First Adventure 01, The Township of Al-Erat

The Zefirs, for the past 6 months, have been in near-constant negotiations between the Confederacy of Naverre and the Sho Empire, trying in vain to maintain the Dericost Accords laid down a century ago that have kept the Four Nations at peace thusfar. The two nations have never been on very good terms, and as the progressive Banderlings conflict in base mindset with the traditionalist Burun, leading to political and economic tensions, the situation has only been getting worse.
Unfortunately, almost one month ago, a magical backlash was felt across the entire continent by those sensitive enough to see it. While it only lasted an instant, the long-term ramifications are yet to be fully understood. There were serious concerns about this being some sort of superweapon being developed by either side, or worse, both. What had previously been political instability has very quickly escalated into military mobilization of all the Four Nations, with the Sho and Naverre pointing their firepower squarely at one another. The Kingdom of Aluvia has maintained good relations with everyone up to this point, but now finds almost all their trade being reduced or flatly cut off as merchants are unable or unwilling to brave potentially hostile routes. Meanwhile the Republic of Osteth has never had good relations with the Sho, and having their primary farming territories literally nestled directly in between the two potential enemies, their own forces have had to mobilize around the Tou region. Whenever the first spark goes off, it will likely incite the entire continent to war.
Business has been slowly waning with the Adventurer's Guild in the past several years. Most adventurers have either joined up with the proper military of their given nation, or signed up with one of the many mercenary companies and corps, expecting to see a fair amount of action and pay soon. The Guild has been considering finally shutting its doors in the next year, at least temporarily, if things don't pick up soon.
All of you are half-cards within the Guild, which means you are not fully-fledged members but have filled out your paperwork to be able to take on missions should you choose, and you have perused the Boards as you travel from town to town with no real luck until recently. About one week ago a Bill was posted on every Board across the major cities seeking a reasonably large party of adventurer's to assist in problems with some Gnoll attacks upon the township of Al-Erat, an area renowned for being the best supplier of dates and figs for most of the Reach.

Spoiler:

The lot of you file in to Al-Erat over the course of a week, traveling from your respective locations across the Four Nations on a temporary visa thanks to your status within the Guild. Al-Erat is a fairly large, spread out township with a concentrated commercial district surrounding the main road that bisects the entire area. The desert extends in most directions, with carefully tended farmlands and crops dotting the landscape in odd contrast, and a near-continuous flow of caravans, beasts of burden, and people coming or going. The central road is also completely littered on both sides with merchants and stalls, hawking everything from sandals to fruits to sickles to jewelry. While few of these contain anything of a scale one might expect from a larger city, just about anything can be found on a good day along the main road.
You find out some basic information regarding the Bill. Apparently a reasonably large pack of Gnolls from the Wildpaw Clan have been making semi frequent raids on the neighboring villages and farmland. While Al-Erat has hired on a Guardian who has been making the attacks easier to bear, it has reached the point where the township is in consensus that the Gnolls need to be convinced or coerced to cease their raids. The Bill was posted by the Guardian himself, an orc named Harkun Oakheart, and in it he calls for the total destruction of the Gnoll pack to ensure the safety of the area. The only other information in the Bill itself is that it is believed the Gnolls have a permanent base somewhere nearby to be capable of the speed and coordination of attacks they've been engaging in.
The local Associate of the Guild, a middle-aged orc named Sovant, actually comes out to greet your group personally once you've all checked in and he believes the group to be of sufficient size to match the Bill. "Now, I'm well aware this is everyone present's first formal job within the Guild so I want to cover some basic rules with you," he begins politely. "Firstly, and most importantly, you have all been granted a Bill of Assignment detailing your mission. You can use this at your discretion to prove you are on a Bill for the Guild, which may or may not assist in any activities." He glances over his glasses at you. "As a consequence of this, your actions reflect upon the Guild, and as such we do expect you to be on good report. Now," he continued, "on any given mission the burden of proof of accomplishment is upon you. In this case the petitioner wishes the total destruction of the local Gnolls causing damage to the region and as such will require you to chop off the tail of every Gnoll that is a part of this particular warband, as well as the head of their leader." He frowns and pulls out a sheet of parchment, peering at it. "One final point. In all cases of multi-individual groups, the bounty is to be shared evenly amongst any and all survivors of the initial party, as notated here," he holds up the parchment which contains all of your signatures upon it. "That means the sum of 9000 gold will be divided equally amongst you." He rambles on for a little bit longer about some of the more boring protocols involving informing next of kin in case of death, contract terminations, and the like, and then gives you this Bill's deadline: You have 4 days to produce results, starting tomorrow, before defaulting on the Bill.
It is currently about 8 in the morning on January 21st, Year 348. You have until the evening of the 25th to produce results.

Jot down Quick Notes

[Start] January 21st, Year 348

• Kill all Gnolls [Wildpaw Clan] causing damage to the region [Reach/Al-Erat]
  
• Collect the tails, Get the head of their leader and bring back as proof.
  
• Sum of 9000 gold will be divided equally
  
• You have 4 days to produce results

[End] Evening January 25st, Year 348

""excuse me sir but do you happen to know roughly how many Gnolls this clan counts? and do you also happen to know if the Guardian is welling to settle this matter with out more bloodshed if we can get the Gnolls talking?""

permeus wrote:""excuse me sir but do you happen to know roughly how many Gnolls this clan counts? and do you also happen to know if the Guardian is welling to settle this matter with out more bloodshed if we can get the Gnolls talking?""

The orc looks up from his paperwork, having half-forgotten you were even here. "We've heard conflicting reports about numbers, but we've seen at least 30 in one pack so assume a fairly large group. As for the other matter," he frowns a bit. "Mr Oakheart was quite insistent upon the total annihilation of the group, something about sending a message to other would-be raiders. The local authorities did give it the go-ahead, so if you're worried about legality that's already taken care of."

"Any word on the location of the pack?" A voice lilts from under a fur hood near the back of the gathered group.

Hanuel and Dara wrote:"Any word on the location of the pack?" A voice lilts from under a fur hood near the back of the gathered group.

"I'm afraid we have no information regarding their location other than what is already listed within the Bill."

"Another question, good sir," says Kolson to get Solvant's attention. "What is the name of the person who speaks for Al-Erat?"

Kolson Wezrae wrote:"Another question, good sir," says Kolson to get Solvant's attention. "What is the name of the person who speaks for Al-Erat?"

The orc strokes his grey beard. "I suppose that depends on your opinion," he admits after some thought. "There's the mercantile council, sort of an informal affair that runs the streets. Then there's the local militia, under Constable Torlok. Not sure I'd call him that competent though..." He chuckles faintly. "And finally I suppose there's the Mayor, Zigund, but he rarely has time to deal with anything since he's always knee-deep in paperwork."

The troll feels uncomfortable a midst such a large group of people, confounded in a small place, and everyone can notice his nervous gestures. "Are these raids usual for the gnolls around here, or is this a sudden change in behavior?"

Ashakel wrote:The troll feels uncomfortable a midst such a large group of people, confounded in a small place, and everyone can notice his nervous gestures. "Are these raids usual for the gnolls around here, or is this a sudden change in behavior?"

"No this is quite out of the ordinary. It's rare for such a large group to mobilize at once like this unless it's on behalf of Stonehold, and that's unlikely in this case given how far away we are from Stonehold lands."

Ashakel then turns to the wild bunch of fairies and elves around him. "I've lived in the woods my entire life, and beasts don't just run amok for no reason. I'd like to talk to this Oakheart, as he calls himself. He seems to have had the most experience with the things. What do you lot think?"

Hanuel looks at Ashakel from under their hood, sizing him up,"Sounds like a good plan to me. I'd like to talk to the locals though. See if I can figure out any pattern to the attacks."

Rubbing his chin in thought, Kolson adds, "We should make time to seek out the other leaders as well. I'd like to take the measure of this Guardian before we speak with him and there is no better way than by seeking out his friends and enemies first."

The fey's hypnotizing dark skin was making hard for Ashakel to find his words, so instead he turned to the elf. "Perhaps you are right. This office makes me want to vomit and I cannot think wisely."

well if were to bring back there tails were going to need something to carry them in so im going to have a look at the market and as there the ones been hit by the raids there may be some info to be had.

but before we go lets set a place to meet up later say about noon ish, ied also suggest an inn if they have one here so we can sit down to the mid day meal and talk over what we have learned.

........................

So if we somehow solved matters without blood, we'd have failed? I fully expect this to turn ugly, and for heads to roll, but we're being told to kill them in cold blood if it comes to that.

As I see it there is still one major problem. We have not a clue where this band of miscreants (I may be giving them too much credit with that) is. I suggest that we find any sort of pattern to these attacks, wait for one to occur, beat them back, possibly capture one and interrogate it, and/or follow the survivors back to as they retreat.

A deep gravelly voice resonates from the back “I agree with Kolson. We should seek out further information on Oakheart before meeting with him and by meeting with the local merchants and militia we may gain a better understanding of the attacks. Both where they’re coming from and what merchandise they are targeting.”
Nodding at Permeus “I think the Inn is a wise idea for disseminating information. And besides, a break for the noon meal couldn’t hurt” he added with a smile.

Spoiler:

I'd like to get a feel for the actual people, if we could.

Could be too much ground to cover between all the attacked sites, with the time we have, but there may be victims in town, or relatives. If we can get an idea of who was attacked when and where, it could make it an easier guess as to where they'll attack next.

K_ wrote:I'd like to get a feel for the actual people, if we could.

Could be too much ground to cover between all the attacked sites, with the time we have, but there may be victims in town, or relatives. If we can get an idea of who was attacked when and where, it could make it an easier guess as to where they'll attack next.

my point exactly. I say to cover as much ground as possible some of us can go to the main market street vendors to find any information of use, others can go to the inn.

Spoiler:

Zeiss was tired of simply listening to the others. He didn't really want to participate in this "discussion" on what the best course of action would be, but he saw nothing but a bunch of different races giving their opinion. He had an idea on how to proceed with this job but it seemed he would have to voice his plan.

"Everyone. Excuse me, but let me talk."

They actually turned to him to hear what he had to say. That was unexpected.

"I hear a lot of good ideas on how to proceed with this task. So let me summarize so that we don't have to listen to each other for the next hour. We have to find these gnolls and kill them. That is our job. But to do so, we have to find them. I share the opinion of others on how to do so : gather information from the townspeople and farmers. I suggest that each and everyone of us go their own way for one hour and come back here with what you found. Considering how many people we are, we should get rapidly useful information. Does this seem okay for everyone?"

It was done.

Spoiler:

A purplish, armored Sclavi has been fiddling with his backpack during the conversation. Apparently finding what he was looking for, he pulls several sacks out of his pack and tosses them to Tabran.

"There's your sacks for their tails."

He then clears his throat and speaks loudly at the group:

"Some intelligence gathering would be good form and a trap even better. Gnolls are overconfident creatures and will move all their forces in one move if we present a large enough target. There we may spring a trap and finish them off in one movement."

He frowns a bit and continues.

"Gnolls are greedy. They're just as likely to stab a diplomat in the back as anything else if they think they can get away with it - especially the wilder ones. I'm not your commander, but I can't in good conscience recommend a "meeting" with them. I've seen one too many well-intentioned local folks meet an early grave due to thinking they can be reasoned with. If it was up to me, we'd ambush them and deal with them as soon as possible."

"I believe most of us are at an agreement here. Now, to cover to ground most efficiently rather than randomly, we should organize and follow this plan..."

Spoiler:

Ashakel scratches his hands nervously, looking around the room as others join the conversation. "Yes, yes, it all seems like a good plan. Tell us what did you have in mind so we can finally get out of this hole", he mumbles to the Sclavi.

"Hold.

If one or two fools did set up a meeting, how do you think their forces would move in response? I'm guessing they'd want a neutral location, but would we be able to draw their leader out?"