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Message: <blockquote data-quote="random user" data-source="post: 1595108" data-attributes="member: 16581">Chapter I - The Stolen Sculpture, continuedBy nightfall they reached Mero, a small village. They decided to spend the night in the local inn. Janson, the barkeep and inn owner greeted them as they entered. The inn was small but well-kept. He said, "Take any open table. If you need your horses stabled for the night, Zaii, our stablehand can help you out. Lydia will be out in a moment to take your order."They party bought rooms for the night. Vernon went out to take care of the horses, and the rest of them started drinking. Sensing Errol had never drunk alcohol, Vaugner went up to Janson and asked for something "special" for his naive friend.As they were drinking, Vaugner noticed the waitress seemed despondent, and eventually coaxed out her story."I married my husband Douglas about 4 months ago. But then he got laid off when he was injured, and we couldn't afford to pay the tax. They made him go to a mining town to work off the debt. It'll be six more months before he'll have paid it off. That's why I took this job. Every week I work here is two weeks earlier I will see my husband," she said.Vernon chatted with Zaii the stablehand and confirmed that Jacob had been this way."He seemed to be in a hurry though... he usually spends the night at the inn but didn't this time. He said he wanted to push on a couple more hours before the sun set. Oh, the other thing is his wagons were really heavily laden. I remember his horses didn't look too happy," Zaii remembered.Vernon attempted to find caravan tracks and was able to discern what he thought were wagon wheel marks. It was possible he was wrong, but the tracks indicated heavy wagons, and there hadn't been many other caravan wagons in the last couple days.As they went up to their rooms for the night, Kestrel strayed a moment and counted out 15 gold from his own pocket and left it on the table. From Lydia's story, that was exactly the amount they still owed. The next day Lydia found Kestrel, and thanked him deeply; but she also insisted she could not take the money unless he considered it a loan, and demanded to know a way to contact him when she could repay him.February 22 & 23The day passed uneventfully and they camped for the night in a clearing. This would be the first night they spent outdoors!As Vaugner laid down his bedroll, he told the rest of the party, "Don't get too close me when I'm sleeping, I'm not kidding, you won't like it," as he sprinkled caltrops around him.Errol didn't realize he was supposed to bring a bedroll. While the others got ready for bed, Errol complained, "Why didn't someone tell me that we would be sleeping on the ground? Sleeping on the ground is for animals, and even the smart animals like monkeys don't do it."No one answered him, but Vaugner and Malif both rolled their eyes.On Kestral's watch, he spotted a trio of glowing lights. They were similar to will o wisps, but from his studies he knew they were not. He seemed to remember them from class... He found a nice long stick and woke Vaugner with it.Vaugner couldn't quite recall what the lights were either. They decided to wake the rest of the party. While various people in the party thought that they might be Firefly Wisps, which were good for... something... no one remembered for sure. The wisps didn't seen to notice the party, amd floated away as the party decided not to pursue them."What kind of band of adventurers are these guys? I may have hooked up with the wrong bunch," Vaugner thought to himself. He had been the only person in the party who had advocated trying to kill the wisps.Blink, however, saw things in a different light. "Vaugner is all for chasing them down. My intuition tells me they want to lure us in and get us killed by dire wolves. Adventuring seems easy as long as you're not stupid," he thought as he rolled over on his bedroll.The next day was also uneventful. At night they found another clearing to camp at. But where was the caravan?"I think we should have overtaken them already," worried Kestrel. But there was not much else they could do in the darkness.On the first watch, Blink spotted the same wisps, again seemingly innocuous. Later in the night, again on Kestral's watch, suddenly Blink's horse awoke with a dreadful cry. Three monstrous black horselike creatures were attacking their horses! By the time the party was able to react, Blink's horse was almost dead. Courageously, the party sprang to battle. Errol sang a hymn that lifted the spirits of his comrades. Vaugner and Malif fired at the horses, and Blink and Kestrel each finished off a carnivorous horse while Vernon rushed to save their own horses from death. Seeing two of his pack fall, the final attacker had had enough and fled!"Whew, this is harder than I thought," Kestrel said to himself. "Still, everyone helped out and we seem to work well together, so that's something."Malif, too, thought that the reality of combat was nothing like he had expected. "It's quite a different thing firing in combat. Not like fence posts back with Jules in the Outer City. Everything moves all the time, friend and foe alike. At least fence posts have the courtesy to hold still!" he thought.Februrary 24The party left early in the morning, and by noon caught up to the caravan. There were five wagons, each pulled by two horses. In addition, eight additional horseman were interspersed around the wagons. 18 men and women total -- a couple were in full plate, and the party could spot at least one spellcaster.The party was full of adrenaline as they mentally prepared to react to whatever the caravan might do to greet them.</blockquote>

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