Prologue (Move 9)
30 Flamerule 1372 DR, Caerrhen, Damara-Impiltur border
It is currently unseasonably warm and uncomfortable in northwestern Impiltur, with uncharacteristically high humidity. There is no noticeable wind.
Fezzin Verghenheim,
Approximately 1115 hours
The crawlspace is dirty and bears a faint odor, along the lines of spoiled cheese and rabbit urine. About two feet down from your nose, you can see the boards and planks of the first floor's ceiling. You cannot see any signs of life in the rest of the crawlspace, nor hear any signs either.
Sir Zichard Danilk,
Approximately 1115 hours
From current vantage point, you cannot see any clear paths into the orchard that would be comfortable for scouting on horseback. Resigning yourself to scouting on foot, you hop off of your horse, and draw your shortsword, holding the reins of your horse in your left hand.
Even at midday, the orchard is dark and gloomy, with a mix of fresh and rotten apples littering the ground. Underlying the typical woodsy scent of a grove is a pale, but arresting foetor.
[Listen Check: (15 on d20) + (+1 Wis) = 16] You force yourself to disregard the stench and bear on into the orchard. As you do, you can hear some scuttling noises that vaguely sound like a very large cat with a little bit ahead of you and to your left.
Korbi Gobknocker,
Approximately 1115 hours
Having travelled most of the morning, you finally reach the southern gate of Caerrhen. For mid-morning, the town is eerily quiet. Ahead of you, in the center of town, you can see a large, ostentatious temple of the Broken God, clearly new judging by the shine of the stone work. On your right, a ramshackle group of buildings border a sickly grove or orchard, which exactly proves hard to tell. To your left, a fairly large, well-kept inn.
The inn itself has a rather bold wooden sign posted outside. Adorned with rather garish lettering for an inn in a backwater mining town, the sign screams out the name of the inn: the Elk & Star. A small cat, grey and white, sleeps at the bottom of the sign, mewing quietly as it dreams.
Ezra Geonora,
Approximately 1300 hours
She nods her assent. "It's not good, but the auras were far too great in number for me to feel comfortable about sending the three of you after that much undead."
Silence. The two elf twins seem intent on cleaning this area up and getting back to work, judging by how uncomfortable they became when she said "the three of you."
Finally, the priestess speaks again. "Until we find some more help or figure out a better plan, I would suggest that we bar the doors that lead from this section of the temple into the other wings and the cellars. The doors are iron, and they
should hold." She looks at you for commentary or suggestion.
Daan,
Approximately 1315 hours
Binding the creature, you can see that it's really only about gnome-size, maybe even smaller. It looks like nothing so much as a humanoid rat thing, a rat-man or ratling, if you will, with a tail roughly four feet long. Aside from this, the most noteworthy characteristics of the beast are its scent (like sulphur) and its fur (brownish-red, highlighted with orange streaks). Your druidic knowledge doesn't cover anything similar to this, so you can only assume that it isn't natural.
The scarred man turns his head upon hearing your request. "Look, friend, I can't help you with that and carry Vynchens to the temple. You've got it bound, now grab it, by the tail if you want, and drag it. It's not going to give us any trouble for a while, I'm sure. As for my name, Vadim Vadimov, although you'll forgive me if I skip most of the common pleasantries...." He leaves off and waits for your name.
OOC:
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: In response to Rorschach's question, Darkvision, as I'm working it, gives you black & white vision in total darkness. In semi-lit areas, you have color vision out to edge of the light radius, where the color gets kind of dull and grey. From there on out, vision is in black & white until your Darkvision range is up. At that point, you can't see. (Actual Darkvision rules are on DMG 74). It's pretty much by the book, really.
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