"Don't worry, the last thing it felt was the kiss of my axe.  Thank you for your healing."

Tormir points in the direction of the house.  "I spot a building.  Hopefully someone around here can help us begin to find some answers."

(Is the house on the road, or in the trees?  And if it's on the road, is it the start of the town, or just the one house? - I guess we'll discover all those things as we get closer anyway)

Heading south down the road you make your way around the bend in the road and you can see that the house is set off from the road on the right with a path leading to it. It's a small single story house with smoke coming the chimney. There's a small garden beside the house and few chickens running around. You also see that there's a river with a wooden bridge crossing it. Beside the bridge has a little booth with a human sitting in it. It looks like he might be dozing. (so single house and not the start of the town :)

"Might I suggest I go up quietly alone to see what is going on" Lorros sets down the corpse of Tim and tries to set off stealthily.

Stealth: 11

Lorros trips over the leg of Tim and falls flat on his face!

"Well, there go any hopes of sneaking through what I assume is a toll booth without paying! Still, if it is a toll booth, I can't think of anyone more likely to know at least some information. Maybe he'll recognise us?"

(LOL, Lorros! Yeah, pretty much)

Edit: I'm guessing you guys are headed to the booth, or do you want to check out the house, or do something else (Sorry, not trying to push you guys in a direction. I had misread Tormirs post at first and started typing the toll booth interaction.

Can I just clarify some descriptions/geography?  So we're walking south along the road, and off to the right of the road there's a small house, garden and chickens.  Then there's also a river and a small wooden bridge with a booth.  Is that wooden bridge on the main road, or associated with the house?  The way I've pictured it is the wooden bridge with the booth is on the main road, further past the path leading to the house - so we get to the house shortly before the river - is that right?

Correct

“I suggest someone other than me takes the lead in talking to this fellow up ahead. I tend to mean well but trip over my words and insult people.”

"Perhaps a job for our Cleric?"

The guy in the booth seemingly asleep pops awake at the sound of your talking, cocks his head to the side, looks at you and waves.

Freyalise to the group "let me have a chat with this guy"

Freyalise walks towards the guy in the booth holding her hand in the air with her palm facing the guy, in her mind she was going to wave back but forgot the wiggling motion.

In her mind Freyalise wonders if her small talk skills are gonna cut the mustard here...

Charisma:15

Freyalise walks up to the booth with her hand raised. When you get close enough he says "Oh, welcome back! Long trip huh?"

"You could say that, do you remember when I was here last? I have been through the mill a bit and misplaced my memory".

"Well sure, Y'all came crossed, ohh, close to month now." His face scrunches up "Wha, h, h , hey, Is that Tim there your carrying? What the hell happened? Is he OK?" Coming out of the booth to meet you "Does he need a healer?"

"I don't think that would do much good at this stage, I'm afraid. He has been dead for some time, unless you know of a very powerful healer nearby?"

Freyalise casts Thaumaturgy in the direction of Tim's corpse making it appear he is muttering ominous whispers.

Freyalise to the booth guy "I think he is trying to tell us something from beyond the grave, maybe you can help? What do you think he is trying to tell us?"

The guy in the booth is severely rattled and obviously distraught "OH, No, Tim... Tim, hell. His wife is going to be heartbroken. You've got to get him to the school as soon as possible. They have powerful healers there. What the hell happened? You guys said you where going to visit a friend for a couple days now you come back weeks later with Tim dead?"

"We...um...We'll, we're having trouble answering that question ourselves, to be honest. It's safe to say that things went a little wrong and none of us came back unscathed. Indeed, there are even significant gaps in our memories of the events leading up to the last few weeks. I wonder if you could tell us what you know of our mission and our activities, and see if there's anything you know that we'd forgotten?"

He shakes his head "I don't know what you mean? You guys all came through saying you were going to see a friend in Rosedale. That was like a month ago. You don't remember that? We didn't talk much you guys said you were in a hurry. Listen, you guys got to get Tim to a healer. He's a good man." He moves to the side of the booth and lifts the wood bar unblocking the bridge. He turns back to you guys "You know, there was another pretty big group that came though just a little while before you guys. They were kind of sketchy looking. They haven't come back through yet. You didn't get into a tangle with them did ya?"