Tuggarth Gauntlet, The

Everyone knows the Sword and Cask Inn as a gathering place for adventurers headed into regions unknown. You know the owner, a young woman named Elynne, as a savvy entrepreneur and a gracious hostess. After offering you her hospitality many times, Elynne now needs your help. Murder has come to the village of Thysbee. Elynne's father, a successful trader named Eadmer, was killed last night while someone ransacked his general store. The constable already suspects several shady characters, including Crallius, a rival vintner, and a shady dwarf who only a week ago lurked about, asking questions about Eadmer, his business, and the inn. Elynne brings you into her confidence. Eadmer gave her a leather packet of papers for safekeeping, to examine only in the event of his death. She kept these in a strongbox in her office, refusing to examine them until her father's murder. Among the typical legal documents relating to Eadmer's trading activities, she discovered a tattered map: a faint path leading from Thysbee into the wild hills, along a stream to a location within ruins simply marked "wine spring." Elynne wonders if this was the source of the delectable wine her father imported and distributed from his store and warehouse. Elynne's duties at the Sword and Cask keep her too busy to pursue such an expedition herself. While Thysbee's constable searches for her father's murderer, she asks you to follow the map, discover the wine spring, and claim it as her rightful inheritance. Elynne offers you a cask of the inn's famous wine and a small share in the ample bequest her father left her.