"Personally not interested in paying my respects to the Gods at this precise moment.  A drink or two or three might put me in the mood.  And the Cask and Flagon looks more like my type of place.  Anyone else interested?"

Ullie attempts to guide his companions passed the brightly-lit windows of the Drunken Cockatrice, right at the heart of the village, toward an inn tucked behind a general store, the Cask and Flagon.

If first impressions count for anything, the exterior of this inn leaves a lot to be desired. Put simply, the place looks old and rundown. Glancing through a soot-covered window near the front door, the adventurers see a handful of patrons inside.

If the adventurers enter, they find the inn's interior is of similar quality to its exterior and consists of a large common room with a fireplace, four booths along one wall with curtains that can be drawn for privacy (two are presently occupied), and a set of railed stairs leading to private rooms above. There are about a dozen people in the common room, none of which seem concerned about anything other than nursing their drinks.

Four shaggy dogs lounge about on the common room's straw-covered floor, one fussing with a bone, another chewing its tail, another sleeping, and the last intently watching a nearby table for the possibility of any table scraps hitting the floor. The elderly innkeeper, Tarnen, is seated in a rocking chair by the fireplace, slowly puffing on a pipe filled with foul-smelling weed.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:20, Fri 19 Nov 2021.

Ullian may be the only person in the establishment smiling.

It's a brave front that he puts up; this is hardly the place he expected it to be.  To the contrary, it is rather  . . . dull.  Boring.  Listless.

But having entered on his suggestion, he isn't about to propose turning around and leaving.  He claps his hands together once, broadens his smile, and heads toward an empty table.

A few moments after the party has seated themselves at a private booth, a pasty, ginger-haired serving girl, Emma, emerges from the kitchen and asks if the adventurers will be taking supper (mutton stew, hard cheese, and bread: 1 silver piece), drink (beer: 5 copper pieces per pint), and/or require lodging (1 gold piece per night, five rooms presently available).

Emma takes orders and will return with the items a short time later. For his part, the innkeeper just continues to puff his pipe, seemingly lost in his own world.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:38, Fri 19 Nov 2021.

When Emma is present, Ullian cheerfully engages in conversation:

"And good evening to you, Emma.  You have a trio of thirsty gentlemen here and I for one crave beer and supper.  But tell me: it seems painfully quiet in here.  Unusually quiet; not like normal.  What has got everyone in such a stupor?"

____________

And while Emma is attending to the order, Ullian says to his companions:

"I know Sir Rodegar advised us not to stay the night here, and I'm not suggestin' that we do.  But I've often found that the less glamorous places often have the best and most useful information."

____________________

And through it all, Ullian surreptitiously evaluates the others in the tavern.

Emma shuffles nervously before responding, "Local folk have been nervous for a while now, what with all the orc sightings in the area. That was bad enough, but when they," her voice lowers to a whisper, "did what they did to the Bessemer's, well, folk have been scared to be out at night if they don't have to."

She relates the fact the Bessemer's were a local family who lived about 4 miles east of Fairhill, along a stream just west of what she refers to as "that haunted keep where The Vampire lives." Apparently the family was found massacred in their home, the culprits presumed to be orcs.

She also says Ullie and his party are not the first out-of-towners to come through in past days and she gestures to a nearby table, where a young woman with dark hair and eyes is seated with a talkative halfling. Both are drinking pints.

Then Emma gestures vaguely to the rest of the room, "everyone else, well, these are the regulars."

A surreptitious evaluation of the room reveals Emma's assessment to likely be true. Most of the patrons appear to be common folk, farmers, ranchers, and the like, with the two notable exceptions being the dark haired woman and the chatty halfling.

"Thank you, love," Ullian says in response to the information and the meal/libations, and he tips her an extra silver.

When she's away again, he says to the others: "I appear to have misapprehended the nature of the place.  Not what I expected at all.  But given what it is, I'm wondering about that woman and the 'alflin'.  Apparently, they made the same mistake I did in evaluatin' this place -- any objection to finding out?"

Ullian really hopes there's something noteworthy about the pair, so that his steering the party to this dive was not a total waste of time.

Sharn follows Ullian, liking the sound of the rougher inn.  Like him, she's found them more interesting and less, well, likely to refuse service to her kind.   She kinda turns more green at the ladies comments of "orcs" killing the families, but orders an ale just the same.

"... an exaggeration at best," the dark haired woman said to the halfling in a half heard conversation.  Though she's not wearing armor, she does have a sword slung from her belt.  It looks incongruous with the simple straw colored dress that she's wearing.  The hard worn leather boots, however, do seem more a match for the sword and battered scabbard.

The halfling laughs in response to Rigya's comment and then not-so-nonchalantly swings his attention back to the newly arrived adventurers seated a booth away. Then, turning back to the woman he says, "Maybe so. But might be worth the squeeze nonetheless."

Ullian picks up his mug and walks to the table occupied by the woman and halfling.  "I must say," he says, taking a swig from his mug "you seem to be the only others in this place who have a pulse!  Which makes me think that, like us, you're not from around here and didn't know better?"

"So what does it mean when an elf, an orc, and a gnome walk into a bar?" she asked speculatively without malice as she tilted back her chair to size up the rest of their table.

"All you'd need is a dwarf and a halfling to make a full set."

She looked around the room to see if there were any dwarves available to round out their diversity demographic and smiled at her own jest.

"We were just passing the time with a drink," she replied to the elf standing before them.  "Maybe thinking of doing something about all this talk about the orc problem hereabouts."

She refrained from looking directly at the orc sitting not a stones throw from where she sat.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:50, Sat 20 Nov 2021.

Ullian senses that the woman is purposely avoiding glancing at Sharn. "If you're referring specifically to the current problem that may or may not be perpetrated by orcs, I don't think Sharn'll quarrel with you too much.  If you're thinking is that orcs are inherently problems, then I'd be best moving on.  Can't speak for her, but I think she's bothered by problems regardless of who's causing 'em.

Name's Ullian, by the way."

Clatsi parted ways briefly to ensure that Corian’s remains were passed on to a suitable temple for the appropriate rites, and he spoke with Folly briefly to point out that the party should re-unify even while in town, as it was not safe while any one of them carried the amulet.

Cue the revelation that Folly doesn’t have the amulet, if that’s the case.

Regardless, when or if the little gnome eventually reached the tavern, he was loathe to stay there. A meal and drinks he would accept, but he didn’t feel safe in this place.

Outside the Cask and Flagon, Folly pulls Clatsi aside. The dwarven bard kneels down on one knee and fishes around inside his oversized boot.

A few moments later, Folly retrieves the amulet from his boot and thrusts it into Clatsi's hands.

"Here. This thing's been nothing but a curse since it came to us. I want no part of it anymore and am of mind to toss it into a river and be done with it. But, I know you have had your eyes on it, so you can have it."

He stands back up and visually assesses the gnome for a few moments, shakes his head, and begins to briskly walk toward the Drunken Cockatrice. He only gets a few steps away before he turns around and offers a brief farewell.

"Take care of yourself and may the Gods be with you!"

With that, he continues on to the Drunken Cockatrice.

"Rigya," the woman replied with a nod to Ullie's introduction.

"And this is Lannet," she added with a hand in the halfling's direction.

"I suppose that not all orcs need to be dealt with permanently," she conceded, finally looking in Sharn's direction.

"What brings your lot into town?" she asked, taking a sip of her pint.

Lannet pops up over the adjoining booth and favors the party with a toothy smile. "Nice to meet you fine folks. As the lady says, Lannet's the name, but you can call me Lanny."

The jovial halfling seems quite interested to hear the party's response to Rigya's query.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:44, Sat 20 Nov 2021.

"Looking for our next venture.  Something with the promise of pay, reward, discovery of lost treasure hoards, or the like.  And you?"

"All those sound good to me!" Lanny eagerly replies while nodding his head in agreement to each of Ullie's points. His toothy grin grows to almost comical proportions as he thinks about the possibility of each.

Ullie nods at the table from whence he came. "Then why don't you join us?  We only just arrived, and made a beeline for here; anything you've ferreted out about this place is more'n we know."

Assuming they accede, Ullie makes introductions all around.

"Really!?" Lannie's eyes expression brightens even further. "By and by, My lucky Handkerchiefs and Knickers! I accept!"

Lannet takes another swig of his beer and comments, "Well, it's cheap, at least it's got that going for it." The beer here certainly isn't anything to write home about. The adventurers will learn the food and rooms are of similar quality.

Lannie says he only recently arrived himself. He has gathered there have been orc sightings recently. There is supposed to be a vampire's lair in an old keep in the woods to the east. Finally, the beer at Three Kegs is the best in the village and also the reason Lannie is now without much coin and on the lookout for business opportunities.

"So you're both freelancing a bit, with no definitive plan in mind . . . like us?"

Lannet seems to have said as much, or at least nearly so; he looks to Rigya for clarification.

The adventurers will also readily hear variations of the following rumors:

Another band of adventurers went missing recently, one of which was the blacksmith's daughter, Arialle, who fancied herself as such. They struck out to the north and never returned.

Merchants have been talking about the destroyed Tradeway station in the Stirge Wood (the local  name for the Stoneheart Forest and that it may cause trade disruptions.

A few patrons have mentioned the fact the people of the village Crimmor are having trouble with stirges, but that's what they get for living so close to the Stirge Wood.

"My plan was to try my hand at bounty hunting," Rigya replied to Ullie.  "But I'm flexible if the 5 of us want to go see the blacksmith about where his daughter might have gone.

"A blacksmith's reward might be worth something, even if we only bring back a body."

It was a little like bounty hunting in that regard.  Bringing back a body.

"I'm game for that," Ullian says.  "Anything, really, that adds to my personal wealth.  Of course, 'north' can mean a long way; we could be pursuing forever.  But maybe the blacksmith has an idea as to where they were heading?

Besides, might help us pin down the reward situation."