The Contact (RP)

- Albert -

It looks like the rain and the blood have washed out any glass and soot from the lantern. Olaf flinches at your poking around, but takes it like a man.

There does not appear to be any impediment to your healing.

- Albert -

Olaf grumbles a bit at the mention of religiousity, and does not join in the recitation. His eyes go wide as Raynor's fire infuses his hand. "Warm!" He says wonderingly.

He holds his hand out for everyone to see as he opens and closes it without pain. He still has a gash on his hand, but, in this dim light, anyone could be mistaken into thinking it was a week old.

"Thanks... I suppose... He says grudgingly, not meeting your eye.

The fire is just enough to take the worst of the chill off and dry your clothes enough that you don't freeze, but no one gets any sleep --what with needing to keep it fed and shuffling around to avoid the smoke, and, as soon as it is light enough, everyone is keen to get moving.

"Where the heck are we?" Olaf exclaims as you crest a hill and see your surroundings. "We must have gotten turned around in the night." He says, placing blame on everyone and ignoring the fact that he was the one leading the way.

Norbert: You are fairly sure you recognise the area, and that you are a lot closer to the village than to Olaf's house. Hungry and cold as everyone is, it would not be hard to make the case for going to town to get a bite and warm up on your way there. Or, with the village's position as a landmark, Olaf should have no trouble finding home either.

What do you do?

"Clearing?!" Olaf exclaims in surpris before trying to change the subject. "No, no. I know where we are." He says desperately looking around to get his bearings. "Oh, yes. This is Magraken's land. We can follow that stream to the bridge and then the road leads almost past the village --" he peers of into the distance, "--you can see the smoke on the horizon over there, how people can live in that, I don't just know."

He looks down at his hand. "I had forgotten all about it." He admits, sounding impressed and a bit interested. "'Ray nor', you say? I never thought to follow a 'healing' god, but that was..." He is at a loss for words.

"I really should get back to the missus." Olaf says, though the mention of all those sorts of hot things --along with those not mentioned-- are clearly tempting him and you don't think it would take much to persuade him otherwise. He can now claim to his wife that he 'tried to talk you out of it'.

"Hmm..." Olaf mutters at the mention of your going into the house he threw you out of, then he looks down at his hand and seems to have a change of heart. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. If Olga says its OK, and so long as you don't make a mess."

Whatever you guys decide, it does not look like Olaf will argue.

The village is not exactly on this path, you will need to detour a little bit to get there.

At the mention of Olga, Olaf looks worried, and his mind is clearly whirring as he tries to come up with excuses to give her. He is dragging his feet a little, so it takes nearly two hours to get home.

Your damp clothes cling to your bodies in unpleasant ways --though they are now a little cleaner-- and you are all tired, from the stress of adventure and the mostly-sleepless night, when you arrive at Olaf's. Well before you see the farmstead you can hear his children screaming and shouting, Olaf's proud smile indicates that this is normal, and you soon crest a hill and see them running around the garden, whacking each other with sticks that are probably meant to be swords.

There is no sign of your companions that you left here, though how they could still be sleeping with all that racket, you can't tell.

There is a small tendril of smoke from the chimney, so Olga is presumably making food. Olaf's stomach growls loudly as he strides towards the kitchen door.

What do you do?

Albert, Neither your friends nor your stuff is in the barn. There are obvious signs that people slept there, but no sign of any struggle or sudden leaving.

One of the kids --your would guess about four years old-- runs over and brandishes a stick-sword at you. "Aunty Nicki took your friends away after breakfast." They say. "Now FIGHT ME!"

---

Back in the kitchen, Olaf stammers excuses --blaming you guys-- but Olga merely shakes her head in exasperation and ignores him.

"Your friends went back to town a little while ago." She says with a note of disapproval in her voice.


"I did not know you were coming back." She says, presumably talking to you and not to her husband. "Or I would have kept breakfast for you. There is bread and honey and apples." She adds, though you notice that the honey pot is getting empty and there are not many apples left in the pantry. An unwashed pot that contained porridge --presumably breakfast-- has been scraped clean of food.