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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RatPunk" data-source="post: 762882" data-attributes="member: 1246">Chapter 6 - Fairhill---From The Journal Of Knuptar---As we packed to resume our trip to Fairhill, we realized that we were accumulating more stuff than we could comfortably carry. Someone suggested that we use the draft horse and wagon in the barn. Nobody was using them now and the horse was likely to die if we just left it. It sounded like a great idea. We named the horse Pilsner and hitched it to the wagon.Since Corian had proven himself somewhat useful in the fight against Vortigern, Jeb relented and gave back his crossbow and a handful of bolts. Jeb kept the amulet for safekeeping, though. We didn’t trust Corian that much. With everything loaded on the wagon, we hit the road and left the farmhouse behind.The rest of the trip to Fairhill was uneventful and we pulled into town just after mid-day. Of course, our first task was to locate a tavern. We stopped one of the locals on our way into town and asked him where one might be. Fairhill must have been a swinging town, because there were three such places: The Three Kegs, the Cask & Flagon and the Drunken Cockatrice.We thought it best to make the rounds. The first tavern we found was the Three Kegs. We found a table near the door and sat down. When the serving girl came to our table, Pyro’s jaw hit the floor. He was in love. To his credit, she was very attractive, but she was also a halfling. We tried to tell him it wouldn’t work out, but he would not be deterred. He began flirting. Sadly, his people skills aren’t all that good. She was gracious and polite, but she wasn’t interested. Just as we had predicted.We pumped the clientele for information about the area. Mostly we got crop reports and weather predictions, but there were also a few vague rumors that sounded promising. We tore Pyro away from his new love and moved to the next tavern. That turned out to be the Cask & Flagon. It was a bit more upscale than the Three Kegs, if the word ‘upscale’ could really be used in a podunk little village like Fairhill. Our discreet inquiries about potential adventuring opportunities, however, met with the same results. Only when we dropped the name ‘Eralion’ did we get more specific wild rumors and speculations. Apparently, his keep was located somewhere in the old forest near town. The townsfolk all agreed that it was occupied by some “shadowy figure”. Most believed it to be a vampire. Swell.We moved on to the Drunken Cockatrice. It was definitely the nicest of the three taverns and this time we managed to dig up some solid information. A drunk named Fendrin was rambling on to anybody that would listen (which was mainly us) about a manticore that had killed his wife and son. A couple of quick questions to the barkeep corroborated the missing family, although nobody but Fendrin had seen the manticore. Still, it was a prospect.We inquired about lodging at the Cockatrice and rented a couple of rooms for the week. With both rumors and lodging secured, Pyro, Jeb, Corian and I felt it was time to explore the town. The rest of the group wanted to stay at the tavern and rest. Wimps.Fairhill was fairly average for a village its size. There were several rows of shops and houses arrayed in a semi circle around a common marketplace area. Opposite the main town area was a small stone tower on a small hill. It was obviously the seat of power. Down a short path to the north of the tower was another, smaller hill which contained several small shrines to various gods. The largest of these was the shrine to Freya, a fertility goddess of the nearby barbarian countries that I had never heard of. She seemed to be quite popular in Ratik and had a large following in Fairhill. And the High Priestess in town was HOT.Her name was Shandril. She was an elf, which was odd since elves almost always worship elven deities. It just added to her mystique. We had decided to venture over to the temple area to pay our respects to whatever gods happened to have shrines there. We arrived just in time to witness the end of one of Shandril’s sermons. Sitting on the altar behind her was a large silver bowl covered in strange runes. She picked it up and held it in front of her. Suddenly, she plunged the bowl, and her entire arm, into the flaming brazier that stood beside the altar. She then began to chant in a language that none of us recognized. This went on for a couple of minutes, then she withdrew her arm and the bowl, both unharmed.We were suitably impressed.As we walked back towards town, Jeb had an idea. Why not set up shop and try to sell some of our excess baggage in the marketplace? We were skeptical about what we could sell to villagers, but Jeb was insistent. What could it hurt? At the worst he wouldn’t sell anything and we’d still be stuck with the stuff. It was worth a shot. But we also needed to get the rusty short sword from the farmhouse cleaned and repaired, as well as look into getting some armor made. So first it was off to visit the blacksmith.The blacksmith’s name was Voril and at first he was reluctant to do the job. In fact, he seemed pretty reluctant to do anything. It wasn’t that he didn’t like us, though. It seemed to be more of a depression thing. Of course we asked what was up and he told us. His daughter, Arialle, had recently disappeared. Arialle, it turned out, was quite the local celebrity. She was an excellent singer and could often be found singing at any one of the town’s taverns. And yet she had yearned for a life of adventure. Don’t they all? She had apparently run off a week or so earlier and he hadn’t heard from her since. He was, of course, terribly worried. We huddled and talked it over. We told Voril that we would look for his daughter. Rescuing damsels in distress is what we were all about. He was greatly appreciative. So much so, in fact, that he offered to make one of us the best set of full plate mail we had ever seen if we brought her back. In the meantime, he would work on the short sword and the other jobs that we had asked for. We compensated him with a large gem from our stash and went on our way.Jeb wanted to spend the rest of the day playing merchant in the marketplace, so while he went to get our stuff from the wagon, Pyro and I decided to hit the taverns again and see what we could dig up on Arialle. We learned that she was a popular attraction in and around Fairhill. Everywhere we went, people told us about her fantastic singing voice. She was always a big draw. The barkeeps, however, also told us about her propensity for hanging around with adventurers. Just our luck that she would blow town just before we arrived.Whenever a group would come into town, she would latch on to them and learn anything she could. A little over a week ago, she had hooked up with a group that agreed to let her accompany them. They left town shortly thereafter, heading north. That was the last anyone had seen of any of them.It wasn’t much, but it was a start.Between the drinking and the investigating, we had managed to kill a couple of hours. We went back to the marketplace to see how Jeb was doing. Predictably, he hadn’t sold a damn thing. He decided to pack it in and we went back to the Drunken Cockatrice. The rest of the group was still there, so we filled them in on what we’d learned during the day. Those of us who had talked to Voril decided to leave in the morning to search the area for any signs of Arialle and her friends. The other lazy butt-heads still wanted to rest.Since everyone seemed to agree that Arialle’s group had gone north, that’s where we decided to start. We went into the wilderness due north of Fairhill and hiked all day. The terrain alternated between low wooded hills and flat grasslands. As we walked, I tried to pick up signs of their passing, but tracks were few and far between and consisted mainly of animal prints. When it began to get dark, we found a small glade and set up camp.The whole watch system really kind of breaks down a bit when you only have 4 people in camp, but we did the best we could. Pyro took first watch, I took second and Jeb took third. Corian did whatever the hell he wanted. He could have wandered off for all we cared.So I sat there on my watch in the middle of the night, watching the campfire die out and keeping my ears open. Suddenly, I heard the sound of snapping twigs in the distance. As it got closer, it started to sound more like sticks and limbs than twigs. Whatever was coming our way sounded big. I woke the others and they got up just in time. Four goblins burst into our little clearing, yelling and screaming and waving their little weapons all over the place. Behind them was an ogre.Jeb and I immediately dropped back and started shooting at the goblins. Pyro drew his sword and charged the ogre. Corian just stood there and did what little he could, being the useless lump of a sorcerer that he was. After a couple of spectacular misses on my part, I was forced to drop my bow and draw my swords. Jeb and I made short work of the goblins after that. We turned our attention to Pyro and the ogre.Jeb and I could only look on in amazement at the scene before us. There stood Pyro and the ogre, toe to toe, swinging away at each other. Not hitting, just swinging. We stood dumbfounded for several minutes before we thought about helping Pyro out. We rushed forward and surrounded the ogre. In no time it was on the ground breathing it’s last.We rifled the bodies for anything of value, then resumed our camping. In the morning, we continued traveling north. Eventually, the ground started to get rockier. We were heading into another area of wooded hills. As we walked, we began to notice a smell so horrific that our noses felt like they would spontaneously combust. Then came the crunching noise, followed immediately by the tree falling onto the path in front of us.When the dust cleared, we saw the owlbear standing in front of us. Its chest was covered with fresh blood and it held the remains of a recently deceased deer in its paws. It looked at us for a second, quickly decided that we looked much more appetizing, and charged. Pyro drew his sword and met the owlbear halfway. Jeb and I spread out on either side and started taking pot shots. And Corian… well, he was Corian. We didn’t pay too much attention to him.Things went well for the first minute or two. Jeb and I got a couple of good shots in and Pyro managed to land a blow or two. Unfortunately, it only seemed to make the thing mad. Suddenly, it lunged forward, wrapped its arms around Pyro in a big owlbear hug and started squeezing. All Pyro could do was let out a muffled “hunh” as the beast slowly tried to crush the life out of him. It seemed to be working.I threw down my bow and drew my swords. Jeb moved in closer, still shooting. He was so close, in fact, that he was almost standing right next to the damn thing. The owlbear was focused on Pyro, however, and seemed oblivious to the damage we had begun to inflict on it. Then it threw its head back, gave a loud, gurgling roar and fell to the ground, dead. Even in death it maintained it’s grip on Pyro and it fell on top of him.It took a few minutes, but we finally managed to drag Pyro out from under the beast. He was alive and relatively undamaged, but very, very sore, not to mention smelly. Well, more so than usual, anyway. We took a moment to catch our breath, then explored the area. It didn’t take us long to locate the owlbear’s lair.It was an abandoned house, only a few hundred feet away. Near the house was a small cluster of old graves. We managed to tolerate the stench long enough to give what was left of the house a quick once over. There didn’t appear to be anything of value, but more importantly there was no indication that any of the owlbear’s recent victims had been human. We opted to leave the graves undisturbed.We were only two days out of Fairhill and we had already been hard pressed fighting two large, tough opponents. If the ogre and the owlbear were any indication of the things roaming the wilderness around the village, then it was a good thing we had arrived in town. These people obviously needed our protection.Even though we had yet to find any sign of Arialle or her friends, we decided to return to Fairhill to regroup and maybe talk some of the others into joining us.</blockquote>

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