001 - One Fine Morning in the Town of Emberdell
After arranging for bedding and private rooms with the Larissa, you are shown to separate accommodations. The rooms are small, and for the 5 copper you pay you get a bed for one, fresh straw and a pair of heavy blankets, one to cover you from the straw, and the second one to cover you against the cold. A pitcher of water and a chamber pot are your only companions, aside from the view out of the small shuttered window. The evening rain persists for a few more hours, and you all fall asleep to the sound of drops hitting the roof and side of the tavern.
The next morning you pick up some breakfast, gather your belongings and head out to the town round.
You walk through the town towards the center, following the main road. A few windows open as you pass and inquisitive faces follow your passage wordlessly. A few smile and wave, others simply stare, or frown, at the "strangers in town". The round is a circle of open space roughly in the center of Emberdell. A large well rests in the middle, around which mill several women, talking among themselves in a lively way. Several smaller buildings are set around the well at an even distance, and a larger two-story one with large doors stands to the north of the round. Several guards mill about the entrance, laughing to themselves.
Your questions reveal that you can find Master Garrel in the larger building, which is the town's hall. As you enter, you are greeted with a large open space and several doors to the right. Past the first door you enter a hallway, and are invited into a separate clerk's room by a young woman, Master Garrel's secretary.
Master Garrel, a man of advanced age for a human, with silver hair and beard, sits behind a large elm desk, framed by several bookshelves filled with scrolls and a few tomes, along with a lamp, several quills, and a bottle of ink. He dresses in clerical robes of green with red and yellow embroidered accents. He wears a large hat under a perpetually frowning face. As you approach, he says,
"Another set of applicants."
He exhales his frustrations.
"Good, good." He opens a large drawer to his right, the bottom most, and pulls a large leather folio to the top of the desk. He meticulously unties the knots, unfolds the leather covers, and pages through the hand-written announcements kept in it.
"You are here for the bounties? Yes? I hope you have better luck than the others before you," he comments with an almost cynical tone, although you thought it may have had a slight glint of hope in it.
He picks several of the vellums and begins to scan them.
"Yes, yes... this is right..."
He clears his throat loudly a few times before launching into the words with a formal tone.
"By order of the court of the magistracy, the free town of Emberdell hereby requests the service of mercenaries for the purposes of ... ah! whatever... drivel, drivel...," Master Garrel spits out in impatience.
"Look, the job's simple. Get rid of the goblins, the orcs, the ogres, and anything else you find out there. It pays well. 10 gp a goblin head, 20 gp for each orc head, and 200 gp for the head of the ogres.
You want the job?"
He looks up at all of you, peering through old suspicious narrowed eyes that have probably seen more than 60 winters.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:12, Fri 01 May 2020.