A Cat's Tale

[Dracos]

The woman nodded, as if she already knew and was merely going through the formality of asking.  "There has been a darkness to the west in my visions.  That must be it.  We do not have the resources to house so many for a long time though."

Dracos

[Olvelsper]

"Thank you. Is there anything we can do for you in exchange for your hospitality?"

[Dracos]

"Mmm," The crone pondered. "I see that you are a solver of troubles.  Perhaps there is something you could help us with.  Our neighbor village of Koren has been...suspicious of us of late.  They've not openly stated why but I do not like this.  If you could resolve that, it would be plenty."

Dracos

[Olvelsper]

"Right. If I can help this way, I will." Jan nodded in agreement with the elder. He turned towards the others. "You may want to stay behind and rest if you want."

[Shukuen]

Leets shrugged, his expressiong coming off as wry resignation. "Nah. We've gone this far already," he replied. "What's a little more then?"

"'sides, might as well find out what the area's like," he added with a nod to the local elders, "since it might be useful to know if we have to move on again."

[Iron Dragoon]

"Yeah, I ain't much fer sittin' on my rear, 'neither. I'll be goin' with ya, an' stretchin' my legs fer a bit."

[Olvelsper]

"Let's survey the river in question first. Maybe something's there that's causing the problem between them." Jan led the way, after getting the location of it from the cat people's leader.

[Dracos]

The party made it's way over the thin grass and through the village to the river where they could see another small village in the same style on the other side of the river.  A rickety wood bridge provided an easy way over the river, though it was not large or deep enough to provide a danger to swimmers either.

Across the river they could see several young men, similar in many ways to the villagers of Rascal, but taller and sturdier, their bodies strong as they swung and practiced with huge double sided clubs.

Dracos

[Olvelsper]

"Excuse me, gentlemen?" Jan cleared his throat to get their attention as he stood at ease before them. "My name is Jan Smith, and we've been asked by the leader of the neighboring village to help ease tensions between your group and theirs."

[Dracos]

The young men turned, checking out the odd visitors.

"Huh?  Who are you?"  One impudent redheaded punk questioned. "And what's with the strange outfits?"

A slightly older one eyed him but didn't correct. "Ease tensions?  Meh, stop stealing food and it'll all be fine.  You should talk to the chief instead though."

[Olvelsper]

"People from the southeast, and this is how we dress." The negotiator smoothly answered the punk. "Where would the elder be? It'll probably be for the best if I talked to them."

[Dracos]

"Yeah? What's with the small ears, huh?  Figures," The tough guy taunted.

"Hmph."  The other speaker didn't seem like he wanted to say that much. "In the back of the town.  It's the big house."  He turned back to working out on his wood post.

[Merc]

"Friendly lot, aren't they?" Felix whispers to Jan, not having much to say in Jan's field of expertise. Let him do any negotiating that needs to be done.

[Olvelsper]

"Thank you very much." The negotiator led the group away, not giving any clues to answer Felix or the others until they were in town proper. "Always keep a poker face. They probably heard you with that whisper, Felix."

[Merc]

"Whoops..." Felix mutters. "Sorry. I'll keep that in mind in the future."