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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Taboo" data-source="post: 381268" data-attributes="member: 5912">OakhurstNote:From this point out, the story will contain some spoilers for the Sunless Citadel. Much of it has been changed to go along with the Heroes of Destiny Quest, but read at your own risk!***********By the middle of the day, they’d reached the island and gotten to Oakhurst.  Minx and Turk had gotten over their latest fight, although it was obvious they would never agree. Minx was over 100 years old and had been this way all her life, nobody could possibly expect her to change over the course of a few days. Yes, she had strong opinions and yes, she could be judgmental, but she was also dependable, intelligent, and a strong and true friend. Kierwin prayed that Minx and Turk could fight together without compromising the rest of the group or eavh others lives. Everyone else got along so well. The only other problem she would have to deal with was Snap, when it came time to tell the others about his true identity, and as of yet, she still didn't know what his secret was.When they arrived in Oakhurst, they found that they had arrived too early to buy the apple. Osa had no reason to stay in town, so Turk offered to take her to the house she had on the outskirts of town. They took Justice and were off. Minx didn’t say a word, not even under her breath. Her eyes, on the other hand, showed what she was thinking, but Kierwin was the only one who noticed, and she wasn’t holding that against her. They stayed in town to have lunch, get rooms and see what information they could find out.They found out that the place to stay was the Old Boar Inn. They had intended to split up, but what better place to start gathering information? Thorin bought a round of ale, he proclaimed it a bit weak, but not bad, considering it wasn’t Dwarven. Kierwin bought food for the party. She also bought a room for her and Minx, then invited Snap to share it, but with no luck. One of these days, maybe they would luck out and he’d run out of money (they really wanted a peak inside his scarf)! He got a room for himself.So, they spent most of their money on ale and food getting to know the locals, gathering information. Trying to find out about the apple and anything else they could about the town and surrounding area.They found about the Mayor, a General Store, a Church of Pelor with a priestest named Dem Nackle, who also served as the town healer. (which would please Turk, if he ever got back from taking Osa home).  There was also the constable, and a jail, among others. The next morning, they took off to find the mayor. Turk had returned by that time, and they had filled him in on what they had found out about the town.Talking to the mayor, Vumor Leng, they found out things were more complicated than they thought.  Apparently, goblins came to town one day of the summer solstice each year to sell the red apple and there was always only one. The town always bought the apple, primarily to keep the goblins happy, they didn’t want to take the chance of starting a war with them. In order to decide who got the apple, the town held a lottery.  There was no guarantee that Osa would even be able to get the apple.Further talk revealed that on the winter solstice, goblins brought a white apple to town. That rang a few bells, since that’s what Osa told them had caused the girl in Bellhold to fall into the coma-like state.The townsfolk believed that the apples came from the Sunless Citadel. A month ago, four adventurers had set out for the Citadel and hadn’t been seen or heard of since. Two of them were brother and sister and their mother, Kerowyn Hucrele was offering a reward for their safe return or the return of their gold signet rings proving news of their demise. The leader of the expedition was a man named Sir Bradford, who had been accompanied by an elf, whom they believed was named Kerakas.As it turned out, Kerowyn Hucrele was also the primary merchant in the small town. This was good information to know in case they came back in need of supplies.  Another merchant in town was a man named Rurik, but most of the party took an instant liking to Kerowin and decided to do the majority of their business with her.About a decade ago, a man named Belak had shown up asking about the Sunless Citadel. He was a strange, grim fellow accompanied by a large, pet frog on his shoulder. They had never seen him again.Apparently, the townspeople had tried planting seeds from the apples, but the seeds had produded a twiggy mass of twisted sapling stems that had been stolen once the trees had reached a certain size. The townspeople assumed that the goblins had stolen them to keep them from raising their own trees.As far as the Sunless Citadel itself, they couldn’t find out much information. The townspeople were afraid to go anywhere near it. Both people and animals had been found dead in the area. The cause of death seemed to be strange, numerous punctures all over their bodies.  Nobody could identify the cause of the holes. They described the holes found in the people and livestock (and even wild animals of all sizes), and they sounded quite disgusting, especially to Kierwin, a Cleric of the Woodlands. No one in the party had ever heard of anything like it. This sounded like something else for them to investigate while they were in the area.After finding a stable for Justice (Turk didn’t want to take any chances on her getting hurt), Turk promptly set out for the Church of Pelor to pay his respects and to make a donation. He spent time speaking with the priest of Pelor. He also spoke to her about Rowena and about the quest they were setting out for in the morning. He did not wish to take Rowena into such a dangerous situation and needed someone he could trust to leave her with. The priest was more than happy to keep her there. He thanked her and promised to return in the morning.The next morning, the entire party donated money to give to the church to help pay for Rowena’s care. They all felt responsible for her by now and cared about what happened to her.  Kierwin was feekubg especially guilty for not being able to help her. She'd tried everything she knew to try to help her and nothing had helped. She knew she was a lower level cleric, but she'd tried her best. She'd tried everything she knew and prayed to Elhonna for help to no avail. It seemed that whatever was wrong was definitely beyond her abilities.  She hoped that the priestess of Pelor could help where she had failed.While they prepared to get going, Turk took Rowena to the temple leave her with the priestess. To prepare Turk for his difficult journey ahead, the priestess prayed to Pelor to grant him with Bull’s Strength. She hoped it would help him with the beginning of what all of the town knew was a dangerous and terrible journey. He thanked her, told Rowena goodbye, and then met the rest of the party at the edge of town while they hurried down the road toward the direction they were told to go to reach the Sunless Citadel.Turk was feeling mighty well and was pushing the party to go as fast as they could to get to their destination before the Bull’s Strength wore off.  With Turk urging them on, they hustled as fast as they could. Thorin’s legs were really pumping when they came up to the edge of a long dark chasm with a lot of campfire remnants scattered along the upper edge of it.  Any tracks that may have been there had been brushed away and the remains of the campfires were of varying ages.Dwarven graffiti was written on broken columns along the chasm. Thorin translated and told them that it said to “Stay Away.”</blockquote>

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