The plain little village green of Criplot is awash with hubbub and noise. Most of the menfolk have already left for their day's work in the mines, but the green is thronged with women and children, some peeking out nervously from behind the doors of their simple cottages; several gathered on the steps of the village shrine on the eastern edge of the green. All have congregated to gawk at the unusually large number of strangers that have stopped here to rest their feet on this pleasant autumn morning.

The sounds of chatter and giggling are suddenly interrupted by a woman's panicked cries. A middle-aged woman, dirty and disshevelled, with a trickle of blood dried on the side of her face, comes running into the green from the northeast road. A boy of about 8 or 9 with tears streaking his muddy face is hot on her heels.

The woman looks around her with frantic eyes, pausing to quickly gasp for air before blurting out 'My babies! Help! They took my babies!'

Maiya had many questions in life--some of which were the more higher, philosophical kind--like why the sky was blue of all colors.

Others were more down to earth, like "What am I going to do for dinner tonight" or "Why, precisely, did someone call this place Criplot of all things?  What story is behind that because it has unfortunate connotations and suggests a vaguely goblinoid origin."

But she was still a knight errant of the Order of the Steel Pen, and that meant something darnit!  So even though allegedly she was serving as the bodyguard to the priestess here...

Well, there was only one thing to do, one question relevant at the moment.

"Which way Ma'am, and how many?"  She asked, clinking forward and all business.  There was no time to lose!
This message was last edited by the player at 06:30, Wed 14 Aug 2019.

Harbek had been on the road since first light, hoping to get in as many miles as he could before the morning heat really made itself felt. At the moment he was taking a welcome respite under the shade of a tree in a little roadside Human village when a Human female came rushing up, wailing that "they" had taken her babies.

Harbek rose to his feet, but a different Human female -- a much younger one, wearing armor -- had already stepped in and was asking questions. Mindful of the proper etiquette, Harbek waited until the Human had finished asking her questions before he asked a few of his own.

"What sort of creatures took your bnarrs . . . ah, your children, goodwife?" he inquired gently, in his rumbling baritone.

"If you are not sure, please describe them for us. Also, how many creatures are we dealing with here, and how many of your children were taken?"

In his own mind Harbek was uncertain as to whether the armor-clad female had inquired as to the number of marauding creatures or children that they should be seeking to rescue, so he asked the question a little differently.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:40, Tue 13 Aug 2019.

Daniel heads for the northeast road to look for trail signs...not that he actually expects to find them on the road, buy hope springs eternal.

Dorian was walking down a road, trying to remember how he got there. A recurrent question in his life. He's sure that he's walking in a straight line, though gravity seems to be messy right now, forcing him to constantly maintain his equilibrium.

And suddenly a scream! He sees a desperate person talking to a heavily armored woman and instinctively he raises his hands "It wasn't me!". He freezes in this position as another one joins the party, a dwarf, interesting. Dorian then starts to feel his jacket's sleeves get wet. The Horror! He was spilling his precious wine all over himself from the bottle in his hand. He lowers his arms, annoyed by the situation and mentally cursing the strangers. But one must not cry over the spilled wine, so he joins the group "What's happening here?"

The woman glances around her in dazed confusion for a moment, obviously overwhelmed by emotion and barely registering what's said to her. She stares at Mariya blankly for a moment until, taking in her martial gear and religious iconography, her eyes suddenly fill with hope.

"Oh, praise the Good Lady for bringing you to us!" She reaches out imploringly. "Goblins, my lady! Goblins! They attacked us on the path a ways back. They left me and Jon," at the mention of Jon she suddenly glances around in panic, relief showing on her face as she sees the boy she arrived with being comforted by a matronly villager. Her eyes flick back to Maiya "But they took little Ami and Todd with them! Snatched them up and dragged then away!"

Her voice rises to almost a scream as she speaks, and a wave of gasps and muttering ripples through the crowd of gathered village women. "Goblins?!" "Right on the road?!" "In broad daylight?!"

Without responding to him directly -- Harbek supposed that it was appropriate for the distraught woman to look to a person who apparently was, given her martial equipment and the village woman's choice of words, one of their primary goddess's warriors -- for aid, the villager answered the Dwarf's questions. Goblins were the culprits and they had snatched two children, apparently.

Harbek made no comment, seeing as how the villager was more comfortable addressing the female warrior. He had noted, however, a Human male hurrying down the road in the direction where the attack had apparently occurred, and a second Human male had just joined them and asked what was happening.

It did not escape the orderly Dwarf's notice that the Human male who stood close by held a bottle of wine in his hand, and the fellow's breath stank of liquor. The corners of Harbek's mouth turned down in a disapproving frown -- seemingly this Human had started his drinking much too early, (or mayhap more likely, given the fact that the fellow seemed a trifle unsteady on his feet, had been drinking the whole night through).

~Disappointingly undisciplined,~ Harbek thought to himself as he turned back to face the armor-clad Human female, giving her the opportunity to represent her goddess well and take charge in this trying situation.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:58, Wed 14 Aug 2019.