The woman scoffs at Adolmain's innuendo. She makes a face and looks up and down at Adolmain. "Don't get too excited, feathercock. Are you always this eager or is this the first time a woman's spoken to you since you've left your mother's nest?"

The woman has clearly had experience dealing with this kind of commentary. She ignores the Aasimar's question and speaks past him to the rest of the group.

"So, you've destroyed their hideout? Well, I can say you've made a lot of friends... and a lot of enemies. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few days," she muses with a smile.

“Forgive me for my misunderstanding I am accustomed to only seeing one type of woman who walks up to men in a tavern like this.  You have some fire in your spirit.  I appreciate strength of spirit and I must admit I haven’t seen many females who have a fire within them that burns so bright.  Who are you and what do you know of Thundertree?” Replies Adolmain 

"The woman turns back to Adolmain, and extends a hand, all smiles. "No offense taken, and none given either I hope. You never know what you're dealing with on the sword coast."

"My name is Jidea. I've been traveling the coast performing at inns for coin, and sometimes aiding groups of adventurers. In my business, I hear a lot of rumors and stories, and what I've heard is that there is something large and mythical at Thundertree. I haven't heard specifics of what it is, or what its intentions are, but I'd bet that whatever it is, it's dangerous."

"What about you, who are you and what's your story? Do you normally travel the area ridding towns of corrupt gangs, or is that a side hobby?"

Quote from Thordain >>

"The woman turns back to Adolmain, and extends a hand, all smiles. "No offense taken, and none given either I hope. You never know what you're dealing with on the sword coast."

"My name is Jidea. I've been traveling the coast performing at inns for coin, and sometimes aiding groups of adventurers. In my business, I hear a lot of rumors and stories, and what I've heard is that there is something large and mythical at Thundertree. I haven't heard specifics of what it is, or what its intentions are, but I'd bet that whatever it is, it's dangerous."

"What about you, who are you and what's your story? Do you normally travel the area ridding towns of corrupt gangs, or is that a side hobby?"

  Sildar eyes the woman curiously.

"Welcome Jidea. These fine heroes could probably use someone like you. Three of them have graciously accepted my offer to join the Lords Alliance. Since I do not know you, I cannot extend the offer to you, but rest assured, you clear out the local threats and help them find the Black Spider, the Lords Alliance will be forever in your debt."

Sildar continues, "I must now depart. I have to give the unfortunate news about who the real "Glasstaff" is. It pains my heart, but it is what it is. I will be staying at the inn for the foreseeable future, so simply visit me here if you have new news to report…."

Sildar turns away from the group, headed up to his room at the Inn.

Finally looking up from a stein of ale, the size of which would dwarf a small wood elf, Autzen notices Solaris' departure, and that he's had a few too many.

"Solana has abandoned the alliance, I see...  where did he go, hmmm?  Hey, Aldoman, did he leave my coin with you?  Many Redpan..." no, that didn't sound right at all,  "Redhand..." no, still not right,  "Henland... ugh, many worthless people died so I might have that coin, hand it over."

"And, Sundar, you can keep your little Alliance... kfltm ao wmyye... I answer to no one, least of which some band of do gooders, but good day to you, sir." 

Autzen's rant stops momentarily as he sees Jidea. Staring at her for an uncomfortable amount of time, Autzen speaks slowly and earnestly, "Judy... Jodie... welcome aboard... I now go to see a man about a horse... "

With that Autzen takes his leave for the evening

"I've learned that Autzen has a penchant for overindulgence.  However, he makes up for some of his flaws with his skill in battle.  Although we don't always, well honestly often, see eye to eye, I respect the Tiefling fighter.  Jidea, I am pleased to meet you.  I am Rastin Vixus.  I hope that you also prove worthy of our trust and loyalty.  I have a good feeling about you.  Good night." Rastin bows and retires to his room.

Jidea watches the tiefling and dragonborn leave with a bemused expression. She chuckles to herself, and then leans back. "Someone sits at their table, says two words to them, and they immediately assume they have someone joining them. Unbelievable, what a pair of clowns."

She turns to the Aasimar. "I see you weren't lying when you mentioned the kind of women that have spoken to your friends. Those three seem to have gotten the mistaken impression that I am joining them on whatever fool's errand they are running. They are either complete morons, or so used to speaking to whores that they they think every woman will obey the first words out of their mouths."

"Let me ask you, how long have you known this group? I can spot a disaster a mile away and this troupe of yours looks like one. Why are you spending time with idiots that try to recruit the first person they see? And do you have a name, Aasimar?"

Jidea mocks the dragonborn's self important tone. "I hope that you prove worthy of my trust and loyalty," she intones with an exaggerated baritone. "What a couple of dipshits," she says, shaking her head.

“My name is Adolmain, I met these two when we were hired by Sildars friend to escort his wagon of supplies here.  Typically I try to keep a low profile however when called upon by Valandras my advisor I tend to go as it means innocents are in harms way.  So far she hasn’t been wrong.  I’ll admit that you’ll never hear it from Autzen but we just lost a part of the team and if you are as skilled as he was then we could use the help.  We still have a guy named Spider to step on a dwarf to rescue and a lost mine that is supposedly filled with magic items to find. If that sort of thing interests you.  Or we could look else where I am sure there is some sorry wizard who just left a team after casting blade ward two hundred times that could come with us.”  Adolmain hopes she signs on she is the most interesting thing he has seen in this town to date not that he is interested  in anything other than a reliable team member.

Jidea listens to Adolmain. For a moment, she doesn't say anything. She imperceptibly shakes her head with a look of pity. She takes a deep breath, and her expression softens. She gestures to the serving wench. "Hey Bonnie. Get me a mulled wine, and another of whatever this guy is having. Put them both on his tab."

Bonnie brings the drinks, and Jidea takes a long sip.

"Look, buddy. I'm going to give you some free advice.

"I've seen this before. Your Sildar guy here represents some group of richies. They are looking to find a bunch of greenhorns to help clear out riff-raff. They look for gullible and idealistic idiots who will go charging into a bunch of goblin caves, ***** hard, for some vague promise of a reward. I mean for ****'s sake, 'The Lords Alliance will be forever in your debt.' Really? Could this be any more generic? Said idiots invariably get themselves killed, so they don't have to pay. And then it's on to the next group of pigeons.

"So you said you attacked the Redbrands. Congratulations. You defeated a group of pubescent farmboys. If you had died, Sildar would be on his way for replacements. You didn't die yet, so now you're on to solve his next problem for him."

Jidea holds up a finger. "That's one thing."

She holds up another. "Here's another."

"I'm good at reading people. In my business you learn to read a room real fast. I'll tell you what I see. Your drunk Tiefling 'friend', and I put that in quotes, cares only about coin. It's obvious. He's roaring drunk and it's still all he can talk about. He's got no loyalty and will leave your corpse behind in whatever goblin shithole you end up dying in. Your Dragonborn buddy with the stick up his ass thinks he's some paragon of virtue out with something to prove. He'll charge stupidly into some trap and die within the month.

You have no group cohesion, you don't work as a team, and you've only survived this far by being a) lucky and b) fighting people even more incompetent than yourselves. Your elf friend figured this out after a few days and fed you some story about finding himself as an excuse to get the hell away from you. You can see the writing on the wall and you're desperately throwing yourself at anyone with a pulse to boslter your numbers so you'll have a chance at not wiping out.

Jidea leans back expectantly.

"That about sum it up?"

“alright, well the offer stands.  It is interesting that you chose to poke your head into our little meeting, but hey you want to play your lute for coin I’m sure that’s pretty rewarding.  We are leaving in the morning for Thundertree have a good night. “

Jidea shrugs and moves back to the room, working the crowd and learning what she can about others.

Autzen rolls himself out of his rented bed and onto the wooden floor, his head still throbbing from what must have been more than a gallon of this dump’s finest ale. 

Rubbing his face and stretching his wings, he notices a small folded parchment on the bedside nightstand.  Autzen looks for a sender but finds none, seems it’s anonymous.  Having spent decades in the underbelly of most towns, life as a criminal has benefits, namely in information. 

Unfolding the note, he slowly reads the message… a bit puzzled...  “Who the…. ahh, interesting… dipshits and clowns… interesting.”

Adolmain awakes in a sweat, Valandras spoke to him last night in his sleep.  A vision of a tree struck by lightning has thunder rolled through the air and a great evil stepping out of the burning tree and destroying the light.  This message is clear Thundertree must be purified!!

Rastin, Adolmain and Autzen wake up from a deep slumber and proceed downstairs to head to Thundertree. Autzen relays the information his little birds left him to Autzen and Adolmain, and Adolmain confirms Jidea's words. Autzen immediately suggests murdering Jidea and taking her equipment. He spends about 15 minutes going into specifics on how he wants to murder Jidea, to the shock of Rastin and Adolmain. Rastin eyed the mithril armour and briefly considered Autzen's plan, but he reminded himself of his Paladin vows and prayed for the strength to not dispense with the woman. Greed creates the compromise of values he reminds himself. Adolmain was indifferent, despite Autzen's persuasive arguments that the woman should die.

You head down hte stairs to the inn, with varying intentions, only to find that Jidea isn't there. Your party asks the bartender about Jidea.

"I believe the last words she said before leaving in the middle of the night was "**** this."" the bartender laughs. Apparently she decided not to join you for your trip Thundertree.

You enjoy a free breakfast on the house. Apparently, the word of you feats in the Redbrand hideout have spread, and you find yourself being called "heroes" by the local populace. The bartender remarks that he's happy to feed "The Heroes of the Sword Coast."

(OOC - Ok, thanks for the early morning fireworks LOL. After various discussions with all of you, Jidea has been booted and Julien will play a new character. Jidea lacked an appreciation for Autzen's approach and we can't have PCs killing other PCs (just google "my players want to kill each other 5E" and you'll find plenty of DMs having to deal with this headache - why sometimes GM don't allow good and evil characters in the same group). All of you are amazing story tellers, but we have to work within the confines of having a functioning group that works together. Thus the reason Rastin is somewhat forgiving of Autzen's ways (who has shit in a goblin's mouth, murdered unarmed prisoners, etc.) I'll let PCs fight each other but I'll unilaterally prevent death and get things back on track if you guys go down that road….

Consequently, Jidea has been "retired" and Julien will introduce a new character in Thundertree. I will fast track you all to Thundertree entrance (where we left off before Julien joined) and I'll introduce his character.

A few tidbits:

1) Julien's new toon will get one basic +1 weapon, and a gold allotment. Don't want him to be a liability for your group and pretty common for DMs to start characters out past lvl 1 to make the transition easier with a new character (it benefits all of you to have a solid toon joining you)

2) Don't take role-play personally. It's a GAME. All of you are amazing story tellers and have created characters with distinct personalities. But of course the in-game toon is different than the real toon (though I think Josh is a cold blooded spy killer, so maybe he is somewhat like Autzen in real life).

3) Julien - you clearly have the most experience than any of us with D&D. But please note this is a "newb" campaign and we're just having fun with it. We appreciate your take on rules as we want to learn the mechanics and get it right. But with that said, roll with the how we pace the game and such. We're a tight knit group (just had a three day in-person D&D game) and though we are welcoming to new toons and RL players behind the toons, ease your way into it and probably hold off on the suggestions and such (though again, cool to point out rules and such). I've known you for nearly 20 years Julien, and you're definitely "alpha" (I recall our video game days lol). Just reign it in. Everyone else - the goal here is to really learn the mechanics so we should definitely be open to feedback on gameplay mechanics and such.

Next post will be in front of Thundertree entrance.)

(OOC: I would have been happy to sort the character differences out on the boards.  Might have been interesting.... but dad said no.  Boo lol)

It is early afternoon as you reach the Ruins of Thundertree. Gradually, the trail becomes an old, overgrown lane winding between dilapidated buildings choked in vines and brush. Ahead of you, in the middle of the settlement, rises a steep hill, upon which stands a stone tower with a partially collapsed roof and an adjoining cottage. A dirt road hugs the base of the hill and wends its way between old stone houses, many of which are roofless ruins with interiors open to the weather. Other buildings appear more or less intact. The whole place is eerily silent.

A wooden sign is nailed to a post nearby. It reads: “DANGER! Plant monsters AND zombies! Turn back now!”

You all hear some movement in a brush behind you, which make you think you've been followed.

(OOC: Julien's new toon will be the one causing the movement, so don't shoot *looking at Autzen*)

“Who’s there step into the light or I will send the the light to you in the form of Magic Missles!” Adolmain looks at the bush.

"No worries, comrade, no worries. I come out," comes a thickly accented voice from the vegetation. 

You hear more rustling and out of the bushes comes a tall and imposing human. He is wearing a fur rimless hat, known as a papakha, indicative of the northern tribes of the sword coast. His clothing is loose and ragged, but you can make out the gleam of scale armor underneath the patchwork of furs. He has a tremendous greatsword strapped to his back. He looks like a dangerous man, but his hands are out and open in a non threatening gesture.

The man's build is lean and strong, without being overly muscular. His face is youngish but weathered, it's hard to get a sense of his age. From under the back of his hat you see a short braid going to his neck on an otherwise bald head. He has fair skin and grey eyes, and a thin mustache.

“Who are you and why are you here?  I know this place is evil so I suspect you are up to no good and if I suspect it then my friends here will waste no time killing you!  Although I will say you seem a bit out of place here.  Speak now before Autzen here disembowls you and places your testicles in your mouth.”