The wind in her hair (RP)

Ahsa turns her radiant smile to Rolad. "They are wanting to 'see the adventurers'." She says, though, while you did note some excitement about your party as you walked past, they were nowhere near as interested in you as they seem to be be in her. "They wanted to hear about our adventures in the temple, and want to check how I am doing --I don't think they get many interesting visitors.

"The line outside was the healer's doing." Ahsa says with distaste. "I don't think she understands how her rules of 'not too many visitors' works in this situation, or how the queue just leads to more interest. Some people came in not knowing what the queue was for." She smiles indulgently at their simpleness.

"The town went to some effort to put together that 'show of appreciation' for you all." She says, indicating the pouches. "That was all the money they could put together, so I said I would settle for some new clothes --we burned the horrible stuff from the temple-- and that kinda snowballed, and I don't know how to tell them to stop..."

She looks around ruefully. "The captain go fed up and left. I suspect you will find her in a bar." Ahsa says dismissively.

Her explanation mostly makes sense --though a little oversimplified-- and you find yourself 'wanting to believe everything she says'. It also does not explain why the woman who left as you were coming in looked unhappy, everyone else looked very pleased with their visit.

What do you do?

- Norbert -

"Hey! Ain't you Norbert, the shepherd's kid?" Someone in line asks, sounding more curious than anything else. There is muttering of 'oh-yeah-agreement'. "What you doing with these adventurers? ... Did you see the girl? ... Did you [i]know the girl? I heard she had a thing for 'shepherds'."

They mainly confirm that the mayor's daughter 'went missing'. But don't seem overly worried. It all sounds rather 'fairy taley', and --absent a king and a princess-- she will have to do as a 'quest object'.

- Albert -

"It is a bit overwhelming." Ahsa agrees. "They are nice people, but I don't think they get many outsiders. And they really do need our... your.. help getting this valley sorted out. I think they are just trying to make a good impression? Hopefully they will tone it down, though, it is embarrassing --feels like I am 'sitting in state', or something-- ... and exhausting, but I don't want to tell them no."

---

The healer --having a respite from her receptionist duties-- has taken a moment to sit and eat from one of the baskets left in the outer room. "We tend to make sure everyone has enough to live, but I have never seen anything like this." She says. "I don't know what she did or said, but some households are going to go hungry for a while... unless we give a lot of this back to those who needed it. Unless she plans on throwing a party, we can never eat all this." Though the healer is doing a good job of trying to.

At the mention of the mayor's payment she eyes you sidelong. "Him? Are you sure?" She sounds dubious. "He is not one to give away a copper more than he has to. I hope you set in stone what you were to get paid."

You recall vague implications of compensation, but nothing concrete. You also recall that neither the healer nor the innkeeper looked overly pleased by the mayor's forcing their payment to go through him.

- Roald -

"OK..." Ahsa agrees, though she does not sound fully convinced. "But I am just sitting here and talking, so don't make too big a deal of it if they are very upset.

"Who? Oh, her?" She says when you ask about the woman. "Did she really look that unhappy?" She sounds concerned and almost starts to get up to go after her, but winces in pain and decides against it. "They are some group of women who want me and the captain to join their... 'social group'? I am not really sure what it is, they don't want to talk in detail till we are 'initiated'. She was the third person to try to recruit me, and I am finding it hard to come up with ways to tell them I am not interested." She really does sound unhappy that she has done something that made another upset.

She opens her mouth to say something else --about the women's group, you think-- but apparently decides against it, reaching for glass and taking a sip of wine instead.

What do you do?

- Norbert -

"Ooh! Yes!" A few say, swooning, as you mention 'being into shepherds'.

"About all we know for sure is that 'she's not here.'" They agree after a brief confirmation. They bring up the obvious suspicion about the baron being away at just the right time (if you did not mention it, then they apparently heard that detail from someone else), but they don't have anything new to add to that line of enquiry.

When you broach the topic of the gifts everyone wants to talk at once and it is hard to make much sense: "It is worth it to get to see 'The Lady'." Is the general consensus. "But you know that. You work with her people."

There are nods of general agreement when you speak about things being better in your grandfather's time --"Anyway, ain't these adventurers fixing that?"-- though you lose a little support when you get to the part of 'talking to animals'.

Unless he is avoiding his father --which Norbert can relate to-- probably the only place you can think to find Theo is at his father's house. Doing that and not getting roped into a time-consuming meeting with the mayor would be a challenge.

- Norbert -

The mayor does not invite you in, but is superficially polite --you suspect he vaguely recognises your face, but does not know if you are important.

"My son?" He says with more pride in his voice than usual. "He's not here. He has gone with the adventurers to rescue his sister." It does not sound like he has heard that 'the adventurers' are back in town yet, so he is not worried that Theo has not returned with them or come back on his own.

If you ask at Darryl's family you will get a similar story, though they care less about the mayor's daughter than about the armour he borrowed. They also have not heard from their son since he left.

If you ask, none can direct you to Phil's residence.

If you ask the 'gate guards', they have have not seen your friends come it.

Even though you were moving fairly fast, the trio left half a day before you, and you did not see any sign of them on the road here. They should have been back hours ago.

What do you do?