Chapter Three: On the Road

You leave Greenest to the cheers of the folk, who wish you well on your journey but are sad to see you leave. The journey passes swiftly and you make good time, covering near to 200 miles in six days. From many miles out, you can see the lights shining from the city, which overlooks the River Chionthar.

As you approach the gates near to evening on the sixth day, you find that they are open, but with guards posted all about to ensure the safety of the people. As you near, the guards call out to you, "Hail, travelers! What brings you to our fair city?"

The guard scratches his head, "Huh, never heard o' Leosin, but you're more than welcome to head on in," he says waving you on through.

"Monastery? There's no monastery here," the guards says, "But as far as stables go, you should be able to find a bunch of inns that can manage that for ya."
As you mention Frume, the guard perks up, "Well, why didn't you ask earlier? He's usually at an inn called 'A Pair of Black Antlers," he says and gives you directions.

As you wander through Elturel, you can't help but notice how much different it is that Greenest. It's huge and lively, with not a worry about cultists, dragons, or danger of any kind. You make it to the inn that you were directed to, and, upon requesting Frume, are led to a back room of the inn.

After a few minutes of waiting outside, you are let in and you see Leosin standing beside a huge man with a bald head and bushy orange beard, who Bughu recognizes as Ontharr Frume. Frume smiles as he notices you enter and waves you over, "Ah, it's been too long, my friend!" he says happily, shaking Bughu's hand vigorously, "It seems that I was right, sending you to check out Greenest, eh? Sounds to me like you did some good there."

Leosin nods in agreement and smiles, "I'm very glad that you could make it so quickly. I, myself, just arrived a day ago."

"Aye, that he has," Frume nods grimly, "But we can talk about that later. Today, we should take a well-deserved rest, boost morale, and then we can talk about dark times."

Over the course of the day, you find that Frume is a very good host and shows you quite a good time. Several of his men challenge you to wrestling matches, games of chance, knife-throwing contests, and other friendly games. As dusk draws nearer, you are approached by on of Leosin's associates and each given a sack containing 150 pieces of gold.

Once night is fully upon you, Frume’s squire shows you to a private space off the tavern’s common room and closes the door when
he leaves. Waiting for you in the room are the broad-shouldered human paladin, the monk Leosin, and many pitchers of dark red wine. The paladin’s face wears a serious expression, unlike its usual open countenance.

"My friends, we have important business to discuss. At this point, you know almost as much about it as we do, and thanks to you, we know twice as much today as we did a tenday ago. Something rotten is afoot. We have no formal organization to oppose these rascals— not yet anyway. We’re working on that. And we need people like you, who know how and when to fight, and how and when to keep their heads down and observe. We can’t promise you anything except long days filled with danger and stress— but what could be better than that, eh?"

Frume looks calmly at Mryio, "Being that you know nothing of what's going on outside of this room for preparation, I'll let your outburst go. While we 'partied', I had a group of spies out gathering information. The cult is actually headed this way now, bearing its ill-gotten goods. When they get here, they will join with a group merchants heading north; a common practice when heading into that dangerous territory. We are trying to get things arranged so that we can get someone - preferably yourselves, if you'd do it - set up as guards with the caravan to see where it is going."

"I understand your anger, friend, I was merely hoping to give you a chance to let go of the bad for a day. A chance to enjoy yourself before thing get even worse and more dangerous.