Your party is now approaching the Village
of Hommlet, having ridden up from lands
of the Wild Coast. You are poorly
mounted, badly equipped, and have no
large sums of cash. In fact, all you have is
what you wear and what you ride, plus the
few coins that are hidden in purses and
pockets. What you do possess in quantity,
though, is daring and desire to become
wealthy and famous. Thus your group
comes to Hommlet to learn. Is this indeed a
place for adventurers to seek their fortunes?
You all hope, of course, to gain
riches and make names for yourselves. The
outcome of this is uncertain, but your skill
and daring, along with a good measure of
luck, will be the main ingredients of what
follows, be it for weal or woe.
The small community at the crossroads
is a completely unknown quantity. What is
there? Who will be encountered? Where
should you go? These are your first explorations
and encounters, so chance may dictate
as much as intelligence. Will outsiders
be shunned? Are the reports true — is the
whole community engaged in evil practices?
Are the folk here bumpkins, easily
duped? Does a curse lay upon those who
dare to venture into the lands which were
once the Temple's? All of these questions
will soon be answered.
The dusty, rutted road is lined with
closely-grown hedges of brambles and
shrubs. Here and there it cuts through a
copse or crosses a rivulet. To either hand,
forest and meadow have given way to
field and orchard. A small herd of kine
graze nearby, and a distant hill is dotted
with the wand stone chimneys with thin
plumes of blue smoke rising from them.
A road angles west into the hill country,
and to either side of the road ahead are
barns and buildings — Hommlet at last!
The adventure begins...
