Fost was amused by Erin's outbreak. Not that he showed it. Especially since he was pretty sure that it all originated in the simple misunderstanding of an arguably exaggerated compliment from his friend. Whether Erin was simply oblivious of Richard attempt to charm her or whether she expertly blocked off any forrays of his in that direction remained to be seen. Either way, he anticipated Richard's reply to the surely unexpected reaction.
Fost chose to follow Erin's lead here, if only to make a bit of fun on Richard. And so he also ignored that part about Erin's beauty of the supposed tales and played along.
With a controlled mien to hide his amusement Fost answered.
"I hail from the West Hills, near Elmridge to be precise."
"Whatever tales have spread about you have either not reached that far or have just not reached my ears. If the latter, I do apologize."

Upon entering the Refuge Fost scanned the customers and returned the nod of Hawker and also nodded to the dwarf's brother.

As they settled down at the table and had ordered beverage the warrior noticed Sally's interest in their young companion.
"Indeed he is. We have been tasked to accompany Alistair to Bournshire."
"Say, we have heard about some trouble with bandits around here. Indeed that some nobles from Denerim tried, and failed, to remove them."
"If so, I'd rather face them without needing to watch out for our young friend. Though, it must be said, Loran did a good job so far caring for Alistair."
"And I'd also like to have a word with Lothering's mayor, Elfred. The fellow at the road mentioned he might be found here?"

Richard chuckled to himself and gave her another bow “Every tale has a kernel of truth, it is up to us to figure out which is it.” He lets her walk in front with Loran as he falls back to Fost “It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?” He simply states.

He entered the tavern with a broad smile, his eyes scan the room, trying to count the number of patrons and their activities.

I’d like to get a headcount on every patron in here and what they’re doing

"Kelsie, Kelsie... Is she living in Lothering?" It was hard to keep track of everyone in town, particularly if one accounted for aliases and nicknames, which at times entirely replaced the names some were born with. Hadn't Loren mentioned the circle, she would had thought his attire was some kind of new fashionable thing straight from Orlais but then again... "Do they let high born folks such as yourself in the Circle? I thought it was for rounding up dangerous magicians, so they wouldn't conjure their spells to turn innocent people into toads, sour the milk or ruin crops."

At least the vile rumors about her hadn't spread West, far West anyway, leaving only every other direction to be worried about. "Thank you Longstrider." Already in her head, Erin made plans to discreetly question travelers in the coming weeks, in an effort to pinpoint the extent of this disaster.

As they went inside, she greeted back and added with momentarily regained joy. "Look who is back! It's Loran, remember little Loran?" Erin presumed that much like her, Loran was but a boy last they saw him.

"High Born? The laws of the Chantry apply to all of us. I don't think I'll hold my father's lands or title even if he wanted to pass it on to me. Fortunately, my older sister will be around for that as is proper. Provided she doesn't marry and give it away." He shook his head as the topic of conversation turned to the more specific elements of his family. "I don't think she lives here. I would imagine that she would be traveling to do some business for my father, but time will tell in that regard."

Fost winked at his friend, but then a wide grin spread almost from ear to ear.
"Yes, it is indeed."
The warrior sobered up quicker than his age should merit. Fost was by far too dour for his age and only few things could summon a smile from him. Richard did have a knack for this task, though, and while Fost might never mention it, he was indeed grateful.
He rubbed his forehead as he muttered to Richard.
"Who would have thought Loran to know someone like those two. Heck, did he ever mention that he hails from around here? Either I did not catch on or he had really never said a word."

Richard gravitated towards the chairs and let’s himself fall into one, next to Fost. He leans closer and whispers “Who knew indeed! I don’t recall any time he mentioned anything else but the Maker and the Doers.” He stretches himself like a cat on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Richard surveys the room as he enters the tavern. He spies three folks at a single table on the mezzanine above, the two dwarves at one table on the first floor, a pair of locals at an adjacent table, and three men in light armor standing next to the stone fireplace to their left.

There are at least two people (he sees one woman and another sleeve, but can’t catch anything beyond that) in the kitchen to the right of the entrance, and one serving girl walking up the stairs.

At the pronouncement of Loran’s return, the two locals below look up and raise their glasses with a hearty cheer. On the mezzanine above, folks stand to get a look; the group see recognition in the eyes of an older, balding gentleman, a woman with him smiling broadly. The third person Richard noticed with them doesn’t appear to stand.

And then everyone goes back to what they were doing, effectively ignoring the newcomers.

With a smirk, Sally quips, “And nobody cares, cousin. So many people move through Lothering these days. Papa says it’s the opposite of Orlesian rule, because of the rebellion; folks found mobility, and the banns and arls recruit skilled workers, instead of restricting movement of the common folk. A lot of things are done just to be different from Orlais, he says.

“Oh, you said you were looking for the lord mayor, Fost? He was the one without the hair up above.”

Brother Loran blushed even more from the cheers of his return he had hoped he could slip in and out as a passing  priest but the maker had other plans it seemed.

Whn things had settled down a bit " Erin that is not a question you should ask Master Loren" he said it with as stern a voice as he could but all round the table knew he could not tell anyone off without a gentleness creeping in to his voice.

Turning to his friends " my life here seems like a life time ago. I did not mention it as it seemed unimportant to me. You see when you take up the makers teachings you leave your old life behind" he looked over at Erin " though I now see that the maker sometimes has other plans and allows the past to become the present"

He fell silent for a time " ok I will tell you a little of myself only because if I dont Erin will. I am a foundling a bab left to be found or not, live or die left to the maker to decide. I was found by the chantry and sister Hannah raised me. as a child I played with the town's children thats were Erin and I became friends. Then one day sister Hannah was given a higher calling but due to her love of me and that no one else would take on a foundling I went with her to the city. Sister Hannah is now my mother superior" at that Brother Loran fell silent not wishing to add any further detail to his past life

Richard seemed to have both eyes closed but in fact he kept one barely open, focusing on the balding gentleman and those sitting next to him. Still in a hushed tone he talks to no one in particular "So this is the mayor? I wonder who's that other cheery fellow."

"Is that so? Well, not like common folk like us know a thing about what goes on in there, just figured there would be some kind of Circle Circle, Or higher Circle or something." Erin didn't know the first thing about the mages and their Circle, other than they were supposed to be there, so she was willing to take the word of an actual mage for it.

Deflated after the lukewarm welcome, Erin sighed. Perhaps it was too much to ask out of the grownups to care. "Maybe they should." She answered her cousin. "Anyone would be happy to get a warm welcome home, bet you your little friend would be glad to get one too, whenever he gets back home form wherever you were taking him to." The redhead gestured to Alistair in an amicable way.

She didn't shrink away in the face of Loran's attempts to scold her, but rather looked confused about it. "Why not?"

Being adressed by his chosen name addition made Fost correct his earlier mumbling and tell the two women his actual name: Fost.

Once that matter had been settled he looked over to man Sally had fingered as being the town's authority.
His broad chest moved visibly as he drew a big breath and released the air again with a huge sigh.
"Who should we inform first about those we found roaming the lands again?", he asked his friends, obviously refering to the darkspawn.

"The woman is the mayor's wife, Edie," Sally notes, her tone matching his. "She makes small snares and traps and such in her husband's workshop. The other fella --" she stretches on her tiptoes using her cousin's shoulder to steady herself "-- I think that's Donnal, Edie's brother. He has a farm somewhere out past Erin's family's. Isn't that right, cousin?"
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 18:27, Tue 29 Mar 2022.

"Well... a message runner, I would assume. That's the job of those Gray Wardens, right? They have that outpost in Denerim." There must be some discount or some funds set up by the mayor here for just this purpose, but even if there wasn't, he was certain Arl Eamon would refund this expense to help out his people.

Brother Loran looked at Erin and just sighed he was never able to control her manners which always managed to get them a clip round the ears when they were children he smiled to himself at the memories.

leaning over to the others " if the wife and brother are here perhaps now would be a good time for some of us to locate the mayor and have a private discussion with him while he is on his own" the priest suggested. " Erin and I could stay here and distract them if they seem to be about to leave after all who would want to attract the wrath of the maker by disrespecting a brother"

Fost was puzzled by Mikhail's reply.
"You don't want to tell anybody in Lothering? Not the mayor, not the Chantry, no one? And leave them in possible danger?"

Richard leaned closer and in hushed tones replies “We should tell someone… at least the guard captain.” He stopped  and looked around the room once more “Assuming this place has guards… I guess the mayor is our next best stop.” Scratching his chin he nodded slowly “Do you think these Grey Wardens know about it?”

"That's very much the case, not like I see the poor fellow that much, suppose farm work doesn't leave him much time to be prancing about." as much as he was one of the closest thing to a neighbor they had back home, such terms acquired a different meaning out there than they had in a big town like Lothering.

Turning her attention away from her cousin, Erin butted into what Richard just said. "Why this place does have guards, you are sitting with one of them at this very moment. I don't carry all this stuff just for the fun of it." She gestured to her weapons and armor. "Lothering may be this big but truth be told, just a small local militia like ourselves suffices for what needs we have. We mostly keep an eye on the people coming through and make sure nobody gets any ideas about starting trouble in the area."

Leaning inquisitively towards the lot of them and their bickering about important things to say or not to the mayor, Grey Wardens and Chantry. "You explained the kid, but what is this you speak of that warrants that air of secrecy, hum?"

Fost hesitated at first.
"Right. First off, don't start to shout, okay? It's not an imminent matter, we have dealt with the immediate threat and may actually have closed the lid, so to speak. Still, I believe caution and vigilance is due."
"We fought darkspawn not too far from here.", he said in a whisper, wincing in anticipation of loudly expressed shock but hoping he assessed Loran's childhood friend correctly. And hoping that Sally had not listened too closely.

Thankfully, Sally doesn't appear to be paying attention to the others, being distracted by looking up at the mayor and his kin. However, given the number of eyes on him, the mayor seems to tilt his head inquisitively toward the others. Sally nods her head at him enthusiastically and gestures for him to join them.

Intrigued, or perhaps just downright confused, Elfred stands back from the rail and starts for the stairs down to ground level.

"I'd rather not cause a panic, especially since this is usually something that those Wardens take care of. There must be someone we can tell without spreading the rumor too far, but... I have no idea who that would be." This was more or less why he thought just sending a letter via the fastest means possible might be the best way to go. Internal town politics aside, there didn't seem to be anything to gain by going about this in that manner. Still, he did understand how it came across. And here he was studying a variety of languages yet still fumbling over words in his own mind.

If Fost had gambled on Erin not being a rumormonger, he had been right. However, she had no filter and was prone to the sort of excited outburst that followed. "You closed the lid!?" she threw herself back on her sear gesturing wildly with her arms. "What lid?" She asked again in a calmer more proper way leaning back in.

Then stared at the table deep in thought but frankly looking as if her mind had just left her body. Darkspawn! How exciting! How Terrifying! Not in her wildest dreams had she thought of something as noteworthy as that taking place in her vicinity, during her watch. A new sense of duty was swelling her, yet, the prospect of having to defend the town from untold numbers of the almost fabled foul things was daunting and downright scary. What about her parents and family living in the countryside? Were they safe or falling prey of the creatures that very instant?

Leaning backwards and crossing his arms behind his head he looks at Erin "Indeed? I've always thought that guards are to keep the peace within a settlement and a militia to fight an outside threat." He listens and watches the mayor move towards the stairs as he turns to Loren "I'd say that the mayor would be a good person to talk to... somewhere private of course."

The mayor descends the stairs and crosses the floor to the group's table. "Good e'en, travelers, and a welcome home to our young brother here," Elfred states. "I recognize the boy I once knew in the man before me. How is Mother Hannah?"

"Mayor Elfred", Fost greeted the newest person at their table respectfully.
He chose to let Loran dawdle on the past, still not really decided how they should deal with the matter of darkspawn. His friends were right to a degree, but he hated the idea of not warning the people. Why did he care so much lately? Never had he spent any thought on such issues, only looking out for himself.