It had been a long, cold winter and the spring thaw was a very welcome sight. The winter of 2511-2512 IC had been harsh. It was with great relief that the temperatures started to rise and travel was resuming across the Empire. All around you there was signs of stirring trade within the town of Delberz.
You had found yourself in this town and looking for a reason to leave it. While it wasn’t the worst town in the Empire it sure wasn’t the best either. When the courier put the notice on the missive board you read it, or had it read to you, eagerly.
It was a chance to leave this town and seek a bit of gold to further your own ends. Now you just needed to get to Altdorf to enlist in the Prince’s mercenary force. Asking around, you discovered that the two river boats at the dock were heading up river to Talabheim and no one knew when a boat for Altdorf would be arriving. That left you with trying to find a coach to take you to Altdorf.
After a friendly chat, a veiled threat, or to simply to get you to move along, one of the locals told you to head towards the Coach and Horses Inn. This was the local coaching inn for Delberz and a place where coaches arrived and departed almost daily.
It was located just outside of town, about an hour walk. Coaches generally arrived in the evening and left out in the morning. Since it was currently about noon, you decided that you should head that direction and make sure that you got a seat reserved for the next coach leaving. The truth was, with an offer that good for employment you would need to act quickly or the spots would already be filled. Thankfully, the ride to Altdorf should only take about a day on a coach…
Igor Kaputnik, a very tall and muscular man, walked along the road. Igor carried a crossbow slung over his shoulder along with an assortment of chains, nets, and rope strung about his body. Anyone who had spend any amount of time outside of a backwater town knew that here was a bounty hunter, even without having to see his broken nose set amid ruddy colored, chiseled cheeks. As he walked he gave a clip order in the foreign tongue of Kislev to his travel companion, a goat he was pulling along behind him.
The man walking alongside of Igor was in stark contrast to this hunter. Ottmar Burenwurschtel was a short, older lookin man with balding grey hair and dressed in shabby robes. He seemed to be supported by a carved walking staff and had a backpack slung over his back. While he appeared down trodden at first glance, a second look showed power radiating from his bright grey eyes.
The two followed a female, Henie Alynson. She was apparently some sort of mercenary as she had a longbow and shield slung over her back. Only a few wisps of her Red-Brown hair showed from beneath the hood that obscured much of her features. She seemed to be quite beautiful with piercing blue eyes, though a scar marred her delicate looking, tanned left cheek.
Alfred von Aschendorf was just the opposite. A tall man, he was skinny and looked malnourished. His bright red hair framed a pale face with large purple eyes that set upon a neck that looked as if it might have once been partially severed. A deep gash ran across one whole side of the neck, the scar looking ragged. He was dressed in robes and he pulled up a hood as he walked. He had a shovel slung over his arm and a lantern and doctor bag hung off his belt.
Theo Hubert Edward “The Cat”, a Halfling, with a tight grip on his doctor bag hurried to catch up with the tall man at the same time observing everything around him without seeming to. At less than four and a half foot in height, with bright blue eyes and golden-brown curls, he seemed out of place beside the tall Alfred unless the observer was reminded of the puppet show of Mutt and Jeff. The sight was even more comical when one looked at Theo's red embroidered dark green coat with its light green collar, cuffs, and turn-backs edged in red that he wore, as well as the half dome Troll Skull skullcap he had upon his head. In fact if one was knowledgeable one of the great lords house-hold they would recognize that Theo’s coat was the same style as worn by a young house page or footman. The skullcap upon closer inspection of this strange helmet of sorts showed easily recognizable symbols for medicine within the Empire. Over the top of his coat he wears an even darker green hooded cloak that flaps open as he walks revealing a sling bag that he has over his shoulder beneath the cloak and the hood is down off his head.
"Guten tag Herr Daktor" Theo says as he tries to match the taller human's stride.
A little way away, and whistling as his boots squelched along the road, was Bjovril Cogwasher. This dwarf had unkempt brown hair and beard that framed a large broken nose between two differently colored eyes. The right eye was a light brown and the left was a deep green. His travel-stained cloak was wrapped around himself and he wore a hammer tucked into his broad belt. On his back he wore a heavy pack mostly filled with a large cheese wheel wrapped in scraps of paper.
The last of this bizarre group was Alfred Creywald and he walked alone pushing his wheelbarrow that must have had all his life possessions in it save the dark crimson gambeson and skullcap he wore. An amulet of Morr was just visible upon his chest as he struggled to push the wheelbarrow over the ruts in the road. He was an average build, if a bit underfed, human that looked as if he had seen hard times. His platinum blonde hair did little to hide the ravaged face that was punctuated with the largest nose that any of the others had ever seen. His patchy beard outlined the pox marks and ragged ears of the man as large warts covered his abnormal nose. Additionally, he smelled worse than anyone had a right to smell. He brought up the rear of the group and stoically marched along on his way to find employment just like the others.
