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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Plane Sailing" data-source="post: 104848" data-attributes="member: 114">Sorry - major business at work, trying to hit an April 1st deadline with a new online service for UK doctors <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f644.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":rolleyes:" title="Roll eyes    :rolleyes:"  data-smilie="11"data-shortname=":rolleyes:" /> But here's the next installmentThe company ride into the town of Bellhold as the last rays of the sun still reflect off the top of steeple mountain, shining on the winter ice. Even this late in the day the ring of bells and the striking of forgehammers is clearly heard. Riding down the main street to the Wyrmcall plaza they notice that many of the better class of shops are closed and boarded up - it looks as if many of the wealthier people in town have moved out.Finding the Bell and Clapper is easy, and Trajan leads the horses to the stable at the rear.“Treat Lightning special” he tells the stablehand, who glances at him and stammers “It’ll be a whole Mark for oats, sir”.Checking his pouch, Trajan removes his last five Marks.“Oats for all the horses then lad”He’ll have to rely on his friends for drinks, but Trajan likes horses. He can’t see them badly done by.Inside the inn there is a hubbub of noise. Many of the foundry workers are enjoying a drink before wandering home, and it is a few minutes before the company can gain the attention of Tokket, the barkeeper. M’ir and Darra circulate, listening for rumours while Azrin and Trajan speak to Tokket.It turns out that Tokket is the son of one of the adventurers which killed Copperdeath, nearly 50 years ago. There are many souvenirs of that campaign hanging on the walls of the bar, including a huge claw. Azrin is interested to hear about a fragment of diary from those old adventurers, and is soon sitting at a table, poring over it and laughing to himself as that story unfolds. Tokket is sure that the headaches are the results of something in the water, and recommends that everyone drinks more ale.M’ir discovers more about the missing children and the Heroes of the Bell - the local adventurers who were out looking for them, but have been gone over a week and a half now. One of the drinkers believes that the headaches are a curse from Asura, because the local people are shallow in their religion - he is shouted down but some men glance over the rims of the mugs at Azrin the priest.Darra discovers tales of a witch who lives just outside town - and heard that she says the headaches will end within a week. Crazy old woman, tells fortunes and stuff. Sometimes she really gets a prophecy right though.As they meet to confer notes, the inn door slams open, and a wide-eyed man looks around the room, fastening his eyes on Trajan and company. “Aha, new friends! Welcome, welcome!” he shouts before his voice drops to a harsh whisper “you will be welcomed by he who will swallow us all into his abysssss” He rants on and on, then with a sob turns and flees out the door. The silence in the room gives way to ordinary chatter again, and Tokket explains - “That’s just Cobble. He’s taken a bit funny recently, I wouldn’t pay him no mind”.As they talk, a huge bell sounds outside in the plaza. Its sound is so deep and loud that they feel it in their chest more than hearing it by their ears. After two strikes a town crier is heard, calling for a town meeting at the next bell. Tokket explains that *everyone* goes to the town meetings, and Mayor Hob will be answering some of the questions which people have.Half hour later, as the great bell chimes once more, Tokket closes up the inn and they join everyone else gathered in the plaza - facing a raised, torchlit platform on which stands Mayor Hob with Krekket the mine owner and his wife on one side and the guard chief on the other. Azrin attempts to detect thoughts, but finds it hard to concentrate with such a seething mass of people before him, although he senses that Krekket wants the mayor to calm people down. M’ir makes his way to the front of the crowd and the others stay near Tokket.Mayor Hob addresses the problems of the town, attempting to calm people down and reassure them that everything is all right. He covers most of the issues that the company had discovered people talking about in the inn, but none of his “solutions” ring true.  Azrin has a bit of unwanted excitement when three ruffians who had watched him in the bar attempt to pick a fight with him for being a “baldie”, but after the training he used to do with Ynnsfeardh (the monk who died a couple of months ago) he finds their fist fighting and trip attempts ludicrous - they keep leaving themselves wide open for simple counterattacks, and within seconds the scuffle has ended with all three staggered or knocked out.Tomorrow the party will have breakfast with Othic, then go and visit the witch.They all retire to the inn, paying for less luxurious rooms on the 1st floor. Syl creeps upstairs and picks a lock on one of the luxury bedrooms, but with a bare mattress and not having been prepared she has little better sleep than her companions on the floor below.In fact, they all have an awful nights sleep. Disturbing nightmares, different for each of them - full of threats and veiled promises. Difficult to remember the details in the morning, but sharing their experiences is quite difficult and distasteful.Ready for breakfast, they await their farming companion. Then the door crashes open, and a dirty and puffed farmhand cries outIt’s Othic - he’s been murderered!”</blockquote>

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