The train ride you take is from the last proper city you will ever see quite some time. As you ride you see quite clearly the demarcation between civilization and an endless expanse of wilderness. Days and nights pass soon as you keep riding for days. There will be no other stops since when you first stepped on the train. The landscape seems to shift between a blur of open fields to sometimes including other features to occasionally passing through a sea of verdancy when it goes through a forest. The denizens of the train outside of the employees where a mix of settlers, officials, and a handful of hired explorers. The wilderness soon stops being so empty and starts being dotted with small rural settlements with a bunch of farms. Finally the train's velocity begins to wind down as you enter into a town as the train cruises into the station.

You then meet your contact who goes by the name of Gregory E. Vert. This middle aged man dressed in rather relaxed garb greets in the noon day sun and shows you to a carriage that is pulled by horses which takes you to an oblong nondescript stone building. He tells you that despite its humble size , you will find it functional to your needs and shows the various rooms. There a bunch of areas for holding guild memebers, a eating area/kitchen, rooms with devices for certain things, a storage place. He tells that should need arise the guild building can be expanded and fitted with things you want but that you will need to first file some paperwork and pay for the costs yourselves. As due to the distance you will be somewhat financial independent from greater guild support outside of the stipends for being hired by the government.

Rapunzel yawned in relief as they finally arrived at the station. The ride had been really boring, nothing interesting to do and the most boring scenery. She'd been forced to amuse herself by wrapping her hair into different styles and examining them. Then along with practically everyone else on the train, she left to meet someone. It wasn't hard to find Mr. Vert, despite his average clothes he was clearly waiting for someone. Along with several others she arrived at the stone building that was to be her new home. Rapunzel nodded her appreciation and stepped inside to explore their new home and become acquainted with it. Hopefully it would be adequate as she would likely be here for some time. Rapunzel wasn't expecting to luxury but certainly fully expecting it to be functional. Especially since she would have to share it with other people. Boys specifically. Usually they were annoying muscle bound jerks, but some of them could actually be interesting from time to time. Not that any of them would be interested in her, she thought dourly.

'I have a feeling that won't be a problem for us' Frederic said as he and Dodger listened to Mr. Vert speak about how they would be somewhat financially independent from the guild.
'Obviously not' Dodger thought back 'Wot with all the lolly I nicked from the other passengers ridin' the train. We ain't gonna need any coin from the gentlemen upstairs fer a long time'. Dodger entered the building after Rapunzel and whistled in amazement as he looked around. "This is a nice place this is" said the thief whose usual residence was an underground Thieves Guild hideout "Least by my standards that is". Dodger looked at Rapunzel. "Wot do you think, Speechless?" Dodger asked. He knew all too well that Rapunzel couldn't speak. But he asked anyway because he wanted to.

The train ride was rather boring to James, but nonetheless, he sat quietly staring out the window. The fluctuating scenery and his thoughts were all he needed to keep himself entertained. As they closed in on their final destination, he wondered what sort of monsters they might find. Some saw him as a monster, but fortunately, the guild was pretty diverse and accepting. He liked that about them and the fact that he could help them made it all the better.

The train arrived at the station and a Mr. Vert guided them to their carriage. The carriage brought them to an odd stone building. James wasn't too impressed with the new place. "It's not bad." He interjected to Dodger's question to Rapunzel. The outside was rather deceiving to its interior. The many rooms and facilities seemed to have everything he would need. Money shouldn't be a problem for him. He barely ever spent any money.

Rapunzel snorted disdainfully in a distinctively unladylike fashion at the swashbuckler. A real sliver tongue that one, though she suspected he had precious little else in his head. Albeit with a face like that he didn't really need anything else. 'My right arm is stronger than my left arm' over looked about the same way, those less of a silver tongue and more of lead muscles. Oh well, she didn't have to like them, merely work with them. She had a feeling Dodger was going to be a constant annoyance to her. Rapunzel accepted it philosophically, there wasn't much she could do about it after all. Attempting to get him to stop would be the same as telling him he was annoying and remaining silent would simply provide him with a challenge. Catch 22, one simply took less effort than the other. Rapunzel merely nodded her head in response to James's answer and headed immediately for the kitchen. It had been a long train ride and she was hungry: time to see what grub they had. Odds were both of the men would be helpless cooks, as men usually were, so she would have to feed all of them or leave them to starve. Whatever they could eat sandwiches or something if they were truly desperate. Then she could go to sleep on a full stomach and wake up to her first mission here. That is, as long as they didn't have to wait around forever for their first assignment, that would be terribly boring.

Dodger chuckled at the response he got from his companions. Rapunzel* turned her nose up at his question and James** decided to invite himself into Dodger's question as he tended to do. Dodger watched Rapunzel (Her lower half to be specific) as she walked off to find the kitchen. Dodger had visited the train's dining car for lunch before that arrived, so he wasn't hungry. "Keep an eye on Speechless, Righty" Dodger told James with a glimmer in his eye "There's a town out there wot don't know my name. An' I plan on spendin' my afternoon teachin' to 'em!". With that said, Dodger made for the exit. The Red Dragon Bone Guild wasn't the only organization around with an interest in The Hinterlands. When his superiors in The Thieves Guild caught wind of Dodger's latest side job, they had an assignment of their own for Dodger. The Thieves Guild wanted their pound of flesh from this new land, and the best way to do that was by setting up shop while the law out there was still getting its bearings. And since Dodger was heading there anyway, he was asked to scope out the town and report back as soon as possible. And until he got his mission from The RDBG, Dodger had every intention of fleecing the town for what it was worth.

*Or Speechless as Dodger liked to call her.
**Or Righty as Dodger liked to call him.

James didn't care that much about Dodger. He was always more into women and other than the nickname 'Righty', the teasing was light. Dodger was rather charming, and the most James ever cared to tease him was ruining his chances with some of the women he wooed. There were so many it didn't matter much. Dodger always came away with a trinket whether they took to him or not. His thievery really was remarkable. James always checked himself after being around him. It didn't seem he took anything this time before he left.

James already took careful notice of the location of the infirmary, and a room that looked like it could be used for magical testing. Even though he didn't research it much himself, he did like to see what magicians could imagine. He didn't expect to be a subject here much though. He was brought simply for his transformation's muscle.

He ended up following Rapunzel into the kitchen a minute after she had. He hadn't eaten either, but he wasn't sure what he would eat now. He really wasn't a good cook, so he ate a lot of leftovers and sandwiches. It looked like she was preparing a lot of food and ingredients. He didn't think she could eat that much, but he didn't want to assume. He didn't want to seem presumptuous either, but he was pretty hungry. "Are you cooking for everyone?" He kept his question short, so a nod could suffice.

Rapunzel resisted the urge to turn around and confront the thief with a stern strike. She could practically feel his lecherous gaze on her backside, mostly covered as it was, before he left to 'teach' the town his name. If she was lucky the town would teach him what the gallows were like, though she had doubt between his fast hands and quick mind that he could slither out of any situation he got himself into. Rapunzel considered James's question for a brief moment. A shrug, followed by a slight head shake. No, she didn't feel like making food for anyone but herself right now. However... James seemed to have the slightest hint of a pleading tone in his voice, though she could've easily imagined it. She sighed and nodded, probably confusing the poor man with her mixed signals.

However her intent would be clear enough when the meal, cooking and what not accelerated by her blue hair reaching out like extra limbs, was ready in a startling amount of time. A stack of banana pancakes lay on a platter in the middle of the kitchen. Rapunzel grabbed a good six pancakes, nearly half the stack, and took a glance around. Everything was put away, expeditiously thanks to her extra limbs, and no mess had been left behind. Naturally her hair was immaculate as well, even having faced the perilously messy work of cooking and cleaning. Perfect. Rapunzel retreated to her room, designated hers as off about five seconds ago, and shut the door behind her, pulling out a book. Pleasure reading this time, work could wait. A good read always helped her fall asleep. In moments Rapunzel lay comfortably nestled on her bed, fully dressed, head resting on a tall stack of pillows, methodically taking bites out of her pancakes whilst reading her book, threads of hair turning the page for, seemingly without any conscious effort. It was clear she had little intention of being disturbed. For a brief moment she felt bad about leaving James by himself but shrugged off the notion quickly. Surely he could find something to do.

James wasn't quite sure what her shrug meant, but he was satisfied waiting until she was done. He sat on a stool at the island in the middle of the kitchen, and watched her hair move to and fro with immaculate ease. After several minutes she finished the batch of banana pancakes. Pancakes seemed like an odd dinner, but they looked delicious and James wasn't picky in the least.

James was fine eating alone. He did it often enough at home. "Thank you." He quickly added as she grabbed half the stack and left. He helped himself to the other half, and ate contently. Immersed in his thoughts as he ate the pancakes, he thought a lot about what life here would be like. He thought about the other's skills as well, and realized he was still probably going to be the muscle again. He was fine with it, but it felt a little old too.

The next day a messenger appeared in the building with a letter. It was an underling of the governor. You are informed that this concerns a staple of the town, that is to say logging. One of the logging camps is experiencing mysterious attacks within their territory. The beast is elusive and seems to mainly operate at night which makes getting believable descriptions difficult. The injuries and demoralization caused by these attack is a liability and the company desires your services. There are also rumors of appearances of the beast close to town which is rapidly putting citizens in hysteria as rumors of sightings spread.

Accompanying you will be a tracker with knowledge on the landscape to help with the finding of this animal. Dead or alive it doesn't quite matter to the logging company, although if it's an exotic new species there will some interest in keeping it alive. You depart in the morning and head from the outskirts and venture into the wilderness with clearings and mark of activity that easily guide you to the camp.

Rapunzel let out a small yawn as they walked. She was confident the tales were greatly exaggerated, such things always were. Still, it must be reasonably frightening if it was scaring off loggers. She was confident it wouldn't be much of a problem, especially since they had a, hopefully competent, tracker with them. At least the scenery was alright, enough to keep her slightly more than bored out of her mind as they walked.

Listening to the underling's story set off quite a few alarms in Dodger's mind. He was a thief, not a fighter. So if a bunch of burly loggers couldn't handle this beast, Dodger didn't like his chances. He liked to think they were level headed when it came to picking fights. Although he would fight if need be, they preferred to sneak past aggressors or get the drop on them and take the out quietly and non-lethally with his blackjack. The rules were different with beasts. More often than not, they were perceptive enough to find Dodger even when he was invisible. Furthermore, Dodger was fairly certain that this beast wasn't the kind of thing that went down after a hard tap on the head from a trusty knobbly. And finally, if the beast was attacking people, then it most likely knew how to fight. Dodger began to feel nervous.

Fighting more monsters seemed like it was going to be another bore. James knew he was good at it, mostly because he was a monster himself, but the danger of it was wearing off and that gave him new frights. He knew fighting monsters was dangerous, and facing new enemies doubled that danger, but he was getting used to it. Keeping a keen and wary edge, was the key to winning and he was losing his. Besides the mystery behind new magic or technology intrigued him more.

The tracker seemed like he was rather capable. The true test would be if he found the beast, then he could be labeled a good tracker. James wondered if his new teammates were very capable as well. Now would be the time to see all of their skills.

"Howdy all, the man said to all, "The name's Zef Delvira and I'll be working with you and filling in as your 'expert' in tracking and knowledge of the recorded critters and plants native here and lay of the land here. " The man accompanied the group as they entered onto the camp grounds where amidst the forest there were several building and devices. The smell of the wood wafted around creating an odd perfume for the environs, it was an intriguing odor as it was not pleasant in the traditional sense nor was it off putting either. The camp itself was rather quiet which made it a bit unnerving since it would ordinarily have people working all day long.

DECISION TIME!

Will the group decided to poke around first or will they interview the workers at this logging camp?

Rapunzel looked around, hm, it seemed that there wasn't much here, but it was still work poking around before moving on. Rapunzel slightly moved further into the camp, looking around, hair lifting objects as she carefully scanned the area for any clues of what had happened here. Perhaps it was just superstition but it didn't hurt to make sure. Of course Rapunzel was no tracker but spending your days looking for possibly fatal traps give you an eye for detail.

I'm gonna a need a roll of a relevant skill with a TN of 8 or greater

Dodger looked quickly scanned the camp with his eyes. An abandoned logging camp wasn't somewhere you'd expect to see anything valuable but it was worth a look. 'Perhaps I'll even find a clue about wot we're searchin' for' Dodger thought to himself as he began to turn invisible 'Or maybe a lumberjack girl with a pretty face an' a lovely body. With that in mind, Dodger began his search.