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Castellan

He simply closes the door leaving everyone outside.

Jaliera

Commenting to the small group at the front, Whisper is now aloft and watching the others at the back.

"Seems the others are on their way back. I'll be glad to get away from here, gives me the creeps."

Zhu

She shakes her head. "In my opinion, we should figure out what is going on here."

She leaves it at that for now. She knows the others have a mission, and she's joined them on it, but she has spent many years as a member of the Silverymoon Spellguard and has been tasked with maintaining the safety of the areas around that city. While this village is a bit further out, her instincts still tell her something here needs fixing.

Aubric

"I'll support whatever everyone wants to do," the cleric notes. "Given that we've learned the giant threat is much more than what anyone's seeing locally, I think there's value to finding out more of what's going on."

He shrugs, adding, "Although we've been asking a lot of questions already and not getting very many answers. I'm not fond of spending a lot more gold to find out nothing."

Sindar

"I was all for fixing whatever is going on, but that seemed to not be of interest, unless things have changed."

Arus

He thanks the party for accompanying him thus far. Zhu and Sindar's comments do match the glint in his eye though.

"We're making good time," he says "and my duty to the Lionshield Coster is fullfilled."

Giving him a little spare time for sport, he thinks.

"So, Noanar's Hold. Curious place. We've learnt an awful lot about it whilst revealing very little about ourselves.

"It's fair to say we've convinced the locals we're rough, ignorant mercenaries; here to deliver a consignment and eager to be off."

The locals don't know of the party's interest in giants but Arus is certainly interested in the outcome of the day's hunt.

If this contest has been called by the undead lords, they must've chosen the quarry. Giant heads. Why? Do they want to provoke an attack on their already dilapidated keep? Are the giants currently weakened? How intimate are these lords with the recent giantish troubles?

The paladin shares these questions with his companions, then asks, "And, are there even giants in the High Forest? I didn't think giants were at home in the woods. Keep bumping into trees."

This he angles mostly at Zindra---she is their guide---but Bern and Davroar are also knowledgeable about the wilds.

Aubric

"Don't forget that the giant who attacked us was.... " The cleric pauses to try to find the right word, giving up and just concluding. "Unusual. Like, undead maybe."

As a life domain cleric he trusts his assessment.

"I'll be honest that I'm a bit interested in how that might have happened... and whether this hunt is perhaps causing it. Or eliminating it." He shrugs. "But again, it's been difficult, and expensive, to get any information from those we've interacted with. So unless we have a solid plan on exactly how to gather more insight, perhaps moving on is in our best interests."

Pavel

He'd been listening but had let his mind wander a bit at their conversation. This whole talk of hunts and giants sparking a crazy thought. Mostly unspoken in the little nugget he called his mind but unfortunately not completely unspoken.

"First we'd need a dwarf."

<Bern>

He listened to all the comments, but nothing really stood out as 'helpful' in deciding what was next. He continued to listen and consider possibilities ...

Zhu

She turns towards Pavel with a raised eyebrow. "Really? I am curious, please continue."

Pavel

Pavel blinks as he realizes that some of the others are looking at him and in realization that he spoke some of his thoughts aloud.

"Oh nothing really. I was just thinking if we joined the hunt we could set up a lure to attract more giants. A really loud obnoxious dwarf should do the trick. The more foul-mouthed the better."

Zhu

"Well, assuming no subterfuge, the goal of the hunt is not terribly antithetical to our own. I don't agree with hunting Giants that are living in their historical lands and not bothering anyone, but rampaging ones are a different story."

Davroar

He patiently waited with the horses sitting on an old pile of weed covered rocks at the edge of the path that led them here, all the while quietly gathering his courage and thinking on how he can confirm just exactly what sort of undead lords live here. Davroar stands up, absently brushing off bits of weeds from this hide armour, when the rest of the group returns from delivering Arus’s goods.

After listening to Pavels strange idea of using a dwarf as a lure, his young voice sounds a little nervous when he pipes up to say, “Joining the hunt or not, we, we shouldn’t leave here with undead around. We need to get rid of them.”

As a druid the thought of leaving this area behind with undead as lords over this holding is very hard for him to ignore. Just how difficult and long it will take to deal with the undead does nag at him though, knowing that Bern’s doppleganger might be causing more mischief if it gets to Shadowtop Cathedral before them.

Zhu

She muses what she knows of undead. "Well, assuming they are undead, they would typically be active after dark. That means they should be in their tower, resting or hiding during the day and possibly out and about during the night. Gives us two choices. Again assuming we want to address it, and assuming we want to address it directly. We could wait for night and then try to enter the tower to search around while they are likely absent, OR go in during daytime when they should be there to be found."

She strokes her chin in thought. "I am a member of the area constabulary, but the rest of you are not. We might need a reason for entering uninvited or be accused as lawbreakers."

Jaliera

"Or we could leave, do our missions and if there is enough interest, come back at a later date?"

She offers an alternative that aligns more with her own prference.

<Bern>

"I'm good either way", he offered.

Zindra
She has stayed quiet while the discussion was taking place but felt it was time to add her thoughts.

"Good discussion. I'm not sure we should be having it within earshot of that door but there's merit to the debate. Do you see that forest there," she says pointing into the woods that are essentially the back yard of the keep. "That's the edge of the High Forest. Davroar, Jaliera, Bern, Pavel and I are heading there. Aside from Pavel, Jaliera's friend, the four of us are sworn to protect it and the denizens inside. If undead are here, they are a direct threat to the forest. The fact that we encountered what we believe is an undead hill giant nearby makes me shudder. First, hill giants are not really native to this area. Why are they here in the first place? Second, if something is turning them into zombies, that makes them more dangerous."

She sighs, "On the other hand, we do have missions. We've discussed them at length. We are chasing two individuals. One is the doppelganger. Rumor has it that it's gone into the woods impersonating Bern. So far as I know, it only has impersonated Bern but it's a danger. If it encountered any of the rest of this group, it could impersonate them. So we must stop it and warn the denizens of the forest about the giants. The other is the dwarf known as Worvil Forkbeard. We've learned that he was working with the doppelganger but they are clever. They must know we're after them and split up. It's heading in another direction completely. And the longer we wait, the more trouble they can cause."

"So it's up to us to decide, maybe not right here, what we're going to do next."

Aubric

The cleric tries, and fails, to stop from rolling his eyes, a hand reaching up to run his fingers through his hair in an attempt to pause before speaking out too quickly in his frustration.

He speaks in a low voice, considering their location. "Look. We fought one unusual giant, probably undead, and have spent considerable gold and time here trying to learn more. What have we learned? That there's a hunt for giant heads, that the local lords might be undead, and that nobody will give us a straight answer about anything."

He pauses, glancing around the party as if to challenge anyone to correct him on the facts he's stated.

He gestures toward the forest. "Yes, undead giants would be a terrible threat to the forest. But we have no idea of their numbers, their source, or even confirmation they exist beyond our one encounter or this hunt nobody is telling us about. We've spent a small fortune on lodging, and what's our plan to learn more? More expensive nights at the inn while cryptic innkeepers, angry taverngoers, and mysterious castellans dodge our questions?"

He shakes his head.

"If someone has a specific plan... a way to gather real information or confront this threat directly... I'm willing to listen. But aimlessly lingering here while our other quarry gets further away..." He shakes his head. "That serves no one, least of all the forest we're trying to protect. So I ask plainly: does anyone have a specific plan for investigating these giants? Because if not, we have clear missions with clear destinations, and every hour we spend here is an hour our targets use to cause more harm elsewhere."

Kriv

The Dragonborn noble listened, considered, and spake. "Aubric is right, as is Jaliera. We had one task here and have fulfilled it, a delivery made cleanly. We have other urgent matters directly relevant to our respective causes. No-one is paying us or obliging us to investigate this place. Obtaining the heads of giants is potentially profitable but it seems there's a plethora of those seeking to claim them in these parts. We did what we came here to do, at considerable expense, and we are not free of our other obligations, tasks and goals, to which matters here appear tangential at best."

Jaliera

"And I learned that the doppleganger has recently taken my form also. The sooner we put a stop to this the better. Having any amount of trouble initiated in any of our likenesses complicates everything we do."

Zhu

"I offered a plan", she reminds Aubric, "though it involves breaking and entering, so not my preference, but it might be the only choice considering none of our attempts to gather information from the locals has been helpful. As for the costly inn, beyond the fact that the expense is pretty meaningless for most here, no one is forcing us to stay there. There is a giant forest right there", she points, "and I for one am used to sleeping outdoors."

She will do what the majority agree to, but leaving undead in charge of a village is against her principles.

"We could also just ask that Dwarf for an audience with the Lords. I am entitled to an audience in my role as a member of the Silverymoon Spell Guard."

Sindar

He had no opinion, beyond what he had stated. He wasn't keen on just breaking in, but it wouldn't be the first time he had done such a thing. Right or wrong, the others get to make that choice. For now he keeps his own confidence.

Zindra

"Really," she asks, bemused by Jaliera's revelation. "At least someone's gathered some information."

She sighs, "I guess we better vote. Investigate here or move on."

Pavel

Pavel listened to the exchange with little to say. He saw the benefits in both but in the end pushing on was the route that completed his mission sooner.