Chapter 2: Travensburg
Standing in the doorway, Vesten quickly surveyed the tavern crowd. It wasn’t difficult to spot the people he was looking for. As he suspected, they were adventuring types and it wasn’t as if they were trying to hide. It also looked like they had already had several drinks, most likely courtesy of the grateful patrons. He’d seen it all before.
As he made his way towards their table, he nodded to Eldrin behind the bar. Eldrin merely shook his head sadly in response.
"You the ones responsible for the pile of dead orcs outside?" he asked.
"Who want’s to know?" Ostler replied.
"That would be me. I’m the Town Constable."
"And where were you when those orcs were tearing up this place?" Jebbedo asked as he placed his mug on the table.
"I had business elsewhere. It’s a big city," Vesten said, slightly taken aback at the suddenness of the interrogation.
"That’s awfully convenient, isn’t it?" asked Ostler.
"Are you implying something?" Vesten asked, his surprise fading into irritation. He had hoped, as he always did, that these adventurers would be a bit less paranoid about town officials than most. Once again, he had been overly optimistic.
"Not at all," said Jeb, as he eyed the constable suspiciously, "just trying to get some answers is all."
At this, Hugh sat back, folded his arms over his chest and rolled his eyes in exasperation. He was already starting to have second thoughts about travelling with this group. He hoped Mayaheine would have mercy on him for doing so.
"Uh-huh. Look, do you people have business in town or are you just passing through?" Vesten asked, resigned to the fact that he probably wouldn’t get anywhere with them.
"We haven’t decided yet," said Ostler.
"And I suppose you have no idea how long you’ll be here?"
"None at all," Jeb said as he finished off his mug, "but the barkeep has been kind enough to offer us room and board for the night. For taking care of his little problem, you know." He smiled at Vesten smugly.
"Of course he did. Look, if you guys find yourselves staying in town for an extended period of time… And I sincerely hope that you don’t… then just try to stay out of trouble, alright?"
Ostler and Jeb both started to speak, but Hugh jumped up and offered his hand to the constable before they could make a sound.
"Thank you, sir, " he said, "we’ll try to take what you’ve said to heart and stay out of trouble."
"See that you do," Vesten said. "I don’t want to have to come back here." And with that, he turned and walked out.
As soon as he was out the door, Ostler and Jeb looked at each other.
"He definitely had something going with those orcs," they both said.
Hugh could only shake his head.
As they watched the constable leave, something in the corner of the room caught Shuglin’s attention. A man was sitting alone at a table obviously not wanting to be bothered as he drank his ale. Shuglin nudged Ostler and nodded in that direction. Ostler smiled and they both stood.
"Come on," said Shuglin, "That guy looks lonely."
The rest of the group stood and looked as the two dwarves walked to the man’s table. He was human, bald and dressed in simple brown robes. And he looked a tad disgusted as the dwarves approached and struck up a conversation. Jackie turned to Jeb.
"I’ve got something I need to take care of. I’ll catch up with you later," he said.
He gathered his stuff and headed out the door. The rest of the group wandered over to the table, where the dwarves had just helped themselves to seats, much to the man’s very visible displeasure. The dwarves motioned for the others to join them.
"This is Chao Chin Lung," said Shuglin. "He’s a monk!"
"And he’s by himself, so he invited us to join him," Ostler chimed in.
So they sat and made their introductions. Eventually, Chao warmed to the group and actually joined in on some of the conversation. After several minutes, Eldrin approached the table.
"Excuse me sirs, but there are several gentlemen at the bar who would like to inquire as to your status in regards to hiring out for various tasks."
"Huh?" said Ostler, who was close to incoherent from all the drink.
The prospect of finding paying work so soon excited the group, especially since they obviously worked so well together. Even Chao was interested in hearing the proposals. They decided to have Eldrin send the prospective employers over one at a time to make their pitches. They would decide once all the jobs were on the table. Eldrin returned to the bar and sent two men over.
They looked, acted and appeared in every way to be two fairly well off merchants. Introducing themselves as Sigrid and Knut, they wanted to hire the group to supplement the guards that they had already hired to escort a caravan to Dyvers. Problem was, the merchants were in a hurry, so the caravan would take a more direct path through the heart of the Gnarley Forest. A far more dangerous path then going around the vast woodland. For their time and trouble, the group would be paid 50 gold pieces each. It was an interesting prospect, but there were still two more to listen to, so the merchants were dismissed with a promise that their offer would be given serious consideration.
As the two merchants returned to the bar, Eldrin sent the next prospective employer over. He was quite obviously a peasant and definitely didn’t look like he could pay much. His name was Joe and he had spent several days traveling from his village, Travensburg, in search of help. The village had suffered a rough winter and had been forced to buy food from several neighboring villages. A couple of weeks ago, the wagons started disappearing. Not all of them, but enough to jeopardize the town’s survival. If the group could find it in their hearts to investigate the matter and stop whoever was stealing their food, the mayor of the village would pay them a small amount of gold, but they could keep whatever they could take from the persons responsible for the thefts. This offer sounded very intriguing, but there was still one more to listen to. They thanked Joe and sent him back to the bar.
Finally, there approached an older, well-dressed gentleman. It was easy to see by the way that he carried himself that he was a man of some learning. Possibly even a wizard. He introduced himself as Margrave the sage. He had a map that led to a small, ruined keep on the edge of the Pomarj. Below the keep was a small dungeon complex. In the complex was a book, which he needed to continue his current research. He would pay the party 100 gold each and they could keep whatever they plundered from the dungeon.
"I will await your decision at the bar," he said and excused himself.
"We should definitely help the peasant," Hugh declared as soon as Margrave had gone. "It is a noble cause."
"I agree," said Shuglin. "They sound like they are in desperate need of help."
Jeb shook his head. "I don’t know, that sage was offering some righteous coin. Besides, if it turned out to be too dangerous, we could always just take the book and sell it ourselves."
Hugh looked at him disapprovingly.
"Hey, it was just a suggestion," Jeb said.
Ostler sat his mug carefully on the table. "We could go help the peasant, then come back and take that Margrave guy’s job when we’re done," he said.
They mulled that over for a minute.
"He will most likely hire someone else if we don’t take him up on it right away," said Rumblethorn. " I think we should just help the peasant and then see what happens."
They all nodded.
"Then we are in agreement," Hugh said. "Who is going to tell them?"
Jeb jumped out of his chair.
"I’ll take care of it," he said. He rubbed his hands together gleefully as he headed towards the bar.
Margrave was talking with the two merchants while Joe sat quietly by himself and drank a mug of cheap ale. Jeb came up to the group and stood beside the sage.
"Gentlemen," he said, "My compatriots and I have decided to take Joe here up on his offer."
As he talked, Jeb’s hand slowly crept towards the strings of the purse hanging from Margrave’s belt.
"We thank you for the offers and appreciate that you considered us up to the tasks. If we ever end up back in Narwell, we’ll be sure to look you up for future opportunities. Thank you and good evening."
With that, he gave a quick tug and Margraves purse dropped quietly into his hand. Jeb tucked it into his sleeve as the merchants and the sage bid farewell and left. He walked over to Joe, who looked beside himself with joy.
"Go and do whatever it is you need to do before we leave," Jeb told the peasant. "Then meet us back here in the morning. We’ll leave then"
Joe thanked him profusely, shaking his hand vigorously and waving thanks to the group at the table, then he left. Jeb returned to the others, where they continued drinking well into the wee hours of the morning. When they were finally the only ones left in the bar, Eldrin showed them all, including Chao, who had agreed to join them, to the spare room in the back. It was a tad small, but adequate enough for their purpose. They wished Eldrin a good night and, one by one, they dropped off to sleep.
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In the morning, they packed their gear and wandered out into the bar. It was early, but the place was already bustling with activity. Joe was waiting on them, but as yet there had been no sign of Jackie. They decided to wait for him a little longer and enjoy a good breakfast before leaving. Eventually, it became apparent that the little halfling monk wasn’t going to be arriving anytime soon, so they bade farewell to Eldrin, thanked him again for the hospitality, and set out on the road to Travensburg.
The trip, as Joe informed them, would take several days and was usually uneventful, although occasionally an orc raiding party would make its way far enough from the Pomarj to threaten the road. Indeed, as Joe had predicted, they encountered no problems. Once on the journey, they met a patrol of soldiers from Narwell, but after answering a couple of questions, the patrol let them continue on their way.
A couple of days out of Narwell, the group forded the Jewel River and, by late afternoon, entered the small village of Otherton. Joe told them that Otherton was one of the villages providing spare food for Travensburg, although so far he didn’t think that any of those shipments had been lost. This naturally made some of them suspicious.
"I think we need to talk to the mayor," said Ostler, running his hand lightly over his battleaxe.
"Sounds to me like he has some questions to answer," said Jeb.
"It’s starting to get dark. I suggest we find an inn, get a couple of rooms and then talk to him in the morning," said Hugh, trying to buy time to calm the two down.
This sounded like an acceptable plan, so they headed for the inn. None of the villagers gave them more than a cursory glance as they walked down the street. Adventurers weren’t uncommon in the area, especially this close to the Gnarley Forest and Kron Hills.
The inn wasn’t hard to find. It was the only multi-story building in town other than the mayor’s residence. By the time they arrived, most of the dinner crowd had cleared out, leaving just the right mix of space and atmosphere. They ordered their drinks and meals and sat at a table in the back of the room to take in the goings on of the place.
They were disappointed. After several hours, nothing exciting had happened. No fights, no orcs bursting through the door, no-one even came over to talk to them other than the barmaid. Compared to Narwell, this place was dead. Finally tired of watching people come and go, they approached the innkeeper about lodging. He had plenty of rooms, in a variety of sizes and configurations, he told them. He would be more than happy to accommodate them.
As they discussed the rates and arrangements, Rumblethorn expressed his desire to sleep outside. He needed to get back in touch with nature. Mumbling something about poverty, Chao decided to join him. Seeing merit in the idea, as well as opportunity, Jeb opted for the outdoors as well. With the arrangements made, they wished each other a good evening and went their separate ways.
Shortly after midnight, Jeb awoke from a light sleep. He checked to make sure that Rumblethorn and Chao were fast asleep, then quietly he stood and crept out of their little encampment. He pulled his cloak tight around him and headed back into the village.
It took him about an hour to learn the layout of the village as he crept from building to building. He peered in every window and made mental notes of what was where. He was disappointed to find that nobody in the little town had anything that he considered valuable enough to steal. By the time he reached the mayor’s house, he was so disheartened that he only gave it a cursory glance before retiring back to his bedroll. "I can’t wait until we get to a big city," he thought to himself.
In the morning, the group assembled back at the inn for a hearty breakfast. While they ate, they discussed their plans. Ostler and Jeb were still in favor of going to talk to the mayor. In fact, they were adamant about it.
"I just find it curious that none of the food shipments from here have been attacked," Jeb said. "To me, that’s worth a few questions for the Mayor."
"Definitely," said Ostler. "And if almighty Kord doesn’t approve of his answers, we’ll rough him up a bit."
"There will be NONE of that!" Hugh spoke up firmly. "But I agree that we should talk to him."
"Maybe we can get him to provide us with another wagon full of food. Then we can escort it to Travensburg personally," Shuglin suggested.
This sounded like a reasonable plan to everyone, so they quickly finished breakfast and set about the task of meeting the mayor.
Meeting the mayor was easy enough, but learning anything useful was another matter entirely. They were greeted at the door by a butler, who instructed them to wait in the front room while he checked to see if the mayor was free. He returned a few minutes later and escorted them to the mayor’s office.
The mayor was sitting behind a large, ornate desk covered with papers and maps of the area. He looked quite annoyed at being disturbed from his work.
"What can I do for you gentlemen?" he asked as he sat back in his chair.
"We wanted to ask you some questions about Travensburg," said Hugh. "We understand they’ve purchased some food from you."
"Travensburg?" the mayor said, momentarily confused. "Oh yes. They had a poor harvest. Lord Traven contracted with me to purchase some surplus food. We sent the last wagon off last week."
With that, he sat up again, as if to get back to work and dismiss the group. They were not so easily dissuaded. Unfortunately, it was Ostler who spoke up next.
"How come they had a bad harvest and you didn’t?" he said.
The mayor looked at him quizzically. "I have absolutely no idea."
"And why haven’t any of your wagons been attacked?" added Jeb.
"Any of our wagons? We’ve only sent two," said the mayor, leaning back once again. "One last month and one last week. Are you trying to imply something?"
Hugh stepped forward, nudging Jeb and Ostler to the back of the group.
"Of course not, sir," he said. "We’re merely trying to help the poor people of Travensburg through this small crisis and we were wondering if you had any information you could share. My friends can get a bit carried away sometimes."
"Obviously," said the mayor.
"Well, since it’s apparent that you don’t know anything about what’s happening, we were wondering if we might be able to buy another wagon full of food to take with us to Travensburg?" Hugh said.
"Excuse me?"
"We were thinking we could escort another shipment in order to ensure that it arrives safely," said Shuglin.
"Even supposing that we had enough surplus food to spare for such a request, do you know how long it would take to assemble that? I’m sorry, Otherton just cannot spare anymore food for Travensburg. We have done what we could. Now good day!" With that, the mayor returned to his papers.
The group stood there for a couple of minutes being completely ignored by the mayor. When Ostler began fidgeting with his axe, Hugh ushered them all out of the house. They continued to stand in front of the house for several more minutes while they considered their options. In the end, they decided there was nothing left to do but proceed to Travensburg.
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They arrived around mid-day the next day. Joe immediately took them to meet Alexi Traven, lord of the village. When they met him, Alexi was already gravely troubled. Another food shipment had been scheduled for that morning and hadn’t shown up. To make matters worse, the two boys he had sent to meet the wagon were also long overdue. He feared the worse, but couldn’t spare anyone to go looking for them. The group readily volunteered. They were all a little antsy and relished the idea of seeing some action.
They were a couple miles out of town when they crested a hill and saw the object of their search in the valley below. The food wagon and horse stood just off the road with the bodies of both the wagon drivers and the boys that Alexi had sent out lying on the ground nearby. There were also a couple of dead orcs. A man and an orc stood by the horse, discussing something. Two more orcs stood on either side of the wagon, apparently keeping watch.
The group immediately dropped to the ground and started to discuss their options. Jeb was the first with a plan.
"Okay, you guys wait here. I’ll sneak along the crest of the hill until I’m in a flanking position across from the wagon. Then, I’ll start firing with my short bow. Once they’re distracted, you guys charge down and kick their asses," he explained.
The rest of the group nodded in agreement.
Jeb readied his bow and turned to creep off. He hadn’t gotten ten feet when he heard something behind him. He glanced back just in time to see Hugh and Ostler charge over the hill. Shuglin, Chao and Rumblethorn glanced at Jeb, shrugged their shoulders, and followed the other two over the hill.
"Damn!" Jeb muttered under his breath and he ran to get into his firing position.
Jeb still managed to reach his spot before the others reached the wagon. He surveyed the situation quickly as he took aim. Hugh and the wolf were out front, with the others not far behind. The orcs and the human had noticed their approach. With a quick gesture, the human conjured a glowing disc of energy, which he placed before him as a Shield while he readied a crossbow. Exasperated at the ruining of his plan, Jeb decided to try and stir things up a bit for the wizard. He took aim and fired an arrow into the horse. Oddly, the animal didn’t react at all.
The orcs and mage, taking no notice of the archer, stood ready to receive the group’s onslaught. Hugh and the wolf squared off with the two orcs in front of the mage as the dwarves and Rumblethorn hurriedly tried to catch up. Chao, on the other hand, was heading for the wagon. Jeb started moving slowly forward as he notched another arrow and took aim at the orc on his side of the wagon. He let fly and the arrow pierced the unsuspecting orc’s neck, dropping him to the ground.
By this time, the others had entered combat and Chao had reached the wagon, which he promptly crawled under. The mage gestured over his crossbow, which caused the bolt to glow faintly. He fired at Hugh, but the bolt merely grazed his leg. Hugh laid into his orcish opponent with renewed vigor. The other orc, meanwhile, landed a solid and almost fatal blow on Shuglin, who staggered backward under the force of the greataxe. Ostler and Brush didn’t allow the orc to take advantage of it, however, as they intensified their attack.
Then, just as things began to look bleak, Hugh landed a mighty hit and cleaved his opponent in two. As he had done at Narwell, he tried to use the force of his swing to carry his sword into the other orc, but to no avail. It hardly mattered, though, as Shuglin stepped back up. The two dwarves and the wolf were too much for the orc to handle and he fell to the ground under their combined assault.
That left the mage. Hugh hefted his broadsword and took a step towards him. The mage dropped his crossbow and ran. Unencumbered by weapon or armor, he was quickly outdistancing everyone. In an attempt to slow him down, Jeb fired at him, hitting him in the shoulder. Still he ran on. Then Chao crawled out from under the wagon and sprinted across the road. With a flying tackle, he managed to catch the mage by the leg and drag him to the ground.
The rest of the party quickly ran up and surrounded the mage, but he refused to surrender. He stood and drew a dagger from his sleeve. Tired and in pain from the greataxe wound, Shuglin muttered a few words and pointed. A Ray of Frost shot forth from his fingertip and hit the mage square in the forehead. He dropped dead at their feet.
They looked at the carnage around them and took stock of the situation. It was then that they noticed the tracks of their recently defeated foes coming from the west. They had just started to discuss their options when they heard a yell from the direction they had just come. They turned to look. There at the top of the hill was a small figure running towards them. It was Jackie.
