The Advetures Of The Traveling Circus

The Quest Begins

Waiting for the noise to settle down the head priest stood up and addressed the four adventurers who sat around the low table in the room they were in. Being in a temple the room wasn't lavishly decorated. There was a low wooden table with and a threadbare rug on the floor. The floor it's self was made of crude stone slabs which were slightly uneven. Around the room on the walls there was tapestries showing scenes from the past with window between them allow light to seep into the room. The adventurers sat around the table on small stools while the head priest adorned in flowing white robes stood opposite them. He was not an elderly man however he his hair was still alarmingly white in colour. He had a thick beard and a warm smile full of compassion suiting himself to his role. Across the room a couple more members of the temple stood watching, leaning against the wall. The priest smiled "I'm so glad that you could answer our call for help, I should start by explaining why we put out a call for adventurers and fighters,". His face turned slightly grim, "A few months ago we heard news of increased activity involving demons and we believe that in relation to this a cult has risen in a village nearby and plans to summon demons and take control of them for their own evil bidding." The group of people nodded to show they were listening and understood, one of them spoke up, "My name is Occult, Stello Occult, what do you propose we do about this cult then?".

"You need to investigate them, confirm their existence and then once you have discovered their plans, do what you can to stop them. Trust me demons are a serious matter, they are dark evil creatures, one did this to me". Hitching up the sleeve of his robe he revealed burnt damaged flesh which ran from just above his wrist right up to his elbow.

Stello spoke up again "Understood, we'll fine this cult, and stop their plans with extreme prejudice. There will be some reward I assume?"

"Ah yes of course, you will each be given a 500 gold piece on completion of the task and we have a small collection of magical items which we have no need for, you can each take one of those now," The priest took an oilcloth out from below the table which was bundled together loosely with a piece of twine. "I'll be honest we're not actually sure what magic properties these have, we haven't been able to find out, but we know they're magic,". He pulled the twine and let the oilcloth fall apart revealing what had been hidden inside. There was a longsword, dull and faded from years of age with an intricate scene of battle engraved on the hilt, a sliver amulet in the shape of a heart with a red ruby in the center which seemed to glow with life, a shining set of scale mail, a javelin which was blue and gold with a jagged head on each side that looked almost like lighting and a short wooden wand banded with iron brackets on either side. "You can squabble between yourselves later who gets what, but for now let's get down to business, I'll fill you in with the details,".

The next morning they were ready to set off to the village in the south to complete their quest. The group was made up of the four adventures and the two acolytes from the temple. No two members of the group were the same. The adventurers were a dragonborn druid, a Tiefling warlock, a halfing cleric and a wood elf ranger while the acolytes were a gnome cleric and he was accompanied by a half-orc paladin. They had been assigned to help with the quest as it would be very unbecoming for the temple to ask strangers to risk their lives if the temple wasn't willing to risk the lives of their own. There was also another reason, the adventurers already had partial payment and so they needed to make sure that the work actually got done and they didn't get swindled. They all set off for the village at first break of dawn, it was going to be a long trek, with a ten day travel time the village, a whole week of walking! Although they would be on the road for ten days they only had provisions for five days, there would be a couple of other town and villages along the way so they could afford to travel a little lighter and they needed to really as they carried armour and weapons with them. They each carried their rations and sleeping bags in the packs they carried on their backs which had anything they needed. There might be places to stay on the way but most nights would have to be spent camping out. They of course also had their new magical items yet and had each spent the night becoming attuned with them which they had divided up the day before.