The Quest Begins To Find Helm’s Eyes

After you accept, the curator gives a small nod of her head, leading you out of the hall of antiquity and towards the portal you had come from at the start of your academic journey, the area feeling so much quieter compared to when you had arrived, no bustle of students arriving at the academy, the tentacle creature is absent now, all that’s left is you and the curator.

Approaching the teleportation gate, the curator begins to chant something in a tongue you don’t understand as a clawed hand reaches into her robes and pulls out a crystal, raising it high as though showing the gate what she holds.

The gate which had before been empty and vacant begins to come to life, runes along the gates edge begin to glow as a disk of light begins to expand from the center of the gate, growing larger and larger until it fills out all available state.

The lights dance and shift, slowly coming together to create shapes blurred and disorderly but slowly becoming more defined until you can make out tables, chairs, the dark oak of the floor and the cream colored walls.

“The ritual issss complete…” she says, shepherding you through the gate, the ritual seems to have worked, you now stand in a mages guild, while no one is present currently you can make out activity outside the many windows of the guild hall.

“One last thing sssstudent…” the voice calls from the still active portal, turning around you see one of her scaled hands reaching through the arcane gate and holding out a bound up scroll, held in place by a dark blue twine.

“…When you collect the artifact, return here and follow the directionssss on the scroll TO THE LETTER, it will allow you to return to the academy oncccccce more”

You take the scroll into your hand, staring back at the curator as she pulls her arm back into her side of the portal, when you blink, the portal is closed, you are alone, but you have your orders.

You turn on your heels, tucking the scroll into your pack before heading towards the door to the guild, this town must not have many mages, as you pass only one person on your way out, a gnomish woman who doesn’t raise her head from the book she studies as you pass her.

The guild is… barren to say the least, sure you weren’t expecting a podunk town like this to have a mages guild to match the greatest in the world but this place is abysmal, the furniture might have been nice once but age has taken its toll, just about every table here slants to one corner due to the legs being uneven, a thick layer of dust coats the bookshelves that rise higher then 5ft, clearly a product of the only caretaker being a gnome who only has access to rickety chairs.

Pushing open the door to the guild your almost blinded by the light of the sun, you hadn’t ever realized how used to Wintermoors eternal darkness you were as you are stunned, having to turn your eyes downwards to adjust, slowly blinking away the discomfort.

The town of Farowind isn’t much to look at, old mossy cobbles make up the streets, the buildings seem uniform in their make, all of which resembling cabins in some shape or another, the people aren’t exactly a vibrant bunch either, you see humans, dwarves, humans, half-elves and more humans, far from the eclectic group that haunts the academy grounds.

You try to recall which way the route to Minerva’s Falls was from the map you had seen but the details escape you, and even if you had them, you’d need to reorient yourself before charging off into the woods to be chewed up by a pack of gnolls or some such monster.

You glance about, spotting a shop down the road, it’s sign not having a name but rather a picture of a gold coin, denoting it as either a general store or a bank, though given the rural character of the town, you somehow doubt this place even HAS a bank.

Moreover, it appears to be just about the only established shop in town, everything else being farmers who have come to sell their produce and a seedy looking traveling merchant, flanked by rough looking women who judging by the way they carry themselves are either morally dubious mercenaries or literal bandits and so you pass by them to investigate the general store/bank.

You’re suspicion about the nature of the humble shop are proven right as you push open the door, immediately confronted by the quaint shop, shelves lined with practical but boring items, compasses, travel rations, mining equipment and sure enough, a map in the far back of the store, just behind the counter where sits a tired looking old man.

Arrayed along the otherwise unadorned walls are paintings of seemingly the long line of people who have owned this shop over the years, while all of them bare resemblance to the current owner, it’s clear they are unique people.

The current owner in question is built like a lumberjack, a thick forest of grey hair obscures the man’s features as his eyes lazily glance across the book laid out before him, he barely acknowledges your existence until you reach the counter.

“Welcome to Farowind goods, there something I can get for ya…?” He says, her words slow and lacking of any kind of energy, the fact he doesn’t raise his eyes from his book not doing much to detract from his tired almost bored baring.

“Uh… yes I’d like to buy a map of the region..? I’m heading for Minerva’s Falls and need directions”

“You mean Minerva’s Folly….? Nobody goes there… folks say it’s cursed or some such…” he says, deigning to actually look at you as he speaks now, his expression remaining inattentive and almost hollow.

“Well… I do… so how much for a map…?” You ask, growing slightly impatient at this point, when you had taken the quest you had expected to be venturing into the wilds, searching through ancient ruins, fighting foul monsters and demons not… whatever this is.

“Hmm… business has been slow… how about 30 gold…” he says, sounding as though he’s about to pass out from the boredom of speaking with you.

30 gold is absurd to say the least, hell you got into all this because you needed to make money not spend it, and certainly not to spend it on something you could get for free, surely someone ANYONE in this town should be willing to take 5 minutes out of their day to give you directions to the ruins, no matter how vague they are.

You think back to the other people you had passed by, that fellow mage might be willing to help a student of Wintermoor.

You could try the farmers? They can’t have come from too far away and they’d likely have needed a map to get to Farowind in the first place, right?

There’s the merchant, as a fellow traveler she would HAVE to have a map in order to even get here! Though her guards do seem a little… intimidating…

Then again… maybe you know a spell that could come in handy here…?