Chapter 1

It has been a hard winter for the Village of Norwich. The winter snows came early and stayed late, but things were finally looking better. Spring had come and people were beginning to recover when the worse news came.

A boy from one of the farms furthest north came riding into the village square. He was covered in dried blood and had ridden his pony nearly to death. The village elder, Jonas, helped catch the boy as he collapsed out of his saddle. When asked what had happened they were able to get out of him that an orc raiding party had come from the north and was attacking the farmsteads and heading in this direction.

Urick, having not much to do in the harsh winter as such weather doesnt allow the proper growing of plants sees whats unfolding and makes it out of his living space to investigate. He walks over to Jonas and sees Book and Jack, friends of his while they were growing up also making their way to Jonas.

Urick gets there first and kneels down to help tend the boy with Jonas.

"Elder Jonas, what did the boy say? He looks like he's seen his own death"

Jonas gestures the gathering crowd back as even more villagers begin gathering around, all shouting their own questions. "Give the boy some room. Vigdis see what you can do for him. Now the boy says his farmstead was attacked by orc raiders. In his condition, I would prefer not to press him too hard for details and even of we did, young Eric here would likely not be able to give us much we can rely on in his current state. What we need now is accurate information. I believe we need people to head north and find out what is happening."

"Hmm, yes someone come help me get this boy to bed. Then we must make some decisions about what we are going to do."