Eberron One

Cole wrote:

DM wrote:

As you talk, you see revelers in groups coming and going. They sing, drink, eat, get more drunk, then leave to apparently head for one of the other taverns in town. You also see several dwarves who eat by themselves, stay fairly quiet, and then go upstairs. Many of the people eye them suspiciously, and the more drunk of the revelers give them outright dirty looks.

Ducats will ask one of the serving girls what they groups of people are celebrating.

"Oh, it's the Beerfest sir! It's almost over, tomorrow is the last night. It's been on all month. Tomorrow, after noontide, the gardens will open again and all the bands will come out, and then there'll be a big feast to Arawai."

Tagor orders the sausage-and-cheese plate (1sp), a bed for the night (3 sp), and, after some deliberation, a round of cheap beer for himself and his dining companions (2sp). When his plate comes, he says grace briefly over it, then tucks in.

"Oh, this is quite good! Best cheese I've had in a while, I have to say. Hope the beer's as good.

"It's always nice, coming into a town for a festival. Given how that in the year it is, this'll probably be the last of the harvest celebrations. Nothing but long nights and cold winds ahead, I suppose.

"So, Mister Ducats, does anything in particular bring you and your friend Cash to this city?"

chaosclockwork wrote:

Tagor orders the sausage-and-cheese plate (1sp), a bed for the night (3 sp), and, after some deliberation, a round of cheap beer for himself and his dining companions (2sp). When his plate comes, he says grace briefly over it, then tucks in.

"Oh, this is quite good! Best cheese I've had in a while, I have to say. Hope the beer's as good.

"It's always nice, coming into a town for a festival. Given how that in the year it is, this'll probably be the last of the harvest celebrations. Nothing but long nights and cold winds ahead, I suppose.

"So, Mister Ducats, does anything in particular bring you and your friend Cash to this city?"

"Hey, I like that, "Mr. Ducats." No, nothin' much, my uncle just said maybe I ought to take a train somewhere a while. Nice here, I think. Hard to understand what anyone's sayin' though. I always like a preacher man though."

(Ducats has a silver Sovereign Host holy symbol on a chain.)

The serving wench (by the way, if you imagine the label on a bottle of St. Pauli Girl, you won't be far off) immediately becomes uncomfortable, but not unfriendly. She leans in a bit before she says "well, zey deserted us during de war, didn't zey. Took advantage of de war and crowned dere own king. But I always smile.. dere silver still bends. We have tal here, if you want miss." She gives a big smile.

ehiker133 wrote:

[OOC]
Mike, I'm missing some info here that my character should probably know. What is "tal"?

[IC]
Caby leans over to Karl and says, "I think I have enough for you to stay in the common room again this evening, if that is alright with you. I do not have much silver, either, at the moment. You can sleep there tonight and then tomorrow we can head to Von to talk to your father. How far is it to Von, by the way?"

Tal is tea, an invention of the halflings.

Karl is happy to hear about the common room, and says about Vom "oh it's not far. Only 3 days walk."

ehiker133 wrote:

DM wrote:

Tal is tea, an invention of the halflings.

Karl is happy to hear about the common room, and says about Vom "oh it's not far. Only 3 days walk."

Oh, TAL... Yeah, sure, I know what THAT is. I thought you said... umm... TAIL. I had no idea what tail meant.

One never knows, they might have tail available at the inn as well.. lol

With heavy food and good beer, all your various travels are beginning to catch up with your ability to stay awake. In fact, you hear Cash Money snoring under the table.

A bath is included with your first night's stay, if you wish, and if you partake, the water is nice and hot. The room for baths is upstairs, and has 3 tubs in it.. although I assume part of you will be taking turns. The only one of you who found the lighting unusual downstairs was Caby, who had only rarely seen cold fire crystals before. Upstairs, both in the bath and rooms, it's oil lanterns.

As you're getting settled in, you can still hear a few revelers, both downstairs, and out the windows.

Frau Blucher is downstairs greeting the overnight guests as they come down. Many of the guests seem to be regulars or staying for the long-term, and they greet her with a hearty "Good morning Frau Blucher!" You hear many horses neighing outside as the town starts its day.

The inn is filled with the smell of baking bread and hot tal. The fare is the nigh-legendary East Karrnathi 'big breakfast' with hot bratwurst, fresh bread, strong hot tal, half a dozen different kinds of eggs, cheeses, cold sliced sausage, and the two signature items of the region,

kolatchies


and kifli bread


After breakfast, Karl will lead you up the main street, away from the train station toward a tall baroque stone fountain. You pass ornate storefronts and taverns setting up their beer gardens for later in the day, all decorated with bundled sheaves of grain and colourful cloth ribbons and banners. Around the tall fountain, it's cold waters not yet frozen for the year, and topped with a large statue of a knight, sword skyward, lies the intersection of the main street and the Orien Highroad. The whole intersection is paved with cobblestones, and the paving continues off along both directions of the Highroad. Cloth banners of orange and yellow ripple in the chill breeze from the high top of the statue up to the corner gargoyles of the buildings here.

Karl says "Vom is this way," and turns right, onto the highroad. You see soldiers and townspeople talking happily as you pass by a few more businesses and many large houses. You meet a formation of soldiers in heavy armor, marching toward the center of town. The people go silent, and take to the sides of the street as they pass. You notice a couple of the helms contain only skulls.

At the edge of town, you continue northeast along the cobbled highroad. The day very quickly becomes completely overcast with light grey clouds. A chill wind blows from the north, brushing the dry brown grass. The fields all around have been cut and harvested, and tall sheaves stand out in many of them, rustling in the wind. Occasionally, you can see the heavy pyramidal stones of the train line through low rolling hills and fields to the south, and at times the highroad comes within 30 or 40 yards of the train.

Later in the day, as a train goes past headed east, you realise you've seen no one at all on the road since you were a mile or so out of town, when you saw the last wagon headed into Vulyar. The road remains deserted for the remainder of the day, with only a couple of rabbits seen before nightfall.

The member 'ehiker133' has done the following action : Roll dice

'd10' :

After spending more time with Karl, you're all starting to get a better picture of what's been going on. A short distance into the low, grassy, rolling hills north of Vom, there is a small ravine or gorge, probably not much more than 20 or 30 feet across. During the early to middle part of the war the Emerald Claw had some sort of small base there. It became abandoned when the Emerald Claw was outlawed for treason.

For many years now, children have been told not to go out there. The people of Vom avoid it, clearly considering it a mysterious and frightening place, and they surround it with shadowy tales of danger and gloom.

Recently, within the last few weeks, some teenagers from a nearby farm are rumoured to have gone out there exploring (or perhaps to drink beer and try to scare themselves). They haven't been seen since. There are some around Vom who say they ran away to Korth or somewhere, but even these seem frightened as they say this. At the Zeeg farm near Karl's, one of those furthest north around Vom, the family hasn't been seen in at least two weeks. Karl's father became certain that something terrible had happened to them when they failed to bring their crops in, and let their fields of barley go past harvest and to ruin.

Last week, out after dark finishing up chores, Karl saw lights on in the Zeeg house, but the next day there was still no one there. It was after this that Karl's father (also named Karl) sent him to Vulyar to try to find help from either the soldiers stationed at the barracks there, or from likely looking travelers.


Nothing comes near in the night, but at one point you thought you saw two red spots in the distance, like eyes. Then they were gone. The morning dawns grey and chilly.

Tagor enthusiastically volunteers to accompany Caby and Karl (and, presumably, Ducats) to Vom. He keeps a stream of chatter up for an hour or so at a time, but gets quiet as the landscape rolls on. At some point, he'll ask Karl if any soldiers or other travelers had been keen to follow up.

That night, assuming no objections from Ducats, he takes last watch, at the end of which he prays to the Host (picking up 'Protection from Evil' for now), and then starts cooking a meager breakfast for the group.

chaosclockwork wrote:

Tagor enthusiastically volunteers to accompany Caby and Karl (and, presumably, Ducats) to Vom. He keeps a stream of chatter up for an hour or so at a time, but gets quiet as the landscape rolls on. At some point, he'll ask Karl if any soldiers or other travelers had been keen to follow up.

That night, assuming no objections from Ducats, he takes last watch, at the end of which he prays to the Host (picking up 'Protection from Evil' for now), and then starts cooking a meager breakfast for the group.

Young Karl explains that the soldiers simply didn't believe him, and the few other travelers he talked to said they couldn't help "except one, who took 5 silvers to meet me at the edge of town, but then I couldn't find him."

You travel the rest of the 2nd day on the highroad, and you see 3 trains go by on their way east. One passes while the line is quite close to the road, and it's a windy, howling, thunderous experience. You camp the next night by the road again, and in the morning Karl says that after walking for about two hours there'll be a tree he recognises, and that's where you turn north.

You've seen very few trees, but after a couple hours you see one near the highroad which Karl points to, and Karl turns north onto a two-wheel dirt wagon track. You walk north along the tracks until late afternoon, when you see a town up ahead. Karl welcomes you to Vom, which looks to be a hamlet of perhaps 100-200 people.

Karl, sort of by default, since he's returning after at least 6 days away, will head for his father's farm. If you would rather stop in Vom first for anything, all you need do is let him know, and he will show you around.

ehiker133 wrote:

[IC]
Caby says, "Karl, we'll follow you to you father's farm first and talk to him. Then, we could either explore the neighbor's house at that point or if we need any supplies we can try to find them in town before we head out."

[OOC]
Eh... maybe we can find a local who has some military experience we could hire to go down with us? Don't all citizens of this realm have to do at least two years military service?

They do indeed, that's a good point This hamlet, though small, is big enough to have an inn. Karl will take you out to meet his father, pointing out a few places in town along the way. Your path lies up the main street and out the north end of town, and their farm lies about 2 miles north and a bit west.

I'll update further tomorrow, but feel free to rp as you like

ehiker133 wrote:

[IC]
"So, Ducats...," Caby glances over at him as they walk, "What brings you and Cash to this part of the realm? Were you headed in a particular direction? Or was it more like an, 'Anywhere but here,' sort of thing?"

"Um, my uncle said maybe I better get on a train for a while and then he said maybe he'd just better go and buy me a ticket, because, he, was, uh, tired of me, uh, 'overweighing my options.' So I guess that's the third one."

"I got no use for these Emerald Clawers, though, every one I ever seen's been full of some shit."

As you walk through town, people seem somewhat tense, but it's not aimed at your small group. They greet you warmly. You notice the inn, which is also apparently the only tavern, has a sign bearing a giant with bushy hair and masses of wooly hair on its arms and legs. None of the shops have writing on their signs.

You make it out to Karl's family's farm as the day nears sundown. His father, Karl Sr., is out working, and trots over to meet you all and happily greet his son. He's very proud that he's brought help, and after some basic introduction he invites you inside for a hot dinner. He says he'll explain more over the meal.

DM wrote:

As you walk through town, people seem somewhat tense, but it's not aimed at your small group. They greet you warmly. You notice the inn, which is also apparently the only tavern, has a sign bearing a giant with bushy hair and masses of wooly hair on its arms and legs. None of the shops have writing on their signs.

You make it out to Karl's family's farm as the day nears sundown. His father, Karl Sr., is out working, and trots over to meet you all and happily greet his son. He's very proud that he's brought help, and after some basic introduction he invites you inside for a hot dinner. He says he'll explain more over the meal.

"Somewhere I ought to do with my dog?"

Cole wrote:

"Somewhere I ought to do with my dog?"

Karl Sr. starts to say you can let him run around, but then a worried look crosses his face "you'd better bring him inside." and he smiles.