IC - Against the Cult of the Reptile God - Chapter 1: The Darkness in Orlane

[Arkrite]

The narrow trail winds among majestic elms, at times disappearing into thick shrubbery. The bushes between the trees are dense, rising to a height of eight or ten feet.
The elms themselves average 75' tall, and they are the only trees here. They are widely spaced, allowing much sunlight to pour between their ancient boughs.

The trail has been maintained, and at the end you find a ramshackle cottage which, while having seen better days, still has signs of life about it. The faint wisps of smoke can be seen coming out from the chimney. The only sound to be heard is the faint sounds of the town in the distance and birds singing in the trees above.

[Flynnarrel]

Aldan

The elf is increasingly frowning as they progress down the path. "I'm... less and less certain whoever lives here has druidic training. They may not be able to help us infiltrate the Temple as we wish. They aren't malicious or negligent toward Nature as the compromised townfolk were, so there's that." he speaks in low tones to his companions as they progress down the path.

Aldan looks to the ranger and points to a spot still in line of sight but to the side of the cottage where the half-elf should be able to see the back of the cottage should there be an attempt to flee. "And watch out for weasels... or something. He might have trained them for security purposes."

He takes his other companions about ten feet away and looks at the crude building for the span of a few breaths to give the woodsman time to get into position before calling out. "Ho, the cottage!" Aldan calls loudly. "We seek an audience with the venerated elder who lives here."

[Arkrite]

There's some noise from inside the cottage, some scraping of wood on wood then some thumping making it's way closer to the door.

The door creeks open and an elderly looking man with a long grey beard peers out the door, looking half ready to slam it shut again.

"Eh? What's all this noise about?" He asks in a grumpy tone. He looks the group up and down, and raises an eyebrow, "Well, you lot are new."

[Flynnarrel]

Aldan

Aldan smiles at the older man. "Hi, my name is Aldan. We'd like to talk to you about your observations of the state of things in Orlane. We don't want to strain the hospitality of your habitat, though. What would make such a conversation easiest for you?"

[Tattooedman]

Zasio Blackthorn:
Objects of Interest: Goodberries (2 - each heals 4 hp)

The narrow trail winds among majestic elms, at times disappearing into thick shrubbery. The bushes between the trees are dense, rising to a height of eight or ten feet.
The elms themselves average 75' tall, and they are the only trees here. They are widely spaced, allowing much sunlight to pour between their ancient boughs.

The trail has been maintained, and at the end you find a ramshackle cottage which, while having seen better days, still has signs of life about it. The faint wisps of smoke can be seen coming out from the chimney. The only sound to be heard is the faint sounds of the town in the distance and birds singing in the trees above.

Zasio noticed several faint footprints on the path and he easily saw the pattern - their maker leans heavily on a staff and favors their left foot.

He also noticed that there were weasel tracks all over the place, which was really unusual for a weasel as they don't normally frequent the same area that much. At first the ranger assumed there were a lot of weasel's in the area, but after a more intense look he saw that the prints were missing a nail on one foot. That meant that all of these footprints were from the same weasel, and while they tend to have a particular territory they stick to, this many footprints all in and around the path is very odd considering that weasels usually hunt over the span of a large plot of land.

The elf is increasingly frowning as they progress down the path. "I'm... less and less certain whoever lives here has druidic training. They may not be able to help us infiltrate the Temple as we wish. They aren't malicious or negligent toward Nature as the compromised townfolk were, so there's that." he speaks in low tones to his companions as they progress down the path.

Aldan looks to the ranger and points to a spot still in line of sight but to the side of the cottage where the half-elf should be able to see the back of the cottage should there be an attempt to flee. "And watch out for weasels... or something. He might have trained them for security purposes."

"Definitely a weasel, though I doubt it has been trained to attack." The Half-Elf quietly responded as he moved to the spot Aldan pointed out. From there Zasio watched as the Elf called out to the inhabitant of the cottage and the hermit's response; at least the older man was talking and not firing arrows at them.

[Arkrite]

He looks at the lot of you for a few moments, then sighs.
Pushing the door open the bent and frail old man hobbles outside, leaning heavily on a gnarled staff to avoid having to use his left leg. It takes him a moment or two but he eases himself down on a log sitting just outside the door which seems to have been left there for splitting wood.

"I'll warn you right now, if you're here to rob the place: I don't have anything of value," He grumbles, and waves at the house, "Go ahead and look, I'm not interested in getting knocked about over a few cups and kettle."

[Flynnarrel]

Aldan

"Ah... we're not here for that." he waves toward the hovel and casting a dubious look to the man's leg. "And we'd never lay hands upon you Honored Elder." Aldan says, righting a split log and balancing upon it, heedless of the dirt it imparts on his wizardly robes. He gestures for Zasio to rejoin the group and motions for others to take similar 'seats' if they wish. "We seek your counsel though. Do you know what's happening in Orlane these days?" Aldan asks. As he does so he keeps an eye out for mid-to-small-sized forest creatures.

[Arkrite]

The old man grunts, watching as Aldan sits down, then gives the group an appraising once over before seeming to relax a little bit.

"Not entirely sure why you'd ask the hermit what's happening in town," he says, mostly to himself, before continuing, "But it looks like people are moving away, and people are acting addle minded."

"Not that I mind the company, bu when it comes to learning about the town you might have better luck with the Mayor," He suggests, "He's fairly amiable for a bureaucrat, and he's around the town all day."

[Flynnarrel]

Aldan

"We've spoken to him. He hadn't known about a nest of Goblins and Lizardfolk in the abandoned Foaming Mug which my companions and I cleared out. He hadn't known the degree of infiltration the Golden Grain has experienced, even having an assassin in their midst. He admits he's underpowered to handle this situation and asked us to intercede as he'd done with the visiting elves in the cottage." Aldan says watching the man for reactions as they list what they've done to combat the growing evil.

Insight: 1d20+4 21

"As to why we're here, an outsider is often the best to see a situation which others might be too close to observe. Just as it may take the distance of many years of life to gain perspective."

"What might we call you, Elder?"

[Tattooedman]

Zasio Blackthorn:
Objects of Interest: Goodberries (2 - each heals 4 hp)

When Aldan motions for him to join the party talking to the hermit Zasio quietly complies, walking over slow enough to not present a threat with his weapons left in their sheaths. He stands behind Aldan listening to the exchange between the pair while keeping his eyes scanning the group's surroundings.

Perception Check: _: 1D20+4 = [8]+4 = 12.

[Arkrite]

"Oh my," The old man says, raising his eyebrows, "I certainly choose a poor place to live. Goblins, lizardfolk and assassins."

He dryly notes, "To be fair it's possible the Mayor thought they were politicians."

At the request for his name he sighs, and mumbles something about manners before raising his voice, "Ramne. No fancy titles or nothing, just Ramne."

He winces, then reaches up a sleeve and pulls out a small brown weasel which is happily chewing on one of his fingers, "And this little pest is my pet, Whiskers."

Whiskers twists out of Ramne's hand, drops to the ground, and immediately runs half way towards the adventurers before stopping, jumping up, twisting in mid air, flopping onto it's back, then racing back to Ramne, then back towards yourselves to repeat the process.

"Don't mind him, he's harmless," Ramne says before a worried expression crosses his face, "Unless you have a pet rabbit or bird, or something. You didn't bring any pets, did you?"

OOC: Whiskers is doing a Weasel War Dance. It's a DC20 intimidate save if you're a rabbit. Otherwise it's just kind of adorable.

[Flynnarrel]

Aldan

"No pets. And I'm pretty certain you are more clued in to the happenings of this town than you would lead us to believe. We're not devotees of this twisted Serpent power that is corrupting or replacing townsfolk and we've been careful to not be overlong out of sight of any of the others since arriving at this town. We were assembled by a Paladin, Jarrak, the Lion of Blackmoore, and tasked with this investigation. Tyragorn for his stalwartness and status as a local-known hero, Sister Bright for her blessings from and devotion to Pelor, Georgia for her sway with a crowd and general insightfulness, Zasio for his skills both with battle and woodcraft, and I'm tasked with bringing them all home via cunning and... unexpected angles." Aldan says, laying it all out.

"Our next avenue of investigation is the Temple. We were hoping you had magicks or ways to help us infiltrate and explore the building. We didn't want to instigate violence and I give more than fair odds it would come to that without some kind of assistance. But if needs be, we'll try our hand." Aldan says.

"Now, is there anything you'd like to tell us, Elder Ramne?" Aldan asks.

[Shock]

Tyragorn
HP: 21 AC:18

Tyragorn stepped forward, trying to get a word in. "What he means is you probably see things out here that the townsfolk can't. and we'd be thankful for you help."

Persuasion check: 1d20+5 9

[Arkrite]

Ramne rubs his hand through his beard absently as Whiskers takes Tyragorn's movement as an opportunity to attack.

Pouncing it touches it's front paws to the toe of Tyragorn's boot before frantically running away, hiding under Ramne's robes before poking a head out to see it another attack is warranted.

The old man chuckles and scratches the Weasel behind the ears, earning himself another playful bite to the fingers. He watches his pet for a couple of moments before he speaks up.

"What would I like to tell you? Hmmm..." He considers the group looking at Tyragorn before sighing again.

"Well, if you got to visit I would tell you that you'd better be ready to fight you way out of the temple," Ramne says finally, his eyes locking on Aldan's.

"What ever is going on around here, you can be sure they're involved."

[Flynnarrel]

Aldan

The elf frowns. "Do you think they're holding captives in there?"