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The Iron Glade Man is not surprised to hear such a remark from Elithil, all elves being pretty much the same in his eyes, thinking themselves better than the other races. He does not have time to react to this, however, as his wound from earlier is finally catching up to him. He lost a lot of blood as he helped push the prisoners out of the forest fire, and cannot help but slump to the ground as he holds his wound in pain, having finally come to a stop.

"The fire is a bad omen, much like my nightmares." The man says between hisses and gasps of pain. "I fear for Iron Glade more so now and I'd hate to wait around if more evils are taking place."

Mehath

"Can anyone do something for him? Then we can head for Iron Glade."

Eric casts a CLW before saying "Point the way, let's go"

[1d8] = 8 CLW

The Iron Glade Man is grateful for the assistance, even if it was magical by nature, and is able to stand himself back up. The path through the forest, he explains, was the quickest way to Iron Glade. If the group wants to avoid the forest, they could always skirt around it from the south. A bit longer a path, but it beats going north since he is not dressed for warmth.

He points the way, and if the group has no complaints, resumes their march to Iron Glade with prisoner's still in tow. The majority of the day goes by uneventfully. Every now and then you see some local wildlife pass by, but nothing humanoid is spotted for the longest time. The roads you are traveling seem to be quite empty. Strange, considering that Iron Glade is supposed to be an important trading post for New Dathan.

The sun starts to set. The forest is far behind you, its smoking remnants now pillaring into the now orange-yellow sky. Following the road, you finally reach your end destination, a large open-pit mine spreading before you, Iron Glade. Nestled within this open-pit is a small mining town built around its western perimeter, the buildings standing on top of the hills peering down into the deep bowl of exposed earth. The walkways down are steep but just wide enough to allow carts to be moved by hand. It looks like a long way down if one were to fall. A large pulley elevator can be seen some distance to the south of the mining site, most likely used to carry large loads of something that would not fit on the walkways.

The Iron Glade man is happy to be back to his home but is alarmed by the sight he sees. "Where is everyone?"

The mining town is silent and looks quite abandoned, not a single person can be seen. Normally the sounds of picks would be heard striking against stone and metal, but even that cannot be heard echoing from afar.

-----

I will have your experience from the last couple of fights tallied up by tomorrow.

"Perhaps the townsfolk are gathered for a meet?" Flynn asks.

"Perhaps. They've been dealing with strange troubles as of late. Maybe there was an accident..." The Iron Glade Man starts his descent down to the town. His pace is fast, or as fast as he can be after a day's journey of continuous walking.

Mehath

Mehath will keep on high alert, something is strange here and he doesn't like it.

Elethil is silent, and his face stoic. But a careful observer might detect a hint of disapproval with people that would put a gaping wound on the face of the world. Though uncharitable, the elf finds himself wondering whether what befell this town was fate.

Eric follows the Iron Glade Man down, the worry building in his brain.

The group descends down the large hill and reaches the edge of the mining town. Upon closer inspection of the place, your ears pick up on what your eyes saw from afar. Nothing. The silence is made distinctly clear by the sounds of your own boots kicking up dust into the air, the occasional wrenching sound of a sign flapping in the wind, and the creaking grind of the wooden wagon wheels, ready to collapse at a moment's notice.

The Iron Glade Man shouts out into this silence, hoping that someone would return his call, but he is met with nothing. "When I left this place, there were people here. I'm sure of it!" He explains to the group. "They were working the pits, running the fires and..." The man slowly drifts off as he shakes his head in disbelief, looking through the occasional window in the hopes of finding someone.

The day's light starts to slowly sap from the sky as night quickly approaches. The air grows cold and the day's travel finally brings with it the delayed fatigue everyone pushed off. Fortunately for you all, a Red Rock Inn is nearby. Rooms are available, but you do not know how much they are. No one is inside, but the doors are all found open, easily accessed.

Elethil inspects the scene as best he can, looking for any sign of what happened to the people who were here.

"There are no bodies," he says. "Which means the people who lived here left, or were taken somewhere."

Mehath

Mehath will look around for any evidence of a struggle or anything unusual. "Creepy for sure."

"Well, it's too late to do much tonight, might as well see if we can't scrounge a meal and get some rest." Eric offers.

"You all do that," says the Iron Glade Man. Though weary from the day's travel and mentally drained from battle and nightmares, he still looks to have enough energy to take one last look around the immediate area.

"The meeting house isn't far from here. Haeger might know what's going on. He's practically shackled to his desk that one." The man departs quickly and heads into the town, muttering something about being back shortly.

Looking through the inn's pantry, you find plenty of foodstuffs and drink to create a decent meal. In fact, the place is almost stocked full, looking to be enough to feed a whole town for many days. As for the investigation of any signs of struggle, you don't find anything of the sort. No drag marks, or signs of battle. Nothing on the ground that would suggest that there was a mass rush of people running from something. You do, however, see signs of recent activity in the inn. The chairs are on the ground and a few mugs are on the tables. Nothing has been put away.

Mehath

"Search the rooms?"

Elethil follows the Iron Glade Man. If anyone is still about, Elethil wants to talk to him.

Elithil's silent trip with the Iron Glade man takes him to what looks like the center of the town. A large building stands, about as big as the Red Rock Inn, but more in width than height. It is explained that this building serves as the community center of the mining town. This is where Haeger, the town representative, takes up residence. His duties as town mayor and official foreman of the open-pit mine keep him preoccupied throughout the day, binding him to either a desk full of paperwork or out in the field giving orders and supervising the work done.

Elithil knows that a member of the Brotherhood has stationed here as well, thanks to the information provided by his contact in New Dathan, but as to what he was doing here remained to be specified. If the Brotherhood of Prometheus were to set up anywhere in this town, it would be at the community center, where they can reach out to everyone in the area.

As Elithil and the Iron Glade man search the building, no one can be found here either. The offices are empty, the cells down below, where most law-breakers are kept, are vacant as well. Not to be deterred, the Iron Glade man gives the place another once-over, this time looking for signs of disturbance or struggle. It is there, at the offices that you find something. Two desks look to be disturbed, its contents were thrown all over the place in a disorderly fashion. Someone was looking for something. The two desks belong to Haeger and Brother Bolden, this the Iron Glade man can confirm.

"Why would the entire town be abandoned?" asks flynn washing down some bread with water.
"Maybe they retreated to a safe place from some danger we don't yet see?" he asks his companions who stayed behind.

Mehath

"No idea, it doesn't look like they took much if they did retreat somewhere."

Elethil looks more closely at the desks that have been rifled though. As he does, he thinks what they really need is a ranger. There must be tracks, right? This many people can't leave without leaving some kind of trail.