--- Near the northern edge of the settlement ---
@Zeroth@BunniesOfDoom@Xaltwind
Not that it ever crossed Brom's mind but thank the gods above that these were amicable travelers and not blood thirsty barbarians. What he was greeted with was the strange cavalcade of people from various different walks of life though the first of the group to reach out to him was this quite well-built man with an excited grin and held out his hand.
"Hah! Glad to meet a friendly face! The name's Brom, I hope we along! Nice beard by the way!" Brom extended his hand to greet the human's handshake and matched his firm grip, arm muscles rippled in an overly dramatic wave of masculinity with big, bearded grins. One they finished exchanging greetings, Brom's attention was turned to the sound a wagon creaking forward and found himself staring at a sour looking ass. A donkey, not the other kind. All three of the occupants looked like they were made of money, or at least the elderly gentleman and the little girl. The young man looked like he may have sired children in different villages before he ended up here, but Brom was not one to judge by appearances.
The only one that Brom had not seen yet was the dwarven woman. Maybe she really was just passing through to wherever she was planning to go or still had some business to attend to before coming to the encampment. It was not like he had much time to think about her; everyone seemed ready to get to business, or having lunch. The little girl on the cart had a large smattering of strawberry jam on white bread while the older gentleman ate orange marmalade. The sight of this food caused a flash of concern to go across Brom's face.
That's all they could find? Brom looked around the crowd and started to mentally count the amount of people that were there. He counted in his head the amount of people, including himself and even accounted for the female dwarf. Thirteen people in total with maybe more on the way if there were others that were compelled just as they were.
This was bad, really bad.
However, he caught the smell of something coming from downwind. It prickled his nose with a faint, yet sharp brininess. Salt? Are we near a beach? The cogs in his head began to turn. Perhaps things weren't going to be so dire after all, but there were other priorities that they needed to meet immediately first.
A red-headed boy called out to anyone that would listen. For now, it was best to get to know everyone and figure out what skills they had to offer. Brom raised his hand to catch the boy's attention. "I'll come with you. I'll forage along the way to get a better idea of what we've got to work with going forward."
He looked up at Adrila who seemed very keen at bossing people around. Was that what she did for a living? "I think most of us can split some logs, but I doubt we realistically have the tools to cut down a tree just yet." He sure as hell wasn't carrying around a saw or an axe. Also, he was pretty sure that the donkey would spit at them before it would allow them to use it to help hull lumber over.