What Comes Next (RP)

Albert's carry-sling works well, and he is able to transport the box easily, his lungs barely hindering him, if at all.You have been given the generous gift of travel-food for today (possibly from whomever you bunked with last night?), so you make good time, not needing to look for an inn, and stop for lunch at a high point where you can get some sun and watch the waves and and mist below you in the valleys.

• What do you talk about while you walk, and what are you talking about as you eat your midday meal?

As long as Albert feels comfortable carrying the box, he will keep carrying it. Maybe after lunch he passes it to Theo for a few hours.

During the walk, Albert will try to talk about Necusle to Humphry, trying to get a better idea of the rumors about it.
While eating he will ponder about the contents of the packages.

Humphrey is reluctant to even talk about Necusle, it is clear he is not completely comfortable with going there. It will take some work, and possibly the building of a little trust, for him to be happy to share what he may know.

For now all he says is "You have heard the stories."

• What stories have you heard? Do you believe any of them?

Roald has a hard time carying the heavy box. It's not as akwardly big as Albert's but the wait and boxy nature of the package make that with every step a corner of the box pushes it's pointy edge in Roald's back.
Roald tries to adjust the straps, slings the pack over just one shoulder, even carries the pack on his belly for a while. All to no avail. After just a half hour of walking it gets the best of him.
"Stop stop STOP!. I'm sorry guys, this is not working. "
He takes of his pack and lifts his shirt for the others to see the havoc done on his back by the damned box.
"If I have to walk like this any further ..."

He crunches down and rests for a moment

- Roald -

"You need armour like me." Daryl declares proudly —he has worn it all the time since leaving his home village, and someone had to have words with him about not sleeping in it while in town... it was starting to smell. He clangs his fist against his kidney-area to show that he would not be defeated by a sharp box.

"Why don't you take back your stuff... and maybe a little of mine..." he adds this last bit sheepishly, as though not wanting to admit that he needs the help. "I can put that box in my pack."

After a bit of adjusting and shuffling things around you are able to set off again, Daryl has handed out almost everything he was carrying and just has the box and his armour.

You maybe have not made it quite as far as expected when you find a good place to stop for lunch, but Humphrey is still confident you can make it to Olmsford before night.

"You are a lifesaver Daryl" Roald hates to admit that he was not up for the task but does his best at not showing it to the rest.
He is quiet the whole trip before lunch, thinking about what could be in the packages. During lunch he brings up the subject.
" I wonder what we are carrying though, it has to be something shady, no? Since it was hard for the postmaster to find someone willing to deliver it. Or is it just the location that is shady? ..."

"Oh, you don't ask questions about the post!" Humphrey declares, but there is that tone in his voice again that suggests to you that this is his official position, and that, when people are not looking, he may not be quite so conscientious and would not stop you if you wanted to.

"I expect the postmaster would jump at any offer going that way. No one goes there."

"How can a whole country 'smell bad'?" Theo asks academically. "That seems implausible."

"No." Humphrey disagrees. "I have heard that too, from people who claim to have been there. Maybe it's the funny food they eat?" He posits.

"'Rats' and 'bad smells' suggest poor hygiene." Theo points out. "Sounds to me like people are just trying to be insulting to foreigners, for the sake of it." This sounds like the sort of thing they talk about at university, with their 'expended minds' and all that. (Or was that supposed to be 'expanded'?)

Humphrey possibly does not know what the word 'hygiene' means, but it looks like he is working up to having an argument anyway —maybe just because it passes the time on the road.

What do you do?

"I wonder where he took the rats?" Daryl says. "Maybe they all went to Necustle, and that's why there are so many rats there?"

Humphrey stands and looks around at the landscape. "Olmsford is still a ways away." He says. "At this rate... I don't want to complain, but we are going slower than I expected... um... we will be hard pressed to make it before dark. If we don't pick up the pace we may have to find somewhere to spend the night. I don't like travelling in the dark."

What do you do?

Theo —pampered by his father, until recently— is not accustomed to work and 'carrying thing around' and struggles at first until Albert corrects his technique. He is young and energetic, but as he gets tired (or bored?) his technique slips from time to time, and overall, it turns out Albert was not the cause of the groups slowness.

---

Your path takes you inland a ways, climbing the hills away from the coast and the mist. There is evidence of a dramatic, vivid, sunset coming into existence when Humphrey declares: "It is still a couple of hours walk to Olmsford. There is an inn around here that boasts great views of the ocean and does 'drinks at sunset' on the veranda. Maybe we should stop there."

• You can push on to Olmsford tonight, or stop now and arrive late morning (depending on how early you leave). There is a chance that Humphrey can get the big carriage fixed soon enough to still leave tomorrow if you are there already. If you arrive partway through the morning it may not be ready until late afternoon or worse, and Humphrey does not like travelling at night. A few hours could end up costing you a day.

What do you do?

"Top of this hill!" Humphrey declares confidently. "Or the next one?"

It turns out to be the one after that, but Humphrey seems aghast the idea of 'camping'. He is a man who spends his life 'on the road', and sleeping on the ground when there is an inn anywhere 'nearby' is anathema to him.

The Inn on the Hill is beautiful: small, quaint, neat, and rustic (though, possibly only every other word in that description would occur to your characters:). There is a veranda all round the three sides away from the road, but the shutters are closed and there is no one outside enjoying the view.

Humphrey hammers happily on the door —after, at first, trying to stride through and finding it locked— and, when a face peers out at him, he proudly announces: "It is I, Humphrey, the coachman. With weary travellers come to partake of your famous hospitality."

"No hospitality here tonight." Mutters the face behind the door.

Then there is a hushed conversation inside, and a woman's face replaces the man's, peering out past you.

"The sun is still up. Let them in." She says in a quite voice that only those close to the door might hear.

He grudgingly steps aside and opens the door. Inside, the inn is mostly empty, there is the innkeeper and his wife, and what appears to be three local men (all this you can easily glean from a little conversation). They all watch suspiciously as you enter.

"Better be off." One says while the door is open, but does not rise to leave. "One more for the road." He says instead, to nods of morose agreement.

What do you do?