Tests and Trials

[thinkslogically]

Ves suddenly remembers the guy.

"oh! Sorry! Got all exciting there for a moment! Here, I'll take... those back... Somehow..."

Ves awkwardly scoops the bundle of things back off the guy, leaving him something small from the pile for his trouble.

[Rodgeir]

The man is relieved to give the things back and refuses anything from it,

"Sorry, got me stall back there!"

Before turning and heading back down the direction you came from.

Ves finds Jolly's warehouse and sees that the door is open. It looks pretty much like it did the night before except that Jolly is sleeping leaned up against a wall. As you enter the person Ves recognizes to be the owner calls from the inside balcony,

"Can I help you?" Then he pauses, "Its you! Ves and Lurn!" He hussles down the stairs to meet you. Jolly snores slightly louder.

((Lurn received:

4 loaves of bread, two daggers, a small gem (5 gp), varied small cut of cloth (fairly nice but just not big enough to do much with), 3 lbs of fruit and vegetables in various bags, a bottle of something (Joe knows it to be wine), numerous letters and flowers along with 10 silver.

Ves received:

1 loaf of bread, a pie (strawberry/rhubarb), a box of pastries, leather gloves, child's picture of Ves (?) saving the town from someone name Juah, silver and gold thread, a nice thick treated piece of leather, 4 lbs of fruit and vegetables in various bags, a bottle of midgrade whiskey, three large bottles of beer, flowers, a gold pin with a tiny pink gem in it and 19 silver.))

[thinkslogically]

Ves is quite touched by the villagers' offerings and takes a moment to put it carefully into her pack before moving to the warehouse. The more delicate things, she carefully pockets (the picture) or wears (the pin). She presses the prettiest or most unusual flowers (later if needed), keeping the one from the little girl a bit separate.

Once there, she waves to the owner and turns to look at Jolly with a sigh. To the group:

"He owns this place. Found him flat on his face... About here last night. That's Jolly. He was up there when I found him."

She wanders up to him and shoves him gently to waken him up, sniffing for any alcohol on him.

((What was the item Joe and Jaq gave to Ves and Lurn again?))

[Rodgeir]

The owner is pleased you know, approximately, who he is as he approaches.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both! My name is Daren,
Jolly told me all about you two and what you did. Is there anything I can help you with?"

He stands with the other three and watches Ves walk over to Jolly and give him a shove, which causes Jolly to tip over. Daren cringes when Jolly hits the ground sputtering and whispers to Lurn and co,

"He's my brother in law. Lives here... I can't have him at my house anymore because of..." He trails off and starts again, "He wasn't like this...well before."

Jolly lays on the floor blinking in Ves' direction for a long while before saying,

"Gods damnit Ves, can't ya let a guy sleep?"

He tries to sit up but after failing twice rolls into his stomach and pushes him self a bit unsteadly to his feet.

He blinks towards the doorway and raises his hand to shield his eyes,

"Eh Lurn and..." He seems to try and remember if he knows Joe and Jaq, "You two." Turning back to Ves he whispers in an unexpectedly sober voice,

"Ready to go? Got some stuff this morning. Lemme grab it an' the map and we can get outta here before m'boss gets on me."

On seemingly unsteady feet Jolly heads to the stairs,

"Daren, ya mind keeping these folks company or whatever for a bit. Gotta piss and grab something in my room."

((You mean the pendant of booze detection of the metal schematic? Not sure either was given to Lurn/Ves?))

[thinkslogically]

"Yeah, you look like a man who could use some fresh air. We're not leaving without a plan though. Also a map."

She turns to Joe.

"You said you could detect alcohol with one of your elf things? I think i might have found a use for it. I'm not taking a drunk into the wilds."

((Wasn't there a third thing? I don't remember))

[Arch Lich Burns]

(Joe has the tihird thing and gave the detect booze to Lurn and Ves)

[thinkslogically]

Then, assuming Ves can at least borrow the pendant of booze-detection, she'll use it to check the warehouse and Jolly's stuff when he comes back.

[Dlover]

Lurn responds to the owner's quite voice with a whisper of his own, "I can believe you on that. Beneath all that, he did a great deal of good, yesterday. The folks don't believe it, but he got a great many people off the streets to ensure their safety."

[thinkslogically]

Also, when Jolly comes back, Ves will watch him. Is he actually drunk or just acting it up?

Insight: 1D20+5 = [13]+5 = 18

[Rodgeir]

((It requires attunement so after an hour of focus Ves could do that.))

Daren looks a bit confused and responds quietly to Lurn,

"His letting you in to be able to bring people here was good but doesn't compare to your actually bringing them here. Jolly told everyone that asked what you two did here."

After a few minutes and some banging around Jolly comes back down to the main floor. He has a large backpack with him and his oversized waterskin with him. Watching closely Ves can tell that while it's clear he has been drinking he isn't as drunk as he has been acting.

Jolly calls to Daren,

"Ya mind giving me fifteen with the heros?"

Daren looks at Jolly's gear with apprehension but nods, smiles at the group and moves upstairs into one of the rooms Ves knows to be an office.

Jolly watches him go before moving to a crate and dropping his gear. He looks at Joe and Jaq suspiciously,

"Ya trust these two Ves?"

[thinkslogically]

Ves shrugs. "They saved the town as much as I did. More probably. Only met yesterday, but they seem like good people."

[Rodgeir]

Jolly chuckles to himself.

"Heros all around. Must be blessed."

Digging in the backpack he pulls out a battered scroll case from which he pulls out an older map and places it on the crate.

The map is clearly old but it has much newer writing along it's edges

((Survival or intelligence to read the map, advantage to both Ves and Joe on the roll.))

[thinkslogically]

"Now we're talking. I know this region I think..."

Survival: 2D20.HIGH(1)+5 = [15, 7]+5 = 20

[Rodgeir]

Ves has never been to the spot depicted in the map but she is quickly able to put together where it is by the major landmarks - the end of the Thalmiir range and the start of both the Queen's River (east-west river) and the Wandering River (north-south river). According to the map there will be additional markers when you get close.

It will take about 14 days on foot to reach the spot. As the area is heavily wooded, rocky and full of ravines and washouts horses wouldn't be of much help after the edge of the woods, but horses would shave about five days off the trip due to the shortened time to the woods though.

Ves doesn't know what was in the area before that would leave ruins but does know that no 'civilized' races inhabit the area now.

The notes around the edges of the map, and even some in the map proper, are in different languages, writing styles and inks.

Common (each is a different note):
Slow going. Light in fog. Old road (with a mark on the map). Skeletons? (The ? has been crossed out later) Old campfire, others? Lost?

Dwarven:

► Show Spoiler

Outside Thalmiir. Not abandoned. Not Dwarven ruins, artifacts? Still pool, no reflection? Abandoned?

Elven:

► Show Spoiler

Which god? Before invasion? Human or Dwarven? Temple? Lost. Older.

Gnomish:

► Show Spoiler

Wrong way. Light on the river (marked on the map), who? Gnomish ruins? Treasure! Fire in the ruins? Goblin tracks, avoided.

And other languages written on the map no one in the group understands.

Jolly watches as Ves examines the map, clearly a bit anxious, "Can ya get me there?"

((A int roll from Jaq and Joe to see if they know anything about the area. Joe gets advantage.

The notes in the different languages are in randomish order as they were just written wherever there was space.

Also - whew!))

[Arch Lich Burns]

Int: 2D20.HIGH(1)+2 = [5, 5]+2 = 7

[NotStickFigures]

At this point Jaq is more interested in watching out the windows or watching the front door if there are no windows nearby and keeping watch to make sure the guards are not coming this way to harass Lurn, he will pay more attention to the map at a later time.

[Rodgeir]

The area's history is unfamiliar to Joe. From the front door Jaq sees Daren chatting with some people up the road but no guards.

[thinkslogically]

"Yeah. I can. Don't know that I will yet though. Let's talk privately, shall we?"

She will head to a private space in the warehouse with Jolly.

"All right. Here's how this works: You pay me, and I get you to your destination safely, or as close as we can go before we're forced back. You pay for all the supplies we need and you pay my fee up front. Second, we're going to need assistance on this one, and I'm of a mind to ask those three folk downstairs if they fancy a trip to help out as guards. Third, the trip's going to be completely dry. No alcohol for you or anyone else, no exceptions. Fourth, I'll take care of our camps and the food, but it's on you to do your own walking. Fifth, I will do everything I can to keep you alive, but... this place you've picked is... well, it's way out there. This is going to be hard and dangerous no matter what we do."

She sighs.

"All right. Now. I don't know where you got that map, or how you heard about these ruins, and that's not my business. What IS my business is being prepared and staying alive and doing what I can to keep you alive. So now's the time to tell me what and what you know about these ruins. And don't lie to me, I can always tell when people lie, and I don't take contracts with liars."

She raises an eyebrow and waits for him to speak.

[NotStickFigures]

Jaq will continue his lookout from the front door, as he is not really on anyone's radar in this area of the city.

[Rodgeir]

Jolly clutches his 'water' skin reflexively when Ves says it's going to be a dry trip. He slowly forces his hand down.

"Gonna be a long trip without a drink...Fine. All thats fine. How longs it gonna take? An' how much is the fee. I called in some loans this morning an' can maybe borrow some coin from Daren but ain't got much."

When asked about the the map he gets a little tense.

"Won it from a guy. He said he st...got it from a priest. Said the priest said there was something... something worth a lot there. Had it for a couple years but never met anyone willin' to take me out, without even knowing where I was wantin' to go."

[thinkslogically]

Ves watches the man sympathetically and says, gently:

"So you won a map that was stolen from a priest, who said there was valuables in a ruin in the mountains, and you want me to take you there... to find this treasure for yourself? ...Jolly, you know there's probably nothing out there, right? I'll take you if you want, but these kinds of trips... People don't usually find what they're expecting to... or hoping to find. You're a nice guy. But I need you to be certain that you want to do this."

She stands up.

"If you're heart-set on this venture, come to the Crosswise Inn at dawn in two days time. That'll give me time to get our plans in order and source some suppliers. If those three downstairs aren't interested, I'll need to find another couple of sellswords too. And lay off the drink in the meantime. You come to me smelling of booze and the trip's off.

Oh! And let me copy the text off that map a second. We'll want that translated before we go anywhere."

[Rodgeir]

"Ya, the guy said there would be treasure there but just looking at the map I can see that I ain't gonna be the first to get there. Gonna be straight with you, I don't expect much treasure there. I just need to see the ruins, guy said the priest told him they were special."

Jolly watches Ves rise before asking,

"How much? How much will it cost?"
---
As Ves is wrapping up her conversation a gnome Jaq recognizes comes up to Daren and appears to ask him something. Daren points towards the warehouse.

The gnome looks towards the warehouse and spots Jaq and starts walking casually towards them.

[thinkslogically]

"How much can you afford? Like, really afford. Not how much you have."

[Rodgeir]

"Boss lets me stay for free and he'll get me food if I need it. I got 15 gold on me now and I can beg an' borrow another five maybe. If I don't plan on comin' back to town I can get another ten."

[thinkslogically]

Ves nods.

"How do you feel about partnering up then? Joe out there, he said he's interested in exploring old ruins and might be willing to pitch in for supplies. Want to go talk to him? He's the guy with the bird."