You woke up from an alright sleep, a part of you wanted to sleep in (like you normally did) but then you looked at your rope reed bag and remembered that you were going on an adventure, a grand adventure over the dusty roads, a fortune in gold to be made (and promptly spent), a few dwarves to be punched in the face and of course, the most important reason, romance and love.
The room itself was in a typical elvish tree house, the light of dawn shown through the thick canopy and 'walls' of leaves, you knew every inch of Hawk's Rest and you did love it, but if there was one thing that you hated, it would be the floor, which was a mix of branches, larger parts of the tree, random objects that were strewn around and leaves, thick amount of leaves (artificially boosted using growth magic).
You got up before either Yonali or Rathal pulled you out of bed and went to get your clothes on, a silk shirt, leather trousers, you noticed the backpack in the corner and you did remember, again, that you had planned to leave the retreat today, you went and got your travelling boots (a pair of boots that went up to your knees, though they had obviously seen better days) and you went to get your gloves (worn out from years of use, mainly worn because getting blisters is the worst thing you can get) you put the backpack on and got outside of your tree house, to see the Forest Retreat, a little slice of protected nature, as ordained by the spirits themselves.
Admittedly, while you were respected in the retreat, you were also treated to your fair share of dirty looks, for reasons of those voices in your head. You went onto the ground to find that there was a procession of the retreat guard, clad in Highwood armor and wielding Highwood spears. In front of the procession, there's a high priest, who glared at you with barely restrained distaste, with what looked like a bundle of cloth in his hands, it wasn't every day an elf left the retreat after all, it was an occasion that called for a gift, and celebration depending who you asked, and it wasn't like it was a secret you were planning to leave as well, Yonali took care of that by drunkenly blabbing that to everyone. You walked up to them and the priest cleared his throat.
"Isabelle Wiseheart, you have taken the decision to leave Hawk's Rest. In light of this, Ylios, has granted you this gift" He unfurled the bundle of cloth, it was a Farewell Cloak, a pure white cloak with a steel grey trim, painstakingly woven, as its name implied it was a good meaning farewell gift typically given by Elves to travellers. Refusing such a gift would typically be seen as an insult, but taking it would make it harder to hide due to its bright white color.
The voices in your head were making comments about how they disliked the cloak, it was 'too bright' or something, the presence of holy objects or men seemed to drown out the voices. The cloak itself was considered holy, though it might be because of its clasp was the symbol of Elvish Hope, a bright white tooth made from imported silver and rimmed with iron melted down from a captured dwarven helmet, it was blessed by a high priest.
[ ] Accept
[ ] Refuse
[ ] Take the symbol but discard the cloak, and possibly offend the elves even more
Regardless of your choice you made your way to the edge of the retreat and pulled out your map, to your west, there were multiple elven forest retreats, to your south, there would be The Ethereal Mountains, a mountain range which is rumored to contain dwarven fortresses, there was an abandoned one which was, relatively, close by, you couldn't really read the map all that well, you estimated that it would be a few days journey, provided all goes well. To the north east, there was the plains, which were rumoured to contain humans, while to the far south west, there was rumoured to be a goblin dark fortress.
"There is a dwarven hillock to the north as well as a kobold cave to the north west" the voice in your head provided, you began to ignore the voices as they began to argue with each other, as usual, you have no idea how they would know something like that, it wasn't marked on the map.
Decisions, decisions.
[ ] To the North-east, you want to see the humans.
[ ] To the West, find the other forest retreats and learn about their spirits
[ ] To the South, you want to loot an abandoned fortress, serves them right for leaving their treasures lying around.
[ ] To the East, you want to talk to the goblins.
[ ] To the North, you want to see if the voices are right about something
