The Forest Trail Part 2

## Story

Talia gets up early to walk in nature. 5 to 10 minutes out from her door, she pulls out her pendant and speaks to it. "I don't know how to do this, I don't know if I'm doing it right but I don't have anything left of my people my culture so I hope this is something anything." Then she runs and shifts seemingly more in tune with nature as she runs to the wilds and then she returns. Seline and Talia eat breakfast then take a short rest. Seline takes the opportunity to put some of her knickknacks on the shelf she made. Among them are a drone tooth, a vial of ashes from the pyre that burned a witch, dirt from a graveyard where a saint was buried, a wishbone that is guaranteed to grant a wish, an envelope that has several grains of salt from the tears of angels, a miniature scarecrow and a coffin nail from a vampire. Talia and Seline find the trail that leads up to the final peak of the Black Teeth Mountains. It leads to small cave in the base of the mountain. There's blood everywhere. At a clearing, there's a large fire pit with benches and tents set up. Some of the benches are broken and scattered from the original positions. The tents are sagged in and weather- beaten. Some we're torn by scavenging animals, some have collapsed. Given the condition of the camp, Seline surmises it's been this way for a few weeks. In the cave, she discovers halfling body with part of his head blown off. He appears to have been there for a month and picked over by scavengers. Seline determines it was one of the bandits. In a pile of leaves next to the body is a chest. The chest is booby- trapped and Talia disables it as well as unlocks the chest. Inside is a pile of coins equivalent to a hundred gold pieces. Additionally, there are various pieces of jewelry, two well made hand mirrors (Seline keeps one). As Seline prepares to burn the body, a red handkerchief with three black stripes falls away from him. They tidy up the campsite, placing two good tents in the cave and burning the blood-soaked ones. They move on to the crossroads at Castle Ridge and arrive late in the evening. They enter the DMP office there. Talia inquires about the bounty on the bandits. The DMP member (Branson) behind the desk says that the bounty was never claimed but the bandits just stop being an issue about a month ago. When Talia shows him the handkerchief, he confirms it was what the bandits wore. They do get 75 gold pieces for the jewelry they recovered. When Talia mentions Victoria, the Branson says he just put up fresh posters for her and that posters like the one Talia has we're taking down a week ago when Victoria was reported returned. Only that now she's missing again. The Branson recommends they talk to Daniel Vance, Victoria's stepfather who had the posters put up. When they ask about other bounties, he starts to mention Crankshaft and then clams up, claiming it was nothing. Talia crosses her arms, glaring at him, willing him to tell the truth and she sees something dark flicker across his eyes for a second. Despite still looking sternly at Talia the tension leaves his shoulders. He then mentions alleged raids buy even more alleged orcs. He's convinced it's more likely more bandits and that the DMP has sent out someone to investigate. Branson was reluctant to share because to gun hands have been "stealing" jobs from hard-working DMP members they check the job board (missing people in Jaldin, a missing Victoria, no poster for Crankshaft yet, a dress up low-level bandit stuff). They put the horses in their estate and rent a room at the Trailwinder Inn.

## Location

* Harnvel Forest
* Castle Ridge at the Crossroads

## Characters

### Players

* Seline Argent
* Talia Grey

### NPCs

* Branson (DMP)