1st Chapter: The Adventure Begins

[JMatt85]

Pack animals? Tertullian objected, Good sir, these are our noble steeds! Yaaaa Sarah! He yelled as he kicked the mule to go.

Neirin rolled his eyes and followed after the elf and crazy cleric to whatever dangers lay ahead.

[mTeasdale]

So I take that we are out of the town, travelling to the tower ?

[Solomoriah]

The adventurers followed the road out of town, pulling up their collars to ward off the damp chill of the damp gray day. The road was paved with large flat stones for perhaps a mile, but they came to a sudden halt at the bottom of a shallow dell.

As they slogged through the inevitable mudhole before them, Rowan glanced to the side and noticed something sticking out of some scrubby bushes... a wooden handle, or so it appeared.

[mTeasdale]

Bothan will try to touch the handle with his pike. Does it seems to be attached to something ?

[Longman]

Hengist calls out from the rear..."Be careful, Bothan. If it's a door of some kind, Ranald can take a good look before you try to open it..."

[Solomoriah]

Bothan poked at the wooden handle with his pike, and it fell from the bush and landed on the muddy ground. It appeared to be the sort of handle that might be on an axe, but the "business end" of it was hidden beneath the bush.

[mTeasdale]

Alphonse will throw a stone through the bushes. If nothing happens, he will ask Bothan to go check what's going on there.

[Longman]

The little dwarf saw it was an axe handle, and stopped fumbling about for his lock pick wires. Instead, he drew his sword.

Hengist moved forward towards the place, and drew his halberd, using the point to cover Bothan as he investigated. He signalled for Rowan to do likewise with his pike.

[JMatt85]

Neirin and Tertullian also prepare for an attack. Sling out for Neirin, mace out for T-, shields out for both.

[Solomoriah]

The thrown stone did not awaken anything monstrous, so Bothan moved forward and poked at the handle; it moved freely, just lying there on the ground. He mused that it must not have a head on it, as easily as he was able to move it, so he reached out and gingerly grasped it.

What he drew out was, in fact, a broken handle; by its length and girth he judged it was not an axe-handle but the handle of some digging or farming implement. The broken end looked newly broken, within a week or so perhaps.

He wondered if the other end might be somewhere beneath the bush...