Chapter 3.3: Orlane in the early morning

The party was moving north through Orlane toward the Temple of Merikka when they had the bad luck of being heard by Ollwin, proprietor of the Inn of the Slumbering Serpent, coming back from the outhouse. He raised a hue and cry, which roused a bunch of people from the Inn and awoke the Miller family. The Millers, upset at the disappearance of one of their family and angry at the murder of many local dogs, organize the group into search parties. They've been told that both the disappearances and the murders are caused by the adventurers. Ember, the rogue on the run from Hookhill who narrowly escaped abduction by the real culprits, snuck off and howled like a wolf to draw the angry villagers away from the party. Aanbo, Chase, Lyrel, and Myrtha used the distraction to head north, continuing with the original plan. Arya, Morton, and Theran have gone to help Ember escape from the mob.

Ember ducks down just as the torchlight of the approaching villagers reach her, and she drops down the embankment into the river while the people are talking to each other.
"Did you hear that howl?"
"What was that?"
"It sounded like a person to me."
"It sounded like it came from this direction."
"Where's Alan?"
"We didn't get him; we came running as soon as we heard..."
"Grand, I told you to get Alan or Marieke!"

Ember struggles to stay underwater at first, swimming with the current as the water rushes to fill her pack. Then it becomes hard to surface as the water filling her boots, quiver, and pack conspires to drag her down. She manages to surface to breathe more than a hundred paces downstream. There is no cry of detection; she is nearly invisible in the moonlight and the people of Orlane are not hunters from Hookhill, professionals trained to find thieves like her. Drifting with the current into the Dim Forest, the rogue begins to swim to a bank of the river. She begins to fantasize about finding a sheltered place and starting a fire to dry out her food, cards, tinder, and metal implements that will rust. But she doesn't have time for that. It's going to be another cold, wet night.

Back at the bridge, the group of 10 or 12 villagers hears a clatter to the south as Arya throws the glowing stone at the farmhouse across from the Golden Grain Inn; immediately the farmer's dog - perhaps the only dog left in Orlane - starts barking.
"They're over there!"
"You go check it out. Grand, go back and do what I told you. You two, stay here and watch the bridge. The rest of you, come with me. I'm worried this was a distraction."

With that, the big group of villagers split into four groups: three going south across the bridge, two staying by the bridge, two headed north on the road, and the rest running into the trees...right toward Arya, Morton, and Theran!

The rest of the heroes make their way north and then east along the edge of the lake in the moonlight, leaving the sound of the distraction behind them. The water of the lake is placid and the moonlight bright; they hurry east down a long open part of the road with no tree cover on either side of the road. Thankfully, no one seems to be watching. The dark shape of the low eastern hill looms ahead, with the imposing temple sitting atop it surrounded by a stone wall and a screen of trees. On the gentle slope facing them, various crops have been planted, including a modest vineyard. These belong to the small, shabby farm with a run-down house that the party is approaching.

At the bridge

The Miller's search party rushes into the trees toward Arya, Morton, and Theran.

Theran steps forward grimly, his eyes fading to the darkness of his past horrors. "If we all run, they'll catch us. You two get Ember; I'll keep them occupied long enough for you to get away." Stepping forward, he draws upon the familiar magic of earth and decay, exuding an even fouler reek of rot than usual as his staff lengthens and swells with spikes of fungal growth.The villagers run up, their lanterns casting crazy shadows, and they get a whiff of the haunted elf. They slow, hacking and wheezing as Theran's voracious spores eat at their lungs.
The mob of villagers takes 3 necrotic damage! One of the villagers collapses.
"Murderer!" one of the remaining villagers coughs as they all attack Theran with clubs.
Theran takes 3 bludgeoning damage!

Morton fades back behind the winehouse, disappearing in the confusion.

Lady Arya feels the battle's call singing in her ears, but she manages to resist the impulse to throw herself into the fray by remembering what they're here for: rescuing Ember. She calls upon Pelor and touches Theran on the shoulder, imparting the god's strength on the stinking elf before she follows Morton.
Theran gains 6 HP.

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20 - Theran (8/18)
17 - Villagers (-3)
12 - Morton (9/9)
9 - Arya (8/10)

Morton and Arya move unnoticed through the yard of the Inn of the Slumbering Serpent as the brawl between the villagers and Theran continues. The pair sneaks around north of the Inn, watching across the road at the three other men who are banging on the door of a house there. The men do not look around, and Arya and Morton pass unnoticed. They move quickly down the north road toward the bridge, keeping close to the trees to not provide a moonlit silhouette for villagers to see. They reach the bridge and consider where to go next.

The last few days, Eugenios has been waiting in Orlane for Ansola Behir's arrival, staying in his room at the Slumbering Serpent at night and exploring the town during the day. Some people have been very friendly, but others have been very guarded and suspicious of him. At first the Special Inspector thought it was because he's an educated man from Keoland proper, and these peasants were resentful of his superior status and intelligence. But he's come to appreciate that they are scared because their neighbors and family members have been leaving town. Some are moving away, others are simply disappearing. The farmers blame a bunch of strangers who have come to town recently, but Eugenios has his doubts. For one thing, the first missing people predate the first reported sighting of the strangers by a good while. He figures that something else is behind the disappearances, or the arrival of the adventurers is related, but part of a larger story. Either way, the locals are nervous and looking for explanations. Eugenios has been at pains to be his most charming to allay any fears that he is coming to steal farm children. So when Ollwin begins to yell in the middle of the night, Eugenios rises with the shouts and prepares to head outside. By the time he has equipped himself, the others have already left, but as the gnome exits the back door, he sees movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning east, his darkvision easily sees the four heroes hustling along the lake's edge. His investigator instincts tingle, and he follows as the four sneak along the north shore of the lake toward the low hill with the temple.Ferranzo, meanwhile, has moved stealthily away from the xenophobic crowd that it trying to capture him in Lindun's abandoned house. Scared of the mob and angry at the fate of his mentor, the halfling decides to use this opportunity while they are focused on the house to get away and look around a bit. There was talk of a "Constable" - maybe that person was involved in Lindun's abduction? If there's a chance that Lindun is alive, Ferranzo has to discover it. If he was killed, then Ferranzo will find out who is responsible and bring them to justice. Moving through the farms, sneaking through crop rows, slipping through split rail fences, Ferranzo makes his way west into the village proper. He knows that the low hill with the temple will be the best vantage point to look out over Orlane; from there, he may see the lights of people moving through the dark night. But when he gets to the hill, flitting from tree to tree that line the boulevard leading up to the temple gate, Ferranzo sees a motley party of heavily-armed adventurers making their way up the west face of the hill.

At the hill

Aanbo and Lyrel are leading the way for Chase and Myrtha, though the moonlight is bright enough that they can see moderately well in the open. They head off of the road and up the side of the hill. The night is still and serene on this side of the lake, though occasionally they hear a snippet of a distant dog barking across the water. Aside from that, the only sound is the wind soughing through the trees that surround the temple.

Lyrel can see that the walls are 8 paces high - about as high above the hill as the hill itself is from the lakeside; Aanbo can assess that they are formed of enormous granite blocks. The wall is massive, which isn't as obvious from afar because the thick canopies of the trees conceal much of the bulk of the structure. The four adventurers stop for a moment in the darkness under a tree by the southwest corner of the Temple wall.

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Aanbo (19/27)
Chase (14/14)
Eugenios (8/8)
Ferranzo (8/8)
Lyrel (3/9)
Myrtha (17/18)

At the bridge

Arya and Morton hustle across the bridge, bent double to be harder to see. But one group of villagers is distracted by Theran behind them, and the attention of the group of villagers they are approaching is taken up by the dog barking at them by the house. As the villagers are confronted by the farmer who has woken up in the middle of the night and they begin to explain the situation, Morton leads Arya to the edge of the river embankment and the two proceed west between the farmer's fence and the river. The dog is still focused on the villagers with the lanterns and doesn't come investigate the noises the two heroes are making. Soon enough, Arya and Morton have passed the edge of that farm's property and continue at a more normal pace toward the Dim Forest along the river's edge. So far, there is no sign of Ember.

Ember in the Forest

For her part, Ember is on the other side of the river from Arya and Morton, a quarter of a mile away and getting farther as she makes her way back through the Dim Forest. Figuring the most of the attention is focused on the Realstream, she figures that circling north and coming around through the farms before coming back south to the hill with the Temple of Merikka is the safest route to avoid capture. She just hopes that there's nothing else in the woods that she'll meet along the way.