The Paladin

You lead your gray stallion into the small walled city of West Keep. It has been 5 years since you'd last left the cloistered community of the Golden Tower and now as a full-fledged Paladin of the order you will likely never return. Only 19 summers old and arrayed in the splendid mithral armor of your order you are a sight to be seen. Peasants stare at you with a level of wonder and amazement.

You have been sent with orders to travel from West Keep, over the Pillean Ocean and two the land of Pillea itself. There you have been ordered to protect the virgin princess of Pillea until the day of her marriage to the king of Ollandium.

Before that, your stomach rumbles and you realize you are famished. There is a tavern near the docks which seems a good place to broker your journey and find some food. You lead you stallion, Gaspar, to the hitching post and head inside.

The tavern is warm and noisy with the smells of beer and women that are most foreign to you. As you approach the bar a small halfling woman catches your eye. She is clad in soft leather armor and is talking to a man at one of the tables. Your loins remember the last and only time you've known the touch of a woman and yearn for that again, but you are on business and stay focused.

You place three coppers on the bar and ask for some food, some ale and if the keep knows of a captain making for Pillea.

The barkeep takes the money and motions to the man who had been talking with the halfling woman. "His name is Wrenn, ee's likely eaded there." When you look, you notice that the girl is gone.