The First Clue

Two days laters, somewhere in the hillside northwest of Whitefall...

Heinkel slumped against a tree, gasping for air from the exertion of battle. Around him lay several fallen trees, smashed and broken. Not twenty feet away from lay the corpse of an ogre. In the time of waiting for his ally to gather information, Heinkel and company has decided to take on some small jobs. Not this one in particular, a small investigation turned into a full blown ogre hunt. Likewise not far from Heinkel, Arianne was also catching her breath, her armor covered in leaves and mud. While fairing better, Kate's normally elegant hair is disheveled, her dress torn in several place. She quite casted reposing spell, preventing the corpse of the ogre from being raise as an undead.

"We are going to renegotiate for a better reward," Heinkel finally speak up. Righting himself as he inspected his fallen foe. Such a monster doesn't venture so close to a human settlement, and when they do, it's because they are part of a goblin or orcish ****. Regardless the mystery will have to be solve another time. As the party pondered how to best deal with the deal body. Riders from the city approached them, several knights and a detachment of guards. Lina in front leading them.

"Ehhhh you defeated it already," Lina pouted after pulling Heinkel aside and letting her men deal with the corpse.

"Couldn't help it," Heinkel replied, patting Lina's head, "any clues?"

"In fact yes!" Lina replied instantly, "I'll tell you at Wooden Horn this evening!"

True to her words, Lina knocked on the door of the party's room just after sunset. She quickly pulled down her hood and slip into the room.

After a brief introduction, Lina immediately went into details, "so apparently the Ring of Ellezar was last said to be in the possession of an adventurer, said adventurer was last seen escorting a trade caravan toward the city of Gullnest. 50 miles south of here, the problems is the entire caravan disappeared, they never made it to Gullnest, no one seen or heard anything from them since...and that was nearly 100 years ago."

"What are some location of interest along the road south?" Arianne asked, rolling open a map and studying the possible roads.

"Well, Mount Greycloud, hmm...could it be something on the mountain that got them?" Lina replied, tapping her chin as she paced the room.

"Perhaps not on the mountain but under it, the dwarven city of the Greybeard is build into and under that mountain," Heinkel finally spoke, "taking the road through there would save times and hide the caravan from unwanted eyes, but that path has its own dangers."

"We should start looking there then," Lina is visibly excited now. The thought of searching for a lost relic in a now ruined dwarven city!

"To mount Greycloud it is then," Arainne looked up from her map, her finger tapping the drawing of the mountain on it.