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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ThirdWizard" data-source="post: 6226124" data-attributes="member: 12037">Nohnee followed the trails, which seemed to converge on a central location. Hiding, she and her companions approached a small village. To her surprise, the residents were elves! With a bit of hope, she revealed herself to them. The villagers were standoffish, but not outwardly hostile. Eventually someone came and approached the group, asking who they were and why they were here. He said that their small village didn't get many visitors and he was obviously worried about the wolf that traveled with her, as well as eyeing the human she brought along. Nohnee introduced herself, Pup, and Malrock to the village and convinced them that they meant the elves no harm. They trusted her, as an elf, and were convinced to allow the group to enter and traverse their tiny village freely. Nohnee inquired about a village healer as well as a place to sleep for the night.The villager who they had been talking to became distraught. He told her that their holy man had been taken by strangers who came through the forest, interlopers who disrespected the forest. The small village has no real warriors, and they could not fight these humans off. Describing them, Nohnee suspected these were the cultists. The villager told her that without their holy man they could not receive the blessings of the forest for their hunters, they had lost their wards of protection against the goblins to the southwest, and they could not read the portends to know how to please the spirits. Their village would be doomed without him. His apprentice was young and inexperienced. Without further tutelage, he could never be a holy man himself. Nohnee didn't mention her suspicions about the cultists, but promised to help the holy man if she found him.That night, the villagers put her and her companions up for the night as well as fed them and bandaged their wounds. They showed great hospitality for such a poor people, and Nohnee was moved beyond her normal mercenary nature. She wanted to help them, to save their holy man. With the first light of dawn, the group left to reacquire the trail left by the cultists. The cultists had been steadily moving south, which would most likely mean they intersected the goblins that the elves were talking about. The group slowed their pace, trying to stay hidden as they moved into more dangerous territory.[sblock]My notes for the adventure mentioned the possibility of running into a friendly group as well as a hostile group. I wanted some dialogue to be part of the game. Malrock worked, but I thought some kind of village would be nice. I decided to make them elves because with the description of the forest based on the questions above mixed with establishing that Nohnee's elven nature helped her move through the forest more easily, it seemed like elves would be a good fit. It was also nice that it gave the PC an "in" with the locals, despite the fact that Pup is pretty frightening! Malrock's innate charisma helped them accept him, and Nohnee convinced them that Pup would not hurt them. For a minute I was wondering if they would end up turning the group away, but it all worked out for the PC and entourage.The problem with the village also came into play naturally. I knew I needed some kind of ritual, and a sacrifice seemed good. When the player asked about healing, I knew I had a winner there. Someone that everyone would care about was in danger. Add this to the fact that Nohnee is Chaotic, which means bonus XP for freeing a prisoner, and I've killed two birds with one stone here.I also wanted some kind of enemy village, a Mirror Mirror to the friendlies. I made this a goblin village because why not? I almost went with gnoll, but I thought it would be neat to have a small, less intelligent and powerful, race that the cultists are pushing around. The goblins don't necessarily want to work for the cultists, but they have to because the cultists scare them. This establishes that the cultists work with monstrous humanoids. The PC hasn't found out they're working together yet at this point in the story, though, so we'll get to that later.[/sblock]</blockquote>

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