Encounter-a-Day

While out chopping firewood, not far from their village, the PCs are interrupted by the sound of a horse. The man riding the horse is wearing armor and the King’s Seal is easily recognizable on him. Both he and his horse look battered and ragged and as if they’re about to collapse from fatigue.

Approaching the PCs, the man steps down from his horse and nearly falls over, but catches himself on the stirrup. He produces a thin package from his pocket. “Please,” he says, “you must get this to the city.”

If the PCs question him, he will say only that “they” will not be far behind and the PCs must hurry, for “it” cannot fall into “their” hands. When he’s convinced the PCs to do this task for him, the man takes a signet ring off his finger with a symbol of a hammer over a shield, telling them to bring that along with his package to Malleus Hall and find Gregor Teuber.

At some point, perhaps midsentence, the soldier falls to the ground. His burden transferred, he’s finally allowed himself the peace of death.