Having walked alone with his trusted wolf from the Silvanesti camp with a list of things the druid enclave needed. Regan had been given a name, Halthorne the Wise, and a description, bald and blind gnome with skin almost khaki in color, and a location, the Pashin bazaar.

Dressed as he was and accompanied by a wolf, most of the commoners avoided Regan to the best of their ability. Or at least they tried to do so. So finding Halthorne was slower than it could have been. Not that he even once considered leaving Bisa behind.

But with time the duo arrived at a small almost nondescript khaki tent with a gnome fitting the description Regan had been given outside, greeting him in the fast paced talk of the gnomes.

Of course, Regan remembered the gnome from his days at the enclave, studying the martial ways of the druid sect.  The two didn't attend at the same time but Regan learned that the little one was called many names by some of the less mature students ~ Regan had no such petty concerns.  He was there to study, learn and listen.

"Greetings to you Halthorne, I am Regan from the Silverbrook Grove," said Regan shaking the gnome's hand.  "You are expecting me, yes?"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:19, Tue 27 Nov 2007.

”Iwasexpectingsomeoneyes,” Halthorne said. “Youhavesomethingforme?”

"I do," nodded Regan, then realised the futility of his action.  The druid pulled a small pouch of coin from his pack which chinked slightly as it came to rest in his hand.

"I've a pouch of steel here in exchange for the small consignment of silver we need.  Do you have the goods as arranged?" he asked.

“Ihaveeverythingyouneed,” the gnome said and deftly picked up the pouch from Regan’s hand.

Halthorne opened the pouch and counted each and every coin carefully as if he could see through those blind eyes of his.

“Iwillarrangeforthetransport,” Halthorne said.

There was a moment of silence and something in Halthorne’s face seemed to change.

“Find your kin and the quest you came for will be presented,” the gnome said in a very ungnomelike manner.

Then his face returned to what it had been before.

“IsthereanythingelseIcandoforyou?”

Regan was taken aback on two counts.  Firstly, he had assumed that the druid elder wanted him to return to the grove with the goods but then Halthorne mentioned something about 'finding his kin' and 'a quest'!

The druid paused as he thought things through.  Some while back, Regan had experienced what he described as a message from Chislev who told the young man that he would play an important part in some climactic event.  He assumed it was something to do with the restoration work being undertaken in Silvanesti but perhaps it was something else...?

"I...uh...haven't seen my kin in some time.  In fact, I'm not even sure where to start looking.  Solamnia is a big place..." replied Regan somewhat startled by what the gnome said to him.

“Whatareyoutalkingabout,” Halthorne asked. “Solamniaisfarawayfromhere.This isPashininKhur.Ithinkyou’vebeenspendingtoomuchtimewiththosedruids.” And then the gnome chuckled, though his chuckles boomed out of his mouth as if from a much larger frame that the diminutive form of the gnome.

Regan considered the gnomes speedy words for a moment.  If he didn't know better, he would swear by the Gods that something was happening here that the druid did not fully understand.

"Well..." Regan began, "...if you're sure you can arrange for the goods to be sent to the grove..."

The druid slowly patted Bisa upon the back.  "I think we ought to be going my friend," he said to the wolf.  "Goodbye Halthorne," Regan said as he left the gnome's company.

Regan went back to the bustle of the streets and began talking to no-one in-particular.  "I wonder where we should start looking?  If I didn't know better, it was as if the gnome was suggesting 'my kin' was here in Pashin itself!"

The druid and his companion began to wonder the streets of Pashin not knowing who exactly he was looking for but decided to first check any bars or taverns.

”Iamsure,” Halthorne said. “Goodbye.”

Regan entered Pashin in late afternoon, still a few hours before sunset. People milled about in the streets doing their various chores. And as they noted Regan and Bisa, they gave them a wide berth.

The first tavern Regan encountered was the Wounded Crow, which seemed to be quite an upscale establishment.

As Regan walked the streets, he couldn't help but notice after a while that people seemed to be avoiding him.  It wasn't an automatic realisation but eventually, he wondered if it was Bisa that might be giving the citizens some concern.  It was then that the duo arrived at the first tavern.  "You'd better make yourself hidden," said Regan as he knealt to his lupine companion and stroked his mane.  "Come!"

Regan led Bisa around the corner of the Wounded Crow where there was a small space behind a water barrel that would serve as a respite for the wolf.  "I'll be back soon, you'll be ok here my friend."  Regan reached into his pack, pulled out some dried meat from his rations and plopped it down in front of Bisa.  With a smile, the druid made his way into the tavern.

As he swung open the door, it was then that he realised that he didn't have a clue who he was looking for.  Regan hadn't seen his parents for sometime now and would have a hard enough job recognising them!  His brother was enlisted in some army somewhere back in Solamnia and neither his sibling nor his parents had any love of the wild or of travel.  That was why Regan had left them all years ago in order to find someplace he could truly call 'home'.

[Maybe I have to find someone from Mother or Father's lineage ~ like an uncle or an aunt?] he asked himself.

Regan scoured the room to see if there was anyone who looked vaguely recognisable.

There were a lot of people in the Wounded Crow, all of them better dressed than Regan was and the other patrons soon noted the newcomer.

Regan spent some time looking around the tavern/inn, but the kin he was supposed to find didn't seem to be there.

For a brief moment, Regan felt a little dejected that he didn't seem to find who he was looking for in the Wounded Crow.  Then he reminded himself that his search was only just beginning and he and Bisa had plenty of Pashin left to explore.

Returning to his wolfen companion, he noted that Bisa had finished the dried meat quickly.  "Nothing doing in there lad, said Regan.  "C'mon, let's keep looking."

Together, the duo continued on their search of Pashin but this time, tried to take side streets and alleys where possible so that the citizens didn't have to fear the presence of a wolf in their town.

As Regan walked the alleyways, he came upon this scene.

Five descendants of the Godsbringers, one of them with a drawn sword. That one being none other than Regan's uncle Marcus. A lady of the night held on to the arm of the disguised half elf, though to the untrained or ignorant eye, he was a human. And the biggest of them ran away from the others.

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