The party sets out straight off from the tavern.  With full bellies, and in a slightly happy mood, either the cider, or the prospect of a payday, both can be mildly intoxicating.

Following the directions are simple.  Only crossing along the edge of RavensKeep wall, with its grotesque gargoyles, and carved walls, is the least bit daunting.  The rest of the walk is lovely and easy.  It is Springtime and the miles of farmland is dotted with workers plowing ground, planting seeds, mending fences and the like.  It is a lovely part of the world and full of hard working and generally friendly if not a tad superstitious folk.

Having left early, there is no need to rush and it is more of stroll than a hike.  It is just as the directions say, the land begins to rise, there are more trees, more animal farms, sheep and goats and cattle grazing the new grasses on the hills, by afternoon, resting beneath the shade of trees.

When you come at last to lane leading up into Branches Farm, it is clear you have arrived,  by the description it would be easy, but there is also a nice wooden sign announcing it. The path leads up through a mix of trees and the property is edged in many simply stacked stone walls.


ooc: More to come tomorrow, just getting this started!!

Experienced with walking and playing her instrument, Delta pulls her lute in front of her, and sings a cheery traveling tune.

"Along the ridge, and thru the vale,
the muskrat waved his skinny tail,
the sun was high the clouds were scarce,
far behind he had left his cares,
The road ahead was long and winding,
adventure there, he dreamt of finding..."

and on and on, the muskrats adventures were humorous and varied, but always ended on an upbeat note.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:25, Wed 08 July 2020.

Vala finds herself smiling at the gnome's song, as inappropriate as it might be to the serious business of glorious adventure.

'A fine song skald,' she says, then glances at her other companion. 'And what of you Elf? What do you think of our task?'

Tanyl shrugs.  "Spend a week, get paid regardless of whether we figure out the mystery -- sounds like easy money to me."

As the others converse, Delta switches to a quiet hum to accompany her strumming. The city had been fascinating, but being out in the countryside felt very much like being home.

Whenever Delta sings and plays along the route, many farm hands, or their children, stop and listen, some even cheer.  Isn't often they are treated to such in their fields.

Turning up the nice stone road into Branch Farm, it rises, and you pass a path on the left with a painted sign of yellow and black, that says beware...hives!!.

You continue through more and more organized groves of apple and even a few pear trees.  Stone walls and well groomed landscape speak to the care of this place.

You arrive at the main house, to find it very small, but charming, and well kept.  Small gardens surround it, already even in the Spring with a variety of herbs, and vegetables growing, truly the owners have green thumbs.

Approaching the small house, a man comes round and sees you.  He's about five feet tall, and thin and wiry, you'd think him a youth except for his graying thin beard.   He waves and walks over.

"Hello, what brings you to Branch this late in the day?"

Thriving on the approbation, Delta seems to walk a foot in the air at the attention from those they pass by.

As they approach their destination, the young gnome places the lute back behind her back. For reasons unknown even to her, walking up playing and singing seemed like an unprofessional look for adventurers, even if this was her first professional, for-pay, foray...

She chuckles quietly at her own wordplay.

At the sign warning of hives, she pulls out a pipe and stuffs it full of cheap tobacco, lighting it up and puffing away  merrily. She half remembered some fatherly advice about bees and smoke, and her Da usually knew of what he spoke, even if she didn't listen as well as she should have.

Spotting the man who comes out to greet them, Delta hangs back a little, willing to let the others do the talking, while she inspects the farm house and its environs curiously, and will no little admiration. It appeared well loved, she rather hoped they did own the land...

Vala waves and moves over to greet the man; her tones confident and business like: 'Well met, we are up from Stormhaven. I am Vala and this is Delta and Tanyl and I bid you greetings Mr Branch.'

She looks down at the man (not from a sense of superiority just from being more than a head taller than him.) 'We were told by Gorblin Thar of eerie and frightening business here at the farm and have signed our services to investigate and aid you.'

Tanyl appeared ready to say something, but stops.

He looks around as Vala speaks to see if there's anything noteworthy to be seen.

Branch nods and smiles,

"Thank Melora!  We've been in a state, my missus barely comes out of the house.  Well met, just call Branch, everyone eventually does!"  He small man is clearly full of energy.

"Let me show you around, and get you settled in.  Guess you saw the hive path, we get our own honey to use in the cider.  In face, we grow almost every ingredient ourselves.   All about this area are the orchards, some small gardens both for us and the cider, our small coop of hens, and further up the road here is the cidery and barn.  Up past the house are some wooded lands and then it rises up to open fields, that's were we range our sheep and goats.".

As he talks, he leads you up to three nicely kept buildings, one is a small but nice guest house, one the cidery, one a hay barn.  All around are barrels, full of apples, oats, and the like.  It is clear the guest house will be yours.

ooc:  If you have not checked "maps", there are now 3 maps of the Branch Farm.

"If you could, sir -- where was it that your wife encountered the wolf?"

It all seemed quite nice. Delta waits for a pause in the conversation to let Branch know how much she had enjoyed the sample of their cider she had drank at the Hog's Head.

When Branch mentions the wooded lands with the fields beyond he glances in that direction, assuming that was a likely spot for the attack to have happened, but she waits for a reply just the same.

She tries to get some sense of how mew everything looks, and if she gets a chance asks Branch how long they have been here.

"Are there any old tales or legends that might speak of the previous owners, or why this beastie might think it has a claim?" she asks.

OOC: Off to check the maps!

Vala seems content to let the others ask questions for the moment, instead investigating the 'guest house'. Given she spent much of her journey to Stomhaven sleeping under the stars a chance to stay indoors was a pleasant one!

 Branch leads back down the path towards his home, "Well, no tales as such.  Sightings of stuff, superstitious folks live out here, but nothing dire.  Always been a haven for me.  Grew up here, my dad and his dad before owned the farm, not sure beyond that.  Was my granddad that first planted apples.  He and dad both just sold them at the road side and in the city once a week, did well enough.  Twas' my idea to begin turning them to cider"


About half way down the way to the house, he veers to the left and heads up through the orchards.  Beneath them is mostly spring grass, and no real paths but he leads straight along a ways before coming within sight of the far edge of the orchard.  He stops and looks around, and points to his feet. "This is where I found the Missus, out cold".