minute amounts of cover. Most of this town is made of thick wood and metal, you would assume its some form of mining type town.

You do not feel the presence of any magic.

Siegfried looks to Rali as he rubs his hands together. "Truth be told, we are not sure what has happened to the Black Road as of late. At one time we were a town of twenty and five, but we lost a few good men to the dangers of the Black Road a few months back. Since then we haven't been able to trade with Grott, nor have we seen any travelers come from that way, it has almost been eerily silent." The elderly man takes a deep breath, "Right before we lost our own men, rumor had it that some creature calling itself Black Tooth had taken up hunting and banditry along the road. We ignored the warnings and continued our operations along the route, much to our dismay when we found the rumors to be more of truth than story."

His gaze scans the three men, "If you will still travel the Black Road with our caravans you will be leaving early tomorrow. We can give you food and shelter for the night, and will supply you with whatever we can to aid you on your travels."

"Excellent, I am very glad that you all are willing to help. The dangers of the Black Road are not particularly numerous, mostly you are just there in order to deter the more determined bandits."

"Yes, with these materials we should be able to expand our town as well as build a proper place of worship. We don't have much in the way of excess, but we can spare the iron for now." A man on the far end of one of the tables looks as though he is going to say something, but thinks better of it, and nods his agreement.

Besides yourselves there are 5 men in the room. The eldest one sits alone at the table that makes up the bottom of the U and is directly in front of your table. To either side of you are three other men and a woman, two on each side. From the looks of it they are consist of working folk, maybe farmers or miners, and the woman seems to be dressed rather well for what you have seen out of this town.

The old man stands up, the chair creaking slightly as his weight is lifted off of it. The man is easily over six feet tall, with broad shoulders and a barrel chest. "Welcome to our small village of Falk." his voice is loud and booming, yet has been graveled with age. He continues, "My name is Siegfried Herrmann, although you are more than welcome to call me Siegfried." Siegfried clears his throat a bit and swallows some water before continuing. "It is not often that we receive visitors, much less so many so close together. First we would like to address the problem of the refugees. After discussing it thoroughly we have decided that we will permit them to stay in this town, especially seeing as we have no dedicated church or holyman of our own. However, we simply do not have the necessary space to house them, nor for them to worship as they would like." He sighs a bit and runs a hand through his beard. "As such, we would ask your help. At least one of you have traveled with this group from the Raven Spire, the others have somehow made it this far without much of an escort. To be honest, we hate to ask, however there are not many of us willing to brave the dangers beyond this town." His gaze falls on the men around the table, who quickly look away. "On the table in front of you, you will notice that we have detailed our request, as well as what we are...able...to provide you in the way of assistance and payment. We hope it will be enough." His eyes glance towards the woman, who nods, before turning back to you.

Siegfried looks on intently as you read the letter. "May we count on you to help us with our plight?"