The Adventurers

Omnae - Andreas Vanderslyke - Equipment
Park Kraken - Honus - Equipment
Seth Vinda - Aurin - Equipment - Spell Listing

You and your company have been called before Gustovan, the Burgomaster of Torlynn. Torlynn is a small village set in a quiet, hilly area near the mountains. It is a place you have spent many years a resident of and have since come to think of it as home. Gustovan is known as a wise and kind mayor.

It is a dark autumn night in the village of Torlynn. Outside, a freezing wind rips the last leaves from the trees and splatters falling raindrops against the windows. Only the fire blazing in the nearby fireplace keeps you warm on this stormy night. A short, heavy man enters the room. He has a thick moustache and a silver-rimmed monocle in his eye. With a grunt, he drops into a chair and politely smiles at your company.

"Hello, my friends." he says very seriously. "Thank you for coming on this awful night. I have called you here because the people of Torlynn have need of brave heros such as yourselves. In the mountains above the town is an old iron mine. It was dug long ago by a clan of dwarves. They took out all of the iron there and then moved on to other places to look for more. Over the past few weeks, reports have come to me of strange lights and sounds coming from the old mine. The people are scared and worried. Please go to the mine and explore it. Find out if there is something wrong there or if these reports are nothing but the wild dreams of fools."

Andreas Vanderslyke. A mouthful to be sure. Andreas had never liked his family name but there really was not much he could do about it. With name came expectation and that was the battle that he constantly found himself fighting. Because it seemed with everything came expectation.

When he killed his first creature, more out of fright than anything, the masses suddenly expected him to do it again and again and even as his fame grew (such as it was) there was always another creature, each more terrible and deadly than the last.

He soon learned to ignore the expectation and view each encounter as it's own challenge. The creatures were merely obstacles to be overcome.

He often wondered why there were so many monsters in the world and why the ingenuity of the ancients to build such clever labyrinths, mazes and castle ruins that these creatures seemed to live in seemed lost to the motly group of fellows that lived in the world of now.

Where did it all go?

It was a puzzle that remained as an itch in the back of his mind for if there was anything that Andreas loved as much as the challenge of the hunt, it was unraveling puzzles. A challenge of the mind.


"Van!" came the cry piercing the cold wind. Andreas turned for everyone called him Van. It was simple. And, more importantly, it was nice and short.

"The Burgomaster wants you!"


Burgomaster was probably another name for mayor but Van wasn't about to cast aspirations on the culture of the town he had come to know as home. He had traveled far enough to know that every place had it's nuance and everyone had different names for the same things.

~

He smiled when he heard the Burgomaster's appeal to their ego in calling them heros. Killing creatures did not make one a hero. It just made him a good hunter.


"The people frighten easily," he murmured when the problem was presented. "It could be the wind howling through the old mine creating the noise.."

He had definitely been in enough tunnels to be familiar with the phenomena.


Besides, hero or no, it was cold and wet outside. On the flip-side, however, things have been pretty boring in Torlynn of late.


He turned to his companions...

A worried frown furrowed the already deeply heavily wrinkled wizard's face as his eyes scrutinzed what lay before him, and the ominous sense of foreboding which followed...

With a loud tutt, he scooped up the runes, and cast them again...


Once more their message heralded a dire warning...


He toyed with his long white beard thoughtfully, casting his mind back to earlier on in the day, where he had been in the forest replenishing his supplies and ingredients as usual, when a sound made him freeze.

The call of an owl during the daytime was an ill omen indeed.

This had been enough for him to check the stones, and now they too seemed to working against him...

He shook his head, muttering underneath his breath, and scooped them again, hoping to gain a more fortuitous reading...


...Best out of three?...


It would come as no surprise then, when a messenger boy knocked upon the old wizards door, asking for him to meet with the Burgomaster of Torlynn.


Aurin, listened intently as the message was relayed, and gathered his things. Although the old man lived on the ouskirts of the town, near the pine forests which nestled beneath the mountains and rarely ever visited the town, he regarded it fondly as place he was able to practice his craft in peace.

If the Burgomaster needed his counsel, he would grant it.


The wizard threw a last glance across the threshold of his small cottage and closed the door behind him. He wrapped his cloak tightly around himself and then gestured for the boy to lead the way...all the while his thoughts focused on the omens revealed to him.

...A storm is coming...














Aurin listened silently as the Burgomaster revealed his concerns, and then as Andreas Vanderslyke offered his opinion on the matter, the Wizard shook his head slowly in reply...

"I have heard of these rumours also, but what concerns me most are my own consultations, we should proceed carefully, but proceed we must"

He threw the group a concerned glance...

"There are dark forces at work, that much I am sure of..."

The Wizard knew of Andreas, or 'Van' as he insisted everyone should call him, but this was the first time they had met...

Upon first impression, he found him somewhat... Cavalier

The coin sack plopped into the outstretched hands of the young mother, her two young children watching with excited eyes. Honus chuckled in amusement at the twinkle in their eyes.

"How can we ever repay you?" asked the woman, Madrynn was her name.

"Use the coin wisely, and don't tell anyone of what happened here," replied Honus, before he nodded and turned away, leaving the alley with a smile on his face.

He had come across a lumbering ogre in the forest the day before, the big dumb brute with a giant nasty looking axe, smeared with blood, carrying the sack of coins from some poor deceased noble.

Having concealed himself behind a tree, Honus had set a distraction using a few rocks and a small branch. When the ogre had stepped on the branch, the rocks had crumbled nearby.

The ogre, dumb brutes as they are, had turned his attention to the rocks, allowing Honus to sneak up behind and dispatch the ogre with several quick jabs of his dagger.

Now, as he walked aimlessley down the market place avenue, he was approached by a messenger, one of the more stately and well dressed ones that worked for the local rulers.

"Honorable Honus, the Burgomaster requests your audience at your earliest convience," asked the messenger, coming to a stop and bowing before Honus.

To say that he was quite suprised was a understatement. Perhaps someone had talked about his charitious dealing with the coin taken from dead monsters. He recovered quickly though, a smile spreading across his lips at the prospect of why the Burgomaster would want to talk to him.

Perhaps I'll see some adventure before this day has ended...

* * *

Honus arrived at the townhouse, a little chilled but none worse for the wear with the leather cloak draped about his body. He proceeded to stand off to one side as the Burgomaster explained his concerns about the old mine up on the mountian. He merely nodded when the Burgomaster when he finished, his mind on other thoughts...

So the Burgomaster called on Andreas Vander and the old wizard for help as well? I don't like working with other people that much. But those two may come in handy...

His excitment at a confirmed adventure only grew when the wizard made mention of dark forces.

"Well, compatriots, shall we go do something about these...dark forces?"

As the party leaves the village, Gustovan watches them off from the highest room in his home. The cold rain splatters off the window as the lights go out from the room, a cold wind casting off the flames of each candle. A low murmur can be heard on the wind as the rain dies down.

You stand Just inside a rough cavern, cut from the stone of the mountain long ago by dwarvish hands. This is the entrance to the mine. Behind you, a cold wind blows as if it would push you into the unknown. There is only one way to go now: forward and into the darkness of the mine. Gathering your courage and checking your weapons, you start down into the mine shaft.

Van tried to listen for the strange howl that was reported but felt nothing but the biting wind at the back of his neck. As he stepped forward and in front of Aurin into the darkness, his itch for a challenge nearly overcoming him, his right hand reached along the wall to feel for a torch, perhaps placed in a holder nearby.


Surely the old dwarves left something?


He felt sort of sheepish however as they did have a bonafide wizard in their party so his movements were checked within a step or two. Cocking his head to the right he called to the wizard over his shoulder, "Care to light things up?"


He wondered what Honus was thinking since the other was a rather well known adventurer. This was probably second nature to him.

If there was a buck to be made, rest assured Honus would find it. If there was a monster to be killed, rest assured Van would find it. Then again, there was a wizard in the party and one that had already singled out the Dark One himself as the culprit of the Burgomaster's tale.

If there were evil forces to find, rest assured a wizard would find them.

He felt his anticipation grow.