Prologue: The Barony of Harkenwold

Carlos takes Zoe by the hips and sets her back on the ground. - "Zoe, Steward now. Pastries after." - he turns her back toward the door. - "Mrs Alma, on my honor as a heavily armored Dwarf with a badass beard, we will not let your tarts go to waste."

Zoe looks pretty bummed and looks like she's contemplating grabbing her tart and making a run for it. Alma picks them up and says, "Go on to your meeting. Your friends has already made quite the vow. Far be it from me to keep him from fulfilling it!"

The cleric sighs and says, "All right, all right, let's get this meeting over with." She leaves the kitchen looking crestfallen.

"Oh. I see." Lonetree's tone is very disapproving. "Well, we'll wait for them to come back and then head to my office."

That's when Carlos, Zoe, and Kat reenter the room.

Carlos shows up and bows - "Apologies for our tardiness, Steward Lonetree. We'll fill you in on why momentarily."

"I am!" Kat happily declares, ready to follow Mr. Lonetree.

"Aye." - Carlos declares, ready to follow Mr. Lonetree.

"All set." Zoe gives a halfhearted thumbs up.

The Steward nods at Carlos in acknowledgement. "Then follow me." Lonetree leads you back into the area with the Baron's study but enters a different door. The Steward's office is impeccably clean and tastefully decorated with throw rugs, shelves of books (though not as great as Stockmer's), a fine desk, and several comfy, overstuffed chairs. The chairs are arranged such that everyone sitting can see most everyone else, clearly set up for talking rather than intimidation like you'd usually see in this kind of office. His desk has a stack of paperwork in two neat piles, one in a box labeled "In" and the other "Out." The one and only window is covered by thick dark green curtains. The room is lit by two oil lamps; Lonetree sets his own in a sconce near the door. He waves at the chairs and says, "Please, sit wherever you like."

He sits in one of the the overstuffed chairs nearest the desk. Jo sits in the chair next to him and Zoe sits near the door.

Kat sits in the other chair that's closest to the steward and leans her sword against it. She then makes herself comfortable and slumps into her chair.

Hunter takes a seat and leans back and relaxes as though he were back at Meredith's place, still tired from the horse ride back to the town. He's not a neat freak, but he always did like the way this room was arranged.

Carlos sits his ass down.

Thank you for coming to my office, you must all be tired from your battle today. Please, tell me how it went."

Note: Please keep it general rather than specific. A bullet pointed list so I know what you tell him would be appreciated. It probably doesn't matter much right now but it might in the future so let's practice a little bit.

"Well..." - Carlos considers where to start - "We were sent off to slay the Bullywug infestation in Albridge. We killed them all, then blew their nest sky high. The messy part is what we uncovered in between."

"The Bullywugs were being led by a Lizardman Shaman, who was directing them to raid the river traffic on the Nentir. They killed a lot of people, captured as many and then some, then ate most of those. The rest, they dragged back to their cave to be sacrificed, so their boss could ascend next to Tiamat."

"Their boss being Shadowmire, the Scourge of Alacho-Harkan and a total pendejo. We managed to save four people - two Humans, two Halflings. They stayed back in Albridge with the Alchemist Illyana and John."

The rest of the party add a few more details to Carlos' report to make sure they haven't missed anything.

The Party: Hunter, Kat, Carlos, Jojo, Zoe, John and Illyana.

- They met Ilyanna at her house, and she agreed to help them blow up the cave.
- Ilyanna is from another world like ours and she's trying to figure out how to get back. She assisted the party with their mission.
- They got the Naiads' help to take out the sentries.
- They eradicated the lizardmen with the help of a veteran named Bill among the survivors they rescued.
- Sleestak had been sacrificing the halflings in the basement to help Shadowmire ascend to Tiamat's side.
- They found undead graves and looted them.
- Undead carried out with intent of burying them.
- Victims of the ritual murders were carried out and left at the ranger outpost.
- Dragon skulls looted from the cave and left at the outpost to be claimed by the Golden River trade guild.
- Bill, Sarah and the surviving halflings rode to Tor's Hold for supplies.
- Ilyanna stayed to provide medical attention to survivors. John stayed to protect them until it was time for them to go.

Important info:
-Shadowmire might be rallying monster tribes to his cause.
-The Eye of Tiamat contains the souls of people who were sacrificed.
-The dragontooth most likely allows its user to contact Shadowmire directly.
-Both of these items shouldn't leave Kat's possession. The necklace Eninahes gave Kat hides her from divination magic.

Lonetree stops the party for clarification on a couple of points and to see the tooth and Eye, but ultimately the explanation leaves him stroking his chin in thought. "This is quite serious. I'll report this to the Baron immediately. I'll tell him that I agree with your assessment of the artifacts and that they should remain in your care for now, Ser Katheryn. In the meantime, you should all get some rest. I think we'll have need of you come morning. And fear not, your trade mission has not been forgotten Representative Jordstad. Your service to the people of Harkenwold will not be forgotten."

Jojo nods in acknowledgement. "Thank you Steward Lonetree. We stand ready to help however we can."

"Very good." He stands up, indicating the interview is over. "A goodnight to you all, friends. Truly Kord (the god of personal prowess in battle) smiled on you. May Sehanine do the same tonight."

Carlos stands up - "Aye, goodnight to you as well, Steward Lonetree."

Carlos excuses himself, not making for the kitchen till he's out of sight and earshot.

"Thank you for putting your trust in me, Steward Lonetree," Kathryn says. "I'll prove myself worthy of it."

She respectfully bows to the man and takes her leave. Once she's outside, she yawns and tells the others, "I wanna meet my bed. Goodnight everyone."

Hunter nods with the rest stands up, reluctant to leave the plush couch, but comfortable knowing that the best beds in the keep's guest rooms await. "I'm looking forward to it, sir."

He nods again, and leaves.

Zoe gives a perfunctory bow and then slips out the door ahead of everyone else. Outside, she whoops loudly and then runs off to the kitchen for her tart. She's joined not too long after by Carlos. The strawberry tarts are delicious and well worth the wait. They make small talk with the cook, Mrs. Walsh, who is now mixing a dough she'll let rise overnight. They leave her to it when they are done and finally head off to sleep in their respective beds.

After leaving Lonetree's study, Kat, Hunter, and Jojo make their way to their respective rooms. After saying goodnight to each other, Hunter and Jo go to sleep. Kat on the other hand takes off her armor and then heads to the kitchen to have some tea before bed. She finds the cook, Mrs. Walsh kneading dough. She's happy to put on a pot of tea for the fey knight, and joins her for a cup after finishing her prep for the next day.

Eni:

And so, everyone made their way to their beds where they pass a restful and peaceful night. At dawn the next day the sounds of the castle waking up in earnest can be heard and the smell of food is wafting in from the Great Hall. What will you guys do?

Carlos washes up, and hits the Great Hall for grub.

Hunter gets up and gets showered and shaved, and goes to the kitchen to ask Mrs. Walsh if there are any leftovers from the previous night. Whether or not there are, he'll eat his breakfast and feed Noble.

Instead of taking Noble to the bath, this time, he takes the hyena outside to the kennels to get groomed if that's a service provided, for which he will happily pay (how much is it? Does the guild cover this expense, or is it being provided for free?)

At this time, he goes to find the guard and asks if they've seen John.

Eni:

The white-haired knight wakes up feeling refreshed. She lazes in her bed for a few minutes until she decides it's time to have a well-deserved bath. She grabs the necessary towel and accessories and makes her way downstairs.

Half an hour later, she comes out of the nerathi bath wearing a pair of garnet red trousers, a white shirt and her usual leather boots. She also combed her long hair and even turned her right bang into a small braid held together by a red ribbon.

She then goes to the Hall with her friends.

Zoe and Jo both join the rest of the party to wash up at the bath. Unlike when you used it earlier, there's a line at this hour. It moves along fairly quickly though since people don't want to miss breakfast. It only takes an hour for all of you to wait, do your thing, and then be ready to face the day. This is where the party diverges.

Hunter heads straight for the kitchen to grab food for himself and Noble. He finds a busy place, full of cooks and servers and the smell of various cooking foods including a beef pottage, pancakes, and scrambled eggs. To drink he has his choice of beer or milk. As for leftovers from last night, Alma Walsh gives him his strawberry tart. Afterwords she shoos him out of her kitchen.

After leaving Noble to be bathed and groomed at the kennels (the little guy's intimidated by all the hounds who growl and bark at him), he asks about John with the gate guards. They haven't seen him.

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For everyone else, you find the Hall filled with most of the castle. Griffin is sitting with his wife Holly at the head table, to the left of the Baroness. When he notices you he points you out to Holly and they both wave in greeting.

Holly Amblecrown:

Stockmer himself raises his goblet in salute of you, and then indicates the empty chairs to his right. The place of honor.

After you guys are seated, Stockmer says, "Everyone, this is my wife, Emily. These are the heroes I was telling you about dear."

"A pleasure to meet you all! Thank you for helping those folks. That was very brave of you." Emily smiles with her eyes just as much as with her mouth. Her silver hair marks her as a nord, too silver for age alone to explain. Her eyes are also an unusual shade of gold, hinting at elven ancestry.

Baroness Emily Stockmer:

Kat waves at her brother and his wife—she's so beautiful!—but has to turn her attention to Baron Stockmer and his wife, who are saluting the party members.

"Lord Stockmer. Lady Emily." Kathryn slightly bows to the two nobles and smiles at them. "It's very nice to meet you. Thank you for the compliments, but we were only doing what we thought was right."

The knight is a little formal when she answers the Baroness, but she visibly relaxes once the salutations are over. She will take the seat right next to Stockmer when it's appropriate to sit.

Carlos sits where indicated, returns the greeting - "Lord Baron, Lady. Aye well, wish we'd gotten there sooner. Still managed to save a few though, gotta be happy about that."

Mmm! Hunter eats himself a delicious strawberry tart and thanks Walsh for saving it. It may be 5 o'clock somewhere for Zoe, but it's 5 o'clock here, and he grabs a glass of milk. If only there were a wizard on hand to chill it for him, he prefers that. He's sad that there's no more exotic entrees left of the owlbear meat, but he grabs himself a nice helping of the pottage, scrambled eggs, and pancakes. The hearty meal is welcome after yesterday's work.

He's half worried and half suspicious when he hears that John hasn't returned, but returns to the kennels anyway to give his pet moral support. It's this or the bath, and the animals obviously don't care for the latter. He will feed Noble a bite from the jerky for putting up with the dogs.

Then, both hasten to the hall to rejoin the others.