Has Muireach ever heard of Udea? If a History is needed: 1

"Oy, gov my memory is the same as yours. I think Henrick or whats-his-name wasn't confused though. The way I remember it, he talked like the thing happened in the present with the same guy. Innit a bit strange though?" Fungustus scratches his chin. "Could be the guy wasn't a tiefling. Could be the guy was some knife ear in disguise!"

-

Muireach recalls this Udea person is one of the human god's, though they seem popular enough he's seen a few others worship Udea instead of whatever they believe. He knows Udea as being the goddess of harvest.

(I think I forgot to let everyone know, but, I have all the major present day pantheons done. They are on that front page now.)

 "Ma'am" Dyoken say, "I travel with the King of Heroes." He grins. "Do go on."

Somewhere, Muireach sneezes.

"A King of Heroes?" Rinan raises an inquisitive eyebrow, "You adventurers sure say the darnest things! Well, lately we've been havin' some trouble in wild lately. A pack of gnolls moved into the area recently. They've been wreaking havoc for a couple of months now, and everyone in town is on edge. The elder would have more details," Rinan puts her hands on her hips with a smirk, "and o'course, he'll tell ya all about the reward."

Rinan gives DK directions to the elder's house. It seems DK can go anytime that isn't too late in the evening.

(Did I give a time? I'll say its probably like 4 or 5 PM now)

DK goes shortly after that. He collects any of his allies he finds along the way, and fills them in on the terrible crisis that needs their attention.

(Shall I assume everyone goes together to the old man's place? Or is Merrick investigating the curio shop?)

"Aye. You might be right there, Fungy. Somethings wrong about the semi-fiend having live that long." Luthok starts heading towards the tavern to get a bite to eat and a dry place to rest for a while as he stumbles into DK. "Town's small enough to not get a decent break from you guys I see..." 

“Weird. A tiefling devoted to a harvest god. The world has certainly changed since I saw it last.” Muireach shrugs and meets up with Dyoken and Luthok in their conversation.

 "If we left you sittin' back on your front porch, old man, you'd just wither away collecting dust." Dyoken says to Luthok as Muireach nears. "The mayor would like to give us a reward. Come along, if you'd like a say." He leads The way.

Muireach laughs, “Ah tribute, is it? How noble of this small town to know of my imminence. Come, let us meet this fine mayor.”

Quote from LaRue >>

"Don't know much about archeology myself," the lady dwarf shakes her head. However, she smiles at DK. Something spells trouble in this smile. She says, "Name's Rinan Thunderstout. Only thing I know is that A.S. group is pretty keen on our local history. Hope they don't go disturbing anything, which reminds me... the elder told me to keep an eye peeled for capable young people. You seem capable and young. Would you be interested in doing some heroics?" 

Merrick overhears and enters the shop, wooden doll in hand. "Heroics are our middle name! Dyoken and Merrick, atcher service." he says smiling proudly. He claps the wooden doll down on the counter. "I found this, it looks like the statue in town! Do you know anything about it? Or about the place in the sky where people know how to play music well with pegasuses?"

As DK drags Merrick out of the inn, the kithkin catches the innkeeper saying things like "Er," "Uh," and "What in tarnation, place in the sky?"

Somehow becoming the party wrangler and the one responsible for moving things along, DK leads everyone to the elder's home. From outside, they can hear a man wailing in agony. When you knock, a young kithkin girl opens the door. She welcomes you in when you explain that you were told to come here by Rinan the innkeeper at the edge of town. The girl leads you down a hallway and to an open room where you find an ancient looking kithkin man. His white sideburns are almost as comically long as his eyebrow hairs, which almost completely obscure his eyes from your gaze. Next to the one you suppose is the elder is a big, burly human man full-blown ugly crying and kneeling by the elder. 

"M-MY BABY G-G-GIRL!" the man continues to cry as the elder kithkin pats him on the back. "WHERE IS SHE!?"

"Calm down, Wolfred, she's only been missing a few hours... I'm sure she's at a, how they call it, a girlfriend's house?" the kithkin replies. 

After an awkward moment, he notices you all standing at the entrance of his parlor. The young kithkin girl says, "Great Grandpapa! These guys are here for the thing. Mr. Wolfred, please stop crying so much. Great Grandpapa has to talk to these adventurers about the thing."

"Ehh?" Great Grandpapa looks you all over. "Is that so? I'm Elder Gaddok. Who might you be? I assume Rinan sent you folk."

Luthok shrugs as Dyoken remarks his hermit-ism. "Only reason I stick around is so my cabin doesn't fall on top of me. I need to hire a decent carpenter to build my "fortress of solitude". With an alligatorpit at that so annoying, bare-chested bozos don't go around camping on my lawn." 


Luthok just smiles as human man talks about their children missing, ignoring the elder. "Ah memories of a simpler time."  

Dyoken leans down toward Luthok, "Oozebeard, you didn't, uh... You know... Boogeyman? Did ya?" He glances back toward Wolfred.

Merrick leans in to the old man's face, very concerned to see a person in so much misery. "She's gone? We'll find her! What does she look like?"

Not hearing an answer right away, he leans closer. Closer and closer, until his nose is touching the old man's. "Hello?"

He turns to the young girl and Elder. "Quick, there isn't a moment to lose? Where did she go? Oh right, you don't know that. Um, what does she look like again? And what's her name?"

Luthok picks a nice, moist glob of soggy fungus from his beard and pats it on Dyokens face. "Wouldn't you like to know. I know I would." 

Luthok takes two steps forward, leans on his staff and greets the elder. "We were not sent here to deal with missing girls. We are here on other missions. Mainly archeological ones, but I hate gnolls just as much as the other so that problem has peeked my interest too." A quick nod towards the elder. "There was talk of a reward and gnoll problem, speak, neither of us are getting any younger here." 

Muireach looks to Luthok, “I thought we were here for a tribute? You didn’t say anything about gnolls?”

Luthok snorts at the question and just waits for response from the elder. 

"Tribute? Eh?" The old kithkin Grandpapa scratches his head, "No. Don't know about a tribute, but yes, we have a gnoll problem. You with the archeologists? I assume you have muscle? You look like a hero sure enough boy," Grandpapa scans you all and walks toward one of you in particular. Muireach assumes it would be himself, but actually, Grandpapa stands in front of Dyoken. "Yep, those humans sure know how to pump out those heroes, hahaha!"

Merrick continues to bring up the missing girl as the elder practically ignores him until the last moment, "Oh, a nice kithkin lad. So this is also a lucky heroic group. Complete with a boogeyman and a tree man. Perfect, marvelous," Gaddok picks up his walking cane that was leaning against the crying man as he continues, "So you are here about our gnoll problem. It is indeed a very bad omen for them to still be present in our valley. You see, our town is under the protection of the great hero, Stole. Never in all my years has Stole failed to come to our aid... yet here we are with a large pack of them prowling around like they own the valley!

"The missing one, the girl, she is a tiefling," the elder nods solemnly. "The first one to be a member of this community since Stole's time. Wolfred found her on his doorstep one morning many years ago, and well, she is a treasure to us for obvious reasons. A blessing from Stole. We are certain of that. Now, Wolfred-" the elder looks to the still weeping human, "I would like you to leave. Go home and get some rest. The heroes will be looking for your girl first, then the gnolls." 

Despite how old he looks, the old kithkin manages to shepherd the burly man out of the room despite his protestations. Once you all hear the front door shut, signifying Wolfred's departure, Gaddok bangs the butt of his cane on the ground once he returns to the common room. The young girl sits on the ground. You almost feel compelled to sit down too, (but you don't have to.)

"There is a lot to be said now, so you best pay attention. I believe that you can achieve a twofer between this archeological business and our gnoll problem. You see... The gnolls have invaded the old village and our scouts last told us that the gnolls dare defile our sacred temple devoted to Stole. I hoped to give you the runaround when you arrived in town, but it seems plans have changed. We don't like outsiders to know about our business, but it seems we need to rely on your strength. For that, I believe you should be told the legend of Stole the Hero. Will you stay awhile and listen?"