Against the Cult: the next direction (1.4)

Here's a summary of what has happened already.

Cecily Raptor, famed elven hero, has retired from adventuring after saving villages and defeating villains for hundreds of years. Now she runs the adventurers' guild, "Dungeon Busters!" Cecily has sent a number of novice adventurer employees - Aanbo the monk, Klak the paladin, Morgran the cleric, Ogbar the barbarian, Quest the mystic, Sara the ranger, Thacogygax the sorcerer, Xana the warlock - to the town of Hochoch (which she was instrumental in rescuing more than a century ago) to explore the possibility of opening a franchise office of Dungeon Busters there. The adventurers are to a) determine if there's a need for adventurers in the area, b) demonstrate the heroism of the Dungeon Busters organization, and, if successful, c) set up a branch of Dungeon Busters in Hochoch.

The party arrived in Hochoch and found that adventurers are very much part of the local culture here; nearly every family had an adventurer as an ancestor, and many local landmarks were named by/for adventurers. Everything seemed peaceful in Hochoch, though the party kept hearing reports of strange things happening in the nearby town of Orlane. Then a mortally-wounded miller rode into town, telling how his assistant brought some strangers to the mill and then attacked him. Joined by Durren, a human warrior who'd been raised by elves and wanted to sign up for Dungeon Busters, the party went to the mill and defeated a bunch of bandits who had kidnapped the assistant's wife and occupied the mill, holding it for the infamous bandit known only as "Black." They wondered why a bandit would want a mill as a base of operations and couldn't think of any good reasons without knowing more.

Hearing that Black's bandits often waylaid travelers on Cecily's Road between Hochoch and Orlane, the party decided to set a trap for Black, masquerading as wealthy merchants in an ox-drawn wagon traveling through the Dim Forest to Orlane. But on the way, they ran into Abel Jarl, a forest crofter whose son, Devek, had fallen into a death-like sleep. Aanbo, Quest, and Morgren went with Abel to examine the comatose boy, and discovered from one of Devek's sisters that he'd ventured into an old ruined temple and poked himself with something which sent him into a magical sleep. While they were at the farmhouse, the others waited in the road. There they met a traveling minstrel, Jonbon, on the road from Orlane. As they talked, they heard a large animal in the woods. Xana made the sound of a dragon's roar, hoping to scare away the predator, but instead it goaded the monster into defending its territory. The predator, an owlbear, leaped out of the trees, smashed Jonbon's wagon, and killed his mules with one pounce, then knocked Klak down with a swipe of its paw. The oxen panicked, broke their traces, and ran. The monster completely ignored the party's attacks, clearly looking to challenge the dragon. It left only when Xana tricked it with the sound of the dragon flying away. They healed Klak, and the party went with Jonbon to the farmhouse. Jonbon played soothing music, and Abel agreed to leave with the Dungeon Busters to take Devek back to the temple in Hochoch. They loaded the unconscious boy in a handcart and all the adventurers left with Abel back to Hochoch.

After they had traveled for a couple of hours, Abel suddenly realized that he'd been charmed by Jonbon to leave his wife and kids alone with a stranger! After a few moments of indecision, Abel decided to trust the party with his son and headed back to confront the man who'd magically compelled him. The party split, Ogbar, Aanbo, Xana, Durren, and Quest running back to the farmhouse with Abel, while Sara, Klak, Morgran, and Thacogygax continued with Devek to Hochoch. On arriving at the farmhouse, that part of the party discovered that Jonbon had drugged all of Abel's family, retrieved one of the oxen once the innocents had fallen asleep, and loaded the unconscious woman and children into his wagon, which he then drove back toward Orlane. Running hard, Ogbar and Aanbo caught up to the wagon, fought and subdued Jonbon the kidnapper, and discovered the deeply-drugged-but-still-alive members of Abel's family in the back. They turned the wagon around again and headed back to the farmhouse for the night, with Jonbon bound and gagged.

Sara, Klak, Morgran, and Thacogygax arrived in Hochoch with the unconscious Devek early the next morning, exhausted and hungry from hours spent trudging with the hand cart (and a tense encounter with a hungry bear). The temple's priestess, Diana, examined Devek and conferred with Morgran while the others got a meal prepared by the temple's acolytes. Diana announced that the boy Devek was accidentally poisoned by coming in contact with - possibly injected or pierced by something - some powerful kind of magic sleeping potion. To craft an antidote, she would need to know more about the potion, by at the very least examining a sample of the potion. That would require finding the place where he was stuck.

The party is regrouping to consider what to do next. Morgran and some of the others have decided that they will remain in Hochoch and begin scouting for the location to set up the Dungeon Busters guild hall while remaining on hand to keep tabs on Devek.

This is where we resume the game.

Cecily had sent the party ahead to scout out the area and to assess the need for a branch office of the Guild. Cecily was so confident that there was need, however, that she sent her lieutenant, Olpert Razorson, after them later that same day, with a caravan wagon of supplies for setting up the guild office in the area. As more Dungeon Buster aspirants arrive and are vetted, Cecily sends them on to different regions. Knowing that Olpert will have things well in hand, Cecily sent Albertus, Kragga, Joseph, and Theran to Hochoch within days of his departure.

Wagon travel is slower than walking. Olpert only arrived last night, just as the Hochoch group was leaving the Temple of Rao. They spotted Olpert and after he reserved a room for himself at the Inn of Eternal Rest, he heard the reports of all the Dungeon Busters representatives in town: Sara, Morgran, Thacogygax, and Klak. On the strength of their stories - and the fact that the party has already earned goodwill for the organization by rescuing Shalla and the mill from bandits - Olpert has decided that he doesn't need to assess other locations in the region. He's mobilized the team to begin the next stage of opening a new franchise: setting up offices, getting the word out, and finding a site to begin constructing a guild hall. They discussed the plan long into the night, determining specific tasks for each one of them.

As the day dawned, they got to work. Paying Devane for the privilege, Olpert has pulled his caravan wagon into a corner of the Inn's courtyard. He spent the morning with Thacogygax, unloading just enough from the wagon to set up a temporary workstation: a desk, a couple of chairs, writing and drafting supplies. Sara was given a number of Dungeon Busters broadsheets, which she took to a scribe to add the details of "Hochoch" and "Olpert" and "Inn of Eternal Rest." Now Sara is wandering the region, putting up the broadsheets, giving her time to do some soul searching (as she thinks best while walking). Klak has spent the morning scouting the city for likely places to construct a guild hall "worthy of Fus Bardagaskegg," talking to farmers to see who might be willing to sell a piece of their land. Morgran has been meeting with various tradespeople in town, spreading the word about Dungeon Busters, pressing the flesh and plying them with drinks at the Cube, and letting it be known that Dungeon Busters is looking to hire builders.

Last night at the Jarl farm, Abel needed a lot of reassurance that his family was only drugged. He was so scared and furious at their kidnapping that it took both Durren and Quest to talk him out of murdering their captive, Jonbon. Convinced that there may be more to glean from him, the party decided that they'd take Jonbon back to town with the others in the morning. At Abel's insistence, they locked the bound-and-gagged villain in the woodshed, but to be certain, Durren stood guard over the bard. Abel eventually calmed down and thanked each of the Dungeon Busters with his typically effusive, hyperbolic praise. After thoroughly scrubbing out all the cookware (suspicious that it might still hold traces of whatever drug Jonbon used), Abel prepared a decent late-night meal for the party. Quest took some out to Durren and joined him in his vigil, intending to probe Jonbon's mind for further information. Abel prepared comfortable beds for Aanbo, Ogbar, and Xana, and as it was already quite late, the party soon fell asleep.

As the day dawned, Quest was the first to rise, and he announced "I'm going to go back to town now, to tell them what has happened." He left while the Jarl family was waking up, groggily, recovering from their being drugged. Abel greeted their waking with delight. Xana, Ogbar, Durren, and Aanbo got to see another tearful reunion, notching up another heroic success to the Dungeon Busters. Elista prepared a ton of much better food for the group (each of those characters can add up to 5 rations to their inventory) and wished them good fortune, but it's clear that she's eager to get Jonbon off of her farm and out of her life. She sent a care package with Aanbo for Devek, "who surely is awake now and missing his family." Abel looks at each of the heroes in the eyes. "Thank you, Magnificent Potentates! You are ever welcome here! For all that your Majesties have done for us, I can never repay you. It is not fair of me to ask, but if my son is alive again, would you bring him back to me? I wish that I could go with you, but I can't bear to leave my family again so soon. May the gods have blessed my son Devek, and may they bless you, too!"

As the family waved goodbye to the party, Durren took the rope and led Jonbon out of the woodshed and down the track back to Cecily's Road. Not burdened with a wagon and pulling impatiently at the ropes anytime Jonbon seemed to be slowing their progress, the party made much better time on the return trip, arriving back at the bridge across the Realstream River in mid-afternoon.

Aanbo, Ogbar, Xana, and Durren arrive at the Inn of Eternal Rest with their captive just as Theran, Joseph, Kragga, and Albertus arrive to check in with Olpert.

It's mid-afternoon now; if the party decides to leave today and hurries, they might make it back to the Jarl farm before full night, and the ruins are not far from the farm...close enough, at any rate, for Devek to sneak over there and back when finished with his chores without being missed at a meal. Sunset'll start in about three hours.