You Are Here

Today I want to recap the situation of the adventure, and add in some of the background we glossed over.

You are, currently, on top of the hill above the mine, having just finished off the hill giant that was lurking up there. You have come back to the mine looking for Black Bart (or Black Bertrand - different people have used both names). He is a notorious highwayman who recently robbed the stage, and killed Trevor McGuffin, a wizard from a good family. His family rewarded you for returning a magical dagger (a family heirloom, worth more to them than its value), and offered a reward of 500 Pounds (GP) if you can get Black Bart. [No matter what I said up there, that's what they offered you.] They only offer this to you - they tell you this is between you and them, because you have proved your trustworthiness by returning the dagger. Meanwhile, there is a public reward of another 500 pounds for Black Bertrand (who is the same person the man who robbed the stage these weeks back), dead or alive. The law hints they'd rather have him alive; the family does not care - if he hangs or takes a sword, it's all the same to them. They also tell you that if you find anything else belonging to Trevor, you can keep it - they tried to stop him from going off to be a magician, but he didn't listen, and look what it got him.

Also, while you were in town, Sister Claire declared that since she had enough money, she was going home. Presumably you urged her to stay and get Black Bart, but she was insistent. However when she tried to find a boat to sail to Sidney, you found out that the last boat to leave harbor, the Beauclair, was taken by pirates. The crew and passengers slaughtered, according to the 2 survivors who came in, though it's not clear if they actually saw this. This is the closest the big pirate ships have come to the coast and all the other sailors are keeping to port until someone finds them. That is the responsibility of the king and his men, everyone says, but the king (or the regent) doesn't seem interested in the pirates. Much dissatisfaction in Whelker's Deep. This keeps Claire around, though she is dropping hints that she might head off cross country after all at some point.

You decided to look for Black Bart up at the mine, since that is where you found the dagger and so on. You hire 2 more men to come along, Angus and Bill - [if you have backstories for them, we should add them.]

You head out - on the way you meet 2 men who tell you Black Bart is definitely not in Clamdigger Cove - they have just been therem half thinking of the reward themselves... So you cut cros country, on a path Angus knew, to the mine.

And so - at the present moment - you are on top of the hill with a dead Hill Giant on your hands. Up here above the river, you are in moorland - hills, large, flattish ridges, all bare, covered ingrass, some shrubbery, a very few trees. This rises as you move inland from the sea - the hills in the distance get higher. There are small streams running here and there - and of course the larger river valley below you. Up here, you can see the undulations of the land. And you might also see something like smoke from half a mile or so away on the moor.