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Mystery of Mountain View - Resolved

An interview with Weldon Benzinger   Roinoak, huh? Well, you’ve come to the right person. Before I talk about Roinoak, have you ever heard of the town of Mountain View?   Probably not.   This information was passed down to me by my Grandfather and it starts with his Grandfather. About a century ago, my Great Great Grandfather, Weldon (yes, I was named after him) established the Benzinger Trade emporium in Port Oruss. He had one ship and a small dockside warehouse which he turned into a successful business by sailing around Eagle Eye Bay and trading goods with the coastal towns and villages.   Back in 1098 (106 years ago) it was an especially harsh winter, maybe even an unnatural one. The shorelines of the bay froze over and even in the deeper waters, there were chunks of ice large enough to tear a ship apart. It wasn’t safe to travel until late in the spring and when my Great Great Grandfather arrived, everyone was desperate for food and supplies.   Then he reached Mountain View. The town was totally deserted. My Great Great and his crew docked and investigated. The found most of the townsfolk’s belongings still there but there wasn’t a scrap of food anywhere. There were some signs of a struggle: broken doors, smashed windows and what could have been bloodstains, but there wasn’t a single body. They did find on the door of the town hall, the word “ROINOAK” scratched into the wood.   The crew was spooked and even though they left the town behind, something kept nagging at my Great Great’s mind. He went back through his family belongings and found an old journal that belonged to my ancestor, Albany Benzinger who was the first of our family to settle in Port Oruss almost 200 years ago. According the journal, he relocated there from the village of Rolling Oak.   According to Albany, the stream that fed the fishing pond dried up and the water became stagnant and toxic. The soil was rocky and no good for crops. He also wrote that he tried to help the village by seeking other places to trade with. The closest village was due east and he traveled eight days on foot to the coast where he found a fishing village which my Grandfather believed was fledgling town of Mountain View.   He returned with some goods and promises of more to come but the folk of Rolling Oak had nothing to trade and they weren’t interested in handouts from strangers. So, as winter was fast approaching. Albany decided to leave Rolling Oak and eventually made his way to Port Orrus.   Now my Grandfather, he was the one who put all this together and told it to me. He had two theories. The first is that the people of Mountain View got attacked by wolves, or maybe even trolls and the survivors fled to Rolling Oak, leaving behind a hastily scrawled message of “RO IN OAK”. The other theory, which is even more terrifying, is that the villagers of Rolling Oak fell under a curse or became some kind of undead and they were the ones that attacked Mountain View and the message was left as a warning.   Based on what you told me, the latter seems more likely, but either way, no one really knows exactly where Rolling Oak is.   The party visited the ruins of Mountainview while en route to Roinoak. They encountered a banshee and found an old ledger along with some coin left behind in the town hall.

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