Chapter 2.2: First Encounters in the Dim

After a while, the front door opens again, and the Jarl children - Abella, Devek, Emiless, Torren, and Wenderly - file in, red-faced and blubbery, followed by a grim-faced Abel. When she hears the door, Elista hurries back down the stairs. Elista meets Abel's eyes, and they nod at one another. Elista sighs. Abel addresses the group: "Oh Majestic Magnificences, we have prepared. We've hitched the cow to the cart and released the goats and chickens - they're wily and will be able to survive as long as nothing eats them." Emiless, Torren, and Wenderly begin to cry more vigorously. "We've packed up the tools in the loft and closed up the barn. We've just got to load up some more goods we can sell...?" Elista nods and responds. "I've packed everything except our food and cooking pots here in the kitchen." Abel sighs. "Good. We should be ready to go in no more than a quarter hour." He turns to his kids. "If there's anything small that you want to bring, get it now. We don't know when we'll be able to come back again."

The kids run around the house, picking up items and then setting them down again, trying to decide on one thing that is their favorite. As they do so, Abel begins to lug the dry food out to the cart and Elista carries some bags of clothes out as well. Soon enough, the parents have finished loading those, and added two pots, a skillet, and a bread pan into the cart, along with the mismatched set of spoons and knives that they've acquired over the years of having children.

"We're ready." The Jarl family heads out with the assembled heroes, and Elista closes the door behind her. There is no lock. They begin to walk down the path, Abel leading the cow.

The Jarls are somber at first, and the children are upset - there's a pretty real chance that they are coming to associate going to Hochoch with emotional trauma. There are more tears as they leave the path and turn west onto Cecily's Road, heading for the town. The afternoon progresses as the party makes its slow way west, traveling at the pace of the cow pulling the cart. Each of the Jarls except for Wenderly takes turns leading the cow, and there are occasional stops for the cow to graze at the roadside. The younger kids will cheer up for a while, their curiosity irrepressible, but then one or another will remember a favorite animal or location left behind, and they'll get downcast once more. The older kids, Abella and Devek, put braver faces on it. Devek clearly wants to believe that everything will be intact when they return, and that the return will be soon. Abella is trying to distract herself, and so she tries to talk gaily with each of the adventurers. She is very flustered around the charming newcomer, Jonel, and laughs too loudly at his slightest witticism. Abel frowns; he knows that the man is not doing anything untoward, but he can see that Abella is starting to pay too much attention to Jonel, who cannot help how shockingly handsome he is. Elista takes Abella to the side for a serious conversation at one of the cow stops, and waves the group to continue without them for a bit. They catch up a little while later, with Abella slightly less manic. She talks to everyone with the exception of Jonel lest she be dazzled once more.

At one point as Devek is leading the cow, Abel seeks out Rosemary and takes her aside. He walks thoughtfully by the halfling's side for a bit and then looks sidelong down at her, clearly nervous to broach a subject. Finally he works up his nerve. "Glorious Lady, we appreciated your letter. I went in to town to have someone read it for us." He smiles proudly. "I know several people who can read! I had two of them read it, so I could be sure there were no mistakes. In your letter, you mentioned..." He looks up, reciting it verbatim since he had to memorize it to accurately share it with his wife Elista when he returned to the farm, "a 'trial or internship' for Abella, 'training her in the basics of self-defense' to 'come with you for a set period of time.' So, August Magnificence, I ask you: does that offer still stand?" He bows respectfully and puts up his hands imploringly. "I ask with no expectation - we owe you all so much already that we cannot think that you would do more! But if...if the opportunity is still there for my daughter to be your apprentice, your assistant, or even your servant, Tremendous Glory, I would rest easy knowing that she at least will be well."

Regardless of the outcome of that conversation, it's clear that the party will not make it to Hochoch before nightfall. Abel had the family leave as soon as they were ready in the early afternoon rather than waiting the rest of the day and spending a sleepless night in the home that they knew they'd be leaving, possibly forever, to avoid second thoughts and second-guessing.
But it (along with the cow) presents a quandary: at this pace, the party will have gone a little less than half of the ~ 20 miles back to Hochoch by nightfall. How do you want to proceed: find a place to make camp for the night before dark, light torches/lanterns to proceed in the dark to a campsite about halfway to Hochoch, or light up and prepare to hike all night with the Jarl family to get to Hochoch in the early morning? Stay with the Jarls, leave the Jarls, split the party? There's a bunch of decisions to make, and the adventurers are the ones thinking ahead about them.

Nothing disturbs Chase's camp at night, and he sleeps soundly.
The ranger rises at first light, strikes his camp, and sets out at a fast pace. Making good time on the apparently-abandoned Road, Chase arrives at the cliff-side campground in the forenoon. Once again, he finds six dead adventurers, but four of them have moved from where he remembers they'd been, confirming that someone shifted them...or perhaps they themselves got up and walked around since he was last there?
Searching the bodies, Chase finds several weapons and a few other items.
There are two short bows, two quivers with arrows (of two types of fletching: 15 black, 3 white), a club, a short sword, a staff, a pouch of ball bearings, a bone die, and a hardened leather case of small metal tools. Chase recalls that Joseph uses a similar set of "tools of the trade," and as a connoisseur of archery, Chase sees that the white arrows are particularly well-made, though the balance is off, weighing more heavily at the tips than is usual. Setting aside the club and staff as not worth the effort, Chase gathers up the rest of the items. Most of it he stuffs into his pack, then adds the arrows to his quiver (tossing the empty ones aside). But the bows are too long to fit in a container. Unstringing them, Chase straps them to the outside of his pack, then heads out from the cliff-side campsite.Continuing to move at a fast pace, Chase hikes through the underbrush within sight of Cecily's Road. A little after noon, he passes the path that led to the Jarls' house. Stopping by briefly to see whether his companions have visited, he finds the house empty and the animals scattered around the farm. There is no sign of violence, but tracks of a familiar hand cart, a cow, and several people lead back down to the Road.

Chase continues on, figuring that he is less than a day behind the group and likely to gain on them if they move at the cart's pace.

Arya is indeed a comfort to the Jarl family during the day's long, slow trek.

As evening comes, at Myrtha's suggestion, Aanbo and Theran look for and find a number of possible places to camp. The heroes are all accustomed to camping, and so they're not too choosy. They find a place set back from the Road that is large enough for them and the Jarl family. The adventurers are unsure how comfortable the rustic couple and their children will be with sleeping outdoors. It's clear that the children, numb with fatigue, enjoy the rest, at least at first. They're excited at the prospect of a fire and Abella, Devek, and Emiless rally their flagging energy and rush to help collect kindling. There is a bit of wind that makes starting the fire a little difficult, but they manage quite easily once Jonel steps up and lights it with a flourish and a Bolt.

Abel finds a place with no poisonous growth that could damage her, and then he ties up the cow so that she can graze and lay down, but not wander off and get lost. Manthis secures the travois of equipment off to one side as the others claim areas around the fire to spread their blankets. Aanbo begins his first watch and Myrtha tightens the blanket bound around Reptile's body, morbidly remembering the stories about the area's owlbear and hoping that the smell of her dead friend doesn't bring it or other scavengers. Still, she knows that Aanbo will be quick to wake everyone if there is any danger. Rosemary busies herself with preparing food, augmented by Theran's almost-supernatural ability to forage for a wide variety of edible plants and fungi. Despite their excitement (or perhaps exacerbated by it), the kids have barely eaten when they fall asleep. Elista lays down soon after, the emotional toil of the day overwhelming her despite the good cheer that Arya has brought. Abel worries and stays up for a while longer, staring broodingly into the fire as Aanbo walks the circuit of the camp and the others gradually settle to their rest, sleeping or entering trances. Jonel stays up for a while longer, attempting once again to glean some knowledge from the dead man's spellbook. After a while he slams the book shut in frustration.

It is then that Chase, having crept close enough to see his companions, whistles to Aanbo. The dwarf immediately recognizes the signature bird call. He nods - everything's all clear - and Chase enters the camp, tired after the day's fast hike but relieved to be reunited with his party.