As the adventure stands, the party is in a bit of a tight spot at this particular moment in time. But more on that later, because for now, we have some catching up to do!
The adventure begins with our somewhat-intrepid heroes being corralled into the centre hall of their village, Stonehouse. As they are pointed out to a large, long table towards the back of the hall, they notice there is another table already populated by four others. Taking their seats at the indicated table, they begin to chat to one another, and Einki and Klaus grab themselves flagons of mead from the bar area at the back end of the hall. As they finish catching up, and making introductions as needed, the great chieftain Ural storms in, a look of anger upon him.
"You may wonder why I have gathered you all here at this particular moment, when you could instead be going about your normal business. Well, I've had you all deposited before me because I have a... task that requires completing, and you are the most suitable candidates for doing so. As some of you will probably already know, recently we lost contact with the town to the North, Aberdeen.
"Trade caravans due to come from there never arrived, and we heard no word from any messenger about the mystery. So, I took it upon myself to personally dispatch a trusted scout to visit Aberdeen and find out what he could about it's situation. The information he came back with was... more troubling than I had expected. He informed me that Aberdeen was no longer there. It has simply vanished."
Both tables were highly startled at this news, and a the Elf sat at the other table demanded that, if this were true, something had to be done about it. The others at his table nodded in agreement, whilst the party's table remained fairly quiet, intent on hearing out Ural more fully.
"Silence!
"Now, while I have no reason to believe that the information my scout has delivered is false, I want a party to head out and travel to Aberdeen. It's a mere 2 days from here as you well know. If my scout proves correct, and the village has indeed disappeared, your job is to find the people who belong to it. My scout didn't report any signs of battle or even bloody murder, so it seems that the inhabitants of the village were alive when they left the area.
"At this point, some of you may be wondering why there are two groups of you. Well, now would be a very good time for me to mention that there is a bounty out for whoever finds either the village or it's owners. That bounty is One Thousand gold pieces. Each. More than many of you will earn over several years of your lives. However, this Stonehouse isn't made of money, and therefore there is only one bounty that can be claimed by one group. Consider it a little... friendly competition.
"For those of you who have never been to Aberdeen, you simply follow the road North alongside the river. Even a brain-dead kobold could manage such a trip. So, you all have your task, I recommend you buy anything you may need from the town general store, and then get out of my sight! I don't want to see any of you again until you have some worthwhile news for me."
And with that, Ural left the great stone hall, as the two groups began discussing their plans for completing the task before them. As the other table got up to leave, Klaus sneakily cast a Grease spell at the front door, which resulted in the two Humans of the party slipping over as their Dwarf poorly disguised a chuckle, and the Elf glared at the party's table as if trying to discern the cause of this immediate mockery. For their part, the party simply sat and laughed as the others picked themselves up and left.
Not wanting to walk out through the now-Greasy door at risk of ending up like the others, the party instead decided to break and climb out one of the windows (???) by having Yal throw Einki through it. This resulted in:
- A very upset barkeep witnessing one of his windows getting completely smashed to pieces by a Dwarf-cannonball.
- Yal rolling a crit to make sure he didn't miss the window when throwing Einki through it, ending in the Dwarf being thrown so hard he sailed clean through the window and straight into another building on the other side, giving him a minor concussion.
- Klaus and the Druid following Einki and climbing out of the window after him, much to the chagrin of the now-bemused barkeeper.
-Yal then looking towards the back of the hall, noticing the back door, and leaving through that, leaving a highly confused barkeep and a small, unnecessary mess behind him.
With that, the party headed to the store to stock up on provisions, rations and the like, before finally leaving Stonehouse and heading North, with Aberdeen firmly in their sights!
As I'm not a fan of overly-long posts, I'm going to leave it at that and finish the catch-up in the next D&D post, leaving the post after that free for the latest action as it unfolds! Until then, take care, and happy gaming!
-Mike
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