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.