Orlane, Day 1, before dinner
Thoughts of Falon 25; Thoughts of Jalik 30; Thoughts of hitting Chani over the head with her lute 10.
Chani doesn’t even care that all men in the group are falling over themselves to argue with her. She just ignores them the rest of the time. Maybe secret to getting a man’s heart is ignoring him. Will try to ignore Falon now. Then he will see what a brilliant woman I am. Actually, Ternell could use a little brilliance. He almost got party escorted out of town before we had done anything.
We rode into Orlane late in the morning. Expecting to see the bustling of working in the farm fields, or horses trotting through town to this and that errand, we were greeted by dust skittering across the road as the wind played with it. Just as we were asking each other if the town had been deserted, the constable rode up with two deputies. Ternell strode forth before I could stop him and said, “We have been sent from Lord Greerson to see why you are late in paying your tribute.”
“Why should we pay a tribute to a Lord who has nothing to do with us?” growled the constable.
“Because I will smite kick you to the groin if you don’t,” said Ternell. Okay, his character didn’t say that. That’s just what the player always said, and I had to put it in somewhere
“Because it’s the law,” said Ternell.
“We do no business with Lord Greerson and he does none with us. Turn around and go back.”
“We will stay. Who is in charge of this town?”
“I am,” said the constable.
“There’s not a mayor or something similar?”
“There’s the mayor, but it’ll do you no good to talk to him. Go back.”
“Please excuse our presence a little longer,” said Korliss, suddenly. “I have some business at the temple of Merrilee.”
“Hmm,” said the constable. “It’s that way. And then go home.”
As we rode away, I rode up to Ternell and asked, “What were you doing?”
“The job we were sent here for.”
“I was supposed to do the talking. It clearly states in the contract that I get to do the talking for the party. I let Chani talk to the gnomes because she was the only one who knew their language. But this should’ve been my job. Now you’ve gotten us kicked out of the town.”
“The constable is a man of law and I am a man of law.”
“I don’t think that constable’s much into the law part. At least Korliss got us permission to stay. How did you know there was a temple here?”
“A man approached me at the ball in Ft. Greerson and asked me to look up a friend of his while we were down here,” said Korliss. “He had lost communication with him and lost communication with the Temple of Merrilee.”
“What other things do I need to know? Why does this party keep secrets from each other, or do you only keep secrets from me?” Here the party looked uncomfortably at each other. “I see.”
I Sullenly approached the Temple of Merrilee. The door was answered by a tall, strong priestess. Party parted and seemed to be indicating that I should speak.
“Umm, we were wondering if there was any trouble here. Ft. Greerson has stopped receiving communication from your temple.”
“No one will take messages for us to Ft. Greerson,” replied the Priestess.
“Why is that?”
“No one goes to Ft. Greerson anymore.”
“We are from Ft. Greerson. Is there something you would like us to take there for you?”
“No, good day.”
Blew first chance at speaking for party. Decided to find a tavern to stay at. Meeting group to discuss what to do next. Have an idea, but don’t think party will listen to me.