Ozzy sighs. He had thought it all a done deal, but his small mind had neglected to consider arrows and the quiver. He smiles at Erista, pulling one more gold coin from behind his ear and setting it down on the barrel. " Sounds like a good deal, we'll take them." he says, trying to sound happy despite the feeling he had been bested at his own game. As Erista collects the quiver and arrows, he takes a moment to scan the crowd for any sign of their travelling companions...
This message was last edited by the player at 21:47, Sun 08 Apr 2012.

"My thanks, Corian."  Eilieen beams at the helpful villager as he offers directions, then sets out to follow them.  Soon, thanks to the grace of Zadastha (and Corian, of course, and the villager...well, the list gets long quickly), they spot the pair of their shorter companions.  The priestess gleefully waves.

"Erista!  Oswald!"  She hurries up, pausing for a moment to glance at nearby fabric.  Ooo, that would...never mind, she remonstrates herself.  Later.  "I see you have fared well in your search for equipment."  The priestess bows to both.  "We have news," she notes, waving back at her other two companions, then glancing around uncertainly.

"But...I do not see Aramil and Colwyn."

"Aw, thank you!" Erista beams, and leans close to Ozzy.  "I'll settle up the halfsies later," she promises in a whisper.

She waves to Eilieen, and holds up the bow proudly.  "It's a good one, too.  Made by his very own son, and a fair deal he gave us, I'd say," she says, confidently, and clearly enough that the merchant can hear.  She looks a bit non-plussed at the mention of Aramil and Colwyn, trying to remember if she and Ozzy had been supposed to keep track of the pair.  "Er...no," she agrees.  "Maybe went looking for your cloak?"

And at that precise moment, Aramil and Colwyn enter the market square.  It doesn't take them long to spot their friends and make their way across.  Colwyn hands a small scrap of cloth to Eilieen.  "Them two shiftless buggers, Jack an' Declan, 'as gone an' run off with yer cloak.  We foun' that snagged on a post over that way" he waves a hand in a vaguely westerly direction, "an' we reckon 'as 'ow they might be 'idin' in an 'ole in the groun' we 'it on near there."

He studies Lannet for a moment, rubbing at his cheek, "Who's we got 'ere then?"

"This," Erista offers, "Is Lannet; by all accounts, an upstanding citizen of Fairhill.  Thanks to his help, we already have our bow," she holds it up in proof, "And he's offered to take us to an excellent tavern on top of it.  Which might be a good place to hear Eilieen's news," she proposes.

"Lannet, yer says?" Colwyn eyes the halfing suspiciously, but before he can say anything further, the target of his scrutiny interrupts...

"Yes that's my name.  Don't wear it out."  Smiling cheerfully, he continues, "So, you lost some of your friends then?  Is this the same Jack and Decklan you were looking for before, only I heard them mentioned when I was talking to these two."

Colwyn doesn't answer, at least not directly, "Tha's right.  Yer was 'angin' roun' then, wasn't yer?  Got nowt better ter be doin'?"  The rogue seems fairly aggressive in his tone.

"Why doesn't yer tell us where the tavern is, an' jus' point us the right way?  Then yer can go an' do what yer should be doin', an' we can be gettin' on with our business."

"Perhaps I can help you?" Lannet says, smiling, "What is your business in Fairhill?"

"Jus' that.  Our business."
This message was last edited by the player at 09:04, Sun 15 Apr 2012.

Ozzy smirks as Colwyn does what he could not, shutting down Lannets exuberant helpfulness with every answer. The local had been kind enough to offer direction, but having him hold the spotlight was wearing thin. Ozzy pulls on Colwyn's sleeve and says, " C'mon, we can find the tavern easy enough. Just follow the smell of stale beer and smoke." He pulls a little harder on the sleeve in an attempt to literally drag the big man away from further conversation with Lannet, eager to press on with the daily itinerary.

"Hmm."  Eilieen checks out the scrap of cloak.  "Indeed.  I'm no tracker, Colwyn, but I'd recognize that weave anywhere.  Look at the quality!  I purchased this from an old woman in..."  She rambles on for a bit about the place, the gold she paid, and other inconsequential details before realizing nobody is listening.

With good reason.  A mental smack follows.

"In any case, yes, this is mine."

She eyes Erista's bow, and slowly nods.  "I shall take your word for it, Erista.  Such things are not my strength, but glad I will be to have you protecting us with your arrows."  She never says shafts, a habit from her time in the temple.

"A pleasure to meet you, Lannet," she intones, bowing.  It seems the others don't have quite the same exuberance toward his presence as Erista, though, and Eilieen frowns as a bewildering array of comments about the tavern erupt.  "Wait, wait.  Shouldn't we be going to this hole in the ground Colwyn found, to catch Declan and Jack?"  Then the Chalice...this is becoming quite complicated, the Priestess decides.

Standing quietly beside Colwyn, the half-elf notes the introduction and waits to see just what sort of upstanding citizen this halfling actually is. Watching the exchange between Lannet and Colwyn it seems that the rogue is also suspicious of the local man. The talk of a tavern though soothes the half-elf and he wishes nothing more than to be enjoying a good meal and something decent to drink. Though by his standards a good meal and drink is not too upperclass, just good fair like at home in the inns where he grew up.

Answering Eileen's question Aramil says "Well we could follow those two, but maybe it would be a good idea to sit for a little while and plan what we are going to do. I'm curious to find out what you know from speaking to the elf about the robbery from the temple. So I's suggest heading to this tavern to talk things through first.. Then adding to his speech Oh and I found the hole, Colwyn just reported back to you first.".

Stepping beside Eileen, Ozzy whispers from the side of his mouth, _{" Ixnay on the avecay."} not entirely sure she knows the dialect, he shifts his attention instead to Aramil, " Thats JUST what I was saying! Me and Colwyn were just about to go get a pint right after we say our goodbyes to Lannet." he beams happily, nodding with emphasis as he glances once more to Eileen, hoping she gets the now obvious hint.

Corian looks about, a little bemused, "Ah... a spot of lunch is it?  That would seem to be a splendid idea, on the face of it.  But I'm afraid that we three," and here he gestures to himself, Eilieen and the Nameless Monk, "may have discovered  something which trumps lunch insofar as being a priority is concerned."

"I also rather suspect we may need to fetch Aarnr and Fergus."

"Oh?  There's more of you then?" an inquisitive halfling voice asks, and is promptly met by a surly, "Never bloody mind if'n there be more of us.  If'n yer doesn't bugger off, there's goin' ter be a sight less Lannet's in this 'ere village." from Colwyn.

Erista sighs, and gives Lannet a long-suffering smile.  "What we mean to say is, thank you very much for your help and we do hope to see you again before we leave, and perhaps we can work on our manners in the meantime, but we wouldn't want to keep you from your lunch just because we're apparently going to be too busy for it ourselves."

"Even," she adds, a little more firmly, "If you don't mind."

Understanding belatedly dawns.  Eilieen knows she isn't the quickest on the uptake when it comes to certain things; it has caused problems in the past, in the temple.  Of course, most of those problems could be resolved with a quick (often panicked) explanation and a laugh.  Some required a bucket of water.

One or two necessitated a sound thrashing with a candlestick.

But in this case, it seems the others don't particularly want to discuss their matters in front of Erista's new friend.

"Well done, Aramil," she notes to the half-elf.  "And yes, we should plan."  The pale priestess shoots an apologetic look at Oswald, following with a remonstrative glare at Colwyn.  "My apologies, Lannet.  It seems our business is private," she states with a small bow for the gentleman.  "You have my sincere thanks for the assistance you have provided Erista."

Lannet gives an ittitated "Hmph!", accompanied by an equally annoyed glare at Colwyn, "I'll be going then.  In the meantime, most of you seem nice enough, so I'll give you one piece of advice.  You should be careful of the company you keep."

He turns and moves away, and is soon lost from sight.

"Talk 'bout yer pots an' kettles." Colwyn growls, as soon as he judges the halfling is out of earshot, "That one's a tea leaf.  Like me.  But yer can trust me... yer's my mates, an' I doesn't rob from mates.  'e even give a Guild sign - sorta says, ter they as knows, ''ello, I's a thief.'  Like as not 'e were plannin' ter get them two" he points to Ozzy and Erista, "some place quiet, like, an' rob 'em blind."

"Anyhow... what's this yer's found as means more 'an a bit of grub?"

Ozzy breathes a sigh of relief as Lannet departs, then smiles. He always trusted gut instinct, and once again it had proven him right. He does his best not to say 'I told you so' to Erista, recalling his own flagrant flashing of coin while purchasing the bow. Instead, he focuses on the matter at hand - the noticable abscence of Decklan and Jack and mention of a possible hide-out for the two. " So do we got get Aarnr and Fergus first and then go have a look at this hole in the ground?" he asks, wanting everyone on the same page in the same book.

"Actually it would appear that we have something other than two missing bandits  to be concerned about." Corian explains.  "The priestess, Shandril, has provided us with some information regarding the location of Eralion's manse.  Additionally, she suspects that the thief who has taken a holy relic belonging to the village may have made off in that direction with the item."

"Eilieen has offered our services in searching the house for the stolen relic."  The sorcerer smiles, "And since we were planning to go there anyhow, it seems like the ideal opportunity to kill two goblins with one arrow, so to speak."

Erista shrugs at Colwyn's assessment of Lannet.  "Of course he was," she acknowledges.  "But in the meantime, he was very nice.  So, if we're looking for, ah, tea leaves, why did we just run off someone who knows the local herbs?  Especially if they have a Guild, they can't have approved something like that, could they?"  She looks at Colwyn critically.  "We probably could have talked them into rewarding us, too," she points out.

"A tea...oh, a thief!" Eilieen exclaims before turning bright red and lowering her voice.  "A thief.  I see."  She shakes her head, baffled as she often is by the vicissitudes of the world outside her temple.  It isn't exactly an ivory tower (though many puns are made of such a phrase within it), but its 'society' is very removed from the norm.  "I would never think you would rob me, Colwyn," she reaaures the man.

He might damage her ears with her language, perhaps, but take her purse?  Never.

"Corian has the right of it," she continues.  "And I believe Ozzy is correct - we shall require Fergus and Aarnr.  Certainly we can check whatever places we all have discovered, for both the relic AND our vanished miscreants."

Her pleased expression sours for a moment.  "The cloak isn't dear to me, but I detest the thought of those pathetic ruffians thinking they have gotten away with their misdeeds, scott free."

She should have allowed Aarnr to...well, probably not.  But it's a comforting thought.

"A thief, that's right." confirms Colwyn.

"Are you sure?" Corian asks, seeming a little surprised, "He seemed friendly enough."

"What?  Yer was expectin' 'im ter pull out a pig sticker an rob yer 'ere, in front of all these folks?  Yeah, I's sure.  Guilds 'as signs... ways ter tell other thieves that yer's a thief, an' e' give a sign."

"Yer knows, if'n we 'as ter fetch Aarnr an' Fergus," Colwyn opines, "it'd only be a bit out of our way ter look at this 'ere 'ole what me an' Aramil found.  Just that instead of goin' back through the village, we goes out that way ter the 'ole, an' then round the edge 'til we gets ter the road."
This message was last edited by the player at 08:18, Wed 09 May 2012.

A brief discussion follows, with the final result being that the group finds itself, a short while later, standing in a small copse and studying a cave or, more accurately, a fissure in the earth below the roots of a tree.

The opening is, just barely, large enough for a man to squeeze into, and seems to have a fairly steep slope.  It leads downwards into the ground for quite some distance.  The far end is lost in darkness.

There are bootprints in the wet dirt around the entrance...

"Well," Eilieen begins somewhat doubtfully.  "This holds promise."  Her lips twist in a moue of disgust at the idea of forcing herself into the narrow apeture.

It's...grimy.

Bending down she looks at the bootprints, studying their size, their placement, any possible differences between the tracks.  "Interesting..."  After a moment, the priestess straightens.  "Definitely boots," she decides.  "Does anyone have a lantern?  I fear I have nothing that will suffice for a trek beneath the earth."

"Promise?" Erista asks, doubtfully, and then shrugs.  "I've got one," she offers, swinging her pack around long enough to pull out a somewhat battered hooded lantern.

"So...who wants to go in first?"

After making his thought know, Aramil is strangely quiet about the group heading away from the local inn/tavern life and back into the countryside. A sigh escapes his lips as they return to the cave entrance, really not wanting to go down into the dark after two idiots who are better left alone. But since Aarnr is not with them someone else will need to be the lead in this situation.

Feeling better as Erista brings out a lantern, the half-elf shrugs and then says "Well lets get this over with. I'll go first, though I don't think these two are worth the trouble. I'd rather be back in Fairhill getting a drink, some food and preparing for the trek after the missing good luck charm."

"More'n likely 'olds more spiders, worms an' snakes than promise." Colwyn mutters to Ozzy, before announcing in a louder voice, "I's got some torches, so twixt them an' the lantern, we's all right fer light."

He unslings his pack and pulls a roughly cylindrical bundle of canvas off the top.  Unrolling it reveals the torches.  He selects one, then rewraps the rest before returning them to the pack.  He gestures for Aramil to take the lead, and the group enter the tunnel, their way lit by Erista and Colwyn.

The way is narrow in places, and everybody except Erista and Ozzy find it a tight fit on occasion.  The passage is some twenty feet long, sloping down quite steeply the whole way, until it opens out into a roughly circular chamber, about fifteen feet in diameter.  The walls are of dirt, supported by the roots of trees, and show signs of having been excavated at some point to make the low-roofed chamber larger.  The floor, too, is dirt.

There are signs of possibly recent occupation - four straw-filled mattresses and an equal number of worn blankets.  Some wooden bowls, two of which contain a little cold gruel, a few pots and pans...

"Ugh."  Eilieen brushes futilely at her (already stained) dress and cloak, then gives up with a sigh of disgust, the puff of hair bouncing her bangs up.  "Dirt, dirt, and more dirt.  Someday I shall hear of vast halls of marble, and will most certainly choose to explore them."

Until that point, it seems she'll just have to put up with this.

And mouldy straw, and old gruel, and...

The Priestess stamps her feet on the dirt once or twice just to get it out of her system, then shakes out her arms.  "Right," she begins, with forced cheer.  "It would seem we've found a lair.  Of men."  Women couldn't possibly be so dirty.  Her eyes search the gloom, looking for an exit.  It's unlikely, but one never knows.  An escape tunnel, perhaps?