Chapter One: The Iron Sphere of Sthombo

Felor is momentarily stunned by the sudden violence - for a moment he'd hoped that the situation could be resolved in a more peaceful manner. But such is the way of the world. He closes his eyes, breathes a deep sigh, and says a brief prayer for the man's soul as he chokes to death on his own arterial blood.

"We best get moving then, if we want to find this place before nightfall."

"Wait-" Leth called out to try and stop Tzipporah, but it was too late. The deed was done. He let out an immense sigh and turned to her.
"Now what did you do that for? I had a solid plan. He might have been able to get us to the man who hired him. Now we just have to hope our guesswork is good... and who knows how long it will be before his 'intermediary' shows up if he's not there right now. We could be waiting here all day, wasting precious time we could be spending getting to Banwood!" He was pretty upset with her, though he was only allowing a portion of his anger to show through his words. Glaring, he continued,
"Don't be so hasty to throw away life, or to throw away help... especially when we already have so little information to go on."

Today had been a rough day. And it would be easy to let his emotions get the better of him. He tried to reign himself in a bit, and gather his thoughts.

Okay. So that's one option down. Hopefully we'll find more info if we can find this building... Where could that be? He racked his brain trying to remember anything useful that would help him identify the location of the abandoned building.

"No offense, Leth. But where I come from you don't let someone who has attempted to kill you walk away. Especially with gold in his pocket. He was not an innocent tradesman caught up in a scheme. He was an assassin, and would have done the same to us."

Leth snaps his fingers as he recalls the old longhouse.
"I think I might know what building he was talking about. There's an old abandoned longhouse northeast of here, off the path. It's about the only place I could think of that matches his description; anything closer than that would probably have been searched by the justiciars. It's remote and overgrown enough to not attract any attention; maybe about a mile and a half away.

If we're going there, we'd better be careful - there may be people there already. If not... we'll have to decide whether we want to wait there or continue on to Banwood."

Vad, unmoved by Tzipporah's course of action, approaches and with a slight smile whispers, "Could always count on you to do what needed to be done."

Still upset at not being able to find any clues as to Zora's location, Vad lets out a heavy sigh and turns towards Leth, "About a mile and a half, ya say? Close enough to warrant some investigation I would think."

"I think we should finish giving Kells a proper burial before we head off at least. This lot," Felor nods towards the dead ambushers, "don't really deserve so much. I certainly ain't going to break my back digging three more holes."

Maybe hide the 3 bodies in bush or something? The village is abandoned so unlikely anyone's going to stumble on the bodies.

"I definitely think we should try to hide these three bodies; we don't want whoever we're rendezvousing with to see the bodies. They'd immediately know the jig is up."

When Carillion started digging, Leth took up the second shovel and began helping. Leth was painfully aware of the time they were spending - and indeed, had already spent - here, and didn't want to waste any more time than necessary.

"Which way, Leth?"

OoC: Sorry, all! I had an out-of-state trip over the weekend and forgot to let you all know before hand. That's my bad.
Leth took a glance at their surroundings. "I believe it's this way, if my memory serves me correctly." He said, and set out towards the longhouse, trying to be as quiet and observant as he could be.

He's trying to keep an eye our for anyone else that might be working for their mysterious enemies; guards keeping an eye on the longhouse, that sort of thing, while at the same time doing his best to be quiet about it as well, though I don't know how effective he'd be if the rest of the party isn't doing that either hahaha do I need to roll anything for any of that?

Felor follows Leth, and as they approach the longhouse he uses his skills honed over years living in the wilderness to look for anything unusual in the surroundings that may indicate an unwelcome surprise - strange tracks, flocks of birds suddenly disturbed, a curious scent on the breeze, and the like.