Jorn

"So much for your fortune, Jameson. The only one getting wealthy here are these scam artists." Jorn was busy giving his companion Jameson, a paladin of the minor fortune goddess Ana'maria, grief. After receiving word of a new dungeon sighting from the Ranger's Guild just under a month back, Jorn and his party had been released to go verify the report and check on the dungeon's level.

They'd spent three weeks trekking to the closest settlement listed on the map to the dungeon sighting, a nasty port town called Ostlind. Upon arriving there, the party took a week off to relax from the trip since they'd arrived ahead of schedule anyways. This week wasn't just spent boozing and whoring however unfortunate that was but was also used to try and collect local knowledge of the dungeon.

Often when a dungeon was reported the residents would have already started venturing inside to try and make quick wealth, regardless of the risk. Officially the adventurer’s guilds looked down on this behavior, but unofficially it was a great way for them to get preliminary information about traps and beasts.

Between Jorn, Jameson, and the group's bard Pak, they'd been trying to collect news of the dungeon. Strangely enough however, it seemed that nobody knew of any dungeon. 'The only thing south grass and water'. That was the consensus. On top of this they were having no luck locating the ranger elf they were told to expect in town.

They spent 5 days like that, looking for the ranger or listening for news of a magical forest and dungeon, to no avail. Before leaving town Jorn spoke to a couple of the importers about purchasing lumber and other building supplies before leaving town to get an idea of how much it would cost to build closer to the dungeon.

"A fucking outrageous amount that’s how much! It'd almost be cheaper to cart the supplies here from the northern forests!"

Still grumbling and ranting about what he called the scam of the century, the dwarf gathered his companions and left the town. They met up with their Druid and Beastmaster outside of the townlimits where they had chosen to camp and set off for the forest. The motley party set off for the area that Gladil had marked upon their maps for them, setting off on a brisk pace thanks to the wind magic buffs. Truly the group was a confusing sight to behold, for where else would you see a dwarf, a halfling, a satyr, and two humans traveling together?

The party leader, a dwarven aeromancer named Jorn, reapplied their haste spell during the second day after departing Ostlind. Randar, the second human of the group and a Beastmaster, sent his animal companion to scout ahead. Jorn watched the Emberhawk as he flew off into the distance, quickly becoming nothing but a spec on the horizon. After another morning of travel the forest slowly came into sight.

"What in the hell is that?" Liam, their halfling druid, asked the group. Just before the forest Jorn could see an outline of a few buildings and even a road winding down to the river. "I thought you all said that nobody in Ostlind knew about the forest?"

"They didn't, I would have gotten them to talk if they did. Nobody would have been able to resist my charms, I'm the GOAT."

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"Stop saying that Pak, it's not going to catch on. It's a stupid acronym and doesn't even make sense."

"All right calm down both of you, there is no reason to kill each other before we even get there. This is lucky for us, it means we don't have to walk all the way from the Ostlind every time." Jameson quickly interjected, trying to prevent a brawl from breaking out between the halfling and the satyr.

"Bahh, if you say so." said the goat-beastman with a smirk. Jorn rolled his eyes, Pak always had to have the last word in argument. "With our luck it's just a rival clan that beat us here."

As luck would have it, it was not in fact another clan from the adventuring guild but a collection of various races trying to found their own town. Jorn guessed that Ana’maria actually did smile upon them because it did not get much luckier than that. The town was not much to look at right now, just a large inn and a few other buildings that he could not glean the use of yet. The group followed the Lupane that had hailed them as they approached the town as he led them straight to the inn to speak to the town's leader. 'Please, for the love of all things drunk and earthen do not let it be another greedy human'.

Rather than another thug, like the mayor and salesmen of Ostlind, the head of this small community was the most beautiful woman that Jorn had ever seen. She stood a little taller than Jorn, somewhere around 145 cm, with blue hair the color of the skies, deep green colored eyes, and the cutest little button nose he'd ever seen. He stood there awkwardly staring at this young woman sitting at one of the tavern tables for a bit longer that socially acceptable. After being elbowed by a lightly coughing paladin, Jorn did his best to recover.

"Greetings! I am Jorn, a representative of the Adventurer's Guild and part of the Greensong clan. We are here to evaluate the dungeon located in the center of the forest and determine its value." The blue-haired woman squinted at Jorn's extended hand before grabbing it and giving it a shake.

"Melody Rainwater, mayor of Annahmia our growing town." Jorn heard a swift intake of breath from his paladin at this. "Let us know if there is anything we can do to help, and we would appreciate if you shared your evaluation of the dungeon with us. We are only 13 strong now, but we are hoping to grow our little hamlet into a hub of acceptance."

"An honorable goal. We will keep you updated for sure. I hope you would be willing to consider selling us a parcel of land for the Adventurers guild to set up an outpost if the dungeon is deemed worthy, and perhaps a second for a clan house."

Jorn did not miss the light smile Melody tried to conceal, he'd practiced looking for nuances like that for a long time. His experience negotiating was part of the reason the guild saw fit to send his team out to check, rather than a team from one of the larger clans.

"I am sure we can work something out. Would you and your party like to rent a room for the night? Obviously, there isn’t much business yet, so we will even throw in dinner."

"Absolutely, I think we can all agree on resting for the night." Jorn looked around and got an affirmative nod from the party, "But only on the condition that you join me for dinner."

The beautiful woman slowly opened and closed her mouth a few times as her face turned a shade of red that complimented her hair very well.

"Relax, I just wanted to ask you a few questions about the forest and dungeon. The idiots up north were useless when it came to knowledge."

"Right! Um, yeah of course. That makes a lot of sense." That last sentence was mostly mumbled, but Jorn managed to hear it. "I'm going to invite Jeremy as well. He is the only one here who has actually been in the dungeon itself."

"Now that's a shame, and here I was hoping for a pleasant date." The red quickly crept back into Melody's cheeks. "Alright then, would you mind having someone show us to our rooms then?"

Melody called another Lupane, a woman named Kala, from the kitchen and they worked out lodging for the night. As the group separated to their rooms for the night Jorn asked Jameson to thank his goddess for the group. His luck was looking up, and this just might be what he needed for their clan to finally rise in status.