(The Young Bucks Tavern in the town of Calla is a place like many others. On this early evening, the Tavern is only about half full of your usual tradesmen, farmers and assorted other townspeople. Everyone is drinking and eating and generally having a good time. A young Half-Elf serving boy, Jack, floats around bringing everyone their food and ale.

The door opens and a young female enters. She appears to be a Rogue of some sort, wearing leather armor and carrying a Longbow across her back. The Rogue looks around, finds what she is looking for and walks over to the table where a motley crew of adventurers sit, staring at her intently as she silently pulls up a chair and takes a seat. The table has a sign on it that reads ‘1st time adventurers meet here’.)

"Ah, splendid! It looks like you all made it!"

(The tavern owner, a rotund and jolly-looking fellow of about 40, appears at the side of the table, smiling and holding what appears to be an envelope.)

"My name is Willfred, I am the owner of this fine establishment. Glad you all could make it. Your mutual friend has asked me to read this to you when you all arrived."

(He now opens it and takes out the enclosed letter. Unfolding it, he begins to read.)

Greetings, adventurers!

It is I, Craig, your friendly neighborhood shop keeper! You are all here because you all expressed interest in teaming up with other like-minded folks and going on adventures. I had all of your names on my LIST and I think all of you would be a good fit together. I hope I am correct. Take some time to get to know each other; I’m sure you’ll all become fast friends. Go forth and make your mark on the world!

Best of Luck!

Craig

(The assembled adventurers look around the table at each other. Willfred takes a little bow as he backs away.)

"Oh, this IS a good-looking group. You'll do well, very well indeed. Please let me know if I can be of any assistance to you."

(The crew looks each other over and sits for a few moments, until one of them rises up and begins to speak...)

DM's Notes: Ok, folks, go ahead and introduce your character to each other and give a brief description about your appearance, etc. No need to give your whole backstory, just introduce your character as they would introduce themselves. Looking forward to this! :)

Drakis sighs then stands up deciding to go first to get it over with "Hello everyone, My name is Drakis and I'm a Rouge and a dark elf, which is obviously by looking, so I guess that was a bit unnecessary" Drakis spoke in a low energy type voice "Im really only here because I don't work with others much and it's good to study to have a better understanding. Anyways that's all, it's good to meet everyone" Drakis sat back down feeling awkward bit not showing it to much

Leaning forward Trisjyre, pulls her hood back, revealing intense violet eyes...

       "Dragonborn Sorcerer I am... Trisjyre but you can call me Tris." 

She then pull her hood back up and leans back into the shadows. 

She sits up on her chair, takes out a small circular canteen from her bag, drinks from it, and says,

”Eliza. Hope we can get along...”

drinks from her canteen again.

DMs note: There's 1 more person coming, hopefully they join and respond soon, I'll try to update the thread as soon as they join in. Thanks for your patience, all.

Hales for a waiter then says "Hello I'm Zephuros Stormheart but you can just call me Zeph, I hope we can all work well together"

Looks at tris "you certainly have very nice scales you even with the shadows pulling around you"

Tris glances at Zeph and nods and asks... 

       "and where do you all hail from?." 

as her gaze scans the table.

(Willfred comes back to the table with Jack in tow, who is carrying a round of ale for you all. Jack serves you all your drinks as Willfred looks on, a smile on his face. The Tavern owner looks you all over appreciatively.)

"Well, it looks like Master Craig has done it again. Though I do think he was feeling a little creative this time."

(He sees you all looking at him, and senses he may have spoken out of turn.)

"I mean, of course, that lots of adventuring parties have found each other thru Craig's list. He's very good at making matches. Forgive me for being so bold, but I think he's done well bringing you 4 together. Very interesting, very interesting indeed. I mean, I haven't seen a Genoshi in many years, yet here we have (he points at Zeph) one that looks to be a Druid of some sort. You have not one, but TWO Rogues, one Human and one Elf (he motions to Drakis and Eliza) who look cunning and shady, in the best way, of course. Very dangerous.  Then you have this Dragonborn Sorcerer here (he points at Trisjyre) who look like she could rain down powerful magic on your enemies.)

(Willfred clears his throat.)

"Well, enough about that. Please enjoy your ale, and let me know if I can help in any way."

(Willfred and Jack back off and let you all get to know each other. The ale loosens you up somewhat, and you slowly start to get used to each other. Mostly. About 45 minutes or so pass along this way, when...

Suddenly, a large, red-headed man in a black leather apron bursts thru the door, his muscular arms bleeding from some pretty gnarly gashes. A look of panic and terror is on his face, which is dirty and starting to swell up and bruise. He looks like someone beat the hell out of him. 

“Bess!” he yells. “They got my Bess!”

He drops down to his knees and starts sobbing as the crowd starts to gather round.

(What do you all do?)

Takes a large swig of my ale then looks at the man and says "Blimey man what be this racket be on about, who's this Bess? This be our wife or maybe some cow? (snickers to self maybe both)"

Drakis couldn't help but chuckle at the stupid comment. He got up to join the crowd, the man seemed to be saying nonsense so Drakis tries to calm him down 

(Do I have to do some persuasion roll or something?)

Eliza ignores the stupid comment. She also joins the crowd and looks through her bag to see if she has any bandages

Tris moves through the crowd... points a finger at the sobbing red-haired man and CASTS the spell MESSAGE whispering

       "Calm down, Tell me about, you, Bess, and who would take her and hurt you and Why?" 

Tris carefully listens to his response...

Zeph puts gets out his chair and joins the rest of you, when he reaches the man he takes out a handkerchief and offers it to the man 

(Trisjyre casts Message to try to get thru to the injured man, but all she gets back are distressed noises and heavy breathing.

Zeph offers him his handkerchief, but he is too out of it to take it.

The group help the man to a nearby table and begin questioning the man as the rest of the tavern gathers round, murmuring noisily. The man is too distraught to answer properly, taking deep breaths and trying to compose himself.)

"Rickard! What's happened?"

(Willfred rushes to the side of the fallen man, who is still very distraught. His injuries, though numerous, do not seem to be the main source of his despair. He tries to compose himself, trying to answer in between sobs.)

"Gob... goblins. They broke into my workshop. I-I-I tried to stop them... I think I even killed one of them. But there were too many. They stabbed at me and beat me with clubs and... when I woke up my daughter was... gone!"

(Rickard quietly sobs as the crowd murmurs their disbelief. WIllfred starts explaining things to the party, who is gathered around.)

"Rickard is the Blacksmith here. And Bess, sweet little Bess is his 8 year-old daughter. She means the world to him. All he has ever since his wife passed a few years ago."

(A look of sudden realization appears on Willfred's face, a smile on his lips.)

"Rickard, my friend, don't despair! Look here! These here fine folks (he points towards the party) are skilled adventurers!"

“You-you’re adventurers? Please, you’ve got to help me! If I lost my Bess, I… I… I can pay you! I don’t have much, but I would give all the gold I have in the world if you can get my daughter back to me safely. Will you help me? Please, I beg you!”

(Rickard throws himself, both figuratively and literally, at the feet of the party, begging for help. The party begins to talk amongst themselves.)

DMs note: I hope I can ask a favor from you guys. Can you please go into your signature and add your character like I have to the bottom of your posts? It's under Profile, Edit Profile, and there's a spot there for Signature. It would help me remember who's who faster. Thanks a lot.

Drakis was never a fan of seeing or knowing women or children were danger so he nods his head "Yeah I don't mind helping" He looked at the rest of his group to see what they say

Eliza said to the blacksmith, her voice filled with confidence,

“Don't worry, Blacksmith, We will help rescue your daughter.”

She then glares at the rest of the adventurers, hoping they could also help the man.

Tris nods...

       "Where is the workshop?" 

"We'll start our tracking from there and don't worry You little Bess will be just fine"

"Thank you! Bless you all!" 

(The grateful Blacksmith goes around thanking the adventurers, alternately hugging and enthusiastically shaking the hands of the brave party who has agreed to help him. Wilfred looks pensive.)

"Hmmm, now where do you think they could have taken her, Rickard?"

(The Blacksmith thinks for a moment.)

"I... I haven't got a clue. I mean, I didn't even know there were goblins in these parts. I'm pretty sure there's a dead goblin in my workshop, maybe we can figure out where they went if we go back there? It's on the north edge of town."

(He looks at you all expectantly.)

DMs note: Please let me know if you want to do anything before heading to Rickard's shop. Also, as you've probably noticed, the pace is fairly slow because of the nature of the PbP game, so thank you for being patient. I'll update tomorrow afternoon to get 2 posts in on Sunday.