K24: Post-Ogre Tower Briefing

Resolution of the Ogre Tower Incident: Sir Hagar McDowtan, castellan of Castle MacHeeran, has tasked you all with taking the rescued merchant and his goods across the border into Nyremi, where the goods will be given over to Lord Mikaol Rennekoi, a Nyremian lord who is also an Aurinian (uh-oh, they were the enemies in the previous war!).

 
The deed is done by keeping your mouths shut while the merchant, Mr. Iollan McFrundal, handles the arrangements. After that, you all high-tailed it back to Glenn Stardecampaygne. Upon presenting the now somewhat reeking head of Grommgusk the Ogre to the castellan, you are provided the following goodies before being sent on your way.

• Letter from Sir Hagar, announcing to all that you rendered good service to Clan MacHeeran. This will likely get you good pay and better than normal treatment if you can find the MacHeeran forces in the Western army and hire on with them. It gives you a leg up on all the other scruffy hireswords on the road.
• Letter from Mr. McFrundal the Merchant, explaining how you saved him and his daughter from death and worse at the hands of terrible brigands. You have instructions to give it to any Merchant's Guild guildmasters in Dinas Halak, should you require their assistance in some way. It should open some doors for you; merchants always hire caravan guards. 
• $500 in silver coins, which is good money for a small group of unknowns to do a few days' work.
• Four riding horses, and a week's provisions for each of you.
• Two bottles of Halleck Uiskei, worth $100 each; make a Vigor roll at -2, this shit is strong.
• Help yourself to the armory; swords, crossbows, full suits of mail, spears, bows, and all the ammunition you can carry away.

And so you take to the Siabben Road, a major east-west route across northern Halleck that goes from Halleck's capital to Nyremi's capital; in the mountains, it turns into the worn-out shit road you guys were on before. Going down into open country, it improves rapidly. It should take about a month on the road to reach the capital. Since the road was once an Old Kehler Imperial Road (like a Roman road), it is in good shape, well-traveled, and pretty nice. Lots of villages, inns, ways stations and so on.

Rumor #1: War! - There is a war brewing between the lords of County Sianar in the west and those of County Drathaid in the east, and a battle at Humdon Bridge (a few days east of where you are) is expected; it is the usual place for such wars. The PC’s can get hired just by waiting at the bridge for the fight to start. These wars usually involved a couple thousand people max, but this one seems to be a bit bigger for some reason, all the fashionable mercs will be there. The road will be abuzz with marching troops, cavalry racing to and fro, and signs of skirmishes and raids.

Rumor #2: Monsters! - After a few days worth of stopping in taverns and inns on the road, all the travelers from further east bring stories about running into boojums and monsters one rarely hears about in civilized areas. Packs of wolves, goblins in numbers, an empty village, even a giant in one story. The running theory is that something happened up in the mountains (which you can see in the north any time you go outside... they are perhaps a day or two walk in the distance) that drove these creatures out into the plains to the south. But what would do such a thing? Money might be made to hunt down and destroy such menaces. Few villages are equipped to handle such threats.