You are lounging in your cell, when a guard and someone you haven't met before comes to your cell. After a bit of time the stranger nods at the guard saying Let's hope this one can hold their own. As the guard reaches for his keys to the cell, the stranger turns around and leaves walking away at a brisk pace. Soon you are shackled and escorted to a room with 3 other individuals. The room, while sparsely decorated, looks very orderly. Sitting behind a desk is a large muscular man waiting and watching, you all know him as Sheriff Elias. Standing behind him and off to one side is the unknown stranger who was at each of your cells as you were gathered. He leans down and speaks into Elias' ear. Nodding Elias gets up and walks to stand in front of you 4. 

Well... it seems Sarenrae has smiled on you lot today. Your future has been purchased by this man's employer He gestures to the silent man still standing behind his desk. It seems your time is going to be spent chasing ghost stories, and spreading rumors. Which is a damn sight more grace than some of you deserve. At this the man behind him coughs, earning a sneer from the sheriff’s face. Be that as it may perhaps your service can be of use to the community you harmed and violated. He turns back to the man behind the desk I guess this is the part where you want me to leave my own office?

Putting on a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes the man nods once and gestures to the door. The sheriff’s back stiffens, but he says nothing as he leaves the room. The man turns his eyes from the door to the four of you. Well now that we are alone, I can explain a bit about why you are here. To put it bluntly, my employer has purchased you and your parole. He needs a certain dangerous area explored and didn’t want to use valuable and honest working people. So has decided to use dangerous villains, such as you all. You will be given your equipment back, plus a couple of extra items that he has deigned to spend his gold on for you. Your group of criminals will be responsible for exploring the Maw of Black Ice, my employer has guards who are responsible for keeping the area safe, but as yet we have not had word from them in 4 days time and due to the dangers in the area they are permitted 2 days between check-ins, so to this time they are 2 check-ins late. Your group will need to check on the guard, see what may have caused them to not check-in, and if you are skilled enough check on the runeblade, without disturbing it. Now I think it is time we go get you all your equipment again. If you will please follow me we can get you going quickly.

You all are guided to a bigger room, with a long table that has a dropped cloth on top that you can see bumps and objects laying underneath. 

((At this point your characters are going to be left alone for a little bit so you may talk amongst yourselves. And if your character has a question you can ask before leaving the Sheriff’s office. No guarantee they will be answered though.))

"The wind blows warm on our destinies today friend. We have a rare opportunity to make a difference she prove we are upstanding citizens. Tell me, why did they lock you all away? I angered the wrong leader of my faith and he branded me a traitor, I seek to find a way to uncover his wickedness and set right my order. What of you all?"

"I stole food to survive. I do not like being beholden to a benefactor, but I will not refuse a chance to steer my destiny."

Flindrinkin will look at the group to size them up. He doubts that any of them could drag him out of a burning farmhouse, but they do appear to be a competent group that might, over time, be worthy of dieing for. Strength and loyalty are muscles that must be earned through consistent work and trials.

"My name is Flindrinkin. Let's go find those guards."

((You are still shackled and they will be back in a minute, they went to gather your things. i'm letting you guys use this time to get test your character's personality in RP))

Ambrose gives Flindrinkin a quick up and down glance. "Yes, you know, I could quite believe that you might find yourself... hungry, on occasion. I trust you won't look at any of us as roadside snacks."

He looks across the table as Sighdr. "Oh! And to think, all this time I thought one of the guards had left a window open to let in a draft on purpose. Tell me, does the air just blow around your head, or through between your ears as well? It seems it must, for all your reliance on talk of destiny. In case you haven't figured it out, we make our own destinies, friend."

Turning to the last other prisoner in the room. "Ah! Looks like big Flinkidrink over there will have some competition for who gets to eat my tasty morsel - I suppose I should warn the both of you now, I'm all gristle and bone!" 

Ambrose laughs at his own poor jest, if only to fill the room with a pleasant sound. 

He attempts to slip his restraints.

Sleight of Hand: 15

You come close to squeezing your hand through, but before your hand can slip through the manacle gets caught on your thumb knuckle, bruising slightly from your struggles.

((Everyone Place roll me a d10 and a d20, no modifiers))

"Drat. That's going to leave a mark. If only I had my..." Ambrose notices the bumps under the tablecloth and tries to lift up an edge to peer and see what's underneath.

4

7

D10: 7

D20: 20

"If you think the gods don't have a hand in what you do then you are more naive than you appear." Sighdr waits patiently, unmoving save for his hair. For added effect he's not even breathing.

8

7

"Naivete is highly underrated, my friend. And I think I prefer the gods to keep their hands where I can see them, for the most part." He abruptly notices Sighdr's absolute stillness.

"Well, that's a neat trick."

Sig does not react

Flindrinken strains against the shackles, longing to be free from them. It is at this moment he notices that the hobgoblin is not looking well.

((sorry all, i was busy today))

6

4

((Ugh!! I hate doing the item tabs. Man I spent 20 minutes trying to get all those items to highlight but nope dndbeyond hates me this morning I guess))

As you all are chatting and whatnot, the door opens up to reveal the Stranger from the sheriff's office. Accompanying him are a several guards, some who have packs of equipment and weapons set them down at your feet, and on looking you see that it is your gear and equipment from before being incarcerating and everything looks like it has been oiled, stitched and sharpened. 

The Stranger walks to the other side of the table and says You will notice that your gear has come to you mostly in better condition that when you were brought here. My employer has seen fit to restore your equipment to adventuring levels and also waving a hand at cloth draped table He has seen fit to give you the choice of some magical items the right side, your left is some generally easy to obtain, yet handy magical items and on the other side you have your pick of some slightly harder to obtain items. In order to keep this from devolving into a shoving match and so our guards can keep an eye to make sure your... base... natures don't come through. Please make a single selection from each side of the table the order will be:
1. Flin
2. Alex
3. Ambrose
4. Sighdr

Left Side
Horn of Silent Alarm, Orb of Direction, Orb of Time, Rope of Mending, Tankard of Sobriety, Unbreakable arrow, Boots of False Tracks, Enduring Spellbook, Heward's Handy Spice Pouch  Potion of Healing

Right Side
Bag of Holding, Boots of Elvenkind, Driftglobe, Efficient Quiver, Potion of Hill Giant Str, Potion of Greater healing, Ring of Jumping, Wand of the War Mage

Flindrinkin eyes the contents of the table with confusion. He does not know what any/most of these items are or how the could be beneficial to completing our mission. He turns to his fellow inmates,

”I was only expecting to get my own possessions back. There are too many choices for me. Let’s decide all of the items we think we need and then between the  four of us we can select them, whether or not each of us use the item we choose.”

Flindrinkin looks back at the table and says again to his compatriots (not to imply a choice is being made),

”I like the Ring of Jumping. With my mobility, I could definitely surprise some people. But maybe someone else would be better off with it. Or maybe someone wants that arrow but they want something else on that side of the table. I could select it and then give it to them. What do you all think?”

You get 2 items total Flin, 1 from each side. If you take something someone else wants the can attempt to barter during their turn.

(We can do this kind of like dirty santa if you all want)

((want me to item tab them all?))

While the others are choosing, Sig pipes up. "So stranger, I heard a rumour the ancient runebalde has awakened, that it is glowing, and humming on its altar. Is that true? Do you know more then you are telling us?"