Editing Idleandsturdy (section)

==List of Rumors==
At a table near the door, two worthies with the look of tinkers are deploring the actions of the "Valorous and Lawful Brotherhood." Overheard snatches of conversation indicate that this group seems to bear more resemblance to a skulking assemblage of arboreal assassins or boreal banditti. Holding wandering tradesmen for ransom seems to be among this group's alleged misdeeds.

Sitting by the fire, a sextet of swains discusses a ruined village said to lie about twenty-five miles to the west of Newstead, over and across a northward-reaching spur of the Dividing Range. One of the loitering loons avers that within the same spur, perhaps twelve or fifteen miles northwest of Newstead, there lies a cavern said to be inhabited by a scurrilous sept of kobolds. These hinterland humanoids are said to make their living by stealing from honest travelers and isolated settlers.

A pair of puerile potboys discuss a great temple to Odin, which apparently lies about a week due east through the mountains, or perhaps accessible by a longer, more comfortable voyage skirting the peaks. Several worshipful bishops, or at least eminent prelates of some sort, are said to dwell at this noble fane. Hard by the temple, bands of unruly humanoids hold sway, and the clergy are apparently free with rich rewards to any men willing to act as Paladins of Law by driving back the deplorable denizens of the dark lands.

Several long-bearded loafing lumberjacks share a rumor that a few aged dwarves still dwell in the mountains above Newstead. They hold that if these dwarves could be captured and constrained, they would surely surrender the location of many hidden treasures which rightfully belong to human men. Only one among the woodcutters, more portly and perhaps less fond of high-altitude jaunts than the others, claims that all of the dwarves hereabout died decades ago, and that knowledge of the location of their treasures died with them.

One of the young men tells a tale of a hero who fell in the mountains nearby some years ago. His body was never found, and apparently he bore "Risglaeder the Wyrmslayer." There are higher and loftier peaks immediately to the northwest, southwest, south, and southeast of Newstead. I would begin my search there.

Agi the Aggressive, farmer, tells of [http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?756275-Idle-and-Sturdy-Vagabonds&p=19058304#post19058304 mysterious noises emanating from a sinkhole] near his farm.