"That is exactly what I think too; Past is already done and gone, So lets make the Most of now.” smiling at the thought of another forward thinker and happy go lucky fellow full of pluck.
The group strolls through town, without anything more happening than the occasional but now expected point and gasp. As they went through the town the band begins to realize that these people are pointing not because they are horrified or afraid, but they know what their presence means. It means that the situation has become serious enough to call together a mighty party to find out what is going on. Shortly after the group’s discovery they have no more time to think on the matter, as they arrive at Jaxus’s house. The door is opened before the party hardly even has the chance to knock. “Hello. Come in, come in. We have been waiting,”said the butler. “Please wait here in the entrance hall, attendants will be with you shortly to get you settled in before dinner. Jaxus will speak with you all then.”
Shortly after they were all seen to their room (a rather large lavish bedroom with plenty of space for all of our adventurer’s needs) and shortly after they were called to dinner.
“Ah, welcome my honored guests. Glad to see everyone made it safely to town. Please sit, we have urgent matters to attend to but I do not want to start on such things with empty stomachs. So please, dig in and let us talk,” said Jaxus
"Nice little place you got here.” Nicric sloppishly blurts out between mouthfuls of island cove fish “Bet you do pretty well for yourself in this town. Heck i bet you are probably the main man in this town.”
Not being one for lots of conversation Nicric returns to his meal that seems to be more interesting at the moment. He remembered his mighty tummy rumblings that were loud enough to be a house band. Once they are sated with the huge display of foods from the islands and some interesting imports, he will sit back and listen to the others before speaking on the matter at hand.
"Ahh, this is the life”, Galtrik says as he digs in the food. “That’s some good thinking, Jax. We’ve got a full day ahead of us, and to fight those bad guys we need arrows in our quivers, if you catch my drift.” He looks around very attentively. “Nice place you have here too.”
“Thank you for your compliments on my home, I have spent much work earning all of this,” Jaxus says with a smile. “But back to the matter at hand, militia is not the problem. I feel sure our finely trained soldiers on this island could do well in rescuing the many children. But as you all know, our island forces are not massive and sending out search parties would take weeks to find them at best. And that is time I fear we may not have.” Here he pauses, and seems to let his gaze wander off in the distance. It’s as if he is searching for his children the way he looks so far off so intently. “So that is why you all are here, people who know the different parts of the island and have skills in searching and hunting these monsters in the wild. Our militia are made for fighting off attacks from towns, not hunting. They just don’t have the skills and we don’t have the time to wait. Now I am not the adventuring type, as you can see I have made my living here in the town. What do you all suggest that we do? There is little I can tell you about the kidnappings, they all seem to have happened while the children were alone or the attendants they were with were slain.”
"I agree with Belthan, if you can show us and even provide us a map of the Lost Islands we could identify all the abduction site and maybe make some link between the locations and the whereabout of the culprit.”
Sassaroth came through the door with a sour look to his face. Thanks for waking me everyone. Next time I will higher a roster, at least I know I can eat the time-keeper after I am awake. he said to no-one in particular. He had been summoned to the major city and sent on his way by the mayor of his home town of Crestfall, a small island named Mooncrest that once was plagued by a raiding band of goblins. In all honesty thought the major was a nice man to him, he felt the major was pushing him out the metaphorical door. Perhaps it was his race, or his lack of a job, or may be it was because sass was a total jerk to everyone.
He had met up with the rest of his party, surprisingly since the major didn’t mention anything about working with others. For a man that heals the sick, honors truth and all around is forward and friendly, he could be a sneaky troll. He had told little to the party, just his name was Sass, his home town and why he hated doing useless stuff like saving lives. To him death was death, and life was life. Good or evil, it didn’t matter. One minute your plowing the field, the next your the fertilizer. He had better things to do, like make butterflies cry or plant a tree just to see if he could make it grow.
As he strolled in he caught the last part of the conversation. Sassaroth sat down and placed his feet up on the table. As I see it you have the problem solved already. Sass spoke slowly with deliberate pauses between each syllable. RE-PRO-DUCE. He snagged an apple with a wicked black scythe off the table and spoke trough the bites. other then that, don’t let the kids go alone in the maws of a monster and higher better guards. You can have this problem solved in oh about.... nine months I imagine. I am willing to help that part free of charge.
Sassaroth threw the half eaten apple on the ground. Can we get paid now?
Galtrik raises a single eyebrow at the rather conspicuous fellow making his way into the conversation. “Hey, calm down, Sass… nice name by the way. Fits you. Anyway, I don’t think getting paid is likely unless we actually go out there and do what we’ve been hired to do, which is why I’m interested in listening to this strapping fellow who’s been filling our bellies for the past half-hour.”
He turns to Jaxus. “So. About the vanishing act. It happens in the woods, right? Has it been happening a lot around bigger cities, or what?”
Erick walks up behind Sass and gives him a hardy slap on ths shoulder. “Sass, is it? I think we’re going to get along just fine.” He reaches down, picks up the half-eaten apple, and finishes it off as he strolls casually back to his chair. There he stands inspecting the axes strapped to his belt.
“Surely, there have been clues left behind - some sort of trail that gets us started. If time is so precious, let us leave the feasting until we have succeeded. Tell us what you do know and we will be on our way.”
As Sass speaks, you can see Jaxus growing angry but the words from his other companions bring him back to the matter at hand. He knows that a screaming fight will only waste time from his children and their rescue. “Yes, back to the information I know” Here Jaxus takes a second and composes himself and give Sass a long hard look. “Before we were rudely interrupted by nonsense” After this small revengeful remark to ease his pride Jaxus seems to be back to normal and ready to attend to matters at hand.
“According to the reports and findings from our soldiers all of the attacks occur within a few miles of the town the children are from. The size of the town does not seem to matter, just what they take. Only children, any other guards or older siblings are slain and left for the forest. The attackers seem to do a good job of hiding their tracks, the only evidence left behind is what the children were carrying or the dead bodies. But that said, I know that our soldiers are not as trained trackers as all of you so it could very well be that inexperience is why they have not been found. I do not know exactly where all of the kidnappings have taken place, just the ones taken from our town. Just a week ago my children were take from just north of the town, behind my mansion in the woods a few miles off. But only 4 days ago children were reported missing just outside of the town limits, barely in the woods. I fear that the attackers may be getting bolder as they go on.” A look of dire concern crosses Jaxus’ usually composed face here.
“Please tell me how I can help you and I will, you can begin searching as soon as you would like. Though at night it might be more difficult, it is your choice as you are the ones with experience. I am afraid I can lend you no soldiers to help your search as I have them all patrolling in and around the town.”
OOC: Ok, since I don’t have a map yet. Assume that the main city part of Endora, which excludes farm and such, is mostly square. There are two main roads cutting across the middle going E-W and N-S. Around the middle of the town is the main bazaar area where the town is most busy, and branching out from there are where the homes and other shops spread around. There are of course roads leading to houses from the main two roads, and little alleys branching off from those. At the northern edge of town, the road ends in Jaxus’ mansion. This is the only one of the 4 ends of the road that does not just lead out of town and past the forest, it ends on Jaxus’ land.
Behind Jaxus’ house (so a little more north of you) is are some gardens. Nothing massive, maybe a football field long and half that wide. Just north of that is a small path of open land and then woods. To the East of the town is where all of the farms and such are. The farmland occupies about as much space as the town, though very spread out and not right on top of or next to each other. To the south and west are small paths of open fields and then woods. Though the past coming from the south becomes quite wide and you can see down it for many miles.
The woods are not so thick that you can’t see into them well for lack of light and such. But they are not thin enough that you can see for hundreds of feet either. To the North, West, and East (past the farmlands) the woods extend for many miles on and it is a day or so trek to get out of them. To the South they go for a few miles then open up to large fields and clearings. Endora and the surrounding forest take up a large part of the middle of the island, but the central location still makes it a bustling hub for the island.
Belthan thinks about the information only for a moment and then says:
“It is clear that we should investigate the woods. I propose we visit your mansion and see what clues we can find. Also, lets ask on the way if the locals have seen any strange tracks or strangers outside the town.”
“It is a shame we do not have any halflings in our group to disguise as children. If they want to capture only children, we could have used a halfling to bait them.”
“Actual kids we cannot put in that kind of danger though.”
Still glaring at Sassaroth for his fouls, say: “She should indeed ask villager if they saw some shadows in the woods or anything else that sound or look strange. Is thre any of the guard that were with the childs that make it out alive? He could have some vital information.”
“I propose we split in 2 groups one searching the woods for tracks and the other asking around for information. I would go in the woods since i got some training in tracking, whos with me? And Sassaroth dont bother coming with me i dont want to RE-PRO-DUCE with you or anything else until you atleast apologize for those harsh words.”
Mayamei Stand-up and bow before Jaxus “Thank you for this food but we have important things we need to investigate right now the longer we wait, the shorter the tracks can stay visible.” And turn around and leave the room, with an upset look.
“Now, lets not get divided over a few words. Sass was just joking around.”
“We should not split up because we don’t know what kinds of danger we could come across in the woods.”
“We need every sword and wand to stand up to them because they killed the guards with ease and did not suffer any casualties - at least that is what I understood.”
“Or did the guards manage to use their weapons at all? Any blood on their weapons or anything like that?”
