Seasons of Heroes: A D&D-inspired Adventure!

The Book of Lotte

"Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown."

" A blood and bones and hope and arrows child. A lonely friendly happy sad joyous longing child. A girl child? A troublesome child, an obedient child."

1:1

Spring was certainly the season to travel, Lotte decided. She was dressed in a warm woolen cloak for the morning damp, and she could tuck it into her pack when it grew warmer. She liked the comfort of it, the thick fluffy feel. From a distance, she no doubt looked like she could be anyone at all, beneath the cloak. It was a comforting sort of thought, for all that she knew she sometimes stood out. She had the materials for a tent, but she did plan on finding somewhere to stop. But it'd be a while before she was treading new ground. She'd been as far as Wellway before, though not for long.

But there was always trading to do, and she'd accompanied her father for it. He'd been trying to get her used to the business, Lotte had realized. It probably should have been obvious, but she had been so focused on her daily tasks, her hunting, her training…

So she walked along the path, watching out for carts. It'd rained recently enough that if one came passing, it might well splash her. The roads were a muddy mess, in this part of the world, winding between forgotten fields that were fallow and overgrown. She had no idea if they had ever been different. Perhaps she'd been taught it at some point and forgotten it?

Either way, she made sure to pray to any small shrines she passed. She had very little to give, but she gave her voice. The Gods had fought together, sometimes literally, to make the world from the void of beasts and madness. She didn't know all the stories, and she certainly didn't know all of the… complicated things the priests told her about. But she figured it'd take quite a terrible person to not be grateful for that.

Her mother didn't raise an ingrate or a heretic. "Schatzi," her mother had always called her. "You are my little treasure, the one far greater than any I earned as an adventurer."

So she prayed, and she watched, and she looked up at the sky, the blue of a robin's egg, and noted that the lack of clouds meant that it wasn't going to rain, at least not anytime soon today. There was a beauty to the world that she could appreciate all the better for understanding it. She saw the trees, knew which ones were doing best, roots sunk deep in solid soil, and which ones no doubt were suffering from some local conditions, or the competition of trees.

Trees had a life, she remembered learning. Roots snaked into the ground, and drank deep of secret sources of waters. She'd learned it one day, while practicing digging for water. A priest had commented on some far pilgrimage, and the lack of water, and she'd--

Well, she'd been bored and willing to spend some time trying to imagine how she'd survive so far away from the trees she knew. At the end of it she had learned very little, in all honesty. But it'd passed the time.

The birds were all out for spring, here to mate no doubt, but also hunting, foraging. She noted one, and then the other, making a game of it as she walked. She counted the crows, swifts, and when she got closer to a stream, the different sorts of plover. There were names for every sort of bird and beast, many names in fact, but Lotte's mother had helped teach her these, long ago.

If all else failed, there were certain kinds of birds that mostly lived in marshes, or near sources of water, and you could learn a lot about a place by what lived there. In fact, it was when nothing lived in a place that you knew there was trouble. When the bear had cleared out, and the wolves howled and left, then that's where there were monsters.

That's, at least, what her mother's stories said. There were monsters in the wild, and old castles, and beast-people, who nobody she'd ever met had a good word for. Though, in all fairness, she'd never seen one of them. So perhaps they were wrong. She couldn't say for sure.

Either way, she traveled along, and stepped out of the way once or twice, with a polite doffing of her hat, when someone passed by. It was a simple enough hat, though it was her father's, and she'd decided she needed something like it to cover her head.

There weren't many people passing through. Wilfhuld, her mother had told her, was at the long end of a chain, with villages, then towns, larger towns, and at some point a city as its links. It dangled at the end, supported and provided for, but only after the merchants had sold everything else. They were surrounded on three sides by forest, though it was a large enough clearing otherwise, large enough to live in. There were paths through the forest, but they were twisted, unsteady paths not suited for a soft merchant. Few people had reason to go to and from her village, and so she had remained nestled for most of her life. The trip to Welsburg was just a few miles, so even slowing down to savor it, she soon reached the village.

She'd been before, it was a slightly larger village in a depression that couldn't quite be called a valley. It was only bounded by trees on two sides, with the other two entirely open. Lotte looked down at it, taking in the farms, which seemed far larger than she was used to. Welsburg had more room to grow, and Lotte looked over it. It was a nice enough looking village, of course. There were rich homes and poor homes, and it was run by the same lord of the area, who could be found if she followed the road into town, and then north.

She took it all in, and took in how familiar and normal it was. You weren't going to find a new adventure or distant shores several miles from home!

So she turned towards the less used path that looped around the edge of the village. It was sloppy dirty indeed, but she made decent time. She wasn't going to stop for at least two more villages, and she hoped to pass by even more. It was still morning, and she wanted to sleep somewhere she'd never seen before.

So on she went. Except, at the outskirts, she saw a house. That wasn't a surprise, though what was a surprise was the moment of pained homesickness. It was absurd considering she'd just left, and just as easily pushed aside.

It was easier still because it was like no home of hers. It was as tall and about as wide, but it was made of wooden frames, wattle, and daub. So, of course, were most houses. But it looked halfway to collapse, the frame leaning inward and almost ready to buckle, and the two people standing in front didn't look much better.

One was an older man, about the age of her father, whose skin was like leather, and who held a small knife. His hair was startling to fall out, and he looked like a wounded animal, snarling with rage. Lotte was too far away to hear him, but she could imagine it, and indeed his wife, a thin woman who looked as if she would be hardier if she were in better health. Her hair was long but tangled and brittle looking, grey from age and yellowing. She was dressed, as with the man, in worn looking woolen clothing, same as most people were around here, if a little more gray and fraying.

Standing about two-dozen paces away from them was a finely dressed man. He wore a flowing red tunic, and had new looking hose, and shoes that seemed as if they'd been made by quite the cobbler. The overall picture was one of glowing red health, only slightly marred by how milky his face was. He was healthy, strong looking, and perhaps in his thirties, at the age when men like him sometimes began to grow stout, if they were a hard-working wealthy farmer. He had dark hair, swept over his face in an almost dramatic way, and he held a flute in his hand. At his belt was a knife scabbard and a squirming bag of… something.

Behind him was the first beast-woman Lotte had ever seen. She didn't really look like a ravenous, heartless monster. No, the girl, who seemed part rat, merely looked anxious. She had the ears of a rat, a little higher than ears were supposed to be, and a long, thin pink tail, flicking back and forth, faster and faster as she watched. Her nose was a little off too, snuffling as she fidgeted with her hands. Lotte was too far away to tell the color of her eyes, but they were some sort of dark color, she guessed, along with her dark hair. She was dressed in a woolen dress, not so much nicer than the woman's faded clothing, and couldn't have been much older than Lotte.

Lotte walked closer, though she still couldn't hear the conversation.

The farmer shook his hand, and the Rat Piper, for that's what he had to be, theatrically shook his hand and dumped the squirming bag at his feet and then began to play. Out came big, hungry looking rats. As the Piper began to play, they leapt at the farmer.

The farmer stumbled back, and none of them got to him, or even tried to bite him. Instead he danced around, trying to slash at them as they leapt, but in no shape to catch them, until at last, dizzy, he fell over.

All the while the Piper kept up the music. Lotte was growing closer, and could hear the faint sound of screams from the woman. But the farmer wasn't being hurt, merely terrified. But there was no reason for it, no sense to it.

Then the Piper turned and left, the faint sound of his music drawing the rats after him. That was a Rat Piper? He'd always heard of it as a bold and kind profession that dealt with pests. Though rats were kind of cute when they weren't being a nuisance.

The girl trailing the Piper looked back for one moment, seeming to hesitate. Before the farmer yelled, "Go on, git!"

She hurried after the Piper.

Lotte continued on her way, now determined to get to the bottom of this. The farmer saw her approaching and stood up, trying to affect dignity that had long since fled, like a deer before a sudden noise.

"So, you saw," the farmer said.

"I did, sir. What… what was that?" Lotte asked, aware she was being blunt.

"What's it to you?" he asked, his voice harsh.

"I'm an adventurer," Lotte explained.

"Ah, well." The man spat on the ground. "Freidrich, if it pleases you. And this is my wife."

Lotte nodded. "Who was that?" She repeated a very similar question.

'His wife' said, "That was Aldrich the Piper of… Gaffburg. He came a few days ago, asking for money in exchange for getting rid of the rats. Whether in coin or kind. I said we should--"

"Quiet, woman. We barely have enough, and when we gave him his coin, who is to say he wouldn't have demanded more?" Freidrich asked. "No, I don't like bullies, but now rats are nibbling everything in the house and scaring us awake. He's gone mad for revenge, jus' cause I didn't pay his racket."

Lotte stared for a moment. "I'll help you."

"You'll…" 'his wife' said, eyes wide. "We don't have… much."

"How much'll it be?" Freidrich asked, his eyes showing that he'd probably be willing to pay more than his wife thought wise, if it meant getting back at a man who had humiliated him and made him miserable.

What IS Lotte charging?

[] Nothing except perhaps a square meal and room while and immediately after dealing with this. Bullies are despicable, and stopping them is the right thing to do.
[] Some token amount of coin on top of that. Not much, but something to jangle around in her hands. Proof that she had completed her first adventure.
[] Besides food and board, perhaps… some cloth? Not much, but they make clothes like everyone else, and Lotte had this image of having more than three sets of clothes. What she wore was practical, but there were other practical things she could do.
[] Write-in, subject to veto.

What does Lotte do?

[] Confront him directly. He's being a bully, and surely he doesn't understand just how bad he's being. And, if he does, perhaps a direct solution would be more useful.
[] Try to find a way to steal the pipe. No pipe, no controlling of the rats, right? Now, if Lotte were he, they would be very careful not to set it aside, but it's possible. Lotte knows the man has to sleep, and they're pretty sneaky when they want to be.
[] Find out where the Piper is staying--the couple says it's not in the village--and harass them. Give them a taste of their own medicine. It's… yes, a little mean, and Lotte doesn't like being mean, but they started it, and bullies don't like it when they have to face their own tactics. That's Lotte's experience, at least.
[] The rat girl is apparently his apprentice, at least according to Freidrich and 'His Wife'. But she seemed a little startled and apologetic for what he did. What if Lotte talked to her while he wasn't around, tried to get her on Lotte's side. She might know important things about what's causing all of this.

******

A/N: So there we go, the first adventure has begun! It's comparatively straightforward, as you might have guessed.