Chapter 3.1: The Second Expedition

Some background information.

It sounds like the party is trying to decide three things:
1) When to go (now to the barn, or wait until night before moving from the Grove)
2) Where to go (The Golden Grain Inn's front door, cellar door, or back door)
3) How to go (all together, or have Chase scout ahead solo first)

To help with those decisions, here's some background information for those players whose PCs haven't been to Orlane before now (which the other PCs will have told yours):- The party is currently at #7 on the map, Ramne's Grove (marked with a tiny star representing the party). It is a tiny shack surrounded by garden beds, all surrounded by a thicket of trees (an extension of the Dim Forest that comes right up to the north street). Two narrow paths wind their way out of the trees to the North Street. Visibility in the trees is very low; foliage and bends in the paths limit how far you can see or be seen. Undergrowth off of the paths is thick and would be difficult terrain for anyone other than Chase (whose favored terrain is Forest).
- #2 is an arching stone bridge that leads across the Realstream River. People on the bridge are very exposed to view, though there is a low (pace-high) wall on either side that someone could crouch behind. Someone crouched behind the wall would move slowly but be hidden from the view of anyone not on the north road or high up in the mill (#8 on the map).
- #1 is the Golden Grain Inn. The front door is the one in the south wall, the cellar door is in the west wall (closest to north street), and the back door is in the north wall. #1b is the Inn's barn/stable, which has a large door in its south wall (facing the Inn)
- The brown lines on the map are roads:
Cecily's Road enters from the west (left side of the map), meanders through the village on the south shore of the lake, and exits to the east (right side of the map).
North Street is the road that heads north from Cecily's Road and crosses the bridge at #2, then continues to the north, exiting from the top of the map.
Lake Street is the road that starts from North Street, past Alan Clayborn's house (#6) and the Slumbering Serpent Inn (#5), runs along the north bank of the lake, and curves around south to connect with Cecily's Road again.
- The Temple of Merikka is the large grey square on the hill to the northeast of the village.
- The numbered spaces on the map are locations that the party has visited. Everything else is more or less unknown, though the purple shapes indicate houses, the green shapes are businesses with shingles out front (inns, merchants, etc), and the light brown shapes are outbuildings/workspaces (like barns, sheds, workshops, stables, etc).

Thanks, its been hard to follow lately.

OK, so I'll amend my earlier summary:

The party has to decide three things:
1) When will you go? (now to the barn, or go into the woods to wait all day before moving)
2) Where will you go? (The Golden Grain Inn's front door, cellar door, or back door)
3) How will you go? (all together, or have Chase scout ahead solo first)

Note that you are not limited to these options, of course. These were just the suggestions that players have made so far. Absent some spying NPC raising the alarm or me making the choices for you, there's not much I can do to continue.

The party needs to decide what they're doing in order to proceed.

Yes, just to confirm about the doors:


(in this image, the exterior doors are GREEN)

- The front door is in the SOUTH wall of the Golden Grain Inn, facing Cecily's Road. This door leads into the common room of the Inn on the ground floor. When the party left, 10 days ago, the front door was intact.
- The cellar door is in the WEST wall of the Golden Grain Inn, facing North Street. This door opens onto stairs leading down into the wine storage (below the kitchen), and from there you can go through another door east into the basement. When the party left, 10 days ago, this door had been removed from its hinges and was just leaning up against the doorjamb.
- The back door is in the NORTH wall of the Golden Grain Inn, facing the barn. This door opens onto a private bedroom (Bertram's), which also contains the trap door leading down to the secret basement room. When the party left, 10 days ago, this door had been completely destroyed by being kicked to pieces.