While sitting in Brad the builder's home, he regaled us with a story of Lord Phrum. Mostly the Lady and how she was "pushy." Brad's a cool guy. Left Brad's and went to see Slim at Slim's Bakery. He had to walk sideways in order to get through the door, but he sure can make some good treats. Ordered some elephant ears and a dozen sugar cookies. Slim said it would take him about 40 minutes and they would be done. Went outside and wondered across the street to the saddle makers. Kram sure knows his trade. The saddles he had were some of the best looking saddles I've ever seen. Told us that if we were going to be bringing trade, that he would give us an offer on any hides or leather that we had. Left Kram's and wondered down the lane and saw about half a dozen riding horses, a little on the scrawny side, but healthy and high spirited. The horses were in a fenced in pasture right next to Kram's. We looked around for a caretaker, but didn't see any. Kram came out the back of his place and told us that the horses were his and that it was his brother who fed them. Brought in hay from his farm. There were some wagon wheel ruts that lead up to the feeder under the lean-to. Said that he has been out of the world a spell and that he doesn't know the going rate for horses. Said the last time he checked, horses were 100 gold. Said he'd check with his merchant pal that comes through every once and awhile. We then visited the vintner, we walked in and there was a moan emanating from the back. A half-elf emerged red from drinking. Said his name was Gab. Well, Nightwind (Jayson's character), picked Gab up and carried/hauled him over to the horse trough in front of Kram's shop and dumped him in back first. Gab tried talking, but Nightwind pulled him out and dunked him again, just his head, while he was trying to say something. Nightwind pulled him out again and he said he had something in the back of his shop. We then escorted Gab to the back of his shop inside and he pulled a vial of something out from a concealed and hidden compartment. The tincture was a brown color and he filled an empty shot glass, without spilling, half full and then filled the rest up with some wine. Gab's composure changed almost instantaneously from the complexion of a drunk to that of a man who never drinks. Apparently it is something his mother taught him to make. The effects of alcohol were no longer apparent with Gab. He mentioned that his mother, an elf, had used this on his father, a human. Gab said that he never understood how his mother could love a man like him.
Everyone that we talked to we also questioned on what they knew of the goblin attacks, but it was nothing new. Except for when Kram mentioned that the Goblins had tried taking his horses and had only taken the best ones. After talking with Gab, we left and went back over to Slim's Bakery. He had the elephant ears and the cookies all done. He had only charged 4 copper, but Nightwind had tossed him a silver. Never got any change back. Didn't expect none neither. Left Slim's and went back to the Inn. Noticed a man in robes and a small person wearing dark clothing and hooded. The hooded man was eating some kind of soup and the robed man had his nose in a book. We sat down at one of the smaller round tables while the robed man sat at the large rectangular table and the hooded man sat at a smaller table under the stairs. Five tables in all at the Inn. Nightwind pulled out his elephant ears and Ja' Lil (Luis's character) pulled out his dozen cookies. The aroma from the fresh bakery filled the common room. The robed man's head rose and he turned to look, but did so without noticeably doing it. Almost as if restricted by a wall, his head turned enough to see the hooded man under the stairs and acting like he had a crink in his back, turned full view and looked directly at Nightwind, and then dropped his eyes to look at the elephant ears. He turned around quick enough when he noticed we were looking at him. The robed man exclaimed, "Blast it." He stood up and came over to Nightwind and asked if the baker had any of the elephant ears left. Ja' Lil seeing this, put his tray of cookies under the table and held them there. Ja' Lil had eaten about 4 of the delicious cookies. Nightwind responded in kind and said that we had special ordered the baked goods. The robed man then asked what the chances were that he could purchase one of the elephant ears from Nightwind. While Nightwind was contemplating, the robed man said, "Ahhh, I'll give ya 2 silver for one of those ears." Nightwind jumped at the offer since he had only paid a silver. The robed man exchanged the money for the ear and greedily started devouring it on his way back to his table. At this time, Ja' Lil brought his cookies back out on top of the table and noticed that there were only six left. Ja' Lil then noticed that the hooded figure was gone. He instinctively blamed the person and greedily ate the remainder of his cookies. Nightwindish, so that left us with two hours to do stuff before dinner.
We left and went to visit the bazaar across the way. He was taking inventory on parchment. Said he had to cut his prices cause the Goblins stealing everything not nailed down had caused all the townsfolk to make purchases on supplies needed to do their everyday tasks. He couldn't be the only one making a profit. Well, at least not like this. Well, Ja' Lil asked if he had a scythe to borrow. He said he didn't, but perhaps Jud at the forge did. We left him to work and walked across the way to Jud's Forge. Jud was still in the forge area. Went inside, no walls, but had a good roof, no ceiling, but plenty of rafters. Very clean. Ja' Lil asked if he had a spare scythe that he could borrow. Jud asked him what he wanted it for. Ja' Lil said that he wanted to get some extra hay for the horses. Jud snickered. "They get enough hay and oats, not enough treats. If you want to get the horses something extra; why not get some of the apples from yonder tree or even some of those orange thingies from behind the Inn. He means well, but he always throwing scraps back there." We looked at Jud amazed, a smart blacksmith, huh. Anyways, we looked and saw the biggest apple tree across the river and about three smaller ones. The smaller ones been picked clean cause they low to the ground, but this beg apple tree was the size of an oak of about 50 years. Never seen something so pretty, and full of fruit. We decided to go to the pile behind the Inn cause it's a whole days walk to the apple tree, half to the bridge and another half to get to the apple tree; and that's just to get there, not even come back. Anyways, went to look at this scrap pile behind the Inn and saw cabbages, carrots, celery, all kinds of vegetables, and egg shells. Everything a horse can eat, except for the egg shells I think. So we grabbed some and cleaned them off in the river and went to go feed the horses. The horses liked the treat. Apparently they gets apple cores from the kids in town sometimes. (See picture of the Village of Stout below)
So, about an hour and a half has gone by and we decide we should go and get this awesome dinner we paid for. So on the way to the Inn, Nightwind stops off at the Temple of Chauntea and speaks to an acolyte there and asks if the tracker has returned. The acolyte looks puzzled and asks, "You mean Rolo." Nightwind looks at the acolyte and holds out his arm while he says,"Is he about yay tall and wears dark clothing?" The acolyte smiles and nods. Nightwind seemed to get kind of huffy and stomped off towards the Inn. Ja' Lil and I followed after him. We get inside the Inn and we don't see the small hooded figure anywhere. We take the remaining open small table and wait for our meal. We see Kram, Jud and his wife, Gab and Slim at the big table. The innkeeper brings out their food first. It seems that they have all ordered the chicken. Slim gets two chicken dinners for himself, Gab and Kram each get one chicken and Jud and his wife split a chicken dinner. He then brings out to their table two bowls of some kind of steaming potato salad and two baskets of biscuits. We then get served. We get a leg of lamb, glazed carrots and a broccoli and asparagus steamed medley. We get a bottle of wine and a basket of biscuits. After everyone has been served and dinner is done, we look again for the hooded person. I, Solon Moonshadow, spy the hooded figure running upstairs. I point it out to Nightwind. He chases upstairs after the hooded figure. We get upstairs and I hear noise coming from our room. Nightwind draws his steel and we edge closer. I ask him if he is sure we need that, but he doesn't hear me. The door is ajar and light is coming from inside. Nightwind kicks open the door and we see the hooded figure sitting on one of the beds eating a cookie. It looks strangely like one of Ja' Lil's cookies from earlier. No sooner does this realization hit me than Ja' Lil shouts out,"Hey, you owe me for those from before!" The small man, who we can see as the halfling he is and much younger than any of us thought, flipped Ja' Lil a silver coin. He says,"I hear you guys are lookin' for me. Why is that?" Nightwind replies that it was him that was tracking the goblins that were attacking the village. Where are they and how many are there? Oh, is your name Rolo? "It is," replies Rolo, "and there was many, but now not so many. They go into the castle, but don't come out. There's something evil inside. I followed about 5 or 6 different goblinoid footprints inside and a two sets of Hobgoblins and two sets of Orc. There use to be almost 40 goblins, we killed 5, now less than 10 left. The numbers don't add up. Something evil inside for sure."
"Well, would you want to help us get rid of that threat?"
"I would, but can't. Other temple getting desecrated by orcs a little farther north and east of the castle near the base of the mountains. Why don't ya ask the wizard, you was all chummy earlier?"
"Who? What wizard? There's a wizard?"
"Yeah, I thought you knew from the robes he was wearing. Yeah, the guy from this morning that distracted you and bought your ear?"
"Really, he's a wizard. Makes sense. Yeah, we'll see if he wants to join. Thanks for the info."
And with all the pleasantry dispensed, Rolo the Tracker takes off. We go downstairs and see the wizard with his head in a book. We talk him into coming with us by promising that he can keep the spell books we find. With that we go to bed and take shifts. Ja' Lil and I sleep the first shift while Nightwind sleeps the second shift. Ja' Lil has time to prepare his spells before leaving and we meet Bram the Wizard downstairs. We are going to go and meet Kram's merchant friend who's been described to us as travelling on a warhorse with barding, has shiny armor and a big sword.
We walk down the lane towards Kram's and see a large warhorse with barding tied up to one of the posts near the trough and it is breathing hard. Ja' Lil tries to feed it some of the vegetables from the day before, but Nightwind reminds him that warhorses are trained not to accept food from strangers. The warhorse starts stomping his feet. Nightwind tells Ja' Lil to back away from the animal. We hear clinking coming from the back of Kram's and getting louder and closer.
Nightwind says,"Here he comes."
We see a very muscular man, a little smaller than Jud, but the same build, and he's wearing a shiny suit of plate mail with a holy symbol of Chauntea on his chest. He is currently carrying his helmet under his arm. We ask him if he would like to take care of the evil at the castle and he says no because he's going with Rolo to take care of the Orcs desecrating the other temple. We see Rolo behind him. We didn't see him before. Weird.
I believe that is where we left off. Next we are going to the castle. Yeah!
A MAP OF THE VILLAGE OF STOUT
Everyone that we talked to we also questioned on what they knew of the goblin attacks, but it was nothing new. Except for when Kram mentioned that the Goblins had tried taking his horses and had only taken the best ones. After talking with Gab, we left and went back over to Slim's Bakery. He had the elephant ears and the cookies all done. He had only charged 4 copper, but Nightwind had tossed him a silver. Never got any change back. Didn't expect none neither. Left Slim's and went back to the Inn. Noticed a man in robes and a small person wearing dark clothing and hooded. The hooded man was eating some kind of soup and the robed man had his nose in a book. We sat down at one of the smaller round tables while the robed man sat at the large rectangular table and the hooded man sat at a smaller table under the stairs. Five tables in all at the Inn. Nightwind pulled out his elephant ears and Ja' Lil (Luis's character) pulled out his dozen cookies. The aroma from the fresh bakery filled the common room. The robed man's head rose and he turned to look, but did so without noticeably doing it. Almost as if restricted by a wall, his head turned enough to see the hooded man under the stairs and acting like he had a crink in his back, turned full view and looked directly at Nightwind, and then dropped his eyes to look at the elephant ears. He turned around quick enough when he noticed we were looking at him. The robed man exclaimed, "Blast it." He stood up and came over to Nightwind and asked if the baker had any of the elephant ears left. Ja' Lil seeing this, put his tray of cookies under the table and held them there. Ja' Lil had eaten about 4 of the delicious cookies. Nightwind responded in kind and said that we had special ordered the baked goods. The robed man then asked what the chances were that he could purchase one of the elephant ears from Nightwind. While Nightwind was contemplating, the robed man said, "Ahhh, I'll give ya 2 silver for one of those ears." Nightwind jumped at the offer since he had only paid a silver. The robed man exchanged the money for the ear and greedily started devouring it on his way back to his table. At this time, Ja' Lil brought his cookies back out on top of the table and noticed that there were only six left. Ja' Lil then noticed that the hooded figure was gone. He instinctively blamed the person and greedily ate the remainder of his cookies. Nightwindish, so that left us with two hours to do stuff before dinner.
We left and went to visit the bazaar across the way. He was taking inventory on parchment. Said he had to cut his prices cause the Goblins stealing everything not nailed down had caused all the townsfolk to make purchases on supplies needed to do their everyday tasks. He couldn't be the only one making a profit. Well, at least not like this. Well, Ja' Lil asked if he had a scythe to borrow. He said he didn't, but perhaps Jud at the forge did. We left him to work and walked across the way to Jud's Forge. Jud was still in the forge area. Went inside, no walls, but had a good roof, no ceiling, but plenty of rafters. Very clean. Ja' Lil asked if he had a spare scythe that he could borrow. Jud asked him what he wanted it for. Ja' Lil said that he wanted to get some extra hay for the horses. Jud snickered. "They get enough hay and oats, not enough treats. If you want to get the horses something extra; why not get some of the apples from yonder tree or even some of those orange thingies from behind the Inn. He means well, but he always throwing scraps back there." We looked at Jud amazed, a smart blacksmith, huh. Anyways, we looked and saw the biggest apple tree across the river and about three smaller ones. The smaller ones been picked clean cause they low to the ground, but this beg apple tree was the size of an oak of about 50 years. Never seen something so pretty, and full of fruit. We decided to go to the pile behind the Inn cause it's a whole days walk to the apple tree, half to the bridge and another half to get to the apple tree; and that's just to get there, not even come back. Anyways, went to look at this scrap pile behind the Inn and saw cabbages, carrots, celery, all kinds of vegetables, and egg shells. Everything a horse can eat, except for the egg shells I think. So we grabbed some and cleaned them off in the river and went to go feed the horses. The horses liked the treat. Apparently they gets apple cores from the kids in town sometimes. (See picture of the Village of Stout below)
So, about an hour and a half has gone by and we decide we should go and get this awesome dinner we paid for. So on the way to the Inn, Nightwind stops off at the Temple of Chauntea and speaks to an acolyte there and asks if the tracker has returned. The acolyte looks puzzled and asks, "You mean Rolo." Nightwind looks at the acolyte and holds out his arm while he says,"Is he about yay tall and wears dark clothing?" The acolyte smiles and nods. Nightwind seemed to get kind of huffy and stomped off towards the Inn. Ja' Lil and I followed after him. We get inside the Inn and we don't see the small hooded figure anywhere. We take the remaining open small table and wait for our meal. We see Kram, Jud and his wife, Gab and Slim at the big table. The innkeeper brings out their food first. It seems that they have all ordered the chicken. Slim gets two chicken dinners for himself, Gab and Kram each get one chicken and Jud and his wife split a chicken dinner. He then brings out to their table two bowls of some kind of steaming potato salad and two baskets of biscuits. We then get served. We get a leg of lamb, glazed carrots and a broccoli and asparagus steamed medley. We get a bottle of wine and a basket of biscuits. After everyone has been served and dinner is done, we look again for the hooded person. I, Solon Moonshadow, spy the hooded figure running upstairs. I point it out to Nightwind. He chases upstairs after the hooded figure. We get upstairs and I hear noise coming from our room. Nightwind draws his steel and we edge closer. I ask him if he is sure we need that, but he doesn't hear me. The door is ajar and light is coming from inside. Nightwind kicks open the door and we see the hooded figure sitting on one of the beds eating a cookie. It looks strangely like one of Ja' Lil's cookies from earlier. No sooner does this realization hit me than Ja' Lil shouts out,"Hey, you owe me for those from before!" The small man, who we can see as the halfling he is and much younger than any of us thought, flipped Ja' Lil a silver coin. He says,"I hear you guys are lookin' for me. Why is that?" Nightwind replies that it was him that was tracking the goblins that were attacking the village. Where are they and how many are there? Oh, is your name Rolo? "It is," replies Rolo, "and there was many, but now not so many. They go into the castle, but don't come out. There's something evil inside. I followed about 5 or 6 different goblinoid footprints inside and a two sets of Hobgoblins and two sets of Orc. There use to be almost 40 goblins, we killed 5, now less than 10 left. The numbers don't add up. Something evil inside for sure."
"Well, would you want to help us get rid of that threat?"
"I would, but can't. Other temple getting desecrated by orcs a little farther north and east of the castle near the base of the mountains. Why don't ya ask the wizard, you was all chummy earlier?"
"Who? What wizard? There's a wizard?"
"Yeah, I thought you knew from the robes he was wearing. Yeah, the guy from this morning that distracted you and bought your ear?"
"Really, he's a wizard. Makes sense. Yeah, we'll see if he wants to join. Thanks for the info."
And with all the pleasantry dispensed, Rolo the Tracker takes off. We go downstairs and see the wizard with his head in a book. We talk him into coming with us by promising that he can keep the spell books we find. With that we go to bed and take shifts. Ja' Lil and I sleep the first shift while Nightwind sleeps the second shift. Ja' Lil has time to prepare his spells before leaving and we meet Bram the Wizard downstairs. We are going to go and meet Kram's merchant friend who's been described to us as travelling on a warhorse with barding, has shiny armor and a big sword.
We walk down the lane towards Kram's and see a large warhorse with barding tied up to one of the posts near the trough and it is breathing hard. Ja' Lil tries to feed it some of the vegetables from the day before, but Nightwind reminds him that warhorses are trained not to accept food from strangers. The warhorse starts stomping his feet. Nightwind tells Ja' Lil to back away from the animal. We hear clinking coming from the back of Kram's and getting louder and closer.
Nightwind says,"Here he comes."
We see a very muscular man, a little smaller than Jud, but the same build, and he's wearing a shiny suit of plate mail with a holy symbol of Chauntea on his chest. He is currently carrying his helmet under his arm. We ask him if he would like to take care of the evil at the castle and he says no because he's going with Rolo to take care of the Orcs desecrating the other temple. We see Rolo behind him. We didn't see him before. Weird.
I believe that is where we left off. Next we are going to the castle. Yeah!
A MAP OF THE VILLAGE OF STOUT
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