Kabel's Hill is a small, lightly fortified hamlet; a small collection of houses and barns that sits atop a low rise on the western bank of the Stojanow River, and mere hours away from the imposing Quivering Forest.
The village itself is a dozen buildings tucked away inside a wooden palisade; including a small inn and tavern, a blacksmith and stables, a general store and granaries, and a dock with a ferry. The palisade wall stands ten feet high and has simple triangular platforms with ladders spaced approximately every eighty feet along its inside surface, where defenders can keep watch or fire missile weapons from partial cover.
Most of the houses and shops are constructed of walls made of double layers of roughly planed half-logs, the gaps filled with mud, with steep-peaked roofs of thin wooden shingles to keep winter snows from mounding too high.
As if sensing the mood of the party, the skies opened on you shortly after setting out from Phlan, and the last vestiges of the storm are still blowing themselves out when you reach the hamlet a day and a half later. Despite the rainy day - or rather perhaps because of it - the fields in the area are fat with wheat and vegetables, and the animals grazing in meadows are fatter still. However, regardless of the state of the farms, the rain seems to have chased all of Kabel's Hill's inhabitants indoors; not a single person can be seen outdoors when you pass through the palisade walls.
OOC: Removed a day of rations from each character's inventory. As busy as I've been with work and travel these last few weeks, I may not be caught up on purchases from our downtime. If your sheets are still missing things you've purchased, please let me know.
Auriel would have acquired, if possible, a completely normal holy symbol when he visited the temple before hitting the road. That's because I want him to store the one he swore his oath with safely away. Is that possible? I mean, I don't know how much is a holy symbol. In my head that is cheap, but if it isn't I'll probably forget about this completely xD
The paladin looks at the palisade raising an eyebrow. Seeing the hamlet empty was one thing, but that too? Strange to have a such a palisade to leave it unmanned, even despite the rain.
- Tavern? - he simply asks the rest. It was as good a place to start asking about the woodcutter as any. Finding cover from the rain would also be good, he thought as he brushed away whatever strand of wet dark hair he still had on his face after all that walking under the storm.
Rain. Sylyra can't help but feel both stung and refreshed by it. The constant pounding partially deadens his normally sharp hearing. The way his cloak is more present and even feels like it is binding him a little is nice. The storm makes what would have been an otherwise depressing silence palpable. Expected. Sylyra tries to keep his eyes straight forward. For a while, he watches the strong back of Uragum as he plows ahead in front. But as the day wears on, the goliath's weight causes his boots to sink lower into the mud than everyone else, and it slows him just enough for the group to catch up and end up in a clump. Sylyra walks on one edge, trying to avoid eyes and damp limps. At one point, he catches out of the corner of his eye something unfamiliar. He immediately looks in that direction to realize Auriel's hair has gone completely black. Trying to not get caught, the druid looks ahead again and allows himself to muse for just a few moments on what this might mean. But quickly enough, he chastises himself, clearing his mind, and attempting to achieve a kind of walking trance.
After a camping spot is chosen, Sylyra disappears into a grove of trees so he may spend the night alone. The next day, he walks a little ahead of everyone else. He has said next to nothing since the altercation outside of Phlan, and what he has said has been flat and unfeeling — not cordial, but also not rude. He does allow his eyes to linger on the cattle. He can't help it.
Once inside Kabel's Hill, Sylyra looks about passively. Curiosity, it seems, has also been tucked away. When Auriel suggests starting in the tavern, the druid voices no opinion and waits to see what the others say.
Hex feels uneased as she notices Auriel shift from his usual bright coloured self into a much darker and monochrome appearance. Her uneasiness grew with Sylyra's continued silence along the journey.
As they approach Kabel Hill and the rain begins, Hex actually appreciates the rain for a moment. She lets the cold droplets hit her warm skin and cool her down, enjoying the soothing cold seeping into her bones until it sends a shiver down her spine. When the party passes through the walls and not a single person could be seen around, a much more dreadful cold fills her instead. Of course, the rain would keep most people inside but... surely there would be at least a few guards around? "This... doesn't feel right."
When Auriel suggests to visit the tavern, Hex nods. "That's a good idea. If there's any place to find people and information, it's the tavern."
Carl likewise turns his face up and enjoys the rain, the feel of the drops hitting his face… for a bit. As it drags on, his mood sours on it and he pulls his hat lower on his head, gathers his cape around him, and stomps through the muck.
When they arrive in Kabel Hill, he’s puzzled. “Seems like there would be people millin around. Somewhat. Even in the rain. Let’s check the tavern, agree with ye.” He looks up and nods to Hex.
- Hope this doesn't mean they have already left for the Forest. - Auriel replies to Hex and Carl, and nods towards them when they show their agreement to begin the search in the tavern. The eladrin also glances Uragum and Sylyra, looking for their responses. Uragum seems to be lost in his own thoughts and Sylyra is ... just not there. The eladrin quickly turns his gaze from the wood elf to the muddy road first, and towards the building that is to be the party's destination afterwards.
Some steps later, Auriel pushes the door to enter the tavern. He doesn't expect to see many faces turning towards him, but if at least the bartender is there and can answer a few questions then they'll be able to move forward. Moving forward sounded like a good plan.
If the bartender is there, the paladin will go straight towards him, nod slightly as a greeting and ask for something to drink before engaging in further conversation.
The inn's sign, if it can be called that, is simply an old bucket dangling from a post that has been driven into the ground in front of the two-story building. The word "Inn" has been painted on its side in what appears to be pitch. Rain has filled the bucket to the top, and water trickles out from more than a dozen places.
Before you even enter the place, you can hear a number of excited and angry voices emanating from inside. Above them all, one voice bellows clearly as you open the door, "It's been over two tendays! What do you plan to do?!"
This inn and taproom is more like a tiny bed-and-breakfast than a proper tavern. The interior consists mainly of a single, large front room with two long, rough tables with benches. The inn is filled to the brim with people; all of them seem to be talking at once, gesturing and arguing with one another. A male halfling stands on one of the benches, seemingly trying in vain to calm everyone down. A halfling woman stands next to him shouting at everyone, including the other halfling, at the top of her lungs. Both of her hands are wrapped menacingly around the handle of a rather large iron skillet.
As the door closes, the ruckus stops and everyone stops mid-sentence to stare at the new arrivals. After the initial shock of seeing strangers in the midst of their meeting, the locals begin murmuring to one another again. The halfling man jumps off the bench and walks over toward the door.
"Hello, um...Hupe Brightbell," he introduces himself. "Can I help you?"
The moment the door opens, and the sounds of arguing and chaos reach Sylyra's ears, despite his position at the back of the line of adventurers entering the inn, the wood elf can't help but smirk. The idea of pandemonium tickles his funny bone, and he smiles. It's the first feeling of happiness he's felt in a day. He follows everyone in, not bothering to close the door. The smell and sound of the petering storm waft in and mix with the palpable tension in the room. Sylyra looks around, noting the various common folk. He's especially interested in the volatile female halfling. He'd bet she's pretty good with that skillet. His mind plays through a couple of scenarios where a delicious lie might add to the anarchy, but he sighs instead, letting his interest wane. He pushes back the hood of his cloak and tries to smooth the hair out of his face while he lets the others do the talking.
Carl clears his throat, and his voice falters at first, he’s been fairly silent this whole time. He speaks up and says “Ummm, we ah, we heard that there was a woodcutter here that went missing? Went into the forest and was lost? Is that true?” His eyes dart around the room to see the reaction to his words.
Hex steps back in shock at the sight off everyone in the inn and sudden uproar of noise as the door opens. She had expected a handful of people, maybe even less, simply lingering about, not practically the entire village jammed inside arguing with each other.
"We were sent here to help, potentially. Millivent Moss told us a bit of what happened," she adds after Carl.
Auriel is surprised by the amount of people gathered there too, as he had imagined the tavern would be almost as empty as the streets. When all the faces turn to look at them he freezes in place for an instant, quickly takes the scene in, thinks how ironic it is that the happy companions are about to join an even happier crowd of people and finally relaxes a little when the male halfling comes and greets them.
As Carl and Hex have already initiated the conversation, he doesn't add more on the matter that has brought them to Kabel's Hill. But he does say something. Calmly resting the halberd's end on the ground and leaning a bit on the weapon to stand more comfortably - after all, they have been walking a lot - he addresses the halfling woman:
- Everything all right there? - after asking this the paladin looks at the rest crowd and adds - I take we are all going to calm down and speak like the civilized people we undoubtedly are.
“Ummm, we ah, we heard that there was a woodcutter here that went missing? Went into the forest and was lost? Is that true?”
"We were sent here to help, potentially. Millivent Moss told us a bit of what happened,"
"We're just having a bit of trouble; nothing to concern you fine folk about," Hupe says simply.
The room does not bear the same calm as the halfling. Neither Carl nor Auriel's words seem to reach anyone else's ears, as by the time anyone can respond to Hupe, the arguments and din of conversation has drowned the words out.
Auriel frowns visibly. First of all: how the hell can this halfling be so calm with everything that's going on around him? And secondly: how the hell is this nothing they should be concerned about if what Millivent Moss said was true? He says to Hupe:
- Nothing to concern us? Right. Then do put our minds at ease: is none of Kabel's Hill neighbours missing and believed to have entered the Quivering Forest? If the answer is yes, then we will be more than happy to get the hell out of here and leave you all to enjoy your happy discussion. If the answer is no, then please enlighten us: how on Toril is risking angering the fey of the Forest not anyone's concern?
Not to be deterred, Carl nods to Hupe and then walks slowly over to the halfling holding the frying pan, giving her a smile and looking back and forth from time to time from her face to her frying pan. “Ummm, hi there. My name’s Carl and we heard that you folk were in trouble, we heard that there was a woodcutter here that went missing? Went into the forest and was lost? Is that true? How can we help?” He looks back over at Hupe and says, “He told us you would know.”
The eladrin is not fond of the idea of having to push the already angry people standing between the group and Hupe's wife, so he waits to see how Carl's interaction goes before doing anything else. He watches attentively.
(OOC: Just in case... Auriel readies an Action Dash to get between Carl and whoever else might come close to the dwarf if anyone gets violent.)
The woman sheepishly shifts the skillet behind her as she greets Carl. "Grinna Brightbell, pleasure to make your acquaintance, Carl," she says.
"The fella you're askin' about is Halvin Graingle. About six months ago or so he moved into an abandoned barn a few hours walk east. He's a bit of an eccentric hermit, used to come to town to sell his wood carvings but he stopped showing up about a month ago. A few of these folks went to pay him a visit, check in on him, but he was nowhere to be found. All his stuff was still there though, including a crummy map of the area."
"Now, we don't know for sure he went into the forest, I suppose, but that map had some things that scared some folk sideways; mainly that there were labels on the inside of the forest. There were routes goin' to Greenhall and a course even deeper into the forest, is the real worryin' part," Grinna casts a sidelong glance at Auriel as she says this.
A nearby resident butts in on the conversation, saying, "We don't go into the Quivering Forest and the Quivering Forest doesn't come and steal our children in the night."
The paladin doesn't miss Grinna's glance, but his attention quickly shifts from the hafling to the resident that has stated that these people don't go into the Quivering Forest.
- Is that so? - he asks, but as he's doing it from the very same position from where he first spoke and was not heard, his question is lost in the crowd. "In ainm Dhia", he swears, and fey steps next to Carl - I said: is that so? - He repeats his question rather impatiently. All that shouting is clearly making him edgy - Then you are wise. And your neighbours think the same as you, I hope? - Auriel glances at the rest of the people as he asks this, trying to gauge their reactions - Because we heard just the opposite before coming here. We heard that some of you were planning to enter the forest to search for that man, Graingle. That would be a mistake. A mistake that I sincerely hope your hermit has not made. - He turns to look at Grinna -I would like to see the map, please. - He extends a hand towards her as he says this. Auriel thinks there's no chance that whoever found the map has simply left it in the woodcutter's house.
Hex takes a step back in the conversation, leaving it to Auriel and Carl to handle. The two seemed to be doing a good job without the rest of the party and Auriel was most likely the most appropriate person to lead the questioning anyway.
As the two continue to speak to Grinna and the townsfolk, Hex leans back onto a wall near the door and looks over the crowd, just making sure no one is getting *too* rowdy or doing anything suspicious.
Sylyra finds a chair nearby and drops into it. Lounging, appearing bored, he begins casting produce flame over and over again, lighting a flame in his upturned palm, then snuffing it out before lighting another. He isn't being quiet about the verbal incantation, either.
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Kabel's Hill is a small, lightly fortified hamlet; a small collection of houses and barns that sits atop a low rise on the western bank of the Stojanow River, and mere hours away from the imposing Quivering Forest.
The village itself is a dozen buildings tucked away inside a wooden palisade; including a small inn and tavern, a blacksmith and stables, a general store and granaries, and a dock with a ferry. The palisade wall stands ten feet high and has simple triangular platforms with ladders spaced approximately every eighty feet along its inside surface, where defenders can keep watch or fire missile weapons from partial cover.
Most of the houses and shops are constructed of walls made of double layers of roughly planed half-logs, the gaps filled with mud, with steep-peaked roofs of thin wooden shingles to keep winter snows from mounding too high.
As if sensing the mood of the party, the skies opened on you shortly after setting out from Phlan, and the last vestiges of the storm are still blowing themselves out when you reach the hamlet a day and a half later. Despite the rainy day - or rather perhaps because of it - the fields in the area are fat with wheat and vegetables, and the animals grazing in meadows are fatter still. However, regardless of the state of the farms, the rain seems to have chased all of Kabel's Hill's inhabitants indoors; not a single person can be seen outdoors when you pass through the palisade walls.
OOC: Removed a day of rations from each character's inventory. As busy as I've been with work and travel these last few weeks, I may not be caught up on purchases from our downtime. If your sheets are still missing things you've purchased, please let me know.
See my profile for all my PbP threads!
OOC: In my case 2 extra rations. Also:
Auriel would have acquired, if possible, a completely normal holy symbol when he visited the temple before hitting the road. That's because I want him to store the one he swore his oath with safely away. Is that possible? I mean, I don't know how much is a holy symbol. In my head that is cheap, but if it isn't I'll probably forget about this completely xD
The paladin looks at the palisade raising an eyebrow. Seeing the hamlet empty was one thing, but that too? Strange to have a such a palisade to leave it unmanned, even despite the rain.
- Tavern? - he simply asks the rest. It was as good a place to start asking about the woodcutter as any. Finding cover from the rain would also be good, he thought as he brushed away whatever strand of wet dark hair he still had on his face after all that walking under the storm.
Down, down, down by the river ♫
Nessa | Alana | Ashur | Saxa | Saoirse | Auriel | Leeta
Rain. Sylyra can't help but feel both stung and refreshed by it. The constant pounding partially deadens his normally sharp hearing. The way his cloak is more present and even feels like it is binding him a little is nice. The storm makes what would have been an otherwise depressing silence palpable. Expected. Sylyra tries to keep his eyes straight forward. For a while, he watches the strong back of Uragum as he plows ahead in front. But as the day wears on, the goliath's weight causes his boots to sink lower into the mud than everyone else, and it slows him just enough for the group to catch up and end up in a clump. Sylyra walks on one edge, trying to avoid eyes and damp limps. At one point, he catches out of the corner of his eye something unfamiliar. He immediately looks in that direction to realize Auriel's hair has gone completely black. Trying to not get caught, the druid looks ahead again and allows himself to muse for just a few moments on what this might mean. But quickly enough, he chastises himself, clearing his mind, and attempting to achieve a kind of walking trance.
After a camping spot is chosen, Sylyra disappears into a grove of trees so he may spend the night alone. The next day, he walks a little ahead of everyone else. He has said next to nothing since the altercation outside of Phlan, and what he has said has been flat and unfeeling — not cordial, but also not rude. He does allow his eyes to linger on the cattle. He can't help it.
Once inside Kabel's Hill, Sylyra looks about passively. Curiosity, it seems, has also been tucked away. When Auriel suggests starting in the tavern, the druid voices no opinion and waits to see what the others say.
Hex feels uneased as she notices Auriel shift from his usual bright coloured self into a much darker and monochrome appearance. Her uneasiness grew with Sylyra's continued silence along the journey.
As they approach Kabel Hill and the rain begins, Hex actually appreciates the rain for a moment. She lets the cold droplets hit her warm skin and cool her down, enjoying the soothing cold seeping into her bones until it sends a shiver down her spine. When the party passes through the walls and not a single person could be seen around, a much more dreadful cold fills her instead. Of course, the rain would keep most people inside but... surely there would be at least a few guards around? "This... doesn't feel right."
When Auriel suggests to visit the tavern, Hex nods. "That's a good idea. If there's any place to find people and information, it's the tavern."
Carl likewise turns his face up and enjoys the rain, the feel of the drops hitting his face… for a bit. As it drags on, his mood sours on it and he pulls his hat lower on his head, gathers his cape around him, and stomps through the muck.
When they arrive in Kabel Hill, he’s puzzled. “Seems like there would be people millin around. Somewhat. Even in the rain. Let’s check the tavern, agree with ye.” He looks up and nods to Hex.
- Hope this doesn't mean they have already left for the Forest. - Auriel replies to Hex and Carl, and nods towards them when they show their agreement to begin the search in the tavern. The eladrin also glances Uragum and Sylyra, looking for their responses. Uragum seems to be lost in his own thoughts and Sylyra is ... just not there. The eladrin quickly turns his gaze from the wood elf to the muddy road first, and towards the building that is to be the party's destination afterwards.
Some steps later, Auriel pushes the door to enter the tavern. He doesn't expect to see many faces turning towards him, but if at least the bartender is there and can answer a few questions then they'll be able to move forward. Moving forward sounded like a good plan.
If the bartender is there, the paladin will go straight towards him, nod slightly as a greeting and ask for something to drink before engaging in further conversation.
Down, down, down by the river ♫
Nessa | Alana | Ashur | Saxa | Saoirse | Auriel | Leeta
The inn's sign, if it can be called that, is simply an old bucket dangling from a post that has been driven into the ground in front of the two-story building. The word "Inn" has been painted on its side in what appears to be pitch. Rain has filled the bucket to the top, and water trickles out from more than a dozen places.
Before you even enter the place, you can hear a number of excited and angry voices emanating from inside. Above them all, one voice bellows clearly as you open the door, "It's been over two tendays! What do you plan to do?!"
This inn and taproom is more like a tiny bed-and-breakfast than a proper tavern. The interior consists mainly of a single, large front room with two long, rough tables with benches. The inn is filled to the brim with people; all of them seem to be talking at once, gesturing and arguing with one another. A male halfling stands on one of the benches, seemingly trying in vain to calm everyone down. A halfling woman stands next to him shouting at everyone, including the other halfling, at the top of her lungs. Both of her hands are wrapped menacingly around the handle of a rather large iron skillet.
As the door closes, the ruckus stops and everyone stops mid-sentence to stare at the new arrivals. After the initial shock of seeing strangers in the midst of their meeting, the locals begin murmuring to one another again. The halfling man jumps off the bench and walks over toward the door.
"Hello, um...Hupe Brightbell," he introduces himself. "Can I help you?"
See my profile for all my PbP threads!
The moment the door opens, and the sounds of arguing and chaos reach Sylyra's ears, despite his position at the back of the line of adventurers entering the inn, the wood elf can't help but smirk. The idea of pandemonium tickles his funny bone, and he smiles. It's the first feeling of happiness he's felt in a day. He follows everyone in, not bothering to close the door. The smell and sound of the petering storm waft in and mix with the palpable tension in the room. Sylyra looks around, noting the various common folk. He's especially interested in the volatile female halfling. He'd bet she's pretty good with that skillet. His mind plays through a couple of scenarios where a delicious lie might add to the anarchy, but he sighs instead, letting his interest wane. He pushes back the hood of his cloak and tries to smooth the hair out of his face while he lets the others do the talking.
Carl clears his throat, and his voice falters at first, he’s been fairly silent this whole time. He speaks up and says “Ummm, we ah, we heard that there was a woodcutter here that went missing? Went into the forest and was lost? Is that true?” His eyes dart around the room to see the reaction to his words.
Hex steps back in shock at the sight off everyone in the inn and sudden uproar of noise as the door opens. She had expected a handful of people, maybe even less, simply lingering about, not practically the entire village jammed inside arguing with each other.
"We were sent here to help, potentially. Millivent Moss told us a bit of what happened," she adds after Carl.
Auriel is surprised by the amount of people gathered there too, as he had imagined the tavern would be almost as empty as the streets. When all the faces turn to look at them he freezes in place for an instant, quickly takes the scene in, thinks how ironic it is that the happy companions are about to join an even happier crowd of people and finally relaxes a little when the male halfling comes and greets them.
As Carl and Hex have already initiated the conversation, he doesn't add more on the matter that has brought them to Kabel's Hill. But he does say something. Calmly resting the halberd's end on the ground and leaning a bit on the weapon to stand more comfortably - after all, they have been walking a lot - he addresses the halfling woman:
- Everything all right there? - after asking this the paladin looks at the rest crowd and adds - I take we are all going to calm down and speak like the civilized people we undoubtedly are.
Down, down, down by the river ♫
Nessa | Alana | Ashur | Saxa | Saoirse | Auriel | Leeta
"We're just having a bit of trouble; nothing to concern you fine folk about," Hupe says simply.
The room does not bear the same calm as the halfling. Neither Carl nor Auriel's words seem to reach anyone else's ears, as by the time anyone can respond to Hupe, the arguments and din of conversation has drowned the words out.
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Auriel frowns visibly. First of all: how the hell can this halfling be so calm with everything that's going on around him? And secondly: how the hell is this nothing they should be concerned about if what Millivent Moss said was true? He says to Hupe:
- Nothing to concern us? Right. Then do put our minds at ease: is none of Kabel's Hill neighbours missing and believed to have entered the Quivering Forest? If the answer is yes, then we will be more than happy to get the hell out of here and leave you all to enjoy your happy discussion. If the answer is no, then please enlighten us: how on Toril is risking angering the fey of the Forest not anyone's concern?
(OOC: If an insight is allowed: 13)
Down, down, down by the river ♫
Nessa | Alana | Ashur | Saxa | Saoirse | Auriel | Leeta
For Auriel:
Hupe seems generally nervous, but you aren't able to glean exactly why.
Hupe pulls a damp bar towel off of his shoulder and wrings it.
"If you really must know, you should talk to my wife, Grinna," he says, looking to the spunky halfling woman holding the skillet.
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Not to be deterred, Carl nods to Hupe and then walks slowly over to the halfling holding the frying pan, giving her a smile and looking back and forth from time to time from her face to her frying pan. “Ummm, hi there. My name’s Carl and we heard that you folk were in trouble, we heard that there was a woodcutter here that went missing? Went into the forest and was lost? Is that true? How can we help?” He looks back over at Hupe and says, “He told us you would know.”
The eladrin is not fond of the idea of having to push the already angry people standing between the group and Hupe's wife, so he waits to see how Carl's interaction goes before doing anything else. He watches attentively.
(OOC: Just in case... Auriel readies an Action Dash to get between Carl and whoever else might come close to the dwarf if anyone gets violent.)
Down, down, down by the river ♫
Nessa | Alana | Ashur | Saxa | Saoirse | Auriel | Leeta
The woman sheepishly shifts the skillet behind her as she greets Carl. "Grinna Brightbell, pleasure to make your acquaintance, Carl," she says.
"The fella you're askin' about is Halvin Graingle. About six months ago or so he moved into an abandoned barn a few hours walk east. He's a bit of an eccentric hermit, used to come to town to sell his wood carvings but he stopped showing up about a month ago. A few of these folks went to pay him a visit, check in on him, but he was nowhere to be found. All his stuff was still there though, including a crummy map of the area."
"Now, we don't know for sure he went into the forest, I suppose, but that map had some things that scared some folk sideways; mainly that there were labels on the inside of the forest. There were routes goin' to Greenhall and a course even deeper into the forest, is the real worryin' part," Grinna casts a sidelong glance at Auriel as she says this.
A nearby resident butts in on the conversation, saying, "We don't go into the Quivering Forest and the Quivering Forest doesn't come and steal our children in the night."
See my profile for all my PbP threads!
The paladin doesn't miss Grinna's glance, but his attention quickly shifts from the hafling to the resident that has stated that these people don't go into the Quivering Forest.
- Is that so? - he asks, but as he's doing it from the very same position from where he first spoke and was not heard, his question is lost in the crowd. "In ainm Dhia", he swears, and fey steps next to Carl - I said: is that so? - He repeats his question rather impatiently. All that shouting is clearly making him edgy - Then you are wise. And your neighbours think the same as you, I hope? - Auriel glances at the rest of the people as he asks this, trying to gauge their reactions - Because we heard just the opposite before coming here. We heard that some of you were planning to enter the forest to search for that man, Graingle. That would be a mistake. A mistake that I sincerely hope your hermit has not made. - He turns to look at Grinna - I would like to see the map, please. - He extends a hand towards her as he says this. Auriel thinks there's no chance that whoever found the map has simply left it in the woodcutter's house.
Sylvan:
"Godsdamnit".
Down, down, down by the river ♫
Nessa | Alana | Ashur | Saxa | Saoirse | Auriel | Leeta
Hex takes a step back in the conversation, leaving it to Auriel and Carl to handle. The two seemed to be doing a good job without the rest of the party and Auriel was most likely the most appropriate person to lead the questioning anyway.
As the two continue to speak to Grinna and the townsfolk, Hex leans back onto a wall near the door and looks over the crowd, just making sure no one is getting *too* rowdy or doing anything suspicious.
Sylyra finds a chair nearby and drops into it. Lounging, appearing bored, he begins casting produce flame over and over again, lighting a flame in his upturned palm, then snuffing it out before lighting another. He isn't being quiet about the verbal incantation, either.